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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e578175932bb77e4219d2a5e4e14d7df","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/43543277-c1e2-4b65-be2a-11e4d0f0d047/retrieve","id":"723097134"},"keywords":["wheat","Indian wheat genomics initiative","genetic resources","genomics selection","gene bank","abiotic stress","biotic stress"],"sieverID":"25d37d77-8cf7-4844-bbae-e28a63cae9fc","pagecount":"19","content":"G × E interaction, will facilitate crop improvement through enhanced climate resilience, by combining biotic and abiotic stress resistance/tolerance and maximizing yield potential. In this review article, we have summarized different constraints being faced by Indian wheatbreeding programs, challenges in addressing biotic and abiotic stresses, and improving quality and nutrition. Efforts have been made to highlight the wealth of Indian wheat genetic resources available in our National Genebank and their evaluation for the identification of trait-specific germplasm. Promising genotypes to develop varieties of important targeted traits and the development of different genomics resources have also been highlighted.Wheat is one of the major staple cereal food crops in India. However, most of the wheatgrowing areas experience several biotic and abiotic stresses, resulting in poor quality grains and reduced yield. To ensure food security for the growing population in India, there is a compelling need to explore the untapped genetic diversity available in gene banks for the development of stress-resistant/tolerant cultivars. The improvement of any crop lies in exploring and harnessing the genetic diversity available in its genetic resources in the form of cultivated varieties, landraces, wild relatives, and related genera. A huge collection of wheat genetic resources is conserved in various gene banks across the globe. Molecular and phenotypic characterization followed by documentation of conserved genetic resources is a prerequisite for germplasm utilization in crop improvement. The National Genebank of India has an extensive and diverse collection of wheat germplasm, comprising Indian wheat landraces, primitive cultivars, breeding lines, and collection from other countries. The conserved germplasm can contribute immensely to the development of wheat cultivars with high levels of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Breeding wheat varieties that can give high yields under different stress environments has not made much headway due to high genotypes and environmental interaction, nonavailability of truly resistant/tolerant germplasm, and non-availability of reliable markers linked with the QTL having a significant impact on resistance/tolerance. The development of new breeding technologies like genomic selection (GS), which takes into account theWheat, a climate-sensitive crop, is grown on 31.76 million ha in India (ICAR-IIWBR, 2021). Most of the wheat-growing area faces several biotic and abiotic stresses and soil nutrient scarcity, resulting in poor quality grains and, finally, reduced yield (Pillay and Kumar, 2018;Grote et al., 2021). In the coming years, we will face a slew of challenges in ensuring food security for India's millions of people (Dev and Sharma, 2010;Pandey et al., 2021). It is the need of the hour to explore the idle genetic diversity leading to the development of resilient and better-performing cultivars under challenging situations (Phogat et al., 2021). Breeding wheat varieties that can give high yields under different stress environments has not made much headway due to large genotype × environment interaction, non-availability of truly resistant germplasm, and non-availability of reliable markers linked with the QTL, having a significant impact on resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and quality traits (Vishwakarma et al., 2015;Beres et al., 2020;Khakda et al., 2020;Xiong et al., 2021). Despite consistent efforts by breeders to utilize genetic resources in breeding programs which is reflected in the form of discussions, review articles, meetings, and presentations made on harnessing the advantage of genetic diversity present in conserved germplasm, there are only a few success stories till date where specific traits have been introgressed from traditional landraces or germplasm to elite breeding lines (Mascher et al., 2019;Sharma et al., 2021;Zeibig et al., 2021). One of several other reasons is the lack of concerted efforts to create a single platform for key people working on the harvesting of diversity at the national and international levels. Markedly, the dwarfing genes, which led to the Green Revolution, were introduced into wheat and rice breeding lines from East Asian landraces (Hedden, 2003). In the case of barley, the deployment of the mlo alleles, commonly found in Ethiopian barley landraces (Jorgensen, 1992), led to broad-spectrum resistance to powdery mildew. In 1967, Krull and Borlaug stated, \"the problem at present is less, a lack of genetic variation, but rather of efficiency in identifying and incorporating it\" (Pistorius, 1997). Currently, genebank managers, plant breeders, and geneticists have reached a consensus that there is an urgent need for the systematic evaluation of the evolutionary potential of large seed collections stored in cold rooms (Mascher et al., 2019;Singh et al., 2020;Zeibig et al., 2021). Collection and conservation of these genetic resources are the primary prerequisites for their access and use in crop improvement programs. Over the past several decades, concerted efforts have been made toward extensive collection and ex situ conservation of wheat germplasm accessions belonging to each gene pool category. Reportedly, around 800,000 wheat accessions are conserved across 80 different germplasm collections (Singh et al., 2007). These collections are proportionately represented in major global gene banks, the data for which can be accessed on the Genesys PGR platform. The Genesys database has information on 464,784 wheat accessions held in 40 global collections. The largest collection is that of CIMMYT,Mexico (150,178), followed by 246), ICARDA (48,149), the Australian Grains Genebank (42,626), and the NI Vavilov Institute (35,314) (\"https://www.genesys-pgr.org\" accessed on 25 Jan 2022). Out of the total entries of wheat in the Genesys system, 7,535 accessions are of Indian origin, which are held in the Australian Grains Genebank (1,533), USDA-ARS (1,320), CIMMYT (1,315), John Innes Institute, United Kingdom (1,174), NI Vavilov Institute (1,154), and ICARDA (407) (Jacob et al., 2015;Gauchan and Joshi, 2019). A major proportion of these (1,879) are traditional cultivars or landraces, which constitute the high-priority genetic wealth in any crop (Azeez et al., 2018;Marone et al., 2021). Of the 7,535 accessions, 2,197 are declared as part of the multilateral system (MLS) of ITPGRFA and, hence, freely available for distribution to all signatories of the treaty from their respective holding institutes (Jacob et al., 2015;Vernooy, 2019). Even before the treaty regime, these Indian resources have made a significant contribution to global wheat programs, and the most significant examples are those of NP4 and Hard Red Calcutta (Singh S. K. et al., 2015). The NP4 and Hard Red Calcutta are prevalent in the pedigrees of several modern wheat varieties grown across the world. The National Genebank in India is the second-largest genebank in the world and has the fifth largest collection of wheat genetic resources, including several unique landraces and exotic ones (Tyagi, 2016;Phogat et al., 2021). Based on the ex situ germplasm collection size conserved in long-term storage, the Indian National Genebank has the second-largest collection in the world (a total of 459,885 accessions conserved in NGB, India, as on 31 March 2022), next only to the USDA Genebank (Tyagi et al., 2015). In the case of wheat, its ex situ collection in the National Genebank (34,000 accessions as on 31 March 2022) is the fifthlargest collection in the world (CIMMYT Genebank ranks first) (Jacob et al., 2015;Adhikari L. et al., 2022). These indigenous germplasm accessions are a valuable repository of economically important traits. The main goal of this review was to chart out a strategy for accelerating the use of this germplasm in the wheatbreeding program to address the various challenges in wheat production that in turn would minimize yield losses and maximize farmers' income.Most of the wheat-breeding programs across the world have relied more on limited sets of diverse genotypes. This has resulted in the narrowing of the genetic base of cultivated wheat and became a dominant production constraint. Therefore, an expansion in the genetic base of genotypes should be considered in the wheat-breeding program. This can be carried out in various ways: 1) use of plant genetic resources, including wild relatives and landraces; 2) germplasm-assisted breeding using advanced genomic tools; and 3) development of transgenic and use of modern techniques like gene editing. Several gene banks across the globe house a large number of diverse germplasm accessions of wheat. These germplasm accessions harbor many important genes not only for various biotic and abiotic stresses but also for nutritional qualities and yield traits. To harness the true potential of the vast wealth of accessions stored in the Indian National Genebank, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India, has supported a mega project to dissect the available genetic resources for new trait discovery using genomics and phenomics approaches and their integration for improving climate resilience, productivity, and nutritional quality. In addition, it will also help in the identification of the novel QTL and the markers linked with these QTL for these traits. The presented reviews emphasized the dominant stresses limiting wheat production in India and its impact on global food security. The possible path of a second green revolution using preserved genetic resources in the Indian Genebank with prospects to make a necessary plan for the exigencies that may be arising due to various biotic and abiotic stresses, nutrient utilization, and sustainability was also discussed.Wheat is one of the key cereal crops not only in India but also in the world and is the primary grain consumed by humans around the world. It is a food source for around 35% of the world population, a major cereal crop, and the main contributor to the agricultural economy of India (Nagarajan, 2005;Joshi et al., 2007a) and needs to be systematically worked upon for sustenance and improvement. With a world population that is estimated to increase to nearly 10 billion by 2050, the demand for wheat would also increase at an annual rate of about 1.7% (Alexandratos and Bruinsma, 2012). On the other hand, wheat yield is growing at about 1% annually, hence, is not keeping pace with the increasing demand (Hatfield and Beres, 2019). Wheat production is being hampered by newly evolved, more aggressive pests and diseases, limited water resources, limited arable land, and rapidly changing climatic conditions (Beres et al., 2020). Wheat plays a substantial role in global food security and provides nutrition to a major part of the population in developing countries. Although with the breeding efforts made over the decades, several countries, including India, have attained self-sufficiency in wheat production, it is high time to think and plan for the future. This is important because the population is expected to grow at a higher rate than the dwindling land area for cultivation every year, pathogens are ever-evolving, and abiotic environments are constantly changing, all mingled with sudden outbreaks (Hussain, 2015;Hasanuzzaman et al., 2019). The first challenge to wheat productivity has been biotic stress, which is caused by an infinite, ever-evolving pathogen, and mining appropriate Indian wheat germplasm against such incidents is required.The production and productivity of wheat crop is hampered by various diseases including, rusts (leaf rust, stem rust, and stripe rust), powdery mildew, spot blotch, Karnal bunt, and Fusarium head blight (Singh and Rajaram, 2002;Hussain 2015;Vikas et al., 2020;Roy et al., 2021). Although, continuous efforts have been made to develop disease-resistant wheat varieties for several devastating diseases, it is also true that knocking down of the resistance genes against these diseases happens simultaneously (Ahirwar et al., 2018;Kumar et al., 2018). This is where the emphasis is needed because resistance breeding programs have frequently relied on single major genes, and there is large-scale cultivation of genotypes with almost identical resistance (Vikas et al., 2020;Roy et al., 2021). Moreover, due to directional selection, the genetic base has become narrow, leading to a monoculture (Bourke et al., 2021). This is going to be a very serious threat to wheat production in the coming decades. There is a need for the identification and stacking of multiple resistance genes for a particular disease in a single genotype so that the duration of resistance can be increased. Similarly, the combination of resistance genes for multiple diseases can prove very effective in tackling any kind of disease epidemic. There have been frequent breakdowns of deployed resistance against major diseases such as rusts, powdery mildew, and spot blotch. This suggests a need for continuous effort to search for novel sources of durable resistance against the emerging virulent races of wheat rusts in available wheat germplasm.Rusts are still a significant biotic stress in wheat. Various researchers describe a capitulate loss of 10-100% in wheat due to rust diseases, which depends on the genotype of the cultivar, whether resistant or susceptible, inceptive infection time, rate of pathogenesis, duration of the disease, virulence factor, and the environment (Singh G. et al., 2017;Bhardwaj et al., 2019). Rust losses can vary from one year to the next and from region to region (Sawhney, 1995). The first stem rust epidemic was reported in 1786 in Madhya Pradesh, a major wheat-growing state in India (Nagarajan and Joshi, 1985), while we have experienced the continuous incidence of stripe rust in the northern part of India (Gupta and Kant, 2012;Vaibhav et al., 2017). Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, a causative agent of stem rust, resulted in up to 100% yield loss (Leonard and Szabo, 2005). The instantaneous emergence of a novel race of stem rust in Africa called Ug99 spread to the Middle East, Iran, and other countries, making it a serious concern for global wheat productivity (Singh et al., 2008;Singh R. P. et al., 2015). This race was compatible enough to break down the Sr31 gene, which has been widely used by breeders against stem rust to have a sufficient level of resistance for over two decades (Pretorius et al., 2000). This pathogen has been rapidly evolving since 1999, resulting in thirteen diverse variants under one lineage (RustTracker.org, 2019). In India, stem rust threatens approximately seven million ha of wheat-growing area (Bhardwaj et al., 2019). Similarly, stripe rust caused by P. striiformis Eriks. is dominating the northern provinces of India (Bhardwaj et al., 2019) and takes a heavy toll by reducing annual yields by about 30-50%. The wheat variety PBW343, which was a ruling variety in the North Western Plains Zone of India, has succumbed to stripe rust (Singh R. P. et al., 2017;Bhardwaj et al., 2019). The gross capital loss expected due to leaf rust (Caused by P. tririciana) pathogen varies and may be up to 60% under severe conditions (McIntosh, 1998).Breeding for disease resistance is the most economic and imperishable component of integrated crop disease management (Vasistha et al., 2017;Kumar S. et al., 2015). Approximately, 83, 80, and 61 stripes, leaf, and stem rust resistance genes, respectively, have been curated and cataloged in wheat (McIntosh, 2020). However, the prompt evolution of novel virulent races makes most of the resistance genes ineffective. Unfortunately, the majority of the Indian wheat cultivars lack resistance to stripe rust and their tolerance has been fleeting even though they were evaluated as possessing an adequate level of resistance before being released to farmers. This posed a need for a durable and sustainable solution. In wheat, genetic resistance to rust pathogens can be categorized as follows: 1) all-stage resistance and race-specific or seedling resistance conferred by major genes (Chen, 2013); 2) race-specific adult plant resistance (APR); and 3) partial resistance and slow-rusting or non-race-specific adult plant resistance conferred by minor genes (Johnson and Law, 1973;Das et al., 1992). If resistance genes are used alone, there is a danger of the outbreak of a disease, but if several genes are combined into a single genotype (gene pyramiding), the duration of efficient resistance can be increased. The combination of minor genes with major disease resistance genes has been found to be effective and can attain durable resistance.Tilletia indica is the causative agent of Karnal bunt, a disease with the greatest impact on the grain and food industry. The disease not only causes yield loss but also adversely affects grain quality due to infested kernels (Fuentes-Dávila and Rajaram, 1994). Grain infested with Karnal bunt attracts quarantine regulations that restrict infested seeds' transboundary movement. It was first reported in Karnal, India (Mitra, 1931), and was characterized as a minor disease till 1968. The disease was further ascertained in innumerable other regions throughout Northern and Central India. Later on, the disease was observed in several other countries, such as Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States (Rush et al., 2005). The pathogen infects wheat at the heading stage before seed formation; hence, the symptom is manifested only when the grains are matured in the ear heads. Traditional use of genetic resistance could be the best solution to manage disease severity. Although a huge collection of resistance sources was retrieved from diverse adapted zones, very few of them have been studied for detailed genetic analyses and used in the breeding program. Development of genetic markers, mapping of resistance genes, and characterization of new resistance loci can help to develop improved cultivars using germplasm (Brar et al., 2018).FHB, or head scab, is caused by different Fusarium species where F. graminearum and F. culmorum are considered dangerous due to the contamination of the grains by mycotoxins like deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV), and zearalenone (ZON). Yield losses occur due to shriveled grain, low test weight, and failure of seed formation. Mycotoxin accumulation is a major concern from an international trade perspective. Mycotoxins, especially DON and its acetylated forms (3-ADON and 15-ADON), make grain unsuited for food or feed upon accumulation (Brar et al., 2019). Although the import or export of FHB-infested wheat grain across international boundaries is allowed by defining a certain threshold, many beverage and food industries have self-imposed regulations (McMullen et al., 2012). Like with other diseases, the adoption of resistant cultivars is the most effective and convenient way to control this disease (Steiner et al., 2017). The complex genetics of FHB resistance makes it difficult to dissect desired resistance because it is under multigene control and associated with genotype × environment interactions. The classic example includes Fhb1 derived from a Chinese variety, Sumai 3 that provides resistance against FHB was popularized by various breeding programs (Lv et al., 2014). However, Fhb2 from Sumai 3 (Lu et al., 2010) and Fhb7 (Guo et al., 2015;Wang et al., 2020) from Thinopyrum ponticum have also been used in the resistant breeding program. Meanwhile, pyramiding resistance genes into susceptible cultivars remains a formidable challenge because major sources of resistance genes (such as Sumai 3 and Wangshuibai) are associated with undesirable agronomic traits (Dvorjak, 2014;Li et al., 2016). In the Indian context, it causes notable yield loss if rain coincides with anthesis, which is prevalent in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and hilly areas of Tamil Nadu. There is a dire need for incorporating resistance against FHB in Indian cultivars, keeping in view the importance of increasing exports of Indian wheat. Germplasm could be the ideal source of resistance for sustainable approaches against such cataclysmic diseases.Spot blotch (SB), a destructive leaf disease of wheat caused by Cochliobolus sativus (anamorph: Bipolaris sorokiniana), is considered an economically important disease prevalent worldwide. This disease could result in as high as 70% yield losses under severe epidemic conditions (Ayana et al., 2018). The disease-favoring climate is more prevalent in South Asian and American countries, where warm and humid conditions persist throughout the wheat cropping season (Saari, 1998;Joshi et al., 2007b;Gupta P. K. et al., 2018). From the Indian perspective, the eastern parts are the main epidemic zones, from where it is spread into the cooler traditional rice-wheat areas like the North West Plain Zone (NWPZ) (Villareal et al., 1995;Joshi et al., 2007a). The resistance level in high-yielding wheat genotypes is unsatisfactory and needs to be improved remarkably, mainly in the humid regions of South Asia (Sharma and Duveiller, 2006;Joshi et al., 2007b). Complex quantitative inheritance of SB resistance in wheat has slowed the progress in breeding for SB resistance (Kumar S. et al., 2015). Crucial findings using both bi-parental mapping populations and association mapping panels have accessed assorted SB resistance QTL on all chromosomes except 1D, 3B, 3D, 4A, 4B, 4D, 5D, and 6A (Lu et al., 2016;Gupta P. K. et al., 2018). Nevertheless, only three prime QTLs were assigned, Sb1 on 7D (Lillemo et al., 2013), Sb2 on 5B (Kumar S. et al., 2015), and Sb3 on 3B (Lu et al., 2016). Accessing novel resistance genes by exploiting wheat germplasm could be vital against such a ruinous disease.Another cataclysmic disease caused by the biotrophic fungus Blumeria graminis (DC) E.U. Speer f. sp. tritici Em. Marchal (Syn. Erysiphe graminis DC f. sp. tritici, Em. Marchal) is powdery mildew (PM) of wheat, a foliar disease of universal occurrence resulting in dreadful yield loss (Mwale et al., 2017). Its severity usually climaxes in areas with high precipitation and a maritimelike climate (Bennett, 1984). However, it has gained importance in other regions due to the application of a higher dose of nitrogenous fertilizer and the cultivation of modern semidwarf wheat genotypes (Wang et al., 2005;Morgounov et al., 2012). As far as yield losses are concerned, they range from 15 to 40% depending upon the varieties and climatic conditions. Earlier, this disease was confined to the North Hill Zone (NHZ) of India, but now it is also spreading toward the North-Western Plains Zone (NWPZ) of India due to climate change, which has led to the development of new races. The gene with the highest level of resistance was studied on the wheat-rye translocation (1B/1R) fragment that originated from the cultivar Veery. This cultivar was substantially used to develop many PMresistant cultivars around the globe (Friebe and Heun, 1989), including India (Vikas et al., 2020). Also, 68 loci providing resistance against wheat PM have been mapped to various wheat chromosomes (McIntosh, 2020). Moreover, the finding of several PM resistance genes, research should be carried out on finding novel resources to unravel genes, alleles, and SNPs because of the breakdown of truly race-specific resistance genes due to the emergence of new pathotypes or races (Hsam et al., 2003). Hence, it is necessary to explore adaptive wheat germplasm to identify refreshed resistance genes and use them against rapidly evolving pathogens.The yield losses due to insect pests have increased in the post-Green Revolution era (Dhaliwal et al., 2010). Unlike biotic stress resistance, the resistance gene had a very minor contribution in protecting wheat against insect pests because of the high impact of environmental conditions like temperature and light on the survival and behavior of the insects (Alford et al., 2014). Thus, a more concerted effort and methodology are required to identify and recruit the most effective insect pest resistance genes. Amongst the different pests, aphids, wheat weevil, wheat midge, termites, Hessian fly, armyworm, and cereal cyst nematode (CCN) are important arthropods feeding on wheat. CCN is becoming a serious threat to wheat production in several states of India (Singh and Kaur, 2015;Smiley et al., 2017). There is a higher perception of the CCN threat due to the fact that the identified genes confer a limited level of resistance to specific CCN pathotypes. Since the molecular mechanism of known genes is not known, it is essential to identify new genes and understand their interactions and functions in conferring resistance to CCN. Figure 1 basically explains the challenges faced by biotic and abiotic stresses in wheat production for the Indian wheatbreeding program which in turn accelerates or develops genebank genomic selection models using a combination of genebank genomics, genetic diversity, population structural analysis, and genomic sequences with phenomics, precise trait data, high throughput trait data, and speed breeding which is effective for speeding up the use of wheat germplasm lines coupled with breeding to enhance the process of variety development club with the genomic selection.Abiotic stresses are equally important which limit wheat production worldwide. Among abiotic stresses, salt, drought, and terminal heat stress are the three utmost constraints for successful wheat production in most parts of India. Climate change has been shown to have a high impact on wheat yield due to rising temperatures and water scarcity in India and other wheat-growing regions of the world. Wheat grain filling is suppressed at a temperature above 30 °C because of reduced starch synthase activity (Jenner, 1994). Short-term extreme increases in temperature of 5-10 °C can have quite catastrophic effects on yield, as an increase in the ethylene signal after heat spikes has been shown to lead directly to grain abortion (Hays et al., 2007). Moreover, it is estimated that a 1 °C increase in temperature can result in a 10% decrease in wheat productivity in low-altitude countries (Lobell et al., 2011). Heat stress at the terminal stage of the wheat crop is a crucial abiotic stress that restricts plant growth and the accumulation of starch, which in turn causes yield unpredictability in many wheat-growing parts of the world (Gupta et al., 2012). Different reports have predicted that the average global temperatures will increase in the coming years (Malhi et al., 2021). With an estimated rise in global temperatures of up to 1.5 °C by the year 2030 and a 1.8-4 °C rise by the end of the century, the challenges facing wheat production are enormous and need to be tackled immediately. In addition to this, the pattern of diurnal and nocturnal temperatures has also started changing, which is resulting in warmer nights (Gupta et al., 2012). Heat stress, particularly at the terminal stage of wheat, is the major limiting factor for plant productivity and is a major cause of yield instability in many parts of the world. Changes in temperature patterns accompanied by unpredictable rainfall patterns are also affecting crop productivity in several countries, including India (Singh G. et al., 2018). The threat perceptions due to the impact of global climate change on agriculture are going to be huge in the coming decades. There is a complex genetic basis for most of the improved traits in wheat related to water-deficient and heat-stress conditions (Sallam et al., 2019). This is because each of these traits is polygenic and each gene has a small effect. Improvement of polygenic traits is itself a difficult task (Ranjan et al., 2021). The genetics behind abiotic stresses is more complex as compared to that of biotic stress. Although many studies have been conducted to elucidate the genetics of these traits, only limited success has been achieved in utilizing the vast wealth of data in the crop improvement programs. Global warming is severely affecting weather patterns, resulting in extremes of temperature, drought, frequent frost, and snowfall in high altitudes (IPCC. Climate Change, 2013). In the last few years, droughts and heatwaves have become frequent in a large part of India, posing a serious threat to future wheat production. In an estimate, the average yield loss of wheat in India due to a 1 °C rise in temperature is reported to be 9.1 ± 5.4%, while the global yield loss triggered by the same is projected to be 5.5%, accounting for an aggregate loss of 35 M tons (Wang et al., 2018). This calls for the deployment of varieties that can withstand heat stress during the anthesis and seed setting stages. Furthermore, the accelerated use of wheat germplasm in a sustainable and planned manner is a viable option for addressing biotic, abiotic, and malnutrition threats.In the last few decades, due to drastic changes in climatic conditions, most of the world faced low water accessibility, especially in South Asia and Africa. Among all the abiotic stresses, drought and terminal heat stress are the major limitations to food production worldwide, including India. Hence, developing genotypes that hold terminal heat tolerance is one of the crucial precedents of wheat improvement programs in India. The continuous shrinking of water resources around the world has further compounded problems, in addition to thermal stress, leading to reduced production and productivity (World Meteorological Organization, 1997), and there is a need for additional sustainable approaches to increasing productivity on restricted land, which will prevent the detrition of biodiversity (Pretty and Bharucha, 2014). Climate change is predicted to have a high impact due to rising temperatures and water scarcity in the densely populated regions of India. In many of the global wheatgrowing areas, drought and terminal heat stress cause maximum damage.Around nine million ha of wheat in the subtropical or tropical zone (Lillemo et al., 2005) are heat stressed in countries including India, Bangladesh, Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan, and Egypt that have traditions of cultivating wheat since long ago (Abdelmageed et al., 2019). An estimate suggests that India's 13.5 million ha of wheat cultivated land comes under a heat-stressed zone (Joshi et al., 2007a). Terminal heat stress is one of the measures of sudden remarkable enhancement in temperature during the grain filling stage till maturity. The mean temperature above 31 °C during caryopsis ripening in wheat comes under the influence of terminal heat (Kumari et al., 2015;Dubey et al., 2020). Due to climatic fluctuation, the commencement of early summer than normal and late sowing of wheat due to a mixed cropping system are the possible factor for terminal heat stress in wheat (Gupta et al., 2012). Terminal heat stress causes severe damage to wheat, which alters its physiology and grain filling mechanism. Intense high-temperature waves are likely to become more damaging if the current trends continue and future predictions about global warming hold true. Notably, it significantly impacts starch synthesis and accumulation which is a measure of grain filling rate and gross productivity declined by the sudden outbreak of heatwave during caryopsis development (Jenner, 1994;Kumar et al., 2016c). Furthermore, current approaches for crop management utilize the application of irrigation water, which can reduce heat stress on plants (Badaruddin et al., 1999) but is not feasible for large areas. To date, our limited understanding of the complex interaction of cellular/molecular mechanisms with whole-plant adaptation has restricted deterministic approaches to breeding for heat tolerance (Reynolds et al., 2021). Germplasm could be a reliable source of gene or QTL for heat tolerance, especially at the ripening stage and seed maturation. Additionally, it could be managed by the introduction of trait-like late maturity genotype, stay green-harboring germplasm, and their wider use for adaptability against the current scenario.Drought is the second most serious abiotic stress limiting wheat production in different parts of the world and occurs with varying frequencies (Boyer, 1982;Chaves et al., 2003). Drought affects wheat crops more frequently in tropical and subtropical regions, where most of the developing countries are situated. Around 17% of the cultivated wheat areas worldwide were affected by drought during the period of 1980-2006(Dai, 2013)). In India, 29% of the total cultivable area faces drought conditions, of which 10% is under severe drought (Anonymous, 2003). This has caused an estimated 20-30% reduction in total wheat yield in stressed areas. Reduced bioavailability of water across the heatwave at the terminal growth phase of the spike is negatively correlated with productivity. Basically, they both occur at the same time, and their additive effect causes aborted grain filling (Sattar et al., 2020). Drought stresses impact on their own or in combination that significantly affect several agronomical features like heading days, the height of the plant, numbers of tiller per plant, and length and occupancy of the spike. However, an indirect correlation was suggested in terms of expressed results of GWAS or mapped QTL possibly due to a paradoxical association between traits and genetic loci (Tahmasebi et al., 2016;Abou-Elwafa and Shehzad, 2021). Therefore, a significant effort will be required, including molecular tools to breed superior drought-tolerant varieties. Whole-genome sequencing for each genotype was not possible earlier, but the commencement of high-throughput sequencing technology makes it accessible for extreme landrace and exotic lines (Khadka et al., 2020). The number of genes contributing directly or indirectly to drought tolerance relies on the associated traits' magnitude and proximity of the genes associated with the markers. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) or QTL mapping could be used to identify genes, involved in drought tolerance in unexplored germplasm, which could then be used to improve crop drought tolerance (Zeng et al., 2014;Sukumaran et al., 2018). Furthermore, advanced breeding programs for crop improvement are assisted by genomic selection and gene editing for improving drought tolerance in wheat (Singh S. K. et al., 2015).Among abiotic stresses, increased soil salinity and sodicity pose a challenge to agriculture. The high salt concentrations of the soil can be attributed to the poor land and water management practices as well as the lack of soil reclamation processes in many parts of the world. In India, approximately 8.6 mha of the cultivated land is affected by soil salinity. Furthermore, the areas under salinity are expanding each year due to low precipitation, mixing with the coastline, saline water irrigation, high surface evaporation, and poor cultural practices (Jamil et al., 2011). It has been extrapolated that about 50% of the cultivated land area may be impregnated with salt by the mid of twenty-first century (Mahajan and Tuteja, 2005;Sharma et al., 2012). Salinity tolerance could be accessed by using conventional (El-Hendawy et al., 2005) to modern spectral imaging techniques (Moghimi et al., 2018). Although, most of the affected parameters were known for salt tolerance which limits productivity, inadequate large-scale phenotyping could be a possible factor for a significant outcome (El-Hendawy et al., 2005;Rosenqvist et al., 2019). Finding well-studied genes/transcription factors from wheat germplasm like AVP1, NHX2, DREB, and SHN1 and their associated marker (Díaz De León et al., 2010;Goyal et al., 2016;Singh A. K. et al., 2018;Kumar et al., 2020c) for the utilization for tolerance breeding could be a sustainable approach for generating salt-tolerant wheat genotypes (Choudhary et al., 2021). Hence, there is a compelling need to develop salt-tolerant wheat varieties. Although in the context of salt tolerance germplasm utilization, there is little progress yet, notably germplasm which harbors extreme salt-tolerant genes could be rescued for generation of pre-breeding lines for crop breeding which could stand against the high saline condition.Wheat genetic resources are an ideal solution for addressing the issue of nutritional security in the Indian population. Malnourishment exists both in underprivileged rural populations as well as in wealthier urban populations, where anemia is a major health challenge in children and women (Müller and Krawinkel, 2005;Sethi et al., 2020). Due to its consumption by a major chunk of the Indian population, the development of iron, zinc, and protein fortified wheat is well justified as it can provide these essential micronutrients and proteins through routine edible product intake. (Borrill et al., 2014;Balk et al., 2019). The main objectives for the quality improvement are the enhancement of protein contents, biofortifying with essential amino acids which are basically absent in wheat, elevation in flour quality by modifying starch and glutenins, and elimination of anti-nutrient factors like phytic acid and polyphenols (Grewal and Goel, 2015;Adhikari S. et al., 2022). Although basic research on flour quality was documented, a translation aspect for wheat improvements would be fruitful. Screening of massive wheat germplasm for quality traits and their utilization for quality breeding would be an appropriate sustainable solution (Joshi et al., 2007b;Ramadas et al., 2019). However, breeding in wheat is quite difficult due to complex genetic and metabolic networks, differences in wheat plants' micronutrient use efficiency, translocation coherence, sourcesink relationship for metabolite allocation and partitioning, and genotype-dependent metabolite translocation (Ramadas et al., 2019). Hence, for efficient breeding, it is necessary to understand the genetic basis of micronutrient accumulation in grains and, accordingly, explore the conserved collection for suitable resources. Plant nutrients, including nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P 2 O 5 ), and potash (K 2 O) are the major and most salient nutrients required by the plants (Zörb et al., 2018;Rajičić et al., 2019). The genetic architecture of the plants plays an important role in fertilizer uptake (Sandhu et al., 2021). Therefore, different genotypes respond differently to the amount of supplied nutrients (Mkhabela et al., 2019). Not only agronomic practices but also breeding plays an important role in improving nutrient-use efficiency. As a result, nutrient-use efficient lines/varieties can be developed by modifying root architecture, stem phenology, and leaf phenology (Dharmateja et al., 2021). The variable germplasm with miscellaneous structures, viz., deep root systems, enormous taproots, and the diverse shapes of roots previously adopted to low nutrient soil needs to be assessed under highly precise and uniform conditions.The ratio of a different nutrient may be studied for better uptake and efficiency. Using the precision nutrition platform, a large number of genotypes could be evaluated with high precision and accuracy. Overall, Indian wheat germplasm could be served for such unusual traits (Table 1), which could be useful after being incorporated into desired wheat genotypes.Archaeological and botanical evidence reveals the domestication center of einkorn (Triticum monococcum) and emmer (Triticum dicoccum) to be in the Mesopotamian crescent of the Near East at about 7500 BC (uncalibrated) and from there, it spread to the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa, and ultimately Europe, America, and South Africa (Gustafson et al., 2009). In an evolutionary context, the A genome of wheat is predominated and domesticated earliest during wheat evolution. It circumscribed to cultivate as wild einkorn. With the introduction of large-scale genomics analysis like genotype by sequencing, SNP array revealed that the origin of T. urartu is the closest genome for subgenome A (Maccaferri et al., 2019;Adhikari L. et al., 2022). Furthermore, with the commencement of remarkable genetic diversity losses in the pericentromeric and donating B genome by T. speltoides give a new tetraploid T. turgidum. A second hybridization event between the resulted tetraploid and third D genome donor followed by chromosome doubling has occurred to gain hexaploidy or T. aestivum (Gustafson et al., 2009;Maccaferri et al., 2019). Widely cultivated with dynamic adaptability, wheat can be grown at varying altitudes ranging from the sea level to 4500 m above the mean sea level (AMSL) under diverse agro-ecological conditions. Currently, it comprises several high-yielding varieties suitable for a wide range of environments, ranging from the low-humid regions of India, Nigeria, Australia, and Egypt to the highly humid regions of South America (Damania et al., 1997). Currently, the Asian continent is the leading wheat producer. For example, the total area under wheat crops is nearly 31 million ha, divided into three ecozones: the Northern Himalayan Zone, the Central Zone, and the West South Zone (Kulshrestha, 1985;Singh et al., 2007). The crop gene banks came into existence in response to the growing concern over the rapid erosion of agro-biodiversity due to the preference of superior modern cultivars over landraces and indigenous lines (Díez et al., 2018).Recognizing and deploying relevant genetic and genomic variation from wheat germplasm stored at gene banks to breeding programs is an important strategy for sustaining crop genetic improvements and conserving genetic diversity (Mir et al., 2012;Sehgal et al., 2015;Mondal et al., 2016). Recent next-generation studies have charted new approaches for eliminating redundant duplication in large gene bank collections, thus facilitating the availability of manageable collection sizes for effective molecular breeding (Mascher et al., 2019;Singh et al., 2019). Gene banks around the world maintain a huge collection of wheat germplasm (Prada, 2009). The Indian wheat genetic resources are collectively conserved in its National Gene Bank (NGB) located at the NBPGR, New Delhi. The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) is an official institute at the national level for the governance of plant genetic resources (PGR). Its headquarters is in New Delhi. The Indian NGB housed at ICAR-NBPGR has also been reported to store more than 31,000 wheat accessions, which include landraces, exotic lines, and indigenous collections (Tyagi, 2016). The major mandate of the institute is to intend, assemble, and coordinate exploration and collection of native and exotic plant genetic resources from extreme environments for sustainable agriculture and to introduce, exchange, and supervise intellectual property right-based quarantine of plant genetic resources.These are of infinite value for agriculture, food, research materials, human resources development for sustainable agricultural growth, boosting the efficient use of genetic and genomic resources of cereals, pulses, and other orphan and ornamental crops, and allied research (Singh S. et al., 2018). In addition, coordinating, capacity building in PGR management, germplasm policy access, and sharing social benefits are also pivotal. Genetic and molecular profiling of agri-horticultural crops, genetically modified plant (GMP) detection technology research, and development of information networks on plant genetic resources (Tyagi, 2016;Singh, 2018) are also mandated activities of NBPGR. Currently, the NGB of India has the largest collection of wheat in the Asian region, with around 34,000 accessions (of 51 species) in its long-term storage (data not ported in Genesys). This collection has over 18,000 indigenous and 14,000 exotic accessions (Tyagi, 2016). The wheat genetic resources are further complemented by other institutes within the National Agricultural Research System (NARS), viz., the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) in the Karnal district of Haryana, Punjab, Agricultural University in the Ludhiana district of Punjab, and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. India's national wheat germplasm collection is genetically rich in its species diversity and indigenous wealth. It has around 2,000 accessions belonging to the category of traditional cultivars'/landraces'/farmers' varieties, drawn from diverse ecological zones within the country. The states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh are the major areas from where these indigenous resources have been collected and conserved over the past 5 decades (Figure 2). All these genotypes are treasure mines of unique genes related to several economically important traits. For example, as annexed in Table 1, drought-tolerant genotypes are Safed and Lal mundri, high yield-producing genotypes are Jhusia, Kishva, and Churi, excellent chapatti-making genotypes including Kankoo, Dharmauri, and Lal gehun, and biscuit-making quality exhibited by Mishri and Naphal. However, Bhati could be utilized as excellent fodder for livestock and Bhuri mundiya for high biomass. Additionally, augmentation efforts have been made through repatriation of Indian origin accessions from the USDA Gene Bank, Australian Grains Gene Bank, and John Innes Institute, United Kingdom. The repatriated germplasm resources comprise landraces, wild species, and relatives, which are the critical components of the wheat improvement program.These accessions might prove very useful in the development of high-yielding and climate-resilient wheat varieties if the gene/ germplasm is deployed in adapted cultivars in a planned way. However, only a small proportion of this collection has been utilized in breeding programs to date, primarily due to a lack of information about the traits and associated genes/markers in this collection. The evaluation of huge gene bank collections for the targeted traits is a costly and labor-intensive task. Although recent efforts have been made to develop core sets based on agro-morphological traits, these may not accurately represent the original collection's diversity because agro-morphological parameters are influenced by environmental conditions (Dutta et al., 2015). Precise characterization and documentation of these valuable germplasm lines are prerequisites for germplasm utilization in breeding and genomics studies (Table 1). These germplasms have been characterized by several traits in recent years, indicating that a reasonable number of indigenous germplasm lines are tolerant to both biotic and abiotic stresses because they have co-evolved with their environments for a long time.Global warming is severely affecting weather patterns, reflecting extreme heat, drought, frequent frost, and snowfall in high altitudes (IPCC, 2013). In the last few years, drought and heatwaves have become frequent in a large part of India, posing a serious threat to wheat production. During 2014-15 and 2015-16, wheat production was far below the expected target due to severe drought in various regions of the country. Soil salinity and sodicity are also anticipated to increase from the current 6.73 million ha to 20 million ha by 2050 (Sharma et al., 2012). The wheat-breeding program for abiotic stress tolerance, especially for drought and heat stresses seems to be challenging. The slow genetic progress accomplished to date is a consequence of non-adaptive genotypes with concerned environments, yield constituent compensation, the enigmatic origin of drought, and heat tolerance (Maich et al., 2007). Landraces have long served as the source of traits for local adaptation, tolerance to various stresses, yield stability, and optimum nutritional profile. Evaluation of landraces and local germplasm for finding traits pertaining to abiotic stress tolerance, and their deployment in the elite breeding lines could be the best strategy. Although, in the recent decade, scientists from NBPGR and their collaborators worldwide have made huge efforts to harness the genetic potential prevalent in wheat genetic resources (Table 2), a large proportion is still untouched in the context of trait identification and omics study. Hays et al. (2007) report that high temperatures during grain filling can cause a yield potential loss of up to 40% under dreadful stress. Drought is limiting wheat production in different parts of the world (Fahad et al., 2017;Abhinandan et al., 2018). Globally, about 17% of the wheat cultivated area is distressed by drought (Dai, 2013). In India, the fraction of total cultivable land affected by drought is 29%, of which 10% is under severe drought (Anonymous, 2003). Water has emerged as a limiting factor for sustained cultivation of wheat and other crops in various parts of India, even in the water-rich Indo-Gangetic Plains (Joshi et al., 2007a). Therefore, the generation of drought-tolerant varieties through breeding is essential for achieving enhanced crop productivity and food security for the hundreds of millions of people living in rural areas (Ortiz et al., 2008). Excellent drought-specific markers were identified to determine tolerance against droughts such as Dreb and Fehw3 (Rasheed et al., 2016). Consequently, the existence or absence of Dreb and Fehw markers can be analyzed in any promising germplasm. Several drought-tolerant lines have been identified in India (Kumar et al., 2018), which can be used for favorable allele mining. The identification of novel genetic loci for the improvement of drought tolerance can be achieved by GWAS or QTL mapping using germplasm lines (Zeng et al., 2014;Sukumaran et al., 2018) (Table 2).Over the past decade, there has been a substantial advancement in the development of genomic tools and techniques in wheat (Alaux et al., 2018;Purugganan and Jackson, 2021). The wheat gene pool possesses a tremendous amount of genetic variability for a trait of interest. Several high-density genetic and physical maps of wheat have been developed (Chao et al., 2007). The release of the gold standard reference genome assembly of wheat into the public domain will expedite the use of genomic resources in breeding (IWGSC, 2018). Moreover, high-throughput genotyping tools such as SNP arrays and GBS platforms have also been developed. In recent years, there has been an outburst of innovations in the field of \"genomics\" which can be employed for the identification of genes or genomic regions for useful traits from a large set of germplasm collections conserved in gene banks (Crossa et al., 2016;He and Li, 2020). The important ones to mention are high-throughput genotyping assays, whole-genome sequencing (WGS), GWAS, and genomic selection (GS) (Muleta et al., 2017). Of these, GS is of special interest and has emerged as a promising approach for genetic improvement of complex traits  (Ali and Borrill, 2020;He and Li, 2020). GS could be used for large plant breeding populations with genome-wide molecular markers to predict the total genetic value for complex or economically important traits such as yield. The key conceptual difference between conventional breeding and genomic selection approaches is that in the former, selections of candidate varieties are based on the observed phenotypic performance, whereas, in the latter, selections are based on the genetic makeup and genotype × environment interaction (Crossa et al., 2016;He and Li, 2020). A robust theoretical and experiential report suggests that GS methods can predict performance with adequate accuracy to allow selection based on molecular markers alone (Ali and Borrill, 2020). Furthermore, GS is a promising approach for accelerating the rate of genetic gain in plant-breeding programs by enabling selection for complex traits (like yield under heat stress) early in the breeding cycle and therefore reducing the cycle time, which increases the annual gain. Genomic selection has a potential breeding strategy to map numerous genetic loci for diverse traits of interest. Various research groups started working on Indian wheat and associated germplasm genotype for crop improvement against biotic resistance (Juliana et al., 2021;Budhlakoti et al., 2022). But still, more accurate prediction from a large genotype reservoir of Indian wheat germplasm is necessary for germplasmassisted crop improvements for abiotic and quality-related traits.In GS, genome-wide molecular markers are used to predict total breeding values called genomic estimated breeding value (GEBV) and make selections of individuals or breeding lines before phenotyping (Larkin et al., 2019;Kumar et al., 2021). This approach has several advantages, especially for 1) making  selections before phenotypic evaluation, which reduces the time needed to make selections and 2) increasing the size of breeding populations since genotyping of a large number of lines can be carried out at a lower cost than phenotypic evaluation (Crossa et al., 2016;Muleta et al., 2017;He and Li, 2020). This component aims to develop genomic selection for yield-related traits to accelerate genetic gain. Genomic selection approaches have been proven to be effective for complex or economically important traits such as yield, using an elite set of lines, including germplasm (Roy et al., 2021). From our perspective, there is little information available about Indian wheat germplasm, and a short table was prepared (Table 3) in the context of genes, transcripts, and QTL identified so far. In addition to the huge sustaining potential (Table 1), the Indian germplasm lines will be used to develop a prediction model using the existing genotyping and multi-location phenotyping data (Figure 3). The focus of this review would be to envisage candidate genotypes preserved in the national gene bank, which can be produced in abundance under varying climatic conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this would be the first time that genomics-and physiology-based hypothetical networks would be used to maximize the value of wheat germplasm in India. The collection of representative lines in this study will generate a public resource of elite germplasm lines with well-characterized phenotypic and genotypic information, along with seeds and their genetic constitutions. This resource would lead to determining the optimized configuration of wheat-breeding systems to support coming generations.The outcome of the Indian wheat germplasm genomics initiative would be a comprehensive pipeline connecting germplasm evaluation and genomic information, which could be used to accelerate the utilization of indigenous wheat germplasm in the national breeding programs for the improvement of biotic, abiotic, and quality traits (Figure 3). The following envisaged expected output could be: 1) a detailed insight into the extent and pattern of quality traits in the indigenous wheat collection, 2) wheat germplasm and genomic resource database containing phenotypic evaluation data and associated genomic information in the form of SNP markers for large-scale genotyping applications, 3) molecular tags such as markers, genes, and haplotypes associated with important agromorphological, yield, and grain quality associated traits, 4) novel gene/markers conferring resistance to important wheat diseases (rusts, powdery mildew, and spot blotch, etc.) and tolerance to environmental stresses (heat, drought, and salinity), 5) elite germplasm/accession/genetic stocks based on extensive phenotyping and genomics-based analysis, 6) stable and cross-validated genomic prediction model to calculate the genomic-estimated breeding value for faster genetic gain in elite and pre-breeding lines for various traits (heat, drought, nitrogen use efficiency, rusts, spot blotch, and yield, etc.), 7) integration of physiological traits into the national wheat-breeding program to develop high carbon-capturing pre-breeding lines or candidate varieties, and 8) rematriation of old landraces of wheat to evaluate them at their native place to know their adaptive functionality. Wheat genetic resources include extant cultivars, obsolete cultivars, parental lines, advanced breeding material, mapping populations, and explored germplasm lines. Globally, there is a huge reserve of conserved wheat genetic resources, though much of it remains unexplored for trait-specific information. Genetic data on traits and their association with suitable markers will facilitate the use of wider variability in crop improvement. In this project, such an effort has been put forth to strengthen the Indian wheat-breeding program. The pre-breeding lines generated in the project will have enhanced climate resilience and combining both abiotic and biotic stress tolerance and maximized yield potential. This work would also set a precedent for further enrichment of the national wheat collection with wild and weedy relatives of wheat (wild Triticaceae such as species of Aegilops, Elymus, and Eremopyrum), distributed primarily in the western and northwestern Himalayas, for use in future programs on climate resilience. It would also serve as a reference for identifying the required areas for exploration and collection of Triticum species based on the gaps identified in the gene bank holdings, especially for trait-specific and unique germplasm accessions.","tokenCount":"8653"}
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+{"metadata":null,"keywords":null,"sieverID":"50996778-9a37-4f87-88b4-cc64705a9499","pagecount":"0","content":"MANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS \nEN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO \nDE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\n© Centro Internacional de la Papa, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de \nMaíz y Trigo, Alianza Bioversity International-CIAT, Bayer CropScience LD, \nInstituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura, 2022. \nAutores\nHoracio Rodríguez Vázquez, CIP\nDavid Ramírez Collantes, CIP\nJavier Rinza, CIP\nHeloisa Schneider, CIP\nNancy Gabriela Panchi Umaginga, CIP\nJulio Escobar, IICA\nAndrea Enríquez, IICA\nEdición\nHoracio Rodríguez Vázquez\nConceptualización y dirección\nJosé Luis Moya\nDiseño gráfico\nDAL Grupo Creativo\nCitación correcta\nRodríguez Vázquez, H., Ramírez Collantes, D., Rinza, J., Schneider, H., Panchi \nUmaginga, N.G., Escobar, J., Enríquez, A. (2022). Manual de prácticas bajas en \ncarbono en el cultivo de papa a pequeña escala. Quito: Centro Internacional de \nla Papa, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo, Alianza \nBioversity International-CIAT, Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la \nAgricultura. 18 páginas.\nEste manual forma parte del proyecto “Enabling Smallholder Farmers to \nAccess Carbon Markets A Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration in Latin America. \nOne CGIAR and Bayer, 2021-2022”. \nLas denominaciones empleadas en este producto informativo y la forma en que aparecen \npresentados los dato que contiene no implican, por parte del CGIAR, CIP, CIMMYT, la Alianza \nBioversity International-CIAT, Bayer CropScience y el IICA, juicio alguno sobre la condición \njurídica o nivel de desarrollo de países, territorios, ciudades o zonas, o de sus autoridades, ni \nrespecto de la delimitación de sus fronteras o límites. La mención de empresas o productos \nde fabricantes en particular, estén o no patentados, no implica que el CGIAR, CIP, CIMMYT, la \nAlianza Bioversity International-CIAT, Bayer CropScience y el IICA los aprueben o \nrecomienden de preferencia a otros de naturaleza similar que no se mencionan.\nLos contenidos y opiniones expresadas aquí son responsabilidad de los autores y no \nreflejan necesariamente los puntos de vista del CGIAR, CIP, CIMMYT, la Alianza Bioversity \nInternational-CIAT, Bayer CropScience y el IICA.\nPresentación \nLa región de América Latina y el Caribe experimenta el reto de encontrar el \nbalance entre la agricultura y la conservación de la naturaleza. El sector \nagropecuario es fundamental para la economía de la región, pero también se \nestima que es responsable del 70% de la pérdida de ecosistemas. Entre otros \nfactores, esto hace que el sector aporte cerca del 40% de las emisiones \nregionales de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI), que aceleran el cambio \nclimático.\nSin embargo, existen soluciones innovadoras, basadas en la ciencia, que \ndemuestran que la agricultura puede ser parte de la solución a la crisis \nclimática que enfrentamos. Este manual busca, precisamente, difundir \nprácticas productivas bajas en carbono aplicables a pequeña escala. Es \nresultado del trabajo conjunto y articulado de tres centros de investigación del \nCGIAR en la región (CIP, CIMMYT y la Alianza Bioversity International-CIAT), \ngracias al financiamiento de Bayer CropScience y la colaboración del Instituto \nInteramericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA).\nEl fin último de esta alianza es facilitar el acceso de pequeños productores a \nmercados de carbono, pues desde el CGIAR hemos demostrado hace tiempo \nque dichos instrumentos financieros tienen el potencial de reducir el impacto \nambiental de la agricultura y abonar a la seguridad alimentaria. \n \nJoaquín Lozano \nDirector Regional para América Latina y el Caribe \nCGIAR \n3\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nCambio climático\nEl cambio climático es cualquier alteración del clima de un lugar, por causas \nnaturales o actividades humanas. \nEl clima siempre ha variado, pero los cambios que vivimos hoy son mucho más \nrápidos e intensos por el calentamiento global, que se denomina al aumento de \nlas temperaturas en nuestro planeta que se debe, principalmente, al \nincremento de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) en la atmósfera. \nLa concentración acelerada de los GEI, en particular el dióxido de carbono (CO2), \nha sido provocada por nuestras actividades; por ejemplo, la combustión de los \nvehículos, la tala de árboles, el uso de maquinaria agrícola, la ganadería, la \nindustria; entre otras. \n \n¿Cómo afecta el cambio climático a la agricultura?\nLa agricultura depende en gran medida del clima. El clima de un lugar \ndetermina qué tipo de cultivo se puede sembrar, así como las fechas de siembra \ny cosecha. \nLos principales efectos negativos del cambio climático en la agricultura son:\n• Pérdidas por fenómenos climáticos extremos: sequías, heladas fuera de \ntemporada, inundaciones y/o altas temperaturas.\n• Aumento de insectos plaga, malezas y enfermedades.\n• Alteración de los ciclos de cultivo (periodo entre la siembra y cosecha), lo que \npuede afectar el crecimiento y desarrollo de las plantas, así como los \nrendimientos.\nCO2\nCO2CO2\nCO2\nCO2\n4\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nHuella de carbono\nEl carbono es uno de los elementos químicos más importantes, pues nos \nproporciona los compuestos orgánicos que necesitamos para vivir.\nEl carbono existe en muchos sistemas naturales: la atmósfera, la vegetación, los \nsuelos y los océanos. La vida en la Tierra depende del balance de carbono entre \ndichos sistemas. \nTodas nuestras actividades generan un impacto en el entorno. Uno de estos \nimpactos es que las reservas de carbono pasen de un sistema a otro, \nocasionando un desbalance. Por ejemplo, cuando preparamos un terreno para \nsembrar, el carbono almacenado en el suelo se libera hacia la atmósfera. Lo \nmismo ocurre cuando talamos un bosque para destinar más tierras al cultivo. \nEste carbono en forma de gas (dióxido de carbono) se eleva y su mayor \nconcentración en la atmósfera forma una especie de invernadero, elevando la \ntemperatura global. Por eso el dióxido de carbono y otros gases se llaman gases \nde efecto invernadero (GEI).  \n¿Qué es?\nLa huella de carbono es el total de GEI emitidos directa o indirectamente por \nuna persona, institución, producto o proceso. \n¿Cómo se mide?\nSe cuantifican los GEI emitidos y se convierten a su equivalente en dióxido de \ncarbono (CO2). Por eso se denomina huella de carbono. \nPara obtener la cantidad de GEI emitidos por un producto agrícola se hace un \nanálisis de ciclo de vida, desde su producción hasta el fin de su vida útil. \nTomemos por ejemplo el cacao, su huella de carbono es la suma de los GEI \nemitidos en todos los pasos necesarios para su producción, comercialización, \nconsumo y desecho o reciclaje:\nHUELLA DE \nCARBONO DE \nUNA PAPA\nPreparación del \nterreno, siembra \ny labores \nagrícolas\nFertilizantes / \nagroquímicos y \notros insumos\nCosecha, \nmanejo \npostcosecha\nTransporte y \ndistribución\nComercialización Consumo Desecho o \nreciclaje\nCO2\n5\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\n¿Por qué es importante medir la huella de carbono de los cultivos?\nPara minimizar el impacto negativo de la agricultura en el cambio climático es \nclave conocer la huella de carbono de las fincas y/o cultivos. Cuantificar la \ncantidad de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) le permite a un(a) \nagricultor(a) plantear metas y formas de reducirlas.\nEs importante resaltar que la agricultura no solo emite GEI, sino que también \ncontribuye a capturar carbono según las prácticas de manejo, por lo que \nalgunos métodos productivos pueden generar un efecto positivo en la \ndisminución del calentamiento global. El efecto neto de una finca será neutro si \nésta emite y captura carbono en la misma medida. Al contrario, si se eliminan \nbosques para sembrar cultivos con menor poder de captura, se eliminará la \ncompensación, aumentando la huella de carbono. \nUn buen sistema de registro y organización del proceso productivo para medir \nsu huella de carbono puede aumentar la productividad de una finca y hacerla \nmás competitiva en los mercados locales, nacionales e internacionales. Por \notra parte, los productos “verdes” se comercializan mejor y a veces reciben un \nprecio mayor.\nFinalmente, medir la huella de carbono es el primer paso para acceder a los \nmercados de carbono, lo que significa una fuente de ingresos alternativa a los \npequeños productores que implementan prácticas agrícolas bajas en carbono. \n¿Qué son los mercados de carbono?\nSon sistemas comerciales (obligatorios y voluntarios) en los que se venden y \ncompran créditos de carbono. Un crédito de carbono negociable equivale a una \ntonelada de dióxido de carbono (CO2), o la cantidad equivalente de un gas de \nefecto invernadero diferente, que ha sido reducido, secuestrado o evitado. Estos \ninstrumentos financian diversas acciones de mitigación, adaptación y resiliencia \nclimática. \nAlgunos países como México y Colombia cuentan con mercados de carbono \npara reducir la huella de carbono, alineados con sus estrategias de Reducción de \nEmisiones por la Deforestación y Degradación de los Bosques (REDD+), donde \nla agricultura juega un papel central. \n \n6\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nPrácticas agrícolas bajas en carbono\nLa agricultura es esencial para la vida; pero también es una de las actividades \nque más impactos genera en el ambiente.\nLas prácticas agrícolas bajas en carbono (es decir, con una menor huella de \ncarbono) son aquellas actividades para producir un cultivo que emite menos \ngases de efecto invernadero (GEI) hacia la atmósfera. De esta manera, \ncontribuyen a reducir el calentamiento global y en consecuencia generar un \naporte desde la agricultura al cambio climático. \nAlgunas de estas prácticas favorecen también la conservación de los \necosistemas y su biodiversidad, manteniendo la calidad y salud de los suelos, \nel agua y el aire.\nCada vez más, este tipo de prácticas son valoradas por los consumidores, por lo \nque además mejoran el acceso de los pequeños agricultores a mercados \nmás exigentes y aumentan la rentabilidad de sus parcelas. De esta manera, \ncontribuyen al bienestar de los productores, sus familias y sus comunidades. \nPor lo anterior, las prácticas agrícolas bajas en carbono ayudan a que \ntengamos un planeta más sano y justo para las generaciones presentes y \nfuturas. \nAlgunas de las prácticas agrícolas bajas en carbono más comunes son:\nA continuación, se describen algunas prácticas agrícolas bajas en carbono que \npueden ser aplicadas en el cultivo de papa a pequeña escala. \nCategoría\nManejo agronómico\nFertilización inteligente\nLabranza del suelo\nManejo del agua\nManejo de agroquímicos\nAgrobiodiversidad\nPrácticas agrícolas bajas en carbono\nCultivos de cobertura.\nRotación de cultivos.\nCultivos intercalados que fijan nitrógeno (por ejemplo, leguminosas).\nArreglo topológico (densidad de siembra, espacio entre plantas/surcos). \nDiagnóstico (análisis de suelos, análisis de tejidos, uso de sensores).\nDosis, tipo de fertilizante y momento de aplicación más eficiente.\nCompostas y/o estiércoles animales.\nUso de bioles.\nUso de microorganismos benéficos.\nLabranza mínima.\nLabranza de conservación.\nNivelación del terreno / uso de curvas de nivel. \nCosecha de agua.\nTecnificación del riego.\nAplicaciones eficientes.\nManejo integrado de plagas y enfermedades.\nMonitoreo de plagas/enfermedades en campo.\nUso de variedades nativas.\nUso de híbridos / variedades mejoradas adaptadas a condiciones locales.\nÁrboles en tierras agrícolas.\nUso de barreras vivas.\n7\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nAbonos verdes\nSiembra de un cultivo transitorio para ser incorporado posteriormente al suelo. \nPueden usarse cereales o leguminosas de rápido crecimiento como avena, vicia, \narveja, chocho, fréjol, falso chocho, entre otros.\nSe deben incorporar al inicio de la floración. Una vez cortados, es recomendable \ndejarlos sobre el suelo varios días o semanas según el clima (mínimo cuatro \ndías) y se incorporan superficialmente al suelo.\nEs importante considerar que mientras el campo está ocupado por un abono \nverde, no se pueden sembrar otros cultivos.\nEl objetivo de esta práctica es incorporar nutrientes y materia orgánica al suelo \ncon lo cual se mejora la filtración y retención de agua, aireación y  otras  \npropiedades  biológicas y físicas del suelo.\n \n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nCualquier productor(a) que desee mejorar sus \nsuelos e incrementar los nutrientes   antes de \nla siembra de su cultivo principal.\nVentajas Desventajas\nImplica mantener el suelo por  un tiempo sin \nproducción comercial (únicamente en descanso).\nLa incorporación requiere de mano de obra \nadicional.\nSu efecto no es fácilmente visible.\nNo   requiere de altas inversiones.\nDe fácil aprendizaje e \nimplementación.\nSi se usa una leguminosa, incorpora \ngrandes cantidades de nitrógeno \npara los cultivos.\nSe recomienda aplicar después de \ncada cosecha.\n8\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nTecnificación del riego\nInstalación de algún sistema de riego (por aspersión, por goteo) en parcelas de \nproducción, con la finalidad de evitar la pérdida de suelo y el gasto innecesario \ndel recurso agua al momento de regar, usando la cantidad óptima según las \ncaracterísticas agroecológicas de los suelos, la pendiente y del propio cultivo.\n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nProductores cuyos predios tienen acceso a \nagua para riego.\nVentajas Desventajas\nSu instalación implica una inversión \neconómica inicial.\nSu instalación requiere de mano de obra \ncalificada.\nSe deben contemplar acciones de \nmantenimiento. \nPuede ser instalado entre varios \nproductores o en asociación.\nEl sistema de riego se puede adaptar \na diferentes cultivos y usar en \nalgunos ciclos.\nLa inversión se amortiza en varios \nciclos de cultivo.\nEs compatible con otras prácticas.\nEn cualquier momento del año y \ndurante todo el ciclo de cultivo.\n9\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nTecnificación del riego\nEl manejo del tubérculo-semilla comienza en el campo antes de la cosecha y \ncontinúa hasta que es sembrado. La producción de semilla sana está basada en \ntres principios de sanidad:\n1. Aislamiento: consiste en establecer el lote de semilla, alejado de campos de \npapa comercial, para evitar el traslado de plagas y el contagio de enfermedades.\n2. Protección: combinación del uso de plaguicidas y la práctica de labores \nculturales que buscan proteger el cultivo de plagas y enfermedades.\n3. Erradicación: consiste en la eliminación de tubérculos y plantas atípicos.\nContar con un tubérculo-semilla de buena calidad nos permite reducir los \nriesgos de presencia de plagas y enfermedades, mejores rendimientos y \nproducción de calidad.\n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nProductores que deseen mejorar el \nrendimiento y la calidad de su producción.\nVentajas Desventajas\nSu implementación requiere de un proceso \nde capacitación.\nSu manejo implica mano de obra y \nactividades específicas un tanto diferentes a \nlas de un cultivo con fines comerciales.\nRequiere adaptaciones en bodegas e \ninfraestructura básica de almacenamiento. \nPuede ser implementada entre \nvarios productores.\nPermite contar con semilla de forma \npermanente y accesible de \nvariedades adaptadas. \nDesde antes de la cosecha hasta \nque el tubérculo-semilla sea \nsembrado.\n10\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura.\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nUso eficiente de fertilizantes\nConjunto de prácticas que permiten obtener el máximo rendimiento con la \nmenor cantidad (dosis) de fertilizantes.\nConsiste en el uso del análisis de suelo como herramienta de diagnóstico para la \naplicación de fertilizantes, acorde a los requerimientos reales del cultivo.\nOtras actividades a tomar en cuenta:\n Aplicación oportuna y localizada de los fertilizantes.\n Evitar deficiencia de agua en períodos críticos de desarrollo de la planta.\n Nivelar el suelo y hacer drenajes en suelos mal drenados.\n Corregir la acidez del suelo previo a la aplicación del fertilizante.\n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nProductores que deseen mejorar la fertilidad \nde sus suelos de forma eficiente.\nVentajas Desventajas\nLos análisis de suelos pueden ser costosos y/o \nno estar disponibles localmente.\nLa toma de muestras de suelo requiere \ncapacitación.\nRequiere técnicos o personal especializado \npara interpretar los análisis del suelo y \ndeterminar la dosis de fertilización. \nReducción de la cantidad de \nfertilizantes utilizados.\nReducción de costos en insumos.\nIncremento del rendimiento del \ncultivo. \nRealizar la planeación antes de la \nsiembra del cultivo, y en \nmomentos críticos de su \ncrecimiento y desarrollo.\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\n11\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura.\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura.\nSIN EFECTO\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nLabranza de conservación\nSerie de prácticas que permiten detener o revertir los efectos nocivos del exceso \nde laboreo sobre las características físicas y químicas del suelo, promoviendo los \nprocesos biológicos y, por tal motivo, permitiendo conservar o recuperar su \nproductividad.\nLa labranza de conservación incluye como mínimo las siguientes prácticas en \nconjunto:\n No quema de los residuos del cultivo anterior.\n Incorporación de los residuos del cultivo anterior al suelo.\n Labranza cero, mínima o reducida.\n Rotación de cultivos. \n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nProductores que deseen mejorar la fertilidad \nde sus suelos de forma eficiente y que \ncuenten con la maquinaria adecuada para la \nagricultura de conservación.\nVentajas Desventajas\nSus efectos se evidencian a largo plazo.\nRequiere maquinaria especializada o \nincremento de mano de obra.\nImplica mayor tiempo en la preparación del \nsuelo. \nReducción de la cantidad de \nfertilizantes utilizados.\nReducción de costos en uso de \nmaquinaria e insumos.\nIncremento del rendimiento del \ncultivo.\nMejora la fertilidad física y química \ndel suelo.\nNo contamina el aire por la quema \nde los residuos de cosecha.\nAumenta la capacidad del suelo de \nretener la humedad.   \nDesde la preparación del suelo y \nhasta el momento posterior de la \ncosecha.\n12\nManejo integrado de plagas (MIP)\nConsiste en mantener el nivel del daño de enfermedades e insectos plagas por \ndebajo del Iímite económico aceptable, combinando varias formas de control:\n Control mecánico.\n Control cultural.\n Control biológico.\n Uso de variedades tolerantes y resistentes.\n Diversificar variedades / rotación de cultivos. \n Control químico de forma eficiente (específico y en dosis adecuadas).\nEl énfasis del MIP está en el diagnóstico, porque sirve para determinar con \nanterioridad la posible aparición de enfermedades y plagas, para también \noptimizar la actividad de los enemigos naturales.\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nProductores que deseen conservar la \nagrobiodiversidad en sus fincas, puede usarse \npara cualquiera de sus cultivos.\nVentajas Desventajas\nRequiere de mano de obra adicional para su \nimplementación.\nLa(s) persona(s) encargada(s) del manejo \ndebe(n) conocer los síntomas de las \nenfermedades e identificar insectos plaga y \nbenéficos.\nTecnologías y/o prácticas poco conocidas. \nNo requiere de altas inversiones.\nDe fácil aprendizaje e \nimplementación.\nReducción de costos de producción, \nal disminuir el uso de insumos \nquímicos.\nMejorar la autonomía de los \npequeños agricultores.    \nSuelo Cultivo \nCulturales \nEnemigos \nnaturales\nInsecticidas\nDurante todo el ciclo del cultivo y \ncon todos los cultivos sembrados. \nPlagas\n13\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura.\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nManejo integrado de plagas (MIP)\nConsiste en la introducción de árboles y/o arbustos al sistema de producción, ya \nsea como:\n Cortinas rompevientos.\n Cercas vivas.\n Árboles dispersos o en los linderaos.\nLas especies de árboles pueden incluir especies frutales o especies nativas de la \nzona, lo que puede generar una mayor cantidad y diversidad de alimentos para \nla familia, o ingresos adicionales por la venta de estos productos. El beneficio \npara el cultivo principal es mejorar la calidad de los suelos, reducir el riesgo de \nataque de plagas y enfermedades.  \n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nProductores que deseen conservar la \nagrobiodiversidad en sus fincas, protegiendo \na la vez el suelo y sus cultivos.\nVentajas Desventajas\nEl crecimiento de los árboles es lento.\nSus resultados son a mediano y largo plazo.\nRequiere mano de obra adicional para la \nsiembra y cuidado de los árboles.  \nPueden utilizarse especies nativas.\nPueden utilizarse especies \nmultipropósito (frutales, maderables, \netc.).     \nSon hábitat de polinizadores, \ninsectos benéficos y fauna nativa. \nContribuyen a minimizar la huella de \ncarbono de la finca / cultivo. \n   \nEn cualquier época del año, \nespecialmente en la época de \nlluvias si no se cuenta con agua \nde riego, para asegurar la \nsupervivencia de los árboles y \narbustos.  \n14\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura.\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura.\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nAbonos orgánicos y biofermentos\nAplicación de abonos sólidos y líquidos a base de ingredientes de origen animal \no vegetal que aportan nutrientes a los cultivos y que pueden ser elaborados \naprovechando insumos de la propia finca.\nAlgunos de estos abonos son estiércol de animales, compost, humus de \nlombriz, té de estiércol, abono de frutas, biol, bocashi, entre otros.   \n \n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nProductores que deseen mejorar la fertilidad \nde sus suelos y a la vez conservar la \nagrobiodiversidad de sus fincas. \nVentajas Desventajas\nRequieren mano de obra para su elaboración.\nSu elaboración toma tiempo.\nLos resultados de su uso se ven a largo plazo.\n \nNo requiere de altas inversiones.\nSon de fácil elaboración.\nReduce la dependencia a insumos \nexternos.\nAprovecha insumos generados en la \npropia finca. \nUsa materiales fáciles de conseguir. \nPrincipalmente antes de la \nsiembra del cultivo y en las \naplicaciones complementarias.  \n15\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura.\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nCosecha de agua de lluvia\nTécnicas (desde simples a complejas) capaces de aumentar la cantidad de agua \nde lluvia que se almacena en el suelo o en estructuras construidas, de tal \nmanera que pueda ser utilizada posteriormente en condiciones de déficit de \nlluvias.\nUn ejemplo son los reservorios, que consisten en excavar y aislar una porción de \nsuelo para captar y almacenar agua de lluvia, en forma dosificada y acorde a la \netapa del cultivo. \n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nProductores con limitado o nulo acceso a \nagua de riego.\nVentajas Desventajas\nLa construcción requiere de mano de obra.\nRequiere de una inversión inicial que puede \nser alta.\nSe puede adaptar a los recursos de \ncada finca.\nMateriales fáciles de conseguir.  \nAntes del inicio de la época \nlluviosa.  \n16\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura.\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nUso de variedades adaptadas a las condiciones locales\nEl uso de variedades (nativas o mejoradas) con cierto grado de tolerancia al \nestrés abiótico ocasionado por las amenazas del cambio climático (por ejemplo, \naltas temperaturas, heladas y escasez de agua, entre otras). \n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nEn la planificación del cultivo (selección de la \nvariedad a sembrar). Todo tipo de \nproductores, especialmente con problemas \nrecurrentes vinculados al clima. \nVentajas Desventajas\nAlgunas semillas pueden ser costosas, o estar \npoco disponibles en un lugar determinado.\nPuede ser que una variedad resistente no \ntenga buena aceptación en los mercados. \nReduce la mano de obra para el \nmanejo de las amenazas climáticas.   \nEn la planificación del cultivo \n(selección de la variedad a \nsembrar).   \n17\nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\nContribución a la resiliencia climática de la pequeña agricultura.\nProductividad y \ncalidad del cultivo\nAdaptación al \ncambio climático\nMitigación \n(reducción de la huella \nde carbono)\nConservación y uso adecuado \nde la agrobiodiversidad\nSistemas de alertas tempranas\nSon tecnologías que permiten, a través del monitoreo de las condiciones \nclimáticas (estaciones meteorológicas), detectar los cambios sensibles en las \ntemperaturas que pueden ocasionar heladas o altas temperaturas extremas. \nAl detectarse una alerta climática para una zona, se envía la alerta a los \nagricultores (puede ser mediante sus celulares) para que puedan prepararse \ncon diversas alternativas para prevenir los daños; por ejemplo, mediante un \nriego adicional. \n¿Cuándo puede aplicarse? ¿Quién puede aplicarlo?\nTodo tipo de productores, especialmente con \nproblemas recurrentes vinculados al clima. \nVentajas Desventajas\nRequiere mano de obra calificada.\nImplica una inversión inicial.\nSe requiere de una estación meteorológica o \nacceso a información climática.\nRequiere disponibilidad de agua de riego y un \nsistema tecnificado. \nPuede ser implementada entre \nvarios productores o en asociación.\nSu impacto es visible y a corto plazo.\nEvita pérdidas en el rendimiento del \ncultivo.    \nDurante todo el ciclo del cultivo.   \n18\nCGIAR es la mayor plataforma mundial de organizaciones de \ninvestigación agrícola para el desarrollo. La misión del CGIAR \nes transformar sosteniblemente los sistemas alimentarios, \nterrestres y acuáticos en el contexto de la crisis climática. El \nCGIAR realiza sus acciones de investigación e innovación a \ntravés de 15 centros especializados, en estrecha colaboración \ncon cientos de socios, incluyendo institutos nacionales y \nregionales de investigación, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, \nla academia, organizaciones de cooperación internacional para el \ndesarrollo y el sector privado.\nwww.cgiar.org \nCentro Internacional de la Papa (CIP)\nFundado en 1971, el CIP es un organismo internacional de investigación \npara el desarrollo sin fines de lucro, miembro del CGIAR, que ofrece \nsoluciones innovadoras, basadas en la ciencia, para mejorar el acceso a \nalimentos nutritivos y asequibles, fomentar el crecimiento sostenible e \ninclusivo de las empresas y el empleo, e impulsar la resiliencia climática \nde los sistemas agroalimentarios de raíces y tubérculos. Con sede en \nLima, Perú, el CIP tiene presencia en más de 20 países de África, Asia y \nAmérica Latina y el Caribe. El CIP cuenta con el banco de germoplasma \nin vitro más grande del mundo, resguardando como patrimonio de la \nhumanidad 7,180 accesiones de papa; 8,026 accesiones de camote; y \n1,556 accesiones de raíces y tubérculos andinos. \nwww.cipotato.org\nCentro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) \nEl CIMMYT es una organización internacional centrada en la \ninvestigación y la capacitación agrícola sin ánimo de lucro que capacita \na los agricultores a través de la ciencia y la innovación para alimentar al \nmundo en plena crisis climática. Aplicando una ciencia de alta calidad y \nasociaciones sólidas, el CIMMYT trabaja para lograr un mundo con \npersonas más sanas y prósperas, libre de crisis alimentarias globales y \ncon sistemas agroalimentarios más resilientes. La investigación del \nCIMMYT aporta mayor productividad y mejores beneficios a los \nagricultores, mitiga los efectos de la crisis climática y reduce el impacto \nmedioambiental de la agricultura. \nwww.cimmyt.org   \nAlianza Bioversity International - CIAT\nLa Alianza es un organismo internacional de investigación para el \ndesarrollo sin fines de lucro, miembro del CGIAR que genera soluciones \ncientíficas que aprovechan la biodiversidad agrícola y transforman los \nsistemas alimentarios de manera sostenible para mejorar la vida de las \npersonas en medio de una crisis climática. Con sede global en Roma, \nItalia, tiene su oficina regional para América Latina y el Caribe en Cali, \nColombia. \nwww.alliancebioversityciat.org \nMANUAL DE PRÁCTICAS BAJAS EN CARBONO EN EL CULTIVO DE PAPA A PEQUEÑA ESCALA\n19\nEsta publicación está registrada por el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP). \nEstá licenciada para su uso bajo la Licencia Internacional de Atribución 4.0 de \nCreative Commons.\nEl CIP agradece a los donantes y organizaciones que apoyan globalmente su trabajo, \na través de sus contribuciones al Fondo Fiduciario del CGIAR: www.cgiar.org/funders\n","tokenCount":"4596"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c288cbd0de4cce4bae75f8640f6145cc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bab3b98c-2c99-44ed-ba19-52c6c001e98f/retrieve","id":"-910259866"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"07ec9500-9183-45a6-a4fe-0a02c12d3466","pagecount":"119","content":"iii DECLARATION I, Atsede Teklay Berhe, hereby present for consideration by the Department of Animal, Rangeland and Wildlife Sciences within the College of Dryland Agriculture and Natural Resources at Mekelle University, my thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Masters in Livestock Production and Pastoral Development with thesis research entitled 'Green Feed Management and Utilization for Dairy Production in Irrigated Areas along Ahferom-Adwa-Laelay Maichew Milk sheds in, Central Zone of Tigray.' I sincerely declare that this thesis is the product of my own efforts. No other person has published a similar study which I might have copied, and at no stage will this be published without my consent and that of the Animal, Rangeland and Wildlife Sciences department.. Perception of farmers toward improved green fodder in milk increment (n=100) .. Table 24. Perception of farmers toward improved green fodder in body condition (n=100)... Table 25. Perception of farmers toward improved green fodder in animal health improvement (n=100) ..    This study was conducted in Ahferom-Adwa -Laelay Maichew milkshed areas, Central Zone of Tigray, with the aim to assess irrigated green feed, production, management and utilization for dairy production. Five Tabias were selected purposely based on their potential in green feed production and dairy farming using purposive sampling method. A total of 200 respondents using the random sample from the list of green feed user and non-user. These were stratified to (100 irrigated forage adopters and 100 non-adopters). Primary and secondary data collection methods were employed during the course of the study. The primary data were collected using household interviews, focus group discussions, direct field observations, informal discussions and some measurements to understand the biomass (DM yield) of the irrigated forages. Descriptive statistics and econometric analysis were done using probit model. The study found that the common green fodder was Sesbania sesban, alfalfa, elephant grass, leucaena, cowpea, lablab and local grass. Major feed resources were crop residues, hay, green feed and weeds, Attela, improved forages and browse trees. From these crop residues and hay contribute largest. Sesbania sesban, alfalfa, elephant grass, leucaena, cowpea, lablab and local grass are the major improved forage species grown under irrigation in the areas. The DM productivity of these common green feed were measured to be 1.79t/ha for Alfalfa, 4.2t/ha elephant grass, 0.061t/ha Leucaena, and 0.8t/ha Sesbania. The management practices of green feeds differ according to the nature and type of plants. The tree legumes are planted by seedling and direct sowing, elephant grass by cutting stems and splitting roots, and herbaceous legumes by direct seed sowing. Out of the total green feed users, 69% practice land preparation, 68% watering practice, 69% fertilizer and close their land from grazing. The farmers feed the green fodder to animals alone (48%) majority grass species, herbaceous legumes in mix with roughage (17.5%) and both (25%). The probit model showed that sex, education level, land size, seed access, media access and distance extension service canters significantly determined green fodder adoption. Shortage of land, shortage of water, health problem (especially bloating), shortage of capital, poor knowledge and awareness, low forage production, shortage of labor, shortage of input, shortage of forage seed, free grazing and lack of credit access were identified as constraints for green fodder production. The forage producers get institutional support from both governmental and non-governmental organizations. Feeding green feed have good on the milk production, body condition and controlling health problems. Farmers have good perception on green feed and appreciated for their importance in improving feed supply, soil fertility, crop yield and animal diseases tolerance. There are more opportunities for green forage development related to the institution, research, policy, technology, extension and market demand. From the study, common irrigated green feed was identified, production, management and utilization practice of respondents were assessed, eleven determinant factor for green feed adoption was determined and the effect of green feed on dairy production, body condition and health conditions was discussed. from these findings, the study recommends that was scale up the size of common irrigated forages and increase the adoption rate of nonadopters by training, awareness creation and demonstration of the adopters work. Strengthen the utilization mode of forage, improving relation of forages production with market oriented commodities and strength forage development of government attention and NGOs to improve adoption.Key words: Green fodder, fodder management, fodder utilization, irrigation, milksheds.Livestock is a major contributor to food and nutritional security, and serves as an important source of livelihood for nearly one billion poor people in developing countries (Frans Swanepoel, 2010). Keeping livestock is an important risk reduction strategy for vulnerable communities, an important provider of nutrients and traction for growing crops in smallholder systems. Livestock products like milk, meat and other products contribute 17 percent to kilocalorie consumption and 33 percent to protein consumption globally (Melkamu Bezabih Yitbarek, 2014).Most of the dairy production in the country is mainly dependent on indigenous Zebu breeds.Total cattle population in Ethiopia with ~52 million cattle. Integration of cross breed cattle to the sector is imperative for dairy development in the country. The promotion of large private investment in dairy farm and smallholder's dairy production increases milk production. The government promotes integration of cross breed cattle in to the smallholder sector through artificial insemination service, veterinary service and credit (Tsegay, 2010).Dairy production is one branch of livestock production with many uses. It is an important matter in Ethiopia's-livestock-based society where livestock and their products are important source of food and income, and dairy has not been fully exploited and promoted (Tangka et al., 1999). In Ethiopia, the increase in milk production was mainly due to the increase in herd size and due to improvement in productivity per animal resulting from technological intervention (Mamo and Dessie, 2007).One of the major problems to low milk production in the country is associated with shortage of livestock feeds both in quantity and quality, especially during the dry season (Wondatir, 2010).During years of good rainy season, forage is not adequate to feed livestock in the highlands for reasons associated with controlled grazing land and poor management (Gashu et al., 2014). A basic failing of the natural grasslands as a source of feed for livestock is their low production of dry matter, absence of proper utilization of natural grass lands ,keeping unproductive animals and the seasonality of plant growth, which is an image of the annual rainfall circulation pattern, further limits the accessibility of herbage for the grazing animal to four or five months of the wet season over most of the natural grasslands of the country (Galmessa et al., 2013).Thus, feeding management is significantly important for dairy production. Availability, quality and quantity of feed vary among dairy production systems. Cattle largely depend on rangeland grazing or crop residues that are of poor nutritive value. The feed is not uniformly supplied and the quality is poor. Seasonal fluctuation in the availability and quality of feed has been serious challenges in livestock production (Mengistu, 2005). The feed shortage mostly happens in dry season of the year (Ibrahim and Olaloku, 2000). In other words, under normal circumstances in lowlands when there is adequate feed for cow, milk tends to be sufficient for home consumption as well as for market (Nardos, 2010). Improving the improved forage supply is a base for introducing intensive indoor dairy management and feeding practice (Tesfay, 2014).In an attempt to solve the animal feed shortage and poor management, forage development programs have been undertaken in Ethiopia in general and the Tigray region in particular.Likewise, farmers of Tigray have grown forage in their land holding. Various improved forage species have been introduced across time since the last 20 years. Regardless of the efforts, however, the forage progress goes and consumption practices were not respected and could not achieve the probable change in animal feed supply. Feed is the most important input in livestock production and its satisfactory supply throughout the year is an essential prerequisite for any substantial and sustained expansion in livestock production (Menbere et al., 2008) .The present green feed management and utilization for dairy production need to be addressed fully in order to design proper forage improvement programs with the dairy production in the region in general and the study areas in particular. Identifying the actual useable green feeds, assess current management practices, modes of utilization and determinants for adoption of irrigated forage in a given region is a prerequisite for planning appropriate forage developments and increasing dairy production and productivities that largely benefit producers. understanding the level of green feed gaps in the availability of different feed resources is also essential for implementing appropriate supplementation strategies. With this knowledge, this study was done to investigate and analyze the green feed management and utilization for dairy production systems in Ahferom-Adwa-Laelay Maichew district, central zone of Tigray.Ethiopia has a large livestock population with low production where there is scarcity in quality and quantity of feed to sustain the demand of livestock. Additional irrigation practices are common in crop production with small forage cultivation. Irrigated feeds play a great role during dry season to increasing production and productivity and contributes to job creation.There is scarcity of studies on green feed management and utilization for dairy production in irrigated areas in Ahferom-Adwa-Laelaymaichew districts. The available irrigated fodder types, fodder management practices, irrigated green fodder utilization methods, determinant factor for the green feed adoption, the existing constraints in green fodder production, management and utilization and impact on dairy production had not yet studied. So, it has been difficult to take solutions for development of green feed management and utilization for dairy production in the area. Hence, this study was designed to investigate green feed management and utilization of dairy production systems in selected irrigated areas along Ahferom-Adwa-Laelay Maichew milk sheds in the central zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. The general objective of this study was to investigate irrigated forage and local grass utilization and identify major constraints for dairy production systems in selected irrigated areas along Ahferom-Adwa-Laelay Maichew milk shed in the central zone of Tigray, northern Ethiopia.1. To identify and estimate common useable improved feeds and local grass for dairy cattle along Ahferom-Adwa-Laelay Maichew Milksheds.2. To assess current production, management and utilization practices of green feeds along the Ahferom-Adwa-Laelay Maichew Milk Sheds.3. To identify determinants of the adoption of irrigated green feeds in the study areas.4. To identify the existing constraints in irrigated green feed production, management and utilization in the study areas.To assess the impact of irrigated green feed development on milk yield, body condition and health condition1. What are the useable irrigated green feeds used for dairy cattle in the study area?2. How much irrigated biomass production is available within household level?3. What do the current management practices on irrigated green feeds in the study area look like?4. What are the specific modes of utilization of irrigated green feeds for dairy cattle?5. What are the main determinant factors for adoption of irrigated green feed plants?6. Has the current green feed production brought any positive changes in production (E.g. Milk yield and improve production and body condition?7. What are the key constraints in the irrigated green feed production, management and utilization practices?These study district are characterized by huge natural resources such as irrigation areas and various feed resources. Different groups and individuals will be benefited from the result of the paper. The findings of the study will different governmental organizations and development partners in understanding the current green feed production and utilization and thereof to design their future programs and strategies with regard to green feed production and utilization in the study areas. It may also help for researchers as an input in their further research works.The major sources of feed for cattle in Ethiopia including Tigray are hay, crop residues, grazing, crop aftermath and non-conventional feedstuffs (like 'Atela' and weeds) (Mengistu, 2003). In the finding of Yadessa (2015) pasture grazing, crop residues such as wheat and barley straw, hay, Atella and crop aftermath were mentioned as the major feed resources for livestock.Pastoral livestock production sole depends on extensive range grazing while the mixed croplivestock production systems use both natural pastures and crop residues to sustain the animal requirements.Feed resources commonly used for dairy include grazing land, hay and purchased succulent grass, cereal crop residues, maize Stover, improved forages, mixed/balanced homemade concentrate feeds, plant weeds, and non-conventional feeds like attella (brewery by-product from locally produced beer, and other alcoholic drinks), and leaves of other palatable agroforest plant. Maize Stover is the most usually used roughage feed resource in all the production systems during wet and dry seasons (Sintayehu Yigrem and Gebremedhin, 2008). According to Tekalign (2014) the utilization of animal feed in Ethiopia covers natural pastures 57.49%, crop residue 29.61 %, improved forage 0.22%, hay 7.05%, by-products 0.91% and others 4.72%.Forage development is one of the strategies to address feed scarcity and low livestock productivity in Ethiopia. Fodder production and management is predominantly traditional, with modern efforts in forage development being undertaken by the Office of Agriculture and Rural Development (OoARD), and community and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (Shiferaw et al., 2011). The dominant forage development strategies practiced in central and eastern zone districts are backyard development, alley cropping, intercropping and gully treatment and by small number of farmers a combination of three strategies (backyard development, alley cropping, and gully treatment) are used by most forage growers (Tesfay et al., 2016).Many factors influence the level of success of forage development endeavors. Perhaps one of the major factors is the full participation of communities. The basis for the development forage, continuously need to adapt a process approach, which allows communities to contribute in all stages of the forage development cycle, i.e., from planning to implementation and evaluation (Ayele, 2003).In the highlands; better ways are the low-cost methods such as backyard, under sowing and over sowing, which are more attractive to farmers. These strategies provide farmers with proper use of their land for cultivation of crop/pasture and forage/trees, where products can be used for food, feed and firewood respectively. Some perennial grasses can be planted vegetatively;Festuca arundinacea, Phalaris arundinacea and Setaria sphacelata are well adapted to waterlogged conditions and easily established by root splits (Mengistu, 2006). Integration of forage into farming system in Ethiopia heavy emphasis is put on the use of forage legumes in cropping systems (through under sowing, improvement of fallows and establishment of tree legumes hedges) to partly address the major problems of long-term sustainability of crop production (Mengistu, 2006).The common strategies that are currently practical across different districts include intercropping of annual food crops with legumes, planting in eroded communal areas and irrigated fields, rain-fed arable farms, watersheds, and at the backyards (Tesfaye, 2010).Irrigation has been experienced for many years. This is a good opportunity for off-season pasture and forage crops. The potential for irrigated forage is unexploited and still there is a great opportunity for producing seasonal and long term irrigated pasture and forages. In trails in the highlands of Ethiopia wheat and barley under sown with Lucerne, annual clovers, tall fescue, perennial rye grass, Setaria and Phalaris, the sowing of both cereals and forages was at the same time. All under sown forages established successfully except Lucerne and there was no significant reduction of cereal yield (Mengistu, 2006).Even useful forages have been selected for different zones, but the adoption rate is very low in Tigray. Improved pasture and forages have been fully-grown and used in government ranches, state farms, farmers' demonstration plots and dairy and fattening areas. From grass species, the most regularly occurred are elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and Rhodes (Chloris Guyana); from legumes the most frequent species are sesbania (Sesbania sesban), Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala), and alfalfa (Medicago sativa) (Tesfay et al., 2016).Even if diverse kinds of forage species are tried to introduce in Tigray, the adoption and practical uses of such feeds for meat animals is low. Thus, agricultural extension workers and producers should apply intensive efforts to make use of such green feeds for commercial meat production (Tesfaye, 2010).Effective collection, preservation and proper utilization of crop residues and hay making might increase the quantity of available feed, and observing for other alternative options such as use of urea treatments, nutrient block, silage making and scale-up of improved forage species with participatory approach can improve the nutritional quality of available feed for dry season (Abera et al., 2014).Even in the presence of plentiful crop residues, which are often freely fed to ruminants, forage crops, especially legumes are needed to improve the utilization of crop residues. Crop residues often provide energy while forage legumes provide proteins. Forages also provide benefits such as soil fertility through their nitrogen-fixing ability and are also useful in breaking insect, weed or disease cycles, which are likely to occur when they are not supplemented. In many situations, however, forages compete with other crops. In land scarce smallholders, forages may compete with other crops for land, while inland abundant pastoral systems, they may compete for the herders Labor (Birhan and Adugna, 2014).Forage crops are commonly grown for feeding cattle with oats and vetch mixtures, fodder beet, elephant grass mixed with siratro and dismodium species, Rhodes/Lucerne mixture, phalaris/trifolium mixture, hedgerows of sesbania, leucaena and tree-Lucerne (Alemayehu, 2003). According to the Mekonnen Yirga and Ali Seid (2013) tree legumes are extremely important elements in improved forage production programs because of their productivity and multipurpose uses. They have deep rooting systems which help them increase their productivity during the dry season, and they provide other products such as fuel wood, construction timber, and pollen and nectar for bees.The productivity of forage depends upon many factors, including available moisture and nutrients and the presence of productive forage species. Loss of production may be due to weather, the decline in fertility and poor management. While it may not be possible to influence the weather, there are options to correct some of the other causes. The presence of productive forage species in pasture ecosystem is a significant factor in determining the productivity of the forage field. Choice of species and combination need critical consideration. In grass-legume mixed pastures, dry matter yields quite often are higher per unit area than either sole grass or sole legume pasture. Production yields vary widely, depending on such factors as species of grasses and legumes, inherent soil fertility, fertilization (amount and time of application), percentage of legume, available soil moisture, intensity of defoliation, light intensity and temperature (Tanko, 2014).Even many species was introduced to Tigray forage productivity is generally low, in central and eastern zone of Tigray on average about 430 kg/ha, and contribution to livestock feeding is less than 25% (Tesfay et al., 2016).Production of livestock forage through irrigation has recently been identified as one of the potential intervention measures of dealing with the highly variable livestock feed supply.Ethiopia has a long history of traditional irrigation systems. Simple river diversion still is the dominant irrigation system in Ethiopia (Ayele, 2011).Irrigation is a good opportunity to grow off-season pasture and forage crops. Medium-and large-scale schemes are of much more recent origin, mostly in the Rift Valley for cash crops.There is some irrigated forage in the Rift Valley growing lucerne/Rhodes mixture for commercial fattening and dairy farming. The potential for irrigated forage is untapped and still there is a great opportunity for producing seasonal and long-term irrigated pasture and forages (Mengistu, 2006).This will entail growing, harvesting and storing of the forage in the form of hay, or preserving it as standing hay and utilizing it during the dry season when the open pastures have been completely utilized (Schatz, 2003).Legume forage crops can improve the utilization of low quality roughages and they are being used more extensively throughout the world. In various production systems legumes are capable of enhancing both crop production through sustained soil fertility and livestock production through increased availability of high quality feed (Assefa and Ledin, 2001).To deal with this challenge, range land scientists, pasture experts and animal production specialists has considered several options of 'bridging' the feed supply/demand gap. One of them is the large-scale cultivation of fodder through irrigation within the arid and semi-arid lands where water for irrigation is available from sources such as rivers, dams, or harvested rain water stored for use during the dry seasons. A number of studies have evaluated the performance of range grasses under irrigation and some species have shown great potential for higher yields under rain fed cultivation (Opiyo, 2011).Feeding management is an important idea for dairy production. Availability, quality and quantity of feed vary among dairy production systems. Cattle largely depend on rangeland grazing or crop residues that are of poor nutritive value. The feed is not uniformly supplied and the quality is poor (Ibrahim and Olaloku, 2000). Seasonal fluctuation in the availability and quality of feed has been a common phenomenon, inflecting serious changes in livestock production (Mengstu, 2005). The feed scarcity mostly happens in the dry season of the year (Ibrahim and Olaloku, 2000). In contrast, under normal circumstances in the lowlands when there is sufficient feed for cow, milk tends to be adequate for home consumption as well as for market (Nardos, 2010). Even though there are different improved forage species cultivated in the different areas of Tigray but the utilization practice is not as expected. Cultivation of these species has good quality to increase the dairy production with proper management.The season can vary the production of forage. The problems of seasonal availability of roughage feeds can be minimized through conventional feed conservation practices like hay making, silage making and straw treatment so that sustainable supply of roughage feeds can be ensured throughout the year (Mapiye et al., 2006b). The stage of green feed for direct consumption is on the green leaf 50 % flowering and before setting seed, whereas for the storage cutting, of the hay during the autumn season, especially in September month and from irrigation product especially for direct use on fresh or green feed for their cattle. Seasonal changes in the nutritive value of improved grasses have been quantified on hand-clipped forage and on esophageal extrusa. The most important feature is the decline in protein content as the wet season progresses (as the plant matures) (Mapiye et al., 2006b). The amount of forage vegetation available is mainly influenced by rainfall variability, while the productivity, then, depends how the available forage resources are used (Sonder et al., 2003).Fodder conservation is an important tool for evening out peaks and troughs in feed supply in a grazing enterprise and the fodder conservation process commences with the cutting of the crop still latter use (Meconen, 2014). The timing of the cutting influences the potential quality or feed value of the hay or silage. Cutting forage at a phase in the growth cycle, where vegetative growth and plant sugars are at or near their peak. This ensures that important feed attributes such as protein, digestible energy, dry matter percentage and digestibility are at their highest potential at the beginning of the conservation process. Most grasses and limited legumes have made into hay of varying quality. However, all successful hay making relies on wilting the cut plant to a moisturizing or dry matter level where it is dry enough not to ferment and wet enough not to shatter when baled. This is usually at about 12-14% moisture content, but varies according to bale size and shape (Tesfay, 2014).Farmers use different forms of conservation practices in Tigray. The most common practices for conservation of feed resources are hay making, traditionally conserved crop residues, and grazing in the form of standing hay. It is the oldest and still the most important conserved fodder in all altitude zones, despite its reliance on the presence of suitable weather at the time of harvest.Forages play varying role in different livestock production systems. In general, however, they are important as a mix to crop residues and natural pastures and may be used to fill the feed gaps during periods of inadequate crop residues and natural pasture supply by coming to feeding place as cut and carry system, give to the animals either by chopping and cutting. Even in the presence of abundant crop residues, which are often free fed to ruminants, forage crops, especially legumes are needed to improve the utilization of crop residues. Crop residues often provide energy while forage legumes provide proteins by mixing crop residue with improved forages and also improved forage production as livestock feed and natural conservation structures in Tigray .The purpose of mixing the different feed ingredients is to improve the quality and intake of the inferior quality feed resources such as crop residues (Feyissa et al., 2014).Legume forages also provide benefits such as soil fertility through their nitrogen-fixing ability and are also useful in breaking insect, weed or disease cycles, which are likely to occur when they are not supplemented. In many situations, however, forages compete with other crops. In land scarce smallholder, forages may compete with other crops for land and in land abundant pastoral systems, they may compete for the herders labor (Birhan and Adugna, 2014).In Tigray livestock feeding is based on grazing communal grazing lands, roadsides, area closures and crop residues (straw, maize and sorghum Stover). There is a culture of closing part of grazing lands during the rainy season, but the system of utilization of grasses grown in closures differs from place to place. In some areas, farmers have bylaws to administer and use closures at the end of the rainy season (Gebreyohannes and Hailemariam, 2011). The crop residue mixes with irrigated forage, upgrade the quality and palatability of feed. Whereas societies having the potential of irrigation opportunity cultivate improved and local grasses around the side of cultivated land, intercrop with vegetation or sow separately and use the fodder through cut and carry system to feed their animals (Birhan and Adugna, 2014). In Central and Eastern zone of Tigray Farmers used to improve crop residues include mixing with other feeds and helping a mixed feed to livestock (Tesfay et al., 2016).Feeding is a fundamental aspect of dairy cattle production. In order to improve milk production levels, energy inputs such as concentrate feeds have to be considered essential for any dairy enterprise. Dairy cows compared to other farm animals produce large amount of milk, hence require sufficient quantity and quality feeds with all necessary nutrients, including energy, protein, minerals and vitamins. Various improved legume and grass forages like alfalfa and elephant grass are fed to dairy cows to satisfy their nutrient demand. In a good quality pasture, some dairy cattle weighing 400kg are able to eat 40-60 kg fresh grass per day, which is enough for a milk yield of about 7-8 kg. If the pasture is poor (dry season, overgrazed), additional feed is required even at lower milk production levels (MOA, 1999).From the tree legumes Leucaena leaf meal is often fed to cows and the more Leucaena leaf meal provided, the higher the milk yield. A level of 2.6 kg of Leucaena leaf meal with 1.8 kg of cottonseed husks gave similar milk yields as a manufactured1.8kg cotton seed cake (Chaussa, 2013b).The adoption process of new technology is defined in several ways adoption process refers to changes that took place within the mind of an individual with respect to an innovation from the moment that he/she first becomes aware of the innovation to the final decision to continuously use it or not. The term adoption defines as it relates to the use or non-use of a particular innovation by individuals (Say farmers) at a point in time or during an extended period of time (Colman and Young, 1989).The rate of adoption is defined as the percentage of farmers who have adopted a given technology and the intensity of adoption is defined as the level of adoption of a given technology. Intensity of adoption increases with the extent of market participation, household resource base, contact with extension workers and secure land tenure (Arega, 2009). The number of hectares planted with improved seed or the amount of input applied per hectare will be referred to as the intensity of adoption of the respective technologies (Gashu et al., 2014).The conditions for successful introduction of forage technologies could be socio-economic factors, policy options and feeding system. Potential for adoption may be advanced where livestock productivity is high, where livestock respond to improved feed technology and where profitability is high due to market-oriented production systems, such as dairying in the mixed competition of forage production for resources (land, labor, and possibly other inputs) with crop production; and relatively low price of animals, and animal products that does not encourage farmers to intensify their livestock production (Tsegay, 2010).A number of empirical studies have been conducted by different people and institutions on the adoption and diffusion of agricultural innovations both outside and in Ethiopia. But, the studies are mainly conducted around major cereals and other crops and practices and due to this fact, the studies conducted in the area of green feed management and utilization are very limited. As a result of this, the review mainly included such studies conducted in different contexts. For ease of clarity the variables so far identified as having a relationship with adoption are categorized as personal and demographic variables, economic factors, socio-psychological related factors, and extension/communication factors (Petros, 2010).Household's personal and demographic variables are among the most common household characteristics, which are mostly related with farmers' adoption behavior. From this category of variables, education, experience in farming and age are cause factor for adoption of green feed (Arega, 2009).It is important to note that dairy farming is not taken as a major economic stay of the farmers in the rural areas; rather it is mostly treated as opposite. Such a tendency is also observed in urban centers. The development or progress so far shown since its beginning is believed to be unsatisfactory in which demand proceeds supply due to high rate of population growth in most urban centers (Tsegay, 2010).Especially due to land scarcity and crop-dominated farming there has been limited spontaneous introduction of improved pasture and forages. During the Fourth Livestock Development Project, different strategies and species for pasture and forage development were selected (Mengistu, 2006). Low adoption of forage can affect for the production of animals. According to Wondatir and Mekasha (2014) the major constraint to such low productivity is a shortage of livestock feeds in terms of quantity and quality, especially during the dry season. Moreover, progressive decline of average farm sizes in response to rising human populations, encroachment of cropping land onto grazing areas and onto less fertile and more easily erodible lands, and expansion of degraded lands, which can no longer support either annual crops and pastures contributes to shortage of feed resources. Feed supply from natural pasture fluctuates following seasonal dynamics of rainfall (Alemayehu, 1998). Despite these problems, ruminants will continue to depend primarily on forages from natural pastures and crop residues. According to Nardos (2010) the average landholding size of the smallholder dairy producers was reported to be 0.089 hectares (ha) in Mekelle, which is less than the result of Guteta and Abegaz (2015) the average farm size of the catchment of Arsamma Watershed, Southwestern Ethiopian Highlands was 0.98 ha .This has negative consequences on the household income and dairy production.Access to credit is one of the ways in order to finance and expand any business like dairy business. Absence of access to credit and limited their production by having only few numbers of cross breed cows and shortage of improved as well as green feed. These credit need to have more cows if they get access credit to finance their dairy farm (Nardos, 2010).The majority of the farmers could not afford to raise enough capital to purchase the required inputs (such as planting material, fence, machinery, implements, fertilizer, chemicals, etc.).And later meet the labor costs required to manage the forages (Jahnke et al., 1988). Capital availability was a major factor affecting adoption of improved forages in Kenya (Steinfeld H, 2006). Access to credit for purchasing inputs plays a crucial role in the development and adoption of new technologies and improved feed resources, especially in low-income households (Mapiye et al., 2006a).Little yields and lack of persistence were stated as one of the factors limiting adoption of forage legumes in this study. This was mainly qualified to low rainfall, especially during the dry season. Low agronomic performance was described as a restriction for adoption of some browse species in the Chikwaka communal area in Zimbabwe (Hove et al., 2003). In Uganda, Kabirizi J ( 2004) designated that forage legumes were not the best option for resolving dry season feeding because of the little yield and absence of persistence during the dry season. Persistence is a significant quality of forage legumes that regulates their use as permanent pastures (Frans Swanepoel, 2010).The adoption process of agricultural technologies depends primarily on access to information and on the willingness and ability of farmers to use information channels available to them.Mass media exposure was also hypothesized to be one of the determining variables to affect the adoption of conservation technologies. A study showed that media exposure (exposure to radio, TV and printed media) has a positive effect on adoption of technologies (Petros, 2010).Mass media and neighboring farmers also important in diffusion of agricultural innovations, and Particularly, interpersonal communication networks among farmers are important and reported in many studies to have positive influence on farmers' adoption decision. This have positive relationship of mass media with adoption of agricultural technologies (Gecho, 2005).Performance of dairy cattle can be measured by the production and reproduction parameters which are done by different researchers. Dairy cattle which do not access adequate feeds necessary to meet their nutritional requirements for maintenance, production, and reproduction, results in delayed age at first calving, long calving intervals and low milk yield. For a normal dairy cow, dry matter consumed within 24 hours should be 2.5-3% of its body weight. For a cow weighing 600kg require 15.4kg dry matter when grazing for 8 hours (Chaussa, 2013a).Good quality roughage is the basis of a high milk production. Examples of good quality pasture grass and hay which has been harvested at an early stage of growth (before seed setting), various legumes, and elephant grass with dark green color and harvested at the length of 90 cm.Roughages of poor quality are maturing hay, cereal straw, maize stove and overgrown Napier grass (Chaussa, 2013a).According to Weldemariam (2010)   (Weldemariam, 2010).Management through different trainings, study tours to exemplary areas inside and outside the district was another reason for the milk production improvement.More number of useful forages have been selected for different zones, although the adoption rate is extremely low. This is obviously reflected in many parts of Tigray where the agricultural extension system has tried to introduce and distribute various improved forage species and up now the success rate, measured in terms of better-quality animal production benefits, is under expectancy (Tesfaye, 2010). In other studies, the major constraints to forage and browse legumes were shortage of inputs (27.2 % of the households), low yield and lack of persistence of legumes (24.0 %) and lack of fencing material (18.6 %). Other constraints mentioned were lack of capital (10.0 %), lack of knowledge (7.1 %), shortage of labor (5.7 %), shortage of land (4.3 %) (Mapiye et al., 2006a).These constraints result in low milk production, longer parturition intervals, and lower animal weights. Shortage of feed and high cost of feed is a number one problem. Shortage of feed happened due to many reasons, mainly due to less provision of crop production and depends on rain fed agricultural system. Crop production availability is based on the season, during the dry season animal feed like hay and roughage are very scarce and with a high price (Nardos, 2010).The main inputs limiting adoption were scarcity of planting material, inoculants, implements, fertilizers and chemicals. Farmers infrequently collect or use seeds from their own farms or from their neighbors, as they still imagine the forage/tree seedlings or seeds from projects, government and non-governmental organizations (Mapiye et al., 2006a). Provision of inputs and services related to livestock production is important in improving the productivity of the livestock sub-sector. The major inputs related to livestock are forage seeds, forage planting materials (Gebreyohannes and Hailemariam, 2011).Land is an important asset for the resource poor farmers, helping to prepare improved feed by planting different types of grass like alfalfa, elephant grass which helpful for milk production increment and minimize cost of feed to be purchased. Even if dairy producers are interested to expand their dairy farm, the land size may not allow most of them to do so. As land size increases more and more facilities become inevitable that take-up space other than the animal barn (Nardos, 2010).Water shortage affect the forage growth and production. Proper utilization of water and conserving for dry season is good to sustain forage development .Under Infrequent irrigation had reduced biomass accumulation of sorghum forage ; the reduction of biomass was higher when low irrigation frequency (Aishah et al., 2011). Other studies indicate about drip irrigation decreasing water supply decreased fresh and dry yield of alfalfa however it increases Irrigation water use efficiency and consequentially water saving (Ismail and Almarshadi, 2011).Ruminates require water to maintain the water content of their body, and water availability affects voluntary feed intake; less water leads to inadequate intake of dry matter. For animals kept under pastoral production system, the frequency of watering is very important. During the dry season water is available only from wells and some lakes and streams (Ibrahim, 2002). This leads to overgrazing around watering points. Water intake increases as watering frequency is decreased and feed conversion efficiency becomes lower as watering interval increase (Ibrahim and Olaloku, 2000).   The map of the study districts was made by Ethiopian projection coordination system which was by Adindan-UTM-zone 37 North. The study was carried out in five tabias of the three selected districts, namely Ahferom, Adwa and Laelay-Maichew, which are located in the central zone of Tigray region, northern Ethiopia.These three districts are found in the milk shed belts of the region for their suitable climatic conditions for improved dairy breeds. In addition, these three districts are working sites of the livestock and irrigation value chain for Ethiopian smallholder's LIVES-ILRI project which offered financial support to this research project. The four stage sampling techniques were applied in sample selection processes. In the first stage three districts were selected based on their potentiality in dairy production and irrigated forage cultivation purposively.in second stage five tabias (Table 1) were chosen purposively based on their potentiality in dairy production and irrigated forage cultivation. In third stage from the household of study tabias 3.5 % of the household were purposively selected proportional to size for the sample size. A total of 200 respondents were selected. Fourth stage the dairy producers were stratified in to irrigated feed adopters (100) and non-adopters (100) using random sampling methods from the list of districts. Of the total sampled dairy producer respondents about 13.5% were female households. The list of common green forage users and non-users for dairy production were taken from the district and tabias offices of agriculture and rural development. In this study, both primary and secondary data sources were employed to gather the required data. Primary data were collected through interviews, focus group discussions, field observation and personal observation during sample were taken. Secondary sources such as published and unpublished literatures were collected from different governmental and non-governmental offices. The source and methods used to obtain data for the research are outlined below.The questionnaire was translated in to the local language (Tigrigna) and pretested in nearby tabias. After checking the pretested semi-structured questionnaire, it was continued for practical collection of the data from individual respondents. Available data were collected by interviewing respondent's perception in their own words, a very desirable strategy in qualitative data collection. Structured and semi-structured questionnaire was developed to collect data through the household interview. This allows the surveyor to present the meaningfulness of the experience from the respondent's perspective. The research interview made to understand the situation from the subject point of view, to unfold the meaning of people experience and uncover their lived world. A total of 200 dairy producer respondents were interviewed using the semi structured questionnaire. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected on: Household socioeconomic characteristics: sex, age, family size, education level, land size holding, livestock type, number of dairy cattle, experience in dairying, purpose of cattle rearing and other relevant information; Farmers' indigenous knowledge and management practices on green forage utilization; The green fodder harvesting and utilization techniques in relation to dairy production; Agronomic practices for each and every irrigated species; The propagation practices/methods of irrigated feed; The green fodder preservation and conservation methods; Irrigated forage production with the benefit of producer and consumer; The impact of green feed on animals productive and body condition like milk production, body condition, health condition; Challenges and prospects of dairying; The potential determinants for adoption of green forage; availability of green feed to utilize, merits of plant (increase animal productivity), the distance of home (from the FTC, districts), education level, sex of household, access to training, access of seed, land holding, communication media and type of livestock production in the study area; Constraints related to irrigated feed production, management and utilization practices; and Perceptions of the dairy producers toward the introduced irrigated green fodders.Five focus group discussions (one from each tabias) were held to gather qualitative data and prioritize some important variables. The group discussion was composed of 10 people comprising of key informants, elders, women and youths. A list of questions was forwarded for discussion in which the researcher acted as facilitator. In addition to this, formal and informal discussions were held with districts experts, tabias administrators and development agents. The discussions enabled to gather qualitative data that also helped to validate the data collected through household surveys.First the major available forage species were identified and prioritized according to their importance and availability during the group discussions. Field measurements for biomass production were carried out on the common forage species that cultivated in the study areas.Herbaceous forages were measured using quadrant methods (1m x1m size) from representative samples. About 42 sample quadrants were taken to measure the biomass of alfalfa, elephant grass and composite local grass from pasture area within three level of production from high production level, medium and from low production within five study areas to represent the sample. All the herbages that fell within the quadrant were cut off about 5cm height from ground level and measured by balance to know fresh biomass. Then after sample herbages were dried using overnight oven at 105 o c within 24 hours and DM amounts of species was estimated through calculation. Similarly, fodder trees/shrubs samples were taken to measure their amount in age class, from each household then forage biomass yield was measured by calculating the number of legume trees X productivity of each plant kg/year from literature X frequency of harvest per year. adoption the econometric analysis by using probit models were used.The identified fodder species, constraints of fodder production and merits of green fodder were prioritized using preference index. Ranked data were computed using Microsoft Excel as an Index (for example for three levels of rank I = sum of ranks (3 X rank 1 + 2 X rank 2 + 1 X rank 3) given for an individual reason (attribute) divided by the sum of ranks (3 for rank 1 + 2 for rank 2 + 1 for rank 3) for overall reasons, criteria or preferences.Tables, figures and graphs were used to summarize and present findings. Econometric models were employed to analyze the determinant factor for improved feed adoption from the collected data. It was used probit model to determine the association between variables. Mean differences of both discrete and continuous variables among adopters and non-adopters were computed using X 2 and ttests, respectively.Descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage, frequency and ratio supported by test statistics for the variables demographic and socioeconomic, and institutional characteristics of sample respondents were applied to analyze the access of green feed production and green feed utilization for dairy production.Limited Dependent Variable models have been widely used in technology adoption studies.Probit and logit models are commonly used in studies involving qualitative binary choices. The logit model uses the cumulative logistic function. But this is not the only cumulative distribution function that one can use. In some applications, the normal cumulative distribution function has been found useful. Estimating model that emerges from normal cumulative distribution function is popularly known as the probit model. The probit specification has advantages over logit models in small samples (Fufa and Hassan, 2006). Then taking logit or probit model is matter Variables were assumed to influence green feed management and utilization entry decision.Selection of independent variable needs to born in mind that the omission of one or more relevant variables or inclusion of one or more irrelevant variables may result in error of specification which may reduce the capability of the model in exploring the economic phenomena empirically.Education level of the Household Head (HHEDUCA): Intellectual capital or education, measured in terms of categorical schooling of household head, has an effect on the green feed utilization participation decision. Sometimes, because of cultural and socio-economic characteristics, education has opportunity costs in alternative enterprises (Lapar et al., 2002).Therefore, education level of the household is assumed to increases the participation or adoption of green feed increases. The dummy variable taking one for male headed and zero for female headed households. In mixed farming system, both men and women take part in livestock management. Generally, women contribute more labor input in area of feeding whereas access to institutional credit, access to extension service, may affect women's participation and efficiency in livestock production (Tangka et al., 1999).Land holding size: It is a continuous independent variable measured in hectare. As input for dairy production, land is very important for forage and pasture development to feed dairy cows.It expected that as size of land increases, proportion of land allocated for feed development and improvement increases. The hypothesis can be affected the adoption of utilization of green feed participation positively for dairy.This is a continuous variable measured in kilometers from the households' residence. Farmers' exist in far from the FTC may not frequently contact with extension agents, as a result extension information less utilized; therefore, constrains to get knowledge and improved inputs.Access to extension service: is dummy variable that expected to have attending dairy product extensional advices from agricultural office worker has contribution in smallholder dairy irrigated feed utilization participation.Total Livestock in TLU (TLSTLU): This is the number of live animals measured in tropical livestock unit. This variable is expected to get impact on smallholder dairy production and cultivated irrigated feed utilization participation Dairy farming experience: is a continuous variable measured in number of years' respondents engaged in dairy farming activities. This experience in dairy production influences on increasing knowledge and management of dairy inputs and adoption of new technologies.Access to seed: It is a dummy variable 1 for get seed and 0 otherwise. Then the availability of seed has an effect to cultivate green feed for their cattle. This variable is expected to have positive effect on the participation of green feed utilization.Radio, TV and/or mobile and 0 otherwise. These information source materials may play a significant role in creating awareness about new technologies in a fastest possible time.Family size /Labor access: Labor access also play a role in whether farmers adopt forages or not, and household size was shown to influence adoption of forage/browse legumes in this study. The times when labor is required for forages/browses, it is often already occupied by other crop activities. Hence, labor constraints may continue to be a factor influencing adoption of improved forages. Farmers rely on hired labor for farm operations such as weeding and fodder conservation while family labor is used for land preparation, planting and harvesting (Mapiye et al., 2006a).This chapter presents the findings of descriptive and econometric analyses. In the first section, descriptive results of demographic, socio-economic and institutional factors of adopters and non-adopters are presented. Furthermore, identification and estimation of green feed;production, management and utilization of green feed; constraints and opportunities of green feed utilization; and impacts of green feed utilization for dairy milk production, body condition and health condition results are also addressed. In the second section, determinant factors for adoption of green fodder by sample dairy producer identified and presented.The sample household heads age ranged from 20 to 72 years. The mean age of sample household heads was about 45.845±8.596 years with almost similar between adopters (46.04±8.566 years) and non-adopters (45.64±8.626 years). The average family size of sample household was 6.42±2 persons per household, Non-adopters had smaller productive members (6.25±1.7) than adopters (6.59±2.39). Sampled households were consisted of 86.5% maleheaded and 13.5% female-headed; gender difference was an issue between adopters (82% male)and non-adopters (91% male). About 66.5% of the sample household heads were literate and the rest 33.5% were illiterate. About 81% of adopters were literate compared to 52% of nonadopters. Thus, educational status between adopters and non-adopters was statistically significant (P<0.01). The mean dairy production experience of non-adopters and adopters was 8.45 and 9.06 years, respectively with minimum and maximum experience of 1 and 28 for nonadopters and 1and 48 years for adopters. It was not statistically different. About 83% and 80% of non-adopters and adopters started their dairy keeping activity through buying cow from markets and the rest 17% and 20% of the non-adopters and adopters, respectively through inheritance and given from parents. The breed of dairy of non-adopters and adopters were HF (46,42 %), Jersey (28,33%), Begait (15,14%) and the rest were local breed (Table5).  The study showed that the mean number of livestock kept per household was 5.43± 2.32 TLU for adopters and 5.27±2.15 TLU for non-adopters with no significant difference (P>0.05) (Table 4). Even though statistically it was insignificance, this result indicates that adopters have slightly more livestock number than non-adopters. This is probably due to the fact that adopter farmers can occasionally sell some of their livestock and the money obtained from sales can be used to buy seeds and other inputs for production of new crop and for the green fodder technology. The number of cattle (4.145) was more when compared with other livestock species. Cattle were followed by donkeys (0.61), goats (0.30) and sheep (0.25) in number. Most of the non-adopters are trader for that matter the total income of non-adopter is higher than that of adopter mostly they have trade activities as additional income source. According to the respondents, cattle are kept for different purposes such as land ploughing, income source, breeding, manure, food source, asset building and other socio-economic functions. The respondents tried to rank these purposes as breeding, income source, home consumption, ploughing source, asset building and social values according to their importance.The purpose of cattle keeping in case of non-adopters is for ploughing (3 rd ), home consumption (4th), and sale for income generation (2nd), breeding purpose (1st), asset building (5 th ) and social value (6th). Whereas adopters keep cattle for the purpose of land ploughing (4th), home consumption (3rd), sale for income generation (2nd), breeding purpose (1st), asset building (6 th ) and social value (5th). Livestock perform serious functions and play multiple roles for both poor and non-poor livestock-keepers. Livestock production can also be taken as job opportunity (investment) for a lot of people since human population and demand of livestock product is increasing through a period of time. Land is an important production asset for the smallholder farmers. Results from this study indicated that the average land holding per household in the adopters and non-adopters was 0.51 and 0.398 ha, respectively which included arable land, private grazing, irrigated land and forage land. The overall results showed that most of the households (78.5 %) possess land below 0.5 ha and 16.5% household own 0.51-1.00 ha of land. Only 1.5 % of the households have total land of greater than 1.5 ha. There was significant difference (P<0.001) in land holding among the adopters (0.51ha/HH) and non-adopters (0.42 ha/HH). The classification of the household land use patter is indicated in Table 7. Cultivated land (0.405±0.23 and 0.405±.19), grazing land (0.0077±0.039 and 0.0074±0.052), forage land (0.0076±0.035 and 0.039±0.133), irrigated land (0.057±0.108 and 0.12±0.107), fallow land (0 and 0.004±0.028), shared out (0.005±0.05 and 0) and shared in (0.067±0.2 and 0.048±0.2), respectively for the non-adopters and adopters.Even the land size of the adopters and non-adopter show small, adopters shared for forage production and for crop production efficiently, whereas the non-adopters prioritize for crop production. This indicates that land is a scarce asset and this might be due to the increasing human population pressure. This has formed serious scarcity of cropland and forage farm as well as grazing land. Farmers trade part of their agricultural products immediately after harvest to cover their costs of production, social duty and crucial family expenses in the nearby market. The result indicates that the average distance of farmers' residence from the nearest market place was 12.38 ±4.91km. Non-adopters' residence (11.67km) was the nearest market than that of adopters (13.1km) (P<0.05). Infrastructure is another key service for farmers, as it helps them to sell their farm products. The average distance of the farmers' home from district agricultural office was 12.56 ±4.67km; however, there was little significant difference in residences distance from main roads between adopters (13.14km) and non-adopters (11.97km). The FTC has been established before a decade at each Tabia to serve as nodes, which could provide extension service (packages), training (short term and modular), demonstration and centers of exhibition and information, as a result, disseminates agricultural technologies (Gebremedhin et al., 2006).The average distance of farmers' home from FTC was 3.79 ±1.92km. The difference between average distance of adopters (2.3 km) and non-adopters (5.28 km) home from FTC was seen to be significant (P<0.001) (Table 9). The major livestock feed resources in dry and wet periods are presented below (Table 10).Overall, the most vital feed resources to livestock in the study areas during the dry season are crop residues, hay, green feed and weeds, Attela, improved forages and browse trees. Among these feed resources, crop residues and hay contribute the largest share of feed to livestock.Whereas during wet season the major feed sources are weed and green feed, crop residues, browse legumes, Atella, herbaceous legume and grass and hay. Natural grazing as a major livestock feed resource is weakening from time to time due to the high degree of chronic degradation and shrinking of grazing land in size. Each and every feed source has its own unique constraints for utilization and improvement.Improved feed as source of feed in the study area during wet season from the overall respondents 16% of total feed source shared from improved forages. While during dry season 12.3% of the feed resource from improved forages.The study areas receive limited amount of rainfall with unimodal from mid-June to early September. In the wet period of the year major livestock feed resources are ranked as weeds and green grasses, crop residues, browse legumes and grasses, Atella (residue of local beverage), improved herbaceous forages plants, household wastage, industrial by products and natural pastures consecutively. While in adopters in wet season, it was ranked as weeds and green grasses, crop residues, browse plants, improved herbaceous forages and Atella in that order (Table 10). In the wet season, non-adopters feed their cattle with weeds and green feeds, crop residue, hay, Atella and household wastage. Usage of natural pasture is not common in the study area because the areas are closed rather they access the hay from protected grazing areas via cut and carry system. Green grasses and weeds are good feed resources for animals in wet seasons in both respondent groups. Relatively better feed is available during the wet season (July to September). During this period animals gain body weight and body condition for the improved feed supply. But later on, as the long dry period proceeds the body weight of the animals reduce. Months of March to June are feed shortage especially during drought time for animals.During the dry period of the year the major livestock feed resources in the study areas were ranked as crop residues (1 st ), hay (2 nd ), Attela (3 rd ), weed and green feed from irrigation (3 rd ), crop aftermath (4 th ), improved forages (5 th ), herbaceous legumes, household waste and industrial by products according to the order of their importance. Crop residues are fed often starting from November to June. Hay is given mainly for ploughing oxen during the months of February to May as well as for milking cow in addition to the green feeds and concentrates throughout their lactation period. Attela, mill wastes and food leftover are fed to animals occasionally based on the availability. The availability of Attela is linked with social and religious festivals and holidays. Crop residues and hay are fed to cattle while shoats are made to graze themselves. The main annual crops grown by the farmers in the study area were listed as Teff, sorghum, maize, Hanfets (mixture of barley and wheat), barley, wheat, and finger millet. About 82% farmers had grown Teff whereas 66 %, 11%, 3%, 7%, 9%, 8% and 15% of the farmers had grown wheat, barley, Hanfets, legumes, maize, sorghum and millet, respectively, in the nonadopters. Adopter farmers had grown 90% Teff whereas 63%, 10%, 7%, 34%, 1% and 34% had grown wheat, Hanfets, legumes, maize, sorghum and millet, respectively. The area of crop and conversion factor of crop residue is listed in table 12. In the mixed cereal dominated crop and livestock farming system of the Ethiopian highlands, crop residues provide about 50% of the total ruminant livestock feed resource. Green feed management is integrated with crop production activitiesBased on the below table, a household can collect about 20.376 quintal crop residues annually.In the past 2015/2016 summer the rainfall amount was not enough in the study area even in regional level this might decrease the production of both yield and crop residue production.Out of the total crop residues produced at household, majority is obtained from Teff straw (6.85qt/HH), wheat straw (5.65qt/HH) and barley straw (2.98qt) followed by maize Stover (1.75qt), finger millet straw (1.43qt), sorghum Stover (1.37qt), legume straw (0.27qt), Hanfets straw (0.0089qt) in that order. This shows that Teff, wheat and barley are staple crops in the area and preferred by farmers.Table12. Crop residue production from each crop type in the study areas (n=200)     14. The production level, management practices and utilization mode of the cultivated forages was investigated through respondents' interview. Based on the reply of the respondents, sesbania, alfalfa, elephant grass, leucaena, lablab, local grass, cowpea, pigeon pea and Rhodes grass are the available forage species in the areas. Of these introduced forage species, Alfalfa and sesbania are dominantly produced by the growers and followed by elephant grass, leuceana, cowpea, lablab, local grass, Rhodes and pigeon pea in that order.Cowpea, lablab, Rhodes and pigeon pea often used for seed production and marketing. The mean dry matter forage yield of the common green feeds is presented in Table14. On average about 6921 kg DM is harvested at household level. The forage is largely contributed by elephant grass (60.2%), followed by alfalfa (26%), sesbania (12%) and Leucaena (1.8%) in that order.  There are different strategies for forage production development. This depends on availability of land, scale of production, interest of farmers and other factors. In this study, the forage species were found to be cultivated under irrigation areas as the study purposively targeted on the irrigated green fodder under the dairy producers in milk shed areas. Alfalfa, sesbania, leucaena, elephant grass, lablab and local grass were identified during the survey. According to the respondents', these investigated forage species are grown around irrigation areas to get water source as well as intercropping system. Next to irrigation areas, forage species were grown as alley farms, backyards, intercropping, over sowing, area closure and soil and water conservation structures. For instance, farmers produce lablab and cowpea with maize in the space between rows. Thee common green species, which are cultivated in the study area and their managements are listed in table 16. The different species have their own propagation way and managed differently based on their growth habit and nature. Alfalfa, cowpea, lablab and Rhodes are established by direct sawing. Leuceana and sesbania can be also planted by using direct sowing and planting seedlings. The seeds of leucaena and sesbania are hard and thus boiled and crashed.Most of the respondents use stratification treatment for alfalfa seed before planting to facilitate germination and establishment to minimize from high density. Elephant grass is planted by vegetative propagation (cutting and splitting root). The common agronomic practices for irrigated green fodder being employed in the study areas include land preparation, water supply, fertilizer use, weeding practice and harvesting. These are practiced to improve the forage production in order to get enough green feed to dairy cattle.About 92.7% of the forage growers prepare land for forage production while the rest 7% do not so. Likewise, about 87.6% of the respondents irrigate their forage plantation with water, and the 13% did not water their forage fields. Out of the respondents 96% use organic fertilizer and the least 4 % did not use fertilizer. About 88 % of respondents weed their forage plantation and 96% of the respondents grow the green feeds under protection in closed areas. All the interviewed dairy producers have started feeding fodder to their animals. The farmers use the fodder in different ways and majority of respondents (48%) give the grass fodder alone to animals after some roughage feeds are eaten. And some (17.5%) mostly alfalfa give in combination with roughage feeds. About 26% of the dairy producers replied that they utilize the fodder in both ways and few of them (8%) allow their animals to directly graze on the forage plantation. Regarding the feeding management of green fodder, the farmers responded that they use the fodder directly in fresh form with no any treatment (47%) and some of them (25%) use the herbage in wilted form to avoid health problem on animals. And the remaining farmers feed the fodder to animals in both options. The feeding form and feeding management of the respondent vary among them as presented in table 18. According to the respondents, using the green fodder may or may not cause health problem on animals depending on the feed type and feeding management. Of the dairy producers, majority of them (68%) did not face any health problem occurrence while the rest producers (32%) face the problem. Diarrhea (2%) and bloating (30%) were identified as the major health problems which often caused due to poor feeding management of the fodder. This indicates that bloating is a serious problem in animal feeding. The reasons for occurrence of bloating were mentioned to be due to poor feeding management such as feeding without wilting (29%) and consuming fodder before roughage (3%).  The dependent variable in this analysis is a dummy variable, taking the value one if a farmer adopts on green feed and 0, otherwise; whereas the explanatory variables comprises both continuous and discrete. A total of eleven explanatory variables were considered in the model, of which six variables were found to significantly influence smallholder farmers' participant on the green feed adoption practice. Marginal effect (for continuous explanatory variables)indicates that the effect of one unit change in an explanatory variable on the dependent variable, while for the dummy variables the values reported are changed in the dependent variable in response to a change in the binary variable from zero to one.Salt and oil 1Running animal, salt, tsray swa, oil and areqi 8 Salt, oil and areqi 14Using tambock for treatment 1The probit model result shows that sex of the household head had negative and significant influence on extension service access at (p=0.019). Given other factors constant, as the sex of household head becomes male probability of the farmer access to green feed adoption reduced by 24.7%.Farm land holding had positively and significant effect on green feed adoption participation.As farmers' farm size increase by one hectare his/her probability of access to extension service increased by 199%. Because green feed production needs land to cultivate feed for animals. It is farm activity that required enough land and it is usually true that small land holders and landless farmers do not practice or decrease practice. Hence, farmers with large farm size might be participated in improving green feed management activities than others.Education level has positive significant difference on the green feed adoption at (p=0.002). As the respondents' increase level of education, the adoption capacity of the respondents increase by 24.7%.The other highly significant variable in this model is distance of farmers' residence from the Farmers Training Centre. This is in fact farmers resides far from the FTC have less attended in extension programs such as dairy visit, workshop and trainings regarding green feed management for dairy improvement than those who resides near to FTC in which the distance of the home from farmers training center is far decrease the adoption of green feed by 13.4%.Moreover, farmers also acquire extension information and knowledge regarding dairy and feeding improved fodder through mass medias, for instance in this case, by possessing Radio, TV and mobile. Farmers who owned minimum one of these three information source increased the probability of access to adoption of green feed by 47.6%.The seed supply one from the explanatory variables which is positively highly significant at 1%, this indicates as seed supply increase the probability being adopter becomes increase by 47.8%. The major constraints to adoption of green feed on the study area were identified to be shortage of land (first), shortage of water (second) and shortage of forage seed which are ranked third by the non-adopter respondents based on their importance. and lack of credit access in the order of their importance from first to ninth. All this and that, limit the wide spread of improved fodder species adoption in the study areas. According to the respondents, green feed increases the potential of production and reproduction performance of dairy cattle. This indicates that proper feeding of animals improves milk production, body condition and health condition and this varies with the observation level of farmers from very good to low. To summarize the impact of green feed for dairy production, the green fodders were ranked through the respondents' observation on their dairy cattle.Milk production during dry period and after feeding green feed have different yield. This indicates during dry season non-adopters get 1.3±1.8 litres/day/cow and during wet season 2.4±2.14liter/day whereas adopters during dry season 3±2.7 and during wet season 6 ±3.5 litre/day according to the respondents of the study area. From the common green feeds used for dairy cattle, respondents put their priority rank according to the use of feed to their cattle. From the adopter respondents; green forages improve productivity, even if all are useable for milk production increment, the level of increasing was ranked as very good (45%), good (42%) and moderate (13%). This indicates that the forage adopters have positive attitude toward the introduced fodder plants, implying the need for wider adoption in the future. Not available =Not observe the impact of green feed from their dairyThe farmers appreciated the importance of improved fodder in improving the body condition of animals. All the respondents agreed with the importance of the fodders in the animal feeding system. The respondents ranked the forage species in improving the body condition of their animal as very good (43.8%), good (46.5 %) and moderate (9.5%). The respondents confirmed also that improved fodders with good feeding quality improve the health condition of animals. Animals with improved body condition can resist any diseases from the external environment. It implies that animals get balanced feed which are source of minerals to control from external and internal disease outbreak. The observation of respondents on controlling disease through feeding green feed were ranked as 28% of very good perception, 50% good and 10.9% moderate while 11.1% did say nothing. CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSIONSThe average age of dairy producers was 45.94±8.12 years. The age of the producer is one of the factors which affect the decisions and actions made. Even though most of the dairy cattle keepers range from 30-60 years old, there was significant (P<0.001) difference in ages between respondents in the study area. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents were males, and they were mostly involved in dairying enterprise (Table 2). About 13.5% of the respondents were female producers indicating that smallholder dairy farming provides selfemployment for women and therefore, contributes to the improvement of the living standard in this particular group. Most of the dairy management practices are done by women as men are involved in other additional income generating activities. Results show that the majority of the respondents were married couples. The advantage of the family in dairy enterprise is to provide family labor to dairy cattle like milking and feeding in the absence of hiring labor so that production level can be maintained.The majority of the respondents (63%) were literate, which is good for improved technology adoption and dissemination. Educational level of respondents increases farmers' ability to acquire innovation easily. Due to higher literacy level, community is more likely to violently participate in looking for skills regarding their dairy cattle management as a means of improving milk yield. Education is an important tool to bring fast and sustainable development and has roles in affecting household income, adopting technologies, health management and as a whole the socioeconomic status of the family as well. This might be a good contribution to adopt technologies to the study area. Level of education is also related to have the ability ofThe average livestock herd size in the districts were estimated to be 5.28 TLU/HH and 5.428  (Hassen et al., 2010).Livestock production is an important component of the farming system. Livestock are kept as sources of draft power; milk, meat, skin and hides, and they are also the main sources of income and are closely linked to the social and cultural lives of the community. The major reasons responsible for declining livestock number are shortage of grazing land, population growth, expansion of crop land and shortage of feeds and water.Cattle are kept by farmers for different purposes. The purpose of cattle keeping was indicated at table (6). The same thing was reported by Yadessa (2015) the main purpose of cattle rearing in the study district was for draught power and income generation (100%) and this was similar with Menbere et al.(2008) in Tigray region. Similarly, Gebreyohannes and Hailemariam (2011) indicated that the most qualities of keeping livestock purposes in Tigray were for income and trade, food, savings (livestock have better rate of return than interest from banks or credit and savings institutions), risk management (buffers to withstand crises), wealth creation, animal traction (drawn plough), social capital, manure and accessing communal lands.Most vital feed resources to livestock in the study areas during the dry season were found to be crop residues, hay, green feed and weeds, Attela, improved forages and browse trees. Among these feed resources, crop residues and hay contribute the largest source of feed to livestock in the study areas, which is similar with the finding of (Tesfay, 2014).Whereas during wet season or irrigation time the major feed sources are found as weed and green feed, crop residues, browse legumes, Atella, herbaceous legume and grass and hay. In general, the amount of production in wet and dry season was not enough for the available livestock within the household. Because there was scarcity of water during the summer of study conducted. According to Kechero et al.(2013) the main sources of feed for livestock were natural pasture (30.39%), aftermath and road side grazing/browsing (19.34%), fodder trees and shrubs (17.12%) and crop residues (17.67%) in Jimma zone, south west Ethiopia .Similarly, Birhan and Adugna (2014) said in Ethiopia the source of animal feed are natural pasture, crop residues and agro-industrial by products. Also Tesfay (2014) reported that the most vital feed resources to livestock in Tigray region were found to be crop residues, natural pasture, hay, stubble grazing (crop aftermath), browse trees, industrial by products, cactus, improved forages and Attela. And the total DM production of crop residue within household were 20.3 tone.The crop residue production of present study was greater than 8.74 t DM at Adami Tullu Jiddo Kombolcha District which was reported by (Assefa and Nurfeta, 2013). The dominant crop type legumes are capable of enhancing both crop production through sustained soil fertility and livestock production through increased accessibility of high quality feed (Assefa and Ledin, 2001). On the average, crop residues provide 10-15% of the total feed intake in the mixed croplivestock producing areas in the central highlands of Ethiopia (Alemayehu, 2004).Adoption depends on better targeting of extension to farmer needs as successful outcomes will depend on the participation of the farmers and stakeholders in the livestock industry (Mapiye et al., 2006b) . Out of the determinant factor of green feed adoption, a total of eleven explanatory variables were considered in the model; of which six variables were found to be significantly affecting the adoption of fodder. Sex and distance to FTC are negatively and significantly determining the forage adoption while education level, land size, seed access and access to media influencing smallholder farmers' participant on the green feed adoption practice positively significant. Other variables do not contribute to the farmers' sustained adoption decision behavior of green feed technology in the study area.Gender of the respondents implies negative sign at 10 %. That means participation of being males decrease the green feed adoption. This disagree with the result of Berihun (2014) and off-farm participation is positive and statistically significant at 1% level.The probit result of the study found that education level of the respondents is positively significantly at 1% level. The positive sign indicates that literate farmers have 68.4% of higher probability of participation on the green feed adoption. This is similar with the finding of (Berihun, 2014) who reported that the magnitude of positive sign those literate HHs, keeping other things constant, have 23.14% higher probability of participation unlike their counter parts.Also similar with the finding of Tiamiyu et al.( 2014) the positive sign on the education variables implies that those farmers with higher education level adopt more quality enhancing technologies.The farm size of the study is positively significantly at 1% level. This implies that large land size can really increase the probability adoption on green feed production. Land size as independent factor, a unit increase would increase the probability of participation on green feed adoption by 177 %. In line with Berihun (2014) reported that large land holding size is found to be imperative for producing a relatively higher crop yield. And comparative with study of Oyewole et al. (2014) the coefficient for farm size (0.501) was positive and significant at 1 percent, implying that increase in farm size would lead to an increase in output of rice.Access of forage seed supply also highly significant at 1% for the adoption of green feed. That implies when the supply of farmers selected seed was present cultivation of green feed increase at the available land similar with study Wondatir (2015) of to increase production and productivity of crop and livestock, input utilization is important. Inputs such as improved seed, fertilizer, pesticides, insecticides, irrigation facilities, livestock feed and improved cattle breeds were mentioned by the respondents.In the current finding distance to farmers training center has been negative significant at1%.This indicates as the farmers' house far from farmers training center the probability of adoption decreases by 37% because they might not be participated on trainings, agricultural extension services and other at farmers training center on time. The FTC has been established before a decade at each tabias to serve as nodes, which could provide extension service (packages), training (short term and modular), demonstration and centers of show and information, as a result, distributes agricultural technologies (Gebremedhin et al., 2006). Extension service which get from FTC is crucial in uptake and adoption of improved technologies (Yadessa, 2015).Other studies Yayeh et al. (2014) revealed that constraints for dairy production were animal disease, lack of crossbred genotype animal, feed shortage, milk market, land (space) shortage and water shortage.According to the respondents, green forages mainly legumes, besides feed resource of dairy animals, they can improve the productivity of crop yield and pastures by improving the fertility status of the soil. They can also improve the feeding value of roughages since they have more protein content. The benefits of improved fodder were prioritized by the local farmers based on their importance and accordingly milk production was ranked first and followed by animal growth performance (i.e. animal fattening), improve breeding, improving soil fertility and improved disease resistance. The same benefits were mentioned in the survey work of Gebreyohannes and Hailemariam (2011). And also this result is agreement with the previous reports of Welle et al. (2006) who indicated that desho grass has valuable role in soil conservation. And study of Eba (2012) said feed resource improved soil and water conservation.Green feed as one element from the factors of dairy production, in this study others components as constant, green feed has positive impact on the dairy production performance and body condition. The average milk yield was estimated to be 1.3 litres/day/cow and 2.4 litres/day/cow during dry and wet seasons, respectively in the case of non-adopters. Similarly, the milk yield was estimated to be 3 litres/day/cow (dry season) and 6 liters/day/cow (wet season) in case of forage adopters. This shows that fodder adopters get higher milk yield than that of non-adopters with the same cow breed, which could be attributed to many factors including the utilization of improved fodder. The average milk production of the study area was comparable with the study of Yayeh et al. (2014)   (Duguma et al., 2012). The same authors added that feed shortage, silent estrus and difficulties to heat detection might have contributed considerably to the long days open. Likewise, longer calving interval could be due to poor heat detection and less access to AI services and poor feeding practices (Gebremichael, 2015). A. Forage production 1. Do you produce irrigated fodder? 1) Yes 2) No 2. If yes, for what purpose? 1) for milk/dairy 2) For fattening 3) For sale 4)For maintenance 5) Others………………………… 3. Experience in growing forage? 1) < 1 years 2) 1-5 years 3) 5-10 years 4) > 10 years 4. What are the common green fodders used for your dairy cattle or other animals? 1) Pasture forage crops 2) Improved herbaceous legume 3) Improved grasses 4) Forage legume tree 5) Others………… 5. Where did you get these forage seed? 1)Gov't2) NGO 3) Private 4) Others …………………. 6. List the common cultivated green feed available and area coverage?Strategies: Backyard=1, irrigation=2, irrigated backyard=3, alley=4, intercropping=5, under cropping=6, enclosures=7, swc structures=8 etc. ","tokenCount":"13155"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1f07d6abcfa40dbce9fa7dcf96283981","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e84563ff-17e4-45a3-9a30-4ceaa85ab11a/retrieve","id":"400569128"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2bcb9f4b-fb9c-46aa-80b0-da270d469af5","pagecount":"73","content":"Th~s is a report of the Animal Sciences Review Team invitad by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations to aasist the staff of CIAT in the plonning of ~ts research and training programs in the animal sciences This review was made during the pcriod July 28 -August 25, 1968 Details of places v~sited and sorne examples of work observed are giycn in Append~x II Br~efly, seven days were spent in Colomb~a, three daya in Ecuador f~ve days in Brazil, three days in Venezuela and a final aix doyo ~n Bogota for discussions and preparation of this report The Rev~ew Team members wish to expreas the~r personal thnnlts ond appreciation to all of those officials and staff membera of institutiono viaited These sc~Lnt~sts and officiala were most cooperativa and helpful at all times and provided much useful information and data nceded for thio review Special acknowledgement is given to Dr Ned S Raun, Dr R l{ \\Jough, Dr J H Mancr and Dr E D Robcrta of the Rockefeller Foundotion otnff and Dr James Plaxico of the Ford Foundation in Colomb~o for their assiotoncethroughout the study for their msny courtesies and hospitality, nnd for ~nvaluable informat1on on the prel~minary plans that have been developedfor CIATThe review was made on the assumption that the bas1c objcctivc of the An1mal ScLences Program of CIAT w1ll be to contrLbute to incrc~oed efficiency of production of livestock and livestock products in the lo1land tropical areas of the world, especially in Latin America Further, it LS assumed that majar emphas1s is to be gLven by CIAT to the an1mal sc1ences program as a pare of the total Lnter•disciplinary approach necessary for modernLzation of agriculture Ln the underdeveloped arcas o;the world This LmplLes that allocation of resources, hpman and financial, and facLl1t1es w1ll be suffLcient over a perLad long enough for the program to have maJar 1mpacts on lLvestock production It is esscntLcl to recogn1ze that w1th the except1on of poultry and S\\7Lne, resulto f~cm animal research accrue more slowly than io true for soils and crops        (2) l:.valuatton of local products -.s sources of these elements for swine (Gontent and avatlability)2) Manabement lhere LS 1 ¡,r ... at d<.l!ctc.ncy 1n the information reg1rding building   ¡¡ 9, ') ","tokenCount":"370"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f4954ad4f8542bd65bb589355db1132c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d1e146d1-52ad-402d-ae11-ac86f7ad8932/retrieve","id":"2292025"},"keywords":["lnte mattonol C enle r fOf\" Tropical Agricu Hure \\Caren\\BGBD Project\\Progress Reporting\\Giobafi.Report 2004\\Annua/ report 03\\ann_prog03 1_ Ver3/.ttf","Huising","12/0712004"],"sieverID":"ea0eeb91-c50c-44be-9947-3c0a6d94c9fa","pagecount":"28","content":"Soil organisms, including bacteria, fungi , protozoa and invertebrates, constitute what is now referred to as Below-Ground soil Biological Diversity (BGBD). The numbers of types, and population numbers, of below BGBD is staggering. For example, just one square metre of soil in a tempera te forest may contain more than 1000 species of invertebrates, whilst the number and diversity of microbes in just one gram of soil may be even greater. The importance of this diversity is only just being recognized fully through ecological and phylogenetic studies, but in tropical regions where the híghest levels of BGBD are found , few detailed studíes have been completed.Soil organísms provide essential services for the sustainable functioning of al\\ ecosystems and are ímportant resources for sustaínable management of agricultura! ecosystems. These ecological services include control of mineral nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration in soils and reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, maintenance of soil physical structure and water retention capacity, nutrient acquisition by plants, especially via mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria; and maintenance of plant health through natural predation and parasitism of plant pathogens and pests. Apart from their importance to agriculture, soil organisms, especially fungi and microbes are potential source of pharmaceuticals and chemical for industry through bioprospecting. For éxample, the immuno-suppressant drug, cyclosporin, was first isolated from the soil microfungus, Tolypocladíum ínflatum, in a mountain soil sample from Norway.BGBD is dramatically reduced when forests are converted to agriculturalland, and when agricultura! land use is íntensified . This can lead to decreases in agricultura! productivity reducing the \"resilience\" of agricultura! systems, makíng them more vulnerable to adverse climatic events, erosion, pests; disease and other threats.Sustainable management of BGBD will enhance the resilience and sustainability of man 's productive ecosystems, whilst at the same time conserving soil genetic resources for bioprospecting.The driving force behind the development of the 'Conservation and Management of Below-Ground Biodiversity (CMS-BGBD)' project was the urgent need to slow loss of BGBD and better assess the potential uses of soil biodiversity in ecosystem management and bioprospecting.You have before you the first annual progress report of the 'Conservation and Management of Below-Ground Biodiversity (CMS-BGBD)' project. The report covers the period from August 2002 (the official start of the project) to December, 2003.    On August 1, 2002, the project document was signed by Mr. E Ortega, representative of UNEP as co-implementing organization, and Professor Mike Swift, the then director of TSBF, marking the official start of the project \"conservation and sustainable management of below-ground biodiversity\" with the acronym CSM-BGBD. The project is generally referred to as the BGBD project however.The BGBD project is, at this moment, the only full sized project dealing with below ground biodiversity within the 'biodiversity' focal area with financia! support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implementation support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The executing agency is the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility institute (TSBF), nowadays an institute within the lnternational Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The project's main goal is to generate information and knowledge that can be used to better manage and conserve BGBD in tropical agricultura! landscapes in order to maintain agricultura! productivity and reduce extensification of agriculture into natural landscapes. The project will build capacity for conservation and sustainable management of BGBD through South-South information exchange and training supported by international institutions.The major goals of the project are:1. To develop internationally accepted standard methods for characterizing and evaluating BGBD, including indicators for BGBD loss;2. To inventory BGBD at sites representing a broad range of globally significant ecosystem and land use types, and to develop a global exchange network for information on BGBD;3. To identify sustainable and replicable land management practices for BGBD conservation, and to pilot implementation of these practices at demonstration sites in the seven countries;4. To promete alternative land-use practices that will enhance conservation of BGBD especially though policy advice support systems; and5. Through the above and other activities, improve the capacity of institutions and stakeholders to conserve and manage BGBD in a sustainable and efficient manner.The project is implemented through seven country programmes (CP), by a range of stakeholders, including government and other research institutes, plus NGOs. Working groups (WG), each linked to a major output of the project, and representatives from each of the seven country programmes provide scientific and technical inputs into the project while invited scientists from internationally recognized institutions advise the WGs on specialist technical matters. Overall project supervision is provided by the BGBD Project Advisory Committee (BGBD-PAC). The PAC comprises scientists from each pilot country and also from other international organizations working on the interface between agriculture and environment. The project, being executed under the responsibility of TSBF-CIAT also reports to the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of TSBF-CIAT. The Project Steering Committee (PSC) has overall responsibility for implementation and execution of the project. The PSC includes the Project Coordinator (PC), a GEF representative, the TSBF-CIAT Director and the participating Country Programme Conveners (CPC).The project coordinator and the conveners of each WG constitute the Project Coordinating Committee (PCC). The PC is based at TSBF-CIAT headquarters in Nairobi and is supported for administrative, financia! and information management services by the Project Facilitating Staff (PFS).Stakeholders include an inter-disciplinary team of scientists working in BGBD taxonomy, ecology, economic evaluation and soil management in agricultura!, forestry and other ecosystems. They range from field practitioners to decision makers, but all share the goal of raising awareness on BGBD conservation and the potential benefits to agricultura! production.By developing standard inventory and characterization methods for BGBD at the benchmark sites, the project will generate knowledge that will aid studying and understanding the role of BGBD in ecosystem services across a range of diverse ecosystems. This will contribute to the use of soil organisms in conserving the environment, improving ecosystem health and enhancing agricultura! productivity, thus contributing to enhanced food security, improved carbon sequestration and conservation of soil genetic resources.The global information platform developed and maintained by the project will enhance knowledge exchange and create awareness on the importance of BGBD in ecosystem services and enhancing agricultura! productivity beyond the seven pilot countries.ldentifying and recommending alternative land-use practices will assist in the management of BGBD, and thereby support soil processes that sustain crop production. Through this , the project will contribute to improving livelihoods of tropical farmers by improving the sustainability of their farming systems , whilst the enhanced environmental services provided by these farming systems will yield benefits to surrounding non-farming communities in towns and cities.Progress in project implementation during its first one-and-a half year An initial implementation workshop was held at the Wageningen Agricultura! University from August 26 to 30 2002, marking the start of the project.  Memoranda of Agreement between TSBF-CIAT and the implementing organisations in the participating countries were signed in the months of November and December of 2002. Funds were in sorne countries not available until February 2003 and this delay of availability of funding resulted in inactivity in the country teams. There has been a lag period whilst the members reassembled and re-familiarised themselves with the project. The effect of this lag period on getting the project activities started was still very much experienced throughout 2003.A second global workshop was held in Lampung, Indonesia from February 24 to 28. This workshop can be considered the start of the project, from a practica! point of view. The week prior to the global workshop a planning workshop on the economic valuation of BGBD and associated ecological services was held in France, with representatives from each of the countries. At the workshop in Lampung the project management and implementation structure were decided upon. Further, much attention was devoted to discussion of technical issues (site selection, sampling strategy and methods for the inventory) and to planning of project activities.The implementation of the project structure, both at country level and at the global coordination level, has taken time. The staff of the coordinating office was expanded with a secretary as of May 1 51 and the project information manager (PIM) took up his duties as of November 1 51 , 2003. In the countries the project teams had to be partly re-established and project structure implemented. National planning workshops were held in each of the countries and sometime separate workshops were held to discuss methods for inventory. In sorne countries training activities were organised in preparation of the fieldwork. The project coordinator has visited each of the countries to support project implementation (apart from Indonesia). These visits generally served severa! purposes: to revive the country programmes by meeting with the project members and visiting representatives of the implementing to get confirmation of their commitment to the project, to support project implementation by discussing the project structure and associated administrative and financia! affairs, planning of project activities and discussing technica l issues related to site selection and methods.Project organisation has been established and project structure implemented at different pace in the countries. This has impacted on the functioning of the working groups that operate across countries. lt has, for example, impacted on the discussions related to the development of standard methods. In the original planning it was envisaged that standard methods would be devised prior to the start of the field work, aiming at September 2003. This proved not to be possible, partly also because of lack of communication mentioned earlier. In the mean time countries were urged to start field activities and to consider this as a pilot phase, rather then to postpone these. In most countries a start with the inventory had been made by the end of 2003 or early 2004. A few countries had already decided befare then to start field work, irrespective of the issue of standard methods not having been resolved . Where the delay in the provision of standard methods for inventory of BGBD caused sorne countries to postpone the start of the inventory exercise, it did not withhold the larger number of the countries to proceed with preparatory E:\\Caren\\BGBD Project\\Progress Reporting \\Giobai\\Report 2004\\Annua/ report 03\\ann _prog031_ Ver31.rtf; Huising; 12107/2004 activities related to site characterisation, land use mapping or community involvement.Given the problem with communication within the project, the communication infrastructu re was placed high on the agenda of the PI M. The development of a project brochure and publishi ng of the first newsletter also featured prominently on that agenda. Both items were presented in the first months of 2004.The status of the activities and achievements, as far as the purpose and the goal of the project are concerned, is described in the table below. lt provides a summary of what is being described in more detail in the next sections. Description of outputs and milestones achieved and the status of the activities is based on the output and milestones and logframe as defined in the \"Monitoring and Evaluation\" document (tables 2 and 3 thereof respectively) the farm to the nation.Global methodology and database for BGBD developed and utilised .Most of the methods for the inventory and evaluation of 8G8D that have been selected by now are well-known and well established. See for example Anderson & lngram (1993) in \"Tropica l Soil 8iology and Fertility: A handbook of methods\" and Swift and 8ignell ( 2001) in \"AS8 Lecture note 68\". The AS8 Lecture note 68 provides standard methods for assessment of soil biodiversity and in particular macrofauna. nematodes, rhizobia and mycorrhizas.Although these are known methods, they have not been applied and tested in each of the countries. Moreover there are new techniques that have been developed over the last years that need to be considered and incorporated in the protocols, and that not all country teams are familiar with. Result on testing of the proposed methods will be presented in September 2004. The selection of methods is a milestone that has been achieved (see table below).At the Lampung global workshop a number of functional groups of soil organisms were defined, like \"macrofauna\" as the soil engineers. For all of these 'broad' functional groups methods for inventory are available, see for example the AS8 Lecture Notes 68. Methods for inventory of some of these groups are not contentious issues and will require only settlement of minor issues. However, in Lampung it was decided to adopta systematic sampling grid, rather then the transect sampling generally described in literature, and this does have implications for the sampling protocols. Thus, where the methods for sample collection in it self are not disputed, the protocols need to be adapted and tested in the field.At Lampung we did not consider measures for assessing diversity directly, using molecular techniques. Rather, the discussion on this tapie was consigned to a workshop on molecular techniques that was held from September 27th to October 3rd. 2003 at Ca li, Colombia. However, the issue of the use of molecular techniques was not resolved and will need further discussion.The methods for economic valuation of 8G8D were discussed at the workshop held in Quissac, France in February 2003. Here the decision was taken to apply methods and techniques, as know to environmental economics, in assessing Direct Economic Value, lndirect Economic Value, Option Value and Existence Value. Guidelines and protocols for assessing these values to BGBD are very complex and far from clear, and will require investigative research. Countries will conduct case studies. •-----  The inventory of land use, soils, etc. in the benchmark sites has been has been initiated and is progressing in a number of countries. Annex 2 presents the land use map of the Benjamin Constant benchmark area in the Amazons, Brazil, as an example of a result obtained from interpretation of satellite imagery. In a few countries the inventory of benchmark sites still has to start. In many countries these activities are linked to the design of the sampling scheme. In Brazil, for example, a reconnaissance soil survey is carried out in preparation for layout of the sampling windows . In sorne countries use is made of aerial photos to define the location of the sampling windows . In many countries descriptive materials (and maps) of the benchmarks sites are available, but often the data is too general for the purpose of our study and requires additional efforts. For exa mple, given the small and fragmented land use patterns in many of the benchmark sites (e.g. Brazil, Uganda, Cóte d'lvoire) existing land use maps do not provide the spatial detail needed for designing the sampling schemes. High resolution satellite imagery or aerial photos that would provide the spatial detail are often not available. As a consequence country teams have relied on direct observation in the field to locate sampling frames and comprehensive documents or geographical databases on the benchmark sites was given less of a priority.In each country the benchmark sites have been visited and reconnaissa nce data have been gathered . As such there is a clear idea of the range of land use intensities represented in the area. A definition of land use intensity and standard method for assessment of land use intensity is still asked for and will be given priority in 2004.By establishing sampling frames in all benchmark the milestone for outcome 2 has been achieved.As mentioned, the survey of BGBD has started in 2003 (or early 2004) in a number of countries: Mexico, Brazil, Uganda, Kenya and Indonesia. These surveys are generally still in preliminary stages, referring to test sampling and familiarizing surveyors with the proposed methods for inventory. In particular cases very preliminary results have been presented. The work on the global information exchange network has taken a start with the appointment of the Project lnformation Manager (PIM). Given the commun ication problems experienced within the project, setting up a communication infrastructure was given a first priority. The work on the project brochure and project newsletter should be seen in this light as well.The brochure and the first newsletter have been presented in January and February 2004 respectively. The work on a WEB based communication platform for the project is in progress. In the mean time use is made of the CIAT WEB site to communicate information on the project to project participants and other interested parties.  Milestones and outputs related to sustainable management practices for BGBD conservation are all expected to be realized during the second year of the project or during the second phase. The development or design of management practices is aimed to be done with the participation of the farmer communities. Farmer participation and community involvement are therefore to be addressed under this outcome.In a number of countries like Mexico, Brazil and Kenya communities have been approached actively to seek active involvement of these communities in the project. This so far has been in the form of workshop or meetings with community representatives. The outputs and milestones defined in the \"Monitoring and Evaluation\" document related to this project outcome all refer to the establishment of the demonstration sites, which is an activity planned for the second phase of the project. Work done on community involvement and farmers participation, i.e. introducing the project, getting the perception and knowledge of the farmers on belowground biodiversity and their function is not reflected in the outcomes and project activities as described in the logframe, apart from the assessment of local resource management practices. The policy advisory system is part of the anticipated output under this outcome of the project. Outcomes and milestone are expected to be obtained during the second phase of the project. Awareness raising activities and establishing strategic links with other programmes and initiatives both at the national and international leve! are also part of thís component of the project. Within that context the participation in the Convention on Biological Diversity -Fourth workshop on Sustainable use of Biological Diversity, 6-8 May, Addis Ababa, should be placed. The aim in general is to get more specific attention for the below-ground component in recommendations and resolutions regarding biodiversity.The ASB programme (Aiternatives to Slash and Burn) is a strategic partner to the project, amongst other because of their involvement in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment that offers interesting opportunities for links with the BGBD project. The BGBD project coordinator attending the 1 ih ASB GlobalSteering Group Meeting as representative TSBF-CIA T _ CIAT, served to strengthen those links.The BGBD project was further represented at the lnternational Workshop Agricultura! Biodiversity and Sustainable Development 23-25 Oct 2003, Nairobi, Kenya and at the EcoAgriculture Partners meeting November 6, Nairobi.In a number of countries the project has been launched officially, generally coinciding with the national planning workshop, to attract media attention. Also the global workshops are generally covered on either TV or radio (local The outputs defined for this project component are all related to the analysis of the policy environment and policy negotiations at national and global levels, which are generally planned for the second phase of the project and will therefore not be reported on in table form .In 2003, two workshops were held that combined both training and planning components. The workshop in France, though primarily intended for planning purposes, clearly had a training component to it. There were delegates from each of the countries, many of whom proved not to have particular experience with applying environmental economics. The workshop was as such a very usefu\\ introduction to the subject and will undoubtedly be followed by others. At the workshop it was decided to conduct to case studies in each of the countries. One case study will relate to economic benefits derived from nitrogen fixation by legume nodulating bacteria. The subject of the second case study will be determined later. Apart from investigating economic benefits these case studies serve to train the country teams at the same time.From the September 27th to the 3rd of October a training workshop was held in Cali, Colombia on the use of molecular techniques. Each country team had delegated their expert to the workshop. Focus was on one particular technique: a method known as \"terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism\" (T-RFLP). The workshop addressed all stages in the analysis from the soil sampling to the data analyses and will be of benefit also if other molecular techniques are to be considered . One representative from each country was invited. Planning for the use of molecular techniques with in the BGBD project as well as the use of standard methods for inventory of BGBD was being discussed as well.In various countries training workshop were held on particular tapies to train and refresh project participants on methods and techniques.    Knowledge of soil biota and The project brochure and first newsletter of the awareness and its management project have been issued. In sorne countries knowledge of disseminated to farmers, brochures and leaflets have been published BGBD and its extensionists, NGOs and targeting national audience and especially public at functions among lower governments the benchmark areas. Development of training stakeholders from Decision makers utilise soil material underway in sorne of the countries. farmers to biodiversity information in national planners national and regional plansTesting and documenting of standard methods will be finalized in 2004. This will include the sampling protocol, processing and handling and analysis (identification). Functional groups have been selected whose inventory is mandatory and for which standard methods are provided. The inventory of a number of functional groups have been indicated optional and will be done depending on the capacity and ski lls available. In all cases an element of eva luation of the methods will be included in the study and experience from the various countries will by synthesised at the global leve\\. A start will have been made in 2004 with the testing of indicators, but will not be concluded until the year thereafter. In sorne countries molecular techniques will be applied to look at microbial diversity as an indicator for soil biodiversity. In other countries the use of indicator species will be investigated, based on the data obtained from the inventory. Countries will develop their own plans with regard to activities in this field for 2004.As far as the economic valuation of BGBD resources is concerned a start with case studies will be made in 2004, for which the countries will submit proposals to the coordinating office.lnventory of BGBD and global information exchange network lnterpretation of aerial photos or satellite imagery will be finalized and results presented in the form of a land use map. The data will be combined with other geographical thematic data to create a comprehensive GIS database of the benchmark area sti ll within the first half of 2004.In 2004 the inventory of BGBD wi\\1 be the major activity in each of the countries. At least the inventory of one of the benchmark areas in each of the countries will have been concluded and reported on, though we may not have reached the stage in which all data and information are already included in the national and global data bases by the end of the year. ---•----.. __lnformation on the BGBD project can be found on the CIAT WEB site in the pages of the TSBF lnstitute (http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/tsbf institute/). The project will operate its own WEB site (to be established during the first half of the year 2004) that will include a communication platform for the project and working group members. Testing and evaluation of these fa cilities will be done still befare the first half year ends. In 2004 still a second newsletters will be published (also through the internet). The work on the database will start with the annual meeting in February, where the requirements and objectives will be discussed from there the database design will be worked on such that we have fully operational information system by the end of the year.The collection of socio-economic baseline data will continue in those countries where it has already started and in others it will start. Socioeconomic data in this context refers to farming system, land management practices, land use, ownership structure and other and might even include social organisation. This will evolve into a diagnostic that will address the ecological and economic viability of the systems identified from which opportunities and entry points for improved management of BGBD can be identified. Based on this information development of the demonstration sites for the year thereafter will be under taken .The above mentioned activities are all suppose to contribute to the recommendation of alternative land use practices. However, no specific activities (like policy analyses) related to this output are foreseen for this year. lmproved capacity of to implement conservation and management of BGBD This year training will be provided in each of the countries in methods for the inventory of the various groups of soil organism and especially in identifying these organisms. The emphasis of these training courses will vary depending on the needs of the particular countries . The emphasis may be on the methods for samp!e collection and identification of soil organisms at the level of functional groups in one country whereas in the other country emphasis might be on identification at family or species leve! if relevant. Also the emphasis on particular functional groups for training might vary between countries. Use will be made of the expertise available within the BGBD team and facilities and opportunities that exist within the countries themselves or regions that they are part of.Training and support will also be provided with respect to data analyses. This may refer to the va rious aspect of processing and ana lyses of the data, whether to the derivation of diversity índices, processing and analyses of the socio-economic baseline data or to methods for analysis of spatial distribution patterns. The latter, being more specific, will be framed as a particular research component.In general the benchmark areas are located in remate areas and are difficult access. In all but one country two or three bench mark areas were selected, with benchmark areas located at large distances from each other, further complicating logistic support. In all countries the above situation poses a complicating factor in trans porting and accommodating of staff as well as in analysing of samples, for which in some countries requires local infrastructu re to be set up (in order to be able to analyse samples within a certain time frame).The above might easily have consequences for delivering planned outputs, the volume of work and finances. Confronted with the organisational and logistic difficulties, countries had already phased the activities between their benchmark areas. The inve ntory has started or will start in one benchmark area and a number of countries have indicated to probably reduce their number of benchmark areas (most likely Mexico and Uganda) . Other countries may f ol!ow. Whether to discard of postponed inventory to later phase depends of the significance of the benchmark area (in terms representation of important eco-regions). In case of Mexico where the Calakmul benchmark area is the only benchmark areas representing drier conditions, this decision will be take n later in the year.Communication has been a problem, causing delay in project implementation. This has been most noticeable in the definition of standard methods for the inventory of BGBD that suffered from lack of feed-back from the working group members in the various country teams. At thte same time it seems that communication regarding the methods has not reached the persons concerned in the country teams.In some countries communication is hampered by lack of facilities (due to limited number of computers avai lable or limited internet access). Part of the problem is related to the sheer number of people involved in the project. However, there are also organisational and attitudinal dimensions to this problem which may, in turn , be related to time constraints because people are heavily committed to other project and activities.We hope to overcome the communication problem partly by providing a proper communi cation infrastructure that will enable participants to retrieve information without havi ng to rely on direct email contact. Publishing a newsletter (in hard copy and soft copy form) is part of that solution. We will also try to improve management of the communication and information exchange.Communication becomes very critica! where people that are distributed over very distant locations have to work together to achieve common objectives . A more flexible approach to project implementation, giving the country prog rammes more independence in defining and executing their prog ramme is a more strategic solution to the problem. 'reporting ' and 'communication' as medium or high risks factors. All these risk factors relate to project management. The other risk factor rated as medium or high was 'work flow', which relates to organisation. Based on the interna! evaluation of project progress we will review management on a country by country bases as far as issues identified above (implementation, budget, planning reporting and communication) are concerned. We as part of that review address issues related to organisation and management structure: reviewing roles and responsibilities of collaborating institutes and participants to see how performance can be improved and risks minimized.The complexity of the project in terms of its objectives being pursues and its multi-disciplinary character may be considered an opportunity on the one and a constraint on the other hand. This project serves both research and development goals in the sense that it wants to investigate BGBD in relation to intensity of land use and it want to promete and develop techniques for the sustainable management and conservation of BGBD. The project aims not only to assess BGBD but also to valuate it and to involve farmers and communities in the process. As such the project unites people from various disciplinary backgrounds and of varying capacity. The project is further challenged by important developments in the various disciplines over the past years, like in soil micro-biology for example.The fact that there are seven countries united within this project offers great opportunities. We will start making use of this comparative advantage in organising training activities, in which we will where we try to match demand and supply within the project as a whole. The same principie could also be applied to, for example, the analyses of samples collected within the different countries, where different capacities exist within each country. We will facilitate some kind of virtual market place where demand side and supply side can meet, for countries to organise themselves.In 2004 we will actively explore opportunities for collaborating with other institutes and organisations outside our own direct network, both at national, regional and global levels. We will further explore further collaboration with programmes/project within CIAT. Special reference should be made in this context to the following programmes/projects: lmpact Assessment, Agrobiodiversity and Biotechnology, lntegrated Pest & Disease Management, Communities and Watersheds and Land UseActivities in the year 2003 have stood in the light of project implementation: establishing the project management and implementation structure, defining standard methods for the inventory of BGBD and making the preparations for the field work to start. Clear progress has been made, though the project has witnessed a late start and further delays with respect to planned activities has occurred for which the reasons have been explained. Given this situatian the project will request far an extensian af the first phase af the project with ane year, ending in June 2005, in arder ta camply with its abligatians as farmulated in the praject dacument. A request ta this end will be submitted ta UNEP, supparted by a revised budget and adjusted plan af wark.One af the majar lessans learned from last year is that it is extremely difficult ta harmanize and synchranise activities between the seven cauntry programmes, given the different conditians and environments under which the country programmes operate. The cauntry programmes will be allowed sorne latitude in defining and implementing their own programmes, though results have to contribute to the common goals of the project. With respect to the inventory of BGBD a minimum (though still quite extensive) programme has to be carried out using standard methods. With respect to conservation and management countries wi ll define their programme in response ta their specific conditions and needs.","tokenCount":"5320"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"888e28218352db8f798cb4a0e47d1d5f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3deb5002-7558-49d7-aa74-f08b287c51d0/retrieve","id":"2035245484"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e81c9abb-c361-41cb-a7be-346abe52bf25","pagecount":"69","content":"The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) promotes evidence-informed equitable, inclusive and sustainable development. We support the generation and effective use of highquality evidence to inform decision-making and improve the lives of people living in poverty in lowand middle-income countries. We provide guidance and support to produce, synthesise and quality assure evidence of what works, for whom, how, why and at what cost. 3ie impact evaluations 3ie-supported impact evaluations assess the difference a development intervention has made to social and economic outcomes. 3ie is committed to funding rigorous evaluations that include a theory-based design, and use the most appropriate mix of methods to capture outcomes and are useful in complex development contexts.Finally, we wish to acknowledge the patience that the Kenyan households, community leaders and community members exercised during interviews. It is our hope that insights from the information they provided will translate into valuable interventions in their communities.The dairy sector in Kenya is one of the largest and most developed in Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 4 per cent of its gross domestic product. Despite high production volumes, the sector is still dominated by smallholder farmers who rely on livestock for income and food security. Dairy farmers face a number of barriers to increased profitability, including: animal diseases; lack of access to artificial insemination and other veterinary services; high costs of improved technologies, such as silage equipment; inadequate access to markets; poor rural infrastructure; and unsteady supply of quality animal fodder.The Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Programme (SDCP) was funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and implemented by the Government of Kenya from 2005 to 2015. It was designed to reach 600 dairy groups (24,000 smallholder dairy farmers) in nine counties. SDCP provided training to dairy farmers to build their enterprise, managerial and organisational skills. Aside from training, the programme also aimed to enhance dairy farming productivity and reduce production costs through demonstrations, field days and grants. To strengthen market linkages, SDCP invested in improving road infrastructure and conducted additional training on milk-handling practices and value-added opportunities.The programme identified three main areas where barriers to improving dairy income potentially occur: dairy group activities, household production and market intermediaries. Programme designers hypothesised that increasing net dairy income for smallholder farmers can occur through four primary contextual factors: (1) increasing milk production;(2) increasing milk prices; (3) decreasing the costs of producing milk; and (4) decreasing the transaction costs of participation in input and output markets. They assumed that increased net income would lead to improved food security and increased participation by women and marginalised communities.A key objective of agricultural extension is to increase farmers' knowledge about agricultural practices, which in turn could have an effect on productivity. Evaluating the impact of the SDCP can provide useful insights for the design of other agricultural extension programmes for smallholder farmers in developing countries. 3ie funded this grant under its Agricultural Innovation Thematic Window. The main evaluation questions were the following:1. Does SDCP improve the wellbeing of dairy farmers through improved animal management, improved efficiency, increased production and productivity, and an increase in farmers' incomes and food security? 2. Are there differences in the participation in programme activities between female and male dairy farmers? Does the programme have sex-differentiated effects? 3. How does the process by which SDCP is implemented influence the effectiveness of the programme? Given this process, how do contextual factors affect programme success?The ex-post evaluation used a quasi-experimental design using propensity score matching. The sample of 2,500 famers was split equally between 1,250 SDCP beneficiaries and 1,250 non-programme participants. Key information was collected through a survey (conducted by Research Solutions Africa), and the programme causal chain -including underlying assumptions -was mapped out. To capture key timeinvariant characteristics, as well as retrospective information on dairy farming, the study included a short filter questionnaire at the beginning of the household survey for accurately matching households in the treatment group with households in the comparison group.The study used qualitative data to explain the quantitative findings and understand the implementation of the programme. It compared accounts of local government officials with those of dairy farmers by using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions.The findings suggest that the SDCP was successful in increasing milk production, but had limited impacts on increasing either the quantity of milk sold or prices received by famers. Regarding intra-household bargaining power, SDCP farmer households were more likely to have women managing cash from the sale of milk, relative to non-SDCP households. This was also found to be true for decisions relating to the use of services such as artificial insemination, anthelmintic drugs, tick control, vaccination and curative treatments.Qualitative research highlighted the challenges in programme implementation, such as those related to linking dairy groups to various service providers, and limited knowledge among farmers to negotiate terms favourable to them.We calculate that it would take approximately 4.74 years for the programme to break even; that is, for the benefits to equal the costs, assuming the benefits of increased milk production remain constant across years. This estimate of the number of years to break even seems reasonable, for although it was unlikely there were benefits at the beginning of the programme (when upfront costs were associated with setting up the SDCP), farmers were likely to have started benefiting from the programme before 2016. Furthermore, to the extent that farmers continue to employ the best practices the programme advocates, the benefits may extend into future years.   13: Impacts on milk production and total value (N=2558) .......................... Table 14: Impacts on food categories consumed in past seven days (N=2558) . Table 15: Impacts on women's decision-making outcomes (N=2558) .................The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), on behalf of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), contracted the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in partnership with LEAD Analytics and Research Solutions Africa (RSA) to evaluate the Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Programme (SDCP) in Kenya.The SDCP, implemented by the Government of Kenya (GoK) from 2005 to 2015, was designed to reach dairy groups engaged in milk production in nine milk-producing counties. The overall goal of SDCP was to increase the income of poor rural households that depend substantially on production and trade of dairy products for their livelihoods. The SDCP was implemented through various interrelated components.First, SDCP provided training on organisational, managerial, and enterprise skills (e.g. bookkeeping, accounting and financial planning) to farmers. Second, the programme targeted household production by aiming to enhance dairy farming productivity and reduce production costs through grants, trainings, field days and demonstrations. Last, SDCP aimed to strengthen market linkages for small-scale milk producers by improving road infrastructure and conducting additional trainings on milk handling practices and value-addition opportunities.Many researchers, non-governmental organisations, governments and donors have long held the position that smallholder dairy can be a particularly effective mechanism for alleviating poverty and increasing food security in regions well-suited for dairy production, such as those located in western Kenya (Staal et al. 1997;Thorpe et al. 2000;Burke et al. 2007). While there had been some success before 2006 in promoting the production and marketing of milk in these types of regions in Kenya, the SDCP was designed to address a number of barriers to increased profitability of smallholder dairy farming in the country. These included relatively high transaction costs for production and marketing (Staal et al. 1997), and the underperformance of dairy groups and cooperatives in reducing those transaction costs (Holloway et al. 2000;Atieno and Kanyinga 2008).However, empirical evidence on the impacts of reducing transaction costs -either through analyses of household surveys or through rigorous impact assessments of specific projects -remains relatively limited. A few studies report results that would suggest that reducing transaction costs improves farm productivity and incomes, primarily by increasing access to improved production methods and marketing information, and by being able to link to private sector actors in the value chain. Burke et al. (2015) find that smallholders closer to electricity sources and with access to private sector value chain actors are more likely to be dairy producers and net sellers, and that active dairy cooperatives also induce greater participation by smallholders in dairy markets. Gelan and Muriithi (2015), and references cited therein, find that practices such as zero grazing and the adoption of improved cows led to increased milk production efficiency, while Nafula (2013) provides evidence of the importance of enhanced nutritional and feed practices on the health of dairy calves, using a randomised control trial method. The SDCP project promotes all of these activities and also seeks to reduce marketing-related transaction costs.Understanding the impacts of the SDCP is particularly valuable, given the importance of the dairy sector in Kenya. The dairy sector in Kenya is one of the largest and most developed in Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 4 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Despite high production volumes, the dairy industry is dominated by smallholder farmers who rely on livestock for income and food security.However, smallholder dairy farmers face a number of barriers to increased profitability, including: irregular supplies of good-quality animal fodder and feed throughout the year; animal diseases; inadequate access to markets; lack of access to Artificial Insemination (AI) services and other veterinary services; poor rural infrastructure; high costs of improved technologies, such as silage equipment; limited skills with which to bargain with input suppliers and output purchasers; limited knowledge about how to run their dairy activities as commercially oriented enterprises, including maintaining animal health and providing high-quality milk; dependency on traders; and limited ability to maintain milk quality, putting downward pressure on farm gate milk prices.While the project undertook a study of the programme in the form of household surveys at the end of the project in 2015, no formal impact assessment had previously been conducted. Specifically, the 2015 survey did not include households from 'control' areas. Instead, the questionnaire included retrospective questions, going back many years. Thus, it is possible that findings from the 2015 survey might suffer from recall bias and from lack of data from households on which to construct a counterfactual.The study AIR and LEAD Analytics have conducted is the first rigorous impact assessment designed to examine the effects of the SDCP. AIR and LEAD Analytics designed the evaluation to address the knowledge gaps that related to the project's impacts on smallholder dairy producers, including measures of production efficiency and profitability, as well as impacts of project activities aimed at ensuring that women and resource-poor farmers benefitted from the project.The study investigated programme impacts and implementation of the SDCP. Our main research question was whether SDCP improves the wellbeing of dairy farmers through improved animal management, increased production and productivity, improved efficiency (e.g. input and transaction cost reductions), and a rise in farmer incomes and food security. We also investigated whether there are differences in programme participation and effects by the sex of the farmer. Lastly, we looked at the process by which SDCP is implemented and how contextual factors may affect programme success.We addressed these research questions through a mixed methods design. Quantitatively, we used a quasi-experimental approach using a matching ex-post design. Since programme implementation is now complete, an ex-post analysis was appropriate to inform future scale-up of similar efforts. Our design involved two steps of matching at division and then household level. At the division level, we relied heavily on a two-step targeting approach.First, we used existing administrative information from the original programme targeting to identify similar non-programme areas that were not affected by the SDCP due to capacity constraints (i.e. observation-based targeting). Second, we discussed the filtered control communities with local experts and stakeholders to determine which of the pre-selected control areas were more similar to treatment communities at project inception (i.e. criteria-based targeting).One of the major benefits of the criteria-based targeting exercise has been that, based on the experts' insights, we have been able to exclude divisions where other policies or actions may have had differential effects over time, which has been especially beneficial since this is an ex-post evaluation for a long-running programme. Furthermore, we matched treatment and comparison divisions within the same counties, which has helped ensure that both study areas receive the same level of support from their county over time, especially after devolution of power to the counties, which occurred in Kenya in 2013.At the household level, to estimate programme impacts, we further used matching through our use of the doubly robust estimator, which combines regression and propensity score methods to achieve some robustness to misspecification of the parametric models (Imbens and Wooldridge 2009). Combining regression and weighting (with weights derived from the probability of being part of the programme) can lead to additional robustness by removing the correlation between omitted covariates, and by reducing the correlation between omitted and included variables. We complemented these analyses with qualitative research in the form of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews.Our findings indicated that the programme had statistically significant positive impacts on improved animal management, including grazing and feeding practices, keeping practices and animal health services. These results suggest that farmers were receptive to programme education regarding the nutritional content and feeding practices, which may have a positive effect on milk production. The SDCP also led to an improvement in breeding services. Specifically, the SDCP increased the propensity of households to monitor their cattle on a regular basis and use AI services. The positive quantitative findings related to access to and use of AI are especially promising, considering that many farmers discussed ongoing challenges with AI.We found that SDCP treatment farmers have improved access to extension visits, field days and demonstrations -services that the programme provided. We also found an increase in the probability of receiving any information on specific aspects of the production process. The largest increase in probabilities was for receiving information on general livestock practices, milk processing and quality control, fodder establishment and fresh milk marketing. However, we observe positive impacts for almost all types of cattlerelated topics, as well as topics related to enterprise skill. The results also suggest that the SDCP was successful in increasing milk production, but with more limited -though positive -impacts on increasing milk marketing and increasing milk prices received by smallholders.The report is structured as follows. First, we describe the intervention and research hypotheses. Then we describe the context and the timeline for the project and evaluation. We describe the design, methods and implementation of the evaluation and policy. We then present the impact analysis, followed by a discussion and recommendations for policy and practice.During the 1990s, the monopolistic dairy cooperative structure in Kenya collapsed. While plagued by inefficiencies, the structure provided some support to dairy farmers. The collapse led to great distrust of new collectives, despite the potential gains from collective action in the sector and due to economies of scale in linking smallholders to input suppliers and milk purchases (e.g. through bulk purchasing of fodder and bulk milk sales).At the outset of the project in 2006, the GoK was restructuring at least some of its legislation related to smallholder participation in dairy markets, with the aim of reducing costs that smallholders face in joining formal markets. One of the project's goals was to work with the government and relevant ministries to further enhance the policy and legislative environments for smallholders, primarily with respect to issues dealing with animal breeding.The project was built on empirical evidence on smallholder dairy systems the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) produced, with support from Department for International Development (DFID). Given evidence on the level of dairy commercialisation's potential, smallholder dairy producers, poverty rates and indicators of rural infrastructure, the project chose to work in nine districts in central and centralwestern Kenya. Smallholders dominate the production of milk in these districts, which also exhibit high poverty rates.At the same time, smallholder dairy farmers face a number of barriers to increased profitability, including: irregular supplies of good-quality animal fodder and feed throughout the year; animal diseases; inadequate access to markets; lack of access to AI services and other veterinary services; poor rural infrastructure; high costs of improved technologies, such as silage equipment; limited skills with which to bargain with input suppliers and output purchasers; limited knowledge about how to run their dairy activities as commercially oriented enterprises, including maintaining animal health and providing high-quality milk; and depending on traders with limited ability to maintain milk quality, putting downward pressure on farm gate milk prices.Additionally, women play a key role in the smallholder dairy sector. Research showed that many female-headed households in these districts had dairy cows, and even in male-headed households females controlled over 60 per cent of the income from dairy activities. Women dairy farmers traditionally have been even further disadvantaged in terms of receiving extension advice and playing leadership roles in dairy groups to ensure their specific needs are addressed.The SDCP -funded by IFAD, the GoK and the local community, and implemented by the GoK from 2005 to 2015 -was designed to address some of the constraints smallholder dairy farmers faced. The overall goal of the SDCP was to increase the income of poor rural households that depend substantially on production and trade of dairy products for their livelihoods.The SDCP was implemented through various interrelated components. First, the programme provided dairy group activities by training beneficiaries on organisational, managerial and enterprise skills (e.g. bookkeeping, accounting and financial planning) to fully benefit from market-driven milk commercialisation. Further, capacity building of dairy groups was complemented by competitive access to investment grants for improving forage production and feed milling, milk bulking, chilling and processing, and management and market information systems.Second, the programme targeted household production by aiming to enhance dairy farming productivity and to reduce production costs through trainings, field days and demonstrations.Third, the SDCP aimed to strengthen relationships with market intermediaries by enhancing market linkages for small-scale milk producers, improving road infrastructure, and conducting additional trainings for beneficiaries on milk handling practices and value-addition opportunities.The primary beneficiaries of the project were resource-poor smallholder dairy farmers, with an emphasis on ensuring women's participation in all project activities. The project intended to reach 24,000 smallholder dairy-farming households, with members participating in 600 dairy groups across 9 milk-producing counties. IFAD and the GoK determined the target of 600 dairy groups as a number large enough to have an impact, but still within capacity constraints.Based on dairy group inventories as of 2011 and 2012, the project ended up working with 15,535 smallholder dairy-farming households, with members from 505 dairy groups across the 9 counties. In addition to resource-poor smallholders (85 per cent of targeted beneficiaries), the project also targeted smallholders already engaging in more intensive production.Finally, the project also targeted 300 milk traders and 90 milk bar/milk processors to improve milk quality and contractual arrangements with buyers and sellers.The project first reviewed the substantial evidence on factors associated with low milk production, productivity per cow, and relatively low participation in milk markets with marked seasonal fluctuations. The project identified three main areas where impediments to improving dairy incomes occurred: dairy group activities, household production and market intermediaries. These three areas conform to Components 1-3 of the five project components, with support to policy and institutions and to project management comprising the fourth and fifth components.Increasing dairy incomes for smallholders can occur through three primary channels: increasing milk production, increasing prices received for milk sold, and decreasing costs of producing and marketing milk. In this evaluation, we focus on the first three components, as these address all of the channels to varying degrees.Component 4 (support to policy and institutions) concerns activities to shape nationallevel policies and regulations, primarily concerned with regulating AI, registering (improved) breed births, and milk-related phytosanitary regulations. To the extent that these have been adopted and implemented, they would affect all dairy cattle owners in Kenya; that is, dairy cattle owners in both the treatment and comparison groups in this study. Since both groups would benefit from these policy and regulatory changes, it is impossible to evaluate these impacts using the treatment and comparison households. Component 5 (support to project management) affects only treated households, so it is more of an IFAD-specific procedure than a separate activity. In fact, most development projects do not put project management as a separate component of activities.In other words, all beneficiaries receive all five components, whereas comparison farmers would receive benefits from Component 4. Since beneficiaries receive all five components, isolating their effects is not feasible with the quantitative evaluation. However, since the main difference between treatment and comparison groups is found in Components 1-3, we focus on these components. These components are linked, because farmer-level interventions (Component 2) interact with how groups of farmers perform (Component 1) in order to be able to take advantage of greater market opportunities (Component 3).a. Disorganised groups with limited enterprise/commercialisation skills and knowledge; b. Limited or weak links with input suppliers and output purchasers, leading to missed opportunities to secure lower input prices or higher and more reliable output prices; and c. Limited ability to disseminate relevant production advice to farmers, particularly disadvantaged groups including women and resource-poor farmers.Main inputs to address these three barriers: I1. Extensive training on group organisation and management, enterprise skills, development of enterprise plans, and preparation of business proposals that are then eligible for dairy enterprise grants; I2. Training on establishing and maintaining links with input and service providers and output purchasers; I3. Linking groups to advisory and extension systems; and I4. Reaching out to women and resource-poor farmers.O1. Dairy groups with financially viable and sustainable business plans, and the ability to develop and successfully obtain external grant funds (due mainly to I1 input). The main assumption is that dairy group members were able to successfully understand the training materials and translate that knowledge into business plans and proposal writing. Another key assumption is that there were real business opportunities that relatively small and resource-poor dairy groups could take advantage of; O2. Transaction costs and input costs reduced, and output prices potentially increased (due mainly to I2, and to some extent I1). The main assumption is that access to milk markets and market players can be increased by knowledge gained in training. It should be noted that the project was undertaken in areas determined to be high-potential commercialisation areas, which was intended to limit the impact of other barriers such as geographic isolation and very high transportation costs; and O3. Dairy group members, including women and resource-poor farmers, increase knowledge on dairy production and markets, leading to higher and more stable milk production and to lower transaction costs of participating in markets (due mainly to I3, and to some extent I1). I1. Trainings and demonstrations to disseminate information about benefits to improving breeds through AI, benefits from animal registration, improved husbandry and dairy enterprise management practices, improved fodder production and management, supplemental feed use, and animal diseases and disease management; I2. Establishing community AI schemes; I3. Establishing a revolving community-based animal health fund; and I4. Training community resource persons to aid in disseminating information and linking farmers to relevant resources.O1. Better-bred dairy cows, leading to higher milk per cow and total output (I1 and I2). The main assumption is that quality AI seed is available, and that farmers see the value in improving breeds, which provides delayed benefits; O2. Greater production and better management of fodder and feed, leading to lower costs of milk production and greater stability in milk output throughout the year (I1 and I4). The main assumption is that limited opportunity costs associated with fodder being put to other uses and options for extending forage availability throughout the year (e.g. storage) are profitable; O3. Healthier cows producing more milk (I1, I3 and I4). The main assumption is that information on disease management and access to revolving funds are sufficient to address substantial issues with tick-borne disease control; O4. Better overall management practices, leading to greater production and potentially lower costs of production (I1 and I4). The main assumption is that training materials contain relevant and understandable information that farmers can apply in practice. It also assumes relatively low opportunity costs, investment costs and input costs, or alternatively, that switching to new systems is actually profitable; and O5. More milk to meet household needs and to participate year-round in the milk market (I1 enterprise management and fodder production and management, and to some extent I4). The main assumption is that market linkages are established (e.g. through the dairy groups) and transaction costs are sufficiently lowered.Main barriers: a. Disorganised markets; b. Market traders with limited skills to maintain high-quality milk (e.g. hygiene standards); c. Market traders with limited enterprise management skills; d. Limited generation and dissemination of milk market information; e. Limited market infrastructure (e.g. bulk milk facilities); f. Limited production and marketing of dairy goat milk; g. Inefficient contractual arrangements between dairy groups, milk collectors, cooling centres and processors; and h. Limited access for smallholders to rural finance.I1. Developing a low-cost market information system and strengthening the dairy information centre; I2. Linking activities between smallholders and rural finance operators; I3. Capacity building for milk marketing groups; I4. Pilot testing school milk programmes as an opportunity to expand milk marketing; I5. Performing a study on milk marketing opportunities; I6. Trainings on hygienic milk handling; I7. Establishing milk bulking facilities and other infrastructure (e.g. cooling facilities); I8. Training and demonstrations on dairy goat production and marketing, and procurement and distribution of dairy goats to resource-poor smallholders; and I9. Developing new and improved contractual arrangementsO1. Reduced transaction costs of participating in the market (I1, I2, and I7). The main assumption is that farmers and other market players can access new information sources, and that information is relevant and understandable; O2. Increased size of the market (I3, I4, and I5). The main assumption is that there is scope for expanding the milk market. External evidence suggests there is such scope; O3. Increased quality of milk in the market, increasing the value added and potentially leading to higher prices for smallholders (I6 and I7). The main assumption is that knowledge is disseminated in a practical and useful way, and more importantly, that sufficient access to technologies and infrastructure exist throughout the entire value chain; O4. More effective contractual arrangements to increase the quantity of milk in the market throughout the year. The main assumption is that contract terms are currently inefficient and there is scope to make improvements; and O5. Increased participation in the dairy goat milk market by women and resourcepoor smallholders (I8).As noted above, the primary impact is expected to be higher net milk incomes through increased production and productivity per animal, reduced input costs, reduced transaction costs, and potentially higher farm gate milk prices. The outcomes clearly map to this impact. The second expected impact is greater participation by women and resource-poor farmers in milk markets and as leaders in dairy groups, which follows from Component 1, Outcome 3 and from Component 3, Outcome 2. While we can analyse this impact through heterogeneous effects analysis, the greater participation by women and resource-poor farmers is an impact in and of itself, since the project aims to ensure that women and the most vulnerable are indeed included. The third expected impact is increased food security. In part, this is related to higher net dairy incomes, and thus related to two of the four pillars of food security: access and availability. Additionally, greater stability of milk production and sales throughout the year is related to the stability pillar. Finally, trainings on hygiene increase milk safety for consumers, which is related to the utilisation pillar.The programme's key intended outcomes included more knowledgeable dairy farmers; healthier and better-bred milk cows; reduced seasonality in milk production; increased participation and labour opportunities in milk markets (generating the impact of higher net dairy incomes for smallholder dairy farmers); well-developed business plans and project proposals; establishment of reliable trade relations with input suppliers and output purchasers for dairy groups (generating the impact of commercially viable and sustainable dairy organisations); and increased networks and higher quality milk for milk traders (generating the impact of greater value addition).In this study we investigate programme impacts and implementation of the SDCP. Our main research question is the following: 1. Does the SDCP improve the wellbeing of dairy farmers through improved animal management (e.g. better husbandry practices), increased production and productivity (e.g. litres/cow/day), improved efficiency (e.g. input and transaction cost reductions), and increased incomes for farmers (e.g. gross margins and higher milk prices)? Does this lead to increased income from dairy farming and ultimately improved food security?To better understand our primary research question, we consider the following secondary questions: 1. Are there differences in programme participation by the sex of the farmers? Does the programme have differential effects by the sex of the farmers? 2. How does the process by which the SDCP is implemented influence the effectiveness of the programme? Given this process, how do contextual factors affect programme success?The first secondary question is critical, since women play a key role in dairy production in Kenya. However, they face a number of constraints that may alter the extent to which they benefit from the programme, such as owning smaller farms, which affects their access to credit using land as collateral, or being less educated, which limits their access to technical information for enhancing production.The second secondary question is especially important, because the impacts of a programme are ultimately a function of the manner in which it is implemented.Understanding the implementation of this programme is a critical aspect of this evaluation because it largely determines the type of dairy farmer the programme reaches. There are clear implications if the programme does not reach certain segments of the population (e.g. women, poorer farmers, certain locations, etc.). The process can also lead to variation in programme effectiveness in that it may vary according to contextual factors, such as the population density of a region or the type of f arming.Agriculture is one of the leading sectors in Kenya, employing 70 per cent of the rural population and accounting for 25 per cent of GDP. More specifically, the dairy sector in Kenya is one of the largest and most developed in Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 4 per cent of the country's GDP. Dairy farms are concentrated in the highlands and former provinces of the Rift Valley in the central and eastern parts of Kenya. There are more than 3.5 million head of purebred Friesian-Holstein, Ayrshire, Guernsey and Jersey cattle and their crosses, with a total yearly production of about 2 billion litres of milk (Muriuki 2003). Despite these high production volumes, smallholder farmers dominate the dairy industry.Approximately 80 per cent of people engaged in agricultural activities are smallholder farmers, producing three-quarters of the agricultural output in farms that commonly have an area of less than 3 ha. Smallholders produce over 50 per cent of the predominant crops in the country -including maize, coffee and tea -and 80 per cent of milk and beef products. There are over 1 million smallholder farmers who depend on dairy farming for their livelihoods. Less than 15 per cent of marketed milk flows through milk processors (Thorpe et al. 2000), with the rest being sold as raw milk through direct sales to consumers by farm households, dairy cooperative societies and individual traders.As with many other countries in the Sub-Saharan region, smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya rely on livestock for income and food security. However, milk production is regularly threatened by inadequate access to markets; animal diseases; poor quality and unstable supplies of animal food and feeds, with corresponding decreases in market milk supply; poor rural infrastructure; and inadequate access to AI services and other veterinary services.More importantly, small dairy farmers face a series of constraints that prevent them from effectively commercialising their milk, including large seasonal fluctuations in milk output and prices; poor rural infrastructure (e.g. roads and electricity); limited skills with which to bargain with input suppliers and output purchasers; lack of management and enterprise skills; and inefficiencies in the post-harvest segment of the dairy value chain.Furthermore, the dependency on traders who have limited ability to maintain milk quality puts downward pressure on farm gate milk prices. The inability of farmers to avoid and respond to these risks and constraints associated with milk production is partly explained by the lack of access to productive inputs and improved technologies, such as silage equipment, and also to a lack of knowledge on how to maintain animal health and increase milk productivity through better production practices.In 2005, IFAD and the GoK commissioned a study by ILRI to lead the initial targeting of the programme. Three key indicators were initially considered to determine the programme area: milk production and production potential, incidence of rural poverty, and market access. Milk production was measured as litres of milk produced per square kilometre per year -an indicator that reflects well the productivity by individual cow, number of animals in a given area, and percentage of lactating animals. Poverty incidence was drawn from data constructed by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2003. Finally, market access was defined as distance from farms to main milk cooling centres, as well as distance from farms to main urban centres.On realising that the three key indicators were too restrictive in terms of potential programme locations, the programme targeting instead focused on the two key indicators of milk production and production potential, and incidence of rural poverty. For these indicators, thresholds were defined to target the initial participating districts/counties. First, the programme selected districts with high (greater than 90,000 litres/km 2 /year) and medium (less than 90,000 litres/km 2 /year) milk densities. Second, they chose districts with a poverty rate of at least 46 per cent.To select beneficiaries, the project relied on 'Targeting Pro-Poor Investment in the Dairy Sub-Sector', a report ILRI produced in March 2005, which contained rich analysis of the smallholder dairy subsector. Using additional information from dairy farmer surveys, the project first selected 9 districts out of the 25 milk-producing districts in Kenya. Then, because not all divisions/sub-counties (the next administrative unit after districts/counties) within the 9 selected districts met the targeting criteria, the SDCP focused operations on only 27 divisions (out of a total of 53 divisions in the 9 districts). These divisions corresponded to Dairy Commercialization Areas (DCAs), and the GoK selected locations and sub-locations within the 27 DCAs, with the aim of identifying 600 farmer groups. The project attempted to work with existing farmer groups that had at least some activities focused on dairy farming. Each DCA had 500-800 dairy farmers, which was considered a manageable number of farmers for divisional government staff to handle.Once the geographical units for the programme were selected, the SDCP put programme activities into operation in the field through dairy groups. Dairy groups are formally registered as self-help groups, cooperative societies or common interest groups that have a common interest in dairy farming. On average, each SDCP dairy group has 30 dairy farmers. By the end of 2015, the SDCP had worked with 527 dairy groups, with more than 16,000 members, of which 60 per cent were women.Selection of dairy groups within programme areas was done using a participatory selection process that gave priority to resource-poor dairy farmers, including women and youth. More specifically, the SDCP chose individual dairy groups based on the following observable characteristics: (a) farmers had a maximum of two cows; (b) farms had an average of 2.5 acres (0.91 ha) of productive land; and (c) the group was not marketing more than 30 per cent of its milk before joining the programme. The programme targeted the dairy group; thus, all participating farmers in the dairy group were eligible.Lastly, the identification of existing dairy groups in each district was facilitated by the fact that, in Kenya, all common interest groups need to be registered with the national and local governments. While IFAD and the GoK targeted 600 dairy groups, numerous other dairy groups existed in the districts that were not treated due to limited implementation.To select the sites for the study, we replicated the targeting process that ILRI conducted in 2005. This replication process involved the use of observation-and criteria-based targeting, as proposed by Ouma and colleagues (2007). Observation-based targeting involved determining where the SDCP was adopted, plotting those sites on a map, and identifying the common characteristics the sites shared.To conduct the observation-based targeting, the AIR and LEAD Analytics team worked with contacts at ILRI to examine the data that were originally used for the targeting exercise. We engaged with Pamela Ochungo, a geographic information systems analyst from Kenya who conducted the original targeting exercise on behalf of ILRI, to recreate the maps used for the original targeting of the programme. Figure 1 shows the areas that met the threshold for high and medium milk production and poverty levels.We used this information to determine a group of potential non-programme areas that had characteristics similar to SDCP areas before the programme started. Because IFAD and the GoK determined the target of 600 dairy groups in part due to capacity constraints, there were additional non-treated areas similar to the treated areas that could serve as a comparison group. After recreating the original targeting map, we performed propensity score matching at the level of the division by using the original data to match treatment divisions to potential comparison divisions within each county.We calculated from the original ILRI data a propensity score for the division, based on the 2005 values of the variables of milk density, proportion of poor households, proportion of grade cows in dairy households, proportion of dairy households, and travel distances to urban and cooling centres. We matched similar comparison divisions to treatment divisions within the same county; that is, we simultaneously selected treatment and comparison divisions for the study areas on the basis of their being the most comparable pairs according to observed 2005 data. Restricting our comparison to the same county was important, because over the programme implementation years county-level support for dairy farming varied after devolution. Thus, to mitigate specific influences at the county level, we needed to compare treatment divisions with comparison divisions in the same county.In addition to the results of the matching exercise, we used criteria-based targeting to refine the selection of the comparison sites. Criteria-based targeting is based on the opinion of experts, who determine to what extent non-targeted areas could have been chosen for the programme. Experts relied on historic variables that are likely to be associated with the uptake of the intervention in 2005, such as climate, market access, and other agro-ecological conditions.Luke Kessei, the ministry desk officer for the SDCP from 2005 to 2015, played a key role in designing and implementing the programme and is now an independent consultant. He, along with the SDCP technical team, served as our experts for the criteria-based targeting.In October 2016, we met with IFAD and SDCP officers in Nairobi and Nakuru.Through the meetings with the SDCP technical team, we discussed at a high level which of the potential comparison areas might serve as the best counterfactual in terms of similarities to SDCP treatment divisions.We presented to the team a list of the nine programme counties along with the potential divisions (all the beneficiary divisions that could serve as study treatment areas and the non-beneficiary divisions that could serve as comparison areas). With the help of our experts, we narrowed down the list of SDCP treatment and comparison divisions to include in the evaluation. In these discussions, the experts considered eight criteria: 1. Whether the evaluation included at least one county from each of the three geographic programme clusters; 1 2. Variation in county-level support after devolution, where areas with high levels of support were excluded; 3. Variation in support provided by other dairy-focused programmes, where areas with high levels of support were excluded; 4. The violence that happened in certain areas during and after the 2007 elections, which resulted in factories being destroyed, livestock being killed, and some areas receiving government support in response to the violence. Areas that had very high levels of violence were excluded; 5. Similarities in farmer composition, since some potential comparison divisions had large-scale farmers that would not serve as a valid counterfactual to the smallholder farmers participating in the SDCP. Areas where the farms tended to be larger in scale were excluded; 6. Geographic proximity of the potential comparison areas to the SDCP treatment areas, since comparison areas that neighboured the SDCP areas would be at higher risk of contamination from spillover effects. Comparison areas that closely neighboured SDCP treatment areas were excluded; 7. The focus of the farmers in the area, since some farmers were focused more on tea farming than on dairy farming. Areas where the farmers tended to be mostly tea farmers were excluded; and 8. The feasibility of data collection requirements in very remote divisions, which were excluded.One of the major benefits of the criteria-based targeting exercise was that, based on the insight of the experts, we excluded divisions where other policies or actions may have had differential effects over time. This was especially beneficial since this is an ex-post evaluation for a long-running programme. Specifically, we excluded divisions where county-level policies provided a high level of support, where other dairy programmes provided a high level of support, and where 2007 post-election violence was extreme.We cross-referenced the sites recommended by the experts from the criteria-based targeting exercise, with the results of the division-level propensity score matching from the observation-based targeting exercise to arrive at the final sample. The results of the two-part targeting exercise are detailed in Table 1 and further visualised in Figure 2.  That is, the results should apply to the average dairy farmer who is located in areas with medium to high levels of milk production and poverty. However, because we excluded certain divisions that would have posed difficulties in forming our study group, our sample lacks representativeness on certain dimensions.Specifically, the study did not include areas where there was a high level of support provided by other dairy-focused programmes, where the aftermath of the 2007 election was severe, where large-scale farmers were more common than smallholders, where farmers were less focused on dairy farming, and where farmers were located far from each other. Nevertheless, the observation-based and criteria-based targeting exercises ensured that we had comparison areas that are similar to the treated areas.However, there are some limitations to the external validity of the study sites. Specifically, as indicated by the upper left corner of Figure 1, implementation of the SDCP covered districts/counties in the western region of Kenya. Thus, the results do not necessarily extend to other regions of Kenya where dairy farming is a less central focus of smallholder farmers. However, lessons may well be drawn for other East African countries with similar ecological and socio-economic characteristics as those found in western Kenya, including those in the central highlands of Kenya, as well as the highlands of Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and to a lesser extent, Ethiopia (Herrero et al. 2014, Global Environmental Change).The following timeline depicts the stages of implementation and evaluation. As an expost evaluation, all evaluation activities occurred after implementation of the programme.AIR is registered with the Office of Human Research Protection as a research institution (IORG0000260) and conducts research under its own Federalwide Assurance (FWA00003952). AIR's Institutional Review Board (IRB) (IRB00000436) reviewed our procedures for minimising the risks to participants, along with the instruments and protocols. To ensure ethical research, RSA read a consent statement that explained the purposes of the research and the expected duration of the subject's participation, and which described the procedures to be followed.It was necessary to establish a clear counterfactual to conduct a valid assessment of the impact of the SDCP on smallholder farmers. To address the question of what would have happened to programme participants had they not received the intervention, we used a rigorous quasi-experimental methodology. An experimental design was not possible because of the ex-post nature of the evaluation. However, estimating programme impacts by comparing a treatment group with a non-experimental comparison group may be biased because participants self-select into the programme, or because implementing partners specifically target those beneficiaries that are more likely to experience the largest programme impacts.Within the context section above, we describe how the SDCP targeted programme beneficiaries and how we used that information and observation-and criteria-based targeting to select the study sites. First, we used existing administrative information from the original programme targeting to identify (through propensity score matching at the division level) similar non-programme areas that were not affected by the SDCP due to capacity constraints (i.e. observation-based targeting). Second, we discussed the filtered control communities with local experts and stakeholders to determine which of the preselected control areas were more similar to treatment communities at project inception (i.e. criteria-based targeting).After matching comparison areas to treatment areas for the study sites, RSA, with oversight from LEAD Analytics, conducted a comprehensive dairy survey to a sample of 2,562 dairy farmers, which covered key information needed to map out the causal chain among inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts, as well as the underlying assumptions of the SDCP. The sample of 2,562 was split between 1,297 SDCP beneficiaries (from 95 dairy groups) and 1,265 matched comparison farmers (from 89 dairy groups).To capture key time-invariant characteristics and retrospective information on dairy farming, we included a short filter questionnaire at the beginning of the household survey to improve the matching process between each of households in the treatment group to a similar farm household in a comparison area. Only farm households that were eligible as potential comparisons based on predetermined variables were part of the sample.The idea behind the filter questionnaire was to mimic the selection mechanism that SDCP staff used when defining the dairy groups that later joined the programme.The identification strategy proposed to estimate the causal effects of the programme relies on the doubly robust estimator developed by Robins and Rotnitzky (1995), Robins et al. (1995), and Van der Laan and Robins (2003). At household level, the proposed approach combines regression and propensity score matching methods in a three-step approach to estimate treatment effects.In the first step, a treatment model is defined that explains the probability of programme participation. From this step, inverse-probability weights are derived from the estimated propensity score. Second, using the estimated inverse-probability weights, weighted regression models are fit for the outcome equation for each treatment level and obtained the treatment-specific predicted outcomes for each subject. Last, means of the treatment-specific predicted outcomes are computed, and the difference of these averages provides the estimate of the average treatment effect of the programme.Intuitively, weighting can be interpreted as removing the correlation between the treatment condition and other covariates that may be correlated with treatment, and regression as removing the direct effect of such variables on the outcomes of interest (Imbens and Wooldridge 2009).This approach assumes that programme participation is exogenous to potential outcomes conditional on observable characteristics; that is, that there is no selection bias due to unobserved characteristics, and that the observable characteristics we capture determine programme participation. Due to the unobservable nature of these potential additional characteristics, this assumption is untestable. Nevertheless, we employed a series of strategies to reduce the potential threat of the impact estimates being driven by unobserved characteristics of programme participants.Specifically, in addition to replicating the division selection process that was conducted to determine programme placement, we used a filter questionnaire to replicate the selection of potentially eligible dairy groups, and to collect numerous covariates as controls that are good predictors of programme participation. Several authors have argued that social programmes can be evaluated using matching methods, as long as there is access to a rich set of variables that determine programme participation, and the non-experimental comparison group is drawn from the same local region as participants (Heckman et al. 1997;Heckman et al. 1998). We were confident that our proposed empirical strategy would allow us to estimate the causal effect of the SDCP on smallholder dairy farmers.We determined that a sample of 2,500 farmers, split evenly between the treatment and comparison groups, would be sufficiently large to detect meaningful programme effects.To calculate the sample size, we conducted a number of power analyses based on existing farm-level data for SDCP beneficiaries that were collected as part of a 2014 survey by Capital Guardian Consulting that the SDCP commissioned. These calculations are described in more detail in Appendix A. The calculations account for the fact that the dairy group serves as the clustering variable.We proposed to collect information for 154 dairy groups (77 treated and 77 comparison).For each dairy group, we proposed to randomly select 15 households. In practice, we conducted a full survey instrument to the sample of 2,562 observations (1,297 treatment and 1,265 comparison dairy farm households), coming from 183 dairy groups (95 treatment and 89 control). In the survey, we collected key information to map out the causal chain among inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts, as well as the underlying assumptions.To increase comparability beyond the efforts we took for the study site selection, we included a short filter questionnaire at the beginning of the household survey to capture key time-invariant characteristics and retrospective information on dairy farming to improve the matching process between each of households in the treatment group to a similar farm household in a comparison area. We included only dairy farmers who met characteristics that should have increased comparability between the treatment and comparison groups.The filter questionnaire ensured that only those potential comparison group farmers who were most similar to the treated farmers remained in the final sample. Furthermore, this procedure represented an efficient use of project funds and helped reduce the time burden placed on the farmers. By including a filter questionnaire that eliminated dissimilar farmers, we ensured that project resources spent on the full household survey were allocated to those farmers most relevant for inclusion in the study. Additionally, these procedures reduced the time burden associated with the survey, since we administered the survey to relevant farmers only.AIR, in conjunction with Lead Analytics, designed the quantitative questionnaire, adapting questionnaires used by ILRI in Tanzania and the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study -Integrated Surveys on Agriculture in Malawi. The questionnaire was designed to collect detailed data about milk production, cost and sales to generate information on net milk income and milk sales, which are two primary outcomes of interest to assess project impact.The project also aimed to reduce seasonality of milk production, so that net incomes would be higher and less variable throughout the year. Thus, the questionnaire also collected data on practices (such as second-season fodder grass production) associated with less pronounced seasonality in milk production. Finally, the hoped-for impacts included increased food security. In part, lower seasonality should contribute to more smooth consumption patterns throughout the year, reducing or eliminating the lean season. Second, while a full-scale consumption module was not included, we did include a module to capture dietary diversity, based on recent recall data.Building on evidence from the literature, the questionnaire also included sections to recover information on the most important control variables at the household level, in order to improve precision of estimating project impact. These included basic household demographics and wealth variables, landholdings, access to extension and other sources of information, density of social networks, etc.Importantly, we also designed a dairy group questionnaire. The functioning of dairy groups (i.e. structure, conduct and performance) is likely to have had a strong impact on the ability of households to benefit from project activities, many of which were carried out through the dairy group leadership. Indicators of dairy group performance could serve as controls, and also provide valuable additional insights to feed into future project designs.The dairy group questionnaire also included a module on the history of presence of other development projects in addition to the SDCP, which could prove to be useful control information, as well as basic information on community characteristics. In control villages, where no dairy groups are currently functioning, the community-level questions were addressed to village leaders.The paper questionnaire was translated to tablet, primarily by our local survey partner RSA, with inputs from Lead Analytics during the training and piloting phases. The questionnaires were conducted in the field by RSA between 15 November and 20 December 2016. This time frame corresponded to the secondary rainy season in Kenya, which happens for a few weeks in November and December and is followed by a dry season of hot weather until March. The heaviest rainy season in Kenya occurs in late April, May and early June.The survey time period closely corresponded to the end of harvest period for the main rainy season. 3 A LEAD Analytics field manager oversaw the training and piloting of data collection, and after coordinating with the other AIR and LEAD Analytics team members, provided daily feedback to the enumerators and survey programmers throughout both processes.Training for our quantitative and qualitative data collection was key to ensuring that interviewers understood the study, interview protocols, interviewing techniques, and the importance of understanding questions exactly as written and recording responses We further reduced biases by choosing comparison areas, as opposed to comparison households. The use of comparison areas helped overcome concerns about not capturing the true programme impacts due to spillover effects. If farmers in the comparison areas were outside the SDCP's catchment area, the benefits would be less likely to flow to the comparison areas. We investigated the validity of this requirement through the farm-level surveys by asking farmers in comparison areas how much they knew about IFAD's SDCP and other agricultural development programmes.Given that numerous development and other agricultural programmes have been implemented in Kenya, it was important that the comparison and treatment groups had the same level of exposure to these programmes over time, with the exception of the SDCP. Many of these other development and agricultural programmes have been implemented at the county level. By choosing comparison areas that were within the same counties as the treated DCAs, we could account for exposure to other dairy programmes. Although we chose comparison areas within the same counties, we made sure not to choose comparison divisions that directly neighboured a treatment division.Ensuring that treated and comparison areas were sufficiently spaced apart minimised the risk of spillovers.An obvious concern when evaluating the programme was that due to a sense of reciprocity (i.e. Hawthorne Effect), respondents in the treatment group may have offered answers that they believed the research team was seeking. We structured the questionnaire in such a way that the questions related to the programme intervention were non-conspicuous and occurred after questions related to measurement of important outcomes, so as to delay activation of potential Hawthorne effects. In addition, we do not believe this evaluation exhibited John Henry effects, wherein non-treated farmers react to overcome the disadvantage of being in the control group, because we did not expect that comparison farmers knew much about the SDCP, since they were drawn from different geographical areas.Addressing the research questions required a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. In qualitative research, questions -and the responses they elicit -tend to be discursive and descriptive, while their analysis privileges explanation and interpretation over quantification. In general, qualitative approaches allow researchers to explore and understand the experiences, opinions and perspectives of their informants in greater depth than that offered by quantitative approaches.In turn, the use of qualitative approaches entails sacrifices in terms of generalisability and comparability -areas in which quantitative methods excel because of their use of large and probabilistic samples. Samples chosen for qualitative studies are often nonrandomised (or purposively selected) and always smaller: 'There is growing evidence that 10-20 knowledgeable people are enough to uncover and understand the core categories in any well-defined cultural domain or study of lived experience' (Bernard 2011, p.154).We drew on qualitative methods to augment the quantitative surveys by capturing interaction among complex and changing contextual factors that could influence the impact of the SDCP, and evaluated programme fidelity. The process component also aimed to assess gaps in implementation that may have affected impacts, and how dairy farmers may have changed their practices based on what they learned with regard to Components 1-3. The contextual information we obtained through the qualitative information helped to clarify how the programme impacted individuals, thus contributing to the transferability of study findings to other settings (i.e. external validity).We conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants directly involved in the programme at the national, county and sub-county levels. These discussions aimed to clarify uptake of the programme and the coordination of county departments of agriculture with the farmers. Second, we conducted key informant interviews with private service providers who are unrelated to the programme to ascertain how the dairy sector functions outside of the programme and the public sector.We conducted 12 focus groups using semi-structured protocols with 6-8 farmers each from 12 dairy groups across two counties. We included two counties with three SDCP administrative areas each in the qualitative sample, just in case there were any notable regional or within-county differences by administrative area. We included dairy groups with varying proportions of male and female farmers. The focus group sample was half male and half female, and we separated the groups by male and female farmers to capture a better understanding of experiences by sex. Finally, we included groups who were considered to be high performing and low performing, based on consultations with stakeholders familiar with the dairy groups.We structured the questions to understand whether all of the groups engaged similarly with the various components, or whether and how some of the components were stronger for some groups than others. To compare these data with how groups functioned in the absence of the programme, we also conducted four FGDs (two male and two female) with farmers in comparison areas. We aimed to cover all components with some piece of the qualitative work (Table 2). To ensure reliability of the findings, the research team employed several analytic methods to systematise the data review and coding: (a) content coding; (b) comparison of findings among researchers; and (c) grounded theory to guide analysis using NVivo qualitative data analysis software. 4   The first step in analysing qualitative data is to develop a coding structure that helps to systematically categorise information. Researchers 'open code' data to identify primary categories of interest. These categories form the basis for the coding structure that the team uses to categorise raw data from interviews and FGDs into the primary findings.While categorising the data, researchers applied grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss 2009) to deduct new themes from the findings, rather than testing an existing theory.Combining the use of grounded theory with a rigorous impact evaluation design enabled us to triangulate the research findings. The quantitative research served to test predefined hypotheses, and the qualitative research enabled us to ground new ideas on why the programme positively influenced some, but not all, outcomes of interest among respondents' real-life experiences.After coding, the research team attempted to quantify the data where applicable. This method helped characterise the prevalence of responses to deduce which themes were common and which were outliers. It is important to note, however, that qualitative data are not best analysed using a systematic count of opinions.In general, qualitative approaches allow researchers to explore and understand the experiences, opinions, and perspectives of their informants in greater depth than quantitative approaches allow. The use of qualitative approaches entails sacrifices in terms of generalisability and comparability -areas in which quantitative methods excel because of their use of large and probabilistic samples. Interviewers were clear on these limitations, as well as their neutral role, which aimed to limit courtesy and social desirability bias (a situation in which a respondent gives an answer that he or she feels the interviewer wants to hear).Data collection occurred over a period of two weeks between 27 February and 10 March 2017. The evaluation team trained data collectors before they went into the field. We held a plenary training to introduce participants to the study, the supervision process, logistics, interviewing techniques, and the interview and observation protocols, and also to conduct mock interviews. During training, the research team improved the items on the interview protocols by incorporating input from local interviewers. During the initial days in the field, interviewers noted challenges in administering the surveys and interview protocols, which we discussed during debriefings during the first phase of fieldwork.The team collected data using notes and digital recordings. All of the interviews and FGDs were transcribed. The team ensured complete anonymisation and protection of confidentiality for research participants.As noted before, the methodology employed with the quantitative design assumed that there was no selection bias due to unobserved characteristics, and that the observable characteristics we captured determined programme participation. However, due to the unobservable nature of these potential additional characteristics, this assumption was untestable. Additionally, while our qualitative research provided insights into the uptake rates of the programme, we could not determine these rates quantitatively, because tracking down targeted farmers from 2006 was not feasible. This limitation prevented us from analysing what impact, if any, the programme had on the likelihood of a dairy farmer in 2006 remaining one to the present day.The SDCP is a joint programme between the GoK and IFAD that commenced in July 2006 and will be completed by September 2019. The SDCP was designed to reach dairy groups engaged in milk production in nine milk-producing counties. The overall goal of the SDCP was to increase the income of poor rural households that depend substantially on the production and trade of dairy products for their livelihoods.The SDCP was implemented through various interrelated components. First, the SDCP provided training on organisational, managerial and enterprise skills (e.g. bookkeeping, accounting and financial planning) to farmers. Second, the programme targeted household production by aiming to enhance dairy farming productivity and reduce production costs through grants, trainings, field days and demonstrations. Last, the SDCP aimed to strengthen market linkages for small-scale milk producers by improving road infrastructure and conducting additional trainings on milk-handling practices and value addition opportunities. The project operated through dairy groups and was intended to reach 24,000 smallholder dairy-farming households, with members participating in 600 dairy groups across 9 milk-producing counties.Given that the implementation began in 2006, we did not have a monitoring system to track implementation rollout. Similarly, since the evaluation was an ex-post evaluation, we did not provide incentives for participation in the study groups. For the quantitative data collection and key informant interviews, we did not provide any compensation or incentives for completion of the survey or interviews. For participation in the qualitative FGDs, we provided a transport allowance and snack.In this section, we present some of the key explanatory variables collected for the study. These variables help us to understand the context in which the SDCP was implemented and serve as controls in the econometric models. This section also describes the outcomes of interest and presents the impact results.ILRI collected the variables used for the matching procedure at the division level for programme placement before 2005. These included milk density, proportion of poor households, and travel time to the nearest urban centre, which we have included in Table 3. The original ILRI data also included the number of households and area, although the ILRI final targeting exercise only used milk density and proportion of poor households.As shown in Table 3, milk density in the study area is on average 83,000 litres/km 2 /year. The difference in milk density between the SDCP areas and control areas is not statistically significant. From examining the proportion of poor households in the division, we see that more than half of the households in our dataset are poor. The proportion of poor people in the SDCP households and control households is similar, at 53 per cent. In terms of distance, SDCP households travel 0.39 hours to the nearest urban centre, as do households in the comparison group.The averages for these three key results are similar for the treatment and control groups. More specifically, Table 3 also presents the results of a linear model for the probability of being in the treatment group as a function of the three division-level characteristics used for programme placement. This regression is conducted at the dairy group level and includes county fixed effects, which is the administrative level at which the initial matching of divisions was conducted.The results show that none of the three placement variables is a good predictor of the probability of being in the treatment group. In fact, we are not able to reject the hypothesis that the three variables are jointly equal to zero using an F test (p-value = 0.86). These results provide evidence that we are able to find divisions in the same counties where the SDCP operates that could have been chosen for the programme based on the three placement characteristics, but were not chosen due to programme capacity constraints. Note, however, that finding control divisions that were similar to SDCP divisions did not guarantee that the individual dairy groups within these divisions were similar. To increase comparability beyond the study site selection, we included a short filter questionnaire at the beginning of the household survey to capture key time-invariant characteristics and retrospective information on dairy farming to improve the matching process between each of households in the treatment group and a similar farm household in a comparison area.In Table 4 we specify a linear probability model to assess to what extent the treatment and control households differ in terms of key household and agricultural characteristics.In terms of household demographics, the data show that the typical household spoke local languages (only 8 per cent of the households spoke English), and had around three people in the working age group (people aged 14-65 years old) and 0.5 children aged five years of age and younger. Also, on average, the SDCP household head was 52 years old and had 13 years of education. Lastly, about 24 per cent of households in our data had a female head of household. The percentage of female-headed households was 11 percentage points higher in the SDCP group than in the control group, a difference that was statistically significant.Regarding the household socio-economic and agricultural characteristics, the results show that there were no statistically significant differences between treatment and control households in terms of land size, slope of farm plots, access to irrigation and area cultivated. The average household in the sample had 0.19 acres, with a legal title; 87 percent of the farms were either flat or had a slight slope, and did not have access to irrigation.In turn, there are some variables where treatment and control households exhibited differences that were statistically significant. A one standard-deviation increase in the indices of consumer durables and agricultural implements increased the probability of being in the treatment group by approximately 2 percentage points. Also, treatment households were 10 percentage points more likely to have cultivated a crop in the primary agricultural season.There were some differences in the breed composition of the division where the household was located as measured in 2005. 5 An increase of 100 head of zebu in 2005 on the division where the household was located decreased the probability of being in the treatment group by 10 percentage points. Alternatively, an increase of 100 head of crossbred cattle increased the probability of being in the treatment group by 10 percentage points. There were no differences in 2005 between treatment and control households in terms of the presence of grade cattle in their corresponding divisions.Lastly, treated and comparison households have similar probabilities of having received other agricultural or livestock development programmes. Overall, the results show that, with the exception of a few variables, the treatment and control households had very similar household and socio-economic characteristics. Nevertheless, some of the reported differences in observable characteristics could be an indication that there were differences in unobservable characteristics between the two groups that may ultimately have biased programme impacts. Indeed, the balance plot in Figure 3 below shows there was a skew towards relatively high propensity scores for the treated households, which motivated the use of the Inverse-Probability-Weighted Regression Adjustment (IPWRA). It is reassuring for the identification strategy that the weights produced very similar densities of the propensity score.  5, all the covariates considered were balanced between the treatment and comparison groups when the full sample was considered. We also conducted covariate balance tests by strata of the propensity score to check whether the different covariates were balanced at different points over the distribution of the propensity score.For this analysis, we considered seven blocks, or strata, of the propensity score to ensure that the mean propensity score was not different for treated and control households in each block. Given that our treatment equation included 20 covariates, we conducted a total of 140 tests (=7*20) of the balancing property. Of those, only 5 tests (3 per cent) rejected the hypothesis of treated and control households having the same mean for a given variable within a given block. Overall, the results indicated there was a good covariate balance after implementing a strategy based on inverse-probability weighting.  Table 6 indicates that more than half of the households in our dataset reported that there were other agriculture-based projects in their communities other than SDCP. Most of those projects were agricultural ones; those that focused on livestock were only a small portion of the projects available. As indicated above, at the household level the identification strategy that was used to estimate SDCP impacts combined regression and propensity score methods in a threestep approach to estimate treatment effects. In the first step, we estimated the probability of programme participation through a logit or probit such as:where \uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC56 is a dummy for having received the programme, \uD835\uDC4B\uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC56 is a vector of individual and division-level characteristics, and \uD835\uDF00\uD835\uDF00 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC56 is an error term. The observable characteristics considered in the treatment equation included the 2006 division-level characteristics used for the initial programme placement, namely, milk density (litre/km 2 /year), the proportion of poor people in the division, and the travel time (in hours) to the nearest urban centre.In addition to these variables, we included other 2006 division-level variables constructed by ILRI that accounted for the estimated number of heads from the different breed categories (e.g. local, crossed and exotic), which were a good indication of the division breed composition and good predictors of the ability to increase the prevalence of higher milk-producing breeds.We controlled for household-level characteristics such as the sex and age of the household head, the head's maximum number of years of schooling, the language spoken at home, the number of working age members, and the number of children under the age of five. We also controlled for indices of consumer durables and agricultural implements as a way to control for household income differences, as well as dummies for the existence of other agricultural and livestock projects (different from the SDCP) in recent years in the village where the respondent lived.To account for differences in agricultural production in the estimation of the propensity score, we controlled for a set of agricultural production characteristics such as indicator variables for producing any crops in the primary and secondary rainy seasons; the natural log of the hectares cultivated in each one of the two seasons; dummies for the slope of the main plot being flat or slightly flat; indicator variables for the availability of irrigation in at least one of the plots; and the percentage of plots served by an irrigation scheme. We also controlled for county-level fixed effects to ensure that the comparison of treatment and comparison households was done within a given county.Then we generated propensity scores for \uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC56 , the probability of receiving treatment, asSecond, using the estimated inverse-probability weights, weighted regression models were fit for the outcome equation for each treatment level and obtained the treatmentspecific predicted outcomes for each subject. Last, means of the treatment-specific predicted outcomes were computed and the difference of these averages provided the estimate of the average treatment effect of the programme. More specifically, we estimated programme impacts by using the teffects ipwra in STATA using the osample option. Note that all observations in the original sample were used in analysis, as no observations violated the overlap assumption.We start the presentation of the programme impacts by looking at the results on animal management. In Table 7 we show the results for the impact of the programme on feeding and water practices farmers used with their cattle. Although the programme did not have a statistically significant impact across all dimensions of feeding and water practices, positive impacts existed related to the grazing practices, keeping practices and feeding of concentrate feeds.Specifically, we found that SDCP increased the probability that farmers practised zero grazing with their cattle by 8 percentage points. SDCP staff stated that practising zero grazing was one of the key messages that the programme delivered to farmers to control how much cows ate and the nutritional value of what they ate, and to reduce losses in potential milk production from searching for food over large areas.Improved animal management was the most frequently discussed benefit of the SDCP among FGD participants. One farmer described the changes she made in animal management: 'Initially I would send the children to go and graze, [but] I now practise zero grazing. I realised I used to lose a lot on milk yields. At least I can produce more milk, I treat [the cows] when they fall sick, clean them and ensure they are vaccinated.'We also found that the SDCP increased the probability that farmers kept their cattle in a paddock that had a stall floor made of concrete by 5 percentage points. This increase was promising since concrete floors are easier to clean, which reduces the chances that the milk could be contaminated, which may have had a positive effect on the selling price charged to some customers.We also found that the SDCP increased the probability that farmers fed cattle concentrate feeds and mineral supplements by 13 percentage points. The programme also showed a positive impact on the probability of feeding cattle off the ground in a trough when milking, which helps protect food from contamination and promotes a more natural grazing posture. These results suggested that farmers were receptive to programme education regarding nutritional content and feeding practices, which may have had a positive effect on milk production. Notes: impacts were estimated using IPWRA (doubly-robust estimator). Robust standard errors are in parentheses. All estimations control for: household and household head characteristics; plot and crop production characteristics for primary and secondary rainy seasons; availability of other agricultural and livestock support programmes in the village; and pre-programme divisionlevel characteristics, including milk density in litres per km 2 , proportion of people below the poverty line, and travel time to the nearest cooling and urban centre. *** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.1The SDCP also led to an improvement in breeding services. Specifically, the SDCP increased the propensity of households monitoring their cattle on a regular basis and the use of AI services.Table 8 shows that treatment farmers were 7 percentage points more likely to report that they monitored their cattle regularly. Similarly, treatment farmers were 12 percentage points more likely to report that they had used the AI service in the past 12 months. However, we did not find any statistically significant differences between the treatment and comparison groups related to availability and use of own bull service for breeding. ***0.12 0.24 0.36 (0.03) Notes: impacts were estimated using IPWRA (doubly-robust estimator). Robust standard errors are in parentheses. All estimations control for: household and household head characteristics; plot and crop production characteristics for primary and secondary rainy seasons; availability of other agricultural and livestock support programmes in the village; and pre-programme divisionlevel characteristics, including milk density in litres per km 2 , proportion of people below the poverty line, and travel time to the nearest cooling and urban centre. *** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.1The positive quantitative findings related to access to and use of AI were especially promising, considering that many farmers discussed ongoing challenges with AI. The use of AI seems to have been a high cost to farmers, and misconceptions about the purpose and potential of AI services meant that farmers could not make informed decisions in these transactions. Many farmers seemed to be unclear on the proper timing for AI, and a few farmers thought they could pay more for the AI provider to select the sex when they inseminated. Other challenges were that farmers did not believe that government-subsidised AI services provided the best breeds; and that they had to purchase AI services too often because they were often unsuccessful.The programme had positive impacts related to animal health services, which were concentrated on improved access to and use of vaccination services and curative treatment services. Table 9 shows that the SDCP increased the probability that treatment farmers had access to and used vaccination services by 25 percentage points. Similarly, SDCP farmers were 10 percentage points more likely to have access to curative treatment services and 7 percentage points more likely to use them than farmers in the comparison group. However, the programme did not seem to have changed access to other health services such as deworming (anthelmintics) or tick control services. Notes: impacts were estimated using IPWRA (doubly-robust estimator). Robust standard errors are in parentheses. All estimations control for: household and household head characteristics; plot and crop production characteristics for primary and secondary rainy seasons; availability of other agricultural and livestock support programmes in the village; and pre-programme divisionlevel characteristics, including milk density in litres per km 2 , proportion of people below the poverty line, and travel time to the nearest cooling and urban centre. *** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.1The SDCP was implemented through several components, whereby the dissemination of information on different areas of the productive process were largely conducted through extension services and trainings of dairy group members. In particular, the SDCP provided training on organisational, managerial and enterprise skills (e.g. bookkeeping, accounting and financial planning) to farmers. In addition, the programme also conducted trainings, field days and demonstrations specifically designed to enhance dairy farming productivity and reduce production costs. In this section, we assess the effect of the programme on making these services available, and to what extent the information provided was adopted.Table 10 presents the results on the reported availability of extension visits, field days and demonstrations. All these outcomes consistently show that farmers in SDCP areas had a greater access to these types of services. Programme farmers were, on average, 12-18 percentage points more likely to report that the different types of extension services were available in their villages. ***0.12 0.14 0.27 (0.03) Notes: impacts were estimated using IPWRA (doubly-robust estimator). Robust standard errors are in parentheses. All estimations control for: household and household head characteristics; plot and crop production characteristics for primary and secondary rainy seasons; availability of other agricultural and livestock support programmes in the village; and pre-programme divisionlevel characteristics, including milk density in litres per km 2 , proportion of people below the poverty line, and travel time to the nearest cooling and urban centre. *** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.1We also investigated if the programme had any effects on the probability of receiving information on specific aspects of the production process, and whether farmers who attended those trainings adopted the recommended practices. The largest programme effects were seen on receiving information on general livestock practices (15 percentage points); milk processing and quality control (10 percentage points); and fodder establishment and fresh milk marketing (7 percentage points). However, positive impacts were observed for almost all types of cattle-related topics, which may be a consequence of the programme tailoring specific trainings according to the needs and preferences of each dairy group. The results on adopting specific practices closely resembled the impacts reported in Table 11. Interestingly, SDCP farmers did not report having greater access to information on crop best practices relative to the comparison group, which is reassuring as the SDCP programme did not provide any training on crop practices. Notes: impacts were estimated using IPWRA (doubly-robust estimator). Robust standard errors are in parentheses. All estimations control for: household and household head characteristics; plot and crop production characteristics for primary and secondary rainy seasons; availability of other agricultural and livestock support programmes in the village; and pre-programme divisionlevel characteristics, including milk density in litres per km 2 , proportion of people below the poverty line, and travel time to the nearest cooling and urban centre. *** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.1Following the 'structure-conduct-performance' literature, here we first present results on structure, then conduct, and finally, performance. We surveyed 94 dairy groups in 73 SDCP communities, and 90 dairy groups in 83 control communities; we note here that enumerators surveyed the 'most important' dairy groups within communities. The first difference to note is that there were more dairy group questionnaires implemented in the SDCP than in the control communities. Also, the results we present here are naïve differences between SDCP and control dairy groups. Finally, we only summarise the main results of a larger report on dairy groups; full results can be found in that report.In terms of basic structure, nearly all dairy groups had an elected chair, and nearly all of the groups (97 per cent) were legally registered and had by-laws or a written constitution. Additionally, there was similar representation of women as respondents to the dairy group questionnaire and in terms of positions held within the dairy group -just over 50 per cent for both the SDCP and control dairy groups.On the other hand, SDCP groups were more likely to also have an elected secretary and treasurer. We expected that groups with more formalised structures should have performed better in this context, primarily because one of the main goals of the programme was to link the dairy groups to the milk value chain rather than focusing exclusively on intercommunity activities, and also because dues were collected and managed, meaning accountability was important.Committees may also have improved the performance of dairy groups, enabling subgroup members to focus on specific tasks and enabling members with specific expertise to exploit their comparative advantages within a committee. However, the data indicated that SDCP groups were not more likely to have specific committees overall and were significantly less likely to have financial committees.Additionally, SDCP groups were more likely to have monthly meetings, but control groups were more likely to hold weekly meetings. More meetings may mean greater opportunities to share information and engage in decision making, but too many meetings may also be inefficient. Thus, evidence on structure is somewhat mixed: there were more elected positions, but fewer committees, and meetings were held less often.We have only two aspects of conduct: how decisions were made and sources of financing accessed. In terms of decision making, there were very few differences between the SDCP and control dairy groups across decisions on three broad areas: financing, marketing and information acquisition, and dissemination. We allowed for decisions to be made by consensus, by the chair with other key members, and by committee.The only statistically significant difference was that information decisions for the SDCP group were more likely to have been made by the chair plus other key members. For the control dairy groups, information decisions were more evenly spread across the three decision-making mechanisms. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that while finance and marketing decisions were most often made by consensus in more than 50 per cent of both the SDCP and control communities, consensus-based decision-making was less important for information decisions: between 32 per cent and 36 per cent for the SDCP and control communities, respectively.Next, we asked about four specific types of financing and a fifth 'other' category. Here, the SDCP and control groups exhibited a number of statistically significant differences. The SDCP groups were far more likely to obtain financing from micro-finance institutions (14 per cent versus 1 per cent); from 'other' sources that were mainly different types of local credit and savings groups (55 per cent versus 43 per cent); and from commercial banks (5 per cent versus 1 per cent). Both the SDCP and control groups, however, also relied heavily on members' dues, with 93 per cent stating they relied on member dues for both groups. Overall, both the SDCP and control groups exhibited similar patterns in decision-making procedures, but the SDCP groups were more likely to obtain financing from a wider range of financial institutions.Finally, we had a number of measures of dairy group performance including the different types and frequencies of conflict, different types of trainings and various other dairy group activities. With respect to conflicts, we asked about unpaid dues, amount of dues, participation in trainings, financial issues, management issues and other conflicts.For the most part, the SDCP and control groups faced similar percentages of conflicts, with the exception of unpaid dues. In the SDCP groups, only 21 per cent said there were conflicts over unpaid dues, versus 37 per cent for control groups. This is interesting because the SDCP groups were much less likely to have financial committees, but they were also more likely to have an elected treasurer.Evidence suggests having an elected treasurer may be more important than having specific financing committees, but we did not ask specifically about how members' dues were collected, which could have shed more light on this issue. Also of interest is that 39 per cent of both the SDCP and control groups indicated that there had been conflicts. Outside of unpaid dues, the most important categories of conflicts included management issues, amount of dues and 'other' issues.Where we saw the most significant difference between the SDCP and control dairy groups was in trainings made available to dairy group members. Of nine dairy group topics, the SDCP groups stated that at least one training had occurred, which was statistically greater than control groups on all nine topics. The differences were particularly pronounced for the following topics: dairy group management, proposal writing and fodder management.Finally, we asked about a number of other services the dairy groups provided, including organising educational exchange tours, collecting/sharing milk price data, facilitating links between members and input suppliers, facilitating links between members and milk purchasers, contracting with input suppliers on behalf of members, contracting with milk purchasers on behalf of members, and 'other'.There was very little difference between the SDCP and control dairy groups on the percentage of groups that offered the different services, except that the SDCP groups were more likely to contract with milk purchasers on behalf of members (11% versus 2%). It is also interesting to note that over 70 per cent of groups (both the SDCP and control groups) arranged educational exchange tours, while less than 30 per cent of groups undertook any of the other services.Overall, the evidence from the dairy group survey suggested that the SDCP dairy groups functioned and performed a bit differently than the comparison groups. In particular, they were more likely to have elected officials below the chair; more likely to access multiple sources of financing; less likely to face conflicts over collecting dues from members; and more likely to contract with milk purchasers on behalf of members, albeit at a relatively low rate (11 per cent).The most striking difference, however, was in the number of trainings, provided primarily by the SDCP to dairy group members. This suggests that there is room to improve the performance of the SDCP dairy groups, particularly in terms of the services that the SDCP promotes to reduce smallholders' transaction costs in accessing dairy inputs and milk markets, thereby increasing net revenues accruing to smallholders.One of the key goals of the SDCP was to increase the income of poor rural households that depended substantially on production and trade of dairy products for their livelihoods. To attain this goal, the programme focused on improving productivity, making some inputs more accessible and emphasising the importance of value adding and more reliable trade relations. In this section, we investigate programme impacts on some key final outcomes of the programme.First, we look at the effects that the programme had on cattle size and composition. As shown in Table 12, we found that, relative to the comparison group, the SDCP farmers not only owned 0.5 more head of cattle (including cows, males, heifers, calves and preweaning males), but also had a higher number of cows (that calved at least once), as well as animals they were currently milking. Interestingly, these higher impacts on the number of animals was mostly explained by a higher number of crossbreed cattle and not of the more productive exotic (i.e. grade) breeds. Notes: impacts were estimated using IPWRA (doubly-robust estimator). Robust standard errors are in parentheses. All estimations control for: household and household head characteristics; plot and crop production characteristics for primary and secondary rainy seasons; availability of other agricultural and livestock support programmes in the village; and pre-programme divisionlevel characteristics, including milk density in litres per km 2 , proportion of people below the poverty line, and travel time to the nearest cooling and urban centre. *** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.1We then investigated programme impacts on milk production, commercialisation and total value. Our findings indicated that the SDCP farmers were 8 percentage points more likely to sell milk in the morning and evening, although only the morning propensity to sell was statistically significant. The evidence suggests that the SDCP farmers were selling more milk in the market, although the results again were not statistically significant at the 10 per cent level of significance. Nevertheless, those farmers selling to the market could get a selling price that was 31 per cent higher than the selling price non-beneficiaries received. Overall, the total value of milk sold (calculated as the quantity of milk sold times the price) observed by the SDCP farmers, was 43 per cent higher than the value of the comparison group. Moreover, the SDCP farmers showed a higher level of milk production for animals at calving as well as higher total production, calculated as the sum of milk sold, consumed in the household, and lost. ***0.37 1.13 1.50 (0.11) Notes: impacts were estimated using IPWRA (doubly-robust estimator). Robust standard errors are in parentheses. All estimations control for: household and household head characteristics; plot and crop production characteristics for primary and secondary rainy seasons; availability of other agricultural and livestock support programmes in the village; and pre-programme divisionlevel characteristics, including milk density in litres per km 2 , proportion of people below the poverty line, and travel time to the nearest cooling and urban centre. *** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.1. All production values and selling prices are expressed in logs. Total milk production includes milk sold, consumed in the household, and lost. These quantitative results were supported by qualitative data on the perceived effect of the SDCP on farmers' incomes from dairy farming. Without being prompted, FGD participants said they believed SDCP-sponsored activities had enabled them to more easily pay bills and send their children to school. One participant said, 'My milk production has increased and that's more income. With it, I have taken my children to school.' The perceived effect of the programme on income could partly result from the SDCP focus on recordkeeping. One farmer said, 'There is recordkeeping -tracking milk production and noting fall in its production -and getting to understand source of the problem and how to solve it.' Although qualitative data cannot accurately indicate whether there was a real nominal increase in production and productivity per animal, FGD participants from treatment groups generally perceived a difference in production as a result of the SDCP. Multiple anecdotes indicated farmers' perceptions of increased productivity. One farmer described her increased yields: 'Initially I would only get three cups of milk, but currently my cow is producing seven bottles.' She also added that this increase helps to pay for school fees.FGD participants said they believed increased income as a result of the SDCP had enabled them to keep a variety of foods available in their households. One farmer said that his family's general health had improved, while others said they now consistently had tea with milk in their house. Farmers' perceptions of increased food security may partially have resulted from understanding better practices for growing crops, including the use of cow dung as fertiliser. One farmer said, 'The animal manure from both the goats and cattle is channelled on the farm, which in turn fastens the growth of crops and more yields -this too has ensured a consistent supply of food in key households.'This evidence from the qualitative data is in line with the estimated impacts on the ability of the SDCP households to translate higher incomes into higher levels of food security. The survey includes details about food consumption within households to get a sense of how higher incomes have led to greater dietary diversity, which is a proxy for food security.One such measure of food security was developed by the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project (FANTA); greater values of the FANTA measure indicate more food insecurity. The FANTA project includes guidelines for a dietary diversity questionnaire that can be used at the household level. Specifically, this diversity measure involves calculating dietary diversity scores by summing up the number of food groups consumed by a household member over a reference period (our questionnaire set this to be the past seven days). Thus, the dietary diversity scores consist of a simple count of food groups that the household has consumed in the past seven days.The results in Table 14 show that the SDCP households were more likely to have a more diverse food basket, especially of foods with higher levels of animal and vegetable proteins (e.g. red meats, milk products, and legumes such as beans, peas, lentils and nuts), and lower levels of tuber and fruit consumption, which are nonetheless still quite common among the SDCP farmers. Overall, the results provide evidence that programme beneficiaries exhibited higher levels of food diversification towards more nutritious food items. Notes: impacts were estimated using IPWRA (doubly-robust estimator). Robust standard errors are in parentheses. All estimations control for: household and household head characteristics; plot and crop production characteristics for primary and secondary rainy seasons; availability of other agricultural and livestock support programmes in the village; and pre-programme divisionlevel characteristics, including milk density in litres per km 2 , proportion of people below the poverty line, and travel time to the nearest cooling and urban centre. *** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.1In this section, we investigate differential programme effects by sex of the household head. As indicated earlier, one of the goals of the SDCP was to serve women dairy farmers and the dairy groups they form. As a result, being a female-headed household increased the probability of participating in the programme by 11 percentage points (see Table 4). To the extent that female-headed households tend to have a lower socioeconomic status than male-headed households (e.g. female-headed households have fewer working-age members, have fewer consumer durables or agricultural implements, and have fewer extensions of cultivated land), programme impacts may have been different in terms of this sex dimension.We first explore programme impacts on household decision making. As part of the household survey, we collected information on numerous variables regarding who in the household participated in making decisions about dairy activities, including use of inputs and providers, management of money from milk sales, and requests for dairy-related trainings. All the questions considered allowed respondents to choose from five options about who made the decisions: household male, household female, joint household (male and female), non-household member and 'other'. For analytical purposes, we created indicator variables for all decision-making questions where the variable is equal to 1 if a female member made the decision, and 0 otherwise.We present the results for some key variables in Table 15. 6 For most of the outcomes considered, the programme had a positive effect on the probability of making a decision relative to the comparison group. Treated households were 9 percentage points more likely to have a female managing the cash from fresh milk sold, relative to non-SDCP households. Also, the SDCP households were 7 and 11 percentage points more likely than the comparison group to have a female deciding the provider for bull and AI services, respectively. Lastly, household beneficiaries were more likely to have a female deciding the use of different services such as use of anthelmintics, tick control, vaccination and curative treatments. (0.03) Notes: impacts were estimated using IPWRA (doubly-robust estimator). Robust standard errors are in parentheses. All estimations control for: household and household head characteristics; plot and crop production characteristics for primary and secondary rainy seasons; availability of other agricultural and livestock support programmes in the village; and pre-programme divisionlevel characteristics, including milk density in litres per km 2 , proportion of people below the poverty line, and travel time to the nearest cooling and urban centre. *** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.1The overall results indicate that the SDCP programme had a positive impact on the welfare of female dairy farmers by empowering women to make decisions related to dairy production. These quantitative results are encouraging, since the qualitative results did not provide insight into the gender dynamics of dairy farming. Gender was included as a topic in FGDs, but farmers had very little interesting information to share about their perspectives on gender.The total cost of the SDCP was KSH 1,515,614,910 for the period from 2006 to 2016. Appendix Table B1 includes the yearly expenses across categories. The largest category of expenses was 'technical assistance, training and workshops', which amounted to 33.4 per cent of the overall budget. This large share of the budget is not surprising since many of the programme activities related to this line item. Other higher categories of expenses included 'salaries and allowances' (17.5 per cent), 'vehicle and office operating costs' (13.2 per cent) and 'vehicles, equipment and materials' (14.5 per cent).To compare the costs to the benefit that each farmer received from the programme, we first need an estimate of the costs per beneficiary. To determine the number of beneficiaries, we examined the dairy groups inventory from the programme counties and divisions, summarised in Appendix Table B2. Most of the inventories were updated in 2012, with some having been revised in 2011. Across treatment divisions, there were 505 dairy groups, with 15,535 total dairy group members. On average, each dairy group had 30.8 members. Taking the total costs from Appendix Table B1 and the total number of beneficiaries from Appendix Table B2, we can estimate that the total costs per beneficiary were around KSH 97,561 (equal to KSH 1,515,614,910 divided by 15,535).We next need a measure of the benefits of the programme at farmer level. While we recognise that the programme is associated with a variety of farmer-level benefits, we focus on the benefit of increased milk production for the purpose of this analysis, since that was one of the main goals of the SDCP. The unconditional average amount of milk produced the preceding day for a farmer in the comparison group was 3.81 litres, where this estimate includes zero values for comparison group farmers who produced no milk the preceding day.Our impact estimates (Table 13) suggest that the programme increased milk production by 37 per cent, suggesting that the additional amount of milk produced yesterday by a farmer in the treatment group is 1.41 litres. Because our estimate of the milk produced the preceding day included values of zero for when the farmer did not produce milk that day, these estimates reflect the amount produced on an average day. We assume this average level of production throughout the year and multiply the estimate of 1.41 additional litres per day by 365 days in a year to estimate that the additional milk produced by a farmer in a year is 514.65 litres. In monetary terms, this is equivalent to a benefit of KSH 20,586 per farmer since the unconditional mean of the price per litre of milk, which excludes zeros for those who did not sell milk, is KSH 40. This benefit estimate corresponds to the 2016 timeframe, as the data on the preceding day's milk production was collected in 2016.With an estimated total cost per beneficiary of KSH 97,561 and an estimated per farmer benefit of KSH 20,586 in the year 2016, we calculate that it would take around 4.74 years (equal to KSH 97,561 divided by KSH 20,586) to break even; that is, for the benefits to equal the costs, assuming the benefits of KSH 20,586 remain constant across years. This estimate of the number of years to break even seems reasonable, because although there were not likely to have been any benefits at the beginning of the programme (when upfront costs were associated with setting up the SDCP), farmers were likely to have begun to benefit from the programme before 2016. Furthermore, to the extent that farmers continue to employ the best practices the programme advocated, the benefits may extend into future years. In addition, these estimates seem reasonable because we only examined the benefits of increased milk production, and the SDCP benefited treatment farmers in a variety of dimensions.Overall, the results suggest that the SDCP was successful in increasing milk production, but with more limited -though positive -impacts on increasing milk marketing and increasing milk prices received by smallholders. Thus, we first summarise results in milk production then on milk marketing. We end the section with a summary of the key challenges remaining.The SDCP households surveyed were more likely to have received information on all of the practices the SDCP promoted, versus control households; they were also more likely to have adopted those practices. In addition, the SDCP households were more likely to have crossbred cows, used AI services and accessed a wider range of health services. Finally, they were also more likely to have adopted recommended management practices and investments, including practising zero grazing, having concrete floors and feeding concentrates. In fact, control households did not perform better on any measure of input use, management or investment, with just one exception: the SDCP households were less likely to clean cows' teats before milking. Overall, these improved input and management practices led to increased milk production.In addition to increasing milk production per cow, another key objective of the SDCP was to even out milk production across the year by increasing access to adequate feed and fodder throughout the year. Because of the difficulty in obtaining recall data on milk production throughout the year, we have no direct evidence on whether SDCP farmers actually have more even outputs. We found that the SDCP farmers were more likely to adopt fodder establishment, hay making, silage making and conservation of crop residues, all of which should increase availability of adequate fodder throughout the year. However, adoption rates for each of these practices were below 15 per cent, suggesting there may still be room to improve activities and trainings aimed at evening out fodder availability, and thus milk production, over the year.Results from the household survey were consistent with results from the dairy group survey and the FGDs. The SDCP dairy group respondents noted increased access to trainings on almost all topics. In particular, 79 per cent of the SDCP dairy groups noted that at least one training had been provided on fodder management, well above the 36 per cent in control dairy groups. However, household respondents were less likely to receive information on various practices, implying that relatively few households in the dairy groups attended these trainings. In fact, the number of dairy group leaders and members attending trainings was somewhat limited, at about 16 attendees for the SDCP trainings and slightly fewer in control groups. This implies scope for increasing dissemination of knowledge learned at trainings to the wider group of dairy farmers who could not attend.FGD participants thought that the SDCP project helped them achieve higher milk yields, higher income and greater food security. The most frequently discussed benefit was improved animal management. Many participants also discussed the need to make and preserve fodder to ensure year-round availability of fodder for their dairy cows, and the SDCP farmers appear to have a more sophisticated knowledge of fodder management. However, they also expressed that some farmers faced barriers in adopting best practices. In part, FGD participants thought the increased availability and consistency of technical services the SDCP provided would increase the number of adopters. Additionally, many farmers had misconceptions about how AI works, and many also thought the price was too high, particularly given that success first time is not guaranteed.Total milk production and milk sold were higher for the SDCP, although the impact was higher for production than for milk marketed. In part, this appears to have been because the SDCP producers were more likely to have sold any milk the preceding day; in particular, they were more likely to have sold milk in the evening, and in both the morning and the evening. This evidence suggests that there were positive impacts on milk marketing.On the other hand, from the household survey, the percentage of households receiving information on market-related topics was generally lower than for production-related and farm management topics for both the SDCP and control groups, although the SDCP households were more likely to have received market-related information than controls. Just nine per cent of households noted that they had received information on fresh milk marketing, with even fewer having received information on value addition and cooperative milk marketing. Similarly, in the dairy group surveys, 59 per cent reported trainings related to marketing, which is significantly below the number reporting trainings on production-related activities such as fodder management (79 per cent).The dairy group survey also reflects more limited impacts on marketing services they provided to their members. First, there were limited differences between treated and control dairy groups in the types of services offered. Only 20 per cent of the SDCP groups facilitated links between members and input suppliers, while 24 per cent facilitated linking members to milk purchasers, which is similar to the percentages observed in control groups. Just 9 per cent of the SDCP dairy groups contracted with input suppliers on behalf of members, and 11 per cent contracted with milk purchasers on behalf of members. However, while 11 per cent was fairly low, it was significantly higher than control groups that contracted with milk purchasers, at 2 per cent. Some treatment FGDs said they thought the project had reduced transaction costs, and one participant said that it had become easier to find a steadier customer base. On the other hand, many participants also noted that entering the market was still a challenge for many farmers, and the FGD interviewers noted that farmers expressed a lack of understanding of how to expand their business.One of the more successful initiatives to help farmers access input and output markets appears to have been the expansion of access to credit, as primarily documented in the dairy group surveys and FGDs. The SDCP dairy groups were more likely to have accessed a wider range of sources of finance, including micro-finance and commercial sources, but particularly local savings and loan clubs. Similarly, treatment farmers in FGDs frequently mentioned the SDCP trainings, which led to the establishment of merrygo-round and table banking groups.Overall, the SDCP activities contributed to a positive overall picture of the impact and perceptions of the SDCP on Kenyan dairy farmers, particularly for dairy production. However, insights from the qualitative data also point to challenges in service provision, use of technical knowledge and skills, and institutional coordination that could have enhanced the programme.Key informants notably expressed different primary challenges to dairy farming commercialisation in Kenya than their beneficiary counterparts, albeit that the challenges were also elements that the SDCP actively aims to address. In addition to mentioning challenges associated with increasing uptake of improved feed management, marketing and dairy farm management, key informants' top two most frequently mentioned challenges were: (1) the availability and consistency of technical services that relate to the SDCP; and (2) the lack of uptake and use of available knowledge and technical skills among farmers.Discussion of these two primary challenges was related. Many key informants particularly mentioned extension among government-provided services that suffer because of lack of staff and funding. One informant said, 'All development projects within the county go through the same officers within the county, [and the] number of staff are not enough to reach out to those communities.' This statement highlights that despite the provision of SDCP activities, a staffing bottleneck may prevent these services from being implemented as intended. One trainer from the Ministry of Agriculture recommended that they 'visit the groups mid-year to see if they implement what we have trained them on and if they have any technical challenges.' Given that such services aim to help farmers with technical knowledge, it makes sense that the use of available knowledge and technical skills was also a notable challenge. Even in cases where key informants believed that information about technical skills in farm management had reached the farmers, they then mentioned challenges with farmers being able to use the knowledge because of capital constraints. One key informant pointed out this constraint: 'Much as we offer the extension, services may not be adequate and…farmers are slow in taking up the services that we offer.' The same key informant connected the challenge of services with financial challenges on the part of the farmer: 'Like in AI -as much it is subsidised, farmers still complain that the price is too high. The farmers have not fully the idea of commercialisation.'In addition to lack of capital to consistently implement farm and animal management practices, farmers also face challenges negotiating their entrance into markets. One dairy group chair said of the SDCP, 'Now that they have improved our lives by providing machines for handling milk, they should try to continue supporting us to see that we can even package and market for ourselves.' This indicates that despite having had trainings on marketing, not all farmers have put the changes into practice.Farmers were also unable to concretely identify how to go about expanding their business in other ways. One dairy group member said, 'I would like if we could get capital to invest in our business of making feeds and we market them and sale to other places.' However, capital was an issue in this group, as well as others. Another farmer said, 'If we can get our own doctors and at least our group to pay for the treatment then they can deduct the cost in milk, then we would really prosper.'FGDs indicated there were challenges with linking farmers and dairy groups to various service providers, and that farmers did not always have the knowledge to negotiate to their benefit. Key informants agreed that bringing service providers together continued to be a challenge. One key informant said there continued to be 'inadequate coordination of the value chain actors, especially in terms of contract terms and contractual agreements.' Farmers generally did not discuss interactions with value chain actors other than AI providers and veterinary officers. One farmer said:[With] the service providers, it's on need basis; while the agricultural extension officers, we meet them on weekly basis as they liaise with other stakeholders, like [the] World Bank [or others who] deal with breeding of animals and rearing of chickens.This indicated that, in some cases, they relied on extension officers for coordination of major animal management activities.There was no mention among dairy group farmers or their chairs of any formal contractual arrangements with banks, service providers or other actors in the value chain. The lack of agreements was evident when one key informant said he wished there could be 'proper structures on marketing of milk and increased production of milk from individual farmers. We should not experience [the] case that happened in Nyandarua where they poured milk because they did not have a place to take it.' One farmer explained that his group had entered into a marketing agreement:We have approached an organisation called [the] Inter Region Economic Network and they came in and researched and decided they will bring us marketers for our products, and as a result we shall sell our milk as individuals. So the agreement was they sell the milk in very huge amounts and they keep 15 per cent and us the rest 85 per cent.However, there was no other mention of such arrangements.Finally, a major challenge to programme implementation that multiple key informants cited was the inability to get SDCP funds through the various levels of the government to enable timely implementation of initiatives on the ground. Key informants mentioned particular elements of funding, including disbursing funds from the national level of the government, enabling payments to service providers, and -even among farmers -the inability to purchase services, which some informants speculated came from an impression among farmers that they should not have to pay for services or should receive a payment for attending trainings. This challenge among farmers aligned with the existing idea that farmers had not fully taken up the trainings. One informant reiterated, 'The challenges on finances…hamper implementation, [including with] group issues on governance, leadership and resource mobilisation. They may have the knowledge, but still those conflicts arise.' At the level of government implementation, one key informant said there was a challenge with 'authority to incur expenditure; you cannot actually be allowed to spend before it's signed.' At the time of the interview, it had been more than a month since the office was supposed to have received the authority to incur expenditure, but it still had not received it. Key informants provided mixed responses on whether devolution caused any of these challenges with implementation of the SDCP, although some respondents thought having an extra layer of bureaucracy might contribute to the slowdown of funds and information flow (despite the programme still being implemented from the national level).The results of the evaluation of the SDCP programme can be used to inform the design and implementation of similar dairy policies and projects elsewhere in Kenya and in other developing countries. First, there are at least 16 counties in Kenya that, although not served by the programme, have comparably resource-poor dairy farmers who we expect would benefit in similar ways from SDCP activities should they receive the programme.Although road densities might differ from the densities that IFAD and the GoK selected, the selected districts had high road densities and were also relatively contiguous in order to ease SDCP management. Thus, the results should extend to similar areas in Kenya with high road densities that are not necessarily contiguous.Second, dairy farmers across East Africa share many of the features and challenges that smallholder dairy farmers face in Kenya. Most small dairy farmers from neighbouring countries live in subtropical areas suitable for dairy cattle and produce milk as an important part of their diet (Thorpe et al. 2000). These dairy farmers also face similar challenges, such as lack of training and availability of production inputs that prevent them from commercialising their dairy products in the most efficient way.More generally, the effects of the SDCP programme can provide insights about other types of agricultural extension programmes to smallholder farmers in developing countries. A key objective of agricultural extension is to increase farmers' knowledge about agricultural practices, which in turn should have an effect on productivity. The traditional extension model, known as a 'training and visit' extension, is characterised by government-employed extension agents visiting farmers individually or in groups to demonstrate agricultural best practices (Anderson and Birner 2007).However, the training and visit approach has been criticised for several reasons. First, given limited transportation infrastructure in rural areas and high costs of delivering information in person, in some developing countries the reach of extension programmes is limited. Second, as it is costly to provide agricultural extension programmes to farmers on a recurring basis, infrequent and irregular meetings limit the ability to provide timely information, which further limits the ability of farmers to provide timely information. Last, the information provided to farmers is usually too top-down, which results in inadequate diagnosis of the difficulties farmers currently face, as well as information that is often too technical for semi-literate farming populations.The SDCP programme has key features that may help overcome some of the limitations of this traditional extension approach. In particular, a key aspect of the programme is that it aims to build the capacity of groups of farmers through trainings that allow them to identify their most pressing needs and design work plans to request more targeted assistance from the programme in terms of information and resources. By increasing the capacity of groups and not only individual farmers, the programme may not only be more cost efficient, but also generate positive externalities for other farmers in the area who may later become part of the groups.The programme incentivises farmers to organise and compete for additional funds to improve their productivity. Our results are consistent with this approach to extension; however, our results also suggest that more needs to be done to help group members who participate in trainings to subsequently share the knowledge they learn with group members who did not participate.We also believe that the quantitative results provide useful information on the impacts of a complex project for smallholder dairy farmers in other regions in Kenya and in neighbouring countries who face similar market characteristics. However, given the specificities associated with milk production and marketing, we do not expect that the results would be easily generalisable to other cash crop markets.","tokenCount":"19640"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8054fe4d9b510a219e1171468733ef33","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/796fbcd2-ea69-4fe1-8372-a52389ae98b9/retrieve","id":"1675164581"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"312e1311-2805-4fdf-8f37-1a4f6a5d1f11","pagecount":"15","content":"Improved forages: Set of forage species (grasses and legumes) with wide adaptability to diverse climate and soil conditions, of high production and quality, and tolerant or resistant to pests and diseases in pastures. X The magnitude of changes may be affected by location and farm-specific factors (e.g., climate, type of technology adopted, willingness of farmer to reinvest, etc.).• The study uses a primary dataset collected in 2017 by CIAT and different Partners.• Data were obtained through a multistage sampling procedure with 1,039 cattle households• A propensity score matching (PSM) model was used to assess the causal impact of technology adoption on producer welfare (PPI, HDDS)• We considerer adopters at different levels: non-low adoption (>25%); partial-adoption (>50%); highadoption (>75%); and full adoption (>99%).This study aims at measuring the causal effect of adopting improved forages in cattle systems on poverty indicators at the household level.  • Estimation of p-scores using a probit-logit model.• Matching algorithm: teffects and psmatch2.Results-Adoption of improved forages  Results-Probit model Location Producers from the Caribbean and Orinoquia regions are more likely to adopt improved forages than the ones from the Amazon region.Credit access and technical assistance have a negative and significant effect on forage adoption.Climate change vulnerability Producers who have faced climatic events like droughts and floods are more likely to adopt improved pastures.Households and farm characteristics • Household and sociodemographic characteristics seem not to affect adoption.• Improved forage adoption is negatively affected by farm size. Results-Causal effect on poverty. o Adopting improved forages reduces the probability to fall under the poverty line. The effect is only significant at higher levels of technology adoption (full adoption). o Cattle farmers who adopt improved forages for the whole pasture area in their farms, reduce their probability of living in poverty (4% and 3%, according to the poverty line).o The adoption of improved pastures, although considerable with respect to the total farm area, is dominated by improved pastures released before the 90's which are used with management deficiencies (fertilization).o The variables technical assistance and access to credit seem to be discouraging the adoption of improved pastures.o Improved adoption of forages is significantly influenced by location. Several factors can contribute, including agro-ecological conditions, institutional factors, and regulations.o Producers were less likely to live below the poverty line with full adoption of improved forages.o Better production indicators (e.g., stocking rate) and more frequent fertilization of pastures (although still at low levels) are highlighted at higher levels of adoption.","tokenCount":"404"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/0048941691.json b/data/part_3/0048941691.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cdd13d36b1c312ced986d4c6dd2dae26","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4a4d5bcc-e876-4f0d-a4e6-c9acc241d93e/retrieve","id":"-1194678054"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"93df92d7-765d-463c-ae87-af3ed6bab7d7","pagecount":"28","content":"El objetivo de este estudio se orienta a realizar una revisión y análisis de proyectos implementados por el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) para articular la producción agrícola con la nutrición y presentar una síntesis de los resultados obtenidos. Estos proyectos son parte de una estrategia conceptual de contribución a la disminución de la desnutrición y la anemia en la zona andina.Desde hace algunos años se viene tratando de desarrollar un enfoque de intervenciones en la agricultura como estrategia para mejorar el estado nutricional de las poblaciones rurales (Haddad, 2000;Pinstrub-Andersen y Pandya-Lorch, 2001). Masset et al. (2011), realiza la siguiente clasificación de intervenciones: introducción de alimentos biofortificados; huertos familiares; acuicultura y pequeña piscicultura; producción lechera y promoción de alimentos de origen animal.La biodiversidad -tanto silvestre como cultivada-contribuye a la sostenibilidad de la producción agrícola mediante el acceso a la diversidad genética y al material necesario para impulsar la innovación y la adaptación a nuevos procesos.Frecuentemente, los aportes nutricionales y de salud de la biodiversidad no se toman muy en cuenta, dejando de lado que cuando se conectan la biodiversidad, la agricultura y la nutrición pueden lograr una fuerte asociación que conduce a una mayor seguridad alimentaria y nutricional -Proceso de incrementar la densidad de vitaminas y minerales en un cultivo, mediante el fitomejoramiento o prácticas agronómicas -Tiene la finalidad de mejorar el estado nutricional de las personas que lo consumen.-Es una estrategia sostenible y complementaria a otras intervenciones para disminuir los niveles de desnutrición en poblaciones vulnerables.  Se han identificado 24 variedades nativas de un grupo de 200 variedades, provenientes de Apurímac y Huancavelica, que por sus altos niveles constituyen una alternativa para complementar los requerimientos de macro y micro nutrientes en poblaciones vulnerables.Asimismo por sus contenidos de antioxidantes naturales son la base para una diferenciación comercial que amplíen su comercio y generen ingresos para los pequeños productores.Se han implementado 108 granjas familiares y 60% de las familias han incrementado notablemente el número de cuyes, entre 50 a 80 cabezas y vienen comercializando en las ferias locales. Las familias incluyen en su dieta la carne de cuy, las vísceras y la sangre de alto contenido de hierro, ideales para la alimentación de los niños y madres gestantes.Más de 200 productores de Apurímac y Huancavelica han participado en sesiones de aprendizaje en técnicas para la producción de semilla de calidad (\"selección positiva\" dirigida a pequeños productores). En la campaña 2012/2013 se ha encontrado un incremento del volumen de producción comercial en alrededor del 40% y una mejora de la calidad (sanidad y tamaño), atribuido al uso de semilla de calidad.A través de las Redes de Salud han sido capacitados en habilidades comunicacionales y en consejería nutricional un total de 42 profesionales de la salud y 60 agentes comunitarios de salud (voluntarios y voluntarias comunales), en 37 sesiones demostrativas, 25 consejerías nutricionales y 30 sesiones de vigilancia comunitaria con niños menores de tres años.Se ha desarrollado conjuntamente con el MINSA la \"Guía de Consejería Nutricional\" que está siendo ampliamente difundida.En Apurímac se ha incorporado la agenda de seguridad alimentaria en el Plan Estratégico Regional del Sector Agrario (PERSA) y se ha aprobado la Ordenanza Regional que reconoce el PERSA 2012 -2021. En Huancavelica, la Unidad de Gestión Educativa Local (UGEL) ha incorporado nuevas temáticas de alimentación y calidad de vida y productividad agropecuaria en la currícula escolar de la región.Asimismo, los gobiernos locales de cinco distritos, cuentan con ordenanzas aprobadas en sesión de consejo a favor de la lucha contra la desnutrición crónica en niños/as menores de tres años.• Se ha utilizado una muestra de 148 familias participantes, en las regiones de Huancavelica y Apurímac, donde se observaba una alta prevalencia de desnutrición crónica infantil (42% en menores de 2 años).• La literatura empírica que analiza en forma rigurosa los vínculos agricultura-nutrición en los sistemas productivos basados en papa es todavía escasa (Creed-Kanashiro et al., 2015).• Se presentan varios resultados obtenidos sobre las relaciones existentes entre las características productivas y nutricionales de hogares vulnerables con intervenciones en los sistemas de producción basados en papa.Un modelo de regresión lineal múltiple truncada donde las variables dependientes se refieren a las características nutricionales de interés: porcentaje de adecuación del consumo diario recomendado (ACD) de hierro y de zinc en niños menores de 3 años que son cubiertos por la dieta familiar. Las variables independientes, seleccionadas a través de análisis de correlaciones univariadas, identifican las características productivas y socioeconómicas de los hogares de la muestra. Se observó una relación positiva y altamente significativa entre la producción de papa nativa destinada al consumo en los hogares con el porcentaje de ACD de hierro (p≤0.004) y zinc (p≤0.0001) en los niños entre 6 meses y 3 años de las familias integrantes de la submuestra. También, se observó una relación positiva y altamente significativa entre ACD de hierro (p≤0.009) y zinc (p≤0.0001) con la crianza en los hogares de animales menores para el consumo y venta. Otras variables con relación positiva y significativa fueron la edad del menor (p≤0.0001) con ACD de hierro y zinc y el área de papa mejorada (p≤0.043) con ACD de hierro únicamente. Los resultados indicaron que el consumo de cultivares de papas nativas con mayores contenidos de hierro disminuían la probabilidad de tener un consumo inadecuado de hierro.Cantidad adicional de papa vendida (t/agricultor) .• La mejora de la producción agrícola y la diversificación de la dieta son elementos interrelacionados en la agricultura familiar de estos sistemas agroalimentarios que deben ser complementados con estrategias de generación de ingresos, adecuadas a cada territorio.• Deben formularse y adaptarse instrumentos de intervención concretos y operativos en distintas dimensiones, incluyendo innovaciones agrícolas (ej. nuevas variedades de papa adaptadas a las condiciones locales), educación nutricional (ej. mensajes para aprovechar disponibilidad de alimentos locales), y un enfoque territorial que aproveche o complemente las capacidades e intervenciones locales existentes, como los programas de protección social del gobierno.Continúa… .• La articulación sectorial en el ámbito territorial es un factor clave para armonizar las políticas que se implementan a nivel nacional con la participación de actores regionales y locales con mayor presencia y llegada en esos territorios.• Las intervenciones para mejorar los sistemas de producción con base en innovaciones (Mi Riego, Agrorural, PSI-Sierra, Foncodes) se deberían articular con intervenciones de los programas de protección social relacionadas con la nutrición y la salud (Cuna Más, Qali Warma, Dieta Andina, «La mejor compra», más recientemente Hambre Cero, educación nutricional con las postas de salud), y con los fondos de investigación que también tengan el objetivo de aumentar la producción agrícola para la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional. .Continúa… .• Las experiencias y resultados presentados generan evidencias que las intervenciones en los sistemas agrícolas basados en papa combinados con la educación nutricional pueden mejorar el consumo de categorías específicas de alimentos y promover la diversidad de la dieta, pero faltan todavía evidencias más específicas sobre los alcances nutricionales y de salud en los integrantes de las familias.• Considerando que la crisis generada por la COVID-19 afectó fuertemente a los sistemas productivos y alimentarios de los segmentos más vulnerables de la agricultura familiar, se debe introducir esta variable en análisis posteriores. ","tokenCount":"1183"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fe79c252cc3c81186c0c81d2bc53ce97","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5d0efeb0-28e6-44ac-bef9-8b535d21becc/retrieve","id":"-1085266432"},"keywords":["potato","value chain","potato marketing","seed potato","India","Meghalaya"],"sieverID":"5aba17a9-a364-437b-baef-fdffa738592d","pagecount":"68","content":"This document was produced with the support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the European Union (EU). The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of IFAD and EU.Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the world's third most important food crop after rice and wheat (FAO, 2016) due to its high productivity per unit area, culinary versatility, and significant levels of vitamin C, iron, zinc, and other micro-nutrients compared to cereals. In South Asia, potatoes attained their leading rank among vegetables only recently, particularly in the last several decades, coinciding with increasing incomes in the region.India is currently the second largest producer of potato worldwide, after China. Potatoes are the number one vegetable crop in the country, accounting for nearly a third of the total vegetable production. Apart from use as seed, almost all (95%) of potatoes are consumed fresh while the remaining 5% are processed as chips, fries, and other potato products (Reardon et al., 2012). In most parts of the country, potatoes are consumed as a vegetable accompanying rice or a wheat base, and have been considered a \"luxury staple\" (Bouis and Scott, 1996) among high income households. Moreover, the ratio of the potato to rice calorie price in 2010 was an estimated 7.0/1.0 in India. Therefore, for most parts of the country, it is more expensive for consumers to obtain their energy needs from potatoes than from rice or wheat. Despite this, potatoes serve as an increasingly important source of dietary and culinary diversity throughout India. The role of potato in ensuring food security is even greater in Meghalaya, India. The annual per capita availability of potato in Meghalaya is 78.7 kg (Singh et al., 2003), more than four times the national per capita availability of about 18 kg.With the growing predominance of marginal and small-scale farmers in the agricultural sector, including potato producers (NCEUS, 2008), and the growing dependence of these farmers on income from sale of their crops; improving the linkages between these farmers and different types of markets and increasing efficiency in the food value chain are key issues of agricultural development today (Reardon et al., 2012). However, the detailed characteristics of current value chains and the way they are changing are not well understood, even for economically important crops such as potato. Recent literature has mostly focused on innovations in agricultural production that bring about large productivity increases and price decreases. Innovations in trading, marketing and processing could also have significant impacts on agricultural performance and productivity that benefit both producers and consumers, however, less research has been undertaken in this area (Minten et al., 2011). Therefore, there is need for a holistic study of crop value chains; especially increasingly important crops such as potato.The North-Eastern Hill (NEH) states occupies a significant place in India's plan for economic development both for socio-economic as well as geo-political reasons. At the same time, the relatively low rate of development in the region impacts on the country's overall progress. The region is endowed with rich agricultural resources and lush green vegetation, but there are few signs of prosperity. This is very apparent in Meghalaya, one of the eight NEH states, a predominantly agricultural state which produces various crops including potato. Because of high poverty rates and low development indicators, many international development agencies are already involved in improving the livelihood status of NEH states, especially the state of Meghalaya.Among them is the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) funded project titled Food Resilience through Root and Tuber Crops in Upland and Coastal Communities of the Asia-Pacific (FoodSTART+). It is being implemented in the state of Meghalaya in partnership with the Livelihoods and Access to Markets Project (LAMP) program of the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA). The overall goal of FoodSTART+ is to enhance food resilience among poor households in upland and coastal communities of the Asia-Pacific region. One of the project's initial objectives was to carry out RTC scoping studies in the study sites, which recommended the conduct of a potato value chain study in key producing areas in Meghalaya.Potato is grown throughout the year in one part or another of the NEH region, contributing about 10% of the total area for potato production in the country (Gupta et al., 2004). Potato is an important part of prevailing cropping systems among farmers (Kumar et al., 2006), as well as of local diets of the people in the region. In terms of both volume and value, potato is the major commercial crop and the most important root crop in the state (Annex I and II). Meghalaya is the second largest producer of potato in the region, after Assam, in terms of cultivated area at about 18,000 to 20,000 ha. It is cultivated under rainfed conditions, mainly in the hilly tracts of East Khasi Hills which accounts for two-thirds of the area of tuber crops (Annex III). Meghalaya also has an advantage of being able to produce potato in the off-season in most areas, which allows producers to sell at premium prices, unlike other parts of India. However, the proportion of areas being cultivated under various seasons and the linkage of various seasons in terms of seed supply and the varieties used is still unknown.Moreover, the area planted to potato in proportion to the net cropped area in the region is about four times the national average but the average yield is less than half of the national average at around nine tons per hectare. While the yield is quite low, average per capita availability of potato in the state is still higher than the national average. Of these, over 140,000 tons per year enter the marketing chain to supply the local and other NEH states markets, as well as for exports to Bangladesh via informal channels. Nevertheless, in terms of total national production Meghalaya is not a major producer, producing less than 0.5% of the 44 million tons produced in India.This situation is similar to other NEH states, which, despite having 10% of the total potato area of the country only contribute to 4% of the total production. Kadian et al. (2010) attributes this to low productivity in the region, due to the following factors:• Inadequate supply of healthy planting material at reasonable prices due to the high transportation costs of bringing seed from seed production areas in North India which is more than 2000 km away, resulting in use of low quality seeds replanted over many generations.• Fast degeneration of tuber seed caused by viruses and other plant diseases, particularly late blight, due to lack of information on integrated disease management practices.• Lack of awareness and adoption of improved agro-techniques for farmer-based quality seed production.• Unorganized informal seed producers, such as in North and Northwest India.• Limited knowledge of appropriate seed storage practices.• Shifting (Jhum) cultivation in some areas leading to soil erosion, nutrient loss, and degraded soil quality.• Poor plant nutrition, lack of moisture due to lack of irrigation, and out-of-date varieties.Part of the reason for the mainly seed-related constraints listed above is the vegetative propagation of potato through the tuber. RTCs, including potato, also face additional marketing challenges due to its perishability, as well as storage constraints because of its bulkiness (CPRI, 2007). The hilly topography in northeastern states, covering about 70% of the total area, is also a hindrance to potato marketing, increasing transportation costs (Sah et al., 2011). Saikia (2001) further highlighted the lack of storage, processing, and marketing facilities in the northeastern region.These constraints, together with problems of access to agricultural inputs and information, need to be considered in understanding the situation of potato farmers in the region. Diagnosing the problems and identifying alternative strategies can lead to better income flows for farmers. This value chain assessment, therefore, was conducted towards this end. Brown (2009) defined value chain as \"the set of interconnected, value-creating activities undertaken by an enterprise or group of enterprises to develop, produce, deliver and maintain a product or service. \"The overall goal of the study is to characterize the entire potato value chain in Meghalaya to be able to identify major constraints and areas where interventions could significantly increase returns for potato producers including input supply, varietal distribution over seasons, production, processing, and marketing. The results of this assessment will be used to plan LAMP/MBDA activities in this sub-sector.The specific objectives are to:1. Collect and collate the data on various aspects of potato production, marketing, and utilization at the regional and national levels;2. Describe existing market chains for potato in the various seasons;3. Identify the benefits of market participation of potato producers, especially food insecure households;4. Map potato value chains and characterize the actors;5. Examine how the value chain is organized, coordinated, and governed among the key actors;6. Determine profit and marketing margins obtained by actors along the value chain;7. Identify problems, bottlenecks, and opportunities in existing and novel market chains based on the perceptions of different groups of chain actors and stakeholders; and 8. Identify potential innovations for piloting in RTC value chains relevant to food security and equity, as well as efficiency and competitiveness.This study aims to provide a holistic view of the potato value chain in Meghalaya, including the cropping systems and production practices, but focusing more on post-production activities such as storage and marketing. Unlike past research, particular attention was given to ensure that the views of multiple stakeholders were included in this assessment. By understanding the roles and the distribution of benefits and constraints among the various actors across the existing value chain; this study seeks to improve the efficiency of the whole chain and increase the economic benefits flowing back to farmers and other actors in the chain. The results of this research also provides a basis for formulating policies for the benefit of the potato sector within Meghalaya.As with other studies of similar nature, this study was limited by time and financial resources. For this reason, data gathering was restricted to three districts, however, the investigators took measures to ensure that the significant production areas were included. Moreover, due to the limited time for field study, not all key resource persons were interviewed and some seasonal variations and fluctuations such as demand and prices could not be validated.Another challenge encountered during the conduct of this study are inadequate and unreliable data, both from primary and secondary sources. The investigators experienced difficulty in extracting accurate information from farmers and other actors, especially in terms of costs and profits. At the same time, data on agricultural production and marketing from secondary sources are sometimes unreliable or, in the case of cross-border trade of potato, lacking.This study followed a value chain analysis approach to meet its objectives. When a product moves from the producer to the consumer, value is added as several transformations and transactions take place along the chain of interrelated activities, hence, the term value chain is used to describe the product's movement and interaction along this chain. Value chains adapt and respond to several factors, including local conditions, policy and institutional environment, market power, and consumer preferences, among others. The aim of a value chain analysis, therefore, is to assess these factors that influence the value chain.To capacitate the MBDA staff in conducting a value chain analysis, a learning workshop was conducted on 13-15 June 2016 in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya. Staff members were trained on the concept of value chain analysis and the proposed methodologies to be used in conducting the assessment.The workshop was led by value chain experts from CIP and other resource persons and followed a learning-by-doing approach.A cross-sectional research design was used in this study to be able to collect information from various stakeholders including scientists, extension workers, traders, processors, farmers, seed producers, and other persons or groups involved in the potato value chain in Meghalaya. Data was gathered through literature reviews, key informant interviews (KII), focused group discussions (FGD), survey of respondents using questionnaires, stakeholders meetings, market visits, and observations. The specific methods used for each of the various data types and information analyzed in this study are shown in Table 1.Primary data collection activities, such as the KII, FGD, surveys, market visits and observation, were done between December 2016 and March 2017. Similarly, guided questions were used in conducting the FGDs with male and female potato producers and traders. A total of six FGDs were done, two for each of the three districts selected.Meanwhile, survey questionnaires were designed for the different value chain actors including farmers, seed producers, aggregators, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers in the three selected districts in Meghalaya: East Khasi, West Khasi, West Garo. These districts were purposively sampled because they have the largest land areas for potato and are able to plant in all potato cropping seasons. The target number of respondents for each group as well as the sampling method used are summarized in Table 2. It should be noted that because some questionnaires were incompletely answered, the actual number of respondents included in the analysis were less than the target numbers.Various statistics on potato production and marketing in Meghalaya, as well as other information previously indicated in Table 1, were obtained from existing publications, both print and online. Data sources used in this study include, but are not limited to the following institutions and research organizations:• Directorate of Horticulture (DOH)• State Seed Potato Farm    The data collected were assessed through simple statistical analysis such as frequencies, means, range, and ranking; as well as economic analysis such as gross margin analysis, marketing margin analysis, and production cost. Moreover, mapping analysis were used to map potato value chain linkages between actors, processes and activities in the value chain.Where applicable, this research also used a combination of the following tools for value chain analysis as recommended by Emana and Nigussie (2011):Mapping the value chain helps in getting a better understanding of the connections between actors and processes and their interdependency in a value chain. A value chain map allows the depiction of all activities, actors, and relationships among segments of the chain and illustrates the interaction between actors.Analyzing the costs and margins of a particular agricultural product or sector enables the researcher to determine how a pro-poor value chain should be developed.  Governance encompasses the system of coordination, organization and control that preserves and enhances the generation of value along a chain, thus, a governance and service analysis helps in identifying opportunities for interventions that improves the overall efficiency of the value chain.Analyzing linkages helps to identify how value chain actors are linked along the value chain. Linkages analysis involves not only identifying which organizations and actors are linked with one another, but also distinguishing the reasons for those linkages and assessing whether the linkages are beneficial or not.A review of available literature revealed that despite the importance of potato in India, research on its value chain in are limited, except for a study in Bihar State by Minten et al. (2011). This section presents this study in India, as well as similar potato value chain studies in relevant developing countries including Bhutan and Ethiopia.The study by Minten et al. (2011) published by ICAR found that potato production in Bihar is largely on the hands of smallholders. These farmers encounter several problems in potato production including crop damage from late blight disease. Farmers also rely relatively little on seed markets and almost all farmers store their own seeds in cold storages, while larger farmers replace seed more often. In Bihar, the white potato variety has now become much more important than the traditional red variety, however, consumers prefer red over white potatoes and are willing to pay a price premium for that quality. Because of this, Bihar still relies on potato imports from other states.During harvest season, farmers sell to a village broker while in the off-season, potatoes are mostly sold to traders at the cold storage. Wholesale market sales by farmers are of less importance and credit or advances are not often used in market transactions. The major reason for the farmers' choice of a trader is whether he pays immediately. The researchers' evaluation also showed that the wastage level in the value chain is at 8% during the harvest period and 9.3% in the off-season. While public policies have encouraged the setting up of cold storage to bring down wastage, however, this might not be the only factor influencing overall wastage level. There is a boom in cold storage capacity for potatoes with almost all farmers using cold storage to store their seeds, while larger farmers also store potatoes to sell at an expected higher price in the off-season, which is twice the price during the regular season.The rapid emergence of cold storage is linked with the better provision of public goods. Presently, the Agricultural Producers Market committee (APMC) has been repealed in Bihar and potato sales have moved away from auctions to direct one-on-one deals with traders.According to Joshi and Gurung's (2009) potato value chain assessment in Bhutan, the potato subsector in the country is potentially of great importance for pro-poor growth, however, the market for Bhutanese agricultural products is highly competitive and volatile. The authors conclude that the prospects for marketing Bhutanese potatoes are very good due to the seasonal difference in cultivation, however, the present value chain is still under developed. In the domestic market, most potatoes are sold by farmers directly to consumers, while for the export market, the potatoes generally flow from producers to Indian traders through auction yards. The value chain analysis revealed that the local traders and intermediaries such as cooperatives are not involved in the process of product delivery, particularly in Eastern Bhutan.In terms of production, potatoes in Bhutan are largely rainfed and yield depends greatly on the amount of rainfall. In some years there is a bumper harvest while in other years there is much less production. Potato prices generally depends on prices in India and if there is a bumper harvest, prices go down. This, coupled with limited on-farm storage facilities, often results in low prices during the peak production periods. These seasonal fluctuations in supply of, as well as demand for, potatoes greatly affects the income of potato producers.Potato producers in Bhutan also face other challenges, including shortage of labor and inadequate access to quality seeds, fertilizers and chemicals. Moreover, pest and diseases such as the potato tuber moth and late blight, crop damage caused by wild pigs, and high post-harvest losses due to poor infrastructure and substandard storage and handling practices also limit the growth of the potato subsector in Bhutan. Therefore, that authors recommend that the private sector need be encouraged to get involved in agribusiness to enhance the access of potato growers to the inputs/service market.In Ethiopia in East Africa, Emana and Nigussie (2011) reported that the major potato value chain actors include input suppliers, producers, wholesalers, brokers, retailers and consumers. There is no significant structural difference between the potato value chains in various regions of the country, however, there is a difference in the quantity and prices of potato marketed at different levels and the level of value addition by the different market actors. Potato production is affected by several issues including low quality seeds and untraced variety, wherein the specific needs of consumers are not adequately considered in variety selection. Moreover, input supply is not adequate and the planning of input supply through the extension system focuses only on rainfed crops and excludes the irrigated ones. Farmers are also not getting adequate advisory service to increase potato productivity. In terms of post-harvest problems, post-harvest loss is high due to lack of adequate storage and are often damaged when transported because of inadequate transportation facility and poor handling.An analysis of staple food value chains in Asia by Reardon et al. (2011) indicated that a transformational modernization is under way for potato food chains and India is taking the lead with the spectacular rise of potato cold storage facilities in Agra. Important drivers of the transformation of rice and potato value chains have been the increase in scale and change in technology of rice milling and potato storage. On the demand side, there was a surge in the demand for potatoes and other vegetables with increases in incomes and populations of megacities. The study points to the importance of farm input supply chains upstream from farmers and of midstream and downstream post-harvest activities such as logistics and wholesale, cold storage and milling, and retailing. The authors also purports that little empirical research work has been done on these areas, but is needed for the policy debate and the systematic evaluation of policy impacts on food security.Similarly, the South African Cities Network (SACN, 2015) observed that value chain activities take place along the rural-urban continuum, but most production occurs in the rural areas while processing and retailing occurs in the urban and peri-urban areas. Agro-food value chains are dominated by large commercial operations. Smallholder farmers here also face many production and market related constraints within the value chain such as those mentioned above.Similar with the situation in India, cold chain maintenance is an important part of the value chain in South African countries, and retailers and market agents have significant buying power. Meanwhile, processor constraints are largely due to supply issues including threats of cheaper imported processed products. While barriers to entering the potato value chain are in general relatively low, quality and quantity factors present strong barriers to entry into the more profitable markets.The SACN assessment also concluded that local governments have an integral role to play within agro-food value chains in both rural and urban areas by creating an enabling environment for the development of the agro-processing sector as well as the national fresh produce markets. These markets represent one of the existing points of participation by the local government within the value chain, as they provide an easy and accessible market for small scale and emerging producers to sell their produce.Potatoes were first grown in India in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, most likely brought aboard ships from Portugal. Today, potato is one of main commercial crops grown in India, which ranks as the world's second largest potato producing nation after China. Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Bihar are the three leading potato producing states (Table 3), accounting for 65.9% of the total potato area and 72% of the total production in 2012 to 2013.Potatoes have become an important cash crop that provides significant income for farmers, even though it was not primarily a rural staple in the past. Potato contributed around 2.42% of the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008 from 1.25% cultivable area. Between the years 1960 and 2000, potato production in India increased by almost 850% and continued to increase in recent years (Figure 1). This is partly in response to the growing demand, especially from higher income urban populations. Internationally, India exports nearly 0.25 million tons of potato while locally, the demand for potato is expected to grow at 3.80% annual compounded growth rate. Since 1990, per capita consumption has risen from around 12 kg to 26 kg annually and potato has now become a vital and inseparable part of Indian cuisine and daily food intake.Consumption of processed potato products is also growing fast, yet the proportion of processed potato to total production in India is still low at 7.5% compared to 60% in developed countries. The overall size of the snack food market is estimated at 45-50 billion Indian Rupee (INR) and still growing at 7% to 8% annually. Potato chips is estimated to constitute nearly 85% of India's total salty snack food market of about 25 billion INR. The organized snacks category is sub-divided into the traditional segment (bhujia, chanachur), western segment (potato chips, cheese balls) and the newly established finger snacks segment, which is an adaptation of traditional offerings in the western format. Mirroring the trends all over India, potato has also become one of the most economically important crops grown in the hilly regions of Meghalaya. It is believed that the crop was introduced by Captain David Scott, a British Officer who first came into contact with the Khasis at Nongkhlaw, West Khasi Hills District. His military campaigns and exploits in Meghalaya eventually led to the rule of the British crown being extended over the entire region. Since then, potato cultivation quickly spread throughout Meghalaya because its climate and geographical conditions were suitable to the crop. At the same time, potato have become an integral part of the dietary habits of the people of the state.Table 4 shows the most recent data on potato production in Meghalaya. It can be seen that there is a slow but steady annual increase in area, production and yield in the three year period. The average yield of potato in 2016-2017 is 11 tons per hectare (t/ha), which is far below the national average of 20 t/ha. Majority of this goes directly to consumption, without any processing or value addition. Therefore, there is a lot of scope and hope for improving the yields and increasing the value of potato in the state.At present, the per capita availability of potato is 78.7 kg per annum which is comparable to many European countries. It is grown on over 18,000 ha of land and shares 8.56% of the total agricultural land in Meghalaya, which is highest among all the potato producing states in India.Area and production trends from 2002-2013 (Figure 2) show that while the area grown to potatoes are stable, total potato production has been erratic over the 10-year period. Periodic decreases in production in 2003 and again in 2007 could be attributed to widespread yield loss due to potato blight. On the other hand, the drastic increase in 2009 is due to the introduction of new high yielding varieties of potato such as the Kufri Jyoti variety.  A closer look at area and production trends per district in Meghalaya (Figure 3) reveals that East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, and West Garo Hills are the top three potato producers out of the 11 administrative districts of Meghalaya. These three, therefore, were chosen as target districts of this study. As the figures and Table 5 show, East Khasi Hills is well above all other districts in terms of both area and production. In fact, East Khasi Hills alone contributes to 63.65% and 66.99% of the total area and production in Meghalaya, respectively.  The following sections describes the three selected districts in detail:East Khasi Hills is in the central part of Meghalaya and covers a total area of 2,748 km 2 . It lies approximately between 25°07\" and 25°41\" N Latitude and 91°21\" and 92°09\" E Longitude. It is bounded by the plain of Ri-Bhoi District in the north, gradually rising to the rolling grasslands of the Shillong Plateau interspersed with river valleys, then falls sharply in the southern portion forming deep gorges and ravines in the Mawsynram and Shella-Bholaganj Community and Rural Development (CandRD) Block, bordering Bangladesh. The district is bounded by the West Jaintia Hills District to the east and West Khasi Hills District to the west. As shown in Figure 3, East Khasi Hills dominates potato cultivation in Meghalaya. Potato is grown mainly as a summer/spring crop and in small proportions as an autumn crop. The climate of the district ranges from temperate in the plateau region to the warmer tropical and sub-tropical pockets on the northern and southern regions. The whole district is influenced by the south-west monsoon which begins generally from May and continues till September. The weather is humid for most of the year except for the relatively dry spell, usually between December and March.East Khasi Hills is sub-divided into eight CandRD Blocks.West Khasi Hills is the largest district of Meghalaya, occupying an area of 5247 km 2 . It accounts for 20% of the total potato area and 15% of the total potato production in Meghalaya (Table 5). Since the climate is similar with that of East Khasi Hills, potato is also grown mainly as a summer crop and in small proportions as an autumn crop. West Khasi Hills is sub-divided into four CandRD Blocks.West Garo Hills is located in the western most part of Meghalaya. It is mostly hilly, with plains fringing the northern, western, and southwestern borders. The district occupies an area of 3714 km². Its climate is largely controlled by the south-west monsoon and seasonal winds. Since the district is relatively lower in altitude than the rest of Meghalaya, it experiences a fairly high temperature for most part of the year ranging from a minimum of 5°C to a maximum of 36°C. The potato growing season in West Garo Hills is winter. The district accounts for 2% of the total potato area and 1.5% of the total potato production in the state.Although it has been reported that potato is grown in the state in two distinctive seasons in a year, namely summer and autumn, the survey conducted among farmers indicates that there are four seasons of potato cultivation, depending on location (Table 6). Summer is the main potato growing season, according to more than 80% of farmers in the East and West Khasi districts. Another significant planting season in Khasi hills is the spring season. There is only a thin temporal difference between these two and minor differences in farming practices, therefore these two seasons are often lumped together and referred to as the summer season. Potato is also cultivated in autumn, especially in West Khasi District (25%) while winter season cultivation is only being done in West Garo. Spring potatoes are planted from mid-January to mid-February in low land paddy fields preceding the rice crop, and harvested in May. Summer potatoes are mostly planted on upland farms, often in raised beds. Planting takes place at the end of February through March, while harvesting is done from July to the end of October with farmers often delaying lifting until prices rise later in the year. Autumn potatoes are planted in the rainy days of August and September and harvested in November and December, using seeds from the summer crop. Lastly, winter potatoes are grown at lower altitudes usually in the lowlands of Garo Hills with planting done in October and November and harvested in February and March.Value chain mapping systematically maps the actors participating in the production, distribution, processing, marketing, and consumption of a particular product or products. Moreover, it analyzes the characteristics of actors, profit and cost structures, and flow of goods throughout the chain; as well as employment characteristics and the destination and volumes of domestic and foreign sales. The following sections discusses the potato value chain map in Meghalaya.Value chain actors are classified as those individuals who take ownership of a product, through the exchange of money or equivalent goods or services, during the transaction process of moving the product from conception to the end user. Those individuals or firms providing a service without taking ownership of the product are classified as service providers. The basic value chain process for potato is shown in Figure 4.Input suppliers -Value chain actors who provide the various inputs needed by farmers to cultivate potato, including seeds, pesticides, farm tools; as well as information on farming technologies or technical support and credit or loans.Producers -Meghalaya farmers who cultivate potatoes and sell the produce to wholesalers, traders, aggregators, vegetable vendors and consumers.Transporters -Value chain actors who bring harvested potatoes from the producers' farms to markets or traders.Traders -Value chain actors usually found in Iewduh market and Mawiong who purchase potatoes from farmers in relatively larger quantities and sell them to wholesalers in the neighboring states of Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram. There are also traders in Garo District who go to villages and purchase potatoes directly from farmers.Wholesalers -Value chain actors who purchase potato in large volumes from farmers, traders, aggregators and sell to retailers. They are mostly located in the neighboring states of Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram; but are also present in Meghalaya markets, usually in Iewduh and in West Garo District towns.Retailers -Value chain actors who purchase from wholesale traders and sell directly to consumers who are present in Meghalaya or neighboring states and also refers those who purchase from farmers and sell to consumers.Aggregators -Value chain actors located in villages who purchase potatoes in small quantities from farmers, pool them and sell to wholesalers.Vegetable vendors -Value chain actors who purchase potatoes from farmers and sell them in formal markets or roadside markets.Consumers -Persons or hotels or institutions who are final users of potato tubers.The various value chain actors specific to the study sites and their functions are further summarized in Table 7 and discussed below.Potato farmers in the study areas get seed from different sources. Majority of East and West Khasi farmers (97-98%) use their own tuber seed. A few also buy from the Horticulture Office, but their supply cannot meet the farmers' demand. In West Garo Hills, farmers buy tuber seed from traders in Dhubri (Assam). On the other hand, most farmers use both organic and inorganic fertilizers, while some farmers use only organic fertilizers such as manure and compost. Their decision on what type of fertilizer to use depended on the land size and perceived soil fertility. Farmers purchase manures, fertilizers, and fungicides from agricultural suppliers in Shillong and Tura for Khasi and Garo districts, respectively, as well as other nearby markets. For other farm implements, farmers get traditional spades, and sickles from the local blacksmith; bamboo baskets from craftsmen; labor from family and hired farm workers; and jute sacks from rice shops.Credit support. In general, farmers tend to utilize savings from profits made in the previous season and loans from family members., Farmers also avail of loans from formal sources such as nationalized banks, cooperatives and rural banks in the village or nearby villages. Both male and female farmers are able to apply for loans since title deeds are often named after women farmers. Various types of credits are extended to farmers including cash loans, term loans, and kisan or farmers' credit cards. They usually avail credit during the planting time in January to February for procuring inputs like manure and fertilizers and then repay the loan after harvest. Some traders, especially wholesale traders in Shillong market, lend in cash or kind to farmers which farmers pay back come harvest time, either in cash or by selling their produce. Despite these, some farmers still claim that they cannot expand production due to lack of access or difficulty in availing of credit.Technical advice. Knowledge on potato cultivation is most often shared among farmers, who also get information from the DOH, particularly trainings on seed production. Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) or the Farm Science Centre in Khasi and Garo Hills are also active in information dissemination on potato. ICAR-NEH complex and the Central Potato Research Station (CPRS) in Upper Shillong were also involved in technology back up for the farmers through their outreach programs.Based on the survey results as summarized in the table below, potato farming is done mostly by both male and female smallholder farmers (95%), with holdings of less than two hectares, and very few larger farmers (5%). The average farm size of farmers in East and West Khasi districts are smaller (0.65 ha) compared to those in West Garo District (2.79 ha). Similarly, the average farm size cultivated with potatoes by farmers in Khasi Hills were also smaller (0.31 ha) than those in West Garo Hills (0.55 ha). The results also revealed that there are slightly more female farmers involved in potato farming than males (55% to 45%). The average age and farming experience of female farmers (41 and 23 years) is slightly less than male farmers (45 and 24 years), however, it could be seen that female farmers had more years on school than male farmers at eight and five years, respectively. Source of income, consumption and livelihood are the reasons stated by the farmers for planting potatoes A slight majority of the farmers believe that the area planted to potato is slowly increasing (58%), while some felt the area remain unchanged (30%) or even decreasing (12%). Surprisingly, exactly onethird of the farmers each thought the potato yield is either increasing, decreasing, or unchanged. Their reasons for the increasing yield include high quality seeds, good cultivation practices, and application of chemical fertilizers while the reasons for decreasing yield are climate change, specifically intense rain, frost, rotting in low land due to excess rains; poor quality seeds, diseases such as blight, and soil infertility. Majority of the potato farm land is individually owned, while some are lands owned by the clan or community that the farmers can use as long as they need without the ownership rights. Some lands are rented out on a yearly basis from private landowners.The potato value chain begins with production, which entails various activities and decision making in terms of potato variety, input supply, farming practices, storage, and marketing. The chart below illustrates the calendar of potato production activities per season, according to farmers in Meghalaya (Figure 5). These activities are discussed in detail in the preceding sections.Potato varieties. Meghalaya farmers usually grow a mix of varieties, depending on their characteristics and suitability. The common varieties are Kufri Jyoti, Kufri Megha, Phan saw or Local Red Skin Potato, Phan Jatira or Arron Consul, Phan Sorkari, Lah lhew, Phan shidieng, Lah Taret, and Kufri Giriraj.However, most farmers prefer Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Megha. More particularly, Kufri Jyoti is preferred by majority of farmers in the three districts for its high yield, taste, better cooking and keeping qualities and good demand in the market. Initially it was highly resistant against late blight, however, it has recently become very susceptible, causing low yields. Kufri Megha is another popular variety, liked for its taste and cooking quality and tolerance to late blight. It is commonly called Lah Imdieng, Phan Imdieng or Phan Imduh due to its characteristic green stem which remains green even at maturity unlike other varieties which dries up. While it is less preferred than Kufri Jyoti because of its lower yield and shorter shelf life, farmers have realized that its high tolerance against late blight helps assure production, and therefore income; hence, even if it's out of the breeder's seed production chain, farmers maintain Kufri Megha seeds independently.On the other hand, Kufri Giriraj is a recently introduced variety that is gaining popularity among farmers because of its high yield and tolerance to late blight. However, some farmers are still hesitant to try this variety owing to its poor keeping quality and short dormancy. For household consumption, usually as a snack, the Local Red Skin Potato is planted by farmers due to its better taste. Old varieties, like Great Scott (Lah Lhew), are still cultivated by some farmers due to its short dormancy period; especially farmers who plant for two seasons in a year. Meanwhile, the Bengal Tiger variety is the dominant variety in Garo Hills, where potatoes are planted in the winter season. Potato varieties cultivated in the different seasons based on the survey are presented in Table 9.  Land preparation. In Khasi Hills, land preparation for potato cultivation in both lowland and upland farms is done in the traditional way, locally called Nur Bun, using traditional long-handle spades or Mohkhiew. First ploughing is done by men using spades and then the raised beds or Nur Bun are made. Nur is the agricultural land unit in the local Khasi language and refers to one raised bed of 1-1.5 feet high and 1-1.25 m wide, while length depends on the land topography. Bun refers to the method of preparation of these raised beds. The Nur Bun method is basically a type of ridge and furrow method, which has been modified to suit difficult mountainous or hilly terrain and high rainfall conditions during the potato growing season. Afterwards, fine tillage of the beds is done by women. Very few farmers in Meghalaya use power tillers for ploughing and fine tillage, except in the Salsella Block of West Garo Hills where farmers use power tillers and tractors for land preparation.Planting. After land preparation, the men dig pits on the bed with a row spacing of 30-40 cm and plant spacing of 20 cm. The men are also tasked with carrying inputs like tuber seeds, manures and fertilizers to the main field. The fertilizers are first mixed together, while the seed tubers are first placed in the pit with the tuber eyes facing upward. This is followed by manure application directly on top of the seed tubers and fertilizer mixture application on the outer circle of the pit. The pit is then covered with soil to level the bed which prevents the seed tubers from drying in case of a dry spell after planting. It is also believed that this method protects the seed tubers against insect and pest damage.The planting procedure is slightly different in the winter crop of the Salsella Block of West Garo Hills.The fertilizers are first mixed together then after the last ploughing, line marking is done using a wooden plough drawn by two men to form small ridges and furrows. The tubers are then placed in the furrows at a spacing of 10-15 cm apart. The spacing between rows is 20-25 cm. Moreover, cultural practices like hilling up and weeding, are done by both men and women six to seven weeks after planting using bare hands and traditional tools like spades.Fertilization. Fertilizer use for potato mostly involves application of manure, but only during spring and summer seasons. The dose varies from 15 to 20 t/ha, depending on the land type. According to farmers, the farmyard manure applied to the spring and summer crops also provides nutrients to the following season's crops like paddy or vegetables. The commonly used manures are cattle manure, poultry manure, pig manure and decomposed grasses. The cattle manure is either from their own cattle or bought from neighboring cattle farms while poultry manure is usually bought from traders in Assam who would bring the manure to the village directly after farmers placed orders over the phone. It may be noted that the recommended dose for potato is only 120:120:60 kg of NPK/ha, which reveals that farmers have a tendency to apply excess nitrogenous nutrient. It was also observed from the survey that farmers cultivation practices for seed potato were more or less same as that of ware potato except they apply slightly more fertilizers and pesticides at 456:134:75 kg NPK/ha.In view of the official promotion of organic agriculture in Meghalaya, the State Government has withdrawn the subsidy for chemical fertilizers, making potato cultivation at present more expensive and less profitable for farmers. Some farmers, including registered seed growers and progressive farmers, received organic fertilizers on a subsidized rate from the DOH for trial in their potato fields.Pests and diseases management. The most common pest in potato fields are white grub, cut worm, red ants, leaf eating caterpillar, and leaf beetle; while the potato tuber moth is the main pest during storage. Most growers do not apply any chemical insecticide to control potato tuber moths, and would rather spread tobacco and lantana (sohpangkhlieh) fresh leaves on the heap of harvested potato in storage. The leaves may need to be replaced after some time, depending on the degree of the pest infestation.On the other hand, major diseases in potato are late blight, bacterial wilt and viruses. Late blight, locally called Iapiong, is more common in upland than lowland farms. This disease appears in the late vegetative stage of the spring or summer crop and in the more critical early vegetative stage of autumn crop, thereby causing more economic losses in the autumn rather than the summer potato season. The common management for late blight is spraying Indofil/Dithane M-45 after six weeks of planting at 10 teaspoons per 16 liters when the first fog appears. Second spray is at eight weeks after planting, with the autumn crop receiving more at three to four fungicide sprays. Furthermore, bacterial wilt, locally known as Iapbieit or Jlop, is a disease which causes the whole plant to droop and die at random. The common control for bacterial wilt is crop rotation and uprooting the infected plant.Irrigation. Potato is grown as a rainfed crop in East and West Khasi districts; while in some areas of West Garo Hills, farmers give one to two times irrigation during the vegetative stage. Irrigation water comes\\ from the bored wells in the fields through use of diesel water pumps.Harvesting. Potatoes are harvested by both male and female farmers after potato tubers reach maturity, usually at 100-110 days after planting. The women are mostly involved in digging and picking the tubers while the men are more involved in headload carrying the produce from the field to the storage place. In Khasi Hills, the bulk of summer potatoes are harvested during July to August. Spring potato in the lowlands are harvested in the month of May to June to prepare for next crop and to prevent rotting due to the accumulation of rainwater, while in Garo Hills harvesting of winter potato is done on February and March.Harvesting is done by unearthing the plant using a long-handled spade and then shaking the soil from the tubers. Most farmers collect the tubers in baskets and then bring them to the store immediately afterwards. Some fields are 1-5 km away from the villages and both men and women are involved in carrying the produce to the storage place or nearby accessible road.Furthermore, harvesting in the uplands can be delayed to prevent price crash, reduce storage loss due to insect infestation, prolong the availability of potato, and at the same time efficiently allocate family labor. Delayed harvest also helps in reducing rotting in storage during the peak harvest of the summer months.Post-harvest management and storage. After harvesting and cleaning the dirt off the potatoes, majority of farmers separate damaged and undamaged tubers, and discard bruised, diseased, damaged, or rotten ones for use as pig feed. Farmers estimate post-harvest losses of about 10%. The initial sorting and grading is done in the field where medium sized tubers from the good yielding mother plants are sorted to be used as seeds and smallest tubers are sorted for feed purposes. The bigger size tubers are packed in jute sacks of 50-60 kg capacity for the markets. Some farmers do not grade potato based on size but sell them as mixed size to the Mawiong regulated arket. The potato variety Bengal Tiger produced by Garo Hills farmers are also smaller in size compared to potato varieties from Khasi Hills. The following are the grade system based on weight or size, used by farmers in Meghalaya:• Special Grade: Tubers that are more than 40 grams (g), marketed as big sized potatoes.• No. 1 Grade: Tubers that are 30-40 g, marketed as standard sized potatoes.• No. 2 Grade: Tubers that are 20-30 g, for use as own seeds.• No. 3 Grade: Marble size tubers that are less than 20 g, used as seeds in case of seed deficit.• Marble Sized, used for pig feed.Long term storage of potato for more than three months is done by farmers for both consumption and for seed purposes. While farmers do not apply any chemical insecticides to protect stored potatoes against potato tuber moth, they do spread tobacco leaves and lantana (sohpangkhlieh) fresh leaves on the heap of harvested potato as a traditional control mechanism. The leaves are replaced after some time depending on the degree of the pest infestation. The short-term management of potato before selling may involve leaving in open heaps or keeping them in a shed for drying and curing. During summer, some farmers keep the potatoes on sand for its cooling effect. The most common storage systems according to the farmer respondents are:• Storage on a wooden floor in the house (25%).• Storage in heaps in the field (25%).• In situ storage or on the ground storage at maturity of the crop with delayed harvesting (20%).• Containers such as bamboo baskets, jute sacks, gunny bags, among others (17%).• Stand-alone structure which may be basic or more sophisticated wooden structures of 10-12 ft. high with tin roof, which are built near the farmer's house. Within these structures, potatoes for consumption, selling, or seed are stored in 3-4 inch layers on wooden platforms or in heaps (13%).• Underground storage in pits dug by farmers for storing potato (<1%).Due to heavy rainfall in the months following the harvesting time (June-September), grass growth provide cover or shade to the potato beds. This allows farmers to keep the potatoes in situ or in the field for two to three months due to low soil temperature. Harvesting of potato stored in this method was reported to be done when the market price rises after the harvest period. According to farmers, there is less rotting with in situ storage than in stand-alone structures.Labor use in production. Farmers in Meghalaya use both family members and hired farm workers during potato production. However, survey results on the quantity of labor inputs per production activity for each season show that potato producers rely more on family labor during spring (91.01%) and summer (70.21%) seasons, than during the winter season (42.40%) ( The same data on labor inputs were also disaggregated per gender as shown in Figure 6. It could be seen from the figure that female labor dominates the cultivation operations in the spring and summer seasons in the East and West Khasi districts at 59% and 57%, respectively. However, this is not the case in the winter season, with male labor share is higher at a 57%. It could be seen that female labor dominate in weeding, land preparation, harvesting and storage operations. Results of the farmer survey revealed that a farming household in East and West Khasi districts produce an average of 2,290 kg of potatoes, with production ranging from 3000 kg to 10,000 kg per family. Out of these, an average of 343 kg are allocated for home consumption, while almost two thirds or 1,480.32 kg are sold with a maximum of 6,700 kg and minimum of 100 kg. Almost a quarter of produce or 466 kg are kept as seed. In the case of West Garo hills where potato is cultivated during winter in the low lands, average production per family is 7,608 kg and ranges from 80 kg to 24,000 kg, significantly higher than in Khasi Hills mostly due to higher potato cultivated area per family and use of irrigation. The average quantity of potato allocated for home consumption per farming household was 264 kg, while all the remaining produce are sold with an average 7,333 kg. West Garo potato farmers don't keep seed tubers for their cultivation in next winter season.Around 30% of potatoes produced in Meghalaya is utilized for home consumption within the state. Potato forms an important part of daily food intake with the average family of six consuming approximately 600 kg of potatoes each year. The preferred and most widely eaten potato dish in Khasi Hills and Garo Hills is potato curry, a local preparation made with other vegetables and eaten with rice or roti. Alu Paratha, a north Indian stuffed chapatti is another widely consumed dish, especially for breakfast. Other potato dishes include whole boiled potatoes as a snack, such as Phansaw, which is mainly taken with tea in the morning or evening in rural areas. Fried potato dishes like french fries or chips are also prepared by rural and urban households and taken as snacks or for lunch and dinner.Local dishes such as Alu pakoda or potato fritters and samosa, a deep fried conical dough containing spicy mashed potato and a small amount of other vegetables, are also consumed as snacks.*Land preparation also includes fertilizer application.Potato dishes such as those mentioned above are also prepared in restaurants and other establishments like hostels, hospitals, among others. Restaurants, often small tea shops in rural areas, usually purchase about 75 kg of potatoes per week during peak season and 60 kg per week in the off season, either from wholesalers, retailers, or farmers. While potato is available in the market during much of the year, supply is usually scarce in March and April.Meanwhile, there is hardly any processing of potato in Meghalaya, except for fried potato chips made by households in very small quantities and sometimes sold in village shops.Potato passes through different channels before it reaches the consumer, referred to in this study as potato marketing channels. Even before harvesting, farmers have to make various decisions that affect how their produce is marketed, as well as their income from it. In fact, some farmers in Meghalaya practice staggered harvesting to avoid oversupply in the markets and to get better prices for their produce. Like other agricultural products, potato prices have a high level of fluctuation across the different cropping seasons, with the lean months of June to August commanding the highest prices (Figure 7).Potato marketing in Meghalaya involves various value chain actors, particularly traders located in Iewduh and Mawiong who purchase potatoes directly from farmers and sell to wholesalers of adjoining states. Majority of the potato produce in Khasi Hills region is exported to neighboring states from the months of May till December while potato is imported from the plains during the months of December to May. The major local markets where potato is traded include Iewduh and the Mawiong regulated market. In West Garo Hills, a small proportion is marketed in neighboring areas like the Tura and Phulbari market while a very small portion of potato from Garo Hills is also marketed through a traditional border market or haat along the Indo-Bangla border at Kalaichar.Gender also plays a small role in marketing activities, with wholesale marketing dominated by men, whereas retailers and aggregators are equally divided between men and women. These results show that women are not only are active in production but also in trading.Based on FGDs, KIIs, and observations made in the major potato markets in the study sites; the marketing channels were differentiated between ware potato and seed potato in the different seasons, as discussed below.Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Low Medium HighThe assessment of potato value chains in the East and West Khasi districts and between the spring and summer seasons did not identify major differences, so these are presented as a single set of value chains, with several channels (Figure 8).Channel 1. This is the largest channel which accounts for 70-80% of the total locally produced potato in Khasi Hills. In this channel, the Iewduh market in Shillong and the Mawiong market is the aggregation point for the locally produced potato which is being traded in an informal auction. The Iewduh potato market, or big market in the local Khasi language, starts in May and ends in October with a peak period in June. This is where the best two grades, Special Grade and No. 1 Grade, are mostly sold. There are about 100 male and female traders who buy the produce from the farmers through price bidding and then resell the potatoes to wholesale traders from the neighboring states of Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram with representatives or agents in Iewduh.Potato is sold in the Iewduh market in 50 kg sacks with prices ranging from 10 to 23 INR/kg. Farmers transport their produce to the market individually or in groups in small trucks of less than 5 tons. Sometimes truck drivers take the potato to the market, sell it, and give the money to the farmers in the evening. The transport cost is approximately 1 INR/kg while the labor fee for unloading the potato at the market is 20 per sack. The farmers also have to pay a market tax of 5 INR/sack and weighing fee of 10 INR/sack. The traders also deduct 3 kg per sack of more than 70 kg from the farmers. Moreover, in case potato is not fetching a good price for the day, the farmer can keep his produce in the local warehouse (godown) for 5 INR/sack/day.It was found that 70% of the traders are local women. One trader usually buy about 30 sacks of potato from the farmers, which they sell on the same day to the next traders for a commission of 1 INR/ kg. Data also shows that an average of 12 tons of potato leave the market each day from Monday to Saturday in June to October. This is supported by the market monthly arrivals report for potato from January to December 2016 (Figure 9). After buying the produce from traders, wholesalers from neighboring states load them in trucks of 5-10 tons each for transporting to markets in Barbeta, Siliguri, Silchar, Tezpur, Tinsukia, Jagi Road, Guwahati and Nalbari in Assam, Agartala in Tripura, Aizawl in Mizoram, and Imphal in Manipur. The wholesaler bears the loading and the transport cost to the market outside the state. The wholesalers in these markets then supply to the retailers and consumers in these states.On the other hand, the Mawiong regulated market only has three traders and receives mostly the lower quality ungraded and Grade No. 2 potatoes. This is because most farmers in Khasi Hills prefer to trade the better quality potatoes at Iewduh for its convenient location, better price, and larger number of traders. Also, farmers must compete with the many aggregators who also bring potato produce to Mawiong. This market is active from the month of June to December every year, trading produce to neighboring states like Assam, Mizoram, and Manipur; while some goes to the Paltan bazaar in Shillong for the wholesale market. Unlike Iewduh, prices are not determined via auction. Farmers know the prevailing prices before bringing the produce to the market by enquiring over the phone directly from the traders. There is no deduction in the weight of the traded potato in Mawiong, also unlike in Iewduh, and farmers and traders can take back the empty sacks.Based on different data sources, it is estimated that 21 tons of potato leave the Mawiong regulated market each day from Monday to Saturday from June to December. Figure 9 also reflects the higher amount of potato being traded in the Mawiong regulated arket in year 2016.Channel 2. This channel accounts for 10-20% of the local potato traded. Farmers still trade produce in Iewduh, but this time they trade through the many wholesalers who trade potato to various parts of the Meghalaya state. The farmers usually discuss the price of the potato for the day over the phone before bringing or harvesting their produce. These wholesalers pay the farmers in cash or credit. The potato is then sold to retailers who come to Iewduh. The wholesalers are mostly non-local males who have long experience in the business.Channel 3. This channel accounts for only 5% to 10% of potato traded, where farmers sell their produce in the local markets through the vegetable vendors. While the volume traded in these markets are small, there are hundreds of these traditional weekly or bi-weekly markets in the rural areas where local produce are traded, including potato. In these markets the vendors are mostly women.Channel 4. Aggregators, mostly local men, collect potatoes from various farmers in the village or nearby areas and supply the potato to the traders in Mawiong market. Some aggregators also supply wholesalers or traders in other markets like Ladrymbai, Guwahati, and Jagi Road, among others.Channel 5. Farmers sell their potato directly to the retailers in the markets like Mairang and Mawngap for subsequent sale to consumers.Channel 6. In a limited number of cases, few consumers source their potatoes directly from farmers who they may know or have some link to.There are two main and two minor channels through which the winter potato harvest is marketed in Garo Hills, with Channel 1 and 2 equally accounting for 30-40% of the total amount of traded potato (Figure 10).Channel 1. Most farmers sell their potato to traders who visit their villages and these traders in turn sell to wholesalers in urban centers in Garo hills, where retailers from Bhaitbari, Phulbari, and Tura markets purchase the potatoes for sale to consumers. The traders pack the produce in jute sacks of 50 kg each. Usually the traders contact the wholesalers in advance and collect the produce either in a cart, mini-truck or bus.Channel 2. Several farmers also sell their potato in the weekly local markets through vegetable vendors who move from one local market to another each day.Channel 3. Some farmers sell their produce directly to consumers in their villages.Channel 4. In a few cases, farmers sell their potatoes to aggregators in the villages who in turn, sells to retailers.Potato from other states are sold in Meghalaya during the months of October to May every year, particularly from West Bengal (30%), Assam (20%), Punjab (10%), and Uttar Pradesh (5%) (Figure 11). Only medium or large sized potatoes are imported, specifically varieties like Kufri Chandramukhi from West Bengal, Kufri Jyoti, Agra variety, and Kufri 3797. Moreover, the potato variety Kufri Pukhraj comes from the same states mentioned above during January and February and is notably bigger than other varieties. The demand for imported potatoes peaks March to end of May, during which local potato supply in Meghalaya is almost zero.As shown in the figure above, potato from wholesalers in Paltan bazaar, Shillong is sold to semiwholesalers (70%), retailers (20%) and restaurants/hotels (10%). Consumers of these imported potatoes are mostly from Shillong (60%), Jaintia Hills (20%) and other parts of Khasi hills (20%).According to traders, the ratio of locally produced to imported potato being traded from the Paltan Bazaar is 30:60, with the imported potato coming from cold storage from the exporting states. The profit margin for traders is 0.5-0.8 INR/kg of potato, however, there is a 300-400 kg weight loss per 20 tons of potato purchased. As much as 97% of farmers in Khasi Hills use their own potato seeds or obtain seeds from other farmers according to interviews (Figure 12), indicating how pervasive the farmer-based informal system is. A trader-based informal system also operates on a very small-scale in Khasi Hills, bringing seeds from other states for direct sale to farmers. Meanwhile in West Garo, the trader-based informal system dominates (Figure 13) where 99% of seeds are purchased from traders in Assam, mostly the variety Bengal Tiger. This is often because farmers are unable to maintain seeds for several seasons in between croppings, including a very hot summer. In both regions, there is neither private company nor farmers' cooperatives supplying tuber seed potato, while the very small remaining seed demand is met by the national and state government managed formal seed system.  In Meghalaya, among the several limiting factors attributing to poor potato productivity is the lack of reasonably priced, quality seeds. This is because while most farmers use their own seeds, the entire region is, in fact, unsuitable for production of potato breeder seeds. This is due to the prevalence of virus vectors and other diseases almost throughout the crop season, which is responsible for the degeneration of available seed stocks (Gupta et al., 2006). A small quantity of basic breeder seed is imported from Himachal Pradesh which is more than 2000 km from the Northeast Region, however, bringing quality seed from this distance incurs high transportation costs for the resource poor farmers of the region. The farmers' use of suboptimal management practices also accelerates the degeneration rate of seeds. For instance, many farmers are ignorant of the seed plot technique. The adoption of improved technologies can facilitate the farmers' use of the same seed for more generations without significant reduction in yields (Kadian et, al., 2010).Despite these issues, the use of their own kept seed or seed tubers obtained from neighbors are still very widely practiced by potato farmers in Meghalaya. Farmers select the tubers for seeds during harvesting of ware potato based on size, or sometimes taking into consideration the productivity of the source plant. In some of the villages there is special care taken for seed production. For example in Kyiem Village, East Khasi Hills, the tubers which are meant for seed production are grown in the upland while the ware potato is grown in the lowland. The seed tubers are also cut into halves to check for symptoms of disease infection. The disease infected tubers are discarded and only the healthy tubers are sown. According to farmers there is no degeneration of the variety due to this practice.Moreover, potatoes harvested before October are generally not stored as seed because of higher storage losses in the rainy season brought about by to higher temperatures and high humidity. It is also common for farmers to keep the potatoes in the field long after the plant has deteriorated to reduce storage losses. In autumn, farmers plant local varieties or improved varieties which have short or no dormancy. To meet seed requirements for the autumn season, the farmers harvest the summer crop in June and keep part of the produce in country stores under rice straw or grass to break the dormancy or to accelerate the sprouting of tubers.The common varieties used for seeds are same as ware potato. For Kufri Jyoti, potatoes are harvested in May to October which is then stored for seed to be sown in February to March due to its dormancy. The seeds are stored in a storage shed on a raised platform that is made of wooden planks and covered with tin sheets. The tubers are kept in stacks of layers of wooden planks for aeration.In terms of the trader-based informal seed system, some traders supply seeds to the farmers directly while others have an informal contract system to buy back the produce from the farmers. In West Garo, farmers purchase seed from traders coming from neighboring markets of Assam, such as Dhubri, just before the sowing period. The interviewed traders pointed out that, unlike in other plain states, there are no proper seed markets for potato in Meghalaya which may be one of the reasons for low yield.There is also a formal seed system in the state, wherein the foundation seed is supplied by the DOH to progressive farmers or registered growers to produce certified seeds, which are then bought back by the DOH and distributed among farmers. The registered seed growers are identified by the DOH who also monitors production during the season. The DOH purchases basic breeder seeds from the CPRI in Shimla. Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Megha are the major varieties multiplied by registered seed growers and also procured and multiplied to foundation seed by the DOH at the experimental station in Upper Shillong.The sorting and grading is done on the field with medium sized tubers often sold back to the DOH as seeds, while the bigger tubers of minor quality are sold as ware. The seed tubers are packed in perforated nylon bags of 50-60 kg capacity and labelled with details including variety names, generation, and farmer's name, among others. The registered growers of Khasi Hills transport their potatoes themselves to the concerned offices of the Horticulture Department with pickup trucks and mini trucks. The average transport cost is 1 INR per kg. The DOH's implementation of this system depends largely on farmers' seed demand. However, with a total annual seed requirement of about 45,000 tons, it is only able to meet less than 2% of the total seed requirement in Meghalaya. Therefore, the rest of the seed used by farmers is informally produced (Kadian et al., 2010) This study revealed that the value chain governance is similar in both Khasi Hills and in West Garo Hills, wherein the key value chain actors are the wholesalers operating in neighboring states. They play a decisive role on how the chain operates since they determine the flow of commodities as well as prices. It can even be argued that they govern the value chain and that most other chain actors subscribe to their unwritten rules that guide the marketing process. The wholesalers have sufficient information about the supply of potato and which direction it flows along the marketing channels in different parts of the country, thus they are capable of setting potato prices. They are also strongly networked mostly through telephone contact. For instance, a potato wholesaler in Guwahati, Assam state or in Tripura where there is good demand for Meghalaya potato can contact wholesaler trader agents in the Iewduh or Mawiong via telephone. In turn, these trader agents call known local farmers and other traders in Meghalaya for information on the local supply situation and the prospects of harvest in their area. At the same time, trader agents obtain information on potato prices from the wholesalers in Meghalaya and beyond. Then, trader agents in Shillong agree on their buying price, considering their profit margins.Consequently, farmers accept the buying price offered by trader agents with hardly any negotiation due to fear of unsold produce. Because of this farmers do not have any significant influence on the value chain. They are also often not organized, and their major source of market information are their neighbors or fellow farmers who sold potato during the previous market days. It is rare for the farmers to receive potato market price information through mass media. This value chain governance is similar to that of West Garo Hills.Except for this networking and business relation, there is no formal means of transactions in the potato value chain in Meghalaya. Money is transferred through banks and more often than not, wholesalers in the different markets have never personally met. More recently, the use of mobile phones in the rural areas to inquire about potato prices is increasing.Value chain linkages refer to the relationships existing between actors in a chain. Data from Khasi and Garo Hills show that farmers have good relationships among themselves, maintaining regular contact and showing a satisfactory level of trust. This relationship and mutual trust among farmers is evident in seed exchanges, information sharing on cultivation practices and market prices, and in labor exchange. This can be the basis for looking at options for collective marketing in the area, which will be further discussed in the next sections.On the other hand, the relationship between farmers and traders is very informal and they have moderate trust even though their contact with each other is quite regular. Poor levels of trust exists in some cases where traders and wholesalers use irregular weighing practices and farmers suspect cheating. Very few farmers enter into written agreement with the traders and nearly 80% of the volume of Meghalaya potato trading takes place through traders in Iewduh and Mawiong who have connections to wholesalers in neighboring states. Both are interdependent in the transaction as farmers have to sell to these traders through auction and these traders have to procure tubers from farmers. The price is decided by the wholesalers depending on the prevailing supply and demand.Farmers also maintain a moderate linkage with banks for acquiring loans through a formal written agreement. Meanwhile, the farmers' linkages with the Agriculture Department and Extension Agency is also moderate and formal but mostly through verbal agreement, often through farmers' participation in training programs.Presently, there are two regulated markets under the Agriculture Produce Market Committee Act in the state of Meghalaya: the previously mentioned Mawiong regulated market in East Khasi District and Garobadha regulated market located in West Garo District. The latter operates under the MSAMB and was set up in 1983 to develop marketing infrastructure and to provide marketing support to farmers in the State. Notably, potato is one of the main commodities in Mawiong but it is not marketed in Garobadha.Among non-regulated markets, Iewduh Bara Bazaar is the major market supplying vegetables to residents of Shillong city and the wider region in the absence of a regulated market for vegetables. Farmers within a 60 km radius of Shillong city sell their produce in the market where approximately 300 to 400 small and big traders are operating. Iewduh is run and managed by the Syiem of Mylliem, an indigenous institution linked to Khasi ethnic population. The most distinctive feature of this ancient market is the dominance of retail trade by Khasi women. Although the market is non-regulated, interviewed farmers revealed that they pay a 10 INR tax for each 50 kg sack of potatoes to the indigenous authority. This fee goes to the provision of facilities in the market such as sanitation and parking. On the other hand, non-local traders are required to have a trading license issued by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Councils.To provide better marketing facilities for these farmers, the Government of Meghalaya through the MSAMB agreed to set up a Farmers' Market under Additional Central Assistance (ACA) at a cost of 4,718,731.00. INR The Upper Shillong Farmers' Market is built on land belonging to the State Agriculture Department at 5th Mile Upper Shillong, on the road to Shillong peak. The main objectives of establishing the Farmers' Market is (1) to provide a place which is equipped with infrastructure and facilities for the farmers to sell their produce in a transparent and fair manner to buyers and sellers alike, (2) to enable farmers to come together and manage the facility, (3) to provide a platform to farmers for exchanging information and for the Department of Agriculture to meet with farmers with a view to providing technical information and advisories, and (d) to facilitate direct seller and trader interaction and trading between farmers and traders which eliminates the operation of superfluous value chain actors to a great extent. To date, the construction of this Farmers' Market has been completed, but it is yet to be inaugurated.To improve the marketability and add value to farmers' produce, the State Government has proposed to set up a Collection and Forwarding Centre adjacent to the Farmers' Market. In here, the produce will be properly graded, stored, and packed; before being transported to larger markets outside Shillong and even outside the state.Besides Iewduh, Mawiong, and Garobadha markets, districts also have traditional non-regulated rural markets established at the village level or cluster level. In these weekly or bi-weekly markets managed by local authorities, small and marginal farmers of nearby villages sell their produce. Being traditional establishments, these rural markets lack basic infrastructure facilities to handle fresh produce. The cost of cultivation was computed based on the variable cost in which input costs, both purchased and owned, and labor costs, both family and hired labor, are included. The total cost of cultivation for each potato cultivation season are shown in Table 11 below. Results show that production costs are higher in winter mainly because of higher seed rates and prices, which are purchased from traders and not self-produced. Labor costs account for 50% while seed costs is almost 40%. Moreover, among the production operations, land preparation and harvesting entailed higher labor costs in all seasons. This assessment shows that there is scope for reducing cultivation costs with interventions like seed production in the case of winter season and use of tillers during land preparation in spring and summer. However, overall cost of production relative to yield is actually lower for winter potato at 10.03 INR/kg because of its substantially higher yield rates, which may be due to irrigation practiced in surveyed villages. This analysis sought to understand how much value is added by the different value chain actors in the three seasons studied. Value addition is the difference between the costs invested and the selling price at each stage of the value chain. Producers' share and price spread were also worked out to assess the percentage of the total value enjoyed by the farmers. The detailed results for each the three seasons are shown in Annex IV and V.As previously mentioned, there are six channels in the value chain map for spring and summer seasons in Khasi Hills. In Channel 1, which accounts for 70% to 80% of the total volume traded, the market margins for producers, traders, wholesalers, and retailers are 3.30, 1.00, 0.50, and 1.50 INR/kg, respectively. Among the channels, producers could get the highest value addition of 5.4 INR/kg in Channel 6, where they sell directly to consumers. On the contrary, they get the least value added in Channels 4 and 5, where they sell within the village to aggregators and traders.In the winter season in Garo Hills, value addition in Channel 1 was 2.50 INR/kg for producers' ,1.00 INR/kg for traders, 0.08 INR/kg for wholesalers, and 1.00 INR/kg for retailers. Among the channels, producers could get maximum value addition of 4 INR/kg in Channel 3 where they sell directly to the consumers followed by Channel 2 where product moves from farmer to wholesalers, retailers, and consumers within Meghalaya.Additionally, the producers' percentage share of the total value added was calculated for all the channels (Table 12). Results show that Channel 6, which involves direct sales to consumers, gave farmers the highest percentage share of value added at 95%. However, this channel accounts for only a very small part of overall transactions. Although farmers' margins were smaller in channels 4 and 5 where they sell in the village at lower prices, farmers actually enjoy a higher share of the total value added because these are shorter value chains. Farmers also get a higher proportion of value added in Channel 2, where they sell to wholesalers in the lewduh market who then sell on to retailers. The lowest share of value added was in the most important Channel 1, with the largest number of value chain actors involved. In the winter season, farmers' share is greatest in Channel 3 where they sell direct to consumers, and least in Channel 1 where purchases are made by traders in the villages and there are several other actors in the chain. The data presented on market margins shows that value addition is most significant among farmers, than with intermediate actors who handle much larger volumes, thus adding much smaller margins. Farmers' value addition activities include grading and taking the product to Iewduh market while the intermediate actors' value addition involves simple product transport and interaction with other actors. Despite this, the great volumes handled by these intermediate actors means they still get higher profit margins than farmers. In fact, even though the producers' share of value addition is more than 75%, in absolute terms the market margin is only 2.00 to 7.00 INR/kg. There is opportunity for increasing market margins across the value chain, including farmers, if more value adding activities for can be done, such as improved packaging or grading.The key challenges experienced by various potato value chain actors interviewed in this study are summarized in the Figure 16 below.As can be expected, price spread is also highest in channels with several actors along the chain and least in channels where farmers sell directly to consumers. In the spring and summer seasons price spread is least in Channel 6 and most in Channel 1 with three different actors in the chain between producers and consumers (Table 13). The channel where the producers' price share is higher clearly benefits farmers more and the channel in which the price spread is less benefits consumers more. The fewer the intermediate value chain actors, the greater the benefits to both producers and consumers. Therefore, these channels need to be encouraged, although in East Khasi Hills the current direct sales from producers to consumers accounts for a very tiny part of the total volume marketed, indicating probable constraints on this type of marketing.Input related problems are primarily associated with the use of high quality seed materials of improved varieties. This is a multi-dimensional problem which includes the lack of availability, untimely or delayed supply, lack of new or appropriate varieties, and high costs of seeds. Other production problems include the susceptibility of current varieties to diseases and pests, especially potato late blight, low soil fertility, and environmental stresses related to climate change.Notably, while the supply of the improved Kufri Jyoti variety has improved overtime, in recent years its tolerance to late blight has broken down. An alternative variety that is appropriate for local conditions is Kufri Giriraj, but it is not yet included in seed multiplication schemes. Moreover, soil fertility is affected by increased fertilizer prices, largely due to the removal of subsidies on inorganic fertilizers. This is a result of the government's promotion of organic agriculture which could lead to further increase in cost of production as potato is a heavy nutrient feeder. Farmers also identified the decreasing availability of timely labor as a growing problem in potato production. Further, the National Rural Employment Scheme which guarantees 100 days of labor work to each family leads to scarcity of labor and rise in wages of both male and female in rural areas as less numbers of laborers willing to work in the potato field.In terms of post-harvest issues, value chain actors stated that the quality control of potato is mostly done through physical observations only and that there is no standardized potato quality control mechanism in the country whether in seed production, ware potato transportation, or in potato packaging. Modern branding practices are also not being used in the study area. Quality parameters used by consumers in purchasing potato are size, color and absence of damage.Moreover, there is almost no processing of potato in Meghalaya and all types of processing units are absent. As was noted earlier, only about 7.5% of potato production is processed nationally, but this is still higher than in Meghalaya and this is an area of potential growth.Both farmers and traders expressed concerns about price instability and even price crashes that have occurred in the past, which led farmers to sell at a loss. Farmers also feel that the lack of information on market prices in other states, which have a considerable effect on potato prices in Shillong, is a significant constraint. Because they are not aware of the exact price at which they could sell their product before coming to Iewduh market, farmers have no choice but to accept the price bids of traders. In addition, even though nearly 70% of potato production in Meghalaya is marketed to neighboring states, there is no formal mechanism available for the farmers to sell the product to other states. Standard affordable common storage facilities are also lacking while proper transportation options are limited which increases post-harvest losses. Farmers often transport potatoes on the floor of trucks over long distances which results to skin damage.This study also documented various opportunities for overcoming these challenges and strengthening the potato value chain, as well as specific strategies and the stakeholders involved, as shown in Table 14. The specific recommendations based on the study results include both short and long term strategies and actions. The scoping study of RTCs in Meghalaya led by FoodSTART+ and LAMP in 2016 recommended conducting a potato value chain study in key potato producing areas in India to strengthen the value chain and increase benefits to farmers. This study was therefore conducted in late 2016 with the overall objective of characterizing the entire potato value chain in Meghalaya including input supply, varietal distribution over seasons, production, and marketing; and to identify major constraints and areas where interventions could significantly increase returns for potato producers. These information will be used to plan LAMP/MBDA activities in the potato sub-sector.This study followed a value chain analysis approach and involved a cross-sectional data collection among a range of stakeholders and value chain actors through review of secondary data, key informant interviews, FGDs, and surveys. The study was conducted in the main potato-producing districts of East Khasi, West Khasi and West Garo as well as in markets in Shillong and other urban centers of Meghalaya and in adjoining states.Potato is a vital and inseparable part of the Meghalaya cuisine. The per capita availability of potato in the state is almost 80 kg per annum, more than four times the national average, indicating that it is an important food crop in the state. This is partly due to the fact that potato can be grown in Meghalaya during most of the year in four distinct seasons, unlike other parts of India where it is a seasonal crop. This enables potato to be sold at premium prices outside Meghalaya.The value chain mapping revealed that farmers, traders, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers are the main actors, and they are supported by input suppliers and government organizations. The important varieties cultivated were Khufri Jyoti, Khufri Megha, Bengal tiger, Great Scot, Phan Sohiong, and Jatira. The major value chain channel for spring and summer potato grown in Khasi Hills involves farmers selling to traders in a Iewduh, a non-regulated market in Shillong, who then sell to wholesalers or their agents from neighboring states, who then sell to retailers, who then sell to consumers in that state. On the other hand, in the winter season in Garo Hills, the major channel involves the farmer selling to traders who visit the villages, they then sell the potatoes to wholesalers in urban centers in the region, who sell to retailers, who sell to consumers there. Potato is also traded in the markets in Mawiong and Garobadha. A little over two thirds of the production from Meghalaya is exported to neighboring states, mainly during June to August, and the rest is consumed locally. Conversely, Meghalaya imports nearly 70% of the potato demand during the months of October to January from West Bengal, Assam and Uttar Pradesh.The importance of the export and import markets of ware potato from neighboring states explains why wholesalers dominate the potato value chain. They dictate the flow of potato to and from other states and strongly influence prices. In effect, they govern the value chain and most other chain actors submit to the informal rules set in the marketing process.Research also show that 98% of the seed requirement during the spring and summer seasons were from the farmers own seeds and only 2% were from certified seeds, while winter season seeds were mostly purchased from traders from Assam. Potato farming requires a relatively large labor force and female labor dominates in both cultivation and post-harvest management. The cost of production of potato in spring, summer, and winter seasons were 12.54 INR/kg, 13.48 INR/kg and 10.03 INR/kg, respectively.Potato farmers and other value chain actors also identified the prevalent issues and challenges that affect potato production and marketing. Among their major concern is the lack of quality potato seeds of improved varieties in Meghalaya. This affects yield which are already well below national average. Another production issue affecting potato yield is decreasing soil fertility, which is confounded by the removal of state subsidies on chemical fertilizers as part of the promotion of organic agriculture. Other constraints include both biotic and abiotic stresses, the latter linked to climate change.In terms of post-harvest issues, farmers and traders mentioned that lack of a formal quality control and the absence of any branding of the Meghalaya potato affects potato prices and demand. There is also no post-harvest processing being done for potato. Moreover, poor transportation and lack of appropriate storage results in product damage and the absence of processing means that defective tubers have no alternative market. These production and post-harvest issues lead to the major marketing problem of unstable potato prices throughout the year. This can be alleviated through better storage options and the existence of value adding processing. Price volatility could also be reduced if farmers have more information on the prevailing market prices, especially about prices in neighboring states. Information on market prices can influence harvesting decisions and help reduce price volatility by limiting oversupply. At the same time, farmers could greatly benefit from opportunities to directly market their produce to other states and collective marketing, which are both currently absent in Meghalaya. Collective marketing can also improve farmers' revenue from local sales in Shillong.To overcome the challenges faced by actors in the potato value chain, especially for farmers, this study also identified opportunities for intervention. These include options for increasing the supply of and farmers' access to high quality seed of modern varieties to improve the seed value chain. The ware potato value chain could also be improved through better post-harvest handling, quality control mechanisms, and the use of proper storage. Opportunities for improved potato marketing includes providing market intelligence to farmers to help stabilize prices, building the marketing and entrepreneurial capacity of farmers, identifying processing options, and developing a branding strategy for Meghalaya potatoes to market to other states. All these can be done through better collaboration between farmers, other value chain actors, and government agencies.Area: hectares 2000-  167.88 149.42 141.60 167.03 188.20 174.59 120.53 162.44 155.88 165.67  ","tokenCount":"14788"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4b46aef1d9791b74eef5c912668fa027","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fe1ca96f-bed0-4d19-9314-636dcc41cd7d/retrieve","id":"1760739524"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6eab3572-17af-4da5-9777-81b5fa368c98","pagecount":"130","content":"A DIOS por ser mi luz en cada momento de mi vida.A mi mamá por ser quien me dio el ser y a quien le debo haber terminado esta etapa de mi vida, pues con su amor y confianza apoyó cada momento de mi carrera.A mis abuelitos por estar en cada momento en el cual he necesitado de ellos, por brindarme su gran amor y a mi abuelita especialmente por sus oraciones en los momentos más importantes de mi vida.A mis hermanos por ser parte de mis alegrías y mis tristezas.A mi papá por acompañarme en mi carrera y por enseñarme todo aquello que sabía, por ser mi compañero de risas y de locuras.A mi gran amiga Sandra por que sin su tolerancia, perseverancia y gran amistad no se hubiera podido culminar este trabajo con éxito, a ella y su familia siempre los llevaré en mi corazón.A Hoover por soportar mis momentos de mal genio y por ser mi gran amigo además de mi amor.Y muy especialmente a mis amigos (as) Merlyn, Oscar, Jose, Álvaro, Diego, Jaime, Alex, Elkin, Marino, Cony, Katherine, Anderson, Mauricio T, Ana María Lozada, Maria Claudia, Ana Milena, Chicho, Ricardo, Cléver, Karim, Martha, Lina, Lili, Patico, Sandra García, mi Yorla por estar siempre ahí cuando mas los necesité, por ser complices de mis alegrias y mis tristezas y por ser quienes son.A Dios por estar conmigo en todos los momentos de mi vida, y no dejarme desfallecer, además por darme la familia tan espectacular que tengo.A mis padres por apoyarme en todas mis decisiones, por su compañía en este transcurso de mi vida, por darme la oportunidad de ser alguien en la vida, por la formación que me han dado y sobre todo por todo el amor que me brindan.A mi hermana Paola por estar a mi lado en los momentos de tristeza y alegrías, por apoyarme y respetarme.A Herman, mi cuñado, por entender todos mis dilemas, por su gran ayuda y amistad.A mis abuelos por su amor que solo ellos saben dar.A mi MEJOR AMIGA JOHANNA, por soportar mi genio, por su ayuda, por esa amistad tan incondicional y única que hizo posible que tantas cosas nos saliera tan bien.A mi MEJOR AMIGO ALEJANDRO por sus consejos y por estar siempre al lado mío.A mi amiga Merlyn por esas largas charlas y momentos felices que pasamos.A mis amigos Jose, Oscar, Alex, Jaime, Alvaro, Patico, Sandra G., Catherine, Lina, Martha, Ana María Lozada, Conny, Marino y a las monas, quienes con su sonrisa y compañía hicieron que esta étapa tuviera los mejores momentos de mi vida.A los abuelos de JOHA por su confianza y apoyo moral en toda mi carrera.A mis amigos(as) Mauricio Cuevas, Anderson, Mauricio Tamara, Karim, Ana Milena, Chichos, Cléber, Ricardo, Adrian, que a pesar de ser de otras carreras estuvieron en todo momento conmigo compartiendo ratos inolvidables.A mi gran amiga María Claudia por esa amistad tan sincera, por toda su ayuda Sandra patricia v.Manifestamos nuestros agradecimientos para la culminación de este trabajo:Al Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) por dejarnos una huella imborrable de grandes enseñanzas.Al Doctor Fernando Correa por el gran apoyo que nos brindó para la culminación de este trabajo, por su confianza y por sus enseñanzas, las cuales son básicas para nuestra formación como profesionales.A James García por su gran ayuda, su amistad y en especial su confianza.A Gustavito por que fue un gran compañero en nuestro trabajo, gracias por meterle toda tu tenacidad a esta tesis y sobre todo por tu amistad.Al profesor Ariel Gutiérrez por su paciencia, perseverancia y gran ayuda para que este trabajo fuera exitoso.A Girlena por sus grandes enseñanzas.A Fabio Escobar por su compañerismo, a Joanna Dossman y Sandra Salazar y en general a todo el equipo de arroz del CIAT.A Liliana Escobar por su gran amistad y ayuda.A Luz Dary, Luis Rosero y Daniel Zambrano por su valiosa colaboració n.A Elizabeth por su valiosa colaboración en la edición de este trabajo y por estar siempre dispuesta a colaborarnos.A Miryam Cristina Duque y James Silva por su gran ayuda y por su gran conocimiento aportado.A la Universidad Nacional por formarnos como profesionales.Al profesor Fernando Marmolejo por ser quien nos motivó a amar la fitopatología.A los profesores Jaime Eduardo Muñoz, Carlos Iván Cardozo, Pedro Díaz, Mario García, Edgar Iván Estrada, Franco Alirio Vallejo y Mauricio Salazar por darnos lo mejor de su trabajo como verdaderos maestros.El entorchamiento del arroz es una enfermedad causada por el Virus de la Necrosis Rayada (VNRA), el cual es transmitido por el hongo del suelo Polymyxa graminis. En este estud io se compararon tres métodos de inoculación para identificar la que presentara transmisión del hongo vector y una mayor incidencia de entorchamiento, con el objetivo principal de poder evaluar germoplasma de arroz por su resistencia al virus. El método 1 consistió en la siembra directa de la semilla sobre suelo contaminado recolectado directamente de campos de agricultores con una alta incidencia de la enfermedad; en el método 2 se pusieron en contacto las semillas con suelo humedecido y altamente infestado por el hongo vector y posteriormente se sembró en materos con arena estéril; en el método 3 se sembraron las semillas en bandejas con suelo infestado y a los 10 días después de siembra se arrancaron las plántulas para causar heridas en las raicillas y se transplantaron a materos que contenían del mismo suelo contaminado. Se determinó que la mayor incidencia de la enfermedad se presentó con el método 1. Posteriormente se evaluó la reacción al virus de la Necrosis Rayada (VNRA) bajo condiciones de invernadero de 16 líneas preliminarmente clasificadas como resistentes y 10 susceptibles, resultantes del cruzamiento y retrocruzamiento de la especie silvestre de arroz O. glaberrima como parental resistente y la variedad comercial BG90-2 O. sativa utilizada como parental recurrente en las generaciones RC 2 F 5 Y RC 3 F 4 .De esta evaluación se seleccionaron 9 líneas altamente resistentes al VNRA que pertenecían a la población RC 2 F 5.Se estudió la resistencia al virus y/o al hongo vector P. graminis en líneas resistentes al VNRA, en los parentales BG90-2 y O. glaberrima y en la variedad susceptible Oryzica 3, y se concluyó que la resistencia al VNRA puede deberse a una resistencia al vector y no necesariamente al virus, por lo cual se recomienda realizar estudios para dilucidar los mecanismos de resistencia observados.Se evaluó la efectividad del fungicida HIMEXAZOL como control químico del hongo vector P. graminis aplicado al suelo o la semilla, dando como resultado un buen control a concentraciones de 1ml de HIMEXAZOL en 199 ml de agua aplicado al suelo, aplicado al suelo. Concentraciones mayores causan una alta toxicidad y mortalidad de plantas. En la aplicación a la semilla no se observó ningún efecto del fungicida para el control del hongo P. graminis vector del VNRA.Palabras Claves: Entorchamiento, Polymyxa graminis, líneas resistentes, control químico, HIMEXAZOL.The rice disease known as crinkling or rice stripe necrosis virus (RSNV) is transmitted by the soil pathogen Polymyxa graminis. Three inoculation methods were compared in this study to identify the best transmission of the fungus and symptom development, and the highest incidence of the disease, with the objective of evaluating rice germplasm for resistance to the virus. Method 1 consisted in planting dried seed directly on contaminated soil collected from farmers fields with a high incidence of RSNV; for method 2 the seeds were placed in contact with soil highly infested with P. graminis which had been previously moistened, and then planting the seeds in pots containing sterile sand; in method 3 the seeds were planted temporarily in highly infested soil on flat trays for ten days, seedlings were then pulled off the soil causing small wounds in the roots and transplanted to pots containing the same soil highly infested with the pathogen. The highest incidence of the disease was observed with method 1 of inoculation. This method was used to evaluate and corroborate the reaction to RSNV of rice lines derived from the insterspecific cross and backcross between the wild rice Oryza glaberrima (resistant parent) and the cultivar BG-90-2 of the cultivated species O. sativa used as the recurrent parent in the BC 2 F 5 and BC 3 F 4 populations. Nine lines were selected as highly resistant to RSNV from the population BC 2 F 5.The resistance to the virus or vector was studied in lines selected as highly resistant to RSNV, the parents (BG90-2 and O. glaberrima), and the susceptible cultivar Oryzica 3.The results suggest that the resistance to RSNV observed could be due to resistance to the vector and not necessarily to the virus; therefore, it is recommended to conduct additional studies to elucidate the nature and mechanisms of the resistance observed.The fungicide HIMEXAZOL was evaluated as chemical control of the vector P. graminis applied to the soil or as seed treatment. Effective control was observed for the concentration 1X applied to the soil. However, higher concentrations of the fungicide were toxic causing plant death. Seed treatment was not effective for the control of the vector of RSNV at any concentration. Ibagué, con síntomas característicos como el enrollamiento de la hoja principal, fusión del tejido foliar que da origen a un pseudotallo con una hoja principal que emerge en forma de zig-zag. Las hojas afectadas se tornan necróticas, y finalmente las plantas detienen su desarrollo normal (Restrepo, 1969). En 1991 se presentó en la zona arrocera de los LlanosOrientales (Bastidas y Montealegre,1994). En los años siguientes la incidencia de la enfermedad ha sido errática y ha variado apreciablemente de un semestre a otro.En 1999 se encontraron en el Valle del Cauca lotes con incidencia hasta del 90% (Reyes y Holguín, 2000).En el control del Virus de la Necrosis Rayada del Arroz, transmitido por el pseudo-pseudohongo Polymyxa graminis se han intentado varios métodos. Hasta la fecha, los tratamientos con productos químicos no han resultado ser económicamente viables en condiciones de campo. Las principales estrategias en la mayoría de los países templados afectados por estos virus transmitidos por Polymyxa spp., han sido, las prácticas culturales y la rotación de cultivos (Morales, 2001).Teniendo en cuenta la importancia del cultivo del arroz en Colombia y el nivel de daño causado por esta enfermedad, junto con los elevados costos de los agroquímicos utilizados como control y su inefectividad, se hace necesario hallar algunas medidas de control para el \"entorchamiento\" del arroz como el desarrollo de posibles fuentes de resistencia al virus y/o vector.-Profundizar en el conocimiento de la interacción de germoplasma de arroz con el virus de la Necrosis Rayada del Arroz y de su vector el pseudo-pseudo-hongo Polymyxa graminis.-Comparar tres metodologías de inoculación del pseudo-pseudo-hongo Polymyxa graminis para identificar la que presente mayor incidencia de la enfermedad para su uso en los ensayos posteriores de evaluación de germoplasma de arroz.-Evaluar el comportamiento de las líneas resultantes del cruzamiento y retrocruzamiento de una accesión de Oryza glaberrima como parental resistente y la variedad comercial BG90-2 ( Oryza sativa) utilizada como parental intermedio recurrente en las generaciones RC 2 F 5 , RC 3 F 4 y RC 3 F 5 al virus del entorchamiento del arroz en condiciones de invernadero .-Determinar si las líneas resistentes al Entorchamiento, seleccionadas en el retrocruzamiento estudiado, presentan también resistencia a la infección de la raíz por parte del vector Polymyxa graminis.-Evaluar la efectividad del fungicida HIMEXAZOL en el control químico de Polymyxa graminis, vector del entorchamiento.El arroz es un cultivo de ciclo corto de vital importancia para la dieta alimenticia de los colombianos, tanto en la zona rural como en la urbana; es una fuente de calorías (14.3%) y de proteínas (12.5%) (Prado, 1994) La enfermedad se manifiesta en zonas tropicales, pero es posible que se presente en zonas templadas ya que el pseudo-hongo Polymyxa graminis proviene de estas zonas. (Morales et al, 1995) Debido a la importancia económica que ha alcanzado el entorchamiento, es necesario iniciar un programa de evaluación e identificación de posibles fuentes de resistencia al virus para ser incorporadas en los programas de mejoramiento de desarrollo de variedades de arroz (Carrillo y Correa, 1998) 1.3 SINTOMATOLOGIA Los síntomas de la enfermedad durante el desarrollo del cultivo se manifiestan de la siguiente forma: durante el estado de plántula se observa una proliferación de raíces secundarias que elevan la planta sobre la superficie del suelo, enroscamiento con o sin moteado de las hojas, enanismo, pérdida de turgencia, aceleramiento del desarrollo y muerte de plantas. En las plantas que sobreviven, el macollamiento se adelanta, las hojas y tallos se deforman, el anclaje es débil, las nuevas macollas emergen con deformaciones y enanismo que en la mayoría de los casos no se desarrollan y mueren (Agudelo et al, 2001).Polymyxa graminis es un parásito obligado de las raíces de plantas susceptibles. Esta especie produce zoosporas biflageladas, las cuales nadan hacia los pelos radicales o a la superficie de la epidermis de las raíces, donde se enquistan, inyectando su protoplasto en las células atacadas. Este protoplasto se divide para formar un plasmodio multinucleado, que se convierte en un zoosporangio. Esta estructura produce zoosporas secundarias, encargadas de continuar el proceso de infección. En condiciones adversas los plasmodios producen cuerpos de resistencia, llamados cistosoros, los cuales pueden sobrevivir varios años en ausencia de hospederos y condiciones ambientales favorables. (Chen et al, 1991) La enfermedad se manifiesta tanto en condiciones de irrigación temporal como en secano, teniendo mayor incidencia en suelos de textura liviana, como los Franco Arenosos. Esto se debe a la mayor movilidad de las zoosporas en este tipo de suelos, siempre y cuando tenga un contenido de humedad apropiado para el desplazamiento de las zoosporas y crecimiento del cultivo. La incidencia del \"Entorchamiento\" puede estar influenciada por factores climáticos, coincidiendo los brotes más severos con la ocurrencia de periodos de sequía y lluvias alternadas. (Morales et al, 1995) A nivel regional, el pseudo-pseudo-hongo vector y el virus que porta, se propaga por diferentes medios. El agua de riego y sus fuentes de agua (lagunas, ríos, etc) pueden ser un medio de difusión de zoosporas virulíferas. Las labores de cultivo, los implementos y la maquinaria agrícola, así como semilla contaminada con suelo infestado constituyen un vehículo de contaminación de suelos libres del pseudo-hongo Polymyxa graminis y del Virus de la Necrosis Rayada del arroz (VNRA). En algunas regiones productoras de arroz la maquinaria es alquilada y transportada por largas distancias, sin tomar las medidas necesarias para descontaminarla luego de haber sido utilizada en campos afectados por entorchamiento. (Morales, 2001) Polymyxa es un género económicamente importante con solo dos especies: Polymyxa graminis Lendinghan y Polymyxa betae Keskin.Polymyxa graminis y Polymyxa betae están registradas como especies separadas por Karling (1968) (citado por Barr 1979) en su monografía de pseudo-hongos plasmodioforos por lo siguiente: las paredes de los cistosoros en P. graminis son fusionadas, mientras que en P. betae son separadas por una sustancia y por que difieren en el tipo de huéspedes.D'Ambra (1967) (Citado por Barr, 1979), encontró una cercana semejanza entre las dos especies y concluyó que esta diferenciación no es posible morfo lógicamente, es decir que la clasificación es posible solo por características citológicas de los núcleos durante la mitosis y por el huésped específico. ( Barr, 1979) Polymyxa betae es un patógeno de la remolacha en Europa y en Norte América (Keskin, 1964 citado por Barr, 1979), mientas que Polymyxa graminis fue el primer plasmodioforomiceto identificado como un vector del virus en plantas de trigo (WMV) (Ratna et al 1990). P. graminis es un parásito biotrópico registrado en las raíces de especies de la familia de las gramíneas (Adams, et al, 1986). Aparentemente no causa pérdidas en la cosecha directamente, siendo este un vector de virus en cereales: virus del mosaico del trigo que habita en el suelo (WSBNV) en los EE.UU. e Italia; virus del mosaico rayado del trigo (WSSMV) en Canadá, EE.UU. y posiblemente Francia; virus del mosaico de la avena (OMV) en EE.UU. y posiblemente Nueva Zelanda; virus del mosaico amarillo de la cebada (BaYMV) y virus del mosaico necrótico del arroz (RNMV) ambos en Japón (Barr, 1979).La enfermedad viral descrita como \"Entorchamiento\", es causada por el furovirus de la necrosis rayada del arroz (VNRA), transmitido en África a través del suelo por el pseudohongo P. graminis. (Fauquet y Thouvenel, 1983;citado por Morales et al, 1995) Restrepo (1969) en Colombia observó una nueva enfermedad en los cultivos de arroz de la Meseta de Ibagué con una sintomatología caracterizada por presentar enrollamiento de la hoja principal, fusión de tejido foliar dando lugar a un pseudotallo que contiene una hoja principal que emerge en forma de zig-zag, las hojas afectadas se tornan necróticas, y finalmente las plantas detienen su desarrollo normal. (Bastidas y Montealegre, 1994) Fue después de 22 años cuando se volvió a detectar en Colombia un problema similar, observado en los municipios de Castilla la Nueva y de San Carlos de Guaroa, en el departamento del Meta (Bastidas y Montealegre, 1994), esta vez destacándose la presencia de rayas cloróticas paralelas a las nervaduras de las primeras hojas, sumándose a estas los síntomas descritos en 1969. (Morales et al, 1995) El efecto de algunos herbicidas, la interacción de residuos de herbicidas con minerales del suelo y la transmisión por insectos o por organismos microscópicos que infectaron las plantas con alguna sustancia de tipo viral o que ocasionaron un daño directo fueron asociados con la enfermedad (Bastidas y Montealegre, 1994).En 1993 Tapiero y Parada (citado por Acosta N. et al 1997) asocian la presencia del áfido Rhopalosiphum rufiabdominalis con el síndrome del entorchamiento, sin embargo en los estudios de transmisión estos investigadores obtuvieron síntomas del entorchamiento en plantas sembradas en suelo con poblaciones del áfido y en suelo esterilizado con o sin áfidos, no confirmándose la transmisión de este insecto. (Acosta, N. 1997) En 1994 Pardo y Muñoz luego de realizar un estudio donde se asperjaron plántulas de arroz con una suspensión de nematodos con los que reprodujeron los síntomas de entorchamiento, concluyeron que el nematodo del género Pratylenchus era el agente causal de la enfermedad del entorchamiento en el cultivo de arroz de los Llanos Orientales.A finales de 1993 se realizaron las primeras investigaciones sobre el agente causal del \"entorchamiento\" de arroz en la Unidad de Virología del CIAT; donde se investigó la posibilidad de que se tratara del virus del moteado amarillo del arroz (RYMV) transmitido por crisomélidos (Bakker, 1970;citado por Morales et al 1995) por presentar similitud en los síntomas, sin embargo los resultados fueron negativos. En 1994, se inició la investigación sobre la posible existencia de un furovirus, habiéndose observado partículas tubulares degradadas en extractos de hojas sintomáticas, y estructuras similares a esporangios en raíces de plantas de arroz afectadas por entorchamiento. Estas investigaciones concluyeron ante el informe de que el agente causal del entorchamiento era el nematodo del género Pratylenchus. (Morales et al 1995) En 1995 Morales y colaboradores reanudaron las investigaciones debido a la persistencia de la enfermedad a pesar del uso intensivo de nematicidas. Para dicho estudio se utilizaron plantas de arroz de diferentes variedades, afectadas por \"entorchamiento\", procedentes de las localidades de Santa Rosa, Acacías, y San Carlos de Guaroa, en el departamento del Meta. Se hicieron observaciones directas de extractos de plantas con síntomas de \"entorchamiento\" en un microscopio electrónico, se tomaron diferentes muestras del sistema radical de plantas de arroz sanas y afectadas por \"entorchamiento\" para la detección de microorganismos en microscopio de luz, se utilizó tejido foliar y raíces de plantas de arroz afectadas por \"entorchamiento\" para el aislamiento del agente causal y se determinaron sus características por medio de espectrofotometría, finalmente se realizó un análisis de proteínas y ARN de doble filamento. En dicha investigación se demostró la presencia de estructuras similares a los cistosoros característicos del pseudo-hongo plasmodioforomiceto Polymyxa spp., en plantas de arroz afectadas por \"entorchamiento\", de igual manera se demostró la asociación con esta enfermedad de un patógeno viral perteneciente al grupo de los furovirus. (Morales et al 1995) El síndrome del \"entorchamiento\", presentó similitudes con los síntomas de la enfermedad viral conocida como \"Necrosis Rayada del Arroz\" descrita en África. Aislamientos de dicho virus de África y de Colombia, así como extractos de plantas de arroz afectadas por Esta enfermedad se ha distribuido en 22 municipios de ocho departamentos en Colombia (tabla 1). Los plasmodioforomicetos son pseudo-hongos cuyo soma vegetativo es un plasmodio, es decir, una masa amiboidea de protoplasma que posee muchos núcleos y que carece de una pared celular definida. (Agrios, 1997) En el orden de los plasmodiforales el soma vegetativo es también un plasmodio, pero se forma sólo en las células de la planta hospedero y sus esporas latentes se producen en masas y no en cuerpos fructíferos bien definidos. Los plasmodiforales producen zoosporas que por lo común poseen un par de flagelos (Agrios, 1985).El grupo de los plasmodioforales penetra y parásita las raíces y otros órganos subterráneos de las plantas e incluye tres géneros fitoparásitos obligados: Plasmodiophora, Polymyxa y Spongospora. Estos pseudo-hongos se encuentran ampliamente distribuidos en los suelos, donde invernan como esporas latentes. Cuando la temperatura es favo rable y la humedad abundante, la espora latente produce una zoospora que infecta un pelo radicular y produce un plasmodio. Este último se transforma en un zoosporangio que produce abundantes zoosporas secundarias que, quizá después de haberse apareado, penetran en la raíz o en los tejidos de un tubérculo, producen un plasmodio y ocasionan la enfermedad característica.El plasmodio se propaga en los tejidos del hospedero y finalmente produce esporas latentes invernantes. (Agrios, 1985) Estos pseudo-hongos son parásitos obligados y aun cuando pueden sobrevivir en el suelo como esporas latentes durante muchos años, sólo pueden desarrollarse y reproducirse en un número limitado de hospederos. El plasmodio vive a expensas de las células del hospedero que ha invadido sin que las destruya. Por el contrario, en algunas enfermedades, muchas células adyacentes y las que han sido invadidas son estimuladas por el patógeno para que crezcan y se dividan, lo cual hace que este último disponga de una mayor cantidad de nutrientes. Los patógenos se propagan de planta a planta mediante zoosporas o mediante cualquier vector que lleve suelo o agua conteniendo esporas, mediante transplantes infectados, etc. (Agrios, 1997) Los géneros Polymyxa y Spongospora, además de las enfermedades que producen transmiten diversos virus que atacan a diferentes especies; Spongospora es el vector del virus del enanismo de los tallos de la papa, mientras que Polymyxa graminis es el vector del virus del mosaico del trigo que habita en el suelo. (Agrios, 1985) 1Los plasmodioforomicetos son un moho mucilaginoso cuyo soma es un plasmodio. El plasmodio produce zoosporangios o esporas latentes. Cuando ambas estructuras reproductoras germinan, producen zoosporas. Las zoosporas producidas a partir de las esporas latentes penetran en los pelos radícula res del hospedero y ahí forman un plasmodio. A cabo de algunos días, el plasmodio se fragmenta en porciones multinucleadas y rodeadas por membranas individuales; cada una de las porciones forma un zoosporangio.Los zoosporangios salen del hospedero a través de poros que hay en su pared celular y cada uno de ellos libera de cuatro a ocho zoosporas secundarias. Algunas de estas zoosporas se fusionan en pares para formar cigotos que producen nuevas infecciones y un nuevo plasmodio. Por último el plasmodio produce de nuevo esporas latentes que son liberadas al suelo después de haberse producido la desintegración de las paredes celulares del hospedero por la acción de microorganismos secundarios. (Agrios, 1997).El control de virus transmitidos por pseudo-hongos plasmodioforomicetos, como P.Graminis, ha sido intentado por varios métodos. Hasta la fecha, los tratamientos químicos no han resultado ser económicamente viables en condiciones de campo. Las principales estrategias en las mayorías de los países templados afectados por estos virus transmitidos por Polymyxa spp., han sido:• Las practicas culturales donde se adelanta o atrasa la época de siembra para reducir la incidencia de la enfermedad y la rotación de cultivos.• Es posible darle un manejo integrado al \"Entorchamiento\" del arroz, el primer paso seria la \"exclusión\" del patógeno en países o regiones donde no se ha presentado aún.• Evitar la compra de semilla proveniente de regiones productoras de arroz afectadas por esta enfermedad.• Cuando el pseudo-hongo vector y el VNRA se manifiestan en un lote determinado, lo mas indicado es tomar las medidas necesarias para no contaminar otros lotes vecinos.Por ejemplo, manejando el agua de riego o canales de drenaje, así como evitando el movimiento de personal e implementos agrícolas contaminados entre lotes afectados y libres de la enfermedad. Una vez cosechado el lote afectado se debe evitar la siembra de arroz antes de hacer una rotación con una especie no gramínea.• Hacer un buen control de gramíneas silvestres antes de la siembra de arroz. El suelo se seca en los invernaderos de CIAT a temperatura ambiente y se muele en máquina para ser distribuido en materos de 8'' de diámetro y 500 gr de capacidad. En cada matero se siembra 10 semillas de la variedad Oryzica 3, altamente susceptible (incidencia de entorchamiento mayor al 70%), para determinar el nivel de infestación del suelo. Una vez realizada la prueba las plantas se cortan al nivel del suelo, para mantenerlo altamente infestado con el pseudo-hongo, se deja secar hasta su próximo uso. Este suelo una vez seco se vuelve a moler, dejándolo de esta manera listo para la evaluación del germoplasma. Este proceso ayuda a aumentar la infestación del suelo con estructuras de Polymyxa graminis. Se utilizan materos sin agujeros, para evitar que al regar las plantas se laven las zoosporas y otras estructuras producidas por el pseudo-hongo. De esta manera, el suelo mantiene residuos de raíces infestadas por Polymyxa graminis que luego sirven como inóculo primario.Las evaluaciones para las tres metodologías se incluyeron como fuentes de variación para los ensayos estadísticos y se iniciaron a los 20 días después de la siembra y se seguían realizando cada 7 días, según la escala visual descrita en la tabla 3. Se fertiliza con sulfato de amonio a los 15 días después de la siembra y cada 15 días hasta terminar las evaluaciones.Se evalúa según los parámetros y las fechas establecidas anteriormente.Se ponen en contacto las semillas de los genotipos a evaluar con suelo humedecido y altamente infestado por el entorchamiento, con el propósito de lograr que partículas de suelo infestado se impregnen en la semilla y sirvan de inóculo.Luego se procede a sembrar la semilla impregnada con suelo infestado en materos con arena estéril.Se fertiliza con sulfato de amonio a los 15 días después de la siembra y cada 15 días hasta terminar las evaluaciones, aplicando simultáneamente solución nutritiva.Se evalúa según los parámetros y las fechas establecidas anteriormente.En bandejas tipo restaurante se siembran 10 semillas de cada genotipo en el suelo infestado sometido al procedimiento descrito inicialmente.A los 10 días después de la siembra se arrancan las plántulas para causar heridas en las raicillas y permitir la penetración del pseudo-hongo Polymyxa graminis, luego se transplantan a materos que contengan suelo contaminado el cual ha pasado por el mismo procedimiento de secado y molido.Se fertiliza con sulfato de amonio a los 15 días después de la siembra y cada 15 días hasta terminar las evaluaciones. Se evalúa según los parámetros y las fechas establecidas anteriormente.Para todo el ensayo se realizaron 10 repeticiones, y se utilizó un diseño de parcelas divididas, siendo la parcela principal el método de inoculación y la subparcela los diferentes genotipos.El esquema del análisis de varianza se muestra en la tabla 4. Se incluyeron como testigos: BG90-2, Oryza glaberrima y Oryzica 3 como testigo susceptible 2.3.2 Metodología: Todas las líneas se siembran de acuerdo con el método 1 que fue el de los mejores resultados en el ensayo realizado previamente (ver resultados Pág. 28).Se utilizó suelo recolectado tanto en fincas de Jamundí como del Tolima, sembrando 10 plantas de cada genotipo por cada matero por cada suelo. Una vez realizado este procedimiento se estudió la incidencia de la enfermedad, realizando tres evaluaciones; la primera se hizo a los 21 días después de la siembra, tiempo que tarda en manifestarse la enfermedad; la segunda a los 36 días y la tercera a los 51 días; teniendo en cuenta los mismos caracteres del ensayo de metodologías (Entorchado, Rayado, Enanismo y Mortalidad) y fertilizando a los 15 días después de la siembra y cada 15 días hasta terminar las evaluaciones.Se analiza la información de tres siembras para decidir cuales genotipos son tolerantes o resistentes y para continuar el proceso de evaluación. De cada genotipo se sembraron 10 plantas por matero que contenía suelo infestado de la zona de Jamundí y se fertilizó con sulfato de amonio a los 15 días después de la siembra y cada 15 días hasta la última evaluación.Las plantas se evaluaron teniendo en cuenta la aparición de entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo, mortalidad y plantas sanas que de acuerdo con el ensayo preliminar debe hacerse a los 23, 37 y 51 días después de la siembra.Estos 30 genotipos se distribuyeron en el invernadero de acuerdo con un diseño de Bloques Completos al Azar con estructura factorial, con cuatro repeticiones. El análisis de varianza para este ensayo de comprobación se muestra en la tabla 5. Para este ensayo se seleccionaron las 5 líneas más resistentes del ensayo anterior, los progenitores O. glaberrima y BG90-2; y el testigo susceptible Oryzica 3. Se sembraron 10 semillas de cada uno de los genotipos en materos que contenían una mezcla de arena y suelo infestado, esto para que las plantas al ser colectadas no perdieran sus raíces.Cada 10 días después de la siembra se tomaron 100 raíces de cada genotipo y se lavaron para realizar las observaciones bajo el microscopio y determinar la reacción de cada genotipo al pseudo-hongo Polymyxa graminis. Esta prueba permite conocer si la resistencia seleccionada es contra el virus o contra el pseudo-hongo vector.El conteo de cistosoros se realizó a los 10, 20, 30, 40, y 50 días después de la siembra.Los 8 genotipos se distribuyeron en materos de acuerdo con un diseño de bloques completos al azar, con dos repeticiones (tabla 6). Repetición (genotipo) 7Total 15Se sembraron 10 plantas por matero, de cada uno de los cuatro genotipos de arroz (BG90-2, Caiapó, Oryzica 3 y Fedearroz 50) y se hicieron cinco repeticiones distribuidos en el invernadero de acuerdo con un diseño de bloques completos al azar. Se utilizó como fuente de inóculo el suelo del ensayo de comprobación de la resistencia y susceptibilidad de genotipos. Cada matero contenía 500 gr de suelo infestado.Se evaluó entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo, mortalidad y plantas sanas a los 21, 35 y 48 días después de la siembra. El análisis de varianza para este ensayo se muestra en la tabla 8. Los datos se analizaron con base en la metodología uno (siembra directa), y la metodología tres (transplante), ya que en la metodología dos (semilla infectada sembrada en arena estéril) las plantas morían antes de manifestar los síntomas de la enfermedad.Según la tabla 9, se puede observar que para todos los síntomas y en todas las épocas de evaluación hay diferencias significativas entre las variedades.Hubo también diferencias estadísticas entre los métodos al considerar todos los síntomas, para entorchamiento no hubo diferencias entre los métodos en las dos primeras y en la ultima evaluación, para rayado no se establecieron diferencias en la evaluación de los 27 días. Para la medición de la mortalidad de plantas, no hubo diferencias entre los métodos a los 48 días.El síntoma de entorchamiento en los primeros 27 días es de baja expresión en las variedades estudiadas como se observa en la tabla 10 con excepción de la variedad susceptible Oryzica 3, en la cual hubo una alta manifestación del síntoma desde los 21 días.A los 48 días la expresión del síntoma disminuyo en las variedades mas susceptibles como Oryzica 3, Fedearroz 2000 y Oryzica Yacú 9 (Tabla 10, graficas 11,12,14). Al parecer este síntoma es difícil de observar en plantas adultas, por tal motivo no hubo diferencias entre los métodos para estas evaluaciones.La mortalidad de plantas alcanzan los mayores valores a los 48 días en todas las variedades, con excepción de la accesión resistente Oryza glaberrima (Tabla 13) en este caso no se detectan diferencias entre los métodos.La interacción variedad x método fue significativa especialmente para los síntomas de enanismo y mortalidad; para entorchamiento la interacción fue significativa solamente a los Para el síntoma de mortalidad de plantas y especialmente en la evaluación de los 48 días (Tabla 13) la línea CT 8220 -2-15 y las variedades Makalioka, Oryzica Caribe 8 y Oryzica Yacú 9 presentan valores mas altos en el método 1, mientras que en las otras variedades los valores son mas altos con el método 3. Oryza glaberrima no presenta mortalidad.Al tener en cuenta los cuatro síntomas, entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo y mortalidad, se puede considerar que el método de siembra directa, presenta los valores mas altos con las excepciones ya analizadas (Graficas 1,2,3 y 4), sin embargo, hay que considerar que el rayado y el enanismo, son los únicos síntomas que se expresan en la accesión resistente O.glaberrima y es el enanismo el de mayor expresión con valores que van desde el 10.4% para la evaluación de los 20 días, hasta 17.1% a los 48 días con el método 3, para el rayado los valores son bajos, pero a los 34 días presentan un 2.3% con el método 1. En la grafica 4 se observan valores mayores para mortalidad con el método de transplante, pero al analizar la tabla 13 dichos porcentajes son muy bajos comparados con el resto de síntomas. De acuerdo con las tablas 10, 11, 12 y 13 de promedios de los porcentajes se analizaron los síntomas de la siguiente manera:3.1.1 Entorchamiento: Como se muestra en la tabla 10, en las cinco evaluaciones se presentó la tendencia a una mayor expresión de este síntoma con el método 1 (siembra directa).En general, el síntoma tiene muy poca exp resión en los primeros 27 días . a partir de los 34 días, se comienza a observar la diferencia en el comportamiento de los diferentes genotipos evaluados y hay una mayor expresión a los 41 días (Grafica 6 -14). A los 48 días el síntoma se manifiesta ligeramente en las variedades Coprosem 1, Oryzica Caribe 8, Irat 128, y Oryzica Yacú 9 (Graficas 8-11) o tiende a decrecer como en la línea P3082-F4-18 y en las variedades Fedearroz 2000 y Oryzica 3, aunque en esta variedad, para el método de siembra directa, el síntoma decrece mas claramente a partir de los 34 días. Esta variedad es un buen testigo susceptible para este síntoma.La accesión de Oryza glaberrima no presenta entorchamiento en ninguna de las evaluaciones (Grafica 5). La variedad Makalioka presenta porcentajes muy bajos, y solamente a los 41 días llega a 3.4 y 5% para el método 1 y el método 3 respectivamente (Grafica 6). La línea CT 8220-2-15 (Grafica 7), presenta porcentajes bajos de 5.3 a 9.3% y estables a partir de los 34 días.Al parecer evaluaciones hechas a los 34 y a los 41 días son suficientes para separar los genotipos en los rangos de resistentes a susceptibles. Oryza glaberrima la cual no presentó síntomas en ninguno de los métodos. La variable continuo con la misma tendencia de crecimiento durante el resto de evaluaciones, pero siempre se manifestó mas en el método 1 que en el método 3 (Gráfica 2).Oryza glaberrima se comportó de una manera muy similar con los dos métodos (Gráfica 15), la línea CT 8220-2-15 y la variedad Makalioka presentaron mayores índices de rayado en la siembra directa, sin embargo en los días 27 y 41 respectivamente se comportaron de igual manera en los dos métodos (Gráficas 16, 17), el índice de rayado para la variedadCoprosem 1 fue muy parecido en los dos métodos hasta el día 34, a partir del cual la manifestación del síntoma fue mayor por medio de la siembra directa (Gráfica 18), en la variedad Irat 128 el síntoma se manifestó mejor con el método de transplante hasta el día 48, donde se presentó un índice mayor en la siembra directa (Gráfica 20), la v ariedad Oryzica yacú 9 en las dos primeras evaluaciones no presentó diferencias significativas para la manifestación del síntoma; sin embargo a partir de la tercera evaluación el síntoma se manifiesta mejor en el método de siembra directa (Gráfica 21).La variedades Fedearroz 2000, Oryzica 3, Oryzica Caribe 8 y la línea P3082-F4-18 presentaron mayores porcentajes del síntoma con la siembra directa que con el transplante durante todo el ensayo (Gráficas 22, 23). Todas las variedades excepto Oryzica 3 presentaron inicialmente un índice de enanismo menor en el método 1 que en el método 3, como se observa en la tabla 12, esto pudo deberse a que en el método 3 (transplante) las plantas se sometían a un nivel de estrés el cual no permitía su rápido crecimiento. Sin embargo, a partir de la tercera evaluación esta tendencia empieza a cambiar y variedades como Fedearroz 2000, Oryzica 3, Oryzica caribe 8 , Oryzica Yacú 9 y las líneas CT-8220-2-15 y P3082 F4-18, presentaron un mayor índice de enanismo en el método 1 (siembra directa) que en el método tres (transplante); se debe tener en cuenta que esta evaluación se realizó 48 días después de la siembra, tiempo en el cual el síntoma se podía evaluar claramente (Grafica 25-34 ).En la cuarta y quinta evaluación solo Irat 128, Makalioka y Oryza glaberrima presentaron mayores promedios en la metodología tres que en la primera (Gráfica 3).  Todas las variedades manifestaron porcentajes muy bajos del síntoma para los dos métodos excepto la accesión Oryza glaberrima que no manifestó el síntoma durante el ensayo en ninguno de los dos métodos (Gráfica 35) la variedad Makalioka y la línea CT8220-2-15 cuyo índice de mortalidad fue ascendente a través del tiempo con los dos métodos, pero hasta la cuarta evaluación los índices de mortalidad fueron mas altos con el método de transplante; en la quinta evaluación el índice de mortalidad fue mas alto en la siembra directa (Gráfica 36 -44).En general la accesión de Oryza glaberrima utilizada como testigo por su resistencia a la enfermedad no mostró síntomas de entorchamiento ni de mortalidad, sin embargo presentó bajos promedios de rayado con el método de siembra directa y promedios mas altos de enanismo con el método de transplante.Los síntomas se manifiestan mejor a medida que se h acen las evaluaciones en plantas adultas, y en la cuarta evaluación a los 41 días cuando se alcanzan los valores mas altos pues ya en la quinta evaluación, a los 48 días los porcentajes de los síntomas tienden a disminuir o se estabilizan.Oryzica 3 es la variedad más susceptible de las evaluadas y presentó los promedios más altos para todos los síntomas con la metodología 1, excepto para el síntoma de mortalidad (Gráfica 4).Con base en los resultados descritos anteriormente, se llegó a la conclusión que en el método de siembra directa hay una mayor manifestación de los síntomas, entorchamiento, rayado y enanismo los cuales son de gran importancia al hacer selección por resistencia al VNRA, además es un método rápido para su utilización con grandes poblaciones.   De las líneas aquí evaluadas, quince líneas resistentes se derivan del RC 2 F 5 y solo una del RC 3 F 4. de 10 líneas susceptibles ocho se derivan del RC 2 F 5 y dos líneas del RC 3 F 4. Para la evaluación se tuvieron en cuenta l os promedios de los porcentajes de los cuatro síntomas entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo y mortalidad. Se incluyó el conteo de plantas sanas, como una variable de respuesta, pues de acuerdo con la experiencia del ensayo anterior, esta variable puede resumir el comportamiento de una línea.Para el análisis de los resultados se tuvo en cuenta la evaluación a partir de los 37 días después de siembra, ya que para esta fecha se empiezan a mostrar diferencias entre los genotipos y los porcentajes mas altos de los síntomas de una forma más clara.Para determinar la resistencia de una línea se tomó como índice, que presentará como mínimo 97.5% de plantas sanas y un porcentaje máximo de 2.5% para cada uno de los síntomas, entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo y mortalidad.Como se puede observar en la tabla 16 las tres líneas utilizadas de la población se consideraron como susceptibles con base en el bajo porcentaje de plantas sanas y altos porcentajes de manifestación de los síntomas entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo y mortalidad. Las líneas 1080 y 1164, continuaron con su comportamiento preliminar, como líneas susceptibles. La línea 1135, previamente clasificada como resistente en esta evaluación resulto ser susceptible. La línea 1135 del RC 3 F 4 y las líneas 138 y 478 clasificadas como resistentes previamente, en esta evaluación se manifestaron claramente susceptibles por sus altos porcentajes en cada uno de los síntomas.Las líneas 403, 514 y 859 presentaron porcentajes relativamente bajos para los síntomas evaluados, pero su porcentaje de plantas sanas estuvo por debajo del índice establecido. La línea 513 merece una nueva evaluación pues no presenta ni entorchamiento, ni rayado ni enanismo, pero su porcentaje de mortalidad es del 5%. Esta variable parece ser la menos útil pues la mortalidad puede ocurrir por alguna otra causa y no necesariame nte por la acción del virus. En el caso de esta línea es dudoso que sin tener ningún síntoma, haya un 5% de plantas muertas por el virus.  enanismo, en donde se puede ver un grupo susceptible conformado por el testigo Oryzica 3, el parental susceptible BG90-2 y la población RC 3 F 4 , un grupo intermedio conformado por la población RC 2 F 5 y el testigo comercial Coprosem 1 y bien diferenciado aparece O.glaberrima como un genotipo completamente resistente al virus.Se puede resaltar cómo estos grupos reflejan claramente lo que se ha encontrado en este estudio, que con dos retrocruzamientos es suficiente para transferir la resistencia. En esta evaluación toda la población RC 3 F 4 resultó susceptible. Oryzica 3 y O. glaberrima son muy buenos testigos susceptible y resistente respectivamente.También se confirma, que la variable porcentaje de mortalidad, no es adecuada, al menos como se tomó en este estudio, para determinar la resistencia o la susceptibilidad de un genotipo. De acuerdo con la Tabla 17 y la gráfica 53, esta variable no supera los genotipos evaluados en este estudio.En la tabla 18 y en las Gráficas 45,46, 47, 48 y 49 se puede observar el comportamiento de las líneas frente a todos los síntomas de una forma general durante todo el proceso de evaluación.Las líneas 1080, 1135 y 1164 de la población RC 3 F 4 tuvieron un promedio muy alto para todos los síntomas (entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo y mortalidad) en todas las evaluaciones, observándose así la susceptibilidad de estas líneas frente a la enfermedad.De la población RC 2 F 5 se pueden señalar las líneas 1004,299,303,395,405,489,513,514 y 810 como las más resistentes a la enfermedad según la tabla, ya que presentaron los promedios más bajos para entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo, mortalidad y los mas altos para plantas sanas; siendo las líneas 405 y 810 las más resistentes.El progenitor silvestre O. glaberrima no manifestó ningún síntoma y tuvo el porcentaje mas alto de plantas sanas, lo que nos permite confirmar que esta especie es resistente a entorchamiento, mientras que la variedad BG90-2 manifestó la enfermedad.La variedad comercial Coprosem 1 presenta índices más bajos de los síntomas (entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo y mortalidad)que la variedad BG90-2 y Oryzica 3, esta última presentó promedios muy altos para cada uno de los síntomas(entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo y mortalidad) confirmando su susceptibilidad a la enfermedad, y porcentajes bajos para plantas sanas. Gráfica 49. Área Bajo la Curva de la Comprobación de la Resistencia y Susceptibilidad en Genotipos Seleccionados de Poblaciones de BG90-2/ O. glaberrima para Plantas SanasPara la variable entorchamiento todas las variedades y poblaciones evaluadas tuvieron un comportamiento ascendente en cuanto a la manifestación del síntoma, excepto, el progenitor silvestre O. glaberrima, que no lo manifestó en ninguna de las evaluaciones.La población RC 2 F 5 tuvo un comportamiento muy similar a la variedad comercial Coprosem, al igual que la población RC 3 F 4 y el progenitor BG90-2.La variedad Oryzica 3 manifestó el síntoma con índices mayores que las otras variedades y poblaciones desde la primera evaluación (Gráfica 50), en la variable rayado podemos observar que entre la población RC 3 F 4 y la variedad BG90-2 no existen diferencias en    No se observó ningún efecto del fungicida HIMEXAZOL en tratamiento a la semilla para el control del pseudo-hongo Polymyxa graminis vector del VNRA, sin embargo se encontró que con algunas concentraciones el porcentaje de los síntomas disminuía, por tal motivo para este tratamiento no se puede especificar cual es la mejor concentración para el control de los síntomas, ya que cada concentración actúa de manera diferente para cada una de las variedades y estas a su vez están cambiando con el tiempo.El análisis se realizó solo hasta concentraciones de 10X ya que a concentraciones de 50X las plantas no germinaron.  Al igual que en el tratamiento anterior la mejor época para evaluar el efecto del fungicida es la que se realiza a los 35 días.Como se puede observar en las figuras anteriores del ensayo de aplicación del fungicida al suelo se presentó un grado de toxicidad y mortalidad de plantas a partir de concentraciones de 5X, el mayo control se observa con dosis de 1Xen todas las variables evaluadas, sin embargo, se recomienda realizar ensayos a nivel de campo, para corroborar dicha información.-En la siembra directa (método 1) de inoculación del VNRA hubo una mayor manifestación de los síntomas de la enfermedad (entorchamiento, rayado, enanismo), mientras que en el método de transplante (método 3), el mayor índice fue para el síntoma de mortalidad, debido probablemente al estrés al que fueron sometidas las plantas al momento del transplante. Además en el método de siembra directa el manejo de la siembra es mas sencilla que en transplante. Con base en estas observaciones se concluyó que el método de siembra directa es el mejor para hacer evaluaciones de la resistencia al virus.-El momento óptimo para la evaluación de síntomas se determinó a los 34 días después de la siembra (tercera evaluación), ya que en esta fecha los porcentajes de los síntomas fueron altos y suficientes para discriminar el efecto del método. Evaluaciones posteriores no incidieron en la determinación de cada síntoma.-Utilizando el método de siembra directa se pudo seleccionar líneas resistentes al virus.En 1230 líneas evaluadas sólo 16 resultaron resistentes, que representan el 1.3% de la población, en la comprobación de la resistencia o susceptibilidad, solamente 9 líneas quedaron al final resistentes las cuales representan el 0.73%. Estas líneas fueron 299,303,395,405,489,513,514,810,1004. El uso de una sola repetición puede permitir sin embargo escapar a la infección y a una mala selección.-O. glaberrima mostró su alta resistencia al Virus de la Necrosis Rayada del Arroz en todas las evaluaciones durante todos los ensayos, mientras que la variedad BG90-2 usada también como progenitor tuvo un comportamiento intermedio frente a la enfermedad. La identificación de líneas altamente resistentes demuestra que la resistencia de O. glaberrima al VNRA se transfirió a la especie O. sativa.-Se detectaron líneas resistentes al VNRA provenientes del segundo retrocruzamiento (RC 2 F 5 ), pero no en líneas del tercer retrocruzamiento. Esto sugiere que al realizar el tercer retrocruzamiento se debe seleccionar por resistencia al VNRA antes de realizar selección por otros caracteres.-Con la Variedad Oryzica 3 utilizada como testigo susceptible se pudo demostrar que el suelo, la metodología y los días en que se evaluó la enfermedad eran apropiados, ya que esta siempre manifestó altos índices de la enfermedad.-Para el ensayo de r esistencia al vector la variedad Oryzica 3 usada como testigo susceptible fue la que presentó un mayor número de cistosoros y desarrollo de síntomas, lo que indica que esta variedad es altamente susceptible tanto al pseudo-hongo vector como al virus.-Las líneas seleccionadas por su resistencia al VNRA y usadas para el ensayo de resistencia al vector, mostraron un porcentaje muy bajo de cistosoros comparado con el testigo susceptible Oryzica 3. Esto sugiere que la resistencia al VNRA pueda ser debida a una resistencia al vector y no necesariamente al virus. Igualmente la especie silvestre O. glaberrima mostró un porcentaje bajo de cistosoros.-No se observó ningún efecto del funguicida HIMEXAZOL en tratamiento a la semilla para el control del pseudo-hongo Polymyxa graminis vector del VNRA.-El funguicida HIMEXAZOL solo mostró efecto en el control del pseudo-hongo vector del VNRA al suelo sin presentar mortalidad significativa de plantas a concentraciones de 1X (1ml HIMEXAZOL + 199 ml H20). Con concentraciones de 5X o mayores se presentó una alta toxicidad y mortalidad de plantas.-Para la evaluación y selección de líneas resistentes al VNRA se recomienda utilizar el método 1 de siembra directa de semilla seca sobre suelo altamente infestado con el vector Polymyxa graminis. La evaluación y selección de líneas resistentes para los diferentes síntomas de la enfermedad debe hacerse a los 50 días después de la siembra.-Debido a que la resistencia al VNRA se ha transmitido eficientemente de la especie silvestre O. glaberrima a la especie cultivada O. sativa se recomienda hacer una evaluación de las líneas seleccionadas en este estudio bajo condiciones de campo para corroborar dicha resistencia antes de ser utilizadas como progenitores.-Debido a l a alta resistencia al pseudo-hongo vector Polymyxa graminis observada tanto en las líneas resistentes al desarrollo del síntoma del VNRA como de la especie O.glaberrima, se recomienda realizar estudios adicionales para determinar si la resistencia es al vector solamente o al virus también.-Aunque el tratamiento más efectivo para el control de todos los síntomas de VNRA fue aplicación al suelo en dosis 1X, se recomienda que la evaluación del producto se realice bajo condiciones de campo con diferentes concentraciones, ya que a nivel de invernadero se observó una alta toxicidad y mortalidad de plantas en concentraciones de 5X -50X.","tokenCount":"8280"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"690a6db266130fddb8e7f7683a1c36e9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b204b729-0524-4b5a-a881-c52c41cd99d3/retrieve","id":"1677328828"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"76408042-8285-4e92-8537-b3436fa4906a","pagecount":"12","content":"• Technological innovations, including improved seeds of staple food crops, have had significant effects globally in terms of reduction of economic and food poverty (Asfaw et al., 2012;Pingali et al., 2012).• Productivity and food security transformation have not been accompanied by a commensurate reduction in gender inequalities (Rao, 2020).• Presents a major setback to the achievement of multiple SDG' targets -SDG 1, SDG 5, SDG 10 etc.• Promoting technological innovations must be complemented by social and technical innovations for a broader transformative impactThe Study:• Document existing STIBs and understand the social and systemic factors that influence the adoption of technological innovations.• Inform more effective and inclusive agricultural policies and practices through socio-technical innovation bundlingWhat specific strategies can be implemented to improve the inclusivity of bean value chain innovations in Tanzania, Malawi, and Burundi?• Existing studies examine innovations in isolation or were not intentional about how technical and social innovation interact to influence technology use, particularly in a gender-sensitive context.• Existing bundling is ad hoc and inclusivity objective often occurs as an afterthought. Significant statistical by country, suggesting contextspecific differences in use of improved bean seed.• Significant cross-country differences reported (p < 0.01) • Indicative of various context-specific differences in socio-economic factors, availability of technologies, technology environment?Market innovations almost non-existent:• High adoption of mobile technology• Varied adoption of institutional marketing• Institutional marketing is almost nonexistent in Malawi and Tanzania• Low rates of selling to processors• Country disparities in aggregation• Very low access to seed credit across countries. ","tokenCount":"246"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"486cf39428813b9c30cefb2f86a82c8b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f063954e-bd82-4f2a-aa18-cea9c0d63792/retrieve","id":"-1656496713"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7e3b63c1-5fb0-4ae8-ae5a-6e9ee61d1f1a","pagecount":"2","content":"Among the World's continents, Asia has the highest number of tree species that are actively managed, for diverse purposes such as timber, non-timber products, energy and other ecosystem services -a reflection of the enormous cultural diversity of human populations in the continent. At the same time, more than 1700 of Asia's tree species are threatened with extinction. APFORGEN, established in 2003, works to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of tree species and their genetic diversity in Asia and the Pacific.APFORGEN is the only network in Asia and the Pacific that specifically focuses on the conservation and sustainable use of the genetic diversity of trees.APFORGEN has 14 member countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam Forest genetic resources (FGR) are the heritable materials maintained within and among tree and other woody plant species that have current or potential economic, environmental, scientific or societal value.Genetic diversity enables tree species to resist abiotic and biotic threats and adapt to changing environments, and is the basis for present and future selection and breeding programmes.The value of regional collaboration Regional collaboration and coordination is essential for the conservation and sustainable use of tree species whose distribution crosses national boundaries. Many such species hold great potential for improvement and enhanced use but are threatened by, for example, illegal cross-border trade and unsustainable resource acquisition.Regional networking facilitates synergy in research and conservation activities and helps achieve more through concerted efforts.1) Strengthen national programmes on forest genetic diversity in the participating countries 2) Enhance regional networking and collaboration on conservation and management of FGR 3) Locate and characterize, conserve and facilitate exchange of genetic diversity of selected priority forest species 4) Promote sustainable use of genetic diversity in natural and man-made forests 5) Enhance linkages with other regional and international networks Key achievements ","tokenCount":"307"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a40a0acc98377a78cbaba47be791815c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a473454e-cec0-4ec0-9b3a-c888998d4e71/retrieve","id":"1844471610"},"keywords":["NARS","NGOs","universities","CGIAR SP-PRGA members","SP-IPM members CGIAR system linkages: Organization and Management (70%); Training ("],"sieverID":"7743b42e-6567-4d9f-a34b-c5f312cd7ecb","pagecount":"58","content":"To develop, apply, disseminate and institutionalize participatory methods, analytical tools, and principies of organizational design that result in demanddriven responses among R&D stakeholders and contribute to improved agroecosystem productivity and health Widely applicable methods to involve users in the development of technology for crop production and natural resource management and to develop institutional models for conducting client-oriented research at the farm and landscape levels.Users will be involved at early stages in decisions about technology design. Methods will be available for eliciting and incorporating users' preferences. Participatory research will be applied on a routine basis in CIAT programs. At least three majar universities in Latín America will have the capacity to teach participatory research methods. At least 1 ,000 trainees and 40 trainers will be able to teach these methods in the region. Training materials and methodology will be published and widely disseminated. The contribution of participatory research to rates of technology adoption will be measured in targeted areas. Lessons learned and methodologies will be disseminated worldwide in conjunction with the systemwide program on participatory research and gender analysis (SP-PRGA) convened by CIAT and through a project on Farmer Participatory Research for IPM (FPR-IPM ) of the systemwide IPM program (SP-IPM).' lntegrated Crop management (ICM) is defined to encompass pest. disease. water and fertility management by farmersThe most significan! 1998 Milestones are: Courses offered on methods in three countries with replication of the CIAL institutional model now occurring in eight countries; Methods introduced to NARs for participatory plant breeding and research management in at least six countries; Release of a user-friendly statistical application for analysis of farmer preference data; Nationalization of the CIAL methodology by CORPOICA in Colombia; lnterinstitutional plan for application of the CIAL methodology in Honduras and for linking the CIALs to participatory breeding of maize and beans . Tools for monitoring and evaluation of CIALs; Website and listserver for the FPR-IPM project of the SP-IPM; Workshops in three countries to introduce GIS and other decision support tools to stakeholders. Analysis of issues related to sustainable development and recommendations for orienting agricultura! R&D in the forest margins benchmark site. (For a comprehensive list, see Logical Framework) At least 40 trainers prepared . Methods developed for decentralized; participatory research on ICM 1 and crop-crop livestock systems. User-differentiated adoption impact assessed in economic terms. Methods disseminated worldwide lnstitutionalization of methods in NARS and CGIAR as widely accepted tools of development-oriented agricultura! research, in conjunction with SP-PRGATo develop, apply, disseminate and institutionalize participatory methods, analytical tools, and principies of organizational design that result in demand-driven responses among R&D stakeholders and contribute to improved agroecosystem productivity and health Methods for farmer participation in ICM, Models and procedures for organizing germplasm improvement and NRM participatory researchConsolidate and scale-up CIALs• Develop models and procedures for Develop methods for participatory monitoring organizing CIALs at the second-order level and evaluation, and impact assessment of that incorporate mechanisms for self-CIALS sustaining financing and management Develop participatory methods and tools for ./'!\": .. • Relea se of user friendly statistical applicalion for analysis of farmer dataNational Technology      of access to credit, technical support, and markets. Therefore, agricultura! technology alone is highly unlikely to make significan! impacts on wellbeing. 4. There are important gaps and entrenched prejudices in our understanding of colonist smallholder farmers in the region , particularly in terms of their socioeconomics, culture, knowledge, and decision making. A crucial aspect of this problem relates to the opportunistic, diversified economic activity of the farmers, and how they utilize on and off-farm resources. Effective R&D must build upon the productiva mosaic managed by farmers. 5. Available productiva on-farm technology developed by national and intemational institutions is often unsuited to smallholder needs. An important effort in adaptation and integration of technologies is needed.Participatory approaches to R&D are extremely new in the region , current activities are poorly coupled with existing local expertise, and show strategic limitations (e.g. , gender bias that underestimates the role of women in farmer family production and wellbeing).7. lntegrated approaches (even technological) to R&D are generally lacking. • User feedback obtained on decision support tools for natural resource conservation at watershed level • Methodology developed for participatory systems tria! at the landscape leve! with stakeholder groups related to:1 . control of leafcutter ants 2. control of the maize pest Macrodactylus ovaticollis 3. control of soil erosion with live barriersSN-3 has just completed a book length report to the W.K. Kellogg foundation on the CIAL methodology. This report covers achievements related to the following outputs:1.1 FPR Methods at the farm scale 1. The objectives of the project \"Development of Casava Germplasm for the semiarid conditions of Northeast Brazil,\" include increasing the genetic diversity and contributing to the stability of the production system in this fragile zone. The project contemplates the implementation of a participatory methodology that involves farmers in the process of germplasm selection that they carry out on their farms. Participatory Breeding of Cassava (PBC) was tested and adapted to Brazilian conditions through a strategy of training in diagnosis. planning, evaluation and feedback.The methodology has been applied in the northeastern states of Bahía, Pernambuco and Ceará and has involved collaboration between CIAT and CNPMF. The effort has a four year history in Brazil and has brought CNPMF national recognition amongst EMBRAPA centers as the leader in participatory research.Among the results is the multiplication of planting material of varieties selected by farmers. This can be considered as the initiation of a process of adoption of technology generated with the participation of the users themselves. Progress on participatory methods for decentra/ized plant breeding A total of 94 participatory trials were established from 1994-1997. The process developed most rapidly in the Quixada site, resulting in the release of two varieties \"Rosa\" (BGM -260)for fresh consumption and animal feed and \"Amansa Burro\" (BMG 0549) as raw material for farinha production. The variety BGM 0195 is now in the pre-release phase.The main advantage of BMG 0260 is excellent culinary quality compared to the local variety \"Buja\". BGM is superior to \"Buja\" as a raw material for farinha production. 8oth possess better gerrnination and establishment rates, important characteristics for semiarid conditions, and retain their leaves during extreme droughts, thus providing a source of animal fodder. The participatory evaluations have resulted in multiplication and distribution of these materials by farrners, overcoming a traditional bottleneck in the diffusion of improved cassava varieties. Fanners' selection criteria are summarized in T able 2. • Gerrnination rate• Ease of harvest• Starch content and farinha quality• Ease of peeling • Number of thick roots• Absence of root cracks • Capacity to produce cuttings (multiplication • Absence of root peduncle rate)• Root skin color • Root flesh color• HCN content in the roots • Plant type (low to medium height)• Number of branches • Retention and yield of foliage Contributors:• Wania Fukuda, CNPMF \"-. Agricultura! R&D in tropical agroecosystems that achieves ecologically sound, sustainable impact is a complex multipurpose endeavor. lt involves striking a balance, in specific settings, among a set of requi rements that have not traditionally come together. These requirements are related to the CGIAR's two overall goals, poverty alleviation and ecological sustainability. The requirements are integration, impact, and generalization. They are listed here in approximate JogicaJ order, so that we would expect that adequate integration should lead to desired impact, and, in due time, allow generalization. lntegration can be seen then as a special skill or technical expertise that we need to develop and apply in order to obtain sustainable impact on socioeconomic and ecological health, as well as to better assess where and how can we fruitfully apply our experience beyond the pilot stage and the initial case study site.By integration, we refer to three different challenges: (1) integrated understanding of issues; (2) integrated development of solutions; and (3) integrated intervention. What must be integrated are the multiple actors-perspectives-purposes and aspectssectors-scales of reality of which ecological-economic systems are made. In practice, the three aspects of integration are linked , so that understanding (diagnosis) is notan independent activity, but makes a permanent part of the development of solutions and the unfolding of interventions. In this sense, integrated understanding can be seen as a synonym of built-in project monitoring or impact assessment. The key consideration is that integration provides an adaptive framework for action.Critically exploring the pressing issues of a specific agroecosystem or landscape with an open mind (as uncluttered by disciplinary bias as possib le) provides the first glimpses of on what, with whom, where, when , and how our own efforts and abilities can be better used. This activity shou ld not be taken for granted even in heavily studied settings. Scientific research and policy-making, by definition, are biased toward the points of view and the values of the researchers and policy makers involved in a given moment, and often fai l to provide other perspectives or a sense of dynamics. This is particularly true of offer-driven technological research, based upon highly specialized knowledge and often limited to short-term intensive interventions.A critica! exploration of issues also provides a clearer picture of factors or driving forces that escape our own capacity of action, but sti ll are of paramount importance in the behavior of the system. These driving forces, which trame or limit our impact, must be confronted in practice throughout strategic alliances and consequently a wider set of actions (anda greater commitment) than traditionally allowed. lssues and stakeholders are inextricably linked. Therefore, stakeholder participation is inextricably linked to the solution of issues. At the same time, we must be aware that not all stakeholders have the same access to scientists and policy makers. More often than not, it is the peor who we are supposed to serve (and the poorest among the peor, such as indigenous peoples, women and children), those whose saying has the lesser acceptance. A sound exploration of issues must then make visible not only the ignored facts, but also, and overall, the forgotten actors. lndeed, toa great degree, the value of integrated understanding can be seen as shedding light on the overseen, the underestimated, and the forgotten; thus challenging our tendency to rest our judgments on what has been previously labeled as known, important, and relevant. lntegrated research must be used as a decision support tool. lt must be used to prioritize actions and combine different specialized interventions, as well as to update our decision maps. Finally, in its more powerful application, integrated research must provide input for progress, by challenging our worldviews and intentions.This document explores and intends to provide an integrated view of the pressing issues in the Ucayali region of Amazonian Peru. The most heavily populated, farmed, and ecologically disturbed area of Ucayali, nearby the city of Pucallpa and along the road to the country's capital , is a benchmark site for the CGIAR, in the \"forest margins\" ecoregion. Here we provide an analysis of basic issues affecting the benchmark site, as suggested by Peruvian and international experts, and identify interactions between them, as well as major gaps. Then , we re-integrate a group of selected issues into one set, in order to highlight interactions and facilitate discussion of decisions and actions. This set roughly corresponds toa discussion of the economic activity in the region, with an emphasis on agriculture and development. Two other sets of issues, related to (1) the identity or nature of the small colonist farmers, as related to land use and sustainable development in the region, and (2) land use and deforestation in the agricultura! frontier, will be the matter of separate documents. These sets of issues have been chosen to inform the main concerns of the CGIAR institutes: agricultura! economic development, ecological-economic degradation, and the rural peor.The document includes a group of specific recommendations for the enhancement of the CG centers' activities and impact in the Pucallpa benchmark site. Beyond its expected value as food for decisions in a specific setting, this review also exemplifies the systemsoriented, integrated approach to research advocated by the CIAT-Guelph project.The Site Pucallpa is the capital city of the Ucayali department or region 6 , in the Peruvian Amazon lowlands (Figure 1 ). Ucayali has an area of 102,517.18 Km 2 . This territory líes largely below 500 m.a.s.l., in the bread basin of the Ucayali river. A road connecting Pucallpa with Lima (Peru's capital city) exists since the 1950s and it has facilitated the spontaneous colonization of Ucayali.Within Ucayali we recognize several sub-regions that bear significant differences in terms of ecological characteristics, demographic features and economic activity (Figure 2). Land use and economic processes in the different sub-regions articulate in a regional pattern of production. We differentiate:1. The agricultura! and heavily settled territory along the Pucallpa-Lima road and the Aguaytía river, including the city of Pucallpa (the Pucallpa sub-region ). Human population in Ucayali concentrates in Pucallpa city (65%, INEI 1994) and along the road and its main branches. Overall, the Pucallpa sub-region contains 82% of Ucayali's total human population at an average density of 19 individuals/Km 2 (IIAP/CRP 1996). The rest of the department is sparsely inhabited, with population densities as low as 0.19 ind./Km 2 in remete Purús. Deforestation and agricultura! activity in Ucayali concentrate also in the Pucallpa sub-region. The rest of Ucayali is still domínated by meandering rivers and rainforests .2. The natural forests and main timberlands toward the Tamaya and Upper Ucaya!i rivers.3. The extensive swamps and lakes of the Ucayali floodplain, rich in freshwater fish and aguaje 7 palm forests .4. The relatively isolated uplands and hills covered by almost undisturbed primary forests to the SW and SE of the region, including the valley of the Purús rive~.The CGIAR has identified its benchmark site for the \"forest mar~ins\" eco-regían in the Pucallpa sub-regían, in an area covering roughly 100 Km (Figure 3). The best available information on the benchmark site and its conditions is provided by the recent surveys led by Sam Fujisaka (CIAT) within the context of the collaborative project on alternatives to slash-and-burn, and by Joyotee Smith (CIFOR). (See Fujisaka 1997, Smith et al. 1997).Although it contains part of the Aguaytía river's floodplain , the benchmark site is a largely upland area, where very poor soils domínate. These uplands sharply contrast with the Ucayali's lowlands, seasonally flooded by the rivers and covered by rich entisols. East of the benchmark site, toward Pucallpa city, the terrain is swampy and dominated by aguajales (swamp palm forests) . West of the benchmark site, as we climb up toward the Eastern slopes of the Andes, the terrain becomes increasingly hilly and the climate wetter. According to IIAP regions have not lived up to the promise of decentralized economic and political power that brought them into existence. Given its extent. the department of Ucayali alone is also a regían .7 Mauritia flexuosa.(1996) croplands in Ucayali concentrate in this last area, in the Padre Abad province. Therefore, the benchmark site does not include most of the agroecological diversity in the Ucayali region or in the Pucallpa sub-region, although it may include the most challenging agricultura! soils of the regían.A constant flow of goods and people connect Ucayali at an ínter-regional scale to the departments of the north-central jungle, particularly those in the Eastern Andean slopes (San Martín and Huánuco) and the Loreto department, in the Amazon lowlands. These departments are the main sources of immigrants to Ucayali, acting also as steppingstones for immigrants from the Andes and the Pacific coast (Figure 4, IN El 1997).San Martín, Huánuco, and Ucayali conform a fluid ínter-regional network of commerce, production diversification, and access to land and labor. This ínter-regional level is also related to the cultivation of coca for the illegal production of cocaine : Ouring the 1990s. about 61% of the nation's coca-growing area concentrated in the Huallaga Valley of San Martín and Huánuco and in the nearby Aguaytía Valley of Ucayali (USAID/US Embassy Peru 1997).Peru is a highly centralized country, with economic and political power concentrated in Lima City. lt is the direct communication with Lima what has made Ucayali an important Amazon frontier. The most important product of the region, timber, is destined almost exclusively to the Lima market, and the main timber industrial and commercial enterprises are based in Lima. Decisions on agricultura! and economic policy, such as credits, subsidies, and exchange rates are taken in Lima, and directly affect agricultura! production in Ucayali.Therefore, the economic behavior of the region responds to a great extent to the política! economy of the nation. According to Gonzales and Samamé (1994), basic characteristics of Peru are (1) semi-industrialized economy oriented to primary exports, with very low levels of investment;(2) divorce between export-oriented industry and internally-oriented industry, wíth strong dependence of the internally-oriented industry on imported goods and technology; (3) weakness of political institutions able to resolve socioeconomic conflict and fragmentation , leading to increasing distributive inequity; and (4) lack of autonomy of the economic institutions from política! power. The emergent behavior is a permanent swinging of economic policies between populism and orthodoxy, coupled to periods of subsidized economic expansion followed by subsequent recession, respectively. This behavior has been named \"the Peruvian pendulum\" (Gonzales and Samamé 1994).About 60% of Peru's territory is covered by Amazonian rainforests . Nation-wide, topquality arable land is extremely scarce (6.60%; ONERN 1982, Dourojeanni 1990). Rural poverty and annual population growth are relatively high (90. 1% and 2.0%, respectively; INEI 1994INEI , 1995a)). Urban population, fed by a continuous exodus from the countryside , makes 66% of the total population, and concentra tes in the cities of the arid coast (IN El 1996). Consequently, food security is a serious concern for Peru.This situation, combined with a perception of Amazonia asan empty and rich land, has repeatedly fed ideologies of Amazon conquest, justifying since the 1940s the building of penetration roads and incentives for colonization and entrepreneurial activities in the Amazon. According to this vision, Amazonia must be occupied and developed into the food basket of Peru. The ideology of Amazon conquest was popular in Lima and among other governments of the Amazon region until the early 1980s, when the ecological and economic costs of failed colonization schemes became a world-wide public issue. The neo-liberal regime of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori {1990-present) does not offer incentives to colonization nor assigns to the Amazon lowlands the strategic importance that former administrations did. lnstead, it views the Amazon as a potential source of native agroindustrial export products such as timber, camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia), an endemic fruit rich in vitamin C, and uña de gato (Uncaria tomentosa), an endemic medicinal plant. There is strong governmental propaganda to convince Peruvian Amazonian farmers to invest on this \"promising\" new crops.We have followed a three-pronged approach to the identification of issues:A first path involved independent brainstorm exercises with CIA T scientists working in the benchmark site (March 1997) and with Peruvian local experts (May 1997). We arranged the suggested issues thematically, identified common issues between CIAT scientists and local experts, and falsified the suggested issues against available evidence.A second , related path involved a wide consultation of bibliographic material published in the last three decades, mostly of Peruvian sources. This provided us with a clearer picture of nation-level issues and how they affected the study site. Also , we were able to complement the original list of issues, as well as obtaining consolidating evidence. Finally, this literature review updated us on in-country research (mostly socioeconomic), strengthened our historical and cultural context and helped to build a better understanding of key information gaps.Third, we repeatedly interviewed a wide arrange of people representing GOs, NGOs, and grass-roots organizations ; international, national, and local. We want to stress the importance of th is activity. Throughout open dialogue and confrontation of different viewpoints and data our understanding and language rapidly evolved to a level closer to that of local stakeholders, and at the same time we were enriched by the crossfertilization allowed by our interaction with different peoples who normally do not interact among themselves. lndeed, we consider this active dialogue and cross-checking of views and data one crucial strength of the research method. A significant byproduct of this repeated dialogue was that it allowed us to keep track of recent developments in the study area and the nation.To a large extent, our sources of information and dialogue partners were professional researchers and policy-makers. Grassroots representatives and direct practitioners are still under-represented in this review.Different Mental Maps: Different Objectives?One important initial finding is that the spatial reference for sustainable development in the study area is dramatically different between CIA T researchers and national researchers and policy-makers. While CIAT scientists refer to \"Pucallpa\" and a \"benchmark site\" area approximately 100 Km 2 in size, local experts repeatedly refer to the whole Ucayali region, a territory 100,000 Km 2 in extent (see Figure 3). lndeed, CODESU, the broad-base NGO that is the CG's main local partner in the Pucallpa benchmark site is named Consortium for the Sustainable Development of Ucayali.The regional perspective is assumed by locals irrespective of the extent or location of their specific activities. Local experts readily acknowledge the significance of the Pucallpa sub-region in Ucayali, where the benchmark site is located. However, the emerging rationale for their regional perspective lies in the fact that the ecologicaleconomic dynamics of the Pucallpa sub-region (and therefore the benchmark site) is inextricably linked to the land-use dynamics of the rest of the Ucayali region , particularly the timber-rich natural forests and the fish-rich and soil-rich floodplain. In other words, when discussing the development of the Pucallpa benchmark site, nationals assign strategic importance to the natural resources offered by the Ucayali region outside of the benchmark site and the Pucallpa sub-region, and to the historical exploitation of those resources .This notion of a densely populated sub-region were ecological-economic problems concentrate, but which dynamics (and arguably its development) depends toan important degree of resources outside the sub-region, must be kept in mind as a keystone characteristic of the Pucallpa sub-region and the benchmark site. Taking th is finding in consideration, together with the notion that the regional leve! of analysis is better fit for integrated, inter-sectoral research (Hegsdijk and Kruseman 1993), we decided to privilege a regional approach in this project, although keeping in mind the specific weight of the road-influenced sub-region, were the benchmark site is located .Brainstorming is increasingly being used as the main source of ideas in a number of strategic planning applications. Planning-By-Objectives workshops normally start with a brainstorm of \"problems\", which are then organized in problem trees. A great deal can be said about the shortcomings of this approach to strategic planning, particularly on the dramatic effects of the composition of the planning group, including presence/absence of key participants (i.e. , particularly knowledgeable and vocal people), the leve! of previous agreement or acquaintance among participants (i. e., degree of shared language, goals, and approaches), and the impact of hierarchical relations among the participants.However, brainstorms provide a quick and rich list of working themes, allowing the planning exercise to flow. Thus, brainstorms cannot be dismissed completely . We decided to deal critically with the results of our brainstorm exercises. We were particularly interested in (1) comparing the performance of the national and international researchers (which could shed light on the value of local participation), and in (2) evaluating the quality of the brainstorm exercise, regarding the level of truthful and relevant information embodied in the lists of suggested issues. This could shed light on the value of brainstorm exercises in general.When reading this section, severa! important caveats must be kept in mind. First, the list of issues was obtained in brainstorm exercises, where spontaneous ideas are encouraged and criticism is kept to a mínimum. A more critica! exercise would have yielded a more focused or site-specific set of issues, at the expense of breadth (and possibly also depth) of understanding, without necessarily improving the truthfulness of the final set 9 . Second, issues without evidence in favor are not always necessarily wrong, since in certain cases we simply lack corroborating evídence about them. Third, not all the possibly important issues were identified in the brainstorms. lndeed, this document responds to our need of obtaining a fuller picture of the case-study agroecosystem. Fourth (and related to third) that an issue has evidence in favor does not provide clues about the overall significan ce or relevance of the issue. Only contextualization, cross-checking and confrontation with other issues can provide us with that information. Fifth, the participants in the brainstorms were all experienced researchers, mostly related to the agricultura! sector. Thus, the suggested issues carne from a very specific set of stakeholders and must be considered as a biased set of issues. Still, they provided us with excellent orientatíon.Severa! important discoveries stem from a review ot Table l. First. shared issues with evidence in favor make only 8% of the total. Non-shared issues in the exercise do not necessarily express conflict or disagreement between national and international experts. They only express difference. Still, difference was surprising ly large (87% of suggested issues were not shared). lt is likely that this difference has already decreased significantly, as CIAT and Peruvian experts increased their interaction and collaboration. ? Evidence against, insufficient, or contentious.In general, national researchers showed slightly better aim than international researchers, which could be used as an argument in favor of local participation. Although the results suggest that the shared subset bears more evidence in favor than the total set, approaching the truthfulness of the nationals' subset, the small absolute value of shared issues does not allow any conclusions in this regard , although it again suggests possible synergic advantages in a participatory approach, where local social actors are consulted at the onset. National researchers tend to confront the local reality with greater frequency than international researchers, and have more opportunities to discuss and re-check their concepts against the evidence freely provided by their working environment. On the other hand, international researchers, at their best, may contribute a sense of the larger picture, as well as cross-fertilization from a wider choice of concepts and experiences. lnfluence Diaqrams A simple way of assessing relationships , externa! validity, relative importance, and gaps among issues is arranging them across scales of reality and drawing influence connectors between issues. Figure 5 offers such influence diagram for Ucayali. Only majar connections have been drawn to facilitate the reading of the diagram, and important chains have been emphasized with color. In interpreting the diagram, please keep in mind that issues at a given scale also happen at lower scales, usually with some specific features ; while issues at lower scales may contribute or not to issues at higher scales. In other words. higher hierarchies influence lower hierarchies, but lower hierarchies do not always influence higher hierarchies. Plus(+) signs in the connectors identify reinforcing interactions (the food of positive feedback loops); minus (-) signs identify dampening interactions (the food of negative feedback loops). There are very few minus signs in the diagram, suggesting a strongly self-reinforcing problematic, but this is partially dueto the fact that almost exclusively problems (and not opportunities) are mapped. We find that:1. In economic terms the net outflow of capital from Ucayali (a region-level phenomenon) establishes strategic constraints for the infrastructural and institutional development of the region as a whole. Thus, a classical trickle-down approach to development is unlikely to succeed in Ucayali if the unfavorable capital flows are not corrected somehow.In political terms, the concentration of power in Lima (a nation-level phenomenon), mirrored by the concentration of power in Pucallpa city, stimulates directly or indirectly the economic outflow from Ucayali (as discussed above), the relatively low institutional development of the region, and urban immigration from the countryside . Centralism, a structural characteristic of Peru, determines a low development ceiling for most of the country, particularly for marginal regions like Ucayali.In ideological terms , the extractivistic 1 productivist bias in the production of goods (a global issue), mirrored in Peru by the ideology of Amazon conquest, extractive economic booms (e.g., rubber), and government incentives to monocropping, has had a strong effect on deforestation and biodiversity loss (global issues), and wasteful exploitation of key regional resources such as timber and fish. On another path, this ideological bias has influenced research and technological development, favoring top-down, reductionist, and offer-driven approaches that (among other things) failed to appreciate the potential of native biodiversity and traditional multicrop farming systems. Evidently, here is were agricultura! R&O institutions have direct impact and can make an important difference.The phenomenon of migration to the city from the countryside, although a global issue, has specific and dire consequences in Ucayali. Pucallpa city suffers a severe shortage of jobs and services, as well as serious health and pollution problems. On the other hand, it is a contentious issue if migration to the city is leading to a labor bottleneck for agricultura! production in the Pucallpa sub-region and the benchmark site.A complex of issues including lack of access to credit and technical support, and unreliable markets establishes a low ceiling for agricultura! productivity and development, and acts as an expeller of rural population. lt appears unlikely that any significant development will be achieved in farmer productivity or income without some leve! of credit.The influence diagram allows quick identification of information gaps among the partici pant stakeholders (areas where no issues have been suggested). We find that main gaps concentrate at the farm leve!, reflecting the identity of the stakeholders involved (researchers, not farmers), and providing evidence of the need to involve grassroots in this kind of process. From top to bottom in the scale hierarchy, gaps relate to:1. The impact of globalization and global power interactions.2. At the national level ( or at the sea le of the Western Amazon lowlands) there is an important gap in our understanding of land-use patterns and dynamics. However, projects such as Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn, CIAT's PE-4 (including this project), and CIFOR's [Secondary Forests] are contributing to fill the gap. 3. At the same level, there is a major gap in our understanding of technological demand and offer for natural resource use and agriculture in the Western Amazon . IIAP 10 in Peru and TCA 11 in the Amazon region are dedicated to improving knowledge on both areas (although biased toward technological offer rather than demand), which identifies them as strategic allies. 4. Finally, at the level of farmers in the Pucallpa sub-region and the benchmark site, there are still large gaps in our understanding of their socioeconomics, their decisionmaking, and the dynamics of their knowledge (i.e .. who knows what, how is knowledge gained and how it is shared among farmers). In this regard, the surveys led in Pucallpa by the CG centers in 1996, 1997, and 1998(Fujisaka 1997, Smith 1 997) contain a wealth of information that is not being used in its full potential. Also, we may expect that as participatory interventions develop in the area, they will provide us with first-hand information on the farmers and their livelihood, although this must not be taken for granted 12 .From literature reviews, repeated visits to Pucallpa, and a number of interviews in Peru, we have identified the next additional issues:1. \"Subsidy from nature\" (Redford 1 992) to unsustainable farming system through timber, fish, game, and firewood. 2. Strong gender bias against women in agricultura! R&D (national and international), although national expertise available and utilized by a few projects and grassroots organizations. 3. Complete lack of integrated approaches to R&D in the region (with the possible exception of the MADEBOSQUES project). 4. Lack of understanding of regional and national market dynamics among researchers , officers, and farmers. 5. lnsufficient and sometimes inadequate technological offer. 6. Significant degree of alienation of farmers from the Ministry of Agriculture . This is mostly dueto top-down attitude among government officers and priorities decided in Lima without farmer input. 7. Multiactive and opportunistic economic performance among farmers: access to offfarm ecosystems 1 resources and to on-farm non-agricultura! resources .10 Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana (Peruvian Amazon Research \\nstitute) . 11 Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica (Amazon Cooperation Treaty). 12 We must differentiate between tactical and strategic PRA. For instance, participatory research may be limited to the testing or development of specific agricultura! technology, without ever bothering to significantly increase kn owledge on the farm ing system and the farmer society, just as non-participatory research may be designed to provide exactly that kind of information. Participatory research and action need to be specifically designed in order to increase socioeconomic knowledge among the participants (researchers, extensionists. and farm ers), thus empowering them to achieve system-level, sustainab\\e deve\\opment.8. Lack of clear goals in cattle ranching activity: Underutilized pastures, high cost of cattle ranching to small farmers, stiff market constraints, important regional beef-andmilk substitutes, and contentious nature of extensive cattle ranching in the Amazon. 9. Lack of access to markets by producers. Dominance of the middlemen by means of indebtment, due in large part to lack of working capital among smal/ farmers. 1 O. Lack of knowledge and expertise on participatory approaches among most local researchers and government officers, although national expertise available and utilized by a few projects and grassroots organizations. 11 . lnter-sectoral divorce, particularly along the agriculture-health-fisheries axis, related to land use and food production. 12. Significant (increasing?) chronic malnutrition among the rural population (particularly children), linked to food insecurity (particularly supply of high-quality protein) and perhaps unsound feeding habits.In this section we discuss selected issues together, grouped in one thematic line: economics and agriculture. Two more thematic lines, colonist farmer livelihood, and land use and deforestation, will be treated in separate documents. The idea of the following account is to stress links between issues and sort them out by their relative importance, as they relate to the sustainable development of the region and the benchmark site.The Invisible ForestAccording to INEI (1993) during the period 1979-1992 agricultura and agroindustries made up 50% of Ucayali's GDP, \"standing out the exploitation of timber\". According to Blanco et al. (1986), in 1983 the Gross Value of Production (GVP) in Ucayali's timber activity contributed 53% of the agricultura! GVP, and 20% of the department' s total GVP. According toAra (1997), in 1996 the timber activity in Ucayali contributed 22% of the regional GDP, 4% of it from its primary subsector (extraction) and 18% from its secondary subsector (transformation).In order to understand the importance of these figures, we must compare them against the total contribution of the primary and secondary sectors to the regional GDP. In 1996, the total primary sector contributed 33.2% to the regional GDP, 96% of it corresponding to agriculture (INEI 1997). Therefore, if we follow Ara's figures, the timber activity alone would correspond to 12.0% of the primary GDP, and to 12.6% of the agricultura! GDP. Unfortunately, we do not know how trustable are these calcu lations on the primary sector, since it is not clear to what degree the extraction of timber (a partially clandestine activity) is accounted for in the officia l estimation of the regional GDP 13 . Therefore, the importance of the timber activity is largely under-estimated . In the secondary (transformation) sector, however, timber is well recorded . Thus, if we take into account that the total transformation sector contributed 25% of the regional GDP in 1996 (IN El 13 Economic statistics in Peru aggregate \"silviculture\", wildlife hunting and agricultura! production (crops and livestock) in one clas s. When these figures are compared against crop and livestock statistics alone, it often appears that \"silviculture and wildlife\" are named but not recorded . The repeated and ill-recorded changes in política/ interests, currency, and administrative boundaries obscures even more a correct interpretation of primary sector statistics at the regional leve/.1 997), then as much as 72% of the secondary GDP was contributed by the timber industry.All the evidence leads to conclude that in spite of the tendency to view Ucayali as an agricultura! frontier dominated by monocrops and cattle, the main \"agricultura!\" activity in the region's history is timber exploitation from natural forests. This activity has a dominant impact in the region's economy. The following overview of the activity sheds light on the productive structure of the region and on the structural constraints to its development.Most of Ucayali's timber production is consumed within the country, particularly in Lima. Ucayali alone supplies 35.6% of the sawn wood produced in Peru, 59.3% of the plywood, and 32.3% ofthe flooring tiles (INRENA 1994). Pucallpa is known as the \"timber capital\" of Peru. Only a small fraction of Ucayali's production is exported, but its value is considerable: In 1981 , Peru exported US$ 2 mi Ilion of sawn wood from Pucallpa (CORDEU et al. 1 982). This only represented 2. 7% of the total industrial timber production of Pucallpa, but it accounted for 73% of all the exported sawn wood that year (INRENA 1994). More recently, in 1994, Peru exported more than US$ 20 million of wood products, 90% as sawn wood (Barents & Trivially 1 996 ).Logging in Ucayali does not operate by clear-cutting , but by selective extraction. Out of the 2,500 woody species estimated in the Amazonian lowland forests , only six species 14 make up 90% of the extracted vol u me in Ucayali (CORO EU et al. 1982, Barents & Trivelli, 1 996). lndeed, while the estimated average commercial vol u me of the Ucayali forests is 100 m 3 /Ha, only 5 to 7 m 3 /Ha are normally extracted 15 (!turraran 1988, cited in Barrantes & Trivelli 1 996). Up to 90% of extraction is performed by ill-trained, informal loggers with a chainsaw. Logs are taken to sawmills in Pucallpa, mostly by river, where they are turned into sawn wood , plywood, and flooring tiles. Then, these products are transported to Lima by road , and commercialized in that city.Vertical integration between extraction, transformation , transport, and commercialization is very weak. Consequently, costs are high and inefficient, there is a permanent conflict of interests between subsectors, and each subsector is grossly over-dimensioned 16 . In 1994, the sawmills in Pucallpa were working at 40% of their capacity, a chronic fea tu re of the industry (Barrantes & Trivelli 1 996). The situation is worsened by the strong dominance of the activity by commercial companies based in Lima. For instance in 1981 , when sawn wood exports from Ucayali reached a peak, 96% of the exported volume was channeled by commercial companies in Lima , with two of them (owned by the same investor group) concentrating 50% of the volume. An astounding 96.6% of the value of the exported sawn wood from Ucayali stayed with companies in Lima (CORO EU et al.Oue to a lack of quality standards , inadequate machinery, and unskilled labor, selective logging is wasteful and performed with extensive damage of extracted and not extracted ' • Progress on analytical tools for defining research agendas in comp/ex settings trees. A 1987 study found that only ene out of every five log sections arriving to the sawmills in Pucallpa could be considered sound: 48% of logs were cracked, 23% bent, and 7% had significant holes (Gauthier 1987, cited in Barrantes & Trivelli 1996).In the 1980-1992 period 2,398,478 m 3 of sawn wood were produced in Ucayali (INRENA 1994(INRENA , 1995a(INRENA , 1995b ) ). Assuming a very conservative 30% of losses during transformation, they represent 3,118,021.4 m 3 of logged wood. Not considering losses in extraction and transportation (but see above paragraph), and assuming a high-end estimation of 7 m 3 extracted per Ha of natural forests, only sawn wood would represent at least 445.432 Has of forest degraded by the timber activity in Ucayali in twelve years, or about 4% of the region's territory. However, selective logging has occurred at the above recorded levels for at least three decades.Thus , however ene makes the calculations, we can safely say that more than ene mi Ilion hectares of forest have been logged and degraded in the last 30 years in Ucayali (a full 10% of the region). This is an enormous expanse of land. However, the ecological and economic impact of thís activity is largely unrecognized, as if the trees, once cut-down and commercialized, had turned invisible. This invisible forest has subsidized an important fraction of the economically active population of Ucayali for half a century and continues subsidizing the economy of the region.In order to stop the waste and buy time for reordering the activity toward greater economic efficiency, the Peruvian government has recently issued severa! policies regarding timber exploitatíon. Since 1992, a moratorium on new contracts of timber exploitation is in place. In 1995 the reforestation tax to timber extraction in Ucayali was increased in 115% for class A and in 80% for class D hardwoods. Also, the Regional Direction of Agriculture has banned several river basins to timber exploitation. The moratorium, the increased taxes. and the bans, if anything, make more acute our perception of an \"invisible forest\". We can se e truckloads and rafts of logs in the streets and the river port of Pucallpa on a daily basis. However, since timber exploitation is supposed not to be happeníng (or it should be decreasing), this timber seems to pass largely unrecorded. In an official recognition of the invisibility of the activity, the agricultura! census of 1994 does not provide any direct information on timber exploitation in Ucayali. Since timber extraction was largely banned or heavily taxed , informal loggers had an incentive to identify themselves as agriculturists. and their logging lands as agricultura l. Therefore, we may also suspect an over estimation of croplands and farmers in the census.The main crops of Ucayali, in order of cultivated surface, are plantains and bananas, manioc, rice and grain corn. However, the total area in coca fields for the production of illegal cocaine was greater than the total area of plantains and bananas between 1994 and 1996 (INEI1995b; USAID/US Embassy 1997). lnterestingly, in 1996 there was an increase in cultivated area of plantains anda decrease in coca cultivation. 8oth phenomena reversed decade-long trends. Therefore, the domination of coca very likely has existed at least since the early 1980s.Considering its particularly high price, coca for cocaine could be regarded as the most important crop in the agricultura! history of Ucayali. However, due to its illegal and clandestine nature, the contribution of coca to the farmers and to the regional economy has been mostly unrecorded and unresearched.Still, it is most likely that coca has significantly subsidized the colonist society of Ucayali during most of the last two decades. lndeed , at least one internationally-funded agricultura! development project in the 1990s survived due to a inflow of farmer earnings derived from coca cultivation. When the Peruvian government strengthened its persecution of cocaine labs and dealers, farmers beca me unable to repay the project'_s credits, and the project failed (Elena Trigoso, President of AMUCAU 17 , pers. comm. June 1998).Although all official reports claim that coca production in Ucayali is decreasing in the last few years, several field-experienced professionals working in the region claim that production has migrated and dispersed like a metastasis from its traditional area in Aguaytía , increasing but becoming much more difficult to identify and monitor.During the 1980s, the Peruvian government enthusiastically subsidized the production of rice and corn monocrops as well as cattle ranching in the Amazon (Labarta 1997). Cattle ranching in the Amazon has been stimulated by national and international R&D organizations since the 1970s. In a vivid example of the concept of development that inspired cattle ranching in the Amazon, K. Santhirasegaram, a tropical forage expert from FAO who visited Pucallpa in the early 1970s and largely laid down the research program for the following 20 years, wrote: \"Such conditions as the complete removal of the climax vegetation are unavoidable, and are the basis of our civilization\" (Santhirasegaram, 1973).According to the agricultura! census of 1994 (INEI1995b), a total of 106,081 Ha of pastures exist in Ucayali, 98% of them concentrated in the Pucallpa sub-region. Twenty years ago, about one third of the pastures were dominated by native and introduced grasses of low productivity. However, by the early 1980s, thanks to the efforts of Peruvian and international institutions, it was already apparent that a selected grass, Brachiaria decumbens, was dominating Ucayali's pastures. In 1994, according to the Agricultura! Census, 97% of the pastures in Ucayali were exclusively selected Brachiaria.In spite of the improvement of the pastures, Ucayali's livestock production is extremely low. In the benchmark site, only 1 out of every 5 farmers who have pastures actually owns sorne cattle (Fujisaka 1997). Cattle production reached a peak in the mid 1980s, in response to President Alan García's aggressive incentive policy, but it has declined since, apparently by the combined effect of the dismissal of subsidies, the increasing political violence toward the end of the 1980s, and the coca boom.Arguments have been repeatedly advanced in favor of stimulating double-purpose cattle production in Ucayali (e.g., Acción Agraria 1998). The rational for this proposal is double: First, there is a large expanse of under-used pastures which productivity could be enhanced by improved grass-legume combinations. Second, there is a milk-and-beef deficit in Ucayali and the nation.Due to the extremely contentious nature of the issue, it is reasonable to inquire what are the goals that may be accomplished by increasing the numbers of cattle in an Amazon lowland. While a reduction of wasted pastures and the enhancement of their productive potential are probably desirable outcomes, particularly if part of integrated farming systems, cattle represent a stiff investment, out of reach for most small farmers , and it is not necessarily the optimum livestock species for the ecological-economic cond itions of the benchmark si te. The available evidence strongly suggests that the growth of the cattle herds in Ucayali was a largely subsidized phenomenon that mostly favored a handful of large investors and became rapid ly unsustainable when subsidies decreased. Even the advocates of extensive cattle ranching in the Peruvian Amazon recognize that the activity needs to happen in large operations to achieve economies of scale that justify the investment (Acción Agraria 1998). Therefore, the development value of extensive cattle ranching for small farmers is, at least, unclear.The argument of a milk-and-beef deficit is even more troublesome. In order to develop this argument we must first accept the assumption that beef and mil k are basic or irreplaceable resources for human nutrition in the region or the nation, or must demonstrate a significant market demand for those products in the region . This is far from granted. The only significantly large market for beef-and-milk is Lima. While Peru's production does not meet the national demand, and there is evidence that the Lima market suffers a deficit of milk-and-beef, the high production and transportation costs from Ucayali make beef-and~milk from the region non-competitive. At the regionallevel , there is a number of foods, many of them native, that can replace beef and milk with much smaller ecological impact and economic investment.In particular, freshwater fish taken from rivers and lakes without major ecosystem transformation actual/y are the main source of animal protein in Ucayali. Fish production in Ucayali is about ten times beef production, averaging 8,000 MT/yr. (Saavedra 1996(Saavedra , 1998)). Fish provides high-quality protein to the urban majority and the riverine human population of Ucayali. Although there are not published records, apparently wild game and other forest animals provide the main animal protein to the upland rural popu lation (Osear Vásquez 18 and Marco Romero 19  , pers. comms. 1998).Progress on analytical too/s for defining research agendas in complex settingsAlthough fish are produced in larger quantities, they are consumed directly or sold at significantly lower prices than beef. Therefore, the contribution of fisheries to the regional GDP is very small. The watery ecosystems that produce the fish subsidize the livelihood of most city-dwellers and an important proportion of the rural human population of Ucayali. However, its small apparent economic contribution, the marine bias of the fisheries sector in Peru, and the divorce between the health, the agricultura!, and the fisheries sectors in the region tend to make freshwater fish and their ecosystems, again, largely invisible.As for milk, several studies conclude that most peoples with Amerindian genetic background (including mestizos) develop non-reversible hypolactasia by four years of age. Thus, they cannot consume non-transformed milk, although they can consume cheese and yogurts. (See Paige et al. 1972 for Peru; see Sahi 1994 for an updated review) The population of Ucayali are mostly mestizos of strong Andean or Amazonian indigenous ancestry. Last February, we interviewed Ms. Lucy Noriega from the Nutritional Support Program in Ucayali (PRONAA), which provides milk-based food reinforcements to school children (the famous \"vaso de leche\"), and she confirmed to us that they recorded problems with lactase intolerance at the beginning of the program.Although she dismissed the issue as one that stopped occurring after a while, this seems highly unlikely, given the genetic nature of hypolactasia. lt is more likely that affected children stopped consuming the milk-based reinforcements or that the problem continued unrecorded. Thus, plans to increase the dietary intake of milk in the regían should also include the transformation of mil k into cheese or yogurt.In spite of the dietary contribution of fish and forest animals, varied evidence suggests that undernourishment, particularly chronic child undernourishment is high and increasing among the rural population of Ucayali. An important part of rural malnutrition may be related to a lack of high-quality protein in the diet. Growing concerns on the declining status of fishing stocks in the Ucayali basin, particularly the large and preferred species, have stimulated the development of aquacultural technology for native species by IIAP. Although this technology is already developed and available, its relative complexity and the high costs of growing compared to catching fish have led to very meager adoption, particularly by small farmers . Also, there is evidence that forest game is largely over-hunted and scarce, particularly in the Pucallpa sub-region. Therefore, it makes sense to look at on-farm animal production as a strategic source of food security in the region . However, what system of animal production is best fitted for the small farmers of Ucayali is still an open question.The general conclusion of this discussion is that Ucayali is an open, multi-scale, and dynamic ecological-economic system. lt cannot be effectively understood or sustainably modified if research and interventions concentrate in one sub-region and exclude interactions with other sub-regions. lt cannot be effectively understood or sustainably modified without a careful monitoring of its larger-scale constraints and determinants. lt cannot be effectively understood or sustainably modified if research and interventions concentrate in one short-time period . Specific conclusions are:• The Pucallpa sub-region and the benchmark site are not isolated areas. Their socioeconomic dynamics depends to a large extent of activities and resources that Progress on analytical tools for defining research agendas in complex settíngs happen outside the sub-region and the benchmark site themselves, and that are not strictly agricultura! in nature. • The agricultura! development of the Pucallpa sub-region and the benchmark site depend historically of a heavy subsidy from nature, transient economic booms, and different forms of government subsidies; these factors are Jargely exogenous to the sub-region's systems of crop and livestock production, and to the regional markets. • Centralism and institutional instability in Peru and net economic outflows from the region determine important structural constraints to economic growth and development anywhere in Ucayali. We suggest that a low-ceiling for development exists in the region. This low-ceiling will limit significant impact of agricu ltura! R&D if ít is not íntegrated with basic organizational and economic solutions. • Small farmers in Ucayali are poor in capital (and probably also in labor). They face a complex set of externa! difficulties that preclude the enhancement of productivity, economic growth, and development. Difficulties include lack of access to credit, technical support, and markets. Therefore, agricultura! technology alone is highly unlikely to obtain significant impacts on farmers' wellbeing. • There are still important gaps anda number of entrenched prejudices in our understanding of small colonist farmers in the region , particularly in terms of their socioeconomics, culture , knowledge, and decision making. A crucial aspect of this problem relates to the opportunistic, diversified economic activity of the farmers, and how they obtain a living by securing access to off-farm resources as well as on-farm non-agricultura! resources. Effective R&D must build upon the productive mosaic faced and managed by farmers. • Available productive on-farm technology among national and international institutions seems insufficient and is sometimes inadequate for small farmers. An important effort in adaptation and integration of technologies is needed. • Participatory approaches to R&D are extremely new in the region , current activities are largely unaware of existing local expertise, and still show strategic limitations (e.g., gender bias that underestimates the role of women in fa rmer family production and wellbeing). • lntegrated approaches (even technological) to R&D are still missing.Given the high stakes at play, a permanent critica! revision of the priorities and interventíons of applied research in Ucayali is called for. From the above discussion, we dare to suggest that applied research on agriculture and natural resource management will significantly contribute to the sustainable development of the benchmark site only íf at least two key conditions are met in the determínation of priorities and interventions.First, research must be explicitly oriented to empower regional actors and increase the proportion of value added that is generated and reinvested in the region (in our case , local small farms). This calls for a participatory approach in the determinatíon of research príoritíes and the strengtheníng of local organizatíons at dífferent levels, but with a major emphasis in the grassroots. The main objective of interventions should be the increase of self-sufficiency and on-farm security among small farmers.For commercial production, the local empowerment condition implies the need for a carefu l selection of products and markets that must simultaneously meet the criteria of low risk and increased reven ues for the local producers. We are far from underestimating the challenge represented by this consideration. Specific ways of meeting the challenge include:• further research on land-use policies and their impact on sustainable development in the region; • further research on interactions between poverty, land use, and ecological degradation in the Pucallpa sub-region (already under way); • building a shared local database of national related initiatives, organizations, and individuals in the region, and using it to identify expertise and strategic alliances in areas not supported by the CG centers; • development of initiatives specifically aimed to the strengthening and creation of local grassroots organizations, such as producer cooperatives, with self-sufficiency as their primary goal; • further development of formal strategic alliances with local NGOs and R&D institutions, specifically aimed to strengthen those organizations and building a critica! mass of participatory expertise in the region .Second, effective research must efficiently integrate biophysical and socioeconomic disciplinary perspectives. Special attention must be paid to the subsidy from nature represented by timber, fish, and forest game and firewood . These extractive natural resources play a strategic role in supporting the growing human population and providing resilience to the system. A crack-down of these life-supporting resources would inevitably have catastrophic consequences.Possible paths of integrated participatory research, in arder of increasing specificity, include:• further development of integrated participatory research methodology;• the implications to sustainable development of social relations and decision making among small colonist farmers, with an emphasis in gender relations and cooperative networks; and • the development and application of integrated agricultura! production systems for the sustainable solution of health and food security problems among small colonist farmer families .   1976-1981 and 1988-1993. Flows greater than 1,000 people.  Watershed management involves the integrated management of a multitude of common and privately owned resources such as cropland , pastures, forests and water. In the Andean hillsides, farms are generally small, and the population is characterized by great cultural, religious, and economic diversity. Watersheds in this region are managed at the level of numerous individual and independent holdings rather than in a concerted fashion with a view to entire landscapes. As a result, in their day-to-day management of natural resources, farmers may lose sight of important watershed properties, such as soil and water flows, landscape structure and the existence of habitats for particular species.As part of its interdisciplinary research, CIA T's Hillsides and Farmers Participatory Research and Gender Analysis projects are working in two, small multi-ethnic watersheds (Los Zanjones and Guadalito) in the Andean hillsides of southern Colombia. The objective of this work is to find ways to foster collective or concerted action among watershed users and other stakeholder groups in their day-to-day management of natural resources and thereby enable them to deal with problems that cannot be solved effectively by individuals acting alone. So far, this work has dealt with problems related to water management and conservation , erosion control , and pest control (white grubs and leaf cutting ants). The accomplishment of these initiatives are indicators of success, although the actual impact on the management of natural resou rces still has to be evaluated .The project has been focused on the development of a methodology to identify stakeholder groups in arder to accomplish collective management of natural resources in micro watershed 20 . The rationale for developing a stakeholder analysis methodology for micro watersheds arase from a practica! experience in other parts of the Rio Cabuya! Watershed. The decision made by the watershed users organization FEBESURCA (now ASORBESURCA) to stop the burning of forests around natural springs, was violated as a result of not all stakeholders being included in the decision-making process. ASORBECURCA recognized this and invited more stakeholders to participate in the analysis and exploration of possible alternatives. This incidence triggered our research on a methodology that recognizes all stakeholders and identifies contrasting perceptions through a sequence of individual interviews and meetings.The research aims to identify key elements in fostering and facilitating collective action for watershed management and is producing a set of handbooks on key issues, such as stimulating interest in collective watershed management and stakeholder identification aimed at NGO's and other agencies working in natural resource management.• U ser feedback on NRM technology and prototype production systems • Review of literature on collective action with specific emphasis on landscape management and scaling up (to be completed)• Through FPR methods the combination of lime and lorsban has been identified as an effective means of control of leaf cutting ants • Farmers have evaluated and planted live barriers against soil erosion. The biophysical effect still has to be evaluated. • Together with researchers farmers have done trials aimed at identifying maize varieties resistant to Macrodactylus ovaticollis Bates • Reforestation of natural springs has been initiatedThrough FPR methods the combination of lime and lorsban has been identified as an effective means of control of leaf cutting antsThe experiment took place in the micro-watershed, Los Zanjones, situated in La Laguna in the Andean hillsides in southwestern Colombia. Los Zanjones comprises 44 hectares, subdivided among 14 individual owners, giving an average plot size of 3.1 hectares. An anthill inventory, conducted with the owners in 1997, identified 39 anthills or nests. Map 1 shows the extensions of the 14 plots, overlaid by the location of the 39 nests. On the basis of farmers' experience from a number of anthills in the area, the average radius of action of the leaf-cutting ants, that is the distance from the nest that the ants move to forage, was estimated at 80 meters. A circle with a radius corresponding to 80 meters has therefore been drawn around each nest in map 1 to indicate their areas of influence. As it can been seen the ants transcend farm boundaries and collective action to control the ants is necessary to achieve a significant impact of the control.Four possible alternative control methods and a control (no treatment) were se!ected for farmer experimentation in La Laguna for control of existing anthills. These are: • agricultura! lime, pumped into the anthill • lime mixed with lorsban, pumped into the anthill • gasoline, poured into the anthill and set tire to in arder to produce an explosion • washing powder, poured into and around the entrances/exists of the anthill Map 1. Location of anthills, their radius of action and farm boundaries, Los Zanjones, La Laguna, Colombia Table 1 shows the results from the ant control treatment in Los Zanjones Farmers have planted live barriers against soil erosion. The biophysical effect remains to be evaluated.Uve barriers of rice, sugarcane and pasture have been sown in the mini-watershed Los Zanjones. In total, 382 meters of pasture, 318 meters of rice and 971 meters of sugarcane have been sown.Farmers opted for planting the live barriers in order to improve soil fertility, i.e. to reduce erosion and promete the building up of organic matter/humidity.Asked about what would be their indicators for eva luating whether the barriers were serving their purpose, farmers mentioned the following possibilities:• that the plants in between the rows would grow better • on the other hand, if the soillooks 'bright', it is getting tired • that there wouldn 't be any gullies • that the soil would be flat An activity that has been initiated to evaluate the eros ion control effect of the live barriers involves using equipment to measure changes in the shape of the slope.Highlight 3Together with researchers farmers have conducted trials aimed at identifying maize varieties resistant to Macrodactylus ovaticollis Bates.To determine if the phenology of maize could serve as a basis for management of pests.comparisons of 1 O genotypes of maize were made. 8 lines of \" maiz blanco\" and 2 local variants were tested . Dates were collected in relation to the time of flowering , ripening, adaptation to the environment and the damage done by M ovaticol/is. The flowering of 5 lines with maize blanco and the local varieties coincided with the maximum presence of M. ovaticollis. As a result nearly 50% of these maize varieties were damaged. On the contrary 3 of the lines evaluated (SEW-HG\"A\", SEW-HG\"B\", and SEW-HG\"AyB\") flowered befare the population peak of M. ovaticol/is. Only 8.6% of these maize varieties were damaged. The conclusion is that the use of early maize varieties could serve to reduce impact from M ovaticollis infestation.Reforestation of natural springs has been initiatedFarmers have taken the initiative to plant guadua (bamboo), and the tree species, canelo and nacedero around the springs. The work has been organized as mingas but only few of the farmers have participated. Furthermore the decision to plant the trees and the sort of trees to plant were taken by few members of the micro watershed. Thus some owners of the land down to the springs have removed the trees because they think that e.g. guadua will provide shadow for the coffee . Another example that illustrates that problem resolution of natural resource management problems requires the involvement of as many stakeholder as possible.Rationale: Some problems of natural resource management cannot be solved on the farm or plot level but has to involve some sort of collective or concerted management of natural resources at the level of landscapes. This is especially true for management of natural resources in watersheds where water, soil and nutrient flows are evident (from the top of the watershed to the bottom of the watershed) and in relation to pests which easily cross boundaries.Though it is evident that there are some problems the farmers cannot solve individual/y, organization around collective action is not easy. Transaction costs may be to high especially in watershed selected by the size and number of families and not selected by type and importance of natural resource management problems. Furthermore concerted action may demand organizational skills the farmers , and researchers , do not have.Finally, inherent conflicts, which have nothing todo with the actual management of the natural resources, may hinder communication and collaboration among the farmers . This may be especially true when working with natural and not socially defined groups of natural resource users 22 • Stakeholders defined by the use of natural resources will not have social relations or norms that can motívate or force the actions of the individual farmers.2. Methodoloqy to identify stakeholder qroups and to stimulate collective management of natural resources in micro watersheds• Organizational models for facilitating user participation in analysis of and research on NRM issuesTesting the stakeholder analysis methodology in the micro watershed of Guaicoche. Review and completion.• The methodology applied serves to identify maximum variation in perceptions and contrasting opinions on use, problems and conflict over natural resource management (see annex 1 and 2 for steps and diagram of the methodology). • The methodology serves to stimulate sorne degree of collective management of natural resources among watershed users, because it opens a public space for analysis and negotiation of natural resource management problems.In most projects with participatory approaches, stakeholder identification and gender analysis is applied to reach normative goals like benefiting the poorest and equ ity. Projects dealing with collective management of natural resources stakeholder identification may have the same purpose. However, a basic assumption for our project is, that to achieve a real impact of collective management of natural resources all stakeholders have to be identified and invited to become involved in decision-making processes and negotiation. Thus stakeholder identification does not only become a normative goal but a precondition to the activities and impacts of collective management of natural resources.Collective management of natural resources implies a broad range of activities of which stakeholder identification is ene. Thus the development of the stakeholder methodology is only a step forward towards a more comprehensive understanding of which actions 22 Stakeholders are defined by interest. lnterests are often associated with social relations like ethnicity, gender, age, and culture or defined politically or administratively like municipalities. regions etc. Working with the collective management of natural resources we find it relevan! to define stakeholders due to their interdependency in use and management of natural resources. As such watersheds (and other landscapes) becomes the boundaries of our work and the stakeholders defined by their interdependency of the natural resources within this bio-physical boundary. These stakeholders may belong to different social and political defined units but all have an interest or \"sta ke\" in the same natural resources.[ANNEX 1. 1 Paso 5Cómo dialogar sobre los intereses de conflicto que existen entre los usuarios?Como analizar el uso, los problemas y los conflictos de manejo de los recursos naturalesDónde poCiemos aplicar la metodología de análisis de grupos de interés?Cómo presentar la idea de manejo colectivo de los recursos naturales y como aclarar expectativas?Cómo podemos asegurar que todos los grupos de interés están representados? ","tokenCount":"11097"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"47ec02f49866f44fe58fe286b10dbf8d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/243e6b2f-3d5b-4ee3-b255-fe53eca219a7/retrieve","id":"831392880"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9ff80ead-5f45-4b78-8a2e-f70ddd6e855b","pagecount":"6","content":"The RUFORUM/ West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) WASCAL component will specifically focus on knowledge and capacity building activities with the ultimate goal to enable university players (staff and students) research and extension service providers at regional and national-level to access knowledge, technologies, and decision-making tools for uptake of climate information services (CIS) and climate-smart agriculture (CSA) by actors and end users. To this end, RUFORUM as an African-wide network of universities, envisions to use its longstanding experience in training curricula development and in capacity building in agriculture and food security, to develop curricula and training materials that will make accessible to other SSA countries, the knowledge on CSA and climate agro-advisory services generated in the six intervention countries. An example, areas of focus and competence have been identified by the core universities and the areas of intervention for the different stakeholders have been mapped out.The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) Project builds on the initiatives and achievements under the CGIAR Research Program on the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in Africa. With a focus on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies and on climate information services (CIS), the AICCRA project includes an important capacity development component for the benefit of six (6) countries in Africa. RUFORUM is a global partner to AICCRA to work in West Africa and the East and Sothern Africa but also to work at the continental level. AICCRA will collaborate with the African Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) to develop curricula and training materials that will make accessible to other SSA countries, the knowledge on CSA and climate agro-advisory services generated in the six intervention countries. In partnership with other players, RUFORUM envisages to mobilise universities to contribute towards the Project Development Objective: To strengthen the capacity of targeted CCAFS partners and stakeholders, and to enhance access to climate information services and validated climate-smart agriculture technologies in IDA eligible countries in Africa.Given that WASCAL, the West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) is a large-scale education and research-focused climate service Institution operating through 12 graduate schools across West Africa, RUFORUM is partnering with WASCAL to implement the West Africa component of its AICCRA partnership agreement. WASCAL will, together with RUFORUM member universities in Ghana, Mali and Senegal, develop curricula and training materials on CSA and CIS and make them widely accessible to WA stakeholders through WASCAL and RUFORUM university/academia networks. Further noting that the climate change impacts have a gender dimension as much as men and women experience small holding agriculture differently. All activities will pay special attention to gender issues and the participation of women in the training and other activities undertaken under the project.The RUFORUM/ WASCAL activities in West Africa align to the AICCRA Project Development Objective indicators to: i) support the uptake of climatesmart agriculture innovations through piloting; ii) knowledge generation and sharing for effective services; and iii) partnerships for delivery. To this end, partnerships will be launched/ strengthened to enhance the number of CCAFS partners and stakeholders increasingly accessing enhanced climate information services and /or validated climate-smart agriculture technologies in West Africa.AICCRA will collaborate with the African Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) to develop curricula and training materials. The knowledge on CSA and climate agro-advisory services with specific models/attributes which can be mainstreamed into the expected curricula and training materials generated in the six intervention countries will be made accessible to other SSA countries. The project will enhance the capacity of RUFORUM and WASCAL to develop delivery models for climate services and for CSA knowledge, approaches and tools.to support effective intra-regional and southsouth adoption in various value chains. RUFORUM will be seizing the opportunity of this additional funding support to WASCAL (from AICCRA-WA directly) to work in synergy with WASCAL to ensure effective implementation of the WA component of the agreement between RUFORUM and WASCAL.RUFORUM and WASCAL AICCRA partners will be expected to participate in training events organized by the AICCRA WA cluster to get access to enhanced climate information services (CIS) and/or validated climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies generated from AICCRA. The accessible real-time CIS will derive from the next gen CIS development tools. The CSA technologies to be made accessible will be those prioritized and validated through various tools and approaches mainly developed through CCAFS.Apart from the expected results, the RUFORUM/ WASCAL collaboration will be an opportunity for continental CSA/CIS spillover training effects and south-south learning across regions, countries, continent while also strengthening the already existing institutional collaboration between the two educational networks.RUFORUM and WASCAL will develop training materials and curricula on CSA and CIS that will support the scaling of CSA and CIS to benefit extentionists (public and private) and to capacitate university students (master, PhD programs, etc.). WASCAL and RUFORUM will use their networks to promote the materials developed out of the AICCRA project outputs and outcomes.In collaboration with all other regional stakeholders, RUFORUM and WASCAL will identify and outline the various required curricula and training materials, based on existing knowledge of best-bet CSA and CIS options for value chains in West Africa-to this end RUFORUM will produce a discussion paper/Working paper/White paper.A concept note that synthesizes the essence of the partnership developed with WASCAL, i.e. the goal, objectives, activities and expected outputs and outcomes.The implementation will be in three RUFORUM/ WASCAL core Universities in Ghana, Senegal and Mali. These RUFORUM as the core partner in the AICCRA project will engage country cluster leads to integrate and identify CIS and CSA areas of focus to be adopted by the selected member universities. Specifically, a) AfricaRice in Mali with a focus on monitoring and forecasting system for rice area and yield, maprooms for web-accessible climate information, location-specific weather prediction, ag-data hubs, iterative climate-related risk areas maps, and cropping calendar tools to escape drought and flooding in rain fed rice systems and water scarcity and cold in irrigated rice systems in Mali. For training focus will be on the deployment of gender and socially inclusive CSA packages, improved management of water and irrigation systems, nature-based solutions for agricultural development, small-medium enterprises, and small scale agribusiness and climate-resilient storage facilities and processing technologies. b) ILRI in Senegal on delivery pathways for early warnings (e.g. SCF), climate services and climateinformed digital agro-advisories to support agricultural decision-making and backstopped by ICRISAT and IRI. The entry points, use and potential value of climate information for decision making across the major dryland value chains (cereals, livestock, fodder) to be informed by value chain analysis led by ILRI. CSA knowledge, approaches and tools to support effective adoption and implementation of CSA technologies and practices at scale in various value chains. c) IITA in Ghana on roots and tubers, maize, cowpea and vegetable value chain as well as strengthening irrigation extension services with digital innovations and tailored irrigation advisories identified and integrated into digital crop health apps/services and dissemination systems. CSA and agroforestry measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system to monitor adaptation and CSA indicators in Ghana and Benin.RUFORUM and WASCAL in consultation with the WA Regional Program Lead and the country cluster leads to identify, outline and prioritize training materials for the various required curricula, based on existing knowledge of best-bet CSA and CIS options for value chains in West Africa. Program implementation will include collaboration on the development of curricula and training materials and knowledge on CSA and climate agro-advisory services that will be made accessible to other countries under both WASCAL and RUFORUM Networks.The RUFORUM and WASCAL activities will be aligned to the deliverable under the West Africa regional program to enhance the capacity of public institutions and private firms to provide climate service delivery models. Specifically, AICCRA will collaborate with RUFORUM, to generate training products. AICCRA will encourage the participation of women scientists and researchers in partner institutions. In undertaking activities under AICCRA, RUFORUM and WASCAL will: a) Engage with country cluster leads to establish areas of focus to be adopted for training and or integration in university curricular. b) In partnership other partners, scoping and selection of units within selected universities that have the best fit for modification and adoption of the AICCRA thematic areas. Interaction will be conducted to investigate the curricula of the schools to have a list of modules or courses in CSA as well as the training material already developed by those institutions for the benefit of stakeholders. The potential trainees will be also identified • The training will be evaluated at the end of each session using a questionnaire. ","tokenCount":"1441"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5909de1e46cb3a2f4d33b24d1c37acfe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c26b8f87-4ef1-4054-941c-b0ddc0d585c6/retrieve","id":"-864664119"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8a51df36-65df-4944-add7-58d4e6fada45","pagecount":"38","content":"This is a working paper that has not been formally peer reviewed. The opinions expressed in this paper and any possible errors are the responsibility of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the position of the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, or of the institutions and individuals who were involved in the preparation of the report.Increasing investment and spending in agricultural innovation is not enough to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets of ending poverty and hunger because the effectiveness of investments in low-and middle-income (LMI) countries is affected by the low quality of infrastructure and services provided, and by different norms and practices that create a considerable gap between financing known technical solutions and achieving the outcomes called for in the SDGs. As an important part of a nation's common innovation infrastructure, financial and extension services are major \"enablers\" of investments, favorably contributing to national innovative capacity. However, the contribution of these services to innovation in LMI countries has been limited. Financial services in LMI countries face low rates of return; high risks and lack of acceptable collateral; and limited outreach in rural areas. Similarly, the performance of extension services has been affected by ineffective and costly strategies that have promoted rigid recommendations with poor understanding of how farmers learn and lacked context-specific focus on solving problems.At present, a wide variety of information and communications technology (ICT) tools and innovations in financial and extension services offer new opportunities to improve performance, increase access and reduce costs through economies of scale and more efficient operations. Recent innovations in financial technology offer new ways of expanding the inclusion of the financially excluded into the financial system by providing them with a wider range of financial services and products; reaching sparse customer bases spread over difficult-to-access rural geography; reducing costs through economies of scale and more efficient operations; and enabling profitable inclusion of low-cost products or services that meet the needs of previously excluded populations. In the case of extension, the new ICT technologies can make services more demand-driven, up-to-date and inclusive, contributing to revitalizing the interaction between extension services and farmers.Considering the new opportunities that ICT innovations bring to improve performance of financial and extension services, this study looks at the potential contribution of financial and extension services to the SDGs. The approach used extends the standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to include longer-term management goals and find a solution that balances the efficient use of innovation investments and the achievement of policy goals, making this approach well suited for the analysis of the SDGs.How does the extended DEA approach work? First, DEA is not a foresight model to make projections based on economic theory, nor a model that needs to be calibrated to historical data and that can be evaluated based on its accuracy in \"predicting\" historical events. Instead, it is a powerful method for comparing and analyzing data. Specifically, in this case, it compares poverty and undernourishment levels across countries, relating those levels with the resources that each country has allocated to reduce poverty and undernourishment. It then finds out which countries have achieved the best results in terms of poverty and malnutrition alleviation given the quantity of resources allocated to this goal. These countries constitute the best-practice frontier in the use of investment for poverty and malnutrition alleviation. Countries that do not lie on the frontier are less efficient in the use of investments. In other words, a country is deemed inefficient because comparisons show that other viii countries, using the same level of resources as this country, have achieved better policy results. The model allows the setting of policy targets (levels of poverty and undernourishment) and provides three major results for each country: a) it determines if the country can or cannot achieve the policy target given investments; b) it gives the minimum level of poverty and undernourishment a country can reach; and c) it estimates the level of investment needed to achieve the policy goals if the country falls short of the target.The model is solved for the 69 LMI countries, setting as a policy target the reduction of the poverty headcount (PHC) and the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) to 5% or less to obtain the maximum level of output (minimum level of poverty and undernourishment) that the country can achieve, given public and private levels of investment in innovation and of fixed or structural variables. PHC and PoU were chosen to measure policy targets because they are among the main indicators used to quantify the achievement of SDG 1 (eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere) and SDG 2 (end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition). The analysis is conducted using average values of variables for the period 2000-2018. Results of the impact of increased access to financial and extension services are obtained from a scenario that determines the levels of financial and extension services that maximize achievement of policy goals.Results show that LMI countries fall short of achieving the policy target of 5% PHC and PoU. The attainable poverty and undernourishment levels calculated by the model were 25% and 15%, respectively. This is equivalent to an attainable poverty reduction of 100 million people, bringing the number of poor people from 618 million to 518 million. The number of undernourished can be reduced by 96 million, from 560 to 463 million people.To further reduce poverty and malnutrition, countries could increase investment in innovations and services like finance and extension that facilitate producers' access to those innovations. The DEA model is then used to determine how far countries can go on the reduction of poverty and undernourishment if they improve access to financial and extension services without changing levels of innovation investment in agriculture. Results show that the combined effect of improved access to financial and extension services is a reduction in the attainable number of poor people from 518 to 488 million (a reduction of 30 million poor people) and in the attainable number of undernourished people from 463 to 428 million (a reduction of 35 million undernourished people).Increasing investment and spending in innovation, defined here as the development and application of new ways to produce goods and services, is not enough to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets because the effectiveness of investments in lower income countries is affected by the low quality of infrastructure and services provided, and by different norms and practices that create a considerable gap between financing known technical solutions and achieving the outcomes called for in the SDGs (Kenny and Snyder, 2017). As impact often depends on additional complementary activities and investments both within and beyond agriculture (Tomich et al., 2019), countries need to complement these investments with considerable improvement of institutions, services and policy tools to ensure that additional investment is effectively turned into improved outcomes.In this context, financial and extension services are often considered major \"enablers\" of investments in innovations targeting achievement of SDGs, and in some cases could directly contribute to the outcome. The financial system is an important part of a nation's common innovation infrastructure which, together with sound institutions, a functioning educational system and effective research and development (R&D) policies, favorably determines national innovative capacity (Meierrieks, 2014), providing services that lower transaction costs and consequently facilitate investment in innovative entrepreneurial activities (Levine, 1997). Extension services are also part of the innovation infrastructure of a country, having played a pivotal role in agriculture by providing smallholders with the information, knowledge and qualifications required to exploit innovation emerging opportunities (Darr et al., 2014). But as in the case of financial services, the contribution of extension to innovation has been limited by ineffective strategies that have promoted rigid recommendations with insufficient understanding of how farmers learn, and have lacked context-specific focus on solving problems that can only be addressed through the engagement of multiple interdependent actors and through improving farmers' access to broader information relating to market and credit linkages (Davis and Franzel, 2018;Norton and Alwang, 2020).At present, a wide variety of information and communications technology (ICT) tools and innovations in financial and extension services offer new opportunities to increase access and reduce costs through economies of scale and more efficient operations. For example, recent innovations in financial technology (FinTech) provide a wider range of financial services and products, reaching difficult-toaccess rural areas. These innovations are also transforming extension services, where cell-phonebased networking and messaging apps are becoming common even in developing countries, and their use in extension is growing rapidly (Davis and Franzel, 2018;Beriya and Saroja, 2019).In the context of the new opportunities that ICT innovations bring to enhance access to these enabling services, this study looks at the potential contribution of financial and extension services to the SDGs. Could enhanced access to financial and extension services contribute significantly to the achievement of SDGs, facilitating access to innovations brought about by investment efforts in LMI countries? Or, as discussed in Duvendack and Mader (2019) for the case of financial services, might they not even have a meaningful net positive effect on low-income users considering that they are only two among many possible determinants of their life chances to access and adopt innovations? We attempt an answer to these questions by using a model proposed by Stewart (2010) that extends the standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model by balancing the efficient use of innovation investments and the achievement of policy goals. This goal-programming DEA (GP-DEA) model is therefore well suited to the analysis of SDGs. Here the model is used to determine values of SDGs that can be achieved by individual countries given their levels of investment in R&D and non-R&D innovation and to measure the impact that improved access to financial and extension services have on the achievement of SDGs. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents a characterization of the financial and extension services in LMI countries; Section 3 describes the GP-DEA approach used in the analysis; Section 4 discusses results; and Section 5 concludes.Recent innovations in FinTech offer new ways of expanding the inclusion of the financially excluded into the financial system by providing them with a wider range of financial services and products; reaching sparse customer bases spread over difficult-to-access rural geography; reducing costs through economies of scale and more efficient operations; and enabling profitable inclusion of lowcost products or services that meet the needs of previously excluded populations (Hinson et al., 2019).Several studies and development agencies have embraced digitalization of core functions of the financial system to scale up agricultural finance and include smallholder farmers. According to the World Bank (2017), digital technologies cut the cost of providing financial services by 80-90%, can promote digital payments in agriculture value chains, and facilitate innovation in agricultural finance by leveraging mobile technology. These technologies can also contribute to closing the financing gap between male and female farmers; create a digital footprint that can be leveraged to access credit and other financial services; increase the amount of savings; and contribute to poverty reduction, especially for women and female-headed households (World Bank, 2017;Bastian et al., 2018).Figure 1 shows the importance of different financial indicators in LMI countries between 2015 and 2019, grouped by income per capita. The figure clearly shows that high values of the bottom four indicators in the figure are associated with developed financial systems, reaching high values in upper middle-income countries. On the other hand, the proportion of adults receiving payments in cash is highest in low-income countries and seems to be associated with underdeveloped financial systems. Three indicators show similar values across income groups: the proportion of rural population that borrowed to start, operate or expand a farm or business; the proportion of the population that received payments for agricultural products into a financial institution account; and the proportion of population that received payments for agricultural products through a mobile phone.The observed importance of different indicators across income groups is valuable information used in the GP-DEA model to define variables that capture structural differences between financial systems across countries and indicators of financial services that do not depend on financial development and income. Data on agricultural extension are much weaker than for financial services and estimates of the impact of extension on productivity and other relevant outcomes are rare. One global database has been recently made available, compiled by the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services and covering the period 2009-2012 (Swanson and Davis, 2014;Davis et al., 2020). Information from this dataset is summarized below to present a characterization of extension services in LMI countries, comparing values of different indicators to those of high-income (HI) countries, including qualification and specialization of extension staff, the use of new communication technologies and the reach of extension services.Major differences between extension services in LMI and HI countries are observed in staff qualification and use of ICT, as shown in Figure 2. Almost 60% of extension staff in LMI countries have no tertiary education while only 9% hold an MSc or PhD degree. In contrast, HI countries show only 29% of staff without tertiary education and 36% of staff holding an MSc or PhD degree.Differences in the use of ICT in extension services are also significant. Only 48% of field extension staff in LMI countries have internet access in their office (versus 100% in high-income countries), while 40% of staff in LMI countries still work in print and mass media compared to only 8% in HI countries, where most of the staff work with computer-based information technology.The reviewed literature on extension seems to agree on the fact that new ICT tools can make services more demand-driven, up-to-date and inclusive, contributing to revitalizing the interaction between extension services and farmers. However, ICT is but one element in the wider transformation toward improved reach of extension services. As a supporting tool, it can only achieve widespread support if used by an organized extension system and can neither do without nor replace face-to-face interaction between farmers and extension agents. As shown in Figure 2, LMI countries are falling behind HI countries in the use of ICT tools, but are also significantly behind in qualification of extension staff. Support to enhance extension systems in LMI countries should therefore be broader than the introduction of ICTs, a task that will be difficult to advance in the medium term given the need of investment in infrastructure for ICT and the limited supply of skilled staff in these countries.Source: Elaborated by authors using data from Davis and Franzel (2018). DEA is a mathematical programming approach originally developed to evaluate the individual efficiency or performance of a decision-making unit (DMU) 1 that operates in a certain application domain such as agriculture, energy, transportation, health care, education, the banking industry and many others. DEA has been widely used to identify sources of inefficiency, rank DMUs, evaluate management, evaluate the effectiveness of programs or policies, and to create a quantitative basis for reallocating resources, just to name some of the most frequent applications of this approach (Liu et al., 2013). At present, the use of DEA is not restricted to measuring operational performance of organizations but has moved beyond the analysis of efficiency to look at environmental and social performance of various enterprises, like assessments of the effectiveness of policies controlling CO2 emissions; estimating energy saving and undesirable output abatement across countries; supervising methods in management and evaluation; and future planning (Shabanpour et al., 2017).The GP-DEA model presented here was proposed by Stewart (2010), who extended the standard DEA model to include longer-term management goals. The model uses a goal-programming structure to find a solution that balances the efficient use of innovation investments and the achievement of policy goals. These characteristics make this approach well suited for the analysis of the SDGs committed in 2015 by leaders of all countries to \"eradicate extreme poverty and hunger for all people everywhere\".Given the wide variety of DEA applications and the fact that the best-known applications of this method were used to assess historical efficiency of DMUs as part of monitoring and control, it is important to clarify up front how the approach used here differs from traditional DEA applications. First, DEA is not a foresight model to make projections based on economic theory, nor a model that needs to be calibrated to historical data and that can be evaluated based on its accuracy in \"predicting\" historical events. Instead, it is a powerful method for comparing and analyzing data.Second, the use of GP-DEA regarding the SDGs is essentially prospective and relates to planning. It is not about how countries performed in the past, but rather about where countries want to be, specifying benchmarks for SDGs to define future attainable goals toward which countries should aspire given where they are at present (Stewart, 2010).Third, the model allows the setting of policy targets (levels of poverty and undernourishment) and solves to get as close as possible to those targets (the SDG targets) given investments and structural constraints. GP-DEA works by comparing poverty and undernourishment levels across countries, relates those levels with the resources that each country allocated to reduce poverty and undernourishment, and then finds which countries have achieved the best results in terms of poverty and malnutrition alleviation given the quantity of resources allocated to this goal. These countries constitute the best-practice frontier in the use of investment for poverty and malnutrition alleviation and can be used as reference or benchmarking countries to analyze performance of countries that are not at the best practice frontier.Fourth, DEA models include the usual outputs and controlled inputs. These are inputs controlled by the policymaker over which policy decisions are made (for example, level of investments allocated to the achievement of SDGs; allocation of investment across R&D and non-R&D innovation, extension, etc.). However, there are some variables that directly affect the results of investment (poverty and undernourishment reduction) that are not controlled by policymakers or that are part of longer-term policy plans not directly related to the achievement of the SDGs. That is the case, for example, with structural variables like the share of agriculture in gross domestic product (GDP) and in total employment, urbanization, extent and quality of physical infrastructure (roads, railways, ports, airports), average income, quality of political institutions, and human capital. Non-controllable variables are introduced in the GP-DEA model as constraints that reshape the relationship between outputs and controllable inputs. When introducing non-controllable inputs, the benchmark point for a country obtained with the GP-DEA model is selected among countries with controllable input/output that cannot be improved with the actual levels of non-controllable inputs. For example, introducing income per capita as a non-controllable input forces the model to compare the country of interest to countries at the frontier with the same or smaller income per capita as the country being evaluated.Finally, the model provides three major results for each country: a) it determines if the country can or cannot achieve the policy target, given investments and non-controllable variables; b) it gives the minimum level of poverty and undernourishment a country can reach, given investments and noncontrollable variables; and c) it estimates the efficient level of investment toward achieving the policy goals if the country falls short of the target. This could be the case because non-controllable or fixed variables become more constraining than the levels of investment in R&D, which means that increasing investment would not affect poverty and undernourishment unless the levels of noncontrollable variables are modified. If that is the case, the model defines the levels of investment that minimizes the gap between policy targets and the achievable levels of poverty and undernourishment, given fixed levels of other variables. Based on the three major results obtained from the model we define the following concepts:• Efficiency is achieved by a DMU when the maximum possible output is obtained from a set of inputs. A DMU is inefficient if the same or greater output could be produced with less input. Maximum output refers here to the maximum output that can be produced with the available technology, while the term \"efficiency\" refers to the relationship between the amounts invested in R&D and non-R&D innovation and the levels of poverty and undernourishment achieved. • Effectiveness addresses how well a DMU can meet its predetermined goals, and it is defined as the ratio of the observed output to the predetermined goal. In this study, the goals are the levels of poverty and undernourishment to be achieved as defined in the SDGs, while the output is the level of these two indicators reached by countries. • Attainable level of output is defined as the maximum level of output a DMU can achieve given its levels of investment (other things being equal). By comparing outputs and investment from all countries, GP-DEA can determine the \"efficient\" level of investment needed to achieve different levels of output.Using the proposed GP-DEA approach, we look at the performance of 69 LMI countries committed to minimizing poverty and undernourishment by investing in public agricultural R&D and non-R&D innovations. In this context, policymakers in each country decide on how much to invest in public agricultural R&D and non-R&D innovations to reduce poverty and undernourishment. The level of poverty and undernourishment obtained as the result of this investment is the policy output. The level of this output does not depend uniquely on the investment made by policymakers as discussed above but is also subject to non-controllable factors that are assumed to be fixed. These constraints can only be changed in the long term by some form of investment and/or policy changes.The focus of the analysis is not on the levels of R&D and non-R&D innovations needed to achieve the SDG targets on poverty and undernourishment, but on the contribution of financial and extension services to achieving those targets, given the observed level of investment in innovations at the country level.Outputs, investments controlled by policymakers, and structural constraints considered are presented in what follows. All variables used are averages for the period 2000-2018. For some variables, information for that period is only partially available, but in those cases, we also use an average of the available values for the period. The extension data is the most limited, as it is the result of the assessment of the status of agricultural extension and advisory services worldwide for the period 2009-2013.• Poverty headcount (PHC: percentage of people earning less than USD 1.90/day, dollars of 2011). • Prevalence of undernourishment (PoU: percentage of the population whose food intake is insufficient to meet dietary energy requirements continuously).The best-practice frontier, the distance of non-frontier countries to the frontier, and the effectiveness in the use of investments are calculated by comparing countries' outputs and controllable investments:• Public agricultural R&D • Spending in non-R&D innovations.These determine the \"environment\" affecting potential performance of controllable investments in each country, and include indicators of economic structure, policy, infrastructure and private investment. They enter the GP-DEA model playing a different role than the controllable investments. Policy outputs are not directly compared to non-controllable inputs. The role of these inputs is to control for structural differences between countries, constraining the model to compare countries only against those with similar values. For example, including GDP per capita as a non-controllable variable implies that a country with an average income of USD 3,000 could only be compared to countries with an average income of USD 3,000 or less. In this way, constraints imposed by noncontrollable variables define the subset of countries to which a country is compared, making sure that comparisons are conducted between \"similar\" countries. The selection of these variables is central to the analysis, as it could determine the size of the response of poverty and undernourishment to changes in extension and financial services. If the model does not include some of the structural variables that determine the level of extension and financial services a country can achieve, the model would tend to overestimate the impact of increasing access to these services. This is because part of the response would be the result of a flawed comparison between countries at different levels of development (higher level of non-controllable variables), assuming increases in the short run that can only be achieved through structural changes.The description of the nine non-controllable variables used for the analysis follows. Detailed information on the sources and methods used to construct these variables can be found in the Annexes.• Economic development and economic structure: i) GDP per capita; and ii) index of economic structure, including information on the importance of agriculture on GDP and employment in a country's economy. • Infrastructure: iii) index of quality of infrastructure summarizing information on the quality of roads, railways, ports, airports and electric generation and ICT development. • Political institutions: iv) index of quality of political institutions, including information on voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption. • Human capital, health and basic education: v) average years of schooling; vi) index on health and basic education, including information on the incidence of disease (HIV prevalence, incidence of malaria and tuberculosis, infant mortality, life expectancy) and the quality of basic education at the country level. • Innovation capacity: vii) enrolment in tertiary education as a structural factor constraining the supply of researchers; and viii) index of innovation, including information on R&D investment at the country level, collaboration of business and universities for innovation, and sophistication of demand. • Private R&D investment and knowledge spill-ins: ix) other R&D investment including information on private R&D investments, knowledge spill-ins from private and public investment in other countries, and spill-ins from CGIAR investment.As the focus of the analysis, these services are treated differently in the two scenarios defined below to measure the impact on policy outputs of further extending the reach of each.• Financial services (inputs): i) percentage of the rural population aged 15 or older that borrowed to start, operate or expand a farm or business; ii) percentage of the rural population aged 15 or older that used a mobile phone or the internet to access an account • Extension services: iii) number of extension staff (in full-time equivalents).The variables representing access to financial and extension services were selected by looking at the relationship between all available financial and extension variables and structural variables like income per capita and financial development. Those variables showing high and positive correlation with non-controllable variables were discarded assuming that they can only change in the long run as the result of a country's economic transformation. As the selected variables show low correlations with income per capita and financial development, it is assumed that countries can change the level of those variables in the short and medium run to complement investments in innovations. Within this framework, the question to be answered using the GP-DEA model is: What is the contribution of increased access to credit, to financial accounts through ICT, and of expanding extension services (number of extensionists) to poverty and undernourishment reduction in LMI, given actual investments in innovation and structural characteristics of the countries? To answer this question, the model is solved separately for the 69 countries setting a policy target of 95% of the total population above the poverty and undernourishment lines in four scenarios.Scenario 1: This scenario uses the percentage of poor and undernourished people as policy outputs to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of public R&D and non-R&D investment in the country to achieve policy goals. In this scenario, structural constraints and financial and extension services are treated as non-controllable variables, and the effectiveness of public investment in innovation is obtained by comparing countries with similar structural characteristics and similar development of financial and extension services.Scenario 2: As in Scenario 1, Scenario 2 evaluates the effectiveness of the use of public R&D and non-R&D investment at the country level to achieve policy goals. The only difference from Scenario 1 is that here countries are given more flexibility to achieve policy goals, as the model defines the level of financial and extension variables the countries need to achieve to maximize the impact of public investment in innovation on policy outputs given structural variables. This means that the model increases the observed levels of these variables to the point where no more improvements in policy outputs are obtained because other variables become more constraining than financial and extension variables. The description of the model in Annex 3 includes an explanation of how increased values of extension and financial services are determined in the model.While Scenario 2 simulates the increase of financial and extension services simultaneously, Scenario 3 focuses on the effect on poverty and undernourishment of an increase in financial services only, while Scenario 4 looks at the impact of increasing the number of extensionists with no changes in financial services.Results of the GP-DEA model setting a policy goal of 5% of the PHC and PoU for every country are shown in Figure 3. The model solves finding the closest value to the 5% goal of PHC and PoU for each country. Results indicate that the lowest average attainable PHC for the sample of 69 countries was 25%, while the lowest average attainable PoU was 15%. The figure also shows that the gap between observed (31%) and attainable (25%) PHC levels is 6 percentage points compared to 3 points in the case of PoU (18% and 15% respectively). This means that, on average, countries are investing enough in public innovation to reach 25% and 15% of PHC and PoU, respectively. The comparison between the number of poor and undernourished people in LMI countries (Figure 4) shows that closing the gap between observed and attainable levels of PHC and PoU could result in 100 million fewer poor people living in extreme poverty (518 million instead of 618 million) and 98 million fewer undernourished people (463 million instead of 560 million people).There are two relevant comparisons to be made from these results that have different implications. One is the difference between the attainable level of PHC and PoU in each country and the policy target of 5%. The second comparison is between the observed level of PHC and PoU and the attainable level of these indicators. Whereas the differences between the 5% desirable goal and the attainable PHC and PoU goals are mostly the result of structural differences between countries, the differences between attainable goals and observed PHC and PoU in each country are the result of ineffective use of public innovation investment. Even though countries with attainable goals higher than 5% cannot achieve the 5% policy goal, they could further reduce PHC and PoU if they can improve their performance and move closer to the PHC and PoU values of their peers or reference countries in the best-practice frontier, closing the gap between attainable and observed values.These results show how GP-DEA could be used to define policy targets that are attainable and represent best practices. Results could also be used to determine policy changes needed by countries to close the gap between attainable and observed values of PHC and PoU given investments in innovation. Even though this is a relevant policy issue in the context of achieving the SDGs, it is beyond the scope of this study. Instead, we turn to the analysis of the impact of enhanced access to financial and extension services on the achievement of policy goals.Source: Elaborated by authors.Source: Elaborated by authors.The impact of improved access to financial and extension services is shown in Figure 5. Expanding extension services has no impact on poverty as it only reduces the average attainable poverty level in LMI countries from 518 to 512 million -only 6 million fewer people living in extreme poverty. On the other hand, enhanced access to financial services has a much larger impact on poverty than increasing spending in extension, as it reduces the attainable poverty level in LMI countries by 20 million. Simultaneously increasing access to financial and extension services reduces the attainable level of poverty by 30 million -from 518 to 488 million people.Reductions of the attainable level of PoU are also significant only when the number of extensionists and access to financial services are increased simultaneously, going from 18% with observed access Our results so far show that improved access to financial and extension services could contribute to poverty and undernourishment alleviation, improving the effectiveness of investments in innovation. However, as only two among several factors affecting poverty and undernourishment, these services are not determinant of the achievement of poverty and undernourishment goals and can only contribute significantly to SDGs if they can effectively complement investments in innovation and structural economic changes in LMI economies. In a study on the impact of financial inclusion in LMI countries, Duvendack and Mader (2019) come to a similar conclusion when they state that:From this review, the (perhaps boring) truth that seems to emerge about financial inclusion is that it is not changing the world. On average, financial services may not even have a meaningful net positive effect on poor or low-income users, although some services have some positive effects for some people. Considering that for most people financial inclusion … will be only one among many possible determinants of their life chances and their socio-economic well-being…. Note: The attainable level of the poverty headcount and of the prevalence of undernourishment is the level of these indicators a country can achieve given its actual investment in public innovation (and non-controllable variables). Increased access to financial and extension services is determined by the DEA model so as to minimize poverty and undernourishment given R&D and non-R&D investment and structural constraints.Which are the major factors within extension and financial services explaining the different outcomes in Figure 5? Table 1 compares 2018 levels of financial and extension indicators to values of the same variables under increased access to services. The table shows that increases in the number of extensionists (16.2%) and in the proportion of the population that borrowed to start or operate a farm or business (12.8%) are the main drivers of the reduction in attainable levels of extreme poverty and undernourishment in LMI countries. On the other hand, the proportion of rural population that used a mobile phone or the internet to access an account remained almost unchanged, decreasing from 12.6% to 12.3%, which means that increasing access to accounts through ICT has no effect on poverty and undernourishment. Finally, we look at the sensitivity of the results, assuming that results are mostly dependent on the selection of non-controllable variables for the model. As mentioned before, missing structural variables in the model could result, in most cases, in an overestimation of the effect of increasing access to financial and extension services. This is because part of that effect would be the result of structural changes wrongly attributed to financial and extension services when comparing countries with different characteristics. To check the effect of missing variables in our results we run Scenario 2 nine times, each time dropping one of the nine non-controllable variables. The results of these simulations compared to the original results for Scenario 2 are shown in Table 2. We focus on the attainable levels of poverty and undernourishment in each scenario. The effect of missing variables varies significantly with the different variables. For example, when dropping enrolment in tertiary education, increased access to financial and extension services reduces poverty by an extra 45 million people and undernourishment by 30 million. In contrast, not including one of the variables of infrastructure, innovation capacity, quality of institutions or years of schooling would result in a very small difference from the results obtained in Scenario 2 in both poverty and undernourishment. The fact that not all non-controllable variables affect poverty and undernourishment in the same way, however, makes it difficult to reduce the number of these variables in the model. Quality of political institutions and years of schooling seem to have a significant effect on results for undernourishment while having a smaller effect on poverty. The opposite seems to be true for health and basic education and GDP per capita. However, when dropping infrastructure, economic structure and innovation variables from the model we obtain similar results from those obtained with the original model, as shown in the last row of Table 2. Increasing investment and spending in innovation is not enough to meet SDG targets without considerable improvement of institutions, services and policy tools to ensure that additional investment is effectively turned into improved outcomes. As an important part of a nation's common innovation infrastructure, financial and extension services are major \"enablers\" of investments, favorably contributing to national innovative capacity. At present, a wide variety of ICT tools and innovations in financial and extension services offer new ways of expanding the inclusion of the financially excluded into the financial system and could contribute to revitalize the interaction between extension services and farmers, making services more demand-driven, up-to-date and inclusive. In this context, this study looks at the potential contribution of financial and extension services to the SDGs as enhancers of the impact of public investment in innovation. The approach used extends the standard DEA model to include longer-term management goals and find a solution that balances the efficient use of innovation investments and the achievement of policy goals, making this approach well suited to the analysis of the SDGs. The model is solved for 69 LMI countries, setting as policy target the reduction of the PHC and PoU to 5% or less to obtain the minimum level of poverty and undernourishment that a country can achieve, given public and private levels of investment in innovation and fixed or structural variables. Results of the impact of increased access to financial and extension services are obtained from a scenario where the model determines the levels of financial and extension services that maximize achievement of policy goals.Results show that given observed investment, LMI countries could reduce the number of people living in extreme poverty from 618 million observed in recent years to 518 million, while the number of undernourished people could be reduced from 560 to 463 million, without increasing investment in innovation -only increasing the effectiveness with which this investment is used.To enhance the impact of investment in innovation on the reduction of poverty and malnutrition, countries could increase investment in extension and financial services that facilitate producers' access to those innovations. Results of a scenario simulating improved access to these services without changing levels of innovation investment in agriculture show that improved access to both financial and extension services would bring attainable poverty levels from 518 to 488 million (a reduction of 30 million poor people) and undernourishment levels from 463 to 428 million (35 million fewer undernourished people). This is achieved by increasing the number of extensionists in LMI countries by 16% and access to credit in rural areas by 12%. We conclude that improved access to financial and extension services could contribute to poverty and undernourishment alleviation, improving the effectiveness of investments in innovation. However, as only two among several factors affecting poverty and undernourishment, these services are not determinant to the achievement of poverty and undernourishment goals; their impact is limited and can only contribute to SDGs if they can effectively complement investments in innovation and structural changes in LMI economies. The information for the Infrastructure Index used in the analysis was extracted from the Global Competitiveness Index developed by Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Elsa V. Artadi (World Bank, 2021). The index is built as a weighted average of many different components, each measuring a different aspect of competitiveness. The components are grouped into 12 categories, the pillars of competitiveness: 1) institutions; 2) infrastructure; 3) macroeconomic environment; 4) health and primary education; 5) higher education and training; 6) goods market efficiency; 7) labor market efficiency; 8) financial market development; 9) technological readiness; 10) market size; 11) business sophistication; and 12) innovation.The Global Competitiveness Index is the tool used by the World Economic Forum in its Global Competitiveness Report to assesses the competitiveness landscape of 137 economies. Data and methodology are available at http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-index-2017-2018/.• Usage: The indicators included in this group capture ICT intensity and usage.• Skills: Data on mean years of schooling and gross secondary and tertiary enrolment ratios from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics.Available data is normalized and rescaled to identical ranges, from 1 to 10. We rescaled the index to run from 0 to 1. Information on the index and data is available at https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2017/methodology.aspx.Data from Worldwide Governance Indicators (Kaufmann et al., 2021) was used to build the index of quality of political institutions. WGI reports aggregate and individual governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories over the period 1996-2020, for six dimensions of governance:• Voice and accountability: Captures perceptions of the extent to which a country's citizens can participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of association and a free media. • Political stability and absence of violence/terrorism: Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically motivated violence, including terrorism. • Government effectiveness: Captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. • Regulatory quality: Captures perceptions of the ability of the government to formulate and implement sound policies and regulations that permit and promote private sector development.• Rule of Law: Captures perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. • Control of corruption: Captures perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as \"capture\" of the state by elites and private interests.Each of the six aggregate WGI measures are constructed by averaging together data from the underlying sources that correspond to the concept of governance being measured. PCA of the six indicators included in the WGI dataset for 212 countries is used to summarize the information of the six variables into a synthetic measure of quality of political institutions.Results of the PCA are presented in Table A2.2. The first component captures 86% of the total variation of the six indicators, so we used this first component as the index of quality of institutions, where indicators are added using the coefficients of the first eigenvector (Comp1) in the second part of Table A2.1. build this indicator is from ASTI (2021), while private investment data was built by authors based on Fuglie (2016).The information on R&D for this indicator and for public R&D and non-R&D investment in innovations was not used as such, but used first to build knowledge stocks to capture the lagged effect of research investment. This is because investment in a given period does not influence productivity, poverty or undernourishment in the same period; it takes time for this investment to have an effect. Once there is an effect, this same investment will continue affecting productivity or other related variables for several years to come. To capture this effect of investments in innovation we used the perpetual inventory method to calculate the level of capital built by investments from previous periods. This method is simple and uses only three parameters to define knowledge stocks based on past investments: a depreciation or decay rate of knowledge; a gestation period, or the number of years that takes to an investment to fully contribute to knowledge stock; and a parameter B that models the trajectory of the contribution of investment to the knowledge stock during the gestation period. A detailed discussion of the use of the perpetual inventory method to build knowledge stocks can be found in Nin-Pratt and Magalhaes (2016).which means that the model solves to minimize the distance between the attainable (optimal) level of output and the policy goal without consideration of the efficient allocation of output. When α=0, the model only considers efficiency, disregarding the policy goal. Values of α between 0 and 1 result in different ponderations of the importance of efficiency and goals.\uD835\uDEFF\uD835\uDC5C \uD835\uDC5A , \uD835\uDF11 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5B = slack variables for outputs and inputs, capturing the difference between the benchmark values of y and x and the observed value of \uD835\uDC65 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5B (A3) and the value of \uD835\uDEFC\uD835\uDC47 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5A + (1 − \uD835\uDEFC)\uD835\uDC66 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5A in (A4)\uD835\uDC64 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5A , \uD835\uDC62 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5B = subjective weights defining the importance given to different outputs and inputs. This means that the model allows for different results depending on the preferences or goals of the analyst. For example, a value of \uD835\uDC64 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5A = 1 for both outputs means that we are giving the same importance to achieving the target levels of poverty and undernourishment. Say that we are trying to achieve both policy goals, but the priority was given to poverty alleviation as two-thirds of investments in innovation target the achievement of this goal while the remaining one-third of investments was allocated to the reduction of undernourishment. Then we would want to evaluate the results based on our preferences. In this case we can give different weights to poverty and undernourishment (for example 0.66 to poverty and 0.33 to undernourishment) in the objective to evaluate results based on our preferences. For this study we used values of \uD835\uDC64 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5A = 1, so the same importance was given to the reduction of poverty and undernourishment.Notice, as mentioned above, that all right hand side variables in equations (A1) \uD835\uDC67 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5F , (A2) \uD835\uDC65 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5B and (A3) \uD835\uDC66 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5A are actual values of the non-controllable variables, inputs (investments in innovations) and outputs (observed poverty and undernourishment), respectively in country \"o\", the country being compared with all countries (\"c\"). This is the model solved in Scenario 1. For Scenarios 2, 3 and 4, the model is modified as follows. First, equation (A2) is split into two equations:∑ \uD835\uDF06 \uD835\uDC50 \uD835\uDC50 \uD835\uDC67 \uD835\uDC50,\uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC65 ≤ \uD835\uDC67 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC65 (A2.1) ∑ \uD835\uDF06 \uD835\uDC50 \uD835\uDC50 \uD835\uDC67 \uD835\uDC50,\uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC65 ≤ \uD835\uDC63 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC65 (A2.2) Equation (A2.1) is equivalent to equation (A.2), but in this case, it includes only the non-controllable variables (represented by the set \"fix\") and does not include the financial and the extension variables. These are included in (A2.2) where \"finex\" is the set of financial and extension variables and where v on the right hand side is unknown and results from the solution of the model. v is the level of financial and extension services that maximizes the objective.Notice that equation (A2) in the original problem is the equation that forces comparisons of country \"o\" with \"similar\" countries. Say that r=GDP per capita, \uD835\uDC67 \uD835\uDC5C,\uD835\uDC5F is GDP per capita of \"o\" and \uD835\uDC67 \uD835\uDC50,\uD835\uDC5F is GDP per capita of country \"c\". Then the value of \uD835\uDF06 \uD835\uDC50 obtained from the solution of the problem (the same in all equations) needs to be such that complies with the inequality in (A2), that is, comparisons for \"o\" are done with countries in \"c\" with GDP per capita equal or smaller than that of \"o\".The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification (CoSAI) brings together 21 Commissioners to influence public and private support to innovation in order to rapidly scale up sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) in the Global South.For CoSAI, innovation means the development and uptake of new ways of doing things -in policy, social institutions and finance, as well as in science and technology.Contact us: wle-cosaisecretariat@cgiar.org wle.cgiar.org/cosai","tokenCount":"7903"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6c4eaa51c321d5b72090649c91437524","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cb22e311-5510-4c14-8a22-02fa8039d629/retrieve","id":"1338094452"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"60570c4a-1bf6-4ed0-8621-9ebd2a4f5c14","pagecount":"7","content":"El mtrógeno es uno de 10b nutnentes más rcqucndos por el -,r ro? y por mucho tlCmpo los técmcos en este CUltivo han hecho Varl'lS pruebas de fertlllzaclón con mtrógeno en todos los ,n,{ses de ,\\menca La~ hna Los estudios de fertIlización so han hocho el :lrrOz de secano y de rwgo Los lesultaclos de un gran numelO do est?s prue'jas h\".n md,cado que los suelos no respo\"lden bIen d mtrógeno o que l~ apltcaclón :'t.-,-'$-, --\"\"'''''''':'';,' de mucho mtrógeno ha aumentado muy poco 1\" producciónDur-,nte 1;:. etapa de NZ (Nltró[,eno 8119(050), un\", ¡¡n'n p\"rte ele éste se perd,ó por la volatlhzac1ónEn 12 Flgura 2 6e r0prcscn~a 1\"\\ tphc,-\"clón de. 111trog0rlO en arroz de BeC11no El mtróGeno. no lmrort2 51 es en f01IT <' ele ~momo o de nitrato • todo será convertIdo \" 1\" forln, Je mtratos L\" convcrslOn ocurre con rap,dez  .-125-En 1\", práctlc'l hay d0S f~ctores en el mc.neJo del ':l[lU0. que afectan la efiClenCI0. de la utülzacIón del nItrógeno, estos son 1 El herrpo requerido par<l la ¡nundaclón ,lespués de la ferhhzaclón COn nltrógeno 2 El nitrógeno perdIdo entre la fertIlIzaCIón y el drenaje Durante los úlhmos dos afios estos factores fueron e9tuchado~ en l?, Ílnca del CIA T En el prImer experlInento se estudIÓ el ttempo requerIdo para Inundar después de 10. fertlhzaCIón Se emple<lron las dOSIS de 0,100 y 200 ka/ha de N que se ,phcaron en suelo .. ~ cuan10 el <'rroz tenía 25-30 días de, edad y los tratamIentos de inUndaCIón usados fueron 1) O (el mIsmo día)2) 3 días después de la fcrl1hzacIón3) (, días después de la fertlhzaClón 4) 9 días después de la fertuIzacIón Los result?dos mdIC-lron que SIn mtrógeno, la producción fué 5 500-S 700 kg/ha Esta produCCIón representa el nItrógeno sumInIstrado -prlOclpclmcnte por el sudo El mejor tratamIento fué 100 kg N inundado el mIsmO día y prodUjO cerCa de 7 000 kg CU'lndo le. InundaCIónfué demorada 3, 6 Y 9 días, el aumento en 1\", prodUCCIón fué muy poco tndIéando la pérdIda de la gran mayoría del mtrógeno ( ","tokenCount":"343"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"18047a6fc88e4ead1c27783e930925dd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/91b84279-f00c-46fc-b673-b87771e44daa/retrieve","id":"307901232"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a13c4388-3464-4968-99fd-8fef1eec4b16","pagecount":"24","content":"The linkage between conservation and use is embedded in both the Convention on Biological Diversity and the FAO Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The Convention identifies the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and the sharing of benefits from use as its central objectives. The improved utilization of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) is one of the four major thematic areas of FAO the Global Plan of Action.While the importance of using genetic resources is fully recognized, there is also a continuing concern that in many ways PGR are under-used. The FAO State of the World Report, 1996 listed 20 or so different bottlenecks to use which were identified in the country reports. Over the past 20 years, many eminent scientists and others concerned with PGR, have also expressed their concern about the poor use of material stored in ex situ collections.However, if we have to improve the use of PGR, there needs to be some substantial reconsideration of what constitutes use and a much better knowledge of the current patterns of use and problems encountered in improving the use. Some aspects of these concerns are illustrated below:The information, opinions and designations in the Newsletter are not necessarily those of IPGRIThe IPGRI Homepage on the World Wide Web of Internet:Much of the genetic diversity of the world crops is still maintained in farmers' fields, orchards, pasture lands and forests. For many useful plant species and for many crops, conservation through use in productive agro-ecosystems by farmers and communities will continue to be the most important conservation method in terms of the amount of genetic diversity maintained over time. This is so, firstly, because farmers will continue to need the diversity in their production systems. Secondly, sufficient ex situ facilities will probably be never available to maintain many useful tropical fruits, minor vegetables, forage species, medicinal plants and other useful species.In recent years, the importance of the continuing maintenance and use by farmers of their own local cultivars of both major and minor crops has been fully recognized by the conservation community and on-farm conservation has become a part of the conservation agenda. At present, this work often focuses on major crops. However, in the longer term, conservation through use is likely to be even more important for minor crops, perennial species and for species which are under-represented in ex situ collections because of the difficulties associated with their conservation.September-December 1999The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), formerly IBPGR, is one of the 16 Centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) with its Headquarters at Rome. IPGRI's mission is to encourage, support and engage in activities to strengthen the conservation and use of plant genetic resources world-wide with special emphasis on the needs of developing countries. IPGRI works in partnership with other organizations, undertakes research and training, and provides scientific and technical advice and information. IPGRI operates in five geographical areas: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the Americas, Europe, Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA), and Asia, the Pacific and Oceania (APO). APO Regional Office is based in Serdang, Malaysia with offices for East Asia and South Asia located in Beijing, China and New Delhi, India, respectively.The APO Newsletter is produced thrice a year and is mainly aimed at promoting the overall concern on plant genetic resources, with emphasis on their conservation and use. [Contd. on page 4] NEWSLETTER FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIAIn contrast to conservation through use, conservation for use describes the maintenance of ex situ collections in ways that support the supply of material to different users. This is the conventional responsibility and concern of many genebank managers who constitute IPGRI's primary collaborators and the supporters of the global conservation effort. Increasingly, the value of these collections is being judged in terms of the \"use\" that is made of them. Their ability to obtain resources depends on demonstrating that the collections have been used to improve production in some way.Use of accessions from ex situ collections can take many different forms, some of which are often ignored or overlooked. It could be argued that use of accessions includes any activity that adds value to an accession, contributes to our agricultural knowledge or contributes to improved production. Thus, use can take many forms and meet many objectives from complex breeding programmes for cultivar improvement to direct use or for carrying out detailed studies of metabolism and gene control. A few brief points can be made on the three different aspects of use.Work that adds value to an accession includes characterization and evaluation. While a number of commentators have argued that these activities do not really constitute use, there are good reasons for emphasizing their importance for improved use and their value in improving both knowledge and productivity. Firstly, in order to identify accessions with desirable characters (disease resistance, stress tolerance, etc.), it is usually necessary to screen a large number of accessions, many of which will turn out not to have the desired traits. All the accessions have, in fact, been used and the ability to provide the right accession to plant breeders depends on having all the accessions available and evaluating and characterizing them properly. Secondly, plant breeding programmes always have a rather limited capacity to include new material in the crossing plans. The amount varies from crop to crop and programme to programme but, typically, it is unlikely to be more than a few accessions per year. Improving use, depends not on increasing the number of accessions provided to breeding programmes but on improving the usefulness of the material provided i.e. on being able to provide material with that has already been characterized and screened for known, desirable characteristics.The contribution made by PGR to improved agricultural knowledge has been rather overlooked. At IPGRI, we have just completed a survey of the use of PGR based on research reports in four international journals (Crop Science, Plant Breeding, Euphytica and Theoretical and Applied Genetics). Over 20% of the 800 articles published in these journals in 1996 used PGR that came from ex situ collections or directly from field collecting. These genetic resources were used to investigate key aspects of crop performance, of genetic control of important traits (yield, disease resistance, stress tolerance etc.) and of exploring different ways of improving production. It would be valuable to extend this work to cover a wider range of nationally important agricultural journals which are also likely to include work where genetic resources from an ex situ collection have provided the necessary material to improve crop production.Plant breeders have always been considered to be the primary users of crop genetic resources. Meeting their continuing need for additional diversity, for new traits and for new combinations of traits has been a central concern of many genebanks. It is important to recognize that the number of accessions that breeders can use will often be very small. Indeed, plant breeders often report that their preferred genebank is one that can provide a small number of well characterized accessions that avoids the need for large trials to determine accessions that should enter a crossing programme. If information on accessions is limited, breeders may well limit their use of new materials because of the extra labour involved. However, there is a continuing and increasing use of genetic resources in the major breeding programmes of many countries and of many international programmes. For example, wheat lines released by CIMMYT today have over 50 landraces in their pedigrees, while those released 25 years ago had only 5-10 landraces.While recognizing that there are many different forms of use that are often undervalued, it also has to be accepted that the information we have on the extent of PGR use is quite inadequate. This may reflect an incomplete knowledge of the amount of material sent out from genebanks, the destination of the material and the use that is made of it. However, it may often happen that while this data exists, it has never been collated or analysed. Many genebanks which keep records of the material despatched and of its destination, have not had the time or resources to analyse this data to identify key uses and users and, more importantly, the key gaps or bottlenecks to use. It must now be a priority to work firstly to understand patterns of distribution, and then to follow up with users to determine the ways in which the material has been used. This will provide the information needed to identify ways in which distribution and use could be improved. Such work will be of direct benefit to all involved in conservation. It will provide direct factual evidence on the utility of genebanks, on how to improve use and clear evidence on impact. This can be shared with policy makers and national planners who need to be convinced of the value of conserving PGR [Dr Toby Hodgkin, Principal Scientist, Genetic Diversity, Genetic Research Science and Technology Group (GRST), IPGRI-HQ, Rome, Italy].For the first time, IPGRI hosted its Forest Genetic Resources (FGR) programme meeting at its Headquarters in Rome from 22-29 September 1999. In view of the relatively rapid growth of the FGR programme which started in 1993, it was felt important to convene a meeting to bring together all regional and Headquarters FGR staff in order to: Ways of integrating proposals examined and strengthening interregional linkages determined.The meeting was highly successful in fulfilling its objectives and achieving its outputs to the extent that participants felt the need to organize such events on an annual basis in future. The details on various aspects are given below:Several conventions and recommendations at the global level are legally binding at national level and have implications for FGR management. It was recommended that IPGRI's FGR programme should identify crucial FGRspecific policy and legal aspects which need to be taken into account in developing national plans, and in forthcoming international conventions. The FGR programme should encourage partners to integrate FGR issues in their national programmes and provide information and advice to countries as they formulate their policies. The scope for regional activities on FGR policy aspects needs to be further explored.Specific locations for consolidation of thematic activities were chosen in each region, for instance in the APO, the thematic focus will be on:i) The impact of logging and extraction of non-timber forest products and valuable tree species in the Western Ghats (India),ii) Locating genetic diversity in mainland Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam),iii) Assessing genetic erosion in the Pacific, and iv) Conservation and sustainable use of bamboo and rattan genetic resources in the varied INBAR locations.The enhanced cooperation between the HQ FGR project (Global FGR strategies) and the FGR research activities carried out in the regions was highly recommended. Regional activities and global strategies need to be better integrated into a logical framework structure to avoid duplication and to improve collaboration according to the principle of subsidiarity.The participants to the meeting, as well as representatives from ICRAF, CIFOR and SGRP expressed the need for an adequate information system on FGR at system-wide level. The following agenda for action was proposed and agreed upon:i) An inventory of information available under all electronic and nonelectronic forms including databases, newsletters, publications, research projects, etc. in the CG centres needs to be developed. This would help identify areas of potential collaboration and complementarity between them. This work should lead to the development of a common IPGRI-CGIAR Webpage on FGR.ii) The common denominators/ standards need to be developed to pool and share information and ensure compatibility of the information systems. Standardization is needed at the level of tree species (taxonomy/ nomenclature), countries and regions, as well as ecosystems. CG standards for taxonomy and country codes are being set under SINGER.iii) Networks are considered as an important tool for promoting awareness and action on plant genetic resources. ANSWER: This is the Asian Network for Sweet Potato Genetic Resources (ANSWER) and its second meeting was held from 3-5 November 1999 at the Regional Office of the International Potato Centre (CIP), Bogor, Indonesia, with financial and technical support from IPGRI. See page 6 for more details.RECSEA-PGR: The Regional Cooperation in Southeast Asia on PGR (RECSEA-PGR), is a sub-regional network. Its second meeting was held in Malaysia from 7-8 September 1999. See page 7 for more details.The collaborators of TaroGen met on 21 October 1999 to review and discuss the progress made, identify additional areas that needed attention and to facilitate linking of each other's activities. This led to better understanding of each other's roles in furthering TaroGen activities. The second TGRC meeting took place on 22 October 1999, at South Pacific Commission (SPC), Suva, Fiji, immediately after a meeting of the subcommittee of Regional Conference of Permanent Heads of Agricultural and Livestock Production Services (PHALPS). The Team Leader reported on collecting and characterization, conservation and improvement, establishment of the Regional Germplasm Centre and in situ conservation study with IPGRI support. QUT/QU (ACIAR project) reported on characterization and diagnostics development of taro viruses; DNA fingerprinting of germplasm and technology transfer. QU/SPC also plan to develop a proposal to study genetic integrity of tissue cultured taro. HortResearch, Auckland reported on taro leaf blight (TLB) testing methods. Other issues discussed included: taro description and rationalization. Specific assistance from IPGRI on developing regional core collection has been sought. Movement of germplasm/virus indexing; plant breeding and pathology workshop; Regional Germplasm Centre; location and date of next meeting, etc. were also discussed [Dr V. Ramanatha Rao, IPGRI-APO, Serdang, Malaysia].  Ten candidates were awarded fellowships for MS PGR course at University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), 4 being funded through the ADB grant to IPGRI and 6 by South East Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA). All the IPGRI and SEARCA scholars will be working on problems related to coconut genetic resources.The MS PGR Dialogue was held at IPGRI-APO, Serdang from 11-13 November 1999, with participants from Philippines (UPLB, SEARCA), Sri Lanka (University of Peradeniya), Nepal (LI-BIRD) and Malaysia (UKM) and IPGRI. Representatives from India could not attend the meeting due to unavoidable circumstances but the paper submitted by them was discussed. MSc degree course on PGR is already being conducted jointly by the Indian Agricultural Rsearch Institute (IARI) and the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi, India and UPLB, Los Baños, Philippines and similar courses will start in Malaysia and Sri Lanka from the year 2000.It is well recognised that very little of the existing knowledge on PGR conservation and utilization is adopted for curriculum development and to apprise the students with theoretical and practical knowledge and application; disseminate the important information to relevant people or conduct further research on different topics. The approach has to be multidisciplinary in conducting courses at the institutions of higher learning.The progress thus far made in different institutions, in the above mentioned countries were discussed. Various constraints and problems were identified and suitable suggestions were outlined to meet the needs. Main topics of national and regional importance were highlighted and needs of various countries to conduct the courses were noted. Both basic and fundamental courses at undergraduate level and major courses for the degree programme were identified and discussed. Suggestions were also made to streamline the contents of courses to fit in with the available time frame of two academic years. Use of the available curricula for short-term training was also discussed [Dr A.N. Rao, IPGRI-APO, Serdang, Malaysia]. The scientists working on vegetables in the South and Southeast Asian regions agree that indigenous vegetables could make a significant contribution to world food production because they are well adapted to adverse environmental conditions and are generally resistant to pests and pathogens. There is also an overall concern about the rapid disappearance of old local varieties and indigenous species.In an attempt to deliberate on this important subject, 30 scientists from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam recently met in a planning workshop on collection, conservation and utilization of indigenous vegetables at the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre (AVRDC), Taiwan from 16-18 August, 1999. Apart from scientists from AVRDC Headquarters, Drs Dharam Pal Singh and Romeo T. Opena, Heads of AVRDC Regional Centres in Bangladesh and Thailand, respectively, also participated in the workshop.Implemented by AVRDC through its Genetic Resources and Services Unit (GRSU) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the three-year project, known as Technical Assistance (TA) 5839, is an answer to the need of exploiting the tremendous potential of indigenous vegetables in enhancing nutrition and diversifying production systems. In his opening remarks during the workshop, Dr Dimyati Nangju, lead agronomist of ADB said that \"ADB approved the Technical Assistance (TA) to AVRDC because it deals with the use of biodiversity and we cannot discount the fact that indigenous vegetables are considered economically important crops in the Asian region\".Dr Liwayway Engle, Head of GRSU and Principal Coordinator of the project said that the decreasing utilization of indigenous vegetables could be attributed to lack of seeds, lack of information about their performance, input requirements and how they fit into production systems. She emphasized that the current project outputs will pave the way for enhancing utilization of indigenous vegetables. She further mentioned that, \"The real challenge is to link conservation with utilization. If indigenous vegetables are to become a part of existing cropping systems, there is a need to develop strategies for their genetic enhancement, and improve on their cultural management.\"In the light of the fact that AVRDC and ADB have had various successful collaborations in the past, Dr Samson C.S. Tsou, Director General of AVRDC said, \"this project hopes to achieve a similar milestone in vegetable research\". \"There are still many vegetable compounds which are health related and are yet to be explored and so we really need to do further studies on indigenous vegetables,\" he said.The Project which commenced in July 1999, is composed of the following components: i) conservation and utilization of genetic resources of indigenous vegetables; ii) human resources strengthening; iii) identification of species which have potential for inclusion in production systems and iv) multiplication of the collected germplasm for exchange and utilization. AVRDC is the executing agency and is responsible for coordinating, monitoring and supervising the activities of the whole project.Each country participant presented a paper focusing on the current status, problems and potentials of the indigenous vegetables. As a counterpart for the country presentations, some AVRDC scientists provided an overview of the Centre's research activities and evaluation in relation to the workshop's objectives. Further, during the workshop, participants deliberated and exchanged ideas on how to fine-tune the details of project implementation. Issues discussed ranged from identifying strategies for systematic collecting and the rules and regulations on bioprospecting, exchange and quarantine [Ronald G. Mangubat, Special Assistant in Communications, Office of the Director General, AVRDC, Taiwan].The second meeting of Asian Network for Sweet Potato Genetic Resources (ANSWER) was held from 3-5 November 1999 at the Regional Office of the International Potato Centre (CIP), Bogor, Indonesia, with financial and technical support from IPGRI. Most ANSWER members participated, except Japan, Republic of Korea and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Seventeen participants attended the meeting. Both Dr Gordon Prain (CIP) and Dr V. Ramanatha Rao (IPGRI) presented the welcome addresses. Dr Michael Hermann from CIP, Lima took the lead to review progress in sweet potato germplasm conservation activities by ANSWER participants. It also took stock of sweet potato holdings in the region and developed plan for inter-genebank database. Efforts were made to identify problems of sweet potato conservation in the ANSWER region. Efforts were also made to develop a plan for a regional sweet potato conservation project with emphasis on coordinated actions and shared resources. This will be further followed up (coordinated by Dr Hermann). Two separate working groups discussed different topics and defined project priorities and outputs. Based on the discussions, initial guidelines on governance and management of ANSWER activities were developed. Dr Algerico Mariscal from the Philippines was elected as the Coordinator. CIP agreed to be the Secretariat of ANSWER and this can lead the way to make the ANSWER network sustainable. IPGRI will continue to provide scientific and technical backstopping to ANSWER and support CIP to make the network sustainable through collaborating in project development, resource identification and by supporting the publication of the proceedings of the second ANSWER meeting [Dr V. Ramanatha Rao, IPGRI-APO, Serdang, Malaysia].The eighth meeting of the Regional Technical Coordination Committee (RTCC) was held from 30 August -1 September 1999 at the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) Programme Office, Lahore, Pakistan. All the members from national systems, international centres and the advanced research centres attended the meeting. Dr R.L. Yadav has been appointed as the new Rice-Wheat Coordinator in India and Dr M. A. Bakr in Bangladesh. The website of the consortium on the internet (http://www.cgiar.org/rwc) has been updated with more information on the research activities, contact information, publications, rice-wheat bibliography, etc. There is increased emphasis that Facilitation Unit has put in place the Management Information System (MIS). The Regional Steering Committee (RSC) has advised the RWC to develop an information and monitoring system for the National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) of ICAR, New Delhi in the initial phase, which could be used as the base by the other three NARS (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal) and also by the Facilitation Unit to develop the regional information system. The Facilitation Unit is supporting the design and development of websites for the NATP of the Indian Council of The third RECSEA-PGR meeting was held in Malaysia from 7-8 September 1999. Members also attended the National Meeting on Tropical Fruits Conservation and Networking in Malaysia on the 9 September 1999. The Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute (MARDI) with assistance from IPGRI-APO as interim secretariat hosted the meeting. Members and technical representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam attended the meeting. The new chairman for RECSEA-PGR is Dr Crisanto Escano from the Philippines (crescano@ultra.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph).IPGRI-APO remains the interim secretariat (ipgri-apo@cgiar.org). The next meeting in 2001 will be held in the Philippines.Dr Percy E. Sajise has joined as the Regional Director, IPGRI Office for Asia, the Pacific and Oceania (APO) with effect from 17 January 2000. He is a citizen of the Philippines. He obtained his MSc and PhD in Plant Ecology from Cornell University and BSc in Agricultural Botany from the University of Los Baños, Philippines. Dr Sajise held notable positions as the Director of SEAMEO SEARCA -Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centres for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture in the Philippines (1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999), Division Head and Development Action Coordinator of the Institute of Environmental Science and Management (IESAM) at the University of the Philippines (1989Philippines ( -1994)), and Director of the Programme on Environmental Science and Management at the University of the Philippines (1978 -1986). He was also the Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, U.P. Los Baños (1984Baños ( -1986) ) and Dean, College of Human Ecology, U.P. at Los Baños (1982)(1983)(1984). Dr Sajise has extensive work experience with exposure at the national and international level.In addition to the above, Dr Sajise is currently the Chairman of the Philippine National Working Group on Biodiversity Research in the Philippines and has been a member of several national and international committees. He serves as Executive Secretary of the Asian Association of Agricultural Colleges and Universities (AAACU) and as Coordinator and Chair of the Southeast Asian Universities Agroecosystem Network (SUAN). He served as Co-Principal Investigator of a project on 'Conditions of Biodiversity Maintenance in Asia' from 1994 to 1999. Dr Sajise is also a Professor at the University of the Philippines, and a member of the CIFOR Board of Trustees.We welcome Dr Sajise to IPGRI-APO.Members exchanged information on conservation of fruit crops in their countries through their technical reports. An invited speaker, Mr Clark Peteru from Samoa, spoke on IPR issues having impact on germplasm and information exchange. The following activities were decided for the next two years for the network: i) increase public awareness of PGR activities; ii) promote technical collaboration for training in PGR work through in-house or regional training by experts from the region; iii) member countries should report the activities in the APO Newsletter; and iv) develop a proposal for indigenous fruits development in the region. Besides these, on-going activities of updating the directory of PGR workers and directory of services within member countries will be carried out. Efforts will also be made to contact all the countries in Southeast Asia to join the network [Dr Paul Quek, IPGRI-APO, Serdang, Malaysia].The attention on publications continued. Studies on genetic diversity assessment in rattan were recently completed at Forest Research Institute, Kuala Lumpur, supported by IPGRI. The objectives of this study were: i) to determine genetic variation among seeds, seedlings and mature plants (male and female) of three rattan species, and ii) to examine the relationship between multi-and single locus estimates of genetic diversity parameters with seedling growth traits. Conservation measures require an understanding of the genetic system of the target species particularly an understanding of spatial patterns of genetic variation. For the genetic conservation of a particular species, conservation of unique characteristics of geographic races is needed. In Calamus andamanicus, the Andaman and Nicobar provenances were found to be genetically variable. Within Andamans, several distinct phenotypic variations were also present within one population.In C. thwaitesii, 2 phenotypically distinct populations were observed, based on the stem diameter, leaf arrangement and fruit size.A good knowledge of reproductive biology is essential for conservation and genetic improvement programmes of rattan as these are dioecious.Outcrossing species are particularly prone to inbreeding depression. When establishing artificial plantations of rattans, care should be taken to collect seeds from the highest possible number of mother plants preferably growing about 100 m apart and to mix all the progenies together before planting.Conversely, there is also a tendency for insect pollinated species to have stronger genetic differentiation among stands than wind pollinated species. The scattered distribution of rattans and the time difference in flowering in different areas can contribute to increase the differentiation.Moreover, the irregularities in chromosome number in somatic cells noticed in rattan species studied has got a distinct role to play in the evolution of the species. The National Biodiversity Programme (NBP) was initiated in August 1998 for coordinating all activities on biodiversity conservation and utilization including policy issues etc., and to facilitate regional and international cooperation. It has four operative sections, namely, Agrobiodiversity Section (ABS), National Herbarium and Flora of Bhutan Section (NH&FB), Royal Botanical Garden Section (RBGS) and the Information Section. Since its establishment, several activities have been undertaken. The  The Nature Conservation Section (NCS) of the Forestry Services Division (FSD) organized a two-day workshop at Thimphu from 30-31 August 1999 to discuss its on-going programmes in various parks and conservation areas.  To The \"Coconut Data Analysis Training Course\" was conducted from 6 -10 September 1999 at the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), Los Baños, the Philippines. The course is a collaborative activity of IPGRI, COGENT and SEARCA, and funded by ADB and IFAD. Nineteen participants from 14 countries attended the course with project leaders of the ADB and IFAD funded projects. The objectives of the course were to train coconut researchers on methods of data analysis and to familiarize them with new developments in software for data analysis and database interchange. The second annual meeting of the IFADfunded project entitled \"Sustainable use of coconut genetic resources for enhancing the income and nutrition of smallholders in Asia and the Pacific\" was held from 13 -15 September 1999 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The meeting was attended by the project leaders, donors, and representatives from IPGRI and partner institutions. It was hosted by the Oil Plant Institute (OPI) and funded by IFAD and IPGRI. The keynote speech and the opening address were delivered by Mr Le Quoc Khanh, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Industry, Vietnam. In his speech, Mr Le Quoc Khanh said that Vietnam appreciated its involvement in the IFAD-funded project because it is useful and practical to uplift the income of coconut farmers.The meeting reviewed the 1998/1999 accomplishments and 1999/2000 workplans of the 17 projects in 14 countries. Reports were presented on farmer participatory research to promote multi-purpose uses of the coconut, identify suitable varieties for these uses, and to apply these findings in strategies for coconut germplasm conservation. Reports presented included the projects on increasing incomes through coconutbased farming systems, palm sugar production, tender nuts, and other uses.The The The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines signed a workplan for 2 years (1999)(2000) for collaboration in the area of rice research on 14 June 1999 in New Delhi. Dr M. Hussain, DDG, IRRI and Mr B.K. Chauhan, Secretary, ICAR signed the agreement. The major collaborative research will be on the improvement and development of rainfed rice, hybrid rice technology, biotechnology, germplasm collection and exchange and rice-based cropping systems. The two organizations will also collaborate in crop resources management, socio-economic studies, human resource development and joint publications on rice research [Abstracted from ICAR Reporter, July-September 1999].Under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) is the nodal organization for all PGR activities in India. In order to coordinate and attain higher targets in these activities in the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS), NBPGR has undertaken a project on \"Sustainable Management of Plant Biodiversity\" under the World Bank funded National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP), which is a mission-mode project of ICAR. The project was developed after a series of intensive discussions and interactions with the various stakeholders/partners/representatives from over 100 cooperating centres identified in different agroecological regions/zones. The project has been sanctioned for a period of five years (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004) with a budget outlay of Rs 199.5 million (approx. 4.5 million US$). The NATP on Plant Biodiversity was launched on July 16, 1999 with release of a publication entitled \"Jai Vigyan National Science and Technology Mission on Conservation of Agro-Biodiversity (Plant Genetic Resources)\".The NATP project aims to coordinate, organize, and conduct comprehensive surveys, collecting, and inventorization of diversity of PGR from the whole country, with focus on landraces, primitive cultivars, less known food crops, backyard crops, stress tolerant lines and wild relatives of fruit plants, multipurpose trees, vegetables, medicinal and aromatic plants, aquatic plants, and forage legumes and grasses. Germplasm collecting would be carried out involving intensive explorations with partners (ICAR institutes, other national scientific bodies, NGOs, farmers' organizations, teaching institutions, local bodies). All these activities would include need-based on-job training as well as human resource development components. The diversity so collected will be subjected to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) network to develop reflectance signal to facilitate further gap filling through Reflectance Library Networking. A comprehensive database on distribution, density, uses, and ethnic information on PGR will also be compiled and documented.  In-house brain storming discussion on 'Future Research Requirements on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants' was organized by the National Research Centre for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (NRC-MAP) at Gujarat Agricultural University, Anand during May 31-June 1, 1999. It was inaugurated by Dr S.P. Ghosh, Deputy Director General (Horticulture), ICAR and was attended by 39 scientists representing ICAR, State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), NGOs and Private Sector Enterprises. The important issues were discussed in three separate technical sessions. In Session I, Quinquennial Review Team (QRT) Recommendations relating to All India Coordinated Research Project on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, AICRP (M&AP) were discussed. Besides fixing time targets for cataloguing of medicinal and aromatic plants, modalities of publication of a book/bulletin based on the three decades of work in AICRP (M&AP), were also discussed.In the second technical session, future action plan of AICRP( M&AP) was refined and 13 crops were identified as mandatory crops for different centres. Emphasis was given on identification of new areas and developing criteria for collection and selection. Basic work, such as development of male sterile lines, package of practices for Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) hybrids and creation of variability in Glycyrrhiza, were discussed. Crop-wise technical programme of AICRP (M&AP) for 1999-2000 was developed. In the third technical session, a work plan for collection and conservation of biodiversity of 56 species of medicinal and aromatic plants was discussed and finalized.A field genebank of endangered medicinal plants of tropical and subtropical region has been established at the NRC(MAP) with the main objectives to conserve endangered medicinal plants species for future generations. Species to be maintained/ conserved in this genebank are Acorus calamus, Artemisia pallens, Celastrus paniculatus, Commiphora wightii, Chlorophytum borivilianum, Gloriosa superba, Pterocarpus santalinus, Rauvolfia serpentina and Saraca ashoka.Commiphora wightii (Guggal) is one of the endangered medicinal plants of desert ecosystem. A very easy and effective 'air-layering' technique has been developed and demonstrated by Anand centre of the AICRP (M&AP) at Gujarat Agricultural University (GAU). Scientists of NRC (MAP) also developed a simple hard wood cutting technique. Pencil thick 20-30 cm long stem cuttings were dipped in IBA 100 ppm solutions for 12-14 hours before planting in raised Participants of short course on PGR policy and emerging IPR issues organised at NBPGR, New Delhi, India beds. The rooting and new flush of leaves was observed after 7-10 days of planting [ Dr S.Maiti, Director, NRC(MAP), Anand, Gujarat, India ].The grey mildew disease of cotton, which is also known as 'Areolate mildew' in USA and South America and is caused by the fungus Ramularia areola Atk. (syn. Ramularia gossypii (Speg.) Ciferri) has assumed serious proportion in cottongrowing countries of the world. A total of 1592 Gossypium arboreum germplasm lines were screened for grey mildew resistance wherein seven lines, namely, 'Bangladesh', 'G-135-49', belonging to Gossypium arboreum race bengalense and the '30805', '30814', 30826', 30838' and '30856' belonging to G. arboreum race cernuum were found immune to the disease. Immunity of these seven lines has been tested for nine consecutive crop seasons (1990 to 1998) under artificial conditions of inoculation in glass house and in the field. The lines were found immune to grey mildew pathogen isolates collected from various cotton-growing states/areas of India, viz., Nagpur and Akola (Maharashtra), Surat (Gujarat), Dharwad (Karnataka), Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) and Lam Farm, Guntur (Andhra Pradesh). of molecular studies. Subsequent presentations on the theme of wild legumes addressed taxonomy and evolution (Yoshinabu Egawa, Japan) and ecogeographic surveys (Nigel Maxted, U.K.), diversity studies of Phaseolus (Daniel Debouck, CIAT, Colombia), wild soybeans, Glycine soja (Jun Abe, Japan), Vicia subgenus Vicia (Elena Potokina, Russia) and the Vigna angularis complex (Duncan Vaughan, Japan). Evaluation and use of wild legumes included papers on evaluation of Phaseolus spp. for amylase inhibitors (Masao Ishimoto, Japan), Vigna genome mapping (Desiree Hautea, Philippines), analysis of allelopathy in wild legumes (Yoshiharu Fujii, Japan) and use of wild legumes in breeding (Peerasak Srinives, Thailand). The presentations and discussions helped to provide a perspective of wild genetic resources being pivotal in plant genetic resources research and use rather than an adjunct to the large collections of cultigens in genebanks.The second theme 'In situ Conservation Research' covered both on-farm and natural habitat conservation. Dr Devra Jarvis from IPGRI discussed the initial results coming from a multi-country collaborative project. Dr Nigel Maxted focussed his presentation on the methodology for rational choice of natural habitats for in situ conservation using Vicia spp. of the Mediterranean region as an example. Subsequent presentations covered specific collaborative projects on buckwheat in Nepal (H. P. Bimb, Nepal), rice in Vietnam (Shuichi Fukuoka, Japan) and tomato in Chile (Takanori Sato, Japan). Daniel Debouck from CIAT presented perspectives from Latin America on in situ conservation using examples from several New World crops. The in situ conservation research theme was summarised by Dr Hiroko Morishima, a pioneer in the field of wild genetic resources and in situ conservation of rice. She emphasized for a balance in research approaches in these two thematic areas. On the final day, an excursion to the countryside around Tsukuba provided an opportunity to the participants to see wild soybeans (Glycine soja) and wild adzuki bean (Vigna angularis var. nipponensis) in Japan and taste the seasonal cultivated genetic resources such as persimmon and sweet potato. The proceedings of this workshop will be published by MAFF, Japan [ Dr Duncan Vaughan, NIAR, Tsukuba, Japan].The Plant Genetic Resources Centre (PGRC), Sri Lanka maintains nearly 9000 germplasm accessions of over 100 species. It has brought out several catalogues based on collections held in the genebank. One catalogue exclusively deals with passport data giving information for each accession on five descriptors, namely, scientific name, accession number, accession name, origin and organization.The characterization catalogue on brinjal (60 accessions) is based on study of 40 descriptors, tomato (93 accessions) for 37 descriptors, okra (108 accessions) for 28 descriptors, green gram (83 accessions) for 28 descriptors, and winged bean (153 accessions) for 24 descriptors. The passport data on these have not been included as this has been published/catalogued separately [Dr A.H.M. Jayasuriya, Senior Deputy Director, PGRC, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka]. Session-I: Citrus Improvement -i) strengthening efforts for germplasm collecting, cataloguing and conserving through in situ and ex situ approaches including establishment of field genebanks, ii) use of cryogenic technology to put a check on loss of genetic diversity, iii) understanding the host plant resistance of insect pests and developing strategies for evaluation of germplasm based on relative reaction.Session-II: Citrus Biotechnology -i) production of citrus transgenics using CTV coat protein gene, ii) use of DNA finger printing in identification of disease free seedlings, iii) standardization of micropropagation and micrografting techniques for commercial application.Session-III: Integrated Production System -i) rejuvenation of old declining orchards, ii) screening Poncirus trifoliata relatives for high density planting, iii) biological weed control using fungal pathogens, iv) use of molecular markers for early detection of nutrient deficiency, v) increased use of organic citrus production.Session-IV: Integrated Pest and Disease Management -i) molecular cloning of coat protein gene for mapping viruses, ii) use of IGR's hormones and spray oils for effective pest management, iii) prioritized research on bark eating caterpillar and stem borer, iv) IPM approach for citrus blackfly and fruit sucking moth management.Session-V: Post-harvest Technology -i) pre-harvest sprays of fungicides and phytohormones, ii) use of edible coatings and biodegradable films for removal of bitterness and preparation of blends using sweet orange juice with grapes and papaya juice [Dr Shyam Singh, Director, National Research Centre (Citrus), Nagpur, India].  The report is based on the study conducted by the Mountain Enterprise and Infrastructure Division of ICIMOD and examines the feasibility of developing micro-enterprises based on processing of ginger and pineapple crops in the West Garo hills, Meghalaya in Northeastern India. An intensive survey was conducted to interact with farmers, traders and credit institutions. While ginger drying was considered as a viable option, pineapple processing requires large-scale investment and hence, not feasible for community level enterprises. Integration of improved farming methods and market regulation with value addition were identified as imperatives for the success of micro-enterprise development. The book covers all aspects of grape cultivation, improvement and production. The contents in 18 chapters provide synthesis of information on grape growing regions and their ecological requirements, varieties grown and varietal improvement, propagation and root-stocks, vineyard establishment, pruning, growth and productivity, nutrition, management, quality improvement, diseases/pests and their management, and harvesting and postharvest management. The book is a very useful addition on tropical viticulture. This research report, examines the effects of research and development on productivity in India and reveals that India is still benefiting from the public funded system of agricultural research and extension associated with expansion of irrigated area and rural infrastructure and improvement in human capital. Its different chapters deal with investment in productivity, research system, technology transfer, extension and infrastructure and the development and spread of modern crop varieties, total factor productivity in the Indian Crop Sector, sources for the growth of total factor productivity in Indian agriculture and assessment of policy implications. The report also shows that the public benefits from private research can be substantial.Crops (BUROTROP). The symposium will review the current status of oil palm genetic resources programme and develop a strategic plan for the next millennium. For more information, write to Director General, PORIM, 6 Persiaran Institusi, Bandur Baru Bango, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia or visit PORIM's Homepage: http://porim.gov.my. No. 30The publication includes the deliberations of the Working Group on barley. Part I deals with discussions and recommendations, providing details on the European Barley Database (EBDB), the status of national collections, responsibilities for conservation, and promoting the use of barley genetic resources. Part II deals with the papers presented and these include status report on European Barley Database (EBDB), country status reports on barley collections held by Australia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Nordic Gene Bank, Poland, Suceava, VIR Slovak, Spain and Turkey. Information on breeding and evaluation aspects promoting the use of barley is also covered in five papers. Part II deals with research reports relating to bamboo and/or rattan species in India, China and Thailand, and some specific topics such as evaluation and conservation, micropropagation and in vitro techniques for conservation, bamboo seed technology for variability testing and germplasm conservation, estimation of nuclear DNA content of various bamboo and rattan species. The publication will be useful to all concerned to promote the conservation and sustainable use of bamboo and rattan.  The report presents activities of the SGRP in 1998. It highlights the significant progress towards more effective System-Wide cooperation and greater impact in the CGIAR's contributions to the global genetic resources efforts; thus dealing with its contributions to global fora and programme; policy review and formulation; information; training; intercentre collaboration and research.With the recent trend in high input agriculture in India, there has been a decline in areas under chickpea. The successful introduction of French bean as an alternative pulse crop during winter in the Northern plains has opened new vistas. Both vegetable types and grain types form an important component of traditional diet of the hilly regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Western Uttar Pradesh. The Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi has pioneered research on the introduction of this crop in the plains in 1980 and presently holds a sizeable collection of 625 lines from Jammu and Kashmir.To augment the germplasm resource, an exploration trip to Western Uttar Pradesh hills was undertaken and 68 accessions of French bean were collected from the districts of Dehradun, Tehri and Uttar Kashi. These collections showed variations for plant growth habit, flower colour, pod length and shape, and seed shape, colour and size.The 68 accessions were grown at the Institute of Agriculture Sciences, Varanasi and the results indicated considerable variation for plant height (25.6 -127.6 cm), pods per plant (6.8 -37.6), seeds per pod (2.7 -6.3), test weight (8.9 -59.7 g) and days to maturity (108 -165). Six elite types were selected and yield tested in three replications with three checks. Accession No.50 gave significantly higher yield than the check varieties. This line is presently being tested in the coordinated varietal trial Mango is a typical recalcitrant species. To date, no successful cryopreservation of mango germplasm has been reported. Earlier research findings indicated that embryos cannot survive after liquid nitrogen treatment even after using the pretreatment techniques of encapsulation-dehydration and sucrose or glycerol pretreatment. IPGRIsupported project on cryopreservation of excised embryo of mango is continuing at Zhongshan University, China and the emphasis is on establishing a plant regeneration system to exploit and examine the possibility of cryopreservation of mango germplasm.The progress of the in vitro culture of red mango (Mangifera indica L. var. Zihua, Gui-siang) is as follows:The embryonic axes with 1.0 cm x 1.0 cm cotyledon were individually cultured on different agar media as indicated in Table 1. The cotyledon of about 2 × 3 cm and 0.5 × 3 cm were cultured on the medium as indicated in Tables 2 and 3 in addition to the medium of Table 1 for observations on rooting. All growth regulators were added to the medium before autoclaving. The pH value of all media was 5.8. Culture conditions were 27±2°C and 12 h light /12 h dark cycle.Effects of sterilization methods on contamination of embryonic axes from mature fruits: Bacterial contamination assessment of the embryonic axes after 10 day-inoculation by different sterilization methods and that of the young shoot section after 20 day-inoculation indicated that sterilization methods had significantly different effect on the extent of contamination. The most effective method is: seeds without hard outer seed coat were rinsed in running tap water for about 1 hour, the thin inner seed coat is removed, immersed in 5% Chlorox for 15 minutes, rinsed with sterile distilled water at least once, sterilized with 0.1% HgCl 2 for 12 minutes.Effects of the component of medium on growth of embryonic axes: The medium components appear to have little effect on the growth and development of the embryonic axes. The mean height of plantlet of the embryonic axes after 10 day-inoculation was about 8.0 cm, no matter on which medium.Effect of plant growth regulators and supplemented compounds on the rooting of cotyledon: Some white spots appeared on the surface of the cotyledon section (2 × 3 cm and 0.5 × 3 cm) one week later. These gradually developed roots 7-20 days after culturing. Changing the plant growth regulators and concentrations did not affect the rooting of the cotyledon section. But rooting was delayed when the cotyledon was cultured on the medium with 5 mg/l IBA. Roots on the medium with 1/1 and 1/10 of auxin/ cytokinin were stronger than that on the other media. It is interesting to note that rooting appeared only on the section surface close to the embryonic axes when it was cut into several sections.Effect of preculture duration in RIM on the rate of rooting of the young shoot section: One or more buds developed from the young shoot section between the cotyledon and stem, 1-8 weeks after culture. A small part of the cotyledon left/attached to the shoot section improved regeneration of the bud of the explant, while the young shoot section without cotyledon, darkened and died. A few roots (2-20 mm long) developed from the basal part of the young shoot section when they were pretreated with 5 mg/l IBA for 2-7 days and then inoculated on ROM for 3-7 days. Maximum rooting (95%) was observed with pretreatment at 5.0 mg/l IBA in dark for 5 days the roots were strong, with white or yellowish white tip. If preculture duration was longer than 5 days in dark, it caused the regenerated buds to become yellow and ultimately to ","tokenCount":"7739"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0a9bb100c5d5744e9b7ffd0e7fd93689","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/52c80fdc-e614-4758-b568-1e7cc094dbfa/retrieve","id":"-24787398"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9634db06-44ab-4c2e-841b-6553b1834511","pagecount":"48","content":"countries' entrepreneurs have received training in drone operation and service delivery as part of the Eyes in the Sky project. cooperatives and their members in Cameroon and DRC have been trained in good governance and leadership as part of the Manioc 21 programme. farmers were registered in East and Southern Africa by the Data4Ag project which aims to improve their access to inputs, crop husbandry advice and markets. high-level participants attended 4 Brussels Briefings events. individual users viewed a total of 2,350,303 CTA web pages with a new blog currently driving 9% of traffic to the CTA website.Small Island Developing States implemented policy measures to enhance agri-tourism thanks to the CTA project, Linking agriculture to tourism markets in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.It is becoming increasingly evident that a strong focus on digitalisation as a means to drive agricultural transformation is bearing dividends in the forms of increased production, better livelihoods, more efficient value chains and ultimately greater food and nutrition security. Our current strategy has three intervention areas. One is promoting youth entrepreneurship and creating employment for young people, particularly through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The second, digitalisation, cuts across all intervention areas and focuses on the application of digital technologies to transform business models and provide new revenue throughout agricultural value chains. The third focuses on building farmers' resilience to climate change through the promotion of climate-smart agricultural practices.It is becoming increasingly evident that a strong focus on digitalisation as a means to drive agricultural transformation is bearing dividends in the forms of increased production, better livelihoods, more efficient value chains and ultimately greater food and nutrition security. Digitalisation is also key to attracting youth back to agriculture.The use of a wide range of technologies -from mobile phones to drones -is helping smallholders gain access to the information and data they need to transform their businesses. One of the goals in CTA's 2016-2020 Strategic Plan was to reach 1 million farmers, and a focus on digitalisation is helping us to achieve that.In many of our activities, there is a strong focus on supporting youth and promoting women empowerment. To give just one example, CTA's Pitch Agri-Hack competition, which took place in Rwanda during the African Green Revolution Forum in September 2018, had as its theme 'Women Entrepreneurs Innovate for Agricultural Transformation'. At the award ceremony, which was attended by four heads of state and some 20 government ministers, I was able to tell a large audience that the 26 entrepreneurs who had reached the finals -14 young women and 12 young men -will help transform agriculture for future generations and encourage young people to see the potential in farming and agribusiness.There are many reasons to be optimistic, and I believe the stories in this report illustrate that CTA together with our partners is well positioned for a future beyond the end of the Cotonou Agreement, under which CTA operates, to continue to make a difference.The future prosperity of agriculture depends on engaging young people in the sector. A wide range of CTA projects are encouraging them to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to help improve agricultural productivity. So far, over 1 million farmers have benefited from the services of youth start-ups involved in CTA's annual Pitch AgriHack competitions. In 2018, the competition, held in Rwanda, focused on young women. Meanwhile, projects in West Africa and Kenya are successfully tackling high levels of rural unemployment and low productivity by engaging young entrepreneurs in agricultural value chains.The future prosperity of agriculture depends on engaging young people in the sector. A wide range of CTA projects are encouraging them to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to help improve agricultural productivity. So far, over 1 million farmers have benefited from the services of youth start-ups involved in CTA's annual Pitch AgriHack competitions. In 2018, the competition, held in Rwanda, focused on young women. Meanwhile, projects in West Africa and Kenya are successfully tackling high levels of rural unemployment and low productivity by engaging young entrepreneurs in agricultural value chains.Since the launch of CTA's Pitch AgriHack Talent Initiative in 2013, over 1 million farmers and agricultural stakeholders have benefited from services provided by start-up companies involved in its annual competitions. Their ICT-based innovations have helped to raise more than €2 million from investors and development specialists.he 2018 Pitch AgriHack competition -the third of its kind -was held in September 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda, during the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF). Its theme was 'Women entrepreneurs innovate for agricultural transformation.' \"We wanted to focus on young women, as few of them are currently leading agricultural technology start-ups,\" says Ken Lohento, CTA Senior ICT4Ag Programme Coordinator. \"As a matter of fact, just 10% of tech start-ups internationally are led by women. This was an opportunity to show that women are every bit as capable as men when it comes to developing new technologies and managing ICT businesses.\"The announcement for this year's Pitch AgriHack competition in April attracted 335 applications from ACP countries. Of these, 164 start-ups were led by women. The most promising 26 were invited to take part in the finals in Kigali, where 14 of the finalists were represented by women. The eight winners included four companies run by young women and four by young men. The awards, which included cash prizes as well as support for business incubation and the opportunity to participate in other ICT-related events, were presented in the presence of two Theads of state, two heads of government and some 20 government ministers.\"These are entrepreneurs who have been inspired to make a difference -to help transform agriculture for future generations and to encourage young people to see the potential in farming and agribusiness,\" said CTA Director, Michael Hailu, at the awards ceremony.Before the judges chose the winners, the 26 finalists and 14 other guest start-ups benefited from a two-day training workshop on investment readiness. Here they learned how to better manage their financial accounts and how to secure deals with investors. \"Pitch AgriHack has been fantastic,\" said Varun Baker, CEO of Farm Credibly, one of the winners in the early stage category. \"The investment readiness workshop has been extremely useful for us. We'll definitely make better use of funding, having gone through this training.\" Farm Credibly is using blockchain technology to help Jamaican farmers without bank accounts to gain access to finance. Most farmers find it difficult to get loans or investment to expand their businesses, as they lack the financial records lenders require. Farm Credibly is using blockchain to record farmers' transactions with input companies, processors and supermarkets. The farmers' digital profiles illustrate their capacity to use loans effectively and their ability to repay them.Among the women-led start-ups to win in Kigali was Fenou Foods from Benin, a company that develops local agro-processed products. With 'Fenou Packaging,' Sonita Tossou and her team had the innovative idea of providing 100% biodegradable packaging. The company are targeting local, youth-led agri-food processorsand the climate-conscious packaging is helping them to compete with imported products. Following Pitch AgriHack, Tossou was also selected as one of six winners receiving CTA funding to attend the Agristartup Summit held in France, where Fenou Packaging won third prize. CTA also provided support for some of the Kigali winners to attend the UN Social Good Summit, where they had the opportunity to make a pitch to potential investors.During 2018, many of the winners of the 2017 Pitch AgriHack, held in Côte d'Ivoire, made good progress. To give just one example, Bayseddo, a Senegalese start-up that uses crowdsourced finance to invest in agricultural production, raised about €150,000 to support several projects. These have yielded a 10% return for investors and the company is currently developing a new mobile application for its platform, using financial support from CTA. Collaboration with the government agency Délegation de l'Entrepreneuriat Rapide (DER), which focuses on supporting young entrepreneurs, is currently being finalised.  In many West African countries, the lack of employment opportunities in rural areas has led to an exodus of young people, both to major cities in the region and to Europe. This is a serious loss, as the young offer a potentially dynamic labour force at a time when the agricultural sector is desperately short of workers.two-year project launched by CTA in early 2018, 'Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship and Job Creation in West Africa's Rice Value Chain' (PEJERIZ), is tackling the problem by encouraging young people in Mali and Senegal to stay in the countryside and help to increase the rice sector's productivity. The project involves a collaboration with AfricaRice and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.There are good reasons for focusing on rice. In West Africa, rice consumption has been steadily increasing as a result of changes in eating habits and rapid population growth. However, production lags far behind demand, and every year about 40% of the rice consumed comes from Asia. Many urban consumers favour imported rice, as it tends to be cleaner and better packed than local rice, most of which is manually processed. It is hoped that raising the production and quality of rice through PEJERIZ will reduce imports and boost the rural economy.There are two main components to the project. One focuses on training young people in technical subjects related to the rice value chain. This is managed by AfricaRice. The other component, managed by the Syngenta Foundation, involves setting up centres of mechanisation and promoting a mobile app which provides farmers with advice. It is anticipated that over 660 new jobs will be created by the project, which will lead to significant increases in revenue for 10,000 smallholder farmers.Over 300 young Senegalese and Malians, approximately one-third of whom were women, attended two mobilisation workshops organised by AfricaRice in July and October 2018. They learned about the income-generating opportunities presented by the rice value chain and the importance of mechanising the industry.Following the workshop, AfricaRice selected 205 young people from the original 300 who attended the mobilisation workshop to attend further training sessions on a range of topics, such as entrepreneurship, marketing and the provision of services. The first sessions were held in October 2018 and the final session is scheduled for early 2019. AfricaRice will then select 80 young trainees with the most promising business ideas, and they will be provided with financial support and further training.\"Some of the young participants are already running their own businesses and wish to upscale the innovative ideas they developed in the rice sector,\" says Dr Mandiaye Diagne, Regional Coordinator of PEJERIZ. \"Providing them with technical training and coaching will help them to become successful agripreneurs.\"Meanwhile, the Syngenta Foundation established 10 Centres for Mechanised Services (CEMAs), five in Mali and five in Senegal. \"Once these are fully running, each of the centres will have between five and 10 full-time employees and 30 part-time employees, most of whom will be young people,\" says Vincent Fautrel, CTA Senior Programme Coordinator, Value Chains.By the end of 2018, the CEMAs had recruited and trained 45 service agents, who are responsible for promoting the RiceAdvice app to farmers. Developed in Nigeria and Mali by AfricaRice, the app is a decision-support tool, which farmers can download free on an android smartphone. It generates recommendations which help farmers to apply mineral fertilisers more efficiently and decide exactly when to sow, plant and harvest. Nigerian rice farmers using the app reported significant yield increases and income gains of up to US$200 per ha. By late 2018, the PEJERIZ project had introduced over 470 rice farmers in Mali and Senegal to the app and they were planning to use it the following season.  Some of the young participants are already running their own businesses and wish to upscale the innovative ideas they developed in the rice sector.Agriculture is the mainstay of Kenya's economy, employing more than 70% of people in rural areas and contributing 26% of the GDP. However, youth unemployment in the countryside, as well as in the cities, is growing. ome 30% of Kenyans between the age of 20 and 24 are currently out of work. Increasing youth employment in agriculture could do much to address this problem, and it is one of the main aims of CTA's 'Youth Economic Empowerment through Agribusiness in Kenya' (VijaBiz) project.The project was devised by CTA and a Kenyan organisation, USTADI Foundation, in response to a call for proposals from the International Fund for Agricultural Development. It is implemented and co-funded by CTA and USTADI. \"We believe there is huge potential to get more young people into profitable agriculture in countries like Kenya, and it is crucial to support the growth of their businesses,\" says CTA's Ken Lohento, manager of the project. \"Many young people have innovative ideas and they're willing to take risks, but they often lack the skills, knowledge and assets they need to establish viable agribusinesses.\"Following an invitation to join the project -shared via radio, newspapers and on the internet in September 2018 -380 youth groups from Kilifi and Nakuru counties responded. It was stipulated that the groups should have a minimum of 10 members, with at least 30% being women. Ninety percent of those who responded were under the age the 35, including the group leaders. After a comprehensive selection process, and with the support of the two county governments, CTA and USTADI chose 165 youth groups, which between them represent about 2,400 young farmers and 1000 small agribusinesses. The two-year project will develop the entrepreneurial skills of 2,250 young people and the enterprises.The national launch of the VijaBiz project was held in August 2018 in Nairobi, in the presence of officials from the two county governments and from the National Ministry of Youth. Under the project, the selected groups are receiving support to help develop their businesses. Training sessions are already helping young people identify market opportunities in three value chains -cereals, dairy and fisheries -providing them with the skills required to add value to agricultural products. The youth groups will also benefit from training in leadership and a range of other skills required to strengthen businesses along the food chain, such as the use of ICTs for agribusiness. Mentoring and business operations reviews, as well as access to finance and various growth opportunities, will be offered throughout the project's timeframe.Examples of the selected groups include the Blessing Hand Self Help Group from Nakuru. This is composed of 12 members, nine of whom are women. They are involved in cereal value addition, grinding, packaging and selling. Another group is the Greenbelt Youth Group, composed of 12 members and engaged in dairy value addition, which involves the sale of fresh milk and locally produced yoghurt. Another is Kibao Kiche Fish Farmers Group, based in Kilifi and composed of 25 members, nine of whom are women. The group is raising fish in ponds to sell to the public.VijaBiz will be providing the youth groups with grants worth between US$1,000 and US$20,000. These will enable them to buy hardware, such as machinery and cold storage facilitiesfor vegetables and fish, for example -and to hire the services of business consultants. The two-year project will develop the entrepreneurial skills of 2,250 young people and the enterprises, which benefit from VijaBiz support, will indirectly support at least 10,000 young people.According to the United Nations, Kenya's population is expected to rise from 50 million today to around 85 million by 2050. Projects that focus on transforming the agricultural sector through youth and women empowerment provide a template for tackling the twin problems of low productivity and high unemployment. For over 20 years, CTA has been promoting digitalisation -the application of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue -as a way of increasing smallholder productivity. In Uganda, digital profiling and a unique service bundle, which provides agronomic tips, insurance and weather information, has dramatically increased crop yields and profits.In West Africa, market information provided by SMS is having a similar effect. A new consortium of African drone users, initiated at a CTA workshop, is helping the technology take off across the continent. In addition, a mobile app developed by one of CTA's partners in Samoa is linking smallholder farmers to buyers and consumers, significantly improving their income and the efficiency of the value chain.One of CTA's most innovative digitalisation projects, the Market-Led User-Owned ICT4Ag-Enabled Information Service (MUIIS), made good progress in 2018, helping smallholder farmers in Uganda significantly improve their crop yields and profits. Launched in late 2015 with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MUIIS set itself the goal of increasing the yields of 200,000 Ugandans farmers by at least 25% and their profits by 20%.n March 2017, MUIIS launched a unique service bundle, delivered by text to mobile phones, which provides farmers with agronomic tips, weather alerts and index-based insurance. It was originally hoped that 100,000 farmers would sign up for the service, which cost US$2 per cropping season, by the end of the second year. However, progress was disappointing, with just 379 farmers subscribing during the second season. Most farmers in Uganda were used to receiving advisory services for free and were unwilling to pay for the product. Nevertheless, those who did receive the service bundle reported significant increases in yields and profits.\"From our research, we could see that lack of access to finance was a serious barrier to adopting a whole range of innovations which could improve productivity,\" says Benjamin Kwasi Addom, CTA Team Leader, ICT4Ag. In late 2017, he and his colleagues began discussions with the Rabobank SMART SOLUTIONS, TARGETED LOANS, HIGHER YIELDS I ©CTAWe had been hoping that farmers would increase their soybean yields by 25%, but they did much better than that.Foundation about the possibility of introducing a loans scheme to smallholder farmers. \"We pointed out that by digitally profiling farmers, we had already gathered the sort of information banks and financial institutions need when assessing creditworthiness,\" says Addom. By the end of 2017, MUIIS had digitally profiled 130,000 farmers, a figure that would double during the course of 2018. The profiles provide detailed information on everything from geographical location to crops grown, size of family to assets owned -just the sort of information banks need when assessing loan applications.Rabobank Foundation approved a loan of USh1 billion (€230,000).The MUIIS project agreed to manage the loan, with the money being channelled through the financial arm of the Ugandan Cooperative Alliance. Farmers who applied for the loans, which they could use to buy inputs like seeds and fertilisers, received USh80,000 (€17) per ha, up to a maximum of 2 ha each. As a condition of the loans, the farmers took out a subscription to the MUIIS service bundle.The first tranche of loans was distributed to 1,890 farmers, covering 2,000 acres of cropland. Lydia Kiwuka was a typical beneficiary: \"Last season I used cow dung and urine to fertilise my maize because I couldn't afford to buy fertiliser,\" she said. \"With this loan I have paid for fertiliser needed for the whole season. I've even bought some preventative pesticide in case the armyworm [a major pest of maize] comes back to my farm.\"To provide empirical evidence about the impact of both the service bundle and the loans, CTA commissioned a study which was carried out by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and the National Agricultural Research Organisation of Uganda. The study, which focused on soybean, maize, beans and sesame, provided compelling evidence that the service bundle and loans led to a significant increase in crop yields.\"We had been hoping that farmers would increase their soybean yields by 25%,\" says Addom. \"But they did much better than that.\" Soybean yields increased by 60% and bean yields by 90%. At the time of going to press, there had been a good rate of loan repayment. Addom believes that hard evidence of increasing yields will encourage organisations like the Rabobank Foundation to make further loans in future.  One of the main pillars of their work since 2017 has involved the digital profiling of over 85,000 farmers who are members of eight farmers' organisations across Africa. Farmer profiling can yield a wide range of benefits: it can help to improve access to inputs and extension services, can provide the information banks require before they provide credit, and can help farmers find new markets.One example of how data has transformed lives can be seen in Uganda, where the digital profiling of coffee farmers by the National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE) has given farmers access to global certification. Just 6 months after this CTA-B In sub-Saharan Africa, the yield gap -the difference between a crop's potential and the real yield -is often high, with many farmers harvesting 25% of the amount of maize, millet or other staple crop they could be getting, using the right information, technologies and inputs. This helps to explain why only 20% of the food produced in many African countries is sold, as smallholder farmers need to keep the rest just to feed themselves. Hence low incomes and widespread rural poverty. ©AgroCenta In 2018, over 3,000 farmers saw their incomes increase by over 25% thanks to the traceability of their coffee and access to certified markets. funded project was launched, international buyers from Italy were offering profiled farmers €3.51 per kg of coffee, compared to €2.16 paid for untraceable coffee of a similar quality. For a typical Arabica coffee farm of 0.4ha producing an average 600 kg per year, this translated into additional income of €850 a year. \"In 2018, over 3,000 farmers saw their incomes increase by over 25% thanks to the traceability of their coffee and access to certified markets,\" says Addison. He estimates that 10 times as many members of NUCAFE could benefit in 2019.CTA is also responsible for managing the capacity development element of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) project, known as GODAN Action. This initiative promotes the sharing and use of data to make information about agriculture and nutrition accessible and usable for all.Through face-to-face training sessions, webinars and online training courses, open data users acquire the skills and knowledge they need to tackle food security and nutritional challenges. Following its launch in 2017, GODAN Action significantly increased its outreach and influence during 2018.Four editions of the e-learning coursedesigned in 2017 at a workshop hosted by CTA and organised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization -attracted over 3,000 participants, including 'infomediaries' such as journalists and ICT workers, as well as policymakers, project managers, researchers and scientists. Those who took part now have a good understanding of the principles and benefits of using open data.By September 2018, around 1,500 people had also taken part in CTA webinars on open data. These give participants the opportunity to ask questions and receive feedback on a wide range of topics. CTA has found that these are a good way of reaching relatively large audiences and encouraging different communities to share their experiences. Over 4,000 people now read CTA's GODAN material online each month and there is a vibrant community of practice for GODAN trainers.According to André Laperrière, GODAN Executive Director, CTA has played a significant part in promoting GODAN and its activities. \"They've been helpful in many different ways,\" he says. \"They provided funding -but that's just a minor part of it. They have been particularly influential in terms of capacity building and training, and they have helped to influence policymakers and others, especially in Africa. The demand for services is booming, and in January 2018 the African Union took a policy decision to encourage member states to make use of drones to increase agricultural productivity.drone services. CTA encouraged the creation of the consortium and has supported its development.The operators at the Ghana workshop had all attended at least one of the two CTA-supported training events in 2017 at the Paris headquarters of AIRINOV, a private-sector pioneer in dronebased farming applications, with whom CTA is working closely. Here they learned how to use drones and multispectral sensors, and how to process remote-sensed data. Participants were also provided, on a co-funding basis, with drone equipment, including sensors.\"Drone technology is really beginning to take off in Africa,\" says Giacomo Rambaldi, CTA Senior Programme Coordinator, ICT4Ag. \"The demand for services is booming, and in January 2018 the African Union took a policy decision to encourage member states to make use of drones to increase agricultural productivity.\" CTA played a key role in the formulation of the new policy.However, there are many challenges when it comes to mainstreaming the use of drones, and CTA is helping its partners not only to develop their skills and business management, but also to learn how to operate in a world where the regulatory environment is frequently unclear. This is being done under its 'Transforming African Agriculture: Eyes in the Sky, SmartTechs on the Ground' project, which runs from 2017 to 2019.Major clients for CTA's Africa drone partners include agribusinesses, government agencies, international donors, NGOs, research agencies and universities, large-scale farmers and farmers' organisations. Some are involved in a wide range of different sectors and activities. Global Partners, for example, currently focuses its activities on agriculture, land use planning and biodiversity conservation, but it has also become an important training centre for drone operators in West Africa.Africa Goes Digital is benefiting from advice provided by Ernst & Young Enterprise Growth Services. It will facilitate cooperation and networking between members and represent their interests. Just as importantly, the consortium has begun linking members to agribusinesses, development agencies, NGOs, government departments and others looking for drone-based services.Dr Lawani and his colleagues at EKU run faceto-face teaching courses on drone certification and the use of drone-based services. He, EKU and the consortium are now adapting the curriculum to provide online training courses for drone operators in Africa. These will be tailored to meet the different regulatory needs of countries in Africa. This is a work in progress, but members of the consortium have already held discussions with government departments in Benin and elsewhere. \"For many years, public market information systems in West Africa were designed to inform agricultural policies without necessarily responding to the direct needs of farmers,\" says Vincent Fautrel, CTA Senior Programme Coordinator, Value Chain Development. \"The idea of this initiative was to build on the success of the N'kalo service developed by RONGEAD and help the regional grain association, WAGN, develop information services for its members with a clear focus on qualitative data, including some prospective analysis.\"Established in 2009, the N'kalo market information system was initially designed to gather, analyse and disseminate information for cashew T For the vast majority of people living in West Africa, cereals are an important part of their diet. They are also the staple crop for hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers, and boosting productivity and sales could do much to improve regional food security and tackle hunger. However, a lack of reliable information about market conditions and profitability are hindering the efficient operation of cereal value chains.©James CourtrightOur current project builds on the concept of N'kalo and it is already having a significant impact for both traders and producers.producers in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali. RONGEAD soon realised that information on prices alone would not be enough. Farmers also needed advice about when to sell.Later, the project expanded to cover other crops besides cashew, such as sesame, maize, onion and yam, and was made available in eight other countries in West Africa. With support from CTA, the project provided training for over 7,600 producers, and information which reached over 47,000 producers, bringing about significant increases in income to small-scale farmers.\"Our current project builds on the concept of N'kalo,\" says Fautrel, \"and it is already having a significant impact for both traders and producers.\" The project focuses on the four key West African cereal crops -rice, maize, millet and sorghum -grown in in Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Niger.Like N'kalo, the service provides a detailed analysis of market trends, informing users about what is likely to happen in the near future and providing advice on when to sell their crops. CTA has funded the training of market analysts in each of the countries covered by the project, and their data and projections are transmitted to users via SMS, as well as a regular newsletter. Twenty-two newsletters were sent during the second year of the project.Over 25,500 operators who used the service via the WAGN network saw their turnover increase by around €280,000 in the first year of the project. By the end of 2018, the project's Economic Bulletin on Cereal Markets in West Africa, which provides comprehensive analysis of the cereal market, had 2,652 subscribers, most of whom were grain traders. Furthermore, the bulletin is now used as a reference source by many organisations, including FAO and World Food Programme.The N'kalo service was initially provided free of charge, but it proved so successful that information was eventually provided to subscribers only. It is estimated that as a result of the service, producers are earning €25 to €100 more each year. It is anticipated that the current service provided by WAGN will be equally successful, although there is still some uncertainty about whether it will generate sufficient revenues to be self-sustaining in the long run. For many years now, most small-scale farmers in the Pacific Islands have struggled to make a decent living. The shift from the traditional diet of fish, fruit, indigenous tubers and fresh vegetables to one based on cheap, imported, calorie-dense foods not only reduced demand for local produce but led to major health problems, with the Pacific now suffering from some of the highest rates of diet-related diseases in the world. At the same time, the remoteness of the Pacific Islands has made it difficult for farmers to take advantage of markets abroad.owever, this is beginning to change -most notably in Samoa, where CTA supports Women in Business Development (WIBDI), an organisation which is linking local farmers with hotels, restaurants and households, as well as major retailers with a global reach, such as the Body Shop and All Good Organics.\"Small island economies are never going to be major food producers, capable of competing with neighbouring countries like Australia,\" says Isolina Boto, who manages CTA's Brussels office. \"But they can focus on producing high-quality food and other products, such as coconut oil, for niche markets.\" WIBDI is using a range of innovative ICT4Ag tools to address the challenges facing local food producers. Its Farm to Table app, developed with support from CTA, now ensures that more than 1,300 small-scale farmers are linked to the people who want to buy nutritious, locallyproduced and mostly organic food. The app allows for better production planning and marketing and ensures that supply matches demand. Hotels, restaurants and individuals can place orders using the app, which is also proving a useful resource for anybody searching for a good meal cooked with locally grown organic ingredients. WIBDI's reputation internationally largely stems from its success in supplying organic virgin coconut oil to the Body Shop, which, in 2018, began discussions to double its order. Cosmetics made with the island's coconut oil are now being sold in more than 3,000 shops across 66 countries. The trade is proving immensely important, both for Samoa's economy and for the welfare of hundreds of farming families.WIBDI has benefited from a number of digitalisation initiatives besides the Farm to Table app. It now has a digital database, developed with support from CTA, which includes information on approximately 800 organic farms, providing details of their location and production systems. WIBDI has also used drones to map coconut groves and count coconut trees from the air. All of this is helping to make operations more transparent and efficient.Looking to the future, WIBDI anticipates that its Organic Warriors Academy -established in 2016 as part of the youth employment project funded by the United Nations Development Programme with systems support from CTA -will continue to provide training for young people, especially women, as well as access to services and markets. WIBDI is currently investigating new high-value products for export and there are plans to increase support for value addition activities at community level, and to organise agri-tourism business fairs.CTA's relationship with WIBDI is set to continue, with a major new project in 2019. Among other things, this will help to support the design and development of a broader agri-tourism programme in the Pacific, which will include technical training, consumer education, rural business development and initiatives to increase employment in the sector.  WIBDI's reputation internationally largely stems from its success in supplying organic virgin coconut oil to the Body Shop, which, in 2018, began discussions to double its order.Climate change is one of the greatest challenges smallholder farmers face. It is leading to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and undermining food security.To counter these threats, CTA projects in eastern and southern Africa are helping smallholder farmers become more resilient to climate change. They illustrate how climate-smart strategies -including access to accurate weather information, index-based insurance and the planting of drought-tolerant crop varieties -can not only help farmers cope with erratic weather patterns, but raise their productivity and income. CTA is also supporting similar projects across West Africa and the Caribbean.raditionally, when there are serious droughts, governments and aid agencies move in with lots of resources,\" says Thomas Were, who manages CTA's Climate, Livestock and Markets (CLI-MARK) project in northern Kenyan and southern Ethiopia. \"This approach is unsustainable. What we are trying to do is enhance the resilience of pastoralist communities.\"Launched in 2017, the 2-year CLI-MARK project has three main components. One of these, implemented by the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), is designed to link pastoralists to the individuals and organisations that buy livestock, and encourage the establishment of new enterprises. \"CLI-MARK's marketing component aims to reduce the influence of brokers and middlemen so that pastoralists get a better price,\" says Sabdiyo Dido Bashuna, CTA's Senior Technical Adviser for Value Chains and Agribusiness. The other components involve scaling up livestock insurance and providing pastoralists with realtime weather information. It is estimated that the project will help 100,000 pastoralists become more resilient to climate change. T An increase in the frequency and severity of droughts, coupled with unpredictable weather patterns, is threatening the survival of some 20 million livestock keepers in Eastern Africa. Recent droughts have eroded pastoralists' adaptive capacity to such an extent that almost every one results in a humanitarian crisis.If pastoralist communities are to flourish, they need to establish businesses which can continue to trade during difficult times. To this end, CLI-MARK has been improving the skills, knowledge and organisational capacity of 80 livestock-related enterprises associated with five markets in Kenya and five in Ethiopia. Most are managed by women and young people. The organisations which run the markets have also benefited from training, as well as learning visits to other markets, abattoirs and major livestock companies.In Ethiopia, CLI-MARK has forged close working relationships with local government departments, which helped the project identify livestock-related enterprises, most of which were poorly organised and operating on a very small scale. Two training sessions were attended by local government staff and five individuals from each of the 40 enterprises. \"CLI-MARK really helped us,\" says Garbole Jaldesa, secretary of a livestock buying enterprise which operates in Elwaye District. \"In the past, I didn't really know how to assess the price of an animal, but I do now. CLI-MARK also linked me to some lead companies. I know what their specifications are now and we are negotiating an agreement.\" \"We've noticed that there is much better cooperation between different local government departments than there was before,\" says Zerihun Lemma, IIRR country director in Ethiopia. There is now a Livestock Market Steering Committee for the five districts where the project operates, and the project also established a Livestock Marketing Forum, whose quarterly meetings are attended by government officials, CLI-MARK project staff, local enterprises and major livestock buyers.In partnership with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), CLI-MARK is actively promoting index-based livestock insurance, which is described in greater detail on page 31. Instead of insurance agents having to visit the field to verify whether animals have died, or are about to perish, the index triggers payments when the amount of forage falls below a certain level. The pastoralists can then use the money to buy fodder -and hopefully keep their animals alive. The number of pastoralists taking advantage of the scheme has risen significantly with CTA support.The other key component of the project is an ICTbased weather information system. A Kenyan technology company, Amfratech, packages weather information provided by aWhere, a US-based organisation specialising in data management, to be used by both pastoralists and organisations involved in rangeland management. The service was first piloted in Kenya. Following its launch in November 2018, CTA partners IIRR and the Kenyan Livestock Marketing Council began a programme to promote the service. It is hoped that tens of thousands of pastoralists will eventually subscribe to the service. Realtime weather information will enable them to make crucial decisions about where and when to sell their livestock and how to plan their annual migrations.  CLI-MARK really helped us. In the past, I didn't really know how to assess the price of an animal, but I do now. CLI-MARK also linked me to some lead companies. I know what their specifications are now and we are negotiating an agreement.By the time CTA's regional flagship project for Southern Africa comes to an end in 2020, around 140,000 small-scale farmers in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi will have adopted a range of climate-smart strategies to help them cope with drought and erratic weather patterns. About 75,000 farmers are benefiting from the bundle of climate-smart agricultural solutions at the end of the first year of implementation. After training, some 230 farmers in Grace's camp were registered with the project. Since then, she has kept in close touch with the farmers, holding training sessions at which she urges them to plant drought-resistance varieties, pay close attention T he 'Scaling up Climate Smart Agricultural Solutions for Cereal and Livestock Farmers' project consists of four main components. It is providing farmers with access to weather information and agricultural advice, which they receive on their mobile phones. The project also promotes the use of drought-tolerant seeds as well as encouraging farmers to buy index-based weather insurance. Farmers are also being encouraged to combine crops and livestock to increase the robustness of their farming systems, diversify their livelihood options, enhance the quality of their soils and help them cope with climatic shocks.to the SMS messages they receive and consider diversifying their crops and introducing livestock.The Zambian Open University (ZAOU), which manages the project in Zambia, organised twelve seed fairs, one in each project district, to foster greater awareness about drought-tolerant seeds.The fairs provided a forum for commercial seed companies, agrodealers, extension workers and over 800 farmers. \"We were very happy to be invited,\" says John Muzondiwa, technical sales representative with Pannar Seeds. \"Fairs like this are a great way for us to meet large numbers of farmers and talk to them about products like drought-tolerant varieties of maize.\"Regional projects like this require strong partnerships between organisations which bring their own comparative advantages to the table. In Zambia, ZAOU, MUSIKA Development Initiatives and Professional Insurance -a private-sector organisation -lead project activities. In Zimbabwe, the key players are the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) and the telecommunications company, Econet Wireless, while in Malawi the National Smallholder Farmers Association is leading the work in collaboration with the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services and NICO General Insurance Company.During the first year of the project, some 75,000 smallholder farmers were digitally registered. Over 48,000 farmers began receiving weather and advisory services by text. 8,000 farmers received information about drought-tolerant seeds, and over 400 agro-dealers were trained in climate-smart agricultural practices.The success of the project owes much to the collaboration between the public and private sectors and generators of knowledge on climate-smart agriculture. \"It was tremendously important to involve both government and the private sector,\" reflects Kolawole Udubote, Country Team Leader and Dean of Agricultural Sciences at ZAOU. \"The government sees us as a valuable partner and this has given the project a high political profile.\"Development projects often falter once donor support ceases. \"We want to change this narrative,\" says Oluyede Ajayi, CTA's Senior Programme Coordinator, Agriculture and Climat Change. \"One of the best ways of doing that is to establish a solid investment case for partners who were there before the project and will be there afterwards.\" As private sector companies involved in the project have a financial interest in its success, there is a good chance that its influence will continue beyond its lifetime. Erratic and unpredictable weather and changes in the climate threaten the livelihoods and survival of tens of millions of smallholder farmers in Africa.When crops fail, or livestock die of hunger, the repercussions can be devastating. To give just one example, severe drought in 2017 led to cattle herders in northern Kenya losing over 70% of their livestock. In Ethiopia, over 5 million people required emergency food aid and almost 2 million people were displaced from their homes.reventing these catastrophes requires a range of solutions, some of which have been highlighted in the last two stories, such as the introduction of droughttolerant seeds, the creation of more robust value chains and access to expert advice and weather information. Another increasingly important element in terms of improving resilience to climate change is index-based insurance.Index-based livestock insurance was first piloted in Eastern Africa in northern Kenya in 2010. Two years later, a similar scheme was launched in Ethiopia. This is, briefly, how it works: ILRI analyses satellite imagery provided by NASA to establish when fodder levels have fallen so low that livestock are likely to die. Instead of insurance agents having to go out and verify whether animals have died, the index triggers immediate payments to policyholders.Since it was launched in 2017, the CLI-MARK project has been encouraging pastoralists in Kenya and Ethiopia to take out livestock insurance.Since it was launched in 2017, the CLI-MARK project (see page 27) has been encouraging pastoralists in Kenya and Ethiopia to take out livestock insurance. As a result, the number joining the schemes has significantly increased, in the case of Ethiopia from 707 pastoralists in 2016 to 2,942 in 2017. Key players in this story are the village insurance promoters and sales agents, who are benefiting from training sessions funded by CTA. \"CLI-MARK has been extremely important for us,\" says Getaneh Erena, Oromia Insurance Company's Senior Livestock Insurance Officer. \"The project joined us at a critical time when we were out of sponsors and needed support.\"In Kenya, CLI-MARK has worked closely with Takaful Insurance Company. One of the many people to benefit from insurance is Habiba Jattan, a pastoralist in Isiolo. In 2016, she insured 16 cattle and 20 goats, and received a pay-out of KSh150,000 (€1,500) when fodder levels fell below a predetermined level. Asked what she would do if there were several years of good weather and no pay-outs, she replies: \"I would still take out insurance, because I've had a very good experience with it.\" CTA's Southern Africa flagship climate-smart agriculture project (see page 29) is encouraging farmers to take out crop insurance. In Zimbabwe, the project has benefited from existing services provided to farmers by the ZFU and Econet Wireless. These organisations have created a remarkable product, known as the eco-farmer combo, for which farmers pay US$1 dollar per month. Known as the \"dollar that does miracles\", it is split three ways to cover funeral insurance, a range of ZFU services and weather-index insurance. In mid-2018, support from CTA enabled ZFU to hold 66 training sessions for its agents in 30 wards, focusing on the promotion of insurance. By July, over 10,725 Zimbabwean farmers had signed up for the eco-farmer combo.Another CTA project which is encouraging farmers to take out insurance is the Market-led User-owned ICT4Ag-enabled Information Service (MUIIS) in Uganda (see page 16). MUIIS's service bundle provides farmers with agronomic tips, weather alerts and index-based insurance, all delivered to their mobile phones. For many subscribers, insurance is a key component of the bundle. \"I know that if I lose some of my maize because of drought, like I did last year, I will now get compensation,\" says Robinah Nasjamma, a farmer in Zirobwe District. For her, as for a growing number of farmers, index-based insurance is becoming an important safety net in the struggle to cope with a changing climate.  In 2018, CTA launched a new project, VALUE4HER, which is designed to strengthen women's agribusiness enterprises in Southern, Eastern and Western Africa, as well as in the Caribbean. think it will make a real difference to the lives of large numbers of women, and help them move towards the business end of value chains where most of the profits are to be found,\" says Sabdiyo Dido Bashuna, CTA Senior Technical Adviser for Value Chains & Agribusiness. The 2-year project aims to help 100 large-scale women-led agribusinesses access high-value markets. These, in turn, will benefit around 10,000 medium-scale agribusinesses and 50,000 women.The project has three main components. The first two, which will be launched in 2019, are designed to help women-led agribusinesses access high-value agricultural markets. They will do this in two ways: by providing women with access to market intelligence and price information; and by providing women with the training and skills they need to improve their business performance. The third component aims to build women's capacity to manage and expand their businesses by improving their skills, knowledge and networks.One of the main activities for 2018 involved the design and development of a digital agribusiness intelligence portal for women agripreneurs in Africa. This aims to bridge the information gap that repeatedly disadvantages women in agricultural markets. To this end, a call for registration of women agribusinesses was made in East and Southern Africa. By early 2019, 350 women agripreneurs were registered and the portal was under construction. The agripreneurs will receive customised services ranging from market information and business intelligence to well-targeted training and self-development modules. Additionally, financiers and other business service providers will be able to reach women agripreneurs.In 2018, CTA and its South African lead partner -African Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) -hosted a global event that featured best practices in women entrepreneurship in general, and women agripreneurship in particular. They also launched the VALUE4HER Women Agripreneur of the Year Awards, which recognised and celebrated women who had excelled in different parts of the agricultural value chain. The awards ceremony took place in Cape Town, South Africa, at the 4th AWIEF Conference.The three winners included a wide range of women-led businesses of varying sizes and age groups. A Kenyan company, Exotic EPZ Ltd, works directly with smallholder farmers to maximise their yields and profits from macadamia nuts and three different tree oils. Elgin Free Range Chickens, established 20 years ago, is now one of the largest businesses of its kind in South Africa. Agrisolve in Ghana works with smallholder farmers to improve their access to inputs and technology, as well as guaranteed markets for their produce. These three winners -Exotic EPZ, Elgin Free Range Chickens, and Agrisolve -received trophies and certificates, as well as significant cash prizes, from CTA.Just as importantly, according to Irene Ochem, Executive Director of AWIEF, they and other entrants provide a tremendous example to others. \"The awards recognised women who had excelled and showed great innovation in their businesses,\" she says. \"We hope that this awards ceremony will motivate those already in the business to do better, inspire more women to get into agribusinesses and help change perceptions about women's ability to establish and develop successful businesses''.  experience capitalisation workshops held in East Africa in 2018 focused on public, private and producer partnerships. These included projects designed to increase awareness of post-harvest best practice for maize in Rwanda, improve market access for fruit and vegetable growers in Zanzibar, boost soybean production in Uganda and set up an agricultural growth corridor in Tanzania.\"The main aim of the project has been to validate the approach of experience capitalisation,\" says Jorge Chavez-Tafur, CTA Associate Programme Coordinator for Knowledge Management. \"We wanted to demonstrate that experience capitalisation is possible, that it is not expensive, and that you do not necessarily require an external consultant, nor a lot of time.\" D uring 2016 and 2017, CTA and its partners convened experience capitalisation workshops in the ACP regions where CTA works, as well as in Southeast Asia, India and Nepal, and Latin America. Two workshops were held in each region. During the first, those attending chose which experiences to focus on before carrying out a detailed analysis of the lessons learned. The second workshop was devoted to writing and presenting stories and preparing action plans for the future. In 2018, CTA and IFAD produced six experience capitalisation publications. For many workshop participants, this was their first opportunity to showcase their experiences to a wider public.Experiences, of course, refer to a great spectrum of activities. To give just one example, the  According to many of CTA's partners, the workshops have had a real impact. Take, for example, the experience of the Savannah Young Farmers Network in northern Ghana. Its executive director Moses Nganwani Tia was able to reflect on the network's flagship youth-in-agribusiness development initiative, Innovation Hub (iHub), when he attended CTA's experience capitalisation workshops in West Africa in 2017.In 2016, 10 farmers expressed an interest in working with iHub to establish a beekeeping industry in Ghana's Upper East region. The Timonde Bee Keepers Association set up 52 beehives with an annual honey production capacity of 450 kg, with support from a climate adaptation fund. According to Moses, the experience capitalisation workshop, and the lessons learned from examining iHub activities, led to significant expansion of the beekeeping industry. Some 377 women have now adopted beekeeping in six villages and UNDP, the World Bank and the Ministry of Environment, are now promoting beekeeping as an activity which can help communities become more resilient to climate change.One of the most interesting results is that CTA itself has become an enthusiastic adopter of the approach, and during 2018 a series of experience capitalisation workshops brought together CTA staff and partners. The processes have focused on the CTA thematic areas of youth, ICTs and digitalisation, climate-smart agriculture and gender.In October 2018, the project held a facilitator's meeting at IFAD's headquarters in Rome. This was attended by 28 facilitators, all of whom had completed their own capitalisation process during the past 2 years, and also supported others. Participants were able to reflect on the main issues which need to be considered before and during the capitalisation process. The workshop also discussed and validated a facilitators' guide which will be published in early 2019. \"I think the process of experience capitalisation has really taken off now, and many of those who have benefited from our workshops will continue to use it and promote it after our project ends in 2019,\" says Chavez-Tafur. We wanted to demonstrate that experience capitalisation is possible, that it is not expensive, and that you do not necessarily require an external consultant, nor a lot of time. ","tokenCount":"8551"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"648617fd5f60a349d5ee303c5aa627cf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4026a5a8-216f-4733-aa35-6eed0ceca294/retrieve","id":"1438036215"},"keywords":["Crop Yield","Nutrient Stock","Soil and Water Conservation","Landscape"],"sieverID":"ab7f0fc8-5c94-4f77-abe7-f844113ac2e4","pagecount":"44","content":"We acknowledge development agents in assisting data collection during the study. The authors gratefully acknowledge the CGIAR research program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) for financial support.Land degradation due to soil erosion and soil fertility depletion has been a major national agenda in Ethiopia because of its adverse impact on crop productivity, the environment, and its effect on food security and human wellbeing (Deressa et al. 2011;Kassie et al. 2008;Bewket 2007). Due to land degradation, vast areas of fertile lands have become unproductive (Haileslassie et al. 2006;Bewket and Teferi 2009;Kassie et al. 2009;Muluneh et al. 2017). Water erosion is the most important form of land degradation in Ethiopia (Haregeweyn et al. 2017;Badege 2001;Hurni 2000;Tekle 1999). Although estimates of the extent and rate of soil erosion lack consistency, several studies have revealed the severity of the problem in the country. Based on plot scale measurements, the highest rate of soil loss occurs from cultivated lands ranging from 42 t -1 ha -1 yr -1 (Hurni 1988) to 179 t ha -1 yr -1 (Shiferaw and Holden 1999). In addition, the negative nutrient balances of several studies indicate the severity of soil nutrient depletion in Ethiopia (Wolka et al. 2021;Lemma et al. 2017;Haileslassie et al. 2005;Stoorvogel and Smaling 1990). For example, Stoorvogel and Smaling (1990) and Haileslassie et al. (2005) indicated that the average national nutrient balances of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were negative.To address the problem of land degradation and enhance soil health for intensification, government, donors, international aid agencies, and multi-lateral development bodies have invested millions of US dollars in land management practices (Adimassu et al. 2018;Andersson et al. 2011;Nedassa et al. 2011). Land management (LM) practices using the food-for-work approach begun related to the 1973/74 drought (Beshah 2003). The efforts were enhanced after the 1983/1984 droughts, when various national soil and water conservation efforts have been undertaken with the financial support of international donors and mass mobilization of rural communities (Adimassu et al. 2018;Beshah 2003). For the last 10 years, an integrated watershed management program has been widely used by governmental and non-governmental organizations to reduce land degradation, enhance ecosystem service and improve farmers' livelihood (Gumma et al. 2021;Gebregziabher et al. 2016;GIZ 2015). The program takes a holistic approach using several interventions mainly soil and water conservation practices at the watershed scale. The most important land management Land management is an important factor that affects ecosystem services provision of the land (Schulte et al.2014;Eppink et al. 2012;Van Oudenhoven at al, 2012). Understanding how land management improve ecosystem services help to create awareness of farmers and policy makers regarding the benefits of land management practices and enhance farmers' decisions on land investments ( Petz et al. 2014, Eppink et al. 2012).. In recent years, countries in the world adopted the concept of ecosystem services with the hope that it will improve the process of natural resource management and its outcomes (Bremer at al. 2016;Kline at al. 2013). Ecosystems are actively managed by humans to optimize the provision of food, and fiber and these ecosystem services from agriculture, classified as provisioning services by the recent Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, depend in turn upon a web of supporting and regulating services as inputs to production (Zhang et al 2007). Indicators are crucial for quantifying ecosystem service (van Oudenhoven 2015). An indicator is a measure or metric based on verifiable data that conveys information about more than itself (Almagro et al. 2016). A measure is a value that is quantified against a standard, whereas a metric is a set of data collected and used to underpin each indicator (Keesstra et al. 2018;Feld et al. 2009). Indicators can provide information to decision makers and land managers based upon which interventions can be identified, prioritized and executed (Muller et al. 2016;Haines-Young et al 2012). From land management perspective, these indicators include crop yield, soil fertility, soil showed that the influence of soil and stone bunds on provisioning, regulating and supporting ecosystem services is either positive, negative or neutral (Abera et al. 2019;Adimassu et al. 2017;Hailu et al. 2012;Mekuria et al. 2007). This indicates that site and context specific evaluation of land management practices regarding the benefits of land management practices on supporting and provisioning ecosystem services is essential. Hence, studies on whether or not land management practices improved supporting and provisioning services limited in the study areas. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the benefits of selected land management practices on ecosystem services across four Agro-ecological locations of Ethiopia representing critically important crop areas for sustainable intensification of Ethiopia. The study was conducted between June 2018 and January 2019 in four watersheds of Ethiopia namely Alekit-wonz, Embahasti , Borodo and Jawe-gumburaThis study was conducted in four agricultural watersheds in Ethiopia; namely Emba-hasti, Alekit-wonz, Borodo and Jawe-gumbura (Fig. 1). These watersheds were selected due to their importance in representing the major Agro-ecological zones of the country where major crops are grown. Emba-hasti and Alekit-wonz watersheds are situated in Tigray and Amahra of Ethiopia, respectively. Borodo and Jawe-gumbura are located in the central and southern parts of the country-in Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's (SNNP) regions, respectively. All watersheds are located in the highlands where the elevations for Emba-hasti, Alekit-wonz, Borodo and Jawe-gumbura are 2330-3440 m, 2770-3000 m, 2210-2730m and 2110-2800 m, respectively. Alekit-wonz, Jawe-gumbura, Borodo and Emba-hasti watersheds cover 4.6, 117, 5.3, and 11.2 square kilometers, respectively. practices. Hence, this research was conducted on stone bunds in Emba-hasti and Alekit-wonz watersheds, 118 and on soil bunds in Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds. 119In the study watersheds, soil bunds occupied 1-1.5 m width of land for every soil/stone bund As a 120 result, 1.5 m width land can be taken up by the newly constructed soil and stone bunds. However, when the 121 The study watersheds belong to four different agro-ecological zones (AEZs) of Ethiopia (Table 1).According to MoANR (2005), Alekit-wonz and Emba-hasti are located in cool moist (M4) and cold submoist (SH5) AEZs, respectively. Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds are located in Tepid-moist (M3) and Tepid sub-humid (SM3) AEZs, respectively.The annual rainfall trends of the study watersheds are presented in Fig. 2. Alekit-wonz watershed received the highest annual rainfall with the mean of 1500 mm (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) and standard deviation of 320 mm (Fig. 2). The lowest annual rainfall was recorded in Emba-hasti watershed with the annual average rainfall of 750 mm and standard deviation of 133 mm.The annual average rainfall of Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds were 1100 mm and 1200 mm with a standard deviation of 145 mm and 178 mm, respectively. The trend of annual rainfall decreased over the years, mainly in Alekit-wonz and Emba-hasti watersheds. As shown in Fig. 2, annual rainfall in Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds showed no trend over the years on record, whilst there is a suggestion in the other watersheds of decline. The most dominant crop grown in Alekit-wonz and Emba-hasti watersheds is barley. However, wheat is the most important crop in Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds.The type and characteristics of the land management practices varied across the four watersheds. However, soil and stone bunds are the most common and widely used land management practices in the study watersheds.In Emba-hasti and Alekit-wonz watersheds, the dominant land management practices were stone bunds. Stone bunds in Alekit-wonz were supported by tree planting such as Chamaecytisus palmensis (Fig. 3). In both Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds, soil bunds were the dominant land management ditch behind the bunds (50 cm width) has filled with sediment, only 1 m width is occupied by soil and stone bunds. This has resulted in the reduction of quite high proportion of area under cultivation. Hence, crop yield (t ha -1 ) was calculated by taking into account the area occupied by the soil/stone bunds.Three treatments of land management were considered to collect soil samples from each watershed (Table 2). In Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds, control treatments (plots without soil bunds) were used and compared with bunds of conserved plots of different ages (Table 2). In Alekit-wonz and Emba-hasti watersheds, almost all cultivated lands were conserved with stone or soil bunds. In Borodo and Jawe-gumbra watersheds, treatments were replicated three times. In Alekit-wonz and Emba-hasti watersheds, six farmers' fields were chosen from each watershed. Hence, these farmers were considered as replicates during analysis.In Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds, wheat (Triticum aestivum) was the test crop whereas in Emba-hasti and Alekitwonz watersheds, barley (Hordeum vulgare) was the test crop. Wheat and barley were selected for this study because these are the dominant crops grown in the respective watersheds.Usually, the distances between two successive soil/stone bunds were highly variable due to the original slope of the land, soil depth, rainfall characteristics and the specification of the bunds (Desta et al., 2005). The average actual sampling distance from the bund at each relative distance is presented in Table 3.Two levels of spatial analysis were conducted in this research. The first is a variation within individual bunds (relative distance from the bund); and the second is spatial differences across the soil and stone bunds of different age. Therefore, the relative distance (Dr) concept was used to standardize the position of the sample to be taken (Vancampenhout et al. 2006;Dercon et al. 2003). Dr , where Dr is relative distance (dimensionless) along the slope, Li is the distance of the sample i to the lower soil/stone bund (m), and Lt is the total length between two successive soil/stone bunds (m). All samples were taken at equidistance and Dr in each plot were Dr= 0, Dr=0.4 and Dr=0.8 for lower (accumulation zone), middle (erosion zone) and upper (erosion zone) samples, respectively (Fig. 4). Soil samples were taken in June 2016 before the start of the main rainy season. In total, 240 soil samples (60 from each watershed) were taken from 0 to 30 cm depth. At each relative distance from the bunds, soil samples were collected using Edelmann auger at six sampling points and the samples were mixed thoroughly in a bucket to form one composite soil sample per sampling distance.Soil texture, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, and soil organic carbon were analyzed at Horticoop Soil and Plant Analytical Laboratory in Debrezeit of Ethiopia. Soil texture was determined using the pipette method. Soil organic carbon was determined using the Walkley and Black wet digestion method (Allison, 1965). Then the soil organic matter content (%) was obtained by multiplying soil organic carbon by 1.724 (Kalra and Maynard 1991). Total N was determined using the micro-Kjeldahl method (Bremner, 1965), whereas available P was measured by the Bray II method (Bray and Kurtz 1945). Bulk density was measured using the core method from undisturbed soil sample at the same position where soil samples for laboratory analysis were collected. Soil nutrient stocks, including soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (Ntot) and available phosphorus (Pav) in the top soil layer (0-30 cm) were calculated as follows: SOC stock (Mg ha -1 ) = (SOC (%) × 10 -2 ) × BD (Mg m -3 ) × Soil depth (m) × 10000 m 2 ha -1  Ntot stock (Mg ha -1 ) = (Ntot (%) × 10 -2 ) × BD (Mg m -3 ) × Soil depth (m) × 10000 m 2 ha -1  Pav stock (Mg ha -1 ) = Pav (ppm) × 10 -6 × BD (Mg m -3 ) ×Soil depth (m) × 10000 m 2 ha -1Yield data were collected for all plots at three positions along the slope of the land. For land management treated plots, the yield data was taken using a 1 m 2 quadrant at three positions from the bund (Fig. 4). Similarly, for non-treated (control) plots, yield data were taken parallel to the sampling points in treated plots using the same quadrantDescriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation as well as mean comparisons were done using SPSS while summary and graphs were prepared using Excel. Since most data failed the normality test to run Plot level yield (g m -2 ) Fig. 5 depicts crop yield (g m -2 ) patterns of variability with reference to soil and stone bunds. In 3-year-old soil bunds of Borodo watershed, significantly (p<0.05) higher wheat yield was recorded in the accumulation zone as compared to middle and upper zones. Similarly, in Jawe-gumbura watershed, significantly (p<0.05) higher wheat yield was recorded at accumulation zone.In Alekit-wonz watershed, barley yield (g/m 2 ) at accumulation zone was significantly (p<0.05) higher compared with at middle and upper zones. Similarly, in Emba-hasti watershed, barley yield (g m -2 ) at Dr=0 was significantly higher compared with middle and upper zones. In general, the result shows that the crop yield (g m -2 ) in the accumulation zone was higher compared with middle and upper zones in all watersheds.The average grain yield at plot level (g m -2 ) of crops showed that higher average yield was recorded in older soil/stone bunds in all watersheds (Table 4). In Borodo watershed, the average grain yield (g m -2 ) from 5-year-old soil bunds was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the grain yield in 3-year-old soil bunds and in the control plots (p<0.05). The relative effects of 5 and 3-year-old soil bunds over the control were 33% and 17%, respectively. In Jawe-gumbura, wheat yields at 2 and 5-year-old soil bunds were significantly (p<0.05) higher than the control plots. In Jawe-gumbura, the relative effect of soil bunds over the control for 2 and 5-year-old soil bunds was 6%.bunds had no effect on grain yield of wheat. Rather, both 5 and 2-year-old soil bunds had a lower grain yield 216 compared with the control treatment with a relative effect of -9.3% and -8%, respectively. This is mainly 217 because the yield improvement due to soil bunds could not compensate the yield penalty caused by 218 occupation of soil bunds. Similar results were reported in high-rainfall areas in Ethiopia (e.g., Adimassu et 219 al. 2014;Kato et al. 2011). For example, three-year experiment in the central highlands of Ethiopia showed 220 that construction of soil bund reduced barley yield by 7% as compared to control treatment (Adimassu et  In Alekit-wonz watershed, the result shows that barley yield from 4-year-old stone bunds was significantly higher compared with 3-year-old stone bunds and control plots. A similar trend was recorded for Emba-hasti watersheds where barley yield from 25-year-old stone bund was significantly higher (p<0.05) than 10 and 15year-old stone bunds (Table 4).Table 5 describes the overall effect of soil bunds on total grain yield of crops when the area occupied by soil bunds was considered. When the area occupied by the soil bunds was considered, the trend of plot level grain yield is changed among the treatments (Table 5). In Alekit-wonz watershed, grain yield of barley in conserved plots increased with age of stone bunds. For example, this grain yield from 4-year-old stone bund was 33% and 14% higher compared to 2 and 3-year-old stone bunds, respectively. In Emba-hasti watershed, the barley yield was increased from 0.92 to 1.21 t ha -1 when the age of stone bunds increased from 10 to 25 years. A similar trend was recorded in the Emba-hasti watershed regarding the relative effect of stone bunds on barley yield (Table 8). Amdemariam et al. (2011) reported similar results that crop yield increased with increasing age of soil bunds in the northwestern parts of Ethiopia.In Borodo watershed, the result showed that the grain yield from 3-year-old soil bunds was not significantly different from the control treatment (no soil bunds). However, the grain yield from 5-year-old soil bunds was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the control and 3-year-old soil bunds. This implies that at least five years are required to compensate the area lost due to soil bunds. On the contrary, in Jawe-gumbura watershed, soil zone). In Alekit-wonz watershed, SOM content in the accumulation zone was ten and sixteen percent higher 241 than the erosion zones at middle and upper zones, respectively. Similarly, in Emba-hasti watershed, SOM 242 content (%) at accumulation zone was 18% and 16% higher than the SOM content at middle and upper 243 zones, respectively. Our finding is in line with the results elsewhere in the Bokole watershed of southern 244Ethiopia, where SOM contents in the accumulation zone were higher than in the erosion zone (Wolka et al. 245 10 2014). Similarly, extensive studies at Maybar, Andit Tid, And Dizi watersheds in Ethiopia revealed that graded fanya juu, graded bund and grass strip reduced total crop yield by up to 30% (Herweg and Ludi 1999).However, such generalizations are not possible. This is because the positive effects of soil/stone bunds were recorded mainly in moisture-deficit area in which soil/stone bunds can contribute to moisture conservation (Herweg and Ludi 1999;Vancampenhout et al. 2006). For example, at Hunde Lafto watershed of Ethiopia, level soil bund and level fanya juu increased crop yield by 4% and 12%, respectively (Herweg and Ludi 1999).Likewise, in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, level stone bunds increased crop yields compared to the control plots (Vancampenhout et al. 2006).The average SOM contents were 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.7% and 3.4% in Emba-hasti, Alekit-wonz, Borodo and Jawegumbura watersheds, respectively (Fig. 6). In general, this shows that SOM in Jawe-gumbura watershed was relatively higher than the other watersheds.Generally, the results showed that the highest SOM contents were recorded in the accumulation zones in all watersheds (Fig. 5). In the Emba-hasti, Alekit-wonz and Borodo watersheds, the SOM content at the accumulation zone was significantly (p<0.05) higher than upper zone (Fig. 6). This implies that there was higher organic matter accumulation above the soil and stone bunds as compared to the erosion zone (upper SOC stock from 4-year-old soil bunds was 16% higher than the control treatment (Table 6). Nevertheless, 267 the SOC stock from the 5-year-old soil bund was higher than the control treatment. 268 269 11 2011). However, on the contrary, SOM accumulation was not recorded in the accumulation zone compared with erosion zone in the northern parts of Ethiopia (Vancampenhout et al. 2006).The effect of age of soil and stone bunds on SOM content is presented in Fig. 7. The results show that the accumulation of SOM increased over the years in Emba-hasti watershed with the highest SOM content (1.9%) in 25-year-old stone bunds and the lowest in 10-year-old stone bunds. In Borodo watershed, SOM content in 5-year-old soil bund was significantly (p<0.05) higher than SOM content in the 3 and 4-year-old soil bunds. Similarly, in Alekit-wonz watershed, 5-year-old soil bunds had higher SOM compared to 2 and 3year-old stone bunds. In Jawe-gumbura watershed, 2 and 5-year-old soil bunds had higher SOM compared with control plots. Wolka et al. 2011) reported, on average, that 15% and 20% higher SOM in 6-year old soil bunds compared to four and one-year-old soil bunds, respectively. Moreover, a study in the Goromti watershed of western Ethiopia showed that a 5-year-old fanya juu terraces had up to 13% higher SOM compared to the control plots (Hailu et al., 2012). Moreover, SOM needs long time (e.g., 8 years) to build up (Abera et al.Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock in the first 30 cm depth ranged from 27 Mg ha -1 at Emba-hasti to 80 Mg ha -1 at Jawe-gumbura (Table 6). The average SOC stocks in the first 30 cm were 53, 33, 43 and 74 Mg ha -1 in Alekit-wonz, Emha-hasti, Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds, respectively.In Alekit-wonz and Emba-hasti watersheds, SOC stock increases with increasing age of stone bunds.Accordingly, the SOC stock in Alekit-wonz watershed of the 4-year old stone bunds was higher than the SOC stock from 2 and 3-year-old stone bunds. SOC stock from 25-year-old stone bund was higher than the SOC stock from 15 and 10-year-old stone bunds. However, in Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds, the The bulk density of soils ranged from 1.1 to 1.3 g cm -3 (Table 5). On average, plots in Alekit-wonz 292 watershed had a slightly lower bulk density compared with the plots in the other three watersheds. The bulk 293 density of the soil in all watersheds, except Alekit-wonz, was relatively high that probably impede 294 The most important indicators of supporting ecosystem services constituent physical and chemical properties of the soil. Physical properties of the soil include soil texture and soil bulk density. Soil chemical properties considered in this study were total nitrogen and available phosphorus. The effects of land management practices on these indicators in four watersheds are discussed below.The effects of soil and stone bunds on the distribution of sand, silt and clay in the four study watersheds are presented in Table 7. In Alekit-wonz watershed, significantly lower sand contents and higher clay contents were recorded in the accumulation zone from 2 and 3 year-old stone bunds (Table 4). In Emba-hasti watershed, only clay content was significantly higher (p<0.05) in the accumulation zone from 25 year-old stone bunds (Table 4). In both Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds, no significant difference of sand, silt and clay contents were recorded among relative distance from the soil bunds. The fine texture of soils in the accumulation zone in Alekit-wonz and Emba-hasti watersheds can be attributed to the sedimentation of soil particles transported from areas of erosion (middle and upper zones). This also implies that stone bunds are more effective in capturing the fine texture of the soil (clay content) than soil bunds. This result is in line with the findings in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, where higher accumulation of clay was observed in the accumulation zone compared with erosion zones (Vagen et al. 1999).showed that Ntot content was up to 57% higher in the accumulation zone of stone bunds compared with the 315 erosion zone (Wolka et al. 2011). Similarly, Hailu et al. (2012) reported that fanya juu terrace in the Goromti 316 watershed of western Ethiopia had 41.2% higher total nitrogen compared with adjacent control plots. 317 Amdemariam et al. (2011) also reported that soil SOM content from a 9-year old soil bund was 56.6% higher 318 than the control treatment. These insignificant differences can be explained in two ways. Firstly, nitrogen is 319 highly dynamic and can be exposed to leaching in the form of Nitrate (Lemma et al. 2017)  (Lemma et al. 2017). Similarly, the results indicate that there were no significant differences of bulk density with increasing distance from the bund in all watersheds. In Borodo and Emba-hasti watersheds, bulk density in the accumulation zone was slightly higher than bulk densities at middle and upper zones. However, these differences were not statistically significant (Table 5). This implies that the effect of land management practices on bulk densities of the soil were not significant across the study watersheds. This result is in line with findings in two watershed of Ethiopia that the average bulk densities were 1.0 and 1.1 g cm -3 for conserved and non-conserved plots, respectively (Vagen et al. 1999). Like soil texture, the results show that age of land management practices had inconsistent and insignificant effects on soil bulk density in all watersheds (Table 8).Total nitrogen (Ntot) content of the soil varied across the watersheds (Fig. 8). The highest Ntot content was recorded in Alekit-wonz and the lowest was recorded in Borodo watershed. The average Ntot content for Alekitwonz, Borodo, Emba-hasti and Jawe-gumbura watersheds were 0.20%, 0.12%, 0.13% and 0.16%, respectively. In all watersheds, Ntot contents of the soil were inconsistent and not significantly different with distance from the bunds (Fig. 8). In each watershed, Ntot contents were almost similar at all positions. For example, 0.19% Ntot content was recorded at accumulation and erosion zones. Similarly, in Borodo, 0.12% Ntot content was recorded at both accumulation and middle zones (Fig. 8). The finding of this study regarding Ntot is not in line with other studies in the country. For example, a study in the southern parts of Ethiopia The effect of age of soil and stone bunds on Ntot content of the soil is presented in Fig. 9. In Embahasti watershed, a clear trend in Ntot content of the soil over time was not observed. The result shows that total nitrogen contents (Ntot ) content of the soil in 15-year-old stone bunds was higher than 10-year-old stone bunds.However, Ntot content of the soil in 25-year-old stone bunds was lower than 15-year-old stone bunds although not statistically significant. Generally, although the magnitude varied, Ntot content of the soil had an increasing trend over time , in Alekit-wonz and Borodo watersheds. In Alekit wonz. although the ages of soil bunds were not strongly associated with Ntot contents, Ntot increased with increasing age of the soil bunds. For example in Borodo, Ntot contents increased from 0.12% to 0.13% when age of soil bund increased from 0 to 5 years.Similarly in Jawe-gumbura watershed, Ntot from 2-year-old soil bunds was 0.15% whereas 0.16% for 5-yearold soil bunds. These results were demonstrated in other parts of Ethiopia (Amdemariam et al., 2011;Hailu et al., 2012;Wolka et al., 2011). For example, higher Ntot contents were recorded from five and ten-year old fanya juu terrace as compared to the control treatment (Hailu et al., 2012). Compared with the control treatment, significantly higher Ntot was recorded in 9-year old soil bunds in the Amhara region of Ethiopia (Amdemariam et al. 2011). Likewise, Wolka et al. (2011) also reported that 37% higher Ntot was recorded from 4-year old soil bunds compared with control treatments. The inconsistent association between Ntot and age of soil bunds is due to high mobility of nitrogen and the spatial variability of organic residue such as crop residue. ha -1 ) was recorded in the Alekit-wonz and Jawe-gumbura watersheds. The effect of age of soil and stone 365 bunds on Ntot stock is depicted in Table 6. In Alekit-wonz and Emba-hasti watersheds, Ntot stock increased 366 with increasing age of stone bunds. Accordingly, Ntot stock in Alekit-wonz watershed from 4-year old stone 367 bunds was 42% and 22% higher than the Ntot stock from 2 and 3-year-old stone bunds, respectively. Ntot 368 stock from a 25-year-old stone bund was higher than the total nitrogen stocks from 15 and 10-year-old stone 369 15 higher relative to middle and upper zones (Fig. 9). However, in Alekit-wonz watershed, Pav at accumulation zone was lower relative to middle and upper zones. Similarly, in Jawe-gumbura watershed, Pav in accumulation zone was lower realtive to middle and uppert zones.Like Ntot, the trends of Pav in relative to age of soil and stone bunds were inconsistent (Fig. 11). In Emba-hasti watershed, Pav in 15-year-old stone bunds was significantly (p<0.05) higher as compared to 10 and 25-year-old stone bunds. In Alekit-wonz watershed, Pav content in 2-year-old stone bunds was significantly lower compared with 3 and 4-year-old stone bunds. Similarly, in Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds, control plots had significantly lower Pav content compared with conserved plots (Fig. 11). This is mainly due to the fact that soil and stone bunds reduced sediment and runoff associated losses of Pav.A study in the central highland of Ethiopia showed that soil bunds reduced sediment and runoff associated losses of Pav by 54% and 32%, respectively (Halefom et al., 2021;Berihun et al., 2020;Adimassu et al., 2014). A study in the northern Ethiopia showed that Pav was 45% higher in the accumulation zone of bench terrace as compared to erosion zone (Vagen et al. 1999). Vancampenhout et al. (2006) reported higher Pav content in the accumulation zone compared with erosion zone, particularly in the limestone parent material. Also, 60% higher Pav was recorded in conserved watershed compared with adjacent non-conserved watershed in the northwestern parts of Ethiopia (Demelash and Stahr 2010).Soil nutrient stocks presented in Table 9 aggregates soil nutrient properties such as total nitrogen and available phosphorus. On average, total nitrogen stock in the top 30 cm depth ranged from 3.7 Mg ha -1 at Emba-hasti to 7.5 Mg ha -1 at Alekit-wonz watersheds (Table 6). A relatively higher total nitrogen stocks (Mg  Lemma et al. 2017;Vagen et al. 1999). However, 389 crop yield data had inconsistent correlation with sand, silt and clay contents of the soil (Table 9). 390 Accordingly, crop yield was negatively correlated with sand content in all watersheds except Jawe-gumbura 391 (Table 10). The correlations between yield and clay content were positive in Borodo and Alekit-wonz 392 watersheds, and negative in Jawe-gumbura and Emba-hasti watersheds (Table 9). The negative correlations 393 16 bunds. However, in Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds, the relation between Ntot stock and age of soil bunds was inconsistent (Tale 6) On average, available phosphorus (Pav) stock in the top 30 cm depth ranged from 0.02 Mg ha -1 at Emba-hasti to 0.20 Mg ha -1 at Alekit-wonz (Table 6). The average Pav stocks (Mg ha -1 ) in 0-30 cm were 0.17, 0.03, 0.06 and 0.04 Mg ha -1 in Alekit-wonz, Emha-hasti, Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds, respectively.The result showed inconsistent result regarding the effect of age of soil and stone bunds on Pav stock (Table 6). Accordingly, Pav stock in Alekit-wonz watershed from 4-year old stone bunds (0.2 Mg ha-1) was 100% and 90% higher than the Pav stock from 3 and 2-year-old stone bunds, respectively. In Emba-hasti watershed, average Pav stock from 15-year-old stone bunds was 100% higher than the Pav stock from 25 and 10-year-old stone bunds. However, in Borodo and Jawe-gumbura watersheds, Pav stock from 5-year-old soil bunds was 40% and 17% higher than the Pav stock from 4-year old soil bunds and control plots, respectively.The correlations between crop yield (provisioning service) and soil properties (supporting service) in all watersheds are presented in Table 10. In all study watersheds, the crop yield (g/m 2 ) data show positively and significantly correlated with SOM, NTot, and Pav and negatively and significantly correlated with bulk density. between crop yield and bulk density might be because of the hampering effect of bulk density on root elongation and growth of crops (Lemma et al. 2017;Zelek et al. 2004;Vaz 2001).In general, the results of this study show that the highest accumulation of soil nutrient including soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and available phosphorus are recorded in accumulation zone of soil and stone bunds.Similarly, the highest crop yield was observed in the accumulated zone of soil and stone bunds. Moreover, the result also shows that stone bunds are more effective than soil bunds in capturing finer texture (clay) part of the soil. In addition to position, age of soil and stone bunds influenced the effect of land management on ecosystem services. Accordingly, the highest soil nutrient (soil organic carbon, total organic carbon, and available phosphors were the highest in older soil and stone bunds in all watersheds except in Borodo watershed. This shows that land management practices take longer time to enhance supporting ecosystem services. The correlation between crop yield and soil properties suggests that soil nutrient is the limiting factor for crop production. This implies that integrated soil fertility management practices should be an important component of land management to produce significant crop yield.Although land management practices enhanced regulating, supporting and provisioning ecosystem services, the results are inconsistent across the study watersheds. This implies that long-term studies at various agro-ecologies and farming systems are essential to generate reliable information regarding the linkage between land management practices and various ecosystem services. Investments in land Abera W, Tamene L, Tibebe D, Adimassu Z., Kassa H, Hailu H, Mekonnen K, Desta G, Sommer R., 439 Verchot L (2019). Characterizing and evaluating the impacts of national land restoration initiatives on 440 ecosystem services in Ethiopia. Land degradation and development. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3424 441 18 protection or enhancement of one or more ecosystem services. The PES approaches are increasingly advocated as a means to link ecosystem protection and human well-being. The study showed that investment in land management practices enhanced provisioning, regulating and supporting ecosystem services. However, the study was conducted in four agricultural watersheds which represent few agro-ecology and farming systems of the country. This implies that national and international research organizations should establish long-term study at various agro-ecology and farming system of the country to fully understand the benefit of land management practices in relation to ecosystems services provision. Further studies are needed using latest techniques such as modelling, GIS (Geographic Information System) and Remote Sensing applications to quickly assess the effect of land management on ecosystem services Given the importance of land management in enhancing ecosystem services, investments in land management should be linked with payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes. Farmers' capacity and motivation to invest in land management enhanced when they are benefited from payment for ecosystem services schemes. Hence, it is important to develop PES approach for land management investments. .         ","tokenCount":"5406"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"40f2dcd24c3b3fb70f4361886b5d1af0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cd78e8b0-91d9-4c4f-8442-8bf5548951d6/retrieve","id":"-26757061"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8cb42115-1d90-40df-9747-70f33b8bed2b","pagecount":"51","content":"En el mes de julio se presentó en primer informe de avances técnicos marzo -junio referidos a la implementación del plan de trabajo 2018 para las acciones conjuntas entre CATIE y CCAFS. Este documento constituirá el segundo y último informe de avances correspondientes a las acciones del 01 julio al 31 de diciembre del 2018.Siguiendo el formado del primer informe, se presentan los avances para el periodo indicado anteriormente y se valorará el cumplimiento final para cada una de las acciones planificadas de acuerdo a los entregables previstos y la valoración general de cumplimiento para las cuatro líneas o ejes de trabajo definidos en el plan 2018: i), monitoreo en los tres TeSAC, ii) la implementación de la herramienta PICSA con organizaciones socias locales en ambos territorios, incluyendo el fortalecimiento y/o conformación de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA), iii) ajuste e implementación de la herramienta PICSA con familias productoras integrantes de las ECA+++ en los TeSAC de El Tuma -La Dalia, Nicaragua y Olopa, en Guatemala, durante los ciclos de primera y postrera o segunda, y iv) un eje denominado acciones generales que contempla 12 actividades vinculadas con la conformación de alianzas para el trabajo en los territorios, la sistematización en el uso y escalamiento de la herramienta PICSA con familias productoras y socios locales, y el desarrollo de propuestas para el escalamiento de las experiencias desarrolladas en los TESAC en Centroamérica.En el caso del TeSAC Olopa en Trifinio, las acciones del segundo semestre se desarrollaron luego de la afectación de una canícula prolongada que ocasiono la perdida de maíz en la primera temporada de lluvias, este fenómeno propicio varias reuniones de la MTA Chiquimula para analizar y proponer recomendaciones técnicas pertinentes para las familias productoras y tomadores de decisión. Fue un elemento integrador que posiciono a la MTA a nivel departamental. A nivel organizacional existieron cambios a nivel de tomadores de decisión de organizaciones afines al desarrollo de este plan de trabajo, ejemplo, CTPT, MAGA, Mancomunidad Copanch'orti, que debilitaron el trabajo de incidencia y escalonamiento que se venía trabajando.1. Implementación del sistema de monitoreo y evaluación en los TeSAC desarrollados por CCAFS-CATIE en Centroamérica.El monitoreo de hogares de los TeSAC en Centro América fue cumplido en base al plan de trabajo. La totalidad de las acciones o entregables previstos en esta línea de trabajo tubo fecha de cumplimiento finales de mayo del 2018. La mayoría de las acciones fueron reportadas en el primer informe de avance presentado a CCAFS en julio 2018. Un 95% de los 7 entregables comprometidos en los territorios, se cumplieron en tiempo y forma. Para el periodo julio -diciembre únicamente se completó la última versión de un blog divulgativo del proceso de monitoreo en los TeSAC cumplido a finales de agosto. Como se detalló en el primer informe de avances, el monitoreo se completó con 431 hogares en Centroamérica (146 El Tuma -La Dalia, Nicaragua; 143 en Olopa, Guatemala; y 141 hogares en Santa Rita, Honduras). Ver anexo 1. Quedo pendiente en 2018 la interpretación y redacción del informe final con los resultados del monitoreo, esto debido a que no se recibieron a tiempo los tablas de salida e insumos necesarios con los resultados del monitoreo, esta acción correspondía a CCAFS.2. Implementación de la metodología PICSA con integrantes de ECA +++ en Nicaragua.El plan 2018 contemplaba la preparación de 10 entregables. Su implementación estaba prevista desde finales de febrero, hasta finales de junio, y tenía como supuesto la posibilidad de trabajar estos talleres en forma paralela para personal técnico, y especialistas locales participantes de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA) y la aplicación de PICSA con familias integrantes de ECAs Agroclimáticas atendidas en los TeSAC para el ciclo de primera.Como se describe en el ejercicio de cumplimiento empleando la metodología del semáforo (anexo 1), el plan tuvo que modificarse para Nicaragua. Como se indicó en informe anterior en Nicaragua no se logró la participación del Instituto de Estudios Territoriales (INETER), para liderar los esfuerzos de una MTA para este territorio. La decisión con CCAFS fue validar la aplicación de la herramienta PICSA usando los boletines agroclimáticos divulgados por la plataforma del foro del clima en Centroamérica en el marco del Sistema de Integración Centroamericana.Ante la limitante indicada y dadas las condiciones socio políticas vividas en Nicaragua desde el mes de abril, los procesos elegidos para el cumplimiento de este eje de trabajo fueron invertidos. El proceso se inició según plan en febrero, pero por las razones indicadas solo se trabajaron las actividades 1.1.; y 1.2.; el resto de las acciones para responder al plan 2018 fue retomado de septiembre a noviembre del 2018.El entrenamiento a socios locales para el uso de la herramienta PICSA se hizo hasta finales de noviembre, después de concretar su validación y documentación para su uso con familias productoras integrantes de las ECAs como se describirá más adelante. Para el entrenamiento de actores clave se documentó cada sesión con familias y se preparó una guía metodológica sobre cómo se podría aplicar esta herramienta en el marco de la implementación de procesos de ECA Agroclimáticas. El proceso con familias se completó en septiembre del 2018 y se preparó un dosier metodológico que recoge esta experiencia. En el taller de entrenamiento participaron 8 personas (una mujer) entre personal técnico y promotores rurales que asistieron, de tres ONGs, dos organizaciones asociativas y 2 instituciones públicas con acciones en el TeSAC El Tuma -La Dalia.En general, se puede indicar que en este eje se cumplió con un 80% de los 10 entregables previstos en el plan 2018. En dos de ellos indicamos que no aplican en nuestra valoración dado que se previa la participación en un taller a realizarse en el CIAT Colombia y para esta actividad no se recibió ninguna invitación (actividad 3.1., anexo 1).Consistentes con el enfoque de ECAs agroclimáticas, multirubro y multitemáticas, entre julio y noviembre del 2018, se desarrollaron 7 sesiones colectivas de capacitación con cada uno de los dos grupos ECAs implementados el TeSAC. Como parte de ellas, se completó la validación de la herramienta PICSA, se capacitó a las familias integrantes en temas vinculados con la producción de patio y sus sistemas productivos priorizados. Abajo, en el cuadro 1, se describen estas acciones colectivas y las actividades de AT individual o en pequeños grupos realizados en Nicaragua.Cuadro 1. Sesiones grupales con los grupos ECA+++ activos en El Tuma -La Dalia para validar la herramienta PICSA y fortalecer las acciones multitema y multirubro. Grupo ECA Fechas Hombres Mujeres Total Sesión 3: Segundo evento PICSA Probabilidades, pronósticos estacionales, opciones de prácticas para adaptación, presupuestos participativos de prácticas y toma de decisiones (pasos C, D, E, F, G, y H, del manual) Grupo Aguas Amarillas -El Consuelo 17-07-2018 5 11 16Grupo Wasaka Abajo 18-07-2018 5 12 17Sesión 4: Tercer evento PICSA Uso de pronósticos estacionales, alertas tempranas y juste de planes (pasos I, J y K del manual) Grupo Aguas Amarillas -El Consuelo ECA: Wasaka Abajo -Siembra y manejo de semilleros de hortalizas.-Diseños y manejo de chiqueros y gallineros.-Reactivación de fosas o vertederos para clasificación de la basura doméstica, en orgánica e inorgánica. -Manejo sanitario en aves y cerdos (aplicación de desparasitantes y vitaminas) manejo de galeras. -Monitoreo de plagas y enfermedades en cacao y granos básicos.-Poda de formación, rehabilitación, mantenimiento en cacao.-Manejo sanitario en aves y cerdos (aplicación de desparasitantes y vitaminas) -Siembra y manejo de semilleros de hortalizas.-Diseños de chiqueros y gallineros -Reactivación de fosas o vertederos para clasificación de la basura doméstica, en orgánica e inorgánica. -Monitoreo de plagas y enfermedades en cacao y granos básicos -Poda de formación, rehabilitación, mantenimiento en cacao.-Control de aguas mieles y pulperos para la producción de café.-Diseño y construcción de galeras para aves, cerdos, ganado vacuno y siembra de pastos mejorados. -Aplicación de caldo sulfocálcico, bordelés , visosa, y biofertilizantes.-En cacao, la asesoría técnica se enfocó en manejo de podas de formación y mantenimiento, fertilización edáfica y manejo de zompopos, áfidos y ácaros, mediante la preparación y uso de caldo sulfocálcico y caldo visosa. -En el cultivo granos básicos, se brindó asistencia técnica para la producción de maíz y frijoles. En maíz se orientó el manejo malezas y el control de cogollero; en frijoles, aplicación de caldos sulfocálcico para manejo de requemo, uso de biofermentados, caldo visosa y caldo bordelés.-En el sistema ganadero, los temas de asistencia técnica fueron en: establecimiento de cercas vivas, manejo de malezas en potreros y manejo sanitario del ganado (desparasitación y vitaminación). -Siembra de pastos mejorados (parcelas demostrativas promovidas por CIAT Nicaragua, con cinco especies) -Preparación y uso de concentrado para ganado.-En la escuela de campo de Aguas Amarillas las familias están trabajando principalmente con sistemas agroforestales con café y cacao. La siembra granos básicos es solo para el autoconsumo, se ha implementado la aplicación de biofermentados y uso de fungicidas orgánicos. -La asesoría técnica en este periodo se concentró principalmente en el manejo de enfermedades fungosas como el mal de hilachas o pellejillo. Se sugirió a las familias la aplicación de ceniza o cal cocida a razón de un litro por bombada de 20 litros y la regulación de la sombra para bajar la incidencia de las enfermedades. -También, se brindó asistencia técnica sobre la aplicación de fertilizante edáfico al café para lograr un buen desarrollo del grano de café. -En cacao, se orientó la poda de formación y de mantenimiento, la regulación de sombra orientadas de norte a sur y eliminar el musgo de los árboles para estimular una mayor floración y producción.En este eje del plan, se habían comprometido alrededor de 15 entregables. A pesar de las dificultades vividas en el país en términos de movilidad y de seguridad en el campo, la alianza con Nitlapan/UCA como socio local garantizó la presencia de un técnico local y esto permitió un cumplimiento de más del 90% de las actividades y entregables previstos. Aquí la mayor limitación fue cumplir con los blogs divulgativos de cada actividad. Como CATIE, al menos para todas las sesiones PICSA siempre se prepararon las memorias correspondientes y se circularon a CCAFS.En Nicaragua no tenemos ninguna certeza sobre cómo podría evolucionar la aplicación de la herramienta PICSA en el trabajo con familias productoras del TeSAC. En taller de entrenamiento con técnicos y promotores rurales realizado en noviembre se discutió los temas de más interés. Sin embargo, también fue discutido cuales podrían ser las mayores limitantes y la mayoría coincidió en señalar la ausencia de las MTA y de INETER para lograr una mayor disponibilidad de información climática a nivel local. Abajo se describen los temas PICSA indicados por técnicos y promotores rurales como los más viables para replicar con familias:-Elaboración de calendario climático -Elaboración del calendario agroclimático (4 participantes) -Mapa de asignación de recursos (5 participantes) -Complementar el plan de finca promovido desde sus organizaciones con el mapa de asignación de recursos -Análisis de información climática (comportamiento de la precipitación durante los últimos años) -Análisis de datos recolectados en miniestaciones climáticas comunitarias -Análisis de vulnerabilidad (3 participantes) -Homologación de conceptos relacionados con el tema de CC) -Análisis de los efectos del pronóstico climático sobre las principales actividades agropecuarias de la comunidad e identificación y selección de posibles acciones como respuesta al pronóstico estacional -Análisis ¿Cómo afectó el comportamiento del clima las actividades productivas en la finca? -Interpretaciones de pronósticos estacionales y su uso en la planificación de la agricultura 3. Implementación de la metodología PICSA en Guatemala en el marco de la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de ChiquimulaEl proceso de escalonamiento de la metodología PICSA continúo en el Departamento de Chiquimula, Guatemala, lugar a donde se encuentra ubicado el TeSAC Olopa. En el mes de agosto 2018 se realizó el taller de socialización de la metodología PICSA a 31 técnicos de instituciones públicas, privadas, ONGs, academia, que forman parte de la MTA Chiquimula. Dentro de este grupo se encontraban 12 extensionistas del ministerio de agricultura y ganadería, dos del ministerio de ambiente, 6 estudiantes de la carrera de gestión ambiental de CUNORI, entre otros. A cada participante se le entrego una copia impresa del manual PICSA, se realizó un sondeo de conocimientos al inicio del taller y luego se explicó la estructura del manual, cuales son los pasos a seguir y se realizaron ejercicios grupales para la aplicación de cada uno de ellos. Una ayuda memoria que recopila todo lo sucedido en ese taller ha sido compartida con CCAFS en su momento.Otro taller de socialización de la metodología PICSA tuvo lugar en el municipio de Jocotán, Chiquimula, el 30 de octubre 2018, en la sede de la Asociación Parroquia de Santiago Jocotán ONG, esto a solicitud del director de la asociación a integrantes de la MTA Chiquimula (CUNORI y CATIE), para apoyar un proceso de fortalecimiento de capacidades de 14 promotores rurales (7 mujeres y 7 hombres) de la asociación Santiago, que atienden diversas actividades en comunidades de la región Ch'orti, como el registro diario de información climática de estaciones meteorológicas instaladas en cada comunidad, capacitación y asistencia técnica en sistemas de agricultura familiar maíz-frijol y producción de patio principalmente. A cada participante se le entrego el manual PICSA impreso y al director de la asociación de manera digital para su reproducción y entrega a otros promotores. Dentro de los principales acuerdos: a) realizar un segundo taller a principios de diciembre para apoyar el análisis e interpretación de la información climática registrada por los participantes desde hace más de un año, debido que actualmente quien analiza la información es el equipo técnico de la asociación y no los productores rurales. b) La Asociación Santiago se incorporara a la MTA Chiquimula a partir del 2019, luego de una invitación girada por representantes de la mesa en ese taller (CUNORI y CATIE). Listado de participantes se puede observar en los anexos de este informe.El año 2018 fue muy importante en la consolidación del trabajo de la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Chiquimula. Dentro de los principales logros tenemos: a. fueron realizadas 6 reuniones (4 ordinarias y 2 extraordinarias), b. subir de 15 actores involucrados en la primera reunión del año en marzo, a 23 organizaciones representadas a partir de la tercera y cuarta reunión, c. 4 boletines agroclimáticos fueron elaborados en momentos estratégicos del año(antes de la primera temporada de lluvias a inicios de mayo, monitoreo de la canícula a mediados del mes de julio, antes de la segunda temporada de lluvias al inicio de agosto y antes del inicio de la temporada seca en el departamento de Chiquimula a finales de noviembre. d. el apoyo total e incondicional de INSIVUMEH desde el 14 de marzo a la fecha. e. El reconocimiento de la MTA como una red técnica en el tema agroclimático en el departamento de Chiquimula y el inicio de la incidencia en espacios de toma de decisión muy importantes como la Consejo Departamental de Desarrollo -CODEDE-y en una de las principales comisiones de esta como lo es la Comisión Departamental de Desarrollo Urbano y Rural -CODEDUR-en ambas instancias y desde el mes de agosto fue invitado un representante de la mesa para compartir boletines agroclimáticos, información climática del departamento, apoyo técnico en la redacción de estrategias departamentales para minimizar el impacto de la sequía entre otros aspectos. f. instaladas cuatro nuevas estaciones meteorológicas en puntos estratégicos a nivel departamental. g. En septiembre se propuso y consensuo una estructura organizativa de la MTA Chiquimula avalada por los participantes. Ver figura 2.Figura 2. Organigrama de la MTA Chiquimula, consensuado en la II Reunión extraordinaria el 06 de noviembre del 2018El acuerdo inicial a lo interno de la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática era tener un máximo de cuatro reuniones al año (al inicio del año, antes de la primera temporada de lluvias, antes de la segunda temporada de lluvias y al finalizar el año para analizar el cumplimiento de los pronósticos en la primera y segunda temporada de lluvias), sin embargo la misma dinámica e interés de analizar y conocer problemas recurrentes en el departamento de Chiquimula como la \"sequia\" o canícula prolongada, el fortalecimiento y funcionamiento organizacional de la mesa, llevaron a realizar dos reuniones extraordinarias durante el año.En el informe de avances marzo-junio 2018 se detalla información de lo sucedido hasta la III reunión ordinaria el 4 de mayo del mismo año. En este informe abordaremos información resumida de lo sucedido en la I y II reunión extraordinaria y IV y V reunión ordinaria de la MTA.La primera reunión extraordinaria \"Reflexiones Sobre Déficit Hídrico Primera Temporada de Lluvias 2018 en el Departamento de Chiquimula\"fue convocada para el 21 de julio por los coordinadores a solicitud e interés de la mayoría de actores representados en la mesa para analizar y discutir las repercusiones que pudieran tener en las familias rurales y la seguridad alimentaria de estas en el departamento, la ausencia de 30 días sin lluvia (a la fecha del taller) luego de que iniciara la primera temporada de lluvias el 21 de mayo. Fue un consenso dentro de la mesa elaborar luego de esta reunión un segundo boletín agroclimático dirigido a productores rurales pero principalmente a tomadores de decisión a nivel departamental para apoyar a reducir los impactos de las sequias. En esta reunión la participación de grupos de productores de diferentes comunidades y municipios del departamento fue importante para determinar y verificar el número de días sin lluvia y los cultivos en riesgo y como la situación impacta a la familia. La ayuda memoria de esta reunión fue socializada con CCAFS.La IV reunión de la MTA Chiquimula fue realizada el 7 de agosto, justo antes que iniciara la segunda temporada de lluvias en este territorio. En el mismo personal de INSIVUMEH por medio del meteorólogo Cesar George y Leonel Campos presentaron a toda la mesa las perspectivas climáticas para los meses de agosto a octubre surgidas en el foro del clima para centro américa. Luego de analizar la información climática se procedió en grupos de acuerdo a los principales rubros o temas de interés para los actores representados en la mesa (café, maíz, frijol, hortalizas, bosque, seguridad alimentaria, riesgos) a proponer recomendaciones técnicas y prácticas de adaptación para que sean implementadas o fortalecidas por parte de las familias rurales. La ayuda memoria y el tercer boletín agroclimático fueron compartidos en su momento a los actores de la mesa y CCAFS.La II Reunión extraordinaria de la MTA Chiquimula fue realizada el 06 de noviembre del 2018. Los objetivos que generaron esta reunión fueron el iniciar con la definición de un primer borrador del \"manual organizacional de la MTA\" y dentro de este definir un organigrama que permita definir roles y/o funciones de cada uno de los actores participantes. Se analizó con los 21 representantes que asistieron a la reunión, la importancia del manual organizacional para buscar la sostenibilidad de la mesa, incluyendo tener un documento formal que garantice la permanencia, funcionamiento y gestiones para lograr la sostenibilidad de la mesa en la figura 2 en la página anterior se presenta el organigrama consensuado en esta reunión. En la misma se propuso un borrador del plan de trabajo 2019 de la mesa que a diciembre 2018 faltaba completar. Mayores detalles de la reunión se encuentran en la ayuda memoria compartida con los actores de la mesa, personal CCAFS y CATIE en su oportunidad.La V reunión ordinaria de la MTA Chiquimula \"Validación de pronóstico de segunda temporada de lluvia -agosto, septiembre, octubre-, presentación de última perspectiva climática del año 2018 y generación del IV boletín agroclimático\" tuvo lugar el 30 de noviembre del 2018. En la misma participaron 19 representantes institucionales y por Skype se obtuvieron las perspectivas climáticas proporcionadas por medio de Rosario Gómez meteoróloga de INSIVUMEH, quien se encontraba en ese momento participando de último foro del clima para centro américa 2018 en ciudad de Panamá. Las perspectivas analizadas corresponden al periodo seco de diciembre 2018 a marzo 2019. En esta reunión se escuchó a los productores indicar que el pronóstico agosto-octubre se cumplió den un 75 a 80% y que las cosechas de frijol y maíz para esta temporada se encuentran en el mismo porcentaje de producción. Esta reunión dio insumos para elaborar el cuarto boletín agroclimático de la mesa en el año y con la cual se cerraron las actividades de la mesa. Más detalles de la reunión se pueden leer en la ayuda memoria y boletín agroclimático compartido con actores de la mesa, CCAFS y CATIE.Como parte del interés que ha generado la MTA Chiquimula a nivel nacional (Guatemala) y el proceso de escalonamiento de las acciones realizadas, el 22 de noviembre representantes de la mesa se reunieron con personeros del Proyecto Agricultura, Agua y Suelo de CRS Guatemala. Indicaron que CRS está interesado en conocer el accionar de la mesa e involucrarse dado a que ejecutan diferentes tipos de proyectos de adaptación al cambio climático, entre estos proyectos de emergencia de respuesta a sequía, en donde conocer información climática local es estratégico. CRS de igual manera realizaba un diagnostico post sequía en los departamentos de Jalapa, Progreso y Chiquimula e indaga sobre acciones a corto y mediano plazo que puedan promocionarse en el territorio. Un acuerdo de la reunión fue invitarles a las reuniones de la mesa durante el 2019.Durante el año 2018 en los meses de agosto, septiembre y noviembre en los departamentos de Chiquimula y Zacapa se desarrollaron tres congresos, dos de ellos relacionados a la agricultura climáticamente inteligente desarrollados por CUNORI-USAC-Facultad de Agronomía y el segundo por la Universidad Rafael Landívar -Facultad de Agronomía; el tercer evento fue el III Congreso Nacional de Cambio Climático de Guatemala realizado en Chiquimula y organizado por diferentes actores a nivel nacional, encabezado por el Ministerio de Ambiente y Recursos Naturales de Guatemala y la Mancomunidad Copanch'orti. En estos espacios fue compartida la experiencia de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas en A.L. y especialmente la experiencia de la MTA Chiquimula. Es importante mencionar que la charla sobre la MTA Chiquimula en el marco del congreso nacional de cambio climático fue muy relevante por el nivel de interés que mostro la experiencia entre los participantes.Las actividades de fortalecimiento de capacidades y experimentación con las familias integrantes de la ECA multitemas, multirubros con énfasis agroclimática en la comunidad La Prensa, en el TeSAC Olopa, continuaron durante los meses de julio a diciembre, este seguimiento se dio en el marco del convenio local CATIE-CCAFS con la Mancomunidad Copanch'orti -MCC-en 2018. Se realizaron una serie de talleres de capacitación, visitas de asistencia técnica y giras de intercambio comunitario que dieron cumplimiento a la curricula diseñada para la ECA.El seguimiento proporcionado por el facilitador de la ECA estuvo enfocado a la implementación de prácticas sostenibles adaptadas al clima en las unidades productivas de patio, finca y huerto comunitario de las familias integrantes de la ECA. Dando seguimiento principalmente a las prácticas en campo como, -Producción de hortalizas nativas e introducidas, chaya, yuca y gandul en huerto comunitario. -Cosecha de agua lluvia en huerto comunitario, -Seguimiento al establecimiento de especies leñosas como madrecacao, cedro y chacte en cercas vivas, manejo de sombra de café, sistema agroforestal kuxu rum. -Seguimiento a parcela semillera de frijol de 400mts 2 sembrada con la semilla frijol negro de la línea mejorada SEQ 342-89 cosechada en el mes de abril de la parcela de evaluación de siete variedades de frijol negro producidas por Zamorano, Honduras y proporcionadas por Bioversity International y CATIE en proyecto Prueba 3. La producción de esta semilla seria repartida en el mes de enero entre los integrantes de la ECA. -Seguimiento técnico a las parcelas de frijol de los integrantes de la ECA agroclimática que decidieron con base a las perspectivas climáticas de agosto-octubre, sembrar la variedad ICTA Ligero (variedad precoz). -Capacitación, instalación y seguimiento de 23 estufas ahorradoras de leña entregadas a igual cantidad de familias en la ECA de la Prensa Olopa, estufas donadas por la Oficina de Plan Trifinio Guatemala a CATIE. -Instalación y seguimiento al registro de información climática de siete estaciones meteorológicas de bajo costo instaladas con igual cantidad de familias, dos de ellas ubicadas en la comunidad de la Prensa, con familias de la ECA y 5 más en comunidades del TeSAC Olopa como Guayabo Tercer Caserío, Tuticopote El Bendito, Tituque Tishmuntique, Nochan y El Rodeo Valle Nuevo.Se realizaron tres talleres PICSA con la ECA de La Prensa en Olopa en el período abriljunio como parte del ciclo de primera y un taller más durante el mes de agosto, en total fueron cuatro talleres PICSA en el año. El objetivo principal fue implementar los pasos metodológicos A a la L sugeridos en la herramienta PICSA y en el manual. Participaron un promedio de 29 representantes de familias por evento integrantes de la escuela de campo e integrantes de grupos liderados por MAGA como los Centros de Aprendizaje de Desarrollo Rural -CADER-. Del total de participantes en los talleres PICSA solo el 3.4% estuvo presente en los cuatro talleres, el 41.3% en tres talleres, el 20.7% en dos talleres y 34.48% de las familias participo en un taller. Eso se explica por la condición de jornaleros que tienen la mayoría de familias integrantes de la ECA, quienes deben trabajar durante el día para llevar ingresos y comida a la casa, lo que imposibilita en algunas temporadas del año, tener un grupo de familias permanentes en las diferentes capacitaciones de una ECA. La facilitación de los talleres estuvo a cargo de personal CATIE en Trifinio, facilitador de la ECA y en tres eventos se contó con el apoyo de la pasante de PhD. Liliana Paz de Unicauca. Para cada uno de los talleres realizados se Foto 1. Instalación de estufas ahorradoras de leña con familias ECA La Prensa, TeSAC Olopa. Julio 2008 preparó una ayuda memoria. En el cuadro 1 se presenta información resumida de los talleres PICSA.Como lecciones aprendidas durante el desarrollo de la herramienta PICSA se pudo determinar el interés de las familias por conocer la información climática local, este proceso fue fortalecido cuando se instalaron las estaciones meteorológicas de bajo costo, las familias a cargo de las estaciones se apropiaron del proceso de registro de información climática y lo comunicaban abiertamente a sus vecinos dentro y fuera de la escuela de campo. Sin embargo, las limitaciones y condiciones de familias analfabetas y con cierto grado de desnutrición crónica impidieron que se familiarizaran con todos los pasos propuestos en PICSA. Los pronósticos es sumamente difícil de manejar y de hacer entender a este tipo de familias. Esta información se puede ampliar con las ayuda memoria compartidas para cada uno de los talleres realizados.Cuadro 2. Sesión/Taller 4: El pronóstico estacional e identificar y seleccionar posibles respuestas al pronóstico de la segunda temporada de lluvias en el TeSAC Olopa (paso H, I del Manual PICSA) La Prensa, Olopa, GT.13/08/2018 6 2 8Con la elaboración del 3er. Boletín agroclimático de la MTA Chiquimula después de la IV reunión de la MTA se procedió a realizar el taller No. 4 para dar a conocer pronostico estacional (agosto-octubre) e identificación de opciones al pronóstico estacional. La participación de las familias (8) en este taller fue débil, la mayoría se encontraba realizando labores de preparación de terrenos para establecer la siembra de segunda (normalmente frijol). Esto se corrigió con una reunión del facilitador con la ECA a nivel de huerto comunitario donde se dieron a conocer nuevamente las perspectivas climáticas. En este momento las familias identificaron que para evitar problemas de perdida de cosecha de frijol por el anuncio de la salida temprana de las temporadas de lluvia en el territorio (pronosticada para el 15 de octubre), tomaron la decisión de sembrar una variedad de frijol negro precoz (ICTA Ligero), variedad que adelanta su producción en por lo menos 18 días, comparadas con las variedades locales. La medida fue muy pertinente debido a que las 23 familias de la ECA cosecharon frijol y los vecinos de la comunidad con variedades locales sufrieron una reducción drástica en la producción por falta de agua en la etapa fenológica de llenado de vaina y maduración.En este eje de trabajo, se planificaron 12 actividades y 11 entregables en el POA 2018. La mayoría de ellos previstos para el segundo semestre del año, que coincide con el periodo que abarca este informe. A pesar del contexto adverso que se ha vivido en Nicaragua en los últimos 8 meses, se completaron alrededor del 75% de las acciones y entregables planificados. Se completó la negociación y la implementación de convenio con un socio local para las acciones con las ECAs; se completaron y se documentaron los eventos de evaluación 2017-2018 con familias integrantes de las ECAs; se preparó y se implementó un plan de contenidos para las acciones de capacitación colectiva, la validación de PICSA, y los planes de asistencia técnica para el 2018, el cual culminó con un evento de cierre con los grupos atendidos de manera conjunta con Nitlapan/UCA; Se completó un intercambio comunitario para compartir las experiencias de familias integrantes de ECAs Agroclimáticas 2017-2018 (en 2 comunidades del TeSAC), con 4 de las 5 comunidades restantes de este territorio; Se documentó toda la experiencia de validación de PICSA en las acciones con familias productoras del TeSAC y se preparó un dossier metodológico que se compartió y se capacitó a personal técnico y promotores rurales de 5 organizaciones que trabajan en este territorio para el posible escalamiento de esta herramienta; se instalaron 8 mini equipos y se capacitó a igual número de familias que habitan en las 7 comunidades del TeSAC para el monitoreo climático de precipitaciones y temperaturas máximas y mínimas; y se inició la inducción de un proceso para impulsar la creación de una MTA local con la participación de personal técnico que labora para instituciones u organizaciones que conforman el Comité de Manejo Colaborativo del Macizo de Peñas Blancas que incide y promueve la articulación de acciones con el enfoque de gestión territorial para los municipios de El Tuma -La Dalia, Rancho Grande y el Cuá (ver detalles en anexo 1).Hubo muy pocos avances en las acciones planificadas para el trabajo con gobiernos locales e instituciones públicas para compartir aprendizajes y resultados del trabajo realizado en el TeSAC en los últimos 3 años y la gestión de nuevos proyectos en conjunto con socios locales o nacionales.Se desarrolló una gira de intercambio entre productores de comunidades del TeSAC Olopa, Nochan, Guayabo Tercer Caserío, Tituque Tishmuntique, Tuticopote el Bendito a la ECA de La Prensa, Olopa. Participaron 12 familias quienes se trasladaron hasta La Prensa, donde fueron recibidas por las 23 familias integrantes de la ECA Agroclimática. Durante el proceso se hicieron 4 estaciones donde se realizaron los intercambios de conocimientos y aprendizajes. El objetivo fue mostrar el proceso de registro de información climática local, funcionamiento de las estufas ahorradoras de leña, la producción de alimentos en el huerto comunitario con cosecha de agua lluvia, conocer la experiencia en la producción de frijol negro al sembrar una variedad precoz para minimizar los efectos de la salida temprana de la temporada de lluvias y la experiencia del grupo evaluando y produciendo semilla de frijol de líneas o variedades mejoradas. La gira de intercambio comunitario se realizó el 15 de noviembre del 2018.En los párrafos anteriores se describieron los detalles de los talleres de capacitación que se dieron a técnicos, extensionistas, facilitadores y promotores rurales que forman parte de MAGA, MARN, ANACAFE, PMA, ACH, PROGRESAN SICA, CUNORI, ASOCIACION SANTIAGO DE JOCOTAN, con quienes se socializo, capacito y compartieron los manuales de la herramienta PICSA para que sea utilizada, específicamente en el análisis de información climática con familias rurales.Como resultado de varias reuniones sostenidas entre funcionarios de la Gerencia Técnica Trinacional del Plan Trifinio, FUNDE, ATRIDEST Guatemala y CATIE-CCAFS en Esquipulas Guatemala, surge el acuerdo de promover dentro del plan maestro de la CTPT una mesa técnica en agricultura climáticamente inteligente. Se tomaron acuerdos de impulsar dentro del plan maestro el tema de la \"Agricultura Familiar Adaptada al Clima\" término que sustituyo la iniciativa de promover agroecología pura dentro del plan. Un documento con los lineamientos generales para impulsar este tema fue elaborado por FUNDE con aportes de CATIE Trifinio. Estos lineamientos toman grandes estrategias centro americanas sobre las cuales se puede respaldar el impulso de esta iniciativa: a. Estrategia ASAC para Centro América y b. La ECADERT ambas impulsadas por la SECAC. El proceso de negociación e inclusión dentro del plan maestro se detuvo en los últimos meses del 2018 por los diferentes cambios políticos surgidos a lo interno de la CTPT, quedando pendiente su reactivación durante el 2019. Una copia del documento \"Lineamientos básicos para impulsar la AFAC\" se comparte en los anexos de este informe.Se instalaron siete estaciones meteorológicas de bajo costo en las comunidades del TeSAC Olopa con igual cantidad de familias. Dos de ellas están instaladas con dos familias integrantes de la ECA Agroclimática de la Prensa Olopa. A todas las familias se les capacito sobre el uso e interpretación de los datos del termómetro de máximas y mínimas, y el pluviómetro plástico. El formato de registro de la información climática fue proporcionado y el facilitador de la ECA estuvo revisando y comparando datos entre estaciones. Las estaciones se instalaron desde el mes de julio en la Prensa y en septiembre en las otras comunidades. En el cuadro 3 se puede observar el listado de personas donde se instalaron las estaciones y la comunidad del TeSAC Olopa. No hubieron avances con el gobierno local del TeSAC Olopa en revisar sus instrumentos de planificación y gestión para la incorporación de los aprendizajes desarrollados en las comunidades del TeSAC, la Mancomunidad Copanch'orti (socio local) y por medio de quien llegaríamos a incidir en este tema, sufrió cambios políticos importantes en su estructura organizativa que desestabilizaron los posibles procesos de incidencia a este nivel. Sin embargo, como se describió anteriormente se trató de incidir en el Plan Maestro de la Comisión Trinacional del Plan Trifinio por medio de la propuesta de impulsar la estrategia centro americana de agricultura sostenible adaptada al clima. Es un proceso que se puede retomar en 2019 ya con las nuevas autoridades de la comisión ejerciendo sus funciones.Durante el 2018 un contacto de CIAT-Agroclimas con un socio internacional y con fuertes vínculos con INSIVUMEH, abrió las puertas para que esta institución nacional escuchara los planes de la alianza CCAFS-CATIE para fortalecer una iniciativa local de información meteorológica en el departamento de Chiquimula y convertirla en una Mesa Técnica Agroclimática, de esa cuenta desde el 14 de marzo del 2018 el INSIVUMEH se sumó al esfuerzo de fortalecer la MTA de Chiquimula. Sin embargo, no se avanzó entre el personal de CIAT-CATIE-INSIVUMEH en la definición y firma de un convenio que garantizara la alianza y la permanencia del instituto meteorológico en la MTA, se sugiere que esta acción pueda concretarse en el 2019 para garantizar la continuidad e intercambios de información climática con INSIVUMEH.Pese a que no se cuenta con evidencia clara, en el interior de la MTA Chiquimula fue posible identificar el interés que algunos de los actores involucrados como ACH, PMA, MCC, Fundación Cofiño, ASORECH, retomarían información generada en la MTA como el funcionamiento de la mesa para instalar una similar en el departamento de Zacapa (MCC), hasta citar en sus planes operativos el depender de boletines agroclimáticos generados para promover varias medidas de adaptación con las familias rurales que estos atienden. Por otra parte, con el Sistema de Información Territorial Trinacional -SINTET-se realizaron acuerdos verbales para poder modificar el observatorio TCI dentro del portal y poder colocar la información generada en la MTA. La firma de acuerdos con estas plataformas no fue posible durante el año.Las oportunidades para hacer gestión conjunta con actores locales en la región Trifinio donde se encuentra ubicada el TeSAC Olopa fueron limitadas, en el territorio aún no se percibe en las principales plataformas y actores territoriales apertura para formular y gestionar conjuntamente fondos para el impulso de agricultura climáticamente inteligente, de esa cuenta no fue posible gestionar ninguna propuesta para obtener fondos que permitan fortalecer y escalonar los aprendizajes en el TeSAC.Entre las acciones a destacar para este periodo se pueden señalar las siguientes:-En agosto se entregó nuevamente semilla de frijol fortificada de la variedad SMR -100 a 170 familias de todas las comunidades del TeSAC, con ello se completó la entrega de más de 30 quintales de este tipo de semillas a 316 familias en total para los ciclos de primera (SMR-88 -146 familias) y para la postrera del 2018. Como resultado de esa iniciativa, el técnico del socio local reportaba el inicio de \"pase en cadena\" de al menos un 20% de las familias beneficiarias iniciales en el TeSAC como parte del compromiso adquirido al recibir estos materiales.-Como parte de las acciones de investigación en el TeSAC en conjunto con CIAT-Nicaragua se logró el establecimiento de parcelas de pastos mejoradas con 3 familias ganaderas del TeSAC y se completó el muestreo de suelos en 100 fincas del territorio en cultivos como café, cacao y ganadería.-Se instalaron y entregaron 23 estufas ahorradoras de leña -eco fogones-a igual cantidad de familias en la ECA agroclimática de la Prensa Olopa. La donación fue parte de la comisión Trifinio y complementados con fondos de la alianza CCAFS-CATIE 2018 en Trifinio. 15 estufas fueron entregadas por Trifinio y 8 con fondos del convenio CCAFS-CATIE 2018.-Se apoyó a personal de CIAT-CCAFS en un taller para la validación de una herramienta de análisis económico de prácticas ASAC con familias rurales. Respecto a este punto, dada la imposibilidad de organizar una MTA con el liderazgo de la institución pública que tiene el mandato sobre el manejo y divulgación de información climática, únicamente podemos reportar las posibilidades de escalamiento de esta iniciativa desde las expectativas y compromisos mencionados por el personal técnico y promotor de organizaciones que participaron en taller PICSA en noviembre. Abajo los temas de más interés para replica mencionados los participantes.-Elaboración de calendario climático -Elaboración del calendario agroclimático (4 participantes) -Mapa de asignación de recursos (5 participantes) -Complementar el plan de finca promovido desde sus organizaciones con el mapa de asignación de recursos -Análisis de información climática (comportamiento de la precipitación durante los últimos años) -Análisis de datos recolectados en mini estaciones climáticas comunitarias -Análisis de vulnerabilidad (3 participantes) -Homologación de conceptos relacionados con el tema de CC) -Análisis de los efectos del pronóstico climático sobre las principales actividades agropecuarias de la comunidad e identificación y selección de posibles acciones como respuesta al pronóstico estacional -Análisis ¿Cómo afectó el comportamiento del clima las actividades productivas en la finca? -Interpretaciones de pronósticos estacionales y su uso en la planificación de la agricultura (2 participantes)Apoyo socios locales julio -noviembre En taller de entrenamiento PICSA con técnicos y promotores se les entregó en físico y digital: manual PICSA; compendio de guías técnicas donde se recoge la experiencia de Nicaragua para aplicar esta herramienta (4 sesiones de trabajo) y dos sesiones introductorias (Homologación de conceptos y Análisis de vulnerabilidad); y literatura digital complementaria relacionada con estos temas.II. Implementación de la metodología PICSA en Guatemala en el marco de la Mesa Técnia Agroclimática de Chiquimula. Solo se desarrolló un taller de capacitación sobre la aplicación de la herramienta PICSA con familias. En ella se entregaron los materiales técnicos y la información metodológica para promover una mejor capacidad de adaptación de familias productoras mediante el enfoque de los TeSAC y el uso de la herramienta PICSA.Se desarrollaron talleres de capacitación en el uso de la herramienta PICSA a 31 técnicos vinculados a las organizaciones participantes en la MTA Chiquimula y 14 promotores de la Asociación Santiago de Jocotán a todos se les entregaron manuales PICSA impresos y la versión digital solicitada por los responsables de estas organizaciones para entregar a otros técnicos y promotores.Revisar instrumentos de planificación y gestión de los gobiernos locales para contribuir con el desarrollo local e identificar donde pueden incorporarse los aprendizajes y herramientas generados en los TeSAC; Compartir evidencias, metodologías y aprendizajes generados en los TeSAC con gobiernos municipales y discutir su posible utilización en sus planes estratégicos; Apoyar y documentar la integración de aprendizajes y herramientas desarrollados en los TeSAC en los planes estratégicos de los gobiernos municipales; Documento que reporte sobre la armonización y articulación de 5 acciones/estrategias de desarrollo municipal con los productos generados en los TeSAC noviembre, 15 N/A En el caso concreto de Nicaragua, los acontecimientos socio políticos que se viven desde el pasado mes de abril del 2018, lo hacen una misión imposible.Prácticamente desde la fecha indicada, para CATIE y probablemente para la mayoría de las organizaciones con similares roles y acciones, este tipo de acciones ya no han prosperado a nivel nacional.Esta acción no pudo ser desarrollada con el gobierno municipal de Olopa, la Mancomunidad Copanch'orti era el medio para llegar a incidir y fue un año inestable para ellos, la presidencia de la MCC estuvo paralizada prácticamente el primer semestre del año. Con la CTPT se inició un trabajo para incidir en su \"Plan Maestro\" junto a FUNDE, ATRIDEST GT, GTT y CCAFS-CATIE, se escribió un documento con lineamientos generales para darle vida a la estrategia ASAC dentro del plan Maestro. El proceso no se pudo completar en 2018 por los cambios de Secretario Ejecutivo y Gerente Técnico de la CTPT 7 Selección de comunidades y familias donde se instalarán las estaciones meteorológicas; Definir protocolos de observación y registro de información; Capacitación de familias y socios locales en el registro de información en campo; completar compra de equipos en los TeSAC Instalar y dar seguimiento a estaciones meteorológicas de bajo costo en hogares de los TeSAC El cambio climático agrava aún más las condiciones de vida en la región, ocasiona efectos negativos en la producción agropecuaria y en los bienes naturales en general, lo que afecta principalmente la vida de las comunidades rurales. El fenómeno El niño-niña ha golpeado la vida de algunas comunidades de la región, las sequías recurrentes impactan muy fuerte en algunas regiones del área Trifinio.Otros efectos observados del cambio climático incluyen: la reducción en la producción hidrológica, erosión de los suelos, deterioro de los ecosistemas con sus consecuencias en la biodiversidad, y el deterioro en los medios de vida en general de las poblaciones rurales de la región.La situación descrita, motiva la necesidad de desarrollar, con urgencia, acciones de adaptación de la agricultura familiar a condiciones climáticas adversas en la región. Ello requerirá de una estrecha armonización y coordinación de acciones orientadas a proteger los suelos y las fuentes hídricas, poner paro a la deforestación, proteger los ecosistemas y su biodiversidad de incluso, la actualización y/o diseño de políticas locales y nacionales.La institucionalidad y el tejido social y empresarial de la región Trifinio, realizaron el 1er Foro Trinacional: denominado \"Acciones para la adaptación al cambio climático en la región Trifinio\", los días 20 y 21 de julio de 2017. Esta actividad generó conclusiones importantes para la gestión sostenible de los sistemas agro-productivos y de los procesos de desarrollo del territorio en respuesta a los impactos negativos del cambio climático en la región. Entre las principales conclusiones de ese Foro se identifican las siguientes: 1) elaborar una política de adaptación frente al cambio climático; 2) fortalecer los espacios y mecanismos de articulación interinstitucional que permita ampliar y fortalecer los planes de acción frente al cambio climático; 3) fortalecer las acciones de gestión responsable y sostenible de los recursos naturales en la región; entre otras.Durante los días 15 y 16 de febrero de 2018 se realizó un encuentro sobre gestión ambiental, agroecología y recursos naturales, en el que participaron agricultores ecológicos, instituciones de apoyo técnico y unidades ambientales municipales. El encuentro se realizó en seguimiento a los acuerdos del 1er Foro Trinacional: \"Acciones para la adaptación al cambio climático en la región Trifinio\", realizado los días 20 y 21 de julio de 2017. El desarrollo del encuentro permitió conocer experiencias y prácticas de gestión ambiental relacionadas a la restauración y conservación de bosques, gestión de recursos hídricos, y de desarrollo de agricultura ecológica y orgánica, y otros temas de interés ambiental, a partir de lo cual, los participantes generaron conclusiones como las siguientes.▪ Fomentar acciones de organización, capacitación e intercambio de experiencias en temas de agricultura ecológica y gestión ambiental. ▪ Identificar opciones para generar oportunidades de fortalecimiento de servicios de asistencia técnica y financiera para potenciar la agricultura ecológica. ▪ Valoración de los servicios eco-sistémicos existentes en la región. ▪ Caracterización biofísica y socioeconómica de las zonas de recarga hídrica. ▪ Ampliar y fortalecer conocimientos por medio de visitas a experiencias de agroecología exitosas y gestión ambiental exitosas. ▪ Realizar cursos y talleres de capacitación y giras de conocimiento. ▪ Establecer y fortalecer mesas de promoción y gestión para la adaptación al cambio climático en la región.La Comisión Trinacional del Plan Trifinio acordó en su reunión de octubre de 2017, elaborar un plan estratégico que guie y oriente las acciones de desarrollo de la región Trifinio, denominado Plan Maestro. En este marco es de trascendental importancia integrar líneas de acción orientadas a promover de manera prioritaria, la Agricultura Familiar Adaptada al Clima, como medio para garantizar la Seguridad Alimentaria en la región.Instrumentos de política y estrategia en los que se podría enmarcar las acciones de agricultura familiar adaptada al clima y la seguridad alimentaria en el Trifinio.El plan de acción se basará en cuatro (4) instrumentos de política que se vinculan estrechamente con la agricultura familiar adaptada al clima Trifinio.El Plan Maestro (en proceso de formulación), será el instrumento de política que guiará las acciones de trabajo y desarrollo de la región Trifinio durante los próximos años. Por lo tanto, se debe buscar que este plan integre temas calves y estratégicos para la región, como lo son la agricultura familiar y la seguridad alimentaria, la gestión responsable y sostenible de los recursos naturales, (agua, suelo, bosques y biodiversidad). El Plan Maestro presenta una buena oportunidad para avanzar con mayor profundidad, en el desarrollo de acciones de promoción y desarrollo de la Agricultura Familiar Adaptada al Clima en la región.La Estrategia de Agricultura Sostenible Adaptada al Clima es un instrumento que busca promover e impulsar el desarrollo de sistemas agro productivos resilientes al cambio climático y está a disposición de los gobiernos y las organizaciones de agricultores para ser implementada en los países y territorios de Centroamérica. CCAFS y CATIE cuentan con experiencia en la implementación de la ASAC en algunas zonas del Trifinio, experiencia que puede ser implementada a mayor escala en toda la región.Es una estrategia adoptada por los Ministerios de Agricultura de Centroamérica; es en consecuencia, un instrumento oficial de los gobiernos de Centroamérica, cuya implementación ha delegada a la Secretaria Ejecutiva del Consejo Agropecuario Centroamericano (SECAC), del Sistema de Integración Centroamericana (SICA)La ASAC es un instrumento técnico-político que brinda un amplio marco para la promoción y desarrollo de la agricultura. Se constituye en un instrumento que brinda un amplio marco para desarrollar sistemas de agricultura sostenible en condiciones climáticas adversas.Por otra parte, una apreciada cantidad de instrumentos y experiencias en procesos de planificación en materia de ASAC, han sido puestos a prueba por el CCAFS y CATIE. La agroecología, la agricultura convencional, el uso y conservación de los recursos naturales (agua, suelo, bosques, biodiversidad), y la gestión de reducción de riesgo de desastres son parte integrante de la de la ASAC.La ECADERT integra líneas y estrategias que deben ser consideradas y servir de orientación para el diseño de las acciones de promoción de la agricultura familiar adaptada al clima en la región. Ente otras, la ECADERT reconoce la necesidad de promover los procesos de desarrollo territorial teniendo en consideración, orientaciones tales como las siguientes:▪ Desarrollo centrado en las personas ▪ Incluye la diversidad social y cultural ▪ Enfoque integral y sistémico del desarrollo de los territorios ▪ Los actores deben planificar y actuar con visión de futuro y de largo plazo ▪ Los gobiernos nacionales deben invertir en los territorios ▪ El desarrollo es posible mediante la actuación integrada/articulada de los gobiernos nacionales y locales ▪ Desarrollo de sistemas productivos amigables con el ambiente, protegiendo y conservando los recursos naturales ▪ Armonizar las políticas públicas nacionales con las apuestas de desarrollo de los territorios.Los ODS son la apuesta del sistema de Naciones Unidades y otras instituciones de cooperación para los próximos 30 años, por lo que los lineamientos para la promoción de la agricultura familia adaptada al clima y la seguridad alimentaria en la región Trifinio, deben integrar acciones orientadas a brindar una cooperación importante para el logro de dichos objetivos.Algunas orientaciones iniciales a considerar e integrar como parte de la estrategia de promoción de la agricultura familiar adaptada al clima y la seguridad alimentaria en el Trifinio ▪ La iniciativa de promover la agricultura familiar adaptada al clima y la seguridad alimentaria en el Trifinio debe hacerse en el marco de las acciones y proyección de la Comisión Trinacional del Trifinio.▪ Esta iniciativa parte y se proyecta a partir de las experiencias de agricultura sostenible que han desarrollado el CATIE por medio del Programa Agroambiental Mesoamericano (CATIE/MAP) el Programa Bosques y Agua, el Programa Trinacional de Café Especial Sostenible (PROTCAFE), el Programa de Investigación del CGIAR en Cambio Climático Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS-CATIE) y otras instituciones en la región relacionadas al tema, considerando las realidades sociales, territoriales, políticas, y ambientales existentes.▪ Es necesario inducir e involucrar a las organizaciones de agricultores, de mujeres de jóvenes, unidades ambientales municipales, juntas de agua, instituciones públicas nacionales y ONG, en el proceso de promoción de la iniciativa en la región.▪ Se debe hacer esfuerzo especial en la promoción y creación de condiciones de diálogo y entendimiento entre todas las instituciones que brindan apoyo técnico en materia de agricultura familiar adaptada al clima y construir un sistema integrado de cooperación y acción conjunta.▪ Es necesario tener en consideración que las organizaciones de base de agricultores tienen bajo nivel técnico, agro-productivo, y de gestión administrativa de sus unidades agro-productivas.▪ Será necesario sensibilizar a agricultores, técnicos y funcionarios públicos sobre la urgente necesidad de trascender de la agricultura convencional a una agricultura ecológica y sostenible. El gran reto es el cambio de paradigmas y esquemas que trasciendan de una agricultura de subsistencia a una agricultura más productiva y sostenible que rehabilite los suelos y garantice la seguridad alimentaria de las familias rurales de la región.▪ Integrar las instituciones públicas nacionales, gobiernos locales, organizaciones de cooperación, ONG y agricultores en una visión y estrategia de acción conjunta en búsqueda de lograr el desarrollo exitoso y sostenible de las acciones a desarrollar.▪ Incidir en las políticas públicas y la asignación de presupuestarios y técnicos que incentiven y faciliten la implementación y desarrollo de esta iniciativa en en la región Trifinio.Actividades iniciales a desarrollar (Septiembre-Diciembre de 2018)▪ Constituir un Grupo de Apoyo Técnico con participación de instituciones que tienen disponibilidad de participar y apoyar la promoción de la agricultura familiar adaptada al clima y la seguridad alimentaria en la región, el cual será coordinado por la Gerencia Técnica Trinacional del Plan Trifinio. ▪ Formular un marco conceptual sobre la necesidad de trascender de los sistemas actuales de agricultura familiar convencional, hacia la construcción y desarrollo de sistemas de agricultura familiar apartada al clima y de seguridad alimentaria en la región. ▪ Realizar un taller con el propósito de conocer las experiencias de agricultura sostenible desarrolladas en el Trifinio. En este taller se invitará a instituciones y agricultores protagonistas de las experiencias desarrolladas. ▪ Formular una propuesta de lineamientos básicos para la promoción de la agricultura familiar y la seguridad alimentaria con el propósito de aportar al diseño del Plan Maestro de Desarrollo del Trifinio. ▪ Organizar una reunión con funcionarios y técnicos de instituciones públicas, organismos intergubernamentales (FAO, IICA, FIDA) ONG, Universidades vinculadas al Trifinio y otras, para compartir las proyecciones de promoción de la agricultura familiar adaptada al clima y la seguridad alimentaria en el Trifinio. En esta reunión invitará a las entidades participantes, a conformar la Mesa de Agricultura Familiar y Seguridad Alimentaria de la región Trifinio. ","tokenCount":"8635"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b1c1ed2bb867bd24714ce2d3f6a83c76","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a3823365-8548-4c64-ad13-4dfca9e5e2de/retrieve","id":"1552225930"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"196fa164-65b3-4479-b4b2-281ebf0d26fa","pagecount":"4","content":"Farmers celebrating their cassava from a demonstration plot On-farm demonstrations in Ogun state, Nigeria under the IITA Cassava Weed Management Project have produced average yields of 27 tons per hectare surpassing the national average of about 8 tons/ha.The demos were conducted in 2016 in the three senatorial districts of Ogun states using an integrated weed control package developed by the IITA-CWMP.Presenting the results during the Joint Quarterly Review Meeting of the project in Abeokuta, Dr Patience Olorunmaiye, a scientist at the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), said the yield from the demonstration plots were impressive and a proof of concept that if farmers adopted improved weed management practices, they would be better off.The highest yield from the demonstration farms was 32 tons/ha with 96 percent of the demonstration farms recording more than 20 tons/ha. Prof Friday Ekeleme, Principal Investigator of the IITA-CWMP said the results clearly show that weeds were a major factor limiting the potential of cassava in Africa.In the last four years, the IITA-CWMP with funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made a bold decision to unravel the puzzle of weeds menace in cassava.Working with a coalition of partners including the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, University of Agriculture Makurdi, the National Root Crops Research Institute, and extension partners, the team set up trials in the three agroecological zones of the country including the humid forest, derived savannah and the southern guinea savannah. These trials led to the selection of safe and environmentally friendly herbicides with other agronomic practices that formed the package that was used in setting up the demos in Ogun and other states of Nigeria (Abia, Benue, and Oyo). Results from the other states are also being compiled for analysis.Prof. Ekeleme said the results from Ogun state was a thing of joy not only to the project team but also to the country at large. He said the results indicated that the project was achieving one of its major objectives, which is to double the national average yield of cassava, generate wealth, and reduce the burden of weeding in cassava farming systems.Grown by over 3 million people in Nigeria, cassava is a major staple contributing to food security and wealth of the nation. Although Nigeria is a major producer of the root crop accounting for over 54 million tons per annum, average yield per ha is low with weeds being fingered as a major block.Researchers say farmers cannot grow cassava more than they can weed-a situation that limits farm size and subject farmers to perpetual penury.Dr Alfred Dixon, a director with IITA and Project Leader for IITA-CWMP said the project would help Nigeria change the narrative of cassava production.He called on the government of Nigeria to partner IITA in scaling up the findings of the project to millions of cassava farmers for national development and poverty reduction.Improved weed control help farmers to record 27tons/ha from on-farm demonstration farms The training introduced participants to proper sampling procedures and handling of soil and plant samples. It emphasized the importance of recording sample mass data in the field and correct packaging before analysis. The latter being of importance to avoid contamination of samples, as it would compromise the integrity of data.The trainees were also introduced to equipment used for plant and soil analysis, especially equipment currently in use in the IITA-ACAI project research and experimental activities.In his remarks after the training, Dr. Hauser highlighted the need to have technicians and students well trained and equipped to take, handle, store, and prepare samples for analyses, with a keen emphasis on adhering to protocols. He noted that some students in the field do not use proper equipment and in some cases equipment used are not calibrated. A large portion of the training was interactive with practical demonstrations addressing the specific concerns, problems and challenges technicians and students encounter in the field and in laboratories. Several specific problems were addressed with hands-on exercises and data analyses to demonstrate the errors caused by deviating from the protocol procedures.In a feedback session, participants said their knowledge and skills in soil sampling had been significantly improved, citing the practical sessions as being particularly effective in helping them understand the processes.For Akinsumbo Olayinka, an MSc student at FUNAAB, the training session demystified the previously complex soil sampling procedures into a task he can now handle with confidence.\"The field sessions where we actually did what we had discussed about soil sampling and harvesting as well as labelling were to me very useful because it was practical, \" he said.The workshop is part of the IITA-ACAI's objective to build the capacity of NARS and partners in relevant skillsets that augment agronomy within host countries.A training manual authored by researchers working under the IITA-Cassava Weed Management Project has been well received by farmers with more than 440 farmers downloading the publication from the web in the last one month.The 29-page document details how weeds can be controlled in cassava using a combination of mechanical, cultural and environmentally friendly herbicides. The publication is a product of four-year work by researchers from IITA, Federal Universities of Agriculture Abeokuta, University of Agriculture Makurdi, and the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike.Dr. Alfred Dixon, Project Leader of the Cassava Weed Management Project said the simple style used in capturing the information in the publication made the manual a choice material for every practicing and would-be farmer.Godwin Atser, Communication and Knowledge Exchange Expert, who led the publication observed that the aim was to present research findings to the public in simple everyday language that would make farmers to adopt practices and recommendations in weed management.For farmer Olufemi Yerokun, the publication would go a long way as a standard reference for weed management in cassava production systems. Yet, farmer El Farouk commended the team for producing the publication, adding that \"even an amateur would benefit so much from the clarity and extensive research.The Executive Director for Dominican Center for Human Resources Development (DCHRD), Fr Fortunatus Okeke noted that with the publication, \"the question of the impact of IITA research results on rural and small farmers is enhanced by this master piece. \"The DCHRD has downloaded copies of the publication and is using them in training farmers on weed management.As part of the project's planned dissemination strategy, the IITA-CWMP is sharing the publication electronically including via platforms such as WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Facebook. A limited quantity is also being printed and shared to farmers during farmers' field days and other farmer meetings. ","tokenCount":"1080"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"29c7cf51ed53023f119b6501600fe977","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/26197e9d-651c-4742-ab83-7a4e4977af7f/retrieve","id":"-2001324046"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"25219e60-adb5-4b82-aa7e-c37fe4614db7","pagecount":"40","content":"This report has been produced as part of a series of preliminary papers to guide the long-term research agenda of the Pathways to Resilience in Semi-arid Economies (PRISE) project. PRISE is a five-year, multi-country research project that generates new knowledge about how economic development in semi-arid regions can be made more equitable and resilient to climate change.Figure 1 Mara study area, showing the MMNR, the surrounding group ranches and conservancies Pastoralism is a production system adapted to arid and semi-arid lands.Pastoralists have longstanding traditions and strategies of using resources, characterised by mobility, flexibility, adaptability and reciprocity. These strategies allow them to cope with the variability in rangeland resources and climate that is inherent in these systems. Although pastoralism has evolved to manage climate variability through mobility and risk-spreading strategies, the climate in East Africa is becoming increasingly variable and unpredictable. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of extreme events and shocks, such as droughts and floods (Field et al., 2014). Predictions for Kenya and Tanzania suggest significant increases in temperature and precipitation by 2065 (Nassef et al., 2009). It is expected that climate change, alongside powerful external forces such as land appropriation and conversion, will modify the way people cope with variability in their resources. These climatic changes are likely to require pastoralists to develop new adaptation, risk management and coping strategies.Furthermore, the effects of climate change are likely to compound those of other transformations going on in pastoral systems, including poverty, human and livestock population growth, conflict, competition for land and rangeland fragmentation (Behnke, 2008;Galvin, 2009). Economic, policy and institutional drivers cause fragmentation, resulting in land-use change, habitat modification and land subdivision. Fragmentation restricts access to resources and increases vulnerability to stresses and shocks. Climate change and fragmentation will interact with one another, such that increasing fragmentation will restrict the flexibility and mobility of pastoralists in the wake of more frequent floods and droughts on the rangelands.It is argued, however, that, despite the challenges climate change pose to pastoralists, pastoralism is a land use already adapted to variability in rainfall, and thus offers better adaptation potential than other competing land uses (Nori and Davies, 2007). Pastoralists have longstanding traditional strategies and strong social institutions for using resources and responding to climate variability. They use mobility to track variable and unpredictable resources and are thus better able to respond to and cope with drought. Mobile pastoralists do better than sedentary ones during drought, and are less likely to lose stock (Little et al., 2008). Facilitating mobility will thus help ensure continued resilience of pastoral livelihoods in a future changed climate. Resilient livelihoods will be those best able to cope with the increased climatic shocks in these systems.Diversification into viable alternative livelihoods is another way to spread risk and is likely to become increasingly important as climate changes. As fragmentation constrains mobility and access to key resources, pastoralists have to increasingly rely on non-livestock sources of income for their livelihoods. Diversification of pastoral livelihoods is widely observed across pastoralists in East Africa (Homewood et al., 2009;Kristjanson et al., 2002;Little et al., 2001). Diversification into tourism can be a useful option in areas with high wildlife abundance and high tourism potential. Tourism can provide an important source of income for pastoralists adjacent to protected areas. The wildlife-rich savannahs of East Africa are well suited to ecotourism development, with high densities of easy-to-view charismatic wildlife. The majority of Kenya's wildlife is within its arid and semi-arid lands, so pastoral lands are vital habitats for tourism. Pastoralists thus play an important role in maintaining these landscapes, wildlife populations and hotspots of biodiversity (Homewood, 2008;Nelson, 2012;Reid, 2012).There are thus synergies, and a level of compatibility, in combining pastoralism and tourism. However, there can also be trade-offs: tourism interventions may alter how pastoralists are able to access rangeland resources; wildlife may eat and destroy crops and injure, kill or transmit diseases to livestock or people. Benefits from tourism may thus be unable to compensate for the opportunity costs of living with wildlife and the loss of established livelihood activities (Ferraro, 2002;Norton-Griffiths and Southey, 1995). Furthermore, the negatives may become more marked in the context of climate change if resilient and flexible livelihoods become more important.There is also little evidence that tourism has benefited pastoralists: tourism incomes accruing to pastoralists have typically been small and few pastoralists derive their main income from tourism (DeLuca, 2004;Homewood et al., 2009;Sachedina, 2008). Moreover, tourism revenues tend to be inequitably distributed, with the wealthier and better-placed individuals capturing most revenues (Homewood et al., 2009;Thompson and Homewood, 2002). Benefits also tend to be spread unevenly along age, gender, educational, race and ethnic lines (DeLuca 2004). Furthermore, tourism can be a risky livelihood alternative to pastoralism, because it is sensitive to political instability, economic downturns, insecurity and epidemics.In Kenya, tourism is one of the top earners of foreign exchange, generating $1.1billion 1 in income in 2015 (KES 87 billion) (KNBS, 2015).Tourism is also an important contributor to Kenya's national gross domestic product (GDP) (World Bank, 2011). Sixty-five percent of Kenya's large mammal wildlife lives outside of formally protected areas, and within community and privately owned pastoral rangelands (Western et al., 2009). It is these areas that are becoming the increasing focus of many new conservation and tourism development initiatives.A growing number of wildlife conservancies are being set up on community and private pastoral lands with a long history of mixed livestock and wildlife use (Kaelo, 2013). Conservancies aim to offer incomes from tourism to local people while securing a habitat for wildlife and tourism. These incomes can be especially important during drought times, and the potential of 1 Exchange rate of US$1=KES80, as used in the rest of the paper.conservancies as a drought coping and risk mitigation strategy has been argued (Osano et al., 2013). However, although the extra source of revenue represents an important supplementary income, restrictions on land use that new tourism uses apply can create trade-offs as traditional livelihood activities are curtailed. This can affect the ability of pastoralists to access sufficient resources and maintain resilient livelihoods.Using as a case study the Mara in Kenya, where a number of wildlife conservancies now exist, this paper seeks to explore these trade-offs to understand how conservation and tourism may be enhancing or restricting climate-resilient pastoral livelihoods. It looks at the ability of conservancies to serve as an alternative livelihood opportunity for pastoralists that mitigates risk and maintains resilience in a changing climate. Specifically, the paper asks:• What is the contribution of conservancies to pastoral livelihoods relative to other livelihood activities?• How have household livestock grazing strategies been altered as a result of restrictions on livestock grazing within conservancies?• What is the impact of conservancies on livestock density, distribution and composition?The research helps elucidate the mechanisms through which pastoralists are managing their livestock herds to cope with shrinking pastoral ranges and reduce their vulnerability to drought and climate change risks. Results can inform better future conservation and tourism investments aimed at maintaining and enhancing pastoral resilience, as well as promoting wildlife conservation.The Mara comprises the Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) and surrounding conservancies and group ranches (Figure 1). The MMNR (1,530 km 2 ) is a nationally protected area situated on the international border between Kenya and Tanzania's Serengeti National Park. The MMNR (latitudes 1º00′-2º00′ S and longitudes 34º45′-36º00′ E) has the highest density of wildlife in Kenya, many of which spill out into and graze in neighbouring conservancies and group ranch lands during the wet season. As well as supporting a number of resident wildlife species, the Mara area provides dry season grazing and permanent water for the migratory wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), zebra (Equus quagga) andThomson's gazelle (Gazella thomsoni) as they move north from the Serengeti (Stelfox et al., 1986).The Mara has two rainy seasons, with the short rains occurring during November to December and the long rains from March to June. Often, the short and long rains merge into one season, or the short rains may fail completely. Mean annual rainfall increases from the drier south-east (877 mm/year) to the wetter northwest (1,341 mm/year) (Ogutu et al., 2011). In recent decades the Mara has experienced recurrent droughts, with particularly severe rainfall deficits occurring in 1984, 1993, 1999-2000, 2005-2006and 2008-2009(Ogutu et al., 2008;;2011).As in other rangeland areas in Kenya, the Mara is undergoing a transformation in land ownership from communal to individual landholdings. Government policies encouraged the privatisation and commercialisation of pastoral lands, driven by economic incentives to intensify livestock production. Group ranches were established in the 1970s and 1980s, which gave private title to groups of families. The expectation was that these would provide tenure security and thus create incentives for the Maasai to invest in range and breed improvement and reduce the tendency to accumulate large numbers of perceived low-quality indigenous breed livestock (Kimani and Pickard, 1998). Dissatisfaction with corrupt group ranch committees, dilution of individual shareholding as population size increased and a desire for security of tenure led group ranch members to push for the subdivision of group ranches (Homewood et al., 2004;Mwangi, 2007a;Seno and Shaw, 2002;Thompson and Homewood, 2002). In the Mara, many group ranches are now subdivided, with individual land parcels allocated to male group ranch members. In many areas, this has been a long and contentious process, fraught with conflict, inequality and land-grabbing (Homewood et al., 2004;Mwangi 2007b;Thompson and Homewood, 2002;Thompson et al., 2009).The Mara has long been a leader in Kenya's tourism industry, and the MMNR is one of Kenya's top most visited protected areas. In 2011, the MMNR management plan estimated that predicted revenues accruing from the MMNR to the then two county councils responsible for its administration totalled more than $41 million annually (NCC and TMCC, 2011). However, despite this tourism potential, local communities have not always gained fair or substantial benefit (Norton-Griffiths et al., 2008;Thompson et al., 2009).Various attempts to distribute tourism revenues to local communities have been beset by problems of mismanagement, unaccountability and inequality (Thompson and Homewood, 2002;Thompson et al., 2009). A multi-site study in Maasailand (Homewood et al., 2009) shows that, although households in the Mara do receive the most from wildlife (approximately 20% of total annual household income) compared with similar sites in Kenya and Tanzania, even here it is the wealthiest households that capture the greatest portion of revenues (Homewood et al., 2012;Thompson et al., 2009).Since  Approximately 30 semi-structured interviews were carried out with community members (CIs), including conservancy members and nonmembers, and men and women, to gather information on how people perceived conservancies contributed to their livelihoods. Approximately 302 A household was defined as an olmarei (usually made up of a male household head, his wives, children and other dependants) -a common unit of analysis in previous households surveys among the Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania (BurnSilver and Mwangi, 2007;Coast, 2000;Thompson and Homewood, 2002) The Maasai have diversified into a number of other livelihood activities.Using the questionnaire, we asked each household what livelihood activities they were involved in during the year preceding the survey, and the income they had received from each. We grouped activities into the following categories: conservancies, livestock production, cultivation and off-farm activities (tourism-and nontourism-related), and calculated the mean annual household income from each activity (Table 1).We calculated total annual household income for each household as the gross aggregate household income from all sources. Mean incomes per household per year and per adult equivalent (AU) 3 per day were calculated for comparison among the different livelihood activities. We included only those households involved in an activity so as to make it possible to compare the real returns from each activity. However, we used mean annual incomes across all households in the sample (n=258) to investigate the proportion of total household income the different livelihood activities contributed. Finally, we compared the relative contribution of different livelihood activities for conservancy member versus non-member households.To investigate community members' perceptions of the importance of conservancies relative to other livelihood activities, we asked them to rank the three livelihood activities they perceived as the most important for their overall household welfare.3 AU is a system for expressing a group of people in terms of standard reference adult (RA) units, with respect to food or metabolic requirements. RA units were calculated according to the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) system whereby an adult male = 1RA; an adult female = 0.86RA; children 11-15 years = 0.96RA; 6-10 years = 0.85RA; and children 0-5 years = 0.52RA (ILCA, 1981;Sellen, 2003). Off-farm activities:Income from any other livelihood activity, including:Tourism-related sources -Jobs in tourism, income from curio and craft sales, rent fees from campsite or lodges.Non-tourism-related sources -Livestock trading, jobs such as teachers, health workers, income from a transport or vending shop business.Many of the activities unrelated to tourism will be indirectly related to the increased flow of people coming to the Mara as a result of tourism.To understand how conservancies affect livestock grazing, both inside and outside conservancies, we asked key informants about the grazing rules within conservancies and how grazing was managed. We also asked community members about their views on the way conservancies interacted with livestock grazing and how this affected their livelihoods. Discussions focused on the potential costs of conservancies for livestock grazing, such as in terms of lost grazing space or grazing fines, but also some of the benefits of conservancies for livestock, for example as important drought refuges.To understand how conservancies were valued for grazing, we asked landowners to rank the parcels of land they owned in terms of key livestock grazing attributes: 1) quality of grass, 2) quantity of grass, 3) proximity to salt licks, 4) access to water and 5) the tourism potential of the land. Chi-squared and t-tests were used to compare conservancy and non-conservancy land. Livestock and wildlife trends in the Mara are well documented, with many analyses using the DRSRS aerial survey data (Bhola et al., 2012;Broten and Said, 1995;Ogutu et al., 2011;Ottichilo et al., 2000). This analysis is the first attempt to look at livestock trends directly in relation to newly formed conservancy areas in Koyiaki. DRSRS population density estimates are based on transects subdivided into 5x5 km 2 sampling units, each of which was identified as falling inside or outside a conservancy in Koyiaki (Figure 2). Norton-Griffiths (1978) and Ogutu et al. (2011) give further details of the method used to count animals and estimate animal population size and its standard error. The Maasai in Koyiaki diversify into a number of livelihood activities. Table 2 shows the number of households involved in different activities in the year preceding the household survey, and the mean annual household income earned from each of these.The mean total annual household income was $4,334 for the year 2009-2010. The distribution of income among all households was highly skewed, with the mean heavily influenced by a few wealthy cases. The median of $3,048 is hence a better representation of household income. Source: Author.Figure 3 shows the contribution of different livelihood activities to total annual household income for all households. Conservancy payments contributed 14% of total annual income. Livestock production was the most important livelihood activity to Koyiaki households, contributing 56% of total annual income. Offfarm activities contributed 29%, split almost evenly between activities related (15%) or unrelated (14%) to tourism. Cultivation was negligible at 1%. We break down and explain each of these activities further below.  All households owned some livestock. The mean number of livestock (TLU) owned per household was 65; however, this varied considerably between households, from three to 390 TLU (Table 3). The number of TLU per AU also varied greatly, from 0.6 to 40, with a mean of nine TLU/AU. Thirtythree percent of the households owned less than five TLU/AU -the lowest estimate of the threshold value required to support a purely pastoral lifestyle as estimated from a range of studies exploring numbers of livestock per capita. 44 Estimates of the minimum number of livestock required to support pastoral livelihoods depend on factors such as terms of trade and vary considerably among studies. See Lamprey and Reid (2004) for a useful synthesis and a range of estimates. The majority of households (87%) were involved in at least one off-farm activity, with a mean of 1.8 activities (Table 4). The mean annual off-farm income was $1,444 when including all sources, and off-farm activities contributed 29% of total household income. Activities related to tourism brought in a similar level of income to the household compared with activities unrelated to tourism. When disaggregating households into conservancy member and nonmember households, we find conservancy payments contribute 21% of the total annual income of member households (Figure 4). Conservancies were ranked as the household's primary livelihood activity for welfare by only 2% of members, compared with livestockkeeping at 74% (Figure 5). However, conservancies were consistently ranked as the most important second or third livelihood activity by those involved. Though members do not perceive involvement in conservancies as their main livelihood activity, which remains overwhelmingly livestock-based, they do consider it an important supplement.  Grazing is usually permitted only during the day for ease of monitoring and to avoid conflict with predators.Grazing rules are monitored and enforced by conservancy rangers, and herd owners are fined if herds are caught grazing in the conservancy outside of the specified times and places. Herds are driven out of the conservancy to the ranger post or gate and impounded until the fine is paid. In some cases, herders or livestock owners caught grazing illegally in the conservancies have been imprisoned or given community service (KII 32;Naboisho, 2013).The commonest reason given for the strict grazing restrictions was the fact that tourism investors do not want cattle in the conservancies (KII 14,18,32). Where conservancies initially completely outlawed livestock grazing, some persuasion was required to convince the tourism investors to allow some level (KII 14).Conservancies are marketed and portrayed as exclusive, low-density tourism destinations that offer a private and authentic safari experience. For this reason, tourists do not expect or want to see cattle in the conservancies, and this is the argument the tourism investors gave (KII 32). Hence, grazing is carefully monitored within conservancies to avoid livestock or herders being seen by tourists. When cattle are allowed in, the herders must wear their traditional Maasai shukas. 5 This argument generally takes precedence over any threat that livestock grazing might cause to the environment. In fact, the benefits of cattle grazing in maintaining a rich assembly of wildlife in these areas are well recognised by conservancy managers (KII 14,19,32) and documented by several studies (Augustine et al., 2011;Muchiru et al., 2008). The restriction of grazing and reduction of space for livestock grazing in conservancies has been a contentious issue within the community, creating much conflict. Livestock owners complained that conservancies had seriously reduced the grazing areas available to them, and prevented access to areas they once relied on. Moreover, during dry times, this issue has become accentuated in the search for forage for livestock. Thus, many viewed the livestock grazing restrictions negatively, as imposing a big cost on their livelihoods: In these examples, the payment is compared with the value of livestock, with respondents feeling it fell short. This was a common comparison made by both men and women.Although it is likely that the payment was enough to buy a cow in some cases, and certainly a sheep, many perceived it as too low for this. In these cases, the restriction on livestock grazing in the conservancy influences how people view the conservancy and its payments, which they believe are not enough to compensate for not grazing in the conservancy.Women often tended to view the payment as small, since they do not have direct access to it. The payment is usually sent to their In these examples, although these respondents do not mention that they use the conservancy payment to buy livestock, they say they use it to provide for their livestock as well as their family. The payment also helps protect them from having to sell their livestock for cash needs, so therefore provides them with a useful and regular source of cash.Although few reported spending their conservancy payments on fines received because of grazing in the conservancy, fines were perceived as a big cost for many people interviewed. Many conservancy members commented that what they had to pay for a fine was a similar sum to that received per month from the conservancy. This was made worse by the fact that they were being caught and fined for grazing on their own land: In these examples, people talked about having to sell their livestock to pay the fine, which they were obviously unhappy about. Fines tend to increase during the dry season (Bedelian, 2014), as the ability of herds to find available forage decreases, and conservancies come under considerable pressure from livestock grazing (see below).As well as conservancies being viewed as detrimental to livestock owing to grazing restrictions and fines, livestock grazing within conservancies was also seen as a benefit to livestock. Many spoke about conservancies having good livestock grazing, and when they did get to graze in the conservancy it was a benefit. An important aspect of conservancies for livestock grazing was that the conservancy preserves the grass to be used during drought (CI 13,23) Thus, by preventing widespread livestock grazing, conservancies retain grass, which, when accessed, is a big benefit. This was seen as particularly important during drought times. Conservancies were perceived as valuable pieces of land for livestock grazing. Households valued conservancy land significantly higher than non-conservancy land in terms of all four key livestock grazing attributes: quality, quantity, water, salt lick and tourism (Table 5). When all five attributes were combined into a total score, conservancy land was rated significantly higher than non-conservancy land (t=9.826, df=365, p<0.001). Conservancies are thus considered important areas for livestock and to have higher value than non-conservancy areas.  Despite the grazing restrictions, many people still use the conservancies for grazing, both legally and illegally. Most households (87%) reported grazing inside conservancies, even outside of the agreed times, and about half of these households, consisting of both conservancy members and nonmembers, reported regularly grazing in conservancies. Conservancies were used for livestock grazing throughout the year, but this increased during the dry season (July to October) (Figure 6).  So what do livestock count data show us about how conservancies are affecting the density and composition of livestock, inside and outside of conservancies? Cattle densities are highly variable and show little discernible change in density over time, but with severe drops in density evident during wellknown drought periods in 1999-2000 and 2009 (Figure 8 on cattle). After a crash in cattle numbers following the 1999-2000 drought, cattle numbers began increasing slowly. For most of the monitoring period, the density is lower inside than outside the conservancies. However, this increase appears to be accelerating in recent years and following the setting-up of conservancies in 2006. Although the density of shoats is equally highly variable, it shows a more obvious trend over time (Figure 8 on shoats), notably a large and sustained increase from 1996 to 2014. Similar to cattle, fewer shoats were found inside than outside conservancies, but this trend is much more clearly apparent for shoats.Overall, livestock, including shoats, are still using the conservancies to quite a considerable extent. Therefore, despite conservancies trying to reduce livestock grazing, it is clear a great deal of grazing is still occurring inside them. Given the few years of available data since conservancies were set up, and the variability in livestock numbers, these trends should be interpreted cautiously. Conservancies are an important livelihood activity for those who participate, and can make a significant contribution to overall household income. During 2009-2010, conservancies contributed 21% of total household income for Koyiaki conservancy members. This was expected to increase to 27% the following year, as more conservancies became established. Conservancy payments were also found to be an important source of cash income, helping households avoid selling their livestock for cash needs. Since payments are guaranteed and fixed every month, this provides a reliable all-year-round source of income and can protect households from having to sell their animals during times of stress. Conservancy payments thus play an important role in buffering against droughts and reducing risk during climatic shocks when other sources of income may decline. Similarly, Osano et al. (2013) found conservation payments became particularly important during drought in two sites (the Mara and Kitengela) in Kenya in 2009, when income from livestock declined.However, the limitations placed on livestock mean conservancy payments come at the expense of livestock production. For livestock owners, there are thus opportunity costs and livelihood trade-offs attached to participating in conservancies. The opportunity costs of lost grazing are particularly pertinent given that livestock are overwhelmingly the most important activity for Koyiaki households; all households own livestock, livestock contribute the most to total household income (56%) and livestock are valued as the most important activity for household welfare. For those non-members who do not receive conservancy payments, the contribution of livestock is much higher -70% versus 48% for those who receive payment -and these households depend on livestock more than any other activity. This is the case even though milk consumption and livestock products such as skins and hides are not included in total livestock production income, therefore undervaluing the contribution of livestock. Estimates of livestock contribution could be as much as 300% higher if milk production, which contributes nearly three quarters of the total gross value of livestock's contribution to the agriculture sector, is taken into account (Behnke and Muthami, 2011).Since payments do not adequately compensate conservancy members for the restrictions they put on their other livelihood activities, members did not perceive conservancies as their main livelihood activity, but as an important supplementary livelihood source. This is a common finding from research assessing tourism's contribution to pastoral livelihoods; pastoralists rarely view tourism as a substitute for their usual livelihood activities, but rather as a possible way of supplementing them (DeLuca, 2004;Homewood et al., 2009). The fact that people conceptualised the payment amount against the value of a cow tends to show they value livestock more.Livestock thus remain central to the livelihoods of most rural Maasai, and represent their core economic and cultural strategy (Homewood et al., 2009). There are multiple and flexible ways that livestock are integrated into Maasai livelihoods: as a wealth store; as an investment yielding growth in herd numbers; as a food source (milk); and as producing animals for sale. There is also the cultural and social value attached to owning livestock, outside of its economic value.In comparison with conservancy payments, which are banked by the individual landowner and thus not as unquestioningly redistributed or shared among the family, livestock offer benefits to the whole household in both direct and indirect ways. Livestock income is more easily distributed in cash and in kind among various members of the family, including, for example, women, who typically accrue small but significant sums from sales of milk and hides. Even if not under their direct control or ownership, livestock are a source of subsistence, income and social status for women through control of livestock products (Njuki and Sanginga, 2013;Talle, 1988). Conservancy payments thus offer little comparative benefit and significant disadvantages to women, especially when considering the restrictions conservancies place on livestock. This can explain why people, and especially women, saw little value to the conservancy payments, and valued them lower than livestock. Although women are included in conservancy co-benefits such as community training and capacity-building, these activities do not compensate for the loss of livelihood activity because of the central contribution of livestock to family food systems, income and sociocultural well-being.Payments are also of limited value to the large portion of the community that are not conservancy members, and so do not receive conservancy payments. In addition to women and landless households, who by virtue of not owning land are ineligible to join conservancies, there are a number of conservancy nonmember households that live outside of conservancies. These nonmembers experience the cost of lost grazing space but do not receive any payment in return. They must also accommodate conservancy member livestock on their land.Although cultivation potentially offers the highest returns on land use (Norton-Griffiths and Said, 2010), this study found that few people cultivate, and fewer people gain much from it. Previous research has shown little uptake of cultivation in Koyiaki, owing to increased occurrence of droughts, wildlife damage and competing interests with tourism (Thompson et al., 2009).Cultivation might be used more as a tenure strategy; cultivation peaked before land titling, and reduced thereafter once land was secured (ibid.).As These arguments point to the mix of synergies and trade-offs involved in conservancies and pastoralism, and also the possible positive potentials.In the short term, then, conservancies may undermine pastoral mobility, but in the long term they are likely to enhance it.It is clear from the long-term trend data that shoats are rapidly increasing in number in the Mara, whereas cattle numbers show a much less marked upward trend. This evident switch to small stock is likely a response to widening variability in cattle numbers, which probably reflects their greater sensitivity to widening rainfall variability than shoats (Faye et al., 2012;Seo et al., 2009). Shoats have greater capacity to recover more rapidly from droughts. The switch to small stock can also be explained by the lower feed requirements and shorter gestation time of small stock, and the important role they play in rebuilding herds when recovering from drought (McPeak and Little, 2005). The switch to small stock is also a common strategy where mobility is increasingly curtailed (Dahl and Hjort, 1976), and is expected to increase with climate warming (Seo and Mendelsohn, 2008). The switch is also a trend mirrored in other pastoral areas (e.g. Ottichilo et al., 2000). The diversification of herds is thus an important strategy that pastoralists use to manage and cope with risk presented by a variable climate and to reduce their vulnerability to recurrent droughts. First, areas inside the conservancies have fewer livestock than those outside, and this was apparent even before conservancies were set up. These areas have generally had poorer access to water and market centres; some have been sites of previous tourism initiatives; and some have suffered from the presence of tsetse, which are all likely to have been important contributing factors preventing heavy settlement and livestock grazing (Bedelian, 2014).Second, livestock appear to be increasing more rapidly outside than inside conservancies, and this is more visible for shoats than for cattle. However, it is as yet not possible to definitively ascribe this to conservancies.Third, despite livestock grazing restrictions, conservancies are still heavily grazed by livestock, including shoats. This is supported by data from livestock owners. Thus, conservancies are still important grazing areas for livestock, and are regularly used either legally or illegally.The influence of conservancies on livestock remains unclear. However, the reduction in space for livestock use owing to conservancies is beyond doubt. Aware of this, conservancies are encouraging their members to reduce their herds. By setting up controlled grazing plans with specified stocking densities, and by promoting and introducing improved or exotic breeds to members to mix with their traditional breeds, conservancies aim to reduce pressure on conservancy land by reducing livestock numbers. The idea is that improved breeds, when crossed with local breeds, can be more productive, and can ultimately fetch a higher market price.The presumption is that this will then encourage landowners to own less livestock, but of a higher quality relative to their traditional breeds.Having fewer animals is expected to reduce the impact of livestock on the environment. However, although improved cattle breeds have higher market values, they have been found to be less resistant to droughts and floods than local breeds and require more veterinary and fodder inputs (Nkedianye et al., 2011). There is also no evidence that the adoption of more productive breeds necessarily translates into people keeping fewer animals (Marshall, 2014). Conservancy cattle management plans are influenced by commercial ranching models, and many are based on experience and expert opinion from ranchers and land managers in other mixed livestock and wildlife areas in Kenya. This implies a change to many of the long-term traditional and customary practices of livestock grazing and management in the area.This paper has pointed to some of the trade-offs involved in participating in conservancies. Nevertheless, given the extent of change in these systems, and the fact that land subdivision and fragmentation are altering the way the system has traditionally functioned, people increasingly need to and do engage in new livelihood activities (Galvin, 2009). Livestock numbers per capita are going down, also as a function of subdivision (Thornton et al., 2006), and there is some evidence that this is true of the Mara as well. This study found an average of nine TLU per AU in 2010, down from 13 in 2004 and 15 in 1998-2000 found by Thompson et al. (2009). Furthermore, in this study, 33% of households owned less than the estimated threshold value of livestock per capita required to support a purely pastoral lifestyle.Income from other sources and diversification are thus increasingly becoming an important activity and source of wealth (Homewood et al., 2009;Little, 2012;McPeak et al., 2012). As land is subdivided, and individually owned, mobility is curtailed, and people have to compensate for the potential loss of movement by engaging in new land uses and other ways of earning a living (Galvin, 2009). Indeed, pastoralists are changing, diversifying and modernising. Other areas of Kenya show an ongoing intensification of livestock, through cross-breeding traditional breeds with large breeds of greater market value (BurnSilver and Mwangi, 2007;Nkedianye et al., 2011). Many are investing in education, diversifying their incomes, taking up new opportunities and innovations and accessing and capitalising on new markets (Catley et al., 2012;Homewood et al., 2009). It is likely that adaptation to climate change will require more to pursue alternative livelihoods, and some to move out of pastoralism altogether into other livelihoods (McPeak et al., 2012).Cows Ó Matt Biddulph CC2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcodeThis paper has explored the opportunities and conflicts that emerge for climate-resilient pastoral livelihoods for landowners who participate in wildlife conservancies in the Mara, Kenya. Results show that, though offering stable payments (based on a stable tourism in the Mara), conservancies cause trade-offs as livestock and other livelihood activities are restricted. This reduces the ability to access resources, remain mobile and maintain resilience. Also, because the income received from conservancy payments is not more than that received from livestock production, conservancies do not adequately compensate landowners for the restrictions placed on their other livelihood activities. Moreover, since conservancy payments are limited to those owning land inside a conservancy, a large portion of the community do not receive conservancy payments, but still experience the cost of lost livestock grazing space. This includes women and other groups not allocated land during subdivision.However, community members also recognised the benefits of conservancies for livestock grazing and pastoralism. Conservancies retain good quality and quantity of grass and are important livestock grazing areas if accessible during drought times. Conservancies also pool land and prevent further subdivision and fragmentation. Thus, given the extent of land tenure changes in the Mara, conservancies and other similar schemes that maintain open rangelands could offer a potentially optimistic outlook for these areas, provided livestock are accommodated for. Conservancy effects may therefore be mixed and dependent on the policies and practices of individual conservancies and of the landowners' continuing motivations to participate. These effects may also vary in the short and long term.Conservancies are not fully integrative, and, like other schemes in Maasailand (Homewood et al., 2012), they aim to replace livestock, rather than to fully integrate with livestock within the same landscape. Livestock support livelihoods and can contribute to protecting biodiversity; livestock landscapes thus need to be part of the conservation agenda. There is a need for better-thought-out integrative livestock grazing plans, for better integration of pastoralism and tourism within and beyond conservancies. These need to acknowledge the risk management benefits associated with livestock, transmission of diseases between wildlife and livestock and the cultural and social values attached to livestock by the whole family. These need to be taken into account beyond any simple economic appraisal of conservancies or similar livelihood activity.Pastoralists have always had traditional strategies to regulate the access and use of resources, and to cope with climatic variability. These include regulations on how many herds access a particular grazing area or when they move to dry season areas or access important resources, such as salt or water, ensuring there is adequate remaining for others. Conservancies could do well to draw on and mimic such traditional grazing strategies, developing their livestock grazing plans together with livestock keepers, including both conservancy members and non-members.The Mara is a unique case study; it is the highest wildlife-earning site in Maasailand (Homewood et al., 2009), and its impressive wildlife abundance and diversity make it one of the top most visited tourist attractions in Kenya. Being at the top end of tourism revenue potential means conservancies are able to offer relatively large payments on a wide scale in the Mara. It is not certain that similar schemes in other areas would be able to offer pastoralists as much. However, conservancies are growing in Kenya, and, although they vary in terms of their ownership and management arrangements, the Mara case study provides valuable lessons for what could potentially occur in other sites.• Carefully formulated livestock grazing plans are needed to allow for better integration of, and space for, livestock within and outside of conservancies. These should recognise the need to conserve good-quality rangeland for livestock, similar to how the conservancies expand and conserve habitat for wildlife. This should occur through a participatory process, not just with conservancy members but also with women, herders and other non-members who reside next to a conservancy.• It is important that grazing plans are holistic and encompass areas outside of conservancies.They should analyse their impact on the MMNR as well as focusing on land within the conservancy to avoid the problem of leakage and degradation to areas outside.• An increased focus on conservancies as areas managed for livestock as well as their current focus on tourism and wildlife conservation is needed. This should involve the identification of critical areas and periods where conflict between livestock and tourism is likely to increase and will need mitigation with appropriate strategies.• There is opportunity for better integration of livestock in conservancy marketing, so tourists are aware from the outset and expect to see livestock are integrated into conservancies.• Better inclusion of nonconservancy members in conservancy operations is necessary. This includes in livestock grazing plans, but also in conservancy management and in the distribution of conservancy payments.• Clear policy guidelines for the development of conservancies, adequate benefit-sharing, participatory processes and sustainable land use are required.","tokenCount":"6466"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3f5c1b1c972250c637cab1b280e4414f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2f2535a4-1099-44ea-a902-0dc37804bb44/retrieve","id":"1293381319"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0a79cb47-649d-436a-9585-eefd83016d73","pagecount":"76","content":"Photo 20. Different uses of Cratylia argentea in smallholder dairy systems in the Piedmont of the Llanos of Colombia (A= Cut & Carry; B= Silage; C= Direct grazing) Rice Yield (kg/Output 4: Superior and diverse grasses and legumes delivered to NARS partners are evaluated and released to farmersResults from on-farm trials demonstrated the benefits and limitation of Brachiaria hybrid cv Mulato Adoption of Cratylia by smallholders in the llanos of Colombia is being promoted by farmers who have experienced the multiple benefits of this legume as a dry season feed Forage species to feed livestock in cut/carry systems and for green manure were selected and multiplied for use in hillsides of Haiti Scaling of new forage alternatives is an active process in hillsides of Honduras and Nicaragua being promoted by NARS, NGOs and farmers groups The first farmer-led forage seed enterprise (PRASEFORProductores artesanales de semilla forrajera) was formed in Honduras Scaled up the testing of green manures with selected legumes in different production systems in Hillsides of Nicaragua During the last years the availability of new forage options has increased in Central America, particularly new cultivars of the genus Brachiaria and Panicum. Usually commercial seed companies with limited participation of local research and development institutions carry out promotion of these materials. The involvement of national institutions in on-station and on-farm processes of validation and promotion of the new forage options offers the chance to generate reliable information and expose the new cultivars to different biotic and abiotic stresses and production systems. During the last year this strategy has been utilized to evaluate Brachiaria hybrid cv. Mulato.As mentioned in the 2002 Annual Report of IP5, a protocol for the validation/promotion of Brachiaria hybrid cv. Mulato was developed and proposed to national institutions of Panamá, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras. As a result dual purpose and beef cattle farms were established with the grass in the region of Yoro, Yorito, Victoria and Olancho (Honduras); León, Chinandega, Posoltega and San Dionisio (Nicaragua); Puriscal, Miramar, San Jerónimo and Orotina (Costa Rica) and Bugaba, Gualaca and Boquerón in Panamá. Commercial plantings have been carried out in these countries and in Guatemala, since the validation exercise has been accompanied by the availability of commercial seed from Semillas Papalotla from Mexico.Successful establishment of cv. Mulato was reported from every site in the different countries were the grass was planted. High seed quality, high seedling vigor, good soil preparation and adequate weather conditions accounted for the excellent establishment of the grass. The absence of major pests and diseases also contributed to the adequate establihsment of cv. Mulato.On-farm establishment: One of the outstanding characteristics of cv. Mulato is the quickness of the establishment given the high seedling vigor that the plant has. Table 55 shows that in farms in Honduras, plant height and cover had a mean of 0.80 m and 80% respectively, less than two months after the grass was planted. This observation was also made in other countries of the area. As a result of rapid establihsment, farmers could make use of the paddocks much earlier than the time experienced with other grasses.On-farm monitoring: Milk production has been monitored in dual-purpose cattle farms with cv.Mulato in several countries of the region including Honduras (Table 56). In every site milking cows grazing the grass increased individual daily milk production; for instance in the case of Honduras the increase has ranged from 1.0 to 2.0 liters/day. Additional to this and because of more DM production, the stocking rate has also increased in pastures of cv. Mulato as compared to other Brachiaria grasses like B. decumbens cv. Basilisk. As a result milk production also increased per unit of land.A grazing trial was established by IDIAP (Instituto Panameño de Investigación Agropecuaria) during 2002 at the Experimental Station Gualaca in Panamá. The site is at 100 masl and located in a very humid premontane ecosystem; the soils are clay loam acid inceptisols with pH 4.8, high in Al (1.1 meq/ 100 ml), medium in OM (4.0 %), low in P (1 ppm), medium in K content (59 meq/100 ml) and low in Ca and Mg (1.0 and 0.20 meq/100 ml respectively). Mean temperature is 26 ºC and the site has a record of 4000 mm total rainfall from May to November.Cultivar Mulato was established by direct seeding after controlling the existing vegetation with herbicides. The 2 ha of the experiment were fertilized with 20 kg/ha of N and 10 kg/ha of P, An important activity in the Forage Project is the on farm evaluation in different regions of Colombia of the Brachiaria hybrid cv Mulato. After one year of evaluation the following observations can be made:1. In the well-drained savannas Llanos of Colombia with soils of low fertility Mulato should be part of a crop pasture rotation system. One option is to establish Mulato with Maize, as was the case in the Costa Rica farm.In this farm the maize harvested covered 80% of the cost of establishment of Mulato and a very productive pasture was left behind.2. In the piedmont of the llanos with soils of higher fertility than in the well-drained savannas the use of Mulato requires the application of fertilizer. In the Isla farm Mulato shows very high animal productivity and regrowth after intensive defoliation with the application of chicken manure.3. In the north coast of Colombia with more fertile soils the performance of Mulato is very good and could be an alternative to grasses with very poor performance in the dry season as is the case of Bothriochloa sp., which is the predominant grass in many cattle regions with 6 month dry season.4. In both the Llanos and the north coast we observed in Mulato and damage caused by the insect Antonina graminis, but the problem seems to be easily managed by intensive defoliation.A major event this year was the release in Colombia of the Brachiaria hybrid cv Mulato by a private seed company (Semillano). The field day to introduce cv. Mulato to farmers in the Llanos was held on Tuesday, 17 June. CIAT staff from headquarters, from Central America and from the Llanos gave a series of short presentations to an audience of 80-90 participants, mostly farmers. Presentations were followed by a visit to the Costa Rica farm, where a 15-ha Mulato pasture was established (with maize) last year (Photo 18). The seed company had Mulato seed (from Papalotla) for sale, in attractive 1-kg, sealed tins. The aggressive promotion of Mulato by Semillano is impressive, as they also had a similar event in the north coast (Turipana-Corpoica) to present cv Mulato to farmers (Photo 19). In February 2001 we started a 2-year project funded by PRONATTA (Programa Nacional de Transferencia de Tecnologia Agropecuaria) in the piedmont of the Llanos of Colombia to evaluate the utility of Cratylia argentea (Cratylia) in smallholder dairy farms. We were particularly interested in defining with farmers different uses of Cratylia as a supplement for milking cows in the dry season and in developing a seed supply system as a means of promoting the use of Cratylia in the region.To implement the project we selected 14 farms in which the main activity was milk production. With active farmer participation we evaluated in the different farms the use of Cratylia for cut and carry, direct grazing and seed production. A total of 12.5 ha were planted in the 14 farms (range 0.12 to 1.0 ha) out of which 6 ha were for cut and carry, 3 ha for direct grazing and 3.5 ha for seed production.In what follows we report results on performance of Cratylia in the different farms, on milk yield with supplementation of Cratylia and on seed production. Finally we discuss some of the lessons learned in the project.Agronomic performance and quality of Cratylia. In the different farms were we established Cratylia we measured seasonal yield and leaf: stem ratio in the forage harvested. In the wet season the mean green dry matter (GDM) yield across farms was 3337 Kg/ha of which 67% was leaf (Figure 66). Plants averaged 1.21 m of height at the time of harvest, which was carried out every 45 to 55 days. In the dry season forage yield of plants of 1.12 m averaged 600 K GDM with 52% leaf (Figure 67).In one farm we measured yield of plants with and without an uniformization cut (20 cm above ground surface) following grazing. Results showed that days of regrowth forage yield was greater (490 vs. 787 Kg DM/ha) with plants that were not cut but the leaf proportion was considerably less (29 vs. 54%). In the dry season crude protein (CP) content of Cratylia averaged 22% as compared with 6.5% in the grass available in the pastures (Figure 68). The CP content of Cratylia in the dry season has been similar to G. sepium, which is a well known legume used by few farmers in the region to supplement milking cows. The combination of Cratylia with maize silage, an initiative of some farmers, has as expected increased CP content of the silage (7 to 10%) and this has reflected in more milk yield.It has not been easy to measure the effect of supplementing Cratylia on milk yield during the dry season given that the farmers do not want to loose money as they clearly see the benefit of the legume.In the period December 2001 to May 2003, we measured milk production in the same cows with and without supplementation of Cratylia in several farms in the project. Results showed that in some cases there where was positive response to the legume whereas in other cases there was no response (Table 57). In spite of this, farmers are very impressed with the improved body condition of cows receiving Cratylia after the dry season, which should have a positive effect on reproduction. In addition, farmers see other benefits of feeding Cratylia as discussed bellow.Seed Production of Cratylia. One important goal of the project was to establish seed multiplication plots of Cratylia to allow diffusion of the technology in and outside the region. In seed plots established in 7 farms we were expecting to harvest 650 kg of clean seed based on yields obtained in Costa Rica. In February of this year we began the seed harvest and only harvested 100 kg. The seed yield per plant varied from 25 g to 67 g with an average of 47 g/plant for 4 farms.During the dry months (February and March) 90% of the seed harvested was of excellent quality and germination, but once the rains started in April the quality of the seed dropped significantly (from 90% to 40% good seed).The cost of production of the seed harvested was in the order of $US 4.50 /kg, which makes attractive the activity of seed multiplication given that the current price of Cratylia seed in the market varies from US $ 14 to 15/ kg.In spite the high potential economic benefits of producing Cratylia seed in the Piedmont of the Llanos of Colombia, it became clear that it was not an ideal region for this activity given the low yields obtained associated with a short rainy season. As a result a Cratylia Network was established with participants from contrasting regions in Colombia.One initial objective of the Network is to define seed production potential of Cratylia in contrasting eco-regions (north coast, Magdalena Valley, Coffee zone) of Colombia.Lessons Learned. Given the participatory approach used in the project farmers were able to define alternative uses of Cratylia, which at the end were quite different from those initially suggested by the technical staff in the project (Photo 20).The original idea was for farmers to use Cratylia in a Cut & Carry system but some realized that this system was associated with high labor cost. The alternatives to Cut & Carry of Cratylia that some farmers implemented were silage production and direct grazing all year round using in electrical fences. Grazing of Cratylia has not caused plant mortality and in some farms a very productive association of the legume with Brachiaria decumbens (the grass originally in the plots) was formed.Through farmer experimentation we have also learned that it is possible to reduce cost of establishment of Cratylia by intercropping maize or other crops such as tomatoes, and cucumbers.Finally, one of the most important lessons learned is that criteria of farmers to assess the utility of forage plant like Cratylia may be quite different from the criteria of researchers. We had postulated that the main benefit for dairy farmers in the Piedmont would be increased milk production in the dry season and consequently more cash flow.It was interesting however, to learn that farmers saw other benefits when using Cratylia: a) Possibility of having high quality forage for cows in the middle of the rainy season when pastures were difficult to graze due to high soil moisture b) Replacement of purchased supplements in the dry season which has economical implications c) Possibility of milking cows in the dry season and get higher price for the milk sold d) Improved body conditions of cows which has been associated with improved reproductive performanceThe adoption of Cratylia in the Piedmont of the Llanos of Colombia is an ongoing process which is being promoted not only by extension people who received training from the Project but also by enthusiastic farmers who have seen the benefits of the legume in there farms. In spite of this, adoption of Cratylia in the Piedmont and other regions of Colombia could be enhanced if commercial seed was available. There is a need to identify regions in Colombia suitable for Cratylia seed production and farmers willing to invest money and effort on seed multiplication. One of the aims of the Forage Project is to develop alternative green manures for maize and rice based systems (Photo 21) in the Llanos of Colombia. It is expected that suitable legumes will reduce the need for external inputs (herbicides, fertilizer) and thus make the crops more competitive.Two types of potential green manures were selected for different temporal niches. 1) Rapidly establishing legumes to be used as green manures (incorporated 80-90 days after planting) and 2) Slower establishing species to be utilized for fallow improvement. The following species and accessions were evaluated:Photo 21. Rice following green manure incorporation in the llanos (C.I. La libertad)Green manure in upland rice: Results on the performance of green manures were summarized. in the AR-2002. In Figure 69, the residual effects of the green manure on a 2 nd rice crop (1 year after green manure incorporation) are presented. Results indicated no significant green manure effects on rice yield. Differences in yield of rice due to green manure species were only evident with the application of N (40 kg/ha).This confirms previous results that there are no positive effects of using short term green manure on upland rice systems, for the first crop in the piedmont area of the llanos. Short-term green manure species for maize and rice cultivation: In view of the increasing importance of maize in the Altillanura of Colombia, short-term green manure species were tested for their effect on succeeding maize. All materials were incorporated at the same time (after 11 to 12 months). Results indicated that short-term use of legumes planted after native savanna does not have any effect on subsequent maize in the Altillanura. It is possible that after continuous cultivation of maize the effect of planting short-term legumes as green manure may be beneficial. hillsides of Haiti. Demonstration to farmers of the value of improved forages to feed livestock and to improve soil fertility for crop production was to be a major component of CIATs Forage Adaptive Research Strategy. These activities would be complemented with the development of sustainable seed delivery systems of improved forages.The methodology proposed for the HAP in Haiti was as follows:Multilocational Testing. Different grass and legume species pre-selected on the basis of previous knowledge on adaptation to calcareous and acid soils, and potential utility to feed livestock and to enhance soil fertility are evaluated in small plots with farmer participation. Staff from different NGOs collaborating with HAP will be trained in forage agronomy and in participatory methods. Representative plots in the HAP target areas will be selected to establish a wide range of preselected forage species using methodology developed by CIAT. Farmers will be involved in the selection of grasses and legumes using there own selection criteria, which will then be compared with criteria used by researchers. The main output of this activity will be the selection with farmers of adapted elite grasses and legumes for subsequent on farm testing and seed multiplication.On-farm Testing. Elite grasses and legumes will multiplied by CIAT to assess their value as feed resources for bovines and goats and as covers to enhance soil fertility for annual crops. Farms with plots in different stages of degradation will be selected in the HAP target areas to plant selected grasses and legumes. Grasses will be evaluated for ease of establishment, seasonal biomass production, and acceptability to livestock when offered at different stages of maturity. Legumes will be evaluated for ease of establishment, ground cover, seasonal biomass production, seed quality, acceptability to livestock and effect on soil fertility through yields of an indicator crop (maize and /or beans). The main output of this activity will be the demonstration in selected and representative farmers fields of the utility (biological and economical) of improved grasses and legumes to feed livestock and to improve soil fertility for annual crop production.Effective Seed Delivery System. Seed of selected commercial grass and legume cultivars will be multiplied and purchased outside of Haiti through linkages to be developed with the private sector in Haiti. This will allow good quality low cost seed availability to farmers in a sustainable manner. Seed multiplication of selected grasses and herbaceous and woody legume specie not commercially available in the regional market will be mainly carried out in Haiti through contracts with NGOs that have the capacity to manage seed plots, process and store seed.A strategy to involve local Farmer Groups in seed multiplication of selected grasses and legumes will be promoted as an other means of providing income and allowing effective diffusion of improved forages. The main output of this activity will be a mechanism in place for diffusion and adoption by farmers of improved forages for multipurpose use.After 1-½ years of work in HAP the funds for CIAT work were cancelled in midyear with short notice and consequently we could not meet our objectives. In what follows we present a summary of the accomplishments and difficulties encountered in establishing forage trials in different regions of the hillsides of Haiti.It has been difficult for the field staff of the project in Haiti to establish the forage trials that were planned. Sev eral reasons account for that situation. Small and medium-size farmers have been reticent to yield their plots to set up forage trials because they believe that by doing so, they: a) Would not have enough land to grow cash crops like corn, beans or vegetables b) Will be kept out of their plots for too long a period of time (two years on the average) according the protocol for the forage trials c) Will be denied the possibilities to get their usual revenues and crop production from their small piece of landIn spite of all the difficulties, the field staff succeeded establishing three forage trials during the first cycle and another three during the second cycle (Table 58). The main objective ofIn Table 59 we present initial results on plant emergence, vigor and plant cover during the first 9 weeks of the trial. All cowpea lines established well, although the local line was showing better adaptation followed by the introduced lines 391, 716, 277-2 and 1088-4. The second aspect of the cowpea trial involves the planting of corn in half of the plots after incorporating the cowpea biomass into the soil. The second half of the cowpea plot will be used to measure cowpea grain yield. To estimate the N contribution of cowpea to the soil, maize will be sowed using six (6) nitrogen doses within three (3) replications. Finally, since farmers indicated that they could not spare there plots used for crop production to carry out forage research work, we decided to plant test forages along the borders of the plots. It was a decision that many farmers welcomed with interest.Evaluation of Cowpea as grain and green manure This trial was established at the locality of El Matador, near Dondon. Data for biomass yields were collected and looked pretty interesting; and the biomass has been already incorporated into the soil. Among others, the accession IT86D -716 showed high yield performance as shown in   60. Corn was just being planted afterwards to complete the second phase of the trial. In a participatory evaluation session the accession IT86D-716 ranked first based on the selection criteria that had been set up for the exercise. A few farmers indicated their concern about the labor and the cost to incorporate the biomass into the soil at the preflowering stage. Bertin Site: The forage accessions did not germinate well due to drought conditions and probably to the methods of planting. They were re-planted again at mid-September 02. Some species like Panicum maximum cv. Mombasa and B. brizantha cv. Toledo performed quite well.The trials set up at Foundation Vincent did not germinate well and consequently the material was planted several times. Seedling emergence was quite acceptable in a re-planting carried out in September, but it has been noted also the urgent need to set up a fence around the trial plot to stop stray goats coming from a nearby neighborhood that feed on the vegetative materials of the trial.In The grasses P. maximun cvs Mombasa and Tanzania showed good plant vigor, as well as the Brachiaria cvs Toledo and Mulato. At the evaluation date, plant height of these grasses was close to 1 m per plant that indicates the possibility of utilizing them in a cut and carry system, which is widely used in Haiti and considered as a viable alternative for animal feeding in the country. As a result of the evaluation of different forage species in Haiti we selected for on regional testing and seed multiplication a number of forage species: Scaling up of research results is considered as the most important issue to be addressed in current R&D activities due to increasing pressure from donors and civil society that money spent in agriculture must result in a lasting impact on the lives of the rural poor. Furthermore, it was recognized that many relevant technologies and approaches are not achieving their full potential impact due to low levels of adoption, which has led to more emphasis on the effectiveness of research to produce adoptable technological options. There is a need not only to increase impact, but also to show good quality research results, which attract different stakeholders in the R&D environment (e.g. NGOs, farmer associations) in order to achieve a high degree of adoption in combination with a faster dissemination process. CIAT was contracted to 1) select and implement three forage nursery trials in different sites offering a wide basket of germplasm options to farmers, (2) implement on-farm animal production experiments to demonstrate pasture management and increased milk production based on improved grasses and grass-legume associations, (3) implement dry season feed opportunities based on the shrub legume Cratylia argentea in combination with cut and carry grasses, (4) conduct training modules on forage agronomy and pasture management, participatory methods for evaluation and extension, seed production and participatory monitoring and evaluation, and (5) develop seed production system within the project in order to secure long term sustainability and adoption of the selected forage options.The project started in late August 2002 with the selection of the three sites and their preparation. Nursery plots were sown at the beginning of October. A range of grasses (18), herbaceous legumes (12) and shrub legumes (9) species were established across three different sites with three replicates ( the past have spent little time and effort on improving feed resources for their animals. Natural pastures were the main source of nutrition for livestock. Now, farmers establish their forage plots and buy seed on their own account. Further effort will be necessary to maintain the participatory focus of the project. Technicians will receive a further training course in participatory methodologies in order to avoid traditional top down extension practices which could prove detrimental to the farmer-led process being implemented.Contributors: Campos Verdes (San Dionisio, Nicaragua), Axel Schmidt (IP-5), Caroline Dohmeyer (University of Hohenheim), Erik Sindhoj (PE2-TSBF), Michael Peters (IP-5), Clark Davies (IP-5), Edmundo Barrios (PE-2)Farmers are increasingly concerned of the increased price of inputs input used for agriculture production such as fertilizers. At the same time soil fertility on farmer fields is decreasing and weeds become a larger problem over time. In order to overcome these limitations and backed up by CIAT, the local farmer organization Campos Verdes initiated a project to introduce, evaluate and promote the use of cover crops and green manures (CCGM) in the communities of San Dionisio in 2001.The CCGM legumes may significantly contribute to enhanced soil fertility, water and soil conservation and weed suppression. Some of these green manure legumes can be used as forage or even for human consumption. It was also taken into account that growing CCGMs may result in a smaller amount of applied agrochemicals, which are already contaminating the scarce water resources of the people in San Dionisio. Further objectives were the demonstration of the multiple uses offered by CCGM including their drought tolerance, participatory learning about CCGM, their management within the local community and the identification of key farmers to provide feedback on local soil organic matter management.A workshop was held in San Dionisio in April 2001 to which all members of Campos Verdes had been invited. A total of 27 farmers participated in the event and the proposed project was presented and discussed.Sites  63).The experiments consist of seven treatments, which were arranged, in a randomized block design with 3 replicates at each site. The treatments are summarized in Table 64. CCGM legumes were sown in maize plots (4 x 4 m) at the traditional bean sowing distance (0.4 x 0.4 m). Maize with Lablab Maize without N-fertilizer * Cover crops/green manures were sown into existing maize plots in September when the maize was entering its mature stage.The evaluation of the legumes sown as green manures was carried out on a monthly basis. All CCGMs were kept in the maize plots throughout the dry season 2001-2002 and maize was planted into the CCGM mulch on the onset of the wet season 2002. Fertilizer treatments were applied and plant height, biomass production and maize yields were recorded at harvest in November 2002. Field days were held throughout the participating communities in order to demonstrate and discuss practical management issues with farmers. By discussing soil fertility issues farmers to provide feedback on local soil organic matter management were identified.In September 2002 a German student from the University of Hohenheim initiated a survey on local soil organic matter management among the identified key farmers in San Dionisio. Farmers using any kind of organic matter to improve soil organic matter contents were interviewed and their experiences and techniques documented. In collaboration with the PE-2/TSBF Project additional information on farm nutrient balances were also collected.The absence of rainfall at the beginning of October 2001 affected the CCGM establishment and biomass production at all sites, reducing potential fertility effects on the subsequent maize crops. The effect of green manures was small at high-altitude sites such as Ocote arriba, Carrizal and the Susuli sites on the more humid eastern zone of San Dionisio. On the other hand, plots at Susuli central were lost due to massive leave cutting ants infestation. Plant growth at the Jicaro and Piedras largas sites were heavily influenced by early drought conditions and biomass production was very low.In Table 65 we show plant height, soil cover and biomass production of all green manure species prior to the maize crop. Maize plants sown after cowpea suffered from a dry spell in August 2002 and became stunted. Subsequently, these sites had to be eliminated from the experiment. Reliable data where only obtained from the Carrizal and Susuli sites. Data recorded by farmers at Corozo, Piedra Colorada and Ocote arriba were found to be unreliable due to inconsistencies and anticipated harvest. At the Susuli site effects were not as pronounced as at Carrizal. This was expected since the Susuli site was heavily hit by hurricane Mitch in 1998 when much of the top soil layer was lost. Production data are somewhat below the average production level for San Dionisio, which, might be attributed to experimental, and data recording errors in this farmer-led experiment.Dionisio can be achieved through the use of CCGMs as demonstrated in this experiment. While differences in organic matter contents were not obtained, it could be shown that soil fertility is affected by CCGMs when grown before the long dry season. This is especially important for the improvement of the prevailing maize-bean system that is running down more and more soil fertility at hillsides locations such as San Dionisio. The survey on the soil organic matter management in San Dionisio revealed that certainly the majority of the interviewed farmers had positive experience growing CCGMs, but only few continued to grow them. Reasons indicated were: lack of time, lack of land, the invading growing habit especially of Mucuna sp. and the difficulty of obtaining seed.Mucuna sp. was the CCGM, which was grown most in the target area. The majority of the farmers visited, who cultivated Canavalia., Lablab, and/or Mucuna, did grow CCGMs in monoculture. The majority of the interviewed farmers had at least once experiences with organic compost. Because of high investments in time and effort, farmers use organic compost only in high value crops. Mainly the farmers growing organic coffee used compost regularly. Animal manure was not mentioned as a source of organic matter improvement.In general the survey indicated that farmers consider CCGMs as beneficial, but lack sufficient information and consciousness to adopt these technologies. Without doubt, projects on CCGMs have to take into account the greater necessity to work in a participatory framework in order to offer real alternatives in complex production systems.Complemented by outputs of further CIAT activities on soil fertility, the above described onfarm CCGMs and survey results were presented at a soil improvement workshop in December 2002. During the workshop farmers suggested an integrative project approach capitalizing on obtained results from the different activities presented since the year 2000. A project proposal was developed combining the findings of the work with multipurpose forage germplasm (cowpea, Canavalia brasiliensis, Mucuna pruriens, Lablab purpureus) with production system alternatives. In collaboration with local farmer organizations (Cooperativa Sueños Realizados y Campos Verdes) CIAT developed a project proposal for a small grant from FUNICA, which was approved in May 2003. Different systems alternatives are validated on 31 farms in the Wibuse-Jicaro watershed for a time period of two years. Erosion is monitored in the large validation plots (20 x 20 m) and reliable data for economic analyses are recorded. Farmer field days on a regular basis ensure the on-going debate on project objectives and evolving problems. Participatory evaluations complement agronomic data collections. The initiated project can be seen as a further step to scale our activities in CCGM from plot levels to watershed levels. The adoption of new forage technologies are intimately connected to the availability of good quality seed at reasonable prices. Small farmers, often located in remote areas, do not have the economic ability to buy commercial seed and have no direct access to seed markets. Furthermore, not all recently developed forage germplasm is available through conventional market channels. In order to overcome this traditional bottleneck for adoption, we supported farmer groups in initiating their own forage seed production schemes for selected species such as Brachiaria brizantha (CIAT 26110) cv. Toledo and Cratylia argentea (CIAT 18668). The objective was not only to increase seed availability for participating farmers and their communities, but also to connect these farmers through a value-added forage product (seed) to local, regional and national markets. Furthermore, results from these production efforts complement our knowledge about seed production potentials under different environmental conditions in Central America.In December 2002, a small but dedicated farmer group (12 farmers) in Yorito, Honduras, harvested 350 kg of B. brizantha cv. Toledo in close collaboration with DICTA and CIAT. This was a slightly lower seed yield than farmer had expected. The group, already working under their new own label PRASEFOR (Productores Artesanales de Semillas Forrajeras), began to explore marketing opportunities at the beginning of 2003. Market demands such as seed quality and packaging requirements were identified. Quickly, demand for seed from PRASEFOR exceeded supply (Photo 26). While some seed was sold on the local market or were kept for the expansion of production area in 2003, FONDEAGRO, a development project in Nicaragua, which assists 1000 small livestock holders in the Matiguás region, bought most of the available seed.On the bases of this success, the group defined a seed production target of 1,600 kg for 2003. This means further expansion of production areas (to a total of 20 ha), additional training in production aspects, post-harvest technology, seed quality, storage and marketing. First contacts were made with the formal seed sector to explore sale potentials.A comparable development is taken place in Pantasma, Jinotega, Nicaragua, where CIAT in collaboration with INTA is working on the formation of a group similar to PRASEFOR. A total of 5 farmers started out to established cv. Toledo in 2002 but failed to produce seed at the end of the year. Further technical assistance was provided for the group and a training course will be conducted prior to the harvest in December 2003. The already established and working small farmer seed enterprise PES San Dionisio, experienced in the production of bean and maize seed, will be collaborating in post-harvest technology and marketing. It remains to be seen if production levels in grasses will allow for competitive prices on the Central American seed market, where Toledo seed is now offered for more favorable prices. Forage legume seed, in contrast, seem to enter a non-competitive market offering good opportunities for small scale farmer seed enterprises.In view of these changing market opportunities farmers in Nicaragua with interest in seed production were encouraged to plant the shrub legume Cratylia argentea, since demand is constantly raising and seed supply was again short throughout 2002-2003. A total of 6.9 ha of Cratylia were established on-farm at different locations (Managua, Cuidad Dario, Siuna, Rivas, San Juan del Sur, El Suace, Posoltega, Santo Tomás, Jinotega, Esteli, Condega) (Photo 27) throughout Nicaragua which complement the already established plots at CIATs reference site in San Dionisio, Matagalpa (1.6 ha). While seed harvesting and post-harvest operations are technically less demanding for Cratylia, first considerable seed production can only be expected in the second year after establishment. Plots in San Dionisio will be harvested in January 2004.A major advance for the work in seed production was the completion of the regulation on seed production in which CIAT was heavily involved. Standards and guidelines are now in place for seed certification, import and export, sale and quality aspects. INTA and MAGFOR will assist in achieving the certification of seed produced by small farmers. Forage germplasm in its multiple uses -for example as feed, for the suppression of weeds, maintenance and improvement of soil fertility and for erosion control -could play an important role in improving the well being of the small and medium size farmers in Central American hillsides. However, adoption -particularly of forage legumes -has been limited, possibly due to lack of direct interaction with the farmers. Therefore it is necessary to develop forage technologies with farmers, using participatory approaches. To address this issue, CIAT in collaboration with NARS, NGOs and farmer groups is identifying forage options with farmer participation.We anticipate that the work in Central America will contribute to the development to a strategy by NARS for the diffusion of forage-based technology for small farmers. Thus the interaction with national partners alongside the farmers will be of paramount importance to the success of the approach.Utilizing farmer criteria, the procedure for participatory selection of forages described in the 2002 Annual Report was analyzed using a different statistical procedure. Utilizing an updated database containing 1623 records from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica (data collection until July 2003), correspondence factorial analysis (CFA) was employed and compared with results from Principal Components Analysis (PCA, see Annual Report 2002).The classification of criteria and technologies using factorial analysis of correspondence is a classical method used to analyze large matrix of data that includes qualitative variables (Guinochet, B.1973. Logistic regression, survival analysis and the Kaplan-Meier curve. J. American Statistical Association 83: 214-225). This is the case for matrixes of numbers of coexistence between sets, i.e. sets of technologies and the set of criteria given (in this case by diverse producers groups). The analysis consists in calculating the distance between elements of each one of the sets, taking as pairs (clones and related criteria with the respective rankings).Following the sequence of analysis described in the 2002 Forages Annual report (see also Annual report 2001-2003 Project SN-3, page 115) the procedure used for this analysis included the following steps: a) validation of criteria for forage technologies, based on farmer input, and b) determination of relative importance of criteria using relative frequencies and CFA for different forage technologies evaluated (i.e grasses, herbaceous, legumes, shrubs legumes and green manures).According to a cross tabulation of frequencies, across all forage technologies, plant color was the most important criteria in farmer assessment. Across seasons this criteria was given more importance in the dry season (greater frequency). Yield was the next important criteria followed by cover, leafiness and competitiveness. Similar results have been found with PCA analysis utilizing a smaller data set (928 records) in 2002.Grasses: In the wet season, the most important criteria were: color, yield, leafiness, cover, competitiveness, reproductive capacity, height, and softness (frequencies in descending order).The global analysis for the wet season showed that, the first four Dims (row coordinates factors) explained 86.2 % of the variation, a high percentage in analyzing participatory work. Height, competitiveness, and yield were defined in Dim 1, while cover, softness, and reproductive capacity were the most important parameters in Dim 2. Leafiness was the most important criteria in Dim3, while color was the most important criteria defined in Dim 4.The global analysis for the dry season showed that the first three Dims explained 92.80 % of the variation.Color, yield, leafiness, and softness were defined in Dim 1, while competitiveness and reproductive capacity were the most important parameters in Dim 2; cover was defined in Dim 3These results indicate that for farmers it is important that grasses have good establishment and yield and compete effectively with weeds, regardless of season of the year. In the wet season, height was an important additional criterion in grasses. Color is important throughout seasons indicating healthy productive plants in the wet season and drought tolerance in the dry season. Confirming the results shown in the 2002 Annual Report, Brachiaria brizantha cv. Toledo and Brachiaria hybrid cv. Mulato were the grasses best meeting farmers criteria, the latter having a particular high acceptance in the dry season. Other forage options attractive to farmers were Panicum maximum cv Camerún and B. brizantha CIAT 26646. For king grass there was a close relation between height and preference probably related to the use of this material for cut and carry.Herbaceous pasture legumes: For herbaceous legumes 3 Dims explained 91.2 % and 98.6 % of variation in the rainy and dry season, respectively. Among the legumes, Desmodium ovalifolium CIAT 33058, Centrosema plumieri DICTA and Arachis pintoi 22160/17844 were the options for the dry season meeting most criteria by farmers. When taking into account both seasons of the year, the selection criteria used by farmers to select pasture legumes included cover, color, competitiveness, yield and leafiness. Comparable tendencies were found with PCA in 2002. However, subsequent analysis with farmers showed that preference of farmers for herbaceous pasture legumes is low, as at least in our sites farmers since the main interest of farmers are new grasses, followed by shrub legumes and legumes for green manures.For shrub legumes the first three Dims explained 96.7 % and 94.7 % of variation in the rainy and dry season, respectively. Most important farmer selection criteria were in descending order color, leafiness, yield, reproductive capacity and (fuel) wood. The most preferred species across seasons were Leucaena leucocephala CIAT 17263 and Cratylia argentea CIAT 18668. Calliandra calothyrsus CIAT 22316 was the most preferred accession for providing (fuel) wood. Similar results were found in 2002 using PCA analysis.Green manure legumes: For the green manure legumes, three Dims explained 82.1 % of the variation in the wet season. Due the annual nature of most species dry season results were not measured. Criteria of major importance in selection of forages are in descending order: color, competitiveness, yield, cover and leafiness. The species that met most of these criteria were Lablab purpureus, Mucuna pruriens and Pueraria phaseoloides.In response to the above findings, in subsequent participatory experiments Canavalia brasiliensis and Vigna unguiculata were introduced as options that meet farmers criteria for green manures; farmers are quickly taking up these materials for further testing, as described in sections 4.2.1 and 4.2.2. New accessions of Lablab purpureus were introduced in 2003, but no information of farmer preferences exists yet. In Tables 67 and 68 we show results from uptake of forage options in Honduras and Nicaragua, over the past 2 to 2.5 years.In Honduras now more than 400 farmers are now testing and employing various forage options, sown on about 180 ha, indicating a steady increase over time. The largest areas are planted to Brachiaria hybrid Mulato (CIAT 36061) and B. brizantha cv. Toledo; increase in area for the latter is driven by seed multiplication through the farmer-led seed enterprise PRASEFOR (see Section 4.1.8) or purchase of the materials now known to farmers from commercial seed producers. Though areas are still small there is an increasing farmer interest in Cratylia argentea and various cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and Lablab accessions. In Nicaragua uptake of forage options by farmers also is gaining  In what follows the main accomplishments of the FSP are summarized.In most countries, periodic surveys of a sample of farmers were carried out to assess changes in forage technologies, areas planted, and multiplication materials and seeds produced. The farmer for these surveys had been selected randomly, although weighed by districts or barangays.In Lao PDR surveys covered 100% of the farmers. Average area of forages cultivated per household varied from 188 m 2 (Lao) to 4,210 m 2 (Thailand), Table 69. The largest area of forages by site is in Daklak, Vietnam, due to many farmers adopting and relatively large areas per farmer. The study was conducted with about 85 farmers in three villages: Makroman, Sepaku and Samboja. Livestock systems varied from stallfeeding improved goats (Makroman), grazing under coconuts on improved pasture by Bali cattle (Samboja), to grazing and stall-feeding improved forages to Ongole cattle (Sepaku).Forage availability: Before introduction of new forages, some farmers already used King grass for cut and carry. The participatory work on forages with farmers resulted in four technology changes: 1) reduction or disappearance of grazing on communal rangeland and increased pasture fencing (Samboja); 2) prolonged pasture time at home-plot (Sepaku); 3) pasture fencing in upland and old rice fields (Sepaku) and 4) planting of forage in contour lines and as cover crop associated with food and cash crops (Makroman and Sepaku). The average availability of improved forage area was 0.4 ha per farm. Most farmers in Samboja who adopted new forage had enough improved pastures to provide enough fodder for that their cattle. In Sepaku and Makroman, forage availability was still not high enough for optimum livestock production.Ruminant productivity: Introduction of new forage species increased off-take of animals due to shorter inter-parturition periods, in all species and breeds. Twinning rate in goat increased in some herds. Improvement was also perceived through better body condition of animals resulting in better carcass quality and higher prices paid by butchers. Since new forage introduction in Makroman, farmers have doubled their herd size of goats. Increases in cattle numbers were less pronounced.Reproduction rate of Bali cattle in Samboja was higher than for cattle and goats in Sepaku and Makroman. Off-take rate (animals sold in a period divided by the mean herd size during the period) in Samboja increased from 21 to 23.5% after adoption of forages. In Makroman en Sepaku, new forages associated to food and cash crops enhanced soil fertility and prevent erosion.Labor requirements and gender: The adoption of new forage technologies reduced time needed to collect fodder as well as for forage crop maintenance.The spared time was put to good use, either for feeding more animals or by doing more off-farm work. Mean time saved was close to 20%.The effects of new forage technologies on labour division were generally gender neutral. In one subdistrict, youth were less often involved and in another, women were slightly more frequently involved. Sometimes women were more frequently involved in fodder collection as she replaced the husband doing off-farm activities. All genders appreciated new forage introduction positively as the impact on household income was high. To make immigration settlement possible, Indonesia developed infrastructures in swampy mostly uninhabited areas, and the original population also participated in FSP. Unequal income distribution in rural areas couldnt be attributed to FSP. FSP strategy improved fodder balance and increased the possibilities to extend livestock ownership, a major generator of rural income.Manure applied on food and cash crops contributed approximately 40% to farm household income from livestock in Makroman and Sepaku. This indicates the dependency of households on manure for soil fertility maintenance. In these two sub-districts market value of manure was approximately ten times its estimated mineral value. Apart from application on crops, farmers sold manure for cash income and estimated they applied less then 15% of manure on forage crops. As a result, productivity and quality of new forages was low. The use of manure on food and cash crops does not conflict, however, with the overall objectives of FSP, namely to improve livelihoods.On average, increased ruminant productivity in the study area, in terms of cash income from sales of livestock and manure, resulted in an increased gross margin of 35 % per household.In addition to increased animal productivity, on average 24 % labor input was saved in the new forage systems in terms of days worked per year.The saving of labor amounts to an extra 28 % increased income from the livestock system, when time is valued in money.The average rural income in the province in 2001 was US$ 184 per capita per year. The average income from livestock in the three villages increased from US$ 73 to US$ 92 per capita per year. This corresponds to an increase of 10.3 % of total income per capita per year. Saved labor could have contributed to another 11 % increase of total income per capita, depending on the availability of casual labor opportunity or the investment of saved labor in farm enterprises.Livelihood consisted of a variety of crops, dairy cattle, dairy buffaloes, beef cattle and goats and other small livestock. The average number of large ruminants per farm was 4.2.Forage availability: Before the introduction of new forages, no cutting and carrying were practiced. Animals were tethered on roadsides or fields, or herded on hillside rangelands and fed with residue. The project had a significant effect on the quantity and quality of available forage; farmers who were growing forages derived 67 % of the feed resources from these forages.Ruminant productivity: Farmers mentioned several benefits of new forage introduction: improved body condition and overall health of animals; increased length and quality of work by draught animals; greater pig and poultry production; larger amounts of available manure due to reduced herding-time and more animals.Farmers observed increased numbers of offspring and shortened anoestrus after parturition: from three to one month in goats; one year to three months in cattle; and 10 to four months in buffaloes.Labor requirements and gender: Time spared due to new forages was estimated at 30 minutes to 2 hours per day. This time was either invested in increasing the number of animals, or other farm activities such as tending to vegetables and fishponds, off-farm trading, and roadside food selling. Farmers could also make themselves and an animal available for hire for off-farm work or use the time to attend meetings and pursue administrative problems. More time and energy was available for social activities inside the household and in the community. In some areas, the reduction in time needed in the wet season was limited as the forage for cutting and carrying was often a long way from the village.Life became more relaxed as it was easier to plan activities when animals were not grazing. The reduction or disappearance of tethering and herding also resulted in less destruction of crops. Consequently the production of maize, banana and vegetables, and the income from animals work outside the farm, increased.Most farm households that had ruminants prior to forage adoption increased their herd size after joining FSP. More labor input was required due to the increase in livestock numbers and as a consequence the time available for non-farm work decreased. The increased need for on-farm labor had a negative trade-off on the income from firewood as farmers did not have time to cut in nearby forests. However, this was a positive change for the environment.The introduction of new forages had a gender effect in the Philippines: the involvement of women and children in tasks like herding and cutting diminished, and men were responsible for more livestock tasks. A large increase in the number of animals owned by early adopters resulted in the need for greater labor input. This created labor in rural areas and reduced labor migration by young people.Other benefits and economic performance: In the Philippines, improved forage species increased animal production, improved soil conservation and saved farmers time. Net yearly income per household from animal production increased from $54 to $157 in the farming community at Malitbog, and from $68 to $503 in Cagayan de Oro. Planting forages in contour lines increased crop production slightly and contributed another $22.50 to yearly income. The reduction in labor requirements allowed households to make $36 per year from other activities.Livelihood consisted of a variety of crops, a variety of animals including fishponds, and several sources of off-farm income. The average number of large ruminants per farm was 0.8. Comparing farmers who had adopted them several years ago with farmers who had started less than one year ago was used to assess the impacts of new forage technologies.Forage availability: Farmers reported higher yields of forages compared to native grass. The high yields of new forages allowed farmers to keep more animals or to keep animals in zero grazing. Improved forages enabled other farmers to start keeping animals, as they were able to produce sufficient fodder from their small plots. The average estimated contribution of new forages to animals diets was 53 % during summer and 32 % during winter.Ruminant and fish productivity: Ruminant productivity increased through faster growth of animals, higher price received for the animals at the market due to better body condition, increased working capacity of draught animals, and increased amounts of manure available. The productivity of fish also increased the period until marketing was reduced from 11 months to nine months due to the availability of new forages.Labor requirements and gender: Saved time was an important benefit for most farmers keeping ruminants. This was not the case for those who had increased their number of animals, or had just started keeping buffalo or cattle, since the introduction of new forages. The number of labor days per year required for large ruminants reduced from 258 to 149 for farmers with and without forages, respectively. Farmers with forages had saved on average 120 days per year in the ruminant system. The mean number of saved days for fish production was 30 days per year, which corresponds to approximately 40 minutes per day. Two-thirds of adults saved time was used for productive farm activities. Family members used the remaining saved time for leisure, training and study.Positive gender effects were significant in Vietnam. Women and children benefited most from the reduction in time spent cutting, carrying and herding. They used this extra time for educational and cultural activities. According to women, forages had a positive effect on other crops due to soil conservation and manure availability. Labor saved from livestock was used to better manage crops, resulting in higher yields. Higher yielding crops then required increased labor time for harvesting and processing. Saved time was invested in a range of farm activities including cash crops like rice, cassava, beans, sugarcane and fruit trees. Activities women appreciated more were planting forages and feeding fish.Other benefits and economic performance: In Vietnam, improved forage systems also had a pronounced effect on income levels and welfare.Net income from ruminant-fish production systems increased from $99 to $199 per year. Saved time also allowed households to increase their income from other, mainly agricultural, activities. This contributed to an additional yearly income of $52 per household. Farmers were grouped in four income classes; the majority was in the class that earned between US$ 301 and US$ 736 per year per household. An increase of $ 152 from the livestock system therefore corresponds on average to an increase in total household income of 29 %.Poorer farmers who depended more on livestock due to small land area, benefited most from the improved forages. Improved forages allowed them to keep large ruminantsincreasing their income from livestock and intensify their production systems. Other positive effects on rural development included a reduction in the number of farming conflicts, rehabilitation of barren land and reduced use of pesticides.At the end of 1999 Farmers at the focus sites who had been experimenting with forages for several years were asked to host cross-visits and receive farmers from the neighboring villages, districts and provinces. The scaling process within countries in the FSP is shown in Table 70.Table 70. Scaling out to new sites within countries.In Table 71 we show an overview of how many PD and cross visits were conducted, how many farmers participated, and how this led to new farmers experimenting with forages on their farms.   (1) the move from test plots to forages integrated with other food or cash crops, either as cover crops, intercrops, relay crops, live erosion barriers or live fences, (2) the forage crops were evaluated not only for growth characteristics but also for feed for livestock, (3) larger areas of one or two favorite species or varieties were grown at farm level (Figure 70). The process described in Figure 70 plays within the boundaries of a farm. Scaling out and scaling up, however, implies spreading of technologies across farm boundaries. There are principles to be considered for successful and sustainable scaling out. The FSP has developed a conceptual framework to guide national teams of fieldworkers, scientists, administrators and policy makers in this process (Figure 71).There is a natural sequence of research activities (stages 1 11 of Figure 71).     In the first field season (starting June 2001), the project supported small scale testing on farms during which time farmers evaluated forage varieties in small plots and sorted out which they preferred and wanted to expand. This was a time when the district and provincial staff also learned about the varieties, their environmental adaptation and the process of working in partnership with farmers.Building on the experiences of the first year, the second field season (starting June 2002) was a period of expansion based on targets set by the project (e.g. the number of villages was doubled and the number of farmers tripled) or targets set by farmers (based on the desire to get large enough areas of forages to have some significant quantities of feed for their animals). Farmers generally started to look for ways of utilizing the most promising forage varieties to either help resolve current problems or to develop new opportunities. During that second year the project challenged field staff with new villages, new technologies and many new farmers to encourage them to move away from a dependence on the very intensive one-to-one processes that had been used in the first field season and move more towards farmer group processes.Leading up to the third field season of the project (starting June 2003), interesting, sometimes novel, often unexpected impacts started to emerge. The district staff had become very familiar with the processes of working in partnership with farmers. Indeed these processes are now becoming their comfortable norm back to which they will retreat naturally, given the support of their organisations. Further expansion will not now be driven by project targets but by IMPACTS. This focus on impacts driving expansion will be the focus of the project for the next two wet seasons. By 2004, the project will be supporting the most experienced and confident farmers as field extension workers to help with the expansion of impacts to more people and more villages. At the same time the Extension Managers (the bosses of the field staff) will become much more actively involved in the process.In August 2002, AusAID sent a technical reviewer to: i) Assess FLSP progress to date in relation to achievement or likely achievement of project objectives ii) Identify problems and issues that either presently impact on FLSP implementation or are likely to do so in the future, and suggest cost effective strategies to alleviate any negative impacts and iii) Make recommendations as appropriate to enhance the quality of FLSP implementation in a manner that does not lead to significant project cost increases.The review concluded that the project is on course for meeting its objectives and is pursuing the wider outcomes necessary for the sustainability of the program, as indicated by the following:• The innovations are appropriate. Agricultural productivity is increasing.Planting forages close to homes, thereby also increasing substantially the productivity of labor, reduces environmental pressure on the uplands. • The program is farmer-led.• The project is institutionalizing a participatory, facilitative extension strategy consistent with a farmer-led program whilst ensuring and increasing the technical competence of staff. • Promotion of a sense of Lao ownership of the program at all levels. • Food security is increasing.The review went on to recommend that to continue this process and to accelerate adoption, the project needs to: i) Expand the extension strategy concept to an enlarged community-based group approach with selected farmers having a training role, ii) Increase the capacities of extension staff in on-farm analysis of options within smallholder farming systems, iii) Focus in the coming year on consolidation of impacts and on skills of field staff rather than just on expansion, iv) Increase its outreach to rural women, v) Prioritize the issue of nutrient recycling vi) Implement the proposed strategy of disease minimization to meet farmers needs for improved animal healthThese recommendations defined the projects field activities in 2003, which aimed to:• Enhance information exchange, (i) between farmers within villages (ii) between villages and (iii) between extension workers and farmers • Generate genuine impacts not just increases in area. The number of new farmers in the old villages gives an indication that sustained expansion is occurring, based on farmers direct experiences. This must be distinguished from the number of new farmers from new villages, which is due to the promotional efforts of the district staff being successful. The increase of 60 new farmers in these old villages was about 24% over the number of farmers in the first year. This is a reasonable figure of expansion. There was little to distinguish between the scaling-up between the two provinces.There were just 170 new farmers (on average slight more than 8 farmers / village) recruited in the new villages this year. This is a much lower figure than last year (on average 14 farmers / village) indicating that the district staff now recognize that they need to start with a number of farmers in the first year which they can reach and support.The total number of farmers particularly in an early stage of establishment of a new enterprise can hide both good and poor progress. Staff estimated that about 30% of all the farmers were developing significant forage systems and would be enthusiastic supporters of expansion. In any extension process this would be regarded as a positive initial outcome. The number of new farmers in the old villages (202) was a substantial increase, indicating that the experiences of the early adopters are sustaining expansion. This expansion is not, however, expected to continue, as a ceiling of adopters is likely to be reached in each village after three years. This ceiling will vary from village to village but 25% of adopters would be regarded as very successful. The number of new farmers from new villages (which this were supposed to come from nascent demand resulting from cross visits, field days and promotional information) was 136; a doubling of the number from the second year.The 136 new farmers recruited in the new villages this year averaged slightly more than 9 farmers /village; a much more reasonable number than some of the villages in the first year (some >30). This indicates that the district staff are becoming more comfortable and experienced with the methods and the need to be able to support a small group of farmers early in their learning process.At the start of the third field season (starting June 2003), the indicative area of forages planted increased from 17.2 hectares in 2002 to 31.9 hectares. This figure can also be examined further:Total new area of forages 14.7ha Old villages new forage area 10.7ha New villages, new forage area 3.0haThus the forage areas within the old villages doubled, as happened in 2002. Of the total number of farmers in the old villages, only 30% were new farmers this year, so the expansion of forage areas in the old villages continues to come mainly from old farmers expanding their plots, and is an indication that the desire for increasing impacts is driving expansion.The forage varieties that are most popular with farmers are (i) grasses for cut and carry feeding of cattle and buffalo (mainly Panicum maximum TD58 Simuang, Brachiaria brizantha CIAT 6780 Marandu, Brachiaria decumbens CIAT606 Basilisk, Paspalum atratum BRA9610 Terenos and Andropogon gayanus CIAT 621 Kent) and (ii) Stylosanthes guianensis CIAT184 Stylo184 for feeding pigs.This year the Brachiaria hybrid Mulato was introduced for evaluation by >150 farmers.Early indications are that farmers are impressed by its rapid growth (and regrowth) and the fact that it can be fed to all animals, but its potential in comparison to the other grass varieties cannot be adequately assessed until after one complete dry season. The figures reported here are outputs of the technical work on forages. The FLSP is also working to report impacts (see later in this report) (Figure 73). It is worth noting that:(i) The outputs being reported are a moving target, with changes happening on individual farms for different reasons. Farmers are inherently responsive to the opportunities and constraints within their environments. Forages (and other feed and animal health resources) become just another set of cards they can play in response to the changing interplay of factors in their livelihood systems. Each family and each farm is different.(ii) The outputs are averages, which hide the huge variation between farmers. Some farmers have rapidly expanded to more than 1ha of forages while others have kept relatively small areas. The project is documenting the cases of expansion to try to understand the opportunities and constraints that have allowed some farmers to do this and others not.(iii) Large impacts come from relatively small areas of forages. Unlike crops, which are harvested once a year, forages can be harvested 6-8 times per year. Casual observers are usually skeptical that large impacts can come from small areas...but they doand the FLSP is documenting these from farmers reported experiences.(iv) Forages are changing the whole dynamic of smallholder livestock systems. In many areas where we work, farmers have traditionally kept livestock as an additional activity to cropping. They are a safety net; a bank. They were often let loose in the forests and grazing lands, with little management. Now, however, these grazing lands are becoming over-utilized. In the past, government extension agencies have suggested farmers improve their livestock management systems but without a reliable feed resource, this was not possible. We are seeing that planted forages are allowing farmers, for the very first time, to start moving into livestock production as a livelihood system not just as livelihood security. That is, they can start cranking up their livestock production to produce cash for buying staple foods rather than expending huge amounts of labor to grow these staple foods. Once again, the FLSP is documenting these cases of impacts to help drive further expansion.v) Freeing up labor is a major impact of forages. Many of the farmers we work with are flat-out keeping their families fed. In many cases they spend 2-4 hours per day looking for cut feed for their animals. Planting forages can reduce this time to less than one hour per day. Freeing up labor is a key factor in allowing farmers the breathing space to start developing alternatives to their current farming systems in the steep uplands.To ensure the potential benefits of introduced forages as a supplement to livestock in villages, the FLSP is also investigating Non-Forage Feed Resources for smallholder livestock systems. In the field season of 2002, four main feed resources were tested: (i) sweet potato varieties (sourced from CIP, Vietnam), (ii) QP maize varieties (sourced from CIMMYT), (iii) cassava varieties (sourced from CIAT) and (iv) new robust lucerne varieties (sourced from an ACIAR project managed by SARDI, Adelaide).All four technologies were selected because of their potential as feed resources in smallholder pig systems. Rearing pigs is a common household livelihood activity in the northern uplands of Laos, especially among the Hmong ethnic group in which pigs constitute up to 60% of household cash income. It is an activity almost exclusively controlled by women, for whom pigs constitute a savings bank that can be converted to cash as and when required. Feeding is the single most time consuming activity, often taking 2 4 hours per day 4 7 times per week just to collect tubers, banana stems and leafy vegetables from the forest to supplement meager supplies of maize and rice bran.Compounding this problem is the fact that all sources of pig feed are in short supply at the start of the wet season and many piglets get thin and die from malnutrition. Recently, farmers in northern Laos working with the FLSP have been reporting substantial benefits from planting forage legumes (especially Stylosanthes guianensis) for feeding pigs. These include labor savings in collecting feed at critical times of the year (savings of up to 3 hours per day), higher survival rates of piglets (from 10 30% without supplementation to 80 100% with supplementation) and greater growth rates of piglets (reaching saleable weight 2 months earlier than unsupplemented pigs).Of the four technologies, the new sweet potato varieties caused immediate and strong interest among farmers. This was partly because of their immediate impacts on pig feeding but also because of the potential that they can be used as human food. The project decided to expand field evaluation of the sweet potato varieties in 2003 by importing 5 tons of planting material (vines and tubers) of 7 varieties of sweet potato that have been selected by CIP for feeding pigs. By the end of June 2003, >120 farmers in the five districts were growing the seven varieties. Formal evaluations will be conducted at the end of the 2003 wet season. Field evaluations of the other three technologies are to be expanded in 2004.To ensure the potential benefits of introduced forages as a supplement to livestock in villages, the FLSP is also developing and evaluating practical approaches to improving animal health in villages that are expanding their forage resources. In late 2002, two animal health consultants identified the three priority health issues in smallholder livestock systems in the north of Laos:1. The proposal was approved an the specialist appointed to commence work in Laos, initially for one year, starting in October 2003.From 1992 1999, CIAT conducted a series of forage germplasm evaluations in Southeast Asia to identify a small suite of broadly adapted and robust varieties that had the potential to deliver substantial impacts to smallholder farmers. Preliminary nursery evaluations of the >600 most promising varieties were conducted in three countries (Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines).The resulting 100+ varieties were introduced into regional evaluations in six countries targeted for on-farm evaluation and forage development. This added to our understanding of their agronomic performance across a range of climates and soils. As the work progressed, the enormous value of farmer evaluation of forage varieties on their own farms was realized. A smaller suite (~50 varieties) were evaluated using participatory research approaches allowing forages program to base species selection not only on environmental adaptation but also on farmers needs and opportunities in resource-poor upland areas.The program also conducted a genotype x environment experiment of the main varieties at 12 sites across 6 countries over two years. The management structure will be different from FSP-II. The previous network coordinator, Dr. Ralph Roothaert, is leaving to take up a new position in Africa. The new project management will consist of a team of a senior international scientist, Dr. Werner Stur, and two regional scientists, Mr. Francisco Gabunada and Mr. Phonepaseuth Phengsavanh. Dr. Rod Lefroy will remain the Regional Coordiator of CIAT in Asia, and Ms. Pratima Dayal will be the ADB project officer.In each country a national coordinator was identified and letters of commitment, otherwise called Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), will be composed in collaboration with the management team and the implementing institutions in each country, before April 2003.It was agreed that the planning workshops would continue to be held on an annual basis, each time in a different country to enable delegates to directly learn from regional experiences during the field day. The newsletter of the Southeast Asia Feed Resources Research and Development Network (SEAFRAD) will continue to be produced by country editors on a rotational basis, although the timing will be more flexible. • Developed a conceptual framework for participatory evaluation and selection of forages for different uses • A higher proportion of farmers in higher altitude areas in the reference site in hillsides of Honduras are testing legumes (i.e. cowpea) for food (grain) and soil fertility improvement than for livestock feed • Farmers in the reference site in hillsides of Honduras selected Brachiaria brizantha cv Toledo because of drought tolerance and high seed yield (possibility to harvest sees for own use and for sale) Research procedures are being developed for identifying, testing and evaluating multipurpose forage based technologies with farmers within the framework of the BMZ/GTZ supported project on participatory research on selection and strategic use of multipurpose forage germplasm in Central American hillsides.A key component of forage research in Central America is to understand the interactions between people, biophysical and socio-economic environments and the decision processes in selection of technologies. The research process is characterized by a large variability of different approaches and types of experimentation that could be employed by farmers.These are being compared in order to define which processes and approaches may be the most efficient in relation to forage technologies (Figure 74). In  75). The methodology being used includes farming system analysis, problem identification and prioritization, formulation of research objectives, implementation and evaluation of experiments, which are carried out using participatory methods and based on farmers demand. The proportion of farmers testing multipurpose forage -based technologies to enhance animal (cattle) production is relatively low, compared to testing the use of mainly legumes for food and soil fertility maintenance/improvement (Figure 75). This is due to the fact that in the research area only 20% of the farmers possess cattle whereas food security is the main concern of a large proportion of the population, especially those living in the higher areas. For more details, see CIAT Annual Report 2002.Of the 90-implemented experiments, 39% were carried out individually (by individual farmers on individual fields), 17% on a semi-collective basis (in which at least part of the work -planting, weeding -is done as a group, but on individual farmers' fields) and 44% collectively (all activities carried out together on fields allocated to the group). Some examples are shown in Table 76.As mentioned in Figure 74, the major processes involved in the research being carried out are:    It is well recognized that forage-based technologies can play an important role in improving the environmental and socioeconomic sustainability of smallholder production systems in the tropics, especially in situations with a fragile balance between the availability of natural and economic resources and their utilization. Forages can serve multiple objectives, such as provision of animal feed, enhancing soil conservation and maintaining and improving soil fertility. Forage species that are widely adapted, productive and palatable have been identified, but farmer adoption has often been low. One explanation is that too much emphasis has been placed on supply-driven research with little participation of farmers.Hence in this research participatory methods are applied to define forage based technologies suited to smallholder systems.The methodology utilized includes the following elements:1. Introductory meetings with farmer groups to obtain information on the state of knowledge on forages and its uses and to obtain basic information on farming systems 2. Field visits to forage demonstration sites to inform farmers on the range of options available and their potential utilization Figure 76 shows the farmers rating of the experiments carried out in 2002. Performance of legumes (Lablab purpureus, Vigna unguiculata, Canavalia ensiformis) was highly variable. Failure in the Primera season (first growing season) was mainly due to seed quality, whereas in the Postrera season (second growing season) the main reasons for failure were adverse weather conditions (first drought, and then a cold period which also caused failure of the Postrera bean crop) and pests like rabbits. Poor performance was caused by the fact that the germplasm was not always suitable for the local conditions like poor soils, poor management and some pests (insects).Shrubs showed for the most part disappointing results, Cratylia argentea being mainly responsible for this. Although looking promising at the SOL site in Luquigüe and very much liked by the farmers for its characteristics (high quality fodder, leaves covering the soil improving soil fertility and maintaining soil humidity, producing firewood), the plant does not appear to adapt well to many sites in the region, often being characterized by clayish and alkaline soils. Some other shrubs did well though, like Cajanus cajan and Calliandra calothyrsus. Grasses (Brachiaria brizantha cv Toledo , Andropogon gayanus, Pennisetum spp.cv Camerún and cv King Grass) performed generally well. They were all sown in the main growing season (Primera) and plots were mostly well maintained.Figures 77 and 78 show for some selected forage farmers ratings and primary causes of poor performance and failure. The poor performance of Brachiaria brizantha 26110 Toledo and Cratylia argentea in certain plots is mainly due to poor soils and management, whereas the cowpea varieties suffer more from pests and adverse weather conditions. In what follows we present as an example the results of the evaluation of cowpea accessions by a group of farmers in Victoria, Honduras.In March 2002 a group of male farmers of Guachipilín, a hillside village at 1000 masl in the municipality of Victoria, requested CIATforrajes to start working with them to increase the number of options for animal feed production. After a comparison trial of Brachiaria brizantha 26110 cv Toledo and Andropogon gayanus in the Primera growing season, they decided to continue with an experiment with five cowpea varieties: 9611, 1088/2, 716 (all via CIAT from IITA), FHIA (from the Foundation Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola, La Lima) and CIDICCO 4 (from CIDICCO, Tegucigalpa) (Figure 79). The cowpea was sown in October in a maize field (which had been planted in June), in the dead furrows between the maize plants (Photo 28). At the time of sowing the maize stalks were bent (as usual in this growing stage) which improved the exposure to light for the cowpea. Harvest of both maize and cowpea took place in December, yields were measured and an evaluation was held with the nine group members and six of their wives (the group members themselves suggested that their wives might be interested regarding the characteristics of the plant). Some observations were:• Their most important objective of trying cowpea was production of green manure (hojas para nutrir la tierra) in rotation with other crops • Four varieties have good yields and other important advantages: FHIA produces food fast, CIDICCO 4 is resistant against pests and suitable as animal feed, 1088/2 ripens unevenly, allowing picking of green pods (habichuelas) during a prolonged period, 9611 has various purposes: animal feed, green manure and food. The 716 varieties yielded less because pods started to rot.Our results with cowpea indicated that:• Cowpea as green manure is regarded as the most important and promising product. • Cowpea accession 9611 is the true multipurpose genotype. • To make use of the different characteristics of the different cowpea accesions they could be sown in rotation. • There might be good possibilities to use the seed and leaf meal of cowpea as pig feed (siempre hay mercado para carne).In spite of the bad Postrera season, which caused many crops to fail, yields of cowpea were acceptable and somewhat higher than of common bean.In general, results of this year look promising given that farmers as well as researchers have learned from their mistakes made last year and as a result, the great majority of 43 experiments underway will be successful. Cowpea (in total 15 accessions) accounts for 40% of the trials, in terms of plots for almost 75% of which some already have been harvested.Other materials being tested by farmers include grasses (e.g. Brachiaria brizantha cv Toledo), legumes (e.g. some accessions of Lablab purpureus, Canavalia ensiformis, Canavalia brasiliensis) and Cratylia argentea (to try on some specific more promising niches).Photo 28. Group of farmers testing cowpea as green manure in maize fields in Honduras• Brachiaria brizantha cv Toledo generally performs well with some management in relatively good soils at altitudes up to 1600 masl. Farmers like the grass because of its growth, its drought tolerance and its seed production characteristics, which enables them to increase pasture areas and to generate income by selling seed, even by non-cattle owners. • Pennisetum spp. Camerún and King Grass almost invariable show satisfactory results, the former slightly preferred because of the absence of guate which causes itching while carrying the stalks.• Cowpea is of considerable interest to farmers. Cowpea accessions grown in the Postrera season of 2002 showed in general disappointing results. In spite of this, the farmers continued to grow cowpea and established 130 plots in this Primera season. • The main reasons to experiment with cowpea are to improve food security (65%), to enhance soil fertility (27%) and to produce animal feed (8%). • Some pests like lice are prevalent but hardly affect cowpea production. Others are more damaging, like zompopo (an antlike insect which destroys leaves) and rabbits. In general, farmers comment that cowpea is more resistant to pests and diseases than common beans but is susceptible to cold periods, especially at the higher altitudes.• Lablab purpureus varieties show varying results, in some cases being susceptible to pests and lacking vigour at higher altitudes.In 2003, new accessions of Lablab are being introduced, which may perform better under the prevalent conditions.• Canavalia (both C. ensiformis and C. brasiliensis) is well adapted, showing vigorous growth, at both lower and higher altitudes.• In the first year of trials, Cratylia argentea appears not to be suitable for the higher altitudes in the region, which are predominantly alkaline. Generally, the plants germinated well but showed poor growth and many died off after some weeks. For adaptation to alkaline soils, further studies to test the performance over longer time and the addition of fertilizer to enhance establishment need to be carried out. However, farmers are still interested in Cratylia because of its characteristics and some of them have proposed to plant the crop at specific sites, which are more suitable (with slightly acid, sandy soils).with Cajanus cajan (intercropped with maize) and Calliandra calothyrsus.• The Seed Unit of Atenas-Costa Rica and CIAT-Palmira delivered 500 and 1,000 kg respectively, of seed to partners in different countries• The growth-controlling hormone (Cytokinin) did not improve plant development or seed set when applied to Brachiaria hybrid cv MulatoContributors: A. Betancourt; J. Muñoz; J.W. Miles Seed is the vehicle by which improved plant selections are generally made available to potential users. The tropical forages project maintains a small seed multiplication unit at CIAT headquarters to service seed needs of project members, the wider CIAT community, and, where excess supply is available, to the wider public and private community, free for small quantities, or on a cost basis for larger seed volumes. Seed production plots are established at CIAT headquarters, CIAT-Quilichao, and at CIAT-Popayán. Owing to the small scale of the operation, all harvesting and seed processing is done by hand. Requests for seed are addressed as possible according to seed supplies. One hundred fifteen distinct accessions of 15 species were multiplied and processed for total production of over 900 kg of seed (Table 77). Relatively large quantities of B. brizantha (225.8 kg) and Cratylia argentea (411.4 kg) were produced, plus much smaller quantities of the other species.Over one ton of seed was distributed, in 354 individual seed samples sent to eight different countries (Table 78).  There are environmental factors such as temperature, day length, rainfall distribution, as well as soil fertility that influence flowering and seed set in tropical grasses. Additionally, plants have internal hormonal mechanisms that interact with the environment to control plant growth and differentiation. The grass cv. Mulato grows well in the tropics, particularly in fertile well-drained soils; the flowering is abundant and well synchronized, but the seed set of the plant is very poor which traduces in low seed yields. This is a limitation of this cultivar since commercial seed production becomes very inefficient and increases the cost of the seed produced. This factor contributes to high seed prices to the consumers and obviously reduces the demand and the potential adoption of the grass.For this reason any attempt to promote seed yields of this grass is worth to investigate.The growth-controlling hormone cytokinin was applied to one year old plants of Brachiaria hybrid cv. Mulato at the rate of 0, 0.1,0.2 and 0.3 cc/ha. A uniformity cut and the fertilization of the grass with 75, 40 and 50 kg/ha of N P K respectively, and 30 kg/ha of S, were carried out in June at the beginning of the rains. The hormone rates were applied at two different dates: 1 st of August (vegetative growth), and the 1 st of September (at early spikelet initiation). A split plot design was used were the main plot corresponded to date of hormone application and the subplots to hormone rates. Plot size was 3.37 m 2 and the amount of water used utilizing a backpack spray, corresponded to 545 l/ha. Flower initiation, maximum flowering time, harvesting date, number of inflorescences/m 2 , caryopsis content, seed unit weight, seed purity and seed yield were measured.Cytokinins are a group of four or five plant hormonal compounds derivatives of adenine that have actions on plant cell division.Commercially products based on these hormones are available and recommended to improve fruit formation, to increase photosynthetic and respiration rates, to stimulate root development and improve nutrient uptake. In general these compounds stimulate healthy plant development and increase crop yields. However, no significant effect of cytokinin was observed for date of application, or for any of the plant measurement taken on cv. Mulato as Table 80 shows. The rates of cytokinin applied corresponded to 1, 2 and 3 liters/ha of a commercial product, which are within the range of recommended application rates for other crops.Results showed very low percentages of seed purity, which accounts for the relatively low seed yield of this grass, despite the fact that the plant produces a high number of panicle per square meter. The rates of cytokinins applied did not improve plant development or seed set of cv. Mulato. The livestock sector in tropical Latin America (LAC) has been one of the main economic activities within the agricultural sector due to a great extent to abundant areas under savannas appropriate for livestock production. Despite its vast forage resources, livestock production in tropical LAC faces acute problems due to low productivity levels and market changes. In addition, internal discussion exists on the viability of these production systems to compete in a free trade economic environment, especially now that negotiations are under way to join the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The aim of this document was to study the evolution of milk producing systems taking Colombia as a case study and to analyze their constraints and opportunities in the context of small producers, technological change, and competitiveness of the regional livestock sector.Data came from a survey to 545 farms in five ecosystems during 2000 to calculate variable costs, income, and to characterize farms by productivity and management practices using multiple correspondence and general linear models. Costs and incomes were estimated based on the methodology described in Holmann et al., (1990). Competitiveness was defined as the permanence capacity in the dairy activity and was measured through the unitary cost of milk and/or beef production. Thus, the lower the production cost, the more competitive the farm is. Profitability was defined as annual net income divided by the number of adult cows.Technological change was measured through the concept of productivity, expressed as production of milk and beef per cow and per hectare per year.Twelve technologies and/or management practices were evaluated to quantify their impact on productivity, profitability, and competitiveness, which were Data was analyzed by production system (i.e., specialized dairy vs. dual-purpose) and by region (i.e., two sites in lowland areas: Caribbean and Piedmont; and three sites in highland areas: Coffee-growing area; Antioquia, and Cundiboyacense altiplanicie).Effect of technological change. Depending on the region where farms were located, farmers that adopted more than two thirds of the area allocated to livestock under improved grasses produced 126% to 309% more milk/ha, had 31% to 350% higher net income/cow/yr, and produced milk at 8% to 13% lower cost than farms with a low proportion of improved forages (i.e., less than one third of livestock area). Farms that had more than 20 grazing paddocks for a more efficient rotation of the milking herd produced 12 to 140% more milk/ha, generated 54% to 133% higher net income/cow/yr, and produced milk at 19% to 27% lower cost compared to farms that had less than 10 grazing paddocks.The use of strategic feed supplementation to the basal diet of forage had mixed effects. The best economic response to this supplementation in lowland regions was with low quantities (i.e., < 0.5 kg DM/cow/day) of feed supplements while in highland regions was with moderate quantities (i.e., between 0.5 and 2 kg DM/cow/day). The use of fertilization and irrigation increased productivity, but reduced net income and increased production costs in all regions and production systems, except in the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie, which suggested the need to allocate research resources to determine the best economic response to various levels of N 2 and H 2 O to different improved grasses under various soil types and conditions.Farms that practiced twice a day milking produced 83% to 520% more milk/ha, generated 25% to 148% higher net income/cow/yr, and produced milk at 15% to 27% lower costs compared to farms that milked once per day. Farms that de-wormed the milking herd with low frequency (i.e., less than twice/yr) for internal parasites obtained 77% to 128% higher incomes and 8% to 35% lower production costs in comparison with farms that de-wormed with higher frequency (i.e., more than 3 times/yr) although there were not differences in productivity. The amount of years of experience from farmers at producing milk was a key factor to increase profits (38% to 120%), although not productivity. The most competitive and profitable breed group in the dual-purpose system was the crossbred with low (i.e. 24% European -76% Zebu genes) and medium levels of dairy genes (55% European -45% Zebu genes) but had lower productivity than the purebred group (i.e. 98% European genes). In the specialized dairy system, the purebred group was slightly more profitable, productive and competitive than the crossbred group with medium level of dairy genes, but this difference was not significant. Independent of production system or region where farms were located, the increase in competitiveness was in direct relationship with herd size. Thus, as herd size increased, production costs per unit of milk and beef decreased and net incomes per cow increased. However, when this increase in competitiveness with associated with increases in productivity, this trend was not observed, which suggested that highly productive farms were not necessarily profitable. The dual-purpose system was the most profitable one in the Piedmont, Caribbean, and Coffee growing regions while in Antioquia and in the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie the most profitable was the specialized dairy system. Thus, Colombia should have different strategies for research and technology transfer in order to exploit more efficiently the comparative advantages of each region.Evolution of milk production systems. The Colombian dairy sector has become more productive and competitive, but less profitable.Comparing the evolution of dairy farms with studies 12 years ago (Aldana, 1990), milk production per hectare has increased by 44% in dual-purpose herds and by 14% in specialized dairies. This increase in productivity reduced the milk production cost by 16% and 10% in dualpurpose and specialized dairies, respectively, due to an increase in stocking rate by 15% and 17% in dual-purpose and specialized dairies as well as to an increase in investment in infrastructure and equipment by 258% and 37% in dual-purpose and specialized dairies, respectively. However, net income per hectare during this period decreased by 27% and 69% in dual-purpose and specialized dairies due to a reduction in the producers price of milk and beef of 22% and 20% in dual-purpose systems, and of 41% and 27% in specialized dairies. Nevertheless, this reduction in price to the producer was never translated in lower prices to consumers, but remained in the hands of supermarkets and milk plants which expanded and modernized with long-life technology.Figure 80 shows the percentage of the price paid for one liter of milk by the consumer that is retained by producers. As observed, producers retained in 1989 about 70% of the final price. However, during the 90s this percentage was systematically reduced to only 37% in 2001. This occurred because the adjustments in the price of milk to producers were always below inflation while the adjustments of milk price to consumers usually surpassed the level of inflation (Figure 81).  1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Year Proportion retained (%)  1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999  Development agencies must internalize the fact that policies oriented to markets will be increasingly oriented to supermarkets. If one adds that in Colombia exists 3 or 4 supermarket chains that control the food retail market, the conclusion is that sectoral policies will need to learn how to deal with a handful of giant companies. This in a huge challenge, and demands an urgent review of ideas and strategies.The Challenge. The information presented in this case study illustrates the problems and opportunities of the dairy sector in Colombia. However, these systems could represent similar situations in other countries of Latin America. Given the phenomenon of globalization and higher degree of efficiency that these systems are being exposed to, the issues of productivity, technological change, competitiveness, and markets, are critical and of enormous relevance for the performance and survival of the livestock sector in the next decades.In the coming years, producers cannot limit themselves to participate only in the primary phase of production, but to expand their scope of action to other phases of the market chain to have a higher participation in the formation of milk price and to capture a greater piece of the final price. To achieve this, collective action is required, either through cooperatives or associations, not only to buy or sell at a better price, but also to help small producers to adapt to new patterns with higher levels of competition. Otherwise, the new rules of the game could induce a massive exodus of producers in the short term and in a relatively brief period of time.Efficiency goes hand in hand with technology and this depends on research and technology transfer. However, public funds allocated to agricultural and livestock research are being reduced (Holmann et al., 2003). The challenge consists that producers in Colombia and Latin America take greater control of livestock research by building alliances with local, regional and international organizations leaders in forage and livestock research. For this it is necessary that producers define and fund their own research agenda.Contributors: Federico Holmann, Edwin Perez, Paul Schuetz, Pedro Argel, Carlos Pomareda, and Victor ArrúaBeef is an important commodity in the economies of Central American countries. In 1995, regional beef exports realized more than US$ 126 M and imports cost nearly US$ 17 M. This is especially important to the low-income countries in the region. It is, for example, Nicaraguas most important agricultural activity accounting for 22% of the total Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (AGDP), with exports of fresh and processed meat to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mexico and the USA among other countries. Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica export meat primarily to the USA and Mexico. Total beef exports from the region are showing a declining trend although intra-regional exports increased by 45% in 1998 relative to 1997. However, increases in intra-regional exports are falling behind the total imports by the region. The lost of international markets, particularly the USA, added to the increasing presence of extraregional competitors and the stagnation of the production and productivity in Central American countries are an indication of the crisis of the beef industry in the region, which affects smallholder producers.This a development-oriented project approved by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) that began activities in July of this year, which aims at alleviating poverty by raising smallholder farm productivity, and enhancing trade in beef with improved meat quality and safety. This overall objective is to increase the availability of affordable safe meat products for local consumers and make the Central American beef industry more competitive against imported beef. The project is being executed in the CFC member states Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. This is a 4-year project with an estimated cost of US$5 million of which $3.5 millions are being funded by CFC and the remaining $1.5 million from co-funding from counterpart contributions. The project executing agency is the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the project leader Federico Holmann.Co-executing agencies are CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical), SIDE (Servicios Internacionales para el Desarrollo Empresarial), IICA (Inter-american Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture), and CAC (Consejo Agrícola Centroamericano). Local partner organizations are CORFOGA in Costa Rica, MAG-FOR and FAGANIC in Nicaragua, SAG and FENAH in Honduras, and MAGA and ASOBRAHMAN in Guatemala. The project coordinating office is housed within the facilities of the Instituto de Desarrollo Rural (IDR) based in Managua, Nicaragua.The projects goal is to improve the livelihoods of smallholder producers, make quality safe animal-source foods affordable and available to low income consumers and increase the intraand inter-regional beef trade in Central America. These activities are conducted as part of the following project components: (1) Improving farm productivity; (2) Beef quality and safety standards and controls; and (3) Project monitoring, impact assessment and dissemination of research products. CIAT will participate in the co-execution of Components 1 and 3 in aspects related to increasing on-farm productivity through the introduction of improved-based forages aimed to increase weaning weights of pre-weaned calves and to improve the nutritional status of dams.The project held an initial planning meeting during July 7-10 in San José, Costa Rica with 20 participants which included representatives from both the private and public sectors from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, as well as from the co-executing agencies.The objectives of the planning meeting were to:(a) make a presentation of the overall project objectives, goals and activities; (b) know each other better by making brief presentations of the goals and objectives from each participating institution as related to the project activities;(c) review the state of the art of the beef sector in the region as well as in each participating country; (d) present and discuss the project workplan for the first year; and (e) Discuss operational issues related to the project.The products from the planning meeting were:(1) the project workplan for the first year with its corresponding calendar of activities discussed and approved;(2) Responsibilities from each participant discussed and approved;Contributors: Federico Holmann, Libardo Rivas, Juan Carulla, Luis A. Giraldo, Silvio Guzman, Manuel Martinez, Bernardo Rivera, Anderson Medina, and Gerardo Ramirez.(3) Indicators for project monitoring and evaluation selected; (4) Mechanism for management of project funds discussed and approved; and (5) Frequency, information required, and format for the technical project reports discussed and approved.The project will start executing the approved workplan in mid-September with the execution of a baseline study in each of the selected regions, which are: Perez Zeledón in Southern Costa Rica, Boaco and Chontales in Nicaragua, Olancho and Valle del Aguán in Honduras, and Izabal and Baja Verapaz in Guatemala.The potential of livestock to reduce poverty is enormous. Livestock contribute to the livelihoods of more than two-thirds of the worlds rural poor and to a significant minority of the peri-urban poor.The poorest of the poor do not have livestock, but if they can acquire animals, their livestock can help start them along a pathway out of poverty.Roles of livestock keeping revolve around storing wealth, contributing to food and nutritional security, providing draught power, transport and manure, and serving traditional social functions. In some situations, the livestock ladder may allow the poor to progress from modest livestock holdings, such as a few poultry, to acquiring sheep and goats or pigs, or even cattle. Livestock production provides a constant flow of income and reduces the vulnerability of agricultural production. The objective of this study was to understand the perception of agricultural producers in Colombia who currently do not own livestock about the role of cattle in alleviating poverty in their farms.Data came from direct survey interviews during January to June of 2002 to 143 farmers who did not own cattle in the five most important regions of animal production in Colombia to elicit their perception about the role of livestock as a pathway out of poverty. Selected regions were: Piedmont, Caribbean, the Coffee-growing region, the highlands of Antioquia, and the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie.Land Use. All farmers depended on both annual and perennial crops for most of their income although it varied significantly across regions. In the Coffee-growing region, producers depended mostly on coffee for their income whereas in the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie they depended on annual crops, mainly potatoes and broad beans (Vicia faba). In the Piedmont and Caribbean regions producers depended mostly on maize, cassava, and rice. Fruits were the most important land use in Antioquia and a very important crop in the Piedmont and the Coffee-growing region.Pastures were an integral part of land use in all farms, even though producers did not have cattle. This was specially the case in Antioquia, where 58% of farm size was under pastures. The reason for this was because most farmers interviewed were coffee growers which during the early 90s switched to fruits trees and fattening steers under intensive pasture rotation using high levels of N 2 fertilization. All interviewed farmers who had steers had sold them due to negative economic returns and were currently fattening pigs. Land under pastures was abandoned, as they did not want to go back to coffee or other agricultural land use at the time the surveys were executed.With regards to land use, the largest proportion of farms under forest were found in the Piedmont and the lowest in the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie, which makes sense since the former is the agricultural frontier while the latter has been under agricultural production for the longest period of time. The role of cattle in smallholder farms. In Table 82 we present the proportion of smallholders who had cattle in the past and the main reasons for selling or not owning cattle in 2002. Most smallholders interviewed in the Piedmont had cattle in the past (85%), followed by producers in Antioquia (60%) and least in the Coffee-growing region (39%).The most important reason for selling their cattle in all regions was due to financial crisis and needed cash (i.e., from 27% of smallholders interviewed in the Caribbean and the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie to almost 50% in the Piedmont). Most smallholders surveyed used the money from the sale of animals to pay health bills of family members, to pay off debts, and/or to use the cash to survive due to crop failure from extreme weather conditions (i.e., drought or frost damage). The second most important reason for selling cattle in smallholder farms in Antioquia was due to low profitability (32%) when producers switched from coffee to fattening steers under intensive grazing during the 90s. In other regions the second most important reason was because of limited amount of land, especially in the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie, the region with the smallest farm size.Other reasons for selling cattle was due to security problems (12% of smallholders in the Piedmont and 6% in the Caribbean regions), others because owning cattle was an unpleasant experience (9% in the Piedmont, 6% in the Caribbean, and 4% in the Coffee region), and another reason mentioned was due to cattle rustling (3% of smallholders in the Caribbean, 4% in Antioquia, and 7% in the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie).Even though smallholders surveyed did not own cattle, most of them had in their farm other species of livestock, ranging from 36% of farmers in Antioquia to 100% in the Caribbean. The most common livestock specie owned was poultry (both laying hens and broilers), ranging between 9.5/farm in the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie to 35/farm in the Piedmont. The only region where poultry was not found on farms was in Antioquia.The second most common specie found was pigs, ranging from 3/farm in the Piedmont to 30/farm in Antioquia, where farmers who had fattening steers switched to pigs. Other species found were sheep, goats, and ducks, but these were not common. These livestock assets provide smallholders with high quality protein (meat and eggs) for household consumption to complement the grain-based diet they have.In Table 83   was irrelevant. Other reasons for owning cattle were to reduce and diversify risk due to crop failure and to utilize manure as fertilizer. This was specially the case in the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie (Table 83) where most farmers grow broad beans and potatoes and the risk of frost damage is significant and where manure from cattle can be an important source of fertilizer and organic matter.The preferred animal category to own in all regions was by far the milking cow, ranging from 52% of smallholders in Antioquia to 96% in the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie. In addition, when smallholders were asked to express the desired amount of animals they would like to own, again the milking cow was the animal category with the highest number. When smallholders were elicited about the necessary conditions to own cattle, the most frequent answer was availability of credit in the Piedmont, the Coffee-growing region, and Antioquia, whereas the most frequent answer in the Cundiboyacense altiplanicie and the Caribbean was to have more land as a condition to own cattle. Other important conditions to own cattle was to have the adequate infrastructure and to a lesser extent, to improve the security conditions in rural areas.Results from this study show that small farmers see cattle as a contribution to the improvement in the quality of life. The milking cow is one of the factors that contributes the most to the well-being due to the role she plays within the farm: utilization of labor with low opportunity cost, security against crop failure, liquidity against financial crisis, as collateral for informal credit, and as a protection against inflation (Estrada, 1995). Smallholders who had sold their cattle in the past were mainly for these same reasons. The challenge is to develop novel mechanisms to provide smallholders with livestock, either through credit loans or through the Fondos Ganaderos of Colombia, whose objective is to help small farmers who have production capacity but lack the resources to buy cattle. The demand for livestock products from both ruminants and monogastrics in the developing world is increasing at 6-8% per annum. This situation provides a unique opportunity for smallholder farmers in developing countries to increase income by satisfying that demand, and in some cases will enable them to advance to market-oriented production for the first time.Income obtained from market-oriented livestock production will impact on cash flow and purchasing power, and hence act as a driver for sustainable intensification.The challenge facing all farmers is to develop strategies to meet the feed demand of their animals and the market demands for livestock products of specified quality. Sown tropical forages can provide part of the feed base that will support this market expansion. Forages can be used to provide improved feed quality and quantity in a range of farming systems, including those based on maize and rice cropping systems, as well as systems that depend almost entirely on continuous grazing of native grasslands. The benefits of including well-adapted sown forages in the diets of animals in these systems has been well documented, but adoption has been limited for a number of reasons, including poor access to appropriate information. These species can provide benefits beyond feeding livestock. In mixed cropping/livestock systems, forages can be integrated with cultivation cycles to improve soil fertility and structure, and in agro forestry and orchard systems, they can be used to suppress weeds as well as feed animals.Stoloniferous and rhizomatous species blanket the soil as live mulch, reducing erosion.Farmers depend very heavily on advice from extension specialists, development agencies, researchers and seed companies, whose knowledge on forages is often limited because of inexperience in a region, the difficulty in harnessing the expertise of others, and poor access to information. Much of the important information is fragmented, unpublished or published in media of limited circulation. This project intends to synthesize and interpret this information and so overcome this limitation to the wider adoption of forages. This project is bringing together in one-knowledge system (SoFT Selection of Forages for the Tropics) much of the accumulated information of the last 50 years from across the tropical world, on species adaptation, together with their use and management. Information will be sourced from scientific literature, the plethora of reports, and from unpublished information gleaned directly from agronomists with extensive tropical experience. The completed product will be a computer-based system that can be used to select elite forage accessions for a range of uses, farming systems and environments. This synthesis of information on the use (e.g. fish, pigs, mulch) and application (e.g. lay pasture, under trees, relay with rice) of forages, in addition to the conventional genotype x environment information, is unique and made possible by the development of new information management systems.The specific objectives of the project are:• To develop a knowledge system for the identification of forages suitable for specified niches within smallholder farming systems. • To promote the system within the communities who are using tropical forages. • To develop a strategy for maintenance and updating the knowledge system.The knowledge system will provide users with fact sheets on the use and management of each accession, identify sources of seed and regional specialists, and contain a comprehensive bibliography. It will be available on CD/DVD or via the WEB and will initially be produced in English. Maintenance of the system will be carried out by CIAT, Colombia. The product is primarily intended for use by individuals and agencies providing advice to smallholder farmers.This target audience in Africa, Asia and the Americas is likely to number in the thousands. Bringing together the partners in this project, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries (DPI), Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), provides a unique opportunity to draw on the vast accumulated knowledge from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australia. The knowledge system will be released at the International Grassland Congress in Dublin, Ireland in June 2005 and will be promoted through CGIAR and other international networks, through collaborating national programs and the Virtual Colombo Plan.Tool well known species was developed until early 2003 (Figure 82). Forage species descriptors for the tool were categorised so that data could be used as an input into GEMS (working title), a GIS based targeting tool. An interface was developed to automatize data input from SoFT into GEMS. In addition, a tool for capturing data from experts was developed for utilization in expert workshops (Figure 83). The possibility to use the tool is via Internet is being tested, as one of the possibilities to access the database tool in addition to CD/DVD ROM.Parameters for forage description and range of species were defined in consultation with potential clients. To gather information from forage experts, workshops each with 15 30 participants were held in Addis Ababa (for African Forage Experts), and Brisbane (for Australian Forage Experts), Stuttgart Hohenheim (for tropical forage experts based in Europe) and Cali (for American experts), utilizing the above described tool for capturing expert data. Further workshops are planned in Honduras (November/December 2003) and Asia (February 2004). It is planned that by in the first half of 2004 information from all these expert workshops will be available in the tool for further revision. The GEMS (Genotype x Environment x Management System) project integrates biophysical, socioeconomic and management data together with expert knowledge to assist farmers decision-making processes. The approach is based on the following two main assumptions:• A wealth of information on the agroecological adaptation of tropical crop species is available in CIAT-held and other databases. However, the access and hence utilization of this information needs to be improved. In addition, data are often uncertain or missing, and methods are needed to combine existing data with expert knowledge to provide better analysis. • In evaluations of species adaptation to environmental conditions, agro-ecological information is often separated from socioeconomic factors influencing species adoption.The above assumptions are particularly the case for forage species, and this project grew out of the perceived need to address these issues for forages. Therefore, while the research is applicable to other crops, in the first instance it focuses on forages. Based on these assumptions, the targeting of forage germplasm is intended to enhance the utility of existing information, and in the future, to integrate environmental and socioeconomic adaptation of forage germplasm for multiple uses. It is anticipated that this approach will allow a more accurate and clientoriented prediction of possible entry points for forage germplasm.One product of this research will be a fully functional Web-based or CD-ROM tool, primarily designed for targeting forage germplasm in Central America. The primary target users are NGOs, development agencies, national research institutes, and decision makers in government. In conjunction with farmers, these users will be able to more effectively target suitable locations for new forages, with the aid of the tool. This will result in more informed choices being made, thus allowing more effective use of public funds dedicated to agricultural development and natural resource conservation. Tools to better target forages will also help improve the well being of smallholders by assisting them to more effectively utilize their resources in sustainable ways. The addition of carefully selected forages to a farming system has a plethora of benefits both for the farmers and for the environment, as well as the wider community. These benefits derive both from the direct influence of forage planting, and the indirect increase in cattle production and cropping system improvements, and include for example improved sustainable intensification, reduced erosion, and alleviation of protein and micronutrient deficiencies in the community.Review of literature and of existing similar models and software is ongoing, with existing tools currently being evaluated to determine their appropriateness in representing expert spatial decision-making and particularly in targeting forage germplasm. Bayesian modeling has been identified as the most appropriate method, especially for decisions involving sparse and uncertain data.As a case study, a decision support tool to target forage germplasm is being designed and developed, using GIS technology. This targeting consists of identifying which forages would be suitable or successful in a particular location, given data and/ or knowledge about the forages, and about the location in question.Data used in this case study include the CIAT (Red Internacional de Evaluación de Pastos Tropicales) RIEPT database (linking forage adaptation, establishment, and production to climate and soil factors), and GIS surfaces of elevation, rainfall, temperature, soil, population density and distance to market for Central America, supplemented with expert and farmer knowledge. The tool is being implemented in Delphi 6.0 with Map Objects LT. It is envisaged that a future version of the tool will be Webbased.Data: Although a large amount of data is available in the RIEPT database, it is characterized by uncertainties, biases, errors, and omissions. Similarly, much of the available data is correlated. Data analysis combined with expert opinion has defined the factors to be used in the modeling process (Table 84).best candidates are rule-based systems, CART, and Bayesian modeling. Of these, Bayesian modeling has been selected because of its ability to deal with uncertainties and incorporate expert knowledge.Tool development: Tool development is progressing for the case study of forages in Central America. The tool allows users to select a location of interest and define characteristics of the location and desired characteristics of the forage species. They are then presented with a selection of suitable forage species, which they can interrogate for more information (Figure 84).The data and parameters for the tool are derived from RIEPT data updated with expert knowledge. This expert knowledge is either directly input by forage experts, or derived from SoFT (Selection of Forages for the Tropics) data.SoFT is an international project in which CIAT is involved. It began in 2002, and aims to collect and make accessible expert knowledge about tropical forages. Probabilities are updated graphically (Figure 85), and experts can examine maps to verify the parameterization of the model (Figure 86).  Swidden or slash and burn cultivation is highly destructive of the forest areas, reduces the biodiversity and causes many downstream problems. Government policy in Laos is for the farmers to cease this system of cultivation to maintain the watersheds. But exploring and establishing a new livelihood does not come easily. Access of these remote highland villages to markets is difficult, and the farmers themselves are working from a declining resource base.Jong Gor Her is a Hmong farmer with a young family of 4 children living in the village of Kieuwtalun Nyai on a high ridge south of Luang Prabang. Every year they would plant about 1.5 ha of swidden rice fields, beginning with cutting the forest in February and ending with harvest in November. Once the cycle began they could not stop, no matter the weather, their health or their energy. Even after childbirth, his wife would return to field work within a month, with the young baby strapped to her back. And at the end of this cycle they would have only just enough rice to eat. Opium had been grown as a cash crop, but this was no longer permitted. Jong realized that if they continued to rely on swidden cultivation of rice, the future of his family was not bright. In 1992 he put together enough money to buy a cow, a heifer and a young calf.Addressing Immediate Problems. All the cattle in the village are kept in 4 areas of about 50 ha. each which are cordoned off between the steep limestone hills. Jong would visit his animals about once every 1-2 weeks. Nonetheless they would escape and damage other farmers crops, resulting in arguments and in Jong paying compensation each year.The highlands appear deceptively suitable for raising livestock, with large areas of forest and apparent natural feed sources. Feeding was, however, a serious problem when he tethered the cattle close to the house. This was done for different reasons: from May to July when the ticks and blood sucking flies were the worst; or when animals were injured; and when a cow would be calving, (a month before and then a month after birth). During these periods Jong collected native grasses to feed them, spending 2-3 hours each day. By the time this was done the whole morning would be gone with no other work done, he said. This one load of feed (about 50 kg) was really just keeping the animals alive, and after a week on this diet they would start to grow thin. In the 4 years prior to having forages, the two calves that were born grew weak and both died from malnutrition. Thus in all this time, his herd had failed to increase, and he had only succeeded in adding an extra burden of labour to the family.Jong joined in forage trials in 1997, planting a small area (about 250 m 2 ) of six varieties for evaluation. With these forages close by (only 5 minutes walk form the house) he was able to increase the feed for his cows from 1 to 2 loads per day, taking him just thirty minutes to cut and carry. When the children came home from school at midday, they added a third load. Thus, better accessibility to forage more than doubled the feed provided to the tethered cattle. The quality of feed was also better than from the native grasses, as indicated by all the feed being consumed without any residue being left.After the initial success, it was clear to Jong that his small trial plot would not be enough and he purchased a second similar plot from a neighbour. He then expanded the original block further to 1250 m 2 giving a total area of more than 2000m 2 , which he occasionally grazed as well as cut. He has been harvesting forages from these areas for more than 3 years now and they are still productive, regenerating within 2-3 weeks in the wet season. He has inter-cropped in to the forages the tree legume, calliandra, which he regularly adds to the cut forage grass when he feeds the cattle. The most important impact that Jong and his family have experienced is that all the calves born since they started planting forages were strong and have survived. Since 1997 the herd has increased to 15 (5 cows and 10 calves). Without planted forages, Jong said, he would never have been able to tether and feed more than two cattle at a time.Environment. Jong noticed that the native grasses would die out after being cut more than 2-3 times or after being burned whereas the forage grasses survived all these stresses. He also noticed that if the area was grazed, the trampling of the plants and dropping of seed by feeding cattle was expanding the area of forage grasses wider. On the basis of this, he thought he could establish larger areas of improved forage for grazing by simply broadcasting seed in small plots and allowing the cattle to expand it further in due course. However, although this idea interests him, Jong still wants to keep the animals close to the house if he can. So, he plans to fence an area above his forage block for penning the whole herd there and hand feeding them. This would further reduce the time for carrying the forages to feed them and also allow collection of manure to re-fertilize the forage block (which is starting to show yellowing due to nutrient decline). He realises he will need to double the area of the forage block before he can corral the herd there.Changing Livelihoods. Jongs family usually slashed and burnt 1.5 ha to grow upland rice each year. In 2001, as his herd began to increase, Jong began to cut back this area. This allowed his wife to put more time into handicraft work.With the income from this, and by selling off one calf, they purchased all the rice they needed. They repeated this again in 2002, selling off another calf. By 2003, they planted less than 0.5 ha. of upland rice and expect to this even further, planting cucumber on their upland fields instead.This year Jong sold not just one calf but three, for a total of 5 million kip. As well as using this to buy the rice they need, Jong has also purchased some comforts for the family. While the family still maintain their traditional Hmong house with an earth floor and wood fired kitchen, they now enjoy their new TV and VCD player (with movies in Hmong). Jong also purchased one of the small Chinese motorcycles that have become common in Laos. With this he is now able to ride the 2 hours down the mountain road to the Provincial Livestock Department in Luang Phabang and purchase vaccine needed for the livestock in the village. The changes in livestock raising by Jong are quite profound. While he did have the vision to escape from swidden cultivation of rice by better livestock production, his initial use of forages was to solve the immediate problems of free-range grazing typical of most farmers in the highlands. As other benefits became apparent, with his ideas of corralling the animals and hand feeding them, Jong is moving towards an intensification of livestock. Along with this intensification he and other farmers in the village have begun to treat their livestock (pigs as well as cattle) for parasites and vaccinate them against common diseases. Through this intensification of livestock they have begun to stabilize their agricultural system. This has given them the means and the time to begin to diversify into other enterprises, such as handicrafts and vegetable crops. About half the households in the village now grow forages for their livestock (cattle and pigs). Four other farmers have also begun to reduce the swidden area they cultivate after improving their livestock production. As these farmers improve the lives of their families, so others will see to impacts and the trend of stabilization and diversification through livestock production will continue to gather speed in the village. On the following page is a sample poster, to be used in extension, based on this case study of impacts.Publications. Three new publications were produced during this year, documenting (i) technical details of forages in smallholder farming systems, (ii) participatory research methods that have helped us in developing smallholder forage systems in Laos and (iii) the potential impacts that can come from forages in smallholder systems. The first two of these publications are part of the CIAT in Asia Research for Development Series (CARDS); a series of publications that is being produced to provide research information to development workers in the region in a format and in languages that make the information more accessible to them. ","tokenCount":"20624"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0938db8c25f4f3208acd37cc9478b010","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b2298867-f510-413c-90a7-691320177878/content","id":"-1413893738"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"73b8e77e-39d4-4395-88c9-ff8c991bb4ea","pagecount":"14","content":"Stemborers (Busseola fusca, Sesamia calamistis and Chilo partellus), the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) and associated parasitoids constitute an interacting system in maize fields in Kenya. This work aims at developing and evaluating models that represent the evolution of those interactions by applying system thinking and system dynamics approaches with its archetypes [causal loop diagram (CLD), reinforcing (R) and balancing (B)] to analyse the population of these multi-species systems. The software Vensim PLE 8.0.9 was used to implement the models and carry out the simulations of single-and multi-species systems. The results showed that when a single pest species with its associated parasitoids interact with the host plant, the species was able to establish and sustain by cyclical relationship between populations of the pest and the associated parasitoids. However, in multi-pest species systems, dominance of S. frugiperda and C. partellus over B. fusca and S. calamistis was observed, but without extinction. However, there was a likelihood for B. fusca being displaced by C. partellus. Overall, the models predict the co-existence of fall armyworm with stemborer species as an additional pest of maize in Africa that need to be considered henceforth in designing IPM strategies in maize.Globally, maize Zea mays L. (Poaceae) production was estimated at 1.3 billion tons in 2018 1 . Maize is one of the most important cereal crops in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) 2 . In Kenya, maize is grown predominantly by smallholder farmers 3 and constitutes a vital source for household livelihoods 4 . The productivity of maize is affected by a wide array of biotic and abiotic stresses that reduce the quantity and quality of its yields. Insect pest pressure is among the major threats that constrain maize crop from reaching its maximum potential yields. A complex of lepidopteran stemborers and the recent invasive fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) are the primary pests of maize crop in many parts of the world, including Kenya, causing yield losses ranged from 30 to 70% 3,5 . These pests are responsible for significant losses of maize upon infestation. Evidence to date suggests that with climate change, these pests are continuing to spread to new areas [6][7][8] .In SSA, the noctuid stemborers Busseola fusca (Fuller) and Sesamia calamistis (Hampson) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), and the crambid stemborer Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) are economically the most important lepidopteran pest species that severely limit maize productivity as a result of a continuous infestation of the crop throughout its growth stages 9,10 . In maize fields, these stemborers may occur as single species or as a community of mixed species 11,12 . Among these stemborers, C. partellus is exotic and invaded eastern Africa in the 1930s 9 . This species has competitively displaced B. fusca in the highlands of South Africa 13 . It has also displaced Chilo orichalcociliellus Strand (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) in the coastal region of Kenya 14 and might get an advantage over S. calamistis in the utilization of maize in the context of future climate change 6,15 . Recently, S. frugiperda invaded SSA, where it seriously limits maize yields 16,17 . Field observations indicated that it interacts strongly with maize stemborer systems 18 and might also displace them.Invasive insect herbivores have the prospective to significantly hamper with prevailing insect parasitoids species in invaded areas; this mechanism can occur in different ways: (1) interferences with the volatiles that attract the insect parastoids to unsuitable the host; if the plants can be infested by both the native and invader, the later produces volatiles that are less attractive to parasitoids 19 ; and (2) the parasitoids can attempt to parasitize the invasive insect, with low chance to complete their development. This is considered as a waste of time and energy that can negatively affect the fitness of the parasitoids 19,20 . These interferences can therefore have detrimental consequences on a pre-existing biological control process 21 .Although stemborer species and the fall armyworm have been considered a serious constraint to maize production, few studies have illustrated the interactions among these complexes of pest species. System dynamics,first developed by Forrester 21 , offers a useful method to understand and describe such interactions. That approach, that was originally developed for engineering and administration studies is increasingly been applied to other fields such agriculture, health, economic, and social science 21,22 . The method takes in consideration a set of elements that interact continuously as a component with structure, which undergoes changes 22,23 . The analysis of the system structure (model) by scenarios provides an understand the system behaviour with time. Using differential equations and the Routh-Hurwitz criteria, Mwalusepo et al. 24 studied the stability of insect species competing for resource. The study revealed that when a species feeds on a resource, the species will be able to establish and sustain a stable population that fluctuates based on the resource availability. However, in a competing context with many species feeding on a single resource, it is observed that the combinations of three parameters (halfsaturation, growth rate and mortality rate) determine which species has the upper edge on the resource. In another study, Neill 25 applied matrix model of the competition coefficients to study the community of species to reveal different patterns of interspecific interactions and estimate the maximum number of interacting species expected in a community. This work therefore aims at developing and evaluating models that represents the interactions of maize stemborer species and S. frugiperda populations and their associated parasitoids in a multi-species community in maize fields.The stemborers, B. fusca, S. calamistis and C. partellus are the most important pests of maize in Kenya 9 . The three stemborers frequently occur as single or mixed species communities 11,12 whose structure varies with agroecological zones. Busseola fusca is generally the dominant species in the highlands, while C. partellus dominates in the lowlands 6,26 , and S. calamistis occurs at all altitudes 27 . These stemborer species often occur as a mixed community of the three species in the mid-altitudinal regions 7,12 . Spodoptera frugiperda, since its first report in the western region of Kenya in 2017, has been confirmed throughout the different agro-ecological zones by the early cropping season in 2018 28 .Several studies have documented parasitoids associated with the three stemborers in the different agroecological zones [29][30][31] . In cultivated habitats in Kenya, the most common parasitoids of all three species are the larval parasitoids Cotesia flavipes Cameron and Cotesia sesamiae (Cameron) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) followed by the pupal parasitoids Xanthopimpla stemmator (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) and Pediobius furvus Gahan (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), and the tachinid Siphona sp. (Diptera: Tachinidae) [29][30][31] . Since its invasion, research for development efforts has highlighted the effectiveness of several integrated pest management strategies for S. frugiperda, including new association of indigenous natural enemies with S. frugiperda such as the larval parasitoids Cotesia icipe Fernandez-Triana & Fiaboe (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), Charops sp. Holmgren (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) , Coccigydium luteum Brullé (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), Palexorista zonata Curran (Diptera: Tachinidae); the egg-larval parasitoid Chelonus curvimaculatus Szépligeti (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and the egg parasitoids Telenomus remus Dixon (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) and Trichogramma chilonis Ishii (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) 28,32 .Busseola fusca and S. calamistis females deposit the eggs between the leaf sheath and the stem of plant as a protection strategy against the environment and the natural enemies, whereas C. partellus and S. frugiperda females deposit eggs directly on leaf surfaces 33,34 . Upon emergence, the young larvae are dispersed by ballooning while older larvae disperse by crawling, resulting in a redistribution of the insect infestations within and between plants in maize fields 35 . The stemborer larvae feed on young leaves until the third instar and later bore into maize stems. Spodoptera frugiperda larvae feed only on leaves during their whole development, especially the central leaves in the plant whorl 36,37 . In addition, in maize fields at tasseling stage, S. frugiperda larvae can be found feeding on the tassels and subsequently on the ear, silk, cob and even in stemborer's holes 36,38 . Therefore, S. frugiperda and stemborer larvae may interact by sharing the same niche at young developmental stages and even when the stemborer larvae migrate from the leaves to stems.The four pest species (three stemborers + S. frugiperda), in addition to their associated parasitoids and the maize plants that serve as the resource for the pests, constitute the system under study. Several cases are considered because these insects occur at different spatial distributions aross different agroecological zones. The analyses were subdivided in four cases: (1) a single pest species feeding on maize plants and its parasitoids, (2) two species competing on maize plants and their parasitoids, (3) three species competing on maize plants and their parasitoids, and (4) four pest species together on maize plants and their parasitoids.One pest species and its parasitoids and the resource (maize plants). For each pest species and its associated parasitoid populations, the outcomes of the models showed that both populations marginally increased at the beginning. After 4 months, the relationship became cyclical between a host (pest) and its associated parasitoids (Fig. 1A-D). As the population of parasitoids increased, the pest population decreased, which in turn caused parasitoids population to decrease. As parasitoids population decreased, the pest population was able to recover, and its population increased. Subsequently, the parasitoids population increased and the cycle began again. The three stemborer species had similar populations with a maiximum peak after 6 months of about 4900 individuals (Fig. 1A-C) while the maximum peak of S. frugiperda poplulation (Fig. 1D) was 17% less than those of stemborers. The peaks of the populations of parasitoids of the three stemborers species reach a level above 4500 individuals after 7 months while the population of parasitoids associated with S. frugiperda was below 4000 individuals during the same period (Fig. 1A-D).In a two species system, a strong unilateral competitive interaction was revealed in the C. partellus and B. fusca system (Fig. 2A) representing 81.18% and 18.82%, respectively of the total pest populations in the system. The population of B. fusca was largely outcompeted by C. partellus after 6 months and its population was drastically reduced in a two species system as compared to when it was the sole species in the system. In the system of either B. fusca and S. calamistis (Fig. 2B) or C. partellus and S. frugiperda (Fig. 2C), bilateral competitive interactions were strong, leading to the decline of both the species populations but without dominance. Although bilateral competitive interactions were revealed in other two multi-pest species systems, C. partellus was most prevalent to S. calamistis (Fig. 2D) representing 66.08% and 33.92%, respectively and S. frugiperda was most prevalent to B. fusca (Fig. 2E) and S. calamistis (Fig. 2F) after 6 months and represented 60.53% and 39.47%, respectively of the total pest populations in the system. In addition, the model showed that the populations of each pest species in two pest species systems (Fig. 2A-F) declined as compared to those in sole pest species systems (Fig. 1A-D). However, the average total pest populations (population size of each pest) in sole-pest species systems represented only 85.36% of total average pest populations in two-pest species systems (population size of any given combination of two pest species). In each combination, the associated parasitoid populations proportionally varied with their respective host population fluctuation as parasitoid population tracked the peaks of the pest population.In three species systems after 6 months, C. partellus and S. frugiperda co-exist representing 45.45% and 40.42% of the total pest populations in the system but competitively dominated B. fusca population that represented only 14.13% (Fig. 3A). However, in C. partellus + S. calamistis + S. frugiperda three species system, S. calamistis became dominant over S. frugiperda (Fig. 3B). They represented 44.80%, 31.43% and 23.77% , respectively of the total pest populations in the system. The system of the three stemborer species (Fig. 3C) showed the dominance of C. partellus (47.93%) followed by S. calamistis (31.70%) and B. fusca(20.37%), respectively. Spodoptera frugiperda was the dominant species followed by B. fusca and S. calamistis in three pest species system (Fig. 3D). In each system, the parasitoid population fluctuation evolved according to its host population fluctuation. Furthermore, the model showed that the population of each pest species in three pest species systems (Fig. 3A-D) declined as compared to those in two pest species systems (Fig. 2A-F). However, the average total pest populations in two-pest species systems represented only 70.07% of total average pest populations in three-pest species systems.In four pest species system, C. partellus was the dominant species (48.79%), followed by S. calamistis (28.34%), S. frugiperda (14.85%) and B. fusca (8.02%), respectively (Fig. 3E), with the same trend of their associated parasitoids (Fig. 3F). Comparing four pest species system populations to those in three pest species systems, the population of each pest species declined except that of C. partellus. The total average pest populations in threepest species systems represented only 89.88% of those in four pest species system. In this study, we modeled the dynamics and interactions of populations of three maize stemborer species and the fall armyworm, as well as their associated parasitoids, in either single or multi-species systems. The population dynamics of single pest species systems presented S-shaped growth with overshoot logistic form of the well-known Lotka-Volterra prey predator system 39,40 . The S-shaped form could be due to the negative feedback in the loop diagram that slowly limits the growth as the growth rate reaches the limit. However, the negative feedback contains time delays due to the variability of available resources (host plants) leading to intra-specific competitive interaction that affected the abundance of the pest. The time delay in the negative feedback causes the system to exceed the limit value and exhibit oscillation behavior around the limit value as previously reported by Sterman 41 . Furthermore, the presence of parasitoids influences the host population dynamics leading to a cyclical relationship between a host (pest) and its associated parasitoids as previously demonstrated by the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model function 39,40 . For each of the three stemborer species systems, the associated parasitoids populations grew faster than their respective host populations. Din and Donchev 42 reported that in a host-parasite interaction, if a host population is a pest, then according to the Leslie-Gower model, a fast-growing parasite population with a growth rate larger than that of the host significantly reduces the host population. Therefore, the present model indicates a significant effect of parasitoid on stemborers population regulation. Despite high outbreaks reported for S. frugiperda, its population dynamics in our single-species system was actually the lowest which might be due to its high cannibalism rate reported in the literature 43,44 and also because the high outbreaks across SSA was reported during the first months of infestation when equilibrium was not yet established; whereas stemborers have been present for decades.Within stemborer species in multi-species systems (either in two or three species systems), C. partellus exhibited dominance whenever involved in a system. Several previous studies have reported the dominance of C. partellus over B. fusca and S. calamistis when they co-exist 15,19,24 . In two-species system with C. partellus and B. fuca, the model showed that C. partellus has displaced B. fusca population with time. Those competitive interactions may justify the spatial distribution of these stemborer species in Kenya. Previous studies have reported that B. fusca and S. calamistis co-exist in the highlands with dominance of B. fusca species, while C. partellus and S. calamistis co-habituate in the lowlands with dominance of C. partellus 6,25,26 . These three stemborer species were reported to occur as a mixed system in the mid-altitudinal regions with dominance of C. partellus 7,12 . Furthermore, studies in South Africa showed that C. partellus has expanded its distribution into highland region and has competitively displaced B. fusca population in that area 13 .On the other hand, the model demonstrated that bilateral competitive interactions were strong in B. fusca + S. calamistis and C. partellus + S. frugiperda two-species systems where both species populations fluctuate and dropped considerably. Those behaviours may be explained by the overlapped ecological niches of these pest species. The females of B. fusca and S. calamistis deposit the eggs between the leaf sheath and the stem of plant, whereas C. partellus and S. frugiperda deposit eggs directly on leaf surfaces 33,34 . Therefore, the interactions in those systems might start at neonate stage when the eggs hatched or even at egg stage by sharing the same ecological niches. Sokame et al. 35 have also demonstrated that the larvae of pest species in those respective systems shared the same behaviour in terms of ballooning and crawling. All those common life traits might lead them to strong competition. Zhou et al 45 have demonstrated that in the nature, species that are living together in the same or similar niches because they have one or several kinds of similar behaviours are highly competitive. The dominance of S. frugiperda species in the system of either B. fusca or S. calamistis in two species systems or with both species in three species system in the present model might be the intraguild predation preference of S. frugiperda to the detriment of cannibalism in interspecific systems which is reflected in competition coefficients of S. frugiperda in multi-species systems used in our study. Bentivenha et al. 46 demonstrated that S. frugiperda in multi-species system with Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), its cannibalism decreases to the detriment of intraguild predation of the other species.Overall, the outputs of the simulations indicated that C. partellus and S. frugiperda species were competitively superiors over B. fusca and S. calamistis. However, in three or four multi-species involving C. partellus with S. calamistis and S. frugiperda, S. calamistis took the advantage and dominated S. frugiperda. Chilo partellus and S. frugiperda are exotic species in Africa while B. fusca and S. calamistis are indigenous. Invasive insect pest species have the potential to rapidly establish and spread to new areas 47 . The organisms that arrive and establish themselves in a new range of hosts are positioned to have adverse effects on the surrounding fauna and also results in the extinction of other species 48 . They often affect native species populations and systems by competing for the same resource 49 . For example, the Asian adelgid, Pineus boemeri Annand, has been shown to be competitively superior and to displace a native congener, P. coloradensis (Gilette) in red pine (Pinus resinosa Aiton) plantation in Eastern USA, possibly through the reduction of host plant quality and forcing P. coloradensisto to less suitable sites 50 . The invasive fruit fly Bactrocera invadens Drew, Tsuruta & White (Diptera: Tephritidae), has displaced the indigenous mango fruit fly, Ceratitis cosyra Walker (Diptera: Tephritidae) 4 years after invasion in Kenya and become the dominant fruit fly pest of mango 51 . Temperature and resource pre-emption were demonstrated to be key factors contributing to the competitive success of the invasive fruit fly B. invadens over the indigenous mango fruit fly, C. cosyra in Kenya 52 . Fabre et al. 53 demonstrated a form of resource competition between native and exotic seed chalcids, Megastigmus spp. and displacement of the native species. Similarly, the African stemborer B. fusca seems to have been displaced from sorghum fields by the Asian invasive stemborer C. partellus 13 possibly due to deterrence of the native species by the invasions or due to differences in host plant phenology.The comparison of sole pest species systems with multi-pest species systems of the models showed that the population of each species declined in multi-pest species systems and more the number of pest species involved in the system increased more the population of each species declined. In contrary, the total number of pest populations in the systems increased with the number of pest species involved in the system. Therefore, the reduction of stemborer populations in maize fields with the arrival of S. frugiperda was even overtaken up by that latter. Those results indicate the overall pest abundance increasing in maize fields with the invasion of fall armyworm in maize stemborer systems with more infestations and damages, leading to the increasing of the smallholder incomes losses in maize production. However, the fact that no competition between parasitoid species was considered might have effect on the system dynamics model.In conclusion, the present models predict the co-existence of S. frugiperda with stemborer species in maize fields. Spodoptera frugiperda and C. partellus dominate over B. fusca and S. calamistis but without extinction, except that B. fusca seems to be displaced by C. partellus. Therefore, the invasion of S. frugiperda in maize fields in Africa constitutes an additional pest to maize crop that need to be considered within the context of integrated pest management strategy. However, the underpinning mechanisms surrounding the co-existence and possible displacement of other species warrant additional studies.Modelling and simulations assumptions. To develop the model, the following assumptions have been made:1. Data obtained under laboratory conditions were used to reproduce and simulate what may occur under field conditions. 2. The growth of insect pest species is limited by a single maize resource, and the parasitoids only depend on their host pests for survival. 3. During the non-cropping season, only 10% of the pest found in maize fields survived on alternative host plants and will give rise to a new pest population in maize field during the subsequent cropping season.4. A 3-month maize variety (Duma 43, Kenya Seed Company, Nairobi, Kenya) was considered to be used and grown from April to June and from October to December, periods corresponding to the yearly cropping seasons in Kenya. 5. Insect pests were recorded for the first time in the maize field 1 month after planting date. 6. Pest population growth is assumed to follow the Lotka-Volterra competition function 39 . 7. The parasitism level of a given pest species is recorded from the second generation of the pest, thus with an average of 2 months of delay after maize planting. 8. The parasitism level of all parasitoid species on a given host were lumped together and no competition between parasitoid species was taken into account. 9. Simulations were carried out assuming that each system was at the equilibrium state.Before the simulations, a multiple regression procedure was conducted using the R software version 3.5.1 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) with experimental data from Sokame 56 on density-dependent of species interaction in laboratory conditions to estimate the competition coefficients of each studied case of species combination as presented in Table 1.In addition, the parasitism level of all parasitoids species on a given host that were lumped together and other constants in Table 2 were used for the model simulations. Units and models' commodities were well checked prior to the simulations.The models were implemented and simulated using the Vensim PLE 8.0.9 platform (Ventana Systems, Harvard, USA), which consists of a graphical environment that permits users to draw the CLD, stocks and flows diagrams and carry out simulations 55 . The dynamics of pest and associated parasitoids populations were considered as stocks and the in/out flows were defined. The inflows were composed of pest or parasitoid population growth rates while the outflows were represented by decrease rates of the pests that have been parasitized or the parasitoids that have completed their life cycle.As mentioned in the assumptions section, all simulations were conducted at the equilibrium state of each system that is characterized by:(1) where Ki is the column vector of the total number of larvae survived, Ni is the column vector of the total number of survived larvae of a given species, and aijNj is the \"system matrix'' of the interaction coefficients.The absolute value of any (a) reflects the intensity of the interaction on a given species. The system matrix therefore characterizes the first order (linear) relationship of each species with each other in the system.under competitions were used in this study. All the models used have the generic formulation displayed in Eq. ( 2). Considering N(t) as a state variable to denote the insect population abundance at time t; the population growth for the ith species is defined with the Lotka-Volterra competition equations, which was later modified by MacArthur and Levins 54 as:where the N i is the species abundance, r i is the intrinsic rate of population natural increase, K i is the species carrying capacity (the maximum attainable population size), m is the number of pest species in the system, and a ij is the effect that an individual species characterized by jth can cause to another species characterized with ith. The translation of this generic mathematical expression was applied to formulate the equations used to simulate each case studied. The model expressions can be found in Supplementary Appendix.  (2)  29,30 Busseola fusca reference fractional parasitism rate* 0.25 Mailafiya et al. 29,30 Sesamia calamistis reference fractional parasitism rate* 0.28 Mailafiya et al. 29,30 Spodoperta frugiperda reference fractional parasitism rate* 0.22 Sisay et al. 28,32 Chilo partellus reference fraction growth rate 0.83 Kroschel et al. 58 Busseola fusca reference fraction growth rate 0.8 Kroschel et al. 58 Sesamia calamistis reference fraction growth rate 0.8 Kroschel et al. 58 Spodoptera frugiperda reference fraction growth rate 0. The methodology here is rooted in system thinking approach with its archetypes [causal loop diagram (CLD), reinforcing (R) and balancing (B)] by a mental and holistic conceptual framework used to map how the variables, issues and processes are influencing each other in the complex competitions and interactions among and between insect species and the impacts. Although these archetypes are qualitative in nature, they help to disclose and elucidate the fundamental feedback configurations that occur in maize fields when insect pests are competing for resource and associated parasitoids are hunting for hosts. The CLD obtained were converted into a dynamic modelling using stocks, flows, auxiliary links and clouds; which in turn were translated into coupled differential equations for simulations.One pest species and associated parasitoids and the resource (maize plants). The diagram of causalities represents the basic structure of the system of a given pest species with its associated parasitoids, where arrows show the cause-effect relations. A positive sign indicates direct proportionality of cause and effect, and the negative sign indicates a relation of inverse proportionality. The system is characterized by two negative feedbacks (Fig. 1, Loops B1 and B2) and one positive feedbacks (Fig. 1A, Loop R1) leading to three main relationships: a) as the resource (maize plants) increases, the growth of the pest increases to occupy the available resource resulting in the pest population increase; b) as host availability increases, the probability that the parasitoid encounters its host increases, resulting in higher parasitism, increased host mortality rate and decreased pest population; c) as host mortality rate increases, parasitoid growth rate increases, and parasitoid population increases.Figure 4B showed the stocks and flows diagram and auxiliary variables obtained from causal loop diagram displayed in Fig. 4A. The single pest species (PSi) and associated parasitoids are the stocks in the system, representing the population size of pest species and parasitoids, respectively, at a given point in time. The growth rates represented the inflows while the decrease rates represented the outflows of the diagram. The auxiliary as well as constant variables drive the behaviour of the system were connected using information arrows within them and to flows and stocks to represent the relations among variables in terms of equations.Two pest species and associated parasitoids and the resource (maize plants). In two multi-pest species system (Fig. 5A), the three previous relationships intervened for each species (Fig. 5A, Loops B1, B2, and R1 for species 1 and Loops B3, B4, and R2 for species 2). In addition, relationship (d: Loop R3, Fig. 5A) described inter-specific competition effect of involved pest species on each other. The stocks and flows diagram of each of the two species occurred with level of discrepancy between the carrying capacity (K) and the population size, which additionally is dependent on the intra and inter-specific competition and interations among and between these species (Fig. 5B). Three pest species and associated parasitoids and the resource (maize plants). In three multi-pest species system and associated parasitoids system (Fig. 6A), we have the three relationships (a, b and c) previously described for each species (Loops B1, B2, and R1 for species 1; Loops B3, B4, and R2 for species 2 and Loops B5, B6, and R3 for species 3). The relationship (e) represented the inter-specific competitive influence exercised by each of the three species on each other (Fig. 6A,B7). The stocks and flows diagram of individual species in the system occurred with a level of discrepancy between the carrying capacity (K) and the population size, which additionally is dependent on the intra-and inter-specific competition and interations among and between these species (Fig. 6B).Four pest species and associated parasitoids and the resource (maize plants). In four multi-pest species system (Fig. 7A), the relationships (a, b and c) existed for each of the four species (species 1: Loops B1, B2, and R1;  species 2: Loops B3, B4, and R2; species 3: Loops B5, B6, and R3 and species 4: Loops B7, B8, and R4). The relationships (f) represented by the Loops B9, B10, B11 and R5 showed interaction relationships between the four species. The stocks and flows diagram obtained from the system made by four species occurred with a level of discrepancy between the carrying capacity (K) and the population size of individual species, which additionally is dependent on the intra and inter-specific competition and interations among and between these species (Fig. 7B). ","tokenCount":"4899"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"17114aa6aa054917459c24590852b485","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ced83037-a5e9-421f-8779-91f143b599f9/retrieve","id":"871124534"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b2e863a6-961b-4d53-bfe5-1af06c80e9a2","pagecount":"1","content":"Late blight (Phytophthora infestans Mont de Bary is one of the major biotic constraints to potato d ti i N l Th di i i il t ll d ith f i id lth h i ld l i19-21 Sept production in Nepal. The disease is primarily controlled with fungicides, although yield loss is common. Host plant resistance could reduce fungicide dependency and increase sustainability of production. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the efficacy of two mono-cyclic Gottingen,screening methods for foliage blight resistance and one method for tuber blight resistance by comparing results from these trials with resistance levels established in the field.Host plant resistance against Phytophthora infestans was evaluated in the field for twenty five Buddhi P. Sharma 1 Gregory A. Forbes 2Host plant resistance against Phytophthora infestans was evaluated in the field for twenty five potato genotypes in 2010 and 2011 at Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal. This was used as a benchmark to evaluate other assays. A locally isolated strain of P. infestans 'LPR-1' was used to measure resistance on whole plants (screen house) detached leaves and tuber slices The to measure resistance on whole plants (screen house), detached leaves and tuber slices. The inoculum concentration was 3 x 10 3 sporangia/ml in all the assays. Inoculum was equally distributed over the entire foliage using plastic atomizer in field and screen house assays. There was a clear distinction between the most susceptible and most resistant varieties in all   .This appeared to be due to the increased susceptibility of some appeared to be due to the increased susceptibility of some varieties in the leaf test. The correlation was least (R=0.46) with the tuber slice test (Fig 10), but this may reflect genetic differences as different levels of resistance sometimes occur in differences as different levels of resistance sometimes occur in foliage and tubers.More than half of the genotypes had very low incidence (scale value <1) indicating that they were probably expressing race resolution of the single cycle assay. Some genotypes showing high level of resistance under field conditions were found most susceptible in tuber slice assay which also reflected genetic differences as foliage and tuber blight resistance are not always  ","tokenCount":"363"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/0301681785.json b/data/part_3/0301681785.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3bc33823edee32c95a1ffaf332fb68a6b7177a92
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"05178d1c930273443c97abaead4da8fa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eaf87834-04d4-400f-a619-3d4ad734e671/retrieve","id":"150453777"},"keywords":["FISH","genome size","genotyping","musa","rDNA"],"sieverID":"3c173687-1a0a-4c9a-91f6-50cf09f9efa4","pagecount":"1","content":"Bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) are one of the most important world trade commodities and are a staple food for millions of people in countries of the humid tropics. The production of bananas is, however, threatened by the rapid spread of various diseases and adverse environmental conditions. The Musa genetic diversity, which is of paramount importance for breeding of resistant cultivars, needs to be preserved and better characterised. The world's largest banana and plantain collection is managed by the Bioversity International Transit Centre (ITC) in Belgium and contains more than 1500 accessions maintained in vitro. The collection is being continuously expanded by new accessions representing various edible cultivars, improved materials and wild species from different parts of the world. Recently new germplasm was collected in Indonesia and successively introduced into the international Musa gene bank. The aim of this work was to characterise the genotype of these accessions in order to shed light on their genome structure and to confirm their taxonomic classification. A total of 21 wild Musa accessions were analysed and their nuclear genome size and the genomic distribution of ribosomal RNA genes were determined, showing a high degree of variability in both characters. Genotyping with a set of 19 microsatellite markers identified Musa species that are closely related to the studied accessions and provided data to aid in their classification. Sequence analysis of their internal transcribed spacers ITS1 and ITS2 suggested that some of the accessions are of interspecific hybrid origin and/or represent backcross progenies of interspecific hybrids.","tokenCount":"251"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/0328287255.json b/data/part_3/0328287255.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"923532e7920bb23955dc78b08db41d2c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9824d2a8-ba9d-4692-add6-9c7251db32d4/retrieve","id":"1526597839"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"42a71a81-c60c-475d-bb98-59e3a5dcb80a","pagecount":"32","content":"We would like to thank to Brenda Boonabaana, Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Emily Camille Myers for reviewing the report. The opinions expressed here belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of A4NH, IFPRI, CGIAR, BMGF or the Assets Project Phase 2. All remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors.The growing importance of women's empowerment as an explicit or implicit objective in many agricultural development projects calls for a measure of women's empowerment that agricultural development projects can use to diagnose key areas of women's (and men's) disempowerment, design appropriate strategies to address deficiencies and monitor project outcomes related to women's empowerment. Kabeer (2001) defines empowerment as expansion of people's ability to make strategic life choices, particularly in contexts where this ability had been denied to them. Alsop et al. (2006) have also defined empowerment as the ability to make purposeful choices and translate choices into desired actions and outcomes given the opportunity structure within which one operates.Empowerment in agriculture is defined as one's ability to make decisions on matters related to agriculture as well as one's access to the materials and social resources needed to carry out those decisions (Alkire et al. 2013). Empowering women is essential for enabling their rights but also to achieve the broader development goals such as economic growth, poverty reduction, health, education and welfare. Particularly, economically empowering women is a win-win that benefits women, families and society as a whole (Golla et al. 2011;IFAD 2012). When women have access to land, water, education, training, extension and financial services and strong organizations/networks, they are able to harness the opportunities around them, thus benefitting themselves, their families and society (IFAD 2012). Owing to this recognition, many governments and development agencies, especially in the developing world, are making efforts to promote gender equality and women's empowerment in order to harness the above benefits.The United Nations (UN) Women, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) launched a Joint Programme (JP) in September of 2012 aimed at empowering resource-poor rural women through economic integration and food security initiatives. Access to financial services is one of the critical tools in poverty reduction and in tapping and unleashing the productive potential of poor women for inclusive economic growth. The United Nations Joint Programme \"Accelerating Progress towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women\" (UNJP-RWEE) strives to strengthen women's access to financial services in order to accelerate rural women's economic empowerment, coupled with other integrative interventions such as: improving rural women's and their households' food security and nutrition, development of individuals' capabilities and fulfilment of rights, fostering access to markets and agricultural inputs, promoting income-generating activities (IGA) in agriculture and strengthening women's participation in and benefit from community and rural institutions such as cooperatives and farmer's associations.Women's empowerment has often been assessed using quantitative measures with less attention given to the qualitative aspects. Given the context-specific nature of agricultural interventions, the existing survey-based Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) may not be suitable to measure women's empowerment in different projects. Furthermore, the local meaning of empowerment has not been fully understood by researchers to inform the criteria to measure women's empowerment in a given context. The FAO, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and International Water Management Institute have partnered with the International Food Policy Research Institute through the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project Phase 2 (GAAP2) to conduct a study aimed at assessing the extent to which the UNJP has been effective in achieving its goal of economically empowering rural women in Ethiopia, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, and to understand the local meaning of empowerment. The findings will be used to validate the proposed project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) domains and indicators. The results presented in this summary report are limited to the qualitative study conducted at two project sites in the Oromia region. The qualitative study was conducted using adapted methodologies previously developed for (i) the From Protection to Production program to evaluate the impact of cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa and (ii) the GAAP2 qualitative protocols developed to measure women's empowerment within agricultural development projects. The qualitative study explored two key domains of empowerment in Golla's et al. (2011) framework of women's economic empowerment: (1) economic advancement and (2) power and agency, assessing the impact of the program design on the two domains, including the degree to which gender equality and women's empowerment were mainstreamed in program design and implementation. The report is organized as follows: first, we present the introduction to the study; secondly, we give a brief description of the UNJP; thirdly, we describe the methods; fourth, we present the overall findings from the study. This is followed by a synthesis of these findings in relation to the pro-WEAI variables being tested/validated, before concluding and providing recommendations.The UNJP titled, Accelerating Progress towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women, is a five-year global initiative implemented in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Nepal, Niger and Rwanda. Each program country defined its specific program based on the local context. For Ethiopia, partnering UN agencies, in collaboration with government and other national stakeholders, designed the program. The main program objective is to enhance and secure rural women's livelihoods and rights in the context of the global and national development agenda. The program has four key outcome areas including: 1. improved food and nutrition security of rural women, 2. improved and sustained livelihood of rural women through income-generating interventions, 3. skill development and improved access to resources, 4. decision-making voices of women strengthened through enhancement of leadership and participation in rural institutions and establishment of a gender-responsive policy environment.The suggested selection criteria for women's savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) or self-help groups include women members who:• are resident in the targeted kebele 1 for at least two years;• can productively engage in IGAs;• do not have bad credit history and no current debt;• do not benefit from other interventions by other donors;• are willing to participate in all project activities;• are hardworking;• are willing to share their experience with other similar women (peers);• are experienced in business and IGA;• are well respected by community members and able to influence others;• are marginalized because of their disability, health status and other social conditions;• are willing to take responsibility for their debt and that of their group;• have some members with leadership quality;• have some members who can read and write;• have some members who have or are female household heads;• have experience in running off-farm and on-farm activities.1. A kebele is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia. The program's achievements to date include:• assessment of the existing situation and identification of appropriate technologies and IGA for beneficiaries using:• market assessment study• baseline study• feasibility study for technologies.• capacity development activities at all levels, i.e. woreda, kebele and beneficiary level training.• awareness creation through community conversations (using the community conversation manual) such as• enhanced access to productive resources for IGA including revolving funds through SACCOs (without collateral), agricultural inputs and technologies including seeds and technologies required for agriculture and other IGA and savings.In Ethiopia, the UNJP-RWEE operates in two regions, i.e. Oromia and Afar. The qualitative study was conducted in two woredas (districts), i.e. Adami Tulu and Yaya Gulele districts in the Oromia region, from 31 July 2017 to 12 August 2017.In each woreda, the UNJP team selected three kebeles for the study, two of which were action kebeles (project sites/ treatment villages), while one was a control kebele. In Adami Tulu woreda, the three kebeles were Abune Germama and Aneno Shesho (treatment villages) and Gulanta Boke (control village), while in Yaya Gulele woreda, Nono Chemerie and Iluna Dire were the treatment villages and Dede Tege was the control village. The action sites were selected based on the degree of market integration using distance from the main road as the proxy measure to sample one relatively remote and one relatively integrated community. The sites in Adami Tulu are more integrated, closer to the urban trading centres, while those in Yaya Gulele are remote. The control sites have similar socio-economic characteristics.Several data collection methods were applied including: group discussions with project female beneficiaries and indirect male beneficiaries, in-depth interviews with individual case studies (empowered and disempowered women and men) and key informant interviews (KIs) with project implementers (at woreda level) and kebele leaders in the three selected kebeles of each woreda. The group discussion participants, key informants and case studies were purposefully selected with the help of experts working on the project in each woreda. Female beneficiaries were selected purposefully based on: being a member of the cooperative supported by the project, direct project beneficiary and level of empowerment (empowered and disempowered). The male indirect beneficiaries were also selected based on level of empowerment and the fact that their spouses were project beneficiaries.Separate group discussions for women and men were conducted and after the group discussions, the research teams held a plenary session where women and men came together to discuss the emerging findings. The discussions were done in the local language, Oromifa. The KIs were held in mixed groups, including one group discussion with KIs at the woreda (project staff) and one group discussion with KIs at the kebele (kebele officials) within each woreda. A total of 187 women and 198 men participated in group discussions and case studies. Several participatory tools were used to facilitate the discussions with female beneficiaries and indirect male beneficiaries including: the understanding of empowerment tool (used only in the action sites), the livelihood matrix (capturing decision-making/control over income), access to and control over household and community resources tool and the seasonal calendar, gender division of labour, decision-making tool. The proportional piling technique was used to stimulate discussions on perceptions and preferences. The community profile tool was used to collect data from kebele KIs, while the project operations checklist was used to collect data from project staff. The life history checklist was used to capture histories of empowered and disempowered women and men, serving as case studies to provide in-depth and detailed understanding of empowerment pathways. The note takers documented the interviews and discussions in field notebooks. After data collection, the handwritten notes were checked for accuracy and expanded into complete narratives. All focus group discussions (FGDs) were audio recorded and the English translations were subsequently transcribed. Data collected from different sources were used to triangulate the findings.Data analysis started at the end of each day during debriefing sessions. First, each research team reviewed and summarized the discussion from each FGD, categorizing the findings into the subthemes of the three key research themes. A summary of each FGD in relation to each of the domains of empowerment was developed. Next, the findings of all FGDs conducted in each woreda were compiled into individual woreda reports. The third and final step was to look across reports, summaries and transcripts to establish the emerging themes, key findings specific to the empowerment domains and indicators across the thematic areas and illustrate this with quotes. During analysis, a variety of factors were taken into consideration including: factors intersecting with gender to shape life experiences, differences between and among women and men based on age/generation, social position within household/family, social identity, ethnicity, socio-economic status, geographical locations and others.This section summarizes the key emerging themes from the findings and discussions presented in the main report (Nigussie et al. 2017). Other emergent themes have been extracted and presented in addition to the pre-defined subthemes explored in the study.The key subthemes that the study explored under economic advancement were: sources of income and women's roles in income generation, time use in productive and reproductive work, access to credit and use of credit and other financial services and access to services and infrastructure.The main livelihood activities for community members in the study woredas are: 1) crop production, 2) vegetable production, 3) livestock rearing, 4) apiculture, 5) poultry production, 6) trading and 7) wage employment. Men and women in the two woredas participate in these IGAs at varying degrees and carry out different roles which influence the level of control over income from these sources. Overall, adult women mostly participate in rain-fed crop production, irrigated and non-irrigated vegetable production, fattening oxen and sheep and petty trading and apiculture, while young women carry out quarrying in groups, poultry production and casual labour (such as weeding and other employment opportunities within the communities). The most prioritized livelihood activities for adult men include rain-fed crop production, irrigated vegetable production, fattening (oxen, sheep and goat), and selling khat, while for the young men it includes quarrying, casual work, rain-fed crop production, irrigated vegetable cultivation and donkey cart renting. In Yaya Gulele, women rarely work as casual labourers, due to limited opportunities in the area. In Moreso, donkeys are income sources mostly in Adami Tulu woreda. Beneficiary women can make choices from the given livelihood options provided by the UNJP-RWEE. In former times, women had limited abilities to make choices and decisions because of limited knowledge. In the past, women only owned small livestock, like chicken. This is changing now due to the targeted interventions from the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)that sensitize women about their potential and support them with initial capital, which they invest into different IGAs, including larger livestock. One of the beneficiaries remarked: In all the kebeles, agricultural activities are mainly associated with men because men hold the plough and till the land. Yet women also participate in many of the agricultural activities. Men also consider themselves to be more knowledgeable about agriculture than women. However, this perception is contested by some women, as these women think they have almost equal knowledge as men about agricultural activities. Although all household members play a role in all of the agricultural activities, women's role in agricultural activities such as ploughing, planting, harvesting and transportation are less valued by men, demonstrated by men giving women's contribution lower scores. However, most of the women's groups gave women's contribution equal scores to men (3-3). Both men and women gave youth lower scores on most of the activities.Changing community perceptions about women working outside the home, their roles and rightsParticipation of women in IGAs outside the home (such as petty trade and wage employment) is a recent phenomenon. Overall, in all of the study sites, the current attitude of the communities towards women's participation in work outside of the home is positive, in contrast to historical attitudes. Women that work outside of the home are appreciated and encouraged by their communities. These women are perceived as striving to improve the livelihoods of their households. Women indicated that they are happy working outside of the house, although it is challenging due to the demanding triple responsibilities (domestic, productive and community responsibilities). The change in attitude is mainly driven by ongoing government effort to raise awareness about women's rights and support from development and multilateral organizations that raise awareness on gender equality and women's empowerment. The opportunity for women to work outside the home provides them with increased income, improved networks and access to information. The opportunities offered by the UNJP have enabled men and other community members to appreciate women's work and their ability to earn an income within and outside the home because women have been able to contribute to their own wellbeing and that of their families. This has helped women not only to be valued but also supported without too much of a backlash for no longer following the previously socially prescribed roles.Although there are changes in attitude within communities, there are men that perceive women working outside of the home as a threat, as revealed by one of the male indirect beneficiaries.According to the findings, the key factors that determine participation of women in work outside of the home include marital status, trust between spouses, level of responsibility and domestic workload, women's level of education or awareness about their rights, wealth status of family and availability of opportunities to work outside of the home. Married women consult their spouses and need to reach an agreement. In three of the group discussions, the men argued that women who engage in casual labour leave other activities behind and thus the money should belong to the household. Women who have relatively greater freedom of mobility such as the young unmarried, widowed and divorced are more likely to participate in work outside of the house.Participation of women in IGAs has created positive and negative shifts in the gendered division of labour. Previously, it was men who were solely involved in farm activities and all the domestic work was done by women. Nowadays, women participate equally with men in productive activities such as farming and trading to contribute to the economic status of the family, although participation of men in domestic activities is still very limited. Because of these changes, one can conclude that women are overburdened with triple roles (domestic, productive and communal roles) and that empowering women might not reduce the time poverty (workload) since most of the husbands do not share the domestic responsibilities and women are not in a position to hire labour in their homes. The workload on women could be translated into long working hours that could impair their health and leave them limited time for self-growth (networking, attending training, meetings and other activities) and to effectively engage in economic activities.In Yaya Gulele, while women participate equally with men in productive activities, the participation of men in domestic activities is limited to fetching water, collecting firewood and rarely babysitting or cooking food. This change in gendered division of labour, especially men sharing the domestic chores, is valued by the community. These changes are due to the various interventions by government and development partners focusing on changing attitudes of men and women towards gender division of labour. In Nono Chemerie kebele, a woman from the group discussion stressed the point by stating:I have a good relationship with my husband; he also supports me with the household work. For instance, he fetches water, collects firewood using a donkey, and cooks food when I'm busy. It is a privilege for me, because my mother did not have such help in the past. I think this is a result of increased understanding about the situation of women, which came through various trainings. (A 38-year-old empowered woman, Nono Chemerie kebele)In Adami Tulu, besides the UNJP, there are other credit and saving associations, cooperatives and unions such as: Biftu Batu Farmers' Union and Oromia Saving and Credit S.C. (WALQO, in its Afan Oromo abbreviation) that provide credit to men and women to increase their participation in IGAs. Women who generate a significant amount of income are models. In Yaya Gulele prior to the UNJP, within the treatment kebeles, there was Bakkalachi bari cooperative, which provides access to loans to women and energy-saving stoves. In the treatment kebeles, UNJP-RWEE provided women with access to loans in-cash and in-kind (improved seeds, e.g. wheat and teff) at a low interest rate and various training that enabled them to participate in a variety of IGAs. With loans, women are able to buy oxen for ploughing and/or for fattening, dairy animals, rent land for cultivation and start businesses. The saving habit of UNJP-RWEE beneficiaries has also improved, as the program encourages them to save ETB 20 per two weeks. The ability to save also strongly emerged as one of the indicators of an empowered and preferred woman by both men and women.The subthemes under this key thematic area were: control and decision-making over productive assets, control and decision-making over production and income generation, control and decision-making over cash expenditures, savings and transfers from the UNJP, control and decision-making over food and nutrition, perceptions of women's economic roles, empowerment, self-esteem and dignity, social networks and leadership and influence in the community.During the study, efforts were made to establish what joint decision-making really means. Joint decision-making entails two things: on one hand, it is a decision-making process in which women equally participate with men and agree on certain decisions; on the other hand, it refers to the situation in which both men and women participate in decisionmaking but either of them exercises more control and decision-making power because of the monetary value of the asset or traditional, gendered association with an asset or expression of superiority. Unlike five years ago, when men were the sole decision-makers, joint decision-making is becoming popular such that women feel empowered and results in increased harmony between spouses. Sole decision-making is where an individual decides by himself/herself with or without informing the counterpart.Women's autonomy limited to productive assets/resources of low valueAcross the study sites, control and decision-making power over productive assets/resources varies between men and women based on: mode of asset acquisition, gender division of labour, the monetary value of the asset and position in the household. First, women mostly acquire assets or resources from husbands and relatives upon marriage, while men acquire assets or resources from parents through inheritance or as a birth right. Secondly, unlike women, men are mostly responsible for productive work that provides them with the opportunity to have more control over most of the productive resources. Women exercise sole decision-making over small productive assets or resources (such as handcrafts, vegetables, chickens, smaller quantities of produce, household utensils and others) whose monetary value is low. Large productive assets whose monetary value is high (such as land, oxen, sheep and goats) are subject to joint decision-making, although men may exercise more power. One of the women stated:We have joint decision regarding agricultural activities and the ultimate decision is my husband's. I alone decide on some activities like selling chicken, eggs, small amount of crop harvest and buying of cloth for my children. There have been changes in how decisions are made in my household over the past five years because there is joint discussion on different issues including agricultural activities and the selling of big assets, which was minimal in the past. This change was made possible through the awareness raising given mostly by the government and sometimes by NGOs like RWEEJP. (A 30-year-old empowered woman, Abune Germama kebele)In Adami Tulu woreda, husbands are registered as land owners on the land certificate while wives with children are regarded as beneficiaries, which gives men more decision-making power. In Yaya Gulele woreda, the government has started issuing land certificates with both husband's and wife's names and photos so that men and women can have equal rights over land. Nono Chemerie kebele (which is a RWEE beneficiary kebele) is one of the pilot kebeles.Though men are the ultimate decision-makers regarding larger assets, they consult their spouses before making decisions and acting. Where disagreements occur, for instance, in polygamous families (where land must be shared between wives), the court of law helps women to claim rights over property. Upon divorce or separation, spouses share resources equally, except the horses (which belong to men). Upon the death of a husband, the wife will inherit half of the property, while the children inherit the remaining half. Exceptionally, only adult and young men have full access and control over horses.Women tend to exercise more control over assets such as livestock that they inherited or acquire from their parents or buy using loans from various sources (such as UNJP-RWEE) which is registered in their own names. This was approved of by both male indirect beneficiaries and female beneficiaries of the UNJP. Although culturally women cannot publicly claim individual ownership ('I cannot say that it is mine. I have to say that it is ours', stated one of the beneficiaries), they exercise more bargaining power over such resources and men cannot freely access or control them without women's consent. Such invisible control over assets by women causes under estimation of their power as it makes transformed conditions appear normal. Women have more bargaining power over what they claim is theirs and legal processes (court) also help women claim rights over such property.The degree of participation in decision-making over use of income from a specific IGA depends on the power to make decisions over productive activities, who earned the income, size of income, size of produce, access to market information, culture and household headship. Either of the spouses can have more control over the income from any IGAs in which they invested more time and energy compared to their spouse. Women tend to have more control and decision-making power over the income they earned from petty trading of handcrafts, poultry, dairy products, local brew etc. Local culture also determines who can have control over income from a specific source. For example, in the two study woredas, the culture decries any attempt by men to control income from poultry and dairy products. Men, on the other hand, have more control over income from wage employment and small businesses they operate such as barber, weaving and others. Taking the leadership position regarding lucrative farm activities gives men more control over income from this source such as cereal production. Even if there is unequal control over household income from various sources, the results show that there is increased participation of women in controlling and making decisions over income.Control over produce-women's autonomy limited to smaller quantities Since men claim to contribute more labour in production, they control large produce and income from large sales.A woman can sell crop produce of up to 25 kg without consulting her husband. He also does not enquire about the amount earned for he knows that she solely uses the income to buy household necessities. However, selling crop produce greater than 25 kg necessitates consultation and negotiation between the husband and wife. It is men who usually sell a large volume of harvest (>25 kg) for specific purposes such as buying fertilizer, improved seeds, paying back loans, buying items for children or others. Husbands sell the produce or livestock and consult their wives on how to invest the income. However, the ultimate decision-making power on such sales and expenditures resides with the man. Men and women consult each other on almost everything related to production and income generation. However, the final decision is still made by the man. Women sometimes accept men's ultimate decisions to avoid quarrels. In some cases, disagreements between husband and wife on certain decisions may involve third party mediation. Across all the study kebeles, there are mixed results about control over income from sale of vegetables, but there is an indication that the size of the field and amount of harvest influence control over this produce. The Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell named such advantages or privileges the 'patriarchal dividend' (Connell, 2002).Participation of women in groups as members and leaders is improved compared to the past. The UNJP-RWEE beneficiaries and the key informants indicated that all the members and leaders of the cooperatives where the UNJP-RWEE is hosted are women. Women are now participating in many of the community affairs. There is increased participation of women in meetings and their ability to speak in public is enhanced. The changes in women leadership and influence in the community relates mostly to interventions by the government and development partners such as the UNJP who have put in much effort to raise awareness on women's rights and unleashing their potential. The UNJP strengthened the existing women's cooperatives that provide women with the opportunity to acquire knowledge, exercise leadership and have influence within the community. Husbands of female beneficiaries realized the benefit of participation of women in such development programs, as members and leaders. Even though women are now increasingly participating in community leadership, the number of women who come forward and speak out is still limited. Both men and women in the treatment kebeles mentioned community leadership as one of the key indicators of women's empowerment or disempowerment.Through training offered by the government, NGOs and the UNJP, there is increased knowledge acquisition among women. Women use this knowledge to contribute to decisions at household and community levels. The UNJP has enabled the men to recognize and value the role and voice of women in the household and in the community. For instance, cattle can now be sold only with the agreement of both wife and husband. This joint decision-making has increased harmony within households. The court of law also protects women against domestic violence. However, in Gulanta Boke, the control site in Adami Tulu, the men's group argued that men are the presidents in the home and can decide to sell livestock even when the woman says no, which often triggers conflicts. One of the female beneficiaries commented:I now have a good relationship with my husband. He used to whip me with a strip of animal skin (shaabbee). Now everything is done through discussion and in agreement. I will take him to a court of law if he dares to touch me now. I'm no longer in a state of lack of knowledge. In the past, husbands thought that women should not give them orders. Now we decide together. There are changes over the past five years. My participation in decision-making has increased. Now knowledge has expanded. We watch television. We also listen to radio. Our children who are attending school also changed us. Knowledge regarding saving and trading activities has increased. There is no beating like in the past. We now discuss and settle our differences. (A 40-year-old beneficiary woman, Aneno Shesho kebele)Control over credit from UNJP, savings and remittancesThe results from the women's groups in Aneno Shesho kebele, the men's groups from Nono Chemerie kebele and the women's groups from Iluna Dire kebele indicated that women have more access to credit than men, which is mainly due to targeted interventions such as UNJP-RWEE that provide access to loans to women. Regarding loans from UNJP-RWEE, spouses have relatively equal control, where women are borrowers and men are guarantors. Overall, spouses have equal control over credit since servicing the loan lies on the shoulders of all household members. However, compared to adults, youth have less access to credit.Regarding control over savings, the results reveal mixed perceptions. The results from each woreda are split evenly between spouses with equal access to savings and women with more access to savings than men. Women tend to have more control over savings from their own effort, if the amount is small. In the case of significant amounts of savings, they consult with the spouses on how the money can be spent. In Adami Tulu woreda, men in the Abune Germama and control kebele indicated that they have more control over joint savings, while those in Aneno Shesho indicated that joint savings are equally controlled by spouses. However, women in Abune Germama and the control kebele think that women have more access to and control over joint savings, while those in Aneno Shesho think spouses have equal access to and control over savings. The youth in this woreda have less access to savings and have no control over savings. Similarly, in Yaya Gulele woreda, men in Nono Chemerie and women in Iluna Dire indicated that women have more access to and control over joint savings, while in the other group discussions men and women are considered to have equal access to and control over joint savings. Youths in these sites have less or no access to and control over savings. The UNJP-RWEE has increased women's understanding of the importance of saving and credit. The program has enhanced women's saving culture. Beneficiaries are expected to save ETB 20 every two weeks. In all the treatment kebeles, women are praised by the community for their saving skills. Women are perceived (by both men and women) as being good at saving money because they do not waste money on unnecessary things, unlike men who drink and chew khat with friends.The remittances are from household members who live and work outside of the woreda, i.e. in other parts of Ethiopia or outside of Ethiopia. Adult men and women have equal access to and control over remittances, while youth have less access to and control over this.Compared to the past, today there is a change in women's self-esteem and dignity, demonstrated by their increased participation in decisions related to selling high-value items such as cattle and surpluses, increased participation in meetings, enhanced ability to speak in public and increased participation in IGAs. The main actors of this change are the government and development partners who have been implementing targeted interventions towards: i) increasing awareness about women's rights and gender equality and ii) increasing access to various resources/opportunities to enhance women's self-esteem and dignity. With the UNJP-RWEE intervention, the beneficiaries: i) have developed the \"I can\" and \"we can\" attitude to participate in an IGA, ii) have the opportunity to move and work outside of the house, iii) have increased participation in decisions at home and in the community, iv) have increased opportunity to participate in meetings and speak in meetings, iv) have increased opportunity to share, learn and network and v) experience enhanced harmony within their homes (receive more respect from spouses), and vi) gained respect from community members. It is now possible to see women who till the land. Women now have their own money and husbands borrow from their wives. Women feel like they can do anything that other women and men cannot do. The project also increased the motivation of women for work. The project has helped women develop a positive image about themselves, develop confidence and be proactive. The 'I can' attitude creates an opportunity for continuity regarding women's participation in economic opportunities and empowerment. One of the empowered women declared with confidence:I participate in meetings equal as a man. In the beginning, the community said that I break the cultural rules because women are not allowed to participate in community meetings. And culturally a woman is not allowed to go to funerals to prepare the burial place. One day, I asked a member of idir if I can go with them to do that. Nobody accepted my idea and they laughed at me and some shouted in shock \"uuuuu\". Except this, I can do everything even activities men can't do. For example, putting fire in bee colonies; most of the men can't do this but I can do it. (A 41-year-old empowered woman, Abune Germama kebele)Male control over women's mobility Mobility of women is determined by various factors including age, marital status, household headship, distance from home, time of the day, cultural norms, wealth status and domestic responsibilities. For example, at a younger age, specifically before getting married, a woman's mobility is controlled by her parents, while after marriage it is controlled by her husband, allowing her to move freely to nearby places (within 3 km away from the village), e.g. local markets. A woman who does not have a husband is relatively free to move. A woman who goes wherever she wants at her own will is considered by the community as a social deviant and disobedient. However, compared to the past, women's freedom of mobility has increased immensely which is attributed to girls' access to education and various initiatives by the government and development partners to increase community awareness about women's rights, gender equity and empowerment. On the other hand, increased population growth and limited resources have made mobility of women a necessity rather than a choice. Women in poor households tend to work outside of the house more than those from wealthier households.The subthemes which were explored under this key thematic area were: gender-sensitive design of the UNJP and targeting and impact.At the woreda level, six focal persons from six different sector offices coordinate the program. The coordinators at woreda level are all men. In the case of Yaya Gulele woreda, at the kebele level, there are two women that facilitate implementation of the program activities and mediate communication between the beneficiaries and focal persons at the woreda level. However, in Adami Tulu woreda, there are no fieldworkers mediating between the women beneficiaries and the woreda focal persons.The direct beneficiaries of the program are women, while their spouses are indirect beneficiaries. The program targets already existing women cooperatives in the kebeles. Targeting women cooperatives increases the number of women reached and strengthens women's cooperatives. Targeting these cooperatives also provides opportunities for women to exercise active leadership, as these cooperatives are run by women, access services and influence the way services are delivered. However, due to limited resources, not all women in these cooperatives are beneficiaries of the UNJP-RWEE. Therefore, among the members of the cooperatives, women in the lower wealth category with good conduct, good saving records and good reputation in paying back loans were targeted. Women heads of households were given priority.With the loan (in-cash and in-kind) from UNJP-RWEE, beneficiaries have been able to i) generate more income by diversifying their livelihoods through activities such as fattening cattle or sheep and petty trade, ii) boost production by using inputs such as improved seeds of wheat and teff, iii) accumulate assets, e.g. chickens, oxen for ploughing, buying cows for milk, rent land for cultivation and iv) gain knowledge and information from various training (such as financial management, sanitation and hygiene, balanced diet, women's rights, literacy and others). This training has enabled women to participate in a variety of IGA, manage their homes well and make informed decisions. RWEE has strengthened women's relationships while working in groups. Beneficiaries in these woredas are able to buy and use mobile phones, due to the adult education program which has improved women's literacy levels. Project beneficiaries and indirect beneficiaries have noticed improvement in food security and nutrition. Unlike in the past when households ate 1-2 meals, now they eat more than two meals a day. There is improvement in eating a balanced diet as awareness about the importance of nutrition has increased. All the beneficiaries have toilets. In the past, people and cattle shared the same house but now, the space is separated. Some of the women currently participate in iqub (cash revolving groups) using proceeds from the UNJP to invest. Conversely, as women undertake activities that were traditionally for men, they also take on additional responsibilities, while men may be relieved of some of their tasks or are at least able to share the workload with the women. Overall, in the project sites, men's contribution to domestic chores has increased minimally, except in a few isolated cases.The amount of inputs (such as seed, bee hives) provided by the project is very small, compared to the number of beneficiaries who expressed interest in investing in specific enterprises. Women producing the same types of crops with the same technological package are asked to consolidate their plots, yet the plots of the beneficiaries are not continuously adjoining each other. The amount of credit given to the beneficiaries is not compatible with their business plans in most cases, causing change of plans, some of which force women to revert to traditional practices. The project does not release the required money at the time when the beneficiaries need it (opportune times). The project needs continuous monitoring and yet there are no logistics like motor bikes for staff to regularly visit the project sites and follow up on the activities. Furthermore, the loan repayment period is not commensurate to the time when farmers make money. Money is due to be repaid in October, which is not aligned with the harvest season, i.e. in December, when farmers have increased income.The study explored the local definition of empowerment, as defined by women and men, by asking both women and men to describe a woman who is \"strong\" or \"a model\" within or outside the community. Both men and women provided contextual definitions for the term empowerment. Cimina and Gahumsa were identified and used by both the research subjects and researchers as local terms (in Oromifa that mean being a strong or outstanding person. The characteristics of such individuals, as elicited by male and female group participants, have been grouped into broad categories.An empowered woman was defined by women and men based on different dimensions: a woman who has knowledge and is educated  ), has the ability to lead the community, ability to resolve conflicts in the home and community and treat community members fairly (LEADERSHIP), has good conduct, e.g. respect and does not drink alcohol (BEHAVIOUR), uses his time effectively (TIME), and uses family planning methods (REPRODUCTION). The ability to resolve conflicts in a home was mostly expressed by men and women in polygamous communities, in Adami Tulu woreda. Similarly, the ranking of the importance of the indicators varied across groups and sites.According to the results, the characteristics of an empowered man and woman were very much aligned with the proposed pro-WEAI domains and indicators of empowerment. Empowerment is defined based on the ideals of femininity and masculinity and ideals that make someone strong/able/capable, acceptable and respectable as a woman or man. However, time was not assessed in terms of workload or leisure (as proposed in pro-WEAI) but in terms of being able to plan and use time effectively and being hardworking. Possession of knowledge, particularly by women, was considered very empowering by both men and women (knowledge is power). The difference between the empowering domains and indicators for women and men is that mobility, knowledge and education, along with the ability to attend and speak in public meetings and proper administration of the home are more empowering to women than men. For men, accumulation of resources or wealth, working hard on the farm, knowledge of good technologies and proper family administration are key. Men tend to perceive women's empowerment in terms of economic advancement while women tend to perceive their empowerment in terms of knowledge and awareness about their rights and being able to take part in spheres that were previously denied to them.Considering the local definitions of empowerment, socio-cultural aspects stand out strongly and need to be part of the definition. Empowerment is strongly embedded within the cultural environment in which women and men thrive. Empowerment is not only about the ability to decide or make a choice but also about conduct, respect and trust within the household and community. The moral being of a man or woman is very important and valued by communities. If we focus on choice alone, then it focuses on individual independence, which is likely to westernize the African woman and disempower her. It fails to capture mutual interdependence. A woman has a relationship with her husband and society; individual choice lacks mutual interdependence. We are what we are because we are in a relationship with someone, a shift from individualism to 'jointness'.Proposed definition of women's empowerment in agriculture: the ability to have a voice, engage in decision-making on valuable assets or resources and influence decisions in situations where norms, culture and policy are not constraining.Based on the findings, it might be important to differentiate empowerment in relation to agricultural production and empowerment in relation to non-agricultural aspects (e.g. ability to educate children). The causal relationships need to be clearly discerned to delineate empowerment in agriculture and how it contributes to empowerment outside the agricultural domain.5.2 Is empowerment seen as a good thing or bad thing? By whom?Both men and women discussants perceived empowerment as positive. They indicated that the communities recognize and respect empowered women and men. The individuals in the community see empowered men and women as role models and want to be like them. The wives of empowered men are regarded with respect in the community. Men are also proud of their empowered wives.Although both men and women perceive women's empowerment as positive, some aspects of empowerment are perceived negatively by both men and women, for instance, mobility. Men are uncomfortable when women travel far from home due to fear of loss of control over women, especially when women are more exposed to information, knowledge and networks (threatened masculinity). Women prefer to work at home if they have an improved economic situation rather than to move or travel far to engage in activities such as wage employment or petty trade, particularly women in remote villages. Very empowered women who challenge stringent cultural norms are considered social deviants by the community and other women are afraid to follow their footsteps. Men consider women's knowledge about their rights as a disadvantage, particularly among the young girls as they become uncontrollable, e.g. when choosing partners to marry. Production* Input in production decisions* Important decisions on inputs for agricultural production, when to plough, plant and harvest are mostly made by men. The decision to sell and buy large animals, mainly oxen, cows and other livestock such as sheep/goats, is mostly made by men even though there is discussion between spouses.Although women are consulted, the ultimate decision and expenditure is made by men. Men are considered more knowledgeable. Input into highly recognized and valued decisions is more empowering to women. Therefore, if women's knowledge is enhanced, they can provide input into such decisions. There is need to explore influence from other household members, e.g. mother-and father-in-law.Autonomy in production* Women household heads entirely decide on production aspects as compared to women in men-headed households who have less sole decision-making power.Women in male-headed households exercise autonomy over agricultural activities that occur on small scale, smaller quantities of produce and products/activities of low value (i.e. the returns are small and do not arouse interest from men, e.g. milk, butter, eggs). Can this be considered empowering for women?Access to education levelAbility to apply new technologiesAccess to information and knowledge strongly stood out as an indicator of an empowered woman-knowledge is power. Information and knowledge can stand alone as an indicator, while possession of knowledge can be demonstrated through input into decisions and other aspects.Men have more access to agricultural information than women. Men accessed information mostly from the government bodies (development agents, woreda experts) and mobile phones. Men are more networked and are highly mobile.Resources* Use rights over land Land certificates that bear both the husband's and wife's names and photographs give both equal ownership and use rights (voiced in Nono Chemerie, one of the RWEE sites). We did not explore what happens to the certificate in situations where the husband has many wives.The value of land was not explored but it would be interesting to know the value of land that women and men use/own Ownership of assets* Big and highly valued assets/resources like agricultural land, livestock (oxen, cows, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses) and house are owned jointly by husband and wife and decisions tend to be joint. Men have more control over highly valued livestock (like oxen, cows and horses). Women have control over donkeys and the proceeds from hiring them out; donkeys are less valued by men. It is important to tease out the livestock species owned or controlled by men and women (rather than generalizing livestock), their value and mode of acquisition when assessing women's empowerment.It is crucial to understand the value (importance) of all productive assets including land.Assets under the woman's name increase her bargaining power.Do assets of low value empower women? If yes, how? It is important to understand the local meaning of \"ownership\" of assets and frame the discussions around that definition.The court plays a key role in helping women claim rights over resources especially during divorce or separation or marrying a new wife. Therefore, it is important to explore the political enabling environment in addition to cultural norms and how valued assets are shared.Resources* Access to and decisions on credit* .Both women and men have equal access to credit from financial institutions like WALQO and VisionFund. However, women have more access to and control over credit from RWEE which is given under their names.Access to credit from RWEE gives women more bargaining and invisible power. Therefore, it is important to understand who received the credit from other sources and how decisions over credit are made.Measuring women's access to credit alone is not enough. Delve into issues of control of credit, who manages the investment, size of investment and how credit is serviced. In the study sites, repayment of credit seemed to be a family's responsibility.Access to a financial account (control over savings and remittances)Book accounts in banks/micro-finance institutions are mostly opened under the names of men and the men have more control over these accounts.In case of joint savings, there are mixed perceptions about who has more control over joint savings. When women have large amounts of money, they consult with their husbands on how to use it. Access to a financial account may not be enough to measure women's empowerment. Explore control of the savings as well. Women in SACCOs have access to accounts within these institutions.Income* Control over use of income* Income from petty trade (like selling of arake and tella-local brew), hand craft, butter, cheese and eggs is entirely controlled by women, but these sources generate little income. Diversification of IGAs can be empowering if the quality and return from the activity are valuable.Sale of large crop quantities (e.g. greater than 25 kg of teff) and larger livestock is the sole responsibility of men. Decisions about income from selling large quantities of crop harvest and high-value livestock is jointly made by both men and women, although men control the expenditure.Control of income alone as a measure of women's empowerment may not be sufficient. Consider input into decisions over income from large and small sales.Diversification of income sources seems to be empowering to women and can be considered as a potential contributor to empowerment.Consider ability to decide to engage in non-farm/wage IGAs.Autonomy in use of income Women have autonomy in spending income from small sales or other petty income sources like daily wage employment. How can women utilize \"small\" amounts of income to empower themselves? Female household heads have more autonomy over income. Explore influence from other household members, e.g. mother-and father-in-law.Leadership* Group membership*Ability to speak out and be heardMembership in groups alone might not be enough to measure women's empowerment because most women who belong to groups do not speak out (particularly in mixed groups) and their concerns are not taken into consideration. However, being in a leadership position (at group or community level), able to speak out, able to attend meetings (with or without consultation of spouse) and controlling benefits from the membership are potential indicators of empowerment.Some of the women who were categorized as empowered and held leadership positions in a group (e.g. chairperson) had to seek permission from their husbands to attend group meetings. Workload is heavier for empowered women because they handle both domestic and other activities and, in most cases, their husbands do not help with domestic work and women do not have money to hire labour.According to the local definition of empowerment, an empowered woman should be able to manage her time well. But how can this be measured without causing increased workload and still be valued by community members?Physical mobilityThere is a set of mixed perceptions about mobility as an indicator of empowerment. What women wish for, however, is mobility because of empowerment and freedom of choice, which for men remains difficult to accept, for reasons related to preserving their power and their culturally assigned roles as heads of households and main decision-makers (hegemonic masculinity).Within the studied communities, mobility of women depends on the distance from home, time of the day, permission from their husband, age, marital status, wealth status, reason for mobility and religion; these need to be explored to understand the context within which mobility can be empowering.Mutual respectTrust of spouse is an important element as it aids mutual decision-making and mobility. Group membership is by consultation with a spouse because it requires money for membership. Harmony is a product of joint decisionmaking. Husbands may help wives with domestic chores when there is harmony.Self-efficacy Life satisfactionPositive image in society When the individual empowerment process occurs in a woman's or a man's life, they begin to believe that they can have more control over their lives; they understand their situation and begin to act to improve their lives and their environment, e.g. the 'I can' attitude developed by RWEE beneficiaries.Women who freely engage in discussions with their husbands, work hard to generate income, participate in community activities, accumulate assets and manage their homestead (educate children, feed children on balanced diet etc.) have relatively better life satisfaction, confidence and self-efficacy.Beneficiaries relatively have more awareness on gender-based violence as compared to non-beneficiaries. With increased sensitization, the group participants acknowledge that domestic violence is not appropriate. The court has a big role to play in curbing domestic violence and helping women claim their rights. Gender-based violence can be used to validate intrahousehold relationships. Nutrition is the domain of women although men also purchase food.Women are free to decide on household nutrition using the income from petty trading. Minimum power relations manifest here because men have low interest in this issue; men do not want to discuss food.Input into reproductive health decisions cannot be included under nutrition, as proposed.Input in decisions on child bearing and use of contraceptivesFor disempowered women, reproductive decisions seem to be mainly made by men although there seems to be some consultation. The attitude that God decides on the number of children also prevails among men and women.Frequent pregnancies constrain women from engaging effectively in agriculture and other empowering activities.Good conduct and acceptance (e.g. does not drink alcohol or chew khat)Trusted by othersTrust is key in empowering women. Most credit institutions still favour women because of trust. Trust is important for group membership as well.An empowered man is one who adheres to community norms, cultural aspects and government rules.Although self-conduct is key to the community, it is difficult to measure. However, it should be considered under institutional/structural factors.Women who are over empowered are perceived to be social deviants as they challenge most of the cultural norms.Deciding not to migrate Ability to control migration of household members (control over agricultural labour force)Ability to decide to migrate can be empowering or disempoweringThe project has great potential to curb migration of women and young girls; this is a potential measure of empowerment.Families that receive remittances tend to have improved livelihoods.5.4 Gender roles, social norms (including marriage practices) and implications for the project and women's empowerment• Culture restricts women to domestic roles and the triple role burden limits the extent to which women can fully realize their empowerment potential. This calls for interventions that save women's labour and encouraging men to support women in their productive and reproductive activities. Men need to recognize women as farmers and their contribution to agriculture, which will challenge the patriarchal dividend/men's privilege.• Women's access to assets is mainly through marriage and dependence on her husband, while men have family inheritance or birth rights. The deeply held discriminatory norms and practices place women and men, girls and boys at unequal starting points and ability to spiral up the empowerment ladder. Such norms shape men's and women's behaviour in the society and define their sphere of action, influence and control. However, as women achieve empowerment, a few positive changes have occurred in family decision-making processes, shifting towards a more equitable joint decision-making process.• Existing culture, where the bride is given assets (including livestock) to take with her to her new home, gives women greater bargaining power over those assets. Such initial capital is a stepping stone for women to invest in and quickly climb the ladder, when provided with external support, such as the UNJP credit scheme.• Disempowering marriage practices (such as abduction) were common in the study areas in the past but have drastically declined. Historically, girls did not have the chance to choose their partners, however, this is now changing. These changes present a good opportunity for the project to capitalize on helping women and girls to learn how to make choices.• The cultural marriage practice that demands the total submission of women to their husbands is changing because of the increased awareness of women as a result of various trainings provided by the government and NGOs.Women have started to work beyond the domestic sphere and yet their activities are limited to small businesses.Women can be supported to expand these businesses.• The norm that discourages women to claim individual ownership of assets masks assets that women own and their ability to exercise control over the assets. This was demonstrated in Adami Tulu, where married women claimed that they cannot say that 'this is mine' but say 'this is ours' even when the asset is acquired using women's own income, inherited or given to them by parents.• The work burden on women negatively affects the time and labour women can invest in targeted IGAs by UNJP-RWEE.5.5 Key findings from the qualitative research about the likely impact of the project on women's empowerment• We observed a sufficient level of local awareness about gender issues which provides other projects a good foundation upon which to transform constraining gender norms. Given the relative nature of the empowerment concept, enhancing women's local ideal qualities (social expectations of a strong woman) together with challenging the constraining norms and engaging men in the processes of empowering women serve to create a positive image for the project. Helping communities to appreciate the importance of women being in recognized positions in the social structure minimizes backlash against women. As the project builds on these local ideals (while constructively challenging the constraining norms), the treatment and control communities all perceive women's empowerment as a positive trait, except for a few aspects that men are not comfortable with.• Men and women indicated that the UNJP-RWEE program has been contributing to women's empowerment, as it provides them with opportunities to learn about their rights and responsibilities and provides them with starter capital. The knowledge acquired through training helps women manage their homes properly, manage their finances, be able to analyse investment options, participate in different IGAs, participate in meetings and speak in public. These opportunities enabled women to develop self-confidence.• While UNJP-RWEE provides women with farm technologies and other farm inputs, working on attitudinal change towards women is important. Women who apply agricultural technologies may not be recognized as empowered, since a 'farmer is a man (stet)' (as elaborated in section 4.1). Therefore, the project should strive to shift perceptions by helping communities to value and recognize women's contribution in agriculture through training or holding community conversations.• The qualitative study elicited the process through which women empower themselves through the credit scheme.The credit that women access in their own names gives them more bargaining power with their spouses and increases their ability to accumulate assets and improve their social status. The project approach is holistic, addressing the functional soft and hard skills which aid accumulation of other empowerment aspects.• It is difficult to attribute the project's contribution since there are other government and NGO interventions undertaking activities that empower women 5.6 Implications for quantitative methods• Empowerment has many emotional/feeling elements which should be elicited using qualitative methods. Qualitative methods provide flexibility in data collection and in further disaggregating components (domains and indicators) defined in the quantitative tool. Empowerment is also subject to various local meanings and conceptualizations that are difficult to quantify. For example, criteria like good conduct, patience, someone who thinks for the family etc. emerged as characteristics of an empowered woman by the community, yet difficult to measure and quantify. The community is also skewed towards the ideals of feminism and not necessarily empowerment. Such contextual aspects can help interpret the quantitative findings.• Quantitative methods can help to quantify the amount of income and savings that men and women decide on to be able to categorize it into large, medium and small incomes/savings. The average family savings need quantification.The frequency of food intake and varieties of food consumed by household members should be quantified. The number of women/men having accounts and/or taking credit and from where can complement qualitative findings.Quantitative data may be required on the number of migrants, amount of credit received, number of livestock and amount of crop sold by men and women. The qualitative data can be used to add meaning to the numbersexplaining the how and why.• Adding weights to empowerment indicators from the scientists' perspective is not justifiable. Prioritization of the indicators based on the perceptions of the community members, men and women, should form the basis for weighing the indicators. The strengths or importance of an indicator varies from community to community.• The pathway to women's empowerment involves negotiation between the ideals of femininity (as defined by the community) and individual desires, which may be in direct conflict with each other. Women negotiate their actions in the face of social norms either to conform or violate in order to make a choice and act upon their choices. Men benefit from patriarchal dividend/privileges which have been reproduced and maintained for generations; their masculinity is threatened when women attempt to encroach on their sphere of control. The dominant forms of masculinity restrict men's ability to recognize their role in supporting women's empowerment.• Empowerment is a matter of individual and group perceptions. It includes traits that are difficult to quantify but can be described and characterized according to local standards (e.g. knowledge, confidence, conduct, attitude or perception, intra-household relationships, freedom of mobility etc.). The socio-cultural context always informs the way societies understand project concepts like empowerment. Qualitative methods should complement quantitative methods to foster a meaningful understanding of empowerment either as a process of becoming or a state of being. Empowerment remains an elusive concept, challenging to standardize to the broader context.• The number and significance of the empowerment traits (as perceived by the resource persons) determine who will be considered empowered or disempowered. The important characteristics that define one as empowered need to be fleshed out together with community members.• While empowerment may bring about positive changes in women's lives, some of its effects may be negative. Measures need to be put in place to avoid unintended consequences.• Qualitative research requires appropriate selection of respondents, qualified and trained researchers, commitment and appropriate consent. Continuous data analysis exposes gaps that can be addressed while in the field.• • Conducting the study in treatment and control villages elicits findings which aid comparison across communities. Future studies can interrogate both project beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries within the same communities, in addition to the control site. This will help us understand the impact of the project beyond the target beneficiaries (scalability).• The enabling environment, e.g. the court of law, is very important in helping women claim their rights over assets/ resources. Therefore, in the effort to understand women's empowerment, understanding the structures and institutions within which women and men pursue their livelihoods provides a proper understanding of the enabling/ disabling environment.1.It is important to increase the amount of cash transfers from the project to improve results (in Adami Tulu woreda). The amount of loans that women are granted in Adami Tulu woreda is smaller than what they request for in their business plans. According to them, the loan size is only sufficient to do business as usual, but not to carry out activities in a more advanced manner (i.e. to increase investment and carry out the activity in a different/more efficacious way).According to the research team, the project should hire more female field assistants, who mediate between the beneficiaries and the woreda focal persons and between the donors and the beneficiaries, especially in Adami Tulu woreda. All the focal persons at the woreda sector offices are men and there are no field assistants that liaise between beneficiaries and the woreda. This will improve the quality of monitoring and the ability to take corrective measures.To secure men's support for the project, it is crucial for the project to work on enhancing women's ability to decide together with their husbands rather than focusing on promoting women's individual choices. Emphasis on joint decision-making aligns with the locally accepted behavioural norms and fosters progressive and culturally acceptable social transformations, although some of the women were happy to be able to decide alone.Strengthening the contextual understanding of the existing gender relations by carrying out gender analysis will aid identification of the root causes of gender inequalities in the two woredas, so that training is tailored towards addressing the identified issues. Such knowledge should be used to shift institutional structures that shape women's choice and voice and ultimately their lives and future. Additionally, gender analysis should be used to understand how gender inequalities and power inequalities intersect with other demographic characteristics such as age, wealth, marital status etc.To reduce women's increased workload, labour saving technologies that ease domestic and farm work for women should be introduced and promoted by the project. Child care services will enable women to attend meetings and pursue other livelihood activities outside the home.To ensure successful investments by project beneficiaries, money transfers should align with the local agricultural calendar, that is, before the sowing/planting season. Equally important, loan payment deadlines should be set after the harvest period, when previously invested funds have yielded returns. This will increase women's ability to repay the loans. The seasonal calendar can help project implementers to determine the appropriate time to set dates for different events.","tokenCount":"10848"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2c811f95952df8ec9ef69ef5e1c62fa2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5a63fd69-3e37-473c-a4fa-7e087ca8dd51/retrieve","id":"672041073"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5d819957-6378-4b61-a9d5-8297cbeec5a0","pagecount":"27","content":"Research on gender issues in climate adaptation and resilience on the one hand and investigations on gendered outcomes of social protection programs on the other hand have remained largely separate. This narrative review explores the gap between both bodies of gender research with a specific focus on the Sahel region. The Gender-Responsive Age-Sensitive Social Protection (GRASSP) framework is used to assess the (still limited) evidence on connections between gender, social protection, and climate change in six gender equality outcome areaseconomic security and empowerment, women's voice and agency, protection, health, education, and psychosocial well-being. Emerging linkages between both research strands include interactions between climate adaptation strategies and features of social protection programs. Also, the importance of addressing inequitable gender norms in social protection design as well as for climate resilience became evident in several GRASSP areas. Overall, engagement between both research communities needs to be strengthened, for instance through the research questions provided.Social protection has been widely acknowledged as an important tool for addressing poverty, inequality, and vulnerabilities among the poor (ILO, 2017;2021;Alatinga et al., 2020;Viberti, 2021;Carter et al., 2019). For instance, Fisher et al. (2017), in a study of the impact of cash transfers on the livelihoods of the poor in six African countries, found that a small but regular provision of cash improves strategic livelihood choices and stimulates productivity. Social protection is policies and programs designed to reduce and prevent poverty, vulnerability, and social exclusion for all, throughout the lifecycle, with particular emphasis on vulnerable groups (Bachelet & ILO, 2012). It uses different intervention instruments such as social assistance programs (e.g., cash transfers), contributory social insurance, microinsurance schemes, social health protection, and labor market interventions to help vulnerable groups such as children and families, pregnant women, the unemployed, the sick, the aged, and people with disabilities. Its aim is to support individuals, households, and communities in managing risks by providing financial assistance (Atkins et al., 2022;Aleksandrova & Costella, 2021). To underscore its significance, social protection was designated as a human right in 1948 (UN, 1948) and is a key goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (1.3), the African Union, and the International Labour Organization.Risks, whether natural or human-made, affect individuals, communities, and regions mostly in an unpredictable manner that deepens poverty. In recent years, there has been growing recognition among policymakers that building resilience among vulnerable groups to the adverse effects of climate change in developing countries will necessitate strong and effective social protection policies and mechanisms (Aleksandrova, 2019). Concomitantly, there has been a rising call for social protection programs to promote gender-responsive and gendertransformative approaches that differentiate the needs of women and girls, alongside those of men and boys, to tackle the root causes of gender inequality, including discriminatory gender norms and practices (Gavrilovic et al., 2022;Cookson et al., 2023;Cole et al., 2023). Evidence in the literature points out that most social protection interventions are implemented as gender-blind or treat gender as an afterthought.For instance, the scoping review by Cookson et al. (2023) reveals that the vast majority (about 90%) of the literature on social protection programs only passingly refers to gender without any measured or deliberate attempt at integration. Integrating gender and climate change considerations into social protection programs necessitates a transformation in program design, implementation, and evaluation. It requires efforts across scales, layers of actors, and a political process that considers context. This review aims to contribute toward an understanding of the potential of social protection programs to produce gender equality outcomes in the face of climate shocks and stress in the context of the Sahel region.Over the past two decades, two bodies of literature have emerged: (1) exploring gender issues in social protection and (2) on interactions between gender and climate change. Both bodies emphasize the need to reduce vulnerabilities among marginalized groups, especially women and girls, either through the introduction of social protection design features or by enhancing their resilience to climate change challenges. While these bodies of literature have overlapping concerns, more cross-fertilization is demanded, especially where social protection programs consider climate adaptation (Béné et al., 2018;Tenzing, 2020).A more holistic perspective of the underlying causes of vulnerabilities can lead to transformative change (Tenzing, 2020).Based on the foregoing, this paper addresses the following two questions:1. What insights can be gained from and what are the potential linkages between two loosely connected bodies of gender research, namely evaluations of social protection programs (mainly cash transfers implemented to alleviate poverty and food crisis) on the one hand, and studies of climate adaptation and resilience on the other hand?2. Focusing on the Sahel region, how do climate adaptation strategies and social protection measures interact at the household and community levels? And given the only emerging connections between both literature bodies, what questions could be asked for the Sahel context to better understand interactions between adaptation and protection through future research?The next section of the review outlines the methodology, including the conceptual framework. In Section 3, we address research question 1, while Section 4 deals with the second research question. We end the paper with a conclusion and proposal on a way forward with future research and development efforts on social protection, gender, and climate resilience.This paper is based on a semi-systematic or narrative review approach (Synder, 2019). It seeks to detect themes and gaps in two separate bodies of literature (gender and social protection; gender and climate change), synthesizes existing literature, and develops questions for further research. For the second research question, a focus on the Sahel region is established. This is in preparation of a qualitative study to be conducted in Mali with the aim of generating evidence and knowledge on how social protection programs can influence women's capacities to build climate resilience and reduce gender inequality. The Sahel, a semi-arid region in the southern part of the Sahara Desert, is one of the world's climate hotspots and poorest regions and is particularly vulnerable to natural and environmental variabilities (Sartori & Fattibene, 2019). In the region, women belong to the most vulnerable groups because of their heavy reliance on agriculture as a source of livelihood. They contribute 40% of agricultural production, 80% of agricultural processing, and 70% of agricultural distribution labor (Allen et al., 2018).Based on the research questions, we conducted two types of searches: (1) an open search for grey literature and (2) a separate search of Scopus and Google Scholar for peer-reviewed journal articles. In Scopus, we limited our search to the social sciences, environmental sciences, agricultural and biological sciences, and the multidisciplinary category. The following combinations of key search terms were used for the sub-Saharan region: social protection+gender combined with a variety of terms related to climate change (climat*, risk, shock, degradation, disaster, resilien*, drought); social protection+gender combined with a variety of specific social protection types (cash transfer safety net, in-kind transfer, public work, social insurance).We also employed the following search terms: social protection+gender in combination with each of the Sahel G5 countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger.); and climate change+gender together with each of the Sahel G5 countries. All searches were repeated replacing gender with women.The Scopus and Google Scholar search produced 231 peer-reviewed articles that we scanned for the following eligibility criteria: regional focus on one or several of the G5 Sahel countries, reference to agricultural contexts (at the most basic a rural-urban continuum and link to agriculture as part of the livelihoods portfolio), and a reasonable focus on gender or equity analysis. We were left with 24 articles, out of which 17 dealt with gender and climate adaptation and resilience and 7 with the gendered outcomes of social protection programs. We kept several other articles for additional information, such as those on migration or other adaptation strategies, though the authors did not frame their results in terms of climate change or social protection. Also, we added peer-reviewed articles that allowed us to understand particular conditions in the focus region as related to the areas of the Gender-Responsive Age-Sensitive Social Protection (GRASSP) conceptual framework (Section 2.2). The limited body of peer-reviewed articles that was generated through the search for the Sahel region is an interesting finding and confirms Tenzing's (2020) claim of a limited evidence base. In Section 3, we present insights from both the grey and peer-reviewed literature (but indicate which type of search they stem from).We slightly adapted the GRASSP conceptual framework (UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti, 2020) to fit the focus of our investigation (Figure 1). The original framework conceptualizes structural drivers of the vulnerabilities of women and girls, such as discriminatory gender norms, gender-blind laws, or aspects related to social identity or age. Through gender inequality pathways, these drivers generate negative effects on six domains: economic security, health, education, psychosocial well-being, protection and safety, and voice and agency. As a result, women's and girls' strength and resilience diminishes. Social protection programs (or systems) that adhere to genderresponsive design and implementation may contribute toward three outcomes: (1) equal access to benefits, (2) adequate response to gender-specific needs, and (3) enhancing empowerment of women and girls. These outcomes would improve the six domains, leading to greater gender equality. Context-specific moderators may promote or stall progress toward the achievement of long-term impacts as formulated in SDG 1 and SDG 5 (UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti, 2020).For the investigation of social protection in combination with climate resilience, we decided to broaden the drivers of inequality in the GRASSP framework to include climate change. Also, adaptation strategies can be assumed to act as moderators of gender equality outcomes-an aspect not mentioned in the original framework. These amendments are based on research showing that gender inequalities take shape in differential vulnerabilities to impacts of climate change (Andrijevic et al., 2020). At the same time, however, environmental changes may also challenge social structures and result in more or less emancipatory adaptation (Djoudi et al., 2016).We employed the qualitative data analysis software Atlas.ti Web and Desktop (Version 23.3) for a qualitative content analysis of the literature base. To facilitate the coding process, the initial coding frame relied on the six domains (or areas) of the GRASSP conceptualization.The frame was then adapted to the details and complexities that emerged from the data. For instance, sub-codes were established to demarcate adaptation strategies in the economic domain or to distinguish between voice and agency at the household and community levels. For program design-the middle part of the GRASSP framework-we set up separate codes. Long-term impacts The framework has four dimensions: intersecting categories (such as social categories included in vulnerability analysis), multilevel analysis (with the inclusion of dynamics across various levels of society), power (framing of power as well as power production, reproduction, and active resistance), and emancipation patterns, agency, and resistance. The study reveals that gender was addressed more frequently in issues relating to climate adaptation and less frequently in studies on mitigation. In addition, most of the studies are based on differences in men's and women's perceptions of climate issues, with only a few studies focusing on the implications of climate vulnerability on individuals or households. Djoudi et al. (2016) found few studies that involved a thorough analysis of gender and power relations in climate change issues. The authors argue that a critical intersectional assessment could promote agency and emancipatory pathways in the adaptation process.To investigate how climate mitigation and adaptation responses shape progress toward the SDGs, Devonald et al. ( 2022) apply the capability approach to climate action on qualitative data from the Gender and Adolescence -Global Evidence longitudinal study from three diverse regions of Ethiopia. The findings confirm that while climate actions are increasingly becoming gender-responsive, less attention is paid to the age-specific vulnerabilities of adolescents-girls in particular. The findings indicate that climate change impacts threaten adolescent capabilities especially girls, and subsequently reduces access to opportunities in a just society. This situation is compounded by gender norms that result in adolescent girls being left behind by climate policies. In summary, this section shows that a series of studies have examined the link between gender and climate change at different levels. Dominant among these studies are those that analyze gender from a traditional binary, non-intersectional perspective.In a discussion of policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, Gavrilovic et al. (2022) state that government social protection measures do not sufficiently include gender considerations. Looking ahead, they not only recommend more investments into genderresponsive social protection but also into evidence on how such measures can reduce poverty and enhance gender equality. This call comes after more than a decade of evaluation of social protection programs (2022) find indications of higher impacts of social protection programs on women and girls compared with men and boys (possibly due to the lower baseline scores of women and girls). Also, they see a tendency among women to share and invest in social protection benefits, though families do not often support women's engagement in such programs. Adverse or unintended consequences are linked to design and implementationfeatures, but more research on this is needed. Finally, programs that have explicit targets (such as gender norms) achieve higher effects compared with those with broad objectives.Using the GRASSP framework, Perera et al. (2022) also review six gender equality outcome areas: (1) economic security and empowerment, (2) improved health, (3) enhanced education, (4) improved psychosocial wellbeing, (5) increased protection, and (6) enhanced voice and agency. For all six areas, they describe mainly positive outcomes, except for psychosocial well-being and voice and agency, where the evidence is limited.Comparing these higher-level results to qualitative studies can bring more nuances to the picture. In an earlier study, Fisher et al. (2017) asked men and women participating in cash transfer programs in six sub-Saharan African countries how they evaluate the livelihood outcomes. Respondents attested to a variety of positive outcomes at the household and community levels, such as improved diets, greater investments in own-farm production, or more engagement with social and economic networks. However, these improvements were seen as marginal and easily reversible. For gender relations, Fisher et al. (2017, 18) found a \"lack of cash transfer impact upon existing patriarchal norms regarding women's labor, their role in economic decision-making at household level, and their ability to invest in productive assets.\" In an earlier evaluation, Holmes et al. (2011) similarly describe that income transfers to women do not improve their voice and agency at both the household and community levels. To address this problem, Asaki and Hayes (2011) propose that social protection efforts of government and development agencies should include women's grassroots organizations as equal stakeholders in setting and pursuing the agenda. In this manner, women could be recast from \"beneficiaries\" to active agents of change.Apart from the GRASSP framework, Sabates-Wheeler and Devereux's ( 2008) definition of social protection mechanisms have influenced genderfocused social protection conceptualizations and evaluations. The authors define four categories of social protection instruments: (1) protective (relief from deprivation), ( 2) preventive (prevent deprivation), (3) promotive (enhance incomes and capabilities), and (4) transformative measures (address concerns of social justice and exclusion). The last category needs to include measures to make gender relations more balanced, the authors write. Their analysis reveals how the program perpetuated the notion of women as \"natural caregivers\" and how women (to a limited extent) managed to resist and negotiate the assigned role. Moving away from the separate evidence bases for climate adaptation and gender and also social protection and gender, as well as the thematic trends and gaps that both pairs contain, we now direct our attention to whether and how these two bodies of literature and their debates are interlinked.Looking at the articles extracted through our search methodology, links between the two thematic bodies of literature appear to be at an emerging state. Tenzing (2020)   (Aleksandrova, 2019). More evidence is also needed on how different framings of transformation play out during implementation and how the perspectives, voices, and interests of participants are considered (or neglected) (Tenzing, 2020). In this section, we explore the second question raised in this review paper with a specific focus on the Sahel region: How do climate adaptation strategies and social protection measures interact at the household and community levels? Given the only emerging connections between both literature bodies, what questions could be asked to better understand interactions between adaptation and protection through future research? To achieve this, we conducted a review of grey and peer-reviewed literature on gender, social protection, and climate adaptation and resilience in the Sahel region. We examine the pathways through which social protection programs and climate adaptation and resilience measures in the Sahel region are fostering (or could foster) gender equality outcomes using the gender equality domains in the GRASSP framework: economic security and empowerment, health, education, psychosocial well-being, protection and safety, and voice and agency.The economic security and empowerment outcome of the GRASSP framework examines the potential of social protection programs to promote gender equality in relation to women's and girls' work, including care and domestic work burdens, financial authority, income security and resilience, and access to credits and markets.In the Sahel region, men and women adopt different adaptation strategies to build economic resilience and stability in the face of an increasing climate crisis. These include participation in collective action, engagement in trade and craft, participation in development projects, education, migration, and the adoption of new agricultural technologies.For women, collective action through women-led collaborative efforts can be a powerful tool for mitigating the effects of climate change (Koenig, 2021;Dickin et al., 2021;Wood et al., 2021). Through collective action, women can mobilize funds, offer loans to members, and also mobilize to help each other in domestic and childcare work. Collective action also strengthens women's collective voice and decisionmaking power to make an impact and challenge biased norms and inequalities in their communities (Koenig, 2021;Diendéré & Ouédraogo, 2023). According to Diendéré and Ouédraogo (2023), membership in a women's farming group increases the likelihood that a woman will use improved seeds or adopt soil and water conservation practices.In a study examining the coping and adaptation strategies in the northern part of Lake Faguibine, Mali, Brockhaus et al. (2013) found that an important adaptation strategy is the diversification into other income-generating activities such as craftmanship and trade. However, gender differences exist in craftsmanship: young men work as craftsmen, mainly in housing construction, while both (men and women) engage in the production and selling of handicrafts.Similarly, men and women in the area practice trade, especially petty trading of convenience goods as well as animal trade. Lack of transportation restricts large-scale trade for both men and women (Brockhaus et al., 2013).The opportunities to work in the increasing number of development projects in many communities in the Sahel region provide an important economic adaptation strategy in response to climate change challenges. They provide extra earnings that households and individuals can use to enhance their livelihoods (de Sardan & Hamani, 2018; Nielsen & Reenberg, 2010). In a study undertaken in villages in Burkina Faso, Nielsen and Reenberg (2010) found that income earning opportunities for women combined with the gender equality discourse dominant among the projects contributed to a shift in gender power relations. It manifested itself in changed processes of decisionmaking within households and the increased agency of income-earning women.Long-term investments into children's education constitute another adaptation strategy preferred especially by women (Brockhaus, 2013). It is situated in the belief that children's improved opportunities for future wage work could in the long run reduce households' dependence on natural resources. This strategy is elaborated on in more depth in Section 4.5.Labor migration has been a major adaptation strategy for both young and adult men (Brockhaus et al., 2013) but is also common among young girls (Hertrich & Lesclingand, 2013). Although men's migration is often encouraged and supported by norms that underlie men's supposed breadwinner status in the household, women's and girls' migration is viewed as potentially threatening their respectability. In spite of this, women migrate into gold mining or urban centers in Mali (Hertrich & Lesclingand, 2013;Brottem & Ba, 2019). Among gold-mining migrants, 47% of the men planned to invest in agriculture and livestock compared with only 11% of women. This reflects women's constraints in access to and control of productive resources and their wish to leave agriculture (Brottem & Ba, 2019).Technology adoption is another important adaptation strategy practiced among men and women farmers. In Diarra et al.'s ( 2021) study in the Cinzana community in the Segou region of Mali, the choice of adaptation strategies differed significantly between men and women despite similar perceptions of climate change. Women farmers were found to be low adopters of adaptation strategies, as well as soil conservation practices, needed to tackle climate change challenges. Their lack of important resources, such as access to extension training, adequate land size, and financial resources, was mentioned as an explanation for low adoption.How these adaptation strategies interact with social protection programs in the Sahel remains, for the most part, unclear. On migration, Hidrobo et al. (2022) find that the effect of cash transfers on migration differs by gender. The authors observe a higher likelihood of rural-rural migration of men upon the receipt of the cash transfer and a reduction in women's migration after the receipt of the cash transfer. This is because men mainly migrate for employment reasons, while women engage in rural-rural migration for marriage and ruralurban migration for employment. When intersected with household economic status and type of work, it was found that in poorer households, rural-rural migration of women increases, while for men a cash transfer has a more significant impact on rural-rural migration among casual workers than agricultural workers. Men's migration is supported by existing social and gender norms that recognize this move as pivotal for household livelihoods and asset accumulation. These norms frown upon women's migration, except in situations of separation and divorce, and particularly condemn premarital migration for young women. Elders believe that adolescent migration among young girls opens the door to premarital sex and premarital pregnancies, both of which are strongly condemned (Hidrobo et al., 2022).Regarding assets and resources, findings from Hidrobo et al. ( 2022) and Heath et al. (2020) show that cash transfer leads to significant improvements in household assets in both polygamous and monogamous households. Whether these improvements could create a link between cash transfer and technology adoption for climate resilience remains open. On a continental Africa scale, Correa et al. (2023) state that access to social protection programs can enable rural households to invest in productivity-and resilienceenhancing technologies that previously were beyond their economic means. Turning to time for agricultural labor, women respondents of Scott et al.'s (2017) study in Niger held contradictory views on the impact of cash transfers on their activities. Some expressed that it caused shifts in income-generating activities and household organization, resulting in more time to work on their own fields. Prior to the cash transfers, they had worked less in their own fields and more in other people's fields to earn money. Other women reported that the cash transfers did not influence any of their activities. Further investigations on how social protection programs could affect women's time poverty for agricultural labor and their resilience to climate change could yield interesting insights.On a more general level, the influence of social protection programs on the pathway to women's economic security and empowerment is strongly related to household decision-making. Heath et al. (2020) found that the Jigisémèjiri social protection program did not have any significant economic effect on women. In most beneficiary households, male heads maintained authority over the use of cash, with little input into decision-making by women. This situation was observed across different household types (monogamous and polygamous) and is further discussed in the following section.This section examines the GRASSP gender equality outcome \"women's voice and agency\" as women's capacities for decision-making, autonomy, and selfefficacy, as well as political and community participation.During climate crises, women's vulnerabilities worsen.Their general adaptive capacity is affected by their lack of voice and agency at the household and community levels. Dickin et al. (2021) state that the differences in household and community decision-making and control over assets play important roles in adaptation planning for men and women. For instance, men's higher agency gives them better access to opportunities and resources to secure water for livestock when needed. In contrast, women struggle to obtain enough water for domestic as well as productive tasks during the dry season. Different social factors, including age and gender, influence the pathways of people to resilience. In a study in Mali, Wood et al. (2021), for instance, argue that young women do most of the daily household chores but remain particularly vulnerable to climatelinked threats because of their exclusion from decisionmaking. Elderly women, who oversee young women's labor and have more agency, inhabit a different climatelinked reality.The analysis hints at two potentially contradictory effects of social protection programs, especially cash transfer. At the community level, they can have a positive influence on women's collective and group agency (Scott et al., 2017). At the household level, there may be no effect (Heath et al., 2020;Lees et al., 2021). Regarding collective and group agency, there is evidence to support the positive influence of cash transfers on social relations and organization as well as community engagement (Scott et al., 2017). Participants report cases of sharing and gifting with family and other members of the community who did not receive distributions to facilitate mutual relationships. These activities reinforce traditional social and cultural norms of cooperation, sharing, and solidarity (de Sardan & Harmani, 2018). At the household level, evidence shows that if male heads of households are targeted as the recipients of the cash transfer, social protection programs will have little contribution on women's agency to challenge gender norms (Lees et al., 2021). Payments to women in households headed by men may not lead to different results, as a book chapter by de Sardan and Harmani (2018) shows.In an investigation of 10 cash transfer operations carried out by 14 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Niger, de Sardan and Harmani (2018) depict how targeting processes are negotiated at both community and household levels. Targeting is the most complex and problem-fraught stage, and so attracts a lot of suspicion, especially when it comes to the social targeting of households in chosen communities, the authors write. While NGOs may expect general village assemblies to be democratic and fair institutions in support of targeting, local hierarchies or concerns over community divisions influence the process. Men household heads and male authorities who play a decisive role in the selection favor their own networks.Complaint committees that community members can turn to consist of men only, making it difficult for women to approach them. For the cash transfer operations investigated, the final lists of \"beneficiary\" households contained women's names. In polygamous households, men designated which wife would appear on the list. Women are targeted because \"in the eyes of the cash transfer professionals, they offer a better guarantee that the sums received will be used for the benefit of the entire family, particularly the children\" (de Sardan & Hamani 2018, 308). The authors criticize this as a maternalistic ideology underlying cash transfer design. While community members do not openly oppose the rule that women should be selected, they quietly transform it after cash distribution: in most cases, women hand over the money to their husbands, reestablishing the norm that men should manage income and provide food (de Sardan & Hamadi, 2018).Other studies in Niger confirm these findings. Scott et al. (2017) call it one of their most important research findings-that men managed the funds their wives had received. In their endline survey, Fenn et al.(2014) found that women's decision-making on the cash transfer money had significantly declined, since men had returned earlier from migration to control the spending. In contrast, evaluators of cash transfer programs that distribute money to men (such as the Mali Jigisémèjiri program) wonder if targeting women would have led to different results. Payments to men may have increased their power position and control of their wives, Lees et al. (2021) assume. Although the reinforcement of inequitable gender norms in combination with additional resources led to a reduction in intimate partner violence (IPV), especially in polygamous households, there were no empowerment improvements for women (Heath et al., 2020). Should women be targeted for empowerment objectives, a potential for violent backlash must be considered (de Sardan & Hamadi, 2018;Lees et al., 2021). As a consequence, gender-transformative components, such as those mentioned in Bossuroy et al. (2022), must accompany cash transfer programs to achieve positive outcomes in the GRASSP area of voice and agency. Additional components could include aspects of climate-resilient farming, such as in the gendertransformative Dimitra Clubs studied by Adisa (2020).Considered as a whole, complex linkages exist between social protection programs and their design and women's voice and agency. However, investigations that extend these linkages to women's and girls' climate resilience were not found. This constitutes an important gap for further research.The GRASSP framework also emphasizes the need for social protection programs to protect women's rights and dignity in terms of their freedom from violence, condemnation of child marriage, eradication of female genital mutilation, and greater mobility.As the climate crisis worsens, Masson et al. (2019) emphasize that everyday violence affects the resilience capacities of people affected. This may result in famine, abandonment, and sexual exploitation. For girls and women, involvement in exploitative sexual relations (including forced marriages and child marriages) may constitute an economic survival strategy. The authors also highlight a link between participation in household decision-making and violence and conclude that domestic violence discourages women from engaging in negotiations with their husbands on important topics. In a study by Dickin et al. (2021), women participants suffering from climate-related water shortages reported domestic violence because of intrahousehold water use. In some cases, conflicts emerged when male household members did not have water for showers or intentionally wasted water. Inequalities in access to resources and biased gender norms worsen violence against women and affect their adaptive and coping capacities to climate change challenges.Social protection studies in Mali reveal that sexual violence and controlling behaviors against women are linked to concepts of masculinity. Masculinity is tied to men's status as household heads and to their right to assert power, especially in financial and sexual matters. The investigated cash transfer program reduced IPV, physical violence, and emotional violence as well as controlling behaviors, especially in polygamous households (Heath et al., 2020). The additional cash increased men's sense of personal well-being, selfesteem, and status in the community (Lees et al., 2021;Heath et al., 2020). However, inequitable norms underlying violence were not addressed. To better understand interactions between cash transfer and IPV in social protection programs, Peterman and Roy (2021) suggest five priority research foci. These include design and operational features, complementary programming, pathways to impact, and contextual factors. For adaptive social protection, links with climate resilience would have to be embedded into their research agenda.Male-dominated decision-making impacts women and children's health and climate resilience on a broad scale. In a study by Masson et al. (2019), participants of a discussion group in Chad describe men as restricting their wives and children's hospital visits. Husbands fear that the sick or unhappy condition of their family members could shed an unfavorable light on them as incapable providers. Masson et al. (2019, 252) conclude the following: \"The influence of these social norms on men's attitudes undermines women and girls' health and well-being, their human capital and therefore their absorptive capacities to deal with crises.\" At the same time, husbands and relatives often discourage women's efforts to take up income-earning opportunities based on norms that do not foresee such gender roles. Women's lack of resources increases the risk of violence, particularly sexual exploitation, again weaking their health and resilience (Masson et al., 2019). Taking a closer look at decision-making, Dwyer et al. ( 2022) describe three pathways for healthcare decisions in the households they studied in Niger: sole decision-making by men, male decision-making based on suggestions offered by the wife, and joint decision-making of husband and wife. Participants highlighted women's active role in identifying health issues and in seeking conversations. However, men's authority remained central, especially where resources under their control were necessary to solve health problems.Gender norms may also govern household consumption hierarchies. In Burkina Faso, Turner et al. ( 2021) investigated household eating groups (those who eat from a common bowl at mealtime) and found differences in consumption by gender, age, and the seniority of key group members. As a tendency, eating groups composed of women and children consumed less than groups composed of men. In the communities Djoudi and Brockhaus (2011) studied in Northern Mali, they found a distribution of household meals in which men ate first followed by children and the elderly. Women, who were the last to obtain food, suffered most from hunger and poor nutrition, especially during drought, while at the same time managing high workloads. To alleviate women's situation, the authors recommend improved nutrition and labor-saving technologies. However, certain laborsaving technologies may come with additional health risks. For instance, in Koenig's (2021)   Scott et al. (2017) found that the nutrition information sessions delivered with a UCT program were effective because they at least partially led to improved food security and diet quality outcomes. Participants indicated that food purchases and healthcare were the two most important purposes the funds were applied to. Similarly, a qualitative study of the Jigisémèjiri cash transfer program in Mali (which was accompanied by training activities on nutrition, health, and education) states that cash was used to cover health expenses and thus alleviated household tensions (Lees et al., 2021). In contrast, a grey evaluation report of the Food and Agriculture Organization's Cash+ program in Mali sees no significant changes in the purchase of most food items in program households and even negative impacts in terms of diversifying women's food consumption. The authors relate the result to potentially insufficient nutrition education (Dao et al., 2021) leaving open whether gender norms and related intrahousehold power relations could have shaped food purchases and consumption hierarchies. Scott et al. (2017) and Lees et al. (2021) observe that although cash transfer funds addressed health needs to a certain extent, women had little control over the additional resources. Husbands as household heads generally managed the expenditures. Restrictive norms may not only be seen as potentially undermining women's and girls' health and climate resilience but also as weaking social protection efforts to improve their situation. This constitutes an important link between the GRASSP areas of health and voice and agency.Turning to education, the Mali Jigisémèjiri cash transfer program offered training on education with a focus on girls' schooling. The endline report of the program reveals that participants spent the largest part of the last cash transfer on food consumption, health, and livestock (approximately 80%), education being only one among all other expenses that jointly made up the remaining 20% (Hidrobo et al. 2022). Low educational expenses could be due to gender-differential priorities of household adults and the need to juggle a variety of immediate needs, a climate resilience study in Northern Mali shows (Djoudi and Brockhaus, 2011;Brockhaus et al., 2013). In participatory workshops in two communities, men tended to prefer investments in livestock, migration and irrigated agriculture as strategies to deal with repetitive droughts (strategies of adult and young men slightly differing). In contrast, women envisioned better education for their sons and daughters as an avenue toward wage work and reduced dependency on natural resources. They ranked children's school education as their top strategy. At the same time, conflicts were described between plans for long-term investments in education and short-term needs such as access to food. Men's decisions for migration resulted in children's periodic or complete drop out from school because lost person power had to be replaced in the household (Djoudi and Brockhaus, 2011;Brockhaus et al., 2013). Additionally, gendered domestic duties demand long hours in search for firewood or water, especially from girls, which affects their time spent in school (Antwi, 2022;Dickin et al., 2021). Whether differential priorities for adaptation strategies (inclusive of education) may cause marital disputes on the use of cash transfers is (to our knowledge) a question not yet clearly dealt with in research. In their investigation of the Mali Jigisémèjiri cash transfer program, Heath et al. (2020) see child education as one of eleven areas for disputes between spouses. The companion study by Lees et al. (2021) states that the cash reduced stress on the part of men, who employed the increased resources to take care of their children's needs, among them payments for schooling.Results from a non-social protection study on adolescent migration lend further nuances to the question of gendered preferences for education. In Southeast Mali, as Hertrich and Lesclingand (2013) write, opportunities for formal education for a long time remained low. As a consequence, adolescent girls embarked on labor migration as an alternative means to acquire knowledge and skills. Expectations in terms of learning were framed around language acquisition and exposure to urban environments. Although mothers did not openly speak up against the public discourse that rejects girls' migration, they financially and psychologically supported their daughters' plans (often without letting their husbands know). The authors state that girls who had migrated to cities got married at an older age than their counterparts in the villages.Early marriage and childbearing often expose girls to violence and not only have a detrimental effect on their capacity to further their education but also undermine their resilience to climate risks, as Masson et al. (2019) show for Chad. At this point, interactions between the two GRASSP areas of education and protection (from violence and early marriage) become visible.How the Mali Jigisémèjiri cash transfer program influenced the migration patterns of participating women and men was examined by Hidrobo et al. (2022). They found that men were more likely to engage in rural-rural migration upon cash receipt, whereas women's rural-urban migration decreased. The exact mechanisms behind these patterns remain unclear as well as the question whether changes affected education. Where women or girls do not permanently migrate and continue to rely on agriculture, education is still an asset. In Diendéré and Ouédraogo's (2023) study of farming and climate change in Burkina Faso, educated women were more likely to adopt agricultural practices that facilitate climate change adaptation than less educated women. This was explained by educated women's better communication with agricultural extension services.The GRASSP area of psychosocial well-being deals with mental health, life satisfaction, self-esteem, aspirations and expectations, and stress and resilience.Although cutting across other domains, some specific results emerged for this area from the climate change and social protection literature. Well-being was observed where research participants were able to maintain a certain lifestyle or identity in spite of larger transformations. Koenig (2021, 232) writes: \"People appreciated how labor-saving technologies allowed them to keep things they valued. These included their large extended households and their identity as agriculturalists, even as they faced land shortages and climate change.\" Investigating communities that formerly depended on a larger lake in Northern Mali that dried out since the mid-1970s and partly turned into a forest, Brockhaus et al. (2013) and Djoudi et al. (2013) notice trauma and psychological barriers to accept the ecosystem transformation. Barriers are most prevalent among older men. They at times prevent the development of new adaptation strategies. Other sources reveal how migration as an adaptation strategy may lead to ambivalent outcomes in terms of status and well-being. Adolescent migration increases boys' and girls' social status when they return to their rural home areas (Hertrich & Lesclingand, 2013). In contrast, adult men's labor migration from Vinke et al.'s (2022) study village in Burkina Faso was in most cases less successful in achieving the self-set goal of earning additional income to make up for poor harvests. Unsuccessful men reported exhaustion, shame, and resignation, while wives expressed disappointment and frustration at carrying agricultural and domestic burdens for longer periods alone without financial gain. Notions of masculinity and household provisioning are closely tied to men's well-being, as shown in evaluations of the Mali Jigisémèjiri cash transfer program. Cash transfers were given to men and improved their wellbeing and perception of being capable to fulfill their role as head. Improvements were larger in polygamous households, where there were on average more marital disputes, higher levels of violence against women and children, and lower relationship quality and trust than in monogamous households. Women's well-being equally increased through fewer disputes and reduced IPV. However, as the researchers remark, the payment setup also reinforced inequitable norms and circumnavigated avenues toward women's empowerment. In addition, well-being results may not have been sustainableafter the program ended (Heath et al., 2020;Lees et al., 2021).A randomized evaluation of how psychosocial components can be integrated into cash transfer programs and how effective they are is offered by Bossuroy et al. (2022)  Using a narrative review of literature, this review paper provides insights into two research questions. First, what are the existing linkages and interactions of the three important concepts of gender, climate adaptation and resilience, and social protection? Second, how do social protection programs (especially cash transfer) promote gender equality outcomes at the household and community levels in the context of the Sahel? The paper also put forward questions that can guide future research in the Sahel context so as to provide a better understanding of the interactions of the three concepts.Our review shows evidence of studies that address gender issues in climate mitigation and adaptation context and the impacts on vulnerable groups.Regarding social protection, we find that most of the literature focuses on gender equality outcomes and design and implementation features of social protection programs. While the linkage between climate adaptation and social protection is still in an emerging state, there is a growing trend of literature that focuses on the framing of transformative elements.Our study also reveals research gaps bordering issues such as the dearth of reliable sex-disaggregated data, poor empirical evidence on interventions that address gender-based violence in the context of climate-induced disasters, non-application of gender transformative measures, and the prevalence of studies that failed to address the root causes of vulnerability.With regards to the second research question, we find that gender and social norms, intersecting with other social and economic factors, influence the adaptive capacities of men and women in the actualization of gender equality outcomes. These limit the capacity of social protection programs to contribute to gender equality outcomes. Hence, cash transfers may worsen the existing inequalities if the entrenched gender inequalities are not addressed. Inequitable norms will worsen women's and girls' vulnerability to shocks and their resilience capacities in responding to climate shocks and stresses.A way forward is that studies aiming to tackle gender inequalities and climate change challenges through social protection programs in climate hotspots like the Sahel should address the underlying causes of inequalities and constraints using a gendertransformative approach. The interplay and interconnections of gender, climate change challenges, and social protection are important in addressing gender inequalities in the face of increasing climate shocks and stresses in the Sahel region. Genderblind strategies and approaches in social protection and climate change-focused programs will have a disproportionately negative effect on women and limit their capacities for climate resilience. With the significant potential of social protection programs, national governments and nongovernmental and donor agencies need to direct intentional efforts at integrating transformative approaches to address the underlying causes of gender inequalities.","tokenCount":"7204"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"40478764cac12eeeb0ae7686d9098d46","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fc6fae4d-fae3-4c9d-bb11-291dea7f0e9d/retrieve","id":"108474536"},"keywords":["Fertilizer response","landscape position","wheat"],"sieverID":"41dfc2b4-a8aa-44c3-b408-4f0894005f54","pagecount":"13","content":"Improving fertilizer use efficiency has remained a challenge, particularly for small-scale farming in undulating 'abnormal' landscapes of East Africa. Milne's 1930s concept on 'Catena' was considered as a breakthrough in understanding soil variability and its implication on productivity in East African highlands. However, there is limited information on how the 'Catena' features could be used for fine tuning fertilizer recommendations. We initiated multiple on-farm replicated experiments in three wheat-growing districts (Endamohoni, Lemo and Worreilu) in the Ethiopian highlands in 2014, 2015 and 2016 to assess landscape positions affecting crop-nutrient responses, identify yield limiting nutrients across the 'Catena' (N, P, K, S and Zn) and quantify effects of landscape positions on resources use efficiency. We clustered farmlands across the 'Catena' (Hillslopes, Midslopes and Footslopes) based on land scape positions in the respective locations. Wheat yield was more strongly and significantly affected by landscape positions (P < 0.001) than by nutrient sources or rates. The crop response to fertilizers was 50 to 300% higher in foot slopes than in hillslopes, depending on locations and inputs levels. With increasing slope, there was a decrease in a crop fertilizer response due to a significant decrease in soil organic carbon, clay content and soil water content, with r 2 of 0.95, 0.86 and 0.96, respectively. The difference in the crop response between landscape positions was significantly higher (P < 0.05) with higher rates of nutrient applications (>N92 P46) while differences between landscape positions diminish at lower rates. Yield benefits due to application of K was significant only in the dry years (P < 0.05), while there was hardly any yield benefit from the application of zinc and sulfur. The crop nitrogen recovery fraction and crop water productivity decreased with an increasing slope regardless of nutrient combinations. The results indicated that the landscape position could be considered as a proxy indicator for targeted fertilizer application, particularly in farms with undulating topographic features. Hillslopes are better served by the application of organic fertilizers along with conservation measures as applying higher rates of mineral fertilizer in hillslopes would rather increase the risk of downstream nutrient movement.Crop yield variability within and between farms attracted research attention in Sub-Saharan Africa in the last decades (Phiri et al., 1999;Vanlauwe and Giller, 2006;Wolde et al., 2007;Zingore et al., 2007;Moges and Holden, 2008;Tittonell et al., 2008;Tittonell and Giller, 2013;Vanlauwe et al., 2015;Kihara et al., 2016). In fact, the attempt to understand soil variability and its potential effect on crop productivity has been ongoing since the time of Dokuchaev in the early 1900, who divided soils as normal, transitional and abnormal based on topography-related patterns (cited from Krupenikov, 1993). However, soils with undulating landscapes or imperfectly developed profiles were treated as exceptions to the more common, generalized trends of 'normal' soils in the US or Russia (Miller et al., 2008).The development of the 'Catena' concept, introduced by Geoffrey Milne , was a breakthrough in recognizing topographic differential and its implication on soil types and vegetation patterns. The concept came to light while attempting to develop soil maps for 'abnormal' East African soils, whereby topographic variability dictates soil types and associated soil cover patterns (Milne, 1935). Milne (1935) identified the process of erosion-deposition and changes in parent material at the surface corresponding with topography, which was used for mapping soil complexes with repeating internal patterns. The effect of topography on hydrologic flows resulting in variable soil properties was also recognized (Dahlgren et al., 1997).The topography of the East African agricultural landscapes comprising high elevation hillslopes, midslopes and foot slopes, which are appearing within short distances, requires differing agronomic management and various levels of inputs. The effect of the landscape position on soil nutrient status has been reported in Vietnam (Wezel et al., 2002), Malawi (Phiri et al., 1999), northern Ethiopia (Wolde et al., 2007) and southern Ethiopia (Amede and Taboge, 2007;Moges and Holden, 2008). Soils can be more gravelly and thinner with rock outcrops close to hill tops, with more fertile soils in mid-slope positions and fertile, alluvial soils in the valleys. Given erosion risks, farmers' decisions in terms of input application and management are also in favor of footslopes and midslopes.Landscape variability also creates soil fertility variability between farms and within farms in terms of soil nutrient status (Wezel et al., 2002;Balasundram et al., 2006;Wolde et al., 2007;Moges and Holden, 2008), soil organic matter (Gebrelibanos and Assen, 2013), soil water holding capacity (Wang et al., 2012) and agronomic management requirements (Tittonell et al., 2008). The variability is increased further by soil erosion (Hurni et al., 2015), which commonly degrades the hillslopes and midslopes and depositing it on the footslopes (Balasundram et al., 2006;Moges and Holden, 2008).Three different crop response categories to fertilizer application have been identified, namely responsive, fertile non-responsive and degraded non-responsive to indicate yield variability in small scale farming (Tittonell et al., 2008;Tittonell and Giller, 2013;Kihara et al., 2016). In non-responsive soils, higher rates of fertilizer application did not necessarily guarantee higher crop yield (Kihara et al., 2016;Vanlauwe et al., 2015;Tittonell et al., 2008;Fu et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2012). There is evidence that marginal soils produce low yields compared to moderately fertile soils, even after application of higher rates of fertilizers (Vanlauwe et al., 2015;Agegnehu and Amede, 2017;Tamene et al., 2017). However, there is limited understanding of why there was a positive response in some farms while there was limited crop response in the others within the same locality. Even in occasions when farmers did apply higher rates of mineral fertilizers, they rarely got positive crop response and economic incentives (Spielman et al., 2013;Tamene et al., 2017). A low crop response to application of fertilizers could be partly due to the mosaic of farms and landscapes and the failure in identifying the right type and the amount of nutrient required for a specific landscape niche (Phiri et al., 1999;Thelemann et al., 2010). Moreover, fertilizer recommendations have rarely considered the ability of resource constrained smallholder farmers to invest in expensive and often hard to obtain inorganic fertilizers.Generally, there is limited information on how landscape positions could be used for fine tuning fertilizer recommendations. In this study, we used wheat as a test crop, which was becoming an increasingly important crop, to understand the factors affecting the crop response to combination of fertilizers in the undulating setting of 'abnormal' soils of the Ethiopian highlands across the catena. The major objectives of the research were to (1) quantify effects of landscape positions on crop-nutrient responses, and resources use efficiency (nutrient recovery fraction and crop water productivity (CWP)) and (2) identify wheat yield limiting nutrients (N, P, K, S and Zn) across the catena.Ethiopia is administratively divided into regional states and chartered cities, Zones, Woreda (districts) and Kebele (wards), with Kebele being the smallest administrative unit. The experiments were conducted in three wheat growing kebels in Ethiopia, namely upper Gana, Tsibet and Yewol kebeles in Lemo, Endamohoni and Worreilu districts, respectively (Fig. 1). Endamohoni and Worreilu represent undulating, hilly wheat belts, while Lemo represents relatively flat wheat growing belts.Upper Gana Kebele is found in Lemo Woreda in the Southern Nations Regional State, 12-15 km North West of Hosaena town. The experimental farms are located at a geographical coordinate of 7.54300-7.59100°N latitude and 37.74500-37.77600°E longitude at altitudinal ranges of 2140-2290 m above sea level. The predominant soil feature in the area is deep Nitisols with 5-10 cm top black colored soil at flatter landscapes and Luvisols with bleached top soil having medium to poor productivity at rolling and undulating landscapes. Lemo has a bimodal rainfall pattern, with an annual average rainfall of 1079.3 mm (Fig. 2). The mean annual maximum and minimum temperature is 23 and 18°C, respectively. The growing period in Lemo starts early March and continue to the end of September, with a short dry spell in June. Lemo is a relatively flat landscape (Fig. 1) with 53, 46 and 1% of the landscape lies with a slope of <5, 5-30 and >30%, respectively.Tsibet Kebele is located in Endamohoni District, Tigray Region 10-12 km north of Maichew town where the experimental farms were found at a geographical coordinate of 12.83500-12.84700°N latitude and 39.50900-39.53200°E longitude and at altitudinal ranges of 2975-3089 masl. The dominant soil types include Leptosols dominating the hillslopes and deep alluvial Vertisols in valley bottoms. The general slope range on which the farmlands occur varies between 0 and 30%, but could also be found on >30% slope range too. The annual average rainfall of Endamohoni is 681 mm and mean annual maximum and minimum temperature is 25 and 16°C, respectively. The rainfall characteristic of Endamohoni is also bimodal with July, August and September designating the main rainy seasons, and August is the month receiving the highest rainfall (Fig. 2). Endamohoni is characterized by undulating landscapes (Fig. 1) with 23, 67 and 10% of the landscape lies with a slope of <5, 5-30 and >30%, respectively.Yewol in Worreilu district is located in the Amhara region, about 60 km from Dessie town, 460 km north of Addis Ababa. It is located between 10.082 -10.087 N latitude and 39.041 -39.047 E longitude. Worreilu has an average altitude of 2730 m above sea level. Similarly, the dominant soil types include Leptosols dominating the hillslopes and Vertisols in valley bottoms. It is a cool highland with the maximum and minimum temperature of 23 and 9°C, respectively with a bimodal rainfall of about 700 mm per year, with most of the rain falling between July and September (Fig. 2). It has also undulating landscapes with various slope and landscape positions (Fig. 1).Two complementary experiments were conducted for 3 consecutive years (2014, 2015 and 2016) to evaluate effects of three landscape positions on crop-nutrient responses and to identify the most limiting nutrient (N, P, K, S and Zn) in the respective landscapes.Tilahun Amede et al.On-farm experiments were conducted in 2014 and 2015 cropping seasons by identifying volunteer farmers residing in various landscape positions. Through discussions with farmers, information about the history of the farm and management were documented and representative, low input farms were selected. The average fertilizer application in these locations is reported to be very low and only 10-20% of the farmers are using mineral fertilizers (Haregeweyn et al., 2008). This combined with on-site observations enabled suitable on-farm sites to be selected. Farms around homesteads and gully-affected farms were excluded from the experiment to minimize variability within the landscape position.The landscapes were divided into various zones following Catena sequences (footslopes, midslopes and hillslopes) with slope ranges of 0-5; 5-15 and >15%, respectively. The experiments were conducted in two locations (Lemo and Endamohoni) with 45 farmers' fields per location. We have applied the same treatments in the same plots in 2014 and 2015. The 45 fields include three differing landscape positions and 15 farmers' replications per landscape position. However, only 12 farms per landscape position were considered for analysis. The analysis excluded three fields extensively damaged by animals (footslopes) or destroyed by severe erosion (hillslopes). Each farm had five and six treatment plots in 2014 and 2015, respectively (Table 1). Each plot had a plot size of 25 m 2 (5 × 5 m 2 ) per treatment. Fertilizer treatments were designed based on an earlier study on wheat responses to different rates in the Ethiopian highlands (Habtegebrial and Singh, 2009). The different nutrient combinations (N, P, K, S and Zn) (Table 1) were applied in the form of urea, diammonium phosphate (DAP), potassium nitrate, potassium sulfate and zinc sulfate. Half of urea and full DAP were applied as a basal application in the planting rows during sowing. The remaining urea, along with potassium nitrate, potassium sulfate and zinc sulfate was side dressed 45 days after planting.In both locations, land was tilled three times by a pair of oxen before planting to minimize weed infestations. Planting was done by hand, making rows using a traditional hoe. The planting and harvesting dates, types of treatments and fertilizer rates are presented in Table 1. We used the same nationally released, widely adopted wheat variety, Hidasse, in all locations. Hand weeding was done three times during the cropping season starting from the 3rd week, mainly 43-44 days after planting. The seeding rate was 125 kg ha −1 across locations and treatments. Grain and biomass yield from each plot was determined by harvesting the central 20 rows, from a plot area of 12 m 2 (4 × 3 m 2 ). Threshing was done manually. Grain yield was measured after drying to 13% moisture content.Based on the results of 2014 and 2015 researcher managed follow-up, replicated experiments were conducted in 2016 in Endamohoni, Lemo and Worreilu to establish nutrient rates per landscape positions. There were four replications per treatment under each of the three landscape positions (hillslopes, midslopes and footslopes), and differing nutrient rates. The experimental design was a randomized complete block, comprising a factorial of four variables. The differing treatments of N, P, K and S are presented in Table 1. Potassium and sulfur had not been used in these landscapes in the past. The agronomic management, weeding, seed rates, timing and modes of application of all nutrients, size of harvested rows, harvesting methods and threshing followed similar procedures like that of Experiment 1.   Tilahun Amede et al.Composite soil samples were collected from each landscape at six representative spots (one composite sample per representative farm), following the landscape strata. Soil samples were taken before planting to 25 cm soil depth using a standard auger. The upper litter materials were removed. Samples were oven dried, ground and passed through a 2 mm sieve for laboratory analysis.Mehlich-3 extraction was used for all essential elements for soil samples (nitrate nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, sodium, copper, zinc, boron and aluminum), analyzed using multi-elemental ICP (inductively coupled plasma) in three replicates (Mehlich, 1984). In addition, total nitrogen (Kjeldahl method) (Bremner, 1960), soil texture (Boycous Hydrometer Method), soil pH (pH meter 1:2 soil water ratio), electrical conductivity and organic carbon (Walkley and Black, 1934) were determined. Organic matter was calculated by multiplying organic carbon by 1.724. Additional data on the soil carbon, clay content and soil water capacity of the target districts were extracted from the database of Soil Information Services (Hengl et al,. 2015). Using GIS spatial analysis tools, data of soil properties was extracted from each grid (250 × 250 m 2 ) within the study sites. The corresponding slope data for each grid were also extracted from the digital elevation model (DEM) of each site.Nitrogen recovery fraction (NFR) was done following Moll et al. (1982).where Ntf (kg ha −1 ) = total above-ground N content at maturity of fertilized treatment, Ntc (kg ha −1 ) = total above-ground N content at maturity of control treatment, Ns (kg ha −1 ) = N supplied. We estimated CWP using the water accounting principle (Molden et al., 2007), as follows:Kg DM(grain) + Kg DM (stover) Water Usedwhere: KgDM = weight of produce (in kilograms) Water Used = crop water use to grow the crop (ET) (m 3 ). To calculate ET we used the reference evapotranspiration (ET0, mm day −1 ) and crop coefficient (K c ) (FAO, 1998). The Penman-Monteith method was used to estimate ET0 and applied Angstrom's coefficients of 0.25 and 0.5 as presented in LocClim, version 1.06 (FAO, 2005). We used climatic data from the respective closet met stations, within 20 km radius. We used literature values for wheat crop coefficient to relate crop ET to ET0 and calculated ET (m day −1 ) from land use ß (m 2 ) as given below:We assumed a composition of 50% grasses and legumes on grazing lands and applied mean K c values of known grasses growing in the study areas. The length of growing period was also estimated using LocClim (FAO, 2005) validated by key informants.After checking the normality of the data using the normality test and scatter plot, the effects of fertilizer types, rates and landscape positions on crop yield, the data was analyzed using the SAS (9.0 version) ANOVA PROC-GLM procedure. Using PROC-CORR Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems procedures, we have estimated relationships between the various crop, soil and landscape parameters, including slope, soil water content, soil organic matter, grain yield and biomass yield. Whenever treatment effects were significant, means were compared using Duncan's multiple range test (0.05). All graphs were designed using SigmPlot 12.0 procedures. The coefficient of variation (CV) was used to assess the spatial variability of soil parameters within landscape using SigmaPlot procedures.The crop response was calculated as the yield differences between high and low NP fertilizer rates within the same landscape position and location.The landscape features were highly variable (Fig. 1). There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in CEC, pH, organic matter, N, P, K and Zn between landscape positions, regardless of locations (Table 2). Soils in the footslopes and midslopes had larger amounts of organic matter, N, K, P and Zn compared to hillslopes. The difference in soil characteristics between the landscape positions was more apparent in Endamohoni than in Lemo or Worreilu sites. Lemo soils, which were predominantly Nitosols, had significantly higher soil organic matter (4.8-5.5%) than Endamohoni or Worreilu soils regardless of landscape positions. Soil N content was generally low, though Lemo had significantly higher nitrogen content than soils in Worreilu or Endamohoni.On the other hand, CEC and exchangeable cations in Lemo were by 50% lower than the other two sites (Table 2). Moreover, soil K in Worreilu was the lowest, including in foot slopes, and by international standards close to the critical level (Hackmann, 2006).There was a significant correlation between slope and clay content (Fig. 3a), slope and organic carbon (Fig. 3b) and slope and soil water content (Fig. 3c). A decrease of 10°of slope led to about 0.5% decrease in soil carbon content. The clay content of the soils was also affected by the slope, with clay content decreasing with increasing slope, with r 2 values of 0.86 and 0.60 in Endamohoni and Lemo, respectively. There was an increasing crop response with increasing organic matter content up to OM content of 4% but the further increase did not guarantee yield benefits (data not presented).The yield was significantly increased (P < 0.01) by application of NP nutrients, regardless of locations. Yield reduction due to low NP application was the highest in Endamohoni, with 53.4% and the lowest in Lemo with 37.4% (Fig. 4). The yield benefits of applying K was significant only in the dry years of 2015 in Endamohoni (P < 0.05), while the yield benefit of application zinc and sulfur fertilizers was not observed in both locations (Fig. 4). The variability (CV) in crop yield within location ranged from 24% in Lemo to 53% in Endamohoni. There was a statistically significant yield difference between locations (P < 0.001) and treatments (P < 0.001), though there was no significant interaction between locations and treatments. Yield differences between years were significant (P < 0.05). The year 2015 was a dry year (Fig. 2) with significant yield reduction in Endamohoni compared to 2014, with the highest reduction observed in the Footslopes (Fig. 4). Yield in Lemo was not affected by the reduced rainfall as there was still enough rain during the critical growth stages.The landscape position was the most dominant factor dictating crop fertilizer responses (P < 0001). The productivity in the hillslopes was significantly less (P < 0.001) than both mid slopes and foot slopes. The yield advantages of application of fertilizers were significantly higher (P < 0.001) in midslopes and footslopes than hillslopes, regardless of locations (Fig. 4). Yield in footslopes was mostly double compared to hillslopes and reached up to 3 times, as observed in Endamohoni (Fig. 4). The influence of landscape positions was significant even in the control plots (Figs. 4  and 6). This differential yield could be partly explained by the strong correlation between slope and factors that determine soil water supply (Fig. 3).Similarly, yield was significantly increased by increasingly higher application rates of NP nutrients (Fig. 6). There was also a significant yield difference (P < 0.001) between landscapes, locations and nutrient types and rates (Table 3). Landscape positions have significantly affected yield response to differing NP (P < 0.001) and K (P < 0.05) application rates. A significantly larger yield increase was obtained by the application of NP 138/69 followed by NP 92/46 kg ha −1 across locations (P < 0.05), regardless of the landscape position (Fig. 6). The application of sulfur did not also increase grain yield in Endamohoni and Lemo (Fig. 4) but in the Worreilu location, particularly in the footslopes and when applied with N92P46 (Fig. 6).In 2016, yield in Lemo was significantly higher than in the previous years, particularly in footslope farms, potentially due to an extended and good rainfall distribution. The yield in Worreilu was significantly lower than in Lemo (P < 0.05), with the highest difference between the two locations being observed in control plots. The yield difference among the various landscape positions was highly pronounced at higher fertilizer NP application rates in both Lemo and Worreilu (Fig. 6), indicating that crop responses to fertilizer application could be more affected by landscaperelated factors at higher NP rates than at lower rates. However, the response in footslopes of Worreilu was lower than in Lemo due to waterlogging effects of vertislols.In general, the yield difference between the highest and lowest yielding farms was higher in Endamohoni than in Lemo or Worreilu partly due to its highly variable landscapes. On the other hand, yield variability due to seasons was the highest in Lemo, where the highest rates of fertilizer application yielded about 10 and 3.9 t ha −1 in 2016 and 2014, respectively (Figs. 4  and 6).NRF for the year 2015 varied from 5 to 50% depending on nutrient types, combinations and landscape positions. It was significantly correlated with grain yield (P < 0.0001) whereby NRF increased with increasing crop yield (data not presented). There was also a significant difference in NRF between the different sites and landscape positions. NRF was significantly higher in Endamohoni than in Lemo, and within Endamohoni the highest NRF was recorded in footslopes treated with N, P, K, S and Zn followed by N, P, K and S treatments (Fig. 7). On the other hand, treatments with low NP application had significantly higher NRF than well fertilized plots across locations. However, there was no significant difference in NRF between the different landscape 6 Tilahun Amede et al. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems positions in Lemo in 2015, though the trend has changed in the relatively wet year of 2016 (data not presented).CWP varied with locations, nutrient types and landscape positions (Fig. 8). The CWP was significantly higher in the footslopes than other landscape positions (P < 0.001), regardless of locations, with the largest difference recorded in Endamohoni. CWP estimations showed that Endamohoni got higher CWP values than Lemo given higher grain yield under lower rainfall amounts. Treatments with lower rates of fertilization application got the lowest CWP across sites and treatments. Generally, water productivity increased with an increasing fertilizer rate and it followed an opposite trend to nutrient use efficiency. In general, footslopes produced higher yield per unit of water used.The undulating landscapes of East African highlands demonstrate variable crop responses to application of fertilizers. Our results showed that the crop fertilizer response was predominantly dictated by landscape positions. Yield differences between landscape positions within the same locality ranged between 0.9 and 5.5 t ha −1 , depending on locations and input levels (Fig. 4). Landscape positions had also significantly stronger influence on crop yield than did fertilizer treatments (P < 0.01). This could be associated with differential soil formation processes (Milne, 1935;Dahlgren et al., 1997). The possible changes in soil types across the catena (Milne, 1935;Dahlgren et al., 1997;Balasundram et al., 2006), which alter the soil nutrient complex, altered crop influence to application of various combinations of fertilizers as observed in Figures 4 and 6. About 90% of the soils in the hillslopes of Ethiopian highlands are Leptsols (Elias, 2016), which are characterized by stony and very shallow topsoils, with poor nutrient status and low soil water holding capacity. This partly explains low crop response to nutrient applications. In agreement with our findings, Dahlgren et al. (1997) reported that slope gradient was a potential determinant in generating differences in soil fertility by potentially affecting soil nutrient availability and plant water availability throughout the cropping season. Moreover, soil organic carbon (SOC) decreased with increasing slope (Figs. 3b and 3c), which further affect the soil water holding capacity (Hudson, 1994), nutrient availability (Dahlgren et al., 1997) and erodibility of soils by water. The low crop response to fertilizer application in the hillslope could also be partly explained by depleted organic matter and shallow soils (Moges and Holden, 2008) and lower clay content (Fig. 3), which led to reduced soil water content, and lower CWP (Fig. 8).On the other hand, stronger crop yield in the footslopes could be due to deeper topsoils, higher clay content and higher SOC (Table 2, Fig. 3) leading to increased water infiltration and more stored water after rainfall. The strong relationship between crop response and soils organic matter content reveals the opportunity for improved management of SOC for enhancing nutrient use efficiency. However, SOC alone should not necessarily be considered as a defining factor for crop fertilizer responses (Kihara et al., 2016), as Lemo with the highest SOC (Table 2) was not necessarily the most responsive site to nutrient application. Moreover, the yield advantage of footslopes could diminish in very wet years or poorly drained valley bottoms due to water logging induced nutrient leaching and denitrification.  We also recognize the fact that there is evidence showing yield variability within a landscape (Wezel et al., 2002;Basso et al., 2009;Mckenzi, 2012) or a farm (Tittonell et al., 2008;Tittonell and Giller, 2013). The variability within a landscape could be predominantly ascribed to slope, whereby a farm in plateau of hillsides could share similar soil characteristics like that of footslopes, except that it may not receive sediment load from upstream. The variability within landscapes could also be created by farmers' management practices (Tittonell et al., 2005;Zingore et al., 2007;Vanlauwe et al., 2015). In our sites, some farms within the same landscape position were recently terraced while others not (e.g., Endamohoni); some farms received more manure and crop residue than others (e.g., Lemo), which would create variability within a segment of a landscape.Landscape heterogeneity affected resource use efficiencies across the sites, possibly through effects on the efficiency of resource capture (Tittonell et al., 2008). The significantly high (P < 0.05) variability in NRF (Fig. 7) and CWP (Fig. 8) across the landscape positions also suggested the need for implementing a spatially tailored crop management plan (Basso et al., 2009) which at the same time may reduce downstream water pollution. In general, in undulating, mountainous landscapes, where soil erosion was a dominant driver of change (Hurni et al., 2015;Vanlauwe et al., 2015), the importance of landscape variability cannot be understated (Milne 1935;Balasundram et al., 2006;Miller et al., 2008;Thelemann et al., 2010). These causes of variability deserve a follow-up and thorough investigation.Crop yield in the fertilized plots was higher than control plots (Fig. 5) regardless of year or location. However within location, yield variability could not be solely explained by soil nutrient deficiency as application of higher rates of combination of nutrients failed to bring about proportional yield increment in hillside farms. In agreement with our findings, Tittonell et al. (2008) reported that given the prevalence of various yield limiting factors in the various agroecologies and farm types, variable crop performance within and across farms in Kenya was not ascribed solely to soil nutrient status. It implied that in nutrient deficient soils, the potential benefits from adding nutrients could be hampered by soil water deficit and geomorphological traits. A similar finding was also reported in maize-based systems (Phiri et al., 1999).The nutrient response curves (Fig. 6) showed that the difference in the crop response between landscape positions was significantly strong (P < 0.05) with higher rates of nutrient applications (N92P46 and higher). This implied that at lower rates of NP application, the difference between landscape positions would diminish (Fig. 6). The results also indicated that fertilizer-induced yield difference between farms was pronounced in years of optimum rainfall (Lemo 2014 and 2016) and higher NP rates (Fig. 6), indicating both soil water scarcity and nutrient deficiency of the respective locations. In one location (Endamohoni), there was a significant yield increment due to K application in the drought year (2015). In another (Worreilu) there was no crop response to K application (Fig. 6b) despite low levels of soil K (Table 2). The positive yield response to K in Endamohoni could be explained by the potentially positive effects of potassium in maintaining plant water potential (Amede et al., 1999;Jakli et al., 2016). The yield benefit of potassium in Ethiopian highlands has also been demonstrated in potato and other tuber crops (Wassie and Mamo, 2013). Although there were conflicting claims and promotion for application of sulfur fertilizers in the wheat-belt Ethiopian highlands, there was limited evidence to suggest S was limiting for wheat, except in the Vertisols of Worreilu. Addition of micronutrients, including zinc, has also been known to improve wheat yield and nutritional quality of grains elsewhere (Cakmak, 2008). However, there was no evidence of Zn responses (Fig. 4). This is to be expected from nutrient deficient soils, as agronomic yield benefits from other nutrients are rarely achieved before the demand for major macronutrients is satisfied (Marschner, 1995). However, there could be human nutritional benefits in terms of higher grain zinc content due to zinc applications (data not presented). The poor, low responsive soils, which are predominantly in hillslopes, are the most challenging and require specific management (Tittonell and Giller, 2013;Agegnehu and Amede, 2017) since applying fertilizers to address those limitations is ineffective in the short-term (Kihara et al., 2016). This has a crucial implication on the land management policy in relation to crop choice, types and amounts of fertilizers and management practices. Therefore, farmers should be assisted in developing strategies that capitalize on the potential of the specific landscape position in which they operate to optimize economic profitability, environmental health and ecosystem functions.As indicated in Fig. 4, the standard error within the landscape position was also very low with CV below 2% leading to conclusion that this zone could be considered as a target for employing similar management options. This study is in agreement with earlier studies and suggests that management zones along with the conventional grid-based soil sampling could be used to develop plausible fertilizer recommendations (Khosla and Alley, 1999;Fleming et al., 2000). Those spatially similar areas within landscapes could be used for crop performance evaluations (Bleas et al., 2016). The process of describing and analyzing landscape terrain features, such as hillslope length and gradient, water retention and flow patterns and soil properties have become more accurate and precise to suggest recommendations than conventional approaches (Thelemann et al., 2010).We found very strong differences in crop response to mineral fertilizers among landscape positions.The implication of this research is that yield potential is lower in such hillslope soils, regardless of season and therefore nutrient   recommendations should consider this context. Application of manure, crop residues, green manures and other alternative sources could help to improve soil quality and allow crop to grow better and respond more to applied nutrients. On the other hand, the footslopes will keep producing relatively higher yield with application of optimum fertilizer rates. In these poorly managed landscapes, the landscape position could be a proxy indicator of soil fertility status (Dahlgren et al., 1997;Mckenzi, 2012;Gebrelibanos and Assan, 2013). However, we recognize that these recommendations should consider farmers' yield objectives. We also suggest further research to validate this work in other nutrient-demanding cropping systems (e.g., maize-based systems, sorghum-based systems). The key policy challenge is knowing whether the actual demand in these types of variable landscapes is hindered by low fertilizer use efficiency, market failures or the fact that the profitability of fertilizer use is just too low to justify its use (Tamene et al., 2017). Our findings have confirmed the latter that there is very limited incentive for farmers to invest in inputs in sloping and undulating fields given the very low crop response and associated low profitability.","tokenCount":"5379"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f52d8bdeb16eac8ba62cf2f6d7fc135d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/01b070e1-f781-4586-8703-5d3d82edca6c/retrieve","id":"1025691188"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c4b73027-e05a-472c-9c8f-0d38484e4e89","pagecount":"22","content":"Agriculture in Uganda is mainly rain fed and based on subsistence farming; challenging the sustainability and food security of farmers, and making the sector highly vulnerable to weather variability, climate hazards (particularly droughts) and climate change.• Crop diversification, small-scale irrigation, permanent planting basins, green manuring, conservation agriculture (rotations, intercropping, mulching and reduced tillage) and agroforestry are among the most common climatesmart practices being promoted in the country to improve productivity, food availability and resilience to climate hazards.• In livestock production, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices that have been promoted include silvopastoral systems, adoption of improved breeds, improved feeding regimes, grazing land management and integration of biogas. Since, livestock production encompasses the highest contributor of agricultural greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in Uganda, these and other livestock based practices present good opportunities to reduce agricultural emissions in the country.• Efforts to identify and implement system-level CSA The climate-smart agriculture (CSA) concept reflects an ambition to improve the integration of agriculture development and climate responsiveness. It aims to achieve food security and broader development goals under a changing climate and increasing food demand. CSA initiatives sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce/remove greenhouse gases (GHGs), and require planning to address trade-offs and synergies between these three pillars: productivity, adaptation, and mitigation [1].The priorities of different countries and stakeholders are reflected to achieve more efficient, effective, and equitable food systems Climate-Smart Agriculture in Uganda that address challenges in environmental, social, and economic dimensions across productive landscapes. While the concept is new, and still evolving, many of the practices that make up CSA already exist worldwide and are used by farmers to cope with various production risks [2]. Mainstreaming CSA requires critical stocktaking of ongoing and promising practices for the future, and of institutional and financial enablers for CSA adoption. This country profile provides a snapshot of a developing baseline created to initiate discussion, both within countries and globally, about entry points for investing in CSA at scale. and floods) and capacity building of extension actors on understanding and disseminating climate information.• Uganda has made progress on integrating climate change into national development plans, as well agricultural policies and programmes. This has included the development of a National CSA Framework Programme, the launching of the agriculture sector National Adaptation Plan process, and the formulation of a national Climate Change Policy. National and international finance (public and private) as well as technical support will be crucial in ensuring that these plans and policies achieve their desired objectives.• Although there are numerous examples of national and project finance for agricultural climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, financial services and risk transfer mechanisms are limiting at farmer level, presenting a significant barrier for CSA adoption. Initiatives such as crop and livestock index-based insurance have been introduced aimed at offsetting losses due to climate-related conditions, and more could be done to scale up access.• There are numerous organisations undertaking climatesmart agriculture related projects and programmes in the country, and the importance of coordination of these actors through various platforms such as the National Climate-Smart Agriculture Task Force and the Climate Change Department has been recognised. Continued financial and operational support to CSA coordination will be crucial to ensure complementarity and sustainability of the work of various actors.People, agriculture and livelihoods in Uganda [7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17]   National contextAgriculture is the main economic sector, accounting for 27% of gross domestic product (GDP) and employing 73% of the labor force [3]. Since the 1980s, agriculture share to GDP on average has experienced a slow but almost steady decline from 53.7% in 1982 to 23.7% in 2015 due to growth in the industrial and service sectors [4,5]. Despite this decline, agriculture remains the key source of exports contributing 46% of total exports. The country has also made significant progress in relation to women's engagement in the agricultural sector in the five domains of empowerment (5DE): agricultural production, resources, income, leadership and time [6]. This is evidenced by the steady decline in the female share of youth illiterate in the population from 58% in 2010 to 52% in 2015 [7]. Despite their critical and potentially transformative role in agricultural growth, Ugandan women are relatively disadvantaged with regards to land ownership and labor market participation [8]. Women constitute only 16.3% of the total agricultural landholders [9].Economic relevance of agriculture in Uganda [7, 10, 11]   People, agriculture, and livelihoodsUganda still faces considerable challenges in meeting its poverty eradication objective of reducing absolute poverty to less than 10% of the population by 2017 [12]. The proportion of the national population living below the poverty line dropped from 56% in 1992 to about 24.5% in 2013 (7.5 million) [13]. The rural areas account for 85% of the population and 94.4% of the poor, while the urban areas account for 15% of the population but only 5.6% of the poor. In Uganda, agriculture supports the livelihoods of 73% of the households and provides employment for about 33.8% of the economically active population, and over 80% of the poorest of the population [14]. The country's agriculture is characterized by smallholder farming with hand hoe as the major production tool and with landholdings averaging two hectares [6].Land use in Uganda [7, 10]   Production systems key for food security in Uganda [7]   Land useUganda has a total area of 241,550,000 ha. Agricultural land occupied 11,962,000 ha (60%) of the total area in 1994 and increased significantly to 14,415,000 ha (72%) in 2013 at an annual growth rate of 0.3% [3]. Arable land increased from 0.54% annual growth in 2000 to 2.36% in 2012, while permanent cropland area decreased from an annual growth rate of 1.69% to 0.72%. Notably in the last decade, agricultural land has steadily increased at a rate of 1% per annum, and if this rate continues agricultural land will account for 90% of Uganda's land by 2040 [24]. Natural forest cover has declined drastically from 54% in the 1950s to 20% of the total area, while grassland has increased by 28.18% during 1996-2013 [18]. About 41% of the country's total area is experiencing degradation, of which 12% is in a severe state of degradation [19].The most common form of land degradation is soil erosion, found on around 85% of degraded land [18]. Areas severely affected by soil erosion (85-90%) include the highlands of Kabale and Kisoro, while the badly affected ones (75-80%) include Mbale, Rakai and the cattle corridor districts. Forest cover loss of about 25 million tons of wood consumed annually translates into 50% degradation of all tropical high forests on private land and 15% in forest reserves [7].Agricultural production in Uganda is primarily based on smallscale subsistence farming (4.0 million households), comprising a system of mixed agriculture with perennial and annual crops, as well as grazing throughout most of the districts across ten agroecological zones (AEZs). The AEZs include: the North-eastern dry lands with an average annual rainfall of 745 mm (where beans, field peas, groundnuts, passion fruits, simsim and sorghum are grown); the North-eastern savannah grasslands receiving 1197 mm (cocoa, millet, tobacco, bee keeping); the North-western Savannah grasslands receiving a range of 1340 mm -1371mm (coffee, Irish potatoes, rice); the Para-savannahs receiving 1259 mm (cassava fishing, sorghum, peas, tobacco, livestock); the Kyoga plains receiving 1215 mm -1328 mm of rainfall (sweet potatoes, dairy); the Western savannah grasslands (banana, maize, goats); and the Lake Victoria Crescent, South-western farmlands, Highland ranges, and Pastoral rangelands with rainfall below 1000 mm and characterized by short grassland with nomadic extensive pastoralism (pastoral livestock). However, these systems are dynamic due to climate-related hazards, high population growth rates of 3.2% per annum, as well as external political and economic factors [3,46].In these zones, agriculture is mainly rainfed; irrigated agriculture comprises only 0.1% of total cultivated land. The main crops are cereals (maize, sorghum, millet, rice) on over 1.7 million ha for the two cropping cycles, or almost 32% of the area cropped in 2008-2009 [20], root crops (25%), bananas (17%), as well as pulses, oil seeds, coffee, vegetables and fruits. Export crops include coffee, tea, tobacco, cotton cut flowers and cocoa. Livestock also is a key component of the primary sector with over 26 million heads in 2014 [3], not including poultry. Food crop production dominates the agriculture sector, contributing over 55% of the agricultural GDP, while cash crops contribute 17% and livestock 15% [21]. Despite the dominance of food crop production, only one-third is marketed with exports being less than 7% of food production. Imported food are mainly wheat and rice, accounting for less than 5% of total food requirements [2].Food security and health in Uganda [7, 9, 10, 16, 25, 26, 27, 28]   Food security and nutrition Agriculture input use in Uganda [7, 10, 22]   Uganda Greenhouse gas emissions in Uganda [7, 31]   Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions Uganda has one of the lowest GHG emissions per capita in the world, estimated at 1.39 tons carbon dioxide equivalent, far below the global average of approximately 7.99 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; yet the country is most vulnerable to global warming and climate change impacts. Uganda's contribution to world's total GHG emissions is estimated at 0.099%. Between 1990 and 2012, Uganda's GHG emissions grew 50% with average annual change of 4% from the agricultural sector [29]. The total national GHG emissions including land-use change and forestry is about 48.38 Mt CO2e, which is 58.7% of the 82.4 Mt CO2e regional GHG emissions [30]. The agricultural sector has the highest emissions, contributing about 46.25% (22.38 Mt CO2e) to the country's total GHG emissions [30]. The four main sources of GHG emissions from the agricultural sector include enteric fermentation at 42.8%, manure left on the pasture 31.1%, burning savanna 12.9% and cultivation of organic soils at 4.8% [3]. In spite of these low emissions rates, the country is highly committed, through its' Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), to contribute to global efforts to reduce GHG emissions. As a mitigation strategy, Uganda has then focused on implementing of a series of policies and measures in the agriculture, energy supply, forestry and wetland sectors. For instance, strategies to reduce emissions include protecting the existing forests and implementing the agro-forestry plan countrywide. Similarly from pastoralism, methane emissions have been reduced by improving pastoral livestock keeping practices, such as the use of improved breeds and feeding regimes.Challenges for the agricultural sectorThe underdevelopment of the agricultural sector has been identified in Uganda Vision 2040, among major bottlenecks constraining the country's development. Despite efforts to increase agricultural productivity, the sector is characterized by low yields. This is partly a result of poor agricultural technology development. For instance, despite soil fertility being a key ingredient for improved agricultural production, the national fertilizer application rate is low at an average of 1 kg /ha/year, compared to 5kg/ha in Tanzania and 30 kg/ha in Kenya, and far less than the world average of 100kg/ha. Also the use of improved seeds stands at 6.3% of farmers, while agro-chemicals are at a meager 3.4% [32].In Uganda, the challenge of poorly functioning pest, vector and disease control is a major cause of losses in the agriculture sector.For instance, the 2008 Livestock Census revealed that each Ugandan livestock farmer may be losing a startling USD 155 a year due to disease. In the crop sub-sector for instance, coffee wilt disease, which started in 1993, has destroyed about 56% or 160 million of the old Robusta trees, equivalent to some 1.5 million bags or about USD 170 million [21]. This inability to control endemic disease outbreaks means that Uganda fails to meet international trade standards and so loses many market opportunities.Widespread degradation of land resources is another challenge in Uganda. In 1991, studies estimated that soil erosion accounted for over 80% of the annual cost of environmental degradation equivalent to USD 300 million per year [18]. In 2003, the annual cost of soil nutrient loss due primarily to erosion was estimated at about USD 625 million per year. Productivity losses per year for maize from soil erosion have been estimated in some places as high as 190 kg/ha [21]. The degradation of land resources, while having a large impact on agricultural production and productivity, also reduces the ability to sequester carbon and contribute to mitigation of agriculture and land use related greenhouse gas emissions.Uganda is faced with market and value addition constraints for agricultural products. For instance, the proportion of Uganda's agricultural commodities and products processed is less than 5% of products produced [21]. The sector also has poorly functioning regulatory services, inputs market and distribution systems. For instance, the quality of seed in the market may be unknown as quality cannot be determined through visual inspection.The sector is also faced with constraints related to the enabling environment for improving agricultural production and productivity, such as an uncertain policy environment, poor agricultural technology delivery and adoption, lack of capacity for policymaking and planning, lack of capacity for climate change analysis and decision making and low productivity of sector personnel. Given the heavy dependence on agriculture, the effects of climate change could clearly put millions of people at greater risk of poverty and hunger.The sector is also faced with institutional development constraints, such as a weak institutional framework and lack of capacity to implement the sector development plans, geographically fractured state of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) and its agencies, and low productivity of sector personnel to ensure efficient and effective delivery of sector goals and objectives.Uganda experiences relatively humid conditions and moderate temperatures throughout the year, with mean daily temperaturesProjected changes in temperature and precipitation in Uganda by 2050 [40, 41, 42]   Average temperature (°C)of 28 °C [33,34]. The long-term mean near-surface temperature is around 21 °C, with the average monthly temperatures ranging from a minimum of 15 °C in July to a maximum of 30 °C in February. The highest temperatures are observed in the North, especially in the North-East, while lower temperatures occur in the South. A significant warming has been measured in Uganda for instance, the Uganda's National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) cites an average temperature increase of 0.28 °C per decade in the country between 1960 and 2010, being January and February the most affected by this warming trend, averaging an increase of 0.37 °C per decade. The frequency of hot days in the country has increased significantly, while the frequency of cold days has decreased [35,36].The annual rainfall totals vary from 500 mm to 2800 mm; mean annual rainfall ranges between less than 900 mm in the driest districts to an average of above 1,200 mm per year in the wettest districts located within the Lake Victoria Basin, eastern and the north-western parts of Uganda (37,38). This climate is bimodal in the south to central parts of Uganda, exhibiting two rainy seasons (March-June and October-January), with the exception of the northern-easterly region, which experiences one long rainy season [37]. Floods and droughts are the most frequent climate hazards. For instance, the cattle corridor, which is located in the dry-land region, is prone to drought, while the northern region is especially vulnerable to both floods and droughts [39]. While trends are uncertain and data remain limited, the main climate change impacts expected to affect agriculture in Uganda in the future include higher temperatures, more erratic and heavy rainfall, changes in the timing and distribution of rainfall, and an increase in the frequency and duration of droughts. For instance, the FAO Crop Water Assessment (FAO-CROPWAT) indicated up to 46% reductions in optimal banana yields due to soil moisture deficits within banana plantations. A range of CSA technologies are being promoted and implemented across farmer typologies and agro-ecological zones in Uganda.Notable practices include integrated soil fertility management, agro-forestry, crop diversification, conservation agriculture (crop rotation, mulching, use of green cover crops and minimum tillage), intercropping coffee-banana and legumes with other crops, seasonally adapted planting times and effective field water management in rice production. Under livestock management, the existing practices include; improved silvopastoral systems (i.e. converting degraded extensive, treeless pastures into a richer and more productive environment, where trees and shrubs are planted interspersed among fodder crops such as grasses and leguminous herbs), rotational grazing and forage conservation (silage). Use of livestock dung for household biogas production has also been promoted and practiced, particularly in intensive livestock areas with benefits not only for climate change mitigation, forest conservation and energy provision but also in terms of reducing the workload and improving the health of women and children.The bio-slurry removed from the digester can also be used as organic fertilizer to improve crop productivity. The predominant users of CSA practices are small-scale farmers whose primary goal is to increase crop productivity. This corroborates with evidence indicating that resource-poor farmers are risk evaders by nature, who habitually seek for solutions to problems through innovation.Off-farm CSA related services include crop weather index based insurance, using automated weather stations to monitor specific parameters and triggers. Strengthening climate information and early warning systems has also been a focus of various actors and has been highlighted in various national documents such as Uganda's NAPA of 2007.In this context, CSA is not a novel approach per se, but rather a compendium of indigenous solutions developed over time by smallholders to sustainably maximize crop production amidst diminishing farm size, pest and disease pressure and soil fertility decline. Nevertheless, adoption of many CSA practices remains generally low (30%) because of policy gaps. Other constraints to CSA adoption include limited extension services, inadequate knowledge, inadequate technology, labor and capital, inaccessible input markets and declining farm size.The following graphics present a selection of CSA practices with high climate smartness scores according to expert evaluations. The average climate smartness score is calculated based on the individual scores of the practices on eight climate smartness dimensions that relate to the CSA pillars: yield (productivity); income, water, soil, risks (adaptation); energy, carbon and nitrogen (mitigation). A practice can have a negative / positive / zero impact on a selected CSA indicator, with 10 (+/-) indicating a 100% change (positive/ negative) and 0 indicating no change. Practices in the graphics have been selected for each production system key for food security identified in the study. A detailed explanation of the methodology and a more comprehensive list of practices analyzed for Uganda can be found in Annexes 3 and 4, respectively.Farmers' level of adoption of practices with high climate smartness has been generally low as most farmers still depend on the traditional subsistence farming systems [21]. However, the Uganda Vision 2040 (2013) recognizes the critical issues addressed by CSA technologies, which are aimed at boosting resilience to harsh climatic conditions. Investment in research towards improved pestand disease-free seeds and varieties has been promoted by both government agencies such as the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) and international organizations such as the International Institute of Tropical Agricultural (IITA) [43].Selected CSA practices and technologies for production systems key for food security in UgandaCase study: Inclusive stakeholder planning through learning alliancesThe Policy Action for Climate Change Adaptation (PACCA) project aims to provide a deeper understanding of how to approach CSA interventions at a systemic rather than at a plot level. Working closely with both local and national stakeholders, IITA and other partners on the PACCA project developed a framework for vertically and horizontally integrating CSA interventions through inclusive stakeholder engagements. Learning alliances (LAs) are multistakeholder spaces established at national and district levels, with the aim of promoting science-policy dialogue, climate change capacity enhancement, and building synergies to develop solutions to problems that cannot be solved individually.LAs encourage consolidated efforts to tackle climate-change-related issues that no single institution would accomplish on its own. For example, civil society organizations within the LA supported the scenario-guided review of the Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan, which was important for mainstreaming climate change in the plan.  Development partners provide funding of various projects that, on one hand, influence economic and social development and, on the other hand, also address climate change. A wide range of projects across the country focus on enhancing the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and, because of the strong linkages between CSA and food security, many of these initiatives encompass climate risk management practices to some degree. For instance, the USAID Feed the Future \"Enhancing Climate Resilience for Agricultural Livelihoods\" Project, working with farmers to develop site-specific climate-smart adaptation practices for banana, coffee, maize, bean systems in both high and low land areas.Faith-based organizations are also involved in CSA promotion, for example through the Farming Gods Way and Islamic Farming principles that mostly promote conservation agriculture. is expected to respond to this call by making explicit financial provisions in budget allocation of departments and ministries. At the same time, there is still need for greater capacity building of all institutions (government, international, private and civil society) on climate change adaptation and mitigation and how to integrate this into their daily work.Farmer' organizations such as the Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFe) and various smallholder coffee cooperatives are also involved in CSA promotion mostly through advocating for agroforestry, irrigation and intercropping. Private sector organisations such as Rural Enterprise Development Services (REDS) are involved in supporting farmers to implement conservation agriculture, although this work is also donor funded.The following graphic highlights key institutions whose main activities relate to one, two or three CSA pillars (adaptation, productivity and mitigation). More information on the methodology and results from interviews, surveys and expert consultations is available in Annexes 5 and 6.Having ratified the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol agreements, Uganda's approach to climate change is highly linked to its international engagement with climate change politics. Uganda While not explicitly including agriculture among the mitigation focus areas, many of the priority actions for agricultural adaptation will also have mitigation co-benefits. Uganda has also launched a process for developing its National Adaptation Plan (NAP), and this was followed in 2016 by the launch of an FAO and UNDP project to support eight developing countries (including Uganda) to integrate agriculture into their National Adaptation Plans. The project is funded through the International Climate Initiative (ICI) and aims to increase collaboration between agriculture, environment, planning and finance ministries as well as developing national capacity for mainstreaming climate into planning and budgeting, improving economic valuation and conducting impact assessment of agricultural adaptation initiatives.Uganda has also made efforts to domesticate other international instruments and agreements related to climate, agriculture and the environment such as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The CBD having been domesticated through formulation of a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAPII, 2015-2025) which highlights the need to address climate change as a key emerging issue.Although not specifically targeting climate change issues, some of the countries environment and forestry related legislation can be said to have indirectly addressed climate change issues. Such legislation included the following:• The National Forest Policy (NFP) of 2001 whose goal was to achieve \"an integrated forest sector that achieves sustainable increases in the economic, social and environmental benefits from forests and trees by all the people of Uganda, especially the poor and vulnerable related legislation.• The National Environment Management Policy (1994, and currently under review) whose overall goal is \"sustainable development which maintains and promotes environmental quality and resource productivity for socio-economic transformation\" and includes activities related to payment for ecosystem services (PES), sustainable land management (SLM) and specifically mentions climate-smart agriculture as a key area of focus. Regionally, being part of the East African Community, Uganda is subject to the East African Community Climate Change Policy (EACCCP), which aims to strengthen meteorological services and improve early-warning systems; increase preparedness for disaster risk management; and scale up efficient use of water and energy resources, irrigation, crop and livestock production among others.Climate change in Uganda is a fundamentally multi-sectoral issue, hence a proactive approach in mainstreaming climate change into its development policies and strategies has been taken. Financing CSA The graphic highlights existing and potential financing opportunities for CSA in Uganda. The methodology and a more detailed list of funds can be found in Annex 7.In Uganda, climate change impacts are expected to be felt greatly on the agriculture sector, which is a key sector of the economy as well as a key livelihood and employment source for the majority of the country's people. In line with this The Government of Uganda has developed various initiatives to address climate change in the agriculture including through mainstreaming of climate change into agricultural policies and programmes as well as in national development plans. More needs to be done to monitor the impact of such initiatives on the long term resilience and productivity of the agriculture sector as well as on its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions reductions.CSA actions are context-specific and depend on local priorities. In Uganda, system-level CSA practices such as agroforestry, water harvesting, conservation agriculture or silvo-pastoralism have the potential to increase whole farm performance, while at the same time improving livelihoods and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Integration of practices such as biogas into such systems can provide added benefits and advantages in terms of use of bio slurry as fertiliser, provision of household energy and reduction in methane emissions. In order to make informed CSA investment decisions, effective targeting and prioritization for these CSA practices needs to be undertaken, and implementation supported by robust agro-advisory services and a private sector that is aware of the costs and benefits of investment in identified priority areas. Although private sector is an important stakeholder for scaling up CSA, more needs to be done to involve private sector organisations in the design, implementation and support of CSA programmes particularly through micro insurance and microfinance as well development of CSA-related input and output markets.The long term success of current efforts to promote CSA will largely depend on the availability and sustainability of financing. Numerous funding opportunities exist, however much of the funding has been for short periods (two to five years). Long term funding instruments are needed from national to local levels to allow participating farmers to grasp the concepts fully and realize the benefits of these interventions, thus catalyzing further uptake and investment by other farmers and stakeholders.While efforts have been made to improve coordination of organizations working on agricultural climate change adaptation in the country, there is still need to strengthen the financial and operational capacity of institutions such as the Climate Change Department of MWE and the Climate-Smart Agriculture Task Force so they can perform their coordination function adequately. Improvement of institutional coordination is still needed for interministerial and local governments, and to enhance partnerships with private sector, civil society organizations and development agencies.Improving and gearing the national agricultural extension system and ensuring its staff have adequate capacity on issues of climate change and in particular climate-smart agriculture, will be a key action area. Along with this, ensuring adequate and timely access to weather and climate information for smallholder farmers will be crucial and this will also require good linkages between the Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA) and various extension service providers (government, private and civil society).","tokenCount":"4499"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"83a5ea11e80835ec3330cff2d675fbbe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/09ae4a2b-fd51-43d8-b3c7-4b93b6b552ef/retrieve","id":"86919924"},"keywords":["children rights","youth, birth registration","legislation"],"sieverID":"c6392559-dbe9-4fc7-93e6-6222cd88c999","pagecount":"5","content":"To improve the rights of unregistered children and young people in Sierra Leone, Plan International has developed a birth registration tool to enable age and identity verification for this vulnerable group. Today, the young participants of the project are accessing their age-appropriate privileges, such as being able to attend school and getting to vote.stakeholder mobilisation, raising awareness and birth information registration. As a 'tool', it is not considered an end in itself but as a means to achieving several ends (education, health, child protection, etc.).In general, a UBR initiative includes: 1. A national workshop to plan and develop consistent messages for increasing awareness, mobilisation and advocacy. 2. Organising and holding a pre-consultative meeting aimed at increasing the buy-in of the local and the national government, and of the target communities. 3. Holding preparatory consultative sustainability meetings aimed at transferring skills and increasing community ownership. 4. Engagement with the public and interactive media. 5. Organising awareness sessions and mass registration campaigns.Experience has shown that UBR serves as a cost effective and applicable tool for the attainment of child-focused development. It is also a suitable approach for building the foundations of long-term development interventions. In addition, UBR can contribute as a planning instrument during emergencies such as the outbreak of diseases like Ebola. It is also perhaps one of the few tools that possesses and promotes many of the coveted features of development:I n Sierra Leone, nearly 40% of births go unregistered, which exposes children later in life to challenges concerning attainment of their basic human rights and denial of their age-appropriate privileges and services. With this in mind and with the support of the Government of Sierra Leone and other nongovernmental organizations, Plan International has designed and implemented the project 'Promoting birth registration for children's' development and protection', geared towards addressing the vulnerability of unregistered children and young people in Sierra Leone and also in Liberia, two Mano River Union countries. The extent of the project's success has been monitored via facilitators to obtain information from the communities in which the project is working.The study focused on obtaining opinions, views and facts from the target communities on universal birth registration (UBR) as a tool to solve problems affecting children. The research team attempted to obtain such information objectively and without bias, given the project's purpose of influencing change through evidence.UBR involves the identification of a specific geographic area within which activities are conducted to ensure all children have been registered and issued birth certificates. UBR activities range from Plan International carried out a thorough study of the tool and of its implementation. This ran from April 2012 to February 2017, and was therefore halted during the Ebola outbreak of 2014-2015. The main stakeholders involved, whose views have been reflected in this work, included the Government of Sierra Leone, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Plan International, Plan Sierra Leone, many different civil society organizations, and also our implementing partners and other development agencies. Plan International's project manager and staff running the UBR were also interviewed, as well as staff from the birth and death department in Freetown. And additional information was also collected from the National Births and Deaths Registration Office.In short, the whole process considered:(a) A national workshop to plan and develop consistent messages for awareness, mobilisation and advocacy purposes. Plan International facilitated a two-day workshop to develop consistent messaging in partnership with the communication department of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, the National Office of Births and Deaths, UNICEF, the National Registration Secretariat and the National Electoral Commission. Representatives of the National Commission for Human Rights, the Commission for Disability, the Office of National Security, the National Commission for Democracy, Children's Commission, traditional leaders, religious leaders and CSOs were also in attendance. Discussions at the meeting focused on the importance of birth registration, the problems associated with unregistered births, the procedures to be followed• Cross-cutting applicability: the tool can be used to target interventions in different development sectors (such as health, education, governance and human rights), and its benefits can solve problems across sectors and sub sectors.• Ease of applicability: it is easy to set up systems and structures for UBR, as long as there is an existing government structure in place for birth registration and stakeholder buy-in. Because of its simplicity (whether paper-based or biometric), an area with a population of up to 7 million can be targeted with birth registration activities within a week.• Quick wins: when UBR is employed, quick results can be realised, especially in protecting children from harm and providing appropriate services to them.• Big results: high impact in relation to protection and rights assurance solutions are likely. Registration of 95-100% of births within populations is likely when using the tool. In the external evaluation of different cases, registration increase of between 40 and 95% has been recorded.• Targeted interventions: the desire of development and humanitarian actors to correctly identify the status of target beneficiaries to correctly plan for and allocate resources (for example, in terms of enrolment in scholls), is easily enhanced through correct birth registration data. The benefits of correct planning and resource and intervention mapping cannot be overemphasised where projects with limited resources are concerned.• Collaborative action and working together: because the process of UBR involves many different activities, it encourages collaborative action and crediting of teams rather than a single entity or actor.Plan Sierra Leone, the local councils and other stakeholders identified the situation of unregistered births as:• A major impediment to successful implementation of child-focused age-appropriate interventions and provision of services in Sierra Leone;• A principal barrier to the success of improved access to justice by victims of abuse in various sectors and subsectors including sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), child battery, child neglect, child exploitation, and child labour;• A cause for outright denial of social and civic rights of individuals seeking to exercise such; important role in community mobilisation.As the most commonly accessed media channel, radio was the most important outlet for information dissemination. Plan Sierra Leone entered into an agreement with six national radio stations and four community radio stations to broadcast shows (one per month for six months in each district), which focused on the key issues of birth registration. Each show was broadcast at peak hours and lasted for 2 hours, allowing one hour for a panel discussion and one hour for questions and answers by text/phone-in.The panellists comprised of representatives from, for example, DHMT, the District Registrar from the National Office of Births and Deaths, religious and traditional leaders, and Plan Sierra Leone staff.Last, we also ran thirty-six awareness campaigns in Kailahun, Port Loko and Western Area (12 in each district). In some initiatives, comedians paraded through the streets of the target districts putting on live performances and encouraging parents to register their children for free.Our study considered different criteria to measure the success of the tool's implementation process:• Adoption: Some partners and agencies said limited funding restricted their ability to implement the project. Others said it was the responsibility of the government to provide UBR, which is why they didn't make it a priority.• Effectiveness: Project participants stated that although effective, the tool was unable to reach all unregistered children due to mistakes preventing all those involved from achieving their aims for child registration and the linkages to the newly established civil registration system.(b) Pre-implementation consultative meetings. These activities focused on establishing and strengthening links with existing influential community stakeholders, including traditional and religious leaders, women, youth and child representatives, and community chiefs to ensure successful implementation of the UBR activity, as well as mobilisation of community at large.(c) Preparatory consultative sustainability meetings. Three consultative meetings were held -one in Port Loko, one in the Western Area and one in Kailahun. A total of 120 participants attended these meetings; 40 participants from each district. Participants included representatives from the National Office of Births and Deaths, the District Health Management Team (DHMT), paramount chiefs, tribal heads, religious leaders, city mayors, women, youth and child organisation representatives, and community based organisations. In light of the Ebola emergency, the meetings discussed the following topics:• Linkages between birth registration and the spread of disease outbreaks: faster tracing of family ties could reduce or delay the spread of disease to relatives and community members;• The importance of avoiding a break in registration activities in the eventuality of disease outbreak;• The importance of encouraging community members to access health facilities and to trust front line health personnel.There was also a large sensitization effort (April -June 2017), where interactive media played anCollaborative action can promote adoption among parties with similar interests, which is why as many stakeholders as possible were included.(such as those related to the project design and to the limited availability of resources).• Increased access to services: With proof of age through using the tool, child participants have been able to vote, attend school and avoid early marriages. They have also been able access/receive age-targeted nutrition therapy, immunisations, counselling and appropriate treatment in court.• Time-effectiveness: The time efficacy of UBR can be undermined if the paper-based certificate lacks a photograph. The process of proving legitimacy of the document can then be time consuming.• Cost effectiveness: According to the births and deaths department, it costs less than US$1 to register a child. However, due to systemic problems within government structures, evaluators of the project reported the cost at just under US$4 for each child registered.• Project reach: Stakeholders interviewed reported that the UBR recorded about 400,000 people and that 87 percent of the communities in the target area were reached, and that the awareness campaigns greatly contributed to this.• Necessity in the context: The workers at the birth and death department, as well as other project partners, have said that the tool was more than necessary in the context of the country. Districts not served during the project now have comparatively fewer unregistered children.In general terms, we've seen that collaborative action can promote adoption among parties with similar interests, this is why during the consultative meetings, as many stakeholders as possible were included to ensure the decisions were equally owned. But it is also important to mention that, when planning a mass activity which involves many people, like this one, provisions should be made for cases where disasters restrict the movement of people.We have also seen that, however result-oriented a tool, universal application cannot easily be guaranteed in a context of weak systems. Therefore, whilst we aimed for 100% registration, underlying factors such as poor systems prevented our attainment of full registration.The births and deaths department recommends that NGOs and development actors prioritise birth registration at the start of a child's life in order to obtain accurate birth information, which becomes less accurate for children registered over the age of five. UBR should be encouraged by NGOs and mandated by governments. In areas suspected to have lower than 60% birth registration rates, mass awareness campaigns should be undertaken. Plan International should insist on the practice of UBR as a mainstream activity of every country office, especially in the countries where it works.","tokenCount":"1845"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"55eec3417292b0613142fca0c2782e95","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c753070a-c826-4712-8c3e-108eb17fef9f/retrieve","id":"182380175"},"keywords":["Colombo","Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation. 24p E-flows","HABFLO","SoNAR","LiDAR","hydraulic modelling","habitat assessment Flagship Digital Twin Work package System Monitoring Partners GroundTruth","International Water Management Institute (IWMI)"],"sieverID":"89cf32eb-bcf2-4b41-ab6e-f47cc07db93f","pagecount":"24","content":"Environmental flows (E-flows) are crucial for maintaining healthy river ecosystems as an essential part of water resources management, but traditional E-flow assessments that include modelling of hydraulic habitats, often rely on limited, single cross-section data. This study presents a novel approach integrating Sound Navigation and Ranging (SoNAR) and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data collected using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to create a high-resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and was carried out for a section of the Olifants River in Southern Africa. The integrated DTM enabled detailed 2-Dimensional (2D) hydraulic modelling using Hydraulic Engineering Centre River Analysis System (HEC-RAS), with the resulting depth and velocity outputs used to visualise the HABitat FLOw (HABFLO) fish and invertebrate habitat classes across the entire reach that was modelled. Additionally, a habitat distribution calculator was developed to determine habitat distributions based on river flows. The longitudinal analysis of habitat distributions for a section of the river revealed variations in habitat class distributions that a single cross-section-based analysis would not highlight, thus providing a more comprehensive understanding of habitat dynamics under varying flow conditions. The successful merging of SoNAR and LiDAR data demonstrates the power of combining UAV-derived remote sensing techniques for characterisation of riverine features. This workflow has the potential to further enhance E-flow assessments, aiding in the development of ecologically sound water management strategies. However, future work should include in-field validation of modelled habitat distributions and the expansion of the methodology to larger areas.Rivers are globally exploited for various purposes such as carrying additional increased flows through interbasin transfers, unstainable extractions, assimilation of pollution, etc, often without considering the water needs of the ecosystems themselves (Rai and Jain 2022). For sustainable water resource management, it is crucial to identify a balance between water requirements and the health of the river system for a catchment. E-flows are an important tool to achieve this balance (Rai and Jain 2022). E-flows are defined as water that is intentionally retained in or added to rivers to manage the health of the river; and the specific purpose of E-flows can range from maintaining healthy ecosystems to supporting endangered fish populations (King et al. 2008). Arthington et al. (2018) revised the definition of E-flows to embrace flowing, standing and groundwater dependent ecosystems as well as aquatic systems that alternate between states. The revised E-flow definition is as follows: \"Environmental flows describe the quantity, timing, and quality of freshwater flows and levels necessary to sustain aquatic ecosystems, which in turn, support human cultures, economies, sustainable livelihoods, and well-being.\" Determination of the flow regime that provides for optimal E-flows is an evolving science, with one approach being to model the hydraulic habit as a basis on which to determine the needs of the ecosystem. E-flows are also beneficial for many interconnected components of a river system, including the waterways, nearby wetlands, groundwater, and plants and animals that rely on the entire river network (King et al. 2008). Therefore, E-flow frameworks should be holistic and consider how water flow and other factors interact to impact both the environment and society over entire regions (O'Brien et al. 2018).The current state of practice that is generally used for E-flow assessments in Southern Africa includes the use of single cross-sectional data with habitat distribution models to inform E-flow assessments. In this document an innovative approach is developed to determine habitat distributions using hydraulic modelling and remotely sensed topobathymetric data.There are a variety of methods relating to the quantification of E-Flows and the majority of the methods can be grouped into the following categories: (a) hydrological (Cavendish and Duncan 1986;Milhous et al. 1989), (b) hydraulic rating (Waters 1976;Tharme 1996), (c) habitat simulation (Loar et al. 1986;Dunbar et al. 1997), and (d) holistic methods (Tharme 1996;Arthington 1998).The hydrological approaches for E-flow methodologies generally use historical hydrological data to provide recommendations for E-flows and are generally estimated as a fixed proportion of flow/minimum flow (Cavendish and Duncan 1986;Milhous et al. 1989). A limitation of this approach is that the method is simplistic and does not account for the variability of hydrological processes (King et al. 2008). The hydraulic methods for E-flow assessments generally quantify the relationship between flow and instream resources such as habitats (Tharme 1996). A limiting assumption of this approach is that one hydraulic variable or a group of variables can be used to adequately represent the flow requirements of a particular species (King et al. 2008).The habitat simulation methodologies assess E-Flows using the relationship between flow and biotic response and are sometimes called habitat rating or habitat modelling methods (Loar et al. 1986;Dunbar et al. 1997;King et al. 2008). In these methods, flow (discharge) and changes in microhabitats are modelled using at least one hydraulic variable (Tharme 1996). These variables generally include velocity, depth, or substrate composition.The holistic method was developed in South Africa in the 1990s and the basic premise of the approach is to examine a hydrograph and use expert judgement and available data to determine a flow regime to maintain a river ecosystem in a desired state (King et al. 2008).The outputs from habitat models are generally habitatdischarge curves which can be used to estimate the optimum discharge for target biota (King et al. 2008). It is important to highlight that an aim of E-Flow assessments is to maintain a healthy river, however, it is often difficult to select an appropriate species prior to making a recommendation, and generally very little information pertaining to riverine biota is available in many countries (Richardson 1986;Gan and McMahon 1990). The majority of the methods for simulating habitats assume that it is sufficient to model the reaction of biological responses to discharge using hydraulic variables (Mathur et al. 1985;Shirvell 1986). This level of modelling may not be adequate, and the assumption is limited because these models focus on how the changes in flow affect factors such as water depth and velocity, without accounting for the broader effects on the entire ecosystem. Moreover, when performing ecological studies, the hydraulic data must be interpreted in a manner that is meaningful to ecologists. Many South African studies have specified habitat in terms of habitat classes linked to a range of velocities, depths, and other nonflow-dependent characteristics (Hirschowitz et al. 2007). Poff et al. (1997) proposed that understanding the natural flow regime of a river should be a central goal in efforts to conserve and restore rivers. Therefore, it is important to account for Eflows and E-flows must evolve with human activities to successfully deal with new challenges (Poff and Matthews 2013). Although the techniques and procedures used to advise on E-flows are relatively young (approximately 50 years), there are various different methods for E-flow assessments used globally (King et al. 2008). Hirschowitz et al. (2007) developed the HABitat FLOw (HABFLO) simulation software to provide a working model to automate the prediction of the abundance and composition of fish and macro-invertebrate habitat types. The HABFLO model is used to predict the frequency distribution of hydraulic parameters, viz. depth, and velocity. In practice however, Eflow assessments have relied on measurements taken directly in the river, but these on-site measurements lack sufficient detail to represent the entire river, and the cross section data collected during these surveys might not be easily accessible to everyone who needs it (Singh 2023).Habitat simulation models such as HABFLO follow an instream flow incremental methodology where physical habitat characteristics (depth, velocity, substrate) at a specific point in a river are linked to the suitability of that habitat for target species and life stages (Stalnaker et al. 1995). Traditionally, when performing habitat modelling with the HABFLO model, the model is run based on one or more cross-sections for the site/river. The location of the selected cross sections is generally dependent on conditions at the site when the survey is being conducted. However, the location and number of cross-sections used for the modelling are important when determining the representation and reliability of hydraulic modelling and subsequently the habitat simulations (Bovee and Milhous 1978). Due to limitations associated with obtaining cross section data for 1d modelling and detailed topobathymetric data for 2D modelling, remote sensing techniques for data collection in E-flow assessments are gaining popularity (Singh 2023).Stream temperature can cause fish migration and impact fish spawning patterns (Jonsson and Jonsson 2010). Tsang et al. (2021) investigated how climate change will affect fish communities in rivers and they acknowledged that climate change will alter water temperature and flow which will likely change the locations where fish can live in the future. Zhao et al. (2018) found that water flow and temperature affect how quickly pollutants break down in a river and proposed a new method to link fish tolerance to water pollution levels to determine E-flows.The specific aim of this report is to assess the applicability of utilising a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) obtained using data collected with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with Sonar and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors to perform 2-Dimensional (2D) hydraulic and habitat modelling based on the HABFLO habitat classes for a section of the Olifants River in Southern Africa.The aim of this report is to use a UAV-derived DTM to perform 2D hydraulic and habitat modelling over a river reach. The following specific objectives are required to achieve this aim: e. Assess the performance of the developed method compared to the traditional HABFLO model using a single cross-section; and f. Develop a sensor platform to collect water quality data using a UAV and use water temperature data with a habitat simulation model.A method was developed to visualise different habitat classes along an entire reach of a river. The process of developing this method has been divided into two phases:Phase 1: Development of a 2-dimensional hydraulic model of a river reach (using HEC-RAS 2D).Phase 2: Development of a 2-dimensional visualisation tool for the distribution of HABFLO habitat classes along the river reach using the results from the HEC-RAS model.The two phases are described (with examples) in further detail in the following sections.In this report, the visualisation of habitat classes for fish and invertebrates, based on depth and velocity raster layers generated from a HEC-RAS model (HEC 2024), was done using an adapted methodology based on the Weighted Usable Area (WUA) concept used in hydraulic models such as River2d and PHABSIM (Steffler and Blackburn 2002;Gard 2009;Roh et al. 2011). To determine fish habitat classes, both the depth and velocity result layers are required, and for invertebrate habitat classes, the velocity layer and substrate type of the reach are required (Hirschowitz et al. 2007).A Channel Index (CI) is defined over the mesh of the area being modelled to evaluate the CI suitability (substrate, cover, etc.) for certain habitats (Steffler and Blackburn 2002), and the WUA is calculated using the habitat Suitability (SI) curve and the CI (Steffler and Blackburn 2002). It is acknowledged that generally an SI curve for depth, velocity, and CI for different species at different growth stages is required, but in this report, the HABFLO depth-velocity (for fish) and sediment-velocity (for invertebrates) classes from Hirschowitz et al. (2007) were used for consistency and comparability with the HABFLO model.The WUA is a suitability index that accounts for the suitability of the entire river reach for a discharge value (Steffler and Blackburn 2002). The WUA should be evaluated at different flows for different species and different life cycles. It is noted that prior to the calculation of the WUA, a steady or transient state solution is required for River2D or PHABSIM (Steffler and Blackburn 2002;Gard 2009;Roh et al. 2011). The WUA is generally calculated using the product, geometric mean or minimum methods using the SI and CI as inputs (Steffler and Blackburn 2002).The data required to achieve the aim and objectives of this study were collected during a site-visit that was undertaken to conduct a topobathymetric survey of the Olifants river downstream of the Balule Bridge as shown in Figure 1 below. When using a UAV for data collection, it is important to highlight that the quantity of data collected depends on a multitude of factors, including but not limited to, weather, safety, landowner permissions, electricity supply, etc.The aim of the surveys was to collect data to generate a DTM together with Red, Green, Blue (RGB) Orthomosaic and multispectral imagery. LiDAR data were collected using a Zenmuse LiDAR module (DJI 2024) with an RGB camera, and the multispectral imagery was collected using a Laquinta sensor (Laquinta 2024). An easily accessible low cost and over the counter Ping echosounder and altimeter (Robotics 2024) was used with the UAV to obtain below water depths for the Olifants river with the aim of generating a complete terrestrial and riverbed profile for a portion of the river, as the LiDAR beams do not penetrate water. The Bluerobotics Ping echosounder and an ultrasonic sensor were attached to a flotation device designed by GroundTruth, which was pulled over the water surface using a DJI Matrice (M300) drone (see Figure 2). The data that were collected and the equipment used to collect the data are provided in Table 1. Simultaneously, a research team from the University of Mpumalanga used a SonTek Acoustic Doppler to collect bathymetric data on the same river reach. In addition, a cross sectional survey of the Olifants River was performed using a Total Station survey instrument.The SoNAR devices measure depth relative to the position of the device and the DTM generated by the LiDAR provides points with an altitude above sea level. Therefore, the Global Positioning System (GPS) points associated with the elevation data from the LiDAR survey and the depths from the SoNAR device were linked. The depth below the water surface was then estimated by subtracting the depth from the SoNAR device from the elevation from the LiDAR data. Thereafter, an interpolation procedure was performed to generate an underwater profile of the riverbed. A 25cm resolution DTM was thereafter derived using the information collected by all three surveying techniques. Where the initial resolution was greater from the SonTek and SoNAR devices, these points were interpolated to conserve the final resolution of the LiDAR data. The DTMs were compared to identify the highest level and most accurate representation of the riverbed.In addition, an MF pro and a Global Water flow probe were used to collect depth and flow velocities for points along the Olifants river. The discharge measured by the MF Pro was subsequently verified using the depth data collected from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) gauging Weir (B7H026). During the site-visit, a cross-sectional survey was taken across the width of river using a total station. This information was used to verify the elevations of the processed DTM.The data that were collected were used to set-up and run the HABFLO model and the SoNAR and LiDAR data were merged to generate a DTM of the riverbed and floodplain. The DTM was used for the HEC-RAS 2D hydraulic modelling and the results from the hydraulic modelling were then used to visualise the HABFLO fish and invertebrate classes for the section of the Olifants river that was modelled.In addition to the data collected for Phase 1 and 2, additional water characteristics data were collected for the Lions River in KwaZulu-Natal. The results that were obtained are presented and discussed in the following sections.The HEC-RAS software has been developed by the U.S. For any 2D surface flow model, a DTM of the terrain to be assessed is required. For this particular model, GroundTruth carried out an independent UAV (drone) based LiDAR survey of the focused reach of river to be modelled. This survey provided detail on the river floodplains, sandbars, rock ledges, and vegetation, to provide elevation detail and high-resolution RGB imagery for holistic visual information that is not always gathered during a site visit. Additional details regarding the collection of data are provided in the Data Collection section.A hydraulic roughness layer or Manning's roughness coefficient (n) layer is required for a 2D HEC-RAS model. This layer is used to describe the hydraulic resistance to the flow of water over different surfaces and is essential to calculate river velocities (HEC 2024). The initial land cover descriptions, which were based off the RGB imagery and general site knowledge from the field work, with the corresponding Manning's n values (Chow 1959) were developed and have been provided in Table 2 below. These were subsequently refined during the calibration process following the initial model run.  A Courant Number of 1 implies that a particle of water will move from one cell centre to the next cell centre in an amount of time equal to the computation interval. For C > 1, there is a risk of numerical diffusion errors, and large diffusion errors lead to instability in the model and inaccurate results (Kleinschmidt 2023).To manage these instabilities, a larger grid size is generally used for the Geometry File and refined for areas with higher variations in the terrain. The refinements are done using break lines and refinement regions. Since, by default, HEC-RAS creates a structured 2D grid and the results are averaged throughout each cell area as mentioned above, these geometry editor functions within HEC-RAS allow the user to restructure the grid to accurately represent the averaged depths and velocities over the terrain. For example, should a large cell size cover the entire cross-section of a levee (Figure 3, top), the averaged results on one side of the levee will be represented throughout the cell, and thus the model will show flow accumulating on the opposite side of the levee, whereas in reality, this may not occur. Therefore, the inclusion of a break line will manipulate and restructure the cell to lie perpendicular to the levee (Figure 3, bottom) to avoid \"jumps\" in flow and more accurately represent the hydraulic connectivity between cells.In HEC-RAS there are five boundary types: flow time series, stage time series, normal depth, rating curve, and precipitation. For this model, a flow time series was used as the inlet flow, and a normal depth was used as the outlet.In this report, the results from the HEC-RAS modelling were used to determine habitat distributions over a reach. Therefore, it was decided that the most efficient way of modelling flow through the HEC-RAS model would be to undertake one simulation with flow increasing with time. Therefore, instead \uD835\uDC36 = \uD835\uDC49 ∆\uD835\uDC47 ∆\uD835\uDC4B of using a steady flow hydrograph which represents one flow and thus will require multiple model simulations for the habitat distribution results, a straight-line hydrograph was inserted into the model (see Figure 4). This hydrograph will relay to the model that the flow entering the system increases incrementally over a prescribed time step. This, however, represents a constant change in flow through the reach of river from the inlet to the outlet until the run is complete. As the habitat distribution study requires the hydraulic characteristics of one specific flow through the entire reach, this would not provide the required results (i.e. at any specific time, the flow rate entering the system would differ from that exiting the system). To develop a more singular representation of flow through the system at any given time, an incremental time step was used to represent the time it would take both low flows and high flows to travel down the river reach. Thereafter, constant flow was entered between the incremental time step until the inlet flow was equal to the outlet flow. The flow was increased incrementally each time the inlet and outlet flow were equal. This then developed a stepped hydrograph (see Figure 5) to ensure that the flow exiting the system matched the flow entering the system before the flow was increased. The energy slope associated with the flow boundary is also required when using HEC-RAS. Therefore, the longitudinal water surface slope that was measured on-site was used and verified using the LiDAR data. The outlet boundary condition for the site was taken as a normal depth condition. A normal depth condition implies that the flow will exit the model based on the hydraulic gradient generated through the water surface elevation and the user-defined energy gradient.The model was run using an unsteady flow analysis tool which uses the Conservation of Mass Principal and the Shallow Water Equation or Momentum Conservation Equation, which is then simplified to a Diffusion Wave Equation (Kleinschmidt 2023). The 2D area created in HEC-RAS applies the conservation of mass principal where volume is neither lost nor destroyed and therefore the volume entering each 2D cell equals the volume leaving and storage maintained (Kleinschmidt 2023). The computation then uses the Momentum Conservation Equation which relates changes in velocity to internal and external forces on the fluid caused by hydrostatic pressure, turbulence, and friction. These equations are then vertically averaged throughout each cell to yield 2D Shallow Water Equations. When first applying the model, HEC-RAS makes the following default assumptions: (a) HEC-RAS assumes a low turbulent flow, therefore the eddy viscosity function is not turned on, and (b) there is no acceleration in the system, therefore the Momentum Conservation Equation is reduced to the Diffusion Wave Approximation Equation which HEC-RAS uses by default (Kleinschmidt 2023).Based on the complexity of the river reach and the purpose of the study, it has been assumed that flow acceleration, eddy viscosity, and more detailed flow characteristics are required for E-Flow determination. Therefore, the simulation was first done with the default Diffusion Wave Equation, and thereafter, once the model was finalised, the Full Momentum Equation (Shallow Water Equation) was used and compared.When setting up the unsteady flow analysis, the following computation settings are required:• computation interval;• mapping output interval;• hydrograph output interval; and• detailed output interval.As mentioned in the geometry data section, the computation interval determines the stability of the model, therefore, the computation interval was initially set to 1 second and thereafter reduced until both the volumetric errors and courant numbers were acceptable. The mapping output interval was set to 1 hour because the stepped hydrograph was developed using 1-hour increments. This was done because the result layers required for determining the habitat distribution (documented below) is a singular raster file where the flow entering the system has reached a state of equilibrium (or steady state) to the flow exiting the system. The flow detail until the equilibrium state has been reached is irrelevant to the E-Flow results. Hence, both the output hydrograph intervals were also set to 1 hour. An initial condition was set prior to the flow simulation using an initial time of 4 hours, as this was the estimated time for the lowest flow to reach the end of the system. Therefore, prior to the simulation of the provided unsteady flow, the simulation was set to run for 4 hours of the hydrograph to allow for an initial wetted condition in the reach of river. This was done to avoid an unrealistic case of flow entering a dry/empty system. Subsequently, as mentioned above, the equation was changed from a Diffusion Wave equation to the Full Momentum equation for the final run.The Diffusion Wave model ran for 29 minutes, without error, and the simulation only generated an overall volume accounting error of 0.000010% and a maximum courant number of 0.76 (lower than 1 as required for the Diffusion Wave equation). The Full Momentum model ran for 1 hour, 37 minutes, without error, and the simulation generated an overall volume accounting error of 0.000370% with a maximum courant number of 0.52 (lower than 2 as required for a Full Momentum equation). This indicates that little to no instability occurred during the simulation and the equation results are relatively high in accuracy. The overall representative accuracy however is dependent on the user inputs such as the terrain data, roughness co-efficient and the geometry data.The comparisons between the Diffusion Wave and Full Momentum equation simulations showed very little difference in flow characteristics. There were certain areas around islands that showed slight changes in particle tracing (i.e., eddying), however, in terms of depth and velocity, there were no significant differences. This indicates that the Diffusion Wave equation method is sufficient in accurately representing flow characteristics for habitat distribution classification, which is more feasible than running the Full Momentum method based on faster simulation times and volume accounting errors.Once the model had completed its run, the simulated results are displayed on RASmapper, which, by default display the flow depth, velocity, and water surface elevation (Figure 6, Figure 7, and Figure 8 respectively). RASmapper also allows the user to animate a dynamic representation of the flow through the reach of river over the simulation time at increments specified by the mapping output interval. As a result, the user can visually observe one of the above three result layers at any specific time throughout the hydrograph and observe the flow characteristics such as hydraulic conductivity, water surface gradients, etc. The user can then export these results as a Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) or a shapefile to use in Geographic Information System (GIS) software. The user may also generate additional standard result layers such as shear stress, energy, arrival time, stream power, etc. as well as calculate new result layers using the RASter Calculator to develop comparisons, or in the case of this report, the relationship between depth and velocity ranges.During the site visit where surveys were undertaken to establish the terrain data as mentioned above, additional data were collected at points along the river reach to develop a good indication of the depth and velocity values for the specific flow rate during the time of the survey. The MF Pro was used to measure the flow rates, however, as an additional check, the depth at the gauging weir directly upstream of the study site (weir B7H026) was measured and converted to a flow rate using the rating table obtained from the DWS. This provided an accurate estimation on the observed flows during the time of the survey. The rating table indicated that the flow during the time of the survey was between 4.208 m³/s and 4.476 m³/s as the flow depth measured at the weir was approximately between 0.24 m and 0.25 m (see Figure 9). The MF Pro measured an averaged flow of 4.528 m³/s across the cross section surveyed. This indicates a strong correlation between the MF Pro measurements and the gauging weir, and therefore, the measured flow in the modelling was taken as 4.5m³/s. At this flow, the modelled depth and velocities were compared to the point data collected during the survey to ensure that the model was representative of the river. The results of which have been described below.Several iterations were done using the geometry and the Manning's n layer to obtain the most accurate and realistic representation of the observed data. The accuracy of the results was computed following the final model run. This was done by selecting the measured flow as mentioned above and comparing the corresponding depths and velocities between the simulated results and the on-site observed data. Where the DTM evidently matched the terrain on site (this was determined based on the channel profile and what could be seen through imagery), the differences between the depths and velocities were on average between 0.02 m and 0.2 m/s respectively. Based on the HABFLO ranges, these differences are small enough not to have a large effect on the habitat class determination. These correlations made up 40% of points collected. The other 60% of the points collected differed substantially, with the greatest difference = 0.44 m. This difference could result in an inaccurate representation of habitat class classification and distribution over the river reach. When investigated, it is concluded that the inaccurate points were mostly due to inaccurate bathymetric data. Along the measured cross-section, the points which correlated well lay on the cross-section where the DTM matched the manual survey. However, where the DTM differs from the manual survey, the depth and velocity results are inaccurate. The comparison between the DTM and manual survey can be seen in Figure 10 below. For results that differed from the observed data and were not close to the cross-section, it was seen on the imagery that the bathymetric survey did not pick up certain features such as sediment plumes or inundations. As shown in Figure 11  These outcomes indicate that with accurate bathymetric data and real-time site data, a 2D HEC-RAS model can accurately represent the flow characteristics (depth and velocity in particular) of a reach of river. The feasibility of collecting accurate bathymetric data, however, will determine the feasibility of carrying out the approach described in this report. This will depend on the cost of the equipment required, the man-hours and effort required to obtain the data, and the overall scale of the project and available budget. Table 3 below represents a feasibility matrix of the above factors for three survey options, namely, Green LiDAR; SoNAR/ Acoustic Doppler etc.; and manual surveys using Real Time Kinetic (RTK) systems/Total stations etc.Although it has been acknowledged that the application of the SoNAR bathymetric survey provided limitations to the accuracy of the HEC-RAS results, for the purpose of the continuation of the study, these results were used to develop the proof of concept that a suitable and feasible system can be developed for modelling habitat distributions over a reach of river using a 2D-hydraulic model (on the basis that feasible detailed bathymetric data can be obtained). The following sections provide the approaches used to develop HABFLO habitat distributions of the river reach using HEC-RAS result layers as an input to the process.In this section of the report, an overview of the process used to create a visual representation of fish habitat classes and the results from the HEC-RAS 2D model for the reach is described.Two approaches, i.e. GIS and hydraulic modelling, were applied. The background, limitations and results for each approach are detailed below.An adaptation of the WUA method was generated to utilise the outputs from HABFLO (Hirschowitz et al. 2007) and HEC-RAS (HEC 2024) in Quantum GIS (QGIS 2024) using the steps detailed below:1. Load the velocity and depth raster files for a specific river flow rate (Q) into QGIS and filter out any \"No Data\" cells.2. A new raster was created to identify the overlaps within the HABFLO-specified depth and velocity ranges shown in Table 4.3. The output of the raster calculator is a binary raster with values of 0 (no overlap) and 1 (overlap). Therefore, the outputs were reclassified to represent each HABFLO class. Thereafter, all seven layers that represented each of the seven HABFLO fish habitat classes shown in Table 4 were merged.4. The percentage distribution of the different classes for the reach was subsequently calculated as shown in Table 5.   (Hirschowitz et al. 2007)A limitation of this approach is that the overlap between the fish habitat classes could not be accounted for dynamically in a GIS environment. Therefore, the HABFLO classes were separated based on velocity. As an example, the percentage distribution of HABFLO classes is shown in Table 5. As noted previously, a limitation of this approach is that the overlap between classes is not dynamically accounted for. Therefore, the method was subsequently refined to adopt a more dynamic approach. The methodology and results from the refined approach are provided in the next section.The GIS approach described in the previous section was refined to be carried out using HEC-RAS to generate the output for a range of different river discharge/flow rate (Q) values for each depth and velocity pixel of the river reach as described in the HEC-RAS 2D section above. A Visual Basic script was written for the Fish habitat classes and applied using the RASter calculator tool within HEC-RAS to assign a HABFLO class to each pixel for the reach using the specific depth and velocity of each pixel for an entire hydrograph (i.e. for different Q values at different time steps). This calculated result layer is shown in Figure 12 below.  The HABFLO outputs calculated from HEC-RAS were then used to determine the percentage distribution of each HABFLO class for the reach using the following steps:1. A range of Q values was selected based on the data collected during the site visit and the information obtained from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS 2023) gauging weir at the site (see HEC-RAS Result Outcomes section).2. The 'No Data' cells were filtered out from the raster files.3. Thereafter, the percentage distribution of each HABFLO class for each selected Q value was estimated. The distributions generated in this step are termed the 'observed' case in this document. The selected flow rates, 0.5, 2.5, 4.5, 6.5, and 8.5 m 3 s -1 , and associated distribution layers were exported from HEC-RAS and used to create regression models as highlighted above (Step 3). The HEC-RAS-derived distributions of HABFLO classes for these chosen flow rates have been provided in Table 6.Flow rates of 11 and 12.5 m 3 s -1 were then entered into the regression model to simulate the HABFLO distribution at this discharge (Step 5). These simulated distributions have been provided in Table 7 below. The simulated values for these two flow rates were then compared to the actually modelled distributions from HEC-RAS and the average absolute error between the modelled and simulated values were 4 % and 6 % respectively.It is interesting to note that the regression models were developed using Q values of 0.5, 2.5, 4.5, 6.5, and 8.5 m 3 s -1 , but the models performed well (Errors < 10 % and R 2 > 0.8) in terms of estimating the distribution for a reach for Q values of 11 and 12.5 m 3 s -1 as shown in Figure 13. A statistical comparison between the modelled and simulated values for all the discharge values is provided in Table 8.  8, the correlation between the modelled and simulated values is good (R 2 and NSE ≈ 1) and the error between the modelled and simulated data are low (MAE and RMSE ≈ 0). Therefore, the method presented above may be used to generate distributions of HABFLO fish-habitat classes for an entire reach using any discharge value.A comparison between the results generated from the traditional 1D HABFLO model based on the cross-section measured on-site, and the hydraulic modelling method presented in this section is provided in Table 9, below. The comparison between the visualisation of these results has also been shown in Figure 14. It should be noted that the accuracy of the results for this comparison is based on the confidence of the results in the generation of the DTM and the hydraulic modelling as described in the sections above.Nonetheless, when the results obtained (from HABFLO and the hydraulic modelling approach to estimate habitat distributions) were compared to the HEC-RAS model within the areas which correlate well to the observed data, it can be concluded that, for the Olifants River, the 1D HABFLO model does not account for certain habitat classes which are clearly apparent in the 2D model over the reach of the river for certain depths of flow. It has also been found that the percentage distribution of a specific habitat class may be low along the 1D channel profile, and high within the surrounding areas of the reach, or vice versa. This is due to large variations in the channel as observed in the Olifants river. In a case such as this, these results may affect an E-Flow determination study when considering fish species, invertebrates, geomorphology, riparian vegetation, etc., whilst a more holistic understanding of the habitat distributions over a river reach may provide a higher confidence level for the specialists involved in the E-Flow decision making.Overall, it was evident that the habitat distributions estimated using both the methods correlate well for low flows. This can be attributed to the possible similarities in channel characteristics at a low flow depth. Therefore, for a uniform channel, one may find that 1D modelling using HABFLO may be sufficient in representing habitat distributions for E-Flow determination. However, as the flow increases, and the more complex river features (sandbars, rock ledges, islands, etc.) become activated within the flow area, the habitat distributions begin to differ significantly between the 1D and 2D hydraulic modelling results, thus concluding that 1D modelling may not be representative for a non-uniform river reach. Additional to this, in a complex river system such as the Olifants, the 2D hydraulic model provides further insight into fish migration opportunities for breeding patterns.In the next section, the GIS and hydraulic based methodology was applied to generate a visual representation of invertebrate habitat classes for the same river reach.Q (m 3 .s- In this section of the report, an overview of the process followed to create a visual representation of invertebrate habitat classes over the reach is described. The results are based on a GIS and Hydraulic based approach to determine the habitat suitability of a reach for varying flow conditions as detailed below.The invertebrate habitat classes from HABFLO (Hirschowitz et al. 2007) provided in Table 10 were visualised using the velocity raster layers for different Q values generated using HEC-RAS (HEC 2024) in QGIS (QGIS 2024) using the steps detailed below:1. A range of discharge values was selected based on the data collected during the site visit and the information obtained from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS 2023) gauging weir at the site. 2. Load the velocity raster files (for different discharges) into QGIS and filter out any \"No Data\" cells.3. The sandbars from the imagery were classified as fine sediments and all other areas of the reach were classified as coarse sediments.4. The sediment layers were classified as follows; fine sediment cells were assigned a value of 1 and coarse sediment cells were assigned a value of 2.5. A new raster was created to identify the overlaps between the fine and coarse sediment layer and the HABFLO velocity ranges for invertebrates shown in Table 6.6. The percentage distribution of the different classes for the reach was subsequently calculated. 9. A distribution calculation tool was created based on the regression equations for the different HABFLO habitat classes. Therefore, if any reasonable Q value is inserted into the calculator, a distribution (%) of each invertebrate habitat class for the reach is calculated.10. The error between the outputs mentioned in Step 5 were compared using the average absolute error, NSE (Nash and Sutcliffe 1970), correlation coefficient (R 2 ) (Schulze et al. 1995), MAE and the RMSE (Legates and McGabe 1999;Ritter and Munoz-Carpena 2013;Lal et al. 2016).Table 10. HABFLO invertebrate habitat classes (Hirschowitz et al, 2007) A limitation when performing the mapping of the invertebrate habitat classes is that the level of spatial information for the sediments was not detailed in this report. Therefore, the distribution of the HABFLO invertebrate classes for the different discharges may not be representative of physical reality. However, this was performed as a proof-of-concept study to determine the distribution of invertebrate habitat classes across a reach using the outputs from HEC-RAS. This was done to verify whether the methodology can be applied for future E-Flow studies should detailed sediment information be available. In Table 11, the modelled results that were generated using discharges of 0.5, 2.5, 4.5, 6.5 and 8.5 m 3 s -1 are provided. Similar to the Fish Habitat Classes above, regression models were fitted to the discharge and distribution data for each HABFLO invertebrate class. Thereafter, habitat distributions were simulated for discharges of 11 and 12.5 m 3 s -1 as presented in Table 12. The HEC-RAS distribution results were then compared for these flows and the average absolute error between the modelled and simulated values were 4 and 6 % respectively.The regression models were not developed with discharges of 11 and 12.5 m 3 s -1 , but the model performed well (Errors < 10 % and R 2 > 0.8) when tested using these discharge values as shown in Figure 15.  A statistical comparison between the modelled and simulated values for all the discharge values is provided in Table 13.Table 13. Performance of the model that was developedAn NSE and R 2 of one and a RMSE close to zero generally indicate good model performance. As shown in Table 13, the correlation between the modelled and simulated values is good (R 2 and NSE ≈ 1) and the error between the modelled and simulated data are low (MAE and RMSE < 0.1). Therefore, the method presented above may be used to generate distributions of HABFLO invertebrate habitat classes for an entire reach using a discharge value. A comparison between the results generated from the traditional HABFLO based on a crosssection and the method presented has not be shown for the invertebrate habitat classes due to the sediment layer being an assumed distribution of fine and course sediment.The HABFLO model accounts for variation in water flow depth and velocity along a cross section, however, there are other factors such as temperature that could also impact habitat suitability. Zhao et al. ( 2018) stated that both water quality and quantity should be considered when performing e-flow assessments and found that water velocity and temperature influenced the pollution degradation rate in rivers. Tsang et al. (2021) found that temperature changes due to climate changeCorrelation coefficient (R 2 ) 0.871Mean Absolute Error (MAE) 0.031 Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) model coefficient 0.838Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) 0.057 will impact and change stream classes for different habitats. Therefore, for this project, a device was constructed and used to collect temperature and river characteristics data using a UAV as described in the next section.The development of a UAV-towed sensing system Traditional point-sampling methods limit comprehensive assessments of river health over large spatial areas. This challenge was addressed by GroundTruth by developing a drone-towed sensor platform for spatially extensive water quality data collection. The aim of developing the unit was to improve the data collection process and to further develop the linkages between river flow regimes and water quality parameters. This data could ultimately benefit E-flow assessments.The sensor platform that was built was equipped with the following devices:• Three temperature sensors to capture thermal variations at multiple depths and across the width of the river.• A temperature-calibrated Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) sensor to monitor total dissolved solids, providing insights into potential pollution sources.• A SoNAR device to map variations in the riverbed profile.• A turbidity sensor to measure water clarity, indicating areas of high sediment load.• A GPS module for precise geotagging of all sensor readings.The data logging occurred at 2-second intervals, ensuring the capture of changes within the river environment. All the sensors and microcontrollers required to process the collected data were mounted on a specially built boat that was manoeuvred using a UAV as shown in Figure 16. The UAVbased approach enabled a safe and efficient survey of a river segment. This highlights the potential for expansion in terms of data collection capabilities compared to traditional point sampling methods. The boat also allows for LiDAR and below Table 12. Simulated distribution of HABFLO invertebrate habitat classes across the reach water surveys to be done by a single pilot with one UAV.The entire system was developed and programmed by the GroundTruth team, and the system was tested in KwaZulu-Natal. The resulting dataset offers unique insight into riverine characteristics for a segment of the Lions River in KwaZulu-Natal. As shown in Figure 17, the temperature varied along the river reach and temperature variations can reveal zones of groundwater influx or thermal stratification of the water column. As shown in Figure 18, the TDS fluctuations may correlate with land-use practices within the catchment and the SoNAR data that were collected are vital for complementing hydraulic and riverbed morphology studies. The mapping of turbidity, as shown in Figure 19 can be linked to sediment transport dynamics.This multi-parameter water quality data can potentially be integrated with E-flow assessments and has the potential to identify areas where flow alterations cause significant changes in water quality and quantify the water quality degradation. This knowledge can be vital for targeted and effective catchment and E-flow management strategies.The temperature data that were collected in this study were subsequently used with the HABFUZZ model and the results were compared to the results obtained from the HABFLO model as detailed in the next section. Green LiDAR bathymetry is a further innovative river bathymetry technology. Green LiDAR technology is a laser based bathymetric scanning system that's uses two lasers in the light range: infrared and green. An infrared pulse reflects off the surface of water or land, while a green pulse penetrates the water and reflects off the bottom of a water-body and off the land (Quadros et al. 2008).Singh ( 2023) reviewed a variety of optical and acoustic sensors to undertake remotely sensed bathymetric surveys. Based on the findings of the literature review and with the objective to select a robust approach that performs well in multiple environments, perform repeatable measurements and to conduct surveys in difficult to access river reaches, the green LiDAR optical approach was chosen for use.The green LiDAR payloads are compatible with many commercial UAV's which facilitates topobathymetric measurements in non-navigable areas. The findings of the green LiDAR trial highlighted that the UAV-based green LiDAR was able to detect depths of up to 85 m and 2 Secchi Depths under ideal conditions and provides high resolution and accuracies. Given these characteristics the system can be viewed as a cost-effective solution over large land and coastal zones making it an attractive tool for the creation of a digital twin. The primary limitation of the approach is the decreased performance in turbid areas and areas with riffles. An example of a generated DTM generated using a Green LiDAR session is shown in Figure 20. Green LiDAR pulses are able to penetrate water and as such Figure 21 shows cross sections of DTMs generated with and without elevation points that penetrated the surface of the water body to showcase the detail and value that using a Green LiDAR system provides. The HABFUZZ model uses fuzzy inference processes and Bayesian joint probability inference methods to calculate the instream habitat suitability based on flow velocity, water depth, substrate type and temperature of a hydraulically simulated river reach (Theodoropoulos et al. 2016). HABFUZZ introduces the power of fuzzy logic to model habitat preferences across a broader spatial scale, and fuzzy logic is useful to account for the inherent uncertainties and variations found in ecological systems. The conventional models such as HABFLO rely on definitive boundaries (e.g., a fish species only exists above a specific depth), however fuzzy logic uses membership functions to represent degrees of suitability. This is done in HABFUZZ by assigning fuzzy membership values to different habitat variables. These membership functions are often derived from expert knowledge or field observations. HABFUZZ then combines these fuzzy values across multiple variables, creating a composite measure of habitat suitability for each point within the modelled section of a river.In addition to the use of fuzzy logic, HABFUZZ also accounts for the temperature of water in the reach being modelled.Temperature is one of the drivers of aquatic ecosystems, because it influences fish metabolism, growth rates, spawning, and the overall distribution of species. Changes in flow can significantly alter water temperature regimes, impacting habitat suitability. Therefore, it may be important to include water temperature when performing habitat suitability modelling. For this study, temperature data were collected using temperature sensors mounted to a boat that was towed using a UAV.For this comparison, the HABFUZZ model was trained using five combinations of flow velocity and water depth and eight classes of substrates. It was assumed that the habitat suitability was best for the lowest flow velocities (0.05 to 0.1 ms -1 ) and water depths (0.1 to 0.15 m) and water temperatures of 15 ○ C. Five different habitat suitability classes (from bad to high) were defined for the habitat suitability classes as shown in Table 14. These rules can be changed for any specific organism being investigated.For the cross section where data were collected, the K values from HABFUZZ were between 0 and 0.2 as shown in Table 15 indicating that the habitat suitability would not be ideal for an organism that prefers slow moving shallow waters. These results correlate with the HABFLO results where majority of the fish and invertebrate habitat distributions were not in the slow/shallow segment of the total distribution.The habitat suitability values from HABFUZZ can be used to produce a continuous map of habitat suitability values across a river reach. This spatial representation of habitat suitability can potentially reveal more information on how varying flow scenarios might alter the suitability of a river for different habitat classes. This spatial perspective can also help to identify areas most sensitive to flow alterations and subsequently guide the design of flow releases to optimise habitat availability for target species throughout their life stages.In the next section, the assumptions, limitations, and recommendations based on the study are provided. In this section of the report, a list of assumptions, limitations and recommendations are provided to guide further research in this field of study.• The results presented in this report are only for the segment of the Olifants river where data were available. However, irrespective of the area modelled, it is envisaged that the methodology can be replicated for other river reaches provided that adequate data are available. Therefore, if more data are collected and processed more efficiently (for example, with a green LiDAR sensor) at any other site, the methodology can be easily replicated using the steps documented in this report.• The depth and velocity classes from HABFLO were used in this report but it is acknowledged that different depth and velocity classes or suitability curves could be used for habitat modelling. • The DTM used for the hydraulic modelling was the most accurate representation of reality that could be derived using the data available at the time of the study. It is acknowledged that the accuracy of the outputs from the hydraulic model will vary based on the level of accuracy of the DTM. Therefore, the level of accuracy of the habitat distributions is dependent on the accuracy of the DTM and the depth and velocity outputs generated from the hydraulic model.• A limitation of this study is that the DTM used for the HEC-RAS model was developed using LiDAR data and SoNAR data which were stitched together. The application of the SoNAR device did not cover the entire surface area of the riverbed due to time constraints and did not collect data at a range of angles other than vertically downwards. Therefore, detail around sandbars, crevices, rocky ledges, and accumulated sediment plumes were not collected and thus detailed bathymetric data was not collected to develop an accurate hydraulic model. Should this process be used in future, it is believed that with more precise application the developed methodology will provide accurate results and can be used to develop an accurate digital twin of a river and floodplain.• An additional limitation is that there are uncertainties when using the distribution model to determine the distributions of HABFLO classes out of the range of discharges used to develop the distribution curve. For this report, a limited number of Q values were used for the reach. The performance of the model can therefore be improved if additional Q values are used based on the requirements of the user and the study.• Assumptions were made regarding the type of sediments found across the reach because no detailed sediment mapping was conducted during the site visit. However, the methodology to estimate the distribution of invertebrate habitat classes show that the method can be beneficial if detailed on-site sediment data are collected and mapped for a river reach.The results presented in this report highlight the successful integration of SoNAR and LiDAR datasets to generate a highresolution DTM of a length of river. The successful integration of SoNAR and LiDAR data demonstrates the value of combining complementary UAV derived remote sensing techniques for a comprehensive characterisation of riverine habitats. This approach offers greater detail and spatial coverage than either method (SoNAR or LiDAR) alone. The generation of a DTM with an underwater river profile should theoretically enable more nuanced hydraulic modelling in HEC-RAS. However, as highlighted previously, the accuracy from HEC-RAS is dependent on the accuracy of the DTM, which relates to the accuracy of the survey application. Nevertheless, the derived depth and velocity outputs from the HEC-RAS model provided the basis for a longitudinal visualisation of the HABFLO fish and invertebrate habitat classes.In this study, the analysis of habitat distributions was extended to an entire river reach. This addresses a common limitation of traditional habitat assessments that are done for a single cross section. The results obtained revealed variations in habitat class distribution that would be undetectable using a single cross-section approach. The longitudinal perspective/ visualisation can prove to be crucial for understanding habitat availability and connectivity within the river system. The spatially explicit representation of habitat classes as a function of flow enables a more realistic assessment of the potential of the river to support diverse species and life stages for different flows and it can highlight areas of particular importance for conservation or restoration efforts.It is recommended that field sampling of fish and invertebrate populations be performed to validate the modelled habitat class distribution, thereby strengthening the results obtained in the study. In addition, the incorporation of a range of flow scenarios can be used to explain how habitat class availability changes throughout the year which could potentially aid in the development of seasonally adjusted E-flow recommendations.It is further recommended that the methodology be applied to larger river reaches or entire catchments.Overall, it is concluded that the use of a 2D hydraulic model is effective in modelling habitat classes for E-Flows for a specific reach of river compared to a single cross-section. When comparing the results for the entire reach to a 1D model, it was evident that the habitat distribution at a single cross-section is not representative of an entire reach of river. However, the feasibility of such a model is dependent on the feasibility of the data collection to develop a 2D model. This may not yet be feasible in terms of collecting high-resolution bathymetric data required for a long reach of river for a small-scale project. However, if a study were to focus on smaller segments of a reach, it would be feasible to collect sufficient data in terms of time and cost.As represented in Table 3 of this report, it can be concluded that the traditional 1D cross-section approach would be the least costly in terms of equipment, however, this approach is human and time-based resource intensive depending on the level of detail required. As shown in the results, the information obtained from a 1D cross-section will also not provide a detailed representation of a river reach with more complex flow characteristics. The integrated approach of using a SoNAR device, or similar, with a UAV (as done for this study) will require larger equipment costs, yet fewer resources.The time required to apply the survey accurately may be more than that to undertake a single cross-section, however, the level of detail obtained over the study area is greater and may be used in a 2D-hydraulic model for a more accurate representation of the river reach.Furthermore, this report presents a novel workflow for linking advanced remote sensing techniques with 2D hydraulic and habitat modelling. The upscaling from a single cross-section to a reach-level analysis provides valuable insights into the dynamic nature of riverine habitats and their response to varying flow conditions. The resulting visualisations can potentially be used to effectively communicate the ecological implications of E-flow recommendations to both scientists and stakeholders. These spatial representations can be incorporated into a digital twin which can lead to more informed decision making.The results obtained from the sensor platform demonstrates the potential of low-cost, adaptable sensor platforms for water resource monitoring. Further refinement could include realtime data transmission and an expanded suite of sensors with further testing. The scalability and ease-of-use of this approach shows promise for citizen science initiatives which can empower communities with data to advocate for the health of their local rivers. Furthermore, the applicability and performance of a green LiDAR technology is very promising in practice being able to perform well in multiple environments, perform repeatable measurements and to conduct surveys in difficult to access river reaches. The system can be viewed as a cost-effective solution over large land and coastal zones making it an attractive tool for the creation of a digital twin.HABFLO is advantageous over HABFUZZ because the model is simple to use and there is detailed literature available to guide users of the model, but the model does not have the capability to determine habitat suitability for an entire river reach. However, HABFUZZ, can be used to determine habitat suitability for an entire river reach and can be setup using data collected with a UAV as shown in this report. Therefore, based on the results obtained in this study, it is recommended that both HABFUZZ and HABFLO be used in conjunction with each other if training and temperature data are available for HABFUZZ.This publication has been prepared as an output of the CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation, which researches pathways to accelerate the transformation towards sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems by generating research-based evidence and innovative digital solutions. This publication has not been independently peer reviewed. Responsibility for editing, proofreading, and layout, opinions expressed, and any possible errors lies with the authors and not the institutions involved. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on maps do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), CGIAR, our partner institutions, or donors. In line with principles defined in the CGIAR Open and FAIR Data Assets Policy, this publication is available under a CC BY 4.0 license. © The copyright of this publication is held by IWMI. We thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.Waters BF. 1976. A methodology for evaluating the effects of different streamflows on salmonid habitat. Proceedings of the symposium and specialty conference on instream flow needs, 254.Zhao C, Yang S, Liu J, Liu C, Hao F, Wang Z, Zhang H, Song J, Mitrovic SM and Lim RP. 2018. Linking fish tolerance to water quality criteria for the assessment of environmental flows: A practical method for streamflow regulation and pollution control. Water Research 141: 96-108.","tokenCount":"9736"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8da4eeb07f7d1d3e3aba170aa8044361","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d3f5c403-c3a7-4978-9fc7-47275a03a677/retrieve","id":"-1444831582"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1055b9fd-670a-49f8-bf83-7cec882cb5a6","pagecount":"48","content":"Xin trân trọng cảm ơn./. Các tổ chức, cá nhân có liên quan đến hoạt động đo đạc, phân tích, tính toán và kiểm kê KNK trong canh tác lúa nước.Biến đổi khí hậu là sự biến đổi trạng thái của khí hậu so với trung bình và/hoặc dao động của khí hậu duy trì trong một khoảng thời gian dài, thường là vài thập kỷ hoặc dài hơn. Biến đổi khí hậu có thể do các quá trình tự nhiên bên trong hoặc các tác động bên ngoài, hoặc do hoạt động của con người làm thay đổi thành phần của khí quyển hay trong khai thác sử dụng đất (Bộ Tài nguyên Môi trường, 2014).Khí nhà kính là các khí có trong khí quyển, gồm cả trong tự nhiên và sinh ra do hoạt động của con người, hấp thụ và phát xạ bức xạ nhiệt.-Khí CH 4 là kết quả của quá trình phân giải yếm khí các bon trong đất trong điều kiện hệ sinh thái rễ lúa ngập nước yếm khí; -Khí N 2 O là sản phẩm trung gian được sinh ra khi đạm trong đất bị chuyển hoá qua 2 quá trình nitrat hoá và phản nitrat hoá. Tiềm năng gây ấm toàn cầu là sự đo lường khả năng của một khí gây hiệu ứng nhà kính hấp thụ nhiệt và làm ấm không khí trong một thời gian nhất định.Bảo đảm chất lượng là một hệ thống tích hợp các hoạt động quản lý và kỹ thuật trong một tổ chức nhằm bảo đảm cho hoạt động đo phát thải KNK trong canh tác lúa nước đạt được chất lượng đã quy định.Kiểm soát chất lượng là việc thực hiện các biện pháp đánh giá, theo dõi thường xuyên và kịp thời điều chỉnh để đạt được độ chính xác và độ tập trung của các phép đo theo yêu cầu của các tiêu chuẩn chất lượng nhằm bảo đảm cho hoạt động đo phát thải KNK trong canh tác lúa nước đạt được chất lượng đã quy định.(thiết kế chi tiết ở phụ lục 1)-Hình dạng: tùy vào vật liệu sẵn có và mật độ gieo cấy (sạ) mà có thể thiết kế hộp lấy mẫu khí theo dạng hình trụ, hình hộp vuông hay hình hộp chữ nhật cho phù hợp; -Kích thước: thể tích tối thiểu chứa khoảng 125 lít, chiều cao hộp lấy mẫu phải cao hơn 10 cm so với chiều cao tối đa của cây lúa; -Vật liệu, cấu tạo: có thể bằng kính, nhựa, nhựa tráng nhôm, mica.-Hình dạng: tùy vật liệu sẵn có và mật độ gieo cấy (sạ) mà có thể thiết kế chân đế hình trụ, hình hộp vuông hoặc hình hộp chữ nhật; -Kích thước: thể tích tối thiểu 36 lít; -Vật liệu: inox, nhôm hoặc nhựa; -Cấu tạo: hai mặt bên chân đế có đặt ống lưu thông nước (đường kính 0,2 -0,3 cm đặt cách mặt đất khoảng 1 -2 cm) giữa bên trong và bên ngoài chân đế (bình thường để mở đến khi lấy mẫu chúng được đóng lại bằng 2 nút cao su). Phía trên của chân đế có tạo rãnh chứa nước để đặt hộp lấy khí (kích thước rãnh: rộng ´ sâu: 4 cm ´ 4 cm). Trong quá trình đo, rãnh luôn chứa nước để khi đặt hộp lấy khí lên, nước sẽ ngăn không cho không khí lưu thông đi vào và ra, tạo nên 1 hộp kín.Phía trong hộp lấy mẫu khí:1 nhiệt kế dùng để đo nhiệt độ trong hộp lấy mẫu khí ở mỗi lần lấy mẫu; 2 quạt gió: để trộn đều không khí trong hộp lấy mẫu khí trong suốt quá trình lấy mẫu.-Ắc quy hoặc pin nối với quạt gió: nếu là pin cần dùng 8 cục (loại 1,5V) và phải thay sau 2 lần lấy mẫu khí, nếu dùng bình ắc quy (12V) thì cần sạc pin sau 4 lần lấy mẫu khí; -Bộ phận điều áp gồm: ống nhựa có đường kính 0,2 mm, chiều dài 720 cm (đoạn ống bên trong hộp lấy mẫu dài 50 cm, đoạn ống bên ngoài hộp lấy mẫu dài 670 cm) và van điều áp để điều chỉnh cân bằng áp suất trong và ngoài hộp lấy mẫu khí; -Ống lấy mẫu khí có đường kính 4,8 mm, chiều dài 80 cm (đoạn ống bên trong hộp lấy mẫu dài 50 cm, đoạn ống bên ngoài hộp lấy mẫu dài 30 cm) được gắn với van 3 chiều và nối với xi lanh hút mẫu; -Van 3 chiều; -Xi lanh lấy mẫu loại 50 ml, đầu gắn kim tiêm loại nhỏ 2,5 µm; -Lọ đựng mẫu khí: lọ đựng mẫu chuyên dùng kín, có nút đậy bằng cao su, thể tích 3 -60 ml (tùy theo máy GC được trang bị thiết bị lấy mẫu tự động hay bơm mẫu bằng tay) lọ được hút chân không (sử dụng một lần); -Đồng hồ (thiết bị đo đếm thời gian) dùng để xác định thời gian khi lấy mẫu khí. -Chuẩn bị tài liệu: phiếu điều tra và sổ ghi chép hiện trường.-Lập danh sách cán bộ quan trắc, phân tích: Lựa chọn người có trình độ kỹ thuật phù hợp; Phân công trách nhiệm cho từng người.-Thời gian và tần suất lấy mẫu: Dựa trên cơ chế phát thải CH 4 và N 2 O mà ta có thể xây dựng kế hoạch lấy mẫu khí cùng lúc hay tách rời đảm bảo kết quả phân tích đại diện, chính xác và tiết kiệm.+ Cơ chế phát thải CH 4 : Khí CH 4 phát thải vào khí quyển thông qua 3 con đường (Schütz, et al., 1989): (i) thông qua các mô khí bên trong thân cây lúa từ đó phát tán qua lóng và phiến lá lúa (chiếm 90% tổng lượng CH 4 phát thải từ ruộng lúa), (ii) phát thải CH 4 từ đất qua tầng nước mặt ruộng và bay vào không khí thông qua cơ chế khuếch tán gradient nồng độ (chiếm 9% tổng lượng CH 4 phát thải từ ruộng lúa) và (iii) thông qua sủi bọt khí trong tầng nước mặt trên ruộng lúa (chiếm 1% tổng lượng CH 4 phát thải từ ruộng lúa). Wang et al. (1997) chỉ ra rằng, phát thải CH 4 chủ yếu là thông qua lá lúa, đặc biệt vào giai đoạn đầu sinh trưởng cây lúa khi mà thân và lóng cây lúa còn nhỏ. Khoảng 50% lượng CH 4 phát thải thông qua phiến lá lúa vào trước giai đoạn vươn lóng. Phát thải CH 4 thường tập trung vào giai đoạn lúa bắt đầu đẻ nhánh cho đến khi lúa trỗ do giai đoạn này quá trình phân hủy các hợp chất hữu cơ trong đất diễn ra mạnh cùng với sự phát triển mạnh của cây lúa. Trong khi đó giai đoạn từ lúa chín sữa cho tới khi thu hoạch phát thải CH 4 sẽ giảm mạnh và đạt thấp nhất vào thời điểm thu hoạch, vì giai đoạn này người dân thường tiến hành rút nước phơi ruộng để chuẩn bị Bên cạnh đó, kế hoạch lấy mẫu còn dựa trên giai đoạn sinh trưởng, chế độ tưới, chế độ bón phân và chế độ quản lý phế phụ phẩm trên đồng ruộng để quyết định thời gian và số lần lấy mẫu/ vụ cho phù hợp. Dựa trên kinh nghiệm thực tế, chúng tôi khuyến cáo tổng số lần lấy mẫu trên vụ không nên dưới 8 -10 lần/vụ, để đảm bảo độ tin cậy và tính chính xác trong tính toán tổng lượng phát thải KNK.-Thời gian lấy mẫu trong ngày tốt nhất là 8h00 -10h00, trong mỗi lần lấy mẫu, cho mỗi một công thức thí nghiệm, 4 mẫu liên tục sẽ được lấy tại các thời điểm to, t1 (10 phút), t2 (20 phút), t3 (30 phút), thời gian lấy mẫu cách nhau 10 phút;-Các chỉ tiêu quan trắc: Khí CH 4 và N 2 O; -Các thông số bắt buộc theo dõi để tính toán: Mực nước tại ruộng, nhiệt độ bên trong hộp lấy mẫu khí; -Các thông số có thể thu thập thêm nếu cần: pH, Eh, OC (các bon hữu cơ trong đất), Amoni (NH 4 +), Nitơrat (NO-3), độ ẩm đất, nhiệt độ đất.-Hộp lấy mẫu khí: chất lượng ắc quy, quạt đảo trộn không khí, van điều áp và dây dẫn lấy khí, độ kín của hộp (keo dính tại các chỗ ghép nối) ; -Chân đế: kiểm tra độ kín (keo dính tại các chỗ ghép nối), độ thăng bằng và độ sâu trong đất (10 cm), đóng nút cao su tại ống thông nước ở hai bên sườn của chân đế; -Kiểm tra số lượng, chất lượng, ký hiệu lọ đựng mẫu khí, sổ ghi chép tại hiện trường (biểu mẫu B 1 , chi tiết tại Phụ lục 2); -Kiểm tra thùng đựng mẫu hiện trường nhằm đảm bảo quy trình bảo quản mẫu phù hợp với các thông số quan trắc theo quy định. Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến quá trình lấy mẫu (tầng đất, nhiệt độ, áp suất, độ ẩm và vị trí đặt thiết bị lấy mẫu: xem chi tiết ở phụ lục 3).Sau khi lấy mẫu xong, sắp xếp lọ mẫu theo lô. Sau đó mẫu được sắp xếp vào hộp chuyên dùng có vách ngăn để tránh va đập giữa các lọ mẫu trong quá trình vận chuyển. Chuyển mẫu về phòng phân tích trong vòng 72h.Trong quá trình chờ phân tích mẫu được bảo quản ở nhiệt độ phòng (25 o C), ẩm độ 70 -80%. Mẫu nên được phân tích sớm trong vòng 15 ngày sẽ cho kết quả chính xác, không lưu mẫu quá 30 ngày.Phòng thí nghiệm phải lập kế hoạch kiểm tra, bảo trì, bảo dưỡng và hiệu chuẩn các thiết bị theo định kỳ.Trang thiết bị của phòng thí nghiệm được hiệu chuẩn trước khi sử dụng.Phải kiểm soát yếu tố nhiệt độ giá trị 25 o C và độ ẩm 70 -80% trong phòng. Đảm bảo sự ổn định trong suốt quá trình chạy máy không ảnh hưởng đến kết quả hoặc ảnh hưởng bất lợi đến chất lượng của các phép đo.a) Có văn bản quy định cụ thể về trách nhiệm, quyền hạn của các cán bộ phòng thí nghiệm do người có thẩm quyền quản lý, phụ trách phòng thí nghiệm ký, ban hành. b) Cán bộ quản lý phòng thí nghiệm phải có trình độ đại học trở lên, với chuyên ngành phù hợp. Cán bộ kỹ thuật có trình độ chuyên môn cần thiết để hoàn thành nhiệm vụ được giao. c) Nhân viên chỉ được giao chính thức thực hiện thử nghiệm khi lãnh đạo phòng thí nghiệm đánh giá là đạt được độ chính xác theo yêu cầu theo các tiêu chí nội bộ.kiểm soát chất lượng phòng thí nghiệm (QA/QC)Phòng thí nghiệm phải thiết lập và duy trì hệ thống quản lý chất lượng phù hợp với phạm vi hoạt động, bảo đảm tính khách quan và chính xác của các kết quả thử nghiệm.Quản lý mẫu phân tích: Áp dụng các quy trình quản lý mẫu thích hợp với từng thông số cụ thể. Tuân thủ các hướng dẫn kèm theo mẫu; phòng, tránh các tác động có thể làm biết đổi chất lượng mẫu trong suốt quá trình lưu giữ, xử lý, chuẩn bị và tiến hành phân tích. Kiểm soát tài liệu, hồ sơ phòng thí nghiệm: Phòng thí nghiệm phải thực hiện phân loại, thống kê, lưu trữ, quản lý và kiểm soát các tài liệu, hồ sơ thuộc hệ thống quản lý chất lượng của phòng theo yêu cầu chung của phòng thử nghiệm theo ISO/IEC 17025:2010. Riêng đối với kết quả phân tích khí nhà kính cần phải được lưu giữ riêng, các đường chuẩn, sắc đồ của các đợt phân tích cần phải được thống kê và định kỳ đánh giá nhằm xác định mức độ ổn định của thiết bị. Từng kết quả phân tích mẫu cần phải lưu hồ sơ chi tiết quá trình thực hiện.Phòng thí nghiệm phải sử dụng mẫu QC, bao gồm: mẫu trắng thiết bị; mẫu chuẩn đối chứng; mẫu lặp; mẫu kiểm tra, hóa chất chuẩn hiệu chỉnh máy.Số lượng mẫu QC tối thiểu cần thực hiện trong mỗi lần phân tích mẫu phải đủ để kiểm tra sự nhiễm bẩn của dụng cụ, hóa chất... và độ chính xác của các kết quả phân tích. -Cột (MC-5) ---Porapak Q 3.2MM*2.0MM*2M (Max. Temp. 250°C).Lấy các kết quả đối với hệ số đáp ứng K và hàm lượng cX của thành phần cần xác định là trung bình các giá trị của vài phép xác định (ít nhất là ba phép xác định) được tiến hành trên cùng mẫu thử. Các giá trị được sử dụng để tính không được khác nhau nhiều quá (thường trong phạm vi ± 2,5 %) so với giá trị trung bình. Sự sai khác và số lần đo được quy định tùy theo các phương pháp khác nhau hoặc thay đổi theo quy định của từng tiêu chuẩn khác nhau.Lưu ý: Đối với mỗi phòng phân tích có thể sử dụng model và hiệu máy khác nhau nên có thể sử dụng hệ thống cột theo yêu cầu của từng loại máy, do đó yêu cầu khi báo cáo kết quả phải nêu được loại cột sử dụng nếu không kết quả sẽ không được công nhận (Xem chi tiết cách vận hành máy GC cụ thể ở phụ lục 4).Báo cáo kết quả quá trình phân tích gồm các thông tin sau: a) Kiểu loại thiết bị, dụng cụ được sử dụng; b) Các đặc tính của cột (vật liệu, chiều dài, kích thước trong, pha tĩnh, chất nền và tỉ lệ của pha tĩnh với chất nền, phép đo của chất nền, nhiệt độ của cột hoặc nhiệt độ chương trình); c) Các đặc tính của hệ thống bơm (kiểu loại và nhiệt độ); d) Các đặc tính của đầu dò (kiểu loại và nhiệt độ); e) Tốc độ khí mang; f) Các đặc tính của bộ ghi (chiều cao tín hiệu tối đa, tốc độ ghi, thời gian phản ứng toàn thang đo); g) Phép nhận biết mẫu; h) Kết quả phân tích mẫu.Xử lý số liệu: Số liệu được xử lý dựa trên các phần mềm xử lý số liệu hiện hành. Cần kiểm tra tổng hợp về tính hợp lý của số liệu phân tích dựa trên các kết quả ghi chép hiện trường, kết quả phân tích các số liệu liên quan.Kiểm tra số liệu: Kiểm tra tổng hợp về tính hợp lý của số liệu quan trắc và phân tích môi trường qua bảng ghi kết quả phân tích, bảng số liệu đã xử lý. Thông thường việc kiểm tra dựa trên số liệu của mẫu chuẩn, mẫu trắng, mẫu so sánh và theo phương pháp chuyên gia.Cường độ phát thải khí CH 4 hoặc N 2 O (mg/m2/giờ) được tính toán bằng cách sử dụng phương trình sau đây của Smith và Conen (2004) (Chi tiết tính toán tại Phụ lục 5):Trong đó:-∆C là sự thay đổi nồng độ khí CH 4 hoặc N 2 O trong khoảng thời gian ∆t; -v và A là thể tích hộp lấy mẫu khí và diện tích đáy của hộp đo khí;  Kết quả quan trắc, phân tích và thảo luận (nêu phương pháp đo, phương pháp tính toán, phân tích, sử dụng phương pháp thống kê (thống kê miêu tả và thống kê phân tích) để bình luận và đánh giá số liệu, thông tin thu thập được. Việc đánh giá cần dựa trên các ngưỡng cho phép của TCVN hoặc các Tiêu chuẩn quốc tế khác có trích dẫn. Đối với các quy chuẩn, tiêu chuẩn thì phải áp dụng văn bản mới nhất.  Nhiệt độ khác nhau có thể ảnh hưởng đến hoạt động của các sinh vật, ảnh hưởng đến phương pháp tính, ảnh hưởng đến quá trình hấp phụ và hòa tan của các khí tan trong môi trường đất. Tốt nhất là nhiệt độ bên trong thiết bị lấy mẫu gần với nhiệt độ bên ngoài môi trường.Trong quá trình thu mẫu nên ghi chép đầy đủ nhiệt độ của môi trường bên ngoài và môi trường bên trong thùng chứa khí.Các thiết bị lấy mẫu khí kín sẽ giảm được tác động của áp suất.Gió thổi ngang có thể ảnh hưởng đến chế độ ra vào của không khí trong đất. Do vậy, nên chế tạo các thiết bị lấy mẫu kín hoàn toàn.Độ ẩm thiết bị lấy mẫu đặt phía trên mặt đất sẽ ảnh hưởng đến nồng độ khí vết do làm tăng khả năng hòa tan của các khí vào trong hơi nước. Hơi nước có thể làm giảm nồng độ của các khí khác do hiện tượng pha loãng.Các phân tử khí khuếch tán nhanh lên phía trên của thùng chứa khí do vậy hỗn hợp khí khá đồng đều ở trong thùng chứa. Tuy nhiên, kết quả sẽ bị ảnh hưởng nếu có nhiều thực vật bên trong thiết bị lấy mẫu hoặc tỉ lệ giữa thể tích và diện tích bề mặt của thiết bị quá lớn.Việc trộn đều các khí ở phần bên trên của thiết bị là cần thiết, giải pháp tốt nhất là sử dụng các vòi nhỏ để bên trong thiết bị để lấy mẫu. Các vòi nhỏ ở bên trong có thể là vòi đơn (đặt ở phía trên cùng) hoặc nhiều vòi với chất liệu teflon có đường kính rất nhỏ có thể chấp nhận được (ví dụ: 1/16 inch). Hoặc dùng quạt để đảo khí trước khi đo.Trong hệ thống canh tác, đặt thiết bị lấy mẫu rất quan trọng nó phản ánh mang tính đại diện cho hệ thống.Vị trí lấy mẫu cố định tại các điểm thí nghiệm.Đối với từng hoạt động sẽ có các chương trình QA/QC tương ứng, nhưng trước khi thực hiện các hoạt động hiện trường cần xác định rõ những nội dung và các thông tin chung sau:-Xác định tên, ký mã hiệu và mục tiêu chung của quá trình thu mẫu.-Lấy đúng mẫu theo nội dung của chương trình.-Chứng minh được quá trình kiểm soát sai số là phù hợp.-Phát hiện được những sai sót, thay đổi trong việc lấy mẫu để truy tìm nguồn gốc sai số lấy mẫu khi cần thiết.","tokenCount":"3122"}
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Table 2: Macro-, meso-, and micro-level frameworks and tools for food and nutrition policy domain Table 3: Macro-level tools for food and nutrition policy domain Table 4: Multi-level frameworks and tools for the food and nutrition policy domain Table 5: Macro-level frameworks and tools for analyzing land and water policy domain Table 6: Micro-, meso-, macro-, and multi-level frameworks for political economy and policy analysis in the climate and ecology domain Case study 1: Sustainable diets framework for policy analysis in NepalCase study 2: The Kaleidoscope Model of policy change -food security applications in ZambiaCase study 3: Participatory power mapping in California Village, Chiapas, MexicoCase study 4: Assessing biodiversity policy integration in PeruCase study 5: Policy windows for the environment -tips for improving the scientific knowledge acceptanceAgri-food systems face multiple challenges. They must deal with prevailing structural weaknesses, partly deepened by the disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, civil conflicts, and climate change. Addressing structural weaknesses -such as inequitable access to healthy and nutritious food for all, loss of livelihoods and incomes, and increasing environmental shocks -requires not only technological, but also institutional innovations, as well as economic and policy responses. While development interventions often focus on technological innovations, they lack attention to the enabling policy environment and the political economy drivers necessary to achieve policy, economic, and social impact at the national level. In addition, solutions often fail to analyze the broader enabling environment in which policies are designed and implemented at the national level. A comprehensive understanding of the policy environment coupled with appropriate technological and institutional solutions can influence the success or failure of development interventions.However, political economy and policy analysis considerations are inadequately explored in the quest to transform food systems. Identifying the right policies and overcoming barriers to the implementation of development interventions fundamentally requires an understanding of the political economy and policy processes that shape policymaking. Despite numerous emerging approaches and frameworks for conducting political economy and policy analysis, practitioners and researchers working across food, land, and water systems lack a consolidated knowledge base. This Political Economy and Policy Analysis (PEPA) sourcebook aims to fill that knowledge gap.This PEPA Sourcebook brings together a collection of frameworks, analytical tools, and methods for analyzing contested questions about transforming agri-food systems across multiple domains, including food and nutrition, land and water, and climate and ecology. Food system policy research and development asks what works where, why, and how? This question fuels other important questions and debates related to prevailing structural weaknesses in agri-food systems. What role should governments play in agricultural transformation?Are input subsidy programs an effective strategy to increase agricultural productivity? What are the merits of agroecology versus sustainable agricultural intensification or blended sustainability? Do small-scale farms have development potential or is supporting them 'romantic populism?\" What social protection programs work best to solve food and nutrition security challenges? Are biotech crops part of the solution to solving food and nutrition security challenges in developing economies? What institutional innovations are \"best-fit\" for managing shared natural resources to avoid conflict and foster inclusion? Key agri-food system stakeholders disagree on how to answer these questions due to differences in ideas, beliefs, interests, resources, policy processes, developmental phase, influence networks, and political structures. These differences shape a policy environment characterized by the formation of stakeholder coalitions, fragmented policy instruments, and development programs that fail to provide adequate solutions to prevailing structural weaknesses in agrifood systems.The PEPA Sourcebook aims to bridge the knowledge gap by providing a consolidated collection of frameworks, analytical tools, and related case studies for examining the political economy, policies, and policy processes of agri-food system transformation. The PEPA Sourcebook provides guidance for answering contested questions related to agri-food system transformation, understanding policy environments and processes, and setting policy agendas. The Sourcebook guides development practitioners in building coalitions and discourses, and in influencing policy environments. The frameworks and policy analysis tools are relevant for evaluating and characterizing national policies and strategies. They address specific issues related to agri-food systems, focusing on the sub-topics of food and nutrition, land and water, and climate and ecology. The PEPA Sourcebook is designed to enable researchers, policymakers, and development practitioners to explore and answer political economy research questions, better understand policy environments, and link evidencebased policies to impact. The PEPA Sourcebook organizes political economy and policy analysis resources at diverse levels: macro (country or region), meso (sector), micro (problem-focused), and multiple (crosscutting) levels. The Sourcebook supports development practitioners' efforts to understand and explain political interests, ideas, beliefs, networks, coalitions, influence, and power dynamics. The Sourcebook can help practitioners identify policy winners and losers and visualize the impacts of development strategies.Collectively, the Sourcebook provides useful approaches to answering key questions relevant to inclusive agri-food system transformation, such as: (1) Who are the influential actors driving policy processes and programs? (2) What ideas, beliefs, and narratives shape crises and policy responses? (3) What are the \"windows of opportunity\" for reform and policy change? (4) What factors drive the effectiveness of policy implementation following reforms? and (5) How do gender and equity considerations shape policy development and implementation? This PEPA Sourcebook provides researchers, development practitioners, the donor community, and policymakers with knowledge resources for examining and managing policy processes. The Sourcebook helps practitioners negotiate the science-policy interface to explore solutions that work towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by addressing structural weaknesses in the policy environment, weaknesses that often derail efforts to transform food, land, and water systems and achieve the SDGs.Agri-food system the political economy and policy processes that shape policymaking and stakeholder actions. Although there is a plethora of emerging approaches and frameworks, practitioners and researchers lack a consolidated sourcebook that organizes knowledge on political economy and policy analysis. This sourcebook aims to fill that knowledge gap.This Political Economy and Policy Analysis (PEPA) Sourcebook brings together a collection of frameworks, analytical tools, and methods for examining contested issues critical for transforming agri-food systems in the areas of food and nutrition, land and water, and climate and ecology. In doing so, the Sourcebook can help researchers and practitioners address questions such as: What ideas, beliefs and narratives shape crisis situations and policy responses? What \"windows of opportunity\" exist to influence reform and policy change?What factors drive the effectiveness of policy implementation following reform decisions? How do gender and equity considerations shape policy processes, agenda setting, and implementation? Notwithstanding the importance of both global dynamics and subnational factors that influence agri-food systems, this PEPA Sourcebook explicitly focuses on the national level where most policies and strategies are developed and the level of analysis to which most political economy and policy analysis frameworks are directed.The dominant approach in international development generates insights about development interventionsand their impacts through the use of rigorous quantitative economics (Mockshell & Birner, 2015). The ethos of such an analysis is to provide decision-makers with relevant evidence on how well a development program is working or is not working (Bourguignon & Pereira da Silva, 2003). In some cases, ex-ante quantitative assessment approaches are also used to generate information before development programs are implemented (Bourguignon & Pereira da Silva, 2003). However, determining what works where, why, and how in the policy environment requires going beyond strictly quantitative evidence (Birner & Resnick, 2010, Mockshell & Birner, 2020, Harrigan, 2003, Jayne et al., 2002, Resnick et al., 2018).Political economy and policy analysis (PEPA) has gained popularity in recent years. Development actors have recognized that interventions often fail due to lack of political will or institutional weaknesses, even when quantitative and technical analysis predicted their success (Whaites et al., 2023, DFID, 2009). PEPA examines the interaction between policies and economic processes and related outcomes due to policy choices and institutions. PEPA is necessary to examine often-neglected topics, such as power dynamics, conflicting interests, coalitions and networks, \"rules of the game,\" and stakeholder policy aspirations (Resnick et al., 2018). PEPA aims to understand policy champions, power relations, policy risks, and informal and formal policy processes. Whether formal or informal, politics is an important factor in determining how power or scarce resources are distributed among groups or individuals in a society (DFID, 2009;Haider & Rao, 2010). Political processes are dynamic and occur at the institutional, community, country, and regional levels. They can enable or derail a transformation or change process for food, land, and water systems. Thus, political economy analysis helps to identify policy contexts and achievable political strategies, revealing expectations and risks associated with specific national policies and strategies (Haider & Rao, 2010). PEPA is also useful in analyzing how decisions are made in policy environments. Development practitioners can develop successful outcomes by understanding the dynamic interactions between natural resources, socioeconomic factors, institutions and stakeholders (DFAT, 2016).PEPA, therefore, enables practitioners and researchers to identify difficulties that arise from institutional barriers, problems, and a lack of political will, which must be overcome at some point in the project lifecycle (Whaites, 2017;de Schutter, 2019)  ,3 (World Bank 2007, 2016). However, agri-food systems analysis requires a tailored knowledge base to assess policy trade-offs across food and nutrition, land and water, and climate and ecology policy domains. PEPA for agri-food systems also needs to address criticisms that it remains highly fragmented, lacks external validity, cannot be replicated, and produces inadequate measurements (Resnick et al., 2018).Robust cross-cutting PEPA frameworks and tools are needed to analyze policy change at the macro, meso, and micro levels. Recognizing this knowledge gap, this PEPA Sourcebook aims to provide a compendium of frameworks, analytical tools, and example case studies for conducting a political economy and policy analysis of food, land, and water systems in low-and middle-income countries.In search of new pathways for successful development interventions, assessments have explored the topic of PEPA within agri-food systems across a broad range of topics: policy, governance, agriculture (Lyu et al., 2021), food, water, land, and natural resources (Buur et al., 2017), and nutrition (Harris, 2019;Trevena et al., 2021). However, not all challenges faced by multi-sectoral programs are typically covered by narrowly focused, single-issue frameworks and tools targeting specific sectors and development programs.More robust, systematic, and holistic PEPA frameworks are needed to understand the complexity of the policymaking process (Resnick et al., 2018). Sustainable food systems are complex and involve many crosscutting issues, motivating a call for more integrated PEPA methods and analytical tools (Duncan et al., 2019).The application of PEPA also helps provide evidence to inform national policies, strategies, and ' everyday political' 4 decisions. PEPA can harness synergies while transforming food and nutrition, land and water, climate change and ecology systems (Whaites, 2017).This PEPA Sourcebook is an essential guide that provides frameworks and analytical tools for analyzing how policy change occurs at broad geographic scales (macro-scale), by livelihood sectors (meso-scale), organized around specific problems (micro-scale), and arranged across levels (multipurpose) (de Schutter, 2019). Further, the PEPA Sourcebook aims to provide a compendium that makes sense of the crowded field of approaches, frameworks, and tools by identifying where there are commonalities and differences. Chapter 2 of this guide summarizes how PEPA intersects with food, land, and water systems. Chapter 3 highlights the systematic literature review methodology for PEPA tools and frameworks. The specific frameworks, tools, and related case studies for agri-food policy domains are presented in Chapter 4. The step-by-step approach for conducting PEPA is presented in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 provides an outlook for PEPA in food, land, and water systems research.2 The role of Political Economy Analysis in Development Policy Operations (World Bank, 2016).3 Tools for Institutional, Political, and Social Analysis (TIPS) of policy Reform: A sourcebook for Development Practitioners (World Bank, 2007).4 This is smart political thinking and working: continually engaging with the political environment to help a program navigate through obstacles while keeping the realities of the context in mind (Whaites, 2017).PEPA has been key in evaluating various governmental and sectoral policies, their actors, power dynamics, and institutional frameworks. Food systems comprise the actors and interactions along the entire food value chain. Stakeholders and actors include input suppliers, commodity producers, transporters, processors, retailers, wholesalers, and consumers, as well as those working in food disposal (IFPRI, 2022). Food systems involve the creation of enabling policy environments and cultural norms around food. They affect human and environmental health at the level of individuals, communities, nations, and the whole planet (Downs et al., 2017).An ideal food system should emphasize nutrition, health, and food safety. It should maximize production and efficiency to ensure affordable food production while integrating sustainability, climate awareness, and social inclusion (IFPRI, 2022). Considering the SDGs, food systems are supposed to be more sustainable and resilient in striving to meet the food and nutrition demands of the growing human population (Downs et al., 2017).PEPA has been instrumental in examining the effectiveness of various governmental and sectoral policies and the relationship between actors, power dynamics, and institutional frameworks (de Schutter, 2019). As such, the political economy of sustainable food systems is depicted to encompass various themes: diversity and innovation (Duncan et al., 2019), the food and health nexus (Rocha & Harris, 2019), and the politics of consumption, food sovereignty, and agroecology (Gliessman et al., 2019). Other related topics in food systems debates include food accessibility, ultra-processed foods, disparities between smallholder and commercial farmers, genetically modified organisms, livestock-versus plant-based diets, organic farming, and agricultural intensification (Steinfeld et al., 2019). A model food system is envisioned as nutritional, healthy, safety-driven, productive, effective, affordable, environmentally sustainable, climate-smart, and integrative (IFPRI, 2022).Achieving this vision demands concerted investments in agricultural research, along with policy reforms that leverage technological and institutional innovations, paving the way for evidence-based development.The land system comprises the terrestrial component of the Earth system, including all processes and activities related to the human use of land. The system includes socioeconomic and technological aspects of land management and the social and environmental effects of land use (Verburg et al., 2015). Changes to land systems have profound effects on the local environment and human well-being and play a significant role in global environmental change. Land is useful in providing food, fuel, fiber, and many other ecosystem services to society. It is also responsible for supporting production functions, regulating natural hazards, and providing cultural services (Akram-Lodhi, 2012).This PEPA Sourcebook is useful in examining land, its access and development, land-use change, and landgrabbing discourses that are critical in agri-food policymaking. Like the rest of the world, land in the GlobalSouth is either privately, communally, or state-owned. Different land use practices modify the quantity and quality of ecosystem services with implications on food and nutrition security. Shifts in the land system directly result from human decisions and actions, made by a range of actors or due to national land use planning and global trade agreements (Anderson & Leach, 2019). Yet, the post-colonial era has witnessed different shifts and transformations in land ownership in the Global South, creating avenues for multinational companies to own land, exacerbating land-grabbing (Kumeh & Omulo, 2019). Most importantly, the aggregate impact of local changes in land systems attracts far-reaching consequences on ecosystem services and human well-being (Verburg et al., 2015). Key issues related to land' s role in agri-food policymaking include how land is accessed and developed, land-use change, land for biofuel and energy instead of food, and land-grabbing.This PEPA Sourcebook can help stakeholders sustainably manage natural fresh water resources, protect the hydrosphere, and meet the agri-food system's current and future demands. Water conservation refers to the preservation, control, and development of water resources -both surface and groundwater -and the reduction of contamination (OECD, 1997). Water conservation also entails assessing an action, behavioral change, improved design, or process implemented to minimize water loss, waste, or use (Kumari et al., 2021).Considering the increasing global demand driven by human population growth and climate change, actions aimed at producing food with less water, particularly in irrigated agriculture, are vital. Similarly, actions that build farmer resilience against floods and droughts and that use environmentally-friendly water technologies are indispensable (FAO, 2022). In this sourcebook, water conservation encompasses all the policies, strategies, and activities employed by governments and development actors. The resources cited in this sourcebook can help stakeholders sustainably manage natural fresh water resources, protect the hydrosphere, and meet the agri-food system' s current and future demands.Life on Earth is profoundly affected by weather and climate. Weather and climate are essential to human health, food production, and well-being (Baede et al., 2001). External forces can cause climate variability and changes at the global, continental, regional, and country scales. A climate system is an interactive system consisting of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, land surface, and biosphere, which are often influenced by various external factors, especially solar radiation (Baede et al., 2001). Human activities, such as the emission of greenhouse gases or land-use change, are driving climate change and its impacts on the agri-food system.Systems ecology is a holistic, interdisciplinary field of ecology focused on studying ecosystems by applying general systems theory to ecology. A central concept of systems ecology is that ecosystems are complex systems with emergent properties. Systems ecology aims to understand how human activities interact with biological and ecological systems (Patten, 2013). Recent studies show the benefits of environmental protection, conservation, and preservation. These efforts are widely acknowledged for promoting long-term sustainability. Consequently, the ecological challenge for agri-food systems calls for a shift to descriptive empirical ecology. Problems are becoming too complex to resolve without expanding the basic knowledge of environmentalism to a wider ecological science that considers complex systems (Patten, 2013).This PEPA Sourcebook provides a guide to analysis resources by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) statement (Page et al., 2021). Though developed to evaluate health intervention studies, PRISMA provides a rigorous approach to a systematic review in other domains, including agriculture (Supriya & Mamilla, 2022). The PRISMA 2020 statement is a 27-item checklist relevant for mixed-methods systematic reviews, including quantitative and qualitative studies (Page et al., 2021). PRISMA 2020 helped focus this survey of knowledge resources on studies featuring analytical tools and frameworks in agri-food systems -the food and nutrition, land and water, and climate and ecology domainshighlighting applicable policies and strategies.Table 1 outlines the eligibility criteria for determining whether sources should be included in or excluded from this Sourcebook. We included original articles written in English, focusing on analytical tools and frameworks used in agri-food systems across food and nutrition, land and water, and climate and ecology domains. We included articles written in the last two decades across all geographical locations. We searched the following electronic databases to find relevant agri-food systems literature: Scopus, CABI, AgEcon, BASE, Google Scholar, SSRN, and Google. The searches were conducted between August 10-30th, 2022. The search strategy used for all databases is detailed below. During the reference-checking step, we evaluated the abstract and full text of the identified studies to assess their eligibility for inclusion in the review.The search strategy for each database used keywords, starting with a broad search using \"agri-food\" and \"food systems\", and \"agriculture\". The search was then narrowed to \"nutrition\", \"water\", \"land\", \"climate\", and \"ecology\" terms in cases where more information was needed. The initial searches for each database based on keywords and query strings are outlined in Annex B.To select studies, the authors used an excel sheet to tabulate all the selected manuscripts from the databases.After removing ineligible and duplicate articles, we further reviewed the title and abstracts of the remaining articles to eliminate those that did not meet the review criteria. The full texts of the remaining manuscripts were then cross-examined by two reviewers separately to determine which articles met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. In the event of a conflicting judgment, the two reviewers discussed further before deciding to either include or exclude the paper from the review.Metadata on all the assembled PEPA resources were extracted to complete the selection process. This information included relevant data on study characteristics, such as the methodology used, qualitative versus quantitative approaches employed, study location, and the scope of the study (macro, meso, micro or multi-levels). This metadata also recorded the type of resource that was documented, such as analytical tools, concepts, or frameworks, as well as keywords and journal or publication names. The authors' names and publication titles were also recorded to avoid any overlap or redundancy.After reading the title, abstracts, or keywords for all the assembled articles from six database sources, we identified 1,232 articles eligible for review. Of these, 112 were duplicates and 942 were ineligible. These latter studies were judged to be outside the scope of the review. A further 164 articles were screened, of which 125 were excluded based on differences in the topic or subject area, document type, and language. Of the remaining 39 articles, 4 could not be retrieved and 16 additional articles were eliminated based on duplication or lack of relevance. Fifteen additional articles were added from grey literature and citation searching. A total of 37 articles from 22 journals, 6 institutions, and 32 countries worldwide (Figure 1) were selected for the systematic review (Figure 2).Not included The PEPA frameworks and tools for national policies and strategies focus on three policy domains relevant to agri-food systems: food and nutrition systems, land and water systems, and climate and ecology systems (Figure 3). These three domains are synthesized for macro-, meso-, micro-, and multi-level analysis applications. Each policy domain includes relevant, practical frameworks and tools, and key research methodologies that can be used at different analysis levels based on a systematic review of the literature (Annex A and C). However, the outlined frameworks and analytical tools can be applied across the three domains and at different levels depending on the research question, scope, or problem addressed.Policy DomainFrameworks ToolsFrameworks Tools  The frameworks and tools in the food and nutrition policy domain operate at several levels as described below (Figure 4). At the most basic level, the tools and frameworks can be thought of as those focusing narrowly on a particular problem. That problem is nested within a broader sector, with corresponding tools and frameworks for analysis. The sectoral analysis falls within broader country level political economy and policy frameworks.Finally, macroscale frameworks in tools integrate issues that operate at multiple levels. Macro-level PEPA frameworks and tools (Table 2) are focused on the national level. These frameworks and tools can help show the significance of the historical context, political climate, political or institutional culture, and prevailing national economic and social conditions (Holland, 2007). In addition to the overarching macro-level frameworks listed in Table 2, researchers often need specific tools for use in the macro-level political economy analysis. Table 3 details the tools that can be incorporated into many macro-level analysis frameworks, individually or in combination.Meso-level frameworks and tools (Table 2) focus on levels between the macro (national) and micro (individual/ local) or the interactions between macro and micro levels. Meso-level analysis may also be focused on process, including the rules and incentives that govern the implementation of policy reform, which may be influenced by economics, organizational culture, or social norms (Holland, 2007).Micro-level frameworks and tools are focused on the individual or local level (Table 2). They can help identify winners and losers of policy reforms and can help illuminate local dynamics.Multiple Stream Approach (MSA), also known as Kingdon' s Theory of Agenda Setting (Thow et al., 2021) Diagnostic framework: Looks at factors that influence or promote policy change; conceptualizes policy change as resulting from the interplay between 1) the policy problem, 2) existing policy, and 3) political and institutional context.Analyzing economic decisions related to nutrition and health.Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (PEST) External Drivers of the Food System (Trevena et al., 2021) Analytical framework: Looks at the food system considering 1) Political-legal drivers, i.e., government stability, the role of stakeholder groups, and ideologies; 2) Economic drivers;3) Social drivers, e.g., culture and demographic factors; 4) Technological drivers, e.g., availability and adoption of technologies.Analyzing the impact of nutrition policies on the agri-food system.Porter' s Five Forces (PFF) for the Competitive Drivers Framework (Porter, 1979;Porter 2008;Trevena et al., 2021) Based on the concept of ' competitive rivalry': Rivalry is assessed in terms of the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers and the threat of entrants and substitutes.Raising awareness of the existing competitive rivalry forces to minimize vulnerability within a given system in various agri-food system domains.Public Understanding the political economy of food systems and contested public health policies.Power Cube Framework (PCF) (Gaventa, 2005;Gaventa, 2006;Harris, 2019) Analytical framework: Used to identify different forms of power, i.e., visible, hidden, and invisible powers, and then outline where and how power is exercised, as well as scales of power.Building awareness of what drives various processes in agri-food system domains and identifying entry points for action.Sustainable Diets Framework for Policy Analysis (SDF) (Downs et al., 2017) Analytical framework: Looks for similarities in various policy instruments. The analysis is based on five domains: 1) Nutrition and health; 2) Agriculture and food security; 3) Environment and ecosystems; 4) Markets, trade, and value chains for economic growth; 5) Sociocultural and political factors.Studying key agriculture, nutrition, and environmental policies.Diagnostic Framework for Food Systems Governance (DFFSG) (Termeer et al., 2018) Diagnostic framework: Looks at the strengths and weaknesses of local or regional food system governance based on five principles: Policy Framing Analysis (PFA) (Daviter, 2011;Sakamoto et al., 2007) Analytical framework: Analyzes agricultural policy initiatives of various governments or organizations by identifying the similarities and comparing the differences of the policy frames found in the agricultural policy documents.Comparing agricultural policies of different governments or groups.Aiding identification of key rationales for policy change, and policy instruments that hamper the desired outcomes.Framework for Analyzing Policy Approaches (FAPA) (Jahrl et al., 2021) Analytical framework that seeks to find the best combination of the below three elements given the food system and sustainability goals: 1) Multi-or mono-functional frames;2) Levels of institutionalization; 3) Policy-society relationship.Helping users understand governance mechanisms in agrifood system sub-domains.Framework for Recognizing Diversity Beyond Capitalism (FRDBC) (Koretskaya and Feola, 2020) Analytical framework: Contains the following dimensions: 1) Ontology: Space, time, human nature, the logic of relation; 2) Economic relations: Enterprise, labor, economic transactions, property, and finance; 3) Relation with the State: Participation in regulation and legitimation; 4) Knowledge.Identifying capitalist, alternative capitalist, and non-capitalist configurations in businesses, co-ops, associations, and other socioeconomic entities within food systems. Analyzing interactions of different economic models within food systems.Policy Tool Typology (PTT) (Saviolidis et al., 2020) Based on the idea that policy tools are avenues for policy implementation, categorizing tools can help illuminate proposed policy solutions. Categorizes policy tools into different types: 1) Strategic; 2) Governance; 3) Knowledgebased; 4) Market-based; 5) Direct activity regulation.Categorizing policy tools by type.Helps users match types of policy tools to policy solutions under consideration.Agent Belief Desire Intention Model (BDI) (Liu et al., 2021) Analyzes farmers and their technology adoption process to understand farmer decision-making. This information is used to model the impact of different policies and policy tools on farmer technology adoption.Seeing how farmer decisionmaking and technology adoption is influenced by the policy tools used.In Nepal, the Sustainable Diets Framework was used to identify gaps in current food policy and find areas of synergy between different policy instruments and documents (Downs et al., 2017). The analysis focused on three national policies: The Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS), National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), and Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Plan (MSNP). These three policies were analyzed within the five major domains of the Sustainable Diets Framework: food security and agriculture; environment and ecosystems; markets, trade, and value chains; sociocultural factors; and political factors.Results of the Sustainable Diets Framework analysis showed that although Nepal has successfully reduced the national poverty rate, many still suffer from malnutrition and food insecurity. In addition, the framework found that although the three national policies analyzed have many areas of overlap, there is little coordination between them. By applying the framework to nutrition and agricultural policies, a lack of alignment between production and consumption processes can be identified and addressed. Addressing where food system component work against each other is useful for policymakers in achieving policy coherence (Downs et al., 2017).Narrative Policy Analysis (NPA) (Roe, 1994;Mockshell & Birner, 2020) Analytical tool: Looks at stories told by different actors to analyze policy issues. Four main steps: 1) Identify narratives dominating the issue in question; 2) Identify ' counter stories' and 'non-stories' about the issue; 3) Create a meta-narrative including dominant and counter stories; and 4) Examine if and how the meta-narrative realigns the policy issues in a manner responsive to decision-makers.Showing how narratives have power in agricultural policy, aiding the reframing of polarizing issues, and helping people understand them in new ways.Discourse Analysis (DA) (Hajer, 2006;van Dijk, 1996;Mockshell & Birner, 2015) Looks at how different actors in policy debates positively assess their own beliefs and negatively assess the beliefs of those who disagree with them.Uses storylines with a clear beginning, middle, and end, as well as metaphors.Examining various discourses and identifying the underlying policy beliefs of different actors.Process Net-Map (PNM) (Schiffer, 2007, Ilukor et al., 2015;Duncan et al., 2019) Participatory mapping tool: Analyzes steps of a process to identify stakeholders and their influence and visualize social networks. Four steps: 1) Asking the interviewee to describe the given process step-by-step; 2) Building influence towers;3) Identifying obstacles to implementation; and 4) Creating a digital process map A tool for understanding how processes are implemented, diagramming how processes are carried out compared to established procedures; identifying how power dynamics and overlapping responsibilities can impact participatory processes; identifying where interventions can be made to reduce corruption and maintain control in process pathways.Policy and development processes are complex, involving macro-, meso-, and micro-level dynamics and interactions between these levels. As a result, it can be helpful to have tools and frameworks designed to analyze food and nutrition systems at multiple levels of scale. Table 4 summarizes these frameworks and tools. Analyzing policies and multiple levels (macro to micro).Political Settlement Analysis (PSA) (Kjaer, 2015;Amaza et al., 2021;Chinsinga and Matita, 2021) Focuses on underlying power arrangements in institutions; assesses political will to determine feasible policies. Involves the following steps: 1) Systematically mapping all key actors involved; 2) Identifying their interests and recognizing their forms of power -political, economic, social, and ideological; 3) Understanding stakeholder relationships; and 4) Appreciating the issues, narratives, and ideas shaping how and why stakeholders interact with each other.Assessing political will and helping understand the reasons policies succeed or fail.Power Mapping (PM) (Guevara- Influence Mapping (MSIM) (Sova et al., 2017) Power mapping tool: Scores influence levels of actors involved in or affected by policy processes at the macro, meso, and micro levels. The actor group' s closeness determines influence scores to the policy object.Visualizing the influence levels of different groups in a policy process.Case study 2: The Kaleidoscope Model of policy change -food security applications in Zambia Resnick et al. (2018) developed the Kaleidoscope Model (KM) framework by analyzing policy processes related to food security in Zambia. This work aimed to further understand the importance of the policy environment in shaping development outcomes and in creating lasting impacts on food security in Zambia.The Kaleidoscope Model comprises five policy cycle stages: agenda setting, design, adoption, implementation, and evaluation/reform. The approach uses a set of 16 operational hypotheses to determine the circumstances in which policies are developed and implemented. In Zambia, this framework was used to evaluate eight policy reforms related to food security policies, related to agricultural input subsidies and vitamin A fortification.Most of the Kaleidoscope Model's core variables remained relevant for the two policies examined, while a small number appeared to lose applicability at times. This information can help practitioners and researchers assess when and where investment in policy reforms is most likely to have an impact (Resnick et al., 2018).\"In an era of growing pressure on donor resources and government budgets, the Kaleidoscope Model offers a practical framework through which practitioners and researchers can assess when and where investments in policy reforms are most feasible given a country's underlying political, economic, and institutional characteristics\" (Resnick et al., 2018, p. 101).Adapted This domain focuses on sustainable water and land management governance and how politics and power determine policymaking in the land and water sectors. It includes analyses that apply PEPA to address various land and water system issues and help unravel how stakeholders use their influence in the land and water sphere. This section offers macro-and meso-level tools and a meso-level framework (Figure 5, Table 5). Institutional Analysis and Development (Ostrom et al., 1994;Ostrom and Polski, 1999;Fan et al., 2019) Investigates how institutions are formed and how they influence behavior. Triangular Model of Relations (Buur et al., 2017) Examines the relationship between local populations, investors, and ruling elites related to large-scale land and natural resource investments. Helps analyze the exchange of benefits, resources, and rights within these relationships.Attempts to analyze the following: 1) Reciprocal exchange deals between local populations and investors; 2) Compatible interests between ruling elites and investors; and 3) Productive social relations between ruling elites and local populations.Helping policymakers and researchers investigate and target large-scale investment in land management. Helping them find an optimum scenario where local populations, elites, and investors gain without affecting each other' s interests.Legal Assessment Tool (LAT) (Kenney and Campos, 2016) Analyzes the legal context of countries through 30 legal indicators to explore gender-equality in land tenure; allows for quick, focused consultancy on legal matters for policymakers.LAT takes the following steps: 1) Analyze gender indicators and chosen categories across gender-related land issues;2) Identify the current and historical institutional reforms related to land issues with a gender impact; 3) Identify the current stage of the public policy process; and 4) Support planning after considering reform gaps.Planning and designing public policies in the land domain.Identifying the areas where women are at a significant disadvantage and where legal reform is needed.Guevara-Hernandez et al. ( 2010) conducted a participatory power mapping exercise with indigenous cattle keepers in California Village, Chiapas, Mexico. This study aimed to examine local power, its implication for village dynamics, and how people involved in local development understood and exercised power.The study employed an action research approach as the principal framework for creating social order in the village. The approach builds on local customary law, referred to locally as 'usos y costumbres' (U&C), which are principles and practices evolved from the bottom-up within a community. Customary law was used to understand how village development-focused groups and committees engaged in collective action and made decisions. Participatory power mapping was useful within this context because it provided a tool that residents could use to show their understanding of their community and community relationships.Participatory Power Mapping and the U&C framework showed that both village residents and outsiders must adhere to local values and norms to participate in development interventions and decision-making. This finding is interesting because power in Mexico is exercised based on a top-down model at a national level, especially for deploying state and federal resources to rural villages. However, at the local level, power is only seen as legitimate if actors follow local norms. When top-down local power structures fail to provide space for U&C modes of decision-making, tension often builds up within local systems and may result in protests or officially censured activities, such as the land occupation that gave birth to California Village.\"New research approaches towards community self-assessment can clarify how actors shape and re-shape local power structures through daily routines, contributing to a better understanding of community development from a productive perspective\", (Guevara-Hernández et al., 2010, p. 6).Informal sytem of power \"Customs and practices\" 18 external actors -government institutions 6 Internal actors and recognized decision makers 4 internal actors but no recognizedAdapted from Guevara-Hernández et. al. (2010) Climate and ecology domain: The climate and ecology policy domain includes political economy analysis focused on climate and environmental ecology issues and how these issues influence policymaking processes in various countries and sectors (Figure 6). The challenges related to the climate and ecology domain are discussed across the multi, macro, meso, and micro levels of analysis to pinpoint crucial frameworks and tools applicable to developmental initiatives and scientific research (Table 6). Policy Translation (PT) (Milhorance et al., 2022) Focuses on policy actors, policymaking processes, policy instruments, contextual shifts, and cost-benefit analysis.Four steps: 1) Define the context of the policy; 2) Analyze policy proposals; 3) Analyze relevant actors, resources, and opportunities, including integrated policy approaches; 4) Analyze institutional policy instruments available for translating policy.Analyzing climate change policy.Examines knowledge transfers between actors; delineates and visualizes power struggles in the policy translation process.Policy Network Analysis (PNA) (Ndeinoma et al., 2018) Analytical framework: Identifies links and patterns between actors in a governance structure by mapping policy actors, identifying the structure of government bodies or institutions, and then measuring the power balance in decisionmaking. Focuses on power relations, resource mobilization, organization behavior, the policymaking process, and interest.Developing new strategies through different stakeholder groups to effectively deal with policy issues.Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) (Hernandez and Bolwig, 2021) Diagnostic framework: Considers policymaking as a series of steps: 1) agenda-setting, 2) alternative specification, 3) authoritative selection among specified alternatives and 4) implementation. Focuses on the first two processes to explain why certain issues become relevant on the agenda, and why some proposals for addressing such issues are preferred over others.Analyzing climate policy integration (climate streaming) to enhance the public policy-making process and operationalization Biodiversity Policy Integration (BPI) (Zinngrebe, 2018)Analytical framework: Examines how knowledge is transferred between different actors to put biodiversity targets in agendas. Considers the following: 1) Inclusion -the extent to which political sectors express the objective of biodiversity conservation; 2) Operationalization -identifying appropriate policy instruments; 3) Coherence -measuring the extent to which different objectives and policy instruments complement each other; 4) Capacity -identifying institutional capacity and available resources; 5) Weighing -defining priorities related to biodiversity objectives.Connecting biodiversity development strategies with national policy efforts in high-biodiversity areas.Driver-Strategy-Outcome Framework (DSOF) (Islam et al., 2021) Analytical framework: Derived from social-ecological systems thinking and sustainable livelihood, resilience, and vulnerability assume that in an agrarian society, different chains embrace wealth-based economic structures. The framework is based on the following concepts which form the hypothesis for analysis: 1) Strategies -adjusting or improving a given technology or activity; 2) Drivers -institutional, climatic, or geographic; 3) Outcome -adaptation; 4) Wealth structure -land ownership Useful in studying farmers' adaptation strategies, drivers, and outcomes of various technologies especially, those linked to climate change adaptation Kingdon' s Window of Opportunity (KWO) (Rose et al., 2020) Identifies communication bridges between policymakers and researchers; supports having adequate resources to respond to opportunities when they arise; understands the scientific debate around the issue and connects with policymakers to bring the scientific debate to the national agenda.Identifying upcoming windows of opportunity in specific areas.Framework (SESF) (Vallejo-Rojas, 2016;Amblar, 2021) Focused on biophysical systems and how they impact natural resource management. Applied through the following: 1) Identifying social, economic, environmental, and political context; 2) Measuring the size of the resource system and associated costs; 3) Identifying key players within the systems.Identifying optimal conditions for cooperation applied to water pollution, water quality, and hydro systems.In a recent policy assessment of Peru, Zinngrebe (2018) aimed to understand both the political dimensions of biodiversity loss and how concerned actors can use policy to protect biodiversity and mitigate the negative impacts of biodiversity loss.Mainstreaming biodiversity protection across various political sectors and levels is considered a \"best practice\" for conserving global biodiversity. To fully understand the situation in Peru, the study used the Biodiversity Policy Integration (BPI) framework in several national-level political sectors, including agriculture, the economy, energy, and others. The analysis was based on political strategy plans, legal documents, and qualitative interviews with stakeholders.BPI analysis found that various sectors were generally committed to biodiversity conservation.The study identified three key components essential for improving BPI: framing sector-specific targets, favorable actor constellations, and adaptive institutional learning arrangements. Furthermore, sectoral support was deemed critical to generating ownership of biodiversity objectives in sector policy development and to facilitating institutional learning (Zinngrebe, 2018). Case study 5: Policy windows for the environment -tips for improving scientific knowledge acceptance Rose et al. (2020) sought to determine whether the responses of scientists, NGO staff, conservation policymakers, and others could be used to influence environmental policy. The study found four strategies environmentalists can use to respond to opportunities for creating successful policies.This framework found that it is possible to achieve conservation objectives if stakeholders: 1) know the emergent opportunities, 2) respond quickly to them, 3) frame their research in line with appropriate windows, and 4) persevere to guide policy processes through development to successful implementation. The Policy Windows framework has been instrumental in exploring soft power from new academic perspectives and in considering how a crisis may prove useful to scientists. This framework provides evidence that is relevant to achieve real policy change, actors must establish political alliances, build coalitions, and gain credibility with decision-makers (Rose et al., 2020). The PEPA Sourcebook provides an easily accessible compendium of political economy and policy analysis frameworks, analytical tools, and related case studies relevant to examining agri-food systems. As illustrated by Figure 7, PEPA follows an incremental and iterative approach to: (1) identify the main problem and the specific policy domain, (2) examine the scope of the problem and what specific questions it raises, (3) determine the frameworks and analytical tools needed to develop a structured method to analyze the problem, (4) gather data to examine why the problem persists, (5) synthesize the evidence to inform policymaking and policy processes, with the goal of attaining policy change, and ( 6) package evidence to engage stakeholder and policymakers. This, in turn, may lead to renewed problem identification and repetition of the process for improved policymaking.The PEPA Sourcebook provides an easily accessible compendium of political economy and policy analysis frameworks, analytical tools, and related case studies relevant to examining agri-food systems. As illustrated by Figure 7, PEPA follows an incremental and iterative approach to (1) identify the main problem and the specific policy domain, (2) examine the scope of the problem and what specific questions it raises, (3) determine the frameworks and analytical tools needed to develop a structured method to analyze the problem, (4) gather data to examine why the problem persists, (5) synthesize the evidence to inform policymaking and policy processes, with the goal of attaining policy change, (6) package evidence to engage stakeholder and policymakers. This, in turn, may lead to renewed problem identification and repetition of the process for improved Identifying a policy problemExaming specific questions related to the policy problemGathering data to examine the problemDetermining frameworks and analytical tools for the questionsSynthesizing evidence to inform policy design and policy changePackaging evidence for policymakers and policy engagementsStep 1: Identify the main problem and the specific policy domainIn the context of food systems, the main policy domains include food and nutrition, land and water, and climate and ecology. Considering the complexity of policy-making and development interventions, any analysis Source: Authors requires identifying relevant policy domains and determining the specific problem(s) of interest in that domain.For example, a policy problem can examine the concerns of increasing consumer access to affordable ultraprocessed foods and the health-related implications in a country. This macro-level, national analysis topic is within the food and nutrition policy domain (Figure 3 and 4).Step 2: Examine the underlying specific questions for the problem Relevant problem-specific questions and related stakeholders are identified after establishing the policy domain and scope. In the case of the ultra-processed food environments policy domain, examples of the specific question include: (1) Why is finding solutions to combat the increasing access to affordable ultraprocessed foods so controversial and what strategies are necessary for policy change? (2) Are taxes or regulations a better policy approach for reducing the overconsumption of ultra-processed foods? (3) Is the policy environment enabling or hindering access to affordable ultra-processed foods? To answer these questions, a critical assessment using PEPA can reveal conflicts, power dynamics, coalitions, beliefs, and policy processes necessary for development interventions to catalyze desired changes in the food and nutrition policy domain (see Mockshell & Ritter, 2023).Step 3: Determining frameworks and analytical toolsThe conceptual framework provides the basic elements for examining specific questions, while the analytical tool is a mechanism or instrument for examining the questions and elements of the conceptual framework. Based on the key questions of interest, this step identifies the frameworks and analytical tools relevant to answering the questions of interest identified in Step 2. For example, researchers, development practitioners, and policymakers are interested in identifying coalitions and policy views in the ultra-processed food environment. As already highlighted in Figure 3, this area of interest takes shape within the food and nutrition policy domain at the national level of analysis. Thus, policy frameworks require macro-level analysis and a related analytical tool. The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) with the discourse analysis approach matches the topic of examining coalitions and policy views in the ultra-processed food environment at the macro-level (Figure 4 and Table 2). Next, if the interests are in examining the power dynamics, informal power, and power interactions in the ultra-processed food environment, then the Power Cube Framework (PCF) can be combined with a Process Net-Map for analysis. In the case of examining question-related taxes or regulations as the preferred policy approach for reducing the overconsumption of ultra-processed foods, the Kaleidoscope Framework for Policy Change approach provides a basis for analysis. This approach develops a set of indicators for identifying the drivers of policy change, the conditions under which policies emerge, and the effectiveness of policy implementation (Figure 4 and Table 2).Step 4: Gathering data to examine why the problem persistsRelevant data is the foundation for answering and examining the policy problem and specific questions of interest. This step focuses on gathering data to answer the questions of interest. The ultra-processed food environment case study considered several frameworks, such as the ACF. These frameworks should consider stakeholder landscapes, networks, discourse, beliefs, ideas, narratives, and influence levels. These considerations provide the basis for determining the analytical methods, such as quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. They also help determine data types and sources, such as primary, secondary, or mixed data from different providers. The data-gathering step also informs the selection of survey tools, such as process and network mapping, semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews, and others. Determining narratives of ultra-processed food environments will require conducting in-depth interviews with stakeholders involved in this policy domain. In the case of examining the policy-enabling environment for ultra-processed foods, the indicators from the Kaleidoscope Framework for Policy Change can provide information for developing survey tools (e.g., using multiple choice or Likert scale responses) to elicit information from participants on the key indicators.Step 5: Synthesizing evidence to inform policy design and policy changeThis step structures the raw data to generate relevant insights for stakeholders. The ultra-processed foodscase study has two central and underlying questions. Why are finding solutions to combat the increasing access to affordable ultra-processed foods so controversial? What strategies are necessary for policy change? The insights will cover areas such as: (1) the stakeholder landscape in the ultra-processed food environment, (2) potential coalitions in favor of ultra-processed foods, those in a neutral position on the topic, and stakeholders opposed to ultra-processed food, and (3) contested discourses and divergent ideas on potential policy solutions. Policy analysts should seek additional insights on the influential actors, type of influence, opposition to change, and entry points for influencing policy. The insights should provide a way to understand the drivers and conditions for policy change and to move toward policy implementation. The potential risks, winners, and losers of the policy change can also be uncovered. Without identifying and addressing the interests and ideas of the actors during the policy development cycle, policy reforms may be limited in scope or fail to reach their intended impact. Such risks need to be incorporated into a recommendation for policy change coupled with evidence on how to overcome potential policy risks.Step 6: Packaging evidence for policymakers and policy engagements This last step involves synthesizing the relevant insights into formats for communication, dialogue, and engagement with key stakeholders and decision-makers to contribute to policy change. The evidence package may include reports, policy briefs, opinion articles, presentations, peer-reviewed articles, info-graphics, and other mediums. This final step is critical. The informal and formal communication mediums should be adapted to policymakers according to their policy domains and context.The PEPA Sourcebook provides a step-by-step approach for conducting political economy and policy analysis across food, land, and water systems. This sourcebook contributes to PEPA by (1) identifying and organizing a collection of frameworks, analytical tools, and case studies using a systematic literature review approach (Annex A and B, Tables 1-6, and case study boxes), ( 2) mapping frameworks and tools to food and nutrition, land and water, climate and ecology domains, (Figures 3-6), and (3) disaggregating frameworks and tools by the level of analysis (macro -, meso -, micro -, and multi-levels) (Figures 3-6). These contributions fill an existing knowledge gap and make this PEPA Sourcebook unique for agri-food systems analysis. The PEPA Sourcebook by no means covers all frameworks, tools, and case studies, but it does provide a timely starting point, relevant to development practitioners, the donor community, researchers, and policymakers working in agri-food systems.  Resnick, 2010;de Schutter, 2019;McMichael, 2021). As Béné (2022) emphasizes in his call for food system transformation, changes in the agri-food industry require a thorough understanding of the contexts of local and international politics, economics, power dynamics, and stakeholder views. Coherent policies must be tailored to meet national and cultural needs. To gain this understanding, policymakers and development practitioners need innovative and workable tools and frameworks that can identify optimal ways to address agri-food system challenges. Evidence in the literature, however, reveals that there are limited explanatory frameworks that can adequately diagnose the challenges associated with agri-food systems (de Schutter, 2019). Frameworks and analytical tools from the political science, management, public policy, and political economy fields remain highly fragmented. Consequently, critiques proliferate regarding the lack of external validity, inability to replicate studies, lack of consistent indicators and vague measurements (Resnick et al., 2018;Fanzo et al., 2021). The PEPA Sourcebook provides frameworks and tools to enable practitioners and researchers to analyze multiple sectors of the agri-food system.The PEPA approach centers on power relations, thus requiring consideration of politics and economics.The political economy approach to agri-food systems takes a step beyond classical economic approaches by placing power, ideas, coalitions, and politics at the center of policy analysis (de Schutter, 2019). In general, most power resides with politicians and private sector actors, who often provide accountability and balance in the political influence discourse. Positive change across food, land, climate, and water systems requires a clear understanding of politics and economics and the dynamics between them.PEPA is useful for analyzing progress toward and barriers to achieving the SDGs. PEPA tools and frameworks can be used to study progress and narratives towards the SDGs related to agri-food systems, specifically the goals related to zero hunger (SDG 2), climate action (SDG 13), water (SDG 14),and land (SDG 15). This sourcebook also aligns with the new roadmap for impact outlined by the CGIAR' s five impact areas: (1) nutrition, health, and food security; (2) poverty reduction, livelihoods, and jobs; (3) environmental health and biodiversity; (4) gender equity, youth, and social inclusion; and (5) climate adaptation and mitigation (CGIAR n.d.).PEPA can be valuable in analyzing gendered power dynamics, yet more work remains in incorporating gender analysis into PEPA tools. The gender dimension of agri-food systems can be key to understanding the drivers and outcomes of policy changes in PEPA contexts. The dynamics of power relations in food, water, and land systems affect women, youth, and men differently. Park & Julia (2014) argue that men's and women's equal access to land and participation in agricultural groups, organizations, and cooperatives is crucial for ensuring food security. Evidence from the literature indicates that PEPA lacks consideration of gender issues, particularly in the policy domains related to food, nutrition, and the environment. However, PEPA's focus on power relations means that it can be useful as a tool for analyzing gender and power, both at the policy level and in formal and informal institutions (Haines & O'Neil, 2018). For example, the PEPA of Malawi's mining sector revealed the lack of policies enhancing and supporting the role of women in mining. The government' s broader mining policies ignored gender (Browne, 2014). Further work is needed to more fully include gender and youth considerations in PEPA. Such work should consider the interaction between gender and policy processes from the national to household decision-making levels.Mapping and Kingdon's Window of Opportunity and Legal Assessment Tool. Gender mapping tools, stakeholder analysis frameworks, and the frameworks and tools outlined in this Sourcebook can be used in gender analysis. For example, multi-level stakeholder influence mapping and power mapping can help map the influence of women or women' s associations on the agri-food system. At the same time, Kingdon' s window of opportunity could be useful in achieving a gender-supportive policy change related to gender equity and interests. Gender mapping can also help illuminate various value chain structures, providing analyses of gender relations and roles across the value chain. Me-Nsope & Larkins (2016) mentioned that these tools allow for a clear classification of gender issues along the value chain, especially those issues related to gender inequalities in agriculture. A classification of inequalities can facilitate the development of innovative solutions to gender-based issues. PEPA tools can assist practitioners in understanding human behavior and decision-making, which is useful in exploring the gender dimension of various topics. For example, these tools can reveal how land is managed in terms of relationships or dynamics around women' s decision-making power.In the context of gender-equitable land tenure policies, the legal assessment tool can help visualize the legal intricacies surrounding land access, identify gender inequalities, and target areas that require legal reforms.PEPA can also assist in evaluating the risks associated with policy reforms in various domains. Power struggles between the central government and various interest groups can limit the impact of policy reforms on food, land, and water systems. PEPA can highlight power dynamics, influential actors, and the winners and losers of policy reforms. The insights gained can be used to improve policy design and planning. Discursive power is useful for framing problems, providing solutions, lobbying policymakers, securing research evidence, and developing alternatives (McNeill, 2019).The PEPA Sourcebook contributes to the study of sustainable agri-food systems by providing a framework for integrating relevant national policies and strategies. The Sourcebook provides new insights for researchers, practitioners, and government agencies engaged in collaborative efforts to transform dominant foodscapes. Through a holistic agri-food systems approach, PEPA considers subsector elements, activities, and outcomes. There is a need for national policies and strategies to be oriented toward practical and clearly defined regulations and guidelines for governing the agri-food sector.PEPA approaches to trade-offs between the system domains discussed in this sourcebook -food and nutrition, land and water, and climate and ecology -are limited and need to be explored further. Further PEPA research can provide development practitioners, the donor community, and policy analysts with an accurate understanding of political will at the start of a project. These insights enable them to focus on areas where change is possible and to schedule interventions at appropriate times in the program development cycle. This often-ignored context-specific knowledge is necessary for understanding the drivers of change, or lack of change, as well as risks to development programs. The goal is for development practitioners and researchers to apply the frameworks to answer political economy and policy-related questions.(ab:(\"political economy\" or \"political economy analysis\" or \"Political Economy Framework\" or \"Politics\" or \"Policies\"or \"Political Economy Analysis Tools\") AND ab:( \"food\" or \"food system\" or \"agriculture\" or \"food security\" or \"food availability\" or \"food accessibility\" or \"food affordability\" or \"food utilization\") AND (\"land\" or \"land systems\" or \"land use\" or \"land development\" or \"land access\" or \"land grabbing\" or \"land governance\" or \"land acquisition\") AND (\"water\" or \"water systems\" or \"water governance\" or \"water development\" or \"irrigation\") AND yr: [2002[ TO 2022]]) AND ( ((item-type:((\"Annual report\" OR \"Annual report section\" OR \"Book\" OR \"Book Chapter\" OR \"Bulletin\"OR \"Bulletin article\" OR \"Conference paper\" OR \"Conference proceedings\" OR \"Correspondence\" OR \"Editorial\"OR \"Journal article\" OR \"Journal issue\" OR \"Standard\" OR \"Thesis\") )) (sc:((\"X0\" OR \"ZD\" OR \"FT\" OR \"FR\" OR \"FA\" OR \"GF\" OR \"GC\" OR \"GD\" OR \"GE\" OR \"GG\" OR \"GH\") )) (language:((\"English\") )) ))ii) SCOPUS (TITLE-ABS-KEY (\"political economy\" OR \"political economy analysis\" OR \"Political Economy Framework\" OR \"Political Economy Analysis Tools\" OR \"policy landscape\" OR \"Policy making\" OR \"policy process*\" OR \"policy design\" OR \"agricultural policy making\" OR \"policy change\" OR \"agrarian political economy\") AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (\"agricult*\" OR \"agrifood system*\" OR \"food system\" OR \"agricultural system*\") AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (\"food*\" OR \"water\" OR \"land\" OR \"food system\" OR \"agricult*\" OR \"food security\" OR \"food availability\" OR \"availability of food\" OR \"food accessibility\" OR \"accessibility of food\" OR \"food affordability\" OR \"affordability of food\" OR \"food utilization\" OR \"utilization of food\") AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (\"analysis tool*\" OR \"policy tool*\" OR \"policy analysis tool*\" OR \"analytical framework*\" OR \"policy analysis framework*\") ) ","tokenCount":"9501"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fef25c81558238830c5ff84b4f29f39b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ac1f17ed-7b96-477b-9108-82b45f33413e/retrieve","id":"489697681"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f5fef271-ed85-47a0-837a-b99ca06d564c","pagecount":"56","content":"Antes que todo expresamos nuestro agradecimiento a todas las personas e instituciones que de una u otra manera han contribuido con la elaboración del Catálogo de Cacaos de Honduras. La idea de desarrollar un catálogo de cacaos en Honduras se hizo realidad gracias al proyecto MOCCA (Maximizando Oportunidades en Cafe y Cacao en las Americas), financiado por el Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA) a través de su Programa de Alimentos para el Progreso (Food for Progress Program), que busca mejorar la productividad agrícola y expandir el comercio de productos agrícolas. Otros financiadores de MOCCA son las empresas J.M. Smucker Company, JDE, Peets, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Nespresso, Olam y Kellogg´s. El componente cacao dentro del proyecto MOCCA fue liderado por Lutheran World Relief donde Carolina Aguilar y Luis Orozco han sido indispensables para que el catalogo se haga realidad. El diseño y la edicion del catalogo fue financiado por la iniciativa Nature-positive solutions del OneCGIAR.El principal objetivo de este catálogo es dar a conocer la diversidad de cacaos que existen en colecciones en Honduras para promover tanto su uso como su conservación. La Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA) lidera la investigación de cacao en el país y mantiene un banco de germoplasma de más de cuarenta clones seleccionadas y debidamente caracterizadas a nivel morfologico, agronomico y genético. A lo largo de los anos la FHIA ha distribuido dichos clones a diversos actores del gremio para promover su disponibilidad a los agricultores. El presente catálogo muestra algunas de las colecciones resultantes mantenidas por cooperativas y asociaciones de productores en el país, y es nuestra expectativa que el catálogo seguirá creciendo en número de genotipos y colecciones. Cada colección es presentada como un capitulo con una descripcion corta de como se estableció, quienes eran los protagonistas mas importantes detras de su establecimiento, y como se puede entrar en contacto para tener acceso al material genético o granos de cacao de genotipos de interés.En este sentido el catálogo pretende servir de vitrina para que cada colección presente sus materiales más recomendados o prometedores en cuanto a características productivas, resistencia a plagas y enfermedades, compatibilidad sexual, afinidad genética y calidad sensorial de la pulpa y el licor de cada genotipo. Sin embargo, dado que las características agronómicas y sensoriales de la pulpa que acompañan cada genotipo fueron colectado mediante muestreo propio y/o proporcionados por los encargados de cada colección, las fichas reflejan la información que hemos podido recopilar hasta el momento, y la expectativa es que la calidad de dicha información seguirá mejorado a futuro. De otro lado, no se ha podido incluir datos de caracterizacion genética y sensorial de licor de los genotipos, pero se espera ir completando esta información a futuro en estrecha colaboración con los encargados de las colecciones.A continuación, se presenta un total de 33 descriptores que permitirán identificar los diferentes clones por sus características morfológicas y su identidad genética. Así mismo, brindarán información sobre su comportamiento en campo (productividad, compatibilidad genética y reacción a enfermedades) y atributos para la industria (sabores de la pulpa fresca y el licor).En esta subsección se indica el nombre (usualmente un código alfanumérico) del clon, así como si pertenece a alguna variedad específica. Se indica también el lugar en donde fue colectado, así como su colector, o agricultor conservador si la colecta se realizó en la finca de un productor. Por otro lado, si el clon fue obtenido a través del mejoramiento genético, se indicará el nombre de su obtentor.Este tipo de descriptores permiten verificar la identidad de un clon a través de distintos atributos en flores, mazorcas y semillas. A continuación, se presenta la lista de descriptores morfológicos, así como los posibles valores que puede tomar y la fuente bibliográfica del que fue tomado o adaptado. En esta subsección, de ser pertinente, se indica algún rasgo característico que no se haya incluido en los descriptores anteriores, como arquitectura de la planta o alguna característica de las hojas.La evaluación en campo del comportamiento de los materiales identificados es fundamental para su uso, ya sea de forma directa, es decir para instalación de plantaciones nuevas, o en procesos de renovación y rehabilitación; o para su uso en programas de mejoramiento genético. A continuación, se presentan descriptores de productividad, de compatibilidad genética y de respuesta a enfermedades y limitantes abióticas.ii. Número de semillas/fruto iii. Índice de semilla (Loor, 2016)Es el promedio del peso (g) de 100 almendras fermentadas y secas iv. Índice de mazorca (Loor, 2016)Se obtiene al multiplicar el número de mazorcas de un árbol por 1000 y dividirlo entre el peso seco (g) de las almendrasEn esta subsección se presentan rendimientos reales, indicando la metodología y las condiciones en las que se evaluaron. En caso no se tengan datos reales, se presenta un rango estimado según lo propuesto por García (2010).En primer lugar, se presenta información de autocompatibilidad o autoincompatibilidad. Así también, se presentan datos de intercompatibilidad con otros clones de la misma colección.Los datos de compatibilidad fueron obtenidosde de las publicaciones Catálogo de clones de cacao seleccionados por el CATIE para siembras comerciales (Phillips-More et al. 2012) y Catálogo de cultivares de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) evalkuados y seleccionados por la FHIA (López et al., 2017). Se presenta información del comportamiento del clon en condiciones de estrés abiótico: altas temperatura y déficit hídrico. Así también, se indica el grado de acumulación de cadmio en sus tejidos, cuando crece en suelos con alto contenido de este metal.IV. Perfil sensorial -¿Qué sabores presenta?Se presenta la intensidad de los sabores básicos y específicos (dulzor, acidez, astringencia, amargor, sabor frutal y sabor floral) provenientes del análisis sensorial de la pulpa fresca (mucílago) de cacao. La escala usada va de 1 a 5, según lo indicado por García (2010), siendo:   ¿Cual es su afinidad genética?Copracajul CARTIE-R6   La cooperativa promueve la producción de cacao y otros cultivos de alto valor en sistemas agroforestales, amigables con el ambiente, lo cual está en concordancia con sus planes de aprovechar el potencial ecoturistico de esta comunidad e iniciar la reforestación de esta zona.Aurelio Rivera Teléfono: 9864-8854Coavel UF-667   Los clones principales son UF-613, UF-667, TSH-565, ICS-39 que representan materiales que han sido investigados y recomendados por la calidad tanto en rendimiento y resistencia a enfermedades. Un importante logro de la asociación es el establecimiento de arreglo policlonal logrando mayor productividad.En el 2021, la ASOPROPIB es una organización de éxito, cuenta con 217 productores certificados orgánicos y en procesos de certificación. La participación de la mujer como miembro directivo de la ASOPROPIB fortalece la gobernanza del sector cacaotero. APACH es una asociación con 27 años de existencia y está conformada por 83 productores cacaoteros orgánicos certificados por Comercio Justo. Para garantizar la calidad han venido trabajando la parte genética, asistencia técnica, y el manejo postcosecha con uno de los mejores fermentadores, lo que los ha permitido ganar los permios a la calidad.La colección de cacao de la asociación está ubicada en el Ocotillo Occidental, Choloma (coordenadas: 15°39'31.7\"N 87°59'24.6\"W). Su establecimiento arranco en 2009-2010 con la colecta de materiales en finca Patricia Omoa, Cortes, por parte de técnicos del PCC, de APACH y María Sosa.La colección recibió apoyo de varias instituciones y proyectos. El proyecto PCC dio inicio a la siembra del jardín clonal en terreno de la asociación. El proyecto PROCACAHO, implementado por la Federación Nacional de Productores de Cacao de Honduras (FENAPROCACAHO) con el financiamiento de la Agencia Suiza para el Desarrollo y la Cooperación (COSUDE), APACH dio apoyo a los productores y a las fincas, y promocionó los viveros certificados e incentivos a la calidad del beneficiado. El proyecto MOCCA apoyó a los productores por medio de facilitadores de campo, y equipo e insumos para los viveros.La selección de clones fue orientada hacia los materiales que más producen, estén adaptados a la zona y tengan más resistencia a enfermedades. Ya se tienen identificado clones que producen los 12 meses del año, con dos picos de produccion alta, y presentan mejor calidad al momento del beneficiado. Los clones de la colección están siendo usado en la renovación de plantación para hacer una distribución uniforme de los clones ya que hay plantas perdidas en algunos surcos.Los socios de APACH trabajan para mantener la calidad de su cacao orgánico cultivado en sistemas agroforestales (SAF) que les ha hecho merecedores de estar entre los mejores cacaos finos y de aroma de Honduras en los certámenes nacionales de los Premios a la Calidad del Cacao Hondureño.  Jose Daniel Bejarano Tel: 9796-9066 o a través de la página de Facebook de la cooperativa ¿Cómo lo identificamos?  ¿Cual es su afinidad genética? semilla) mediante un recambio de copa. La colección recibió apoyo de diferentes instituciones y proyectos como la FHIA, APROCACAHO, COSUDE, HELVETAS, MOCCA, PROCACAHO y CHOCOLATS HALBA.La motivación para establecer la colección fue el interés para mejorar la producción de cacao, su resistencia a enfermedades, la búsqueda de variedades finos y una mejor propagación de materiales. En la experiencia local el clon TSH 565 tiene un perfil sensorial muy bueno y tiene buena productividad mientras que ICS 95 es un clon precoz productivo.Jose Rosendo Diaz Melgar Correo: rosendojose3@gmail.com APROCAGUAL La Asociación de productores agropecuarios de Guaymas limitada (APROCAGUAL) fue fundada en marzo del 2016 con una membresía de 70 socios. Su comercialización actualmente es cacao convencional en grano. La colección de cacao de APROPAGUAL esta ubicada en la finca Diaz, Aldea la 36 Guaymas, municipio El Negrito, departamento Yoro (coordenadas: 15.54N, -87.68O). Su establecimiento inició en el año 2016, por el ingeniero Roger Mejia de ASEPRA y Jose Rosendo Diaz de APROCAGUAL. Con el apoyo de Asesoría y Servicios en Producción Agroindustrial (ASEPRA) se inició la propagación de los clones en la finca de Jose Diaz (Plantación de 35 años aproximadamente y propagada por La colección de cacao de la cooperativa de productores agrícolas Serso San Viator Limitada (COPROASERSO) esta ubicada en el guanacaste, Jutiapa, Atlántida (coordenadas: 15.75N, -86.48O). Su establecimiento fue iniciado en el año 2008 a partir de clones obtenidos de la FHIA, con la participación de Aroldo Dubon de la FHIA, Victor Cámara de SERSO-Honduras, Rony Vayde y Roberto Maclin de COPROASERSO. FHIA y SERSO participaron en el establecimiento de las parcelas demostrativas y el jardín clonal, mientras que FUNDER, PROCACAHO, MOCCA, SOCODEVI, PROLENCA, ACICAFOC, participaron en el establecimiento de viveros y la propagación de los clones en la zona.La motivación para establecer la colección era el interés de volver el cacao un producto de alto valor, y la necesidad de tener plantas más productivas, resistentes a enfermedades y mayor vida útil y productiva. Los mejores rendimientos se han obtenido con los siguientes clones autocompatibles y resistentes a enfermedades. ICS-95, ICS-1, ICS-6, ICS-39, EET-613. Cada año se establecen viveros con estos clones para su propagación y venta.Manuel Nuñez Tel: 9929-0305 o página de Facebook.","tokenCount":"1791"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dcc44f8bcb983f777a4efd637bb94fc3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d316fca2-4170-4606-9bc7-7c85bf24c39e/retrieve","id":"-2103265763"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"04ac2333-1447-4121-8d2f-56d7f87fa2b5","pagecount":"34","content":"Over the past decade, the world has faced severe public health threats including zoonotic diseases, food insecurity, antimicrobial resistance and other emerging pandemic threats. This has been attributed to factors such as climate change, globalization, agricultural intensification, increased human population, leading to pressure on land resources, increased global trade and travel and increased use of antimicrobials in animal production and food preservation. One Health, an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems has been identified as an effective way to fight these threats at the human-animal-environment interface. One Health education creates a workforce, equipped with knowledge, skills and positive attitude to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease threats, capable of fostering cross sectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration.The Capacitating One Health in eastern and southern Africa (COHESA) project aims to support the creation of a One Health workforce by integrating One Health core and technical competencies into the existing curricula (preservice education) to produce professionals that can effectively and efficiently respond to challenges that require a One Health approach.This document provides guidelines on integrating One Health competencies into Higher Education Institutes in Ethiopia (HEIs). Specifically, it offers guidelines and strategies for i) mainstreaming One Health concepts in the education curricula as a course; ii) integrating selected One Health competencies into course content, chapters or units; iii) strengthening One Health student clubs in HEIs; iv) designing tailormade summer schools for preservice and inservice professionals; and (v) implementing short courses on zoonoses, emerging diseases and emerging health related problems as well as systems' approaches for effective managing emerging challenges using the One Health approach.1 IntroductionOver the past decade, the world has faced severe public health threats including zoonotic diseases, food insecurity, antimicrobial resistance and other emerging pandemic threats. This has been attributed to factors such as climate change, globalization, agricultural intensification, increased human populations leading to pressure on land resources, increased global trade and travel and increased use of antimicrobial substances in animal production and food preservation (Rahman et al. 2020). The One Health approach mobilizes multiple sectors, disciplines and communities at varying levels to address threats to human, animal and ecosystem health, while addressing the collective need for clean water, energy and air, safe and nutritious food, taking action on climate change and contributing to sustainable development. The approach is therefore considered an effective way to fight the above threats at the human-animal-environment interface. It has also been adopted as a core method to strengthen the world's ability to prevent, detect and respond to infectious diseases threats by the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) (Bakiika et al. 2023). The One Health approach is also considered to be critical for achieving several of the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as health is both a prerequisite and an indicator of sustainable development.The One Health concept is vital because it addresses the complex and interrelated health challenges our world faces. With the increase in global travel, urbanization and environmental changes, zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance and other related challenges can spread more quickly and easily among humans, animals and ecosystems like, leading to new and potentially devastating health threats. The One Health holistic approach helps to prevent, detect and respond to these threats more effectively by considering all the factors involved. This approach can lead to better health for people, animals and the environment, mitigate the impact of diseases and contribute to sustainable development. The One Health approach plays the following roles:1. Disease control: several infectious diseases can be transmitted between animals and humans (zoonoses), highlighting the need for holistic approaches that consider disease in humans and animals.2. Environmental conservation: human activities, such as deforestation and pollution, can impact both animal and human health. By considering environmental factors, the One Health approach promotes sustainable practices that benefit all species.3. Addressing antimicrobial resistance, which arises from the misuse of antibiotics. One Health promotes responsible use of antibiotics in humans, animals and the environment.4. The One Health approach promotes early detection, surveillance and response to emerging infectious diseases resulting from rapid urbanization, globalization and climate change.5. Climate change and Health: climate change affects the health of ecosystems and results in increased spread of diseases. Integrating climate science into the One Health approach promotes better understanding of how changing weather patterns influence zoonotic disease dynamics and environmental health, leading to more effective adaptation and mitigation strategies.6. Food safety: ensuring food safety involves managing risks from farm to table. One Health approaches recognize the interconnections between the health of soil, plants, animals and people, addressing factors like pesticide use, microbial contamination and food handling practices to prevent foodborne illnesses and promote public health.The COHESA project aims to generate an inclusive research and innovation ecosystem, facilitating rapid uptake, adapting and adopting solutions to issues that can be dealt with using a One Health approach. In 2023, COHESA engaged the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA 2023) to establish benchmarks for One Health curricula. These benchmarks made recommendations for including One Health in Masters' programs in East Africa. However, Ethiopia is not a member of IUCEA, therefore COHESA has encouraged alternative pathways for harmonizing One Health education in HEIs in the country.The need for this guide arose from discussions among national One Health stakeholders during a net mapping exercise where deliberations and debates were held on integrating One Health into education and research. At the end of the exercise, a technical working group was established to guide the integration process. With guidance and technical contribution from the COHESA project lead in Ethiopia (Addis Ababa University), the subteam composed of multiple universities drafted this guide to facilitate integrating One Health approaches and principles into courses of higher educational institutions (HEIs) thereby producing a cadre of One Health ambassadors in Ethiopia.This document was informed by several activities including: 1) Cross sectional survey to assess current status of integration of One Health in HEIs 2) Literature review to identify One Health competencies 3) Mapping of competencies to existing curricula 4) Desk review of international experience in integrating One Health in curricula.Based on the findings, the team made recommendations to integrate One Health into HEIs. The recommendations are in varying states of implementation across the represented institutions and form the basis of the recommendations in this guide.2 Integrating One Health into HEIs in Ethiopia: Current status At the onset of the COHESA project, a cross sectional survey was conducted involving 120 individuals working with institutions of higher learning, government and NGOs sectors in Ethiopia, to assess the current status of One Health in higher education. The online survey was conducted from 10 to 20 September 2023, using a Google survey tool (Google Forms), attached as Annex 1. In addition, key experts, department heads and the Africa One Health University Network (AFROHUN 2021) formerly One Health Central and Eastern Africa (OHCEA) thematic and activity leads were consulted to understand the status of One Health integration into university curricula in Ethiopia.The survey revealed that One Health had been implemented in Ethiopia's HEIs using a variety of approaches, including:1. One Health as an academic program Some universities have in the past established One Health Clubs (OHCs) with the aim of deepening understanding of One Health as an approach and principle. In a few cases, the clubs have been expanded to include high school students. Figure 1 shows the status of OHCs in HEIs in Ethiopia. The clubs were also established to support engagement between students and professionals in the planning and implementing One Health activities, projects and opportunities. Nonetheless, this was inconsistent and not standardized in its approaches. There were no clearly defined deliverables.OHCs within universities and high schools are an important mechanism to roll out different initiatives aimed at deepening One Health as an approach and principle.To improve the organization and function of OHCs, below we offer guidance to universities that intend to develop or revitalize such clubs to support integrating One Health into HEIs:▪ Provide an extracurricular environment for, community engagement outreach activities and practical team based learning exercises such as case competitions ▪ Provide students the knowledge and applied skills to work across disciplines on complex One Health challenges ▪ Promote experiential learning and breakdown disciplinary silos among students and to prepare them as One Health champions in their future education and workplace settings. Although One Health activities were implemented in different modalities by various institutions/initiatives, there has been misunderstanding in One Health concepts and principles and there was lack of institutionalization and sustainability.• Misunderstanding of One Health concepts and principles: One Health has been considered as discipline and few undergraduate, MSc and PhD programs were launched in some universities which are against the principle of One Health that recognizes One Health as an approach that promotes integrating various disciplines to addresses complex challenges at human, animal and environmental interface.• Sustainability challenges: Most of the One Health activities were not aligned with the existing systems and dependent on projects. Hence, most of the activities were discontinued when projects were phased-out. (e.g. Field based experiential learning/demonstration sites at Jimma and Mekele universities).Competencies are the core knowledge, attitudes and skills required of professionals to undertake their respective roles. The fundamental knowledge, skills and abilities required to handle complex health challenges at the intersection of environmental, animal and human health are reflected in One Health's core competences (Laing et al. 2023). These competencies are designed to foster collaboration, understanding and effective action across disciplines. These competencies form the foundation for professionals and practitioners to effectively address complex health challenges at the interface of human, animal and environmental health, contributing to the advancement of One Health initiatives and the overall wellbeing of populations and ecosystems. These updated One Health competencies were proposed by the Network for Ecohealth and One Health (NEOH). NEOH proposed updated One Health core competencies to reflect the evolving narratives in One Health, from the former anthropocentric view of disease avoidance at the human-animal-environment interface, to a more holistic approach that strives to sustainably balance the health of people, animals, plants and ecosystems. It has nine core competencies falling across three broader categories of skills, values and attitudes and knowledge and awareness (Laing et al. 2023 To integrate One Health competencies into Masters' programs, a curriculum review was undertaken to identify the most appropriate courses in each program. Accordingly, it was recommended that competency 3 (systems understanding), 6 (collective learning and reflective practice), 7 (One Health concepts and principles), 8 (theoretical and methodological pluralism) and 9 (harnessing uncertainty, paradox and limited knowledge) be integrated into identified taught courses. In addition, it was recommended that competency 1 (effective communication), 2 (collaborative and resilient working), 4 (transdisciplinarity), 5 (social, cultural and gender equity and inclusiveness), 6 (collective learning and reflective practice), 8 (theoretical and methodological pluralism), 9 (harnessing uncertainty, paradox and limited knowledge) be incorporated into CBE courses. These recommendations are summarized in Table 2. Each program's curriculum was assessed to determine whether the above mentioned One Health competencies were already included. It was found that most of the competencies were not included in PhD curricula. Consequently, integrating the competencies into suitable courses within these programs was recommended. Specifically, the following were recommended for integration: competency 6 (collective learning and reflective practice), 7 (One Health concepts and principles), 8 (theoretical and methodological pluralism) and 9 (harnessing uncertainty, paradox and limited knowledge) into identified taught courses. In addition we recommend that competency 1 (effective communication), 2 (collaborative and resilient working), 3 (systems understanding), 4 (transdisciplinarity), 5 (social, cultural and gender equity and inclusiveness), 6 (collective learning and reflective practice), 8 (theoretical and methodological pluralism), 9 (harnessing uncertainty, paradox and limited knowledge) be incorporated into CBE courses. These recommendations are summarized in Table 3. • Theoretical and methodological pluralism • Transdisciplinarity course, it is suggested for including as a separate chapter preferably at the beginning or as an introductory chapter to the subject matter to give a broader overview. In the meantime, concepts can be incorporated into relevant chapters of the course to highlight the interaction between human, animal and the environment.In addition to integrating One Health approaches and principles into existing curricula and syllabi, additional activities were proposed for adoption by the universities. These additional activities may deepen the understanding of One Health and its role and help to institutionalize One Health initiatives at the respective universities. Since universities in Ethiopia have different programs and experiences, implementing One Health may take different forms and different paces. Most universities already have some initiatives within the rules of One Health which may be complemented by the proposed initiatives:A one-day orientation could be held with the university management to sensitize them to the importance of One Health and the need for curriculum change. Suggested participants include heads of academic programs identified for One Health integration; postgraduate program directors/coordinators; CBE program directors/coordinators; student union management. The format can vary and could include a panel discussion on major One Health issues relevant to HEIs including the One Health concept, the need to produce One Health ambassadors for the future health and wellbeing of ecosystems; and integrating One Health approaches and principles into university education. We propose to pilot this approach in 9 universities including: Addis Ababa, Gondar, Haramaya, Hawassa, Jimma, Mekelle, Bule Hora, Jigjiga and Wello universities. Selecting these universities was based on steps made in integrating One Health and therefore they can serve as ambassadors to other universities in Ethiopia.Training/orienting on One Health to be provided to all instructors of courses selected for One Health integration as well as academic quality directors/coordinators of colleges. Major components of discussion/training could include the One Health concept, One Health competencies, the need to integrate One Health into courses or university education, group discussion on One Health integration into courses (e.g. with instructors of same/similar course in one group) and group discussion on the way forward. We propose to pilot this approach in 9 universities.The students' OHCs promote experiential learning and break down disciplinary silos among students and to prepare them as One Health champions in their future education and workplace settings. The clubs will be linked to secondary school OHCs for experience sharing. The proposed activities of the club include:• Developing guidelines on OHC formation, implementation and management • One Health day celebrations with activities like debates on innovative One Health activities • Developing students' skills and competences in One Health leadership, community engagement, analysis and communication.• Public awareness creation campaigns on One Health, emerging pandemics, food safety and AMR at least once in a year • Trainings to build student's competencies on One Health approaches and principles • Outreach activities to undertake One Health activities• Getting a mentor from within the university to guide and support the club It is proposed that Jimma university leads in organizing the 2024 One Health summer school supported by COHESA. The overall goal of the planned summer school is to provide knowledge, skills and competencies on One Health and its approaches and principles that support prevention and management of complex global challenges to human, animal and environmental health. The summer school will have two components, namely: (1) One Health approaches and principles in teaching and research; and (2) Infectious diseases surveillance, risk assessment and management. One Health concepts, approaches and competencies particularly on soft skills will be aligned with disease surveillance, risk assessment, prevention and control, partnership and collaboration with practical illustrations.The summer school will include lectures, practical sessions and three days field attachment. Participants will be attached to a One Health demonstration site/community outreach for two to three days to provide an opportunity for them to work together to identify community problems at the human, animal and environment interface with suggested solutions that the university may take up to pursue as part of its routine program. The course will be designed to empower key course instructors in human, animal, environmental fields as well as engineering and social sciences drawn from senior universities in Ethiopia. We aim to work through department heads and/or deans of different programs of the senior universities to identity the right participants who will not only align lessons to their courses and/or researches but also serve as contact persons to integrate One Health in teaching and research activities of their respective universities. The summer school is expected to produce 30 One Health advocates at different universities and research institutions. The summer school will take place for two weeks between July and September 2024.Since Jimma university has an established One Health centre of excellence, in the long-term, the university plans to sustain the summer program with support from governmental and non-governmental organizations with the eventual goal of commercializing the program.Universities can integrate One Heath into their course by developing short courses. The following are examples of short courses that could be developed:Objectives: Understand the role of biodiversity conservation on ecosystem services and preventing zoonotic diseases spillover Content:• Biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services Background and goal of the survey COHESA aims to generate an inclusive research and innovation ecosystem, facilitating rapid uptake, adaption and adoption of solutions to issues that can be dealt with using a One Health (OH) approach, with the One Health concept embedded across society in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA), working for healthy humans, animals and environment. Addis Ababa University as a multiplier of the COHESA project aims to assess the level of integration of One Health in HEIs in Ethiopia. Cognizant of your role in the higher education system, you are identified to provide information on the need and current status of One Health integration into your respective institutions. Please rest assured that your response will be used only for the intended purpose. We sincerely appreciate your contribution  a) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------b) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------c) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------d) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------e) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11. If there is a field demonstration site/attachment: a) Number of demonstration sites -------------------------------------------------------------------b)Main One Health activities ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12. What are the challenges encountered during integrating One Health in education system? a) Program(s)----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------b) Course(s)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------17. Which One Health competencies will be integrated into this course(s)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------18. What contribution does a department make to integrating One Health to the curriculum?  --------------------------------------------------------","tokenCount":"2999"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8b07b246717a26fd3d152c9834fa50bf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c4ad02e7-403d-41b9-9d2c-6ba1255e2762/retrieve","id":"1169000668"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"510a8b77-fd11-4ae6-9c1c-9bf3f0a21d5b","pagecount":"104","content":"CIP publications contribute with important development information to the public arena. Readers are encouraged to quote or reproduce material from them in their own publications. As copyright holder CIP requests acknowledgement and a copy of the publication where the citation or material appears. Please send a copy to the Communication and Public Awareness Department at the address below.We acknowledge the support of the CGIAR Research Programs on Roots,Tubers and Bananas (RTB) and on Policy and Institution and Market (PIM) respectively, which have enabled south-south learning between colleagues based in Africa and Latin America, and among field practitioners engaged in integrating gender into value chain approaches, tools and interventions.We also value the support of the OFSP-AIS program, funded by ASARECA, through which, in 2012/2013, we began the effort of integrating gender into the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) in East Africa (Kenya,Tanzania, and Uganda). A similar undertaking by colleagues from Latin America started in April 2013, during an OFSP-AIS gender in business planning workshop, where CIP's researchers participated and initiated an intense collaboration to develop additional tools for mainstreaming gender in the PMCA, and to test and validate them in the Andean countries.The impetus for publishing this prototype guide came one year later, in April 2014 in Entebbe, when RTB and PIM co-funded a workshop to review CGIAR efforts of mainstreaming gender in value chains. At this workshop, CIP researchers discussed and approved the PMCA gender tools with key inputs and reflections from colleagues from Bioversity, CIAT and IITA.A special thank goes to CIP researchers, Margaret McEwan and Sarah Mayanja, for the valuable contribution to develop and adapt the first version of the gender responsive tools for PMCA.We would like to thanks Gordon Prain, Leader of CIP Centre of Excellence for Social and Health Sciences and Innovation Systems, and Andre Devaux, CIP Latin American and Caribbean Director, for their support and commitment to the gender and value chain agenda.We owe a special thanks to Graham Thiele, Leader of the RTB Program, for the important feedbacks and theoretical reflections provided during the workshop held in Uganda in 2014, and afterwards.We can't fail to acknowledge contributions from Thomas Bernet from FiBL (but previously with CIP) for his support contributions during the process. Also, a special thanks goes to Netsayi Mudege, the Gender Research Coordinator at CIP, for the inputs and the supervision in the approach used for mainstreaming gender in the PMCA.The Prototype guide for integrating gender into the Participatory Market Chain Approach seeks to build understanding on gender issues into value chain interventions and to create the capacities of PMCA's facilitators in applying gender analysis and developing gender-sensitive strategies to promote equitable opportunities for men and women to access to and benefit from the PMCA intervention.This guide is a prototype document developed from lessons learned during field research and exchanges between CIP researchers and PMCA practitioners from East Africa and the Andes.To develop a gender-sensitive PMCA, gender components were integrated into the PMCA's methodology in the form of specific tools that accompany the PMCA's phases of analysis and intervention.Two types of gender tools are presented in the guide: new gender tools nested into critical points of PMCA and a review of existing PMCA tools that have been made gender-sensitive.The gender tools are meant to help users to consider critical gender issues, such as: an improved understanding of men's and women's division of roles and power positions in the value chain, a better identification of specific gender needs, an in-depth analysis of the opportunities and risks for men and women when new businesses are created, and the need of promoting gender-equitable market-driven solutions. Learning and capacity development of trainees are achieved through a sequence of training workshops developed along the three phases of PMCA and their skills are reinforced by backstopping activities.The underlying concept is that value chain development interventions such as PMCA, when designed with gender-equitable principles, can foster both competitiveness and enhance poverty-reduction goals.It is expected that PMCA facilitators who have been introduced to the gender analysis and gender tools presented in this guide will be able to design more gender-responsive, efficient and inclusive value chain interventions.Introduction: gender-sensitive training on PMCA application C h a p t e r IThe Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) is a pro-poor value chain (VC) methodology aiming at stimulating market chain innovations that promote win-win relationships between market actors and smallholder farmers in order to facilitate their participation into the value chain. It was developed in 2005 by the International Potato Center (CIP) with the experience gained in the Andes.This methodology has been applied to several VCs during the last ten years including East Africa and Asia, and has proved to be a powerful approach to fostering market-driven innovations and facilitating smallholder inclusion.Two methodological support tools related to the PMCA approach have been developed:The PMCA User's Guide (2012), which supports PMCA implementations guided by facilitators and the institution leading the process (available in English and Spanish);  A Trainer's Guide, which provides strategic guidance to trainers who are building capacity of PMCA facilitators (available only in Spanish) Both guides have been applied and validated in the Andes, East Africa and South West Asia. Based on the applications of the PMCA in East Africa (between 2011 and 2013), CIP researchers and partners identified a major methodological gap in considering gender issues among VC actors, and therefore the need to make the methodology more gender sensitive. Indeed, the existing guides lack an adequate focus, as well as practical instruments on how to analyze and address constraints faced by different value chain actors (men, women, young men, young women), which, in turn, limit the PMCA's effectiveness to ensure more equitable access to opportunities and benefits Chapter I Introduction: gender-sensitive training on PMCA application C h a p t e r I generated along the chain.These limitations would consequently impair the goal of helping reduce gender inequalities of the beneficiaries of the intervention and they would potentially affect value chain performance.To address this gap, CIP colleagues in Africa and Latin America have developed, tested and/or adapted several gender-analytical tools to complement the PMCA methodology and make it gender responsive.This experience gave rise to an ongoing South-South knowledge sharing and learning process between Africa and Latin America regions related to methods and tools that aim at improving the link between smallholders and markets.The process has been supported by the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Roots Tubers and Bananas (RTB) and the CRP on Policy Institutions and Markets (PIM). Based on this experience and on the previous guides, this document proposes a systematic strategy to incorporate gender tools into the PMCA and to assist trainers in the development of PMCA facilitators' capacities for the application of the gender tools.A number of arguments have been put forward to emphasize the importance of a gender perspective and of gender-sensitive analytical tools for value chain analysis, such as:(i) Social justice: human rights translate differently for men and women. (ii) Poverty reduction: fighting poverty is hard if you are gender blind. (iii) Economic consideration: gender inequity is a missed business opportunity (KIT, AgriProfocus & IIRR, 2013).Chakrabati (2013) argues from a broader perspective that: \"Only when gender equality is assured, economies can make use of society's potential talent as well as encourage innovations that create wealth\". Consequently, the current guide stresses the importance of applying a gender perspective, supported by specific gender tools, to PMCA implementations and trainings.What are the expected changes introduced by this guide?It is expected that PMCA facilitators, who have been introduced to gender analysis and planning tools presented in this guide will have skills to design more genderresponsive, efficient and inclusive value chain interventions that meet both men's and women's needs and interests 1 , and to adjust the methodology according to the specificities of the context and of the value chain's actors involved.This document is a prototype guide for integrating gender into PMCA; it is complementary to the existing PMCA User's and Trainer's Guides. It reflects the structure of the existing Trainer's Guide (Spanish version) and presents a sequence of four training workshops for PMCA capacity building where, gender analysis and tools are introduced in each phase of PMCA. This guide intends to be a support document for PMCA trainers as well as for PMCA facilitators during the implementation. It provides gender tools and new insights from field practice.The guide will be validated through field applications in different contexts, and the tools will undergo a series of field trials during 2016-2017 in Africa and Latin America.Introduce key concepts on gender and value chain: why, how and when to introduce gender in VC analysis and intervention.Introduce and integrate gender analysis and perspective into the PMCA capacitybuilding process, specifically considering the PMCA training workshops described in the previous PMCA Trainer's Guide and outlined in this guide.Describe how to incorporate gender concerns throughout the three phases of PMCA, by using gender analysis, planning and evaluation tools or existing PMCA tools with a gender lens, and provide illustrative examples of how to use those tools.Identify check points of each PMCA phase for helping trainers in their backstopping activities, ensuring that gender concerns are effectively incorporated. Provide a detailed full conceptual and illustrative description of the PMCA methodology and training process, which is described in the PMCA User's Guide and in the Spanish version of the PMCA Trainer's Guide.Prescribe which, among the different gender tools proposed, are the most appropriate for particular VC settings.Provide a detailed description of the pros and cons of various gender tools.Create full expertise in gender analysis and planning.The objective of this guide is to help PMCA trainers effectively teach PMCA facilitators how to incorporate a gender perspective and use specific gender tools during a PMCA application.The gender capacity-building process follows the sequence of workshops and backstopping activities as requested in the PMCA training process.Trainers should work to achieve results at three levels: knowledge, skills and attitudes, as shown in the following scheme. What are the PMCA phases and the corresponding gender tools to be used?The PMCA methodology comprises three phases: Phase 1. Rapid market chain assessment and identification of innovation opportunities. In this phase a Research and Development (R&D) organization (such as NGO, research institution, etc.) initiates the PMCA process by selecting the market chain to work on, identifying potential partners and carrying out exploratory market chain appraisal. Phase 1 ends with a final public event, where market chain actors (farmers, traders, processors, and market agents), meet the PMCA leading institution that presents the results of the market chain appraisal and shares actors´ different expectations, constraints and capabilities, and facilitates discussion on possible innovations.Phase 2. Analysis, selection and prototype development of identified opportunities. During phase 2, the R&D organization establishes thematic groups, which focus on a particular innovation opportunity in the commodity value chain and facilitates meetings.These meetings are designed to: i) foster mutual trust and knowledge-sharing among participants, ii) to deepen the analysis of the potential market chain innovations, and iii) to pilot the development of the selected innovation (business plan and prototype development). Likewise the first phase, this second also ends with a final event where each thematic group presents their progress, common objectives and the activities realized to fully develop market chain innovations. During this phase, the group and the facilitator will meet and engage with other actors in the process of innovation.Phase 3. Launch of innovation. In this last phase the market chain actors collaborate for practical innovation processes with the support of the R&D organization.This phase focuses on the activities needed to launch specific innovations and may take from three to six months. It closes with a large final event in which the innovations are launched to a wider group including donors, politicians and investors.In each of these phases, the PMCA implies the application of specific tools for analysis and for decision-making purposes.This gender guide proposes the inclusion of a gender perspective through two approaches: By introducing gender analysis, planning and evaluation tools.By incorporating a gender focus to the existing PMCA tools.The following table presents new or existing PMCA tools, classified by their level of gender and the corresponding phase of PMCA where they should be used.Phase 2 Note: the level of gender-responsiveness in all tools has been categorized according to three levels: none, some and significant.The impact filter tool was already present in the User's guide but had no gender focus in it.The gender tools for PMCA:Five gender tools for analysis and planning are introduced in this guide.These tools will be introduced throughout the PMCA training workshops presented in the next chapter.The tools are:Tool 1: Gender-Sensitive Impact FilterThe Impact Filter tool is part of the PMCA User Guide (tool1 of User's guide) and has been revised to incorporate a gender perspective.The Gender-Sensitive Impact Filter is used in PMCA Phase 1 and provides a rapid qualitative evaluation of the expected impacts that different market opportunities are likely to have on poverty, society and environment.The Gender-Sensitive Impact Filter tool looks at possible impacts of market opportunities on: i) potential to involve women in market chain activities and in decision-making and ii) potential effect on women's and men's incomegenerating opportunities, access to resources, and capacity building.This tool will help to focus on those potential innovations that are most likely to produce the desired development impacts, including on women's economic empowerment, while not exerting a negative impact on the most vulnerable actors.This tool consists of a survey questionnaire that aims at collecting and analyzing the perspective of public and private institutions and stakeholders that influences or supports the PMCA intervention.The analysis focuses on understanding both: i) the gender awareness and knowledge of the gender context (gender norms and rules) ii)the gender responsiveness of the institutions (i.e. whether they have built-in mechanisms to ensure gender balance within the organization and to carry out interventions aimed at improving gender equality). After conducting the interviews, the PMCA facilitator can decide whether the interviewed organization can be a potential partner in ensuring that identified gender-based constraints are addressed and to what extent it may need some capacity building in gender mainstreaming.This tool is used at the beginning of PMCA Phase 1, along with the Qualitative Assessment of Market Chain (see Trainer's Guide), and it provides useful information on the market chain context to feed into the Gender-Sensitive Value Chain Mapping (tool3).This tool enables users to capture information on the roles and the power position of male and female actors along the market chain and reveals existing gender issues that may impede market chain development.The Gender-Sensitive Value Chain Mapping gives insights on what actions or strategies can support the development of genderresponsive innovations. It is used during Phase 1, prior to the first event, within the R&D organization facilitating the PMCA. Linked to the use of the Gender-Sensitive Impact Filter (tool1), it fosters reflections on gender issues along the chain in a systemic way.The tool can also be used during the Final Event of phase 1, together with the invited actors, to analyze and discuss more explicitly the gender constraints into the identified (commercial) innovations.This tool is complementary to the Gender-Sensitive Value Chain Mapping tool (tool3), and allows a deeper understanding and identification of gender-based constraints and strategies to address them. It provides insights into gender roles and activities along the different nodes of the value chain, while also identifying the constraints faced by these actors in accessing resources and services needed to carry out their activities. Moreover it facilitates an analysis of the identified gender-based constraints by looking at their consequences, both for the actors and for the sector as a whole, making it possible to prioritize the most crucial constraints to be addressed.This tool is best used in phase 2, after that a market opportunity has been selected by the thematic group. It can be first used by facilitators and then validated in a participatory way with thematic group members. Information collected through the Gender-Based Constraint Analysis and Planning tool can be useful to be integrated into the Business Plan (tool7 User's Guide)The Gender Risk-Benefit Analysis is a useful participatory assessment tool to quickly evaluate the effect that implementing a business opportunity has on female and male chain actors considering relevant dimensions such as amount of work, income, social position and/or market position.The tool helps to ensure that business opportunities do not exert a negative effect on either female or male chain actors. It is used during Phase 2 and 3 with thematic groups.Sharing the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to enable new PMCA facilitators to use the methodology in a new context can be a difficult task. Besides deep methodological insights, in many cases attitude changes are needed from the facilitators in order to interact with the variety of market chain actors involved in a the intervention. At the same time, new insights need to be converted into practical skills for facilitating the PMCA process and applying the different tools. These challenges become more complex when a PMCA trainer is not available in the location where the PMCA is being applied, and that some training and backstopping need to be provided through emails, skype or telephone in addition to face-to-face meeting.This implies that the PMCA trainer must be flexible enough to adapt the training modules to a new context, considering the characteristics of the value chains in which the PMCA is applied, as well as the level of knowledge and experience of the facilitators and their training needs.The capacity-building strategy for PMCA aims to respond to this complexity through the use of four sequenced training workshops and corresponding backstopping activities integrated into the three structured phases of a PMCA application. Linking the PMCA capacity-building process with implementation of the method will allow the PMCA facilitators to gain relevant capacities stepwise, when they implement the method and to benefit from an iterative process that allows them to put into practice what they have learned, and bring back experiences in the next workshop. The PMCA capacity-building strategy involves both: In general, the training workshops aim at broadening the theoretical and practical knowledge related to the PMCA. Figure 1 illustrates the sequences of the workshops and their main objectives to build the capacities needed to implement a PMCA. On the other hand, complementary backstopping activities aim at providing practical assistance to improve the work and address challenges faced by the facilitators during PMCA applications. Figure 2 shows the suggested time frame for the capacity-building activities.  Note before starting: how to use the different PMCA Manuals to complement information needed for training.When developing the workshop, the PMCA trainer will use this prototype guide to design the structure of the workshop, both session contents and agenda, and to introduce the gender analysis and tools. He/she will use the existing Trainer Guide for the general development of the training session and content, and she/he will make reference to the User's Guide when presenting tools already developed in that document.One or more R&D organizations and potential PMCA facilitators involved in supporting the value chain development are interested in getting to know the PMCA, having in mind that the method, its concepts and tools might be useful for them.Different R&D actors and especially technical staff of the organization(s) that will lead the PMCA application. Other actors might want to join the workshop, including donors and policy makers.By the end of the training, trainees will be able to: 1 Understand the basic goals and principles of the PMCA, and their roles as PMCA facilitators. 2Assess the potential value of the PMCA for their organizations and the value chains they want to work on. 3Understand the importance of integrating gender in value chain analysis; knowledge and practice of gender tool for phase1. 4Better understand how to approach market chain actors by using a structured process that aims at creating trust and tangible innovations.Participants:Workshop Objectives: For practical reasons, it is possible that the trainer and facilitator(s) meet together for backstopping the activities related to the final event (check points (d) to (i)) just before the final event 1.This would permit the PMCA trainer to be physically available and also to participate in the final event and to better understand the context where PMCA is applied. The training workshop for phase 2 could be done immediately after the final event of phase 1 to optimize the logistic of capacity building activities.Introduction to the workshop, including presentation of participants and trainers.Presentation and discussion of PMCA theory and practice (use of case studies).Presentation and discussion of gender in value chains (use skits on gender roles and their implications, and presentation on rationale for incorporating gender into value chain intervention and PMCA, see annex 6).Assignment 1 -group work: SWOT analysis of specific market chains and evaluation of PMCA (User's Guide pg.38).Presentation of the suggested tools of PMCA Phase 1: Gender-Sensitive Impact Filter (tool1), Gender Organizational Assessment of Partner Organization (tool 2), Qualitative Market Survey (see Trainer's Guide), Gender-Sensitive Value Chain Mapping (tool 3).Preparation of field visit, for testing the qualitative interviews that will be used in the Qualitative Market Survey (see Trainer's Guide). Final discussion: challenges when using PMCA, next steps, workshop evaluation.Session 8:Session 9:Note: Given the time constraints of R&D organization and staff participating to training, the workshop is designed such that key people participate at least during the first morning, when the method is presented and in the final session, when participants share their conclusions about PMCA and the steps they've planned to move on with implementation. It may be necessary to bring in expertise for gender in value chains sessions, if the PMCA trainer(s) do not have the skills.Workshop 1 -Agenda The SWOT Analysis is a qualitative evaluation tool that can be used to assess products, projects, persons, methods, etc.This evaluation method is based on the perception of the evaluators regarding the following four aspects: For each issue a card (white color) is written that summarizes the idea, which is then placed on the wall according to the figure shown above.To discuss what advantages and disadvantages PMCA seems to have when potentially used in the assessed subsector.Green cards are added to the prepared SWOT matrix indicating where and how PMCA might help to capitalize on strengths and opportunities, respectively, to remove bottlenecks and threats.Yellow cards are added to the prepared SWOT matrix indicating where and how PMCA would not be of help to improve the situation Devaux A., Barone S.,Velasco C., Amaya N., Bernet T.PMCA Facilitators, actors who know the sector well, thematic groups When:Phases 1 & 2 Preparation: 1/2 day Category:Qualitative analysis/ group work Duration:1 dayThe Gender-Sensitive Impact Filter tool provides a rapid qualitative evaluation of the expected impacts that different market opportunities are likely to have on poverty, social and environmental objectives.This tool is already part of the PMCA User Guide (tool 1 of the Users' Guide) and has been revised to make it gender sensitive. It is therefore not a new tool, but a revised Impact Filter tool.This tool enables R&D organizations to plan and guide interventions more effectively by providing inputs to inform the selection of market opportunities with the most beneficial impact possible.It explicitly takes into account the following dimensions of impact: Economic: poverty reduction, income risk and women's economic empowerment. Social: empowerment of poor/most vulnerable actors (e.g. women, and youth). Environmental-natural: resource management.It is a rapid, ex-ante qualitative assessment tool that can be applied as a participatory process. InBrief description:Purpose:Tool 1: Gender-Sensitive Impact FilterTool 1 C h a p t e r I I this case, actors with different professional backgrounds and experiences would jointly evaluate the potential impacts of different market opportunities.When used as part of the PMCA methodology, the Gender-Sensitive Impact Filter allows the R&D organization to make strategic decisions. It provides the organization with information to compare different market opportunities in terms of the potential impacts with regard to the different impact dimensions. It is important to consider those dimensions with a gender lens, given that both women and men play important roles within value chains but do not have equal access to resources and benefits. It is also essential to understand these different roles and address those inequalities in order to achieve overall project objectives and avoid perpetuating discrimination.In the context of the PMCA, this tool is used at the end of Phase 1, once the different market opportunities have been identified, to help define the thematic groups; or in Phase 2 as part of the thematic group discussions.This tool will help focus on those potential innovations that are most likely to produce the desired development impacts and not exert any negative impact on the most vulnerable development actors, including women.The first step is to characterize the different market opportunities identified according to selected common qualitative criteria (e.g. market size; target population, by sex; production zones, etc.).Then, with this information a matrix is prepared (see Table 1/tool1).StepTo compare the expected impacts of the selected market opportunities in detail, a more complete chart is developed by R&D organizations (see Table 2/ tool1). First, the development objectives of the project should be identified with a gender perspective: these are usually defined in project documents and consider normally economic, social and environmental impacts.When the gender dimension is not included, it will be important to consider gender balance and gender equity as intrinsic goals in all the development objectives. The finer grained analysis of impacts is conducted by defining sub-criteria to each of the three general objectives or impact dimensions (economic, social, and environmental). Impacts with regard to gender equality and women's economic empowerment should be included in all the three dimensions (see Table 2/tool1).To ensure that each overall objective and its subcriteria are assigned to the correct level of importance, the criteria are weighted by PMCA facilitators and implementers in two steps (see ) should be weighted.Then, each sub-criterion is weighted.The relative importance of each subcriterion is defined by assigning a percentage representing its respective importance or \"weight\" (the total should add up to 100%).To determine which market opportunity would contribute best to the development objectives, each market opportunity is evaluated per sub-criterion (Table 2/ tool1).Thus, each sub-criterion is rated by assigning to it a number ranging from 1 to 10 using the following approximate scale: 1 = \"impact is very negative\" 5 = \"impact is neutral\" 10 = \"impact is very positive\".The process used to obtain this rating may vary from case to case, depending on whether this tool is used in a participatory setting or not (see Box below).Step 4: rating different market opportunitiesDesigning the evaluation process A potential impact can be evaluated in different ways. One way is to evaluate it by working in a small team made up of people who know the sector well, in terms of both production and the market. Such an assessment could be done by the team jointly or individually. If done individually, average values would be derived from individual assessments.Another way is to undertake the evaluation within a bigger group, as part of a participatory process where different experts and point of views of market chain actors are represented and involved. In this case, however, it will be important to consider the fact that personal, institutional and commercial interests may distort the process. do not have the skills.For each market opportunity, values are calculated for each sub-criterion by multiplying A x B x C where: A = Weighting factor of general objective (%) B = Weighting factor of sub-criterion (%) C = Rating of impact at the sub-criterion level (value 1 to 10) D= A x B x C =result of evaluation of each sub criteria To compare the overall expected impact across market opportunities, the coefficients calculated for each sub-criterion (i.e. all value D) are added up for each case (see   The impact dimensions of the project are labeled as (Ai) and they are: economic (A1), social (including gender) (A2), and environmental dimension (A3). Each dimension is weighted (%) in relation to the others. The relevant sub-criteria for each dimension are labeled as (Bi) and are weighted to reflect their relative importance in (%).Then, a numerical ranking from 1 (a very negative impact) to 10 (a very positive impact) is used to rate the expected effect that each market opportunity (MO1, MO2, MO3, etc.) would have on the different impact dimensions and sub-criteria specifically (value from 1 to 10, labeled as Ci).Finally, the weighted results from each sub-criteria (labeled as Di) for each market opportunity are totaled (labeled as E) to allow comparison of the overall impact potential of all market opportunities. As an example the table present calculation for the market opportunity 1 (MO1).It is recommended to discuss and interpret results with the actors involved in the market opportunity to create ownership and agreement on results by all stakeholders.If the evaluation chart is prepared using average values obtained from individual evaluations, it will be interesting to discuss their final results separately as well as the differences among the individual evaluations.The latter will allow you to discuss why there are similarities and differences among evaluators, if such be the case.Which market opportunities should be prioritized is partly a decision that will depend on the final score in each application.Nevertheless, it will also be important to consider other issues and their relative importance regarding the market opportunity that may not yet have been taken into account.This is particularly important if the assessed market opportunities received similar scores.For example, certain market chain opportunities might better capitalize on assets that are already available (e.g. market information, production know-how and business contacts, etc.).Gender is another very important aspect to take into account when choosing a market opportunity. Gender inequalities are still present in many market chains.This disparity can be expressed in terms of power holding positions, access to resources and opportunities and benefits (e.g. income received). Thus, contributing to reduction of gender inequalities and enhancement of women's economicStep 6: interpreting the resultsStep 7: drawing sound conclusions C h a p t e r I I empowerment or, at a minimum, seeking to avoid negative impact on the most vulnerable actors, including women, should be important considerations when finally discussing and choosing a market opportunity.The Gender-Sensitive Impact Filter is a flexible tool, given that it can be adjusted to different context where an ex-ante impact assessment is relevant. In either case, when adapting the tool, those using it need to redefine the development objectives, and the three impact dimensions and their sub-criteria, as well as the way they are weighted.The Gender-Sensitive Impact Filter is derived from the poverty filter 6 (Devaux &Thiele, 2004).6. Devaux A. and Thiele G. 2005. Filtros de pobreza para identificar oportunidades de mercado favorables para pequeños productores. In: Conceptos, Pautas y Herramientas, CIP, Papa Andina, p.84-88.Who: PMCA Facilitators When:Beginning of Phase 1 of PMCA Preparation: ½ day (capacity building)1 day (testing the tool) Category:Interview Duration:45-60 min. per interviewThe tool aims at collecting and analyzing the perspective of key institutions and stakeholders intervening, influencing or supporting the VC development.The analysis focuses on understanding both: i) the gender awareness and knowledge of the institution in a given context, and ii) the capacities of the institution to implement gender responsive actions in support to gender equality and empowerment.The institutions selected for the survey and assessment include farmer organizations, local/regional government, NGOs, R&D institutions and other service providers.The total number of interviews to realize for the survey should be among three to five approximately.Assess the knowledge and awareness of the supporting organizations and institutions and their capacity to respond to gender issues related to: gender roles and division of labor within the value chainBrief description:Purpose:Tool 2: Gender Organizational Assessment of Partner Organization Barone S., Amaya N.,Terrillon J., Mayanja S.,Velasco C., Mudege N. Interviews shall be conducted by staff members of the R&D institution who will act as PMCA facilitator or by a team of interviewers. It is important to consider gender balance both among the interviewers and the interviewees, in order to obtain a wider range of perspectives. Interviewers should be familiar with gender concepts and qualitative data collection and analysis. If this is not the case, training on basic gender concepts will be necessary.It is recommended to test the interview before its application; two to three tests should be conducted to assure that all the questions are clear and well understood by the interviewees.Thus, the interview will be revised and adjusted. An example of the interview's guide is presented at the end of the tool (Table1/ tool2)Step 1: select the team of interviewers, develop and test the interviewStep 2: adjust the interview Before going to the field, map the relevant market chain actors and staff from governmental and nongovernmental organizations that you will need to interview. Such information can be obtained by key informants or from secondary data (project reports). Another option would be to hold a brainstorming session among staff of partner organizations in the region.The guiding questions to select the institution and the staff to be interviewed within the institution can be: What are the organizations or institutions involved in the agriculture development sectors?Which of these institutions support economic empowerment of women in that particular market chain?For each selected institution, key actors to be interviewed will be selected by following guiding question: -Who is in the management position? -Who is engaged at the operational level? -Who is in charge of gender mainstreaming if any? Schedule the appointments with the identified people to be interviewed in each institution.At the moment of the interview, remember to introduce the topic, as well as the objectives of the interview.Break the ice before starting the interview by providing some personal information such as your name, position, number of years working in the organization, knowledge and understanding of the topic, that can make the interviewee more relaxed and prone to respond.Step 3: identify key institutions and actors to be interviewedStep  ½ dayThis tool can be used as a preliminary brainstorming tool by R&D organizations as an attempt to understand the gender dimensions (level and term of men and women's participation) of the market chain.The information used in this tool is obtained from the Qualitative Assessment of the Market Chain (see Trainer's Guide) that is carried out in Phase 1, alongside with any relevant secondary data.This mapping tool is then used in a participatory manner in the first final event, to understand both male and female chain actors, raise awareness on gender issues and inequalities along the chain in a systemic way, and start reflecting on what could be done to bridge the gender gap. Make visible women role and activities in the value chain.Identify where men and women play a dominant role in specific segments of the chain where value is high.Use a gender lens to:-Identify power, influence and control along the value chain.Brief description:Purpose:Tool 3: Gender-Sensitive Value Chain Mapping Mayoux L.,Vanderschaeghe, M., Lindo P., Senders A., Motz M. and Terrillon J. Based on Mayoux and Mackie, ILO, 2008 and on APF Gender in Value Chains Toolkit, version 2. 7.In case the PMCA trainer is not confident with his/her gender knowledge and experience, a gender expert may be requires to develop gender session of PMCA.Tool 3 -Determine whether the support services and the environment (physical, business, policy, social, etc.) are enabling men and women's participation and upgrade in the value chain.-Identify bottlenecks (constraints) and opportunities in the value chain and how they influence women's economic empowerment.When used in the PMCA, the Gender-Sensitive Value Chain Mapping tool enables the facilitating R&D organization to capture information on male and female actors along the chain and existing gender issues that may impede or foster the chain development. It is an iterative tool, which can be used after the Rapid Assessment of the Market Chain (beginning of Phase 1) and at the end of Phase 1 during the final event (during the Market Chain Sketch). It can also be used in Phase 2 when market opportunities are analyzed, to get an overview of the context and the constraints and opportunities in terms of gender equality and women's economic empowerment. Finally, a new gender-sensitive map could be drawn at the end of Phase 3 to reflect whether any changes have occurred as a result of the PMCA interventions.Draw a map of the value chain using the following criteria. What is the geographic area (country, province) and specific end product for your value chain? What is the end market? What are the main processes/nodes involved in the chain? Write them down on a colored card.Step 1: actor mapping ment, quality assurance) and financial services (savings, credit, insurance), research. Include also services that can alleviate women's workload.Which services do men and women get from participating in the chain and how? If possible, mention them by node and the percentage of men and women who receive these services. Do men and women have equal access to these services? What are the main constraints that men and women face to access those supporting services? Identify important factors that affect the role and position of men and women in the value chain, such as land ownership rights, infrastructures, public policies, gender norms and stereotypes, market and consumer trends, climate change, etc.Write them on colored cards.You can use minus (-) and plus (+) symbols to illustrate constraints and opportunities.What are the likely constraints women and men could face in this regard? What could be the potential strategies to overcome these constraints?  It will also be useful to identify the benefits that men and women have from participating in a specific chain.This tool is complementary to the Gender-Based Constraint Analysis and Planning (tool4), and they are best used in tandem with each other.Enough time for preparation is required, especially for data collection from secondary sources, prior to mapping.Step 4: identify opportunities and constraints for men and women in the value chain environment  Four days, including the application of two or three tools depending on the context. One of these tools should be the Gender Based Constraint Analysis and Planning Tool (tool4).Despite having at hand the PMCA User Guide, facilitators of thematic groups will face different theoretical and practical issues that might prevent them from moving ahead with the work in their thematic groups.The PMCA trainer should respond to these challenges with practical suggestions.Facilitators of thematic groups during PMCA Phase 2.With these backstopping activities, trainees will be able to: 1 Form thematic groups that have good potential to define and pursue equitable and inclusive market chain innovations with interesting potential development. The day is used for the implementation of the PMCA Phase 1 Final Event.For logistic reasons, the backstopping of activities related to the preparation of final event of phase 2 (check points g to i) might be realized just before the final event take place, and the training workshop for phase 3 may be conducted right after the final event of Phase 2. This will allow the PMCA trainer to be present and to see \"how things go,\" making him/her aware of the strengths and weaknesses linked to the PMCA application (i.e., quality of participation, level of trust and collaboration amongst actors, capacities of PMCA facilitators).Suggested Structure of Workshop 2 Sessions: Representative 1 dayThis tool can be used as a follow up of the Gender-Sensitive Value Chain Mapping (tool 3). It comprises two tables.The first one provides insights into the division of work between female and male actors along the different nodes of the value chain, while also identifying the constraints faced by these actors in accessing resources and services needed to carry out their activities.The second table enables the users to make an analysis of the identified gender-based constraints by looking at its consequences, both for the actors and for the sector as a whole, and by prioritizing the most crucial to be addressed. Root causes of the genderbased constraints are then described to inform strategies to address them. These strategies can then be mainstreamed into a business plan.To provide insights into: division of work by sex; analysis and understanding of the constraints, linked to the access to resources and services, that men and women face when undertaking activities at different nodes of a value chain.Tool 4. Gender-Based Constraint Analysis and PlanningTerrillon J., McEwan M., Mayanja S. (2014) Overview:Brief description:Purpose:Tool 4It enables facilitators to prioritize constraints and identify actions to address these for planning purposes, in particular when drafting business plans.This tool is best used after a market or business opportunity has been selected by the thematic group. It can be first used by facilitators and then validated in a participatory way with thematic group members to realize that, while the opportunity may be good for both male and female actors, different strategies may have to be employed to allow optimal participation and benefits for different gender groups.The information obtained from the analysis is used to develop gender-responsive business plans and innovations.The information collected through the Gender-Sensitive Value Chain Mapping (tool 3) could be used as input for Step 1 actor and activity mapping.Identify actors for each node of the value chain (e.g. small-scale producers, processors, vendors, etc.). Make one single table, focusing on one actor in a specific node or function of the value chain (table 1/tool 4).For each type of actor, list the activities and indicate who carries out the activity (male/female or male youth/female youth).For instance, you could ask small-scale producers to list all the activities they perform during the crop season, from crop and land selection to selling.For each identified activity, probe the degree of responsibility for every gender category by asking \"who does it the most?\" or \"who is mostly involved in that activity?\"Use in PMCA:Step 1: actor and activity mappingStep 2: degree of responsibility by activity  Indicate whether the responsibility is low (X), medium (XX), or high (XXX). One can also use percentage as a measure of degree of responsibility.Identify the constraints men, women and youth (female and male) face or are likely to face while carrying out different activities in each node of the chain.These constraints may be related to access to and control of resources, when such restraints hinder and/or limit actors from benefiting from their participation in the market chain.To identify possible constraints, consider the different capitals described in the PMCA User Guide (p. 3) 8 .Fill in column four of Table 1/tool4 with constraints faced by different actors while carrying out an activity. For example: female fresh root producers in sweet potato market chain in Uganda mentioned planting as an activity in which they are solely involved 9 .They identified lack of access to labor force and manure as a major constraint.Step  This tool is best used with thematic group members in separate focus groups of men and women, followed by a validation in plenary with both groups. It is also advisable to meet actors for each segment of the value chain and fill the tables separately.It may be important to separate the youth category into female and male, depending on the type of chain and socio-economic setting. For example: if land is a constraint, usually female youth face more constraints than male in accessing and using family land.  Ideally, the backstopping activities relating to the planning and implementation of the large final event (end of Phase 3) should take place in a small workshop setting, where the PMCA trainer helps the R&D organization to set up a sound concept for this final event. Given the importance both of the quality of the product (labels, brand, and other marketing standards) and of a successful final event for the last structured phase of the PMCA application, Phase 3 calls for particularly careful backstopping! Suggested Structure of Workshop 3 Sessions: Who: PMCA facilitators (R&D organizations) and thematic groups When:Phase 2 and 3 Preparation: 1 day Duration:Half a dayThe Gender Risk-Benefit Analysis is a useful participatory ex-ante assessment tool to quickly evaluate the effect that implementing a business opportunity has on female and male chain actors.The tool helps to ensure that business opportunities do not exert a negative effect on either female or male chain actors.Selecting a business opportunity bears the risk of having a negative impact on some actors, especially those who are little visible, or have no voice.This tool enables facilitators and actors to perform an ex-ante analysis on the potential positive and negative effects of a business opportunity on chain actors, during business planning. It enables them to identify mitigating strategies to address potential negative effects, and also to decide whether the opportunity will be worth pursuing. The tool can also be used for monitoring and evaluation purposes.This tool can be used in PMCA Phase 2 and 3. It is helpful to score and assess the possible or actual risks and benefits that a business opportunity mightBrief description:Purpose:Use in PMCA:Tool 5. Gender Risk-Benefit Analysis It analyzes risks and benefits differentiated by gender, it creates awareness of the interdependence between actors in a market chain, and determines how the upgrading of one actor can affect the socio-economic conditions of another within the community and market chain.It provides support to plan for potential actions to overcome identified negative impacts and thus increase benefits.It screens for the best business opportunity (economic viability, inclusiveness) and eventually helps to decide whether it is possible to implement it or not, taking into account the benefits generated for vulnerable groups, including women.List actors disaggregated by sex for each node of the market chain and place them on the vertical axis of the matrix shown in Step 1:Step 2: Income and control of resources: this refers to changes in income and control of resources such as land, animals, and credit.Social position: this refers to changes in social position and gender relations as a result of the value chain upgrading.Market position: this refers to changes in economic power position between value chain actors as a result of chain upgrading strategy.Categories in the matrix can be adapted to specific situation and needs. Other relevant categories can be health, food security, etc.Fill in the matrix with the participants/chain actors through a participatory process. Ideally you should use this tool with the thematic group members using the following questions: Some questions to deepen the discussion and come to proposal of action: Who is benefiting and who is losing due to the value chain upgrading? Do you notice differences between changes in the lives of men and women? if so, name them as well as their causes.To what degree are these changes desired?  How can the negative impact be minimized? How can obstacles or negative factors be dealt with? Is it easier/harder for men and/or women to deal with those obstacles and do something about them? What actions can be taken to overcome potential negative impacts? Can men and women undertake those actions equally? Explain.Let the participants answer the questions in groups. Hand out a copy of the matrix on a pieceStep 3:C h a p t e r I I of paper to be completed by each group with the guidance and monitoring of the facilitators.The groups are formed corresponding to different nodes in the chain, to gender criteria (men and women in separate groups) or both (i.e. a female group of actors from a specific node and another of male actors, so one node would have two groups).Each group presents its completed matrix in a plenary session.The facilitation helps to resume and highlight the most important positive and negative changes identified.Information obtained in the workshop should be analyzed.The results can be used to improve the business opportunity identified by suggesting mitigating strategies aimed at reducing negative impact on either group, as well as to monitor and/or assess its impacts.It is recommendable to have two facilitators with the ability to probe further into the first answers given, ensuring that women's voices do not get overpowered.The tool can also be used with one type of value chain actor.The different categories on the vertical axis can be: men, women, household and/or other actors/community, depending on the specificities of the value chain and/or participants. See an example of an application of this tool in the annexes.Step 4:The R&D organization that has applied PMCA will face a new situation, where the role of the R&D organization has changed.The issue is no longer to facilitate a process but rather to respond to specific needs of the market chain actors who own the commercial innovations generated during the PMCA application. If technological and institutional innovations arise from the PMCA process, the R&D organizations will most likely be interested in consolidating these and taking advantage of new market opportunities to create further benefits for smallholder farmers linked to the targeted market chains.R&D staff and 'champions' 10 who have been involved in the PMCA application and who see a need to keep up the innovation process with new mechanisms.By the end of the event, trainees will be able to:1 Identify new opportunities for value chain upgrading and define roles of R&D organizations that have been involved in the PMCA application. Built-in mechanism such as gender policy/strategy to integrate a gender perspective in organization and intervention Pineapple: groups implementing are mixed groups. Implement through partners. Strengthen their capacities to analyze gender issues along the value chain. Give grants, models such as Gender Action Learning System (GALS), capacity building on gender. Gender policy that guides the way PELUM mainstreams gender. Get more involved in gender related work (GALS).Coordinating role with partners.Have an element of gender and VC (injustices in the value chain). Capacity enhancement of members in that methodology.Section A. Institutional knowledge and awareness on gender issues and capacity to develop and implement gender-sensitive interventions  ","tokenCount":"8232"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d2e8080e6fc21e3d95afed022f5c097d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/97b3ffe2-2adf-45b7-86ce-ba9567e6cf88/content","id":"-2073560334"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dcdcdfb6-cfdf-4adf-88f2-67d826edd6a9","pagecount":"30","content":"As governments heighten the drive to mechanize agriculture, critical information is required on (i) existing mechanization options, (ii) barriers and challenges, (iii) opportunities for scaling and effective demand for mechanization. This paper combines quantitative and qualitative surveys to help elucidate on some of these key issues in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe where mechanization is part of national policy priorities. Data were collected through Qualitative surveys involving 484 participants in focus group discussions and 109 key informants. Focusing mainly on farm mechanization and irrigation options for smallholder farmers, we found that animal draft power is still dominant for land preparation, ahead of two-and four-wheel tractors. Common options for post-harvest management include shellers, improved granaries and hermetic bags. In terms of demand, there is nascent literature suggesting that farmers in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are willing to pay positive amounts for different mechanization services, indicating prevalence of effective demand and good opportunities for mechanization. Supply side barriers to scaling mechanization include limited availability of machines and spares, poor after sale, and repair and maintenance services in the vicinity of farmers. On the demand side, high capital requirements, limited awareness and technical knowledge and the high cost of hire services are some of the main barriers to scaling. Based on these findings, there is need for inclusive and innovative financing mechanisms, demand creation and awareness raising to scale up and scale out mechanization.Mechanization is central to making African agriculture more productive, commercial and less arduous (FAO and AUC, 2019). This is epitomized by the inclusion of mechanization in the 2014 Malabo Declaration during the African Union Summit on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods that aims to end hunger in Africa by 2025 1 . Given past epochs of limited success to scale out large and expensive four-wheel tractor-based mechanization by national governments (Pingali, 2007), current efforts are more careful not to repeat the same mistakes. Instead of focusing on tractorization 2 -making tractor available -the current impetus focuses on scaleappropriate mechanization which in a broad sense implies adapting machines to the context of farmers and their farming conditions, and needs (Baudron et al., 2015). Therefore, current focus of donors, governments, and international development in general is broadly on agriculture mechanization rather than farm mechanization. This distinction is vital.According to FAO and AU (2019), agricultural mechanization considers the whole value chain from manufacturing, distribution, and use of all types of tools, implements, machines and equipment covering the whole gamut from land preparation, crop management, production, harvesting and primary processing of agricultural produce whereas farm mechanization refers mainly to production activities for crops, livestock, and aquaculture within a farm unit.A focus on agricultural mechanization takes care of both demand and supply side issues. On the demand side, there are efforts to create demand and raise awareness for mechanization and testing of different machinery and mechanization models that assure farmers' access to appropriate machines that can generate income. These activities are centered on the private sector as the main drivers, while governments, NGOs, research institutes and universities provide support functions including financing, research and development, policy and regulations (Daum and Birner, 2020). Often, the pace of mechanization is quicker and becomes more sustainable when the private sector takes center stage. This usually follows the initiation of mechanization activities funded by donors and governments. In essence, investments by donors and governments are necessary to kickstart and sustain mechanization activities until private sector actors are crowded in.Increasing land scarcity, demand for food, population and rural wages, and the increase in the proportion of 'well-off' medium scale farmers (Jayne et al., 2016;Daum and Birner, 2020;Jayne et al., 2021) create a conducive environment for capital-intensive, labor-saving mechanized options (Ngoma et al., 2021). For example, in Ghana, rising land-labor ratios, labor scarcity and the need to expand cropping area are driving up demand for agricultural mechanization through mechanization (Diao et al., 2014). While current conditions favor 2 Refers to the use of any type of tractor (single axle, two-wheel tractor [2WT]; two-axle, four-wheel tractor [4WT]; or track-type) of any power rating in agriculture (FAO and AU, 2019). mechanization and the renewed optimism gives hope, questions remain on how large the effective demand for mechanization is in Africa and the capacity of African smallholder farmers to pay for mechanization services (Pingali, 2007). The effective demand and the extent to which farmers are willing to pay for mechanization is a function of farmers' socioeconomic characteristics, resources endowments, familiarity with and availability of machinery options.This paper takes stock of current mechanization interventions in selected parts of Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe and assesses opportunities and barriers for scaling mechanization and offers some reflections on demand. Mechanization is defined broadly to include any non-human powered agricultural operations covering land preparation, production, harvesting, post-harvest processing and storage, and transportation. We used a mixed methods approach combining qualitative surveys (focus group discussions and key informant interviews) in all the four target countries and secondary data collected in another project (Understanding and Enhancing Adoption of Conservation Agriculture in Smallholder Farming Systems of Southern Africa -ACASA) in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. This paper builds on recent literature that assesses the state and impacts of, and demand for mechanization in Africa (Daum et al., 2023;Ngoma et al 2023;Tufa et al., 2023;Daum and Birner, 2020;Adu-Baffour, Daum and Birner, 2019;FAO and AUC, 2019;Diao et al., 2014;Pingali, 2007). In essence, we review the quite rise of appropriate mechanization and identify barriers and opportunities for scaling.The use of agricultural mechanization in form of large and expensive four-wheel tractors has been promoted in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe from way before these countries attained their political independence (De Groote, Marangu, and Gitonga, 2018). Despite many years of promoting agriculture mechanization in Sub-Saharan Africa, the uptake of mechanization has been slow over the past decade (Daum, 2022;FAO, 2022).In recent years, governments of Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (among other African countries) have shown interest in promoting mechanization as reflected in their current agricultural or mechanization policies. Kenya 's Agricultural Mechanization Policy aims to raise and sustain the level of motorized power use to 50% by 2030 from the current level of 30% (Wawire et al., 2016;Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives, 2021). Adoption of mechanization for smallholders in Kenya is limited to a few farm activities such as land preparation and transportation with other activities are done manually.In Malawi, most of the farmers are still using basic hand tools such hoes for land preparation and weeding and have continued using hands for harvesting and processing crops. The National Agriculture Policy of Malawi therefore considers agricultural mechanization as one of the priority policy areas to promote mechanized cultivation, agro-processing and value addition. The policy supports market-based imports of agricultural machinery that is appropriate for the needs of the farmers in Malawi (Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, 2016).As is the case with Malawi, access to agricultural mechanization in Zambia is still very low We used mixed methods, combining qualitative surveys and secondary data. Qualitative surveys included 48 focus group discussions (FGDs) with farmers and 109 key informant interviews (KIIs) in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (Table 1). Four FGDs were conducted per district/county disaggregated by gender and age group i.e., one for each of female, male, youths, and mixed group (female, male and youth). Overall, 593 people participated in the qualitative surveys across the four countries (180 female, 177 male and 127 youth). The secondary data used in the analysis were collected through household surveys conducted in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe under the ACASA project. In consultation with national stakeholders, the ACASA surveys were conducted in Nsanje, Balaka, Nkhotakota, Chitipata, Dowa, Rumphi, and Zomba districts in Malawi. In Zambia, the surveys were conducted in parts of Choma, Siavonga, Mumbwa, Kaoma, Chipata, Mpongwe and Serenje districts. Ten districts were covered in Zimbabwe, including Chiredzi, Matobo, Bubi, Masvingo, Zaka, Gokwe South, Kwekwe, and Nyanga, Murewa and Shamva. This gave a sample of 1,512 in Malawi, 1,407 in Zambia and 1,455 in Zimbabwe. Results based on these data exclude Kenya because it was not part of the ACASA survey. Willingness to pay in Malawi was assessed using contingent valuation method while the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) experimental auctions were used in Zambia and Malawi. Unlike contingent valuation which uses hypothetical scenarios in eliciting willingness to pay, BDM mimics a market scenario where participants bid for good and services using real money. This makes BDM incentive compatible. See (Tufa et al., 2023) for details on the methods used in Malawi and (Ngoma et al., 2023) for Zambia and Zimbabwe. The follow-up qualitative surveys in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe were done in a subset of districts covered by the ACASA surveys in these countries. As such, the two activities are complementary.We identified 19 mechanization options that being promoted and used by farmers in parts of Nakuru and Makueni counties in Kenya (Table 2). These mechanization options include hermetic bags, four and two-wheel tractors, rippers, shellers and improved animal drawn implements. The cost of machinery is one of the key barriers to scaling mechanization in Kenya. There is a desire for more trainings on mechanization options (especially on the benefits and use of different machinery) to enhance scaling in Kenya. More details are in Table 2. While there is a perception that mechanization is low in Malawi, we found some incipient mechanization activities in Balaka and Nkotakota districts. Hermetic bags, four-wheel tractors, rippers, shellers and knapsack sprayers among the 14 distinct mechanization options promoted and used by farmers in parts of Balaka and Nkotakota districts (Table 3).The main challenge hindering scaling up of mechanization in Malawi is limited number of  3 for further details.  Participants in FGDs and KIIs four districts in Zambia identified 21 mechanization options being promoted and used by farmers (Table 4). Example mechanization options two -and four-wheel tractors, hermetic bags, solar irrigation, shellers, etc. (Table 4). The main barriers to scaling include lack of finance to buy and hire mechanization equipment, inadequate knowledge on the benefits of mechanization equipment and limited access to mechanization equipment. There is potential for scaling mechanization options in Zambia due to high demand as most of the farmers appreciate the benefits of mechanization and there is plenty of arable land that can be exploited using mechanization. -No chemicals are used to preserve the harvest, thus reducing costs -Provides a safe way to keep crops from being attacked by termites as there is no oxygen that is left in the bag -Can store up maize for a long time Four-wheel tractor -Four-wheel tractors are very expensive to buy or hire as most smallscale farmers do not own them. Hiring charge can go as far as ZMW 1,000 per hectare -High fuel costs and maintenance -Tractors destroy the soil as they make furrows in the field -Promotion programs only target farmers with a certain of production capacity -Requirements to be considered in promotion programs requires consideration of a business plan -Tractors are retrieved from the farmers when they don't reach the set agreements within time -Land in the area is not titled and thus cannot be used as collateral for one to access mechanization inputs -Tractor use requires a large land size otherwise it gets underutilized which is a waste of resource. Some small-scale farmers have small pieces of land to use a four-wheel tractor -Absence of a variety of credit schemes -It is difficult to use a four-wheel tractor in the muddy field when there has been two much rainfall and the process becomes slow because the tractor cannot move faster as compared to how it moves normally on a dry field -Lack of knowledge on the use of tractors and tractors contribute to soil erosion -It makes rip lines deeper than those of ox-drawn rippers. ADP rippers struggle to reach the required ripping depth in the hard pan -Those without animals but have money are able to borrow and plough large pieces of land -People are still using ploughs which takes a lot of time even when they know that tractors are fast -Farmers are willing to pay for hiring services for tractor ripping service provision -The use of four-wheel tractors reduces on human labor, farmers get to use tractors to easy their work.-Knowledge has been made available to farmers on the use of tractors and hence a lot of farmers are willing to use tractors -Availability cooperatives that can help with access to tractors Shellers -Shellers are expensive to buy and hire for most small-scale farmers.In particular, hiring of the shellers is very expensive and many farmers are discouraged by high prices -The available shellers are not enough for the number of farmers needing the service -High grain production for which shelling services are required -Shelled maize is clean when compared to one shelled using hands -A lot of maize can be shelled within a short period of time -Farmers are aware of the benefits of using shellers -Availability of local materials that be used to fabricate shellers -There are no follow ups by promoters to enhance the knowledge of how the sheller can be made -Lack of knowledge of the use of shellers While shellers have good fuel consumption, solar powered shellers would reduce running costs --Rippers -It leaves a lot of weeds between lines compared to conventional methods.-There is a lot of spacing in between the rip lines -Some people are stuck with the old ways of farming, and don't want to adjust.-Ripping is done before the rainy seasons commences while a lot of people would only start farming when they have seen the rainfall starting.-People don't have money for hiring rippers and cows to pull the ripper.-The fields that are cultivated are little and harvests are small as there is too much space left in between rippers.-Some farmers don't know the benefits associated with ripping.-Ripping technology goes hand in hand with the use of herbicides for weed control, without proper planning for the purchase of herbicides, the implementation of the technology is not successful.-Lack of knapsack sprayer hinders the successful utilization of the ripping technology -Knowledge gap on the correct types and use of herbicides.-Rippers are very expensive to buy and hire.-Some farmers or camp officers personalize rippers given to the community by some stakeholder to help the community.-Lack of shops that stock rippers in the communities.-High yields from ripped plots motivates farmers.-Crops don't easily die out when there is drought as rip lines retain moisture.-Lion head weed does not grow with vigor.-Rip lines holds moisture for the crops.-It does not destroy the soil structure as those planting stations are the only areas that are disturbed in the field.-We have agro shops that stock rippers in the nearby towns.-There are some people with bigger animals that can lend others to help with ripping.-Land availability.-It does not promote soil erosion and keeps the fields in one shape.-Not very labor intensive.-Some NGOs have donated some rippers to various community -People have been learning about conservation agriculture thus they have the knowledge on how to use these technologies.-They can be hired from those who own them.Electric solar fenced Kraal (Secure fencing)-They are expensive and a farmer needs to raise at least K7,000 for the equipment.-There is no credit facility.-The prevalence of cattle in the area and need to secure animals from theft or loss creates a demand for this technology.-Framers have adequate land for this kraal model.-There is general willingness by farmers exposed to this technology to procure if there is a pay-slow or credit facility for the item.Water harvesting (Roof top water harvesting).-Limited to farmers with iron roofing sheets.-The tank size of the technology is not large enough for the amount of water the gutters are able to collect from the rainwater.-The gutters used on the roof to harvest the rainwater are not easily found in local shops.-There is a good number of farmers that are using the iron roofed houses.-The willingness by farmers to harvest water for irrigation is high.Milking cans -Very expensive for small scale farmers.-Milking cans are not easily accessed -Dairy improved companies provide access to milking cans.-Makes the transportation of milk to be hygienically safe. Solar powered submersible pump -The initial cost of acquiring the needed solar equipment and borehole sinking is out of reach for many smallholder farmers.-The challenge of water in some areas makes it difficult to implement.-Lack of credit schemes to support solar irrigation.-There are a good number of areas available in the communities where solar pumps can do well.-There are points within the communities that have boreholes and therefore would only require a tank for irrigation purposes.-Through the AWARE project, a good number of farmers have acquired the knowledge of sourcing ground water technology. Water application technologies (Overhead and drip irrigation systems) -The cost of acquiring a drip and sprinkler system is quite high for a smallholder farmer, as there are many parts including a tank that should be set-up. -This irrigation system is limited to farmers that have access to a source of water.-A large water storage capacity is required to achieve the water pressure levels required particularly for the sprinkler system.-It is possible for community members facing challenges with irrigation, to work together and afford the irrigation system.-Common methods of irrigation among farmers in gardens such as buckets are laborious. The drip and sprinkler systems are less laborious.Water harvesting using concrete slab reservoir -Infrastructural cost is high for the smallholder farmer as it requires materials such as polythene plastics, conforce wire, cement, blocks sand and crushed stone.-Limited positive attitude by the farmers because of the many requirements needed.-Lack of knowledge on how to set it up.-Lack of interest from some farmers.-There are many farmers willing to be trained in water harvesting due to lack of water for irrigation in many areas.-Water comes out in drops which helps to conserve water; there is no wastage of water.-Crops can be planted throughout the year.-Can work on large pieces of land.-The tractor is expensive for most smallholder farmers to buy them.-People need to book in advance to have a tractor work on their field because of having few tractors in the community.-The farmers who wone these tractors live in distant places making it difficult for some farmers to access them.-The price for hiring is way too high.-They are labor intensive.-More rip lines are created using a plough than a tractor.-A lot of seed is planted within a short period when a tractor is used compared to ox-drawn plough.-A tractor works as long as there is fuel, it does not tire like a cow or donkey.-There is proper spacing when a tractor is used, and this leads to good breathing space and good harvest.-Work is made easy on the farm and people admire that.-Less labor is hired as only one person moves with the tractor. Cows need someone to help the one ploughing.-The two-wheel tractor is a dual purpose as it plants and rips at the same time.-There have been demonstrations on how the tractor ripper performs and so a number of farmers have been sensitized on it.-There is local demand for 2-wheel tractor powered machinery by farmers in the area. Dairy equipment -Cans -Lack of feed for dairy animals leading to poor milk production limits the need to acquire improved milk cans.-The number of farmers owning dairy animals has reduced.-Cans are very expensive to buy.-Non-members of the cooperative mostly do not have access to the cans.-The private company Bonnita through farmer cooperatives has a credit facility that enables access to milk cans by smallholder farmers who cannot afford direct purchase.-There are buyers for milk making cans have relevance.-Dairy feed is available in some cases that would increase milk yield and therefore create a demand for the milk cans among the smallholder farmers.-Traditional methods of holding or transporting collected milk deteriorates the milk quality at a higher rate. Silos (Plastic material drum) -It is a capital-intensive practice at procurement.-The promoted silo has a limited capacity of storage as it holds only up to 8x50kg bags of grain weight.-Lack of shops stocking this equipment.-Lack of sensitization on the use of Silos.-Current use of chemicals for storage by farmers does not preserve the stored maize grain longer than silos drum can.Treadle pumps -A few farmers have learnt about the pump and thus there is little knowledge about it.-Some farmers are just lazy to attend meetings and try out these treadle pumps.-They are very expensive to buy or hire and can't be afforded by most farmers.-The physical energy which is required to operate a treadle pump is high.-Most gardens are controlled by women and thus can't pump as they are hard for them to pump.-Lack of water sources such as rivers and dams are a limiting factor as current streams of water easily dry out soon after the rainy season.-High maintenance costs and spare parts for the equipment are not readily accessible.-A large portion of land is watered at a given time.-There are a lot of gardens in the area that would benefit from the use of treadle pump technology.-Male farmers already possess the knowledge on how to operate treadle pumps.-There are shallow water points in some areas where the treadle pump can be used.-Farmers can access on loan.-The current use of cans is laborious.-There are few farmers who have treadle pumps who can scale-up this practice.-Helps to supply water in the community when pipes are connected.-Does not to use fuel to pump water.-The treadle pump safer has a tendency of easily getting clogged by weeds making this a technical challenge with the equipment.-They are very expensive to buy and set up. Gradient irrigation -This practice was promoted for upland rice production, but rice seed is not readily available to farmers.-Limited to the amount of water that can be harvested for the upland rice.-Extension services are available under the ministry to assist farmers on slope gradient measurements to trap water.-There are many areas that have slopes where water run-off takes place.Watering cans -Watering cans are expensive for some smallholder farmers; one water cane costs ZMW 130.-Very labour intensive because they have to be carried with hands from one point to another.-Risks of falling into the dam or well when drawing water.-It is commonly used and very easy to use; no technical knowledge needed to use them.-They are not very expensive to buy, and they can be used for a very long time.Hammer mill -When the hammer mill does not grind well, people tend to avoid using it.-Solar hammer mills are not very effective when there is no sunlight.-Hammer mills are expensive as farmers are charged ZMW 12 per ton.-A few individuals own hammer mills and people have to travel long distances to access them.-It is expensive to run diesel hammer mills as not all communities have electricity.-Hammer mills are expensive to buy.-Lack of mechanical services to repair them when they get spoiled.-Traditional beliefs have hindered scaling up, they believe if they use hammer mill to grind their maize the mealie meal loses its natural scent.-It doesn't take a lot of time and it is hygienic compared to using stones.-They are within the communities and government has also provided solar hammer mills.-The maize bran that remains is used to feed livestock.-Hammer mills are good for the production of maize meals.-We leave maize meal residues for feeding our animals.-There is a lot of maize grown in the communities.-Farmers can get hammer mills and pay back bit by bit if given small loans.ADP ripper -Limited access: not many farmers have rippers.-Agro-shops that stock rippers are far.-There are areas that do not have the animals required to draw the rippers.-There is a challenge of weeds in minimum tillage.-Lack of sensitization on application of herbicides.-ADP rippers struggle to reach the required ripping depth in the hard pan.-There are stakeholders that are promoting ADP rippers.-There are some farmers that have animals.-There has been evidence of the benefits of minimum tillage observed by many farmers, and most have developed the interest.-ADP rippers are accessible in some areas for interested farmers.-Most farmers cannot afford to hire tractor powered rippers and ADP is an affordable practice more farmers can use.-Current conventional methods of land preparation are time consuming. Ripping improves the work rate of land preparation.We identified 25 mechanization options being promoted in the four districts visited in Zimbabwe (Table 5). In addition to common ones in other countries like two-and fourwheel tractor, we found metal silos, mango dryers, multi-crop shellers, direct seeders, etc.As in other countries, the main barriers to uptake include high cost of equipment, limited availability, limited technical knowledge and in some instances, limited availability. Hermetic bags -Only a few can afford due to its high price -Uptake is very low.-Farmers do not understand the technology behind.-There is need for affordable hermetic bags as people are interested in it.-There is need for more farmer awareness and trainings on management of post-harvest losses.-More technical support to smallholder farmers in terms of post-harvest storage management can increase its uptake.-More strategic partners scaling are needed. Four-wheel tractor -The cost of tractors is very high for an average farmer.-The land youth farmers own are usually small making it is uneconomical for a single youth to own a tractor.-High maintenance costs.-The uptake of the hiring model is very low, and this has constrained the viability of tractor renting services.-The cost of hiring the tractor service is still high for the average Zimbabwean farmers.-Group ownership can increase usage of tractors.-Introduction of affordable credit services to buy or hire tractors.-There is need for awareness and trainings on the importance and benefits of using tractors.-Partners should come up with business models that will address the issue of affordability of the services on the side of the farmer.-Farmers have been slow in adapting shellers.-Lack of income to pay for shelling services and some farmers are not willing to pay opting for manual shelling.-The cost of buying a sheller is relatively high.-At times it is not economical to use a sheller since the yield and harvest is low.-The government department of mechanization is incapacitated to visit and help farmers and raise awareness of the technology.-There are a few available shellers located in strategic positions (stationary), and farmers find it difficult to carry their cobs to the shellers.-There are conditions attached to accessing shellers.-There is need promoting adoption, creating demand and affordability of shelling equipment -They are very quick and can shell maize, cowpeas, sorghum, small grains, rice, and wheat making people have time for other activities.-They are easy to use by all age groups and women.-Farmers are looking forward to bigger shellers which can at least service a number of farmers in a single day.-There are local model plots where farmers can learn and experience modern technologies.-The young people are eager to adopt mechanization.-More initiatives aimed at increasing the number of shellers are needed. Rippers -They need animal draught power to be able to function.-Most farmers lost their livestock due to diseases.-The ripper should be modified for two-wheel tractor -Need for increased access of rippers at affordable prices.-Very few rippers available in the farming community -Only a few farmers can access the ripper due to its low capapcity -The technology needs to be promoted more intensely for its increased uptake.-There is need for a better design which makes sure that every seed is covered even in mulched fields Jab planter -They are very few jab planters available.-Not easily accessible by farmers.-Hard to use as it strains the hands; this has discouraged its uptake.-Increase availability.-There is a need to improve the design to make it easy to use especially by woman farmers.Mango dryer -They are usually only given to lead farmers some of who do not share it with group members. under their group.-Very few dryers are available, and this has reduced farmers interest in the technology.-Most young people do not own mango trees since the trees belong to their parents.-The business model is not clear as to how the farmer will then get money and how much will they be getting.-There is a need for provision of more dryers.-Lead farmers need more training on operation of the mango dryers.-More training on how the business model operates.-Young people being given land for plantations.-Lead farmers needs to be held accountable to make sure they carry out their responsibilities.Nutrition gardens -There is competition and conflict between garden users and the community on usage as most of the times a community borehole is put on solar for garden use hence ownership challenges.-A constitution must be written governing contact and relationship between garden users and community.-Technical support is needed; an extension officer must be assigned to each garden. Communal irrigation scheme -Farmers struggle to pay electricity bills.-Alternative power sources like solar are ideal.-There is no backup plan if the system fails.-The water pump pumps water from the dam into storage tanks.-The garden project may not have the money at that particular time forcing it to relay on external help. -Many people can't afford to set them up.-The water source is overwhelmed.-There is need for funding schemes. -There is need for strategic relationships with the service providers.-Backup pumps are needed in case of breakdowns.-Assistance with construction of dams.-Drilling of boreholes and setting up the scheme is very expensive.-Assistance in form of funding and credit is needed especially for young people.-There is need for proper monitoring of projects.-There was no coordination between Agritex officer and the project implementers.-Such projects are usually targeted towards a few individuals and young people are hardly part of the projects.-Lack of water source -Overheard is spreading diseases as compared to drip irrigation -There is a need for strong coordination with local extension officers.-Assistance with drilling boreholes.-To avail credit facilities to support irrigation schemes.Water sourcing (Water pans, water tanks, dam)-There is only one irrigation scheme in the area with no room for expansion.-It is difficult for newcomers to enter the scheme.-The dam is at high risk of siltation.-Some smaller gardens apart from the cooperative garden have seasonal water sources which dry during the dry season.-There is need for more to be constructed.-Boreholes should be drilled.-There is need for proper fencing of the dam area so as to prevent free range cattle from entering the area.-More awareness is needed among community members so as to instill a sense of responsibility.-For some smaller dams that dry, proper siting needs to be done.-Promotion of drip irrigation will save labour and conserve water. Two-wheel tractors -Very expensive for the smallholder farmers (USD$ 3 000).-Servicing parts are very expensive, and they have a short warrant period.-Service parts are found in Harare.-Very difficult when turning at the end of the field.-Difficult and tiresome to walk around the field planting.-Cranking to start the tractor is difficult.-Expensive to hire.-The 2-wheel tractor need people who appreciate importance of specific calibrations for maximum benefits.-Most of them have brake problems.-Tyres are unsuitable for hot weather.-Provision spare and servicing parts at affordable prices.-Provision of credit and affordable payment plans for buying tractors.-Modifying the tractor by adding an ignition key.-Adjustments need to be done to ease turning.-Add a third wheel enable sitting while operating the tractor.-Provide spares at affordable prices -Provision of credit institutions and affordable payment plans.-Local versions of the imported technology will increase productivity and make repair parts readily available.-When travelling at night, the tractor light can't focus on the road when reaching a high ground.-Fuel is expensive.-Mechanized conservation agriculture has the potential to double/triple yields.-Government promotion of conservation agriculture.-With death of cattle due to tick bone diseases, it's easier to shift to mechanization unlike to wait for 2-3 years to build a head.-More two-wheel tractors should be made available. Planter -Servicing parts are expensive.-Calibration problems -wastes too much time -Leaves some seeds uncovered, prompting covering follow up-extra labour.-The planter gets clogged.-Provide spares at affordable prices.-Very advantageous as it plants seed, fertilizer and cover the seed -Even a single individual (including the elderly) can operate it.-It can widely be adopted if well promoted.-Calibration trainings need to be conducted. Multi crop thresher -Servicing parts are expensive -Provide service parts at affordable prices. Metal silo -The metal sheets are expensive top buy.-Poor yields reduce the desire to build metal silos.-The trained individuals who are supposed to make the silos charge high prices.-They have a minimum size at which they can be constructed, and that size is above the quantity of grains to be stored by communal farmers.-The programme of silos was initially for chiefs.-Provide at affordable prices -The metal silos are very ideal and cut costs as there is no chemical application leading to low storage costs -The metal silos are portable.-They need to be made affordable.-People can form groups and buy silos.-The department of agriculture has the technical capacity to fabricate the metal silos and to install -Farmers can have a centralized place where the silo can be constructed.-Silos are more ideal for relatively bigger farmers.-Local artisans were trained to make metal silos. Water application technology: water troughs and buckets -It is laborious and sometimes a straining and painful process especially if the area to be irrigated is big.-A lot of water is lost in irrigating portions with no plants.-Drip irrigation technology is needed; Not only will it only increase water use efficiency but will also be suitable for women farmers.Main barriers to scaling Opportunities for scaling -Water from the storage tanks goes into water troughs where it is then fetched by buckets.-Fetching water from the water troughs is often and uncomfortable process for woman as they must bent down in the presence of man -It very difficult to fetch water when the water levels in the troughs are low.-Bucket system is for those near water bodies.-There is need for other improved irrigation technologies other than the bucket system.-It is easier to set up drip irrigation systems as there are already storage tanks.-Partners that can come in to install the system are needed.Treadle pumps -Inadequate knowledge on how it works.-Linking farmers to service providers and making sure they have a full understanding on how the machine works. Granaries -It is expensive to construct a granary.-The uptake of the modern design which is constructed with bricks is still very low.-The modern granary being promoted by the department of agriculture has a much longer service life since bricks are more durable than wooden poles which have proven to be susceptible to wood weevils' attack -The department of agriculture has the technical capacity to construct the granaries.-Granaries are the most preferred post-harvest storage method in the ward. Direct seeder -It is heavy and labour intensive.-They are expensive to buy and only a few are available in most areas making it difficult for everyone to access them.-Innovation to make it user friendly.-There is demand.Water sourcing (ground water, boreholes)-Inadequate resources to drill more boreholes.-Very few individuals have boreholes.-Drying and siltation of the few available boreholes.-The water points are very limited or few.-Farmers are still struggling to adopt techniques or technologies that use irrigation water efficiently.-High cost of inputs making projects not feasible even under irrigation.-Collective action at drilling boreholes so that it becomes affordable for farmers.-Collective action by farmers at water sourcing is needed.-More water points are needed if irrigation is to transform the local agribusinesses -It will be possible to increase water access points if water can be piped from the boreholes.-Other localized gardens in different villages can be created -De-siltation of dams will increase their carrying capacity allowing more water to be used for irrigationOpportunities for scaling -The water is not that safe for drinking because of high amounts of iron underground where the Borehole is located.-Farmers can be trained on drilling wells -There is the abundance of sunlight for solar powered boreholes.Improvised plough -There are no implements to drill holes.-Government is trying to liaise with companies like Grownet for self-powered implements like direct seeder so as to mechanize conservation agriculture and enhance adoption.-The government is encouraging farmers to remove moldboard plough to be left with only the shear so as to only open a furrow.-Some few farmers bought ripper tines, and these are mounted on ox ploughs. Water harvesting -Inadequate water storage facilities like tanks.-Most the farmers cannot afford to buy storage facilities.-Gradient and trenching resources are also a constraining factor.-Lack of mobility resources by the department of agriculture.-Initiatives are needed to help farmers with water storage facilities.-Strategic partners should come in and work with the AGRITEX officers in helping farmers in the construction of water harvesting trenches.Gradient irrigation -Only suitable for farmers that are downstream.-Initial set up is very expensive and cost of pipes is high.-Youth don't have access to own such type of land unless it is by inheritance.-Older people feel threatened of losing their lands.-There is need for strategic partners that can come in with an irrigation installation facility.-Farmers can be allowed to pay back in instalments.-Farmers need to group themselves and approach developmental organization for help in setting up the irrigation scheme.-Youths have identified areas that if given permission and resources permitting, they are ready to set up youth community gardens.-There is need for linkages to high value markets. Ox drawn ploughs -Lack of animal traction has minimized the use of ploughs.-Most farmers are still using hand hoes.-Farmers still need other mechanization options for a more contemporary approach to farming.Siphoning system -Few individuals who can afford it are using this technology.-Those who can afford it are leaving others out as they are fencing their facilities.-Construction of dams so as to increase water sources for farmers.Prevalence and use of mechanization in Malawi, Zambia, and ZimbabweUsing survey, we found that draft animals were the most popular source of farm power owned by 19%, 37%, and 57% of households surveyed in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, respectively (Figure 2). Four-wheel tractors are the second most known and second least ever used. Despite some 32-62% of households surveyed in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe saying they know about two-wheel tractors, less than 2% ever used two-wheel tractors in Zambia and Zimbabwe, while none in Malawi. These findings are line with those in Sims and Kienzle (2017) and FAO, AUC (2019) that draft animal power is the most important form of farm power in sub-Saharan Africa. Notes: Usage (ever used) and ownership are computed for those who know a particular farm power. Accessibility was computed for those farmers who did not hire mechanization services for the 2020/21 season but have used before while affordability was computed for those who know about the mechanization option and think it is possible to hire. ^ statistically invalid, n < 30. Source: (Ngoma et al., 2023 ) and (Tufa et al., forthcoming)  Households in Malawi are willing to pay US$69/hectare for land preparation, US$2.6 per trip for transportation, and USD0.5-USD1.2 for shelling 50 kg maize or groundnuts (Table 6).These amounts are similar to market prices at the time of the survey, indicating that the estimates are realistic. And a large proportion of male respondents than female respondents were willing to pay the market rates then (Tufa et al., forthcoming). Based on BDM auctions, willingness to pay for most services is higher in Zimbabwe compared to Zambia. On average, households interviewed in Zimbabwe were willing to pay USD 51, USD 69, USD 58 per hectare for ripping, ripping, and seeding, and direct seeding, respectively; and USD 12 for transportation of 0.5 tons per 20 km radius, while sample households in Zambia were willing to pay USD19, USD28, and USD26 per hectare for tillagebased services and USD 6 for transportation per 0.5 ton within a radius of 20 km. See Ngoma et al (2021) for details. While these estimates are in nominal terms, it would appear that farmers in Zimbabwe have a higher willingness to pay for mechanization services than those in Zambia.As governments heighten drive to mechanize agriculture, critical information is required on (i) existing mechanization options, (ii) barriers and challenges, (iii) opportunities for scaling and effective demand for mechanization. This article combines quantitative and qualitative surveys to help elucidate on some of these key issues in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe where mechanization is part of national policy priorities. We focus mainly on farm mechanization and irrigation options. There are common mechanization options whose uptakes are at different levels in these countries. Animal draft power is still dominate for tillage in all these countries. Other unpopular options include two-and four-wheel ","tokenCount":"6688"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"875a3049fa9bbf8c0f994f6bc82f4fd7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c92b258d-5b6c-489c-9153-1230d7c25a4a/content","id":"-1395238099"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3f3f80fa-898a-4845-b442-b587c5abb599","pagecount":"38","content":"CIMMYT®) (www.cimmyt.mx) es una organización internacional, sin fines de lucro, que se dedica a la investigación científica y la capacitación. Tiene su sede en México y colabora con instituciones de investigación agrícola de todo el mundo para mejorar la productividad y la sostenibilidad de los sistemas de maíz y trigo para los agricultores de escasos recursos en los países en desarrollo. El CIMMYT forma parte de los 16 centros de Future Harvest dedicados a la investigación sobre cultivos alimentarios y el medio ambiente. Con oficinas en todo el mundo, los centros de Future Harvest llevan a cabo investigación colaborativa con agricultores, científicos y formuladores de políticas para combatir la pobreza y aumentar la seguridad alimentaria, al tiempo que protegen los recursos naturales. Son financiados por el Grupo Consultivo sobre la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org), entre cuyos miembros se cuentan cerca de 60 países, organizaciones tanto internacionales como regionales y fundaciones privadas. El CIMMYT recibe fondos para su agenda de investigación de varias fuentes, entre las que se encuentran fundaciones, bancos de desarrollo e instituciones públicas y privadas.® Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) 2003. Derechos reservados. El CIMMYT es el único responsable de esta publicación. Las designaciones empleadas en la presentación de los materiales incluidos en esta publicación de ninguna manera expresan la opinión del CIMMYT o de sus patrocinadores respecto al estado legal de cualquier país, territorio, ciudad o zona, o de las autoridades de éstos, o respecto a la delimitación de sus fronteras. El CIMMYT autoriza el uso de este material, siempre y cuando se cite la fuente.Análisis del sistema argentino de investigación agropecuaria Gabriel H. Parellada 1 y Javier Ekboir 2 1 Instituto de Economía y Sociología, INTA 2 Programa de Economía del CIMMYT Notas: Cuando se preparó este documento, el sistema de investigación argentino se encontraba en un proceso de profunda reestructuración. La información que aquí se presenta refleja los cambios ocurridos hasta enero de 2000. Los autores agradecen la colaboración del Lic. Daniel Lema en la elaboración de los flujos de financiamiento del SIN; y del Lic. Mariano Laffaye y la Ing. Magdalena Marino por la recopilación y elaboración de la información estadística. Todos ellos, sin embargo, quedan exentos de cualquier responsabilidad por el contenido de este informe.El financiamiento de esta investigación fue proporcionado por el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (Donativo # CIMMYT/BID ATN/SF-5790-RG). El sector agropecuario ha desempeñado siempre un papel fundamental en la economía argentina. En la segunda mitad del siglo XX, los productos de origen pampeano tuvieron un fuerte crecimiento gracias a la adopción masiva de nuevas tecnologías de comercialización y producción. Estas tecnologías fueron desarrolladas por redes de agentes que incluyeron en forma prominente productores innovadores, empresas privadas e investigadores de instituciones públicas. Sin embargo, las instituciones mismas tuvieron una participación limitada, y su mayor impacto se derivó del desarrollo de semillas mejoradas de los principales cultivos pampeanos.En la primera mitad del siglo XX, Argentina construyó un sistema público de investigación fuerte, localizado fundamentalmente en las universidades nacionales. Una característica del sistema es que estaba organizado en base a una concepción lineal de la ciencia, la que desincentivaba las colaboraciones interdisciplinarias, interinstitucionales y/o con agentes que no fueran investigadores formales. A partir de la década del 50, Argentina creó un número de institutos tecnológicos destinados a prestar apoyo técnico a las políticas públicas. El sistema público comenzó a deteriorase por cuestiones políticas y económicas a partir del golpe de estado de 1966 y no ha podido recuperarse hasta la fecha.En la década del 90 hubo algunos intentos de reformar el sistema público, pero estos esfuerzos no tuvieron éxito por falta de continuidad y de recursos. A pesar del deterioro del sistema público de investigación, el sector privado argentino (especialmente las empresas proveedoras de insumos y asociaciones de productores) generó una oferta continua de innovaciones. La característica de estas innovaciones es que no requerían inversiones importantes en investigación (por ejemplo, tecnologías de manejo de cultivos) o eran importadas directamente de los países desarrollados (por ejemplo, agroquímicos).El sector agropecuario desempeña un papel fundamental en la economía argentina, tanto por su contribución directa e indirecta al producto bruto interno como por su relevancia en las cuentas externas. Las exportaciones argentinas se concentran principalmente en cuatro grandes rubros: granos, carnes, derivados del petróleo y automotores. El aumento de las exportaciones de estos bienes determina el ritmo de expansión de la economía, ya que de ellos depende la capacidad de importar bienes de capital e intermedios esenciales para el crecimiento del resto de la economía.La agricultura argentina, principalmente la de origen pampeano (es decir, granos y carnes), ha tenido una expansión considerable desde la década del 70, como resultado del desarrollo y la adopción masiva de nuevos paquetes tecnológicos (introducción de soja, trigos con germoplasma mexicano, híbridos de maíz y girasol y siembra directa), inducido por nuevas políticas macroeconómicas y sectoriales.Los paquetes tecnológicos incluyeron insumos y conocimientos generados por agentes públicos y privados que interactuaron por medio de mecanismos formales e informales. Estos agentes, sus interacciones y normas (formales e informales), constituyen el Sistema Nacional de Innovación (SNI). Uno de sus componentes esenciales es el Sistema de Investigación (SI), formado por instituciones tradicionales y no tradicionales de investigación. Este trabajo analiza la estructura del SI agropecuario argentino.Hace 40 años, Argentina tenía un SI formal de primer nivel internacional, pero poco integrado con el sector productivo. Esta estructura compartamentalizada había sido creada a partir de una concepción lineal de los procesos científicos y tecnológicos, según la cual los desarrollos científicos se efectuaban en los institutos de investigación y después de un proceso de investigación adaptativa eran transferidos a los usuarios. Esta concepción también influyó en la organización de las instituciones de investigación que se formaron sobre la base de disciplinas científicas, con poco espacio para el desarrollo de actividades interdisciplinarias y de sistemas. Si bien el SI agropecuario se organizó sobre esta misma base, hubo algunos factores que interactuaron para promover procesos muy dinámicos de adopción de tecnologías:• Las políticas macroeconómicas que se adoptaron a partir de 1930 originaron un sesgo contrario al sector agropecuario pampeano. Los productores pampeanos se vieron obligados a buscar activamente tecnologías que les permitieran compensar los sesgos. En cambio, los empresarios industriales y los productores agropecuarios de insumos para la industria nacional que surgieron después del establecimiento de políticas de sustitución de importaciones, estaban protegidos de la competencia internacional (Katz, 2001). Su mayor preocupación era contar con una buena administración financiera que les permitiera superar las sucesivas crisis de balanza de pagos y las modificaciones a las políticas macroeconómicas. Por tanto, la adopción de innovaciones como instrumento para aumentar la competitividad era una prioridad menor. • Muchos desarrollos tecnológicos no son intensivos en ciencia, es decir, no requieren grandes instalaciones, insumos costosos o profesionales con formación doctoral. Esta característica permitió que agentes del sector privado desarrollaran componentes esenciales del paquete. En esta categoría se encuentran la mayoría de los desarrollos de maquinaria y tecnologías de manejo de cultivos. Estas últimas, en particular, requieren una visión sistémica de las empresas agropecuarias, pero en las instituciones formales de investigación no había espacio para ellas. Por esa razón, los productores agropecuarios de mayores recursos formaron asociaciones a fin de generar las mencionadas tecnologías (Ekboir y Parellada, 2000). • Otros desarrollos que sí son intensivos en ciencia, como los agroquímicos, pueden ser fácilmente introducidos desde otros países. Las similitudes ecológicas y estructurales de producción entre la región pampeana y las principales regiones agropecuarias del hemisferio norte, favorecieron en Argentina la instalación temprana de empresas multinacionales productoras de semilla de híbridos. • La interacción activa entre los programas de mejoramiento de trigo argentinos (Buck, INTA y Klein) y el CIMMYT, hizo posible la introducción de germoplasma mexicano en semillas adaptadas a las regiones trigueras argentinas. • Desde el principio, el INTA estableció un sistema de extensión agropecuaria, que compensó en parte el aislamiento de sus investigadores. Sin embargo, los equipos de investigación de universidades e institutos de investigación en otras ramas de la ciencia, al no contar con un mecanismo similar, tuvieron un impacto muy limitado.A partir de 1966, el SI hizo frente a una serie de crisis que aún no ha superado. En primer lugar, una gran cantidad de investigadores del sector público emigraron a causa de los golpes militares de 1966 y 1976. Después del retorno a la democracia en 1983, las instituciones públicas de investigación perdieron apoyo social por su reducida capacidad operativa y poca interacción con el aparato productivo. Finalmente, dadas las severas crisis económicas del país, los gobiernos sucesivos restringieron sus contribuciones para la ciencia y técnica, hecho que mermó aún más la capacidad operativa de las instituciones públicas. Si bien se reconocía que el SI estaba en crisis, no se promovió ninguna discusión sobre cuál debería ser la función del sistema en la sociedad argentina. Para responder a la crisis, las instituciones de investigación introdujeron cambios parciales en los mecanismos de financiamiento y en los patrones de interacción con otros agentes del SNI. Sin embargo, al no existir una visión integrada del SNI, estas acciones han carecido de una línea conductora y no han afectado factores clave que determinan la eficiencia de las instituciones de investigación. Por ejemplo, no se hizo ninguna revisión del conjunto de incentivos ofrecidos a investigadores y administradores.En la segunda sección se describe brevemente la agricultura pampeana y los principales hitos tecnológicos de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. En la tercera sección se analiza el sistema de investigación y se establece la diferencia entre los sistemas centralizado y no centralizado de investigación. En la cuarta sección se presentan algunos indicadores de las actividades innovadoras en Argentina y de las interacciones entre los diferentes componentes del SNI. Por último, la sección cinco analiza en detalle el SI agropecuario.Desde el punto de vista agroecológico, Argentina puede dividirse en dos grandes macrorregiones: la región pampeana y la extra-pampeana (Cascardo et al., 1991;SAGPyA, 1997). La región pampeana, que abarca el centro-este del país, es una llanura relativamente homogénea, con una extensión aproximada de 50 millones de hectáreas. En esta región se genera más del 60% del PBI agropecuario, el 80% de los granos y 70% de las carnes vacunas. La producción agrícola se concentra en cinco granos: girasol, maíz, sorgo, soja y trigo. Argentina exporta una proporción importante de su producción de granos y carnes vacunas, y desempeña un papel preponderante en los mercados internacionales de dichos productos.La región extra-pampeana ocupa el resto del país y tiene una gran diversidad de paisajes, que varían desde selvas subtropicales a regiones semiáridas templadas y tundra. Estas regiones se especializaron en una amplia gama de productos agropecuarios (azúcar, algodón, té, tabaco, arroz, etc.), orientados principalmente al abasto del consumo interno y la producción de insumos para la industria nacional.Desde la década del 60, la agricultura pampeana mostró un fuerte dinamismo sustentado en la adopción rápida y masiva de tecnologías modernas. Estas tecnologías fueron desarrolladas por un número importante de agentes que interactuaron por medio de mecanismos formales e informales.A partir de los años 60, los productores agropecuarios pampeanos sustituyeron masivamente los caballos por tractores y adoptaron la cosecha mecánica. Los detonantes de esos cambios fueron la estabilización de la estructura agraria, luego de las políticas antiagrarias del gobierno peronista, el crecimiento de los mercados agropecuarios (internos y externos) y la disponibilidad de créditos subsidiados para la compra de maquinaria (Flichman, 1978).En 1976 se inició un proceso de desregulación parcial de la economía, que incluyó la disminución de los aranceles de importación y un aumento de los impuestos a la exportación de bienes agropecuarios. Estos cambios indujeron alzas en las tasas de interés, una revaluación del peso frente al dólar y un crecimiento de los índices de inflación que culminaron en un proceso hiperinflacionario en 1989. La creciente inestabilidad económica y el cambio en los precios relativos resultantes de las nuevas políticas forzaron a todos los sectores productivos a realizar grandes ajustes. Asimismo, la contracción de la actividad industrial causó una fuerte crisis económica, que Argentina superó apenas a mediados de los años 90.La rentabilidad de los bienes exportables, entre ellos los productos agrícolas pampeanos, cayó debido a la sobrevaluación del peso. Ante la necesidad de mantener su competitividad, a mediados de los 70 los productores pampeanos adoptaron un paquete tecnológico que incluía soja como cultivo único o en cultivo doble con trigo, semillas mejoradas (híbridos de maíz o trigos con germoplasma mexicano), mayor uso de agroquímicos (fertilizantes y herbicidas), labranza mínima y maquinaria moderna. La alta productividad de este paquete compensó con creces el sesgo antiexportador de las políticas macroeconómicas. Entre 1974 y 1985 la producción de granos en la región pampeana fue el único sector económico con un crecimiento positivo, saltando de alrededor de 20 millones de toneladas en 1974 a 35 millones en 1984.La creciente inestabilidad de la sociedad argentina derivó en un proceso hiperinflacionario en 1989. Así, para estabilizar la economía, el gobierno puso en marcha en 1991 el denominado \"Plan de Convertibilidad\". Este plan establecía una tasa de cambio fija del peso frente al dólar, eliminaba varias regulaciones, entre ellas las de los impuestos a las exportaciones agropecuarias, y privatizaba servicios esenciales para el sector agropecuario (por ejemplo, transportes, puertos y teléfonos). La nueva estabilidad de la economía, combinada con servicios más eficientes y nuevas formas asociativas y de comercialización, aceleró el proceso de adopción de un nuevo paquete tecnológico basado en la siembra directa (Ekboir y Parellada, 2000).La difusión masiva de la siembra directa permitió un aumento substancial de los rendimientos en los principales granos, una caída de los costos de producción y la expansión de la superficie sembrada fuera de la región pampeana. La incorporación del riego complementario para el maíz permitió un aumento considerable de los rendimientos en el área central de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Durante el período 1997-1998 se logró una producción récord de 19 millones de toneladas métricas de maíz en una superficie similar a la requerida 25 años antes para producir 8 millones. La tasa anual de crecimiento del rendimiento de granos por hectárea durante el período mencionado fue de 3.5 (Reca y Parellada, 2001.) En 1988 el 85% de la tierra era explotada directamente por sus dueños (INDEC, 1988). Sin embargo, en los últimos años han proliferado diferentes mecanismos de arrendamiento, entre los que se destacan los consorcios de siembra, los fondos de inversión directa y los arrendamientos plurianuales. La característica común de estos sistemas es que inversores no vinculados a la agricultura aportan fondos para la producción de granos utilizando las tecnologías más modernas (por lo general con maquinaria y tierra alquilada) bajo la administración de profesionales de la agricultura. Estos sistemas otorgan gran flexibilidad a los diferentes agentes para reaccionar frente a cambios en las condiciones de mercado.La difusión de los arrendamientos de maquinaria aceleró la adopción de tecnologías modernas, en virtud de que los contratistas, al dar un mayor uso al equipo, renuevan el parque de maquinaria con más frecuencia que los pequeños productores.El valor del PBI argentino aumentó de 237 mil millones en 1993 a 282 mil millones de pesos en 1999 (19%). 1 En este mismo período, el PBI agropecuario aumentó de casi 12 mil millones a 15 mil millones de pesos en 1998 (25%); pero en 1999 descendió a 11.6 mil millones debido a una fuerte caída de los precios internacionales de cereales y oleaginosas. La caída en el valor de la producción agropecuaria fue parcialmente compensada por un fuerte crecimiento en la producción física de granos, que aumentó de aproximadamente 35 millones de toneladas a principios de los 90 a cerca de 65 millones en el 2000 (85% de crecimiento). El crecimiento de la producción agropecuaria fue la consecuencia de la adopción masiva de un nuevo paquete tecnológico.Si bien la participación del sector agropecuario en el PBI total ha oscilado alrededor del 5.3% (Cuadro 1), su importancia radica en que aproximadamente el 24% del PBI industrial corresponde a agroindustrias (alimentos, bebidas, tabacos, textiles, industria de la madera y fabricación de papel) y el 60% de las exportaciones a productos agropecuarios o manufacturas de origen agropecuario. Tradicionalmente, el ritmo de crecimiento de las exportaciones agropecuarias determinaba los límites de expansión de la economía argentina. Las industrias que crecieron al amparo de las políticas de sustitución de importaciones demandaban insumos y bienes de capital importados; es decir, el crecimiento del sector industrial determinaba la demanda de divisas. En cambio, la oferta de divisas dependía casi exclusivamente de la capacidad exportadora del sector agropecuario y de unos cuantos productos primarios (por ejemplo, petróleo) o industriales (por ejemplo, caños de acero).Cuadro 1. PBI a precio de mercado, valor agregado a precios de productor (millones de pesos corrientes). Las producciones pampeanas (cereales, oleaginosas y ganadería vacuna) constituyen los principales rubros del PBI agropecuario y determinan en gran medida la tasa de crecimiento de este último. De hecho, la participación de cereales, oleaginosas y forrajeras en el valor bruto de la producción agropecuaria aumentó de 28% en 1993 a 32% en 1998, mientras que, en los mismos años, la ganadería vacuna cayó del 22% al 17% (Cuadro 2).Durante el periodo 1970-1997, la producción agrícola creció a una tasa anual del 3.2%. Sin embargo, la productividad total de los factores de producción en el mismo período creció a una tasa anual del 1.6%. La diferencia en las tasas de crecimiento se explica por el aumento en el volumen físico de los factores de producción, principalmente agroquímicos (Lema, 1999). La apertura de la economía desempeñó un papel fundamental en este proceso por la baja de precio de los insumos importados de alto impacto productivo, sobre todo agroquímicos y maquinaria agrícola.La producción de cultivos anuales, básicamente cereales y oleaginosas, creció a una tasa anual promedio del 6.7% en la década del 90, en marcado contraste con lo ocurrido entre 1970 y 1990, cuando el crecimiento fue del 2% anual. Lo mismo sucedió con la evolución de los rendimientos, que aumentaron a una tasa anual de 3.6% en los años 90, y de 2% en los últimos 20 años. La superficie sembrada en la década del 90 aumentó a 2.4% anual. En consecuencia, el aumento de la producción es resultado de los incrementos de la superficie cultivada y/o los rendimientos (Reca y Parellada, 2001). Estos incrementos fueron impulsados por los cambios tecnológicos y una mayor oferta de servicios dirigidos al sector (Cuadro 3). Superficie en miles de hectáreas; producción en millones de toneladas. Fuente: Elaboración propia con base en datos de la FAO.Las variaciones en la composición de las exportaciones reflejan los cambios estructurales ocurridos en la economía argentina. Las exportaciones totales crecieron de 8 mil millones en 1980 a 23 mil millones de dólares en 1999. En este periodo, las ventas externas de productos agropecuarios (sin procesar o de manufacturas de origen agropecuario) cayeron del 79% al 58% del total (Cuadro 4). Esta caída de la participación en las exportaciones agropecuarias fue causada por 1) la considerable expansión de las exportaciones de petróleo y gas, sobre todo después de la privatización de la empresa petrolera estatal, 2) el aumento de las exportaciones de automotores gracias a los regímenes promocionales para exportarlos a Brasil, y 3) la fuerte caída de los precios internacionales de los granos y oleaginosas en 1999.A pesar de la caída de los precios, el volumen de las exportaciones de productos agropecuarios aumentó entre 1980 y 1999 más del 100%.Entre 1980 y 1999, el valor de las exportaciones, tanto de bienes primarios como de manufacturas de origen agropecuario, creció a una tasa anual del 3.1%. Sin considerar el año de 1999 (afectado por la caída de los precios agrícolas), se observan dos tendencias claras: un fuerte crecimiento en las exportaciones de los productos tradicionales (cereales,  El SI argentino consta de dos subsistemas: el centralizado y el no centralizado. El primero está constituido por organismos oficiales y privados que participan formalmente en la definición de las políticas públicas (la asignación de recursos para la investigación), o que dependen de estos organismos públicos. El segundo subsistema lo integran empresas, organizaciones no gubernamentales e individuos que realizan investigación fuera de las estructuras del subsistema centralizado.El núcleo del sistema centralizado está conformado por un conjunto de instituciones públicas. Muchas de estas instituciones fueron creadas en el marco del modelo de sustitución de importaciones. Este modelo se basaba en la idea de que la industria nacional se encontraba en una etapa inicial, por lo que se requería una acción firme del Estado para favorecer su desarrollo. Dentro de este modelo, los institutos públicos tenían el papel de generar tecnologías de punta para la industria nacional, en particular para las empresas públicas (Bisang y Malet, 1999).Dos características de la política nacional en ciencia y tecnología en esa época fueron el establecimiento de instituciones públicas con cobertura nacional o regional para resolver problemas concretos, y la dependencia funcional de las instituciones de investigación del ministerio vinculado temáticamente a los mismos (por ejemplo, el INTA dependía de la Secretaría de Agricultura). Así, en la década del 50 se crearon numerosas instituciones con mandatos superpuestos (por ejemplo, INTA, INTI e INA), pero con pocas instancias de coordinación y centradas en sí mismas (Bisang y Malet, 1999).Los siguientes cuatro factores determinaron la falta de integración entre los institutos públicos y el aparato productivo:• La política de sustitución de importaciones no incentivaba la innovación en las empresas, por lo que éstas no buscaban proveedores de tecnología. • La mayoría de los institutos públicos de investigación tenían la misión de apoyar al sector público en sus respectivas áreas de competencia. oleaginosas y carnes); y un crecimiento más sólido de las exportaciones de productos no tradicionales como pescados, hortalizas, frutas frescas, productos lácteos y de molienda (Cuadro 5). La caída en las exportaciones de semillas oleaginosas entre 1986-1988 y 1996-1998 fue causada por el impulso que se dio a la exportación de aceites (comparada con la exportación de semillas sin procesar).2 Las leyes de defensa de la competencia indujeron a las empresas privadas en EUA a establecer vínculos con institutos públicos de investigación y con universidades. En consecuencia, el desarrollo de estas instituciones fue menos autónomo (Mowery y Rosenberg, 1993).• Los institutos se organizaron con base en una concepción lineal de la ciencia, según la cual la función de los institutos de investigación consistía en generar tecnologías que luego se ofrecían a los usuarios. Según esta concepción, la falta de adopción de las nuevas tecnologías no se debía a problemas en la etapa de generación ni en problemas en la identificación las necesidades tecnológicas, sino en el proceso de adopción. • Los esquemas de incentivos a los científicos y los administradores de las instituciones públicas de investigación no propiciaban la interacción con otros actores fuera de sus institutos (por ejemplo, no se permitía a los investigadores realizar docencia, consultorías o proyectos conjuntos).Con este esquema, los institutos no lograron establecer contactos sólidos con las industrias para las que deberían trabajar. Este hecho limitó el proceso de transferencia de tecnologías (Bell, 1993). 2 La gran excepción fueron las instituciones de investigación vinculadas al sector agropecuario (INTA y algunos grupos de investigadores universitarios).Los procesos de apertura económica y desregulación implementados en la década del 90 forzaron un importante ajuste en el comportamiento de los agentes públicos y privados. La reducción del papel del sector público (incluyendo la de las instituciones de ciencia y técnica) y una mayor competencia internacional, crearon nuevas necesidades y oportunidades tecnológicas para los diferentes actores del SNI argentino. Entre las consecuencias más importantes para la ciencia y la tecnología se cuentan la caída de las inversiones públicas (infraestructura y financiamiento de las instituciones de investigación), así como un acceso más fácil a proveedores internacionales de tecnologías.En respuesta a estas circunstancias, el gobierno nacional y las instituciones públicas de investigación implementaron una serie de cambios. Desde el gobierno central, se redujeron los aportes directos y se crearon mecanismos de financiamiento competitivos. A nivel de las instituciones, se definieron nuevas reglas de interacción con otros agentes del SNI y se buscaron nuevas fuentes de financiamiento, entre las que se destacan proyectos conjuntos con el sector privado y la venta de bienes y servicios. Estos cambios tuvieron resultados diversos. Entre los resultados positivos se observa una mayor integración de los institutos nacionales con los usuarios de sus tecnologías y una diversificación en las fuentes de fondos. Entre las consecuencias negativas figuran un fuerte debilitamiento de la capacidad operativa de los institutos, una creciente importancia de proyectos cuyos resultados pueden comercializarse y un sesgo hacia proyectos de corto plazo y poca complejidad.Estos cambios se han introducido en forma desarticulada. En particular, no se ha promovido una discusión para definir la función que deben desempeñar cada una de las instituciones dentro del SI. Por ejemplo, se ha promovido la investigación en las universidades, sin definir previamente para cada una de éstas si serán centros de investigación avanzada, centros de enseñanza o una mezcla de ambos. 3 Esta definición es necesaria para establecer sistemas de reclutamiento, mecanismos de incentivos y políticas de inversiones adecuadas a cada función (ver más adelante).3.1.1 Regulación del sistema de investigación El gobierno nacional es el principal responsable de la definición de las políticas tecnológicas, incluida la organización del SI; el poder de decisión de las provincias en estas áreas es reducido. En general, la investigación agropecuaria es más descentralizada que la de otros sectores por la regionalización del INTA, introducida a fines de la década del 80, y por la creación de universidades en las provincias.En el SI argentino participan cuatro tipos de agentes públicos: entes reguladores, entes financiadores, ejecutores de la investigación y formadores de recursos humanos; algunos pueden pertenecer a más de una categoría. La Figura 1 muestra las interacciones entre las principales instituciones involucradas en los subsistemas centralizado y no centralizado.Las normas de funcionamiento del sistema centralizado son fijadas por el Poder Ejecutivo y el Congreso Nacional. El Poder Ejecutivo actúa por conducto de la Secretaría de Tecnología, Ciencia e Innovación Productiva (SETCIP), el Ministerio de Educación y el Ministerio de Economía, fijando políticas, normas de funcionamiento y de asignación de recursos. Ambas cámaras del Congreso Nacional cuentan con comisiones de ciencia y tecnología, cuya función es evaluar el desempeño del sector y promover leyes que regulen su funcionamiento. Además, el Congreso puede modificar las partidas para ciencia y técnica contenidas en la propuesta del presupuesto nacional.La SETCIP es responsable de programar y coordinar la investigación a nivel nacional, generar mecanismos de seguimiento, evaluar las actividades de los distintos agentes que participan en el sistema centralizado, y fomentar las interacciones entre los diferentes agentes públicos y privados que participan en el SI. Los organismos de ciencia y técnica provinciales realizan tareas similares en el ámbito de sus provincias, y su actividad complementa las de la SETCIP.Dentro de la SETCIP funcionan dos instituciones centrales del SI: la Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (Agencia) y el Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONICET). La Agencia patrocina proyectos de investigación e innovación, mientras que el CONICET financia y ejecuta fundamentalmente actividades de investigación.El CONICET es la institución ejecutora más importante en Argentina. Funciona como un ente autárquico del Estado en jurisdicción de la SETCIP. La dirección del CONICET está a En 1999 el CONICET empleaba 3,800 investigadores de tiempo completo y 2,600 agentes de apoyo a la investigación; mantenía 104 institutos, centros y laboratorios, y siete centros regionales que promueven interrelaciones entre grupos de investigadores. Su presupuesto oscila alrededor de los 200 millones de dólares anuales. Sus actividades abarcan una gran gama de áreas temáticas, que incluyen tanto ciencias duras como humanidades y ciencias agropecuarias. El CONICET utiliza cinco instrumentos para realizar sus actividades:• La carrera del investigador científico y tecnológico para profesionales empleados por el CONICET. • La carrera del personal de apoyo a la investigación.• Becas de investigación en el país y en el extranjero para profesionales que no son empleados permanentes de instituciones de investigación; los becarios pueden trabajar en instituciones que no pertenecen al CONICET. • Becas para la realización de estudios de postgrado en el país y en el extranjero.• Subsidios para la ejecución de proyectos de investigación, organización de congresos, etcétera.El énfasis del CONICET es el desarrollo científico, y confiere menor importancia a los desarrollos tecnológicos. Esto se refleja tanto en su estructura organizativa como en los mecanismos de asignación de recursos y de evaluación, los cuales utilizan fundamentalmente indicadores académicos tradicionales (publicaciones, asistencia a congresos, citas en publicaciones internacionales, etc.), y en menor medida, indicadores tecnológicos (por ejemplo, número de patentes o interacciones con la industria). Es sintomático que sólo a fines de la década del 90 el CONICET haya constituido una Comisión de Tecnología, con el propósito de fomentar los desarrollos tecnológicos.Además del CONICET, la investigación científica se lleva a cabo en una serie de institutos con mandatos específicos, que dependen de diversas reparticiones del gobierno nacional. Los más importantes son:• El Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) es un organismo descentralizado que depende de la Secretaría de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación. Creado en 1958, su misión inicial fue el desarrollo y adaptación de tecnología mediante investigación y transferencia para el sector rural. Recientemente amplió su mandato y ahora incluye apoyo a las agroindustrias y el manejo sostenible de los recursos naturales. El INTA es dirigido por un presidente, asesorado por un consejo directivo en el que están representados el gobierno nacional, las asociaciones de productores y las universidades que se dedican a la investigación agropecuaria (en las siguientes secciones se hace un análisis más detallado del funcionamiento del INTA).• El Instituto Nacional del Agua (INA), dependiente de la Secretaría de Recursos Naturales y Medio Ambiente, cuyas funciones son realizar investigaciones y desarrollos tecnológicos en el área de recursos hídricos y ofrecer asesoramiento y servicios técnicos altamente especializados a organismos oficiales y privados. • El Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP) tiene como mandato planificar, ejecutar y controlar los programas de investigación relativos a los recursos pesqueros y su explotación económica racional en el mar y aguas continentales. • El Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI) es un organismo descentralizado dependiente del Ministerio de Economía y Obras y Servicios Públicos. Su función es colaborar en el perfeccionamiento tecnológico del sector productivo mediante la prestación de servicios técnicos a empresas, y la realización de actividades colaborativas de investigación. Asimismo, presta otros servicios como el establecimiento de normas, control de calidad, capacitación, información técnica y el registro de transferencia de tecnología. El INTI realiza investigaciones para mejorar o generar productos, así como procesos de elaboración de materias primas y subproductos. El Insituto dispone de una estructura científico-técnica integrada por dos tipos de unidades organizativas interdependientes: laboratorios centrales de física industrial y meteorología, química analítica aplicada y biotecnología, tecnología de alimentos, mecánica, construcciones, energía, computación y cálculo, electroquímica aplicada, proyectos y prototipos, higiene y seguridad; y 31 centros de investigación que atienden los requerimientos de casi todos los sectores industriales del país. Cuenta con una planta estable de 514 investigadores. • La Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (CONEA) tiene como objetivo fundamental desarrollar tecnologías para aplicaciones pacíficas de la energía nuclear en el campo de la energía eléctrica, la medicina, la agricultura, la industria y el ambiente.Existen también unos pocos institutos provinciales dedicados a la investigación y desarrollo tecnológico en áreas específicas. Por ejemplo, la Estación Experimental Obispo Colombres, en la provincia de Tucumán, ha hecho una contribución importante al desarrollo tecnológico de la caña de azúcar, tabaco y soja; su influencia se ha extendido a todo el noroeste argentino.El sistema universitario argentino experimentó cambios drásticos en la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Tradicionalmente, el núcleo del sistema estaba constituido por las universidades públicas nacionales que realizaban investigación y docencia en una gran variedad de áreas, entre ellas Ciencias Biológicas, Ingeniería y Medicina. Hasta 1966 estas universidades tuvieron un nivel de docencia e investigación sumamente alto y se hicieron acreedoras, entre otros reconocimientos, a tres Premios Nobel. 4 Sin embargo, como su organización estaba basada en el modelo tradicional europeo, no se fomentaba la interacción con otros investigadores o con agentes fuera del ámbito académico (por ejemplo, empresas u organismos públicos) (Chesnais, 1993). Durante las tres décadas siguientes, la falta de presupuesto para inversiones y gastos operativos, persecuciones ideológicas durante los gobiernos militares, bajos salarios y la falta de una política global de investigación y docencia, causaron un grave deterioro de las actividades de docencia y de investigación.A mediados de la década del 90, varias universidades públicas establecieron mecanismos débiles de incentivos a la investigación, pero en gran parte éstos fueron suspendidos a fines de la década debido a restricciones presupuestarias. A pesar del gran deterioro de la capacidad de investigación en las universidades públicas, todavía sobreviven algunos equipos reconocidos internacionalmente.Actualmente, el sistema universitario está compuesto por 36 universidades nacionales y 43 privadas. En 1995 el plantel docente alcanzaba un total de 100,480 profesores, de los cuales 9,477 tenían dedicación exclusiva y 21,720 dedicación semiexclusiva. 5 Es decir, las universidades dependían en gran medida de profesores con dedicación simple, hecho que origina serios problemas de calidad en la docencia y la capacidad de investigación (Bisang y Mallet, 1999).La mayoría de los fondos de investigación en las universidades provienen de mecanismos competitivos, tanto internos como externos. La investigación financiada por los sectores productivos constituye una porción muy baja de los recursos asignados a esas actividades.El sistema de universidades nacionales cuenta también con programas que otorgan becas a los docentes auxiliares para estudios de postgrado. El propósito de estos programas es mejorar el nivel de educación formal y la capacidad de investigación en las universidades.El desglose de los presupuestos universitarios no permite calcular con certeza el monto de los recursos dedicados a la investigación. Bisang y Malet (1999) estimaron en 1996 que, de un presupuesto total de 1,400 millones de pesos, los gastos de investigación ascendieron a 180 millones (12% del total). Normalmente, los proyectos son pequeños, de alrededor de 30,000 pesos anuales para un investigador principal y varios ayudantes. Si bien estos recursos son adecuados para proyectos modestos en algunas áreas temáticas (ciencias sociales o ciertas áreas en agronomía), resultan insuficientes para disciplinas que requieren grandes instalaciones o insumos costosos (por ejemplo, biología, biotecnología o medicina).Con muy pocas excepciones, las universidades privadas ofrecen carreras en áreas temáticas que no requieren inversiones considerables en infraestructura (por ejemplo, humanidades, economía, arquitectura, leyes o informática). Dado el sesgo hacia carreras de bajo costo en la mayor parte de las universidades privadas, la contribución de estas últimas para satisfacer las necesidades de innovación de la sociedad argentina es necesariamente limitada.En 1998 el Ministerio de Educación puso en marcha un procedimiento de acreditación universitaria, cuyo propósito consiste en elevar la calidad de la enseñanza y promover la investigación universitaria. Este procedimiento, que comenzó por los postgrados y seguirá con las carreras de grado, le otorga una ponderación relativamente alta a las instituciones que dedican recursos financieros y humanos a la investigación. Sin embargo, dada la ausencia de recursos y sistemas de incentivos adecuados para realizar investigación, el sistema de acreditación ha tenido muy poco impacto.Existen varios agentes (empresas productoras de bienes y servicios, asociaciones de productores, organizaciones sin fines de lucro, etc.) que participan del proceso innovador desde fuera del sistema centralizado de investigación. La creciente integración de Argentina a la economía mundial en la década del 90 junto con las reformas económicas, han inducido a estos agentes a adoptar una actitud más innovadora para aumentar su competitividad. En una primera etapa, las industrias importaron tecnologías en forma directa para lograr una modernización rápida; en una segunda etapa, algunas empresas invirtieron en el desarrollo local de innovaciones (Bisang y Malet, 1999).Las actividades de investigación en el sistema no centralizado se concentraron en desarrollos tecnológicos que no requieren una base científica importante, es decir, que pueden ser efectuados por personal con poca formación académica, y/o que no requieren instalaciones o insumos costosos. La inversión más importante por parte de las empresas se concentró en la adquisición de tecnologías intangibles (licencias, software, consultorías, acuerdos con entidades de ciencia y tecnología, etc.), generadas principalmente en el extranjero. Estos gastos, junto con las inversiones en capacitación, aumentaron 60% entre 1992 y 1996. Asimismo, las inversiones en tecnología incorporada en bienes de capital importados crecieron 103%, mientras que aquellas en tecnologías que emplean bienes de capital nacionales aumentaron sólo 39% (GACTEC, 1997).Una encuesta realizada por la Universidad Nacional de Quilmes y la Universidad de General Sarmiento complementa la información sobre la actividad innovadora en el sector privado. 6 De 1,533 empresas que respondieron la encuesta, sólo 534 informaron que habían asignado recursos para actividades de innovación entre 1992 y 1996. Durante este periodo, los gastos de innovación se incrementaron del 0.31% al 0.34% del volumen de ventas; el personal destinado a la investigación también aumentó en un 14%. Las dos ramas productivas en las que se registran los mayores aumentos de inversión en innovaciones son alimentos y siderurgia de acero y metales no ferrosos. Asimismo, los resultados muestran una interacción muy débil entre las empresas innovadoras y los centros de investigación. Del total de empresas que habían realizado actividades de innovación, sólo 97 tenían acuerdos de cooperación con instituciones públicas o privadas para realizar actividades de ciencia y técnica. 7 Los recursos financieros destinados a innovaciones en el año 1996 en el total del sector agroalimentario habrían sido de unos 15 millones de dólares.Las empresas privadas constituyen el grupo más importante del sistema no centralizado. En los últimos años han invertido entre el 25 y 30% del total de gastos en ciencia y tecnología en Argentina. Este aumento de las inversiones es la consecuencia de las políticas oficiales de financiamiento que incluyen líneas de créditos blandos para investigaciones en el sector productivo, beneficios impositivos y subsidios directos a través de fondos competitivos que requieren una contrapartida del receptor.Algunas organizaciones sin fines de lucro han desempeñado una función destacada en el desarrollo de la ciencia y la técnica, entre ellas se destacan la Fundación Campomar en Ciencias Bioquímicas y AACREA y AAPRESID en tecnologías agropecuarias. Las estadísticas sobre inversiones en ciencia y técnica indican que las organizaciones sin fines de lucro contribuyen con un 3% del total. Sin embargo, el monto de inversión real es substancialmente superior, dado que las cifras oficiales no incluyen los gastos en asesoramiento técnico, maquinarias, insumos, búsqueda de información, etc., realizados por los productores que pertenecen a estas asociaciones.Existen varias fuentes de financiamiento para el SI, tanto en el subsistema centralizado como en el no centralizado. Normalmente, los agentes emplean varias fuentes de manera simultánea y, cada vez más, los agentes dentro del sistema centralizado captan fondos del sistema no centralizado. Este financiamiento cruzado tiene tres consecuencias importantes: 1) se genera un sistema de definición de prioridades paralelo a las fijadas por las propias instituciones; 2) se debilita la capacidad de los administradores de gobernar sus instituciones, ya que en muchos casos los investigadores establecen contratos y mecanismos de cooperación desconocidos por los administradores; y 3) se reducen las diferencias entre el sistema centralizado y el no centralizado, en virtud de que los agentes del primero se comportan cada vez más como agentes del segundo.Las instituciones públicas de investigación están sujetas a las mismas regulaciones que el resto del sector público. Estas regulaciones imponen un marco demasiado rígido para el manejo de fondos y de personal técnico, que no responde a las necesidades de las actividades de investigación. Desde hace varios años las mismas autoridades han reconocido este problema y han creado una serie de mecanismos para flexibilizar el manejo de los fondos. Ejemplos de estos mecanismos son la administración por parte de instituciones multilaterales (por ejemplo, IICA o PNUD), la creación de fundaciones con carácter privado (por ejemplo, Fundación ArgenINTA) o la aportación directa de socios a investigadores. En muchos casos, las propias instituciones no cuentan con un registro de los recursos adicionales, lo que dificulta la administración de las instituciones.A pesar de que se reconocen las dificultades impuestas por las reglas de contabilidad del sector público, no se ha flexibilizado el régimen de funcionamiento de las instituciones públicas de investigación. 8 La introducción de nuevas figuras jurídicas contribuiría a lograr una administración más eficiente, estableciendo mecanismos de captación y administración de recursos de investigación más transparentes. Los flujos de financiamiento del SI se pueden dividir en tres áreas de intervención definidas por las funciones que desempeñan dentro del sistema: las fuentes de fondos, los administradores de fondos y los ejecutores de la investigación. Estos últimos fueron analizados en la sección anterior. Aquí se describen las dos primeras áreas.El financiamiento canalizado a través del sistema centralizado proviene de cuatro fuentes principales:• Las asignaciones del presupuesto nacional propuesto por el Poder Ejecutivo Nacional y aprobado por el Congreso de la Nación. • Los aportes del sector privado.• Las donaciones de organismos multilaterales.• Los fondos que aportan los estados provinciales. De menor importancia son los aportes de entidades sin fines de lucro, nacionales y extranjeras.El financiamiento que se canaliza por el sistema no centralizado incluye recursos de empresas, universidades extranjeras y fundaciones nacionales e internacionales. Cada vez más, las instituciones del sistema centralizado buscan fondos en el sector no centralizado, por medio de mecanismos que incluyen la venta de bienes y servicios, patentes y proyectos conjuntos con el sector privado. Estos recursos son todavía una porción pequeña pero creciente del financiamiento total de las instituciones del sistema centralizado. Por ejemplo, en 1998 el presupuesto del INTA ascendió a 140 millones de dólares, de los cuales 6.7 millones provenían de los parques de innovación tecnológica.La necesidad de cubrir una parte substancial de sus gastos operativos con recursos propios forzó a las instituciones públicas a establecer contacto con los usuarios de tecnología, aunque también sesgó los programas de investigación hacia proyectos de menor envergadura, menor costo y menor riesgo; es decir, las instituciones de investigación adoptaron la función de consultoras.Dentro del sistema no centralizado de investigación, los financiadores más vinculados al sector agropecuario son AACREA, AAPRESID, empresas proveedoras de insumos y de servicios, empresas compradoras de productos y productores agropecuarios. AACREA tiene entre 900 y 1,000 productores asociados, los que se nuclean en aproximadamente 130 grupos. Cada grupo gasta entre 2,000 y 3,000 pesos mensuales. Por su parte, AAPRESID cuenta con aproximadamente 2,000 productores y unas 40 empresas asociadas.Las empresas privadas (por ejemplo, empresas de maquinarias o de semillas) financian actividades internas de innovación y actividades realizadas por instituciones del sistema centralizado, por asociaciones de productores y, a veces, por productores innovadores. Por ejemplo, Monsanto patrocina las actividades del INTA, AAPRESID y, en algunos casos, distribuye insumos directamente a los productores.El organismo administrador de fondos más importante en Argentina es la SETCIP, quien los distribuye por medio de la Agencia y del CONICET. La Agencia promueve la investigación e innovación en los sectores público y privado, mediante el financiamiento de proyectos y la ejecución de otras acciones pertinentes. La Agencia cuenta con dos programas competitivos de distribución de fondos: el Fondo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (FONCYT) y el Fondo Nacional Tecnológico Argentino (FONTAR).El FONCYT apoya la ejecución de proyectos de investigación científica y tecnológica, la formación de recursos humanos, las inversiones en infraestructura de investigación y la organización de congresos y seminarios. Las prioridades son definidas por comisiones designadas para ese propósito. En el FONCYT pueden concursar únicamente investigadores de instituciones públicas o privadas sin fines de lucro. La calidad científica de los proyectos y su importancia con respecto a las prioridades del FONCYT son evaluadas por comisiones de pares. En 1998, el FONCYT financió proyectos por 31.6 millones de dólares; de esta cifra, aproximadamente 2.5 millones se destinaron al área agroindustrial.Por su parte, el FONTAR patrocina innovaciones en el sector productivo (desarrollo experimental, modernización tecnológica, capacitación de recursos humanos y asistencia técnica). Pueden solicitar fondos al FONTAR empresas productoras de bienes y servicios, unidades de vinculación tecnológica y organismos públicos y privados de transferencia de tecnología. Dentro del FONTAR existen diferentes tipos de instrumentos: créditos de reintegro contingente, créditos de reintegro total y subsidios. La mayoría de los recursos del FONTAR provienen del presupuesto nacional y del cupo de crédito fiscal (que se definen anualmente), de créditos de la banca comercial y de fondos de instituciones de crédito nacionales o multilaterales. En 1998, el FONTAR otorgó fondos por 51 millones de dólares, de los cuales 31 millones se asignaron a proyectos agroalimentarios (SETCIP, 1999a).El presupuesto del CONICET en 1999 fue del orden de 200 millones de dólares. Existen cinco mecanismos básicos de distribución de fondos: las asignaciones directas a los institutos del CONICET para gastos de funcionamiento, inversiones y gastos operativos de investigación; los salarios de los investigadores pertenecientes a la carrera de investigador; las becas concursables para la formación de investigadores; los fondos concursables para financiar proyectos de investigación en cualquier institución reconocida; y los subsidios para solventar gastos en bibliotecas, reuniones y conferencias de centros o instituciones de investigación.El Ministerio de Educación, la Secretaría de Recursos Naturales y Medio Ambiente y las agencias provinciales de ciencia y técnica también disponen de recursos para la investigación que son asignados en forma directa. Las universidades nacionales y provinciales en cambio generalmente emplean mecanismos competitivos. Comparados con los presupuestos de las instituciones de la SETCIP, los montos son relativamente pequeños. La Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería Pesca y Alimentación maneja dos tipos de fondos: el presupuesto del INTA y los fondos provenientes de su presupuesto y de los componentes de asistencia técnica incluidos en los préstamos de organismos multinacionales. Estos últimos se utilizan para financiar proyectos específicos con mecanismos no concursables. Los fondos se pueden otorgar a institutos de investigación (por ejemplo, INTA), institutos de control (por ejemplo, INASE o SENASA) o consultores privados.El Ministerio de Educación administra el Programa FOMEC, financiado con fondos provenientes de un convenio con el Banco Mundial y complementado con fondos del Tesoro Nacional. El objetivo de este programa es mejorar la calidad de la enseñanza superior y para ello se financian la compra de bienes y equipos y la formación de recursos humanos. De esta manera, el programa contribuye indirectamente apoyando las tareas de investigación en instituciones de enseñanza. Durante 1998 el FOMEC comprometió aproximadamente 6.5 millones de dólares para las universidades en áreas vinculadas al sector agropecuario (SETCIP, 1999b). En 1999 y 2000 la actividad del FOMEC decreció notablemente.En los últimos años han aumentado los financiamientos de algunas provincias que han creado organismos específicos para administrar programas científicos.El desempeño del SNI depende del sistema de incentivos a los investigadores y a las instituciones de investigación, y de las interacciones entre ambos. En esta sección se describen algunos de los mecanismos de incentivos que se aplican en la mayor parte de las instituciones de ciencia y técnica argentinas.La reorganización de las instituciones públicas de investigación argentinas se llevó a cabo básicamente por medio de un instrumento: nuevos mecanismos de financiamiento. Sin embargo, aún no se ha reconocido que el financiamiento es sólo un instrumento dentro del conjunto que determina el funcionamiento y la eficiencia de las instituciones de investigación. El conjunto incluye incentivos a los investigadores (sueldos adecuados, acceso a fondos operativos que permitan realizar actividades a largo plazo, capacidad de desarrollar líneas de investigación, posibilidades de actualización profesional y de interacción con otros agentes, reconocimiento de la calidad de la investigación, etc.); a los administradores (sueldos adecuados, reconocimiento por resultados, etc.); y a las instituciones mismas (reconocimiento social de su importancia, provisión de fondos, capacidad de consolidación, etc.).Los nuevos mecanismos de financiamiento sólo han flexibilizado el manejo financiero; el manejo de personal aún constituye un problema primordial en las instituciones públicas de investigación. Especialmente importantes son la estabilidad de los investigadores, prácticamente desde que son contratados, el envejecimiento progresivo de las instituciones por la falta de investigadores jóvenes formados, la falta de transparencia en los mecanismos de contratación, la falta de políticas de actualización para profesionales y de un sistema de incentivos que reflejen los objetivos institucionales al tiempo que premien la calidad de la investigación y las interacciones con otras agentes del SNI (Ekboir y Parellada, 1999). Uno de los incentivos más importantes es el salario. En Argentina existen básicamente tres regímenes salariales para los investigadores (Bisang y Malet, 1999):• El Sistema Nacional de la Administración Pública (SINAPA), introducido a fines de la década del 80. En este sistema, los salarios dependían de la función y la antigüedad, y se otorgaba un premio del 10% a los agentes destacados. Los criterios para otorgar tal incentivo eran fijados por cada institución. Inicialmente, los empleados públicos eran transferidos progresivamente a este sistema mediante concursos y selección, pero este régimen está siendo desmantelado paulatinamente por restricciones presupuestarias. • El sistema tradicional de salarios de la administración pública, en que los salarios dependen básicamente de la antigüedad y la función desempeñada. En general, los sueldos de los cargos administrativos jerárquicos son más altos que los de los investigadores destacados; es decir, existe un incentivo poderoso para que los investigadores se dediquen a tareas administrativas, pero, obviamente, esto repercute en la capacidad de investigación. Este problema se ve agravado por la falta de incorporación de investigadores jóvenes. • Los sistemas específicos de determinados institutos, como por ejemplo, el CONICET, que tiene escalafones propios para la carrera de investigador y para el personal de apoyo a la investigación, con mecanismos de evaluación y promoción específicos. El INTA cuenta también con su propio escalafón. Desde 1992 las universidades tienen libertad para fijar sus propios niveles salariales, por lo que existen diversos sistemas.Además de los salarios, existen otros mecanismos de incentivos, algunos de los cuales incluyen remuneraciones adicionales. Por ejemplo, la remuneración de cada profesor universitario está relacionada en forma directa con su producción científica, con lo que se ha incrementado el número de publicaciones de docentes universitarios, la participación en innovaciones patentables, etcétera.En ningún caso se han utilizado evaluaciones técnicas externas como insumo para dirigir a las instituciones de investigación ni para definir niveles de incentivos. Igualmente, los mecanismos de actualización profesional son, en el mejor de los casos, sumamente débiles.El gasto total en ciencia y tecnología en Argentina nunca ha superado el 0.5% del PBI (Cuadro 6). En la década del 90, el total de gastos en ciencia y técnica se incrementó tanto en valores absolutos (en aproximadamente 800 millones de dólares) como en términos relativos al PBI (pasando del 0.33% al 0.46%). El Plan Plurianual de la SECYT en 1999 estableció el objetivo de alcanzar un gasto en ciencia y técnica del 1% del PBI. A la luz de la crisis económica y los recortes presupuestarios puestos en marcha en Argentina en los años siguientes, ese objetivo parece difícil cumplir.Los gastos en actividades científicas y tecnológicas (en pesos de 1998) aumentaron 164% entre 1985 y 1999. El menor crecimiento se observó en los gastos de organismos públicos. A pesar de su menor tasa de crecimiento, en 1999 la mayor parte del financiamiento del sector centralizado provino de la Tesorería de la Nación, con contribuciones menores de provincias y municipios. Cerca del 65% del total invertido en ciencia y tecnología se obtuvo mediante aportes del sector público (gobierno y educación superior), un 30% de empresas privadas y un 2.8% de entidades sin fines de lucro. 9 El mayor crecimiento estuvo representado por los gastos del sector privado, que aumentaron 372%. El fuerte incremento de las inversiones del sector privado observado a partir de 1996 fue la respuesta a la apertura de líneas de financiamiento oficiales que demandaban una contrapartida del sector privado, en particular, el FONTAR.A pesar del incremento de las inversiones en actividades de ciencia y técnica, los científicos argentinos disponen de pocos fondos para sus actividades. En 1997 el gasto por investigador ascendió a 33,000 dólares, en comparación, el gasto en EUA fue de 113,000 dólares, en España fue de 101,000 dólares y en Chile fue de 66,000 dólares (RICYT, 2001).Las inversiones en desarrollos científicos en el área de Ciencias Agrarias se elevaron de 144.2 millones en 1993 a 160.9 millones de pesos en 1999. En términos porcentuales del gasto total correspondiente a ciencia y técnica, las inversiones en Ciencias Agropecuarias cayeron del 14% al 11% (Cuadro 7). Un panorama similar surge del análisis de los proyectos de investigación financiados por el sistema centralizado. En 1998 se financiaron 17,066 proyectos de investigación, de los cuales 1,623 correspondían a proyectos en Ciencias Agropecuarias (Cuadro 8). La proporción de proyectos vinculados al sector agropecuario en el total de proyectos de ciencia y técnica disminuyó drásticamente entre 1994 y 1998; sin embargo, el número de investigadores en Ciencias Agrícolas (4,040 investigadores) se mantuvo casi sin cambios. Estos datos indican una fuerte caída en los fondos disponibles por investigador en Ciencias Agropecuarias y, en consecuencia, en la capacidad operativa de las instituciones de investigación del sector.Cuadro 6. Gastos en actividades científicas y tecnológicas (en millones de pesos de 1998). La formación de recursos humanos se encuentra fuertemente sesgada hacia las Ciencias Sociales y la Medicina (Cuadro 10). Setenta y uno por ciento de los graduados universitarios, 83% de los estudiantes de maestría y 34% de los de doctorado estaban inscritos en estas disciplinas. En cambio, sólo el 17% de los graduados universitarios, el 9% de los estudiantes de maestría y el 10% de los de doctorado estaban inscritos en carreras de ingeniería y tecnología. Esta orientación de los estudiantes de doctorado muestra un sesgo muy fuerte en contra de las carreras más relacionadas con actividades de innovación en procesos productivos.Si bien los índices bibliométricos y el número de patentes son indicadores parciales de la productividad de los investigadores, hasta el momento no se han desarrollado indicadores más completos. Comparados con los de otros países, ambos índices para los investigadores argentinos resultan bajos. El número de publicaciones registradas en SCI-SEARCH por cada 100 investigadores, en equivalentes de jornada completa, es 17.4 para Argentina; 27.7 para EUA; 39.5 para España; y 44.2 para Uruguay. En 1999 Argentina otorgó 0.48 patentes a residentes por cada 100 investigadores, Chile 0.98 y EUA 4.48.El SNI agropecuario argentino ha alcanzado un grado de diversidad importante. Las primeras instituciones públicas de investigación agropecuaria fueron las carreras ligadas a la agricultura en las universidades nacionales creadas a fines del siglo XIX. 10 Estas instituciones seguían el modelo francés (Chesnais, 1993), en el que la investigación estaba dirigida a completar la formación profesional o a satisfacer la curiosidad intelectual de los profesores, pero no se requería que los investigadores interactuaran con otros agentes públicos o privados. Salvo los esfuerzos individuales de algunos docentes, no se establecieron vínculos institucionales importantes con el sector productivo. En esa misma época, algunas provincias crearon estaciones experimentales donde se ponía especial atención al mejoramiento genético vegetal. Estas instituciones tampoco tenían muchos vínculos con el sector productivo.Cuadro 10. Graduados universitarios por disciplina científica en 1996 (personas físicas). Como ya se mencionó, la capacidad de investigación de las universidades nacionales suele ser reducida. Sin embargo, algunos grupos aislados de investigadores han logrado reconocimiento internacional. Esta misma situación se presenta en los institutos del CONICET relacionados con el sector agropecuario.En forma paralela a las actividades del sector público, desde principios del siglo XX, surgieron una cantidad de empresas privadas que suministraban tecnologías incorporadas en insumos (semillas, agroquímicos y maquinaria agrícola). Por ejemplo, el semillero Klein 12 Entre los servicios que provee ARGENINTA se encuentran la administración de fondos para programas y proyectos del INTA y de terceras instituciones; la certificación de conformidad con normas voluntarias para alimentos, insumos, procesos y maquinaria; la operación como unidad de vinculación tecnológica; la operación como unidad de estudios y consultoría para la formulación, evaluación y administración de proyectos, incluida la identificación y gestión de posibles fuentes de financiamiento externas para los mismos; la organización de eventos y programas de promoción, difusión y capacitación. 13 Entre los servicios que provee INTEA, S.A. se encuentran la prestación de servicios a terceros; análisis, ensayos, consultorías, asistencia técnica especializada y capacitación; comercialización de tecnologías y productos agroalimentarios y agroindustriales; desarrollo de proyectos y de empresas llave en mano; desarrollo y administración de inversiones para actividades agropecuarias y forestales; licenciamiento de patentes, marcas y títulos; desarrollo de actividades comerciales, en forma independiente o asociada. 14 El Programa Cambio Rural proporciona recursos económicos a grupos de productores para la contratación de asesoramiento técnico sobre problemas específicos. El financiamiento proviene de la SAGYP, y el personal técnico es contratado y supervisado por el INTA. Cambio Rural apoya a unos 25,000 productores en 2,300 grupos. El Programa para Minufundistas, que utiliza la misma mecánica de operación, incluye 21,000 productores. ProHuerta es financiado por la Secretaría de Desarrollo Social y abarca 344,000 huertas que benefician a unos 2.000,000 de personas.comenzó a operar en 1919 y el semillero Buck en 1930 (Gutiérrez, 1991). Las fábricas nacionales de maquinaria agrícola se establecieron desde principios de siglo XX; comenzaron produciendo piezas para maquinaria importada y después copiaron y mejoraron modelos importados (Huici, 1984). A partir de la década del 60 las empresas de maquinaria agrícola incrementaron su actividad y alcanzaron un nivel importante de sofisticación. La mayoría de estas empresas tienen pequeños equipos de desarrollo de productos. Sus innovaciones parten en general de modelos desarrollados por la competencia, y cuando se trata de satisfacer necesidades más complejas (por ejemplo, agricultura de precisión) contratan desarrollos en el exterior. Estas fábricas también crean innovaciones propias, las que a veces son copiadas por empresas multinacionales (Ekboir y Parellada, 2000).En los últimos años, las empresas semilleras y agroquímicas han incrementado sus actividades de investigación y transferencia, y ha aumentado el número de empresas dedicadas al asesoramiento en negocios agrícolas. Según estimaciones de Mora y Araujo, 15 el 26% de los productores pampeanos reciben algún tipo de asesoramiento técnico en forma permanente y casi el 50% lo hace en forma circunstancial.Tomando como indicadores del cambio tecnológico operado en la agricultura pampeana el uso de fertilizantes y la difusión de siembra directa, siempre de acuerdo con estimaciones de Mora y Araujo, en 1999 el 76% de los productores trigueros aplicaron fertilizante a sus cultivos, mientras que en el caso del maíz la proporción alcanzó el 72%. Estas cifras representan un crecimiento de casi seis veces respecto a la proporción de productores que fertilizaban sus cultivos en 1993. La superficie cultivada con siembra directa en Argentina aumentó espectacularmente de 200,000 hectáreas a principios de la década del 90 a 9.3 millones en la campaña 2000/2001 (Derpsch, 2001).Algunas ONG han desempeñado una función importante, complementando los esfuerzos públicos de investigación. Ejemplos de ello son AACREA y AAPRESID, las que han sido fundamentales para mantener la competitividad de las empresas agropecuarias en la producción de granos y carnes. AAPRESID promovió activamente la difusión de la siembra directa en Argentina, en tanto que AACREA se concentró en la difusión de tecnología y el desarrollo de herramientas para la gestión agraria. Es en esta área donde actualmente se podrían lograr los mayores aumentos de competitividad y donde el sector público ha tenido menor importancia. Tanto AACREA como AAPRESID tienen una estructura descentralizada, en que la mayoría de las actividades de investigación o experimentación son realizadas y financiadas directamente por pequeños grupos de productores. Las unidades centrales desempeñan sólo algunas actividades de investigación y capacitación, ya que su misión principal es la coordinación de la búsqueda y distribución de información.AACREA se formó en la década del 60, siguiendo el modelo francés, en el que entre 8 y 12 productores se asociaban en un grupo estable que contrataba a un asesor técnico. La asociación de alcance nacional coordinaba los grupos y apoyaba profesionalmente a los asesores. El objetivo de esos grupos consistía en desarrollar experiencias productivas e intercambiar información, aprovechando economías de escala en la producción y la generación de información. El elemento distintivo de las actividades de AACREA es que aunque muchos de los temas abordados eran de poca complejidad científica, éstos requerían una visión sistémica de la explotación agropecuaria. En general, esta visión sistémica es difícil de implementar en instituciones públicas de investigación, las que están organizadas en base a disciplinas científicas (Ekboir, 2000). Si bien AACREA no ha tenido una relación institucional fluida con INTA, muchos técnicos de este último han interactuado asiduamente con grupos zonales o asesores específicos.AAPRESID fue creada en 1988 por un pequeño grupo de investigadores del INTA y agricultores de la región pampeana, con un fuerte apoyo de Monsanto. Su estructura operativa es similar a la de AACREA (una asociación nacional que coordina las actividades de grupos locales), pero sus actividades de investigación se limitan a temas relacionados con la siembra directa. Otra diferencia importante entre ambas instituciones es que AAPRESID tiene una política abierta de difusión de la información generada por los asociados, mientras que la de AACREA es más restrictiva, es decir, mucha de la información se distribuye sólo entre los asociados. AAPRESID desempeñó un papel fundamental en la adaptación local y difusión de la siembra directa a comienzos de la década del 90 (Ekboir y Parellada, 2000).El INTA y las empresas privadas de semillas mantienen contacto con algunos centros del CGIAR, en particular el CIMMYT, CIP y CIAT. En la mayoría de los casos, estos contactos se concentran en la obtención de germoplasma avanzado.Las instituciones argentinas de investigación agropecuaria participan en diversas redes internacionales. La más importante es PROCISUR, que está integrada por los institutos públicos de investigación agropecuaria de los países del Cono Sur. 16 Los objetivos de PROCISUR son favorecer el intercambio de experiencias y resultados de la investigación que se lleva a cabo en cada país; generar consultorías de especialistas de las instituciones participantes hacia el resto de las instituciones que integran el PROCISUR; y organizar y buscar financiamiento para proyectos de interés común para varios países miembros.Asimismo, las instituciones extranjeras de cooperación y ONG de importancia local han desempeñado una función importante en iniciativas vinculadas con el desarrollo rural, como por ejemplo, GTZ, FUNDAPAZ y otras organizaciones de menor tamaño pero que tienen un importante impacto local.Aunque algunos grupos individuales de investigadores en instituciones públicas se mantienen en contacto con instituciones extranjeras que ocasionalmente les proporcionan financiamiento para sus actividades, no existen mecanismos instituciones activos de interacción.Argentina tiene un sistema de investigación relativamente diversificado, en el que participan tanto agentes públicos como privados. Este sistema evolucionó a partir de dos fuentes principales, a saber, el sistema universitario creado a fines del siglo XIX (donde las universidades debían hacer ciencia \"no contaminada por el aparato productivo\"), y el conjunto de institutos por disciplina creados en la década del 50. La misión de estos institutos consistía en generar tecnologías para la industria nacional, en particular las grandes empresas públicas. Con excepción del INTA, la organización de los institutos no fomentaba interacciones con el sector privado.A partir de la segunda mitad de la década del 80, la apertura de la economía y la transformación del Estado redefinieron el marco en que funcionaba el SNI. Estos cambios produjeron una profunda crisis en el sistema. Si bien los sucesivos gobiernos y administraciones de instituciones establecieron diferentes políticas en respuesta a la crisis, también contribuyeron de forma activa y pasiva a la misma. Un ejemplo de su participación activa es la considerable reducción del financiamiento público para investigación. Ejemplo de su participación pasiva es la incapacidad para reestructurar las instituciones, en especial, para definir nuevos esquemas de incentivos.La reducción del financiamiento público de las instituciones de investigación las obligó a modificar substancialmente sus patrones de conducta. Cuando los fondos del presupuesto sólo alcanzaron a cubrir gastos de personal y estructura, las instituciones tuvieron que buscar nuevas fuentes para solventar sus gastos operativos. Éstas se dieron en forma de fondos competitivos, ventas de bienes y servicios, proyectos conjuntos con el sector productivo y licenciamiento de tecnologías propias.La creciente dependencia de fondos competitivos y aportes del sector privado desincentiva los proyectos de mayor riesgo o de plazos más largos de ejecución, que requieren inversiones importantes o que atienden a las necesidades de agentes que no pueden articular sus necesidades tecnológicas (por ejemplo, pequeños productores). El problema se agrava porque también se redujo la capacidad de investigación de las universidades y hoy éstas no alcanzan a cubrir los espacios que van dejando las instituciones oficiales tradicionales.En ninguna de las reestructuraciones implementadas se promovieron discusiones con los agentes del SNI sobre la función específica del mismo en la economía argentina, sobre su organización (incluyendo su participación en la captación de tecnologías en otros países), o sobre cuál debería ser la función de las instituciones públicas y privadas en el mismo. A partir de 1994, el gobierno nacional creó una serie de incentivos para aumentar las interacciones entre agentes (FONTAR, FONCYT, unidades de vinculación tecnológica). Asimismo, durante ese periodo, se realizaron revisiones parciales de los sistemas de incentivos a los investigadores. No obstante, al no existir una clara definición de los objetivos de las instituciones de investigación, no se pudo definir un régimen de incentivos adecuados para los agentes. Por ejemplo, si se premia la publicación de trabajos en revistas científicas, se desincentiva la interacción de los investigadores con las empresas para el desarrollo de innovaciones tecnológicas.A partir de 1992 también comenzó a fomentarse la investigación en las universidades, pero no se definió cuál era su objetivo primordial, es decir, si eran instituciones de investigación o de docencia. Como ya se mencionó antes, las universidades no tienen los recursos necesarios para mantener programas de investigación importantes. Sin una reforma substancial del sistema universitario que defina la función de cada institución y cada grupo de investigación, éste no podrá mejorar su capacidad de investigación ni de docencia (Ekboir y Parellada, 1999).Finalmente, como la discusión sobre las transformaciones del sistema de investigación se centró en el uso de incentivos financieros a las instituciones para forzarlas a reformar sus operaciones, faltó el análisis de: 1) el efecto que estos cambios tenían sobre la capacidad operativa de las instituciones, 2) cuál debería ser el papel de los diferentes agentes en el SNI, 3) cuáles deberían ser los mecanismos de incentivos y control de los investigadores y 4) si había otros instrumentos para alcanzar los mismos objetivos sin afectar la capacidad operativa de las instituciones de investigación.","tokenCount":"10979"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"236baf00719fb6f9fd1158f609901dbc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/38b2703c-ad33-4959-b91d-c4a614836a25/retrieve","id":"-2128862989"},"keywords":["Cover, Jen Watson / Shutterstock.com","p.3, Francisco Marques / Shutterstock.com","p.4, James Audho / ILRI","p.5, Frederic Courbet / Panos Pictures"],"sieverID":"4143945e-484a-4815-a8ad-2e1f049b7796","pagecount":"8","content":"The new Kenyan Government faces a complex domestic and global environment, and it is widely expected to address key food and agricultural challenges with a new set of policies and programs. This policy brief provides research-based \"food for thought and action\" to support operationalizing the country's Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda 2022-2027. 1   Rapid population growth and urbanization with limited structural transformation present major challenges to Kenya's ability to achieve food security for all and become a higher-middle-income country in the medium term. The urban population is expected to constitute nearly 50 percent of the projected population of 80 million by 2050 (UNDESA 2018). With 75 percent of the population under the age of 35, a 40-year demographic dividend is expected by 2038, as the large youth population will rapidly expand the size of the labor force. As fertility rates decline, the labor force is expected to grow faster relative to the number of dependents in the economy, allowing for higher investment rates than at present (NCPD 2020). However, if recent economic trends are any indication, the country risks not having enough jobs to support the projected increase in the labor force, which could constrain the growing labor force's ability to save and invest and could reduce Kenya's likelihood of achieving the demographic dividend. Structural transformation usually 1 https://uda.ke/downloads/manifesto.pdf entails labor transitioning from less productive agricultural jobs in rural areas to more productive manufacturing jobs in urban areas (Hayami and Ruttan 1985). Although urbanization is occurring in Kenya, labor in cities is mostly concentrated in the low-productivity service sector (such as retail and wholesale), rather than the more productive manufacturing and more sophisticated service sectors (Lukalo and Kiminyei 2019).Another key consideration for the Kenyan government is how to feed the country's rapidly growing population in an increasingly volatile global environment. Food production is not keeping pace with population growth -maize yields, for example, have stagnated since the 1990s (FAO 2022) -and healthy diets are unaffordable for many (Ecker, Comstock, and Pauw, forthcoming). Climate change is further disrupting agricultural production, with temperature and rainfall variability expected to increase in the coming years. Droughts and locusts have plagued the country, particularly the arid and semi-arid areas, leaving an estimated 3.5 million people in need of assistance as of May 2022 (UNICEF 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic and the global commodity price crisis accelerated by the Russia-Ukraine war have similarly increased poverty and heightened food security and nutrition issues (Nafula et al. 2020;Breisinger et al. 2022).In order to address these challenges, the forthcoming book recommends several actions:1. Broaden the strategic and policy focus from a \"food security\" 2 to a \"food systems\" 3 approach to support the economic transformation envisioned by Kenya's Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda 2022-2027. The food security lens used in the Medium Term III, Big 4 Agenda mainly focuses on staple food crops such as cereals and root crops, as these account for a large portion of agricultural landholdings and public investments. However, cereals and roots are among the least effective in reducing poverty, creating employment, and improving diets, while animal products and traditional export crops are the most effective (Diao et al., forthcoming ). Within the food systems framework, policy priorities can be organized into five key areas: industrializing agrifood value chains, enhancing financial support to the agrifood sector, fostering digital innovation in food systems, promoting health and safety in food consumption, and transforming institutional approaches.2. Accelerate the industrialization and commercialization of food systems. In the Kenyan food system, the value added from nonfarm activities (such as processing) is lower than in other low-and middle-income countries (Diao et. al, forthcoming). For output and employment to transition from primarily agricultural to nonagricultural parts of the food system and beyond, increased on-farm productivity and the creation of nonagricultural jobs need to go hand in hand. To support such a transition, emerging commercial farmers need to be integrated into domestic and export value chains, and agricultural products need to be processed before domestic sale and/or export. Supporting mechanization is also crucial, as Kenya lags behind other countries in this area (Figure 1). Globally, successful nationwide mechanization efforts have resulted from governments providing systems and support services based on economic demand, rather than governments providing machinery supply, finance, and machinery-for-hire services directly (Diao, Takeshima, and Zhang 2020). Because mechanization usually reduces the number of on-farm 2 jobs, the food and agricultural sector needs to be industrialized across the value chain to create new, often higher-quality jobs (Lowder et al. 2016;Neven et al. 2009).3. Expand access to food system activities for smallholders. The existing e-voucher system, piloted in 2014/15, can serve as a starting point for a better-targeted fertilizer subsidy system. In the short run, the system's distributional and administrative processes can be improved and simplified. 4 Longer-term solutions may include supporting domestic fertilizer production to avoid import disruptions; reducing last-mile delivery costs; reducing price volatility of output markets; and promoting the use of alternative or additional fertilizer sources. In addition, policies are needed to protect smallholders against climate change and systemic shocks, such as drought, and provide enhanced access to credit. The use of formal insurance markets is a viable policy option because it transfers risk outside of households and thus protects their collateral. Bundling insurance with credit also minimizes the risk of default by smallholder borrowers; in turn, this abates financial risks that threaten lenders' business stability, 4 https://vifaakenya.org./#/kenya/policy a common issue when rural agricultural production systems experience systemic shocks such as drought.4. Build on Kenya's digital success to transform food systems. Kenya has made significant strides in the digital space by improving its mobile/internet infrastructure and supportive policies. Despite being Africa's leader in digital innovation for agriculture, Kenya's nascent digital ecosystem is still insufficiently transformative and sustainable -it faces difficulties in scaling up, and the private sector relies heavily on grants and investments from international development agencies. For digitally enabled transformation, digital infrastructure (such as network coverage) must be expanded, particularly in remote rural areas, and public-private partnerships with digital service providers should be pursued. Digital services can also reduce barriers to accessing insurance and credit. However, greater attention is needed to ensure that private digital service providers have sustainable business models. Hype must also be separated from reality in this burgeoning industry -systematic assessments of both successes and failures at different stages of piloting and scaling digital solutions should accompany and inform future efforts.5. Improve nutrition through production and consumption policies. Malnutrition in Kenya is primarily a poverty problem, as the majority of Kenyans cannot afford a healthy, balanced diet (Figure 2). In addition to likely raising real incomes of producers and consumers through food systems development, diverse foods provide higher-quality diets with more micronutrients and give consumers a wider range of options when the prices of certain foods rise dramatically (such as maize flour). However, the promotion of more diverse diets must be accompanied by a more diverse food production base that reduces reliance on food imports and boosts domestic producers' incomes. To improve food safety, the government can monitor water sources used for irrigation, incentivize small and informal businesses to tackle food safety, implement frequent and thorough surveillance of high-risk foods, and leverage private sector capacity through self-monitoring and co-regulatory approaches. Building on successful responses to COVID-19, the government can continue encouraging the implementation of WASH infrastructure at markets and abattoirs. On the demand side, the government can provide infant and young child feeding recommendations for caregivers. These recommendations should be widely disseminated and easy to understand.6. Improve animal health and disease control. The government can support the veterinary laboratory system by providing technical support for disease surveillance, diagnosis, and quality control. Efforts to improve veterinary services must also promote equitable access to services (for example, vaccines), especially in value chains where women play a large role, such as indigenous chicken value chains. In addition, the State Department of Livestock and the Zoonotic Disease Unit under the Ministry of Health should work together to control zoonotic diseases using the \"One Health\" approach. Public-private partnerships for cross-county and transboundary infectious disease control need to be established. The private sector can also aid in the last-mile delivery of efficient and timely veterinary services. Finally, private and public sector initiatives should coordinate with Kenya Wildlife Services to control diseases at the livestock-wildlife interface.7. Provide better opportunities for women to make food systems more productive. Women constitute the majority of food system actors, and their contributions must be harnessed to realize the full potential of the Kenyan food system. Overcoming gendered challenges is crucial to building healthier and more productive food systems. Women have low rates of land ownership, minimal participation in decision-making and food governance, challenges in obtaining resources to produce food, and weaker networks than men. Food systems policies must address these constraints and ensure that women reap the benefits of food systems transformation.  There are no \"silver bullet\" policies that can transform the food sector overnight, and the idea of a food systems \"revolution\" is a misnomer. Previous \"revolutions\" (such as the second Agricultural Revolution and the Green Revolution) were not abrupt changes, but slow, decades-long transitions with committed policymaking and steady progress. Today, improved technology and access to information make it easier than ever to drive transformation through evidence and innovation. Seizing this opportunity will require enlightened, coherent, and evidence-based policy. Kenya is a land of great natural and human potential -and the new government has the chance to set an example for other countries on successful food systems transformation.","tokenCount":"1582"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b97784d583ea605c1455a2721bbf2d3e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/49389cd5-1467-45b7-839f-e05420d66d3b/retrieve","id":"-2113757287"},"keywords":["Congo basin forests","climate-smart conservation agriculture","farm investments","agroforestry","land access","tenure security"],"sieverID":"ece1bc0a-87c0-4ac0-b5f5-3bfb1012d2fa","pagecount":"21","content":"Background and Research Aims: Agriculture through deforestation is an important threat to biodiversity conservation in the Congo Basin's tropical forest. The policy challenge is not only to promote adaptation to perceived climate change but also to promote forest conservation. The aim of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the impact of farm-level investments in climate-smart agricultural practices related to conservation agriculture in some Congo Basin countries. The hypothesis is that property rights to land and trees play a fundamental role in governing the patterns of investment, forestland management for conservation, as well as in the profitability of agriculture. Methods: A Simulated Maximum Likelihood Estimation using a Mixed Logit model is used to test farmers' choice of agricultural system and a farmland value model for each agricultural system which includes determinants of tenure or property rights, climate, soils, and socioeconomic variables such as education and gender. The data was collected from more than 600 farms covering 12 regions and 45 divisions in 3 countries, Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Results: Farmers choose one of three agricultural systems to maximize farm profit mindful of the current tenure regime and environmental conditions. Conservation agriculture techniques within climate-smart practices show benefits for smallholder farmers through improvements in soil health, soil moisture retention and enhanced crop yields. The rights to access, withdraw, manage, as well as exclude others from land and trees affect both the farmers' choice of system and the profit earned from the chosen system. Conclusion: Farmlevel investments improve farm incomes and enhance conservation effort for farmers perceiving climate change. Implications for Conservation: Climate change adaptation through planting of trees improves soil stability, restores ecosystems and creates a safe haven for biodiversity. Secure land tenure promotes better forestland management and reduces land degradation in vulnerable communities.The tropics remain-an important area for nature conservancy, biodiversity regeneration and precursor for ecological sustainability (Hoang & Kanemoto, 2021;Mason et al., 2020;FAO, 2019;IPBES, 2019;Maddox, 2018). The Congo Basin which is recognized for its megabiodiversity, specifically is home to about 11,000 species of tropical plants, over 1200 species of birds, 450 mammal species, 700 species of fish, and 280 reptile species (Peya, 2018;Endamana et al., 2010;Mittermeier, et al. 1998). When healthy, the terrestrial ecosystems are important for agricultural production, via its provisioning, regulating, and supporting services (Hupke, 2023). Biodiversity in the Congo Basin Forest (CBF) plays a crucial role of local and international significance in maintaining ecosystem functions and services such as pollination, pest control, and soil formation (FAO, 2011).This natural wealth in the CBF of the central African subregion is however bedeviled by natural and anthropogenic interference which generates environmental stress, (Pörtner et al., 2021;FAO, 2019;IPBES, 2019). Climate change is inevitable and the consequences are expected to be grim on agroecosystems such as those within tropical forest ecosystems which represent a common heritage with livelihood portfolios shared by a great majority of people, especially in the Congo Basin countries (Djihouessi et al., 2022;Temple et al., 2022;Nkem et al., 2013;Ludwig et al., 2012).While the biodiversity wealth is challenged by climate change, the agricultural sector on which the survival of millions depend as producers, consumers and employees is significantly impacted by climate change induced biodiversity decline (Leal Filho et al., 2023;IPBES, 2019;IPCC, 2019a). In fact, temperature and precipitation change have influenced some species change (Pörtner et al 2021;IPBES, 2019). Climate change thus remains a pervasive threat to biodiversity and ecosystem services which are linked not only to the agriculture, but also to the water, health and energy sectors (Djihouessi et al., 2022;Pörtner et al 2021). For instance, soil which is paramount for food production, changes in its biodiversity is directly or indirectly linked to the alteration of climatic parameters (Leal Filho et al., 2023). In addition, changing temperature and precipitation impact agrobiodiversity. The IPCC and IPBES acknowledge the interconnectedness of climate change and agrobiodiversity (Pörtner et al 2021). The threats posed by climate change on biodiversity and agrobiodiversity are expected to increase, thus requiring conservation science to generate solutions, change behaviors and obtain better conservation outcomes, particularly at the farm, homestead and community levels (Hellin & Fisher, 2019).Therefore, in the advent of global warming induced climate change, addressing the food needs of an impending population bulge requires significant farm-level investments for a responsive agriculture system which internalizes ecological, economic and socio-cultural concerns. Conservation agriculture is thus emerging as a climate-smart tool which farmers could adopt to manage ecosystems while boosting soil fertility and crop yields for more food (Mhlanga et al., 2022;Thierfelder & Mhlanga, 2022;Waldron et al., 2017). Farmers investing in conservation agriculture require assurances to access land and associated property rights. While deforestation and degradation are tied to a complex array of socioeconomic and political factors (Robinson, et al., 2014;Molua, 2012), insecure tenure to forestlands breeds conservation concerns (Robinson et al., 2018). For example, Robinson et al. (2014) find evidence that land tenure security is associated with less deforestation, regardless of the form of tenure. Unsuitable land-tenure systems may thus constitute an obstacle to the adoption of farmland level investments (Shittu et al., 2018). In the Congo Basin where forests are a source of livelihood for millions of rural families, security of land tenure and access to land are important for effective environmental management and sustainable land use practices (Wong et al., 2022;Dupuits & Ongolo 2020;Ntirumenyerwa Mihigo & Cliquet, 2020). Hence, the problems of land tenure and land rights on farmers' conservation behavior warrants investigation.In this study, we specifically present a typology of the Climate Smart Conservation Agriculture (CS-CoA) land management techniques employed by farmers within the Congo Basin. We also document the agricultural land use, land tenure and land institutions in the region. We then proceed to establish the determinants of prevailing land tenure and the effects on tree management and the choice of the agricultural system which are necessary to promote conservation agriculture. The hypothesis is that property rights to land and trees play a fundamental role in governing the patterns of investment, farmland management for conservation, as well as in the profitability of agriculture.The rationale for our study hinges on the inherent relationship of rain-fed agriculture practiced in many tropical countries, which predestines it to an undisputed correlational relationship with climate variability and change (Pörtner et al., 2021;FAO, 2019;Kurukulasuriya et al., 2006). In a region where the stochastic variability of climate is well established (IPCC 2019a;IPCC 2019b), there is need for a corresponding response to protect agroecosystems and the significant livelihoods associated with it, as well as agriculture's capacity to preserve and protect nature and its essential services to people (IPBES 2019;IPBES 2018). How this plays out in agrarian dependent communities in the CBF will require temporal and spatial policy responses that promote farm investments which curb the strain on production systems and the associated value chain, so that the farm-tofork effect of exogenous stress from climatic factors are better managed for the dynamic outcomes of food security, livelihood stability and communal stability (IPBES 2018;IPCC 2019a;Branca et al., 2011).For hotspots like the CBF, which is the second most important lung of the world, climate change further complicates the effects of agriculture linked deforestation on human systems (Pörtner et al 2021;Couturier, 2019). Paradoxically, the system of agriculture practiced similarly remains an important threat to the CBF's wealth of biodiversity. It is estimated that in Cameroon, for instance, about 80% of the deforestation is due to small-scale farmers using extensive slash and burn techniques (Dalimier et al., 2021;Tyukavina et al., 2018). Reversing deforestation in the Congo Basin in particular, and increasing agricultural productivity to meet the demands of a growing population while promoting conservation are mutual objectives, which are vital for sustainable development (Tegegne et al., 2016;Molua, 2012;Endamana et al., 2010;Nkem et al., 2010). These efforts would have to put not only the farm sector but the entire food system at the center of climate action (Pörtner et al., 2021;Lipper et al., 2014). This calls for a resilient and sustainable agricultural sector in the Congo Basin (Thiombiano et al., 2012).Institutions operating in the Congo Basin such as the Center for International Forest Policy (CIFOR) lead the voices which address the vulnerability of communities to climatic variability and climate change, and the precariousness of the ecosystem and livelihood. The Congo Basin thus remains an important real-life laboratory challenged by climate change which add pressure on local and regional agriculture and food systems (Thiombiano et al., 2012;Brown et al., 2011), as well as on the ecosystem stability and the biodiversity that is crucial for agriculture (FAO, 2019). Properly managed ecosystems within the basin will provide advantages for both adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Some studies such as Locatelli et al (2010) have examined the twin options of adaptation of tropical forest ecosystems and positioning tropical forests for adaptation, and called for an integrated cross-sectoral approach to address mitigation and adaptation such that benefits derived in one area are not to be lost or counteracted in another.Overall, the vulnerability of the Basin is thus underscored in livelihoods highly dependent on climate-sensitive sectors like forests for household energy, agriculture, fisheries, food security, pastoral practices, water supply, herbs and tree barks (Bele et al., 2015;Branca et al., 2011).This vulnerability and sensitivity of communities in the CBF raise an important researchable question: do farm-level conservation agriculture practices thought to be climate-smart significantly influence agricultural outcomes?Despite the plethora of studies on climate and agriculture in other parts of the world (e.g. Mujeyi et al., 2021;Shahzad and Abdulai, 2021;Sardar, et al., 2021), very few agroeconomic surveys have been undertaken in the Congo Basin to analyze and quantify the extent of different agroeconomic practices that shape households' access to food security and income for sustainable agriculture. Our study sought to contribute to the few studies on Congo Basin agriculture and climate change, and gauged the wealth of natural capital in the region for meeting the needs of millions of households, simultaneously safeguarding food security, protecting the ecosystem and promoting conservation of nature via agricultural interventions. Other studies such as Bele et al. (2015), Somorin et al. (2012) and Nkem et al. (2010) have previously highlighted the institutional priorities to enhance resilience and sustainability in the Congo Basin, without exploring the stakes and challenges prevalent at the farm and household levels.We therefore proceed in the current study to examine how the property rights to ecological assets relating to land and trees impact the patterns of farmland management for conservation, as well as in the profitability of agriculture. We employ the discrete choice logistic regression 1 with a Simulated Maximum Likelihood Estimation of farmer's choice of agricultural system and a farmland value regression function. Farms and households in the three countries of Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo are studied. We reveal that conservation agriculture techniques show benefits for smallholder farmers. Furthermore, farm-level investments are shown to enhance farm incomes and conservation effort for farmers.Our observation that accessibility to land promotes better forest management and reduces land degradation in vulnerable areas in the CBF is instructive of policy and corroborates previous studies (Somorin et al., 2012;Brown et al., 2011;Justice et al., 2001). The implications is on the plausibility of stronger tenure to promote farm level adaptation as well as lead to better outcomes for conservation (Leal Filho et al., 2023;Robinson et al., 2018;Robinson et al., 2014). According to Justice et al. (2001) the CBF, a major transboundary natural resource pool spanning approximately 200 million hectares is likely to be impacted with significant losses and damage by climate change. With the second-largest contiguous tract of humid tropical forest in the world after the Amazon Basin forest and is the largest in Africa covering almost 2 million sq. km, the forest extends to six countries namely Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), Gabon and Equatorial Guinea; with about 65 million people living inside or at the margins of the Basin, depending on it directly for livelihood. Subsistence small-scale slash-and-burn shifting cultivation is the dominant economic activity and farm practice of the inhabitants (Dalimier et al., 2021;Couturier, 2019;Tyukavina et al., 2018). Poverty and underdevelopment are significant in the region. About 73% of the population in the Basin is found in the CAR and DRC which are classified among the lowest income countries in the world (Nkem et al., 2010). Ecosystem damage and biodiversity related losses will without doubt lead to significant economic costs.Figure 1 conceptualizes how institutions, tenure, farm revenue and conservation are connected to drive the outcomes of climate-smart conservation agriculture. Four key sectors are identified including the drivers (biophysical, socioeconomic and institutional), adoption, values (economic, ecological and social) and outcome related to increased production, income and conservation levels. The decision to invest and adopt either long-term or short-term CS-CoA is driven by capacity to invest, incentives, external agency that include institutional and policy factors (e.g. extension, credit, land tenure regime) as well as infrastructure (e.g. rural roads, storage) (Thiombiano et al., 2012). Both the biophysical factors espoused as farm characteristics (e.g. slope, erosion status) and households' biographic characteristics (e.g. farm experience, family size, gender, level of education) remain important determinants for investment in CS-CoA (Molua, 2011;Meinzen-Dick et al., 1997). The empirical evidence we generate in this study on the impact of farm-level investments on CS-CoA practices in the CBF may provide policy relevant insights for tropical conservation science.Our examination of these issues is undertaken at a time when the UN system to which member states are committed to ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition while promoting sustainable agriculture, protecting nature and taking urgent action to combat climate change. However, achieving these development goals comes at the behest of frontline communities such as those in the CBF which are bedeviled by tenure insecurity, declining soil fertility, degraded ecosystems, poor market access, inadequate funding and inadequate infrastructure.The Congo Basin is selected for this study for varied reasons. The Basin's interconnected tropical forest holds 70% of the total plant cover in the African continent, with a 2.9 ha of forest area per capita compared to a global forest area per capita of 0.8 ha (CARPE, 2021). More than 70 million people inhabit this transboundary pool of natural resources, with about 60% of whom still live in rural areas (Shapiro et al., 2021;Tegegne et al., 2016;FAO 2009a) and depend directly on forest ecosystem goods and services for household consumption, including food, fuelwood and medicinal plants (Dalimier et al., 2021). They also generate income from the trade of many forest goods, especially non-timber forest products. In addition to its environmental services such as watershed management, soil and biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration, the CBF has enormous carbon stocks which represent a carbon reserve of global significance for regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Couturier, 2019).The Basin while endowed with very rich but fragile ecoregions (Ceríaco et al., 2022;Molua, 2019), the highland physiographic features vary considerably. They occupy East of Cameroon and the Great Lakes region. They show different altitudes but are all above 1,000 m and are found in highly different bioclimatic contexts (Walters et al., 2021). These highlands are characterized by high population densities and continuous pressure on land (Walters et al., 2021;Kleinschroth et al., 2019). Major humid zones are found on the coasts, from Cameroon to the banks of the River Congo (Nest et al., 2022;Tshimanga et al., 2022). The population density of the Basin though varied is increasing. While the highlands of Cameroon has a higher population density (300 inhabitants/sq. km locally), some areas such as east Cameroon, the north of Congo and the Central African Republic have less than 5 inhabitants/sq. km (Tshimanga et al., 2022;Walters et al., 2021;Molua, 2019).DRC is the most urbanized country in the Basin (Nest et al., 2022). In the Central African Republic, more than 70% of the inhabitants live in rural areas. One of the major trends of the population of this region is the extreme diversity of the ethnic groups and indigenous cultures (Walters et al., 2021). Cameroon and DRC have respectively 234 and 350 different ethnic groups, one of the best-known being the Pygmy (Mbenga, i.e Aka and Baka of the western Congo basin, the Mbuti of the Ituri Rainforest, and the Twa of the African Great Lakes). The key natural resources of Central Africa are forest and oil (Kleinschroth et al., 2019;Molua, 2019). The population growth creates competition for access to and control over resources (Achille, 2020). This leads not only to unsustainable use of resources but also likely creates conflicts between countries (Kleinschroth et al., 2019;DeLancey, 2019).There is evidence of increasing pressure on resources in all the ecosystems of the region (Ceríaco et al., 2022;Walters et al., 2021;CARPE, 2021). Deforestation continues to affect habitats and livelihoods in the humid zones of the Basin where these effects are difficult to reverse (Badibanga & Ulimwengu, 2020;Kleinschroth et al., 2019;Molua, 2012). Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Gabon are the main timber producers (Nest et al., 2022;DeLancey, 2019). Efforts at the conservation of Central African forests and their contribution of this sector in the gross domestic product (GDP) of the majority of the countries testify to the importance of this sector (Kleinschroth et al., 2019;DeLancey, 2019). The Commissariat des forêts d'Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC) has been created to enable the Central African states to harmonize their policies on the sustainable use of forest resources (Nago and Krott, 2022;Tshimanga et al., 2022;Achille, 2020).Socioeconomic data used in this study came from CIFOR's Congo Basin Adaptation and Mitigation Project (COBAM) dataset on rural households and farms. The dataset is based on household surveys collected from more than 600 farms across three countries, using pretested Questionnaire. The survey elicited information about infrastructure and distance to markets, ethnic composition and extent of in-migration, cropping and livestock activities, tree species composition, major treeplanting projects, prices of agricultural and wood products, natural and man-made shocks such as floods or war, and a set of tenure variables including rights over land and trees across broad tenure categories. Probability samples were drawn from Cameroon, the Republic of Central Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo (see figure 2).In each country, between 3 and 4 regions were selected to cover a broad range of environmental and socioeconomic conditions. Our research uses cross-section data on 12 regions/provinces and 40 divisions in Cameroon, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo to determine statistically the factors determining farm profits. The econometric model is developed from a theoretical model which also internalizes perception of climate change and prevailing land tenure institutions within the customary sector. The analysis is performed using the Stata 17 statistical software. This is supplemented with qualitative information from focus group discussions of key informants (local leaders, respected elders and agricultural officers) and unobtrusive observation of farming in the selected communities within the three countries.During the data collection process there were six sets of participants, which included trained Enumerators who conducted the actual surveys. Quality assurance was assured by the research team, using intepreters and translators where necessary. Some of the researchers served as Supervisors in selected regions with the role to manage the teams of enumerators, check surveys for completeness, keep records of completed interviews, and ensured smooth communication between different teams. Graduate research assistants were hired to serve as Data entry coordinators and Data entry clerks charged with electronically entering data. Some of the Authors of this research served as Field managers for the different country teams with the responsibility to plan and oversee the entire process of field data collection and managed all country field teams including drafting of the logistics and budget for the field work, as well as acting as primary liaison at the country level. The lead Author served as the Regional Field coordinator who decided important aspects such as the team setup and hiring criteria.A microeconometric model is employed and refined to study how the farming systems respond to institutions and environmental conditions in the CBF. The hypothesis is that property rights to land and trees play a fundamental role in governing the patterns of investment in crop and farmland management, as well as in the welfare of individuals and households who depend on natural resources.To examine how farmers under different tenure arrangements may choose their respective tropical farming systems we employ a robust analytical framework, the Mixed Logit, which is particularly appropriate in experiments of discrete choice behaviour (von Haefen and Domanski, 2018;Claassen, et al., 2013Claassen, et al., 2013), where farmers' behaviour may vary across agroecologies with heterogeneity in their preferences (Scarpa et al., 2021;Ahmed & Tesfye, 2021;Tesfaye et al., 2020). 2 The Mixed Logit relaxes the restrictive \"independence from irrelevant alternatives\" assumption and allows every individual to have their own preference, that is, it assumes that marginal utilities of individuals are not constant but vary across the sample (Hensher and Greene, 2003). The axiomatic foundations of the Mixed Logit are based on Multinomial Logistic regression 3 as established in Hensher & Greene (2003) as well as McFadden and Train (2000), and efficient in measuring the change in the probability of farmers' action given a unit change in any explanatory variable, keeping constant all other factors (Tesfaye et al., 2020;Seo & Bhattacharjee, 2012).The Mixed Logit model is selected for this research which deals with mixtures of revealed and stated preference for farmers' ex-ante adoption behaviour due to the inherent shortcomings of other choice methods such as the Multinomial probit models and Conditional logit models (Greene & Hensher, 2003;Hensher & Greene, 2003). The Mixed Logit overcomes limitations of the standard logit model by allowing for random output variation across farmers, unrestricted substitution patterns across farmers' choices, and the correlation in unobserved factors over time (David & Train, 1998). 4 This model has been used in several studies of choice experiment, where estimated parameters of the model are analyzed in terms of their marginal effects (von Haefen & Domanski, 2018;De Jalón et al., 2017;Seo & Bhattacharjee, 2012).The Simulated Maximum Likelihood Estimators (SMLE) from a Mixed Logit model is thus employed to explain a farmer's choice of agricultural system and farm returns (gross revenues) for each system after correcting for selection biases (Claassen, et al., 2013;Rigby et al., 2009;Alfnes, 2004;McFadden & Train, 2000;McFadden, 1973). The regressors in the equation include tenure or property rights, climate, soils, and socioeconomic variables such as education, gender, and country dummies. In line with the empirical framework of Seo and Bhattacharjee (2012) and Seo (2010a,b), we assume that farmers choose one of three agricultural systems to maximize farm profit mindful of the current tenure regime and environmental conditions.Based on the combination of crops and livestock that a farmer holds, three agricultural systems (j) are distinguished: a specialized mixed arable cropping system, a specialized integrated tree-arable crop system (agri-silviculture), and a mixed tree arable crop-livestock system (agrosilvopastoral). The prevailing tenure arrangement may therefore affect both the farmer's choice of system and the net revenue earned from the chosen system. The novelty of this approach, distinct from previous cross-sectional studies, is that we expect to quantify adoption behaviours explicitly and measure the differential effects of tenure rights on various agricultural systems.Assuming the net revenue (π) from farm system j and 1 is written as follows:(1)where E(u 1 |X,Z) = 0 and var(u 1 |X,Z) = σ 2 (Dubin and McFadden 1984), and the error terms may capture such factors as measurement errors, omitted variables, and other unobserved factors. These terms are assumed to average to zero and have equal variance. The subscript j is a categorical variable indicating the choice amongst J systems (in our analysis J =1 a specialized mixed arable cropping system, J = 2 denotes an agri-silviculture system, and J = 3 indicates an agrosilvopastoral system). Vector Z represents the set of explanatory variables relevant for all the alternatives and vector X contains the determinants of the profit of the first alternative, i.e. specialization in crops only. We identify choice equations by two variables: slope of terrain and walking time to district capital (Ahmed & Tesfye, 2021), which are excluded in the second stage regressions. Assuming η j 's are iid extreme value distributed, the choice probability can be written as the following integral over all possible values of γ j :chooses inputs and outputs to maximize the net revenue from operating the system. The maximum profit can be estimated as a function of the exogenous variables X directly from equation (1) above. However, it is likely that the errors in equations ( 1) and ( 2) are correlated. Since profits are only observed for those farms that actually chose farm type 1, the selection bias should be corrected to obtain consistent estimates of climate parameters (Scarpa et al., 2021;Ahmed & Tesfye, 2021;Heckman, 1979). Following Claassen, et al. (2013); Rigby et al., (2009), Alfnes (2004) as well as Dubin and McFadden (1984) for a multinomial choice, we assume the linearity condition with correlations among alternatives (r k ) summing up to zero. Thus, the conditional net revenue function for the crop-only system (or farm type 1) can be written as follows:Where P 1 is the probability of choice system 1 and P k the probability of alternative farming systems. The regressors (X i ) in the above equation include environmental and socioeconomic variables such as tenure (land ownership), education, gender, distance to markets and country dummies.For Cameroon, Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo we applied and obtained clearance from the respective Ministries of Scientific Research. We later presented the research permit to respective region, district and village leaders. We sought verbal agreement from all respondents prior to the interviews to guarantee their willingness to participate. To protect confidentiality, respondents' names and personal information are kept anonymous.Agricultural Land use, Land tenure and Land institutionsDuring the focus discussion we examined important issues surrounding land tenure, and rights for improved land management and sustainable development. We propped about problems associated with land ownership (titling, tenure and customary rights); the current trend of policy and regulatory regimes within land law; the status and challenges of land administration and institutions; marginalization of some social groups, such as women, local communities and indigenous people; violation of land rights; and existence of land conflicts. As expressed clearly in the focus group discussions, land in the Congo Basin embodies different meanings: it is a factor of production; it is a family or community property; a capital asset; and a source of cultural identity and/or citizenship.Hence, the importance of land issues to the socio-economic development of communities in the Basin is unquestionable. Growth and poverty reduction; governance in access and control of land; sustainable use of natural forests; and migration conflicts are in many ways integral parts of the land question in the region.Unobtrusive observation in the surveyed sites show that the land management choices adopted have multiple objectives including serving as a strategy for nature conservation and agroecology protection. For farmers who wished to do more, they reported that \"the conservation agriculture practices and agroecological techniques of farming demanded more access to land, as not only the primary requirement for food production, but as means to expand activities to benefit from natures contribution in farms.\" The demand for land hinges on the premise that when farmers own or control their farmlands they are likely to invest in sustainable land management practices such as tree planting and soil conservation.While it is expected that when tenure leads to increases in farm investment, higher agricultural productivity, and improved food security, it is an incentive for conservation, thus benefitting society as espoused by IPBES (2019). Farmers with secure ownership of land are therefore more likely to invest on its conservation, which results in a range of economic, social, and ecosystem benefits (FAO, 2021;IPBES, 2019;Endamana et al., 2010). However, the field reports indicate that for all the countries some farms operate in conditions where there are unequal land rights, or more precisely the laws or customs hinder small-scale famers especially youth and women's ownership and access to land.In Eastern Cameroon lying on the western flanks of the Congo Basin, an official of the Regional Delegation of the Ministry of Forestry and Nature Protection provide a succinct account of the role of tenure security in agroforestry conservation: \"Tenure systems vary from one rural community to another but hinges on three broad systems of communal, individual and family ownership.\" In his review, \"tenure security affects farmers' land use decisions, their welfare, and the biodiversity on the land. Land tenure security empowers farmers with agency over their land, to make farm decisions that may align with conservation goals such as proper soil management.\" This may imply that land tenure is a possible tool for conservation. He however admits that, \"land tenure systems are dynamic, responding to socio-economic and political changes put in place for resource utilization.\"Three countries in the Basin have been subjected to colonial domination of different origins: this includes French colonization, (The Central African Republic, part of Cameroon), Belgium colonization (in DRC) and British (part of Cameroon). All these external dominations have influenced land policies and laws, as well as the related institutional setting. One consequence of the colonial history in the region is the legal dualism, land and natural resources being governed by statutory law as well as by customary law. However, this legal dualism has been developing at the expense of customary land laws, as the latter were never clearly recognized (Majambu et al., 2019;Sartoretto et al., 2017). Another legacy of colonial history is the State sovereignty over land. The colonial legacy continues to shape the land policy, legislation and land administration systems in the region. The State sovereignty over land in these countries -is the origin of the key land issues, as this sovereignty is not accompanied by the development of appropriate land policy instruments likely to enable sustainable land management (Inogwabini, 2021;Valkonen, 2021;Brawn, 2017).The question of considering customary rights in sustainable land management has been identified in almost all countries covering the Congo Basin. Customary land tenure is the foundation for the livelihoods of rural populations. These systems include the possession of land exclusively by individuals or households for residential use, farming or some other business activity within a given community. In addition, they incorporate the 'commons' -land shared by multiple users for grazing and for gathering field and tree products (fuel, construction poles, medicinal plants, fruits, grass) found in controlled and open access areas. However, customary land tenure is still not recognized in the majority of Central African countries. But, in reality, most people in the region occupy their land under a customary system. This means the absence of formal tenure rights and consequently insecurity of land tenure.The major ethnic groups studied largely reported 'patrilineal' inheritance and 'patrilocal' residence systems with largely male-headed households. Traditionally, lineage land has been owned collectively by a group of kin members, and this group usually consisted of a grandfather, sons and grandchildren. The land is bequeathed to brothers, nephews and sons in accordance with the decision of a family head. The head is selected from uncles, that is, a male member of the second generation, who exercises strong authority regarding land inheritance. The basic principle of land allocation is to maintain equity among lineage members.According to our interviews with farmers, it is primarily husbands who make farm management decisions. Even in de facto female-headed households, male figures like older sons and commuted husbands are still responsible for major farming decisions. In some communities, females make decisions in de jure female-headed households. However, females may make decisions even though they have no customary land rights. Land sales or exchange exist. Men are typically the custodians of lineage and family land and sign to the transfer of land to non-family members. Sons may jointly inherit private land, which was acquired either by opening forest land or by purchasing already exploited bush-fallow. Table 1 shows key characteristics of the major land tenure categories reported in all the communities studied. The Basin is largely dominated by 'patrilineal' communities with inherited land sourced largely through dominant male figures in families.Our observations have some implications. Though not necessarily formal titling, tenure security is associated with tropical cropland conservation practices and improvements. Reports such as Kombat et al. (2021), Amadu et al. (2020), Akugre et al. (2021) as well as Geist & Lambin (2002) document that customary land tenure institutions, greater population pressure and poor access to markets are significant causes of land conversion to agriculture, and hence to loss of trees. Private ownership of converted land promotes greater integration of trees and crops and leads to the highest density of trees on agricultural land. While Ketema et al. (2020) among others find that population pressure induces land conversion; the matrilocal system of household residence is noted to induce agricultural conversion, however with some improvement in the management of resources as their scarcity increases. Secure, long-term rights of access to land, particularly in the form of locally recognized use rights, create an incentive for people to make landscape-improving investments (Azadi et al., 2021;Jellason et al., 2021). For example, terracing or other investments in soil erosion control are generally associated with secure, long-term rights to land in some regions of SSA (Kombat et al., 2021;Mangaza et al., 2021). The right to at least bequeath, if not sell parcels, increases the likelihood that a farmer makes at least one longterm improvement on a parcel of land.Table 2 reports the proportion of land use under different tenure arrangements in the three countries studied. In Cameroon, 36% of arable croplands are inherited, 14% are under joint extended family ownership, 31% under single-family ownership and 19% are private owned whether purchased or cleared forest. In RCA, a higher proportion (42%) of arable cropland is inherited and the lowest proportion (8%) of farmlands is privately purchased land. In all three countries, tree plots are largely inherited, highlighting the socio-cultural importance of tree resources in farmlands. Tenure security which has to be at the heart of any agricultural development plan is achieved when property rights are clarified and widely acknowledged (Jellason et al., 2021;Kombat et al., 2021;Mangaza et al., 2021;Brawn, 2017;Andersson 2007). In most cases, progress will consist of (a) the reconciliation of diverse and conflicting claims, (b) the clarification of latent or overlapping rights in resources, and (c) the reconciliation of statutory and customary regimes.The essentiality of customary rights in sustainable land management is identified in almost all the countries examined. Currently, customary land tenure is not adequately recognized in the majority of Central African countries. However, in reality, most people in the region occupy their land under a customary system. This means the absence of formal tenure rights and consequently insecurity of land tenure. Concerns about population growth and pressure on land in urban areas and coastal zones have been raised in countries like Cameroon, Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea (Mangaza et al., 2021;Kombat et al., 2021;Gilland, 2002). Forced evictions, expropriations and related land issues are also critical issues in Central Africa. These observations on land access have significant implications on forest management and resource conservation via controlling for deforestation and land degradation in vulnerable tropical areas (Long, 2013;Endamana et al., 2010).The focus group discussions identified priorities in their communities within the CBF, including a lack of a comprehensible land policy, inadequate regulations, security of tenure, State sovereignty over land, good governance in land administration, funding for the development and implementation of land policies, and protecting customary land rights, gender issues with special attention to access to land for women and marginalized groups, centralized land management administration and lack of participation. These reports reiterate the salient need for land reforms and effective land policy for countries in the region.A functioning land policy is crucial to sustainable livelihoods. 5 Land policy-making is usually led by the State through the pronouncement of specific laws and policy statements. Land policy reviews have recently been conducted in some CBF countries, leading to new land laws and/or the redefinition of the necessary institutional framework under which land policy is administered. In Central Africa, the State has the overall mandate for the formulation and the implementation of land policy. Formulation of land policy is generally influenced by the colonial legacy; it does not take into consideration customary land rights. In some cases, there is a dualism that does not necessarily give room to customary rights. The States implement land policy through a set of instruments. They are fiscal, institutional, legal and technical. In general, the ministry in charge of land and domains has the overall responsibility to elaborate and implement the land policy.In all the countries different agencies under the umbrella of the State are noted to be in charge of different sub-sectors. It appears that the objectives of land policy in many countries of the region target financial objectives, particularly land taxation or forestry taxation. In Cameroon and DRC, the states have created parastatal agencies in charge of implementing land policies. The role and responsibilities of these parastatal agencies vary according to the stakes of the sector (forests, mines, habitat etc.) concerned. The sectoral instruments, notwithstanding, available legislations are old and characterized by the absence of consultation either in elaborating or updating the existing legislation. Since there is no formal coherent land policy in the region, some sectoral instruments are available. They target sectors like forest and urban areas. Rural areas are not sufficiently covered. The process of land law formulation does not take into consideration the other sectors (agriculture, mines, town planning and others). These observations are similar to previous studies in the region (Inogwabini, 2021;Ongolo et al., 2021;Windey and Van Hecken, 2021;Majambu et al., 2019).These are important bottlenecks which hamper access to land, as well as the utilization and investment on land. Access to land and land tenure relations are critical where communities depend on control of land to ensure not only their food security but overall wellbeing. Appropriate land administrative and adjudicatory instruments are crucial to the effective distribution, use and management of tenure relations. Given the powerful coalition of interests, such as agri-business, land tenure administration is critical in determining rules of access and use, and systems of monitoring and sanction.The main question emanting from reports in the CBF relates to how secure the tenure systems are and whether there is equity or not. Tenure, as a bundle of rights, determines who owns what resources and why. The way land is transferred, adjudicated and owned is critical for determining the management regimes for both land and natural resources. It may also correlate with the employment of climate-smart farmland management measures. In the ensuing subsection, we attempt to demonstrate that access to more productive land and control of natural resources by agriculturists offers the most profitable form of agri-investment by smallholders. The extrapolation is that enhancing access to land, security of tenure, or sustainability of land resource use will ultimately enhance welfare, including food security (Lipper et al., 2014).Establishing the determinants of land tenure and tree management we rely on the mixed logit as a random-utility discrete choice model, where the expected utility of a choice farmers employ depends on the characteristics of the alternatives available and forgone, the characteristics of the farmers making the choices, and the socioeconomic factors which are specific to a combination of farmer and alternative practices (Akugre et al., 2021;Breitmoser, 2021). The results confirm that long-term agricultural growth for communities in the Basin hinges upon sustaining and improving the productivity of the natural resource base, particularly trees and tree products. Growing or maintaining trees protect at-risk ecosystems and habitats, with possibility to increase food supply (Kalkuhl et al., 2020). Excavating new farmlands via deforestation means losing habitats, as well as biodiversity. Farm trees are used to improve soil stability, restore ecosystems and protect endangered spices. Farmers report that their expectation to \"planting trees is to help rebuild the soil with nutrients, to soak up excess water, and reduce erosion\". The sustainable management of trees within the farming systems may not only increase farm incomes but also helps diversify production and thus spreads risk against agricultural production or market failures.Agroforestry systems and practices employed in the CBF come in many forms, including improved fallows, taungya 6 , home gardens, growing multipurpose trees and shrubs, boundary planting, farm woodlots, orchards, plantation/crop combinations, shelterbelts, windbreaks, conservation hedges, fodder banks, live fences, trees on pasture and tree apiculture (Gonçalves et al., 2021;Reang et al., 2021;Waldron et al., 2017). Empirical research has already identified important driving forces behind household decisions to plant trees on their farms (Duffy et al., 2021;Ngoma et al., 2021). Another body of research has centered on understanding changes in forested areas at the national and international levels (Ngoma et al., 2021).Very important, however, is the role of tenure in facilitating agroforestry systems. According to the logit regression of land tenure arrangements in table 3, some key socioeconomic characteristics explain the tenure conditions in which farm households operate. The size of area exploited, the age and gender of household head, years of schooling, family size, nativity or origin of household head and the distance of the exploited land from the homestead combine to explain the tenure arrangement. Of these factors, the age of the household head has a significant impact on private and jointly owned land. Increasing levels of female household-headship may be less important for joint family ownership, but results in higher levels of single-family ownership and a higher incidence of private ownership. Women were observed playing a pivotal role in maintaining and strategically using land and natural resources. However, gender relations are governed by the prevailing socio-political structures and religious-ideological value systems. The predominance of patriarchal systems ensures that women only have access to land and related natural resources through their spouse or male relatives. The insecurity of land tenure is a possible obstacle to increasing the agricultural productivity and income of rural women. Security of tenure is the key to having control over major decisions, such as what crop to grow, what techniques to use, what to consume and what to sell. Without this, women cannot access credit and membership of agricultural associations, particularly those responsible for processing and marketing. Inadequate access to credit and loss of membership in livelihood enhancing cooperation activities drive poverty of vulnerable groups, with consequences on locale biodiversity conservation. The persistence of extreme poverty and continued rapid loss of biodiversity appear intimately related. For example, IPBES (2019) documents geographic coincident of poverty and biodiversity loss especially in tropical areas in the Congo Basin where livelihoods depend disproportionately on natural capital embodied in forests, soils, water, and wildlife.It is informative in Table 3 to observe that the origin (nativity) of the household head though positive is less significant in explaining the prevailing tenure. This may be expected because a larger settler population increases the population pressure on land. This variable being less significant may increase access to land in the short-run, but also increase pressure on land in the long run. Larger family size is also noted to lead to the preservation of lineage ownership. By and large, walking time to forests, though negative, has no significant effects on the distribution of land ownership. There is significant evidence that scholarization induces private land ownership.We further observed that terrain and distance to district capital are significant. While farmers in general prefer flat terrains, however, farmers who make use of open cleared forestlands are indifferent whether its slope or flat land. There are significant correlations between the distance of farms from city centers and the ownership rights. Farmlands that are privately owned as well as operated in open cleared-forest land tend to be located closer to urban centers as proxy by distance. On the contrary, farms in family-owned lands are increasingly located further into the hinterlands. That with private tenure these factors are significant provides indication on such tenure condition for potential land cover change and possible deforestation thus causing degradation of biodiversity and carbon stocks. These findings have implications for who owns forestland, who has access and use, who manages, and who makes decisions about forest resources. However, regardless of the form of tenure of land and forests, better policymaking is required to strengthen biodiversity conservation and accountability particularly for programs related to the Reducing of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, while minding the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+).A major question is the relative speed by which primary forest and bush-fallow areas may be converted to commercial agriculture plantations under different land tenure institutions. If the major source of land is primary forest, agroforestry development comes at the expense of the natural environment. On the other hand, if agricultural plantations were primarily through enhanced utilization of existing arable lands through increased integrated agriculture, then this may bring environmental benefits. The environmental benefits may include addressing the triple challenge of ensuring food security, mitigation and reducing vulnerability and increasing the adaptability of agricultural systems to climate change. This will be increasingly important as the impacts of climate change become more pronounced. Trees and shrubs can diminish the effects of extreme weather events, such as heavy rains, droughts and wind storms. They prevent erosion, stabilize soils, raise infiltration rates and halt land degradation. They can enrich biodiversity in the landscape and increase ecosystem stability. Agroforestry practices in the CBF are therefore important both for climate change mitigation as well as for adaptation, and the socio-cultural needs to safeguard access to land (FAO 2009b).The inferences from these findings indicate fundamental implications in the management of local and global land and forest commons, as well as for adaptation and mitigation of climate change in the CBF. The significant probability that land tenure drives farmland efforts of tree crop management in a prevailing socioeconomic environment influenced by the bioeconomic nature of the farm holdings and operators' households is instructive of efforts required to meet global requirements in managing the commons in the Congo Basin. Pledges in the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 26), for instance, and the call for reduction in deforestation amidst quest by local communities to exploit natural assets for direct productive gains and welfare, would require complementary national and communal efforts promoting better agricultural land use especially agricultural practices.Empirical field surveys such as in our study which show that agriculturists choose different farming systems to maximize profit while internalizing the tenure regime and environmental conditions they face have important policy implications on how local institutions should be managed to promote farm-level investments that enhance welfare in the face of climate perturbations and perception of climate change so that these agrarian agents at the frontlines could be veritable partners in conservation efforts in global commons such as the CBF.Some studies (e.g. Tseng et al., 2021;Alban Singirankabo & Willem Ertsen, 2020;Akram et al., 2019;Gottlieb & Grobovšek, 2019) have presented a range of views on the implications of different tenure regimes for agricultural productivity. They argue that the system of land tenure sets the context within which all efforts to raise agricultural output must operate. Land tenure will influence the farming system, social equity and agricultural productivity, and hence overall economic development (Akugre et al., 2021;Brawn, 2017). This is plausible since farmers with titles to their land may have better access to credit, which can enhance their productivity. We therefore examined how farmers in the selected Congo Basin communities have chosen their respective systems. Table 4 reports the parameter estimates for a mixed logit agricultural land-use choice. The independent variables, include area exploited, walking time to plot, ownership, climate-smart management practices, access to climate information, and access to extension services. The primary concern of our study is whether the choice of agricultural system is dependent upon tenure. Tenure variables are highly significant as a group. 7  As is clear from this table, the results are quite robust with respect to land use types. The more positive significant effects of private ownership imply that trees were more often planted/protected in private lands with secured tenure than when the land was jointly owned or in privately cleared public land. Recall that the bequest of land rights to sons is more important with increasing private ownership, whether as cleared land or purchased land. Thus, the dummies for private ownership being significant at the 5% level is consistent with our hypothesis that the management of trees in farmlands for its product and service benefits is largely independent of the level of tenure security.Anecdotal evidence from focus groups suggests land rights of single or joint family inherited land tend to increase when trees (fruit and non-fruit woody perennials) are planted. The trees are planted to lay claim to territory rather than for its environmental benefit. This may explain the lower significance of joint family ownership on tree planting compared with the effect of single-family ownership. Perhaps, this is why nativity measured as the region of origin has a positive effect on tree planting, which suggests the importance of ethnic origin as an effective variable to the returns on land use that required investment in trees. It is also instructive to acknowledge that these may be short-term effects, and in the longer run, there may be no significant difference in tree planting behaviour between family ownership and privately claimed lands. Whether in family or private farms, planted trees increase forest cover and contribute to the restoration of holistic ecosystems, which in turn promotes a range of flora and fauna to grow. In the humid tropics of the Congo Basin, such reforestation creates a safe haven for biodiversity, allowing for a wide array of habitats. Some important results are obtained on the impact of CS-CoA practices with respect to agricultural land-use types. The dummy variables representing soil, crop and water management techniques are positive and significant. Soil and crop management are more significant under arable crop and tree systems and less so under crop-tree-livestock integrated systems. While water and ecosystem management show increasing significance with the increasing complexity of the farming system, post-harvest supply chain management is significant across all land-use types. Given the importance of these efforts, walking time to the plot has a negative effect on tree planting, which suggests that distance as a variable affects return on land uses.Household characteristics such as size, gender, age, and education are also examined. Among household characteristics, the coefficient for the age of the head of the household is positive across all systems. When the head of household is older, a farmer tends to specialize in integrated crop-tree-livestock systems. Female heads of the household prefer focusing on crops over diversifying into trees and livestock. More educated heads of households tend to specialize in trees and crops. When a family is small, it tends to avoid specializing in livestock. Country dummies were entered to test country-specific conditions e.g. culture, agricultural and land policies. Against Cameroon as the base case, farmers in RCA and DRC farms are more likely to have crops only. Both of these countries heavily rely on forest exploitation.Having explained the choice of the agricultural system in the first stage, we estimate the land value of each of the three systems after correcting for selection biases in the second stage. In table 5, we run regressions of farm returns (gross revenue) against tenure and other control variables for each system. Tenure has differential effects. For example, cleared forest and single family-owned farms increase the value of the crop-only system and the mixed system, but decrease that of the arable crop only system because of the higher investments required for the more complex farming system. When a family is large and the household head is older, the farmland used for the crop-only system experiences higher returns. When the farm-head has more years of schooling, the revenue from the mixed farming system is observed to increase. Ecosystem management significantly contributes to revenue in all three systems more than the other management practices, perhaps due to the marketable wood and non-wood products from tree crops in farmlands. However, crop and water management as climate-smart practices are lowly significant in crop only systems. Water management is more significant in integrated crop-tree-livestock systems. The country dummies too are significant. The gross revenue for the tree-crop-livestock is lower in RCA than in Cameroon, which is the base case. The revenue for the three systems is significantly higher in DRC. 8  A typology of climate-smart agricultural land management techniques indicates a variety of measures employed in the Congo Basin to include soil management cost-effective cultural practices which are employed to conserve soil nutrient levels. The agricultural land use accounts for mostly inherited arable croplands, with some under joint extended family ownership, single-family ownership and privately exploited cleared forest land. Most of the ethnic groups report patrilineal inheritance of land assets in typically male-headed households.The predictors of prevailing land tenure and its effects on tree-husbandry are revealed by socioeconomic factors defining the functionality of farm households. These factors are identified to be the size of farm holdings, age and gender of household head, as well as educational levels, family size, and ethnicity or origin of the household head. The distance to farm plots, forms of land ownership, climate-smart management practices, access to climate information and technology appear as principal factors explaining the performance of the agricultural system. Tenure security is the most significant predictor of the returns to farmland investments. These results corroborate the evidence and stylized facts in previous studies beyond the Congo Basin (Ngoma et al., 2021, Shittu et al., 2021;Amadu et al., 2020;Molua, 2011).The findings of this study have wider implications beyond the CBF. Countries during COP 26 committed to reform policies to promote sustainable agriculture and accelerate the deployment of ecosystem-based green innovations for the agriculture sector, towards reducing the impact of climate change on the agriculture sector and lowering the sector's contribution to global warming. According to the pledge, \"if we are to limit global warming and keep the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive, then the world needs to use land sustainably and put protection and restoration of nature at the heart of all we do\" (UN, 2021). This pledge encapsulates efforts required to accelerate the transition to more sustainable land-use practices in forest, agriculture and commodity trade.The discussions and outcome statements at COP 26 refocused the place of the CBF in the climate change debate in serving the global common. While the role of the Congo Basin is not new, the potentials of the CBF has contributed to the stirring debates whether REDD+ under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), could create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, thus offering incentives for developing countries such as in the CBF to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development (Tegegne et al., 2021;Molua, 2012;Somorin et al., 2012). The challenges associated with these initiatives raise some key questions which should be addressed to valorize policymaking to safeguard the opportunities and options associated with CS-CoA. Our results show that CS-CoA is expected to meet immediate local demands of households and farmsteads, while at the same time contributing to the global good.The CBF is home to invaluable biodiversity, provide livelihoods for local people, and store carbon in their soils and trees. What happens in the farmlands of the CBF affects far more than just the Central African subregion. We have attempted to demonstrate the possibility of CS-CoA in the CBF to increase output, hence food production as well as income and safeguard biodiversity. Contrary to intensive and less environmentally friendly agriculture, properly designed CS-CoA use nature's 'environmental services' including more organic amendments which would mean more biological control for increased biodiversity and resilient agriculture. The implication of CS-CoA is that profitable opportunities exist for food production without degrading natural resource base on which agriculture depends with significant promise for biodiversity conservation.However, profitable agriculture would require ecological and social sustainability driven by tenure security. Land tenure security can be a lever for improving conservation goals. Nonetheless, the perpetration of unequal land tenure would mean inadequate support for conservation measures in the face of land scarcity, via continuous destruction of cultural and economic trees useful to rural economies.The fragile ecological assets of the Congo Basin remain pivotal for contemporary efforts to manage the global commons. Climate-smart conservation agriculture practices in the CBF protect soil from degradation, mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, and restore soil health (Bell et al., 2018;Nyasimi et al., 2014). In the Congo Basin tropical environment these actions mitigate climate change impacts by introducing trees in farmlands. These efforts help to reconcile agricultural production and forest conservation by limiting expansion of croplands into new areas.The inferences from these findings thus indicate fundamental implications in nature conservation, the management of local and global land and forest commons, as well as for adaptation and mitigation of climate change in the CBF. For instance, tenure security is important, since farmers who are unable to gain access to the agricultural land through sale and inheritance may migrate to areas where farmlands are relatively abundant. In fact, the significant probability that land tenure drives farmland efforts of tree crop management in a prevailing socioeconomic environment influenced by the bioeconomic nature of the farm holdings and operators' households is instructive of efforts required to meet global requirements in managing and conserving the commons in the Congo Basin.The implication of tenure influencing farm decisionmaking and farm profitability is that individual land ownership and the dominant user rights on resource conservation could promote natural vegetation to exist in contiguous patterns for the stability of wild biotic resources, soils and water sources; as well as control of natural resources such as managing soils for agricultural production to enhance crop yield and eventual environmental protection.The nature and practice of agriculture is thus an important driver for biodiversity protection in the CBF. This is urgent in the advent of global warming and climate change. Biodiversity loss from unfair agricultural practices, destruction of ecosystems and habitats on the quest for food and income may in turn threaten the ability to sustain the growing human population in the tropics. This therefore call for promoting climate change adaptation via approaches which are ecosystem-based, nature-friendly, biodiversity-supporting and limiting the use of inputs.Meeting household and regional agricultural production needs while simultaneously conserving biodiversity thus requires innovative solutions. Policy that promotes innovative approaches, such as integrated crop-livestock systems combined with forestry where necessary, must adhere to local contexts and challenges to create opportunities for diversification and agricultural growth while also mitigating environmental damage.In addition, the pledges of COP 26, for instance, calling for reduction in deforestation amidst quest by local communities to exploit natural assets for direct productive gains and welfare, would require complementary national and communal efforts promoting better agricultural land use and practices. Empirical field surveys which show that agriculturists choose different farming systems to maximize income while internalizing the tenure regime and environmental conditions they face have important policy implications. This generates knowldege on how local institutions should be managed to promote farm-level investments that enhance welfare while protecting nature in the face of climate perturbations and perception of climate change so that agrarian agents at the frontlines could be veritable partners in conservation efforts in global commons such the Congo Basin.The benefits of biodiversity is fundamental to societal wellbeing. Ecologically friendly agriculture can transform society's relationship with biodiversity and ensure nature-friendly production systems. On the heels of climate change, conservation agriculture provides a win-win option for ecological sustainability, better farm values and conservation of nature in agroecosystems. The adoption of conservation agriculture and other ecosystem-based approaches enhances the crucial role of biodiversity for food and agriculture.This research sought to examine the role of climatesmart conservation agriculture practices on farm returns in the Congo Basin. In achieving this goal, we used approximately 600 farm surveys collected from three Congo Basin countries. We then developed a microeconometric selection model which explains both the agricultural landuse choices and net revenues in tropical farming systems. In the first stage, we explained a farmer´s choice of one of the different farm-ownership types whether jointownership, single-family, private commercial or clearedforested land. In the second stage, system-specific land values or revenues for farming system types, e.g. crop-only system, a crop-tree system, or a mixed system of crops, livestock and trees, are estimated after correcting for selection biases.The empirical analysis reveals that a mixed farm which manages crops, livestock and trees is not only more profitable but cushions the farm households from the vagaries of climate. These findings highlight the importance of farm-trees and reforestation and further evoke some important policy recommendations amongst which are the need for policies that take a system-wide approach to address agriculture's continually expanding footprint under perceived climate change. There is also need for increased cooperation amongst the front line institutions dealing with the environment, forests, agriculture and land with the goal to ensure properly monitored access while preserve and protect nature and its essential services to people. Regular cooperation and collaboration will ensure timely evaluation and improvement of issues related to inadequate land access, promote climatesmart agriculture, and develop the capacity of farmer-based organizations for a resilient environmental practice which conserves soil and enhances ecosystem benefits. Overall, policy on biodiversity conservation is necessary to build a sustainable food system with climate and ecosystem friendly agricultural practices.The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.Data and material available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.Ernest L. Molua  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8724-6035 Notes 1. Discrete choice theory is concerned with understanding the discrete behavioural responses of individuals to the actions of business, markets and government when faced with two or more possible outcomes (or choices). The logistic regression is an efficient and powerful way to assess independent variable contributions to a binary outcome.  2000). 3. The Multinomial Logit (MNL) regression belongs to a class of mathematical techniques employed to address input-output interactions in observational studies where the dependent (output) variable consists of several unordered categories, as well as a set of independent variables (input-variables or explanators), which are used to predict the dependent variable. It is a variant of multiple regression in which the response is binary rather than quantitative. It can be used for classification in multiclass problems, i.e. with more than two possible discrete outcomes, and applied when the dependent variable consists of several categories that are not ordinal such that the ordinary least square estimator cannot be used. Instead, a maximum likelihood estimator like the multinomial logit is used. 4. The basic assumptions that must be met for a logistic regression of this nature include independence of errors, linearity in the logit for continuous variables, absence of multicollinearity, and lack of strongly influential outliers. 5. Land policy here relates to the process of drafting all aspects of land management, including setting the benchmark for acquisition/disposal of land; the social and legal tenure regimes; the distribution structure and mechanisms; the regulation and forms of land-use, management; the administration systems; and the adjudication of land disputes. 6. Growing annual agricultural crops during the establishment of a forest plantation. 7. The standard deviation estimates, not reported, indicate that individual climate parameters are highly significant as well. 8. Two measures of the goodness of fit, given under the table, are high, ranging from 0.12 (McFadden's LRI) to 0.27 (Veall-Zimmermann). The tenure variables as a whole are highly significant determinants of the agricultural system according to the P-value of the Likelihood Ratio test. From the estimated parameters, the model predicts a current agricultural system accurately for 61% of the entire sample. The predictive power of the model falls to 45%, however, when tenure variables are dropped from the model. The Adjusted R-sq is 0.26 for the crop-only system, 0.38 for the crop-tree only system, and 0.53 for the mixed system. As the land value of a specific agricultural system is observed only when the system is chosen, we correct for selection biases from the farmlands that are used for the other systems).","tokenCount":"10646"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a2ea1fe8fe4b561cb05bc3636acfa797","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/55a65d92-62af-48ca-b516-d81970ea270a/retrieve","id":"1762058418"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9f6cbd5c-fd83-4f1f-9d98-6a6cab2af8d1","pagecount":"11","content":"The Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) program comprises three research-for-development projects supported by the United States Agency for International Development as part of the US Government's Feed the Future initiative. The overall aim is to transform agricultural systems through sustainable intensification. Through action research and development partnerships, Africa RISING should create opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainably intensified farming systems that improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base. In Ghana, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) collaborates with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the World Vegetable Centre (AVRDC) to test small-scale irrigation options for dry season vegetable production and explore potential supplementary irrigation in rainfed crop-livestock production systems. To make judicious use of available resources, and also for the ease of monitoring, all dry season vegetable production activities were implemented in the six vegetable hubs. The roles and responsibilities of each of the partners and agreed timelines for the completion of tasks are indicated in Appendix 1.The general objectives of this research were to: Determine the optimum water management systems for three crop species through two irrigation techniques, two fertilizer management options, and two planting density options.  Identify for each vegetable species the best varieties amongst two improved varieties and the best farmers' variety.  Determine the interaction between variety and water and soil management systems.The use of shallow wells for irrigation is one of the practices that have emerged in the Atankwidi and Anyari sub-catchments of the Volta Basin (Ofosu 2011). Even though yields of hand-dug wells are low, farmers construct gardens of sizes between 0.25 and 0.5 acres to take advantage of the available groundwater for dry season vegetable production. The major setbacks that these farmers face include their inability to determine the optimum amount of water required by the crop to be able to adopt best irrigation practices during the growing season to maximize profit. Farmers rely on their judgement and apply high volumes of water to make up for losses due to high evapotranspiration in the dry season without regard to the actual water requirement of the crop.Farmers can actually increase their farm sizes and by extension their income if they apply the right amount of water to crops at the right time. This can be achieved through the application of drip irrigation and deficit irrigation technologies. Drip irrigation allows the application of water to be precisely controlled when water drips slowly near the plant roots through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters. Deficit irrigation is a strategy that allows a crop to sustain some degree of water deficit in order to reduce costs of irrigation and potentially increase income. It can lead to an increase in net income where water costs are high or where water supplies are limited (Kirda et al. 2002). A dry season crop-water productivity analysis conducted by Adimassu et al. (2016) revealed that between 50 and 75% of crop water requirements can produce yields of between 70-90% of potential yield if well scheduled for typical high value crops such as tomato, onion, and pepper.Irrigation scheduling involves knowing when to apply water and how much. Though the scientific tools needed to schedule irrigation such as tensiometers and neutron probes are well developed, farmers, especially in developing countries, do not monitor soil water status due to the cost and complexity of these tools. A Wetting Front Detector (WFD) was developed at CSIRO in Australia in response to the low adoption of these existing irrigation tools. It is a tool that measures how deeply water has penetrated into the soil after an irrigation event. It is basically a switch, which alerts the irrigator that a front of a given strength has passed a given depth in the soil (Stirzaker 2003). A WFD is a relatively simple and cost-effective device that supports irrigation scheduling. It is also useful for the monitoring of nutrient losses in soils.In order to determine water management options for dry season vegetable production, the IWMI team set out to achieve the following objectives. Validate the findings of Adimassu et al. (2016) that if 50 ̶ 75% of crop water requirement is provided to the crop according to the correct schedule, it could result in between 70 ̶ 90% of potential yield.  Tests at the farm level, such as using wetting front detectors (WFDs), can improve crop and water productivity by guiding the farmer on when and how much to irrigate.The initial experimental design developed to ensure integration with the activities of AVRDC comprised three crop varieties, three fertilizer levels, two irrigation options, and two plant density options. This experimental design (Fig. 1) could not achieve first objective as it involves too many components, i.e., to determine the optimum water management options for three crop species through two irrigation techniques, two fertilizer management options, and two planting density options. IWMI insisted that the design be modified to incorporate two drip and two watering can treatments. The experimental design was therefore modified to incorporate these treatments (Fig. 2). To achieve this new design without necessarily increasing the cropping area, since water was a limiting factor, okro was removed from the setup; one fertilizer treatment was also removed and the plot sizes were decreased from 20 m 2 (4 × 5m) to 12 m 2 (3 × 4m).  The experimental treatments are summarized in the Table. Challenges with field implementationOnly four out of the six vegetable hubs could be used for the experiments-three in Nyangua and one in Tekuru. One well in Tekuru had low yield which was not enough for the experiment, while in the second, the fence was broken and was not repaired before the start of the experiments.Even though the plan was to establish the experiment immediately after the rainy season (September) to take advantage of residual soil moisture, land preparation delayed until late November, by which time the water level in the wells were already low.Due to uncertainties about the extent to which the available water would sufficiently irrigate the crops, only the drip irrigation experiment was set up. According to the IITA/AVRDC field staff, they were waiting for the proposed boreholes before setting up the watering can experiment, since the water from the wells would not be adequate for both experiments.The borehole became operational in February by which time it was too late to start the watering can experiment.Crops were planted at different times in the four vegetable hubs. Whereas the tomato in the first hub was transplanted in 30/11/2016, the tomato in the third hub was transplanted in 29/12/2016. For pepper, the first farmer's field was transplanted in 14/12/2016 and the third farmer's field in 26/01/2016. Seedlings were mostly outgrown in the nurseries before transplanting.The drippers did not match the crop spacing. Though there was an agreement between IWMI and AVRDC to use the already purchased drip kits (30 × 30 cm), the field set-up of the experiment by the IITA/AVRDC field staff did not consider that. Water was therefore not evenly distributed to all the crops.Farmers \"topped up\" the water manually in the absence of the field assistants possibly because they believe the crops were not getting enough water from the drip. It was therefore difficult to quantify the actual amount of water used by the crops.The water in the wells was not sufficient to irrigate the whole field (experiment). We therefore had to resort to buying water from tanker services to supplement to avoid crop failure.The water storage tanks which were being used for the experiment were removed from the field by IITA field staff without IWMI's prior notice, thereby bringing the drip experiment to a halt in February. Roles and responsibilities of partners and dependencies must be clearly defined. A coordinator should be designated to coordinate activities among the partners. Future experiments must be simple and targeted at achieving specific objectives.  As much as possible, IWMI's activities must not be dependent on other partners' activities.  IWMI should have a presence in the field at all times to ensure that activities are conducted on time. This will also ensure that all mishaps are also reported on time.  Future irrigation options must not include drip irrigation.","tokenCount":"1385"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"38ee17f1745e366bf529495b244ba138","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4277f6d3-ca56-4cb1-b072-37784d2dec7a/retrieve","id":"-909441987"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8a7646e2-4c21-4cc7-b329-e4f9a0a6fbb3","pagecount":"118","content":"Responsibility for ILCA publications rests solely with the centre and with such other parties as may be cited as joint authors. Until 1982, the centre's two main series of scientific publications were Systems Studies and Monographs. These two series have now been superseded by the present series of Research Report.Water is used by the herbivore as a medium for physical and chemical energy transfer, namely for evaporative cooling and intermediary metabolism. Therefore animal water turnover cannot be considered in isolation from energy metabolism. A detailed discussion of the physiology of water and energy use in the herbivore is given and a diagram of the interrelation between the two has been constructed. A simplified version of this 'soft' model has been used to simulate the energy budget and water turnover of the main livestock species in the African pastoral production system during the dry season. The analytical background to the model has been obtained from the literature, supported by field observations. However, data from Africa are scarce.The information obtained on water and energy use by livestock in the traditional pastoral system has been applied to water and livestock development in the context of range, woodland and livestock management. There are numerous implications for research, notably for hypothesis and modelling, as well as component research for which priority topics and species are given. The research emphasis is placed on field work which is not as difficult as it used to be, because technical equipment is becoming increasingly compact and rugged and communications between the field and advanced laboratory facilities have improved.An important contribution that the developer, and hence the scientist can make to the productivity of pastoral systems will be to increase the efficiency with which scarce water and energy resources are used.Livestock development projects initiated in sub-Saharan Africa over the past two decades have absorbed close to one billion American dollars worth of aid. Much of this aid, particularly during the period 1961 to 1975, has been directed towards the semi-arid and arid zones where the provision of drinking water for man and his livestock has been the largest single item of expenditure. In these zones, which are occupied primarily by pastoral people, shortages of drinking water occur every dry season, of which there are one or two a year depending on the region. Therefore any form of water development might be expected to improve the living standards of pastoral people in normal years and their chances of survival in times of drought.Unfortunately this is often not so. Water development may contribute to imbalances in the use of land and water resources in dry areas. These imbalances are exacerbated and intensified when they coincide with detrimental climatic fluctuations, both wet and dry, making the effects of drought and flood more severe and leaving a legacy of erosion and desertification. Recent improvements in international communications have given extensive publicity to natural disasters and helped to focus world attention on the problems of water and livestock.The most recent example of such a catastrophe in Africa was the drought in the Sahel from 1968 to 1973. It caused the collapse of the livestock industry of five countries -Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Upper Volta -and severely damaged that of two others, Senegal and the Gambia.It was against this background that ILCA was prompted to put together a series of state-ofknowledge reports on water and livestock problems in Africa. There were a number of scientific disciplines involved, and the subject has been divided into four topics, each of which is dealt with in a separate research report (RR) as follows: RR 6. The water resource in tropical Africa and its exploitation, RR 7. Livestock water needs in pastoral Africa in relation to climate and forage, RR 8. Organisation and management of water supplies in tropical Africa, RR 9. Economics and planning of water supplies in pastoral Africa.The four reports are best read in relation to one another.As well as providing technical and economic guidelines for national planning authorities, these reports review the interrelation of animal metabolism, water, climate and forage. They also consider the complexities of human organisation and management upon which the success or failure of the most carefully prepared and executed water development project will largely depend. The authors are primarily addressing senior personnel engaged in scientific research, planning and implementation. The justification for this approach is that if there were simple solutions to the problems of water and livestock in Africa, they would have been found some time ago.The greatest threat to life on land is the danger of dehydration (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1975). Most livestock have to drink at least every other day to be productive, and every few days to survive. The provision of water is therefore of prime importance in all animal production systems.The overall water cost of animal production is rarely calculated, but a rough estimate can be made using a number of assumptions. For example, the mean body water turnover of a Boran steer (Large East African Zebu) was found to be 140 ml.l -1 .d -1 , and its water pool between 65 and 70% (King, 1979). If such an animal is marketed at 4 years, weighing 400 kg, then its total water use would be in the region of 28 t. If one also takes into account the water required to grow the forage eaten by the herbivore, which is between 150 and 250 l. kg -1 DM of grass, then this figure would increase considerably. McMillan (1965) estimated that the total amount of water required to produce 1 kg of steak was 110 t, and to produce 1 kg of wool was 1000 t. Such information may seem more appropriate to the Guinness Book of Records, but it does serve to emphasise a recurrent theme throughout this and the other research reports in this series on water and livestock. The theme is that one cannot look at animal water use in isolation from the general metabolism of the animal, or water development to the exclusion of the overall production system for which it is required. The ramifications of research on water and livestock are numerous, and it is difficult to know where to draw the line.The problems of providing water for livestock vary with different species and breeds of livestock, and the ecological zones in which they occur. It is therefore important to establish the relative importance of different animals and their distribution across the continent.The area of interest to ILCA is sub-Saharan Africa, whose southern limit is the border of the Republic of South Africa. The distribution of livestock by country within sub-Saharan Africa is given in Table 1. The exact numbers vary between authors; for example, Watson et al (1977) give higher figures for the Sudan than those in the table. Nevertheless, by relying mainly on one authority, FAO (1977), it is hoped that the bias will be in the same direction, namely an underestimate. There are also a number of omissions in the table, but the species on which no information is given are probably unimportant in the countries concerned. The final two columns of Table 1 express the biomass of livestock by country on a metabolic weight basis, so that the relative importance of national herds made up of different mixes of species can be compared as a percentage of the total livestock biomass in sub-Saharan Africa. It can be seen that 4 of the 38 countries account for more than half the livestock biomass, namely Ethiopia 21 %, Sudan 13%, Nigeria 9%, and Tanzania 8%. The addition of a further 3, Madagascar, Kenya and Somalia with 5% each, accounts for two thirds of the livestock biomass. On a regional basis, eastern Africa and the Horn contain 55%, francophone and West Africa 30%, central and southern Africa 10%, and Madagascar 5% of the total livestock biomass.The use of metabolic weight for comparing the nutritional demands of livestock has its drawbacks. For example, desert animals have lower metabolic rates than animals from temperate regions (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1972) even if they are smaller in size, as is the Bedouin goat compared with the Negev mountain goat (Shkolnik et al, 1972). Also, dwarf West African livestock may have lower maintenance requirements than predicted from the exponent of 0.75, because they may reduce their endogenous heat production in response to a hot, humid environment. Nevertheless, metabolic weight seems more appropriate than a 'numbers' approach which overemphasises the importance of smallstock, or the conversion of numbers to livestock units (LUs). The problem with LUs is that there is a twofold difference in size between breeds of the same species in different regions of the continent; thus different countries use LUs of different weights. Dahl and Hjort (1976) list eight different units, with ratios of smallstock to cattle which vary from 2:1 to 12:1. Source: Numbers derived from FAO (1977), and zeros from ILCA (unpublished observations).There is a strong correlation between metabolic rate and body water turnover; a lower metabolism uses less water for the transfer of nutrients and for evaporative cooling because it generates less heat. Thus the metabolic rate and water turnover are higher in young and highly productive animals, and lower in older and less productive animals (Macfarlane et al, 1966a). The rate at which mammals use water is slightly faster than the rate at which they use energy because water is used in cooling as well as metabolism. Water turnover is best expressed in relation to the size of the body water pool rather than the bodyweight, since the body contains varying amounts of fat and bone. In desert ruminants, turnover has been found to vary with the size of the body water pool to the power of 0.82 (Macfarlane and Howard, 1972). There is more scope for divergence from the mean exponent for water turnover than for metabolism, because water conservation and non-evaporative mechanisms for heat dissipation are much more highly developed in some species than in others.Nevertheless, an approximate idea of the relative demands of the different species of livestock in sub-Saharan Africa for forage and water may be obtained from their metabolic biomass and the exponent relating body water turnover to pool size (Table 2). The foregoing calculations indicate that of the available forage and water resources cattle take nearly 70%, sheep and goats 10% each, camels and equines 5% each, and pigs 1%. Cattle are thus seven times as important as any other species on a continental basis, and the zebu is therefore the main focus of this report.Table 2. Relative demand for water and forage of different species of livestock in sub-Saharan Africa.Metabolic biomass (kg 0.75 ) Functional biopool a (1 0.82 ) Species Number (×10 6 ) Mean weight (kg) (×10 6 ) (% of total) (×10 6 ) (% of total) of cattle. The distribution of other breeds of livestock in relation to cattle is as follows: camels, donkeys, desert goats and sheep occupy the arid flank, intermediate breeds of smallstock and equines occur with cattle, and pigs and small or dwarf varieties of sheep and goats occupy the humid flank. The isohyets in Figure 1 are those for: 100 mm, which is the limit for cattle distribution except in the presence of irrigation; 750 mm, demarcating the edge of the dry Sahelian zone; and 1250 mm for the humid end of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone. The rainfall in most of Africa does not exceed 1250 mm and, in those regions, values for the Penman estimate of annual potential evaporation vary from about 1200 mm in the highlands to 3100 mm at sea level (Wood-head, 1968). Computation of the index of water available for plant growth in East African rangeland (Woodhead, 1970) indicates a shortage of water for 2 to 9 months of the year depending on the altitude, the amount of precipitation and whether the rains are unimodal or bimodal. Similar relations for rangeland production and rainfall have been produced by Le Houérou and Hoste (1977) for the whole Sahelo-Sudanian zone. The more humid areas of West, central and East Africa are of limited value for livestock production because of the tsetse fly (Ford, 1971). Trypanotolerant cattle do occur in the tsetse belt (ILCA, 1979a) but they represent only about 5% of the cattle population of sub-Saharan Africa.The number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa in which there is an annual shortage of water and grazing for livestock, and the possibility of a severe drought, is 27 out of a total of 38. Admittedly, 10 of these countries have highland areas in which the majority of the national herd are kept -for example, 80% of the livestock of Ethiopia and Kenya (ILCA, 1977;Chemonics and Hawkins, 1977). Other countries, such as Mali, Sudan and Chad, have extensive river and lake floodplains. Nevertheless, after allowance has been made for the water resources in each country, which are considered in more detail by Classen et al (in press), it is probably true to say that 50% of the livestock of sub-Saharan Africa occur in areas where there is a shortage of water and forage at some time during the year.There is thus a sizeable livestock population at risk during the dry season, of the order of 175 million head. These animals are not raised under commercial ranching conditions of the kind found in the arid areas of the more industrialized countries, such as Australia or the USA. They are kept to provide the daily subsistence of people living frequently on agriculturally marginal lands, peripheral to centres of power, assistance and investment, and with few options open to them in the face of adverse environmental conditions.The size of the human population largely dependent on these livestock can be estimated using the following assumptions, based on information provided by the Kenya Maasai and substantiated by Dahl and Hjort (1976): one twelfth of the cattle herd is lactating at any one time; the average daily yield of milk for human consumption is 1.5 l per lactating cow in the wet season; this amount supplies the milk component of the diet of an average member of the household, which is about two thirds of a person's dietary calorific intake. Even if only half the number of cattle given in Table 2 occur in areas where water and forage are seasonally limited, the cattle population concerned is of the order of 68 million head. Because wealthy cattle owners need additional labour and also attract more dependents, it is reasonable to suppose that the human population is somewhat larger than the milk supply will allow on the basis of Dahl and Hjort's assumptions. Thus one may assume that 5 to 6 million people are dependent on these animals for their survival, or a much larger number for part of their livelihood. The estimate of the total human population in the dry lands of sub-Saharan Africa who base their livelihood on animal production is 17 million people. Of course the whole continent is not usually affected by drought at the same time, and 'only' 100 000 to 200 000 people died when they lost about 80% of their livestock in the Sahel drought (UN, 1977). Nevertheless, the slender resources of the pastoral production system are already being exploited to the limit in many regions. For example, a Rendille tribesman in northern Kenya, weighing over 70 kg at the start of the season, may expect to have lost 10 kg by the end of it; if he drops to less than 58 kg he will be in very poor health (H.J. Schwarz, unpublished). There is only a small margin of safety left in the system, and any further degradation of the rangelands will result in drought conditions over much larger areas of Africa during normal years. What are the trends in livestock numbers and management in the semi-arid rangelands of sub-Saharan Africa? The growth in numbers between the early 1960s and the mid-1970s was about 20% (Table 3). Not all this growth occurred in the semi-arid areas, in fact in parts of East Africa (D. Western, unpublished) and presumably the Sahel, herds which were severely depleted by the droughts in the 1960s and 1970s may only now have recovered to their original numbers. However the cattle numbers in many arid and semiarid parts of Africa in the mid-1970s were still estimated by Bourn (1978) to be above the optimum large herbivore biomass suggested by Coe et al (1976).The outlook for livestock management, given generally scarce range resources, is hardly more encouraging. It is now belatedly realized that some traditional pastoral systems had achieved a well balanced ecological adaptation to their environment, maintained by a complex social structure which is closely related to the regulation of access to a limited water resource (Helland, 1980). The provision of development aid, particularly water and veterinary services, can have a very disruptive effect on such systems.It is ironic that this realization should occur at a time when traditional livestock systems are disintegrating in the face of new technologies. It is impossible to put the clock back, but lessons must be learnt from the experiences of the past few decades. For a start, we should try to understand the production systems with which we are interfering. From the animal science point of view, this means looking more closely at the indigenous livestock. The pastoralist is primarily concerned with risk reduction strategies, given the limited resources available to him and the likelihood that they will become scarcer in the future (unless there is a dramatic breakthrough in such areas as tropical legumes and population control). For the moment the tribal herdsman achieves productivity through the survival of his stock and its rapid powers of recuperation, and by an increase in animal numbers rather than by high individual animal performance. Consequently, the introduction of temperate or locally 'improved' breeds with their higher demands for water and good quality forage may be inappropriate at present. Source: FAO (1977). Source: Table 2 and J.M. King (unpublished).The agricultural role of the different species of livestock in sub-Saharan Africa, together with the relative importance of the different animal products, is shown in Table 4. As already indicated, the dominant animal is the zebu cow, which is a multi-purpose animal which must supply the household with milk. The average amount of milk taken per cow is about 90 kg per annum, whereas calf production is in the region of 150 kg (ILCA, 1979a). Camels take over the role of cattle in the drier areas, producing a similar weight of calf per annum but with more milk (1460 kg) being taken for human consumption (section 5.2.2). The percentage of the cattle herd kept for power varies from 0% in many pastoral communities to between 30 and 50% of the herd in the dryland farms of the Sahel and Botswana, and the highland farms of Ethiopia (Reed et al, 1974;ILCA, 1978;ILCA, 1979c). A figure of 15% for camels in Southern Darfur is given by Wilson (1978a). Smallstock are kept primarily for meat, although byproducts such as hides, skins for water bags, and wool may make an important contribution to the household economy. Pigs and small and dwarf breeds of ruminant livestock occur in the more humid zones where water is not a major constraint to production. They will therefore receive little attention in this report. The other species, with the exception of the horse and mule which make up only a small proportion of the total livestock population, will be considered in some detail.The emphasis of this report is on livestock water and energy turnover in the dry season under the present range management conditions in Africa, and those predicted for the immediate future (chapter 5). The implications and applications of this information to management, development and research will be discussed in chapters 6 and 7. However, before embarking on the more practical aspects of the problems of animal water needs in relation to climate and forage, a considerable part of the report has been devoted to general physiological principles (chapters 2, 3 and 4). The reason for this description of fundamental physiology is that, once the animal scientist has grasped the underlying principles, he should be able to model his own field situation if this differs from the examples given. However, it is equally appropriate for the more casual reader to turn from this introduction to chapter 5 onwards, and treat the intervening sections as reference material.In order to understand livestock water needs and how water dependence varies in different circumstances, it is necessary to look at body water functions in livestock, starting with the way water is stored and distributed in the animal.Under semi-arid conditions and a daily watering regime, indigenous livestock in Africa use, or turn over, between 5 and 30% of their body water pool (defined in section 2.2) daily, depending on animal species and season (King, 1979). This water is used for two main functions; intermediary metabolism and cooling.Intermediary metabolism includes all the biochemical reactions and interconversions that take place in the animal. Water acts as a solvent of absorbed particles, including gases, conveying them to and from their sites of metabolism. The resultant solutions osmotically control the distribution of fluids within the body compartments, with the aid of various feedback regulating mechanisms. This aspect of the subject is beyond the scope of this report, but for those who wish to pursue it further the main components of the intermediary metabolic system are described by Siebert (1973).In most herbivores in sub-Saharan Africa, the major function of water is to dissipate internal or absorbed heat by evaporative cooling through sweating or panting.The flows of water and energy through the animal body have been simplified and combined in Figure 2. Most of these flows can be quantified, and an energy and water budget measured. For example, in zebu cattle in the Kenya highlands during the day, the main heat exchanges have been shown to be absorption of shortwave solar radiation and emission of longwave radiation by the coat (Table 5). About 1% of the energy exchanged is heat which is absorbed and stored during the day and dissipated at night. In the tropical lowlands, the environmental heat load is higher and evaporative heat loss more important. About 99% of all molecules in the body are water, which forms about 70% of the bodyweight of a tropical ruminant (Macfarlane and Howard, 1972). Its distribution through the body water compartments is fairly constant if the alimentary tract and fat content of the animal are excluded: about 45% of bodyweight is intracellular water and 25% is extracellular, divided between plasma (5%) and interstitial fluids (20%). Source: Finch (1976). The total body water pool is all the water in the animal including the alimentary tract, which has a large volume, particularly in ruminants. The moisture content of the reticulo-rumen seldom falls below 85%, even on a dry diet (Macfarlane, 1971). Based on this moisture content, the average contribution of reticulo-rumen water to total body water has been calculated for a variety of African ruminants (Table 6), classified according to feeding habits (Hofmann, 1973). The volume of rumen contents may vary by nearly 100% between the wet and dry season or even on alternate days in livestock on a 2-day watering regime, when sheep drink 18% of their total body water pool, goats 20%, zebu cattle 14% and camels 10% (King, 1979). Larger fluctuations are associated with enforced dehydration.The proportion of body water in the other carcass components of a ruminant are given in Table 7, using as an example a 2-year-old Boran steer fed a dry maintenance ration. It can be seen that the components with the lowest water content are bone and fat, although the values are higher than the 20% and 6-20% respectively reported by Brody (1945), presumably because of a higher proportion of connective tissue. Bone is relatively inert, but fat represents the main energy pool of the animal, with a value of 39.3 kJ.g -1 compared with protein at 18.0 kJ.g -1 and carbohydrate at 17.6 kJ.g -1 (Lusk, 1931). Thus the energy value of the carcass of most domestic animals has been derived from analysis based primarily on the fat content (Callow, 1947). Because of its low water content an increase in the proportion of body fat is often associated with a decrease in percentage body water pool. At birth, the fat content of the body is negligible and the body water pool is about 77% of bodyweight.As the animal matures, fat is deposited until it accounts for up to 35% of bodyweight in ruminants in temperate regions, while total body water can drop to 50%. It is difficult to measure the fat content of a live animal directly, but it has often been estimated indirectly from the tritium-predicted body water pool (e.g. Shumway et al, 1956;Searle, 1970). When this technique was applied to the zebu in Africa (King and Finch, 1982), the following regression was obtained: y = 60.46 -0.801 x (r 2 = 0.798, P <0.001)where y equals dissectable body fat, and x equals tritium-predicted body water pool, all expressed as a percentage of bodyweight of zebu steers with a dissectable body fat of <10%. Although the inverse relationship was expected, it was not easy to explain in lean, starving animals in which the proportions of other components with very different water contents, such as bone and hide, were also changing. The use of such prediction equations outside the conditions in which they were derived is therefore unwise. As Webster (1978) has remarked, 'The quite common predictive use of correlations between marker dilutions and the contents of compartments they do not mark, is a thoroughly bad habit'. One can reduce the error by using the approach of Little and MacLean (1981), who noted that in castle and sheep the sum of total body water plus total body fat minus the DM content of the alimentary tract was virtually 80% of the fasted bodyweight.The long held belief that there are sacs in the forestomachs of the camel specifically for storing water has been refuted by Schmidt-Nielsen (1965). Nevertheless, after drinking water moves two or three times more slowly from the reticulo-rumen to the blood in camels than it does in cattle (Siebert and Macfarlane, 1971). The release of ingested water through the kidney does not start until after 1 day in camels, compared with 12 h in Merino sheep, and 4 h in Bos taurus cattle (Macfarlane and Howard, 1972). The main purpose of this retention is to prevent hypotonic solutions passing into the bloodstream until salts have been added. Nevertheless the result is some degree of water storage, particularly in the more arid-adapted animals. Source: Schmidt-Nielsen (1965); Hofmann (1973); King et al (1975); Kay et al (1980).  King and V.A. Finch (unpublished).Water also appears to be stored in the extracellular and intracellular fluid spaces in some ungulates under certain environmental conditions, judging by their tolerance of 15 -20% dehydration without depression of appetite and lactation. For example, Shkolnik et al (1972) reported expanded plasma volumes in Bedouin goats associated with high tritiated water (TOH) spaces, although their figures of 85% TOH spaces may need downward correction. It has also been shown in cattle and buffaloes in the tropics that, as the water turnover rate increases in response to heat stress, the body water pool enlarges (Siebert and Macfarlane, 1969;Kamal and Sief, 1969).These illustrations suggest that there is a need to re-examine the concept that a camel drinks 'for the past' and not 'for the future'. It certainly drinks to make up a deficit, but its intake may also include a provision for the future.The oedematous condition is characterised by an excessive accumulation of fluid in tissue spaces. Fluid normally passes into these spaces from the arterial end of the capillaries, where the hydrostatic pressure of the blood is greater than its osmotic pressure. It will stay there if the position is not reversed at the venous end of the capillaries or if there is a blockage of lymphatic drainage (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1975).A non-pathological oedematous condition is said to be achieved by camel traders, who allow a very thirsty camel to drink its fill after it has been given a large dose of salt. The resultant subcutaneous oedema can make a thin camel look temporarily well covered (Williamson arid Payne, 1978).There are numerous cases of pathological oedema in African livestock, frequently associated with a reduced blood osmotic pressure due to hypoproteinaemia. For example, failure of amino-acid anabolism is associated with malnutrition and liver disease; continuous haemorrhage from the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in a loss of blood volume and erythrocytes as well as plasma protein, is caused by infestations of blood sucking nematodes, or by coccidia or salmonella; trypanosomes destroy erythrocytes. As a result, fluid drains to the dependent parts of the body, notably the submandibular space, brisket and abdomen. Oedema of the limbs, scrotum or vulva are additional features of trypanosomiasis in the horse (Blood and Henderson, 1960;BVA, 1976).During starvation there comes a point when the energy reserves of the animal have become severely depleted and the rise in total body water changes from a physiological to a pathological condition, probably associated with a rise in extracellular fluid volume (Macfarlane et al, 1966c;Springell, 1968). The stage at which this occurs in the zebu must be shortly after the dissectable fat reserves have been exhausted, when its total body water pool is 70% of its liveweight (King and Finch, 1982). The clinical picture of oedema can be complicated by dehydration and, in acute cases, by peripheral circulatory failure and anaemic anoxia (Blood and Henderson, 1960).Blockage of the lymphatic or venous drainage occurs following liver fibrosis and obstruction of the hepatic portal. For example, liver flukes cause ascites -an accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity. Cardiac insufficiency, due to endocarditis or pericarditis will also cause oedema. The resultant congestion of the lungs is a common terminal event (Blood and Henderson, 1960). In East Coast fever in cattle such congestion may also be due to a terminal anaphylactic reaction (A.D. Irvin, unpublished), which is another cause of oedema. In all animals, the body water pool must remain reasonably constant in the long term, although livestock adapted to arid areas may be able to tolerate fairly large short-term fluctuations. As already suggested, animals drink primarily to replace lost fluid, rather than in anticipation of future needs. Thus water loss largely dictates water gain, and will therefore be dealt with first.The size and speed of body fluid loss is affected partly by the factors outlined in chapter 4 and partly by the tolerance of the particular species or age group to dehydration.The symptoms of dehydration as described in man probably apply also to animals, although at greater levels of body water depletion. In man, signs of thirst are very strong when as little as 2% of bodyweight has been lost, but do not get progressively worse as dehydration proceeds; after 4% weight loss the mouth is very dry and at 8% the tongue is swollen and speech difficult. Severe thirst and some mental derangement are apparent at 10%; at 12%, recovery is only possible with some assistance and it may be necessary to give fluids by injection or per rectum. The actual lethal limit for man is probably between 15 and 25% of bodyweight (Mount, 1979).By contrast, a 10% decrease in fat-free bodyweight (i.e. a 9% weight loss in a tropical ungulate) represents only moderate dehydration. It is countered by withdrawing fluid from the alimentary tract, from tissue spaces and then from the cells to maintain circulating blood volume, provided that the osmotic pressure of the blood is sufficiently high. Essential parts of the body, including the central nervous system, heart and skeleton, contribute little of this water: the major loss occurs from connective tissues, muscle and skin. Consequently the first and most important clinical sign of dehydration is dryness and wrinkling of the skin which subsides slowly after being picked up into a fold. It gives the body and face a shrunken appearance. The eyeballs recede into the sockets, but this is due to pert-orbital fat loss.According to Blood and Henderson (1960), there is an increase in tissue metabolism of fat, then carbohydrate and finally protein to produce metabolic water, but Schmidt-Nielsen (1975) pointed out that much of the water produced in this way could be used up dissipating the heat associated with its production. Loss of bodyweight occurs rapidly, along with muscular weakness, lack of appetite and increased thirst. The increased tissue metabolism under relatively anaerobic conditions results in the formation of acid metabolites, acidosis, and therefore a rise in the respiratory rate. The temperature rises slightly, the heart rate increases and the pulse has a small amplitude and low pressure (Blood and Henderson, 1960).In a hot environment, the signs of more severe dehydration (15 to 30% decrease in fat-free bodyweight) are acute. The immediate source of water loss is from the bloodstream. If the water is not replenished, the blood becomes more viscous, placing an additional load on the heart. The heart responds by an increase in stroke rate but a decrease in stroke volume, causing a decrease in blood circulation. As a result the body temperature rises, because one of the most important functions of the bloodstream is heat transfer from the body core to the skin. If this condition is not reversed by spraying or immersion in cold water plus rehydration, death will occur as a result of an explosive rise in body temperature, rather than as a direct effect of water depletion. Clinical signs of hyperthermia occur in many animals at a rectal temperature of about 39.5°C. Heart and respiratory rates increase, with a weak, largeamplitude pulse, and nervous system activity is depressed, so that the animal becomes dull, stumbles while walking and tends to lie down. When the temperature reaches 42.0°C, respiration is laboured arid general distress is evident. Beyond this point the pulse becomes very rapid and weak, and respiration shallow and irregular. The prime cause of death is probably from depression of the respiratory centre in the brain. Collapse, convulsions and terminal coma occur-in most species when a temperature of about 42.0°C is reached (Adolph and Dill, 1938;Blood and Henderson, 1960;Schmidt-Nielsen, 1975).The most common cause of dehydration in a hot environment is loss of water due to evaporative cooling. Water turnover rates have not been measured in dehydrated animals in sub-Saharan Africa, but a study was carried out with camels, cattle and sheep in the Australian desert, where the maximum ambient temperature was 42°C and solar radiation was measured at 1160 for W.m -2 . The cattle (Bos taurus) lost 7-8% of their body water per day and survived for 3-4 days, Merino sheep lost 4-6% per day and lived for 6-8 days and camels lost 1-2% and survived for 15-20 days (Macfarlane and Howard, 1972).In a cooler environment, death from dehydration occurs more slowly, with a deterioration of body functions occurring at a greater degree of dehydration. Much of this deterioration can probably be related to the breakdown of the normal functions of the blood. The most important of these functions include: transport of nutrients, metabolites, excretory products, gases, hormones, and non-respiratory blood cells, transfer of heat, and transmission of force for ultrafiltration in capillaries and kidneys (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1975).The commonest cause of dehydration in cool environments is diarrhoea, which is often combined with systemic states such as toxaemia or septicaemia. Any form of gastro-intestinal impaction, obstruction or distension also produces dehydration by stimulating saliva and gut secretions (Blood and Henderson, 1960). In sub-Saharan Africa, scours and heat stress frequently occur together and are probably the main cause of death in young stock.The ability to withstand dehydration has been ascribed to the maintenance of a normal plasma volume. This volume is maintained primarily by the osmotic pressure of the plasma proteins. These proteins leak out of the vascular bed much more quickly in animals such as cattle (Bos taurus), which are not arid-adapted, than in camels, which are good at maintaining their plasma volume (Siebert, 1973). In man, the most important event in heat acclimatization is the expansion of the plasma volume (Senay et al, 1976). Lactating Bedouin goats are reported to have an expanded plasma volume of 8.5% bodyweight, which means that there can be a 40% reduction before the plasma volume equates with the 5% value found in most other ruminants (Shkolnik et al, 1979). Similar sized reductions in plasma volume have been recorded in Indian desert sheep, but it is not clear whether the initial plasma volume was an abnormally large proportion of bodyweight (Purohit et al, 1972). Although the plasma volume decreased, the plasma sodium concentration remained constant, associated with a doubling of urinary sodium levels (Gosh et al, 1976). Under African ranching conditions, livestock use 5 to 30% of their total body water pool per day (King, 1979). This loss is reduced to as little as 1.5% in dehydrated, arid-adapted animals such as the camel (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965).There are four main avenues of water loss: evaporation, urine, faeces and lactation.Evaporative cooling may account for 20 -30% of the total dissipation of the effective radiative heat load in a tropical ruminant and 80% of the water loss (Taylor, 1972;Finch, 1972b). In addition there is an obligatory water loss from the respiratory tract which is probably >10%, and a small insensible water loss through the skin (King and Finch, 1982). In general biological terms, the smaller the animal the larger the surface area to volume ratio and thus the greater the efficiency of evaporative cooling. On the other hand, the larger the animal the greater the volume per unit surface area and hence the larger the water reserve which can be used for evaporative cooling (Edney, 1966).The relative contribution of sweating or panting to evaporative heat dissipation in a number of different domestic animals is shown in Table 8. Among ungulates in Africa, buffaloes, camels, cattle, donkeys and some of the larger antelopes sweat, whereas wildebeest, oryx, sheep, goats and many smaller gazelles pant. Insensible perspiration and non-panting respiratory heat loss account for a relatively small amount of the total loss in hot, dry conditions. Although panting seems to be completely adequate as the sole means of heat loss among sheep, sweating can also be important in closely shorn or haired sheep over the first few hours of heat stress (Hofmeyr et al, 1969;Taylor et al, 1969;Jenkinson, 1972). Source: Jenkinson (1972).There are a number of reasons why smaller animals, with their relatively higher heat production and absorption, should pant rather than sweat. Panting appears to be the more efficient of the two methods of evaporative cooling. Both methods use latent heat from the body core, but sweating can also use solar radiation on the body surface. Panting also provides its own airflow over moist surfaces, thus facilitating evaporation. Salt and electrolytes are not lost, as in sweating, unless the saliva drips out of the mouth. Finally, panting cools the nasal and oral passages whence cool blood flows into the venous sinus, bathing the carotid plexus. Thus the blood supply to the brain can be kept cool, even when the body temperature is rising (Taylor and Lyman, 1972). The disadvantages of panting include a risk of respiratory alkalosis, particularly in the goat (Jenkinson, 1972), and the increase in work and therefore heat production by the respiratory muscles. However, much of this work is reduced by the elastic property of the respiratory system, which has its own natural frequency of oscillation.The high respiratory rate associated with panting has the effect of keeping the system oscillating at its own resonant frequency with the minimum of muscular effort. Thus, the thermoregulatory efficiency of panting is high in such species as sheep, which show no increase in total body heat production above normal levels (Hales and Brown, 1974).As 1 g of water changes from liquid to vapour, whether by panting or sweating, it binds about 2425 J of heat. In terms of heat exchange this is a very efficient use of water when it is realized that to heat 1 g of water from freezing to boiling point requires only 490 J. Nevertheless, evaporation can represent a very significant loss of body water. A fully hydrated camel weighing 260 kg lost 91 of water a day through sweat when standing in the desert sun. This quantity represented a loss of 4% of total bodyweight, and a loss much in excess of 25% would probably be fatal. Assuming that heat load and therefore evaporation are proportional to body surface, then water loss under hot, desert conditions increases exponentially with decreasing size. There is very little difference in water loss per hour in the camel at 1.0%, and man at 1.5%, but the rate in animals weighing 2.5 kg is nearly 5%. Many animals also have lower lethal limits than the camel (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965). The need to preserve vital functions, as an animal becomes dehydrated, results in a reduction in the rate of evaporative cooling. The sequel to this reduction is either a rise in body temperature or a depression of heat production.Pathological conditions of the respiratory tract and skin may interfere with normal evaporation. For example, dermatitis from mange mites, virus pox or bacteria may result in excessive fluid exudate and require parenteral administration of fluids (Blood and Henderson, 1960).Livestock species vary in terms of their ability to concentrate urine and/or decrease renal urine flow and retain metabolites in the body fluids. Camels, sheep and goats are better adapted to arid conditions in this sense than zebu cattle or donkeys, as shown in Figure 3 (Maloiy and Taylor, 1971;Maloiy, 1972). Although less water tends to be lost from the body through urine than through the faeces, the scope for varying urine concentration and flow is greater. Thus, the desert sheep is only 30% more efficient than the zebu at extracting moisture from its faeces but at least 100% more efficient at concentrating its urine.Among African ungulates, the highest levels of urine concentration have been recorded for the gerenuk and dik-dik at over 4000 mosm.kg -1 (Hoppe, 1976) -a low figure compared with desert rodents, which can concentrate their urine to over 9000 mosm.kg -1 (MacMillen, 1972).The reason for the difference may be that large animals cannot avoid high environmental heat loads, and therefore have high water losses from evaporation. The amount of water saved by concentrating their urine is relatively little compared with that lost by evaporation. In contrast, the entire water balance of small rodents living in burrows can be designed round an efficient renal mechanism for water conservation (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1972). Source: Maloiy (1972) Diseases of the urinary system will upset the normal water balance of the animal but are masked by symptoms of pain and toxaemia. The commonest pathological conditions are cystitis and pyelonephritis in cows following a difficult parturition, and urolithiasis in castrated males (Blood and Henderson, 1960).Faecal water is a potentially larger source of water loss than urine. This loss is not confined to exogenous water, because half the total body water pool can pass through the salivary glands and rumen per day. Therefore the ability to extract and reabsorb faecal water in the colon is important. A breakdown of the water reabsorption mechanisms in the large intestine results in diarrhoea and can cause dehydration. Bos taurus cattle can reduce faecal moisture content to 60%, sheep to 50% and camels to 45% (Macfarlane, 1964). The observation that the faeces of zebu cattle contain less water than do those of European cattle in the same dietary and environmental conditions (Quartermain et al, 1957) may explain in part the lower water requirement of the zebu (Phillips, 1960). Even in donkeys, faecal water content seldom drops below 60%, so that in this species and cattle, one third to one half of the total daily water loss is in the faeces (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965). Source: Knoess (1977); Williamson and Payne (1978).Milk production represents a severe drain on the water resources of an animal. The water turnover of lactating camels and sheep in a hot, Australian environment has been measured at 44% above that of non-lactating animals (Macfarlane and Howard, 1972), while dairy cattle in the tropics require an extra 3 l of drinking water for every litre of milk produced (Barrel and Larkin, 1974). However, the moisture content of the milk of arid-adapted ruminants is not very different from that of other livestock (Table 9), probably because the young suckling animal needs water as much as nourishment from milk. The provision of drinking water for livestock is the main concern of this series of research reports on water and livestock. Accordingly, mean daily water requirements are given in Table 10. The problem is that drinking is only one of a number of avenues of water intake, and it may not even be the largest one. The relative importance of the different forms of water intake will vary with weather, diet and management, within a species or breed as well as between them.Mean values for drinking water intake by African ruminant livestock are given in Table 10. However, when planning a water supply, the capacity is usually designed to meet the maximum requirements of the animal, both in terms of its daily requirements and the amount it can drink at one visit. The requirements in practice (Classen, 1977), have been found to be well below the theoretical maximum values obtained by deducting the contribution of respiratory and metabolic water inputs from the maximum body water turnover rates obtained in the field (King, 1979). The explanation is probably that maximum values are associated with the ingestion of a good quality forage with a high rather than low moisture content. Source: Barrett and Larkin (1974); Classen (1977); King (1979).The maximum amount an animal can drink at one visit to a watering point varies with its degree of dehydration and the time it is allowed to spend near the water. In many parts of East Africa, Classen (1977) found that indigenous zebu cattle drank about 23 l when watered daily, up to 35 l after a very long walk on 2-day watering regime, and a maximum of 45 l on a 3-day regime, but at the risk of water intoxication and death. French (1956b) found that mature zebu oxen on a 2-day watering regime could drink 70 l in 1 h. Following severe water deprivation, cattle, sheep, camels and donkeys can all drink a large amount rapidly (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965). Macfarlane and Howard (1972) found that camels which were dehydrated by 20 to 25% replaced 60% of the weight lost as water (80 -1001) in the first drink, while sheep and cattle replaced 75%. The animals replaced all the weight lost from dehydration in 1 or 2 days. Field (1977) observed that camels belonging to pastoralists at North Horr, Kenya drank three times over a period of 2.3 h and assumed that this behaviour was necessary for complete rehydration. However, where there is considerable pressure of stock on a watering point, animals may not be given a chance for a second drink. In such a situation, it is not clear whether the animal learns to drink a very large amount in a short time, or whether body water use is cut back to the smaller amount that can be replaced in one drink. Otherwise, many livestock would become more and more dehydrated as the dry season progressed. After a large drink, livestock often stagger about, then lie down and are left undisturbed for an hour or two before being moved away (R. Sandford, unpublished). Their behaviour may relate to water intoxication, or to physical discomfort resulting from mechanical interference with normal bodily functions caused by a distended rumen.Water intoxication occurs following ingestion of excessive quantities of water, especially if a great deal of salt has been lost due to severe exercise or high environmental temperatures.The water is absorbed into the bloodstream, reducing the plasma osmotic pressure. This reduction may be sufficient to cause the erythrocytes to swell and burst, resulting in a severe haemolytic anaemia. Cellular hydration occurs, particularly in the brain, causing a condition analogous to cerebral oedema. This results in nervous signs, including muscle weakness, tremor, restlessness, ataxia, convulsions and terminal coma. It may be avoided in a susceptible animal by giving limited access to water at the first drink (Blood and Henderson, 1960).Severe water intoxication is uncommon in ruminant livestock indigenous to the dry regions of Africa. They have developed mechanisms to cope with it, similar to those described for the camel and the Bedouin goat. In these last two species, large volumes of drinking water are retained in the rumen until the osmolality has been raised with urea and electrolytes from the extracellular fluid, especially via the saliva, and also from desert plants with a high salt content. Absorption of water is slower from the rumen than it is further down the alimentary tract. Thus the osmotic stability of red blood cells in camels, zebu cattle, and certain haired smallstock is probably never challenged (Choshniak and Shkolnik, 1978). The same appears to be true of donkeys, even though their entire alimentary tract may be flooded when they drink (Maloiy and Boarer, 1971).McDowell (NRC, 1980) describes another form of water intoxication in studies of sheep in a hot room. Under these conditions, one in five sheep started to consume very large volumes of water with a corresponding reduction in feed intake. These sheep died as a result of starvation, due to the substitution of water for gut fill. A similar proportion of range sheep brought into feed-lots in Iran died for the same reason.Animals that are too weak to drink may be rehydrated with isotonic fluids containing appropriate electrolytes (0.60% sodium chloride, 0.27% lactate, 0.04% potassium chloride and 0.02% calcium chloride). Oral administration is satisfactory provided gut absorption is normal.Otherwise the intraperitoneal route is preferred because a large intravenous injection may cause cardiac embarrassment. An adult bovine may be given 4 l of isotonic solution intravenously in 30 minutes without untoward effect (Blood and Henderson, 1960). Although this amount may represent nearly 20% of blood volume, it makes less than a 2% contribution to the total body water pool.The quality of drinking water is often as important as the quantity. Water quality is affected by total soluble salt concentration, the presence of some salts specifically toxic to animals even in low concentrations, and possible contamination with disease-producing micro-organisms or their spores.High evaporation rates from lakes and dams in Africa can raise the mineral content of drinking water; borehole water is also frequently brackish (saline). The response of livestock to highly saline drinking water is to increase their water intake, but at a certain concentration the appetite becomes depressed and fluid intake is reduced. The reason is that the higher concentration of salt requires a greater proportion of the water ingested to be used for salt excretion, until not enough water is left for other functions. The salt concentration at which this depression occurs is a measure of arid adaptation in a species, as shown in Table 11. In practice, if animals become accustomed to a salty water supply they can tolerate much higher salt concentrations than if forced to drink the more concentrated solutions without a preliminary conditioning period (French, 1956a). Source: French (1956a), Wilson (1967, Macfarlane (1971); Maloiy (1972). Source: Hart (1974).Salts which cause specific toxic effects are listed in Table 12, together with recommended working levels in drinking water (derived in Australia) which should provide an adequate margin of safety. The amount of information on water analysis is very variable across Africa, but there are some documented cases of toxic ion effects. For example, fluorosis in man and livestock is a problem in volcanic areas and where drinking water is obtained from deep boreholes (Williamson, 1953;Walker and Milne, 1955;Murray, 1967;Said, 1981).Contamination of stock drinking water with urine, faeces, other animal discharges, or even animal carcasses sometimes occurs in pastoral areas. Examples of bacterial diseases spread by each of these contaminants are leptospirosis, salmonellosis, brucellosis and anthrax respectively. Drinking water is less likely to spread viral diseases, but may be implicated in the spread of foot-and-mouth and rinderpest, among others. A number of stock parasites may spend part of their life cycle in or near water, such as protozoa, flukes, flat-worms and roundworms (BVA, 1976). Because they are frequently introduced via faecal contamination, the faecal coliform level may be used as an indicator of the presence of pathogens. The maximum monthly mean should be less than 1000 organisms per 100 ml or five times that in any one sample (Hart, 1974).Not much information is available on other contaminants, but these could nevertheless be borne in mind. Blue-green algae toxins have commonly killed livestock in Australia (Hart, 1974), and pesticides such as DDT, which is still used in Africa, could build up in the water of dams or lakes draining agricultural areas, particularly if they do not have large outlets and if they lose much of their water through evaporation.After deduction of water drunk from total body water turnover, the balance of water intake is made up of water in and on food, inspired and absorbed through the skin, as well as from the oxidation of organic compounds during metabolism. The most important of these non-drinking water sources is water in the vegetation.During and immediately after the rains the moisture content of grass may be more than 80% and of browse more than 70%. At such high moisture contents many herbivores can go for days without drinking. However, during the rainy season ephemeral water ponds are widespread and so the ability to do without drinking water is not of value. An exception is the grazing of porous, volcanic hills, which hold no standing water and can therefore be exploited by livestock only during the rains, whereas hills of other soil types are usually held in reserve for dry-season grazing. The ability to go without drinking water for days or even weeks, once the ephemeral water has disappeared and the vegetation is starting to dry out, is a priceless asset of some game animals, camels and to a lesser extent desert goats and sheep. The forage moisture threshold at which an animal does not need to drink is illustrated from a study of domestic oryx under African ranching conditions (Figure 4). These conditions are defined as: day-grazing on natural pasture where forage quantity is not limited, drinking water available daily, and penning animals at night. In Figure 4, the theoretical curve of water intake from forage has been constructed, starting with a low DMI (2% bodyweight) at low forage moisture content, and ending with a high DMI (3.5%) for very green grass. This curve has been superimposed on the actual maximum and minimum values obtained for total body water turnover, adjusted by subtraction of estimates of respiratory and metabolic water inputs. High levels of water intake from forage are usually associated with high levels of body water turnover. Nevertheless there are times when, and ways in which, the body water turnover can be kept below the water intake from forage, so that the oryx does not need to drink (chapter 4). The curve of water intake from forage is similar for indigenous livestock, but their body water turnover rates are higher (Table 13). They will therefore be more dependent on drinking water than the oryx, unless they consistently eat forage with a higher water content. A rough estimate of the moisture content of the diet of each species was obtained by hand grab sampling the plant parts the animals were seen to be eating during each water turnover study (Table 14). The per cent moisture content of the diet of mixed feeders such as smallstock, and particularly dry-season browsers such as eland and camel, is higher than that of grazers such as zebu cattle and oryx. This finding is obvious from measurements, during the dry season, of the water content of herbs and browse which is usually >30%, whereas grass may be <10%. Nevertheless, the contribution of water in browse to body water turnover over the year does not materially alter the ranking of different species' dependence on drinking water, which is similar to their ranking for water turnover (Table 15). The main reason is that the amount of water from forage obtained at dietary moistures <40% is relatively small (Figure 4). a Adjusted by subtraction of metabolic and respiratory water input.Source: Adapted from King (1979). Source: King (1979).In arid areas there is usually a variety of juicy plants which would appear to offer livestock an alternative source of water as well as food. Some of these plants are sufficiently palatable to be selected even when there is drinking water available, for instance the juicy herb Commelina and the swollen stem of Pyrenacantha malvifolia (Field, 1975). Other plants such as aloes are only taken towards the end of the dry season. Some bushes with juicy leaves also have a high salt content, which may increase rather than decrease the herbivore's water requirements. For example, it has been found in Australia and the Middle East that sheep more than doubled their water turnover rates when moved from a natural pasture to one high in salt bush (Atriplex spp.) (Wilson, 1966;Degen, 1977a;1977b). In Africa, game and livestock browse salt bush (Suadea monoica) during the dry season. Whether or not this diet increases their water turnover presumably depends on whether they sweat or pant, and, if they sweat, how much salt is secreted by the sweat glands. The contribution of dew and guttation to water intake has been measured on improved pasture in Australia, where sheep obtained between 30 and 130 ml. kg -1 .d -1 from these sources (Brown and Lynch, 1972). It would be extremely difficult to measure water intake from dew and guttation under semi-arid conditions on natural pastures. Dew forms nearly every night in some of the semiarid regions of Kenya, but only during the cooler months in real deserts. Wild impala have been observed licking water from short vegetation in the early morning (Lamprey, 1963), and in much the same way sheep deprived of water were observed licking dew off pasture and fences (Brown and Lynch, 1972).Some plants become hygroscopic when dessicated during the dry season, and may acquire a 20 to 40% moisture content during the night, even without visible dew. Such plants can provide an important source of water for nocturnal grazing animals (Buxton, 1923;Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965). For example, Taylor (1968) estimated that oryx and Grant's gazelle could obtain their water requirements from the desert herb Disperma if they fed in the evening, night and early morning. If the wild oryx does not need to drink when the forage moisture is <40%, then it has either increased its DMI to 3.5% of bodyweight at 40% forage moisture or lowered its minimum body water turnover rate, which is more likely. Figure 4 relates to the domestic oryx on a day-grazing regime. Unfortunately, most domestic animals in Africa have to be penned at night to prevent human and animal predation.Although there is a net water loss from the respiratory system and through the skin, these two components together make a significant contribution to the input side of the water balance equation. The amount of water (kg) in the inspired air which is exchanged with the water pool accounts for about 10% of total water intake, and may be calculated as follows (Weast et al, 1965):water in inspired air (kg) = r.h. × sat. water vap. × resp. min. vol.where r.h. is relative humidity (%), sat. water vap. is weight of 1 m 3 of saturated water vapour (kg) and resp. min. vol. is respiratory minute volume (m 3 ).The amount of air inspired (m 3 ) was calculated from data on zebu cattle weighing about 220 kg (Finch, 1973) as:6.64+3,00 f where f is the breathing rate per minute. Normal values over 24 h for zebu cattle on a maintenance diet are in the region of 110 m 3 of inspired air containing 1.4 kg water (King and Finch, 1982).Cutaneous water exhange was not measured, but it is assumed to be about 10% of the water exchange via the respiratory system (D. Robert-shaw, unpublished). More water is absorbed through the skin if the animal is actually rained on, but cutaneous water intake probably remains insignificant compared with other forms of intake.The effect of these two components was observed during feeding trials in covered pens on Galana ranch, Kenya. It was noted that livestock reduced their water intake on rainy days, which was explained by their lower requirement for evaporative cooling due to the drop in ambient temperature when it rained (Stanley-Price, in press). However in such a situation there is also a marked increase in the relative humidity and hence the water content of the inspired air.The oxidation of organic compounds during metabolism leads to the formation of water from the hydrogen present. Attempts to measure this process in fasting cattle based on the dilution of tritiated water were unsatisfactory (J.E. Vercoe, unpublished). Therefore it is still calculated indirectly. An example of the calculation of metabolic water produced from nutrient intake is given in Table 16. Alternatively, the amount of water (g) has been estimated at 0.0294 × total heat production (kJ) (Morrison, 1953).Besides being an avenue of water gain, there is a generally held belief that the oxidation of fat deposits makes a net contribution to the total body water pool, not just from the hump of the camel and the fat-tail of the sheep, but from deposits in any animal, for example the pig (Skipitaris, 1981). However this assumption has to be qualified by the circumstances (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965). For instance, metabolic water is a product of oxidation but, in the process of inspiring the oxygen, water is expired. It has been calculated that in a hot, dry environment (ambient temperature 36°C and r.h. 10%) an animal loses 23.5 g of respiratory water in the process of producing 12.3 g of metabolic water (D. Swift, unpublished). As well as water, metabolic heat is generated (418 kJ).Part of this heat (13.6%) is offset by the heat of vapourisation of the expired water. If the remainder (361 kJ) had to be dissipated by sweating, it would cost 149 ml of water (section 3.2.1). The relationship between metabolic water yield and the water that could be required to dissipate the heat of combustion varies with the organic matter being oxidised. Thus 1 g of fat yields 1 ml of water, but could require 14 ml for vapourisation; 1 g of protein or carbohydrate yields about 0.5 ml of water and could require 6.5 ml of sweat.Schmidt-Nielsen (1965) has argued that the water of oxidation is only of value where the vapour pressure gradient between the expired air and the environment is shallow, for example in a humid burrow, and when the endogenous heat production is low enough to allow heat storage or dissipation by non-evaporative means, for instance as metabolic rate decreases.Low metabolic rates may be expected to be associated with low water turnovers. Thus the relative contribution of metabolic water to total input is much higher (15-35%) when the rate of turnover (k) of the body water pool is low (k <0.05) than when it is high (k>0.15, metabolic water 5%). For example, penned zebu, eland, haired sheep and goats had a mean rate constant of 0.10 and metabolic water was calculated as 8% of total input, whereas oryx had a rate constant of 0.05 and their metabolic water production contributed 16% (King et al, 1978). Source: King et al, (1978), based on van Es (1967).It is recognized in pastoral production systems that the amount of milk left for the calf may not be enough to achieve maximum growth, unless the peak demands of man and the calf happen not to coincide. For example, if the average daily milk yield of a Boran cow is 3.7 kg and only half is available for the calf, then there will be a shortfall of about 1 kg below the figure of 2.9 kg required for rapid growth (Dahl and Hjort, 1976). Thus malnutrition from milk deprivation has come to be accepted as one of the main causes of slow growth and highmortality of calves in pastoral areas.However, the water content of milk may be as important to the unweaned animal as its nutritive value. For example, Stephenson et al (1981) measured the daily fluid intake from trough water and milk by free-ranging Merino lambs as 155 ml. kg -1 during the Australian summer. They concluded that milk intake was inadequate to meet the lambs' fluid demands and that insufficient watering points could be a significant factor affecting lamb survival. The daily fluid requirement of the Maasai lamb or Small East African kid, penned in the shade near the boma, or fortified night enclosure, would be lower than that of the free-ranging Merino. However, it is likely to be higher than the mean value for adjusted body water turnover of the adult sheep and goat given in Table 15. Based on data of milk yields in the Small East African Goat (C.P. Peacock, unpublished) and Small East African Zebu (P. Semenye, 1982), values for body water turnover must be: <110 ml. kg -1 .d -1 in kids weighing 7 kg at 2 months, and <74 ml. kg -1 .d -1 in calves weighing 30 kg at 2 months. The conclusion is that the water requirement of the calf may not be met because its turnover rate associated with optimum growth would be higher than the rate given, which nevertheless demands the peak milk intake of 2.5 kg. d -1 .In Maasailand, suckling livestock are unlikely to be taken to water before they are 1 to 2 months old, and it is not clear whether signs of dehydration are recognized. Where the climate is hotter and drier, as in the extreme north of the Sahel in Mali, unweaned stock, which are kept in camp for 4 to 6 months depending on the species, are given water from a water skin.The amount varies from 1 to 21.d -1 in kids to 5 to 101 every fourth day in camel calves (Swift, 1979).When milk is the only source of water input (apart from respiratory and metabolic water), then milk intake can be estimated from the turnover of tritiated water in the body of the young ruminant (Macfarlane et al, 1960). However, when this technique of tritiated water dilution was applied to the milk intake of suckling rodents and dogs, the results made little sense until it was found that 50 to 80% of the water lost by the young was recycled by the dam by licking up the urine and faeces. Thus more than 30% of the water secreted in the milk was recycled in the dam (Baverstock and Green, 1975). It is not known if this form of water recycling is important in any large African ungulates. Different species of livestock have different rates of water turnover, and in general animals adapted to dry environments have lower rates of turnover than those in more temperate zones. Body water turnover is also determined by the size of the animal. The role of water in energy production, thermoregulation and other processes means that there are a number of other factors which affect the turnover rate of body water. These are discussed in detail in this chapter.One of the main functions of water in the body is as a vehicle for intermediary metabolism. There is a relationship between energy metabolism and body size, derived by Brody (1945) and Kleiber (1947), which is:where F is fasting metabolism (MJ NE. d -1 ) and W is bodyweight (kg).Therefore one might expect a relationship between body water turnover (y) and body pool size (x). This was demonstrated in six species of ruminant in Kenya by the following regression (Figure 5): log y = 0.836 log x -0.619 (r 2 =0.82) (4.02)The exponent of x is very similar to that of 0.82 obtained by Macfarlane and Howard (1972) from a wider variety of desert animals.The reason for the increase in the value of the exponent of body size in equation ( 4.02) versus equation (4.01) is that water serves another function besides intermediary metabolism, namely evaporative cooling. The effect of having two different power functions is to increase the water to energy turnover ratio with increasing size (Table 17). However, larger animals may exploit water conservation mechanisms related to their bulk, and thus be an exception to the rule (sections 4.2.4 and 4.2.5).The interrelation between water required for metabolism, evaporative cooling, and total water loss may be expressed in a simple diagram (Figure 6) which links more complex diagrams (Figures 7 and 8). There is a wide range of values for total water loss (Table 18). Moreover, the rate at which water is used for metabolism or cooling is highly variable. The relative importance of the different avenues of water loss has already been discussed (section 3.2). The next step is to try and quantify the effect of the different factors on rates of passage. A model of the heat exchange of the animal with its environment, which calculates evaporative water loss, is in preparation (D.M. Swift, unpublished). When it has been published it will provide a better structure for the contents of section 4.2 on thermoregulation. The next step would be to add energy production (section 4.1) to the model. Neither topic has been addressed sufficiently rigorously in this report to allow modelling except at a very crude level. Nevertheless it does lay the foundation for future work. Source: Brody (1945); Figure 5.  a Probably an underestimate due to the small number of trials. Source: Adapted from King (1979). Nutrition exerts a profound effect on body water turnover. There is a significant, positive, linear relationship between faecal output and water turnover in cattle and sheep (Siebert, 1971;Macfarlane et al, 1974). However, the nutritional effects are not constant but depend on the form in which food is acquired, the way in which it is used, and the heat increment of feeding and energy utilisation. The interactions of those effects are shown in Figure 7. Note that the diagram has two components in common with Figure 6, namely body temperature and water required for metabolism, which are the main avenues by which nutrition influences total body water use and loss. The effect of body temperature on metabolic rate can be either positive or negative as illustrated graphically. It is discussed in more detail in section 4.1.3.The effects of forage intake on body water turnover depend on four major characteristics of the food eaten. The first is the water content of the forage which, in certain situations, has a significant positive correlation with water turnover (King et al, 1975). Very green vegetation can supply all the water needs of the animal and more.Theoretically, plant moisture content may even restrict appetite when it is retained in ingested forage by the sponge effect of coarse structural components (Van Soest, 1982). However, the water is usually released from the forage and is rapidly absorbed from the rumen or passed out in moist faeces. Absorbed water can be -1excreted from the kidneys of sheep at a rate of 30 l.d so that the DMI of sheep grazing green grass was not limited by its moisture content of 83% (Macfarlane et al, 1966b). Similarly it has been shown that cattle can use grazing with a moisture content of 75-83% very efficiently (R.E. McDowell, unpublished), implying a high body water turnover rate.There is a second reason for the significant, positive correlation between vegetation moisture and body water turnover. Green forage usually has a high digestibility and nutritional value, thereby allowing increased DMI and a raised metabolism with its concomitant demands for water (Forbes, 1968;Springell, 1968).At the other end of the scale, very dry forage will produce a low demand for water for intermediary metabolism, but paradoxically might increase the water needed to dissipate the extra heat increment of feeding, and to facilitate digestion and excretion. For example, if the DMI of grass (of 10% moisture and 40% apparent digestibility) was 2% of bodyweight, then daily water intake from it would be 3 ml. kg bodyweight -1 and faecal water output 27 ml. kg bodyweight -1 .The salt content of the forage also affects water turnover, as discussed in section 3.3.2.The term metabolism may be applied to the modification of all categories of food digested. However, the total energy intake of the herbivore is usually the most important factor determining total output of animal products, as long as the relatively small protein, mineral and vitamin requirements are met (Williamson and Payne, 1978). This statement may not be entirely true for high yielding dairy cows (Fuquay, 1981), but such animals are not associated with pastoral production systems. The main source of energy from forage is carbohydrate.The fat content of the diet of herbivores is usually very low (1-4%), except in the newborn suckling animal when it provides 30% of DMI and 50% of caloric intake (Van Soest, 1982). Milk intake has already been discussed in section 3.3.6.Increases in DMI result in increases in metabolic rate and productivity. The extra water requirements for different forms of production have been estimated for farm animals in the British Isles at the highest temperatures experienced there (Table 19). They are included for reference when water turnover is estimated in the pastoral situation (section 5.1.8) for which no such data exist.A severe reduction in DMI produces a similar reduction in body water turnover. Nevertheless, metabolic processes must continue if the animal is to survive, and so body tissues are catabolised to make up the shortfall in food intake. This tissue mobilisation produces metabolic water as a byproduct (section 3.3.5) and a continuing use of water for metabolism. However, the need is reduced by 20 to 30% in the zebu because of the depression of metabolic rate in response to a diet of half that of maintenance. The resultant reduction in body water turnover by 30 to 40% is therefore an expression of both a reduced DMI and a lowered resting metabolic rate (Finch and King, 1979;1982).Endogenous heat is both a by-and an end-product of metabolism, as shown in Figure 7. Its effect on body water turnover becomes important when, combined with exogenous heat, it exceeds the upper critical heat load on the animal, which then has to resort to evaporative cooling. The significance of the upper critical heat load is that at higher heat loads metabolism actually increases, due to the oxygen cost of evaporative heat loss and the increase in metabolism associated with a rise in body temperature (Robertshaw and Finch, 1976). It is depicted in the small graph relating body temperature (t) to metabolic rate (MR) in Figure 7. It is known as the Q 10 effect and can be explained by the fact that a rise in temperature accelerates most chemical reactions (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1975).Although endogenous heat production may contribute less than one third of the total heat load on the animal (Table 5), it may be the portion which can be most easily reduced by the animal, by decreasing its activity and food intake. Walking and feeding account for 90% of the diurnal activity of livestock under African commercial ranching conditions (Lewis, 1975;1977;1978). Pastoral cattle often have to walk long distances between grazing and water. But the extra water cost of walking per se is negligible if the solar heat load is moderate. For example, when the total solar radiation was 2140 ± 138J. cm -2 .d -1 , the cost of walking 16 km instead of 8 km.d -1 was an extra 4.4 ml.kg -1 .d -1 for zebu cattle on a half maintenance ration. When total solar radiation rose to 2385 ± 59 J.cm -2 .d -1 the water cost of travelling the extra 8 km was significantly higher (P < 0.005), by an extra 11 ml.kg -1 .d -1 . The reason was that the walking period of the cattle travelling 16 km.d -1 extended into mid-afternoon, when the environment was at its hottest (Finch and King, 1982). The impact and avoidance of high solar heat loads will be considered in more detail in the next section. The present discussion is concerned with the heat produced from walking, which can be considered from two angles: total energy expenditure and heat production over a given distance is least when the zebu cow is encouraged to walk at about 3 km.h -1 ; however, the rate of heat production will be reduced as speed declines to 1.5 km.h -1 , when the energy cost flattens out at 20% above that of standing still, except in the starving zebu, when it appears to go on declining (section 5.1.3). Such control of endogenous heat production may be abandoned by dehydrated cattle when they approach water. Classen (1977) reported that very thirsty and debilitated animals will run to water and may die from exertion and overdrinking. Perhaps the extra exertion precipitates an explosive rise in body temperature (see section 3.1).The mechanism responsible for a reduction of food intake in heat-stressed animals is not clear (Van Soest, 1982), but its effects are. The reduction will affect the heat increment of feeding, which is about 40 kJ.MJ -1 metabolisable energy (ME) when eating and ruminating fresh herbage on temperate grasslands (Webster, 1980). The sequel to reduced intake will be a reduction in the heat increments of production and maintenance (Robertshaw and Finch, 1976). This drop in heat production may be partly offset by mobilisation of body tissues (section 4.1.2).Thus the immediate effect of inactivity and inappetence is to reduce endogenous heat production by about 30% and the total heat load in the free-ranging animal by 10 to 20%. The longer term effect of the reduction in ME due to lack of appetite is a reduction in metabolic rate which is related to or caused by a reduction in endocrine activity. Chronic exposure to heat depresses thyroid activity, as well as plasma cortisol and growth hormone concentrations and turnover rates. All three hormones act in cooperation and are calorigenic (Thompson, 1976;Robertshaw and Finch, 1976). Chronic exposure to heat stress also depresses libido and spermatogenesis, or suppresses oestrus and ovulation, and causes luteolysis and embryonic mortality, particularly in temperate breeds of livestock (McDowell, 1972). All these reductions in metabolic activity, and its byproduct endogenous heat production, will reduce body water turnover.  6) contributes to total body heat loss is shown in Figure 8. This diagram shows evaporative heat loss acting negatively, via total heat loss, on the same vertical column of components of body heat gain through to body temperature as in Figure 7, but with the superimposition of the sun on top. Of course, not all heat loss occurs via evaporative cooling, nor is it always hot in the tropics. The way in which thermoregulation affects body water turnover involves a complex interaction of climatic variables with behavioural responses and anatomical or physiological adaptations of the animal.During the daylight hours almost all the heat gained from the environment comes directly or indirectly from solar (shortwave) radiation. Heat is gained from convection, conduction and long-wave radiation only if the temperature of the air and of objects in the habitat is higher than the skin temperature of the animal. The degree to which the habitat heats up varies with its composition. For example, desert sand reflects 30-40% of the incoming radiation, desert shrubs 30-38%, and green grass about 25% (Barry and Chorley, 1971).Although green vegetation reduces the reflectivity (albedo) of the ground, it does not heat up. Instead it acts as a heat sink for longwave radiation, for example from a warm animal, because it is at a lower temperature than its surroundings as a result of transpiration. Thus, even during the day, there is usually a net outflow of longwave radiation from the animal, and this increases at night. In order for this dry heat loss to balance the solar heat gain, the ambient temperature must be low, as it is at high latitudes or high altitudes. There is a 6.5°C drop, or adiabatic lapse rate, for every 1000m increase in altitude. Therefore, if sweating accounts for 21% of the net heat loss of a zebu cow at 1675 m a.s.l. near the equator in Kenya (Table 5), it will account for a much larger proportion at sea level provided the atmosphere remains dry. Because sweating can account for up to 80% of the water used by a ruminant in the tropics, it is not surprising to find correlations between ambient temperature or solar radiation and total body water turnover. For example, on a ranch in Kenya situated 180 m a.s.l. a significant correlation was obtained between daily mean ambient temperature up to 29°C and body water turnover (x) in the zebu (Figure 9), namely: y = 21.518x -390 (r 2 = 0.71)Equally significant relationships (P <0.001) were obtained between direct and diffuse solar radiation and total body water turnover, for example in eland and oryx (Figure 10). It should be noted that the intercept of the regression line in Figure 10 is lower in the oryx than the eland, but that thereafter the response of body water turnover to increasing heat load is similar in both species -a point which will be discussed in section 4.2.3.Figures 9 and 10 both illustrate that at high heat loads, above 29°C 'mean' ambient temperature for the zebu, or at high levels of solar radiation -505 W.m -2 for the eland, and 475 W.m -2 for the oryx -the body water turnover rate declines. The regressions have been interrupted at this point to emphasise the phenomenon. Inclusion of plots to the right of the dashed vertical lines or the use of curvilinear regressions does not improve the fit. The explanation for the sudden decline in response would appear to be that the animals dissipate the increasing environmental heat load by increased evaporative cooling only up to a level determined by the body water turnover rate. In eland and cattle this rate approached 18 and 24% respectively, and if exceeded could result in severe dehydration even when drinking daily. The cut-off point of 12% in the oryx is more difficult to explain. It may be associated with less extravagant water cooling mechanisms, and be related to a natural inclination to avoid daily watering even when it is offered. For all species, the reduction in body water turnover rates at higher heat loads than those mentioned above implies that (a) other forms of heat load are being decreased and/or (b) other thermoregulatory mechanisms are being brought into play, or (c) homeothermy is being abandoned (sections 4.2.3, 4.2.6 and 4.2.7).The value of sweating as a cooling mechanism varies in the different climatic zones of Africa, because the rate at which water evaporates from the body varies inversely with the water vapour pressure in the air. However, at moderate humidities this reduction is much smaller than might be expected. It can be explained by assuming that the rate of sweat secretion is unchanged and an increase in humidity causes a temporary reduction in evaporation and a build-up of moisture on the skin. As a result the vapour pressure at the skin surface increases, automatically re-establishing the vapour pressure gradient between skin surface and air until evaporation is in equilibrium with the rate of sweat secretion. At extremely high levels of humidity there are more marked reductions in evaporation (Thompson, 1976). Such high levels of vapour pressure can occur, both in the humid tropics and in housed livestock, where they may be the main cause of variation in heat stress and body water turnover rather than the relatively small seasonal fluctuations in ambient temperature (Kamal and Seif, 1969;Siebert and Macfarlane, 1969;Kamal and Johnson, 1971). When this index was applied to Holstein cattle at the University of Missouri by Johnson et al (1963) it was found that cows appeared comfortable when the index was below 70, but there was reduced milk yield and food intake above 75; all age groups showed measurable degrees of discomfort at an index value of 78 and above. These findings from North America are relevant to a number of dairy projects in the coastal areas of West Africa, where potentially high-yielding Holstein cattle are producing barely enough milk to support their calves, despite expensive housing. The cattle are often thin and their lack of productivity is blamed on such factors as poor nutrition and intermittent water supply. However, when the THI values for adjacent areas, calculated from climatograms published by Pagot (1974), are plotted on a monthly basis and related to the response observed by Johnson et al (1963), it becomes apparent that temperate dairy breeds kept in these areas suffer from heat and humidity stress for much of the year (Figure 11). Although most of the discussion in this report is concerned with heat stress, in the northern and southern African deserts (in winter) and in the highlands (every night) the ambient temperature falls sufficiently far below the animal's critical body temperature to stimulate thermogenic heat production. Rainfall accelerates heat loss from the animal by increasing the conductivity of the coat. The result is an extra demand on the nutritional intake and reserves of the animal, which may be sufficiently important to influence the type of animal selected by the pastoralist as well as its management (sections 4.2.4 and 7.2.1).Thermogenic heat production causes a slight increase in body water use. However, this is accompanied by a reduction in insensible water loss from the skin as a result of peripheral vasoconstriction, as well as increased condensation of saturated expired air in the respiratory passages which have been cooled by the cold inhaled air (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1975). Thus the net effect of cold ambient temperatures is to reduce water loss.The activity of herbivores on tropical rangeland is a mixture of vital activities, such as feeding and walking to water, plus 'behavioural amelioration' (Macmillan, 1972) of a frequently hostile environment. The resultant compromise gives the typical activity pattern of herbivores on a day-grazing, night-enclosure regime (Figure 12). Herbivores with access to night grazing may be expected to spend a greater proportion of the day idle or in the shade, whereas those that are confined at night can only avoid high heat loads at the expense of feeding time (Lewis, 1977;1978). Shade seeking is one of the more conspicuous forms of behavioural amelioration. As the dry season progresses, wild impala have been observed to move lower down the catena on which they graze, moving to where the vegetation is greener and the shade is deeper (Jarman, 1973). In the absence of shade, sheep will stand with their heads under each other's bellies; this manoeuvre may serve the dual purpose of avoiding overheating the hypothalamus and the attentions of the nostril fly (Oestrus ovis).Wallowing is also a useful behavioural adaptation, allowing an animal to use evaporative cooling without any loss of body water. A high rate of evaporation can be sustained for more than 2 h if the animal wallows in mud rather than water (Ingram, 1965).The structure and colour of an animal's coat will affect the flow of energy and water across the skin (Hutchinson and Brown, l 969).The heat stress on the animal from the radiant environment has been defined as the inward sensible heat flow at the base of the coat (Finch, 1972a). This heat stress on the skin has been calculated by Lewis (1977) in four African ruminants at varying-air temperatures for a constant radiation load (Figure 13). Because the intercepts of the regressions were different, he concluded that the hair barrier to solar heat was different. The greatest heat stress occurred in the African buffalo, with its sparse black coat. Next was the eland, which has a coat colour with a low absorption coefficient (0.75) similar to the brown zebu (0.78) but a coat structure which is sparse and short (hairs 0.22 mm long) compared with the cow (0.30 mm long) (Finch, 1972b;1973). The least heat stress occurred in the oryx, which has a coat colour with an absorption coefficient of about 0.65 (Stewart, 1953) and a coat structure which is dense and long (hairs 0.4 mm long) (V.A. Finch, unpublished). The fact that the slopes of all four regression lines were parallel implied that convective heat loss was essentially the same in all species and is directly related to air temperature. The heat arriving at the skin surface makes thermoregulatory demands on an animal, and the physiological response of evaporative cooling by sweating or panting increases the water turnover. For example, it has been found that shearing Merino sheep during the Australian summer doubled their water turnover compared with that of unshorn sheep (Macfarlane et al, 1966b). Similarly, the lower body water turnover of oryx compared with eland at a given solar radiation load (Figure 10) could be ascribed not only to superior water conservation mechanisms but also to the different characteristics of the coat. Source: Lewis (1977) Within a species which has a variety of different coat colours, the effect of colour can be considerable. For example, Finch and Western (1977) showed that the inward sensible heat flow at the base of the coat was greater in black cattle than in brown, where in turn it was considerably greater than in white cattle (Table 20).Water drunk, on a daily watering regime, followed a similar pattern to radiation absorbed. When drinking was restricted to every 2.5 days, all colours drank the same amount, which was to the limit of their gut capacity.During the days between drinking the dark cattle became dehydrated more rapidly, their body temperatures rose more, and their appetites were depressed more than in the light coloured cattle.The same authors point out that dark coat colours become an advantage with increasing altitude and decreasing air temperatures, which may drop to 5°C at night in certain pastoral areas of Kenya. In such situations the local zebu cattle have to expend energy on thermogenesis because they are poorly insulated and not physiologically adapted to a cold climate. When the sun rises, black cattle rapidly absorb solar radiation, whereas white cattle continue to waste chemical energy on thermogenesis to keep warm. At the end of the dry season, if animals are starving, coat colour may make the difference between life and death. Source: Finch and Western (1977). Finch and Western (1977) found a number of field situations where cold and heat appeared to exert a strong selective pressure on cattle coat colour in Kenya, and concluded that the relationship was clearly recognized by the pastoral tribes. For example, in a country-wide survey of cattle colours they found a linear decrease in the proportion of light coloured cattle in the herd with altitude, and an increase with predicted heat stress and potential evaporation, these last two environmental parameters being closely correlated. The relation between per cent light cattle per herd (y) and potential evaporation (x) was: y = 0.07x-73.9 (r 2 = 0.82) (Figure 14).During the droughts of 1973 and 1975, significantly more white than black cattle died in the Amboseli area of Kenya, where dark cattle predominate and night temperatures fall below 10°C. However at Hola, in the hot dry country of eastern Kenya where white cattle predominate, the Orma herders reported that proportionately more black than white cattle die during droughts.Coat characteristics which are favourable for evaporative heat loss may be different from those which provide insulation from the environmental heat load. Under dry conditions, sweat evaporates at the skin surface and the hair insulation encourages heat to be drawn from the skin and not the air (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965;Edney, 1966). Thus evaporation of sweat under a thin layer of insulating hair is probably the best physical compromise in allowing the skin to lose heat while providing protection from high solar radiation (Macfarlane, 1964). In the hot humid tropics, where high ambient temperature and relative humidity may contribute more to heat stress than solar radiation, a thick coat may not be an advantage. The sweat evaporates more slowly than it accumulates and the hair becomes wet. One can speculate that as a result environmental heat is conducted through the wet coat to the skin surface, while evaporative heat loss occurs at the tip of the hairs.Woolly coats can be an advantage in animals that pant to lose heat. There is no doubt about the advantage of wool as an insulator against the cold, and McDowell (1972) has suggested that wool is an advantageous covering in a hot dry climate, but not in a humid one. The reason given is that wool growth is usually associated with more sebaceous secretion than hair, and the resultant oily coat absorbs less radiation and also tends to retard evaporation from the skin. However, woolly coats are not a feature of smallstock in sub-Saharan Africa, where Wilson's 'rule' tends to apply -namely that coats are hairy rather than woolly in hot regions (Edney, 1966). However, exceptions can be found, such as the woolly Macina sheep indigenous to the hot, humid Niger delta in Mali. Haired sheep and goats sweat considerably as well as pant to lose heat, although they can reduce cutaneous evaporation when dehydrated (Maloiy and Taylor, 1971;McDowell, 1972).There are a number of other coat characteristics that have not been considered, such as reflectance rather than colour (e.g. black is often shiny), and protection of skin against photosensitisation. However, the subject of coat characteristics has probably been discussed as much as is warranted here because, in some instances, the coat may be little more than a phenotypic expression of other physiological adaptations to a particular environment. For example, the fawn coat colour of African donkeys looks as if it might contribute to heat tolerance, but the coat structure is thin and no marked temperature gradient has been measured between the outer hair surface and the skin (Bullard et al, 1970). Source: Finch and Western (1977)Although the outward appearance of an indigenous animal cannot be used in isolation from its internal physiological adaptations to explain its suitability for particular environment (McDowell, 1972), external body characteristics do play a role in the interaction of the animal with its environment. Their effect on body water turnover is exerted primarily through their influence on the heat exchange of the animal. For example, a large body mass may be an advantage in absorbing residual body heat, but if the sun is the main source of heat load, the less direct sunlight that is absorbed by the body the better. Therefore the profile area at right angles to the solar beam should be as small as possible, particularly at solar altitudes between 40 and 90° when radiant intensity is reaching its peak. At these higher solar altitudes it has been shown that the profile areas of cattle decrease in proportion to their total surface area at a rate greater than radiant intensities are increasing. This results in a decrease in heat absorbed at higher solar altitudes (Finch, 1976). For a cylinder, the ratio of the profile area to total surface area remains constant, and the radiation absorbed continues to increase at higher solar altitudes (Figure 15). Thus at midday the direct solar radiation absorbed by a Boran steer is only 58% of that absorbed by a cylinder. The radiation absorbed by a Sussex bull has been shown to be 17% more than that absorbed by a Boran steer. This difference may be partly explained by the fact that the entire male has a thicker neck and shoulders than the steer, but it may also be due to the Sussex having a broader and longer back than the razor-backed zebu.A number of hypotheses have been formulated concerning the effects of climate on the mass and shape of animals. Bergson's rule states that similar or related animals are smaller in warm regions than in cold ones, and Allen's rule that the peripheral parts of animals in hot regions are extended. Mount (1979) has shown that pigs reared at 5°C had shorter limbs, smaller ears and were more hairy than their litter mates reared at 35°C. Edney (1966) suggested that the advantage of long legs, neck and ears is to present a greater surface area for convective cooling. Source: Finch (1976), which includes data from Riemerschmid (1943).In sub-Saharan Africa, another generalisation seems to apply -namely that wild and domestic ungulates are smaller in the hot, humid regions than their conspecifics in the hot dry savannas (Dorst and Dandelot, 1970;ILCA, 1979a;1979b). Pagot (1974) noted an association between the volume of a cow's body and the surface and position of the climatogram for the place in West Africa where it had evolved. The salient features of the climatograms have been summarised in Table 21, which shows an inverse relationship between bodyweight or height against atmospheric humidity at similarly high mean ambient temperatures. The places referred to in the table are the same as those for which the THI has been plotted in Figure 11. The conclusion is that, notwithstanding the accepted influences of genetics and disease, the evolution of dwarf breeds may also be related to a chronic hormonal response to an environment in which it is difficult to dissipate heat (see also section 4.1.3).The indigenous Bos taurus breeds of West Africa have been displaced from all but the tsetse fly belt of Africa by zebu cattle and their established Sanga crossbreeds with the pure Bos taurus. The reasons behind the success of zebu will be examined further in section 7.3.2. The conspicuous features of mass, shape and appendages of the animal have been assumed to have something to do with its more successful adaptation to drier environments. However, the experiments carried out to test this hypothesis have proved difficult to evaluate, particularly when they do not relate to the kind of environment in which the zebu normally thrives. An example of such an environment on Galana ranch in Kenya is given in Table 22, and will be referred to in the ensuing discussion.  (1979a; 1979b).The larger size of the zebu (especially Boran cows weighing 400 kg) is appropriate to the hot, dry Galana environment. They are reputedly better walkers than Bos taurus breeds, but it is unclear if this attribute has been tested or if zebu have proportionately longer legs. The main heat load is from solar radiation and so the narrow, short profile to the sun is relevant, particularly when examining skin area in relation to size. According to Brody (1945) and Macfarlane (1964), Bos indicus cattle have a greater surface-area to mass ratio (12 -20%) than Bos taurus. However, Branton et al (1966) found that the differences were more apparent than real in some zebu cross-breds, especially after adjusting for weight at constant age, because what some Bos taurus cattle lack in appendages they make up for in extra body length. The appendages of the zebu, notably the dewlap and navel fold, are poorly vascularised and not adjacent to the main sources of heat production in the body, which reduces their value as radiators and convertors (McDowell, 1972). On the other hand, the location of the skin folds on the dependent parts of the neck and trunk increases surface area without increasing exposure to the sun at midday. Source: Woodhead (1968); Bille and Heemstra (1979); J.M. King (unpublished).The sweat rate on the dewlap was 70% lower than elsewhere (McDowell, 1972). The density of sweat glands was also 36% lower on the dewlap than on the side of Sindhi and Sahiwal cattle, but still 10% more than on the sides of Jersey, Friesian and Red Poll cattle (Nay and Hayman, 1956). Sweating is undoubtedly an efficient way of cooling for the zebu, because the ambient vapour pressure is usually low (Table 22). Yet, in an environment in which water is severely limited for much of the year, it seems unlikely that cattle could maintain high sweating rates for very long without suffering severe dehydration (section 3.2.1). Radiant heat loss is probably the main component of loss because the mean temperature gradient is from the animal to the environment. It is augmented by convection, particularly in the late afternoon when wind speed is at its highest (Tables 22 and 23). Source: Schmidt-Nielsen (1965), MacKenzie and Simpson (1971); Degen (1977c).The ears of zebu cattle are larger than those of European breeds but, although they are very vascular, their surface area in relation to total body surface area is small (2%), making them of questionable significance in terms of overall heat loss capability (McDowell, 1972). However, the capacity of the vascular bed and the blood flow can be increased by vasodilation and arterio-venous anastomoses, which have been found in the ear of the calf (Goodall, 1955). Peripheral vasodilation is important in allowing heat flow to the skin surface for evaporative, radiative and convective heat loss (Thompson, 1976). For these last two avenues of heat loss to be effective there must be a marked temperature gradient between the ear and the environment, which is not usually present during the heat of the day. Animals such as the elephant, which use their ears for cooling, do not dilate the blood vessels and increase blood flow in the ear until about 18.00h. Then the temperature in the ear becomes higher than that of the general body surface as well as the environment (Hiley, 1975).There is one other conspicuous appendage, namely the hump, which increases in size as a zebu improves in condition. It has been postulated that localised storage of fat may reduce the interference of fat layers over the body with the dissipation of heat (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965). On the other hand insulating layers of fat could work both ways, and need not interfere with the transference of heat from the body core to the surface via the cardiovascular system. Looking at the hump in terms only of heat exchange and energy storage may be wrong, because it contains a considerable amount of lean and fibrous tissue which could relate to the zebu's role as a draught animal in its places of origin in Asia (McDowell, 1972), a role which it still occupies in parts of Africa, particularly Ethiopia.An attempt was made to assess the collective value of these appendages for heat loss by comparing the response to heat stress of intact zebu (Red Sindhi) bulls with those from which the dewlap, hump and about 10 cm of each ear had been removed (Branton et al, 1966). The authors concluded that there was no justification for the popular association of a superior heat loss capacity with the external characteristics typical of zebu breeds. However it is difficult to relate their experiment to the real world in which the African zebu is to be found. The thermal stress applied in the laboratory was a temperature of 35 -40°C and a relative humidity of 60% for 6 h. In such conditions the temperature gradient from the animal to the environment could be reversed, and conductance of heat into it would then be reduced by vaso-constriction (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965;1972). The appendages would therefore have been a disadvantage unless they were the prime site for sweating, which they were not. The THI in the laboratory was much higher, at 92.8, than that on Galana ranch, which was 81.3. The latter value is high enough to cause discomfort in temperate-type cattle (Figure 11) but the THI is not the most appropriate description of the main heat load, which is from the sun, for which the size, shape and appendages of the zebu may be adapted. One of the two criteria taken to indicate susceptibility to heat stress,namely raised rectal temperature and respiratory rate, is also suspect because it fails to take into account the value of a labile body temperature (section 4.2.7) in a natural environment with a reasonable diurnal temperature range (Table 22) and a shortage of water.The zebu cow may not be the best example of adaptation of mass, shape and appendages to the natural thermal environment by African livestock. The preceeding discussion could have focused on other long-legged, razor-backed desert livestock with fat humps, rumps or tails. For example, the large, pendulous ears of the black-haired and black-skinned Nubian goat look particularly functional: the dorsal surface of the ear is covered with short grey hairs, presumably to reduce absorption of solar radiation.All mammals must maintain a fairly stable deep body, or core, temperature in spite of fluctuations in the environmental temperature and the animal's activity. However, different species and breeds tolerate slightly varying ranges of core temperature, and this characteristic may be related to environmental heat tolerance. Marked departures from the core temperature are associated with extremes of ambient temperature, disease, injury or the administration of drugs (Mount, 1979).In a moderate African climate, most hydrated ruminants show a diurnal fluctuation in core temperature of 1.5 to 3.9°C (Bligh and Harthoorn, 1965). This diurnal fluctuation is due to some heat storage during the day and heat loss at night. Any further rise in core temperature is accompanied by an increase in evaporative heat loss and some depression of endogenous heat production. A drop in core temperature causes energy expenditure as thermogenesis.East African sheep and goats are examples of animals with a narrow range in core temperature, i.e. they are obligatory homeotherms. These species appear unable to increase their range of diurnal body temperature by more than 1-2°C in response to heat stress (Maloiy and Taylor, 1971). Instead, they maintain a relatively constant body temperature by panting as soon as they are subject to heat stress. Water intake in African sheep has thus been related directly to respiration rate (Quartermain, 1964), and it has been assumed that the heat tolerance of both species depends on the availability of water to support heat loss by evaporation (Bligh, 1972). Degen (1977c) has pointed out that sheep have relatively high rectal temperatures of 38.7 to 40.5°C, which implies that they absorb less environmental heat and use less evaporative water than might have been expected.African donkeys also have a narrow range of core temperature, from 37 to 39°C in fully hydrated animals. Under heat stress, they keep their core temperature within this range by evaporative cooling, with a sweat rate 2.5 times that of camels (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965).By contrast, the variability in core temperatures is particularly wide among N'Dama cattle. During March in the Gambia, when the days are hot and sunny and the nights are cool and windy, the mean rectal temperature of 10 N'Dama cattle tethered in the open with ad lib food and water was 35.9 ± 0.77°C in the early morning and 39.7 ± 0.84°C in the late afternoon, giving a range of 3.8 ± 0.84°C with or without trypanosome parasitaemia. Extreme values were 34.4 to 41.1°C, with a range of 6.7°C in one animal, apparently related to greater exposure to solar heat load (Greig and McIntyre, 1979). The N'Dama requires far less water than the zebu (Pagot, 1974), probably as a result of this high thermolability.When an animal is dehydrated there is often a further extension of the thermoneutral zone by an upward shift in the threshold temperature for evaporative heat loss and a downward shift in the threshold temperature for heat production (Bligh, 1972). The best known example of this increased diurnal core temperature fluctuation in response to dehydration is in the camel (Figure 16). The animal saved about 1.3% of its body water pool by allowing its body temperature to rise from 34°C to 41°C during the day and disposing of the stored heat at night. An important reduction in heat gain from the environment was also achieved at high body temperatures due to the reduced temperature gradient. The combined effect of these two factors was observed to reduce heat dissipated by a 260 kg camel during the 10 hottest hours of the day in the Sahara to 380 kJ, compared with 1265 kJ in the hydrated state. Water lost by evaporation was reduced from 9.1 to 2.81, that is from 4.7% to 1.4% of the body water pool (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965).More recently, loss of homeothermy at night has been demonstrated as a response to starvation. Boran steers on daily watering but half-maintenance rations allowed their body temperatures to drop to 36.8°C compared with 37.8°C in steers on a maintenance ration. The saving in thermogenesis was estimated as 740 kJ, without which the starving cattle would have had to raise their metabolic rate 1.3 times. There was also a lowered sweat rate, so that the body temperature rose rapidly during the morning but was then regulated at the upper range for well fed cattle. The advantage of regulating heat storage in this way lay not in conserving water (although water loss was reduced), but in maintenance of body temperature at an optimum level for metabolic efficiency (Finch and King, 1982). Thermolability is exploited in different ways by African game animals, according to their size. The core temperature in an eland can be as low as 32.8°C in the early morning. It takes a lot of solar energy to raise the body temperature to nearly 40°C, when evaporative cooling is initiated. In small animals such as the gazelle, weighing 10 to 60 kg, the body heats up too quickly in the sun for the low early morning temperature to conserve much water. Instead, the upper critical temperature is allowed to rise quickly from 40°C to about 42°C without initiating panting or sweating, thereby reducing the temperature gradient to the environment. The oryx, a desert dwelling ruminant of intermediate size weighing about 150 kg, employs both mechanisms (Taylor, 1970a;1970b).The term counter-current cooling refers to the flow of blood in opposite directions in contiguous blood vessels.The heat in the arterial blood, which is coming from the body, is transferred to venous blood from the surface, so that the arterial blood is cooled before it reaches the brain.The lethal limit to the rise in core temperature is about 6°C above the normal maximum, and depression of central nervous activity, particularly in the respiratory centre, occurs before that (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1975). Yet rectal temperatures as high as 46.5°C have been observed in running antelopes, and may be a normal response. Overheating of the brain in such circumstances is prevented by selective cooling of its blood supply.In ungulates this supply comes primarily from the external carotid artery, which passes through a pool of venous blood at the base of the brain where it divides into a rete (network) of fine vessels. The venous blood comes mainly from the rich submucosal capillary network of the nasal turbinate bones. These capillaries have been cooled by evaporation from the walls of the nasal passages as the animal breathes (Figure 17). It follows that selective cooling of the brain is probably better developed in ungulates that pant rather than sweat to lose heat. Nevertheless, the carotid rete has been demonstrated in domestic bovids and the oryx, and may be called into play when the animal is dehydrated (Daniel et al, 1953;Taylor, 1969). Apart from saving water by limiting evaporative cooling to the brain and not the whole body, the amount of water vapour lost may be reduced by recondensation in a well developed nose. Hoppe (1977) observed that droplets of water appear at the nostrils of the dik-dik, and that these are immediately licked off and swallowed. He also remarked that the trunk-like nose is longest in Gunther's dik-dik, which lives in the hottest areas inhabited by these species. Source: Taylor (1969) Selective cooling of the brain to less than 41°C, which was 2.9°C below body temperature, has been demonstrated in sheep, goats and gazelle (Baker and Hayward, 1968;Taylor and Lyman, 1972;Degen, 1977c). In the goat, an additional source of heat exchange can be provided by the horn, which is the only superficial area that has a major drainage through the cavernous sinus (Taylor, 1966). There does not appear to be any information on the possible thermo-regulatory function of the horns of other tropical ruminants.Counter-current cooling also occurs in the scrotum, because spermatogenesis is suppressed at normal rectal temperatures. The combination of dropping the testes away from the body and coiling the artery round the scrotal veins results in a temperature of the testes about 6°C below the core temperature of a ram in an ambient temperature of 21°C (Waites and Moule, 1961). For the watering regime to be adequate for ungulates eating dry forage, the following criteria must be met: the degree of dehydration must not exceed the temporary water holding capacity of the alimentary tract; the animal must have enough time to drink its fill; and the frequency of watering must be such as to prevent body water loss from reaching the stage of clinical dehydration.In general, ruminants can replace 15-20% of their bodyweight at the first drink and 20-25% within 1-2.5 hours (section 3.3.1). The capacity and speed of fluid replacement appears to be higher in the more arid-adapted animals. For example, Saharan camels, weighing presumably about 450 kg, tolerate a loss of 100 I body water and replace it within 7-30 minutes (Gauthier-Pilters, 1974). Haired sheep and goats can drink up to 24% of their hydrated bodyweight in a few minutes. Dehydration does not reach a critical level in Indian desert sheep until they have lost 30% of their bodyweight, which is the stage at which Bedouin goats stop eating (Taneja, 1965;Shkolnik et al, 1972;More and Sahni, 1978;Williamson and Payne, 1978;C.R. Field, unpublished).The donkey has a depressed appetite at 20% dehydration, but can restore all the water lost in 2-5 minutes.The ingested water floods the whole alimentary tract right up to the anal sphincter (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965;Maloiy, 1970).The effects of water restriction are felt mainly in the areas of energy production (section 4.1) and thermoregulation (section 4.2).Where food is freely available a reduction in water intake reduces food intake. For example, when access to water was reduced to 1 h at 48 h and 72 h intervals, zebu oxen reduced their consumption of chaffed hay to 94% and 92% of their intake when water was available all the time. Their water consumption also decreased to 88% and 69% respectively of the original intake. All decreases were highly significant. There was no significant decrease in the starch equivalent consumed on 48 h watering, despite the 6% reduction in DMI. The reason was that more of the crude fibre fraction of the hay was digested than when water was freely available. There was, however, a significant lowering in energy intake when watering frequency was reduced to once every 72 h (French, 1956b).When fed a ration which provided only half their maintenance needs, zebu cattle on alternate day watering suffered no restriction of appetite compared with those on daily watering. But the reduction in their fasting metabolic rate to two thirds the value at maintenance (section 5.1.2) occurred more rapidly (Figure 18). The resultant energy saving, due to the quicker drop in demand, was estimated at 66 MJ NE (95 MJ ME) less than in cattle on daily watering (Finch and King, 1979). This work needs repeating because of the limited number of points on the graph. Source: Finch and King (1979) When the quality of grazing is low, cattle voluntarily restrict their intake and turnover of water, thereby controlling their nitrogen balance and achieving protein maintenance on diets which would normally be below maintenance requirements (Payne, 1963). The reason is that, on a low nitrogen diet, a high water intake and high urine volume flush urea out of the plasma so that it is not available for re-use in protein nor to stimulate microbial digestion of crude fibre. Thus differences in performance between animals fed a low nitrogen diet, or those grazing pastures low in nitrogen, may be partly related to differences in nitrogen metabolism caused by differences in water intake (Vercoe, 1971).Lack of residual water for cooling and its effect on the ruminant, notably on thermolability and endogenous heat production have already been discussed in sections 4.2.6 and 4.1.3 respectively. Donkeys are relatively unaffected by a water loss of 12 to 15% of their bodyweight. Food intake decreases by 27% at 15% dehydration, but this decrease is associated with an increase in apparent digestibility from 41 to 51% due to a longer retention time, particularly in the large intestine, which favours microbial digestion.Evaporative water loss also falls by about 50%, notably through the skin, and this is associated with an increase in respiratory rate and range of rectal temperature by 2 to 5.2°C. At between 15 and 30% dehydration, appetite is depressed and hence water loss through faecal output is decreased to 20% of the fully hydrated levels (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965;Bullard et al, 1970;Maloiy, 1970;1972). The core of the model is the animal's body temperature, shown in the centre of the figure. This temperature must be maintained above a lower critical level to support respiratory function and metabolism, and below an upper critical limit to prevent heat death. The main source of heat gain at night is endogenous coming from intermediary metabolism, which is shown on the left half of the figure. The body temperature is above that of the environment and heat is lost from the skin by conduction, convection and radiation. This sensible heat exchange is illustrated in the middle of the right-hand segment of the figure. During the day, the sun heats up the animal and its environment, as shown at the top of the figure, causing a net inflow of heat to the body. Sensible heat loss may no longer be enough to control body temperature and the animal has to draw on residual water, surplus to metabolic requirements, for additional cooling. The body water cycle is illustrated in the bottom right-hand corner of the figure, and the contribution of sweating and panting to total heat loss is above it and to the left. A lack of residual water for cooling will cause a reduction in the contribution of sweating/panting to total heat loss, thereby allowing the body temperature to rise. The effect will be twofold: (a) to increase the temperature gradient at the skin and hence the sensible heat loss; and (b) to reduce activity and forage intake and hence the metabolic heat contribution to total body heat gain. The two feedback mechanisms combine to reduce residual body heat and hence body temperature. The purpose of this chapter is to relate the physiological aspects of water and energy turnover discussed in chapters 2 to 4 to the real-life situation as influenced by climate and livestock management. Emphasis will be placed on the dry season when water is scarce, and on the more important livestock species.The effects of the different seasons on domestic herbivores are well illustrated in a traditional pastoral system because there is little opportunity to alleviate adverse conditions with supplements of food and water. The way in which the energy use of the grazing animals is affected by different watering regimes can be simulated in simple tables. The level of detail is much coarser than that shown in Figure 19 and described in chapters 2, 3 and 4, but it is beyond the scope of this report to try and develop a complicated model. Instead, a number of assumptions have been made: the environmental heat load has been kept constant between watering regimes, and is assumed to be high. As a result, drinking water intake has been elevated by a constant related to temperature and varied primarily by DMI. The prediction of forage intake has not been discussed so far, and it must be established along with energy to allow the completion of simple energy budgets.The zebu has been used in this illustration because it is the most important species of livestock in sub-Saharan Africa.Metabolism in the ruminant is currently expressed in one of two ways derived from different systems of analysis: one based on metabolisable energy (ME), proposed by Blaxter (1962), adopted by the UK Agricultural Research Council (ARC, 1965) and put into practice by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF, 1975); the other, based on net energy (NE), proposed by Lofgreen and Garrett (1968) and adopted by the USA National Research Council (NRC, 1970). The relative merits of each system have been reviewed by Webster (1978), who points out that it does not matter which convention one uses provided that one recognizes that it is not possible to combine estimates of the energy value of foods from one system with estimates of the energy requirements of the other and get a sensible answer. The reason is that the expressions are based on different conventions.For the purposes of the present analysis, ME units have been chosen. Therefore other components of energy metabolism in the ruminant, which is illustrated in Figure 20, must be converted into ME, using coefficients which will be described in the text. Most of these coefficients have been taken from Konandreas and Anderson (1982), and modifications from other sources have been cited.Forage availability varies with season for a given set of soil and vegetation types and conditions. These seasons have different climatic characteristics in different parts of sub-Saharan Africa: in East Africa there are two dry seasons, one hot and one cool, each year; in West Africa there is only one dry season, which begins cool and becomes hot; and in central and southern Africa there is a single cool dry season. Such differences affect water turnover more than energy intake and use. Therefore, one can generalise by stating that at the start of the dry season conditions are uniformly good for food intake; there is usually an adequate crop of standing hay, and intake of nutrients is not depressed by lack of drinking water, by a high parasite challenge or by high THI. Thereafter there is increasing dessication of the vegetation and drying up of watering places as the dry season progresses. Thus there is a steady decline in the quality and quantity of herbage on offer, except where pastoralists exploit floodplain grazing, such as that of the inland delta of the Niger in Mali (Wilson et al, 1983). Within the animal, the process of conversion of feed sources of energy into animal products can be divided into the absolute capacity of the animal to ingest metabolisable energy, and the partial efficiencies of the conversion processes themselves. These are equally important (Blaxter, 1969b).Before describing the way in which forage intake is currently predicted, it is worth mentioning the reservations that have been expressed about the approach, particularly in the tropical situation. These reservations have been summarised by Freer (1981) as follows: 'There are at least three areas where the simple model based on the amount of herbage and its digestibility avoids important complexities of the real situation.... Firstly it is probable that weight per unit area is an insufficient predictor of the availability of herbage to a grazing animal. Secondly it is certain that digestibility is an inadequate index of those quality changes in herbage wich affect its rate of disappearance from the gut. Van Soest (1982) found that there was a higher correlation between intake and plant cell wall content (-0.76) than intake and digestibility (0.44) in 187 forage species tested. Freer (1981) continues: And lastly, little is known on how the two variables (weight and digestibility) interact with increases in energy demand, during growth and lactation for example, to increase intake. But he goes on to point out that more experimental information is needed before substantial improvements can be achieved.In the meantime the amount and digestibility of the herbage on offer will continue to be the principal components of the model of forage intake, particularly as they have been studied comprehensively in an African situation (Elliot and Fokkema, 1961;Elliot et al, 1961). The general relationship obtained to determine intake has been developed by Konandreas and Anderson (1982) to give the following equation: m(p,t) = physiological-status-correction multiplier, which for dry females = 1, and for lactating cows = 1.15, partially due to an increase in chewing and ruminating (Dulphy et al, 1980) a = intake coefficient (kg DM.kg -0.75 .d -1 ) which is equivalent to the rate of pas sage, and taken as 0.042 for dry cows and 0.049 for lactating cows W e = expected liveweight (kg) for animal's age and sex.The gross energy content of tropical pasture is relatively constant (17.2 to 18.7 MJ.kg -1 DM), giving a mean value of about 18 MJ.kg -1 , which is about 0.5 MJ.kg -1 less than the mean for temperate pastures (Minson, 1981). As shown in Figure 20, portions of this energy are lost as faeces, urine, methane, and fermentation heat during the conversion to ME. Thus the energy (E) from a given intake (I) can be expressed as: E = I × 18 × d × 0.81 MJ ME (5.02)Energy demands vary with the body functions for which energy is used. Thus the net energy (NE) demands of the product (e.g. lactation, growth) are converted back to ME using different coefficients.For maintenance the NE, or total metabolic heat production, is estimated from a specific variant (Table 24) of the general formula for fasting metabolism: 0.293 Wt kg 0.75 (MJ.d -1 ), more familiar in its original form of 70 Wt kg 075 kcal.d -1 (Brody, 1945;Kleiber, 1947). The amount of ME used for maintenance in the zebu cow can be estimated from the equation: E m = 0.343 Wt 0.73 /k m MJ ME (5.03) where k m is the efficiency with which ME is used for maintenance and k m = 0.55 + (0.3 × 0.81 × d) (5.04)To maintain bodyweight, the cow must also graze and walk to water, which increases energy expenditure above basal rates by 30-70% (Young and Corbett, 1972;Lewis, 1975).The cost of prehension, tearing and eating coarse dry grass has been estimated at 40 kJ.MJ -1 ME of ingested food, based on Webster (1980).The energy cost of walking per horizontal km is similar for Bos taurus and Bos indicus cattle on a diet at or above maintenance. The most efficient speed is between 2.5 and 3.5 km. h -1 when the cost is 1.8 kJ.kg -1 (Ribeiro et al, 1977;Finch and King, 1979). At faster and slower speeds the energy cost per metre increases.Productive uses of energy include growth, pregnancy and lactation. The ME used for lactation is calculated from the NE required for milk, divided by the efficiency with which ME is conversed to NE for lactation. This efficiency (k 1 ) is less than for maintenance:The NE requirements for milk are calculated from the milk yield (kg.d -1 ) multiplied by its energy content (e 1 ). The energy content is given approximately by the following equation: e 1 = 0.0386BF + 0.205SNF -0.236 (5.06) where BF = butter fat content (g.kg -1 ), and SNF = solids-not-fat content (g.kg -1 )For the zebu, BF = 54 g.kg -1 and SNF = 85 g.kg -1 (Williamson and Payne, 1978 while e 1 = 3.6 MJ.kg -1 .The efficiency with which surplus ME is converted into energy for weight gain (k g ) is lower than that for lactation. It is obtained by multiplying ME by k g where:  a Source: Kleiber (1947;1969).Simple budgets can now be compiled to simulate real life situations, which are developed further in section 5.2.1. First the parameters listed in Table 25 are derived, in this case from sample data given by Konandreas and Anderson (1982).The factors affecting energy intake and output can now be estimated separately. For example, forage intake (I) is calculated by inserting the values from Table 25 into  which yields an intake of 5.08 kg DM.d -1 . This value is entered into the energy balance table (Table 26), where it is expressed as MJ ME, using equation (5.02).It can be seen from the example given (Table 26), that feed intake is insufficient to meet the animal's total energy requirements. The deficit consists of 12.9 MJ ME for lactation and 0.7 MJ ME for maintenance, and is made good by mobilisation of body tissue. The energy value of the tissue mobilised is taken as 20 MJ.kg -1 (MAFF, 1975), although the mean value for the meat in the carcass may be lower (Ledger and Sayers, 1977). It is used with an efficiency of 0.84 to produce milk energy (NE) (ARC, 1980).The energy yield of milk from each kg of body tissue mobilised is: 20 × 0.84 = 16.8 MJ NE (5.10) This is equated to dietary ME by dividing by k 1 (equation 5.05):16.8 ÷ 0.560 = 30 MJ METhe amount of tissue mobilised for milk production is therefore:12.9 ÷ 30 = 0.43 kgThe same efficiency coefficient is assumed when energy released from body tissue mobilisation is used to meet maintenance requirements (Konandreas and Anderson, 1982). Therefore the amount of tissue mobilised for maintenance is: 0.7 ÷ 30 = 0.02 Thus, total daily tissue loss is 0.45 kg.Table 26 illustrates the 'typical' energy status of a zebu cow about one third of the way through the dry season. Thereafter the quality and quantity of herbage will decrease still further, so that the estimated daily bodyweight loss will increase above 0.45 kg and one might expect the animal to be dead within 2 months. The fact that it is not can be explained by a number of changes that occur in its metabolism, and in its management by the herdsman. These changes must be quantified where possible. Source: Konandreas and Anderson (1982). In their study of the response of zebu cattle to protracted periods of undernourishment caused by reduced intake of a high quality diet, Ledger and Sayers (1977) concluded that the 33% drop in maintenance requirements was partly due to increased conversion efficiency. But Finch and King (1979) found that the reduction in fasting metabolic rate of zebu steers, in response to a progressive reduction in food, was one third, thus accounting for all the difference observed by Ledger and Sayers.The drop in maintenance demands during the dry season will therefore be quantified using metabolic rate only (Figure 21). Further conservation of energy is achieved when the cow depresses its milk yield, and the herdsman decreases the distance walked by the animal per day by reducing the frequency of watering. Both these variables have already been quantified in section 5.1.3, but in the case of the undernourished animal there is a significant (P <0.01) reduction in the cost of walking compared with the cow on a maintenance diet. For both classes of animal, the energy cost of horizontal walking, above that of standing still, has been plotted using data from Finch and King (1979) (Figure 22). For 220 kg zebu steers at maintenance the equation is:and for 200 kg steers on a half maintenance ration:where E w = energy cost of walking (kJ ME.kg -1 .h -1 ), and x = speed of walking (km.h -1 ).At speed of between 2 and 5 km.h -1 the energetic efficiency (kJ ME.kg -1 .km -1 ) of walking is higher in the undernourished zebu (Table 27). Energy saved by walking more slowly must be balanced against loss of grazing time.There are two other energy and water saving mechanisms which have not been quantified but which should be mentioned, namely nitrogen recycling and thermolability.As the diet becomes more fibrous and therefore less digestible, food intake is primarily limited by physical processes. The ruminant stops feeding when a certain level of fill is reached in the reticulorumen. Forage will be retained in the rumen until it has been reduced to small particles of mean length 0.5 mm for cattle and 0.25 mm for sheep. The reduction is achieved by microbial degradation and chewing. Low digestibility is correlated with low nitrogen content of the diet, which in turn depresses the cellulytic activity of rumen microorganisms (Dulphy et al, 1980). Konandreas and Anderson (1982) accounted for low digestibility by an additional multiplicative adjustment of voluntary intake at levels of crude protein <6% and digestibility <40%. But lack of crude protein is partly offset by recycling urea from the kidneys to the digestive tract via the bloodstream. This mechanism is present in ungulates employing either the rumen or the large intestine for microbial digestion, and is particularly well developed in species frequently exposed to low protein diets such as the zebu and the camel (Livingston et al, 1962;Schmidt-Nielsen, 1975). This source of non-protein nitrogen is incorporated into microbial protein, thereby increasing the microbial population and its digestion of cellulose before it in turn is digested.The mechanism of thermolability allows the body temperature to drop below normal at night without increasing thermogenesis, and to rise above normal during the day by regulating sweating rates at a low level (section 4.2.6). The result is body conservation of water and energy. The mechanism of thermolability is initiated in response either to dehydration or to depressed food intake.The extent to which the mechanisms, described in the previous section, come into play will depend on whether the season is a normal dry one or a drought.The word drought tends to be used rather loosely. There is a need to distinguish between a dry year and a drought year, as well as drought conditions in a dry year, because the causes and effects can be different.Drought means dryness. It is a serious deficiency of water for herbage production caused by the cumulative effect of above-average evaporation and/or below-average rainfall (Munn, 1970). In sub-Saharan Africa, rainfall is the more variable of the two components. The level at which low rainfall represents a drought and how it should be calculated is a matter of opinion. In the semi-arid areas of Kenya it has been found that the distribution of values for annual or seasonal rainfall is normal. Instead the probability curve is skewed by the inclusion of occasional very wet years. Thus the value for mean annual rainfall is higher than the median. For the purposes of range and animal management, rainfall expressed as a mean is less useful than median and quartile probabilities (Bille and Heemstra, 1979).It is suggested that a drought year is one in which the total annual rainfall is at or below the lower decile value on the probability curve. The effect of low rainfall on primary production will also depend on the amount of rain in each shower and the interval between showers, bearing in mind that about 25 mm of precipitation is required for growth of perennial grasses and shrubs and 40 to 60 mm for seed germination of annual grassland (J.C. Bille, unpublished). Source: Ribiero et al (1977); Finch and King (1979). The combined effects of sun, wind and feeding by invertebrate herbivores is gradually to remove the leaves from the herbage so that all that remains is a standing crop of stems. Thus the nutritive value of the rangeland will fall below the level for cattle maintenance whether or not it is grazed. On Galana ranch, Kenya, in March 1971, after only 170 mm of rain had fallen over 16 months, the standing crop of Brachiaria spp. had a crude protein content of 3.5%, while Schoenfeldia transiens had 4.5%. These two grasses comprised most of the diet of the grazing stock, which could not supplement their diet with browse because most of the palatable trees and shrubs had lost their leaves. Under such conditions, the response of different herbivores varied: Boran cattle lost so much condition that they had to be moved long before the grazing was exhausted, whereas domestic oryx in the same paddocks continued to grow (King and Heath, 1975). One of the reasons for the difference between the two ruminants appeared to be the ability of the oryx to select what was left of the more nutritious plant parts, whereas cattle with their broad mouths were ingesting a lot of grass stems (Field, 1975). The very fibrous diet of the cattle with inadequate nitrogen content to support normal rumen microbial activity obviously slowed digested passage rate and hence intake. Thus the cattle were starving in paddocks full of grass. Furthermore the provision of water daily, as is the case on a well-run commercial ranch, may have delayed the transition of the animals' metabolism to a 'siege economy'. As a result the body tissue reserves may have been depleted at a faster rate than if they had been forced onto a restricted watering regime earlier in the dry season. Eventually, in this type of situation, the quantity as well as the quality of the forage will become limited.Drought conditions can also occur in a series of dry, but not drought, years. They occur as a result of overgrazing so that the quantity rather than the quality of the herbage is the main limiting factor. The use of the word 'drought' attributes the blame to the climate and obscures the fact that the conditions often arise because of a lack of range management.Although the onset of the rains is greeted with relief, it may precipitate many deaths in a starving livestock population. At the end of a drought, animals have practically exhausted their energy reserves.The first heavy rain lowers the ambient temperature and soaks the animal's hair, thereby reducing the insulating effect of its coat. Heat loss from the animal exceeds heat gain and triggers off thermogenesis and shivering, albeit at a lower critical body temperature than in an animal in good condition (Finch and King, 1982). This waste of the last nutritional energy reserves is not immediately compensated for by improved energy intake. In the first place, unless there is a green flush following a fire which proceeded the rain, it takes a few days for the grass to grow after the first shower. Secondly the abrupt transition from sparse, dry grass stems to highly nutritious moist green grass causes the animal to scour (French, 1956b). In fact rainfall over a 21-day period always appears to have a negative effect on liveweight gain (Potter, in press). If the cow survives the dry to wet season transition, it usually starts putting on weight even more rapidly than would be estimated from its ingestion of green grass with a high digestibility (e.g 0.65 in ILCA, 1975). Part of this gain has been attributed to an increase in the weight of the alimentary tract. Gut contents have a water content of 85%, so that one might expect the total body water of the animal to increase from 70% to about 72%, whereas it has been found to drop to 65%, and on carcass analysis it was revealed that fat had been deposited (V.A. Finch and J.M. King, unpublished). An explanation for this phenomenon of compensatory growth is that the demands for maintenance form a much lower proportion of the diet in an emaciated animal than in one in good condition. This is so because the animal has an increased efficiency of food conversion, a smaller proportion of active tissue in the carcass and a depressed metabolic rate. During the weeks it takes to rehabilitate the animal there is therefore a larger surplus of ME available for body tissue deposition than might be expected.Forage intake during the rains is not a constraint to animal production. Nevertheless there are a number of factors which are counter-productive. For example, the rainy season provides conditions favourable to the rapid multiplication of other forms of life, such as insects and helminths which irritate and sap the productivity of the herbivore. Ambient temperature is not at its highest, but the water vapour pressure of the air is. The combination of the two may produce peak THI readings -for instance at Tahoua, Niger in the Sahel (Figure 11) -and could conceivably cause discomfort even in zebu cattle. Humidity values of 75% r.h. may not be sufficient to reduce the efficiency of evaporative cooling, but the associated cloud cover, which insulates the earth and the animal from radiation to the night sky, may reduce heat loss. If the animal cannot dissipate the large amount of endogenous heat associated with maximum productivity, it will cut back its food intake and metabolic rate, whatever the state of the vegetation.In order to understand the effect of different management strategies in the dry season, total body water turnover (TBW T ) must be divided into the components for which it is used, and also the sources from which it comes. Very little work has been done on livestock under African ranching or pastoral conditions. I have had to rely on my own data on TBW T in zebu steers on Galana ranch in Kenya and extrapolate from there.The TBW T of steers during the long dry season (June to October), when the mean ambient temperature is about 25ºC, is 150 ml.l -1 .d -1 (Figure 9). Given a bodyweight (Wt) of 250 kg and a body pool size of 168 1 (67% Wt), then the absolute volume of TBW T is 25.2 l.d -1 .The two most important costs contributing to TBW T are evaporative cooling of the heat load, and water for forage intake. Unfortunately these two costs have not been separated here, anymore than they have been in the information on farm animals in the British Isles (Table 19). However, a model on heat exchange is being developed (D.M. Swift, unpublished), which should allow separation in future. For the time being, the water cost of forage intake is related to a particular temperature which is assumed to remain constant for each example within a species (section 5.2). The forage intake (I) can be predicted from equation (5.01), assuming in this case a digestibility of 0.50: I= 1/(1-0.50). 1.1.1.1.1.0 . 042.250 0.73  I = 4.73 kg.d -1   The energy value of this intake is 34.5 MJ ME according to equation (5.02).Because the animal is not lactating, nor walking great distances, the TBW T can be related entirely to forage intake at that temperature, assuming the animal is at maintenance. When metabolic water (W M ) and respiratory and cutaneous water (W RC ) have been deducted from TBW T , the balance represents water from food (W F ) and drink (W D ) and the values are directly comparable with those in Table 19.Metabolic water can be estimated in two ways when energy intake or expenditure is known (section 3.3.5). For example:W M = 0.029 × total MJ ME (5.12) W M = 0.029 × 34.5 = 1.00 l.d -1Alternatively W M can be roughly estimated from TBW T using the following equation from King at al (1978): y = 0.013k -0.783 (r 2 = 0.86) (5.13) where y = W M as fraction of total input, and k = flux rate of body water pool (fraction of body pool.d -1 ).Respiratory and cutaneous water intake (section 3.3.4) is estimated as follows:W RC = 0.11TBW T (5.14) W RC = 0.11 × 25.2 = 2.77 l.d -1Equation ( 5.11) can now be solved:Thus the water cost, in food and drink, of forage intake is: This value for the coefficient I w falls within the range-for cattle breeds in the British Isles (Table 19) although the environmental temperatures may have been calculated differently in the British and Kenyan situations. A lower value of 2.7 l. kg -1 DMI was calculated for zebu cattle in the semi-desert of northern Kenya based on measurements by IPAL (1982) of DMI and water drunk. The herd average for DMI was 2.9% bodyweight compared with 1.9% in the Galana example.There is an extra water cost of walking (WK W ) in high solar heat loads (section 4.1.3):WK w = 0.0014 × Wt l.km -1 (5.16) where Wt is the weight of the steer in kg WK w = 0.0014 × 250 = 0.35 l.km -1   In the hydrated animal at maintenance or above, this water cost is incurred between about 10.00h and 16.30h local time. If the herd leaves from and returns to the night enclosure at 08.00h and 18.30h respectively, then theoretically it can walk for 12 km (4 h at 3 km.h -1 ) without increasing its water loss.In practice, cattle usually drink between 10.00h and 14.00h, so part of the 12 km (e.g. 6 km) will incur an extra water cost. Thus:Water for walking = WK w (WK -6) (5.17) where WK is distance walked (km).It should be noted that in undernourished cattle, sweating rates remain high for a much shorter period of the day, namely from 11.00h to 14.00h (Finch and King, 1982). Therefore the water cost of walking must be adjusted to a lower estimate of the distance walked during those 3 hours.Another extra water cost for the lactating cow is the water secreted in the milk (MY w ) which has been estimated from Table 19 as:MY w = 0.87 l.kg -1 MY (5.18)   The sources or inputs to TBW T can be stated as: (5.19) (The relation of water intake from forage (W F ) to forage moisture content is illustrated in Figure 4, and described by the equation:W F = (I × forage moisture)/(1 -forage moisture) (5.20) Water drunk can be estimated in a number of ways, by solving equation (5.11) or (5.19) for W D , by combining equations ( 5.15/16/17/18): W D = (I × I w ) + (WK × WK w ) + (MY × MY w ) -WF (5.21) or by estimating the maximum volume the animal can drink during one visit to the watering point (section 4.3.1) and dividing by the number of days between drinks. The estimation of metabolic water (W M ) has already been given in equations ( 5.12/13) as has W RC (equation 5.14); but where TBW T has not been measured but its components have, W RC can be estimated:W RC = 0.12 (W F + W D + W M ) (5.22) Once the analytical background has been established it is possible to estimate the water costs and sources of TBW T (Table 28), and use them to construct a table of daily water intake (Table 29). The example chosen is the zebu cow whose energy budget was shown in Table 26.The values in Table 29 look realistic: the lactating cow is drinking 28 l.d -1 compared with a practical guideline for the dry cow of 25 l.d -1 (Table 10); adjusted body water turnover, by subtraction of metabolic and respiratory water, is 117 ml.kg -1 .d -1 compared with a range of 51 to 150 ml.kg -1 .d -1 (Table 13); TBW T is 201 ml.l -1 compared with a range of 97 to 274 ml.l -1 .d -1 (Table 18).The maximum values for TBW T were associated with a daily watering regime in the hot dry season. Higher rates, or maintenance of the same rate on an alternate day watering regime, would result in severe dehydration. Therefore body water conservation mechanisms are assumed to become increasingly important at the expense of evaporative cooling which must give way to dry heat loss. The latter mechanism is assisted by a weather pattern of clear nights and substantial diurnal temperature fluctuation, which is from 22 to 35°C in parts of Kenya.  Source: Table 28.When a zebu cow stops maintaining a constant body temperature by evaporative cooling, and instead allows its body temperature to rise during the day and fall at night, its feed intake and hence its nutritional energy circuit is likely to be depressed (Figure 19). The purpose of this section is to show the effect of traditional management practices on water and energy budgets of the most important species of livestock in pastoral areas. Each simulation is preceded by a brief description of the role of each species in the traditional pastoral system. Because some sort of development has already occurred in much of Africa, traditional systems are defined as those not requiring large inputs of skills, equipment or money from outside (Sandford, in press).The management of cattle for subsistence dairy ranching is different from that for beef. On a commercial beef ranch it may be appropriate to dry off the cow as soon as possible in the dry season, whereas the opposite may hold true in the pastoral situation. The pastoral zebu cow may have to maintain her lactation despite a declining plane of nutrition, decreasing watering frequency, increasing distances between grazing and drinking water, and an increasing environmental heat load. The cow must be able to draw on body reserves for lactation when its nutrition is inadequate, and rebuild these body reserves when grazing improves, rather than increase the overall lactation (Lampkin and Lampkin, 1960b). Seasonal weight loss is also an important means of supporting a higher livestock population, and of achieving a higher productivity per ha, in an arid, water-limited environment than would be possible if bodyweight were maintained (Western, in press). When the rains come there is more than enough forage for the surplus livestock population. For instance, the carrying capacity of an area north of Lake Chad, in Niger, was estimated at 65 000 TLU in the dry season and 200 000 TLU during the rains (Rippstein and Peyre de Fabregues, 1972).The race chosen for simulation is the Small East African Zebu, indigenous to Mausailand. It is a small cow with a mean adult female weight of only 250 kg (King et al, in press) and a peak daily milk yield of 3.5 kg 4 months post partum (Semenye, 1982). The energy budget and water turnover of this animal have been calculated at three phases of the long dry season associated with daily, 2-day and 3-day watering, assuming the following scenario: the animal calved in March just before the long rains, which were below average, so that its milk yield has been depressed, and by the beginning of July the daily yield is down to 2.0 kg, of which the family are only milking out 0.5 kg.At this stage, the cow is still drinking every day and grazing on the way to and from the watering point.The boma is located 8 km from water and animal is walking 18 km per day. Up to now, the grazing has been adequate and the cow has lost only 10 kg of bodyweight, but forage will become scarce in the near future.When it does, the boma will be moved to a second location 11 km from water and the cow watered every second day. On one day the cattle are herded away from water over adjacent peripheral grazing, which is adequate in quantity but has declined in quality. The cow walks about 11 km. The next day the herd is walked in an almost straight line to the watering point and returned home the same evening, covering a distance of 23 km (Western, 1975). The specific effect of 2-day watering reduces milk yield by <5% below the level of daily watering (Semenye, 1982). However the continuing energy deficit and declining plane of nutrition combine to reduce the daily yield to 1 kg.If the dry season is particularly harsh or extended, or the area severely overstocked, the cattle may be placed on a 3-day watering regime. They then have to search for forage further away from the main boma, because the adjacent peripheral grazing areas have been denuded. Consequently they are unable to return home on the same day, and have to spend the night at a more distant temporary boma, returning to main boma on the second night. The first and second days are thus devoted to grazing, which involves walking about 10 km.d -1 .On the third day the cattle have to get to water by the shortest route, i.e. 11 km, and after they have drunk there is usually only time to take the direct route home. On the third morning, the cattle could be in the desperate straits described by Classen (1977) (see also section 4.1.3) but according to French (1956a) 'this steady dehydration does not lead to unruly behaviour when the animals approach waterholes. In fact, it is a common dry-season sight in Maasailand to observe thousands of cattle waiting patiently in their turn to drink. On reaching the water, they drink steadily for several minutes during which they swell visibly and then stand for 10 to 15 minutes before taking a further short drink prior to the usual 10-mile return journey to their night quarters. Apparently the 3-day watering regime cannot be continued for long, but drinking on alternate days is a system which can be continued for weeks without apparent harmful effects on the animals.'Three-day watering during the dry season is less common in Maasailand nowadays, because of water development. But it is still practiced elsewhere on the continent, for example in East Africa by the Borana (Helland, 1980) and the Turkana (N. Dyson-Hudson, unpublished), and in West Africa by the Maure (H. Breman, unpublished) and the Tuareg (Swift, 1979).Assuming the above scenario, the changes in forage availability are listed in Tables 30, and the estimates of energy budget and water turnover in the cow in Table 31. The calculations required to convert the values from one table to the other have been shown in section 5.1, where Tables 25, 26, 28 and 29 give almost identical figures to those listed in the daily watering column of Tables 30 and 31. Source: Tables 25, 26, 28 and 29.The first column in Table 30 relates to the beginning of July when the cow is still lactating and drinking daily, but at the expense of its own body tissue. The daily energy deficit is 13.1 MJ ME which, according to section 5.1.5, gives a weight loss of 0.45 kg.d -1 , 3.15 kg. week -1 , and 12.6 kg. month -1 . These figures are based on the status of the animal at the beginning of the month and do not take into account the daily decline in weight and milk yield and hence also the decline in energy demands for maintenance, walking and lactation as well as in forage quality, quantity and intake. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to suppose that, by the end of the month, the cow will weigh not more than 230 kg and a change in management will be required.The change to 2-day watering in August has the effect of increasing forage accessibility by extending the grazing orbit away from the water point, but without increasing the distance walked daily. Nevertheless, there is still a daily energy deficit of 10.3 MJ ME despite the drop in milk yield, which is where the greatest energy saving is made. The deficit represents a weight loss of 2.36 kg per week which may be tolerated for another month. By September the cow weighs only 220 kg and has probably stopped lactating, so that weight loss is reduced to less than 1 kg per week.As there is no sign of rain in October, the cattle are forced onto a 3-day watering regime because of the scarcity of herbage within the existing grazing orbit. The grazing that is now brought within range is nevertheless of poor quality because it is so late in the season. Consequently, energy intake is depressed to only 60% of the levels given for daily watering 3 months earlier. But the animal is in energy balance for the first time in about 4 months. The reason is that the chronic energy deficit coupled with intermittent partial dehydration has stimulated the conservation responses described in section 5.1.6.The daily body water turnover follows a similar trend to that of energy declining from 210, to 187 and finally 137 ml.l -1 of body pool. The amount drunk on visits to the watering point at daily, 2-and 3-day intervals was 281, 181 and 521 respectively.There are few field data with which to validate this modelling of different pastoral watering regimes. As far as weight loss is concerned, unimproved Boran cows under drought conditions in the Kenya highlands lost up to 15% bodyweight during the course of a 36-week lactation when supplied with water and hay supplement (Lampkin and Lampkin, 1960a;1960b). Predicted values for the different components and sources of body water turnover look realistic. An exception could be the requirement to tolerate 21% dehydration (i.e. 2 × W D ), and still produce 1 kg of milk a day. The weakest link in the chain of calculation could be the water cost of forage intake (I w ).It is concluded that the calculated values are near enough to the real values. They reveal the comparative effects of the different watering regimes, and their objectives. The change from daily to 2day watering is an attempt to maintain production for man, whereas 3-day watering is a survival strategy for the cow. By then, the animal has practically exhausted its reserves of fat, having used about 12.5 kg. It has also used about 12.5 kg of its original 95 kg of muscle, liver and gut wall. Therefore whatever equilibrium it has achieved is extremely precarious. In this weakened state of ambulatory aestivation, an energy deficit of only a few MJ ME may cause the animal to collapse from exhaustion during the period of greatest stress in the management cycle. This period occurs on the third day without water when the cow has to walk the 22 km to water and back with scant prospect of finding forage. Thirst may keep the animal on its feet until it has drunk, but there may be little incentive to keep going after that.The camel replaces the cow as the main milk producer at or below 200 mm mean annual rainfall (Western, in press). Its physiological adaptations have been referred to in many of the preceding sections. Briefly, they include slow absorption of water from the rumen, thereby reducing the amount excreted by the kidneys after drinking; good reabsorption of water from faeces and kidneys; reabsorption of nitrogen by the kidneys and its recycling in the body; and a diurnal range in body temperature which increases from 2°C in the hydrated animal to 6°C in the dehydrated state.The camel has a tolerance of dehydration of at least 27% of its bodyweight (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965). Its long neck enables it to reach the lower branches of most trees and, unlike the giraffe, it also has no difficulty feeding on dwarf shrubs at ground level. Camels also eat good quality standing hay (Aristida spp.), and salt bushes (Sueda spp.) to offset sweating when there is a salt defficiency in the diet (Gauthier-Pilters, 1974;Williamson and Payne, 1978;C.R. Field, 1978 and unpublished). The camel population in Africa appears to be increasing, possibly because desertification is extending into large areas south of the Sahara (UNEP, 1977) and opening up new habitats for the camel. There is also a growing demand for camel meat (C.R. Field, unpublished).It follows that the staple food of pastoral people in arid regions of Africa is camel's milk. Among the Rendille in northern Kenya, for example, milk constitutes 60 to 90% of the diet, and 80 to 90% of this milk comes from camels (Schwartz, 1979). Young men herding camels away from the household may even have to rely on camel's milk to provide their water needs for up to 1 month at a time (G. Powys, unpublished).Milk production is more important for these pastoralists than a high level of calf production. In fact, they compete with calves for milk, which is possibly why calf mortality rates of up to 40% are recorded (Bremaud, 1969;Spencer, 1973;Dahl and Hjort, 1976;Williamson and Payne, 1978;Wilson, 1978a).The male camel is also important in the pastoral way of life as a water carrier for the household. The number of baggage camels dictates the amount of water that can be fetched and hence the distance a settlement can be from water; the further it is away, the more forage there will be available and hence the more productive the livestock will be, particularly the lactating females (Table 32). Despite the important role of male camels, short-term human needs take precedence over the longer term interests of the settlement to raise healthy stock. Male camel calves are first deprived of milk; then as juveniles they are bled to the point of exhaustion, providing up to 35 l of blood per annum, presumably mainly at the end of the dry season; and at 3 to 4 years they are castrated to make them more amenable. If they survive to become water carriers they are attached to the settlement and work long hours before being let out to browse in the immediate environment, which may have been stripped of vegetation (Schwartz, 1979). The same problem of water carrying does not occur in cattle-herding communities because the grazing must be better to support cattle, and the distance to water shorter. Donkeys can therefore be used as water carriers, and rarely have to supply an additional nutritional role. Source: Schwartz (1979).Even less information is available on the camel than on the zebu cow, so extra groundwork has to be done and assumptions made before the energy and water economy of the animal can be modelled.As far as the energy budget is concerned, forage DMI has been found to vary between 1.4 and 2.5% of bodyweight (C.R. Field, unpublished); the gross energy and metabolisability of the camel's diet, which is mainly browse, has been calculated using the same coefficients as for grass. The following assumptions have been made about energy expenditure: cost of feeding and lactation are the same as for cattle, but camels are faster and more efficient walkers.The components of TBW T can be built up in much the same way as for cattle (section 5.1.8), once the three coefficients, MY w , WK w and I w have been estimated. The water cost per kg of milk (MY w ) is taken as the same as for cattle, namely 0.87 l.kg -1 . The likelihood of an extra water cost from walking in the sun (WK w ), apart from that incurred foraging (I w ), has been disregarded in the management situations which will be illustrated. Therefore the only remaining, and most important, coefficient to be determined is the water cost per kg DMI (I w ) at specified environmental temperatures. No specific experiments have been designed to discover the value of I w , but two pieces of fieldwork in Kenya can be used to arrive at estimates from which a mean figure can be taken. Source: J.M. King et al (unpublished); C.R. Field (unpublished).In the first trial, on Galana ranch, tritiated water turnover and related measurements were made on eight camels during June and August, the long dry season. The animals were male or dry non-pregnant females and so were treated as one group. The equation to be solved is (5.15), for which only W D has been measured (Table 33):However water from food (W F ) can be roughly estimated from equation (5.19):where TBW T = 20.2 (Table 33) W D = 12.9 (Table 33) W M = 2.2 (Table 33 and equation 5.13) W RC = 2:2 (Table 33 and equation 5.14) Food intake (I) can be even more roughly estimated from equation ( 5.20) rewritten as: I = W F (1-forage moisture)/forage moisture I = 2.9 (1 -0.36)/0.36 I = 5.16 kg DM.d -1Equation (5.15) can now be solved: I w = (2.9 + 12.9)/5.16The value for I w could be an overestimate because it is based on a forage DMI of only 1.2%, whereas at the minimum DMI measured (C.R. Field, unpublished) the value for I w would be 2.6.In the second trial near Mount Kulal in northern Kenya, lactating camels walking 2 km.d -1 in dense green vegetation went without drinking for 14 to 20 days (C.R. Field, unpublished). Given this information a number of assumptions can be made based on measurements of the assumed values in that or similar environments (Table 33). The equation to be solved for I w is, in this case, (5.21)Figures for some of these variables can be substituted directly from Table 33:Values for intake of very green vegetation by lactating camels are likely to be at the top of the recorded range, namely 2.5%. Given this information, W F can be solved (equation 5.20):Reverting to equation (5.21):I w = (5.9 + 29.2) -(6 × 0.87)/12.5The mean figure for I w from the two studies is 2.7 l.kg -1 DM.d -1 , and this will be used in the following illustrations.The purpose of the examples is to demonstrate the effect of the application and removal of constraints on energy and water use in the lactating camel. In the first situation the camel is being kept in a poor settlement, 5 km from water, to provide milk for the women, children and old people. In the second, the same animal has been released to complete the second half of its lactation in the mobile herd, which is managed by boys and young men (Dahl and Hjort, 1976).The basic data required to model the energy budget and water turnover of the animal are given in Table 34. Source: Nutritional analysis by University of Hohenheim of dietary grab samples collected by C.R. Field, who also measured DMI, distances walked and daily activity; Schmidt-Nielsen et al (1967); Dahl and Hjort (1976); Knoess (1977); Williamson and Payne (1978); King (1979). Source: Table 34, section 5.1.The results of the calculations are presented in Table 35. Looking down the first column of figures, it can be seen that the camel attached to the settlement is losing weight at 2.9 kg per week. Any energy deficit that the animal might be expected to have during the first half of its lactation is accentuated by the lack of forage accessible to the camel from the settlement. At this proximity to permanent water, the vegetation will almost certainly be overused by livestock. It is, of course, man and not the animal who has to stay near water; the camel only needs to drink every 4 days. After 3 months at the settlement the animal will have lost about 40 kg, i.e. 8% of its bodyweight, and might then be moved to the mobile herd.The mobile herd provides most of the food and water needs of the herdsmen, and so it is not tied to the watering place by man's drinking water requirements. The herd therefore can exploit the more inaccessible parts of the country where the vegetation is of better quality and greener, unless the herding range is restricted by intertribal fighting (Field, 1978). The camel, introduced to this herd from the settlement, is able to revert to a positive energy balance. The rate of weight gain is calculated from equations (5.08) and (5.09) as 0.8 kg per week, so that within approximately 7 weeks it will have regained its original weight. At the same time its water turnover rate has increased, but its drinking requirement has decreased due to the moisture content of the forage. It would need to drink once in 7 days.The above calculations of the rate of water use by camels can be compared with data from C.R. Field (unpublished) who found that camels drank 100 to 1351 of water every 6 to 7 days when attached to a settlement.Sheep and goats are the 'petty cash' of livestock capital, and are used by man to fulfill a variety of different social and religious obligations. They are also an insurance against a dry year because smallstock, and in particular goats, may outsurvive cattle. Even if it is not so dry that cattle survival is in doubt, it is likely that cows' milk will have dried up and people will have resorted to bleeding male animals and using smallstock (Dahl and Hjort, 1976). Sheep and goats will be slaughtered for food, or sold to buy maizemeal. Goats, in particular, will be expected to give milk under the driest conditions (A.C. Field, 1978).Smallstock exploit a broader spectrum of natural bushed grassland, and a wider range of rainfall than cattle (Knight, 1965;Topps, 1967). Sheep and goats are usually herded by women and children nearer to the homestead than zebu cattle and camels, but they can cover considerable distances when required to do so (Dahl and Hjort, 1976). Bedouin goats often walk 17 km.d -1 for grazing and return to the encampment every evening to suckle their kids. The encampment may be 25 km from the watering point (A. Shkolnik, unpublished). Australian sheep covered 15 km.d -1 at 2 to 2.5 km.h -1 when food and water were separated (Squires and Wilson, 1971). As the distance of separation increased, food intake decreased almost linearly; at first water intake remained the same, but then it declined; the distance walked per day increased to a peak and then dropped to the initial level, and frequency of watering decreased (Squires, 1978).Although the two species are herded together, that is where the similarity ends. They are kept for different purposes, and their products are not entirely interchangeable: for instance, sheep are kept for their fat and goats for their lean meat. They have different susceptibilities to different diseases (BVA, 1976), so by keeping both the pastoralist is spreading the risk. In arid areas, both species will take more than one third of their annual diet as browse and browse litter, but the composition of the diet differs.In the lowlands of northern Kenya it was noted that sheep seldom raise their heads above 20 cm from the ground when feeding, and goats normally do not lower their heads below 20 cm (IPAL, 1983). Goats can extend their feeding range by standing on their hindlegs (A.C. Field, 1978), or even climbing trees. Consequently they can ingest a higher proportion of trees and shrubs than sheep (Table 36). In fact the presence of goats is frequently associated with overgrazed, degraded areas. It has been pointed out that goats may not have been the cause of the original overgrazing (Devendra and Burns, 1970;Joubert, 1973). They are merely delivering the coup de grace: for example, Turkana people with goats can survive after Rendille and Gabra have grazed out an area with their camels and cattle (C.R. Field, unpublished).Water balance is unaltered during the first 2 days of water deprivation in sheep, with water drawn from the digestive tract; only after that does physiological dehydration develop (Hecker et al, 1964). It reaches a critical level only when desert sheep have lost 30% of their bodyweight (More and Sahni, 1978), and at an even later stage in desert milking goats (Shkolnik et al, 1972). When deprived of water, sheep and goats reduce water loss by the excretion of sodium in concentrated urine (Macfarlane et al, 1961;Taneja, 1965;Schoen, 1968). Faecal water loss is also limited, particularly by breeds originating from arid areas (Slagsvold, 1970).Differences in food selection and water requirements between breeds of the same species are nearly as large as differences between the two species in different parts of Africa: for example, compare Gihad (1976) and King (1979). Nevertheless the practice of grouping sheep and goats together under the heading of smallstock should be discontinued as more field data become available.From the foregoing remarks it is apparent that it will be difficult to generalise from one chosen example. And data on water and energy budgets are so sparse that differences between species and breeds cannot be illustrated with confidence. Source: A.C. Field (1978); C.R. Field (unpublished).One animal which has been and is being studied, is the Small East African goat, which is common to all but the coldest or driest parts of the region.The forage intake of the goat has been taken as 2.5% of bodyweight, based on a range of 2.1 to 3.2% (Devendra and Burns, 1970;A.C. Field, 1978). The gross energy and metabolisability of the diet has been calculated using the same coefficients as for grass; the cost of feeding has been made the same as for cattle; walking cost was taken as higher and cost of lactation as lower than for large stock, but based on a higher nutritional value (Dahl and Hjort, 1976) than that shown in Table 9.The water cost of each kg of milk has been taken as the same as for cattle, and the extra water used in walking as negligible. The water required per kg DMI (I w ) at a given environmental temperature has been calculated from data on Small East African goats at Galana ranch, which were included in the field trials with the camels (Table 37). Source: J.M. King et al (unpublished).Water from food has been derived from equation (5.19):where TBW T = 3.86 (Table 37) W D = 2.20 (Table 37) W M = 0.22 (Table 37 and equation 5.13) W RC = 0.42 (Table 37 and equation 5.14)Hence W F was 1.02 l.d -1 . The mean value for forage intake (I) during the period from June to August was taken as one third of the way up the range of observed values, namely 0.90 kg.d -1 . The forage moisture content was then calculated as 53% from equation (5.20).The water intake in relation to forage intake is estimated from equation ( 5 This value compares reasonably well with the value for growing sheep under hot conditions, namely 3 l.kg -1 DM.d -1 (Table 19), because the goats on Galana were not particularly arid-adapted, and the temperature was higher.The application of the values derived above to the energy and water turnover of the goat is shown in Table 38. It can be seen that the animal' would have an energy deficit of 1.64 MJ ME.d -1 , resulting in a weight loss of 0.38 kg per week. Such a rate of loss could be tolerated for about 3 months, assuming that forage intake was also decreasing. It is more likely that the animal would dry off before then and eliminate the reason for the deficit, which is the energy cost of lactation. Frequency of watering would need to be at least every third day to avoid depression of appetite and lactation (section 4.3.1).The Small East African goat is not as desert-adapted as the Somali sheep or Galla goat, which only need to drink once a week when cattle are being watered every second day (Mares, 1954). Furthermore the goat has a higher TBW T than the zebu cow (Table 13). Nevertheless it possesses, in some degree, the attributes which allow smallstock to outsurvive cattle in times of drought. It requires less water per kg DMI than zebu cattle in the same environment. Its food intake is higher because of its superior ability to select nutritious food, except during the rains when there is adequate forage anyway. As a browser it obtains more water from forage than do grazers. Nevertheless in a severe drought, when the leaves turn brown and fall off even the deep-rooted shrubs, smallstock may lose their edge over cattle when faced with the same indigestible diet. They may be able to find natural supplements such as browse litter. For example, acacia flowers rich in protein and soluble carbohydrates are shed at the end of the dry season (Schwartz and Said, 1980). Source: Clapperton (1961); Young (1966); Graham (1964); Corbett et al (1969); Devendra and Burns (1970);McDonald et al (1976); A.C. Field (1978); Webster(1978); King(1979); nutritional analysis by University of Hohenheim of dietary grab samples collected by C.R. Field.The donkey has been described as the ubiquitous beast of burden in southern Sudan (Wilson, 1978b); a role that it also fulfills in much of sub-Saharan Africa. In subsistence societies which value multipurpose animals, the retention of a specialist animal is surprising. Equines are no longer milked in Africa as they are in Asia (Jarrige, 1980), and donkeys are eaten only as a last resort. The animal owes its survival to the following attributes: it can carry a heavier load in relation to its bodyweight than other baggage and riding animals (Table 39); it is more efficient at walking than man, or even than the mule (Yousef and Dill, 1969); it appears to thrive on neglect; and it can withstand droughts better than most species of livestock, as was illustrated in Niger in the early 1970s (Eddy, 1979). The characteristics which enable it to survive are summarised below. African equines exploit the rangelands in a very different way from the ruminant. Their food intake is not depressed by a low protein, high fibre diet (Robinson and Slade, 1974), and so the donkey remains productive with little loss of condition. The concomitant demands for water for cooling and for intermediary metabolism are high. The working donkey uses water at much the same rate as man (Dill, 1938), but the water that it carries back to the boma is for the household and not for itself. Fortunately the animal is more adept than man at maintaining its plasma volume at the expense of other extracellular and intracellular fluids. Its appetite is not depressed until dehydration is severe, by which time the donkey is back at the watering point where it rapidly re-hydrates without risk of intoxication (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1965;Maloiy, 1970;Maloiy and Boarer, 1971). When the animal is not working, minimum water expenditure could be as low as 2.5% (Dill, 1938), which would allow the animal to go without drinking for at least 10 days, because it can tolerate 30% dehydration. But donkeys in northern Kenya appear to water more frequently than smallstock (C.R. Field, unpublished).Donkeys are used to carry grain, forage, firewood, people, household possessions and water, as well as to pull carts. In Maasailand, the animal usually weighs about 120 kg and carries a load of 35 to 45 kg. In the dry season the location of a boma may, in part, be determined by the distance a donkey can walk to a source of drinking water and back to the household. The journey should be completed during daylight, i.e. within 13 h at speed of about 3 km.h -1 (Table 39). Thus a settlement can be up to 20 km from a source of drinking water, and a donkey will be expected to make the trip there and back every second or third day during the dry season (D. Western, unpublished). On the days it is not working the donkey may follow the cattle out to graze, but go less far, and be brought back to the vicinity of the boma in the evening. It is not enclosed at night unless there is a high risk of predation.The example chosen is less extreme than the limits of endurance credited to the donkey would permit and is more in line with the 2-day watering regime of zebu cattle, where the boma was located 1 km from water (section 5.2.1). When the animal is being used to collect water on alternate days, its daily TBW T and energy budget will be approximately as shown in Table 41, based on the coefficients and equations listed in Table 40.The first point to note is the high estimate of forage intake (2.7% of bodyweight) despite the fibrous diet.The donkey being a simple-stomached herbivore, achieves microbial digestion of plants in its large intestine, which has several functional similarities to the rumino-reticulum, including the synthesis and digestion of microbial protein (Stevens et al, 1980). The efficiency of cell-wall digestion of forages is 30% less in Equidae than in ruminants, while the apparent digestibility of the cell contents is similar. The digestibility (d) of forage can be predicted from either of the following equations, or preferably the mean of the two: d = 0.31 + 1.45 CP (5.23) where CP = crude protein fraction, or d = 1.45 -2.82 CF (5.24) where CF = crude fibre fraction.The reduced breakdown of cell-wall carbohydrates in the large intestine of Equidae is primarily due to a shorter retention time than in ruminants. The latter must retain fibrous vegetation in the rumen until it is small enough to pass through the reticulo-omasal orifice and between the leaves of the omasum. This process may be so delayed that food intake falls below the level required for maintenance regardless of the quantity of herbage on offer. No such depression of intake occurs in the equine which compensates for its less efficient digestion with a 30% longer feeding time than the ruminant. The conclusion is that caecal digestion is in fact a superior adaptation for dealing with high fibre content herbage, provided that intake is not limited by the actual quantity of herbage available. Amongst the Equidae, the donkey appears to have a higher capacity for crude fibre intake than the horse (Robinson and Slade, 1974;Jarrige, 1980). For example, the donkey is one of the few species that can use the short spiky leaves of Sporobolus spicatus, a common grass of alkaline flats in Africa (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977).The metabolisability of the food digested is slightly higher (0.90) than for ruminants, so that the energy derived (E) from a given intake (l) is predicted with a different equation than equation (5.02). For equines:The efficiency (k m ) with which ME is used for maintenance has been derived from an adaptation of equation ( 5  Source: Dill (1938);ARC (1965;1980); Fonnesbeck (1968); Vander Noot and Gilbreath (1970); Wooden et al (1970); Hintz et al (1971); Vander Noot and Trout (1971); CEEMAT (1972); Robinson and Slade (1974); Schmidt-Nielsen (1975); Pratt and Gwynne (1977); E.M. Wathuta (unpublished).Thus the amount of ME used for maintenance by the donkey is given by the equation: E m = a.Wt 0.75 /k m (5.27) where a = 0.211 (Table 24).The energy costs above maintenance are feeding and walking with and without a load. Feeding costs per MJ ME have been increased by one third to account for the extra feeding time. Walking costs have been based on the assumption that the donkey walks only 3 km while grazing on the day it is carrying water but 9 km on the day it is not. To this total must be added the 11 km journey to water carrying empty containers. The load on the 3.5 h return journey has been estimated at 45 kg, i.e. less than 40% of the animal's bodyweight, which is not hard work for a donkey. Larger loads and longer working hours will increase energy requirements by two to four times that of maintenance (CEEMAT, 1972;BDPA, 1974).Water intake from forage is low, because the grass is dry. Drink therefore accounts for most of the animal's water intake. It is calculated using a variation of equation ( 5.21), namely:W D = (I × I w ) + (WKU × WKU w ) + (WKL × WKL w ) -W F (5.28) where the water required per kg DMI (I w ) has been taken at the same value as for the light horse at a moderate ambient temperature (15°C) (Table 40).The water cost of walking unloaded (WKU W ) has been taken as negligible, for two reasons. Because the donkey is an efficient walker it generates relatively little heat and there is no marked increase in sweating in response to exercise, as there is in man. Speed of walking is dictated by the animal's ability to maintain thermoregulation, and it will not be driven any faster. Thus the inherent stubborness of the animal enables it to avoid working at a rate exceeding its thermoregulatory capacity (Yousef and Dill, 1969;Bullard et al, 1970). Secondly, the animal will have covered the distance to water before the day heats up.There is a water cost of walking back loaded (WKI w ) during the heat of the day of about 1.61.h -1 (Table 40). If the return journey is not delayed until the afternoon this cost will be borne by the animal for 3.5 h, which must be divided over 2 days. Equation (5.28) can be solved:W D = 11.5 + 0 + 2.8 -0.4 W D = 13.9 l.d -1Estimates of metabolic and respiratory and cutaneous water input have been made using equation ( 5.12) and ( 5.22) respectively. Source: Table 40.The final picture of energy and water turnover in the donkey (Table 41) is very different from that in cattle belonging to the same household, also on a 2-day watering regime (Table 31). The donkey has an energy surplus whereas the cow has a deficit. The reason appears to be that the donkey has a high ME intake, which in the ruminant would be associated with high energy demands, for example in lactation, whereas in fact the donkey's maintenance requirements are very low.However, water expenditure (ml.l -1 ) is similar in both animals. There are two reasons for this: firstly, although the water cost per kg DMI (I w ) is lower in the donkey, food intake must be higher for a given ME intake; secondly, the evaporative water needs of the donkey walking in the heat of the day are nearly three times those of the cow walking unloaded and more than offset the cow's extra water need for lactation.The rate of water loss in the donkey is particularly marked at the outset of the 2 days between drinking, because of the sweat lost carrying the water back to the boma. This loss must not reach a level which will depress the animal's appetite during the next grazing day, even though it may be able to graze during the first night. On the morning after work, the degree of dehydration will be approaching 13% and by the afternoon 15%. At this stage the person who has walked with the donkey, and sweated nearly as much, would be in a coma if he or she had not drunk. However, donkeys are relatively unaffected by a water loss of 12 to 15% of their bodyweight; appetite is not depressed until the level of dehydration reaches in excess of 15%, or as high as 23% in Sinai donkeys (A. Shkolnik, unpublished). By the time the animal returns to drink on the second day it will have lost 21% of its body water, but will rapidly and completely rehydrate (section 3.3.1).The foregoing examples and equations have been based largely on data and situations in Kenya.Nevertheless, the approach is readily transferable to other parts of Africa. For example, given baseline data of the sort provided by Swift (1979) on the Tuareg in Mali (Table 42), water and energy turnover of four species can be simulated.The value of the model is that the behaviour of livestock throughout the year can be illustrated and related to a variety of options for water development, whereas practical guidelines for development were formerly based on a single conservative estimate of daily drinking water requirements (Table 10).  Modern strategies of livestock production require exogenous inputs of skills, equipment and money. A fundamental element of these strategies is the new ability to place water points where one wants them to be, rather than where they occur by accidents of nature. Unfortunately these technological innovations are entirely dependent for their success on the human organisation and management of livestock and grazing resources. In pastoral systems, where the traditional organisation has collapsed and has not been replaced by an alternative, overgrazing becomes a certainty and the provision of extra water a liability. However, water development makes such an immediate improvement to the quality of life of pastoral people that its provision can hardly be denied. Having accepted the social and political obligations to provide water, the emphasis must be on minimising its deleterious effects.6.1.1 Uncontrolled grazing 6.1.2 Controlled grazingIn theory, the objective of water development in pastoral areas is similar to that for commercial ranching areas, but in practice it is quite different because of this lack of grazing control and the resultant range degradation around watering points. The extent of this degradation has been described by Jarrige (1980) relying largely on information from Le Houérou (1977):\"The quality, productivity and surface of the arid and semi-arid pastures of Africa (and the Middle East) have deteriorated at an alarming rate over the last decades as a result of overstocking and the increasing pressure of human population. Production is currently one third to one fifth of its potential and sometimes even as low as one tenth in the arid zone of Africa. The numbers of livestock have increased sharply (38% in all of Africa between 1950 and 1973; 53% for cattle) as a result of better sanitary protection and increased rainfall in the 1950s and 1960s, sometimes helped by unsound water development projects. Heavy and continuous overgrazing have resulted in the replacement of perennial grasses by annual grasses and of forage shrubs and trees by undesirable ones. At the end of the 1968-1973 drought in the Sahel, the vegetation cover was 32% less than 30 years ago. Tens of thousands of hectares are converted to desert by wind erosion every year. The human population explosion has led to more and more pastures being turned into cereal cropping and fallow being reduced or suppressed. This periodical cereal cropping with modern ploughs eliminates the perennial forage species. Destruction of woody species for fuel around the cities not only suppresses some browse species but also results in the disappearance of valuable forage species that grow in the shade.\"The prospects for the future are not encouraging. Food problems in tropical countries are well known. The rise in food production will have to exceed population growth in order to remedy present-day shortages, which cause half a billion people to suffer from undernutrition or malnutrition. There is little chance of this happening in the near future, because the population has been growing and continues to rise at an unprecedented rate (>2% p.a.). This population explosion is expected to last several more decades. In the intertropical zone by the year 2000 the population will probably reach 2950 million people, or 47% of the world's population and 60% more than at present (Jarrige, 1980).If pastoralism in any form is to survive, the range resources must be protected above all else.The most conspicuous effects of range degradation are to be found around permanent wells and boreholes. For example the man-made desert round the settlement at Kom in northern Kenya is nearly 8 km in radius and 200 km 2 in area (IPAL, 1982). In Niger, Rippstein and Peyre de Fabregues (1972) estimated that proper exploitation of a circle of 8 km radius around a pumping station, with overexploitation during 9 months of the dry season, allowed a maximum of 3000 TLU on pastures having an annual primary productivity of 700 kg DM.ha -1 . The actual biomass of stock was usually more than 10 000 TLU.The authors made a number of standard recommendations on how water could be used to improve range management. The system of transhumance was to be maintained and the time spent in the wet season dispersal area was to be increased by increasing the number and depth of temporary ponds. The early return of transhumant herds to dry-season grazing grounds was to be discouraged by delaying the date at which the borehole pump starts operating. The number of pumping hours per day were to be varied to deliver the daily water needs for the correct stocking rate. This daily ration was carefully calculated for each month, and varied from 24 l in January to >42 l in October. In addition, dry-season grazing reserves were to be created particularly from wooded pastures and firebreaks were to be introduced. Control of permanent water points, stocking rates and livestock distribution was to be placed in the hands of the nomads who traditionally use the area.However, it should be noted that the effectiveness of such plans can be limited by: isolated and sporadic rainstorms which may not fill all the ponds in the wet season; pump attendants and range management officials may be bribed or coerced into operating pumping stations (Sandford, in press); the committees set up to manage the rangeland may not be very effective; and fuel delivery and maintenance of pumps and engines in remote areas may be difficult at best.Further water development in areas of uncontrolled grazing may temporarily alleviate overstocking. However, it will merely postpone the day of reckoning when the rangeland will be a desert unless limited extent of range management in Africa is recognized. The emphasis in water development must be on the continuing use of traditional watering practices for which the labour and social organisation required act as a constraint on range utilisation (Helland, 1980). An example of such a development plan is given by King et al (1983) using carefully spaced hand-dug wells. The preference for wells rather than ponds was based on their reliability and water quality, compared with the unreliability, high evaporation rate, as well as erosion, silting and polluted water, associated with ponds (IPAL, 1982).In certain situations grazing is controlled. For example, in parts of Kenya Maasailand with an annual rainfall >600 mm individual ranches have been created which are a natural extension of the Maasai practice of reserved grazing areas. Most households have reserved grazing areas for their calves (called olepolole), and some have reserved areas for grazing in the early to mid dry season (dokoya unkishu), as well as reserves (enkaroni) for the final period of the dry season. Households associated with a specific reserved area do not have exclusive rights to that area, but they do collectively decide when livestock may enter for grazing. A meeting of men from a particular neighbourhood makes this decision, and disputes about entry often occur. Nevertheless, collective action may be taken against any person herding prematurely in the reserved area, whether they are from the controlling neighbourhood or from elsewhere (Peacock et al, 1982).In such cases, water development should be largely a question of economics, which means that a watering point would be required to support the equivalent of 1250 adult zebu cattle (Classen et al, in press). Conventional range management practices may be applied (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977), but these are unlikely to include expensive improvement of natural pastures until research has shown that new interventions (e.g. forage legumes) are a realistic proposition. Food and mineral supplements can be considered, provided they are cheap enough. For example, the provision of urea when forage digestibility is low has increased the milk yield of Merino ewes (Stephenson et al, 1981).Consequently the protein and fibre content of the diet may place a ceiling on ruminant DMI particularly by bulk grazers such as cattle. Crude protein levels of less than 7% markedly reduce the intake of natural grasslands in the tropics (Osbourn, 1976), and are considered the major limiting factor to liveweight gain, for example in Botswana (Pratchett et al, 1977). Therefore one can apply the old adage that 'water can be limited when forage is short' (in quality or quantity).Earlier in the dry season, water should be accessible enough to allow the lactating cow to satisfy its appetite and maintain energy balance. That situation is illustrated in Table 46 where the lactating zebu cow is in energy balance, walking about 9 km.d -1 . The distance itself is not critical because the water and energy costs of walking are relatively small. Long distances (estimated at >14 km by Konandreas and Anderson, 1982) are nevertheless associated with a loss of grazing time, which is probably a more important factor. Daily watering is necessary for maximum productivity when grass digestibility is above 50% but moisture content below 50% or thereabouts. The conclusion reached is that doubling the density of watering points in an underdeveloped area produces a spectacular improvement in productivity, but that there is a rapid diminution in the return with each doubling in density thereafter (Sandford, in press).The contribution of trees, particularly acacias, to pastoral systems is considerable. Besides providing green leaves for browsing, all the litter which falls on the ground, in the form of dead leaves, flowers and seedpods, is eaten. Dead wood is used for firewood and live branches for bomas. This last practice results in the destruction of woodland in the vicinity of bomas. Tree regeneration is prevented by overbrowsing particularly by goats which should be excluded from an area for 5 years to allow young trees to grow out of the animals' reach (IPAL, 1982). The destruction is exacerbated by the likelihood of traditional watering places being located where ground water is at or near the surface and trees are concentrated. Careful spacing of new watering points away from some areas of woodland may reduce destruction, but is unlikely to eliminate it because smallstock can forage up to 20 km and bomas can be located up to 15 km from water.Tree shade provides a shelter for nutritious plants and the resultant green vegetation acts as a heat sink for radiant heat from the animal. Its value for pastoral production in semi-arid rangelands is unquestioned but unquantified. It may be less important for indigenous stock, such as Boran cattle, in more humid less water-limited environments but tree shade is needed to maintain high levels of production if there are high solar heat loads (Fuquay, 1981). Thus shade from mature coconut palms significantly increased the milk yield of Friesian × Boran cows (+18%) on the Tanzanian coast (Macfarlane and Stevens, 1972). Water development projects which take into account the need to minimise range degradation from uncontrolled grazing will clearly need to limit the number and size of water points. The attributes of indigenous livestock in energy and water conservation show them to be better suited to such pastoral production systems than are exotic breeds and crosses.The main reason for the existence of 100 million of the 135 million cattle in sub-Saharan Africa (FAO, 1977) is to provide a staple diet of milk under conditions which are harsh for both man and beast for much of the year. The amount of milk produced is, of necessity, only a few litres per day but is usually shared between the household and the calf, so that there is scope for marketing immature animals. Furthermore, the high percentage of females in the herd (55 to 60%) provides scope for rapid population recovery after a drought (King et al, in press).The dependence of pastoralists on milk may be decreasing with the trend towards smallstock, dryland farming and a more cash-oriented economy. Nevertheless, the transition from pastoral milk to commercial beef production is not the logical extension of this trend because it fails to provide a livelihood for the vast majority of the pastoral community. The slums and shanty towns around most African cities bear witness to the hopelessness of trying to find alternative employment for these people.Furthermore, there is nothing inefficient about dairy ranching versus beef. The value, in terms of human nutrients, of a kg of milk is much the same as that of 1 kg of liveweight gain. The efficiency of conversion of feed energy (ME) to milk is much higher than to meat and fat. Lactation also enhances the conversion efficiency of fat deposition. The actual conversion coefficients vary with the digestibility of the diet, which has been fixed at 60% for the purposes of the example (Figure 23). The comparative water content may also be relevant in the dry season when water intake is limited. At that time fatty tissue, containing only 0.451.kg -1 , is unlikely to be deposited and the water content of milk (0.87 l.kg -1 ) and lean meat (0.75 l.kg -1 ) are quite similar.The African cattle breeds which are most frequently improved are zebu and Sanga. Compared with European breeds, zebu cattle are generally more tolerant of the heat, parasites and diseases of the African environment. They require less water per kg bodyweight and per degree rise in ambient temperature, but this is mainly due to a smaller food intake and a lower metabolic rate. The threshold ambient temperature at which they start to sweat is higher (28°C as opposed to 17°C), but they sweat at a higher rate once they have started (Winchester and Morris, 1956;Horrocks and Phillips, 1961;Brown and Hutchinson, 1973). Zebu cattle digest low-quality grass hay slightly better than Herefords and show less depression of appetite when water is restricted (Phillips, 1960;1961a;1961b). The N'Dama, an indigenous Bos taurus breed found in the humid areas of West Africa, is reputed to have an even lower water requirement than the zebu (Pagot, 1974). Source: Moe and Flatt (1969); Konandreas and Anderson (1982);Van Soest (1982).The improved breeds are usually exotic to Africa and come from Europe, North America or Asia. Their introduction is often not questioned because, at the level at which decisions are made, both the donor and the recipient are familiar with the exotic animal in its original environment. For example, attempts to establish the Red Sindhi × Jersey as a dairy breed in the southern United States were abandoned in favour of existing European breeds (Branton et al, 1966). The reason was that it was more economic to ameliorate the environment with cool buildings and reduce the heat increment of feeding with a low fibre, high protein and energy ration than replace high yielding European cattle with more robust zebu crossbred cattle of lower productivity. Since the early days of domestication, 'invaders have persisted with the introduction of livestock to which they are accustomed, even when the habitat was inappropriate' (Bökönyi, 1969).In many parts of the tropics, for example in Queensland and East and central Africa, there is only limited opportunity for improving the environment and zebu crosses have proved superior to pure European breeds (Lampkin and Kennedy, 1965;Redfern, 1968;Sacker et al, 1971;Frisch, 1972;Brown and Hutchinson, 1973;Trail and Gregory, 1981). In such situations, the genetic potential for higher productivity of the pure European breed is less important than the superior ability of the zebu to rear a calf without losing too much condition, so that it conceives again.In the pastoral or subsistence dairy ranching situation it is the relative stability of the small milk yield under fluctuating environmental conditions which is all important. The zebu achieves this stability because it lays down tissue reserves during the rains, whereas high-yielding European cows divert a greater proportion of dietary energy into milk (Trigg and Topps, 1981). As a result the European crossbred cow fails to provide a reliable milk supply in the dry season, because of lower tissue reserves as well as higher metabolic demands. Futhermore in European breeds of cattle, milk yield is depressed by water restriction (e.g. Little et al, 1976), whereas the admittedly smaller milk yield of zebu cattle is largely unaffected by alternate day watering by the time range conditions demand it. The conclusion is that if crossbred cattle produce more milk during the rains, when there is a surplus anyway, and less during the dry season when it is really needed, then they should not be considered an improvement, even if their overall lactation yield is higher.In Kenya Maasailand, there is a trend with increasing group ranch development towards using introduced zebu bulls, notably the 'improved' milking Sahiwal and 'improved' beef Boran, on the Small East African Zebu. It also happens that the most developed group ranches have the highest rainfall, and it will be interesting to see how far down the aridity gradient the practice of crossbreeding is taken before it becomes counter productive (King et al, in press).Both the Sahiwal and Boran are bigger than the Small East African Zebu, as well as being more productive. But when forage is scarce the small animal may prove to be the better milker, because it will walk and feed at much the same rate as the larger ones but have a smaller maintenance requirement. Livestock appear to get smaller as the average THI increases (Table 21). The phenomenon appears to apply to wild as well as domestic African ungulates (Dorst and Dandelot, 1970). While poor nutrition, high parasite loads and disease challenge may be contributory factors, dwarfism may be the physiological response to a humid, hot environment. Having accepted the general principle of using small indigenous animals because of their adaptation to a hostile environment, it is inconsistent to still select for bigger size.The main objection to the use of 'improved' livestock in pastoral areas is their inability to realize their genetic potential in the absence of some improvement in management. At present livestock in much of pastoral Africa do not need to have a high production potential, because the low nutritive value of forage, supplied by grasslands and crop byproducts, allows but a limited yield if not supplemented with arable crops, which is unlikely (Jarrige, 1980).It has been suggested that the amount of exotic blood in livestock should decline, as the productivity of the pastoral system declines, but the suitability for pastoralism of the genetic material in 'improved' breeds has so far not been questioned. Under conditions of heat, water or nutritional stress the exotic genes may be working at cross purposes with the objectives of the system.It has also been suggested that pastoral cattle should remain reasonably independent of water. But emphasis on water conservation efficiency means that the criteria evolved in the developed tropics for livestock selection cannot be strictly applied. In the southern United States and northern Australia, research has been concerned with identifying livestock, particularly cattle, which exhibit the least rise in rectal temperature in response to heat stress. This attribute is described as heat tolerance, and has been related to higher growth rates, lower embryo mortality and higher birth weights (McDowell, 1972;H.G. Turner, unpublished). Heat tolerance is primarily due to efficient heat dissipatory mechanisms, notably sweating, but it could also be due to a depression in endogenous heat production which is why heat tolerance tests are not particularly sensitive indicators of productivity (Branton et al, 1966). Lower heat production implies a lower metabolic rate and consequently lower growth potential. The basis for selection has therefore been refined to that of maintaining a normal rectal temperature without a reduction in food intake (Vercoe, 1976;Frisch and Vercoe, 1977;1978).If sweating is to be kept at a minimum in the pastoral cow then either high heat loads must be avoided and dry heat loss increased, or the body temperature must be allowed to fluctuate (Figure 8 and section 4.2).The value of a light or medium coloured, dense coat to reduce solar radiation reaching the skin surface is generally recognized, as is the disadvantage of a 'woolly' coat in cattle which has been negatively correlated with weight gain and milk production in the tropics, probably because it reflects a physiological imbalance (McDowell, 1972).The best shape for reducing radiant heat load is that of the camel, with its long legs, short, slab-sided body and razor-back. The sale of immature steers may be an important component of production and the objectives of beef production may be in conflict with those for water conservation. For example, the Boran beef breeder is looking for a long, broad, straight back, avoiding rangy animals because they are indicative of slow maturity and stocky ones because they lack the more extensive and expensive back joints.There is some debate about the efficacy of beef breeding selection programmes in changing the shape of the animal. For example, McDowell (1972) noted that the effect of zebu genes in a crossbreeding programme in the USA was to shorten the length of the back. In a crossbreeding programme in western Uganda, Trail et al (1971) found that at the same weight, there was no difference in side and leg length between Boran, zebu and Redpoll crosses. Ankole crossbreds, which are a Sanga type, were both longer and taller. The only crossbred that was longer backed and shorter legged was the Aberdeen Angus crossbred, reflecting the more intensive selection for blockiness which has gone on in this breed. The equable climate in western Uganda did not seem to favour one crossbred more than another. More extreme climates might have done so, and also altered the shape an-d size of the growing animals (section 4.2.5).The role of appendages has not been completely clarified and there is not enough evidence to promote them at the expense of other characteristics. Thus skin folds should not extend into pendulous sheaths, nor should horns be retained just for their possible thermoregulatory function. On the other hand there may be good reasons not to dehorn animals in a pastoral situation, where horns may be highly prized. For example the size, shape and colour of the horns of the Ankole cow, which may be up to 85-90 cm long and weigh 7 kg or 1.7% of bodyweight, are second in importance only to coat colour in the eyes of their breeders, the Abahima people (Mackintosh, 1938). Horn disbudding had no significant effect on growth rates from birth to 3 years (Trail and Sacker, 1966), and it is possible that horns would act as radiators in hotter, drier environments.There are also other behavioural responses to be encouraged, apart from shade-seeking. Camels are adept at exposing the minimum surface area to solar radiation under conditions of water deprivation. When the herdsman notices that all the camels have turned to face the sun, it is time to take them to water (C.R. Field, unpublished). Schmidt-Nielsen (1965) describes how the dehydrated camel sits on the ground with its legs under its body facing the sun, and how groups huddle together couched on the ground to reduce heat flow from the environment during the hottest hours of the day in the Sahara.The alternative of allowing the body temperature to fluctuate was addressed by Thigh (1972) who suggested that the benefits which thermolability bestows on the camel could apply equally well to cattle, sheep and goats. As has already been indicated (section 4.2.6), smallstock probably do not have a large enough mass to store a significant portion of the day's radiant heat load to make thermolability worthwhile. Cattle are big enough and at least one breed, the N'Dama, allows its body temperature to fluctuate. The mechanism has been associated with trypano-tolerance, but it has also been noted that the N'Dama has low water requirements. Furthermore thermolability does not seem to have affected the N'Dama's productivity compared with other indigenous breeds of cattle (Table 45). Selection for thermolability runs contrary to the philosophy behind the heat tolerance tests mentioned earlier in this section.Because of the relatively small milk yield of the pastoral cow, it may be tempting to replace it with a beef animal. But the criteria for selecting a pastoral cow are slightly different from those for the beef cow, which may be selected on the basis of her calving interval, ability to maintain bodyweight while suckling a calf, and on the calf's viability and weight at weaning. Admittedly the 'improved' Boran is only a few generations away from its role as a pastoral cow, and may retain the pastoral characteristics. To support this last suggestion it has been shown that 'beef' Brahman cattle imported into tropical Australia, milked more than Herefords and used feedstuffs and nutrients from body stores to lactate at the expense of reproduction (Turner, 1980).Despite the attributes of the pastoral cow discussed above, pastoralists cannot rely on cattle milk throughout the dry season, and in arid areas they may not be able to keep cattle at all. Thus a mix of species is kept, related to the rainfall in the area (Figure 24). This mix is also affected by such factors as sedentarisation, range trends and exposure to new markets (King et al, in press).The ratio between the species varies with the rainfall since it is partly related to heat tolerance and water needs. Attributes in water conservation efficiency are normally thought to be traded off against productivity, but enough evidence has been produced in this report to show that this relationship is not constant. In a direct comparison of the water cost of production between species on Galana ranch, it was found that the growth rate of domestic oryx, eland and cattle was of the same order, but that oryx had about one third of the water requirements of the other two (Table 43). No similar work has been done in the pastoral situation, but one can make a preliminary assessment of whether or not big discrepancies in the water cost of production are likely to occur. The first step is to obtain a measure of the productivity of different species on natural rangeland.A useful index was developed by ILCA (1979a) which measured productivity in terms of the weight of the yearling calf and the calf equivalent of milk taken by the herdsmen, divided by the weight of the dam maintained annually. The same sort of index was applied to sheep and goats, with the difference that the weight of the progeny was taken at weaning (5 months), although production was still expressed on an annual basis. In order to compare large and small stock in the same index, production has been expressed on an annual basis in terms of what the female weans. Weaning age is taken as 12 months in camels (Bremaud, 1979), 9 months in cattle and 5 months in smallstock. Thus yearling calf weights given in ILCA (1979a) have been corrected to weight at 9 months using the following equation: a Defined as the total weight of weaned calf plus liveweight equivalent of milk produced per annum.Source: Mason and Maule (1960); Bremaud (1969); Spencer (1973); Dahl and Hjort (1976); Williamson and Payne (1978);and Wilson (1978a).Camel productivity traits have had to be derived from a variety of sources (Table 44). The low calf viability to weaning (60%) is a reflection of the demands made by the household. These needs can hardly be reduced: in times of drought the Rendille of northern Kenya let the male camel calves die first, then their own children, and then the female calves (H.J. Schwartz, unpublished).The values of the productivity index for species and breeds from all over sub-Saharan Africa have been brought together in Table 45.When the productivity index is expressed in Table 45 as g of weaner produced per kg of dam maintained per year, it can be seen that goats are more productive than sheep, and sheep more than cattle and camels. However, when size is discounted, there is no difference between the 20 kg West African Dwarf goat and the 420 kg camel. It is difficult to know if differences between breeds within sheep or goats are real or due to a paucity of data, compared to cattle. The mean values for sheep, goats, cattle and camels are remarkably similar with a range of 1085 to 1395 g.kg -1 W 0.75 . year -1 (30%). In contrast the values for mean daily water turnover are remarkably different, with a twofold difference between the Small East African goat (at 300 ml.l -0.82 ) and camel (at 150 ml.l -0.82 ) in the same environment (Galana).The conclusion is that differences in the water cost of production between species, if not breeds within species, are worth more study, particularly in the context of pastoral water development.This management practice involves herding livestock as far from water as possible at the start of the dry season, when the vegetation is green and the days are cool, and gradually bringing them closer as the vegetation dries out and the days become hotter. It is commonly practiced with camels and smallstock, for example by the Rendille and Gabra of northern Kenya (IPAL, 1982), but not with cattle. Herders of cattle normally adopt a practice of centrifugal watering, which involves grazing near water first and extending their range as the dry season progresses. The reason for the different practices probably relates to the lower water requirements of camels and smallstock and their higher water intake from forage, compared to cattle.Nevertheless, the observation of cattle in Niger suffering fatigue and weight loss but walking maximum distances at the end of the dry season and at the hottest time of year, prompted Rippstein and Peyre de Fabregues (1972) to recommend centripetal watering. The practice was adopted by Klein (1981) in an experiment to determine the optimum stocking rate on Sahelian pastures in Niger. A traditionally managed herd was included as a control, but the comparison of the two systems of watering was confounded by the fact that the animals on the centripetal system were in paddocks, and may even have grazed at night.The value of centripetal watering in maintaining bodyweight at the end of the dry season may be negated in the pastoral system if it depresses lactation at the beginning. The milk yield will be at its peak at the end of the rains when the cow will be expected to walk as far away from water as possible. An energy budget for that period suggests that the animal should not walk more than about 10 km.d -1 (Table 46). The estimated energy deficit of 1.8 MJ ME. d -1 , or 0.4 kg weight loss per week, is unlikely to depress lactation. However the boma can only be located a maximum of 5 km from the watering point. Therefore the cow must be watered every second day so that it can graze away from water on alternate days, thereby increasing the radius of the grazing area from the watering point to about 9 km. The problem with the implementation of 2-day watering when the cow's water needs are still high (due to high DMI and milk yield) is that the animal may become severely dehydrated. This will become apparent if it drinks more than 50 l every second day, i.e. it has a daily drinking requirement of 25 l. The degree of dehydration represented by 50 l every second day in a 250 kg cow is 20%. Any further water needed to offset the demands of DMI and milk yield must come from water in forage, which can be calculated using equation The moisture content of the grass which will achieve this water intake is obtained from equation (5.20):Forage moisture = W F /(I + W F ) = 5.3/(6.34 + 5.3) = 0.46The conclusion reached is that lactating zebu are unlikely to maintain full productivity on a centripetal watering system when the grass moisture falls below 0.46. This value is based on a mass of assumptions which need to be validated. However, the example illustrates the principles involved and one of the main constraints to the innovation.The other major constraint in Niger, and of course elsewhere, is how to destock around the pumping stations so that centripetal watering can be adopted. The pasture within a radius of 8 km of these pumps is about 20 000 ha and should support <3000 TLU, whereas in practice it carries >10 000 TLU (Rippstein and Peyre de Fabregues, 1972).When the rains have failed and it is likely to be a difficult dry season the transition to 2-and 3-day watering should be made earlier in order to precipitate a 'siege' condition in the animals. The value of reducing cattle maintenance requirements to two thirds of normal, is that it allows the grazing to last one third longer or carry one third more animals. There is also a saving in tissue reserves compared with an animal on a daily watering regime, which could be in the region of 95 MJ ME (Figure 18). This saving does not look much compared with a daily maintenance requirement of 23 MJ ME until one realizes that the cow with a depressed metabolic rate is approximately in energy balance (Table 31). The decision to change from a production to a survival strategy is normally associated with lack of grazing, but it should also be taken when the quality of the forage is low. As Rogerson (1963) showed and has been mentioned in section 4.3.2, cattle on a roughage diet with a low protein content are better able to maintain energy balance if water intake is reduced.The trend of decreasing frequency of watering is usually associated with increasing distance of the boma from the watering point, which puts added strain on the water supply to the household. This constraint can be overcome with the provision of baggage animals. In the semi-arid areas donkeys appear to be in plentiful supply, but in the deserts where camels are used there is not enough slack in the system to rear an adequate number of males (section 5.2.2). Consequently there may be a case for providing mature baggage camels to poor settlements to allow them to get away from water into better browsing areas, thereby breaking the vicious circle in which they have neither milk nor forage enough to rear their own males. In fact this is one of the recommendations of the resource management plan for the Rendille area of northern Kenya (IPAL, 1982).Another category dependent on carried water are young, unweaned livestock in the hottest pastoral environments. For example, in the northern Sahel, the Tuareg keep their camel calves in camp for the first 4 months and give them 5 to 10 l water from a waterskin every 3 to 4 days, and goat kids are kept in camp for 6 months and drink 1 to 21 every day (Swift, 1979). The provision of inadequate water to compensate for the milk taken by man could be one more factor contributing to the high mortality rates in young stock.Except where intense sun forces herdsmen to let their livestock out before dawn, night grazing is not practiced in pastoral Africa. The main reason is that it is very labour intensive, and also dangerous for the stock (predators) and the herdsmen (snakes). A prerequisite for night grazing is fencing and predator control, both human and animal. The value of night grazing is that it provides extra time to eat vegetation with a higher moisture content at low environmental heat loads. It is practiced by many wild herbivores in desert areas, and makes them largely independent of drinking water (section 3.3.3). In cattle, its most important contribution is to the high yielding dairy cow which can be identified by the extent of its foraging at night (Stobbs, 1975). Good night paddocks are desirable for optimum dairy production on tropical pastures. At the other end of the scale, it was found in Tanganyika that Small East African Zebus allowed to graze at night were only 3 kg heavier after 72 weeks than their counterparts which were penned at night (Meyn, 1970). In a similar comparison, Boran zebus put on an extra 23 kg with night grazing. It was concluded that a small breed of zebu can satisfy its nutritional requirements under traditional pastoral management whereas a larger breed, like the Boran, cannot. In another trial in Tanganyika with Boran and Angus × Boran steers, the 5 to 6% improvement in liveweight of 24 h grazing over night penning was offset by the loss of 2 steers killed by lions (Wigg and Owen, 1973). The same authors noted one benefit of night grazing, not previously mentioned, namely the manure the pasture receives which would otherwise accumulate in the night enclosure. This extra fertilizer visibly assisted the spread of a most useful perennial star grass (Cynodon dactylon).From the foregoing, it can be seen that the value of night grazing to small breeds of indigenous livestock is not automatic; it also varies with environmental and pasture conditions. For example, when West African Shorthorn cattle were left out during the whole 24 h in Ghana, the amount of time they chose to spend grazing at night was found to vary with the environmental conditions (Rose Innes, 1963). In Uganda, Joblin (1960) found that the restriction of night grazing led to a significant decline of 30% in liveweight gain in zebu oxen, but the difference was largely attributed to periods of moderate grass shortage, when those animals with the longer grazing period were able to select a diet of superior quality and quantity. Under good or very bad grazing conditions the provision of night grazing made no difference. In many areas of Maasailand the nights can be clear, cold and windy, particularly towards the end of the dry season.Crowding cattle together in a thorn boma for the night must reduce their heat loss and their need to waste limited body energy reserves on thermogenesis. Successful livestock management in a pastoral production system is the art of balancing production objectives against highly unpredictable and variable forage and water resources. Such a scenario is difficult to recreate on a research station and the scientist must be prepared to extend his experiments into the herds and flocks of the pastoralists.The value of a modelling approach is that it disciplines the scientist to piece together scattered facts from isolated experiments and ideas into a coherent form (Figure 19). It may be difficult to define the units of a model. For example, there was a strong case for adding considerations of protein and mineral metabolism, but this has been excluded.The consideration of an overall model also has the benefit of indicating factors in need of investigation (Van Soest, 1982). Simple models are the first step in providing scenarios for a range of conditions in applied situations (for example, Table 32 on daily, 2-day and 3-day watering), enabling better management decisions to be made (Christian, 1981). Governments and aid agencies need the most sophisticated projections they can get, if for no other reason than an insurance against expensive failures. There is a need to improve the precision of the estimates in the following components of energy production, heat exchange and water turnover.The most important and yet weakest link in the research chain of energy production is the measurement of forage intake. The fibre component of the diet may prove to be a more useful predictor of intake (e. g. Thornton and Minson, 1972;Van Soest, 1982) than digestibility and crude protein which are more frequently used at present (Konandreas and Anderson, 1982).The fasting metabolism or at least the maintenance requirements of the wide variety of breeds of African livestock need to be measured. The biggest drain on the pastoral cow is probably lactation, not walking, despite the cow's small milk yield. The energy expended (MJ ME) in producing 1 kg of milk was estimated to be the same as walking 14 km (section 5.1.3).More work on heat exchange between the animal and its environment needs to be done in the field. Up to now much of it has been done in the laboratory and the calorimeter. The value of the work is unquestioned but it still has to be translated into the field or pastoral situation. The main difference between the two environments is of course the sun, but solarimeter readings are probably of less general value than temperature recordings in sub-Saharan Africa. The reason is that the heat load on the animal decreases with increasing altitude whereas solar radiation may increase. The overall vertical decrease in temperature (lapse rate) is between 0.5°C and 1.1°C per 100 m of altitude in the tropics, depending on the season, with a relatively constant rate of 0.6°C per 100 m in the highlands of eastern Africa (Barry and Chorley, 1971;Brown and Cochemé, 1973). Measurements of environmental heat load can be obtained from standard meteorological sites, but a more accurate picture of the microclimate affecting the animal is required.A number of different indices of the thermal environment are discussed in the textbooks, each requiring different recording instruments (Kerslake, 1972;McDowell, 1972;Mount, 1979). Ideally these should integrate solar radiation, ambient temperature, wind velocity and air water vapour pressure. A simple index which has proved useful for reducing heat casualties in man during army training is the wet bulb: globe temperature index' (WBG T g ). If the normal wet bulb temperature (T wb ) is used, from a forcibly ventilated wet bulb not exposed to radiation:WBG T g = 0.7 T wb + 0.3 T g (6.02)Tritiated water studies of TBW have increased our understanding of animal water transactions under field conditions. The most important intake is drink but water intake from forage requires further study. The separation of evaporative water loss (Maloiy, 1973) from that required for intermediary metabolism might be the next requirement of the model, if, indeed, the extra precision justifies the effort.Work on nutrition heat load and body water turnover should proceed in parallel, otherwise it is very difficult to integrate the three components.The zebu cow remains the most important animal in the pastoral system (Table 2), but priorities for research may be modified slightly towards other species for a number of reasons.There is a trend towards pastoralists keeping more smallstock, at least in certain areas such as Maasailand. The value of camels is becoming increasingly apparent, notably because more areas are being made available for them by the desertification process and also because their exploitation of fragile habitats is less destructive than that of goats, cattle and sheep. The donkey may thrive on neglect, but that does not mean that a small research input would not improve the lot of this much abused animal.Field work on the priority topics already discussed (section 7.3.1) is not as difficult as it used to be; technical equipment is becoming increasingly compact and rugged so that samples can be collected, processed, preserved or even measured in the field. Communications by 4 wheel drive vehicles, light aircraft and scheduled air services provide ready access to advanced laboratory facilities.Studies of the nutritional value of the diet are complicated by the difficulties of herding fistulated animals in a pastoral environment. Fortunately, where the preponderance of shrubs threatens to dislodge the fistula plug, the herbivore changes from a grazer to a browser and simulation of the diet by hand-plucking becomes more realistic. Similarly, while bagging techniques may be applied to free-ranging cattle (Dicko, 1981), the faeces produced by herbivores in dry, thorn scrub are often pelleted and easy to collect. One advantage of the nutritionist in Africa compared with colleagues in some other parts of the world, is that labourintensive methods can be employed. The high ratio of good herdsmen to livestock also means that the animals are easy to catch and handle. There remains the problem of obtaining a representative sample of the herbage on offer from natural grassland.Measurements of energy balance are frequently done using a portable weighscale. Such scales may not be accurate to more than 2% of bodyweight (e.g. 5 kg on a cattle weighbridge), which may mean that 20% of the body fat reserves may be missed. Similarly, it is easy to obtain a rough measure of milk yield and distance walked (e.g. Semenye, 1982) but difficult to get an accurate one.Measurement of heat exchange in the animal in the field is the province of the specialist, but the general animal scientist should at least understand the principles involved and be able to describe the microclimate of the free-ranging herbivore. Whether or not an index such as WBG T g is applied, two of the most useful portable instruments are: the whirling hygrometer which can measure shaded dry bulb temperature as well as wet bulb depression for calculations of total heat of evaporation, and the globe thermometer which measures the combined effect of radiation and convection.Much useful information can be obtained from field observations of drinking, such as the physical limits to the volume that can be drunk and the time taken to completely replace lost body fluid. Is water intoxication really a problem in indigenous ruminants adapted to semi-arid environments, or are the symptoms caused by distension of the rumen, discomfort and weakness? What is the level of dehydration which will depress appetite and lactation in each breed and species under field conditions? The forage moisture content of the diet must be estimated as accurately as possible using hand-grab samples of the observed diet. Accuracy is most important when forage moisture is above about 35% when its contribution to total water intake starts to increase rapidly (Figure 4). Tritiated water studies should be continued, provided the potential size of the discrepancies between predicted and actual water input under intermittent watering regimes are recognized and precautions taken to minimise them (King and Finch, 1982).An important contribution that the developer, and hence the scientist, can make to the productivity of pastoral systems will be to increase the efficiency with which scarce water and energy resources are used. As much as possible of the research should be undertaken in the environment in which the pastoralist is living so precariously, in order to understand the realistic possibilities for improvements in livestock production in pastoral systems.","tokenCount":"38678"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f1a93d5f082d2e494dbb7a1023a75f45","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/75b642ad-1e65-4196-a997-2f0aca1dd4ef/retrieve","id":"-844758508"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7584cbe3-84ba-4193-9564-b16f72a470b8","pagecount":"117","content":"viii  The CTA had been systematically conducting needs assessments studies for its products and services in the African, Pacific and Caribbean (ACP) region since 2003 and the African region (post-conflict countries) since 2005. CTA realized the importance of similar studies in Southern Africa (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe & Zambia) and Ghana. On the 5 -7 February 2007, the study was launched in Gaborone (Botswana) in response to the CTA's call on assessment of agricultural information needs in Namibia, while taking the CTA's new Strategic Plan 2007 -2010 into account. The Strategic Plan places emphasis on: (i) improving CTA's efficiency and increasing the Centre's outreach by addressing the major bottleneck of difficult or insufficient access to information in ACP countries; (ii) honing CTA's profile and further defining the niche where the centre has a comparative advantage. Consequently, reaching more beneficiaries and further strengthening CTA's partnership networks is key as well as the thrust to make Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Information Communication Management (ICM) strategies more widely available.The overall objective of the study is to improve CTA's collaboration strategies with, and support to ACP agricultural organisations. The study focuses on the main agricultural services and actors existing in the country (information supply side) in terms of their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for collaboration with CTA. Further, the study aimed at identifying agricultural information and ICM capacity building needs of key actors / key strategic partners for CTA products and services. Potential strategic partners for CTA activities and services (with special attention to e.g. print media, radio, TV and journalist networks) were identified with proposed CTA interventions and action plan.The consultants used a combination of qualitative and quantitative rapid appraisal methods. The consultants conducted a desk review of available literature and information sources in public libraries or information centres and from institutions like the National Planning Commission (NPC), National Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU), Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU), Namibia National Farmers' Union (NNFU) and the Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries. The desk review used institutional annual reports, country reports, national documents such as Vision 2030 and the Development Plans, national policy documents (e.g. the agricultural, fisheries, ICT policies, etc.), grey literature and other unpublished documents. Interviews with relevant informants were held or small meetings in a group of not more than three people. The interviews were guided by a structured questionnaire developed by the CTA.As per the resolutions of the meeting in Gaborone (Botswana) early this year and with due cognizance of the maximum (≤15) potential partners, 44 institutions were classified according to their roles in agriculture and rural development after which 13 were selected for further consultations. The selection criteria upheld representativeness across the country and used strategic positioning (see Figure 2), overall ICM and ICT skills/capacities, involvement in agricultural, agroforestry and/or fisheries-related activities and potential of becoming CTA's renowned partner.The study is expected to:Highlight the status of infrastructure of agricultural information services in the country;Identify the ICM capacity of institutions involved in agriculture and rural development;Identify key players in agriculture and rural development and, describe and analyse the information and capacity building needs of key institutions; Provide baseline data on the status of ICM and ICT in agriculture and rural development compiled for monitoring purpose and improve outreached.Despite its current low (± 5%) contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), agriculture is one of Namibia's most important sectors in Namibia. The contribution of agriculture to GDP has dropped from 10% during the early 90s to its current (2007) position of 5% due mainly to advancement in the mining sector and secondary (e.g. manufacturing sub-sector) and tertiary industries (e.g. financial sub-sector). The agricultural sector plays an enormous role in development and economy of the country and currently it support, directly or indirectly, about 70% of the population in the country. Most of these people reside in rural areas and are involved in subsistence farming. Generally, the sector can be categorized into subsistence, commercial and urban agriculture. Livestock and crops constitute the major sources of livelihoods. The sector faces many challenges in order to address the issue of hunger and poverty alleviation through productivity and food security. The Namibian Government through the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF) is aware of the potential of information and ICT to the agricultural sector.The overall impression of the ICT situation in Namibia is very favourable due the advance in telecommunication infrastructure. However, Namibia has a long way to go in terms of provision of information to all. The Namibian Government has recognized the importance of information provision and the use of ICT for development and has embarked on several policies initiatives including the E-governance and National ICT Policy to transform Namibia from an agricultural society to an information society. At an institutional level, only a few institutions (FANR Library, SANUMARC) had some policies on ICM and use of ICTs even though these policies might be outdated and need to be reviewed.There are many institutions in Namibia that are playing an important role in agricultural and rural development information (e.g. DEES, FANR Library, MADI, NATMIRC, NAWIC, NAU, NNFU, TAZAC, etc.). Majority of these institutions are found in the urban areas and their target audiences have a relatively high level of education. In contrast, the few agricultural institutions found in rural areas serve the majority of the farming community and are ill equipped with limited information resources, limited or no access to internet, lacks infrastructure and are headed by semi-qualified personnel.The study reveals that the information needs of institutions are determined by various factors such as type of users, level of education and the usage of information. As a result, the information needs of institutions may differ from institution to institution. These needs varied from simplified ready-to-use (e.g. technical information) to synthesized (information for decision makers) and statistical or unprocessed information such as data. Some specific information needs included information on resistant and drought tolerant crop varieties, markets and commodity prices, bush encroachment, repackaging of available information and waste water utilization.Institutional capacity building needs ranged from resource centres/libraries; staff expansion; ICT/ICM training; policy development; information resources including books, journals and e-resources, photocopiers, scanners, databases, printers, DVDs, video tapes, desktop publishing equipment, digital cameras, multi media projectors to website development and maintenance.xiiThe provision of agricultural information and rural development is negatively affected by factors such as: Absence of policy/strategy to govern agricultural information or ICM/ICT; Under-funded and understaffed information centres/libraries especially those in rural areas; Poor access to internet and related online resources because of high internet costs and subscription costs; A lack of formal networks for information sharing; A lack of qualified people to manage information centres; A lack of skills in, and resources for ICM and ICT; Lack of updated local contents in information resource centres/libraries.The main recommendations are as follows:There is a need for CTA to assist with formulation of an agricultural information policy through organizing a training workshop; Development of national information databases and conducting information audit within the sector is needed; Sensitising leaders and decision makers about the importance of information and lobbying for increase in budget allocation towards information resource centres/libraries is long overdue; CTA may wish to provide training in various aspects of ICM and ICT and basic programmes such as Microsoft Word & Excel, website development and maintenance, managing resource centres, etc.; Use of Online Access Initiative (OAI) should be promoted amongst researchers to boost provision of local contents;The National Broadcasting Cooperation (NBC) may wish to increase airtime for agricultural information because of the better coverage (>80% of population); Exposure visits to advanced institutions like the CTA by librarians is highly recommended as this would impart the necessary skills unto them and ensure that they adapt to their working environment; Resources permitting, CTA may want to assist (in form of ICT resources e.g. computer hardware and software, scanners, printers, photocopiers, etc., CDs, videos, books, and training on library management) EITRC, MADI, NAU, NNFU, Ongwendiva ADC and SANUMARC to establish proper information units and/or libraries; Some of the available information resources has got limited or narrow readership (e.g. only for scientists) and need to be simplified through repackaging.The following institutions (ranked in order of highest to lowest potential) are potential partners because they have direct links with farmers -the ultimate target group of CTA, are (partially) equipped and ready to partner with other institutions and are strategically located to effectively disseminate agricultural and rural development information to majority of farming community.  1.The CTA was established in 1983 under the Lomé Convention between the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) Group of States and the European Union Member States. Since 2000, it has operated within the framework of the ACP-EC Cotonou Agreement and, working primarily through intermediary public and private partners such as research centres, extension services, libraries, NGOs, farmers' organisations and regional organisations to promote agriculture and rural development.As per the agreement, CTA is tasked to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development, and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilise information in this area. CTA's programmes are organised around three principal activities: providing an increasing range and quantity of information products and services, enhancing awareness of relevant information sources; supporting the integrated use of appropriate communication channels and intensifying contacts and information exchange (particularly intra-ACP); and developing ACP capacity to generate and manage agricultural information and to formulate information and communication management (ICM) strategies, including those relevant to science and technology -all of which take account of methodological developments in cross-cutting issues (e.g. gender, youth, information & communication technologies -ICTs, and social capital), findings from impact assessments and evaluations of ongoing programmes as well as priority information themes for ACP agriculture.Since 2003, CTA has been systematically conducting needs assessment studies across the Pacific, Caribbean and African regions -the regions it has been mandated to serve. These studies have been in direct response to calls for CTA, in various evaluations of its products, services and programmes, to be more strategic in its choice regarding the setting of its own agenda and reacting to demand. In putting together its Strategic Plan and Framework for Action 2001 -2005, CTA took a pragmatic view and opted to develop a strategy combining the benefits of both approaches, whereby the need to address the expressed demands of its stakeholders and the potential longterm advantages of developing programmes that address future needs were combined.4. The Centre's new strategic plan covering the 2007 -2010 period places emphasis on: improving CTA's efficiency and increasing the Centre's outreach by addressing the major bottleneck of difficult or insufficient access to information in ACP countries; (ii) honing CTA's profile and further defining the niche where the Centre has a comparative advantage. Consequently, reaching more beneficiaries and further strengthening CTA's partnership networks is key as well as the thrust to make ICTs and ICM strategies more widely available.Under the new strategic plan, the organisations targeted will be extended to include print media, editors, and radio, TV and journalist networks in order to further maximise outreach. Through these partnerships, CTA hopes to increase the number of ACP organisations capable of accessing and combining modern and conventional ICTs, generating and managing information and developing their own ICM strategies.Therefore, identification of appropriate partners is of fundamental importance, whilst bearing in mind issues such as geographical coverage, decentralisation, regionalisation, thematic orientation and transparent and objective criteria and procedures for partner selection. In that regard, this study was conducted in order to give the country profile as well as to assess the agricultural information needs of potential partner institutions in Namibia.In this study, the consultants focused on policy makers and heads of sections of the institutions that are directly and/or indirectly involved in agricultural related activities. During desk review 44 institutions were classified according to their roles in agriculture and rural development after which 13 were selected for interviews on the basis of their strategic positioning (see Fig. 2), involvement in agricultural, agroforestry and/or fisheries-related activities and potential of becoming CTA's renowned partner. Data gathering approaches involved desk review, meetings and interviews guided by the structured questionnaire.Figure 2: Administrative regions and location of institutions contacted for the study. With a mean annual precipitation of 270 mm, Namibia has the driest climate in sub-Saharan Africa. The annual rainfall is generally very erratic, and range from as low as 20 mm in the south-western Namib Desert and coastal zones to more than 700 mm in the far north-east. In line with the increasing rainfall from south-west to north-east, growing periods for various plant species range from zero in the Namib Desert to 120 days in the north-east.12. Of Namibia's limited and erratic rainfall, an estimated 83 -97% is lost through evapo-transpiration, while only 2% runs off into rivers or dams, and 1% infiltrates and recharges groundwater (DWA, 1991;MET, 2001). Given the high evaporation from dams, high evapo-transpiration rates through invasive species, uncertain groundwater recharge rates and the country's population growth and the concomitant increase in livestock numbers, water supply both for livestock and human consumption will continue to be a challenge. Namibia's only perennial rivers (Kunene, Linyanti, Okavango, Orange & Zambezi) flow along parts of its northern and southern borders (see Fig. 1), and the country is almost entirely dependent upon ephemeral rivers and groundwater. Water tables have dropped significantly in some areas during the last two decades because of water extraction to supply towns and related industrial and mining activities, and majority of farmers are already experiencing reduction in borehole water levels. Unfortunately, the number of good rainfall seasons required to restore the water tables is unknown. On the other hand, drilling more boreholes yields poor results in the large parts of Namibia because of poor underground aquifers. To evade the looming water crisis Namibia, in consultation with the neighbouring countries, may have to resort to her perennial rivers which are limitedly accessible and employ modern water harvesting and storage techniques while ensuring high water use efficiency.The soils are mainly deep Kalahari sands of poor fertility characterized by deficiency in most of the mineral and micronutrients such as manganese, iron and zinc. In some parts of Namibia, soils have a compacted horizon with lower permeability and high sodium activity. Calcrete outcrops occur in the area bordering the Kunene Region while black clays are associated with the floors of the Oshanas and pans. The fertile soils and higher rainfall of the Grootfontein-Otavi-Tsumeb triangle support wheat, pasture and maize production. Worth noting is the fact that inhabitants of the different parts of the country have varied farming practices and cultural diversity as highlighted below.Agrarian systems in the northern most part of the country are characterized by a mixed crop system with limited livestock production; cattle ranching dominate the central part of the country, whereas small stock (goats and sheep) production are the dominant farm animals in the south. Across all of the country, pigs and chickens are reared mainly for household consumption and only a handful of commercialized pig and poultry production is practised.Intensive agriculture (cropping) characterized by high value crops such as dates, table grapes, maize, fruits and several vegetable are limited to high rainfall areas or areas close to perennial rivers -the Orange in particular.Namibia is also endowed with other marine and terrestrial resources including fish, diamonds and other precious stones, wildlife as well as limited forests and forests products. The diamonds and mining sector in general as well as the manufacturing sectors contributed more than 10% each to the GDP in 2006, followed by the agriculture and fisheries sectors. The tertiary industries including wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants, transportation and communications, real estate, financial services, etc. contributed more than 55% to the GDP in the same year.Despite most of the above, the country is a net importer of food relying particularly on South African food supplies. However, the government (through various policies and interventions) is developing sustainable ways of food production to enhance food security at both household and national levels.17.Despite its minimal contribution to both the agricultural (29%) and overall GDP (1.8%), crop production is one of the important sub-sectors which provide direct benefits to, particularly, those living in rural and peri-urban settings. In Namibia crop production can be categorized into (i) extensive/subsistence, (ii) commercial and (iii) urban/peri-urban agriculture.Extensive and/or subsistence agriculture: In the northern regions, farmers practice a mixed system of rainfed millet and sorghum production, forest products and limited livestock and vegetable production for household consumption. In the extensive floodplains of Caprivi, maize is the dominant crop, with cattle raising and fishing as important components. Pearl millet, also known as Mahangu, is also cultivated by the majority amongst a variety of vegetable crops and beans near homesteads. Rice, sunflower and cotton cultivation is being developed and preliminary findings indicate high potential for these crops.The Okavango Region has a similar agro-pastoral system, although there is limited cultivation of maize. In low population density areas of Caprivi and Kavango Regions, farming systems are based on cut-and-burn bush fallow cultivation and fields are increasingly being stumped for regular cultivation.Total farm yields of staple crops are usually very low, resulting in annual shortfalls during November to February with concomitant heavy reliance on emergency food subsidies. Irregular intercropping with legumes exists on nearly half of croplands in the North Central Region (NCR), while indigenous fruit trees contribute to the livelihoods of Namibians living in the northern communal areas (NCA). In fertile areas, the average size of fields cultivated per household is 2-3 hectares with millet, sorghum, and beans being the most important crops. In the NCR Mahangu is the dominant and staple crop, whose cultivation is dependant upon the sporadic rains between November and April. Generally, crop failures are common and it is believed that over 75% of the subsistence crop growers never use fertilizers.Commercial and intensive agriculture: Considering soil, rainfall and various water sources, Namibia is poorly adapted for commercial and intensive agriculture (crop production). However, there are areas where commercial and intensive agriculture can be a lucrative venture especially when considering high value crops like dates and table grapes or cash crops like maize, bananas, melons, figs, etc. Dates and grapes are produced along the Orange River by individual farmers and farmer's cooperatives and, these are exported to overseas' markets. Maize is produced on a large scale in the 'maize triangle' i.e. Grootfontein-Otavi-Tsumeb area and on a few other commercial farms south of the Veterinary Cordon Fence (VCF). In order to meet the shortfall in maize production, additional volumes of maize are annually imported from Zambia and South Africa. Figs, melons and tobacco are produced on a small-scale by a few individuals on private commercial farms, whereas the known commercial Banana producer in Namibia has a plot at, and operates from the Etunda Irrigation Scheme in Omusati region. Some farmers around major towns use hydroponics system to grow vegetables which they sell to hotels.Small-scale urban and peri-urban agriculture: Over 23 types of vegetables and fruit trees are grown in urban and peri-urban agriculture systems of which maize, beans, tomatoes, pumpkin, watermelon, sweet potato and pepper are the main crops. Most vegetable production activities are carried out during the summer rains supplemented with portable water for household consumption.Agricultural mechanization: Depending on the affordability of technology, a combination of tractors and animal draught power (oxen and donkeys) are used in ploughing and weeding of crop fields. Similarly, limited mechanized post-harvest technologies are used in activities such as transport, threshing and winnowing. The introduction of mechanical land preparation by oxen or donkeys and more so by tractor, requires de-stumping (although real modern equipment could be flexible enough), and possibly decreases soil fertility.The MAWF is the overarching organ and principal decision maker regulating policies and issues pertaining to crop production. However, the roles of other key stakeholders such as the Agronomic Board and farmers are highly recognized. The Namibian Agronomic Board (NAB) is responsible for promoting the crop production industries and to facilitate the production, processing and marketing of controlled crops/products in Namibia.Controlled grain crops under the Agronomic Board's jurisdiction are white maize and products thereof, and wheat and products thereof while plans to have Mahangu gazetted as a controlled crop under the Namibian Agronomic Board Act 20 of 1992 are at an advanced stage. The non-controlled crops produced in Namibia include, amongst others, yellow maize, sorghum, groundnuts, sunflower, beans, cotton and lucerne. The broad-based Indigenous Fruit Task Team (IFTT) and the Mahangu and Sorghum Task Team oversee much of the agronomic industry initiatives outsourced by MAWF. The Namibia Development Corporation (NDC) is technically initiating and developing capital agricultural projects, while the Agricultural Bank and Presidents' Joint Commission comprising the NAU and NNFU helps emerging farmers pursuing commercialized agriculture in various ways including relevant market and production information, credits, input supplies, etc. Generally, farmers are the driving force behind most, if not all, of the crop production activities.In order to promote sustainable crop production, recent developments including the Green Scheme Initiative, Crop Diversification, Phyto-Sanitary and Quality Control, Soil fertility and Plant Genetic Resources Conservation, Appropriate Technology Promotion and On-farm research programmes are being implemented with capital injection from both international donors, local NGOs and the national government.Namibia boasts a 1572 km coastal line and an exclusive economic/fishing zone stretching about 200 nautical miles into the Atlantic. Generally, Namibia has one of the most productive fishing grounds in the world, because of the Benguela current system -an eastern boundary current upwelling system, which supports rich populations of demersal and pelagic fish. In addition, the perennial (e.g. Kavango, Zambezi and Orange) and other ephemeral rivers as well as open water bodies such as the Oshanas and dams are used for mariculture and terrestrial fisheries. Fisheries resources in Namibia are controlled by the central government through the line Ministry of Fisheries. Over 20 commercially important fish species (e.g. anchovy, guano, hake, monk, horse mackerel, pilchard, Orange Roughy, tuna, etc.), and red crabs, rock lobster, mussels, prawns, seals and seaweed are landed using trawl, nets and line methods.Various foreign-based and local companies (e.g. Tunacor, Pescanova, Cadilu, NovaNam (Spanish), NAMSOV (Soviet), Senhor du Mundo (Portugal), Gendev (Sweden), etc.) as well as organized groups are key players in the fishing industry -employing about 14 000 people. To prevent overexploitation and to promote economic viability in the industry, the Ministry has policies (see section 2.1.8) that govern issuing of rights of exploitation, fishing vessel licenses, and in some fisheries, total allowable catch (TAC) and individual catch quotas. Records show that more than 600 000 and 2 metric tons of fish are landed annually through marine fishing and terrestrial fisheries respectively. On the other hand, individuals may catch up to 30 marine fish, whereas those found in open water bodies are controlled by village headmen.Over 80% of these catches are processed and packed for export market while the rest is sold to local retailers. Through exports, the industry earns the country more than N$ 3 billion in foreign currencies and, overall, it contributes about 8% to the GDP (Ministry of Fisheries, 2007). In addition, both marine and terrestrial fisheries including aquaculture contribute significantly to food security at the household and national levels because fish is one of the cheapest sources of protein.On account of mainly climate, soil types and geology, Namibia can be classified as a purely semi-arid savanna/woodland and non-forest country. Indeed, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defines forests as land covered by trees with a canopy cover of more than 10% and growing higher than 5 metres. Usually a forest shall extend over more than half a hectare, and includes an understorey of young indigenous ferns & forbs and, trees that can develop into taller groves. Figure 3 shows areas with canopy cover of about 10% which, hence, may qualify as forests.Most of these areas are in north-eastern Namibia, especially in eastern Caprivi, western Kavango, eastern Ohangwena and in the hills/mountains around Grootfontein, Otavi, Tsumeb and Sesfontein. The productivity of these forests is constrained by harsh climatic conditions, a lack of knowledge about appropriate silvicultural techniques and poor inventory data. The major tree species planted or occurring in these areas include Eucalyptus and Pines. Production of non-wood forest products such as Marula (Sclerocarya birrea), Mangeti nuts (Schinzophyton rautanenii) and other indigenous fruits and nuts has gained momentum over the past few years. However, this require improvements in understanding about the propagation, storage, promotion and marketing of these forest products. On the other hand, processing of forest products is limited because of low product recovery rates, a lack of appropriately trained people, inefficient equipment and poor marketing.The forestry sector, albeit being small, is one of the critical one both to Namibia and the globe. This sector aims to control the utilization of the few forest resources (e.g. timber, firewood, thatch grass, bees, shade and fodder trees, indigenous fruit trees, etc.) as well as pricing, importation and/or exportation and propagation of forest-related genetic materials. However, useful statistics (data) on most of the above could not be obtained for inclusion in this report. The key players in the sector include various forestry resource users comprising 43 community forests and policy makers especially the central government through the MAWF. Forest products in Namibia are harvested almost exclusively from natural forests and the policies governing the use and price lists for using different forest resources and/or products as well as the agroforestry resources can be found at: http://www.mawf.gov.na/Directorates/Forestry. Owing to her climate, soil types and evapo-transpiration rates, Namibia is better adapted to livestock-based as opposed to crop-based agriculture. And, at the present moment livestock contribute more than 70% to the agricultural GDP. However, the productivity of livestock in Namibia is low due, in part, to poor husbandry practices, limited farmer training, limited availability of credits to farmers, animal health issues, HIV/AIDS, rangeland degradation and reduced carrying capacities, and most importantly annual gross feed scarcity especially during the dry season (August/September -November).The livestock sector in Namibia is divided into the communal (formerly: subsistence farming) and commercial sub-sectors, both of which vary markedly in terms of land tenure system, livestock husbandry, farming objectives, resources inputs and grazing management, etc. In the former, livestock are kept and grazed in non-title deed government land whereas in the latter sub-sector the freehold land tenure system allows for a more commercialized approach (i.e. high resource inputs and higher outputs) to farming. In general, there is better livestock husbandry and grazing management under the commercialized sub-sector compared to the communal sector.In  14). Over the years, there has been a significant improvement in the use of ICT in the country both in the public and private sector. Services such as e-banking, elearning, e-commerce and e-booking were introduced and have created an immediate impact on the clients who used it.In contrast, Namibia is faced with many challenges in order to provide equal access to information. There is digital divide between rural and urban as well as the divide between income groups. The ISPs find it difficult to expand the total number of the Internet users owing to income barriers as well the small population of about 2 million. People from wealthy status have access to information in terms of computers, cell-phones and Internet if one compares to poor families in the country (Namhila, 2004). People in rural areas do not have the same advantages like those in urban areas when it comes to ICT. In addition, the Namibian ICT industry depends on South Africa (SA) and other international countries for import of hardware. Generally South African companies are reluctant to open offices in Namibia because of the small size of the local market. As a result, the ICT is not affordable to everyone in Namibia.Lack of skills is common problem in the country and is worse in the rural areas. The ISPs, ICT experts and technicians are mainly found in Windhoek and it takes quite sometime for technicians to travel from the city to rural areas to repair a problem that could have been solved through knowledge of basic computer skills. These breakdowns affect the provision of services in rural areas.Several policy initiatives have been undertaken over the last years to transform Namibia to information society. These include the ICT policy, Value Added Services, Telecommunication Bill and the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP). The ETSIP programme aims to embed ICT at all levels of education system and to integrate its use as a tool in the delivery of curricula and learning. It is believed that this programme will lead to a marked improvement in the quality of the learning and teaching process from primary to tertiary institutions. Also, it is anticipated that this programme will improve the quality and range of skilled labour required to improve knowledge-driven productivity and economic growth as well as attainment of equitable social development (ETSIP, 2007).Other recent developments in the sector has seen the launching of a new cell phone company (Cell One) on March 19 th , 2007. It is expected that the competition in mobile telecommunication will reduce the high prices of cell phone calls.Currently, there is no policy document on information and communication for agriculture. The two policies related to the above mentioned topic are the National Policy on ICT and the Namibia Agricultural Policy. These policies are broad and not specific to agricultural information and communication. However, they are addressing range of approaches to enhance capacity building in agricultural sector. At institutional level, the general perception on ICT/M policies is that there were no policies for the majority of institutions contacted. Where they exists, they tend to remain vague and make little reference to implementation (NAWIC, FANR Library).The principal characteristics of the Agricultural policy is human capacity building at all levels to be achieved through investment in formal education at schools, colleges, faculties of agriculture and natural resources, and on the job training and experiences. On the other hand, the ICT policy main strategic focus is on making ICT accessible to all by enhancing rural access to information. E-Governance, SchoolNet and ETSIP are some of the government programmes to make Namibia an information society by 2030.The Namibia political and economic environment is favourable, and macroeconomics policies and incentives encourage the private sector to invest in agriculture and to provide essential agricultural development. For example Telecom has invested in its network and the countrywide fibre-based digital backbone is of high quality.Many sectors or institutions in Namibia play an important role in agricultural and rural development information.Government institutions -these institutions' role in generation and dissemination of agricultural information and, rural development is enormous. Over the years the use of indigenous knowledge in agriculture and rural development has assumed a centre stage. Today, scientists are increasingly tapping into indigenous knowledge as this becomes useful in explaining phenomena related to, for example, anthropology.Internet, as part of ICT, is an easier way to share information widely, quickly and cheaply. Most of the institutions contacted have access to the Internet. In Namibia, except in remote areas, most of the towns have access to the Internet. However, FANR and DEES indicated that sourcing information from the Internet poses problems such as very slow connectivity, high subscription costs and lack of skills to maximize the use of Internet for agriculture and rural development. In addition, many agricultural institutions (FANR Library, MAWF, NAWIC, NATMIRC, NNFU, SANUMARC) have realized the benefits they can get from the use of web-based resources. These institutions use websites to inform their users about products and services, and in the same vein websites are used as a sources of information.The FANR Library is one of the Libraries with good collection of agricultural books. It started its collection ten years ago, making its collection very current compared to other Libraries. It built a good collection, especially in journals. In the last six years, however, the library experienced financial difficulties and started to cut on some journal subscriptions. The Library has annual budget of approximately N$ 64 000 (€ 7 002.18) to purchase books. Acquisition of agricultural books has proven difficult because most of the agricultural books are very expensive and ordered from abroad. The Library has an acquisition policy that determine how many copies to buy, where to buy etc. However, this policy has not been reviewed in last five years.Journals and e-resources provide very current information if one compares to books. Researchers, students and scientists require these type of material. However, online resources are not easily accessible due to high subscription fees. Libraries such the FANR, NAWIC and NATMIRC experience problems subscribing to relevant journals due to a lack of funds. Accessing e-resources is also hampered by poor internet connectivity (MADI, NATMIRC).The FANR Library subscribed to the TEEAL collection. This is CD-ROM database with more than 50 major scientific agricultural journals. Collections in TEEAL are outdated and needs to be updated to LAN TEEAL which can be accessed by other branches in the country.Some institutions (e.g. FANR Library, MADI) mentioned the following international organizations as an important sources of information: CTA, FAO, FANR, Implementation and Coordination of Agricultural Research and Training Project (ICART). FAO is used by many institutions as source of information, as part of the country profile it has a Mapping Information System -a tool used for information retrieval on its global activities in agriculture and development. FAO highlights information as one of the priority areas in fighting hunger and achieving food security (see: http://www.fao.org). Many organizations contacted were aware of CTA activities and some of their staff members were recipients of workshop or training offered by CTA (FANR, MAWF, NAWIC and NNFU).63. About 80% of Namibia population has access to radio and because of the radio coverage, radio could be the most popular medium of communicating agricultural information for development (see Fig. 6). The NNFU, Meatco and NBC radio have signed a co-operation agreement on expanding the agriculture programme \"Farmer's Voice\" to more radio services. DEES, Meatco and NNFU use the radio to disseminate agricultural information. This programme is broadcast in different local languages including Otjiherero, Oshiwambo and Rukwangali. With the assistance from the Rural Education Material Unit (REMU) office, 26 radio programmes ranging from five to ten minutes in length are aired in English and local languages in regions. DEES staff produce videos related to agricultural activities. NNFU raised that many farmers do not have access to TV and the radio, which is effective, gives a limited airtime to agricultural programmes.Newsletters, leaflets, and pamphlets are/were distributed to farmers and other recipients in English and local languages by DEES and NNFU. The format, content and style of publications differ depending on the end user. MAWF is the major player in producing agricultural information in masses. Access to agricultural information for farmers and other interested groups/individuals and institutions continued through Agri-Views, Veterinary newsletter, Agricola and Spotlight on Agriculture publications with more than 2615 copies of these publications being distributed to all regional offices, farmers and other stakeholders.The newspaper industry in Namibia has four daily and five bi-weekly papers (see Table 12). These papers are used as sources of information by some institutions (e.g. NATMIRC, TAZAC, MADI). These institutions indicated that they obtain information on agricultural shows, commodity prices, weather, grazing conditions, etc. Newspaper is an effective way of providing current and frequent information to the farming community, but the extent to which agricultural related topics are covered is limited except the governmentowned newspaper, the New Era which cover extensively on issues related to rural communities.Various methods (see Table 1) are used to disseminate and communicate agricultural information and rural development issues. It all depends on the type of information, the targeted audience and the purpose of information. For example, radio is the appropriate channel of communication for creating and/or enhancing awareness among farmers, but it might not be the right channel for advocating behavioural change.Online database: The FANR Library through the Unam website made it possible to provide access to electronic databases using a software system called the Millennium through the Unam Library website.Internet services and discussion fora: Despite the fact that majority of institutions were connected to Internet, the FANR and NATMIRC Library are the only institutions that provide internet services to their users. The NAU has a web-based discussion forum where union members share information on various issues including agriculture, markets, land reform, labour law, etc.Newsletters and other publications: These highlights the current developments relevant to existing and future agricultural information needs. Various simplified newsletters (e.g. Spotlight on Agriculture and Agri-Views) covering topics in range management, livestock husbandry are produced by agricultural institutions such as DEES, NAU and NNFU. Most of these publications are in English. Other publications (e.g. Agricola) covering topical issues, research findings and activities of the MAWF are published annually.Desktop publishing: At MAWF agricultural posters, fliers, newsletters etc.. are produced.Books and journals: The Libraries are lending agricultural books to their patrons for certain period of time, do literatures searches and referral services (FANR Library, NAWIC).Radio programmes: DEES, NAU and NNFU produce radio and video programmes for farmers that are aired for, usually, less than 30 minutes.Training: All the institutions contacted are providing different types of training to their clientele. The FANR Library is providing Information Literacy Training to teach users on how to find information in the Library. On the other hand, TAZAC's main objective is to train farmers in short courses.Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI): NAWIC, NATMIRC and FANR Library provide short reviews of important material and websites on topical issues.Photocopying: Printing, binding, scanning of documents are some of the services provided by the institutions (e.g. NAWIC, NATMIRC and FANR Library) for a small fee ranging between N$ 0.50 to 1.50 (€ 0.05 to 0.16).Agricultural shows, farmers day: DEES, Farmers' unions (NAU, NNFU) and institutions like Feedmaster and Meatco coordinate and organize agricultural shows and farmer's days annually in order to enhance the farmer's capacities. FANR Library -Since the creation of the Library around 1997, it started with one Librarian and two Library Assistants. Today there are a total number of six people of which 3 are professionals (including the two staff members from Ogongo Library -an extension of FANR Library in the northern part of the country). The Library is headed by qualified Librarian with postgraduate qualifications and more than five years experience in academic Libraries management. A new Library was build at Ogongo and as result two vacancies, one at professional and the other at para-professional level, have been added to the establishment.NATMIRC -It started its collection in 1992 and was run by a qualified Librarian until 2002 but since then the Library has been without a Librarian until 2005. In 2005 a Librarian was recruited, and worked only for a year and then resigned. Since then the Library has operated without a Librarian, but the position was recently advertised. Librarians in all Ministerial Libraries are appointed and paid by the Ministry of Education, sometimes this delay the recruitment process of Librarians. For example, if there is a need for a Librarian at the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Education has to do the recruitment and pay the person. Currently there are two staff members at junior level who are in charge of the Library.NNFU -The union has 6 members of staff in its establishment; five of whom operate from the Windhoek office and the other from Oshakati office (northern part of the country). In terms of skills, there are three professionals specialized in agronomy, agricultural economics and social sciences. NAU, which is based only in Windhoek, has four managers, five assistant managers and two clerical assistants. Their skills range from general office administration to policy development issues related crops and livestock production and marketing, value addition on, and/or processing of agricultural produce, and land reform.TAZAC has a workforce of 48 people, seven of whom are professionals specialized in livestock production, agronomy and horticulture, computer training and farm mechanization. MADI has two professionals viz. Research Officer and a Training Officer, four Technical staff and four clerical assistants.Ongwendiva ADC has about ten professionals comprising Extension Officers and Technicians specialized in agricultural extension and economics, animal production and crop production.Many institutions including NAU, NATMIRC, NNFU and NAWIC have resources such as hardware, software, LAN / Internet and budget for information and communication management. Although majority of institutions mentioned above have got budget allocations to manage IC, their budgets are limited.The FANR Library as part of UNAM has a Computer Centre unit that is responsible for all ICT-related activities such as troubleshooting, the provision of LAN, hardware and software and computer technicians. This Centre is 30 km away from the library. The FANR has an acquisition policy or collection development policy that gives guidelines and criteria for acquiring resources for the Library.DPSIM sets established standards, guidelines and procedures that assist in hardware and software acquisition, IT training, running the government wide network (GRNet), as well as in web development. Different ministries have their own information technology unit which assist at ministerial levels, acts as contact, manage and maintain computer system for day-to-day operations of the ministries (Office of the Prime Minister, 2005).The status of agricultural information is that different institutions have their own ways of managing their information system. Some systems are more comprehensive while others are not. Different institutions use different software systems for their databases, data sets, spreadsheets or information sheets to manage their information. It is also widely recognized by some institutions within the country that there is inadequate knowledge about sources of information (FANR Library, NNFU, Ongwendiva ADC, SANUMARC) and acquisition procedures are major constraints to access information.MAWF has many databases under various directorates while data collection methods and the sources of data differ from one directorate to another. Most of the data collected by various directorates is not for public consumption but for internal use, while some of it is used to generate reports, newsletters and articles. The methods of distribution of information vary.The FANR Library as part the University of Namibia Library has benefited from a generous donation by the Andrew E. Mellon Foundation and has acquired the Millennium System. The system gives more search options, improved circulation, cataloguing and security. The Millennium is used to store, manage and present staff and users with online electronic information resources.The CDS-ISIS database is used in NAWIC Library to manage the collection. The librarian mentioned that the system was not effective, because it is a very old version, semi-manual and lacks the circulation module. Some staff members of MAWF feel that much needs to be done to put more library information resources on-line. The NATMIRC Library is using CDS-ISIS but is in process moving to a new system called IMAGIC DBT  (Mabhiza, 2007). This data is also linked to UN convention on the law of sea. Available and analyzed data is usually in form of tables, graphs and maps and only processed or analyzed reports are made known to the public. The data is used to make recommendations for commercial fisheries along the Namibian coast. Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentThe draft Telecommunication bill provides a comprehensive framework for the regulation of the communication industry. The main aspects of the draft bill are:The creation of an independent regulatory authority for the communications industry;The establishment of the authority as a legal entity that will be financed through the collection of license fees and levies;The implementation of government telecommunications, broadcasting and radio policy; Broad policy guidelines that can be issued to the authority by the Ministry responsible for the relevant aspects (telecommunication, broadcasting, postal services) (Stork & Aochamub, 2003).98.An ICT policy is in place for the Republic of Namibia. Its recommendations address issues that can improve and support information and communication for agriculture and rural development. This is because Namibia recognizes the importance of ICT as a tool in the development of the country. The Namibian Government has clearly and positively identified in Vision 2030 that ICT skills and competencies are regarded as core elements of living and participating in the 21 st century. In order to reach the Vision 2030, various initiatives are taking place, such as e-Governance Policy, ETSIP programme, Schoolnet, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).The E-Governance policy outlines the intention of the Government and the strategies to ensure ICT becomes an effective tool that will allow the government to provide its service to all the citizens. Special emphasis is on ensuring that people who reside in the rural areas are not left marginalized. 102. The study findings reveals that the information and capacity building needs of institutions are determined by various factors such as type of users and their level of education and the usage of information, staff complement and training, budgets and other resources. As a result, the information needs of institutions may differ from institution to institution.103. Information needs differ from one organization to the other based on their objectives and targeted audiences. The information need vary from simplified ready-to-use (e.g. technical information) to synthesized (information for decision making) and statistical or unprocessed information such as data. For example information needs of FANR Library have been aimed at addressing the needs of scientists, researchers, academics and students.104. Recently, with the introduction of the QAS the FANR Library realized the need to address the information needs of farmers. Farmers need information on, amongst others, crop varieties, pest management, livestock diseases, agricultural technologies, market information for farm produce and legal information (e.g. DEES, M-ADC, MADI, NAU, NNFU). In order to address the farmers' information needs, repackaging of available information and the literacy level of farmers must be taken into account.105. The study reveals that current statistical information related to social development issues i.e. population size, rural-urban drift and economic information including markets, import and export data is not easily available. Majority of agricultural stakeholder institutions rely heavily on NPC for statistical data. However, most of this information is not current. On the other hand, many international (e.g. UNDP, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)) and local (e.g. NEPRU, Multi-disciplinary Research Centre (MRC)) agencies produce statistical data/information which is highly demanded by researchers and academics (e.g. FANR Library, NAWIC). Yet, this information is not availed to the relevant stakeholder institutions.106. Various institutions (e.g. FANR Library, MADI, NAWIC, Ongwendiva ADC) have difficulties in acquiring e-resources including subscription to on-line databases and e-journal. For example, FANR Library has a dire need to subscribe to e-resources such as AGORA, ScienceDirect and LANTEEAL, but this is not possible because of budgetary constraints. NAWIC shares the same sentiment even though they were not specific. Ongwendiva ADC and MADI indicated that the Dial-Up system used is very expensive and hence limit the use of e-resources.107. The NAWIC Library collection is not accessible online to the MAWF staff and other agricultural stakeholders. Thus, there is a need to upgrade the Library database and make it accessible online. TAZAC raised a concern that there is limited information on local contents online. Therefore, local researchers in the field of agriculture should be encouraged to partake in the Open Access Initiative (OAI).108. The OAI aims to bypass the aforesaid financial barrier associated with subscription fees (see paragraph 123), and to make scholarly research results available free of charge, and full-text, to interested academics/researchers. It is a powerful, and exciting way of increasing the visibility, access and impact of previous and current research. The OAI also opens up new avenues of publishing, especially for academics/researchers in developing countries. Some academics and researchers are reluctant to contribute towards OAI because of uncertainties in the policy governing the intellectual capital. Therefore, there is need to inform academics/researchers on the intellectual property rights issues.109. Use of audio-visual materials is reckoned to be of significance to farmers especially in developing countries where high illiteracy levels limits knowledge acquisition from printed media. In Namibia, DEES and NBC are the main institutions that produce audio-visual materials. However, DEES's role in video production is limited by such factors as skills, equipments and finance.On the other hand, the NBC might have the trained personnel and equipments to produce videos, but agriculture is not their main specialization. As a result, there is lack of audio-visual materials on various agricultural and rural development topics in Namibia (e.g. MADI, Ongwendiva ADC).110. The NBC through radio and TV produce a few programmes related to agriculture covering, amongst others, local markets and commodity prices, auctions, government policies, land reform and agricultural shows. Most of these programmes are aired in 9 local languages (see Table 11) and not in more than 30 minutes. However, one would expect the radio to play a major role in dissemination of agricultural information because the radio is more popular (see Fig. 6) and covers the larger proportion of the Namibian population and it is cheaper than most of the other information sources.According to NNFU, use of TV is limited to about 38% of the population, most of whom resides in urban areas where limited agriculture is practised.111. The four daily and five bi-weekly newspapers even though focusing principally on sensational news, they also report on agricultural related issues including commodity prices, weather, grazing conditions, etc. Newspaper could be one effective way of providing current and frequent information to the farming community, but the extent to which agricultural related topics are covered is limited except the government-owned newspaper, the New Era which cover extensively on issues related to rural communities. Indeed, some institutions (e.g. NATMIRC, TAZAC) use newspapers as a source of information. However, NNFU caution the use of print media in communicating agricultural information because of the relatively high illiteracy level in the English language.112. All institutions contacted had some kind of collaboration with CTA except NATMIRC and NAU. Collaborations with CTA vary from DORA, seminar and workshop attendance by institutions staff, training and, recently, the QAS. The institutions also collaborate with other regional (e.g. FANR, ICRISAT, PRAIS) and international (e.g. CTA, FAO, IFAD) organizations in terms of information exchange.113. In Namibia most of the institutions in the agricultural sector have been operating solo while addressing, many-a-times, the same target audience. Until recently, many institutions (e.g. DEES, NAU, NNFU, SANUMARC) have seen the need to collaborate and hence reduce duplication of programmes and activities. However, majority of collaborations within Namibia operate informally as they are not governed by Memoranda of Agreement or Understanding. Such collaborations, most of which operate on the principles of \"who knows who and where\", are believed to do away with unnecessary bureaucracy. There is a need to establish a system which will monitor the flow of information.114. It was noted by FANR Library and NAU that there is a need to do an information needs assessment to ensure that the information provided meet the demands and needs of users. Different users have different information needs and therefore there is a need to identify all the users as well as their specific information needs. This will help to identify the appropriate media to communicate information and to ensure that information is repackaged in appropriate format and language for the intended users. Despite the aforesaid, there is need for creating awareness amongst agricultural stakeholders of available information from various institutions (FANR Library, NAWIC, NNFU).115. The importance of journals to researchers, academics and the Libraries in developing countries cannot be overemphasized. However, there are gaps in journal collection because of different factors including budgets and staffing.In the last six years FANR Library experienced severe budget cuts which affected journal subscription whereas NAWIC and NATMIRC have been operating without Librarians for the past three years. Agricultural books are generally expensive and not easily available within Namibia. Thus, sometimes it takes up to four weeks to get information from books, while cost involved are too high. This is despite the fact that there is no import duties on educational materials.116. Information needs of fisheries institutions are specialized and range from mariculture, seaweed production and harvesting, aquaculture, coastal agriculture, deep sea research, fisheries policies and fishing quotas, etc. To address some of these needs, SANUMARC is in the process of establishing a Library and resources such as books, computer hardware and software are needed.117. The information needs of different institutions interviewed are summarized in the Table 2 below.   (Namhila, 2004).125. There is high labour turn over among librarians and other ICT workers in Government institutions. Many are leaving the Government for better employment opportunities in the private sectors. As a result, people with no Library or Information qualifications are in charge of many libraries or information centres in Namibia particularly those outside towns. For example, between 2003 and 2005, NAWIC library was headed by a Library Assistant.Currently NATMIRC is run by a library assistant. Sometimes this leads to poor management of libraries/information centres collections.126. In addition, information resource centres are understaffed. For example, the NAWIC Library with only five staff members are expected to serve more than 4000 MAWF personnel. Of the five, two are professionals; one has a degree in Library and Information Sciences with 16 years of experience in Library Services and the other has a diploma in Library Sciences. The rest are clerical staff.127. The FANR Library, headed by a Librarian with a Masters Degree in Information Sciences and Advanced Certificate in Management, has a total workforce of three professionals. However, these professionals are not trained as agriculturalists, but only as information officers. This is a common problem in Namibia, the information professionals have limited background in subjects related to agriculture or science.128. Mariental ADC, MADI, NAU, NNFU and SANUMARC produce agricultural and/or rural development information, yet they do not have a unit and human resources responsible for ICM. In that regard, there are capacity building needs in terms of expansion of current staff complement and upgrading the skills of existing staff in ICT. In order to deploy ICT development in agricultural institutions, there is a need to develop knowledge workers to adapt to new technologies in addition to developing and maintaining their skills so as to improve their working conditions. Besides, there is a need to equip trainer of trainees with the skills on how to transfer information/knowledge to farmers (e.g. DEES, NNFU).130. There is digital divide between institutions regarding their ability to use ICT effectively. The Windhoek-based institutions are better off in terms of ICT and ICM. The digital divide runs more sharply between the private sectors and tertiary institutions comparing to public sectors. The private sectors and tertiary institutions have better access to ICT enablers such as computers (hardware and software), LAN, access to Internet, databases, and skills while the public institutions are lagging behind.131. Access to the Internet was mentioned as general problem. The Government is still in process to provide a full-fledge Internet access to all staff members (IS, NATMIRC). Those government institutions that have access to Internet mentioned the slow connectivity, lack of skills, limited number of personal computers, lack of ICT policies as some of the problems that impact the use of ICT (MADI, DEES, NATMIRC).132. Affordability of ICT equipments was indicated as problem by all institutions interviewed. Internet connectivity, software, hardware and technological items needed in ICT are costly and can hardly be afforded by all institutions. This is due to the fact that the ICT industry depends on South Africa and other international countries for import of ICT equipments. There is a need to make ICT equipments affordable especially to those institutions involved in development issues such schools, tertiary institutions, governments, NGOs, etc. To-date, ICT are regarded as luxury and highly taxed. This can be discussed at National level by relaxing taxes and import levies on ICT equipments.133. In relation to other sectors, the ICT industry is developing rapidly in Namibia.In order to keep abreast with new developments, new ICT equipments are needed and, sometimes this is not possible due to various factors such as lack of funds and skills to identify new information resources. As a result, the institutions are faced with unmet demands from users (NAU, NAWIC).134. Photocopying, scanner, databases, printers, CDs, DVDs, video tapes, desktop publishing equipment, digital cameras, multi media projectors are some of the equipments needed by the institutions (e.g. DEES, FANR Library, MADI) to run their programmes.135. Websites are effective for delivering and communicating information, but must be appropriately designed and adequate resources must be allocated for their maintenance. Even though all but one (MADI) institutions contacted had websites, it was observed that most of the websites are not updated frequently, while others carry outdated information dating more than two years back. This is because most of the institutions (FANR Library, NNFU, Ongwendiva ADC, SANUMARC) do not have Webmasters and lacks capacity to maintain their websites as well as to upload recent publications. The study also reveals that majority of the websites, except for NAU, only delivers information and do not accommodate discussion forums. In terms of information delivery, most of the websites carry relatively good content ranging from newsletters, annual reports, online database and provide links to useful resources. However, the online information is limited as most of the available local contents are in print format. Thus, there is need for institutions to digitize available local contents for uploading on their respective websites.136. A well organized collection is easily accessible. The institutions that are collecting information have identified the need to improve on management of information resources. For example, NAWIC indicated that there is need to improve their circulation module or introduce a new system that will manage their collection and that is accessible online. Similarly, NNFU anticipates to improve information provision through computerizing its collection as well as to have someone who will be responsible for the ICT issues in its establishment.137. Institutions contacted are networking with various local, regional and international organizations. The extent of networking within the country is informal comparing to the collaborations with regional and international organizations where there are memorandums of understanding signed between institutions (CTA and FANR Library, IFAD and NNFU).138. There is a need for agricultural information stakeholders at national level to formalize the networks and share information and knowledge. National consortium agreements between institutions may lower the costs of information (NATMIRC). A librarian at NAWIC shares the same sentiment that currently there is no policy or a system in place that monitor the flow of agricultural information in the country. In order for Namibia to take part in AIMS which is established as the knowledge-bank of the SADC Secretariat, there is need for agricultural stakeholders to organize themselves locally.139. Funding is the main problem when it comes to capacity building of these institutions. All institutions operate with limited budgets. Shortages of funding were indicated in various areas such as purchasing of information products/services and human resources. Many funding needs are related to staff development issues. In order to use ICT as a war weapon against poverty, there is a need to sensitise those in power to support ICT related activities and increase the budget allocations. According to IS there is a lack of support when it comes to management of ICT. In a worse case scenario, the EITRC is yet to launch their resource centre because currently they do not have the requisite literature materials (books, journals, etc.) and/or resources (e.g. computers hardware and software, scanners, printers, etc.) to operate the centre.140. Government institutions, especially the MAWF, and the farmers union (NAU and NNFU) are the major players in the provision of information for agriculture and rural development. MAWF, through the DEES, plays an enormous role in empowering communities to manage their agricultural resources sustainably.The farmers' unions are some of the few institutions with a direct link to farmers.141. Resourceful institutions such as the media institutions (e.g. broadcasting, Newspaper industry) that have the advantage to disseminate information assumes a minor role in disseminating agricultural-related information as it is beyond their mandate.142. The study observed that there is a disparity between institutions regarding ICT and ICM. The Windhoek-based institutions are better off when compared to those outside Windhoek. Such disparities could also be observed between the private and public institutions irrespective of whether they are Windhoek or non-Windhoek based. Generally, Namibia has a good ICT infrastructure. However, the ICT industry is marked by slow progress in the use of ICT due to high costs, lack of ICT/ICM skills and poor implementation of ICT in the rural areas, where approximately 70% of the population live.143. From this study, one may conclude that at national level there is no specific policy document on information and communication for agriculture. The two policies that were drafted to address key issues in ICT, ICM and agriculture in general are too broad. As a result, these policies do not address challenges and constraints facing the agricultural sector. At institutional level, institutions like NAU, NNFU and MADI did not have guiding policies on ICT and ICM. FANR and NAWIC Libraries had policies on ICT and ICM, but their policies are not reviewed regularly and this resulted in the policies being less effective.144. There is no formal networking or system in place to monitor the sector. Each institution has its own system and in some cases, they are not aware of each product and services. There is need to establish central integrated system that monitor the flow of information.145. The study revealed that the needs of institutions are diverse because of different activities within the sector as well as the institution's objectives and target audience. As such, the information need vary from simplified ready-touse (e.g. technical information) to synthesized (information for decision making) and statistical or unprocessed such data. Factors such as educational level, cultural background and farming activities determine the information needs of users and need to be taken into account by information providers when providing information to people. For example, the few libraries and information centres in Namibia cater for people with high level of education i.e. academicians, researchers and students (FANR Library, NATMIRC, NAWIC).146. The demand for agricultural information is very high in Namibia. For example, different stakeholders (farmers, researchers, decision makers' students etc.) within the sector are seeking different types of information in different formats, while the information providers face many challenges to satisfy the information needs of the users within the country. Some of the challenges facing the sector are the following:A lack of qualified librarians or information workers; Limited budget and other resources for libraries and information centres; Limited networking within the sector; Accessibility of information centres or libraries;The format or presentation of information.147. The study reveals that there is an increasing demand for more current, relevant, reliable and accurate information to different stakeholders, although the institutions needs differ. The respondents have information demands in the following four broad categories, rural development, technical, economic and training information. The decision makers need ready to use information in form of statistics; sometimes this information is not easily available or is not in the right format. Local content or indigenous knowledge and information in the various local languages are in high demand and there is a need make local content available and accessible.148. The researchers and scholars need electronic information, but due to high subscription fees, they have limited access to e-journals. In terms of information needs, the FANR due to lack of skills, has problem in accessing or searching different subject area getaways related to agriculture in order to provide information to the users.149. The ICT industry has many opportunities which the various institutions and information seekers could exploit. For example, discussion forums or blocks, uploading information on websites and emailing information to users are some of the ways of sharing information effectively.150. NATMIRC, Sam Nujoma Research Centres and Luderitz Research Centre are the only three institutions that specialize in providing information on marine and fresh water resources. All three are situated in coastal areas. The NATMIRC has good infrastructure in terms of ICM, collection and data management. The main problems faced in terms of ICM, is the lack of a qualified librarian.151. From this study, it can be concluded that various agricultural and nonagricultural institutions produce relevant information to the stakeholders. At times, there is heavy reliance on only some of the information (e.g. NPC) whilst other possible sources (e.g. NGOs) are either ignored or underutilized.152. Institutions contacted had diverse capacity building needs ranging from training to encapacitating institutions and their personnel as outlined below.153. There are lack of policies governing the use and provision of ICT and ICM within the institutions.154. Training in Microsoft Word, Excel, Web page design and maintenance, digitization of local content, database creation, video production, editing and writing skills, Internet searches and desktop publishing were highlighted by DEES, EITRC, FANR Library, M-ADC, MADI, NAWIC, NNFU and TAZAC as some of their major capacity building needs.155. FANR Library, DEES, M-ADC, MADI, NNFU and TAZAC mentioned the need for equipping the trainer of trainees in various subject areas with the qualities that will enable them to transfer knowledge efficiently.156. All institutions contacted were grossly understaffed, while agricultural libraries (FANR, NAWIC, NATMIRC) in particular lacked staff with an agricultural background as the majority of their staff are trained purely as librarians.157. Institutions comprising EITRC, MADI, NAU, NNFU and SANUMARC lacked units that manage their information resources and were planning to develop such in their short term plans.158. Organising and managing agricultural information resources are some of the challenges faced by FANR Library, NAWIC and NATMIRC.159. Some of the institutions (DEES, FANR Library, NAU, NNFU, SANUMARC) have realized the importance of networking and established networks with various local, regional and international organizations. However, one wonders as to whether these networks are efficient and useful to all partners.160. MADI, NNFU and SANUMARC lack adequate physical resources and infrastructures including library unit or resource centre, modern equipment, such as computers, printers, scanners, etc. to manage information.161. Although only one institution mentioned poor recognition of the value of information by the management, this could be the main reason why many institutions are under funded. Often, those in management positions do not understand the importance of information or ICT and regard information or the use of ICT as a luxury.162. Limited acquisition of necessary hardware / software because of budgetary constraints and lack of skills and resources to repackage information and design and upload information on institutional websites.163. The following institutions are potential partners because they have direct links with farmers -the ultimate target group of CTA, are (partially) equipped and ready to partner with other institutions and are strategically located to effectively disseminate agricultural information to majority of farming community.164. The Directorate of Engineering and Extension Services within the MAWF is aimed at changing farmers' perceptions and attitudes as well as to facilitate sustainable improvement in living conditions of rural communities so as to realise various national targets as enshrined in Vision 2030 and the Third National Development Plan (NDP 3). This directorate intent to achieve the national targets by promoting the adoption of improved agricultural technologies and practices to increase agricultural production and empower farmers through affording them expert advice and skill transfer. To that effect, DEES deployed over 600 staff and has satellite offices in all the 13 administrative regions of the country and their ultimate aim is to assist the target beneficiary -the farmer.165. The NNFU and NAU are unions that represent the interest of farmers whereby the NNFU is an umbrella body for communal farmers and NAU represents commercial farmers. Both unions play an important role as a mouthpiece to influence national policies, ensure capacity building of farmers and facilitate the launching of grassroots projects. Through various forums, the unions bring farmers, policy makers, development workers, donors and other support structure together. NNFU has an information centre, it produce and disseminate valuable information to farmers. Recently, the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Meatco and NNFU signed an agreement to air information on topical issues in local languages e.g. Otjiherero, Oshiwambo, Rukwangali, etc. over the radio. The potential beneficiaries are communal and commercial farmers. Based on their role and the relatively good representation via regional representatives and offices, these unions could be potential partners.166. Mariental ADC, MADI whose roles are to enhance sustainable livelihoods of rural communities through demand based agricultural and related technology development and dissemination are other potential partners.167. NAWIC is one of the few libraries that provide specialised information in agriculture and rural development. Its objective is to serve the researchers, extensionists and other staff of MAWF most of whom assume the role of acquiring and transferring information to the farming community. Besides, NAWIC has four branches two of which are in Grootfontein and Otjiwarongo and the remainder in Windhoek respectively.168. NATMIRC, which is based at the coast, is one of the two national libraries that specializes in fisheries and marine resources and, as such, is important to the fishing communities.169. In the NCR, there is Ongwendiva ADC with its three branches (i.e. Eenhana, Onankali and Outapi) serving more than 700 000 people -majority of whom rely on agriculture for their survival. Based on the number of people it serves and its location, the centre is a potential partner.170. SANUMARC whose mandates revolve around mushroom production, seaweed harvesting and processing, renewable energy and water resources and coastal agriculture could be a potential partner because of their special role in the farming community, unique area of operation and location.171. TAZAC is recommended as a potential partner in that it plays an important role within the farming communities in the southern part of the country and its staff members work closely with farmers. The institution provides training to communal as well as commercial farmers whose farming systems and information needs differ from those in the parts of the country.172. Based on the study findings, the consultants recommend that the stakeholder institutions within the agricultural sector propose, draft and implement a policy document that addresses/enhances the use of agricultural information technologies and ICM. Thus, CTA could use their expertise in assisting with the drafting and possible implementation as well as monitoring of agricultural information policies at both the national and institutional levels (i.e. partner institutions).173. Given the fact that networking between institutions was reported by many as informal and relatively ineffective, the study recommends that efficient likeminded networks be established to enhance information sharing between the various key stakeholder institutions. Besides, a platform through which stakeholders could exchange their mandates and roles within the agricultural sector and information products they produce need to be established.174. It is also tempting to recommend that institutions driving agricultural and rural development programmes conduct a thorough agricultural information needs assessment through user surveys and questionnaires. This would facilitate updating of collections and information products and, efficient delivery of agricultural information.175. In recognising the fact that MAWF (through DEES), NNFU, NAU are the key players in providing agricultural information to a majority of the farming community, it is justified to recommend these partners to CTA for further and/or future collaborations. One avenue through which such a collaboration could prosper is through the use of Radio and TV programmes because the farmer's unions and their partners have limited time slots for broadcasting with the NBC.176. Use of ICT and ICM capabilities were reported to vary markedly between institutions; being better and worse for those institutions based in Windhoek and in the rural areas respectively. Such a scenario could be improved if the CTA could, through the Strategic Plan (2007 -2010), assist the rural-based institutions with ICT and ICM infrastructure and skills.177. Agricultural information needs for the various institutions are diverse. However, we recommend the following information products/sources (in the form of books, monographs, journals, videos, computer hardware, etc.) because they are deemed as the most critical. Besides, the following would serve as entry points for CTA's possible intervention.Pest resistant and drought tolerant crop varieties; Integrated pest management techniques; Livestock diseases in semi-arid environments; Modern agricultural technologies (i.e. cultivation, rainwater harvesting, irrigation, oversowing, range rehabilitation, etc.); Up to date market information including present and predicted commodity prices, price trends (past), available markets as well as import and export quotas for different farm produce; Repackaging of most of the above information products into simpler, comprehensive and effective formats; Subscription to online journals and e-resources such as AGORA, ScienceDirect and LANTEEAL.Computer hardware and their necessary software. Digitization and uploading of local contents online.178. In an effort to avail locally produced information materials, Ongwendiva ADC is trying hard but they lack skills and necessary resources to produce videos in particular. Therefore, it might be beneficial if they cooperate with the NBC whose mandate in producing agricultural videos is very limited.179. The OAI has got immense potential in availing the needed local content and/or research findings. Thus, those behind this initiative should promote it amongst researchers and academicians.180. It is also worth recommending that, because of its greater coverage (> 80% of population), the NBC radio in collaboration with other partners in the agricultural sector should allocate more and/or double the duration of the broadcasting slots for agricultural issues. In the same vein, CTA may want to cooperate with the potential partners e.g. NNFU, DEES and NBC to propose and/or agree on cost effective ways and techniques to reach rural people.181. The daily newspapers may have a multiplier effect in terms of promoting agriculture because of the volumes produced annually. For example, publishing one agricultural article every day would translate into more than 300 pieces of information communicated to readers annually, some of whom are farmers. The fact that remote institutions like NATMIRC and TAZAC use newspaper, though to a lesser extent, as sources of information, the mass media and daily newspaper in particular may wish to increase their coverage of agricultural and fisheries related information.182. There is a need for an agricultural information audit in the country. There is a lack of knowledge about agricultural expertise, available information, how to find information and who is doing what in the country. CTA may provide assistance and in information audit or how to assess agricultural information and establish a national database in agricultural information and rural development.183. It is recommended that with the operation of QAS in the country, a site should be created to provide detailed information and link about different stakeholders in agriculture and rural development.184. In terms of capacity building, it is recommended that CTA provide assistance in the form of a tailor-made training focusing on policy formulation strategies because of the need for an Agricultural Information Policy in Namibia. The consultants are of the opinion that such a policy will improve the traditional communication or information flow within the country.185. Advise and training in the use of ICT for agricultural development to increase efficiency in the sector is needed. Institutions like DEES, M-ADC, MADI, NAU, NNFU and Ongwendiva ADC lacked policies or strategies on ICM and general use of ICT. Therefore, we recommend that CTA provide training in policy formulation and monitoring these policies. Basic training in Microsoft Word, Excel, editing and writing skills might be pivotal to MADI, NAWIC, NNFU, Ongwendiva ADC staff.186. CTA as an internationally recognized organization with its EU mandate can help with sensitising the leaders and decision makers in the country about the importance of information for agricultural development and increase funding to information centres and libraries. This intervention could be extended to lobbying for more funding to information resource centres and libraries (FANR Library, EITRC, MADI, NAWIC, NNFU, SANUMARC) so they can recruit more people to have the requisite staff complement.187. Exposure visits to various advanced centres/institutions like the CTA by information professionals from FANR Library, NATMIRC, NAWIC and IS would impart on them the qualities and skills they need to effectively deal with the ever challenging discipline of agricultural and fisheries information provision, archiving and management of collections within their institutions.188. It was highlighted by majority of potential partners (FANR Library, DEES, NAWIC, NNFU, Ongwendiva ADC) that the type and format of available information needs to be repackaged in order to address the information needs of the ultimate target group. Therefore, assistance in terms of training for information repackaging is recommended.189. Provide training to DEES, FANR Library, NAWIC, MADI and Ongwendiva ADC in website development and management, packaging of information and acquisition of various methods used by farmers in other region to communicate and acquire information for their farming activities.190. We further recommend that CTA provide training to FANR Library, IS, M-ADC, MADI, NATMIRC, NAWIC, NAU, NNFU, and SANUMARC in management of information systems, hardware and software use, project management and how to develop information products and services for farmers. DEES, in particular, needed training on video production and CTA may wish to provide training to that effect.191. The OPM, being the sole point of connection to the internet for most governmental ministries/institutions/directorates/departments, may wish to increase its bandwidth to accommodate the fast growing internet traffic and reduce internet congestion.192. Resources permitting, CTA may want to assist (in form of ICT resources e.g. computer hardware and software, scanners, printers, photocopiers, etc., CDs, videos, books, and training on library management) EITRC, MADI, NAU, NNFU, Ongwendiva ADC and SANUMARC to establish proper information units and/or libraries. CTA may also want to assist FANR Library, NATMIRC, NAWIC, NAU and NNFU with resources, techniques and training necessary for digitizing local contents.193. Based on the study findings (see paragraphs 163 -171), the authors recommend the following institutions to be the potential strategic partners. For an objective assessment of the institution's capacities, institutions were ranked based on weighted scores -the latter of which used (a) extent of interaction with farmers/clients, (b) estimated number of clients served and (c) location and/or branches as the key inputs.194. Table 3 above clearly indicates that DEES, Ongwendiva ADC and NAWIC ranked highest (in that order) in terms potential of becoming renowned CTA partners. Even though the FANR Library ranked ninth (9), they already have good working relations with CTA as they are the national node for the QAS programme in Namibia. In that regard, their partnership should continue to reach farther heights. Although NATMIRC and SANUMARC ranked tenth and eleventh respectively, they could be potential partners because of their peculiar roles in coastal agriculture and fisheries related issues. All-in-all, it is worth mentioning that the 13 institutions contacted were selected out of 44 potential partners because of their strategic locations and active involvement in agricultural and rural development issues. Thus, all the 13 are, candidly speaking, potential partners and the rankings in Table 3 are there to guide CTA as to which of the 13 assumes more roles/responsibilities than the others. Assist with, & provide guidance on acquisition of these contents.Assist with, & provide guidance on acquisition of these contents. CTA's tasks are to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development, and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilise information in this area. CTA's programmes are organised around three principal activities: providing an increasing range and quantity of information products and services and enhancing awareness of relevant information sources; supporting the integrated use of appropriate communication channels and intensifying contacts and information exchange (particularly intra-ACP); and developing ACP capacity to generate and manage agricultural information and to formulate information and communication management (ICM) strategies, including those relevant to science and technology. These activities take account of methodological developments in cross-cutting issues (e.g. gender, youth, information & communication technologies -ICTs, and social capital), findings from impact assessments and evaluations of ongoing programmes as well as priority information themes for ACP agriculture.CTA's activities are currently distributed among three operational programme areas/departments: Information Products and Services; Communication Channels and Services; Information and Communication Management Skills and Systems.These operational departments are supported by Planning Corporate services (P&CS) which is charged with the methodological underpinning of their work and monitoring the ACP environment in order to identify emerging issues and trends and make proposals for translation into programmes and activities. This current exercise, therefore, falls within the mandate of P&CS.Since 2003, CTA has been systematically conducting needs assessment studies across the Pacific, Caribbean and African regions -the regions it has been mandated to serve. These studies have been in direct response to calls for CTA, in various evaluations of its products, services and programmes, to be more strategic in its choice regarding the setting of its own agenda and reacting to demand. In putting together its Strategic Plan and Framework for Action 2001 -2005, CTA took a pragmatic view and opted to develop a strategy combining the benefits of both approaches, whereby the need to address the expressed demands of its stakeholders and the potential long-term advantages of developing programmes that address future needs were combined. The Centre's new strategic plan covering the 2007 -2010 period places emphasis on: improving CTA's efficiency and increasing the Centre's outreach by addressing the major bottleneck of difficult or insufficient access to information in ACP countries; (ii) honing CTA's profile and further defining the niche where the Centre has a comparative advantage. Consequently, reaching more beneficiaries and further strengthening CTA's partnership networks is key as well as the thrust to make ICTs and ICM strategies more widely available.CTA works primarily through intermediary public and private partners (research centres, extension services, libraries, NGOs, farmers' organisations and regional organisations and networks,…) to promote agriculture and rural development. Under the new strategic plan, the organisations targeted will be extended to include print media, editors, radio, TV and journalist networks in order to further maximise outreach. Through these partnerships, CTA hopes to increase the number of ACP organisations capable of accessing and combining modern and conventional ICTs, generating and managing information and developing their own ICM strategies. The identification of appropriate partners is therefore of primordial importance, whilst bearing in mind issues such as geographical coverage, decentralization, regionalization, thematic orientation and transparent and objective criteria and procedures for partner selection.Collaboration strategies with ACP agricultural organisations and relevance of CTA's support to African ACP countries improved.The study will focus on: providing an overview of main agricultural services and actors existing in the country (information supply side) in terms of their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for collaboration with CTA; identifying agricultural information and ICM capacity building needs of key actors / key strategic partners for CTA products and services; identifying potential strategic partners for CTA activities and services (paying special attention to e.g. print media, editors, radio, TV and journalist networks); developing some baseline data on the status of ICM and ICTs in the country to facilitate subsequent monitoring and updating activities.The study should assist CTA to improve and better target interventions and activities aimed at potential partners and beneficiaries (including women, youth, private sector and civil society organisations) to have a more informed picture of their needs and aid in the elaboration of a strategy and framework of action. The study should also highlight where there are specific needs for CTA's products and services thereby enabling improvement in the delivery of the same.The expected results of the study are as follow: status of infrastructure, information services and ICM capacity of institutions involved in agriculture and rural development described and analysed; information and capacity building needs in the area of ICM identified for key institutions and potential CTA partners involved in agriculture and rural development; baseline data on the status of ICM and ICT in agriculture and rural development compiled for monitoring purposes and improved outreach.The study should therefore also provide updated country profiles on the status of agricultural information services, the status of ICM/T in the country, which will allow CTA to make informed decisions re type and mode of intervention as well as partner selection. This will be summarised in one (1) main report per country not exceeding 30 pages excluding annexes (cf. section 8 (reporting) below).The consultant will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative rapid appraisal methods including: the desk review of available literature and information sources including the findings of programme evaluations; the conduct of face-to-face interviews with relevant stakeholders / concerned parties; the limited use of questionnaires.The rapid appraisal approach will allow a general overview of the key issues and company / organizational profiles on a per country basis and may give rise to more in-depth studies as and when needed in the future.The consultant will conduct the study in two phases as follows:Execute a desk study: collect background information and data, prepare country profile, list of institutions involved in agriculture & a preliminary list of select institutions against the criteria supplied in the briefing session.Submit proposed list of institutions to be interviewed along with justification by 15 February 2007.Prepare and submit a draft report on the completion of the desk study by 9 March 2007, the results of which would become Annexes II and III of the final report.Phase 2: Field Study 4.Conduct face-to-face interviews with relevant stakeholders / concerned parties, using the data capture form and guidelines provided by CTA.Use rapid appraisal methods such as group sessions or focus groups if necessary to supplement information obtained during face-to-face interviews and information garnered during the preparation of the desk study 6.Supplement the report of phase 1 (mainly Annex III) with information obtained during field visits and interviews 7.Prepare and submit a complete draft final report incorporating the results of phases 1 & 2 to the Regional Coordinator by 20 April 2007. This report will include all findings, analysis of interviews and annexes. The body of the report should not exceed 30 pages. The headings and format of the report are provided in the document \"Report writing guidelines\".Revise the final draft based on feedback from the Regional Coordinator.Submit final revised draft to CTA for comments. 10. Submit the final report two weeks after receipt of comments from CTA. An electronic version (by email) of the final report and a hard copy should be sent to the CTA coordinator and to the regional coordinator. 11. Hold all interview forms for ready reference until the completion of this study.Interactions between the consultants and the Regional Coordinator will be maintained for the duration of the study.The country reports will not exceed 30 pages (excluding annexes).In Namibia agricultural production is characterized by livestock production, mixed crop-livestock production, crop production, and several integrated forms in which fish, forestry products and limited beekeeping and wildlife farming adds a significant dimension to crop and livestock production. The agricultural sector has, broadly, a dual system comprising a well developed, capital intensive and export oriented commercial sub-sector and a subsistence-based communal farming sub-sector, low in technology and external inputs and highly dependent on labour. However, due to effects of HIV/AIDS, family planning and advancement in, and adoption of various agricultural technologies, dependency on manpower/labour has reduced drastically. The advent of resettlement and the north-south scheme both of which assist communal farmers to move to free-hold area, adds a third 'transitional' farming system practised by the so-called emerging farmers -the majority of whom adopts husbandry or farming practices common to communal farming, but under a commercial-oriented environment. The main activity in the commercial sub-sector is cattle ranching, with limited areas of cropping, carried out in free-hold farms covering about 52% of the country's landmass or about 36.2 million ha. There are an estimated 4 200 commercial farmers each owning, on average, nearly 8 000 ha south of the VCF. The sub-sector employs more than 30 000 farm workers equivalent to supporting about 150 000 people -assuming a family size of 5 persons per farm worker. On the other hand, the communal farming sub-sector occupies about 43% of the country (± 34 million ha) mainly in the north, northeast, east-central, west and the farm-locked Ovitoto Communal Area. Majority of the southern communal areas has a subsistence-based farming system in so-called Reserves that hails, in part, from the Odendaal Commision and long-term attachment formed by specific groups to specific places and pieces of land e.g. Berseba, Bethanie, Gibeon, Tses, etc.Owing to climate, soil types and evapo-transpiration rates, Namibia is better adapted to livestock-based as opposed to crop-based agriculture. At the present moment livestock contribute more than 70% to the agricultural GDP and serve various roles to communities including cash, wealth, sustenance & food security (through milk, meat & by-products), draught power, manure, employment, skins, dowry, ecosystem health and exchange for other farm produce. While livestock production is generally acknowledged as the most important activity in Namibia, the importance of staple cereal crops like Mahangu and maize both in the commercial and communal areas is underscored. For example, Mahangu production averaged 53 000 tonnes in 2005.White and yellow maize production averaged 37 412 tonnes (range: 24810 to 63434) between 2000 and 2006, whereas during the same period wheat production ranged between 6 000 and 12 000 tonnes. Horticultural crop production yielded over 33 000 tonnes in 2005. However, low and sometimes poorly distributed rainfall have limited rain fed crop production to only those areas receiving 400 mm and above annually or about 34% of the country. Such production is associated with a high risk of crop failure due to the erratic nature of the rainfall. Of the cereals, a large amount of the rain-fed maize is produced in the commercial sector while pearl millet or Mahangu and to a small extent sorghum is almost exclusively grown by an estimated 150 000 subsistence communal farmers mainly for own consumption. Very limited irrigation (about 9 000 ha) is practiced in the maize triangle and in Namibia Development Cooperation (NDC) schemes in Kavango Region (i.e. Mashare, Musese, Sarasungu, Shadi Kongoro, Shitemo, and Vungu Vungu Irrigation Projects) and along the Kunene River in the far northwest to produce maize.In the south, the Hardap Irrigation Scheme produces a winter wheat crop and some table grapes and dates, which have boosted the volume growth of high value commercial crops. Along the Orange River, individual farmers and companies and farmers' cooperatives produce table grapes and dates for export. In that regard, the few perennial rivers (see Fig. 1) are pivotal to crop agriculture in Namibia. Indeed, considering soils, rainfall and/or water supply, only less than 5% of the land surface is considered to have medium to high potential for rainfed and irrigated crop production. Henceforth, irrigation development is seen by some as the best means of mitigating the effects of drought. In spite of concerns expressed by economists and agriculturalists, there is currently a strong push towards further development of large scale irrigation schemes aimed at utilizing the perennial rivers while others are to be located in the high rainfall areas. Inland, there is a push towards rain water harvesting so as to increase water availability for domestic use and small scale irrigation.Ecologically, 22% of the country is desert and receives a mean annual rainfall of less than 100 mm; 33% is arid with a mean annual rainfall of between 100 and 200 mm; 37% is semi arid and receives between 300 and 500 mm of rain annually; and 8% is semi-humid to sub-tropical with a mean annual rainfall of between 500 and 700 mm. More recently, the agrarian structure of the country has been divided into 11 agroecological zones defined by Average Growth Period (AGP), physiographic features and ecotypes (see Table 5). Several phases of uplifting, erosion and deposition have created complex landforms as determined through geomorphology and structural geology. The paucity of precise data on the number of people involved in agriculture made estimation of the agricultural population rather challenging. Thus, the data provided in this sub-section was generated through simple extrapolations from the 2001 Population and Housing Census. In 2001, available statistics shows that about 70% of total population (or 1.28 million people) resided in the rural areas and had an agriculture-based livelihood. Within that sub-group, about 57% (or 730 301) were females including female youth, 43% were males, while the youth and minors (age group: < 30) accounted for about 64% (or 820 051) of the population residing in rural areas. Approximately 500 000 of the youth and minor sub-group was made up of the actual active subset aged between 14 and 30. In terms of households, about 152 000, 20 300 and 16 000 households are directly involved in crop, cattle and small stock production respectively (Mendelsohn, 2006).About 80% of the 824 418 sq km is designated as crop and livestock (including wildlife) farming area taking various forms such as freehold farming and tourism (356 533 sq km), communal open access (263 832 sq km), communal exclusive (35 602 sq km) and resettlement areas (7 731 sq km). There is no private ownership of land in communal areas and all land used for agricultural purposes belongs to the state. Customary rules governing tenure rights over grazing land are vested in traditional authorities that also allocate land for cropping at present estimated at 2 ha per household. The freehold area, which stretches from southern end of the country to just below the veterinary cordon fence, is divided into more than 6500 farms (ranches) averaging about 8 000 ha each. With the exception of Ovitoto, Okakarara, Otjituuo and southern communal areas (e.g. Betanie, Berseba, Gibeon & Tses), all the communal area surrounds the inner-situated freehold area.State protected areas accounts for about 137 212 sq km of land whereas town lands accounts for 7 275 sq km of land (Sweet, 1998;Mendelsohn, 2006). Rangeland degradation as exemplified by various indicators including deforestation, desertification, bush encroachment, reduced forage quality, reduced carrying capacities, lowering of groundwater tables, nutrient mining and/or depletion, soil erosion and soil compaction, barrenness, etc. are believed to have reduced farmed land significantly. For example, 26 million ha of land has been encroached by various invasive species resulting in more than 100% reduction in the carrying capacities of rangeland.Major forest zones -which by the Namibian definition are areas with tree canopy cover of more than 10% -occur predominantly in high rainfall areas. In Namibia, this area stretches from the north-west (Kunene region) to eastern Kavango and most of the Caprivi region. Forests (including community and strategic forests), whose major products are timber/timber products, thatch grass, poles, droppers, dry wood used in crafting, and fuel wood accounts for about 20 000 sq km of land.Namibia has a large fishing area stretching over 1572 km from the mouth of the Orange River in the south to Kunene River in the north, and covering more than 200 nautical miles into the Atlantic.Five major farming systems exist in Namibia and these are: small-scale cereals and livestock, small stock production, mixed cattle ranching, intensive agriculture and natural resource production. Table 6 below describes the major farming systems in Namibia. Other integrated forms in which fish (integrated aquaculture), bees (apiculture), forest products (silviculture) contribute significantly to household livelihoods exist, but these are poorly documented in literature. Intensive crop and livestock production systems are practised as highlighted in sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.4 of the main document. Table 7 shows the contribution of agriculture and related sectors to GDP. As can be seen from the table, the freehold (commercial) sub-sector contributed between 60 and 74% to the agricultural GDP. Despite being the primary source of livelihood to the majority of the country's inhabitants, the freehold sub-sector's contribution to GDP was ranked sixth in 2004 and was surpassed by such sectors as fisheries and mining. Overall, the share of the agricultural sector to GDP has dropped from 11.7% during the period 1990 to 1997 to 6.9% in 1999 and 5.4 in 2003. Correspondingly, the share of agriculture in the labour force dropped from 49.0% in 1990 to 29.3% in 2000. The sector's performance has been sluggish, registering declining and negative growth rates sometimes. As a result, the government, through the MAWF, has put forward policy measures aimed at improving performs of the sector. The main agricultural and fisheries' produce and, their secondary products are shown in Table 8, while Fig. 4 shows a pictorial representation of agricultural production per sector and a sub-section of selected horticultural produce. A large proportion of the agricultural produce (Fig. 4) labelled 'others' refers to livestock exported live to South Africa. On average, more than 20 million litters of milk, 600 000 tonnes of fish, more than 100 000 tonnes of meat, 200 tonnes of Karakul wool, 41 million chicken eggs, 100 000 pelts, 70 000 tonnes of cereals (maize and millet), 30 000 tonnes of horticultural crops and more than 4000 tonnes of wheat are produced annually. Namibia is a net importer of most of the agricultural, forest and fisheries related products. Meat and fish are the exception as they are produced in abundance within the country. Regarding meat and fish and their related products, Namibia export mainly to the Angolan, European Union and South African and, to a limited extent, the United States of America's markets. Namibia exports more than 540 000 tonnes of fish, about 100 000 tonnes of beef and about 15 000 tonnes of goat meat & mutton annually. About 65% of the beef is exported to the EU, while the rest is exported to South Africa and Angola (Meat Board, 2007). Almost all the exported goat meat and mutton goes to South Africa. More than 85% of fish is exported to the EU especially to Spain, Norway and Denmark (Ministry of Fisheries, 2007). These exports operate within several trade agreements (see section 2.1.7).Trade agreements serve to provide and enhance acquisition of agricultural and related products that the country cannot produce, while exports would earn the country revenue and foreign currencies through sales. In Namibia as in most other countries, cross-border sales are organised by private traders, but all governments exercise controls and enter into agreements to protect or enhance the value of farm produce in three principal ways:By promoting exports, and therefore local production. Through restrictions on imports to protect and support local production against foreign competition. By limiting the export of raw products to encourage local processing.Exports are mainly promoted through trade agreements that aim to give exporters free, cheaper or preferential access to markets in countries with which Namibia has links. Namibia is party to many southern African and international trade agreements and communities including:The SADC Free Trade Agreement;The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA);The EU -African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (or Cotonou) agreement; The EU's Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA); African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA);The Common Monetary Area and;The World Trade Organisation.As a member of the Southern Customs Union (SACU), Namibia also benefits from participation in the SACU/Mercosur agreement with Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil, the SACU/European Free Trade Association (EFTA) agreements, and negotiations to establish free or preferential trade agreements with China, the USA and India. Namibia has a free trade agreement with Zimbabwe and is negotiating a preferential trade agreement with Angola (Ministry of Trade and Industry, 2007).Poverty reduction has been the overarching policy goal across many economic sectors of Namibia. In the wake of concerns that commercial sectors would be nationalized, Namibia has instead implemented pragmatic policies to maintain private sector leadership in the economy, to encourage foreign investment and to avoid over-reliance on international loans. The various policies and guidelines governing the various economic sectors include:A] Namibia's Vision 2030 visualizes the National Development Plans as the main vehicles for achieving its objectives and realizing the long-term Vision. The Third National Development Plan (NDP3) for the period 2007/08 to 2011/12, themed \"Accelerated Economic Growth through Deepening Rural Development\", is currently under development. The broad thrusts and goals of the NDP3 are derived from the Vision 2030, the 2004 SWAPO Party Manifesto, the directions from the November 2005 Cabinet Retreat, the Millennium Development Goals, and the lessons learned from implementing the NDP2.The overall goal outlined in the National Agricultural Policy is to increase and sustain levels of agricultural productivity, real farm incomes and national and household food security within the context of the country's fragile ecosystem.Specific key instruments: Other key national instruments governing the crop production and soil fertility components with the integration of sustainable development and natural resource use principles are the Drought Policy, Namibia's Green Plan, Water policy and the National Land Policy.The Poverty Reduction Strategy is chiefly directed towards agricultural expansion and strengthening food security, equitable and efficient delivery of public service and strengthening non-agricultural and informal sectors. The NPRAP outlines poverty reduction programmes and projects in accordance with the NDP2 and the Public Investment Programme.The broad objective of the Agricultural Policy as highlighted in the 2 nd National Development Plan is to enhance and contribute to sustainable and equitable economic growth by: i)Enhancing agricultural production at the household and national level;ii) Promoting on-and off-farm livelihood opportunities;iii) Reducing the volume and value of agricultural imports; iv) Increasing the volume and value of agricultural exports.The above broad objective(s) were translated into four broad programme policies viz: • Division telecommunication regulation For example private radio and television broadcasting licensing; assisting with the drafting of regulations for broadcasting, planning and allocating all broadcast frequencies.Standardisation and equipment type approval For instance co-ordinating technical standards of radio and telecommunications equipment with national, regional and international bodies.Telecommunication regulatory aspects Ensuring that all market participants adhere to the rules and principles stipulated in the Acts.Two-way radio communication Developing, planning and managing the radio-frequency spectrum plan in accordance with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)The mission of NCC is to ensure a regulatory balance that will enable companies to provide customers with safe, adequate and reliable services (Namibia Trade Directory, 2007).There are several policy initiatives undertaken to shape the ICT sector in Namibia. These policies include the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy for the Republic of Namibia, a draft Telecommunication Bill, and E-government policy.ICT Policy for Republic of NamibiaThe policy document was compiled during 2000 and updated and passed through parliament in November 2002. The policy addresses the following issues:• Enhancing rural access to information (multi-purpose telecentres, universal service fund);  (Stork & Aochamub, 2003).The total population of Namibia is estimated at 2 million. The population has increased more than eight-fold since 1921, which was about 229 000 reaching 1.8 million people in 2001. Namibia is divided into 13 political regions and the population is very unevenly spread across the country. On average the population is growing at rate of about 3% per annum. Projection suggests that the population will increase to 2.25 million by 2010 and 2.6 million by the year 2020. There are important factors that need to be taken into consideration that may influence the growing rate. For example, the population growth rate is expected to drop due the effects of AIDS and higher levels of education among women, which may lead to better family planning and lower birth rates (Mendelson et al., 2002).According to 2001 Population and Housing Census, 51% of population in Namibia are females and majority are found in rural areas. The number of males and females differ greatly in many regions (see Table 9). There are fewer men than women in the Northern region, because many men have moved away to work in towns. As a result, men outnumbered women in many urban areas. Khomas region is the most populous with close to 14% of the total country population. However, when one considers Namibia as a whole, more than 50% of the population lives in the Northern part of the country (NPC, 2001).  Literacy is defined as the ability to write, read and comprehend a certain language (NPC, 2001). According to this definition, Namibia literacy level is estimated at 81%. There is no difference between females and males as far as literacy level is concerned in the country, but urban females have the highest literacy rate of 92% comparing to rural females who lacks the ability to read and write and only 75% are said to be literate. Despite having relatively small population, Namibia has diversity of languages. More than 10 different languages or major dialects are spoken in Namibia. Table 11 shows that about 70% of those aged 15 year and above, can read and write in either Oshiwambo or English comprehensively. About 37% are literate in Afrikaans, making it the most common language in which people are literate. The main three providers of health services in Namibia are Government (70-75%), missions (15-2%) and the private sector (5%). Provision of health services embraces medical treatment at clinics and hospitals, medicines, medical equipment, counseling by trained health workers, etc. In the whole country, there are 34 public hospitals, 37 health centres, 244 public clinics, 12 private hospitals and 5 private clinics. Treatment (for most of the diseases) at government clinics and hospitals is heavily subsidized and range between N$ 5.00-25.00 (€ 0.54-2.73), including basic medicines and/or pain killers. In spite of positive achievements in the development of programmes and use of health resources, improvements in the health sector has been sluggish since Independence and, in some places, infrastructures has deteriorated (NDP2, 2002). Life expectancy (43 years) and infant mortality rates (38%) for mothers and children have deteriorated as a result of AIDS and AIDS-related conditions. Generally, AIDS (26%), TB (10%), Pneumonia (11%), Gastro-intestinal (8%), Malaria (6%), Carcinom (5%), Prematurity (4%), Malnutrition (3%), Accidents (3%) and other causes 20% are the leading causes of death in Namibia.About 80% of people in Namibia live within 10 km of a public health facility. This means that about 320 000 people do not have ready access to health services. In some regions access is not as good as in others, especially in areas where there is low density of people scattered over large areas, such as Kunene and Omaheke regions. On average, there is one hospital bed and one public doctor for every 271 and 7545 people respectively. Ohangwena, Omusati, Caprivi and Omaheke have the lowest provision of beds with more than 350 people per bed, while Khomas, Karas and Oshana have ratios of less than 200 people.The National Public Health Programmes provides the following services to public: Namibia's constitution states that all children must attend school from the age of 7 until they complete primary school or reach the age of 16. Also, Namibia is signatory to the \"World Declaration on Education for All\" and despite legislation making primary education compulsory, the enrolment rate in Namibian schools is only 82%, with some regional and gender differences. An estimated of 94% of all 7-13 years-olds attended school in 2000. In addition, there is the problem of drop-out at all level in all regions. On each grade the drop-out rate varies between 10% and 1 %. There is an especially high drop-out rate in grades 1, 5 and 10. Thus, even though Namibia manages to keep up a high level of children starting in school, they have the problem with school leavers.In 2001, 1541 registered schools offered formal education (i.e. Grades 1-12) of which 1491 were government schools run the Ministry of Education. A total of about 540 000 children were at schools in 2000, representing almost 1 in 3 of all people in Namibia. There are 17 700 teachers employed in the education system. Over half of all the pupils are at schools in the central northern region. Across the country, education is offered in several forms; pre-primary school, adult education, vocational training and tertiary level of education. There are over 3000 pre-primary schools and the majority are privately-owned with few being subsidized by the government. Academic results for most grades are not impressive. For example, it was found that at the overall national level only 25.9% of learners reached the minimum level of mastery in reading literacy and a meagre 7.6 % reached the desirable level (Makuwa, 2004). Only 20% of the learners who took the Grade 12 exams in 2005 qualified for admission to the University of Namibia and the PoN. In 2001, approximately 49 000 adults attended literacy-training programmes which are aimed at improving the literacy level of adults (Mendelsohn et al., 2002).Currently, Namibia imports over 60% of her electrical power from South Africa. The three power stations; Ruacana (Hydro), Van Eck (Coal) and Paratus (Diesel) operated by Nampower delivers 240, 120 and 20 Megawatts respectively and, only meets less than 40% of the demand. In 1992, the Namibian government started with a rural electrification programme. More than N$ 203 million (€ 22.2 million) was invested in the programme and more than 15000 rural centres (schools, churches, clinics, businesses, etc.) were connected to the national power grid. The most immediate, quantifiable impact of the programme was the increase in rural electricity consumption from 166 million kWh in 1994 to 185 million kWh in 1999 (NDP2, 2002). The national electricity grid covering 15500 km of transmission lines serve to distribute power from several primary sources of electricity. Many rural homesteads, schools, clinics, tourist resorts and small settlements use so-called off-grid sources of power. According to Stork (2005) about 34% of Namibian households are connected to the electricity grid.Electrification varies considerably throughout Namibia. In major urban areas 95% of households are connected to electricity grid while in other urban areas it was less with 72.3% and in rural areas only 6.1% (see Fig. 5). Recently the Electricity Control Board introduced the Regional Electricity Distributors (REDs) and the main aim of the REDs (ERED, CENORED, Central RED, NORED and SORED) is to buy electricity from Nampower and distribute to local authorities and municipalities thereby aiding in the regulation of electricity generation and distribution chain. However, the nation feels that the REDs has concomitant surcharges to be born by consumers and this may raise electricity bills (monthly) from approximately N$ 300 to N$ 400 (€ 32.80-43.76); N$ 600 to N$ N$ 800 (€ 65.64-87.52) and N$ 1300 to N$ 1600 (€ 142.23-175.05) for light, medium and heavy consumers respectively. Recent developments in the electricity sub-sector have seen the mushrooming of solar power providers and the governments' push towards local electricity generation through investing in the projects such as the Kudu Gas, Epupa and/or Popa Falls Hydro Power. After Independence, economic development in Namibia was centred on the capital city and other major towns and, many populous and rural areas of the country are economically underdeveloped and lack infrastructure. As a result, people started migrating to urban areas for better economic conditions and living standards. The phenomenon of migration plays a significant role in the settlement pattern of the population in Namibia. Even though Table 9 shows that Namibia is still a rural society, majority of the population is drifting toward the urban settings. Unfortunately, data on precise migration patterns and the influx into major towns is scant. Migration has changed the household structure. There are more females in rural areas because males migrate in greater numbers to look for jobs in the urban areas. As a result, households in rural areas are headed by women whereas in some instances the de facto heads are men. Besides, labour division in rural areas was affected negatively. The Namibian media industry is concentrated in Windhoek and run mostly by private individuals or institutions. Currently, four daily and five weekly newspapers are published. The news predominantly deals with local, national and international topics and published in English. In addition to newspapers there are different kinds of newsletters and magazines (e.g. Economist) published in the country.Namibia's television and radio broadcaster NBC (Namibian Broadcasting Corporation) belongs to the government. There are several private radio stations as well as international TV channels available via cable and satellite. The NBC plays an important role in disseminating information. The national broadcasting system through the radio and TV is intended to inform, educate and entertain the nation. The NBC radio runs 9 radio services in local languages (see Table 11), which reach about 80% of Namibia's population. These services are broadcast from six o'clock in the morning until midnight. The national radio in English (the official language) is broadcasted throughout the day (24hours). Both the TV and radio run a weekly programme on agricultural related issues and these are aired for 30 minutes. On various occasion experts are invited to discuss pertinent issues on agriculture and, these types of discussions are aired for not more than an hour.Over the past few years, Namibia has seen the mushrooming of commercial radio stations owned by private individuals. Like in the rest of Africa, the aim of the commercial broadcasting is to make profit mainly through advertisements, despite the small population of the country. Namibia is still far from providing equal access to information to all Namibians. According to the Census of 2001, there are significant differences between rural and urban areas in terms of access to information. The urban households are better off than rural households in terms of access to facilities and services that provide information. For example, the television is accessible to 66% of the households in urban areas as compared to only 17% in the rural areas. In rural areas more than 80% of the households use radio as a main source of information (see Fig. 6). The radio coverage increased by 14% from 80 to 94%, while television coverage currently (2006) stands at 64% compared to 45% in 2001 (MISA, 2007). Radio is a very cheap means of access to information in terms of purchasing and operating and offers wider national coverage. Telephones cited in Fig. 6 refers to fixed phones. Namibia has a relatively well developed telecommunications network as well as a Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) cellular telephone and a X.25 packet switched service. X.25 is an International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) standard protocol suite for connection to packet-switched wide area networks using leased lines, the phone or ISDN system as the networking hardware. Telecom Namibia is the only company that provides local, long distance, international and leased lines services in Namibia. Telecom Namibia is owned by Namibia Post and Telecom Holdings (NPTH), which is in turn owned by the state (Telecom, 2004/5). Telecom Namibia invests extensively in modern technology and expanded capacity, as well as expanding fixed network and public access to through pay phones in rural areas.The telecommunication infrastructure in Namibia has been improved in the seventeen years after independence; the number of fixed lines has doubled, and the mobile network covers most of the country. The number of fixed lines has doubled from 57 000 in 1991 to about 117 000 in 2002. With the introduction of new product CallMaker in July 2004, the fixed lines has increased to 138,997 (Telecom, 2004/5).The teledensity for fixed lines has increased from 4 to 6 lines per 100 inhabitants and total teledensity from 4 to 14. Payphones have been installed across the country and a wide network of well-maintained pay phones has been established. There are about 5 000 payphones, 2.8 public phones per 1000 people (Hesselmark and Miller, 2003).Mobile Tele-Communications (MTC) Namibia is the first cellular service provider in Namibia. MTC, which started operating in April 1995, is a joint venture between Namibia Posts and Telecommunications Holdings (NPHT), with 51% shareholding, Swedfund International AB (23%) and Telia International AB (26%) (Motinga, 2003). MTC introduced two differentiated products -professional contract service and a pay-as-you-go \"Tango\" card product to cater for communication needs. The professional product involves a monthly fee and usage is cheaper comparing to the \"Tango\" but has more stringent qualification requirements. The introduction of the Tango product has doubled mobile phone subscription in Namibia. Mobile phone teledensity increased from 0.96% to 6.97% in 2002. The number of mobile phone users is higher than the number of fixed lines. Available statistics shows that by October 2003, MTC had more than 200 000 subscribers, whereas Telecom Namibia had only 138 997 in 2004. The higher growth of mobile phone subscribers compared to fixed lines users can be attributed to high cost of installation of fixed lines and ease of use of, and/or mobile phone flexibility (Stork & Aochamub, 2003). MTC has checked the coverage against census data, and estimates that about 65% of Namibia population live within reach of a mobile signal. The tariffs are difficult to compare because of the infinite variation. As shown in Table 13, MTC per minute charges vary from € 0.01 to 0.60.Cell One, the second cellular service provider in Namibia started operating in early this year (2007). Cell One use \"Per-Second-Billing\" system and one can call whoever, whenever and, irrespective of whether mobile-mobile or mobile-fixed line.  3 The contract period range between 6 and 24 months; 4 Peak = 07H00 -17H00; Off-peak = 19H00 -22H00 & Off-off peak = 22H00 -07H00.Namibia E-access and usage index survey of 2004 reported that from 4 163 household members interviewed, only 3.9% had an email address and 72.5% use the Internet and live in major urban areas, 27.5% in other urban areas and none in rural areas. Those respondents that use the Internet had access to Internet at school or work (Stork, 2005). The low usage of Internet in Namibia is attributed to unevenly distributed population throughout the country, while access to facilities such as media and technology is as unevenly distributed as the population. Developments in the telecommunication and utilities have focused on the economically active sector of the community; i.e. industry, commerce and the upper and middle classes of the population and left the rural population. As a result, majority of the population living in rural areas do not have access to Internet and computers (Stork & Aochamub, 2003).There are number of problems with Internet use in Namibia. The low population density and small population of 2 million as well as low income barriers are serious challenges hindering the telecommunication sector from expanding the total of Internet users. Internet access is slow because of local, regional and international congestion caused by too many users sharing the available capacity, while the cost of access is high. On the positive side, Namibia has taken bold steps to address the issue of the digital divide that exists between Namibia's rural and urban population.   Major unmet needs NNFU needs information for training -training of farmers is an important aspect of the NNFU. There is need to have training unit which will determine the training needs of farmers, how to conduct it and determine who should be trained. More information is needed in organizing farmers associations, capacity building of farmer's organization, marketing system of agricultural products within the country, environmental problems i.e. grazing management and sustainable land use and rainfall data. Repackaging of information is mentioned as unmet needs because information sometimes does not reach the target audience because of the way it is packaged or wrong medium is used to communicate information. Plans for the future NNFU anticipates the improvement of information provision; the plan in pipelines is to computerize its collection and has someone who will be responsible for the ICT in the Institution.The resources needed are funds, training and human capital. There is a need to appoint a person who will be responsible for the ICT in the institution.There is no specific unit dealing with information dissemination, there is a lack of expertise in information management in the institution. There are no guidelines for handling the flow of information within the institution; the three Units are involved in handling of information. Lack financial resource to employ professionals to manage the ICM. NNFU produce materials in form of leaflets and newsletter in English, due to literacy level of farmers not every farmer can read and understand English, therefore, there is a need to translate or repackage the information into local languages (Oshiwambo, Otjiherero, Afrikaans, Rukwangali) that the farmer can understand.The selection of medium of communication is an important factor that needs to be taken with caution. TV -many farmers do not have access to it and the radio, which is effective, gives a limited airtime. Print -the literacy level of farmers must be taken into consideration. As a result, sometimes the information produced does not reach the purpose it meant for.The collaboration is in terms of networking and resources sharing, especially information in agriculture with various Government Institutions, Polytechnic of Namibia, Farmers Unions, CTA, FAO, PRAIS, CGIAR National / sectoral policies impacting ICT use / information and communication within the institution:National policy -because of the monopoly in the area of Internet bandwidth the Internet connectivity is very slow. Policy on Intellectual capital. There seems to different interpretations on this policy it has an influence how people like lecturers contribute to the content on the websites. The Directorate is responsible for all MAWF branches in the 13 regions of Namibia. Annual budget: (in local currency with Euro equivalent) N$5 million (€ 547 045.95) Source of funding, incl. main donors / sponsors: MAWF Programme / projects undertaken:Intranet extension to the regions in the last five years; Network infrastructure has been extended to the regional offices; Implemented The Integrated Financial Management System; Trained personnel in the use of, and application of ICTs. Target audience (plus number, actual or estimated):MAWF staff including the regional offices. Extent of interaction with CTA -Spore Magazine, SDI, QAS, DORA, seminars, consultants, publications, training, ….:Yes, through the Library. But none of the Directorate members had participated in a training courses or seminars with CTA.Directorate of General Services, Division of Information System Main information needs for programme Technical Information: Information on Project Management -for example information on other countries egovernance, it will help with establishment of e-governance. Technical support information -is needed for hardware, and software installation, maintenance and training.Major unmet needs: Some Government offices do not have full-fledge access to the Internet. Very limited information is available on the website comparing to number of activities and research that are generating information and knowledge. Provision to online database inadequate.Connecting to all regional offices or sub-offices to increase information and communication capacity in rural areas.To make Intranet a two-way tool of communication by creating bogs and discussion forum; Create emails accounts to all staff members; Develop agricultural information portals in Namibia.Need consultants -to do an ICT needs assessment and define the ICT needs. Financial assistants -to support ICT activities. Additional staff are needed for hardware and software installation and maintenance.Providing training in website design and development, programming, intranet maintenance, editing and electronic records management.There is an overall a need for various skills in ICT for most of the Technicians. Main problems faced in terms of information and communication management:Recruitment of trained personnel is problem -it is not easy to appoint staffs in range of skills needed for the Ministry. In some cases there might be a demand for certain ICT product or service but needs are not well defines because of lack skills. Lack of management to support ICT or poor understanding of the importance of ICT. ICT is not regarded as priority and rather as a luxury . Why institution selected as a key:The Directorate is responsible for the managing of ICT of the MAWF.The problems mentioned by other Directorates within the Ministry were not mentioned here. For example, the slow Internet connectivity and the problem of all Ministerial ICT to be linked to the OPM.To provide environment conducive to information and research that support the mission of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources which are:To promote and regulate the responsible and sustainable utilization of living marine and freshwater resources and aquaculture within the context of environmental sustainability; To establish a conducive environment in which the fishing and fish processing industries can prosper and drive optimal income from marine resources; To further Namibia's interests with the international fishing sector. Field of specialisation: Staff members within the Ministry, Researchers, students and the wider community. Extent of interaction with CTA -Spore Magazine, SDI, QAS, DORA, seminars, consultants, publications, training, ….: None Extent of collaboration / interaction with other institutions (name, nature)Has collaborations with Gilchrist Library in South Africa (Cape Town). It provides the NATMIRC Library with articles and capacity building (staff members are sent there for training.NATMIRC has an agreement with the Polytechnic of Namibia and share information resources through Interlending. NATMIRC received assistances in terms capacity building from the CDCF. National / sectoral policies impacting ICT use / information and communication within the institution:The Internet access to NATMIRC depends on one 128 Kb line, since this is a shared line available the whole NATMIRC staff, access is unreliable and slow. This means that it is impossible to make use of the many resources available on the Internet. According to the Namibia Library and Service Act all governmental libraries staffs are employed and paid by the Ministry of Education. It has an impact on capacity building and operation of services (for example poor supervision, too much bureaucracy). How information needs are currently met, and from where or by whom:The Library created platforms for access electronic resources and put links to web pages with journal articles that are free of charge including Google Advanced Scholar Search; AGRIS, PubMed, BioMed Central and HighWire Press. Access to them is made through possible links on NATMIRC library site Purchasing of articles from SUBITO is a option with its guarantee delivery of 72 hours at the cost of 5 Euro, if it is scanned and sent as attachment to emails (somewhat more expensive sent by post or fax). Network with Librarians from other marine institutions by attending conferences, meetings and workshops. NATMIRC has one combined subscription agreement with the Journal of Coastal Research and, access requires username and password. Main information needs not satisfied (including types and format of information):Lack of a qualified librarian; Internet connectivity; Access to paid e-journals. Why institution selected as a key:Is national library specializes in fisheries and marine resources. NATMIRC is important to the fishing communities because it enhance capacity to manage fisheries and marine resources. Other observations:Is a modern Library in a good condition, currently, run by a Library Assistant. The two staffs members in the Library were comfortable with current state of affairs, maybe could have been good idea to hear from the user perspective. The position of a Librarian has been advertised. The collection need to be arranged properly and there is need for qualified librarian to look after the information resources. ","tokenCount":"20902"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"543703688c3fbe3c83ea4a11db0041cf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a1c4aae8-f171-47e5-80de-e5b808ae6a9f/retrieve","id":"-1152632116"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d092e078-c256-4a25-8bf8-547342327576","pagecount":"10","content":"• Fieldwork from November 2018 to August 2019• Focus group discussions (seven FGDs)• Semi-structured interviews with youth and other household members (73 interviews) -15 female youth 13 male youth from fisher households -5 male youth and 5 female youth from farming households • Life histories, livelihood trajectories and the evolution of livelihood aspirations  \"They (the migrant workers) look very sophisticated, while previously they used to dress traditionally. They don't look like us anymore, who have to work in the water the entire day… They have gold earrings and look fair (tanned skin denoting outdoor manual work and a lower social status)…They can even wear their slippers to work\" (Young woman, 21)New desired futures through education and expanded urban mobilities, particularly to Yangon• Navigational capacities and material realities complicated a straightforward engagement with these new desired futures -Knowledge and experiences through social networks -Gendered material realities• Aspirations are broad and vague and take shape based on opportunities that emerge• Socioeconomic status and gender complicated a straightforward relationship with new desired futures• Interaction with generational promise was through aspirations that evolved with opportunities encountered• Engagement with foodsystems marked by a sense of temporariness","tokenCount":"191"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"13f6cb784de697427c02360f58e8fcfb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/cb7a7e99-5986-46c9-bdfb-5887161efedb/content","id":"-1952151608"},"keywords":["MIROSHNICHENKO","D.","CHERNOBROVKINA","M.","PHILIPPOV","M.","SIDOROV","E.","KHARCHENKO","P.","DOLGOV","C GUIMARAES","E.P.","BEDOSHVILI","D.","MORGOUNOV","A.","BABOEV","S.","ISKAKOV","A.","MUMINJANOV","H.","KUENEMAN","E.","PAGANINI","M"],"sieverID":"f05801be-1333-405a-a311-5c9e91556862","pagecount":"13","content":"Çàùèòà ðàñòåíèé ïÿòíèñòîñòè êîëîñêîâûõ ïëåíîê è ëèñòüåâ, âûçûâàåìûå Phaeosphaeria nodorum (Mull.) Hedjar. (àíàìîðôà: Staganospora nodorum (Berk.) Castell. & Germano (Pno), à òàêaeå ñåïòîðèîçíàÿ ïÿòíèñòîñòü è îaeîã ëèñòüåâ, âûçûâàåìûå Mycosphaerella graminicola (Fuckel) Schroeter (anamorph: Septoria tritici Rob. ex Desm.) (Mgr), ïðèçíàíû íàèáîëåå âðåäîíîñíûìè çàáîëåâàíèÿìè â Öåíòðàëüíîé Àçèè (Yahyaoui et al., 2003). Ñòåïåíü ðàñïðîñòðàíåíèÿ â ðåãèîíå ïàòîãåíà ãåëüìèíòîðèîçíîé ïÿòíèñòîñòè ëèñòüåâ Cochliobolus sativus (Ito & Kurib.) Drechsler ex Dastur (anamorph: Bipolaris sorokiniana (Sacc.) Shoem.) (Csa) ñ÷èòàåòñÿ íèçêîé (Hasanov, 1992). Ðàñïðîñòðàíåííîñòü ïàòîãåíîâ ðàçíîâèäíîñòåé ïÿòíèñòîñòè è îaeîãà ëèñòüåâ ìîaeåò âàðüèðîâàòü â çàâèñèìîñòè îò óñëîâèé ãîäà è ðåãèîíà. Ïîýòîìó ïðè îöåíêå óñòîé÷èâîñòè ãåíîòèïà òðåáóåòñÿ ïðàâèëüíàÿ èäåíòèôèêàöèÿ äîìèíèðóþùåãî ïàòîãåíà. ïðîòèâîâåñ îáëèãàòíûì áèîòðîôíûì ãðèáàì âòîðîñòåïåííûå ïîëóáèîòðîôíûå ãðèáû â ïîëåâûõ óñëîâèÿõ îïðåäåëÿþòñÿ ñ òðóäîì. Ðàçëè÷íûå ëèñòîâûå ïÿòíèñòîñòè èìåþò ðàçíûå íàçâàíèÿ, îäíàêî èõ ñèìïòîìû î÷åíü ñõîaeè, è íà ðàííèõ ñòàäèÿõ ïîðàaeåíèÿ äàaeå ÷åðåç óâåëè÷èòåëüíîå ñòåêëî ïî òèïó ñïîðîíîøåíèÿ èëè ïëîäîâûõ òåë èõ ñëîaeíî ðàçëè÷èòü. Ïðèçíàêè çàáîëåâàíèÿ òàêaeå ñèëüíî ðàçíÿòñÿ â çàâèñèìîñòè îò ôèçèîëîãèè ðàñòåíèÿ, íàïðèìåð, ïîðàaeåíèå ïÿòíèñòîñòüþ çíà÷èòåëüíî ñíèaeàåòñÿ ïðè âíåñåíèè âûñîêèõ äîç àçîòà. Âîçðàñò ëèñòà ðàñòåíèÿ òîaeå âëèÿåò íà ðàçìåð ïÿòåí Mgr (Lemaire et al., 2003). Ñëîaeíîñòü òî÷íîé èäåíòèôèêàöèè íà ïîëÿõ, â ñâîþ î÷åðåäü, Ââåäåíèå Áóðàÿ è aeåëòàÿ ðaeàâ÷èíû, âûçûâàåìûå ñîîòâåòñòâåííî Puccinia triticina Erikss. è P. striiformis West f..sp. tritici, ñ÷èòàþòñÿ â Öåíòðàëüíîé Àçèè íàèáîëåå âðåäîíîñíûìè áîëåçíÿìè îçèìîé è ÿðîâîé ïøåíèöû. Ñåëåêöèîíåðû è ôåðìåðû ëåãêî ðàñïîçíàþò èõ è ïîíèìàþò çíà÷åíèå ìíîãîîáðàçèÿ ïàòîãåíîâ â ýïèäåìèîëîãèè áîëåçíåé è áîðüáå ñ íèìè. Íà ñàìîì äåëå îáëèãàòíûå áèîòðîôíûå ãðèáû èççà ïîâñåìåñòíîãî èñïîëüçîâàíèÿ ðàñî-ñïåöèôè÷åñêèõ ãåíîâ óñòîé÷èâîñòè ïåðèîäè÷åñêè âçàèìîäåéñòâóþò ñ äðóãèìè ãåíàìè, ãåíîì-õîçÿèíîì è íîâûìè ðàñàìè. Èõ áûñòðîå ðàñïðîñòðàíåíèå ïî âåòðó íà áîëüøèå ðàññòîÿíèÿ ÷àñòî ïðèâîäèò ê ñåðüåçíûì ýïèôèòîòèÿì è áîëüøèì ïîòåðÿì óðîaeàÿ, ñâÿçàííûì ñ ïîòåðåé óñòîé÷èâîñòè ó øèðîêî âîçäåëûâàåìûõ ãåíîòèïîâ ïøåíèöû. Ó÷åíûå ïðèëàãàþò çíà÷èòåëüíûå óñèëèÿ ê òîìó, ÷òîáû âûÿâèòü è ââåñòè â ñîðòà ãåíû çàìåäëåííîãî ïîðàaeåíèÿ ðaeàâ÷èíîé èëè ãåíû óñòîé÷èâîñòè ê áîëåçíè âçðîñëîãî ðàñòåíèÿ (QTLs) (Singh et al., 2005). Òåì íå ìåíåå, çà÷àñòóþ âëèÿíèå ýòèõ ãåíîâ ìåíüøå, ÷åì ðàñî-ñïåöèôè÷åñêèõ ãåíîâ è çàâèñèò îò óñëîâèé ðåãèîíà, à ñîðòà, íåñóùèå ýòè ãåíû, äîâîëüíî ñëîaeíî âûÿâèòü.Áîëåå òîãî, íåêîòîðûå âòîðîñòåïåííûå ïàðàçèòíûå ïîëóáèîòðîôíûå ãðèáû íà ÿðîâîé è îçèìîé ïøåíèöå ìîaeíî ïðèíÿòü çà ñèìïòîìû çàáîëåâàíèÿ aeåëòîé ïÿòíèñòîñòüþ è îaeîãîì ëèñòüåâ. Òàêèå áîëåçíè, êàê aeåëòàÿ ïÿòíèñòîñòü ëèñòüåâ, âûçûâàåìàÿ Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Died.) Drechsler (àíàìîðôà: Drechslera triticirepentis (Died.) Shoem.) (Ptr), ñåïòîðèîçíûå ñàìè çàðàaeåííûå ñåìåíà, ðàçíîñÿòñÿ íà áîëüøèå ðàññòîÿíèÿ (Maraite et al., 1992). ×òî êàñàåòñÿ ïàòîãåíîâ Mgr è Pno, ìåëêèå àñêîñïîðû ðàçíîñÿòñÿ âåòðîì íà ðàññòîÿíèÿ â íåñêîëüêî êèëîìåòðîâ, â òî âðåìÿ êàê êîíèäèè, îáðàçóþùèåñÿ â ìÿêîòè ëèñòà èç ïèêíèäèé, âíåäðåííûõ â òêàíè ðàñòåíèÿ, ïåðåíîñÿòñÿ ñ äîaeäåâûìè êàïëÿìè è ÷åðåç çàðàaeåííûå âñõîäû. Ïÿòíèñòîñòü êîëîñêîâûõ ïëåíîê, âûçûâàåìàÿ âîçáóäèòåëåì Pno, òàêaeå ïîðàaeàåò çåðíî, à ñàìà èíôåêöèÿ ðàñïðîñòðàíÿåòñÿ ñ çàðàaeåííûìè ñåìåíàìè (Shah and Bergstrom, 2000).Âîçáóäèòåëü  (Manning and Ciuffetti, 2005). Îñíîâûâàÿñü íà òîêñè÷åñêèõ ñâîéñòâàõ Ptr, âûçûâàþùèõ íåêðîç è õëîðîç íà ðàçëè÷íûõ ñîðòàõ-äèôôåðåíöèàòîðàõ, áûëî âûäåëåíî äî 11 Ptr ðàñ (Lamari et al., 2005;Singh and Hughes, 2006). Ãåí Tsn1 ïøåíèöû îòâå÷àåò çà âîñïðèèì÷èâîñòü ê Ptr ToxA. Îäíàêî, ðåàêöèÿ íà òîêñèíû ëèøü ÷àñòè÷íî îáúÿñíÿåò ðàçâèòèå áîëåçíè. Ðåàêöèÿ ñîðòà óêàçûâàåò íà ñîâìåùåíèå ðàñî-òèïè÷íîé è íåòèïè÷íîé óñòîé÷èâîñòè (Faris and Friesen, 2005). Äëÿ ñåïòîðèîçíîé ïÿòíèñòîñòè ëèñòüåâ âûÿâëåíû ðàçëè÷èÿ â ñòåïåíè àãðåññèâíîñòè è íåêîòîðûõ îñîáåííîñòÿõ ïàòîãåíà-õîçÿèíà, îäíàêî äî ñèõ ïîð íåëüçÿ ãîâîðèòü î ñèñòåìå ðàñ. Îáíàðóaeåíà àäàïòàöèÿ ïîïóëÿöèè Mgr ê óñòîé÷èâûì ñîðòàì è íàðàñòàþùåå ðàçðóøåíèå óñòîé÷èâîñòè (Mundt et al., 2003, Marot and Maraite, íåîïóáëèêîâàííûå äàííûå). Ýòî óêàçûâàåò íà èçìåíåíèÿ â ïîïóëÿöèÿõ êàñàòåëüíî ïàòîãåííûõ ôàêòîðîâ. Äëÿ òàêèõ âîçáóäèòåëåé ïÿòíèñòîñòåé ëèñòüåâ, êàê Ptr, Pno è Mgr, õàðàêòåðíî î÷åíü áîëüøîå ãåíåòè÷åñêîå ðàçíîîáðàçèå, äàaeå íà óðîâíå ïîëåâîãî îïðåäåëåíèÿ (Di Zinno et al., 1998;Friesen et al., 2005;Murphy et al., 2000;Zhan et al., 2003). Îíî ñâÿçàíî ñ ÷åðåäîâàíèåì áèîòðîôíûõ è ñàïðîòðîôíûõ ôàç íà êóëüòóðå, âûaeèâàíèåì ïàòîãåíà â ñàïðîòðîôíîé ôàçå íà ïîaeíèâíûõ îñòàòêàõ è ôîðìèðîâàíèåì íà íèõ òåëåîìîðôíîé ôàçû (Duczek et al., 1999).Ðåïðîäóêòèâíûé öèêë ýòèõ ïàòîãåíîâ -î÷åíü âàaeíûé ôàêòîð â ýïèäåìèîëîãèè äàííûõ çàáîëåâàíèé, èõ øèðîêîé âèðóëåíòíîñòè êàê âíóòðè ïîïóëÿöèé, òàê è â ïðåäåëàõ êîíòèíåíòà, à òàêaeå óñòîé÷èâîñòè ê ôóíãèöèäàì, ÷òî áûëî îòìå÷åíî ïîñëå íåäàâíåãî îáíàðóaeåíèÿ â Çàïàäíîé Åâðîïå ñòðîáèðóëåíòíîé óñòîé÷èâîñòè (Amand et al., 2003)  Ïàòîãåí Csa (Cochliobolus sativus) áûë îáíàðóaeåí ëèøü íà 10% îáðàçöîâ, ÷òî êîíòðàñòèðóåò ñ øèðîêèì ðàñïðîñòðàíåíèåì ýòîé áîëåçíè â Þaeíûõ Ãèìàëàÿõ (Maraite et al., 1998). Ïàòîãåí Pno (Phaeosphaeria nodorum) ïðåâàëèðîâàë â ñåâåðíûõ îáñëåäîâàííûõ ðåãèîíàõ, à Mgr (Mycosphaerella graminicola) -â þaeíûõ, õîòÿ è òîò, è äðóãîé áûëè îáíàðóaeåíû íà îáðàçöàõ èç Àëìàëûáàêà (KZ-1), Øûìêåíòà (KZ-28), Äaeàìáóëà (KZ-33), Àëìàòû (KZ-41), Áèøêåêà (KG-2) è Êîðäàÿ (KZ-8). Ñ äðóãîé ñòîðîíû, ñìåøàííîå çàðàaeåíèå Ptr è Mgr èëè Pno áûëî âûÿâëåíî íà 43% âñåõ îáðàçöîâ. Ýòîò ôàêò óêàçûâàåò íà íåîáõîäèìîñòü òî÷íîé èäåíòèôèêàöèè èìåþùèõñÿ â ðåãèîíå ÖÀ ïàòîãåíîâ äëÿ óñòàíîâëåíèÿ ïðèîðèòåòîâ â ñåëåêöèîííûõ ïðîãðàììàõ è îöåíêå ñåëåêöèîííîãî ìàòåðèàëà.Áîëüøàÿ ÷àñòü èç 101 èçîëÿòîâ Ptr ïðèíàäëåaeèò ê ðàñå 1 (Òàáë. 3), ÷òî ñîãëàñóåòñÿ ñ äàííûìè ä-ðà Ëàìàðè è äð. (Lamari et al., 2005). âåùåñòâ ñ ïîìîùüþ îêñèäàçû îïðåäåëÿëè â ÷àøêàõ â ïðèñóòñòâèè ñàëèöèëãèäðîêñàìîâîé êèñëîòû (SHAM) êîíöåíòðàöèåé 100ìã/ë èëè áåç åå äîáàâëåíèÿ.    è äð., 2006). Ðàñó 2 (òîëüêî Ptr ToxA) ðåãóëÿðíî âûäåëÿëè íà þãå îáñëåäîâàííîãî ðåãèîíà, îíà òàêaeå âûäåëÿëàñü ñðåäè ïîïóëÿöèé Pyrenophora tritici-repentis èç Íåïàëà (Mercado et al., 2003).Âûäåëåíèå ðàñû 3 (òîëüêî Ptr ToxC) èç ãåêñàïëîèäíûõ ñîðòîâ Ñîìîíè è Äàíãàðà (TJ-5) è Ñàðàòîâñêàÿ-42 èç Öåíòðàëüíîãî Êàçàõñòàíà (KZ-44) ñòàëî ïåðâûì ôàêòîì îáíàðóaeåíèÿ äàííîãî ïàòîãåíà â èçó÷àåìûõ ñòðàíàõ; äàííàÿ ðàñà òàêaeå äîìèíèðîâàëà â Ñèðèè íà òåòðàïëîèäíîé ïøåíèöå (Lamari et al., 2005). Ðàñà 4, íå îáðàçóþùàÿ òîêñèíû, áûëà âûäåëåíà èç ìàòåðèàëà ñîðòîâ ïøåíèöû Êðàñíîâîäîïàäñêàÿ-250 â Ìàéëåìîøàêå (KZ-27). Ýòî òàêaeå ïåðâûå ñâåäåíèÿ î äàííîé ðàñå â îáñëåäîâàííîì ðåãèîíå. Ðàñà 4 áûëà ñëó÷àéíî îáíàðóaeåíà â Ñåâåðíîé Àìåðèêå, à òàêaeå â ×åõèè íà ðàñòåíèÿõ ïøåíèöû è îòäåëüíûõ íåçëàêîâûõ òðàâàõ, ñ÷èòàþùèõñÿ òèïè÷íûìè ðàñòåíèÿìè-õîçÿåâàìè äëÿ äàííîãî ïàòîãåíà (Sarova et al., 2005)    2003, 2004 and 2005 between May and August on winter and spring wheat in various regions of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and in Western Siberia (Russia), samples of wheat leaves showing leaf spot and leaf blight symptoms were collected at 113 locations or plots and analysed at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. The analysis under a microscope and/or isolation revealed the presence of Pyrenophora tritici-repentis on 77% of the samples. Its prevalence fell to 31% on the samples from the Omsk region in Western Siberia where Phaeosphaeria nodorum was detected on all analysed samples. Overall, P. nodorum was associated with lesions on 50% of the samples, with a strong decline in prevalence in South Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Mycosphaerella graminicola was detected on 23% of the samples and appeared more frequent than P. nodorum in the latter regions. Mixed infections of two or even three of these pathogens were observed on 43% of the samples. Cochliobolus sativus was detected on only 10% of the samples. Some 101 single conidia strains of P. tritici-repentis were inoculated for race characterization on a set of differential wheat genotypes. Of these, 87% belonged to race 1, while only 7%, 5% and 1% were identified as race 2, race 3 and race 4, respectively. Evolution in race prevalence in Central Asia might affect the stability of tan spot resistance.The distribution of the mating type ideomorphs was determined for 49 P. nodorum isolates. The proportion of MAT-1 and MAT-2 isolates appeared balanced (23:19) among the Kazakh and Russian origins, but no MAT-2 isolate has yet been found in Tajikistan. The role of ascospores in glume blotch epidemiology might be reduced for a population with a skewed proportion of the mating types. MAT-1 and MAT-2 ideomorphs of M. graminicola were present in a rather balanced proportion (24:17) throughout the surveyed area.Sensitivity in vitro of the P. nodorum and M. graminicola isolates to propiconazole (Tilt) and azoxystrobin (Amistar) was assessed in PDB. No resistant isolate was detected. The EC 50 values of propiconazole and azoxystrobin ranged for M. graminicola from <0.003 to 0.013mg/L and 0.01 to 0.078mg/L, respectively; and for P. nodorum from 0.013 to 0.085mg/L and 0.016 to 0.267mg/L, respectively.The abundance of crop residues associated with conservation tillage practices, together with the frequent observation of Pyrenophora tritici-repentis pseudothecia on the stubbles as well as the regular isolation of both mating types of Phaeosphaeria nodorum and M. graminicola from the leaves, highlight the risk of a rapid evolution in the population structure of these pathogens with regard to the dispersion of virulence or fungicide resistance genes.","tokenCount":"1342"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4aec664e58edbdd30afc867843aef27f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cd6cd953-8109-4489-9a1e-ea47041962d5/retrieve","id":"-76102941"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d7929d91-e0a5-4cbd-993b-f342b88d884d","pagecount":"1","content":"Foodborne diseases are one of the most important public health problems in Thailand. During 2003-2012, the diarrheal incidence in humans increased continuously with highest incidences in the northern region since 2005. This study aimed to determine the differences in diarrhea preventive knowledge and perceptions regarding the risk of contracting diarrheal diseases, food consumption habits and potential risk behaviors among people in high and low diarrheal incident areas in northern Thailand. The study was designed and conducted under the EcoHealth Resource Center by different faculties of the Chiang Mai University (CMU). Pictures This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution -Non commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License September 2014Table 1: Knowledge on diarrhea diseases p-value An individual with diarrhea should be given anti-diarrheal medication..001 Diarrhea is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with disease organisms..003 Knives and cutting boards which have been used to prepare raw foods and are then used to prepare cooked foods might cause diarrhea..01The differences in knowledge among the two groups were individuals with diarrhea should be given anti-diarrheal drug (p < .01), eating contaminated food or drinking water could cause diarrhea (p < .01), using the same knives and cutting boards to prepare raw food (p = .01) (Table 1)Household members in high and low incidence areas perceived differently that eating meat from sick animals could cause diarrhea (p < .05) and the risk of getting diarrhea depends on individual eating practices (p < .05). All other risk perceptions were not statistically different (Table 2). .024 Risk of diarrhea depends on individual eating practices..043 Eating without washing hands puts someone at risk for diarrhea..111 Eating storage food without covering is the risk of getting diarrhea .313 Eating storage food without warming can cause diarrhea .130 Eating raw or partially cooked foods puts someone at risk for diarrhea..382 Severe diarrhea case should go to see a doctor or HCW immediately..336Table 4: Food consumption practices p-value Purchase raw food from a store in the village..000 Purchase raw food from a supermarket..000 Eat packaged food with FDA approval label .000 Eat food which has just been cooked..009 Eat food outside the home..048Practices in covering food in closed containers, washing fresh fruit and vegetable before eating, washing hands with soap and clean water before eating and after defecating, keeping uneaten food in refrigerator, and washing food utensils with dishwashing liquid, were statistically different among household members in the two areas (Table 5)Practices in disposing of food scraps in waste containers with lids, eradicating the garbage by burning and disposing all refuse in containers with lids and were statistically different between household members in the two areas (p < .01) (Table 3) .000Eradicate the garbage by burning .004Dispose all refuse in containers with lids..006 .000Wash fresh fruit and vegetable before eating..011Wash hands with soap and clean water before eating..013Wash hands with soap and clean water after defecating..013Keep uneaten food in refrigerator .015Wash food utensils with dish washing liquid..026There were many differences on knowledge, risk perception, and prevention practices toward foodborne diseases among people in high and low diarrheal incident areas in northern Thailand. Targeted community training activities should address those differences in the future. The study has been successfully demonstrated that that different faculties can work together in a strictly trans-disciplinary approach. Joint proposals are currently being developed, e.g. related to see food and PH concerns .Akeau Unahalekhaka, Faculty of Nursing, Chiang Mai University","tokenCount":"567"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a7b97c5ba883434587ab62c9a6476b44","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a922bcc-de68-4ba4-ba8a-b70ac70353d6/retrieve","id":"-1247867803"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3abdac08-dd90-466b-a6e4-b2cc022f4a51","pagecount":"3","content":"On 17 December 2020, the 13 th meeting of the Food Safety Working Group of Vietnam (FSWG) was convened to update the food safety activities of group members. This meeting focuses much on discussing the intervention package that the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), one of the core members of the group has conducted to improve the pork safety of Vietnam. About 50 members of the group attended the meeting virtually, and a few members attended it from the World Bank (WB) office in Hanoi. A round table update session was open to all participants to update on various food safety related activities. The final session was allocated to discuss on the preparation for the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS).1. Traditional food chains -gains, threats, and ways to de-risk them, by Fred  ","tokenCount":"133"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/0606428911.json b/data/part_3/0606428911.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4d3869223e0201c8e0f4eabc7336125f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1f1f3069-1aea-469c-877a-bfc983f9854d/retrieve","id":"-212195415"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cbbfff98-617c-411c-8222-e293a3ea3f90","pagecount":"22","content":"This chapter provides an overview of predicted global climate change, placing special emphasis on the implications for agriculture. The power of modelling for understanding both impacts on productivity and adaptation options is demonstrated. The models on agricultural production for 50 crops predict significant impacts, with both winners and losers. The resultant need for systems reconstruction in highly vulnerable areas demonstrates a possible entry point for eco-efficient agriculture, in parallel with demands for adaptation measures that are climate smart and deliver on mitigation co-benefits. The chapter then focuses on Colombia and provides an end-to-end analysis of projected climatic changes for 2050, the impacts this may have on agriculture, and mitigation and adaptation options in the country's rice sector. Priority options include managing the methane emissions of flooded rice, eliminating crop residue burning, irrigation, genetic modification for heat tolerance, and increasing efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer application. The relevance of eco-efficient agriculture in adapting to and mitigating climate change is discussed, with special emphasis on synergies between eco-efficiency and climate change adaptation or mitigation.Climate change is widely considered one of the major drivers of societal change in this century, and agriculture has been identified as particularly 1 International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia.2 CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Cali, Colombia. 3 Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science (ICAS), University of Leeds, United Kingdom. et al., 2009), agricultural systems will have to cope with changing rainfall regimes, geographical shifts in the occurrence of pests and diseases (Garrett et al., 2012;Jarvis et al., 2012), shorter growing seasons (Jones and Thornton, 2009), temperature stress (Challinor et al., 2007) and loss of climatic suitability (Jarvis et al., 2012). Global climate models 4 (GCMs) predict that while climatic variability is certain to produce both winners and losers, the losses will far outweigh the gains in many cases. The tropics, in particular, are expected to experience crop yield decreases in the order of 10-30% (Moorhead, 2009). Likewise, South Asia might well be too heat stressed to grow wheat by 2050 (Ortiz et al., 2008;Lobell et al., 2012). Both of these regions depend heavily on agriculture for rural livelihoods, making them especially susceptible to climate-change-induced pressures.Agriculture's position in the climate change equation is perhaps unique; it is simultaneously a highly vulnerable sector as the numbers above indicate, a highly culpable sector with regard to its significant contribution to anthropogenic emissions (Key and Tallard, 2012), and also a sector with enormous potential for mitigating anthropogenic climate change (Hutchinson et al., 2007;Tubiello and Fischer, 2007). Indeed, agriculture produces a disproportionate share of emissions of the high-impact gases methane (CH 4 ) (47% of global total) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) (58% of global total) (Pye- Smith, 2011). It is responsible for 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions when taking into account land use change and deforestation for agricultural expansion, fuel, fiber, and food (IPCC, 2007). On the other hand, carbon sequestration in agricultural soils could potentially offset 5-15% of global fossil fuel emissions (Lal, 2004), not to mention the mitigation power of deforestation reduction and fertilizer and irrigation optimization through sustainable intensification practices.These considerations make climate-smart agriculture a critical topic for discussion and rapid action. Changing conditions require transformations in agricultural systems towards higher productivity, but on a lower-emissions trajectory (FAO, 2010a). Climate-smart agriculture aims to achieve food security for a world of 9 billion people and successful adaptation to an increasingly variable climate, while reducing emissions and sequestering carbon. It includes practices such as agroforestry, mulching, water management, intercropping, and silvopastoralism, as well as technologies for climate risk management, such as more accurate weather forecasts and the development of improved food crop varieties (Cooper et al., 2012;Smith et al., 2011;The World Bank, 2011). Specific definitions for climate-smart agriculture can vary widely depending on the source. For the purposes of this chapter we will use the following definition for climate-smart agriculture: an agricultural system employing practices which (a) contribute to farmer adaptation to climate change by bolstering the security of food systems, or (b) help to mitigate climate change by sequestering or preventing the release of carbon emissions, while (c) ideally increasing agricultural productivity.Although climate-smart agricultural practices have been shown to be effective in matters of adaptation and mitigation, there remains the question of whether a climate-smart practice is necessarily an eco-efficient practice. When applied to agriculture, eco-efficiency describes a system that produces the most possible output with the least possible input, harmonizing economic, social, and environmental needs (see Mateo and Ortiz, Chapter 1 of this publication).But to what extent do eco-efficient practices overlap with climate-smart practices? Although climate-smart farming practices may be able to reduce emissions from agriculture, do they also constitute a system that uses resources effectively and efficiently for maximum yields?This chapter shows how climate and crop models can be used to anticipate future scenarios for agricultural development and support decision making for priority adaptation and mitigation interventions. Future projections are presented, which are then used to evaluate impacts on agricultural production and systems. The chapter then presents a case study of Colombia, where likely climate changes are quantified, impacts on agricultural systems are assessed, and the efficacy of different adaptation and mitigation options for the country is evaluated. This example is then used to discuss whether climate change presents a challenge or an opportunity for eco-efficient agriculture, looking at the impacts and potential responses in a broader political economy. Using the example, we address the following question: are the high-priority adaptation and mitigation options identified for Colombia necessarily ecoefficient as well?While GCMs are all based on the same underlying principles, they vary in their implementation. We rely on the comprehensive collection of GCM climate change data and statistics of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the scenarios presented here.The IPCC used 24 GCMs in its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) (IPCC, 2007) to show changes in climatic variables at various times in the future. The predictions depend on which of the various scenarios of economic and environmental development is assumed to occur, analyzed in detail in the IPCC's Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) (IPCC, 2000). Overall, annual mean temperatures are predicted to increase by 1-3° C by 2050 (depending on the SRES scenario), with mid-to high latitudes likely to warm at higher rates than the tropics. Changes in rainfall are varied and complex, ranging from -10 to +20% (again depending on the SRES scenario), with very high likelihood of increases along the Pacific coast of South America and in Eastern Africa, and decreases over South Asia (IPCC, 2007). More specifically, under the SRES A2 scenario (\"business as usual\"), global mean temperatures are predicted to rise by 1.6-8.4 °C by 2050, with winter temperatures at northern latitudes increasing most, while global average rainfall is predicted to increase as much as 1.9% by 2020 and 22.8% by 2050 (IPCC, 2007).Again under the SRES A2 scenario, the Mediterranean area of North Africa extending towards the Sahara is predicted to be drier throughout the year. Changes in rainfall in Asia are spatially variable, while in the Middle East, predictions show a decrease in overall rainfall [although with low certainty (IPCC, 2007)]. Changes in rainfall in the Amazon are highly uncertain, ranging from -10 to +15% by 2050.All of these changes are expected to have profound implications for world agriculture, but the impact will depend on: the crop grown, farmer adaptability to climate change, type and severity of the expected change, and the current system vulnerability. Coping with these changes requires reliable predictions of future climate, coupled with reliable impact models and knowledge of adaptation options that can be implemented at the individual farm level (Jarvis et al., 2011;Thornton et al., 2011).We cannot measure the response of the climate to natural or anthropogenic forcings in absolute terms, but we can represent it in GCMs. GCMs themselves, however, are based on imperfect approximations that cause inaccuracies and uncertainties. Inaccuracies occur when we do not reproduce observed climate patterns at the scales that they appear (i.e., predicted climates differ from observations). In contrast, uncertainties reflect the variability (i.e., spread) of GCM predictions and can arise from:• Disagreement on the future socio-economic behavior of the world's nations, leading to disagreement over which SRES scenarios to use • Lack of understanding of the response of the climate system to anthropogenic forcing • Inability to understand properly, and hence model, the different forcings in the climate system, which are then parameterized differently in the GCMs • Disagreement over GCMs' initial conditions (i.e., the fact that climate change experiments are initialized arbitrarily on the basis of a quasi-equilibrium control run) (Challinor et al., 2009).Often the conditions necessary to initialize GCMs in climate change experiments must be selected randomly (Gleckler et al., 2008;Taylor et al., 2012), which contributes to model spread. Uncertainties, therefore, are a range of predictions for any future time giving us a plausible range under which the impact of potential adaptation-or mitigation-oriented decisions can be analyzed (Moss et al., 2010;Webster et al., 2012). Quantifying these uncertainties is critical to understanding the future changes in climate and how agricultural systems will respond to them (Challinor et al., 2009;Moss et al., 2010).Given enough observed data, we can assess the predictive skill for any climatic variable prediction by the GCMs, but a variable that performs well in one instance (i.e., present-day climate) may not perform well in others (i.e., future scenarios) (Challinor and Wheeler, 2008). In addition, the uncertainty determined for one variable does not necessarily represent the uncertainty of all the others. That is, one variable's estimate of \"high uncertainty\" does not signify that the projection is highly uncertain in absolute terms. Quantification of uncertainty is critical for decisions regarding adaptation of agricultural systems to climate change (Smith and Stern, 2011;Smith et al., 2011). These decisions directly impact farmers' livelihoods and therefore need comprehensive analysis of current vulnerabilities and future uncertainties to avoid the risk of making faulty recommendations (Jarvis et al., 2011).Despite the inherent uncertainties in climate change projections, there can be no excuse for inaction on the policy front. On the contrary, decisions on adaptation strategies should be anticipatory, putting into place as much effective policy and infrastructure as possible in the near term to avoid possibly irreversible repercussions. Moreover, anticipatory adaptation has the additional benefit of reducing the potential costs that may result from maladaptation, particularly for decisions regarding long-lived and costly infrastructure or sector-level planning (Ranger et al., 2010).Climate change adaptation is by no means without risk. Decision makers may fail to appreciate the magnitude of a climate-related risk and not deliver a crucial adaptation, or there is the possibility of overestimation of risk and thus \"over-adaptation\" and waste of resources (Willows and Connell, 2003). Although we cannot predict with complete certainty how the climate will be in the future, it is possible to take steps to buffer negative effects with minimum levels of risk. That is to say, adaptation does not necessarily require a perfectly accurate prediction. A framework developed by Willows and Connell (2003) emphasizes the necessity of keeping open or increasing the options that could allow adaptation measures to be implemented in the future, when the situation may be less uncertain.According to Willows and Connell (2003), risk assessments should aim to identify \"no-regrets\" alternatives or immediately actionable options that should deliver adaptation benefits under any circumstances regardless of actual climate outcomes. For example, an early-warning system for natural disasters would be a suitable adaptation for any foreseeable future; it would constitute a \"no-regrets\" option (Ranger et al., 2010). Other plausible approaches include building flexibility into the adaptability measure, e.g., constructing infrastructure that could be modified in the future, if necessary, rather than rebuilt, or building flexibility into the decisionmaking process itself by taking no-regrets actions first and delaying more high-stakes actions until better information is available (Ranger et al., 2010). Doing so could help to avoid decisions that may become maladapted with time or limit further flexibility. Planned adaptation options may be the most appropriate in the face of low uncertainty, while generating adaptive capacity in a system might be a more appropriate strategy if there is high uncertainty of climate impacts. In any case, while uncertainty may complicate the decisionmaking process, it should not hinder it altogether. and no crop becoming more than 10% more suitable. Over half (26) of the crops were relatively insensitive to climate change (suitability changing less than 5%). Global changes in suitability may, however, vary from one region to another and 37 crops lost more than 50% of the area currently classified as suitable (Figure 3-1).Trends in crop suitability also differed geographically. North Africa lost an average of 80% crop suitability, while Europe made the most important gains with no crop losing more than 5% suitability on average. Latin America, the Pacific, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa lost about 35-40% suitability overall, even allowing the crop area to migrate. Important issues of food security arise when crop suitability decreases significantly, especially in subtropics of the Mediterranean and India (Challinor et al., 2007).Overall, the tropics become less suitable because critical thresholds of adaptability are exceeded in most marginally suitable areas (Figure 3-1). Predicted losses of more than 20% climate suitability will occur over 10, 15, 50, and 75% of the area currently growing cassava (Ceballos et al., 2011;Jarvis et al., 2012),We ranked the area harvested of the 50 most important crops reported by FAOSTAT (FAO, 2010b) and assessed their patterns of crop suitability using the EcoCrop model, following the procedure described by Ramírez-Villegas et al. (2011). The areas of each crop ranged from 26,290 to 2,161,000 km 2 , and each had a wide range of physiological responses to climate, for example, growing seasons (40-365 days), rainfall (200-8,000 mm/yr), and temperatures (2-48 °C). Within their environmental ranges (as indicated by EcoCrop), adaptation for a particular crop ranged from very marginal to highly suitable. We expected, therefore, to show the range of climatic response of each crop and estimate the likely effects of climate change on crop distribution.We found that if crops were assumed to migrate without limit, global crop suitability increased by 0.84%, with buckwheat increasing most (+9.7%) and wheat decreasing most (-15.1%). At the global scale, 16 crops were less suitable, with wheat, sugar beet, white clover, and coffee becoming more than 10% less suitable, bananas (Ramírez et al., 2011;Van den Bergh et al., 2012), potatoes (Schafleitner et al., 2011), and beans (Beebe et al., 2011), respectively. In contrast, black leaf streak, a major disease in bananas, is predicted to decrease by 3-7% in most banana-growing areas (Ramírez et al., 2011). Crop traits that the model flagged as important were: cold/waterlogging tolerance for cassava (Ceballos et al., 2011;Jarvis et al., 2012), cold/heat tolerance for bananas (Ramírez et al., 2011), heat/cold/drought tolerance for potatoes (Schafleitner et al., 2011), and heat/drought tolerance for beans (Beebe et al., 2011). Although cold tolerance may seem an odd trait when climate change predicts higher temperatures, at least some tropical crops may extend into the subtropics where cold snaps can damage sensitive crops (e.g., citrus in Florida).In the past, farmers have adapted their cropping systems to tackle adverse climates and to respond to other environmental pressures. It is likely that they will continue to adapt their systems as the climate changes by adopting new varieties -or even new crops altogether -and by changing agronomic practices such as time of sowing (IPCC, 2007;Krishnan et al., 2007;Srivastava et al., 2010). There is a clear need to develop strategies to alleviate the negative impacts and capitalize on the positive impacts of climate change, particularly in the most vulnerable regions such as the tropics and subtropics. Adaptation strategies to overcome reduced crop suitability include:• Changes in management to temporarily buffer negative climate change impacts • Changes in infrastructure and timing, including modification of irrigation and drainage amounts, frequencies, and system types • Modification of varieties in a well-defined regional breeding strategy, using both conserved genetic resources and molecular biotechnology to respond quickly to adaptation needs as they appear • Changes in the intercropping, e.g., crop migration, taking into account economic and environmental sustainabilityAnother possibility is changing one or more of the components of the cropping system. Changing crops might be the only option available to poor smallholders, who are the most vulnerable, least able to adapt to rapid change, and most limited in access to new technology. Crop substitution therefore appears to be a key issue when addressing adaptation pathways for negatively impacted areas. It will be a challenge to produce well-adapted varieties that also comply with the many entrenched socio-cultural traditions that might prevent their adoption, such as regional preferences for size and color of beans in Mesoamerica (Thornton et al., 2011), or fruit characteristics in commercial bananas (Ramírez et al., 2011;Van den Bergh et al., 2012). Substitution of completely new crops will be even harder to bring about.Given the significant shifts in the geographic suitability of crops, a considerable turnover in agricultural technologies and practices is likely to take place. The result could be more opportunities for piggy-backing change, both through appropriate deployment of technologies/practices and the creation of suitable incentive mechanisms that ensure that new agricultural systems deliver greater eco-efficiency. However, this poses the question: are climate change adaptation and mitigation measures always going to be ecoefficient?This section develops a concrete example of a climate change challenge and the possible response mechanisms to put to the test the hypothesis that eco-efficient agriculture is synonymous with climate change adaptation and on-farm mitigation interventions specific to the case of Colombia. First, climate impacts are assessed and the effects these have on crop suitability are quantified. Possible response mechanisms in the rice sector are then developed and tested economically and biophysically for their likely effectiveness in adapting to the various challenges.We extracted annual rainfall and mean annual temperature data for Colombia for two time slices -2030 and 2050 (Figure 3-2) -from 19 global climate models (GCMs) forced with IPCC SRES scenario A2 (IPCC, 2007). SRES A2 is one of the less optimistic, \"business-as-usual\" scenarios based on continued regionally oriented economic and industrial intensification. Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) over the 10 years since the SRES was published broadly match the scenario's prediction. We emphasize that the predictions in the text that follows are derived from the GCMs and should be treated as such.Precipitation in Colombia will likely decrease in some areas and increase in others for both time slices [Figures 3-2 The largest predicted decreases in annual precipitation are in the departments of Atlántico, Norte de Santander, Cesar, Sucre, Arauca, and Magdalena, and the largest increases will likely be in Valle del Cauca, Amazonas, Cauca, Quindío, Nariño, Tolima, Huila, and Caquetá. Precipitation patterns in 2030 and 2050 may be very similar to current patterns, though differing in magnitude, with ranges of -3 to +3% in 2030, and -6 to +5% in 2050.Overall, mean annual temperatures are predicted to increase by 1.0-1.4 °C by 2030 and by 1.8-2.4 °C by 2050 (Table 3-1). Although mean annual temperatures will probably increase in all departments, the increase is likely to be greatest in Vaupés, Guainía, and Vichada for both 2030 and 2050 [Figures 3-2Colombia is projected to warm 1.4-2.5 °C by 2050, while precipitation is likely to vary between -6% and +5% in the current values. Distribution of precipitation is also likely to change, again varying by region. Temperature-sensitive crops may be affected by the higher temperatures and have to move to higher altitudes to avoid suffering significant losses of yield and quality. There will likely be trade-offs, e.g., with areas at or under 1,200 m altitude becoming less suitable for coffee than at present, while areas above 1,800 m become more suitable.Although the GCMs are based on current understanding of the atmospheric processes, they do not implement that understanding in exactly the same way, causing their outputs to differ. The global climate change community deals with this by expressing the variation (i.e., spread) in the output as \"uncertainty\". 5 Uncertainty is a property of the external world, not the model itself, and as such it arises from a lack of data and/or knowledge about the initial conditions of the system, including the impossibility of modelling at a very high resolution (Challinor and Wheeler, 2008;Hawkins and Sutton, 2009;Majda and Gershgorin, 2010).The uncertainties of the 19 GCMs for annual precipitation and annual mean temperature are shown in Figure 3-3. The dispersion between models for precipitation is high (Figure 3-3), especially along the Colombian Andes. This outcome is probably due to the complex topographic gradients of the Andean region, which cannot be resolved with such coarse models. Hence, some models project large increases and decreases in precipitation in highland areas, but only small changes in the country's lowlands, such as the Eastern Plains and the Caribbean regions. The result is high uncertainty for regions in the center of the country (Table 3-1).The largest decreases in precipitation -up to 60 mm/yr by 2050 -are projected for the Caribbean region. The most pronounced increases are for the Amazon region and the coffee-growing zone: up to 130 mm/yr, although with relatively high uncertainty.Although the scales are different, the uncertainty for mean annual temperature is relatively low when compared with the uncertainty for annual precipitation (see also Hawkins and Sutton, 2009;2011 for a global analysis of 5 Although we are unable to represent exactly in a mathematical model how nature works, in this case the complex interactions of atmospheric circulation, there a number of different models that mimic the processes tolerably well. The results of these models can be expressed as a comparison between models (see e.g., Knutti et al., 2009;Meehl et al., 2007). There is an implicit understanding that the models used are approximations to what might be obtained from a thorough analysis if a fully adequate model of real-world processes were available. uncertainty). Both the differences between models and the standard deviation of their outputs vary longitudinally, increasing towards the east of the country, particularly in the Eastern Plains and the Amazon. The uncertainty in these two areas is also higher than elsewhere. The GCMs differ considerably -by up to 5 °C -in their projections for 2030 and 2050, although the mean of all models shows an increase of only half that by 2050. Differences between the GCMs, and thus their uncertainty, are relatively low in the southwest of the country.We cannot be certain which of the GCMs best represents the future climates. However, we can evaluate how well their output matches the baseline climates , i.e., present-day climates for which we have observational data.A simple way to evaluate the performance of We compared the results of each GCM with the readily-available climate databases WorldClim (Hijmans et al., 2005), Global Surface Summary of Day (GSOD) (Lott, 1998), Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) (Peterson and Vose, 1997;Lott, 1998), and Climate Research Unit (CRU) (Mitchell and Jones, 2005) following the methodology of Ramírez-Villegas et al. (2012) and Ramírez-Villegas and Challinor (2012) (Figure 3-4). We analyzed total rainfall and mean temperature over four seasons (Dec-Feb, Mar-May, June-Aug, Sept-Nov) and the whole year (ANN). For each model, the mean of all stations (GHCN and GSOD) or grid cells (WorldClim and CRU) was computed, GCM grid cells grouped, and the spatial consistency of the mean climate prediction assessed by calculating the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) between the observed data and the GCMs. This coefficient defines the skill of each climate model to represent the climate of the baseline period.The coefficient of determination (R 2 ) for the baseline of annual precipitation is medium-high for the majority of the GCMs, especially for the interpolated surfaces (WorldClim and CRU), but is lower for the station data (GSOD and GHCN) because of their geographic distribution and relative scarcity (Figure 3-4). The GCMs perform slightly better for annual data, but less well for seasonal data, especially in the second semester (JJA-SON). At least 40% of the seasons and GCMs perform poorly (R 2 <0.6) for precipitation, 1 9 9 -2 8 7 mm 2 8 8 -3 2 0 3 2 1 -3 4 0 3 4 1 -3 5 0 3 5 1 -3 6 0 3 6 1 -3 8 0 3 8 1 -4 0 0 4 0 1 -4 5 0 4 5 1 -5 0 0 5 0 1 -7 0 0 7 0 1 -9 0 0 and only 20% perform well (R 2 >0.8). In contrast, R 2 for mean temperature is greater than 0.95 for all the models, both for the annual cycle and for seasons of the year (see also Ramírez-Villegas et al., 2012). We conclude that GCMs can generate data of mean future climates with moderately high precision for temperature and low precision for precipitation, although models still have a long way to go before they can predict Colombian climate variations accurately.We calculated the average change in climatic suitability for 25 crops selected for their importance in harvested area (ha) and production (t) in Colombia (Table 3-2), calculated averages for each department, and grouped them by region. We estimated the change in climate suitability using EcoCrop (Hijmans et al., 2001;Ramírez-Villegas et al., 2011) and applied the SRES A2 scenario for 2050 using data from 19 GCMs (Ramírez-Villegas and Jarvis, 2010). Current climate data were from WorldClim (Hijmans et al., 2005).Overall, and using ±50% as the cutoff, losses in climate suitability between now and 2050 were greater than the gains. Losses could be seen in up to 82.7%, or about 945,930 km 2 , of the country's total area (1,143,640 km 2 ), while the remaining 17.3% (197,710 km 2 ) should continue to have suitable climatic conditions for growing crops. The most critical regions are the Amazon, Caribbean, Pacific, and the Eastern Plains, where all departments are projected to have negative changes, although changes in several departments may be less than 15%. Changes will likely be positive in five of the seven Andean departments and all three of the coffee-growing region's departments: Caldas (3.8%), Risaralda (4.9%), and Quindío (12%).It is useful for planning purposes to determine how many of the 25 crops analyzed are likely to become more suitable for the climate (winners), and how many are likely to become less suitable (losers) (Figure 3-5). In this case, the threshold of climate suitability -that is, a crop's climatic aptitude (CA) -for a winner or loser is ±5%.In some departments in the Andean and Pacific regions (Antioquia, Boyacá, Cauca, Cundinamarca, Nariño, and Valle del Cauca), 7-10 crops covering 1.6 million ha could gain in CA. In the departments of La Guajira, Cesar, and Bolívar in the country's Caribbean region, 9-13 crops covering 440,000 ha could decrease in CA. About 72 million ha show uncertainty (coefficient of variability between models) less than 30%, mostly in the Andean and Eastern Plains regions, which represent most of the country's agricultural activity.Rice ranks first among short-cycle crops in terms of its importance to Colombia's economy.The country is the second largest rice producer in Latin America, and even so is a net rice importer. Rice is the primary source of calories for the low-income group, which accounts for over 37% of Colombia's population (The World Bank, 2012).The two predominant systems of rice production in Colombia are mechanized -which includes both irrigated and rainfed systems -and manual, with all production activities being undertaken with hand labor. In 2007, Colombia produced 2,471,545 tons of rice on over 400,000 ha of land (Fedearroz, 2007).An expert workshop on climate change at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) identified two potential climate-smart adaptation pathways for rice in Colombia: irrigation of traditional dryland rice and genetic modification for high-temperature tolerance. We also considered three mitigation measures for rice in Colombia: managing flooded rice to minimize CH 4 emissions, eliminating burning of crop residues, and optimizing the amount of applied fertilizer.Two important tools for selecting and prioritizing \"no-regrets\" adaptation or mitigation options are cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cost-efficiency analysis (CEA). For adaptation purposes, the most relevant analysis is usually the CBA, which asks whether the returns (benefits, such as avoided damage/losses or extra developmental benefits compared with \"business as usual\") are greater than the costs (extra investment compared with \"business as usual\"), and by how much. CBA quantifies all costs and benefits of an intervention with monetary values, making it appropriate when economic efficiency is the only decision-making criterion (UNFCCC, 2011).The impact of climate change on crops can be quantified with modelling, as can the extent to which impacts can be avoided through one or more adaptation options. Thus the most effective adaptation option can be chosen based on a discrete comparison of the cost of implementing the adaptation measure and its resulting benefits (improvement in crop production, avoidance of economic losses). Elements of climate change mitigation, on the other hand, are not always so easy to express in monetary terms. For example, the benefits of reduced GHG emissions are not restricted to the site of the emissions but are global in their effects, making them difficult to estimate (it is not yet possible to estimate GHG emission damages by modelling at the specific local level and then extrapolating globally). Positive environment-, health-, or livelihoodrelated outcomes cannot be valued in a strictly monetary sense because they are not localized in the way that adaptation benefits are. CEA is useful for situations in which there is a concrete objective and where impacts are measurable but benefits are not (UNFCCC 2011), as is the case with many mitigation measures. The costs in a CEA can be valued in monetary terms, but the benefits must be expressed in \"physical\" units. It is then possible to construct a costefficiency curve that can be used to identify and prioritize those mitigation measures that are economically viable for achieving a well-defined physical target.Out of the area under rice production in Colombia, 256,295 ha (64%) are irrigated and 29,556 ha (36%) are dryland/rainfed (Fedearroz, 2007). The potential area for irrigation based on water availability and climate is estimated to be 6.6 million ha (AQUASTAT, 2010). Dryland rice will be vulnerable to yield losses from water stress caused by climate change, i.e., increased evapotranspiration due to higher temperatures and compounded by lower overall rainfall. Furthermore, the introduction of modern seed varieties has seen dryland rice lose competitiveness with irrigated systems; the average yield gap between irrigated and dryland systems can be more than 4 t/ha (Lang, 1996).We simulated the effects of climate change for dryland rice with the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) (Jones et al., 2003), using the variety and agronomy currently recommended by the National Federation of Rice Growers (Fedearroz, its Spanish acronym). We first simulated the effect of climate change without irrigation and subsequently its effect with irrigation. We estimated the costs of providing irrigation in terms of the initial investment required and the costs of operation and maintenance with a life span of 20 years. We calculated the benefits of the irrigation project as the difference between rice production with and without irrigation under the SRES scenario A2. We calculated operation and maintenance costs and estimated an increase of 1% annually, using an annual social discount rate of 12%. Analysis of the financial flow shows that building an irrigation system in the Colombia's Caribbean and Eastern Plains regions gives positive net present values (Figure 3-6), and in each case the development would be financially viable.The second adaptation measure that we tested was a research program to seek and develop, by 2030, new rice varieties tolerant of higher temperatures. The rising temperatures expected from climate change pose a threat to rice production by increasing the risk for spikelet sterility during development. However, rice germplasms exhibit great variability in their response to heat stress. Heat-tolerant cultivars have been shown to respond well to increased 1,000 0 temperatures while still producing economic yield (Shah et al., 2011). Furthermore, improved cultivars could potentially offset stress from increased evapotranspiration by exhibiting better water use efficiency, greater harvest indices, and deeper/faster-growing roots.We used the costs of a 26-year research program (including researchers, assistants, field workers, materials, infrastructure, and operational and administrative costs) and simulated the yields in 2050 of the currently recommended variety and a synthetic variety less sensitive to temperature using DSSAT. 6 We calculated the benefit as the economic value of the difference in production between the current and the synthetic varieties. We assumed a progressively decreasing rate of adoption with a final level of adoption of 15% for the whole country and a discount rate of 12% annually.The cost-benefit analysis shows that it is highly desirable to mount a research program to improve the resistance of rice to high temperatures, giving a large net present value (Figure 3-7).CEA assesses the economic costs and the technical efficiency of different options to achieve some predetermined level of environmental quality. The analysis assists the decision-making process by allowing feedback from those affected by a proposed program or plan of action to revise the objectives as part of the process. CEA allows 6 DSSAT largely represents the effects of temperature on rice as its effect on the development rate, in which higher temperatures shorten the duration of the various growth stages. We arbitrarily altered the genetic coefficients in DSSAT to make a synthetic variety that was less sensitive to temperature by increasing the genetic coefficients P1 and P5 by 15%. Coefficient P1 is the time period [expressed as growing degree days (GDD) above a base temperature of 9 °C] from seedling emergence during which the rice plant is not responsive to changes in photoperiod. This period is also referred to as the basic vegetative phase of the plant. Coefficient P5 is the time period in GDD from the beginning of grain filling (3 to 4 days after flowering) to physiological maturity with a base temperature of 9 °C. Data from the field have shown that flooded rice generates greater emissions of CH 4 than rice grown with intermittent irrigation (or irrigation interspersed with dry periods), which allows soil aeration and is unfavorable for the anaerobes that produce CH 4 . Flooded rice in Colombia is typically grown in the municipalities of Jamundí (Valle del Cauca) and Cúcuta (Santander). Substituting of intermittent irrigation for continuous flooding requires the following: (1) implementation of a system of monitoring and water use control at the level of the individual field; (2) training and field demonstrations of land preparation and the use of water budgeting balance; and (3) land preparation for more efficient water use. The cost to implement these measures is US$107/ha per year, which will reduce GHG emissions by 11.65 t CO 2 eq/ha per year in Cúcuta and 13.06 t CO 2 eq/ha per year in Jamundí. The estimated cost efficiency is $9.20/t CO 2 eq per ha per year in Cúcuta and $8.21/t CO 2 eq per ha per year in Jamundí. The maximum potential reduction of emissions is 197,050 t CO 2 eq/yr for Cúcuta and 66,810 t CO 2 eq/yr for Jamundí.Harvest residues are typically burned in the municipalities of Espinal (Tolima), Valledupar (Cesar), and Yopal (Casanare). Instead of burning, residues can be managed using minimum tillage and decomposition accelerators, which, including training, costs US$112 for Espinal and Valledupar, and $57 for Yopal. The reductions of GHG emissions are 0.95, 0.53, and 0.47 t CO 2 eq/ha per year for Espinal, Valledupar, and Yopal, respectively, with estimated cost efficiencies of $59, $104, and $120/t CO 2 eq per ha per year. The potential reduction of GHG emissions is 26,270 t CO 2 eq/yr for Espinal, 3,280 t CO 2 eq/yr for Valledupar, and 3,300 t CO 2 eq/yr for Yopal.There are many factors that affect rice's nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), or its ability to absorb and use nitrogen inputs. The result is often that more fertilizer is applied than can be used by the plant, or that not enough is applied to get maximum yields and economic returns. There are three possible approaches for increasing the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer application to rice in Colombia, thereby reducing unnecessary inputs and decreasing emissions from crop fertilization (Figure 3-8). The first involves reducing overall nitrogen application, which increases NUE but entails reduction in rice yields (scenario A). The second requires no reduction or increase in nitrogen application, but requires more-effective management techniques so that what does get applied is used effectively by the plant (scenario B). The final approach involves both increasing nitrogen inputs and NUE through better management to arrive at optimum economic returns from the system (scenario C). All three scenarios are climate smart -they result in fewer emissions per ton of rice produced due to optimal N uptake -however we will only be analyzing scenario A for economic viability and relative eco-efficiency.It is possible to halve the rates of fertilizer applied to rice in two regions of Colombia: the Andean and Caribbean regions. The cost of this option is estimated using the following equation:   The estimated costs of this option in terms of foregone production are: Andean, US$113/ha per year, and Caribbean, $183/ha per year. The expected reduction of GHG emissions are: Andean, 1.0 t CO 2 eq/ha per year, and Caribbean, 0.2 t CO 2 eq/ha per year. Nevertheless, the estimates of cost efficiency are $109 and $170/t CO 2 eq reduced for the Andean and Caribbean regions, respectively. The maximum potential reduction of GHG emissions is 76,170 and 2,920 t CO 2 eq/yr for the Andean and Caribbean regions, respectively.It is important to keep in mind that the yield reductions caused by decreased nitrogen inputs have further repercussions for global food security. There is a possibility that reducing N application in one region or country could simply displace GHG emissions to another, which would have to produce more to make up for the decrease in yield, a factor which was not taken into account in this analysis.The data for the three mitigation options in various departments in Colombia are summarized in Figure 3-9.The priority adaptation and mitigation interventions identified for the rice sector all involve optimization of resource inputs and outputs, be it fertilizers or water, or improved use of \"waste\" products. The economic analysis demonstrates the cost-benefit ratios of these interventions from a climate change mitigation perspective, but equally could consider these from a competitiveness perspective, or prioritize them based on ecoefficiency principles.Although the practices described above are already considered climate smart, our definition of the term leaves room for the possibility that, though a strategy may be climate smart, it may not necessarily be economically viable, environmentally sustainable, or make good use of resources. As noted by Keating et al. in  Making use of some of the explicit measures noted by Keating et al. (Chapter 2 of this publication), we attempted to qualitatively evaluate the climate-smart adaptation and mitigation measures chosen for Colombia based on their relative eco-efficiency. A measure of eco-efficiency must be made with regard to the relation of inputs, such as labor, capital, nutrients, and water; with desired outputs, such as harvested product or economic profit. Table 3-3 gives a positive or negative value for the ecoefficiency measures to each of the 5 climatesmart practices; a negative value (red) is assigned when a practice requires more inputs (+) or results in less of the desired outputs (-), whereas a positive value (green) is assigned for a reduction in inputs (-) or increase in desired outputs (+).Table 3-3 shows that not all of the climatesmart strategies chosen for Colombia are highly eco-efficient, though some are more so than others. For example, the composting of crop residues in the field instead of burning appears to be highly eco-efficient -as it both reduces the amount of input required in terms of labor, water, and soil nutrients, and increases outputs in the form of ecosystem services. This inference is confirmed by the cost-efficiency analysis, which shows that eliminating residue burning it is capable of greatly reducing GHG emissions at a very reasonable cost to the farmer.Despite the built-in uncertainties of global climate models, there is a reasonable amount of evidence to support the prediction that global temperatures could rise anywhere from 1 to 8 °C by 2050. Precipitation patterns are less predictable, though certain scenarios can predict with high certainty a global average increase of almost 23% by 2050, along with major changes in spatio-temporal distribution. Circumstances at the country level are similar, with Colombia predicted to undergo temperature increases between 1.4 and 2.5 °C by 2050, shifting distributions of rainfall, and a range of regional precipitation changes (-6 to +5%). The implications of these changes for world agriculture could be profound, with some 37 of the most important crops predicted to lose more than 50% of area currently classified as suitable for their cultivation. Colombia could experience losses in crop suitability in up to 83% of the country's total area, especially in the Amazon, Pacific, Caribbean, and Eastern Plains regions. In these regions, adaptation strategies will undoubtedly be necessary to cope with the impacts of decreased crop suitability.Economic analyses of preferred adaptation and mitigation strategies for Colombian agriculture give encouraging results. Both the adoption of an irrigation system and the development of a research program for heat-resistant rice are economically viable, and, in the latter case, highly profitable in the mid-term. Mitigation strategies offer a more mixed bag: replacing flooded rice with intermittent irrigation reduces emissions at a relatively low cost. Using minimum tillage and decomposition accelerators instead of burning residues greatly reduces emissions, but at a higher cost.Climate change necessitates the implementation of adaptation/mitigation measures to ensure food security. The critical question is whether these climate-smart strategies and measures that meet the standards of ecoefficiency are mutually inclusive. To be sure, many of the resources that eco-efficiency aims to manage prudently (water, nutrients, labor, finances, etc.) are the same resources that must be managed for adaptation/mitigation purposes. For example, using minimum tillage and decomposers in Colombian rice fields instead of burning crop residues after harvest is eco-efficient because it greatly reduces the inputs of water and labor required for conventional puddled transplanting systems while leaving yields virtually unaffected (Bhushan et al., 2007). The practice advances mitigation goals at the same time; omitting tillage and burning considerably reduces carbon emissions.Qualitatively evaluating the eco-efficiency of the climate-smart strategies chosen for Colombia in terms of the balance of inputs and outputs indicates that, while most eco-efficient practices are by default climate smart, not all climate-smart practices are necessarily highly eco-efficient. Instead, climate-smart practices display a range of compatibility with eco-efficient measures. While some, like the more precise application of nitrogen fertilizer, could result in significant reduction of inputs (soil nutrients, capital, labor, etc.) while augmenting desirable outputs, others may imply more labor, greater financial risk, or even unexpected environmental costs. Accordingly, those options which are a win for both system types should be emphasized in climate change planning to avoid the possibility of adaptation/mitigation coming at the price of efficiency and food security. Furthermore, climate financing could provide a boost to eco-efficient agriculture, thus opening the door for economic incentives to transform low-efficiency systems.","tokenCount":"7169"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"952ff8a0aac9c8b16f23b31bbbfcf076","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/215dbc08-232d-44fd-8a12-0dddf0b010eb/retrieve","id":"1759116895"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cb5bc02a-b58a-4a81-bdd9-2930d7018fd5","pagecount":"14","content":"Anytime that a processor is considering the value proposition of establishing of a seed unit to serve its root supply needs.Varies by team, but at least a 2-hour working session is required to work through the methodology and to customize assumptions to a processor's operationsStep 1. Read narrativeStep 2. Update assumptions in the modeling workbook sheetsStep 3. If value proposition looks promising, then identify the most valuable assumptions (through sensitivity analysis) and conduct primary research to calibrate themMethod. Demand creation trials to calibrate assumptions for the differentiated value of improved cassava varieties in the field and in the factory (ex. yield, starch level, starch stability, root morphology, disease resistance, plant structure)There is no relevant gender aspect tied to this toolThe Cassava Seed Unit Toolkit is not self-explanatory and requires some level of facilitationThe Toolkit was developed around an SAH-enabled seed unit and therefore cost and multiplication assumptions will need to be tailored to screenhouse on tunnel-based production systemsThe Toolkit was developed for processors in Nigeria and includes figures in USD & Naira. For use in other countries, the model will need to updated to the local currency.• The Cassava Seed Unit Toolkit is a dynamic toolkit of customizable business analysis resources to guide processors through their due diligence process• The analysis tools support processors' ability to evaluate the operational and financial impact of establishing a cassava seed unit• The tools form a major point of engaging processors hold working sessions, develop business casemake more informed decisions on whether to vertical integrate? And if so, how?","tokenCount":"255"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6e9ee32d2f1b33938e2cce365b72ee53","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/00e1b345-64d1-4c14-a721-803441c60c0f/retrieve","id":"-385850083"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"78f59c06-8516-4373-84d8-be0c1532ce36","pagecount":"18","content":"An extensive search including six databases was carried out in order to identify relevant publications for the literature review. These databases were Google Scholar, AGRIS FAO, Science Direct, Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe (Redalyc), Jstor, and the Latin American Network Information Clearinghouse (LANIC). The review includes primarily peer-reviewed publications as well as grey literature from major agricultural, forestry and environmental research centers and universities. Due to the researchers' language limitations, the search was restricted to English and Spanish publications. Also, the review was limited to publications from 2000 to 2015. The key search terms used are listed below. A global literature review of gender and FTA value chains carried out by the International Center for Forestry Research (CIFOR) was also consulted to develop the sets of search terms used. Terms from Group1 were combined with terms from Groups 2 and/or 3.As past research, development, and policy initiatives have demonstrated, careful consideration of gender and social differentiation is critical for sustainable forest development. A gender perspective in forestry research and development interventions demonstrates that men and women experience differential access to and benefits from forest resources and correspondingly, they value their forest resources differently, as well (Stloukal et al., 2013;Voudouhe, 2009). Attention to gender aspects promotes increased efficiency in forest management, equitable distribution of benefits, and improved policy implementation (Mai et al., 2011). Furthermore, policy and planning processes that are gender-blind, or that do not take into account gender considerations, can unintentionally harm or disadvantage women (Kabeer and Subrahmanian, 1996). For these reasons, analysis of gender roles and relations as they relate to forest use and benefits is important for the creation of interventions and policies that promote sustainable resource management, livelihood security and improved well-being.Value chain analysis is a valuable tool for assessing and comparing the degree of participation of various actors in NTFP development activities, according to social factors such as gender. Value chain analysis takes into account how actors' relationships with each other affect their roles in the chain; it furthermore evaluates the distribution of costs and benefits along the chain (Virapongse et al., 2014). For this reason, development strategies and interventions have used value chain approaches in order to identify obstacles to specific target groups (Coles and Mitchell, 2011). While targeting economic viability and sustainability, value chain analysis can prioritize outcomes that benefit all participants.A focus on value chains in gender analyses of forest livelihood strategies helps illuminate key gender considerations for development interventions and policy initiatives. For example, forest, trees and agroforestry (FTA) value chain research demonstrates that significant differences exist in men's and women's chain participation (Haverhals et al., 2014). In general, women carry out subordinate or less visible activities in FTA chains in relation to men; they are furthermore limited in decision-making on forest resource management (Shackleton et al, 2011;Coles and Mitchell, 2011;Sunderland et al., 2014). In comparison to women, men tend to be engaged more predominantly in high value trade.The present literature review aims to provide a map of the studies carried out related to gender and FTA value chains in Latin America over the past 15 years. It has been noted that there exists limited research on gender and forestry in the Amazon and in Latin America in comparison to other regions (Schmink and García, 2015;Mai et al., 2011;Haverhals et al., 2014). For example, Schmink and García's review (2015) of gender and forestry in the Amazon indicates that there lacks thorough research on the varied gender relations present in the Amazon and correspondingly, on how these relations influence forest management. Many forest management projects focus on technology and male end-users to the detriment of agroforestry and non-timber forest product initiatives, activities to which women can contribute significantly. A cross-regional review of gender and forestry furthermore highlights that little research exists on Latin America in comparison to Africa and to Asia, despite the fact that the greatest forested areas exist in the Latin American region, providing important sources of food security and livelihood stability to myriad populations (Mai et al., 2011). Furthermore, Latin America demonstrates the greatest market integration in comparison to other regions of the world like Africa and Asia (Sunderland et al., 2014); correspondingly, research on the social implications of commercialization processes involving smallholder producers is particularly important. In response to this knowledge gap, the present literature review focuses on Latin America to develop and prioritize suggestions for future research.After explaining the methodology, the review is organized in four discussion sections which address the following general research questions:1. What characterizes men's and women's roles in FTA value chains? 2. How do men and women benefit from their participation in FTA value chains? 3. What factors influence how men and women benefit from their FTA value chain participation?A fourth discussion section addresses how collective group participation affects women's roles in FTA value chains, in recognition of the significant amount of literature on this theme. The final section presents conclusions from the literature review. The CGIAR Gender and Agricultural Network listserve and the CIFOR website were also taken into account in order to identify relevant literature. Additionally, where access to the publications was possible, bibliographies from the materials found were followed to identify additional pertinent publications. This led to a total of 16 publications being included in the review.A large part of the literature found, nine articles total, is sub-region or country-specific: three on Bolivia; two on Brazil; two on Ecuador; one on Mexico; one focusing on Peru and Brazil; and one on the Amazon. Seven articles were also included which consist of cross-regional studies or reviews, including Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These were included due to the valuable information they provided regarding characteristics specific to FTA value chains and gender in Latin America, through the cross-regional analyses. The majority of the literature found falls between the years of 2002 and 2010.Three principal observations emerge from the literature reviewed regarding men's and women's roles in FTA value chains in Latin America. These are: the significance of both men's and women's contributions; women's concentration in non-commercial processes; and the invisibilization of women's work.A cross-regional study carried out by Sunderland et al. (2014) suggests that in Latin America, both men and women are significantly involved in forest product collection activities for the household economy, men even more so than women. This contradicts popularly held assumptions regarding gendered household division of labor, which place women in activities like forest product collection for household subsistence and men more so in cash crop agriculture and high value tree crop commercialization. Across the Latin American, Asian, and African regions, men were found to contribute more than women to household income of both unprocessed and processed forest products. However, for unprocessed products the difference in men's contributions over that of women's was more striking for Latin America in comparison to the other regions. For example, men dominated over women in the collection of unprocessed product categories such as structural and fiber; medicines, resins, and dyes; food products from animals; and fodder and manure. Women dominated over men only in the unprocessed product category of food from plants and mushrooms. Men contributed more significantly than women to fuelwood collection, also in contrast with trends found in the other regions. While men contributed to forest product collection for both subsistence use and sales, the study observed specialization of men in cash products in particular, for the Latin American as well as Asian regions.This last observation is particularly critical for the character of men's and women's participation in FTA value chains in Latin America: while men may contribute more significantly to products for sales, women participate less in commercialization processes and contribute more to prior chain activities; similarly, they contribute to products for subsistence use. For example, men tend to dominate commercial timber extraction. Also, with regards to commercialized NTFPs, a study of sixteen commercialized NTFP value chains in Mexico and Bolivia found that women were more likely than men to participate in cultivation and processing activities, although the latter were sometimes carried out with men (Shreckenberg and Marshall, 2006). A study of cocoa agroforestry in Ecuador furthermore notes that women and men participate in all stages of sowing, maintenance, and harvest, while men particularly dominate postharvest activities (Blare and Useche, 2015). Research on organic coffee producers in Chiapas, Mexico, similarly observes that women participate in productive processes, including nursery, harvesting, and processing and milling activities; women usually do not participate in negotiating product sales (Jazibi Cárcamo et al., 2010).Despite the trend, there do exist cases of value chains wherein women participate significantly in sales, although they may depend on men in other nodes of the chain to provide the resource. Shreckenberg and Marshall's (2006) analysis of women's contributions to sixteen commercial NTFP value chains in Mexico and Bolivia found that in three cases women predominate processing and sales, with a dependency on men for the resource: a rubber value chain in Bolivia; and value chains in Mexico and Bolivia based on soyate palm and jipi japa palm, respectively, wherein men provide the palm fibers which women use to make craft products for sale. They highlight, furthermore, that there exist several cases wherein men control all value chain activities from cultivation through sales, whereas there exist none wherein women are solely responsible for all activities. Similarly to the palm fiber cases that Shreckenberg and Marshall note, Virapongse et al. (2014) demonstrate that men predominate collection of buriti palm fibers in Brazil, which women artisans use to create handicrafts; women also predominated as handicraft vendors.The prevailing trend tends to be that men dominate sales activities in lucrative FTA value chains despite the above cases and that, correspondingly, women are concentrated in lower value chain activities. For example, in indigenous Zapotec communities in Mexico men participate increasingly in the various stages of high value mushroom value chains, while women contribute primarily to value chains for lower value varieties, used for household consumption or for sales in local markets (IFAD, 2008;Marshall et al., 2006). Both women and men are involved in value chains for 1) fresh local market mushrooms, 2) dried mushrooms for cities and supermarkets, and 3) high value for export to Japan; however, women are more extensively involved in the first two local and national chains, contributing to collection as well as transport and marketing. Poor women predominate the mushroom collection.These observations regarding the cacao, coffee, rubber, palm fiber, and mushroom value chains are supported by a global literature review carried out by Haverhals et al. (2014), which identified a trend of men's increased involvement in a value chain as the product's value increased, and their significant participation in commercialization stages.Another trend particular to women's role in FTA value chains is its \"invisibilization,\" due to its relation with household work and its minimal contribution to commercialization. Certain collection and processing activities of FTA value chains can be carried out near the home or in conjunction with household responsibilities, making them particularly accessible to women. For example, Schmink and García (2015) note that women in the Amazon region are more involved in Brazil nut production as a livelihood activity in comparison to timber extraction; the latter requires greater displacement from the home, and it more commonly pertains to men.Despite their contributions to collection and processing activities, women's roles are often disregarded. For example, although non-timber extractive activities like rubber tapping are considered as largely masculine work, research by Kainer and Duryea in the Western Brazilian Amazon (1999, cited in Schmink andGarcía (2015)) noted women's significant involvement: over half had cut and collected rubber at one point, and over three-quarters regularly collected latex tapped by men. Hecht (2007) notes that in a forest reserve in Acre, Brazil, men contribute 52% and women and children contribute 48% of the labor for collection, processing and transport activities for rubber tapping. Also, men represent 51% of the labor used for processing and transport for Brazil nut production, while women and children contribute 12 and 37%, respectively. Nonetheless, public statistics on Brazil nut production in the Western Amazon in Brazil does not take into account women producers' participation.Similarly, women's contributions to coffee and cocoa production may be disregarded under the presumption that it is men's work despite women's comparable participation in production in comparison to men. In a study of organic coffee production in Chiapas, Mexico, women were seen to work in the coffee fields on average three months per year, three days per week, while men worked three months per year, 6 days per week (Jazibi Cárcamo et al., 2010). In addition to cultivation activities, women were responsible for food preparation for the other field workers. Women likewise help men carry out postharvest activities in cocoa agroforestry in Ecuador, but their contributions are often disregarded (Blare and Useche, 2015). These trends hint at the importance of certain gender ideologies, which will be discussed more in a later subsection.The previous discussion of the roles of men and women in FTA value chains and their nature leads to a review of how men and women benefit from their roles in the chain. How does gender influence return on labor? In general, men are seen to benefit more significantly in remunerative terms than women from their role in FTA value chains. Men tend to be involved more than women in value chains as these become increasingly commercialized. Sunderland et al.'s cross-regional study (2014) found that most forest products are used for household consumption rather than for sale; as a result, men's contributions of forest products to the household economy were more for subsistence use than for cash income, across regions. Although this demonstrates that men play a significant role in non-remunerative forest product economic activities, it is important to note that they participate in forest product collection for sale more significantly than women, cross-regionally. In Latin America and Asia, men are particularly specialized in forest product collection for sale. Furthermore, the study notes that Latin America's greater market integration, in comparison to the other regions, might influence men's greater involvement in forest product activities over women, especially in comparison to Africa and to Asia. Specific cases from Latin America corroborate the trend of men's greater remunerative benefits over women from their participation in FTA value chains. Schmink and García's literature review of gender and forestry in Amazonia notes that men tend to control cash income from rubber tapping and from Brazil nut collection more than women (2015: 9). Potón Cevallos (2006) further discusses that even when women cocoa producers in Ecuador do participate in sales, they tend to be paid a lower price than that given to men.Research on women's and men's temporary and permanent work in global value chains also suggests a lower valuing of women's work. Women employed in Brazil nut processing factories in Pando, Bolivia, were commonly paid low wages; often the tendency for factories to hire women more than men was due to the possibility to hire women piecemeal and pay less (Stoian, 2005). Barrientos's research (2001) on the international deciduous fruit value chain in Chile similarly demonstrates that women predominate temporary work positions in comparison to men, while the latter are employed more significantly in permanent positions. Temporary positions tend to exist in the packing houses more than in field work. The flexibility of temporary work contracts reduces wage costs for companies and can often serve as a means to mitigate market insecurity and risk (89).Women's tendency to be concentrated in lower value chain nodes is due in part to a lack of incomegenerating activities available to them, in comparison to men (Shreckenberg and Marshall, 2006). Consequently, women engage in tasks despite low returns on labor because of the low opportunity cost to them (78). For example, in the case of a rubber value chain in Bolivia, men predominate the more profitable collection activities; however, men choose to work in the mines rather than the much less lucrative rubber processing. As a result, women take up processing activities, and men return from mine work when rubber processing is completed. In this way, women's cheap labor makes possible rubber production and contributes to an additional household income source. Similarly, in value chains for pita fibers and tepejilote inforescence in Mexico, women contribute significantly to processing and collecting, respectively, while men work in more lucrative day wage labor or in managing cash crop coffee.Women tend to receive increased remunerative benefits from their participation in value chains, in contrast to the above trends, when they are able to participate as members of producer organizations. A study by Jazibi Cárcamo et al. (2010) of men's and women's participation in an organic coffee producer organization in Chiapas highlights that women who were organization members experienced greater benefits, remunerative and non-remunerative, from their participation in coffee production than women who were spouses of producers. For example, the former were able to participate more in male dominated activities, like sales negotiations. This study will be discussed more in detail in section four. Shreckenberg and Marshall's (2006: 79) analysis of NTFP value chains in Mexico and Bolivia finds that women can experience particular non-remunerative benefits from their participation in FTA chains. For example, women involved in value chains for jipi japa palm in Bolivia and for mushrooms in Mexico have benefited from trainings and social support. Women in the mushroom trade have received significant trainings in sustainable NTFP development; previously, only men involved in timber production were responsible for any sort of forest management. Through their affiliation with a weavers' association and a philanthropic private company, women jipi japa artisans benefit from a social fund and a rotating fund. Their work is also better recognized in the household and community. The analysis also demonstrates that women can gain self-confidence and status through their participation in jipi japa and mushroom value chains, particularly if they are affiliated with an organization or association. Shreckenberg and Marshall's (2006) study furthermore demonstrates gender-differentiated uses of monetary and nonmonetary income generated from NTFP value chains. Women participate significantly in cocoa trade in the Bolivian Amazon; commonly they trade cocoa beans for household goods, whereas men may be prone to trade for alcohol or cigarettes. Similarly, women use cash earned from the sale of rubber goods in Bolivia for family needs. Men who desire personal income process and sell the goods on their own. The observations align with a general trend, wherein income controlled by women contributes to increased spending on education and children's health (Maertens and Swinnen, 2012).The primary factors that emerge from the literature that influence how men and women benefit from their participation in FTA value chains are related to the sex division of labor and gender ideology. Access to land, to credit and capital, and to trainings are also important influences to take into account.The sex division of labor and corresponding gender ideologies critically influence the nature of men's and women's roles in FTA value chains. Many Latin American societies associate women's activities with spaces near the home while timber activities are associated with men (Bolaños and Schmink, 2005;Schmink and García, 2015). According to Schmink and García's review (2015), in practice women tend to work significantly in home and swidden gardens where they may carry out various activities related to livestock, agroforestry and NTFPs. In comparison, work carried out primarily by men tends to be hunting, as well as agricultural clearing and logging for commercial purposes. The range of women's work activities may be more constrained in non-indigenous communities, and men tend to predominate agriculture in these cases. As mentioned previously, in Latin America and cross-regionally, men's activities target commercial markets, whereas women's tend to be more small-scale and non-commercial. Although women's activities may have low market value, they are often an important mainstay for household survival; for example, women's domestic economic activities have been critical for Amazonian rubber tapping communities in times of rubber price drops (Schmink and García, 2015).Consequently, the sex division of labor and gender ideologies influence that women are less able than men to participate in value chain activities distanced from the home. Shreckenberg and Marshall's (2006) analysis demonstrates that in most cases where products have to be harvested deep in the forest, with the exception of mushrooms, men predominate collection. A study in Madre de Dios, Peru, noted that a limitation to the development of Brazil nut production, a regional economic activity to which women contributed significantly, was male labor input; while women contribute critically to processing, Brazil nut collection requires male labor, and for this reason production cannot expand through women's contributions alone (Campbell et al., 2005). Similarly, Shreckenberg and Marshall's research demonstrates that women are able to harvest rubber in Bolivia if it is in the proximity of the home; otherwise they depend on men relatives to provide the resource. Women experience the same limitation for collecting soyate palm fibers in Mexico, and contribute more significantly to craft making from the fibers. Men from the soyate case study furthermore affirm that it is not appropriate for women to travel the hillsides alone. Similarly to the soyate artisans, women jipi japa artisans depend on a male collector for the fiber. For these reasons, when women contribute to processing activities they carry them out in the home, as in the case of rubber production in Bolivia. Also, men tend to predominate sales activities as they require travel outside of the community. This occurred in the case of the tepejilote palm value chain in Mexico: when the seller stopped coming to the community, men became increasingly involved in the trade. Shreckenberg and Marshall's (2006) analysis furthermore highlights that in only one particular case did the introduction of new technology benefit one gender over the other, due in part to the travel required for its use. Men came to be the primary users of a new fiber cleaning machine for pita fiber production in Mexico. Women prefer processing fibers by conventional methods because it is necessary to leave the home in order to use the machine.Correspondingly, the gender division of labor necessitates that women's income generating activities complement their childcare and household responsibilities (Shreckenberg and Marshall, 2006). In some cases, pita weavers in Mexico had to give up their occupation because their childcare responsibilities allowed them no extra time. NTFP activities occurred close enough to the home such that children could accompany mothers in their collection activities in 60% of the cases included in Shreckenberg and Marshall's study. Furthermore, the review highlights that when the product is used for household consumption women are more likely to be involved in the value chain. This helps explain why men contribute more to the international mushroom export chain than women: the end product is not used for the household's cooking.Peri-urban FTA value chain activities can complement women's household and childcare responsibilities, as well. For instance, in Pando, Bolivia, Brazil nut processing factories in large towns substantially employ women (Stoian, 2005). In fact, a trend has developed wherein men spouses migrate to rural areas to engage in extractive activities like Brazil nut collection, while women remain in the peri-urban areas in order to enable children's continued schooling and their own work in the factories.The division of labor can influence specializations in men's and women's knowledge, as well as variations in their value of ecosystem services. For example, in eighteen workshops carried out in Pará state in the Brazilian Amazon where participants were asked to name priority species, women reported twice as many NTFPs as men (Shanley et al., 2011: 239); furthermore, men were more likely to name timber products as the most important forest products, whereas women tended to report a larger variety of products including those used for nutrition, cultural purposes, and medicine. Similarly, a study in the Bolivian Amazon found that the proportion of men citing timber as an important aspect of the forest was double that of women (Bolaños and Schmink, 2005). Blare and Useche's (2015) research of men and women cocoa agroforestry producers suggests that women might value the non-monetary benefits of cocoa agroforestry, such as those related to organic material, biodiversity, and subsistence crops, more than men. Furthermore, women involved in fruit agroforestry in El Salvador often prefer agroforests because they provide access to food and additional markets, and provide ecological services, including better soil fertility (Kelly, 2009).Gender ideologies that associate public, decision-making spaces and the forest with men and domestic responsibilities and the home with women can influence women's exclusion from decision-making on forest management. In rubber tapping communities in Amazonia, community representation in public decision-making, for example in rural unions, is commonly regarded as men's responsibility (Schmink and García, 2015). Among indigenous groups and other communities in northeastern Brazil generally forest management decision-making is also considered men's role, to the exclusion of women (7). Furthermore, Bolaños and Schmink's (2005) research on men's and women's roles and perceptions of a community forest management project with campesino groups in the department of Beni, Bolivia, demonstrates that men preferred that women contribute to the project in indirect and non-managerial ways, for example through food provision to workers and by encouraging others to participate; it was more appropriate for men to be involved directly in the project and carry out related decision-making. Schreckenberg and Marshall's (2006) study also noted that in value chain activities wherein both men and women participated significantly, men tended to dominate decision-making (77). Correspondingly, gender ideologies that limit women's decision-making space can affect decisions on capital and other productive resources necessary for women's FTA and agricultural value chain activities. Similarly to Bolaños and Schmink's research (2005), gendered cultural institutions that construct the forest as a predominantly masculine realm influence that women participate to a significantly less extent than men in a timber management project in Acre, Brazil (Porro and Stone, 2005). Time constraints associated with women's reproductive activities also limit their project participation. As a result of women's lack of participation in the project, men control the income, to women's exclusion. Furthermore, women must contend with increased labor burdens due to decreased labor contributions from men to nontimber activities such as agriculture and rubber tapping.Similarly, Cronkleton's (2005) research on a community forest management project in Pando, Bolivia, demonstrates the tendency to exclude women from forest management and the consequences it can have for men's and women's FTA production activities. Following norms on community gender roles, it developed that the project's participants were largely men. More diverse community participation developed through activities specifically targeting women and youth. The exercises helped identify women community members' interest in using income generated from the forest management project for investment in their artisanry production. Without access to such decision-making spaces, women can be excluded from decision-making regarding capital and other productive resources necessary for the development of productive activities in which they are involved. Furthermore, access to public decisionmaking realms allows greater opportunity for recognition of their productive FTA work.Even in cases where women gain access to public decision-making spaces, division of labor and gender ideologies can work to marginalize women-dominated FTA production activities. Porro and Stone's research (2005) on women's role in extractive activities in northeastern Brazil notes that while women babaçu palm fruit producers have managed to participate in local and regional level politics through their role in social and environmental movements, gender ideologies that associate extractive activities with feminized poverty diminish the value of their productive contributions to sustainable forest development. Correspondingly, environmental funding agencies often disregard babaçu production. The supposition that women will work without remuneration for the benefit of their households influences such trends in development projects.The issue of communally owned land is particularly relevant to discussions of gendered resource control and productive roles in the Latin American region. Approximately 25% of forested lands are communally owned in Latin America; this contrasts substantially with the global trend of 9% of forested land under communal tenure (Sunderlin et al., 2008;Larson et al., 2010, cited in Vázquez García, 2013). Although communal property rights might be more prevalent in Latin America than in other parts of the world, such regimes do not guarantee women's and men's equal control of land in practice (Vázquez García, 2013;Schmink and García, 2015). Often communally titled land is controlled by the state and women's access is limited (Vázquez García, 2013). In general, women living in communally owned territory may experience a certain lack of clarity regarding their land rights. Intra-household gender relations can disadvantage women with regards to access to land and other major assets (Schmink and García, 2015). Furthermore, individual property rights regimes demonstrate a negative bias towards women. Men are more commonly property holders than women, and at the time of couples' separation, women are often left landless (Schmink and García, 2015). In general, there exists a persistent gender inequality in land ownership, due to male preference for inheritance and marriage privileges. Land markets and state land distribution programs also demonstrate gender biases that favor men over women.Land access can be a key factor influencing the nature of men's and women's participation in FTA value chains. Although empirical research on this issue is lacking, women's lack of formal land access inhibits them from participating in critical decision-making spaces on production activities, including commercialization processes. This correspondingly excludes them from sales negotiations. Jazibi Cárcamo et al.'s (2010) research on an organic coffee producer organization in Chiapas notes that coffee land title ownership was a requirement for organization membership; women who were members experienced more significant monetary benefits and recognition for their work as producers, in comparison to women producers who were not. Women members could participate directly in decision-making on coffee sales and the commercialization processes, as well.Access to credit and capital importantly influences the development of gendered livelihood strategies based on FTA value chains. A lack of access to credit and capital can hinder the expansion of FTA value chains in which women contribute significantly; households furthermore may prefer to invest in productive activities that are more lucrative. These often tend to be more male dominated, as well. Research in the Western Amazon in Peru demonstrates the significance of capital and credit for the development of sustainable forest development strategies that are gender inclusive. For example, livelihood optimization modeling based on information from communities in the Madre de Dios region of Peru suggests that the most efficient use of capital at current conditions was through expansion of timber extraction or livestock production, both economic activities in which men predominate (Campbell et al., 2005). Brazil nut production, an activity that involves women more significantly, became more feasible with increased access to credit, although it would still remain inferior economically to timber extraction.The significance of access to credit and capital for FTA livelihood strategies can depend varyingly on other socio-economic variables such as class and age, in addition to gender. For example, Virapongse et al.'s study (2014) of the buriti palm fiber value chain suggests that increased capital can help facilitate women artisans' advancement in the value chain to the vendor node, although increased education is also necessary. Campbell et al.'s research (2005) in Acre, Brazil, found that those women who most significantly took advantage of agroforestry credit lines targeting women were more educated, younger, and had an additional source of cash. Credit access in this case influenced the increased participation of certain social groups over others in agroforestry.Access to trainings can also influence actors' participation in higher value nodes of the value chain, although as in the examples of access to credit and capital, this can depend on other socio-economic variables besides gender. Trainings helped women buriti artisans to achieve greater return on their labor by teaching them new skills, providing access to new markets of higher paying clients, and helping them form cooperatives (Virapongse et al., 2014). In some cases, it furthermore helped them to move up the chain to become vendors. Those who were unable to receive the trainings influenced the development of a new value chain dynamic, wherein they sold unfinished crafts to artisan-vendors. Finally, there existed some artisans who did not receive the trainings yet were highly skilled enough that they were able to develop their own niche markets for their crafts.As alluded to previously, exclusion from forest resource management groups can effectively inhibit women's benefits in remunerative terms from their participation in FTA value chains. This trend might be most significant in Latin America. Sunderland et al.'s (2014) cross-regional research demonstrates that men participate more than women in forest user groups across Africa, Asia, and Latin America; however, this tendency is more substantial where there is product commercialization. Correspondingly, the Latin American region had the lowest participation of women in forest user groups. In a similar vein, a global review by IFAD (2008) notes that men are largely members of producer organizations and women minimally, allowing men greater opportunity to participate in decision-making on product commercialization. Despite this regional trend, cases of women's participation in production organizations in Latin American countries exist. Moreover, these suggest that participation in producer organizations influence gender relations such that women's decision-making power is enhanced and their productive work is better recognized. For example, a case of a river community in Pará, Brazil, that mobilized to strengthen its position in the açai market had significant women's participation (Schmink and García, 2015). The organizing group helped train members in improved açai management practices and achieved certification. The participating women formed their own women's association, as well, and some have achieved positions in a local rural union.Another case of an organic coffee producer organization in Chiapas demonstrates the enhanced remunerative and non-remunerative benefits women can experience through their participation (Jazibi Cárcamo et al., 2010). A study of women members and wives of members found that both groups participate, either directly or indirectly, in coffee production processes; however, only members' contributions are recognized and remunerated, whereas the wives' work is regarded as supplementary help and not remunerated. It is important to note that members' wives are able to participate in organization meetings, although they are unable to vote. Furthermore, the study highlighted that women members experience significantly greater economic benefits than the wives of members; they also experience greater acquisition of new knowledge and enhanced self-esteem, but not to as significant an extent. For example, substantially greater members as opposed to wives experienced an improved quality of life and capability to resolve economic problems. Differences in new knowledge acquisition were not as great, most likely due in part to the fact that wives are able to participate in organization trainings. Women members also reported developing greater friendships, and feeling less alone and more productive.Research on women-specific producer organizations demonstrates similarly the combination of enhanced remunerative and non-remunerative benefits gained from participation in producer groups, in addition to an enhanced capacity to have a stronger market position. A study in Brazil focused on the Amazon Rural Women's Microenterprise Network, which includes 150 women's collective microenterprises, based primarily on NTFP use for the production of artisanry, jellies, cosmetics, medicines, and other products (Mello, 2014). The majority of the groups had been able to form through the women's own start-up capital and NGO support in the form of trainings. The research highlights particularly the enhanced empowerment women experience from their participation in the groups, not just in economic terms but also with regards to political and social ambitions. For example, women were able to use their participation in the groups to advance environmental goals; they also were able to gain greater access to decision making spaces in their communities and to household and communal resources. Despite these trends, additional research suggests the importance of intersecting socio-economic variables on women's benefit from collective participation. For example, Virapongse et al.'s research demonstrates that the people who were able to access and benefit the most from handicraft cooperatives were those from better-off groups who could dedicate sufficient time to cooperative participation and focus their efforts on one livelihood strategy instead of multiple (2014).Similarly to the study of the Amazon Rural Women's Microenterprise Network, Porro and Stone's research (2005) on women babaçu fruit processors in Brazil suggests that women's productive organizations can advance combined productive and political platforms. The gender division of labor influences that women are considered as primarily responsible for extractive activities, such as babaçu fruit collection and processing, in comparison to men. Consequently, it has developed that groups of women babaçu processors participate in political mobilizations for protection of forest resources. Furthermore, women babaçu soap producers manufacture and sell their products under the banner of their economic and political struggles. Through their mobilization, the women have contributed to the passing of a municipal law on babaçu palm protection and free access to the fruit. A woman babaçu palm producer also represents them in City Hall.The results of the literature review demonstrate a certain complexity, with respect to the influence of gender dynamics on men's and women's participation in and benefit from FTA value chains in Latin America. Nonetheless, it is possible to identify a few key trends. Research demonstrates that both men and women contribute significantly to FTA value chains in Latin America; furthermore, while men predominate over women in those destined for commerce, they participate extensively along with women in forest production activities related to subsistence, as well. Comparison with other regions suggests that with increased market integration, men's role in the chain can expand while women's may diminish. A more micro-level analysis of men's and women's value chain activities suggests that women's contributions are characteristically prior to the sales node and/or located in lower value nodes, in comparison to those of men's. Furthermore, women's contributions are often less recognized. Correspondingly, men's benefits in remunerative terms from their participation in FTA value chains are greater than women's, due to their comparative roles and places in the chains.While the above observations affirm general trends in gender and development research, a closer examination of the factors that contribute to how gender influences the benefits men and women perceive from FTA value chains begin to indicate priority areas for further research. The sex division of labor and gender ideologies greatly influence the roles men and women play and associated benefits. Societal norms that associate women with the home and subsistence needs whereas men assume responsibility for the forest and commercial activities limit women's participation in value chain activities distanced from the home. Furthermore, activities must often complement their childrearing obligations in order to be feasible. These gender-specialized roles lead to differentiations in knowledge and preferences regarding forest resource management. These also influence that women carry out the most low-paying activities, due to their limited access to more lucrative opportunities in comparison to men. Gender ideologies furthermore contribute to women's limited access to decision-making spaces and decision-making power with respect to forest management, relative to men. Consequently, they can have less opportunity to voice their interests and preferences for development and investment in productive activities.Access to productive resources constitutes another important factor. Women's limited access to land in comparison to men can inhibit their participation in producer organizations and consequently, their access to important decision-making spaces. Increased access to credit, capital, and/or trainings may be necessary to develop less lucrative value chain activities in which women tend to be involved; in particular, these inputs can facilitate women's enhanced participation in the chain, such that they benefit more. Despite these trends, it is important to recognize that intersecting socioeconomic variables influence that certain social groups can benefit from increased access more than others.Research on women's participation in producer organizations suggests that this can help enhance women's remunerative and non-remunerative benefits. The literature furthermore demonstrates how participation in producer organizations, all-women groups particularly, often coincides with women's political organizing around environmental concerns.Mechanisms that provide men and women equal opportunity to participate in decision-making spaces on production can be key for guaranteeing that both men's and women's preferences and interests are considered in interventions seeking to upgrade value chains. This is important such that women can experience enhanced benefits from the value chain activities in which they participate.Correspondingly, it is important that interventions promote women's inclusion in commercialization processes. This can require capacity-building for participation in the corresponding value chain nodes (i.e., sales, marketing). It can also require the development of business models that are sensitive to gender equality, in order to change gender ideologies that give men responsibility of commercial activities to the exclusion of women. Such developments might be particularly critical in Latin America, where market integration is more advanced than in other regions of the world.Although men may predominate FTA value chains in Latin America, it is important to recognize women's often less visible and less profitable contributions to these, including those destined for subsistence in order to develop equitable benefit sharing mechanisms from value chains. For example, while gender norms and sex division of labor may limit women's participation in timber value chains and in more lucrative nodes of NTFP value chains, women can contribute significantly to processing activities in the home, suggesting that this would be a potentially valuable focus for interventions.It is equally important to direct research to other aspects of social differentiation in order to understand the intersecting influences of gender with, for example, ethnicity and socioeconomic class, and consequently, how these dynamics affect capability to benefit from value chain interventions. Taking into account such varied aspects of social differentiation are important in order to develop truly equitable value chains. Supporting women's increased involvement in producer organizations is a potential opportunity for enhancing the benefits women perceive from participation in FTA value chains in Latin America. This can be for the development of women-specific cooperatives or for women's increased membership in producer organizations. Related to this, an important focus of analysis is the advantages and disadvantages of all women or mixed-gender cooperatives, for gender equality concerns in value chain upgrading. Furthermore, an important theme for further research is the socioeconomic factors that limit participation in producer organizations, beyond gender.Similarly, a potentially valuable area of research for FTA value chains in Latin America is the relationship between women's participation in producer organizations and their contributions to social movements. Latin America over the last decades has seen significant political organizing among rural, indigenous, and other marginalized groups for varying economic, territorial and environmental concerns. The organizational capacity and skills that women develop through their participation in producer organizations can often influence the role they play in social movements. How they can gain greater recognition of their contribution to FTA value chains and promote the development of gender-sensitive and sustainable business models through such mobilizations will be a critical avenue of future investigation.","tokenCount":"7082"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"efd13b1838c61162d47911e7c00a72f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/704c0ac1-f148-434e-89b2-3836758e3e63/retrieve","id":"-1618940698"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f7bd0e0e-1462-45fe-8ecb-08f129fe9447","pagecount":"10","content":"Breeding philosophies and melhodologies developed for favorable condilions and high•inpul agriculture have been íneffectivo in generating improved cullivars for marginal conditions and low-input agrieulture. The project is implemenling • novel breeding approach for barley improvement in Ihe low-potenti.l, marginal-rainfaU envíronmenl of lordan, based on early seleclion snd testing under farmer's conditions .nd with farmers' participalion.The expected outputs inelude identification of farmers' (men's and women's) seleclíon crileria, inlroduction of participatory approaches into n.lion.l breeding programs, dissemination of inform.lion generated by the project, increased adoption of new varieties in low-inpul agriculture, and higher .nd more stable barley yields. The new breeding program, targeted al marginal conditions and low-input agriculturc, wil! movo selection and les!ing work outside experiment stalions .nd put breeding into the hands off.rmers. We expeclthal even in a relalívely smal! geographical area, farmers will tend lo exploit specific adaptation. Specific adaptalian benefits biodiversity through seleclian and spreading of a nummof differenl cultívars, instead ofthe few, afien closely relaled, cullivars charactenstic of conventionaJ breeding for wide adaptation.Plant breeding has been beneficial 10 fanners who enjoy favorable environments or those who can profitably modify their environment to suit new cultivars. It has not been so beneficial to those fanners (the poorest) who could not afford to modify their environment through the application of additional inputs (Byerlee and Husain 1993). Fanners in favorable environments using hígh levels of inputs are now concemed with the possibility of adverse environmental effects and the 1088 of genetic diversity. Poor fanners in marginal environments conlínue 10 8uffer from chronícally low  yields, crop failures, and in the worst situations, malnutrition and famine. Because of its past successes, conventional plant breeding has tried to solve the problems of poor farmers living in unfavorable environments by simply extending the same melhodologies and philosophies applied earlier to favorable, high-polenlial environments.The essential concepts ofthe conventional breeding approach can be summarized as follows:• Seleclion is conducted under lhe well-managed conditions of experiment slalions.• Cultivars, especially in self-pollinating species, should be pure lines and should be widely adapled over large geographical areas.• Locally adapted landraces should be replaced because lhey are low yielding and disease susceptible.• Dissemination of seed of improved cultivars should lake place through formal mechanisms and institutions, such as variely-release committees, seed-certification schemes, and governmental seed-production organizations.• The end users of new varieties need not be involved in selection and testing; Ihey are only involved at the end of the consolidated routine (breeding, researcher-managed trials, verificatíon trials) to verif'y which ofa Iimited selection offinished cultivars are acceptable.In situations where the objectives are lo improve yield and yield stability for poor farmers in difficult environments, plant-breeding programs rareJy question the efficiency and the effectiveness of Ihe conventíonal approach. The implicit assumption is Ihat what has worked well in favorable conditions must a1so be appropriate to unfavorable conditions, and very little attentíon has been given to developing new breeding strategies for low-input agriculture in less-favorable environments.There is mounting evidence lhat this assumption is not valid and that, in faet, lhe problems ofmarginal environments and their farming systems mus! be addressed in new and innovative ways.In Ihose few cases where the application of conventional breeding strategies lO marginal environments has been assessed, the following has been found:experiment stations tends 10 produce cultivars tha! are superior to local Jandraces only under improved management and nol under lhe low-input condilions characteristic oflhe farming systems (Galt 1989;Sirnmonds 1991;Ceccarelli 1994). The result is lhat many new varieties are released, but few, if any, are actual1y grown by farmers in difficult environmenls.• Poor farmers in diffieult environments tend to maintain genetic diversity in lhe form of different crops, different cultivars within lhe sarne crop, andlor heterogeneous cultivars in order to maximize adaptation over time (stability), ralher lhan adaptation over space (Binswanger and Barah 1980). Adaptation over time can be improved by breeding for specific adaptation, Le., by adapting cultivars lO their environment (in a broad sense) ralher lhan modif'ying the environmentto fit new cultivars (Ceccarelli 1996). Since diversity and heterogeneity serve to disperse or buffer lhe risk of total crop failure due to environmental variation, farmers may resist lhe idea of abandoning traditional cultivars.• When an appropriate cultivar is selected, adoption is much faster through non-market methods of seed distribution (Grisley 1993).• When fanners are involved in the selection process, their selection critería may be very different from those of the breeder (Hardon and de Boef 1993;Sperling, Loevinsohn, and Ntabomura 1993). Typical examples are crops used for animal feed, such as barley, where breeders often use grain yield as the sole selection criterion, while farmers are usually equally eoncerned with forage yield and the palatability ofboth grain and straw (Saade et al. 1993).Because the concepts of conventioual plant breeding are rarely questioned, the blame for the nonadoption ofnew cultivars is variously attributed to the ignoranee offarmers, the ineffieiency of extension services, and the lack of availability of seed of improved eultivars. Thus, an impressive . amollOt ofhuruan and financia! resources eontinue to be invested in a model that has not been, and most likely will not be, suecessful in llOfavorable agroc1imatie conditions.We base our approaeh on the following four assumptions: l. Farmers have aecumulated experienee and know their speeifie environment better than breeders. 2. Farmers operate aeeording lo speeifie needs and objeetives, whieh may not confonn to breeders' research objectives. 3. Farmers will determine the sucee•ss of a new variety, not breeders. 4. It is possib!e to integrate the seientific knowledge of breeders (in areas such as genetics, breeding, physiology, agronomy), as well as their broader experience aeross environments and theír ability to ereate and manipulate genetic variability, with the knowledge and experienee of farmers.The concepts ofthe projeet are not new. F anners have been participating to a greater or lesser extent in the pigeon-pea and pearl-millet programs of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT), in the breeding program carried out by the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) in Rwanda, and in a number of projeets implemented by ICARDA and national agricultural researeh systems (NARS) in Syria, Tunisia, Moroeeo, Eritrea, and Yemen (Cecearelli et al. 2000(Cecearelli et al. , 2001)). These projects, however, were only experiments in participatory plant breeding, since they did not incorporate the cyclieal nature ofplant breeding. The projeet presented here represents a step forward beeause it will transfer to farmers' fields various steps of a fonnal breeding programo Although we wiIl document farmers' selection eriteria, and whether seleetion criteria differ between men and women, through descriptive indigenous-knowledge studies, emphasis wiIl be given to (l) measuring and quantifying the effect of using fanners' selection eriteria on the performance and adoption of improved barley and (2) developing an approach tbat can be readily utilized by other NARS in deve!oping eountries.The geographical scope ofthis researeh is the dry areas of Jordan where drought stress is the major biotic stress and where barley IS often the only possible erop for resource-poor farrners. This area eneompasses a range of agroeeological conditions, a11 ofwhich may be considered as low-potential emironments for cereal production. Arable land is predominantly cultívated with barley landraces.In Jordan, the popularity ofbarley among fanners, despite the failure to improve yields, Iies in its use as feed for small rurnÍnants (sheep and goats); meat, milk, and milk products represent the prin-cipal source of income for rural households in marginal areas, Barley grain and straw constitute the most important source of feed fo! the small ruminants throughout much of the year when grazing is in short supply. In the driest areas, a grain yield ís obtained onJy one year in lO. And yet barley is sown every year, essentially as a forage crop whose value depends on biomass yield rather tban grain yield (figure ¡, table 1). Barley is mainly cultivated in tbe dryland areas tbat cover part of east Jordan. These areas are characterized by low rainfal!, irregular1y distributed, with most of the rain falling during the winter. Temperatures vary widely, witb frequent feost in early spring and in late spring, resulting in head sterilíty, low yields (table 2) and often in crop failure. The unpredictable envirorunental conditions, along with poor soils and crop management, have made it difficult to introduce new cultivars and obtain yield increases. Nore: Data are !he means of84 barley lines during the 199611997 growing soaSoo.The long-tenn goal oflhe project is the improvement oflhe welfare ofsmall, resource-poor fanners by increasing and stabilizing barley and livestock productíon.The imrnediate objectives of the project are• to develop a participatory approach to breedíng barley for stress conditions• to improve barley varieties Ihat fulfill Ihe needs of poor fanners in Ihe marginal rainfed environrnents of Jordan• to enhance the rate of adoption of new varietíes through fanners' participation in selection and testing• to identify dífferences in seleetion eriteria used by different types of farmers (aceording to gender, enterprise mix, and other farm characteristics)At the end of the project we expect the following outputs:• documented and validated information on farmers' objeetives, know ledge, and field condilions• the performance and quality, under both farmers' and station conditions, of barley fines selected by farmers in their fields, compared with the performance and quality oflines selected on the experiment station using breeders' setection erítería• doeumentation of the selection eritería used by different types of farmers andlor different members offarm households• a number oflines selected and developed through this participatory breeding program multiplied by farmers and tested by neighboríng farmers• the importance of the interactions between selection erítería and selection envíronment assessed• incorporation of participatory approaches by the two national breeding prograrnsAl each ofthe locations included in the project area, cooperating farmers (\"host farmers\"), who will hos! breeding plots and make individual selections, will be recruited from the pool of participants in previous on-farm research and cooperatíve research programs in ongoing research-and-devetopment projects. A rapid-appraisal exercise will be conducted wíthin the agricultural cornmunity assocíated with each ofthe selected agroecologicallocations, and a group oflocal \"expert farmers\" wiU be identified and recruíted on the basis of reputatíon, key farming contacts, past performance, gender representation, producer and consumer categories, and se1f-selectíon. The expert farmer groups, together with the host farmers, wíll participate as key informants in the indigenous-knowledge study and will perform group selections from their respective host furmers' germplasm collectíons.Ibis component has several crucial outputs for developíng the partícipatory-breeding approach.First, there will be an enquíry into farmers' objectíves, reasons for producing barley, and different end-uses ofthe crop. This will include theírperceptíons ofthe dífficulties they experíence in reaching these objectíves. Household economic securíty and rísk considerations will also be considered in the context of production objectives and genotype evaluation.The índigenous-knowledge study will pro vide the information needed for the analysis of concepts 5uch as how farmers, both men and women, value various characteristics ofthe barley erop and how much they understand adaptatíon for specific environments and uses. The methodology for data collectíon and analysis will rely prímarily on formal ethnographíc techniques used in sociocultural anthropology, including participant observation, structured interviews, and taxonomic and componential analysis of labeled traits. As much as possible, badey characterístícs recognized by fanners will be classified hierarchically to enable selection procedures to be applied one afier the other aeeordíng to prioritíes reported by fanners. Indígenous methods for reeognízing desirable characteristies within populatíons ofbarley eultívars will be documented, and activities of fanners applying these methods will be recorded in detail.An important aspect ofthis component i5 the ídentíficatíon ofwomen's seleclíon eriteria, partícularly, but not only, al those locatíons where barley is u5ed for human consumption.Specific outputs for tbis component inelude the following:• evaluatíon of the innovatíve capacity of fanners and insíght into theír potentíal for direct participation ín formal breeding programs• lí518 of desirable characteristícs, prioritized and cross-referenced to environment and utilization• indigenous knowledge and perceptions of environment-genotype ínteractions in barley landraces• the theory, objectíves, and implementation ofthe participatory-breeding prograrn will be discussed thoroughly with the host fanners and expert farmer groups in order to obtain their input into the design of the breeding scheme, including selection procedures, such as the proper time for selection, how ofien selection is done, etc.This componen! represents the major empirical thrust ofthe project and will quantify the effects of the selection environment (experiment station vs. fanner's field), of who does the selection (breeder vs. farmer), and whether these effeets interact or vary from year to year.The traits that fanners select for, and the eriteria they use in their selection, will be recorded by the breeders and social scientists, and compared with objective measures of trai18 used by barley breeders, including the yíeld and quality of graín and straw.A common set oflines and populations (including the farmers' cultivars) will be grown on a typically well-managed experiment station field and on one fanner's field at each of six !ocations in Jordan under fanners' management practices (fertilízer use, rotations, date and method of sowing, land preparation, etc.). The locations will be as follows:Al-Mohay 60 km southeast ofK.arak and about 130 km south of Aroman, with an annual rainfull of about 1 3Q....1 50 mm Al-Muaqure Ramtha Khanasri RaMa Ghwer 55 km east of Amrnan, in the arid areas, with an annual rainfaIl of 150 mm 160 km north of Amrnan, with an annual rainfall of 250 mm 135 km north of Amrnan, with an annual rainfall of200 mm 140 km south of Amman, with an annual rainfall of 340 mm 160 km south of Aroman, with an annual rainfall of 280 mm By ineluding locations with less than 200 mm average annual raínfall, there will be opportunities to investigate the performance of breeding material in environments where barley is a forage crop rather than a grain erop. In addition, small graín-producing areas occur wíthin the < 200 mm zone. These are seasonally f100ded wadi f100rs (marrabs), where high graín yields are normal wíthín a generally arid environment. Because of theír ímportanee locally, and the uniqueness of the agroecosystem, these !ocations are included in the project.[n the project area, the majority of farmers still grow barley landraces ¡hat are heterogeneous populations composed of a large number of individual genotypes. Although the population buffering of such heterogeneous populations-and, hence, their role in reducing ¡he risk of crop failures-is well documented, we do no! know whether farmers perceive this type of diversity as importan! and jf this is the reason for the popularity of landraces. To gain information on this specific point, the genetic material will include high-yielding fixed or nearly fixed lines, segregation populations, and farmers' cultivars. The use ofbolh pure lines and heterogeneous populations will provide a means for testing the attitude of farmers towards heterogeneity, as opposed to the conventional breeders' propensity for homogeneity. The farmers' cultivars, which are likely to be different at each location, wíll be collected from each farmer during the harvest of the previous year, and all farmers' cultivars will be grown at each site. Selection will be conducted on the experiment station by breeders, and in each host farmer' s field, selection will be conducted by both the breeders and the host farmers, their spouses, andlor olher household members. Whenever possible, neighboring farmers wiJI also participa te in lhe selecnon process.The collaborating farm householders will make selections from theír fields. Following a group selection procedure similar to thatused by ICRISAT in Rajasthan (ICRISAT 1996:98-100), the expert farmer groups wíll be asked to select material from lhat grown by lheir host farmers, material lhat they think would be use fui for-them and olher farmers in lheír area. The selectíon wiIl be conducted in such a way as to reveal the criteria being used by lhe farmers and olhers when they make their choices. There will be detailed discussions regarding lhe cultivars selected and the eriteria used in selection. Farmers' observatíons, expected performance, and crop-management practices wíll be recorded.At lhe end ofthe frrst year, in addition to the breeders' se1ections from lhe experirnent stations, for each particípating farmer, the following groups of selected Iines wíll be available: 1. lines selected by lhe breeder 2. Iines selected by the farmer 3. Iines selected by other household members 4. lines selected by lhe farmer's neighbors In lhe second year, each host farmer wilI growall lhe Iines selected in hislher ficld in the fust year, regardless of who made lhe selection, Le., groups 1 to 4 aboye, as well as the lines selected by the breeder in lhe experiment station. The selections will be grown as one populatíon oflines without obvíous distinctions between the groups to avoid any possible bias in the second cycle of selection. AH lhe lines selected in lhe first year wíl1 also be grown on the experiment station in the sccond year to provide enough seed for lhe third year. Data on grain and straw yield will be collected at each host farmer' s field and at lhe experiment station. Response to selection will be evaluated using lhe farmer's cultivar as reference. In lhe second and trurd year, selection will be done, as in the first year-on the lines resulting from the first and second cycle of selection. Thus, during lhe second and third cycle (year) of selection, lhe farmers and lhe breeders wí11 be exposed to the material selected by each olher. By lhe third year, the project will have involved a total of36 households in lhe target area and will have simulated tbree cycles of selection of the sarue type of cyclical processes !hat take place in conventional breeding prograrns (figure 2).","tokenCount":"2890"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"690d3f94ae77c15fd999286c4f525aa7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H003653.pdf","id":"365896057"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bcb62dd6-abd1-4d31-baae-0ddda00e7503","pagecount":"7","content":"The Kodku irrigation system is one of the oldest and largest irrigation systems operating in Lalitpur District. The responsibility for operation and maintenance of the sysfe?iis performed by the f w r s who belong to organizations known a s Si Guthis since a long time back. Si Guthi is an organization of the Newar ethnic group whose primary function is to perform funeral and cremation rites for i t s members. In the Kodku irrigation system the Si Guthis have taken on the additional function of mobilizing their members for the operation and maintenance of the system.The diversion weir and canal a r e temporary in nature, and require regular repair. Sometimes even the course of the stream changes, and the farmers have had to put lots of effort into making the irrigation system work. Hence, the farmers had to organize themselves to get water delivered to their f a r m s , which they accomplished through their Si Guthis.1965 His Majesty's Government of Nepal (HMGN) undertook rehabilitation of t h e system with the assistance of the Government of India.After rehabilitation the responsibility for operation and maintenance of the system w a s assumed by the Department of Irrigation, Hydrology, and Meteorology (DIHM). DIHM employs dhalpas (canal gatekeepers), with a maintenance allocation from the Department.The command area is 562 hectares ( h a ) which includes Thaiba, Harisidhi, \\ --___ and Imadol of Lalitpur Dis @ n e t . DIHM has estimated t h e beneficiaries to be about 5,000 farmers.(also called Karma Nasa) which originates a t Guindaha of Badikhel village panchayat.This system is run-off-the-river type. The total length of the canal is 5.67 kilometers (km). The water a s estimated by DIHM, is 0.5 cubic meters per second (m3/sec).The source of water for this system is the Kodku Khola T'\\dq>The objectives of the study are:1, To understand the organizational s t r u c t u r e of the Si Guthi in relation to irrigation system management.To observe the method of operation and maintenance of the system.1Mr. S.P. Shresthe i s a director of Development Research Group ( P ) Ltd., Kathmandu, Nepal.To understand the management of conflict during t.he time of water stealing and other events.The methodology used for this study is observation accomplished by a \"walk-through\" of the system, and unstructured interviews with farmers, Guthi members, and DIHM officials. Needing to collect informstion on the historical background of the system, a list of key informants was formulated in consultation with the farmers and other people who had been active in the irrigation system. In order to interview key members of the Guthis from both Patan and Thaiba, informants from these Guthis were identified.The informants introduced the researchers to key people involved with the irrigation system.The irrigation organization is not the same throughout the system. The farmers a t the head could only answer questions pertaining to their own group. Farmers in the middle and tailend of the system were likewise only concerned with the operation of their part of the system. There a r e distinctive features characterizing this system. Farmers at the head reside close to their fields, but those a t the middle and tail sections live f a r from their fields. The farmers do not have one irrigators' association for the entire system, but c a r r y out irrigation operation and maintenance functions through t h e direction of their respective Si Guthis. Si Guthi organizations have been active in performing irrigation functions in this system for many years.The Kodku Irrigation System can be divided into three areas: head, middle and tailend. Most of the land i n the head is tilled by the farmers of Harisidhi. I n the middle, the land is tilled by the farmers of Lalitpur Town Panchayat and t h e people from Imadol till the land a t the tailend of the system. Si Guthis manage the head and middle but not the tailend.The tailend people work individually or sometimes join with farmers from Lalitpur Town Panchayat during the desiltation of the canal. The farmers in the head and middle have little interaction in managing the system.The three groups manage their respective p a r t s of the system by their separate organizations.The farmers in Patan live in eight tales (sections of a street a r e known a s toles):Dupat, Pilachen, Tyagal, Haku Tole, Saquo, Suwal, Dhalchess and Luchen.Most of the farmers a r e t h e tillers of Khonathu Faant (the middle section of the irrigation canal). The farmers in each tole manage the irrigation system through their Si Guthis.These eight toles together a r e known as Wachco Khutwa.About 75 percent of the farmers in Patan till land in the command area. However, even the Si Guthi members having no land in t h e command a r e a a r e required to help desilt the canal when the Guthi so orders, A s t r i c t rule exists whereby everyone must obey o r d e r s issued by t h e Guthi. The eight s i Guthis of the different toles have combined to mobilize labor for t h e operation and maintenance of the system.Dupat Tole has taken leadership among these Guthis. Tt.is authority, a s reported, was delivered by the Mall8 king and it continues to be recognized. Functions which include determining meeting dates and keeping records a r e the responsibility of Dupat Tole.When a meeting is needed, three messengers from Dupat known a s KsajisThe decisions taken not ComPuIsorY.inform six senior members (aajus) in the different Guthis.in t h e meeting are then conveyed t o the appropriate Guthi member.Similar to Patan, there a r e four Si Guthis: Raj Guthi, Etagu Guthi, Mydyagu Guthi, and Sallagu Guthi operating in this area which also perform management functions for the irrigation system at the head. All the people in these Guthis a r e from the Maharjan caste of the Newar ethnic group. Every household head of Harisidhi Panchayat is a member in one of the four Guthis.Even the migrant Maharjans in t h i s area have been included in these Guthis. There a r e altogether 655 households including nonmembers.'There a r e only five families from non-Newar communities in the village who a r e not members of these Guthis and who need not contribute to operation and maintenance of the system. Raj Guthi is recognized a s the main Guthi i n this area. I t has the largest number of members and has been in existence for a long period of time. The directives issued by Raj Guthi a r e binding upon all the other Guthis in the area.Various Guthi leaders perform specific functions for t h e organization:1. m: Nay0 (lesder) is the oldest member of the Guthi, and he i s in charge of all Guthi activities. Other members act according to his direction.The madaa receives his position on a hereditary basis. H i s responsibility is to keep the account books.He is also responsible for mobilizing i t s members t o collect firewood on t h e date fixed b y HMGN.On that day they are allowed to c u t the living trees in Pulchoki forest. The collected firewood is used only for cremating the Guthi members.The paalas are Guthi members responsible for organizing different ceremonies. This responsibility i s rotated annually t o other members of the Guthi. There a r e four paalas in the Raj Guthi, three in Etagu, two each in Mudyagu and Sallagu Guthi a t a time.During their t e r m , they a r e responsible for informing members when work i s to be done on the irrigation z A son maintaining a household separate from his father is considered a nonmember until the death of the parent, whereby the 8013 becomes a Guthi member. Nevertheless, the son is expected to contribute 3.5 kg Of rice to the Guthi each year 80 t h a t his family can receive the Guthi's assistance when needed. There a r e 204 members and 300 nonmembers i n WJ Guthi, members 57 nonmembers in E-gu, 30 and 14 in Mudyagu and Sallagu respectively* canal. G u t h i for punitive action.Paalas keep records of absentees and forward the information to the I n this irrigation system, within a section, there i? no hard and fast rule for allocating water to a particular field. Wherever the farmers need water they open the canal outlet and irrigate their land. After getting enough water, they either channel it to another field or they close the outlet in the canal, However, a s reported by the farmers, there was an order issued by the then Rana Prime Minister, Judha Shamsher J.R.R. that farmers cultivating fields at the head should finish paddy transplantation before the end of June (15th of Ashadh on the Nepali calendar).This practice later became the rule. Therefore, farmers in t h i s area usually transplant the paddy from the middle of May (beginning of Jestha) and finish u r n then goes to the farmers cultivating in the middle a r t of the command area. I n both places, farmers get enough water to their land for the transplantation of paddy.There is another understanding: all land is to receive water for transplanting paddy before water can be redistributed to the head where they have already used water for transplantation. There is no law regarding this. However, it is socially accepted that everybody should plant the paddy first, and unacceptable t o get water repeatedly to the detriment of the transplantation of paddy of others.However, when there is no rain, the farmers a t the head sometimes apply water repeatedly to their land. The farmers consider t h i s water stealing. In order to check such malpractice the farmers in the middle area guard the canal. The canal g a t e k e e p e r d g u a r d s (dhalpas) continue their supervision until all the farmers finish the transplantation. The dhalpa syatem is usually only necessary during drought o r if the monsoon is late.For water allocation, land ad joining the canal receives first priority. Water is allocated according to land size. Water is usually allowed to reach a level of nine inches in the field before it is then channeled to adjoining land sequentially. This is easily achieved because the land is terraced.For water distribution, no devices a r e used. There a r e outlets in the main canal as well as in t h e branch canals. When the farmers need water, they open the outlet in the canal. After using water, they close the outlet with mud known a s chapari along with some bushes and stones. To channel t h e water from one terrace to another they make an opening in the bund and divert the water.During the season most farmers remain in the field awaiting their t u r n s for water. I n t h e middle section of t h e command area the dhalpas supervise the distribution.This i s the common field-to-field irrigation practice.I n order t o manage t h e Kodku Irrigation System, Si Guthis mobilize labor for desiltation and canal repairs, and organize the dhalpas to guard against water stealing. They also assign the waa paas, who guard the ripe paddy crop from thieves.-Role of the farmers within Lalitpur Town Panchayat. In the past, when the intake washed away or needed major repair due to changes of t h e river course, a lot of labor and materials had to be mobilized. If the damage was beyond the capacity of the farmers, the farmers would request that the town brigade3 provide assistance. materials (bamboo and wooden sticks) for the repair work.The brigade would provide army personnel andThere was a religious belief that iron implements should not be used in Thus, whenThe annual tabk of desilting the canal is begun b y the farmers of Wachw Khutwa on the firet of July (15th of Ashadh). Shortly before this date, a team of farmers including messengers from Dupat assesses the damage in t h e canal and reports to the Guthi members.All Si Guthi members must be present a t the time of desiltation.constrocting the intake and everything should be done by hand. they had to divert the stream they used bamboo and wooden sticks.Persons absent from work a r e fined by their Guthi, which keeps records of attendance. The fines v a r y from one Si Guthi to another. Previously, t h e fine amounted to less than one cent U.S. but due to inflation the fine has been raised U.S.51.00. The actual amount of the fine is not a s important a s is the social sanction which it enforces.Consequently, it is reported that relatively few people remain absent from the work.When major repairs of the canal m u s t be undertaken, a meeting is held in Dupat Tole where the area t o be repaired is divided into parts and each part is assigned to a different Si Guthi.During water shortages, the people from Wachoo Khutwa guard the canal. This practice continues until all the farmers complete paddy transplantation work.Each of the five main Guthis send four persons (previously it was eight persons) and each of the three smaller Guthis send two persons each a s guards (dhalpas). The 26 dhalpas a r e divided into three groups, each assigned to guard a particular area: the intake site, the water spout in Thaiba, and in Khonathu (the middle section).The dhalpas a t the intake a r e responsible for the canal section a s far a s Thaiba.The Thaiba dhalpa guards the canal up to the brick factory, and dhalpas staying in Khonathu a r e responsible for the rest of the canal. Each tole has a specific responsibility. Four people from Sunwal tole and four from Peenchen guard the intake. Four dhalpas from Dupat and four from Pilchen toles supervise the middle section, and ten persons from the four remaining toles a r e assigned to Thaiba.The t u r n of the dhalpas is decided by the respective Si Guthi. Their responsibility is to operate the canal and prevent water stealing. The dhalpas staying in Khonathu also have to supervise the distribution of w a t e r in the field.I t is their obligation a s members of t h e Guthi.The dhalpas do not get a n y remuneration for their work.rn the past, there were often incidents of stealing the paddy from the field since the farmers of this area live f a r from their farms. To Prevent this, the farmers from Wachoo Khutwa assigned people to guard the Paddy fields at harvest time. USUallY only 20 g u a r d s were required* The g u a r d s rotated duty.If somebody w a s caught stealing paddy, he or she was handed OVPI-to the brigade for punishment.During the time of drought, farmers from Wachoo Khutwa and Hnrisirlhi visit Naudhara in Godavari to pray to the snake god for wal,er. On that occasion, representatives from each house in Wachoo Khutwa and Flarisidhi g o to worship the snake god. The Fkna government would provide a goat. and money for two Buddhiat Bajracharya priests to worship the snake god in Naudhara, and a goat js sacrificed to t h e goddess Fucha mai in Pulchoki. Then the farmers r e t u r n and walk along the canal, asking for rain. On this occasion, all the members a r e not compelled to attend, but usually everyone would be present.When the monsoon arrived too late for paddy transplantation, the brigade supplied pea seed to h a the land would not remain fallow.~ of the farmers in head area. The farmers of this area mobilize labor for canal repair and operation. Generally, repairing and desilting this part of the canal is less problematic.The farmers a t the head have only a small stretch of the canal to maintain. They usually transplant paddy during the middle of May (first week of Jestha) when the monsoon has not yet started.Therefore, there a r e less chances of changes in the course of the stream, and usually less repairs to the canal are needed.If the canal is damaged, the Guthi members of the area organize for the maintenance of the canal. The leader of Raj Guthi and other members hold a meeting a t which they estimate t h e amount of work needed to make the repairs, divide the duties among the various Guthis, and then make assignments to their own members. The paala relays the division of work assignments to the paalas of the other Guthis in the area, The paala is responsible for informing the members of h i s Guthi and he also keeps the record of absentees. Defaulters a r e fined and the funds raised from fines a r e kept in the Guthi's treasury. The names of those members who have already participated in t h e work a r e reccorded a n d they need not contribute labor again until all the members have contributed.Once all the members and nonmembers of a Guthi fulfill their d u t y the paalas inform another Guthi and i t becomes the responsibility of that Guthi to work in the canal. This continues until all the members of the four Guthis complete their turns. All the members and nonmembers of the four Guthis may not finish their t u r n of duty in a year, in which case the t u r n rotates into the next year.During a drought, the members of these Guthis 8160 worship the rain god in Naudhara of Godavari. If it has not rained by the f i r s t of July (15th of Ashadh) the madae collects money from each member of the four Guthis to pay for the offerings to the rain god, asking for rain for their lands. All members of the Guthi a r e not required to participate in the worship, b u t few farmers miss this event.the head area middle area.sometimes apply more water a t the cost of plantation in theThe dispute is resolved in a public meeting held a t the public court area of Lagankhel. The farmers and public gather to hear the case a s put forth by the respective parties, and the colonel g i v w his dec~sion. If punishment is necessary, the colonel determines what i t should be.The culprit might be locked up in the army camp for several days, or he might be released after giving a written bond. I the colonel of Lalitpur is unable to resolve the problem, he forwards t h e case to the Sundhara Brigade of Kathmandu, which is the headquarters of the three brigades of Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur. Most cases referred to the brigade involved water stealing.Under a program of rehabilitation, the DIHM took over the responsibility for of the system. I t hired government dhalpas and s t aside funds for annual maintenance.Table 1 shows the operation and maintenance expenditure by DIHM for the Kodku system from 1983 to 1986.However, the farmers say that t h e system has deteriorated since government has assumed responsibility for maintenance and operation. The government funds are insufficient to undertake necessary improvements and t h e dhalpas from DIHM do not take full responsibility for the operation and maintenance. When the system was r u n by the farmers a regular schedule for maintenance was followed and everyone knew the dates when the work was to be done. Now the Guthis a r e never s u r e whether DIHM will do t h e repairs and complete them in time. Due to lack of funds, maintenance is sometimes not performed. By the time the farmers realize the problem, it may be too late for agricultural activities. This irrigation system is an old and traditionally community-managed system. The Si Guthis of the Newar ethnic group have been involved in t h e operation and maintenance of the system for a long time.With the intervention of DIHM in 1965 there has been structural improvement in the aystem thereby reducing the burden of labor mobilization to some extent. However, lack of communication between farmers and DIHM dhalpas in the O&M and t h e apathetic attitude of the DIHM dhalpas have affected the effective management of the irrigation system.","tokenCount":"3467"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7599b76654b9af39c320263423d82304","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d0cd748f-0c15-457d-8dfd-803cd022e309/retrieve","id":"-232662929"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5ff309db-107c-46e3-8c01-736baa0c1747","pagecount":"2","content":"The Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA) is a five-year initiative designed to improve the food security and livelihoods of poor families in Sub-Saharan Africa by exploiting the untapped potential of sweetpotato. It will develop the essential capacities, products, and methods to reposition sweetpotato in food economies of Sub-Saharan African countries to alleviate poverty and under-nutrition.   Vitamin A deficiency is rampant in Sub-Saharan Africa, affecting 43 million children under age 5, and contributing to significant rates of blindness, disease, and premature death in children and pregnant women.Sweetpotato is also a valuable source of vitamins B, C, and E, and it contains moderate levels of iron and zinc.The flesh color of sweetpotato ranges from white, cream, and yellow to orange and purple.Sweetpotato in Sub-Saharan Africa is primarily grown on small plots by poor farmers, mainly women.Sweetpotato can grow at altitudes ranging from sea level to 2,500 meters.The importance of sweetpotato as a food crop in Sub-Saharan Africa is growing; at a rate outpacing the growth rate of other staples, such as beans, yams, potato, cassava, rice, maize, and wheat.Part of the growth in sweetpotato production is fueled by the impact of HIV/AIDS, as farm families move to lower labor, lower cost, and lower risk crops, like sweetpotato, in the face of illness, death, and lost resources due to this disease.Better agronomic practices, such as site selection, planting techniques, spacing, weed control, soil fertility, and water management could more than double sweetpotato yields in Sub-Saharan Africa.One of the greatest threats to sweetpotato production is sweetpotato weevil, which often causes losses of 60-100% -during droughts.Sweetpotato is bulky and perishable. Promising pilot efforts are expanding market opportunities through the use of sweetpotato flour, dried chips, juice, and bread as well as its use as animal feed. Investments in improved infrastructure and value chain efficiency could expand sweetpotato markets, including into growing urban markets.","tokenCount":"312"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5e7d35121d72d3b893f96d87ec70dfb6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/About_IWMI/Strategic_Documents/Annual_Reports/2010/Annual_Report_2010.pdf","id":"-1804617546"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1d309fc6-cf30-4822-bd53-7dc71550c441","pagecount":"32","content":"greater impact on food security, environmental sustainability and poverty reduction via more effective mechanisms of delivering outputs to users.Similarly, IWMI welcomed the formation of the Consortium, its Board and the appointment of its Chief Executive Officer and staff. It will be increasingly important for the CGIAR to present a loud and clear, unified response on the key drivers of food security and potential research-based solutions in the major international fora over the coming years, and the Consortium offers us a way to do this to the advantage of all Centers.For IWMI, 2010 was marked as a year in which we continued to grow in terms of funding and staff numbers. Our income, thanks to the generosity and increasing support of several existing donors including the USA, Australia, the Netherlands and Norway, and significant competitive funding success, grew to over USD 30 million. In fact, our ability to target and win external funds over the last three years has seen us increase our success rate in capturing more than one in three of our proposal submissions from a success rate of only one in seven a few years earlier. This has enabled us to strategically continue to expand staffing, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia. Across IWMI as a whole (including hosted partners), we advertised 89 positions. Out of these, 64 were IWMI positions and over half of these were new positions aimed at strengthening our core scientific capabilities.The year 2010 officially marked our 25 th anniversary and was celebrated via a series of events held at our headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and at our regional offices. In a sense, it was also a year to reflect on IWMI's journey from childhood to maturity. In this regard, we consider it highly appropriate that as water resources became increasingly scarce throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Institute had wisely changed its name in 1997 from being the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) to International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Over the last decade, the Institute became more research-oriented, addressing biophysical, economic and social issues relating to water management. This was, once again, a wise move, given the multifaceted dimensions of water governance and management, and increasingDirector General competition for water use between agriculture and other sectors of the economy and the environment.One of our staff remarked that, at maturity, one looks for a partner to share experiences with. IWMI spent considerable effort in 2010 developing appropriate partnerships to work with as part of the proposed CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Water, Land and Ecosystems. This new program, which should commence later this year, will see the critical functions of water, land and ecosystem services that underpin agriculture and food supply brought together in a more integrated fashion than before. It will enable the pooling of knowledge and resources between key Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and external partners, and increase our chances of making Regionally, we formally signed a country hosting agreement with the Lao PDR and have commenced construction of a new wing on the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) Campus in Vientiane. We are extremely appreciative of the efforts from NAFRI and ministry staff in the Lao PDR, who have facilitated these exercises. We also reopened a satellite office in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and are similarly grateful to our hosts there, Comité permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS) and Institut International d'Ingénierie de l'Eau et de l'Environnement (2iE) for their assistance and support.Scientifically, 2010 has been a year of consolidation of work on a number of existing projects. A notable feature is the renewed interest in irrigation, particularly in Asia, as a response to food security concerns. IWMI produced several major reviews and articles on the need to revitalize irrigation in Asia, and presented these at key events and opportunities in the region in Bangkok, Manila and elsewhere. We also critically reviewed and analyzed whether participatory irrigation management experiments throughout Asia had been as successful as people originally thought, and we received mixed reviews. The end of the year was marked with the awarding of a major project, funded by the Netherlands and focusing on improvements in irrigation management in the Punjab and the Northwest Frontier Provinces of Pakistan. In Africa, we have highlighted the lack of water storage and put forward suggestions that will protect communities from the ravages of droughts and climate change. Solutions can be as simple as promoting and encouraging more rainwater harvesting, but also include the construction of small, medium and large dams and greater exploitation of sustainable groundwater storage. This work will be pursued further under the auspices of the CRP on Climate Change, in which we are a major partner. This program was approved by the CGIAR Fund Council late in the year. Given the major flood events of 2010 (Pakistan, China) and early 2011 (Australia, Sri Lanka), we will need to explore whether we need to put more emphasis on both the drought and flood aspects and impacts of climate change on agriculture as part of our future program.Finally, we were delighted that the Deputy Director General-Research, Dr. David Molden, was honored with the annual CGIAR Outstanding Scientist Award at the combined CGIAR and Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) meeting held in Montpellier, France, in March.in Asia, as a response to food security concerns.The CGIAR Science Awards recognize and reward excellence in science. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has acknowledged outstanding performance through awards since 1981.In 2010, Dr. David Molden, Deputy Director General -Research, at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, was the winner of the CGIAR \"Outstanding Scientist of the Year\" Award. The award recognized him for his extraordinary leadership in bringing the issue of water scarcity to prominence in the policy arena worldwide.David Molden spearheaded the framework and coordinated the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, a five-year, first-of-its-kind study, which was a partnership that engaged over 1,000 researchers and practitioners worldwide. At a time when water scarcity, food security and climate change are top items on the agenda, the findings of David Molden and his team are seen as \"benchmark research\" for water, food, livelihoods and the environment. The Assessment provided key policy options for ensuring global food security over the next 50 years.According to David Molden, agriculture is both the cause and solution to many of the world's water problems. Water scarcity is already a constraint to food production in many parts of the world. With today's production and consumption trends, meeting future food demands will require much more water, making livelihood and environmental problems worse. The solutions lie in tapping the unmet potential to grow more food with limited water, and the greatest potential lies within areas of high poverty. Only if we act now to improve water use in agriculture will we meet the acute freshwater challenges facing humankind over the coming fifty years.   For me, the most exciting part of the process was the enthusiasm of researchers from across centers in putting together the suite of proposals. This provided a great opportunity to get together, discuss and debate ideas, and really try to develop something new for the CGIAR. Equally exciting were the regional consultations used to develop CRP5. CRP5 was discussed with partners in Central Asia, the Andes Region, West and Southern Africa, and Southeast Asia, and once again there was true excitement about the possibility of a new way of working within the CGIAR.Against this background of change, IWMI researchers were quite busy on a full agenda this year. Several new significant projects came on board, and several are in the process of being completed and coming out with key results.IWMI is becoming increasingly savvy about methods to enhance uptake of research. We employ a triple approach -working in regions, themes, and through corporate communications to try and make sure results are used. While we recognize that there is ample scope for improvements, IWMI staff are encouraged to ensure that these efforts are having payoffs. This will become increasingly important as we move into CRPs.There was positive news for IWMI in Pakistan. At the end of the year, we were awarded a USD 3.8 million project -from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Pakistan -on revitalizing irrigation in Pakistan. This will boost IWMI's work in Pakistan, which, compared to a vibrant program of ten years ago, has been waning in recent years. With increasing water scarcity and a growing population dependent on irrigation for food security, we feel that we can work with the people of Pakistan to make a difference.To celebrate IWMI's 25 th Anniversary, we held our Annual Research Meeting, bringing together 84 IWMI researchers from around the world. This was a marvelous opportunity to discuss and debate big research ideas. In addition, it was an opportunity to try and bring together thoughts on impact, and the way the Institute operates. What was particularly special about this year's meeting was that many of our previous directors general and board chairs were invited to participate in these discussions. All in all, it was an excellent meeting, had good content, and, best of all, it was fun. • IWMI has taken a new look at water storage, arguing that we will need to consider a range of storage options to contend with water scarcity and climate change. A Blue Paper, \"Water storage in an era of climate change: Addressing the challenge of increasing rainfall variability,\" was presented at the World Water Week in Stockholm and attracted significant media attention.• Improved water management will be critical for climate change adaptation in Sri Lanka. An IWMI Research Report, \"Impacts of climate change on water resources and agriculture in Sri Lanka: A review and preliminary vulnerability mapping,\" based on climate change analysis and vulnerability assessment in Sri Lanka, led to significant publicity and was presented to the Minister of Disaster Management of Sri Lanka at the National Disaster Adaptation Forum.• Results from the Agricultural Water Management Solutions Project made the case for increased focus on small-scale irrigation in Ethiopia, which has now been taken as a priority area by the newly created Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency.• IWMI organized the West Africa Irrigation Symposium, held in Ouagadougou in December. This was the first time representatives from all 14 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) came together to discuss the status of irrigation and hold brainstorming sessions to find solutions to underperformance. The importance of groundwater irrigation as a major opportunity emerged, as well as the recognition of private and small-scale investment by farmers as a main driver in irrigation development.• IWMI and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) produced a special issue \"Improving water productivity of crop-livestock systems in drought-prone regions,\" which was published in the journal, Experimental Agriculture. Six articles in this issue were led by an IWMI project together with PhD and MSc students from Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.• IWMI's material on wastewater was used for the production of international public goods, including guidelines and contributions to reports on wastewater for the World Bank, the State of the World report, and for the development of guidance notes on the safe use of wastewater by the World Health Organization.• Work by the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) was used to set agricultural investment priorities by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and ministers of agriculture in the region. Water investments are now highlighted on the agenda.• IWMI's work has brought together elected officials to cooperatively manage small transboundary rivers in Central Asia as an alternative to failed basin-scale approaches.• Pioneering gender mapping was developed both as a tool to target technologies and to raise awareness.• IWMI scientists have questioned the utility of water footprinting and \"virtual water\" as a policy concept, bringing renewed debate to these issues.• The report, \"Water management: Questions and answers to farmers,\" was released in eight Indian regional languages to get messages out on how to increase water productivity.As the South Asian partner of the Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF), IWMI is supporting poor urban and peri-urban farmers in the production and marketing of their produce. In close collaboration with the authorities of Gampaha, Sri Lanka, the project supported the establishment of farmer associations to address the unique needs of urban and peri-urban producers. At the outset, capacities of 100 farmers were enhanced through innovations in urban farming practices, development of urban farmer field schools, internal lending and revolving fund schemes, social security schemes, book keeping, and documentation. Marketing strategies for the sale of their produce have been developed, through which they are able to collect produce from the neighborhoods, and gather revenue for themselves and also for the association.A multi-stakeholder forum was formed to identify key issues for action planning. The forum developed a City Strategy Agenda to support urban farming and secure governmental funding, for example, for waste recycling, household compost generation, biogas production and seedling production. IWMI helped draft a policy revision document which has now been accepted by the Western Provincial Council and is being debated with other provincial councilors to be presented to the national government.Effective gravity irrigation systems are a bit more complex than running a pipe down the side of a hill. Farmers with small vegetable plots in the Hill Region of Uttarakhand State in India know this only too well. For them, the big problem is storage. IWMI researchers and partners have been experimenting with various combinations of ponds and tanks so that farmers can store and manage water to maximize benefits. With water for dry-season irrigation, yields of vegetables have increased 30 to 40%, and incomes have also increased, on average, by 20%. Because these systems are using locally available materials, the initial investment is low and the payback period is relatively short. The benefits have been sufficiently impressive which has led to farmers from neighboring villages expressing their interest.IWMI Senior Fellow, Tushaar Shah, has been an active advocate of groundwater and irrigation reform in India for many years. In June, Shah addressed experts attending a global conference on groundwater and agrarian livelihoods. His keynote speech dealt with lessons from South Asia's experience with groundwater irrigation and livelihoods promotion for policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa. The three-day event brought together leading scientists, policy analysts, policymakers and decision makers, and agricultural and environmental stakeholder groups to define and highlight the science, challenges, and potential policy solutions in agricultural groundwater resources management and groundwater quality protection that will provide a sustainable future at regional, national and global scales. The conference received wide media coverage and further strengthens IWMI's position as a leader in the global discourse on groundwater and irrigation.Closer to home, Shah addressed a brainstorming session of the Government of India on \"Revising the National Water Policy\" which was hosted by the Ministry of Water Resources. In January, he made a presentation to the pre-budget consultation meeting of the Finance Minister and officials of the Ministry in New Delhi. The topic of his presentation was, \"Outline of National Groundwater Recharge Program.\" He is currently Chair of the Planning Commission's Working Group on Major and Medium Irrigation and Command Area Development for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. This was an outcome of an earlier invitation from the Planning Commission to develop a paper on the 'Future of Canal Irrigation in India'. Shah's track record demonstrates the value of good relationships, timing and a clear message in the policy arena.IWMI has been a partner in the three-year \"Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project\" carried out by Wetlands International. Researchers have been aiming to better understand how wetland conservation initiatives can help improve livelihoods by reviewing ten case studies, including five in Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mali and Malawi-Zambia). The case studies illustrated how improving livelihoods and conserving wetlands can go hand in hand. One case study looked at how dambos (wet, grassy depressions where water seeps to the surface) can be farmed sustainably to improve livelihoods. The demonstration project staff worked with local people at each site to provide training in soil and water management practices. The project's 'functional landscape' approach helped villagers understand how the dambo functioned within the broader environment, and the need to manage the landscape as a holistic system. IWMI's review showed that by the end of the two-year program, villagers had improved food security during the dry months, improved nutrition as a result of cultivation of a greater variety of crops, and were able to save money to invest in education and health. Project staff helped create local institutions to act asIWMI Annual Report 2010 multi-stakeholder platforms for resolving conflicts and planning, and to sustain management efforts once the project was completed. Many of the project findings are of interest to wetland specialists and researchers working on balancing biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction in other ecosystems. In addition to informing wetlands policy, publication of the case studies is being used by students and course developers in South Africa and the UK, teachers and researchers in Kenya, Thailand and India, and also Birdlife International and the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment.Commune agro-ecosystems analysis (CAEA) is a participatory approach designed to help communities improve decision making at the commune (subdistrict) level. Initiated in Cambodia in 2001, it focused mainly on agricultural issues. The freshwater fisheries sector, which is closely linked to agriculture, had not been adequately addressed.To better integrate fisheries considerations into the CAEA process, the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) initiated a project titled \"Adaptive, Participatory and Integrated Assessment and Agro-ecosystem Analysis to Support Decisionmaking for Water Allocation for Fisheries and Agriculture in the Tonle Sap Wetland System.\" The project significantly improved the way fisheries issues are addressed and the use of CAEA has been officially adopted as a national policy for agricultural development. The revised CAEA guidance manual has also shown potential for having wider uptake and a number of tools have been used by several other projects within Cambodia as well as in Lao PDR.Over the past few years, the Government of Thailand has taken up recommendations, presented in a joint report by IWMI researchers and Thailand's Land Development Department (LDD), on long-term solutions to cadmium contamination. This entailed taking land impacted by cadmium contamination out of production of crops for human consumption and converting this land to alternative productions systems. A bioethanol plant has been built by the government with support from a mining company implicated in the contamination. The plant, which uses sugarcane as feedstock, provided a clean source of alternative energy while putting previously unproductive land back into good use.Staff involved in the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program are working to overcome problems with drip irrigation systems in the State of Tamil Nadu in India. Farmers were eager to try drip irrigation but were disappointed when crop yields were less than expected. Researchers quickly identified the solution: more training in basic operation and maintenance. Working with university scientists, drip irrigation experts, agricultural extension officers and farmers, training teams spend 2-3 days in a village training a core group of farmers. Training includes water budgeting and composting. To date, over 600 farmers have been trained. The intention is that once trained in the basic operation and maintenance, these farmers will become local experts and resource persons. Yields and water savings have increased from 15-25% under different farmer groups. In total, 1,000 farmers will be trained. The upscaling effect of this training exercise is expected to be 5-10 times this number following completion of the program.The Ghana Dams Dialogue (GDD) is the first successful dialogue on dam development in West Africa. It was created in 2006 with the objective of supporting public policy development and providing tools for improved decision-making on dam-related issues. The Dialogue has had an impact on informed decision-making and sustainable planning and management of dams in Ghana, by providing a platform for key stakeholders to discuss issues and problems and find ways to address negative impacts. The platform has helped consolidate the communities from different dam-affected areas, hydropower authorities, and government ministries and other organizations into one association, by facilitating a transparent and non-confrontational dialogue. It has provided a mechanism for supporting research and sharing scientific information among and between researchers, policymakers, policy implementers, the private sector and people from dam-affected communities. In the process, the capacities of people in dam-affected communities have been strengthened, enabling them to better articulate their needs. The platform has helped to diffuse tensions between stakeholders and has paved the way for more effective interactions in the future.A recent evaluation of the GDD found a vibrant and functional national network on sustainable dam development. Stakeholder analysis demonstrated a high commitment among partners to take the Dialogue into an impact-oriented fourth phase, and that stakeholders are supportive of the proposed institutional growth of the Dialogue process. The evaluators acknowledged IWMI for dedicating staff to host and strengthen the GDD Secretariat. Other achievements of the GDD process include the International Hydropower Association's Sustainability Assessment Protocol incorporating recommendations from Dialogue participants. Another highlight was the appointment of IWMI staff member, Dr. Liqa Raschid-Sally, Project Leader of the GDD, as the Development Chief of the Ghanaian Bui Community. IWMI's involvement has led to further requests for support in policy formulation and dialogue facilitation. I WMI's Board of Governors has the responsibility for ensuring that an appropriate risk management process is in place to identify and manage high and significant risks for achievement of the Institute's business objectives, and to ensure alignment with CGIAR principles and guidelines which have been adopted by all CGIAR Centers. These risks include operational, financial and reputational risks that are inherent in the nature, modus operandi and location of the Institute's activities, and are dynamic as the environment in which the Institute operates changes. They represent the potential for loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes or systems, human factors, or external events. They include misallocation of scientific efforts away from agreed priorities; loss of reputation for scientific excellence and integrity; business disruption and information system failure; liquidity problems; transaction processing failures; loss of assets including information assets; failures to recruit, retain and effectively utilize qualified and experienced staff; failures in staff health and safety systems; failures in the execution of legal, fiduciary and agency responsibilities; and low impact scientific activities.The Board has adopted a risk management policy, communicated to all staff, that includes a framework by which the Institute's management identifies, evaluates and prioritizes risks and opportunities across the organization; develops risk mitigation strategies which balance benefits with costs; monitors the implementation of these strategies; and periodically reports to the Board on results. This process will draw upon risk assessments and analysis prepared by the Institute's staff, internal auditors, Institute-commissioned external reviewers, and the external auditors. The risk assessments will also incorporate the results of collaborative risk assessments with other CGIAR Centers, System Office components and other entities in relation to shared risks arising from jointly managed activities. The risk management framework seeks to draw upon best practice promoted in codes and standards promulgated in a number of CGIAR member countries, and it is subject to ongoing review as part of the Institute's continuous improvement effort.Risk mitigation strategies include the implementation of systems of internal control which, by their nature, are designed to manage rather than eliminate the risk. The Institute endeavors to manage risk by ensuring that the appropriate infrastructure, controls, systems and people are in place throughout the organization. Key practices employed in managing risks and opportunities include business environmental scans, clear policies and accountabilities, transaction approval frameworks, financial and management reporting and the monitoring of metrics which are designed to highlight positive or negative performance of individuals and business processes across a broad range of key performance areas.The design and effectiveness of the risk management system and internal controls is subject to ongoing review by IWMI's internal audit service, which is independent of business units and reports on the results of its audits directly to the Director General and the Board through the Board's Audit Committee.   ","tokenCount":"4018"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"32cba4470854eb4c88fc9447add776b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H046135.pdf","id":"-1833453159"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"61cef3a0-2894-43a3-9fc8-0eb1d165a94b","pagecount":"79","content":"The report is the third in of a series of three reports being developed as part of an IWMI-led project investigating water resources and livelihoods in the Dry Zone of Myanmar. The overall objective of the project is to provide information on water resources and management which can serve as input to the formulation of a LIFT Dry Zone program, which will run from 2013 to 2016. The study had three main components:• A water resources assessment (surface and groundwater) of availability and current use of water resources, and patterns, trends and variability at different spatial and temporal scales.• Community survey to evaluate issues of water availability, access and management for different livelihood types in 24 local communities, including evaluation of institutional arrangements in relation to farming strategies and water management practices• Review and analysis of existing program investments in water in the Dry Zone This report synthesizes results, analyses existing investment patterns and outcomes, and makes recommendations for priority areas for future investment.The heterogeneity of the Dry Zone in terms of physical environment, farming systems, access to water and infrastructure results in significant differences in development opportunities and priorities between villages, even over quite small distances. This means that there are no blanket solutions: the details of water-related interventions must be shaped with each community. It is important that water interventions are embedded into broader village livelihood strategies and take account of the full range of uses, rather than a focus on domestic supply separate to other needs.Existing studies and agencies working in the area emphasize that there is good understanding of issues and potential solutions within local communities and agencies. The need is not so much for new technologies, but for approaches to support implementation; and refinement and targeting of known technologies.We propose consideration of water-related interventions in five domains; for each we have identified opportunities and priorities, as well as factors constraining implementation, knowledge gaps and potential entry points for LIFT.Formal irrigation schemes: Even though the availability of water is not constraining, the effectiveness of existing formal irrigation is often low, due to a complex mix of physical, technical, policy and institutional challenges. It is recommended that before LIFT engages in major rehabilitation programs or construction of new irrigation schemes, an assessment is needed of issues impeding the effectiveness of current schemes.• Working with government to clarify policies relating to irrigation and water resource management and how these align with agricultural development policies• Assessment of the relative effectiveness of different modes of irrigation (gravity schemes, Pumped Irrigation Projects, groundwater) in terms of water and energy productivity as well as impacts on yields, farm incomes and livelihoods, at two levels: a comparative assessment across existing large schemes; and community based analysis of requirements and outcomes at village level.• A trial of the 'golongan' system of water delivery management to rationalise water delivery in existing scheme, as an entry point for LIFT to work with government to better link water resources planning with crop planning.We recommend that groundwater investment should focus on two areas: securing village / domestic supplies using tube wells; and supporting development of smallscale supplementary irrigation. If properly located deep tube wells provide reliable, high quality water in all seasons for domestic use, with benefits for the whole community. Farmers are already adopting groundwater irrigation using shallow tube wells in rainfed areas, and also within irrigation command areas where there are shortfalls in supply. Our analysis suggests that an additional 110,000 to 330,000 ha of groundwater irrigation could be developed sustainably. A mix of technical and financial support is needed to overcome high establishment costs.• Technical support, through WRUD and / or relevant NGOs to identify priority areas for groundwater use (based on resource assessment -see Section 5.5)• An inventory (database and maps) of existing wells and utilization, including water quality data (salinity, arsenic)• Support for motorised deep tube wells for village (domestic and livestock) supplies• Business models for communities to install and operate village pumps for domestic supplies, including private investors, village water committees• Program to promote use of shallow tube-wells for small-scale supplementary groundwater irrigation (GWI) for a range of cropping systems including rainfed areas, and conjunctive use to supplement shortfalls within irrigation schemes o Business models for small-scale GWI, including shared investment between small groups of farmers, and supply of water by private investors o Agronomic advice: extension services to help farmers make best use of irrigation through crop choice and in-field water management (e.g. drip irrigation, mulching etc) o Work with NGOs (e.g. Proximity) to develop and market appropriate and affordable pumps and equipment• Microfinance or loans to communities and individuals for pumps and equipment • Regional monitoring network, possibly using community monitoring of wells, as input to groundwater assessments (see Section 5.5)Small reservoirs for rainwater harvesting and storage: emerge as the preferred option for improving water supplies for villages in many contexts in the Dry Zone. They are a simple, proven technology, but type, design and siting of such reservoirs are very specific to each location. Key constraints for effective adoption of small reservoirs are cost of construction; and commitment of communities to on-going maintenance.• There is potential to scale up existing projects to construct and/or renovate village ponds, small reservoirs and sand dams, being implemented by NGOs including ActionAid, Solidarity International, Proximity and ADRA. Prior to scaling up, a preliminary review should be conducted of outcomes of the projects, including sustainability of structures and maintenance.• Technical support and guidelines for improvements in design, including suitable soil types and locations, and ways to capitalise on the potential to use seepage from RWH structures to recharge shallow aquifers• Watershed management programs in catchment areas of reservoirs to protect inflows and water quality.• Economic analyses of costs involved in construction, maintenance, rehabilitation of RWH infrastructure and evaluation of existing RWH technology, including siltation and lifespan of the structures Soil and water conservation: though not a priority from village consultations, are important in three contexts: reducing and repairing land degradation; protection of infrastructure from sediment damage; and managing water effectively in rainfed systems at both field and watershed scales. The emphasis is on working across scales to slow the movement of water through the landscape, to enhance infiltration and availability of water, and reduce erosion. The most serious constraints are getting the necessary buy-in from higher levels of government to coordinate programs across large areas; and developing mechanisms to motivate communities to participate in such activities.• At farm scale, agronomic extension programs should include information and advice on SWC techniques; and targeted subsidies or incentives may be appropriate.• At village scale: watershed management should form an essential component of pond construction and rehabilitation, with opportunities for local employment and income benefits.• At watershed scale, LIFT could play a role in engaging Government (though Forestry Department and Irrigation Department) to evaluate and re-invigorate or redesign existing watershed management programs at national level. This could include collaboration with Irrigation and Forestry Departments for sediment studies in existing reservoirs, and followup studies on programs initiated in the 1990s under UNCCD.Water resources planning and information: Evidence-based decision making is currently hindered by both the lack of water-related data and its inaccessibility. The development of a comprehensive data management system would make a significant contribution to evidence based decision making.It is essential that the development of such a water data management system is a government \"owned\" process.• Support collaboration between Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MOAI) and Department of Meteorology and Hydrology to collate existing information on surface water availability (river monitoring, dam location and levels etc) and water utilization.• Support a Dry Zone scoping study to evaluate the potential for establishing an effective water-related monitoring and data management system as a first step in a comprehensive nationwide undertaking, encompassing all relevant government and non-government agencies.• Work with WRUD, Department of Development Affairs (DDA) and the Department of Geological Survey & Mineral Exploration, Ministry of Mines to -Update, finalise and publish the draft maps of hydrogeology of the Dry Zone compiled by Drury (1986) -Extend work by Min Oo and Thein (2013) in Nyaung-U township, combining Remote Sensing and GIS methods to assess groundwater potential, to the entire Dry Zone -Commission strategic research on groundwater recharge processes and dynamics for the major aquifers -Conduct a structured survey of well-drilling companies and individuals to capture informal local knowledge of the location, extent and reliability of groundwater resources -Collaborate with relevant government agencies in collating a database of groundwater wells, building from data held in local WRUD offices (above)1 IntroductionThis study, on \"Sustainable Management of Water to Improve Food Security and Livelihoods in the Dry Zone of Myanmar\", was commissioned by LIFT as input to designing its programs for 2013-15.The Dry Zone of Myanmar is the most water stressed regions of the country and also one of the most food insecure. Of the total population of 10.1 million people in 54 townships of the Dry Zone (MIMU 2013), approximately 43% live in poverty and 40-50% of the rural population is landless (JICA, 2010). The extreme variability of rainfall, high intensities, limited rainfall events in the growing season and poor spatial and temporal variability is believed to be a major constraint to rural livelihoods and hence an underlying contributor to the poverty of many households.Water related concerns are known to have a strong bearing on food insecurity and low incomes in the Dry Zone, so LIFT commissioned a rapid review of access to and management of water resources as input to the formulation of a LIFT program for the Dry Zone in 2013-15. The aim or the study was to identify priority interventions in the water sector that could improve the livelihoods of rural communities, both smallholders and those without access to land, and that have potential to benefit a significant number of people.The Dry Zone faces two main challenges in the context of water: reliable supply of safe water for drinking and domestic purposes; and access to water to sustainably increase agricultural production, food security and incomes.The study aimed to identify:• key issues with regards to water availability, access and management;• existing activities being undertaken to address these issues • priority actions (i.e. targeted interventions) to improve access to and management of water This is the third of three reports produced from the study, as follows.• Water Resource Assessment of the Dry Zone of Myanmar (McCartney et al., 2013) • Community Survey on Water Access, Availability and Management Issues in the Dry Zone of Myanmar (Senaratna Sellamuttu et al., 2013) • Synthesis of findings and recommendations to .This report synthesizes results, analyses existing investment patterns and outcomes, and makes recommendations for priority areas for future investment. Section 2 outlines methods and approaches used. Section 3 summarizes the main agro-ecosystems and livelihood typologies on which the assessment is based, and the main problems and strategies within each zone. Section 4 outlines the potential interventions identified from a range of sources, including a review of existing programs. Section 5 identifies opportunities and priorities for water related interventions, including main factors constraining implementation; knowledge gaps; and potential entry points for LIFT. Section 6 summarizes recommendations for consideration by LIFT.2 Approach and MethodologyInternationally, there is a very extensive literature on both research and implementation of interventions to improve water management, with a wealth of information on technologies and approaches that have been trialled in different regions and under a range of conditions. Some important insights have emerged from these studies, which provide the conceptual framework for this assessment, summarized as follows:Technologies are only part of the solution. In many cases, the constraining factor in improving water management is not the technology to be implemented, but how to do it effectively over the long term. Livelihoods are more than farming, and depend on a broad range of ecosystem services. The use and value of water in supporting ecosystems must be considered in planning and management, within wetlands and rivers but also in the broader landscape (TEEB 2010).As pumping technologies have become affordable and accessible, there has been a shift away from formal gravity-fed irrigation schemes towards small-scale, individual pumping from both surface and groundwater sources -the \"atomisation\" of irrigation. Farmer managed pumping provides significant advantages in terms of flexibility, reliability and simple operation and maintenance (Mukherji et al 2010).Conjunctive use and management of surface and groundwater increase options for water use, and provide better overall control, efficiency in use and productivity (Evans and Evans 2012). Recharge, retention, and re-use of shallow groundwater can add substantially to the increment of water available for use. By managing water at landscape scales to maximise retention and recharge, it is possible to extend the chain of water use and reuse within a basin, including ecosystem uses (van Steenbergen and Tuinhof 2010).Managing water by managing land. Land degradation changes the way water moves through a catchment, increasing the runoff rate and decreasing sub-surface flow and retention in the soil profile. Reversing land degradation is an essential step in improving water productivity, particularly in low-yielding rainfed systems (CA 2010).This project applied an approach to water investment planning developed under the AgWater Solutions project (awm-solutions.iwmi.org). This approach focuses first on livelihoods, to define the water needs of rural people and the input points where water can make a substantial contribution to reducing risk, improving incomes and food security; then looks for ways to meet those needs, within the constraints of the physical and socio-economic context. The study has five main components:• A water resources assessment (surface and groundwater) of availability and current use of water resources, and the patterns, trends and variability at different spatial and temporal scales.• Community survey to evaluate issues of water availability, access and management for different livelihood types in 24 local communities, including analysis of current interventions and how successful they have been in improving livelihoods and food security.• Evaluation of institutional arrangements in relation to farming strategies and water management practices• Review of existing studies and programs, to establish the main livelihood patterns, waterrelated issues, and current investments in water at a regional scale. This included mapping of agro-ecosystems of the Dry Zone using multi-temporal satellite data to distinguish cropping patterns, as an input to spatial delineation of livelihood zones.• Analysis, synthesis and formulation of recommendations.A consultation workshop was held with 40 participants representing key partners and stakeholders in the Dry Zone, including members of the Food Security Working Group (FSWG), government agencies and NGOs (REF to workshop report). This was followed up with individual interviews with groups working in water-related programs in the Dry Zone (Appendix 5). The WRA comprised consultations and a desk study undertaken by IWMI in partnership with the National Engineering and Planning Services (NEPS), a local NGO. Hydro-meteorology and other water-related data were collected from government departments, and supplemented by regional and global datasets (e.g. rainfall data from the Aphrodite database and river flow data from the Global Runoff Data Centre, Google Earth Images and MODIS evaporation data).Rainfall data from the global Aphrodite database were analysed using statistical methods to characterize spatial variations and temporal trends in the main rainfall features of the Dry Zone.Available (sparse) data on flows in the Chindwin and Irrawaddy were used to characterize flow variability; and data on infrastructure compiled to estimate water storage in large and small reservoirs. A map of irrigated areas was derived using simple visual inspection of Google Earth images from Nov 2011 -April 2012; and compared with estimates of irrigated areas from other sources (MOAI, FAO and JICA). Irrigation water requirements in the Dry Zone were estimated using MODIS 16 evapotranspiration data for 3 locations in the north, central and south of the Dry Zone.Hydrogeological data and information on groundwater use and recharge as well as water quality were compiled, as the basis for an assessment of groundwater potential and sustainability at regional scale.A community level survey of 24 villages in the Dry Zone was conducted to ascertain local water availability for different uses and opportunities and constraints to access and manage water as perceived by local people. Four villages in each of six townships were selected, based on a combination of factors including irrigable area, location (as a proxy for agro-climate), the presence or absence of existing LIFT projects, rainfall shocks (\"stressed\" versus \"non-stressed\" villages) and irrigation source. Three focus group discussions (FDGs) were conducted in each village, with 8-10 participants in each group, as follows:• FGD 1: with community leaders on general background and water resources in the village • FGD 2: with marginal farmers on water access, availability and management • FGD 3: with landless farmers on water access, availability and management.In addition, a short questionnaire on groundwater to derive a general understanding of the nature of groundwater irrigation technologies and associated socio-economic factors was administered to a small purposive sample of seven well owners (six owned tube wells and one owned a dug well).Case studies of groundwater use in different context were described in detail; and the socioeconomic impacts of adopting groundwater irrigation were analysed based on a survey of 7 farmers in different areas.Institutional analysis is derived from an in-depth case study analysis using a purposive sample including three villages in Sagaing township with different levels of access to water (Ta Ein Tel, De Pa Yin Kwal, and Taung Yin). Focus group discussions and key information interviews were conducted in each of the three villages. In addition, 11 key informant interviews were conducted in townships in Sagaing (Sagaing, Taze), Mandalay (Nyaung-U, KyaukPaDaung), and two townships in Magwe region (Minbu, Taungdwingyi), with staff from the Water Resources Utilization Department (WRUD), Irrigation Department, Myanmar Agricultural Service (MAS), and Network Activity Group (NAG). Data gathered during the field research were complemented with literature review.3 Water and livelihoods in the Dry ZoneAlthough the Dry Zone is often considered a relatively homogeneous region of low rainfall and limited topographic relief, it hosts diverse agro-ecologies, farming systems and socio-economic conditions. The farming systems of the Dry Zone are a complex mixture of paddy cultivation, nonrice crops (pulses, oilseeds, vegetable and others) and large and small livestock. Traditionally in Myanmar, land is described in terms of suitability for different types of cultivation (see Box 1), with the main distinction between le (paddy) and ya (dryland). Dry Zone systems on all land types are characterised by a variety of forms of mixed cropping, intercropping, relay and phased plantings and rotations using a wide range of crops, representing skilful adaptation to low rainfall conditions (Kahan 1999). Cropping under rainfed conditions in the Dry Zone is high risk, and access to water for irrigation is a major determinant of the options available to farmers, to secure the wet season crop and allow reliable cultivation of a second crop.Previous studies have emphasized the importance of recognizing and working with this diversity in formulating development programs (Cools 1995, Kahan 1999, JICA 2010). To describe this variability, and to provide a basis for extrapolating results from the village survey, we defined agroecosystems, as follows:• A: intensively farmed croplands (le) with access to irrigation in all seasons • B: croplands with access to supplementary irrigation (includes le and kaing-kyung lands)• C: rainfed areas (ya lands)-mixed cropping and grazing o C1 -rainfed lowland cropping o C2 -rainfed uplands (mixed grazing and cropping)This definition draws on typologies described in previous studies (JICA 2010;Kahan 1999), and also reflects the sampling frame used in the village survey in Report 2.Delineating these agro-ecologies spatially is not simple, as they form a complex mosaic depending on soil type, topography and access to water and all may occur within the territory of a single village. However, in broad terms, areas can be delineated where specific agro-ecologies dominate. We propose delineation of agro-ecosystems on the basis of cropping patterns determined from MODIS imagery, based on the length and intensity of seasonal greening -Figure 3.1. Appendix 2 sets out details of the methods used in deriving the map. Note that the agro-ecosystems map should be considered an exploratory product, which requires validation. Taung-Ya (shifting cultivation) : land in hilly areas under shifting cultivation. Crops are grown only in the rainy season. Upland rice is a major crop but maize, sesame, soybean and vegetables are also grown.(JICA 2010)Zone A: Intensive lowland cropping with access to dry season irrigation Extent and location: Irrigated areas, with access to water all year (for summer, monsoon and winter crops), are found mainly within formal irrigation schemes, including major schemes in Minbu, Kyauske and Ye-U / Shewbo; and a number of smaller schemes, particularly pumped irrigation systems long the Irrawaddy and Chindwin Rivers. Irrigation is usually developed on le lands, with higher agricultural potential, though some schemes report problems with sandy soils. Estimates for the extent of irrigated area vary (see Table A4.1 in Appendix 4): IWMI mapping of 0.267 m ha, specifically for the year 2011/12 represents a lower bound. JICA (2010) estimated total Dry Zone irrigated area at 0.38m ha (5% of total area and 12% of cultivated land).Livelihood options: Cultivation of monsoon paddy is almost always an activity for landed farmers. This is usually followed by two post monsoon crops (sesame, green gram, cotton, groundnut, green pea). Marginal farmers usually grow a pre-monsoon crop (groundnut, gram, pigeon peas), followed by a monsoon crop (sesame or rice). Marginal farmers mostly keep cattle, goats and poultry; while for the landless, poultry and pigs are important livelihood options.Issues with water sources: Formal dry season surface irrigation has high operation and maintenance costs, which are often unrecovered by WRUD due to subsidized water fees. Thus these systems are not regularly maintained. Canals, apart from the main lines, tend to be unlined, leading to high water losses. Due to shortage of electricity, water can often not be pumped at the appropriate time in pumped systems. Sediment loads in rivers can also adversely affect irrigation performance and costs. Thus farmers often have to deal with gaps in irrigation schedule, with farmers at the tail end often not getting enough water. The water source for livestock and domestic use is mostly the same: private manual wells are used by landed, marginal and landless farmers. River water is an important source for marginal and landless farmers. Wells are more secure options, while river water can be harder to access in the dry season.Coping strategies: Landed farmers may use groundwater through motorized and manual tube wells to supplement water from formal irrigation interventions, or during unexpected dry spells. Marginal farmers are unable to do so, since they are not as well off to afford private solutions. Landed and marginal farmers also resort to pawning or selling assets such as land, jewellery and livestock to tide them over reduced yields either due to dry spells in the monsoon season, or due to droughts in the dry season. Landless farmers are also more likely to reduce consumption during dry spells. Pawning and selling assets is also done to cope with floods. With respect to livestock, goats, pigs and poultry are often preferred over cattle, which is more suited to the environment. Landed farmers tend to be relatively less water-insecure. Marginal farmers may rely on dug wells to water livestock when regular sources are stressed. Landless farmers often rely on the patronage of landed farmers in the village, who may share their water sources during stressed times.Survey villages in zone A: Mandalay: Nwar Kyoe Aing, Ohn Hne Chaung Sagaing: De Pa Yin Kwal; Ta Ein Tel; Sarr TaungLocation and extent: supplemental irrigation is usually developed on lands with higher agricultural potential (le lands). Sources of water for supplemental irrigation are diverse and can include more than one source per village: an irrigation scheme functioning only in the monsoon season; groundwater; or a rainwater storage pond. Irrigation is mostly used to grow a second crop at the beginning or end of the monsoon, or to limit the impact of dry spells or drought on the main crop; summer cropping is limited. Based on agro-ecosystem mapping, we estimate that supplemental irrigation may be used on around 9% of total land area (0.73 m ha), including kaing-kyung lands, with the highest occurrence in Shewbo, Kyaukse and Thayet districts.Livelihood options: monsoon paddy is common, but other crops may be grown, including sesame, green pea or green gram in the monsoon, followed by a post monsoon crop of groundnut, chickpeas, or pigeon peas. Marginal farmers grow a monsoon crop of pigeon peas, groundnut, rice or sesame,.Poultry and goats are more important assets than cattle for both marginal and landless farmers, with pigs forming an important option for the landless.Issues with water sources: Landed and marginal farmers mostly use tube wells with pumps for irrigation. Electric pumps, while more reliable, have higher fixed costs as they are expensive. While electricity is subsidized, it is in short supply. Diesel pumps have lower fixed costs, but the price of diesel is rising, making the variable costs high. Not much is known about the quality of groundwater in Myanmar; this lack of information increases the risk of choosing an inappropriate site to install a tube well. Shallow tube wells are cheaper to dig than deeper ones, but are also more likely to suffer from water quality issues. Unconstrained pumping may lead to depletion of the groundwater resource. The water source for livestock and domestic use is mostly the same, with private manual wells used by landed, marginal and landless farmers.Coping strategies: Farmers tend to rely on cropping patterns as a coping strategy, often not growing rice, and instead choosing to grow sesame during the monsoons. They may buy water from landed farmers with private wells during severe dry spells in the rainy season, depending on the stage of cultivation at which they crop is. As in areas with dry season irrigation, landed and marginal farmers also resort to pawning or selling assets such as land, jewellery and livestock to tide them over reduced yields either due to dry spells in the monsoon season, or due to droughts in the dry season. Landless farmers are also more likely to reduce consumption during dry spells. Pawning and selling assets is also done to cope with floods. With respect to livestock, landed farmers tend to be relatively secure, with farmers using irrigation water for watering livestock during severed dry spells.Marginal and landless farmers may rely on the patronage of landed farmers in the village, who may share their water sources during stressed times.Survey villages in zone B: Magwe: Yae Twin Kone, Kone Thar, Kyauk Tan; Ma Hti San Pya, Tha Phan Kone Sagaing: Daung Gyi, Kan Du Ma, Pa KarLocation and extent: Rainfed croplands constitutes the major part of the Dry Zone (from the agroecosystem mapping, around 50% of total land area). Conditions vary in terms of soils, topography and rainfall: rainfall in the central dry zone is both lower and less reliable than in the townships around the periphery (see Report 1).Livelihood options: Landed and marginal farmers may grow two crops a year, often practicing mixed cropping. The most common crops consist of groundnut (pre-monsoon to monsoon; monsoon to post monsoon); green gram (post monsoon), pigeon peas (pre-monsoon to post monsoon), sesame (monsoon), beans (winter) and sunflower (monsoon). Poultry and goats are more important assets than cattle for both marginal and landless farmers, with pigs forming an important option for the landless.Issues with water sources: Untimely or inadequate amount of rainfall leaves farmers particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather, with landed and marginal farmers experiencing low crop yields. Public wells and ponds are the most important source of water for livestock and domestic use. During dry spells, ponds may dry up, putting more pressure on groundwater, and leave the landless especially vulnerable.Coping strategy: Cropping patterns tend to be more diverse, with farmers often preferring to grow pulses and oilseeds in mixed cropping. During severe dry spells, marginal and landless farmers may take their children out of school to supervise livestock, while they find casual work to supplement household incomes. Landed and marginal farmers also resort to pawning or selling assets such as land, jewellery and livestock to tide them over reduced yields either due to dry spells in the monsoon season, or due to droughts in the dry season. Landless farmers are also more likely to reduce consumption during dry spells. Pawning and selling assets are also done to cope with floods.In comparison to areas with dry season and supplemental irrigation, farmers in rainfed areas are the worst hit during seasons of water scarcity. They may have to buy water from farmers in other villages, and transport barrels of water on bullock cart. The landless are worst hit; often not owning a bullock cart, the costs of procuring water during stressed times are the highest for this subcategory.Survey villages in zone C1: Mandalay: In Taw, Chaung Phyar Magwe: Let Tet, Taik Pwe Sagaing: Bay YinLocation and extent: a mosaic of shrublands used for grazing and small areas of dryland crops, mostly on sloping lands. This system comprises some of the poorest areas in the Dry Zone and is concentrated in, but not restricted to, the topographic uplands (shown in Figure 3.1 as the crosshatched area, with elevation above 250m). This pattern is typical of the uplands of the Bago Hills, a range of low sandstone hills with sandy soils of generally low agricultural productivity, and low rainfall.Livelihood patterns: The proportion of cultivated land is low; and grazing of livestock (mainly goats) is an important component of livelihoods. Rainfed cropping of includes groundnuts, pulses and oilseeds, cotton and small areas of upland rice. Yields in lands of poor quality (sloping, eroded or with gravelly soils) may be half or less than flat lands in the same area (Cools 1995), and larger farms are needed to make a sustainable living. Previously, shifting cultivation was common in some areas, particularly in southern and western Magwe division, but over the last 20 years much of this has converted to permanent cultivation.Issues with water sources: poor soils and sloping lands mean farmers are very vulnerable to low and variable rainfall. In these areas, total crop failure is common in years of low rainfall. During the dry season, public wells and ponds / small dams are the most important source of water for livestock and domestic use. Soils are generally poor and sandy; identifying suitable sites for surface storages can be difficult and widespread erosion in sloping lands results in sedimentation of dams.Coping strategies: Livelihood options are limited in these areas, and poverty is widespread. Larger farms are needed to make a sustainable living. In bad years, both farm-households and landless households may need to borrow from neighbouring villages or towns. Adapting crop patterns to seasonal conditions is an important strategy for dry years. Soil and water conservation (SWC) methods (bunds, strip cropping, agroforestry) are known but often sacrificed to the pressures of producing a crop. Other coping strategies are similar to those in the rainfed cropping areas (above).Survey villages in zone C2: Mandalay: Kan Ma, Thea Pyin Taw, Kyauk Sit Kan, Pha Yar Gyi Kone Magwe: Kha Yu Kan Sagaing: Taung YinnAlthough groundwater is increasingly important for irrigation in the Dry Zone, little is currently known about the ways that it is used, and the significance for livelihoods. For this reason, particular focus was placed on understanding groundwater use during field visits and in the village survey, which included structured interviews with seven farmers using groundwater, to explore the opportunities and constraints. Type 4 systems are established on alluvial river beds (kaing-kyung lands) when water levels recede during the pre-monsoon season. Rudimentary wells or pits are constructed and extraction methods like ropes and buckets, or human or animal-operated mechanical pumps, or occasionally treadle or motorized pumps are used. Being seasonal in nature the wells must be rebuilt yearly, and can be at high risk in a floodplain setting where heavy losses may be incurred by storms or early breaks to the season.Small scale irrigation by pumping from groundwater characteristic of types 2-4 do not require costly infrastructure and gives farmer direct control over water access which may be lacking in centralized irrigation systems.Five case studies are described in detail in Appendix 3, as follows• Monywa Groundwater Irrigation Project (Type 1)• Tail-end farmers at Monywa (Type 2)• Water Trading and Co-investment at Nyaungkhan Village (Type 2)• New private well owner at Tanpinkan Village, Taungtha Township (Type 2)• Recession farming Sin Te Wa River (Type 4)The results of the village survey on groundwater are presented in Report 2.The case studies and survey confirm that groundwater can be an important means for farmers to improve their livelihoods, particularly during the dry season when alternative livelihood options are limited. The best returns come from cultivation of high value crops. Job opportunities for landless workers in irrigation management emerge in around 70% of cases. Assured access to water for domestic and livestock use is an indirect benefit.The total investment costs needed to establish groundwater irrigation are highly conditional upon the local conditions and can vary by an order of magnitude. Knowledge of the hydrogeological conditions can reduce costs and minimize poor investments. Under optimal conditions, the payback times on initial investments can be very short, but on average were around 3-5 years. For most well owners, the main constraints to use of groundwater are the high cost of fuel and to a lesser extent the maintenance-related costs in operating motorized pumps. The high upfront cost of setup, though not accounted for in the survey, is also likely to be a barrier.  Mr Shwe Myaing constructed a new well four months before our visit, after years of working with rainfed agriculture. He recently received a family inheritance, which he invested in improving the water management of his farm. A deep well was needed, because of the upland location of his farm, with a large diameter well to 6m and tube well to 55 m. The top few meters of the well are in limestone, but the most productive layer is the 'brown sands' found at depth. The total cost was 1.1 M kyat: 300,000 kyat for mechanical drilling of the well; 350,000 kyat for the down-hole pump; and 350,000 kyat for a large diesel engine, purchased second hand.The well irrigates a field of 0.5 ha (Figure A3.5). For the first irrigated crop, onions were planted; when we visited, the crop was 1 month old. Land preparation took 1 month and cost 100,000 kyat. The soils are calcareous sands with low fertility, so cow dung and urea were applied. The expected yield from this harvest is 3000 Viss (4890kg). The selling price at present is 300-400 kyat per Viss.Mr Shwe Myaing previously produced sesame and some mung beans under rainfed conditions; when the rains were good he was able to harvest 10 baskets (about 370kg) at most, but often the crop failed. Access to irrigation means that it would be possible to produce watermelon for export to China, with much higher potential returns. However, he chose to plant onions, like many other farmers in the area, citing lack of experience and high risk as the main constraints.The newly constructed deep well pumping water that is manually spread across the first crop of onionsA broad suite of water-related interventions is already used within Dry Zone. Existing studies and agencies working in the area emphasize that there is good understanding of issues and potential solutions within local communities and agencies. The need is not so much for new technologies, but for approaches to support implementation; and refinement and targeting of known technologies. Existing and potential interventions for water management in the Dry Zone were identified, based on:• Existing programs and investments (Section 4.1) • Analysis of livelihood patterns and consultation with communities (Report 2)• Physical context and constraints (Report 1) • International experience in similar terrains (below Section 4.4)Over the last 20 years, considerable effort has gone into provision of water for rural communities in Myanmar, with most programs targeting either domestic water supply; or agricultural water / irrigation. A review of past programs was conducted, based on the initial IWMI Workshop, interviews with groups working in water-related programs in the Dry Zone, the MIMU Who-What-Where database; and review of the literature. Details are provided in Appendix 4, and a summary of the types of interventions currently in use by different agencies and NGOs in the Dry Zone is given in Table 4.1.The past and current interventions reported in our community survey under Component 2 also helped inform this process; these are described in detail in Appendix 1 of Report 2.Provision of safe water for communities is an important priority for both the Government of Myanmar and international donors and NGOs. IHLCA survey 2009-2010 indicated that the Dry Zone has made significant improvements since 2005, so that only Magwe lags behind the national average of 69.4% (Table 4.2  While recent progress has been impressive, the fact remains that more than 1 in 4 people in the Dry Zone do not have access to a secure source of safe water. A critical lesson from current programs is the importance of embedding water into broader village livelihood strategies, taking account of the full range of uses, rather than a focus on domestic supply separate to other needs. ActionAid and ADRA have developed participatory methods for working with communities to ensure that water interventions are closely linked into village development plans, with clear delineation of responsibilities for construction, operation and maintenance. They also stress the importance of improving access to water (as well as availability) through piped systems, access points and pumping for ponds (Proximity, ActionAid).Tube wells and small reservoirs are the most common focus for current projects on domestic water supply; but for both, on-going maintenance is a significant problem. JICA (2010) found that many existing rural water supply tube wells were in poor repair or not functioning. They attribute this in part to poor siting and construction, and in part to lack of trained engineers for operation and maintenance. Maintenance and desilting of ponds at least every 2-3 years is critical to maintain viable volume; but NGOs working in the Dry Zone report that regular maintenance is often neglected, which means that more expensive and difficult renovation is then needed.The Government of Myanmar has prioritized irrigation since the 1980s, with a major program of construction and irrigation development. In 2000, the government set a national target to make irrigation available for 25% of agricultural land, with an emphasis on provision of irrigation for summer paddy (Khon Ra 2011). Estimates of total irrigated area in the Dry Zone (and nationally) vary very widely: see Report 1 and Appendix 4). Schemes are mainly gravity-fed canal systems from storage in dams or weirs; or pumped irrigation projects (PIP) drawing on rivers. There are smaller areas of groundwater irrigation, spate irrigation and small-scale water harvesting. Groundwater irrigation is only 5% of total area, but is growing at almost twice the rate of other types (Report 1). Most large irrigation schemes have been funded by the government, with some support from FAO.In general, agricultural water supply is approached by NGOs and donors as a component of broadly based livelihood programs e.g. HDI-IV Integrated Community Development Project (ICDP) and CSEVI Shae Thot programs.The performance of formal irrigation schemes has been sub-optimal. The actual area irrigated is much lower than nominal command area. A government report released by the Auditor General's Office in 2012, found that \"Sixty-seven river water pumping stations have achieved 16.3% of their target, providing water to 48,833 acres out of the 299,895 acres originally planned\", and that some reservoirs and diversion dams could not supply water at all. This is attributed to a wide range of issues including system design, operation and maintenance issues, availability of power for pumping, and inappropriate siting and soils (LIFT 2012(LIFT , 2011)). Many systems were designed to grow rice under flood conditions, and are insufficiently flexible for other crops; and there is a lack of extension of agronomic advice to assist farmers to make best use of irrigation. These issues are compounded by inadequate funding and technical capacity for O&M.The main causes of land degradation in the Dry Zone include deforestation (due to agricultural expansion, commercial and illicit logging, and excessive cutting for charcoal and fuel wood), poor agricultural practices, overgrazing, and shifting cultivation, all of which are exacerbated by demographic pressures. Myanmar has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world (BEWG 2011). Dry forests around the periphery of the Dry Zone are particularly under threat from agricultural encroachment and intensification of shifting cultivation (Leimgruber et al 2005;NFI 2007).Watershed management programs in the Dry Zone have been initiated in three different contexts:• Soil and water conservation programs at field scales to prevent erosion and loss of top soil, with related declines in soil fertility, water-holding capacity and crop yields (e.g. Kahan 1997)• Community forestry, soil conservation and tree planting projects in small catchments to protect village water supply dams and ponds from siltation and improve water quality; with related initiatives in fuelwood substitution and biogas Despite some major programs in watershed management, and a proposed DGDry Zone integrated plan for 30 years 2001-2031 covering forest conservation and land management, it is not clear if the programs have been effectively implemented, or if that there has been a significant change in rates of degradation. Cools (1995) demonstrated positive economic returns from SWC measures in the Dry Zone at farm level; but noted that as farm sizes have decreased, low incomes and lack of savings have meant that for many farmers are unwilling to sacrifice land or invest income in SWC. A review of Community Forest Programs in Myanmar found that their performance was adequate but suboptimal in terms of both forest regeneration and improving livelihoods; and that sustainability, particularly in the case studies in Mandalay Region, was problematic (Kway Tint et al 2011). WHH (Karin Luke) report that in upland areas of Pauk, degradation is at critical levels, with widespread gullying, loss of topsoil and changes in river morphology due to large volumes of sand, which also clog irrigation canals, making them unusable. She concluded that community forest conservation and agroforestry projects had had a measure of success, but these are at small scale, and there is an urgent need to scale up to regional or national level, since degradation is beyond the level where it can be tackled by small projects.The IWMI village survey examined existing water management interventions at village level, and perceptions of their effectiveness. In addition, villagers were asked to identify potential interventions that were of priority to the local communities. Potential interventions were elicited from all focus group discussions during village surveys. After discussion and explanation of the intervention, participants voted anonymously for preferred approaches. This process and outcomes are described in detail in Report 2. Results are summarised in A water resource assessment was conducted to provide information on the physical constraints and limits to water resource development, and describe the context in which decisions about water resources are made (Report 1).The study confirmed that both relatively low rainfall and rainfall variability are key constraints to rainfed farming, particularly in the centre of the Dry Zone. Seasonal scarcity is the key factor limiting many peoples' access to water for domestic uses during the dry season. Lack of predictability both in the amount and timing of rainfall makes rain-fed farming extremely high risk. During the wet season flooding is frequently a problem in many places. A significant reduction in rainfall amounts in June in recent years, combined with the very high variability in the onset date of the wet season, is increasing the risk of drought at the beginning of the rainfed crop cycle. This vulnerability is particularly high in the central part of the Dry Zone.The study also confirmed high seasonal and inter-annual variability in river flows. There is considerable uncertainty in the area actually irrigated, with very different estimates from different studies. Current irrigation is mainly supplementary to extend the wet season growing period or protect wet season crops, rather than full dry season irrigation. Actual volumes used in irrigation are quite small compared to runoff, and with respect to water, expansion of irrigation is possible. Currently availability of surface water (from rivers and storage) is less limiting than access, due to costs of pumping, and sparse infrastructure in areas remote from the major rivers. The extent of large (river) and small (local) storage developed within different districts varies very significantly.Local storage as a proportion of total runoff is significant only in Meiktila and Myingyan; while large reservoirs have been built on tributaries of the Irrawaddy in Shwebo, Minbu and Kyaukse. Insufficient storage capacity and irrigation infrastructure in appropriate locations, as well as poor management of the existing infrastructure, means that both farmers and the landless are exposed to climatic variability, with all the associated risks that entails.Review of existing hydrogeological data suggests that groundwater constitutes only a moderate resource, which is already quite heavily used. Estimated withdrawals at district level, as a percentage of annual recharge, range from 5-55%, but are mostly around 20-30%. It is estimated that groundwater recharge is sufficient to irrigate an additional 110,000 to 330,000 ha of land, with the highest potential (in terms of water availability) in Monywa, Shwebo and Pakokku. However, water quality (salinity and arsenic) is an issue in some places.On the basis of this analysis, the following interventions were identified.• A strategic approach to water resource planning, including o Development strategy for future investment in water resources o Groundwater Assessment • Improved water-related data management • Small-scale water harvesting and storage for supplementary irrigation • Soil and water conservation at particular locations to enhance infiltration and water retention in the soil profile to stabilize and increase crop yields• Groundwater development conjunctively with surface water (e.g. where appropriate for tailenders within formal irrigation schemes)A number of major international programs have been completed over the last 5 years focusing on agricultural water management (AWM). Africa, provides a potential blue-print for an approach to improve AWM in the Dry Zone. The project aimed to identify investment opportunities in AWM with high potential to improve the food security and income of poor farmers, by developing ways to assess the potential of various water management technologies; and business models and plans for disseminating and scaling up the most promising technologies. The key to the AgWater Solutions approach is building from existing farmerdriven initiatives in small scale AWM, recognizing that small private irrigation is outpacing large irrigation schemes in many parts of the world. A critical component of the approach is initiation of dialogue among policymakers, implementers, private-sector representatives, donors and farmers on recommendations and business models.The AgWater Solutions approach recognizes that the success of AWM technologies is critically dependent on exploring the specific social, environmental and institutional context, as well as biophysical conditions. An important lesson from the project is the need to provide a range of AWM options, since even within the same farming system, different farmers will have different needs, financial resources and capacity. Similarly, the business models for scaling out identified solutions must also be developed for each specific case. Examples of solutions which may be relevant for the Dry Zone include:• Small farm dams in Madhya Pradesh, where farmers put aside around 10% of their land to construct rainwater harvesting structures to provide supplementary irrigation in dry spells during the wet season, and allow cultivation of a crop during the dry season. Studies indicate that payback period is around 2-3 years. Uptake of dams was encouraged by a government subsidy of up to 50% of construction costs (IWMI 2011).• Establishing private sector manual well drilling businesses in Ethiopia, to improve affordable access to shallow groundwater resources. The Government of Ethiopia sees manual well drilling as an effective and scalable way to develop Ethiopia's shallow groundwater reserves to benefit smallholder farmers (http://awm-solutions.iwmi.org/Data/Sites/3/ Documents/PDF/manual-drilling-investment-opportunity-in-ethiopia--final-1.pdf)• Business plans for small private irrigation service providers in Tanzania, to provide affordable access to motorized pumping for those who do not have the means or skills to buy, operate and maintain a pump (http://awm-solutions.iwmi.org/Data/Sites/3/Documents/PDF/ publication-outputs/learning-and-discussion-briefs/irrigation-service-providers-a-businessplan.pdf).AgWater solutions also developed methods for regional mapping to assess which solutions have potential in different areas, based on a combination of geographic (GIS) data analysis, biophysical and economic predictive modeling and crop mix optimization tools; and watershed assessments based on stakeholder consultations to develop scenarios around AWM interventions to review the likely impact on livelihoods and water resource, considering implications for equity, gender, poverty reduction, water quality, water quantity and other natural resources (http://awm-solutions.iwmi .org/mapping.aspx ). These methods, which require significant consultation, could be applied as part of more detailed follow-up studies in the Dry Zone. Analysis of existing conditions and programs indicates that strategies to secure water for village use (domestic and livestock) centre mainly around local small-scale storage of surface water; and accessing groundwater through wells. Wells are particularly important for drinking water, as both quantity and quality of surface stores often deteriorate in the dry season.In the context of agriculture, three main strategies are being used to manage water scarcity and variability: formal large-scale irrigation systems (gravity fed from storage; pumped from rivers; and pumped from groundwater); informal small-scale supplemental irrigation from a range of sources, with groundwater becoming increasingly important; and rainwater harvesting and storage in small multi-purpose reservoirs. These are also the interventions that emerged as highest priority in village consultations.Two other issues emerged as high priority, though not reported as concerns at village level. The first is the important role that watershed management approaches, at a range of scales, can play in improving availability and quality of water and protecting water infrastructure. By retaining water within the landscape in the soil profile and shallow aquifers, significant gains can be made in overall agricultural productivity as well as replenishing groundwater stores and reducing or reversing land degradation due to erosion and loss of vegetation cover.The second is the need for a more strategic approach to water resources planning and management.Although at a village level the distinction between domestic and agricultural water supplies is often not meaningful, planning and implementation of programs in the two sectors are separate, and spread across a range of agencies with limited coordination. Access to and quality of data on waterrelated issues is a serious constraint to a coordinated approach.Based in this analysis, we have considered interventions in five domains:1. Improvement of formal irrigation infrastructure 2. Groundwater interventions for domestic and agricultural supply 3. Rainwater harvesting and storage 4. SWC /watershed management 5. Water resources planning and informationFor each area, we have identified opportunities and priorities, as well as main factors constraining implementation; knowledge gaps; and potential entry points for LIFT.Provision of formal irrigation infrastructure is an important priority for the Myanmar government, who have put considerable effort into construction of irrigation schemes over the last 20 years, raising the area irrigated in the Dry Zone to a nominal 0.38 m ha, or around 5% of total area, and 12% of cultivated area (JICA 2010).The actual area irrigated is much lower. For the dry season of 2011, IWMI estimated total irrigated area (including both formal and informal irrigation) at 0.27 m ha. In all visited irrigation schemes, the effective irrigated area was considerably smaller than the nominal command; for example, in Nyaung-U, WRUD reported that in 2012-13 only 26% in the wet season and 15% in the dry season of nominal area was actually irrigated. A government report released by the Auditor General's Office in 2012, found that nationally \"Sixty-seven river water pumping stations have achieved 16.3% of their target, providing water to 48,833 acres out of the 299,895 acres originally planned\" 1 , and that some reservoirs and diversion dams could not supply water at all. The report recommended that inefficient schemes be abandoned rather than rehabilitated.Our analysis (Report 1) and that of LIFT (2012), amongst others, suggest that this does not, on the whole, reflect a physical shortage of water but is due to a complex set of factors including operation and maintenance issues, availability of power for pumping, and inappropriate siting and soils. This situation resembles the problem of poor performance in irrigation systems observed in many other places, linked to a vicious cycle of bad construction, deferred maintenance, and premature rehabilitation. In this light, we argue that improving performance of formal irrigation infrastructure through rehabilitation will only address the symptoms, rather than tackling the roots of the problem: deferred maintenance.There is thus a need to address issues constraining the operation of existing systems before investing in new development. Village surveys (Report 2) indicate that unequal water distribution that causes crop failures and conflicts (particularly between head and tail-end farmers), often results from lack of clear and transparent institutional arrangements, and therefore the water management committees and WRUD are unable to regulate and coordinate water distribution and related activities. In Indonesia, the 'golongan' rotation system is used to ensure equitable water sharing in time of scarcity, by linking a pre-determined water delivery schedule with farmers' cropping calendars. This approach, which staggers planting dates successively among sections of the irrigation systems, requires farmers to work in groups, strengthening local institutional arrangements (Gruyter, 1933;Pasandaran, 2010). It could provide an effective entry point for improving water management in existing systems in the Dry Zone. A more detailed description of the 'golongan' system is provided in Appendix 5.Irrigation by itself is unlikely to make a difference to the incomes and livelihoods of farmers. Investments in output markets, such as the development of commodity exchange centres, wholesale warehouses and storage facilities are important, so that farmers are able to procure a fair price for their outputs. Additionally, investments are also required in the input market, so that farmers are able to procure high quality seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Creation and extension of credit facilities for farmers to buy inputs in a timely manner are also important.Myanmar as a country is moving from a centralized to decentralized policies. If reform and revitalization of formal irrigation systems is to take place, then it will call for a redefining and reunderstanding of the roles, responsibilities, tasks and expectations of the government and the communities, keeping in mind the history of the development of irrigation infrastructure. This will likely require an increase in capacity across the board, especially at the village and community level.A better understanding of the tradeoffs, and ways to negotiate those tradeoffs, is required.Three further issues complicate investments in formal irrigation in the Dry Zone.• Government policies mandating production of paddy in irrigated lands, though now being relaxed, significantly hamper the ability of farmers to make the most efficient use of available water; since input costs for summer paddy are high, a poor crop can result in catastrophic losses for farmers• Government subsidy in irrigation development is not linked to government policy in agriculture (i.e. pricing of agricultural products, cost of inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds, harvesting). Given current fragmented subsidy schemes and mechanisms, the role of irrigation systems should be viewed in relation to its role in providing farmers' access to water to improve their livelihoods, increase farmers' living standards and reduce poverty. In this context, water charges can be applied to encourage better systems Operation and Maintenance (O&M), but should not be viewed as source for system full cost recovery. Charges for water seem to be a standard 9000 kyat per hectare per season for full dry season paddy irrigation; 6000 kyat for non-paddy crops in the day season and 3000 kyat for wet season, regardless of the type of system. WRUD staff in Nyaung-U estimated the actual cost for PIPs (including pumping and maintenance but excluding capital costs) at around 40-45,000 kyat per hectare. In summary, the role of irrigation systems should be viewed beyond the cost benefit analysis, whether or not these systems are economically viable.• For PIPs, WRUD report that insufficient power supplies seriously hamper effective operation. Unless power for pumping can be guaranteed, investments in construction or rehabilitation of PIPs may be lost.Experience in other countries indicates that although formal irrigation schemes can be an effective means of raising agricultural production, they are not necessarily an efficient way of addressing rural poverty, since benefits tend to accrue most to larger, semi-commercial farms. In livelihood terms, formal irrigation schemes serve only a small proportion of the households (since they serve at most 12% of cultivated land); although village surveys indicate that benefits also accrue to the landless, through employment of labour.Government agricultural policies relating to summer paddy production and crop diversification are important drivers of irrigation development and management. It is essential to link and align current water resource management policy and practices with the country's agricultural policy in general, and specifically with crop planning. A comparative review of the two policies is urgently required as a precursor to further investment in irrigation.Past irrigation development has been driven by government policies and initiatives, and has not necessarily reflected farmers' needs and priorities. Approaches are needed to allow local communities to represent their development needs and aspirations in irrigation development, and to take a more active role both in determining the type of development that is undertaken, and in implementing and managing irrigation systems.Before pursuing investments in large-scale irrigation infrastructure, further information is required on the following:• Government policy objectives relating to irrigation, and its role in agricultural and rural development in general• The relative effectiveness of different modes of irrigation (gravity schemes, PIPs, groundwater) in terms impacts on yields, farm incomes and poverty, livelihoods and cropping patterns for landed, marginal and landless farmers• The overall effectiveness of irrigation investments to increase incomes. With farmers purchasing inputs on loans from agents, and the middlemen controlling the output market, farmers find it challenging to get fair prices and make reasonable profits. Business models that smooth the output and input markets would be an important consideration• An assessment of water resources, existing cropping patterns, irrigation practices, water usage, and projected increase in use• Impacts of alternative policy instruments, such as crop policy, subsidy of inputs, and higher crop prices, on incomes and livelihoodsBefore LIFT engages in major rehabilitation programs within existing formal irrigation schemes, or in construction of new large-scale schemes, an assessment is required of the complex mix of physical, technical and institutional challenges impeding the effectiveness of current schemes. A potential entry point for LIFT is an assessment of the relative effectiveness of different modes of irrigation (gravity schemes, PIPs, groundwater) in terms impacts on water and energy productivity as well as yields, farm incomes and livelihoods. This could be undertaken at two levels: a comparative assessment across existing large schemes; and community based analysis of outcomes at village level.There is also an opportunity to reduce risks in existing systems by rationalising water delivery. The current operations are theoretically negotiated through WUAs, but in practice appear to be ad hoc. Introduction of pre-scheduled water delivery using the golongan approach described above has the possibility to affect a large increase in the efficiency of existing schemes for a small cost. A pilot of golongan in an existing system could be used as an entry point for LIFT to work with government to better link water resources planning with crop planning.Groundwater plays an important role in domestic water supply in the Dry Zone, and is increasingly being used for irrigation, but there is limited information on the extent and sustainability of the resource. The current study does not support the view of great abundance, but suggests a more moderate resource which, whilst extremely important for the Dry Zone, must be planned and developed carefully, in conjunction with surface water, to ensure utilization over the long term.A balance is needed between a precautionary approach to ensure sustainable management over the long term, and development of groundwater to address the pressing present needs. The heavy reliance on groundwater for domestic and drinking water for people and livestock means that if significant drawdown did occur due to over-exploitation, the consequences for communities could be severe; already there are some examples documented in Report 2. In addition, investment costs for groundwater development are considerable; for large-scale systems established by government that rely on deeper tube wells with large capacity (electric) pumps and in relative terms for private systems setup by farmers or communities. A balanced approach would include:• conjunctive use of surface and groundwater: developing groundwater primarily to address shortfalls in surface water either spatially (areas where alternatives are not available or costly) or temporally (as a seasonal supplement when surface water is depleted)• prioritizing the use of deep wells for domestic and livestock uses, which are low volume, high value and so can justify the higher costs of installation and operation by the security of supplies• an assessment of groundwater resources at district level as the basis for planning and managing groundwater utilization (see Section 5).On this basis, we recommend that groundwater investment in the short term should focus on two areas: securing village / domestic supplies using deep tube wells; and supporting development of supplementary irrigation from shallower aquifers. Shallow aquifers can be prone to seasonal drying-out and so a balance is needed between attempting to protect high value domestic resources and ensuring adequate performance of irrigation wells. The provision of drinking water must be the highest priority, and plans to expand irrigation development should not compromise current or future access to drinking supplies (for people & livestock). In some areas multi-level aquifers can be accessed economically, which potentially enable segregation if area-specific planning for resource development and management can be put into effect based on improved information as described in Section 5.5.The MICS (2010) survey indicates that in rural areas nationally, a third of rural people source drinking water from tube wells and another third from protected shallow wells. WRUD (2013a) reports that 6.65 million people in Mandalay Magwe and Sagaing have access to domestic supplies from more than 13,700 wells (two-thirds of which are deep wells). IWMI's survey confirmed the success and importance of deep tube wells with motorised pumps for village water supply. Deep wells within the village provide reliable, high quality water in all season, benefiting the whole community. After installation of deep tube wells in villages, JICA (2007) reported reduced time for water fetching, reduction in incidence of diarrhoea, dysentery and skin diseases; and increased water consumption in poor households. In most cases, such wells are used exclusively for domestic and livestock purposes (and often primarily for drinking) due to the cost of pumping. Shallow tube wells using manual or motorised lifting are also important for village supplies, but water quality and quantity from shallow aquifers is less reliable. Solidarity International (an INGO) has had success with implementing village level solar pumps for domestic supplies under a payback scheme. UNICEF also have experience with solar pumps; and ADRA have been trialling the use of solar pumping for domestic supplies.Wells with motorised pumps providing flow at 1500 gallons per hour (6.8 m 3 /h) can provide domestic water for an average village (800-1000 people) (JICA 2007). Where deep drilling is needed, the cost of installing a well and electric pump for a village system can be as high as $40,000 (JICA 2010). JICA report a high success rate in drilling, with all 49 wells in their study capable of delivering the required volume. The IWMI study identified only one community where drilling for water had been unsuccessful.Maintenance of pumps is an on-going concern, requiring support from local government agencies.As part of the Rural Water Supply project JICA trained engineers in pump maintenance, and instituted Village Water Committees (VWCs) to manage the supply of water and maintenance of pumps (JICA 2007).Farmers in the Dry Zone are already adopting groundwater irrigation (see Section 3.3) typically using shallow tube wells powered by small motorized pumps. They are emerging not only in rainfed areas, where expected, but also within irrigation command areas where there are shortfalls in supply: deep drainage flows generated by the schemes can be picked up and recycled by the tail end farmers. This mirror a trend observed in many parts of Asia over the last 30 years, as pumping technologies have become affordable and accessible (Mukherji et al 2010). Small scale, farmer managed pumping has significant advantages in terms of flexibility, reliability and simple operation and maintenance.Where groundwater supplies are available and sustainable, this has proved to be an affordable and effective way to increase production.In the village surveys where various options were presented to choose from, farmers in all groups (land-owing, marginal and even landless) expressed strong preferences for shallow wells with diesel pumps for irrigation over communal deep wells with electric pumps for irrigation purposes (presumably on the grounds of cost, flexibility and autonomy). These systems access groundwater from shallow dug wells or tube wells that are typically less than 30 metres deep. Lifting is performed either manually (for small areas) or small motorized pumps that deliver between 100 and 500 m 3 /day. The cost of drilling shallow wells is of the order of 100-500,000 kyat; the cost to purchase a pump is similar, depending on the size (see Report 2 and Appendix 3). Proximity 2 have developed manual treadle pumps capable of delivering 50-100 m 3 /day (580-1000 gallons per hour) from depths of 6-8m; these cost less than around 15-40,000 kyat but service smaller areas. Solar pumps may also be an option but the purchase cost is high. Production systems usually involve irrigation of small areas of a few acres for high-value crops such as vegetables, for local markets or export to China. They are 'informal' in nature, financed and managed by the farmers themselves on an individual or small group basis. As an added benefit, water is commonly also used for domestic and livestock purposes. An example is described within the BOX in Section 3.3.It is estimated that, depending on which crops are grown, groundwater recharge is sufficient to irrigate an estimated additional 110,000 of land in the Dry Zone (underlying assumptions in this analysis are given in Report 1), with almost two-thirds of that potential situated in the districts of Monywa, Shwebo and Pakokku (Report 1). These are also areas where the most prospective Alluvial and Irrawaddy Group aquifers predominate. Monywa and Pakokku in particular have limited surface water irrigation, and a high proportion of rainfed lands; and viability of groundwater irrigation from relatively shallow aquifers (8-20m) has been amply demonstrated in Monywa. These districts are thus a logical starting point for further investments in groundwater irrigation.Conjunctive development of surface and groundwater is important part of sustainable use. Surface water infrastructure, if developed strategically, can enhance recharge to shallow aquifers during the wet season. For example, villagers in Ta Ein Tel (Sagaing) reported that supplementary pumping to the village pond had improved both the quantity and quality of water in the nearby local well. Thus if the dynamics of recharge are well understood, shallow groundwater can be used as de facto \"natural storage\", with the additional benefit of minimal losses to evaporation.The main factors constraining adoption of deep tube wells for domestic use are cost of installation; cost and reliability of power supply for pumping; and maintenance of pumps. Maintenance of electric pumps used for village supplies may require support from local administration. There are many possible pathways to create an enabling environment to boost groundwater-based irrigation development. These include: a) modest subsidies on drilling costs and/or purchase of motorized pumps; b) micro-finance to support establishment costs; c) site-specific advice on the preferred crops to grow during the dry seasons and other agronomic practices that maximize the market benefits; and d) technical advice on groundwater availability and opportunities for use, presented in simple formats.Both salinity and arsenic have been problematic in some areas. In the Monywa irrigation scheme high salinity precluded the use of some wells; and the WRUD has documented high arsenic levels in some drinking water wells in the Dry Zone (WRUD 2013b). This emphasises the need for rigorous assessment of both water quantity and quality before implementing major developments.The success rate in drilling for water is relatively high (see above), but better hydrogeological information (see Section 5.5) could improve targeting and reduce costs of drilling.Sustainability of withdrawals in different systems, recharge dynamics, and impacts of pumping on groundwater inputs to wetlands and base-flow in streams. Community monitoring of village wells as part of routine operation would provide valuable information. In addition, more rigorous assessment of groundwater development potential is needed, particularly in priority districts and townships, also taking into account the possibility of large increases in groundwater use for industry.If future irrigation strategies rely more on groundwater, this poses a new set of regulatory and institutional challenges, since the different attributes of groundwater systems mean that different governance systems are needed. Creating locally adapted forms of groundwater governance that are inclusive of the involvement of high level institutions from the government along with grassroots participation is central to the success of groundwater development programs and resource sustainability over the long term. A groundwater framework/policy should be developed for the Dry Zone that would also be applicable at the national level.• Technical support, through WRUD and / or relevant NGOs to identify priority areas for groundwater use (based on resource assessment -see Section 5.5)• An inventory (database and maps) of existing wells and utilization, including water quality data (salinity, arsenic).• Support for motorised deep tube wells for village (domestic and livestock) supplies• Business models for communities to install and operate village pumps for domestic supplies, including private investors, village water committees• Program to promote use of shallow tube-wells for small-scale supplementary groundwater irrigation (GWI) for a range of cropping systems including rainfed areas, and conjunctive use to supplement shortfalls within irrigation schemes o Business models for small-scale GWI, including shared investment between small groups of farmers, and supply of water by private investors o Agronomic advice: extension services to help farmers make best use of irrigation through crop choice and in-field water management (e.g. drip irrigation, mulching etc)o Work with NGOs (e.g. Proximity) to develop and market appropriate and affordable pumps and equipment• Microfinance or loans to communities and individuals for pumps and equipment • Regional monitoring network, possibly using community monitoring of wells, as input to groundwater assessments (Section 5.5).Ponds and small dams for rainwater harvesting emerge as the preferred option for improving water supplies for villages in many contexts in the Dry Zone. They are a simple, proven technology, already common throughout the Dry Zone. Village ponds are usually formed by earthen, stone or cement dams. They can vary greatly in size and type and provide for multiple uses including domestic, livestock watering, small scale irrigation and small businesses such as brick making and handicraft activities. Village ponds are usually managed by the community, but may be managed by the ID; or in combination by the ID and community. NGOs such as ActionAid, ADRA, Solidarity International and Proximity have considerable experience with construction and rehabilitation of village ponds: for example, Proximity renovated 260 ponds in the last year.Irrigation Department (ID) is also involved in rainwater harvesting. For example in the Mandalay Region, the Regional Government requested support to undertake renovation and reconstruction works in addition to building new storage structures for RWH. The ID has a fleet of equipment and staff that can be utilized to undertake this work. The ID provides technical assistance while the budget comes from the Regional Government. The ID had planned to assist with 200 tanks in the Mandalay region in 2012, including construction of new ponds and renovation of old ponds, for irrigation as well as domestic water uses. Cyclone Giri in 2010 destroyed a large number of RWH structures in both the Mandalay and Magway regions (as they were not built to withstand extreme rain events), so the renovation of some of these ponds was supported by the ID.• There are no blanket solutions -needs must be assessed and appropriate solutions designed for each village, in the context of village livelihood patterns and resources.• It is important to involve village communities and district/ local government agencies (GAD, DI) in planning, construction and management of village reservoirs. ActionAid and ADRA have developed participatory methods for working with communities to ensure that water interventions are closely linked into village development plans, with clear delineation of responsibilities, and endorsement and support of GAD.• Village reservoirs can provide livelihood opportunities for the landless, for example, through payments for construction, management and maintenance, or establishment of community forests/woodlot around pond as part of watershed management (ActionAid). Cash for work has been a successful model for construction of ponds, administered through community based organisations (CBOs).Type, design and siting of such ponds are very specific to each location, and depend on the uses. Dug earth dams are very common, but will not fit all contexts. Other options include subsurface and sand dams (formed by embankments in streambeds), and ring / turkey nest dams (above ground dams filled by pumping from rivers). Ponds may be coupled with systems to improve access (such as piped systems, pumps or access points, watering troughs for livestock etc). Evaporative losses can be reduced by constructing deeper. Seepage losses can be reduced by siting dam on areas of clay soils, compaction of the base during construction, or lining with clay. However, opportunities should also be sought to capitalise on seepage by constructing wells nearby, as seepage losses effectively recharge shallow groundwater. For example, villagers in Ta Ein Tel (Sagaing TS) reported that an unexpected side-benefit of supplementary pumping to the village pond was improvement in both the quantity and quality of water in the local well.Village ponds can be used for supplementary irrigation, particularly in the wet season when they are being regularly replenished. However, in the dry season the imperative to conserve water for domestic and livestock use will often override, unless the capacity of the pond is large. Negotiation of appropriate use for water from village ponds requires integration of multiple users and social groups. Winrock (2012) provides guidance on the specific challenges of design, implementation and management of multiple use water systems.Sand dams (i.e. a concrete wall built across a seasonal sandy river bed so that water is stored within the sand) can be very successful under the right circumstances. The advantages are reduced evaporation and the fact that the sand filters the water so often improving water quality. Other advantages are that construction costs are generally low and maintenance requirements are modest. They should be located where there is a seasonal river with sufficient sandy sediment and bedrock that is accessible in the river bed. An infiltration gallery and pipe can be used to extract the water directly or it can be allowed to infiltrate into the ground to recharge shallow aquifers. This technology has been tested successfully in the Dry Zone at Thea Pyin Taw village (see report 2).If use for irrigation is planned, dedicated irrigation ponds may be preferable, to reduce water use conflicts, and because of the relatively larger volumes required. These can be situated in the fields, closer to point to use. Two models for pond irrigation are in common use internationally:• Individually owned small farm reservoirs: have proved to be an effective way to provide supplementary irrigation to reduce the risks of double cropping in rainfed systems in areas of NE Thailand (REF) and Madhya Pradesh, India (AgWater 2012a, 2012b) which have similar agro-ecosystems to the Dry Zone. In areas with larger landholdings (> 2 ha), a commonly used model is for farmers to sacrifice around 1/10 th to 1/15 th of their land area to construct a store for water to be used in the dry season, or for supplementary irrigation during the monsoon season. In Dewas District, Madhya Pradesh, India a very successful program of small dam irrigation has been undertaken, where over 5000 dams have been constructed with significant gains in farm incomes (AgWater Solutions 2012b).• Communal irrigation dams: larger communal storages constructed and managed by a group of farmers may be more appropriate in areas where farm sizes are smaller. This is analogous to village ponds, but with a smaller group of users. The size (and number of farmers involved) can vary, but a typical pond may serve around 10 ha AgWater Solutions (2012b) provides an overview of small reservoirs for agricultural water.Costs of village ponds vary considerably depending on size and type. The cost for a small irrigation dam serving 10 ha in the Dry Zone was estimated at around USD 6000 (IWMI workshop discussions). Average cost of ponds in Dewas was USD 2600; the payback period was three years and the costbenefit ratio 1.5-1.9. In Dewas, the local administration offered a subsidy of 50-80,000 INR (USD 900 -1400) to encourage development.In most cases, communities have the skills to both construct and maintain these structures, but support may be needed in the form of technical advice, community payments for labour, or access to machinery. Consultation with the community as to design, construction and maintenance requirements and responsibilities is critical. Maintenance (removal of silt, repair of wall) is required at least every 2-3 years, and in many cases annually (ADB 2007;IWMI workshop discussions). Unless the community commit to maintaining the structures, investment will be lost. In this respect, there are some INGOs such as Solidarity International and IDE that have set up water management groups in the village to manage and maintain the RWH storage infrastructure. Solidarity International for example set up such water management groups in 15 villages in the Dry Zone in 2011 and adopts a number of mechanisms to try and ensure that the groups remain operational once the INGO exists from the village. A key issue is also proper spillway design, and maintenance of the spillway. Many small dams fail because they are overtopped in a flood, often because the spillway is inappropriately designed or because it has been neglected (e.g. vegetation growing in it).The viability of ponds and small dams is often reduced due to problems of siltation and collapse of the embankments. Measures that reduce flood runoff and sediment transport in the catchment zones should be carried out in conjunction with the construction or rehabilitation of reservoirs.There are many soil and water conservation techniques that have been developed to reduce runoff and erosion. Such techniques comprise area treatments, drainage line treatments and afforestation and pasture development and can include: hillside terraces, stone bunds, and vegetation bunds, gully plugs, earthen and stone banks as well as planting of trees, grasses and shrubs. In addition to reducing runoff and erosion these interventions enhance groundwater recharge and can be designed to meet other household needs. For example vegetation planted can contribute to fuel, fodder, timber, fruit and fibre requirements. Relevant techniques for the Dry Zone are described in detail in Carucci (1999); see also Section 5.4.Key constraints for effective adoption of small reservoirs are cost of construction; and commitment of communities to on-going maintenance and watershed management. The fact that so many small reservoirs in the Dry Zone require rehabiltation is a testament to the difficulty of ensuring long-term maintenance.Evaporation is a major problem for rainwater harvesting, with 50-100 % losses due to evaporation.• Technical and social approaches to ensure long-term maintenance of reservoirs • Dynamics of interactions between surface water and shallow groundwater, and potential to use small reservoirs/sand dams to recharge shallow aquifers• Evaluation of existing storage dams and other RWH technology, including siltation and lifespan of the dams• Economic analyses of costs involved in construction, maintenance, rehabilitation of RWH infrastructure• Assessment of the role and sustainability of water user groups in the Dry Zone in relation to the management and maintenance of RWH storage infrastructure at the village level• Technical studies to determine suitable soil types and locations for RWH structures• There is potential to scale up existing projects to construct and/or renovate village ponds, small reservoirs and sand dams, being implemented by NGOs including ActionAid, Proximity and ADRA. Prior to scaling up, a preliminary review should be conducted of outcomes of the projects, including sustainability of structures and maintenance.• Technical support and guidelines for improvements in design, particularly to capitalise on the potential to use seepage to recharge shallow aquifers• Watershed management programs in catchment areas of reservoirs to protect inflows and water quality.Soil and water conservation (SWC) approaches at either field or catchment scales did not emerge strongly as a priority from village consultations. However, there are two important reasons to give serious consideration to SWC programs in the Dry Zone at a range of scale. Firstly, land degradation is wide-spread and on-going, with impacts on production (through loss of topsoil, low nutrient status), loss of productive land (through gullying and loss of vegetation cover), and impacts on infrastructure (silting up of ponds, sedimentation in canals, damage to pumps from high sediment loads in water). Secondly, agriculture in the Dry Zone is, and will remain for the foreseeable future, dominantly rainfed. SWC approaches both within field and at landscape scales are essential for managing water effectively in rainfed systems.At the field scale, consideration should be given to more widespread implementation of techniques to enhance infiltration and water retention in the soil profile with the objective of stabilizing and increasing crop yields by increasing the effectiveness of rainfall. Appropriate techniques are well known: Cools (1995) reported the use of a range of traditional SWC practices in the Dry Zone (overflow bunds, gully plugging with rocks or crop residues, strip cropping, agroforestry techniques); other promising approaches include deep tillage, reduced tillage, zero tillage, mulching, planting basins and the use of crops with low water requirement. Kahan (1999) provides a detailed manual of SWC techniques specifically targeted for the Dry Zone. Such techniques are likely to be most effective:• around the periphery of the Dry Zone, in areas where rainfall is broadly sufficient to enable a non-irrigated wet season crop in most years; and• lowland areas that, in many years, already achieve a summer crop based on residual moisture. Such practices might also be beneficial in irrigation schemes where water per se is not limiting but the electricity costs of pumping make water conservation desirable.In-field SWC techniques are basically agronomic practices, and would need to be introduced as part of agricultural extension services. Livestock management and impacts of free grazing are significant drivers of erosion, particularly in the uplands where sheep and goats are common, and grazing management is an important component of watershed management approaches.Similar techniques, applied at landscape scales, can be used to prevent erosion, improve water retention and infiltration and enhance recharge to shallow aquifers. The primary aim is to slow the rate at which water moves through the landscape. Approaches include checkdams, vegetated strips, infiltration basins and flood spreading (see van Steenbergen et al. 2010van Steenbergen et al. , 2011)). Management of vegetation cover is a key component of watershed management, through conservation of existing forest patches (e.g. through Community Forest Programs), forest planting, agroforestry and enclosures to reduce grazing pressure and allow regrowth. Vegetation planted can contribute fuel, fodder, timber and fruit to communities. Conservation zones can be used to protect riparian vegetation and reduce river bank erosion: Welthungerhilfe (WHH) report that a 30m exclusion zone along streams was previously enforced but has been abandoned in the last 20 years. Such catchment approaches can be vital to reduce sedimentation of small reservoirs. It is essential to match interventions (and incentives) to local conditions: in the consultation workshop, examples were cited where contour banks had been unsuccessful (banks broken, trampled by stock); while hedgerows and vetiver grass banks had been much more effective. Successful programs usually had a dual focus on both water retention and erosion prevention.In many cases, the benefits from watershed management projects may not be apparent for several years, and may accrue downstream, outside the areas where projects are implemented. Cools (1995) points out that participatory approaches may not be appropriate for SWC at village to watershed level, since other, more obviously pressing priorities may override, addressing the symptoms rather than the cause. It is important that the public good nature of the programs is recognised, and the costs shared accordingly. Incentives may be needed for farmers to undertake watershed management activities. Under the UN Human Development Initiative (HDI), fertilisers were provided to participating farmers as incentives for erosion control: this was generally considered to be a successful incentive. Micro-credit programs were not generally successful for watershed management / soil conservation programs. Current programs under GRET, Solidarity International and others emphasised the importance of finding appropriate incentive structures to involve farmers and communities, since benefits are not immediate. Although communities often express initial support, it is difficult to maintain support, particularly for programs such as grazing managementIn a policy sense, the Government has recognised the importance of watershed management. Forestry Department instituted a Watershed Management Program to restore degraded lands in the catchments of newly constructed dams, to prevent erosion and reduce sedimentation. The Dry Zone Greening program begun in the early 1990s focused on tree planting (particularly eucalyptus) in areas including Monywa and Magwe; resulting tree cover can be seen in these areas, but this program is no longer active. Land use planning and soil conservation programs are the responsibility of the Land Use Division of the Ministry for Agriculture, but the Division currently has limited resources and capacity for new programs. In general there are few restrictions on land use imposed, except within the government irrigation areas (managed by ID / WRUD).Support of local communities is critical in implementing watershed management programs, and it is important to involve the village chairman / administrator, and where possible to use existing community structures. Village elders are able to explain the objectives of programs to communities, and ensure that programs have on-going support. In administrative terms, the township is the key level, since this is the level at which local works are carried out by government -township chairman and development committees must be involved in planning and organizing programs. Permission for significant works is required from the Division level administration.Internationally, there have been some spectacular successes in applying these techniques at scale to reverse land degradation, which can provide important lessons for implementing projects in the Dry Zone. In the Loess Plateau in China a project was funded jointly by the World Bank and the Chinese government, to reduce poverty and environmental degradation over more than 15,000 km 2 of the Yellow River Catchment, impacting more than a million farmers. Rehabilitation involved a combination of land development and erosion control works (terracing, gully control, sediment control dams, agroforestry, grazing management); and institutional development (training, research and technology transfer). The success of the project is attributed to• well-designed technical packages which generate incomes for the local communities • strong ownership at different levels (farmer to national government)o interventions were adapted to the requirements of each watershed, and local communities developed their own plans• effective project management with rigorous monitoring and evaluation • scaling up from successful pilot activities • recognition of the \"public goods\" nature of the project, with costs borne jointly by project farmers, and local and central governments.In the Tana Basin of Kenya, integrated river basin management is being implemented across a catchment of 126,000 km². Scaling up is achieved through 56 Water Resources Users Associations, which are developing and implementing Sub-Catchment Management Plans, involving a wide range of local measures, with funding from a range of sources (Knoop et al 2012).In 2005, an inter-Ministry Task Force instituted a process for strategic planning of integrated water resource management (IWRM) nationally with the support of Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and FAO. This process established strategic goals and mechanisms for monitoring and reporting; and recommended the establishment of a national Water Commission (ESCAP 2006). As of October 2012, it seems that this recommendation was still awaiting action by MOAI (Bo Ni 2012).This study has identified two areas where targeted inputs could make an important contribution: improvements in the management of water-related data; and completion of hydrogeological studies for the Dry Zone as the basis for a groundwater management plan.A major hindrance to the current (and previous) studies has been the lack of easily accessible data.Most data are dispersed across government departments and often held at division and district level. Some information is only available at individual scheme level. There is an urgent need to establish an effective water-related data management system, comprising contemporary monitoring networks underpinned by appropriate data collection protocols and modern, easily accessible, databases and analyses tools. The development of such a system must be a government owned process and should be a nation-wide endeavour. However, a scoping study undertaken in the Dry Zone would be a useful first step in development. Such a system would greatly facilitate water resources planning in the Dry Zone (and elsewhere).As a first step, a collaboration could be established between MOAI (WRUD), Ministry of Health, UNICEF and relevant NGOs (most already contribute program data to MIMU) to collate and make available existing information on groundwater wells (location, monitoring of groundwater levels, water quality). This is an important dataset for planning and managing initiatives in both domestic and agricultural water supply. A parallel initiative could be established between MOAI and Department of Meteorology and Hydrology to collate existing information on surface water (river flow monitoring, dam location and levels etc). In the context of water management, data on water utilization (e.g. volumes pumped and diverted from both surface and groundwater) is also extremely useful, though rarely available. Nevertheless efforts should be made to collect and collate any data that maybe available.This study has confirmed the growing importance of groundwater in both domestic water supply and irrigation in the Dry Zone. However, it has also found that, in contrast to surface water, the resources are relatively limited. The renewable recharge is less than 2% of the total surface water resource. In places there are also water quality constraints. Continued development, without an assessment of the available resource, runs the risk of lost investment through over-exploitation and inappropriate siting of wells. A necessary precursor to any large-scale program of groundwater development is an appraisal of recharge, sustainable yield of aquifers and water quality, relative to current and planned use. The basis for such an assessment exists in work begun by Drury (1986) comprising 11 map sheets of the hydrogeology of the Dry Zone at district scale. Supplemented by new studies using remotely sensed data (Min Oo and Thein 2013), these maps would provide useful indicators for regional planning purposes. This information could be used to plan and establish a regional groundwater monitoring network at critical points across the Dry Zone.The study should also examine links between surface and groundwater, and opportunities for conjunctive management. Surface water infrastructure, if developed strategically, can be used to enhance recharge to shallow aquifers during the wet season. If the dynamics of recharge are well understood, shallow groundwater can be used as de facto \"natural storage\", with the additional benefit of minimal losses to evaporation.A comprehensive resource assessment would provide the basis for a strategic approach to groundwater development, as well as operational information for siting of wells. An important outcome of the study would be information to prioritise uses of groundwater in different areas and contexts; for example, in areas that are heavily dependent on groundwater for drinking and domestic uses, and supplies are limited, it is essential to secure these against agricultural drawdown.Strategic Water Resource planning is the domain of the government, and cannot proceed without their full commitment. Responsibility for water resources is currently spread across not less than 15 government agencies with no lead agency.Evidence-based decision making is currently hindered by both the lack of water-related data and its general inaccessibility. As a result, as the DG of WRUD acknowledged, decision-makers are currently \"flying blind\". The development of a comprehensive data management system would make a significant contribution to evidence based decision making. It is essential that the development of such a water data management system is a government \"owned\" process.• Support collaboration between MOAI and Department of Meteorology and Hydrology to collate existing information on surface water (river monitoring, dam location and levels etc) and water utilization• Support collaboration between MOAI (WRUD), Ministry of Health, UNICEF and relevant NGOs to establish a database of groundwater wells (location, monitoring of groundwater levels, water quality)• Support a Dry Zone scoping study to evaluate the potential for establishing an effective water-related monitoring and data management system as a first step in a comprehensive nationwide undertaking, encompassing all relevant government and non-government agencies.Groundwater assessment The Dry Zone faces two main challenges relating to water: reliable supply of safe water for drinking and domestic purposes; and access to water to sustainably increase agricultural production, food security and incomes. At a village level in many cases the distinction is not meaningful, as village water supplies (particularly in the form of small dams and wells) are used for multiple purposes; and provision of domestic water impacts directly on food production through availability of water for livestock and home gardens. In the context of a semi-arid monsoonal climate, with average annually rainfall generally greater than 600mm and several major rivers, the issue is not absolute scarcity of water, but seasonal, annual and spatial variability. Three main strategies are being used to manage variability: rainwater harvesting and storage in small multi-purpose reservoirs; accessing groundwater through dug wells and tube wells for domestic and livestock uses, and increasingly for supplemental irrigation; and formal irrigation schemes.The heterogeneity of the Dry Zone in terms of physical environment (soils, topography, rainfall), farming systems, access to water, infrastructure (roads and electrification, as well as water-related infrastructure) results in significant differences in development opportunities and priorities between villages, even over quite small distances. This means that there are no blanket solutions: the details of water-related interventions must be shaped with each community. It is important that water interventions are embedded into broader village livelihood strategies and take account of the full range of uses, rather than a focus on domestic supply separate to other needs. Existing studies and agencies working in the area emphasize that there is good understanding of issues and potential solutions within local communities and agencies. The need is not so much for new technologies, but for approaches to support implementation; and refinement and targeting of known technologies.We have identified five priority areas for consideration in LIFT programs, the first three coming from community priorities and the last two from a broader perspective.Formal irrigation schemes: it is recommended that before LIFT engages in major rehabilitation programs within existing formal irrigation schemes, or in construction of new large-scale schemes, an assessment is needed of the complex mix of physical, technical and institutional challenges impeding the effectiveness of current schemes; including the impact of government policies relating to agricultural development, and how these align with water resource management objectives. A potential entry point for LIFT is an assessment of the relative effectiveness of different modes of irrigation (gravity schemes, PIPs, groundwater) in terms impacts on water and energy productivity as well as yields, farm incomes and livelihoods. This could be undertaken at two levels: a comparative assessment across existing large schemes; and community based analysis of needs and outcomes at village level. A trial of the golongan system of water delivery management could be used in an existing scheme to reduce risks by rationalising water delivery; and as an entry point for LIFT to work with government to better link water resources planning with crop planning.we recommend that groundwater investment should focus on two areas: securing village / domestic supplies using tube wells; and supporting development of smallscale supplementary irrigation. Deep tube wells provide reliable, high quality water in all seasons for domestic use, with benefits for the whole community. Farmers are already adopting groundwater irrigation using shallow tube wells powered by small motorized pumps in rainfed areas, and also within irrigation command areas where there are shortfalls in supply. Our analysis suggests that an additional 110,000 to 330,000 ha of groundwater irrigation could be developed sustainably.Water is available in most (though not all) areas. A mix of technical and financial support is needed (business models, targeted subsidies, microfinance) to overcome high establishment costs in both sectors. A necessary precursor to any large-scale program of groundwater development is an appraisal of recharge, sustainable yield of aquifers and water quality, relative to current and planned use (see below).Small reservoirs for rainwater harvesting and storage emerge as the preferred option for improving water supplies for villages in many contexts in the Dry Zone. They are a simple, proven technology, but type, design and siting of such reservoirs are very specific to each location, and can include a range of types including sand dams and turkey nest dams (pumped from rivers) as well as earth or stone dams to catch runoff. In general, communities have the skills to construct and maintain these structures, but support may be needed in the form of technical advice, community payments for labour, or access to machinery. Key constraints for effective adoption of small reservoirs are cost of construction; and commitment of communities to on-going maintenance (desilting, repair of embankments, clearing of spillways). Watershed management programs in catchment areas of reservoirs to protect inflows and water quality could significantly improve the effectiveness of small reservoirs, and provide opportunities for community employment.Soil and water conservation, though not a priority from village consultations, are important in three contexts: reducing and repairing land degradation; protection of infrastructure from sediment damage; and managing water effectively in rainfed systems at both field and watershed scales. At farm scale, agronomic extension programs should include information and advice on SWC techniques; and targeted subsidies or incentives may be appropriate. At village scale, watershed management should form an essential component of pond construction and rehabilitation, with opportunities for local employment and income benefits. At watershed scale, the most serious constraints are getting the necessary buy-in from higher levels of government to coordinate programs across large areas; and developing mechanisms to motivate communities to participate in such activities. LIFT could play a role in engaging Government to evaluate and re-invigorate or redesign existing watershed management programs at national level. This could include collaboration with Irrigation and Forestry Departments for sediment studies in existing reservoirs, and follow-up studies on programs initiated in the 1990s under UNCCD.Water resources planning and information: a comprehensive development strategy is needed at regional to national level, to guide future water resources. This is, however, the domain of the government and cannot proceed without their full commitment. Two areas where targeted inputs could make an important contribution are: improvements in management of water-related data; and completion of hydrogeological studies for the Dry Zone as the basis for a groundwater management plan. Accessible databases, held by the appropriate departments of government ministries in Nay Pyi Taw, would greatly facilitate water resources planning in the Dry Zone (and elsewhere). Continued development of groundwater without an assessment of the available resource, runs the risk of lost investment through over-exploitation and inappropriate siting of wells.A comprehensive resource assessment would provide the basis for a strategic approach to groundwater development, as well as operational information for drilling of wells.  Type 2 operations can co-exist within a Type 1 system as in the case at Monywa where private farmers operate shallow tube wells at the tail-end of the system which have limited water availability, owing largely to constraints in power supply and pumping duration that are not able to serve the needs of all farmers within the command area.Farmer owned tube wells are smaller in diameter and shallower than the community irrigation wells.They typically feature a smaller 3-inch casing and are screened over the interval from 12-18 m that taps only the upper brown/yellow sand layer aquifer (Figure A3.3). A 7.5 HP motorized pump supplies about 98m 3 d -1 . The cost of a well quoted to be 100,000 Kyat and the cost of the pump is also 100,00 Kyat. Fuel cost was reportedly 5000 Kyat. Urea was being applied at the time of the visit. Large portions within many of the large surface water irrigation project command boundaries are considered 'uncommadable' in the sense that the existing lift irrigation system cannot deliver water to those parts of the landscape. In these areas farmers are making investments in utilizing groundwater, sometimes in an innovative manner. In the Seik Nyaung Pump Irrigation Project, we visited Mr Aye Thaung, a farmer from Nyaungkhan Village, Taung Ther Township, who has gone into agreement and created viable informal irrigation through an entrepreneurial arrangement with three other famers situated on nearby lands. The well was constructed and paid for by another member of the village in 2007. The pump was purchased by Mr Aye Thaung. Two other farmers use the groundwater irrigation system to water their fields. This water trading and investment sharing initiative is self-started and free of formal agreements and based on mutual consent and willingness to participate. The owner of the well has 0.6 ha under irrigation at this site and two other farmers have 0.4 ha of land each bringing the total land under the command of the irrigation well to 1.8 ha. They pay a usage charge of 4,000 Kyat per day (not including the cost of the diesel) to the pump owner to use the well. The pump owner presumably shares this revenue with the well owner.The irrigation well is 30m deep and was drilled by manual percussion methods (Figure A3.4). It cost 400,000 Kyat at the time. The 18 HP diesel pump used was bought 4 years ago for 450,000 kyat. The cost of a diesel gallon is 3,500 Kyat. On Mr Aye Thaung's land, family labour is used. He grows 0.4 ha of onions fringed with corn. The total input cost for this crop was 500,000 Kyat that covers costs of fertilizer (Inorganic fertilizer and cow dung are applied), pesticides and fuel. He will irrigate according to the plant water conditions as fuel is expensive. The crop requires 7 waterings over the life of the crop and each watering takes 11 hours. Eleven litres of fuel are used in the process. The discharge rate of the pump is 540 m 3 d -1 .The quality of water is slightly brackish and the sodium content is sufficiently high. This creates slaking of fine textured soil on the surface and problems with soil aeration, requiring seasonal rotation to allow the soil to remediate naturally. In the monsoon tobacco is grown. Whist onions fetch a higher price than tobacco, in recent times the price has become more unstable than tobacco.Growing an easily perishable crop and also because of lack of savings, most of the time Mr. Thaung similar to other typical farmers, is unable to wait for a good selling price. Mr Thaung owns 22.8 ha of land in total, including 0.8 ha for paddy within the commadable area which he irrigates with surface water. Mr Shwe Myaing constructed a new well four months before our visit, after years of working with rainfed agriculture. He recently received a family inheritance, which he invested in improving the water management of his farm. A deep well was needed, because of the upland location of his farm, with a large diameter well to 6m and tube well to 55 m. The top few meters of the well are in limestone, but the most productive layer is the 'brown sands' found at depth. The total cost was 1.1 M kyat: 300,000 kyat for mechanical drilling of the well; 350,000 kyat for the down-hole pump; and 350,000 kyat for a large diesel engine, purchased second hand.The well irrigates a field of 0.5 ha (Figure A3.5). For the first irrigated crop, onions were planted; when we visited, the crop was 1 month old. Land preparation took 1 month and cost 100,000 kyat. The soils are calcareous sands with low fertility, so cow dung and urea were applied. The expected yield from this harvest is 3000 Viss (4890kg). The selling price at present is 300-400 kyat per Viss.Mr Shwe Myaing previously produced sesame and some mung beans under rainfed conditions; when the rains were good he was able to harvest 10 baskets (about 370kg) at most, but often the crop failed. Access to irrigation means that it would be possible to produce watermelon for export to China, with much higher potential returns. However, he chose to plant onions, like many other farmers in the area, citing lack of experience and high risk as the main constraints. Recession farming on the dry riverbed of the Sin Te Wa River is practiced during the pre-monsoon each year. Prior to the start of the dry season the concerned village committee distribute the available land and each farmer receives an allocation of 0.2 ha. Temporary holes are dug in the sand to a depth of a few tens of centimetres deep and sufficiently wide to accommodate direct access of the irrigator to fill containers and the sand walls of the hole are supported by bamboo reinforcing (Figure A3.6). Wells are quickly constructed within the matter if a few hours and are dug in grid-wise distribution to minimize the energy expended in water distribution. The water table is within close proximity to the surface and the irrigator typically uses dual watering cans to spread water to water a few square meters of crop per application. A minimal number of famers use small motorized pumps. The crop water demand in this treeless environment is high and the soil water storing capacity is low making frequent waterings a necessity. Irrigation commences in the cool of the early morning and by the middle of the day little activity is observed. The dominant crop is onions for the local market, although groundnut can also be observed in the fringe areas where the water table depth is sufficiently higher. The quality of water would appear to be good as onion is poor tolerance to salinity. White precipitates evident on the surface of the drainage canals would appear to be urea which as washed off from the plots and redeposited in concentrated form.The farming practice is highly risky if the monsoon season begins earlier than normal (say in April or before), then the crop will be destroyed and the farmers will lose everything. In the most recent decade or so this has occurred in about one year in three.Mr Shwe Myaing, the practicing Type 2 farmer described above, was until recently practicing Type 3 irrigation but came to be in a financial position to be able to invest in groundwater pumping infrastructure to undertake dry season irrigation of his upland site and primarily chose to do so because of the more assured harvest.Figure A3.6. The entire Sin Te Wa River river bed is planted to onions during the dry season with regular grid of seasonal dug wells also evident While recent progress has been impressive, the fact remains that more than 1 in 4 people in the Dry Zone do not have access to a secure source of safe water. Lessons from past programs :• JICA (2010) found that many existing rural water supply tube wells were in poor condition or not functioning. They attribute this in part to poor siting and construction, and in part to lack of trained engineers for operation and maintenance.• Because hydrogeology of the area is not well characterised, siting of wells in large part exploratory; yield and water quality cannot be assured before drilling• The high cost of wells can drive communities to seek alternative lower cost supplies. JICA, (2010) give the example of Mingan village, where villagers opted for the construction of a primary school with roof rainwater collection facility instead of a deep tube well.• Maintenance and desilting of ponds at least every 2-3 is critical to maintain viable volumes. NGOs working in the Dry Zone have reported that regular maintenance is often neglected, which means that more expensive and difficult renovation is then needed.• Improving access to water (as well as availability) through piped systems, improved access points and pumping for ponds (Proximity, ActionAid).A critical lesson from current programs is the importance of embedding water into broader village livelihood strategies, taking account of the full range of needs and users. WRUD is responsible for irrigation schemes without formal storage, including pumped irrigation projects (PIP) drawing on rivers; spate irrigation and small-scale water harvesting. Over 1000 small scale irrigation works were completed in the Dry Zone during the 1980s; a review in January 2013 indicated that rehabilitation work is required in many of these for them to function effectively. Since 2000, there has been a focus on developing large pump irrigation projects (PIPs) with command areas over 1000 acres (400ha), using high discharge pumps. WRUD has implemented 18 \"Special Project\" schemes totalling over 71,000 ha in MMS; another 7 projects with total command area of almost 50,000 ha are planned or under construction. Aside from the large \"Special Projects\", WRUD lists at total of 165 smaller schemes with an irrigable area of 67,000 ha completed; and 9 (5800 ha) planned or under construction. Six spate irrigation projects were implemented in the Dry Zone as part of UNDP HDI ICDP in 2003-7, irrigating around 300 ha.The The performance of formal irrigation schemes has generally been sub-optimal. The actual area irrigated is much lower than nominal command area. A government report released by the Auditor General's Office in 2012, found that \"Sixty-seven river water pumping stations have achieved 16.3% of their target, providing water to 48,833 acres out of the 299,895 acres originally planned\" 1 , and that some reservoirs and diversion dams could not supply water at all. The report recommended that inefficient schemes be abandoned.Anderson Consulting for LIFT (2011LIFT ( , 2012) ) conducted a comprehensive review of the efficiency and effectiveness of PIPs in the Dry Zone and identified a large range of issues affecting performance, including system design, operation and maintenance issues, availability of power for pumping, and inappropriate siting and soils. Many of these problems, particularly relating to O&M, are common to gravity-fed systems as well. In addition to technical problems, profitability is hampered by a lack of flexibility (most systems are designed to grow rice under flood conditions, with little attention to drainage, and are insufficiently flexible for other crops); and lack of extension of agronomic advice, to assist farmers to make best use of irrigation.These issues are compounded by inadequate funding and technical capacity for O&M. The problems with O&M are illustrated by the rather startling statistic on the WRUD website (http://wrud.moai.gov.mm/) , that of a total of 6436 positions allocated to WRUD nationally, only 2074 have been appointed; with the forlorn note that\" 723 daily wage labourers are being employed because of insufficient staff strength\". Village surveys and reports from other projects indicate the generally poor performance of Water User Groups in water allocation and operation of schemes.Although groundwater supplies only a small proportion of Irrigation (around 5%), use is increasing more rapidly than for other sources. Much of this development is small-scale private investment, observed, for example, during field visits in Monywa. The extent of private groundwater development is not known. Watershed management programs in the Dry Zone have been initiated in three different (but related) contexts:• Soil and water conservation programs at field scales to prevent erosion and loss of top soil, with related declines in soil fertility, water-holding capacity and crop yields (eg Kahan 1997)• Soil conservation and tree planting projects in small catchments to protect village water supply dams and ponds from siltation and improve water quality• Large scale catchment reforestation programs to protect infrastructure from impacts of sedimentation, including siltation of reservoirs and clogging of irrigation canals by sandThe main causes of land degradation in the Dry Zone include deforestation (due to agricultural expansion, commercial and illicit logging, and excessive cutting for charcoal and fuel wood), poor agricultural practices, overgrazing, and shifting cultivation, all of which are exacerbated by demographic pressures. Shifting cultivation is often cited as a major cause of deforestation; in 2002 the Forestry Department estimated that 22.8% of forested area in Myanmar was affected by shifting cultivation (MoF 2005). However, evidence both from Myanmar and elsewhere (eg Lao PDR, see Valentin et al 2008) indicates that it is shortening the period of fallow (usually due to population pressure) that causes problems, rather than shifting cultivation per se. Traditional Taungya methods, with sufficiently long rotations, can support the conservation of natural forest ecosystems and biodiversity much more effectively than plantation monocultures (Khin Htun 2003, BEWC 2011).Myanmar has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, estimated at 0.45 -1 million ha per year during the 1990s (BEWG 2011). Presently, less than 20% of the Dry Zone is under closed forest and deforestation is continuing at a rapid rate. It is estimated that annual deforestation rate is 4.07% in Magwe Division, 1.48% in Mandalay Division and 0.68% in Sagaing Division respectively (UNCCD 2005). Dry forests around the periphery of the Dry Zone are particularly under threat, with a high proportion of degraded forests (Leimgruber et al 2005;NFI 2007). This is due in large part to agricultural encroachment and intensification of shifting cultivation.The problems of land degradation in the Dry Zone of Myanmar were recognized as early as the 1950s, when a Dry Zone rehabilitation project was initiated by the Agriculture and Rural Development Corporation (ARDC) in collaboration with the FD. This comprise tree planting in degraded lands. Watershed management activities are carried out primarily under the Forestry Department (FD). Under the UNDP HDI program, watershed management programs were instituted in the 1990s (Community Multi-purpose Fuelwood Woodlots; and Watershed Management for Three Critical Areas) to attempt to reduce the rate of deforestation and related erosion and degradation of land and water resources (Cools 1995) The UN has been active in watershed management programs, through the UNDP HDI program; and the FAO programs on agricultural development and environmental management in the Dry Zone during the 1990s (Cools 1995;Carucci 1999) and local and international NGOs. Cools (1995) reported the use of a range of traditional SWC practices in the DZ (overflow bunds, gully plugging with rocks or crop residues, strip cropping, agroforestry techniques); other promising approaches include deep tillage, reduced tillage, zero tillage, mulching, planting basins and the use of crops with low water requirement. Kahan (1999) provides a detailed manual of SWC techniques specifically targeted for the DZ. Currently, FAO does not support programs in land and water management in Myanmar (FAO Field Programme Activities database online http://bit.ly/12hsA4v).Forest Resource Environmental Development and Conservation Association (FREDA), Japan Overseas Forestry Consultants Association (JOFCA) and (JIFPRO) are cooperating with DZGD and FD in restoring degraded forest lands. Renewable Energy Association Myanmar (REAM) is working on renewable energy related services for rural development and environmental conservation in the areas of fuelwood substitution and biogas utilization.Cools (1995) demonstrated the positive economic returns from SWC measures in the Dry Zone at farm level. He noted that farmers in the region have traditionally invested in a range of SWC measures, but as farm sizes have decreased, low incomes and lack of savings have meant that for many farmers, funds are not available for SWC. He concluded that external financial resources are needed to implement SWC works on any significant scale. Landless and poor farmers could benefit from employment in such schemes.A review of Community Forest Programs in Myanmar found that their performance was adequate but sub-optimal in terms of both forest regeneration and improving livelihoods; and that sustainability, particularly in the case studies in Mandalay Region, was problematic (Kway Tint et al 2011).Dry forests around periphery of the Dry Zone are particularly under threat from deforestation and agricultural encroachment. Karin Luke (WHH) observed that in upland areas of Pauk, degradation is at critical levels, with widespread gullying, loss of topsoil and changes in river morphology due to large volumes of sand, which also clog irrigation canals, making them unusable. She concluded that community forest conservation and agroforestry projects had had a measure of success, but these are at small scale, and there is an urgent need to scale up to regional or national level, since degradation is beyond the level where it can be tackled by small projects.Despite some major programs in watershed management, and a proposed DGDZ integrated plan for 30 years 2001-2031 covering forest conservation and land management, it is not clear either that the programs have been effectively implemented, or that there has been a significant change in rates of degradation. In the beginning of the season water is given only to the first golongan, then to the first and the second golongan, and later after the water is sufficient, it is given to all four golongan. While the group composition/distinction of farmers fields fall within one golongan remain the same, the first turn for irrigation water supply was rotated between the groups on annual basis.Applying golongan system does not necessarily mean locking farmers to grow a certain type of crops for the entire cropping seasons. The system is rigid in terms of seasonal arrangement, meaning that once a group of farmers decided to grow a certain type of crops in the start of the planting season, they have to stick to this decision, at least for that particular season. For the next planting season, they can decide to grow another crop (i.e. rice, cassava) as long as they can come to common agreement with each other. Technically, farmers in different golongan can also grow different crops.In Indonesia, some farmers grow paddy and others sugarcane within one irrigation scheme. This requires a lot of technical fine-tuning, but technically it is possible.While this approach sounds like a straightforward one, it is based on several assumptions. First, it can only be applied if farmers are cultivating the same crops (i.e. paddy) as each farmer fields group has to have similar crop water requirement. Second, farmers in the same golongan have to stick to the same cropping calendar. In practice, the application of golongan system also requires a lot of technical information on the technical characteristics of the irrigation systems, and how this affect the overall calculation in water delivery as to decide when to start with rotation schedule (i.e. at which level does an irrigation system switch from continuous to rotational water supply; what is the relevant ratio between supply and demand); the appropriate scale the rotation schedule can be applied (i.e. the total area of tertiary unit as both technical and organizational unit); and the link between farmers' fields and main system management.To conclude, while golongan system provides an interesting entry point to improve water management practices in the Dry Zone of Myanmar, a lot more of empirical studies (both technical and institutional) need to be conducted before we can decide on the system's applicability in particular irrigation systems.","tokenCount":"19792"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d96cda3b95886fe095cfad68d4d08cc1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a14e1318-90fb-40d4-94e6-b4437a936ed1/retrieve","id":"-513914889"},"keywords":["gender","seed systems","social network analysis","climate change"],"sieverID":"464e6365-948d-42ce-8af9-3c1a73af6b59","pagecount":"24","content":"In many East African countries, women and men have different levels of access to formal markets for agricultural inputs, including seed, reflecting a combination of gender norms and resource constraints. As a result, women and men may have different levels of participation in-and reliance upon-informal seed systems for sourcing preferred planting material and accessing new crop varieties over time. We use network analysis to explore differences in seed networks accessed by women and men for three major food security crops-beans, finger millet, and sorghum-in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Drawing on data from an original survey of 1001 rural farm households across five study sites, we find that women, on average, have fewer connections to experts and farmers' groups than men but are relatively better connected in farmer-to-farmer social networks across different farming systems. We further find women's and men's networks are clustered by gender (i.e., women's networks include more women, and men's networks include more men)-and that men's networks are more likely to exchange improved seed. Women's networks, though sometimes larger, are less likely to exchange improved varieties that might help farmers adapt to climate change. Women farmers across contexts may also be more reliant on farmer-to-farmer networks than men due to their relative isolation from other seed and information sources. Findings emphasize the need for careful attention to the different implications of seed policies, market interventions, and other seed system reforms to support gender-equitable food security options for women and men in sub-Saharan Africa.Women and female-headed agricultural households in sub-Saharan Africa regularly face production constraints-including discrepancies in access to resources such as land and agricultural inputs-that are associated with higher rates of poverty and food insecurity among women farmers than men [1][2][3][4]. East Africa's economies are heavily dependent on small-scale agriculture, with at least two-thirds of all food production in the region coming from smallholder farms of less than 2 hectares and with minimal livestock holdings [5]. At the same time, East Africa has some of the highest rates of undernutrition globally [6][7][8]; efforts to sustain and enhance the productivity of women smallholders in the face of climate change and other threats to regional food systems are thus key to broader regional food security goals. Climate change adaptation among smallholder farmers is one of the essential components to supporting food security and realizing broader regional economic development [9]. Past studies of East African farmers' perceptions of climate change have identified shifting growing seasons, erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, longer drought periods, increased frequency of natural disasters, and the arrival of new crop and livestock pests and diseases as key areas of concern [10][11][12][13][14]. Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns have already led to unpredictable rainfall and a shorter growing season in parts of East Africa, with viable crop seasons expected to continue to shorten under the changing climate [15]. Due to the rain-dependence of much of the small-scale agriculture in the region, climatechange-related variability threatens to undermine rural agricultural production systems, livelihoods, and food security [13]. Resource-constrained rural smallholder farmers, including many women and female-headed households [16], are particularly vulnerable to climate change and may also lack access to resources (e.g., land, credit, and inputs including crop genetic resources) and the information needed to use those resources most effectively [17].Farmers with limited resources may attempt to adapt to climate change effects and uncertainty by replacing their current crops with more resilient, alternative crops. In Zimbabwe, for instance, Progressio [17] found that many farmers were replacing maize crops with sorghum and millet, which are better adapted to the increasingly arid environment. Farmers may also adapt by seeking out drought-tolerant and early maturing varieties of the same crop they were growing previously [17][18][19]. In many cases, existing local crop diversity may present an opportunity for quicker adaptation to climatic stressors and variability [20]. This local genetic diversity may be especially consequential for women farmers, given that women and men may and often do have different levels of access to both agricultural input markets (including improved seed through formal seed systems) and agricultural output markets (including opportunities to sell new crops or varieties with greater market value), reflecting a combination of gender norms and resource constraints [21,22]. Such differences in market access mean that women and men may have different levels of participation in-and reliance upon-informal seed systems, including direct farmer-to-farmer exchange of seed through networks of neighbors and family, for sourcing preferred planting material and accessing new crop varieties over time.In this paper, we use network analysis to explore differences in seed networks across women and men for three major food security crops-beans, finger millet, and sorghum-in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. We focus on differences across women and men smallholders in terms of access to experts (e.g., extension services), access to farmer groups (e.g., farmers' or women's associations), and individual links to other farmers (farmer-tofarmer seed exchange). Drawing on original survey data collected from 1001 rural farm households across five study sites in the three countries, we examine variation in women versus men's participation in informal seed networks across different agroecological and socio-institutional contexts.In the next section, we review the recent literature on informal seed systems in East Africa and the use of social network analysis for the study of seed systems. We then summarize the data and network analysis methods used, followed by the results, comparing women's and men's access to agricultural experts, farmers' groups, and direct farmer-to-farmer seed exchange for the primary crops grown in each study site. We conclude with a discussion of the potential gender-related implications of seed policies, market interventions, and other seed system reforms such as integrated seed systems development programs targeting supportive policies and institutions for both formal and informal seed systems in sub-Saharan Africa.Even as the formal seed sector continues to expand in many low-and middle-income countries, informal seed systems-including informal exchange of farmer-saved seed with neighbors and extended family-have remained the primary source of planting material for many smallholder farming communities. In East Africa, informal seed networksconsisting of seed obtained from own saved seed, exchange with neighbors, or seed obtained from local markets-supply as much as 80% of seed for some crops and geographies [23,24]. Smallholder farmers in particular often rely on informal seed networks to provide desired local varieties (which may or may not be available through formal channels) at the desired quantity and price [25][26][27].Informal seed networks may also provide support for adaptation to climate changethe effects of climate change lead to shifts in small-scale farmers' demand for specific crops and varieties [18] with desirable traits (e.g., drought tolerance), with ultimate seed choices affected by the farmers' seed networks and their access to seed through either formal or informal seed system channels. Because many of the varieties exchanged through informal seed systems have evolved in the local environment, localized seed networks may be especially important for providing access to varieties already adapted to the local area's agro-ecological conditions [27,28]. These informal seed networks are, thus, an important element in ensuring access to climate-resilient seeds at the prices and quantities required by the farmers [25] and, at the same time, maintaining and conserving the crop genetic diversity needed for future climate change adaptation [29].Gender norms and differences in access to resources among women and men can significantly affect the processes of agricultural production, consumption, and distribution [30]. Gender norms often constrain women's agricultural productivity, in part via a lack of equal access to seed, technologies, land, and other production factors. The World Bank outlines ten policy priorities to \"close the gender gap\" in agricultural production in Africa, with more than half focused on improving women's access to inputs (i.e., improved seed) or output markets (i.e., sales of high-value/cash crops) [31]. Some recent studies have further underscored the myriad constraints women smallholders may face in accessing technology and information for agricultural production [32]: women farmers tend to have smaller plot sizes, they experience difficulties in accessing seed with desired production qualities through formal market channels, and women may have limited access to other resources such as inputs and capital for agricultural production [33,34]. In the aggregate, women's unequal access to and control over resources compared to men's is one of the underlying causes of global hunger-social and economic inequalities between women and men can undermine national and regional food security and impede/hinder economic growth and advances in agriculture [35].Previous studies have shown that farmers' access to seed can be heavily influenced by demographic factors including both wealth and gender norms [32,36]. In addition to facing resource and market constraints, women and men may also be constrained by gender norms defining \"women's\" and \"men's\" crops. In the Tharaka region of Kenya, for example, the maintenance of pearl millet seed and grain is considered the women's responsibility [37]. Gendered differences in crops cultivated in part reflects the fact that, in many contexts, women are more focused on production for household food consumption, while men are more likely to grow at least some crops for cash [22,34,38].In part a consequence of gender norms, women and men farmers often have separate social networks, exposing them to different crop varieties and different sources of crop information. Tadesse et al. [32] found that men in Ethiopia are more likely to share seeds and information with other men farmers, while women share almost equally with men and women farmers. However, they also found that women tend to have a greater role in sharing seeds outside of their community because they are often the ones to move to new households upon marriage and maintain family ties with their extended family in other villages or regions. As a consequence, in times of stress when larger amounts of different seed varieties may be needed than usual, women have been shown to be more likely to engage in long-distance seed acquisition, as for example, in the case of Uganda with pearl millet seed [32,39]. In East Africa, although women's social networks are often smaller than men's, their connections to distant relatives and peers can serve to geographically extend seed networks and potentially enhance resilience.Finally, gendered differences in social networks can also influence the spread of information alongside genetic resources. In an analysis of nine East and West African countries, Perez et al. [40] found that men's social networks rely on bridging and linking social capital, including more extensive connections to formal institutions (e.g., expertise through agricultural extension services or farmers' groups), while women's social networks were more likely to rely on bonding social capital (connections with family and friends). Other studies have reported that extension officers are more likely to work through male heads of households and may not reach out to women [40,41], and that women often rely less on governmental extension information sources [42]. In the presence of such differences, some studies have shown strengthening women's social networks to be associated with improved agricultural productivity [43]. Given that women are estimated to comprise some 50-70% of the agricultural labor force in East African countries [35], improvements in women's social networks for agricultural production might have broad impacts for household and regional food security, productivity, and economic development [32,39].The existing literature provides ample reason to suspect systematic differences in access to and use of social seed networks by women and men, with potentially important implications for the climate change adaptation strategies undertaken. This paper draws on original survey data from three communities in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to examine and better understand the dynamics of women and men smallholder farmers' social networks and their resulting access to and exchange of seeds and information for climate change adaptation. By better understanding the differential impacts of social networks on resource access and information exchange by gender, our paper aims to determine whether these differences and/or similarities influence how women and men maintain, exchange, and access crop diversity for climate change adaptation. We also hope to inform gender-specific interventions to improve women's access to genetic diversity for climate change adaptation in East Africa.A social network broadly consists of interpersonal relationships, social interactions, and/or the exchange of goods or information. Although social network theory is relatively new in the study of farmers' seed systems, some recent studies have applied the techniques to understand the importance of farmers' networks in accessing and exchanging seed diversity and new technologies [44,45] with some studies in sub-Saharan African countries including Cameroon [39], Ghana [46], and Ethiopia [47,48].Previous findings applying network analysis to seed systems suggest that community networks play key roles in managing local crop diversity and making diverse planting material accessible to farmers [49] and that such networks may have positive or negative impacts on farmers' access to seed and information for climate change adaptation (depending on level of access to the network). Network metrics can be used to describe not only the number of linkages a given farmer has to other farmers, but also the direction and the strengths of those linkages. Commonly reported measures include degree centrality and betweenness centrality. Degree centrality is a count of the number of ties associated with any given node in a network (i.e., the number of other farmers providing seed to or receiving seed from a given farmer). In a social network, those with high degree centrality are characterized as prominent (more ties going in) and/or influential (more ties going out) [50,51]. Betweenness centrality measures the number of times a node lies on the shortest path between other nodes and is an indication of the \"bridges\" between nodes in the network [52]. These measures can help to identify nodal farmers, who are farmers with the most links in a given network, and who might be targeted for dissemination of new crop varieties and information about successful climate change adaptation strategies.The three study countries in the East Africa region have some of the highest rates of undernutrition globally [6], with Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda ranked 87th, 98th, and 89th, respectively, of 113 countries in overall national food security (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2018). Case study sites were selected by the international agricultural research institute Bioversity International as representative of the primary agro-ecological systems in the region and include five sites: Lower Nyando and Upper Nyando in Kenya; Hombolo and Singida in Tanzania; Hoima in Uganda (Figure 1). Agriculture is the main activity for food security and livelihoods, with mixed farming being practiced in these sites by all smallholder farm households surveyed (Table 1).and Singida in Tanzania; Hoima in Uganda (Figure 1). Agriculture is the main activity for food security and livelihoods, with mixed farming being practiced in these sites by all smallholder farm households surveyed (Table 1).    Data were collected from July through October of 2016. The sample of 1001 households includes 365 households from Lower and Upper Nyando in Kenya, 334 from Hombolo and Singida in Tanzania, and 302 from Hoima District in Uganda. The research team adopted a snowball sampling approach, a common approach used to identify the sample for a network survey. For initial interviews, we first identified two nodal farmers, a woman and a man, from each village during focus group discussions. As part of the network survey, these farmers provided the names of several other farmers from whom they obtained seed and/or information on seeds. We then surveyed the farmers named by the first two respondents. This process was continued until the interviewed farmers began to mention the same names again, completing the cycle of farmers within the community network.Surveyed farmers were asked to name the varieties of seed they had used in the last year and from where they had sourced the seed; if they mentioned a neighbor or a farmer, they were asked to name them. The farmers were also asked to name anyone they had shared seed with in the last year; these farmers were also interviewed. Additionally, all respondents were asked to name experts, for example, extension workers or agronomists, from whom they had received seed. The surveys also collected various farm-level data on crops grown, farm level assets such as land, access to tools and assets, sources of seed and seed exchange networks, varieties of seed used and exchanged, varieties used for climate change adaptation, sources of expert information, and relationships between farmers and experts/extension. All survey data were entered on-site into the Open Data Kit (ODK) platform using tablets, to ensure data quality.Finally, survey findings were supplemented by two focus group discussions conducted in each sample site, with women and men farmers gathering separately. Focus groups consisted of groups of 12-20 farmers with the aim of corroborating information obtained from the surveys regarding local perceptions of climate change, strategies adopted for climate change adaptation, and preferred seeds exchanged by farmers. Focus group discussions and expert consultations also supported the identification of seeds reported by farmers, including whether the varieties were local or improved. Discussions also explored the strength of community relationships with experts from extension services, research institutions, NGOs, and different government ministries.Preliminary analysis of the descriptive statistics on the various variables of importance was conducted by site and by gender in order to identify differences in: crops grown; types of varieties grown; assets; education; involvement in off-farm activities; access to information and extension services.For the seed network analysis, the data were analyzed in R (4.0.3) and visualized in Gephi (0.9.2) network analysis software. Following established methods drawn from our review of literature, we conduct a social seed network analysis [44,48,53,54] illustrating how seeds are exchanged between men and women and how network structure differs by crop type and site. The relationships among farmers within each network were assessed through measures of degree centrality and betweenness centrality, both by gender and by major crop type for each network.For all seed networks, we further examined the subset of farmers who reported growing the key crops identified through focus group discussions as those most supporting climate change adaptation, such as sorghum, finger millet, cassava, beans, and other legumes such as cow pea. Information gathered during focus group discussions indicated that farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda were choosing new varieties of beans in some cases and, in others, replacing maize with more resilient sorghum and millet varieties, as a result of climate change. We thus further examined the social seed networks of those farmers adopting new/different crops and varieties as an adaptation strategy to climate change-again with a focus on differences by gender.In all five study sites, the majority of households were male-headed; however, in the Hombolo community, the difference was much less pronounced, with 58% of households headed by a man, and 42% by a woman. In all five sites, there were larger numbers of young women farmers. Men farmers between the ages of 21-30 made up 0% of the Lower Nyando sample, 12% of Upper Nyando, 4% of Hombolo, 6% of Singida, and 12% of Hoima. In contrast, women farmers between the ages of 21-30 made up 2% of the Lower Nyando sample, 13% of Upper Nyando, 11% of Hombolo, 16% of Singida, and 14% of Hoima. Male household heads were overwhelmingly married, with a small percentage of single, divorced, widowed, and cohabiting. Female heads of household were only slightly less likely to be married, yet a higher percentage of female heads of household were widowed. In the study sites, widowed female heads of household were 37% (Lower Nyando), 23% (Upper Nyando), 26% (Hombolo), 4% (Singida), and 12% (Hoima) of all female-headed households. In comparison, widowed male heads of households were only reported in Lower and Upper Nyando and Hoima, with 3%, 3%, and 4%, respectively, of the total.There were also noteworthy discrepancies by gender in ownership of assets, including motorbikes in all sites, mobile phones in Hombolo, treadle water pumps in Lower and Upper Nyando and Hoima, motorized water pumps in Lower and Upper Nyando, and solar panels in Hombolo and Singida. The differences in land ownership between men and women were relatively small, except for rented and gifted land in Singida. In Singida, 94% of men reported renting land and 22% reported receiving land as a gift, while only 3% of women reported renting land and 6% reported receiving land as a gift.The sources of information available to farmers also varied significantly by gender. While women and men alike often accessed information about agriculture and climate change from sources such as radio, farmer field days, agricultural shows, and seed events, access to newspaper and TV was strongly gendered. Among men in Lower and Upper Nyando, Hombolo, Singida, and Hoima 6%, 34%, 10%, 21%, and 33%, respectively, cited television as a source of information. In contrast, only 4%, 9%, 8%, and 16% of women in Lower and Upper Nyando, Singida, and Hoima, respectively, cited television as a source, with no women in Hombolo citing television. Responses for newspaper access mirrored these findings.The responses obtained for sources of information were in part a function of farm assets. In absolute terms, more men respondents reported owning televisions than women respondents in Lower Nyando (24% vs. 18%), Upper Nyando (10% vs. 3%), Singida (19% vs. 17%), and Hoima (18% vs. 9%).Farmers often reported seeking seed-related information from expert sources, and there were gendered differences in access to experts by site (Table 2). In Lower Nyando, Hombolo, and Singida, men were more than twice as likely as women to obtain seed information from an expert. This difference was especially pronounced in Hombolo, where nearly a third of men in the sample reported consulting experts for seed information, compared to only 3% of women. Hoima did not appear to have a difference in expert connections across women and men, and in Upper Nyando, women had slightly higher rates (compared to men) of connecting with experts for seed information. This latter finding can be attributed to the fact that many women in the Kenyan sample (Lower and Upper Nyando) connect to experts through producer organizations and women's groups. At every site, a majority of farmers perceived that the growing seasons and rainfall patterns were changing (Appendix A). In all the three countries, the growing season (number of rainy days) had reportedly reduced over the last three years. At the Nyando and Hoima sites, farmers often reported that the yearly temperature of their location has risen over time. Farmers in Lower Nyando, Upper Nyando, Hombolo, and Singida additionally noted that rainfall is becoming more unpredictable and that rainfall amounts are also unpredictable. Farmers also reported that in recent years, incidences of drought have increased in the Lower/Upper Nyando, Hombolo, and Singida sites, making it increasingly difficult to rely on maize as a staple crop.Focus group discussions revealed that farmers across sites frequently respond to climate change with low-cost and low-input strategies, including replanting, preparing land earlier, planting earlier, and using drought-tolerant varieties. In areas most affected by drought, such as Lower/Upper Nyando, Hombolo, and Singida, farmers reported switching to drought-tolerant crops, including millet, sorghum, and cassava. Nyando and Hoima farmers reported responding to perceptions of shifting viable altitude ranges by varying the elevation at which they plant different crops. In addition, farmers reported seeking off-farm income sources, in part to make up for declining on-farm crop production. In response to new pests and diseases in crops, farmers who could afford the treatment reported using pesticides, or alternatively using local varieties or breeds that are more resistant to pests and diseases. In response to the perception of new weed species, farmers reported introducing crop rotation and increasing the frequency of weeding. Notably, in the Hombolo and Singida sites, most adaptation strategies reported were focused on adapting to rainfall variation; such strategies often included replanting crops (requiring more seed) and switching to more resilient crops (requiring access to new/different seed).The gender and other demographic dimensions of climate change adaptation varied considerably by site (Table 3). In Lower Nyando and Hombolo, men are adapting to climate change by planting new/varied seed of the same crops at a greater rate than women. In Hoima, higher percentages of younger farmers also reported adapting to climate change by planting new/varied seeds as compared to older farmers; however, this trend is not mirrored in other sites. More educated farmers, on average, appear to have higher rates of using different crop varieties to adapt to climate change across all study sites.This section summarizes findings from the social seed network analysis (Figures 2-11), depicting the seed flows between farmers; all diagrams also show the age of the household head and the gender of the respondent. For each site, we present figures for the overall seed network (all seed exchanges at that site), as well as one crop-specific seed network (representing the network for the most widely used crop for climate change adaptation at that site). In some cases, we also looked at variety-specific networks (in cases where multiple varieties of a crop were grown, but one variety was most commonly used for climate change adaptation). The crop-and variety-specific networks are a subset of the overall network by site. Within the network diagrams presented (Figures 2-11), each node is a household, and each household typically had one respondent. For the five households with both a male and a female respondent answering jointly, we did not assign a gender to the responses. Table 4 provides a summary of network statistics across sites and seed network types, including statistics for additional crop-and variety-specific networks. In most sites and for most crops, there was no statistical evidence of differences in the average degree centrality of women vs. men in the seed networks. However, our sample shows a higher participation of women in seed networks than men across all sites. Table 5 shows the gender of seed exchange participants, illustrating what proportion of exchanges for a given gender are with other individuals of the same gender. Across sites, a higher proportion of women exchanged seed with other women than did men with other men.At the Lower Nyando site in Kenya, we find an overall network density of 0.004. Lower Nyando is one of two sites with a significant gendered difference in centrality, with women having a significantly higher betweenness than men (20.806 vs. 3.250) (p = 0.005) (Table 4; Figure 2). Women appear to predominate the most dense, central component of the network, with men participating more in the peripheral components. Across the network, 71.6% of exchanges with women were between women, compared to only 41.7% of exchanges between only men (Table 5). Additionally, twice as many women are participating in the seed network than are men (72 vs. 36), further suggesting women farmers may disproportionately rely on social networks for accessing seed. This suggests that women have more extensive networks than men on average and, as a result, may have a greater access to more diverse seed through these networks then men in Lower Nyando. At the Upper Nyando site, the network analysis shows a network density of 0.004, an average degree centrality of 2.420, and an average betweenness of 136.292 (Table 4; Figure 3). While Upper Nyando's average betweenness is much higher than for other sites, its density is similar to other sites. Both women and men farmers in Upper Nyando have a similar number of connections and women farmers have greater betweenness (226.442 vs. 136.292), although this difference was not significant. Although some of the smaller and branching components in the network appear to have some gender-based clustering, with At the Upper Nyando site, the network analysis shows a network density of 0.004, an average degree centrality of 2.420, and an average betweenness of 136.292 (Table 4; Figure 3). While Upper Nyando's average betweenness is much higher than for other sites, its density is similar to other sites. Both women and men farmers in Upper Nyando have a similar number of connections and women farmers have greater betweenness (226.442 vs. 136.292), although this difference was not significant. Although some of the smaller and branching components in the network appear to have some gender-based clustering, with people with the same gender located adjacent to one another, the densest component of the network (at the top of the figure) is relatively mixed in gender. As a reflection of this, Upper Nyando had the highest rates of exchanges across genders-among all seed exchanges reported by men, 75.9% involved an exchange to/from women (Table 5). The Hombolo network in Tanzania has a density of 0.004 (Table 4; Figure 4). This network is much more segmented than the other networks, having a low average betweenness of only 0.848 and the lowest average degree centrality among all the overall networks, at 1.602. We did not observe any gendered differences in network centrality; however, men's networks and women's networks are clearly clustered in the network map-i.e., women tend to exchange seeds with other women farmers, and men with other men. Men comprise most of the largest network component, whereas women tend to be dispersed in small clusters in smaller components. However, overall, both men and women exchanged seed with farmers of a different gender at slightly higher rates than with farmers of the same gender (Table 5). This may be because in Hombolo, the population density is very low and homes are widely dispersed, hence proximity plays an important role in determining with whom the farmers exchange seeds. The Hombolo network in Tanzania has a density of 0.004 (Table 4; Figure 4). This network is much more segmented than the other networks, having a low average betweenness of only 0.848 and the lowest average degree centrality among all the overall networks, at 1.602. We did not observe any gendered differences in network centrality; however, men's networks and women's networks are clearly clustered in the network map-i.e., women tend to exchange seeds with other women farmers, and men with other men. Men comprise most of the largest network component, whereas women tend to be dispersed in small clusters in smaller components. However, overall, both men and women exchanged seed with farmers of a different gender at slightly higher rates than with farmers of the same gender (Table 5). This may be because in Hombolo, the population density is very low and homes are widely dispersed, hence proximity plays an important role in determining with whom the farmers exchange seeds.  In Singida, Tanzania, there was no significant difference between genders in terms of network density or centrality (Table 4; Figure 5), again suggesting that men and women in this community may have equivalent access to seed diversity through social networks. In this network, we also observe more women over 45 years of age having more ties within the network, and we again observe some clustering by gender: overall, women exchange with other women at a slightly higher rate than men with other men (54.1% vs. 42.9%) (Table 5). However, this difference may be in part due to a higher proportion of women in the network itself (Table 4).At the Hoima site in Uganda, we find an overall network density of 0.002, an average degree centrality of 1.773, and an average betweenness of 2.573 (Table 4; Figure 6). In general, the seed networks in Hoima have low network density and centrality because most farmers rely on own saved seed as a source of their planting materials. Additionally, men and women are about equally as likely to exchange with a like-gendered farmer as they are to exchange with a different-gendered farmer (Table 5). However, several small components appear to have pockets of like-gendered participants who exchange with each other. In Singida, Tanzania, there was no significant difference between genders in terms of network density or centrality (Table 4; Figure 5), again suggesting that men and women in this community may have equivalent access to seed diversity through social networks. In this network, we also observe more women over 45 years of age having more ties within the network, and we again observe some clustering by gender: overall, women exchange with other women at a slightly higher rate than men with other men (54.1% vs. 42.9%) (Table 5). However, this difference may be in part due to a higher proportion of women in the network itself (Table 4).At the Hoima site in Uganda, we find an overall network density of 0.002, an average degree centrality of 1.773, and an average betweenness of 2.573 (Table 4; Figure 6). In general, the seed networks in Hoima have low network density and centrality because most farmers rely on own saved seed as a source of their planting materials. Additionally, men and women are about equally as likely to exchange with a like-gendered farmer as they are to exchange with a different-gendered farmer (Table 5). However, several small components appear to have pockets of like-gendered participants who exchange with each other.Overall network analysis findings across the five study sites suggest that although women's and men's social seed networks are similar in terms of common network metrics (betweenness, centrality), women's and men's networks differ meaningfully. Women, and particularly older women, are, on average, more extensively connected to other farmers, and both women and men are often most likely to engage in seed exchange with other farmers of the same gender across most study sites. Both findings may be a reflection of gender norms restricting women's access to both the formal seed sector (with limited access to the formal sector resulting in women's greater reliance on other farmers for seed), as well as to potentially more lucrative crops and markets exchanged among men's networks (as men's networks are often largely separate from women's).    Overall network analysis findings across the five study sites suggest that although women's and men's social seed networks are similar in terms of common network metrics (betweenness, centrality), women's and men's networks differ meaningfully. Women, and particularly older women, are, on average, more extensively connected to other farmers, and both women and men are often most likely to engage in seed exchange with other farmers of the same gender across most study sites. Both findings may be a reflection of gender norms restricting women's access to both the formal seed sector (with limited access to the formal sector resulting in women's greater reliance on other farmers for seed), as well as to potentially more lucrative crops and markets exchanged among men's networks (as men's networks are often largely separate from women's).The preferred crop variety for climate change adaptation varies by site, with no two sites having the same variety preference. Farmers at the Hoima site mainly choose beans as their preferred crop for climate change adaption, while farmers at all other sites predominantly choose sorghum varieties. In most sites, women and men agree on the top variety for climate change adaption but tend to deviate on the preferred second and third adaption varieties. These data suggest that women and men are largely adopting similar strategies and may potentially be receiving similar information. However, the sharp deviation of second and third choices suggests that a sizable share of women and men farmers are adopt- The preferred crop variety for climate change adaptation varies by site, with no two sites having the same variety preference. Farmers at the Hoima site mainly choose beans as their preferred crop for climate change adaption, while farmers at all other sites predominantly choose sorghum varieties. In most sites, women and men agree on the top variety for climate change adaption but tend to deviate on the preferred second and third adaption varieties. These data suggest that women and men are largely adopting similar strategies and may potentially be receiving similar information. However, the sharp deviation of second and third choices suggests that a sizable share of women and men farmers are adopting meaningfully different climate adaption strategies.Table 6 shows a summary of top varieties and crops for climate change adaptation in each site. Improved varieties seem to be the top varieties used for climate change adaptation. However, we see that overall men have better access to improved varieties, whereas women tend to have better access to local varieties that they exchange through social networks. Most notably, local varieties of sorghum (e.g., Cheplelilet) are used by women and not by men for climate change adaptation. Likewise, the local variety of sorghum known as Sandala is exclusively used by women for climate change adaptation in Hombolo, compared to improved varieties that are more accessible to men. This may again reflect the gender norms constraining women's access to resources such as improved seeds and related information. Focus group discussions suggest improved varieties are often purchased from agrovets (local shops that stock seeds), requiring both cash and access to markets.  Like the overall network, the sorghum networks in Lower Nyando, Kenya have a significant gender difference in network centrality, with women having a higher centrality than men (p = 0.01) (Table 4; Figure 7). However, this difference does not hold true for the specific variety Red sorghum (an improved variety) network, which was the most commonly reported variety used for climate change adaptation in Lower Nyando. This could suggest that men are more likely to exchange seed and information on improved varieties, while women are more prominent in networks for other (traditional) sorghum varieties. We further find that women who do exchange Red sorghum with other farmers tend to have a greater number of connections and to be older (over 45 years), further suggesting more resource-constrained and socially isolated young women farmers may be less likely to access improved seed varieties. Like for the overall network, women predominate the main component, and men occupy smaller periphery components in the sorghum network. However, the densest component of the full network for Lower Nyando (all crops, Figure 2) has split into two disconnected components in the sorghum network, indicating that a non-sorghum seed exchange served as a connection between the two sorghum-dominated components.In Upper Nyando, few farmers reported using any crops to adapt to climate change (Table 4). Sorghum is the most common crop used by farmers to adapt to climate change in the study site, though no clear patterns emerge in the relatively thin sorghum-specific network (Figure 8).The sorghum network in Hombolo, Tanzania has an overall density of 0.004 (Table 4; Figure 9), again with strong clustering by gender. Like the overall Hombolo network, the largest component of the Hombolo sorghum network is dominated by male farmers, whereas women tend to occupy smaller components. For the Macia sorghum variety specifically, men participate in significantly more seed exchanges than women. Once again, this may be because Macia is an improved variety that can be accessed mainly through agro-vets and, hence, is more easily accessible to men.The Singida sorghum network shows no significant gendered differences (Table 4; Figure 10). However, we see male farmers over 45 years of age having more connections for seed exchange compared to women who have more connections with each other but with fewer nodal farmers (Table 5).Finally, the bean network in Hoima, Uganda has a density of 0.002 (Table 4; Figure 11). We do not find significant gendered differences in this network. In contrast to other crops, for beans, the exchange of multiple varieties was relatively common, in part likely because farmers mostly rely on their own saved seeds for beans. Like the overall network, the bean network in Hoima shows some clustering by gender within smaller network components, but overall exchanges from women to men and men to women were also very common-roughly half of all exchanges were across genders (Table 5).         This paper used network analysis to explore differences in seed networks across women and men for three major food security crops-beans, finger millet, and sorghumin Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Our results suggest that women and men alike perceive threats from climate change and seek to apply similar strategies for climate change adaptation. In all study sites, climate-related challenges reported by farmers included shortened seasons, increased incidences of drought, erratic rainfall, and increased average temperatures. In order to cope with these effects, farmers have adopted different strategies such as switching to more resilient crops, or to more resilient varieties of currently planted crops. However, there appear to be notable gendered differences in the access to and use of seeds for climate change adaptation, with men using improved seed to adapt at higher rates in Lower Nyando, Kenya and Hombolo, Tanzania, and with varietal choices varying markedly across women and men. Differences in varietal choices might occur due to gendered disparities in accessing seed resources and related information, since adapting using improved seed requires access to both genetic resources and information on seed.Consistent with previous research suggesting discrepancies in access to resources, such as land and agricultural inputs, are associated with higher rates of poverty and food insecurity among women farmers than men [2,55], this study finds that men have greater access to improved varieties for climate change adaptation, while women are more reliant This paper used network analysis to explore differences in seed networks across women and men for three major food security crops-beans, finger millet, and sorghumin Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Our results suggest that women and men alike perceive threats from climate change and seek to apply similar strategies for climate change adaptation. In all study sites, climate-related challenges reported by farmers included shortened seasons, increased incidences of drought, erratic rainfall, and increased average temperatures. In order to cope with these effects, farmers have adopted different strategies such as switching to more resilient crops, or to more resilient varieties of currently planted crops. However, there appear to be notable gendered differences in the access to and use of seeds for climate change adaptation, with men using improved seed to adapt at higher rates in Lower Nyando, Kenya and Hombolo, Tanzania, and with varietal choices varying markedly across women and men. Differences in varietal choices might occur due to gendered disparities in accessing seed resources and related information, since adapting using improved seed requires access to both genetic resources and information on seed.Consistent with previous research suggesting discrepancies in access to resources, such as land and agricultural inputs, are associated with higher rates of poverty and food insecurity among women farmers than men [2,55], this study finds that men have greater access to improved varieties for climate change adaptation, while women are more reliant on social seed networks for access to hardier traditional varieties. Furthermore, both women and men farmers participate differently in seed networks, as is evidenced from this study, with women farmers having different levels of access to seeds, reflecting a combination of resource constraints and gender norms. In our study, we find that men have more access to improved varieties and more connections with each other, especially with respect to the exchange of information and seeds of improved varieties. Women, therefore, tend to rely more on their own exchange networks with greater access to local varieties, which they save and exchange amongst themselves, but also that are more easily accessible within their own social networks. Overall, a key finding across sites is that, although women have more connections than men in almost all the sites, men still often have access to more diverse seeds for climate change adaptation, including improved seeds.Given growing evidence that climate change-related variability threatens to undermine rural agricultural production systems and food security [13], these findings suggest resource-constrained rural smallholder farmers, and in particular women and femaleheaded households, may have fewer options available to them to adapt to climate change than wealthier and male-headed households with greater access to resources and markets [4,56]. In this sense, local farmer-to-farmer exchanges through informal seed systems may not only present an opportunity for adaptation to climate variability [20], but may also have important gender equity implications: given women's and men's different levels of reliance upon informal seed systems, the diversity and quality of seed available through these \"informal\" networks may have profound consequences for women's productivity, income, and welfare, including household food security.Limitations of this study include the reliance on a snowball sampling approach, which may miss some especially isolated farmers who are not part of the surveyed networks. Our study is also limited by the way the network is defined-as an in-person exchange of seed or information about seed-which may miss the potentially important roles of electronic information and social media linkages increasingly available to farmers regardless of context (examples in [57,58]).Nevertheless, our results provide valuable insights suggesting that climate change adaptation with seeds in East Africa appears to be dependent upon access to information, social networks, and resources, all of which have gendered disparities. Men appear to have greater access to improved varieties both via formal seed system channels and extension services, as well as through social networks disproportionately including men, which accompanies men's higher rates of climate change adaption using improved varieties in the study sites. Meanwhile, women farmers on average are relatively more isolated from the formal seed system and information sources like extension and, thus, disproportionately rely on exchange of local varieties in their own social networks. As a result, gendered differences in access to planting material and accompanying knowledge is potentially leading to differences in climate change adaptation options and behaviors across women and men, and, ultimately, to differences in production, incomes, and other livelihood outcomes.Many smallholder farmers in East Africa are already using climate change adaptation strategies. For example, drought-tolerant maize varieties [33], improved irrigation systems [59], companion cropping [60], and crop diversification [60][61][62][63] have all shown varying levels of effectiveness at helping farmers sustain or increase crop production. Yet, there is evidence that especially among lower-income households, more remote households, and female-headed households-many of the poorest farmers in sub-Saharan Africa-continue to rely on traditional, rainfed crops and production systems and remain reliant on their own production for food security to a larger degree than wealthier, more urban, and male-headed households with greater access to resources and markets [4,57].The results of this study suggest that although women and men smallholder farmers in East Africa face similar climate-related challenges, their ability to cope with the effects of climate change can vary due to inequalities related to access to relevant resources for adaptation. Seed is one of the most important resources for climate change adaptation not only to improve productivity but also to ensure household food security. In order for adaptation strategies relying on seed to be effective, it is important to ensure that seed system interventions provide equitable access to diverse and improved seeds and information. Market interventions that take into account resource constraints experienced by women might better support expanded access to seeds for climate change adaptation. Furthermore, policies and strategies that seek to improve integrated seed systems, in terms of both quality and diversity to ensure they work to meet farmers' needs, should be emphasized and supported. ","tokenCount":"7750"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5b14132728b3eb8a65936bd6a3d9444","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1d8f296-888a-43c7-85db-b4867c865c32/retrieve","id":"642154689"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3ce588ea-eabc-4027-a363-afc2da0fda8c","pagecount":"94","content":"The mission of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) is to increase the productivity and stability of banana and plantain grown on smallholdings for domestic consumption and for local and export markets.In 2004, an outbreak of Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) was reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, following Uganda and Ethiopia, and it was becoming clear that all banana-growing countries of East and Central Africa were threatened by the epidemic. A workshop was, therefore, organized to bring together the region's banana research for development (R4D) stakeholders to discuss the problem. The workshop intended to provide a platform for more effective action to slow the spread of the disease and mitigate its impact within affected areas. In particular, the workshop presentations and discussions helped to identify gaps in existing knowledge of the pathogen and the disease it causes, leading to recommendations on: a) enhancing farmer-adoption of BXW management practices; b) reinforcing farmer-coping mechanisms and c) research that needs to be carried out to provide a sound foundation for containment and control efforts. The output of these discussions is captured in this report, in particular in the recommendations and the regional strategy for BXW management and containment that were developed in the final discussions of the workshop. This regional strategy for BXW aims to help mobilize and equip communities to prepare for potential outbreaks in advance of the disease, to respond to the epidemic at the advancing disease front, and to sustain production within the affected areas and provide a coordinated response. The strategy adopts both short-and long-term perspectives. In the short-term, robust diagnostic tools to facilitate disease recognition, management and control must be developed and disseminated, disease surveillance must be facilitated and mechanisms put in place to share critical, up-to-date information between countries. At all levels of the production-consumption chain, capacity to make positive contributions must be strengthened.In the medium-term, successful management tactics should be integrated into regional integrated pest and disease management strategies. A regional impact tracking mechanism should be established that provides feedback not just to scientists and research managers but also to policy makers; and a regional policy dialogue must be initiated to strengthen the coordination and management of trans-boundary epidemics that threatened food security and household income.In the long term, a systems approach should be adopted to boost the health of farming systems, taking full account of genetic diversity, the resource base and biotic stresses. Grass-roots ownership and sustainability should be ensured by deploying a livelihoods approach to improve prospects for marketing bananas and banana products. Indigenous germplasm threatened by the disease must also be effectively conserved in perpetuity to ensure that farmers can replant traditional genotypes once the effects of the epidemic have lessened. This strategic regional approach to address BXW is based on essential learning, from within and outside the region, gained from successfully controlling various other bacterial wilt diseases, and is in itself a model of a regional response to a disease epidemic. Such a strategic and comprehensive approach has the potential to bring the BXW epidemic in East and Central Africa under control and prevent its further spread. However, its success depends on the ability of the diverse partners in this effort to mobilize resources and government support to reach communities throughout affected areas and beyond -and then to ensure commitment to the disease management campaign and good practice in the longer term.The Banana Xanthomonas wilt epidemic Until 2001, Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW), caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum, was restricted to Ethiopia, where it attacked both Musa (banana and plantain) and Ensete spp. (Figure 1). The situation has since changed drastically. In September 2001, the disease was recorded for the first time in Uganda and by the end of 2003, it was reported in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR-Congo). While the disease caused limited damage in Ethiopia and farmers were able to cope with the losses, in Uganda and DR-Congo it has assumed epidemic proportions. In Uganda, the disease prevalence in farmers' fields reached up to 70% in a period of one year, affecting 23 of the 56 districts of Uganda. In many of the affected districts, the disease wiped out entire banana gardens. It is estimated that Uganda is losing up to US$ 360 million a year as a result of the disease outbreak. In the North Kivu province of the DR-Congo, unlike in Uganda, the disease has moved rather slowly covering 10-20 km radius from the source of outbreak in a period of two years. This is perhaps related to the fact that the outbreak has occurred in an area of higher altitude. Nevertheless, the damage and yield losses appear to be equally severe as in Uganda.At the household level, BXW drastically reduces food security and income of communities, some of which depend on the banana crop for up to 90% of their earnings. The implications for food security are particularly worrying for the eastern districts of DR-Congo where normal economic activities continue to be disrupted by violence in the aftermath of a long period of conflict. The disease also has very serious implications for the natural resource base where communities, no longer able to grow bananas, may replace the perennial, no-till system with annual food crops requiring yearly tilling. This practice can lead to a severe decline in fertility, especially in mountainous areas of high-population density that are prone to soil erosion.In Uganda a national task force has been formed and various actions undertaken to track the spread of the disease and to bring it under control. Recommendations have included the uprooting and burying of affected plants to prevent transmission from infected residues. Given the size of the plant, this represents a huge investment of labour for smallholder farmers. Any management strategy for the disease will need to take into account labour availability already constrained in rural areas by HIV-AIDS. The National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) and Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) have mounted a massive programme, the Participatory Development Communication (PDC), to inform the public about measures to prevent infection in those districts that are at the 'frontline' of the disease.Based on experiences elsewhere in addressing other banana bacterial wilt diseases (e.g. Moko in Latin America and Bugtok in Asia), measures to halt the spread of the disease focused on the removal of the male bud to prevent insect transmission of the disease and strict discipline by farmers to avoid transmission through contaminated tools and crop residues. The challenge to adequate-ly educate farmers on the nature of the disease and its transmission so that measures are applied rigorously over large areas and at the advancing front of the disease is immense. In DR-Congo only brief fact-finding visits have been made to affected areas and in the neighbouring countries, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya, which are threatened by the spread of the disease, little or no action has been taken to prepare plant protection services and farmers to deal with disease incursions.In the absence of specific biological and epidemiological studies of BXW and practical evaluations of the proposed control tactics, some doubts remain as to whether management strategies developed for Moko and Bugtok will be fully effective against BXW. These questions need to be resolved to provide confidence for planning and action.In recognition of this situation, the most recent Steering Committee meeting of the Banana Research Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (BARNESA) noted that \"while the actions of individual NARS are extremely important in providing useful lessons, there is a need for a 'big-picture' analysis of the epidemic to ensure that actions in different countries are complementary and coordinated\". In this way the balance will be shifted from crisis management to strategic planning.To respond to the increasing concern for BXW a workshop was held in Kampala, Uganda, from 14 to 18 February 2005 with support of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) and the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP). The aim of the workshop was to develop a coherent regional and international response for containing the spread and mitigating the impact of banana Xanthomonas wilt on rural livelihoods in East and Central Africa. Specifically, the workshop sought to: • review research progress, identify knowledge and technology gaps and agree on ways of addressing them; • review extension efforts, including technology/information dissemination and exchange and devise new approaches to strengthen current activities at national and regional levels; • agree on the framework for regional cooperation/collaboration. A total of 65 participants representing and bringing essential knowledge from national governments, national research institutes, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), advanced research institutes, extension departments from Ethiopia, Rwanda, DR-Congo, USA, UK, Tanzania, Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Caribbean and Uganda were convened.During the workshop expertise and experiences relating to banana bacterial wilt diseases were shared through presentations and general discussions. The meeting then focussed on developing specific recommendations and a regional strategy for dealing with the threat posed by BXW. This report represents the output of the workshop. The presentations are represented as papers of varying lengths. A brief summary is provided of the main discussion points. The recommendations are listed on page 69 and the regional strategy on page 73. A number of bacterial wilt diseases are known to infect bananas world-wide. A bacterial wilt disease, known as Moko and caused by Ralstonia solanacearum biovar 1 race 2, exists in the Cavendish (AAA) commercial plantations of Latin America, the Caribbean and in the Philippines. The disease is characterized by plant wilting and is largely transmitted mechanically through farm tools and implements. The same bacterial agent is believed to cause a fruit rot, known as Bugtok, on cooking bananas (ABB) also in the Philippines. Another bacterial wilt disease, Blood disease in Indonesia, similarly affects subsistence cookingbanana (ABB) systems. The causal agent of this latter disease is not officially confirmed but is closely related to Bugtok and Moko.The African banana bacterial wilt recently reported in East and Central Africa, has been confirmed as Xanthomonas campestris pathovar musacearum. The symptoms of this disease are similar to Bugtok when occurring in smallholder cooking/beer (ABB) banana systems, but are closer to Moko when occurring in the more intensively managed green-cooking EAHB-East African Highland banana (AAA) systems. As the banana bacterial wilt in East and Central Africa, Moko, and Blood disease are all bacterial wilt diseases of banana, the term \"Banana bacterial wilt\" as used in East Africa is rather generic and perhaps confusing. It would, therefore, be appropriate to refer to the East and Central African disease as Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) to be specific and facilitate wider understanding of terms.The three disease groups differ in many aspects including causal organisms, host range and geographical location of disease outbreaks, but are quite similar in their symptoms and other aspects. The diseases spread on tools, planting materials, through vectors, and in soil and water run off. They are reported to be poor soil survivors. They usually cause 100% fruit loss. In intensively managed systems, they are generally minor but persistent diseases, but in subsistence farming systems they are causing dramatic yield losses.Banana is a very important food and cash crop supporting over 70% of the population of Uganda. Production is all year round potentially yielding up to 60 tonnes/ha/yr. The crop, therefore, has high industrial potential. It has however been constrained by a number of factors: socio-economic factors (marketing, management costs, underdeveloped post-harvest handling/ utilization) as well as declining soil fertility and pests (banana weevil, nematodes) and diseases (black Sigatoka, Fusarium wilt, Banana streak virus and recently BXW).In Uganda BXW was reported first in October 2001 in Mukono District; soon after in Kayunga in February 2002. By December 2003, the disease had been confirmed in 12 districts (Mukono, Kayunga, Lira, Kaberamaido, Apac, Kumi, Mbale, Sironko, Kamuli, Jinja, Luwero, Wakiso) and in 26 districts by the end of 2004 (Figure 1).The disease has been observed to affect all cultivated varieties. Losses can reach 100% in juice banana (Kayinja, also known as Pisang awak) plantations. If the disease is not controlled the potential annual losses are estimated to be equivalent to US$ 360 million (i.e., 90% of the contribution of bananas to Uganda's Gross Domestic Product). After the first report of the disease outbreak, the Government of Uganda responded by putting in place a Task Force to formulate an emergency action plan to eradicate the disease, committing 215 million Uganda Shillings to implement the plan. The disease was soon discovered to be more widespread than previously thought and a change of strategy was necessary, stepping up actions to \"contain and control\". NARO was directed to form another Task Force to formulate a research/development strategy and action plan to contain and control the disease.This research/development strategy and action plan identified the following objectives:• Establish the current status of banana bacterial wilt • Generate information on the etiology and epidemiology of BXW • Develop appropriate technologies for the control of BXW • Disseminate appropriate technologies for use by farmers to contain and control BXW • Develop capacity for research and development (R & D) to control the disease at all levels (central Government, district, sub-county and community/village) • Develop appropriate policies for management of pest and disease epidemics • Identify and promote alternative enterprises as a coping strategy for farmers overwhelmed by BXW • Assess and monitor the impact of research and development activities.In addition, the government instituted a management and coordination framework named the BXW Control Initiative (BCI) that included the following elements:• Steering Committee to oversee the implementation of the project, provide policy guidelines and mobilize local and international resources • Technical committee to plan and guide execution of BXW management/control activities • National coordinator to spearhead implementation of project activities • Working groups to bring together implementers of related activities (Research, Awareness creation, Disease containment and control, and Monitoring & Evaluation) to share information • Task forces at various levels (district, sub-county, parish and village) to maintain surveillance at the grass-root level and monitor/ supervise execution of disease control activities at respective levels.In the implementation of the national action plan, a number of challenges have been encountered, including the shortage of resources to implement priority activities; the mobilization of key stakeholders along the production-consumption chain (e.g. central and local governments, development partners, Uganda's BXW Control Initiative is expected to deliver a number of outputs, including: 1. Collection of the baseline information, covering disease severity, farmer perceptions and coping measures being implemented; the establishment of disease status with respect to disease distribution and the determining economic importance of the disease and likely impact on the banana industry. A database is being continuously updated with this information at NARO's Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute.the evaluation of inoculation methods for early screening of young plants [Leaf petiole injection has been selected]; determination of pathogen variability, the methods of pathogen penetration into the host, and modes and rates of transmission to other hosts; determination of survival mechanisms of the pathogen, duration in different environments and on alternative hosts [four alternative hosts so far identified].using farmer participatory approaches to evaluate and promote control measures known to be effective against other bacterial wilt diseases elsewhere, including removing male buds; rouging diseased plants to eradicate the disease; developing resistant/tolerant banana clones through conventional and genetic engineering methods and disseminating appropriate technologies for the containment and control of the disease.strategies through the mobilization of farmers and their leaders to deploy agronomic practices (de-budding and sanitation) with the goal of protecting as yet unaffected areas, blocking further disease spread, eradicating the disease in the 'frontline' areas and coping with or eradicating the disease in already-affected areas.including training scientists in specialized skills for handling BXW [6 Msc. students registered at Makerere University]; training of trainers at district, sub-county and community levels [296 well-trained trainers so far]; strengthening capacity of farmers' grass-root institutions to handle BXW in pilot sites; and developing infrastructure for handling BXW. 6. Monitoring the impact of research and development in order to make appropriate adjustments in the BCI strategies and accordingly inform the government policy processes with respect to the management and control of epidemic agricultural diseases [A draft ordinance based on the crop protection act (1962) to guide and give a legal framework for formulation and enforcement of byelaws on control of BXW is being discussed].community leaders, faith-based organizations, NGOs and farmers) to support the control efforts, and weak linkages between research and extension. At the farm level, the initiative has met challenges posed by the traditionally low levels of adoption of agronomic practices in affected areas and negative attitudes towards implementing some of the recommended practices (e.g. de-budding Kayinja, which is regarded as a hardy variety that does not normally require agronomic attention). These challenges however are being addressed through participatory approaches and awareness campaigns. Bananas represent the main staple food in North Kivu. Prior to the disease infestation in the region, 70% of the cultivated land was occupied by bananas, generating 60% of household income. A survey conducted in the Bwere region indicated that the BXW outbreak has caused complete failure of banana harvests in most farmers' fields. Yields have declined from 20 tonnes/ha/year to almost zero (Figure 1), with a corresponding income loss of about 1600 $/ha/year.Wild enset is affected in Congo, supporting the idea that the disease is related to the enset bacterial wilt in Ethiopia. Among the cultivated bananas the disease mainly affects Kayinjas, Ndizi, plantains, EAHB and Cavendish in that order. The symptoms observed usually involve yellow discoloration of the stem, yellowing and dying off of the leaves, and yellow ooze and discoloration of the fruit. Farmers believe that the infection gets into the plant through the leaves or flowers and continues down to the stem and corm. Movement of the disease has been associated with the lakes and there is a suspicion that migrating birds that regularly visit the lake shores may be involved with the introduction of the disease to the region. It is also suspected that leaf-feeding insects are involved in disease spread.In affected areas, the farmers are losing hope. Strict sanitation measures are under adoption, including chopping the pseudostem into pieces and leaving them to dry (Figure 2). Actions are being taken to address the situation. Immediate actions include: • Sensitization of policy makers, farmers, service providers, to become aware of the threat • Quarantine to limit planting materials movements from the infested zones • 40 ha of infected bananas have been destroyed by cutting and chopping, and 30 ha replanted with other crops like beans, maize, sweet potatoes and cassava with the support of FAO • A National Task Force on BXW has been set up • Epidemiological studies leading to understand the disease dynamics and distribution have been initiated Banana is the staple food of millions of people in tropical countries, providing food and income security. Ethiopia has various agro-ecological zones favourable to the cultivation of a range of crops, including horticultural crops among which banana is second only to citrus of the major fruit crops. Bananas are produced mainly in traditional agricultural systems by small-scale farmers throughout the country, but mainly at low to mid altitudes where there is adequate rainfall or irrigation. Banana's potential as an export commodity, has not been fully realized and production is largely for the local market and home consumption. The dessert banana is a popular fruit crop among producers and consumers (Seifu 1999).The major banana growing areas, in southern and western parts of the country, are geographically separated from enset-growing regions, which are mainly confined to lower altitudes. At mid altitudes banana is planted either as a monoculture but also in multiple cropping systems together with enset, coffee, sugar cane, taro, vegetables. The yield and quality are poor both in farmer and state sectors, mainly due to the lack of technologies such as improved varieties and disease management practices, and declining soil fertility.Of the range of pests and diseases affecting both enset and banana, bacterial wilt is considered to be the most serious in terms of its affects on productivity (Dagnachew and Bradbury 1968, Eshetu 1982, Dereje 1985, Archido and Mesfin 1996, Gizachew 2000). The wilt (BXW) caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Welw) Cheesman was first reported and described in Ethiopia by Dagnachew and Bradbury in 1968 on enset. The pathogen is very destructive as it kills the plants at all growth stages and regularly causes total losses. According to Million et al. (2003) in some parts of the country, the acreage under these crops as well as productivity has declined due to bacterial wilt. It seems that bacterial wilt is more common on banana than on enset and Ashagari (1981) added Canna orchaoides, an ornamental plant, to the list of host plants of the pathogen.In Ethiopia, the characteristic symptoms of the disease are yellowing of the leaves, wilting and finally collapse. The first external symptom is the wilting of the central heart leaf (shoot leaf) at the apex, followed by yellowing and wilting of newly-expanded leaves and when the corm is affected, the entire plant dies. A transversal cut of the pseudo-stem reveals yellowish-brown vascular bundles and light-yellow or cream coloured bacterial ooze.According to Dagnachew and Bradbury (1974) the first natural epidemic of BXW occurred in banana in Keffa-Sheka zone, south-western Ethiopia. By the 1980s, reports indicated that the disease was becoming a serious problem for enset and banana production. BXW is now recognised as a national problem, having increased in severity, particularly at lower altitudes, and spread into most enset and banana growing agro-ecology zones of the country.Diseased plants are considered to be a potential source of primary inoculum. Extensive experiments to explore the survival conditions of the pathogen suggest that the bacteria survive in air pockets on leaf petioles (Gizachew pers. comm.) and sheaths for about three months and serve as primary inoculum (Dagnachew and Bradbury 1968, Ashagari 1985, Archido and Mesfin 1996). The pathogen apparently survives in the soil for about 2 weeks. With regard to farm tools, the bacteria were found on the surface of a contaminated knife for up to 3 days under humid conditions and up to 4 days under dry conditions (Dereje 1985).Under most agro-ecological conditions in Ethiopia, the main means of wilt spread are disease-infected planting materials (i.e. suckers) and contaminated farming tools. It is known that infection occurs by contamination through wounds, breaks or through the natural openings (stomata). Animals (domestic and wild), including insects such as the leafhopper (Poecilocarda nigrinervis), the banana aphid (Pentalonia nigronervosa), and nematodes, and splashing rain or run-off are possible vectors of the pathogen according to Adhanom et al. (1986).The nature of farming systems and the pathogen transmission present significant challenges to the successful management of the disease. In addition, there is no active BXW research programme in Ethiopia, although a number of activities are under way at the Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI). These activities are principally based on the use of cultural practices and screening for resistant/tolerant varieties to BXW that could prevent or minimize the spread or eliminate the pathogen inocula in the field. These are: • Management of the diseased plants/debris • Removal, destruction and burial of diseased plants/debris • Disinfecting farming and processing tools through sterilization by fire or chemicals before and after using • Restrictive measures concerning planting materials and other banana products for the prevention of pathogen spread into new areas • Use of disease-free clean planting materials • Crop rotation, where feasible, or spot crop rotation to exploit the fact that the disease cannot survive in the soil beyond three months • Plant spacing to prevent diseased plants coming into contact with healthy plants • Male bud removal (an as-yet unknown management practice in Ethiopia) would be effective in low land regions growing cooking/beer bananas. The use of resistant/tolerant varieties offers the most practical approach to manage BXW, requiring few special skills. Farmers already grow a diverse range of banana varieties as a means of risk aversion, but none of the popular varieties are totally resistant to BXW. The preliminary findings of a screening of more than 20 banana cultivars against BXW suggest that all are susceptible. However, low to moderately resistant banana varieties such as Dwarf Cavendish are not readily affected by the disease. In the long-term, the disease demands an integrated pest management (IPM) approach.It is clear that attempts to combat BXW have been very limited in relation to the severity of the problem. This can be attributed to:• Lack/unavailability of improved varieties: Shortage of improved clean planting material (suckers) is one of the most important problems of banana production in Ethiopia. In most of the banana-growing areas, farmers use low-quality planting material. Most of the farmers grow a local variety (Abesha muz) and Cavendish. Some commercial farms grow Dwarf Cavendish, Giant Cavendish and Ducasse. These varieties are not high yielding and are susceptible to BXW.To date, there is no responsible agency for multiplying and distributing clean planting material to users in the country. Although there are tissue culture laboratories in some agricultural research centres, none of them can supply the ever-increasing demand for clean planting materials.• Lack of collaborators working on the problem: Strains of the pathogen have not been well studied, nor has indigenous knowledge about BXW control been collected and integrated in management strategies. Losses are not well documented and disease transmission mechanisms (especially insect vector) have not been well explored. BXW has been reported in other countries (Uganda and DR-Congo). The scientists from these countries should work together and develop strategies to stop the spread of this pathogen. Experience-sharing, technology and information exchange are needed to help in the management of this devastating disease. So far very little work has been done on the development and deployment of resistant/tolerant genotypes. Research is needed to: • Screen and evaluate a range of banana varieties • Study prevalence, distribution, severity of pests (fungal, bacterial, nematodes, virus, weevils) • Study and identify strain types of the BXW pathogen in the region • Develop IPM strategies, including varietal evaluation, biological and chemical control, and cultural options • Study relationship between nematodes, insect vectors and the BXW pathogen • Evaluate the role of clean materials and use of tissue culture and community nurseries • Assess and evaluate indigenous BXW control practices in the region and develop control strategies for BXW.Experience over the last 45 years has resulted in a number of publications on bacterial wilts caused by Ralstonia solanacearum to which reference can be made and knowledge can be gained (e.g. Buddenhagen and Elsasser 1962).Four banana bacterial wilts are now known, Moko, Blood, Bugtok and Xanthomonas wilt. R. solanacearum was originally a pathogen of Heliconia. Introduction of banana into Heliconia-growing sites enabled R. solanacearum to make several critical jumps over the years into banana, the most recent occurring in Jamaica in 2004.Moko is known to be caused by one of the diverse Heliconia strains, race 2 (Buddenhagen 1962). Initially, Moko was locally transmitted in roots by contact and on tools. This problem was resolved by sterilization. After its establishment in banana, Moko disease was moved from area to area by shipment of planting material and later by insects. Insect transmission became increasingly important and today the pathogen is mainly transmitted from flower to flower by insects, leading to the development of epidemics that are driven by the presence of ABB bananas like Bluggoe (Pisang awak). This insect-mode of transmission has been confirmed by the isolation of the pathogen from the insects. Trigona bees are found to carry most of the inoculum on ABBs in the field.Under insect transmission, it is proven that bacteria are transmitted from oozing bud to cushions or to female bract scars. It is also possible that bacteria may be transmitted from oozing bud to cut sucker, from fruit to cushion, from cut surface to cut surface, from fruit to cut sucker, from Heliconia flower to Heliconia or banana flower. Apart from insects, birds and bats may play a role in transmission (Buddenhagen and Elsasser 1962). Transmission by insects is related to phenology of the flowers.Previous findings on bacterial wilts conform with the observations made on Xanthomonas wilt in Uganda. Xanthomonas was first found in 1939 in Ethiopia on wild enset, from where it jumped to banana. It is recommended that time be spent in the field to gather more information.Previous experiences with banana bacterial wilts suggest the following disease management/control measures should be adhered to: a. Disinfect tools to limit transmission Currently contaminated tools need sterilization (with sodium hypochlorite) before and after use in any one field. Modifications may be appropriate for different agro-ecological conditions. By and large this practice has been successful only in well-managed Cavendish plantations where routine measures are regularly enforced.The standard approach is to remove the male bud immediately after the last cluster of the female flower has been released from the flower bracts. Many traditions have evolved different ways of achieving this and different kinds of tools have been adopted. Regardless of what is used, it is critical that the action does not facilitate the transmission of the disease from one plant to another. A forked stick has been used to break off of male flower buds and farmers need to be taught how to use the stick correctly.Routine surveillance is paramount to effective bacterial wilt control campaigns. Farmers need to be taught how to recognize the disease symptoms correctly and mechanisms for reporting and sharing information and delivering prompt action need to be in place. In this regard local bye-laws and the involvement of local authorities may be important.From asymptomatic plants, the only possible source of inoculum found so far is nectar, but some plants that appear asymptomatic in the field may show internal symptoms. For stage 1 plants, BXW may be isolated from both nectar and other parts of the male bud, but other sources of inoculum are possible and infection may have spread beyond the bud. Assuming no previous infection in the stool, then unaffected fruit bunches will be protected by removing asymptomatic male buds. The destruction of all diseased plants may be important in order to avoid moving infected materials or for replanting. There is little evidence for other modes of spread from diseased plants so it may be better for farmers to avoid cutting and contaminating tools. By and large, the use of clean planting materials, combined with the restriction of the movement of planting materials and debudding may create a sufficient barrier to disease spread.There is little or no evidence to show that other plant materials (leaves, fruits) spread disease, except perhaps in cases of mechanical contamination.Epidemics will occur when a number of conditions are obtained in a given farming system, including pathogen or host introduction, an abundant set of hosts having easily infectable courts and the presence of an inoculum oozing to the surfaces of peduncles. In addition the agro-ecosystem will also have abundant vector visitors such as bees, bats or birds to carry the pathogen from a source to new sites, plants and farms. The severity of an epidemic may also be influenced by the combination of the strain of bacteria, the variety of bananas and vector density. In the quest to halt the epidemic, multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder and multi-sectorial teams must be brought in to address the problem. An effective strategy may need a holistic approach that looks at the agroecosystem, the host-pathogen-vector system and the traditional pest/disease management systems. In trying to substitute varieties lacking infection courts it is necessary to consider the utilization options that the communities have been deploying. In all cases the intended users of the technology must be educated about the strategy so that they can contribute their own experiences. In all circumstances to halt an epidemic there is no single solution but a combination of tactics is needed (disinfecting tools, early debudding, rouging infected plants and clean planting material).by A.B. MolinaBananas and plantains are an extremely important crop in Asia, a region that is recognized as the centre of Musa genetic diversity and at the same time a hotspot for many serious banana pests and diseases.The term Bugtok, describes a discoloured and hard fruit even when ripe. A diseased plant may look normal, but the fruit pulp is rotten (dry), black and unfit for human consumption. The disease is caused by bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum (formerly known as Pseudomonas solanacearum). It was reported in 1965 although similar fruit hardening and rotting on Saba was reported as early as 1954. The disease affects Saba and Cardaba (ABB) cooking bananas and reached epidemic proportions in the late 80s to early 90s. The bacterium is known to be transmitted mechanically through soil on tools, but is mainly carried by insects feeding on infected flowers of cooking bananas. Moko, another wilt disease caused by R. solanacearum, is known to affect commercial Cavendish plantations in the Philippines. External symptoms are the yellowing and collapse of the youngest leaves. These symptoms progress to the older leaves. Internally, the vascular tissues are discoloured and necrotic, especially near the centre of the pseudostem. The bacterium is more systemic in Moko infections, as it moves upward through the transpiration system in contrast to the slower downward movement of the bacterium (from the flower down the stem) in Bugtok infections. Advanced infection in fruiting plants may also cause fruit rotting. This seldom occurs in commercial plantation since early detection leads to early elimination of infected plants. If it does occur however, rotting of the pulp in Moko infections is similar to that of Bugtok symptoms.The spread of Moko in commercial Cavendish plantations is mainly by way of contaminated knives used in regular desuckering and other pruning activities.Hence, infection commences from the basal parts of the plant resulting in vascular infection that causes leaf yellowing and wilting. Fruit inoculation is practically absent in Cavendish commercial plantations, since the fruits are bagged, thus protecting them from insects. Moreover, the male buds are also removed, thus further reducing the chance of insect inoculation through the male flowers.Moko and Bugtok are caused by the same strain of R. solanacearum. The observed differences in symptomology of Bugtok and Moko are due to differences of banana varieties and in the management systems under which the different varieties are produced. In the case of cooking banana production by smallholders, desuckering, fruit bagging and removal of the male bud were rarely practiced. Moreover, the male buds of cooking banana varieties are sweeter and are used as food. These seem to be more attractive to insects than the male buds of Cavendish, which are bitter and cannot be eaten.In the Philippines, the disease Moko and Bugtok refer more to the type of symptoms and cultivar affected rather than the causal organism. Hence when R. solanacearum infects Cavendish in commercial plantations, people call it Moko. The same pathogen when it infects Saba is called Bugtok or other local names that describe fruit rotting. Thwaites et al. (2000), although recognizing that both diseases may be caused by the same pathogen, classified Moko under vascular wilt diseases and Bugtok under fruit rot diseases.Blood disease, a similar disease reportedly caused by Pseudomonas celebensis (the true taxonomic identity is yet to be worked out), is a devastating banana disease in Indonesia. It was reported in Sulawesi in the 1920s, and spread to West Java in the 1980s. Recently, it has been causing damage to banana plantations in Sumatra. Like Bugtok in the Philippines, it causes significant damage to the cooking banana, Pisang kepok (syn. Saba), an ABB cooking banana and one of the most popular cooking varieties, as well as the dessert banana. This disease has practically eliminated P. kepok from the Sulawesi.Blood disease is systemic like Moko. It is soil-borne and can be spread by contaminated pruning tools. However, field observations indicate that the fruit rotting symptoms are most common in P. kepok. This indicates that like Bugtok, disease inoculation is through the flowers. This inference is supported by the observation that a P. kepok-type cultivar, which does not produce a developed male bud is significantly less affected by Blood disease.In an effort to understand the disease better and develop disease management tactics, several practical studies have been carried out by Indonesian sci-entists. In a varietal screening conducted at the Indonesian Fruit Research Institute (IFRI) in Sumatra, involving artificial inoculation on potted plants in screenhouse, none of the Indonesian varieties were found to be resistant to P. celebensis. All varieties exhibited wilting symptom within 9 to 17 days of inoculation. Field trials, however, showed that cooking bananas such as P. kepok, Pisang raja and Pisang nangka are more seriously affected by Blood disease compared to dessert bananas such as Pisang ambon (Cavendish) and Pisang berangan. Moreover, it is a common observation that dessert bananas, grown in commercial farms, show the wilting symptom (Moko-like) whereas the cooking bananas, usually subsistence farmers' cultivars, are most affected by fruit-rotting (Bugtok symptom).The early male-debudding programme that was adopted for Bugtok control in the Philippines was evaluated in Solok Sumatra in 2000 and was reported to be also effective for Blood disease (Djatnika 2003). Further work to evaluate control programmes and promote cultivars that are less easily infected is being pursued.The presence of a bacterial wilt, reminiscent of Moko, in commercial Cavendish plantations in Indonesia has been recently reported in local scientific literature. While the Blood disease pathogen is distinctly different from the Moko pathogen, the relationship of Moko to Blood disease may be similar to that of Bugtok and Moko in the Philippines. As discussed earlier, Cavendish farm management may yield to wilt (Moko) symptoms rather than fruit rot symptoms (Blood disease).The dynamics of the bacterial wilt/fruit rot pathogens have long been sufficiently understood to design a practical and effective disease management system. The effective management of Moko by commercial Cavendish plantations in Central America as well as in the Philippines is based on the etiological and epidemiological studies carried out by company researchers as early as in the 60s and 70s.Implementing a rational and cost-effective disease management system is easier to achieve in a well-organized and coordinated commercial plantation than in very dispersed, numerous, small-scale farms. Commercial companies have the technical and financial capabilities, as well as strong incentives, to implement an effective disease management system. By contrast, the broadranging socio-economic status, motivations and support systems of small-scale growers make it difficult to implement a comprehensive disease prevention and eradication programme.In the Philippines, while insect transmission through the floral parts was scientifically demonstrated decades ago, removal of male buds as a disease control tactic for small scale farmers did not get serious attention until just seven years ago when the Bugtok epidemic hit the heartland of Mindanao where the banana chip industry thrives. Farmer's demonstration trials were carried out to show to small-scale farmers as well as to local government officials and extension workers the value of this simple control practice. One such study was conducted in the southern Philippines where the Bugtok epidemic had practically devastated the small-scale Saba production catering to the banana chip industry, as well as other processed products. The results of the farmer trials (Tables 1 and 2, Figure 1) were enough to convince farmers and local government alike to implement a sustainable Bugtok management system through extensive extension activities.   With time and official backing, the management tactics have become a part of routine cultural practices. Most of the Saba growers regularly practice debudding and some bigger farms also practice fruit bagging, which is less popular because of the costs and practicalities of bagging very tall plants. While Bugtok cannot totally be eradicated the effects are reduced.Another technology, which is now widely practiced in India, China, and the commercial Cavendish plantations in the Philippines and has significantly improved pest and disease management in Asia, is the wide use of healthy seedlings through tissue culture. Commercial plantations in the Philippines commonly use tissue culture in their annual cropping system, and in establishing new plantations. The management of Fusarium wilt Race 4 through tissue culture in Taiwan has served as a model in this respect. The practice has significantly reduced other pests and diseases such as Banana Bunchy Top Virus, nematodes, Moko and even Sigatoka diseases.The major thrust is now focused on bringing this technology to small-scale farmers. A cost-effective clean seedling system for small-scale farmers is now being developed in the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other developing countries. Increasing numbers of small-scale farmers are now using tissue culture and the control of seedling-borne diseases like bacterial wilt is expected to improve.In conclusion, the studies in the Philippines show that control and/or eradication on farm is possible one year after implementation of management practices but a lot of team work, resources, commitment and dedicated leadership are needed on the part of the implementers to ensure management practices are comprehensively adopted.At the time of the workshop, only Uganda and DR-Congo had reported the presence of BXW. The discussions concerning unaffected countries, at the time therefore, revolved around national preparedness strategies to keep out the disease. Since then, the disease has been confirmed in Gisenyi district of western Rwanda, bordering DR-Congo and in Kagera region of north-western Tanzania, bordering Uganda.Banana is a major crop in Kenya covering 74 000 hectares (2% arable land) and over 1 million tons/year are produced. The Ugandan phytosanitary department informed Kenya when BXW broke out in 2001. Scouting surveys were later conducted in Western and Coastal regions of Kenya in September and December 2004, deploying interviews and transect walks, and collecting samples. BXW was not encountered but a range of other pest and disease problems were (Weevils, Fusarium wilt, Sigatoka etc.). It was also noted that bananas are imported from Uganda (through Busia and Malaba) and Tanzania (through Taveta) and marketed in major towns. The introduction of the disease into Kenya is likely to occur through plant materials.A number of actions have been taken since the scouting surveys, including stepping up border inspections, instituting a system of import permits to control and monitor cross-border movement of banana materials and products; issuing phytosanitary certificates for bananas entering Kenya; banning sucker importation (except tissue cultured materials under quarantine); intensifying information exchange with Ugandan counterparts (two plant inspectors visited Uganda to familiarize themselves with the disease); instituting regular communication with stakeholders about the threat of the disease; and certifying nurseries distributing banana seedlings.Further public sensitization and continued surveillance is planned. A BXW working group will be established with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) taking the chair, the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service as secretariat and Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute, Horticultural Crops Development Authority, Agricultural Development Corporation and Plant Protection Department of MOA as members. Funding for most activities is being sought from the MOA and other development partners.It should be emphasized that the apparent lack of the disease during surveys does not mean the disease is absent. There is an urgent need to train scientists, extension officers, plant inspectors, farmers on BXW disease symptoms and harmonize quarantine efforts in order to prevent the introduction and spread of BXW.Banana diseases in Tanzania pose varied threats according to the geographical area and dominant banana varieties grown. While the coastal regions of Tanzania, including Zanzibar and Pemba islands, are affected mainly by black Sigatoka (Mycosphaerella fijiensis), this disease is not a threat in the highlands of Kilimanjaro, Kagera and Southern highlands. Likewise in areas where the EAHB have been replaced by the dessert varieties, due to banana weevils (Cosmopolites sordidus), nematodes or poor soil fertility, the threat by Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum) has increased.Recent studies carried out in Tanzania to assess the extent of pest and disease problems associated with banana (e.g. Bosch et al. 1996, Rajab et al. 1999and Mohamed and Mgenzi 2004), did not reveal the presence of BXW. To establish a close watch on the disease, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) in Tanzania, sent two scientists in January 2004 to study the disease in affected areas in Uganda with the support of the Kawanda Agriculture Research Institute (KARI). A survey was then undertaken in the whole Kagera region to see if the disease had crossed the border to Tanzania. During the survey, apart from visual observations, farmers and agriculture extension staff were asked if they had noted any strange banana diseases. There was no evidence of BXW in the region.The resulting survey report made the following recommendations (Mohamed and Mgenzi 2004):• To produce and distribute extension materials (leaflets, posters or brochures) both in Kiswahili and other vernacular languages, to inform farmers and extension staff about this new disease • To encourage farmers maintain proper sanitation in banana plots • To encourage farmers to remove male buds once the female fingers have emerged• To instruct farmers to harvest bananas from their fields themselves rather than allowing traders to cut bunches, and to sterilize tools with a flame before they are used • To reinforce and announce banana plant quarantine measures, instructing plant inspectors at the border to make sure that vehicles crossing to Tanzania do not contain any banana or other plant wastes and if present to be burned at the entry point • To ensure that routine monitoring in border villages is carried out on a quarterly basis and to institute frequent communications with farmers, extension staff, NGOs and government organizations to minimize chances of the disease entering the country. In case the disease symptoms are observed, necessary measures should be taken to control the disease to prevent further spread.Since the survey a number of activities and events have been initiated: Farmers formed Banana wilt monitoring committees, which are responsible for:-Assisting plant inspectors to ensure farmers do not import bananas -Report any strange banana disease symptoms to agriculture extension staff -Meeting local leaders to report the situation on the disease on a quarterly basis -Running campaigns about the disease -Reporting to the district on the situation.-Is taking the lead in verifying banana disease symptoms -Organized a study tour for the senior agriculture staff to BXW affected areas in Uganda -Is coordinating information gathering from village committees and following up on recommendations. -Is conducting a quarterly monitoring of the disease especially in border areas and among fishing communities along Lake Victoria -Is regularly communicating with KARI on the developments of the disease and reporting to MAFS -Is sending flash reports to MAFS about events on the disease -Is searching the internet for information on the disease and making recommendations whenever necessary.Several constraints have been recognized:• Communication among stakeholders is limited (e.g. communicating to remote districts) • Banana is given low priority in funding and activities have been relying on ad hoc funding. There is no clear source of funds for monitoring the disease, organizing village committee discussion meetings, or for following up on reports of disease symptoms • Lack of facilities and materials, especially chemicals, to identify the diseases. Based on the experience with other diseases such as Coffee Fusarium wilt, Cassava Mosaic Virus, Sweet potato diseases, etc., it is more cost-effective to prevent a disease outbreak than to control but this requires preparation. Funds are needed to support immediate actions in the event of an outbreak. Presently, there is a single pathologist covering the entire Kagera region and unless more are trained this will remain a bottleneck for any control strategy. Recommendations: • Frequent communication among research institutes in the region is necessary to understand the current situations and findings about the disease • Regional efforts are needed to solicit funding for managing the disease • A regional coordinator for the disease should be identified to coordinate the circulation and dissemination of news and events concerning the disease • A regional network mechanism should be in place to enable the delivery of information. Although BXW is not yet reported in Tanzania, efforts should be made to ensure it does not cross the border. The efforts to contain the disease are not limited to Uganda alone but to all banana-growing areas in the region. This necessitates strong collaboration between stakeholders in the region (including policy makers, researchers and agriculture extension).The Rwandan economy is based on agriculture, which contributes nearly 40% of GDP and occupies 90% of the active population (Lassoudière 1989). Banana is one of the major commodities in the agricultural sub-sector, occupying 23% of arable land. It is used as a cash and food crop and contributes between 60 and 80% of household income (Okech et al. 2004). About 2.4 million tons of banana are produced annually (MINECOFIN 2004).Major constraints to banana production include pests and diseases, inadequate plant nutrition and poor crop husbandry. Fusarium wilt which affects ABB, AAA and AAB exotic brewing and dessert varieties causes significant economic losses across banana production zones (Okech et al. 2002).No symptoms corresponding to BXW have been observed in Rwanda to date. Sixty farms, which took part in a diagnostic survey in 2001, were revisited in April-June 2004 by the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques (ISAR) and IITA scientists but neither symptoms nor reports of BXW were evident. However, more comprehensive surveillance has yet to be conducted in areas bordering Uganda and DR-Congo, and the possibility that BXW is in Rwanda cannot be excluded. Factors influencing the risk of BXW incursion from Uganda or DR-Congo are: • Proximity -the Rwandan border is 100 and 300km from the BXW affected areas in DR-Congo and Uganda, respectively • Lack of phytosanitary control for fresh produce and plant material on customs and lakeshore markets • Occurrence of fresh banana bunches imported from: Uganda, by road via two entry points (Gatuna and Kagitumba) and DR-Congo, by boat via Lake Kivu at Gisenyi and Kibuye shore markets. To prevent or delay entry of BXW in Rwanda, the major strategies should focus on:• Building awareness at all levels, from policy makers, lawyers to different public service providers and farmers • Strengthening customs control for imported banana goods (both fresh bunches and planting material)• Restricting plant material movement between districts with special attention to the areas bordering DRC and Uganda • Strengthening national plant quarantine service. As a first step to initiate awareness campaigns, leaflets about BXW have been developed by ISAR and will be disseminated through Village Information Centres in 2005. The Agricultural Technology Development and Transfer (ATDT) project, funded by USAID and managed by the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) and ISAR, is already providing funds to produce extension material for farmers and assist in implementing the awareness campaign.Country needs for plant protection specialists are far from being covered. ISAR has one scientist specialized in plant pathology. The institution is currently installing a plant pathology laboratory at Ruhengeri Research Centre (Northern Rwanda). The National University of Rwanda has several specialists in crop protection who are involved mainly in teaching activities. The Ministry of Agriculture has a plant quarantine service which is responsible for plant health control for imported plants. The extension service working under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture employs about 297 officers (of which 99 are in charge of agriculture) in 99 districts including provincial cities. The number of NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) and their field staff is unknown but may be significant in some zones.There exist many challenges to successfully deal with the potential BXW problem in the country. These include:• Lack of trained man power: especially for disease identification. BXW is easily confused to the untrained eye with Fusarium wilt, which has been present in Rwanda for 15 years • Need for public awareness campaigns: targeted at policy makers as well as farmers to underscore the threats of BXW, especially in high risk areas (Gisenyi and Kivu Lake border) • Need for bye-laws: weak quarantine service and lack of customs control on plant material allows all possible pests and diseases to enter Rwanda without a \"visa\" • Existing cultural practices and production systems: may themselves be constraints to implementing BXW control options. For example, bananas are grown without replanting and little or no land is available for rotation. Debudding is not practiced and one of the most susceptible varieties, Kayinja or Gisubi (ABB), is highly popular in many regions, especially in Central Rwanda • And finally, farmers' minds and perceptions about the new technologies are often negative: the demonstration of immediate effect is needed.germplasm. Lack of plant pathologists at the country level makes it difficult to develop and implement an effective programme against BXW and other threats (Cassava mosaic virus, etc.). There is also a lack of expertise in the identification of BXW symptoms and no monitoring system to provide information on disease occurrence, if any.To address the risks posed by BXW, a national action plan, based on a regional initiative and the experiences of Uganda, should be developed as soon as possible, and resources mobilized for its implementation.Infection on a male bud, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo G. Blomme, INIBAPby A. Viljoen, J. Smith, F. Ssekiwoko, V. Aritua and S. Eden-GreenLittle is known about the causal agent of BXW, Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm) other than the general knowledge concerning xanthomonads and other wilts. Knowledge needs to be continuously generated because only some of it will be useful in developing applicable measures. Most field observations need to be backed up by well-planned, scientifically-rigorous studies.In planning disease epidemiological studies some basic questions need to be asked: • Why is this disease all of a sudden a threat? Is this really the first introduction?-Is the bacterium now in Uganda and DRC the 'same' as that present in Ethiopia? -Have agricultural practices changed? -Have trading routes changed? -Are people more mobile? -Does global climate warming have an affect? • What do we need to know of its biology?-How does the bacterium spread; and what is the primary pathway? -How long does the bacterium survive in soil and plant debris? -Does it have hosts other than banana and enset, maybe some latently supporting populations? -What genetic diversity exists amongst populations [geographic and host]? • What role does the banana plant play?-Are all varieties of banana equally susceptible or is there resistance, tolerance and/or disease escape types? -To what extent can banana plants support latent infection; can this be detected? -How long does the bacterium survive in banana plant debris? • What are the consequences of BXW?-Do we know enough on disease incidence, spread rate and loss to predict impact? -What are the coping strategy options and what will the consequences be to farmers, consumers and the environment?Studies on BXW are ongoing in Ethiopia, Uganda, South Africa and the UK on host range and resistance, pathogen survival and characterization. So far, it has been revealed that bacterial growth is good on certain isolation media (YPGA, YPSA and YDC) and poor on others (NA). It can also grow in nectar as demonstrated by turbidity change.Systems for locating resistance genes for other banana diseases are available at the University of Pretoria's Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), which could be used to locate resistance to BXW once identified. Artificial inoculations by needle injection (with about 108 cfu/ml) showed that cultivated banana, Ensete, wild Musa ornata, wild Musa zebrina and Canna indica are affected by Xcm. Out of these, only enset and cultivated bananas have been found to be natural hosts.Laboratory and field observations should be mutually informing, the following tools and methods may need to be developed: • Characterization studies (Population studies using molecular markers -AFLP, rep-PCR, MR-PFGE, or protein profiling and more specific studies such as multilocus sequence typing, cDNA-AFLP; Fatty acid, Biolog, etc.).Outputs: refined taxonomy and data in support of developing diagnostic tools and breeding. • Diagnostics (Specific primers and PCR; ELISA).Outputs: methods for detection and identification; insect vector studies; protocols to support quarantine and movement of planting material. Breeding for resistant genotypes is one of the solutions to BXW. Thus far, no banana cultivars in Uganda appear to be resistant to BXW. However, some are known to escape infection in the field. This short paper describes a screening trial, managed in collaboration between NARO and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), of a range of banana genotypes to detect which are capable of escaping BXW infection. Sixty eight genotypes, each represented by 15 plants, were studied (Table 1). These include representatives of each of the five clone sets of EAHB, (Karamura 1999) tetraploid and triploid hybrids, exotic hybrids from FHIA, wild, cultivated and synthetic diploids.The male buds of five plants per genotype were infected with the pathogen by drenching soil with inoculum at flowering with five non-inoculated plants per genotype used as control. Data on disease incidence, extent of systemic disease development, disease severity and type of infection and plant wilting were recorded. Preliminary findings indicate that the diploid plants (SH-3362, Kokopo, Calcutta 4, Pisang lilin, 7197-2, 8075-7, Opp79/1201K-1, Nakayonga, 9128-3, SH-3217) are susceptible to soil drenching so far. The experiment is continuing and data collection ongoing. Prospects for using biotechnology against BXW by L. Tripathi, J.N. Tripathi and W.K. TushemereirweThe livelihoods of millions of farmers have been threatened by the current outbreak of a banana bacterial wilt disease caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm), which is very destructive and spreading rapidly throughout Uganda. The apparent rapidity of pathogen spread in Eastern Africa, and concomitant increase in inocula load in regional locations, poses the threat of an epidemic outbreak and demands urgent measures. Bacterial diseases are difficult to control. Chemical control appears to be impossible, although several antibiotics have been tried. Using antibiotics also presents the possibility of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains arising. Resistant varieties, when they are available, are favoured by commercial growers and farmers. Resistance has been the best and most cost-effective method of managing bacterial diseases. However, attempts to develop bacterial disease-resistant varieties through conventional breeding have resulted in only limited success, as little existing genetic diversity shows resistance to Xcm and because new races of the pathogen continue to appear. Even if resistant germplasm sources are identified, a conventional breeding cycle for improved banana germplasm development may be expected to take 6-20 years. Therefore, use of genetic transformation technologies, may provide a timely and cost-effective measure to address the spread of this disease.Molecular biological studies have revealed several new options for the management of bacterial diseases. One approach to control bacterial disease is to improve a plant's defence against a particular pathogen. Plant defence genes and naturally-occurring anti-microbial proteins in insects, plants, animals, and humans are a potential source of plant resistance.Anti-bacterial proteins from insects, bacteriophages, animals and plants can be transferred to plants to confer resistance to bacterial pathogens. Several reports of success have been published recently. The important criteria for exploiting this technology are the stable expression of transgenes, absence of toxicity and low environmental impact.Pathosystem-specific plant resistance (R) genes have been cloned from several plant species. Several R genes, against many different pathogens, have now been cloned from a variety of plants. The majority of R proteins contain tandem leucine-rich repeats (LRRs): the NB-LRR contain a nucleotide-binding site, the eLRR protein family consists of extra cytoplasmic leucine-rich repeats or LRRkinase consist of an eLRR fused to a cystoplasmic serine-threonine kinase domain. Successful transfer of resistance genes to heterogenous plant species gives another new option to develop disease resistant plants. R gene-mediated resistance has several attractive features for disease control. When induced in a timely manner, the concerted responses can efficiently halt pathogen growth with minimal collateral damage to the plant. No input is required from the farmer and there are no adverse environmental effects. Unfortunately, R genes are often quickly defeated by co-evolving pathogens. Many R genes recognize only a limited number of pathogen strains and therefore do not provide broadspectrum resistance. Also efforts to transfer R genes from model species to crops, or between distantly related crops, could be hampered due to restricted taxonomic functionality.Plants employ a wide array of defense mechanisms against pathogen attack. Among those, hypersensitive response (HR) is an induced resistance mechanism, characterized by rapid, localized cell death upon their encounter with a microbial pathogen. Several defence genes have been shown to enhance the hypersensitive response induced by bacterial pathogens in non-host plants through the release of the proteinaceous elicitor. Elicitor-induced resistance is not specific to particular pathogens. Hence, manipulation of such defence genes may be more ideal. The two genes pflp and hrap, isolated from sweet pepper, can be used as potential candidates to protect bananas against this pathogen as these transgenes are effective against many pathogens including Xanthomonas species. We are trying to procure these genes from Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.The introduction of transgenes into the desired plant species for the development of stable transgenic plants requires an efficient regeneration system amenable to genetic transformation and the stability of transgenes under field conditions. To date, there is no report of genetic transformation of EAHBs. Therefore we are first trying to optimize the protocol for genetic transformation of EAHBs using the shoot tips.The shoot tips isolated from in vitro grown shoots were used for micro-projectile bombardment with the binary vector, pCAMBIA 1201 with the hygromycin resistance gene as a selection marker and GUS-INT as a reporter gene. Transient expression of β-glucuronidase (uid A) gene was achieved in transformed apical shoot tip. The explants were transferred to the selection medium and some putative transgenic shoots were regenerated. The stable GUS assay was performed using the leaf segments and blue colouration was observed confirming the expression of the transgene in the shoots. Further genetic analyses have to be performed to confirm the integration of the transgene in the plant genome. Several pathogens have emerged and re-emerged. Cassava mosaic, Mealy bug and Green mite emerged out of genetic recombination, invasion and resurgence. Bacterial wilt on enset and banana may be the result of epidemic waves within ecological zones determined by varieties and vectors. Many problems cross boundaries; for instance Soybean rust from Asia to Africa, North America and Latin America; Mango fruit fly from Asia to East Africa and the rest of Africa. These problems can no longer be eradicated.Many emerging pest and disease problems have an impact on efforts towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). BXW affects households' capacity to subsist and will increase hunger (MDG 1). The Mango fruit flies affect international mango market affecting fair trade access to markets (impacting on MDG 8). The Desert locusts cause political threats thereby affecting countries' capacity for national good governance.At the onset of the BXW epidemic in Uganda, the government adopted an eradication strategy and hired labour to cut down plantations and dig deep pits to bury infected materials. Both human and financial resources were quickly overstretched as more districts reported the disease. It was thus realized that mobilizing farmers and communities would be essential to augment the research and extension services' efforts. Hence Uganda's strategy to address the outbreak of BXW focused on equipping people with knowledge and tools to manage, control and ultimately eradicate BXW (National action plan Output 4: Appropriate technologies and information utilized to contain and control BXW).Specifically, the strategy involves analyzing the BXW situation, creating awareness/sensitization at all levels along the production-consumption continuum (national to village), effecting control measures that contain and eliminate the disease, and monitoring and evaluating impact. The strategy is based on multi-stakeholder, multi-sector and multi-disciplinary approaches bringing into play national, regional and international organizations to exchange information and technologies in the quest of identifying lasting solutions to the BXW epidemic in Uganda. In this respect BXW Task Force, Steering and Technical Committees as well as working groups were formed with the membership of MAAIF, NARO, DANIDA's Agricultural Sector Programme Support, National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), Global Plant Clinic (GPC), Agricultural Productivity Enhancement Programme (APEP), Ecotrust, IITA and INIBAP. In addition, BXW control activities have been integrated into on-going banana research programmes at NARO, NAADs, MAAIF, a number of NGOs, CGIAR centres (IPGRI-INIBAP, IITA) the Pest Knowledge Partnership (GPC/MAAIF), a number of research projects (e.g. the IPM-CPP-DFID-NARO), as well as research networks (Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) and Banana Research Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (BARNESA)).To date, 198 agricultural officers from 22 districts have participated in a training-of-trainers and these in turn have trained grass-root organizations such as farmers' associations, extension workers and NGOs (Uganda Farmers association, World Vision, KULIKA Charitable Trust, VEDCO, CARITUS etc.). Course materials were developed in workshops and tested with farmers. In addition an intensive publicity campaign has taken place through radio, TV, newspapers and posters (on symptoms and control). In all, 40 000 posters were distributed to 32 affected and 'frontline' districts; 12 radio programmes on local FM stations were run; 67 000 brochures were produced and distributed to service providers; newspaper pull-outs were distributed in five local newspapers; and TV programmes in six major spoken languages and documentaries were aired.In order to reinforce the message, a public awareness approach, \"going public\", was borrowed from the HIV-AIDS campaigns to reach markets, social functions, churches, mosques, school speech days and public transport systems.Farming communities were directly targeted using a participatory development communication (PDC) approach. This approach involves members of the community to take part in problem identification and analysis, and enables the community to analyse and explore alternative solutions to the problem and to identify the best solutions which they are ready to implement. PDC helps to know why some members in the community don't implement some control measures and to identify the constraints that they face in implementing control measures. Using community knowledge, researchers are able to develop technologies more effectively. The model was tested in three BXW-affected zones and stakeholder planning workshops took place involving district agricultural extension staff, sub-county agricultural extension staff, political leaders (Local Council level 1-3); educational institutions, schools, cultural and religious leaders, NGOs, CBOs and farmers.The workshop participants identified and prioritized banana-related community needs and constraints and agreed on technologies to address them. Through PDC, interactive discussions identified IPM and BXW problems (pests, diseases, soil fertility, banana cultivars, etc.), and agreed solutions, including field demonstrations to show BXW symptoms, transmission and control measures. Subsequently, the information acquired was used to develop community BXW action plans to be executed by task forces at various community levels.In the execution of PDC, a number of challenges emerged. Participants had diverse perceptions about the cause of BXW (including deliberate introduction by scientists, exotic bananas, tissue culture plants, degraded soils, the Mulinga tree, use of molasses in banana systems, etc.). They also discussed reasons why some people in the communities did not implement the recommended control measures. The reasons given included ineffective measures, labour intensive measures, laziness, lack of effective alternatives, costly disinfectants, miscommunication from neighbours, researchers wanting to stamp out traditional technologies, negative attitudes towards technologies, contradictory messages, and fear that new cultivars might degrade the soil.The PDC's interactive approach enabled farmers, who were ignorant of basic crop management and IPM practices, to take advantage of the extensive experience of other farmers. Community leaders, having been made fully aware of the threat, pledged to support the effort to fight the disease, and it was recognised that the responsibility for the BXW problem has to be shared by the whole community.In Uganda, the community task forces, consisting of at least four people, mobilized individual communities in partnership with parish and village councils, trained people on BXW, directed the development and implementation of community actions plans, and monitored and communicated progress to the task force at the next community level. The task force was also responsible for the establishment of demonstration plots and maintaining networks with other partners in control of BXW (agric-extension, NGOs, NARO, MAAIF and others).Training videos in different languages were used to disseminate information on BXW symptoms, transmission and control, PDC methods, the sensitization process and success stories of BXW control in model districts. Fact sheets on BXW symptoms, transmission and control; guidelines for formation of BXW task forces in the community; posters and brochures on BXW; and banana production manuals were also disseminated.The experiences gained from the initial PDC model in the pioneer areas were used to scale out activities to other areas. The original model was slightly modified in order to gain more political backing and funding support, by targeting the chief Administrative Officer and the Local Council chair person at the highest level in the district rather than the District Agricultural Extension (DAE).There has been widespread adoption of PDC approach in most banana growing districts of Uganda and communities have undertaken a number of actions as given below: • PDC outputs have been used by the BXW field working group on control to sensitize district officials in more than 10 districts in 'frontline' and unaffected areas • Using the PDC process and communication tools, district, sub-county, parish and village taskforces have been formed in some districts (Mpigi, Kibale, Bushenyi, Hoima, Masindi, Kabarole, Mubende and Kyenjojo) • District BXW task forces have been formed and action plans for disease control have been developed and activities prioritized • Most district officials are aware of the disease and they are doing 'all that is within their means' to sensitize people on BXW • Quarantine has been established in some district BXW task forces (e.g. Kabalore, Hoima, Kyenjojo), prohibiting movement of banana plant parts • Awareness campaigns are aired on local radio involving other stakeholders and members on the district Task Force (e.g. Kabalore, Hioma, Mubende) Some communities have tried to copy this practice.• By-laws need to be enacted urgently to reinforce community action on BXW • BXW training and sensitization communication tools, such as posters, brochures, facts sheets and videos, need to be disseminated at the village level• Communities need a quick cure for BXW • Communities want government to provide alternative crops and clean banana planting materials for people who have cut down BXW-affected gardens • Community action in destroying infected plants is still limited in Kayinja beer banana systems • Removal of male buds as preventive measures for BXW is an uphill task in some communities • BXW task forces need reinforcement in some districts from political leadership at national, district, sub-county and community levels • Integration of BXW control activities into general IPM strategies at district and lower community levels is still slow • Lack of funding in many districts has delayed the progress of some BXW activities at lower district community levels • Follow up and feedback on BXW community action needs strengthening.The FFS is farmer centred but must have a competent facilitator who ensures that agreed principles are scientifically viable with respect to the problem being faced by the communities, and that there is systematic training, critical observation, discussions and action plans made. The FFS curriculum will depend on the natural cycle of the subject, usually the crop cycle.The cornerstone of the FFS model is dynamic, hands-on farmer training, leaning on innovative, participatory and discovery-learning processes; agroecosystem analysis (AESA) to empower farmers to acquire an understanding of the field ecology and integrated crop management and participatory technology development and testing.As a principle, the curriculum is based on a holistic community gap analysis, whereby issues are prioritized, entry points identified and resource needs established (human, material and financial). The curriculum may be developed for a season or a year and may be included as a subsidiary of a larger curriculum if necessary.FFS is a model for enhancing cohesion, networking, cost reduction and diffusion of innovations within the groups of the community that depend on and exploit community initiatives. The approach encourages and may lead to group bank accounts. Some successful FFS systems grants have been transformed into revolving funds.There are currently new reforms in the agricultural sector that are aimed at empowering the communities where the FFS approach fits in very well. These include decentralization processes to empower communities; the increasing interest from local governments and NGOs in operating at grass-roots level. Moreover the people trained are always available in the region to provide critical institutional memory.The FFS as an innovation is not without challenges. In the first place the learning process hinges on the facilitator's skills and innovativeness. The strategy produces a limited number of cadres so the message is not spread around as fast as it should. Moreover there is usually a slow attitudinal change in the communities from the conventional, top down approach to one that is bottom up, and the tendency is to deviate from the original core focus. In some cases, there is a conceptual confusion between FFS and on-farm research and the increasing tendency to refer to any on-farm work as FFS. In practice also there is a problem of sustaining the continuous attendance of the participants, and follow-up and sustainability questions are frequently raised by policy makers.The following section of the report represents a summary of the discussions and the resulting conclusions and recommendations agreed at the workshop. These elements provided the basis for what is now a regional strategy for Confronting the threat of Banana Xanthomonas wilt in East and Central Africa, which is found on page 73.The use of \"Banana bacterial wilt\" (BBW) to refer to the specific disease in East Africa is confusing because it is a generic term, which includes other bacterial wilts such as Bugtok and Moko. \"Banana Xanthomonas wilt\" confers specificity to the causal organism and is a better alternative.Participants agreed the need for an impact assessment to understand better the effects of the disease on both banana and enset production and producers' livelihoods, and strategies adopted by farmers to cope with the situation. INIBAP is leading a multi-disciplinary impact assessment in Uganda with funding from UK Department for International Development (DFID) and IDRC, which will partly address these needs.Reports from DR-Congo and Uganda imply that the BXW rate of spread is higher in Uganda than in DR-Congo. Additional research was thus recommended to ascertain rates of disease spread and the factors that drive the epidemic in order to understand these differences. The role of insects and other vectors, ambient conditions and altitude will require investigation.Other knowledge gaps requiring further research include levels of cultivar resistance, infection pathways, and efficacy of male bud removal. Reports of leaf infection should also be investigated because de-budding would not be an appropriate control solution if infection passes through other plant parts than the flower. Cases of leaf infection may be caused by transmission from diseased mother plants or contaminated tools.The need to isolate and characterize the bacterium was raised but DNA fingerprint studies by CAB International (CABI) of samples from DR-Congo, Ethiopia and Uganda confirm that the strains are similar.The costs and benefits of using rotation as a BXW management tool should be elaborated. More research is needed to identify which crops should be involved so that they neither compete with each other for nutrients nor share the same pests and diseases.The workshop further discussed the medium-long term solutions, including the use of tolerant/resistant genotypes as well as escapees in a systems management approach that looks at host-vector-pathogen relationship. The variety Pelipita is reported to escape Moko infection probably due to its persistent, neuter flowers and bracts. The variety, however, can still be infected artificially by contaminated implements. The need to identify escapee genotypes for possible multiplication and distribution to farmers on one hand and the urgency to collect and conserve threatened genotypes, on the other was underlined.It was noted from the presentations that selective media for isolating Xcm is yet to be discovered and that isolation is still a major problem. Participants suggested that studies should be conducted as a matter of urgency to screen isolation media and identify the one(s) that is/are selective to Xcm.Some new findings have important implications for disease management strategies: Xcm is known to survive between 3 and 4 days on dry and moist surfaces, respectively, under laboratory conditions. Further information is available in various research centres but has not been published, emphasizing the need for better communication.Participants noted that extension workers have been successful in informing farmers about the disease problem. However, whole communities are still not being reached and the approaches currently used do not necessarily exploit multiplier effects. Participants suggested that central Government mechanisms might be better involved. In Uganda, the President's office has a banana programme, which should be involved and may assist in public awareness campaigns.Participants discussed and agreed that the Participatory Development Communication and Farmer Field Schools (FFS) methodologies should be integrated. Experiences in FFS can be borrowed and adapted for BXW control. For areas as yet unaffected by the disease, existing FFS should be used as entry points to introduce BXW as special topic. Where BXW is already in place, FFS should be established and curriculum for BXW developed. FFS should be established in Tanzania ahead of the disease front. There are also FFS focusing on cassava in DR-Congo, which can be adapted for use in the BXW-affected areas. is not yet published. INIBAP was urged to facilitate access to such information 6. Xcm is known to survive 3 days on dry surfaces and 4 days on moist surfaces under laboratory conditions 7. Isolation of the BXW causal pathogen using selective media is still difficult.Further isolation media need to be developed 8. Farmer Field Schools, together with other methods, such as Participatory Development Communication, can be more effectively used as a channel to disseminate information and develop good practice for farmers in both endemic and disease free areas.Research should provide recommendations for management of the disease. Urgent and longer-term research strategies are needed to ensure that present control tactics are based on sound science and practice and to generate new options for the future.The following areas need urgent research attention: 1. Reports from DR-Congo and Uganda imply that the rate of BXW spread is higher in Uganda than in DR-Congo. Additional research is thus recommended to ascertain the factors that influence rates of disease spread 2. Further exploration is needed of the infection pathways, including determining the surfaces where inoculum is produced, the vectors involved, mode of transmission, and the infection courts, as well as the influence of altitude.Reports of leaf infection should also be investigated because de-budding would not be an appropriate control solution if infection passes through other plant parts than the flower 3. The systemicity of the infection (flowers to roots or suckers to mother flower) needs to be determined and the efficacy of male bud removal confirmed 4. There is need to undertake BXW impact studies in East and Central Africa on banana and enset to understand farmers' coping strategies so that policyand decision-makers can be fully informed and strategies for managing trans-boundary pests and diseases are based on sound information 5. There is a need to undertake studies to confirm the causal pathogen in all areas where the disease has been observed.Extension efforts should involve participatory approaches to ensure that farmers gain full ownership of disease management strategies. The following areas should be addressed to support extension: 1. Unpublished information on all aspects of BXW management should be made available to all stakeholders as soon as possible 2. De-budding and field sanitation should be reinforced by: a. statutory measures at national and local levels (quarantine regulations and bye-laws) for enforced containment and control tactics; b. awareness raising efforts at international, regional, national and local levels, directed towards decision-makers and the general public, in order to mobilize resources and assure support and ownership for the control campaign; c. improved 'seed' systems for supplying clean, high-quality planting material; and d. improved agronomic practices to increase productivity and sustainability, combined with the dissemination of diversified utilization options for new and existing varieties to improve livelihoods.3. Banana varieties that are acceptable to farmers and consumers but less susceptible to infection (e.g. those with floral morphology not conducive to infection) should be evaluated and introduced 4. Steps should be taken to ensure that alternative ways are explored to manage highly susceptible cultivars 5. Mechanisms should be put in place for shared planning, information exchange and coordination at the national and regional level to ensure the most cost-effective use of resources.The strategy to address BXW in East and Central Africa is envisioned to have applications at both the national and regional levels. At the national level the meeting recommended the following actions to be urgently undertaken:• Strengthening and coordinating national networks (farmer-extensionresearch systems) • Intensifying surveillance in frontline regions of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and unaffected areas of Uganda and DR-Congo • Conducting surveys in endemic regions of DR-Congo, Uganda, and Ethiopia; • Mounting awareness campaigns • Strengthening capacity of stakeholders • Forming and empowering national task forces to coordinate activities and link into the regional task force • Mobilizing resources. At the regional level, the meeting recommended that efforts should focus on those actions that add value to what national organizations are already doing and to promote synergy, pool knowledge and optimize use of resources by: • Programming regional activities • Coordinating monitoring and evaluation efforts, specifically:-monitoring NARS activities in a timely manner; -budget monitoring -to assure compliance with agreed budgets. • Tracking impact to inform policy processes • Capacity building and back-stopping • Clearing research proposals • Networking:-regional meetings/workshops; -establishing and running a Web portal. • Soliciting funds • Promoting input from external partners.The two coordination levels will be linked by having the chairpersons of national taskforces form a regional taskforce, within the framework of BARNE-SA, with a regional coordinator selected from among the members of the regional taskforce or from the BARNESA team.Control of further spread and effective management or rehabilitation of existing plantings, urgently require the generation of new knowledge and validation of new technologies by researchers and farmers working closely together. An effective response will also depend on large numbers of farmers, over a vast area, changing their perceptions of the disease and adopting significant changes in their crop management practices. The resources currently available for both research and outreach are totally inadequate to address a problem of such magnitude. The scale of the present problem is daunting and the seriousness of the threat to livelihoods is alarming. National governments and donors are invited to invest in the proposed framework as offering the best strategy for containing the spread of the disease, mitigating its immediate effects on livelihoods and eventually restoring the productivity and sustainability of banana-based production systems. Xanthomonas wilt was long-known as a disease affecting enset in Ethiopia and only appeared in Uganda in 2001 and soon after in DR-Congo. Disease incidence has reached levels of 70-80% within the space of a year in Uganda and yield losses of 100% are recorded for many juice banana (Kayinja = Pisang awak). It has been estimated that, by 2010, losses of up to US$ 4 billion will be incurred by the banana industry for Uganda alone if no action is taken to rectify the situation.Since the report of the disease outbreak in Uganda in 2001, the BARNESA Steering Committee has rated BXW as a top R4D priority and has taken steps to coordinate regional efforts aimed at alleviating the impact of the disease on the livelihoods of the affected communities. In this regard, INIBAP-BARNESA has coordinated a multi-institutional, multi-stakeholder study (funded by the DFID-UK and IDRC-Canada) to assess the impact of BXW on the livelihoods of communities along the production-consumption pipeline, and to understand how the communities are coping with the disease. In addition, INIBAP in collaboration with the FAO is convening a number of regional and international meetings to develop plans for addressing the problem.This strategy was developed from the recommendations of a regional workshop held in February 2005. It envisages the involvement of international, regional, national and local level actors and interventions to coordinate and bring synergy into research and extension efforts and to support farmers and communities in 'people-focused' activities. Furthermore the strategy underpins the importance of integrating gender, poverty and environmental conservation considerations (ref. Millennium Development Goals).In the short-term, the strategy aims to generate and disseminate robust diagnostic tools that facilitate disease recognition, management and control. In addition it envisions a programme for spatial surveillance to monitor what is happening where in the region and a regularly-updated portal for information sharing. At all levels of the production-consumption chain, capacity must be strengthened. All activities will need to be coordinated and monitored to ensure that corrective measures are taken in time.In the medium term, a regional impact tracking mechanism that regularly generates and packages information products for policy makers will be put in place and integrated into the overall regional strategy for integrated pest and disease management. Regional policy dialogue should be strengthened to allow the coordi-nation and management of transboundary epidemics to food security and household incomes. In the long term, a systems approach should be adopted to boost the health of farming systems, taking full account of genetic diversity, the resource base and biotic stresses. Grass-roots ownership and sustainability should be ensured by deploying a livelihoods approach to improve prospects for marketing bananas and banana products. Indigenous germplasm threatened by the disease must also be effectively conserved in perpetuity to ensure that farmers can replant traditional genotypes once the effects of the epidemic have lessened.Goal: To ensure the security of food supplies and household incomes in banana-based systems in East and Central Africa Purpose: To strengthen the capacity of the banana sub-sector to successfully manage the outbreak of Banana Xanthomonas wilt Activities (see also Table 1): Most of Uganda, Gisenyi province of Rwanda, Masisi region of North Kivu in DR-Congo and the lake shores of Bukoba district of Tanzania: a. Strengthen the ownership of the BXW problem by stakeholders:• provide management information and tools;• strengthen farmer-extension-research linkages;• establish FFS and facilitate community learning and action programmes;• establish an information portal and a monitor and feed-back system. b. Initiate farmer participatory research activities:• demonstrate the effectiveness of de-budding;• demonstrate the effectiveness of crop hygiene (destruction of infected plant material and use of clean implements); • integrate BXW activities into systems health management approaches to contain sporadic epidemics. Estimated budget: to cover one endemic site in Uganda, Rwanda, DR-Congo and Tanzania.4. For banana-based systems (medium-to-long term) a. Develop and evaluate new varieties b. Understand pathogen-vector-crop host systems and associated pathogen survival behaviour. Estimated budget: to cover two PhD students (1 breeder and 1 pathologist).At the national level, coordination is targeting resource (human and financial) mobilization by disseminating and sharing information and developing and imple-menting national action plans owned by all the stakeholders along the production -consumption pipeline, including policy makers at the local and national levels. 1. Strengthen and coordinate national networks (farmer-extension-research systems) 2. Intensify surveillance in frontline regions (Kenya, Burundi) 3. Coordinate surveys in endemic regions (DR Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda) 4. Design and organize awareness campaigns 5. Strengthen capacity of stakeholders 6. Facilitate the formation of national task forces to coordinate activities and link into regional task force 7. Mobilize resources 8. Facilitate the development and implementation of action plans Coordination at regional level is aimed at promoting synergy, pooling knowledge and optimizing use of resources so that actions in one country are re-enforced by the other countries in the network. 1. Programme regional activities and institute impact-tracking linked to monitoring & evaluation activities a. Monitoring NARS activities -(in a timely manner) b. Budget monitoring -to assure compliance with agreed budgets 2. Initiate national and regional policy dialogue to strengthen trans-boundary pests and disease 3. Capacity building for and back-stopping national technical and management planning 4. Provide peer review support for research proposals 5. Networking a. Regional meetings/workshops a. Establishing and running an internet portal 6. Solicit funds 7. Promote input from external partners, including other INIBAP regions in Asia and Latin America with similar diseases. Estimated budget: staff time and administrative costsActivities will be implemented and coordinated by national and regional task forces in the framework of BARNESA (Annex 2).   ","tokenCount":"14598"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8ebb0d85fad99c86e7640dcd4875a093","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f679e2af-a31f-4e70-a600-db27eae97e89/retrieve","id":"513316203"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"838cc2db-a05d-4bf8-adc2-a5ad5b1c630e","pagecount":"1","content":"Soil nitrification potential was measured to evaluate BNI capability from top soil samples taken in plots of 1m 2 using a modified shaken slurry procedure (Hart et al., 1994, L. He et al. 2018) One g of soil (air-dried) was mixed with 10mL assay solution (30mM KH 2 PO 4 ; 0.7mM K 2 HPO 4 and 0.75mM ammonium sulfate, pH = 7.2) in a 50 mL covered flask. Then, incubated at 120 rpm at 25 °C. Potential nitrification rates were determined at 0h, 24h, until 96h intervals to calculate the slope of a linear regression of (NO 3 − )-N production versus time.Soil waterlogging (flooding of the soil) is a major limitation to pasture productivity due to the slow diffusion of gases in water that reduces plant growth, as O 2 availability in the root zone decreases (Cardoso et al., 2014).Biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) is a process where roots exudate organic substances that inhibit the activity of soil nitrifiers -nitrification (Subbarao et al., 2007, 2009, Nunez et al., 2017).Urochloa humidicola (Uh) is an important forage grass in humid lowland tropics that has been identified and characterized for having good waterlogging tolerance (Keller-Grein et al. 1996;Calisto et al. 2008;Cardoso et al., 2013) and high soil nitrification inhibitory potential (Subbarao et al, 2007;Gopalakrishnan et al., 2007).To evaluate the variation in waterlogging tolerance and BNI of twenty seven hybrids of Urochloa humidicola developed by the Urochloa breeding program of CIAT. Two commercial cultivars of Urochloa humidicola (cvs. Tully and Llanero) were included for comparison purposes (checks).Two hybrids were identified as promising based on similar biomass to that of commercial cultivars under drained and waterlogged soil conditions. These two genotypes showed ability to maintain positive growth under waterlogging conditions. This ability is most likely the outcome of a larger root (dry mass) than most of the other hybrids and the two checks tested (Figures 1 & 2).One promising hybrid for waterlogging (Uh16-1351) also showed highest BNI capacity among hybrids and similar to that shown by a commercial cultivar with high BNI (CIAT 679 cv. Tully, Figure 3).   We identified one Urochloa humidicola hybrid (Uh16-1351) with both waterlogging tolerance and high BNI capacity. This promising hybrid needs to be further tested under field conditions.  ","tokenCount":"370"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"792a06a7a2ec08c0a549bde08804207d","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://www.iraj.in/journal/journal_file/journal_pdf/6-488-153630173864-67.pdf","id":"-1355753100"},"keywords":["Domestic Wastewater Treatment","Soil Aquifer Treatment","Xaysetha District","Vientiane Capital"],"sieverID":"a5ee391c-96a6-4ac7-994c-c98a6527a302","pagecount":"4","content":"The study is being carried out to investigate the potential for applying SAT in Xaysetha district, Lao PDR and investigation the most suitable site for SAT in Xaysetha district. The methodology was used MCDA, GIS, RRA and semistructured interview to rank SAT site and investigate the physical, social and economic factor at the most suitable site (Nonvay site). The results of SAT ranking indicated that Xaysetha district has a potential to construct up to 3 high suitable site, 8 moderate suitable sites, and 6 low suitable sites. On the other hand, the results of physical, social and economic assessment at Nonvay site represented that DO was exceeded the Lao National Environmental Standard, and the soil infiltration rate is about 24 mm/hour (0.58 m/day). The households around Nonvay site have their own land and they access to water use and have a relationship with 9 organizations. They product wastewater was estimate 150 liter/person/day. And the land available for SAT is worth to US$ 39 million.Soil Aquifer Treatment (SAT) is a low-cost of wastewater treatment technology that relies on natural treatment processes in soil and aquifers. It improves the quality of sewage effluent and reduces the risk from water-borne diseases. It has been applied in many countries of the world including Israel, United States of America and Australia. The SAT has a potential for more widespread application but has never before been implemented in Lao PDR, where wastewater treatment in the country is still challenged, due to limited financial resources and use of wastewater treatment technologies.The SAT method can be effective but requires several steps. First, it needs a pipe to connect the wastewater source so that it discharges to the SAT infiltration basin. Then, such wastewater will be treated by each layer of the soil in the unsaturated zone until it reaches aquifer and mixes with the ambient groundwater. Finally, it is returned to a river or the sea or else may be recovered using boreholes and reused for multiple purposes like agriculture, small industrial, park watering, street cleaning etc.In the first phase of the research reported that SAT potential sites in Xaysetha District, Vientiane Capital, where wastewater related problems are faced. The results indicated that Xaysetha district has a potential to construct up to 17 SAT sites (infiltration basins), each associated with the major villages or village clusters in the district. Moreover, this analysis shows that each site has its own specific land area, wastewater pipe length, and capacity of household wastewater treatment. However, that research only relies on Geography Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) methods without a field investigation. It follows that the success of a technological system such as SAT strongly relies on appropriate site investigation. The correct SAT site investigation, indeed, constitutes a fundamental first step in the process of SAT site implementation to make a decision whether to proceed the pilot scale testing and thus to make efficient use of human and financial resources.The present study aims to: 1) rank the SAT sites for household wastewater treatment in Xaysetha district, Vientiane Capital, and 2) assess the potential of physical, social and economic factors at Nonvay site, Xaysetha district, Vientiane Capital. This research is intended to benefit relevant government and line agencies responsible for solving wastewater issues in Lao PDR, particularly in Vientiane Capital. Meanwhile, it will provide a database for relevant sectors or organizations, who wish to consider or apply SAT technology in the Lao PDR or others low-income countries.In order to identify high, moderate and low suitable sites for SAT in Xaysetha distric. Appropriate parameters such as soil type, slope, pipe length, and elevation were weighted with respect to their importance to SAT, using GIS overlay function and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques. As shown in the table 1. Due to the results of SAT sites, there are 3 high suitable sites, which labelly as K, N and M, shown in fig. 1. The site K is the most suitability for SAT infiltration basin because it is a high suitable site and has a potential to treat more households than others which K (1290 households), M (54 households) and N (29 households). In addition, the site K is the research study (SAT investigation site). Acording to the pre-survey, the site K is located at Nonvay village, Xaysetha district, Vientiane Capital. Therefore, the aim of the research is deeply assessed the potential of physical, social, and economic factors for SAT infiltration basin at Nonvay site (site K).The physical factors were assessed wastewater quality, wastewater generation, and soil infiltration rate. The wastewater quality was tested pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS) and temperature in the small drainage, which discharges household wastewater to the Nonvay site, using Cond 3210 and Consort C5010 tools. Meanwhile, the wastewater generation was assessed by selecting a small community where each household discharge their wastewater to the same drainage. The volume of wastewater discharge was tested at the end of the outlet, using bucket and stopwatch. The wastewater generation was equal to the volume of wastewater discharge minus the total of water use by the local community. And the soil infiltration rate was tested at Nonvay site, using double rings infiltrometer with a total diameter of 60 cm.The social dimensions associated with social, cultural and institutional factors were assessed, using Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) along with the natural resources was assessed, using the semi-structured interviews.The economic factor was focused on the land cost of SAT site at Nonvay village. The land ownership and head of the Nonvay village were the key informants, using semi-structured interview.According to the results of SAT sites ranking, Xaysetha district has a potential to construct up 3 high suitable sites, 8 moderate suitable sites and 6 low suitable sites. As illustrated on fig. 1.According to results of wastewater quality testing in the small drainage, which discharges household wastewater to the Nonvay site, it was indicated that the wastewater quality of pH, temperature, DO, EC and TDS was 7.78, 27 °C, 0.1mg/l, 566 μS/cm, 380 mg/l, respectively. When comparison with the wastewater quality standard, the DO was exceeded the Lao National Environment Standard and others were quite high. As display in table below. According to the results of wastewater generation in the outlet of the small drainage, which small groups of households discharge their wastewater indicated that wastewater generation at Nonvay village is approximately average 150 L/person/day.The line graph below describes the soil infiltration rate at Nonvay site. It illustrated that between 5 to 60 minutes, the calculative infiltration rate was not steady but it was stable since 60 to 120 minutes which is average 8 mm/20 minutes. Consequently, the infiltration rate on Nonvay site is approximately 24 mm/hour (0.58 m/day). In overall, the soil infiltration rate which is 0.36 -1.2 m/day is moderate suitable. Therefore, the soil infiltration rate at Nonvay site is 0.58 m/day, it means that the SAT site at Nonvay village is moderate suitable.The results of holding a local community meeting with local people at Nonvay site shown that the local community has a relationship with 9 organizations such as water supply enterprise, school, office of natural resources and environmental, office of public works and transportation, temple, Xaysetha hospital, office of public health, department of water resources, and village office. These organizations take a different role for wastewater addressing to the local community. As shown on the [fig. 2].As can be seen on the fig. 2, school, village office, and temple are located near to the local community, while natural resources and environmental office, public works and transport office, public health office, and Xaysetha hospital are moderate located close to the local community. And the department of water resources, and water supply enterprise are far a way from the local community. However, the village office, office of public works and transport, and public health office have a relationship with local community at Nonvay site than others.In terms of natural resources assessment, most of households at around Nonvay site were located their home on their own land (95%), with the remainder residing on land owned by family relatives. They access to the water supply 90%, groundwater 88%, and bottle water 100%.According to the land cost assessment at Nonvay site, the average of land cost is approximately US$ 50 per square meter. Therefore, the Nonvay site covers 774,641 m2, so the total land cost is US$ 39 million.The study is being carried out to investigate the potential for applying SAT in Xaysetha district, Lao PDR and investigation the most suitable site for SAT in Xaysetha district. The methodology was used MCDA, GIS, RRA and semi-structured interview to rank SAT site and investigate the physical, social and economic factor at the most suitable site (Nonvay site). The results of SAT ranking indicated that Xaysetha district has a potential to construct up to 3 high suitable site, 8 moderate suitable sites, and 6 low suitable sites. On the other hand, the results of physical, social and economic assessment at Nonvay site represented that DO was exceeded the Lao National Environmental Standard, and the soil infiltration rate is about 24 mm/hour (0.58 m/day). The households around Nonvay site have their own land and they access to water use and have a relationship with 9 organizations. They product wastewater was estimate 150 liter/person/day. And the land available for SAT is worth to US$ 39 million.","tokenCount":"1560"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"00e7aa4f2b806fe30b2022f17c7dc242","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/77df60ef-890c-4670-b06a-241490544e97/content","id":"527158454"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e3157dfd-b337-445a-b4d8-09ab0238db2e","pagecount":"4","content":"Interdisciplinary research aimed at identifying effective strategies to enhance farmers' profits, improve the yield of nutritious crops, conserve natural resources, and sustain or enhance ecological services, all while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural landscapes, is currently underway in Northern Bangladesh. To achieve real-world impact, research aims at generating evidence-based and actionable recommendations that can be being put into practice through both public and private auriculate extension networks, along with support for policy design and reform. Of particular interest is the ways in which farmer participatory research conducted by Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) can address methods and systems to improve the effectiveness of nutrition awareness and the marketing of diversified and nutritious crop products by farmers. This document provides brief updates on ongoing research while describing and providing the survey instruments and approaches being used.Innovating beyond conventional agricultural nutrition programs in South Asia, this action research approach explores diversification options at both the field and landscape scales. These options are co-designed with researchers and farmers selecting alternative crops and cropping patterns together to yield multiple benefits, including the potential enhancement of vitamin, macro-and micro-nutrient production, within the diverse environmental and socioeconomic spectrum of rice-based farming systems in Bangladesh. The selection of research learning sites for TAFSSA includes Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions in the northern region of Bangladesh. The identification of these locations was informed by multi-criteria data analysis considering food and nutrition security gaps, environmental stressors, climate-related challenges, and the prevalence of specific commodities and farming systems that offer potential for addressing the research questions posed by the TAFSSA Initiative.As outlined in Cheesman et al. (2022), an interconnected social-agronomic experiment is being conducted with farmers in these divisions. The objective is to gain insights into the interplay between farm production and the nutritional status of farming households. TAFSSA on-farm activities are carried out in 16 villages in 4 districts of Rangpur and Rajshahi Divisions (Figure 1). In each district there are four villages, with each falling in one of the following groups: ","tokenCount":"335"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9c4df965d96b6c6e442a367e93976b0e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/617f873d-4e17-495c-9b32-f3fb1ddcbd50/retrieve","id":"-850188007"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2ae18ab1-0a17-41b6-b94c-8205d37825c4","pagecount":"40","content":"International holds primary responsibility for improving dairy productivity and efficiency. It draws on experience in East Africa dating back to the early 1980s when the organization first provided support to rural farmers in Kenya and Uganda. Heifer International manages the project as part of its Africa Area Program and provides financial and programmatic guidance as needed for overall coordination of the implementing partners. African Breeders Service Total Cattle Management Ltd. (ABS TCM) ABS TCM is a private, for-profit supplier of technical assistance related to livestock breeding. It supports Heifer International through the promotion of enhanced animal breeding for increased dairy productivity within EADD project areas. ABS TCM brings to the consortium a range of facilities and expertise including livestock genetic delivery service, liquid nitrogen production, capacity building related to milk quality and livestock reproductive health and nutrition. As a private partner, ABS TCM is committed to the promotion of productivity-enhancing technologies and the creation of viable business linkages in dairy value chains. TechnoServe TechnoServe leads the EADD consortium on market access activities which include the procurement and financing of chilling plants as well as technical support to traditional market hubs and business development service providers.Africa is a continent of economic promise. This certainly holds true for the agriculture sector where investment in small-scale and medium-sized enterprise is driving rapid economic growth. The beauty of agriculture is that it is resistant to external shocks while its benefits reach down to those who are living on less than $1 a day. And, of course, it feeds the rest of us.As Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan called for a green revolution in Africa to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger by 2015. The livestock sector, which involves half the rural population and contributes over 30% of the continent's agricultural Gross Domestic Product, is a major player in this revolution. The dairy sub-sector is particularly vibrant. In Eastern Africa 15 million pastoralist and smallholder farmers produce more than 15 billion liters of milk a year. With the appropriate policies and healthy investment, its highlands and savannas have the potential to rival India's 100 billion liter annual production. This would make the continent self-sufficient in milk, save foreign exchange and shift wealth to the rural areas. It is possible.Inspired and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a consortium of five partners with a long history of supporting dairy production and marketing in Africa joined together in 2008 to form the East Africa Dairy Development Project (EADD). The idea was to add value to farmers' milk production through producer-driven collective marketing and production based on efficient, farmer-friendly technology. Three years on, EADD has become one of the leading market-oriented agro-livestock development initiatives in Africa. Its 140,000 farming-family beneficiaries have invested $3 million and receive some US$ 24 million a year in incremental payments. Thanks to EADD, 68 farmer-owned cooperatives and companies have either been formed or resuscitated. Nearly 20 SACCOs and Village Banks have been established as well.Today, halfway through EADD's Phase 1 (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012), rural families in Central Uganda, Eastern Rwanda and selected districts in Kenya can afford to educate their children, enjoy basic banking services, and buy farm inputs and services with credit or cash. The continued success of about 70 producer enterprises subscribed to by thousands of farming families will depend on sound governance and management, modern technology, market expansion and the continued availability of support services and inputs. These vital ingredients need time to take root in rural Africa.The EADD consortium is in the process of putting together a proposal for Phase 2 of EADD running from 2012 -2017. This will see EADD expand its reach to over 650,000 farming families in five countries -Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia -through an ambitious public-private partnership. We hope you will join us in helping our vision come to fruition. On a verdant hillside in Rwanda an illiterate genocide survivor has leveraged the gift of a cow into three micro-enterprises that bring in $635 a month. At a bustling milk collection center a 27-year-old school leaver loads metal canisters of milk onto the back of a motorbike. Through an initial bank loan, he has acquired three shop sites, his motorbike and a crossbreed Friesian cow. His long-term vision is to build his own milk-chilling plant. A headmistress in Uganda, who is also chair of the board for the local chilling plant, reports that student intake has swelled and parents no longer default on fees.Subsidized loans and micro-credit linked to donor funding have been cited as cornerstones for transforming Africa's impoverished smallholders into prosperous commercial farmers. In fact, some agriculture experts say that every dollar lent leverages twenty more in private capital. Obvious as it may seem as an exit from poverty, access to credit has eluded Africa's farmers for generations. Similarly, smallholder farmers are seldom taken seriously as budding entrepreneurs.As a result, the majority of rural households in East Africa continue to scratch a living from subsistence agriculture. Many keep local cows which typically produce less than two liters of milk a day. Parents find it hard to put enough food on the table, send their children to school or pay for medicine when they get sick. Although women do about 70% of the work in the fields, gender disparity persists thus preventing their advancement. Hopelessness propels young people to join the ranks of the unemployed in the cities.It is against this background that the East Africa Dairy Development Project (EADD) has introduced a dairy model on a rare scale. It is an innovative mix of training, technology, access to markets and supplyside economics that puts the farmer in control of the dairy-value chain from production to processor.EADD takes farmers and their ambition to improve their quality of life very seriously indeed. It intends to double the income of more than 600,000 dairy-farming families (nearly 4 million people) over the course of 10 years. Phase 1 (2008 -2012) is a pilot project covering 179,000 subsistence farmers in selected districts of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. The methodologies that are being tested will inform the second part of the project.Phase 2 (2012 -2017) will extend the best practices learned to another 500,000 farmers in Ethiopia and Tanzania as well as the existing countries of operation. After that, the assumption is that EADD's technically competent and business savvy farmers will be on a financially sound footing and able to look after themselves.The EADD project has been designed and is being run by a consortium of five internationally known partners with a unique selling point. They have pooled their technical, business and research skills to lay the foundations for a sustainable and profitable regional dairy sector driven by millions of farmers who once lived below the poverty line. In addition, Farmers will be a major voice in what affects the industry. The EADD experience has stabilized prices in the marketplace to shift the balance of power dramatically from the processor to the farmer. Within the next five years farmers will be processing their own milk or at least going into partnership. Free enterprise in agriculture works.EADD specifically targets women and youth. More than 90% of adults in the households of EADD project participants earn less than $2 a day. It is funded by a $42.85 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Part of the Foundation grant is a $2.5 million investment fund for Dairy Farmers' Business Associations, which was increased to $5 million in 2008 thanks to a Heifer International fundraising campaign.To date EADD has mobilized $3 million of investment to build 22 new chilling plants, revitalize 13 existing ones and create 12 milk-collection centers for the traditional market. Combined with the processorowned chilling plants used by some of EADD's farmers, EADD has 54 dairy hubs across the region.Milk intake at dairy hubs has grown significantly in Kenya (65%), Uganda (30%) and Rwanda (10%). Microfinance associations, village banks, commercial banks and the chilling plants' check-off system of credit against milk deliveries has given farmers, youthful entrepreneurs and business men and women the opportunity to engage in a range of enterprises that extend well beyond the dairy sector. This has in turn stimulated the local economies of hamlets, trading centers and towns all over East Africa.The project is coordinated by a regional team, three country project teams, a Regional Advisory Committee and a Project Steering Committee, each of which maintains multi-partner representation. EADD has also created direct roles for private dairy interests and relevant government agencies in oversight of the project. It works closely with government officials from local to national level and ensures that all its activities are aligned with government policy.An expanding dairy industry requires access to markets, extension services, farmer training and credit for business start-ups. But the operating environments in East Africa are exceptionally diverse. It is not a case of one size fits all. One of EADD's great strengths is its flexibility in adapting the paradigm to suit the situation. Kenya, where the dairy industry is well established, operates on volume. Twenty-one chilling plants have been constructed so far with a minimum of 2,000 members registered at each plant. Return on investment is one year.In Uganda, where sites are predominantly in pastoralist areas, the return can take up to two years and the volumes per chilling plant are lower. With per capita income lower too and a slow response to turnkey financing from commercial banks, EADD has pre-financed the procurement of equipment in some of the chilling plants so that construction can begin. Rwanda has a significantly smaller market and no culture of milk consumption. EADD works closely with the government's dairy industry and is looking at cultivating the traditional market which means a new focus on milk-collection and bulking centers.The axis of the EADD project design is the dairy hub which is used to deliver a comprehensive package of services including artificial insemination (AI), veterinary care and animal husbandry. The hub is managed by Dairy Farmers' Business Associations and promotes Business Development Services such as transporting milk, agrovet stores and the commercial growing of fodder. Training, exchange visits, demonstration plots and manuals reinforce the farmers' understanding of how to improve milk quality and quantity.The centralization of AI service providers, Community Animal Health Practitioners and agrovets at dairy hubs is popular with farmers. The fact that they can buy on credit against a check-off system stimulates consumer demand. And it gives farmers the latitude to buy products and services when they need them rather than when they can afford them. Chilling plants also offer organoleptic and milk-density tests so that milk quality meets the processors' benchmark.EADD uses a stage-gating system to chart the progress of each chilling plant from inception at Stage 1 to disengagement from EADD at Stage 5. By Stage 4 chilling plants and Dairy Farmers' Business Associations are profitable, offer a range of extension services and pay regularly to ensure their members will continue to supply large quantities of milk. And chilling plants offer value to buyers as they can guarantee quality and quantity.Governance is a key aspect that is weighted at about 40% in the stage-gating. With training facilitated by EADD advisers, corporate governance respects the separation of board and management, holds regular elections and returns clean audits.'The philosophy is that you can only support to a certain point. Then we shift our resources to other farmers. It's about exit and sustainability and empowerment. This year a number of Dairy Farmers' Business Associations will have moved to Stage 4,' explains Moses Nyabila.EADD also fosters relationships with training institutions to create a body of graduates that will form the critical mass of skills required for the implementation of Phase 2. Canada's Coady Institute, a center of excellence for community development established by St. Francis Xavier University, offers scholarships to management, board members and EADD staff. EADD is currently developing curricula with African universities.When EADD started its project in Kenya in 2008, it was clear to the country team that farmers were not accruing any substantial benefits from the dairy value chain. The collapse in 1999 of the state-owned processor, Kenya Cooperative Creameries, had opened up the sector to competition but industry capacity utilization was a low 40%. Despite this, the farm-gate price was weak and varied little between the formal and informal markets. Farmers were not being paid on time in the informal market and sometimes not at all. The formal market, dominated by three major processors, was more regular in its business dealings. However, 80% of farmers favored the traders' and hawkers' cash-based system that catered to their daily financial needs. The delivery of extension services no longer functioned properly. Neither were farmers able to access information on husbandry, markets and prices.To ensure sustainability and profitability, the Kenya team mobilized farmers to form public liability companies that could operate on cooperative principles. In its first three years of operation, EADD established or revitalized 19 chilling plants. In 2010 they sold 49 million liters of milk, earning farmers $13.7 million with net profits for the chilling plants of more than $0.5 million. A further three plants are scheduled to come on stream in 2011.The EADD goal for its Kenya program is to double the income of 110,000 impoverished dairy farming families in the Rift Valley and Central Provinces where dairy production is concentrated. Kenyan smallholders sold an average of 3 to 5 liters of milk a day. Low production meant low income which prevented investment in feeds and breeds to boost yields. It would need a minimum of 15 liters a day for families to break out of the poverty that encircled them.The same thinking applied to the chilling plants. They had to run at capacity to cover debt obligations and operating costs so volume was essential. The challenge was to keep the chilling plants functioning with an eye to the bottom line without sacrificing benefits to farmers. Services to farmers instilled loyalty which, in turn, created volume at the chilling plant.The team concluded that in order to lift smallholders out of subsistence farming, they had to design a program based on business principles with profitability driven by volume. The target was to sign up 2,000 farmers at every Dairy Farmers' Business Association to feed milk into each chilling plant's 10,000-liter tank.A feasibility study showed that both farmers and processors suffered from the consequences of a poor cold chain. Milk needs to be cooled within two to four hours of being poured into the can or the quality drops. It also revealed that Kenyan smallholders did not adhere to best practices. They did not use AI or fodder while preventive health care was minimal. And farmers did not know the cost of their production or if additional feed or a change in diet would boost a cow's milk yield.By 2010 this had been dramatically turned around with 68,000 farmers trained in better husbandry. At the Kenya Model farmer from Ol Kalou, Kenya.By the close of 2010, the average monthly profit for chilling plants was $1,300 while just under $2 million was paid out to farmers. All the loss-making chilling plants that had been taken up by EADD at the time of its entry were now profitable.same time, the Kenya project had registered more than 90,000 farmers, reaching 80% of the Phase 1 target. Households were producing an average of 15 liters of milk a day. And farmers were earning $4,500 a year from the sale of milk and heifers.EADD uses a financing model for raising plant capital that is suited to Kenya's well established dairy industry. Farmers raise 10% of the $125,000 start-up capital to create ownership and accountability. EADD extends a 30% interest-free bridging loan redeemed over five years by the chilling plant shareholders through a minimal levy on every liter of milk sold. The balance is covered by commercial debt.Farmers exceeded their minimum equity targets. However the operating environment in Kenya's banking sector did not lend itself to backing unproven agriculture ventures. Calling on the flexibility and innovative thinking that untried paradigms require, EADD assumed responsibility for the outstanding 60% of the financing. It extended loans through its investment fund on the premise that once chilling plants demonstrated their profitability, commercial banks would take over.This assumption proved to be correct. Chilling plants have been seeing an exceptionally rapid return on investment. In April 2010, Kabiyet Dairies Co. Ltd. was granted a commercial bank loan on the basis of an $8,750 monthly turnover one year after being commissioned. Now banks are vying for chilling plant business at competitive interest rates in acknowledgment of the potential demonstrated by their start-up track record. Currently six commercial banks -CFC-Stanbic, Cooperative Bank, Family Bank, Fina Bank, K-Rep Development Agency and Kenya Commercial Bank -are in various stages of financing or refinancing chilling plants and equipment such as motorbikes. The plants at Kabiyet, Lelan and Metkei have secured commercial loans exceeding $335,000 at an average interest rate of 12%. This year EADD is partnering with the Kenya Institute of Management to develop an operational performance award for hub management sustainability and to rank chilling plant companies in terms of profitability and corporate governance. This will provide banks with a yardstick against which they can assess a plant's credit rating. The concept is being replicated in Rwanda and Uganda.In 2010 the Kenya team strengthened its data system for tracking progress measured against project milestones. Seventeen databases were installed at chilling plants and connected to a master database at the country office in Eldoret. Stored data include the training records of farmers and statistics on registered cows and all crossbred calves.In Uganda, EADD is doubling the income of 45,000 families by applying integrated interventions in dairy production, market access and knowledge application. The project area is in central Uganda, a region that accounts for nearly 25% of national milk production. Many of the selected sites are comparatively arid and are inhabited by pastoralists.Uganda's nascent dairy sector presented challenges that had not been encountered by Kenya's longer established dairy industry. Smallholders owned more than 90% of the national herd. This consisted almost entirely of native Zebu and Ankole which had been bred with an emphasis on beef. Their milk yields averaged a liter a day. Further complicating matters, the areas initially chosen for the construction of chilling plants tended to have a low population density and were not well served with feeder roads.Farmers were carrying their milk by foot and on bicycle for distances of up to 30 kilometers. Because volumes were low, especially in the dry season, the milk could sit for three or four days at a collection center before being trucked to a chilling plant. While the market potential existed, it had not been developed. About 90% of Uganda's milk production was sold informally to hotels, shops and independent traders because the formal market, dominated by a virtual monopoly, fetched lower prices.EADD's success was premised on high volumes in a competitive marketplace. However, the Uganda team soon realized that they would have to recalibrate the EADD program design that had been so successfully applied in Kenya if they were to achieve results.The team halved the size of the chilling tanks to 5,000 liters to reflect the lower site volumes and doubled the number of sites from 15 to 31 to widen the net of farmer involvement. Today EADD works with 10 chilling plants that are owned and managed by farmers. The milk is bulked and chilled before collection by commercial processors. Another seven chilling plants are owned by processors and rented out to farmers.In Uganda traders handle 80% of all marketed unprocessed milk. EADD has penetrated this vibrant market by working with 14 traditional hubs that collect milk for sale in the informal market. The majority of farmers assisted by EADD are connected to these traditional hubs. EADD helps to leverage their position with raw-milk traders through collective bargaining andGirl carrying fodder by stimulating the demand for quality milk. Although they do not utilize EADD-procured chilling plants, traditional market hubs are similar to chilling plant hubs in that they are managed by Dairy Farmers' Business Associations and provide dairy-related Business Development Services.By midterm, despite a slower than anticipated startup, the project's key milestones had been achieved ahead of schedule. More than 30,000 farmers (68% of the end-project total) had signed up as members of dairy hub cooperatives while 41,000 farmers were already accessing EADD's Business Development Services. They reported improved milk yields and attributed it to better bred and fed cows that were healthy as a result of good husbandry.Several achievements were highlighted as exceptional in an independent evaluation conducted mid-2010. EADD was instrumental in creating a substantial growth in milk production and milk intake at the chilling plants. The technical advice of EADD's business managers also helped to raise farm-gate prices by creating competition in the formal and informal markets.By stimulating the industry and expanding farmer profit margins, EADD had demonstrated to farmers that investing in dairy improvements was worthwhile. This was the tipping point needed to persuade farmers to replace their locally bred Ankole and Zebu cows with crossbred or purebred cows. The midterm evaluation showed that the most striking difference between EADD farmers and the farmers outside the catchment area was the adoption of AI practice. One out of two EADD farmers have herds where at least half the cows are exotics compared to one out of five farmers living outside the catchment area.Farmers cite training in farming and business skills, exchange visits with other farmers, and timely and convenient payments for milk delivered as the primary attraction for being a member of a chilling plant cooperative. Already 4,250 farmers have been on learning trips and have introduced best practices on their farms. The other incentives for cooperative membership are the Dairy Farmers' Business Associations that link farmers to stable markets, SACCOs (savings and credit cooperative organizations), and dairy-related goods and services. Farmers say they like the products on offer such as high quality feeds, veterinary products and genetically improved semen.Farmers were reluctant to form companies so EADD chose to work through cooperatives instead. It was a way of organizing that was familiar to Ugandans. EADD then formed about a dozen 30-member Dairy Interest Groups at each site to enable farmers to collectively access dairy-related services and to market milk. Uganda pioneered a decentralized structure that has been replicated across the region. It is based on a devolved cluster concept that has improved the efficiency of project implementation. The extension-service system has been revitalized by centralizing the extension workers at the hub sites from where they can adapt feeding and breeding strategies to each cluster's unique needs.An EADD business adviser is attached to each hub to help formulate and implement a business plan. Advisers, who serve as ex-officio board members, Farmers in Wakiso being trained in milk testing and grading also facilitate the training of board members and management staff in sound corporate and financial practice. Operational plans and budgets, facilitated by Deloitte, are participatory and informed from the bottom up by the cluster teams. Generic business plans for the Dairy Farmers' Business Associations have been revised into site-specific, concise documents pitched to farmers and funders using annual implementation plans and EADD action plans.In March 2011, EADD entered into an agreement with the Microfinance Support Center to extend loans for the construction of chilling plants at the concessionary rate of 9%, which compares favorably to the commercial rate of 25%.EADD also works closely with the government through the Dairy Development Authority to align its dairy hub model with national policy and strategies. EADD is helping to upgrade the Entebbe Dairy Training School to ensure the long-term continuation of vocational and outreach training.EADD's future strategy for Uganda is to continue to think small. Government policy prohibits the bulk transportation of warm milk for distances greater than 50 kilometers. As the market expands, EADD will assist with the construction of chilling plants, many of them satellites to established chilling plants, with a tank capacity of 1,000 to 2,000 liters.Rwanda's hilly topography and good rainfall have earned it the sobriquet, the Switzerland of Africa. It is also one of the most densely populated countries on the continent with more than half the population living below the poverty line. The EADD target is to transform the lives of 24,000 families by helping them to exit poverty. EADD works closely with the Government of Rwanda to achieve its goals for the growth of the dairy industry.The EADD Rwanda country office was opened in Nyagatare District in May 2008, prior to a feasibility study conducted in September and October of that year. As a result, site selection and the formulation of a business plan were carried out simultaneously with farmer sensitization and mobilization. In 2009, EADD expanded its presence to two more districts, Gatsibo and Rwamagana.The program design for Phase 1 was to establish 10 new chilling plants. Initially, however, EADD took on six existing chilling plants. During the first half of the project, until it was disbanded, access to the cooperatives that owned the chilling plants was through UDAMACO, an umbrella organization for 23 local cooperatives. Early on in its engagement EADD seconded a consultant to UDAMACO to assist it in writing a 10-year strategic plan.At the time of EADD's entry, the dairy industry was still in its early stages but had been given a boost through a government program initiated in 2006 to give a cow to every smallholder homestead. About half the milk produced was either consumed domestically or lost along the production chain. Almost all the rest was sold in the informal market as few Rwandans could afford packaged milk.When you talk to a farmer, he doesn't want to know your institutional affiliation. He wants to know how you can help him. Before EADD came along, milk was being wasted. Now chilling plants receive over 1,000,000 liters a month. It's changing the face of the villages.Where milk collection centers existed, they operated on a slim margin that was vulnerable to rainy season milk gluts. The centers either owned milk shops or relied on transporters who sold to their own buyers. Annual per capita milk consumption was 12 liters compared to 100 liters for Kenya and 22 liters for Uganda.Milk yields were very low as more than half the milking cattle were local breeds and nutrition was inadequate. Cows fed almost exclusively on grass, a fodder source that was entirely dependent on the weather. As a result, prices fluctuated considerably between the rainy and dry seasons making it impossible for a farmer to budget on an annual basis.In addition, they were difficult to find in stores outside Kigali, and farmers had little knowledge of their application.Weak consumer demand was a key challenge. The dairy hub model is based on the premise that incomes double when farmers use their credit to access services that improve their lives. But if farmers have limited milk sales, this does not happen.Penetration into the formal market was very limited as Rwanda's two processors were operating on low capacity. So EADD's Rwanda team changed tack. It took a serious look at the traditional market, which is led by milk bars where local fast food is served alongside one-liter mugs of milk. Other outlets included hotels and a government school feeding scheme that is facilitated by the UN's World Food Program. In the absence of reliable data on retail outlets and consumer habits, Tetra Pak agreed to co-sponsor consumer research to ascertain consumer segments, household milk-buying patterns and milk's penetration and distribution in the cold chain.The recalibrated marketing approach placed a new emphasis on the importance of collection centers where milk is bulked but not necessarily chilled. The lessons learned were twofold. First, during the startup phase in countries where the dairy industry is not yet entrenched, consumer demand may have to be ramped up in order to stimulate farm supply. Second, chilling plants are not essential to the dairy hub model. Dairy hubs are a channel for accessing credit and associated services regardless of how and where the bulked milk is sold.EADD also had to conform its financing package to the government model for turnkey chilling plants. At a uniform cost of about $55,000, farmers contribute 18% of the equity. The Government of Rwanda contributes 40% in the form of land and funding. EADD extends an interest-free loan of 21% which is matched by a low-interest loan from the Rwanda Development Bank, the state investment arm for development financing. In another divergenceThe daily trip to chilling plants can be up to 2o kms from EADD's investment blueprint, the Rwanda Development Bank is responsible for the tendering, procurement and installation of equipment. Despite the concessionary terms, farmers struggle to raise the equity. After three years, only two sites have achieved fully paid-up farmers' equity.Initially, farmers were slow to buy in to the EADD concept of commercializing the dairy sector. They were accustomed to organizing in cooperatives and receiving equipment and services from the government. Even so, by the end of 2010, the third year of operation, farmers had responded to the new technology with the result that productivity had increased significantly.The Government of Rwanda continued to give EADD its full support and contributed AI equipment, seed, biogas digesters and financing to the project. It also acknowledged that the project's training, technical support and services had already transformed milk production from a household sideline to a profitable business that had raised the living standards of smallholders over a very short period of time. This was evidenced by a significant improvement in milk production and milk quality. The best performing business indicator for 2010 was the value of milk sales from farmers at $1.38 million, a jump of 70% over the previous year.Other indicators also reflected an enthusiastic response on the part of farmers to EADD interventions such as AI. EADD's farmer-to-farmer approach to training and information dissemination proved to be extremely popular. More than 90% of registered farmers undertook some form of training, a considerably higher uptake than in Uganda (75%) and Kenya (55%). Veterinary inputs and AI ranked second and third respectively in farmer demand for services and inputs.By the start of calendar year 2011, 10 existing chilling plants had been rehabilitated and were making a modest profit. More than 20,000 farmers had registered at 16 sites which was more than 85% of the four-year project target. EADD had also established 13 satellite centers to accommodate the farmers who lived long distances from chilling plants. These centers are equipped with pulverizers to convert crop residue into improved feed. Seven sites have become properly functioning hubs that offer three or more services to nearly 17,000 members. They range from AI, agrovets, tractor hire and plowing services to pulverizers for rent and mobile phone charging.Since the intervention of EADD, all chilling plants have seen a modest increase in their profits. And business indicators have all exceeded their annual targets. In 2010 7,400 farmers were trained in governance and group dynamics to enable them to be knowledgeably involved members of Dairy Farmers' Business Associations. About 70% were women and young people. Nineteen farming families pioneered a pilot domestic biogas project initiated in conjunction with the Ministry of Infrastructure. Three chilling plants won tenders to supply schools with milk as part of the school feeding scheme.They arrive amid shouts and the groan and wheeze of revving engines. It is 8 a.m. and Kabiyet town, set at 2,000 meters atop a grassland plateau in Kenya's Rift Valley Province, is alive with noise and movement. Donkey carts, bicycles, motorbikes, minivans and pickups vie for space on the dirt forecourt of Kabiyet Dairies as gum-booted transporters unload a seemingly endless stream of metal churns brimming with milk.North Keiyo District has long been in the heartland of Kenyan dairy production. But when Kenya Cooperative Creameries, a state-owned processing monopoly, was declared bankrupt in 1999, the local dairy industry virtually collapsed. Farmers turned elsewhere to sell their milk but lacked bargaining power and were hostage to discriminatory prices. Many switched to maize growing and saw their lifestyle deteriorate. School fees went unpaid. People walked barefoot or in sandals made from discarded car tires. Cattle dips closed and East Coast Fever was rampant. The building where milk was collected and bulked was boarded up and fell into disrepair.Then EADD agreed to assist with the renovation of the abandoned collection center. Five months after Kabiyet Dairies Co. Ltd. was registered in January 2009, the plant was commissioned. The first day it cooled 1,623 liters of milk. The next day it was 2,223 liters and by the end of the month more than 7,000 liters. The momentum was unstoppable.By January 2010, a year after company registration, the plant was receiving 37,000 liters a day and farmers were subscribing to AI services to switch from their traditional longhorns to high-yielding Holsteins. It had taken just a year and a half for the dairy hub to become a successful, farmer-owned chilling plant poised to exit the EADD project and operate as a profitable stand-alone business.The Kabiyet experience is not only a success story, it underscores the impact the EADD volumedriven program design has on communities. The number of shops has more than doubled. There areNet profit margin $2,800,000 In Kenya volume has been attainable even in poorer communities with a per capita income of less than $1 a day. At Metkei, one of EADD's first site choices, four cooperatives joined together to form a limited company which attracted 2,000 shareholders. Paying the $8.75 share price was challenging, but it was achieved in installments. At the time of EADD's entry, the local cows were typically yielding three cups of milk a day. Now daily yields average seven liters. The plant has 3,500 regular suppliers who generated a revenue of $1.85 million in 2010.The root of our success is that we demystify innovations. We involve the farmers in whatever we do, and they give us feedback. We are a single, holistic entity.The first step in attaining high-yielding milk production is to own the right breed of cow. East Africa's indigenous cattle are hardy and resistant to local diseases, adapted to survival even without good husbandry. But they have never been prodigious milk producers. EADD's country feasibility studies showed that the milk output was almost universally low. Typically a cow produced less than two liters a day. Based on existing herds, farmers would need to own more than 100 cows to increase their income through the sale of surplus milk. Yet large herds require extensive pasture and lots of water. Neither resource was easily available. There had to be another solution.The starting point for EADD's program in the first year of implementation was to talk to farmers about why they should consider changing the profile of their herds. Small was better. Genetically improved was better still. Crossbreeding with exotics such as Friesians, Holsteins, Ayrshires and Jerseys allows farmers to reduce the size of their herds dramatically while improving the output of milk.The way to do this efficiently and on a large scale is through AI. Traditionally farmers used natural breeding through the services of a few local bulls. It did little to improve the quality of the animals. AI, on the other hand, is a technology that allows farmers to meet their breeding goals by introducing quality genetics from performance-tested bulls.In the first two years of project implementation, AI service providers had performed nearly 120,000 inseminations, about half of them through EADDfunded chilling plants. While past records show that breeds are improved by crossing local cows with exotic quality bulls, It takes five to 10 years for AI to make its full impact on household incomes. By midterm of the project's Phase 1, crossbred cows constituted at least half of the herds belonging toThe Village Bull more than 95% of beneficiary farmers, according to an external evaluation. And farmers had been trained in keeping breeding records for animal passports and traceability.At first EADD staff seconded from ABS TCM encountered resistance among some farmers, who were reluctant to sell their prized bulls. Farmer education forums, the distribution of educational material and the experience of model farmers who were already using AI gradually persuaded the skeptics to switch methods. With AI now an intrinsic aspect of local dairy culture, the straws of semen provided by EADD's AI technicians are known as 'the village bull'.In Rwanda, EADD partners with the government's Rwanda Animal and Research Development Authority and the Eastern Region Animal Genetics Improvement Cooperative to ensure sustainability of the AI program. Rwanda's government-subsidized program imported 10,000 units of gender-sorted bull semen in 2010, the largest consignment of its kind ever exported to Africa. In Kenya, AI is moving away from a public-sector extension service to become a highly successful commercial enterprise. The rate of successful impregnations is above 80%.In Uganda, where 95% of cattle were local breeds, EADD persuaded the government to change its policy on breeding and promote AI. Because farmers found the cost of insemination high, the EADD team reduced the price for a straw of semen by 15-20% and added a further 10% discount on every 30 straws purchased. EADD also created 22 AI satellite centers in remote areas to cater for pastoralist farmers who found it difficult to access services. The centers offer breeding and veterinary services as well as semen and breeding supplies. They are staffed by AI technicians and Community Animal Health Practitioners. Largely as a result of these initiatives, AI uptake increased by 25% in 2010.The success of AI uptake lies in efficiency and affordability. By midterm of Phase 1, more than 400 Community Animal Health Practitioners had been trained as accredited AI service technicians. About 95% of AI technicians are under 35 in line with EADD policy to target younger people. For cultural reasons, few women have signed up to be inseminators, but the barriers are crumbling. Between 2008 and 2011, the proportion of AI providers who are women grew from 3% to 11%.Farmers need proper training too. Keeping a record of each cow's breeding cycle is important for achieving high conception rates. So is understanding how to use the heat-detection system to establish when a cow is in estrus. EADD has trained more than 100,000 farmers to make informed decisions on when and how to breed.Even though efficient systems and subsidies have greatly reduced the cost of AI ($10 -15) to the farmer, affordability remains a major challenge. Hubs offer the service on credit, but many farmers are not able to pay for AI solely from milk proceeds. EADD is overcoming this through subsidies. AI service providers are also facing difficulties in funding their business start-up costs to buy equipment and a motorbike. EADD is considering financing mechanisms for new providers.If you sample from the same bull, you can't improve more than 2% in a generation. If you choose from the global pool of elite genetics, the improvement is 200% in a generation. You're leveraging with scientific knowledge to rapidly change an indigenous animal into a viable dairy unit.A field with a resident herd of Ankole cows is not the average seat of learning, but it is ideally suited for the purposes of Paul Chatikobo, the AI training coordinator for EADD in Rwanda. Here, in the rain-splashed grass and mud, attentive Community Animal Health Practitioners undergo two weeks of practical application in AI having completed a week of theory in a conventional classroom. Most students are men in their 30s. While AI is not yet widely accepted as a woman's job, several young women have broken the gender barrier and enrolled in the class.The school is a public-private partnership between EADD, the state-run Institute of Agricultural Science and Research and the Eastern Region Animal Genetic Resources Investment Corporation, a for-profit company owned and run by Rwandan AI experts. It was established to lay the foundation for a sustainable AI sector in Rwanda. It trained 164 students in the first 22 months of operation.Set amidst softly rolling hills and lush pastures, Urugero Farm in Rwanda's Nyagatare District is home to 26 crossbreed Friesian cows. Each one was bred on site with AI in 2009 and 2010. With the cows yielding 50 liters a day, the profits from this dairy business are healthy as the herd's owner, 50-year-old Celestin Bwimana, is quick to point out. In 2010 his net earnings from milk sales were $4,000, an eightfold increase on his annual income before he went into the dairy business.That is not bad for a man who was born a refugee in neighboring Uganda. Celestin came to the land of his birthright in 1995, the year after Rwanda's genocide, as a beneficiary of a government resettlement scheme on land excised from the Akagera National Park. Celestin was allocated 19 hectares of bush which his herd of 23 native Ankole cows shared with lion, leopard, buffalo, zebra and impala.'We didn't own the land so we didn't bother to clear it. The cows didn't give any milk. We kept them because that's what people do,' he explains, referring to the Rwandan belief that livestock ownership confers social status. Meanwhile Celestin and his wife struggled to raise their children on their $500 annual income from a canteen they had built to cater for the village secondary school.Then three years ago two events coincided to change Celestin's life dramatically. The Rwandan government gave him a title deed. It was the incentive he had been waiting for to improve his land. As a refugee, Celestin had not been exposed to agriculture. Now he intended to earn a living from it. But how was he going to go about it?The answer came in the form of EADD's Joseph Karake. The two met at a recruitment drive for the Isangano chilling plant. Celestin's cows did not produce surplus milk for sale. He had signed up asa member anyway, lured by the prospect of being trained in dairy management, getting access to a market and receiving reliable payments. 'Joseph told us to change our cows so that we could get milk. That's what convinced me -the milk yield,' he says.Celestin's enthusiasm caught Joseph's attention. He signed him up as one of the 13,000 farmers who have gone on exchange visits to farms and business hubs in East Africa to observe best practices in operation. On his return Celestin sold his old herd and began to breed a new one by crossing high-yielding Friesians with the hardy local Ankole cattle. A novice in animal husbandry, he was advised every step of the way by EADD's breeding specialist, Margaret Mukawera. EADD's senior dairy specialist, Betty Rwahumzi, visited regularly to talk about milk quality, hygiene and mastitis.Celestin proved to be a quick and enthusiastic learner. For a small facilitation fee provided by EADD, he now trains others in dairy essentials such as breeding, husbandry, feeding, fodder growing and record keeping. And in a role switch that brings a smile to his face, he receives farmers on exchange visits from Uganda and Kenya.'EADD showed us how to change the way we live,' says a beaming Celestin from his recently built office in one of the fields. Milk sales paid for its construction as well as for the purchase of motorbikes to transport the milk to the chilling plant and for his daily commute to and from his house in the village. Milk also funds the schooling for his six children.'I have a five-year vision. I'm putting all my profits into improving the farm and building a larger house for the family. After that, I'll start saving my money,' he says.Justus Ndigwa, 33, is an independent AI technician attached to Kenya's Ol Kalou chilling plant. He visits clients in his catchment area on his fully paid-up motorbike. He often trains Dairy Management Groups on breeding, feeding, milk quality and good husbandry. And for a fee, he will organize farmer exchange visits. Justus, who can count on a minimum monthly revenue of $1,000, will soon be moving his wife and two children into a newly constructed, $11,250 threebedroom home. In sum, his prospects are bright.It was not always that way. Four years ago Justus was earning $125 a month as an extension services manager at a dairy farmers cooperative. He could not even afford to rent a room in which to lodge his new bride. Then he linked up with the Ol Kalou chilling plant as an accredited professional AI service provider. Ol Kalou provided progeny-proven semen together with an AI kit and facilitated an interest-free loan to cover their cost. Justus still needed $1,560 for a motorbike so that he could reach his clients' scattered farms. He approached a bank for a commercial loan, knowing that his association with Ol Kalou would establish his creditworthiness.Before EADD had a presence in Ol Kalou, Justus would not have been able to secure a loan for a motorbike and, arguably, would not have been able to start up his business. The agriculture sector has been habitually shunned as a poor risk. Now, with advice from EADD's business advisers, the tables have been turned.EADD has been able to open up this avenue through its evolving partnerships with commercial banks. While banks showed interest in financing chilling plants, they were less inclined to become involved in the time-consuming prospect of small loans to individual Kenya Banks Pioneer Small Loans to Farmers farmers. Then in 2010 a dialogue was started with Family Bank, which was already lending to Kenyan tea farmers, most of whom received monthly payments for their tea leaves of less than $60.Excited by the prospect of expanding into the dairy sector and reassured by EADD's track record, Family Bank dispatched team members to attend Dairy Management Group meetings and visit homesteads and chilling plants to gauge the farmers' needs. The Women lead as account holders, savers and borrowers in financial services associations.result of this footwork is a unique financing package tailored to the input requirements of Kenyan dairy farmers. Working through the dairy hubs, Family Bank intends to build up a portfolio of 5,000 customers by the end of 2011. The loans are usually for business start-up and expansion and tend to be less than $1,250.'We serve those who once were considered unbankable,' explains David Odongo, who heads Family Bank's agribusiness department, 'Thanks to EADD and the dairy hubs, we can ascertain a farmer's security and assets. The chilling plant verifies average monthly earnings which equates to the company pay slip. We also collateralize the farmer's most important asset, which is the cow. Each cow is entered in a database and given a performance rating based on its yields. This has a bearing on the value we give it. Some are worth $1,000.'Commercial banks are definitely filling a financing gap for transporters and service providers. In the first quarter of 2011 Family Bank disbursed 234 loans for the purchase of motorbikes. Another 170 applications are in the pipeline. Other loan applications are for the purchase of fodder seed, veterinary drugs, AI, stocking herds and the partial financing of domestic biogas installations.Fodder makes a big difference to milk production, particularly during the dry season. Sound feeding practices using homemade feed concentrates, hay and silage sustain steady milk yields. This, in turn, stabilizes the year-round milk supply and therefore farm-gate prices. East Africa has constantly changing mini ecosystems across the region. It took EADD feed specialists two years to fine tune the feeding requirements for each site. In fact, the process is ongoing. When farmers upgrade their herds to exotics and crossbreeds, the feeding strategy changes again.Feed comprises up to 70% of the cost of milk production on small holdings and is a key component of cost-benefit analysis. EADD recommends farmers improve pasture by planting Napier grass and legumes such as Chloris gayana, Mucuna prurien, and Lablab uncinatum to provide protein. It also recommends that farmers mix their crop residues with molasses to make silage. Solutions such as these go a long way to boosting profit margins.EADD also supports the invention of new technology. Kenyan George Kinuthia modified a hammer mill by adding a cutting blade and came up with a low-cost EADD pulverizer for on-farm silage making. This model has been replicated in all three countries where it is made locally for sale and rent through chilling plants.EADD emphasizes farmer education on feeding and growing fodder through training, exchange visits and demonstration plots belonging to EADD model farmers. To date some 2,000 farmer trainers have been trained in improved feed practices. As a result, more than 125,000 farmers (75% of the Phase 1 target) are using quality feeds.In Uganda, more than 38,000 farmers are already using high-value feed for their milking cattle, partlyA farmer gets a receipt for milk delivered at Ol Kalou dairy in Kenya. thanks to commercial feed companies that supply on credit to many of the agrovet stores. The bulk retailing comes with a discount which means that farmers can buy mineral licks, premixes and meal more cheaply than at other retail outlets. Local seed supply systems are also being developed so that farmer groups can grow and bulk pasture seeds for sale. In Kenya, where the prolonged dry season can last up to six months, three out of four farmers have attributed their high milk yields to improved feeding. George Kariuki lives on the family farm perched 2,000 meters above Nakuru town on the floor of the Rift Valley. He is an EADD farmer trainer and model farmer who grows frost-resistant varieties of Napier grass in his demonstration plots. George, who facilitates exchange visits for local farmers, pioneered his own variation of the pulverizer and uses it to make three tons of silage to carry his milking herd through the dry season. As a result, his cows have doubled their production to up to 40 liters a day. 'I'm very happy with EADD,' he beams, 'We see people doing things differently, and it plants ideas in our minds and makes us ambitious. Without knowledge, you can't move.' EADD also encourages Dairy Farmers' Business Associations to introduce Dairy Management Groups to the idea of growing fodder commercially and to link interested farmers to banks that will fund startup costs. Even so, most farmers do not consider growing fodder for sale to be a worthwhile commercial enterprise. But if they knew the story of Pharo Ngaranbe, a Rwandan smallholder, they might change their minds.Pharo, 55 and a primary-school leaver, was barely making a living growing sorghum, beans, sweet potatoes and bananas on his one-hectare farm. Then he met Bernard Nzigamasabo, the EADD feeds specialist, and expressed an interest in starting up fodder demonstration plots. EADD gave Pharo improved fodder seeds and helped him negotiate a supply contract with the nearby Umutara Polytechnic University's livestock department.Three years on, Pharo has bought a second hectare of land from a neighbor and is renting another six hectares on which he grows commercial quantities of Brachiaria grass. He also has his own small herd of zero-grazing Jersey crossbreed cows and grows improved fodder seeds for sale to other farmers.He advertises his wares on a local radio station. His annual income has been sufficient to build a new house and to send his seven children to private school and university.To maintain his commercial fodder business Pharo employees 50 laborers and has taken out medical cover for each of them. So far he has trained more than 350 dairy farmers on fodder and feeds best practices. Recently his fodder store was blown down in a storm. He intends to raise a loan from the bank to rebuild it using his fodder account to demonstrate his creditworthiness.'I learned all this through the training I got from EADD. It's a question of maximizing my skills and knowledge. Now I want to help my neighbors escape poverty too,' he says.In Uganda it is not unusual to see cows wandering by the side of the road or on the common land around villages and towns. This free-grazing method cuts down on fodder and labor costs, but cows are not able to find sufficient food. And their diet lacks vital minerals and proteins. Supplementary feeds can make up the balance, but they are costly and hard to find. Even when farmers travel up to 30 kilometers to the nearest town, there is no guarantee they will find concentrates in stock or that the sales assistant will be able to advise on the correct feed amounts.EADD's Uganda feeds team considered how best farmers could access quality supplementary feed at a reasonable cost and concluded that a localized feed mill was the answer. They partnered with the Bubusi Dairy Farmers' Business Association and the National Agriculture Advisory Service for the pilot turnkey project. Bubusi is a traditional market hub north of Kampala where farming is intensive, a mix of crops and two to five cows on plots of land not larger than two hectares.EADD came up with a formula for the meal and concentrates and helped the farmers to source ingredients that were relatively cheap but which provided quality. The team also helped the farmers to draw up a business plan and linked them to an equipment supplier that offered flexible repayment terms. The start-up capital was funded by farmers' share contributions and a soft loan guaranteed by EADD. The mill came on stream in November 2010. It has a production capacity of 1.2 tons a day and does a brisk business.'We want to put a smile on farmers' faces. That's our homework,' says Jane Kugonza, EADD's team leader for feeds in Uganda.Young people in their 20s and 30s know only too well that dairy provides a route out of enduring, generational poverty. The Silanga Youth Group at Kabiyet borrowed $600 from the District Youth Fund to purchase three heifers for members who did not yet own cows. Now all have seen a substantial rise in their standards of living. The group also helps to support the community's orphans and people living with HIV.Selly Cherotich, 33, is a Silanga member. She and her husband own a Friesian and a Jersey and are paid-up shareholders at Kabiyet. Like their fellow shareholders, they have learned how to prepare hay and silage to feed their cows through the dry season. Consistent milk yields is one of the reasons why Kabiyet was able to more than double the farm-gate price when negotiating a contract with New Kenya Cooperative Creameries.Selly is the mother of seven children including two sets of twins. She supports and schools them on milk proceeds. 'I'm a school graduate, but most of our parents couldn't find the money to let us finish school. Anyway, I've never been able to find a job. We want it to be different for our children, and EADD has raised our morale,' she says.In neighboring North Nandi District Juliana Maiyo is treasurer of the all-women Kemeliet Dairy Management Group. The women formed it in 2008 even though none of them owned cows, because they saw the potential in dairy. They began to buy milk from farmers and to transport it in bulk to the Tanyikina Dairy Plant. At the same time, because they were already organized, the Kemeliet group was among the first to receive EADD training on fodder establishment, animal health, farming as a business, silage making and water harvesting. These improved methods have paid off for Juliana. She has been able to buy another crossbreed cow for $375 and her other two cows are in calf. She has also built a cow barn to store hay. She is never behind with school fees and there is always nutritious food on the table at mealtimes.Juliana banks at the Tanyikina Financial Services Association which is managed by 24-year-old Jasper Langat. It pays advances against milk delivery for anything customers need. This includes health insurance through the dairy hub's Tanyikina Community Health Program. In just over a year the bank's members have grown tenfold to 2,000.'Women make up the highest number of account holders. They seem to have a better grasp of saving and borrowing. One of my female clients dropped out of secondary school because her parents couldn't afford the fees. She bought a share in Tanyikina Dairy and in the bank too. Now she has 28,000 shares and is about to build her own store,' Jasper says.'At first it was difficult to persuade people to entrust us with their money.' he continues, 'They would deposit it and then withdraw it three days later to see if it was still all there. That's changed now, of course.' Jasper, who is native to the district, left a job in Nairobi to run the bank. Since his return home a year ago, several brick buildings have been constructed at Tanyikina, he says.Purity Chipchirchir, 28, dropped out of school but now runs her own store and milk-trading business.Tetra Pak seals its agreement with EADD and Metkei Multipurpose Co. Ltd. with a cheque of $31,250.EADD's business-based approach to development has attracted multinationals such as Nestlé and Tetra Pak. When Nestlé established its regional headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya in 2008, it knew that working with EADD would dovetail with its own corporate philosophy of supporting rural development through stimulating processor demand for chilled milk. The company chose Kabiyet Dairies in Kenya's Rift Valley Province to pilot a blueprint for milk collection and marketing.Kabiyet is developing operating procedures for hygiene and quality norms that meet rigorous international standards. A technical expert seconded to the dairy from Nestlé provides assistance with rawmilk quality and safety management from farm gate to factory. Once established as a model of export-quality milk production, the dairy will be able to market its milk to Nestlé for regional export as powdered milk. It will also become a training ground for other chilling plants in the region.One of Nestlé's strategies is 'Keep it simple. Keep it small'. New chilling plants and those undergoing expansion have adopted the multinational's recommendation for installing low-tech, low-cost, low-capacity (1,500 -2,500 liters) coolers. Similar partnerships with local processors have been entered into with local processors -New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (Kenya), Sameer (Uganda) and Inyange (Rwanda) -to establish dairy-hub benchmarks for rawmilk quality.Tetra Pak is assisting with the introduction of quality protocols at Kenya's Metkei and Kokiche chilling plants. As a result, some 30,000 farmers have been able to negotiate competitive prices for supplying milk to the New Kenya Cooperative Creameries UHT processing plant. Tetra Pak intends to offer its package of a value-chain performance, milk-quality assurance and management training to more chilling plants.EADD sees the partnerships with Nestlé and Tetra Pak, the world's largest milk buyer and milk packager, as a marketing incentive for processors to adopt a quality-based pricing scheme. This in turn would be an incentive for farmers to invest in good feeding, breeding and hygiene practices. Just a few years ago neither knew much about cattle or the dairy industry. Madeline lived in a mudbrick house empty of furniture and grew barely enough to feed her six children. Stephen was a penniless manual laborer who worked piecemeal for his neighbors. Left for dead from a bullet wound, he had lost 26 family members including his wife and children. Madeline had lost her husband, parents and siblings. Their homes had been burned to the ground.Today Stephen, who has remarried, is a prosperous entrepreneur who runs several micro-businesses from his hillside homestead overlooking the town of Rwamagana. He rents his neighbor's land to grow chloris and Napier grass as fodder for his four cows. In a good year he harvests 30,000 pineapples for export. He has installed a biodigester fuelled by cow wasteto light his house. His wife runs a bakery business. His son uses one of his two motorbikes to deliver milk to the local chilling plant. His children and the four orphans who live with the family attend private school. He is in the throes of constructing a fee-paying school from where he will teach good farming methods. With a monthly income of about $385 from milk sales alone, he is regarded as a wealthy man in the eyes of the community. He traces his success back to 2008 when he received a gift of a cow. He then joined a dairy hub which gave him access to bank credit and a succession of loans to improve his farm.Like Stephen, Madeline's life changed for the better thanks to the cow she was given by Heifer International. Madeline also joined a dairy hub and opened a bank account where she deposited the $670 she had saved from her $200 per month milk sales. Putting up her cow and hectare of land as collateral, she took out three successive loans and repaid them through the check-off system. She now lives in a brick house with piped water and electricity. Her cow shed has a cement floor and the vegetable garden and fodder plot are expanding. All of her children are at private school except for her eldest who is studying to be a doctor in Kigali.'This would not have happened without my cow,' says Madeline. Hip hop blares from the 'boom box' on the table next to Robert Atugonza as he holds a test tube of milk up to the light. He is the technician in charge of quality control for the chilling plant owned by the shareholders of the Kiboga West Livestock Cooperative Society Ltd. It is Robert's job to make sure that milk has not been diluted and is fresh and hygienic. Robert also oversees the transition from plastic containers to the easily cleaned metal churns that can be obtained through the dairy hub on credit. Known as a stickler for safeguarding standards, once he gives his okay, the milk is pumped into a 5,000-liter chilling tank. The plant bought a second, 3,000-liter tank a few months back because during the rainy season when yields soar, the daily intake tops 9,000 liters.Several hours' drive north of Kampala and 32 kilometers along a featureless dirt road, Lusozi could be considered remote by anyone's yardstick. A few years ago farmers were frustrated by their inability to reach markets. Traders conned them and then left. During the months of milk surplus they made cheese for the family to eat or simply poured excess production onto the ground.Then along came Norah Kanyana, now the chair of the Kiboga West Livestock Cooperative, to build Lusozi's first primary school. She saw it as an obvious money spinner. The only other school in the area was 20 kilometers away. But the demand for education was not what she had anticipated. Parents were disinterested because they were too poor to pay the fees.Undeterred, Norah organized some of the townspeople into a community-based group to build a chilling plant to bring in money. 'We were flying here and there when EADD came to the district looking for organized groups. Our group was already known because we had registered,' she explains, 'They A Town Called Lusozi promised us they would get us a market for our milk. They said they would take us on exchange visits, which they did. I have even been to India to see the Nestlé factory. It was started by farmers like us and their land isn't even as good as ours.'True to its word, EADD has helped the Kiboga West chilling plant to secure a contract for its milk with Uganda's major processor at double the price farmers were getting before. 'We have helped to organize farmers to bulk and market as a cooperative. We built the foundations. Now it's a matter of branding the concept and getting more farmers to buy in and take it on as their own enterprise,' observes William Matovu, EADD's Country Program Manager in Uganda.Just as important, the plant has injected new life into the town. Disposable income is being spent in ways that were never before contemplated. Farmers can spruce up their appearance at the laundry and the barbershop. A shop sells cornmeal on one-week credit. A hardware store does a brisk trade in building materials for all the houses that are going up.We are still a remote area, but we are making it modern,' says Norah, who no longer has trouble collecting fees from parents.If women around the world had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production in developing countries could grow by 4%, according to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization. Seeing that women get a fair deal is not just a moral obligation. It has sound practical consequences. When women are in charge of income, it is a proven strategy for improving the health, nutrition and education of their children.EADD takes the inclusion of women in the dairy sector seriously. There is an annual gender action plan for each country while performance indicators and targets track what share of the benefits women are receiving. In March 2010 EADD staff underwent gender training and sensitization. EADD intends to continue championing women until it crosses the threshold if has set to effect a societal change.With equal opportunity for women and young people as a watchword, EADD does its best to ensure they are well represented at every level of the project. To date significant progress has been made in breaking the dairy sector's gender ceiling. Most chilling plants have women sitting on the board. A woman manages one of EADD's leading chilling plants Women and Youth to the Fore at Kabiyet in Kenya. Women also hold jobs at chilling plants in milk collection, quality testing, accounting and running agrovet stores. To date the ratio of women to men across the board in EADD project activities tends to be 1:4. The target is 1:3.Young people are very involved in the EADD project. Their participation keeps the dairy sector vibrant and sustainable. It also reverses the ageing of the Being a woman, people told me I couldn't do artificial insemination. I've broken that myth. I've shown the men that I get a higher conception rate with the cows than they do. Most women on private farms still do the majority of the work without controlling the assets or being party to making decisions. It has been estimated that 70% of the labor for dairy is done by women, but according to EADD's gender baseline survey, 73% of farms are managed by men irrespective of whether the head of household is a man or a woman. Only 1.7% of farms are jointly managed by a husband and wife.Women make an important contribution to milk production. An EADD target is to ensure that in all training and other interventions, 30% of those who benefit are women and 30% are young people. Keen to be in charge of raising their families' incomes, more and more women are now buying shares alongside their husbands so that they can access services, training and credit. Women's shareholding had soared by end 2010. At Kabiyet Dairies Co. Ltd., for instance, it was almost 40%. In Rwanda it was on target at 30%. And more women than men attended Rwanda's training courses in group dynamics and governance.According to village bankers and the SACCO managers, women are much better at using their money. In other words, they not only save but they take out loans to expand their homesteads, start businesses and put their children through school. This stimulates local economies, which is exactly what EADD likes to see.Women's groups have proved to be dynamic and effective in all three countries. Women have opened a joint milk-supply account at Kenya's Tanyikina Dairy Plant to bulk their milk and sell it as a group. Income from the sales is put into an education kitty. It is used by members to upgrade their cows, pay school fees and do maintenance and improvements on their farms.'When there are women in cooperatives, the numbers who sign up to be members of a chilling plant soar,' says Emmanuel Munyandinda, EADD's former Country Program Manager in Rwanda. 'Women are very keen to get involved as they get access to inputs that they didn't have before. One woman mobilized 502 shareholders in a month.'In Uganda, as elsewhere in East Africa, television and newspapers are still considered luxury items in many rural areas, but the radio is ubiquitous. In 2010 EADD's Uganda communications team launched a farmers' radio program called Ente Bugagga (Livestock Is Wealth). The program reaches thousands of farmers with information on the dairy industry and provides a forum where farmers can phone in or text-message their milk-production problems. The one-hour program also broadcasts weekly milk market prices at the different EADD project sites.Radio is not the only medium for educating farmers. EADD has developed and disseminated high-quality pamphlets on project activities and hub locations and a variety of technical topics including AI and milk quality. In addition to producing its own quarterly project newsletter, EADD contributes articles on project activities to other publications.EADD training material is user-friendly and specifically tailored to the project's objectives. For instance, most manuals recommend feeding systems based on target yields without heeding the cost involved. EADD feeding manuals are based on costbenefit analysis.EADD is developing a pool of knowledge, lessons learned and best practices that will inform pro-poor policy for the dairy sector. Independent external valuators work with EADD's monitoring and evaluation (M&E) team and have already conducted a baseline survey and midterm evaluation. Final and impact evaluations will be conducted at the conclusion of Phase 1. All M&E is reported twice a year so that partners and key players can gauge whether or not interventions are being efficiently adopted and have the intended impact on farmers and their families. All data is being disaggregated by gender and age so that women and youth can be tracked and targeted.Longer than anticipated M&E staff recruitment delayed the rolling out of comprehensive M&E systems until the second half of 2009. Project goals are a mix of activities, outputs, outcomes and targets, known as milestones. They are used to constantly monitor progress. In light of a 2010 midterm evaluation, milestones have been rationalized and reduced from more than 200 to 125 to streamline the reporting system and the verification processes. Field reports from the EADD consortium's five partners are synthesized and validated through random and systematic quality checks.At the same time, the system has been made more user friendly by initiating structures that put the Dairy Farmers' Business Associations in charge of their own information. A computerized information management system for entering and analyzing data has been installed at the chilling plant accounts sections. The dairy hubs then upload their data where it is collated and cleaned by the country offices before being posted on the regional database on the EADD website.The periodic evaluations and assessments that are conducted, such as for milk quality, are used as a basis for presentations to the chilling plants so that Investment Fund * Totals * Regional expenditure refers to project costs incurred at the EADD Regional Office, Regional and Head Offices of Heifer International and TechnoServe and all costs incurred by ILRI for the implementation of project activities. * The Investment Fund is a loan.EADD MIDTERM REPORT 2008 -2010 29 members, management and board can see how they are faring. To ensure knowledge penetration, the M&E team has created a graduation system that serves as the farmers' passport to knowledge. Every farmer is issued with a training card that is a catalogue of all the EADD training modules. This allows the farmers to control the choice and pace of their tuition. 'A monitoring system is not effective if it doesn't inform its institution. This is why we have built the capacity of the Dairy Farmers' Business Associations so that they can use this information,' says Gaitano Simiyu, the regional director of planning, monitoring and evaluation.  Our children go to school thanks to EADD.","tokenCount":"11961"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b029a4b5375822d8d32151420692e68c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c1b03e73-8c8c-4a3f-8290-43f585258502/content","id":"1054677041"},"keywords":["APSIM and DSSAT crop simulation models","climate change impact","cropping system","Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB)","integrated approach"],"sieverID":"078bc6f0-900b-40ad-8114-c7279b0710f9","pagecount":"20","content":"The climate change impacts of South Asia (SA) are inextricably linked with increased monsoon variability and a clearly deteriorating trend with more frequent deficit monsoons. One of the most climate-vulnerable nations in the eastern and central Indo-Gangetic Basin is Bangladesh. There have been numerous studies on the effects of climate change in Bangladesh; however, most of them tended to just look at a small fraction of the impact elements or were climatic projections without accounting for the effects on agriculture. Additionally, simulation studies using the CERES-Rice and CERES-Wheat models were conducted for rice and wheat to evaluate the effects of climate change on Bangladeshi agriculture. However, up to now, Bangladesh has not implemented farming system ideas by integrating cropping systems with other income-generating activities. This study was conducted as part of the Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) regional evaluations using the protocols and integrated assessment processes of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP). It was also done to calibrate crop models (APSIM and DSSAT) using rice and wheat. To assist policymakers in creating national and regional plans for anticipated future agricultural systems, our work on the integrated evaluation of climate change impacts on agricultural systems produced realistic predictions. The outcome of this research prescribes a holistic assessment of climate change on future production systems by including all the relevant enterprises in the agriculture sector. The findings of the study suggested two major strategies to minimize the yield and increase the profitability in a rice-wheat cropping system. Using a short-term HYV (High Yielding Variety) of rice can shift the sowing time of wheat by 7 days in advance compared to the traditional sowing days of mid-November. In addition, increasing the irrigation amount by 50 mm for wheat showed a better yield by 1.5-32.2% in different scenarios. These climate change adaptation measures could increase the per capita income by as high as 3.6% on the farm level.Climate change impacts are increasingly visible in South Asia (SA), with greater variability of the monsoon, noticeably, a declining trend with more frequent deficit monsoons [1]. Bangladesh is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the central and eastern Indo-Gangetic Basin. The rapidly growing population of the country puts tremendous pressure on its scarce natural resources. The country is vulnerable to many climatic hazards, including frequent floods, droughts, cyclones, and storm surges that damage life, property, and agricultural production [2]. Climate change could make it more difficult than it already is to accelerate agricultural production to meet the growing demands in countries in the region and more specifically for Bangladesh. The above-mentioned types of disasters make the problems more complicated. In the foreseeable future, Bangladesh is likely to be one of the most vulnerable countries in the world in the event of climate change [3]. Global warming due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the earth's atmosphere and the consequent sea level rise is adding fuel to the fire. Almost every sector of socio-economic life in Bangladesh is likely to be affected by climate change. The 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently reported that \"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased\" [4]. Climatic factors (e.g., temperature, precipitation, wind, etc.) regulate agricultural activities and security in production [5,6]. In developing countries, such as Bangladesh, poor households mostly live in rural areas and are largely dependent on the agricultural production system, and therefore, climate change has a major impact on their livelihood and food security [7,8].There have been several studies of climate change impacts in Bangladesh, but they have provided climate projections without quantifying agricultural impacts or tended to examine just a subset of the impact factors. For example, some studies of climate change impacts on Bangladesh rice have focused on temperature and carbon dioxide effects [9,10]. Additionally, simulation studies were carried out for rice and wheat using the APSIM-Oryza and APSIM-Wheat models and CERES-Rice and CERES-Wheat for DSSAT to assess the impact of climate change on Bangladesh agriculture [11,12]. The Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) is a software package that facilitates sub-modules combined to simulate agricultural systems [13]. The APSIM simulator has several modules categorized as Plant-Soil-Atmosphere and crop management operations. The model can simulate crop growth stage developments, soil processes, and crop management options. The APSIM model requires an input dataset of weather, soil, and crop management development on a daily basis to run the simulation outputs. The DSSAT cropping model is a computer-based crop growth application that can simulate growth, development and yield of crop growing under defined management over time [14,15]. The DSSAT model requires databases of daily basis weather data, soil, crop management conditions and cultivar-specific genotypes to simulate and compare results with observed estimates. Moreover, a number of investigations have been made in the Indo-Gangetic area to achieve sustainable land use. For instance, a conceptual modeling framework could be adopted to discover dynamic land consequences and understand their responses for sustaining ecosystem services in the dominant agricultural region [16] and land transition information for sustainable management and development of land resources [17]. It has also been reported that the input data uncertainty has a higher influence on land use output and hence high-resolution geospatial inputs were recommended for crop and land management in this dominant agricultural region [18,19]. In most cases, the detrimental effect of temperature rise was observed even with elevated CO 2 levels. Considerable spatial and temporal variations were also noted. Resilience development through climate change adaptation strategies is also a strong part of the challenges for crop production in Bangladesh [20]. Wheat was more susceptible to high temperature than rice and temperature increase generally reduces production across all scenarios [21]. Precipitation changes can have either a positive or a negative impact, with a high degree of uncertainty across Global Circulation Models (GCMs) [22]. Carbon dioxide impacts on crop production are positive and depend on the emissions pathway. Precipitation uncertainties from different GCMs and emissions scenarios are reduced when integrated across the large Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basins' hydrology [23]. Irrigation requirements are likely to increase with regional variations in agricultural production [24].Agriculture in southern Bangladesh is severely affected by sea level rise even when cyclonic surges are not fully considered, with impacts increasing under the higher emissions scenario. The impact of climate change on cereals and food security has been studied by several authors; however, no effort in using farming system approaches integrating cropping systems with other income-generating activities has been made for Bangladesh until now. This study was undertaken as a component of the IGB (Indo-Gangetic Basin) regional assessments following AgMIP protocols and integrated assessment procedures. It is expected that this integrated assessment of climate change impacts on agricultural systems would generate reasonable estimates to help policymakers to develop national and regional plans for projected future agricultural systems.The study area is located in the Dinajpur district (25 • 22 -26 • 06 N, and 89 • 31 -88 • 38 E), which is part of the Eastern Gangetic Plain region in Bangladesh (Figure 1). The total area of the Dinajpur district is 3438 km 2 of which 78.87 km 2 is forested [25]. Dinajpur is one of the most intensive agricultural areas among the crop production hubs in Bangladesh. The total cultivable cropped land was around 2707 km 2 in 2014-2015 [26]. The general weather type of this region is humid and wet with subtropical climate variations identified as summer, monsoon, and winter seasons. The yearly mean highest temperature of the study location was around 33.5 • C and the lowest one was nearly 10.5 • C. The annual total rainfall was commonly 2540 mm. The dominant soil types of this region are divided into three categories, e.g., Piedmont plan, Tista Floodplain, and Barind Tract [27]. Based on flooding during the monsoon, the lands of Dinajpur can be divided into three distinct land types: High Land-HL (e.g., land higher than the normal flooding point), Medium High Land-MHL (e.g., land flooded up to 90 cm for a minimum of two weeks), and Medium Low Land-MLL (e.g., the land flooded between 90 to 180 cm for over two weeks) [27]. The texture of the topsoil (usually 0-15 cm) is primarily loam and silt loam, although it can also be sandy loam, silty clay loam, or clay loam [28].impact, with a high degree of uncertainty across Global Circulation Models (GCMs) [22]. Carbon dioxide impacts on crop production are positive and depend on the emissions pathway. Precipitation uncertainties from different GCMs and emissions scenarios are reduced when integrated across the large Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basins' hydrology [23]. Irrigation requirements are likely to increase with regional variations in agricultural production [24].Agriculture in southern Bangladesh is severely affected by sea level rise even when cyclonic surges are not fully considered, with impacts increasing under the higher emissions scenario. The impact of climate change on cereals and food security has been studied by several authors; however, no effort in using farming system approaches integrating cropping systems with other income-generating activities has been made for Bangladesh until now. This study was undertaken as a component of the IGB (Indo-Gangetic Basin) regional assessments following AgMIP protocols and integrated assessment procedures. It is expected that this integrated assessment of climate change impacts on agricultural systems would generate reasonable estimates to help policymakers to develop national and regional plans for projected future agricultural systems.The study area is located in the Dinajpur district (25°22'-26°06′ N, and 89°31′-88°38′ E), which is part of the Eastern Gangetic Plain region in Bangladesh (Figure 1). The total area of the Dinajpur district is 3438 km 2 of which 78.87 km 2 is forested [25]. Dinajpur is one of the most intensive agricultural areas among the crop production hubs in Bangladesh. The total cultivable cropped land was around 2707 km 2 in 2014-2015 [26]. The general weather type of this region is humid and wet with subtropical climate variations identified as summer, monsoon, and winter seasons. The yearly mean highest temperature of the study location was around 33.5 °C and the lowest one was nearly 10.5 °C. The annual total rainfall was commonly 2540 mm. The dominant soil types of this region are divided into three categories, e.g., Piedmont plan, Tista Floodplain, and Barind Tract [27]. Based on flooding during the monsoon, the lands of Dinajpur can be divided into three distinct land types: High Land-HL (e.g., land higher than the normal flooding point), Medium High Land-MHL (e.g., land flooded up to 90 cm for a minimum of two weeks), and Medium Low Land-MLL (e.g., the land flooded between 90 to 180 cm for over two weeks) [27]. The texture of the topsoil (usually 0-15 cm) is primarily loam and silt loam, although it can also be sandy loam, silty clay loam, or clay loam [28].  Rice (Oryza sativa) is the most important commodity in terms of livelihood and food in the study area, followed by wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). In Bangladesh, rice is grown in three distinct seasons: Aus (Kharif-I), Aman (Kharif-II), and Boro (Rabi), while wheat is grown only during the winter (Rabi). The most dominant farming system of the study area was rice-wheat covering about 67% of the net sown area. The rice and wheat acreage in Dinajpur were 0.42 million hectare (Mha) and 0.019 Mha, respectively, with almost the same level of average productivity between rice and wheat (3.2 and 3.1 tha −1 , respectively). Though livestock is an integral part of the farming system, this study focused on crops enterprise only. The cultivar used for rice was BR11 (T. Aman) cultivar which is grown during the wet season (Kharif-II). BR11 is the most popular variety for T. Aman season which is grown from 15th to 30th July. Usually, 25-35-day-old seedlings are transplanted with 20 cm row spacing. The crop's lifecycle is 145 days. For wheat, BARI-Gom21 (Shatabdi) cultivar was used, which is grown during the winter season. The optimum sowing date for wheat is 15th November to 7th December with a lifecycle of 109-112 days. The yield potentials of BR11 and Shatabdi is 5.5 tha −1 and 3.5-5.0 tha −1 , respectively [29]. For integrated assessment, a field survey was carried out during May-September 2019 to collect data from 50 randomly selected farms from four Upazilas (sub-districts) of the Dinajpur district to cover the major cropping pattern, e.g., the rice (Transplanted Aman)wheat cropping pattern. All data were collected through a questionnaire survey directly from fifty sampled farms. The collected data were then cleaned, edited, standardized, and organized as per the prescribed format in spreadsheets to fulfil the requirements for running the crop and socio-economic models (Section 2.5). The farming system diagram of the study location is presented in Figure 2.Rice (Oryza sativa) is the most important commodity in terms of livelihood and food in the study area, followed by wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). In Bangladesh, rice is grown in three distinct seasons: Aus (Kharif-I), Aman (Kharif-II), and Boro (Rabi), while wheat is grown only during the winter (Rabi). The most dominant farming system of the study area was rice-wheat covering about 67% of the net sown area. The rice and wheat acreage in Dinajpur were 0.42 million hectare (Mha) and 0.019 Mha, respectively, with almost the same level of average productivity between rice and wheat (3.2 and 3.1 tha −1 , respectively). Though livestock is an integral part of the farming system, this study focused on crops enterprise only. The cultivar used for rice was BR11 (T. Aman) cultivar which is grown during the wet season (Kharif-II). BR11 is the most popular variety for T. Aman season which is grown from 15th to 30th July. Usually, 25-35-day-old seedlings are transplanted with 20 cm row spacing. The crop's lifecycle is 145 days. For wheat, BARI-Gom21 (Shatabdi) cultivar was used, which is grown during the winter season. The optimum sowing date for wheat is 15th November to 7th December with a lifecycle of 109-112 days. The yield potentials of BR11 and Shatabdi is 5.5 tha −1 and 3.5-5.0 tha −1 , respectively [29]. For integrated assessment, a field survey was carried out during May-September 2019 to collect data from 50 randomly selected farms from four Upazilas (sub-districts) of the Dinajpur district to cover the major cropping pattern, e.g., the rice (Transplanted Aman)-wheat cropping pattern. All data were collected through a questionnaire survey directly from fifty sampled farms. The collected data were then cleaned, edited, standardized, and organized as per the prescribed format in spreadsheets to fulfil the requirements for running the crop and socio-economic models (Section 2.5). The farming system diagram of the study location is presented in Figure 2. The Representative Agricultural Pathways (RAPs) is an overall narrative description of a plausible future development pathway, and also contains key variables with qualitative storylines and quantitative trends, consistent with higher-level pathways (e.g., SSPs, global RAPs developed by the AgMIP Global Modeling Group). RAPs are translated into one or more scenarios (parameterizations) for The Tradeoff Analysis Model for Multi-dimensional Impact Assessment (TOA-MD) and crop models. These scenarios represent a set of technology and management adaptations to climate change. These scenarios, developed for specific RAPs, typically include changes in the types of crops or livestock produced The Representative Agricultural Pathways (RAPs) is an overall narrative description of a plausible future development pathway, and also contains key variables with qualitative storylines and quantitative trends, consistent with higher-level pathways (e.g., SSPs, global RAPs developed by the AgMIP Global Modeling Group). RAPs are translated into one or more scenarios (parameterizations) for The Tradeoff Analysis Model for Multi-dimensional Impact Assessment (TOA-MD) and crop models. These scenarios represent a set of technology and management adaptations to climate change. These scenarios, developed for specific RAPs, typically include changes in the types of crops or livestock produced and the way they are managed (e.g., use of fertilizers and improved crop cultivars). Procedures for RAP development are based on the stepwise process as described earlier [30].The future trends in the agricultural system, and the RAP narratives were developed by the project team and were shared with the stakeholders. Several interactions were made with different stakeholders that included academicians from agricultural universities and scientists from the national agricultural research system to prepare the RAPs. Moreover, during the farm survey, interactions were held with 50 farmers from four sub-districts of the Dinajpur district, and their opinions about current climatic variability and how they perceive climate change and their anticipated impact on agriculture were recorded.A combination of population growth, government subsidy on fertilizers, and improved economic performance is expected to cause a shift from agriculture to the service industry. From the historic data, it is observed that farm and family size is decreasing over time. The stakeholders agreed that farm size would decrease by 20 percent and family size would decrease by 10 percent during the next 30-year period [31]. The RAPS parameters and adaptation strategy used in the TOA-MD analysis are given below (Table 1). To minimize the adverse impact of climate change on wheat production, several adaptation options were proposed by the participants in the stakeholders' workshop. However, the following adaptation strategies were finalized: Modification of irrigation dates and amount of water for wheat. Advancement of sowing date by one week to avoid terminal heat stress for wheat. Improved fertilizer management and soil test-based application in both rice and wheat. Use of short-duration rice varieties so that advanced wheat planting can be accommodated. Out of the suggested adaptation measures, increasing the irrigation amount by 50 mm per irrigation for wheat was tested in this integrated assessment.The soil profile-wise data were gathered from Reconnaissance Soil Survey Reports (Soil Resource Development Institute, Bangladesh). A total number of 45 soil series profiles were created as input for DSSAT models (e.g., AGMIP13001 to AGMIP13045). Examples from the Amnura soil profile are presented in Supplementary Tables S1 and S2. Four soil profiles, e.g., Amnura (AGMIP13028), Jamun (AGMIP13035), Ekdala (AGMIP13032), and Gangachara (AGMIP13033), were used for the simulation runs for Dinajpur.Historical time series (1990-2020) daily agro-meteorological data (daily maximum and minimum temperature, daily precipitation, and daily sunshine hour) were collected from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD, Supplementary Table S3). The sunshine hour data were converted to solar radiation (MJ m −2 d −1 ) as per the input format of the crop models as described by Allen et al. [32]. The input weather dataset was structured as per the model requirement. These were used as a historical climate dataset. The trends in temperature and precipitation observed data are presented in Figure 3.sunshine hour data were converted to solar radiation (MJ m −2 d −1 ) as per the input format of the crop models as described by Allen et al. [32]. The input weather dataset was structured as per the model requirement. These were used as a historical climate dataset. The trends in temperature and precipitation observed data are presented in Figure 3.   [33]. The winter period (December, January, and February) showed a similar pattern regardless of GCMs. In this study, all the GCMs forecast higher summer temperature. Moreover, a reduced amount of rainfall was predicted during the winter season and higher during the monsoon period (mid-June to mid-October). Predicted maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall in Dinajpur are presented in Figure 4.scenarios, CO2 concentration was considered at 571 ppm [33]. The winter period (December, January, and February) showed a similar pattern regardless of GCMs. In this study, all the GCMs forecast higher summer temperature. Moreover, a reduced amount of rainfall was predicted during the winter season and higher during the monsoon period (mid-June to mid-October). Predicted maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall in Dinajpur are presented in Figure 4. From Figure 5, it is clear that all 20 Mid-Century scenarios projected higher maximum and minimum temperatures in February and March compared to the baseline time period (blue X). Again, March is warmer than February. The highest February maximum temperature (29.69 °C) is predicted by IPSL-CM5A-LR (M), and the highest March maximum temperature (34.58 °C) is predicted by CCSM4 (E); the rest of the GCMs are predicted above 30 °C. From Figure 5, it is clear that all 20 Mid-Century scenarios projected higher maximum and minimum temperatures in February and March compared to the baseline time period (blue X). Again, March is warmer than February. The highest February maximum temperature (29.69 • C) is predicted by IPSL-CM5A-LR (M), and the highest March maximum temperature (34.58 • C) is predicted by CCSM4 (E); the rest of the GCMs are predicted above 30 • C.Socio-economic data of 50 representative farm households were collected from Dinajpur in 2019. The average household size was 5.74 persons per house against the national average of 5.31 persons per house [34]. The average farm size was 0.90 ha. The average annual non-agricultural income was Bangladeshi taka (BDT) 59,600 farm −1 , and the contribution of crop component was BDT 40,690 farm −1 year −1 . The average plot size of rice was 0.65 ha. The majority of the farmers cultivated rice in medium high land (58%) followed by high land (26%) and medium low land (16%). Farmers applied 150.15 kg nitrogen, 69.14 kg TSP, 51.37 kg MoP (Muriate of potash) per hectare, which is higher than the recommended doses of fertilizers for T. Aman rice (90-120 kg N, 80-100 kg TSP and 80-120 kg MoP, and 50-72 kgha −1 gypsum (FRG, 2012)). The crop was grown in rainfed conditions. The farmers obtained 3826 kgha −1 grain yield which was a little higher than the five-years mean yield of rice (3801 kgha −1 ) in Dinajpur. The average plot size of wheat was 0.40 hectares. Most of the farmers cultivated wheat in medium high lands (58%) followed by high land (28%) and medium low land (16%). The input use per hectare by the farmers was 2139 kg farmyard manure (FYM), 86.5 kg N, 84.3 kg TSP, 78.2 kg MoP, 20.2 kg gypsum, 1.83 kg zinc sulphate, and 9.09 kg borax. The recommended fertilizer doses for wheat were 81-99 kg N, 140-180 kg TSP, 40-45 kg MoP, and 110-120 kg gypsum per hectare (BARI, 2019). The farmers obtained 3346 kgha −1 grain yield, which was much higher than the five-year mean yield of wheat (2497 kgha −1 ) in Dinajpur. Socio-economic data of 50 representative farm households were collected from Dinajpur in 2019. The average household size was 5.74 persons per house against the national average of 5.31 persons per house [34]. The average farm size was 0.90 ha. The average annual non-agricultural income was Bangladeshi taka (BDT) 59,600 farm −1 , and the contribution of crop component was BDT 40,690 farm −1 year −1 . The average plot size of rice was 0.65 ha. The majority of the farmers cultivated rice in medium high land (58%) followed by high land (26%) and medium low land (16%). Farmers applied 150.15 kg nitro- In this study, two crops (rice and wheat) were modeled. The crop models used are CERES-Rice and CERES-Wheat for DSSAT Ver. 4.5.1.023 -Stub [35] and APSIM 7.5-Oryza and APSIM-Wheat [36]. The Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) is a software package that facilitates sub-modules combined to simulate agricultural systems [13].The APSIM simulator has several modules categorized as Plant-Soil-Atmosphere and crop management operations. The model can simulate the crop growth stage developments, soil processes, and crop management options. The APSIM model requires the input dataset of weather, soil, and crop management development on a daily basis to run the simulation outputs. The DSSAT cropping model is a computer-based crop growth application that can simulate growth, development, and yield of crop growing under defined managements over time [14,15]. The DSSAT model requires databases of daily basis weather data, soil, crop management conditions, and cultivar specific genotypes to simulate and compare results with observed estimates. Estimated genetic coefficients for the selected cultivars are presented in Table 2. The calibration outputs for rice (APSIM and DSSAT) and wheat (APSIM and DSSAT) are presented in Tables 3 and 4, respectively. Supplementary Figures S1 and S2 depict the calibration and validation outputs (observed and simulated) using the APSIM model for the rice (BR11-T. Aman) and wheat (Shatabdi) cultivars, respectively. The crop model calibration is the process of comparison between the observed and simulated values that confirmed the acceptable estimates of the model outputs. Crop models require cultivar specific genetic coefficients to simulate performance of diverse genotypes under different soil, weather and management conditions (crop growth, development, and grain production). The calibration outputs and the validation of different crop simulation models need to operate in different ways. Two statistical criteria were used to validate the model: the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) and the root mean square error (RMSE) [37].where s are the simulated values, o are the observed values, and n are the number of data points. Omax and Omin are the maximum and minimum values of the observations, respectively.Intercomparison was made between two rice models (APSIM-Rice and DSSAT-CERES-Rice). Compared to the observed yields, higher yields were predicted by both models for the Dinajpur location. The ambiguity in yields related to different farms was greater with APSIM model predictions compared to the DSSAT model. However, both the models overvalued the simulated crop yields. Higher crop yields were predicted by the DSSAT-Wheat model in comparison with the APSIM-Wheat model. The APSIM-wheat model predicted less than 3500 kgha −1 at 55% cumulative probability, which was lower than the observed yield. The uncertainty of cumulative probability was higher with APSIM in simulated crop yields among different farms compared to DSSAT (Figure 6). Higher simulated yields compared to farm survey yields are expected since neither models considered pest and disease effects.To evaluate the impact of future climate scenarios with APSIM and DSSAT rice and wheat models, the yield performance of the 30-year baseline weather dataset was used to simulate 30 years of future climate scenarios. There was a total of six sets of climate data, namely (OXXX) for the current climate, and IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA future scenarios were predicted for CO 2 at 571 ppm level.The input files for the simulation were generated based on the following parameters. Rice (rainfed): The simulation runs were made for Dinajpur location using DSSAT CERES-Rice and APSIM-Rice models. The rice cultivar was BR11 (T. Aman), which was sown from 31 May to 10 August of 2018. The cultivation depth was 5 cm. Final crop density was 25 plants m −2 and three plantshill −1 . Nitrogen was applied as basal at sowing @27-40.5 kgha −1 with a placement depth of 10 cm. Most of the farmers applied nitrogen in two splits @39-46 kgha −1 and 39-46 kgha −1 as top-dressing at 15 and 45 days after sowing, respectively. model predictions compared to the DSSAT model. However, both the models overvalued the simulated crop yields. Higher crop yields were predicted by the DSSAT-Wheat model in comparison with the APSIM-Wheat model. The APSIM-wheat model predicted less than 3500 kgha −1 at 55% cumulative probability, which was lower than the observed yield. The uncertainty of cumulative probability was higher with APSIM in simulated crop yields among different farms compared to DSSAT (Figure 6). Higher simulated yields compared to farm survey yields are expected since neither models considered pest and disease effects. To evaluate the impact of future climate scenarios with APSIM and DSSAT rice and wheat models, the yield performance of the 30-year baseline weather dataset was used to simulate 30 years of future climate scenarios. There was a total of six sets of climate data, namely (OXXX) for the current climate, and IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA future scenarios were predicted for CO2 at 571 ppm level.The input files for the simulation were generated based on the following parameters. Rice (rainfed): The simulation runs were made for Dinajpur location using DSSAT CERES-Rice and APSIM-Rice models. The rice cultivar was BR11 (T. Aman), which was sown from 31 May to 10 August of 2018. The cultivation depth was 5 cm. Final crop density was 25 plants m −2 and three plantshill −1 . Nitrogen was applied as basal at sowing @27-40.5 kgha −1 with a placement depth of 10 cm. Most of the farmers applied nitrogen in two splits @39-46 kgha −1 and 39-46 kgha −1 as top-dressing at 15 and 45 days after sowing, respectively.Wheat (irrigated): The simulations were carried out for the Dinajpur location with DSSAT CERES-Wheat and APSIM-Wheat models. The wheat cultivar was BARI Gom21 (Shatabdi). The sowing period of the wheat cultivar was from 11 November to 07 December of 2018 with a cultivation depth of 5 cm and crop density of 240 plantsm −2 . Nitrogen was applied as basal at sowing @30-40 kgha −1 with a placement depth of 10 cm. Most of the farmers applied nitrogen in two splits @25-35 kgha −1 and 25-40 kgha −1 as top-dress at 25 and 55 days after sowing, respectively; and three irrigations (flood method) at 20, 45 and 75 days after sowing to maintain the soil moisture at field capacity level.The simulated yields are presented with box and whisker plots. The box represents data between the 25th and 75th percentiles. The center black horizontal line across the box is the median at 50% of yields, and the whiskers (error bars) above and below the box indicate the 95th and 5th percentiles.For the single treatment, the DSSAT CERES-Rice and APSIM-Rice models were simulated with 30 seasons of baseline weather (base) and five different climate scenarios (IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA). APSIM and DSSAT rice models predicted lower Wheat (irrigated): The simulations were carried out for the Dinajpur location with DSSAT CERES-Wheat and APSIM-Wheat models. The wheat cultivar was BARI Gom21 (Shatabdi). The sowing period of the wheat cultivar was from 11 November to 07 December of 2018 with a cultivation depth of 5 cm and crop density of 240 plantsm −2 . Nitrogen was applied as basal at sowing @30-40 kgha −1 with a placement depth of 10 cm. Most of the farmers applied nitrogen in two splits @25-35 kgha −1 and 25-40 kgha −1 as topdress at 25 and 55 days after sowing, respectively; and three irrigations (flood method) at 20, 45 and 75 days after sowing to maintain the soil moisture at field capacity level.The simulated yields are presented with box and whisker plots. The box represents data between the 25th and 75th percentiles. The center black horizontal line across the box is the median at 50% of yields, and the whiskers (error bars) above and below the box indicate the 95th and 5th percentiles.For the single treatment, the DSSAT CERES-Rice and APSIM-Rice models were simulated with 30 seasons of baseline weather (base) and five different climate scenarios (IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA). APSIM and DSSAT rice models predicted lower yields for all the GCM scenarios compared to the baseline, but the magnitude of yield decreases was small in the case of DSSAT, and a higher yield variability was noted in the case of APSIM (Figure 7). Only higher yields were predicted by the IOXA scenario. The lowest yields were predicted by the IKXA scenario for both the models (Figure 7). On the other hand, APSIM predicted lower yields for all the GCM scenarios compared to the baseline, but the magnitude of yield decreases was quite high. The variability observed in the yields in different farms may be due to variable fertilizer and water management caused by variable availability of rainwater and temperature increase.The maximum rice yield values predicted by APSIM for OXXX (Historical), IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA scenarios were 8557, 7408, 7267, 5880, 7538, and 5492 kgha −1 , while the minimum values were 6607, 5071, 4920, 3697, 5586, and 3718 kgha −1 with average values of 5904, 7472, 6003, 4749, 6533, and 4829 kgha −1 , respectively (Figure 7). In the case of DSSAT, the predicted maximum values were 7832, 7053, 7005, 6584, 7095, and 6483 kgha −1 for OXXX (Historical), IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA scenarios, respectively. However, the minimum yields were 3756, 3703, 3640, 3652, 3744, and 4112 kgha −1 with average yield values of 7185, 6630, 6503, 6107, 6710, and 6152 kgha −1 (Figure 7). lowest yields were predicted by the IKXA scenario for both the models (Figure 7). On the other hand, APSIM predicted lower yields for all the GCM scenarios compared to the baseline, but the magnitude of yield decreases was quite high. The variability observed in the yields in different farms may be due to variable fertilizer and water management caused by variable availability of rainwater and temperature increase. The maximum rice yield values predicted by APSIM for OXXX (Historical), IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA scenarios were 8557, 7408, 7267, 5880, 7538, and 5492 kgha −1 , while the minimum values were 6607, 5071, 4920, 3697, 5586, and 3718 kgha −1 with average values of 5904, 7472, 6003, 4749, 6533, and 4829 kgha −1 , respectively (Figure 7). In the case of DSSAT, the predicted maximum values were 7832, 7053, 7005, 6584, 7095, and 6483 kgha −1 for OXXX (Historical), IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA scenarios, respectively. However, the minimum yields were 3756, 3703, 3640, 3652, 3744, and 4112 kgha −1 with average yield values of 7185, 6630, 6503, 6107, 6710, and 6152 kgha −1 (Figure 7).Similarly, the APSIM-Wheat and the DSSAT CERES-Wheat models were simulated with 30 seasons of baseline weather (base) and five different climate scenarios (IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, IRXA). For both DSSAT and APSIM models, predicted yields were higher for all climate scenarios (Figure 8). In the case of the DSSAT model, future climate scenarios IEXA, IKXA, and IRXA have more adverse climatic effects on wheat yield compared to the baseline scenario. In contrast, the future climate scenarios showed positive effects on wheat yield for the APSIM model (Figure 8). Similarly, the APSIM-Wheat and the DSSAT CERES-Wheat models were simulated with 30 seasons of baseline weather (base) and five different climate scenarios (IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, IRXA). For both DSSAT and APSIM models, predicted yields were higher for all climate scenarios (Figure 8). In the case of the DSSAT model, future climate scenarios IEXA, IKXA, and IRXA have more adverse climatic effects on wheat yield compared to the baseline scenario. In contrast, the future climate scenarios showed positive effects on wheat yield for the APSIM model (Figure 8). The APSIM model projected maximum wheat yield for OXXX, IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA scenarios were 5692, 5624, 6223, 5879, 6308, and 6054 kgha −1 , and the minimum were 2878, 2825, 3547, 3175, 3621, and 3824 kgha −1 with average yields of 3464, 3398, 4286, 3780, 4369, and 4471 kgha −1 , separately (Figure 8).At the same time, the DSSAT model anticipated that the maximum wheat yields for OXXX, IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA were 5507, 5299, 5369, 5204, 5548, and a minimum of 5009 kgha −1 , and 4036, 3470, 3452, 3380, 3649, and 3338 kgha −1 with average projected yields were 4637, 4481, 4691, 4485, 4885, and 4426 kgha −1 (Figure 8).To offset the impact of climate change and reduce the variability in wheat yields, an adaptation strategy was incorporated in this study. Although there were several adaptation strategies suggested in the RAP development workshop, only one, e.g., increasing the irrigation amount by 50 mm per irrigation for wheat, was used. Accordingly, both APSIM and DSSAT wheat models were used to generate outputs under five different CGMs.The APSIM model showed reduced variability in yields with adaptation strategy irre- The APSIM model projected maximum wheat yield for OXXX, IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA scenarios were 5692, 5624, 6223, 5879, 6308, and 6054 kgha −1 , and the minimum were 2878, 2825, 3547, 3175, 3621, and 3824 kgha −1 with average yields of 3464, 3398, 4286, 3780, 4369, and 4471 kgha −1 , separately (Figure 8).At the same time, the DSSAT model anticipated that the maximum wheat yields for OXXX, IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA were 5507, 5299, 5369, 5204, 5548, and a minimum of 5009 kgha −1 , and 4036, 3470, 3452, 3380, 3649, and 3338 kgha −1 with average projected yields were 4637, 4481, 4691, 4485, 4885, and 4426 kgha −1 (Figure 8).To offset the impact of climate change and reduce the variability in wheat yields, an adaptation strategy was incorporated in this study. Although there were several adaptation strategies suggested in the RAP development workshop, only one, e.g., increasing the irrigation amount by 50 mm per irrigation for wheat, was used. Accordingly, both APSIM and DSSAT wheat models were used to generate outputs under five different CGMs.The APSIM model showed reduced variability in yields with adaptation strategy irrespective of GCMs. In the case of the baseline (OXXX) scenario, the yields were 2878 to 5692 kgha −1 without adaptation and 2998 to 6434 kgha −1 with adaptation. Among all scenarios, the IRXA scenario showed the maximum average yield in both without and with the adaptation strategy (Figure 9).At the same time, the DSSAT model anticipated that the maximum wheat yields for OXXX, IEXA, IIXA, IKXA, IOXA, and IRXA were 5507, 5299, 5369, 5204, 5548, and a minimum of 5009 kgha −1 , and 4036, 3470, 3452, 3380, 3649, and 3338 kgha −1 with average projected yields were 4637, 4481, 4691, 4485, 4885, and 4426 kgha −1 (Figure 8).To offset the impact of climate change and reduce the variability in wheat yields, an adaptation strategy was incorporated in this study. Although there were several adaptation strategies suggested in the RAP development workshop, only one, e.g., increasing the irrigation amount by 50 mm per irrigation for wheat, was used. Accordingly, both APSIM and DSSAT wheat models were used to generate outputs under five different CGMs.The APSIM model showed reduced variability in yields with adaptation strategy irrespective of GCMs. In the case of the baseline (OXXX) scenario, the yields were 2878 to 5692 kgha-1 without adaptation and 2998 to 6434 kgha-1 with adaptation. Among all scenarios, the IRXA scenario showed the maximum average yield in both without and with the adaptation strategy (Figure 9).  Correspondingly, the DSSAT model indicated that projected median yields were raised with the adaptation in all GCMs and reduced variability in yields. In the case of DSSAT, the predicted minimum yields for the historic baseline (OXXX) scenario without adaptation was 4036 kgha −1 and with adaptation was 4112 kgha −1 (Figure 9). The maximum yield without adaptation was 5507 kgha −1 and with adaptation was 5514 kgha −1 , respectively. The IRXA scenario showed the lowest median yields without and with adaptation of DSAAT compared to APSIM. The simulated minimum and maximum yield predictions for the IRXA scenario differed between 3338 and 5009 kgha −1 without adaptation, and between 3338 and 5034 kgha −1 with adaptation (Figure 10). Correspondingly, the DSSAT model indicated that projected median yields were raised with the adaptation in all GCMs and reduced variability in yields. In the case of DSSAT, the predicted minimum yields for the historic baseline (OXXX) scenario without adaptation was 4036 kgha −1 and with adaptation was 4112 kgha −1 (Figure 9). The maximum yield without adaptation was 5507 kgha −1 and with adaptation was 5514 kgha −1 , respectively. The IRXA scenario showed the lowest median yields without and with adaptation of DSAAT compared to APSIM. The simulated minimum and maximum yield predictions for the IRXA scenario differed between 3338 and 5009 kgha −1 without adaptation, and between 3338 and 5034 kgha −1 with adaptation (Figure 10). The sensitivity of the current production system under five different climatic scenarios is presented in Table 5. The current production system, under all five climate change scenarios, shows that the mean yield of rice would decline by 13.6-38.2 percent (with APSIM) and 7.4-14.7 percent (with DSSAT), respectively (Table 5). On the other hand, mean wheat yield is likely to increase (0.8-21.8%) under all five climate scenarios (with APSIM). However, DSSAT The sensitivity of the current production system under five different climatic scenarios is presented in Table 5. The current production system, under all five climate change scenarios, shows that the mean yield of rice would decline by 13.6-38.2 percent (with APSIM) and 7.4-14.7 percent (with DSSAT), respectively (Table 5). On the other hand, mean wheat yield is likely to increase (0.8-21.8%) under all five climate scenarios (with APSIM). However, DSSAT estimates show mixed results-a decline in wheat yield (2.9-8.8%) under four climate scenarios (IEXA, IIXA, IKXA and IRXA), and a marginal increase (1%) under climate scenario IOXA. The current production system is vulnerable to climate change as it shows decline (4.6-17.8%) in mean net farm returns (APSIM model) under all but one climate scenario (IOXA) which shows marginal increase (0.74%) in net farm returns. The extent of losses in net farm returns varies from 4-11.6% (DSSAT model). Consequently, the per capita income under climate change declines (0.8-3.9%) in all the scenarios except one scenario (IOXA for APSIM model) which shows a marginal increase (0.16%). Though changes in the poverty levels are minimal, there is a large proportion of the population (48-80%) which is adversely affected by climate change (Table 5).Using RAP parameters and country-specific estimates of productivity and price trends for rice and wheat from global models, TOA-MD analysis was done to study the impact of climate change on future agricultural production systems. In the case of rice, larger yield decline (14-38%) was predicted by the APSIM model than that by the DSSAT model (7-15%). Interestingly, wheat yield was likely to increase (0.8-22%) under all climate scenarios (APSIM model); however, DSSAT estimates show decline in wheat yields (3-9%), except under one climate scenario (IOXA) which shows a marginal increase (1%) in wheat yields (Table 6). Interestingly, the mean returns per farm were projected to increase under all but one climate scenario (IKXA, APSIM model) in future in the range of 2-29% and 0.5-26% for APSIM and DSSAT, respectively (Table 6). It appears that the decline in rice yields is more compensated by the increase in wheat yields (APSIM) and higher growth trend in yield and prices of rice and wheat along with a doubling of off-farm income in future agricultural production systems. The cumulative effect is strong enough to offset the decline in productivity (rice) and acreage under the rice-wheat system. Though increase in per capita income is quite low (0.07-4.8%), except IKXA-APSIM model (−0.78%), it substantially reduces the proportion of the population which is adversely affected by climate change. Total gains, losses, and net impact on farm population are shown in Figure 11A,B. Though it appears a small change in per capita income, it brings about 37-39% of the population out of poverty (Table 6). net farm returns varies from 4-11.6% (DSSAT model). Consequently, the per capita income under climate change declines (0.8-3.9%) in all the scenarios except one scenario (IOXA for APSIM model) which shows a marginal increase (0.16%). Though changes in the poverty levels are minimal, there is a large proportion of the population (48-80%) which is adversely affected by climate change (Table 5).Using RAP parameters and country-specific estimates of productivity and price trends for rice and wheat from global models, TOA-MD analysis was done to study the impact of climate change on future agricultural production systems. In the case of rice, larger yield decline (14-38%) was predicted by the APSIM model than that by the DSSAT model (7-15%). Interestingly, wheat yield was likely to increase (0.8-22%) under all climate scenarios (APSIM model); however, DSSAT estimates show decline in wheat yields (3-9%), except under one climate scenario (IOXA) which shows a marginal increase (1%) in wheat yields (Table 6). Interestingly, the mean returns per farm were projected to increase under all but one climate scenario (IKXA, APSIM model) in future in the range of 2-29% and 0.5-26% for APSIM and DSSAT, respectively (Table 6). It appears that the decline in rice yields is more compensated by the increase in wheat yields (APSIM) and higher growth trend in yield and prices of rice and wheat along with a doubling of offfarm income in future agricultural production systems. The cumulative effect is strong enough to offset the decline in productivity (rice) and acreage under the rice-wheat system. Though increase in per capita income is quite low (0.07-4.8%), except IKXA-APSIM model (−0.78%), it substantially reduces the proportion of the population which is adversely affected by climate change. Total gains, losses, and net impact on farm population are shown in Figure 11A,B. Though it appears a small change in per capita income, it brings about 37-39% of the population out of poverty (Table 6).(A) (B) Though parameters derived from the RAPs scenario and the growth trend in price and productivity of the rice-wheat system resulted in overall increase in net farm returns, yet more than half of the population remains below the poverty line. So, it would be imperative to assess the impact of adaptation measures on net farm income and livelihoods. In this study, the adaptation strategy was tested for wheat crop only, wherein irrigation amount was increased by 50 mm per irrigation. The adaptation package for wheat results in higher increased (10-32%) in wheat yields with APSIM model in comparison to DSSAT model (1-3% only) under five climate scenarios (Table 7). Consequently, the increase in mean net farm returns was larger (5-19%) with APSIM than that for DSSAT (7-10%). Overall, the per capita income increased up to 3.6% only, and the poverty rate declined marginally (Table 7). It is obvious because wheat acreage is less than that of rice, which is the most important crop and affects the livelihoods of most of the population. Crop simulation model evaluation is a fundamental activity to compare the observed and simulated growth and development of crops performed by different models [24]. APSIM and DSSAT crop models are widely used for agronomic crop simulation performance for development and yields predictions [30]. Based on the input dataset and the climatic stresses and uncertainty, both the APSIM and DSSAT model can perform different simulation results for rice and wheat from the same location [32]. In the case of wheat, APSIM showed higher sensitivity and lower yield prediction than the observed farm yields and DSSAT estimated higher yield in our study which also studied in different parts of China [33]. Moreover, the ambiguity in yield prediction with different sites was more in the case of APSIM compared to DSSAT in Dinajpur. The variations in yield predictions between the APSIM and DSSAT models could be due to the exclusion of pest and disease infestation and damage [31]. In the current study, the sensitivity of both the APSIM and DSSAT crop models estimated the lower yield predictions by 13.6-38.2% (APSIM) and 7.4-14.7% (DSSAT) for rice under different climate scenarios (Table 7). The current crop production system in most parts of the Indo-Gangetic belt showed a decreasing rice yield trend for both APSIM and DSSAT models [36]. Moreover, increasing CO2 concentration (571 ppm) will influence the total global average temperature, which will affect rice and wheat yields [34]. Climate change has a significant impact on agricultural land use diversity, cropping area, and production based on the shifting pattern of rainfall and its fluctuation, temperature, flooding risk, agroecological features of different regions, humidity, and sunshine hours [38,39]. In response to climate change, farmers may utilize more inputs, which could have an impact on future agricultural productivity and production efficiency as well as on human health and the environment [40]. Other studies noted that due to the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, water extraction for irrigation, crop intensification, and CO 2 emissions can enhance the uncertainty in sustainable agricultural production (rice-wheat cropping system) in Bangladesh [41]. This declined rice production will affect the net farm returns under climate change scenarios [35]. In contrast, mean wheat yield is likely to increase by 0.8-21.8 per cent (APSIM) and mixed results-decline in wheat yield by 2.9-8.8 per cent (DSSAT). A recent study also suggested that both APSIM and DSSAT yield variabilities for wheat can be managed by strategic management of fertilizer applications in some cases [36]. Socio-economic analysis for the current study estimated the impact of climate change on future agricultural production systems on farm level. In the case of rice, yield decline was predicted by APSIM and DSSAT model in all future climate scenarios.Remarkably, wheat yield is estimated to rise under all climate scenarios by the APSIM model, while DSSAT predicted decline in wheat yields. The cumulative effect is enough to balance the decline in productivity (rice) and land use under the rice-wheat system. The impact of future climate change events on the rice-wheat cropping system has mixed magnitude on rural farm level production [42]. Using crop models can help farmers make decisions about how to manage their crops to reduce climatic risk and make the most use of limited resources [43]. Crop yield predictions, using future climate scenarios and various crop models from the same site where all other necessary parameters for cropping are known, can bring the chance to compare the selection of crop model for predictable crop yield based on the impacts of climate change [14,[44][45][46]. In this study, the adaptation strategy was analyzed for wheat crop with irrigation amount increased by 50 mm per irrigation which resulted 10-32 percent higher yield with APSIM compared to the same amount applied to project with DSSAT. The planting time, irrigation schedule, and amount of irrigation along with climate change also influenced the growth and development of the crops. Improved fertilizer method, sowing density, and climate resilient cultivar can also be considered as major adaptation strategies for rice and wheat cropping systems [24,47]. To combat the diverse impact of climate change, maintaining the irrigation water use efficiency and introducing drought resistant cultivars plays a significant role [48]. The current study revealed that the benefits of the climate change adaptation strategy can increase the per capita income by up to 3.6% on the farm level and thus could potentially reduce the poverty rate. It is to be noted that adaptation is crucial and responses to climate change need to be well-integrated with poverty reduction strategies to achieve sustainable development. Moreover, climate change adaptation strategies exert direct and immediate impacts on the poor by affecting factors that condition poverty reduction, such as economic growth.Since rice is the most important crop for the population, there is a need to test the adaptation strategy for rice for a more realistic integrated assessment. This study confirmed the development and potential application of an integrated approach of climate change impact assessment. From the climatic perspective, the findings of the study suggested that the rice-wheat cropping system can be adjusted by some adaptation strategies. The duration of rice cropping can be minimized by using the short-term high yielding rice varieties to adjust the wheat sowing timing 7 days earlier than the traditional mid-November to 1st week of November. Shifting the wheat sowing date will minimize the monsoon threat on the wheat ripening stage, which will ensure the quality of grain and the storage life. Additionally, increasing the irrigation amount by 50 mm in wheat cultivation increased the yield. However, this study could not include other enterprises (livestock, fishery, etc.) in the assessment. Therefore, a holistic assessment of climate change on future production systems would only be possible by including all the relevant enterprises of the agriculture sector and testing the most effective adaptation strategy. Lastly, a methodological framework should be developed for upscaling the integrated assessment for the entire Indo-Gangetic Basin.The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https:// www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/ijerph192315829/s1. ","tokenCount":"8593"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8937f280727c8ab6d41ff46e01dbd33d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6fa5f9c3-b699-4a10-b340-f9889eea4209/retrieve","id":"-1241066549"},"keywords":["Foresight","scenarios","anticipatory governance","climate policy","climate","futures","sustainability transformations"],"sieverID":"1343723d-a86c-4365-85d6-01d59f099cc0","pagecount":"35","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Anticipating the possible impacts of climate change has become a key global focus. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has drawn up a set of influential climate and socio-economic scenarios. Many governments, researchers and practitioners are developing scenarios at regional and national levels to imagine and experiment with possible global climate futures. Games are used to experience alternative futures. The futures that are imagined in these processes give shape to actions in the present. But how can the benefits and challenges of these processes of anticipation be better understood as governance interventions, particularly in the regions vulnerable to climate change?The RE-IMAGINE project is co-led by Dr. Joost Vervoort (UU) and Prof. Aarti Gupta (WUR). It investigates how anticipating diverse climate futures is linked to realizing appropriate and effective modes of climate governance in the world's most vulnerable regions. The project analyses various influential processes of anticipation in diverse sustainability contexts across the globe to achieve more reflexive and inclusive climate governance. In doing so, RE-IMAGINE bridges research on foresight processes that envision climate futures with climate governance research. RE-IMAGINE builds on climate foresight expertise of the CGIAR Scenarios Project under the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Program, global climate policy and governance expertise from Wageningen University & Research and the University of Oxford, and foresight and climate governance expertise within Utrecht University. It also works with regional governmental organizations in four global regions that are highly vulnerable to climate change: Central America, West Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. In these regions RE-IMAGINE collaborates closely with the CCAFS network and regional partners UCI, ICRISAT, GIZ and ICCCAD. In addition, a Scientific Advisory Committee consisting of leading foresight and governance researchers provides advice throughout the project. RE-IMAGINE has been made possible by the BNP Paribas Foundation's Climate Action Call, which aims to strengthen anticipation of climate change processes, and further our understanding of impacts on our environment and local populations around the world. The project started in October 2018 and runs until December 2022.Many methods and tools are used today to imagine climate futures and develop strategies for realizing new futures. These include, for example, more formal foresight tools such as participatory scenario analysis (Kok et al., 2007;Vervoort et al., 2014) and modelling (Mason-D 'Croz et al., 2016;Sampson et al., 2016), but also visioning and back casting (Quist et al., 2011;Robinson et al., 2011) cost-benefit analysis (Atkinson, 2015), experiential methods (Candy & Dunagan, 2017;Candy & Potter, 2019), gaming (Baena, 2017;Vervoort, 2019) and critical research methods (Hajer & Versteeg, 2019;Späth & Rohracher, 2012) can be used with a future-orientation. With the proliferation of these processes in sustainabilityrelated research and planning contexts, scrutiny of their role in steering decision-making becomes increasingly important (Vervoort and Gupta, 2018).A growing body of scholars in the social sciences and sustainability sciences have used the notion of anticipatory governance to examine these processes of anticipation, including in environmental governance, public planning, responsible research and innovation, science and technology studies and transition management. We understand the concept most broadly as governing uncertain futures in the present (Vervoort & Gupta, 2018). Research into anticipatory climate governance processes in the Global South has remained very limited, while these regions are most vulnerable to climate change. This report therefore examines processes of anticipation in one of the climate vulnerable regions of the Global South.The research question we answer is: 'through what approaches are diverse processes of anticipation used to govern climate change in diverse Central American contexts?'.In order to answer this question, our inquiry follows several steps. We first examine what methods and tools are used to anticipate climate futures and their role in climate policymaking. We then closely examine three case studies to understand their approaches to anticipatory governance. Additionally, we present the results of two regional meetings with stakeholders where we discussed the challenges that exist in each country to practice anticipatory climate governance and the opportunities to strengthen capacities in this field.Finally, we present recommendations forward to strengthen processes of anticipatory climate governance in the region.In order to examine the approaches through which futures impact on the present, we rely on a recently developed analytical framework on anticipatory governance developed by Muiderman, Gupta, Vervoort & Biermann (Muiderman et al, 2020, see Figure 1). This  This report presents the RE-IMAGINE research in one of its four regions: Central America.Section 2 describes our methodological approach. Section 3 examines the methods and tools of anticipation and their links to decision-making. Section 4 analyzes the conceptions of the future, implications for the present and ultimate aims of three processes based on the analytical framework. Section 5 examines perspectives on the opportunities and challenges for anticipatory governance in practice.This section describes how we selected (Section 2.1.) and analyzed (Section 2.2.) our units of analysis.Our unit of analysis are the various processes of anticipation and their approaches to inform climate decision-making. Our case selection included several steps. First, we set the scope to five vulnerable countries and selected five out of seven countries in the Central American region, namely El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Belize. We selected these countries as they have the lowest incomes in the region (four lower-middle income countries and lower-middle-income country Belize). Contrastingly, Costa Rica and Panama are highincome countries and were therefore excluded.We then searched for policy documents, literature and process reports (grey literature) of anticipatory processes and climate policies in these five countries. The search started on Google by using the following key words in Spanish: [país], política, desarrollo, cambio climático, excepting the Belize cases, which used the English keywords [country], development, policy, climate change. We searched for literature on Scopus using the key words [country] AND development AND policy AND climate AND change AND future. The Spanish translation of the keywords did not result in any useful studies, while the English gave 1 result for Guatemala, 0 for El Salvador, 5 for Honduras, 1 for Nicaragua and 1 from Belize. Of these, 1 Honduras case was taken up in the study; the others were from before 2010 or not relevant. We therefore moved onto a snowballing technique and asked regional climate governance experts to help identify the most relevant processes and policies.A total of 46 documents were identified and reviewed. We read each document and included only those that mentioned two of the following future-oriented keywords: future, adaptation, expected, anticipation, scenario, foresight. Then, documents were thoroughly read to understand the use of anticipation in guiding policy and decision-making.Second, we set the scope to five cases (i.e. linkages) per country. Consequently, of these anticipatory processes and climate policies we chose those that had been initiated after 2010 to focus on the most recent state of affairs. Furthermore, we sought to include cases that showed diversity in terms of: a) stakeholders that initiated the process -national and regional governments, multilevel organizations, private sector and/or NGOs; b) the type of anticipation practice used. Per country, we aimed to select at least two key policies and two anticipation practices. After discovering that many anticipatory processes and policies had a regional focus, e.g. on Latin America, the Caribbean or Central America, we decided to include in our analysis also 4 regional cases. We excluded several processes and policies on the municipal, sub national, or river basin level. These were not included, as they would complicate the comparison between cases. One of the anticipation practices selected is an exception to these criteria, focusing on the City of Belize, due to the fact that the majority of the country's inhabitants live within the boundaries of the city and this therefore can be seen as a national strategy.Finally, based on these criteria, 25 of the most relevant anticipatory processes and climate policies were selected, including 7 for Guatemala, 3 for El Salvador, 4 for Honduras, 3 for Nicaragua, 4 for Belize, and 4 regional cases for Central America.As a next step, we selected three examples for further scrutiny of the approaches to anticipatory governance. Examples were included that are diverse in the methods and tools used. We searched for additional reports on the anticipation processes (e.g. workshop reports) and also held semi-structured interviews with stakeholders on both sides of the anticipation-policy interface. We interviewed at least three key stakeholders involved in each process: one informant who took part in the facilitation of the practice; one intermediary informant who connected the anticipation practice with policy making; and one informant from the policy side.As a final step, we held 2 regional focus groups with diverse stakeholders to discuss our findings and better understand why certain approaches may dominate.Our case study analysis relied on qualitative research methods to understand, analyze and describe the approaches through which anticipation informs decision-making. First, the literature and grey literature on anticipation processes were analyzed on the types of methods and tools and any statements regarding their guidance on actions in the present.Second, the climate policies were assessed on their statements of anticipation methods and tools that guided the policy formulation. We analyzed processes and policies independently in order to compare the ways in which anticipation is stated to have informed decisionmaking.Then, the three cases were examined on the approaches to anticipatory governance with help of the analytical framework by Muiderman et al. (2020) based on the policy documents, process reports and interviews. This triangulation of data helped to verify and contrast findings.Finally, and to answer our final research question, we organized two workshops to discuss findings and possible opportunities and challenges for strengthening anticipatory climate governance capacities. In El Salvador, 25 stakeholders participated, whereas in Guatemala 18 stakeholders, in both cases from the public and private sector, academia, and nongovernmental organizations. We discussed what processes of anticipation were used, the challenges that exist in each country to practice anticipatory climate governance and the opportunities to strengthen capacities in this field.This section first reviews policy documents, process reports and academic literature on the types of methods and tools used to anticipate climate change and their role in climate decision-making.The table below (Table 1) illustrates the anticipation processes included in this study and by whom they were initiated and funded. published a series on mainstreaming climate change in countries in Central America.Most anticipation processes were initiated as an independent process while intending to guide policy and decision making about climate change. Of the 13 cases, 4 were developed to guide a specific policy, plan or strategy. Another 9 were developed independently, of which 6 state that they are aimed at guiding policymaking in general. In guiding policy, most focused on exploring key climate risks, while others took a more prescriptive focus and intended to inform strategic planning purposes.At the same time, it is hard to find statements about their actual influence on policy development. This is rarely explicitly stated. Only four anticipation processes stated to be developed to specifically to guide policy development, for example the environmental and Also, more indirect policy engagement can be found in the fact that policy makers are often involved in the anticipatory process. Most cited studies were born from a collaboration between a national or regional government institution, an NGO or multilateral organization with strong research background (such as CEPAL), or an academic or research-oriented institution (such as CIAT or CATIE).In addition to these processes described above, we also looked at diverse policy documents and examined what was said about the type of method and tools that were used and how this was seen to inform policy development (Table 2).complemented by foresight exercises (mainly scenarios) that had been designed specifically for policymaking. At the same time, not all policies clearly describe the method, nor how its outcomes were used to inform action in the present and more attention is needed to transparently report on this.The examination of these documents thus highlighted gaps in reporting regarding how anticipations of the future have informed action in the present. This is problematic, since these have guided decision making but how cannot be traced.This section describes the findings from studying three processes in depth.In In addition, three workshops were organized, of which the one with an explicit futureorientation was facilitated by CCAFS (CCAFS 2014b). A diverse group participated, including policymakers, regional SAG officials working with farmers, farmers´ association representatives, NGO representatives, teachers and students from a local university specialized in agriculture. They revised a draft version of the policy and suggested recommendations of improvement. In addition, four regional scenarios of plausible socioeconomic and climate impacts on the future of agriculture, food security, livelihoods and environment were used. These were created the year before by a diverse group of experts from the region (CCAFS, 2014a) which were then downscaled to the context of Honduras. The socioeconomic scenarios were presented as narratives and images, its impacts were quantified and presented as model results.The aspired action in the present was to use the downscaled scenarios to test the policy objectives, strategies and expected results for effectiveness. Stakeholders made recommendations to make the policy robust to diverse plausible future changes.Recommendations were presented to the technical committee soon after the workshop which led to the adding of a new strategic axe on climate adaptation measures and several changes to the policy.The scenarios exercise matched three aims of the committee. The foremost important reason was that the methodology was participatory: they wanted critical feedback from regional stakeholders to make sure the policy, written by experts, would also be useful for farmers. At the same time, becoming aware of the scale of climate impacts, the committee hoped to encourage farmers to change their strategies, crops or livelihoods, establishing coherence between the institutional agenda and the proposals generated from the farmers and the territorial environment. Finally, most adaptation measures (such as genetic improvement of seeds) were based on current needs and circumstances (e.g., decreasing crop yields), while these could change in the future. The scenarios exercise could help make their claims of the future more robust and plan responses.In It started with a participatory analysis of the cities´ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), showing that the city did not only face esthetic and infrastructure problems for tourism (mainly traffic jams) but also flooding risks from the delta river on which the city was built, rising sea level, and hurricanes that reached the seafront town.Thereafter, a strategic environmental assessment helped identify complex relationships and possible future drivers of change. To this end, interviews were done with different stakeholders from the public and private sectors and civil society.  This participatory approach has a relatively long history and originates in the diplomatic relationship between the United Nations program and its member countries. Both ECLAC and the Central American Council for Agriculture and Livestock (CAC) affirm that the involvement of policymakers ensures that the studies are policy relevant. Another important reason for working together from beginning to end is to strengthen technical capacities on complex issues such as the use of climate models, scenarios and data uncertainty. The coproduction of knowledge has helped to find solutions and build institutional capacities to understand climate change in national realities.Most studies have been widely referenced throughout policy documents and climate change research in general in Central and South America. Interviewees that had been involved in policy processes indicated that several studies were used to develop the Regional Agriculture Policy for the SICA region (2018-2030), the Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy for the SICA region (EASAC, 2018(EASAC, -2030)), and the Climate Law of Guatemala (2013). However, policy documents do not always reference to these studies.Most of the studies have been widely referenced throughout policy documents and climate change research in Central and South America, as well as in the latest IPCC reports.Interviewees that had been involved in policy processes indicated that several studies were used to develop the Regional Agriculture Policy for the SICA region (2018-2030), the Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy for the SICA region (EASAC, 2018(EASAC, -2030)), and the Climate Law of Guatemala (2013). However, policy documents do not always reference to these studies.In Guatemala and El Salvador, the opportunities and challenges for using anticipation to determine actions in the present were discussed in two focus group discussions. First, the discussion went about which processes participants were familiar with. These included vulnerability and risk assessments of socioeconomic, productive and environmental issues. Participants perceived as a main challenge for developing anticipatory processes the lack of a culture of prevention and a systemic approach to planning. The latter includes a lack of data, problems with obtaining data from public and private institutions, and dispersed data instead of centralized in a place accessible for all. Institutions that use anticipation indicated they need to increase their knowledge and skills in order to deal better with scientific uncertainty. Thus, the focus is very much on (building capacities for) linear and probabilistic types of future risk reduction, which seem to be a prerequisite for realizing more transformative futures somewhere further down the line.Policymakers in Honduras indicated that the current institutional, political and socio economic difficulties challenge the use of anticipatory climate governance processes, such as high poverty, inequality and corruption: ¨How to address the future if we still have not resolved things in the present?¨ (Interview with a policymaker in the SAG team, 24 July 2019).The main challenges encountered to use anticipation for actions in the present include a lack of skills, awareness and training. And also the lack of effective communication skills and coordination between institutions to disseminate and use findings for climate decisionmaking. Finally, a lack of funding was sometimes considered to be a key challenge.On the other hand, opportunities were also shared that could benefit the development and use of anticipation processes. An interesting opportunity is that both countries have public Another opportunity that was perceived to make a positive contribution to anticipatory governance is the focus on participation. Anticipatory studies that were developed in a collaborative effort (including research institutes, universities, and government departments) were also more likely to be disseminated and used for policy and decisionmaking. The Ministry of Agriculture in Guatemala indicated to receive quite many studies and only approves those that are formulated in a participatory manner. This includes the involvement of governmental departments in the inception phase as this increases the uptake of recommendations.Here we provide a list of priorities based on our analysis to support practitioners and decision-makers who want to be more mindful of the ways in which foresight work can impact actions for more sustainable futures in the region.4 Be more transparent on the ways in which anticipation is used to inform actions in the present: who was involved, the methodology, content, assumptions, and limitations 5 The co-creation of futures should start early in the design phase: from the conception of ideas to implementation of outcomes resulting from the anticipation of futures ","tokenCount":"3136"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"07c3db1cec99cb558366033c2a615e6f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/37b3d5c0-4422-499d-bbd3-213305604ea9/retrieve","id":"-1908967964"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"24535084-6f5f-460e-9b23-814aafa26e30","pagecount":"2","content":"The world needs to feed 9 billion people by 2050 using roughly the same amount of land as today. Production on those lands will need to increase by as much as 40 percent while maintaining fragile ecosystems.Data shows that women farmers have similar production yields to men when provided equitable access to resources. Currently, however, there is a wide gender gap: Studies show that male farmers generate 20 to 30 Give women better access to water, land and ecosystems.  Enable women to have greater decision-making power.  Help women re-invest and revitalize land, water and ecosystems.percent higher crop yields than women farmers. That's primarily because women farmers don't have equal access to land, water and agricultural inputs such as credit, irrigation technologies and technical information.Women often are relegated to farming degraded land and if they own land, their plots are smaller than those controlled by men. Cultural and social norms, rules, policies and laws at all levels -household, community, private sector and public sector --limit access. Examine the social relations, structures, organizing principles within households, communities, government and the private sector that limit equal access to resources. Engage with men and women to understand their different needs, priorities and constraints. What are the gender inequality gaps? What are the implications for irrigation, land management and ecosystem services? Promote good science that answers gender-relevant questions, and provide the appropriate data and information to help influence and develop a more inclusive environment. Incorporate gender into each research project and geographical area, and conduct gender \"audits\" within WLE's themes and working group areas to ensure gender is being appropriately considered. Monitor and evaluate projects to determine which approaches can be scaled, and to mitigate potential negative impacts or unintended consequences. Propose specific ways donors and governments can invest in women farmers so they have equal access to financing markets, equipment and other agricultural inputs.Nicoline de Haan, Coordinator of Gender, Poverty and Institutions, n.dehaan@cgiar.org http://wle.cgiar.org/researchprograms/gender-poverty-and-institutions/ Image: Giriraj Amarnath/IWMI Do gender equitable property laws exist in WLE regions? Do social and cultural norms allow for both men and women to own land? Is it possible for them to access information about these laws or legal support services? Do processes exist for men and women to engage in joint decision making and collaboration, such as in the creation of water associations, land stewardship committees, and irrigation revitalization efforts? Does gender equity promote sustainable agriculture and ecosystem preservation? In what ways do women and men differ in their stewardship of natural resources? What broader gender-related issues need to be identified, such as population pressure and climate change, to ensure food security and safeguard the planet?","tokenCount":"439"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4467c98c21edd4940101c8277a445961","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1dfd10f4-bec6-489e-b16f-582d5dfc4e3f/retrieve","id":"2000341121"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"491a3c56-4411-4fea-b581-85459148fd93","pagecount":"30","content":"The African Dairy Genetic Gains (ACGG) in Tanzania report shares progress of the program activities implemented in a particular month to give the team and stakeholders information on what is happening in terms of success and challenges. The successes are shared to influence others to change and the challenges are shared so that they can be mitigated to enhance best dairy management practices by dairy farmers to increase productivity per cow and earn profit. This report is shared with the ADGG team, stakeholders and partners to inform, share lesson and seek recommendations for improvement in program activities.The report is a compilation of reports by performance recording agents (PRAs), site coordinators (SC) and Information Communication Technology (ICT) teams in each of the Local Government Authorities (LGAs) we are working with. It also has information on what has happened in ADGG team in site and national levels over the past month. It covers the events, data capture, scenarios, success, challenges and threats in program implementation with the aim of supporting farmers to improve dairy productivity and profitability.Among other activities, the ADGG team carries out data capture and advises farmer based on the data they have captured during monitoring. Monitoring in February 2020 was slightly lower compare to January 2019 in terms of total farmer visited and number of records done per farmer visited. There is improvement in the quality of data collected by the team over the past one year. As the rainy season comes to an end, road access has been difficult, but the PRAs have been doing extraordinary work in making sure farmers are reached. During monitoring, several activities are carried out such as recording animal weight, production, body condition score, to mention a few. On the other side, PRA performance in artificial insemination (AI) increased this month as did pregnancy diagnosis and synchronization. Calf registration decreased tremendously due to challenge of updating data and the list of farmers.The success stories reported in February are a result of PRA advice to farmers on good practices during monthly visits and scenarios highlight the poor practices observed among some farmers. These are captured as a lesson for farmers to help them adopt good dairy management practices. The threats and challenges reported affected implementation of the activities but if mitigated they can become opportunities.The monitoring and awarding strategy analysis for this month shows that Maridadi Upatu (Njombe) has performed better than the rest of the PRAs, followed by Justine Magayane (Siha) and in third place are Leah Mfikwa (Rungwe) and Amani Mgoba (Makambako). The top three PRA have been on top for the last three months. The best performing award is based on number of farmers visited and number of forms filled, distance traveled and evaluation by farmers.The ADGG team (all PRA and SC) has worked closely with field officers with support from ADGG offices in Dar Es Salaam. Resource sharing has enabled the best performing farmers to give the best information services daily, which enhances productivity per cow among farmers in the program.This report compiled overall activities from the field team that were performed in February 2020. The report is compilation of details sent by PRAs and SCs from all Sites and all LGA that ADGG is working. The PRAs and SCs are employees of LGAs or government institutions but have given special contract by the ADGG program to works with dairy farmers in their respective areas to ensure ADGG activities are done as per government regulations. The PRAs work under supervision of SC from ADGG side and District Livestock and Fisheries Development Officers (DLFDO) from the LGA side. DLFDOs have supported the ADGG team on the ground to enhance efficiency.The PRAs and SCs have been keen in ensuring the data captured is of high quality and reliable, despite system malfunctions. In February, farm visits slightly decreased in terms of data captured during monitoring, major cause being update list malfunction, which did not update the information that was sent by PRAs or SCs. The ADGG monthly visits to the farmers and interventions towards dairy improvement through record keeping and feedback has changed how farmer are making decisions, but the system malfunction will introduce gaps in the data captured as many farmers cannot be monitored anymore.However, the challenges and issue raised by farmers in the field were mitigated using different methods in different areas. Table 1 shows the monitoring done this month. The farmers visited in February were 8,398; slightly fewer than the number visited in January, which was 8,643, this is a decrease of 2.8%. Forms filled were 12,317, slightly lower than the previous month, which was recorded as 12,811, a decrease of 3.86%. Calf registration has increased to 258 in February compare to 252 recorded in January (an increase of 2.38%), but calf monitoring decreased to 1,472 in February compare with 1,668 recorded in January, a decrease of 13%. When looking at the trend in the Figure 1, it shows tremendous decrease in calf monitoring for each PRA, this was caused by calves not seen during monitoring caused by update list malfunction. The animals exit increased by 1.47% (Table 1) indicating that farmers are disposing more of their animals this month than last month. However, PRAs have been proactive in transferring ownership of the animal sold.Figure 2 shows average calf registered are 9 with an average of calf monitoring of 51 calves per PRA. The maximum calf registration is 31 while calf monitored is 145 per PRA. Table 2 shows an increase in farmers registration by 0.02% while animals registered increased by 0.25% in February.Many farmers are demanding their animal be monitored but limited resources make it difficult to increase the number of animals monitored. Farmers registered are those who have used AI for the first time. Increase in visits has direct relation to increase in farmers' getting advise, which impacts dairy management in all sites. The average performance of PRAs per dayThe PRA performance is slightly lower this month than last month. The average performance per PRA recorded as per farmers visited in a day is 11, which is slightly lower than January (12). The minimum record for farmer visited is 10, which is the same as those recorded last month.The average form filled in a day is 16, slightly lower than last month (17). The maximum and minimum are 29 and 10, respectively, which are the same as last month (January).According to figure above, best performance goes to Njombe DC where PRA visited high number of farmers than anyone in the team. Congratulation to Maridadi Upatu who has best performance than any other PRA in this month. For consecutive second months there is no underperformance.Lowest performer (less than 10) No PRA recorded lest than 10 visits.The best performer For medium-scale and large-scale farmers, monitoring and registration has been done by SCs. This month some sites performance was unsatisfactory compared to last month. Asanterabi Urasa (Arusha) again did very well compared to other SCs. Others SCs worked below expectation.However, Mistro seem not to work as expected which made all the information flow during monitoring difficult. The evidence shows a decrease of 22% whereby 2,296 animals were registered, which is higher than what was reported in January (2,265) but animals monitored were 831, which is lower than what was reported in January (1,058). Details of comparisons are in Table 3 below. Generally, overall performance was impaired by the system malfunction. Where total animal monitored for both small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale farms decreased tremendously. Unless necessary effort is made, there will be continue decrease in monitoring. The summary in Table 4 shows the evidence of farmers and animals monitored. Though important in identification of the animals, ear tagging has been used in a limited way. The distribution mechanism of ear tags is not clear from the ministry of Livestock and Fisheries and 150,000 tags imported by Bajuta Tags have not been distributed to farms/farmers.Various SMS messages have continued to be sent to farmers as a means of educating them on various issues concerning management of dairy cattle. In February, messages sent were on heifer diseases. Farmers frequently communicate with the team in case they receive messages that need clarification.Feedback SMS messages alerts on the cow calendar were sent to farmers to remind them when cows are on heat of when a cow is expected to deliver to help farmers prepare.However, the recent government requirement for registration of the all mobile phone numbers using national ID and fingerprint has affected most farmers. Many of them have changed their phones hence are not receiving SMS communication. The ADGG team has started working with PRAs and SCs to get a list of all farmers who are not receiving SMS due to sim card switch off by the government. A special report with be sent to iCow with the list of new phone number of all interested farmers.Farmers feel privileged to be visited every month Farmers visited every month and receiving SMS alerts say they feel very privileged and they appreciate ADGG for making them feel special. Some of them said that non-registered farmers envy those who are visited and receive messages from ADGG, which has helped them improve their dairy management practices and are getting more milk. However, non-ADGG farmers do receive information and knowledge shared by the program from their fellow farmers and are also learning from the program's interventions.PRAs/AI technicians performance in FebruaryPRAs and SCs were trained how to carry out artificial insemination. Some of them have started doing AI and capturing data digitally. It is encouraging that performance has improved tremendously for some of them especial those in the southern highlands, Muheza DC and Tanga areas. ICT support for the month was to attend to issues that hindered field activities as per project goals. The issues that surface and attended to in February were: Mistro, update list challenges, capturing inputs and comments on testing the new tool and visualization, and the web-based and SMS numbers that failed.On the part of using the Open Data Kit (ODK), the major challenge experienced was issuess with updating the list, which resulted in field activities such as monitored animals not being seen, overlapping of district and villages information etc. For the medium-and large-scale farms, GPS location and herd size information was requested and shared with the data team (see attachment in the annexes). Meetings were also held with the eGovernment Authorities (eGAs) to identify all phone numbers of farmers who were not active due to sim card blockage by the government. Last was capturing comments and inputs from the field for the new tool in ODK and visualization of web-based tools which were tested. Comments and inputs were shared to the data team (attached in annexes).ADGG is now known by many farmers as the project that support them to improve their livelihoods. Recently, dairy farmers were meeting to discuss and come up with solutions to their challenges. SMS alerts and visits have change the lives of many dairy farmers who are now able to do dairy management in new ways. They are proud to be part of ADGG and they share what they have learned with their neighbours and those who visits their farms. Working together between PRA and AI technicians is important to avoid duplication of resources and effort but more crucial is the need to approach farmers as a unit (instead of confusing the farmer). In case there is a challenge in the field, PRAs and AI technicians should work together to solve it. At this time, some PRAs and SCs are testing a new tool, AI technicians are still requesting if the update list can be removed or rectified to make the data capture possible digitally.Major events in ADGG TanzaniaNational eventThe ADGG team comprising participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda met at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) campus in Nairobi in February to discuss ADGG plans for the next 14 months.The meeting had two main objectives: (1) to continue and complete data collection, comprehensively analyse and report on the current ADGG activities, and (2) to establish partnerships necessary for funding and scaling up ADGG into a regional platform. Apart from discussing the two objectives, the team agreed to use champions to support mainstreaming of genetic gains in government plans, program and initiatives and solidify the activity with a legal framework by the government. This will help to improve and accelerate livestock development in Tanzania. Program plans were developed for each country and contracts with all partners were finalized.Farmers meeting in Amani, TangaIn Amani Tanga, farmers met to discuss challenges and success stories they are facing. Most farmers requested to join the ADGG project through farmers registration and later to be visited every month and their animals monitored. Their requests were inspired by how PRAs visit and support dairy farmers in the project.In Makambako Town Council, farmers met to discuss achievement and progress of AI service in the area. The meeting, which was led by farmers' leaders from all farmers groups in Makambako, agreed to request government to provide subsidies to decrease the cost of AI from TZS 30,000-35,000 to TZS10,000-15,000 per insemination. Farmers wanted to know when they will start benefiting from the subsidized costs, which was announced by the Minister of Livestock and Fisheries Development. PRAs in collaboration the acting Town Livestock and Fisheries Officer (TLFO) advised farmers to be patient and wait for the government to provide subsidy, which could not be provided in the current government budget.In Mbozi DC, a meeting, which was led by Livestock Department brought together farmers and other dairy stakeholders to discuss issues limiting growth of the dairy industry in Mbozi. During this meeting, the PRA of Mbozi DC spoke about ADGG and its progress in the LGA. The PRA advised farmer to records livestock data so that they can make informed decisions and improve their management of their farm animals.Diseases and disease surveillance Animal diseases can be controlled or eliminated when farmers' attitudes and behaviour are changed to adopt improved dairy management practices. Most farmers do follow the advice and lessons conveyed during farm visits and mobile phone SMS service on the need to change from traditional dairy keeping to modern dairy husbandry practices. However, many farmers now understand the need for improved animal housing and the importance of disease control and prevention. Example of disease control and prevention measures adopted by farmers after advice by the PRAs and veterinary officers include the following.The Meru PRA found an anaplasmosis case during his monthly farm visits. He attended to the case and was able to get laboratory test confirmation of the disease. The treatment of the affected animal started was started immediately and it has started to recover. The PRA advised the owner of the animal to use prophylactic drugs regularly to make sure animals are protected against the disease.The Arusha DC PRA found an unfortunate scenario of a farmer in Arusha CC whose cow calved during the night and the cow ended up having a prolapsed uterus. Because it happened during the night, the farmer could not get assistance and the cow ended up dying due to severe loss of blood.The farmer lost a cow but remained with a calf that she is keeping with a foster mother after being advised by the PRA on the proper way to raise the calf including making use of artificial colostrum.A case of ephemeral fever was found in Arusha CC. A farmer noticed her cow was not well and had an increase in temperature. She called the PRA who observed the animal and recorded fever, lameness and nasal and ocular discharge. The PRA diagnosed the animal's sickness as ephemeral fever and started administering antibiotics and other supportive treatments. After few days the animal recovered successfully.In Korogwe DC, animals are grazed in free-range conditions. A farmer who was grazing his animal in Pangani, near the river lost his cow after it was attacked by a crocodile. The animal was rescued by a neighbour who made efforts to chase crocodile, but crocodile cut off the tail of the cow and injured it on its fore limb. Farmers was advised to be careful when grazing there and when watering their animal in the river.In Amani Tanga, an animal was found with vaginal prolapse after a farmer called PRA to attend to the case. Initially, the farmer thought that the animal was watched (traditional way of referring to ill-wish) by the neighbour as it was very new to him and he had never heard about it before. The PRA counseled farmer and gave him hope that the cow will recover after treatment.A farmer, God Juma, in Itende ward in Mbeya CC reported that he had a calf that was very sick. The PRA rushed to attend to the calf and found it had severe pneumonia. He informed the farmer and started treatment immediately and the calf started to recover.The farmer was advised to feed it well with enough milk and ensure proper hygiene to avoid a repeat of the case.A bull in Arusha CC was bitten by a snake while it was grazing in the field. The owner noticed the bite after a short time and called the PRA who is also a veterinary officer who administered some drugs to neutralize the poison. The bull is still recovering from the incidence and farmer is happy that her bull was saved.In Arusha DC, a calf was born with two head, two mouth, three eyes and two ears.The PRA and SC found the history of the parents to try and find out what went wrong. They found the case was caused by inbreeding or heavy metals effect. Research is ongoing on to see what might have caused it.An AI technician in Iringa DC (Juma Ramadhan Mwevirah) called the SC (who is also a veterinary surgeon) claiming to have inseminated the cow eleven month ago. He said the farmer had waited for calving time in vain. The cow was diagnosed and found to be pregnant. Upon examination it was realized that uterus was full of fluid with a very small foetus which did not relate to the length of gestation and it was unclear whether the foetus was alive or dead. Because of the prolonged gestation period it was assumed dead. The SC decided to perform a Caesarian section (surgical intervention) which was successful. However, the following was seen.The foetus was still alive but was small contrary to the gestation period and was formed outside the amniotic cavity.• The uterus also had indication of fungal infection which may have caused its limited growth.Poor management practicesFollowing ongoing heavy rains some animals have been suffering as a result of poor housing. Some of the cattle sheds were flooded and muddy due to poor infrastructure and/or improper construction. During the monthly visits, the ADGG team advised farmers to consider relocating the affected cattle sheds to other safer areas. The team also insisted on the need to for properly constructed cattle sheds with good foundations.In Hai District, a car carrying brewers waste was involved in an accident. Farmers around the area rushed to the accident scene with buckets to fetch as much brewers waste as they could carry to use as feed for their animals. Unfortunately, one farmer fed his calf too much of it, which led to bloating, which caused the calf's death. The PRA advised farmers to always use the recommended amounts of animal feeds, especially when it is foreign feed that an animal has not eaten before.On the course of monthly visits in Tanga, the PRA there met with a worker who assists farmer in managing dairy cows. This person was wearing dirty clothes that were stained with cow dung and he wore the same clothes during milking. The PRA advised him to wear clean clothes when milking to reduce chances of contaminating milk during or after milking.In Njombe DC, unhygienic animal housing conditions were found to be a leading cause of mastitis. Often, during the monthly visits, farmers in the area complain that their cows are having udder problems. In this case, upon examination, mastitis was found to be the result of keeping a dairy cow in poor hygiene conditions. The cow was standing in a wet floor throughout without sleeping.The PRA started treating the cow and advised the farmer to improve the cow shed and maintain its cleanness.Overgrown hooves in cows is a common condition associated with poor housing and limited movement or exercise of the animals. It mostly happens in particularly poorly constructed floors. During a field visit in Iringa, the SC came across a lame cow with overgrown hooves. The history of the animals showed that the animal was bought from another farm with poor housing conditions, which probably accelerated the problem. After assessing the animal, the ADGG team trimmed its hooves after which the cow would walk well and is in good health.The ADGG team learned that some farmers have misconceptions about rearing bulls.One farmer in Meru DC believes that bulls are not supposed to be sheltered inside cattle sheds but instead exposed to extreme weather conditions including rain in order for them to grow fast. The farmer was advised not to do so because it might cause diseases and lead to economic loss. The farmer was surprised by the advice was and felt bad for letting his animal suffer for many months. He subsequently moved the bull into a shed.Monitoring (visiting farmers) each month has given opportunity for the field team (PRAs and SCs) to observe changes among farmers. The changes observed mostly are the improvement of cow husbandry which includes improvement of cowsheds, feed storage, pasture and range management, and better cleaning and hygiene practices.Increased milk production as result of improved management has created an opportunity for youth get employment by engaging themselves in activities along the milk value including in milk processing. In Arusha DC, John Alfayo, a farmer discovered an opportunity in adding value to the milk and decided to start a small milk processing plant in his farm. He started small and is aiming at processing at least 2,000 litres of milk per day. He said the main challenge he faces in his new business is poor milk quality, which makes him reject milk from some farmers. The PRA took the challenge as an opportunity to educate farmers on the need to improve milk quality since farmers often complain about a limited milk market and processors complaining about poor quality milk produced by farmers.Farmers have been advised to improve cattle feeds so maintain the health of their animals and make them more productive. In Arusha DC, one farmer has increased his pasture area from a small plot to a quarter acre in order to have more pasture for his cow. The PRA also advised him to grow a variety of forage species such as Pennisetum spp and Desmodium spp in his farm because they grow together well and improve nutritional advantages for animals when combined in feeds.At the same time, in Korogwe TC, a farmer has planted plenty of pasture for use when there is scarcity of feeds. The farmer started growing his own pasture plots after being advised by the PRA.Most farmers now know the importance of establishing pasture plots and planting fodders in this rain season as an insurance for feed availability in the future.Improved feed and storageFollowing regular visits and advice, farmers are improving feed management which is improving milk production and the health status of their animals. In Nkoaranga Ward, a farmer has witnessed an increase in milk production from 16 to 20 litres per day after following advice from PRA on proper formulation of concentrates at reasonable cost.Elsewhere, due to seasonality in availability of feeds, farmers need to store feeds for use when feed availability is limited. Some farmers have improved feed storage by building feed stores near their cowsheds to prevent damage of feeds during harsh weather.Many farmers are, however, still moving towards implementing good management practices in their farms based on advice given by PRAs and messages they receive from the ADGG program. In one scenario, a farmer in Meru DC was advised to use available resources to improve her cowshed. She did so, but after a very long time.In Njombe, farmers have been keeping records in their notebook for reference and decision-making. On the right is picture from a page in a notebooks of a farmer who uses this method successfully. She said keeping records has made her change her whole herd. Record keeping has improved her cows by helping her avoid inbreeding when using bull semen or AI. She said she also refers to the notes treating the animals and deciding which animals to keep for breeding and which ones to sell.ADGG strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysisThe ADGG program has been working in Tanzania for four years now and is seen as a model for other projects/ programs in the country. It has changed the lives and perceptions of many farmers based on the feedback of farmers and practitioners in the program sites.Challenges and threats 1. Update list challenges decrease efficiency and reduce number of animals being monitoring each day.2. This month, the Mistro program was corrupted in many computers, especially farmers' computers and IT was contacted and the issue was resolved.3. Details of registered calves and other animals not appearing in the ODK tool for monitoring because of ODK update list failure.4. Heavy rains which have interfered with the working efficiency of the team especially on timing for working and destruction of roads to farms.5. The rate of slaughtering registered animals is increasing 6. AI technicians in Mbeya have lacked liquid nitrogen since the Mbeya Zone Referral Hospital stopped selling the gas two weeks ago.In February, it became difficult to work in the field because of various system challenges, which brought down performance significantly because of a decrease in animals monitored. The decrease in the number of animals monitored needs immediately intervention. A malfunction in the update list has affected field work. It is recommended to fast track the roll out of the new tool so that we can have clean data collected with minimal missing data. Hence, the ICT team should work as fast as possible to avoid having more gaps as a result of data that is not captured due to system malfunction, which has existed for long now. Capturing data for the medium-scale and large-scale farms has decreased as well due to Mistro program failure in many farms.This month, the best PRA is Maridadi Upatu (Njombe DC) followed by Justine Magayane (Siha) and third are Leah Mfikwa (Rungwe) and Amani Mgoba (Makambako). These farmers have ranked at the top for three consecutive months. The PRA/AI technicians performance has increased tremendously, although animals data was not updated in the system to capture insemination data.The ADGG team appreciates the Local Government Authority for continuous support in data capturing in the field and organizing innovation platform meetings, especially RLAs, DLFDO/CLFDO/TLFDO in each area we are working. We thank the regional commissioners and the district commissioners and LGA directors for the support they give in the field and free venue they provide for meetings in their respective areas. The ADGG program team also thanks all the partners whom are working with the team the field and those who provide farmers with the services promised to them.Performance of PRA in February ","tokenCount":"4558"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2b9b3434165d4351ba6de6d877f73144","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f5c6b19f-b5c1-49b9-ba8a-f7fb710db8bf/retrieve","id":"-1678497095"},"keywords":["Activity factors","Colombian livestock sector","Environmental impacts","Factorial analysis of mixed data","Livestock production systems","Public policies"],"sieverID":"5abc5fa3-5ce8-4e65-9561-2aaeb4dfa691","pagecount":"14","content":"There are few reports on dual-purpose cattle systems characterization in Latin America and Colombia based on large datasets. This limits our understanding of their dynamics, and the establishment of public policies and government programs to improve their productive performance, promotion and rural development. This study aimed to characterize very small, small, medium, and large dual-purpose farms in Colombia from technical and environmental perspectives. The data analysed were obtained from the Ganadería Colombiana Sostenible and the LivestockPlus projects, which gathered information from a total of 1313 dual-purpose farms in Colombia. Farms were classified as being either very small (1 to 30 bovines), small (31 to 50 bovines), medium (51 to 250 bovines), or large farms (more than 251 bovines). Numerical and categorical variables were distributed into five components: (1) General Farm Information, (2) Herd Composition and Management, (3) Pasture Management, (4) Production Information, and (5) Environmental Information. Each component was analysed using the factorial analysis of mixed data (FAMD) method. According to FAMD, for the components General Farm Information, Herd Composition and Management, Pasture Management, and Production Information, the distribution of variables led to a spatial separation of the centroid from each category of producers. For the component Environmental Information, there was no separation of the centroid. In general, medium-sized and large farms showed better infrastructure, better machinery and equipment, and better reproductive practices; however, this was not reflected in a significant improvement of productive parameters, except for a lower mortality rate. Larger livestock producers need to plan their livestock husbandry activities properly, based on their better available infrastructure and livestock management practices, with the purpose of increasing productivity. The main features identified for each livestock producer category can be the basis to guide and establish policies and programmes for their technological development. The development of better livestock management practices and the implementation of technology, as well as technical assistance, should focus on small-and medium-sized livestock producers, which could lead to reaching a better productive and reproductive performance of dual-purpose systems.Colombia has approximately 27.2 million head of cattle (ICA 2019), and is ranked as the fourth Latin American country in terms of highest livestock population, and milk and beef production (FAO 2013). In Colombia 933, 000 tons of beef and 7,301 million liters of milk are produced annually (Fedegan 2019), which come from 623, 794 registered farms, with 82% of such having less than 50 animals (ICA 2019). Dual-purpose farming accounts for 35.0% of the Colombian cattle herd (Fedegan 2019), and is an important contributor to those production figures. These numbers highlight the importance of focusing on small producers for the development and improvements for cattle production systems in the country.Dual-purpose cattle systems (DPS) are defined as those where milk and meat are produced simultaneously, cows are partially milked, the residual milk is consumed by their calves, feed is mainly based on grazing (Ruiz-Guevara et al. 2008), and their productivity (milk or meat per unit area and/or per animal) is lower compared to systems oriented towards the production of milk or beef exclusively (Cortés-Mora et al. 2012). Whilst intensive systems are more productive, it has been reported that they are not as profitable as well-managed DPS (Yamamoto et al. 2007;Puebla-Albiter et al. 2015). This suggests that DPS may have lower production costs per unit of milk and beef than intensive systems (Holmann et al. 2003;Magaña-Monforte et al. 2006). The characterization of livestock farms makes it possible to become acquainted with the limitations and potentials of the technical, productive, reproductive, and environmental components. The purpose is to develop plans, projects, and/or public policies for technology development and transfer, to ensure actions are focused on using resources efficiently (Díaz-Castillo et al. 2014).Reports on dual-purpose cattle systems characterization in Latin America and Colombia, based on large datasets, are few. This limits our understanding of their dynamics, and the establishment of public policies to improve their productive performance, promotion and rural development. Consequently, this study was conducted to characterize very small, small, medium, and large dualpurpose farms across 13 cattle-producing departments of Colombia from a technical and environmental perspective. The aim is to identify the main differences amongst groups and the proper strategies to improve their productive and environmental indicators.The 1313 cattle farms studied were located in the tropical lowlands of the following departments in Colombia: Atlántico, Bolívar, Boyacá, Caldas, Cauca, Cesar, La Guajira, Meta, Quindío, Risaralda, Santander, Tolima, and Valle del Cauca, as indicated in Fig. 1. These 13 departments cover an area of 301,363 km 2 with a population of 21,711,637 inhabitants. In Colombian tropical lowlands, the maximum altitude is 1200 m, and the average annual temperature ranges from 18 to 38 °C, with 1100 mm of annual rainfall averages. The livestock in the 1313 cattle farms mainly consists of bovines.The information used in this study was obtained from the Sustainable Colombian Cattle Ranching (GCS, Spanish initials) and the LivestockPlus (L+) projects conducted in Colombia. In these studies, over a period of 1 year, quantitative and qualitative data were collected by applying surveys on farms, to determine a baseline scenario before project interventions. Both projects used a semi-structured questionnaire for collecting data from farmers. The components of the collected information were similar between projects, which allowed us to use it for the current study. Quantitative and qualitative information was provided by the farmers according to their knowledge of the farms, and/or their farm records, where available. In the first project (GCS), a survey was conducted on a total of 2011 farms characterized as cow-calf, cattle fattening, dual-purpose, full cycle, or specialized dairy livestock farms according to the farmer responses during the surveys. Regions where farms are located were selected based on environmental attributes, the presence of globally important ecosystems, and proximity to protected areas. Participation in the GCS project was voluntary. The main criteria for including the farms in the project were being a property owned by a Colombian; being classified as small, medium, or large in size according to the farm area and their location; and not having records of legal issues. Livestock farms surveyed were located in the following departments of Colombia (in parenthesis, the number of municipalities surveyed): Atlántico (13), Bolívar (4), Boyacá (12), Caldas (2), Cesar (10), La Guajira (5), Meta (10), Quindío (9), Risaralda (2), Santander (4), Tolima (6), and Valle del Cauca (7) (Fig. 1). The 10-component questionnaire used on each farm included questions on (1) general information, (2) herd composition and management, (3) pasture management practices, (4) livestock production and reproduction data, (5) animal health, (6) environmental information, (7) social information, (8) organizational and relationships with the external environment, (9) income from livestock, and (10) financial information.The L+ project conducted a survey amongst farms located in the Meta Piedmont (municipalities of Cumaral and Restrepo), Meta high plains (Puerto Gaitán and Puerto López), and Cauca dry valley of Patía (El Bordo and Mercaderes) in Colombia (Fig. 1). Surveys were conducted in 607 livestock farms as follows: Piedmont (150), High Plains (147), and the dry valley of Patía (310). The questionnaire focused on eight components:(1) general information, (2) administrative information, (3) land-use information, (4) technical assistance, (5) production and trade system characteristics, (6) association membership, (7) financial information, and (8) climate events. Farms were classified as cow-calf, cattle fattening, dual-purpose, full cycle, or specialized dairy livestock farms according to the farmer's statement during the surveys.From the total combined sample of 2618 livestock farms surveyed, 1313 dual-purpose farms were identified. These were stratified according to their livestock inventories into four categories of producers according to the number of cattle heads (in parenthesis): very small livestock producers (VSP; 1 to 30), small livestock producers (SP; 31 to 50), medium livestock producers (MP: 51 to 250), and large livestock producers (LP; over 251) (Fedegan 2006). Table 1 shows the numeric and categorical variables included, classified into five components.Assessment of each of the five components was performed by means of factor analysis of mixed data (FAMD), using the homonymous function of the Facto-MineR package in R (R Core Team 2016). Mixed data are those in which both quantitative and qualitative variables are recorded on sampling units. FAMD is a multivariate method that simultaneously uses both types of variables as active elements to generate a lowerdimensional space, through the combination of principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) (Pagès 2004). Quantitative variables were balanced and normalized to Z values, whilst the qualitative variables were disaggregated in a disjunctive normalized data table. This ensures a balanced influence of both quantitative and qualitative variables on the determination of the dimensions of the lower-dimensional space. This method allowed us to graphically study similarities/dissimilarities between production units (distances) and correlations between continuous variables (Pagès 2004). Prior to applying FAMD, missing data imputation was carried out, using the algorithm implemented in the imputeFAMD function within the mis-sMDA package (Josse and Husson 2016). Supplementary variables such as the number of animals and producer category did not participate in the construction of the model.Table Milking method (manual, mechanical), animal weighing method (weighing tape, scale), weighing at birth (yes, no), weighing at weaning (yes, no), reproduction system (free natural mating, controlled natural mating, artificial insemination, embryo transfer), reproductive control on cows and bulls (yes, no), weighing of heifers for breeding at first service (yes, no), inseminator (yes, no), artificial insemination equipment (yes, no), separation of the dry lot (yes, no), calving paddock (yes, no), and determination of the calving interval (yes, no)(5) Environmental Information -Forest (yes, no), water source (surface water, underground water, piped water), water springs (yes, no), water availability during summer for livestock (yes, no), irrigation system (yes, no), wastewater treatment system (yes, no), solid waste management (incineration, burial, water streams, handled by a third party) a AU animal unit (1 AU being either 1 cow or 3.3 female and male calves less than 1 year, or 1.7 female and male calves 1-2 years, or 1.3 heifers 2-3 years, or 1.3 steers 1-2 years, or 0.8 bulls)b Weight gain at weaning (kg day −1 ) was estimated based on the weight at birth, weight at weaning, and the time between birth and weaning c Weight gain at fattening (kg day −1 ) was estimated based on the weight at the beginning and the end of the fattening stage and the fattening time as supplementary variable, and (b) the projection of continuous variables on the factor plane of the first two dimensions with the number of animals as the supplementary variable. Supplementary variables did not participate in the construction of the model. Table S1 of the Supplementary material provides contingency tables of the categorical variables included in the FAMDs. The first two dimensions captured 34.5, 25.1, 30.2, 40.7, and 29.1% of the variability of components: General Information about the Farm (Fig. 2), Herd Composition and Management (Fig. 3), Pasture Management (Fig. 4), Production and Reproduction Information (Fig. 5), and Environmental Information (Fig. 6), respectively. The contribution of each variable (square cosine (cos 2 )) to the construction of the first two dimensions in each FAMD analysis is presented in Table S2 of the Supplementary material. There was a clear separation of the centroid of the different groups (VSP, SP, MP, and LP)   S3 of the Supplementary material in the components: General Farm Information, Herd Composition and Management, Pasture Management, and Production Information (Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5). For the component Environmental Information, there was no separation from the centroid, which suggests there are no remarkable differences in the implementation of these practices associated to farm size.Plotting the categorical variables within this component showed an alignment of the livestock producer categories over the first dimension of the FAMD representation (Fig. 2a) Variables as those related to the presence of machinery, equipment, and facilities were more correlated with the first dimension (tractor, chainsaw, motor pump, manual lawn mower, pen, chute) and second dimension (electronic scale, cooling tank, electric pump, electric fence, barn, and storehouse) (Table S2). In addition, these variables were closely correlated to large-, small-, and medium-sized species, and with categories LP and MP, since they are in the same area of the graph (Fig. 2a). On the contrary, the lack of use of these technologies and the absence of these species were located on the left  S3 of the Supplementary material  S3 of the Supplementary material side of dimension 1, where the presence of agroforestry crops is also located, and are thus associated to categories VSP and SP, as they are in the same area of the graphical plot. Numerical area variables-total farm area, area allocated to livestock, improved pastures, agroforestry crops, transitory crops (i.e. annual), silvopastoral systems, scattered trees in pastures, and perennial crops-and the number of horses, goats, and sheep contributed the most to the construction of the first dimension (Table S2). Additionally, these variables were positively correlated with this dimension and the number of cattle, i.e. with MP and LP. In turn, the variables number of pigs and forest monoculture were positively correlated and were also the ones contributing the most to the construction of dimension 2 (Table S2).  S3 of the Supplementary material  S3 of the Supplementary materialHerd composition, supply rates of supplementary feeds, and productive and reproductive parameters for VSP, SP, MP, and LP are shown in Table 3. Calved cows are those calved in the days prior to the development of the surveys, whilst milking cows are those which are milked and usually have a calf with her until the weaning. After a period of time, when calved cows start to be milked, they are counted as milking cows.Analysis of the categorical variables showed a higher correlation in the use of concentrate feeds, mineral salts, and record keeping for livestock production with dimension 1 (Table S2). Variables indicating the adoption of these practices were located on the right side of the first dimension, whilst variables indicating non-adoption were located on the left side (Fig. 3a). Therefore, MP and LP are more likely to keep productive and reproductive records and use a larger proportion of supplementary feed in the animal diets than VSP and SP (Table S1).Regarding numerical variables, the supply rate of mineral salts, concentrate feeds, and supplementary feeds showed a positive correlation to dimension 1 (Fig. 2b) (Table S2). On the other hand, variables such as the percentage of male and female calves and the percentage of milking cows showed a positive correlation with dimension 2 (Table S2).Categorical variables such as pasture renovation, rotational grazing, chemical fertilization, division of paddocks with barbed wire, and manual weed control presented a higher correlation with dimension 1 (Fig. 4a) (Table S2). On the other hand, chemical and mixed weed control and no use of soil amendments had a higher correlation with the second dimension (Table S2). Additionally, there was an aggregation towards the right side of dimension 1 of the variables: chemical fertilization, pasture renovation, rotational grazing, division of paddocks, application of soil amendments, and use of electric fences (Fig. 4a). On the contrary, variables related to the non-implementation of these practices and/or activities oriented towards the left side of dimension 1. Moreover, as an overall behaviour, MP and LP tend to divide pastures using electric fences and barbed wire (the combination of both practices) to a larger extent, as well as weed control using a combination of chemical, mechanical, and manual methods (mixed method), and pasture renewal practices.Numerical variables, such as fertilization rate, application of soil amendments, and number of animals, were positively correlated to dimension 1 (Fig. 4b). On the other hand, fertilized area was positively correlated to dimension 2 (Table S2). This suggests that MP and LP applied higher amounts of fertilizers and soil amendments.With respect to the categorical variables, the use of a scale, weighing animals, weighing at birth and weaning, calving paddock, determination of the calving interval, and separation of the dry lot showed a high correlation with dimension 1 (Table S2). In addition, variables such as type of reproduction system, weighing measuring tape, and reproductive control on cows and bulls presented high correlation with dimension 2 (Table S2). Furthermore, there was an aggregation towards the upper side of the graph of the categorical variables: mechanical milking, controlled natural mating, artificial insemination, embryo transfer, palpation of cows, reproductive control on bulls, weighing of heifers for breeding at first service, the use of scale, separation of the dry lot, and determination of the calving interval, in addition to the existence of a calving paddock, equipment for artificial insemination, and inseminator (Fig. 5a). On the contrary, the variables related to non-adoption of these practices and/or activities, and the non-existence of such facilities or equipment were located on the left side of the graph, along with the variable free natural mating. Hence, both MP and LP tend to carry out better productive and reproductive practices, which could lead to a better economic performance of farms classified in those categories (Holmann et al. 2003).With respect to numerical variables, live weight gain (LWG) in the pre-weaning stage, weight at weaning, weight at birth, final fattening weight, and age at the end of fattening showed a positive correlation to dimension 1 (Table S2) (Fig. 5b). Moreover, age at weaning, LWG in the fattening stage, and mortality rate showed a negative correlation to dimension 1. In addition, the number of milking cows, total milk production (L farm −1 day −1 ), and the number of animals were positively correlated to dimension 2.In this component, there was no clear separation of the centroid amongst the four livestock producer categories (Fig. 6), which suggests there are no patterns in the development and implementation of environmental practices across producer categories.Around 69.2% of the surveyed farms had less than 50 animals, which agrees with the percentage distribution of livestock farms in Colombia (ICA 2019). Similarly, over 50% of dual-purpose cattle systems characterized in Mexico corresponded to small farmers with less than 50 animals (Vilaboa-Arroniz and Díaz-Rivera 2009; Orantes-Zebadúa et al. 2014). Therefore, to have an impact on most producers and improve their economic and social conditions, public policies to promote and transfer technology in the country should include VSP and SP. However, for greater impact on DPS as a whole, attention should also be paid to MPwhich account for 27% of farms but own 45% of the total cattle population of the farms-for development of strategies to improve production.VSP and SP, where the use of family labour prevails, were related to lower availability and existence of machinery, equipment, and facilities, compared to MP and LP (Table S1). However, this was not reflected in higher productivity of bigger farms. In addition, it has been reported that investments on infrastructure and equipment are marginal in DPS in Colombia, because they are systems with low levels of specialization and, in general, investments are mainly done on land and cattle (Rivas and Holmann 2002). The foregoing, in addition to the low percentage of farm area with flat topography (Table 2) means that smaller producers who have poor access to finances have restricted possibility of investing in machinery or equipment. Similar observations were reported in characterizations of DPS in Bolivia, Colombia, and Mexico, where small-and medium-sized producers showed a low availability of machinery, equipment, and infrastructure for cattle production (Solano et al. 2000;Cortés-Mora et al. 2012;Cuevas-Reyes and Rosales-Nieto 2018;Méndez-Cortés et al. 2019). Therefore, the majority of DPS in Colombia and Latin America as a whole, which are small farmers, usually have limited adoption of technologies, and farm operations are dependent on family labour.In all categories of livestock producers, the share of farms with agroforestry, transitory (annual), and perennial crops was below 13%, which indicates that DPS follow a simplified livestock production approach, based on monocultures without crop diversification. Thus, as long as DPS have the necessary area, they could offer a major potential to diversify production, for instance, through the incorporation of agricultural and forestry systems. livestock, agricultural, and forestry diversification in cattle farms could generate productive and environmental benefits (Iglesias et al. 2011). Agroforestry systems (AFS) are an alternative that makes it possible to diversify and optimize production and increase the productive and environmental parameters of DPS. Within AFSs, trees or shrubs interact biologically and economically with crops and animals in the same area, associated either simultaneously or sequentially (Sotelo et al. 2017). Additionally, AFS farms can be more stable and resilient to climate impacts, which makes them an important alternative to mitigate and adapt to climate change and generate ecosystem services. However, the implementation of AFS has to be evaluated specifically for each farm according to their characteristics, the willingness of ranchers to adopt this technology, and the financial mechanisms for its adoption, amongst others.MP and LP showed larger supplementation rates of external feed inputs (Table 3). Supplementation with mineral salt is a widely adopted practice in the DPS and is being conducted in over 73% of farms assessed in each category (Table S1). Similar results have been reported for DPS in Colombia, where mineral supplementation was carried out in most of the characterized herds (Cortés-Mora et al. 2012, 2014). This type of supplement could make it possible to offset the possible mineral deficiencies of natural pastures usually present in extensive systems (Rosero-Noguera and Posada-Ochoa 2016), and improve the productive and reproductive parameters of the herd. However, with the data available, it was not possible to assess how the supplementation with mineral salt is impacting the productive parameters of farms, but it is expected that the impact could be positive.The use of concentrate feeds was more associated to MP and LP; however, the percentage of farms supplying them was lower than 41% in all categories, with the highest numbers occurring in MP (40%) and LP (41%). These results are similar to those reported in characterizations of DPS in Mexico and Bolivia, where the use of concentrate feeds was low, and mainly amongst the smaller producers (Solano et al. 2000;Rangel et al. 2017Rangel et al. , 2020;;Cuevas-Reyes and Rosales-Nieto 2018;Méndez-Cortés et al. 2019). Nevertheless, our results were higher than those reported in a project conducted in Colombia, where characterized DPS did not use any concentrate feeds (Cortés-Mora et al. 2012), but this study was performed for a small sample of 14 farms from a specific region of the country which did not adequately represent DPS at the national level. It has been reported that the highest variable expenses in intensive cattle herds are usually attributable to the supplementary feeds (Fedegan 2013a). The high cost of supplementation and the possible low economic return to farmers could explain the low adoption rate of this practice in the studied DPS, as was also reported in characterizations carried out in Colombia and Mexico (Fedegan 2013b;Orantes-Zebadúa et al. 2014).In the four livestock producer categories, the percentages of cows in the herd ranged between 53% to 60%, whilst the percentage of male and female calves (0-1 year) was 6 and 5%, respectively. The percentage of milking cows showed a positive relationship with the percentage of female and male calves (0-1 year) (Fig. 2b). Similar observations were reported for DPS in Mexico where most of the herd corresponded to cows, heifers, and female calves (Vilaboa-Arroniz and Díaz-Rivera 2009;Albarrán-Portillo et al. 2015). The above shows that studied DPS farms are mostly oriented towards milk production as the main productive and economic activity, with meat as a co-product on the farms, which agrees with other studies conducted on DPS farms in Colombia (Holmann et al. 2003;Cortés-Mora et al. 2012). Therefore, a dual-purpose system is an important modality of milk production in the country, due to DPS being approximately 39% of the national cattle population (DANE 2017). However, milk yield per cow is much lower than figures reported for specialized dairy systems in Colombia (Múnera-Bedoya et al. 2018;Ruiz et al. 2019). Hence, this characterization study can help policymakers to know the strengths and weaknesses of DPS, for proposing strategies to improving the performance of these systems, and therefore strengthen the national dairy market.Higher rates of adoption of practices such as record keeping were found among SP (62%), MP (74%), and LP (91%), whilst only 41% of VSP carried out this activity. The aforementioned result contrasts with the study of Cortés-Mora et al. (2012) and Solano et al. (2000) in Colombia and Bolivia, respectively, where most characterized DPS farms did not implement any record keeping. The lack of records could limit the proper establishment of plans for improving efficiency and profitability. Hence, we suggest that promoting a culture of record keeping in all farms could help ensure the success of technical assistance and technology transfer, by monitoring of productive, reproductive, and economic parameters on farms (Díaz-Castillo et al. 2014).In all the four categories, farms tend to have low proportions of their areas with improved pastures (values ranging between 34 and 49%), as was also reported for DPS in Latin America as a whole (Solano et al. 2000;Rangel et al. 2020). In addition, the percentage adopting chemical fertilization was also low in each farm category, with values ranging between 16 and 18%. These findings are similar to reported for DPS in Latin America, in which adoption percentages were low or zero (Urdaneta de Galué et al. 2008;Bravo et al. 2018;Enciso et al. 2018). Therefore, there were more farms adopting improved pastures than farms implementing chemical fertilization. It has been reported that pasture yield is usually increased by using N fertilizer (Macdonald et al. 2017); hence, the lack of pasture fertilization in the farms with improved pastures affects the total forage production and likely their milk and meat production.Our findings also showed that chemical fertilization rates on pastures ranged between 120 and 360 kg N ha −1 year −1 , and the highest rates corresponded to LP. Among DPS in the Latin American tropics, adoption of chemical fertilization is not a common practice, and is mostly adopted by large farmers with application rates below 100 kg ha −1 (Urdaneta de Galué et al. 2008). There is variability in the application rates of fertilizer amongst DPS. Therefore it is necessary to establish optimal fertilization rates by evaluating the economic and productive responses different doses, taking into account soil properties, climatic condition, type of pastures, and type of production system implemented, amongst other characteristics. This could help to increase the performance of farms, avoiding overgrazing and guaranteeing the system's sustainability.Regardless of the method used, weed control was performed in over 90% of farms across the livestock producer categories, which highlights the importance that farmers attach to weed control. The manual method was the most widely used by VSP (57% of farms) and SP (52%), whilst the mixed method (manual, mechanical, and chemical) was used by MP (51%) and LP (72%). This behaviour was also reported for DPS in Central America, where most farms did not use herbicides, machinery or equipment for controlling weeds, and predominantly used manual controls (Yamamoto et al. 2007;Ferguson et al. 2013;Gaitán et al. 2016). The above finding, added to the high percentages of farms that did not adopt pasture fertilization or supplementary feeds, indicates the low dependence on external inputs among the majority of DPS studied, which is common in the Latin American context.Rotational grazing was more practiced by MP and LP, with larger percentages of adoption (96 and 100%, respectively); however, this was a common practice across all categories, carried out in over 85% of farms. This good pasture management practice is important because it can help to reduce the impact of cattle on the soil and allow for the recovery of pastures and shrubs during the resting periods (Calle et al. 2012). The foregoing can also benefit the quantity and quality of biomass production, prevent pasture degradation, and improve the productive parameters of the herd (Arango et al. 2016).In the four livestock producer categories, the most widely used reproduction method was free natural mating (Table S1). This is in agreement with characterizations of cattle farms in Latin America as a whole, indicating a low technological level in use of reproduction methods such as artificial insemination or embryo transfer (Solano et al. 2000;Cortés-Mora et al. 2012;Rangel et al. 2017Rangel et al. , 2020;;Nieto et al. 2018). However, it is important to note that LP (34%) practised artificial insemination (AI) to a larger extent than the rest of the livestock producer categories. This could reflect a greater economic capacity and better technical assistance service for these farmers, as reported in other cattle systems in Latin America, where larger ranchers who showed greater economic returns and more intensive farms adopted this reproductive method (Solano et al. 2000;Cuevas-Reyes et al. 2013;Mazzetto et al. 2015). It has been reported that the adoption of artificial insemination improves the reproductive parameters of farms, such as increasing conception rate up to 70% (Mazzetto et al. 2015). Therefore in future studies it is necessary to evaluate how the adoption of AI could influence reproductive and productive performances of DPS in Colombia, to define the viability of AI adoption.Mortality rates were inversely correlated to the number of cattle (Fig. 5b) and were higher in VSP and SP, compared to MP and LP (Table 3). A higher mortality rate generates less profitability and competitiveness for the farm, which in turn can lead to lower income for VSP and SP. In addition, it must be kept in mind that in small farms, the proportional impact of one dead animal is greater than in a big farm.Milk production ranged between 3.2 and 3.8 L cow −1 day −1 across all four livestock producer categories. This yield falls within the range reported for DPS in Colombia, where the average yield is 3.5 L cow −1 day −1 and higher at 6.8 L cow −1 day −1 in more intensified farms (Fedegan 2013b). In addition, our results are similar to those reported for conventional DPS in Bolivia and Nicaragua (Solano et al. 2000), higher than smallholder DPS farms in Mexico (Rangel et al. 2020), but lower than figures for intensified DPS farms in Mexico and Nicaragua (Ferguson et al. 2013;Albarrán-Portillo et al. 2015;Gaitán et al. 2016).Results for weight at weaning (139.1-154.6 kg) and age at weaning (8.2-8.8 months) in all four farm categories were similar to the values reported for conventional DPS in Colombia and Mexico (Rojo-Rubio et al. 2009;Villate-Calderón and Martínez-Roldán 2011;Orantes-Zebadúa et al. 2014;Bravo et al. 2018;Enciso et al. 2018). The higher weight at weaning observed in MP and LP was influenced by older age and not by the daily weight gain at this stage (Table 3). The results for the LWG in the pre-weaning stage were higher than the national average reby Fedegan (2013b) for DPS, where the age at weaning varied from 8 to 9.5 months and daily weight gain (DWG) ranged between 0.15 and 0.35 kg. However, these parameters are low, compared to intensified DPS, where the reported DWG was 0.57 kg (Fedegan 2013b). Intensified DPS were characterized by developing good livestock management practices, which led to higher economic and productive (milk or beef per unit area and/or per animal) indicators than the national average (Fedegan 2013b). The above results point out that adoption of good livestock practices, and the intensification of farms through supplementary feed and improved pastures, can be strategies for increasing productivity performance of farms in terms of milk and meat yields.The main solid waste management practice was incineration, with adoption rates above 56% in each livestock producer category (Table S1). Burial of solid waste was the second most used management practice in all four producer categories (21-26%), whilst the delivery of solid waste to third parties was observed in less than 20% of farms. These management practices were also reported as the most used by DPS in Colombia, where incineration and burial were implemented in 64% of characterized farms, due to a lack of solid waste collection service in rural areas (Cortés-Mora et al. 2012).Over 64% of all farmers reported the presence of forests on their farms (Table S1); however, it was not determined what percentage of the farm area was allocated to this land use. Therefore, it is necessary to promote the conservation of existing forests in cattle farms and, if possible, increasing the forested area, to ensure conservation of different tree and shrub species, foster biodiversity, protect water sources, provide animals with shade, increase connectivity, and improve the physical and chemical characteristics of the soil, amongst other benefits.The implementation of wastewater treatment systems in the four farm categories was below 40%, which is similar to the information reported for DPS in Colombia, where less than 30% of farms implemented this type of technology (Cortés-Mora et al. 2012). Livestock farming can contribute to the eutrophication of water sources through the release of nutrients, pathogens, pesticides, antibiotics, and heavy metals (Patiño-Murillo and Tobasura-Acuña 2011). Considering that over 85% of farms used surface water bodies as their source of water supply, both for household and farming use, it is important to establish mechanisms for the implementation of wastewater treatment systems, to prevent eutrophication and ensure a better quality of water supply for human and animal consumption.Our findings show that, in general, medium-sized and large farms were associated with better infrastructure, better machinery and equipment, and better reproductive practices. However, this was not reflected in a significant improvement of productive parameters, except for a lower mortality rate. Therefore, based on the available infrastructure and better livestock management practices developed, larger livestock producers need to better plan their livestock activity, with the purpose of increasing their productivity.The main features identified for each livestock producer category can guide and establish policies and programmes for their technological improvement. The development of better livestock management practices and the adoption of more technology, as well as technical assistance, should focus on small-and mediumsized livestock producers, which could lead to better productive and reproductive performance of dualpurpose systems.There were no big differences in the implementation of environmental practices associated with the size of the farms. It is important that future research studies obtain more information on the environmental features of farms, to allow for quantification of impacts and development of strategies to mitigate negative impacts.writingreview & editing. DMBV data curation, validation, writingreview & editing. and JA project administration, funding writingreview & editing. HAP funding acquisition. GCL data curation, formal analysis, methodology, software. MSSP conceptualization, supervision, visualization, writingreview & editing. The author(s) read and approved the final manuscript.","tokenCount":"5691"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7dee26837839f159946d398fedf39275","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/003ac51a-417e-4e8a-8cac-0c5d3a92daba/retrieve","id":"403037960"},"keywords":["Via dei Tre Denari","472/a -00054 Maccarese","Rome","Italy"],"sieverID":"7a6f839d-6956-4c58-aec3-8827f7a08276","pagecount":"82","content":"Cover photos (left to right): Simon Kiruja carrying cut grass for his dairy farm in Meru, Kenya (photo by Georgina Smith); Indigenous Seed Systems in Sa Pa, Lao Cai province, northwestern Vietnam (photo by Trong Chinh); and Bean plants grown in greenhouse conditions in Tenerife, Colombia (photo by Juan Pablo Marín).We have audited the financial statements of Bioversity International, which comprise the statement of financial position as of 31 December 2020, the statement of activities and comprehensive income, statement of changes in net assets, statement of cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies.In our opinion, the financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of Bioversity International as of 31 December 2020, and of the results of its financial performance and cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (ISA Italia). Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Statements section of this report. We are independent of Bioversity International in accordance with the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards) issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA Code). We have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with the IESBA Code. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.Management of Bioversity International is responsible for the preparation of financial statements that give a true and fair view in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board and for such internal control as they determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.Management is responsible for assessing the Bioversity International's ability to continue as a going concern and, in preparing the financial statements, for the appropriate application of the going concern basis of accounting, and for disclosing matters related to going concern. In preparing the financial statements, the directors use the going concern basis of accounting unless they either intend to liquidate the Company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.Those charged with governance are responsible for overseeing Bioversity International's financial reporting process.Management of Bioversity International is responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report but does not include the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon.Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not and will not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information identified above and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If, based on the work we have performed on the other information that we obtained prior to the date of this auditor's report, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (ISA Italia) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of the financial statements.As part of our audit conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (ISA Italia), we exercised our professional judgement and maintained professional scepticism throughout the audit. Furthermore:We identified and assessed the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error; we designed and performed audit procedures responsive to those risks; we obtained audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.We obtained an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of Bioversity International's internal control.We evaluated the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by management.We concluded on the appropriateness of management's use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on Bioversity International's ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor's report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor's report. However, future events or conditions may cause Bioversity International to cease to continue as a going concern.We evaluated the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.We communicated with those charged with governance, identified at an appropriate level as required by ISA Italia, regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identified during our audit. 2 20 02 20 0 I In ns st ti it tu ut ti io on na al l H Hi ig gh hl li ig gh ht ts s by Julia Marton-Lefèvre Chair of the Board of Trustees, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT 2020 marked the first full year of our operation as the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. As the year began, we looked forward to uniting our organizations in the implementation of a brand-new research strategy addressing the global crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and malnutrition.Of course, we could not predict the set of challenges that we would all face in the coming months with the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and resulting implications for food security and livelihoods. Confronted with these shocks, the Alliance quickly adapted to working remotely, safely maintaining field operations when possible, and taking part in the COVID-19 response: examples included distributing seeds to farmers in need as well as working with national partners to share and map health data, track trends in food insecurity, and monitor impacts on farmer livelihoods. Equally as important, we took swift actions to ensure the well-being and safety of our globally-distributed staff.Although we spent the year physically apart, we managed to bring two Centers together and emerged stronger as a single Alliance, fully prepared to increase our reach and impact. With strong leadership across our research and support areas, we deployed an integrated organizational structure and harmonized many of our policies. This consolidation streamlined our services, optimizing our staff capacity to match needs and opportunities as they arise. Consequently, we have been able to deliver on our commitments in all regions where we are active.In many ways the pandemic has underscored the interdependence of human and planetary health and has given renewed urgency to the Alliance's work at the nexus of agriculture, the environment and nutrition. With a strong research presence in four continents, encompassing our six Research Levers 1 and cross-cutting areas, the Alliance has been well-positioned to assume a role of thought leadership and actively join in many global dialogues and high-level policy fora on biodiversity, climate change, and food and nutritional security, among others. We produced our highest yet total of 246 publications in 2020, surpassing our goal of 1.5 papers per scientist and achieving representation in a wide range of high-level journals. Our research has gained newsworthy attention with its critical focus on food system shifts and ensuring a resilient recovery after COVID. Highlights from 2020 include: F Fo oo od d E En nv vi ir ro on nm me en nt t a an nd d C Co on ns su um me er r B Be eh ha av vi io or r From farm to fork, the Alliance contributed to discussions on healthy sustainable diets, from the global level (addressing the need for an enabling political environment to mobilize a food system transformation, published in Nature Food) to on-the-ground action. In the Americas, a standout initiative was a sustainable livestock certification initiative, GANSO, which indicates farmers' commitments to deforestation-free practices and now informs consumers' decisions in major Colombian grocery stores. In Africa, we joined partners on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response, interviewing some of Nairobi's poorest residents to understand strains on food access for the most vulnerable.M Mu ul lt ti if fu un nc ct ti io on na al l L La an nd ds sc ca ap pe es s Over the last year, we explored strategies for land restoration in sites ranging from the Amazon rainforest to degraded pastureland in Burkina Faso. Some of our most highly read contributions in the State of the World's Forests and journals such as People and Nature emphasized forests' critical importance to human health and ecosystem services, and issued warnings about the grave implications of continued rampant deforestation.C Cl li im ma at te e A Ac ct ti io on n 500 million smallholder farmers are impacted by an increasing rate of climate-extreme events. Alliance research looks at crops, agricultural practices, and weather patterns to better understand mitigation and adaptation techniques to benefit farmers and countries. In 2020 we shared research on the climate resilience of important crops including coffee and the Ethiopian staple teff. When typhoons swept the Philippines, the Alliance provided national partners with risk profiles, investment plans, and knowledge products to embed resilience in the agricultural sector.B Bi io od di iv ve er rs si it ty y f fo or r F Fo oo od d a an nd d A Ag gr ri ic cu ul lt tu ur re e Combining our decades of experience researching diverse crops, neglected and underutilized species, and crop wild relatives, the Alliance supplied data on their contributions to food security and nutrition as well as farmers' livelihoods. 2020 publications included two new books in the Routledge Earthscan series \"Issues in Agrobiodiversity\" which present methodologies for mainstreaming biodiverse foods into markets, school programs, and policies. Further potential for influencing policies comes with our participation in discussions on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, as well as our Agrobiodiversity Index, which has also been adopted by several private sector partners.The Alliance applied artificial intelligence, drones, satellites, and smartphone technologies with the power to help millions of farmers to make improved decisions. Apps and digital platforms have increased farmers' insights on market linkages, as well as the ability to monitor crops for early detection of diseases such as the devastating banana wilt TR4 and BXW, which jeopardize thousands of livelihoods. In collaboration with the Vietnamese government, Alliance researchers used a free WiFi program to measure COVID's impact on traditional markets in Hanoi.C Cr ro op ps s f fo or r N Nu ut tr ri it ti io on n a an nd d H He ea al lt th h In 2020 we continued to make improved crop varieties available in countries such as Ethiopia, where our highyielding nutrient-rich beans reached 2.2 million farmers. In times of crisis, ex-situ conservation is vital to ensuring the continuity of plant genetic resources. Throughout the pandemic we maintained tens of thousands of accessions of bananas, beans, cassava, and forages in our genebanks, and made seeds and planting material available to farmers. We also continued construction of our new genebank, Future Seeds, in Colombia, which will also include a digital genebank to further increase access to and use of these collections at a global level.G Ge en nd de er r The persistence of inequalities in health, food security, and livelihoods has been made abundantly clear over the last year. Alliance researchers in Lesotho discovered that, as food access and yields decreased, women and girls were going hungry at a rate far higher than men. To ensure that inclusive and equitable practices are included in every aspect of \"building back better\", the Alliance has made gender a cross-cutting theme throughout our research and has been highly involved in the CGIAR Gender Platform.O On ne e C CG GI IA AR R In 2020 we also played an active role in the challenging, yet exciting and promising, transition towards One CGIAR, which is picking up momentum with a reconstituted System Board and new Executive Management Team and, at the end of 2020, the launch of the CGIAR 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy. One CGIAR has the ambitious aim to integrate CGIAR's assets, partnerships and operations to deliver greater impact, and fully and effectively respond to new and emerging global challenges. With the Alliance represented in 13 of the new CGIAR initiatives, we look forward to contributing to this bold and relevant framework for research and transformational change. Now more than ever we remain grateful to our funders, investors and partners for research and impact delivery. Without their commitment and continued support, the Alliance would have been hard pressed to deliver on its mandate. Strengthened collaboration and collective action will be essential to ensure that we counter the knockon effects of the COVID crisis on global food systems and food and nutritional security. The Board of Trustees of the Alliance is responsible for overseeing and approving risk management approaches and associated policies. It also ensures that effective risk management, compliance systems, strong internal controls, and independent assurances are implemented. An appropriate risk management system is fundamental to identify and take actions to mitigate significant risks that could affect the achievement of the strategic objectives established for the Alliance. In a constantly evolving environment, the Board of Trustees ensures the adoption of best practices in risk management and alignment with principles and guidelines defined by the CGIAR.The Board recognizes that to achieve strategic objectives, the Alliance will be exposed to During 2020, the Alliance established a robust risk management framework to assess risks and mitigate them based on the best practices of ISO 31000:2018, the integrated framework from COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission) and CGIAR principles, and guidelines. A strong Policy and a revised methodology were approved by the Board of Trustees and were implemented across the different Hubs of the Alliance. As part of this process and with the aim of improving our internal controls and good corporate governance practice, the Alliance performed and consolidated a risk assessment of strategic risks, risks in hubs, and risks in major initiatives. To face the COVID-19 Pandemic and the possible effects in the continuity of our business, the Alliance also developed a Risk Catalogue to map all those events that could affect our strategic objectives and built a Business Continuity Plan addressing those major challenges. These strategies allowed the Alliance to monitor the main activities, anticipate any issues, and reduce the impact of any risk materialization while delivering activities according to established times. On a biannual basis, the consolidated risk catalogues of the Alliance were reviewed by the Senior Management Team, and risks incidents that materialized were brought to their attention. ork to assess risks and mitigate them mework from COSO (Committee of ciples, and guidelines. A strong Policy s and were implemented across the f improving our internal controls and lidated a risk assessment of strategic Pandemic and the possible effects in talogue to map all those events that n addressing those major challenges. nticipate any issues, and reduce the to established times. On a biannual y the Senior Management Team, and e Alliance has an active role in the ich has been key in the design and Management System.Early 2021, the Alliance established a Risk Management Committee to implement and promote the development of highly effective risk management activities. The Committee is composed by focal points from the regions and key staff of the Alliance. This committee is responsible for the oversight of the enterprise risk management framework and monitors the processes and systems for identifying and reporting risks and risk-management deficiencies. To reinforce knowledge and increase the institutional capacities, a customized training on Risk Management will be provided to a large number of critical staff who will contribute to make Risk Management an integral part of the Alliance's strategic and operational objectives.The Audit, Finance & Risk Committee -AFRC receives regular updates on any risk materialization, on the effectiveness of risk management practices, as well as independent assurances from its internal and external auditors. The AFRC communicates its views to the Board regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of the Alliance's risk management.During 2020, the Alliance did not have any cases of fraud or financial losses due to fraudulent activities.The AFRC concluded that the risk management framework and internal control systems proposed for the Alliance are effective, adequate, and efficient.Julia Marton-Lefèvre Board Chair, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIATThe accompanying financial statements of Bioversity International for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 have been prepared in conformity with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and give a true and fair view of the financial position of the Organization as at the end of the financial year and of its operating results for the year. The preparation of these financial statements is the responsibility of Management.Bioversity International maintains a system of internal control designed to provide reasonable assurance that assets are safeguarded, transactions are executed and recorded properly in accordance with Management's authorization.The internal control system serves as an enabling mechanism for Bioversity International to adapt to changing operating and economic environments promoting operational efficiency, mitigate risks to acceptable levels, include a system of reporting which provides Management with an accurate view of the operations and at the same time provides a reliable basis for the financial statements and management reports, and finally, ensure compliance with the Organization's policies and procedures. The internal audit function provides ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness and adequacy of the internal control system.PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are engaged to examine the consolidated financial statements of Bioversity International and issue reports thereon. Having made an assessment of the Organization's ability to continue as a going concern, Management is not aware of any material uncertainties related to events or conditions that may cast doubt upon the Organization's ability to continue as a going concern.Signed on behalf of management on May 11, 2021 by: Juan Lucas Restrepo Josephine Luzon, CPA, DBA Director General Head of FinanceBased on the Memorandum of Understanding signed on 27 November 2018 by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, known as Bioversity International (hereinafter referred to as Bioversity), and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (hereinafter referred to as CIAT), an agreement was made between these two independent centers of the CGIAR to formally create the Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the Alliance) to achieve greater impact and operate more efficiently. \"The Alliance will allow both Parties to develop a common research strategy, operational alignment, change management strategic results research framework and results-based management system, and harmonize support services for its members to improve effectiveness and reduce transaction costs.\" 1 The Alliance will have one Board of Trustees and will be administered by a Director General/Chief Executive Officer (CEO-designate).Under the Alliance, both Bioversity and CIAT will continue to exist as separate legal entities.The management of the Alliance has the overall governance and management responsibility for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements of the two CGIAR centers -Bioversity and CIAT, including the schedules attached therein, for the year ending December 31, 2020, in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and for such internal control as the Alliance management determines is necessary to enable the preparation of the financial statements of the two Alliance centers, are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.In preparing the financial statements of the two centers, the Alliance management is responsible for assessing Bioversity and CIAT's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern.The Alliance Board of Trustees, through its Audit and Risk Committee, is responsible for overseeing the financial reporting process within the Alliance and exercises its responsibility for these annual financial statements -reviews and approves the financial Alliance will allow both Parties ignment, change management d management system, and ve effectiveness and reduce ustees and will be administered ate). ue to exist as separate legal overnance and management financial statements of the two dules attached therein, for the ternational Financial Reporting nce management determines is ents of the two Alliance centers, or error., the Alliance management is continue as a going concern, .k Committee, is responsible for Alliance and exercises its ws and approves the financial ational Center for Tropical Agriculture statements, including the schedules attached therein. The Audit and Risk Committee meets regularly with Management and representatives of external and internal auditors to review matters relating to financial reporting, risk management, internal control and auditing.The Alliance relies on the shared Internal Audit Unit to provide regular and ongoing internal audits and recommendations regarding the adequacy and effectiveness of the Alliance's policies and procedures governing the two centers.PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the independent auditors, are engaged to audit the financial statements of Bioversity and CIAT in accordance with International Standards on Auditing, and in their respective reports, have expressed their opinion on the fairness of presentation upon completion of such audits.  (1,673)The accompanying notes and exhibits are an integral part of this statement.For The accompanying notes and exhibits are an integral part of this statement.For the years ended 31 December, 2020 and 2019(US dollar 000s) Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents (5,632) 9,645Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the period 16,800 7,155Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period 11,168 16,800The accompanying notes and exhibits are an integral part of this statement.(1) Statement of purpose hereinafter referred to as \"Bioversity\", began operating in 1974 and has evolved to meet the needs of stakeholders.In Food systems and landscapes that sustain the planet, drive prosperity and nourish people.Bioversity's mission is to deliver research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people's lives in a climate crisis. Bioversity works with local, national, and multinational partners across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, and with the public and private sectors and civil society.The international status of Bioversity was conferred under an Establishment Agreement which has been signed and ratified by 56 governments. In January Bioversity is not subject to statutory and regulatory laws requiring the entity to prepare annual financial statements. However, following CGIAR governance requirements, Bioversity International prepares annual financial statements in order to report to its stakeholders its operating performance and financial position.(2) Summary of significant accounting policiesThe significant accounting policies adopted in the preparation of these financial statements are presented as follows. These policies have been consistently applied to all the years shown, unless otherwise stated.For the year ended 31 December, 2020Notes to the financial statements 1 With effect from 1 December 2006, the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) began operating under the name Bioversity International.These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).The designation IFRS also includes International Accounting Standards (IAS) as well as all the interpretations of the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC and SIC).Bioversity prepares its financial statements, except for cash flow information, under the accrual basis of accounting.Under the accrual basis of accounting, transactions and events are recognized when they occur (and not when cash or its cash equivalent is received or paid) and these are recorded in the accounting books and reported in the financial statements during the periods to which they relate. Expenses are recognized in the statement of activities on the basis of a direct association between the costs incurred and the earnings of specific items of revenue.The financial statements have been prepared and presented in US Dollars (US$) which is Bioversity's functional currency. Unless otherwise indicated, all amounts are stated in thousands of US Dollars and have been rounded off to the nearest thousand currency units.Financial statement formats and related classification criteria adopted by Bioversity, in accordance with IAS 1 -Presentation of Financial Statements, are as follows:• Statement of financial position has been prepared using the current/non-current distinction;• Statement of activities and other comprehensive income includes the income statement and other comprehensive income. The statement of activities has been prepared by classifying expenses based on their function. Other comprehensive income includes re-measurement of employee benefit obligations;• Cash flow statement presents the cash flows generated by operating activities using the \"indirect method\".The financial statements are prepared on a going concern basis (see Note 32, Subsequent event -Coronavirus (Covid-19)).Bioversity's financial statements are presented in United States dollars which is also the Organization's functional currency.Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in other currencies different from Bioversity's functional currency are converted at the exchange rate in effect at the end of each financial period. Grants received in currencies other than U.S. dollars are recorded at market exchange rates in effect at the time the grant is received or, if outstanding as of 31 December, at the market exchange rate in effect at the end of the year.Income and expenses in currencies other than U.S. dollars, as well as non-monetary assets and liabilities are recorded at the official exchange rate on the dates of the transactions.Net gains/losses arising from exchange rate fluctuations are reported under financial expenses.Revenue is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable and recognized when prescribed conditions are met, which depend on the nature of the revenue.Bioversity recognizes revenue when the related performance obligation is satisfied, in line with IFRS 15 which is applicable to the Organization starting from 1 January 2018. The following paragraphs describe Bioversity's activities and condition to consider the related performance obligations satisfied.Grants are recognized as revenues only when the conditions have been substantially met or the donor has explicitly waived the condition.The major portion of Bioversity's revenue is derived through the receipt of donor grants -either 'Unrestricted' or 'Restricted'.Unrestricted grants (including Government grants) are those received from unconditional transfers of cash or other assets to Bioversity.Unrestricted grant revenue is split as follows:-Window 3: Funding that donors wish to allocate to Bioversity as unrestricted, but that flows through the CGIAR Fund;-Bilateral: Unrestricted funding that flows directly from donors to Bioversity.Restricted grants are those received from a transfer of resources to Bioversity in return for past or future compliance to the operating activities of the Organization.Restricted grant revenue is split as follows:- Interests, losses, and gains relating to financial instruments are reported in the statement of activities as expense or revenue. Interests are recorded using the effective interest rate method which discounts future flows of payments and cash receipts over the expected life of the financial instrument, or a shorter duration, as applicable, with respect to the net carrying amount of the financial asset.Other revenues and gains include, but are not limited to income from hosting other entities, board member contributions, bad debt recovery and adjustments for prior years accruals and accounting estimates.Cash and cash equivalents include cash on hand, petty cash funds, demand deposits with financial institutions, other short-term and highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash and which are subject to an insignificant risk of changes in value.Receivables are recognized initially at fair value and subsequently measured at amortized cost using the effective interest method less provision for impairment. Short term receivables with no stated interest rate are measured at the original invoice amount because the effect of discounting is immaterial.Receivables are generally defined as claims held against others for the future receipt of money, goods or services and include claims from donors, advances to employees, and advances to other CGIAR Centers and claims against third parties for services rendered.Accounts receivable from donors consist of claims from donors for grants pledged in accordance with the terms specified by the donor. It also pertains to claims from donors for expenses paid on behalf of projects in excess of cash received.All receivable balances are valued at their net realizable value, that is, the gross amount of receivable minus, if applicable, allowances provided for doubtful accounts.Allowances for doubtful accounts represent the expected credit losses on accounts receivables, in line with IFRS 9. The amount in the allowance is based on historical trends and on a regular review of receivable reports and other relevant factors.Any receivable or portion of receivable judged to be un-collectible is written off. Write-offs of receivables are done via allowance for doubtful accounts after all efforts to collect have been exhausted.-Unrestricted grants: receivables from unrestricted grants are recognized in full in the period specified by the donor. Before an unrestricted grant can be recognized as revenue, sufficient verifiable evidence should exist documenting that a commitment was made by the donor and received by Bioversity.-Restricted grants: receivables from restricted grants are recognized in accordance with the terms of the underlying contract.-Receivables from employees are recognized as they arise and cancelled when payment is received.-Advances to other CGIAR Centres are recognized when the cash or other assets borrowed are delivered or when payment is made for a liability of another Center.-Other receivables are recognized upon the occurrence of event or transaction which gives Bioversity a legal claim against others.Short term investments include investments acquired with original maturities of more than three months and expected to be realized within twelve months. Bioversity's short term investments are mainly composed of time deposits in US dollars bearing interest at current bank rates. Investments are valued at their acquisition cost (including brokerage and other transaction costs).As of 31 December 2020, Bioversity's investments in time deposits and money market funds, denominated in US dollars amounted to $13.9m, of which $3.0m in time deposit placements and $4.0m in money market funds were classified as cash equivalents (see Note 7).Property and equipment are defined as tangible assets that:(a) are held by Bioversity for use related to the main objectives of the Organization, including research activities and administrative and technical support services;(b) are expected to be used for more than one period; and, (c) have a minimum cost of US$ 2,500.These assets are stated at historical cost less depreciation. Historical cost includes expenditure that is directly attributable to the acquisition of the items.Subsequent costs are included in the asset's carrying amount or recognized as a separate asset, as appropriate, only when it is probable that future economic benefits associated with the item will flow to Bioversity and the cost of the item can be measured reliably. The carrying amount of any component accounted for as a separate asset is derecognized when replaced. All other repairs and maintenance are charged to the statement of activities during the reporting period in which they are incurred.The assets' residual values and useful lives are reviewed, and adjusted if appropriate, at the end of each reporting period.An asset's carrying amount is written down immediately to its recoverable amount if the asset's carrying amount is greater than its estimated recoverable amount.Gains or losses arising from the retirement or disposal of property and equipment are determined as the difference between the proceeds and the carrying amount of the asset and are recognized in the statement of activities as 'Gain/ Loss on sale of assets.' Depreciation of property, plant and equipment is calculated on the straight-line basis over their useful lives. Estimated useful lives are as follows: The right-of-use asset is a lessee's right to use an asset over the life of a lease.IFRS 16 states that a customer has the right to direct the use of an identified asset if either the customer has the right to direct how and for what purpose the asset is used throughout its period of use; or obtain substantially all of the economic benefits from the use of the asset.The asset is calculated as the initial amount of the lease liability, plus any lease payments made to the lessor before the lease commencement date, plus any initial direct costs incurred, minus any lease incentives received.The right-of-use asset is subsequently depreciated. Depreciation is over the shorter of the useful life of the asset and the lease term, unless the title to the asset transfers at the end of the lease term. For Bioversity, depreciation is over the lease term.Trade payables are recognized initially at fair value and subsequently measured at amortized cost using the effective interest method. Short term payables with no stated interest rate are measured at the original invoice amount because the effect of discounting is immaterial.Trade payables represent amounts due to donors, employees and others for support, services and materials received prior to year-end but not paid for as of the date of the statement of financial position.Deferred income from donors include grants received from donors for which conditions are not yet met to record as revenue and amounts payable to donors in respect of any unexpended funds received in advance for signed contracts.Provisions are recognized when: (a) Bioversity has a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of past events, (b) it is probable that an outflow of resources will be required to settle the obligation and (c) the amount can be reliably estimated. Provisions are not recognized for future operating losses.When Bioversity expects some or all of a provision to be reimbursed, the reimbursement is recognized as a separate asset, but only when the reimbursement is certain. The expense relating to a provision is presented in the statement of activities, net of any reimbursement.The short-term employee benefit obligations refer to the amount expected to be paid within twelve months if Bioversity has a present legal or constructive obligation to pay this amount as a result of past service provided by the employee and the obligation can be estimated reliably. These liabilities are measured on an undiscounted basis, expensed as the related service is provided and presented as current employee benefit obligations in the statement of financial position.The liability for separation allowance refers to accruals for end-of-service benefits due to staff members in accordance with the personnel policies of Bioversity.The liability recognized in the statement of financial position with the defined benefit plans is the present value of the defined benefit obligation at the end of the reporting period.The defined benefit obligation is calculated annually by an independent actuary using the projected unit method.The present value of the defined benefit obligation is determined by discounting the estimated future cash outflows using interest rates of high-quality corporate bonds that are denominated in the currency in which the benefits will be paid, and that have terms approximating to the terms of the related obligation.The net interest cost is calculated by applying the discount rate to the net balance of the defined benefit obligation. This cost is included in 'Finance expenses' in the statement of activities.Re-measurement of gains and losses arising from experience adjustments and changes in actuarial assumptions are recognized in the period in which they occur, directly in other comprehensive income. They are reported in the statement of changes in net assets and in the statement of financial position.Changes in the present value of the defined benefit obligation resulting from planned amendments or curtailments are recognized immediately in the statement of activities as past service costs.Other non-current liabilities include amounts due to Internationally Recruited Staff for travel and shipping costs at end of service, calculated in accordance with the personnel policies of Bioversity.Net assets are the residual interest in Bioversity's assets remaining after liabilities are deducted.Net assets are classified as either undesignated, designated, or other comprehensive income.-That part of net assets not designated by Bioversity's management for specific purposes.-That part of net assets that has been designated by Bioversity's management for replacing property and equipment, and other activities or purposes.-Includes the actuarial gain/(loss) resulting from the valuation of the defined benefit plan.(3) Application of new and revised International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)3.1 New and amended standards that are effective for an annual period that begins on or after 1 January 2020The IASB has issued amendments to References to the Conceptual Framework in IFRS Standards for Financial Reporting that will be effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2020.-increasing the prominence of stewardship in the objective of financial reporting;-reinstating prudence as a component of neutrality;-defining a reporting entity, which may be a legal entity, or a portion of an entity;-revising the definitions of an asset and a liability;-removing the probability threshold for recognition and adding guidance on derecognition; adding guidance on different measurement basis, and;-stating that profit or loss is the primary performance indicator and that, in principle, income and expenses in other comprehensive income should be recycled whereNotes to the Financial Statements 29 this enhances the relevance or faithful representation of the financial statements.Bioversity has applied the revised Framework for the first time for the annual accounting period commencing 1 January 2020.The application of the above-described amendments did not have any significant impact on the Organization's financial statements.Statements and IAS 8 -Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors: Definition of materialThe amendments are intended to make the definition of material in IAS 1 easier to understand and are not intended to alter the underlying concept of materiality in IFRS Standards.The concept of 'obscuring' material information with immaterial information has been included as part of the new definition.The threshold for materiality influencing users has been changed from 'could influence' to 'could reasonably be expected to influence'.The definition of material in IAS 8 has been replaced by a reference to the definition of material in IAS 1. In addition, the IASB amended other Standards and the Conceptual Framework that contain a definition of material or refer to the term 'material' to ensure consistency. The amendments are applied prospectively for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2020, with earlier application permitted.Bioversity has applied the following amendments for the first time for the annual accounting period commencing 1 January 2020. The application of the above-described amendments did not have any significant impact on the Organization's financial statements. Bioversity has early adopted this amended standard. The early adoption of this amendment to the standard has no material impact on the Organization's financial statements.(4) Management of Financial RisksThe activities of Bioversity are exposed to the following risks: market risk (including exchange rate risk), credit risk, and liquidity risk. The Board-approved risk management policy puts in place a risk management framework which is designed to systematically identify high and significant risks and also puts in place controls for managing those risks, so as to minimize their occurrence to the extent possible, or minimize their impact on the ongoing operations of the Organization should they occur. Financial risk management is embedded in the overall risk management framework of the Alliance.Bioversity is exposed to market risks associated with exchange rates.Bioversity operates internationally and is exposed to foreign exchange risk arising when its business transactions are in currencies other than US dollars. The foreign exchange risk primarily relates to foreign currency denominated payables for local and international operations. Bioversity monitors the exposure to foreign exchange risk arising from operating activities and does not use derivative financial instruments to hedge its foreign exchange exposure in relation to investments or cash flows.Bioversity does not hold any financial instruments subject to price risk.Bioversity does not hold any borrowings from a third party and hence is not subject to interest rate risk.Bioversity's credit risk represents the exposure of the Organization to potential losses due to counterparty inability to discharge the obligations undertaken. This exposure mainly relates to trade receivables deriving from claims from donors for grants promised or pledged or for expenses paid on behalf of projects in excess of cash received.The credit risk is considered low due to the fact that donors consist primarily of donor nations, development banks/ organizations/agencies, UN agencies, large international organizations and other CGIAR centers. In the ordinary course of the business, Bioversity faces the risk that receivables may not be paid on the due date leading to impairment and eventual default.In order to mitigate the credit risk associated with its counterparties, Bioversity regularly reviews its credit exposure and monitors the collection of receivables on the contractually agreed due dates. The assets are reported gross of impairment losses calculated on the basis of the default risk of the counterparties, taking into account the information available on solvency as well as historical data.Credit risk arises from cash and cash equivalents and deposits with banks and financial institutions as well as accounts receivable. Credit risk is the risk that the counterparty will default on its contractual obligations resulting in financial loss to Bioversity.For banks and financial institutions, only reputable wellestablished financial institutions are accepted. For trade receivables:• Reviews of aging reports are carried out monthly and provisions for doubtful amounts made for any potentially irrecoverable amounts.• Advances to partner and hosted centers are subject to Bioversity's internal requirements to limit losses arising from funds advanced by the Organization.The assets are reported gross of expected credit losses calculated based on the default risk of the counterparties, considering the information available on solvency as well as historical data.($000s) The allowance for doubtful accounts has been estimated in compliance with IFRS 9 specifically, \"Expected Credit Loss (ECL) calculation for financial instruments without a significant financial component -simplified approach\".Based on IFRS 9, the simplified approach that is required for certain trade receivables involves:- The movement in the allowance for uncollectible accounts in respect of receivables during the year was as follows:($000s)As of December 31, 2019 77Increase (decrease) due to the ECL calculation ( 12)Provision for special open items 136As of December 31, 2020 190Liquidity risk takes place when Bioversity does not have enough financial resources available to meet its financial obligations and commitments when due. Prudent liquidity risk management includes maintaining sufficient cash balances and the availability of funding from bilateral donors.Cash flows required to settle other financial liabilities, other than those to lenders, do not differ significantly from the recognized carrying amount. In this regard, it is noted that:-various sources of financing are available from different banks;-there is no significant concentration of liquidity risk, either in relation to financial assets or in relation to the sources of financing due to short-term period.($000s) (5) Critical accounting assumptions, estimates and judgementsThe preparation of financial statements requires management to make assumptions and to use judgements and estimates. In certain cases, the application of accounting standards and methods depend on subjective measurements and estimates based on experience and assumptions made on a case-bycase basis which are considered reasonable and realistic in specific circumstances. The use of such assumptions, estimates and judgement affects the amounts reported in the statement of financial position, the statement of activities and other comprehensive income, the statement of changes in net assets, the statement of cash flows and the notes to the financial statements. Actual results for such items may differ from the amounts reported in the financial statements due to the uncertainties that characterize the assumptions and conditions on which such estimates were made. Subjective judgment on the part of management when making estimates, and for which a change in the conditions underlying the assumptions used could have a significant impact on the financial information reported or could require a material adjustment to the carrying amount of the asset or liability in future periods.(6) Cash and cash equivalents Cash in banks are denominated in US dollars and Euro.Regional offices' imprest funds are denominated in local currencies (Euro, Uganda shillings, Central African francs, Indian rupee, Ethiopian birr, and Costa Rica colon), as well as in US dollars.The decrease in Cash in banks is mainly due to the increase in time deposits of $6.994m reported as Short term investments (see Note 7).(7) Short term investments As at 31 December 2020, an amount of $13.9m is placed in time deposits and money market funds denominated in US dollars (see table below).As described in Note 6, $3.0m placed in time deposits and $4.0m invested in money market funds denominated in US dollars are classified and reported as cash equivalents.There is no change to the nature of investments. Bioversity invests cash in excess of its operating requirements in time deposits and money market funds. Further detail is found in Exhibit 1.Accounts receivable from donors consists of claims from donors for grants promised or pledged in accordance with the terms specified by the donor. It also pertains to claims from donors for expenses paid on behalf of projects in excess of cash received.The decrease in 2020 was a result of continuing close monitoring of receivables and specifically, more frequent follow-up with donors.(9) Accounts receivable -employees Bioversity pays advances to its collaborators for research work. These advances are then expensed once financial reports from collaborators are received. Compared to 2019, the increase in advances to partners can be primarily explained by the delay in the implementation of research activities defined in the letters of agreement with partners due to Covid-19 restrictions. Bioversity conducted a follow up on the execution of the activities defined in the Letters of Agreement and no issues have been identified which could compromise the successful completion of the assignments according to the revised due dates.This consists of a laboratory under construction in Uganda, funded by NARO as part of the project \"Novel approaches to the improvement of banana production in Eastern Africa: the application of biotechnological methodologies -Phase II\" and which will be donated upon completion, foreseen within 2021. Works were not completed in 2020 and delayed due to Covid-19 restrictions.  Compared to previous year, the decrease in Unpaid leave is primarily due to the mandatory use of vacation leave to reduce to a maximum year-end balance of 10 days. This was a part of the mitigating mechanism put in place in 2020 called Solidarity Challenge to reduce the projected operating deficit for 2020.(18) Accounts payable − other CGIAR Centres The decrease in lease liabilities is due to the reduction in the duration of the lease agreement (see Notes 15 and 32.1).(The defined employee benefit consists of accruals for endof-service benefits due to staff members, specifically for separation allowances, calculated in accordance with the personnel policies of Bioversity. An actuarial calculation was carried out as required by IAS 19, Employee Benefits.($000s) The Bioversity Employee Benefits Programme (EBP) replaces the social security programmes of its various host countries.The EBP was established by CGIAR and adopted by all of its institutions. It provides a comprehensive package of insurance and fund accumulations to meet staff members' and their dependents' needs during employment and for retirement.The EBP is fully funded by Bioversity. No deductions from salary are required from staff members.Bioversity makes contributions on behalf of staff members to the pension plan managed by the Association of International Agricultural Research Centers (AIARC). These contributions are charged against revenue in the year in which the benefit accrues. Therefore, Bioversity has no future obligations for retirement benefits for its staff members.The contribution to the AIARC administered pension plan amounted to $1,599 thousand in 2020; $1,470 thousand in 2019.(This consists of liabilities towards the Internationally recruited staff (IRS) of Bioversity International for travel and shipping costs at end of service, calculated in accordance with the personnel policies of Bioversity.(25) Net assets The overall change in net assets represents the total gains and losses generated by Bioversity's activities during the year (see Note 2.12).As per IAS 19 Defined benefit plans, the liability for separation allowance must be revalued on an annual basis by an actuary. The actuarial gain/loss is then reflected in the statement of activities and other comprehensive income and is reflected in the net assets under Other Comprehensive Income -Actuarial gain/(loss).(26) Other revenues and gains The variation in financial income and expenditures is mainly due to foreign exchange losses generated by the change in the USD/Euro exchange rates.(29) Other Non-Operating IncomeOther non-operating income is income arising from sources that are not related to Bioversity's regular operations.This amount consists primarily of the differences between the service costs related to staff separation allowances for the year 2020 as calculated following Bioversity's Personnel Policies and Procedures and as calculated by the independent actuary following statistical assumptions required by IAS 19 revised (see Notes 2.11.2, 23).The harmonization of job classification and compensation framework in the Alliance has been implemented with an effective date of 1 September 2020. The new Alliance framework involved a new compensation system which is applicable to all Internationally Recruited Staff (IRS) employees. The new compensation framework applied to all IRS regardless of their employing entity within the Alliance, resulted in a difference between the calculation of the separation allowance service cost performed by Bioversity and by the actuary; the amount is $269k.Separation allowance service cost as per Bioversity International Personnel Policies and Procedures 605 Separation allowance service cost as per actuary 366(30) Indirect cost ratioThe indirect cost ratios for Bioversity of 11.69% in 2020 and 16.87% in 2019 are disclosed in Exhibit 6.The calculation of the indirect cost ratio is in line with the CGIAR Cost Principles and Indirect Cost Guidelines approved by the System Management Board with effect from 3 April 2019. These Guidelines and Cost Principles are intended to guide the CGIAR Centers in calculating their indirect cost allocation and applying these costs appropriately. There is no prescribed or one single rate possible as costs and structures of all organizations are different. The guidelines are intended only to guide harmonization of the methodology of arriving at the indirect cost rate of a CGIAR Center. The driving principle of this guideline is to ensure that expenses that are directly attributable to project outcomes and outputs are classified as direct costs and any expenses associated with the management of the Center and running of the business, are classified as Indirect Costs.The guidelines for Indirect Cost allocations aim to harmonize not only between Centers but also with the multiple Funders of the CGIAR System. The guidelines provide a framework to harmonize policies and definitions on indirect cost allocation. There is no universal rule for classifying certain costs as either direct or indirect under every accounting system. A cost may be direct with respect to some specific service or function, but indirect with respect to the donor award or another final cost objective. Therefore, it is essential that each item of the cost incurred for the same purpose be treated consistently in like circumstances either as a direct or an indirect cost to avoid possible double charging of donor awards. One of the objectives of the guidelines is to determine direct and indirect costs for the purpose of achieving full cost accounting. However, cost recovery is determined by provisions set out in donor awards (for example: award value, cost restrictions). Any difference between full cost accounting and cost recovery will result in a projected surplus or deficit.The method of calculating the indirect cost rate is designed to be an equitable, logical and consistent method for the allocation of costs in an economically feasible manner that cannot be directly allocated to a specific project or research award. The extent to which indirect costs are recoverable is dictated by donor agreements.This CGIAR Cost Principles and Indirect Cost Guidelines replaces the previous CGIAR Financial Guideline number 5. The principles and guidance contained in this guideline are not intended to conflict with the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Detailed guidance on IFRS for CGIAR Centers can be found in the IFRS Compliant CGIAR Financial Reporting Guidelines.The institutional indirect cost rate for 2020 decreased to 11.69%; from 16.87% for 2019.The decrease of 5.18% can be primarily explained by (1) a reduction of 18% in research expenses as the result of Covid-19 restrictions specifically on fieldwork activities; and (2) a reduction of 43% in general and administration expenses, also as a result of Covid-19 restrictions but mainly due to the costs reduction brought about by the operational alignment within the Alliance.With the implementation of the Alliance Partnership Agreement between Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) effective 1 January 2020, all costs related to establishing and running the Alliance will be shared between the two centers as per the proportion defined in the Alliance Partnership Agreement. Bioversity has applied the cost-sharing mechanism as per the Alliance Partnership Agreement commencing 1 January 2020 for the personnel costs of Alliance shared global positions hosted at Bioversity's headquarters in Italy.(31) Prior year comparativesPrior year amounts can be reclassified/regrouped wherever necessary, to conform to current year's classifications. There were no reclassifications needed in 2020.(32) Subsequent eventsThe Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT is relocating its new headquarters to the Aventine Hill in the center of Rome by May 2021; the initial due date was December 2020. The delay of the move to the new headquarters was caused by the slowdown in the renovation works on the building due to Covid-19 restrictions. Driven by strategic, operational and logistic potential, the move to the new headquarters will have a positive impact on partnerships, networking, collaboration, facilities and workplace flexibility.The implementation of a roadmap to operationalize the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT started in January 2020. One of the primary components of the roadmap is the alignment and harmonization of operations and procedures aimed to reduce transactions and provide efficient support to the Alliance's research strategy and results framework for increased effectiveness and impact. The ongoing operational alignment workstream within the Alliance will result in some changes in accounting policies for both Bioversity and CIAT that would have an impact on the financial reporting practices of both centers, specifically on the presentation of the financial statements. As prescribed by IAS 8, any changes will be reported in the 2021 financial statements. Bioversity expects that any change in accounting policy, as the result of the Alliance harmonization process, will only result in reclassifications and not restatements of comparative figures in the Organization's financial statements in future periods.On 11 March 2020, Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. The pandemic has caused economic and operational disruptions on a global scale. This has subsequently affected Bioversity's operations by closure of the physical offices in all parts of the world in compliance with Covid-19 restrictions applicable to each country and staff were requested to work remotely from home. The Organization's research activities have been disrupted e.g. full/partial suspension of duty travels, interruption of field activities, postponement of workshops and conferences scheduled in coming months or moved to digital platforms. However, leveraging on the technology available and implementing more robust IT structures, work that can be carried out at the desk, where possible, has been taken to ensure continuity of operations and delivery of timely and high-quality outputs.The financial results of 2020 operations demonstrated that the pandemic did not have significant negative impact on Bioversity's operations. Based on various assessments performed on the impact of Covid-19 on the Organization's financial operations, liquidity and credit risks remain low. Bioversity does not expect any unusual impairment on donor receivables. The current investment portfolio of Bioversity is prudently built within the framework of the investment policy oriented towards capital preservation. The low investment income in 2020 can be primarily explained by the prevailing global trend of low interest rates and not as a consequence of Covid-19.During 2020 management implemented very quickly mitigating measures to address the foreseen negative impacts of the pandemic while maintaining continuing operations and the Alliance integration process (see Note 30).Donors have been informed subsequently about the possible impact of the pandemic on specific project deliverables. A review of the impact on each project is continuously being carried out. Most, if not all, of Bioversity's donors have confirmed their support in extending the project durations to enable the Organization to deliver the defined outputs on the affected programme components.The Board and management continue to closely monitor and assess the developments and the impact of Covid-19 on Bioversity's operations.The Board approved a balanced budget for 2021. Through the Alliance, Bioversity have a robust project pipeline, and a vast number of engagements and commitments in 2021 that will enable the Organization to have a successful 2021.Notes     ","tokenCount":"9496"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bfcf0c1b9ce2dab7e25d37d7435aec78","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2165b5af-9148-4402-b4d4-898210fab029/retrieve","id":"551141371"},"keywords":["Sustainable Rice","Digital tools","Inclusion","Mekong Delta"],"sieverID":"86163171-934f-4e55-b530-792d93e2227a","pagecount":"14","content":"This report summarizes findings from the project \"Agroecological transitions for building resilient and inclusive agricultural and food systems (TRANSITIONS)\" which is funded by the European Commission through its Development of Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA) initiative and managed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The Digital Tools regional work in Vietnam focused on research and engagement with digital tools for technical advice and performance assessment in sustainable rice production in the Mekong River Delta due to the high climate change impacts, climate change mitigation potentials and sustainability challenges. This report focused on the learnings from the field testing of 2 digital tools designed for the rice value chain. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were held in September 2022 in Can Tho province in the Mekong Delta with 24 farmers and extension agents. In March 2023 FGDs were held with 5 extension agents and 20 farmers working with Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) practices in the Dong Thap province of the Mekong Delta.The purpose of the FGDs was to: Discuss the support that farmers receive in terms of sources of information/guidance and performance assessment in rice production. Discuss how farmers use digital tools to improve, monitor, and evaluate their SRP farming practices.Farmers' agroecology practices and sources of technical advice/performance assessment Non-contracted farmers cultivate rice in three cropping seasons thus, they do not cultivate other crops besides rice. They want to decrease to two rice cropping seasons since there is limited profit. It will require local government support to convert from three cropping seasons to two cropping seasons.Some contracted farmers diversify to other crops besides rice in order to increase their income. They cultivate fruit trees like durian, jackfruit, and longan in Thoi Lai and Co Do districts.Farmers use a number of methods to improve input use efficiency. This includes the use of the Three Reductions, Three Gains (3R3G) approach and One Must Do, 5 Reductions (1M5R) which are both government programmes to decrease seed, fertilizer, and pesticide input use. In general, farmers find local agricultural field agents and company field agents the most reliable sources of information, followed by experienced fellow farmers and rice buyers. The preferred methods of advisory include regular field visits and face-to-face meetings where field agents are able to observe the field and provide accurate responses. Farmers and field agents usually use instant messaging methods such as Zalo for exchanging of information. Official weekly reports are made in written form.The digital tool tested during the first field testing in Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta was a prototype created by Agritask. The tool is designed to support data collection and technical advice for rice farmers.The system is designed for use by both men and women. It is expected to improve efficiency in the data collection process whilst simplifying the process for farmers and reducing errors. With time, it is hoped that the tool will be used for SRP certification. The current business model is designed on the mechanism of paying farmers to use, since rice farmers do not display a strong desire to use digital tools to facilitate the data collection process. Farmers expect that this process should be facilitated by field agents as such, it will be important for Agritask to think about whether there is scalability in this approach. A more scalable approach would be to target field agents as the end users and as such developing a tool suitable for their needs.The farmers and field agents considered the Agritask application to be useful for the recording of farming practices and a more convenient approach than using pen and paper recording. The information is structured well and arranged logically. It is considered to have generally user-friendly interfaces. The pest and disease recommendations are useful and there are calculations of cost and profit, enabling comparison between seasons.It was considered very important that farmers are able to extract and share the data that they have entered. There were a number of recommendations to reduce the rate of errors. It was recommended to allow farmers to edit data retrospectively in case of errors while recording. Allowing duplication of records where practices do not change over time can reduce errors for example, area or type andUse of digital tools in sustainable rice production in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam volume of pesticides. Duplication of some entry points can also save a significant amount of time. It was suggested that a reminder warning be included if a user forgets to input data (according to an established frequency such as daily or weekly or a few times per week) similarly pest/disease warning were considered to be useful. Award points could encourage farmers to use frequently.Some more specific recommendations are: Use of digit separators (. ,) Charts of farming results (cost, yield, revenue, profit, etc.) to compare with the same season across different years. The app currently does not allow saving data for the current day. It only allows saving for dates up to the date before the current date. Sometimes farmers use lunar calendar for crop establishment, it would be good if the app can show both lunar and solar calendars. Machinery cost should be broken down to specific items such as land preparation, tillage/ploughing, sowing, etc. Allow users to add items not available in the pre-designed lists of fertilisers and pesticides (some common fertilisers such as urea, DAP, Kali NPK 16-16-8, NPK 20-20-15 are not in the list). Under pest management: mouse management is missing. Labour cost can be VND/day and can sometimes be a lump sum cost (not determined by labour day), so the app should allow to record labour cost by area (i.e. ha or season). The area unit varies between provinces. While farmers in one province are familiar with ha, those in other provinces are more familiar with \"big cong\" (equivalent to 1296m2). Farmers are confused among units of fertilizer (the way of inputting is not friendly to them) and the units for pesticide were too limiting. Some people would prefer litres, while others prefer bottles or other units. The app's error alerts were confusing to farmers, sometimes the alerts were in English even though the device system language and the app language were both in Vietnamese.Results: Field testing of digital tool by Agrig8Rikolto launched their SRP project in Dong Thap 2018 with implementation of the model commencing at the end of 2019. By 2020, the program had been scaled up to involve approximately 800 small holder farmers across eight cooperatives, covering a total of 2,000-3,000 hectares of land.Scoring occurs once per crop season, typically at the end of the season. Agents visit farmers weekly to monitor progress, assess the current situation, and take notes for a summary report. The process to input farming data for SRP monitoring and scoring takes approximately two hours per SRP farmer. At the time of survey, SRP scoring was done by technicians in the local areas who had been trained in SRP in cooperation with the cooperatives; most farmers who joined this program reached 80% and above.There was a plan that Rikolto would hire an independent body to perform the scoring in 2023 with the expectation of selling rice at a higher price.Agents maintain records of each SRP farmer's name, rice area, field address, and phone number on hard copy documents. The SRP project provides agents an Excel form for scoring. SRP farmers keep record of farming diaries using a notebook provided by the project. The rice management diary includes information on seed varieties, fertilizer usage, harvesting practices, labour costs, yields, prices, and productivity. At the end of the season, these diaries are collected by field agents to input into a digital format (normally Excel) for scoring.It was reported that production cost reduced up to 30% per season. Currently, there is no contract farming scheme for SRP rice under this project. Farmers sell rice either to companies under the cooperatives' on-going contracts or to middlemen. SRP rice under this project is sold at prices that are 100-200 VND/kg higher than market prices for regular rice; the difference comes from negotiation based on improved quality (i.e., use of certified seeds and reduced chemical use). Some farmers indicated that after completing the pilot project, they would continue to implement the SRP techniques due to the financial benefits from saving input costs and health benefits for farmers. Some farmers shared that they would continue the model if the rice is certified and sold at considerably higher prices.Use of digital tools in sustainable rice production in the Mekong Delta, VietnamIn general, all famers apply AWD. Even during the wet season (Autumn -Winter), sometimes water is pumped out of the field to prevent logging. Farms use certified pesticides and apply integrated pest management practices to control pesticide use. Straw is generally incorporated before wet seasons and collected and sold during dry seasons. Straw is sold for production of mushroom, ornamental plants and flowers or compost. Challenges faced by field agents while using digital toolsData is collected by field agents in pen and paper form in the field. When the agents return to their office this data is transcribed on to Excel. The software does not have all the statistical functions needed, and agents must use additional software like SPSS for further analysis. Additionally, it takes time to enter information from the notebook to Excel while doing SRP scoring.Communication tools such as Zalo are commonly used by field agents to communicate with farmers.Google maps is sometimes used by field agents however, it doesn't meet the resolution needs to meet the requirements of users/officers in monitoring rice growth stages and pest detection.Field agents expressed an interest in using an app and transferring the notebook/diary to manage online by an application to save time, ensure consistency, and provide convenience. There was the suggestion of integrating the scoring function into the app so that farmers can enter data themselves under the support of field agents.The second field testing conducted in the Dong Thap province in the Mekong Delta tested a prototype created by AgriG8 called CropPal. The tool is designed to support SRP certification and the calculation of GHG emissions. They are still in the process of developing a sustainable business model. They are proposing the app be pay for use by farmers or supported by financial institutions. It will be important to develop a long term scalable business model. One approach could be to design the app for use by public sector and private sector field agents, who work directly with farmers for SRP certification.Field agents considered CropPal to be generally convenient, accessible, and suitable for users/farmers.They liked the ability of CropPal to retain information. It was suggested that a reminder warning be included for incomplete information in each section and there be a function to review the history of entered information. It was requested that there be a function to export outputs to Excel. It was proposed the design of a season management section by year.Farmers struggled to interpret the icons. It was suggested that changing the icons to text or photographic images that are familiar to farmers which would make the buttons more easily recognisable. Farmers also preferred to have each button in its own distinctive colour. Vietnamese needs to be used as the primary language throughout the app.Field agents had a preference for use of kg unit instead of \"bag\" unit. Field agents suggested changing from drop down options to a blank space which allows flexibility of answer. List all fertilizer categories and leave the corresponding quantity blank for users. They suggested changing the way to log in to CropPal, using the user's phone number to get the number code automatically, which is only required the first time using the app. The app could then be managed by the field agents using farmer code.It was recommended that the application include more statistical functions on varieties e.g. variety type, quantity/area of sowing). They would like additional functions for productivity and information about expenses for fertilizers, and labour costs. The definition of the duration of each rice variety should be adjusted as follows: Short-term rice (85-90 days), medium-term rice (95 days), long-term rice (>110 days). Pest detection time needs to be included (dd/mm)","tokenCount":"2027"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5326bc566bca14e12e630aa48db1ae5a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e7086145-e6e1-4517-a0bd-23b6f181d4cb/retrieve","id":"2097854568"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e0fe335f-16ec-4a39-b6a2-5930f4ae3a65","pagecount":"14","content":"The purpose of ILRI's new Global Livestock Genetics Program (LiveGene) is to:• Integrate R&D by ILRI and its partners in the areas of gene discovery and utilization, genome characterization and diversity conservation to deliver improved breeds to small-scale livestock farmers, enhancing the roles that livestock play in food security and poverty alleviation in Africa and Asia• Working with national breeding programs, LiveGene will deliver higher agricultural productivity through improved genetics of the priority livestock species including dairy cattle, poultry, sheep, goats, pigs and old world camelids• ILRI is supporting national livestock breeding programs by providing regional and tailored breeding platforms for priority species, which make available open source databases to guide breeding programs in specific agro-ecosystems and support high-quality capacity building programs for livestock breeders• ILRI, through LiveGene and the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA)-ILRI Hub, is hosting a livestock genomics platform for the genotyping and characterization of livestock and related wildlife biodiversity and also hosts rst class bio-repositories to conserve and make available the diversity of tropical livestock species and their associated microbes, pests and pathogens as an open sourced scienti c resource for research that is globally available Modern genetics provides new opportunities to increase sustainable productivity in livestock. These opportunities are underutilized in the developing world. In contrast, genetic improvement has been the cornerstone of steadily increasing productivity gains in livestock systems in industrial countries (Figure 1).There is a gap between the productivity of livestock systems in industrial countries and most livestock systems in the developing world. Analysis by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has shown that greatest opportunities to improve sustainable productivity in livestock are in genetics in Africa and South Asia (Figure 2). Health and genetics are the greatest opportunities to improve sustainable productivity in target speciesThere is also opportunity in animal health, particularly in SSA Recent scientific developments make a new international approach to livestock genetics timely. New genomics approaches are speeding up the understanding and ultimately the identification of the genetic control of desirable traits combined with targeted or genome-wide intervention, new reproductive technologies and in vitro conservation technologies. They are also accelerating the spread of desirable traits. These biological approaches have synergies with new information and communications technologies, such as using mobile phone technology and remote sensing data for costeffective phenotyping of targeted livestock species, further guiding breeding and selection programs.ILRI has long standing engagement and ongoing activities at various points along the genetics pipeline (Figure 3). For example, LiveGene will mobilize knowledge and expertise available at ILRI on:• The geographic distribution of livestock breeds• Identifying genes for disease tolerance• Breeding to improve productivity in smallholder dairying• Characterizing genetic diversity in selected species, such as cattle, chickens and goats ILRI's new approach to livestock genetics is illustrated in the 'genetics pipeline' that links targeting, gene discovery, through to delivery of improved breeds to livestock keepers (Figure 3). Gen etics Proj j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j ject P P P P P P P P P P  LiveGene is continuously seeking new opportunities where well-targeted gene discovery, characterization, conservation, genetics and breeding can contribute to improving livestock productivity, leading to better food security and improving the livelihoods of small-scale livestock keepers. For example, a project is being conducted on the improvement of productivity of small-scale poultry production in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania, and a strategic partnership has been formed between ILRI and the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute and Scotland's Rural College on tropical livestock genetics and health to conduct joint research and education activities in Africa and the UK. ILRI is also strengthening its senior scientific staff in the areas of quantitative genetics and informatics so that LiveGene has a critical mass of scientific leadership to address these new opportunities in livestock genetics to benefit the world's small-scale livestock keepers.• A choice of improved genetics for small/ medium scale production systems characterized and made available• NARS equipped to continually and sustainably improve and deliver their genetic resources• An independent poultry testing and evaluation center for sub-Saharan Africa ","tokenCount":"685"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f97dd2106158f599d3883bc94ac20484","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/424f0e81-298f-4a2f-a3e1-78965e96a468/retrieve","id":"-2107408717"},"keywords":["Ministry of Agriculture","National Meteorological Agency","International Research Institute for Climate and Society"],"sieverID":"7b66b862-a195-4e60-b3b2-3dc01d85e9e8","pagecount":"1","content":"A major constraint faced by smallholder farmers in Ethiopia is coping with production uncertainties associated with an unpredictable climate during the growing season.The Ethiopian AgroMet Platform offers great potential to improve farmers' management of climate-induced risks, facilitate technology adoption and thereby improve their livelihoods.Beneficiaries 82,000 smallholder farmers (~13,600 households) directly benefitted from four major regions enabling them to better manage risk, take advantage of favorable climate conditions and help them adapt to change.Scan to find out more Forecast, advisory and dissemination mechanisms in the platform Develop an appropriate dissemination mechanism to deliver climate-smart advisories using ICTs such as SMS, IVRS and smart-phone applications on farming practices and provide alerts linked to weather forecasts during cropping seasons.The AgroMet platform incorporates location specific climate-information, soil and crop specific best-bet agronomic management recommendations for farmers, development agents and extension officers; with the integration and automation of crop-climate modeling with ICTs as a dissemination mechanism.The platform will contribute to the vision of making Ethiopian agriculture climate-smart by closing the gap between climate information and effective action.• Crop and site specific agro-meteorological advisories generated based on climate forecasts.• Smallholder farmers connected with soil, weather, crop, market and socio-economic information through digital agricultural platform.• Agro-met advisory communication and dissemination mechanism developed by integrating modern ICT with crop-climate modeling.• Enhanced capacity of 72 extension officers and 513 development agents across the country to tailor climate information with actionable decisions.• MoA uses the platform as one of the decision support tools for seasonal planning.This document is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. May 2019We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: https://www.cgiar.org/funders/","tokenCount":"280"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"140849a7bfe90f49ee6f00424b37777e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c99ab5f0-ea50-452a-8fd0-247b9a7f9fad/retrieve","id":"1163684305"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1c30393f-d46c-4020-9344-7ba7861ef734","pagecount":"10","content":"Climate change and the consequent increase in the incidence of drought and flood will remain a major threat to smallholders. Hence, it is crucial to adopt an appropriate adaptation strategy to overcome this threat and increase farmers' income. Because seed is a primary input, the adoption of stress-tolerant rice varieties is a potential mitigation strategy to combat climate risks. In this context, the present study is carried out among paddy farmers in the flood-prone region of Eastern India to understand the adoption and impact of submergencetolerant rice variety Swarna-Sub1 on yield and income. The study reveals that the adoption of Swarna-Sub1 varies significantly across eastern India. Education, primary occupation, credit, social group, cultivated land, and access to information on stress-tolerant rice varieties significantly influence the adoption decision. Endogenous switching regression estimates revealed that the expected paddy yield of Swarna-Sub1 adopters in an actual scenario and for non-adopters in a counterfactual scenario is significantly higher than for their counterparts. The average treatment effect confirms that the benefit of cultivating Swarna-Sub1 is much higher in submergence conditions than in normal conditions. An additional 19.0% and 48.2% of paddy yield and income is obtained respectively by cultivating Swarna-Sub1 in flooded conditions.The recurring incidence of flood and drought is the key reason of crop loss, seasonal earnings instability, and poverty among smallholder farmers ( Arora et al., 2019 ;Mottaleb et al., 2015 ). Mainly, exposure to these stresses is high because of poor access to irrigation and flood control infrastructure in developing countries ( Pingali et al., 2019 ). The impact of flood is more severe than that of drought. Flood not only affects crop production but also affects the livelihoods of people, affects livestock, damages household property, etc. ( Douglas et al., 2008 ). It is projected that extreme climate events will increase, such as the timing of the onset of monsoon, intensity of rainfall, and frequency of flood ( Khan et al., 2009 ). This will adversely affect agricultural production and food security in the regions where poverty and food insecurity are common ( Mackill et al., 2012 ).Flash flood distresses approximately 16% of the world's paddy area by frequent submergence ( Dar et al., 2018 ). Majority of the rice farmers residing in rainfed areas of India are in absolute poverty ( Veettil et al., 2021 ;Ismail et al., 2013 ). Still, large number of rural population in India depends on agriculture for its livelihood. India's agricultural sector contributed approximately 18% of the gross domestic product in 2018 and plays a vital role in the development of the country. A clear trend of increased paddy productivity has been witnessed in India over the years. At the same time, it is observed that the rice production environment is sensitive to climatic fluctuations ( Duncan et al., 2017 ). Agriculture is predominantly vulnerable to floods, approximately 33% of the cultivable area is flood-prone in India ( Ranuzzi and Srivastava, 2012 ).The Green Revolution introduced high yielding varieties of rice and wheat to increase the food production and achieve self-sufficiency, accordingly it contributed to alleviating hunger and poverty in the irrigation areas ( Nelson et al., 2019 ). However, the Green Revolution was not targeted to rain-fed areas prone to flood and drought, where the food insecurity and poverty is severe ( Pingali, 2012 ). The adoption of stresstolerant rice varieties (STRVs) could be one of the major risk adaptation strategies to overcome the challenges of low productivity in flood-prone areas, and to improve seasonal earnings for the marginal communities that predominantly depend on paddy cultivation for their livelihood ( Veettil et al., 2021 ).In the midst of changing climate, flood is one of the major climate events that significantly restrain rice production in India. Most paddy varieties can withstand submergence for around a week and this results https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2022.100480 Received 13 October 2021; Received in revised form 4 February 2022; Accepted 8 February 2022 2667-0100/© 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. in nearly 50% crop loss ( Nguyen, 2012 ). But, if the paddy crop is submerged for 14 days, this will result in 100% crop loss ( Ismail et al., 2013 ). Approximately 80% of the paddy-producing areas in Eastern India are rainfed, suffering from either excess rainfall leading to flood or a shortfall in rainfall leading to drought ( Aryal et al., 2019 ). Approximately 27% of the paddy-producing areas in Odisha suffer from submergence of the crop, and 40% in Bihar and West Bengal (ibid).Almost 30% of paddy area is prone to flash flood in India, with an average yield of only 0.5 to 0.8 t/ha in India ( Bhowmick et al., 2014 ). Paddy is mainly cultivated in one ( kharif ) season in India, particularly in the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Odisha. Given the frequent flood incidence, some farmers keep their cultivable land fallow in the eastern part of the country ( Singh et al., 2016 ). This leads to decreased income, food insecurity, and increased vulnerability for those depending primarily on farming ( Somanathan and Somanathan, 2009 ). The frequent flood decreases farm income, that discourage farmers to test any newest technologies including the adoption of new varieties ( Dar et al., 2017 ).India is home for 86% of small and marginal farmers owning 47% of the total cultivable land. Approximately 67% of the rural population in India lives in severe poverty and mainly depends on agriculture ( Bisht et al., 2020 ). The adverse impact is more on these farmers because of extreme climate events. Henceforth, innovative research has a high priority given the adverse consequences and susceptibility in agriculture brought about by climate stresses. A Hattori et al. (2009) study strongly suggests that the development of STRVs can enhance paddy production in flood-prone areas. For example, Scuba rice (flood-tolerant varieties) can withstand 17 days of full submergence and yield up to 3 t/ha under flash flood in Bangladesh ( Dar et al., 2017 ;Singh et al., 2009 ). To increase the paddy yield under submergence conditions in India, a variety 'Swarna-Sub1' is developed by breeders at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 2009 ( Veettil et al., 2021 ;Gregorio et al., 2013 ). This variety can withstand a submergence for 14 days, and under normal conditions, in comparison with other varieties, there are no significant differences in agronomic performance and grain yield ( Neeraja et al., 2007 ;Sarkar et al., 2006 ). Under the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) of the Government of India, Swarna-Sub1 seed was distributed in its Eastern India programs during the year 2010 ( Yamano et al., 2015 ). The present study analyzes farmers' choice of Swarna-Sub1 as a coping strategy against flood risks.The present study was carried out in three eastern states of India: Assam, Odisha, and West Bengal. Rice is the primary crop in the study area, where the incidence of flood is a frequent and common phenomenon. Rice occupies around 55% of the gross cropped area in Assam ( Phukan, 2016 ). On average, 40% of the total land in Assam is flood-prone, which is 9.4% of the flood-prone regions of the country (ibid). Flood in the early season mostly damages autumn rice, however flood occurring late in the season damages the standing winter paddy ( Mandal, 2014 ).Odisha is located in the eastern part of India. Drought and flood occur frequently in Odisha. The districts prone to frequent drought also encounter increasing number of floods ( Ranuzzi and Srivastava, 2012 ). From 2001 to 2008, around 0.9 million hectares of rice area were affected by the flood and submergence (GoO, 2013 ). In West Bengal, 80% of the rainfall received during June to September ( Laha et al., 2014 ). Approximately 10.5% of the gross rice cropped area is under flood-prone regions in West Bengal, and the lowest average paddy yield obtained in the region is 1.9 t/ha ( Adhikari et al., 2011 ).The study areas, Assam, Odisha and West Bengal contributes nearly 27.5% of the country's total paddy area and production in the year 2015-2016 ( Veettil et al., 2021 ). Approximately 30% of the total paddy According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Government of India, an average paddy yield in West Bengal is 2.74 t/ha, which is above the national average of 2.30 t/ha. The paddy yield in the states of Assam and Odisha is very low at 1.91 t/ha and 1.37 t/ha, respectively. However, average yield in the flood-prone areas is much lower than the state average. Hence, it is important to address this low productivity in the states where extreme climate events are common to make progress for the livelihood of the farmers and enhance production to feed the increasing population.Flood-prone districts were identified with the help of the remotesensing crop monitoring team at the International Rice Research Institute. From the identified flood-prone regions, 160 villages each in three states were selected randomly (a total of 480 villages). This included 155 villages 1 from 19 districts in Assam, 160 villages from 13 districts in Odisha, and 160 villages from 9 districts of West Bengal. Using the farmers list from a census survey, 2 10 rice-farming households from each village were randomly selected for a detailed survey, adding up to a total of 4750 households.A detailed household survey was implemented immediately after harvesting the paddy crop of the 2015 kharif season. The data collection was carried out from December 2015 to March 2016. The sample used in the analysis is shown in Table 1 .The socioeconomic characteristics of Swarna-Sub1 adopters and nonadopters are presented in Table A.1 . On average, 96% of the households are male-headed, with an average size of five members. Average age of the head is 50 years, mostly married, and having 27 years of experience in rice cultivation ( Veettil et al., 2021 ). Two-thirds of the household heads are literate with primary and secondary school education. We observed that the proportion of non-adopters in the non-literate group is higher than that of adopters, but lower in the high education group (college graduate). The contribution of household income from farming is 43% for the adopter group and 32% for the non-adopter group, indicating a high dependence on agriculture by adopters. After farming, non-agricultural labor and self-employment are the major livelihood options, for which the involvement and contribution to household income are higher in the non-adopter group.Adopters and non-adopters differ significantly in terms of social structure (caste composition) 3 , land ownership, and cultivation behav-ior. Adopters are dominated by backward caste groups (other backward caste 45% and scheduled caste 18%) whereas non-adopters mostly belonged to the forward caste (46%). This can be attributed to the fact that majority of marginal land is owned by the backward caste groups and comparatively higher flood-prone area is observed amongst them. Moreover, the social welfare schemes in India have a specific target on marginal people, and thus backward caste groups are more likely to be benefited in the programs. Adopters possess more land (31%) and cultivate more area (35%) than non-adopters. Further, adopters cultivate three rice varieties, which is one more than non-adopters. We also observed that a higher exposure of non-adopters to flood than adopters clearly showed the need for a detailed investigation of STRV adoption behavior in the region.To estimate the adoption of STRV on production efficiency, we test whether adoption of Swarna-Sub1 significantly improves the technical efficiency of agricultural production using a frontier production function. The Cobb -Douglas stochastic frontier model is widely used in agricultural studies to measure technical efficiency ( Radhakrishnan and Das, 2019 ;Islam et al., 2016 ;Rajendran, 2014 ;Baten and Hossain, 2014 ). Technical efficiency denotes the ability to produce an optimal output with minimum input use under certain production technology ( Farrell, 1957 ). The stochastic frontier model is specified aswhere \uD835\uDC3F\uD835\uDC5B is the natural log, Y = paddy yield (t/ha); \uD835\uDEFD 1 to \uD835\uDEFD 8 are the regression coefficients of the input (paddy area, seed, chemical fertilizer, pesticide, irrigation, male labor, female labor, and machinery) variables used in model 1; \uD835\uDEFD 9 to \uD835\uDEFD 10 are the regression coefficients of the noninput (Swarna-Sub1 cultivation and rice plot experienced submergence) variables used in model 2 along with input variables (see Table 3 ); \uD835\uDC49 \uD835\uDC56 is the noise term in the production (random term normally distributed) and \uD835\uDC62 \uD835\uDC56 is a non-negative technical in-efficiency of the i th farmers. The summary statistics of the variables are shown in Table A.2 . Following Islam et al. (2016) and Coelli et al. (2005) , the technical efficiency score for the i th paddy farm ( \uD835\uDC47 \uD835\uDC38 \uD835\uDC56 ) is calculated as the ratio of observed output to the corresponding frontier output, which is specified aswhere \uD835\uDC47 \uD835\uDC38 \uD835\uDC56 is the technical efficiency of the paddy farm (0 < TE < 1).When \uD835\uDC62 \uD835\uDC56 = 0 , the i th paddy farm lies on the frontier is technically efficient. If \uD835\uDC62 \uD835\uDC56 > 0 , the i th paddy farm lies below the frontier is technically inefficient.The decision on whether to adopt or not to adopt climate smart variety, Swarna-Sub1 by the farm household is based on the perceived net benefit that s/he can achieve. Under a random utility theory, a decision on the adoption of Swarna-Sub1 will take place if the net benefit is positive ( Veettil et al., 2021 ;Bidzakin et al., 2019 ; Abdulai and caste into which s/he is born ( Debnath et al., 2015 ). A caste system in India holds a characteristic such as occupational specialization, purity scale, hierarchy, commensality and ascription ( Freitas, 2006 ). For administrative purpose, caste is categories into four groups (low to high status), (i) scheduled tribes is a list of marginalized tribal communities, (ii) scheduled castes is a listing of formerly untouchable and lowest ranked group, (iii) other backward castes is a collection of low to middle-ranking castes and communities, and (iv) everyone else is clubbed into a residual category called \"general/forward \", which is used as a proxy for upper-castes.Conditional expectations, treatment, and heterogeneity effects.Decision stage Treatment effect To adopt Not to adoptNote: Y 1i = paddy yield of the household decision to adopt Swarna-Sub1 and Y 2i = paddy yield of the household decision to not adopt Swarna-Sub1.Huffman, 2014 ; Asfaw and Shiferaw, 2010 ). The selection equation for Swarna-Sub1 adoption is specified asThe adoption of Swarna-Sub1 takes value equals to one and nonadoption takes value equals to zero. Where \uD835\uDC46 \uD835\uDC46 1 * \uD835\uDC56 is the unobservable variable for Swarna-Sub1 adoption, \uD835\uDC46 \uD835\uDC46 1 \uD835\uDC56 is the observable counterpart. \uD835\uDC4A \uD835\uDC56 are the vector of explanatory variables affect the Swarna-Sub1 adoption, \uD835\uDF16 \uD835\uDC56 is an error term with mean (0) and variance ( \uD835\uDF0E 2 \uD835\uDF16 ). The decision to adopt or not to adopt Swarna-Sub1 is influence by the outcome variable, paddy yield in the study. To address the unobservable selection bias, endogenous switching regression is used to estimate the outcome variable of two regimes ( Bidzakin et al., 2019 ;Tesfaye and Tirivayi, 2018 ;Abdulai and Huffman, 2014 ;Asfaw and Shiferaw, 2010 ). That is, Swarna-Sub1 adopters in Regime 1 and non-adopters in Regime 2 as followsWhere \uD835\uDC4C 1 \uD835\uDC56 and \uD835\uDC4C 2 \uD835\uDC56 represents the paddy yield of Swarna-Sub1 adopters and non-adopters; Similarly \uD835\uDF19 are vectors of explanatory variables to be estimated and assumed to be weakly exogenous. The error terms are assumed to have a trivariate normal distribution, with zero mean and non-singular covariance matrix ( Bidzakin et al., 2019 ;Tesfaye and Tirivayi, 2018 ;Abdulai and Huffman, 2014 ;Asfaw and Shiferaw, 2010 ).Subsequently, after estimating the endogenous switching regression model, conditional expectation of paddy yield can be obtained from different scenarios ( Tesfaye and Tirivayi, 2018 ;Asfaw and Shiferaw, 2010 ) as follows Swarna-Sub1 adopters:Swarna-Sub1 non-adopters:Swarna-Sub1 adopters, had they made a decision not to adopt (counterfactual):Swarna-Sub1 non-adopters, had they made a decision to adopt (counterfactual):Where, \uD835\uDC5D 1 is the correlation coefficient between \uD835\uDF16 1 and \uD835\uDF16, \uD835\uDC5D 2 between \uD835\uDF16 2 and \uD835\uDF16, \uD835\uDC4D  2011) , the following treatment effect is estimated Treatment effect on the treated (TT) is calculated as the deviation among observed paddy yield of Swarna-Sub1 adopter and its counterfactual scenario (deviation between i and iii in Table 2 ) as followsTreatment effect on the untreated (TU) is calculated as the deviation among observed paddy yield of Swarna-Sub1 non-adopters and its counterfactual scenario (deviation between ii and iv in Table 2 ) as followsThe effect of base heterogeneity for the household decision to adopt Swarna-Sub1 (BH1) is a deviation between i and iv in Table 2 as followsThe effect of base heterogeneity for the household decision not to adopt Swarna-Sub1 (BH2) is a deviation between iii and ii in Table 2 as followsTransitional heterogeneity (TH) is the deviation between the treatment effect of the treated (TT) and the treatment effect of the untreated (TH) is shown in Table 2 .The results section is categorized into two sub-sections. First is Swarna-Sub1 adoption and technical efficiency of paddy cultivation. Second is the impact of Swarna-Sub1 on its yield and income.Figure 1 reveals that the adoption of Swarna-Sub1 varies significantly across the study area. The adoption rate is higher in Odisha, with 16.7% of the sampled households cultivating the variety during the 2015 kharif season. A total of 4.2% of the household cultivated it in West Bengal and the adoption rate was negligible in Assam. Every alternative adopter reported the reason for selecting Swarna-Sub1 as mainly its characteristic of submergence tolerance and one-third reported the reason as good crop yield.Technical efficiency is estimated using the Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production function for major paddy varieties cultivated in the study area. The estimates of stochastic frontier production are presented in Table 3 and the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates are presented in Table A.3 . The dependent variable used is paddy yield (production per hectare). We used Swarna-Sub1 cultivation (takes the value equals to 1 if the plot is cultivated under Swarna-Sub1, and 0 otherwise) and paddy plot submerged (takes the value equals to 1 if the plot had experienced submergence during the season, and 0 otherwise) as explanatory variables along with regular production inputs.The \uD835\uDEFE-parameter estimates (which explain the variation of output from the frontier attributed to technical inefficiency) are 0.87 (model 1) and 0.90 (model 2), implying the presence of inefficiency in the production function. Paddy area and quantity of seed used are not statistically significant. The elasticity of the mean value of paddy yield for chemical fertilizer is significant in model 1 of the frontier estimation; however, the coefficient of chemical fertilizer applied is much lower (by 0.016). In other words, holding other variables constant, a 1% increase in a unit of chemical fertilizer would increase paddy yield by 0.016%. Pesticide application positively and significantly influences paddy yield in both models with a lower coefficient, likewise for irrigation and machinery variables in model 2. Similarly, Swarna-Sub1 cultivation positively and significantly influences paddy yield; for example, the adoption of Swarna-Sub1 increases paddy yield by 9.1%. When the paddy plots experienced submergence, yield decreased by 7.3% vis-à-vis paddy cultivated in normal conditions. The distribution of individual technical efficiency of both models is presented in Fig. B.1 .The impact of Swarna-Sub1 adoption on yield is estimated using endogenous switching regression (ESR), which controls for unobservable selection bias ( Ahmed and Mesfin, 2017 ). The full information maximum likelihood estimates of the ESR model are presented in Table 4 . Column two reports the coefficients of selection for Swarna-Sub1 adoption and column four and six reports the outcome equations (paddy yield (t/ha) for Swarna-Sub1 adopters and non-adopters, respectively). Results from maximum likelihood estimates of the ESR model show that the estimated coefficient of correlation between the Swarna-Sub1 adoption equation and paddy yield function ( \uD835\uDF0C i ) is negative and significant. Both observed and unobserved factors influence the Swarna-Sub1 adoption decision and paddy yield outcomes provided adoption decision. The model explains the self-selection followed in the Swarna-Sub1 adoption. The presence of heterogeneity is witnessed between paddy yield of Swarna-Sub1 adopters and non-adopters.The regression estimates of the adoption model reported that Swarna-Sub1 adopters are significantly more highly educated than nonadopters, that is, the likelihood of an educated farmer adopting Swarna-Sub1 is more than for a non-literate farmer. Highly educated farmers process information about new technologies more quickly and effectively than non-literate farmers ( Foster and Rosenzweig, 2010 ). When the household head's primary occupation is farming, the likelihood of adopting Swarna-Sub1 is higher. High-income farmers are found to be high in risk taking and mostly enjoying multiple income sources, or more fertile lands, showing less appetite for variety Swarna-Sub1. Adoption is higher for those who have taken out a loan; naturally, one would expect to avoid risks in this context. Consistent with other studies ( Emerick et al., 2016 ), people belonging to backward castes (OBCs and SCs) are more likely to adopt Swarna-Sub1. Cultivated land area is positively and significantly affecting the adoption of Swarna-Sub1. Large farmers usually test the new variety on a small portion of their land. Households having access to information on STRVs were more likely to adopt Swarna-Sub1, ceteris paribus . Similarly, when the farmers are informed about the characteristics and benefits of STRVs, their choice of Swarna-Sub1 increases significantly.The productivity of paddy is significantly higher in male-headed households than in female-headed ones irrespective of Swarna-Sub1 adoption. In developing countries, female farmers are constrained in access to inputs, information, and markets. Among non-adopters, productivity is high when farmers are educated, but yield effects are also observed through higher adoption of Swarna-Sub1 by educated farmers. The positive and significant yield effects of livestock rearing among Swarna-Sub1 adopters indicate the need for a farming system-based climate-resilient approach. Similarly, a livelihood-based approach shows positive effects on climate resilience irrespective of Swarna-Sub1 adoption. Self-employment in the household positively influences the productivity of paddy. The productivity of farmers belonging to the forward caste is significantly higher than for other castes in both adopter and non-adopter categories. As paddy cultivated land increases, the yield of adopters and non-adopters decreases. This suggests that small farms are more efficient and productive than large  Note: * , * * , * * * : statistically significant at 10%, 5%, and 1% levels of significance, respectively. Average expected paddy yield (t/ha) for Swarna-Sub1 adopters and nonadopters.Decision stage Treatment effect To adopt Not to adopt Adopters 3.81 2.94 TT = 0.87 (0.01) * * * Non-adopters 4.37 3.34 TU = − 1.03 (0.01) * * * Heterogeneity effects BH 1 = − 0.56 BH 0 = − 0.40 TH = 1.90 * * * Note: statistically significant at 1% level of significance using the independent t -test between adopting and not adopting, respectively, for Swarna-Sub1 adopters and non-adopters; the number in parentheses is the standard error.farms. In the context of low mechanization and modernization of agriculture, smallholders are observed to manage farm better, as they are able to utilize the inputs effectively given that agriculture is labor intensive (due to low mechanization) and family labor has high intrinsic motivation for higher economic return. The result is also in accordance with the Chand et al. (2011) , small farms motivated to obtain more yield by practicing intensive input use and adopting new technologies.The estimated impact of Swarna-Sub1 on paddy yield under observed and counterfactual scenarios is shown in Table 5 . The observed mean paddy yield of Swarna-Sub1 adopters is 3.81 t/ha and that of nonadopters is 3.34 t/ha. The average treatment effect on treated (Swarna-Sub1 adopters) and untreated (non-adopters) is 0.87 t/ha and − 1.03 t/ha, respectively. Both values are significant and indicate that had the adopters not adopted Swarna-Sub1, the yield effect would have been 0.87 t/ha lower than what they obtained now. Similarly, had the nonadopters decided to adopt Swarna-Sub1, they would have received an additional yield of 1.03 t/ha.Base heterogeneity is computed to see the effect of unobservable characteristics on yield obtained by the Swarna-Sub1 adopters and nonadopters irrespective of making decision to adopt it. The effect of base heterogeneity for households that make decision to adopt Swarna-Sub1 is 0.56 t/ha and for the households that did not adopt Swarna-Sub1 it is 0.40 t/ha. This negative base heterogeneity effect implies that the paddy yield of Swarna-Sub1 non-adopters is higher, probably attributed to unobservable characteristics.Average treatment effect (ATE) is estimated after controlling for potential counterfactuals using the propensity score matching approach is presented in Table 6 . The outcome variables are paddy yield, net income, and technical efficiency estimates of model 1 (from Table 3 ). The outcome variables were compared between Swarna-Sub1 adopters and non-adopters under submergence and normal conditions.It is evident from Table 6 that Swarna-Sub1 produces an additional 19% yield compared with other varieties under submergence conditions. Under normal conditions, there is no significant difference in yield between Swarna-Sub1 and other varieties.From Table A.4 ., it is noted that there is no significant difference in the total cost of cultivation between Swarna-Sub1 and other varieties. The seed cost of other paddy varieties is significantly higher than for Swarna-Sub1, mainly because the seed price of some major varieties is higher. It is also observed that a significant difference exists in the quantity of seed applied. The labor cost of Swarna-Sub1 is significantly higher than for other inputs. Swarna-Sub1 tolerates flood more than other varieties under submergence conditions and more labor is involved in harvest and post-harvest activities.Income from Swarna-Sub1 cultivation is higher in both normal and submergence conditions. However, the benefit is two times higher in submergence conditions. For instance, Swarna-Sub1 adopters earn an additional net income of 48.3% and 22.5% in submergence and normal conditions, respectively. The technical efficiency of the frontier production estimates also shows that the technical efficiency of Swarna-Sub1 adopters is higher than for other varieties by 5.7% in submergence conditions and by 6.8% in normal conditions. Note: * , * * , * * * : statistically significant at 10%, 5%, and 1% levels of significance, respectively. Other varieties refer to all major varieties cultivated in the study area.The present study captured the adoption status and performance of Swarna-Sub1 in the flood-prone areas of Eastern India. Endogenous switching regression was used to assess the impact by controlling for the role of selection bias in adoption decisions and paddy yield. The estimate revealed that paddy yield was significantly higher for Swarna-Sub1 adopters in the actual scenario and for non-adopters in the counterfactual scenario of adoption.The performance of Swarna-Sub1 and other major paddy varieties was compared between normal and submergence plot conditions using average treatment effects. Compared to plots cultivated under normal conditions, paddy yield and net income obtained in submergence conditions were significantly higher for Swarna-Sub1 adopters. This shows that Swarna-Sub1 has potential for impact at scale to mitigate possible crop loss in flood-prone environments.The adoption of Swarna-Sub1 varied significantly across the study area; low adoption was witnessed in Assam and West Bengal. However, the frequency and intensity of flood were higher in Assam. Henceforth, we recommend effective seed dissemination and promoting the variety in flood-prone regions. Information access play a key role in the decision on Swarna-Sub1 adoption, which highlights the importance of information flow and awareness about the variety. Further, this technology is found to be socially inclusive and can easily integrate with climate-smart farming systems. Therefore, a targeted scaling in flood-prone areas will have a substantial impact on the food security of small farmers living in those fragile environments.We observed education playing a key role in adoption of climate resilient Swarna-Sub1. Inclusion of a curriculum on stress-tolerant rice varieties in agricultural extension and farmer schools is recommended. For instance, training material that International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) developed for quality seed and grain production of floodtolerant rice varieties is readily available for such purposes. Further, social networks and media can be effectively utilized to generate social awareness about the new varieties. In short to medium term, information flow and convergence between different stakeholders (both public and private sector) as well as involving local institutions such gram panchayat is central in educating smallholders and faster dissemination of technologies. Hence, farmer schools of local institutions such as NGOs, local governments, agricultural department, seed dealers, etc. could be used to bring awareness about new climate resilient varieties among farmers. Seed dealer significantly influences the farmers' decision on modern rice variety purchase ( Bannor et al., 2020 ). Thus, agricultural and climate policies needed to take account of importance of farmer education and involvement of local institutions in bringing resilience among smallholders. Source: Household survey, 2016. Note: * , * * , * * * statistically significant at 10%, 5%, and 1% levels of significance, respectively, using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test (for binary variables) and independent t -test (for continuous variables) between Swarna-Sub1 adopters and non-adopters; numbers in parentheses are the standard deviation.  Note: * , * * , * * * statistically significant at 10%, 5%, and 1% levels of significance using the independent t -test between submergence and normal conditions, respectively, for Swarna-Sub1 and other varieties. † , † † , † † † statistically significant at 10%, 5%, and 1% levels between Swarna-Sub1 and other varieties, respectively, for submergence conditions, normal conditions, and pooled. Numbers in parentheses are the standard deviation. ","tokenCount":"4873"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5917c753df94296357e01b34003df72f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c147ffea-f746-48c2-95b7-340ac8b1baf2/content","id":"694769886"},"keywords":["Near infrared","Normalized difference vegetation index","Green normalized difference vegetation index","Canopy reflectance"],"sieverID":"ecf83b0a-c198-4e4b-a20f-e24c8a2c38a2","pagecount":"5","content":"Common bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were grown under three phosphorous levels (0, 100 & 200 kg ha -1 ) and under rain fed conditions with the objective to examine the association between vegetative indices (NDVI, normalized difference vegetation index; & GNDVI, green normalized difference vegetation index) and intercepted radiation, leaf area index, biomass and yield during the growing season. The maximum intercepted radiation, leaf area index (LAI) and biomass were reached during the pod filling stage {80 days after sowing (DAS)}, and the P treatment of 200 kg ha -1 showed the highest values. The high intercepted radiation was derived from an increase in LAI inducing a major biomass accumulation. Near to physiological maturity LAI decreased as a result of leaf abscission. NDVI and GNDVI were higher with P supply than without P at anthesis and pod filling stage (50 -80 DAS). Near to physiological maturity NDVI and GNDVI decreased in all the treatments. When the maximum intercepted radiation, LAI, and biomass production were reached during anthesis and pod filling stage, NDVI and GNDVI also had the highest values. The association between the vegetative indices and seed yield during the pod filling stage showed a linear relationship by the P supply. The relationship between GNDVI and seed yield was higher (r 2 = 0.77) than the relationship between NDVI and seed yield (r 2 = 0.61).Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important elements for crop growth. It is a component of many cell constituents and plays a major role in several physiological processes including photosynthesis, respiration, energy storage and transfer, cell division, and cell enlargement (Föhse et al., 1988;Blevins, 1995). Also, P is necessary for seed formation, and it is an essential element in nodule metabolism in legumes (Bethlenfalvay & Yoder, 1981;Ibijbijen et al., 1996).P is the second most crop limiting nutrient in most soils, and most cropping systems require supplemental P to maximize their yield potential. Bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) showed a strong yield increase due to different rates of P fertilizer in field trials (Föhse et al., 1988;Singh & Singh, 2002;Roy & Partasaranthy, 2003). Variability among P. vulgaris genotypes in harvest index, and grain yield has been evaluated in relation to nitrogen and P fertilization (Araújo & Teixeira, 2003). The symbiotic N 2 fixation under P deficiency also has been assessed in common bean plants (Vadez et al., 1999). The growth and yield of P. vulgaris genotypes was evaluated under P deficiencies in different soil types (Yan et al., 1995).The crop growth can be assessed using canopy reflectance indices (remote sensing techniques) linked with yield traits (Wiegand et al., 1991;Araus et al., 2001). The most commonly known index for analyzing vegetation is the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI; R 900 -R 680 /R 900 + R 680 ) (i.e. Araus et al., 2001). It is used as an indirect assessment of canopy biomass, leaf area index, light-absorption, and potential photosynthetic capacity (i.e. Gamon et al., 1995;Peñuelas, 1998;Araus et al., 2001). Alternatively, Gitelson et al. (1996) proposed the use of the green normalized difference vegetation index (GNDVI, R 780 -R 550 /R 780 + R 550 ), which may prove to be more useful for estimating green crop biomass.By periodic measurements of NDVI during the growing cycle of a crop, the agronomic yield has been predicted in wheat (Rudorff & Batista, 1990) and corn (Wiegand et al., 1991). NDVI and GNDVI were associated with yield and biomass among bread wheat genotypes (Gutiérrez-Rodríguez et al., 2004b). In a previous study with Phaseolus vulgaris grown under three nitrogen levels (0, 100 & 200 kg nitrogen ha -1 ) we found a positive association between NDVI and seed yield (Gutiérrez-Rodríguez et al., 2004a). However, there are not studies related with the use of spectral reflectance indices to assess the crop growth of P. vulgaris varying P supply under field conditions.In the present study, common bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were grown under three phosphorous levels (0, 100, & 200 kg ha -1 ) and rain fed conditions to: (i) examine the association between vegetative indices (NDVI & GNDVI) and intercepted radiation, leaf area index, and biomass during the growing season; and (ii) determine the relationship between vegetative indices and seed yield by the P supply.The study was carried out in Montecillo, Mexico (19 o 19' N, 98 o 54' W, 2250 m above sea level) with a temperate climate, and a fluvisol soil (FAO, 1974). Seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Flor de Durazno were sown in a plant density of 25 plants m -2 under rain fed conditions (June-September, 2001). During seed sowing, three P rates were applied (0, 100 & 200 kg of P 2 O 5 ha -1 ) given as triple superphosphate, and a nitrogen level of 100 kg of nitrogen ha -1 as urea in all the treatments. The experimental design was a random block with four replications.Canopy reflectance was measured from 350 to 1100 nm using a FieldSpec spectroradiometer (Analytical Spectral Devices, Boulder, CO). All data collected were expressed as spectral reflectance after standardization by radiance of a leveled reference standard (BaSO 4 ) (Labsphere Inc., North Sutton, USA). Canopy reflectance measurements were taken 0.5 m above the canopy with a 10 o field of view foreoptic, and were taken at random places on cloud-free days near solar noon. The measurements were taken on different occasions during the growing season corresponding to distinct phenological stages; four leaf stage (25 DAS [days after the sowing ]), appearance of racimes (32 DAS), appearance of floral buds (39 DAS), beginning of anthesis (50 DAS), pod filling stage (80 DAS), and late pod filling stage (90 DAS).SR indices were calculated following the equations with the wavelength (nm) described by several authors; NDVI = R 900 -R 680 /R 900 + R680 (Araus el al., 2001); and GNDVI = R 780 -R 550 /R 780 + R 550 (Gitelson et al., 1996).Leaf area index (LAI), and intercepted radiation were determined on the same dates when spectral reflectance was taken on the canopy. All the trifoliate leaves were removed from the shoot to measure area using a leaf area meter Licor LI-3100 (Licor Instruments, NE). Leaf area index was calculated as follows: LAI = leaf area per plant*plant density/land area.Intercepted radiation (400 -700 nm) was measured with a line quantum sensor model LI-1915B (Licor Instruments, NE) collocated in a perpendicular orientation to the rows. The radiation (µmols m -2 s -1 ) was measured above and at the base of the canopy, and the intercepted radiation was calculated following the equation described by Adams and Arkin (1977):Transmitted radiation = radiation above the canopy*100/radiation under the canopy, and Ground cover = 100 -Transmitted radiation At physiological maturity, aboveground biomass and seed yield were determined in every plot. Other yield components also were determined such as seed number, seed weight, pod number, and seeds per pod. The samples were oven-dried, weighed, and threshed, and the seed weight was recorded.Meteorological data (maximum & minimum temperature, & precipitation) were recorded during the growing season.Coefficient of determination (r 2 ) and analysis of variance were carried out using SAS procedure (SAS Institute, 1990).The length of the growing season was 98 days (physiological maturity) after the sowing date, and there were no differences in phenology as a result of the P fertilization. The beginning of anthesis was reached at 50 DAS, and mid pod filling stage around 80 DAS.The precipitation accumulated during the growing season was 445 mm, and mean daily temperature oscillated from 11 to 20 o C. Biomass and yield. Pod and seed number were increased by the P fertilization (100 & 200 kg ha -1 ) and they had a direct influence in seed yield (Table I). Seed per pod and the weight of 100 seeds did not show differences among the three P treatments. Biomass also showed an increase from P fertilization. Intercepted radiation, leaf area index (LAI), and biomass. Intercepted radiation showed differences after 50 DAS (Fig. 1a). The maximum intercepted radiation was reached during the pod filling stage (80 DAS). The Table I  PHOSPHORUS / Int. J. Agri. Biol., Vol. 8, No. 2, 2006 205 200 kg ha -1 treatment showed the highest value (80%), the 100 kg ha -1 treatment showed 74% and the control treatment 68%. The high intercepted radiation associated with P supply was derived from an increase in LAI inducing a more biomass accumulation (Fig. 1b, c). Higher biomass production also occurred at the pod filling stage. The treatment of 200 kg ha -1 had the highest biomass (1059 g m -2 ) at physiological maturity (98 DAS), while the other treatments accumulated less biomass (932 g m -2 for 100 kg ha -1 , & 852 g m -2 for 0 kg ha -1 ) (Fig. 1c).Leaf abscission occurred when the plants started to maturate, and intercepted radiation, LAI, and biomass decreased after 90 DAS in all the treatments reflecting the difference in the P supply. Vegetative indices (NDVI and GNDVI). NDVI did not show differences in early growth stages due to P supply (Fig. 2). But 100 and 200 kg ha -1 treatments showed higher NDVI than the treatment without P at anthesis and pod filling stage (50 -80 DAS). Near to the physiological maturity NDVI decreased in all the treatments.GNDVI showed a similar tendency as NDVI. It increased from early growth stages (less than 50 DAS) and reached a maximum at pod filling stage (80 DAS) (Fig. 2). The P supply increase GNDVI from anthesis to pod filling (50 -80 DAS). Near to the physiological maturity GNDVI also decreased.) and intercepted radiation, LAI and biomass is shown in the Fig. 3. During early growth stages the vegetative indices and the other parameters (intercepted radiation, LAI, & biomass) increased until reaching a maximum at anthesis and pod filling stage (50 -80 DAS). The treatments of 100 and 200 kg P ha -1 were always higher than the treatment without P.The association between the vegetative indices and intercepted radiation, and biomass showed an increase in early stages and a decrease near to the physiological maturity due to leaf abscission (Fig. 3a, b, e & f). The association between vegetative indices and LAI (except at physiological maturity) was described with a quadratic model showing an r 2 that ranged from 0.76 -0.85 and 0.88 -0.95 for NDVI and GNDVI, respectively (Fig. 3c, d).The association between the vegetative indices (NDVI & GNDVI) and seed yield during the pod filling stage showed a linear relationship associated with P supply. The relationship between GNDVI and seed yield was higher (r 2 = 0.77) than the relationship between NDVI and seed yield (r 2 = 0.61) (Fig. 4).The P supply (100 & 200 kg ha -1 ) increased yield of common bean plants grown under rain fed conditions (Table I). The P treatment of 200 kg ha -1 showed the highest seed yield, and biomass. Several studies have demonstrated that P fertilization increases seed yield and dry matter in common bean plants (Föhse et al., 1988;Singh & Singh, 2002;Roy & Partasaranthy, 2003). Association between vegetative indices and intercepted radiation, leaf area index and yield. Both vegetative indices (NDVI & GNDVI) showed a similar tendency during the growing season of common bean plants grown under three P treatments (Fig. 2, 3). The P treatments of 100 and 200 kg ha -1 gave higher NDVI values than the zero P treatment. The maximum values of NDVI were reached during the pod filling stage (80 DAS) when intercepted radiation, LAI, and biomass had the highest values. Other studies have found that NDVI and GNDVI are increased in early stages reaching a maximum during anthesis and decreased near to the physiological maturity (Aase & Siddoway, 1981;Shanahana et al., 2001).Although the association between the vegetative indices and intercepted radiation and biomass was not explained with a model, they were associated. When maximum intercepted radiation, LAI and biomass production are reached during anthesis and pod filling stage, NDVI and GNDVI also had the highest values. Both indices showed a positive correlation with LAI measured until pod filling stage with a quadratic model (r 2 ranged from 0.76 to 0.85 for NDVI, & from 0.88 to 0.95 for GNDVI) (Fig. 3). Several studies have found that NDVI can be associated with yield; for example, NDVI measured at any crop stage is highly associated with yield in durum wheat genotypes under rain fed conditions in several environments (Royo et al., 2003). In another study, grain yield was highly positively correlated with NDVI in soybean genotypes (r 2 up to 0.80) during the reproductive stage (Ma et al., 2001). In a previous study, we found a positive association between NDVI and seed yield in common bean plants varying nitrogen levels. In the current study, the two vegetative indices showed an association with seed yield during the pod filling stage (Fig. 4). The relationship between NDVI and seed yield was weaker (r 2 = 0.61) than the relationship between GNDVI and yield (r 2 = 0.77). The index GNDVI has been reported for estimating green canopy biomass and grain yield in corn varying nitrogen levels (Gitelson et al., 1996). Shanahana et al. (2001) found in maize hybrids that the relationship between GNDVI and yield was higher (r 2 = 0.50 -0.85) than NDVI and yield (< 0.50) during the grain filling stage. In another study, we found a positive relationship between yield and NDVI and GNDVI in wheat genotypes (Gutierrez-Rodriguez et al., 2004b). In our study, GNDVI had a stronger relationship than NDVI with yield during the growing season of common bean plants grown under different levels of P supply, and this is the first study reporting the association for common bean plants.The P supply increased yield and biomass in common bean plants grown under rain fed conditions, and the vegetative indices (NDVI & GNDVI) showed association with intercepted radiation, leaf area index, and biomass during the growing season. GNDVI had a higher relationship than NDVI with seed yield at the pod filling stage varying P supply. The vegetative indices could be used to identify high agronomic yield in common bean plants varying P supply, and they provide additional analytical tools for interpreting crop growth, and yield.","tokenCount":"2368"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e134ffdb35ce83fb57d88369a9cf5ba4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a526ff01-e888-42bf-aa03-09bd69588200/retrieve","id":"-912204017"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fef995ab-55f1-4739-a4e3-4d77c7c39994","pagecount":"10","content":"Cette étude a été appuyée par le projet FORETS (Formation, Recherche et Environnement dans la Tshopo, www.cifor.org/forets), financé par l'Union européenne, et par le programme de recherche du CGIAR sur les forêts, les arbres et l'agroforesterie.Les forêts de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC) couvrent plus de 100 millions d'hectares, abritent des milliers d'espèces végétales et animales et régulent les cycles de l'eau à l'échelle du continent et le changement climatique mondial [1]. Près de 40 millions de personnes vivent à l'intérieur ou à proximité de ces forêts. Ils comptent parmi les plus pauvres et les plus vulnérables du monde, malgré la richesse des ressources naturelles qui les entourent. La demande croissante de nourriture, d'abris, d'énergie et de revenus contribue de manière significative à la déforestation et à la dégradation des forêts [2] et lie les défis essentiels du développement et de l'environnement aux implications locales et mondiales. L'avenir des forêts de la RDC dépend de la création de voies de sortie de la pauvreté pour ceux qui vivent autour et dans les forêts, tout en gérant durablement les ressources.La RDC dispose de nombreuses zones forestières protégées ; certaines sont aussi grandes que des pays européens. Le parc national de Salonga, par exemple, couvre une superficie plus vaste que la Belgique. La réserve de la biosphère de Yangambi (YBR), créée en 1976 et située dans la province de Tshopo, couvre une superficie de 235 000 ha et o Malgré leur éducation, les ménages de Yangambi -y compris les plus aisés -vivent sous le seuil de pauvreté, ce qui laisse à penser que les opportunités génératrices de revenus sont peu nombreuses.o La région autour de Yangambi présente un potentiel important d'intensification agroécologique pour accroître la sécurité alimentaire, d'exploitation des systèmes agroforestiers pour diversifier les régimes alimentaires et de développement des chaînes de valeur pour augmenter les revenus.Réserve de la biosphère de Yangambi | 2 comprend une flore et une faune caractéristiques de la forêt tropicale humide de la RDC. Au cours de la période coloniale, les Belges y ont créé une station de recherche en agriculture et écologie tropicales qui existe jusqu'aujourd'hui. Avec un nombre croissant de personnes vivant à l'intérieur et autour de la réserve, Yangambi représente aujourd'hui un microcosme des préoccupations de conservation et de développement qui se retrouvent partout en RDC.Cette note présente les résultats d'une évaluation des systèmes de subsistance en milieu rural autour de la réserve. L'évaluation a été entreprise pour identifier les points d'entrée pour créer de la richesse, améliorer la nutrition et protéger la forêt. Pour détecter la variabilité des caractéristiques des ménages et de l'agriculture dans la région, l'échantillon a été divisé en quartiles sur la base de la valeur totale estimée des activités de chaque ménage (USD / jour [médiane]), comme indiqué à droite. Les quartiles classés selon la richesse (supérieur, supérieur moyen, inférieur moyen, inférieur) peuvent jouer un rôle important dans l'analyse comparative. Les faits montrent que même les ménages les plus aisés -qui parviennent à tirer un revenu légèrement supérieur de leurs activités -ont du mal à atteindre le seuil de pauvreté standard de 1,9 USD / personne / jour.  et 70%, respectivement). La province dont-il est question ici est la province Orientale, à laquelle appartient la YBR. Les taux de fréquentation de l'école primaire correspondent aux pourcentages de tous les enfants âgés de 6 à 12 ans fréquentant l'école primaire.  Les élevages typiques comprennent les poulets, les chèvres et les porcs. Le nombre de têtes d'animaux par ménage varie considérablement selon le type de bétail et le ménage, d'un à près de quinze. Dans la plupart des cas, l'élevage des animaux est principalement une réserve monétaire permettant aux agriculteurs de faire face à des dépenses extraordinaires (maladie, enterrement, célébrations), mais pas une activité agricole primaire. Comme dans l'ensemble du bassin du Congo, l'élevage bovin autour de la YBR est limité, principalement en raison de la présence de la mouche tsé-tsé et de la disponibilité limitée des aliments pour animaux [9]. Par conséquent, de nombreux ménages complètent leur régime alimentaire avec de la viande de brousse (voir page 7).  Les agriculteurs utilisent rarement des intrants agricoles, des engrais et des pesticides. Environ 5% seulement des ménages utilisent des semences améliorées et 2% du fumier comme engrais. Bien que l'utilisation d'engrais inorganiques a plus que doublé au cours des dernières années en RDC -passant de 1,4 kg / ha en 2013 à 3 kg / ha en 2015 -, personne autour de Yangambi n'utilise les engrais. De même, l'acquisition et l'utilisation de produits vétérinaires pour le bétail ne sont pas très courantes. Parmi les 10% de personnes qui déclarent utiliser des produits vétérinaires, près de 60% d'entre elles les utilisent pour les porcs, environ 30% pour les poulets et 10% pour les chèvres. La faible utilisation d'engrais, de pesticides, de produits vétérinaires et d'autres intrants agricoles a été une variable explicative importante de la faible productivité dans l'ensemble de la RDC. Cela 9 Les arbres sont généralement associés au : manioc (environ 14% des ménages interrogés), riz (8%), plantain (7%), aux épinards (6%), à la tomate (6%), au maïs (6%), piment rouge (5%), et à l'amarante (3%). 10 Traditionnellement, en particulier dans les zones forestières, les terres appartiennent à la grande famille et les ménages ont accès aux a été associé à un marché d'intrants informel et dysfonctionnel (en particulier les semences) et à l'accès limité des agriculteurs à l'information, à la technologie ou à l'argent, entre autres.propriété foncière locale repose principalement sur les droits coutumiers. Contrairement aux tendances nationales, qui indiquent que 86% des ménages agricoles cultivent leurs propres terres [5], plus de 60% des ménages autour de Yangambi utilisent des terres familiales et seulement 30% déclarent utiliser leurs propres terres 10 . La location de terres est rare, mais réelle. Environ 10% des ménages déclarent louer ou donner en location des terres (généralement sans documents écrits). La prévalence des titres fonciers écrits, estimée à 11-20%, est plutôt exceptionnelle dans l'ensemble de la province de Tshopo [6]. On pense que l'absence des titres fonciers sécurisés freine les investissements agricoles, l'adoption de technologies, la productivité et la prospérité des ménages [10]. Toutefois, il n'existe aucune preuve concluante que l'absence de titres de propriété ait une incidence sur la sécurité alimentaire dans la zone d'étude, les pénuries alimentaires frappant les ménages sans distinction (voir page 8) ; pourtant, il est probable que la vulnérabilité de la communauté locale augmente, à mesure que des parties prenantes externes revendiquent l'accès aux terres et aux ressources locales.terres appartenant à la famille. Dans l'enquête nationale, les terres «familiales» ont peut-être été considérées comme des terres «propres» car elles ne sont pas considérées comme des «terres appartenant à quelqu'un d'autre» ou des «terres louées pour une période déterminée».Un champ agricole près de Yangambi. Photo : Axel Fassio / CIFOR Réserve de la biosphère de Yangambi | 6La réserve est une source importante de moyens de subsistance pour la population riveraine. Près de 80% des répondants la visitent fréquemment : 14% tous les jours, 35% presque tous les jours et 32% une ou deux fois par semaine. Seuls 5% déclarent ne jamais entrer dans la réserve. Bien que l'enquête ne fournisse pas de renseignements sur l'impact des visites -car des questions relatives au type et à la fréquence des activités entreprises dans la réserve n'ont pas été posées, elle souligne tout de même la valeur des forêts pour la population vivant dans la localité. Une telle situation n'est pas propre à Yangambi, les forêts occupant plus de la moitié de la superficie totale du pays fournissant nourriture, abri et revenu à 40 millions de personnes.Les ressources forestières sont généralement abondantes et relativement faciles d'accès, à l'exception de la nourriture. De toutes les ressources forestières essentielles, la nourriture (viande de brousse et autres aliments sauvages) serait la moins disponible et la plus difficile d'accès, mais encore considérée comme commune par presque un tiers de la population. Pour la plupart, la nourriture est inaccessible en raison de la rareté 11 , confirmant des rapports existants qui font état de la réduction de la faune dans la réserve. L'accès à l'énergie, aux matériaux, aux médicaments et aux ressources en eau devient de plus en plus difficile pour de nombreux répondants (fig. 6).Bien que la région soit riche en ressources, les riverains de la réserve connaissent des pénuries alimentaires. L'insécurité alimentaire frappe les ménages sans distinction, indépendamment de leur revenu. Cette situation n'est pas propre à YBR. En raison de pénuries alimentaires et d'un accès limité aux marchés, l'insécurité alimentaire est endémique dans les zones rurales de la RDC, entre autres facteurs 13 . Un ménage sur deux dans le pays est classé en insécurité alimentaire et un ménage sur treize est en insécurité alimentaire sévère [5].pénuries alimentaires surviennent principalement entre janvier et mars et touchent plus des deux tiers des ménages. La période de 12 La viande de brousse recueillie comprend : Rat de Gambie (petites espèces de rongeurs pouvant atteindre 1 à 1,5 kg), antilopes, serpents, pangolins, oiseaux et singes, entre autres. 13 L'insécurité alimentaire est également présente parmi les ménages urbains. Ceci est principalement lié aux prix élevés des denrées alimentaires, qui sont parmi les plus élevés du continent.  Le risque de malnutrition chronique et aiguë est considérablement élevé dans la région. Selon les statistiques de production et la taille du ménage, 61% des ménages interrogés ont déclaré ne pas disposer de suffisamment de nourriture pour absorber 2 000 calories par jour, ce qui est inférieur au seuil calorique standard 15 . La malnutrition chronique est en fait un problème régional et national ; les taux de retard de croissance chez les enfants (de moins de cinq ans) sont en moyenne de 30% dans le pays et de 41 à 50% dans la province de Tshopo.Les données montrent que la période de soudure de l'année se situe pendant la saison sèche, de janvier à mars. Basé sur les habitudes alimentaires en décembre. 18 Le SCA a été mis au point par le PAM et regroupe des données au niveau des ménages sur la diversité et la fréquence des groupes d'aliments consommés au cours des sept jours précédents, qui sont ensuite pondérées en fonction de la valeur nutritionnelle relative des groupes d'aliments consommés. Le SCA maximale a une valeur de 112 qui serait atteinte si un ménage mangeait chaque groupe d'aliments chaque jour au cours des sept derniers jours. En RDC, les seuils de SCA généralement utilisés par le PAM varient de 28 (faible / limite) à 42 (limite / acceptable). Réserve de la biosphère de Yangambi | 8Les cultures vivrières constituent le fondement de l'alimentation de la plupart des gens et représentent également les produits les plus cultivés de la région. Les cultures vivrières représentent entre 70 et 80% des sources de calories pour les ménages des quartiles inférieur, moyeninférieur et moyen-supérieur. Pour les ménages aisés (quartile supérieur), les cultures locales ne représentent que 40% des sources de calories, le reste étant fourni par le bétail (environ 40%) et par la nourriture acquise au moyen de revenus non agricoles (environ 20%). En général, les ménages à faible revenu vendent la plus grande partie de la viande pour gagner un revenu supplémentaire (fig. 8) 19 . Le fait qu'une large majorité de la population dépende de cultures vivrières suggère un besoin critique d'améliorer les rendements afin de garantir la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle de la région.Pour les ménages situés autour de la réserve, la viande de brousse est une stratégie courante pour compléter la faible quantité de protéines fournie par les animaux domestiques. Pratiquement toutes les personnes interrogées (98%) déclarent consommer de la viande de brousse à un moment donné de l'année. La moitié des répondants mangent de la viande de brousse une à trois fois par semaine et 25% en consomment quotidiennement ou plus de trois fois par semaine. Une petite fraction rapporte la consommation la viande de brousse une ou trois fois par mois. Bien que ces découvertes révèlent que la viande de brousse joue un rôle important dans l'alimentation de la plupart des gens, elle met également en garde contre les implications que cela pourrait avoir pour la conservation et les moyens de subsistance, si cette ressource de plus en plus rare sera exploitée de manière non durable.Les difficultés financières sont omniprésentes dans toute la région. Environ 99% des ménages dans tous les quartiles vivent sous le seuil de pauvreté et 1% déclarent ne recevoir aucun revenu en espèces 20 . L'incidence de la pauvreté est élevée dans l'ensemble du pays (plus de 70%) et devrait augmenter régulièrement d'ici 2030, compte tenu de la croissance démographique.L'analyse de la disponibilité alimentaire des ménages prend en compte à la fois la consommation d'aliments auto produits et les ventes d'aliments. Cette dernière, exprimée en équivalent énergie potentielle (kcal) par habitant et par jour, est un indicateur de l'offre potentielle et représente une partie substantielle de la disponibilité alimentaire (par exemple, via l'achat de cultures de base). L'alimentation représente plus de la moitié des dépenses totales des ménages. Au total, les dépenses annuelles ont atteint près de 565 USD par ménage 21 , plus de 65% des dépenses étant travail non agricole, en utilisant les prix locaux. Le seuil de pauvreté est égal à 1,9 USD / jour. 21 Toutefois, la variation des dépenses déclarées pour ces articles était très importante, allant de 122 à 199%. En général, il existe peu de preuves que le rappel des dépenses est exact. Dans de nombreux cas, nous avons constaté que le rappel des dépenses dépassait les sources de revenus. Même dans ce cas, les données fournissent une mesure, bien qu'approximative, des types de montants relatifs de dépenses. Bien que les maisons soient en bon état, la propriété des biens matériels reste un défi pour beaucoup. L'état du logement est passable, la majorité des maisons (59%) ayant été jugées en état moyen et moins du quart en mauvais état. 22 Un peu plus de la moitié des ménages déclarent avoir une radio ou un vélo (56 et 51%, respectivement), mais seule une petite partie de la population possède un téléphone ou un poste de télévision (environ 25% et 8%, respectivement). Le transport motorisé, qui est important pour permettre l'accès au marché, est rare. 18% des ménages possèdent une moto, aucun d'entre eux ne possède une voiture. Les engins agricoles tels que les tracteurs ou les motoculteurs sont absents de tous les ménages enquêtés, ce qui indique que les possibilités de moyens de subsistance et de développement agricole sont très limitées.La majorité des ménages ont accès à de l'eau potable et aux installations sanitaires. Quatrevingt-un pour cent des ménages puisent leur eau dans des forages, 8% dans des réservoirs d'eau et seulement 2% utilisent de l'eau courante ; 9% utilisent des sources insalubres, telles que les eaux de 22 Au cours de l'entretien, les enquêteurs ont observé le matériel qui se trouve dans les maisons et évalué son état général (jugement subjectif), ce qui indique le bien-être matériel du ménage.surface. Presque tous les ménages (93%) stockent l'eau dans des récipients couverts. Dans 89% des cas, les déchets humains sont généralement jetés dans les toilettes / latrines et le lavage des mains est assez courant avant de manger ou de préparer la nourriture et après l'utilisation des toilettes (90% et 63% des cas, respectivement). Globalement, la situation dans la région est nettement meilleure que dans de nombreuses zones rurales de la RDC, où seulement un tiers des ménages ont accès à une eau de boisson potable et où seulement 4% utilisent des installations sanitaires améliorées. La source d'eau potable revêt une importance particulière pour le bienêtre des ménages, car elle est l'un des principaux facteurs de maladies mortelles. En RDC, un tiers des décès sont liés à de l'eau contaminée. L'assainissement (installations sanitaires, habitudes de lavage) est également essentiel à la santé et au bien-être de l'homme, car il permet de mieux comprendre les conditions d'hygiène des aliments.Les ménages autour de YBR font état de situations financières variables. Plus de 75% des personnes interrogées déclarent pouvoir acheter ce qu'elles désirent mais ont du mal à économiser. Parmi elles, plus de la moitié (55%) ont besoin de vivre économiquement et environ 2% appliqueraient des mesures plus radicales, telles que l'achat de la nourriture et des vêtements les moins chers et la location de la maison la moins chère. Personne ne s'avoue incapable d'acheter même la nourriture la moins chère. Environ 15% des ménages interrogés ont la capacité d'épargner, ce qui suggère une très faible capacité de la population à faire face aux chocs du marché ou aux chocs climatiques susceptibles d'affecter la production ou le revenu des ménages.Les communautés autour de Yangambi sont isolées et mal connectées aux marchés. La plupart des transports se font sur des rivières et les agriculteurs ont du mal à vendre les produits agricoles ou à mener des activités annexes. Les ressources forestières, qui sont essentielles pour atténuer la vulnérabilité des populations en matière d'alimentation et de revenus, deviennent de plus en plus rares et sont menacées par l'empiétement des zones agricoles, même si cette expansion est lente. Cependant, la région présente également un potentiel immense pour inverser les tendances et concilier les objectifs de moyens de subsistance et de conservation. Quelques-unes de ces options sont discutées ci-dessous.  L'intensification agroécologique pourrait avoir un effet rapide sur les rendements agricoles à court terme et sur la résilience des exploitations à long terme. Une telle mesure pourrait inclure : la production et la distribution de matériel végétal amélioré, les jachères améliorées (production de légumineuses), la réduction des feux de brousses et la lutte contre les mauvaises herbes, ainsi que la lutte contre les ravageurs et les maladies.Agroforesterie. Une alimentation diversifiée favorise le développement cognitif et la productivité économique. Autour de Yangambi, un tiers de la population a une consommation alimentaire faible ou marginale. La consommation de fruits et de légumes, aliments riches en nutriments, ne se fait que deux fois par semaine en moyenne, même pendant les périodes relativement bonnes de l'année. L'agroforesterie peut contribuer à réduire les pénuries de nutriments pendant les récoltes et les périodes de soudure, contribuant ainsi à la diversité de l'alimentation. Cela peut être encouragé grâce à l'intensification des jardins potagers existants qui peuvent rapidement améliorer la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle ainsi que les revenus, ou dans les champs, grâce à une formation à la régénération naturelle assistée, à la sélection participative d'arbres et à la plantation, ainsi qu'à la protection communautaire des rives des rivières et la réhabilitation des zones dégradées, entre autres.Développement des chaînes de valeur. Les discussions de groupe ont révélé que la plupart des agriculteurs ont spontanément planté du cacao dans la région en s'approvisionnant auprès d'anciennes plantations en réponse aux signaux du marché et aux rumeurs de développement du marché dans l'est. La production de cacao peut accroître la pression sur la réserve, mais elle présente clairement des options basées sur le marché pour augmenter les revenus de la région. Avec une assistance adéquate, le cacao peut être produit de manière durable sans défricher de nouvelles terres forestières et cela contribuera à réduire la pauvreté des ménages. Des efforts supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour réhabiliter les exploitations cacaoyères existantes en greffant du matériel génétique amélioré, pour développer une agroforesterie durable du cacao et renforcer la chaîne de valeur en forgeant des partenariats public-privé, en particulier dans l'est du Congo et dans les provinces voisines telles que Bas-Uélé. En réalité, une mesure ne peut à elle seule créer une voie de sortie de la pauvreté pour les personnes vivant à proximité des forêts. C'est grâce à une combinaison d'interventions rurales que des moyens de subsistance et des paysages durables de la localité peuvent être réalisés.","tokenCount":"3279"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"02a99d87f4c67f19410c9331096857f4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/77db6e4d-d8ae-4ad1-8deb-984b73d087f6/retrieve","id":"-1281435899"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"09ef23c6-2d76-43ba-a533-c4a84e5fcdd4","pagecount":"1","content":"! Meat is an important source of protein in human nutrition. The production and consumption trends show an increase in the demand for meat in developed and developed countries (de Haan, 2009). Population increase in Kenya may push the industry to process most of the meat for preservation and distribution instead of consuming freshly slaughtered meat. This offers a challenge especially due to the zoonoses arising from contamination with pathogenic microorganism during handling and processing.! Escherichia coli O157:H7 has been associated with food poisoning outbreaks in various parts of the world. Most of them are from contaminated meat that has being undercooked (Lake et al, 2002). Prevention of contamination and cross contamination of meat during slaughter and distribution is critical in prevention of these outbreaks. As carcasses in Kenya are distributed to various retail shops after slaughter, the transportation chain need special attention!! The objectives of the study were to determine the probability of and identify the risk factors that lead to carcass contamination with E. coli O157 serotype during transportation to the butchery. Two slaughterhouses from Nairobi and one from Eldoret were purposively chosen. Randomly selected 250 beef carcasses were sampled in a cross sectional study. Swab samples from a single carcass were obtained from three sites during loading and off loading of meat to carriers. A fault tree was used as a guide on possible areas of contamination. A total of 1500 samples were obtained. E. coli O157 serotype was isolated and purified using sorbital MacConkey, MacConkey and nutrient agar. Serotyping was by card agglutination test. Oxoid verotoxin test kit was used to test for verotoxin (VT1 and VT2) production. The meat carrier environment (humidity and temperature) was monitored. Knowledge, attitude and practices of meat transporters was assessed through a semi structured questionnaire and observations. The probability of contamination was modeled and run through Monte Carlo simulation using winBUGS ® . Prevalence of E. coli O157 serotype contaminated carcasses and data from the questionnaire were analysed using SPSS ver17.The level of Escherichia coli O157 serotype contaminated carcasses was significantly higher at offloading than at loading (p=0.05). The prevalence of contaminated carcasses at loading and offloading was 0.4% and 2.4% respectively. There was no significant difference on level of contamination among the three abattoirs at the two levels of sampling.! Monte Carlo simulation gave the probability of obtaining an E. coli O157 serotype contaminated carcass as shown in figure 2.! !  The kraft papers used to separate carcasses could be contaminated. The carcasses should be transported hang on rail. Other easily sterilized food grade material like films and aluminium foils could be used.!The risk the E. coli O157 contamination pose to the consumers has not been quantified. The actual burden of the disease this could be causing in Kenya needs to be quantified and the control measures identified. The effects may not be so pronounced now as few reports on illnesses have been reported. The increased population and demand for food that require minimum preparation time, may revert this situation unless carcass contamination and bacterial proliferation is controlled.!Escherichia coli O157 serotype in beef carcasses post slaughterhouse in Nairobi and Eldoret, Kenya ","tokenCount":"522"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/0919331162.json b/data/part_3/0919331162.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9a2e740aa17897ee7ebc0b4ac269cdc449b61c76
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dcfb409bc32f69ed23f6b253bbc13e46","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c992d104-bc45-4ef2-8e5b-817b5936f12a/retrieve","id":"-423341959"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2d376f1e-1f45-46b3-92b1-72570401398a","pagecount":"2","content":"Ten years ago, Thai epidemiologists noticed unusual clusters of kidney disease among elderly people around the town of Mae Sot. Heavy metal poisoning was suspected. A research team, including scientists from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), demonstrated that an irrigation system dissecting an area rich in minerals was contaminating local rice. Thanks to their efforts, farmers received compensation and training so that they could switch to growing inedible crops valuable for biofuels. successstoriesSFarmers in the affected area are increasingly using irrigation water to grow non-edible biofuel crops.Millions of people eat rice in Thailand every day without a thought that it could make them sick. However, heavy metals entering the soil can become concentrated in crops, potentially affecting human health. This appeared to be the case ten years ago at Mae Sot in northern Thailand, where abnormally high numbers of elderly patients were found to be suffering from kidney malfunction.Heavy metal contamination was suspected because in the mid-1990s high levels of zinc had been discovered in the area by the Department of Agriculture (DoA) of the Royal Thai Government. A research team, including IWMI scientists and local partners was asked to investigate further. A study site was chosen known to be downstream of a naturally occurring zinc and cadmium rich anomaly on the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Mae Dtow creek, which fed a cascading irrigation system, was dissecting the geological deposit as it carried water to irrigate rice crops. \"Downstream of the anomaly we found elevated levels of cadmium in the soil that were much, much higher than you would find as background levels,\" says Dr. Andrew Noble, former Regional Director for the Southeast and Central Asia region of IWMI, and one of the leaders of the research team. \"Similarly, in the rice crops there were levels that were many orders of magnitude higher than the norm.\"The scientists, suspected that the Mae Dtow creek was simply scouring out the cadmium and zinc as it passed through the anomaly, then distributing material through the irrigation system. IWMI trained staff at the DoA and Land Development Department (LDD), and provided support to the Ministry of Environment in surveying, sampling and laboratory techniques. Teams drawn from these various organizations then mapped more than 100 hectares of irrigated rice paddy.","tokenCount":"377"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/0948064663.json b/data/part_3/0948064663.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2f8fc8b836a5f5225a441b7da536e7f00f64d4e4
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"57f203679ec4da3c32f8d016f93157ce","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ab2753e7-8f75-4803-8111-9fce63ea6646/retrieve","id":"456060125"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"59933125-5523-4ee1-b278-9e95bf63e3f5","pagecount":"12","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Animal source foods (AFS) are an important part of the cuisine with pork, fish, and poultry products widely consumed in Cambodia. The majority of livestock products are produced by smallholders, many of them women, and sold in traditional, wet markets where women also predominate as retailers. In recent years, Cambodia has seen growing food safety concerns.The overall aim of the Safe Food, Fair Food (SFFF) for Cambodia project is to reduce the burden of foodborne disease in informal, emerging formal, and niche markets and targeting small and medium scale producers. The project has five objectives with associated activities, outputs, and outcomes. To reach this objective, it is necessary to build capacity to better understand what food safety risks are, how to manage food safety and how to communicate it effectively among stakeholders including the government, private sector, academia, donors, and the media.The workshop took place 24-25 October 2019 at Angkor Paradise Hotel, Siem Reap, Cambodia. The objectives of the meeting were:• To disseminate and discuss key findings from the SFFF for Cambodia with key food safety stakeholders; • To discuss potential collaborations between the multi-sectoral technical working group for food safety of Cambodia and the SFFF Cambodia project in relation to the taskforce on food safety risk assessment; • To organise a regular meeting of the multi-sectoral technical working group on food safety.The meeting brought together 25 experts from all six governmental ministries involved in managing food safety and food quality in the country including the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Handicraft, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Tourism, and Ministry of Economy and Finance, universities and academia, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), NAHPI, LDC, and ILRI.The first day started with an opening remark by Sothyra Tum, director, NAHPRI. He noted that the ministries had established a working group to enhance systematic information sharing and communication on food safety across different sectors and strengthen collaboration among the ministries. The technical working group will endeavour to work in harmony through joining the national taskforce.Following the opening, he gave a presentation on the overview of SFFF for Cambodia project to provide related stakeholders with generic information of the project. The project team then shared key research findings from surveys on key hazards, cost of illness and household and nutrition. They also presented cross-cutting issues including gender integration and capacity development on food safety, and ideas of interventions.In the afternoon session, Hung Nguyen shared the experience of Vietnam in establishing a taskforce on food safety risk assessment and some activities that SFFF for Cambodia conducted in collaboration with partners in Cambodia. In Vietnam, the taskforce composed by food safety risk assessment experts from universities, research institutes, policy makers from ministries of health and agriculture. The taskforce made scientific impacts and policy impacts in Vietnam including a World Bank funded report on food safety risk assessment that was conducted by many members of the taskforce at the request of the Government of Vietnam.Later, Sothyra Tum facilitated a group work session in which participant discussed to elaborate the establishment of a similar taskforce in Cambodia. The discussion focused on:• Membership of the taskforce • Key activities of the taskforce • Collaboration between the taskforce and the multi-sectoral technical working group for food safety of Cambodia At the meeting, participants said they would promote the new taskforce and its agenda in their ministries and organizations. Partners also agreed to develop the taskforce's terms of reference, define its vision, mission and goals, and elaborate the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders. They suggested the national taskforce focus on food safety action planning, communication, publishing, and capacity development for policymakers and researchers.The second day of the workshop is dedicated to discussion of the multi-sectoral technical working group for food safety of Cambodia. SFFF Cambodia researchers joined as observers. ","tokenCount":"686"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a82e45fc20d513f9ab410ecb1c23f3dc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5486426a-ed26-4770-89f4-e9c0dbdda602/retrieve","id":"1307478169"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c883fd1d-0182-4460-92e7-5a2fe2613224","pagecount":"7","content":"Este manual forma parte del proyecto \"Enabling Smallholder Farmers to Access Carbon Markets A Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration in Latin America. One CGIAR and Bayer, 2021-2022\".    Las denominaciones empleadas en este producto informativo y la forma en que aparecen presentados los datos que contiene no implican, por parte del CGIAR, CIP, CIMMYT, la Alianza Bioversity International-CIAT, Bayer CropScience y el IICA, juicio alguno sobre la condición jurídica o nivel de desarrollo de países, territorios, ciudades o zonas, o de sus autoridades, ni respecto de la delimitación de sus fronteras o límites. La mención de empresas o productos de fabricantes en particular, estén o no patentados, no implica que el CGIAR, CIP, CIMMYT, la Alianza Bioversity International-CIAT, Bayer CropScience y el IICA los aprueben o recomienden de preferencia a otros de naturaleza similar que no se mencionan.Los contenidos y opiniones expresadas aquí son responsabilidad de los autores y no reflejan necesariamente los puntos de vista del CGIAR, CIP, CIMMYT, la Alianza Bioversity International-CIAT, Bayer CropScience y el IICA.La región de América Latina y el Caribe experimenta el reto de encontrar el balance entre la agricultura y la conservación de la naturaleza. El sector agropecuario es fundamental para la economía de la región, pero también se estima que es responsable del 70% de la pérdida de ecosistemas. Entre otros factores, esto hace que el sector aporte cerca del 40% de las emisiones regionales de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI), que aceleran el cambio climático.Sin embargo, existen soluciones innovadoras, basadas en la ciencia, que demuestran que la agricultura puede ser parte de la solución a la crisis climática que enfrentamos. Este manual busca, precisamente, difundir prácticas productivas bajas en carbono aplicables a pequeña escala. Es resultado del trabajo conjunto y articulado de tres centros de investigación del CGIAR en la región (CIP, CIMMYT y la Alianza Bioversity International-CIAT), gracias al financiamiento de Bayer CropScience y la colaboración del Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA).El fin último de esta alianza es facilitar el acceso de pequeños productores a mercados de carbono, pues desde el CGIAR hemos demostrado hace tiempo que dichos instrumentos financieros tienen el potencial de reducir el impacto ambiental de la agricultura y abonar a la seguridad alimentaria.Joaquín Lozano Director Regional para América Latina y el Caribe CGIAREl cambio climático es cualquier alteración del clima de un lugar, por causas naturales o actividades humanas.El clima siempre ha variado, pero los cambios que vivimos hoy son mucho más rápidos e intensos por el calentamiento global, que se denomina al aumento de las temperaturas en nuestro planeta que se debe, principalmente, al incremento de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) en la atmósfera.La concentración acelerada de los GEI, en particular el dióxido de carbono (CO2), ha sido provocada por nuestras actividades; por ejemplo, la combustión de los vehículos, la tala de árboles, el uso de maquinaria agrícola, la ganadería, la industria; entre otras.¿Cómo afecta el cambio climático a la agricultura?La agricultura depende en gran medida del clima. El clima de un lugar determina qué tipo de cultivo se puede sembrar, así como las fechas de siembra y cosecha.Los principales efectos negativos del cambio climático en la agricultura son:• Pérdidas por fenómenos climáticos extremos: sequías, heladas fuera de temporada, inundaciones y/o altas temperaturas.• Aumento de insectos plaga, malezas y enfermedades.• Alteración de los ciclos de cultivo (periodo entre la siembra y cosecha), lo que puede afectar el crecimiento y desarrollo de las plantas, así como los rendimientos.El carbono es uno de los elementos químicos más importantes, pues nos proporciona los compuestos orgánicos que necesitamos para vivir.El carbono existe en muchos sistemas naturales: la atmósfera, la vegetación, los suelos y los océanos. La vida en la Tierra depende del balance de carbono entre dichos sistemas.Todas nuestras actividades generan un impacto en el entorno. Uno de estos impactos es que las reservas de carbono pasen de un sistema a otro, ocasionando un desbalance. Por ejemplo, cuando preparamos un terreno para sembrar, el carbono almacenado en el suelo se libera hacia la atmósfera. Lo mismo ocurre cuando talamos un bosque para destinar más tierras al cultivo.Este carbono en forma de gas (dióxido de carbono) se eleva y su mayor concentración en la atmósfera forma una especie de invernadero, elevando la temperatura global. Por eso el dióxido de carbono y otros gases se llaman gases de efecto invernadero (GEI).¿Qué es?La huella de carbono es el total de GEI emitidos directa o indirectamente por una persona, institución, producto o proceso.¿Cómo se mide?Se cuantifican los GEI emitidos y se convierten a su equivalente en dióxido de carbono (CO2). Por eso se denomina huella de carbono.Para obtener la cantidad de GEI emitidos por un producto agrícola se hace un análisis de ciclo de vida, desde su producción hasta el fin de su vida útil. Tomemos por ejemplo el cacao, su huella de carbono es la suma de los GEI emitidos en todos los pasos necesarios para su producción, comercialización, consumo y desecho o reciclaje: ¿Por qué es importante medir la huella de carbono de los cultivos?Para minimizar el impacto negativo de la agricultura en el cambio climático es clave conocer la huella de carbono de las fincas y/o cultivos. Cuantificar la cantidad de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) le permite a un(a) agricultor(a) plantear metas y formas de reducirlas.Es importante resaltar que la agricultura no solo emite GEI, sino que también contribuye a capturar carbono según las prácticas de manejo, por lo que algunos métodos productivos pueden generar un efecto positivo en la disminución del calentamiento global. El efecto neto de una finca será neutro si ésta emite y captura carbono en la misma medida. Al contrario, si se eliminan bosques para sembrar cultivos con menor poder de captura, se eliminará la compensación, aumentando la huella de carbono.Un buen sistema de registro y organización del proceso productivo para medir su huella de carbono puede aumentar la productividad de una finca y hacerla más competitiva en los mercados locales, nacionales e internacionales. Por otra parte, los productos \"verdes\" se comercializan mejor y a veces reciben un precio mayor.Finalmente, medir la huella de carbono es el primer paso para acceder a los mercados de carbono, lo que significa una fuente de ingresos alternativa a los pequeños productores que implementan prácticas agrícolas bajas en carbono.Son sistemas comerciales (obligatorios y voluntarios) en los que se venden y compran créditos de carbono. Un crédito de carbono negociable equivale a una tonelada de dióxido de carbono (CO2), o la cantidad equivalente de un gas de efecto invernadero diferente, que ha sido reducido, secuestrado o evitado. Estos instrumentos financian diversas acciones de mitigación, adaptación y resiliencia climática.Algunos países como México y Colombia cuentan con mercados de carbono para reducir la huella de carbono, alineados con sus estrategias de Reducción de Emisiones por la Deforestación y Degradación de los Bosques (REDD+), donde la agricultura juega un papel central.","tokenCount":"1139"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8e9109c7cf1b3fbab041564a11f4dba3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/36166be9-05f0-469b-a37e-da6054c8759d/retrieve","id":"-1080474009"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31bfb4ac-8f7e-499c-8bb9-bcd9b5143ab0","pagecount":"11","content":"To introduce the Livestock and Climate Initiative farmer-led scaling component that aims to increase farmers' adaptive capacity to climate change; • To identify climate-smart technologies and practices in Bomet County as well as areas of collaboration with different stakeholders; and • To identify the enabling factors and potential scaling approaches for farmer-led practices and technologies.An inception workshop was held on 16 February 2023 in Bomet Town to mark the official launch of the Livestock and Climate Initiative in Bomet County. Aiming to build an understanding of the initiative in the county and identify potential collaboration areas, workshop invitees included representatives from the county government, farmers, farmer organizations, non-governmental organizations and private organizations. A total of 39 participants attended the workshop (Annex 2).The objectives of the workshop were:Rosa Bett, the Bomet County Executive Committee (CEC) member for Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries, officially opened the inception workshop. In her remarks, she appreciated ILRI for considering an initiative that is going to work with farmers to identify locally led climate change solutions and create a platform where farmers can learn from each other.The county executive commended the fact that the initiative will work with a small group of farmers and then scale out gradually. Proposing that the initiative train members of the cooperative society through the farmer networks that will be created, she suggested that ILRI reach out to respective members of the county assembly for collaboration once the establishment of pioneer farms was complete.'As we concentrate on mitigating the effects of climate change, we should also consider resource use efficiency and enhanced production. For instance, when livestock farmers change from a free-range system to zero-grazing, they minimize their risks. Livestock insurance reduces the uncertainty of investing in expensive but high-producing breeds even further,' Bett advised. Kibet Sitienei, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries chief officer (CO) for Bomet County, pointed out that drought is becoming a serious national challenge that needs urgent and innovative intervention. According to the CO, recent droughts have caused significant losses in livestock and livelihoods. . In his speech, Benard Cheruiyot, county cooperatives CO, reiterated that the initiative should consider working with cooperative societies rather than individual farmers. He said it would be easier to monitor farmers if they belong to a group and proposed stratification of the pioneer farmer groups to include both cooperatives and individual farms.'We need to consider that certain aspects might limit scaling and sharing information, for example, cultural beliefs around sharing livestock information at an individual level. Cooperative societies provide a way of pursuing the initiative at a community level,' Cheruiyot said.In response to this suggestion, Evelyn Mwangangi, county coordinator of the Agriculture Sector Development Support Program (ASDSP), said farmers keen on pursuing these technologies may not be members of cooperatives so they would be left out if the initiative chose to go the cooperative way. In addition, no cooperative has an individual farm; each member has their own farm, where the on-farm performance of practices will be tested.The farmer led adaptation approach was first piloted in two sub-counties in Nandi and Bomet by ILRI under the Program for Climate Smart Livestock (PCSL). Findings from the PCSL formed the basis of scaling this approach to more farmers and sub-counties under the Livestock and Climate Initiative.Emmaculate Kiptoo, a research associate at ILRI, presented the outcomes of the PCSL implemented in Nandi and Bomet counties from 2019-2022. The program's objective was to identify and learn from farmers who were innovative in adapting to climate change with regard to livestock feeding. Aimed at supporting key livestock stakeholders in climate-smart practices, sector strategies and policies, the research was implemented with six farmers in the two counties.The observations from the PCSL regarding feeds and milk production were that:• Farmers have a wide variety of feeds that can be utilized for improved productivity throughout the year • Animals have a short peak production or do not reach their peak, which can be linked to inadequate nutrition. • Areas for future engagement for the farmers, farmer organizations, cooperatives, research organizations and the government include Increasing uptake of adaptive measures e.g. feed diversification and preservation, strategizing on acquisition of inputs on behalf of farmers at affordable prices and tailoring development initiatives to the farmers' needs.Leah Gichuki, a research associate at ILRI, presented an overview of the Livestock and Climate Initiative. In her remarks, she pointed out that the livestock sector has the double burden of providing livelihood to livestock-dependent communities while reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from livestock.'The initiative has different packages, which are being implemented in seven countries. Of interest to Bomet is work package 1, which focuses on scaling farmer-led technologies,' Gichuki said.In this study, the research team aims to strengthen households' adaptive capacity by working with farmers who are successfully implementing locally existing climate adaptation practices. Dubbed 'pioneer farmers', these farmers will be engaged in a participatory research process that involves documenting elements that make the practices successful and sharing that knowledge with other farmers. The initiative will cover four sub-counties in Bomet: Bomet East, Bomet Central, Sotik and Chepalungu.All participants listed the climate-smart technologies and practices in Bomet County. Later, three breakout groups were formed, and each was assigned a topic to discuss from the identified technologies. Group 1 identified enabling factors and existing gaps in the implementation of the technologies and practices as shown in Table 1. Group 2 identified relevant stakeholders in the co-production processes and indicated stakeholder relevance, as shown in Table 2. Group 3 identified potential scaling strategies for the technologies and practices, as shown in Table 3. The workshop participants were receptive to the idea of farmer-led technologies and scaling. They promised to offer support in different capacities. Below are some of the recommendations that came out of the discussions:• The initiative should consider inclusivity so that no one is left out.• For effective co-development of solutions, there is a need to build common ground to allow enrichment of what the farmers are already doing and create room for injecting new technologies.• The initiative should integrate the interest of the legislative arm of government so that the policies developed align with locally led adaptation technologies and practices.• The research team should ensure selected pioneer farmers are willing to share knowledge with others and are networked within their neighborhoods.• The network groups can be stratified to include cooperatives and individual farmers. This will ensure that the initiative reaches more farmers and addresses the cultural beliefs that discourage people from sharing information on cattle.In her closing address, Gichuki appreciated the participation of various stakeholders in the initiative launch. She said the identification of pioneer farmers was ongoing. Once this is done, the county and other stakeholders will be informed about the next steps, and potential areas for collaboration will be established. ","tokenCount":"1125"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"06b167bae85d8b1c34b74b321cc4a627","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/9f71f19f-061d-4edf-898d-344ed01c5d0a/content","id":"530556381"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"de073183-8214-4eb8-90e7-f9408a35d598","pagecount":"8","content":"Addressing climate change impacts on agriculture is special challenge. There are number of factors that influence the extent to which farmers in a particular location adopt CSA technologies. This study applied a participatory assessment method to assess farmers' preferences and willingness-to-pay for selected CSA practices and technologies in diverse rainfall zones. The study found that farmers' preferences for CSA technologies are marked by some commonalities as well as differences according to their socio-economic characteristics and rainfall zones. The most preferred technologies by local farmers were crop insurance, weather-based crop agro-advisories, rainwater harvesting, site-specific integrated nutrient management, contingent crop planning and laser land levelling. The results also indicate that farmers' preferences and willingness-to-pay are influenced by technologies and their cost of implementation. This study shows the potential for using a participatory CSA prioritization approach to provide information on climate change adaptation planning at local level.Climate change is emerging as a major threat on agriculture, food security and livelihood of millions of people in many places of the world (IPCC, 2014). Several studies indicate that agriculture production could be significantly impacted due to increase in temperature (Lobell et al., 2012;Aggarwal et al., 2009), changes in rainfall patterns (Prasanna, 2014;Mall et al., 2006) and variations in frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events such as floods and droughts (Brida and Owiyo, 2013;Singh et al., 2013). The estimated impacts of both historical and future climate change on cereal crop yields in different regions indicate that the yield loss can be up to −35% for rice, −20% for wheat, −50% for sorghum, −13% for barley, and −60% for maize depending on the location, future climate scenarios and projected year (Porter et al., 2014). Changes in crop cultivation suitability and associated agriculture biodiversity, decrease in input use efficiency, and prevalence of pests and diseases are some of the major causes of climate change impacts on agriculture (Zabel et al., 2014;Norton, 2014). Agriculture production systems require adaptation to these changes in order to ensure the food and livelihood security of farming communities.There are several potential adaptation options to reduce moderate to severe climatic risks in agriculture. Adaptation options that sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience to climatic stresses, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions are known as climate-smart agricultural (CSA) technologies, practices and services (FAO, 2010). Broadly, CSA focuses on developing resilient food production systems that lead to food and income security under progressive climate change and variability (Vermeulen et al., 2012;Lipper et al., 2014). Many agricultural practices and technologies such as minimum tillage, different methods of crop establishment, nutrient and irrigation management and residue incorporation can improve crop yields, water and nutrient use efficiency and reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural activities (Branca et al., 2011;Jat et al., 2014;Sapkota et al., 2015). Similarly, rainwater harvesting, use of improved seeds, ICT based agro-advisories and crop/livestock insurances can also help farmers to reduce the impact of climate change and variability (Mittal, 2012;Altieri and Nicholls, 2013). In general, the CSA options integrate traditional and innovative practices, technologies and services that are relevant for particular location to adopt climate change and variability (CIAT, 2014). In this study, we consider a technology or practice as climate smart if it can help to achieve at least one pillar of CSA (either increases productivity or increases resilience or reduces GHG emission). For all adaptation options, farmers need to make ex-ante decisions under climatic risk, while making short and long-run investments depending on the extent of current climate variability and expected climate change in the future (Callaway, 2004).The implementation of CSA technologies (hereafter CSA technologies indicate technologies, practices and services together) individually or in combination have substantial potential to reduce climate change impacts on agriculture. For example, Finger and Schmid (2007) projected that simple adaptation measures such as changes in crop sowing dates and adoption of irrigation technologies can result in higher yields with less variations than without adaptation. A meta-analysis of crop simulation under several climate scenarios found that farm level adaptations can increase crop yields by an average of 7-15% when compared to without adaptation (Challinor et al., 2014). Various studies show that benefits of adaptation vary with crop and with temperature and rainfall changes (Easterling et al., 2007). Similarly, several farm level studies also suggest that adoption of CSA technologies can improve crop yields, increase input use efficiency, increase net income and reduce GHG emissions (Khatri-Chhetri et al., 2016;Sapkota et al., 2014;Gathala et al., 2011).Despite the various benefits of CSA technologies, the current rate of adoption by farmers is fairly low (Palanisami et al., 2015). There are many factors that influence extent of adoption of CSA technologies such as socio-economic characteristics of farmers, bio-physical environment of a particular location, and the attributes of new technologies (Campbell et al., 2012;Below et al., 2012;Deressa et al., 2011). The identification, prioritization and promotion of available CSA technologies considering local climatic risks and demand for technology are major challenges for scaling out CSA in diverse agro-ecological zones.Basically, the identification and prioritization of CSA technologies support climate change adaptation planning in agriculture by designing an investment portfolio across various agro-ecological zones. When designing CSA implementation strategies at the farm level, one must consider adaptation options that are well evaluated and prioritized by local farmers in relation to prominent climatic risks in that location (FAO, 2012). Despite the importance of prioritization of CSA technologies at farm level, existing climate change adaptation programmes lack such information for better adaptation planning. Evidences on farmers' prioritization can support key stakeholders make informed decisions that are in line with government policies and institutional arrangements.There are several prioritization approaches such as the use of simulation models, expert judgement, household and key informant surveys, participatory appraisal and hybrid methods (Mwongera et al., 2014;Taneja et al., 2014;Claessens et al., 2012). This paper describes and applies a participatory assessment method of farmers' preferences and willingness-to-pay for CSA technologies. This methodology was applied in a state of Rajasthan in India which is the most vulnerable state to climate change in the country. This state has the highest level of rural households (78.4%) dependent on agriculture (GoI, 2014). The agriculture sector contributes about 20% of total Gross Domestic Product in Rajasthan (UNDP, 2011). Frequent drought, extremely low and erratic rainfalls and very limited availability of surface water resources are major issues for climate change adaptation in Rajasthan (TERI, 2010). The state has the maximum probability of occurrence of drought in India with a 2-3 years return period (Pathak, 2011). This study uses socio-economic data and climate information of the study areas to assess farmers' preferences for CSA technologies in diverse rainfall zones and that are highly vulnerable to climate change and variability. This study area represents many similar climate change vulnerable locations in the region.This study was conducted in 16 villages in four diverse rainfall zones (ranging from 200 mm to 1000 mm rainfall per year) of Rajasthan in India (Fig. 1). The moderate drought probability in the selected districts (Bhilwara, Jhalawar, Jodhapur and Rajsamand) ranges from 19% to 27% and severe drought probability is above 5% (Gore et al., 2010). Rainfed agriculture is very common in the study areas which is ranges from 44% to 85% (Table 1). The major crops in Kharif (rainy season) include maize, soybean, bajra, Jawar, groundnut and sesamum. The crops grown in Rabi (winter season) include wheat, gram, mustard, lentil and barley. Maize-Wheat, Soybean-Wheat, Maize-Pulses and Pearlmillet-Wheat/Pearlmillet-Mustard are the major cropping systems.This study has assessed a distribution of mean annual rainfall for last 30 years in the study areas. Average rainfall over last 30 years in Bhilwara district is 582 mm/year with 31-40% coefficient of variation (CV), Jhalawar 916 mm/year with 21-30% CV, Jodhapur 371 mm/year with 41-50% CV and Rajsamand 512 mm/year with 21-30% CV. This CV represents inter-annual variation in rainfall; the higher the CV, the more variable is the year-to-year rainfall.Four villages in each district were selected to assess farmers' preferences and willingness to pay for climate-smart technologies after extensive discussion with government officials, community service organizations (CSOs) and key informants of the communities. These villages were selected by considering different rainfall zoness, high dependency on rainfed agriculture and high probability of drought prevalence. A climate change and agricultural vulnerability assessment report (Rao et al., 2013) also indicates that the agriculture in all selected districts is highly vulnerable to climate change and variability.Data for this study was obtained through survey and group discussions with randomly selected group of 25-30 farmers in each village. The research team had interacted with the selected farmers to assess their understanding of climate change and variability, past climatic threats and their impacts on agriculture, and what adaptation options were available to them. A list of CSA technologies was developed based on a review of past studies conducted in similar study areas (Khatri-Chhetri 2016;Sapkota et al., 2015, Aryal et al., 2015;Jat et al., 2014;Sapkota et al., 2014) and in consultation with researchers in the region. We consider that any practice or technology that supports at least one of the three pillars: productivity, resilience and mitigation in agriculture under climate change and variability can be a CSA technology. During the discussion, detail information about existing CSA technologies suitable for local conditions were provided to all farmers (Table 2). This discussion helped to identify the most suitable CSA technologies which can minimize the climatic risks in each village. In-person interviews were also conducted with farmers to collect their basic socioeconomic information.This study used a stated preference method to analyse farmers' choice of CSA technologies in diverse rainfall zones. In the stated preference method, respondents are asked about their preferences in a list of technologies. Whereas in the revealed preference method, actual adoption of technology or related technology reveals farmers' preferences and the market value is available for that technology. The revealed preference methods can be an appropriate tool to assess farmer's preferences, but it is difficult to obtain sufficient variation in the preference data to examine all variables of interest (Kroes and Sheldon, 1988). Therefore, many studies on valuation of environmental services and consumers' preferences ranking use stated preference method. In this study, farmers' preferences for climate-smart technologies were obtained in two steps. In first step, farmers' were organized into a group of 5-6 for discussion on CSA technologies and then asked to score each technology from 0 to 3 scale (0 = no preferences, 1 = low preference, 2 = medium preference, and 3 = high preference). These values were converted to percentiles and categorized into four classes (Table 3).In the second step, the study team conducted a bidding exercise using pseudo money for only those technologies that were highly preferred by the farmers in the scoring exercise. All selected technologies were further weighted ranging between a 0 to 100 scale based on payment schedule in terms of bidding amounts and categorized into four preference classes (poor, low, medium and high). The weight for each technology from bidding exercise was estimated based on following formula:  4). The frequency of distribution represents number of farmers preference for particular technology.The scoring and bidding methods of preferences for the technologies were statistically tested by using chi-square (χ 2 ) test. Total number of responses in each preference level (1 to 4) in scoring and bidding  methods were used for the χ 2 test. The null hypothesis was that farmers preferences are not different on scoring and bidding methods. The comparison between two methods indicates whether the costs of technology adoption is an important constraint or not to farmers for adoption of particular CSA technology.The multinomial model is used to analyse the determinants of farmer's choice of CSA technologies. The design and implementation of CSA programmes require to consider the variables that may influence farmers' investment decisions on a particular technology. Several socioeconomic and climatic variables may influence a farmer's decision to invest in a particular CSA technology. This study modelled CSA adoption behaviour of farmers using discrete dependent variable with multiple choices. Some multinomial variables (e.g. preferences for CSA technology, technology ratings and opinion surveys) are inherently ordered. In these cases, although the outcome is discrete, the multinomial logit models would fail to account for ordinal nature of a dependent variable (Beggs et al., 1981;Hausman and Ruud, 1986). Thus, the ordered probit model was used to analyse the determinants of farmer's choice over CSA technologies. A multinomial ordered probit model can be represented as follow (e.g. Green, 2007):where, P n (j) is the probability that farmer n (n = 1, ……, N) choices CSA technology j, α j unknown parameter to be estimated with β j , X n is a vector of characteristics specific to farmers and location, β j is a vector of  Interventions that improve water use efficiency• Collection of rainwater not allowing to run-off and use for agricultural in rainfed/dry areas and other purposes on-site.• Application of water directly to the root zone of crops and minimize water loss • Levelling the field ensures uniform distribution of water in the field and reduces water loss (also improves nutrient use efficiency)• This method offers more effective control over irrigation and drainage as well as rainwater management during the monsoon(also improves nutrient use efficiency). • Removal of excess water (flood) through water control structure • Reduces evaporation loss of soil water (also adds nutrients into the soil) 2. Energy-smart• Zero Tillage/Minimum Tillage (ZT/MT) Interventions that improve energy use efficiency• Reduces amount of energy use in land preparation. In long-run, it also improves water infiltration and organic matter retention into the soil 3. Nutrient-smartInterventions that improve nutrient use efficiency• Optimum supply of soil nutrients over time and space matching to the requirements of crops with right product, rate, time and place • Cultivation of legumes in a cropping system. This practice improves nitrogen supply and soil quality • Quantify the required amount of nitrogen use based on greenness of crops. Mostly used for split dose application in rice but also applicable for maize and wheat crops to detect nitrogen deficiency Interventions that provide services related to income security and weather advisories to farmers.• Protection of livestock from extreme climatic events (e.g. heat/cold stresses) • Climate information based value added agro-advisories to the farmers • Crop-specific insurance to compensate income loss due vagaries of weather 6. Knowledge-smart• Improved Crop Varieties (ICV) • Seed and Fodder Banks (SFB)• Climatic risk management plan to cope with major weather related contingencies like drought, flood, heat/cold stresses during the crop season • Crop varieties that are tolerant to drought, flood and heat/cold stresses • Conservation of seeds of crops and fodders to manage climatic risks Note: these technologies, practices and services directly or indirectly contribute to improve productivity, enhance resilience and reduce GHG emission. Technologies/practices that help to improve at least one component can be considered as CSA. Same technology can help to improve all three elements of CSA. coefficients, and the shape of the probability distribution function, F, is determined by θ parameter. We assume that the error term is normally distributed across observations, therefore, mean and variance of error term are normalized to zero and one. In this ordered probit model, the probability of choosing a particular CSA technology can be stated as follow:where, Ф is the cumulative standard normal distribution function. For all probabilities to be positive, we must have 0 b α 1 b α 1 b ……. bα J − 1 . Based on this function, a log-likelihood function and its derivatives can be readily estimated. This method is also used to analyse the determinants of climate change adaptation choices in agriculture in various locations (Balew et al., 2014;Gbetibouo, 2009). The dependent variable in empirical estimation is farmer's preferences over a CSA technology from a set of technologies listed in Table 2. The explanatory variables for this study include household characteristics such as farmers' age, gender, caste, income, landholding size, farming system and locations. These explanatory variables were selected based on data availability and literature. Farmers' age and gender significantly influence the choice of technologies to climate change adaptation in agriculture (Nhemachena and Hassan, 2007;Maddison, 2006). Similarly, their economic status (e.g. income and poverty level) and their resource endowment (e.g. landholding size) also influence the adoption of CSA technologies (Deressa et al., 2011;Knowler and Bradshaw, 2007). Farmers' priorities on CSA technologies also differ based on farming systems and locations (Taneja et al., 2014). Table 5 provides a description of explanatory variables that were used for estimation of ordered probit model. The location variable represents an effect of prevailing climatic condition (rainfall zones) in farmers' priority for a particular CSA technology.Of the 21 different CSA technologies, 13 technologies were highly preferred by farmers in scoring activity and those technologies were considered for bidding exercises. After scoring and bedding of the selected technologies, we compared farmers' overall preferences for different CSA technologies based on annual rainfall level (mean mm/ year) and coefficient of variation (CV) in annual rainfall in the study area. Results indicate that farmers' preferences for CSA technologies are marked by some commonalities as well as differences. The ranking for each technology is based on average frequency of responses in scoring and bidding methods: 76-100 = high (4th rank), 51-75 = medium (3rd rank), 26-50 (2nd rank) = low, 0-25 = poor (1st rank). Table 6 presents most preferred CSA technologies in different rainfall zones. Top five preferred CSA technologies in all rainfall zone include crop insurance, rainwater harvesting, fodder management, weather based crop agro-advisory, contingent crop planning, laser land levelling, agro-forestry, climate smart housing for livestock and site specific integrated nutrient management (Table 6).Fig. 2 presents top five CSA technologies preferred by farmers in different rainfall zoness. N 80% of the farmers in low rainfall zones preferred crop insurance, rainwater harvesting and storage, fodder management, crop agro-advisories and contingent crop planning, whereas preferences for these technologies were low and varied in high rainfall zones. For instance, rainwater harvesting and crop insurance were less important for farmers in high rainfall zones.This study also finds that farmers' preferences for CSA technologies in low annual rainfall areas and high CV of annual rainfall have commonalities. Similar results were also found in areas with high annual rainfall and low CV of annual rainfall. One of the reasons was that the level of rainfall (mm) and CV in annual rainfall (%) were negatively Table 4 Level and value of technology preferences in bidding method.    correlated (lower the rainfall, higher the CV). Highly preferred technologies in all areas were crop insurance, weather based crop agro-advisories, rainwater harvesting, contingent crop planning, and site specific integrated nutrient management. Surprisingly, farmers in these locations have shown low levels of preference for improved crop varieties, seed and fodder banks and integration of legumes in the cropping system. The adoption of these technologies can also help to offset the impact of climate change and variability on agriculture.Our results indicate that farmers are willing to adopt some risk reduction technologies such as crop insurance, agro-advisories, and rainwater harvesting that can be supported by the government through technical and financial services.We compare farmers' preferences for CSA technologies between scoring and bedding methods based on chi-square (χ 2 ) test. Fig. 3 presents the results of test for 13 different CSA technologies that were offered to farmers. Farmers' preferences for integrated pest management, crop insurance, rainwater harvesting, laser land levelling and fodder management are not significantly different between scoring and bidding methods. However, their preferences for site specific integrated nutrient management, weather based crop agro-advisories, drip irrigation, furrow irrigated bed planting, agro-forestry, climate smart housing for livestock, concentrate feeding for livestock, and contingent crop planning differed significantly between scoring and bidding methods. Farmers' preferences for all of these technologies in bidding were lower than in the scoring method. This result indicates that farmers' preferences and willingness-to-pay differ based on the technology and the cost of implementation. Implementation of these technologies may increase farmers' financial burden so that they might be reluctant to invest on the technologies.In the initial multinomial ordered probit model, many variables such as livestock size, family size, education, access to market and membership with farmers group were added to the model. These variables were dropped, as they were not statistically significant for all selected CSA technologies. Table 7 presents the results of ordered probit model for 8 different CSA technologies. The model for drip irrigation, furrow irrigation and bed planting, fodder management and agro-forestry did not fit well; thus they are not included in the results.Results indicate that the age of farmer has significant effect in the ranking of CSA technologies. The choice of site specific integrated nutrient management, integrated pest management, laser land levelling, and crop insurance are positively influenced by the farmer's age. More experienced farmers are more likely to choose these technologies. However, experienced farmers are less likely to choose rainwater harvesting technologies for climate change adaptation. Female farmers prefer integrated pest management, weather based crop agro-advisories and contingent crop planning compared to male farmers. Their preference for rainwater harvesting and climate smart housing for climate change adaptation were significantly negative. Similarly, preferences for weather based crop agro-advisories and crop insurance were low for general caste farmers.The results also indicate that low income farmers are more likely to prefer site specific integrated nutrient management, integrated pest management, laser land levelling compared to rainwater harvesting, contingent crop planning and crop insurance. Low income farmer may able to invest on these low cost technologies for adaptation to climate  This study provides insights into how farmers' priorities for CSA technologies are linked with prevailing climatic conditions of a particular location, socio-economic characteristics and willingness to pay for available technologies. Farmers' priorities for CSA technologies may differ according to climatic conditions and perceived risks. For instance, farmers in a location with low rainfall and high CV in annual rainfall prefer risk mitigation technologies such as crop insurance, weather-based crop agro-advisories and rainwater harvesting. Their preference for CSA technologies significantly changes in high rainfall zones. Consequently, policies and programmes aimed at promoting CSA technologies should focus on site specific technologies that are relevant to the local farmers.This study also found that farmers' preferences and willingness to pay for CSA technologies significantly differ based on potential benefits and costs of technologies as informed to them. Even in the bidding exercise with pseudo currency, farmers' preferences for most of the CSA technologies were significantly different between the scoring and bidding methods. This result suggests that farmers may not be willing to invest on many CSA technologies even if there are foreseen benefits. Therefore, adaptation policies need to emphasize on the crucial role of providing information about available CSA technologies and creating financial resources to enables farmers to adopt various CSA technologies that are relevant for their location.The empirical estimation based on the ordered probit model reveals that many socio-economic and location specific variables have a significant effect on farmers' preferences towards a particular CSA technology. Farmers' priorities may differ from technology to technology based on their age, gender, landholding size, income level, farming system and location. These results imply that a thoughtful and balanced policy response is required to deal with a demand for CSA technology for a particular social group in a particular location.Finally, the prioritization method used in this study and results could have large implications to design and implement a climate change adaptation programme in agriculture. As we know that adoption of CSA technologies is largely dependent on farmers' priorities and their willingness-to-pay, participatory evaluation and prioritization of CSA technologies can provide clear guidelines for existing and new climate change adaptation policies in agriculture and allied sectors. This assessment of technology preferences is based on farmers' current level of understanding about benefits and costs of individual CSA technology. This study also indicates that farmers prefer some risk mitigation technologies such as crop insurance, agro-advisories and rainwater harvesting that can be supported by the government. Therefore, farmers' preferences for CSA technologies may differ based on their expectations of financial support from the government and other agencies. Similarly, their preferences may differ based on the combination of CSA technologies and their potential benefits for adaptation to climate change. These issues need to be further explored.","tokenCount":"4014"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c333a7221ed1b836cdd956750b5033b5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e3164976-614c-4dc9-80dd-a69022de669c/retrieve","id":"-236536819"},"keywords":["Beekeeping","market orientation","value chain","capacity building","resilient to rainfall variability Low bees forage"],"sieverID":"efd72fee-fc60-4447-adaf-c9fb7214b1f1","pagecount":"56","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.v Tables Table 1. Characteristics of the apiculture-livestock midland and pulse-livestock highland farming systems in Atsbi-Womberta district  The practice of beekeeping is deeply rooted within the Ethiopian farming community. The use of honey as food and medicine (Benjamin and McCallum 2008), and that of wax for candle lighting in churches has a long history in Ethiopia (Ayalew 2006). At present, beekeeping is largely an income generating activity that fits well into the concept of smallholder agricultural development. It can also be easily integrated into on-going resources conservation and rehabilitation developments in Tigray, northern Ethiopia. This is because honey is high value commodity and a non-perishable product if stored properly (Robinson 1980;Gentry 1982;MAAREC 2004;Somerville 2007). Furthermore, smallholder farmers usually consider honey as cash crop, rather than a subsistence commodity (IMPS 2005). These characteristics make honey an attractive product for commercially oriented smallholder beekeepers.In Atsbi-Womberta district, there is a good potential for beekeeping development due to suitable weather conditions and availability of various natural bee forage resources (IPMS 2005).Beekeeping can especially be an attractive business for the landless and the poor because it needs a relatively small investment and does not have high land requirement. Beekeeping does not compete severely for resources with other farm enterprises (Gentry 1982;Adjare 1990;Bradbear 2004;MAAREC 2004). Beekeeping can also be supplementary to crop production by facilitating pollination (e.g. Wilson 2006).However, beekeeping has been considered as a supplementary activity and traditionally managed, while its potential as source of smallholder income has been underutilized for many years (IPMS 2005;Melaku, et al. 2008;Kerealem et al. 2009). The supplementary role of beekeeping to household economy had even been declining in Atsbi-Womberta district (IPMS 2005). Reasons include increase in population pressure and subsequent increase in use of natural bee forage plants for fuel wood and house construction, and reduced diversity and cover abundance of bee forage plants due to overgrazing and continuous land cultivation for crop production (IPMS 2005;Ayalew 2006).The emphasis on resource conservation and development in the district since 1991 started to provide favourable conditions for the development of improved beekeeping. However, The study area, Atsbi-Womberta district, is located in the eastern part of Tigray, northern Ethiopia (Figure 1).  1). The apiculture-livestock midland farming systems is more important for improved beekeeping and the pulse-livestock highland for honeybee colony.  Beekeeping development in the district can be classified into four phases (Table 2). The first phase is forest honey hunting, where honey was harvested from wild honeybee colonies in hive tree trunks, caves and tree branches. Some remnants of this practice still exist in the district. The second phase consists of honeybee colony management around homesteads using locally made hives (Ayalew 2006;Bradbear 2009). Production is subsistence oriented with low productivity (Ayalew 2006). The third phase, (which can also be called as the first improved beekeeping management phase), was implemented during 1996-2004. During this time, the extension service promoted improved beekeeping using modern hives, accessories and honey processing.Improved hives were initially distributed for free (Table 3). At the end of 2004, the total number of honeybee colonies in the district was about 6729, of which about 2000 honeybee colonies were relatively under improved beekeeping management using modern hives and the rest under  The value chain based interventions were related to the main beekeeping system components such as bee forage resources, honeybee colony supply, pests and diseases control, apiary management, access to credit, post-harvest management and marketing. The promotion included sale of liquid honey after extracting using centrifuge honey extractor, honey handling, grading, storage and packaging using 2-5 kg compact and see-through plastic containers.In response to the diagnosed limitations to market-oriented beekeeping development, the skill or knowledge needs and sources were assessed at the end of 2004 and subsequently revised annually (Table 3).   5).  The main beneficiaries of the WKC facilities were extension service providers, researchers and students. At the FTC level, improved beekeeping technology was demonstrated to farmers and DAs. These include the use of improved beehive accessories (e.g., smoking can and bee veil), casting mould and honey processing. Besides, a live demonstration of improved beekeeping management combined with suitable bee forage has been established in some FTCs to share beekeeping knowledge with farmers. Moreover, some FTCs have been supplied with DVD player and flat screen TV monitor, computers and manuals to improve beekeeping knowledge sharing. FTCs were also connected to telephone services and electric power supply to facilitate knowledge acquisition and dissemination.Technology exhibitions and market fair: Beekeeping knowledge capturing and experience sharing among farmers, DAs, experts and other members of the society were conducted at regional, district and PA levels using agricultural technology exhibitions on annual basis since 2006 (Table 5). The first national and regional knowledge sharing agricultural technology  5).Trainings: Since 2006, many extension service providers have received training of trainers (ToT) in extension approaches (participatory extension, marketing extension, market assessment, gender, and knowledge management) in and outside the district. The ToT also included participatory beekeeping development planning, marketing, M&E, market information collection and dissemination and knowledge management.Many actors played key roles in the development of knowledge based improved beekeeping along the beekeeping value chain framework (Table 6).  To monitor the results from individual or combination of interventions, the project initially established a baseline data as a reference to measure and document changes. To establish a baseline, data from a formal baseline study and data from some special diagnostic studies were used. The initial PRA study also contributed to quantitative and qualitative baseline information.Amongst others, the formal baseline study used PA level interviews and records from all PAs in the district. Several sources were used for regular documentation of change and results, including six monthly progress reports, annual M&E reports, thesis research, records kept by the OoARD, and personal observations. District OoARD staff also monitored changes in production and productivity on a yearly basis. A household survey was conducted in 2009 on 12 selected PAs.Specialized and focused studies on changes in relation to forage development/cover abundance and beekeeping performance were conducted and sampled in selected PAs along the various land uses (bottomlands, hilly sides, irrigated lands and backyards). The reasons for the improved bee forage availability are attributed to the expansion in seasonal forage sources and increased cover-abundance of bee forage plants in the irrigated sites and area closures of the grazing bottomlands, hilly sides and homestead (Tables 8 and 9). Irrigated crops (vegetables, spices and pulses) expanded to more than 1500 ha of land in the district (OoARD 2008). The irrigated crops usually flower during the transitional period when abundance of bee forage is low particularly when there is no rain. Besides, most of the bottomlands and stabilized gullies, hilly sides and backyards have been put under area closure and cut and carry animal feeding system has been introduced and promoted (Table 8). Of the total grazing sites in the bottomland and associated gullies, about 71% (10542 ha) were put under cut-and-carry system of livestock feeding and became one of the major sources of bee forage. In the hilly side grazing lands, about 14646 ha of land were put under area closure and became the natural source of bee forage. Beekeepers around the area closures and irrigated sites indicated that the frequency of honey harvest has increased from single to 2-3 times/year (Mizan 2010). The community has put most of the steeply grazing lands under enclosure. These sites serve as bee forage resources mainly during the 'Nectar rich period' (Table 8). The relatively fertile bottomlands stay moist, green and natural bee forages plants flower alternatively in most of the months and the duration of flowering stays longer even in the absence of rainfall. Thus, there has been a clear shift in bee forage cover-abundance from mid-March to June, and relatively less meaningful changes in the frost periods because few plants flower during this period in enclosed and irrigated areas. Seasonal cover-abundance of bee forage plants differ according to the sites of forage sources (Table 9). There has also been a substantial change in the cover-abundance and diversity of natural bee forage plants under different land uses (Table 9) combined with cut-and-carry system  10) and the amount of honey can vary significantly. When there is enough rainfall to induce flowering, there could be adequate honey for harvest or support colony split (Table 10). In some seasons, when the amount of rainfall is sporadic, the honey flow is only adequate enough to maintain healthy and strong honeybee colonies. In the worst seasons when rainfall is low or absent, the honey flow is very low and unable to support survival of honeybee colonies. In the maximum honey flow period, the amount of honey produce is consistently above the honeybee colony requirement and the surplus is harvested for market supply (Table 10). In the lessor honey flow, bee flowers initially decline due to frost occurrence (usually November to January) and thereafter followed by dry spell months (mostly February to mid-March). The amount of honey usually declines below the colony requirement.   Although increased seasonal honey flow was observed around the closure and irrigated sites, the seasonal variation in honey quality needs due attention. This is because the quality and quantity of honey is related to the prevailing weather condition such as rainfall, temperature and sunlight (Gentry 1982). For example, excess rainfall during flowering stage of bee forages can alter the quality and quantity of honey. In this regard, Gentry (1982) indicated that for most plant species, the conditions promoting optimum honey flow are adequate rainfall before flowering and dry, sunny conditions during the flowering period. Thus, the timing and relative amount of rainy, dry and sunny days vary during flowering and hence the quality and quantity honey flow may vary accordingly. This could have implications on the quality and market price of honey (Alemtsehay 2011). For instance, the white honey of Atsbi is associated with the flowering time (August-October) of the key natural forage plants with sources of white nectar from plants locally known as 'Gribiya' (Hypostus ariculata) and 'Tebeb' (Basium clandiforbium) and 'Swakerni' (Leucas abyssinica). These forage species also flower during the dry, frost and transitional periods wherever there is moisture supply. Beekeepers indicated that honey harvested during these periods were relatively low in quality compared to the 'nectar rich period' (Alemtsehay 2011).The relatively low quality honey in other periods might indicate the changes in nectar quality.Difference in honeybee colony management in response to the seasonal variation in nectar flow and colony population dynamics were observed under market-oriented and traditional beekeeping (Figure 4; Table 10). When abundant pollen and nectar resources are available, the honeybee colony is stimulated to raise more brood and thus the colony population increases (Figure 4). When resources become low, brood-rearing decreases and colony population steadily declines. In local or traditional beekeeping, most beekeepers are less knowledgeable and experienced to apply knowledge-based beekeeping management following seasonal variation in nectar flow and honeybee population dynamics. In the 'frost period', for instance, most of the inexperienced or unqualified beekeepers harvest without retaining enough honey in the hive for honeybee colony maintenance. In this period, the colony population declines and becomes vulnerable to pests such as wax moth and rusts locally known as Himodia. The same holds true in traditional beekeeping management during the dry, transitional and nectar rich periods.unpredictable period in terms of bee forage availability and experienced and knowledgeable beekeepers did apply effective honeybee colony management in response to these changes under market-oriented beekeeping development (Table 10). Usually, whenever there is relatively good forage availability, beekeepers strive for manipulation of honey productivity for profitable income generation. When bee forage availability is relatively medium, beekeepers prefer to maintain strong colony in order to maximize honey harvest during the subsequent peak nectar flow period or 'Nectar rich period'. When bee forage availability is low, beekeepers management focuses on honeybee colony maintenance similar to the frost and dry periods. Hence, the focus of beekeepers during the transition period is partly to produce honey or colony and partly to strengthen or maintain the colony in response to the available bee forage resources.The main market-oriented beekeeping management during 'nectar rich period' is to manage and inspect honeybee colonies to avoid natural multiplication of colonies at the expense of honey production and control swarm breeding through splitting (Table 10). This is because the 'nectar rich period' is associated with peak nectar flow and peak cover-abundance of bee forage plants and related with the maximum honey harvest (Table 7). This is the period with high bee forage abundance and, in relative terms, easily predictable. The amount of rain during this period is usually adequate to induce the flowering of perennial bee forage plants. The perennial plants are able to extract water deep from the soil and stay longer as sources of nectar and pollen. Under abundant bee forage supply, skilled and experienced beekeepers manage to obtain a large adult colony population or honey according to the market demand. On the other hand, colonies can also swarm under good bee forage abundance. Experienced beekeepers regularly inspect and manage the colony status to avoid swarm breeding. Farmers often avoid swarm breeding and swarming through colony splitting, increasing bee space or re-queening.In general, the variation in honeybee colony management among beekeepers lies in the skills and knowledge applied to enhance profitable beekeeping development in response to the seasonal variation in bee forage availability. These skills and experiences are particularly important during pre-and post-frost and transitional periods. Usually, honeybee colonies can be exposed to bee forage shortages during the frost, dry and transitional periods. Experienced and knowledgeable beekeepers manage by moving the honeybee colonies to areas where there are bee forage plants around irrigated or moist gullies or bottomlands in order to maintain health colony. In this respect, repeated discussion with experienced beekeepers indicated that marketoriented beekeeping is relatively resilient to weather-induced changes and can be restored within the same year mainly during the 'nectar rich period' than the cultivation of rainfed crops. The management of market-oriented beekeeping needs time and requires year round inspection using various management approaches either to maintain a healthy colony or maximize productivity.The extension approach in market-oriented beekeeping development has been participatory, demand-driven and knowledge-intensive based on the beekeeping value chain framework. The new market-oriented beekeeping extension approach was in part based on new knowledge on the improved beekeeping management including forage development and in part based on using a value chain concept which includes supply of inputs, marketing and processing. This also includes focus on market-oriented beekeeping development, knowledge capturing, use and sharing among beekeepers, synergy of experience based and newly introduced beekeeping skills and knowledge on integrated management of beekeeping along the beekeeping systems components.For instance, shortage in supply of honeybee colony was identified as one of the limiting factors along the value chain. As an immediate intervention, credit services and honeybee colony supply was facilitated and honeybee colonies procured from other parts of Tigray to satisfy the colony demand of beekeepers. In 2005, about 144 honeybee colonies were distributed to landless youth from southern zone of Tigray. However, with the introduction of the honeybee colonies, there is a possibility of introducing devastating insect pests and diseases of honeybee into the district.Alternatively, skill and knowledge private based honeybee colony multiplication using modern hives has been promoted and has evolved into private business where skilled beekeepers produce colony for market. Skills for honeybee colony supply were demanded because of the supply In Atsbi-Womberta district, the presence of various honeybee maladies such as insect pests, predators, disease and pesticide poisoning were reported (Etsay and Ayalew 2001;Workneh 2007). Honeybee maladies can be classified into natural enemies (pests and predators) and pesticide spray. The damage due to honeybee natural enemies was less noticeable when the number of honeybee colonies was relatively low and scattered in the rural areas. The pest and predator load and the damage due to natural enemies increased as adoption of market-oriented beekeeping intensified (Workneh 2007). Based on the above information, beekeepers and extension service providers were capacitated with awareness creation, skill and knowledge on risks and reduction mechanism of honeybee enemies. However, beekeepers reported that the changes in reducing honeybee enemies were low.The use of pesticide spray on high value irrigated crops, external livestock parasite and mosquitoes breeding sites particularly in the apiculture-livestock midland farming system of the district was also increased and awareness on the impact of pesticide spray to beekeeping promoted. The impact of pesticides on honeybee production was well documented (Sanford 2003;Teshome and Alemayehu 2005) and shared among the farming community. In principle, the communities have agreed to reduce pesticide use but implementation proved difficult. Thus, beekeepers indicated that damage due to honeybee maladies was increased with the promotion of market-oriented beekeeping development. In this regard, urgent measures need to be taken to Box 2. During knowledge sharing meeting, a farmer from Era PA forwarded his experience on successful honeybee colony transfer from traditional to modern beehives. He stated that he transfers all the contents of the traditional hive including wax, honey and propolis into the modern hive before transferring the colony. He positioned the hive content in the new hive similar to the way they were spatially placed in the traditional hive.In that case, the honeybee colonies feel as if they are in their original home with the same smell they are used to. This skill is essentially 'behaviour mediated honeybee colony management' that the experienced farmer applies in practice. This skill and experience on successful transfer of honeybee colony was shared and popularized among the beekeepers.reduce pest load and damage of honeybee maladies with the view to enhancing market-oriented beekeeping development.According to the information from the district OoARD, the total number of honeybee colonies in Atsbi-Womberta district increased by about threefold, from 6,729 in 2004 to 20,727 in 2008 (Figure 5a). Similarly, the number of beekeeping beneficiary households increased by about three fold (from 3432 to 11,398 households) (Figure 5b). Adoption of market-oriented beekeeping management is measured by the number of honeybee colonies in modern hives and use of improved knowledge to generate better income. In this case, the number of honeybee colonies under market-oriented beekeeping management increased by nearly fourfold from 2000 colonies in 2004 to 7467 in 2008 (Figure 5a). Similarly, honeybee colonies under traditional management increased by about threefold-from 4,729 in 2004 to 13,260 in 2008.Source: OoARD (2008). Though there has been an increase in the absolute number of honeybee colonies, there was a variation in the adoption of market-oriented beekeeping innovations among beekeepers and PAs a b (OoARD 2008). The variation in adoption of improved beekeeping appears to vary according to beekeeping products destined for market (either for honey or bee colonies), and types of forage sources. In this regard, the largest adoption of market-oriented improved honey production was found in the apiculture-livestock-midland farming system whereas the honeybee colony multiplication was prevalent in the pulse-livestock-highland farming system mostly based on traditional hives (OoARD 2008).The number of honeybee colonies under traditional hives also increased by about threefold from 4729 in 2004 to 13,260 in 2008 despite efforts to transform them into improved hives to ease management. This is because most of the beekeepers targeted for bee colony multiplication prefer to keep their colonies in traditional hives particularly in highland farming systems.Beekeepers also hinted that the adoption of improved beekeeping innovations is linked to the type of bee forage availability. Based on our field survey in 2008, cultivated crops are the main sources of bee forage in the highland FS and natural forage plants in the midland FS. The main type of bee forage sources reflects the quality of the honey. In this regard, the best quality honey comes from the natural forage sources mainly in the midland FS. Thus, the highland FS is less competitive in market-oriented honey production compared to the midland FS. On the other hand, few farmers who develop natural forage around homesteads are able to produce quality honey in the highland FS. Thus, with improved natural forage cover-abundance in the closure areas of the bottomlands and steep degraded lands there is a possibility to enhance the adoption of improved beekeeping for honey production. Moreover, the initially high cost of improved beekeeping inputs such as modern hive and accessories as well as lack of skills often discourages beekeeping beginners to adopt improved beekeeping using modern hives.New comers to beekeeping business indicated that they prefer to start with less risky and low cost traditional beekeeping using traditional hives and gradually move to improved beekeeping management using modern hives. Lack of skills and context-specific intervention approaches in skill and knowledge development perhaps needs special attention because the increase in use of beekeeping using traditional hives is associated mostly with beginners (personal field observation).Changes in hive productivity (honey and honeybee colony) of adopters and non-adopters of market-oriented beekeeping management were compared at hive, household and district levels (Figure 6). The hive honey productivity of adopters increased by about threefold (32 kg honey/hive per year) compared to the non-adopters (10 kg honey/hive per year) in 2008.Interestingly, hive honey productivity of adopters increased by 52% in 2008 (32 kg honey/hive per year) compared to those adopters in 2004 (21 kg honey/hive per year). Based on structured interviews with beekeepers and group discussion and key informant interviews across different land uses and PAs, hive productivity is largely a function of bee forage availability in the proximity of the apiary site (Table 11). Average hive honey productivity increased significantly in apiary sites around irrigated sites (40 kg honey/hive per year), closure areas of the bottomlands (36 kg honey/hive per year) and hilly sides (32 kg honey/hive per year) compared to the non-closure forage sites (20 kg honey/hive per year) in 2008 (Table 11). Similarly, honey productivity under traditional beekeeping management increased from 6 kg/hive per year in 2004 to 10 kg/hive per year in 2008. This could be due to increase in diversity of bee forage plants that can flower at various seasons of the year and serve as balanced sources of pollen and nectar. The increase in honey productivity is also attributed to increase in bee forage availability and cover abundance, improved skill and regular inspection by beekeepers in response to the dynamics of bee forage availability and colony population dynamics. According to survey results, average multiplication of honeybee colonies using modern hives increased from one (using traditions methods) in 2004 to three colonies per hive per year in 2008 (Table 12). In the market-oriented beekeeping management, the number of honeybee colony splitting is managed according to the interest of beekeepers, colony strength and market signals.The multiplication of honeybee colonies in traditional beekeeping management remained unchanged, at an average of about two colonies per hive per year. Under traditional beekeeping management, the number of honeybee colony splitting is less manipulated and colony multiplication follows the natural course of reproduction. The gross annual income of beneficiaries from the district increased to ETB 19.5 million compared to ETB 2.7 million in 2004 (IPMS 2005). Results of field survey in 2009 also showed that there was a significant difference in average honey production and value between improved beekeeping adopters and non-adopters households (Figures 7a and 7b). In 2007, average honey production for adopters of market-oriented beekeeping development was about twofold (46 kg honey/household per year) than non-adopters (22 kg honey/household per year) (Figure 7a).Market-oriented improved beekeeping adopters had a threefold higher profit from the sale of honey (ETB 1820/household per year) than non-adopters (ETB 614/household per year) in 2007 (Figure 7b). In Atsbi-Womberta district, the price of a honeybee colony ranges from ETB 400-800 in 2008. On the other hand, the farm gate price of a kg of honey from improved beekeeping is about ETB 70 and that of honey from traditional beekeeping is about ETB 24/kg in 2008. Ifwe assume that about 50% of the traditionally managed honeybee colonies produce one colony each and 50% produce honey for the market annually, the gross annual income would be about ETB 4.96 million under the traditional beekeeping management system in 2008 (Figure 8; OoARD 2008).Assuming that honey from improved market-oriented beekeeping is destined for market (Mizan 2010), then estimated gross annual income of the district would be about ETB 14.5 million in 2008 (Figure 8). Thus, the gross annual income of the beneficiaries in the district increased by about sevenfold in 2008 compared to the gross income of 2004 (IPMS 2005).Source: IPMS field survey (2009).  Many beekeepers agreed that the increased productivity (honey and colony multiplication per year) is also a function of the genetic makeup of the honeybee colony. Genetically, honeybees in Atsbi-Womberta district belong to the African bee Apis millifera (Nuru 2002). Within the species, beekeepers differentiate honeybee colonies according to their performance, behaviour, colour and adaptation to drought and diseases. Accordingly, beekeepers identified about three major honeybee colony types: Red and black, and mixture of the two. The red honeybee colony type produces relatively higher yields, is less aggressive, but is susceptible to drought and pests compared to the black colony type and their mixes. The reverse applies to the black honeybee colonies. The above results indicated that genetically the existing honeybee colonies have adequate potential to produce honey under market-oriented beekeeping management with some farmers harvesting about 60-80 kg honey/hive per year around irrigated sites or in good seasons (OoARD 2008).Knowledge and skills on the supply of quality honey has been promoted and meaningful changes have been observed in the supply of quality honey to the market. The quality of honey is at its best when it is kept in the beehive (Gentry 1982;Bradbear 2009). Honey quality could be reduced during honey harvesting, processing, storage and marketing. In traditional beekeeping, honey quality is reduced due to harvesting of unripe honey, excessive smoking during harvesting, mixing of honey with pollen, beeswax, broods and other hive products such as propolis. Honey was also stored in traditional containers such as clay pot, hide, gourd and tin.Previous research reports indicated that honey quality is reduced when stored in traditional containers (Nuru 1991;1999). Lack of linkage and premium market price for quality honey also discourages beekeepers from producing and maintaining good quality honey.In market-oriented beekeeping development, many beekeepers adopted the production and harvesting of quality honey in the district (Alemtsehay 2011). At harvest, beekeepers started checking for ripe honey, excessive use of smoking was reduced by using controlled smoker; ripe honey was harvested using clean ancillary equipment. About 36% of the honeybee colonies in the district were using frame hives (OoARD 2008) in 2008 and the honey in frames were easily extracted using centrifuge honey extractor and marketed as clean liquid honey.In market-oriented beekeeping development, honey grading, storage and supply were significantly transformed in response to market demand. Beekeepers graded honey based on colour, consistency, aroma and flavour. These honey quality attributes were related to the type and pattern of nectar sources. This is further related to the 'foraging constancy' of honeybee behaviour whereby honeybees collect nectars from the same species as long as there is plenty of nectar (Amsalu 1991;Bradbear 2009). The colour of the honey therefore reflects the dynamics of flower pattern of the forage plants. Interviewed traders and beekeepers indicated that honey grading based on specific colour, aroma and flavour were useful to supply attractive and uniform quality honey to the market. At present, beekeepers stored honey in plastic buckets with tightly fitted lids. The quality honey has been sold using about 20-25 kg capacity plastic buckets to traders and 2-6 kg capacity plastic containers directly to consumers. Besides, preliminary honey quality taste with different consumers showed that consumers can grade the quality of honey effectively using taste. This indicates that the quality honey production warrants higher prices in the market.Farmers mentioned that the honey from traditional hives was graded into three classes before marketing. The first class is 'watery white' honey, 2 nd class-medium quality mixed with different honey colours, and third class is low quality honey-mixed with hive products such as pollen, Field studies indicated that in market-oriented beekeeping development, beekeepers adopted the local multiplication and supply of honey colony based on desirable colonies attributes and strength using modern hives. Under traditional beekeeping, honeybee colonies multiplied naturally without knowledge and skill based intervention of the beekeepers. Beekeepers usually catch the splitted colony near the apiary before absconding or catch from other sources. When there is shortage of colony supply in the area, beekeepers buy from other sources. Thus there was no meaningful control on the desirable quality and strength of the honeybee colony. In marketoriented beekeeping development, colony producers indicated that the quality of a honeybee colony is usually assessed by the desirable traits acceptable to beekeepers and colony strength.The main desirable traits of a honeybee colony included high honey production and disease resistant; low tendency to swarm and abscond; and gentleness and calm on combs when colony is worked. Beekeepers also assessed the strength of the honeybee colony by the number of bees in a colony and honeybee colony activities such as whether a colony has an active queen or not.Under market-oriented improved beekeeping development, beekeepers have a skill to split or multiply honeybee colonies with desirable traits or make arrangement ahead of time to buy a honeybee colony with known desirable traits from their village. In this manner, beekeepers have been able to maintain and upgrade honeybee colonies with desirable traits in the village using modern hives.The difference between the prices received by farmers and the retail prices has reduced from 50-60% in 2004 to 15-20% in 2008 (personal communication with traders and producers). As a result of the increased access to market information and linkage, honey price has increased significantly benefitting producers. Market price information of honey in the nearby markets is being posted in the PAs biweekly in addition to the information broadcasted by regional radio.Honey market linkages between producers and traders from the nearby towns including Mekele Although traditionally beekeeping is considered as a man's job, about 11% of the producers in improved market-oriented beekeeping development and 22% under traditionally managed honeybee colonies were female-headed households in 2008 (OoARD 2008). The higher percentage of female-headed households in the traditional system could be due to lack of experiences and skills, and the relatively high costs of inputs in market-oriented beekeeping.Hence, provision of targeted and insured credit services for women interested in market-oriented beekeeping could enhance the adoption of improved beekeeping by female-headed households.In market-oriented beekeeping development, beekeeping is a flexible activity for both sexes of any age category in the household. In Atsbi-Womberta district, some women manage most of the beekeeping activities including construction of local hives, inspect and clean the apiary.5. Opportunities, challenges and lessons learned for scaling out and upOpportunities: In Atsbi-Womberta district, ample opportunities do exist to enhance marketoriented beekeeping development. Long tradition of beekeeping by the farming community, suitable agro-ecologies for honeybee colony and honey production, presence of some improved skills and experiences, and knowledge in beekeeping for improved productivity exist. Lack of quality honey, wax and honeybee colony exists in the local markets and beyond.The locally known self-branded 'Atsbi honey' fetches the highest price in the nearby markets. This advantage is expected to be sustainable because 'Atsbi honey' is not replacing the market of other honey sources from other locations. There is a large area of non-arable land suitable for beekeeping in the district. For instance, about 80% of Atsbi-Womberta district is non-arable. Most of the non-arable lands have been put under area enclosure. This has created opportunity for increased bee forage diversity and cover-abundance, and availability of water and suitable apiary sites for beekeeping development. At the same time, the areas under irrigation and year round closures in the bottomland have been increasing. These sites are potential sources of yearround bee forages and water. On the other hand, there are many landless youth, school dropouts and other jobless people in the district. There is a great opportunity to organize, capacitate, guide and engage them in beekeeping business on the available non-arable land in the district. Rainfall in Atsbi-Womberta district is very variable. In Atsbi-Womberta, shortage of rainfall is usually experienced during the reproductive or grain-filling period of crops due to early withdrawal of rain. Sometimes there is delayed onset of rain or transient moisture stress at any development stage of the crops. Such variability substantially reduces grain production. However, the early withdrawal of rain enhances the production of quality nectar for quality honey production. Shower of rain that supports crop germination is adequate enough to initiate the flowering of perennial bee forage shrubs and trees. In the dry areas, a heavy rain or about two showers of rain at any part of the season may be good enough to trigger nectar producing flowers particularly in the bottomlands, gullies and conserved closure areas. In good seasons, the annual herbs are also good sources of bee forage plants. This shows that beekeeping development is adaptable, more resilient income-generating business than rainfed crops in the ecology of Atsbi-Womberta district. Perhaps the key and important opportunity for beekeeping is the presence of some skilful and experienced farmers with better understanding about the art and science of beekeeping in the district. Some innovative farmers understand well the behaviour of the honeybee races in relation to the nectar flow in their specific location. The shifts and changes in new technology have been fine tuned under this context. This skills and knowledge helps them to manage honeybee colonies in a productive way and enable them to make a difference in household income. Subsequently, few innovative farmers skilfully manage to produce about 60-80 kg honey/colony per year worth of ETB 6000-8000 under Atsbi-Womberta conditions in good seasons (OoARD 2008). These innovative farmers can be used as sources of practical knowledge to train and capacitate other less experiences farmers in the district.The challenges in market-oriented beekeeping development specifically related to knowledge and skills needs and development. Shortage of skilled manpower with ability to understand the existing beekeeping-human relationship and provide context-specific services to make a difference in the productivity and quality of marketable hive products. Lack of experienced and knowledgeable experts in the protection and control of honeybee pests such as predator mammals, birds, lizards, insects and diseases is a serious problem. Many arrays of honeybee maladies exist in the district and better alternative technologies have not yet been implemented in the district due to lack of know-how. There is a substantial difference in beekeeping management skills and knowledge among farmers. In this regard, how to improve and address the various knowledge and skills needs of beekeepers will continue as a challenge to the research and development service providers. ","tokenCount":"5790"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e2ba3888e13ca110d41150216da80066","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/71038100-eb88-4950-8b5f-6ff884c65adb/retrieve","id":"799805670"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bddac2ba-05f0-4570-b13e-87ece0de1740","pagecount":"133","content":"National and sub-national public & private sector actors in 25 countries deliver more effective & equitable tree related breeding, delivery, extension & pedagogical services.Condensed list of policy contributions in this reporting year (Sphere of Influence) Table 3 List of Outcome/ Impact Case Reports from this reporting year (Sphere of Influence) Table 4 Condensed list of innovations by stage for this reporting year Table 5 Summary of status of Planned Outcomes and Milestones (Sphere of Influence-Control) Table 6 Numbers of peer-reviewed publications from current reporting period (Sphere of control) 2021 marks the last year of FTA as a CGIAR CRP. It has a set of operational priorities which structure its program of work. These priorities address key development demands and knowledge gaps concerning the implementation of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on climate change. These operational priorities have each a 3-yr operational workplan 2019-2021, with a detailed list of activities and outputs, identifying clearly those funded by W1W2. 2021 was therefore also the closing year of these triannual plans, mainly directed to finalizing projects and studies synthetising results and bringing these to the next users. Overall in 2021, FTA produced 509 publications, of which 464 open access, 213 peer-reviewed and 192 ISI journal articles. FTA delivered, in 2021, 23 major innovations and 19 major contributions to policies. FTA also wrapped-up its COVID-19 Rapid Research Response, releasing a set of key studies looking at impacts and ways to build resilience.Looking at its development impact, FTA completed in 2021 a set of innovative integrated impact assessment studies focused on documenting progress of the program's contribution in addressing key global challenges linked to deforestation, unsustainable land management, land degradation, food insecurity and malnutrition, and poverty. It led to a quantified estimation of the contribution of the program to global objectives. This contribution is significant, as since 2011, FTA working together with partners, achieved:• Between 2-35 million ha of land under restoration.• Between 26-133 million ha of forests under enhanced protection. This represents up to 125 Gt of sequestered carbon dioxide. • Between 60-204 million ha of land under better management via improved policy, monitoring and management practices. • Between 5-19 million people with better means to exit poverty.• Between 1-3 million people with additional means to improve food and nutritional security.In 2021 FTA produced the \"highlights of a decade\" series, a premium product, which in 18 volumes details the achievements and legacy of the program over key areas of work since 2011. Directed to a general audience, FTA initiated in 2021 an innovative partnership with Google Arts & Culture, with 8 online exhibits that feature key areas of the program, its action and impact.FTA brought its results to major international events of 2021: the UNFSS (with FTA being at the origin, with partners, of the emergence of 2 coalitions, on agroecology and on soil health), the UNFCCC Glasgow COP and prepared its contribution to the CBD COP15 in Kunming, by organizing a major global hybrid science conference in Kunming, together with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy on Forestry on \"Forests, Trees and Agroforestry for diverse sustainable landscapes\", gathering more than 400 participants, that led to a set of recommendations towards the CBD. FTA collaborated with the CBD preparing a guidance on gender and inclusion to support the finalization of the Gender Plan of Action by COP 15, and its implementation in the coming years. FTA successfully concluded its current cycle of collaboration with FAO: it finalized the Asia-Pacific Roadmaps on forest technologies and on primary forests conservation, an FAO forestry paper on \"Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Forest management\", and contributed to the State of the Worlds Forest (SOFO), all to be published at the 15th World Forestry Congress in 2022. FTA wrapped-up its work in December with a 2021 Conference on 10 years of FTA research for people and the planet. Going forward, FTA results are available to support the implementation of the sustainable development agendas as linked to forests, trees, agroforestry, sustainable landscapes and tree-based value chains.2021 marks the last year of FTA as a CGIAR Research program. In 2021, FTA completed a set of studies focused on documenting progress of the program's contribution in addressing key global challenges. These challenges were identified together with the management team and leadership of FTA, highlighting five important areas of commitments relevant to many countries and actors, donors' priorities, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the CGIAR SLOs and SRF targets.The results of these studies, summarized in Table 1, demonstrate the following contributions to the SRF targets:• Addressing accelerating rates of deforestation and forest degradation:Overall, an estimated 25.6m ha of forests have the potential to be under enhanced protection from deforestation and forest degradation as a result of collective processes to which FTA research and engagement contributed. If FTA-informed policies are effectively implemented and enforced, there are 133.4m ha of forests that have the potential to be better protected from deforestation and degradation in the countries assessed to date. Based on these estimates, between 24 Gt (low-end estimate) and 125.3 Gt (high-end estimate) of CO2 emissions may be avoided as a result of FTA's contribution to enhanced forest protection.• Restoring degraded land and ecosystem services: Cumulative effects of FTA's research and engagement contributed to placing at least 1.8 million ha under restoration, with the potential for up to 34.5 million ha to be under restoration in the future. Projected carbon sequestration effects of active planting facilitated by FTA is estimated to be from 1.4 million tons CO2 to reach the potential of 511.5 million tons of CO2 in the future.• Widespread Unsustainable Land Use Practices: We estimate that 59.5 million ha of landscapes are now under improved management as a result of policy mechanisms, monitoring systems, and changes in on-the-ground management and land use practices influenced by FTA. In addition, if other relevant FTA-influenced policies, action plans, and monitoring systems are effectively implemented and/or scaled up in the future, a total of 204 million ha of landscapes have the potential to be better managed.• Persistent Rural Poverty with Increasing Levels of Vulnerability: Overall, the study estimates that 5.1m people (1.3 million people directly and 3.8 million household members indirectly) have additional means to exit poverty or have increased resilience to impoverishment as a result of FTA's contributions. This estimate includes people with increased access to inputs for tree-and agroforestry-based production; people who adopted enhanced management or diversified production practices to increase yields; people who adopted low-cost processing techniques and value-addition; people with enhanced access to formal markets and/or business and marketing skills. We project that if all individuals reached by FTA adopt FTA-promoted options and technologies into their practice, in addition to the effective implementation of FTA-influenced policies, strategies, and action plans, 19m people (5.7 million people directly and 13.3 household members indirectly) have the potential to benefit from additional means to exit poverty or reduce their vulnerability to falling into poverty.• Rising Demand and Need for Nutritious Food for both Current and Future Generations: Overall, FTA reached over 760,000 households with additional means to improve their food security and nutritional status, with evidence of uptake of FTA innovations among one-third of these households (248,398). Evidence of significant FTA contributions to several policy-related outcomes was also found and documented.Please provide a summary of how the CRP as a whole progressed towards the agreed 'Program outcomes', highlighting:In 2021, FTA finalized two major pieces of work.First, the integrative impact studies. This was a major exercise to assess FTA's contributions and impacts on five key development challenges. This process brought together the Independent Steering Committee of FTA, impact assessment experts, FTA scientists and partners to (i) design an original, workable approach and operational method to credibly assess impacts at scale for the whole FTA program, since 2011; (ii) deploy the method against five development challenges FTA was expected to address; (iii) learn lessons from the exercise. The process results are 5 integrative impact studies, together with a synthesis, including key lessons and recommendations.These show tremendous impacts achieved by FTA major clusters of work, over the years, and under respectively conservative to optimistic hypothesis:• Brought between 2-35 million ha of land under restoration.• Brought 26-133 million ha of forests under enhanced protection. This represents up to 125 Gt of sequestered carbon dioxide. • Brought 60-204 million ha of land under better management via improved policy, monitoring and management practices. • Provided between 5-19 million people with better means to exit poverty.• Provided 1-3 million people with additional means to improve food and nutritional security.The five development challenges, and the integrative studies, above can serve as a basis for a further assessment of the impact of the program on climate change mitigation, as well as on biodiversity: these two categories of impact in fact primarily depend on the 3 main categories assessed though this exercise: lands under restoration, lands under enhanced protection, and lands under sustainable management.As part of this quantitative assessment, the studies precisely documented the way FTA reached its four FTA's end-of-program outcomes (see Appendix 1), and how these are interrelated to the 5 overarching objectives above. They enabled to confirm the conclusion of the independent review of FTA (2021) that stated that \"FTA high scientific productivity and strong implementation performance in phase II and was likely to make significant progress toward most of its planned end-of-program targets\".25 countries improve governance mechanisms, institutions & tools for a) safeguarding forests/tree diversity and b) equitably managing forests & trees within mosaic landscapes.foods can furnish important nutrients to local and indigenous diets and play a vital role in improving livelihoods through agroforestry systems or other tree products that generate income, and are key to crop genetic diversity and conserve ecosystems.FTA launched its partnership with Google Arts & Culture with eight visually-engaging digital exhibits for forests, trees and agroforestry making 10 years of forest-based research and impact more accessible to global audiences. This work forms part of a larger Google collaboration with over 60 international organizations aiming to reduce \"plant blindness\" -the tendency for people to have difficulty empathizing with plants and the environment at risk.There were no major course corrections.Among the achievements targeting the outcome on adoption of methods, tools and practices to mitigate threats to valuable TGR and with a focus on the FTA priorities of Biodiversity and Restoration but also Nutrition and Seed delivery were: an article in Restoration Ecology on the value of local ecological knowledge in tropical dry forests of Peru and Ecuador and a manuscript submitted to Biological Conservation on rangewide priority setting for the conservation and restoration of Asian rosewood species.Focused on the outcome of implementing cost-effective domestication and the priorities of Nutrition and Orphan crops were various domestication studies covering more than 100 species in more than 15 countries. A major study on Genomic Resources to Guide Improvement of the Shea Tree was published in Frontiers in Plant Science. Contributions were made to a new book on Orphan Crops for Sustainable Food and Nutrition Security, and to a review of fruits and vegetables for healthy diets to set priorities for food system research and action at the Food Systems Summit in 2021.For the outcome of adopting cost-effective and equitable tree-planting material delivery, outputs relating to the FTA priorities on Restoration and Tree Seed Delivery with emphasis on climate suitability included an article in Trends in Plant Science providing a systems approach to plant breeding using diversity breeding of trees as example to target major global problems through avenues of participation, environment, biotechnology and markets. Important steps were taken towards the establishment of a transformative partnership platform (TPP) on improving the quality of tree planting material, including e.g. the establishment of two new websites, the global tree knowledge platform and the resources for tree planting platform, as well as further work on the Diversity For Restoration species and seed selection tool and the climate change atlas for African tree species.The Transformative Partnership Platform on Agroecology (TPP) established by FP2 was launched at the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) 48 th Session that adopted policy recommendations resulting from the CFS High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) report on agroecology, that FP2 led. The TPP now has a project portfolio of >150M USD for research to address knowledge and implementation gaps constraining agroecological transitions identified by FTA. The TPP incubated a coalition to transform food systems through agroecology (based on CFS HLPE agroecological principles articulated by FP2), emerging as a significant outcome of the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), following inclusion of plenary and parallel sessions on agroecology evidence in the presummit and an FP2-produced video screened during the summit plenary. So far 27 countries and 35 organisations have signed the coalition's declaration of commitment which was showcased by the Chair of CFS and the President of Sri Lanka, during an FTA side-event at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP26, where agroecology figured in draft text of the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture mirroring a call for agroecological practices to be promoted in resolution E/CN.9/2021/L.5 of the UN Commission on Population and Development based on FP2 evidence.FP3 work on inclusive business models in 2021 focused on the sphere of engagement with business, civil society and state actors. This involved establishing an inclusive/sustainable business online platform to serve as a vehicle to disseminate, engage and give visibility to major inclusive business innovations and national and international champions. Work on innovating finance for sustainable landscapes resulted in additional case studies, broadening the range of different mechanisms analysed. This further influenced financial institutions to adopt environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria when lending to timber, trees and select agricultural crops. A whitepaper was prepared on how international finance can better meet local needs and aspirations, and an investment case was discussed at GLF Glasgow on inclusive food system transformation.On public and private commitments to zero deforestation, FTA upscaled and adapted the arrangements and initiatives to other jurisdictions of the six selected countries where it has been working. Results and approaches to jurisdictional performance monitoring systems and certification were diffused in international seminars. The efforts helped to demonstrate that private sustainability initiatives, in conjunction with supportive public policy, can foster improved management and business practices with enhanced socio-environmental performance.Joint FP3-FP4 work addressed productivity, environmental and social challenges of plantations and tree-crop commodities, with a global review on mixed timber plantations 1 , work on labor issues in oil palm plantation labor in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, and Ghana; and assessment on rubber traceability in Ivory Coast and a review of Rubber Agroforestry systems from 1994 to 2019 in West Kalimantan province, Indonesia 2 .As part of evaluating the effectiveness of approaches to sustainable supply, work was completed on public and private sustainability standards. FTA assessed the role of sustainable cocoa certification in Cameroon on the profit of small-scale producers; the sensitivity of national consumers to certified chocolate; and the operational costs of cocoa traceability systems. These documents fed the political dialogue between EU and Cameroon in November 2021 on sustainable and deforestation-free cocoa. In Burkina Faso work on the governance of shea value chains fed into the development of local action plans to sustainably manage shea parklands as part of the stateapproved forest management units. A policy brief on rubber and climate change was prepared with IRSG, IRRDB and CIRAD, building upon the workshop coorganized with IRSG in 2020.FP4 made significant progress in 2021. FP4 delivered a special issue on Social Ecology, Climate Resilience and Sustainability in the Tropics in the Sustainability Journal featuring 11 articles covering the intersections between restoration, climate and other ecosystem services. FP4 aslo published a book on Tree Commodities and Green economies in Africa with 30 chapters covering the production, economic and environmental dynamics of key tree commodities in Africa including chiefly, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, cashew nuts, timber and others. Various noteworthy articles that have made important contributions to global discourses were published. These include an article on six modes of co-production for sustainability published in Nature Sustainability and another on hot topics in the governance of forests and natural resources in Forest Policy and Economics. In terms of Impact, 51 000 trees were integrated into community forests and farms in the Gambia, involving 1100 farmers and community members and covering 1369 ha of community forests and 610 ha of farmland. In Indonesia 1474 Ha of land were conserved in the Pasuruan District. At policy level, through work with the Ministry of Environment in Sri Lanka FP4 contributed to the development of a Country Programme, a Manual of procedures and Stakeholder Engagement, a manual of procedures for project development and access to finance from the Green Climate Fund.FP5 research advanced on climate change mitigation efforts (FTA Priority 5 NDCs) under GCS-REDD+, in Brazil, Cameroon, DR Congo, Indonesia, Peru, and Vietnam (together covering 55% of global tropical forest area), and globally. FP5 worked on REDD+ finance, transparent monitoring, Article 6 of the Paris agreement and Transformational Change. FP5 advanced on adaptation objectives (Priority 8), above all in the Gambia and across other African countries, with training and scaling moving forward, and the adoption of the Banjul Multisectoral Integrated Livestock Management Resolution on transhumance. Under Priority 6 (bioenergy) FP5 developed, piloted and implemented biofuel crops in countries/regions as diverse as Indonesia, Kenya and the Balkans, and worked on bamboo charcoal in Ghana. FTA's peatland work (Priority 7) has made policy progress possible in Peru, protecting this important biome. The impact of many of these efforts has been documented in CIFOR \"Stories of Change\" for jurisdictional REDD+ and wetland MRV in Indonesia, for PFES in Vietnam and comanagement of protected areas in Peru. The Transformative Partnership Platform on Circular Bioeconomy establishes 'overlooked' pathways to emission reduction. An Engagement Landscape on Green Just Transformation in the Western Balkans was established as a result of FTA's engagement in the region since 2020.In 2020, FTA started a program-wide COVID-19 rapid research response, partially funded by the efficiency gains. This included two dimensions. First a significant contribution to the CGIAR COVID-19 hub, in the four working groups of the hub, and with the Director of FTA also being coordinator of the working group on \"Building back better\" of the hub. Second, FTA launched a set of 12 covid-19 impact studies. FTA's COVID 19 Rapid Research Response aimed at understanding the impacts of the current crisis and underlying, vulnerabilities, and drawing lessons from our research on previous shocks and crisis, to propose adapted solutions, both to (i) address the original risks of such pandemic: zoonosis, interface with wildlife, wildlife trade and markets, and (ii) build resilience of livelihoods, landscapes, value chains to any type of crisis, of similar or different origin, to contribute to \"Build back better\". FTA organized two seminars, one on 6 September 2021 showcasing the results of the FTA studies as part of the FTA Rapid Research Response, the other one on 17 December 2021 showcasing the results of the \"Build back better\" working group of the COVID-19 hub.The 12 FTA Rapid response studies are available on the FTA web. They concerned:• Woodfuel value chains and their actors in DRC 3• Shea value chains in Burkina Faso (Wardell et al. 2021).• Forestry enterprises in Cameroon,• Natural rubber value chains in Indonesia,• Smallholder agroforestry farmers in Honduras,• Short supply chains of agroforestry products in Nicaragua and Costa Rica,• Impacts on a large-scale land restoration initiative in India,• Food security in West Papua,• Coffee and potato farmers in Peru • Indigenous peoples' women in Vietnam,• Wildlife farms in Vietnam,• An overall synthesis study on COVID-19 and agroecosystem Resilience.FTA's involvement in the COVID-hub is not reported here but further detailed in the COVID-hub annual report.In addition, FTA contributed in 2021 to the elaboration of the 2022 FAO's State of the Worlds Forest (SOFO), in particular to the focus on green recovery plans and programmes and their impact.As part of the one health agenda, the interactions between trees and zoonotic disease vectors at forest-to-agriculture interfaces have been identified as an area of future work in the context of diversity breeding (Graudal et al. 2022), as well as the role of foodtree-crop portfolios for resilient food systems that best support communities' nutrition and health.A program-wide COVID-19 rapid research response, described in detail in section 1.2.2 was an expansion of FTA workplan. The work was funded by redirection of field resources and deliverables blocked because of COVID-19 pandemic. This work resulted in a set of 12 COVID-19 impact studies.FP3 in Priority 18 on enabling sustainable commodity supply chains expanded collaboration with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to include an additional focus on how the new Conversion Remedy Procedure could also be applied to a remedy framework, which could be applied to the FSC Policy of Association. Under Priority 17 on innovating finance for sustainable landscapes, initiatives were expanded to link farmers, SMEs and communities to financial institutions and impact investors building on the analysis of the case studies (Green Finance for Sustainable Landscapes, and Green Finance for SMEs).FP5 expanded on its work to develop forest-based bioeconomy activities and concepts in its eponymous TPP further, e.g. by publishing new, important analytical papers on social sustainability and social inclusion and holding an event on social inclusion in the bioeconomy at GLF in November. FP5 pilot plantation for the proof of concept of shortrotation biomass plantations, originally targeting only Serbia, was successfully expanded to Bosnia upon interest from authorities in that country, and in both countries, the large state-owned energy and mining enterprises are on their own scaling up biomass plantations as a part of the pathway to a green transition in the traditionally coal-based energy sectors in the Western Balkans, a region which has become an Engagement Landscape for CIFOR-ICRAF.Due to final funding being less than expected, with a FTA 2021 finplan target set at 90% its original value decided in 2019 by the CGIAR System council as per the 2019-2021 plans, FTA did not program the third-tier (T3) part of its 2021 workplan. For the record, FTA contingency planning scheme splits the W1/W2 income into three tiers of decreased probability of funding and T3 activities are, at the moment of elaborating the POWB, those of the least probability of funding. It was indicated to partners already at the beginning of 2021 that the probability of T3 funding was very low, hence these were not to be programmed. . The Program has activities-based workplans, therefore, we can provide on demand a complete list of all T3 \"cut back\" activities, and provide some examples below:FP1: A strategy paper on Trees, Landscapes and Human Health.FP2: Study on performance of market-based agroforestry options in Vietnam as well as addressing policy implementation gaps.FP3: An article on alternative governance regimes for sustainable cocoa.FP4: A policy brief on the potential of Amazonian forests to produce timber on the long term.FP5: A workshop on bioenergy and landscape restoration.Due to COVID-19 FPs were forced to make a few changes to the workplan by delaying highly fieldwork dependent and travel related deliverables in early parts of the year. FTA also turned to extensive reviews and consultations instead of workshops for validation of key policy documents in Sri Lanka and also a framework for measuring progress on global adaptation goal in agroforestry. New work taken up in lieu of some of these changes is the development of a policy brief on the \"missing middle' -i.e. meso level actors and capacity in the sphere of restoration. A series of papers were also done in lieu of conference events on tree commodities in Africa and the ESP Africa events that were postponed due to COVID.Gender integration and research have continued to occupy a central place in the FTA portfolio. Efforts in 2021 focused on the creation and dissemination of legacy products with key partners and constituencies, drawing on years of FTA research:• A chapter in the FTA Highlights book offered a retrospective on 10 years of FTA gender research, summarizing key FTA findings and outcomes in the area of gender equality and social inclusion. FTA has contributed to a growing body of evidence on the power of gender transformative approaches to catalyse change in gender relations. This evidence has encouraged FTA scientists to apply these approaches in nearly all their gender research and gender integration work to increase the CRP's influence on gender equality. For example:• A new FTA and IFAD-funded project on gender-transformative approaches to strengthen women's land and productive resource rights set the stage for reviews of the systemic barriers women face in relation to resource tenure in six countries, including social norms that discriminate against their ownership and inheritance of land. • Regreening Africa project partners are planning to adopt gender transformative approaches in their own projects and activities, beyond the scope of the project. The experience will be shared through a webinar with teams from seven sub-Saharan countries participating in the project.• A new project promoting nature-based solutions for land in Kenya, funded by the UK Pact Green Recovery Challenge Fund, is proposing the co-development of gender transformative approaches to support households in selecting restoration options while fostering collaboration and equitable benefit sharing. This builds on recent research highlighting the need for approaches that engage entire households in restoration decision-making and implementation.The departure of one of the members of the FTA Gender Team mid-year was an important loss to FTA. His position was not re-filled.The non-eligibility of CIFOR-ICRAF scientists to receive funding from the CGIAR GENDER Platform because the centers are not joining the OneCGIAR represented a lost opportunity to obtain co-funding for gender-specific research.Ongoing challenges to travel and face-to-face meetings as a result of the pandemic have resulted in the cancellation of fieldwork plans and certain events (e.g. the World Forestry Congress) where dissemination of FTA gender products had been planned.FTA takes an intersectional approach to research to examine how gender and other social relations interact and co-create discrimination or privilege.Important FTA work on social inclusion in 2021 included:• A double special issue published in Ecological Restoration, co-guest edited with PIM and WLE, demonstrated the importance of social inclusion issues and offered ways forward for equitable restoration. • An article drawing from the 11 special issue papers, co-authored by 47 of the special issue contributors, provided 10 actionable people-centered rules to decision-makers and practitioners for sustainable and equitable restoration.• A comparative study demonstrated the effects of young men's rural outmigration on rural households and production systems, including intra-household decision-making, labour allocation, and shifts in farming patterns. • A retrospective chapter for the FTA Highlights book highlighted FTA's contribution to youth studies over the past decade. • A review paper provided a conceptual framework to analyse different approaches to enhance social inclusion in multistakeholder forums and resource governance processes, with emphasis on exclusions produced at the intersection of ethnicity and age.• FTA held an event on social inclusion in the bioeconomy at GLF in November 2021, with a background paper addressing youth aspects in the bioeconomy. During the final FTA Science Event held on 9 December 2021, it was noted that future CapDev activities will need to i. strengthen engagements with global and regional Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives and business fora to provide knowledge products and services; ii. enable national and sub-national jurisdictions in the global South, in partnership with international NGOs, to collaborate in the generation and use of research results and piloting of solutions, and co-developing tools and materials for up-scaling; and iii. promote Capacity Development of local NGOs and CSOs to experiment with research-based solutions, by learning from experience and refining experiences to test at the larger landscape scale.FP1's African Climate Change Atlas is now available for 127 tree species. CIFOR-ICRAF's Tree Genebank distributes locally adapted tree planting material, and the African Orphan Crops Consortium is developing genomics, also improving tree adaptation to climate change.FP3 authored reviews (in press) on sustainability of biomass, bioenergy and biomaterials, and the role of tree plantations in renewable energy production and land restoration. Biofuel production is now scalable: climate smart agroforestry on degraded land is starting in Indonesia (remote islands) and the Western Balkans.In the Gambia, Ecosystems-Based Adaptation protocols developed for 250 farms and 50 community forests went into implementation by FP4; in Benin, seven EbA-sensitive community forest management plans were participatorily developed. FP4 scientists co-edited a Special Issue of Sustainability on resilience and EbA.In FP5, the Global Comparative Study of REDD+ was extended for another 3 years. Four \"Stories of Change\" document policy impact in Indonesia (here and here), Vietnam and Peru. Vietnam's MARD adopted FTA recommendation to include incentives for policymakers and the private sector in the national programme to plant 1 billion trees till 2025.A participative vulnerability and adaptation assessment led to climate action priority plans in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and West Northern Ghana. Kenya's Bioenergy Strategy; a practical guide for improving charcoal production; capacity development on sustainable charcoal for over 380 charcoal producers-through training of trainers and peer to peer outreach-and community action plans for sustainable woodfuel (charcoal and firewood) in two counties in Kenya were enabled by FTA.The Transformative Partnership Platform on Circular Bioeconomy establishes 'overlooked' pathways to emission reduction. An Engagement Landscape on Green Just Transformation in the Western Balkans was established as result of our engagement in the region since 2020.The ISC, with the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Lead Center CIFOR are the two key components of the governance of FTA. CIFOR BoT is now a Common Board with ICRAF BoT.There has been no change in program management and governance in 2021.The Independent Steering Committee and the Management Team of FTA operated until 31-12-2021.In June, FTA launched together with key partners the Agroecology Transformative Partnership Platform (TPP) during the annual plenary of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS48). As one of the funding partners, FTA also facilitated the TPP's Policies for Agroecology event on July 15, which brought together 20 speakers and more than 570 participants from over 50 countries to discuss the policy gaps standing in the way of agroecological transitions that work with nature.FTA reinforced its ties with the Chinese Academy on Forestry and Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Kunming Institute of Botany, in organizing a major global conference in an innovative « hybrid » format (virtual+physical). The FTA Kunming Conference 2021 brought together almost 400 participants to look at concrete options to explore the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in enhancing diverse and sustainable landscapes, to a green circular economy and to healthy, diversified diets, and making recommendations for the agenda on biodiversity and the upcoming CBD COP 15.The Priority on innovating finance for sustainable landscapes expanded its partnerships in collaboration with the UNEP Finance Initiative and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests led by the FAO. Based on this collaboration, a panel session was successfully completed at the November 2021 Global Landscapes Forum Conference on Climate: Forests, Food, Finance -Frontiers of Change.FTA collaborated with IUCN on Trees on Farms for Biodiversity partnership. Trees on Farms for Biodiversity is a joint programme that supports agriculture and livelihoods through conservation by incorporating trees in managed and productive ecosystems to generate both ecological and societal benefits. Trees on Farms for Biodiversity (TonF) concluded three workshops in April and May 2021, with the five host countries -Rwanda, Indonesia, Peru, Honduras and Uganda -to generate policy and science exchanges and share new ideas for increased impact and implementation. ICRAF implements the project globally with activities in five countries and also directly manages it in Uganda, Rwanda and Peru. CIFOR is the lead in Indonesia, supported by Tanjungpura University, Pontianak. CATIE leads in Honduras. The International Union for Conservation of Nature provides knowledge management and outreach expertise.FTA Priority 18 on enabling sustainable commodity supply chains expanded collaboration with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in 2021 to include an additional focus on how the new Conversion Remedy Procedure could also be applied to a remedy framework, which could be applied to the FSC Policy of Association.FTA worked with Ministries of Environment (Sri Lanka), Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change (Gambia) and Ministry of Environment and Livelihood (Benin), and with provincial governments and associations in these countries, on various policy level issues ranging from cross-sectoral collaboration, developing manuals, programme priorities and green growth plans. FTA also engaged with the United Nations Environment Programme on EbA in various countries.FTA together with E3 International led the Sustainable Land, Livelihoods, and Energy Initiative (SLLEI) for Serbia. SLLEI seeks to achieve large-scale land restoration and the creation of 'green' jobs in support of Serbia's green and just transition from coal to renewable energy sources (RES). Toward this end, SLLEI aims at establishing shortrotation plantations (SRPs) of fast-growing tree species (willow, poplar, black locust) to produce woody biomass for energy on about 75,000 ha of abandoned and degraded land, along with agroforestry borders (AFBs) and permanent tree areas (PTAs). This initiative contributes to the Green Agenda of the Western Balkans with an integrated approach spanning sustainable energy production, improvement of air quality, biodiversity restoration, and economic and livelihoods development, with the potential to be scaled to Bosnia & Herzegovina and the Western Balkans as a whole.FTA also collaborated with FAO on the preparation of the State of the Worlds Forest (SOFO) to be published at the World Forestry Congress in mid 2022.Gender Team collaborated with the CBD preparing some guidance on gender and inclusion to support the finalization of the Gender Plan of Action by COP 15, and its implementation in the coming years.Finally, FTA initiated in 2021 an innovative partnership with Google Arts & Culture, that features the main elements of the legacy of the program, its action and impact, through 8 online exhibits.FTA co-organized and supported a workshop on Measuring the Impact of Integrated Systems Research, with PIM and WLE. The workshop focused on tacking stock of recent experiences and reviewing existing and new tools and approaches with the potential to overcome challenges faced when assessing the impact of integrated systems research.FTA participated significantly in the COVID-19 hub (see section 1.2.2.2 on Covid). The activities are reported under the COVID-19 hub.FTA collaborated with the Gene Bank Platform, contributing knowledge that supports diversification of food systems through integrating nutrient rich orphan crops into current food systems with a range of outputs: Characterization of genotypes and phenotypes, and cultivar development of trees and crops, including African Orphan Crops with enhancement using genomics and business model development focusing on food trees but also including other functional uses.FTA Gender team in partnership with the Gender platform developed training modules supporting the Gender and Inclusion in Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) e-learning course. The course aims to build the capacities and understanding of diverse stakeholders on the gender and FLR nexus and address inequalities for more equitable and sustainable FLR.FTA produced together with PIM a global review of agroecologically conducive policies. It was then discussed in a webinar for which >1600 people registered. FTA MELIA led the preparation of the FTA Highlight on Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Impact Assessment (FTA Highlights of a Decade No. 17) 6 .Finally, in 2021, FTA ISC and Management Team elaborated a response to the independent review of the CRP undertaken by the CGIAR CAS in 2020.Due to the continued COVID-crisis, and lockdown restrictions, all meetings have been held virtually, and there were also restrictions to field activities. FTA adapted proactively its workplan and work modalities, with electronic communication tools to hold meetings and workshops, even at the community level, and intensifying desk work to compensate some of the impossible field work. Prior to this, in FTA, there was already a well-established culture and practice of virtual meetings, with 90% of the management and half of ISC meetings being held virtually in pre-COVID times. In other instances, when originally foreseen activities and outputs were compromised, these were replaced by activities and outputs contributing to the same outcomes and within the same operational priorities. Therefore, there was no impact of COVID-19 on the delivery for FTA.In its closing year of operation as a CGIAR CRP, FTA set-up three mechanisms to manage financial and operational risks.• First the continuation of contingency planning mechanism for W1-2 funds, now well established. Under this mechanism, the 2021 POWB was split into three tiers of decreased probability of funding, that are progressively implemented along the year, as uncertainties on actual funding resolves. This allowed FTA to efficiently manage disbursements and partners to appropriately plan and adjust execution of the workplans along the year. Tier 3 was removed from the workplan and budget as it represented the part above the 90% finplan funding target from the SMO. This mechanism has been praised and cited as a model by the independent external review. • Second, the non-delivery risk of FTA partners is managed by a quarterly traffic light output monitoring system overseen by the MSU and the MT, enabling for course-corrections and adaptive management. This enables program management to follow delivery very closely, and in case of delays to put corrective measures in place. In 2021, this enabled to perform some workplan adjustments on course of the year because of COVID, with such revisions endorsed by the management team, ISC and BoT. As a result of this adaptive management, the full funded workplan was delivered. In some instances -all documented-FTA management accepted a draft deliverable for discharge of a final product, for instance when a paper was submitted to a journal but was not yet officially published.• Third, a new \"safe landing\" mechanism was put in place to track proper financial execution and expenditures of partners on a monthly basis, to make sure the workplan will be fully spent. This mechanism, with results transparently reviewed each month by the FTA management team, enabled to make sure that there is proper execution and no need (or a very limited need) to return any funds to the CGIAR, to comply with the low accrual ceiling allowed into 2022.Institutional risks (as per the CGIAR Risk Management Guidelines) and their management falls under the remit of FTA partners.W1-2 funded work result from (i) principles and criteria for prioritization agreed upon by the management team and the ISC, (ii) strategic orientations considering end-ofprogram objectives discussed with the ISC, (iii) collective analysis by the MT of draft work plans submitted by FPs, and (iv) consideration of past delivery performance.FTA is one of the few CRPs with activity/deliverable-level specification for all W1-2 funded research. This enhances accountability, delivery, performance monitoring, and management effectiveness. The activities receiving W1-2 funding are summarized in a traffic light report available on request.In FTA, W1-2 funds prioritize work that leads to the generation of IPGs, including those that can link up work on technological, social and institutional innovations to advice on a better enabling and policy environment at national and international level, to promote uptake and impact.In 2021, a part of W1-W2 was used to support its COVID-19 Rapid research response; to bring research results in a synthetic way to supporting international bodies and conventions (example: UNFCCC, FAO, and CBD through the partnership with the Chinese Academy on Forestry with a major (hybrid) international conference in Kunming); to engage with end-users towards the uptake of past research (that was the logic of the final year of the 3-yr workplans 2019-2021 for the operational priorities); and to support the synthesis for the impact and legacy of FTA (FTA integrative impact studies, FTA highlights).In 2021, as in previous years the innovative FTA contingency planning mechanism did help all partners to manage irregular W1-W2 cash flows and ex-ante uncertainty in W1-W2 funding. The FTA 2021 POWB was based on a funding level as per the 3-yr CGIAR finplans 2019-2021 (see FTA POWB 2021), in line with the CGIAR funding target of USD 9,440,000 for FTA, this amount being 90% of the original 2021 funding target set the System Council. During the year, given the information on W1W2 funding targets made regularly available from the CGIAR System Management Office (SMO) and published in the CGIAR Dashboard, the Management Team of FTA gave instructions to partners to engage in budget proposed. FTA Management Team, ISC and Lead Center has been monitoring progress on a monthly basis on 2021 delivery of W1W2 funded deliverables, and on related spending of all partners, also to avoid situations of overspending or underspending. This enabled to effective and adaptive management, and enabled to finish 2021 with a full programmatic delivery and financial execution in line with the W1W2 funding targets for FTA. have additional means to exit poverty or have increased resilience to impoverishment as a result of FTA's contributions. This estimate includes people with increased access to inputs for tree-and agroforestry-based production; people who adopted enhanced management or diversified production practices to increase yields; people who adopted low-cost processing techniques and value-addition; people with enhanced access to formal markets and/or business and marketing skills. We project that if all individuals reached by FTA adopt FTA-promoted options and technologies into their practice, in addition to the effective implementation of FTA-influenced policies, strategies, and action plans, 19m people (5.       In 2021, FTA completed a set of studies focused on documenting progress of the program's contribution in addressing key global challenges. 7 The results of these studies provided an opportunity to carry out and end of program outcome assessment.Using the four end-of-program outcomes laid out in FTA's Phase II proposal (FTA, 2016) as a basis for the assessment, the MELIA team looked at the extent to which FTA's intended contributions were realized through projects conducted across the five thematic challenges. While the challenges were identified and framed for the purpose of this evaluation and were not conceptualized at the time when FTA's end-of-program outcomes were decided in 2016, the end-of-program outcomes were considered useful target indicators to assess against. 8 The end-of-program outcomes qualify what changes should be observable at this point in time and are expected to lead to potential impacts. The results of the assessment are included in Table 14 below and can be summarized as follows.FTA exceeded its first end-of-program outcome target, contributing to over 475 policies, strategies, frameworks, guidelines, action plans, development plans, land use plans, agreements, and governance arrangements at multiple levels (i.e., international, regional, national, sub-national) to address deforestation and protect forested lands, support restoration and conservation of ecosystem services, govern more sustainable landscape management, reduce poverty and support forest and agroforestry-based value chains, and enhance food security and nutrition across 34 countries. The majority of FTA's policy influence was achieved in Africa (>290 policies) and Asia (>160 policies). Some notable examples include contributions to:• The UNFCCC's strategy for wetland management • 25 national policies and strategies for REDD+ in 11 countries (Peru, Brazil, Ghana, DRC, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Philippines) • The integration of incentive schemes (e.g., PFES, RES) into 24 national and sub-national policies, directives, protocols, governance arrangements, and/or land use plans in 4 countries (Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, China)• >100 community action plans, sub-catchment plans, and national policies for dryland management in 5 countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso) • National and sub-national policies for fire and haze prevention (Indonesia) • Green Growth Action Plan (Vietnam) • Revised forest policy, regulations for legal timber, and timber sector industrialization plan (Cameroon) • National strategies for bamboo market development and restoration of degraded land in 4 countries (Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda) • The integration of agroforestry in cross-sectoral national, sub-national, and local policies and strategies for livelihoods and trade in 7 countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda, Vietnam) • 5 national agroforestry policies and strategies to support rural development and livelihoods in 4 countries (Ethiopia, Rwanda, India, Nepal) • 13 ASEAN policies, strategies, guidelines, and tools for agroforestry-based climate change management • 14 national forest laws, policies, and guidelines for agroforestry management in 8 ASEAN member states (Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Malaysia) • Agroforestry concession implementation (Peru) • Revised technical norms for community forest concession renewal (Guatemala) FTA researchers were able to channel research findings into policy processes through active participation in policy dialogues, technical working groups, and policy development and implementation processes. FTA's technical inputs, data, and evidence-based recommendations were valuable contributions to support contextappropriate decision-making, develop new policies, and reform or revise existing governance mechanisms. International bodies and government actors adopted FTA tools (e.g., step-wise approach, MMRV, LUWES, vegetationmap4africa, integrated watershed management approach, Borneo/Papua Atlases, etc.) to guide decisionmaking and monitoring practices to safeguard forest and tree diversity and manage diverse landscapes. In addition, many FTA researchers were invited to join or were involved in upwards of 20 working groups, task forces, and/or governance platforms. FTA also helped to establish and facilitate many of these platforms to enhance governance and strengthen institutions. FTA also played a crucial role in convening government staff and other diverse stakeholder groups in workshops, multistakeholder fora, and South-South exchanges to share knowledge and research findings, co-generate solutions and recommendations, and build coalitions and partnerships. The diverse training FTA provided to policy-makers and governments staff strengthened institutional capacities for MMRV and carbon accounting, tenure reform, integrated landscape planning, policy implementation, and forest monitoring, among others. community forestry arrangements, SFM, tree-planting for restoration, agroforestry, timber legality, and NTFPs via different public outreach strategies. Collectively, these outreach strategies, which included educational programmes in schools, learning centres, and public campaigns reached over 400,000 students, community members, and/or the general public to share knowledge and build awareness.At least 40 million smallholders & other users access more productive tree planting material & uptake higher performing, context appropriate & inclusive AF & small-scale forestry management. options FTA did not meet yet its fourth end-of-program outcome through the efforts addressing the five challenges. Evidence indicates that at least 2,970,672 people and/or households across 30 countries are better equipped to access, take up, and apply more productive tree-planting material and/or higher performing context-appropriate agroforestry and other landscape management practices as a result of FTA's training and engagements. The majority of this capacity-building was concentrated in Africa (1.2 million people/households) and Asia (1.75 million people/households). Projects with participatory and experiential learning activities, tailored knowledge-sharing and engagement, and dedicated capacity-building for communities increased the likelihood for adoption and sustainable practice change. Pilots, FDT, and EL were particularly effective means to support community learning; showcase the viability of different technologies, landscape approaches, as well as management and practice options that could be applied to the local context; build the necessary skills or support the conditions needed for adoption and uptake by farmers and producers. In some cases, FTA's training served to equip farmers for farmer-to-farmer extension or spread their learning and transfer their skills to other farmers or producers. Ongoing support and commitment of NGO partners in the target communities were key, and increased the potential for scaling in nearby communities and other regions. While these strategies worked well, overall, FTA fell well below its intended target of 40 million people. Many of the pilots, FDT, and EL were implemented on a small-scale (e.g., several 10 ha plots in Cameroon and the DRC for SFM; six 50 ha plots in Vietnam for son tra), which were insufficient to broaden reach for uptake of FTA's technologies or innovations into the millions. While the challenge-level reports present the potential for future uptake and scaling of FTA's contributions, these potentials have not been realized by the end of the program. There were some success stories, such as the larger-scale Drylands Development Programme implemented across Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso which reached and led to the adoption of locally-relevant technologies and practices in dryland areas by almost 220,000 people.  Global (1 private sector certification body)• Integration of gender considerations in RSPO Principles and Criteria (implications for all RSPO-certified companies) (Challenge 1, Challenge 3, Challenge 4)Latin America (1 company, 1 producer association, 1 private sector platform)• Trained 1 water supply company on ecosystem services and watershed management (Peru) (Challenge 3) • Adoption of live fences (TonF) in NAMA-Livestock Initiative by national livestock platform (Honduras) (Challenge 3) • Enhanced processing capacity of 1 producer association for macaúba value chain (Brazil) (Challenge 4)Africa (33 companies, 3,926 SMEs, >1,570 private sector actors)• Initiated engagement for public-private partnership for Yangambi Landscape; 2 investment funds interested to join (DRC) (Challenge 1, Challenge 3) • Established 1 business incubator for SFM (DRC) (Challenge 1, Challenge 3) • 4 public institutions and 4 construction companies commit to source legal timber supplies (DRC, Cameroon) (Challenge 1, Challenge 3) • 17 construction companies informed on legal timber supply (Cameroon) (Challenge 1, Challenge 3, Challenge 4) • 2 supply chain management companies monitor informal producers and traders in public traceability contracts (Cameroon) (Challenge 1, Challenge 3)• Established 34 CFEs (84 additional business cases ready for investment) equipped to selfmonitor (Cameroon) (Challenge 1, Challenge 3, Challenge 4) • 3 companies pilot business models and independent monitoring and traceability systems (Ghana) (Challenge 1, Challenge 3, Challenge 4) • Established 3 farmer/producer associations (DRC) (Challenge 3) • Supported formalization of 1,566 farmer groups (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia) (Challenge 2, Challenge 3, Challenge 4) • CBOs support equitable and sustainable bioenergy production (Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda) (Challenge 4) • SMEs diversify production, develop and improve industrial bioenergy value chains to benefit women and youth (Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda) (Challenge 4) • 120 households adopted SFM practices to comply with SVLK certification (Indonesia) (Challenge 4) • 90 households adopted tree farming post-project (Indonesia) (Challenge 4) • Enhanced capacities of 1,618 farmers in FMNR (Indonesia) (Challenge 2) • 90 smallholders participated in tree-farm learning groups to restore degraded land (Indonesia) (Challenge 2) • Enhanced capacities of 30,070 individuals for income generation through nurseries and agroforestry systems (Indonesia) (Challenge 4) • 636,972 people (52% women) participated in agroforestry and forestry systems and related enterprises to enhance incomes (Indonesia) (Challenge 4) To support national governments, extension services and private partners with the outcome of adopting cost-effective and equitable tree-planting material delivery approaches various outputs have been produced within the frame of the FTA priorities on Restoration and Tree Seed Delivery with emphasis on climate suitability. The high economic value of applying quality planting material was demonstrated in a costing study and a policy brief on quality seed, while several other papers on impact are still in process. A diagnostic tool for analysis of tree seed systems was developed in Latin America. Various effects of seed collection and exchange practices and tree planting practices on aspects of viability, spread of pests, growth performance and survival were documented in different studies. A systems approach to plant breeding was published in Trends in Plant Sciences backed by the publication of a series of practical tools including a climate change atlas and a species and seed source selection tool for Ethiopia; and the global tree knowledge platform and the resources for tree planting platform as entry points for enhancing the quality of tree planting, natural resources management and biodiversity conservation. New and updated support tools for the work have been provided for the Worldflora (for Global Tree Search and the Mammal Species Database) and AlleleShift (on allele frequencies and climate change and surface diagrams). Tree species distribution were mapped in support of China's integrated tree livestock-crop system; and a global study published on the top one hundred tree species for tropical tree planting. An array of technical reports on tree seed sources came out under PATSPO, and extension material on simple tree seed collection, and rural resource centres were also published. FP1 led the preparation of the FTA Highlight on Seed and Seedling Systems for Resilience and Productivity (FTA Highlights of a Decade No. 2) and made contributions to the highlights on restoration (No.4) as well as climate change adaptation (No. 12). Finally, important steps were taken towards the establishment of a transformative partnership platform (TPP) on transforming the quality of tree planting (TQTP).FP2 led six research priorities for each of which progress is summarised below.In the agroecology priority, the In the market-based agroforestry priority. Networked experiments across Andhra Pradesh demonstrated context specific performance of packages of agroecological practices already adopted by over 700,000 farm households, indicating no overall yield penalty in the first year of transition (which with lower input costs increases economic efficiency). It was also evident that comparative yield from agroecological transition compared to conventional agriculture was better in drier areas associated with water retention promoted by mulching. A synthesis of the suitability of a diverse range of agroforestry practices for contexts across Vietnam (including analysis of preferences due to ethnicity in the Northwest) was produced and made available both as a book and a spatially explicit database with an interactive map.In the livelihood trajectory assessment and modelling priority, analysis of performance of planting basins and tree planting, as climate resilient food security strategies across Kenya and Ethiopia revealed how context conditioned performance of both tree survival and contributions of planting basins to food security with ecological (aridity, soil type) and social (gender, labour availability) factors determining suitability of practices and informing their adaptation for specific contexts. Performance assessment with 1,743 farm households over three years showed that planting basins increased maize yields by up to 3.07 t/ha. Median extra days of food availability was 18, with 25% of farmers with more than 30 extra days. In the driest year use of basins reduced crop failure from 30% to 11% and adoption of large basins resulted in a median increase of 0.51 to 1.27 $/person/day across locations, with 50% by more than 1 $/person/day and 25% by more than 2 $/person/day. Modelling revealed that 216 medium sized basins would be required to achieve an extra month of food availability, and while some farmers maintained large numbers (over 2,000) the median was 49, indicating that many farmers were using basins as a food security safety net rather than to increase their overall productivity.In the farm-forest interface policy priority, a global review of agroecologically conducive policies was produced together with PIM and discussed in a webinar for which >1600 people registered. A policy brief for GIZ presented the hourglass procedure: a five step process that addresses climate change effects through promoting agroecological practices to achieve ecosystem-based adaptation in agricultural landscapes at scale. The white paper setting it out was presented and discussed at the Global Landscapes Forum on the sidelines of COP26 in Glasgow.In the diversified tree-crop commodity production priority, a synthesis of how to match cocoa rehabilitation and renovation options to contexts was published setting out how to facilitate rejuvenation of existing cocoa farms (rather than causing further deforestation by expanding agricultural area) and a tool to facilitate decisions by farmers and extension staff deployed across Latin America. A synthesis of coffee diversification options across Latin America was published together with progress in modelling impacts of age and pruning on yield of arabica coffee. Implications of smallholder livelihoods for scaling oil palm agroforestry in the Brazilian Eastern Amazon was produced alongside synthesis of recommendations for growth and nutrition of young oil palm in agroforestry contexts.In the silvopastoral systems priority. A review of carbon capture in silvopastoral systems in Latin America was produced alongside context-specific policy recommendations for bamboo-based silvopasture in Colombia. Control of otherwise free grazing livestock was identified as a crucial governance mechanism at both national level (in respect of seasonal migration of animals) and village level (in respect of local control of livestock movement) in Ethiopia.Activities in 2021 built on the knowledge base created from previous primary data collection of more than 50 businesses in oil palm, cocoa, tea, coffee, sugarcane, avocado, and timber sectors, and surveys of 1,450 inclusive business participants of 12 agribusiness models in Peru, Ghana and Tanzania. The knowledge base was further disseminated and results repackaged, as well as engagement broadened with business, civil and state actors. This involved establishing an inclusive and sustainable business online platform that serves as a vehicle for future dissemination and engagement and consolidation, and give visibility to major inclusive business knowledge, innovations and national and international champions. With these results business platforms, major bilateral and multilateral donors, businesses, and service providers in selected global commodity value chains have the resources to develop and implement business models that are more inclusive, gender-responsive, economically viable and environmentally sustainable. The work from P16 was used as a basis for developing a strategy to facilitate business model innovation and business ecosystem development -articulated in a 100+ page document -that enabled P16 and partners to attract 9.7 million USD in funding for the next 3 years. This will see it continue the P16 legacy beyond FTA, putting the ideas generated into practice. This will involve working with 22 agribusinesses, ASEAN and the governments of Myanmar, Laos, Ethiopia, Ghana and Mozambique to help scale more transformative business initiatives in agriculture and forestry. Some of these approaches are also featured in scientific products conceptualizing the inclusive business concept, key inclusive business components and how inclusive businesses can contribute to food systems transformation. These also recently featured in an interview for the Business Call to Action magazine and will soon be incorporated in the Inclusive Business Action Network strategy document supporting the ASEAN Inclusive Business Framework.In 2021 activities strengthened influence on financial institutions to adopt environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria when lending to timber, trees and select agricultural crops. Work continued to improve the understanding of financing landscape initiatives, approaches and modes of operations, and key organizations and networks engaging on inclusive landscape financing. Efforts included additional case studies on risk management and barriers to innovative finance. Outreach on results involved participation in international forums and sponsoring an international workshop on risk management and innovative finance strategies. This work also significantly contributed to consultations by the Dutch ministry of agriculture, nature and food security on the implementation of the international component of their forest strategy, drawing attention to the need for inclusiveness in forest related investments, and it provided contributions to the FAO State of the World Forests publication for 2022. Two new initiatives to link farmers, SMEs and communities to financial institutions and impact investors build on the analysis of the case studies (Green Finance for Sustainable Landscapes, and Green Finance for SMEs). Based on this work, a panel session was successfully completed at the November 2021 Global Landscapes Forum Conference on Climate: Forests, Food, Finance -Frontiers of Change, during which an investment case was discussed for inclusive food system transformation. A whitepaper was prepared on how international finance can better meet local needs and aspirations. These efforts provide support to financial service providers lending to timber, tree and agricultural crops in the targeted jurisdictional landscapes to adopt ESG criteria.Significant progress was made at sites in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Indonesia to upscale and adapt the arrangements and initiatives to other jurisdictions of the six selected countries where FTA has been working. The team participated in international seminars to diffuse the results and approaches to Jurisdictional performance monitoring systems and certification. The efforts helped to demonstrate that private sustainability initiatives, in conjunction with supportive public policy, can foster improved management and business practices with enhanced socioenvironmental performance.The priority on Plantations and tree-crop commodities, undertaken in collaboration with FP4, addressed productivity, environmental and social challenges faced by timber and high-value tree-crop plantations. Building on the assessment of the synthesis papers drafted in 2019 on timber, oil palm and rubber plantations, the priority analysed approaches to manage synergies and trade-offs between plantation productivity, socio-economic and environmental outcomes in selected \"hotspots\" and landscapes. For timber plantations in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America, the landscape impact assessment reports were completed. For oil palm plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, and Ghana, 7 MSc internships were underway to evaluate how companies face labour shortages and the synergies and impacts of combined oil palm plantations and other land uses. For rubber plantations, the Rubberway system was evaluated in its effectiveness to map sustainability practices in the supply chain of natural rubber in Ivory Coast. Rubber Agroforestry systems evolution was also reviewed from 1994 to 2019 in West Kalimantan province, Indonesia. CIRAD and CIFOR were regular contributors to GPSNR working groups on Capacity Building, and Strategy and Objectives, whose programs of work will be presented for approval at the GPSNR General Assembly in December 2021. The work of the Priority supports the outcome that the commodities be produced under internationally recognized sustainability and legality standards, frameworks or commitments in producing countries.Work was completed on public and private sustainability standards in Cameroon for timber and for cocoa in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. In Cameroon, an article was completed on the governance of cocoa certification schemes. As well, the impact was assessed of the FLEGT process on the domestic demands for legal timber.Two media campaigns at national scale promoted timber and chocolate with sustainable origin. For the work in Côte d'Ivoire a report was completed on the governance of the legality of cocoa production by comparing the \"private certification\" approach and the creation of gazetted agroforests. As well, a scientific article was prepared on the production of legal and sustainable cocoa around the Bossematie forest. Also on certification, FP3 continued work in the FSC global working group on conversion policy for remedying past conversion. The second version of the remedy procedure successfully underwent public consultation in July 2021 and is expected to be endorsed at the General Assembly in 2022. For the work in Burkina Faso two briefs promoted the continuity and change in governance of shea value chains and developing local action plans to sustainably manage shea parklands as an integral part of state-approved forest management units (chantiers d'aménagement).The expected outcome of the combined work was that supplies of the commodities are produced under internationally recognized sustainability and legality standards, frameworks or commitments in producing countries. In terms of tree commodities (priority 2) a set of very useful publications were done. A book was also published on Tree Commodities and Green economies in Africa with 30 chapters covering the production, economic and environmental dynamics of key tree commodities in Africa including chiefly, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, cashew nuts, timber and others. The book focuses on a number of key pathways for enhancing the contributions of tree commodities to green growth in Africa,-production quality enhancement through diversification and sustainable production, value addition through processing and marketing, strengthening linkages to industries such a bioenergy and others; and development of coherent policies and incentives. Other noteworthy publications include an overview of the potential impacts of interventions on diverse coffee agroforestry system to gender dynamics in Pagar Alam District, South Sumatra; A Review of the Trade-Offs across Different Cocoa Production Systems in Ghana; and Oil Palm Contract Farming in Brazil: Labour Constraints and Inclusivity Challenges.Within the nutrition and food security priority (priority 3), the special issue on Impacts of Tropical Landscape Change on Human Diet and Local Food Systems was finalized with an editorial and a few more articles. The team also published an important brief on the Contribution of forests and trees to food security and nutrition. Further work was done in Indonesia focusing on dietary diversity and linking food, nutrition and the environment. In Zambia research focused on the collection and consumption of wild forest fruits. Some work was also done on understanding the roles of and how to mainstream neglected, underutilized and \"orphan\" trees and crops into the food system.In the area of landscape governance (priority 9) emphasis has been on policy support and subnational level landscape governance mechanisms. We supported the development of strategies at national level in Sri Lanka for accessing Green Climate Finance. Through work with the Ministry of Environment in Sri Lanka we contributed to the development of a Country Programme, a manual of procedures and a Stakeholder Engagement, a manual of procedures for project development and access to finance from the Green Climate Fund. As part of the same GCF Readiness project, we also delivered technical support and capacity building towards accreditation of five potential direct access entities within the GCF. At sub-national level, the programme helped deliver three green growth strategies for Sabaragamuwa and Uwa provinces in Sri Lanka. The programme also led and contributed to two important articles published on hot topics in the governance of forests and natural resources in Forest Policy and Economics and another on six modes of co-production for sustainability published in Nature Sustainability, with both bringing important new dimensions to global governance discourses. An important technical guide on Forest tenure pathways to gender equality was also published.For Sentinel Landscapes work (priority 22) a synthesis report on the stocktake from three sentinel landscapes was also completed, teasing out lessons related to positive co-location of projects triggered by FTA sentinel landscape approach. Secondly, an exploratory study report on a potential portfolio approach to sentinel and learning landscapes post FTA was also done. It lays out a process for advancing sentinel landscapes via a portfolio management approach; the approach advocates decisionmaking that is based on an analysis of a project portfolio in a given landscapes and how to leverage the portfolio in advancing sustainable landscapes and livelihoods.exploring community-based monitoring in this context. Our work in Peru has contributed to Peru's national Forest Reference Emission Levels (FREL) reported to the UNFCCC, and to the formal recognition of peatlands in Amazonia and their environmental importance and climate change mitigation potential. Our work has also contributed to the refinement of Indonesia's FREL, to be submitted in 2022 to the UNFCCC. Vietnam's MARD adopted FTA recommendation to include incentives for policymakers and the private sector in the national programme to plant 1 billion trees till 2025. Four \"Stories of Change\" document policy impact in Indonesia, Vietnam and Peru.FP5 work in The Gambia has led to The Banjul Multisectoral Integrated Livestock Management Resolution being adopted, attempting to solve the transhumance problem in the country. A participative vulnerability and adaptation assessment led to climate action priority plans in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and West Northern Ghana. Kenya's Bioenergy Strategy; a practical guide for improving charcoal production; capacity development on sustainable charcoal for over 380 charcoal producersthrough training of trainers and peer to peer outreach-and community action plans for sustainable woodfuel (charcoal and firewood) in two counties in Kenya, where we also supported application to the National Treasury for exception or zero rating of value added tax (VAT) for sustainable fuel briquettes, biogas and bioethanol. Our adaptation work in Indonesia has contributed to establishing the Strategic Coordination Team for Wetlands Management to achieve Sustainable Development Goals and Low Carbon Development in Indonesia.The Transformative Partnership Platform on Circular Bioeconomy establishes 'overlooked' pathways to emission reduction. An Engagement Landscape on Green Just Transformation in the Western Balkans was established as result of our engagement in the region since 2020.Activities in FP5 mainly address SLO4, sustainable management of natural resources. Improved mitigation policies based on full implementation -by national policy partners -of GCS REDD+ recommendations in Brazil, Cameroon, DR Congo, Indonesia, Peru, and Vietnam (together 55% of global tropical forest cover) could reduce deforestation by 10-30% and yearly avoid emissions of 0.2-0.6 Gt CO2 (5-15% of total annual landuse emissions of 3.3 Gt CO2). This has not been achieved in the FTA program lifetime, but it would address the lower bound of the SLO4 objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 0.2 Gt CO2-e yr-1.With a view on the objective to increase water and nutrient use efficiency in agroecosystems, including through recycling and reuse, we are developing -currently not quantifiable -concepts for bioeconomy implementation in Africa, Asia, Latin American and, in SE Europe, the Western Balkans.Towards restoring 55 million hectares of degraded land, we expect that by 2030, with a landscape approach integrating biomass production and forest restoration in the Western Balkans, 10,000 hectares of forests could be saved. Our peatland work has made policy progress possible in Peru, protecting this important biome.With full GCS REDD improvements in policies of the abovementioned countries, annually 0.5-1.6 million ha of forests could be saved, i.e. at least 5 M hectares of forests over the next decade, or twice the SLO goal to save 2.5 million ha of forest from deforestation.FP5 also supports the other SLOs with exception of SLO3 (improving human nutrition and health). Regarding SLO1, reducing rural poverty, we have made progress in Africa, Asia, South-Eastern Europe; In the Gambia, by developing and implementing Ecosystem-Based Adaptation protocols on 250 farms and in 50 community forests; in Indonesia, by working with farmers on our agro-silvo-fisheries model; and in the Balkans, by establishing proof-of-concept for short-rotation biomass plantations on 10 ha land. Scaling expectations till 2030 are to expand, in Indonesia, to 1000 ha of biofuel crops with LCF (https://livelihoods.eu/l3f/), and in the Balkans, to 45,000 ha of shortrotation plantations and 10,000 ha of forests. These activities are also improving farmer's income, so far on over 250 farms and in 50 communities, with a 2030 target of 10,000 farmers. These same activities also support SLO2, increasing food security. Furthermore, full GCS REDD+ implementation would positively affect at least half a million forest-dependent people directly, and 1.5 million indirectly forest-dependent people. ","tokenCount":"11454"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"320a231c637ff40addfda94d0f7d2935","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2384baf5-fb70-4f90-8804-5d5840ad0052/retrieve","id":"591885942"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"21fc56d8-73fe-4461-a2b2-0c54b13fd5e3","pagecount":"11","content":"One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global groundsourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South America. Moreover, almost one-third of all tree species to be discovered may be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution (likely in remote tropical lowlands and mountains). These findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes in land use and climate, which disproportionately threaten rare species and thus, global tree richness. biodiversity j forests j hyperdominance j rarity j richness I n 1994, Robert May (1) provided the optimistic observation that, by 2044, we would roughly know the current number of species on Earth. Half of that time period has already lapsed, and we are still far from that goal. Even for trees, which are among the largest and most widespread organisms on the planet (2-6), provide a wealth of ecosystem services for humans (7)(8)(9), and support much of terrestrial biodiversity (10), we still lack a fundamental understanding of how many species exist on our planet (3,4,(11)(12)(13).A growing body of evidence highlights details and mechanisms regarding the biogeographic patterns in tree species diversity, such as the number of species increasing consistently toward equatorial regions (14)(15)(16). With a manageable number of taxa, tree species in the higher latitudes are relatively well characterized. However, if hyperdominance of a small fraction of species in the tropics (17) is a general phenomenon, it would mean that these regions generally harbor a very large number of rare species, many of which are endemic. The contribution of rare species to ecosystem services may be relevant and is a topic of active research (18,19), but it is challenging as most remain poorly documented (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26). Therefore, estimating the number of tree species is essential to inform, optimize, and prioritize forest conservation efforts across the globe. Knowing diversity's extents will be useful in several ways. First, it can help us to infer the evolutionary mechanisms that have generated diversity, so that we can predict how those same mechanisms may play out in the future. Second, it may assist in assessment of which systems may be most resilient to global change. Third, if undetected species are mostly rare and rare species are more vulnerable to extinction risk, having a better grasp of those numbers is essential to managing for biodiversity preservation. Finally, with an understanding of total species pools, it is possible to quantify the impacts of regional conservation efforts while also improving the ability to predict extinctions, manage diversity hotspots, or collect germplasm (22,23).Because of the limited extent of data available, estimates of tree species diversity in large geographic domains still rely heavily on expert opinions and compiled published lists of species descriptions that are geographically uneven in coverage (24,25). Although local specialists have been increasingly joining efforts to consolidate species lists in many domains, these limitations have precluded efforts to scale this information to generate a global perspective. Here, based on a ground-sourced global database numbering ∼64,100 species [a value similar to a prior enumeration of the total of known tree species of ∼60,000 (17)], we developed estimates of the number of tree species at biome, continental, and global scales. Specifically, by comparing species accumulation curves (SACs) of tree species across different spatial scales, we estimated the number of species that have not been recorded in the global data compilation used herein.Global-, Continental-, and Biome-Level Patterns. We compiled a comprehensive global occurrence dataset with 9,353 (100-× 100-km) grid cell samples (called \"samples\" or \"sampling units\" hereafter of ∼1°) (Materials and Methods) by combining an abundance-based tree species dataset (the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative [GFBI]) (Fig. 1), based on forest plots worldwide and comprising ∼38 million trees for 28,192 species, with a large high-quality occurrence-based dataset (TREE-CHANGE) that includes forest plots and botanical vouchers (26) (Materials and Methods). It is important to note that despite the large number of grid cells, extensive data, and high mean global sample coverage (96.4%) (Table 1), sampling within grid cells in many regions of the world remains very sparse.From this dataset, with a nonparametric estimator [Chao2 (27)], we calculated occurrence-based values of potential global and continental tree species richness (Materials and Methods, Fig. 2A, and Table 1). This estimator is sensitive to accurate quantification of the numbers of uniques and duplicates (below and Materials and Methods), and it is known that there are problems with false uniques in forest species richness datasets (24). These Chao2 values may thus represent an overestimate to the degree that tree species recorded in only one sampling unit have been mistakenly identified as unique. Therefore, we estimated the true number (Chao2 adj ) of unique species (28) (Materials and Methods) by accounting for the relationships of uniques, duplicates, triplets, and quadruplets to constrain the estimated numbers of unique species and from this adjusted number, computed a more conservative estimate of global tree richness, which is ∼73,300 species (Chao2 adj ). Based on the good performance of this estimator and its adjusted version reported in previous studies (9,(29)(30)(31)(32)(33), we considered the adjusted value (Chao2 adj ) our most reasonable approximation to global tree species richness. We then derived SACs at global (Fig. 2A) and continental (Fig. 2B) scales. Moreover, for each continent, from the observed number of tree species, we also estimated the asymptotic richness at the within-continent biome-level extent (Fig. 3 and SI Appendix, Table S2).At the global scale, we infer that there likely are ∼9,200 tree species yet to be discovered (Table 1), given the ∼64,000 species already encountered (3,4,(34)(35)(36)(37). Our estimates at continental scales (Fig. 2B and Table 1) show that roughly 43% of all Earth's tree species occur in South America, followed by Eurasia (22%), Africa (16%), North America (15%), and Oceania (11%). However, a lack of saturation (driven by the existence of high numbers of species uncommon in the landscape, incomplete sampling, or both), particularly in the South American accumulation curve (Fig. 2B), suggests that our estimates may still be incomplete accounts of continental and global tree species richness. More undiscovered species likely occur in South America than any other continent. Our findings are in general agreement with recent studies of Amazonian plant diversity, which suggested that there are many undiscovered species; moreover, different approaches to the problem arrived at different estimates of total numbers of known and unknown Tree diversity is fundamental for forest ecosystem stability and services. However, because of limited available data, estimates of tree diversity at large geographic domains still rely heavily on published lists of species descriptions that are geographically uneven in coverage. These limitations have precluded efforts to generate a global perspective. Here, based on a ground-sourced global database, we estimate the number of tree species at biome, continental, and global scales. We estimated a global tree richness (≈73,300) that is ≈14% higher than numbers known today, with most undiscovered species being rare, continentally endemic, and tropical or subtropical. These results highlight the vulnerability of global tree species diversity to anthropogenic changes.species, suggesting that, as a scientific community, we still have much more work to do to arrive at accurate estimates regionally, continentally, or globally (12,24,(34)(35)(36)(37). Additionally, a considerable number of species have likely not yet been encountered in each of the other four continents as well (Table 1), most likely in the species-rich and more poorly studied tropical regions within each (see below).Our biome-level estimates of tree richness (Fig. 3 and SI Appendix, Table S2) provide a more detailed description of the distribution of species richness within continents and shed more light on South America's extremely high total tree diversity. As expected, the highest estimates of tree species in all continents are for the tropical and subtropical moist forest biome; for example, roughly half to two-thirds of all already known species occur in these forests on all five continents (SI Appendix, Table S2). Moreover, the hotspots of undiscovered species (Table 1 and SI Appendix, Table S2) may largely occur in these same species-rich and undersampled (37) regions. However, high numbers of known and unknown species also occur in other biomes, including tropical and subtropical dry forests, temperate forests, mangrove forests, and areas classified as nonforested biomes (e.g., lowland and montane grasslands, Table 1. Observed, asymptotic, and adjusted tree species richness and sample coverage at continental and global scales (note that the global value is lower than the sum of the continental ones due to overlapping species among continents [Fig. 4] and due to independent estimators being run for each continent and globally) We also list some biomes that are hotspots of undiscovered species in each continent (SI Appendix, Table S2). Bold indicates the number of species to be discovered globally and continentally.Fig. 2. Occurrence-based accumulation curves at global (A) and continental (B) scales. In A, nonparametric (interpolated) and asymptotic (extrapolated) species numbers from Chao2 (upper-lower 95% CI as shaded areas around the means; note that the CI shaded area is narrow because of the high number of sapling units), the Chao2 adj estimate for the true number of singletons (red line) vs. the number of samples (1°grid cell ∼100 × 100 km), and the number of species listed in GlobalTreeSearch (green line) are shown. In B, nonparametric (interpolated) and asymptotic (extr., extrapolated) estimates (upper-lower 95% CI as shaded areas around the means) and Chao2 adj values for the true number of singletons (dashed lines) are displayed vs. the number of samples (1°grid cell ∼100 × 100 km) within continents; the percentage of the global estimated richness in each continent is shown in the cartogram in B, Inset (total richness per continent is reported in Table 1).Cazzolla Gatti et al.The number of tree species on Earth PNAS j 3 of 11 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2115329119 savanna, shrublands, deserts) but that include considerable areas of tree-rich, and often speciose, vegetation. The high total tree diversity in South America is dominated by the lowland wet tropics and subtropics, yet roughly one-third of all tree species on that continent are found only outside of that biome.Rarity in Forests Worldwide. We also calculated indices of tree species rarity (percentages of singletons and doubletons) at continental and global scales (SI Appendix, Table S3) to help illuminate possible within-sample and among-sample abundance patterns. In fact, since the sample coverage deficit (1coverage = slope of the SAC at its right-hand end) is a statistically rigorous way of assessing the incompleteness of sampling (38), the proportion of singletons/uniques is, thus, strongly driven not only by long tails on the underlying species abundance/occurrence distribution but also, by sampling intensity/ completeness.Our most reliable abundance-based asymptotic richness estimates depend on the total number of observed species and the number of species with only one (singletons) or two (doubletons) individuals in each sample (which may represent measures of abundance-based rarity). Similarly, occurrence-based estimates depend on the number of species present in only one (unique) or two (duplicate) samples of each continent (which may represent measures of occurrence-based rarity). Rarity data within samples (α; i.e., from the abundance-based dataset) provide an indication of the relative proportion of species that are rare at the landscape to small regional scale represented by individual grid cells (100 × 100 km). The global rarity value is 33%, with Africa (38%) and South America (37%) having the highest percentage of species rare within samples and North America (17%) and Eurasia (24%) having the lowest (SI Appendix, Table S3). It is important to note that our data do not mean that one-third of all species occur only once or twice in nature; instead, their rarity in our dataset suggests their rarity in nature but with unknown distributions of real occurrences. The ratio of singletons to doubletons within grid cells is higher in Africa and Oceania followed by South America and is quite low in North America and Eurasia.From the rarity data among samples (occurrence-based rarity), we estimated that South America accounts for the highest total number of rare species (∼8,200) followed by Eurasia (∼6,100) and Africa (∼3,900). In Eurasia and North America, the percentage of species rare among grid cells was ∼43%, and it was <40% in the other continents, with the lowest value in South America (∼30%) (SI Appendix, Table S3). The ratio of singletons to doubletons among grid cells in North America (1.83) is the highest among continents; for all other continents, it is lower than 1.5. At a global scale, percentage abundancebased rarity is higher than occurrence-based rarity, while the ratio of singletons to doubletons shows the opposite trend. Since we were aware that the numbers (and proportions) of singletons/uniques and doubletons/duplicates (and their relative magnitudes) are very much a function not only of true rarity but also of sampling effort, in relation to true richness, we estimated all indices adjusting them for \"true singletons/uniques\" (Materials and Methods). However, our findings still confirm that most forests are likely to be dominated by just a few tree species (17) and include a long tail of rare species, which represents a consistent 30 to 40% of the overall tree richness in all continents. Although more species-rich regions (such as South America and Africa) have higher abundance-based rarity, North America and Eurasia (which contain more of a mix of biomes) showed higher occurrence-based rarity, and this finding could provide insights to better understand the biogeography of tree species on Earth.Overall, almost a third of global tree richness on Earth is made up of rare species, which appear only once or twice in our samples. Thus, if the global forest system is dominated by a relatively modest number of abundant tree species, the global number of tree species strongly depends on those rarely detected (∼35%) (SI Appendix, Table S3) and undetected species (some large fraction of the ∼9,200 unobserved over the ∼73,300 estimated) (Table 1) (34). These results highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes, particularly land use and climate, because the survival of rare taxa is disproportionately threatened by these pressures (16)(17)(18)(19). The higher threats for rare species are an important concern if we consider that their functions in ecosystems, the services they provide, and the ecoevolutionary patterns of these hyperrare tree species are still poorly known (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)25).Comparisons across Continents. To better understand the biogeography of richness patterns across land masses, we also estimated species turnover among continents (Fig. 4). Specifically, we combined the data of the five continents to obtain the values of estimated tree species richness in all 31 possible intersections (Materials and Methods). The two continents that share the highest estimated numbers of tree species are North and South America (Fig. 4), which is not surprising since these continents are interconnected by land (since about 3 Mya) in a region where nearby species-rich tropical forests occur on both continents. Consistent with this pattern, the second-highest number of shared species is between Eurasia and Oceania (Fig. 4), which had a geological continuity through the Southeast Asian archipelago that is another hotspot of tree diversity. Overall, other than the highest number of rare species, South America also shows the highest estimated percentage (49%) of continental endemic species (Fig. 4), while Eurasia and Africa account together for almost another 32% of unique tree species in the world. The percentage of shared species estimated among all five continents is lower than 0.1 (Fig. 4).To summarize our main findings, we estimated that the absolute number of tree species on Earth is considerably higher than previously reported, with 14.3% more species than currently known to science (3). By establishing a quantitative benchmark, this information could contribute to tree and forest conservation efforts and the future discovery of new trees and associated species in certain parts of the world. For instance, considering that we estimated that about 31,100 tree species are expected in South America (Chao2 adj estimator) and those known to science are about 27,200 (Table 1), there might be about 3,900 tree species yet to be discovered in this continent, and most of them could be endemic (Fig. 4) and located in Fig. 3. Biome-level tree species richness estimates. The map shows the number of tree species estimated (S estimated from Chao2 adj ) in terrestrial biomes of each continent as a color gradient from low richness (yellow) to high richness (red). More information is provided in SI Appendix, Table S2.diversity hotspots of the Amazon basin and the Andes-Amazon interface. This makes forest conservation of paramount priority in South America, especially considering the current tropical forest crisis from anthropogenic impacts such as deforestation, fires, and climate change. Similar arguments can be made about the prioritization of conservation of tropical and subtropical forests on other continents given the considerable numbers of likely undiscovered species on each and their likely rarity. For example, there are likely high numbers of undiscovered species in Central America and in Southeast Asia.This study accelerates our science by estimating global tree richness with a more extensive dataset and more advanced statistical methods than previous attempts. However, both the underlying data and Chao richness estimators and adjustments are imperfect. We recognize several methodological issues that might have potentially biased our estimates and/or contributed to uncertainty. The first involves the uneven and unrepresentative distribution of the sampling areas in the globe and within continents, which is an issue despite the high-sample coverage metrics that we used. The second involves the possibility that some species might have been misclassified due to misidentification, failure to update taxonomic name changes, and misspellings, which could reduce accuracy in estimates of species numbers (24,33,34). There is compelling evidence of errors in most biodiversity datasets due to the inclusion of false uniques (24). For example, if two botanists in different parts of the same forest region encounter the same species of rare and unfamiliar tree, they may identify it differently or use different synonyms to identify it, biasing the count of uniques and the estimators. Therefore, because of the likely discrepancy between the actual proportion of uniques in a sample and the observed unique count included in our datasets, we estimated the true number of unique species (28) and from this adjusted number, computed and focus on a more conservative estimate of global tree richness, which is ∼73,300 species (Chao2 adj ). There is also uncertainty about the accuracy of nonparametric estimators. Previous studies report that nonparametric estimators give lower values of tree species richness than parametric ones for the Amazon basin (34)(35)(36). However, our nonparametric estimate of tree species diversity in South American tropical forest biomes was higher than both parametric estimation and previous estimates in the Amazon (36). This might have resulted from previous studies being mainly based on Amazon lowlands, ignoring highlands. Thus, we examined sample completeness comparing continents but limiting their latitude to 23°N and S (tropical regions) (SI Appendix, Table S4). Results generally showed similar sample coverage at the grid-scale size used.Future estimates of tree species richness in tropical, subtropical, and montane areas on all continents will be more accurate if an increased sample size is obtained (37), especially from areas poorly investigated. This begs the question on why South America alone could harbor >40% of all tree species. Compared with forest ecosystems on other continents, South America could have offered a larger continuous tropical forest area, a higher rate of speciation, a more robust mechanism of biodiversity maintenance, and reduced extinction rates [for instance, mild climates and the shortest period of human disturbance (39,40)]. We also noticed that the SAC of South America continued to rise along the samples, whereas those of other continents start to level off, supporting the idea that undiscovered species numbers are likely high there, including in the Andean forests between 1,000-and 3,500-m altitude. A key challenge now is to install more plots in the Amazon-Andean transition zones, and to identify and monitor the trees within these plots.Overall, our study points toward an estimated global tree richness (∼73,300) that is roughly 14% higher than numbers known today (3,4), with many unknown species belonging to the tail of rare ones and often endemic to certain regions all across the globe. These results highlight the vulnerability of global tree species diversity to anthropogenic land use changes and to future climate (16)(17)(18). Losing regions of forest that contain these rare species will have direct and potentially long-lasting impacts on the global species diversity and their provisioning of ecosystem services (18)(19)(20). These results demonstrate both the lack of knowledge we still have about the tree species within our global forest systems and the value of approaches to help fill those gaps, which will be useful in providing fundamental insights about the diversity of life on our planet and its needed conservation.Dataset and Sample Coverage. We used the tree definition agreed on by IUCN's (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Global Tree Specialist Group (GTSG): \"a woody plant with usually a single stem growing to a height of at least two meters, or if multi-stemmed, then at least one vertical stem five centimeters in diameter at breast height.\" A tree inventory abundance dataset from 105,749 forest plots, ∼38 million stems of 28,192 species, distributed across all five continents was compiled from the GFBI (https://gfbinitiative.net/) database. For the Tonga and Niue data in the GFBI dataset, the original source was the New Zealand National Vegetation Survey Databank. For the estimation of the total number of tree species worldwide, we further compiled an independent occurrence dataset that we combined with the GFBI data. The occurrence-based dataset (hereafter, TREECHANGE) consists of taxonomy and location of >6 million tree individuals. Being a major data infrastructure itself, this dataset represents species occurrence information and encompasses a huge variety of data-from ground-sourced forest plot data (similar to the GFBI). Supported by a large body of collaborating institutions all over the world, this dataset features extensive global coverage and has been used across many large-scale studies (26). A limitation of the TREECHANGE dataset is that its underlying datasets do not have a coherent and consistent design and sampling scheme, but as described below, it complements the calculation of the estimated total number of tree species worldwide based on GFBI data. We extracted taxonomic data and associated geographic coordinates from five main data aggregators of species occurrences: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility [accessed through rgbif R package (41)], the public domain of the Botanical Information and Ecological Network v.3 [accessed through the BIEN R package (42)], the Latin American Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest Floristic Network [DRYFLOR (43)], the RAINBIO database (44), and the Atlas of Living Australia [ALA; accessed through the ALA4 R package (45)]. The species list was initially extracted from a world tree species checklist [GlobalTreeSearch (46)]. We checked for taxonomic correctness using the Taxonomic Name Resolution online tool (47), following a quality assessment and control of the data using the workflow outlined in ref. 26. This workflow minimized common errors associated with occurrence data (43). GlobalTreeSearch uses the tree definition agreed on by IUCN's GTSG above mentioned.For abundance-based analyses, we used the GFBI tree species dataset (at its original plot size), whose samples cover a total area of more than 73,000 ha (SI Appendix, Table S1). Then, to perform occurrence-based estimations, we compiled a larger and more comprehensive global dataset with 100-× 100-km sampling units (∼1°grid cells) by combining the abundance-based data in the GFBI tree species dataset, which were converted in presence/absence occurrence data and pooled with the high-quality large occurrence-based TREE-CHANGE dataset. Globally, this yielded a dataset of 9,353 sampling units, with 696,063 occurrences. At the continental level, the combination of the two datasets to obtain a large occurrence-based dataset also yielded a number of sampling units somewhat comparable, in the sense of being a similar order of magnitude (Africa: 1,575; Eurasia: 2,896; North America: 2,418; South America: 1,461; Oceania: 1,003).To ensure that our estimations of species richness were not biased by differences in sample coverage (e.g., an estimate of the total probability of occurrence of the species observed in the sample, taking into account species present but not detected) among continents, we estimated the inventory completeness (as defined by ref. 48) for the complete database and for each continent separately using the Chao-Shen sample coverage estimator (38,48), which is a bias-reduced estimator of sample completeness:where f 1 and f 2 are the numbers of singletons and doubletons (for abundance-based data) or the species occurred in only one (uniques) and in two (duplicates) 100-× 100-km (∼1°) samples (for occurrence-based data), respectively; n is the total number of individuals (for abundance-based data) or occurrences (for occurrence-based data) in the sample; and C n is the proportion of the total number of individuals (for abundance-based data) or occurrences (for occurrence-based data) in an assemblage (observed and not observed) that belong to the species represented in the sample (49,50).Because estimates of species richness can be strongly dependent on differences in inventory completeness, we checked whether sample coverage was similar in all five continents. Since all continents showed a similar proportion of sample coverage (all >94%), both from occurrence-(Table 1) and abundance-based data (SI Appendix, Table S1), we confirmed that our global estimate-based on global sample coverage of 96.44% (occurrence data) and 99.97% (abundance data)-was not disproportionately influenced by any specific continent. However, the slightly lower occurrence-based sample coverage of South America and Eurasia, with 95 and 94.26%, respectively, and the clustered distribution of some plots could explain the nonsaturating trend of their accumulation curves compared with the other continents (Fig. 2B). We also note that sample completeness at finer scales would be lower in all continents.We selected the continental scale for our estimates, together with the common study frames of biomes (51), because nonparametric species richness estimators perform better when samples are collected in a continuous incremental area without relevant landmass separation such as oceans (31)(32)(33).For instance, working at a global biome-level only would ensure that the current climatic conditions are similar, but this approach to estimate species richness, taken alone, would reduce the information implied in the estimates because they would be affected by several factors. 1) Within each acrossocean biome, there are still important ecological and evolutionary differences that would affect the estimates at the global biome level [in fact, conventional levels of ecological hierarchical organization are not scale dependent (52), whereas species richness estimates are]. 2) With nonparametric estimates based on SACs, it is better to ensure a continuity of sampled areas (e.g., continuous terrestrial lands) (53,54). 3) The ecological conditions that have shaped the evolutionary patterns (phylogeny and diversity) of tree species on Earth were much different when continents were conglomerate in Pangea (55) and then slowly shifted away (i.e., during this long geological time, biomes were much different to current ones) (56)(57)(58).Therefore, other than estimating global tree species richness at a global biome level (Fig. 3 and SI Appendix, Table S2), we analyzed continental richness to also account for evolutionary changes in response to the biome main variables (latitude, climate, solar radiation, etc.), which shaped current tree diversity. Adding the figures at a continental (and a continental biome) level, we ensured that our estimates are based on the 135-My biogeographical and temporal continuity of the five main vegetated landmasses, which is an implied assumption of the estimators. This approach also allows a better discussion of the results for species turnover among continents (Fig. 4), which might be a result of their connections in Laurasia and Gondwana and the following continental drift. Species Richness Estimators. We initially computed a parametric estimate of species richness on the abundance-based data for 28,192 species from the GFBI dataset (SI Appendix, Table S1). In particular, we considered the Fisher's α for abundance data (calculated from http://groundvegetationdb-web.com/ ground_veg/home/diversity_index).We found that the abundance-based Fisher's α underestimated the absolute species richness because our global (SI Appendix, Table S1) Fisher estimate was close but lower than the observed number of species in our occurrencebased dataset (64,100 from GFBI + TREECHANGE). Because this parametric estimator assumes a log-series distribution of abundances ( 59), we performed a goodness-of-fit test and evaluated it with a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of whether our global and abundance data fit a log-series distribution. Since all datasets (global: D = 0.1, P = 1; Africa: D = 0.1, P = 1; Eurasia: D = 0.5, P = 0.17; North America: D = 0.2, P = 0.99; Oceania: D = 0.2, P = 0.99; South America: D = 0.2, P = 0.99) follow a log-series distribution, we calculated the α-values. At a global level, we obtained a Fisher's α-value of 3,040 (SI Appendix, Table S1).We used this value and the most recent estimates on the global number of trees by Crowther et al. (60) to estimate the global number of species from Fisher's classical equation ( 61):where N is the total number of trees and α is the Fisher's α-parameter. This yielded an estimate of 62,624 to 62,915 species (lower-upper bootstrap 95% CI) from the 3.04 ± 0.19 × 10 12 (±95% CI) global tree stems calculated by Crowther et al. (60). Although Fisher's parametric approach stands on the very strict assumption of infinite log-series species abundance distributions, giving rise to overestimation of hyperrarity (62,63), it estimated slightly less than the observed number of species in our occurrence-based dataset (using the α-value derived from our abundance-based dataset). We thus did not further employ this estimate. Instead, with the larger occurrence dataset composed of GFBI (converted to presence/absence) and TREECHANGE data, we then calculated the Chao2 index, which is a lower-bound estimator and considered one of the most reliable and less affected by bias among all nonparametric indices (27,(64)(65)(66). The values of the estimators from the samples to plot the curves shown in Fig. 2 were randomized, interpolated, and extrapolated with the package iNext in R (67). The Chao2 estimator (bias corrected) is calculated by the following formula:where S obs are the actual numbers of species observed in the samples (m) and Q 1 and Q 2 are the species that appear in only one (unique) and two (duplicate) sampling units, respectively (27,29). The 95% CI (CI bias corrected) of this index can be calculated by the formulaThis estimation yielded a global value of 89,147 ± 1,101.5 species (Chao2 ± 95% CI) (Table 1). We are well aware that some studies provide different preferred estimators (68)(69)(70). However, many analyses, including simulationbased experiments, encourage the use of Chao2 to minimize bias (a summary is in ref. 71). This is the reason we considered the Chao2 index (based on occurrence data) our more useful estimator. Nonetheless, this estimator is sensitive to accurate quantification of the numbers of uniques and duplicates, and it is known that there are problems with false uniques in forest species richness datasets (24). Our Chao2 values may, thus, represent an overestimate to the degree that tree species recorded in only one sampling unit have been mistakenly identified as unique. Therefore, to check the reliability of our nonparametric estimates, we calculated the true number of uniques ðQ 1 Þ (28) in each continent and at a global scale to understand whether our values were influenced by the number of \"falsely unique species.\" This estimation of the true number of uniques is calculated with the formula adapted from ref. 28 for incidence-based data:where Q1 is the estimated true number of uniques; T is the number of sampling units (map cells); and Q 2 , Q 3 , and Q 4 are observed duplicates, triplicates, and quadruplicates. At the global level, the estimate of the true number of uniques is 13,162 compared with the observed 24,768. At the continental level, the number of estimated uniques was much lower than the observed one in South America (4,888 vs. 13,110) and somewhat lower in Eurasia (3,424 vs. 5,806), Africa (2,192 vs. 3,466), and Oceania (1,444 vs. 2,208), but it was slightly higher in North America (2,460 vs. 2,360). We then used the adjusted number of uniques in the Chao2 equation (see above) to calculate the Chao2 adj estimates, ŜadjChao2 (27)(28)(29).We also calculated tree species rarity at continental and global scales for abundance (abundance-based rarity; i.e., based on the number of adjusted singletons [S1] and doubletons [S2]) and occurrence (occurrence-based rarity; i.e., based on the adjusted number of unique species and the number of duplicate ones). We defined the number of rare species as the sum of adjusted singletons and doubletons. We also computed an index of rarity importance using our occurrence-based dataset as the proportion of rare species over total richness and an S1 adjusted /S2 ratio, which is the proportion of singletons over doubletons.Continental Biodiversity Partitioning. We estimated the number of species shared among continents and unique to each continent using the Chao2 estimator (Fig. 4) from the occurrence-based data, and we represented them in a Venn diagram. We combined the observations of species richness for the five continents (n = 5) in all possible 2 5 À 1 = 31 combinations.First, we calculated asymptotic species richness (Chao2) from occurrences observed in each continent; then, we intersected (creating a unique presence/ absence binary entry for each species) the observed occurrences per each pair, triplet, quadruplet, and all five of continents (obtaining the occurrences of all the observed species in each combination of continents) and calculated the asymptotic species richness (Chao2) per each pair, triplet, quadruplet, and quintuplet continents. Therefore, a total of 31 estimates were obtained by the Chao2 index and plotted in a Venn diagram with the R package VennDiagram (72).Additional cross-checks of the data pooling approach and q1/q2 relationship are in SI Appendix, SI Methods.Data Availability. Anonymized numeric data have been deposited in GFBI, https://gfbinitiative.net/data/.","tokenCount":"5640"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e00a75d16805f6c4dd41a6c25ec8e90c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d45638ea-0f5a-4bcc-a016-dea9a927f3bd/retrieve","id":"1459765456"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"99416e5e-061a-4b94-bd76-cc5ce6b5348a","pagecount":"30","content":"Under the Latin American Regional initiative AgriLAC Resiliente, the establishment of Innovahubs in Guatemala and Honduras has been a pivotal focus. At year end, in each country intensive stakeholders' meetings were organized at the subnational level to foster participatory discussions and delineate key aspects on how to consolidate and mature the Innovahubs and its core activities.Rooted in a hub model approach, the Innovahubs aim to catalyze innovation by facilitating spaces for collaborative learning, adapting to local contexts, and promoting interactive knowledge acquisition. November 2023 witnessed therefore the second execution of these meetings in varied locations across Guatemala and Honduras, employing diverse activities like interviews, round tables and plenary discussion as well as interactive sessions. These exercises aimed to discern local needs, research priorities, and pave the way for future action cycles. A hallmark approach is as always to foster dialogues with local stakeholders, understanding their perspectives, and forging consensus-driven strategies.In 2023, the meetings differed slightly from the 2022 exercise, as this year for the first-time field results could be presented and instead of having a separate meeting pet Innovahub, key Innovahub members from both Innovahub were invited to share their experiences among themselves in a common place. Guatemala emphasized sharing current outcomes, whereas Honduras accentuated synergies and mutual objectives. Both countries outlined action plans for 2024, targeting pivotal challenges such as poverty, migration, gender, climate change, and food security. The Guatemala hubmeeting on November 21 convened 25 institutions, focusing on fortifying the positive impacts of the Innovahubs in the region. Similarly, on November 23, 14 institutions congregated in Honduras, emphasizing advancements in innovation network management, and strategizing for further development of the Innovahubs.Reflecting on a year's journey, the collaborative endeavors under the AgriLAC initiative have illuminated clearer pathways in activities, products, and overarching objectives. In Guatemala, capacity building efforts spanning agronomic expertise to market linkages has been underlined as crucial, including an emphasis on training targeting community leaders and sustainable agriculture technicians. Concurrently, in Honduras, significant strides have been made, especially in integrating partners across regions and emphasizing gender inclusivity. The overarching vision remains to foster sustainable expansion, transcending traditional paradigms, and laying a robust foundation for the Resilient AgriLAC initiative's third-year blueprint in 2024.Technical ReportLa iniciativa AgriLAC Resiliente encabeza el impulso de redes de innovación, referidas como Innovahubs, orientadas a la co-construcción de sistemas agroalimentarios sustentables y resilientes en colaboración con actores nacionales y locales. Mediante la adaptación y adopción de innovaciones, la iniciativa se centra en establecer procesos rigurosos para validar buenas prácticas y tecnologías. Estos esfuerzos facilitan la promoción de una producción agrícola más sustentable. Además, se crean plataformas para el intercambio activo de experiencias y conocimientos, acelerando así la difusión de valiosas lecciones aprendidas. El objetivo final es cultivar un ambiente donde los actores estén alineados y comprometidos para colaborar en la transición hacia sistemas agroalimentarios resilientes e inclusivos.La reunión anual de innovahubs -o hub meetings -es un ejercicio multitemático y dinámico, el cual nos permite orientar los trabajos de los socios, los aliados y miembros participantes de los Innovahubs. Esta actividad, con su naturaleza integral, tiene la finalidad de presentar resultados de actividades realizadas, planear los siguientes pasos estratégicos y fortalecer la vinculación entre los diversos actores dentro y entre los diferentes Innovahubs de Guatemala y Honduras. Esta interacción intensiva promueve una colaboración más profunda y estratégica, enriqueciendo el camino hacia sistemas agroalimentarios resilientes y sostenibles en la región.En 2023, las reuniones anuales de Innovahubs adoptaron una dinámica dual de presentación de resultados de campo y el análisis de similitudes y diferencias con la identificación de áreas de oportunidad entre los distintos Innovahubs en cada país. En ambos contextos, se delinearon acciones para el próximo año, consolidando así a los Innovahubs en ambas regiones. Estas acciones abordan desafíos cruciales como pobreza, migración, inclusión social, género, cambio climático, seguridad alimentaria y la pérdida de biodiversidad.El 21 de noviembre, Guatemala acogió el hub meeting con una participación robusta de 24 instituciones, enfocándose en compartir avances y diseñar estrategias para potenciar los impactos positivos. Dos días después, Honduras congregó a 14 instituciones con el propósito de evaluar la gestión de la red de innovación y esbozar rutas claras para su fortalecimiento. Ambas reuniones subrayaron la necesidad de estrategias y metodologías robustas para lograr los objetivos planteados.En contraste con las reuniones del año anterior, que se desarrollaron en las localidades y contextos regionales específicos, el enfoque para 2023 radicó en fomentar una interacción directa y enriquecedora entre los miembros de los distintos Innovahubs de Guatemala y Honduras. Esta decisión estratégica busca potenciar la colaboración a nivel nacional, compartiendo lecciones, experiencias y recursos para avanzar colectivamente hacia sistemas agroalimentarios más resilientes y sostenibles en la región.La reunión tuvo como propósito principal fortalecer los vinculos de los Innovahubs mediante el intercambio de experiencias y la planificación estratégica. En este contexto, se buscó:1. Compartir y reconocer los avances en la implementación de la iniciativa AgriLAC Resiliente a nivel local y nacional, tanto en Guatemala como en Honduras. 2. Facilitar un intercambio de experiencias entre socios, productores y aliados, destacando las acciones y logros de los Innovahubs del Hub Oriente y Occidente en cada país. 3. Promover un diálogo participativo que permitiera a socios, aliados y líderes de paquetes de trabajo lograr una orientación en común hacia la realización de sistemas agroalimentarios resilientes. 4. Elaborar, en colaboración con actores clave de ambos países, una agenda de trabajo conjunta para optimizar la implementación y desarrollo futuro de los Innovahubs, con la identificación de desafíos y áreas de oportunidad, y la definición de estrategias y actividades para fortalecer y potenciar los Innovahubs durante el año 2024.La reunión se dividirá en 3 segmentos claves, visualizados en Figura 1, destacando la participación clave los lideres miembros de los diversos paquetes de trabajo de AgriLAC Resiliente. Los segmentos claves incluyen 1) una presentación desde el equipo implementador de los alcances de 2023 y una relatoría de los socios de actividades realizados, 2) ronda de mesas para un sondeo sobre el estado actual del Innovahub, y 3) un taller participativo para definición de acciones y actividades para 2024.Figura 1. Diseño de la estrategia de la reunión de los Innovahubs Oriente y Occidente de HondurasPresentación y expectativas de los participantes Para iniciar, se realizó una dinámica para identificar la diversidad de participantes en términos de instituciones, perfiles de los participantes, edades, género, nacionalidad, actividades a las que se dedica, entre otros, y por perfil principal (productor, técnico, investigador, funcionario, socio) se indago sobre las expectativas de la reunión.Las presentaciones especificas realizadas en Guatemala y Honduras por cada componente de trabajo se darán como materiales suplementarios.Posicionamiento de la iniciativa AgriLAC Resiliente y sus paquetes de trabajo.En este espacio se dio a conocer las acciones y avances realizados desde los implementadores de cada paquete de trabajo, y conversar sobre la integración de cada paquete de trabajo y los ejes transversales, incluyendo temas de inclusión de género y escalamiento, dentro de los Innovahubs.Las presentaciones especificas realizadas en Guatemala y Honduras por los socios se darán como materiales suplementarios.Intercambio de experiencias en la implementación de AgriLAC Resiliente en los Innovahubs.El objetivo es dar a conocer las principales acciones que realiza cada socio en los Innovahubs, para compartir sus experiencias con el resto de los participantes, colaboradores y actores invitados en la reunión. Se propuso una estructura de presentación: ¿Quiénes son y donde trabajan?, Avances de las principales acciones que realizan dentro de AgriLAC, los retos y aprendizajes que han tenido para implementar las acciones en sus territorios.Taller: Escalamiento desde el Innovahub Para analizar las áreas de potencial escalamiento con los actores de cada Innovahub, se hizo un análisis de sistema basado en el marco teórico de \"Perspectiva Multinivel\". Dentro de este marco teórico para generar un cambio sistémico, cuando existen sistemas complejos desde un punto de vista social y tecnológico, se deben atender cinco sectores: Políticas públicas, Sociedad y cultura, Mercados, Inversión y financiamiento, Ciencia, tecnología e infraestructura. Se realizaron grupos de trabajo entre participantes, con participantes diversos representando gobierno, empresas, organizaciones no gubernamentales, agentes de extensión y productores. Las preguntas que guiaron el taller fueron las siguientes:• ¿En qué medida se ha logrado responder a las áreas de impacto dentro de los Innovahubs con el trabajo realizado hasta ahora por los miembros? • ¿Cuáles son desafíos que se han tenido en el Innovahub para responder a estas áreas de impacto?• ¿Cuáles son áreas de oportunidad para escalar el impacto dentro de estas temáticas?Un reporte completo sobre los resultados de los talleres de escalamiento de los Hubmeetings anuales 2023 en Guatemala y Honduras será representado en un documento entregable separado.Taller: Líneas de Acción 2024 Para esta dinámica se empleó la técnica didáctica de carrusel, la cual consiste en establecer estaciones de trabajo (entre implementador de paquete de trabajo, socio y colaborador), identificando a responsables que permanecen y reciben los usuarios para discutir siguientes pasos y acciones para 2024 durante un tiempo determinado. La pregunta principal durante las paradas en las estaciones del carrusel es la de ¿Cómo fortalecer las acciones de AgriLAC para un mayor impacto de forma integral?Para el evento organizado en la ciudad de Guatemala el 21 de noviembre de 2023, se tuvo una asistencia total de 65 personas, de 24 instituciones diferentes, resumido por perfil en Tabla 1. Del total de asistentes, 19 son mujeres que representan el 29% del total, y se tuvo una presencia de 10 productores, 5 hombres y 5 mujeres. En conjunto con el equipo de MEAL, este componente es el responsable de administrar la plataforma digital e-agrology, para la recolección de datos agronómicos, eventos, entre otros, y realizan monitoreo de la iniciativa AgriLAC. A través de e-agrology se puede generar reportes de rentabilidad, análisis descriptivos y tableros con información especializada. Incluso, se da soporte a las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA) con servicios de agricultura Digital.Una línea de trabajo es la plataforma \"Aclimate Guatemala\", donde se generan acciones de vinculación para brindar información a los seguros agropecuarios y mejorar la generación de créditos y donde se espera tener modelación de comportamiento de cultivos con base en los pronósticos climáticos. A la fecha, ya se tienen avances en la construcción de perfiles de usuarios de información climática, que servirá para mejorar la transmisión de información agroclimática a las personas en los próximos años.Finalmente, se trabajó con la información colectada con e-agrology en el proyecto Buena Milpa, el cual se realizó en años anteriores en la región Occidente. El objetivo es demostrar la importancia del análisis de grandes bases de datos para inferir en recomendaciones agronómicas. c) Paquete de trabajo 4 -Establecimiento de los Innovahubs.En Guatemala se tienen actividades temáticas claves, integrando las acciones de los otros paquetes de trabajo directamente con los socios y sus productores.• Investigación: Se menciono el trabajo vinculado con el paquete de trabajo 1, donde se establecieron dos plataformas de investigación una en el Hub Occidente y la otra en el Hub Oriente. Además, se realizaron otros trabajos de investigación con el cultivo de frijol con los temas de fertilidad orgánica y química, y con riego y sin riego con rendimientos por arriba del promedio nacional • Desarrollo de infraestructura física y acompañamiento técnico: Se establecieron 16 módulos (8 en occidente y 8 en oriente) y 32 áreas de extensión, con evaluaciones de diferentes temas, mismos que se identificaron en los diagnósticos de parcelas que se realizaron y se han capturado 811 áreas de impacto. Los datos recabados se están registrando en la plataforma e-agrology. • Capacitación: Se realizaron capacitaciones a técnicos y a través de las acciones de los socios a productores. De las capacitaciones a técnicos se desarrolló un curso en cada Innovahub denominado Fortalecimiento en Agricultura Sustentable, con duración de una semana donde participaron 17 personas en el Innovahub Occidente y 37 en el Innovahub Oriente. Se realizo un diplomado en Extensionismo innovador para una agricultura sustentable, el cual se desarrolló junto con el CUNORI-USAC y contó con una intensidad de 80 horas.De dicho diplomado, obtuvieron una certificación 19 participantes de 12 instituciones. Adicionalmente, se realizó un taller sobre manejo agronómico y producción de frijol, con participación de 40 personas. Se realizo un programa de capacitación de 5 sesiones para los socios del Innovahub Occidente donde participaron 17 personas de las asociaciones CDRO y ASOCUCH. • Vinculación de actores: La vinculación de colaboradores y actores estratégicos al Hub, se ha contado con la participación de las mesas técnicas agroclimáticas, DISAGRO, el Ministerio de Agricultura Ganadería y Alimentación (MAGA), el IICA, el Fondo Global de Adaptación Basada en Ecosistemas, COSAJO -MICOPE y Acción Contra el Hambre. Se vincula activamente con la Iniciativa Digital del CGIAR con respecto al escalamiento de una parcela digital que se está desarrollando junto con el CUNORI-USAC, en donde se están evaluando instrumentos y sensores digitales enfocados en mejorar los servicios climáticos.d) Paquete de trabajo 5 -Políticas Públicas.Los temas presentados corresponden al mapeo de políticas públicas en cambio climático, migración y seguridad alimentaria, la evaluación integral de la cadena de valor del café en Guatemala, el mapeo subnacional de intervenciones en seguridad alimentaria y nutricional, el estudio a nivel subnacional para analizar la relación entre eventos climáticos y migración externa, y finalmente la identificación de barreras económicas y culturales para promover la participación de mujeres en sistemas agroalimentarios.Los avances más relevantes presentados estuvieron alrededor del mapeo de 32 instrumentos de política pública, de donde surgieron 16 recomendaciones para trabajar en cuento a evaluación, monitoreo y gestión de datos; espacios de diálogo para la cooperación; y acceso a fondos específicos para implementación. De igual forma, con respecto a la cadena de café, se está implementando la metodología IASI para aprovechar oportunidades dentro de este subsector productivo.Adicionalmente, durante el hubmeeting se aprovechó para entrevistar los socios principales para indagar sobre su percepción de áreas de interés o de necesidad relacionado con políticas públicas. Un reporte extenso esta preparado como entregable para WP5 en AgriLAC Resiliente 2023.e) Socialización de avances en Género e Inclusión Social (GESI)Se dio un contexto sobre la importancia de este componente, compartiendo cifras oficiales que demuestran que las mujeres y los jóvenes tienen muchas desventajas y dificultades en el sector rural que se acrecentar con el cambio climático. Al respecto se mostró como aún se tiene retos importantes de participación en AgriLAC, ya que aún no se logra vincular una proporción importante de mujeres, jóvenes y población indígenas.Las actividades principales en las cuales se han tenido avances en tema de GESI en forma transversal son en capacitaciones en manejo poscosecha de granos (via WP1). En WP2 se realizó la sistematización sobre acceso de información agroclimática generada en las MTAs, y el apoyo en la aplicación del enfoque de Diseño Centrado en el Humano. Con WP4, se realizó en los Innovahubs el mapeo de potenciales aliadas/os de GESI, así como el acompañamiento con talleres de género a diversos socios de los innovahubs, y finalmente, en WP5 se apoyó en el diseño de las metodologías y trabajo con indígenas.Figura 2. Lideres de paquete de trabajo presentado resultados de AgriLAC Resiliente en Guatemala.Intercambio de experiencias en la implementación de AgriLAC Resiliente en los Innovahubs.El proceso de implementación del modelo de Hub en los territorios es progresivo, sin embargo, se reconoce que los socios quienes están apoyando en este proceso tiene experiencia en procesos de innovación y desarrollo territorial que ha permitido en gran medida la claridad de como implementar, acelerando la aceptación y la adopción de la metodología dentro de sus proyectos. Se reconocen con retos y dificultades, pero estos mismos han dejado algunos aprendizajes que facilitaran la implementación en los siguientes procesos.Los socios presentaron las actividades y avances que han logrado en el marco de AgiLAC, pero sobre todo para reflexionar los retos y aprendizajes que pueden mejorar el trabajo durante el 2024. Las principales actividades que presentaron los socios estuvieron enmarcadas en los convenios de trabajo: establecimiento de módulos, áreas de extensión, capacitaciones intercambio de experiencias con productores, toma de datos y captura en sistema e-agrology, como algunas acciones de difusión, un ejemplo fue el video compartido durante de la reunión del socio ADIPAZ.A continuación, en Tabla 3, se encuentra una breve descripción de lo mencionado por cada uno de los socios enfatizando en la parte de retos y aprendizajes que les deja el implementar la metodología del Hub.Tabla 3. Definición de retos y aprendizajes en el Innovahub Oriente y Occidente Guatemala.▪ Las culturas arraigadas dificultan que los agricultores adopten las prácticas de conservación. ▪ Aumentar la participación de las mujeres en los procesos agrícolas. ▪ Aumentar la participación de los hombres en los procesos de formación. ▪ Generar bases de datos para la plataforma e-agrology de las áreas de extensión. ▪ Minimizar el uso de agroquímicos para la producción agrícola.▪ Generar cambios de vida de las familias involucradas.▪ Es importante la aplicación de nuevos conocimientos y metodologías para el establecimiento de las parcelas. ▪ A través de las prácticas de Agricultura Sostenible Adaptada al Clima, se reduce la erosión hídrica del suelo, se mejora la productividad y se reducen los costos de producción. ▪ Por medio de los módulos se pueden realizar las comparaciones necesarias entre una agricultura convencional a una de conservación.▪ Impactar a 200 productores con el modelo de trabajo propuesto, inicialmente se vio muy complejo. ▪ Encontrar a productores claves que tengan el interés, el dinamismo y el compromiso en modificar su cultura y patrones de siembra ▪ Manejo de la plataforma de investigación, dado el conocimiento científico que se requiere.▪ El Intercambio de conocimientos empíricos y técnicos beneficia al productor. ▪ Es importante el uso de tecnologías y la interpretación de datos., así como el uso de plataformas digitales de información. ▪ Se debe hacer un uso controlado de fórmulas. ▪ Se debe mantener capacitación en el uso, manejo e interpretación de nuevas herramientas.▪ Implementación de procesos desfazados de fechas del calendario agrícola. ▪ Adopción de prácticas nuevas por parte de los productores/ agricultura de conservación. ▪ El uso de tecnología para el levantado de información por parte de los promotores ▪ Los procesos formativos de manera presencial deben ser periódicos. ▪ Adquisición de semillas certificadas para implementación de parcelas demostrativas. ▪ Accesibilidad de información climática para los productores.▪ Adaptación de la metodología de Innovahubs a las características propias del territorio. ▪ Seguir trabajando en el fortalecimiento de capacidades en promotores y productores en la producción de semillas. ▪ Debemos fortalecer la implementación de reservas de semillas a nivel comunitario. ▪ Fortalecimiento en la articulación de actores claves en los Hub (Universidades, ICTA, MAGA y otros). ▪ Seguimiento a la socialización de información climática a los InnovaHubs.▪ Problemas climáticos: presencia de sequías, heladas, lluvias extremas y viento, sigue afectando de manera directa las parcelas de campo. ▪ Algunas parcelas fueron establecidas fuera de tiempo, lo cual nos coloca en desventaja al comparar la producción local de los productores. ▪ Apoyar en la implementación y operación de instrumentos digitales los cuales se pueden monitorear de forma remota (No tenemos claridad donde se instalarán) ▪ Comunicación poco fluida desde el personal de AgriLAC a la coordinación de ASOCUCH ▪ Poco o nulo involucramiento de las instancias de Gobierno (MAGA e ICTA) en los procesos del proyecto.Figura 3. Socios de los Innovahubs Occidente y Oriente presentando sus actividades, retos y aprendizajes.Taller: Escalamiento desde el Innovahub Analizando el potencial de escalamiento desde la perspectiva de los 5 componentes presentados en los Innovahubs en Guatemala, se ha notado una mayor inversión y contribución en los sectores de ciencia, tecnología e infraestructura, así como en sociedad y cultura. Por otro lado, políticas públicas, gobernanza y mercados han mostrado una menor aportación.En el sector de ciencia, tecnología e infraestructura, se destaca positivamente la creación de plataformas y módulos, el fortalecimiento de habilidades técnicas, la implementación de la herramienta E-Agrology y la educación sobre igualdad de género. En sociedad y cultura, se reconoce el trabajo con mujeres y la integración de prácticas ancestrales y tradicionales. Adicionalmente, se resalta el aumento en la producción agrícola y la mejora en la accesibilidad a recursos para la agricultura.Sin embargo, se identifican áreas de mejora. Es esencial fortalecer las capacidades en cultivos con potencial comercial, como las hortalizas, para generar excedentes comercializables. Esto incluye implementar tecnologías como invernaderos y diversificar los cultivos. También es crucial establecer y mejorar la relación con entidades gubernamentales y actores privados. Esto no solo facilitará la estructuración o mejora de políticas públicas orientadas al desarrollo agrícola, sino que también brindará apoyo específico a grupos vulnerables, como mujeres y jóvenes agricultores.De acuerdo con los grupos de enfoque realizados, se muestra que en Guatemala se ha trabajado principalmente con un enfoque de incrementar la producción del auto-consumo mediante mejores prácticas tales como la diversificación de cultivos, respondiendo al área de impacto de nutrición y biodiversidad. De igual manera, se ha mostrado, que los talleres e información otorgada sobre género también ha sido una acción donde ellos han observado cambios, a pesar de que todavía se propone incorporar más a mujeres y jóvenes en el trabajo. Por lo cual, ha funcionado bien la parte de concientización sobre mejores prácticas de autoconsumo, y el trabajo realizado con los actores de la región en materia de inclusión social.Los desafíos para el escalamiento se enfocan en que todavía no hay suficientes módulos, plataformas y capacitaciones que muestren mejores prácticas para la comercialización de los cultivos para responder al pilar de impacto de bienestar. De igual manera, no se han generado vinculaciones en el Innovahub suficientes con gobierno y empresas, por lo cual no se han generado conexiones suficientes de inclusión social que puedan redundar en potenciales respuestas en política pública.Las áreas de oportunidad que se identificaron incluyen el fortalecimiento de capacidades para la mejora de prácticas que generen una producción con excedente que permitan mayor vinculación con mercado, incrementar el número de módulos y la extensión en los territorios para tener mayor alcance, y gestionar y fortalecer la vinculación con actores públicos y privados de gobierno para la promoción de políticas públicas que fomenten el desarrollo de agricultores. Se propuso en fortalecimiento de educación financiera, y finalmente la creación de bancos comunales de semillas.Taller: Líneas de Acción 2024 a) Planeación desde la perspectiva de los productores Se les pidió a los agricultores participantes que se agruparan por Innovahubs para discutir las preguntas planteadas y anotar sus respuestas en papeletas individuales. En Tabla 4, se presenta los principales temas resultantes de la discusión de las preguntas, después del ejercicio de agrupación y priorización.Tabla 4. Temas priorizados por los agricultores para trabajar en los siguientes años.Pensando en los últimos 3-5 años, ¿Qué le ha servido más para mejorar su sistema de producción?Pensando en los 3-5 años que vienen, ¿Qué le ayudaría más a mejorar su sistema de producción?▪ Prácticas agrícolas de conservación de suelos ▪ Diversificación de fincas en cultivo y actividad (Agrícola y pecuaria) ▪ Asistencia técnica ▪ Capacitación integral ▪ Intercambio de experiencias ▪ Investigación ▪ Implementación de prácticas agrícolas, que permita la mejora y conservación de suelos, y practicas con enfoque agroecológico. ▪ Producción de calidad, vinculación con mercado y mejorar procesos de comercialización. ▪ Capacitaciones con enfoque integral en sistemas de producción. ▪ Trabajo organizacional (familia, mercado-Calidad) ▪ Inclusión social, mujeres, jóvenes y personas con capacidades diferentes. ▪ Tecnificación de los sistemas de producción.▪ Plan de fertilización (Abono orgánico, buenas prácticas de nutrición). ▪ Selección masal ▪ Semilla certificada de papa ▪ Capacitaciones técnicas ▪ Organización ▪ Dejar de quemar ▪ Intervención incluyente ▪ Capacitación en abonos orgánicos ▪ Muestreo de suelo ▪ Acciones enfocadas a la organización ▪ Diversificación de cultivos. ▪ Conservación y recuperación de semillas nativas.▪ Manejo poscosecha de granos.Como punto general se enfatizó que en las capacitaciones sean más incluyentes, mujeres, jóvenes, niños, pero que también se piense en personas que no saben leer, con alguna discapacidad, y considerar a los productores como acores claves en la promoción y difusión de las tecnologías. Finalmente, a pesar de que el tema de postcosecha no figuro al principio, en la discusión final todos los participantes comentaron tener detalles con el almacenamiento del granos y semillas, por lo que sería importante incluir este tema, rescatando las practicas ancestrales, culturales y las innovaciones tecnológicas en este tema. b) Planeación desde la perspectiva de los socios.Cuando se preguntó a los socios que otros retos están abordando desde sus acciones además de los mencionados que aborda AgriLAC, coincidieron que deben sumarse: Finanzas inclusivas y nivel educativo. Este último consideran de relevancia ya que los niveles reportados de manera oficial en los últimos años son muy bajos, tanto en número de años de escolaridad, como del nivel educativo de las personas que cursan la escuela. Este es un factor que determina en gran medida los procesos de innovación y de procesos de adopción.• ¿Qué actividades realiza para trabajar con los productores en la mejora de sus sistemas de producción considerando los retos mencionados?El enfoque de estas respuestas fue con respecto a obtener mejoras en la productividad de las parcelas y/o de las unidades de producción, las respuestas se resumen en los siguientes puntos, las primeras cuatro son coincidentes en los dos Innovahubs cada una con sus especificidades por las características de la región, las siguientes dos se mencionaron de forma diferente:▪ Fortalecimiento de capacidades. Principalmente en manejo agronómico de cultivos, sistemas integrales con sistemas pecuarios, diversificación de cultivos, prácticos principalmente en parcela. ▪ Investigación. Enfocadas a mejorar productividad, manejo agronómico, tecnologías replicables con productores. ▪ Tecnología/agronomía. Los principios de Agricultura de conservación, arreglos topológicos, fertilización química y orgánica, uso de variedades mejoradas, obras de conservación de suelos, manejo agroecológico de plagas, practicas ASAC, gestión integral del recurso hídrico. ▪ Inclusión financiera/económicas. Facilitar acceso a financiamiento, desarrollo de capacidades empresariales, empoderamiento económico de la mujer. ▪ Información Agroclimática. Difusión del boletín agroclimático, riesgo agroclimático (canícula y su afectación) -Innovahub Oriente ▪ Transversales. Revisión y análisis de la cadena agroalimentaria, diagnóstico de los sistemas de producción, enfoque en la finca y procesos de planeación de mejora visualizando a 5 o 10 años, acciones orientadas al ambiente y cambio climático -Innovahub Occidente.Las respuestas fueron diversas, derivado de la suma de experiencias de los diferentes actores participantes. Sin embargo, ambos coincidieron que el fortalecimiento de capacidades, la investigación, las innovaciones tecnológicas con enfoque hacia sistemas integrales han sido claves para mejorar temas de productividad.• ¿Qué actividades realiza con los productores para mejorar la calidad de vida de sus familias? Aunque la pregunta es más abierta en cuanto a \"calidad de vida\" se enfocó en términos de generación de ingresos económicos y seguridad alimentaria. Es un tema interesante que dio pauta a varias reflexiones, la primera ¿cómo generar mayores oportunidades de empleo bien remunerados en las zonas rurales?, un participante comento al respecto que en la región de Chiquimula el 13% de la población son generadores de empleo y el 87% dependientes, a reserva de confirmar el dato, puede explicar el proceso de migración y pobreza, la pregunta ¿cómo mover ese porcentaje de forma positiva?, por tal motivo el tema de agregación de valor, transformación de productos primarios, vinculación con mercados, sistemas integrales, cobraron gran relevancia durante la reflexión y fueron mencionados como prioritarios.Las principales respuestas se resumen a continuación, y algunas líneas mencionadas de manera diferenciadas por Innovahub son presentados en Tabla 5.:▪ Fortalecimiento en la generación de ingresos. Procesamiento de cultivos (transformación artesanal), agregación de valor, vinculación y acceso a marcados locales, formación de redes de compra-venta, análisis económicos para eficiente el proceso y mejorar rentabilidad, diversificación con cultivos de mayor valor (hortalizas), diversificación de actividades peces, traspatio pollos/gallinas. ▪ Fortalecimiento de capacidades: Biodiversidad (Diversificación), preparación de alimentos (transformación), procesos de producción (agronómicas), vinculación con mercado y comercialización, talleres para generación de confianza (fortalecimiento de la red de innovación), intercambio de experiencias y conocimientos. capacitación constante, formación de lideres comunitarios (promotores), capacitación con enfoque en la familia y género, eficiente uso de recursos.Tabla 5. Actividades mencionadas que son diferenciadas por Innovahub.Género/Familia ▪ Participación de mujeres ▪ Procesos de concientización en equidad de género para incentivar la participación de mujeres y jóvenes. ▪ Empoderamiento de la familia para procesos de generación de ingresos (hombres, mujeres, jóvenes) Gobernanza ▪ Empoderamiento de la familia para toma de decisiones ▪ Incidencia ciudadana ▪ Gestión comunitaria y municipal SAN (Seguridad Alimentación y Nutricional)▪ Enfocar en nutrición de las familias.▪ Mejora de sistema de saneamiento y agua. Inclusión Financiera ▪ Estrategias de ahorro y auto ahorro.Producción ▪ Acompañamiento técnico ▪ Enfocar en seguridad alimentaria y nutricional ▪ Adoptar metodologías de siembra en cursos para cultivo de subsistencia Extensionismo ▪ Acompañamiento técnico de calidad y constante• ¿Qué actividades lleva a cabo para llegar a más productores?Este ejercicio iba enfocado en acciones que han permitido mayor alcance de productores en términos de información, sensibilización y procesos de adopción de innovaciones tecnológicas (Tabla 6).  La reunión se desarrolló en el centro del país en la ciudad de Tegucigalpa, Honduras donde se conjuntaron los socios y colaboradores del Innovahub Occidente y el Innovahub Oriente, esta reunión se efectuó el día 23 de noviembre de 2023, con la representación de 7 socios y miembros del Innovahub Occidente (entre ellos OCDI, Mancomunidad Mapance, Caja Rural Malutena, OCDIH, ODECO, Escuela Agrícola Pompilio Ortega y Fundación Jicatuyo) y así como de participantes sobresalientes del Curso Intensivo en Agricultura Sustentable. Para el caso del InnovaHub Oriente se contaron con la participación de representantes de los siguientes organismos ARSAGRO, CECRUCSO, Universidad Panamericana Zamorano contado con una participación de 16 participantes y un participante de SAG a nivel nacional. Así como la participación de 20 personas de CIMMYT y la Alliance Bioversity-CIAT, para que en su totalidad la reunión este integrada por 44 personas (Tabla 7). A continuación, presentaremos los resultados y análisis de la reunión en la edición 2023.a) Paquete de trabajo 1 -Investigación Agronómica.La presentación mostro las áreas de oportunidad en las regiones de los Innovahubs y las acciones que se han desarrollado, visualizado en Tabla 8: ▪ Además de haber apoyado en el ciclo primera (mayo-agosto) a 50 productores beneficiados semillas de la variedad de maíz de polinización libre, Kit de insumos y seguimiento a través de técnicos de las asociaciones.b) Paquete de trabajo 2 -Agricultura digital Se explico sobre la intervención en el asesoramiento agrícola inclusivo habilitado digitalmente para la gestión de riesgos desde una recolección de datos, limpieza, análisis, visualización y evaluando el aprendizaje. De esta forma, se dio inicio a:▪ La generación y comunicación de la información meteorológica. ▪ Apoyo a COPECO-CENAOS en el Sistema Nacional de Pronósticos. ▪ Apoyo en desarrollo y comunicación de boletines a Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas y otros usuarios, bajo un enfoque de Diseño Centrado en el Humano. ▪ Socializaciones, capacitaciones y encuentros ▪ Herramientas de digitalización como el ODK. ▪ La implementación de e-Agrology. c) Paquete de trabajo 4 -Establecimiento de los Innovahubs.La platica del paquete 4, abordo identificando que hay una serie de socios en cada Innovahub, siendo en Oriente ARSAGRO, OCDIH, CECRUCSO, DICTA, APAO; y en Occidente, CASM, ODECO, EAPO, MAPANCE. Sin embargo, se trabaja con varias organizaciones colaboradores también, COPECO-CENAOS, SAG-DICTA, FHIA INFOAGRO, ADOPCAM, Aeronáutica, Fundación Jicatuyo, UNAH-TEC, Danlí, COMICAOL, MAP Paraíso, MAGRO, Alcaldía DC, GOAL, COMSA, EAP Zamorano, CATIE y DAI -USAID.Se hablo sobre la estrategia de capacitación intensiva que se está realizando en Honduras la cual de 7 módulos que se identificaron a partir del Hubmeeting 2022. El proceso inicio con la selección para técnicos que participarán en curso en Agricultura Sustentable en abril-mayo de 2023, encontrando 79 técnicos inscritos, de estos 54 participaron en el proceso, seleccionando a 19 para oriente y 14 para occidente. La implementación del curso a partir del 15 de mayo de 2023 hasta la fecha y se lleva el 95% de avances solo faltando la sesión presencial de poscosecha. Considerando las siguientes temáticas:El conjunto de estas colaboraciones y capacitaciones ha permitido implementar una infraestructura en los Innovahubs encontrando módulos de innovación, áreas de extensión y plataformas de investigación, así como diversos cursos a productores, esta información se encuentra en e-agrology. d) Paquete de trabajo 5 -Políticas Públicas.El paquete de trabajo en discusión no ha incursionado en Honduras. La sesión tuvo como objetivo explicar cómo se puede apoyar a la red de innovación. Para ello, se identificaron tres ejes estratégicos: migración, cambio climático y seguridad alimentaria. El documento en extenso mencionado anteriormente (entregable de WP5), que reportara sobre los resultados de las entrevistas a profundidad realizadas con cada socio.El enfoque del trabajo se dirige hacia acciones específicas, como la Iniciativa de Sistemas Agroalimentarios Integrados (IASI). Esta iniciativa se basa en una metodología integradora y multisectorial aplicable a diferentes niveles: local, nacional y regional. Se destaca la importancia de comprender los problemas y necesidades del sistema en cuestión para co-diseñar y elaborar una visión común. A partir de esta visión, se pueden identificar acciones estratégicas, que incluyen:▪ Mapeo de instrumentos de política. ▪ Fortalecimiento de la cadena de valor. ▪ Identificación de intervenciones en seguridad alimentaria y nutricional a nivel municipal.▪ Análisis de eventos climáticos y su relación con la migración externa. ▪ Identificación de barreras culturales y económicas que afectan la participación de las mujeres en los Sistemas Agroalimentarios.Como resultado de la sesión, los participantes tuvieron la oportunidad de identificar las acciones que podrán implementar durante el año 2024.e) Socialización de avances en Género e Inclusión Social (GESI)Durante la sesión, se destacó la importancia de la participación de diversos grupos, como mujeres, jóvenes, indígenas, personas con discapacidad, entre otros, en AgriLAC. Se enfatizó su papel crucial dentro de los Sistemas Agroalimentarios y cómo estos sistemas se transforman frente al cambio climático.Es fundamental reconocer que tanto mujeres como hombres desempeñan roles distintos en los sistemas alimentarios. Las mujeres rurales e indígenas, en particular, tienen un papel significativo en garantizar la seguridad alimentaria.Se subrayó que el cambio climático impacta de manera desigual en diferentes grupos sociales, dependiendo de factores como género, edad, origen étnico, clase social y lugar de residencia.Lamentablemente, las comunidades rurales más pobres son las más afectadas por el cambio climático, lo que resulta en inseguridad alimentaria, migración y otros desafíos. Se reconoció que las mujeres rurales e indígenas enfrentan mayores dificultades para adaptarse al cambio climático en comparación con los hombres. En el contexto familiar y comunitario, las mujeres tienen un acceso limitado a recursos económicos y oportunidades laborales en comparación con los hombres. Además, enfrentan normas de género restrictivas que limitan su capacidad para actuar y tomar decisiones de manera autónoma.Intercambio de experiencias en la implementación de AgriLAC Resiliente en los Innovahubs.En Honduras, esta parte se manejó como un taller centrado al análisis de las redes existentes dentro de los Innovahubs, con ello socializar los avances de la infraestructura, innovaciones y desarrollo de capacidades, y abundar sobre el menú digital y variables climáticas, genero e inclusión social, para finalmente definir las tendencias actuales y dimensionar los elementos claves para escalamiento de las innovaciones.Iniciando se preguntó a los participantes con quien interactúan o colaboran más seguido, generar la nube de palabras dado en Figura 5. ARSARGO aparece como un socio estrategia, especialmente estratégico en el hub Oriente -aunque también venia con un equipo grande de representantes. Viendo que CIAT y CIMMYT casi al mismo nivel que ARSAGRO indica que la red aun es muy dependiente de los centros de CGIAR y que en este momento la red de innovación en Honduras aún está en formación, como es de esperar. Sin embargo, preguntando sobre la frecuencia de interacciones, al menos 26 interacciones son de alta frecuencia, con 13 participantes respondiendo interacciones diarias y 13 semanales, lo cual indica una vinculación fuerte entre los socios y los otros miembros del Innovahub. El trabajo de los actores en los territorios de Honduras es bastante balanceado con un 34% participantes del Innovahub Oriente, 31% del Innovahub Occidente y 34% que operan a nivel nacional. Gracias a la iniciativa AgriLAC, se ha iniciado el proceso de adaptación de un conjunto de tecnologías, representado por un menú tecnológico que incluye alrededor de 40 innovaciones, como se muestra en la Figura 6. En cuanto a la adopción de innovaciones, destaca e-Agrology como una herramienta digital que está fortaleciendo la red al proporcionar datos valiosos. Además, se resaltan los temas de género y agricultura de conservación. Es importante señalar que el proceso de capacitación ha sido fundamental para los miembros de los Innovahubs.Figura 6. Menú de innovaciones identificado por los actores de la red en el marco de AgriLAC ResilienteAsí mismo se han implementados capacitaciones resaltando temas como diagnóstico de parcela, plagasenfermedades, agricultura de conservación entre otros, identificando que el 40% los socios han realizado 1 a 3 eventos en su mayoría y otro 40% han realizado más de 7 eventos (Figura 7). Aunado a esto se identificó que los principales participantes en los eventos son productores y adicionalmente han participado estudiantes, docentes y funcionarios públicos, demostrando que a través de las acciones integrales se está logrando alcanzar un público amplio y adecuado dentro de los Innovahubs.Figura 7. Perfiles percibidos de los participantes en eventos de capacitación (izquierda) y numero de eventos organizado por socio/colaborador dentro del Innovahub (derecha)Socios y aliados identificaron cambio climático, malezas, enfermedades y plagas como limitantes principales para la producción en los sistemas agroalimentarios, lo cual permite la necesidad de reforzar acciones en este sentido en Honduras (Figura 8).Figura 8. Limitantes para la producción en los sistemas agroalimentarios de Honduras percibidos por los socios y aliados de los Innovahubs.Indagando sobre las tecnologías digitales más utilizadas dentro del ámbito del Innovahubs, se recibió las siguientes respuestas (Figura 9), dejando claro que e-Agrology es considera y usada como la principal solución digital seguido de WhatsApp, evidencia que estas herramientas son clave para la difusión de recomendaciones técnicas, compartir información climática, capacitaciones y eventos entre otros. Sin embargo, es notable que se mencionaron también herramientas más especializadas como kobox toolbox y qgis que demuestra un nivel de maduración en el uso de herramientas digitales para el agro.  Con base en estos resultados se concluye que la red de innovación en los Innovahubs Occidente y Oriente, se está desarrollando de manera positiva y es necesario continuar con los procesos de en los Innovahubs (Figura 10).Figura 10. Dinámica sobre rol del Innovahub percibidos por los participantes, con \"el modelo del Innovahub es claro para todos\" (izquierda) y \"somos parte de los Innovahubs\" (derecha)Taller: Escalamiento desde el Innovahub El taller de escalamiento se enfocó en cómo se puede escalar los avances realizados desde el Innovahub y para ello hablo los diferentes procesos de escalamiento y que requerimos para poder escalar desde una perspectiva integral, observando que la acción más fuerte que ha realizado el Innovahub ha sido en Ciencia, Tecnología e Infraestructura, y en Sociedad y Cultura. El rubro donde hubo menos resultados es el de política pública y gobierno, que quedaron con solo algunos ejemplos como las tecnología e infraestructura, la capacitación de técnicos, y el desarrollo de plataformas de investigación.Taller: Líneas de Acción 2024En Honduras también se empleó un esquema de carrusel para planear las acciones relevantes para 2024, pero donde las estaciones fueron principalmente lideradas por los grupos de participantes, sin diferenciar si fueron productores, socios o colaboradores más técnicos. En Tabla 10, se muestra los resultados de estas conversaciones y se define las acciones a desarrollar en Honduras en el marco de la iniciativa AgriLAC resiliente.Tabla 10. Temas de interés por estación/colaborador principal para desarrollar en 2024 dentro del InnovahubFundación Jicatuyo ▪ Capacitar a los productores con base en los resultados de la investigación ▪ Temas de interés Poscosecha y MIAF ▪ Posibilidad de explorar ODK para soluciones ▪ Realizar estudios socioeconómicos ▪ Impulsar la capacitación a distancia vía WhatsApp ▪ Asesoría para elaborar su estrategia de genero institucional ODECO ▪ Capacitación en temas de poscosecha. ▪ Evaluar prácticas para el manejo del suelo y manejo agronómico. ▪ Socializar la información de la investigación para impulsar módulos de innovación con esta referencia. ▪ Incorporar acciones de las mesas o datos de clima en e-Agrology. ▪ Difusión de análisis de los datos de e-Agrology. ▪ Diseñar materiales de capacitación a distancia. ▪ Implementar más infraestructura del Hub y fortalecer al equipo técnico.▪ Escalar la información sobre prácticas alternativas de manejo de maíz y frijol para seguridad alimentaria Caja de crédito Malutena ▪ Desarrollar un banco de semillas de nativas de maíz y frijol ▪ Evaluar la sostenibilidad de la red de pluviómetros y vincular con la mesa de Intibucá ▪ Colocar alrededor de 4 módulos de innovación. ▪ Dar seguimiento a Plan de Adaptación al Cambio Climático Comunitario ▪ Escalar los diagnósticos de las parcelas de los productores, y escalar los graneros para que hagan comunitarios ▪ Realizar un proceso de sensibilización OCDIH ▪ Apoyo en la definición de dosis de fertilizantes, arreglos topológicos y densidades con base en los resultados de la plataforma. ▪ Trasmitir información climática dinámica. ▪ Mantener infraestructura en sus zonas de intervención. ▪ Vincular a promotores agrícolas a los cursos. ▪ Motivar a las mujeres para que se involucren en procesos de producción agrícola.▪ Recomendación en el uso de variedades. ▪ Socializar los reportes de las evaluaciones de semillas mejoradas ▪ Apoyar en la sistematización de la información que genera la mancomunidad. ▪ Escalar sus acciones al modelo de hub ▪ Integrar los trabajos de municipios en seguridad alimentaria.MTA Santa Rosa ▪ Capacitación a los integrantes de la mesa en temas de investigación. ▪ Capacitar a los equipos técnicos de la SAG de Copan y Lempira ▪ Incorporar el tema de generó en la mesa.▪ Implementar la plataforma de investigación ▪ Seguimiento de egresados, para vincularlos al Innovahub. ▪ Considerar a los estudiantes en el curso intensivo.▪ Establecer pequeños centros de acopio, y proteger los precios con los intermediarios ▪ Fortalecer capacitación en género e inclusión social a Personal de EAPOSistema Café (Orson)▪ Apoyar su intervención con la base científica de las plataformas.▪ Análisis del impacto de carbono y cruzar con la información de e-Agrology. ▪ Capacitación en temas específicos como fertilidad y mecanización. ▪ Escalar la información de las mesas técnicas agroclimáticas ▪ Charlas de empoderamiento a jóvenes, porque las cooperativas no tienen relieve generacionalCapacitación a los integrantes de la mesa en temas de investigación. Homologar los boletines y apoyar en los roles de los integrantes de la mesa. Desarrollar un encuentro de observadores del clima. Difusión de las innovaciones a través de los integrantes de la mesa.Escalar las estaciones pluviométricas, ampliar la red que permita mejorar los pronósticos meteorológicos, en zonas cafetaleras. Incorporar el tema de generó en la mesa.Buscar espacios de colaboración. Vincular estudiantes a las acciones del Innovahub. Seguridad alimentaria y agricultura Genero Mujeres, reformación y generar conocimientos. Socios de investigación en temas de mapeo. Fortalecer redes de mujeres vinculadas a la agricultura alineadas a los Innovahubs CECRUCSO ▪ Validar insumos orgánicos como bioles, compostas. o Insumos orgánicos de las biofábricas o Ensayo de biofertilizantes. ▪ Realizar ajustes en la bitácora de ODK. ▪ Precios de garantía para maíz, frijol y café contextualizado a los costos e insumos. ▪ Tenencia de tierra para las mujeres.▪ Ayudar a consolidar un grupo de mujeres convocándolas para emprendimientos alternativos Figura 11. Socios y aliados de los Innovahubs Oriente y Occidente de HondurasTras un año de haber iniciado la implementación de los Innovahubs con los socios locales en el marco de la iniciativa AgriLAC Resiliente, se ha colectivamente logrado una mayor claridad en las actividades, productos y objetivos perseguidos. La colaboración con los socios de cada Innovahub ha sido esencial, considerando su trayectoria en desarrollo territorial. Al mismo tiempo, se ha señalado el interés de fortalecer los procesos de generación de ingresos, la agregación de valor y la intervención en sistemas agrícolas y pecuarios de alto valor comercial, beneficiando especialmente a mujeres y jóvenes.En Guatemala, el fortalecimiento de capacidades ha sido y sigue siendo crucial, abarcando desde aspectos agronómicos hasta agregación de valor y vinculación con el mercado. La formación de líderes comunitarios y técnicos certificados en agricultura sustentable es esencial. Además, se ha identificado la necesidad de fortalecer capacidades humanas a nivel municipal, especialmente en adaptación a la variabilidad climática. En Honduras, especialmente la integración de socios en las regiones occidental y oriental muestra un progreso notable. Se ha evidenciado una colaboración efectiva y una fuerte vinculación entre los socios. El enfoque en género e inclusión social ha sido destacado, abriendo oportunidades para colaboraciones futuras. En términos de escalamiento, se reconoce la importancia de una expansión sustentable y sostenible, alejándose de modelos industriales tradicionales.Finalmente, las conversaciones con socios y aliados han proporcionado una visión clara de las necesidades y prioridades para 2024. Esto será fundamental para definir las líneas de acción y la planificación estratégica de la iniciativa AgriLAC Resiliente en su tercer año de implementación. ","tokenCount":"7410"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5cb20a76b573b6565f4443b592f09e60","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7f06b152-de3b-4b98-9139-e5c7de4d2a69/retrieve","id":"-789347400"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"083e19c0-84fe-4069-b1c5-78b4b5406dfe","pagecount":"25","content":"A training manual on artificial insemination in goats ilri.org Better lives through livestock ILRI is a member of the CGIAR ConsortiumSouth Asian countries, notably Pakistan, being one of the centres of livestock domestication are endowed with diverse livestock genetic resources, in particular goats and sheep. Better genetic management (i.e. improvement and conservation) is key to sustainable utilization of such genetic diversity. Traditionally in Pakistan, every year, millions of genetically \"superior\" indigenous bucks and rams with faster growth rates and potential for higher carcass yields are castrated before they reach breeding age, thus are unable to transmit such genetic superiority to the subsequent generations. This is a routine practice by farmers involved in rearing goats for 'Eid' sacrificial purpose and leads to continuous negative genetic selection. This practice is undesirable in the long run, as it has resulted in scarcity of quality breeding bucks.With the objective of sustainably conserving the genetic diversity in goats and chicken in Pakistan, and other three Asian countries, ILRI executed Global Environmental Facility (GEF) funded project titled \"Development and application of decision-support tools to conserve and sustainably use genetic diversity in indigenous livestock and wild relatives\". The project is implemented by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and started in 2009. Through this project several awareness creation activities organized by the University of Agriculture (UAF) Faisalabad were conducted among farmers and policy makers. Specifically, national and provincial goat shows and breed shows were organized during which farmers registered their goats, which were then objectively assessed for economically important traits and then ranked.As a follow-up to above efforts and as part of a strategic and long-term strategy to ensuring sustainable availability of good quality breeding males, ILRI together with UAF developed the goat AI manual and launched the first 'handson' training on 'Artificial insemination in indigenous goats' using the manual. The development of the manual and the training was supported by the 'Agricultural Innovations Program (AIP) for Pakistan led by CIMMYT and funded by USAID, and the livestock component of which is led by ILRI. Initially, 24 master trainers from Punjab, Sindh, KPK, Balochistan AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan were trained on AI using the manual.The authors gratefully acknowledge the University of Agriculture (UAF) Faisalabad for organizing the breed promotion shows and awareness activities, and the AIP, GEF and UNEP for funding and supporting these activities and specifically, UAF for providing the logistic support that enabled the success of the awareness creations and training events.Reproduction is critical to attainment of profitability in any livestock enterprise, including goat rearing. The breeding program on the farm will play a key role in the attainment of reproductive efficiency. Various assisted reproductive technologies have been applied to accelerate the genetic gain and enhance reproductive performance of various livestock species. In goat rearing, Artificial Insemination (AI) is currently the most practical technology for optimizing reproductive efficiency. AI accelerates the rate of genetic gain within a herd, maximizes the number of offspring from a desirable sire, enables genetic exchange over wide geographical areas, and also allows use of genetic material from incapacitated sires or those no longer alive if their semen had been preserved. AI is an acquired technique which when skillfully utilized based on knowledge, is practical to use and results in good success. The goat artificial insemination training manual is useful for AI technicians, herd managers and animal health service providers in the livestock sector. It is designed to complement classroom training as well as a refresher manual for service providers in order to optimize breeding and reproductive performance of dairy goat herds for improved productivity.Successful artificial insemination depends on the understanding of the organs involved in reproduction, in order to know where to deposit semen for optimal conception rates.The vulva is the visible exterior segment of the reproductive tract, located beneath the tail and immediately below the anus. It consists of two vertical lips or labia. It is the entry to the female reproductive tract during copulation. Apposition of the moist vulva lips together with its sphincter form a physical barrier that prevents entry of foreign material and contamination of the female reproductive tract. When the doe is on heat the vulva may be swollen, reddened and mucus may be seen coming through the lips. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/10-099.htm Anterior to the vulva is the vestibule, at the base of which is the clitoris and urethra where urine exits through. During AI one has to be careful not to introduce the AI pipette into the urethra.The vagina is directly in front of the vestibule. It is a tubular structure and is the organ of copulation where the buck deposits semen during mating.Cranial to the vagina is the cervix. Compared to the rest of tubular genitalia, it is a firm structure and forms the joint between the vagina and the uterus. It is about one to one-half inches long, contains about five cervical rings or folds, and is referred to as the neck of the uterus. It is usually closed to create a physical barrier that prevents foreign objects from entering the uterus. During pregnancy, a thick mucus plug closes the cervix to keep out material from entering the uterus and thus safeguarding the pregnancy. When the doe is on heat the cervix opens and secretes mucus to allow for movement of spermatozoa to the site of fertilization. This opening of the cervix during oestrus is the one that allows passage of the insemination pipette through the cervix in order to perform AI. At the end of pregnancy the cervix will fully open to allow for delivery of the kid.After the cervix comes the uterus. It consists of a small uterine body and two separate horns (cornua). It is the organ that houses the growing fetus during pregnancy and also produces substances (hormones) that are involved in the regulation of the reproductive cycle.Oviducts project from the front end of each uterine horn. Each oviduct is a thin tubular structure and is a conduit between its ovary and uterine horn. The oviduct is the place where fertilization takes place. At its tip, the oviduct opens like a funnel (infundibulum) near the ovary. The infundibulum is the structure that receives the ova released from the ovary, directs them to the opening of the oviduct for transport to the site of fertilization.The ovaries are the innermost structures of the reproductive tract. They produce the egg (ovum), and also the hormones that are responsible for oestrus and maintaining pregnancy. From puberty on throughout the reproductive life, the ovary contains follicles (fluid filled structures in which the ovum develops and is suspended) and a corpus luteum (a temporary structure formed by a ruptured mature follicle that has released its ovum). The fluid inside the follicle is rich in the hormone estrogen. At a particular time, the follicle ruptures to produce the egg, in a process referred to as ovulation. After the follicle has ruptured and released the egg, a yellow body, the corpus luteum, develops at the site of the ruptured follicle. It is a structure that grows rapidly on the ovary and then undergoes lysis (death) after some days if the doe does not get pregnant. The corpus luteum produces the hormone progesterone, which regulates the oestruscycle and is also responsible for maintenance of pregnancy. See http://www.omafra.gov. on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/10-099.htm for the structure of the female reproductive tract.The visible parts of the male reproductive tract are scrotum, prepuce and penis. The scrotum is the muscular sac hanging between the hind legs and it contains the testes, which are the paired male gonads. The scrotum supports and protects the testes and plays a major role in temperature regulation. It maintains the temperature of the testes at 3 to 5°C below body temperature for optimal functioning of the testes. The testes produce the male gametes (spermatozoa) and secrete the male sex hormone, testosterone. Testosterone is required for the development of the male sexual characteristics, maintenance of normal sexual behavior and sperm production. The penis is the organ of copulation which allows the buck to deposit semen into the vagina of the doe. At the tip of the penis is a thin tubular structure, the urethral process, which sprays the semen in and around the cervix of the doe. The penis is covered by the prepuce, a fold of skin which protects it. Please see http://www.extension.org/pages/19265/anatomy-maleanatomy#.Uvo7BGLViAg for anatomy of the male reproductive tract. The other parts of the male reproductive tract are the accessory glands, which are not externally visible. They are the seminal vesicles, prostate, bulbourethral glands and ampulla. They add fluid to the sperm, together forming semen, which is the one produced by the buck during mating in a process referred to as ejaculation. These fluids contain sugars which nourish the sperm, provide buffers hence prevent rapid changes in pH, and other chemicals that protect and propel the sperm through the male reproductive tract during ejaculation. The vas deferens is the duct through which sperm moves from the testes to the urethra. The amount of sperm in an ejaculate and the volume of the ejaculate depend on the season, age of the buck, level of sexual activity, breed and the individual buck itself. A normal range of ejaculate volume in the buck is 0.5 to 1.5 ml, containing 1.5 to 5 billion sperm per ml of ejaculate.• As part of the practical session for the above, female and male reproductive organs in live animals and abattoirs specimens are examined and used to illustrate or explain the functional anatomy of the different parts of the reproductive system.Young female goats or doelings reach puberty at about 6 to 8 months of age and may be bred at 7 to 10 months of age depending on how they have been fed and grown. Puberty is the stage of sexual development at which the doe is capable of getting pregnant, if it is mated. Various factors affect the onset of puberty, including, healthcare, nutrition, season of birth and breed. Poor nutrition delays puberty; smaller breeds of goats attain puberty earlier; whereas kids born during the season when feed is plenty and of good quality attain puberty earlier. Breeding of does for the first time should be based on body weight as proportion of mature weight, and not age at which puberty is attained. It is recommended that young females should be bred after they have attained 60 to 70% of their adult weight to ensure kidding ease and avoid dystocia. Puberty is more dependent on body weight than age, so breeding should not be done until the right weight is attained.Once puberty is attained, the doe comes on heat (oestrus) at regular intervals thereafter. Oestrus is associated with the desire to be bred. This behavior (oestrus) is repeated at regular intervals, unless interrupted by pregnancy or disease, and this repetition is referred to as the oestruscycle. Therefore, the oestruscycle is defined as the number of days between two consecutive periods of oestrus. A healthy doe will come into oestrus every 20 to 21 days, except when pregnant. In different individuals and breeds, however, the oestruscycle length can range between 17 to 25 days. To help determine the oestruscycle length of each breeding doe, the producer should maintain a breeding diary or records. Good records are important for informing a breeding program, as they can help the breeder predict when a doe is likely to come on heat, and thus enable more careful observation for heat signs at that time. Additionally, good records will help determine if a doe has a problem, if she comes on heat too early, delays, or fails to come on heat at the expected time and she has not been previously bred.When does are on heat, they exhibit various physiological and behavioral changes, referred to as signs of oestrus. These signs of heat are:• Bleating continuously• The vulva may become swollen, reddened and may appear moist, dirty or muddy due to mucus discharge from the reproductive tract• There is frequent twitching of the tail• She may urinate small amounts of urine frequently• A clear, stringy mucus discharge may be seen from the vulva (may mat hair in perineal area)• The doe displays restlessness• She may mount other goats and stand to be mountedThe doe may not exhibit all the above signs, and under adverse conditions, such as extreme heat and injuries, may not show any signs at all. Standing to be mounted is the most obvious or accurate sign that a doe is on heat. Standing to be mounted will be enhanced in the presence of a buck. Does not in oestrus will always resist mounting attempts by the buck or other does. Standing oestrus in does may last for 12 to 36 hours.Upon reaching puberty, every three weeks the doe's brain signals the follicle in the ovary to start developing the egg. The signal from the brain is from the hypothalamus which releases the hormone Gonadotropin Releasing hormone, or GnRH. This hormone stimulates the pituitary gland at the base of the brain to produce gonadotropin hormones, Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH). Follicle stimulating hormone, as the name implies, initiates the development of follicles on the ovary from small pinhead sized structures to fluid-filled structures that are about half an inch in diameter. As a follicle grows in size, fluid accumulates in its cavity and secretes estrogen hormone. Estrogen is the female sex hormone. It is secreted into the blood stream and circulates throughout the body. Estrogen production is greatest when the follicle reaches its maximum size. High levels of estrogen act on the does' brain resulting in the changes in the doe that are manifested as heat signs. It affects the nervous system causing behavioral changes such as restlessness, increased vocalization, twitching of the tail, lack of appetite, desire to mate by standing to be mounted, and also affects the reproductive system by increasing blood flow to the reproductive tract causing swelling of the vulva, reddening of the vulva, and the mucus discharge seen from the vulva during oestrus.Once estrogen levels from the mature follicle reach a certain threshold, they stimulate a peak release of LH (LH surge). The LH surge causes the mature follicle to undergo changes that result into its rupture and release of the egg. This rupture of the mature follicle and release of the egg is referred to as ovulation. After ovulation, the cells inside the ruptured follicle begin to grow and undergo changes (luteinization) under the influence of the gonadotropin hormone LH to form a gland called the Corpus Luteum (CL), the yellow body. The CL produces progesterone, the hormone of pregnancy. Its function is to prepare the uterus for accepting the fertilized egg, and to maintain pregnancy by preventing recurrence of the oestruscycle during gestation. If fertilization does not occur, the CL is destroyed at about 16 days after heat and consequently stops producing progesterone. Destruction of the CL is caused by the hormone prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) which is produced by the inner wall of the uterus. The drop in progesterone concentration is consequently followed by a rise in gonadotropin release (FSH and LH), development of another follicle(s) and egg(s), and recurrence of heat about 20 to 21 days after the previous heat period. This cycle will continue throughout the reproductive life of the doe and will only be interrupted by pregnancy, disease, malnutrition or senility. See http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPrinterFriendlyPub.aspx?p=MP735 for schematic representation of the oestruscycle.When the egg is fertilized and accepted, the presence of the developing foetus in the uterus sends a signal to the dam causing the CL to remain active and produce progesterone for maintenance of pregnancy. This process is referred to as maternal recognition of pregnancy.Heat detection is one of the factors that greatly determines the success or failure of any AI program. Under natural mating conditions, the buck accurately picks the does that are on heat, and if he is normal, promptly mates them. However, with AI, the inseminator replaces the buck. Therefore, for optimal conception rates to be achieved with AI, the doe has to be inseminated at the appropriate time, and thus it is important to recognize when a doe is on heat and to breed her at the right time. For a successful genetic improvement program and efficient delivery of superior genetics through AI service, good heat detection is therefore critical. It is recommended that a person be designated to observe animals in the herd for heat signs at least twice a day. Sufficient time (at least 15 minutes depending on herd size) should be allocated for the exercise, and it should not coincide with periods of activities, such as feeding, that would distract the attention of the animals. Preferably it should be done during the cooler parts of the day (morning and evening) when the animals are resting. Accurate heat detection greatly enhances the success of an AI program.Oestrus detection techniques:• Having a buck in close proximity to the does. Does in heat are more easily identifiable if a buck is housed nearby. The signs of heat will be more intense, and she will pace restlessly along the pen in an effort to try and get to the buck or she will stand close to the fence with the hope of enticing the buck.• Time to observe heat. Animals tend to be more sexually active during the cooler parts of the day (around dawn and dusk) and this is a good time to observe for heat. Thirty minutes before morning feeding/milking and 30 minutes after evening feeding/milking should be used for heat detection. Putting a number of does together in one area or pen will facilitate the interaction between animals and make it easier to notice the heat signs.• Using a teaser buck. This is a buck that has been prepared in various ways so that he can be able to pick out does that are on heat but cannot be able to make them pregnant. A teaser buck could be an entire buck with an apron or whole penis has been deviated, hence is able to detect and mount does on heat but whose penis will be unable to enter the female genitalia; it could also be a vasectomized buck, who will detect does on heat, mount and copulate with them but is incapable of depositing spermatozoa into the female reproductive system.• Using a teaser with a marking harness. Markers will leave identifications on the ramps of does that stood to be mounted (were on heat). This way labor is saved as someone does not have to be with the herd to check for the does standing to be mounted. The marked does would be noted in the morning or evening each day.• Anticipate heat with records. Using well-kept reproductive records, it is possible to predict when the doe would come on heat, thus enabling closer observation.Figure 4. A buck for heat detection with an apron.Photo courtesy of M.S. KhanGroup discussion among trainees is facilitated on goat production, including the following:• When does attain puberty; age versus weight• Factors that affect onset of puberty• Management strategies that can be utilized to enhance early onset of puberty• Advantage(s) of enhancing early onset of puberty• Age at first breeding• Age versus weight as criteria for first breeding,• What sexual maturity is• Difference between sexual maturity and puberty• How to tell a doe is on heat?Trouble-shooting heat detection 3.0 Semen storage Semen to be used for AI is collected from selected bucks, processed and safely stored. The processing includes dilution of the ejaculate with a semen extender in order to produce many doses from a given ejaculate. Cryoprotectant are added to protect the spermatozoa from being destroyed during the freezing process. The extended semen is then packed in labelled straws and stored frozen in liquid nitrogen in tanks at -196°C. At this temperature, the spermatozoa remain inactive but viable. Each semen straw contains the necessary number of spermatozoa for one insemination to be able to cause conception. The straw is labelled with information regarding the buck from which it was collected (sire code and breed), date of processing and semen processing station code.Liquid nitrogen tanks (Figures 5, 6 and 7) are large metal vacuum containers used to store frozen semen. They come in different sizes and can store up to 100,000 semen straws for many years. The tanks are well insulated to help maintain temperatures at -196° C which is necessary for the semen to remain viable. At this low temperature, the metabolism of the sperm cells is stopped and they remain in resting state. The working parts of the tank are a lid, styrofoam cork, canisters, canes, the inner chamber that holds the liquid nitrogen, and a spider to keep the canisters from moving around. The cork is 4-6 inches in length with grooves on the sides for the canister handles. The cork fits loosely in the neck of the tank, allowing for the evaporating nitrogen gas to escape. If capped too tightly, the gas would build up pressure in the tank resulting in an explosion.Canisters hang from the top of the tank supported by their wire handles which protrude to the outside at the top of the tank. The canisters are usually six in number and their long wire handles are used to lift the cylindrical end of the canister in and out of the tank. The canisters hold the canes that contain the semen straws. For ease of management of the semen inventory, the canister handle and/or the groove that supports it on the tank are numbered to facilitate quick identification of the semen straw that needs to be picked from the tank.  Great care should be taken when handling a liquid nitrogen tank and its contents. Close attention should be paid to the vacuum port. Liquid nitrogen should not be spilt on it or loss of vacuum may occur rendering the tank dysfunctional. Signs of vacuum loss include a strong hissing sound and ice crystal formation around the neck of the tank. It is important to monitor liquid nitrogen levels on a regular basis to make sure the levels are adequate in order to avoid semen damage. A liquid nitrogen tank measuring stick should be used for estimating the liquid nitrogen levels.It is important to take good care of the tank by routinely doing the following:• Regularly replenish the liquid nitrogen in the tank to avoid levels falling low and damaging the semen. Liquid nitrogen is lost through evaporation, and each time the tank is opened. If the semen straw is not submerged in the liquid nitrogen its temperature will rise resulting in death of the spermatozoa.• Canisters should not be raised more than 25cm above the neck of the tank, to prevent semen straws from being exposed to high temperatures as this may damage the spermatozoa. Once raised, the canister should be lowered back into the tank as soon as possible, preferably, within 3 seconds. This avoids excessive temperature fluctuation within the semen straws. When a canister is raised and then lowered into the tank, a bubbling/boiling sound is heard. This is due to the temperature change resulting from the relatively warmer canister heating up the liquid nitrogen.• A semen inventory should be maintained to track semen straw quantities, use, replacement and their canister assignment. This allows quick and easy location of the desired semen straw when it is needed for insemination.• The top of each cane should be marked, clearly identifying the cane's contents. If possible, avoid storing semen straws from more than one buck in a single cane.• A catalog or map of the tank's contents should be maintained. Any change in inventory within the tank should be noted in the map.• The stopper should never be forced into the tank. Doing so will damage the tank, reducing its longevity.• Dents to the tank should be avoided. Dents reduce the total volume of the tank and hence the liquid nitrogen holding time. Such tanks will require more frequent replenishment with liquid nitrogen, increasing the maintenance costs of the tank. Tanks should not be set unprotected on gravel, dirt, or concrete. They should be stored unboxed, in a clean, dry, visible, secure area, on surfaces such as clean carpet, wood, cardboard, a rubber mat, to protect the bottom from dents and scratches.• The tank should be kept clean and hygienic to avoid contaminating semen straws during AI and also the likelihood of spreading disease from one farm to the next.Practical Activities:The following activities are undertaken to enable the trainees learn how to best handle liquid nitrogen tanks:• Examination and appreciation of liquid nitrogen tanks and the various components• Handling of liquid nitrogen• Handling and maintenance of liquid nitrogen tanks• Semen packaging in straws and storage in liquid nitrogen tanks• Labelling on semen straws• Semen transfer from liquid nitrogen tanksArtificial insemination is a technique whereby semen collected from the buck is deposited by an AI service provider in the right place in the reproductive tract of the doe at the appropriate time. Usually the semen used is processed.After collection and evaluation, the semen that meets the required standards is extended to increase its volume so that it can give many breeding doses. Semen extension involves use of semen diluents or extenders that will nourish the spermatozoa and provide a good environment for their survival. The volume of extender added to the semen is worked out in such a manner that the resulting doses obtained from each ejaculate will contain a sufficient number (i.e. at least 20 million spermatozoa in each straw at the time of freezing, with at least 8 million being alive post-thaw) to cause fertilization. After extension the semen is packed, commonly in straws, and can be used fresh within a few hours, chilled for use within a few days, or frozen in liquid nitrogen for use even after many years. The standard procedure for inseminating does involves raising the rear quarters of the doe, with the forequarters on the ground, and with the help of a speculum and light source, locating the right position and depositing semen into the female reproductive tract.The advantages of using AI for breeding include:• It increases the rate of genetic improvement through maximal use of genetically superior bucks.• It increases the number of does to which a buck could be bred, as a single ejaculate can be extended into several breeding doses.• It enables introduction of new genetics whose availability may be limited by geographical location. Processed semen is light and can be transported across a long distance.• It reduces the risk of sexually transmitted diseases by eliminating natural mating.• It eliminates the cost of keeping a buck and the nuisance of having a buck in a herd• It is possible to accurately time when kiddings will occur since the breeding dates are known. This enables planning for presence of assistance during delivery if it will be needed.• If accompanied by good record keeping, it allows for more accurate pedigree recording in a herd.• The AI equipment are expensive and liquid nitrogen is not available everywhere • There will be increased labor costs for heat detection and insemination.• There is potential for rapid spread of undesirable traits, if bucks from which semen is sourced are not carefully evaluated. Since a semen from a superior buck can be used to breed many does and even across borders. If the buck had a genetic defect this will be widely spread in the population.,• If not well executed (i.e correctly timed, semen quality ascertained and qualified technician used), there is possibility of low pregnancy rates compared to natural mating.The success of any AI program is largely dependent on three primary factors:1.Use of viable semen. This is achieved by sourcing semen from reputable sources and proper handling and use of semen and the liquid nitrogen tank.Appropriate timing of insemination relative to oestrus. If the doe is inseminated too early (before ovulation) or too late (after ovulation), the result will be low conception rates. It is important to try and establish at what stage of oestrus the doe is in prior to inseminating her. This can be done by establishing when the doe was first seen on heat by critically interviewing the farmer/herdsman, and also by examining the mucus in the anterior vagina using a speculum and light source. Clear, thin, mucus is indicative of a doe that is early in oestrus. Cloudy mucus indicates a doe towards the end of oestrus. White or pale yellow thick/cheesy mucus indicates a doe coming out of oestrus.Proper deposition of semen in the doe's reproductive tract. During natural mating, semen is deposited inside the vagina next to or around the opening of the cervix. However, during AI, semen is deposited within the cervix or uterine body. Processed semen is diluted and a smaller volume is used. One of the reasons for low conception rates in goat AI is deposition of semen in the anterior vagina of the doe. Therefore, for good conception rates, the AI gun should be passed through the cervical opening (os cervix) for the semen to be deposited in the cervix or uterine body.Not every doe presented for AI must be inseminated. Only does that are in good health (body condition score of 2.5 to 3 on a scale of 1 to 5), are on a rising plane of nutrition, free from diseases, and good mothers should be bred using AI. Does that do not have regular cycles or those which are difficult to determine when or if they are in oestrus should not be bred by AI, but rather by natural mating.The following equipment and facilities are required for proper AI execution:• Breeding stand or facilities to restrain the doe.• Carrying case. A compact metal or plastic case for the safe and clean storage of AI equipment.• Artificial insemination (AI) gun. A goat length (usually 12 inch) device for delivering semen via a 0.25 or 0.5 ml straw. It can be disposable, or metallic for multiple use.• AI gun sheaths. They are sterile disposable plastic tubes that are applied over the AI gun to anchor the semen straw.• A light source which should fit in the vaginal speculum. It should generate little or no heat. A penlight could also be used.• Vaginal speculum (Figure 8). It is used to open the reproductive tract and together with the light source enables clear visualization of the opening of the cervix. Artificial insemination step by step and critical points:1.Ensure the presented doe is actually on heat. This can be established by a thorough discussion with the farmer or animal handler on what has been observed to warrant the animal being said to be on heat.Great care should be exercised to ensure that all the AI equipment is as clean as possible.Restrain the doe. It can be placed in the breeding stand, on a milking stand, or a similar elevation. The hind quarters could also be held up by holding the rear legs up with flexed hocks (Figure 11) to allow ease of access to the reproductive tract. Wipe the perineum clean and dry it.• Liquid nitrogen tank (Figure 9). A large metallic vacuum flask for holding liquid nitrogen in which semen straws are kept for long term storage.Figure 9. Liquid nitrogen tanks.• Liquid nitrogen tank measuring stick. For accurate monitoring of the level of liquid nitrogen in the tank. Measure the liquid nitrogen at least weekly.• Straw tweezers. For retrieval of semen straws from the liquid nitrogen tank, and also from the thawing bath.• Straw cutter. It enables a square cutting of the tip of the straw so that it seats properly in the AI gun sheath for appropriate semen deposition. A pair of scissors can also be used.• Lubricant. For lubrication of the vaginal speculum prior to its insertion into the vagina. It should be sterile and nonspermicidal.• Semen thaw kit (Figure 10) or thermos flask with water thermometer, and a timer. It is for the proper thawing of semen at the right temperature.Figure 10. Semen thawing kit: Should consist of a thermos flask with warm water, a thermometer and timer.• Paper towels. For cleaning the vulva and drying the straws.• Records. Can be in the form of a book, card, or electronic. Records are important for assessing the reproductive performance of the does.   Vaginal mucus changes during heat. At the beginning of heat, very little mucus is present. As heat progresses, the mucus is transparent and found on the floor of the vagina. Towards the end of heat the mucus is cloudy: this is the best time to inseminate. The AI should be just before or when the mucus turns cloudy -usually 12 to 15 h after start of heat. If the doe is still on heat 12 h later, it should be bred again. At the end of heat the mucus is cheesy and white.Figure 14. Oestrus mucus in the doe.Identify the right canister (usually in different colours or numbers, denoting different bucks) with the cane with the required semen straw (Figure 15). Lift canister only enough to read the canes (Figure 16).Figure 16. Raised canister showing semen straws.Using tweezers or forceps pick up the required straw from the cane and quickly replace the cane (Figure 17).Figure 17. Semen straw being picked from canister.Immediately place the straw in the thawing bath. Make sure the temperature is right (35 to 40°C). Thaw the straw for 30 to 45 seconds. Rule of thumb: higher temperature shorter time and vice versa.Remove straw from thaw bath, wipe it dry, and shake the air bubble to the end of the straw that will be cut.10. Load the semen straw into a warmed, dry, clean AI gun. Pull the plunger back on the AI gun and place the straw into the gun with the cotton plug toward the plunger. After the straw has been secured in the gun, the sealed end of the straw should be cut at a right angle with a straw cutter or sharp scissors. Apply the sheath over the AI gun and secure it with the O ring.11. Slowly and gently insert the lubricated speculum and light source into the reproductive tract by using a twisting motion and slight pressure to visualize the cervix. The speculum may have to be moved slightly back and forth or sideways to identify the cervix, which looks like a small rosette-shaped structure (Figure 18). 13. Slowly deposit the semen by gently pushing the plunger of AI gun (Figure 19). If the plunger is pushed too rapidly some semen will remain in the AI gun.  Note: AI can also be done using fresh or chilled semen.Practical Activities: Each trainee, under close supervision by a trainer, repeatedly goes through the following:• Artificial insemination hands-on practice on does on heat until proficiency is attained• Artificial insemination recording• Assessing causes and management of AI failure.Oestrus synchronization is the manipulation of the estrous cycle of does so that many can come on heat at the same predicted time, or a doe so that she comes on heat at a predictable time.Advantages of oestrus synchronization include:• It improves the accuracy of prediction of oestrus as heat is expected to occur within a specified time period.• It makes heat detection easier as observation for heat signs can be concentrated at the specific period within which it is expected to occur, and not every day. This will cut down on the time and labor costs of frequent heat observation.• It improves the efficiency and cost of AI as many synchronized does can be inseminated at the same time by the same inseminator. When an AI technician serves many does in the same area around the same time this will cut down on the cost of each insemination due to economics of scale. The AI will also be more efficient as determination of the stage of oestrus in inseminated does can be more easily established than in those that come on heat naturally.• It can enable fixed-time AI. Oestrus synchronization, especially under intensive goat production systems, can utilize protocols that enable AI to be done at a specific predetermined time following a synchronization treatment irrespective of whether the does are seen on heat or not. This saves on time and cost of heat observation.• It can allow for clustered kiddings thus enable more efficient herd management and market access:• Several young kids born around the same time can be more intensively taken care of for limited periods, as opposed to all year round when kiddings are not controlled.• Kidding can be synchronized to occur at specific times to coincide with market needs for example when there is feed availability for the dam and young for milk production and growth, or market demand for goats.Different methods are available to synchronize oestrus in does. These include:• Use of exogenous hormones• The male/buck effect Hormones for estrous synchronization Two hormones, progesterone and prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) are the primary hormones used for oestrus synchronization. However, other hormones such GnRH have been incorporated in various protocols.It mimics the function of the corpus luteum by preventing hormonal activity that controls the estrous cycle. Progesterone blocks the secretion of FSH and LH from the pituitary gland and therefore follicles do not develop and grow on the ovary, consequently blocking the estrous cycle. It is administered for a number of days and then discontinued. Once discontinued, the block it had on FSH and LH secretion is removed. The decreased progesterone concentration results in the release of FSH and LH, follicular development and maturation in the ovary, and oestrus can be expected in 24 to 36 hours of removal. It can be administered as:• Vaginal sponge. It is put in the anterior vagina of the doe.• A Controlled Intravaginal Drug Release (CIDR) device. A CIDR is a plastic device that contains progesterone. These devices are usually used in conjunction with GnRH and PGF2α. The CIDR is inserted in the doe's vagina for 8 to 17 days following the injection of PGF2α. As long as the CIDR is in place it releases progesterone into the bloodstream of the doe. When the CIDR is removed, there is rapid fall in progesterone level, much as progesterone falls in the normal cycle, and the does come on heat within 72 hours.• Implant. It is put below the skin in the ear or tail.It causes regression of the CL, resulting in removal of the negative block progesterone has on FSH and LH release. When this progesterone block is removed, follicles develop, mature and the does come on heat within 36 to 72 hours of administration. It is given as an injection. It is cheaper than using progesterone. However, it only works when there is a responsive CL on the ovary, and this limits its use as there are periods within the estrous cycle when it will not be effective. Two doses of PGF2α 11 days apart will synchronize a group of does. Prostaglandin has to be used with care as it can cause abortion in pregnant does.The male/buck effect for oestrus synchronizationThe buck can be used to stimulate oestrus activity in does that have been previously isolated from bucks. After a period of separation, the buck is suddenly introduced into a group of sexually mature does. Many does may come into heat within 3 days of buck introduction.Practical Activities:The trainees are asked the following questions and are each requested to provide the answers, which are then further discussed:• When do most kiddings occur in your area?• Is goat breeding planned in your farms?• If yes, for what purpose?• What methods are used for controlling breeding?• For those who perform AI how do you conduct the run?• What factors determine the cost you charge the farmer for AI service?• What challenges do you face in goat AI practice?• What solutions would you suggest for the challenges identified above? ","tokenCount":"6628"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7f84337ab9de47bcfda268222bbcbdc4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/cecf9780-8b2c-408a-80d2-eab06ab4752a/content","id":"1957813556"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"abf538b7-66b7-4a1d-aa7e-dba28b4ff9cb","pagecount":"18","content":"The growth period traits are important traits that affect soybean yield. The insights into the genetic basis of growth period traits can provide theoretical basis for cultivated area division, rational distribution, and molecular breeding for soybean varieties. In this study, genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) was exploited to detect the quantitative trait loci (QTL) for number of days to flowering (ETF), number of days from flowering to maturity (FTM), and number of days to maturity (ETM) using 4032 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers with 146 cultivars mainly from Northeast China. Results showed that abundant phenotypic variation was presented in the population, and variation explained by genotype, environment, and genotype by environment interaction were all significant for each trait. The whole accessions could be clearly clustered into two subpopulations based on their genetic relatedness, and accessions in the same group were almost from the same province. GWAS based on the unified mixed model identified 19 significant SNPs distributed on 11 soybean chromosomes, 12 of which can be consistently detected in both planting densities, and 5 of which were pleotropic QTL. Of 19 SNPs, 7 SNPs located in or close to the previously reported QTL or genes controlling growth period traits. The QTL identified with high resolution in this study will enrich our genomic understanding of growth period traits and could then be explored as genetic markers to be used in genomic applications in soybean breeding.Soybean is a typical short-day plant [1]. Soybean cultivars adapted to specific geographical regions often differ in day-length perception that affect the length of time required to reach a given growth stage [2]. Soybean growth stages show high correlations with grain yield, plant height, pod number, and seed weight [3]. Therefore, understanding the genetic architecture of growth period traits will be useful for cultivated area division, rational distribution, and molecular breeding for soybean varieties.Soybean was grown at a wide range of latitudes, from at least 50°N to 35°S [4], however, each soybean cultivar generally has a specific geographic or latitudinal distribution to reach its high yield. Thirteen soybean maturity groups (MG 000, MG 00, MG 0, and MG I-X) have been well developed to estimate the range of adaptability to latitudinal or geographic zones of soybean cultivars in the USA and Canada [5][6]. The growth period of soybean can be divided into vegetative growth period, from seedling to flowering, and reproductive growth period, from flowering to maturity. Hence, flowering is the transition from the two stages, which is a critical event in the life cycle of plants. Since the genes controlling soybean maturity were first reported by Woodworth (1923)  [7], a series of loci (E1 to E9, and J) that control flowering time and maturity of soybean were identified, and characterized at the phenotypic and genetic levels by classic methods [4,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. To date, the molecular mechanism for E1 to E4 loci has been uncovered [16][17][18][19], while other loci such as E5 to E8 remain unknown. It was reported that most of the E series genes had pleiotropic effects on vegetative growth period, reproductive growth period, and growth period. For example, the dominant alleles of E2 to E4 prolonged the reproductive period from stages R1 (days to flowering of the first flower) to R8 (full maturity) to some extent [20][21]. Relationship between maturity groups and genotypes of the E loci was inferred by Harosoy or Clark near isogeneic lines (NILs) [22]. Besides the cloned maturity genes, two homologs of Flowering Locus T (FT), GmFT2a, and GmFT5a, were found to encode the components of 'florigen', which is the mobile flowering promotion signal involved in the transition to flowering, and to coordinately control flowering in soybean [23]. Recently, the GmFT2a was validated to be gene E9 [24].For the last decades, QTL mapping based on bi-parental populations has been extensively used to dissect the genetic architecture of complex traits for soybean. From SoyBase (http:// www.soybase.org/) 106 QTL related to R1, 2 QTL related to reproductive stage length (the number of days between R1 and R8), and 156 QTL related to R8, identified by bi-parental populations, could be retrieved. These QTLs were mainly distributed on the 6 th , 7 th , and 19 th chromosomes, but the physical positions and molecular functions for most of these QTL were not confirmed yet. Genome-wide association analysis (GWAS), which exploits historical recombination events, has become a powerful complementary strategy to linkage mapping for complex trait dissection at the sequence level. It has been successfully used in Arabidopsis thaliana [25], rice [26], maize [27], wheat [28], etc. In soybean, GWAS has been conducted for series of complex quantitative traits, such as disease resistance [29], stress tolerance [30], yield and quality related traits [31][32], and photosynthesis [33].The aim of our study was to investigate the genetic architecture of three growth period traits, the number of days to flowering (ETF), the number of days from flowering to maturity (FTM), and the number of days to maturity (ETM) by high-throughput genetic markers in soybean. The uncovered genetic architecture will enrich our genomic understanding for growth period traits, and enhance the genetic gain to breed high yield soybean cultivars by genomic assistant breeding.To construct a diversity panel of phenotypes, 146 soybean accessions mainly from Northeast China were selected. The phenotypes were evaluated in two planting densities conditions, low density with one seed per 10 cm, and high density with two seeds per 10 cm. All the accessions were grown in three-row plots with 3 m in length and 0.60 m spacing between rows in a randomized blocks design with 2 replications at 4 locations, Fanjiatun experiment station of Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Jilin province from 2011 to 2015, Jilin experiment station of Jilin City Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Jilin province from 2011 to 2015, Tonghua experiment station of Tonghua Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Jilin province from 2012 to 2015, and Jiamusi experiment station of Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Heilong province in 2015. The three growth period traits, the number of days to flowering (ETF), the number of days from flowering to maturity (FTM), and the number of days to maturity (ETM) were measured by the number of days from stages of plant emergence (VE) to R1, from stages of R1 to R8, and from stages of VE to R8, respectively. The criteria for the growth stages were determined following the method of Fehr and Caviness (1977)  [34].Analysis of variance (ANOVA), implemented by procedure GLM in SAS software (Release 9.1.3; SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA), was conducted for each of the three traits by combing two planting densities, 5 years, and 4 locations. Best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs), excluding the variations of years, locations, and experimental error, were used in the following genetic studies. The BLUPs were calculated by procedure MIXED in SAS software (Release 9.1.3; SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA).Genomic DNA sample were extracted from the leaf of soybean seedlings following method described by Kisha et al. (1997)  [35]. All the accessions were genotyped via the Illumina SoySNP6k iSelect BeadChip (Illumina, San Diego, Calif. USA), which consisted of 5361 SNPs [36]. The chromosomal distributions, coding, and quality controlling of the SNPs were previously documented in Wen et al. (2014)  [29]. By excluding the SNPs with missing rate higher than 0.25, and MAF (minor allele frequency) lower than 0.05, 4032 SNP markers were retained for the following up analysis.Genetic diversity characteristics, including MAF, polymorphic information content (PIC), heterozygosity, and gene diversity were evaluated using software Powermarker V3.25 [37]. An admixture model-based clustering method was used to infer population structure and to assign 146 genotypes to subpopulations by 4032 SNP markers using the software STRUCTURE 2.3 [38]. The hypothetic number of subpopulations (k) was ranged from 1 to 10, and each k was run 10 times with a burn-in period of 100,000, and 100,000 Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) replications. The ad hoc statistics delta k (Δk) was used to determine the number of clusters [39].To investigate the population differentiations, analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) [40], and F-statistics (F ST ) for the inferred subpopulations were performed using Arlequin V3.11 [41]. A neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the Nei's genetic distances matrix [37,42] using Powermarker V3.25 [37]. Genotypic similarity among 146 accessions was evaluated by Flapjack (downloaded from https://ics.hutton.ac.uk/flapjack/), which was previously described by Milne et al. (2010)  [43]. The kinship matrix was calculated using TASSEL 4.0 [44] to determine the genetic relatedness among individuals based on the sets of SNPs. The linkage disequilibrium parameter r 2 to estimate the degree of LD was calculated using TASSEL 4.0 [44]. The decay distance of LD at r 2 = 0.1 was assigned as the length of LD block.The whole-genome association analysis GWAS was conducted for three traits related to soybean growth period by unified mixed linear model (MLM) using 4032 SNPs. Variations of population structure and kinship between accessions were both fitted into the MLM to account for multiple levels of relatedness [45]. Significant markers associated with traits were declared by Bonferroni P-value cut-off 0.001. Significant markers in the same LD block were viewed as one QTL region. The most significant marker in one QTL region was reported.Large phenotypic variation was observed for all the three traits of 146 accessions (Table 1). As expected, FTM was much longer than ETF, and ETM was longer than both of ETF and FTM. Thus the standard deviation (SD) of ETM was the largest, followed by FTM and ETF, while the coefficient of variation (CV) of ETF was the highest, and those of FTM and ETM were similar.Comparing the mean values of each trait under two densities, the basic statistics of each trait under two densities were fairly the same (Table 1). ETF was ranged from 31.0 d to 55.8 d with an average of 37.4 d in low planting density, and from 31.1 d to 56.7 d with an average of 37.5 d in high planting density.There were significant positive correlations among three growth period traits (Table 2). In low planting density, the correlation coefficients were 0.7527 for ETF and ETM, 0.8876 for FTM and ETM, and 0.3665 for ETF and FTM. In the high planting density, the correlation coefficients were 0.7645 for ETF and ETM, 0.8880 for FTM and ETM, and 0.3834 for ETF and FTM. Since ETM was derived from ETF and FTM, the correlations between ETM and ETF, and between ETM and FTM were significantly high. The low correlation between ETF and FTM indicated that ETF and FTM were independent to some extent. It was observed that the phenotypic measurements for each of the three traits under two planting densities were highly correlated, with R 2 ranging from 0.97 to 0.99 (Fig 1), which explained why the values in upper triangle and low triangle of Table 2 were almost the same. ANOVA was conducted for each trait by combining the phenotypic data of four locations during five years for both two densities (Table 3) and for each of the density (S1 and S2 Tables). Results showed that the variation of density was significant for ETF and ETM, but not for FTM. For all the three traits, significant variations were observed among environments, replications (or blocks) within environments, genotypes, and genotype by environment (GE)  interactions (Table 3). For each trait in interest, the proportions of genotypic variation were much higher than the variation of GE interaction, indicating that the genotypic variation were the major part of the phenotypic variation, which resulted in the relatively high broad sense heritabilities for three traits, i.e., 67.72% for ETF, 64.18% for FTM, and 82.37% for ETM (Table 3).Among the 5361 SNPs, 4032 SNPs with MAF greater than 5% were selected to estimate the genetic diversity. All the SNPs were mapped in silico and/or genetically in soybean chromosomes, and were well distributed on the 20 chromosomes [29]. The average MAF value of 4032 SNPs was 0. To characterize the mapping resolution of GWAS in this study, the average extent of genomewide LD decay distance in 146 accessions with 4032 SNPs was estimated and shown in Fig 3.On average, the r 2 of the whole-genome for 146 accessions was 0.23. When the physical distance was around 1,800 kb, the r 2 reached to half of its maximum value 0.48. When the r 2 was at 0.1, the decay distance was approximately 8,000 kb, indicating a strong LD existed in the  ). The result of AMOVA showed that 17.64% of the total genetic variation was among subpopulations, whereas 82.36% was within subpopulations (S3 Table ).The results of NJ phylogenetic tree and PCA (Fig 5 ) were consistent with the results from STRUCTRUE software (Fig 4). For subpopulation 1 (71 accessions), 53 of which originated from Heilongjiang province with relatively early maturity. The accessions in subpopulation 2 (75 accessions) were mainly from Jilin province with relatively late maturity. These results suggested that accessions from the same subgroup were closely related and generally from the same province. Such co-existence or overlapping of genetic and special differentiation is much likely due to the selection of fitness by nature and breeders. It has previously been suggested that the photoperiod response between different maturity groups may be the primary factor driving differentiation of cultivated soybean [46]. The Q matrix outputted from STRUCTURE software for two sub-populations were used to control the variation of population structure in the subsequent genetic analysis.  4). They were distributed on 11 chromosomes of soybean genome, three of each on chromosomes 3, 4, and 13, 2 on each of chromosomes 11 and 15, and one on each of chromosomes 3, 5, 9, 16, 18, and 19. The largest QTL, explaining 14.62% of the phenotypic variance, was ss245775380 on chromosome 5 associated with ETF (Table 4). Of 19 QTLs, 5 QTLs could explain more than 10% of the phenotypic variance, and the other 14 QTL could explain more than 5% of the phenotypic variance. On average, 9.53% of the phenotypic variance could be explained by each QTL.Regarding the two planting conditions, 13 QTL were identified under low density, and 23 QTL were identified under high density. Twelve of them could be consistently identified under both densities, 7 for ETF, 2 for FTM, and 3 for ETM (Table 4;  Five QTL, three on chromosome 6 and one on each of chromosomes 11 and 15, had pleotropic effects on more than one trait. Four of them controlled ETM and FTM, and the other one controlled ETM and ETF. None of the QTL had pleotropic effects on ETF and FTM. These results were concordant with the high phenotypic correlations between ETM and FTM, and   E3 gene [18,73]; First flower [74][75][76]; Flower from [75]; Seed weight [74,77]; Seed number [74] Pectin lyase-like superfamily protein; NAD(P)-binding Rossmann-fold superfamily protein a Traits underlined indicated that the marker-trait associations were detected under high density, otherwise under low density; ETF, number of days to flowering; FTM, number of days from flowering to maturity; and ETM, number of days to maturity b Reported QTLs/genes with italics were associated with growth period traits; and c the putative biological candidate gene in the locus or the nearest annotated gene (Glycine max Wm82.a1.v1) to the significant SNP.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158602.t004between ETM and ETF, but low correlations between ETF and FTM (Table 2). ss245950346 on chromosome 6 was consistently associated with ETM and FTM under two planting densities, explaining an average of 13.16% of the phenotypic variance. It was worth noting that ss245950346 was also in the same region with well characterized gene E1 (Table 4). ss245937498 on chromosome 6 was identified for traits of ETM and FTM, and also reported by other literatures controlling series of traits in interest. Three pleotropic QTL, ss245977002 on chromosome 6, ss247571761 on chromosome 11, and ss248571908 on chromosome 15, had not been reported yet, but were adjacent to candidate genes with functions such as haloacid dehalogenase-like hydrolase superfamily protein, disease resistance family protein, etc. We compared the positions of the significant SNPs identified in this study with the positions of the QTL previously reported in bi-parental mapping studies and found considerable overlap between these SNPs and the reported genes or QTL for growth period traits. Of the 19 loci, 7 were overlapped with previously reported QTL or genes related to growth period traits, and 8 loci were located in or close to the regions where QTL controlling yield or yield-related traits were reported. Sixteen QTL were closed to the candidate gene regions, and found that various types of genes were probably involving in natural variation for three growth period traits in soybean (Table 4).Tremendous phenotypic variations for three growth period traits can be observed in 146 soybean accessions in this study (Table 1 and S2-S4 Figs). For both densities, the deviations from the minimum values to the maximum values of ETF, FTM, and ETM were 25 days, 27 days, and 37 days, respectively (Table 1). When we dissected the phenotypic variations by ANOVA, the genotypic by environment variations were significant for all the three traits, but the genotypic variations were still the major and significant source (Table 3; S1 and S2 Tables). The broad sense heritability of ETM was the highest (82.37%), indicating that ETM performed relatively stable compared with the other two traits. To exclude the environmental variation, BLUPs per accession across environments were estimated for following up GWAS.It is generally agreed that soybean growth period is positively correlated with yield in normal maturity conditions, and yield is significantly and positively correlated with the ratio of the reproductive period to growth period, but not with the ratio of the vegetative period to growth period. The appropriate ratio of the reproductive period to the vegetative period was supposed to be a secondary trait for indirect selection of yield and to facilitate the increasing of seed number and yield in soybean breeding [78]. In this study, ETF and ETM, FTM and ETM were significantly and positively correlated. Therefore, the affection of the ratio of the reproductive period to the vegetative period need be further investigated. The three growth period traits in this study were measured in the cultivation situation similar to that in the field, so the QTL detected in this study could be directly used in the real breeding scheme.Quantitative traits were largely affected by environments. Mapping accurate and stable QTL across multiple environments was critical for molecular marker-assisted selection breeding and QTL cloning. In this study, 12 QTL were consistently identified across two planting densities (Table 4, Fig 8), which agreed with the strong correlation of trait measurements under two densities (Fig 1). In addition, 7 QTLs were located in or close to previously reported QTL or genes related to growth period. SNP ss245937498 at 19656740 bp on chromosome 6, was detected to be significantly associated with ETM and FTM, and also associated with pod maturity [52,57], photoperiod insensitivity [58], and first flower [59]. E1 gene was cloned by Xia et al. (2012) [17] at 20,207,279-20,207,803 bps, which is 1,827 bp away from the significant marker ss245950346 associated with ETM and FTM under two densities in this study. Significant marker ss245977002 on chromosome 6, associated with ETM and FTM, were in the downstream of E1. While E7 was supposed to be either in the downstream of E1, or a different allele of E1 (Private communication). The relationship between marker ss245977002 and E7 need to be further investigated. Marker ss250268653 at 47,089,771 bp on chromosome 19 was associated with ETM, and was 77,821 bp away from marker satt229, which was closely linked with E3 gene [18,73] and controlled first flower [74][75][76]. On chromosome 16, ss248968508 at 4,339,640 bp was associated with ETM, and 202,142 bp far away from gene GmFT5a [23,71]. In the QTL region of ss248968508, there was a QTL controlling reproductive stage length [72]. Cober et al. (2010)  [47] reported that the locus E8 was in the interval flanked by Sat_404 and Satt136 on chromosome 4. This interval is approximately 1 cM in length. Marker Satt361 located downstream of Satt136, and was approximately 0.5 cM from Satt136. SNP marker ss245412963 at 24,492,629 bp on chromosome 4 was detected to be associated with ETF in high planting density in this study, and was 378,973 bp away from Satt361. Pod maturity was similar to ETM. SNP marker ss247557298 on chromosome 11 controlling ETM was near to the marker Sat_123, which is associated with Pod maturity [62]. Marker Satt355 on chromosome 13 was reported to be associated with Pod maturity [54,64], seed fill [54], and days to flower [64]. Marker ss248095215 used in this study controlling FTM was physically near Satt355. Therefore, some reported QTL could be validated in different environment, population, and statistical method, indicating the results in present study is rather reliable.Of the 19 QTL detected, 5 QTL were co-association with at least two growth period traits, which coincided with significant phenotypic correlations among the traits in interest [31,33]. In addition, it is reported that some growth period loci have pleiotropic effects on other important agronomic traits [13], such as branching [79], yield related traits [21,80], and cleistogamy [75]. Similarly, QTL associated with yield component traits, such as seed weight, seed yield, seed weight per plant, seed number, pod number, plant height, and node number, were located in the regions where 8 QTL were identified in our study. In QTL region of ss245937498 related to ETM and FTM on chromosome 6, there were QTL not only controlling growth period traits, but also controlling seed weight [48], seed yield [57,60], and plant height [57]. In QTL region of ss250268653 related to ETM on chromosome 19, there were QTL controlling seed weight [74,77], seed number [74], and cleistogamous [75]. The genomic regions where multi-traits were co-associated indicated pleiotropy of single causal gene or tight linkage of multiple causal genes. In soybean molecular breeding schemes, MAS of a co-associated genetic locus could simultaneously improve multi-associated target traits, including yield and yield related traits.For the 19 QTL reported in this study, 9 of them were not reported before. One reason could be because the accessions used in this study were nearly from the maturity groups MG 000, MG 00, MG 0, and MG I, and QTL identified in accessions from other maturity groups could not present in the accessions used in this study. Soybean cultivars adapted to high latitudes have weak or no photoperiod sensitivity. Zhai et al. (2014)  [81] found that e1-nf genetic groups are approximately corresponding to cultivars of MG 000, MG 00, and MG 0 groups. The second reason may be that since most of loci reported before were detected by QTL mapping based on bi-parental populations, where only alleles polymorphic between two parents were considered, thus the number of detected QTL were restricted by the allele distribution of two parents. The third possibility was that many growth period QTL have been identified in a number of different populations, however, if a QTL is controlled by a rare allele present only in a specific accession used in creating a QTL mapping population, it could not be detected in a GWAS such as reported here. The inability of GWAS to detect rare alleles occurring in one or a few members of a population under study is well documented [82][83].Of 9 novel loci, we found that genomic regions around eight of them harbor candidate genes (Table 4). Therefore, further studies would be conducted using a large population size with more diverse genetic background, and a large number of SNPs to verify the associated markers identified in this study.","tokenCount":"3903"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3b298d9d992f6bbde666e0b48aa30ad5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ffafef63-6eff-4886-abd4-7baf0978ac62/retrieve","id":"-72269150"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"23908218-1c7b-4824-a76e-b464d7b205d0","pagecount":"1","content":"CS-MAP involves three main activities: pre-(1-4), actual-(5-6) and post-(7-8) CS-Mapping (Fig. 1) exercise. Figure 2 shows the step by step process of developing the CS-MAP.ice-based production systems in the Philippines play a crucial role in food security and are highly vulnerable to climate-related risks such as flooding, drought and high temperatures. CGIAR's Research Initiative on Climate Resilience (ClimBeR) has been conducting activities to increase the resilience of smallholder production systems in the Philippines to withstand the effects of climate change. One of these is the Climate-Smart Mapping and Adaptation Planning (CS-MAP, [1]). CS-MAP is a participatory mapping approach to identify climate risks, map potentially affected areas and develop location-specific adaptation plans. CS-MAP integrates scientific and local knowledge as the main basis of the participatory process. ClimBeR is implementing CS-MAP in pilot sites in four provinces in the Philippines.   ","tokenCount":"138"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6c1defef9b40b5bf0a77f2bea0cabeb4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3fc49cf6-a13b-4b6a-90bc-ce3a39390555/retrieve","id":"825571294"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7544e04a-df94-45cc-aa9c-618c1ffc59bf","pagecount":"6","content":"RESUME ' Cet article appuy6 sur une enqu6te socio-ticonomique 6tudie la productivit6 du bananier plantain en association et les con' traintes pour une production d grande 6chelle i partir des m6thodes pratiqu6es en cultutes associries ; on montre que ce dernier s]'steme produit prds de quatre fois plus. Ceci s'explique par I'application 16' gulidre de d6chets domestiques, une attention suivie du paysan et le ben6fice alimentaire retir6 par les plantains des arbres complant6s pr6rennes i enracinement profond. l.es limites du systime sont li6es i la fourniture de matirlre organique et au volume du march6. On peut accroitre la production pour la p6riode ereuse de juin d septembre et aussi en vue de la conqu6te des march6s 6loign6s grdce d de bons emballages.In the high rainfall areas of Eastern Nigeria plantain ranks high as a carbohydrate source. Although fairly large quantities are produced, it is not commonly found in the shifting cultivation systems in which most popular food crops are found. The bulk is produced in small intensively managed village cornpound gardens. These gardens are higNy productive when compared with plot in shifting cultivation or large scale commercial field lnterestingly, village compound garden plantains do not suffer from the rapid decline phenomenon obseryed in other fields. BRAI-DE and WILSON (l) concluded that the high productivity of the village compound garden plantain was the result of organic matter in the form of household refuse and kitchen waste applied regularly to these gardens that are usually close to the house and the kitchen.Important as these gardens are, they are not well understood. There have been cursory investigations into the biological factors, but the economics remain unknown. This report represents preliminary findings of investigation into the economics of plantain production in village compound gardens and their contribution to household income. The report is based on a sample survey of smallholder plantain producers in southeastern Nigeria conducted from January to December 1985. The objective was to describe the snallholder plantain production prac-tices and assess the value of resources used in it.  Mar. 1988, vol.43, no 3, p.161-166.ABSTRACT -This paper, based on a socio'economic survey, investigates the productivitl' of compound plantain production and consriaints to ^large scale production on the basis of the compound p::riuction .\"1hud.. The paper shows that production under the c\",rpound svstem results in nearly four times as.much yield as in non\"ornpornd system. This is ahributed to regular application of kitchen ind other compound wastes, close cultural attention given by the farmen, and to nutrient recycling to the benefit of the compbund plantains from deep tooted perennial tree crops interplanted' i',arge rale production employing the compound methods is limited by iupply of organic matter and by available market for plantains' Availablo markei can be expanded by increased production during the slack period of June to September when output is low and by packaging to reduce damage in transit to take advantage of distant markets.-hq',**.;.,'u*r'*\" Fruitsvol. 43,no3,lggg  Harcourt road. Every.household in this communrty had plantain mats (Fig. l) in the .o.pouud-unal t , also had some plantain mats in locations a titomet.r-o, ,*o uruy from the compound. Et\"u.n .o.fornJ'Of\"rr.,\" producers were purposely selected for the survey. The selection basis was the willingness of the farmers j affow free access to their compound farms to the enurnerator who collected the farmers compound plantain proaucti,on information, All non-compound plantain _plots in ,lre ;;, three in all, were also included in the studv for cornparatJe pLrrposes.The study was in the forrn of direct observatlon of the plantain production activities of the farrners ln their exist_ rng compound or nonrompouncl plantain for a period of l2 calender months. This was ,...;r\";;;;;use trre farmers did not keep records.Informat.ion including yiel<i rate attained ; and labour, organlc matter. and stake inputs were obtained by direct observation by the enurnerator on daily basis. At the end of each day during the l2 monthr p.rlfJ\"llrnuary I to December 31. i985 the enumerat\"; ;l;;.;'\", ,o nour.holds with a weishins.balance una u ,,ru.,r*rJ protbrmer. During the visit he ieterrnined ttr. urnrl.r-of plantain bunches harvested that day, the weigtrt oi each bunch, and whether the bunches were to be sold or eaten at home. He determined hours of labour ,rJ;i;;;;iJus prantain production operations such as tluru.rting, ,tutlni, *..aing, organrc matter appiication, etc. on tiat Aay.. Ue notes whether or not organic matter was applied, *n.ifl., .\"v plantain plant staked, and whether uny'pt*tuin plant fell over as a result of storm or other causes.In addition, retail market prices of plantain bunches were collected on weekly basis in tfre rurat martet, Eke Umuagwo, where the same farmers ,ofO. if,.'ft.e infor_ mation was also collected by direct meth;; u', follo*, , the enumerator bargained for and ,.ign.J a numUe, of bunches individually and bought on\". p];r.fruring ,orn. of the ,commodity was necessary so that the enumeraror would be regarded as a customer to whom competitive pnces would be quoted. In this *.uf .u.t.t l, ,n most other Nigerian markets commodities such as plantain bunches did not carry fixed p\".\". it.V-*\"ie sotO arra \"Tltn,t .by subjective apprarsat and haggling. Thrs necessrtated the bargaining process of gettin!\" -t-t? p.r.. information.The sample size was. srnall, but, in studies of this nature involving frequent collection \"i';f;;;;; by direct observation over extended period, iurr. ,u'rpr., *oufd prove too expensive. However, in'traa]tionat agriculture production practices pro d u ce rs in -,,.,u,,. uJi'r, r::';1' t_ jl1i,]I, :'#J:T\" ;T;i of accuracy of increa cant. .fhere ,u... no,r. rn sample size may not be signifi_ ,,,,. *..u I ;;;.;;_#:rJ#;::il:T::,l::ff: rely to highlight the producti\"itv \"iir,. i\";;;;ro sysrem.SMALLHOLDER ?LANTAIN PRODUSON PRACTICES .ln the compound, plantains are not grown in layed out fields or gardens. plar I o c a t e d \" t ;.,i;; \" ; ;;::l.U:n, X# :l \" X': J#:il':: ;:: trmes within compound *fr\".rop gurd.n. Cinr\"quently, the size of compoundplantain ;.;r;;;;r-;ay not be estimatable in terms of land area iut i; ;;;.; of number of mats. The eleven compound producers had an average of 44 mats each with a range of 12 to ll2. lna laid out plantain production system one hectare will take I 600 mats. The compound production system ls-,re;;;; \"\" a small scale and there is a wide ringe of uariurlo\"n-ln the scale from household to household depending on -iro* rnu.f, space was available in the compound ; h-ow many people in the household were need of the household :l:::::]:-d in owning mats ; the pound tree crops.Ior-numerous other possible com-The plantains wereerstimated to have been planted between 1971 and, 1980. The .ornrn;;;;;.tly\"\"*r, u rar. horn type known locally as <Abagba>. Most of them were interplanted with arable sia esculenta). All were ,:l:lj, :l:h, as. cocovam (coloca' ::.h u: o,r pui\",' (;;-,;\"';i::::;i Tli,irT#::H1;(Tr e c u tia afr i c a na), .o.onu i tco.r3,', \", ij)rri,' oir,.u, oru. (Dacryodes edulis), kolanut (Cota aiuriirini, orune\", (Citrus sinensis), and uon^, Gti)oc\"o^\"iii\"ii,,). Some of the plantains were originally pf.ni.J in\",J#ougn pits from where soit was taken ior h;r; ;;;r;r;;filo\"n. Ho*.u.., at the time of the study most of them stood o0-refuse mounds built up bv conlinuour or.pirg-.\"Ji tl,n.. rrr. most common items in the refuse *.r\" Z\"rr*a'peels and r Fruitrvol. 43ffi, 1988 -163 kitchen wastes especially wood ash. The corms of the plantains were covered with a mulch of applied organic matter from household wastes.Weeding was done occasionally because frequent appli_ cation of refuse suppressed weeds. Staking to prevent falling over of plants carrying bunches was very common. frr average of about l07o of all stands was staked each rnonth during the fruiting period.Two of the non-compound plantaii fields were established in 198 I and the third in 19g2.'The cultrvar used Vas the same as that used in the compound gardens. In all three, the fields were laid out in garden fashion with spac_ ing of 3 m x 3 m. The mean area for the three fields was 0.ll ha and hence they were at small scales. The owners were mere part time plantain producers. They all engaged in other agricultural and even non-agricultural activities. One owner had pineapple and another cassava intercropped with plantain on half of the fields. One field received a large quantity of poultry manure at planting. The others d1d-.not receive any special applicatior=pf organic marrer. All three fields had good weed control. Inorganic fertilizer was not applied in either the compound or non_compound plantains.  I shows estimates of yield and value parameters tn both compound and non-compound plantains. Bunch yield in terms of both number per hectare equivalent (1600 mats) and weight per bunch appear significantly higher in compound than in ,ron.ornporrrd plantains. This resulted in total yield per hectare being nearly four times as much in the compound as in the non_compound plantains (Table I ).The difference in yield could be attributed to the difference in production practices. O.ganic matter from household wastes was. applied on the iu..\"g, nearly 300 days in compound and less than 30 days in n?ncompounO plantains out of the 365 days of tfre ituJv ifrUt\" Z). tn other words, most compound plantains recelvea organic matter daily.While the corms of most compound plantains were completely covered with the organic mattei the corms of non<ompound plantains were in most cases exposed to adverse conditions. This could be responsible for severe attack by plantain weeviJ (Cosmopolites sordidus) in the biggest of the three non-compound helds in March and April. That incidence reduced yields significantly in that field.Labour input was also higher in compound than in non-compound plantain (Table 2). While in non_compound plantain the relatively limited labour input was used for weeding, harvesting and staking ; labour input in com_ pound plantain was used mainly for harvestingand staking. Consequently rate ofstaking was higher (TaUte 2t and stand losses lower in compound than in non{ompouncl plantain. The rates of stand losses, fallen over of plintain trees due to storm or other causes, were 24g plants per hectare equivalent in compound and 354 in non<ompound plantatns during the study period.Most of the cornpound plantains were under the shade of the other perennials also grown in the compounds. As deep rooted trees some of those perennials might have recycled nutrients to the benefit of plantains which are shallow rooted. Most of the noncompound plantains studied were not interplanted with such perennials.The plantain production in the area was mainly market oriented. As much as g0% of total output in both the  cempound and non-compound plantains was solcl for cash ; about 20% in either case was consumed at home. The value of production per hectare equivalent per year (E) was nearly N10,000 (N1.00 is approximately US g 0.25) in compound and less than N3,000 in non_compound plan_ tains (Table l).Most of these retums were Gross Margin because most of the inputs were obtained from household sources. Apart from the largest of the three non-compound producers who employed hired labour on monthly wage basis none of the producers studied purchased inputs during the study period. Stake was cut from the bush with family labour, and or_ ganic matter used in the compound plantain came from household wastes.At such a rate of retum it might be surprising that the compound production was still on small scale. The average compound farmer who owned 44 mats and made only N220 in cash and had N55 worth of plantain consumed at home could have made more if he froduced on a bigger scale. However, production on a larger scale may not be efficient given the constraints of the farmer.The compound which had an area of about 0.2 ha. also carried in ad<iition to houses, perennial crops which besides their direct benefits to the farmer may -hive en_ hanced plantain-production by aiding nutrient recycling. On the average,.lFe I I compound producers studied had, in addition to the 44 plantain mats, three oil palm (Elaeis guinensis), one African breadfruit (Treculia africana), Fruits _ vol. 48, nog, lggg three African pears (Dacryodes edulis), two cola (f,elo acuminata), two coconuts (Cocps nucifera), five Citrus (Citrus sinensls), and one <Ohi> (pterocapus soyauxii) trees all in the compound.The supply of organic matter is also regarded as a ma;or constrarnt to expaasion of production in the compound garden situation. Exact figures on the amount of organic matter to maintain high productivity in these gardens has not been determined. The potential of inorganic ferti_ Iizer in compound gardens is also not known, bui inorganic fertilizers do not maintain production under field conditions (l). Inorganic fertilizers do not supply mulch which appear to be a major factor causing the high yield of compound plantains.But as important as resource limitations to expanslon ,of compound plantain production in the area is aggregate demand limitation. Figures 2 and 3 show that yield was seasonal and followed the rainfall pattern. The total rainfall for Owerri in 1985 was about 2g00 mm. However, that was not evenly distributed over the 12 months, falling mostly between May and October. November to Februarv were the dry months. The major harvest season began in October and continued through May when bunches formed during the rains matured. The bunch took about thJee months to mature (2). Bunches that developed during the rainy months were more robust .than those that developed during the dry rnonths because of more favourable soil moisture dr.rring the rainy season (4).  -165 December was almost 60%. T-his situation would suggest that the market was easily saturated. The market could absorb expanded production, especially along present seasonal distribution of supply, only at give away prices and hence at capital losses to the producers. The market could however, absorb more output if the supply could be increased during the rainy months when output is at present low. Such a redistribution of supply may require irrigation which the small scale producers cannot afford.There is also possibility for expansion of available market in Nigeria when packaging and transporting are improved to allow the product to be presented in good condition in distant placesi Plantain bunches are bulky and perishable and hence expensive to transport to distant non-producing areas. It is estimated that an average piantain finger consists of 30% peel (3) which is not consumed by humans.Figure 5 shows the price differential between the village market in the study area and Oweri urban market only 20 km apart. The market price differential between the two locations over the study period was about l0%. This , could be considered substantial in reiation to the Limited distance between the two market centres. It might not all be due to differences in demand but also due to transportation costs especially because the Owerri urban consumers frequently made their purchases in the village market.;Plantain production in compound gardens in the Owerri area of Nigeria is. profitable, but expansion of production is constrained by limited resources and agggegate demand during the main season. The potential for expansion exists if supply jFn bg increased during.the off season which I occur during middle of the rainy season or when packaging and transporting are improved to alloi the pro'cluct to be presented in good condition in distant places. ,l llt 1. BRAIDE (J.) and WTLSON (c.F.). 1980. Plantain decline : a look at possi-ble cause. Paradisiaco, 4.5-7.2. NDUBIZU (T.9,c.1 and oKAFoR (E.r.  Fruits,Mar.19g8,vol. 43,no 3, RESLIMEN -Rste articulo apoyado en una encuesta socio.econ6mica estudia a productividad aef pi6tano \"n ^o.i.\"'i;\" -V ii.\"'\"riar.\"ionJ para una pmduccidn a gran eicata \" p\".ui a\"-.Jiodo.'!'r.iti.\"do, .n cultivos asociados ;se orueba qie €ste tiltimo sistema pr'oduce casi cua. tro veces m6s. Esro se i*pri\"a ior i\" alil;;\"-\".#i.ii?ii*\"r,o, ao.mesticos, una atenci6n sesuida re r ra a o io;io!\"pi;;il;f ; rX :,TH :fi ',n #:,bT|\"ffi \"1'T:l,T: mizamiento profundo. Los limites del .iste;; -;6n \"iig;i;, \", ,rrni. nistro de materia orgdnica v al :::\".,{;::_;;;,\",6\".;;:;#r:::iT\"Tr\"';'1.::; .i' ","tokenCount":"2609"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"050a5acfda5ac664d7710d0d803b86fb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c935dca1-0dc9-491f-aed2-0aad0cb79551/retrieve","id":"38474342"},"keywords":["Union internationale des télécommunications UNFD","Union nationale des femmes djiboutiennes UNICEF","Fonds des nations unies pour l'enfance USAID","United States Agency for International Development VSAT","Very small aperture terminal"],"sieverID":"46b9b36c-9ba1-4885-9032-dcb5cd460a68","pagecount":"111","content":"Ce rapport à été commandité par le CTA afin d'affiner sa connaissance des besoins en information des pays ACP. Le CTA ne peut en aucun cas se porter garant de la fiabilité des données, inclues dans le rapport, ni prendre la responsabilité des usages qui pourraient en être fait. Les opinions exprimées ici sont celles de leurs auteurs et ne reflètent pas nécessairement le point de vue du CTA. Le CTA se réserve le droit de sélectionner des projets et des recommandations portant sur son mandat.Le présent document a été préparé pour le compte du Centre Technique Agricole (CTA) qui a pour mission d'élaborer et de fournir des services qui améliorent l'accès des pays ACP à l'information pour le développement agricole et rural et de renforcer la capacité de ces pays à produire, acquérir, échanger et exploiter l'information dans ce domaine.Par conséquent mes remerciements vont en premier lieu au CTA d'une part pour l'appui financier et d'autre part pour m'avoir témoigné leur confiance pour entreprendre cette étude. J'adresse toute ma gratitude à l'équipe de M me Christine WEBSTER (Deputy Manager, Planning and Corporate Services) pour leur appui technique durant la phase préparatoire de l'étude.Je remercie également le Coordonnateur régional de l'étude qui, tout au long de ma mission d'évaluation, n'a pas ménagé ses efforts ni son temps et ce malgré un programme de travail chargé pour répondre à mes interrogations sur certains points. Son professionnalisme et son engagement constant en faveur de l'information agricole pour les produits et services du CTA ont permis de mener à bien et dans des conditions favorables l'évaluation des besoins en information agricole.Je remercie enfin toutes les personnes rencontrées ou interviewées au cours de cette mission pour leur contribution à ce travail, en particulier les responsables des institutions publiques, les représentants des institutions parapubliques enfin les représentants des institutions non publiques qui ont mobilisé leurs collaborateurs pour mettre à notre disposition les documents et matériels nécessaires.Durant mes visites de terrain j'ai été reçu avec chaleur et les discussions se sont déroulées de manière plus que satisfaisante. Les personnes interrogées ont répondu avec simplicité et sans réticence à mes questions.iiiAfrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique ACPO :Association coopérative des pêcheurs d'obock ADSL :Asymmetric Digital Subcriber Line AYIE :Abou Yasser International Etablissement BAD :Banque africaine de développement CEE :Communauté Economique et Européenne CERD :Centre d'études et de recherches de Djibouti CERB :Centre régional d'exportation du bétail COMESA :Common market east and southern africa CTA :Centre technique agricole CNEC :Caisse nationale d'épargne et de crédit DSRP :Document stratégique de réduction de la pauvreté DJIBTEL :Djibouti télécom DNAF :Direction Nationale de l'agriculture et des forêts DE :Direction de l'économie DNESV :Direction Nationale de l'élevage et des services vétérinaires DNP :Direction Nationale de la pêche DMMI :Djibouti management maritime investissement EDAM-IS :Enquête Djiboutienne auprès des ménages EDSF/PAPFAM : Enquête djiboutienne de la santé et de la famille EIAY :Etablissement international Abou yasser FAO :Organisation des nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture FEWSNET :Réseau de systèmes d'alerte précoce contre la famine FIDA :Fonds international pour le développement agricole FM :Frequency Modulation GIC :Gestion de l'information et de la communication GSM:Global system for Mobil HCR :Haut commissariat pour les réfugiésInitiative nationale pour le développement social IGAD:Inter Governmental Authority for Development JLN :Journal la Nation LAN :Local Area Network LBV :Laboratoire de biologie végétale MAEM/RH : Ministère de l'agriculture, de l'élevage et de la mer, chargé des ressources Hydrauliques MCCPT :Ministère de la Communication et de la Culture chargé des Postes et des Télécommunications MEFPP :Ministère de l'économie, des finances chargé de la planification et de la privatisation MAJD :Mouvement associatif des journalistes djiboutiens MID :Ministère de l'intérieur et de la décentralisation MMDS :Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service NTIC :Nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication OMC :Organisation mondiale du commerce ONG :Organisation non gouvernementale PAM :Programme alimentaire mondial PC :Personal Computer PNUD :Programme des nations unies pour le développement PIB :Produit intérieur brut RCAD :Réseau des coopératives agricoles de Dikhil RTD ;Radio et télévision de Djibouti SDR :Sous directions régionalesLes Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement (OMD) et le Sommet mondial sur la société de l'information (SMSI) de Tunis en 2005 ont souligné l'importance de l'accès à des informations pertinentes et le potentiel des technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC) pour les personnes impliquées dans le secteur rural. En effet l'amélioration de l'accès à l'information agricole contribue à réduire à la pauvreté et à renforcer la sécurité alimentaire dans les pays en développement. C'est dans cette optique que le Centre Technique Agricole (CTA) a pris l'initiative d'entreprendre une étude visant à évaluer les besoins en information agricole dans les états africains de l'Est du groupe Afrique, Caraïbes, et Pacifique (ACP) au regard des produits et services du CTA.L'étude s'attachera à :• passer en revue les principaux services et les acteurs du secteur de l'agriculture (en matière d'offre d'informations), en mettant l'accent sur leurs atouts, leurs points faibles et les opportunités de collaboration avec le CTA ; • identifier les besoins des acteurs clés / des principaux partenaires stratégiques pour les produits et services du CTA, en termes d'informations agricoles et de renforcement des capacités de Gestion de I'Information et de la Communication (GIC) ; • identifier de potentiels partenaires stratégiques pour les activités et services du CTA (en accordant une attention particulière à des entités tels que les organes de presse, les maisons d'édition, les stations radiophoniques, les chaînes de télévision et les réseaux de journalistes) ; • élaborer des données de référence sur l'état de la GIC et des TIC dans le pays concerné pour faciliter les activités ultérieures de suivi et de mise à niveau.L'étude devra aider le CTA à améliorer et mieux cibler ses interventions et activités en faveur des partenaires et bénéficiaires potentiels (notamment les femmes, les jeunes, le secteur privé et les organisations de la société civile) ; avoir un tableau plus détaillé de leurs besoins, mettre au point une stratégie adaptée et élaborer un cadre d'action en conséquence. L'étude devra également mettre en évidence les besoins spécifiques en produits et services du CTA et permettre ainsi d'en améliorer la fournitureL'approche adoptée par le consultant pour effectuer cette étude est scindée en quatre (4) phases :• une première phase consacrée à la réunion d'information organisée à Djibouti du 12 au 14 juillet 2008 et au cours de laquelle le consultant et le coordinateur régional ont échangé les points saillants de l'étude et plus particulièrement ses règles de fonctionnement ; • une deuxième phase destinée à passer en revue les ouvrages et les sources d'information disponibles sur les missions et les activités du CTA ainsi que le secteur de l'agriculture (agriculture, élevage et pêche) au profil socio-économique de Djibouti ; • une troisième phase où tous les acteurs clés des 21 institutions interviewées sont consultés et ceci à travers des entretiens appuyés par des questionnaires préalablement établis par le CTA; • une quatrième phase relative à la compilation et l'interprétation des données récoltées aux fins d'élaborer des recommandations.Les résultats attendus de cette étude sont les suivants :• une description et une analyse de l'état des infrastructures, des services d'information et des capacités de GIC des institutions impliquées dans l'agriculture et le développement rural; • une identification des besoins en termes d'information et de renforcement des capacités de GIC pour les principales institutions et les potentiels partenaires clés du CTA présents dans le secteur du développement agricole et rural; • une identification de potentielles institutions partenaires stratégiques pour les activités et services du CTA ((en accordant une attention particulière à des entités telles que les organes de presse, les maisons d'édition, les stations radiophoniques, les chaînes de télévision et le réseau de journalistes); • une compilation de données de référence sur l'état de la GIC et des TIC dans l'agriculture et le développement rural pour un meilleur suivi de la situation.L'organisation et la gestion du secteur primaire sont assurées au Djibouti par le Ministère de l'Agriculture de l'Elevage et de la Mer, Chargé des Ressources Hydrauliques (MAEM-RH) et les objectifs et axes stratégiques assignés au développement de ce secteur pour la décennie 2001-2010 ont été fixés par le Gouvernement comme suit:• lutter contre la pauvreté et la soif ;• réduire la dépendance alimentaire ;• générer de nouvelles sources de devises ;• maintenir les populations rurales dans leur terroir.Même si la contribution des secteurs agricoles, élevage et pêche au PIB est faible à hauteur de 3% il ne faut perdre de vue l'importance de la population rurale à Djibouti qui est estimée à 15% de la population totale.Par conséquent toutes les actions visant à la sédentarisation de la population rurale dans leur terroir ou améliorer les conditions de vie doivent être privilégiées et ceci dans le but de limiter l'exode rural.Les institutions interviewées ont manifesté en grande partie des besoins urgents en informations agricoles et par ordre décroissance ces informations sont des informations d'ordre technique, économiques et générales :• les besoins en informations techniques sont relatifs aux techniques de clonage au laboratoire, aux techniques culturales du palmier dattier et enfin aux techniques d'irrigation et de conservation de l'eau. Les informations techniques portent aussi sur les moyens de conservation du poisson. Toutes ces informations sont sollicitées par les directions nationales et les Organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) qui appuient les producteurs afin d'améliorer la productivité des agriculteurs et des pêcheurs ; • les besoins en informations économiques concernent les sites web des différents marchés des produits de la mer, les sources d'approvisionnement régionaux des intrants agricoles, le financement du secteur rural et enfin la micro fiance dans le secteur rural ; • les autres informations sollicitées par les institutions sont d'ordre général et couvrent sur les rôles respectifs du secteur public et du secteur privé dans la prestation des services vétérinaires et les ateliers organisés par le CTA.ixS'agissant des besoins en renforcement des capacités à l'utilisation des Technologies de I'Information et de la Communication (TIC) et à la mise en place des stratégies GIC, les efforts doivent se concentrer sur deux axes à savoir les moyens humains et sur les équipements.Le renforcement en moyens humains constitue une nécessité absolue et ceci à travers le recrutement du personnel qualifié et la formation du personnel. En ce qui concerne la formation cette dernière peut varier suivant les institutions. A titre d'exemple, les sous -directions régionales du MAEM-RH ont exprimé leurs besoins en formation à la conception et la production des fiches techniques. D'autres institutions comme les structures audiovisuelles ont exprimé une formation de leur personnel aux techniques de la communication rurale et à la conception des programmes de radio rurale.Par ailleurs il est communément admis que l'utilisation des TIC et à la GIC nécessite des moyens matériels accrus. On note dans certaines institutions interviewées un retard accusé notamment dans l'utilisation de l'ordinateur et de l'Internet et il existe également sur ces questions des disparités au sein d'une même institution.Par conséquent le renforcement en moyens matériels des institutions implique sans être exhaustif l'acquisition des matériels informatiques, la connexion à l'Internet et à l'abonnement à l'ADSL, la mise en réseau LAN, l'acquisition des équipements audiovisuels pour une future radio rurale et enfin les équipements nécessaires pour un centre de documentation.Pour ce qui est des produits et services du CTA, les interviews montrent clairement que le magazine Spore est très utilisé comme sources d'information par les cadres du Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Elevage et de la Mer Chargé des Ressources Hydrauliques (MAEM-RH) du Laboratoire de Biologie Végétale et d'autres institutions comme la FAO et l'IGAD. En plus de ce magazine les autres produits et services du CTA sont également très recherchés auprès des institutions enquêtées. Par conséquent le CTA devrait étudier les moyens nouveaux et novateurs pour promouvoir ses autres produits et services afin d'attirer des futurs partenaires.Les évaluations ont fait ressortir un besoin urgent de mettre en place un partenariat avec les principaux acteurs impliqués dans l'information agricole mentionnés ci-dessous :• les institutions telles que les Direction Nationale de l'agriculture et des forêts x Recommandations À la lumière des constats ou des conclusions établis plus haut des recommandations dans les quatre grands domaines que sont les besoins en informations, les besoins en renforcement des capacités, les produits et services du CTA et les potentielles institutions partenaires stratégiques du CTA s'imposent.Les besoins en informations agricoles ne peuvent être satisfaites que par un accroissement de la disponibilité des informations agricoles et les recommandations retenues sont : Que le Gouvernement Djiboutien donne un appui:• pour la mise en place des structures destinées à accroître la disponibilité des informations agricoles et ceci à travers la création d'un centre de documentation agricole au Ministère de l'agriculture et d'une radio rurale à la Radio et télévision de Djibouti; • pour la mise à jour des sites web des différentes institutions.Que le CTA donne un appui:• pour la mise en place d'un service questions réponse au Ministère de l'agriculture ;• pour l'accès aux produits et services d'information du CTA entre autres les portails du Web, la collection Guide pratique et les services médiathèques du CTA; • pour la participation des institutions aux visites d'étude organisées par le CTA;• pour l'accès aux services et réseaux régionaux d'information agricole.Se basant sur les deux axes d'intervention identifiés à savoir les moyens humains et les moyens matériels il est recommandé: Que le gouvernement Djiboutien :• donne un appui au niveau national aux institutions agricoles en termes de moyens humains à travers le recrutement de nouveaux cadres dans le domaine des TIC et leur affectation aux institutions qui en sont dépourvues; • mette en place des programmes d'alphabétisations aux associations de producteurs;• favorise l'accès aux équipements informatiques en révisant à la baisse les taxes d'importations de ces équipements qui sont actuellement à 8%; • revoit à la baisse aux tarifs de connexion à l'Internet et à l'abonnement à l'ADSL.• appui pour la formation du personnel à la conception des différents supports de communication, à la numérisation des archives aux institutions du Ministère de l'Agriculture et aux techniques de communication agricole aux médias; • appui pour la formation du personnel des institutions afin que ces dernières bénéficient les produits et services du CTA, • appui en équipements techniques pour l'installation des structures destinées à accroître la disponibilité en informations agricoles (centre de documentation agricole, radio rurale).xiIl à été recommandé que:• le magazine Spore, ambassadeur du CTA devrait être traduit en arabe;• des efforts de publicité sur les produits et services du CTA axés sur les médias à Djibouti doivent être entrepris; • le CTA devrait tirer davantage des journées internationales des Nations Unies organisées à Djibouti afin d'accroître l'impact de ses produits et services.Pour jeter les bases d'un partenariat entre le CTA et les institutions sélectionnées l'appui du CTA est demandé pour:• faire connaître les activités du CTA aux institutions enquêtées à travers l'organisation d'un atelier à Djibouti; • établir un réseau local des futures partenaires afin de faciliter le dialogue entre ces partenaires; • mettre en place une convention de partenariat entre le CTA et les partenaires potentielles ainsi qu'une stratégie de suivi de ce partenariat; • d'évaluer les besoins en informations agricoles;• d'évaluer les besoins en renforcement des capacités;• de connaître l'impact des produits et des services du CTA;• d'identifier des futurs partenaires potentiels du CTA.  10. La superficie agricole cultivable et facilement irrigable le long des oueds est estimée à 10.500 ha mais actuellement les surfaces occupées par l'agriculture sont estimées à 1.250 hectares (DNAF, 2007). Plus de la moitié de la surface agricole nationale est concentrées près de la capitale. L'agriculture est marquée par la fragmentation et la dispersion extrême des surfaces cultivées et ceci est dû aux conditions agro écologiques. Djibouti a une tradition tout à fait récente en matière d'agriculture et la surface agricole brute limitée à 60 hectares au moment de l'indépendance (1977) a atteint à ce jour 1.250 hectares et ce à la suite d'un cycle d'expansion accéléré. L'agriculture se caractérise par un type oasien et les agriculteurs djiboutiens orientent leur production vers les cultures maraîchères, fruitières et fourragères.11. Avec une côte longue de 372 km, la République de Djibouti dispose d'énormes potentiels de ressources halieutiques mais actuellement mais peu exploitées. Les données scientifiques les plus récentes (Kunzel et al., 1996) font état d'un tonnage annuel d'espèces commercialisables de :• 1800 t de poissons démersaux ;• 4600 t de poissons grands pélagiques (type thazard) ;• 7000 t de poissons petits pélagiques (type sardine).12. Les efforts de pêche conduisent actuellement à une production d'environ 1.000 tonnes par an (source DP) soit un niveau d'exploitation très bas au regard des données mentionnées ci-dessus et relatif au potentiel. Du point de vue socio-économique il n'existe pas des données relatives à la contribution du secteur au PIB mais le secteur emploie 1000 personnes (DNP, 2005). La pêche pratiquée à Djibouti est la pêche artisanale améliorée utilisant en grande partie des petites embarcations équipées de moteurs hors-bord et des techniques de pêche adaptées au potentiel de capture de la ressource et à leur environnement.13. Les principales formations forestières se rencontrent sous forme de savanes arborées et de steppes buissonnantes, parfois arborées, de mangroves ou de formations à ligneux hauts et denses.En altitude la seule formation végétale qui constitue la vraie forêt de Djibouti est celle du Day, située ente 1 300 et 1 800 m d'altitude. Elle se présente comme une forêt dense à base de Juniperus procera et Buxus hildrandtii. D'une façon générale l'ensemble des formations végétales, profondément perturbé par l'action authropozoogène est en cours de régression (MAEM-RH, 2002). Cependant il ne faut perdre de vue tout l'arsenal juridique élaboré et susceptible de contribuer à la diffusion des informations agricoles à savoir :• loi n°80/AN/04/5ème l portant réforme du secteur des technologies de l'information et de la communication ; • loi n°117/AN/01/4ème l du 21 janvier 2001 portant organisation du ministère de la communication et de la culture, chargé des postes et des télécommunications ; • loi n°22/AN/03/5ème l définissant la politique nationale en matière de technologie de l'information et de la communication ; • loi n°141/AN/01/4éme l créant l'institut des sciences et des nouvelles technologies; • loi réduisant les taxes d'importation des équipements informatiques de 32 à 8%.37. L'organisation et la gestion du secteur primaire est assurée par MAEM-RH et ses attributions consistent à l'élaboration de la politique de l'eau et du développement rural ainsi que la définition des stratégies à suivre et de leur mise en oeuvre.• les DNAF, DNP et DNESV en charge de la mise en oeuvre des politiques sectorielles et de la vulgarisation ; • les SDR en charge de l'application des politiques des directions nationales au niveau des régions ; • le SPSC en charge de la centralisation des données bibliographiques du ministère ainsi que de la documentation ;• le Laboratoire de Biologie Végétale (LBV) en charge de la production in vitro des palmiers dattiers ; • les institutions internationales et régionales comme l'IGAD et la FAO. diffuser les informations concernant l'activité du ministère auprès du grand public.En dépit de ses prérogatives bien définies force est de constater qu'à l'heure actuelle ce service n'est pas outillé pour gérer l'information et la communication agricole et les principaux facteurs limitants sont résumés comme suit:• inexistence d'un local pour stocker les ouvrages;• inexistence des infrastructures et des équipements;• insuffisance en ressources humaines, un technicien est affecté à cette structure;• manque de coordination entre cette structure et les autres départements techniques.• • les médias représentés par la Radio et la Télévision de Djibouti (le réseau des médias publics regroupant la radio et la télévision) et le journal la nation (l'organe d'édition de la presse écrite de l'État en Français) impliqués occasionnellement dans l'information agricole.• les institutions internationales et régionales représentées par:le bureau de la représentation de la FAO chargé de la formulation des politiques et des programmes de développement rural et de sécurité alimentaire;-FEWS-NET de l'USAID destiné à collecter, traiter et analyser les informations sur la sécurité alimentaire et la mise à jour de la sécurité alimentaire;l'autorité intergouvernementale pour le développement (IGAD) qui publie souvent des informations régionales dans le domaine rural;• les ONG et les organisations de producteurs comme:l'UNFD qui donne un appui pour l'amélioration des conditions de vie et du rôle de la femme rurale à travers l'alphabétisation, le micro crédit et le soutien logistique aux agricultrices;le RCAD en charge de l'animation et la formation de plusieurs coopératives agricoles de la région de Dikhil;l'ACPM en charge de défendre l'intérêt des pêcheurs ; • l'institution privée représentée par l'établissement international Abou Yasser impliquée dans l'exportation du bétail. 45. Les Directions nationales du MAEM-RH donnent des informations sous forme d'articles publiés dans le journal « La Nation », de brochures éditées lors de certaines manifestations comme la célébration de la journée mondiale de l'alimentation le 16 octobre et enfin sous forme de rapport trimestriel ou annuel.46. L'utilisation des fiches techniques et de moyens audiovisuels surtout pour les campagnes de sensibilisation et pour la diffusion de nouvelles techniques agricoles par les unités d'encadrement et de vulgarisation des DNP, DNAF, DNESV et des SDR en charge de l'encadrement des coopératives et d'autre part de la dissémination des informations.Certaines institutions disposent d'un site web qui représente une partie importante de son effort de communication avec le public. Il est potentiellement le véhicule le plus important pour présenter l'information à des interlocuteurs clés de la société mais certains sites ne sont pas régulièrement mis à jour pour faire apparaître les actualités courantes sur cette page d'accueil.Même si la représentation de la FAO à Djibouti a été inaugurée récemment on peut consulter son page web en français et que certains documents peuvent être téléchargés lors de certaines manifestations. Les informations sont également disponibles sous forme de note d'information, de brochure thématique et d'affiche.Il faut également noter à Djibouti le retard énorme accusé au MAEM-RH dans la centralisation des données bibliographiques et la documentation agricole.Les rares structures de documentation et bibliothèques existantes dans le pays ne disposent pas des ouvrages destinés au secteur rural national hormis le centre de documentation de l'IGAD, abonné au magazine Spore, qui a une vocation régionale. Le Centre dispose des monographies et des périodiques axés sur l'agriculture, l'élevage et sur la pêche. En plus de ces ouvrages le Centre possède une base de données bibliographique sur CD-Rom. Cependant on peut noter que 80% des ouvrages du Centre sont en anglais.Le secteur de l'information et de la communication agricole est caractérisé par une insuffisance en ressources humaines et financières, et par une faiblesse du budget alloué aux activités de la GIC dans toutes les institutions visitées.54. On constate également une insuffisance en ressources humaines dans les instituions audiovisuelles et de la presse écrite. Seuls les opérateurs Djibouti Télécom et l'IGAD sont moyennement outillés en moyens humains dans le domaine des TIC.En ce qui concerne les ressources financières il suffit de regarder la part du budget (budget de fonctionnement et d'investissement) alloué au Ministère de l'agriculture, soit 2,10% en 2007, au regard du budget alloué en 2007 aux secteurs de la santé et de l'éducation qui sont respectivement 20,9% et 14,4% (MEFPP, 2008). La tendance est à la déflation de la fonction publique suite à la politique d'ajustement structurel mis en place depuis 1995.Il n'existe pas un budget dédié aux cellules informatiques et ceci constitue une contrainte au développement des TIC. Mais on note l'existence des ordinateurs installés dans certaines institutions mais qui sont souvent utilisés pour traitement de texte. Des disparités énormes existent entre les institutions interviewées dans le domaine des équipements en ordinateurs. Toutefois il est à noter que la plupart des institutions publiques sont connectés à l'Internet mais des disparités criantes existent également entre le responsable de l'institution et les autres cadres dans la connexion à l'Internet.  Dans cette rubrique il faut mettre aussi les informations sollicitées par les associations ou coopératives concernant les différentes sources d'approvisionnement régionaux en intrants agricoles (semences, fertilisants, fourrage pour le cheptel et matériels de pêche).En ce qui concerne les autres doléances enregistrées au cours de cette étude en matière des besoins en informations, elles sont du type d'ordre général mais qui sont scindées comme suit :• les différents bailleurs de fonds impliqués dans les financements du secteur rural;• les différents types projets exécutés par les organisations régionales comme l'IGAD et le COMESA ou internationales telles que la FAO, le FIDA et le CTA; • les foires ou ateliers ou conférences à venir du CTA;• les sites web des marchés régionaux et internationaux des produits de la mer. 66. S'agissant du format, hormis les associations de producteurs qui ont sollicité des informations visuelles, les autres personnes enquêtées ont exprimé que les informations soient sous forme d'articles, de revues et de fiches techniques. 67. Le problème de renforcement des capacités à Djibouti se pose en termes humains et en équipements. S'agissant des ressources humaines, il est à noter que la valorisation des ressources humaines constituait l'un des axes majeurs du premier document de la stratégie de réduction de la pauvreté de Djibouti et ceci du fait de l'importance de celles-ci dans le développement durable du pays. Enfin il y a lieu de souligner qu'au niveau des acteurs de base que sont les éleveurs, pêcheurs et agriculteurs, le renforcement des capacités est d'une urgence critique. L'alphabétisation, la formation technique, la promotion de « leaders » et d'organisations professionnelles représentent des besoins énormes.En plus de l'insuffisance en ressources humaines sectorielles, les institutions enquêtées du ministère de l'agriculture ont mis en exergue le manque de ressources humaines dans le domaine informatique. Ceci est vrai à tous les niveaux depuis le décideur jusqu'au simple usager. Ce qui rend la mise en place de l'infrastructure informatique plus difficile. Il existe un minimum de connaissance sur les applications du système (Word, Excel, etc.) chez bon nombre d'utilisateurs questionnés lors de cette étude.Concernant les institutions audiovisuelles et de la presse écrite elles ne sont pas mieux loties en moyens humains qualifiés dans le domaine de l'information et de la communication.74. Partant de ces constats un besoin en renforcement en ressources humaines a été exprimé par toutes les institutions visitées avec une forte prédominance des formations sectorielles (agronomes, vétérinaires, journalistes, etc.…) suivie d'une formation à l'utilisation de la TIC et de la GIC. Cette dernière est ventilée à l'utilisation de l'ordinateur, à la conception d'un site web, à la conception d'une fiche technique, à la gestion d'un centre de documentation et à la conception des programmes radiophoniques rurales.Par ailleurs le très faible taux d'équipements en ordinateurs est indéniablement un obstacle important pour la plupart des instituions enquêtées.En matière de connexion, il est à noter que la plupart des institutions publiques sont connectées mais des disparités criantes existent entre les institutions mais également au sein d'une institution entre le responsable de l'institution et les autres cadres.Souvent les instituions qui sont mieux loties en équipements informatiques et disposant d'une connexion à l'Internet et d'un abonnement ADSL représentent surtout des institutions financées dans le cadre des projets multilatéraux ou bilatéraux. Ceci pose le problème de la poursuite de la connexion à l'Internet et à l'abonnement ADSL quand le projet est arrêté ou suspendu.78. S'agissant du renforcement en équipements, les doléances enregistrées couvrent les équipements informatiques, les logiciels de vulgarisation, la connexion à ADSL, les matériels nécessaires à la création d'un centre de documentation et les équipements nécessaires pour mettre en place une radio rurale.En dépit de ces facteurs limitantes liées aux moyens humains et en équipements tout porte à croire qu'il existe un engagement et une ferme volonté politique du gouvernement pour promouvoir toutes les dimensions des technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC) et ceci à travers la mise en oeuvre du plan d'action national. • lutter contre la pauvreté et la soif ;• réduire la dépendance alimentaire ;• générer de nouvelles sources de devises ;• maintenir les populations rurales dans leur terroir.Même si la contribution des secteurs agricoles, élevage et pêche au PIB est faible à hauteur de 3% il ne faut perdre de vue l'importance de la population rurale à Djibouti qui est estimée à 15% de la population totale.Par conséquent toutes les actions visant à la sédentarisation de la population rurale dans leur terroirs ou améliorer les conditions de vie doivent être privilégiées et ceci dans le but de limiter l'exode rural. Les évaluations ont fait ressortir un besoin urgent de mettre en place un partenariat avec les principaux acteurs impliqués dans l'information agricole mentionnés ci-dessous :• les institutions telles que les Direction Nationale de l'agriculture et des forêts • l'institution de télécommunication comme Djibouti Télécom ;• les associations de producteurs ou les ONG comme le Réseau des Coopératives Agricoles de la région de Dikhil (RCAD), l'Union Nationale des Femmes Djiboutiennes (UNFD) et le Mouvement Associatif des Journalistes Djiboutiens (MAJD) ;• le secteur privé comme l'Etablissement International Abou Yasser (EIAY).94. À la lumière des constats ou des conclusions établis plus haut des recommandations dans les quatre grands domaines que sont les besoins en informations, les besoins en renforcement des capacités, les produits et services du CTA et les potentielles institutions partenaires stratégiques du CTA s'imposent.95. Les besoins en informations agricoles ne peuvent être satisfaits que par un accroissement de la disponibilité des informations agricoles et les recommandations retenues sont :Que le Gouvernement Djiboutien donne un appui:• pour la mise en place des structures destinées à accroître la disponibilité des informations agricoles et ceci à travers la création d'un centre de documentation agricole au Ministère de l'agriculture et d'une radio rurale à la Radio et télévision de Djibouti ; • pour la mise à jour des sites web des différentes institutions.Que le CTA donne un appui :• pour la mise en place d'un service questions réponse au Ministère de l'agriculture ;• pour l'accès aux produits et services d'information du CTA entre autres les portails du Web, la collection Guides pratique et les services médiathèques du CTA ; • pour la participation des institutions aux visites d'étude organisées par le CTA ;• pour l'accès aux services et réseaux régionaux d'information agricole.Que le gouvernement Djiboutien :• donne un appui au niveau national aux institutions agricoles en termes de moyens humains à travers le recrutement de nouveaux cadres dans le domaine des TIC et leur affectation aux institutions qui en sont dépourvues; • mette en place des programmes d'alphabétisations aux associations de producteurs;• favorise l'accès aux équipements informatiques en révisant à la baisse les taxes d'importations de ces équipements qui sont actuellement à 8%; • revoit à la baisse aux tarifs de connexion à l'Internet et à l'abonnement à l'ADSL.Que le CTA accorde un :• appui pour la formation du personnel à la conception des différents supports de communication, à la numérisation des archives aux institutions du Ministère de l'Agriculture et aux techniques de communication agricole aux médias; • appui pour la formation du personnel des institutions afin que ces dernières bénéficient les produits et services du CTA, • appui en équipements techniques pour l'installation des structures destinées à accroître la disponibilité en informations agricoles (centre de documentation agricole, radio rurale).• le magazine Spore, ambassadeur du CTA devrait être traduit en arabe ;• des efforts de publicité sur les produits et services du CTA axés sur les médias à Djibouti doivent être entrepris ; • le CTA devrait tirer davantage des journées internationales des Nations Unies organisées à Djibouti afin d'accroître l'impact de ses produits et services.98. Pour jeter les bases d'un partenariat entre le CTA et les institutions sélectionnées l'appui du CTA est demandé pour:• faire connaître les activités du CTA aux institutions enquêtées à travers l'organisation d'un atelier à Djibouti ; • établir un réseau local des futures partenaires afin de faciliter le dialogue entre ces partenaires ; • mettre en place une convention de partenariat entre le CTA et les partenaires potentielles ainsi qu'une stratégie de suivi de ce partenariat. Les résultats attendus de cette étude sont les suivants :une description et une analyse de l'état des infrastructures, des services d'information et des capacités de GIC des institutions impliquées dans l'agriculture et le développement rural ;une identification des besoins en termes d'information et de renforcement des capacités de GIC pour les principales institutions et les potentiels partenaires clés du CTA présents dans le secteur du développement agricole et rural ; une compilation de données de référence sur l'état de la GIC et des TIC dans l'agriculture et le développement rural pour un meilleur suivi de la situation.Le profil de chaque pays étudié sera ainsi actualisé, avec des données fiables sur l'état des services d'information agricole, de la GIC et des TIC. Le CTA pourra alors décider, en connaissance de cause, des actions à mettre en oeuvre et des partenaires qu'il aura à choisir. Ces données seront résumées dans un (1) rapport principal sur chaque pays étudié ne dépassant pas 30 pages hors annexes (voir la section 8 ci-dessous).Le consultant utilisera des méthodes d'évaluation rapide, à la fois qualitative et quantitative :passage en revue de la littérature et des sources d'information disponibles, y compris les conclusions des évaluations de programmes ; entretiens en tête-à-tête avec les acteurs clés et les parties prenantes concernés ; usage limité des questionnaires.La méthode d'évaluation rapide permettra d'avoir un aperçu des principaux problèmes et de connaître les profils des entreprises / organisations dans chaque pays, informations qui pourraient, à l'avenir, servir de base à des études approfondies si nécessaire.Les rapports élaborés sur chacun des pays étudié ne dépasseront pas 30 pages (hors annexes) et seront structurés comme suit : Une liste des personnes/institutions interrogées, avec leurs adresses, leurs numéros de téléphone et fax, leurs adresses mail (le cas échéant).Bibliographie.La version provisoire du rapport et de ses annexes devra être remise dans un délai de trois mois à compter de la signature du contrat par le CTA. La version finale du rapport et de ses annexes devra être remise dans un délai de deux semaines après réception des commentaires et observations du CTA.Les consultants nationaux doivent être titulaires d'un diplôme universitaire ou équivalent, et avoir au moins 10 ans d'expérience dans les domaines de l'agriculture, du développement rural ou des sciences sociales / économiques. Ils doivent avoir une parfaite connaissance du secteur agricole de leur pays, ainsi que des principales parties prenantes et institutions / organisations actives dans ce domaine. Des connaissances en sciences de l'information seront un atout supplémentaire. La capacité à communiquer et à rédiger en anglais ou en français est indispensable. La maîtrise d'au moins une des langues locales pour les besoins des échanges et des interviews sera également un avantage.En plus de disposer des compétences ci-dessus citées, le coordonnateur régional devra parler couramment l'anglais et le français, connaître les pays faisant l'objet de cette étude d'évaluation et avoir une expérience avérée dans la coordination d'études menées par plusieurs consultants à la fois, ainsi que dans la production de rapports de synthèse.La coordination globale de cette étude sera assurée par Melle Christine Webster, responsable adjointe de l'unité Planification et services communs du CTA. Quant à la pêche selon les informations recueillies dans le schéma Directeur de la pêche en dépit de ces potentialités le secteur emploie environ 1000 personnes (DNP, 2005). Une situation qui s'explique par le manque de tradition maritime de la population djiboutienne.La presque totalité de terres classées comme productives à l'échelon national est occupée par les pâturages qui couvrent 94,4% du territoire de la République de Djibouti. L'agriculture et les forêts sont confinées dans des surfaces réduites. Avec une côte maritime longue de 372 km, la République de Djibouti dispose d'énormes potentiels de ressources halieutiques mais actuellement peu exploitées et les données scientifiques les plus récentes (Kunzel et al., 1996) font état d'un tonnage annuel d'espèces commercialisables et comme suit :• 1800 t de poissons démersaux ;• 4600 t de poissons de grands pélagiques (thon, thazard);• 7000 t de poissons petits pélagiques (type sardines).Ces tonnages annuels peuvent être prélevés sans mettre en danger les stocks de poissons. Le faciès rocheux de la côte et l'étroitesse du plateau continental limite les possibilités des chalutages qui verraient l'épuisement rapide de la ressource.Au regard de ce tableau ci-dessous l'économie du pays est constituée essentiellement par le secteur tertiaire qui occupe 80% du PIB alors que les secteurs secondaire et rural contribuent respectivement à hauteur 13% et 3%. Les données sur l'évolution de la production agricole sur la période [2000][2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006]   un tonnage de 2296 tonnes de fruits (goyaves, citron, dattes, mangues, orange, pommes cannelles, bananes, papayes, grenades, pamplemousse) ; -un tonnage de3304 tonnes de légumes (tomate, piments, oignons, melons, aubergines, gombos, carottes, navets, radis, betteraves, choux, laitues).Sur une production agricole totale estimée à 5600 tonnes au titre de l'année 2005 et 2006 il est à noter que seulement 20% de cette production sont autoconsommés en milieu rural et les 80% restants sont vendus sur le marché urbain de la capitale.Le faible taux d'autoconsommation des produits du terroir s'explique pour les raisons suivantes :la majorité des exploitants ne sont pas des ruraux mais des personnes installées dans la capitale et qui disposent d'un autre revenu ; -les frais monétaires de l'exploitation sont très élevés à cause des pompes et du carburant.Comme les frais dépassent en moyenne la moitié de la valeur de la production la nécessité de vendre toute la récolte s'impose. En ce qui concerne les prix de vente agricoles, ils sont élevés à cause de la faiblesse de la production nationale et à l'importation massive des produits venant de l'Ethiopie. A titre indicatif, la tomate et les autres légumes sont vendus entre 0,36 et 0,89 euros / kg alors que les fruits sont vendus à 0,89 euros /kg.Il est à noter qu'en période de commercialisation de la tomate de Djibouti # toute importation de tomate de l'Ethiopie s'arrête. En effet même si le prix d'achat de la tomate est le même en Ethiopie et à Djibouti (0,36/kg au prix producteur) la tomate djiboutienne est préférée parce qu'elle est moins périssable (pertes de distribution de 5% pour la tomate de Djibouti contre 30% de pertes pour la tomate de l'Ethiopie) et il en est de même pour les autres produits maraîchers nationaux. C'est pour cette raison que la production interne est rapidement écoulée. La faiblesse des rendements agricoles est due à :la faible compétitivité des agriculteurs due au manque de savoir faire (faute de tradition agricole ancienne) ; -la disponibilité insuffisante de la ressource en eau ; -la qualité agronomique des sols (salinité et teneur en matière organique) ; -la faible organisation des coopératives pour l'approvisionnement en intrants et la commercialisation des produits agricoles ; -les dégâts occasionnés par les crues des oueds ou la remontée des fronts salés.possibilité de développement d'une agriculture oasienne associant l'agriculture à l'élevage avec la promotion à grande échelle de la culture du palmier dattier ; -possibilité d'extension de la superficie cultivée; -possibilité d'amélioration du rendement par l'utilisation de techniques culturales appropriées ainsi que d'intrants agricoles performants.La croissance de la production de bétail pour les deux années écoulées est plus forte. Ainsi la production de bétail a respectivement augmenté de 75,8% Pour ce qui est de la répartition de cette production par catégorie sur les trois dernières années elle donne également l'avantage aux catégories ovins/caprins et Bovins. Ce résultat s'explique par les habitudes alimentaires de la population Djiboutienne.En matière d'élevage des volailles des initiatives ont été entreprises dans le passé mais malheureusement les essais ont été interrompus. Un programme de relance de l'aviculture au niveau national a démarré en 2007 avec un investisseur privé des Emirats Arabes Unis, la Société Lootah et les données sur la production ne sont pas encore disponibles. Les principales contraintes inhérentes à l'élevage se résument comme suit :un différentiel de niveau de vie avec les pays voisins (Ethiopie, Erythrée, Somalie) rend difficilement compétitif le cheptel djiboutien, les coûts de production y étant particulièrement élevés ; -le réseau d'accès aux médicaments vétérinaires et à des compétences vétérinaires locales est très faible ; -les surfaces fourragères actuellement disponibles pour une intensification de l'élevage particulièrement en milieu périurbain sont nettement insuffisantes ; -les potentialités pastorales des zones de parcours sont sous-valorisées par les insuffisances du réseau d'hydraulique pastorale en dépit des réels efforts réalisés dans le passé ; -la faible structuration des groupements des éleveurs pour la commercialisation des produits de l'élevage ; -l'insuffisance des infrastructures de l'hydraulique pastorale ; -les faibles moyens mis à la disposition des agents d'encadrement et des services vétérinaires qui ne peuvent assurer qu'une faible couverture sanitaire.Cependant les opportunités de développement existent. Ce sont entre autres :la présence du port permet d'avoir accès à des intrants (notamment céréales) à des coûts plus faibles que les pays voisins enclavés ; -la forte urbanisation (près de 3/4 de la population) implique une forte demande en protéines animales de la part d'une population en moyenne plus aisée que dans les zones rurales ; -les matières premières pour l'alimentation du bétail sont disponibles à un prix attractif sur le marché éthiopien voisin ; -les infrastructures portuaires dans un pays politiquement stabilisé, entouré de zones de conflits récurrents, donnent un avantage comparatif pour les activités d'exportation du bétail de la Corne de l'Afrique principalement vers les pays de la péninsule arabique et l'Egypte, fort importateur d'animaux sur pied (moutons, bovins, dromadaires).Les principales familles et espèces d'intérêt économique du secteur de la pêche sont les suivantes :• Espèces benthiques (poissons de fonds)  En dépit de ces potentialités halieutiques le secteur de la pêche est confronté à des facteurs limitants qui sont entre autres :la faiblesse du marché local ; -le faible niveau d'exportation dû à la mauvaise organisation de la filière ; -l'insuffisance de l'Autorité compétente en matière de mise en oeuvre des normes alimentaires requises pour l'exportation du poisson ; -l'insuffisance du nombre de pêcheurs professionnels ; -le sous-équipement des pêcheurs ; -une mauvaise organisation des pêcheurs.Par contre, le secteur présente d'importantes opportunités de développement qui sont:disponibilité de ressources d'espèces variées recherchées par les marchés européens et asiatiques ;prix du poisson payé aux pêcheurs très concurrentiel par rapport aux prix payés aux pêcheurs asiatiques ou de l'Afrique de l'Ouest pour des espèces identiques exploitées pour l'exportation;le port de pêche, malgré sa nécessaire réhabilitation, représente un outil important pour les pêcheurs artisans ; des emplois à court et moyen terme.Par ailleurs, il est à noter que dés que le laboratoire d'hygiène alimentaire (un facteur limitant aux exportations vers l'Union Européenne) sera opérationnel, ce secteur pourrait se hisser à un rang appréciable dans l'économie du pays et procurer des devises grâce à un stock de poisson à haute valeur ajoutée vers des marchés plus rémunérateurs.Egalement dans le cadre de la lutte contre la pauvreté il pourrait contribuer à la création de nouvelles activités potentiellement génératrices de revenus, à la fois pour les pêcheurs euxmêmes mais aussi pour tous les acteurs des filières de commercialisation et notamment les femmes, que ce soit sur le marché national ou à l'exportation.Jusqu'en 1998, Djibouti exportait du poisson sur l'île de la Réunion date à laquelle s'est terminée la période dérogatoire par rapport aux exigences sanitaires pour les produits de la pêche. Ces exigences sont édictées par la Directive CEE 91/493 et s'appliquent aux exportations des pays tiers vers l'Union Européenne (UE).L'obstacle de la non harmonisation de Djibouti vis-à-vis de l'UE constitue un blocage majeur au développement du secteur de la pêche de Djibouti. Pour reprendre les exportations vers l'UE, il faudrait que la République de Djibouti soit admise parmi les pays tiers dits harmonisés du point de vue de la réglementation sanitaire pour les produits de la pêche.Depuis que l'embargo sur les exportations de bétail à destination des pays du golfe a été levé en Le Gouvernement a élaboré en 1998, avec l'appui de la FAO, un document de cadre stratégique intitulé stratégie du secteur primaire, horizon 2000-2010. Lors du processus de l'élaboration de ce document l'approche participative a été privilégiée et toutes les parties prenantes au secteur primaire ont été conviées lors d'un atelier de validation du document stratégique.Les principes directeurs de ce cadre stratégique ont été une plus grande intégration des différentes activités sectorielles afin d'oublier l'approche sectorielle pratiquée dans le passé. Par ailleurs outre les thèmes développés dans la décennie précédente (réduction de la dépendance alimentaire, amélioration du niveau de vie rural) cette nouvelle stratégie prend en compte des axes nouveaux tels que la lutte contre la désertification, la promotion de la femme, la gestion durable des ressources naturelles (enjeux environnementaux, biodiversité), ainsi que la responsabilisation des acteurs locaux dans le cadre d'une politique nationale de décentralisation.Les objectifs et axes stratégiques assignés au développement du secteur primaire pour la décennie 2001-2010 ont été fixés par le Gouvernement, comme suit :(i) Lutter contre la pauvreté et la soif :par l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire ; -par la sauvegarde et la gestion rationnelle des ressources naturelles ; -par l'accès à l'eau potable à moindre coût, en milieux urbain et rural, et la sécurisation de l'approvisionnement en eau du pays ; -par la création de nouveaux emplois.(ii) Réduire la dépendance alimentaire :par la diversification de la production agricole et marine et l'amélioration de la productivité des agriculteurs, éleveurs et pêcheurs.(iii) Générer de nouvelles sources de devises:par la réexportation du cheptel de la sous-région et l'exportation des ressources halieutiques.(iv) Maintenir les populations rurales dans leur terroir :par la réhabilitation des infrastructures rurales; -par la structuration et la responsabilisation des populations rurales;par la création d'emplois et le renforcement du partenariat dans le cadre de la décentralisation.• Stratégie Sectorielle pour le renforcement des capacités institutionnelles L'ampleur des défis auxquels fait face le monde rural rend aujourd'hui impérative la mise en place de mesures institutionnelles et d'organisation, en particulier pour le MAEM-RH. Dans ce cadre, les actions stratégiques concerneront :la mise en place des Sous Directions régionales du développement rural dans le cadre de la prochaine loi de décentralisation ; -la réorganisation des services centraux de statistiques agricoles ; -la création d'un Centre de Formation Agricole et Pastorale à vocation nationale (formation professionnelle, formation continue); -l'appui à la mise en place d'un centre de documentation en élevage et agriculture; -la réhabilitation des locaux de l'administration concernée (MAEM-RH) ; -le renforcement des compétences des cadres techniques du Ministère de l'Agriculture de l'Elevage et de la Mer.• Stratégie sectorielle pour l'agriculture Le but est d'augmenter significativement la production, pour cela, les efforts s'orienteront vers :l'augmentation des surfaces cultivées par la création de nouveaux périmètres agricoles; -l'amélioration de la productivité par: la formation agricole, l'introduction et la mise à disposition des agriculteurs de paquets technologiques adaptés (introduction d'espèces et variétés semencières productives et adaptées à l'écosystème), l'amélioration des systèmes hydro-agricoles et enfin la diffusion de systèmes d'irrigation à faible coût, permettant d'économiser les ressources en eau et de réduire les charges de production.On ne négligera pas également :le développement de filières de commercialisation sur les marchés locaux ou vers la capitale, et d'approvisionnement en intrants à des coûts raisonnables ; -l'introduction d'un système de micro crédits ; -la mise en place d'un statut particulier aux coopératives ; -le développement d'activités nouvelles telles que l'apiculture.La stratégie sectorielle poursuivie repose alors sur 4 axes complémentaires :le premier axe vise une gestion durable des ressources marines à travers l'élaboration et la mise en oeuvre d'un plan directeur de développement de la pêche, la mise en place d'un système de co-gestion (communautés/administration) de la ressource et de préservation de l'environnement marin et un renforcement des capacités de l'institution en charge du secteur ; -le deuxième axe vise l'amélioration des revenus des pêcheurs et la création d'emplois notamment par le renforcement des capacités des organisations professionnelles impliquées dans le secteur, la réhabilitation et le renforcement de l'outil de production, l'innovation des équipements technologiques; -le troisième axe vise la promotion du développement des exportations à travers la mise aux normes internationales des infrastructures d'exportation du poisson, la mise en place d'un laboratoire de contrôle sanitaire et le renforcement des ressources humaines ; -le quatrième axe vise l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire notamment par un appui aux femmes impliquées dans la commercialisation du poisson, l'amélioration du réseau de distribution du poisson, l'introduction des techniques de traitement et de conservation à faible coût et la promotion de la consommation du poisson.• Stratégie sectorielle pour l'élevage Elle s'articule sur ces différents points :la sécurisation des activités pastorales afin de limiter l'exode rural, maintenir une activité économique dans les zones marginales,et préserver l'environnement ; -le développement des infrastructures d'hydraulique pastorale, et le renforcement de la gestion participative de celles-ci en partenariat avec les communautés rurales ; -le renforcement du rôle de Djibouti comme place commerciale régionale pour l'exportation du bétail de la sous région (parc aménagé, ressources en eau, contrôles sanitaires, harmonisation des procédures réglementaires de certification) afin de stimuler l'emploi dans le secteur et générer des ressources au bénéfice du développement économique du pays ; -l'implication de l'activité d'élevage dans la gestion raisonnée des environnements les plus fragiles à vocation en partie pastorale (forêt du Day, mangroves, lac Abbé), sans la préservation desquels le maintien d'une activité pastorale sera de plus en plus problématique dans ces lieux ; -la protection de la santé des consommateurs en renforçant les dispositifs de contrôle de la qualité des produits animaux au bénéfice de la santé publique ; -la promotion d'un secteur marchand dans le domaine de l'élevage périurbain ( Les priorités de la politique de santé énoncées dans la Loi N° 48/AN/99/4 ème L sont par ordre d'importance:-la disponibilité et l'accessibilité financière aux médicaments ; -la promotion de la prévention ; -la promotion de l'hygiène.Le système de santé est fondé sur l'approche de système de santé de région et la stratégie de soins de santé primaires. L'organisation des structures d'offres de soins est de type pyramidal avec trois niveaux (public, parapublic et privé) et elle régit par la carte sanitaire qui est révisée tous les cinq ans.En ce qui concerne le secteur public, le premier niveau est constitué par les postes de santé (23) en milieu rural et les centres de santé communautaires (12)  Les principaux centres urbains du pays, Djibouti-ville et sa périphérie en particulier, concentrent près des deux tiers de la population djiboutienne. Ces centres ont connu une expansion rapide de zones d'habitats précaires au cours de la décennie 1990. Cela s'est traduit par la dégradation de l'environnement et des difficultés grandissants dans l'accès aux services sociaux de base. Les résultats de l'enquête EDSF/PAPFAM-2002 ont montré que près de 65% des ménages urbains vivent dans des taudis alors que la majorité des ruraux et nomades soit 93,9% logent dans des tentes traditionnelles ou «toukouls». De plus les prix élèves des loyers, les coûts exorbitants des matériaux de construction et de la main d'oeuvre exacerbent la précarité des ménages et limitent les possibilités d'accès des pauvres à des logements décents. Selon le rapport sur le développement humain de 2000 seulement 34% de logements sont en dur et seuls 50% des ménages sont propriétaires de logements qu'ils occupent.Faute de donnés disponible fiable sur l'exode rural, on peut se contenter de dire que l'exode rural vers les zones urbaines du pays a été observé depuis l'indépendance et les principaux vecteurs qui sont à l'origine de cet exode rural :-les disparités de revenus énormes entre le revenu par habitant en milieu urbain et en milieu rural ; -les sécheresses récurrentes ont été observées dans certaines zones du pays suite à un déficit pluviométrique de l'ordre de 50%.Il faut également rappeler que les populations pastorales déjà éprouvées par la persistance de la sécheresse sont également confrontées aux difficultés de la vie quotidienne en rapport avec la hausse vertigineuse des prix des produits de premières nécessités (farine, sucre, riz).L'ampleur de la sécheresse et la détérioration continue de la situation économique des ménages urbains couplés à une crise alimentaire incite la population rurale des régions de l'intérieur à fuir les campements en masse dans les zones touchées par la sécheresse et à se réfugier dans les chefs-lieux ainsi que dans les zones périurbaines de la capitale.Les résultats d'une mission d'évaluation des impacts de la sécheresse sur la population rurale et leur cheptel menée par les différents Préfets des Régions de l'intérieur depuis le 10 avril 2008 font état qu'un très grand nombre des personnes sont dans une précarité extrême dans les zones rurales et au total environ 120.000 personnes ont été affectées par cette sécheresse.Dans ce chapitre d'exode rural citons le conflit interne qui eu lieu en 1992 en République de Djibouti. Un conflit qui a eu pour conséquences un déplacement des populations pastorales des régions du nord vers les chefs lieux des régions du nord.La Radio et Télévision de Djibouti (RTD) est la seule institution opérant à Djibouti dans le domaine audio et visuelle. Cette structure possède un réseau de diffusion à grand public couvrant la capitale, les chefs lieux de 5 régions du pays et ses environs. La couverture de toutes les régions du pays est de 80% pour la bande FM nationale et internationale. Pour ce qui concerne les ondes moyennes pour la télévision la couverture totale est de 75% tandis que les ondes courtes ne fonctionnent pas. La téléphonie rurale est toujours en progression grâce à l'utilisation du concept GSMFIXE et de plus en plus de petites localités reculées communiquent à travers cet outil. Cependant il est à signaler que pour les zones rurales l'année 2008 sera marquée par le déploiement de la téléphonie rurale avec la couverture en téléphonie rurale sur pratiquement l'ensemble du pays qui sera améliorée à l'aide d'une boucle locale radio sans fil.En ce qui concerne le nombre de cabines téléphoniques privées, on enregistre une croissance globale de 69% avec 27% pour les chefs lieux des 5 régions. Ce sont des cabines qui appartiennent à Djibouti Télécom mais dont la gestion est confiée à un commerçant privé.  ","tokenCount":"8900"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cf7c2912ae651a8dd72836dad55cddc0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4f238dcb-de99-4405-ae21-d15bed322077/retrieve","id":"-1545831094"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9d5d91a9-c992-40a2-bf3d-25f6dd23730b","pagecount":"208","content":"Figure 1.1 The Mara-Serengeti ecosystem showing the wildebeest migration from their wet season range in the south northwards into the dry season range in the Maasai Mara National Reserve and its adjoining pastoral ranches. Besides the Serengeti migration, the Loita population uses the Loita plains during the wet season together with resident herbivores and move into the Maasai Mara National Reserve in the dry season.How do agro-pastoralism and protection influence the abundance and demography of large herbivores in the Mara region of Kenya?Human societies have long set aside vast areas of land to conserve nature in the form of hunting reserves, religious forests, and common grounds (Chape et al. 2008). The current concept of national parks evolved in the mid-1800s as European colonists were converting native landscapes to farms, ranches, and cities (Hansen and DeFries 2007). During this period the key goal in Africa was usually the protection of wildlife for hunting opportunities, not so much for nature conservation. However, during the 20th century, the key goal was the protection of nature. By minimizing the influence of humans, natural ecosystems were expected to continue to maintain ecological processes and native species. As a result, protected areas became a cornerstone of the global conservation strategy. More than 100,000 terrestrial protected areas have been established covering some 16.8 million km 2 of the world's land surface area of which Africa contributes an impressive 4.2 million km 2 (Chape et al. 2005).Protected areas often host diverse communities of wildlife, with many species usually able to coexist in particular areas (Newmark 1996). Yet, despite the high level of protection and expansion of national parks and reserves, protected areas are not always functioning as originally envisioned (Hansen and DeFries 2007). Declining wildlife populations and local extinctions remain a growing concern (Brashares et al. 2001, Owen-Smith and Mills 2006, Ogutu et al. 2009, Ogutu et al. 2011), although significantly high levels of protection has slowed declines and in some species reversed the trends (McNaughton andGeorgiadis 1986, Thirgood et al. 2004). The theory of Island Biogeography (IBT) has been extensively used in explaining species richness patterns in island systems and other insular communities such as protected areas (MacArthur and Wilson 1967). According to this theory there is a positive association between reserve size and the number of species it can support; a relationship considered sufficiently strong to reliably predict rates of species loss (Soulé et al. 1979). Large areas gain more species through immigration and support larger populations that are therefore less prone to stochastic extinction. Furthermore, large areas often contain more habitat types and hence offer more opportunities for niche differentiation (Ricklefs and Lovette 1999). In contrast, small reserves contain small populations and are more likely to lose species than are large ones as a result due to stochastic population fluctuations (MacArthur and Wilson 1967, Rosenzweig 1995). Small reserves thus provide opportunities for fewer species than larger reserves because they contain lower diversity of habitat types and therefore offer fewer opportunities for niche differentiation. Furthermore, species extinctions within small reserves are more likely due to low population densities and greater vulnerability to ecological catastrophes.Despite the generality and popularity of the Island Biogeography Theory, several studies have reported richness patterns that are inconsistent with its predictions (Lomolino andWeiser 2001, Jonsson et al. 2011). This is neither satisfactory nor surprising given that many small reserves are situated in unique habitats in which the diversity of habitats, landscape heterogeneity or vegetation productivity is sufficiently high to support rich species assemblages despite their small sizes (Báldi 2008). This discrepancy can be explained at least in part by an alternative theory of species richness patterns, known as the species-energy theory, which predicts that species richness should reflect the total amount of available energy (Wright 1983) or the habitat heterogeneity hypothesis (Rosenzweig 1995). Yet, despite the wide recognition that area per se, heterogeneity and productivity each can explain a part of the variation in species richness among protected areas, it is surprising that very few studies have examined their relative importance (Ricklefs andLovette 1999, Rensburg et al. 2002). This raises fundamental questions about how area, heterogeneity and productivity might interact to shape species richness patterns in protected areas, particularly given area might influence species richness indirectly via its correlation with other factors. Furthermore, several studies have shown that most parks and reserves do not encompass the full range of resource gradients, migratory corridors and seasonal habitats necessary for the maintenance of a diverse array of wildlife populations (Fynn and Bonyongo 2010). This is of great significance to conservation because it is well known that the nature of landscapes around reserves and reserve boundaries markedly affect ecological processes operating within and between reserves and their surroundings, hence affecting the number of species reserves can sustain (Murray 1995, Belovsky 1997, Hansen and DeFries 2007). Processes such as expanding human settlements, cultivation, fencing and other land transformations in regions neighbouring reserves, together with incursions of domestic livestock into supposedly protected areas soften reserve boundaries and reduce their effective sizes by interfering with vital ecosystem processes such as breeding, escape from predation, access to critical resources via movements etc., thereby increasing the risk of localized species extirpations (Woodroffe and Ginsberg 1998, Parks and Harcourt 2002, Newmark 2008). Thus, to minimize species losses or extreme population fluctuations, protected areas must be either sufficiently large to accommodate large-scale migrations along resource gradients, or if they are small, must be sufficiently heterogeneous or productive (Baldi, 2008), and experience minimal to moderate disturbances from their surrounding land use matrix (Hansen and DeFries 2007).Accordingly, one aim of this thesis is to attempt to disentangle the effects of area, heterogeneity and productivity on species richness using 300 different-sized protected areas distributed across the entire African continent (Chapter 2). Patterns of plant diversity and richness also vary along environmental gradients, however, the explanation for this variation is relatively unclear. I therefore, investigate the differential plant responses to disturbance by fire and browsing as causes of changing woodland composition among sites along a rainfall gradient, given their importance to large mammals (Chapter 3). Furthermore, I describe the distributional patterns of that result from seasonal movements of large carnivores and herbivores between protected areas and their surrounding human-dominated landscape (Chapter 4 & 5). I further attempt to explain the ecological processes underlying these patterns (Chapter 6) using data from the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem in east Africa as a case study.The African savanna biome is characterized by a continuous understorey of grasses, scattered closed thickets of a diverse range of shrubs and dense Acacia/Commiphera woodlands and is found in climates with strongly seasonal rainfall patterns (Walker 1987). This biome supports a higher diversity of ungulates than any other terrestrial biome or continent (Du Toit and Cumming 1999). Some 46 species of ungulates are endemic to the African savanna biome. The present distribution of both ungulate and carnivore diversity across the African continent is associated with the high spatial heterogeneity within the savanna biome. A particularly high concentration of species is evident in the topographically diverse Rift Valley region of the East African savanna (McNaughton and Georgiadis 1986). More specifically, (Du Toit andCumming 1999, Olff et al. 2002) have shown that the high ungulate and carnivore diversity in African savannas is directly linked to variation in soil fertility and rainfall. Rainfall, is highly spatially, seasonally and inter-annually variable (Owen- Smith andOgutu 2003, Ogutu et al. 2008). The large variability in rainfall, coupled with high spatial heterogeneity in soils, geomorphology and water availability enables the coexistence of diverse large herbivore assemblages (Olff et al. 2002).The Maasai Mara ecosystem is located in southwestern Kenya and borders the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the south (Fig. 1.1). It is a semi-arid savanna encompassing 1530 km 2 of the protected Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) in which only wildlife conservation and tourism are permitted, as well as about 4000 km2 of the adjoining pastoral ranches in which traditional pastoralism by the Maasai people and pastoral settlements, some cultivation and wildlife tourism constitute the major forms of land use. The adjacent Maasai pastoral ranches, including Koyiaki, Siana, Ol Kinyei, Lemek and Ol Chorro Oiroua support large herds of livestock and diverse assemblages of resident herbivores. During the wet season resident herbivore move from the protected reserve and its adjoining pastoral lands (Stellfox et al. 1986). The ecosystem is characterized by the annual migration which brings over one million wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), 0.2 million zebra (Equus burchelli) and 0.4 million Thomson's gazelle (Gazella thomsoni) from the Serengeti Plains to the south and Loita Plains to the northeast of the MMNR from July to October at least (Talbot and Talbot 1963, Pennycuick and Norton-Griffiths 1976, Maddock 1979, Sinclair and Norton-Griffiths 1979).Chapter 1Rainfall in this region is bimodal with the 'short rains' falling in November-December and the 'long rains' in March-June, with the dry season covering July-October. Rainfall increases regionally from about 500 mm in the southeast to over 1200 mm per year in the northwest (Pennycuick and Norton-Griffiths 1976). Analysis of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), temperature, rainfall (Fig. 1.2) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series data covering a large part of our study period produced many results relevant to this thesis (Ogutu et al. 2007). Here I summarize only the findings most pertinent to this study. (1) The longest  and the strongest  recorded ENSO events both occurred during the monitoring period . ( 2) Furthermore, the period during 1989-2003 was among the hottest recorded since the 1960's. (3) Severe droughts occurred in 1993 and 1999-2000, implicating marked deficits in soil moisture but moderate droughts were also evident in 1991 and 1994. ( 4) The wet season rainfall component showed quasi-periodic oscillations with a cycle-period of about 5 years. (5) The dry season rainfall was unusually higher than average during the mid to late 1970s and fell below average thereafter. The marked climatic variation was thus a major factor during this study.  , 10, 25, 40, 50, 60, 75, 90, 95 and 100th percentiles of the frequency distribution of each rainfall component. The percentiles are used to assess the degree of departure of standardized rainfall components from their respective long-term means (Ogutu et al. 2007).As early as ca. 2000 years ago, in the Neolithic period, an area stretching from the Narok district (present day Narok and Trans Mara Counties) in Kenya to the Simanjiro and Kiteto districts in Tanzania was occupied by advanced pastoralists, who managed their cattle, sheep and goat herds for maximized production and who did not hunt wildlife (Lamprey and Reid 2004). However, only in the last 300 years, have the Maasai pastoralists (the largest pastoralist group in the area) occupied the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem (Olff and Hopcraft 2008). The pastoral way of life has coexisted with wildlife in these savannas for thousands of years, keeping the woodlands open by regular use of fire and controlling bush encroachment by keeping sheep and goats (Lamprey and Reid 2004). However, over the course of the last 60 years, cultivation of large tracts of grazing land adjacent to the core protected areas Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, rapid human population growth, a transition from a semi-nomadic to a sedentary life style and sub-division of formerly communally owned group ranches have led to a manifold increase in settlements (Lambin et al. 2003). These new land tenure systems tend to fragment ecosystems into disjunct parcels (Buckland et al. 2001, Serneels et al. 2001). The conversion and alienation of land previously used by wildlife has resulted in changes in ecosystem size (Fig. 1.3). Such changes may disrupt fundamental ecological processes (Hansen and DeFries 2007), including, trophic structure (Hopcraft et al. 2010), ecological flows into and out of reserves (Hansen and DeFries 2007), shrinking of crucial habitats for seasonal and migration movements and altered population source/sink dynamics (Serneels et al. 2001), as well increasing exposure of wildlife to deleterious human activities (e.g. illicit human harvests) or to exotic species and diseases (Packer et al. 1999). This means that, although protected areas may not contain the full suite of habitats required by organisms to meet all their annual lifehistory requirements, seasonally important habitats often lie outside the boundaries of protected areas. Thus, increasing habitat fragmentation precludes the potential for species to move to future climatically suitable habitats (Ogutu et al. 2007) threatening the future viability of wildlife populations.Over the last two centuries, ungulate movements have been severely disrupted by human activities (Bolger et al. 2008, Harris et al. 2008). For example, wildebeest numbers in Kruger National Park declined substantially from 6,000 individuals in 1965 to around 1,500 individuals by 1987 after the erection of a fence in 1961 (Ben-Shahar 1993). In the Athi-Kaputiei plains in Kenya, losses of wildebeest from around 30,000 to about 5,000 individuals have been recorded (Reid et al. 2008b). Not only has Africa experienced losses of migrations but also substantial declines of resident populations (Caro and Scholte 2007, Western et al. 2009, Craigie et al. 2010). A most noteworthy example of such losses is in the Mara portion of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem since 1977, where populations of almost all wildlife species have declined to a third or less of their former abundance both in the protected Maasai Mara National Reserve and in the adjoining pastoral ranches (Ogutu et al. 2009, Ogutu et al. 2011). As with wildlife populations vegetation dynamics have undergone dramatic changes in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem.The history of vegetative changes in the Mara-Serengeti has been well documented (Thuiller et al. 2005). The dynamics of savanna woodlands have experienced cycles or transitions between stable states following ecological perturbations, with shifts from open grassland to dense woodland and back to grasslands. Figure 1.4 highlights and summarizes the major perturbations and the consequences on vegetation dynamics across the ecosystem.During the rinderpest outbreak in 1888-1889 herds of livestock, wildebeest, buffalo and people were decimated. Only ruminants were affected because they are closely related to livestock. During this period, humans abandoned large parts of the Serengeti as the increase in the thickets and woodlands allowed the spread of tsetse from the Serengeti outward into previously cultivated areas. The reduction in human and wild herbivore numbers reduced the incidence of fire and so allowed the escape of tree seedlings in the 1890's (Sinclair et al. 2008a). The woody vegetation was reduced by the increase in burning when the human population returned in the 1930's and a campaign to control tsetse flies was launched. This involved burning and active reduction of trees, leading to a rapid decline in tree densities and abundance and an increase in people and livestock. In 1951, the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania was created and in 1961 the Maasai Mara Reserve in Kenya was established. In the 1960's a campaign to eradicate rinderpest saw the consequent rise of both livestock and wildebeest and buffalo populations (1963)(1964)(1965)(1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977).Following this period severe poaching activities decimated the rhino and elephant populations. Some 50% of the population disappeared during [1984][1985][1986]  (Dublin and Douglas-Hamilton 1987). But the wildebeest population increased following the eradication of the rinderpest in the 1960s and reduced the dry grass serving as fuel for fires. Consequently, tree seedlings that had previously been unable to escape from fire were now able to grow. After the 1970's a rapid increase in woody vegetation emerged consisting of a different composition of species. By 1989 a ban on ivory trade was placed and elephant population densities increased. By the 1990s elephant densities increased in the Mara which caused a loss woody cover by the removal of seedlings and regenerating rootstocks. Until today, the Mara is maintained in a predominately grassland state (Dublin andDouglas-Hamilton 1987, Dublin et al. 1990b), with sparsely distributed Acacia and Croton woodland thickets. The sustained decline in woody vegetation may threaten the biodiversity that depends on it, leading to increased browser competition for the few remaining resources (Walpole et al. 2004). It is therefore important to understand the causes of changing woodland composition given their importance as a source for niche separation in animal communities (Silvertown 2004  Rainfall patterns influence livestock and wildlife biomass (Coe et al. 1976, East 1984, Fritz and Duncan 1994), abundance (Ogutu et al. 2008), distribution (Western 1975), demography and population dynamics (Owen- Smith and Mills 2006), through its influence on vegetation (both quantity and quality), habitat suitability and availability of surface water. The standing grass biomass in the herb layer of east African grasslands varies dramatically during the course of a year in response to seasonal rainfall (Boutton et al. 1988b). These large fluctuations in vegetation standing biomass are extremely important in determining feeding styles (East 1984) and movement patterns (Talbot andTalbot 1963, Maddock 1979) by large mammalian herbivores. Concomitant with the seasonal variability in plant biomass are equally important changes in nutrient content and digestibility. At the onset of the wet season in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, grasses are high in digestibility and nutrient concentrations, such as nitrogen and phosphorous (Sinclair 1975). During this period of early growth, concentrations of crude protein in grass leaves are approximately 8-20%. As the grass grows taller, its nutritional quality declines as a result of increases in structural carbohydrates, so that both nutrient concentration and digestibility decrease (Boutton et al. 1988b). During the dry season, in contrast, vegetation quantity is low but of higher quality (Fritz and Duncan 1994).In addition to influencing their response to seasonal rainfall variation, body size also influences the choice of habitats by herbivores. Small-bodied herbivores have narrow dietary tolerances because they have small rumens and can retain ingesta in the rumen for only short periods of time (Kerr and Packer 1997). They thus tend to select the most easily digestible and nutritious plant matter (Kerr andPacker 1997, Du Toit andCumming 1999). In contrast, larger-bodied herbivores are relatively unconstrained by the quality of forage because of their large digestive tracts and are therefore able to extract sufficient energy from coarse forage (Illius andGordon 1992, Kleynhans et al. 2011).Predation risk is tightly linked to herbivore body size (Hopcraft et al. 2011). Larger herbivores are less vulnerable to predation because they are more difficult to capture and handle by predators due to their large body-size (Sinclair et al. 2003). Tall and dense vegetation cover generally conceals predators thereby increasing their efficiency in catching prey (Hopcraft et al. 2005, Riginos andGrace 2008). Thus it can be expected that predation risk should be higher during the wet season when grass height is relatively taller compared to the dry season. Furthermore, such landscape features as rivers and valleys also conceal predators and enhance predation risk. As a result, small Chapter 1 and medium-sized herbivores that are more susceptible to a broader spectrum of predators than are larger ones avoid these areas and tend to concentrate instead in areas of shorter grass cover where visibility of potential predators is higher.In African savannas the distribution of herbivores has been relatively well studied within protected areas, such as the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem of Kenya and Tanzania (McNaughton 1988, McNaughton 1990, Anderson et al. 2010), but are much less well understood in human-dominated pastoral systems, such as the pastoral ranches of the Mara region in Kenya. Even fewer studies have considered how functional differences among herbivores owing to variation in body size and feeding style, rainfall seasonality and predominant land use shapes herbivore distributions, through their effect on the quality and quantity of food and predation risk (Sensenig et al. 2010, Hopcraft et al. 2011, Kleynhans et al. 2011).Understanding the consequences of human activities in human-dominated rangelands bordering protected areas on the density, demography and persistence of large herbivores over relatively long periods of time requires an intact ecological baseline area or benchmark that is relatively free of human impact (Sinclair et al. 2002). Therefore, the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem is an ideal benchmark for assessing how changes in human and livestock-dominated systems influence wildlife in pastoral systems over time. Importantly, wildlife has been monitored by the Department for Remote Sensing and Resource Survey (DRSRS) continually for 41 years in the Mara region of Kenya, producing 50 independent aerial surveys conducted using the same counting technique during 1977-2010. This increases our confidence in and ability to separate the impacts on wildlife distributions of livestock and human use of the pastoral ranches of the Mara despite the lack of true replication, which is extremely difficult, if not impossible to achieve in practice at landscape scales.How do area, heterogeneity and productivity interact to shape species richness patterns?In Chapter 2, I explore if the effects of reduced area on species richness can be substituted with or compensated for to some extent by increasing landscape heterogeneity or productivity. I explore this hypothesis by analyzing the relative importance of area, heterogeneity and productivity in shaping species richness across 300 protected areas in continental Africa.Having explored these relationships inside protected areas on a continental scale, I then investigate the processes structuring community assembly of woodlands and seasonal movements of large mammal communities in the Maasai Mara NationalReserve and its surrounding rangelands. Thus, I address the following specific additional questions:What are the ecological processes which maintain richness, composition and stability within tree communities in African savannas?The woodland communities in the Maasai Mara National Reserve represent important and reliable habitats for many browsing herbivores, especially during dry periods (Oloo et al. 1994, Dublin 1995). Understanding the processes that maintain the assembly of woodland communities across space in African savanna tree communities is often unknown. Three generic types of assembly processes have been proposed. ( 1) competition (Tilman 1994) ( 2) habitat filtering (Wilson andKeddy 1986, Callaway 1995) and ( 3) stochastic processes (Hubbell 2001). In Chapter 3, I asses the importance of these process in shaping assembly of tree communities arrayed along a rainfall gradient. I use nestedness of community composition, and the relations between rainfall and diversity, rainfall and stability, and diversity and stability as indicators of the relative importance of different community assembly processes. If competitive interactions are important in structuring these communities, diversity should decrease with increasing rainfall due to competitive replacement, but stability should increase with diversity. Alternatively, if diversity increases with rainfall, competitive processes are apparently not important. Instead, either habitat filtering or stochastic processes determine the community assembly. Strong nestedness in the community structure could result from complex interactions between species determined by a species' ability to cope with stresses or disturbances or by to ecological drift. I use a long term dataset based on biennial vegetation monitoring data collected by the Masai Mara Ecological Monitoring program over a 15-year period spanning 1989-2003 in Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) to test these predictions.How do pastoralism and protection influence the distribution and abundance of large carnivores in the Mara region of Kenya?The overlap of large carnivores, livestock and people can create conflicts that often threaten the future viability of carnivore populations in the pastoral systems of Africa. As the natural prey-base for carnivores declines, carnivores are threatened by local extinction. The patterns of predation are also likely to vary among seasons because of related changes in prey vulnerability. In Chapter 4, I examine how pastoralism and protection influence carnivore density and distribution by: (1) estimating the density and population size of lions, spotted hyenas and jackals; (2) characterizing their spatial distribution inside and outside the reserve; and (3) establishing the extent to which land management influences carnivore population levels and spatial distribution by controlling for the effects of grass height, elevation and prey biomass density.to obtain essential resources. These seasonal movements are constrained by herbivore body size through its influence on food quantity and quality as well as vulnerability to predation. Large herbivores can tolerate more fibrous and lower-quality diets than can small herbivores because of their larger gastrointestinal tracts and lower specific metabolic requirements (Owen-Smith 1988, Ritchie and Olff 1999, Hopcraft et al. 2010). In addition, large herbivores are much more difficult for predators to capture so that a smaller fraction of large herbivores die from predation than do small herbivores (Sinclair et al. 2003). Thus, it may be expected that large herbivores should concentrate inside the reserve where forage availability is sufficiently high all year-round owing to the absence of livestock grazing, whereas small herbivores can be expected to concentrate in the human-dominated pastoral landscapes, where vegetation is kept in a short and active growth stage by livestock, thereby minimizing predation risk because of lower densities and high visibility of potential predators. Thus, herbivore body size can be expected to control their responses to seasonal disparities in forage quantity and quality and predation risk between protected and pastoral landscapes. In Chapter 5, I test these hypotheses by comparing and contrasting the density and demography of 13 wild and three domestic herbivore species of varying body sizes (15-1725Kg) and between the Maasai Mara National Reserve and its adjoining pastoral ranches using aerial surveys conducted in the wet and dry seasons during 1977-2010.Which factors influence the spatial distribution of hotspots of large herbivore abundance in the Mara region of Kenya?Food availability and quality and predation risk have all been identified as key determinants of herbivore hotspots in savannas. Hotspots are defined as locations of high densities of (often multiple species of) wild herbivores that persist for extended periods of time. The long-term persistence of hotspots depends upon the stability, predictability and sufficiency of forage despite variability mediated through rainfall seasonality (Fryxell et al. 2005). This raises fundamental questions about the extent to which ecological factors and processes shaping distributions of hotspots in protected areas can be extrapolated to human-dominated systems, such as the pastoral ranches of the Mara region. In Chapter 6, I investigate the relative effects of multiple environmental and anthropogenic factors on spatial distributions of herbivore hotspots both inside and outside the protected area on different landscapes dominated by livestock and cultivation. I propose a metric for characterizing hotspots based on quantile regression analysis which I then apply to assess how herbivore hotspots change over time and space and what environmental and anthropogenic factors determine the presence of hotspots of herbivores in the Mara using the 10 most abundant species within the protected reserve and its adjoining pastoral landscapes.Finally, in Chapter 7, I integrate and synthesize the key findings of the different chapters and discuss some characteristics that may influence the vulnerability of protected areas in relation to ongoing land use and climate changes and highlight the implications of this study in the wider context of global conservation efforts. Dissecting the interplay between area, landscape heterogeneity and productivity in shaping species richness in African protected areasTerrestrial protected areas cover 16.8 million km 2 (11%) of the world's land surface area (West et al. 2006) of which Africa contributes 4.2 million km 2 . However, the effective ecosystem size and species' home ranges often extend well beyond the designated boundaries of most protected areas. As a result, degradation, fragmentation and loss of natural habitats around protected areas progressively reduce their conservation capacity (Harcourt et al. 2001) and hence species richness, especially for small protected areas (Parks and Harcourt 2002). Besides the loss of surrounding natural habitats, high human population densities pressing against protected area boundaries further reduce their effective sizes and wildlife dispersal movements, thus increasing the risk of localized species extirpations (Parks andHarcourt 2002, Newmark 2008). If protected areas function as habitat islands as predicted by the classic island biogeographic theory (MacArthur and Wilson 1967, Schoener 1976), then we should expect a positive relationship between protected area size and species richness. A common mechanism underlying such relationships is a dynamic equilibrium between immigration and extinction rates that buffer large populations against the risk of extinctions (MacArthur and Wilson 1967, Pimm et al. 1988). Furthermore, large areas are generally better buffered from external pressures because they have shorter perimeters relative to their surface areas (Vézina 1985). The size of a protected area might also influence its species richness indirectly via other factors. Large areas are more likely to contain a higher diversity of habitats than smaller ones and the resultant high spatial heterogeneity can enhance species richness by offering more opportunities for niche differentiation (MacArthur and Wilson 1967, Schoener 1976). This promotes greater specialization and coexistence of many species, whilst lessening the effects of catastrophic events (Ricklefs and Lovette 1999). The species-energy hypothesis is yet another complementary theory that attempts to explain patterns of species richness beyond that explained by area. It predicts a positive relationship between species richness and available energy to higher trophic levels, with net primary productivity (NPP) often used as a proxy for energy availability (Wright 1983, Currie 1991, Kerr et al. 2001). A common explanation for this relationship is that areas with greater food supply support more individuals, and hence the resultant communities support more species at a given population size (Wright et al. 1993, Kaspari et al. 2000). Another plausible explanation of this relationship is that areas with higher primary productivity are less seasonally variable (Kay et al. 1997) and therefore have more abundant supply of resources throughout most of the year. This promotes the coexistence of many species (DeAngelis 1994, Srivastava andLawton 1998).Since area per se, heterogeneity and productivity each can explain only part of the variation in species richness among protected areas, it is surprising that very few studies have examined their relative importance (Ricklefs andLovette 1999, Rensburg et al. 2002). This raises fundamental questions about how area, heterogeneity and productivity might interact to shape species richness patterns. There are three main mechanisms through which area, habitat heterogeneity and productivity may inter-actively determine species richness. First, many small protected areas are situated in unique habitats in which the structural diversity of vegetation or landscape heterogeneity is sufficiently high to support rich species assemblages (Báldi 2008). Such locally unique conditions are often the main reason for selecting the locations of the protected areas in the first place. Hence, small areas may deviate from the expected species-area relationship for the species groups they support making species richness appear independent of area size even if it is not (Lomolino andWeiser 2001, Triantis et al. 2003). Second, in analogy to the theory of how multiple resources limit the growth of single plant species (Tilman 1982), area, heterogeneity and productivity can be viewed as different factors limiting species richness. Multiple outcomes are then possible from their combinatory effects, with an increase in a currently limiting factor leading to an increase in species richness, while an increase in the other non-limiting factors having little effect on richness. As an example, a small park which is highly heterogeneous will contain a high diversity of habitats but because its small area size is a limiting factor, population sizes will be small and the species it supports will be more vulnerable to extinction. Thus, an increase in area would decrease extinction risk, thereby increasing richness, while an increase in heterogeneity would not increase richness due to high extinction rates. However, if a park is large, while heterogeneity is low then an increase in park size alone would increase the population size but only an increase in heterogeneity will increase the diversity of habitat types and therefore species richness (Fig. 2.1A). The same argument applies to the combined effects of area and productivity and heterogeneity and productivity in the case where area does not explain much of the variation in species richness. In either case, the operations of the three factors resemble that of essential limiting resources (Tilman 1982). The limiting factor hypothesis may be more generally applicable to a range of factors beyond those we consider here (Kerr and Packer 1997). Third, the effects of area and heterogeneity or productivity on species richness may be substitutable to some extent such that the effect of reduced area on species richness can be compensated for by increasing landscape heterogeneity or productivity (Fig. 2.1B). Heterogeneity and productivity may also operate in a similarly substitutable way. In both cases, the three factors may determine species richness similarly to substitutable limiting resources (Tilman 1982).The aim of this study is to dissect and understand the interplay between area, heterogeneity and productivity in shaping patterns of mammalian species richness across 300 African protected areas. In particular, we tested if these three factors operate as essential or substitutable factors in determining species richness, and explored how their effects vary among three major mammalian taxa (carnivores, ungulates and primates). Protected areas in Africa provide a rare opportunity for studying the role of these three factors on variation in species richness because they tend to be relatively small in size with most ranging in area between 10 and 100 km_ and only a few exceeding 10,000 km_ (Chape et al. 2008). Furthermore, these areas have widely varying habitat types, productivities and topographies. For this study we collated data on species richness from distribution data for 75 carnivores, 95 ungulate and 57 primate species. Habitat heterogeneity was assessed using a linear combination of spatial variability in NDVI averaged over a 5-year window to minimize temporal variance, elevation and habitat types. We used the spatial mean of NDVI as a proxy for primary productivity. These variables were selected because they have been measured at high spatial resolutions over the entire African continent and have been widely used previously to predict patterns of species richness (Rahbek and Graves 2001, Jetz and Rahbek 2002, Kerr and Ostrovsky 2003).We selected 300 African protected areas from the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA 2006) prepared by a consortium of various organizations (Fig. 2.2). The database contains information derived from governmental agencies with direct responsibility for protected areas and includes the site name, national designation, location, size, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) management category, date of designation, whether the protected area is marine or terrestrial and a biogeographic code. We selected only terrestrial protected areas designated in accordance with the IUCN management categories and measuring at least 20 km 2 in size. Protected areas of this size are large enough to potentially include several different habitat types, with varying habitat structures and elevations (Seiferling et al. 2011). In many countries, there were overlaps between adjacent protected areas, with strict nature reserves lying within boundaries of national parks or other protected area categories. Furthermore, several different protected areas were sometimes situated adjacent to one another and hence functioned as one larger, ecological protected unit. We therefore, merged or embedded such adjacent protected areas together in ArcGis 9. 3 (ESRI 2009) and re-calculated the total area of the entire cluster of protected areas. For tions (International Union for Conservation of Nature, World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Birdlife, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, etc.), drawing together a network of more than 7000 experts around the world. Boitani et al.(1998) provide complete details of the methods used to determine the distribution, ecology and conservation status for each species in Africa. The database includes information on all species belonging to the orders Primates, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Hyracoidea, Tubulidentata, Artiodactyla, and Pholidota and a full range of geo-referenced information on the distributions of the species. In summary, the data bank currently includes a total of 281 species, belonging to 7 orders and 28 families. We selected only species weighing more than 1 kg and belonging to three major taxa, namely carnivores (Canivora n = 75 species), ungulates (Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla, n = 95) and primates (n = 57). The presence or absence of each of these species was recorded in each of the selected protected areas. We then calculated species richness as the total number of different species coexisting in each protected area. Figure 2.3 shows the distribution of species richness within each taxa in each protected area.We used a remotely sensed vegetation index, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS-TERRA) data set (2000 -2005) subsetted for Africa. NDVI is derived from the near infrared (NIR) and visible red bands of a satellite image. The red and NIR light reflected from plants is a function of the photosynthetically active compounds present, which is related to Net Primary Productivity (NPP), (Tucker and Sellers 1986). Data on NDVI originally acquired at 250 × 250 m 2 resolution were resampled to 1 × 1 km 2 using ArcGis 9. 3 (ESRI 2009) and a WGS84 Geographic Coordinate System (GCS). The NDVI data were averaged into a long-term mean annual NDVI for each grid cell within each protected area. We then used these data to estimate the spatial mean as a measure of primary productivity (NDVIMEAN) and variance (NDVIVAR, a component of heterogeneity) of NDVI across all grid cells within each protected area.Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data on elevation were acquired from 1degree digital elevation model (DEM) tiles from the Consortium for Spatial Information (CGIAR-CSI) of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). We used the new version of the original SRTM dataset, which omits single pixel errors. We first imported and merged the 1-degree tiles into continuous elevational surfaces in an ArcGRID format (Jarvis et al. 2008). Data from the DEM originally acquired at 90 × 90 m 2 resolution were then resampled to 1 × 1 km 2 in ArcGIS 9.3 (ESRI 2009) using WGS84 as a GCS. We used the data to measure spatial variation in elevation (EVAR) within each protected area, as a second component of spatial heterogeneity.Measurements of habitat types were derived from the Global Land Cover 2000 dataset, developed based on regional expertise. It uses a globally consistent legend based on the FAO Land Cover Classification System (FAO 2000) and 1 km resolution SPOT imagery (Mayaux et al. 2004). A total of 27 habitat categories have been documented. We defined habitat variety (HVAR) as the number of different natural land-cover classes in a protected area and used it as the third component of spatial heterogeneity.Each of the candidate variables measures some aspect of landscape heterogeneity and productivity in protected areas. Thus, we expected protected areas with a large variety of habitat types and a high variance in elevation and NDVI to have high landscape heterogeneity, whereas, areas with lower variability in these factors to have correspondingly lower landscape heterogeneity. A good index of landscape heterogeneity should reflect the multiple potential niches or habitats that different species can occupy. We first evaluated the extent to which using the three candidate variables representing landscape heterogeneity, i.e., NDVIVAR, EVAR and HVAR performed better than using a single multivariate composite index of landscape heterogeneity derived from a principal components analysis (PCA). All the three variables were standardized to zero mean and unit variance prior to the analysis to minimize the effect of differences in measurement scale on their relative contributions to explaining variation in species richness. Since the first principal component (PC1) was correlated positively with all the three variables and explained most (66%, Table 2.1) of the total sample variance, we used the resulting factor loadings of PC1 instead of the individual variables as a composite index of landscape heterogeneity see, e.g. (August 1983).We used multiple linear regression analyses to relate species richness to landscape heterogeneity (PC1), standardized mean primary productivity (NDVIMEAN) and the logarithm of area (LOGAREA) and their interactions, separately for each taxon. Linearity of the relationship between species richness and area was achieved through a logarithmic transformation of area. The models were fit using ordinary least squares and models of varying complexities compared using the corrected Akaike Information Criterion (Burnham and Anderson 2002) in R version 2.12.0 (R Development Core Team 2010). To establish if LOGAREA still influenced species richness after accounting for heterogeneity and/ or productivity, since both indices may be correlated with area, we calculated partial correlation coefficients between the species richness for each taxon and LOGAREA while partialling out heterogeneity or productivity.The average species richness for the 300 African protected areas was highest for carnivores (22.9 ±2.0), intermediate for ungulates (14.6 ±5.1) and primates (6.7 ±2.6). Models containing all the three original variables used to calculate the composite index of heterogeneity (NDVIVAR, EVAR and HVAR) explained smaller variances in species richness for all taxa than using PC1 itself (Supplementary material Tables S1 and S1-S3). We therefore used PC1 to index landscape heterogeneity instead of using all its three original constituent variables. The partial correlation analyses (Table 2.2A) suggested that both area and heterogeneity are important predictors of species rich-  ness for all the three taxa, but that the correlations with log area were much smaller than those with PC1 or MEANNDVI (Table 2.2B). After factoring out the effects of heterogeneity (i.e. PC1) or productivity, protected area size accounted for only a minor and non-significant variation in species richness (Table 2.2A and B). In contrast, heterogeneity and productivity were both significantly correlated with species richness even after factoring out the effect of area.From the multiple regression analyses, the AICc-selected best models for predicting species richness included gradients in landscape heterogeneity and primary productivity for all the three taxa (Supplementary material Tables S2-S4). Protected area size did not explain any additional variation in species richness beyond that explained by heterogeneity and productivity for any of the three taxa. Specifically, carnivore richness increased significantly only with increasing landscape heterogeneity (  increasing heterogeneity and productivity (Table 2 .3,Figs 2.4B and C). A unit change in landscape heterogeneity was associated with a larger change in species richness than a similar change in productivity for ungulates but primate species richness showed the opposite pattern (Table 2.3, Fig. 2.4C, Supplementary material Tables S2-S4). For primates, primary productivity and heterogeneity acted in apparently substitutable ways (Fig. 2.4C), such that areas of high landscape heterogeneity but low productivity supported high species richness. There was little support for quadratic relationships between species richness and any of the three predictor variables or their interactions for all the three taxa ( The classic island biogeographic theory (MacArthur and Wilson 1967) predicts relationships expected between species richness, area and colonization rates, and postulates that larger areas should support more species and larger populations by providing more opportunities for niche differentiation and dispersal (Ricklefs and Lovette 1999). Habitat diversity, which often correlates with area, is well known to affect species richness independently of area per se (Rosenzweig 1995), such that, all else being equal, the more habitats an area has, the more species it can support. The amount of primary productivity is also positively related to species richness (Wright et al. 1993). We thus tested the effects on species richness of (i) the size of a protected area, which affects immigration and extinction rates, with large populations having low risks of extinction, (ii) landscape heterogeneity, necessary for niche differentiation and coexistence of multiple species and, (iii) mean primary productivity, indexing the availability of temporally stable resources or more individuals. The contributions of the three different factors to explaining variation in species richness differed among the three mammalian taxa. Carnivore species richness was sensitive to habitat heterogeneity but not area or productivity. This is surprising because carnivores are wide-ranging species requiring large home-ranges (Ruggiero and Kitzberger 2004) able to support large prey populations through greater resource supply and hence reduce vulnerability to extinctions. Our findings suggest that the influence of area on carnivore species richness can be captured through the effect of heterogeneity thus making heterogeneity an essential predictor of carnivore species richness over and above that of area. Carnivore richness was higher in more heterogeneous areas suggesting that coexistence of multiple carnivore species is enabled by a greater niche differentiation that promotes greater resource partitioning among carnivores and their prey species (Vézina 1985).For ungulate richness, habitat heterogeneity accounted for markedly more variation than primary productivity or area did. Ungulates species richness was positively correlated with habitat heterogeneity, with primary productivity making a statistically significant but marginal additive contribution, suggesting that, like carnivores, ungulates also tend to exploit their environments in different ways. Several factors, including mouth and gut morphology and body size underpin interspecific differences among ungulates with respect to diet (Bell 1970, Jarman 1974, Kerr and Packer 1997). Cromsigt et al. (2009) also found that landscape heterogeneity facilitated ungulate diversity in savanna ecosystems independently of area at more local scales. This is consistent with the notion that high spatial heterogeneity promotes species richness because limiting resources can be more readily shared in complex habitats (Ruggiero and Kitzberger 2004). It is likely that high habitat heterogeneity supports correspondingly high ungulate species richness by promoting greater specialization and coexistence of a large number of species (Srivastava and Lawton 1998). Additionally, the population of certain ungulate species may also be locally high, resulting in a marginally significant relationship with productivity, if the amount of productivity in a system provides better opportunities for supporting more individuals or a broader resource base necessary for more species to coexist (Kaspari et al. 2000). Our results thus provide some support for the limiting resource hypothesis that states that heterogeneity, and, to some extent productivity, are essential factors in determining ungulate species richness.For primates, we found that both productivity and heterogeneity have strong effects on species richness, suggesting that they may operate in a substitutable way. This means that the constraint imposed on primate species richness by low landscape heterogeneity can be compensated for by high productivity. This is likely because primates generally span a narrower range of energy variation, indexed by primary productivity (mainly tropical rainforests), than the other taxa (Ruggiero and Kitzberger 2004). We found no significant effect of area on primate species richness after accounting for heterogeneity and productivity. Kay et al. (1997) found a similar pattern for primates in South America, suggesting that habitats with the highest plant productivity are also less seasonally variable, and therefore, support many primate species by providing an abundant supply of food sources all year-round.Although these findings reveal interesting patterns in the relationships established between mammal species richness, area, heterogeneity and productivity, some caveats should be kept in mind when interpreting the patterns. First, even though our results suggest that a small park which is highly heterogeneous should support high species richness, the relationship between area and heterogeneity may be confounded with that of intensive management in small parks. Such management may involve the promotion of landscape heterogeneity (e.g. through fire management), manipulation of diversity through species reintroductions, translocations and culling operations. Species reintroductions are a common practice in Africa, especially in smaller southern African parks (Hayward et al. 2007). In the absence of such managerial interventions, small parks would probably contain fewer species than larger ones due to local extinctions, as predicted by the island biogeographic theory. However, where management interventions are largely absent, area and heterogeneity may be substitutable to some extent in their effects on species richness such that the effect of reduced area on species richness can be compensated for by increasing landscape heterogeneity as hypothesized in Fig. 2.2B. It can thus be argued that intensive management aimed at promoting functional heterogeneity may compensate to some degree for the effect of small area size in small parks (Du Toit et al. 2003).Second, another possible explanation for the lack of a strong species-area relationship is that conservation reserves are not yet really true islands in Africa (Newmark 1995). The officially gazetted size of an unfenced game reserve is often less than the area actually used by some species. Only when game reserves are either completely fenced, or become effectively isolated by surrounding development will most species be completely unable to disperse beyond the reserves and remain confined to habitats available within the reserves. Until such isolation occurs, the effective size of a reserve will be greater than its nominal size. This disparity between nominal and effective reserve area available for species was the case for many reserves in our sample of 300 African protected areas, allowing many species to range beyond designated reserve boundaries.These findings suggest that while the size of an area is significant in determining mammalian species richness, its dominant role may be mediated through variation in habitat heterogeneity and primary productivity (Wright 1983, Hurlbert 2006, Kalmar and Currie 2006). Our results have important implications for biodiversity conservation and conservation planning strategies (see e.g. Báldi 2008). New conservation reserves should ideally be strategically situated in productive areas with high habitat diversity to reduce threats to biodiversity and promote long-term viability of species assemblages. This will often not be possible, however, because rapid human population expansion and the associated pressure for more productive land to support the populations will usually make the excision of such areas for reserves difficult.Table S1 Multiple linear regression coefficients (estimate), their standard errors (SE), lower (LCL) and upper (UCL) 95% confidence limits and AICc values for all the three original variables used to calculate the composite index of heterogeneity (NDVIVAR, EVAR and HVAR) for 300 African protected areas. r 2 is the amount of variance explained by each model expressed as a percentage.  (1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003) we analyze relationships between spatial variation in rainfall and (i) community biomass, (ii) diversity, (iii) stability and (iv) composition and use them as proxies for establishing the relative importance of the three generic processes in the assembly of the savanna woodland communities along the rainfall gradient. Our results show that community biomass and species richness increased with increasing rainfall. Biomass decreased whereas richness and evenness hardly varied over time. Both rare and common species occurred in more diverse communities, prevalent at locations of high rainfall, suggesting strong nestedness patterns in community composition. Moreover, community stability and diversity were unrelated. Better conditions for tree establishment and better protection from browsers apparently enable rare species to successfully establish, leading to higher species diversity at high rainfall. Habitat filtering apparently limits species richness mostly in drier areas, whereas light competition apparently plays a limited role in the assembly of savanna woodland communities. If climate change further increases the frequency and severity of droughts and thereby lowers soil moisture, the intensity of browsing will increase reducing recruitment, especially of rare, stress-sensitive species, and hence the overall species diversity.Tropical savannas rank among the most widespread terrestrial biomes, covering some 20% of the earth's land surface area (Chape et al. 2008). Of this, Africa contributes more than a half and supports substantial human, livestock and wildlife populations.Besides their importance to supporting human wellbeing, only a minor part of African savannas is formally protected to preserve their high diversity and abundance of wildlife (Chape et al. 2008). Savannas are characterized by a continuous grass layer, scattered closed thickets of a diverse range of shrubs and dense Acacia/Commiphora woodlands and occur in climates with strongly seasonal rainfall patterns (Walker 1987). Savannas consist of diverse habitat types. Of these habitat types, the closed thickets often occur in riparian areas and on hilltops, consisting of diverse and dense patches of woody species. They add spatial heterogeneity to the ecosystem by adding taller and longer lived landscape elements (Belsky 1994). These woody thickets represent important and reliable habitats for many browsing herbivores, especially during extreme dry periods (Oloo et al. 1994, Dublin 1995). They are functionally important even for grazing herbivores because they protect grass leaves from direct solar radiation and hence prolong the retention of green grass and the quality of forage for herbivores, especially during dry periods (Treydte et al. 2009). As a result, thickets contribute significantly to biodiversity and spatial heterogeneity in savannas.Rainfall is the primary climatic variable controlling the productivity of savannas (Sinclair et al. 2008b). Increasing rainfall generally leads to higher primary productivity, and hence to greater plant biomass if this is not consumed. Spatial and temporal rainfall patterns may therefore explain not only variation in productivity, but also in diversity, composition and stability patterns of savanna woodland communities. A trend of rising temperatures, recurrent severe droughts and other environmental stresses (e.g., more frequent fires, increased herbivory and habitat loss) in African savanna ecosystems suggests that the survival prospects of species in particular communities, given the increasing severity of their physical environments expected as a consequence of these changes, will depend most strongly on their relative abilities for competition, resisting disturbances or dispersal (MacDougall 2005). Although the relative importance of these processes in shaping communities is likely to vary both spatially and temporally, relatively little work has examined this variation in tropical African savannas (Ozinga et al. 2005;Adler & Levine 2007) Proposed processes of community assembly fall into three broad categories: (1) those that emphasize the fundamental role of niche differentiation mediated by competitive interactions (Tilman 1987, Loreau andHector 2001) , (2) those that focus on environmental disturbance and stress, resulting in habitat filtering (e.g., extreme climatic events, fire, or herbivory (Liancourt et al. 2005), and (3) those that focus on a speciation-extinction dynamic equilibrium mediated by demographic stochasticity (Hubbell 2005). Here, we attempt to elucidate the relative importance of three generic assembly processes using long term monitoring data on tree biomass, diversity, composition and stability patterns in woodlands arranged along a rainfall gradient in a premier African savanna, namely, the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem. The data were collected biennially by the Masai Mara Ecological Monitoring Program over a 15-year period spanning 1989-2003 in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve (MMNR). Specifically, we analyze the spatial relationships between rainfall and (i) tree community biomass, (ii) species richness, (iii) evenness, (iv) stability and (v) composition. We use the resultant insights to infer and interpret savanna woodland community assembly processes.Increasing rainfall generally leads to higher biomass and dominance of particular species, resulting in differential competitive exclusion, if competition for light enables species with stronger competitive abilities to outperform (i.e. become taller than) less competitive species (Grime 1973). Stronger competition for light generally reduces the diversity of plant communities (Tilman, 1982). So, if diversity indeed declines towards higher rainfall, this can be interpreted as the effect of more competition for light. But if diversity increases towards higher rainfall, competition for light is unlikely to be important in structuring these communities and alternative processes, such as habitat filtering or stochastic processes, would be at play (Bond et al. 2001, Hubbell 2001, Liancourt et al. 2005). Habitat filtering can occur where stressful conditions restrict the establishment and/or survival of species imposed by the abiotic environment (Cornwell and Ackerly 2009). If the stability of communities increase with diversity, as ecological theory predicts (Tilman andDowning 1994, Tilman et al. 2006), this could be interpreted as suggesting an important role for competition mediated by niche differentiation (Silvertown 2004). Under changing environmental conditions the loss of one species can be compensated for by other co-existing species (Tilman 1996). Alternatively, if diversity and stability are unrelated, this can be viewed as signaling habitat filtering or stochastic processes. A high nestedness in community structure has been shown in extinction dominated systems (Wright and Reeves 1992). In such systems, we would expect rare species to be more likely to become locally extinct first, resulting in a decrease in diversity over time. Also, high nestedness has been viewed as a sign of more complex interactions between species (Bascompte et al. 2003), for example due to facilitation or mutualisms expected to predominate at higher rainfall, thereby minimizing competitive pressure and increasing diversity over time. We test predictions of the following three hypotheses relating to the regulation of community assembly. (H1) If competition is more important in maintaining highly diverse communities (Fig. S1A), we expect community (i) biomass to increase with rainfall, (ii) species richness to decrease with increasing rainfall, (iii) species evenness to decrease with increasing rainfall, (iv) stability to increase with increasing richness, and (v) species composition (i.e., nestedness) to vary spatially such that dry areas will have both weak and strong competitors whereas wet areas will have only strong competitors (species poor communities). (H2) If habitat filtering is more important (Fig. S1B), then we expect (i) community biomass to increase with rainfall, (ii) species richness to increase with rainfall, (iii) species evenness to be spread evenly across the rainfall gradient, (iv) community stability to be low and unrelated to diversity, and (v) species composition of communities to vary with rainfall such that wet areas will have both common and rare species but dry areas will have only common species that are able to establish and/or survive under stressful conditions (eg. drought or disturbance), as resulting in communities to exhibiting significant nestedness. (H3) If demographic stochasticity is more important in determining community structure (Fig. S1C), then we expect (i) community biomass to increase with rainfall, (ii) species richness to increase with increasing rainfall, (iii) species evenness to be constant over the whole rainfall gradient, (iv) community stability to be high over the whole rainfall gradient but unrelated to diversity, and (v) species composition of communities to also show nonrandom patterns (i.e., nestedness).The study was conducted in the Masai Mara National Reserve (MMNR), a premier protected area covering some 1530 km 2 in south-western Kenya and the northernmost section of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem. The ecosystem is delineated by annual migratory movements of wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), zebra (Equus burcheli) and Thomson's gazelle (Gazella thomsoni) from the Serengeti plains in the south and Masai pastoral ranches to the north-east. The reserve is a dry season refuge for both migratory and resident herbivores (Dublin et al. 1990a), whereas the pastoral ranches support vasts herds of livestock and a diverse assemblage of resident large wild herbivores (Stellfox et al. 1986). The MMNR and its neighbouring pastoral ranches constitute the Mara region. Rainfall in the Mara region is bimodal with \"short\" rains falling during November-December and \"long\" rains during March-June. The dry season spans July-October but January-February is also often dry. Rainfall in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem increases along a southeast-northwest gradient and with increasing altitude and averages less than 600 mm in the South East in Tanzania and over 1200 mm in the northwest in the Mara region (Pennycuick & Norton-Griffiths 1976). Mean temperature levels have been rising in the Mara region in recent decades, a rise associated with progressive habitat desiccation (Ogutu et al. 2007). The MMNR also experiences recurrent severe droughts, the most noteworthy during the study period (1989( -2003( ) being in 1993( and 1999( -2000( (Ogutu et al. 2007)).The Masai Mara Ecological Monitoring Program (MMEMP) established four pairs of Croton thicket plots in the MMNR in 1989 (Dublin 1991). The dominant species in Croton thickets consist of the fire-tolerant shrubs Croton dichogamus, Euclea divinorum, Grewia similis and Tarenna graviolens interspersed with Acacia species such as A. gerradii and 53 relatively rare species (Table S1). Each paired plot was sampled every two years during 1989-2003, except in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001 when insufficient funding precluded vegetation sampling. As a result, each plot was sampled approxi-mately eight times on average during the monitoring period. Sampling in each plot took a month to complete, on average, with a sampling day starting at 0700-0730 h and ending at 1700 h. The paired plots each measuring 20 × 100 m were selected to represent the dominant woodland habitats, and were arrayed along a rainfall gradient covering the full length and breadth of the MMNR (Fig. 3.1). Each pair of plots was located 50 m apart and oriented along a southeast-northwest gradient. Metal rods driven into the ground were used to mark the boundaries of each plot. The plots were accessed by vehicle, or on foot, using a global positioning system (GPS). Plots were not fenced and hence were open to all grazers and browsers. Over the course of the monitoring period, four field staff carried out the same sampling procedure in each plot to ensure comparability of the long-term vegetation samples. All the field staff were thoroughly trained in vegetation sampling, identification of plant species and data recording before carrying out field sampling to ensure consistency. All trees and shrubs  with stem diameters 10 cm or larger were measured using a standard diameter tape and identified following (Beentje 1994). Measurements of stem diameter were taken at 10 cm above the ground, rather than at breast height because of the diminutive stature of most of the trees in the woodland communities. Additional measurements recorded for each tree and used in this study were height, degree of browsing and extent of damage by fire as detailed below for each attribute.Tree height (in cm) was assumed to be the height of the main tree crown and was measured using a regular measuring tape. Individual plants of the five major dominant species within each plot were measured and assigned to one of three height classes: seedlings < 0.6 m, saplings > 0.6 but < 1.50 m and adults > 1.50 m. These height classes overlap the mean browsing heights for the common large browsing species in the study area (Dublin, Sinclair & McGlade 1990). The sapling height category represents the mean browsing height of resident antelope browsers primarily involved in woodland dynamics in the Serengeti-Mara, including impala, dikdik (Rhynchotragus kirki), Grant's gazelle (Gazella granti) and impala (Aepyceros melampus) (Dublin 1991).Elephants and giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) largely browse on trees taller than 1.5 m in both Croton thickets and Acacia woodlands, whereas fires affect all trees shorter than 3 m (Dublin et al. 1990).Individual trees were categorized into seven damage classes encompassing \"no damage\" (0) to \"severe damage\" (7) using combinations of browsing characteristics, such as bark striping, branch clipping, branch breakage and branch toppling. To calculate the proportion of young plants damaged by browsers we amalgamated the seven damage classes into either \"damaged\" or \"not damaged\". The numbers of individual plants damaged by fire were categorized similarly visually using fire scars on the barks or branches of trees. From 1991 to 2003, burning by the MMNR management was largely restricted to the short dry season (January-February), when grass biomass and combustibility is low due to high moisture content, making fires less damaging. Therefore, fire scars became extremely rare in the Croton woodlands and had little influence on this study.We estimated the basal area (in m 2 ) as πd 2 /4, where d is the stem diameter. We then estimated the parabolic volume (in m 3 ) of the individual trees as the basal area × height/2. We then averaged the parabolic volume over all individuals within each plot in each year to obtain an index for total community biomass. We also calculated a community-level stability index (S), as the standard deviation divided by the mean community biomass (coefficient of variation) for each plot over the entire monitoring period as well as for each year across all the plots. A community is regarded as \"stable\" if S is equal to 1 and unstable if S is equal to 0 (Pimm 1984).Species richness was determined by the total number of different species whereas species evenness (Pielou, 1977) was calculated as the diversity/ln (richness), where diversity is derived using the Shannon-Wiener Diversity index H' (Shannon & Weaver, 1949). We estimated an index of nestedness (N) for the species presence/absence matrix as a measure of community composition (Wright & Reeves 1992).Monthly rainfall data were collected from a network of 58 rain gauges distributed over the entire Mara-Serengeti ecosystem by the Serengeti Ecological Monitoring Program and the Masai Mara Ecological Monitoring Program during 1985-2003 (Coughenour 2006). Forty three of these 58 gauges were located in the Serengeti whereas the remaining 15 were located in the Mara Reserve. We used spatially interpolated monthly mean and annual precipitation over the entire ecosystem at a spatial resolution of 1 × 1 km 2 using the PPTMAP computer program described in detail by Reed et al. (2009). We associated each vegetation sampling plot in the MMNR with the interpolated monthly rainfall for the grid cell in which the plot fell based on the 1985-2003 rainfall measurements. Rainfall was summarized into wet (November-June) and dry (July-October) season and annual (November-October) components. We derived seasonal and annual rainfall lags and moving averages spanning periods of 1 to 5 years before the sampling year to evaluate the influence of delayed and cumulative past rainfall on seedling and sapling recruitment dynamics. The five-year period was selected to match the 5-year quasi-periodic oscillation evident in the regional rainfall and the associated changes in vegetation state (Ogutu et al. 2007). Table 3.1 summarizes the specific rainfall components, lagged and moving averages that we considered.We calculated the total community biomass of all trees averaged over all plots in each year. We then analyzed temporal trends in community biomass using linear regression analyses. The biomass was the response variable whereas the year of vegetation sampling was incorporated in the models as a fixed effect. To assess changes in community biomass in response to rainfall, we regressed the total community biomass of all trees over all plots on each of the total of 30 rainfall components assuming normal errors and an identity link. We used AICc in R version 2. 12. 0 (R Development Core Team 2010), to select both the best model and rainfall component most strongly correlated with biomass (Table S2). We tested for temporal trends in species richness and evenness using the same statistical approach as for biomass and regressed these against the various rainfall components.To characterize the spatial patterns in species richness and evenness we summed the total number of different coexisting species and calculated the relative abundance of each species to the total abundance in each plot and averaged them over the monitoring period. We evaluated spatial patterns in species richness (the number of species) and evenness (a measure of the equitability of the proportional abundances of species) in each plot by averaging them over the monitoring period. The relationships between species richness and evenness and rainfall were analyzed using standard linear regressions. Again, AICc was used to identify the best model and the rainfall component having the strongest correlation with richness and evenness (Table S2). The models were also fit using a linear regression assuming normality of errors and an identity link. We determined community stability using all the data collected biennially on woody vegetation biomass within each plot during 1989-2003. To evaluate the relationship between community stability and richness, we calculated stability in community biomass (S) as S = j/m (i.e., coefficient of variation) where j is the standard deviation and m is the mean biomass in a given plot during 1989-2003. We used linear regression analyses to evaluate temporal variation in community-level stability between plots of varying richness. The models, incorporating richness as a continuous covariate, were also fit assuming normality and an identity link.We estimated an index of nestedness of the species presence/absence matrix using the 'binmatnest' algorithm of (Rodríguez-Gironés & Santamaría 2006), implemented in the 'bipartite' R package (Dormann, Gruber & Freund 2008) to characterize how species are distributed among all the plots. The tree data from all survey years (1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003) were used to construct a species presence-absence matrix. This procedure followed a three step process: first, the matrix is reorganized by arranging rows (plots) and columns (species) from full (species presence) to empty (species absence) cells. Second, to maximize nestedness the full cells are mainly located in the upper-left corner and empty cells are mainly located in the lower right corner. An isocline for this matrix of perfect nestedness is calculated. Third, for the reorganized, presence-absence matrix, full cells above the isocline and empty cells below the isocline were identified and a normalized sum of their distances to the isocline calculated, in such a way that it ranged from 0 (no deviation and therefore perfect nestedness) to 100 (maximum deviation and therefore perfect 'un-nestedness'). This normalized deviation measure of an observed matrix from a perfectly nested matrix is called the 'nestedness temperature' with low values indicating high nestedness. More details on this procedure can be found in Rodríguez-Gironés & Santamaría (2006). To test whether the observed nestedness was higher or lower than that expected by chance, we used a null model developed for a permutation test by Bascompte et al. (2003). The test involves creating new matrices of the same size as the observed matrix. The probability of each cell in these matrices being filled is the average of the probability of filling each of its associated rows (n = 8) and columns (n = 70). This type of null model is relatively conservative, but is less vulnerable to type II errors (Cottenie 2005;Rodríguez-Gironés & Santamaría 2006). We ran the null model with 1000 permutations as implemented in the 'bipartite' package.The period 1989-2003 was one of the hottest recorded since the 1960's (Ogutu et al. 2007), therefore climatic variation was likely a major factor during this study. In particular, this period was characterized by recurrent severe droughts (1993, 1997 and 1999-2000), mild droughts during 1991 and 1994, and exceptional floods associated with the longest (1990-1995) and strongest (1997-1998) ENSO episodes on instru-Table 3.2 Linear regression coefficients for the relationships between community biomass, richness, evenness and stability averaged across all plots in each year and across all years for each plot. r 2 is the proportion of variance explained by each model  (Ogutu et al. 2007). Detailed descriptions of the temporal climatic patterns are presented elsewhere (Ogutu et al. 2007).Community biomass over the entire landscape declined consistently over the monitoring period (Fig. 3.2A) but increased linearly with the 2-year cumulative moving average of the dry season rainfall (Table 3.2, Fig. 3.2B). However, species richness and evenness and community stability were apparently temporally invariant (Table 3.2).Average woody biomass per plot did not vary significantly with any rainfall component. However, species richness per plot increased up the rainfall gradient and also increased strongly with the 2-year cumulative moving average of the dry season rainfall (Table 3.2, Fig. 3.2C). In contrast, the average species evenness per plot was not significantly related to rainfall (Table 3.2). The coefficient of variation of biomass (stability index) for each plot was not significantly correlated with richness (Table 3.2).The average ( -N ± 1SE) \"nestedness temperature\" of the randomized communities was 49.254 ±11.325. The observed nestedness temperature was 34.50 and was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than that expected for randomly assembled communities, indicating that species composition was significantly more nested than expected by chance alone (Fig. 3.3).As predicted, community biomass across the entire landscape was influenced most strongly by the 2-year cumulative moving average of the dry season rainfall. The relationship reflects tree responses to delayed or carry-over effects of prior dry-season conditions rather than to immediate habitat conditions. Furthermore the greater importance of the dry season rainfall relative to the other rainfall components suggests that woody vegetation biomass is limited more strongly by variation in the dry-season rainfall. The significant effect of cumulative past rainfall on woody vegetation biomass suggests that woody species allocate and store more resources through their deep taproots and re-use the stored resources to increase biomass in years of high rainfall.If competition for light were the main process governing the structural organization of these woodland communities we would expect a decrease in species richness with increasing rainfall as predicted by (H1). However, our results show that species richness in each plot increased with increasing rainfall in each plot. This suggests apparently that competition for light is apparently not the main mechanism controlling the structure of these communities.  If competition were the main process governing community assembly we would expect to find a negative relationship between evenness and rainfall in which only a few species are competitively dominant and relatively abundance in wetter areas or a positive relationship as a result of strong below-ground competition for water and nutrients (Nijs and Roy 2000). In contrast, we found a positive, albeit insignificant relationship between evenness and rainfall thus providing no evidence for increasing importance of competition for light in wetter areas. Also, we found consistently high value of evenness along the rainfall gradient (0.8) suggesting species complementarity resulting from facilitation or the co-dominance of both common and rare species (Aarssen 1983, Loreau andHector 2001). One may therefore assume that uncommon species may not be negatively affected by the presence of common species due to little niche overlap (Smith and Knapp 2003), as predicted by H2. If higher-productivity sites had more individuals than lower-productivity sites, one possible explanation for the increased species richness observed in the high-productivity sites could be due to positive interactions between species due to facilitation or mutualisms (Bascompte et al. 2003).Our results show a strong nested pattern in community structure such that common species are present in both low and high rainfall areas whereas rare species are present only in the wetter areas. Bastolla et al. (2009) also showed that nestedness reduces effective interspecific competition and enhances the number of coexisting species, providing evidence that competition is not likely the main process shaping these communities. Instead, this nestedness pattern can provide pathways for rare species to persist (Jordano 1987) via facilitative or mutualistic interactions. However, the lack of a theory that takes into account the structure of interactions limits further assessment of the implications of such network patterns for biodiversity (Bastolla et al. 2009).It has long been debated whether diverse ecological systems are more or less stable than those with fewer species (McNaughton 1977, Tilman 1996). We expected a negative relationship between the community stability and species richness if competitive mechanisms were the main force structuring community assembly, since in diverse communities the loss of one species can be compensated for by the gain of a competing species (Tilman and Downing 1994). These predictions were however not supported. Instead, our results show no significant relationship between stability and richness along the rainfall gradient implying that a loss of a species harmed by a disturbance will not necessarily be compensated for by a superior competitor. Hence, this further supports the evidence for minimal competition and a more important role for habitat filtering or stochastic processes in explaining compositional stability patterns across the woodland communities of the Masai Mara.In savanna systems, it is well known that during high rainfall plant biomass increases and provides fuel for hot fires (Trollope 1984, Scholes et al. 2002). Thus, whereas the drier areas with less grass fuel experience fewer, less intense fires, the wetter areas contain higher biomass, and likely experience more and intense fires. Fire limits both recruitment and the progression of individuals from the sapling stage to adults (Higgins et al. 2000). Therefore, while a positive relationship exists between community biomass and rainfall, suggesting that these communities contain firetolerant species that have the potential to proliferate after burning (Bond and Van Wilgen 1996), it does not explain why species richness would increase with rainfall. Instead, fire may have led to dominance of certain fire-tolerant species at higher rainfall sites which in turn may have led to facilitative interactions with woody species and increases in richness.Herbivory might also account for increased habitat filtering in low rainfall areas. Drier areas have more soil nutrients due to less leaching than wet areas. Combined with adjustments in the plant carbon/nutrient balance, dry areas support some of the richest assemblages of herbivores (Sinclair 1995, Ritchie andOlff 1999). It is likely that herbivores have a greater impact on trees in drier areas because they consist of highly palatable species owing to the high nutrient availability in the soils (Anderson and Briske 1995), compared to wetter areas. Furthermore, the higher root to shoot ratio below ground makes these plant species tolerant to herbivory because more resources are stored underground. As a result, the few grazing-tolerant plant species that persist in such areas allocate more nitrogen to their leaves, making them more palatable but able to regrow quickly (Bond, Smythe and Balfour, 2001). This has been observed in South African savannas (Owen-Smith andCooper 1987, Bond et al. 2001). As a result, the high densities of grazers impose considerably high mortality rates on tree species that are less tolerant to grazing (Olff and Ritchie 1998). Trees suffer less due to herbivory in wetter areas because they store relatively more carbohydrates above ground so that the above ground green leaves are high in indigestible carbon. Consequently, low densities of herbivores potentially allow the rare species to co-exist with the common species in areas of high rainfall (Olff and Ritchie, 1998).In the high rainfall areas, we surprisingly did not find evidence that light competition structures these tree communities. Competition is considered a major structuring force in many systems. In savannas in particular, competition occurs between grass and tree seedlings-because the grass layer shades the establishing woody seedlings and both grasses and tree seedlings compete for water and nutrients (Knoop and Walker 1985, Skarpe 1992, Scholes and Archer 1997). In most cases, these patterns have been found in pot experiments under controlled conditions. However, we found relatively weak evidence that competitive mechanisms were structuring these communities, thus suggesting that stress-tolerance or stochastic processes are probably more important in shaping local distribution patterns. Communities that are structured by such processes are likely to be found only in open savanna ecosystems where the high light availability reduces the need for tall stature. For data collected near rivers in even wetter areas, we expect the vegetation to be denser and competition for light to be more important in structuring these woodland communities (Brenes-Arguedas et al. 2011) and the stability of the woodlands to be highly dependent on species diversity.Contrary to this expectation, our results suggest that if disturbances by fire or by browsers are minimal then large sections of savanna woodlands would contain more stress-intolerant species that have higher chances of extinction in an event of a disturbance, thus reducing their overall diversity and stability.  5 4 3 2 1   6 5 4 3 2   6 5 4 3   6 5 4   6   2 3 4 5 6   1 2 3 4 5   1 2 3 4   1 2 3   1 2   1   5 1 3 4 1   5 4 1 5 2 2   1 3 1 6 3 3   2 1 2 1 4   1 1 5 5   6 Table S1 The total number of all individuals of each tree species tallied in all the 8 plots (each measuring 20 m x 100 m each) in each sampled year in the Masai Mara National For example, mavannual3 means that the annual rainfall component was averaged over a three-year time window whereas annual3 means that the annual component was lagged by three years.Published in Journal of Zoology 265: 281-293, 2005 Chapter 4The effects of pastoralism and protection on the density and distribution of carnivores and their prey in the Mara ecosystem of KenyaThe overlap of large carnivores, livestock and people can engender conflicts that often threaten the future viability of carnivore populations in the pastoral systems of Africa. A playback survey of lions Panthera leo, spotted hyenas Crocuta crocuta and black-backed jackals Canis mesomelas and a transect count of wild herbivores was conducted in the Maasai Mara National Reserve and adjoining pastoral ranches to assess the effect of pastoralism and protection on the density and distribution of carnivores in June 2003. Reliability of the prey counts depended on an assumption of similar observability between the protected and pastoral areas, which we assessed using distance sampling in November 2003 and computer simulations and determined to be similar. Estimates of wild prey biomass density was 2.6 times higher in the ranches (14212 kg/km 2 ) than in the reserve (5472 kg/km 2 ) during this wet season count. Apparent hyena density estimates were 1.3 times higher in the ranches (0.561 hyenas/km 2 )than in the reserve (0.404 hyenas/km 2 ), in correspondence with the regional pattern of prey density. This distribution of hyenas is biased towards the reserve, if it is dependent on prey density. Estimates of apparent jackal density were similar in both areas whereas lion density was anomalously 8.0 times lower in the ranches (0.046 lions/km 2 ) than in the reserve (0.369 lions/km 2 ). Lion and hyena densities and prey biomass did not differ between June 1991 (5172.273 kg/km 2 ) and June 2003 (5472 kg/km 2 ) in the reserve, but jackal density increased in the same period. Lions never responded to playbacks in the ranches, so the potential shift in lion behavioural response for different land use zones is another potential explanation for the patterns found here. We think a real shift in lion populations is a better explanation than a behavioural change in relation to playbacks based on additional data from independent systematic and intensive censuses and playback surveys conducted in the ranches. Lion populations in the pastoral ranches seemed headed for extinction, probably owing to conflicts with pastoralism, necessitating urgent conservation interventions that integrate pastoral economic welfare with large carnivore conservation goals to foster long-term viability of lion populations in the pastoral systems.Strong conflicts, threatening the future viability of carnivore populations, often characterize pastoral systems in which carnivores, livestock and people occur in close juxtaposition (Rudnai, 1979;Kruuk, 1980;Karani, 1994;Omondi, 1994;Mizutani, 1995;Mwangi, 1997;Ogada et al. 2003;Treves and Karanth, 2003). As land tenure, land use and human populations change in the pastoral systems of Narok District of Kenya, the land under cultivation and settlement expands, human predation on wildlife increases and habitat degradation, fragmentation and loss accelerates (Dublin, 1995;Homewood et al. 2001;Serneels, Said and Lambin, 2001). As a result, the natural prey base for carnivores has declined there rapidly (Otichillo et al. 2000), and this can amplify the threat of persecution and local extinction of carnivores (Woodroffe and Ginsberg, 1998;2000). Recurrent epizootics of viral diseases exacerbate threats to the future viability of carnivores in some ecosystems, such as the Mara-Serengeti (Kock et al. 1998;Packer et al. 1999). However, behavioural plasticity of certain carnivore species facilitates their adaptive adjustment to an increasingly precarious lifestyle in proximity to humans (Woodroffe, 2000;Sunquist and Sunquist, 2001) and has done so with hyenas in the Mara ecosystem (Boydston et al. 2003).Lion Panthera leo density in the Mara reserve ranks among the highest recorded in African savannas (Ogutu and Dublin, 2002) but is unusually low at the edge of the reserve adjoining pastoral ranches (Ogutu and Dublin, 2002;2004), implicating possible negative impacts of pastoral-ism on lion density and distribution. Similarly, altered use of space, social behaviour, circadian activity rhythms and demographic structure in spotted hyenas Crocuta crocuta residing at the edge of the Mara reserve (Boydston et al. 2003) have also been linked to increased interference by livestock grazing within hyena clan territories. Although this forms a sharp contrast to the findings of Maddox (2003), who reported no difference in large carnivore densities for the adjacent and closely comparable areas of Serengeti National Park and the Loliondo and Ngorongoro regions inhabited by Maasai pastoralists, a clear change in habitat is evident from the Mara reserve to the adjacent pastoral lands in the Talek area studied by Boydston et al. (2003).Human-carnivore conflicts in pastoral areas in neigh-bouring the Mara reserve are caused by increasingly close contact between people and carnivores as human populations rise and livestock depredation is perpetrated primarily by leopards, lions and hyenas (Karani, 1994). The depredation incidences peak in the wet season when wild prey availability is lowest (Karani, 1994;Patterson et al. 2004) and are highest closest to the reserve boundary (Mwangi, 1997), suggesting that the reserve acts as a reservoir for stock-raiding and dispersing predators that recolonize areas where resident predators have been extirpated in the ranches (Ogutu and Dublin, 2002). The pastoral Maasai community lose much more livestock to diseases yet surprisingly believe that their livestock losses to predators are more significant economically (Mwangi, 1997).Progressive intensification of land use, sedenterization, diversification of livelihoods, land fragmentation through privatization of land tenure driven by dynamic socio-political, demographic and economic processes neces-sitates urgent strategic management interventions for integrating the social, cultural, and economic welfare of pastoralists with conservation goals for carnivores. Long-term management and conservation interventions for alleviating these conflicts and fostering long-term viability of carnivore populations in pastoral systems require a reliable knowledge of carnivore population levels, spatial distribution and the underpinning ecological correlates. This information is seldom available.A survey of lions, spotted hyenas and black-backed jackals Canis mesomelas was conducted in the Mara reserve and adjoining pastoral ranches using broadcasts of tape-recorded vocalizations from 24 June to 5 July 2003 to test if pastoralism and protection influence carnivore density, distribution and behaviour. This hypothesis was tested by:(1) estimating the density and population size of lions, spotted hyenas and jackals; (2) characterizing their spatial distribution inside and outside the reserve;(3) establishing the extent to which land management influenced carnivore population levels and spatial distri-bution by controlling for the effects of grass height, elevation and prey biomass density. Evidence for changes in carnivore behaviour was inferred by comparing the patterns of carnivore responses to broadcasts inside and outside the reserve. The June 2003 estimates of carnivore and prey density for the reserve were compared with estimates made in June 1991 (Ogutu and Dublin, 1998) to infer evidence for population growth and to expand on the previous results by conducting a survey over a larger area.The study area, which encompasses the Mara reserve and the adjacent Koyaki group ranch (and a small section of Siana group ranch), is located in south-western Kenya and bounded by the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the south, private group ranches to the north and east and the Siria escarpment to the west (Fig. 4.1). Animals and humans can easily climb the escarpment, so it is not an effective barrier either to anthropogenic activity or carnivore movements. Group ranches and agricultural farms are found west of the escarpment. The Mara, Talek and Sand rivers partition the reserve into the eastern (Sekenani), northern (Musiara) and western (Triangle) sections. Twelve habitat types dominated by grasslands, shrublands and mixtures of both characterize the study area (Epp and Agatsiva, 1980). Rainfall is seasonal, with the wet season spanning November-June and the dry season July-October and increases along a south-east to north-west cline and with increasing altitude (Pennycuick and Norton-Griffiths, 1976). The area supports a spectacularly high density and diversity of resident wild ungulates and is a critical dry season (July-October) dispersal range for the earth's largest remaining herds of migratory wildebeest Connochaetus taurinus, zebra Equus burchelli and Thomson's gazelle Gazella thomsoni from the neighbouring Loita Plains and Serengeti (Maddock, 1979;Stellfox et al. 1986).A call-in survey is an effective and inexpensive technique for counting hyenas and lions in African savannas (Mills, 1985;Sillero-Zubiri and Gottelli, 1992;Creel and Creel, 1996;Mills and Gorman, 1997;Ogutu and Dublin, 1998;Mills, Juritz and Zucchini, 2001;Maddox, 2003) and jackals (Ogutu, 1994;Maddox, 2003). The reserve was stratified into the Triangle, Musiara, eastern and western sections of Sekenani and the Koyiaki group ranch into eastern and western sections to ensure a more representative distribution of carnivore calling stations and herbivore transects. The 6 strata were delineated using the predominant landmarks and topography and the 2 regions using land-use type (Fig. 4.1).A map of the study area overlaid with 5 × 5 km 2 grid cells and numbered sequentially by rows or columns was used to distribute 35 calling stations over the strata in proportion to the area of each stratum using stratified systematic random sampling (Cochran, 1977) such that 22 stations fell within the reserve and 13 within the Koyiaki  group ranch. We randomly selected a grid cell to locate the initial call-in station and placed subsequent stations in every second grid cell along either rows or columns. Systematic random sampling controlled the distribution of stations in each stratum by spreading them throughout the stratum at equal intervals, thus providing additional implicit stratification in each stratum. The resulting distribution of stations ensured no 2 stations were less than 7.5 km apart to minimize the likelihood of duplicate counting (Fig. 4.1).We established 35 transects centred on, or traversing each calling station (Fig. 4.1), and counted potential prey animals for large carnivores within 100 m on either side of the transect centreline during daytime. We selected this narrow transect to clearly avoid any visibility or sightability problems. After the count, a test of different transect widths revealed that there was no difference in the number of animals sighted on the line, than at 100 m from the line, for the 5 most commonly sighted species in the Mara. Thus it was assumed that this lack of visibility bias also applied to the less common species that were counted, which is very probable given the open terrain along all of our transects (mean tree cover = 8.1%, mean shrub cover = 11.2%; Reid et al. 2003).Transects often cut across several habitat types within each stratum and were randomly placed. However, where terrain features precluded accessibility by vehicle, would substantially slow travelling speed, pose the risk of an acci-dent, or potentially cause damage to the vehicle, transects followed the nearest roads or tracks. Although counting biases are often associated with roads, most tracks or roads used had limited or no vehicular traffic and thus were unlikely to have contributed substantial bias to the herbivore counts. The estimated prey density was used to calculate aggregate prey biomass in each 1 × 0.2 km block along each transect using unit weights as in Coe, Cumming and Phillipson (1976). The total number of the 1 × 0.2 km blocks was 335 because 3 of the 35 transects were only 5 km long owing to inaccessible terrain or boundary restrictions, while the rest were 10 km long.Every 1 km along each transect the number of wild herbivores commonly eaten by large carnivores in the Mara-Serengeti were recorded (Scheel and Packer, 1995) including wildebeest, zebra, Thomson's gazelle, impala Aepyceros melampus, topi Damaliscus korrigum, hartebeest Alcelaphus busephalus, warthog Phacocoerus aethiopicus, and Grant's gazelle Gazella grant. The GPS coordinates, the elevation of the centre of each block, and visual estimates of grass height (0-30 cm, 30-60 cm, 60-100 cm) in the block were also noted.Playbacks were broadcast throughout the night at those calling stations where prey animals had been counted during the daytime and the GPS coordinates of the exact locations of all calling stations were recorded. The calling stations were located in open, short grass areas with good accessibility and at c. 2 km from the nearest Maasai settlements in Koyiaki. The broadcast vocalizations consisted of sounds of hyenas mobbing lions on a kill, involved in an inter-clan fight, squabbling on a kill and the bleats of a dying wildebeest calf (Mills, 1985). Although based primarily on hyena calls, these recordings have proved effective for eliciting lion and jackal responses (Ogutu, 1994;Ogutu and Dublin, 1998;Maddox, 2003). The vocalizations were broadcast from a MAX MX-550 R recorder with a 12-volt PA cassette amplifier and connected in series to two 22 cm long, 8-Ohm horn speakers facing opposite directions and powered by the vehicle's battery. The speakers were mounted onto the roof of the vehicle 2.2 m above ground.The vocalizations were broadcast continuously for 5 min at full volume followed by a 5-min silent interval during which the speakers were rotated through 90°. The tape was then replayed for a further 5 min. Two observers counted responding (incoming) predators using powerful torches immediately after the last broadcast. Thirty minutes was spent at each call-in station and the maximum number of predators simultaneously in view before the responding predators began to disperse was recorded. When lion, jackal or hyena calls were heard but no animal arrived at the station within the standard 30 min, then we waited for another 15-30 min at the station.We used calibration experiments to estimate the response range and probability.For hyenas 6 independent trials for 16 individuals were conducted to estimate the distances within which hyenas heard and responded to the playbacks at the end of the call-in survey. Hyenas were first intensively searched for and located in areas where the tape had not been played during the survey to minimize the likelihood of habituation (Ogutu and Dublin, 1998;Mills et al. 2001;Maddox, 2003). One vehicle stayed with the hyenas to record their reactions while the other drove away and played the tape, exactly as done during the call-in surveys, at 5.0, 4.5, 4.2, 4.0 and 3.5 km, with the speakers facing the direction of the target hyenas. These tests, conducted between 17:30 and 19:00, showed that 58.3% of target hyenas heard and responded to the tape within a maximum radius of 4.0 km but were insufficient to calculate reliable confidence limits. For lions, the results of 27 calibration trials for 91 individuals conducted in the Mara reserve in 1991 were used (Ogutu and Dublin, 1998), which found that 26.4% of target lions heard and responded to the tape within a 2.5 km radius. It was assumed that these calibrations based on the reserve were applicable to carnivore populations on the group ranches despite reported suggestions of shifts in lion and hyena behaviour in the daytime (Maddox, 2003) because no lions were found for calibration experiments outside the reserve after 4 full days of intensive and systematic searches.The total population size of lions and hyenas in each stratum was estimated using the model of Mills et al. (2001) and the associated confidence intervals using the biascorrected and accelerated non-parametric bootstrap (Efron and Tibshirani, 1993) in SAS JACKBOOT MACRO based on 10000 bootstrap replications. The expected number of predators within the response range (û) was estimated bywhere ỹ is the mean number of predators of each species responding per station and Ŝ is the response probability from the calibration experiments (Mills et al. 2001). Estimation of predator density, or the total population size requires use of the response radius to estimate sampled area. This was estimated as 4.0 km for hyenas and as 2.5 km for lions in the independent experiments. Thus, each calling station was assumed to cover an area of 50.27 km 2 for hyenas and 19.63 km 2 for lions and the response probabilities to be the same over all strata for hyenas and lions, respectively. The estimates of the number of hyenas (lions) per km 2 for the 6 strata and the 2 regions were computed as û/50.27 for hyenas and û/19.63 for lions (Table 4.2). The total number of hyenas (lions) in a stratum (region) was estimated using the relationwhere A S = the area sampled around a call-in station and A H = the area of the entire stratum or region (Mills et al. 2001). Estimates of jackal population size or density were not calculated because no independent experiment was conducted to estimate either their response range or response probability due to the limited time available. We loge transformed prey biomass density for norma-lity, as indicated by the Box-Cox algorithm in SAS PROC TRANSREG (SAS, 2001), then regressed the transformed prey biomass density on region, grass height, elevation and interactions to establish if the mean aggregate prey biomass density differed between the reserve and Koyiaki, after statistically adjusting for variation in grass height and elevation. Model selection based on information theoretics, in particular the corrected Akaike information criterion (Burnham and Anderson, 2002), computed using restricted maximum likelihood in SAS PROC MIXED, showed the model assuming no autocorrelation to be better supported by the data than models incorporating either exponential, Gaussian, power, or spherical autocorrelation (Cressie, 1991) among residual errors.Negative binomial regression was used for overd-ispersed count data (Gotway and Stroup, 1997) and regression parameters were estimated using penalized quasi-likelihood (Wolfinger and O'Connell, 1993) in SAS GLIMMIX MACRO to establish if the mean density of each predator species differed between the reserve and Koyiaki, after statistically controlling for variation in the mean aggregate biomass density of prey animals. We used the log link function and φu(1+(u/k)) for the variance function of the negative binomial model (Thurston, Wand and Wienecke, 2000), where u is the mean, φ is the overdispersion parameter and k is the 'aggregation parameter'. A common k was estimated for both regions by the method of moments for each predator species. Again, the model assuming independent and identically distributed residual errors had greater support in the data than models incorporating spatially autocorrelated error structures.Lions, jackals and hyenas were seen at nine (25.7%), 23 (65.7%) and 34 (97.1%) of the 35 calling stations during the survey, respectively. The number of jackals, lions and hyenas attracted to calling stations ranged from 0-5, 0-11 and 0-27, respectively. A total of 475 hyenas responded to the playbacks. This was 8.6 and 11.3 times higher than the corresponding totals of either 55 jackals or 42 lions. Hyenas were present at eight of the nine stations (88.9%) where lions responded. The mean number of hyenas and jackals responding per station seemed to be higher for Koyiaki than for the reserve (Table 4.1). Within the reserve, the highest number of hyenas responding per station was recorded in Musiara and was comparable to the mean hyena response per station in Koyiaki. Hyena response to playbacks in the Triangle and Sekenani were similar but fewer than their responses in Musiara. Unlike hyenas and jackals, lions only responded to playbacks in the reserve and only at nine (40.9%) of 22 call-in stations.In the following section, we make estimates of predator population sizes in the reserve and pastoral lands, by assuming that there was no difference in behaviour between the two areas. It is known from Maddox's (2003) work that lions can change their activity levels during the day in Loliondo and Ngorongoro pastoral areas compared to Serengeti National Park, all areas just south of our study area. Here estimates are presented using the phrase 'apparent density' to indicate our uncertainty in making this assumption. The strength of the evidence for and against this assumption is given in the Discussion to make conclusions about the impacts of protection and pastoralism on carnivore populations.'Apparent' lion density over the entire study area was estimated as 0.232 lions/km 2 for a total population size of 613 lions. There seem to be only c. 51 lions in Koyiaki group ranch based on the estimate of 613 lions for the entire study area and 562 lions for the reserve (Table 4.2). The strata level estimates show no lions outside the reserve because they use stratum-specific lion responses, but the whole system-level estimates show there are about 51 lions based on lion responses over the entire study area and over the reserve alone. Hence, calculated on a real basis, lion density was apparently 8.0 times higher in the reserve than in Koyiaki. The overall apparent hyena density was 0.463 hyenas/km 2 for a total of 1224 hyenas, which is twice the estimated total lion population size. Apparent hyena density was highest in Koyiaki and Musiara, lowest in Sekenani and the Triangle, and 1.3 times as high in Koyiaki as in the reserve (Table 4.2). Assuming a regionally uniform response range and probability, the estimated relative apparent density of jackals for the reserve was only 1.1 times that for Koyiaki, implying a uniform regional distribution (Table 4.2).In the Mara reserve, prey biomass density in Sekenani and the Triangle, with tall grasslands, was only 71.2% and 85.4% of the reserve average ( * For jackals the response probability and range was not estimated, so µ and the confidence limits refer to the mean number responding per station.  respectively, but was well above this average in Musiara. In Koyiaki, by contrast, mean prey biomass density was 2.6 times higher than the reserve average. The coefficient of variation in prey biomass density was 3, 2 and 1.5 times higher in the Triangle than in Koyiaki, Musiara and Sekenani, respectively (Table 4.3).The influence of grass height and elevation on regional distinctions in prey biomass Mean prey biomass density differed between the reserve and Koyiaki, and the size of the difference also varied with both grass height and elevation (Table 4.4), so elevation was fixed at its mean of 1642 m to examine how the size of the difference varied between regions at each level of grass height. These tests involved decomposing the region by grass-height interaction into simple effect slices (Winer, 1971). Mean prey biomass was higher in Koyiaki than in the reserve within the short (0-30 cm: F 1,325 = 3.97, P = 0.0472) and medium (30-60 cm: F 1,325 = 9.2, P = 0.0026) grasslands but only marginally so within the tall grasslands (60-100 cm: F 1,325 = 3.09, P = 0.0795). Estimates of prey biomass density within the short and medium grasslands in Koyiaki, obtained by setting elevation at its mean value of 1642 m were 1.6 and 3.8 times higher than the corresponding estimates for the reserve (Fig. 4.2A). Prey biomass density was also always highest in the shortest grass in both locations. The prey biomass density predicted for the tall grasslands in the reserve, however, was higher than the value predicted for Koyiaki (Fig. 4.2A). This may suggest that tall grass is more dangerous to  herbivores in the pastoral area because the few predators there are all concentrated in the high grass or because people stalk wildlife in tall grass.To establish how elevation modified the effect of grass height on prey biomass density, predicted values for prey biomass density were computed at the 25th (1574 m), 50th (1611 m), 75th (1725 m) and 90th (1806 m) quantiles of the frequency distribution of elevation and at each level of grass height (Fig. 4.2B). Prey biomass density increased as elevation increased in the short and the tall grass areas, but decreased with elevation in the medium grass areas (Fig. 4.2B).The mean responses per station for hyenas (F 2,32 = 255.1, P < 0.0001) and jackal (F 2,31 = 3.9, P < 0.032) were higher in Koyiaki than in the reserve when the variation in prey biomass density was ignored. Prey biomass density was then fixed at a mean value over both regions to adjust for differences in prey biomass density when comparing carnivore response. It was found that hyena (t = 1.390, d.f. = 32, P = 0.1733) and jackal (t = 0.690, d.f. = 31, P = 0.4960) responses did not differ between the two regions when prey biomass density was fixed at its mean value over both regions of 10040 kg/km 2 . Predator response apparently decreased as prey biomass density increased, but this relationship was weak and was distorted by the presence of unusually large herds of migratory prey from Loita plains along two transects in Koyiaki (Fig. 4.3). The weakness of this relationship suggests that high prey abundance in Koyiaki is probably not the reason that no lion responded to playbacks there.The chance that a lion or hyena would respond to a playback recording, when it is in their auditory range, is broadly similar in savanna ecosystems in eastern and southern Africa. The response probability and range for jackals to playbacks was not estimated. The response pro-bability (0.23) and range (2.5 km) for lions inside Serengeti National Park (Maddox, 2003) closely matched estimates for the lions inside the Mara reserve (0.26 probability, 2.5 km range), suggesting that response probability for lions does not differ throughout this region, at least within protected areas. Hyenas in the Mara responded as often in the Mara reserve (0.583; this study) as they do in Kruger National Park in South Africa (0.61; Mills et al. 2001), but about only two-thirds as often as they did just south of the Mara in the Serengeti (0.88;Maddox, 2003) and Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania (1.0; Creel and Creel, 1996). For hyenas, the response range of 4.0 km in the Mara was somewhat longer than either the 3.2 km obtained by Mills et al. (2001) for Kruger hyenas, 3.0 km for Serengeti hyenas (Maddox, 2003) but similar to the 3.7 km estimated by Creel and Creel (1996) for hyenas in Selous Game Reserve. Response probability might logically be expected to scale inversely as response range.To our knowledge, there are no estimates of response probabilities for predators outside protected areas and no comparisons of responses in adjacent protected and unprotected populations. All research teams have as-sumed, as we did, that response probabilities are similar in areas reserved for exclusive wildlife use and in areas with human land uses. However, this assumption needs to be explicitly tested, based on the results of this study and recent evidence that predator behaviour can be affected by the presence of people, at least in the Mara (Boydston et al. 2003).It was unexpected to find no response of lions to playback recordings in the pastoral areas, but these data are thought to be reliable because they are supported by other data collected previously using playbacks. Karani (1994) played call-in broadcasts at 20 calling stations in Koyiaki and Siana group ranches in July 1992 and again in February 1993 but attracted only 10 lions. She sighted a further four lions during intensive and systematic searches in the two group ranches. These results contrast with those of Maddox ( 2003) who found similar carnivore responses in Ngorongoro, Loliondo and Serengeti in Tanzania.This lack of response by lions to our playback recordings in the pastoral areas can be explained in two different (but not mutually exclusive) ways. No response by lions suggests either that lions were absent, or occurred at extremely low densities in Koyiaki pastoral area during our counting period, or that residency in Koyiaki altered their behaviour such that lions avoided the broadcasts, or were too shy to approach the calling stations to within sighting range. There is evidence that supports both of these explanations for the Mara. In November 2002, our research team made a total daytime ground count of all wildlife and livestock species (including predators) in the same areas of the Mara and found 44 lions, 81 hyenas and 65 jackals in Koyiaki (793 km 2 ) and 123 lions, 167 hyenas and 89 jackals in an area of c. 1235 km 2 in the reserve (Reid et al. 2003). This shows that there are lions in Koyiaki and the numbers agree well with our estimate of 51 lions. These data clearly show that lions are present but are not responding to playbacks in Koyiaki. They also show either that true populations of lions are 50% smaller in Koyiaki (0.0555/km 2 ) than in the reserve (0.0996/km 2 ) or that counts were lower, per km 2 , in the pastoral land because lions were avoiding vehicles there and not in the reserve. Since there is little history of hunting from vehicles in the Mara, it is unlikely that lions were avoiding vehicles, but they could have been hiding more generally and difficult to see during daylight hours. By contrast, Maddox (2003), in an area only 100 km south of the Mara, found no difference in populations of cheetah, lion and hyena inside Serengeti National Park, and in adjacent pastoral lands in Loliondo and Ngorongoro.Although he did not demonstrate statistically significant differences in lion behaviour between the pastoral and protected areas, Maddox (2003) found evidence suggesting that lions were less active and rarely visible in the daytime and became more vigilant when they heard playbacks of Maasai cowbells in the pastoral lands of Loliondo and Ngorongoro than in the Serengeti. This, and the ground census above, suggests that lions change their behaviour and have inherently lower populations in the pastoral lands compared to the reserve in the Mara. Hyenas were similarly less active during daytime in the pastoral areas of Loliondo and Ngorongoro (Maddox, 2003). Boydston et al. (2003) found changes in the social behaviour and activity budgets of hyenas subject to increased interference by livestock, suggesting that hyenas and possibly jackals may respond differently to playbacks in the reserve than pastoral areas of the Mara.Differences in visibility or prey biomass could also affect predator response to playbacks in the reserve and pastoral lands. However, the conditions in the two areas at the time of our study actually argue against these two explanations. Visibility at calling stations and prey biomass density in short and medium grasslands were generally higher in Koyiaki than in the reserve in June 2003, because of shorter grass height sustained by intense livestock grazing in Koyiaki, even though grass cover in the Mara ecosystem is typically highest in June, markedly lowering visibility. In November 2002, mean grass cover was 63.1% in Koyiaki and 73.3% in the reserve (Reid et al. 2003). Hence poor visibility almost certainly did not make it more difficult to see responding lions (or other predators) in Koyiaki than in the reserve, nor can prey density explain the estimated low lion density in Koyiaki at the time of our study. The higher prey biomass density in the pastoral areas compared to the reserve suggests seasonal movements of animals between the reserve and the pastoral ranches (Stellfox et al. 1986), because overall prey density has similarly declined in both the reserve and the pastoral lands (Ottichilo et al. 2000).The available evidence thus suggests that lions occurred in Koyiaki, but at a much lower density than in the Mara reserve, and that these few lions did not respond to playbacks due to behavioural changes. The intensive and systematic searches for lions (Karani, 1994;Ogutu andDublin, 2003, 2004;Reid et al. 2003) support inherently lower lion numbers in the pastoral areas, portending a severe threat to the long-term viability of the lion popu-lation in this pastoral system, as was previously forecast by Woodroffe andGinsberg (1998, 2000). We expected lions to feel secure, at least under the cover of darkness, and to respond to the playbacks. That they did not respond at all reinforces the view that conflicts with pastoralism fundamentally adversely alter the behaviour of some large carnivore species (Woodroffe, 2000;Sunquist and Sunquist, 2001;Boydston et al. 2003). Although the frequent res-ponses of hyenas in both the reserve and group ranches would seem to contradict this view, Maddox (2003) also reported evidence for a shift in hyena behaviour between a protected area and pastoralist land use/hunting zones, based on a variety of data besides playback studies. The results for lions suggest the need to take the potential shift in behavioural response for different land-uses zones into account in playback surveys. Behavioural changes have also been documented for other species of exploited mammals outside protected areas (Caro, 1999).Why might lion populations be lower in the presence of pastoral people and their domestic dogs than in the reserve? One explanation is that the canine distemper epidemic of 1993-94 killed more lions in the pastoral lands where there can be more frequent contact with domestic dogs. However, many lions in the Serengeti Park (Packer et al. 1999) died during this epidemic but no deaths were recorded in the Mara reserve (Kock et al. 1998). This is consistent with our historical data, which show that there was no difference in playback estimates of lion population size in the Mara reserve for June 1991 and 2003. Hence it is unlikely that diseases were responsible for the low lion density in the pastoral ranches.A more likely explanation for low lion densities and behavioural changes is conflict with pastoral people and dogs in the pastoral ranches. An anomalously low lion density estimate in an area of high prey density, such as Koyiaki, is not too surprising if the Maasai often respond to livestock or human depredation by indiscriminately poisoning, snaring, shooting or chasing suspected predators (Rudnai, 1979;Karani, 1994;Omondi, 1994). However, lions, hyenas and jackals are sympatric in the group ranches, so it is unclear how hyenas and jackals would survive indiscriminate killing methods such as poisoning, given that all three species scavenge carcasses. The low estimate of lion density can result if the Maasai selectively harass or kill lions, as has happened in the buffer zones of Nairobi National Park where Maasai warriors have speared 87 lions since 1998 to avenge livestock deaths; 10 of these lions were killed in May and June 2003 alone (Kenya Wildlife Service, pers. comm.). Selective harassment or killing of lions may happen if the Maasai perceive lions as the most destructive, daring and aggressive large predators (Omondi, 1994) and thus respond to lion attacks with greater aggression. This may also happen if lions remain closer to bomas after attacks, are more reluctant to escape, or escape over shorter distances than hyenas if detected. The ability of hyenas to achieve a higher density in the ranches than in the reserve despite this is surprising and suggests that they are less of a target for pastoral harassment or killing or are behaviourally more flexible and adaptable to life in the ranches than are lions. Jackal density seemed to differ only marginally between the reserve and Koyiaki, suggesting that jackals too coexist well with pastoralism. However, our conclusions about hyenas and jackals are only tentative, because we (and others, but see Maddox, 2003 for hyenas) have not tested the assumption that these two species do not change their behavior in the presence of pastoralists Unlike for lions, the regional differences in hyena response to playbacks corresponded positively with the regional distribution of prey biomass density. The higher density of hyenas in Koyiaki than in the reserve was perhaps due, in part, to reduced competition with lions and elevated prey density in Koyiaki. It could also be that pastoralism is compatible with robust hyena populations, but Boydston et al. (2003) found some substantial changes in hyena ranging and social behaviour, activity schedules and demography attributable to pastoralism at the edge of the reserve Direct killing and kleptoparasitism are important forms of interference competition among large African carnivores (Frame, 1986;Laurenson, 1995;Creel and Creel, 1996;Mills and Gorman, 1997) and could, at least partially, also explain the high hyena density in the pastoral ranches, where lion density estimate was anomalously low. The abundance and species richness of small mammals has also been found to be greater outside than inside a national park in western Tanzania (Caro, 2001), perhaps supporting a hypothesis of competitor release. Keesing (2000) also reported a burst in small mammal populations but a decline in species diversity inside exclosures at the Mpala ranch in Kenya owing to the removal of competition for food and/or habitat disturbance by ungulates.Additional study is required to calibrate and evaluate the effectiveness of the playback technique in pastoral systems where predator behaviour is likely to change substantially (Kitchen, Gese and Schauster, 2000;Korb, 2000;Frank and Woodroffe, 2001;Boydston et al. 2003;Maddox 2003), in contrast to protected areas where the technique has been used with success, and to establish why hyenas, jackals and lions can coexist with the Maasai pastoralists without drastic reductions in their densities or major changes in their behaviour in some systems but not others. Such studies should help reconcile contrasting lion responses to playbacks, such as were found in the pastoral zones in the Mara region relative to Loliondo and Ngorongoro (Maddox, 2003) and reliably distinguish inherently low carnivore densities from low-density estimates that are potentially artefacts. Further studies should also establish if threshold densities exist below which different carnivore species can coexist harmoniously with pastoralists at specified densities of pastoralists, livestock and potential carnivore prey base and how decisions to hunt and spear lions are made given the effort and risks involved.We agree with other assessments (Mills, 1985;Sillero-Zubiri and Gottelli, 1992;Creel and Creel, 1996;Mills and Gorman, 1997;Ogutu and Dublin, 1998;Mills et al. 2001;Maddox, 2003) that playback recordings have good potential to be a rapid, efficient and cost-effective method for estimating predator population sizes in Africa, characterizing their spatial distributions and hence could be ideal for the long-term monitoring of large carnivore numbers. It is critical, however, to collect more data on response probabilities when comparing areas with and without strong human interference to understand better when and if people affect predator behaviour and thus the reliability of playback estimates of population sizes. It is also essential to collect simultaneous data on lion densities in other ways (individual recognition, etc.) to establish how well response probabilities reflect true densities. In addition, we think it is important to collect linked data on prey populations to interpret predator data.In particular, it is important to study why predators change their behaviour in response to pastoral people. For example, despite the high prey biomass density in Koyiaki, humans may hinder the hunting efforts of hyenas there, making the resident hyenas hungrier and hence more likely to appear at the broadcasts than hyenas inside the reserve. If true, such interference would lower hyena density in the long term. Obtaining separate estimates of response probabilities for inside and outside the reserve would test this hypothesis. Age and sex of carnivores, resident or nomadic status, state of hunger and feeding on a carcass are other factors that also influence carnivore response probabilities (Ogutu and Dublin, 1998;Maddox, 2003). We have also assumed minimal influence of diurnal and interdiurnal variation in atmospheric conditions on the response range (Garstang et al. 1995;Larom et al. 1997) but this assumption should also be tested. There is a need for more detailed behavioural studies in both areas to establish to what extent lions shift to more cryptic and guarded behaviour in pastoral land areas and how this affects response probabilities, but also in-depth interviews with pastoral people to understand how they behave towards predators and why they think lions are particularly susceptible to their presence.In addition, conducting audio playback surveys in the Mara ecosystem in June when extra food for predators derived from migrant prey is lowest, dry tracks allow easy accessibility by vehicles and predator response is likely to be highest is recommended. The technique, however, needs careful calibration and cross-checking with respect to behaviour changes of target species in different land use zones. Since the migrant herbivores occupy the Mara from July to at least October each year, and since carnivore response is lowest at this time, conducting only one playback survey per year is recommended to minimize the potential for habituation (Ogutu and Dublin, 1998). Opportunistic observations showed that, in contrast to hyenas and jackals that arrived at call-in stations within 30 min, lions may arrive at call-in stations within 45-60 min after the first call-in broadcast and will therefore tend to be missed if shorter times are spent at a station, as was also found by Ogutu in 1991-92 (J. Ogutu, pers. obs.) and Maddox (2003). It should also be noted that hyenas are more than twice as responsive over broader areas than lions in both Mara and the Serengeti. Hyenas heard and responded to playbacks over a longer range than lions, hence hyena surveys require larger spacing between stations than lion surveys.There is strong concern that populations of lions in Africa are on the decline and possibly severely endangered (Bauer and Van Der Merwe, 2004). Inside the reserve, however, there was no change in the number of lions or hyenas found by the first author of this paper in 1991 compared with 2003. The estimated expected number of hyenas (20.37) and the associated 95% confidence limits (15.44, 27.71) and lions (9.11, 95% CL (5.09, 15.26)) within the response range, based on the June 1991 playback survey for the Mara reserve (Ogutu and Dublin, 1998), were not different from the corresponding esti-mates for June 2003 (Table 4.1). If a constant response range and probability is assumed between the 2 years, then the estimated hyena density [0.405(0.307-0.551)] and population size (620 (470-843)) and lion density (0.464 (0.259-0.778)) and population size (710 (397-1190)) for the Mara reserve for June 1991, were no different than the corresponding estimates for the reserve for June 2003 (Table 4.2). Making these same assumptions, the estimated mean number of jackals responding per station suggests that there were many more jackals in 2003 (Table 4.1) than in 1991 (0.28125 (0.063-0.750)). Over this same period, there was no difference in the mean aggregate biomass density of lion and hyena prey between 1991 (5172.273 kg/km 2 ) and 2003 (Table 4.3; t =_0.120, DF = 21, P = 0.905). It is not known whether the increase in jackal density reflects an underlying increase in their prey density.It is suspected that lion populations have declined over time outside the reserve, based on the work of our col-leagues, M. and J. Rainy. From 1982 to 1988, they identified individual lions in seven prides inside and six prides outside the Mara reserve. Over these 7 years, they found that the population remained stable inside but de-creased dramatically outside the reserve in pastoral lands where Maasai pastoral-ists had established permanent set-tlements by 1982-83 (M. Rainy and J. Rainy, per comm.). This probable loss of lion populations outside the reserve supports trends across the continent (Bauer and Van Der Merwe, 2004) and signals a serious threat to their long-term population viability. Further research is required to ascertain the reasons for the unusually low lion density estimates in the pastoral areas, as well as urgent conservation interventions to develop management strate-gies that integrate the economic welfare of pastoralists with the conservation of large carnivores to secure their populations from imminent extirpation in this and other similar pastoral systems.Rapid human population growth and the associated intensification and diversification of land use, increasing sedenterization, settlement density, habitat deterioration, fragmentation and loss all exacerbate human-carnivore conflicts in the ranches. These processes continually erode grazing areas so that livestock compete more severely with wildlife with the result that the potential prey base for large carnivores shrinks. As a result, conservation interventions should consider improving livestock husbandry (Ogada et al. 2003), increasing wild ungulate populations and improving the attitudes of local communities and land-owners towards wildlife conservation in the ranches. Empowering pastoralists to earn more revenues from wildlife-based tourism or sport hunting, establishing effective wildlife damage control and conducting targeted environmental education can help improve attitudes towards wildlife. If an insurance fund is established to compensate pastoralists for livestock killed by predators, human injuries or fatalities, then the compensation scheme should be administered efficiently and incorporate careful assessments of claims to minimize abuse.Successful interventions should take prevailing local circumstances into account because local management, culture, governmental policy, trade and law enforcement can all have overriding effects on large carnivore extinctions (Linnell, Swenson and Andersen, 2001). Hence it is important to enact and enforce policies and legis-lations that promote sustainable mixed livestock-wildlife enterprises. The national policy and legislation on wildlife conservation are hardly enforced in the pastoral ranches of the Mara so wildlife conservation there depends largely on the goodwill and support of the local communities and landowners. At present, a glaring contradiction exists in the national wildlife policy and devolution of rights, in that landowners and communities bear the burden of having wildlife on their land without compensation for wildlife damage to private property, human injuries or fatalities, rights of ownership or use of wildlife except through tourism revenues. The inconsistency of state ownership of wildlife, the prevailing inequitable distribution of tourism revenues and the ongoing privatization of land tenure in the ranches clearly undermine wildlife conservation goals. Landowners are already erecting fences, cultivating, renting or selling land for cultivation in key wildlife grazing and calving grounds, such as the Loita plains.We urge the development of an effective and participatory planning system for land use that restricts migration of people into the area and encourages compatible land uses, alternative livelihood options to reduce the level of dependence on livestock as the only source of income and incorporates soft edges. Plans for land use should encourage the distribution of human settlements such that pastoralists live in designated areas to reduce the frequency of contact between people and carnivores and the development of agriculture and infrastructure away from the reserve boundary. Research should be conducted to assess the effectiveness of these measures in reducing human-wildlife conflicts.Wildlife habitats in pastoral lands adjoining protected areas in east African savannas are getting progressively degraded, fragmented and compressed by expanding human populations and intensification of land use. To understand the consequences of these influences on wildlife populations, we contrasted the density and demography of 13 wild and three domestic large herbivores between the Maasai Mara National Reserve and the adjoining pastoral ranches using aerial surveys conducted in the wet and dry seasons during 1977-2010. Species of different body sizes and feeding styles had different densities between landscapes and seasons. Small-sized herbivores, requiring short, nutritious grasses, and browsers were more abundant in the ranches than the reserve in both seasons. Medium-sized herbivores moved seasonally between landscapes. Larger-bodied herbivores, requiring bulk forage but less susceptible to predation, were more abundant in the reserve than the ranches. The proportions of newborn warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) and juvenile topi (Damaliscus korrigum) were higher in the ranches, with shorter grasses and lower predation risk than in the reserve. These results suggest that pastoral lands adjoining protected areas in African savannas are important as seasonal dispersal and breeding grounds for wild herbivores. However, human population growth and dramatic land use changes are progressively degrading wildlife habitats in pastoral areas, thus restricting the seasonal wildlife dispersal movements between the protected areas and adjoining pastoral lands. Conservation efforts should focus on (1) creating and maintaining functional heterogeneity in protected areas that mimic moderate pastoral grazing conditions to attract small and mediumbodied grazers and (2) securing dispersal areas, including corridors, to ensure continued seasonal large herbivore movements between protected and pastoral systems.Pastoralism is the economic mainstay of most inhabitants of grasslands of East Africa, who also often derive limited income from wildlife-based tourism. However, rapid human population growth, expansion of settlements (Lamprey and Reid 2004), cultivation (Serneels et al. 2001, Thompson andHomewood 2002) and transition from seminomadic pastoralism to a sedentary lifestyle (Western et al. 2009 ), are progressively altering the vegetation composition and structure of these savanna grasslands. Concurrent with these processes, a transition from communal land tenure to private land ownership in the pastoral ranches, habitat fragmentation through land privatization and subsequent subdivision (Buckland et al. 2001), rising temperatures and recurrent severe droughts (Ogutu et al. 2007) threaten the future survival of large mammalian populations in some savanna ecosystems, such as the Mara-Serengeti of Kenya and Tanzania (Ottichilo et al. 2001, Ogutu et al. 2009).Settlements are expanding faster nearer than farther away from protected areas in Latin America and Africa due to enhanced economic activities and opportunities inside and around protected-area boundaries (Wittemyer et al. 2008). A spectacular example of this expansion is found on pastoral ranches surrounding the Masai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) in Kenya (Norton-Griffiths 2007). The progressive intensification of land use, sedentarization and diversification of livelihoods are associated with rapidly declining wildlife numbers in the last three decades in pastoral systems of east Africa, including the Mara (Broten and Said 1995, Ottichilo et al. 2001, Ogutu et al. 2009), Laikipia (Georgiadis et al. 2007a) and Athi-Kaputiei (Reid et al. 2008b) regions of Kenya and the Tanzanian Tarangire-Simanjiro Plains (Msoffe et al. 2011). The declines are related to increasing numbers of settlements, people, poaching and major land use changes on the pastoral ranches (Homewood et al. 2001, Georgiadis et al. 2007a, Reid et al. 2008b). The patterns of declining wildlife in protected areas of East Africa (Stoner et al. 2007;Western et al. 2009) are consistent with early forecasts of major reductions, and even extinctions of many wildlife populations expected in East African reserves as a consequence of increasing insularization (Newmark 1996, Woodroffe andGinsberg 1998) and displacement of wildlife by increasing livestock incursions into protected areas (Butt et al. 2009).These changes progressively impede traditional seasonal wildlife movements between protected areas and their adjoining pastoral systems. Several studies have demonstrated seasonal movements by ungulates between protected areas and adjoining pastoral ranches in Amboseli (Western 1975), Mara (Stellfox et al. 1986) and Athi-Kaputiei Plains (Reid et al. 2008), thus supporting the prediction that the processes associated with land use change will continue to erode grazing areas so that livestock will compete increasingly with wildlife for resources, resulting in wildlife and livestock population declines (Buckland et al. 2001).By moving seasonally between protected and pastoral areas, ungulates maximize their resource requirements while minimizing predation risk (Hopcraft et al. 2010). However, these seasonal dispersal movements might be constrained by body size (Hopcraft et al. 2011) through its influence on food quantity and quality requirements as well as vulnerability to predation.More specifically, large herbivores can tolerate more fibrous and lower-quality diets than can small herbivores because of their larger gastrointestinal tracts and lower specific metabolic requirements (Owen- Smith 1988, Ritchie and Olff 1999, Hopcraft et al. 2010) Furthermore, a smaller fraction of large herbivores die from predation than do small herbivores because large herbivores are more difficult for predators to capture (Sinclair et al. 2003). Thus, body size can be expected to control responses of herbivore abundance to seasonal disparities in forage quantity and quality and predation risk between protected and pastoral landscapes.The MMNR in Kenya supports a high abundance and diversity of resident wildlife and offers a dry season habitat for migratory ungulates from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the south and the neighbouring Loita Plains to the northeast (Maddock 1979, Stellfox et al. 1986). Extensive grasslands in the pastoral areas adjacent to the MMNR also provide wet season dispersal ranges for resident wildlife (Stellfox et al. 1986). Yet, despite the significance of pastoral areas to wildlife, few studies have evaluated the relative impact of pastoralism versus protection on wildlife population density and demography in African savannas (Caro 1999a, Wallgren et al. 2008). Even fewer studies have investigated the impacts of pastoralism and protection on longterm comparative changes in density (Caro 1999b, Reid et al. 2008b).Here, we analyze the influence of protection in the MMNR and pastoralism in the adjoining Koyiaki pastoral ranch (see below) on comparative changes in the density of 13 wild herbivores. We consider the following wild herbivores, in order of increasing body size, Thomson's gazelle (Gazella thomsoni), impala (Aepyceros melampus), warthog, Grant's gazelle (Gazella granti), topi, wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), Coke's hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus cokeii), defassa waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus), zebra (Equus burchelli), eland (Taurotragus oryx), buffalo (Syncerus caffer), giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), and elephant (Loxodonta africana) (Table 5.1). We also consider the densities of three domestic herbivore species, namely sheep (Ovis aries), goats (Capra hircus) and cattle (Bos indicus). We used data collected from systematic reconnaissance aerial surveys conducted during wet and dry seasons by the Kenya Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing (DRSRS) from 1977 to 2010. We supplemented these comparisons with parallel comparisons based on ground mapping censuses conducted in the MMNR and Koyiaki in November 1999 and 2002 (Reid et al. 2003). We also compared age and sex composition counts of a subset of six of the 13 wild herbivores, namely, impala, warthog, topi, hartebeest, zebra and giraffe, conducted in 2003 and 2004 to establish the influence of protection and pastoralism on the demography of these herbivore species. The six species were selected because reliable methods for ageing and sexing them had already been developed and tested as part of a 15-year monitoring program spanning 1989-2003 (Ogutu et al. 2008).Our hypotheses were based on differences in grass heights and predator densities between the MMNR and the pastoral ranches quantified by Ogutu et al. (2005) and Reid et al. (2003). Grass height influences both forage quality and predation risk. In the wet season less heavily grazed grasses, such as occur in most parts of the Mara reserve, become tall and therefore allocate more energy to developing structural fibers with higher carbon to nitrogen ratios, thereby diluting the concentration of nitrogen and phosphorous available to herbivores (Anderson, et al. 2007). From an herbivore's perspective, the digestibility of grasses is therefore inversely related to rainfall amount (Hopcraft et al. 2011). Mature grasses of tall stature are thus particularly unfavourable for small and medium herbivores due to their low digestibility and nutritional quality (Fritz and Duncan, 1994;Olff, Ritchie and Prins, 2002). In contrast, short grasses maintained by heavy livestock grazing, such as those in the pastoral areas of the Mara in the wet season (Ogutu et al. 2005), have higher digestibility and nutritional quality. Heavy livestock grazing on the ranches, furthermore, tends to promote production of more net grass biomass, which in turn attracts more herbivores than in the reserve with no livestock. Consequently, sustained livestock grazing in the ranches, by keeping grass stem biomass low, renders grasses more digestible and enhances their nutritional quality (McNaughton, 1976). This enables herbivores to realize greater protein consumption on the ranches than they do in the reserve in the wet season. As well, nutrient-rich pastoral settlement (boma) sites in the ranches represent key sources of nutritionally sufficient forage, especially for lactating females in the wet season (Muchiru et al. 2008;Augustine et al. 2010).  In addition, during the wet season, it is likely that lions are more abundant in the reserve (Reid et al. 2003), with taller grass cover, than in the ranches (Ogutu et al. 2005). Predator densities are also higher in the reserve than in the ranches in the dry season (Reid et al. 2003), reflecting not only their preference for high grass cover, but also avoidance of human and livestock activities on the ranches (Ogutu et al. 2005). Since predation risk increases with grass height in the Serengeti (Hopcraft et al. 2005) and Mara Region (Kanga et al, 2011) and since grass cover is shorter and predator density is lower on the ranches than in the reserve, small and medium herbivores likely experience lower predation risk on the ranches than in the reserve (Sinclair et al. 2003).In the dry season, when surface water and forage availability are reduced, heavy livestock grazing in the pastoral ranches forces wildlife to disperse to the reserve, where the migratory wildebeest and zebra and fires have removed the taller grasses and improved visibility. Thus, heavy livestock grazing in the pastoral ranches facilitates small and medium-sized herbivores in the wet season, but competition with livestock in the dry season for food and water, pushes them into the reserve where they are facilitated by migratory herds, which also absorb most of the predation pressure (Ogutu et al. 2008).Accordingly, we formulated the following four initial expectations based on herbivore body size. (1) The densities of the small-sized herbivores (15-50 Kg), would be higher in the Koyiaki pastoral ranch in both seasons due to the higher prevalence of short grass that is safer year round. ( 2) The densities of medium-sized grazers (100-200 Kg) would be higher in the Koyiaki ranch in the wet season when grass is short (and safe) and green (and nutritious), but would be higher in the reserve with higher quantities of grass in the dry season when grass dries out and becomes too short on the Koyiaki ranch. (3) The density of large wild herbivores (>350 Kg) would be higher year-round in the reserve than in Koyiaki ranch if they perceive lower predation risk (Sinclair et al. 2003) and satisfy their energy demands by ingesting large quantities of low-quality forage (Demment and Van Soest 1985). Finally, (4) the lower number of predators and presumably lower predation risk on Koyiaki ranch, due to the shorter grasses of higher nutritional quality, and better predator visibility, would lead to a higher proportion of the pregnant females bearing and raising their young on the ranches than in the reserve.Since the changes in wildlife distribution between the reserve and the ranches constitute essentially an unreplicated natural experiment, we used the protected Mara reserve as an ecological baseline area or benchmark that is relatively free of human impact to understand the consequences of impacts of livestock and human use of the human-dominated pastoral lands on seasonal and long-term patterns of wildlife distributions in the Mara Region (Sinclair 1998;Sinclair et al. 2002). We conduct replicate comparisons of herbivore densities between the reserve and the ranches based on 50 independent aerial surveys spanning 41 years conducted using the same technique to increase our confidence in, and ability to, separate the impacts of livestock and human use of the pastoral ranches on wildlife distributions despite the lack of true replication, which is difficult to achieve experimentally at landscape scales.The Mara Reserve is located in southwestern Kenya and borders the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the south. It covers some 1530 km 2 and is bounded by the Siria escarpment on the west, Koyiaki (931 km 2 ) and Olkinyei (804 km 2 ) pastoral ranches on the north and Siana pastoral ranch (1315 km 2 ) on the east (Ogutu et al. 2005) (Fig. 5.1). The reserve and the surrounding pastoral areas support annual migrations of enormous herds of wildebeest and zebra and small herds of eland from the Tanzanian Serengeti and much smaller herds of wildebeest, zebra and Thomson's gazelles from the Kenyan Loita Plains, to the northeast of the reserve (Stellfox et al. 1986). Traditional pastoralism, cultivation, and wildlife tourism constitute the major forms of land use in the pastoral ranches (Homewood et al. 2001). The major livestock species kept in the ranches include cattle, sheep, goats and donkeys (Lamprey and Reid 2004). The reserve is a nationally protected area in which wildlife conservation and tourism are the only permitted land uses but illegal livestock grazing is common, especially in dry years (Reid et al. 2003, Butt et al. 2009). There is no physical barrier to wildlife movements between the reserve and the surrounding pastoral areas. Hereafter, we refer to the reserve and all its surrounding pastoral ranches as the \"Mara Region\".The vegetation consists predominantly of open grass plains dominated by Hyparrhenia filipendula and Themeda triandra, interspersed with Acacia gerrardii and Terminalia trees, shrublands and riverine forests (Butt et al. 2009). Numerous seasonal streams drain the area, but only the Mara River and sections of the Sand and Talek Rivers typically contain water year-round. The Mara River originates in the Mau escarpment to the north of the Mara region (Krhoda 1988). Annual rainfall during 1989-2003 averaged 1010 mm and increased from 877 mm at Ololaimutia Gate in the southeast to 1341 mm at Kichwa Tembo in the northwest of the MMNR (Owen- Smith and Ogutu 2003). Rainfall is bimodal in the Mara Region, with the wet season spanning late November of the previous year to June of the current year and the dry season covering July-early November of the current year. The short rains fall during late November-December and the long rains during March-June. Rainfall increases spatially from 500 mm per year in the Serengeti Plains in the southeast to over 1200 mm in the northwest of the Mara Region (Pennycuick and Norton-Griffiths 1976).The Kenya Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing (DRSRS) conducted 50 aerial surveys in the Mara Region from 1977 to 2010, covering the entire Mara Region (6400 km 2 ), including the reserve (1530 km 2 ), and the surrounding pastoral ranches (4870 km 2 ). Surveys were undertaken either in the wet (Jan-June or Nov-Dec) or dry (Jul-Oct) season month(s) of each year except 1981, 1988, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006 when surveys were not conducted due to financial constraints (Stellfox et al. 1986, Broten and Said 1995, Ottichilo et al. 2001). The surveys followed systematic strip transects located 5 km apart and segmented into sampling grid cells of 5 × 5 km 2 (Norton-Griffiths 1978). The transects were oriented in an east-west or northsouth direction and were flown at a fixed height of about 90 m above the ground during 1977-1985 and about 120 m thereafter (Ottichilo et al. 2001). The number of animals observed within a calibrated survey strip defined by two parallel rods on the wing struts of the aircraft and running through the centre of the 5 × 5 km 2 grid cell was recorded. The survey strip spanned an average width of 263 m on the ground, corresponding to an average sampling intensity or fraction of 4.8 % of the 5 × 5 km 2 grid cell area (Owen- Smith and Ogutu 2003). The expected number of animals per 25 km 2 grid cell area was thus estimated as the actual number counted in each 25 km 2 grid cell times 100 divided by the sampling fraction. The mean count for each species per survey in the reserve was expressed as the average of the estimated population size over all the 25 km 2 grid cells in the reserve (n = 61 cells, covering a total area of 1525 km 2 ). The same applies to the Koyiaki pastoral ranch (n = 37, for a total area of 925 km 2 ). Ottichilo et al. (1999) and Ottichilo and Khaemba (2001) have demonstrated the reliability of the estimates of wildlife and livestock population sizes from the DRSRS count method. From the 50 surveys, we selected counts of 13 wild herbivore species, comprising four small-sized herbivores: Thomson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle, impala and warthog, five medium-sized herbivores: topi, hartebeest, wildebeest and zebra, four large herbivores: eland, buffalo, giraffe and elephant; and three species of livestock, namely sheep and goats (which are lumped together during surveys as 'sheep and goats' because they occur in mixed herds that are hard to distinguish reliably from the air) and cattle to represent a range of functional groups based on body size, feeding and foraging styles (Table 5.1). Of the 50 surveys 33 were conducted in the wet season and 17 in the dry season. Averaging population density estimates for each species in each grid cell over all surveys conducted in each season in one year produced 20 surveys for the wet season (late November-June) and 12 for the dry season (July-early November), which we used for analysis.Two ground mapping censuses of wildlife and livestock in the MMNR and the adjacent pastoral ranches were conducted in early November 1999 and 2002 when dry conditions prevailed and the grass was still short, due to heavy grazing by migratory wildlife (Reid et al. 2003). The first census covered an area of 1544.2 km 2 , including sections of Koyiaki and Lemek pastoral ranches, and the MMNR. This census was carried out by 12 teams totaling 40 people using 12 vehicles in both the reserve and the ranches. The second census covered 2212 km 2 and included Koyiaki, Lemek, Siana and a small part of southwestern Olkinyei ranches. This census was carried out by 22 teams totaling 84 people. The census area was partitioned into contiguous 0.33 × 0.33 km 2 sub-blocks to obtain fine resolution counts. The teams counted 7606 sub-blocks in the reserve and 6295 sub-blocks in the ranches in 1999 and 11117 sub-blocks in the reserve and 8794 sub-blocks in the ranches in 2002 (Reid et al. 2003, Ogutu et al. 2010). The sampling teams navigated vehicles down the centers of each 1 × 1 km 2 block and allocated all animals observed into one of the nine nearest 0.33 × 0.33 km 2 sub-blocks using a global positioning system (GPS). The counts per 0.33 × 0.33 km 2 sub-blocks were converted to densities per km 2 by multiplying them by nine. The mean density and corresponding standard errors were calculated as the average density over all subblocks in the reserve and ranches. The mean count for each species in the reserve was expressed as the average of the estimated population size over all the per 0.33 × 0.33 km 2 sub-blocks in the reserve. The same applies to Koyiaki pastoral ranch. We used these censuses to validate distribution patterns derived from the aerial surveys during the dry season, including one aerial survey that was conducted at the same time as the ground mapping census in 2002.Age and sex composition counts of wildlife Ogutu et al. (2006a), in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), carried out two further vehicle ground sample counts of impala, warthog, topi, harte-beest, zebra, and giraffe including their age and sex. These counts were conducted in the MMNR, Koyiaki and a small section of Siana ranch in November 2003 and April 2004. The November 2003 survey was also conducted during the dry season. In contrast, the April 2004 survey was conducted in the late-wet season. They used a strip-transect sampling technique assuming complete census of all animals within a fixed strip width of 100 m either side of the transect centerline (Ogutu et al. 2006). The transects were distributed over the MMNR and pastoral ranches in proportion to their areas, with 22 transects established in the reserve and 13 in Koyiaki. Each transect was 10 km long. After every 1 km along each transect, the vehicle was stopped and the numbers, age class relative to adult size, sex and GPS locations of wildlife were recorded within 200 m on either side of the transect centerline. These species were classified, whenever possible, into three age classes: newborns (< 1 month), juveniles (1-18 months), adults (> 18 months). A combination of horn shape and length and body size were used to assign the herbivores to sex and age categories, however, ages were not assigned to adults (Sinclair 1995). Only the number of individuals sighted per age class in each transect, summed over all transects in the reserve and the ranches, from this dataset were used in analyses.To account for clustering, non-normality and non-homogenous variances of animal counts, and varying frequency of counts we used negative binomial regression model for overdispersed count data to compare the mean density for each herbivore species in each 5 × 5 km 2 grid cell between the MMNR and Koyiaki pastoral ranch using the aod package in R (Lesnoff and Lancelot 2010, R Development Core Team 2010). More specifically, we used the log link function and specified the variance function for the negative binomial model as φu(1+(u/k)), where u is the mean, φ is the overdispersion parameter and k is the 'aggregation parameter'. Differences in the expected herbivore counts between landscapes were tested for significance using the Wald chi-squared test (Draper and Smith 1998)). A similar analysis was performed to compare the mean densities from the ground mapping censuses per 1 × 1 km 2 grid cells between the MMNR and Koyiaki pastoral ranch (Reid et al. 2003).Due to low sample sizes for certain cross-classification cells, we used a chi-square test for independence in a 2 × 2 frequency table, corrected for continuity using the Yates' correction for small sample sizes, to compare the ratio of newborns to adult females to that of juveniles to adult females for impala, topi and giraffe and the ratios of newborns to adults of both sexes to that of juveniles to adults of both sexes for warthog and zebra between the two areas based on counts pooled over the 2003 and 2004 surveys. We similarly compared the female proportion (F/(F+M), where F = female counts and M = male counts) for impala, topi and giraffe computed by pooling all individuals of the same sex over all age classes and the 2003 and 2004 surveys, separately for each area.The details of differences in wildlife densities between the reserve and the ranches were complex and varied with species and season, but some consistent overall patterns were nevertheless evident.Most small herbivores were consistently more abundant in the ranches than in the reserve in both seasons (Figs 5.2A-E). Interestingly, warthog did not conform to this pattern and showed a preference for the reserve in the dry season but for the ranches in the wet season (Fig. 5.2D). Sheep and goats were more abundant in the ranches than in the reserve, and their numbers increased noticeably during 2000-2010 relative to earlier years (Fig. 5.2B, Tables S1 and S2).Most medium-sized herbivores moved seasonally between the reserve and the ranches (Fig. 5.3A-F). However, hartebeest and waterbuck had slightly higher densities in the reserve during both seasons, but more especially in the wet season (Figs. 5.3C and 5.3D, Tables S1 and S2). Topi, wildebeest and zebra had slightly higher densities in the reserve in the dry season when the migrants are present but somewhat higher densities in the ranches in the wet season (Figs 5.3A, 5.3B and 5.3F, Tables S1 and S2). More specifically, the resident wildebeest had lower densities in the ranches than in the reserve in the dry season but higher densities in the ranches than in the reserve in the wet season (Fig. 5.3B). Cattle were more abundant in the ranches than in the reserve in the dry season but more occurred in the reserve in the dry than in the wet season, and more recently (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) than in earlier years 1970-1999 (Fig. 5.3E, Tables S1 and S2).Buffalo and elephant were consistently more abundant in the reserve than in the ranches in both seasons (Figs 5.4B and 5.4D, Tables S1 and S2). Eland had higher densities in the ranches than in the reserve in the wet season but lower densities in the ranches than in the reserve in the dry season (Fig. 5.4A). Giraffe did not show significant differences between the reserve and the ranches during the dry season, but were somewhat more abundant in the reserve. However, they were consistently more abundant in the ranches than the reserve in the wet season (Fig. 5.4C, Tables S1 and S2).The ground counts conducted in 1999 and 2002 confirmed that both gazelles, impala and giraffe were indeed more abundant in the ranches and that topi, hartebeest, wildebeest, zebra, eland, buffalo and elephant were more abundant in the reserve than in the ranches in the dry season, as revealed by the aerial survey data. High variance in herd sizes rendered the apparently large differences in wildebeest densities between landscapes statistically insignificant. The ground counts also confirmed the greater abundance of livestock in the ranches than in the reserve shown by the aerial survey data (Table 5.2).  The population age composition of species differed between areas for warthog, topi and zebra. There were greater proportions of newborn warthog and juvenile topi in the ranches than in the reserve, but greater proportions of newborn topi and zebra in the reserve than in the ranches (Table 5.3). For hartebeest and waterbuck, numbers were too small for similar statistical tests. Only impala, topi, hartebeest and giraffe had sufficient sample sizes to statistically test differences in female proportions between the two areas. Among these species, female proportion was similar between landscapes for hartebeest and giraffe but was higher in the reserve than in the ranches among impala and topi (Table 5.4). Although the differences in herbivore densities between the pastoral ranches and the reserve in any one year may also be influenced by inherent differences between the landscapes which are unrelated to livestock or human use, such as geomorphology, which can cause underlying differences in wildlife use, our results suggest that livestock and human use of the pastoral ranches are the two most important causes of the differences between the patterns we observed in the two landscapes. There were strong seasonal differences in wild herbivore densities between the reserve and the ranches during 1977-2010. Individual species responded differentially to pastoralism and protection. Three distinct patterns were apparent, all of which could be explained in terms of distinctions in body size and feeding guild and their consequences for nutritional quality and quantity of forage, predation risk and competition with livestock.Small species that are constrained by food quality and predation tend to prefer short grass areas (Fryxell 1991, Illius andGordon 1992) and were thus more abundant in the ranches than the reserve regardless of season or feeding guild as revealed by the significant differences between their densities in the reserve and the ranches during 1977-2010. Repeated livestock grazing in the same areas of the ranches probably increased the crude protein production of grasses (Anderson et al. 2010, Augustine et al. 2010), enabling the small grazers to derive sufficient energy by selecting high-quality forage from the low-biomass areas (Fryxell et al. 2005). Reduced predation risk as a result of lower vegetation cover on the ranches (Ogutu et al. 2005) is yet another advantage of concentrating in the short grass plains, since tall grasses conceal ambush predators and significantly increase their efficiency at catching prey animals (Hopcraft et al. 2005).The distribution patterns we observed for small herbivores are therefore concordant with the initial expectation that small herbivores (except warthog) should concentrate in areas of relatively fewer predators (safer) and shorter grasses maintained by heavy livestock grazing in the ranches. This outcome also concurs with findings of studies encompassing a variety of spatial scales and species (Olff and Ritchie 2002;Cromsigt and Olff 2006) besides reinforcing the notion that both predation and resource limitation act simultaneously in limiting herbivore populations (Sinclair et al. 2003).The second pattern was expressed by species that moved between the ranches and the reserve seasonally, suggesting that they preferred either the reserve or the ranches depending on season. Specifically, the medium-sized topi, wildebeest and zebra moved seasonally between the reserve and the ranches, thus supporting our second prediction. As a result, medium herbivores had higher densities in the ranches in the wet season but higher densities in the reserve in the dry season. This pattern suggests that medium herbivores tend to utilize the ranches when water and short, nutritious grasses, created and maintained by heavy livestock grazing (Rannestad et al. 2006), are widely available, enabling them to enhance their total protein consumption (McNaughton 1976). In addition, the short grasses also enhance visibility of predators, thus potentially lowering predation risk in the ranches than the reserve (Hopcraft et al. 2005, Ogutu et al. 2005). In contrast, since heavy and sustained livestock grazing depletes both forage and surface water faster in the ranches than in the reserve (Reid et al. 2003), the medium-sized grazers are likely forced to disperse from the ranches to the reserve in the dry season to access more forage and water. Consequently, the mediumsized species were more abundant in the reserve during the dry season, implicating elevated competition with livestock on the ranches for food and water. These patterns accord with the finding of Odadi et al. (2011), who recently reported greater competitive effects of livestock on wildlife in the dry season when food is scarcest. Interestingly, hartebeest and waterbuck, both medium-sized grazers that select long grasses (Murray and Brown 1993), did not conform to this pattern; instead, they showed a slight preference for the reserve where long grasses are more abundant yearround (Reid et al. 2003, Ogutu et al. 2005). Because zebra can process large quantities of low quality diet due to their non-ruminant digestive physiology than can, say, the ruminant wildebeest (Ben-Shahar and Coe 1992) it could be argued that zebra should be more abundant in the reserve where tall grasses are more abundant in both seasons (Reid et al. 2003, Ogutu et al. 2005). The occurrence of zebra at high densities in the ranches may thus suggest attraction to the short, high-quality grasses there and/or lower predation risk, since zebra suffer heavy lion (Panthera leo) predation in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem (Grange et al. 2004). The short grass plains in the ranches also may provide seasonal predator refugia for lekking topi (Bro-Jørgensen and Durant 2003).The third pattern involved species that prefer long grasses all year, or for part of the year and, thus are most likely to compete strongly with livestock. These species were more abundant in the reserve than in the ranches. Since species such as buffalo and elephant are exposed to less predation risk because of their very large body sizes (Sinclair et al. 2003), they do not have to avoid areas with high risk of predation (Hopcraft et al. 2011) and can therefore, relatively safely, use areas of high food abundance. Furthermore, by often occurring in large herds these herbivores, reduce predation risk even further. Also, their digestive physiology allows them to utilize the low-quality tall grasses predominantly found inside the reserve to maximize their specific metabolic requirements (Illius andGordon 1992, Wilmshurst et al. 2000). The distribution patterns of the large herbivores thus conform to the expectation that large herbivores should select areas with taller grasses than small herbivores (Sinclair et al. 2003, Hopcraft et al. 2011). The patterns shown by the large-bodied eland did not conform fully to this expectation. Instead, eland moved seasonally between the reserve and the ranches. It is plausible that short, nutritious forbs which eland selects in the wet season (Watson and Owen-Smith 2000) occurred at higher densities in the livestock-dominated areas in the ranches in the wet season. By contrast, giraffe are almost exclusively browsers favouring trees and shrubs and feeding almost entirely on forage at least 1 m off the ground (Owen- Smith and Cooper 1987). The ranches support 11-12% woody cover and the reserve 4% as measured by Reid et al. (2003). This higher abundance of trees and shrubs on the ranches may be partially the result of rocky topography in parts of the ranches, but may also be because combined livestock and wildlife grazing removes more grass fuel on the ranches than in the reserve, thus discouraging extensive fires that suppress tree and shrub establishment (Scholes and Archer 1997). As a result, giraffe were more abundant in the ranches with more trees and shrubs in the wet season.We predicted that the lower number of predators, lower predation risk, and shorter grass (Ogutu et al. 2005), and better predator visibility (Kanga et al. 2011), will lead to a higher proportion of the pregnant females bearing and raising their young on the ranches than in the reserve. As expected, newborn warthog and juvenile topi were significantly more abundant in the ranches, suggesting a preference for shorter grass areas where predation risk is lower. Contrary to our expectation, however, the proportions of newborn topi and zebra were higher in the reserve, suggesting a push from pastoralists or a pull by something in the reserve, such as tall and dense grass cover for young to hide. The ratio of females to males varied significantly from parity for impala and topi, for which a female biased sex ratio is common (Sinclair et al. 2000). Our results suggest that female impala and topi were more abundant in the reserve, consistent with our speculation that competition with livestock and disturbance by humans and dogs in the ranches forces more females accompanied by their young into the reserve. Female giraffe and hartebeest were evenly distributed between the reserve and ranches, suggesting little influence of land use on the distribution of females relative to males.Dispersal areas for wildlife in pastoral systems and their adjoining protected areas in African savannas represent wet season refuges for many wild herbivores that range seasonally beyond the protected area boundaries (Woodroffe andGinsberg 1998, Ogutu et al. 2008). Our study shows that these areas can, and indeed do, support a high diversity of wildlife, especially in the wet season when resources are widely available due to maintenance of grasslands by livestock in short, nutritious growth stage. However, several other studies have shown that increasing human population growth, settlement, cultivation and sedentarization of formerly semi-nomadic pastoralists in these areas are increasingly restricting seasonal wildlife movements (Coughenour 2008) and potentially negating their otherwise positive effects on wildlife. These movements give both wildlife and livestock the flexibility and mobility necessary to optimally exploit heterogeneity in resources in space and time, including that caused by the directional impacts of a warming and drying climate (Ogutu et al. 2007). Our results reinforce and extend the conclusions of these studies by also revealing that, even though wildlife evidently move seasonally between the reserve and the ranches, their densities have declined strikingly in both the reserve and the ranches, most likely due to ongoing land use changes (Ogutu et al. 2009;2011). Land use changes in the pastoral lands thus portend a precarious future for wild herbivores that depend on the pastoral areas. Furthermore, the land use changes exacerbate the adverse effects of recurrent climatic extremes on the availability of forage and water, forcing ever more pastoralists to graze their livestock illegally in protected areas (Ogutu et al. 2009). The land use changes also likely intensify competition between wildlife and livestock and thus adversely affect demographic processes such as reproduction and juvenile recruitment besides the seasonal dispersal movements of wild herbivores between protected areas and their adjoining pastoral lands. If the ongoing losses of key dispersal areas and calving grounds of wildlife in key ecosystems of East Africa, such as the Mara Region, continue unabated, they will accelerate wildlife population declines (Ogutu et al. 2011) and even cause local population extirpations (Newmark 1996, Brashares et al. 2001).We therefore suggest that effective management of pastoral lands as well as their adjoining protected areas in East Africa and possibly elsewhere is urgently necessary and should aim to prevent further losses of wildlife. Furthermore, management should aim to secure dispersal areas, including corridors for seasonal wildlife and livestock movements, and effectively couple traditional knowledge of seasonal herders, management and scientific knowledge (Reid et al. 2009) into an integrated approach incorporating both protected areas and their adjoining pastoral lands. Chapter 6The distribution of large herbivore hotspots in relation to environmental and anthropogenic correlates in the Mara region of KenyaThe distributions of large herbivores in protected areas and their surroundings are becoming increasingly restricted by changing land use, with adverse consequences for wildlife populations. We analyze changes in distributions of herbivore hotspots to understand their environmental and anthropogenic correlates using 50 aerial surveys conducted at a spatial resolution of 5 × 5 km 2 (n = 289 cells) in the Mara region of Kenya during 1977-2010. We compare the distributions across seasons, land use types (protection, pastoralism, agropastoralism) and 10 species with different body sizes and feeding styles. Small herbivores that are the most susceptible to predation and dependent on high-quality forage, concentrate in the greenest and wet areas and close to rivers in Maasai pastoral ranches in both seasons. Livestock grazing creates conditions favouring small herbivores in these ranches, including high-quality short grasses and better visibility, implying facilitation. But in the reserve, they concentrate in browner, drier and flatter areas and farther from rivers, suggesting facilitation by large grazers in the wet season, or little competition with migratory herbivores occupying the reserve in the dry season. In the wet season, medium herbivores concentrate in similar areas to small herbivores in the ranches and reserve. However, in the dry season, they stay in the reserve and also concentrate in green and wet areas close to rivers, when migrants occur in the reserve. Since such areas typically have higher predation risk this suggests facilitation by the migrants by absorbing most predation pressure or, alternatively, competitive displacement by the migrants from preferred habitats. Large herbivores, which suffer the least predation, depend on bulk forage and are the most likely to engender conflicts with people, concentrate in the reserve all year. This suggests attraction to the taller and denser grass and perceived greater safety in the reserve in both seasons. These results reveal how, predation risk, forage quantity and quality, water, competition with and facilitation by livestock interact with individual life-history traits, seasons and land use in shaping the dynamics of herbivore hotspots in protected and human-dominated savannas.The dominant traditional conservation paradigm emphasizes the importance of national parks and reserves in protecting terrestrial biodiversity against human activities (Terborgh et al. 2002). This paradigm implicitly assumes that human activities, such as agricultural and livestock production, predominantly harm wildlife. Although there is abundant evidence that high levels of human activity indeed limit wildlife abundance and species diversity (Prins 1992, Du Toit andCumming 1999), recent empirical research suggests that moderate, more traditional forms of human land use may benefit wildlife in tropical ecosystems (Veblen andYoung 2010, Augustine et al. 2011). In African savannas native wildlife and humans have coexisted for centuries under moderate traditional human activities (Lamprey andReid 2004, Galvin et al. 2008). However, due to intensifying anthropogenic activities, strong gradients often emerge between protected areas and their surrounding human-dominated pastoral ranches, creating spatial heterogeneity in predation risk, resource availability and quality. Consequently, locations with conditions that maximize the net effects of forage availability and quality and minimize predation risk will support above-average herbivore abundances (McNaughton 1988, McNaughton 1990, Anderson et al. 2010). We call locations where high densities of wild herbivores persist for extended periods of time, \"hotspots\". Long-term persistence of hotspots depends upon the stability, predictability and sufficiency of forage despite variability mediated through rainfall seasonality (Fryxell et al. 2005). Furthermore, hotspots are relatively predator-free refugia (Valeix et al. 2009) that reduce predation risk. Additionally, what qualifies as a hotspot may differ with life history traits of herbivores such as body size (Sensenig et al. 2010, Hopcraft et al. 2011) because small herbivores are more susceptible to predators (Sinclair et al. 2003) and require forage of higher quality than do large ones (Kerr and Packer 1997). Moreover, large herbivores are more constrained by forage quantity than by predation (Owen-Smith 1988).In African savannas the distribution and persistence of hotspots have been relatively well studied within protected areas, such as the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem of Kenya and Tanzania (McNaughton 1988, McNaughton 1990, Anderson et al. 2010), but are much less well understood in human-dominated pastoral systems, such as the pastoral ranches of the Mara region in Kenya. The Mara region is well-known for its annual concentration of migratory ungulate populations, constituting one of the largest remaining migrations of large herbivores on earth (Sinclair and Arcese 1995b) and an exceptionally high abundance and diversity of resident wildlife species (Broten and Said 1995). The resident wildlife often persist in spatially restricted locations (McNaughton 1990) but move seasonally between the protected Masai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) and its adjoining pastoral ranches in response to seasonal variation in forage quantity, quality and predation (Stellfox et al. 1986, Ogutu et al. 2008, Fynn and Bonyongo 2010). In particular, the resident herbivores disperse from the MMNR onto the adjoining ranches in the wet season (Stellfox et al. 1986) for at least two reasons. Firstly, grass is widely available and is maintained in a shorter and more active growth stage by livestock grazing on the ranches than in the reserve. Secondly, predation risk is presumably higher in the reserve than on the ranches due to higher predator densities, taller and denser grass cover in the reserve (Hopcraft et al. 2005, Ogutu et al. 2005). The resident herbivores return to the reserve in the dry season, likely due to heightened competition with livestock for food and water on the ranches (Prins 1992, Ogutu et al. 2008).Although food availability and quality and predation risk have all been identified as key determinants of herbivore hotspots in savannas (Anderson et al. 2010), their influences on hotspots vary considerably with herbivore body size and environmental gradients within landscapes (Valeix et al. 2009, Sensenig et al. 2010, Hopcraft et al. 2011). This raises fundamental questions about the extent to which ecological factors and mechanisms identified as shaping distributions of hotspots in protected areas can be extrapolated to human-dominated systems such as pastoral lands. Wildlife share these pastoral landscapes with people, their settlements and livestock. However, human population growth, expansion of settlements and livestock stocking levels and intensification of land use on the pastoral lands are increasingly denying wildlife access to their traditional wet season resources, similar to other areas of Africa (Fynn and Bonyongo 2010), thus contributing to severe declines in their numbers (Ogutu et al. 2011).Rainfall seasonality exerts fundamental controls on vegetation growth, quantity and quality in savannas (Deshmukh 1984), and need to be accounted for before the effects of other factors can be reliably revealed. Vegetation productivity also varies considerably spatially, reflecting spatial patchiness in rainfall, soil moisture and nutrients in African savannas (Coe et al. 1976, East 1984). As vegetation quantity increases linearly with rainfall (Deshmukh 1984) a similar relationship exists between the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and vegetation productivity (Pettorelli et al. 2005) given the tight positive association between NDVI and rainfall in African savannas (Davenport andNicholson 1993, Camberlin et al. 2007). NDVI has thus successfully been used to predict the distribution and abundance of large mammalian herbivores (Bro-Jørgensen et al. 2008, Pettorelli et al. 2011).Consequently, we tested predictions of several hypotheses to establish factors influencing herbivore hotspots in the protected Mara reserve and its adjoining ranches. The hypotheses on vegetation quantity and quality assume that in the late wet season grass is tall and dense, low in crude protein and high in lignin (Boutton et al. 1988a, Boutton et al. 1988b, Georgiadis and McNaughton 1990) in most of the reserve and hence low in digestibility and heightens predation risk for herbivores (Hopcraft et al. 2005). As a result, high NDVI values can be associated with taller, more mature and less nutritious grasses (Kawamura et al. 2005, Mueller et al. 2008) leading to the prediction of a negative association between NDVI and hotspots of small and medium herbivores but a positive association with hotspots of large herbivores in the reserve (H1a). However, in the ranches the grass is kept in a short, active growth stage by livestock grazing, thereby increasing its quality but decreasing its biomass (Augustine and McNaughton 2006) and hence promoting visibility against predators (Ogutu et al. 2005). Thus, high NDVI values associated with higher vegetation quality would lead to a positive association between NDVI and hotspots of small and medium herbivores but a negative association with hotspots of large herbivores in the ranches in the wet season (H1b). During the dry season, in contrast, vegetation quality and quantity are lower in the region (Boutton et al. 1988b, Georgiadis andMcNaughton 1990). However, because grass height is generally taller inside than outside the reserve due to the absence of livestock grazing in the reserve, except during illegal incursions (Ogutu et al. 2005), we expected herbivore hotspots to increase with increasing NDVI in the reserve (H2a) but to show the opposite pattern in the ranches (H2b) due to competition with livestock for forage and water.Besides vegetation, we tested hypotheses related to other landscape features associated with predation risk, in particular distance to rivers and soil moisture (Anderson et al. 2010). We assumed that in the wet season in the reserve predation risk is higher closer to rivers because many large predators rest inside riverine vegetation in the daytime (Ogutu et al. 2006b) and that herbivores avoid wet and sticky soils found near drainage lines and on other low-lying areas (Talbot and Talbot 1963). Given these assumptions we expected hotspots of small and medium herbivores to increase with (1) increasing distance away from rivers and (2) decreasing soil moisture but hotspots of large herbivores to follow the opposite patterns (H3a). In the ranches, since predator densities are lower (Ogutu et al. 2005) hotspots of small and medium herbivores should peak closer to rivers and in other areas of high soil moisture due to (i) facilitation by Maasai livestock grazing near rivers in the dry season (Reid et al. 2008a, Butt et al. 2009) or (ii) displacement from open short grass plains on uplands by Masai livestock that are densely distributed over these plains in the wet season (H3b). In the reserve in the dry season when forage availability and surface water are highly reduced, herbivores of all sizes should be attracted to rivers, springs and green grasses inside riverine woodlands. Grasses in such areas retain green leaves for extended periods due to shielding from direct insolation by tree canopy (Treydte et al. 2008, Anderson et al. 2010) despite high predation risk. The presence of the migratory herbivores inside the reserve lowers the predation pressure on the resident populations in the dry season (Saba 1979, Scheel andPacker 1995) (H4a). In the ranches, in sharp contrast, competition for resources with livestock increases steeply. The Masai pastoralists change the grazing orbits of their livestock herds to concentrate along rivers and in areas of high soil moisture in the dry season. Thus, we expected hotspots of wild herbivores to increase farther from rivers or other wet areas (H4b). Finally, high human population and livestock densities and the associated settlements, farms and harassment of wildlife by human presence and dogs (Lamprey andReid 2004, Ogutu et al. 2011) would predict a decrease in herbivore hotspots with increasing human and livestock densities in both seasons on the ranches (H5).To test these hypotheses, we analyzed influences of land use type (protection, pastoralism, agro-pastoralism), annual and seasonal NDVI components, soil moisture indexed by topographic wetness index (TWI), distance to the nearest river, livestock and human population densities on the distribution of hotspots of wild herbivores in the Mara region of Kenya. We used 50 aerial surveys of wildlife and livestock conducted in the Mara region from 1977 to 2010 to locate and characterize the hotspots. This analysis complements and extends recent research on distribution of herbivore hotspots in protected areas (Anderson et al. 2010) to human-dominated savanna landscapes.The Mara Region is located in southwestern Kenya and borders the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the south. It encompasses 1530 km 2 of the protected Masai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) in which only wildlife conservation and tourism is permitted, as well as about 4000 km 2 of the adjoining pastoral ranches in which traditional pastoralism by the Masai people and pastoral settlements, some cultivation and wildlife tourism constitute the major forms of land use. We refer to the Mara Region as the Mara and the pastoral ranches as ranches (Fig. 6.1). The Mara can be subdivided into three main landscapes based on predominant land use (Homewood et al. 2001). The first landscape, the outer ranches, covers the eastern and productive northern reaches of the Mara. Parts of this area have been converted to cultivation and settlements as human population has increased in recent decades (Ogutu et al. 2011). We classified these areas as the \"outer ranches\". The southwestern part of the Mara consists mainly of grasslands and comprises the MMNR, which we therefore classified as the \"reserve\". The third area lies within the central and eastern part of the Mara. This area comprises extensive pastoral areas, classified here as the \"inner ranches\", which support vast herds of cattle, sheep and goats and a rapidly expanding human population (Lamprey and Reid 2004). Human population density is lower here than in the \"outer ranches\" but higher than in the \"reserve\" (Ogutu et al. 2011). The Mara is characterized by the annual migration which brings over one million wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), zebra (Equus burchelli) and Thomson's gazelle (Gazella thomsoni) from the Serengeti Plains to the south and Loita Plains to the northeast of the MMNR from July to October, or later. It is also home to vast herds of cattle, sheep and goats in the ranches that are kept in bomas (temporary livestock corrals) during the night and herded elsewhere during the day in search of forage and drinking water. Although prohibited, illegal livestock grazing is common inside the reserve (Butt et al. 2009). We considered the 10 most common wild herbivore species (Table 6.1) each of which occupied at least 50% of all grid cells surveyed during 1977-2010 and also calculated combined livestock density, including sheep, goats and cattle. The 10 species can be classified by feeding style as pure browsers, grazers and mixed feeders and by body size as small (15-50 kg), medium (100-200 kg) and large (700-1725 kg) herbivores. The mixed feeders seasonally switch between grazing and browsing.Rainfall is bimodal in the Mara, with the wet season spanning November-June and the dry season covering July-October. The short rains fall during November-December Table 6.1 The 10 most common species in the Mara region and their functional groupings by body mass, feeding style and foraging guild. The mixed feeders seasonally switch between grazing and browsing. and the long rains during March-June. Rainfall increases from 500 mm per year in the southeast to 1200 mm in the northwest of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem (Pennycuick and Norton-Griffiths 1976) but increases from 877 mm in the south-east to 1341 mm in the north-west of the MMNR (Ogutu et al. 2011). This variability, coupled with topographic heterogeneity and fires, create considerable spatial and temporal heterogeneity that underlies the clustered and patchy spatio-temporal distributions of herbivores in the Mara-Serengeti, similar to many other African savannas (Scholes andArcher 1997, Owen-Smith 2004).The Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing of Kenya (DRSRS) conducted 50 aerial surveys in the Mara from 1977 to 2010, with at least one survey conducted each year except in 1981, 1988, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006 due to financial and logistical constraints. Overall, 33 surveys were conducted in the wet season and 17 in the dry season. Averaging population density estimates for each species in each 5 × 5 km 2 grid cell over all replicate surveys conducted in each season in one year produced 21 surveys for the wet season and 17 for the dry season, which we used for analysis. The surveys follow strip transects located 5 km apart and segmented into sampling grid cells of 5 × 5 km 2 for a total of 289 such cells in the Mara. The number of animals observed within a calibrated survey strip defined by two parallel rods on the wings of the aircraft running through the centre of the 5 × 5 km 2 grid cell is recorded. Norton-Griffiths (1978) and Ogutu et al. (2011) provide further details of the counting and population estimation procedures used by DRSRS.NDVI measures the biomass and quality of vegetation at the land surface. It is used as a proxy for vegetation productivity and biomass (Pettorelli et al. 2005). The NDVI indices were obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) images at a pixel resolution of 8 × 8 km 2 for 1982-2010. A semiparametric generalized linear mixed model (SGLMM) described comprehensively by Ogutu et al.(2011) was used to impute missing NDVI values between 1977 and 1982. To index temporal variation in biomass, we calculated seasonal and annual averages of NDVI for each pixel, which we call integrated NDVI. The seasonal NDVI components consisted of the dry (July-October) and wet (November-June) seasons whereas the annual component covered November-October. The three NDVI components were calculated separately for each land use type and lagged by one year to capture vegetation conditions in the year preceding surveys, indexing delayed or carryover effects of prior habitat conditions.The distance from each grid cell center to the nearest drainage bed with clearly defined embankments was calculated for each land use type in ArcGIS 9.3.2. Most drainage beds in the Mara remain dry for most of the year, and are characteristically associated with erosion embankments and riverine thickets interspersed with tall grasses. We thus use distance to rivers to index predation risk, proximity to water and riverine woodlands and grasses (Anderson et al. 2010, Hopcraft et al. 2011).Topographic Wetness Index (TWI)We calculated TWI from the 90 m 2 digital elevation model (DEM) derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, as a relative measure of the long-term soil moisture availability of a given site in the landscape (Iverson et al. 1997). TWI is a function of watershed catchment area (the area draining into a pixel) and slope, and is calculated as ln(As/tan β), where As is the watershed catchment area (i.e., the drainage area per unit width orthogonal to a stream line) and β is the slope gradient (Iverson et al. 1997). We use TWI to index the soil water retention capacity of a grid cell. Grid cells having high TWI values are more likely to have taller vegetation, so that TWI also serves as a proxy for predation risk (Hopcraft et al. 2005, Anderson et al. 2010), proximity to water and comparatively greener riparian zone woodlands and grasses.We used human population density to index human activities such as land use and harassment of wildlife. We obtained human population density estimates for the Mara for 1979 to 2010 from decadal national census records available from the Central Bureau of Statistics of Kenya. We used linear interpolation to impute missing human population densities for each landscape.To establish how herbivore density changed over time and space in the Mara, we calculated the mean density of each species in each 5 × 5 km 2 grid cell over all surveys  separately for each of the three landscapes. To account for differences in absolute densities of different species in occupied cells we computed the 0-25 th , 26-50 th , 51-75 th and >75 th quantiles of the frequency distribution of the mean density of each species over all surveys and grid cells occupied by the species. We next calculated the mean density of each species in each grid cell, separately for each landscape and decade combination (1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s) and assigned the resulting decadal cell means to each of the four quantiles. We used the decadal cell means to reduce the influence of temporal variability in the individual estimated densities. The combined livestock density was similarly treated. If the mean cell density for a given landscape and decade combination fell within the fourth quantile, then we classified the cell as a hotspot in that decade, and as a non-hotspot otherwise. Moreover, grid cells that were not occupied by individuals of a species throughout the survey period were assigned a zero density and classified as non-hotspots. We developed a sequence of maps to display the temporal evolution of hotspots in each grid cell over the four decades spanned by the surveys in ARC GIS 9.3.2. The same scale was used for density in each landscape in each decade (1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s) to enable direct temporal comparisons between landscapes for each species. We created separate maps for each season for the 10 herbivore species (Fig. 6.2) and livestock to account for seasonal differences in distribution. The scales for density were selected to represent quantiles of density for each species over the entire survey period. For each species all cells with estimated densities falling within the first quantile were assigned the lightest shade of gray and the intensity of this shade increased with increasing quantiles. The same grayscale was assigned to the same quantile for all species in each landscape to facilitate direct visual comparisons.We used multivariate semiparametric quantile regression analysis (Koenker andHallock 2001, Koenker 2005) to relate herbivore density to NDVI (considering seasonal, annual and lagged components), livestock density/mean density (to make its scale comparable to those for the other covariates), distance to the nearest river, TWI and human population density measured within each 5 × 5 km 2 grid cell in each of the three landscapes covering the entire Mara, separately for each species and season. The model enabled exploration of how density responds to variation in the covariates near its upper limit, a region more relevant to understanding variation in hotspots of abundance than the median. Modeling such a limiting relationship using standard regression procedures would otherwise pose considerable statistical difficulties, in particular when densities are widely scattered beneath a specified upper limit. More precisely, we modeled the rate of change in density at the 75 th conditional quantile of the distribution of density as a function of the above covariates to establish how variation in these covariates influenced hotspots of herbivore abundance in the Mara (Cade and Noon 2003). The choice of the 75 th quantile was reasonable for modeling hotspots of most of the common species but for rare species higher quantiles may be necessary to yield conditional quantiles greater than zero. Confidence bands around the quantile regression functions were estimated using the bootstrap method with 500 replications (Koenker 2005). All analyses were conducted in the R quantreg package. We used dummy coding of landscapes to enable herbivore density to have possibly different nonlinear functional relationships with the same covariate in different landscapes in the same model. We used a stepwise elimination procedure to select covariates with the greatest strength of support in the data based on the corrected Akaike Information Criterion (AICc) (Burnham and Anderson 2002) and choose between the NDVI components. Specifically, we selected the best supported NDVI component from the current (annual, wet, dry, wet + dry) and lagged (annual1, wet1, dry1 and wet1+dry1) components, separately for each species (Table 6.2). We related density separately to the best selected NDVI component and each of the other covariates using semiparametric models and AICc to tune the smoothing parameter (λ) for each covariate. The variable with the smallest AICc was taken as the initial best model in the model selection process and added to the covariate with the next smallest AICc. On the contrary, if the AICc for the new model reduced compared to that for the initial model then the new covariate was retained in the model. Otherwise, if the AICc for the new model increased relative to the initial model then we removed the new covariate from the model and added the covariate with the second smallest AICc. We continued this way until we had considered all the covariates (Table S1), ending with a multivariate semiparametric regression model for each species. We used the optimize R function in the quantreg package to fine-tune the smoothing parameter (λ), which determines the degree of smoothness of the fitted function for each covariate, for functions with a single λ, and the simulated annealing option of optimize for functions with multiple λs (Koenker, 2005). We then plotted and visually inspected shapes of the functions fitted to each covariate for ecological plausibility.There were marked temporal variations in the locations and extents of herbivore hotspots in the reserve, the inner and outer ranches over the survey period (Fig. 6.2).Livestock were abundant and their distribution expanded over time in the ranches in both seasons (Fig 6 .2A). Livestock incursions into the reserve also increased over time, with distinctively more livestock using the reserve in the 2000s than in the 1970s. Among small herbivores Thomson's and Grant's gazelles concentrated in the outer ranches and in the central plains of the inner ranches (mainly Koyiaki and Olkinyei ranches) and the reserve (Figs 6.2B and D). The distribution of hotspots of both gazelles contracted markedly during 1977-2010 especially in the ranches. Impala, hotspots concentrated in a band oriented southeast-northwest in the inner ranches but a sizable number also occurred in the reserve (Fig. 6.2C). Topi concentrated in the high rainfall western and northwestern parts of the inner ranches and in the reserve but avoided the outer ranches. Topi hotspots decreased strongly during the 1990s and 2000s in both the reserve and the inner ranches (Fig. 6.2E). Hartebeest hotspots occurred in similar locations and decreased sharply as did those of topi but their distribution in the reserve and the inner ranches also evidently fragmented during the 1990s and 2000s (Fig. 6.2F). Wildebeest and zebra hotspots concentrated in the reserve and inner ranches in the dry season, reflecting the combined presence of migrants from the Serengeti and Loita Plains but in the outer ranches in the wet season, following the return of the Loita migrants (Figs 6.2G &H). The declines in wildebeest and zebra hotspots in the reserve and ranches during the   1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s for A) Livestock, B) Thomson's gazelle C) impala, D) Grant's gazelle, E) topi, F) hartebeest, G) wildebeest, H) zebra, I) buffalo, J) giraffe and K) elephant. The grayscale shows densities falling within the 0-25 th (lightest cells), 26-50 th , 51-75 th and >75 th (darkest cells) quantiles of the frequency distribution of mean grid cell densities computed over all surveys  and all grid cells occupied by each species in each land use type. 1990s and 2000s coincided with a reduction in the numbers of both the Serengeti migrants reaching the Mara and the resident herds (Figs 6.2G-H). Wildebeest and zebra hotspots increased in the reserve and the inner ranches in the wet season over time, reflecting progressive exclusion from the outer ranches by changing land use (Ogutu et al. 2011). Buffalo hotspots were concentrated in the high rainfall western and northwestern parts of the reserve and inner ranches during the 1970s and 1980s but decreased sharply in the 1990s and 2000s, during which time they occurred almost exclusively in the reserve, suggesting exclusion from the ranches by livestock (Fig. 6.2I). Giraffe hotspots concentrated in the reserve and the inner ranches in the 1970s and 1980s but declined during the 1990s and 2000s, when most hotspots occurred in the inner ranches, a few in the reserve and very few in the outer ranches (Fig. 6.2J). Finally, elephant hotspots occurred almost exclusively inside the reserve throughout the monitoring period but, starting in the 1980s, elephants expanded their range into the inner ranches (Fig. 6.2K).During the wet season in the reserve, hotspots of the small and medium herbivores were influenced similarly by variation in almost all the environmental and anthropogenic variables considered, with only two species showing minor deviations from this general pattern. Specifically, hotspots of two species of the small (Thomson's gazelle, impala) and three of the medium (topi, wildebeest and zebra) herbivores occurred in areas of low NDVI, topographic wetness (except for wildebeest) and human population density, but farther from rivers (except for zebra) and at intermediate (Thomson's gazelle, impala and topi, Figs 6.3A, S1a and 3b) or low (wildebeest, Fig S1d) levels of livestock density, or were unresponsive to livestock (zebra, Fig. 6.3C). Hotspots of Grant's gazelle and hartebeest (Figs S1b and c) showed the same patterns but were unrelated to both NDVI and livestock density (Table S1).In sharp contrast to the patterns observed in the reserve, hotspots of the small and medium herbivores peaked in greener and wetter (except for wildebeest) localities situated closer to rivers (except for zebra) in the ranches. The hotspots were also concentrated distant from areas of high human population density and having low (wildebeest, Fig. S1d) to intermediate (Thomson's gazelle and impala, Figs 6.3A and S1a) livestock densities. Only hotspots of Grant's gazelle and hartebeest were unrelated to NDVI (Table S1), and together with those of zebra, to livestock density as well (Table S1). Additionally, impala hotspots were little affected by variation in NDVI (Fig. S1a) whereas topi hotspots were unrelated to all the predictor variables in the outer ranches (Fig. 6.3B).  Unlike those of the small and medium herbivores, hotspots of the large herbivores were responsive to variation in fewer environmental and anthropogenic variables and the responses were more differentiated among species. Inside the reserve, the distributions of hotspots of the large herbivores peaked in the following three types of areas.(1) Areas of high NDVI values (buffalo, Fig. S1e). ( 2) Close to rivers and in areas of low human population density (giraffe, Fig. S1f). ( 3) Areas of low topographic wetness (hill tops and ridge tops), located at intermediate distances from rivers and areas of low human population density (elephant, Fig. S1g). In the ranches, other than giraffe hotspots that concentrated close to rivers and in areas of low human population density (Fig. S1f), similarly to the reserve, hotspots of the large herbivores were unresponsive to all the predictors (Table S1), partly reflecting the very low numbers of buffalo and elephant in the ranches. The pattern of distribution of hotspots of small herbivores in the reserve in the dry season was remarkably similar to that for the wet season except for two minor differences.(1) Thomson's gazelle and impala concentrated in areas of medium livestock density in the wet season but avoided livestock in the dry season in all landscapes (Figs 6.4A and S2a). ( 2) Grant's gazelle occurred in areas of high NDVI in the dry season (Fig. S2b) but was insensitive to NDVI in the wet season. In contrast to the wet season, the medium herbivores concentrated in greener (except topi and hartebeest that were insensitive to NDVI, Table S1) and wetter areas, closer to rivers (topi and hartebeest) and at intermediate distances from rivers (zebra) in the dry (Figs 6.4B and C and S2c) than in the wet season. Otherwise, small and medium herbivores avoided areas of dense human concentrations and were little affected by livestock density, similarly to the wet season. Wildebeest deviated from this general pattern as their hotspots were more evenly spread with respect to distance to rivers, topographic wetness and human presence in the dry (Fig. S2d) than in the wet season.A part from concentrating in areas with lower livestock densities in the dry season or being insensitive to livestock (Grant's gazelle), the distributions of hotspots of all the three small herbivores in the ranches were similar to those for the wet season (Figs 6.4A, S2a and b). The medium herbivores also displayed contrasting distribution patterns between seasons in the ranches, with notable differences between the two seasons being the concentration of their hotspots in drier areas located farther from rivers and characterized by lower NDVI (especially for zebra and wildebeest) (Figs 6.4B,C and S2c and d).The distribution of hotspots of large herbivores in the dry season in the reserve was also largely similar to that for the wet season except that (1) giraffe became more evenly distributed relative to human presence (Fig. S2f) and ( 2) elephant moved to wetter areas and closer to rivers (Fig. S2g). An even greater similarity between seasons was evident in the distributions of the large herbivores in the ranches (Figs S2e and g). The only minor difference between patterns for the two seasons was shown by giraffe that avoided locations of dense human presence in the wet season but were evenly distributed relative to human population density in the in dry season in the ranches (Fig. S1f).Large herbivore hotspots 131  3) The medium herbivores (topi, zebra and wildebeest) move seasonally between the reserve and the ranches and tend to concentrate in the reserve in the dry season but in the ranches in the wet season. 4) Large herbivores (buffalo, elephant) concentrate in the reserve throughout the year, except for giraffe. 5) Hotspots of medium and large herbivores decreased sharply, in particular during the 1990s and 2000s, implicating intensifying land use change and progressive exclusion by changing land use from the ranches. 6) Finally, hotspots of species belonging to different size classes occur at the boundary between the protected reserve and the adjoining pastoral ranches, a place where wildlife presumably benefit from greater safety because predators avoid humans just outside the reserve, experience less competition from livestock, or are facilitated by livestock grazing, consistent with the observations of Ogutu et al. (2011). These patterns are concordant with ecological theory predicting that herbivores should occupy and persist in the best locations in the landscape to optimize their fitness by maximizing their access to resources, while minimizing exposure to risks (Jarman 1974, Sinclair and Arcese 1995a, Olff et al. 2002, Hopcraft 2010).The influences of seasonal variations in the environmental and anthropogenic correlates of herbivore hotspots reflected differences in herbivore body sizes and feeding styles. In general, predation risk is tightly linked to body size and vegetation height and cover in savannas (Hopcraft et al. 2005, Riginos andGrace 2008). Consequently, small herbivores seek areas that are relatively free from predators in the ranches because they are more susceptible to predation due to their small sizes (Sinclair et al. 2003). Large herbivores that are less vulnerable to predation and so are able to \"risk\" being in areas of relatively high predation risk (Owen-Smith 1988), and are the most likely to engender conflicts with humans, cluster in the reserve instead. Furthermore, by concentrating in the ranches, small and medium herbivores presumably not only incur less predation but also satisfy their high-quality forage requirements by feeding on short, nutritious grasses maintained by livestock, while large herbivores similarly fulfill their high biomass needs by feeding on tall grasses in the reserve (Jarman 1974, Sensenig et al. 2010). The observed seasonal distributions of hotspots in the Mara therefore support the argument that most African parks, including the MMNR, are not sufficiently large to satisfy the year-round requirements of their full complement of wild herbivore populations as they encompass mostly the dry season concentration areas (Fynn and Bonyongo 2010). By moving to the protected area (less accessible for livestock), when food availability becomes limiting, they limit strong competition with livestock in the dry season. In the wet season, in absolute contrast, wild herbivores disperse from the protected areas to their adjoining landscapes, often consisting of short-grass plains maintained by livestock grazing, and thereby benefit from facilitation by livestock.In the wet season small and medium herbivores avoided areas of high NDVI, close to rivers and wetter areas in the reserve. These areas are likely associated with poor-quality, tall grasses (Boutton et al. 1988;Georgiadis and McNaughton 1990), river banks and wet and sticky soils (Talbot and Talbot 1963) and have elevated risks of predation due to dense vegetation cover (Hopcraft et al. 2005). Instead, they concentrated in areas of low NDVI values inside the reserve, away from rivers and in drier localities. This suggests that they select these areas because the areas are either highly productive or support high-quality forage but have low NDVI signals due to intensive grazing, or have lower predation risk due to short grasses, or both. These patterns are consistent with H1a and H3a.In the ranches, in sharp contrast to the reserve, small and medium herbivores concentrated in areas of high NDVI, except topi that remained unresponsive in the outer ranches, likely due to their low numbers. These areas likely have forage of high nutritional quality and digestibility and lower predation risk due to high visibility associated with grasses maintained by livestock grazing (Fryxell 1995). The concentration of herbivores closer to rivers in the ranches than in the reserve likely reflects the lower predator densities than in the reserve (Ogutu et al. 2005). Furthermore, these patterns suggest exclusion from the short grass plains distant from rivers, or attraction to short grasses and better visibility conditions created by heavy livestock grazing near rivers in the ranches. The concentration of herbivores in areas of high soil moisture content in the ranches is surprising as these areas are expected to have high predation risk and low food quality (Anderson et al. 2010). This distribution likely reflects both displacement from the drier, open short grass plains and facilitation by livestock grazing along rivers in the dry season, which keeps grasses short and nutritious and enhances visibility in the wet season as predicted by H3b. These observations provide indirect evidence that vegetation quality and height as well as predation risk associated with vegetation structure (Hopcraft et al. 2005, Anderson et al. 2010) jointly determine the location of hotspots of the small and medium herbivores.Both buffalo and elephant are less susceptible to predation (Sinclair et al. 2003) and are more strongly dependent on bulk grass intake because of their large body sizes. This likely explains why both species concentrated in the reserve in the wet season where vegetation was most abundant. However, both species were unresponsive to all the predictors in the ranches. This partly reflects the low numbers of buffalo and elephant in the ranches due to strong exclusion by livestock, people and settlements. Giraffe are almost exclusively browsers and favour trees (Owen -Smith, 1988), suffer relatively little from predation (Sinclair et al. 2003) and therefore, concentrated close to rivers in both landscapes. However, giraffe were more common close to rivers in the pastoral ranches. The ranches support 11-12% woody cover and the reserve 4% as measured by (Ogutu et al. 2005) indicating greater forage availability for giraffe. As a result, the future population viabilities of buffalo and elephant are the most strongly dependent on protection of the 10 species given the ongoing dramatic land-use changes and human population growth in the Mara ranches (H5).Our results show that small and medium herbivores concentrate in the humandominated ranches in the wet season but in the protected area in the dry season. So, why do the small and medium herbivores move seasonally between the protected reserve and the adjoining ranches? The results suggest that large herbivores, including livestock, play an important facilitative role in the dispersal of small and medium herbivores from protected areas to neighbouring pastoral lands in the wet season. In particular, large herbivore grazing creates short, high-quality grass favoured by the small and medium herbivores (Cromsigt and Olff 2006). The facilitative function of livestock in the ranches is apparently not being accomplished by the large, resident herbivores inside the reserve in the wet season as would be expected from ecological theory. One likely explanation for this failure relates to the migration of vast herds of wildebeest and zebra in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem. These migrants indirectly contribute to the seasonal dispersal movements of the small and medium grazers from the reserve to the pastoral lands by competing with and hence keeping populations of the large resident grazers too low to maintain the grass sufficiently short for the small and medium herbivores in the reserve in the late wet and dry seasons. It follows that seasonal dispersal movements of the small and medium herbivores to the pastoral lands partly portrays an inability of the resident ungulate assemblage to create and maintain short grass lawns favoured by the small and medium herbivores inside the protected areas. Accentuating the competition between the large resident grazers and the enormous herds of migratory herbivores are the large and growing herds of livestock grazing in the Mara reserve in the dry season. This is corroborated by the observation that savanna ecosystems without large-scale migrations, such as the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in South Africa, are dominated by high densities of large, resident herbivores such as buffalo and white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) (Fynn & Bonyongo, 2010). So, while it is likely true that migratory herbivores and livestock jointly facilitate the resident small and medium ungulates by removing most of the dry, rank vegetation in the dry season, they probably also force them to spend more time in the ranches in the wet season than they would otherwise. They do this not only indirectly by keeping numbers of the large resident grazers low, but also directly by keeping numbers of the small and medium grazers far below the level at which they themselves would be able to keep the grass low enough to satisfy their needs all yearround due to competition for food in the dry season with the migrants. From this perspective livestock facilitate the small and medium herbivores in the ranches in the wet season but also contribute to creating and maintaining the conditions that make such movements possible in the first place.Protected reserves still provide relatively intact dry-season refuges for seasonal movements of both migratory and resident wildlife populations (Fynn & Bonyongo, 2010). During the dry season, forage quality and surface water as well as quality is reduced throughout the region, but is higher inside the reserve compared to the ranches (Reid et al. 2003;Ogutu et al. 2005). Therefore, it can be expected that resident herbivores should occur in areas where forage and water availability are higher than average (H2a and H4a). In contrast to these expectations the small herbivores (Thomson's gazelle and impala) concentrated in areas of low NDVI values, farther from rivers and in drier areas inside the reserve. However, Grant's gazelle occurred in areas of high NDVI in the reserve but concentrated farther from rivers and in drier areas. This is in contrast to observations made in the Serengeti, where Grant's gazelle usually concentrate in the short grass plains (Sinclair 1979). A likely explanation for this is that Grant's gazelle feed on forbs and shrub foliage besides grasses in the dry season (Georgiadis et al. 2007b); hence they select areas of high NDVI but are sensitive to potentially risky areas inside the reserve because of their small size. Over all, these patterns suggests that the small herbivores are facilitated by or compete less with the migratory herds for resources, presumably because they can forage in low biomass patches due to their mouth morphology and digestive physiology specialized for selecting high-quality components of vegetation in-between the low-quality dry vegetation (Wilmshurst et al. 1999).Unlike those for small herbivores, hotspots of medium herbivores were more differentiated among species. The lack of correlation between hotspots of both topi and hartebeest with NDVI, suggests feeding on short and dry grasses that are not reflected by NDVI, or displacement from open habitats by migrants. However, wildebeest and zebra select areas of high NDVI in the dry season, suggesting that the out-migration of wildebeest and zebra from the Loita plains to the reserve (Serneels and Lambin 2001) enables them to access abundant forage, thus supporting (H2a).The utilization of areas close to rivers by these herbivores and attraction to wetter areas, except for wildebeest, provides evidence for displacement by the migratory herds from their preferred open grassland habitats (Sinclair, 1979). However, since migrants absorb most predation pressure on resident ungulates when they are present in the reserve (Saba 1979) topi, hartebeest and zebra can concentrate in areas often associated with high predation risk (H4a). Wildebeest hotspots were widely distributed but were uncorrelated with distance to rivers or TWI, reflecting the ubiquitous distribution of wildebeest across the reserve.In the ranches, the concentration of small herbivores, in areas of both high NDVI, and soil moisture content that typically neighbour streams, rivers and water points is surprising. Such areas often support high-quality forage in the dry season due to retention of green leaves by grasses for longer periods because of higher soil moisture (shallow ground water tables) and protection of grass leaves from direct sunlight by riverine woodlands fringing streams and rivers (Treydte et al. 2008, Anderson et al. 2010). As a result, Masai herders graze their livestock in riverine woodlands in the pastoral ranches of the Mara (Reid et al. 2008;Butt et al. 2009). These areas may thus contain short grasses and have enhanced visibility through livestock grazing and trampling. Furthermore, large predators are far fewer in the ranches than in the reserve (Ogutu et al. 2005). As a result of the better visibility and lower predation risk near riverine woodlands in the ranches than in the reserve, small herbivores, requiring high-quality forage because of their small body size used areas of high soil moisture content. Hence small grazers forage in areas where intense livestock grazing in the dry season keeps grasses short and visibility high in the wet season. Their specialized feeding strategies enable small herbivores to select high-quality components of short grass (Wilmshurst, Fryxell & Colucci, 1999), thereby reducing competition with livestock, contrary to H2b and H4b.However, the medium herbivores (topi, hartebeest and zebra) concentrated far from rivers and in drier areas in the ranches, indicating avoidance of livestock, or heavy grazing near rivers in the ranches, consistent with H4b. The absence of any relationship between hotspots of hartebeest and topi and NDVI also likely indicates their displacement from preferred greener areas in the ranches. Similarly, competition with livestock in productive areas (Odadi et al. 2011) probably force both wildebeest and zebra to occupy less productive areas, farther from rivers in the ranches, as predicted by H2b. The weak correlation between wildebeest hotspots and distance to rivers or wetter areas in the dry season similarly indicates displacement by livestock from suitable areas (H2b).Among the large herbivores, buffalo concentrate in areas of high vegetation biomass in the reserve, as expected by their bulk feeding style, but not in the ranches where they compete with livestock (Georgiadis et al. 2007b). Giraffe and elephant, both of which browse on woody plants, showed no relationship with NDVI but concentrated in riparian woodlands in the reserve, especially in the dry season, similar to patterns observed elsewhere in African savannas (Owen-Smith, 1988). The concentration of giraffe close to rivers in the ranches despite the Masai pastoralists also herding their livestock there in the dry season reflects the lack of competition between giraffe and livestock. Even though most giraffe hotspots occurred closest to rivers, they showed no relationship to soil moisture in the dry season. The lack of any relationship between buffalo and elephant and any of the predictors partly reflects their low densities in the ranches. This supports the hypothesis that the presence of livestock and humans should more strongly displace large herbivores from the pastoral ranches (H5).Livestock apparently facilitated some wildlife species as indicated by the peaking in hotspots of Thomson's gazelle, impala and topi in areas moderately grazed by livestock in the reserve in the wet season. The concentration of hotspots of Thomson's gazelle and impala at intermediate levels of livestock density in the ranches indicates facilitative effects of livestock grazing, which stimulates forage growth, enhances forage quality, keeps grass short, increases visibility and reduces predation risk, especially in the wet season (Augustine et al. 2011). Similar facilitative effects operate on the reserve edges frequented by livestock, creating conditions similar to those found in the ranches. The decline in Thomson's gazelle, impala and wildebeest densities with increasing livestock density in all landscapes in the dry season indicates negative interactions with livestock, as predicted by H5. Besides the direct negative effects captured by livestock such as displacement of large herbivores, livestock also had indirect negative influences on the location of wildlife hotspots through their intense grazing and trampling on vegetation, leading to competitive exclusion of species requiring tall grasses such as buffalo, topi hartebeest and elephant. The observation that livestock can both facilitate and compete with wildlife depending on season has also recently been reported by Odadi et al.(2011).The concentration of all wild herbivores declined sharply and consistently in areas with high human population density, irrespective of land use type, body size or feeding style of herbivores, consistent with H5. This is particularly noteworthy because rapid human population growth in the Mara and the associated expansion of settlements (Lamprey and Reid 2004), sedentarization of Masai pastoralists from a formerly nomadic pastoral lifestyle, intensification of land use and diversification of livelihood options in recent decades (Homewood et al. 2001, Ogutu et al. 2011) are progressively impairing the ability of this ecosystem to support its full complement of wildlife populations. This pattern is widespread and similar developments have been documented for other East African ecosystems such as Kenya's Amboseli (Western et al. 2009) and Tanzania's Tarangire-Simanjiro (Msoffe et al. 2010).In response to the changes occurring in the Kenya pastoral ranches, wildlife conservancies have recently been formed, for example in the Mara ranches, as part of new initiatives aimed at enhancing wildlife conservation and improving livelihoods of pastoralists through partnerships in which private investors in tourism pay land rents to landowners for voluntarily vacating their land for wildlife conservation (Norton-Griffiths et al. 2008). Our analytical approach may be used to assess the extent to which these conservancies are beneficial for wildlife by comparing changes in wildlife densities in grid cells located within the conservancies before and after their formation against contemporaneous changes in similar grid cells located deep within neighbouring protected reserves as benchmarks. This approach can also be more broadly applied to study spatio-temporal changes in herbivore hotspots in other systems. Finally, these results reveal how competition with and facilitation by livestock, predation risk, forage quantity and quality and water interact with life history traits, seasons and land use in shaping dynamics of herbivore hotspots in savannas. With limited resources for conservation, it is necessary to identify the conditions required for maintaining diverse assemblages of plants and wildlife. The disruption of the wide-ranging movements of wildlife resulting in rapid population declines by cultivation of large tracts of grazing land adjacent to core protected areas, rapid human population growth, expanding human settlements, fencing and other land use transformations makes this particularly urgent (Ottichilo et al. 2001, Owen-Smith and Mills 2006, Ogutu et al. 2009, Western et al. 2009 ). This research suggests three important characteristics that influence the vulnerability of a protected area to land use intensification. First, the size, heterogeneity and productivity of a protected area. Second, the proximity of a protected area to human population, specifically in areas of intense land use in critical portions of ecosystems. Third, the lack of incentives or resources to conserve wildlife outside of protected areas. Understanding how these factors affect wildlife species richness, abundance, demography and persistence is essential to identifying protected areas most at risk due to land use changes and developing appropriate conservation and management for them. The size of an area is widely recognized as a primary determinant of species richness (Preston 1960, Simberloff 1976, Rosenzweig 1995). The main mechanism thought to drive species richness in an area is the balance between colonization and extinction processes, such that the greater the size of an area, the greater is the likelihood that individual species will persist in them and support large populations which tend to have smaller risks of extinction (Berger 1990, Pimm 1991). Furthermore larger areas are more likely to support more diverse habitat types or contain more energy in terms of vegetation productivity (Currie and Paquin 1987, Kerr and Packer 1997, Ricklefs and Lovette 1999). This makes it difficult to distinguish between the direct and indirect effects of area on species richness (Hart and Horwitz 1991). Thus, the key to assessing the vulnerability of a protected area is to evaluate not just its absolute size, but its size relative to its heterogeneity and productivity (Hansen and DeFries 2007).In addition to considering how variation in heterogeneity and productivity within a protected area influences its vulnerability to conservation threats (Chapter 2), the intensity and type of land use and conservation incentives in surrounding landscapes must be considered when developing conservation strategies (Chapters 4-6). It is likely that protected areas surrounded by intense land use activities, such as intensive livestock grazing, cultivation, expanding settlements and development, are more vulnerable than those situated in topographically complex areas with little human influence. Intensively managed landscapes become increasingly homogenized and fragmented, resulting in a rapid decrease in their effective sizes, making wild populations increasingly vulnerable to extinction, whereas areas consisting of high habitat heterogeneity are more buffered from human influence and climate change. Protected areas located where communities rely on bushmeat, forest products or poaching are also likely to be more vulnerable (Hansen and DeFries 2007). Animals that require specific 'key resources', such as specific dry-or wet-season habitats, often lie outside the boundaries of protected areas (Illius and O'Connor 2000, DeFries et al. 2007, Hansen and DeFries 2007, Coughenour 2008), making animal communities within protected areas more vulnerable to land use change. Where communities surrounding protected areas receive no benefits from the protected areas they will tend to value these areas less are more likely to degrade them. However, communities that benefit from wildlife conservation through enterprises such as wildlife conservancies or ecotourism are more likely to protect wildlife and their habitats. Therefore, there is a pressing need to evaluate the intensity of land use changes outside protected areas as a basis for designing effective strategies to mitigate the effects of anthropogenic activities on wildlife populations.In this thesis I evaluated the relative importance of area per se, habitat heterogeneity and productivity on mammalian richness within 300 protected areas across Africa (Chapter 2). This chapter attempts to elucidate how the species-area relationship is generated by exploring its underlying processes. Using data from a well-studied savanna ecosystem in East Africa, I investigated the processes structuring community assembly of woodland vegetation (Chapter 3) and the influence of cultivation, pastoralism and protection on the abundance of carnivores (Chapter 4) and the density, demography and persistence of herbivores (Chapter 5 & 6) in the Maasai Mara National Reserve of Kenya and its surrounding rangelands. It is important to recognize that protected areas are often parts of larger ecosystems. Thus, in addition to understanding the conditions necessary to maintain species assemblages inside protected areas, we need to understand both the proximal ecological factors, such as variation in resources, competition, facilitation and predation, and the effects of land use change on plant and animal communities. It is only after this that we can begin to develop appropriate conservation strategies.In this chapter, I first discuss a) species-area relationships at the continental scale (Chapter 2). This sets the framework to discuss b) the ecological importance of critical habitats outside protected areas in shaping wildlife density, demography and distribution at ecosystem scales (Chapter 4, 5 & 6). Next, I discuss c) the influence of land use and climate change, on wildlife populations when their movements get increasingly obstructed, and finally I discuss d) the implications of this study for wildlife conservation and management and highlight some conservation and management steps that are being undertaken to counter these effects, including expanding parks, establishing conservancies and promoting land leases.In Chapter 2, I first show the distribution of primate, ungulate (Artiodactyla), and carnivore (Carnivora) richness within protected areas across Africa, with primates concentrated in the more productive areas of Central Africa whereas ungulates and carnivores concentrated in the more heterogeneous areas around the Great Rift Valley in Eastern Africa. More importantly, I show that, although area does correlate signifi-cantly with species richness for all the three taxa, namely primates, ungulates and carnivores (correlation coefficients of 0.18, 0.26, 0.14, respectively, with P < 0.05 for each coefficient), the size of an area becomes insignificant after factoring out the effect of landscape heterogeneity and productivity. This demonstrates a fundamental link between habitat heterogeneity and productivity rather than area per se in structuring mixed assemblages of wildlife in African protected areas, consistent with those of (Báldi) 2008 who similarly showed a general lack of fit for the species-area relationship. In the next section I critically evaluate several possible explanations of why I found no significant area effect after accounting for heterogeneity/productivity.Why was there no significant area effect after accounting for heterogeneity/productivity?The insignificant effect of area on the functioning of protected areas at the continental scale in Africa after accounting for heterogeneity/productivity is surprising and could be due to several reasons. According to the island biogeographic theory (MacArthur and Wilson 1967) large reserves or parks are better able to maintain large populations and high diversity of wildlife species. The findings in Chapter 2 imply that the effects of habitat heterogeneity and productivity (Wright 1983) override that of area if habitat heterogeneity/productivity are uncorrelated with reserve area. However, the fact that heterogeneity/productivity explain only part of the variation in species richness patterns across Africa, suggests the involvement of other factors not considered in our study. Such factors would be necessary to explain why some large parks, including the Kruger National Park (19,485 km 2 , wildlife biomass = 3185 kg/km 2 ), have experienced significant losses of wildlife (Simberloff 1976) whereas relatively much smaller but heterogeneous parks, such as the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (HiP) (900 km 2 , wildlife biomass= 8949 kg/km 2 ) also in South Africa like Kruger, have maintained diverse and abundant wildlife species (Fynn and Bonyongo 2010). Hence differences in species loses between parks, such as that between Kruger and Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, likely reflect differences in management regimes and not merely reserve size alone (Chapter 2). Under similar management regimes as assumed by the theory of island biogeography, we would expect to find a significant species-area relationship. The absence of such a relationship in our data therefore partly reflects differences in management regimes between reserves.Besides differences in management regimes, the scale at which organisms perceive resources in their environment may also partly account for the weak species-area relationship we found. Large-bodied organisms perceive their habitats at larger spatial scales and are primarily influenced by such macro-scale factors as geology, topography and regional climate ( (Anderson et al. 2008{Holling, 1992#944{Olff, 1998 #898)}}). In contrast, small-bodied organisms perceive their habitats at small spatial scales and are more influenced by micro-scale grass/tree mosaics, soil catenas and microclimate (Anderson et al. 2008). Hence, considering all species regardless of functional differences, would mask the interaction expected between heterogeneity/productivity and area due to differences in life-history traits such as body size (Chapter 2). Furthermore, by using a 'snapshot' of data, this analysis ignored population dynamics which may influence the rates of extinction and migration between protected areas and result in a weak species-area relationship. Notably, many of the protected areas are intensively managed and translocations from large \"source\" to smaller \"sink\" parks could result in the rescue of populations on the verge of local extinction further obscuring the relationship between area and richness.Nevertheless, the insignificance of the species-area relationship after accounting for heterogeneity and productivity does not necessarily imply that area per se is not important. Large parks are essential not only for hosting (large) source populations for small areas but also for ensuring long-term viability of wide-ranging species. The findings in Chapter 2 suggest that protected areas of all sizes should contain sufficiently high heterogeneity and/or productivity. While there is little doubt that richness and diversity in an area is a consequence of immigration and extinction processes, heterogeneity and productivity over-ride the influence of area on species richness at the continental-scale. However, proximal ecological factors such as trophic interactions and processes such as facilitation (Arsenault and Owen-Smith 2002), competition (Sinclair 1985), predation pressure (Sinclair et al. 2003) or resource perception (Ritchie and Olff 1999), as well as human interference, (Sinclair et al. 2008a) also influence the density, demography and persistence of carnivores and ungulates at ecosystem scales.Why are dispersal areas necessary to complement the functioning of protected areas?In this section, I discuss b) the importance of areas surrounding protected areas and the proximal ecological factors that influence distribution of mammalian communities. It is clear from the evidence provided in Chapters 4 and 5, that protected areas often exclude a portion of the area that is needed to maintain populations of wildlife. Protected area boundaries were not established with animal movement / dispersal in mind. Accordingly, it is vital to retroactively protect these areas to prevent populations declines.Protected areas are not only often located in relatively more topographically complex areas, but also in less fertile portions of the ecosystems (Scott et al. 2001), while, the fertile areas are often used for livestock grazing and agriculture (Serneels et al. 2001, Thompson andHomewood 2002). Nevertheless, these fertile plains are also often utilized by large mammals with home ranges extending beyond the boundaries of national parks and reserves (Newmark 1995). For example, the high-rainfall (800 mm) Nairobi National Park in Kenya forms the dry season range and the low-rainfall (500) mm) grasslands of the unprotected Athi-Kaputiei Plains the wet season range for ungulate migrations (Norton-Griffiths 1977). Tarangire National Park (TNP), lying in the Maasai steppe in northern Tanzania, forms the dry season concentration area for wild ungulates which disperse into the surrounding Maasai steppe during the wet season (Kahurananga andSilkiluwasha 1997, Morrison andBolger 2012). Similar seasonal movements have been observed in the Kgalagadi ecosystem in Botswana, Etosha National Park and several other African conservation areas (Fynn and Bonyongo 2010). Thus, it is clear, that protected areas often exclude a portion of the area that is needed to maintain populations of wildlife.Often the unprotected portions of ecosystems contain one of these two crucial habitats for wild herbivores that reside within the protected areas for part of the year. As discussed in Chapter 4, the wet season range often occurs at the lower end of the rainfall gradient, typically serve as a breeding ground and consists of short, nutritious grasses with high concentrations of protein and minerals in the late wet season (McNaughton andBanyikwa 1995, Murray 1995). By contrast, the dry season range for wildlife often occurs at the high end of the rainfall gradient with dependable green grass in the late dry season and more often than not do not contain breeding grounds for wildlife (Fynn & Bonyongo, 2010). The dry-season range provides buffer resources for wildlife, particularly during droughts. Often the protected areas contain the dry season concentration areas, and exclude the wet season habitats for wild herbivores residing in the protected areas (Bolger et al. 2008, Fynn andBonyongo 2010).In Chapter 6 I show that the influences of seasonal variation in forage availability, quality and anthropogenic factors directly determine the distribution and density of wildlife and are reflected through differences in body sizes and feeding guild. In Chapter 4 and 5, I show that during the wet season in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, grass height is tall and therefore inherently risky because the tall grass provides cover for predators (Hopcraft et al. 2005). Chapters 5 and 6 show that both small and medium-sized herbivores (Thomson's gazelle, impala) were more abundant in the ranches than in the reserve. These results suggest that small and medium herbivores tend to prefer short grass areas (Fryxell 1991, Illius andGordon 1992) found in the ranches due to repeated livestock grazing. This is supported by evidence from several studies showing that repeated grazing increases the crude protein production of grasses, enabling the small grazers to derive sufficient energy by selecting highquality forage from the low-biomass areas (Fryxell et al. 2005). Reduced predation risk as a result of lower vegetation cover on the ranches as shown in Chapter 5 is yet another advantage of concentrating in the short grass plains, since tall grasses conceal ambush predators and significantly increase their efficiency at catching prey animals (Hopcraft et al. 2005). As a result the combined effect of high predation and lowquality grazing associated with tall grass lead to a higher wild prey biomass density in the ranches than in the reserve. These results accord with the findings of Hopcraft et al. (2012). In contrast, larger-bodied herbivores (buffalo, elephant), requiring bulk forage but less susceptible to predation, are more abundant in the reserve than the ranches. Although, these patterns of wildlife distribution during the wet season are remarkably similar to those in the dry season for the small and large sized herbivores (Chapter 6), the presence of the migrants consisting of 1.3 million wildebeest, 0.2 million zebra, and 0.45 million gazelle, modifies the distribution of medium-sized resident herbivores (Sinclair et al. 2008b).As mentioned in the Chapter 1, the wildebeest and zebra concentrate on the southern grasslands of the Serengeti National Park during the wet season (December-May). In May or June they move northwest and concentrate in the northern woodlands of the Serengeti and MMNR during the dry season (August-November). During this season forage quantity, quality and surface water are reduced throughout the Mara region, but are higher inside the reserve than in the ranches (Chapter 4).From the distribution maps presented in Chapter 6, I show that medium-sized herbivores concentrate inside the protected area during the dry season. However, the concentration of zebra and wildebeest are located in greener areas whereas topi and hartebeest concentrate closer to rivers. Since such areas typically have higher predation risk this aggregation pattern suggests that by absorbing most of the predation pressure, migrant herbivores facilitate the resident herbivores. This conclusion is supported by evidence from (Arsenault andOwen-Smith 2002, Ogutu et al. 2008)who showed that predation on resident ungulates is highly reduced in the dry season when enormous herds of migratory ungulates are present in the Mara, meaning that an increase in numbers of migrants in the reserve would reduce predation on resident herbivores. Alternatively, I argue in Chapter 6 that the migrants may displace resident herbivores from preferred habitats forcing them to concentrate in areas potentially \"risky\" areas. The large herbivores (buffalo and elephant) remain inside the reserve, except for the browsing giraffe that concentrate in the ranches. Contrary to expectation, smaller-sized herbivores (both gazelles and impala), concentrate in the greener and wetter areas situated closer to rivers in the pastoral ranches suggesting that livestock grazing creates conditions that favour small herbivores, including high-quality short grasses and better visibility.Unfortunately, most conservation areas no longer allow ungulates access to all the critical seasonal foraging regions that they once utilized. Illegal livestock incursions, recurrent severe droughts (linked to stronger and more frequent El Niño events) and habitat desiccation (due to rising temperatures) accentuates the need for these movements. Yet intensification of land use, spreading settlements and sedentarization are inhibiting free movements resulting in extensive population declines in several protected areas (Newmark 2008, Ogutu et al. 2009).What are the influences of land use and climate change on herbivore populations when their movements get increasingly restricted?In this section, I use evidence provided in this thesis together with the well-documented historical changes in the Mara-Serengeti dating as far back as the 1800s (Sinclair and Norton-Griffiths 1979, Dublin 1991, Sinclair et al. 2008a) to interpret historical changes that have shaped the distribution patterns of herbivores today (Fig. 7.1). This may provide us with insights into the importance of the seasonal dispersal areas now compared to the past.About 300 years ago, pastoralism was dependent on grazing areas with strong seasonal livestock movements, suggesting that the ecosystem was primarily domi-nated by extensive grasslands (described in more detail in Chapter 1). The grasslands may have been partly developed through an increase in the frequency of burning (Olff and Hopcraft 2008). Fire suppresses the establishment of dense woody vegetation, consequently maintaining the system in a grassland state. Due to limited human activities, wildlife populations were widespread over entire landscapes. This implies that the smallest grazers, which are the most nutritionally constrained and prone to most and medium-sized herbivores (topi) by keeping the vegetation in a nutritious state and increasing visibility of predators. In the dry season migratory herds of wildebeest and zebra displaced large herbivores into the wet season range that consisted of low human population densities. Here, large herbivores facilitated small herbivores. However, after the rinderpest eradication (1960s) large herbivore populations were decimated due to poaching and subsequent droughts. At the same time the Mare reserve was established. As a result people and livestock increased in the adjacent areas. The large wild-herbivore population could no longer facilitate small herbivores forcing them to move into the human-dominated landscapes, where livestock maintained the grass in a short state. During the dry season, the extensive herds of migrants likely kept the resident populations low via interspecific competition (Sinclair 1985). The residents could not escape competition from the migrants by moving into the adjacent areas, because, livestock compete with resident wildlife.predators, could occur in areas of short grass and high visibility. Since livestock densities were likely lower than at present, it is likely that before the onset of the rinderpest (1890s), large herbivores such as buffalo, which are less susceptible to predation, as discussed in Chapters 5 & 6, were widely distributed and able to maintain the grass in a short and nutritious state, enabling both small and medium-sized herbivores to also persist on the landscapes. During the dry season, migratory herds from the Serengeti plains would concentrate in the core dry-season range (Stellfox et al. 1986). These vast herds likely competed with resident herbivores forcing them to disperse into the surrounding areas. Nevertheless, resident herbivores could still access abundant forage supply as a result of low livestock densities in the surrounding landscape.During the outbreak of the rinderpest pandemic, catastrophic losses of livestock, wildebeest and buffalo were evident. Rinderpest remained in the Serengeti region until the early 1960s (Talbot and Talbot 1963), when it disappeared from wildlife populations as a result of a cattle vaccination campaign (Sinclair 1977). After the eradication of the epidemic there was a marked increase in human and settlement numbers along the western boundaries of both the Serengeti National Park and Mara Reserve (Dublin 1991). The human population growth around the protected area forced large herbivores into the reserve, altering the state of the vegetation (Dublin and Douglas-Hamilton 1987). During the 1970s after the Kenya-Tanzania border was closed, severe poaching activities decimated the population of elephant and buffalo in Northern Serengeti. The Serengeti lost about 80% of their large-herbivore population, however, the Mara was little affected by poaching and the population remained stable. In 1993, a severe drought decimated the population of buffalo by almost 70%. Until today (2012), these numbers have not recovered (Ogutu et al. 2009(Ogutu et al. , 2011)). The inability of the buffalo population to recover suggests competitive displacement by livestock, possibly exacerbated by drought conditions when remaining forage became inadequate to support both bulk grazers with similar forage needs (Ogutu et al. 2011). Furthermore, heightened competition between resident grazers and the enormous herds of migratory herbivores in the Mara reserve in the dry season likely kept the numbers of other resident herbivores low (Sinclair 1985, 1995, Arsenault and Owen-Smith 2002). As human population growth and increasing settlement densities increasingly obstruct the seasonal movements of herbivores between inside and outside the protected areas, wildlife are increasing getting excluded from their wet season ranges.The dispersal movements of both small and medium herbivores (Thomson's and Grant's gazelles and topi) to the pastoral lands portray an inability of the fewer remaining large wild grazers (buffalo) to create and maintain short grass lawns favored by the small and medium herbivores inside the protected areas. Other ongoing processes such as illegal livestock incursions into the reserve and recurrent severe droughts and habitat desiccation due to rising temperature may accentuate the need for small and medium-sized herbivores to move into the human-dominated landscapes, yet intensification of land use, spreading settlements and sedentarization are restricting or excluding the resident herbivores from using their traditional dispersal ranges. Furthermore, herbivores that move into the human-dominated areas often experience high levels of poaching and human interference (Newmark 2008, Ogutu et al. 2009). So, although competition between resident grazers and migrants might limit recovery of resident populations to their former abundance levels, the fundamental cause of wildlife population declines seems to be the expanding human population in the ranches along with livestock influences spreading into the protected area (Ogutu et al. 2011).This study provides some new insights into the factors that influence the vulnerability of protected areas. Disentangling the relative contributions of reserve size, heterogeneity and productivity to the functioning of protected areas is an important milestone towards identifying suitable areas for their establishment. Furthermore, the proximity of protected areas to human populations and development makes them increasingly vulnerable to population declines. As protected areas become increasingly isolated from their surroundings, human population growth and development threaten the future survival of wildlife that depend on seasonal movements (Bolger et al. 2008, Newmark 2008). In environments with high seasonal variability in rainfall, such as savannas, protected areas are susceptible to unpredictable climatic extremes such as droughts and floods. Obstructions of wildlife movements by land use changes constrain their exploitation of their seasonal ranges located outside protected areas. Reduced flexibility and mobility due to progressive habitat loss in the Mara ranches thus amplifies the vulnerability of wildlife to recurrent climatic extremes, exacerbating population declines.As human activities increasingly insularize protected areas, conflicts between humans and wildlife, including carnivores, appear to be increasing in frequency and intensity in many areas (Woodroffe et al. 2005, Valeix et al. 2009). This is primarily because human population growth presents a significant threat to many wildlife species, including already threatened ones. Human-wildlife conflicts such as cropraiding (Sitati 2003, Valeix et al. 2009) or livestock depredation (Kolowski and Holekamp 2006), affect the responses of people leading to killing or harming both herbivores and carnivores. Research that advances our understanding of wildlife-livestock interactions is important to mitigate conflicts and conserve wildlife, yet most ecological research on herbivores has been conducted in areas without livestock (Graham et al. 2005). As a result, this research contributes towards enhancing our understanding of factors necessary to maintain rich assemblages of species inside protected areas as well as providing insights into why some herbivores engage in seasonal movements and the consequences of land use change on these movements.Although, the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem is an ideal case-study for assessing how changes in human and livestock-dominated systems influence wildlife in pastoral systems over time, very few studies have examined the direct and indirect effects of pastoralism on wildlife. For example, in Chapter 6 I suggest that resident herbivores may either be facilitated by or compete with the migrants during the dry season, whereas during the wet season livestock facilitates wildlife in the surrounding rangelands. It would be interesting to test the role of competition and facilitation via experiments, by comparing, for example, the body condition of these herbivores inside and outside the reserve during both the dry season and wet seasonsIn response to the changes occurring in the pastoral ranches, wildlife conservancies have recently been formed, for example in the Mara ranches, as part of new initiatives aimed at enhancing wildlife conservation and improving livelihoods of pastoralists through partnerships in which private investors rent large tracts of land for wildlife conservation (Norton-Griffiths et al. 2008). Furthermore, management should focus on maintaining effective ecosystem size, critical seasonal habitats and on reducing negative edge effects. Several larger-scale initiatives are underway such as in Namibia where 31 registered conservancies managing some 78,000 km 2 of communal land through eco-tourism and managed hunting have been established. Local communities are beginning to earn an income and see regular employment opportunities. Currently, there are another 40 areas emerging as conservancies, which will involve another additional 100,000 people across another 80,000 km 2 . It is estimated that in the future, one out of every nine Namibians will be a participant in the conservancy movement (WWF-LIFE, 1993). It will be a challenge to monitor the success of these conservancies. It would be interesting to apply the \"hotspot\" approach in Chapter 6 in the field to assess the extent to which these conservancies are benefitting wildlife by comparing changes in wildlife densities in areas located within the conservancies before and after their formation against contemporaneous changes in similar areas located within neighbouring protected reserves as benchmarks. reducing extinction chances. I test the relative importance of area, heterogeneity and productivity on species richness of large mammals. I Compile and analyse a database containing 300 protected areas from the World Database on Protected Areas, a total of 75 carnivores, 95 ungulates and 57 primates species from the African Mammal Databank and remotely sensed vegetation indices, habitat types and elevation. The results show that the role of area is mediated through variation in habitat heterogeneity for all taxa. Complementary to this, productivity determines species richness of primates. The relevance for conservation is that the protected areas should be located in either heterogeneous or productive locations that can potentially buffer them from increasing human pressure in unprotected parts of the ecosystem.Most protected areas in Africa lie within the savanna biome. They are home to an exceptionally high diversity and abundance of large mammalian herbivores. Rainfall is the primary climatic variable which influences the high spatial heterogeneity and productivity of savanna ecosystems, offering a diverse range of habitat types that support multiple assemblages of large mammal species. Of these habitat types, the closed thickets often consist of diverse and dense patches of woody species. These diverse woodlands represent important and reliable habitats for many large mammals, especially during dry periods. Thus, understanding the processes structuring these diverse vegetation communities in savanna systems is crucial to the conservation and management of savanna ecosystems. In Chapter 3, I use a long term dataset collected by the Masai Mara Ecological Monitoring Program over a 15-year period in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve to calculate measures of vegetation productivity, diversity, composition and stability to get an indication of whether the resulting patterns are most likely caused by (1) interspecific competitive interactions, (2) habitat filtering due to disturbances or stresses or (3) stochastic processes. The results from this study reveal that the savanna tree communities are not structured predominantly by competition, but rather by tolerance to stress and disturbances at in the drier areas and more complex interactions between species, including facilitation, that are more likely to operate at higher rainfall. A rising temperature trend, recurrent severe droughts and other environmental stresses increasingly threaten the survival prospects of these diverse woodland communities that support a highly diverse herbivore community.Rapid human population growth and the associated intensification and diversification of land use, increasing sedenterization, settlement density and habitat fragmentation in human-dominated pastoral lands of Africa threaten the long-term population viability of the natural prey base for carnivores. As a result, human-carnivore conflicts appear to be increasing and is now an urgent conservation issue. Human-carnivore conflicts typically occur when wild carnivores prey on livestock, and the people affected respond by killing or harming carnivores. Lion density in the Mara reserve is among the highest in African savannas, but is unusually low at the edge of the reserve adjoining the pastoral ranches. Therefore, in Chapter 4, our aim is to test if pastoralism and protection influence carnivore density, distribution and behavior given the human-predator conflicts. To test this we designed and implemented a playback survey to estimate the response probabilities of lions (Panthera leo), spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) and black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas) inside and outside the protected Masai Mara National Reserve.Our results reveal that lions did not respond to playback recordings in the pastoral areas. This can be explained in two different ways. Either lions were absent or occurred at extremely low densities in the pastoral area during our counting period, or pastoral activities altered their behavior such that lions avoided the broadcasts, or were too shy to approach the calling stations to within sighting range.From previous ground counts in 2002, lions were found in the pastoral ranches, but at a much lower density than in the reserve. This shows that lions are not absent in the pastoral ranches. Therefore, the second explanation is likely to be true. Conflicts with pastoralists adversely alter the behavior of lions resulting in inherently low densities. Human persecution of large carnivores, through poisoning, snaring shooting or chasing suspected predators has been reported to be the main cause of the inherently low densities of lions in the pastoral ranches compared to the reserve.From the playback surveys, the surprisingly high densities of hyena and jackals in the pastoral ranches can be explained, at least in part, by reduced competition with the few lions or higher prey density in the pastoral ranches. In general both hyena and jackals (Canis mesomelas) seem to face less harassment by pastoralists and to be better adapted to life in the ranches.In chapters 5 & 6, I compare and contrast the density, demography and persistence of 13 wild and three domestic herbivore species of varying body sizes (15-1725 kg) between the Maasai Mara National Reserve and its adjoining pastoral ranches using 50 aerial surveys conducted in the wet and dry seasons during 1977-2010. I show that large grazers and browsers concentrate and persist at relatively higher densities in distinct localities (hotspots) in both the protected and pastoral landscapes of the Mara. The locations of high densities of herbivores vary with the body size of the herbivores. Herbivores weighing more than 700 kg concentrate inside the protected reserve to avoid competition with livestock, whereas smaller species concentrate in adjoining Masai pastoral ranches, at the reserve-ranch interfaces and move seasonally between both areas. The number, size and spread of hotspots for almost all species reduced strikingly during 1977-2010 due to land use changes and human population growth in the ranches.In the wet season when food and water are plentiful, small and medium herbivores are attracted to the pastoral ranches by short, nutritious grasses and better visibility of ambush predators due to livestock grazing. In contrast, in the dry season when food and water supplies are low, medium herbivores (100-200 kg), avoid competition with livestock in the ranches by moving into the Mara reserve. Moreover, when vast herds of migratory wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) and zebra (Equus burcheli) from the Serengeti occupy the Mara reserve in the dry season, they supply enough food for large predators to enable resident herbivores use areas with green grass but located near rivers where the risk of being killed by predators is otherwise very high. The migrants also displace some resident grazers to the ranches. These results support the conclusion that pastoral lands are critical habitats for wildlife inhabiting protected areas and often include the wet season breeding grounds for some species. But land use changes in pastoral areas neighbouring parks are increasingly excluding large herbivores and obstructing seasonal wildlife dispersal movements between parks and their surroundings. Continued coexistence of wildlife and livestock on pastoral lands will only be possible if land use practices and livestock stocking levels are regulated and monitored on such lands.Finally, in Chapter 7, I synthesize the key results and evaluate the influences of area, landscape heterogeneity, productivity, landuse and climate change on herbivore populations and their distribution. The results suggest three important characteristics that influence the vulnerability of a protected area to land use intensification. First, the size, heterogeneity and productivity of a protected area. Second, the proximity of a protected area to human population, specifically in areas of intense land use in critical portions of ecosystems (e.g. breeding grounds). Third, the lack of incentives or resources to conserve wildlife outside of protected areas. This study increases our understanding of how these factors affect wildlife species richness, abundance, demography and persistence. This information is essential to identify protected areas most likely to be at risk due to land use changes and develop appropriate conservation and management strategies. There is an urgent need to launch conservation and management initiatives that promote the continued availability of pastoral lands to wildlife in adjacent parks, including setting up conservancies, and monitoring the effectiveness of these initiatives. I present an approach that can form the basis for this monitoring in chapter 6.Door bevolkingsgroei en een sterke uitbreiding van permanente nederzettingen worden beschermde natuurreservaten in Afrika steeds vaker omgeven door menselijke activiteit. Hierdoor worden natuurreservaten en de gebieden rond de reservaten geleidelijk aan verkleind en gefragmenteerd. Daarnaast zijn er veranderingen in neerslag en een toename van de temperatuur door klimaatverandering. Dit beïnvloedt de groei van de vegetatie en dus wordt voedselproductie voor herbivoren minder voorspelbaar, vooral tijdens droge periodes. Deze veranderingen reduceren de mogelijkheden voor grote zoogdieren om te migreren naar gebieden met geschikte klimaten. Sommige geschikte gebieden liggen buiten de grezen van beschremde gebieden, wat de migratie van grote zoogdieren zelfs nog crucialer maakt voor het omgaan met de negatieve consequenties van klimaatsverandering en veranderingen in landgebruik. Het limiteren van migratie patronen zou dus waarschijnlijk de toekomstige overlevingskans van veel zoogdierpopulaties bedreigen. Om grote herbivoren, carnivoren en hun habitat te behouden, moet begrepen worden wat de consequenties zijn van menselijke activiteit en klimaatverandering in natuurreservaten en op de omliggende weidegronden, voor zowel de dichtheid als de verspreiding van deze soorten.Het doel van deze studie is om (a) inzicht te krijgen in het belang van de grootte, de heterogeniteit en de productiviteit van natuurreservaten op de samenstelling van levensgemeenschappen van grote herbivoren, carnivoren en primaten in Afrikaanse reservaten waar de invloed van mensen minimaal is (hoofdstuk 2). (b) Een ander doel is inzicht te krijgen in de processen die de vegetatiegemeenschappen beïnvloeden die belangrijk zijn voor grote herbivoren, vooral tijdens het droge seizoen (Hoofdstuk 3). (c) Verder wordt een evaluatie gedaan van de invloed van weidegronden rond reservaten op de dichtheid en verspreiding van grote carnivoren (Hoofdstuk 4) en herbivoren (Hoofdstuk 5 en 6) in het geval van de Mara-Serengeti in Oost-Afrika. In het laatste hoofdstuk (Hoofdstuk 7) worden de bevindingen van de studies samengevoegd en worden de mogelijke consequenties van de toename van menselijke activiteit in de natuurreservaten en op de weidegronden bediscussieerd.In Hoofdstuk 2 wordt gekeken naar de invloed van oppervlakte, de heterogeniteit van het landschap en de productiviteit van vegetatie op soortenrijkdom van grote zoogdieren. In deze studie benadrukken we één van de oudste ecologische principes, namelijk dat soortenrijkdom toeneemt met oppervlakte. Het achterliggende idee is dat soortenrijkdom wordt behouden door een balans van immigratie en extinctie. Omdat de extinctie negatief wordt beïnvloed door oppervlakte kunnen er meer soorten zijn in gebieden met een relatief groot oppervlak. Het oppervlakte van natuurreservaten kan soortenrijkdom ook indirect beïnvloeden. Grotere gebieden zijn vaak heterogener en hebben daarom meer niches, waardoor meer soorten samen kunnen voorkomen. Aanvullend kan productiviteit, en dus voedselproductie, meer individuen onderhouden. Dit verkleint tevens de extinctiekans en dus wordt soortenrijkdom vergroot. Om het belang van oppervlakte, heterogeniteit en productiviteit te testen voor soortenrijkdom van grote herbivoren heb ik een dataset samengesteld. Deze dataset bestaat uit 300 beschermde gebieden (data van de World Database on Protected Areas), 75 soorten carnivoren, 95 soorten herbivoren en 57 soorten primaten (data van de African Mammal Databank) en indicatoren voor habitattype en hoogte (gemeten door middel van remote sensing). De resultaten van de analyse laten zien dat het effect van oppervlakte verklaard kan worden door heterogeniteit voor alle taxa. Daarnaast wordt soortenrijkdom van primaten ook door productiviteit beïnvloed. Deze bevindingen laten zien dat natuurreservaten met hogere heterogeniteit en productiviteit sterker gebufferd zijn tegen de negatieve consequenties van de bevolkingsgroei in Afrika.De meeste natuurreservaten in Afrika liggen in de savanne. De savanne staat bekend om zijn uitzonderlijke hoge diversiteit aan grote zoogdieren. Ruimtelijke variatie in regenval creëert heterogeniteit in de productiviteit van savannes. Hierdoor ontstaan een groot aantal verschillende habitattypen, die verschillende gemeenschappen van herbivoren kunnen onderhouden. Een van deze habitattypen is het gesloten struweel dat wordt gedomineerd door houtige gewassen van veel verschillende soorten. Dit diverse landschap is een belangrijk habitat voor grote herbivoren tijdens het droge seizoen. Het begrijpen van de processen die dit habitat vormen is dus van belang voor het beheer van savanne ecosystemen. In hoofdstuk 3 gebruik ik een dataset (afkomstig van Masai Mara Ecological Monitoring Program, Kenia, uit her Masai Mara National Reserve, gemeten durende 15 jaar) om de productiviteit, diversiteit, compositie en stabiliteit van de vegetatie te bepalen. Met deze gegevens is bepaald of de gemeenschap wordt gevormd door (1) competitie tussen soorten, (2) habitat filtering door verstoring of stress of (3) door stochastische processen. De resultaten laten zien dat levensgemeenschappen van houtige gewassen in de savanne niet gevormd zijn door competitie tussen soorten. Tolerantie voor stress en verstoring in de drogere gebieden en meer complexe interacties, o.a. facilitatie in gebieden met meer regenval, spelen een belangrijkere rol. Temperatuurstijging, terugkomende lange periodes van droogte en ander factoren die de mate van stress in een systeem beïnvloeden bedreigen deze diverse gemeenschappen, die erg belangrijk zijn voor het in stand houden van een soortenrijke herbivorengemeenschap. HOE BEÏNVLOEDEN NATUURRESERVATEN EN DE OMLIGGENDE WEIDEGRONDEN CARNIVOREN EN HERBIVOREN DICHTHEID, VERSPREIDING EN OVERLEVING? De snelle bevolkingsgroei in Afrika gaat gepaard met intensivering en diversificatie van het landgebruik, een toename van het aantal permanente nederzettingen en fragmentatie van weidegronden. Als gevolg hiervan stijgt het aantal conflicten tussen mensen en carnivoren. Mens-carnivoor conflicten ontstaan wanneer predatie op vee plaatsvindt, waarop de veehouders reageren door carnivoren te doden of verwonden. In het natuurreservaat de Mara is de leeuwendichtheid één van de hoogste van alle Afrikaanse savannes. Bij de grens van het reservaat, waar de weidegronden liggen, is de dichtheid echter erg laag. In hoofdstuk 4 testen we daarom of menselijk handelen op de weidegronden carnivorendichtheid, verspreiding en gedrag beïnvloed hebben. Om dit te testen hebben we een playback survey ontworpen om reactiekans van leeuwen (Panthera leo), gevlekte hyena (Crocuta crocuta) en jakhals (Canis mesomelas) te schatten in het natuurreservaat de Masai Mara en de omliggende weidegronden.Onze resultaten laten zien dat leeuwen niet reageerden op de playbacks op de weidegronden. Er zijn twee mogelijke verklaringen hiervoor: ofwel leeuwen waren aanwezig in extreem lage dichtheden (of zelf compleet afwezig), of menselijke activiteit op de weidegronden veranderde hun gedrag zodanig dat leeuwen de uitzendingen vermeden, mogelijk omdat ze te schuw waren.Tijdens eerdere grondtellingen in 2002 werden leeuwen aangetroffen in de weidegronden, maar wel in een veel lagere dichtheid dan in het reservaat. Dit laat zien dat er wel leeuwen op de weidegronden aanwezig zijn. De tweede verklaring voor het uitblijven van een reactie van de leeuwen op onze playbacks is daarom waarschijnlijker: conflicten met mensen op de weidegronden hebben geleid tot het bejagen en verjagen van leeuwen. Dit vormt waarschijnlijk de voornaamste reden voor hun gedragsverandering en hun lage dichtheden op de weidegronden in vergelijking met het natuurreservaat.De resultaten van onze playback survey laten verassende hoge dichtheden op de weidegronden zien van zowel hyena als jakhals. Dit kan, althans gedeeltelijk, verklaard worden door de verminderde concurrentie met leeuwen of een hogere prooidichtheid op de weidegronden. Het lijkt erop dat hyena's en jakhalzen beter zijn aangepast aan een leven op de weidegronden.In hoofdstuk 5 en 6 vergelijken ik het Masai Mara National Reserve met de omringende weidegronden met betrekking tot dichtheden, demografie en overleving van 13 wilde en drie gedomesticeerde soorten herbivoren. Deze herbivoren hebben variërende lichaamsgrootten (15-1725 kg). Voor deze studie hebben we gebruik gemaakt van 50 tellingen, die tijdens het droge en natte seizoen vanuit een vliegtuig gedaan zijn. Deze tellingen zijn uitgevoerd tussen 1977-2010. De resultaten laten zien dat herbivoren zich op duidelijk te onderscheiden locaties bevinden (hotspots) in zowel het reservaat als de omliggende weidegronden. De locaties variëren met lichaamsgrootte. Herbivoren met een gewicht van meer dan 700 kg concentreren zich in het reservaat en omzeilen zo competitie met vee op de weidegronden. Middelgrote herbivoren (100 -200 kg) concentreren zich ook in het reservaat, maar alleen tijdens het droge seizoen. Tijdens het regenseizoen concentreren deze herbivoren zich op de weidegronden. De kleinere herbivoren concentreren zich altijd op de weidegronden. Het aantal hotspots, maar ook de grootte en de verspreiding ervan zijn allemaal drastisch gereduceerd sinds 2010 door verandering in landgebruik en een groeiende bevolking.Tijdens het regenseizoen, wanneer voedsel en water volop aanwezig is, zijn de weidegronden erg aantrekkelijk voor kleine en middelgrote herbivoren omdat de vegetatie hier kort gehouden wordt door het vee. Deze korte vegetatie bevat een hoge concentratie voedingsstoffen. Verder is het gemakkelijker om een roofdier op te merken in korte vegetatie. Tijdens het droge seizoen, wanneer er weinig voedsel en water is, vermijden de middelgrote herbivoren competitie met vee op de weidegronden door naar het reservaat te migreren. Daarnaast is de kans op predatie binnen het reservaat sterk verminderd, doordat tijdens het droge seizoen gnoes en zebra's vanuit de Serengeti in hoge aantallen naar het reservaat komen. Deze resultaten laten het belang van omliggende weidegronden voor natuurreservaten zien. Helaas worden weidegronden steeds minder toegankelijk voor wilde herbivoren, door veranderingen in landgebruik. Vee en wilde herbivoren (vooral kleine en middelgrote) kunnen alleen naast elkaar blijven leven, wanneer de dichtheid van het vee en de veranderingen in landgebruik gereguleerd en gemonitord worden.Tenslotte worden in hoofdstuk 7 de belangrijkste bevindingen uit de vorige hoofdstukken samengevoegd. Dit hoofdstuk suggereert 3 belangrijke groepen van factoren die mogelijk de kwetsbaarheid van een beschermd natuurgebied voor land gebruik intensivering bepalen. Ten eerste, de grootte, heterogeniteit en productiviteit van een beschermd natuurgebied. Ten tweede, de nabijheid van het natuurgebied aan een menselijke nederzetting, vooral in gebieden met intensief landgebruik in kritieke delen van het ecosysteem (belangrijke broedgebieden). Ten derde, het gebrek aan motieven of middelen om natuur buiten beschermde gebieden te behouden. Deze studie vergroot ons begrip van hoe dit type factoren soortenrijkdom, dichtheid, populatiedynamica en kwetsbaarheid van planten en dieren bepalen. Dit begrip is essentieel om te detecteren welke beschermde natuurgebieden het grootste risico lopen als gevolg van veranderingen in landgebruik en voor het ontwikkelen van geschikt behoud en beleid van die natuurgebieden. Er is een urgente noodzaak voor het lanceren van behoudd en beleid initiatieven die heterogeniteit en connectiviteit tussen weidegronden en aanliggende natuurgebieden vergroten. Mogelijk bevat dit het opzetten van beheersorganisaties in de weidegronden en het monitoren van de effectiviteit van deze initiatieven. Ik presenteer een methode die hier de basis voor kan vormen in hoofdstuk 6.I would like to thank my PhD advisor, Prof. Han Olff, head of the Department of Community and Conservation Ecology at the University of Groningen. The opportunity given by him to develop my research project and the advice given, has helped me channel my various thoughts into constructive research papers presented in this Thesis.I would like to express my very great appreciation to my co-supervisor, Dr. Joseph Ogutu who has who has helped me build a map to explore new territories (admittedly in complex statistical models, that I would probably not have ventured into on my own), and to meet the challenges in my work. His constructive critical feedback on revisions of papers has helped make me a better writer. He has inspired me with his professionalism and his support to determine where I go, when and how, in order to achieve my goals and succeed.I would like to thank members of the reading committee for taking the time to read through my thesis, Prof. Johan Du Toit, Prof. Truman Young, and Prof. Herbert Prins. I am grateful to Prof. Truman Young, Dr. Kari Veblen and Dr. Jakob Bro-Jorgenson for the care with which they reviewed the hotspot manuscript; and for comments that clarified my thinking on this and other matters. The anonymous reviewers included in this thesis made comments that encouraged me to revise and improve the manuscripts.I would like to thank the other members of my group who provided invaluable scientific, practical and emotional support, not to mention a lot of entertainment. I would like to offer my special thanks to Prof. Franjo Weissing, who always found time to advise and support me during the first two years of my Masters degree. To the Top Master group of 2005-2007 (Alejandro, Ivan, Michael, Marloes, Kirsten and Ellen), who made it a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I think we made it through the Master's as a team mainly due to the great dinner parties that were mainly prepared by Lucile Nouis -(who has been designated by us, as the \"honorary Top-Master\"). In particular I would like to acknowledge Alejandro Ordonez Gloria, who had the great honor of sharing an office with me for six years! He has had the pleasure of hearing my famous words, \"Alejo…I'm stuck\", or \"Alejo…how do you do this in R or \"Alejo…can you make me coffee\"? Despite this, he never failed to assist me. He has been a constant source of support and entertainment; a love-hate relationship that I will always cherish.In preparing this thesis, my colleagues have been extremely generous in taking time to review and help me. Thanks to Jasper, Fons, Maarten, Ruth, Wimke, Kelly, Elske, Steffi, Ellen Weerman, Esther, Verena, Ciska, Alma, Cleo, Carol, Chris, David, Erustus, Grant and Rampal for their constructive scientific and non-scientific discussions that contributed towards a lively working environment. Thanks to all the members of the Community and Conservation Ecology group for their support during my studies, especially to Ingeborg Jansen who always found a way to schedule an appointment with Han. Irma Knevel and Roos Veeneklaas continue to amaze me with their knowledge on almost everything about the Netherlands. A special thanks to Dick Visser for the layout of this thesis. Thanks also to Jasper, Wimke and Ronald for your time and work translating the summaries. This work would not have been possible without financial support from the Ubbo Emmius fund from the University of Groningen.I am very grateful to Dr. Bilal Butt, who introduced me to several people living and working in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, one of them being Dr. Lars Lindkvist of Basecamp Explorer Masai Mara to which I am also grateful for giving me the opportunity to live at the campsite and volunteer with the WWF-Ecological Monitoring Program. I would like to thank Charles Matankory, for converting his routine job in the Masai Mara, that consisted of monthly monitoring of wildlife and vegetation sampling, into an incredible learning experience for me. I am honored to have met several prominent savanna ecologists, such as Dr. Robin Reid, Dr. Joseph Ogutu and Dr. Mohamed Said, who have been instrumental in sharing their ideas with me and giving me their time to discuss conservation-related issues. It is through these people, that I realized I wanted and needed to study further in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the influence of land use and climate change on the wildlife population dynamics.During my PhD I had the opportunity to spend some time at the University of Hohenheim. I am grateful to Prof. Hans-Peter Piepho, head of the Bioinformatics who together with Dr. Ogutu, guided me on the uses and advances in statistical modeling. I would like to thank the Director of the Department of Resources Surveys and Remote sensing (DRSRS), Kenya for permission to use long term animal census data owned by DRSRS and to Dr. Mohamed Said for his help in obtaining it. I am grateful for the assistance given by the members of staff at the International Livestock and Research Institute (ILRI) for their logistical and technical support during my PhD. I would like to especially thank WWF-East African Regional Program Office, especially Dr. Taye Teferi and Dr. Holly Dublin for permission to use the long-term vegetation monitoring dataset.I enjoyed working with Bright Kumordzi, a dedicated and enthusiastic Top Master's student on a 6 month project during my PhD.My paranymphs: Jasper Ruifrok and Lucile Nouis. We have been friends for several years now and you have both supported me in your own ways. Lucile, you know you are the \"Queen of desserts\", and I have enjoyed our wonderful dinners together, but what you do not know is that your kindness, generosity and compassion have been important in building and strengthening our friendship. I know that I can always count on you. Jasper, your humor, your vivid imagination has kept me, and I suppose, others in our office quite entertained during the past year.Filiber, thanks to you and your commitment to mentoring international students, I settled down quite quickly and in the process met Ronald-now my life long partner. I will forever be grateful.Ronald: You know I came to the Netherlands to study. I did not expect in my wildest dreams to meet a tall, blue-eyed Dutchman and even… wilder-get married! Yet, despite this slight distraction, you never let me wander off the beaten path of academia. You have kept me focused and gave me the space and time that I needed to complete my PhD-the reason I came to The Netherlands in the first place. Thank you for coping with all the erratic waking hours (4 am), eating habits (jars of Nutella and chocolate cornflakes), tears (every now and then) and mood swings (every day). Thank you for supporting me through one of the toughest moments of my life without letting me fall to the ground. Most of all, I have benefited from the support of my parents, who have consistently guided me, encouraged and supported me to move forward and as a result watched me come and go. This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my father, Dr. Dharam Bhola who passed away in February 2007. He always encouraged me to pursue my dreams and follow through on my education to the fullest. He lived at a great time, in a great country, with great people. I hope that I will have not let him down.","tokenCount":"43539"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d4f8c334fa47c0b7e36d22491775bc4b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b28346fe-9543-44f0-a489-50c640664513/retrieve","id":"-801298485"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f9ed8e89-a793-43c3-ac06-594a23a0d1cf","pagecount":"169","content":"This book provides empirical evidence from Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, and from different production systems, of the importance of livestock as an asset to women and their participation in livestock and livestock product markets. It explores the issues of intra-household income management and economic benefi ts of livestock markets to women, focusing on how types of markets, the types of products and women's participation in markets infl uence their access to livestock income.The book further analyses the role of livestock ownership, especially women's ownership of livestock, in infl uencing household food security though increasing household dietary diversity and food adequacy. Additional issues addressed include access to resources, information and fi nancial services to enable women more effectively to participate in livestock production and marketing, and some of the factors that infl uence this access.Practical strategies for increasing women's market participation and access to information and services are discussed. The book ends with recommendations on how to mainstream gender in livestock research and development if livestock are to serve as a pathway out of poverty for the poor and especially for women.2.1 An illustration of the unitary and collective bargaining models 3.1 Schematic representation of a gendered livelihood conceptual framework 3.2 Percentage of households where women own different livestock species 3.3 Proportion of livestock owned by men, women and jointly in male-headed households 3.4 Decision-making on sale of women-owned livestock in Kenya 3.5 Decision-making on sale of women-owned livestock in Tanzania 3.6 Common means of livestock acquisition by women in Kenya 3.7 Common means of livestock acquisition by women in Tanzania 3.8 Common means of livestock acquisition by women in Mozambique 3.9 Contribution of livestock to household, men's and women's overall asset portfolio 4.1 A typical goat value chain in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe 4.2 Livestock species and product preference of men and women in Tanzania and Kenya 4.3 Percentage value of different products sold by men, women and jointly in Kenya 4.4 Types of markets where men and women sold chickens, eggs, honey and milk in Kenya 4.5 Percentage value of different products sold by men, women and jointly in Tanzania 4.6 Types of markets where men and women sold chickens, eggs, honey and milk in Tanzania viii FiguresPercentage value of different livestock species sold by men, women and jointly in Mozambique 4.8 Women's participation in the dairy value chain beyond the farm in Kiambu and Kajiado in Kenya 4.9 Women's participation in the dairy value chain beyond the farm in Meru in Kenya 5.1 Contribution of livestock and livestock products to household income in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique 5.2 Proportion of livestock and livestock product income share managed by women in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique 5.3 Percentage income share to women based on where livestock was sold in Tanzania 5.4 Percentage income share to women based on where livestock was sold in Kenya 5.5 Percentage income share to women based on where livestock was sold in Mozambique 5.6 Percentage income share to women depending on who sold livestock in Tanzania 5.7 Relationship between total income and income share managed by women in Kenya 5.8 Relationship between total income and income share managed by women in Tanzania 6.1 Main source of cattle production and marketing information by men and women farmers in Kenya 6.2 Main source of sheep and goat production and marketing information by men and women farmers in Kenya 6.3 Main source of chicken production and marketing information by men and women farmers in Kenya 6.4 Percentage of men and women who received training on different crop and livestock practices 6.5 Percentage of men and women accessing credit from different sources 6.6 Different uses of credit by men and women in male-headed households 6.7 Percentage of men and women saving money in Kenya 7.1 Relationship between livestock and food security 8.1 Gender and women's empowerment continuum 8.2 Impact of improved bean varieties by a mixed group of farmers in Nabongo parish, Uganda 9.1 Prerequisite for a gender transformative approach in livestock research TABLES 2.1 Key research questions and type of data collected 2.2 Description of sites in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique 2.3 Characteristics of the sampled households by country 2.4 Tropical Livestock Units (TLU) conversion rates 2.5 Weight and age adjustments for calculating the asset index 3.1 Average numbers of livestock owned by men, women and jointly in male-headed households 3.2 TLU held by men, women and jointly by men and women in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique 3.3 A probit analysis of factors infl uencing women's ownership of livestock in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique 5.1 Factors infl uencing management of livestock income by women for all species and products 5.2 Factors infl uencing women's management of income from livestock products (milk and eggs) 5.3 Factors infl uencing women's management of income from livestock sales (chickens, cattle, sheep and goats) 6.1 Factors that determine whether women save their money 7.1 Food categories used for calculating the HDDS 7.2 Food groups used for the calculation of the FCS and their assigned weight 7.3 Dietary diversity and food adequacy in livestock-and nonlivestock-owning households 7.4 Number of times per week that households consumed ASFs in livestock-and non-livestock-owning households 7.5 Months of adequate household food provisioning in households where women owned or did not own different livestock species regular livestock and livestock product sales is used for food purchases to supplement household food production and to diversify diets; (iii) livestock and livestock products are consumed and provide a protein diet for households.Livestock are one of the largest non-land assets in rural asset portfolios, are widely owned by rural households and perform multiple functions. Livestock constitute a popular productive asset with high expected returns through offspring, sale or consumption of products and their use in farming systems. Livestock can also be accumulated (bought) in good times and depleted (sold) in bad times for the purpose of consumption smoothing. Livestock value chains are, however, often more complex than crop value chains, making it diffi cult to recognize immediate potential entry points for interventions.In spite of the importance of livestock, a recent review of evidence on the importance of livestock for women by Kristjanson et al. (2010) argued that despite two-thirds of the world's more than 600 million poor livestock keepers being rural women (Thornton et al. 2003), little research has been conducted in recent years on rural women's roles in livestock keeping and the opportunities livestock-related interventions could offer them. This is in contrast to considerable research on the roles of women in small-scale crop farming, where their importance is widely recognized and lessons are emerging about how best to reach and support them through interventions and policies (e.g. Quisumbing and Pandolfelli 2010;FAO 2011;World Bank 2012).Livestock have been described as an asset that women can own more easily and that have the potential to contribute to a reduction in the gender asset gap within households (Kristjanson et al. 2010). It is often easier for many women in developing countries to acquire livestock assets, whether through inheritance, markets or collective action processes, than it is for them to purchase land or other physical assets or to control other fi nancial assets (Rubin et al. 2010). The relative informality of livestock property rights can, however, be disadvantageous to women when their ownership of animals is challenged. Interventions that increase women's access and rights to livestock, and then safeguard the women from dispossession and their stock from theft or untimely death, could help women move along a pathway out of poverty.Evidence of ownership of livestock by women is, however, scant due to the fact that the collection of sex-disaggregated data has not been common in agricultural surveys. In a review of 72 Living Standards Measurement Surveys (LSMS) and quasi-LSMS by Doss et al. (2007), in only three was data collected on individual ownership of farm animals, while the rest assumed that all the livestock was the property of the household, or the head of the household, rather than of the individuals within the household. As a result, most of the comparisons of livestock ownership have been between male-and female-headed households. The few surveys that have looked at individual ownership of livestock have focused on the percentages of households where women have reported owning different species of livestock (Noble 1992;Valdivia 2001). These studies have highlighted the role that small ruminants especially play in securing food, milk protein and cash, and in increasing women's bargaining power. They caution, however, that even in cases where women may have ownership of these species, the marketing and decisionmaking on the use of money from these assets may still be in the hands of men, thereby undermining the benefi ts that would be expected to result from women's \"ownership\". Other qualitative studies provide evidence of the differences in ownership of species, with women more likely to own small stock such as goats, sheep and poultry, and men more likely to own large stock such as cattle and buffalo (Bravo-Baumann 2000;Grace 2007;Heffernan et al. 2003;Yisehak 2008).One of the shortcomings of existing sex-disaggregated livestock data is that it often does not describe information on the value of the livestock but mainly the incidence of ownership of different species and, in a few cases, the actual numbers of different species owned by men and women. Due to the relative value across species, breeds and even age of livestock, understanding the gender disparities or inequalities on livestock ownership, based on this data, is often impossible. As Doss et al. (2007) argue, in order to get a better understanding of gender inequalities in asset ownership, it is important to look at both whether women own or don't own livestock, as well as the numbers and value of what they own.The ownership of livestock and other assets has a bearing on how and who makes decisions on these assets. While some data exists on the relationship between land ownership and agricultural decision-making, this is not the case for livestock. Often, however, these two aspects are not interlinked or followed up in livestock research, which makes it diffi cult to understand the relationship between ownership and decision-making. Owing to the complexity of ownership, information on rights that individuals, especially women have, over assets is important. For example, data from the Nicaragua LSMS reviewed by Doss et al. (2007) showed that although women were sole land owners in 16.3 per cent of households, they made agriculture decisions in only 8.5 per cent of households. Another shortcoming of the current sex-disaggregated data on livestock is the lack of information on the means of acquisition by men and women and how these differ.This book argues that different livestock and livestock products have different importance for women. It is widely recognized that small livestock such as goats, sheep and poultry are especially important for women. They have more easy access to them, can own them and have control of the animals and their products. While women may not be able to own cattle, in some countries they have control of livestock products (Waters-Bayer 1985;Dieye et al. 2005). Women may also benefi t more from certain livestock value chains such as local poultry production and marketing, or particular points of value chains such as informal trading, processing or as service providers. In many cases, however, such value chains or segments of value chains where women are found are often low value. Identifying these value chains and increasing their value is critical to increasing women's benefi ts from livestock production and marketing. An analysis that identifi es these points on the value chains, and leads to the selection of interventions that have been used and can be used to increase their value and benefi ts to women, is crucial. This requires data on the current role of livestock in women's livelihoods, and the challenges and opportunities that women face with regard to acquiring, managing and maintaining livestock.As a general rule, the degree of commercialization in livestock products is higher than in crops. In all developing countries, livestock add value to resources that have no alternative use, or to on-farm produce. More than in food production, livestock's most important role in food security is to be seen in income generation, starting from the producer down the chain to marketing and processing. Despite this, many interventions on food security seem to focus on crops, with the goal of increasing crop production to ensure food availability. Few interventions or studies have analysed the critical issues of access to food by poor households, or mechanisms by which poor households in predominantly livestock-based systems can increase access to food. Existing evidence suggests that food production and food availability is only part of the problem: as important is food access through increasing income opportunities for the poor. Empirical evidence and studies have provided evidence that poor households spend a signifi cant proportion of their income on food and that livestock is a crucial source of that income. For example in areas of extended poverty and food insecurity, such as the central highlands of Ethiopia, the sale of dung cakes is the most important source of cash income for meeting household food security needs (FAO 1998). Some studies, however, have revealed the tensions and trade-offs between income and food security, as income is likely to be spent on other household needs (education, health, assets and luxuries) and less on food. Gender and intra-household dynamics may infl uence whether income from sale of livestock is used to meet food security needs or is used for other purposes, thus compromising household food security.Women are major contributors in the agricultural economy, but face various constraints that limit them from achieving optimal livestock production and agricultural development. These constraints include: limited access to land, water and credit; limited information on prices of marketing systems provided by extension agents, which would mean that they fi nd it more diffi cult to access and maintain profi table market niches and generate more income; limited decisionmaking powers because of unequal power relations within the household (IFAD 2009). And although women are involved in and may control production, they often do not own the means of production -namely, livestock, land and water (Galab and Rao 2003;Shicai and Jie 2009). Often, too, women lack access to the service and input delivery systems in livestock production, which are male dominated (Sinn et al. 1999;Shicai and Jie 2009). This lack of access and control could be attributed to cultural norms which deny women rights beyond usufruct rights to resources -land, animals and water -and rights to decision-making. A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO 2011) argues that if women were to have access to the same level of resources as men, agricultural productivity would go up by 10-30 per cent and agricultural output would increase by up to 4 per cent.Women are more likely to be considered the owners of small livestock compared to larger livestock, and to have a say in the disposal and sale of these and their products, and in the use of income accrued from the sales. Despite their role in livestock production, women's control has traditionally declined when productivity has increased and products are marketed through organized groups such as cooperatives, whose membership is predominantly men (Kergna et al. 2010). Studies in the crop sector have shown that the types of products and distance to markets can infl uence the level of control that women have over these products and the income derived from their sale (Njuki et al. 2011).Compared to crops, little research has been conducted on women's role in livestock farming (Kristjanson et al. 2010). The few existing analyses of the role and economic contribution of women to livestock development and the key challenges they face are inconclusive (Niamir-Fuller 1994;Rangnekar 1998;Aklilu et al. 2008). This inconclusiveness could be explained, in part, by the fact that the considerable involvement of women in livestock production is underestimated (Sinn et al. 1999). For example, most agricultural work is done by women most of whom work for 12-16 hours a day. Moreover, not all women who manage farm resources have access to the income generated by the farm (Sinn et al. 1999). In addition, of all rural agricultural extension services, women are able to access only 5 per cent of what men access (FAO 1996(FAO -2001)). Other likely explanations as to why research regarding the role and economic contribution of women to livestock development and the key challenges they face is inconclusive include the fact that gender roles, relations and ideologies are not studied prior to and during interventions involving women and livestock; and attitudes and values regarding livestock, between men and women, are highly polarized (Kristjanson et al. 2010).The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently developed a conceptual framework on livestock as a pathway out of poverty. This framework takes a \"livelihoods approach\" that centralizes the importance of assets, markets and importance of livestock as an asset to women and their participation in livestock and livestock product markets. It explores the issues of intra-household income management and economic benefi ts of livestock markets to women, focusing on how types of markets, the types of products and women's participation in markets infl uence their access to livestock income. The book further analyses the role of livestock ownership, especially women's ownership of livestock, in infl uencing household food security through increasing household dietary diversity and food adequacy. Additional issues addressed include access to resources, information and fi nancial services to enable women more effectively to participate in livestock production and marketing, and some of the factors that infl uence this access. Practical strategies for increasing women's market participation and access to information and services are discussed. The book ends with recommendations on how to mainstream gender in livestock research and development if livestock are to serve as a pathway out of poverty for the poor, and especially for women.The book focuses on a few critical questions:• What are the patterns of livestock ownership and what is the importance of livestock as an asset for women? • What livestock, livestock products and markets have the greatest benefi ts for women? What are the patterns of market participation? And are these dependent on the livestock species or products? • How do these patterns of market participation infl uence income management by women? Does the type of livestock, product and markets they are sold to infl uence whether income will be managed by men, women or jointly? • What are the different pathways through which livestock improve household food security? What roles do livestock and livestock products managed by women play in coping with food vulnerabilities?Each of the chapters of the book is dedicated to these questions. Chapter 2 focuses on the methodology used in the collection and analysis of the data, describing the quantitative and qualitative methods used and the analysis employed. The chapter starts with a description of the household model that provided the theoretical rationale for the data collection procedures used. Chapter 3 looks at patterns of livestock ownership, the contribution of livestock to women's, men's and household asset portfolios, and narrows down to focus on women's ownership of livestock and decision-making. Chapter 4 uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative data to understand patterns of market participation across species and products by men and women, as well as the market preferences they have and reasons for these preferences. Chapter 5 analyses intra-household income management and the factors that infl uence whether income from livestock will be managed by men or by women, or jointly. The analysis looks at the species differences and product differences to identify patterns and groups of products or species where women manage more income compared to others. For poor rural men and women to access markets and accumulate assets, access to information and fi nancial services, including savings, is crucial. Chapter 6 focuses on gender differences in access to livestock production and marketing information, and the common sources of this information for men and women. It goes on to look at access to credit, different uses of credit by men and women, as well as access to savings. The last analysis chapter (chapter 7) focuses on the role of livestock in improving food security, and especially looking at women's ownership of livestock and how that infl uences dietary diversity and the consumption of animal source foods. Chapter 8 discusses some practical strategies for how to mainstream gender in livestock research and development if livestock are to serve as a pathway out of poverty for the poor, and especially for women. The book concludes with a summary chapter on some key issues, fi ndings, conclusions and the implications of these results for livestock development research, policies and programs.Jemimah Njuki, Elizabeth Waithanji and Samuel Mburu Collecting data on gender and intra-household dynamics: household modelsFor a long time, households were assumed to behave as one decision-making unit (the unitary model of the household). The unitary model views the household as a single economic unit that works as a group for its own good and all members of the household contribute in an altruistic manner towards the benefi t and functioning of the entire household (Katz, 1996;Fortin and Lacroix 1997). This approach has, however, been found to have methodological, empirical and welfare economic limitations (Vermeulen 2002). A valuable alternative to this traditional unitary model is the collective approach to household behaviour which takes account of the fact that households consist of different members who go through an intra-household bargaining process in the allocation of resources and decision-making.A synthesis (Quisumbing 2003) of literature on household decision-making summarizes overwhelming evidence from empirical case studies from several countries in different contexts that households do not act as unitary model when making decisions. The synthesis supports a non-unitary model of household decision-making.There are two types of collective household models: cooperative and noncooperative. These are illustrated in Figure 2.1.In the non-cooperative model, each household member acts in order to maximize his or her own utility while in the cooperative model the households act as a unit to maximize the welfare of members. The analysis presented in this book uses an adapted collective cooperative model as its theoretical basis and the data collection and the analysis is grounded in this. This adapted model assumes collective behaviour in which household members, in this case the male and female adults within the household, may choose to act individually or jointly. This has implications both for the data collection and analysis.The gender dimensions of livestock ownership, participation in markets, and access to information and technologies has often been collected at household level (Doss et al. 2007). There are, however, some exceptions especially in Asia (Quisumbing and de la Brière 2000;Kumar and Quisumbing 2010). As a result, most of the comparisons of livestock ownership, participation in markets and other important variables have been between male-and female-headed households. This type of analysis has masked intra-household dynamics and decision-making processes that have important implications for women, and for households. Data collection is also often targeted at heads of households, with the assumption that he (typically) is the owner of livestock and other assets. Rarely is data collection on asset and livestock ownership targeted at other individuals within households, and especially women.Collecting intra-household resource allocation, income and decision-making data is complex. Studies have collected individual data (from both men and women within households) mainly on assets and access to resources. Doss et al. (2007), in reference to individual data on assets and resources, point out that such individual data is important to understand the relationship between men and women, the types of assets and, in this case, sources of income that they manage -and it can provide a measure of intra-household inequality that can be used across countries and regions. Collection of this data, however, should go beyond data on men and women, but should be collected from both men and women. This adds another complexity to data collection. In many countries and regions, due to cultural complexities, men may not be willing to allow their spouses to be interviewed, especially by people who are not from the local community or by male data collectors. This means that there has to be a negotiation process to allow women to be interviewed and to be interviewed away from men to reduce men's infl uence on data and information given by women. Another complexity arises due to inconsistencies in data between men and women, especially when the same questions are asked of men and women, for example questions on how much money is made from the sale of a particular commodity and how much is managed by the man and how much is managed by the woman. Depending on who is asked, the information may be different. This leads to more follow-up discussions and clarifi cations than there would otherwise be in an ordinary interview where one member is interviewed on behalf of the household. These follow-ups and discussions can, however, lead to better quality of data.The study used different strategies to interview both men and women and to get around these complexities, including: (i) the use of both male and female enumerators; (ii) starting women's interviews with questions on domains that they have control over within the household such as food security and nutrition before moving on to more sensitive and complex questions of income and income management; (iii) multiple visits to households for follow-up discussions; (iv) thorough comparison of men and women's responses to similar questions.The authors recognize that gender norms are complex and dynamic. They change gradually, in response to shifting economic, political and cultural forces that can create new constraints and opportunities for women (Quisumbing and Pandolfelli 2008). Meanings also differ, depending on the cultural context. Kabeer's (2001) analysis of credit interventions has attributed the different judgements of successes and failures of the interventions to two main explanations; fi rst, there exist different understandings of intra-household power relations. For example, \"joint management\" could be a disguised male dominance. Second, there is no clear defi nition of what empowerment entails, and often the context in which the defi nition is made is obscure. For example, empowerment can be manifested differently in contexts of confl ict and cooperation, and both empowerment and disempowerment may manifest as autonomy, dependence or interdependence within the household. There needs to be a nuanced understanding, during the data collection and analysis, of these meanings and their implications.Table 2.1 summarizes the key research questions that this book addresses and the type of data collected to answer these questions. It also gives a summary of some of the tools used to collect the different types of data.Quantitative data was collected through household surveys. The questionnaire had two separate modules, one administered to male adults and the second to the female adults in male-headed households. The main module contained all the householdlevel information, including household membership as well as asset, income and decision-making modules. The asset, income and decision-making modules were then asked to women in the second module.As much as possible, women were interviewed away from men so as to increase the likelihood of capturing their objective perspectives of asset ownership and decision-making. Two strategies were employed to achieve this: (i) using two enumerators, a male and a female for each household and (ii) starting the female adult questionnaire with the food security questions. Often a combination of these strategies worked to get independent data from men and women. In the fi rst strategy, the male adult and female adult were interviewed simultaneously and separately. When this did not work, starting off the female adult interview with the food security questions convinced men that the women would not contradict them as it seemed their questions were related to a domain that men had less knowledge of, that is, food consumption patterns of household members, especially children.Asking men and women from the same household the same question adds a meaningful and unique dimension to this study. Empirical evidence shows that men and women from the same households do not operate as a single unit, but instead individual household members are likely to have different objectives and thus are likely to function independently. At the same time, individual household members can also choose to function jointly. Therefore, intra-household studies can refl ect various household dynamics, including those on decision-making, income control and expenditure patterns. Data was analysed at the aggregate level and compared across men and women for the variables described. Qualitative data was collected mainly though focus group discussions and key informant interviews.Sampling was multi-staged with a purposive selection of districts based on three criteria: presence of multiple livestock species; availability of livestock marketing groups; and production system. For the household surveys, the sampling frame was the smallest administrative unit from which the livestock keepers to be interviewed resided, often a sub-location or village in densely populated areas. Except for Mozambique, there was no existing list of farmer households in the study sublocations; therefore a comprehensive list of all households was compiled with local elders, administrators and the group offi cials.Data was collected from a total of 730 households. A total of 1332 interviews were conducted. In male-headed households, both the male adult and female adult were interviewed. Male-headed households constituted 81.5 per cent and femaleheaded households the remaining 19.5 per cent of the sample. The proportion of female-headed households ranged from 15.2 per cent in Mozambique to 25.5 per cent in Kenya.The research reported in this book was conducted in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique. In all countries, districts were stratifi ed by agricultural potential, production system and/or market access (see Table 2.2). In Tanzania, data was collected from fi ve districts -Kilombero, Kibaha, Gairo, Mvomero and Morogoro. The sites visited are all from mixed crop-livestock systems and, except for Kilombero, all sites are categorized as having high agricultural potential. Kibaha, Gairo and Mvomero are classifi ed as having good market access, with not more than four hours of travel to the nearest market, while Kilombero and Morogoro Rural have low market access, with more than four hours travel to market.In Kenya, the data was collected in four districts -Kajiado and Tharaka, which are classifi ed as semi-arid, and Meru and Kiambu, which have high agricultural potential. Apart from Tharaka, where the production system is livestock-based, all the sites are classifi ed as having mixed crop-livestock systems. Kajiado and Kiambu have good market access while Meru and Tharaka have low market access.In Mozambique, data was collected in nine villages from Gaza Province, across two administrative posts (Chicualacuala Sede and Mapai), and one location (Chidulo) in one district, Chicualacuala. All the sites are considered semi-arid, with livestock as the main production system and poor market access. Various commodity livestock value chains were reviewed across the three countries. In Tanzania, data was collected on three different commodity value chains: dairy goats (indigenous and Norwegian cross) for breeding and milk; indigenous and exotic chickens for meat and eggs; and bees for honey and wax. In Kenya, data was collected on four different commodity value chains: dairy cattle (mainly crossbred cattle); dairy goats (pure Toggenburg and their crosses); indigenous and exotic chickens for meat and eggs; and bees for honey and wax. In Mozambique, data was collected on three different commodity value chains, namely: cattle, goats and chickens. Marketing of livestock products such as milk and eggs was very low in Mozambique.There were several distinct differences across the three countries (see Table 2.3). The proportion of female-headed households was highest in Kenya and lowest in Mozambique. Similarly, the highest proportion of heads of households with primary education was in Kenya and lowest in Mozambique. On the other hand, Mozambique had the highest proportion of households keeping cattle and goats while Tanzania had the lowest proportion keeping cattle and Kenya had the lowest proportion keeping goats. Kenya had the highest proportion of households that had at least one member belonging to a group (88.4 per cent), while Mozambique had the lowest at 28.7 per cent. Average size of land holding in Mozambique was signifi cantly higher than in Kenya and Tanzania. Average ages of the heads of households did not differ signifi cantly across the three countries.The analysis used several exploratory tools and methods. For quantitative data, descriptive statistics, including proportions, comparisons of means and chi square tests were used especially to make comparisons between men and women, between species and between countries. Some of the calculations made to compare livestock across species, and to analyse the contribution of livestock to women's and household total asset portfolios are described below.Owing to the differences in value and ownership patterns of different livestock species, it has been diffi cult to compare livestock holdings of men and women in real terms. In order to do this, the concept of an \"Exchange Ratio\" has been developed, whereby different species of different average size can be described by a common unit and compared; this unit is the Tropical Livestock Unit (TLU). While this is a useful comparative measure, different livestock species have different importance for women. For example the ownership of chickens and goats might be preferred by women as they can make decisions on, and control and manage products and incomes from these species. The calculation of the TLU uses the sub-Saharan Africa values recommended by the FAO (2002). Table 2.4 shows commonly used defi nitions of TLUs in sub-Saharan Africa. This version of the TLU does not account for breed and feed system differences and has been recommended only for generalized analysis as that done in this book.where n = number of species/type, TLU i = TLU for species/type i.One of the key gaps in the evidence of the importance of livestock to women is the overall contribution of livestock to women's asset portfolio. In this analysis, we focus only on movable assets, including domestic and farm assets but excluding land and  housing. The rationale for excluding the land and housing was due to the complexity of obtaining ownership and claims to ownership of the land owing to the customary nature of tenure systems in the three countries, which also applies to the housing. Both men and women were better able to describe ownership of the movable assets.Asset indices for different assets, including livestock, were developed with the asset index methodology developed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2010) for the evaluation of their agriculture programs. The asset index was calculated for all movable assets including livestock. Each of the assets was assigned a weight (ω) and then adjusted for age. The weight is calculated based on the value of the asset compared across countries. This ensures that assets of the same value are accorded the same weight, despite country or location differences in prices.Household Domestic Asset Index = ,where, w gi = weight of the i'th item of asset g, N = number of asset g owned by household, a = age adjustment to weight, G = number of assets owned by household.The probit analysis has been used for several of the analyses presented in the next few chapters to test the probability of occurrence and in cases where the dependent variable took two values, that is, a binary response model. For example it is used in chapter 3 to explore the probability of women owning livestock. In this case the dependent variable took a binary form:1 = women in the household owned livestock and 0 = women in the household did not own livestockThe probit model took the form:Where:P g denotes the probability of women owning or not owning livestock (1 or 0) X is a vector of regressors on the spouse's and household characteristics Ø is the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the standard normal distribution b is a parameter typically estimated by maximum likelihood.Other analyses use the linear regression to model the relationship between a scalar dependent variable y and one or more explanatory variables denoted by X.For example, in chapter 3, a linear regression model to analyse factors infl uencing women's ownership using the TLUs owned by women as the dependent variable is used and takes the form:Where Y i denotes the TLU belonging to women and X i * X and i* are the independent variables.Given the different roles that men and women play in agriculture, the different access to and ownership of resources, and the different impact agriculture interventions have on men and women, the collection of sex-disaggregated data should be the norm rather than the exception. Collecting sex-disaggregated data goes beyond the stratifi cation of households as male-and female-headed households and should take into account the intra-household access to and ownership of resources and decisionmaking. A systematic process for doing this should include framing the gender questions as part of the design of the research, developing tools with sex disaggregation of the key indicators of interest, collecting information from both men and women, and analysing the data to understand gender differences and similarities. While this may imply additional resources and capacity-building for research staff, there is a tremendous pay-off when sex-disaggregated data is used to inform policy and programs on interventions that have potential to reduce gender disparities.Asset ownership is often highly correlated with economic growth, poverty reduction and with a reduction to vulnerability and risk at the household level (Barham et al. 1995;Banerjee and Dufl o 2003;Birdsall and Londono 1997;Deere and Doss 2006). There is increasing evidence that women's absolute and relative asset levels are important to development outcomes, directly through their infl uence on decision-making and indirectly by conditioning women's ability to participate in and benefi t from specifi c livelihood strategies, development programs, etc. Livestock are thought to be one of the most important assets for women as they are a productive asset that they can easily own and that are not bound by complex property rights compared to, for example, land. There is, however, little evidence available on the extent to which women own livestock, which species are most important to them, how they acquire livestock, or how important livestock are relative to other assets, for women and for their households.This chapter provides a framework for analysing the role of livestock as an asset for women, using an asset index to analyse the gender asset disparity in households and the contribution of livestock to men's, women's and joint household assets in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. The fi rst strand of analysis focuses on the patterns of livestock ownership across species by men and women within households. While these patterns are illuminating in understanding livestock ownership within the household, it does not allow for the comparison of total livestock asset portfolios owned by men and women or jointly and therefore the relative value of their livestock asset portfolio compared to other assets. The second analysis therefore uses Tropical Livestock Units (TLUs) to compare the relative value of livestock owned by men, women and jointly, and an asset index to analyse the contribution of livestock to men's and women's total asset portfolios. The chapter recognizes that ownership of livestock by women, however, does not always imply that they have ultimate control of this livestock. Women may own livestock, acquired through the market or inheritance before or during marriage, but may not have decisionmaking authority over such livestock. The third level of analysis, therefore, looks at decision-making on women-owned livestock. The fourth strand of analysis looks at how women acquire livestock and the factors that infl uence the ownership of livestock by women. The results presented provide a better understanding of the potential role for livestock in improving women's welfare, as well as which types of strategies, inside and outside the livestock sector, are likely to have the biggest impact on empowering women and reducing gender asset disparities.Some studies (Doss et al. 2007;Torkelsson and Tassew 2008) have interviewed or recommend interviewing both men and women within households to collect data on ownership and access to resources. This is useful in order to disentangle the social context of ownership and the differences in perceptions regarding asset ownership and control. To capture the intra-household issues of asset ownership, only data from households with a male adult and a female adult was included in the analysis.Assets, in this chapter, are defi ned as stocks of fi nancial, human, natural and social resources that can be acquired, developed, improved and transferred across generations (Ford Foundation 2004). The Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) Framework identifi es fi ve types of capital which could be related to assets. These include social, fi nancial, physical, natural and human capital (Carney et al. 1999;DfID 1997;Scoones 2009). Access to and ownership of assets within and beyond the household is critical for increasing agricultural productivity and enabling people to move out of poverty (Doss et al. 2011). Assets have been classifi ed in various ways; for example Doss et al. (2007), in their guide to collecting individual-level data on assets, focus on physical and fi nancial assets and group them into land, livestock, housing, nonfarm business assets, fi nancial assets including savings, pensions and bonds, as well as other physical assets such as domestic furniture and farm equipment. Meinzen-Dick et al. (2011) have developed a conceptual framework that looks at the different assets, the gendered nature of these assets and the links to livelihood outcomes and welfare impacts. This framework is shown in Figure 3.1.While many studies have looked at household ownership of assets as measures of wealth, the gender dimensions of asset ownership and their implications have not been studied as well, due to a lack of awareness of the gender asset distribution as well as of empirical information and data on intra-household ownership, as most assets data is collected at household level (Doss et al. 2007). There are, however, some exceptions especially in Asia (see Kumar and Quisumbing 2010;Quisumbing and de la Brière 2000). Within the household or a family, women may not necessarily share in the wealth of men (Deere and Doss 2006). Decisions may be made, and sometimes wealth distributed, within a continuum with consensus of members of the family on one end or a dominant single member -the benevolent dictator -on the other end (Lundberg and Pollak 1996;Marchant 1997). Where research on intra-household gender asset distribution has been conducted, women have been shown to own assets of a signifi cantly lower value, with less money in their individual accounts, than men (Antonopoulos and Floro 2005). These asymmetries in gender asset ownership within the household justify the need for gendered asset research even though such research poses a methodological challenge.Reducing the gender asset gap or putting assets in the hands of women has been shown to have positive outcomes, not only for women themselves but for households. Women's ownership of assets has been shown to increase their bargaining power (Friedemann-Sánchez 2006), their role in household decisionmaking (Agarwal 1998(Agarwal , 2002;;Mason 1998) and expenditures on children's education and health (Allendorf 2007;Duraisamy 1992;Quisumbing 2003;Quisumbing and Maluccio 2000). The gender asset gap is also a critical indicator of women's empowerment and has been recommended for use as an indicator of progress towards achievement of Millennium Development Goal 3 (Grown et al. 2005). It provides a better measure of gender inequality and women's economic empowerment compared to use of such indicators as income. The gender asset disparity is caused by many factors, including social norms, intra-household differences in access, market conditions and government policies. There is evidence from some countries that women are more likely to own small livestock such as poultry, sheep and goats than large livestock such as cattle and buffaloes. This was to some extent confi rmed by the study: from the sample of livestock-keeping households in all three countries, the highest frequency of women keeping livestock was for chickens (both local and indigenous) where in 33.3 per cent of the households, women owned some chickens. This was followed by goats, where in 32.7 per cent of the households, women owned some goats (Figure 3.2).Across the three countries, women owned cattle in 25.1 per cent of the sampled households. The lowest percentage was in Tanzania where women owned cattle in only 7.4 per cent of the households and the highest was in Mozambique where women owned cattle in 41 per cent of the households. Women ownership of goats was higher overall than for cattle although women still owned goats in less than 35 per cent of the households.In Tanzania, the proportion of households where women owned goats was lower than the proportion of households where they owned cattle. In over 50 per cent of the households in Mozambique, women owned poultry. The high ownership of poultry and goats by women has been documented in other countries. For example in the Gambia, Jaitner et al. (2001) found that women owned 52 per cent of goats in livestock-keeping households while studies in Kenya and Uganda found 63 per cent and 23 per cent of chickens respectively were owned by women (Okitoi et al. 2007;Oluka et al. 2005).Despite these high proportions of households where women owned different livestock species, the proportion of livestock that they own and the average numbers they own are much less that that owned by men (Figure 3.3 and Table 3  Looking at percentages of livestock owned by men, women and jointly by men and women in male-headed households, similar patterns emerge for Kenya and Tanzania. Despite the high proportion of households where women owned chickens and goats, the proportion of these species that they owned was not as high. Women owned over 35 per cent of chickens in Kenya and over 20 per cent of chickens in Tanzania. Figures for Mozambique were higher, with women owning over 90 per cent of the exotic chickens and over 35 per cent of the indigenous chickens. This proportion was lower for goats, where, despite almost 20 per cent of the households indicating that women owned goats, the proportion of goats they owned compared to the total owned by the household was quite low (2.1 per cent in Tanzania and 9.5 per cent in Kenya). Most of the chickens and goats were still owned by men or jointly by men and women.The percentages of livestock owned by women can be misleading if treated in isolation from the actual numbers owned. For example, comparing both the percentage of the indigenous chickens owned by women as well as the actual numbers in Kenya, women owned 35.6 per cent of the chickens, a percentage much higher than the 24.7 per cent owned by men, but in actual numbers, these only comprised an average of 4.4 birds. A similar trend is observed in Tanzania where women owned 23.1 per cent of the indigenous chickens at an average of 6.1 birds. For exotic chickens, women owned three times more than men in Kenya, more than one and a half times in Tanzania, and all the exotic chickens in Mozambique. In both Kenya and Tanzania, joint ownership of livestock was more common than in Mozambique. In Kenya, for example, joint ownership accounted for over 50 per cent of the cattle, sheep, goats and exotic chickens owned by the household. For the same species, joint ownership accounted for less than 10 per cent in Mozambique.The patterns of livestock ownership differ substantially across the three countries. In Mozambique, women owned 40.7 per cent of the cattle, compared to 5.2 per cent and 2.7 per cent in Kenya and Tanzania respectively and owned on average 6 head compared to 0.1 and 0.2 head of cattle for Kenya and Tanzania respectively. Other studies from Southern Africa have reported similar ownership patterns for livestock as in Mozambique. In Zimbabwe Chawatama et al. (2005) reported from their study in three districts that women owned on average 6.1, 4.5 and 5.2 head of cattle in Chikomba, Kadoma and Matobo districts respectively. In Botswana, Oladele and Monkhei (2008) found that women owned 25 per cent of the cattle and 81 per cent of goats.Looking at the gender disparity in ownership of livestock, in Kenya, men owned 10 times more cattle than women, while in Tanzania, men owned 18 times more cattle than women. Mozambique had the lowest gender disparity in cattle ownership, with women owning 0.8 head for every 1 head of cattle that men owned. Goat ownership exhibited similar trends in Kenya and Tanzania. In Kenya, for every 1 goat owned by women, men owned 4 goats while in Tanzania, for every 1 goat owned by women, men owned 14 goats. Ownership of local chickens was higher for women than men in all countries. However, ownership of improved chickens was higher for men in Tanzania, where men owned one and a half times more improved chickens than women. The differences in actual numbers owned by men and women across all species other than chickens were, however, not signifi cant in Mozambique. Despite the fact that women were more likely to own chickens and goats, in all countries, they did not own higher numbers of goats than men, and in fact in Tanzania, men owned a signifi cantly higher number of goats than women.The concept of ownership cannot be taken in isolation from decision-making. For women-owned assets, it is essential to establish whether they can sell, give out and slaughter, and whether they can make the decisions independently or have to consult other members of the household, especially their husbands. According to Deere and Doss (2006) these questions provide a more nuanced understanding of women's livestock ownership and what rights and responsibilities are attached to the livestock assets that women own. We use data from Kenya and Tanzania to explore this. In Kenya, for women-owned livestock, less than half of women could sell their local and improved chickens without consulting their husbands (37.5 per cent and 34.8 per cent respectively for local and indigenous chickens). The proportion was even lower for larger livestock, whereby only 8.8 per cent, 13.8 per cent and 10.0 per cent of women could sell their dairy cattle, sheep and goats respectively without consulting their husbands. In Kenya, 43.1 per cent, 36.2 per cent and 30 per cent of women indicated that their husbands could sell dairy cattle, sheep, goats and pigs respectively that they owned without having to consult them (see Figure 3.4). In Tanzania, half of the women interviewed could sell the exotic chickens that they owned without having to consult their husbands while the other 50 per cent had to consult their husbands before they could sell. For cattle and sheep, the husbands could sell, but they would have to consult the wives as owners (Figure 3.5).In Kenya, for every 1 TLU owned by women, men owned 5, while in Tanzania, for every 1 TLU owned by women, men owned 6.35. In Mozambique, the TLU ratio for men and women was almost 1:1. Most of women's TLUs were contributed by chickens. Chickens contributed 86.5 per cent, 61.4 per cent and 33.9 per cent of women's total TLUs in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique respectively. It is crucial to note that most of this contribution of chickens comes from exotic rather than indigenous chickens. Across the three countries, indigenous chickens contributed less than 10 per cent of women's TLUs, contributing 10.5 per cent, 7.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique respectively.Other small livestock such as goats, sheep and pigs contributed negligibly to women's TLUs, despite other, often anecdotal, claims supporting the importance of these species to women. Indeed cattle contributed more to women's TLUs than these three species combined across the three countries. For example in Kenya, cattle contributed 30.9 per cent of women's TLUs, whereas goats and sheep contributed only 13.2 and 3.1 per cent respectively. Similar patterns were observed in Tanzania and Mozambique. In Tanzania, cattle contributed 23.3 per cent of the  women-owned TLUs to goats' 2.2 per cent and sheep's 7.5 per cent. In Mozambique, sheep and goats contributed 2.9 per cent and 5.1 per cent of the women-owned TLUs, while cattle contributed 52.9 per cent. While some of the small stock does not contribute signifi cantly to women's total TLUs, women often have more decision-making authority over these than they do over large animals such as cattle.In order to help women secure, build and safeguard their assets, a better understanding of how households accumulate livestock can inform the design and implementation of development interventions (Kristjanson et al. 2010). In Kenya, the main means of livestock acquisition for women was through purchases (50.4 per cent) and livestock born into the herd (28.5 per cent). Over 50 per cent of femaleowned cattle, sheep and exotic chickens were purchased, while 31.9 per cent and 48.6 per cent of the goats and local chickens were purchased (see Figure 3.6).Grants from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other externally funded projects were an important source of goats and exotic chickens for women, with 25.5 per cent of the goats and 30.4 per cent of the exotic chickens owned by women coming from grants. Inheritance and group purchase were not common sources of livestock for women, with only 1.7 per cent and 3.1 per cent of womenowned livestock being acquired through these two means.As in Kenya, most of the women-owned livestock in Tanzania was either purchased (52.6 per cent) or born into the herd or fl ock (37.6 per cent). Over 50 per cent of the cattle, goats and pigs were purchased (see Figure 3.7). All the women-owned pigs and exotic chickens were purchased. Unlike in Kenya, where inheritance of livestock by women was not common, women in Tanzania inherited  .5 per cent of the cattle they owned. Gifting was also a common source of livestock with 5.3 per cent of all women-owned livestock having been received as a gift, the most common species acquired in this way being goats (8.3 per cent). Figure 3.8 shows purchase of livestock was highest in Mozambique, with women purchasing 72.7 per cent of the livestock they own. Most of the goats were acquired through purchase (81.6 per cent) as were the local chickens (72.3 per cent). There was also more diversity of livestock sources in Mozambique compared to Kenya and Tanzania. For example, women acquired cattle from purchase (56.3 per cent), inheritance (6.3 per cent), as a gift (18.8 per cent) and as in-kind payment (18.8 per cent). In-kind payment was especially important for pigs, with 26.3 per cent of pigs owned by women having been acquired through in-kind payment. Similar to Kenya and Tanzania, group purchase was not a common means of livestock acquisition by women, with only 1 per cent of women-owned livestock having been acquired through group purchase.These results show that women in Tanzania were nearly two times more likely than women in Kenya or Mozambique to acquire cattle through market purchase. Studies in Nigeria found that 45 per cent of women farmers acquired livestock through the market (Olojede and Njoku 2007) and in India landless women bought dairy cows using personal savings coupled with the earnings of their husbands, or through loans obtained from government or private agencies (Kristjanson et al. 2010).Other literature, however, argues that instead of using market channels, women are more likely to acquire livestock through informal social networks, such as gifts, inheritance and in-kind payment (Kristjanson et al. 2010) than from commercial markets. A key constraint to market acquisition of livestock is access to and control over capital. Findings from a study in Zimbabwe support this and show that 60 per cent of women lack the capital to purchase livestock because men control cash incomes generated from crop and livestock sales (Chawatama et al. 2005). These and other studies (Rubin et al. 2010;Todd 1998) recommend the provision of microcredit as one approach to reduce women's limited access to cash and enable their purchase of livestock. A less common form of livestock acquisition by women from the study was through grants, which were recorded only by women in Kenya. NGO grants are indicative of livestock development and redistributive programs. They are common in Kenya in the form of restocking, breed improvement and nutrition interventions, especially for livestock such as exotic chickens, dairy cattle and goats. While livestock grants can build up the assets of poor people and contribute to a reduction in chronic poverty, overlooking the gendered access dynamics may jeopardize benefi ts, or even have a negative effect on the intended women benefi ciaries (Kristjanson et al. 2010).Livestock constitutes an important asset in the suite of a household's assets. There were critical differences both in the actual household asset portfolios and the contribution of livestock to these across the three countries (see Figure 3.9).Households in Mozambique had the highest asset index and the highest contribution by livestock to assets. Indeed, the high asset index in Mozambique was due to the relatively large livestock holdings in this country compared to the other two countries. Livestock contributed 84.7 per cent of the total movable assets, which was much higher than the livestock contribution in Kenya and Tanzania at 51.9 per cent and 59.1 per cent respectively. These differences in livestock assets could be explained by the differences in the livestock production systems in the three countries. While in Kenya the study was mainly done in the mixed crop-livestock systems, the Mozambique sites were drier; the environment more suitable for livestock production and households therefore had higher numbers of livestock than at the Kenya and Tanzania sites.In terms of ownership patterns, most of the assets in Kenya (more than 50 per cent) and Tanzania (slightly below 50 per cent) were jointly owned, while in Mozambique most of the assets were owned either by men or by women, with only about 11 per cent owned jointly. In all three countries, livestock were much more important to women's asset portfolio than men's. For example in Mozambique, livestock contributed to 55 per cent of men's assets and 73.8 per cent of women's assets. In Kenya and Tanzania, while the livestock contribution was much lower than for Mozambique, livestock contributed to one-third of women's total movable asset portfolio (31.8 per cent and 30.4 per cent respectively). It is important to note that ownership and rights over livestock are quite complex and that women can derive benefi ts from livestock irrespective of whether they own them or not. For example, a woman may have the rights to obtain milk from certain animals, even if she does not formally own these animals.Livestock ownership by women can be determined by various factors. There are variations across countries in both the proportion of households where women owned livestock and the numbers of livestock that women owned. While there is evidence of higher women ownership of livestock in the Southern African countries, with evidence from Botswana (Oladele and Monkhei 2008) and Zimbabwe (Chawatama et al. 2005), and Mozambique (this chapter), we did not fi nd any documented evidence of the reasons for this variation. It could be explained, however, by the differences in production systems, with the Southern African countries having more extensive livestock production systems and larger herds than are found in Kenya and Tanzania, and especially in the areas where this study was conducted. Ownership of assets by women can also be determined by culture, where some cultures may limit women's ability and choice to own assets, including livestock assets. Social and human capital are important determinants of women's empowerment. Social capital, in this study defi ned as belonging to a group, can increase both the likelihood and the extent of asset ownership by women. There is evidence that women's membership in groups can facilitate access to assets that they would otherwise not be able to access or own as individuals. In a study in Bangladesh, Kumar and Quisumbing (2010) found that women's assets increased when technologies were disseminated through groups compared to when they were disseminated through individuals. Friedemann-Sánchez (2006), in a study of women's property ownership in Colombia, found that the social capital of individuals, including their labour, kin and solidarity networks, is key to understanding both property acquisition and intra-household bargaining processes.Human capital can take many forms, including labour available to households, health and education. Education plays a major role not only for individuals' opportunities in society, but also for the productive capacity and well-being of a household. We hypothesized that women's education would have an impact on their asset ownership through various mechanisms: fi rst, that more educated women would have multiple opportunities for income and asset accumulation due to the opportunities accorded by higher education and, second, that women with higher education and therefore higher levels of human capital are able to bargain for ownership of household resources. The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD 2001) sees human assets, including education, as having two types of values: an intrinsic value in raising capabilities, which can have psychological benefi ts in terms of self-esteem or happiness (which do not necessarily translate into instrumental value); and instrumental value in raising productivity and income, which further enhances the intrinsic value or benefi ts. It is expected that women's education can have an instrumental value, which enables them to use it to further accumulate other assets such as livestock. There is ample evidence that, in most countries, women have less education than their male counterparts (World Bank 2001) although the gender education gap is narrowing.The ownership of other assets by women was expected to have an infl uence on women's ownership of livestock. This hypothesis was built upon the asset ladder, where women were expected to own small assets, such as domestic assets, farm implements and, with accumulation of these assets and a strengthening of their bargaining and voice within the household, acquire larger assets such as livestock.Across countries, there are variations in the ownership of livestock by women. We analysed the factors that infl uence the ability of women to own livestock in two key stages, in the fi rst stage we used a probit analysis to determine what infl uences whether women own livestock and in the second stage we used a linear regression model to determine the extent of ownership of livestock by women using the women-owned TLUs as a dependent variable. Table 3.3 shows that the probability of women owning livestock increased with women's ownership of other domestic assets and the factors that infl uence the value of women's TLUs. The probability of women owning livestock was also higher in Mozambique, than in both Kenya and Tanzania, as expected given the higher percentages of households where women owned livestock in Mozambique.Belonging to a group or having primary or higher education did not infl uence the probability of women owning livestock as was expected. It did, however, infl uence how many TLUs women had, with women who belonged to a group having more TLUs than those who did not belong to a group. The fi nding that belonging to a group increased women's livestock asset index by 0.11 points is supported by the fi nding by Kumar and Quisumbing (2010), in their analysis of impacts of collective and individual approaches for technology dissemination on gender asset disparities in Bangladesh, that in the cases where group approaches were used, women increased their assets more than in cases where individual approaches were used. While ownership of other assets increased the probability that women would own livestock, it did not infl uence the numbers of livestock owned by women. Women from Mozambique, as expected, owned more livestock than women in Kenya and Tanzania.Patterns of livestock ownership varied across the three countries. The results of the analysis suggest that the analysis of livestock ownership by women should use multiple methods and look at different dimensions of ownership. Chickens were the species most commonly owned by women. Poultry are important livestock for women. In the three countries, poultry contributed the highest proportion of the TLUs owned by women. Despite evidence on the role of small ruminants as an asset for women, goats contributed negligibly to women's total TLUs. Cattle, on the other hand, contributed to a signifi cant proportion of women's TLUs. For research and development programs working to increase the value of women's assets through livestock, cattle are still a very attractive option. Care must be taken, however, to ensure that women do not lose ownership and control of the cattle, as evidence shows that larger animals are more likely to be controlled by men than by women. Also, given the variation in importance of different livestock for women, a species focus should be carefully guided by this, rather than by a general assumption that small livestock are the most important for women, or that women are more likely to own these species. Further research that looks at species ownership alongside benefi ts that women get from these species would be useful, as women may own fewer of a particular species but derive more benefi ts from that species than another species where they own more.The evidence suggests that even when the proportions of households where women own livestock are high, women still own fewer livestock compared to men. Increasing access to livestock by women should focus not only on having more women own livestock, but also on ensuring that the gender gap in livestock ownership is reduced. It is also not enough to rely on grants and group purchases for increasing women's livestock ownership. Increasing women's access to credit and designing innovative mechanisms such as livestock leasing schemes, where women access livestock and repay through product sales, should be explored and scaled out where these are found to work.The concept of asset ownership is complex and can differ depending on the cultural context as well as the production system. There is a need to use participatory approaches to understand what ownership means for both men and women before collecting data on asset ownership. Ownership may imply legal ownership, where the person legally has a title to an asset or property. This is mainly applicable to assets such as land. For livestock ownership, however, there is no legal title or document to show ownership. Women mainly said they owned livestock because they had purchased the animals using their own generated income, had received the livestock individually through grants from NGOs, or had purchased them with income earned from other activities. Contrary to other evidence, purchase was still the most common means of livestock acquisition by women. This type of ownership, however, did not mean that women always had decision-making authority, or control over these livestock.Compared to other household assets, livestock are an important asset for women and contribute to a signifi cant proportion of women-owned assets. There are factors that increase the probability that women will own livestock. The role of groups in helping women accrue assets cannot be over-emphasized, despite the low numbers of women acquiring livestock through group purchases. Social capital may serve different functions, which include helping women save money that can be used to purchase livestock or increase access to credit, other fi nancial resources and output markets, all of which can play a role in helping women accumulate assets.The rapid change experienced in livestock markets in the last few decades has been attributed to the increasing demand for livestock products in both developed and developing countries owing to increases in incomes among some urban populations. Between the 1970s and 1990s for example, annual per capita meat consumption more than tripled in developing countries. Milk consumption also increased, but to a lesser extent than meat consumption, in both economies (Delgado 2003). This trend appears to continue as demonstrated by Kristensen et al. (2004), who suggest deliberate targeting of smallholder farmers for production of the needed animalbased food. The increase in demand for livestock and their products offers an opportunity for growth of livestock markets and participation in these markets by smallholder farmers. Participation in markets by smallholders is determined by numerous costs and benefi ts, such as transaction costs, which may or may not be compensated for by high revenues; prices; turnover; uncertainty; cooperation and collective initiatives; and labour and capital investment (Verhaegen and Van Huylenbroeck 2001). These and other costs and benefi ts vary with gender. This chapter looks at the gendered differences in participation by smallholder farmers in livestock markets and explains the differences using some feminist and other theories.Although some empirical evidence exists in terms of women's participation in crop and labour markets (Zaal 1999;Njuki et al. 2011a) and in extensive pastoral and agro-pastoral livestock production systems (Fratkin and Smith 1995;Nunow 2000), much less survey-based research has been done on patterns of market participation by men and women smallholder livestock farmers across livestock and their products, and what determines these patterns. This empirical gap is particularly important because substantial controversy appears to be developing around two issues, namely: what factors infl uence women's participation in product markets and how does their participation change as markets become more formalized? And are women more likely to participate in the marketing of small livestock and livestock products and mainly in informal markets? A lot of the evidence so far has been anecdotal and, where data exist, they have been on a limited number of products without comparative analysis across livestock species, products and types of markets. The research reported in this chapter undertakes to establish the types of markets and commodities (livestock species and products) in which women and men are involved.Cross-livestock product and market comparisons will enable the identifi cation of opportunities where women are likely to benefi t from market participation and to develop some of the strategies that could be adopted to increase benefi ts to women from market participation. This chapter uses both qualitative data from the focus group discussions as well as quantitative data. The data is used to explain gendered patterns of participation for different livestock and products in different markets. While women's participation in livestock markets is an important way to improve the welfare of women and their families, it is also important that women are able to make decisions about which products and animals are sold and what is done with the proceeds of the sale, otherwise, participation alone may not benefi t women (Kristjanson et al. 2010).As agriculture and livestock production become more commercialized, women smallholder farmers may not be able to compete with and benefi t like men smallholder farmers because women have a lower access to resources, including capital, than men, and they experience other social barriers unknown to men. In his work in Guatemala, Swetnam (1988) demonstrated a market-based sexual inequality, whereby most women sold goods carried high risk, the lowest profi ts and the least potential for amassing wealth. Among the Fulani of Nigeria and the Omduruman of Sudan, men seemed to become attracted by the increasing monetary importance of even traditionally women-controlled livestock products like milk and hides (Fratkin and Smith 1995), often reducing women's role to that of mere labourers (Nunow 2000). In most traditional pastoral production systems, women's priority is children's nutrition while that of men is herd growth. Traditionally, pastoral women determine what proportion of milk is to go to the children and calves, and therefore the balance between household food security and herd growth (Nunow 2000). Much of this division in gender roles is affected by the commercialization of livestock production.Women also lack secure rights to production resources including land, labour and capital (Kabeer 2001;Moser 2006), have a lower human capital (Morrison and Jutting 2005) and are, therefore, less likely to be served by formal fi nancial institutions than men. These constraints are in addition to the general constraints of high transaction costs that emanate from the lengthy channels of trade necessitated by long distances to markets, search for market outlets, transport to and from markets, lack of quality certifi cation, disorganized brokers and agents, inability to pool products in order to benefi t from economies of scale, and inter-seasonal and interregional variation of production (Fafchamps and Gabre-Madhin 2001).Owing to their nature, livestock and livestock products go through different stages of the value chain. Women's participation at each of the levels of the value chain varies due to different factors, including their skills and capacities, access to capital, constraints on mobility and their ability to organize. Anecdotal evidence and some preliminary research work on livestock value chains (Njuki et al. 2011a) indicate that in a livestock value chain, the men:women ratio, in terms of representation and control, increases as the household wealth increases and as the value of milk increases. Often too, the market value of most agricultural commodities increases as the market location moves further away from the point of production due to the added costs of transporting the commodity.Livestock and livestock product markets in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique some of which are considered in this chapter include dairy (cattle and goats), poultry (meat and eggs of predominantly exotic and indigenous chickens) and other red meats (beef, sheep and goats, and pork). Markets of these commodities are at different stages of development while some are better understood than others. For example, in Kenya, the milk market has been well studied. Smallholder dairy farmers produce up to 56 per cent of all milk produced in the country and market about 70 per cent of the milk they produce (Peeler and Omore 1997). Of the milk produced by a smallholder dairy farmer, 36 per cent is consumed at home by calves and household members and the remaining 64 per cent is marketed raw as surplus (Omore et al. 1999). Of the marketed surplus, 55 per cent is sold raw to individual and institution consumers, 38 per cent to marketing cooperatives and middle persons who then sell it raw to urban consumers and processors, and only 7 per cent is sold directly to processors (Omore et al. 1999).In Mozambique live cattle and goat marketing is quite prominent. While little information exists on the volume of these sales, data from neighbouring Zimbabwe show that sales are often in informal markets, with many sales being at farm gate, where often farmers do not have any comparative prices. A study by ICRISAT showed that households with more than 20 goats sold only 13 per cent of their fl ock while those with small fl ocks sold as much as 36 per cent of their animals each year (van Rooyen and Homann n.d.). A typical goat value chain is shown in Figure 4.1.Most of the research on women's roles in livestock marketing has been done in pastoralist areas and intensive systems. For example, a USAID (US Agency for International Development) project in the Mandera triangle (covering Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia) documents women's participation in milk, sheep and goat markets. Women sold milk and butter to traders, restaurant owners and families in nearby towns. The amount of milk and milk products sold varied based on men's decisions on how many animals to keep close to home and towns when they migrated with animals in search of pasture (USAID 2009). According to Ridgewell and Flintan (2007), trading in milk provides women with one of the few available opportunities to control their own money. Although the movement with livestock is a constraint to women's organized marketing, the growth of settlements and urban centres has increased demand for milk and led to women being more organized to meet this demand (McPeak and Doss 2006;Ridgewell and Flintan 2007). The USAID study also documented in detail the means through which women transported milk (USAID 2009: 18): Milk marketing in the northern part of Kenya is exclusively the responsibility of women. On average, it took fi ve hours to walk to the nearest town from the household in Chalbi and eight hours in Dukana. Milk production from the household herd averaged 4.5 litres per day in Chalbi and 3.5 litres per day in Dukana. The trips taken by wives to towns typically involve waking up pre-dawn, carrying some share of the milk collected the prior evening from the household herd in a small plastic or traditional woven container, and walking to town where they sell the milk themselves. They then use the income generated by these milk sales to make purchases before returning on foot to the household before night falls.Unlike the cow milk market in northern Kenya, the camel milk trade is much more sophisticated, with women mainly acting as milk collectors, often based in mobile camps which follow seasonal partial transhumance (Nori et al. 2006;USAID 2009).Women's participation in marketing of live animals, including cattle, sheep and goats, is much lower than their participation in the milk market. Evidence from Ethiopia and elsewhere (USAID 2009) suggests that many pastoral women play a signifi cant role in the selling and buying of goats and sheep, but not cattle and camels. This is mainly because, for most women, access to livestock is by virtue of their relationships to men (husbands, fathers and sons) who control livestock (Ridgewell and Flintan 2007). It would seem that women tend to have far more rights to access and disposal of livestock products like milk, butter, cheese, ghee, hides and skins than they do over the live animal itself.In both Tanzania and Mozambique, a gap exists in gender work in livestock value chains. In Tanzania, more than 90 per cent of the livestock population are of indigenous types, with characteristically low productivity, kept in the traditional sector, but well adapted to the existing harsh environment, including resistance to diseases (Njombe and Msanga 2009). Of the 18.8 million cattle found in the country about 560,000 are dairy cattle, which consist of Friesian, Jersey, Ayrshire breeds and their crosses to the East African Zebu. Seventy per cent of the milk is produced by Zebu cattle (Njombe and Msanga 2009). In Tanzania, research on livestock has focused more on the ecology and political economy of extensive livestock production systems, and on cattle, than other production systems and livestock species (for examples see Madox 1996;Fleisher 1998;Brockington 2001). Work on markets, too, is generalized for multiple commodities, with most discourses hinging on the fact that markets and the general infrastructure are poorly developed.Even less is known about Mozambique livestock value chains. The limited research in livestock production reveals that the state of livestock production is low, and so is the state of consumption of livestock products. Mozambique ranks among the bottom 10 global meat-consuming countries and constitutes one of the bottom quartile countries of combined global meat and fi sh consumers (Speedy 2003). This is in spite of the continuing great global increase in production of livestock products, especially in poultry meat and eggs, milk and pig production (Speedy 2003). In contrast to the low livestock production, Mozambique counts as one of the few African countries that produce crop residues in excess of the amount that can be used by the existing livestock population (Kossila 1988). Mozambique, therefore, appears to be a promising livestock producer for the local and export markets. In a study on the cattle population in a part of southern Mozambique, 20 per cent of the cattle maintained were work oxen used for ploughing and transportation using small sledges. Farmers milked these draught cattle during the rainy season (Rocha et al. 1991).Gendered preferences for livestock and livestock products were found to be determined by four main economic factors, namely: benefi ts from income; the security of owning the livestock as an asset; marketability of the livestock or product; and labour requirements for production and management of the livestock. Farmers' preferences could also be motivated by cultural and socio-economic incentives (Duvel and Stephanus 2000), which are less well explored than the more tangible economic ones (Jabbar et al. 1998).Figure 4.2 shows the livestock species and product preferences of men and women. In Tanzania, the biggest differences in preference between men and women were found in indigenous and exotic chickens, where women gave a much higher preference score than men did. Cattle, goats and bees received an almost equal preference score from both men and women. In terms of products, women gave a higher preference for manure than men did. All the other products (milk, eggs, honey) had an almost equal preference by men and women. The high preference for manure could be due to the importance manure plays in increasing crop production and productivity, and the important role that women play in crop production and in ensuring household food security. In Kenya, there was a much more distinct gender difference in the preference for both the livestock species and the products. Women had a stronger preference for dairy goats, local chickens and dairy cows. The preference for chickens and dairy goats on the part of women compared to men could be due to the fact that both chickens and goats do not require the owner to be a land owner. Free range indigenous chickens often survive with minimal supplementation (Kitalyi 1998) while scavenging in backyards, while dairy goats can be zero grazed under the cutand-carry (fodder) system. Women preferred indigenous chickens due to their low maintenance cost, disease resistance and marketability.Dairy goats were preferred by women due to high kidding rates and the income earned from the sale of milk. The main difference between dairy goat milk and cow milk markets is that the goat milk market is predominantly informal, and although the milk is thought to have better nutritional quality than cow milk, the market remains relatively small and informal, and dominated by women.Men had a higher preference score for dairy cattle and meat goats than did women. Men in Kenya found indigenous chickens to be undesirable because of their very low monetary value. These scores were similarly refl ected in the products, where women had a much higher preference score for local eggs, honey and goat milk. Among the products, the main advantage cited for honey preference by both women and men was its medicinal value.The main advantages of keeping dairy cattle cited by men in Kenya included the high value of cows and milk in monetary and nutrition (milk) terms. The disadvantages of keeping cattle, cited mainly by women in Kenya in reference to dairy cattle, included the high monetary cost of maintenance, too many labour demands and poor disease resistance. Men had a higher preference for cattle, both dairy and indigenous, than women. This could be explained by using Herskovits's (1924) concept of the East African cultural area. In the area, the cattle culture in which milk was used for subsistence and cattle for economic purposes was superimposed on the main agricultural culture. The fact that milk was for subsistence suggests that it was a women's product, and that cattle were kept for economic purposes suggests that cattle were men's commodities. This observation is supported by the following passage: \"Cows in the north are sometimes tended by women and occasionally milked by them. This is never permitted in the south where only men must tend them\" (Herskovits 1924: 50). As a vestige of this culture, therefore, cattle still remain predominantly, and sometimes exclusively, men's property in sub-Saharan Africa.Eating roasted goat meat is a popular part of urban culture in both Tanzania and Kenya. The very well-developed urban goat-meat markets in Kenya may explain the exclusive preference for meat goats by men. Women in Kenya had less interest in meat goats because they saw no nutritional or monetary benefi t from them. Women mentioned one of the disadvantages of the local goats predominantly used for the meat trade as destroying crops, as they are not reared using the cut-and-carry system that is common for dairy goats.In Mozambique, women and men were asked to rank their livestock species preferences. Men preferred keeping cattle more than women, and women preferred keeping chickens more than men. Both women and men in Mozambique preferred raising sheep and goats almost equally. Owing to colonial and postcolonial land tenure systems and the more recent post-war land administration in Mozambique, women's initial control of everyday land management has been drastically eroded (Gengenbach 1998). As in Kenya and Tanzania, the preference for goats and chickens by women in Mozambique may be explained by their ability to keep these species on relatively small pieces of land. In order to own cattle, one needs to have some control over land. Because men own land and enjoy security of tenure, and because they are able to make decisions about the land as heads of families, they are able to keep land-dependent livestock like cattle in whatever numbers the available land can hold in all three countries.As indicated in chapter 3, more women owned cattle in Mozambique than in Kenya and Tanzania. Compared to the East African countries, among communities in Mozambique, which constitutes the southern part of the eastern cultural area, cattle have a stronger cultural importance for men than in other more northerly areas (Tanzania and Kenya) because of the cultural infl uence of the Southern African communities that Herskovits (1924) termed the \"Bushmen\" and \"Hottentots\", whose main culture was cattle based. In these communities, men owned the cattle, but women milked them.A quantitative analysis of the proportion of women and men selling different livestock products in markets in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique was conducted to help establish what markets existed for each product in each country, and who (men and women) sold in what market. Men and women were asked what livestock species and products they sold as individuals and jointly if married, and in which markets.Several different markets that both men and women sold to were identifi ed. They included farm gate to other farmers; farm gate to traders; delivery to traders; village market; city market; and specialized markets such as for honey, or collection centres and chilling plants for milk. It was expected that there would be price differences between these markets as well as differences in the costs of marketing.In Kenya, women sold 63.9 per cent of the total value of chickens sold while men only sold 6.5 per cent. Another 28.7 per cent of the total value of chickens sold by the households was sold jointly by men and women as shown in Figure 4.3. These results match with the preferences expressed by women during the focus group discussions and are in line with other results from Kenya. A study in Kajiado district, Kenya, found that women were the main sellers of chickens, and sold the birds to buy household provisions and feed and drugs for the remaining chickens, which were kept to be sold as a business (Muthiani et al. 2011). Women's participation in chicken and egg markets was higher than in other products. In another study in peri-urban areas of Kenya, Ngeno et al. (2011) found that in over 80 per cent of households, chickens were sold by women, and in over 95 per cent of households, eggs were also sold by women.The most common market for women for chickens was farm gate, with 70 per cent of the total value of chickens sold by women being sold at farm gate to other farmers and traders, as shown in Figure 4.4. This is in contrast to men, who did not sell any chickens at farm gate to other farmers, although they did sell 29 per cent of the chickens they sold at farm gate to other traders. The most common chicken market for men was delivery to traders, where men sold 56 per cent of the total value of the chickens they sold. Women only delivered 22 per cent of their chicken sales to other traders. Similar patterns were observed for sale of eggs and milk. Of the total value of eggs sold by households, women sold 89.1 per cent, while men sold only 8.9 per cent. Only 2 per cent of egg sales were done jointly by men and women. Of the eggs sold by women, close to 69 per cent were sold at farm gate to other farmers  Men Women JointHoney -Kenya FIGURE 4.4 Types of markets where men and women sold chickens, eggs, honey and milk in Kenya and traders, with less than 10 per cent being delivered to traders. Joint sales were all delivered to traders. Similarly for milk: women mainly sold at farm gate to other farmers and traders. Overall, 82.3 per cent of the milk sold by women was sold through these two channels. Men, on the other hand, only sold 61.1 per cent of the milk they sold at farm gate to other farmers and traders. Women rarely delivered milk to collection centres or to traders, with less than 15 per cent of the milk they sold going to these channels. Men delivered 27.8 per cent of their milk to traders and 11.1 per cent to collection centres. Joint sales were made mainly to traders at farm gate (50 per cent), and delivered to traders (33.3 per cent) and to collection centres (16.7 per cent). Other studies have found predominant sales of milk by women. Among the Fulani of Nigeria, Waters-Bayer (1985) found that women were responsible for all milk processing and sales, including sales to village markets and door-to-door consumers. In Senegal, Dieye et al. (2005) found that milk production was entirely controlled by women, who had sole control over the sale of any surplus.The responses to the question of who sells livestock species and products demonstrate a variation in the types of markets commonly accessed by men and women. Women were found to sell more at farm gate to other farmers and traders than to other channels that required delivery outside their homes, such as collection centres, traders and village markets. This could be due to time constraints on women, and the transaction costs involved in selling to outside markets, including costs of transport to these markets. In many cases, women do not own or control these means of transport. There is evidence that the level of women's participation diminishes as vertical integration of markets occurs, and as markets move away from sites of production and the value chain becomes more complex with multiple actors (Njuki et al. 2011b;Pionetti et al. 2011).In Kenya, the formal dairy sector has been male-dominated due to over-reliance on cooperatives, which has limited women's participation. Marketing cooperative membership was constituted by men almost entirely because the cooperatives' function was to market produce and men controlled most cash commodities (Jacobs 1983), which include milk. In addition, some cooperatives require that members have bank accounts, through which members are paid. These dairy cooperative terms and conditions are more favourable for men than women in Kenya (Morton and Miheso 2000). Rural women are less likely than rural men to have bank accounts, making them averse to the formal dairy industry. Women may, therefore, prefer products with less formalized markets, such as goat milk, indigenous eggs, honey and manure, which are both benefi cial for use at home as well as for sale in the informal markets. This tendency of women being relegated to informal markets and farm gate sales has also been noted in Tanzania (Eskola 2005). Women sometimes prefer informal markets because most rural women conduct small businesses in the informal markets in order to provide for their families, irrespective of whether they come from male-or female-headed households (Aspaas 1998). These markets provide women with more regular payments, either on a daily or weekly basis, compared to other formal channels, which have more formal and irregular modes of payment.Joint sales were common across most of the products. This issue of \"jointness\" requires further research to explore what this really means.In Tanzania, eggs and milk were mainly sold by women, with women selling 66.7 per cent of the total value of eggs sold and 53.3 per cent of the total value of milk sold as shown in Figure 4.5.It is only in these two products that women sold more than men. Men sold 50.4 per cent of the total value of live chickens sold by the households, 83.3 per cent of the value of cattle sold and 75 per cent of the honey. There were more equitable sales for some commodities compared to others. For example for milk, men sold 40 per cent of the value, women sold 53.3 per cent of the value and 6.7 per cent was sold jointly. In contrast, men sold 83.3 per cent of the value of sheep and goats sold while women only sold 8.8 per cent and 7.4 per cent was sold jointly.Farm gate to either farmers or to traders was the predominant market for sales of all commodities by men and women as well as joint sales. Similar to Kenya, women sold most of the chickens they sold at farm gate to other farmers and to traders (88 per cent) as shown in Figure 4.6. Men also sold most of the chickens they sold at farm gate (79 per cent). The key difference is who they sold to. While women sold 66 per cent to other farmers, men only sold 32 per cent of the chickens they sold to other farmers, with the rest of the farm gate sales being sold to traders. Twenty per cent of the sales by men were delivered to traders, village markets or city markets, while women only sold 12 per cent to these off-farm markets.Most of the egg sales by men and women were made at farm gate to other farmers. Of the total value of eggs sold by women, 79 per cent was sold at farm  gate to other farmers. For men, 67 per cent of the egg sales were done at farm gate to other farmers. Similar to chickens, deliveries to traders, village markets and city markets were low for both men and women, although they were much lower for women. For example, only 4 per cent of egg sales by women were deliveries to traders, compared to 11 per cent of sales by men through this channel.In contrast to Kenya where the milk markets were diversifi ed and included formal markets (collection centres and chilling plants), in Tanzania households sold through only two channels, at farm gate to other farmers and to traders, both informal channels. All the milk sold by women was sold at farm gate to other farmers. Men split sales between other farmers and traders with the majority (67 per cent) being sold to other farmers and 33 per cent being sold to traders, all at farm gate. Joint sales of milk were all done at farm gate to traders.In Mozambique, we found very few cases of sales of livestock products such as eggs and milk and the analysis focuses more on the sale of cattle, sheep and goats, and chickens.Most of the cattle sales (over 75 per cent) were done by men, with very low participation in sale of cattle by women as shown in Figure 4.7. In contrast, women made most of the chicken sales, with close to 70 per cent of the chicken sales being done by women, 24 per cent of the sales being done by men and the rest jointly. The sale of sheep and goats was more equitable than cattle and chickens, with men selling about 43 per cent of the total value of sheep and goats sold by households, women selling 47 per cent and the rest being sold jointly.  Women's participation in markets beyond the farm Women were found to participate in other points of livestock value chains beyond the farm. Participatory value chain mapping showed women involved as traders of livestock products in markets, in formal and informal outlets as well as service providers.In Kenya, two scenarios were presented by two groups of farmers on what happens to milk once it leaves the farm and women's involvement. As shown in Figure 4.8, at farm gate, milk is used for home consumption, sold to farmers or sold to traders or brokers. According to the group members, about 60 per cent of the sales at farm gate are done by women. All the brokers buying from the farmers were men. Once they bought the milk from the farmers, it went through three different channels: direct to consumers, to restaurants and shops, and to a processing plan. Farmers estimated about 50 per cent of the restaurant and shop owners were women.The goat value chain was much shorter with more varied participation of women. Goat milk was consumed at home, sold to neighbours or sold to a collection centre. Milk sales at home to neighbours were mainly done by women (90 per cent) while sales to the collection centre were mainly done by men. Goats were sold mainly to other farmers, to brokers or retained as breeding stock. Sales to others were done by either men or women. However, the farmers felt that for the same type of goats, women got much lower prices than men did.Results in this chapter show that preferences of livestock species and products, and the production and marketing of these commodities were gendered in the three countries. Men and women preferred producing commodities that they were able to market and thus control income accrued from their sales. Women were more active in the marketing of livestock products such as eggs and milk and in the marketing of small stock, especially chickens (in all three countries), and sheep and goats in Mozambique. They also participated more in farm gate markets, either to other farmers or to traders, compared to men who were more likely to sell to outside markets.Women tend to face more challenges than men in accessing and benefi ting from markets, especially more formal markets. These could include limited mobility; time poverty; lack of access to assets that would facilitate their participation, such as transport and communication assets, and bank accounts; and lack of access to market information. These constraints limit women to participating more at farm gate markets rather than markets outside their homes.Paying attention to women's constraints to marketing by providing skills and training, increasing access to assets and technologies, and applying appropriate legal and institutional mechanisms can enable women to effectively participate in these formal value chains. In some cases, however, women are able to participate in  different types of markets including distant regional markets. Understanding the determinants of women's participation in markets can help identify intervention areas that will optimize women's participation while optimizing their benefi ts. Collective action can also promote women's livelihoods and support women's empowerment. From an agriculture and markets perspective, women can pool labour, resources, assets and even marketable products to overcome gender-specifi c barriers that constrain them from participating in economic activities. Collective action has especially been shown to increase women's access to markets and services.While this chapter focused mainly on women as suppliers of livestock and livestock products, some of the participatory value chain mapping showed that women were also actors in other points of the value chains as traders, restaurant and shop owners, as well as workers in collection and processing centres.Allocation of resources including assets and income within households has been a focus of research since the early 1990s. Different models of resource allocation, their assumptions and limitations have been discussed by several authors including the unitary model and the collective model (Marchant 1997;Udry 1996). The unitary model has been rejected in both developed and developing countries, with important implications for policy, practice and evaluation methods (Behrman 1997;Hoddinot and Haddad 1995;Strauss and Thomas 1995).While the infl uence of women-managed assets and income on development outcomes such a child nutrition, education and women's own empowerment have been studied (Quisumbing 2003;World Bank 2001), the main factors in or preconditions for women's management of income have not been studied to the same level. This chapter assumes the collective, non-cooperative, household model in which husbands and wives may pool part of their income (joint income) but retain individual incomes. Analyses of \"shared\" income management can clarify whether management by both women and men signifi es a genuine interdependence in an environment of cooperation or male dominance in a confl icting environment. Just as in joint decision-making, joint management could represent empowerment or disempowerment due to cooperation or confl ict (Kabeer 2001). In this chapter we analyse patterns of income management from sales of livestock and livestock products, and the factors that affect income control and management by women, focusing on household, intra-household and non-household factors. We especially analyse the differences in women's management of income across livestock and livestock products, the role of markets and women's participation in markets, as well as how women's income management is infl uenced by the amount of income going into the household. The chapter adds to the recent evidence by expanding on the models of intra-household resource allocation using data from an individual source income (in this case livestock) and through the collection of data from multiple individuals within households, in this case from men and women. As Doss (1996) points out, the estimation and use of the non-cooperative models requires much more detailed data on individual earnings and resources and how these are managed or transferred among individuals.The unitary household model assumes that members have identical preferences and that household income is pooled (Marchant 1997;Udry 1996). Thus, individual preferences and bargaining weights for time and income allocation do not matter (Marchant 1997;Udry 1996). The cooperative bargaining model, on the other hand, perceives the household as a unit consisting of sub-units, with agency, who negotiate about the distribution of benefi ts, including income among households. From an income perspective, Doss (1996) distinguishes between \"pooled\" income, which is income that is put into a common pot and either the household head, who is assumed to be an altruist, makes decisions on the allocation, or the household bargains as to how the income should be allocated. For \"non-pooled income\" household members have separate incomes and individual budget constraints, and individuals may bargain over how much of their income will be joint or allocated to joint expenditure. The measurement of men and women's income in this chapter uses the concept of non-pooled income, with men and women managing distinct income, but also allocating income to some joint utility functions.Women's income, and their ability to manage it, is especially vital to the survival of many households (Bruce 1989). Men and women play different roles in agricultural production but their participation in markets, their returns on labour and their patterns of economic participation often differ. Women's income has been associated with both individual and household benefi ts. Sen (1985) argues that earnings or income managed by women can provide leverage for women by offering them a fallback position in the event of a divorce, and a greater ability to deal with threats and also use threats within marriage. Women's management of income provides them with a greater bargaining power and has been shown to reduce domestic violence. The author, however, cautions that women's earning power can serve to subjugate them further, especially if men's spending on the household reduces as women manage more income.Women's management of income has been associated with improved child nutritional status. Studies in Kenya, Botswana, Ghana, Jamaica and Guatemala (Blumberg 1988;Engle 1993;Knudsen and Yates 1981;Tripp 1981) have found a positive correlation between mothers' income and child nutritional status. Hoddinot and Haddad (1995) found an increase in anthropometric measures of children with increasing management of income my women. Similarly, Bennett (1988) found that the greater the extent of a woman's infl uence over the allocation of income (whether pooled or individual), the better the child's dietary intake and nutritional status was. Other evidence suggests that children benefi t when women have increased access to fi nancial assets (Green and White 1997), just as they do better when their mothers control a larger percentage of family income. When women control a larger fraction of the family fi nancial resources, more resources are allocated for children's needs.It therefore follows that when women lose control of income, what is affected is not only their relative marital/familial power (and self-esteem) but also family wellbeing (Blumberg 1988). Early studies by Hanger and Morris (1973) have explored this negative relationship and found that a reduction in women's income brought about by development projects that aim to maximize women's labour inputs into male-controlled crops had a negative impact on children's nutrition. These trends are mainly as a result of differences in expenditure patterns between men and women. Early studies on men and women's expenditure patterns of income under their control showed women spent almost 100 per cent of their income on family while men only spent a portion of their income on the family, even when the overall income was not suffi cient to meet family needs. These patterns may be defi ned by the perceived traditional roles of men and women, where men provide such items as housing and schooling while women are responsible for the food, nutrition and health of the family.More often than not, the management of income by women is not commensurate with the time allocated to the activities from which the income is derived. The view of men as heads of households who should be responsible for income earned in the household and women's weaker bargaining power all play a part in reducing the amount of income that women manage or control, especially from family and/ or joint activities within the household such as agriculture production. Even when women have control over such income (e.g. from women's cropped plots, small livestock, own earnings), the commercialization of production can erode this control. There is some evidence that, as agricultural products become commercialized, women have often lost control and management of the income derived from these products (Katz 2000;Kennedy and Cogill 1987;Njuki et al. 2011;von Braun 1995;von Braun and Webb 1989;von Braun et al. 1989).Despite this association of women's management of income with important development outcomes, the World Development Report (World Bank 2012) documents that in some countries many women continue not to make decisions even on their own income. For example as many as 34 per cent of married women in Malawi and 28 per cent of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo are not involved in decisions about spending their earnings. And 18 per cent of married women in India and 14 per cent in Nepal are largely silent on how their earned money is spent. Within agriculture, studies on women's management of income have mainly been done from crop production activities (Kennedy and Cogill 1987;Njuki et al. 2011;von Braun 1995). With the projected increased demand for livestock and livestock products especially for urban consumers (Delgado 2003), it is expected that the markets and marketing systems for livestock and livestock products are changing and will continue to change in the near future. How this will affect the management and control by women, especially of livestock products such as milk and eggs, has not been studied. And while studies have been done on the extent to which women manage income and the impacts of technology and commercialization on this, the factors that infl uence women's management of income have been less studied.Often the interventions to increase benefi ts from markets, be they agricultural or non-agricultural, have shied away from trying to change intra-household dynamics that infl uence income management, due to a lack of clarity on how best to infl uence intra-household income and resource allocation. Those working on the development of or research on these interventions either assume a unitary model, where the main objective is to increase the income of the household or the head of the household, with the assumption that this will lead to the income being distributed within the family without a consideration of the degree to which this income will leak out to other purposes or be allocated for the benefi t of the welfare of all household members. While there has been concern about the distributional impact of interventions, especially market-led interventions, this has often focused on class disparities rather than within-household disparities. One of the approaches that development programs have taken is to focus on targeting strategies, such as working with women's groups, anticipating that they will increase income under the management of women from such approaches.Sale of milk and chickens provided the largest amount of income in Kenya, while sale of cattle generated the largest amount of income in Mozambique (see Figure 5.1). In Tanzania the amount of income from different livestock and livestock products did not vary greatly. In Kenya milk was an important source of income, contributing up to 40 per cent of all the livestock income and 29 per cent of all the household income. Sale of sheep and goats was the second largest contributor to both total livestock and household income. In contrast, the largest contributor to income in Mozambique was sale of cattle (37 per cent of livestock income and 31 per cent of household income), followed by sale of sheep and goats (31 per cent of livestock income and 25 per cent of household income). In Tanzania the largest contributor to livestock income was sale of chickens, which was 31 per cent of the total livestock income and 7 per cent of the total household income. Looking across the three countries, livestock as a source of income were least important in Tanzania, where none of the livestock species or products contributed more than 10 per cent of the household income.While women's roles in livestock production and marketing differ from one production system to another, from region to region and country to country, women do provide most of the labour in livestock in sub-Saharan Africa. The  control of income from these livestock and their products also differs depending on the type of livestock and the type of livestock product, among other things. There is a common perception that women are more likely to own small stock, such as chickens, sheep and goats, rather than larger animals, such as cattle, water buffaloes and camels, and therefore will benefi t more from small stock than from the larger stock (Kristjanson et al. 2010). Studies have shown, however, that women may manage income from sale of livestock products even when they do not own the livestock itself. For example Waters-Bayer (1988), in a study in Nigeria, found that although women did not own cattle, they controlled and managed income from the sale of milk.In Tanzania, women managed more income from the sale of small livestock than large livestock. For example, they managed 49 per cent of income from the sale of chickens and 33 per cent of income from the sale of sheep and goats compared to 24 per cent of income from the sale of cattle. On management of livestock and their products, women managed 50 per cent of the income from the sale of milk, which was much higher than their income share from the sale of cattle (24 per cent). This pattern was not true for chickens and eggs, however. While women managed 49 per cent of the income from chickens, they only managed 29 per cent of the income from eggs. Most of the income from eggs (67 per cent) was managed jointly. There are several reasons for the patterns on management of eggs, the main one being the commercial nature of the egg markets in both Kenya and Uganda, where there is a growing demand in the larger cities and therefore eggs are produced more for the urban population than for local rural consumers. This commercialization has led to the egg business becoming more and more male dominated. In Kenya, most of the income was reported as jointly managed. There was no signifi cant difference in the proportion of income managed by women from the large and small stock. They managed almost the same proportion of income from the sale of chickens, cattle, and sheep and goats (26 per cent, 22 per cent and 30 per cent respectively). Analysing across different livestock species and their products, women managed 26 per cent of income from chickens compared to 24 per cent of income from the sale of eggs. In Mozambique, there was almost equal management of income between men and women, and joint management for cattle and goat sales. In contrast to the other two countries, women managed a smaller proportion of the income from chickens than from cattle, sheep and goats. From focus group discussions in Mozambique it was evident that women are very involved in the marketing of livestock, especially goats, whereby there exists a thriving trade in goats, mainly controlled by women traders who purchase goats from the district and bring them into the capital city, Maputo, by train.The type of market that a product is sold to has been shown to infl uence the income share going to women (Njuki et al. 2011). There is evidence that women are more likely to sell to informal, often near-to-home markets, and that income derived from these markets will be managed by women. There were several markets that livestock and livestock products were sold to: farm gate to other farmers, farm gate to traders, village markets, and delivery to shops/traders/butchers and other market actors.Generally, women are expected to manage a larger income share when products are sold in informal markets, often at farm gate, compared to when they are sold in distant markets, or when delivered under contract or other arrangements to formal establishments such as shops and butcheries. At farm gate level, it was expected that women would sell more and therefore manage more income if products were sold to other farmers than when sold to traders, often due to their lower negotiation skills and social capital from interactions with other farmers.In Tanzania, when chickens were delivered to traders and shops away from home, women lost up to 35 per cent of the income share that they would have managed if they sold chickens at farm gate to other farmers (Figure 5.3). When chickens were sold at farm gate to other farmers, women received a 70 per cent share of the income. This share, however, fell to 45 per cent when chickens were sold at farm gate to other traders, and further to 28 per cent when the chickens were delivered to traders, shops or hotels. Similar trends were observed for other products. For milk, when sold at farm gate to other farmers, women's income share was 74 per cent. This fell by more than 50 per cent to 32 per cent when the milk was delivered to traders, shops or hotels. At farm gate, selling eggs to traders instead of to other farmers, reduced women's income share by 24 per cent. This trend was not observed, however, for the sale of cattle, sheep and goats, which did not seem to be greatly infl uenced by the type of market. Similar to Tanzania, in Kenya women managed the highest proportion of income from chickens and eggs when these products were sold at farm gate to other farmers (Figure 5.4). Selling eggs at farm gate to traders and not other farmers also reduced the income share going to women by close to 20 per cent. Unlike in Tanzania, however, the proportion of chicken income managed by women was much higher when chickens were sold to village markets than when sold at farm gate to other traders.Income management patterns were less clear for the sale of cattle, sheep, goats and milk. Women managed the largest income share from the sale of sheep and goats when these were sold in the village market, and from the sale of cattle if cattle were sold at farm gate to other traders. This could be due to lower sales of these species among farmers. In Mozambique the most common sales were of chickens, cattle, sheep and goats. There was no reported sale of milk and eggs, either at farm gate or through other channels. Similar to Kenya and Tanzania, women managed the highest proportion of income from sales at farm gate to other farmers for chickens, sheep and goats (see Figure 5.5).Women's participation in market transactions can infl uence the extent to which they manage income. Often, development programs focus on increasing access to markets by women to enhance their benefi ts and management of income from these market linkages. In Tanzania, this was true across all the species and products. For chickens and milk, women managed close to 100 per cent of the income when they sold the chickens and milk themselves, compared to only 26 per cent and 17 per cent for chickens and milk respectively when these products were sold by men. Even in the case of sheep and goats, women managed 60 per cent of the income when they made the actual sale, compared to 35 per cent when men made the actual sale (Figure 5.6).These results show the value of linking women farmers to markets so that they are able to do the negotiations and carry out the transactions themselves. Women often face different constraints in participating in markets, including issues of mobility, balancing household reproductive and care work with market participation, access to information and infrastructural facilities in markets, low literacy and negotiation skills. While development programs aiming to increase benefi ts to women through markets have focused on addressing these constraints, these results show that if addressing these constraints can facilitate women's direct participation in markets they will also infl uence intra-household income management and resource allocation in favour of women. Such programs, however, need to work with men as what little income women control may substitute for former male household member contributions if men retain more of their income for their own individual use.There is both anecdotal and documented evidence on changes in control of products or enterprises once they become more commercialized or successful, or once the total income from these products becomes large (Njuki et al. 2011). Although the study did not collect time series data on change in income management over time, we use different species and correlate the total amounts received from each and the income share that goes to women. In Kenya, milk which was the livestock enterprise that paid the most had the lowest share of income managed by women, while sheep, goats and eggs had the lowest amounts of income and a higher proportion of the income from these was managed by women. In Tanzania, although there was no linear relationship between the total amount of money made from different livestock and livestock products and the income share managed by women, products or livestock that had high incomes (with the exception of milk) also had the lowest share of income managed by women (products on the left side of Figure 5.8 such as eggs and cattle). Livestock and livestock products with lower amounts of total income (i.e. sheep and goats, honey and chickens), had higher income shares managed by women. Mozambique had too few livestock and livestock products sold to enable a comparison of total income and income share managed by women across species and products.Other intra-household, household and community factors can infl uence women's management of livestock income. Ownership of assets (including human capital, land, domestic assets and livestock) has been shown by various studies to increase  women's decision-making and women's empowerment (Kabeer 2001). Ownership of livestock by women may give them more decision-making authority on the disposal or the use of the livestock products as well as management of the income.We ran a probit analysis to analyse the factors that increase the probability of women managing income from livestock and livestock products. Several factors were found to be important in increasing the probability of women managing income from livestock and livestock products across several species and products. Women's ownership of livestock increased the probability that they would control livestock income, and specifi cally income from the sale of milk, eggs and cattle. Women's ownership of other assets increased the probability that they would manage livestock income from all sources except chickens (i.e. from sale of milk, eggs, cattle and sheep and goats). Studies have shown that women who own assets and property feel more empowered than those who do not and have more decision-making authority within the households (Agarwal 1994a(Agarwal , 1994b;;Blackden and Bhanu 1999;UNDP 1996;World Bank 1999). Using studies in Asia, Agarwal (1998) concluded that the gender gap in ownership and control over property is the most important factor affecting women's economic and social wellbeing and their empowerment. In a study in Nepal, Pandey (2003) found that out of 293 women, 80 per cent managed household fi nances. The percentage of women who managed fi nances was, however, much higher for women in households where men and women owned property (92 per cent), and when women were sole owners (86 per cent) compared to households where husbands were sole owners  (79 per cent). Increasing women's control over land, physical assets and fi nancial assets can improve child health and nutrition, and increase expenditures on education, contributing to overall poverty reduction (Meinzen-Dick et al. 2011).The location where the sale was made infl uenced the probability of women managing income. As discussed earlier, women were more likely to manage livestock income when sales were made at farm gate compared to when products or livestock were delivered to traders outside the farm or sold at village markets. Women were less likely to manage income from eggs, chickens and cattle if these were delivered to traders compared to if they were sold at farm gate or in village markets. Results from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have shown similar trends in the marketing of crops (Njuki et al. 2011). Results on the role of women making market transactions or doing sales direct infl uencing their ability to manage income have been discussed above. There are several reasons for women's higher participation in farm gate sales and their income management from these types of sales compared to those made away from home. Where women are unable to transport livestock and livestock products to market, men generally make the fi nancial transactions and retain the income. Their roles therefore tend to diminish as the formal markets expand unless strategies are pursued that ensure they participate in these markets. The need to balance their reproductive roles and market-based roles may, however, limit their participation, with most of their sales being made at farm gate where market participation can be combined with other household activities. Although in many cases these farm gate markets may not be as profi table, they are important in diversifying income sources for women, building their confi dence in dealing with markets and providing them with much needed cash fl ow that they can manage and control.In wealthier households, women were expected to be managing more income from livestock than in poorer households. Research has shown that where there are multiple sources of income, women are more likely to manage income from some of these sources (Njuki et al. 2011). In wealthier households, women were more likely to manage income from the sale of livestock products (eggs) but not the livestock itself.Women use social capital for different purposes: as a social mechanism, for accumulation of assets and for accessing markets, among others. Belonging to a group increased the probability that women would manage income from the sale of some livestock species such as chickens. Social capital has been shown to give women voice and to offer opportunities for women to save money and access credit which, in turn, empowers women. Mayoux (2002), refers to these as the virtuous spirals, that as women through social capital, asset accumulation and income control change, their role in household decision-making also increases. Women playing a greater economic role can in turn transform gender relations at the household and community level, leading to further asset and income accumulation by women. Social capital, and the benefi ts that come with it, can be a strong catalyst for this spiral of change. Groups can increase women's access to information and support women's economic activity.The study fi nds that women's management of income from livestock and livestock products differs both across products and across species. Women managed more income from small livestock and livestock products than from the larger stock in some of the studied countries. The types of markets that livestock and livestock products are sold to, and who they are sold to in these markets, infl uences women's management of income. When livestock and livestock products are sold at farm gate to other farmers, women manage a signifi cantly higher proportion of income compared to when the livestock and products are sold in village markets or delivered to traders. For some of the livestock and livestock products, selling in marketing channels other than at farm gate reduced income share going to women by over 20 per cent. Not all farm gate sales, however, lead to management of income by women. Due to women's low negotiation skills, sales to traders at farm gate are often done by men and most of the income from such sales goes to them, which means lower income shares for women. This is not to say that women should be confi ned to farm gate sales to other farmers, which in a lot of cases means lower prices as the scope for negotiation and access to information from the market are lower, but any interventions to improve marketing of livestock and livestock products, such as formalizing milk marketing through cooperatives, should take account of the lower income share that women manage from these markets and put in place appropriate mechanisms to ensure that women do not lose their management of income with such market changes.The participation of women in marketing infl uences the proportion of income that they manage. Various development programs seeking to link smallholder farmers to markets have focused on how to get women to participate more in market-oriented agriculture as well as increase the benefi ts to markets. This in turn will infl uence the intra-household income management which is more often diffi cult to infl uence directly. The strategy of linking women directly to markets, while it has the potential to lead to these intra-household income allocation changes in favour of women, should, however, take into account the balance between women's reproductive and care work and the market work as well as the danger of men misallocating funds to their own individual uses once women start managing higher income share from agricultural marketing. These programs would need to work with both men and women to ensure that both participate and benefi t from these programs.Market participation by women and their income management is also infl uenced by their ownership of the livestock itself. Although there is evidence of women marketing and managing income from sale of products such as milk, even when they do not own the cattle, the ownership of cattle by women increases signifi cantly the likelihood that women will manage income from their sale. Ownership of assets such a livestock does not, however, only increase the likelihood that women will manage income, but also has positive consequences for other development outcomes such as nutrition and the education of children, due to the different expenditure patterns between men and women and due to the empowering nature of asset ownership. Programs targeting increasing women's ownership of livestock have potential to reduce the gender asset gap found in many developing countries.Given the assumption of the collective households where there is choice whether or not to pool income and where the more likely scenario is both individual and pooled income, data on market participation, income earnings and income management need to be collected at individual level. This needs to go beyond collecting individual-level data that is reported by one member of the household to interviewing both men and women, especially in households with both a male and a female adult. It is only in this way that the full extent of intra-household income and resource distribution issues can be better understood and strategies designed to address them.Information is an economic resource, and \"information poverty\" is increasingly being recognized as one of the prime causes of underdevelopment (Chowdhury 2006;Romer 1993). Access to information is more likely to be limited for those who are already marginalized -by their limited access to other resources, by their location in remote rural areas, or by their gender. The United Nations (UN) considers that after poverty and violence, the third major challenge facing women in developing countries is lack of access to information (Primo 2003).Why is access to information so important? Households whose access to information is either limited, or very costly, may be unaware of other resources available to them, may fail to allocate their resources effi ciently, may forgo incomeenhancing opportunities, or may bear unnecessarily high levels of risk. This would be the case if, for example, individuals are unaware of several forms of information, including the requirements for obtaining loans with favourable conditions, how to obtain land titles, existing markets for their products, available technologies that could increase their profi ts, and how to insure themselves against idiosyncratic shocks. In the specifi c context of fi nancial markets, inadequate access to information can lead producers to choose a suboptimal loan, savings or insurance strategy despite the options available to them, or to simply abstain from participating in formal fi nancial markets (Stango and Zinman 2008).Addressing the challenges faced by the livestock sector depends increasingly on an effective and effi cient fl ow of information. This is crucial to addressing the production, economic, environmental and health aspects, among others, of the sector. Whether on a small or a large scale, women and men producers and processors depend on information related to markets, consumer demands and disease patterns to help them plan their enterprises. The lack of transparent, timely and reliable livestock marketing information is seen by many as one of the greatest challenges to the development of the livestock industry in East Africa. Without access to information about livestock prices at different regional markets, livestock keepers cannot identify which points-of-sale offer the best prices for their livestock and livestock products.While information is increasingly recognized as an important resource for development, there is little empirical evidence on the extent of information poverty in the rural areas of developing countries (Chowdury 2006). In particular, there is scanty sex-disaggregated evidence documenting how women's access to livestock information and fi nancial services compares to men's. This chapter analyses the intra-household disparities in access to livestock information and fi nancial services among rural households using data from selected districts in Kenya. Specifi cally, the analysis compares women's access to information on livestock production and fi nancial services with that of men. Women's information access matters for several reasons. If women's access to information is more limited or more costly than that of men of similar backgrounds, women may either have less access to economic opportunities or have limited engagement in the optimal use of the resources they control. Rural fi nancial services help households to increase their incomes and build the assets that allow them to mitigate risks, smooth consumption, plan for the future, increase food consumption, and invest in education and other welfarerelated needs. The data presented in this chapter identifi es systematic differences between women and men's access to information on livestock production and marketing, knowledge and access to fi nancial services. The data also looks at women's accumulation of savings and the factors that infl uence this.There is increased recognition of the role of market information in making marketing more effi cient and equitable. Market information systems have been developed to cater for different sectors including the livestock sector. Market information systems are information systems used in gathering, analysing and disseminating information about prices and other information relevant to farmers, livestock keepers, traders, processors and others involved in handling agricultural products. Market information systems play an important role in agro-industrialization and food supply chains. These systems could take many forms, traditional or ICT (information and communication technologies) based. With the advance of ICTs for development in developing countries, the income-generation opportunities offered by market information systems have been sought by international development organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and businesses alike.In Kenya, the National Farmers Information Services (NAFIS) is a comprehensive information service intended to serve farmers' needs throughout the country, including the rural areas where internet access is limited. It enables farmers get critical extension information through the internet or phone. The Livestock Information Network and Knowledge System (LINKS) is a livestock marketing information system designed to provide marketing information, particularly in the major livestock-producing areas in the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya. LINKS was designed to respond to livestock marketing information needs by providing an ICT infrastructure for reporting and requesting information on livestock prices and volumes from a network of different markets. Other initiatives to provide agriculture and livestock information include the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) funded community-based telecentre program, the ACACIA initiative, which was designed as an integrated program of demonstration projects and research to advance the access of disadvantaged communities in Africa to modern ICTs and to apply them to their own development priorities (IDRC 1998). The main aim was to provide major improvements to rural communities' access to information and ease of communications.Access to information can be critical to increasing benefi ts for farmers from livestock markets. Market information systems help to attain effi cient or competitive markets through reduction of information asymmetries among food system participants, which leads to reduction in transaction costs. Access to information by market actors also helps to level the playing fi eld for all the actors, especially those who cannot meet the costs of accessing information (Azzam and Schroeter 1995). Kizito (2011), in an analysis of agricultural market information systems, found that reception of improved agricultural market information was infl uenced by farmers' involvement in the production of marketable staples, access to alternative ICTs, and access to markets and extension services. The author found that holding all factors constant, reception of market information increased farmers' probability of market participation by 34 per cent. Farmers with access to information are more likely to get higher prices than those without information. In Mozambique, Kizito (2011) found the average price difference per kilogram of maize sold between households with and without information (also referred to as an information premium or information rent) was 12 per cent.Women and men have different access to markets, infrastructures and related services. For the most part, women producers face greater constraints than men in accessing different points along livestock value chains, as well as the related technologies, infrastructures and information about livestock markets. A study undertaken by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Ethiopia showed that an increase of 10 km in the distance from the rural village to the closest market town reduces the likelihood of sales of livestock and livestock products, and decreases the likelihood that women will engage in and sell processed foods (Dercon and Hoddinott 2005). Women who lack fi nancial capital also have a more diffi cult time accessing privatized veterinary and extension services that are often essential in helping producers meet market standards. One example of how this could happen comes from a study in Orissa, India (IFAD 2004) where, although dairy cooperatives were established in the wives' names, a committee of men actually managed the group. Along with traditional veterinary and extension services, women's networks and groups have been proven to be useful \"organizational\" pathways for passing information on livestock to women. A study on Heifer Project International's efforts to disseminate improved goat breeds through a village group process in Tanzania showed that social capital infl uenced people's ability to access a goat. Their ability to access and manage information was also crucial (De Haan 2001).In spite of the growing recognition of information and knowledge as critical determinants of economic performance, access to timely, relevant and affordable information in the rural communities of developing countries remains very limited. The reasons have much to do with lacking, poorly developed or poorly maintained infrastructure; rural dwellers' signifi cantly lower income levels; and the lack of information content that is targeted to local needs (Munyua 2000). For women within these rural communities, these constraints are compounded by socially constructed gender roles and relationships that further hinder women's ability, relative to men, to access information. These gender-specifi c norms limit women's access to information by constraining their access to education, their mobility and their interaction with members of the opposite sex. They also limit women's ability to make use of the information that is available to them (Primo 2003).Designing appropriate fi nancial products for women to be able to save, borrow and insure is essential to strengthen women's role as producers and widen the economic opportunities available to them. It is essential to understand how women's access to and control over other resources, including income, shape their need for capital and their ability to obtain it. Farmers and livestock keepers who have access to credit, savings and insurance services can afford to fi nance the inputs, labour and equipment they need to generate income; they can invest in more profi table enterprises and are more likely to participate in markets more effectively; and can adopt more effi cient strategies to stabilize their food consumption meaning they are more food secure (Zeller et al. 1997).Rural women's mobility is often more restricted than men's, which has consequences for their ability to engage in formal fi nancial activities. In some cases women may also be unable to get away from their domestic responsibilities, or may be unable to afford the costs of travel -even when men in households of the same socio-economic level can afford travel (Primo 2003). In any case, women's ability to acquire information will be constrained if, in order to access information, they are required to visit institutions that have inconvenient business hours or are located far from the areas women tend to frequent.Financial services are often not designed with women in mind. Well-designed products that enable women to adequately save, borrow and insure against unexpected shocks are critical for women to be effective in their production and economic activities. Lending organizations can also be biased against women as their businesses tend to be smaller, more informal, and they lack the necessary collateral (Fletschner 2009).There are, however, technological innovations and institutional innovations that are making it easier for women to access credit, control their savings and overcome some of the constraints they face (Fletschner and Kenney 2011). These include prepaid cards to distribute loan payments and mobile phone plans to make loan payments and transfer cash. These make it easier for women to sidestep social constraints around mobility (Duncombe and Boateng 2009). The extent to which fi nancial institutions provide both women and men access to and control over individual accounts without the spouse's permission is likely to have a differential impact on men and women's savings rate. For example, Bangladeshi women are constrained from saving large sums of cash since this is likely to attract the attention of male household members who can then take control of those savings. In these circumstances, women are more likely to save only small quantities (Goetz and Gupta 1996). Products such as biometric smart cards allow women to have control over their accounts (Quisumbing and Pandolfelli 2009).The accumulation of savings is important for enabling women to participate in markets and invest in assets. Because the options and constraints that women face in developing economies differ from those of men, their saving behaviour may also differ. Financial market conditions also interact with gender norms in infl uencing an individual's saving behaviour. Women's access to and control over income can affect saving behaviour in other ways. Papanek and Schwede (1988), in a Jakarta study, show that women are more likely to participate in arisan, informal saving groups, if they are employed. Further, increases in women's earnings raise the household's income and can lead to an increase in saving once basic necessities are met. Equally important, higher relative income improves women's ability to infl uence the amount of saving out of household income since their fallback position, and thus bargaining power, improves.A common approach used to increase women's savings are the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), and Rotating Savings and Loans Associations (ROSCAs). The VSLAs are a model to create groups of people who can pool their savings in order to have a source of lending funds. Members make savings contributions to the pool, and can also borrow from it. As a self-sustainable and self-replicating mechanism, VSLAs have the potential to bring access to more remote areas.To analyse gender disparity in access to livestock information within male-headed households, we use data from Kenya. The data was analysed both at household level and compared across men and women within households for different variables of interest, including access to livestock information and fi nancial services. Exploratory analysis of the data was carried out used descriptive and analytical procedures in SPSS and STATA. The exploratory analysis revealed patterns on access to livestock information and fi nancial services by men and women. Further analysis was carried out using the probit model to identify the factors that infl uenced whether women saved their money. The probit model was based on a dummy dependent variable (1 = women in the household saved money and 0 = they did not save) and a number explanatory variables.The probit model took the following form:Where Pr denotes the probability of women saving or not saving (1 or 0). X is a vector of regressors on the spouse's and household characteristics. Ø is the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the standard normal distribution. b is a parameter typically estimated by maximum likelihood.For production-related information, the most common source of information was other farmers, as shown in Figure 6.1. A higher proportion of women (37.6 per cent) than men (32.2 per cent) obtained production information from other farmers. This was also the most common source of marketing information, with 58.4 per cent and 50.4 per cent of women and men respectively obtaining livestock marketing information from other farmers. Groups, associations or cooperatives were the second most important source of information for both men and women, with more women than men getting information from groups on both cattle production and marketing. The third source of information was the radio, which was a source of production information for 11.4 per cent of the women and 14.1 per cent of the men respectively.Information from government sources was quite low for both men and women and, in some few cases, the farmers accessed information during open days. These fi ndings concur with Brockhaus's (1996) study, which indicated that only 15 per cent of women in southern Jordan were found to have access to state extension services. A higher proportion of women obtained marketing information from other farmers compared to production information.Similarly, the main source of information for sheep/goats (shoats) production and marketing was from other farmers for both men and women (see Figure 6.2). A higher proportion of men than women (64.9 per cent compared to 53.3 per cent) obtained information on sheep and goat marketing from other farmers. For production information, more women than men used other farmers as a source of information. The next common source of information on sheep and goat production and marketing was groups and cooperatives, followed by the radio. Only 8.2 per cent of women and 5.4 per cent of men obtained information on sheep and goat marketing from the radio, although the percentages were higher for production information at 10.9 per cent and 10.2 per cent for women and men respectively. Unlike for cattle, sheep and goats, radio was the second most common source of information on chicken production after other farmers. Both men and women, however, continued to rely on other farmers and their groups for information on marketing. NGOs and government institutes played a very minor role as sources of information, while no men or women farmers received information on chickens from the government extension services.About 41.4 per cent of men and 36.7 per cent of women reported having received training on livestock production and marketing in the previous fi ve years. Men in male-headed households received more training and were exposed to a greater variety of training topics and venues than women. Women, on the other hand, had access to a larger variety of extension agents than the men, and were trained mainly in general livestock management, while men were trained in multiple technical subjects such as livestock health, breeding and marketing. In looking at extension services and information access, studies have shown that it is diffi cult to disentangle the effects of gender and income levels. In Zambia, extension reaches only 25 per cent of farmers, and it fails to reach the poorest farmers (Alwang and Siegel 1994).To the extent that these are women, the authors concluded that extension was not reaching female farmers. Hirschmann and Vaughan (1983) observe that the bias of extension was against poor households, not against women in particular. They found that those farmers who had enough land to grow maize in pure stands, had adequate labour and capital, and use inputs were the most likely to receive assistance from extension agents. Because women are under-represented in this group, they were often less likely to obtain assistance. Some efforts to reach women through extension services have been successful. In Zimbabwe, emphasis has been placed on having extension work with groups, and indeed, women there constitute the majority membership in such groups (Muchena 1994). These groups provide extension services and also make it easier for the women to gain access to credit. Yet women's participation is still constrained by a variety of practices, including the expectation that a woman's husband must approve any legal transaction in which she is involved. Utilization of information may depend on education and literacy levels. Lack of education and higher levels of illiteracy among women farmers may be an additional constraint to women receiving adequate information (Baser 1988).Only men were trained in marketing. More women than men were trained in general livestock management, processing of products and crop production. Conversely, more men than women were trained in livestock health and livestock breeding, the more technical livestock subjects. Studies have shown that, compared to women, men have easier access to technology and training, mainly due to their strong position as head of the household and greater access to off-farm mobility (Bravo-Baumann 2000). In most countries, research and planning activities in the livestock sector, such as breeding, handling, feeding and health care, are largely dominated by men. Offi cial livestock services are often controlled by men, and extension personnel are primarily men who are not accustomed or trained to teach technical subjects to women. In order to increase the benefi ts from training, services should be oriented towards those household members who execute these tasks. For example, in societies where sick animals are mainly treated by women, they have knowledge of the symptoms and cures for animal diseases. But with no access to training, progress in best practices and appropriate herding to reduce diseases is diffi cult. Therefore, where extension services are dominated by men and where women have little access to training due to socio-culturally defi ned gender roles, men need to be persuaded to see the relevance and the benefi t of training women. Only through a carefully planned gender approach can livestock production goals and successful training of women and men be achieved (Bravo-Baumann 2000).Training for both men and women was mostly held within the village but outside their homes. Very few men and women were trained in their homes. Increasing access to training by women will require holding training in venues that do not constrain women. The variation in number of men and women trained from home could be because most extension offi cers are men and are more comfortable talking to men (Shicai and Jie 2009). Gendered disparities in access to training could be overcome if gender roles, relations and ideologies were studied before and during interventions, so that the polarized attitudes and values of men and women are addressed in a way that more women could get involved (Kristjanson et al. 2010).About 33 per cent of households had obtained cash credit in the fi ve years prior to the survey, as shown in Figure 6.5. For both men and women, groups were the main source of credit. More women received credit from groups and neighbours than men. Men borrowed more from formal credit providers, such as banks and cooperative societies, than women. Although more women (31.5 per cent) than men (28.7 per cent) had received credit, on average, men obtained over three times as much credit (Ksh 60,064 equivalent to US$784.74) as women (Ksh 14,289 equivalent to US$186.69).The fi nding that more women than men in male-headed households obtained credit from groups and neighbours, whereas more men than women obtained credit from fi nancial service providers supports Bhatt's (1995) observation that men tend to benefi t more than women from formal organizations. In this case, men are able to borrow large amounts of money from formal fi nancial service providers. The fact that women are also poorer in terms of resources (Galab and Rao 2003;Shicai and Jie 2009) and rights (Moser 2006) than men explains the gender gap in access to formal fi nancial services, which often require collateral.This gap could be overcome if women were provided fi nancial services that are fl exible and have consideration for women's constrained access to collateral. Women have developed their small credit/loan systems in most developing countries. Credit funds and revolving savings of women's groups are common, where the members of the group save a certain amount of money which is then granted to one of the women as a loan. Normally no interest is paid, and the social control guarantees that loans are repaid. Other credit systems consist of loans of animals or even milk for processing. Generally, these systems only function at the village level, often between neighbours, where social control can be assured (Bravo-Baumann 2000).Men used most of their credit on purchase of assets, whereas women spent it on school fees as shown in Figure 6.6. About 19 per cent of both men and women used credit obtained to purchase livestock. Considerably more women (15.8 per cent) spent credit on food purchases than men (1.6 per cent). More than twice the number of women than men borrowed money for construction.The investments in livestock especially by women support fi ndings in chapter 3 on the main sources of livestock for women, where purchase was the most common means of acquisition of livestock by women. Over 50 per cent of both male-and female-headed households saved money. More men (63.2 per cent) than women (47 per cent per cent) saved money through formal banks (see Figure 6.7). More women than men invested in saving groups and livestock, both of which represent the informal savings mechanisms. These fi ndings confi rm the study by Ellis et al. (2010) that found that in Kenya men are much more likely to use formal fi nancial services than women (32 per cent of men compared with 19 per cent of women), and women are more likely to use semiformal services than men (63 per cent of women compared with 58 per cent of men).To identify the factors that determine whether women save or do not save, a binary probit analysis was carried out (see Table 6.1). The dependent variable was a binary form (1 = women save, 0 = women do not save).Older women were more likely to save money than younger women. Older women may have more decision-making authority at household level or may have more sources of income that enable them to save. Similar fi ndings were reported by Kalyanwala and Sebstad's (2006) study in India, which looked at saving patterns among adolescent and young women. Results showed that, in general, older, urban and better-educated young females displayed greater control and awareness of their own accounts than younger women participants. The older women were more likely to be familiar with banking procedures, to have family support for controlling their accounts and to have specifi c goals for which they proposed to use their savings. As suggested by Browning (2000), the fact that women live longer than men could explain women's higher propensity to save for old age. The study found that the need to save for retirement is also corroborated by the positive and  diminishing effect of age on the probability of saving. The estimated marginal effect of age implied that a 50-year-old woman is 9 per cent more likely to save than a 40-year woman.Education was also an important determinant of savings. The more educated women were, the higher the probability they would save. Education empowers women to secure jobs or engage in high income-generating activities enabling them to save their money. The results show that women with primary or above primarylevel education were more likely to save compared to women with no education. Increased literacy skills can give women confi dence and knowledge of how to engage with formal fi nancial institutions. Browning (2000) found that an extra year of schooling increases the probability of saving by 0.4 per cent and women from households in the highest income quartile are 3 per cent more likely to save. The study further showed that education affects savings performance by infl uencing the level of income and the options for asset accumulation available to the individual.The women in Kajiado were more likely to save money compared to women in Kiambu, while the probability of women in Meru and Tharaka saving compared to women in Kiambu was lower, although not signifi cant. These patterns may be related to access to urban centres, with both Kiambu and Kajiado being more urbanized with higher densities of banking services compared to Meru and Tharaka. Rosenzweig (2001) shows that the proximity of formal fi nancial institutions increases fi nancial savings and crowds out informal arrangements. Geographic distance to the nearest bank, or the density of branches relative to the population, can provide a fi rst crude indication of geographic access or lack of physical barriers to access to fi nancial services (Beck and Brown 2011).Livestock and other assets owned by the women from the sample were found to be insignifi cant in determining whether women have a way of saving either through formal or informal mechanisms. This was surprising because ownership of assets has often been associated with women's empowerment. Asset ownership infl uences the \"fallback\" position of each spouse in negotiations over key household and family decisions, and hence the exit options available to each (Quisumbing and Hallman 2006). In Colombia, Friedemann-Sánchez (2006) found that women use property and social assets to negotiate for the right to work, control their own income, move freely and live without spousal violence. Women's asset ownership may increase the anthropometric status of children (Dufl o 2000), the incidence of prenatal care and children's schooling (Doss 2006); it may also reduce domestic violence (Srinivasan and Bedi 2007). Because of these social welfare effects, it is important to have individual-level information on assets in order to fi nd ways to assist women's acquisition of and control over key assets.Informal channels such as farmer-to-farmer interactions were the key sources of information for livestock production and marketing in the study sites. Information from formal sources such as government extension services was, however, quite limited. Information empowers households in the use of improved technologies and market access, and this can be achieved more through private and public partnerships. More men in male-headed households received more training and were exposed to greater numbers of and more varied topics than women. For women, the training was mainly on general livestock management, mainly done either at home or outside home but within the village. Increasing access to training by women will require holding training in venues that do not constrain women.About a third of the households interviewed had obtained credit, with groups being the main sources of credit. Men borrowed more from formal credit providers such as banks and cooperatives, while women mainly borrowed from groups and neighbours. This implies that provision of credit facilities should be fl exible and have consideration for women's constrained access to collateral. To a considerable degree, women spent more credit on purchase of food than men.Half of the households surveyed saved their money, with men saving more than women in the formal saving channels, such as banks and cooperatives. Women mainly saved through informal channels, such as groups and in livestock. The provision of accessible and cost-effective fi nancial services is important for smoothing household consumption and the accumulation of incomes and assets.Probit analysis results on the determinants of savings by women revealed that women's age and education positively and signifi cantly increase the probability of them saving. This implies that older and/or more educated women may have more income, perhaps due to improved job security and earning higher incomes, or they may be more disciplined to save than young women. Systematically targeting older women in micro-credit campaigns could therefore have a positive infl uence onAt the World Food Summit in 1996, food security was defi ned as when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to suffi cient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. There are several dimensions to food security: availability, access, utilization and stability (FAO 2008;Pinstrup-Anderson 2009). There are several causes of food insecurity, including low purchasing power due to low incomes and poverty; low food production caused by low productivity, drought and other factors; and poor food distribution systems (Gladwin et al. 2001;Uvin 1994). There are also gender dimensions to food insecurity, the most studied of which is the role that men and women play in food production, processing and distribution (Dey 1984;Gittinger et al. 1990;Rengam 2001). Less studied, however, is the role that gender inequalities (in resource allocation, income management, access to productive resources) play in causing food insecurity. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report on women and agriculture (FAO 2011) indicates that closing the gender gap in access to productive resources could increase agricultural output by 2.5-4 per cent and reduce the number of undernourished people by 12-17 per cent. Kennedy and Peters (1992) found an interaction between the total household income and proportion of income controlled by women and a household's caloric intake. The FAO report (FAO 2011) indicates that when women control additional income, they spend more of it than men do on food, health, clothing and education of children.Livestock plays an important role in contributing to food security, through: (i) enabling direct access to animal source foods; (ii) providing cash income from sale of livestock and livestock products that can in turn be used to purchase food especially during times of food defi cit; (iii) contributing to increased aggregate cereal supply as a result of improved productivity from use of manure and traction; and (iv) lowering prices of livestock products and, therefore, increasing access to such products by the poor, especially poor urban consumers through increasing livestock production. While analyses of the role of livestock-keeping in infl uencing consumption of animal source foods have been done, little work on the role that livestock play in buffering households against food defi cit, as well as the implications of women's ownership of livestock in infl uencing food security has been conducted. A defi ciency of analysis on the infl uence of intra-household livestock ownership patterns and decision-making on household food security limits the extent to which livestock can effectively be used as an intervention for improving food security.This chapter uses three indicators of food security to analyse the links between household and intra-household livestock ownership and food security. The indicators used are the household dietary diversity scores (HDDS), the months of adequate household food provisioning (MAHFP) and the frequency of consumption of animal source foods. The HDDS measures the number of different food groups consumed over a given reference period. It is an attractive indicator as a more diversifi ed diet is an important outcome in and of itself, and is associated with a number of improved outcomes in areas such as birth weight, child anthropometric and nutritional status (Arimond and Ruel 2004;Steyn et al. 2006), and improved haemoglobin concentrations. A more diversifi ed diet is highly correlated with such factors as caloric and protein adequacy, percentage of highquality protein from animal sources and household income. Even in very poor households, increased food expenditure resulting from additional income is associated with increased quantity and quality of the diet (Low 1991, cited in Nicholson andThornton 1999). Questions on dietary diversity can be asked at the household or individual level, making it possible to examine food security at the household and intra-household levels.The MAHFP is an indicator of food access which depends on the ability of households to obtain food from their own production, stocks, purchases, gathering, or through food transfers from relatives, members of the community, the government or donors. A household's access to food also depends on the resources available to individual household members and the steps they must take to obtain those resources, particularly exchange of other goods and services. Measuring the MAHFP has the advantage of capturing the combined effects of a range of interventions and strategies, such as improved agricultural production, storage and interventions that increase the household's purchasing power.The frequency of consumption of animal source foods is based on the food consumption score (FCS), which is a comprehensive indicator based on dietary diversity, food frequency and relative nutritional importance (WFP 2008). The FCS is a fl exible and effi cient approach to the collection of food consumption data that can be used to capture important food security indicators such as dietary diversity and food frequency in poor rural and urban households.Livestock contributes to food security in multiple ways as shown in Figure 7.1. The role of animal source foods (ASFs) in the reduction of micro nutrient defi ciencies and enhancement of dietary adequacy is widely accepted (Leroy and Frongillo 2007;Murphy and Allen 2003). ASFs such as milk, meat and eggs are rich in energy and also provide a good source of proteins, vitamins and minerals. The nutrients derived from ASFs are more easily absorbed than the same nutrients found in plant source foods, which are often consumed in the form of rice and maize by poor households (Arimond and Ruel 2004;Faber 2010). In developing countries, the poor consumption of micro nutrients found in ASFs can lead to inadequate nutritional status and can contribute to increased mortality rates (Black et al. 2008). The consumption of ASFs, particularly for the rural poor, can therefore contribute substantially to dietary diversity and household nutritional status and, as a consequence, has implications for household productivity, income levels (Leroy and Frongillo 2007) and ultimately national development (FAO 2000, in Speedy 2003;Sanghvi 1996, in Welch andGraham 2000). Studies on the role of livestock production in contributing to the consumption of ASFs have often overlooked the role of intra-household allocation of resources as well as preferences.Another important component of livestock as a contributor to household food security is as a buffer during times of food shortage (Kinsey et al. 1998, cited in Fisher et al. 2010). Sales of livestock and livestock products provide purchasing  FIGURE 7.1 Relationship between livestock and food security power, and thus access to food. In many cases, the sale of livestock is the only outlet of smallholders in rural communities to the monetary economy. In West Africa, for example, Fafchamps et al. (1998) estimated that livestock sales compensated for at most 30 per cent, and probably closer to 15 per cent of income shortfalls due to village-level shocks alone, while in Burkina Faso Reardon et al. (1988) found that livestock and stored grain were among the strategies that households used to address food shortages in the event of a crop failure. Even in times of food abundance, livestock sales can enable households to diversify their diets (Fratkin and Smith 1995). Generally the degree of commercialization of livestock products is much higher than that of crops in developing countries. For example Ehui et al. (1998) report that in areas of extreme poverty, such as the Central Highlands of Ethiopia, the sale of such products as dung cake is the most important source of cash for households. In semi-arid Mali, livestock contributed 78 per cent of cash income from crops and livestock in smallholder mixed farming (Debrah and Sissoko 1990), while in pastoral areas of East Africa, sale of livestock and milk is the main source of income for the purchase of grain for household consumption (Little 1996).The extent to which livestock contributes to food security is, however, dependent on intra-household dynamics, such as women's ownership of assets and the extent to which they can make decisions on the use of the assets, and on how much of the products will be sold or will be used for home consumption. The intra-household allocation of assets has important implications for a range of outcomes. A growing body of empirical evidence has shown that not only do women typically have fewer assets than men, but they also use the ones they have differently (Deere and Doss 2006). Increasing women's control over assets -mainly land, physical and fi nancial assets -has positive effects on a number of important development outcomes for the household, including food security, child nutrition and education, as well as women's own well-being (FAO 2011;Kennedy and Peters 1992;Quisumbing et al. 1995). In Bangladesh, a higher share of women's assets is associated with better health outcomes for girls (Hallman 2000). Gendered analyses of the patterns of livestock ownership and how these infl uence household food security are therefore critical.Measurement and analysis of the food security indicators is adapted from the World Food Programme's (WFP) vulnerability assessment mapping (WFP 2008) and from USAID's (US Agency for International Development) Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project (Bilinsky and Swindale 2010;Hoddinott and Yohannes 2002;Swindale and Bilinsky 2006).The HDDS is the sum of all food groups consumed by the household in the last 24 hours divided by the total number of food groups. The dietary diversity score should ideally be measured at individual household member level. However, due to both time and budget constraints questions were asked only of the female spouses as, in most instances, they are responsible for, and most aware of the food consumed within the household. For the measurement of the HDDS, the different types of foods are grouped into 12 categories as shown in Table 7.1.The HDDS ranges between 0 and 1. A value of 1 signifi es that a household consumed all the 12 food groups in the last 24 hours. An increase in the average number of different food groups consumed provides a quantifi able measure of improved household food access. In general, any increase in HDDS refl ects an improvement in the household's diet. While the dietary diversity score offers an accepted and popularized proxy for calorie intake and nutritional outcomes (Ruel 2003), this approach still has some limitations. For example, seasonal variations are obscured if dietary diversity data is not collected at strategic intervals during the year (Savy et al. 2006). Poor precision of dietary diversity measurements may also limit the accuracy of data.To calculate the FCS, the 12 categories of food are reduced to 9 main food groups based on their contribution to diets (see Table 7.2); main staples (A and B), vegetables (C), fruits (D), pulses (E), meat, poultry, fi sh and eggs (F, G, H, I), milk (J), oil (K), sugar and condiments and drinks (L). The food types are weighted based on nutrient densities estimated by WFP for use in vulnerability assessment and mapping (WFP 2008). The FCS is calculated by fi rst working out the consumption frequencies (number of times the food type was eaten in the last seven days) for each food group. For food groups that combine different types of food, the frequencies from each food type are summed up to provide a total for the food group. The maximum frequency for a food group is 7, so if the total frequency amounts to greater than 7 then this is replaced with 7. The fi nal step is a multiplication of the frequency of each food group by its weight and an addition of the weighted food group scores to create the FCS. Thresholds can be determined based on the consumption behaviour of the country or region under consideration. The WFP, for example, uses the following thresholds: an FCS of 0-21 is poor, 21.5-35 is borderline, while above 35 is good.This is calculated by adding all the months that a household had adequate food in the previous 12 months. An average for the sample may be obtained by adding all the MAHFP and dividing by the number of households. The denominator should include all households interviewed, including those that did not experience any months of food shortage. The MAHFP indicator ranges from 0 to 12 months. A value of 0 indicates that a household did not have enough food in any month during the last 12 months while a value of 12 shows that the household had enough food during all the 12 months. The indicator currently does not have thresholds but households can be classifi ed as belonging to the top, middle and lower tercile (Bilinsky and Swindale 2010).Numerous studies illustrate the contribution of livestock production to food security; however, little empirical evidence shows the relationship between ownership of different livestock species and the dietary diversity of poor rural households. Results show that households owning livestock had a higher, but not always signifi cantly higher HDDS than non-livestock-owning households. Households owning goats and exotic chickens had signifi cantly higher HDDS than those that did not own these species. These households had two times the HDDS of non-goat-, nonchicken-owning households, implying that they consumed twice as many food categories as households that did not own goats and chickens (Table 7.3).Results show no signifi cant differences in MAHFP between livestock-owning and non-livestock-owning households. It was hypothesized that in times of food shortage, households would sell their livestock and livestock products to purchase food. It would seem that while they did this to augment their diets and therefore increase the HDDS, livestock sales were not used for bulk food purchase that would reduce the number of months those households did not have enough food.Although local chicken consumption would seem more common at household level, exotic chickens -sometimes characterized by a higher level of productivity (Alemu andTadelle 1997, in Bogalle, 2010), commercialization, and often considered a venture of wealthier families (Alemu and Tadelle 1997, in Bogalle, 2010; Alders  (1997( , cited in Bogalle 2010) ) shows that in some African countries exotic chickens can contribute up to 70 per cent of the total poultry population. It is therefore possible that large income gains from exotic chicken sales enabled households from our sample to purchase a greater diversity of food and enjoy a more diversifi ed diet than households that rely on incomes from traditional chicken sales. Households owning exotic chickens also consumed signifi cantly more eggs than those that did not, whereas consumption of eggs from local chickens did not differ signifi cantly between those households that owned local chickens and those that did not (see Table 7.4).The nutritional benefi ts of owning dairy goats and engaging in dairy goat marketing have been recorded in several countries. In East Africa, projects that focus on improving the live dairy goat and goat milk value chain offered rural producers an opportunity to benefi t from high-value markets, increases in household-level incomes and improved household nutrition (Peacock 2008). In Ethiopia, a livestock development project improved the nutritional status of women and children by increasing ownership of household dairy goats (Peacock 2005). In China, stakeholders of a similar project hypothesized that improved household food security and nutrition resulted from income generated from the sale of goat kids, meat and hides (Sinn et al. 1999). In Ethiopia, a goat development program that aimed to improve access to and consumption of ASFs in rural households found that consumption of both dairy goat and poultry products was closely correlated with increased ownership and productivity of dairy goats (Ayele and Peacock 2003). However, the project only recorded increases in nutrient-rich vegetable consumption in locations where training and community-based nutrition activities were conducted (Ayele and Peacock 2003). In Bangladesh, increased incomes from a smallholder poultry development project resulted in more diversifi ed diets for benefi ciaries, including grains, milk and poultry products (Alam 1997). While in Africa much evidence shows a correlation between ownership of village chickens and protein intake in the form of poultry and egg consumption (Kitalyi 1998;Nielsen et al. 2003), there have been some recorded exceptions. For example, according to Aklilu et al. (2008), in Ethiopia consumption is not the main purpose of keeping poultry because poultry product consumption only partly meets the protein needs of the households in the study.The consumption of ASFs is an important component of food security and human nutrition. One approach to comprehensively capture the infl uence of livestock ownership on consumption of ASFs is through the use of the FCS. Results show that ASFs contributed considerably to household food consumption, particularly in livestock-owning households. There was, however, an exception with regard to meat consumption. The frequency of meat consumption was the highest in households with no cattle (3.2), goats (3.3) and exotic chickens (3.3) compared with households that did own these livestock. Households that kept exotic chickens consumed eggs with the highest frequency (2.3); whereas households that did not own local chickens did not consume any of the ASFs reviewed (Table 7. 4).As expected, households with cattle consumed milk and meat more frequently than households that did not have cattle, while ownership of goats also led to a higher frequency of consumption of meat but not milk. Households with exotic chickens also consumed eggs more frequently than those that did not own chickens. There were no signifi cant differences in egg consumption in households that owned and did not own local chickens, most likely due to the low numbers of local chickens kept by farmers and their lower productivity.Increases in income and livestock production have a positive impact on consumption of ASFs according to numerous studies. For example, the relationship between milk consumption and dairy cow ownership was explored by Nicholson et al. (2003). Results showed that dairy cow ownership increased consumption of dairy products by 1.0 litre per week, whereas, evidence from a smallholder poultry development project in Bangladesh revealed that increased incomes resulted in increased consumption of chicken and eggs (Alam 1997). There is also evidence that describes the infl uence of livestock ownership on the consumption of meat. Scoones (1992, in Randolph et al. 2007) explored consumption patterns and found that meat consumption from own slaughter was infrequent except in cases of sick and/or unproductive animals or for ceremonial reasons. Results from a goat development program in Ethiopia found that 63 per cent of project benefi ciaries slaughtered goat meat for consumption; 37 per cent of this group consumed goat meat during holidays and/or festivities, while 63 per cent slaughtered goats for events such as births and funerals (Ayele and Peacock 2003). According to Faber's (2010) analysis of nutrition in vulnerable communities in economically marginalized societies, three possible constraints limit the consumption of ASFs; availability, affordability and lack of cold storage facilities.Evidence of the rapid growth in global livestock production is considered a result of increasing demand for animal products. However, statements such as these disguise the fact that increased livestock production is confi ned only to certain countries or regions, and is not taking place in some of the poorer African countries. According to Speedy (2003), ASF consumption is declining in these countries as population increases. In fact, Mozambique and Kenya are among the countries that consume the least amount of meat and fi sh in Africa (Speedy 2003). These results can support efforts that seek to improve food production as a means of promoting increased consumption of ASFs and food security for the poor and by the poor.Ownership of livestock by women can infl uence the decisions they make on how to use that livestock or livestock products, as well as how to use other streams of benefi ts, for example, income emanating from that livestock. The results on women's ownership of livestock and food security were mixed. The most signifi cant differences in women owning livestock were observed for the MAHFP as shown in Table 7.5. It is likely that women were able to dispose of livestock such as goats and chickens, or had more decision-making authority on disposal of the livestock products to purchase food. The commercialization of the livestock sector can create a pathway out of poverty for smallholder women livestock keepers. However, for research to show how best to maximize women's market benefi ts, it is important to establish the dynamics which infl uence intra-household income control and resource allocation. Indeed, several studies show a positive relationship between increased incomes under the management of women, including improvements in child nutritional status and dietary intake (Bennett 1988;Kumar 1977). It is therefore possible that incomes generated by owners of exotic chickens may have been infl uenced by similar factors identifi ed in previous studies. However, it may be possible that women's fi nancial status can also serve to subjugate them further, especially if men's household expenditure reduces as women manage more income. For example, a study in Nigeria (Aromolaran 2004) found increases in women's income share slightly reduced per capita calorie intake, which confl icts with the hypothesis that increases in the share of income under women's control will increase calorie intake. These results also suggest that the redistribution of intra-household income from male household heads to female spouses, as is sometimes promoted through development interventions and enforced through food security policies, may not yield desirable food calorie intake outcomes (Aromolaran 2004).The relationship between women's ownership of livestock and the consumption of different ASFs is consistent for some species and products and not others. Results indicate that the frequency of meat consumption in households where women owned livestock was considerably higher than in households where women did not own livestock. There were signifi cant differences in meat consumption in households where women owned exotic chickens (t-value of 2.552) and cattle (t-value of 2.268). The frequency of milk consumption was signifi cantly lower in households where women owned cattle compared with households where women did not own cattle (t-value of 2.281). This may be a general refl ection of women's lower decision-making on large livestock such as cattle (see Table 7.6).When combined, the above results show that if women own livestock, the number of months during which households have adequate food increases, as does the consumption of some ASFs. An emerging body of research shows that women's livestock husbandry and agricultural roles, such as the care and management of dairy goats (Peacock 2005), the ability to derive income from small ruminant sales in Kenya (Oxby 1983, in Ajala 1995) and women's pivotal role in the processing, marketing and storage of agricultural produce can infl uence their ability to provide food for the household (Ajala 1995). However, women's often limited control over productive assets and income management remains a potential risk to their ability to boost household food security. These fi ndings suggest that interventions intended to improve household nutrition outcomes can face limited success if women and men are not addressed jointly as benefi ciaries, and if there is  (Berti et al. 2004;Scanlan 2004).Research shows that livestock ownership at the household level is gendered, with women more likely to own small stock and/or less valuable livestock than men (see chapter 3, this volume). Based on these observations, women in maleheaded households from our sample who owned valuable exotic poultry and large stock like cattle may be considered further up the livestock ladder than other women, who owned or did not own local chickens. It is likely that revenues from livestock and livestock product sales under the control of women contributed signifi cantly to household consumption of meat. If so, these results would correspond with a study on poultry in Bangladesh that found that income increases from chicken sales increased the consumption of ASFs (Alam 1997).In much of East Africa, dairying by smallholder farm families is viewed by governments and development agencies as a means of increasing the production of needed nutrients, and as a source of cash income to purchase other foods (Staal et al. 1997, in Nicholson andThornton 1999). These results, however, indicate that livestock ownership does not always necessarily increase the frequency of consumption of ASFs and the diversity of diets. Despite fi ndings that show that the number of dairy cows owned can signifi cantly impact household cash incomes when compared with households without dairy cows, Nicholson and Thornton (1999) found that dairy cattle ownership does not always translate to an equivalent improvement in nutritional outcomes.It should be noted that other factors can infl uence the diversity of diets, food adequacy and consumption of ASFs and these should also be considered when designing food security initiatives. For example, there is evidence to suggest that if the cost of producing livestock products domestically is lower than its production in the commercial sector, households are more likely to opt for the sale of these products, rather than domestic consumption (Jensen and Dolberg 2003). Research from Nigeria shows that, at the individual household level, poor producer families are less inclined to consume poultry products and more likely to sell them, especially when the household is in need of cash (Sonaiya 2009).Livestock ownership plays a vital role in enabling households to benefi t from a more diverse diet, and in contributing to the consumption of ASFs. While this study concurs with others that fi nd positive relationships between livestock ownership and food security, the results show that livestock species and ownership patterns play an equally signifi cant role in determining household food consumption. Livestock ownership and intra-household ownership patterns infl uence different indicators of food security in different ways. Some livestock species are also more important for food security and for consumption of ASFs than others. Assuming that dietary diversity is increased by households' ability to purchase foods that they do not produce, having small stock such as chickens and goats that can easily be sold is much more likely to infl uence dietary diversity than the larger livestock.Ownership of livestock by women can increase the probability that women will make decisions on allocation of livestock, livestock products or income derived from these for household consumption, increasing the likelihood that households consume these products. Further analysis is, however, required to look at the intra-household allocation of these foods as well as other factors that may infl uence consumption of ASFs.The results illustrate the advantages of utilizing a variety of food security indicators to identify a more comprehensive account of food security status in the households sampled and to further identify which indicators of food security are infl uenced by livestock ownership and intra-household ownership patterns. And, as Gittinger et al. (1990) recommends, in seeking ways to improve household food security in Africa it is important to intervene in ways that women benefi t from, such as improving their ownership of assets and enhancing their decision-making abilities while being careful not to increase women's burden of production and household food provisioning.Gender mainstreaming has been the primary methodology for integrating a gender approach into research and development effort. Gender mainstreaming is intended to bring the diverse roles and needs of women and men to bear on the development agenda. It is widely recognized that integrating gender perspectives into policies and programs is important to the achievement of all Millennium Development Goals not merely Goal 3 on women's empowerment and gender equality.Livestock research, development projects and programs, and policies can play a critical role in reducing gender gaps in access to productive resources, income and savings as well as food security if well designed to be gender responsive and to promote women's empowerment. Livestock is a privileged sector for investments to lift poor people out of poverty, and to also promote gender equality, and therefore improve food security. This chapter gives some recommendations on how to make livestock projects, programs and policies more gender responsive. Integrating gender equality goals throughout the livestock value chain will take intentional effort, allocated budgets, and a willingness to move beyond the sureties of the past, but it will give the livestock sector the best opportunity to enhance productivity and food security, and forge collaborations with other sectors to ensure its rightful place in the future of African agriculture.Gender disparities in access to and use of productive resources: As shown elsewhere in this book, there are consistent gender disparities in access to and benefi ts from technologies, services and inputs across developing countries. Gender-related constraints refl ect gender inequalities in access to resources and development opportunities. Although class, poverty, ethnicity and physical location may infl uence these inequalities, the gender factor tends to make them more severe (Kabeer 2003). Despite the signifi cant roles women play in agriculture and food security they continue to have a poorer command over a range of productive resources and services than men (FAO 2011;World Bank 2001). So, while 40-60 per cent of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are women, they control less land (women constitute less than 20 per cent of all land holders), and are less likely to use purchased inputs such as fertilizers, improved seeds, mechanical tools and equipment.Participation in and benefi ts from markets: Female membership in agricultural marketing cooperatives is generally low, and yet women play a major role in the agriculture sector. A study of membership in dairy cooperatives by the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) Project found that in Kenya, for all the households that were members of cooperatives, only 27.6 per cent had women registered as members, most of whom were female heads of households. In Rwanda, only 3.1 per cent of households had women registered as members of cooperatives (EADD 2009). Women also lack important information on prices for marketing systems which is often provided by extension agents. Poor female farmers tend to occupy particular niches in the marketing systems. Typically, women are concentrated in small-scale, retail trading, with fewer women involved in trading high up the market hierarchy, for example as wholesalers. Women tend to trade specifi c commodities such as fresh and highly perishable produce. More generally, agricultural product markets in Africa are gendered because of the gendered access to transport, with the consequence of women traders being concentrated in local markets and men trading in more formal domestic, regional and international markets. Men have better access to information on prices and marketing systems through their intensive marketing networks (Baden 1998).Men and women are impacted differently by technologies and other interventions: Many agricultural projects still fail to consider the basic questions of differences in the resources, status of men and women, their roles and responsibilities and the potential impacts of interventions on these. Often there is an assumption that as long as there are improved technologies or interventions, they will benefi t men and women equally when in fact they may not. Men and women are also impacted differently by and have a role to play in managing emerging threats such as climate change, the HIV/AIDs epidemic, increasing commercialization of resources, and others. Research activities in these themes must take these differential impacts into consideration to ensure that proposed solutions contribute to the current and future improvements in various development outcomes.A focus on gender can increase the productivity of agriculture and livestock systems, and improve food security and nutrition: Increasing access to productive resources by women to be on a par with those of men would increase farm yields by 20-30 per cent. This in turn would raise agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5-4 per cent, reducing the number of hungry people by 12-17 per cent. Going by the number of hungry people in 2010, such gains in productivity could reduce the number of hungry people by 100-150 million (FAO 2011). Interventions to increase women's access to markets and others that aim to enhance women's incomegenerating and decision-making ability can lead to improvements in a range of other development outcomes, such as improving child health and nutrition, as well as increasing women's status and eliminating gender differences in asset accumulation. For example, evidence suggests that women spend up to 90 per cent of their incomes on their families while men only spend 30-40 per cent of their incomes on their families (FAO 2011). A large number of studies have linked women's income and greater bargaining power within the family to improved child nutrition status, health outcomes and educational attainment (Smith et al. 2003). Findings from the International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI) Gender and Intrahousehold Research Program have shown the importance of the explicit focus on gender in promoting household poverty reduction. Intra-household dynamics matter as households do not act as one when making decisions. Quisumbing and Maluccio (2000) found that targeting development interventions to more than one person within a household can potentially decrease the effectiveness of development interventions. They show that allocation decisions within a household are not always based on consensus and can undermine women's access to critical resources. Quisumbing (2003) has found that inequality in resource distribution between men and women has both economic and social consequences. This distribution is determined by the \"bargaining power\" within a household.Ensuring that both men and women are heard in research and policy processes through meaningful representation in decision-making and policy bodies, in management positions, in research and development is an important component of reducing gender inequalities. Promoting women's organizations and building women's social capital can be an effective tool for women's empowerment. It can be an effective way to improve information exchange and resource distribution, increasing access to resources such as credit, improving women's bargaining power in marketing and managing of their income. Working in groups can help women retain control of income generated from their enterprises. Such organizations can achieve scale as demonstrated by the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in India.The participation of men and women in agriculture research and development: There is evidence that group diversity leads to better decision outcomes, better performance, creativity and innovation, and this has been shown in a variety of settings, occupations and organizations (Hamilton et al. 2004;Pelled et al. 1999). Diversity is benefi cial because a variety of opinions, backgrounds and thinking styles, and their integration into the solution, are what contributes to better decision outcomes. From a gender perspective, research has found a correlation between the presence of women in higher management and performance of the organization; and having gender diversity in teams has been found to double performance (Mannix and Neale 2005). Women, however, face different constraints in the workplace that limit them from moving into decision-making positions. Organizational practices and prejudices, including hiring and incentive systems, can often work against women. A survey on female participation in African agricultural research and higher education done in 2007/8 found that women are still under-represented in (agricultural) science and technology (S&T) systems in most countries. The study found that the female share of the research workforce was about 23 per cent, with only 14 per cent being in management positions. Women are less represented in the high-level research management and decision-making positions compared with their male counterparts. Women's participation declines as they progress along the career path (Beintema and Di Marcantonio 2010).Local culture and attitudes, as well as the political and natural environment, affect the decision-making options and incentives for livestock keepers, yet professional training, policy documents and fi eld activities rarely refl ect this. Livestock offi cials, veterinarians, economists, researchers and animal scientists must understand the social context of the value chain, and why and how to intentionally include women and other marginalized groups in training and information exchanges, market participation and policy development (Rushton 2009).Institutions are social structures governing the behaviour of a set of individuals within a given human community, with rules and enforcement. Institutions range from formal governments to businesses, NGOs, the family and the market, and each will have its own culture or \"internal rules\". Women and men are embedded in a system of institutions that defi ne rules of action and create incentives and punishments. Such systems differ by location and over time so that incentives vary. Although individuals differ in their preferences and capacities, all individual choices are contextualized by their society and its institutions. Therefore, development and policy models which assume autonomous individuals maximizing personal benefi t but which do not consider the social context can come to misleading conclusions and produce fl awed policies. This is especially true for women, because most African cultures impose stricter control over women's behaviour and choices compared to men of the same age, class and ethnicity.Livestock constitute only one of the economic and non-economic activities that households engage in, and must therefore be looked at in that context. Livestock interventions will affect not only livestock-related activities but other activities as well. For example, livestock interventions that increase the time women spend on livestock keeping will have implications for their time and the care they can give to children; they will affect their nutrition-related activities as well as their leisure time. This interrelationship means that livestock interventions and policies have to be looked at from a broader perspective, taking into account linkages with other sectors.Gender transformative approaches help guide in achieving both sectoral outcomes (e.g. increased agricultural production, improved food security) and gender equality outcomes. By working on both sectoral and gender equality outcomes, livestock programs have a better chance of achieving sustainable change.Gender transformative approaches require that, in addition to integrating gender in the programmatic approaches, gender and power inequalities are also addressed. Figure 8.1 shows a gender integration continuum. Those working in livestock programs should strive towards gender transformative programming and should not be implementing \"gender exploitative\" programming. Gender blind refers to the absence of any proactive consideration of the larger gender environment and specifi c gender roles affecting program/policy benefi ciaries. Gender blind programs/ policies would give no prior consideration to how gender norms and unequal power relations affect the achievement of objectives, or how objectives impact on gender. Gender aware refers to explicit recognition of local gender differences, norms and relations, and their importance to outcomes (could be health-, education-, livelihoods-related outcomes) in project design, implementation and evaluation. This recognition derives from the analysis or assessment of gender differences, norms and relations in order to address gender equity in outcomes.Gender Aware FIGURE 8.1 Gender and women's empowerment continuumGender exploitative refers to approaches to project design, implementation and evaluation that take advantage of rigid gender norms and existing imbalances in power to achieve the program objectives. Livestock programs with nutrition components, for example, may focus on working with women-only groups to disseminate the importance of milk to children's nutrition based on women's roles in household nutrition. Gender accommodating approaches, on the other hand, acknowledge the role of gender norms and inequities, and seek to develop actions that adjust to and often compensate for them. While such projects do not actively seek to change the norms and inequities, they strive to limit any harmful impact on gender relations. After a gender analysis, program staff realize that men tend to raise cows but women raise chickens. Cows are not traditional for women to raise, and no women own cows. The program recognizes these gender differences and implements a separate strategy for men and women, with a men's one focused on cows and a women's one focused on chickens. Gender transformative approaches actively strive to examine, question and change rigid gender approaches, norms and imbalances of power as a means of reaching sectoral outcomes (e.g. increasing agricultural productivity, livelihoods, food security, market engagement, nutrition) while also promoting more gender equitable objectives.Livestock program and policy designers and implementers should always start with a gender analysis to understand the specifi c constraints and opportunities that exist for men and women in the livestock sector in different contexts. Interventions must address these constraints, reduce gender inequalities, and ensure equitable and sustainable benefi ts to men, women and other social groups. Projects should identify men's and women's needs, constraints, opportunities, preferences for technologies, with regard to the issue of focus, from literature review, expert opinions, pre-project consultations and other sources of data. Where demographic data are used in the problem statement to characterize the target population these should be disaggregated by age and sex (not only sex of head of household but men and women farmers). In analysing the context in which the project will be implemented, the gender relations and inequalities that exist should be identifi ed and documented. These may include constraints in access to resources and assets, information and labour. Women, however, play important roles in livestock production, environmental management and other sectors, and this should be highlighted in order to increase their access to resources, capacities and information to enable them play these roles more effectively. Identifying what the issues are is a prerequisite for integrating gender in a practical and systematic way through the rest of the project.Men and women are not homogeneous groups, and it is important to recognize their diversity across class, ethnic, religious and other lines, as well as individual preferences and abilities. Gender disadvantage can increase or compound other types of discrimination, such as class and ethnicity. Because ethnicity is a key defi ning characteristic in Africa, it drives discrimination as well as confl ict, state formation, political alliances and economic choices (Hickey and Du Toit 2007). For poor women belonging to ethnic minorities, such as Maasai women in Kenya, claiming productive resources is doubly challenging, as is exercising political power to promote favourable policies. Roles and responsibilities can change with age. In Fulani areas in Nigeria, a young girl making butter under her mother's supervision eventually becomes the manager of her own small-scale dairy operation and, with increasing age, may also take on increasing responsibilities (Waters-Bayer and Letty 2010). The gender analysis should strive to analyse and understand differences across men and women, and among men and women, as well as across generations.Several frameworks and tools exist for carrying out gender analysis. The FAO Socio-economic and Gender Analysis (SEAGA) is an approach to development based on an analysis of socio-economic patterns and participatory identifi cation of women's and men's priorities. The objective of the SEAGA approach is to close the gaps between what people need and what development delivers. The approach combines socio-economic analysis and gender analysis to enable learning about community dynamics, including the linkages among social, economic and environmental patterns. It clarifi es the division of labour within a community, including divisions by gender and other social characteristics, and it facilitates understanding of resource use and control, and participation in community institutions. SEAGA focuses on three domains of analysis: the development context, livelihood analysis and stakeholder analysis. Common gender analytical frameworks including the Harvard Analytical Framework, also known as the Gender Roles Framework (Overholt et al. 1985), the Moser Gender Planning Framework (Moser 1993), the Gender Analysis Matrix (Parker 1993), the Women's Empowerment Framework (WEF) and the Social Relations Approach (Kabeer 1994) provide good starting points for conducting a gender analysis. These tools need to be adapted to the local context in which they are used.The CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) good practices framework on gender analysis (CARE 2012) outlines three key phases of gender analysis to explore gender dynamics from broader to local contexts: preliminary foundations to understand the context in which to situate the gender analysis; core enquiries of gender which cut across CARE's women's empowerment domains of agency, structure and relations; and applying gender analysis to programming focusing on key immediate rights that affect women's conditions (practical rights) as well as the needed transformation in structures and relations to pursue gender equality (strategic interests).More recent tools for gender analysis include gender and value chain analysis tools. The gender-sensitive value chain analysis tools by the International Labour Organization (ILO; Mayoux and Mackie 2009) provides tools and methods, originally for incorporating gender concerns into the different stages of value chain analysis and strengthening the links essential for gender equality and promoting sustainable pro-poor growth and development strategies. The Integrating Gender in Agricultural Value Chains handbook (Rubin et al. 2009) provides a phased process for integrating gender into agricultural value chains. The handbook provides a fi ve-phase approach for analysing and integrating gender into value chain analysis and development: mapping gender roles and relations along the value chain; moving from gender inequalities to gender-based constraints; assessing the consequences of gender-based constraints; taking actions to remove gender-based constraints; and measuring the success of actions.Integration of gender into projects, programs and activities should use the project cycle to ensure that gender is integrated in all key aspects of the project. Gender aspects should be an integral part of the problem analysis, project goals and objectives. It should be systematically and practically included in the operational plan by translating it into concrete activities and relevant indicators. There is evidence that such systematic integration of gender concerns in projects leads to better outcomes. Kristjanson et al. (2010) found that interventions (or policies) with positive impact on women were those that focused on women from the beginning, rather than simply adding women into existing activities. Projects already designed around men's priorities are often inappropriate for women, so investment in institutional capacity for redesign, along with new activities, is often necessary.The project cycle is an appropriate tool for integrating gender as it ensures that the problem analysis is thorough and done from a gender perspective; stakeholders are clearly identifi ed and analysed, including their gender capacities; objectives are relevant, gender responsive and clearly stated; outputs and objectives are logical and measurable; men's and women's strengths and weaknesses have been identifi ed; assumptions are taken into account; monitoring concentrates on verifi able targets and outputs; evaluations identify \"lessons learnt\" and integrate them into the cycle for similar succeeding projects; and sustainability is defi ned, not essentially by \"organizational continuity\", but primarily by the continuous \"fl ow of benefi ts\". Integrating gender in this systematic process ensures gender is integrated at every stage.Several guidelines and checklists exist for guiding programs on how to integrate gender within the program cycle. At the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the strategy for integrating gender takes a very livestock-oriented focus, looking at key gender issues in livestock and how the institute and other research and development organizations can better address the needs of both men and women in their work (ILRI 2012).Very often for projects and programs, the question has always been \"Why is gender important?\" which gives a supply-driven impetus for integrating gender, especially from gender experts within organizations. Given the evidence that exists, the burden of proof needs to shift and projects have to demonstrate why gender is not important if they do not want to integrate gender systematically.A gender blind priority-setting process is not likely to yield a gender-balanced project portfolio. Addressing gender issues in priority setting requires examining which crops and animals, and which markets are selected for research, and what women's roles in and potential benefi ts from these are. If priority-setting processes are done with stakeholders, both men and women should be involved in the process. Once priorities are set, projects should defi ne gender-responsive goals and objectives. This can be done at two levels: (i) gender as a stand-alone research objective/ research topic (i.e. strategic gender research); or (ii) gender as a cross-cutting thematic research area, in which gender analysis is used to inform and deepen other research themes. Some stand-alone gender objectives include objectives such as: reducing gender disparities in access to resources, livestock assets or markets; increasing collective action by women, etc. If gender is a cross-cutting area across other research objectives, this should be clearly stated in the objectives or research questions. Gender blind objectives lead to gender blind activities and implementation approaches. Making objectives or research questions gender responsive goes beyond adding such statements as \"including women, or especially women\" at the end of the objective. A gender-responsive objective could be: increase incomes of men and women from livestock; improve the nutrition of men, women, boys and girls within smallholder households; develop technologies that address men and women's constraints, among others.Research and development implementation approaches should address key gender issues identifi ed in the gender analysis. This will involve integration of gender strategies to address existing gender inequalities and build on opportunities for men, women, boys and girls and other community members. This may involve strategies targeted at men and women, or targeted at women only. Targeting of women is sometimes necessary to address existing gender imbalances. The interventions could be broadly categorized into two kinds: immediate and practical interventions, and strategic interventions. Immediate and practical interventions are those that address immediate concerns and often have short-term results. Examples of these could include organizing women to access markets, building capacity, increasing access to basic resources such as water, health, etc. Strategic interventions are often of a longer-term nature and aimed at changing structural gender relations that cause inequalities. These could, for example, be changing legal provisions for land ownership so that women can own land.Involvement of men and women scientists, and development staff in the implementation of the project and in decision-making processes is critical. Programs and projects need to go beyond getting men and women to participate in project activities to ensuring that they benefi t and that there is a transformation of unequal gender relations to achieve equity.Program plans should describe all the activities that will be carried out to deliver on the gender objectives and the gender strategy. It is not enough to have genderresponsive goals and objectives if these are not followed by activities to achieve them. In developing the work plan, project teams should ask themselves whether the gender-specifi c activities are suffi cient to deliver on the goals and objectives. If the objective is to increase women's access and adoption of a technology, what are the gender-specifi c activities that will make this happen? If it is to increase men and women's income, what are the specifi c activities that will lead to women's management of income? Each project/program should have appropriate staffi ng levels, including expertise to implement the gender activities and strategy. This can be new expertise or drawn from the project staff or partners. Gender training for all staff to create awareness and build basic skills for facilitation and for integrating gender is critical.The specifi c costs allocated to gender activities for staffi ng, implementation of gender activities and capacity building should be clearly specifi ed and allocated. This ensures that gender is not an add-on activity for which no budget is allocated. In research for a development project a minimum of 5 per cent of the budget should be dedicated to gender research, activities and capacity building. Programs should articulate and present a plan for a gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system for strategy-level goals, outcomes, outputs and activities, as well as thematic research areas, and articulate clear plans on how the results of gender-responsive M&E will be systematically used for learning about what works in gender and agriculture, assessing progress towards achieving gender equality and for informing programs and policies. The differential impacts of programs on women and men can only be identifi ed if M&E mechanisms are gender responsive and measure changes in men's and women's situation.In order to measure how well a development project or program has scored in its gender targets and if its results relating to gender equality have been achieved, monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment systems must be gender sensitive. This will allow for measuring gender-related changes in society over time. They can also make visible often hard-to-fi nd or assumed issues, such as men's and women's roles in productive and reproductive activities, data which can be useful for national planning. Information produced from such systems and processes can be used to advocate for gender equality and advance the agendas of women's empowerment.Gender equality and women's empowerment can be the goal or an outcome of development programs and policies. There have been attempts to develop indicators to measure empowerment of women or other groups. However, empowerment can have many meanings, is complex, and often includes people's subjective feelings of power or lack of agency. It is thus important to be clear about exactly what empowerment indicators measure and show, and to complement this with qualitative gender analysis.The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and Grameen Bank have used eight indicators to measure women's empowerment: mobility, economic security, ability to make larger purchases, involvement in major household decisions, relative freedom from domination within the family, political and legal awareness, and involvement in political campaigning and protests (Oxaal 1997).The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), developed for USAID (US Agency for International Development) by IFPRI and Oxford University, seeks to capture women's empowerment and inclusion levels in the agricultural sector, to raise the status of women in agriculture, improve nutrition and decrease poverty. The index considers fi ve factors to be indicative of women's overall empowerment in the agricultural sector: Decisions over agricultural production Power over productive resources such as land and livestock Decisions over income Leadership in the community Time use Women are considered empowered if they score adequately in at least four of the components (IFPRI 2012). The index uses individually based data of men and women in the same households to calculate both a women's empowerment index and a gender parity index.Sex-disaggregated statistics give the straightforward numbers of males and females in a given population, while gender data can reveal the relationships between women and men that underlie the numbers. Gender-sensitive indicators provide evidence of (changes in) the situation and position of women, relative to the status of men.There needs to be an understanding among program teams and policy makers that sex disaggregation does not have to place women and men in opposition to one another, and cannot assume that they are collections of isolated, atomized individuals with only individual and separate interests. Data collection must also place them within their wider social contexts of gender, age, class and other identities that infl uence their relations with others (Okali 2011). The sex disaggregation should go beyond the common assumption that collecting data from maleand female-headed households constitutes sex disaggregation and gender analysis. It has to refl ect disaggregation within households -men and women, boys and girls -and an analysis that shows the relationships between and among them. Collection of sex-disaggregated data is not enough if this data is not analysed and used to inform policies and programs. Evidence-based policy is crucial to ensure that the livestock sector plays a signifi cant role in economic growth, food and nutrition security, and reduction of gender inequality. Baseline data on gender relations or the gender situation should be carried out before the project or program is implemented to provide a basis for assessing the results and impact of a program and policy.Who is asked for information and who asks for the information is an important consideration. The collection and analysis of the information gathered is not a gender neutral process and is subject to gender bias and gender-laden cultural attitudes. Sometimes it might be more appropriate to have women interviewers, or interviewers of the same sex as interviewees. Interviewers might be less comfortable talking with one sex or another, especially in some cultures. Teams collecting M&E and impact data should be gender aware and should be trained in gender. Data collectors who are not gender aware may disregard certain important data or play down the importance of particular gender differences. Even when data has been disaggregated during the collection, these differences may not be retained during the analysis, interpretation and reporting of the data if those carrying out the task have not been trained on gender.Indicators should be developed at the different levels of the results chain. They should include input indicators (inputs), process indicators (activities and how these lead to outputs) and progress or outcome indicators (outcomes and impacts).Within a program or organization, the process for developing these indicators should be participatory, involving all staff in the program, so that there is an agreement that these are important for the program or organization. This process should include how the data or information on these indicators will be used within the program or organization. For example, at ILRI, a core set of six gender-sensitive outcome and impact indicators were agreed on for measuring the impacts of ILRI projects and programs (Njuki et al. 2011). Some examples of these are shown in Table 8.3.For each of these impact and outcome areas and the indicators, formats for data collection, and the calculation and presentation of the indicators is included.A participatory M&E process is one in which the target groups have genuine input into developing indicators to monitor and measure change. If successful, this allows for the M&E process to be \"owned\" by the group rather than imposed on them by outsiders. Often, men and women have different priorities and different indicators for measuring change. Involving both men and women ensures these differences are captured and taken into account in designing M&E systems, as well as in the implementation of the program, project or policy. In response to a question of how  Tools such as participatory impact diagrams can provide an opportunity for men and women to discuss the impacts of interventions on their lives, both positive and negative (see Figure 8.2). Other useful tools include focus group discussions with men and women, ranking and scoring tools, and ethnographic techniques among others. A careful selection of a combination of tools can yield important lessons on how change is happening to men and women, boys and girls and other community members.Livestock provides an opportunity for women's economic empowerment and for reducing gender disparities in ownership of assets and resources. For livestock programs to economically and socially empower women, they need to combine both sectoral objectives (e.g. increasing productivity, improving livelihoods, food security, market engagement, nutrition) and the promotion of more gender-equitable objectives, such as women's empowerment or equitable agriculture systems.The project cycle is a systematic representation of the process of formulating an intervention from inception to conclusion. The stages of the project cycle provide a structure that ensures that the problem analysis is thorough; stakeholders Source: David (1999) are clearly identifi ed and monitored; quality assurance is built in; objectives are relevant to problems and clearly stated; outputs and objectives are logical and measurable; benefi ciaries' strengths and weaknesses have been identifi ed; assumptions are taken into account; monitoring concentrates on verifi able targets and outputs; evaluations identify \"lessons learnt\" and integrate them into the cycle for similar succeeding projects; and sustainability is defi ned, not essentially by \"organizational continuity\", but primarily by the continuous \"fl ow of benefi ts\" to improve local livelihoods.Integrating gender in programs in a systematic way through the project cycle ensures that women's and men's needs and priorities are addressed, their constraints are addressed and any interventions have positive impacts on both men and women. Using gender transformative approaches leads to addressing unequal power relations between men and women. Capacity building, not only in understanding gender issues and conducting gender analysis, but also in behaviour change and facilitation skills, is a prerequisite for the use of gender transformative approaches. Working with men and women to change unequal gender relations and defi ne change from their own perspectives, and engaging men and boys to support women's empowerment, can lead to the desired long-term changes in gender inequality.Improving the design and delivery of gender outcomes in livestock research for development in AfricaThere is no debate about the importance of closing gender gaps in agriculture and food security. The research upon which this book is based was conducted at a time when the incentives and initiatives for gender integration in agriculture research and development were stronger than ever because of the rising global consensus and public action by international organizations, national government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) on the importance of women's empowerment in economic development and poverty alleviation. Three recent high-profi le publications -The Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook (World Bank, FAO and IFAD 2009), The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-11: Women in Agriculture -Closing the Gender Gap for Development of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO 2011) and the World Bank's World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development (World Bank 2012) -summed up the evidence showing that addressing gender inequalities and empowering women are vital to meeting the challenges of improving food and nutrition security, and enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty. In addition, the fi rst ever African Human Development Report, Towards a Food Secure Future (UNDP 2012), concludes that building a food-secure future for Africans will require focus and actions in the critical areas of empowering women and the rural poor in order to increase the productivity of smallholder farmers, advance nutrition among children, and build resilient communities and sustainable food systems (UNDP 2012). Several other international organizations have revamped and published their gender equity strategies over recent years.Several publications have documented considerable progress in sub-Saharan Africa in narrowing of many gender gaps and empowering women in several sectors, namely: education, health, labour market opportunities and political representation. Although the fi eld of gender in agriculture has a strong scientifi c basis and there is ample fi eld experience, progress on closing gender gaps in agriculture and food security has not kept pace with other sectors. Where pilot projects have documented success in reducing gender disparities, the outcomes have not been suffi ciently sustained and widespread (CGIAR 2012). Gender inequalities persist for rural women in the agricultural sector, where women play signifi cant roles but where they continue to face signifi cant constraints and barriers. A growing and rich scholarship in gender and agriculture, spanning more than four decades, has accumulated empirical evidence on the diversity of women's and men's dynamic roles and the responsibilities they take for improving the four dimensions of food security: availability, access, utilization and stability; as well as the challenges, inequalities and opportunities that women particularly face in improving their livelihoods and benefi ting from development interventions (for a review see Meinzen-Dick et al. 2010). While there is a growing number of excellent studies on gender in crop management and crop value chains, the dearth of information and data on gender in livestock is particularly notable. Livestock are one of the most important assets for women, yet little evidence exists on the extent, nature and processes of ownership of livestock by women, and their decision-making power over livestock.It is well recognized that advances in agriculture and food security can only come about with explicit gender focus owing to the feminization of agriculture (Chant 2010;Meinzen-Dick et al. 2010;Quisumbing and Meinzen-Dick 2001) and the need for social equity. It is also recognized that in order to have the greatest impact, agricultural research and development programs must target and benefi t small-scale women farmers who represent the majority of rural poor populations in developing countries.The studies reported in this book sought answers to important but rarely addressed questions, namely: What do we know about the gender-differentiated preferences and ownership of different livestock species? What are the gendered patterns in livestock decision-making and income management? What are the food security implications of gendered control of livestock and livestock income? This book combines the latest knowledge on gendered livestock asset gaps and decision-making about these assets. The studies are based on the fi ndings of empirical analyses of sex-disaggregated data to establish the extent of women's and men's ownership and control of livestock and livestock products, their preferences, participation in and benefi ts from livestock value chains, income management and allocation, and decision-making on livestock, their products and income generated from their sales as well as their impacts on food and income security and empowerment of women. The aim of this concluding chapter is to distil the main fi ndings and lessons from the previous chapters and to make some general refl ections about how to move gender in livestock research and development to the next frontiers.Livestock play an important role in feeding billions of people, sustaining millions of smallholder food producers, providing income sources, intensifying small-scale mixed farm production and making productive use of dryland resources, reducing vulnerabilities of pastoral systems, providing a buffer against periodic hunger and drought, and infl uencing climate change (for good or bad) as smallholder livestock keepers can make their livestock production more effi cient and profi table (FAO 2011;ILRI 2012a). In rural Africa, livestock is one of the most valuable agricultural assets. It represents a primary source of income and wealth accumulation, assurance and investments that are more important than business and housing for millions of poor people. Results reported in this book confi rm that livestock contribute signifi cantly to the asset base of the poor, contributing up to 85 per cent of the total movable assets in Mozambique, and more than 50 per cent in Kenya and Tanzania. It is recognized that ownership of livestock assets is an important aspect of women's economic empowerment because this increases their participation in household decision-making and the extent to which women can respond to and benefi t from marketing opportunities and incentives.Several studies (Delgado 2003;Delgado et al. 1999;ILRI 2012a; Pica-Ciamarra and Otte 2009) have termed the increasingly high demand for animal source foods and other livestock products due to urbanization, demographic and social changes, the \"livestock revolution\". This \"livestock revolution\" provides economic opportunities that will benefi t more than half a billion smallholders who depend on livestock. However, as in the \"Green Revolution\", these studies do not highlight the gender implications of the livestock revolution and neglect the specifi c needs of women as livestock keepers, owners, decision-makers, processors and value chain actors. Yet it is estimated that two-thirds of the 1 billion poor people who depend on livestock for their livelihoods are rural women (Staal et al. 2009). While livestock could increase poor people's ability to move out of poverty, the women among them face gender-based biases and challenges in livestock value chains. Within the gender and livestock literature, there is a distinct pattern of gender differentiation in ownership and preference of animals according to their type. A general pattern around the world is that women tend to own more poultry, and have more control and decision-making power over poultry and other small animals (FAO 2011). It is argued that women do not own, control and benefi t from large livestock (Deere et al. 2012;FAO 2011;Kristjanson et al. 2010;Mupawaenda et al. 2009;Wooten 2003), which are essentially men's domain. Empirical results from several chapters in this book nuance these assumptions, which are routinely presented in livestock and gender studies. While there is evidence that the majority of rural women in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique own poultry, a considerable proportion of women also own large livestock, reaching 40 per cent in Mozambique. Results further showed that small ruminants (sheep and goats) and pigs contributed negligibly to women's Tropical Livestock Units. On the contrary, cattle contributed more to women's Tropical Livestock Units than goats, sheep and chickens. Men and women preferred dairy cattle and dairy goats equally, but women consistently owned fewer dairy cattle and goats than men, sometimes up to six times fewer. These fi ndings are in line with Quisumbing et al.'s (2001) and Dolan's (2001) fi ndings that the gendered patterns of livestock ownership and preference are also changing, and gender ownership and management of livestock may be less rigid than they initially appear.Studies that have analysed the gender dimensions of livestock ownership have often been conducted at the household level and are often limited to distinguishing maleand female-headed households (Kristjanson et al. 2010;Mupawaenda et al. 2009;Saghir et al. 2012). Recent literature demonstrates that gender analysis that only distinguishes male-and female-headed household heads is unsatisfactory and incomplete since \"it reduces gender to the sex of the household head and does not allow for analysis of the relative position of men and women within households where adults of both sexes are present\" (Deere et al. 2012: 506). The reliance on female-headed households as the dominant way of disaggregating gender data often overlooks the vast majority of women who reside in male-headed households, and only gives a partial view of gender inequalities (Mehra and Rojas 2008). It limits the understanding of the complexity of gender issues and often tends to exaggerate gender inequalities and the asset poverty of women.In the African context of small-scale mixed crop-livestock systems, men and women have different preferences regarding livestock and livestock products, and engage in many livestock production, management and marketing activities. Gender analysis should, therefore, be conducted beyond the simple differentiation of men and women, and, more specifi cally, female-headed households and maleheaded households. The studies reported in this book suggest that gender analysis in livestock should use multiple data collection methods by both male and female enumerators, interviewing men and women within the same household as individual and joint decision-makers, and asking about individual preferences, ownership, access and control, as well as decision-making on livestock and livestock products marketing. This approach is in line with some of the best practices in gender analysis that require that ownership and decision-making should not be confl ated, and always asking about the ownership of assets at the individual level, while allowing for the fact that assets may be jointly owned by a couple or more than one owner (Deere et al. 2012). It provides a more rigorous and nuanced understanding of the complexity of gender dynamics in livestock. Recognizing this complexity, gender analysis in agriculture has seen the development and fi eld testing of new tools and interesting survey instruments for collecting gender disaggregated data. These include The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (Alkire et al. 2012), the gender assets profi le gaps (Deere et al. 2012;Doss et al. 2008), the gender mapping (Meinzen-Dick et al. 2012) and the gender transformative approach (CGIAR 2012). This book is a useful addition to these analyses. These tools are now fi eld tested and adapted in livestock research and development projects in different contexts. The extent to which these new tools will capture the complexity of gender and intra-household decision-making in livestock production and marketing systems is yet to be seen. Intra-household decisionmaking is dynamic, complex and evolving in different contexts and opportunities. Decision-making processes are not easily captured through surveys, and may require more ethnographic approaches.In livestock systems, the concept of ownership cannot be taken in isolation from control of and decision-making over benefi ts. It should not be assumed that the individual who owns the livestock necessarily has all the decision-making powers on access, use and control of all the benefi ts. Results presented in this book show considerable nuances in terms of ownership and benefi ts from livestock. For example, while women may not own dairy cows, they enjoyed some autonomy in the sale of milk from these cows. Another difference demonstrated was that women derived more benefi ts from exotic chickens than indigenous chickens and from dairy cows more than indigenous cows, mainly due to the potential market for milk and eggs from these exotic species. Women derived more benefi ts from these species owing to their joint ownership of these species with men. Typically, women owned more indigenous species, especially chickens, alone and more exotic species jointly with men. Women were also more actively involved in the marketing of livestock products like eggs and milk than in the marketing of livestock such as chickens, small stock and cattle.One signifi cant fi nding from the studies reported in this book was the extent of joint decision-making within farm households than was previously acknowledged. Whereas previous studies have shown that households do not act in a unitary manner when making decisions or allocating resources, and that men and women within households do not always have the same preferences, nor do they always pool their resources (for a review see Quisumbing 2003), empirical results from this study show that joint ownership of livestock and joint decision-making are more common in the largely mixed crop-livestock systems of Kenya and Tanzania. For example, more animals are owned jointly by men and women than by women alone, and even when men own the livestock, women derive benefi ts from these livestock irrespective of whether they co-own them or not. There is no conclusive evidence as to whether women's sole ownership of livestock has more benefi cial outcomes than joint ownership and joint decision-making, as is indicated by the statement that \"what matters are a woman's own income and assets . . . all of which increase her bargaining power and ability to infl uence household choices\" (World Bank 2012: 21) and draws attention to the importance of context when reaching conclusions. It is conventionally accepted that when crops or livestock are produced to generate income, men often take over the decision-making matters related to the sale of animals and animal products, and the distribution of income benefi ts within the household (FAO 2011). The World Development Report 2012 on gender equality (World Bank 2012) reports that a signifi cant proportion of women do not make decisions even on their own income and assets. This is the case in many contexts, and the need for women to own their own assets cannot be over-emphasized. Nevertheless, in situations where women benefi t from jointly owned assets with men, or assets owned by men alone, the ability to access, control and make decisions over these assets and benefi ts should not be ignored but should be promoted in tandem with the agenda to promote asset ownership by women.Based on sex-disaggregated data collected from men and women within the same households on individual sources of income, previous chapters in this book analyse gender differences in decision-making and management of income across livestock and livestock products. Studies reviewed by Kristjanson et al. (2010) demonstrated a marked pattern of gender differences in control of income based not only on the type of livestock but on the species. In general, livestock and livestock products with a regular fl ow of small income are controlled by women, whereas men control income from large livestock sales. In Kenya, however, there was no difference in the proportion of income from sale of large and small stock managed by women. Most income from livestock and livestock products was jointly managed. Women managed income from sales of milk and eggs even when they did not own the dairy cows or the exotic chickens. Milk was an important source of income, contributing up to 40 per cent of all the livestock income and 29 per cent of all the household income. The study fi nds that women's income management is infl uenced by the amount of income going into the household. Their decisionmaking power and control of income increased signifi cantly when they owned other assets, or when the households had multiple sources of income (Njuki et al. 2011).The studies reported in this book nuance earlier fi ndings that men sell women's livestock and assets and control the income from the sales, and that a signifi cant proportion of women do not make decisions even about their own income and assets (Quisumbing et al. 2012;World Bank 2012). The studies show that men do not necessarily assert their control over \"female\" livestock and livestock products that have become lucrative. Women are able to market chickens, eggs and milk on their own and, if men market them, income accrued from these sales is shared with women and, hence, benefi ts the household. When men sold eggs, women retained 60 per cent of income share. A large proportion of women could still not make decisions on their own livestock, however, and had to consult their husbands. Further research that looks at species ownership alongside benefi ts that women get from these species would be useful, as women may own fewer of a particular species but derive more benefi ts from that species than another species where they own more. It is possible that joint ownership and joint decision-making can both increase food security and be transformative, making intra-household relations more productive and empowering women as a result (Farnworth 2012).In order to be successful, livestock programs have to address the multiple market failures and constraints that limit women's participation in livestock value chains. Improving market access has become one of the most strategic pillars of any agricultural program (Fischer and Qaim 2012). It is recognized that women face several constraints in participating in markets and have far less access to highervalue markets, and their crops and livestock may be sold on their behalf by men, who often keep and control the income (Dolan 2001;World Bank 2012). This book shows that women do not participate in marketing of large animals but dominate marketing of local chickens and animal products, often in informal markets at farm gate. A central question, therefore, would be to investigate what productive and marketing strategies women can adopt in order to successfully upgrade and benefi t from livestock value chains. Can these strategies lead to women's empowerment and control, and more effi cient use of income by women? How can livestock programs and projects design, test and promote innovations for engendering livestock value chains and upgrading women's livestock value chains?Engendering value chains and upgrading women's livestock value chains present opportunities to narrow gender gaps in livestock ownership and decision-making (KIT et al. 2012). Upgrading is a key concept in value chain analysis that refers to the process of acquiring technological, institutional and market capabilities that allow fi rms (individuals or communities) to improve their competitiveness and move into higher-value activities. It is the desirable change in value chain participation that increases rewards and/or reduces exposure to fi nancial and other risks associated with poverty, gender and the environment (Bolwig et al. 2011). For KIT et al. (2012), upgrading women's value chains entails fi nding ways to remove gender inequalities in value chains and empowering women to expand their capabilities and opportunities to create value and control this value, and obtain better returns from their livestock and livestock products. It means improving the performance of livestock value chains and making them work for women and benefi t women and their households.Drawing from a dozen empirical case studies with a range of livestock products, KIT et al. (2012) describe practical strategies, approaches and tools for engendering value chains and improving the performance of value chains to ensure that women can participate in and benefi t from upgrading value chains. These include: (i) working with men on typical livestock products controlled by women such as chickens, eggs and milk; (ii) opening up opportunities for women to work on what are considered to be \"men's\" livestock and livestock products and markets, such as cattle and formal cooperatives; (iii) building women's capacity, organization, sensitization and access to fi nance and information; (iv) using standards and certifi cation to promote gender equity; and (v) promoting gender responsible business.One successful strategy for upgrading women's livestock value chains is investing in and strengthening women's social capital. As the chapters in this book demonstrate, women's groups and similar forms of collective marketing can contribute to increasing women's bargaining position, enable women to access high-value markets and reduce transaction costs. Women's organizations and marketing collectives such as cooperatives serve multiple purposes that are often benefi cial to women. They play important roles in accelerating adoption of technologies, accessing market information and credit, and building fi nancial and social assets (Mayoux 2001;Quisumbing et al. 2012). Benefi ts for women notwithstanding, many studies found that men tend to dominate cooperative membership (Abebaw and Haile 2013). There is, therefore, a need to better understand under what conditions and through what mechanisms and forms of collective action women can benefi t from livestock value chains, and exploit those that provide the greatest opportunities for women to benefi t.The link between livestock and food security and nutrition is complex. There are at least four pathways through which livestock contribute to food security: (i) enabling direct access to animal source foods; (ii) providing cash income from sale of livestock and livestock products that can in turn be used to purchase food, especially during times of food defi cit; (iii) contributing to increased aggregate food supply as a result of improved productivity from use of manure and traction; and (iv) lowering prices of livestock products and, therefore, increasing access to such products by the poor, especially poor urban consumers through increasing livestock production.Results on the food security impacts of livestock ownership are mixed. The study fi ndings demonstrate a clear pattern of positive relationships between women's ownership of livestock and control of income and two of the three measures of food security: consumption of some animal source foods and household diet diversity scores. In contrast, the fi ndings show a negative relationship between food availability as measured by the Months of Adequate Food Supply within the household with women's ownership of livestock and control of income. This contradiction may be explained, in part, by the fact that chickens, often owned and controlled by women, seem to contribute more to household food security in terms of both the consumption of animal source foods and the household dietary diversity scores. This is, however, only true for exotic and not indigenous chickens. Generally, households tend to keep just a few indigenous chickens, whose production of eggs is neither prolifi c nor regular. Exotic chickens produce more eggs, which are easily and regularly consumed and sold to provide a small but regular income controlled by women and that women often use to purchase food.The results on food security impacts are not as conclusive for milk as they are for exotic chickens. The frequency of milk consumption was signifi cantly lower in households where women owned cattle compared to households where women did not own cattle. These results suggest that livestock ownership does not necessarily result in an increase in the consumption of animal source food and the diversity of diets. There seems to be an inverse relationship between livestock ownership and consumption of meat and milk; the frequency of meat consumption was higher in households without cattle, goats and exotic chickens than households that did own them. There was also no evidence that income from sale of livestock and livestock products was used to purchase food. These fi ndings concur with earlier fi ndings by Nicholson et al. (1999), who found that dairy cattle ownership does not always translate to an equivalent improvement in nutritional outcomes. This could be because dairy incomes are mainly controlled by men and purchase of food is rarely a priority expenditure item for men.There is now a renewed attention to exploring and testing promising pathways for \"nutrition-sensitive\" agriculture and food security, and for explicitly outlining the \"pathways of change\" from agricultural production and marketing to consumption and improved food security and nutrition. These pathways are far from being linear and simple, but are nebulous and complex (for a review, see Fan and Pandya-Lorch 2012; Masset et al. 2011). Clearly, the results documented in this book are more exploratory than conclusive, and call for more rigorous research on the links between livestock ownership and livestock value chains, and their implications for food and nutrition security.There is no lack of policies, strategies, frameworks, guidelines and tools for mainstreaming gender in research and development. However, progress has been slow and important challenges remain. Recent reviews of experiences and lessons in integrating gender in agricultural research have identifi ed several factors that limit effective integration of gender and delivery of scientifi c and development outcomes in international agricultural research centres (CGIAR 2012;ILRI 2012b;Meinzen-Dick et al. 2010). These reviews have also recommended a set of enabling changes that are needed to translate gender frameworks into actual research and development practice. While intentions are often well expressed in proposals and strategic plans and gender strategies, effective integration of gender in livestock research is often fraught with a number of challenges.The fi rst challenge is conceptual and results from the failure of theory to frame a systemic gender theory of change and an impact pathway in livestock research and development. Gender is often framed and used in instrumental terms to improve the conditions of women on a case-by-case basis, but there is less consideration of how to improve the position of women overall, and infl uence strategic gender relations. This raises the challenge of making gender a respected fi eld of research, capable of generating high-quality publications and not only anecdotal stories. Addressing this challenge would make gender less of a \"common-sense\" and amateur practice of any scientist. There are several recommendations in the Stripe Review of social sciences in the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) that provide insight into how to make gender a respected fi eld in the social sciences (CGIAR 2009).The second challenge is frequent implementation failures. A persistent problem in agricultural research organizations, and particularly in livestock research organizations, relates to insuffi cient core capacity and funding for gender research to implement well-meaning gender strategies and frameworks, and to move beyond gender analysis to effective transformation approaches for empowering women and the rural poor. To deliver on gender outcomes, research organizations will have to acquire and continue to develop high-quality teams of gender experts and social scientists with suffi ciently diverse disciplinary skills and an ability to provide scientifi c leadership on the design and other key social science issues during the different stages of agricultural research. This will create a broader focus on a clear vision of change and will help to move away from the gender tool-kit approaches, which have now revealed their limitations. It is also important to identify the factors that have limited effective integration and delivery of gender outcomes in livestock research and learn from successful approaches in other sectors.There are now renewed efforts to integrate some gender transformative approaches (CGIAR 2012) in agriculture and livestock research. Figure 9.1 gives an overview of the gender transformative approach and its defi ning core characteristics. Gender transformative approaches go beyond gender analysis to address some of the social norms, attitudes and behaviours, power relations and social systems that underlie and entrench gender inequalities. These approaches engage with the political dimensions of women's empowerment and require intensive efforts and resources to achieve change. Adopting a gender transformative approach in livestock research requires a clear systematic and coherent vision of change, and a strong commitment to solving important problems that impact women and other marginalized and often poor people. It requires new research models that promote a shift from very small, short-duration gender analysis projects that are tool-based and accommodative in vision and actions to much larger and longer-term projects that can experiment with more gender transformative gender approaches that empower social change. Many livestock research organizations do not have such resources. Nevertheless, opportunities for impact-oriented partnerships with development organizations that facilitate uptake of livestock research and its longrun impact are now emerging, indicating the need to be more strategic and to give priority to identifying and targeting shared outcomes and impacts where research on gender can make a critical contribution.The third challenge relates to delivery of gender outcomes given the diversity of agriculture and livestock interventions, and impatience for results. A persistent challenge is reaching agreement on a few common elements that can be monitored and are signifi cant in terms of their impact on gender across many projects and programs. This is the challenge of identifying and clarifying the \"missing middle\" or intermediate outcomes in relation to expected changes in gender inequality that are crucial for fi nal impact. To overcome this challenge, it is important to focus on a few strategic research questions as a fi rst step to avoid scattering efforts across the wide panorama of gender issues in livestock research and development. An important contribution of this book is to provide some illustrative examples of a few, well-chosen process indicators that could be defi ned collectively. It is important to recognize that livestock research projects and programs will often have limited and shorter-term objectives to strengthen implementation and delivery of gender outcomes. It is also much harder to work on the bigger picture of social change, or transforming gender relations than conducting the traditional and non-gendertransformative gender analyses.These challenges are enormous and require critical systems thinking to (i) sharpen gender diagnosis into how livestock systems and target benefi ciary groups are defi ned and targeted -getting away from the generic use of \"women and men\", \"the poor, especially women\" and \"female-headed households\"; (ii) identify some \"core\" shared variables, indicators and measurement instruments across projects that can be adapted to different contexts but used across sites and regions so that larger-scale studies and their databases can be developed in order to research the issue of who owns, manages and controls livestock and associated assets and benefi ts, and who makes decisions over them; (iii) experiment with foresight studies and scenario analyses with a gender focus to explore possible futures of the livestock revolution; and (iv) fi gure out how to partner with gender transformative development programs that enable women to benefi t from agricultural innovations. 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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6ab8e97f46154d49fd387d5aa9c3afad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dd130598-2e08-4c7b-b545-8f9aaa49d713/retrieve","id":"-781896226"},"keywords":["Sustainability","impact assessment","development","eco-efficiency"],"sieverID":"dbbdacb4-645b-4065-a1fd-d0e1fea2fee4","pagecount":"8","content":"Livestock and fish industries are a significant source of livelihoods and income globally. They are organised in complex market chains that employ at least 1.3 billion people globally and directly support the livelihoods of 600 million poor smallholder farmers in the developing world. Livestock and fish production, processing and marketing as well as the waste produced along the value chain also cause important environmental impacts. They include atmospheric and water pollution, global warming, soil degradation, water use and pollution and biodiversity loss. Efforts to maximize yields of milk and meat, and to \"intensify\" livestock and fish production, need to be balanced with long-term sustainability and overall efficiency. We must figure out how to produce, process and market livestock and fish in ways that work for individuals, communities and the planet alike. It is thus important to assess environmental impacts before embarking on large-scale development projects geared towards livestock production and aquaculture intensification and value chain transformation. Here we present a generic conceptual framework for environmental ex-ante impact assessment of livestock and fish value chains. It is taking into account all value chain components, different spatial and temporal scales and environmental impacts across different dimensions. The framework guides users through a step-wise procedure for assessing how interventions are likely to change the production system and value chain. Through providing rapid results and flagging the main environmental issues, it can support evidencebased discussions of alternative development pathways.Livestock and fish, as part of global ecological and food production systems, are key commodities for human well-being. Their importance in the provisioning of food, incomes, employment, nutrients and risk insurance to mankind is widely recognized (Herrero et al., 2010;Hall et al., 2011). Livestock and aquaculture systems, especially in developing countries, are changing rapidly in response to a variety of drivers. Globally, human population is expected to increase from around 7.2 billion today to more than 9 billion by 2050 (UN, 2012). Rapid urbanisation and increases in income are expected to continue in developing countries, and as a consequence the global demand for livestock and fish products will continue to increase significantly in the coming decades. Livestock and fish production as well as processing, transport, marketing and waste, however, , can be the cause of important environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming, soil degradation, water appropriation and pollution and biodiversity loss.Most life cycle assessment studies that consider the whole value chain estimate that in developing countries on-farm activities are the greatest contributor to environmental impact (Fraval, 2014). The production of livestock and fish indeed depends on a variety of natural resources, such as animal and plant genetic resources, energy, water, air, land and its nutrients. Feed is grown on huge tracks of land thereby using water and extracting soil nutrients and thus impacting on soil fertility. Steinfeld et al. (2008) approximate that livestock utilise 3.4 billion hectares for grazing and 0.5 million hectares of cropland for the production of feeds (33% of arable land). This land use is closely linked to water cycles. Recent research (Heinke et al., in prep.) suggests that globally, the production of feed for the livestock sector appropriates 5,315 km³/year of evapotranspiration (ET) (9% of global ET). The authors found that feed production from croplands uses 37% of water allocated for crop production globally, and the biomass consumed by livestock from grazing lands appropriates 32% of the total ET from grazing lands.In terms of nutrients, livestock manure -considered a serious problem in the developed world-is a critical resource for agriculture in large parts of Africa, where soils are inherently poor (Rufino et al. 2006). Liu et al. (2010) estimated that manure contributes between 12-24% of the nitrogen input in nitrogen cycles on cropland in the developing world. Although animal manure can be a very effective soil amendment, in systems where the land supports livestock production, its availability at the farm level is often very limited. Bouwman et al. (2009) conclude that it was the introduction of synthetic fertilizers that allowed the explosive increase in livestock production. However, it has also been shown that heavy application of pesticides and fertilizers results in losses of plant and animal species (Reid et al. 2010) as well as secondary cascading effects on a larger scale e.g. destruction of coral reefs (Koop et al. 2001). Livestock production and aquaculture also impact biodiversity in several other significant ways. For example, land use with continuous cultivation of feed crops, e.g. soy monocultures, simplifies agricultural systems resulting in major biodiversity loss. Many livestock systems have, however, evolved over long periods and have a high level of biodiversity and impacts are consequently not always negative. Also, recent intensification has increased the productivity of livestock and fish production. Thus, fewer land resources are required per kg of produced product resulting in a decoupling of the linear relationship between production increases and environmental degradation (Reid et al 2010). Apart from using, competing for and impacting on the quality of water, soil and biodiversity, livestock are also an important contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions.Estimates range from 8.5% to 18% of global anthropogenic GHG (O\"Mara 2011). According to Steinfeld et al. (2008), methane from enteric fermentation, nitrous oxide from manure management and carbon dioxide from land use, contribute 25, 31 and 36% to the emissions of the livestock sector respectively. Further along the value-chain (VC), key resources used for meat, milk and fish processing include water, raw materials and energy. Processing often produces blood by-products and waste streams, while the facilities are also prone to disease spread. Food waste doesn\"t only have a direct impact through e.g. emissions from landfills but plays an especially important indirect role. When food is wasted, the energy and resources that go into producing that food are also wasted and greenhouse gas emissions were needlessly produced. FAO ( 2013) estimate that roughly one third of the food produced in the world gets lost or wasted.Considering that the demand for meat, milk and fish is increasing, and these are only two of many sectors that will need to grow to satisfy human demands, more competition for natural resource can be expected, and existing and new trade-offs between food security, incomes and environmental sustainability are likely to occur. A revised agenda for managing sustainable growth of the livestock and fish sectors requires development of mechanisms for assessing the environmental impacts of interventions and investments in the sector, and identification of tradeoffs between resource appropriation and ecosystem functioning. Consultations with environmental experts and local stakeholders from East Africa confirmed a clear demand for a tool that can flag potential environmental impacts of proposed interventions, often conceived for improving incomes and food security. This paper therefore presents a new framework for ex-ante assessments of environmental impacts of development interventions in livestock and fish value chains. It is developed based on reviews of existing frameworks and expert consultations and is able to address environmental impacts along the whole value chain. The framework is meant to support decision making and help prioritising development action of governments, donors, NGOs and farmer organisations. It is therefore envisioned to be implemented through a userfriendly tool allowing relatively rapid ex-ante estimation of multi-dimensional environmental impacts.The CLEANED framework is an indicator framework that takes the full value chain into account. It estimates biomass, water and nutrient flows and assesses four dimensions of environmental impacts across different spatial and temporal scales.Although the majority of the environmental impacts of livestock and fish value chains can be observed pre-farmgate, natural resource and energy use during the production of inputs, processing or transport can be significant, thus assessment methods benefit from assessment and proper identification along the complete value chain. The main VC modules included in the framework are (i) the natural resource base, where feed is produced or retrieved, (ii) production of livestock or fish, (iii) processing, (iv) marketing, and (v) consumption. In addition, \"waste management\" is given special attention as a component that stretches along the entire value chain. These modules can be flexibly combined into a full value chain as appropriate in the local context. Although the flows, stocks and processes at the earlier stages of the value chain are treated with greater detail, the framework also considers user-input about flows and losses at later stages. An estimate of total food losses will be used to reduce natural resource efficiencies and thereby influence the size of the environmental impacts.The processes that are considered in the CLEANED framework include (i) nutrient flows, specifically N and P, (ii) the use of land resources, (iii) water and biomass use, and (iv) waste. Different processes, stocks and interactions play out at different scales. Scales are therein defined as logical groupings of land areas referring to the size of the unit over which processes operate or at which a problem is analysed. Examples include the field scale with e.g. the processes of infiltration and drainage. While water and nutrients also flow through the landscape, croplivestock interactions and differences in manure and fertiliser application are mostly determined at the farm scale. Land use changes are mostly implemented at the farm scale, while indirect land-use changes often play out at the regional scale. The greenhouse effect on climate on the other hand is a global issue. The spatial scales explicit in the framework include farm, landscape and regional/global.Any intervention along the value chain can change the biomass, water and nutrient stocks and flows and by doing so cause environmental impacts. Some of the impacts are caused directly by the action and occur at the short temporal and small spatial scales. Some impacts, however, are indirect, are likely to occur in the future or as (unintended) externalities. The framework therefore takes the direct and indirect as well as immediate and long-term impacts into account.The main environmental impact categories the framework aims to assess are: water use and quality, soil health, biodiversity and climate change. Table 1 lists the specific indicators to be estimated under each category. The trade-offs between these impact categories is an important consideration in the overall environmental assessment. Different existing methods can be utilised to quantify the indicators in terms of total use as well as efficiencies -per area and/or per livestock produce. Specific impacts and impact indicators are linked to one or several spatial scales and to specific temporal scales. The projected impacts will be compared against baselines and limiting constraints. The framework guides users through a step-wise procedure. In a first step the baselines are set. A second step entails the actual ex-ante impact assessment so that the potential impacts can be compared against the baselines (fig 1).1. Setting the baseline Smallholder farming systems and livestock and fish value chains are highly heterogeneous, diverse and dynamic. These differences influence both the applicability and the potential impacts of interventions. This first baseline step therefore involves stratifying the region of interest in different strata or simulation units, assumed to respond homogeneously to the proposed changes, and describing each regarding (i) land use and management practises; (ii) stocks and flows at different spatial scales, (iii) the livestock or fish value chain in which it is embedded, and (iv) vulnerable and limiting resources. Different data sources feed into this step, such as existing databases, participatory mapping exercises, household surveys and expert opinion. Examples include changing the cropping pattern and management, feeding practices, animal or herd management, milk treatment, transport or processing. A fairly detailed description of the envisioned interventions will need to be provided. The level of detail thereby needs to be in line with the envisioned assessment methods. Changes in relevant input variables will have to be specified or expected impacts qualified. The description of the intervention also needs to clarify suitability to or applicability in different environmental contexts and VCs; (ii) The assessment of local impacts: the calculation of quantitative indicator values can be done through the use of models or simple equations. These impact values will be combined with waste and re-use estimates to come up with overall impacts. A qualitative assessment, based on qualitative scores of input variables, is possible through the translation of these scores into quantitative input variables for quantitative output calculations. These can in turn be translated into a qualitative impact score based on the potential ranges estimated from existing data, literature review or expert opinion; (iii) Out-scaling: the stratification of the study area under step 1 aims at capturing the heterogeneity found in the region of interest. The assumption made for out-scaling is that agricultural strategies are likely to have the same relevance for areas falling in the same stratum and that the impacts can be widely applied across the landscape, region or country. Regional impacts are then calculated based on estimated levels of adoption of the promoted technology and a particular distribution of strata/simulation units. For some technologies and impact dimensions, specific models exist that estimate impacts at a larger scale, taking for example landscape or international trade interactions into account. In such case, and if time and resources allow, a more complex out-scaling exercise can be carried out, through the definition of spatially-explicit \"scenarios\" and feeding these into the larger-scale models;(iv) Flagging the potential risks: in a last step the projected impacts need to be compared with a critical value or assessed against identified constraints and limiting resources. The aim is to be able to flag important context-specific issues and provide a visualization of the overall environmental impact of the intervention and trade-offs between environmental dimensions at different time scales.Food security, poverty and nutrition are high on the global development agenda. Improving yields and farmer incomes are often seen as priorities and development actions are thus designed with these specific aims in mind. However, many proposed farming practices might damage the environment and generate greenhouse gases (GHG). In addition, there is increased competition for land, water, energy, and other inputs into food production. This framework is therefore designed to ensure that actions designed to improve incomes and food security in livestock and aquaculture value chains have a minimum environmental footprint while at the same time lifting people out of poverty. It is focusing on environmental impacts and is meant to complement other more commonly applied assessments such as cost/benefit analyses and feasibility studies. We envisage that the framework would be used in a range of ways. With up-to-date information and knowledge on production systems, it should help users to identify the likely impacts of the implementation of specific technologies. Second, the framework can be used as rapid screening and discussion tool, to screen sets of interventions in farming systems at the early stages of their development. For this, many of the data are likely to be qualitative in nature. A third practice would be to use the framework to quickly evaluate the impacts of a wide range of interventions, to identify sub-sets of promising specific interventions for evaluating using more detailed quantitative information, to estimate aggregated impacts in certain regions, or to link them to global and regional change models.The target audience for the framework are decision makers at different levels such as donors, government agencies and NGOs. It aims to provide them with a rapid ex-ante assessment highlighting potential positive and negative environmental impacts at multiple spatial and temporal scales and the trade-offs between them. Specific uses include evaluation of project proposals by donors and providing input in investment decisions of local implementers, both in the private and public sphere. An important question remains how to ensure its actual integration in the decision-making processes of these target audiences at different levels and a variety of local contexts.The development of the framework was made possible through the financial support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and both technical and financial support of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish. We would also like to thank all participants in the local and international consultation meetings for their generous intellectual input.","tokenCount":"2638"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e00db8ab0f42138f4ae58590a954596a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/050414b4-494f-4f45-b0c5-67143a834440/retrieve","id":"1695166012"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4afa757d-9525-4eea-8a89-6ad1fe3f62fc","pagecount":"7","content":"• Desire for a future with professionals who are better prepared to tackle OH issues -they communicate/ collaborate/ coordinate.• Early exposure to One Health: But how early is early? Which level/ grade.• Are there models that we can tap into, to deliver? Who else is working on this space.OH education in schools (1)OH education in schools (2)• What content would be appropriate (for primary, secondary schools, others).• What approach would be ideal for different ages/ contexts?• Where should the focus be: extra curriculum/ curriculum/ teacher education etc.OH education in schools (3)• Session gives us a chance to reflect on where we are on component involving schools.• We will hear what Kenya, Malawi, and Zimbabwe are doing (or are planning to do)• And see who else might be interested (if time, budget allows).","tokenCount":"132"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ccf4947da13a6ef6bfc5dd4eebf0ecc7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e3a0741b-9b81-4fd5-b30d-6e1477b7ee78/retrieve","id":"-146348976"},"keywords":["Mismatch","nutrient deficiency","fertilizer applications","spectral soil analysis","Ethiopia"],"sieverID":"3979f7db-ad16-439e-8839-dcf36c8d7178","pagecount":"41","content":"in 1975, provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition. IFPRI's strategic research aims to foster a climate-resilient and sustainable food supply; promote healthy diets and nutrition for all; build inclusive and efficient markets, trade systems, and food industries; transform agricultural and rural economies; and strengthen institutions and governance. Gender is integrated in all the Institute's work. Partnerships, communications, capacity strengthening, and data and knowledge management are essential components to translate IFPRI's research from action to impact. The Institute's regional and country programs play a critical role in responding to demand for food policy research and in delivering holistic support for country-led development. IFPRI collaborates with partners around the world.It is widely believed that agricultural productivity growth in Africa, among others, requires higher application of improved inputs (Evenson and Gollin, 2003;Johnson et al., 2003). This argument is built on the presumption that increased use of improved agricultural inputs, including chemical fertilizers and improved seeds can be profitable in African agriculture when applied in appropriate mixes. However, fertilizer adoption rates and intensity in many sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries still remain low, especially given ongoing efforts to increase agricultural yield in SSA (Minot and Benson, 2009;Amare et al., 2012;Rashid et al., 2013;Abay et al, 2017;Sheahan and Barrett, 2017;Binswanger-Mkhize and Savastano, 2017). Furthermore, the uptake of modern technologies in African agriculture is not uniformly low across countries, households and plots.Recent studies document substantial heterogeneities among countries and households (Sheahan and Barrett, 2017;Binswanger-Mkhize and Savastano, 2017;Abay et al., 2018;Kurdi et al., 2020;Abate et al., 2020).There are several strands of economic and agronomic literature that attempt to explain these low and heterogeneous technology adoption rates in sub-Saharan Africa. One strand of economics literature acknowledges the role of market imperfections and frictions related to the distribution and access to these technologies (e.g., Moser and Barrett, 2006;Giné and Yang, 2009;Duflo et al., 2008;Davis et al., 2010;Spielman et al., 2010;Minten et al., 2013;Benson et al., 2020).Another strand of economics literature revisits the profitability of these modern agricultural inputs in African agriculture. Several studies show that marginal returns to inorganic fertilizers can be low and heterogenous across contexts (Duflo et al., 2008;Xu et al., 2009;Marenya and Barrett, 2009;Suri, 2011;Minten et al., 2013;Sheahan et al., 2013;Burke et al., 2017;Harou et al., 2017;Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2017). 1 For instance, some studies show that the profitability of chemical fertilizers and improved seeds depend on soil quality and soil characteristics (Marenya and Barrett, 2009;Amare et al., 2012;Burke et al., 2017).An important underlying assumption in these discussions is that to the extent that soil quality is known to farmers, removing informational and access constraints can lead to better use of improved inputs and hence productivity increases. However, farmers lack accurate information1 Some studies argue that technology adoption decisions of rural farmers in Africa are consistent with their comparative advantage and expected profitability of these technologies (e.g., Sheahan et al., 2013;Suri, 2011;Liverpool-Tasie, 2017).about their soil quality and its nutrient requirements. For example, Gourlay et al. (2017) show that farmers' subjective assessment of soil quality is only weakly correlated with objective measures of soil quality. This is not surprising given that conventional soil tests are usually expensive and inaccessible to smallholders in most of Africa. Lack of access to objectively measured soil information along with appropriate fertilizer recommendations imply that farmers are left to guessing when applying fertilizers, which could lead to mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications. In the absence of objective measures of soil properties and associated nutrient requirements, farmers are forced to form some perceptions about their soil qualities or use some inaccurate soil quality proxies. 2 For instance, Berazneva et al. (2018) show that farmers' perception of soil quality and type is driven by actual crop yield. These misperceptions or proxies may lead to sub-optimal application of modern agricultural inputs. 3   In this paper we explore another empirical pattern, mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and actual fertilizer applications, for explaining the low and heterogenous returns to chemical fertilizers in SSA. We hypothesize that farmers lack accurate information about their soil nutrient requirements, and hence may not appropriately respond to recommended agronomic nutrient requirements, which may lead to lower fertilizer yield responses. A long-existed agronomic literature shows that yield responses to fertilizers heavily depend on soil nutrient requirements and farmers' response to these nutrient requirements (Tittonell et al., 2008;Kihara et al., 2016). Furthermore, soil nutrient requirements significantly vary across plots and across communities in many African countries, proving farmers' learning about nutrient use from experience difficult (Otsuka and Larson, 2013;Tjernstrom et al., 2018). As such, these spatial variabilities in soil nutrient requirements render the usual blanket fertilizer recommendations ineffective and less relevant to many farmers (e.g., Harou et al., 2018).Our study makes two important contributions to the literature on fertilizer applications and yield responses. First, we examine farmers' response (in terms of chemical fertilizer use) to soil fertility as measured by both objective and subjective metrics of soil properties. In Ethiopia, DAP (Diammonium phosphate) and urea are the two dominant chemical fertilizers that are meant to 2 Learning from these imprecise proxies and experiments may discourage (risk-averse) farmers adopt yieldenhancing technologies and inputs.3 For instance, Abay et al. (2021) show that misperceptions associated with land area measurement drive input allocations, while Wossen et al. (2021) show similar response driven by misperceptions associated with crop variety.address macronutrient deficiencies. We thus focus on examining farmers' response in terms of actual application of these chemical fertilizers. Second, we explicitly study the implication of these responses to soil fertility on agricultural yield. We investigate whether farmers' response to soil fertility and nutrient requirements are yield-enhancing. We use data that come from a large-scale methodological experiment involving spectral soil analysis of plot-level soil samples implemented as part of the Living Standards Measurement Survey-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) by the World Bank. These spectral soil analysis data provide objective plot-level measures of soil properties, which allow us examine farmers' response to soil (macro) nutrient requirements and associated yield implications. These data provide large set of information on soil health and soil quality, including availability of macronutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in soil samples.Using these objectively measured soil nutrient content and self-reported input use decisions of farmers, we estimate both input demand and yield response elasticities. We find that farmers' fertilizer applications are not always consistent with (objectively measured) levels of soil macronutrients, but instead appear to be consistent with perceived soil quality indicators.Particularly, we find that nitrogen fertilizer application rates are not statistically associated with measured nitrogen nutrient levels in soils. However, the results show that phosphorus fertilizer applications are consistent with measured phosphorus nutrient requirements in soils. For instance, one percent reduction in soil phosphorus content is associated with about 0.3 percent increase in phosphorus application. Contrary to this, although input demand functions suggest farmers respond to low measured phosphorus nutrient levels, in doing so, they also respond by applying more nitrogen fertilizer levels. These responses may be driven by lack of access to appropriate fertilizer mixes as well as farmers' limited knowledge of soil nutrient requirements. For instance, in the context of Ethiopia DAP (Diammonium phosphate) fertilizer, which contains both phosphorus and nitrogen, is relatively more accessible than urea, which mainly contains nitrogen.On the other hand, farmers respond to perceived poor-quality soils and acidic soils by applying higher levels of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. We further show that such mismatch between fertilizer applications and macronutrients requirements is yield-reducing. Those farmers mismatching their soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer application rates lose significant yield responses. Similarly, farmers' response to acidic soils is not productivity-enhancing, rather adversely affects marginal yield responses associated with chemical fertilizers.The evidence we document in this paper can help improve our understanding of the relationship between objective and subjective measures of soil fertility and their implications for fertilizer use and yields, contributing to the literature in at least two important ways. First, our findings add nuanced evidence to the literature explaining the low level of fertilizer adoption and associated low marginal returns to fertilizers in SSA. The mismatch between measured soil nutrient levels and farmers' fertilizer application documented in our analysis can be one important explanation why yield responses and marginal returns to fertilizers in these contexts can be low.Second, our findings also reinforce existing evidence on the extent to which availing plot-specific soil nutrient information can be important to improve farm management practices and yield (Fishman et al., 2016;Fabregas et al., 2019;Harou et al., 2018;Tjernström et al., 2018;Murphy et al., 2020;Ayalew et al., 2020).The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the literature on the interaction among soil properties, fertilizer applications and associated marginal yield responses.Section 3 describes the data and sampling design. Section 4 outlines our empirical approach while Section 5 presents the main results. Section 6 concludes.African agriculture faces a twin challenge of satisfying increased food demands of the evergrowing population and judicious use of soils to ensure sustainable increase in productivity (Collier and Dercon, 2014;Gollin et al., 2014;Amare et al., 2017). Currently, the low level of agricultural productivity in many SSA countries do not meet the growing demand for food from the growing population and urbanization, often pushing food prices upwards (e.g., Swinnen et al., 2015;Christiaensen and Demery, 2017;Barrett et al., 2020). Such low agricultural productivity in the region is often attributed to lack of innovation and low adoption of improved agricultural technologies, including chemical fertilizers (Sheahan and Barrett, 2017;Amare et al., 2017;Binswanger-Mkhize and Savastano, 2017).This is despite several efforts and investments to increase technology adoption and agricultural yields (Minot and Benson, 2009;Amare et al., 2012;Rashid et al., 2013;Binswanger-Mkhize and Savastano, 2017;Abay et al., 2018;Abate et al., 2020). The low adoption of agricultural technologies in many SSA countries also contradicts with the long-held view that chemical fertilizers are profitable in African agriculture and farmers should apply them in appropriate mix (e.g., Conley and Udry, 2010;Duflo et al., 2011;Liverpool-Tasie, 2017;Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2017;Jayne et al., 2018).Other studies show that fertilizer usage in Africa has grown during the last two decades and is not as low as conventional wisdom suggests (e.g., Marenya and Barrett, 2009;Peñuelas et al., 2013;Van Der Velde et al., 2014;Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2015;Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2017;Sheahan and Barrett, 2017). However, there exist substantial heterogeneities among countries, households, and plots (e.g., Sheahan and Barrett, 2017;Binswanger-Mkhize and Savastano, 2017;Abay et al., 2018;Abate et al., 2020). Furthermore, whether such increases and heterogeneities in fertilizer applications are consistent with soil nutrient requirements remain unknown, mainly because objective measures of soil properties are not widely available. Most importantly, fertilizer management and application in several African countries are guided by blanket recommendations, which may not be relevant to several farmers and contexts (e.g., Harou et al., 2018). On the other hand, the substantial heterogeneities in soil nutrient requirement across farms and plots also impede learning from experiences of fertilizer applications based on blanket recommendations as different locations or plots respond differently to specific nutrient applications (e.g., Otsuka and Larson, 2013;Tjernstrom, 2017).One important explanation for the existing low and heterogenous fertilizer application rates in many SSA has been heterogeneity in returns to fertilizer applications (Duflo et al., 2008;Marenya and Barrett, 2009;Suri, 2011;Sheahan et al., 2013;Burke et al., 2017;Harou et al., 2017;Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2017). Heterogeneities in marginal returns to chemical fertilizers are particularly linked with variations in soil quality and soil characteristics (e.g., Marenya and Barrett, 2009;Burke et al., 2017). For instance, Marenya and Barrett (2009) find that chemical fertilizers can be unprofitable in soils with low Soil Organic Content (SOC). 4 Similarly, Burke et al. (2017) show that chemical fertilizers are unprofitable when applied on acidic soils. Furthermore, adding some type of fertilizers to acidic soils may reduce yield while also adversely affecting overall soil and environmental health.Marginal returns to fertilizer applications are also likely to vary across soils with varying macronutrient availability. For instance, agronomic studies show that marginal yield responses heavily depend on soil nutrient requirements (e.g., Tittonell et al., 2008;Kihara et al., 2016).Similarly, some type of fertilizers can be more appropriate and impactful for some crops than others. For example, Van der Velde et al. (2013) show that the maize yield responses to phosphorus fertilizers are much higher than nitrogen fertilizer applications.Despite its importance, plot-level soil nutrient information remains to be invariably missing in Africa, leaving farmers to rely on their subjective assessments when applying fertilizers.However, recent studies indicate that farmers' subjective assessments of soil properties are not strongly correlated with objective measures of soil quality (Gourlay et al., 2017). Gourlay et al. (2017) show that farmers' subjective assessments of soil quality poorly explain objective laboratory results and lack intra-household variations, while objective measures show significant variations across plots and communities. This opens doors for potential mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications, with important implications to yield responses associated with chemical fertilizers. In this paper, we examine to what extent farmers' actual fertilizer applications relate to objectively measured soil nutrient levels and its implications for yield responses using objectively measured plot-level data on soil properties. Prior to the collection of physical soil samples, a series of subjective plot-level questions were administered to the best-informed household member or plot-manager for each plot. These questions ranged from categorically coded responses on soil quality of plots to questions on soil color, texture, and type. It is worth noting that the subjective questions were administered at the dwelling, not upon direct respondent observation of the soils, as the study aimed at assessing farmers' knowledge of soil properties. Our analysis integrates these self-reported information withobjectively measured plot-level soil nutrient information to understand how farmers respond (in terms of fertilizer applications) to various actual soil nutrient availabilities in these study areas. 5 We note that smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia, including our study area, is predominantly rainfed. Agricultural production is thus limited to the main rainy season known as Meher ranges between June to September and a second rainy season covering some areas known as Belg spans from February to May. With limited access to water and irrigation structures, the rest of the year remains mostly dry in most part of Ethiopia, with no possibility to grow crops. 6 Additional details about the sampling design are available at Gourlay et al. (2017). 7 These household-and plot-level questionnaires were administered using computer-assisted personal (face-to-face) interviews. The collection of soil samples was made considering the nature of crops planted in soils, seasons and the timing since last fertilizer applications. The timing of soil sampling can influence the nature of some transient soil properties while stable soil properties are less likely to be affected by the time of sample collection. For these reasons, the soil samples for the LASER project were collected during dry season, September to December 2013, depending on the nature of crops. Some crops, such as teff, can be damaged during soil sampling and hence this requires waiting until these crops are harvested. Allowing for some time lag between planting and soil sampling reduces the effects of recent fertilizer applications on some transient soil properties (e.g., nitrogen contents in soils).Soil samples were collected from up to two randomly selected plots per household. The infield sampling protocol was designed by ICRAF, adapting the Land Degradation SurveillanceFramework of the African Soil Information Service (Shepherd et al., 2015). Two soil samples (topsoil and subsoil) from each selected plot were collected for laboratory test. 8 Composite soil samples were collected from topsoil (0-20 cm depth) and subsoil (20-50 cm depth (Aynekulu et al., 2016;Gourlay et al., 2017). Thereafter, the samples were air dried and sieved for laboratory analysis of soil properties, which were conducted at ICRAF laboratories. The LASER study produced objective soil property measures using spectral soil analysis technique on the soil samples taken from topsoil and subsoil. 9 The suite of spectral analyses includes the following tests: mid-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (MIR), laser diffraction particle size distribution analysis (LDPSA), x-ray methods for soil mineralogy (XRD), and total element analysis (TXRF). 10 Ultimately, approximately 50 variables were predicted for each top and subsoil sample, containing both chemical and physical soil properties (Aynekulu et al., 2016;Gourlay et al., 2017).The LASER dataset is the first large scale data of its kind that include pertinent household-and plot-level information along with subjective and objective information on soil quality and health.Overall, the LASER survey resulted in an unprecedented dataset encompassing a series of subjective indicators of soil quality obtained from the farmers' assessment, as well as objective spectral soil analysis results on about 1677 plot-specific soil samples from 1,007 households. The main variables of interest from the spectral soil analysis include information on macronutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) availability in soils and soil acidity (pH levels). As topsoil properties are likely to be better known (perceived) by farmers than subsoil soil properties, we mainly focus on topsoil properties (Gourlay et al., 2017). DAP and urea are the two dominant chemical fertilizers that are meant to address macronutrient deficiencies in Ethiopia. DAP fertilizers are mostly meant to supplement phosphate deficiencies while urea fertilizers mainly contain nitrogen. DAP contains 18% nitrogen and 46% phosphate while urea contains 46% nitrogen. We convert farmers' fertilizer applications into nitrogen and phosphorus equivalent per hectare using these ingredient compositions. Table 1 presents descriptive statistics of all the variables used in our estimation and analysis. Average yield in our sample amounts 1448 kilograms per hectare. 11 Average fertilizer application rates are generally low, 7 kg/ha of nitrogen fertilizers and 9 kg/ha of phosphorus 9 Conventional soil analysis (CSA), which includes traditional wet chemistry methods for soil nutrient extraction and some basic soil spectral analyses, were conducted on 10% of samples (n = 361). Conventional analysis, while often regarded as the gold standard in soil analysis, is expensive and destructive in nature. Spectral soil analysis (SSA), or soil infrared spectroscopy, the second set of tests conducted under the LASER study, is significantly less expensive and non-destructive, allowing for multiple tests over time (Shepherd and Walsh, 2007). 10 MIR and LDPSA spectral tests were conducted on all top-and sub-soil samples, while the x-ray tests, XRD and TXRF, were conducted on the same 10% on which conventional testing was executed. Following the methods designed by Shepherd and Markus (2002) the results of the CSA were used to predict soil properties onto the full sample based on the spectral signatures. 11 As expected, the average yield for cereal crops appears to be slightly higher.fertilizers. We note these are the two dominant fertilizer types (sources of macro nutrients) in Ethiopia and in our sample.In relation to the soil properties, the mean nitrogen content was 0.27 percent, and the mean phosphorus availability was 402 mg/kg. Macronutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are critical for plant development, and a higher quantity is usually needed, despite significant variations across crops. Compared to some existing nutrient sufficiency ranges, the average nitrogen nutrient availability in Table 1 is expected to be low, especially for cereal crops such as maize that require higher level of nitrogen nutrients (e.g., Naidu et al., 2006;Schulte and Kelling, 2017). 12 Based on these nutrient availability indicators we generate some indicators of relative soil nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) deficiencies. We generate indicators of relative nutrient deficiency (requirement) by comparing maximum nutrient content in our sample and plot-specific nutrient of soils. For instance, relative nitrogen deficiency is computed as the difference between the maximum value of nitrogen content in our sample and plot-specific nitrogen availability. About 15 percent of the plots had acidic soils, while the majority 83 percent had neutral soil properties.Based on the self-reported soil quality information, 44 percent of the plots are reported to have good soil quality, 51 percent fair soil quality, and only 1 percent poor soil quality. These selfreported indicators are only weakly correlated with soil organic carbon (SOC) content, the most common objective measure of soil quality (Gourlay et al., 2017).We note that some of the soil properties described above are strongly correlated among each other (see Table A1 in the Appendix; see also Gourlay et al., 2017). For instance, soil organic carbon content in soils is strongly correlated with nitrogen content (with a pairwise correlation of 0.95). This implies that we cannot control both in our regressions because of multicollinearity problems. Similarly, nitrogen and phosphorus availability in soils are significantly correlated. On the other hand, objective measures of soil quality (e.g., SOC content) are not strongly correlated with self-reported indicators of soil fertility. For instance, the pairwise correlation between selfreported indicator for \"good\" soils and SOC is very small and statistically insignificant (Table A1). Source: Authors' calculation based on LASER data. We note that our unit of analysis is at plot-crop-level because some input management practices vary across crops planted in the same plot. Furthermore, some of the information (e.g., production) are collected for each crop in each plot.To understand farmers' fertilizer use in response to soil properties and nutrient requirements, we estimate the following input demand function that quantifies the elasticity of fertilizer use to soil properties and nutrient requirements.where \uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37 ℎ\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D stands for households (h) demand for specific type of fertilizer (nitrogen and phosphorus in our case) for each plot (p) and crop (c One practical limitation in implementing the empirical specification in equation (1) relates to: (i) lack of variation in some soil properties across plots managed by the same farmer, and (ii) the fact that substantial share of the farmers in our sample have a single plot. We have a total of 1007 unique households in our data and 1677 unique plots, implying that a good number of households have single plots. These imply that potential impacts based on fixed effect specifications are likely to come from a small share of our sample. Because of these two 14 We note that IHS transformation of small values (e.g., fertilizer use rates) require further adjustments to be interpreted as elasticities (Bellemare and Wichman, 2020), an adjustment we apply when interpreting coefficients.limitations, we employ the Mundlak-Chamberlain correlated random effect (CRE) approach (Mundlak, 1978;Chamberlain, 1984) instead of the traditional fixed effects model. Following this approach, one can decompose \uD835\uDEFC\uD835\uDEFC ℎ into mean value of plot-varying characteristics (\uD835\uDC4B\uD835\uDC4B � ℎ\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D ) and the usual random effect (\uD835\uDF16\uD835\uDF16 ℎ\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D ) uncorrelated with the explanatory variables as follows: \uD835\uDEFC\uD835\uDEFC ℎ = \uD835\uDC4B\uD835\uDC4B � ℎ\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D + \uD835\uDF16\uD835\uDF16 ℎ\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D . We thus implement correlated random effect model by controlling for average plot-varying components of the model to capture unobserved plot-invariant heterogeneity, under the assumption that such heterogeneity is correlated with farmer-specific effects (see, Wooldridge, 2010).The vector of parameters of interest captured by \uD835\uDEFD\uD835\uDEFD 1 in equation ( 1), could also be biased because of reverse causality as soil properties, including macronutrient content in soils, can be affected by recent fertilizer applications. Recent nitrogen and phosphorus applications are likely to accumulate in soils, which may generate positive correlation between soil properties and fertilizer applications, and hence an upward bias in the vector of parameters (\uD835\uDEFD\uD835\uDEFD 1 ) in equation ( 1).For instance, phosphorous applications are likely to carry over to the next season as plant growth and crops generally use only a portion of applied phosphorous in the first year of application.Similarly, fertilizer applications may also facilitate soil acidification. For these reasons, we are cautious in interpreting our results and refrain from claiming clean causality. That said, we believe some of these biases may be captured by the average plot-varying characteristics we control for, especially if farmers' fertilizer applications and farm management practices are similar across plots. Furthermore, we also control for farming practices and plot-use in the last season, including whether the plot has been left fallow and whether the plot has been consecutively under cultivation for the last ten years. Any left-over reverse causality effects are likely to cause biases that we can anticipate. For instance, if recent nitrogen and phosphorus applications are driving macronutrient content in soils, we expect positive correlations between macronutrient content and fertilizer applications. On the other hand, if farmers respond to macronutrient requirements appropriately, we expect negative association between soil nutrient availability and fertilizer applications.We estimate the following empirical specification to assess the implications of fertilizer use and the role of soil properties to yield responses:where \uD835\uDC66\uD835\uDC66 ℎ\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D now stands for yield (output per hectare) and all remaining terms except the interaction terms are as described in equation ( 1). \uD835\uDC46\uD835\uDC46\uD835\uDC46\uD835\uDC46\uD835\uDC46\uD835\uDC46\uD835\uDC46\uD835\uDC46_\uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC51 ℎ\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC5D stands for a vector of soli properties, including relative macronutrient deficiencies and soil acidity. The interaction terms between soil macronutrient deficiencies and fertilizer application are the new terms and main variables of interest in equation ( 2). The vector of parameters captured by \uD835\uDEFC\uD835\uDEFC 3 quantifies the role of soil properties, including macronutrient deficiencies (or requirements) and soil acidity, in mediating the marginal impacts of fertilizers. These are important parameters that can inform us about the implication of mismatch or matching between soil nutrient requirements and farmers' fertilizer applications. For instance, these parameters can detect potential yield gains (losses) associated with applying nitrogen or phosphorus fertilizers on soils that are deficient (abundant) of these macronutrients. Similarly, these parameters can help to quantify potential yield gains (losses) when chemical fertilizers are applied on acidic or alkaline soils. Overall, the parameters captured in \uD835\uDEFC\uD835\uDEFC 2 and \uD835\uDEFC\uD835\uDEFC 3 can inform us whether farmers' chemical fertilizer applications are productivityenhancing or not. Following the Mundlak-Chamberlain approach and to capture plot-invariant farmer-specific unobserved heterogeneity, we control for average plot-varying characteristics and hence implement a correlated random effect model. These additional controls as well as the long list of observable characteristics and crop fixed effects help to minimize potential unobserved heterogeneity that may confound our estimations. However, even the simple associational evidence between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer application rates as well as their implications to yield responses can explain why marginal returns to fertilizers can be low and hence inform fertilizer policies.For simplicity, we estimate linear models. For those sufficiently continuous outcomes and soil property indicators we take inverse hyperbolic sine (IHS) transformations. For these cases, the estimates in equation ( 1)-( 2) represent elasticities, with slight adjustments when these transformations are applied to small values (Bellemare and Wichman, 2020). Households and plots in the same community are expected to share some unobserved effects, arising from similar farm management skills. We thus cluster standard errors at village level.In this section we report the main estimation results based on equation ( 1) and (2). Although some of the relationships we report may carry causal interpretations, we refrain from claiming clean causality throughout our discussions. However, the associational relationship between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications as well as potential yield implications are useful and informative. We first present estimation results based on equation (1) in Section 5.1 and we look at the potential implications of farmers' responses to soil properties and nutrient deficiencies in Section 5.2.As a first stage of our analysis, we examine how farmers' demand for fertilizers respond to specific soil properties, including objective and self-reported measures of soil quality and nutrient deficiencies. We emphasize that some of the objective measures of soil health and nutrient content, including macronutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) availability and soil pH are not available to farmers. However, the LASER survey elicits farmers' perceived soil quality and soil color, which are commonly considered as indicators of soil properties. We also note that these objective and perceived indicators are expected to be correlated with other soil properties and self-reported soil quality indicators. However, as Gourlay et al. (2017) show the correlation between objective and self-reported measures of soil quality maybe weak. If so, this suggests farmers lack accurate knowledge about their soil quality and nutrient requirements. In particular, Gourlay et al. (2017) show that subsoil properties are not meaningfully correlated with farmers' assessment of soil properties and input applications. We expect that topsoil properties are relatively easier to know and characterize than subsoil properties. 15 Thus, in our estimations we focus on topsoil properties.In Table 2   2 show farmers' response to soil macronutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) availability (deficiencies). For instance, the first row shows that soil nitrogen content is not statistically correlated with nitrogen and phosphorus application rates. This suggests that farmers are not appropriately responding to soil nitrogen deficiencies. The second row in Table 2 indicate that phosphorus application rates are responsive to soil macronutrients deficiencies as shown by the statistically significant negative coefficients.For instance, one percent reduction in soil phosphorus content is associated with about 0.3 percent increase in nitrogen fertilizer applications. Thus, while phosphorus fertilizer responses are consistent with nutrient requirements nitrogen fertilizer application rates are not consistent with nutrient deficiencies (agronomic recommendations). Farmers are applying nitrogen fertilizers to soils lacking phosphorus. This may be driven by lack of knowledge on macronutrient requirements or lack of appropriate chemical fertilizers in rural markets. In the context of Ethiopia DAP fertilizer, which contains both phosphorus and nitrogen, is relatively more accessible than urea, which mainly contains nitrogen.The next rows in Table 2 suggest that farmers respond to soil acidity, by applying higher nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers on acidic soils and reducing fertilizer application on alkaline soils, relative to soils with normal pH (pH: 5.5-8). These responses are consistently observed for both nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. These interesting patterns are noteworthy as such responses may affect marginal yield response associated with fertilizer applications and hence may not be yield-enhancing (e.g., Burke et al., 2017). We note that farmers are less likely to know their soil pH. However, farmers may learn about other observable soil attributes associated with soil acidity, to which they tend to respond. Thus, these responses are probably driven by learned experiences than through objective knowledge and measure of soil acidity.Interestingly, farmers appear to respond to subjective (perceived) indicators of soil quality, including self-reported ranking of soil quality and soil color. Farmers are likely to apply slightly higher fertilizer per unit of land on (perceived) poor and fair quality soils, relative to those soils perceived as good quality. Similarly, farmers adjust fertilizer use depending on soil colors: red and white/light colored soils receive lower amounts of fertilizers per unit of land than black colored soils. The response to soil colors is particularly strong. For instance, relative to black soils white/light colored soils receive 35-38 percent higher nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers per hectare. 16 This is intuitive as farmers are shown to use soil colors as strong indicator of overall soil quality (Gourlay et al., 2017). As red and white/light colored soils are shown to be of poor quality and negatively correlated with objective measures of soil quality (Gourlay et al., 2017), our findings suggest that farmers are likely to apply higher amounts of chemical fertilizers on (perceivably) poor soils. This evidence is consistent with evolving pieces of evidence showing that farmers are more likely to respond to perceived input qualities than objectively measured attributes, which are not readily available to farmers (Abay et al., 2021;Wossen et al., 2021). For instance, Abay et al. (2021) show that farmers' input applications respond to self-reported plot size than to objectively measured plot size. Similarly, Wossen et al. (2021) find that input application rates respond more to perceived crop variety than to DNA-fingerprinted crop varieties.We run two additional estimations to probe the robustness of the results in Table 3. First, to assess if the transformation and conversion of variables is driving our results, we simply use binary indicators of fertilizer use as well as only intensive margin of fertilizer application. In the first four columns in Table A2, we characterize adoption of DAP and urea fertilizers as a function of soil nutrient availability and other plot-level characteristics. We know that DAP mostly contains phosphorus while urea contains nitrogen nutrients. Thus, if farmers are responding to soil nutrient requirements strongly, we expect statistically significant and strong negative association between phosphorus availability in soils and DAP application as well as between nitrogen availability in soils and urea application. The last two columns in Table A2 estimate similar input demand functions focusing on the intensive margin of fertilizer application. The results in Table A2 show statistically insignificant associations between urea application and nitrogen availability, and significant associations between DAP application and phosphorus availability in soils. Second, we restrict the sample to cereal crops (e.g., maize, wheat, teff, barley, sorghum), which usually receive higher rate of fertilizer applications. The results based on this restricted sample show similar evidence (see Table A3). Notes: IHS stands for inverse hyperbolic sine transformation of input values. The base outcome for soil acidity level is neutral soils (with 5.5≤pH≤8). The base (self-reported) soil quality indicator is \"good\" while black colored soils are the base outcomes for soil color. Moderate and steep sloped plots serve as base outcomes for comparing the role of slope of plots on fertilizer application rates. Standard errors, clustered at household level, are given in parentheses. * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.In this section, we explore the implications of farmers' response to soil nutrient requirement in terms of fertilizer application on yield responses. Table 3 presents results based on estimation of equation ( 2) using correlated random effects. The columns provide yield responses to different types of fertilizers, mainly nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers, as well as their interactions with soil nutrient deficiencies. The main parameters of interest are therefore those estimates associated with the interaction terms between soil nutrient deficiency (or requirement) and application of fertilizers in the third and sixth rows of Table 3. These estimates inform us whether and to what extent mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and their actual applications can result in potential yield losses.The results in column ( 1) and ( 2) indicate that generally nitrogen fertilizer applications significantly increase yield. For instance, the first column shows that a 1 percent increase in nitrogen fertilizer application is associated with about 0.1 percent yield increase. However, the marginal yield response is much higher when applied on nitrogen deficient soils. The interaction term between nitrogen fertilizer application and soil nitrogen deficiency is large and statistically significant. The results in column ( 3) and ( 4) provide results associated with yield responses associated with phosphorus applications. The fourth column shows more interesting results:phosphorus applications are yield-enhancing when applied on phosphorus deficient soils but can be yield-reducing when applied on phosphorus abundant or other soils. While the interaction term between phosphorus fertilizer application and soil phosphorus deficiency appears to be positive and statistically significant the main effect associated with phosphorus fertilizer application is negative. In other words, these results suggest that use of nitrogen and phosphorous are yieldincreasing when applied to their respective nutrient deficient soils than otherwise. We run additional robustness exercises focusing on cereal crops, which usually receive higher application of chemical fertilizers in Ethiopia. These results show similar evidence (see Table A4 in the Appendix)To facilitate interpretation, we compute marginal yield responses (elasticities) associated with chemical fertilizer application on soils with varying nitrogen and phosphorus deficiency. The marginal plots in Figure 1 show yield responses (elasticities) associated with nitrogen and phosphorus applications. The first graph shows that elasticities associated with nitrogen fertilizer applications increase with nitrogen deficiency in soils. Nitrogen applications on relatively nitrogen abundant soils does not generate statistically significant yield response. The second graph in Figure 1 shows that marginal yield responses associated with phosphorus application increases with soil phosphorus requirement. Indeed, elasticities associated phosphorus applications are negative and statistically insignificant for those farmers applying phosphorus fertilizers on phosphorus abundant soils. This implies that yield responses are positive and increasing with appropriate fertilizer applications on nutrient deficient soils. On the other hand, these results suggest that those farmers applying inappropriate chemical fertilizers are incurring substantial costs with little or no yield gains.These results are not surprising given that farmers have almost no access to soil tests and hence information on soil nutrient requirement. Furthermore, substantial soil heterogeneity across farms and villages can impede learning and nutrient use efficiencies (Tittonell et al., 2008;Otsuka and Larson, 2013;Tjernstrom, 2017). Furthermore, farmers have varying cropping plans and crop choices, that existing recommendations and information may not be relevant to farmer specific context. These contexts and conditions can render the usual blanket recommendations by governments and extension services ineffective (Tittonell et al., 2008;Kihara et al., 2016;Harou et al., 2018;Gourlay et al., 2017;Ayalew et al., 2020). Ensuring efficient use of fertilizers as in the context of this study thus require site-specific and targeted use of fertilizers within heterogenous farms guided by agronomic measures to improve nutrient capture and utilization (Tittonell et al., 2008;Tjernstrom et al., 2018). However, extension services in Ethiopia mostly focus on expanding and improving adoption of improved inputs than appropriate management of these agricultural inputs (Berhane et al., 2018). Poor matching of fertilizers applications with actual soil nutrient deficiency can hamper both adoption of fertilizers (Tjernstrom et al., 2018) and reduce marginal yield responses associated with fertilizer applications. Overall, our findings suggest that sustainable increases in crop productivity in SSA require tailoring of soil fertility management practices to site-specific conditions (Kihara et al., 2016;Giller et al., 2009;Vanlauwe et al., 2015).The significant variability in marginal yield responses associated with fertilizer applications across varying soil nutrient requirement provide an additional explanation for existing heterogenous marginal returns to chemical fertilizers. Thus, mismatch between fertilizer applications and soil nutrient requirements may explain the low and heterogeneous marginal returns associated with chemical fertilizers in SSA. For instance, our results show that nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers do not enhance yield when applied on soils with abundant nitrogen and phosphorus. These findings may help to explain the empirical puzzle associated with low adoption of modern agricultural inputs in SSA.In terms of improving measurement of agricultural metrics and alleviating asymmetric information in input quality, our findings suggest that improving agricultural statistics by reducing the uncertainties in soil quality assessment can improve decision-making and farm management practices. The availability of objective measures of soil properties can allow farmers experiment and share their knowledge consistently through targeted learning approaches. Accurate measures of agricultural metrics, including soil properties, can inform policy makers about the potential and marginal returns to improved agricultural inputs, which in turn, can inform conventional technology diffusion strategies.   4 reports the key estimation results for yield response to fertilizer application under acidic and alkaline soil conditions. The first two columns report yield responses (elasticities) for nitrogen application on both acidic and alkaline soils and the last two columns report corresponding results for phosphorous applications.The key finding from Table 4 is that application of both nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers on acidic soils reduces yield gains whereas application of the same nutrients on alkaline soils results in additional yield gains. This is reflected by the strongly significant and negative coefficients associated with the interaction terms between fertilizer applications and indicator variables for soil acidity. Clearly, use of fertilizers is yield increasing when applied on plots with high soil pH. Restricting the sample to cereal crops yields similar results (Table A5). Figure 2 shows that average yield response to fertilizer application linearly increases with increases in soil Average yield response to Phosphorus fertilizer application pH levels. This holds for both types of fertilizers, nitrogen and phosphorus. These results are consistent with findings from previous studies (e.g., Kihara et al. 2016;Burke et al., 2017). Despite these striking results, we know from Table 2 that on average farmers apply more fertilizers on acidic soils than on alkaline soils -losing additional yield gains because of reduced fertilizer applications on alkaline soils and at the same time losing yield by wrongly applying them on acidic soils. We suspect that farmers are applying fertilizers on acidic soils thinking that this way they can fix soil health problems caused by acidity itself. Clearly, in the absence of wellestablished plot level soil information, fertilizer application can not only lead to lower yield gains but also result in yield losses. This may also lead to the unintended consequences that farmers totally abandoning fertilizer adoption after experiencing yield losses due to inappropriate use of it.This may be one explanation behind the low adoption of fertilizers in SSA in the face of increased fertilizer supplies in recent years and the yield gaps observed in many contexts.  In this paper we first examine farmers' fertilizer application responses to soil nutrient deficiencies (requirements) based on their objective measures and subjective perceptions of soil quality. We also explore associated yield responses to fertilizer applications given actual soil nutrient requirements. We hypothesize that lack of access to objectively measured soil nutrient requirements and appropriate fertilizer recommendations may lead to mismatch between fertilizer applications and nutrient requirements. Such mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications could lower yield responses. We argue that such mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications can explain the low and heterogenous returns to chemical fertilizers use in SSA. To test these hypotheses, we use experimental (spectral soil analysis) data that provide both objective measures of soil properties, including macronutrient deficiencies, and self-reported indicators of soil properties. These data come from a methodological experiment involving spectral soil analysis of relatively large-scale plot-level soil samples in Ethiopia.We find that farmers do not appropriately respond to soil macronutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) deficiencies. For instance, we find that farmers are not responding to soil nitrogen deficiencies. Similarly, although input demand functions respond to phosphorus deficiencies, farmers respond to phosphorus deficiencies by applying nitrogen fertilizers. On the other hand, Average yield response to Phosphorus fertilizer application farmers respond to perceived poor-quality soils and acidic soils by applying higher nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. We further show that such mismatches between fertilizer applications and soil macronutrient requirements are potentially yield-reducing. Those farmers mismatching their fertilizer application and actual soil nutrient requirements are likely to forgo additional yield gains.Marginal yield responses associated with nitrogen (phosphorus) application increases with soil nitrogen (phosphorus) deficiencies. Nitrogen (phosphorus) applications on relatively nitrogen (phosphorus) abundant soils does not generate statistically significant yield response. This implies that yield responses are positive and increasing with appropriate fertilizer applications on nutrient deficient soils. On the other hand, these pieces of evidence suggest that those farmers applying inappropriate chemical fertilizers are incurring substantial costs with little or no yield gains.Similarly, farmers' response to acidic soils is not productivity-enhancing, rather adversely affects marginal yield responses associated with inorganic fertilizers. Application of both nitrogen phosphorous fertilizers on acidic soils reduce yield gains whereas application of the same nutrients on alkaline soils results in additional yield gains. Such disappointing experiences with fertilizer applications may encourage farmers totally abandon fertilizer adoption after experiencing yield losses due inappropriate use of it. These results are not surprising given that farmers have almost no access to soil tests and hence information on soil nutrient requirements and soil properties. The lack of such objective measures along with significant soil heterogeneity across farms and villages can impede learning and nutrient use efficiencies. This, in turn, can lead to poor matching of fertilizers applications with actual soil nutrient deficiencies. Our findings suggest that such mismatches can create significant variability in marginal yield responses associated with fertilizer applications across varying soil nutrient requirements, which may explain potential heterogeneities in adoption rates and associated marginal returns to chemical fertilizers.Besides explaining potential heterogeneities in adoption and marginal returns to chemical fertilizers, our findings have important implications for improving input management practices and fertilizer diffusion strategies. Our findings suggest that sustainable increases in crop productivity in SSA requires tailoring soil fertility management practices to site-specific conditions. This reinforces evolving pieces of evidence on the potential of plot-specific fertilizer and related input recommendations to improve farm management practices and yield (Kihara et al. 2016;Giller et al., 2011;Vanlauwe et al., 2015;Fishman et al., 2016;Fabregas et al., 2018;Harou et al., 2018;Tjernstrom et al., 2018;Murphy et al., 2019;Ayalew et al., 2020). Strengthening existing extension systems in Ethiopia may help address these mismatches to ensure appropriate adoption of modern agricultural inputs (e.g., Berhane et al., 2018;Ragasa and Mazunda, 2018).Further investments in that can avail soil information and agronomic recommendations can minimize potential inefficiencies due to information asymmetries associated with soil information.Finally, our findings suggest that improving agricultural statistics by reducing the uncertainties in soil quality assessment can improve decision-making and farm management practices. Accurate measures of agricultural metrics, including soil characteristics, can address farmers' asymmetric information and misperceptions (Abay et al., 2021;Wossen et al., 2021). Such improvements in agricultural metrics can also inform policy makers about the potential and marginal returns to improved agricultural inputs, which in turn, can inform conventional technology diffusion strategies.Despite our attempt to shed light on farmers' response to soil fertility as captured by both objective and subjective metrics, this study is not without limitations. First, measurement of some of our outcomes of interest (e.g., yield) may suffer from some inaccuracies, with important implications for computing marginal yield gains and responses (e.g., Abay et al., 2019). Second, our inference relies on observational data and variation and hence further studies based on randomized variations in access to soil nutrient information may provide additional insights on the inferential and behavioral implication of information asymmetry in soil nutrients.Soil organic carbon content (%)-topsoil 1.00 Nitrogen content (%) topsoil 0.95  Notes: IHS stands for inverse hyperbolic sine transformation of input values. The base outcome for soil acidity level is neutral soils (with 5.5≤pH≤8). The base (self-reported) soil quality indicator is \"good\" while black colored soils are the base outcomes for soil color. Moderate and steep sloped plots serve as base outcomes for comparing the role of slope of plots on fertilizer application rates. The results in the last two columns are based on the intensive margin of fertilizer use, by restricting sample to those plots receiving some fertilizer. Standard errors, clustered at household level, are given in parentheses. * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01. Notes: IHS stands for inverse hyperbolic sine transformation of input values. The base outcome for soil acidity level is neutral soils (with 5.5≤pH≤8). The base (self-reported) soil quality indicator is \"good\" while black colored soils are the base outcomes for soil color. Moderate and steep sloped plots serve as base outcomes for comparing the role of slope of plots on fertilizer application rates. Standard errors, clustered at household level, are given in parentheses. * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.  (with 5.5≤pH≤8). The base (self-reported) soil quality indicator is \"good\" while black colored soils are the base outcomes for soil color. Moderate and steep sloped plots serve as base outcomes for comparing the role of slope of plots on fertilizer application rates. Standard errors, clustered at village level, are given in parentheses. * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01. Notes: IHS stands for inverse hyperbolic sine transformation of input values. The base outcome for soil acidity level is neutral soils (with 5.5≤pH≤8). The base (self-reported) soil quality indicator is \"good\" while black colored soils are the base outcomes for soil color. Moderate and steep sloped plots serve as base outcomes for comparing the role of slope of plots on fertilizer application rates. Standard errors, clustered at village level, are given in parentheses. * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.","tokenCount":"7827"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b1a73ea5fcc8da7c4f94833dd905857f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4f2281e3-51e1-412a-a16d-16bbd796d046/retrieve","id":"-1751309539"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c385dd42-911e-4dd4-b9c3-95292cd2b0e0","pagecount":"28","content":"Este informe se preparó en el marco del proyecto \"Novel climate resilient common bean cultivars for food security in Honduras and Guatemala\", con fondos de USAID-ARS PASA Collaborative Research Funds, bajo el acuerdo No. 58-6090-3-004-F.Los autores agradecen la colaboración de los consumidores de Guatemala y Honduras que participaron en las evaluaciones sensoriales, por su dedicación y tiempo. Además, agradecemos a las personas queEn Centroamérica y el Caribe, la deficiencia de micronutrientes como vitaminas y minerales (conocida como hambre oculta) es un problema de salud pública. En el caso de Guatemala y Honduras, se presenta una alta prevalencia de anemia que afecta principalmente a niños menores de 5 años y a mujeres en edad fértil o embarazadas (1,2), siendo mayor la problemática en las zonas rurales que en las urbanas (3).La biofortificación surge como una alternativa efectiva y sostenible para suministrar cultivos básicos más nutritivos, en grupos poblacionales que tienen acceso limitado a estrategias como la fortificación de alimentos, la distribución de suplementos dietéticos y la promoción de la diversificación de la dieta, entre otras (4). A diferencia de la fortificación, la biofortificación permite aumentar el contenido de micronutrientes en los alimentos desde la etapa de producción de los cultivos. Para esto se emplean técnicas convencionales de fitomejoramiento, con el fin de aumentar su contenido de minerales (hierro y zinc) y vitaminas (vitamina A), por lo que no son cultivos genéticamente modificados (5). Esta estrategia se centra en los cultivos que constituyen la base de alimentación diaria de las comunidades rurales y poblaciones vulnerables (frijol, maíz, arroz, yuca y camote), convirtiéndolos en un método efectivo para incrementar la ingesta y el aporte de micronutrientes (6).Desde hace varios años, los Programas de Cultivos Biofortificados y de Mejoramiento de Frijol de la Alianza Bioversity -CIAT han trabajado con el Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnologías Agrícolas (ICTA) en Guatemala y con la Escuela Agrícola Panamericana, Zamorano, y la Dirección de Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria (DICTA) en Honduras, en la evaluación de diferentes materiales de frijol con el objetivo de liberar variedades biofortificadas con hierro y zinc, que puedan ser producidas, consumidas y comercializadas por las familias productoras y consumidores en general en el Corredor Seco Centroamericano (7).Por tanto, en el marco del Proyecto PASA (Novel climate resilient common bean cultivars for food security in Honduras and Guatemala), se realizaron pruebas sensoriales de frijol biofortificado en Guatemala y Honduras, para establecer la aceptabilidad por parte de consumidores, de materiales promisorios previos a su liberación, y de variedades ya liberadas. Este parámetro, junto con el rendimiento, la resistencia a enfermedades y plagas, y el contenido de micronutrientes, proporcionan una valiosa información para desarrollar las estrategias de adopción y difusión posteriores al lanzamiento de nuevas variedades.✓ Determinar la aceptabilidad sensorial de materiales biofortificados de frijol, comparados con una variedad testigo. ✓ Evaluar las características de calidad de los materiales de frijol biofortificado, relacionadas con la percepción del consumidor (color, tamaño, olor, sabor y textura). ✓ Incluir la evaluación sensorial como parte del proceso de evaluación y liberación de variedades de frijol biofortificado en Guatemala y Honduras.Para el desarrollo de este estudio se utilizó un enfoque metodológico afectivo-cuantitativo, mediante la aplicación de una prueba de aceptación con escala hedónica o Likert de siete puntos, tres para grados de disgusto, uno para neutro y tres para grados de gusto (8,9). Esto se logró a través de una encuesta auto aplicada (llenada por cada uno de los participantes), según un formato establecido (Anexo 1). Los participantes valoraron la aceptabilidad de los materiales de frijol, evaluando sus atributos sensoriales (color, tamaño, olor, sabor y textura), y registrando las respuestas de acuerdo con la escala especificada. Estas respuestas permitieron obtener los porcentajes de aceptabilidad de cada material de frijol.Adicionalmente, en la encuesta se incluyó una sección de información sociodemográfica para conocer algunos datos generales de los participantes, como edad, estado civil, nivel educativo, ocupación principal, frecuencia de consumo de frijol, aspectos de importancia para la compra de fríjol, y consumo de tabaco, café y otros alimentos y bebidas antes de la prueba sensorial, para validar criterios de inclusión y exclusión de las respuestas de los participantes en el análisis. Previo a la realización de la prueba, se leyó a los participantes un consentimiento informado, y también se les solicitó leer y firmar dicho consentimiento, en donde se especificaban los detalles de la actividad, para confirmar y autorizar su participación en la prueba (Anexo 2 y Anexo 3). A los participantes que no sabían leer ni escribir, se los apoyó aclarando dudas, y colocando su huella en lugar de su firma.Para mantener la rigurosidad en la metodología, los materiales fueron codificados y solo los investigadores liderando la actividad supieron qué código correspondía a qué material. Esto permitió que realizáramos las pruebas a ciegas a dos niveles: (1) personal de las organizaciones o instituciones que apoyaron en la logística y las personas que prepararon los alimentos no supieron qué código correspondía a qué material, y (2) los participantes no tuvieron conocimiento previo sobre ingredientes, forma de preparación, etc., del frijol que estaban probando ni supieron qué código correspondía a qué material. Además, aleatorizamos la distribución (orden) de los tres materiales que cada participante evaluaba.La zona de influencia del proyecto PASA es el Corredor Seco de Honduras y Guatemala, incluidas las seis regiones occidentales de Honduras, razón por la cual este estudio de aceptabilidad de frijol se realizó en los departamentos de Jutiapa, Chiquimula y Baja Verapaz en Guatemala, y en los departamentos de Santa Bárbara, Yoro y El Paraíso en Honduras. Aunque un área de enfoque adicional del proyecto PASA incluye Petén en Guatemala, en esta actividad no se incluyeron evaluaciones sensoriales en dicho departamento.En la región Centroamérica, Guatemala y Honduras están priorizados para realizar intervenciones con frijol biofortificado, dados sus preocupantes indicadores en cuanto a deficiencias de hierro y zinc. Adicionalmente, los ensayos de evaluación agronómica para la liberación de los materiales, coordinados por ICTA, DICTA y Zamorano, se están llevando a cabo en estos y otros departamentos.La convocatoria de los participantes en Guatemala fue realizada por ICTA en los tres departamentos (Jutiapa, Chiquimula y Baja Verapaz), mientras que en Honduras se contó con la colaboración de ASOCIALAYO, FIPAH y DICTA para realizar la convocatoria en Santa Barbara, Yoro y El Paraíso, respectivamente. Los colaboradores formalizaron la convocatoria con la invitación a la prueba y la hoja de información del estudio que comprendía una descripción detallada del estudio, el perfil que debían tener los participantes y una guía para la participación.Antes de la prueba sensorial, se visitaron las localidades para, entre otros, coordinar detalles logísticos con los colaboradores del proyecto y revisar el sitio de preparación y las instalaciones disponibles para la implementación de la encuesta y demás actividades de la prueba.El estudio se realizó con 180 participantes en cada país (60 por departamento), quienes eran agricultores y consumidores habituales de frijol de comunidades rurales. En la convocatoria se hizo énfasis en invitar a mujeres y jóvenes adultos, con las siguientes características: − Personas sanas (incluye la ausencia de gripe, rinitis alérgica o síntomas asociados al COVID-19) mayores de 18 años. − Estrato socioeconómico entre bajo y medio. − Dispuestos a participar (oficialmente con la firma de un Consentimiento Informado). − Residentes en el área de estudio.Cada individuo participó en la prueba sensorial un solo día, y tardó aproximadamente 30 minutos en completarse. En cada departamento, los participantes fueron convocados en grupos (20-30 participantes por grupo) y a distintas horas, para evitar tiempos de espera.Los materiales de frijol biofortificado con hierro y zinc y la variedad control (de alto consumo) evaluados en cada país fueron los detallados en la Tabla 1. Los materiales con un nombre son variedades liberadas y que se encuentran en el mercado. Los materiales con un código (i.e., SMN 97 y SEF 70) son materiales que aún no se han liberado. El grano usado para las pruebas sensoriales fue producido bajo las condiciones particulares del Corredor Seco centroamericano por ICTA en Guatemala y Zamorano en Honduras, y provino de la cosecha del mes de mayo del 2023 (i.e., fue grano de la cosecha más reciente).ICTA Chortí (Fe: 9.5 mg/100g, Zn: 3.6 mg/100g) SMN 97 (información de contenido de minerales no disponible) ICTA Patriarca (control)Honduras Nutritivo (Fe: 6.8 mg/100g, Zn: 3.2 mg/100g) SEF 70 (información de contenido de minerales no disponible) Amadeus 77 (control)Buscando determinar la forma y tiempo de preparación de las muestras de frijol, se realizaron ensayos previos de cocción en las instalaciones del programa de Tecnología de Alimentos del ICTA. De esta forma se logró determinar el siguiente procedimiento de preparación para ambos países:Ingredientes: 4.4 lb de frijol, 6 litros de agua, 2 cucharadas de sal (40 gramos)Preparación: 1) Se lavó el frijol con agua del grifo o de la llave y se escurrió bien.2) En una olla grande (identificada con la letra o código correspondiente a cada frijol) se colocó el frijol con los 6 litros de agua y se cocinó a fuego medio (usando estufas eléctricas o de gas) con la olla tapada, revolviendo frecuentemente. 3) Pasada 1 hora de cocción, se adicionó la sal y se mezcló bien. 4) Se cocinó hasta que el grano estuviera blando y se tomó el tiempo de cocción para cada frijol. 5) Al finalizar la cocción, se apagó la estufa y dejó la olla tapada hasta el momento de servir las muestras.Con base en lo anterior, se aseguró que los materiales de frijol (biofortificados y testigo) fueran preparados de igual forma, de acuerdo con una receta normalizada y con instrucciones previamente establecidas. Cada material de frijol a evaluar se cocinó por separado.Las muestras cocidas fueron servidas en recipientes desechables de 6 onzas con porciones estandarizadas (± 30g) y se dispusieron en un plato o bandeja, acompañadas de una cucharita desechable y una servilleta (Anexo 4). Tanto el plato como los vasitos se identificaron con códigos aleatorios de 3 dígitos. Buscando evitar el efecto de la PRIMERA MUESTRA (sensaciones psico-sensoriales), el diseño experimental se dispuso de forma que todas las muestras tuvieran la misma probabilidad de estar en primera posición (8).Las evaluaciones sensoriales se efectuaron en el mes de junio del 2023, en las fechas y lugares detallados en la Tabla 2. Como se mencionó anteriormente, en cada localidad (departamento), las pruebas se realizaron por grupos de 20-30 personas entre las 9:00 -11:30 am. Cada grupo demoró aproximadamente 30 minutos desde que comenzó hasta que terminó la evaluación sensorial. Una vez establecida la logística de la prueba y todos sus detalles, se llevó a cabo las siguientes actividades (ver fotos en Anexo 4):− El lugar se acondicionó con mesas y sillas para que los participantes estuvieran cómodos y pudieran responder la encuesta sin interrupciones. − En las mesas se dispusieron los consentimientos informados, la encuesta, lápiz, lapicero, botella de agua, cucharita desechable y servilleta. − Los grupos fueron organizados y movilizados adecuadamente para la prueba. − Se verificó que los participantes fueran mayores de edad y consumidores habituales de frijol. − Se realizó una corta bienvenida a los participantes para explicar el propósito del estudio y el procedimiento de la prueba. − El Consentimiento Informado se explicó en detalle, y después se recolectó debidamente firmado. − Las muestras se sirvieron y distribuyeron a cada participante para su degustación. − Se explicó a los participantes la forma correcta de responder la encuesta y después de finalizada la prueba sensorial se recolectó, verificando que todos los campos estuvieran debidamente diligenciados. Algunos participantes requirieron apoyo en el llenado de la encuesta, el cual fue brindado por personal encargado de la logística de la actividad.Al finalizar la actividad, y para agradecer su participación en la prueba sensorial, se entregaron obsequios de cortesía a los participantes (e.g., camiseta, gorra).En este estudio se contemplaron todas las posibles consideraciones éticas en su diseño, ejecución y evaluación, siendo revisado y aprobado por parte del Comité Institucional de Revisión (IRB) de la Alianza Bioversity -CIAT en Palmira, Colombia. Adicionalmente, la actividad se llevó a cabo con los permisos y autorizaciones del Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnologías Agrícolas (ICTA), Zamorano, demás colaboradores y la población objetivo.Los consumidores participantes del estudio de aceptabilidad fueron personas mayores de 18 años; niños y mujeres en embarazo no se permitieron en la prueba. También, es importante declarar que el riesgo de participar en este estudio fue mínimo. Además de confirmar que los participantes fueran consumidores habituales de frijol, la prueba requería su consumo solo una vez y en pequeñas cantidades, por lo tanto, no se esperaban inconvenientes o efectos negativos (principalmente relacionados con síntomas digestivos). Sin embargo, se tomaron las precauciones necesarias para minimizar los posibles riesgos; los participantes respondieron preguntas de control antes de iniciar la prueba sensorial, para evaluar si cumplían con los criterios de inclusión o exclusión, que impidieran su participación en la prueba.Como precaución adicional, se tomaron otras medidas en el desarrollo de la investigación: los insumos e implementos necesarios para la preparación y servicio de las muestras de frijol, como recipientes desechables, agua y demás ingredientes, fueron adquiridos previamente por los investigadores para evitar cualquier inconveniente y garantizar las condiciones higiénicas óptimas antes y durante la prueba sensorial. Adicionalmente, los materiales de frijol utilizados en la prueba sensorial fueron cosechados de lotes experimentales del ICTA y Zamorano, cumpliendo con todos los requisitos de inocuidad pertinentes.Las encuestas diligenciadas están almacenadas de forma segura en las oficinas del Programa de Cultivos Biofortificados en el campus de la Alianza Bioversity -CIAT para proteger la identidad de los participantes y fueron analizadas solo por los investigadores involucrados en el estudio. Los datos se transfirieron a archivos seguros en las computadoras de los investigadores en las oficinas de la Alianza y se sistematizaron usando un código de identificación personal; de modo que sólo los investigadores tienen acceso a esta información. La confidencialidad y el anonimato fueron claramente comunicados a los participantes.Las encuestas diligenciadas por los participantes fueron digitalizadas, y los resultados se analizaron en Excel utilizando los códigos de identificación, para determinar la frecuencia de respuesta, tanto de los datos sociodemográficos como de la prueba sensorial, referida para cada uno de los atributos evaluados: color, tamaño, olor, sabor y textura, de los tres frijoles degustados en cada país. Adicionalmente, se realizó un análisis estadístico de los resultados mediante pruebas no paramétricas para determinar las medianas de los puntajes y expresar la tendencia central del conjunto de datos.Los resultados obtenidos correspondientes a la información sociodemográfica consolidada en los 2 países se presentan en la Tabla 3. Un total de 360 consumidores participaron en este estudio, distribuidos en igual porcentaje en los dos países. Del total de participantes, 185 eran mujeres y 166 eran hombres con edades diversas, 4% eran menores de 20 años, 24% tenían entre 20 y 29 años, 16% entre 30 y 39 años, y una proporción similar de participantes (18-19%) eran mayores de 40, 50 y 60 años; con un promedio de edad de 45 y 42 años en Guatemala y Honduras, respectivamente.La mayoría de los participantes reportaron su estado civil como casados o convivientes (57%) y su nivel de escolaridad como primario (44%). En cuanto a la ocupación principal, el 37% de las personas que participaron en el estudio eran productores, el 22% empleados o amas de casa y el 14% eran estudiantes.Casi el 80% de la población total del estudio indicó consumir frijoles diariamente; sin embargo, en Honduras una proporción mucho mayor de participantes reportó un consumo diario de frijol comparado a Guatemala. El principal aspecto tenido en cuenta por los participantes al momento de comprar frijol es el tipo de grano (33%), seguido de una combinación de factores como precio + tipo de grano + presentación (29%); solo un 18% de los participantes señaló decidir su compra por el precio del frijol. Para el análisis de aceptabilidad, del total de consumidores que participaron en cada país (n=180), 7 participantes fueron excluidos en Guatemala y 4 en Honduras, debido al incumplimiento de ciertos criterios de inclusión y exclusión que fueron previamente informados, específicamente por ser menores de 18 años y haber fumado o consumido alimentos o bebidas no permitidas 1 hora antes de la prueba sensorial. Así, la población total del estudio incluida para el análisis estuvo compuesta por 173 personas en Guatemala y 176 personas en Honduras.De una escala de 1 a 7 (1: Me disgusta mucho, 7: Me gusta mucho) la aceptabilidad de los frijoles biofortificados y control, evaluados en cada país, obtuvo las puntuaciones medianas que se muestran en la Tabla 4 para los atributos de color, tamaño, olor, sabor y textura. Como se observa, en Guatemala, las puntuaciones medianas reportadas mostraron que los tres materiales obtuvieron la misma puntuación en cuanto a la aceptabilidad del color, tamaño y olor (6.0). Sin embargo, el sabor del frijol Patriarca (control) tuvo una puntuación más baja (6.0), comparada con los dos materiales biofortificados (7.0); mientras que la textura del ICTA Chortí presentó la puntuación más alta (7.0).En Honduras, la aceptabilidad de los frijoles biofortificados y control fue igualmente calificada para los todos atributos evaluados (6.0), excepto en el sabor, atributo para el cual el frijol Amadeus 77 (control) obtuvo la puntuación mediana más alta (7.0), comparada con los dos materiales biofortificados (6.0).Tabla 4. Puntuaciones hedónicas medianas de los atributos sensoriales de los frijoles biofortificados con hierro y zinc y control, evaluados en cada país.Color Tamaño Olor Sabor Textura GUATEMALA (control), se observó una clara tendencia a disminuir la aceptación de los consumidores en casi todos los atributos (color, olor, sabor y textura).En contraste, en Honduras se observaron ligeras variaciones en la aceptabilidad de los frijoles biofortificados y el control. El frijol Amadeus 77 (control) fue el mejor calificado en todos los atributos evaluados, especialmente por su tamaño, sabor y textura (promedio mayor a 6.0); mientras que los materiales biofortificados Honduras Nutritivo y SEF 70 obtuvieron valores promedios más bajos (entre 5.6 y 6.0). El frijol SEF 70 fue castigado principalmente por el color y olor. Con respecto a los resultados de esta sección, a pesar de tener calificaciones menores en los frijoles biofortificados (concretamente en Honduras), podemos decir que la aceptabilidad de estos materiales fue buena, ya que los valores promedio obtenidos en todos los atributos evaluados se encuentran por encima de 5.5, lo cual indica que, de acuerdo con la escala hedónica de 7 puntos, al total de la población encuestada les gustó tanto el frijol control como los mejorados nutricionalmente.❖ Análisis de frecuencias En la Figura 2 y Figura 3 se presentan los resultados de los atributos sensoriales por cada frijol evaluado en Guatemala y Honduras, respectivamente. Este análisis se realizó de acuerdo con el número de respuestas expresadas en porcentaje, tomando como criterio de aceptabilidad los tres puntos superiores de la escala hedónica de siete puntos utilizada en la prueba sensorial (me gusta = me gusta poco + me gusta + me gusta mucho).Analizando individualmente los atributos sensoriales de los frijoles evaluados en Guatemala, se encontró que el 96% de los participantes aceptaron el color del frijol ICTA Chortí, seguido por un 90% de aceptabilidad para el frijol SMN 97; mientras que el frijol control (Patriarca) fue el material menos aceptado, con un 82%. El tamaño fue el parámetro sensorial con menos diferencias en la calificación que los participantes asignaron a cada frijol evaluado, con un 95% de aceptabilidad para el frijol SMN 97 y un 92% para los otros dos materiales. En cuanto al olor, el frijol ICTA Chortí fue el más aceptado con un 92% de participantes que expresó su gusto o agrado por este material, seguido por el frijol SMN 97 que fue aceptado por un 89% de la población; en contraste, el control Patriarca obtuvo la menor calificación con un 84% de aceptación. Entre el 97% y el 91% de las personas calificaron con \"me gusta\" el sabor y la textura de los frijoles biofortificados ICTA Chortí y SMN 97; y se obtuvo un valor más bajo de aceptación para el frijol control Patriarca en términos de sabor (89%) y textura (83%).En resumen, para el total de participantes en Guatemala (n=173), el material con mayor aceptación en cuanto a color, olor, sabor y textura fue el ICTA Chortí, con porcentajes de aceptabilidad por encima del 90%. En segundo lugar, se encuentra el frijol SMN 97 también con porcentajes cercanos al 90%, incluso superando al ICTA Chortí en términos de tamaño. El frijol Patriarca, usado como control, fue por consiguiente el material menos aceptado, con porcentajes de aceptabilidad entre el 82% y el 92%.Para el caso de Honduras, el color del frijol biofortificado SEF 70 fue el atributo sensorial más penalizado por los participantes, con sólo un 80% de aceptabilidad, comparado con los materiales Amadeus 77 y Honduras Nutritivo, que obtuvieron porcentajes de 89% y 88%, respectivamente. Si bien el tamaño y la textura fueron los atributos que marcaron la diferencia en la aceptación del frijol Amadeus 77, con porcentajes del 94% y 97%, respectivamente, también se obtuvieron altos porcentajes de aceptabilidad (por encima del 85%) para los materiales biofortificados. En cuanto al olor y sabor, el frijol más aceptado fue el Amadeus 77, donde un 90% de los participantes los calificaron con \"me gusta\"; adicionalmente no se presentaron diferencias de aceptabilidad en el olor de los frijoles biofortificados (cercanos a 85%), pero si en el sabor del Honduras Nutritivo (87%), que fue ligeramente más aceptado que el del SEF 70 (82%).Estos resultados demuestran que los 3 frijoles evaluados en Honduras (Honduras Nutritivo, SEF 70, Amadeus 77) tuvieron una aceptación mayor al 80%, lo cual teniendo en cuenta lo representativo de la población del estudio (n=176) permite inferir una alta probabilidad de aceptabilidad de todos los materiales. En resumen, el frijol con mayor aceptación fue el control Amadeus 77 (entre el 89% y 97%) para todos los atributos evaluados; seguido por el frijol Honduras Nutritivo que presentó un porcentaje de aceptabilidad mayor al 84%. Con relación a la variedad SEF 70, a pesar de presentar diferencias en algunos parámetros como el color y el sabor, que pueden ser compensadas al adicionar otros ingredientes (como especias o saborizantes), sus porcentajes de aceptabilidad están por encima del 80%, valor que indica una tendencia favorable de los consumidores hacia este material.Con base en los resultados de la encuesta aplicada en Guatemala y Honduras, y en los análisis realizados para determinar la aceptabilidad de frijol con alto contenido de hierro y zinc, comparado con una variedad control de consumo local no biofortificada, se puede concluir que los materiales biofortificados ICTA Chortí, SMN 97, Honduras Nutritivo y SEF 70, presentaron una alta aceptabilidad (>80%) y pueden ser promovidos como materiales que cumplen con las características culinarias deseadas por los consumidores. En este sentido, es importante implementar estrategias de mercadeo de los nuevos materiales biofortificados, que incluyan prácticas de comercialización y promoción de estos cultivos, ajustadas a los mercados locales y regionales, con un enfoque nutricional. Además, para el caso de la nueva variedad en Honduras, esta estrategia necesita resaltar sus otras características para compensar un poco la ligera menor aceptabilidad en el color.La aceptabilidad estimada por medianas de los frijoles evaluados en los dos países fue igual o mayor a 6.0 (en una escala de 1 a 7, donde 1: Me disgusta mucho y 7: Me gusta mucho), indicando que la mayoría de los participantes calificó todos los atributos con un \"me gusta\"; en otras palabras, los resultados evidencian que los consumidores estarían dispuestos a consumir tanto los frijoles biofortificados como los frijoles control.Adicionalmente, si se tienen en cuenta los promedios globales de aceptación sensorial de los materiales biofortificados y testigo evaluados en Guatemala (ICTA Chortí = 6.2, SMN 97 = 6.1, Patriarca = 5.8) y en Honduras (Honduras nutritivo = 5.8, SEF 70 = 5.7, Amadeus 77 = 6.0), se infieren muy buenas perspectivas de aceptabilidad de los frijoles con alto contenido de hierro y zinc, basadas en la respuesta positiva de los panelistas que confirma la aceptación y consumo de los materiales usados como control.Pese a que la aceptación de los frijoles pueda estar influenciada por hábitos de consumo y características como el color del grano, tamaño o costumbres por zonas o países, se puede plantear, para este caso, que la aceptabilidad del frijol mejorado nutricionalmente también debe poseer buenas características organolépticas como el sabor y la textura del grano, que determinan la aceptación o rechazo del alimento al estar relacionadas con la percepción subjetiva del consumidor.En conclusión, los frijoles con alto contenido de hierro y zinc tuvieron gran aceptación entre productores y consumidores de los dos países que participaron de la evaluación, mostrando buenas características culinarias y organolépticas. Por consiguiente, los materiales biofortificados pueden convertirse en uno de los de mayor preferencia de productores y consumidores de las comunidades involucradas en el estudio; y su difusión, multiplicación y consumo puede contribuir a las estrategias de disminución y prevención de las deficiencias de hierro y zinc en Guatemala y Honduras. ","tokenCount":"4135"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a15e64a33722f795ddcc19e3c899e1aa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/00743372-17f1-4880-8b88-4aae066dbf91/retrieve","id":"-1302792795"},"keywords":["Yam","Dioscorea","Whole-genome sequence","Dioecy","Sex determination"],"sieverID":"40b92177-b011-4859-955a-9c788df2d0c1","pagecount":"20","content":"Background: Root and tuber crops are a major food source in tropical Africa. Among these crops are several species in the monocotyledonous genus Dioscorea collectively known as yam, a staple tuber crop that contributes enormously to the subsistence and socio-cultural lives of millions of people, principally in West and Central Africa. Yam cultivation is constrained by several factors, and yam can be considered a neglected \"orphan\" crop that would benefit from crop improvement efforts. However, the lack of genetic and genomic tools has impeded the improvement of this staple crop. Results: To accelerate marker-assisted breeding of yam, we performed genome analysis of white Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata) and assembled a 594-Mb genome, 76.4% of which was distributed among 21 linkage groups. In total, we predicted 26,198 genes. Phylogenetic analyses with 2381 conserved genes revealed that Dioscorea is a unique lineage of monocotyledons distinct from the Poales (rice), Arecales (palm), and Zingiberales (banana). The entire Dioscorea genus is characterized by the occurrence of separate male and female plants (dioecy), a feature that has limited efficient yam breeding. To infer the genetics of sex determination, we performed whole-genome resequencing of bulked segregants (quantitative trait locus sequencing [QTL-seq]) in F1 progeny segregating for male and female plants and identified a genomic region associated with female heterogametic (male = ZZ, female = ZW) sex determination. We further delineated the W locus and used it to develop a molecular marker for sex identification of Guinea yam plants at the seedling stage.Yam is a collective name for tuber-bearing crops belonging to the monocotyledonous Dioscorea genus in the family Dioscoreaceae of the order Dioscoreales. This genus contains approximately 450 species which are primarily distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide [1]. Among the Dioscoreaceae, three minor genera are monoecious (having male and female flowers on a plant), but the entire genus Dioscorea is characterized by dioecy (the presence of separate male and female plants), a feature shared by only 5-6% of angiosperms [2]. The origin of Dioscorea is supposed to be in the Late Cretaceous (~80 Mya [3]), suggesting that the origin of dioecy dates back to this time. Approximately 10 Dioscorea species have been independently domesticated in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific and Caribbean islands [4]. D. rotundata is the most popular species in West and Central Africa, the main region for yam production worldwide, which contributed approximately 96% of the 63 million tons of yam produced globally in 2013 (Additional file 1: Table S1 and Additional file 2: Figure S1). D. rotundata (white Guinea yam) and D. cayenensis (yellow Guinea yam) represent a major source of food and income in this region, as well as an integral part of the socio-cultural life. This geographical region is often referred to as the \"civilization of the yam,\" reflecting the West African societies that are tightly linked to yam cultivation [5,6].Despite its considerable regional importance, Guinea yam has long been regarded as an \"orphan\" crop, as it is not traded around the world, and it has attracted little attention from researchers and little investment. Guinea yam cultivation is constrained by several factors. Seeds are seldom used as starting materials; instead, yams are commonly propagated clonally using small whole tubers (referred to as \"seed yams\") or tuber pieces. Yam is an annual climber that requires stakes for support and is highly vulnerable to a plethora of pests and diseases. Therefore, an understanding of yam genetics and a systematic improvement of yam based on crossbreeding for traits associated with tuber yield and quality, a reduced requirement for staking, and resistance/tolerance to disease and nematodes are urgently needed. Genetic analysis of Dioscorea has been constrained by the small number of available genetic markers. Furthermore, Dioscorea cultivars are highly heterozygous due to their obligate outcrossing. This heterozygosity renders genetic analysis approaches commonly used in inbreeding species, e.g., linkage analysis using the segregating progeny of an F2 generation and recombinant inbred lines (RILs), inapplicable to yam.The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has a global mandate for yam research and development within the CGIAR Consortium [7]. We initiated a yam genomics program several years ago as part of an IITA-coordinated international collaboration. To generate genetic and genomic tools for yam breeding, we sequenced and assembled a highly heterozygous diploid genome of D. rotundata. We used this genome sequence and genetic resources to identify a locus associated with sex determination, which we used to develop a diagnostic marker for sex identification at the seedling stage. These genomic resources broaden our knowledge of Guinea yam genetics and provide a platform for implementing genomics-assisted breeding by marker-assisted selection (MAS) in this important staple crop.To generate a D. rotundata genome sequence, an individual plant, TDr96_F1, was selected from the progeny in the open-pollinated D. rotundata breeding line TDr96/00629 (Fig. 1a, b). As TDr96_F1 never flowered during the current study period, we could not determine its sex. While D. rotundata is characterized by different ploidy levels (2× and 3×) with a basic chromosome number of 20 [8,9], we found TDr96_F1 to be diploid (2n = 2× = 40) based on the mitotic chromosome number within root meristem cells (Fig. 1c). We estimated the genome size of TDr96_F1 to be 570 Mb by flow cytometry (FCM) analysis (Fig. 1d).We used total DNA from fresh leaf samples to prepare a paired-end (PE) library and eight types of mate-pair (MP) jump libraries with insert sizes of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 20, and 40 kb and sequenced the PE and MP jump libraries on Illumina sequencers. We also generated a 100-kb jump bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library, from which 9984 clones were subjected to BAC-end Sanger sequencing, resulting in PE reads corresponding to a 0.46-Gb sequence with ~0.8× genome coverage (Additional file 1: Table S2 and Additional file 2: Figure S2). In total, we generated 85.14 Gb of sequencing reads, representing ~149.4× coverage of the estimated 570-Mb genome (Additional file 1: Table S2). Using k-mer analysis-based genome size estimation [10] of TDr96_F1 PE reads with ALLPATHS-LG [11] (see below), we found that the genome size was roughly 579 Mb, which is similar to the size estimated by FCM (Additional file 2: Figure S3). The PE and MP jump reads were used for de novo assembly with the ALLPATHS-LG assembler [11], which provides good performance even for highly heterozygous genomes [12]. Further scaffolding with SSPACE software using the 100-kb jump reads [13] (Additional file 2: Figure S4) generated 4723 scaffolds with a total length of 594 Mb, i.e., 2.6% and 4.2% longer than the genome size estimated by k-mer (579 Mb) and FCM (570 Mb) analyses, respectively. We estimated the scaffold N50 to be 2.12 Mb (longest scaffold: 13.6 Mb), with approximately 93.9% of the assembly represented by 586 scaffolds longer than 100 kb (Additional file 1: Table S3). From ALLPATHS-LG output, we judged that more than 1.4 million sites were potentially heterozygous (Table 1). This assembly is hereafter referred to as the \"TDr96_F1 reference genome.\"We assessed the quality of our assembly by investigating the presence of 248 highly conserved core eukaryotic genes with the Core Eukaryotic Genes Mapping Approach (CEGMA) [14] and confirmed the presence of 243 (98%) of those genes (Additional file 1: Table S4). Similarly, 94% of 956 Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCOs) [15] were present in at least one complete single copy in the assembly (Additional file 1: Table S5). Since the TDr96_F1 reference genome was generated from total genomic DNA, it also contained organelle-derived sequences. Alignment of the TDr96_F1 PE reads to the published D. rotundata chloroplast genome sequence [16] showed that 14.7% of the total PE reads were derived from the chloroplast genome (Additional file 1: Table S6). We also isolated mitochondrial DNA from TDr96_F1 leaves, sequenced this DNA using PE reads with Illumina MiSeq, and generated a 564-kb de novo assembly comprising 76 scaffolds (Additional file 2: Figure S5). Among PE reads, 1.25% represented mitochondrial sequences.We developed a genetic map of D. rotundata using 150 F1 individuals obtained from a cross between two heterozygous breeding lines, TDr97/00917 (P1, female) and TDr99/02627 (P2, male), using restriction site associated DNA (RAD)-tags as DNA markers [17] (Additional file 2: Figures S6, S7) and the pseudotestcross method [18,19]. We aligned RAD-tags to TDr96_F1 scaffold sequences and selected DNA markers heterozygous in P1 and homozygous in P2, as well as markers heterozygous in P2 and homozygous in P1, resulting in 1326 and 1272 markers for P1 and P2 heterozygous sites, respectively (Additional file 1: Table S7 and Additional file 2: Figure S8). We then calculated the recombination fraction (rf )  S8). Two linkage maps, P1-Map and P2-Map, were generated based on the segregation pattern of the selected markers in the F1 progeny (Additional file 2: Figure S10), to which D. rotundata scaffolds were anchored using the 100-bp DNA sequences of RAD-tags. We combined the two maps using shared scaffolds (Additional file 2: Figures S11, S12), which allowed the ~454-Mb sequence (representing 76.4% of the assembly) to be anchored onto 21 linkage groups (LGs) to Transposable elements were identified by masking the genomes using RepeatModeler and RepeatMasker, with the same parameters across all species construct chromosome-scale pseudo-molecules (Fig. 2 and Additional file 1: Table S9). Smaller LGs could not be unequivocally mapped; hence, 21 LGs were obtained, whereas 20 LGs are expected based on the basic chromosome number. We validated the quality of our assembly by comparing the pseudo-molecule sequence with newly sequenced PE sequence reads having an average insert size of ~100 kb obtained from the BACs. Among the 315 BAC clones for which sequences of both ends could be mapped onto the assembly, 265 (84.1%) had both pairs in the same scaffold in the correct orientation, with an average distance of 116 kb (Additional file 1: Table S10 and Additional file 2: Figure S13), confirming the quality of our assembly. We compared the de novo assembled scaffolds to linkage information about the RAD markers, finding that 75% of RAD markers on the same scaffolds had rf < 0.25, and 73.5% of the scaffolds were retained without the need for splitting (Additional file 1: Table S11). The remaining 26.5% of the scaffolds had an rf > 0.25 and were divided into two or more scaffolds to solve the inconsistency between assembly and linkage information.We predicted genes and transposons using the TDr96_F1 reference genome sequence. To construct reliable gene models, we followed the MAKER pipeline using RNA-seq data from 18 samples representing various D. rotundata tissues (Additional file 1: Tables S12, S13) and combined the data with publicly available expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and homologous protein sequences from related angiosperm species (Additional file 2: Figure S14). This resulted in the prediction of 26,198 genes (Table 1 and Additional file 3), 22,477 (85.8%) of which are supported by RNA-seq data. We compared Guinea yam genome sequence metrics with those of Arabidopsis thaliana (dicot), Brachypodium distachyon (monocot), and Oryza sativa (monocot) (Table 1). Interestingly, the GC contents of the total genome and exons of protein-coding genes in Guinea yam were 35.8% and 44.1%, respectively; these values are close to those of Arabidopsis and much lower than those of the Poales species Brachypodium and Oryza (Table 1). We annotated an average of 6.03 exons and 4.03 introns per gene. Roughly half of the genome was represented by an interspersed sequence (274.5 Mb), a major component of which was long terminal repeat (LTR) sequences (135.7 Mb) (Table 1).We identified 5557 D. rotundata genes with a 1:1:1:1 orthologous relationship to the high-quality B. distachyon, O. sativa, and A. thaliana gene models (Fig. 3a and Additional files 4, 5). This number was reduced to 2795 genes when we included Arecales (Elaeis guineensis, Phoenix dactylifera) and Zingiberales (Musa acuminata) in our analysis (Additional files 6, 7). We constructed a phylogenetic tree based on the alignment of 2381 orthologous protein-coding genes in the five monocotyledonous species (Fig. 3b). D. rotundata did not group with any species in the tree, including Musa of Zingiberales, Phoenix and Elaeis of Arecales, and Oryza and Brachypodium of Poales, suggesting that Dioscorea diversified independently from these taxa in monocotyledons.For 12,625 D. rotundata genes, no orthologs or paralogs were found in B. distachyon, O. sativa, or A. thaliana, and 11,348 D. rotundata genes had no clear homologs in any of the six species shown in Fig. 3a and Additional file 8. Of these 11,348 genes without homologs, 3422 were expressed in tuber tissues, a tissue type not shared with the other species examined.Non-redundant Gene Ontology (GO) terms \"intracellular organelle\", \"protein binding\", and \"ion binding\" were significantly enriched among D. rotundata genes that showed no orthology to the other species, but not among the conserved genes (Additional files 9, 10). D. rotundata genes without orthologs in the other species included 68 genes encoding proteins with lectin domains that are involved in defense against microbial pathogens, nematodes, and insects, accounting for 31% of the 216 lectin-coding genes functionally annotated in D. rotundata. Among the 12 subfamilies of lectins [20], the bulb-type lectin (snowdrop lectin; B-lectin) family contributed the largest share (110) of genes in D. rotundata (Additional file 1: Table S14). Phylogenetic analysis of the B-lectin genes in D. rotundata (110 genes; 51 unique), B. distachyon, O. sativa, and A. thaliana revealed two expansions of B-lectin genes in Dioscorea (Fig. 3c). The first expansion (blue band) consisted of 22 receptor-like serine/threonine-protein kinases, which are thought to play a role in signaling and the activation of plant defense mechanisms [21]. The second expansion (red band) consisted of 28 mannose-binding lectins sharing high similarity with Dioscorea batatas tuber lectin DB1 (accession number AB178475). DB1 has insecticidal properties against cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), and studies in transgenic tobacco and rice plants expressing DB1 demonstrated that it also confers resistance against green peach aphid and brown plant hopper, respectively [22][23][24]. Of these mannose-binding lectin genes in Guinea yam, 16 did not have orthologs in any of the six other species examined, and two showed enriched expression (Benjamini-Hochberg [25]  RNA-seq analysis comparing three tuber tissues to all other nine tissues (Additional file 1: Table S12) revealed that 2023 genes were enriched in tubers. The top 50 highly expressed (padj < 0.05) genes included genes encoding starch synthases and branching enzymes, as well as three carbonic anhydrase-encoding genes. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLASTP) (https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) analysis showed that these carbonic anhydrase-encoding genes shared high identity (average 76%) with genes encoding Dioscorea japonica precursors of dioscorin, a tuber storage protein that has carbonic anhydrase activity and exists in multiple isoforms [26] (Additional file 11).To infer the past genome duplication in D. rotundata, we performed genome-wide dot plot analysis of D. rotundata against itself (Additional file 2: Figure S15), which revealed no indication of genome duplication. Nevertheless, we observed 946 paralogous gene clusters composed of duplicated genes in D. rotundata. Of these, 145 duplicate clusters of paralogous genes were observed only in D. rotundata. To investigate macrosynteny between D. rotundata and related species, we carried out whole-genome syntenic dot plot analysis against the genomes of Oryza sativa, Spirodela polyrhiza, and Phoenix dactylifera. At the chromosomal level, it was difficult to observe synteny conservation between these species. To assess microsynteny conservation, we performed a syntenic path assembly [27] of the scaffolds from these species against D. rotundata-masked pseudochromosomes (see Methods). The reordering and reorientation of the scaffolds relative to D. rotundata pseudo-molecules identified large proportions of the genomes to be conserved at the microsyntenic level (Additional file 2: Figure S16). This suggested that the D. rotundata genome has undergone many recombination events after its divergence from the other species.Whole-genome resequencing of F1 bulk segregants identifies a genomic region associated with sex determination in D. rotundataWe previously developed a next generation sequencing (NGS)-based method for bulked segregant analysis (BSA) for quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping in rice, named QTL-seq [28]. To our knowledge, this method has not been applied in species with highly heterozygous genomes. The majority of Dioscorea species, including D. rotundata, are mostly dioecious, with separate male and female plants (Fig. 4a), making it interesting to understand the genetic mechanism of sex determination in this genus. From a cross between two D. rotundata breeding accessions, TDr97/00917 (P3, female) and TDr97/00777 (P4, male), we generated an F1 population of 253 individuals in 2014 that segregated for male, female, monoecious (male and female flowers on the same plant), and non-flowering types (Additional file 1: Table S15). For QTL-seq analysis (see Additional file 2:  S16). We also resequenced the genome of the female parent (P3) and generated a P3 reference sequence (P3-Ref ) by replacing TDr96_F1 nucleotides with P3 nucleotides at all different sites between the two genotypes. Likewise, we generated the male parent (P4) reference sequence (P4-Ref ) by aligning P4 sequence reads to TDr96_F1 and replacing TDr96_F1 nucleotides with those of P4 at all different sites. We then separately aligned sequence reads obtained from F1 male-bulk and female-bulk DNA to the P3-and P4-Ref sequences. To identify single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers associated with the F1 gender phenotype, thus potentially suggesting candidate sex-determining gene(s), we focused on SNPs that segregated in the F1 progeny either as SNPs homozygous in the female parent (P3) but heterozygous in the male parent (P4), or vice versa. We could then identify genomic regions with SNPs heterozygous in one parent whose alleles were differentially transmitted to the two sexes in the F1, suggesting Y or W linkage, respectively. This is similar to mapping by backcrossing, but does not require a BC1 generation using inbred lines. Scanning the entire genome identified a single region, from 0.65 Mb to 2.35 Mb on pseudo-chromosome 11, whose SNP-index values (the frequency of short reads aligned to a particular position of the genome with SNPs different from the reference sequence [28]) differed for male and female bulks in the second category of SNPs just described (Fig. 4b and Additional file 2: Figure S18). We identified a sex-linked region with category 2 SNP markers that are heterozygous in the female parent (P3) but homozygous in the male parent (P4) (Additional file 2: Figure S18), suggesting that the male sex is determined by the homozygous (designated ZZ) state of the locus responsible for sex determination, whereas that of the female sex is determined by the heterozygous (ZW) (or hemizygous: Z-) state of this locus (Fig. 4c). Genotyping of the F1 individuals used for bulk sequencing using the cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) marker sp1 developed within the candidate genomic region revealed significant co-segregation between the sp1 marker and the sex of the individual (P = 1.913e-14, Fisher's exact test). This analysis confirmed that the genomic region identified by QTL-seq is indeed associated with sex determination (Fig. 5a, b and Additional file 2: Figure S19). The switch of sp1 male and female marker genotypes in the F1 progeny occurred because the marker genotype was heterozygous in the female parent (Fig. 4c).As the TDr96_F1 plant never flowered, we were unable to determine its sex based on flower phenotype and therefore could not directly characterize its genotype (ZZ or ZW) at the candidate sex locus. To identify the genomic regions linked to Z and W, we assembled the P3 (female) and P4 (male) genomes de novo using their PE reads with the DISCOVAR De Novo assembler [29], generating P3-DDN (female, N50 = 3.3 kb) and P4-DDN (male, N50 = 2.7 kb) reference sequences (Fig. 6a, Additional file 1: Table S17 and Additional file 2: Figure S20). We separately mapped short reads derived from bulked DNA from 50 male and 50 female F1 progeny (P3 × P4) to P3-DDN and P4-DDN and looked for unique P3-DDN (female) genomic regions (presumably corresponding to the W-linked region) that were specifically mapped by F1 female-bulk reads but not by F1 male-bulk reads. The 1345 regions (sizes from 1 to 129 bp) totaling 15,390 bp conformed to this pattern (Additional file 2: Figure S21). We ordered these fragments by size and found that the N20 value was 42 bp. Conversely, we found only 435 regions (total size 3775 bp) of P4-DDN (male) mapped by the F1-male bulk but not by the F1-female bulk (Additional file 2: Figure S21). The large size difference between female-specific P3-DDN regions (total 15,390 bp) and male-specific P4-DDN regions (total 3775 bp) suggested that the ZW female genome has additional DNA sequences not present in the ZZ male. We hypothesize that the recovery of small malespecific P4-DDN regions may have occurred by chance. We focused on 36 female-specific contigs of P3-DDN that contained DNA fragments larger than 42 bp (Fig. 6b and Additional file 2: Figure S21). When we used the 36 contigs as BLASTN queries against the TDr96_F1 reference genome, 20 were located on scaffold206 (667.8 kb) on pseudo-chromosome 11 (Fig. 6c, Additional file 1: Table S18), suggesting that P3-DDN contigs with female-specific regions were indeed located within the sex-linked region identified by QTL-seq (Fig. 4b). We developed a PCR primer pair for one such P3-DDN contig (Fig. 6b; Female917_flattened_ line_87512_3057) harboring female-specific regions; we named this DNA marker sp16. sp16 amplified a PCR fragment in the P3 female parent but not in the P4 male parent (Fig. 7a), demonstrating that this fragment was located in the female-specific region. An sp16 PCR b a c Fig. 6 Identification of female-specific putative W-linked genomic region. a Schematic diagram of the method used to identify the female-specific putative W-linked genomic region. De novo assembled genome sequences of female (P3-DDN) and male (P4-DDN) parents were combined to serve as a reference sequence. Short reads of bulked DNA from F1 female and F1 male progeny were separately mapped onto this combined reference sequence. The majority of reads mapped to two duplicated homologous locations in the reference genome (indicated as \"common regions\"), which gave low MAPQ scores (<60) in the BWA alignment. Female parental contigs that were mapped only with reads belonging to the F1 female bulk corresponded to female-specific genomic regions. Sequence reads mapped to such positions were identified by their high MAPQ scores (=60). b An example of a female-specific contig (contig Female917_flattened_line_87512_3057). Alignment depths of F1 female bulk (red) and F1 male bulk (blue) are shown (top). Frequency of reads mapped with MAPQ score = 60. The red line corresponds to genomic regions that were covered by short reads, > 90% of which had a MAPQ score of 60 (middle). A genomic region that is covered only by female reads (not by male reads) and > 90% of mapped reads had MAPQ score fragment was amplified in TDr96_F1, our reference genome plant (Fig. 7a), suggesting that this individual likely had the ZW genotype. In F1 progeny derived from a P3 × P4 cross, the sp16 fragment was amplified in all female plants, but it failed to be amplified in the majority of male individuals. Furthermore, sp16 fragments were amplified in monoecious as well as nonflowering progeny (Fig. 7a). We monitored flowering in all 249 F1 individuals in two consecutive seasons (2014 and 2015) and found that 194 plants showed consistent sex phenotypes. However, the remaining 55 plants showed changes in sex among male, female, and monoecious (Fig. 7b). Genotyping of all F1 individuals using sp16 revealed a striking pattern: 121 of the 125 plants that were consistent for male over the 2 years showed no PCR amplification of sp16, whereas all plants with the remaining phenotypes showed amplification of sp16 (Fig. 7b). A similar pattern was observed in another F1 family (TDr04-219 × P4) involving the same male parent, P4 (Fig. 7c). We also assayed 24 Guinea yam breeding accessions of known sex using the same marker (Fig. 8). All 10 female accessions, as well as three accessions that did not flower, showed amplification of sp16. Of the 11 male accessions genotyped, eight did not show amplification of sp16, whereas the remaining three did.We hypothesized that the ZZ genotype stably gives rise to the male phenotype, whereas the ZW genotype results in unstable sex phenotypes; ZW mainly generates the female phenotype, but sometimes monoecious or male phenotypes depending on the environments. Therefore, some individuals of the F1 progeny derived from a cross between P3 and P4 might have been scored as male despite their genotype being ZW, which may have obscured our analysis, resulting in non-zero depth of male DNA bulk within the putative W-region (Fig. 6b).To address this possibility, we selected 50 ZZ plants from the F1 progeny based on their sp16 genotype and bulked and sequenced the DNA (sp16-minus bulk). The sp16-minus bulk reads, as well as female bulk reads, were separately mapped to the combined sequence of the TDr96_F1 reference genome and P4-DDN to identify the female-specific TDr96_F1 genomic region, as described in Fig. 6a. As shown in Fig. 6c and Additional file 2: Figure S20c, d 11. This putative female-specific W-linked region contains ~10 predicted genes (Additional file 12).Molecular markers, such as simple sequence repeats (SSRs), indels, and SNPs, can, for the first time, be developed for various applications in Guinea yam, including linkage mapping, genome-wide association analysis, genomic selection, and MAS. We have already analyzed sequences containing SSR motifs in the genome and identified more than 22,000 candidates that can be used to design primers (Additional file 1: Table S19). We designed primer pairs for 1000 of these sequences and obtained the information necessary for their immediate use in genetic analyses (Additional file 13). SSR markers isolated from one Dioscorea species can be transferred to other species [30]. From a practical plant breeding point of view, the sp16 sex-linked marker should prove useful for selecting plantlets for crossing, substantially saving the space and labor required to grow plants and accelerating breeding programs. However, the sex-determination system may vary among Dioscorea species (see below), so the transferability of sex-linked DNA markers from D. rotundata to other species should be addressed in future studies.Our identification of the locus underpinning an important trait by QTL-seq, using F1 progeny derived from highly heterozygous parents, opens up new avenues to WGS-based mapping of important traits in crops and tree species for which inbred lines are difficult to obtain and/or generation times are too long, impeding the use of conventional linkage analysis approaches.Development of DNA markers linked to agronomically important traits and their use for MAS increase the role yam plays in ensuring food security for resource-poor households in Africa and beyond. The D. rotundata genome sequences reported here should also contribute to understanding the origin of Guinea yam and its domestication from its wild progenitor species, which are widely distributed in West and Central Africa.Our results suggest that the Guinea yam sexdetermination system involves female heterogamy (male = ZZ, female = ZW). We identified two DNA markers, sp1 (linked to the putative Z-linked region) and sp16 (presumably located within the putative Wlinked region, which in TDr96_F1 is presumed to be ZW, and spans only 161 kb). The chromosomes carrying the Z-and W-linked regions are probably not strongly differentiated, and diverged sequences corresponding to Z and W chromosomes were not recovered in our reference genome. Future work should test for structural differences, such as inversions, between the Z-and W-linked regions. Guinea yam sex determination is not, however, a simple genetic system. The consistent maleness of individuals with the ZZ genotype, based on the sp16 sequence, versus occasional maleness of ZW individuals, suggests that maleness is the default phenotype and that the W allele is dominant over Z and can, but does not always, suppress male organ development and feminize the flower. If the feminizing function of the W allele fails in a subset of flowers, the individual will be monoecious. ZW individuals can change sex over time (Fig. 7), indicating that the Z-suppressing function can be affected by the environment. Self-pollination between male and female flowers of ZW monoecious plants could become possible, which may allow inbred lines to be generated, allowing fixation of desired alleles of agronomically important traits. To make it practical, though, we may have to carefully monitor the level of inbreeding depression in D. rotundata. Dioecy is the norm in Dioscorea species, and previous reports suggest that males are usually the heterogametic sex (XY) in the genus [31,32]. A genetic study of D. tokoro also confirmed an XY male system [19]. D. tokoro belongs to the section Stenophora, which is distantly related to the section Enantiophyllum, which contains D. rotundata [3]. Our data suggest that the sex-determination system has changed within the genus during the evolution, which could be an interesting topic for future studies. Once the D. rotundata sex-determination gene has been isolated, its comparison with another dioecious monocot species such as Asparagus, for which the sex-determination gene has been recently isolated [33], would be interesting. Here, we sequenced the whole genome (594 Mb) of the dioecious tuber crop Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata) using a heterozygous individual and anchored the scaffolds to 21 linkage groups to generate pseudochromosomes. We exploited the genome sequence to map the sex-determination locus by QTL-seq using BSA of F1 progeny. This analysis revealed a genomic region on pseudo-chromosome 11 tightly linked to femaleness within a female heterogametic (ZZ = male, ZW = female) sex-determination system. This genome sequence will serve as a springboard towards gene mapping and discovery in yam (Dioscorea spp.) and genetic improvement of these important yet neglected staple crops.The TDr96_F1 line used for WGS was selected from F1 progeny obtained from an open-pollinated D. rotundata breeding line (TDr96/00629) grown under field conditions in the experimental fields of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria. F1 seeds from TDr96/00629 and those obtained from the cross between the parental lines TDr97/00917 and TDr99/02627 used for RAD-seq were germinated on wet paper towels in darkness at 28 °C. After germination, the seeds were transferred to soil (Sakata Supermix A [34]) and grown at 30 °C with a 16-h/8-h photoperiod in a greenhouse at Iwate Biotechnology Research Institute (IBRC) in Japan. Fresh leaf samples were collected for DNA extraction. Additionally, to resequence the F1 progeny used for QTL-seq analysis, lyophilized leaf samples obtained from plants that were grown and phenotyped under field conditions at IITA were used for DNA extraction.For chromosome observation, root tips of TDr96_F1 plants generated by in vitro propagation of nodal explants were sampled and fixed in acetic acid-alcohol (1:3 ratio) for 24 h without pretreatment. Fixed root tips were stained with a 1% aceto-carmine solution for 24 h. Samples were prepared by the squash method and analyzed under an Olympus BX50 optical microscope (Olympus Optical Co, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan [35]) at 400× magnification.The genome size of TDr96_F1 (D. rotundata) was estimated both by FCM and k-mer analyses. FCM analysis was carried out using nuclei prepared from fresh leaf samples of TDr96_F1 and a japonica rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivar of known genome size (~380 Mb [36]), which served as an internal reference standard. Nuclei were isolated and stained with propidium iodide (PI) simultaneously and analyzed using a Cell Lab Quanta™ SC Flow Cytometer (Beckman Coulter, CA [37]) following the manufacturer's protocol. The ratio of G1 peak means [yam (281.7):rice (188.7) = 1.493] was used to estimate the genome size of D. rotundata to be ~570 Mb (380 Mb × 1.5). k-mer analysis-based genome size estimation [10] was performed with TDr96_F1 PE reads with an average size of ~230 bp and a total length of 16.77 Gb (16,771,579,510 bp) using ALLPATHS-LG [11]. k-mer frequency analysis, with the k-mer size set to 25, generated values for k-mer coverage (Kc = 25.66) and mean read length (Rl = 228.8), which were used to estimate the genome size of TDr96_F1 to 579 Mb as follows:For WGS, genomic DNA was extracted from fresh TDr96_F1 leaf samples using a NucleoSpin Plant II Kit according to the manufacturer's protocol (Macherey-Nagel GmbH & Co. KG [38]) with slight modifications. Homogenized samples were washed with 0.  S2).All TDr96_F1 sequence reads in fastq format were filtered for quality using the FASTX-Toolkit version 0.0.  S2) were assembled using ALLPATHS-LG assembler version R49856 [11]. Further scaffolding of the assembly generated by ALLPATHS-LG was performed using the 100-kb jump MP fastq reads obtained by BAC-end sequencing and the SSPACE PREMIUM 2.3 scaffolding tool with default parameters [13].De novo assembly of the D. rotundata mitochondrial genome sequence was performed using mitochondrial DNA isolated from TDr96_F1 leaf samples according to the method of Terachi and Tsunewaki [43] with the following minor modifications. Fresh green leaves (ca. 150 g) were homogenized in 1.  S5). To reconstruct the D. rotundata chloroplast genome sequence, the PE reads of TDr96_F1 were aligned to the recently published D. rotundata chloroplast genome sequence [16] (GenBank ID = NC_024170.1) by Burrows-Wheeler alignment (BWA) [44], and chloroplast-derived sequences were identified, amounting to 5,403,420 reads (14.74% of the total size of PE reads generated for TDr96_F1 [Table 1]) matching the assembled 155.4-kb chloroplast genome of D. rotundata.To evaluate the completeness of the D. rotundata genome assembly, the assembly was checked for the presence of 248 highly conserved core eukaryotic genes [45] using CEGMA version 2.4 with default parameters [14] (Additional file 1: Table S4). To further assess the completeness of the genome, the successor to CEGMA, Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO), was used to check for the presence of 956 BUSCOs with version 1.1.b1 [15] using the early access plant dataset (Additional file 1: Table S5).Legacy repetitive sequences, including transposons, were predicted using CENSOR 4.2.29 [46] with the following options: show_simple, nofilter, and mode rough using the Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences (MIPS) Repeat Element Database [47]. Following identification, the repeat elements were classified using mips-REcat [47]. Repetitive sequences were later improved by remodeling using RepeatModeler 1.0.8 [48] and masked with RepeatMasker 4.0.5 [49]. Using the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, one of three other options was used to generate interspersed RepeatModeler-based, interspersed Rebase-based, and Low complexity repeats: \"nolow\", \"nolow, species Viridiplantae\", and \"noint\", respectively. Repeat element content and other statistics were compared between the D. rotundata and A. thaliana TAIR10 [50], B. distachyon v3.1 [51], and O. sativa v7_JGI 323 [52] genomes using the RepeatModeled and RepeatMasked references (Table 1).Total RNA was extracted using leaf, stem, flower, and tuber samples collected from a greenhouse-grown TDr96_F1 plant using a Plant RNeasy Kit (Qiagen [53]) with slight modifications. RLC buffer was used for lysis after the addition of 5 μl 30% PEG-20000 and 10 μl 2-ME to 1 ml of buffer. The RNA samples were treated with DNase (Qiagen) to remove contaminating genomic DNA. Two micrograms of total RNA was used to construct complementary DNA (cDNA) libraries using a TruSeq RNA Sample Prep Kit V2 (Illumina) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The libraries were used for PE sequencing using 2× 100 cycles on the HiSeq 2500 platform in high-output mode. Illumina sequencing reads were filtered by Phred quality score, and reads with a quality score of ≥ 30 (≥90% of reads) were retained (Additional file 1: Table S12). Only one RNA-seq experiment was carried out per tissue/organ (indicated as sample in Additional file 1: Table S12).The legacy gene models were generated previously using the legacy repeat-masked reference genome and three approaches: ab initio, ab initio supported by evidence-based prediction, and evidence-based prediction. The ab initio prediction was carried out with FGE-NESH 3.1.1 [54]. The ab initio supported by evidencebased prediction was performed with AUGUSTUS 3.0.3 [55] using the maize5 training set and a hint file as the gene model support information. To construct the hint file, TopHat 2.0.11 [56] was used to align RNA-seq reads from tuber, flower (young), leaf (young), stem, leaf (old), and flower (old) samples to the D. rotundata reference genome, and Cufflinks 2.2.1 [57] was used to generate gene models from these data. The evidencebased predictions using the Program to Assemble Spliced Alignments (PASA) [58] were generated in a Trinity [59] assembled transcriptome from the RNAseq data. JIGSAW 3.2.9 [60] was used to select and combine the gene models obtained using the three approaches with the weighting values assigned to the results from FGENESH, AUGUSTUS, and PASA of 10, 3, and 3, respectively. In total, 21,882 consensus gene models were predicted. These gene models were further improved upon using the MAKER [61] pipeline (Additional file 2: Figure S14). Publicly available ESTs and protein sequences from related plant species were aligned to the genome using GMAP [62] and Exonerate 2.2.0 [63], respectively. De novo and reference-guided transcripts were assembled from RNA-seq data from all 18 tissues using Bowtie 1.1.1 [64], Trinity 2.0.6 and SAMtools 1.2.0 [65], and Trinity 2.0.6 and TopHat 2.1.0, respectively. Both sets of assembled transcripts were used to build a comprehensive transcript database using PASA (Additional file 1: Table S13). High-quality non-redundant transcripts from PASA were used to generate a training set for AUGUSTUS 3.1. Gene models were predicted twice using the genome, improved repeat sequences, assembled transcripts, EST and protein alignments, the AUGUSTUS training set, and a legacy set of 21,882 gene models obtained previously using MAKER 2.31.6 [61], retaining all legacy gene models or querying them with new evidence and discarding those that could not be validated. From both MAKER runs, 21,894 and 76,449 gene models were predicted, respectively. A consensus set of gene models from both MAKER outputs was obtained using JIGSAW 3.2.9 [60] at a 1:1 ratio. In total, 26,198 consensus gene models were predicted in the D. rotundata genome. The corresponding amino acid sequences were also predicted for these gene models. To confirm these gene models, the RNA-seq reads were aligned to the CDSs (coding sequences) of the predicted genes using BWA [44] with default parameters. Accordingly, 85.8% of the gene models could be aligned by at least a single RNA-seq read. Functional annotation of the amino acid sequences was performed using the in-house pipeline, AnnotF, which compares Blast2GO [66] and Inter-ProScan [67] functional terms.Pairwise orthology relationships were determined with Inparanoid [68][69][70] using the longest protein-coding isoform for each gene in Arabidopsis thaliana (TAIR10) [50], Oryza sativa japonica (v7.0) [52], Brachypodium distachyon (v3.1) [71], Musa acuminata (v2) [72], Elaeis guineensis (EG5) [73], and Phoenix dactylifera (DPV01) [74]. Orthology clusters across all seven species were determined using Multiparanoid [75]. Sequences for the 12 classes of lectins were obtained from UniProt [76] for the proteomes of A. thaliana (up000006548), B. distachyon (up000008810), and O. sativa (up000059680). Protein alignments for B-lectin class protein sequences from all three of these species and D. rotundata were generated using the program Multiple Alignment using Fast Fourier Transform (MAFFT) [77]. Maximum likelihood trees were constructed based on the concatenated alignments of all 378 B-lectin proteins using RAxML [78] 8.0.2 with 1000 bootstraps. Enrichment of tuberspecific genes was detected using TopHat 2.1.0 to align RNA-seq data from each of the 12 tissues to the genome, with one biological replicate for each tissue. HTSeq 0.6.1 [79] was used to generate raw counts. Then the Bioconductor package DESeq2 1.14.1 [80] was used to compare raw counts of the three tuber tissues against all the other nine tissues (Additional file 1: Table S12) to determine tuber-enriched gene expression based on a log2 fold change > 0 and Benjamini-Hochberg [25] adjusted P value < 0.05. Gene enrichment analysis of orthology clusters was performed with GOATOOLS [81], using the Holm significance test, and the false discovery rate was adjusted using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure [25]. The list of enriched genes was filtered for redundant Gene Ontology (GO) terms using REVIGO [82]. For the species phylogeny, protein alignments for each gene with a 1:1 orthologous relationship across all monocot species were generated with MAFFT using the longest protein isoform. Maximum likelihood trees were constructed based on the concatenated alignments of 2381 orthologous protein-coding genes using RAxML 8.2.8 [78] with a JTT + Γ model and 1000 bootstraps.SynMAP [83] using BLASTZ [84] alignments, DAGchainer [85] (options -D 30 and -A 2), and no merging of syntenic blocks were used as part of the CoGe platform [86] to identify syntenic blocks between the hard-masked pseudo-chromosomes of D. rotundata and scaffolds/contigs of Oryza sativa japonica (A123v1.0), Spirodela polyrhiza (v0.01), and Phoenix dactylifera L. (v3). A syntenic path assembly was then carried out on each of the same three species in SynMap using synteny between the scaffolds/ contigs against D. rotundata pseudo-molecules. The syntenic path assembly is a reference-guided assembly that uses the synteny between two species to order and orientate contigs. This approach highlights regions of conservation that were otherwise too shuffled to be clearly observed. Self-self synteny analysis of D. rotundata pseudo-chromosomes was carried out using SynMap Last alignments with default parameters and syntenic gene pair synonymous rate change calculated by CodeML [87].RAD-seq was performed as previously described [88] with a minor modification. Genomic DNA was digested with the restriction enzymes PacI and NlaIII to prepare libraries used to generate PE reads by Illumina HiSeq 2500 (Additional file 2: Figure S6). Approximately 822.7-Mb and 250.4-Mb sequence reads covering 22.9% and 5.3% of the estimated 504-Mb D. rotundata genome sequence, excluding gap regions, at average depths of 7.2× and 9.8× were generated for the parental lines and F1 individuals, respectively (Additional file 2: Figure S7).For library construction, 1 μg DNA obtained from the two parental lines (TDr97/00917-P1 and TDr99/02627-P2) and the 150 F1 individuals was digested with PacI, which recognizes 5'-TTAATTAA-3' , and a biotinylated adapter-1 was ligated to the digested DNA fragments. The adapter-1-ligated DNA fragments were digested with a second enzyme, NlaIII (5'-CATG-3'). After collecting the biotinylated fragments using streptavidincoated magnetic beads, adapter-2 was ligated to the NlaIII-digested ends. The adapter-ligated DNA was amplified using primers containing sample-specific index sequences, adapter-1 (F) and adapter-2 (R) sequences, and sequences corresponding to the P7 and P5 primers for Illumina sequencing library preparation (Additional file 2: Figure S6). The PCR products were pooled in equal proportions, purified, and subjected to PE sequencing on the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform. Detailed information about the primers (P7 and P5) used for Illumina library preparation are given in Additional file 1: Table S20.RAD-tags were aligned to the D. rotundata reference genome using BWA [44]. The aligned data were converted to SAM/BAM files using SAMtools [65], and the RADtags with mapping quality < 60 or containing insertions/ deletions in the alignment data were excluded from analysis. Low mapping positions including those with only a single RAD-tag and a mapping quality score of < 30 were also excluded. SNP-index values [28] were calculated at all SNP positions. For linkage mapping, two types of heterozygous markers (SNP-type and presence/absencetype) were identified (Additional file 2: Figure S8). The SNP-type heterozygous markers were defined based on SNP-index patterns of the parental line RAD-tags. For example, positions with SNP-index values ranging from 0.2 to 0.8 in P1 but homozygous in P2 with SNP-index values of either 0 or 1 were defined as P1-specific heterozygous SNPs. A similar procedure was followed to identify P2-specific heterozygous SNP markers. The selected markers were filtered using depth information at all positions. To increase the accuracy of the selected markers, their segregation (1:1 ratio) was confirmed in 150 F1 individuals obtained from a cross between P1 and P2. If the segregation ratio was out of the confidence interval (P < 0.05) hypothesized by the binomial distribution, B(n = number of individuals, P = 0.5), the markers were excluded from further analysis. Only one marker was selected per 10-kb interval based on the number of F1 individuals represented and tag coverage. A total of 1105 and 990 P1-and P2heterozygous SNP markers were selected, respectively (Additional file 1: Table S7).The presence/absence-type markers were defined based on the alignment depth of parental line RAD-tags. First, genomic positions that could be aligned by RADtags from only one of the parental lines were identified. Additionally, aligned tags should be heterozygous for that particular region. Similar to the SNP-type markers, the segregation patterns of candidate presence/absencetype markers in the F1 progeny were confirmed, and only those that segregated at a 1:1 ratio (as confirmed by binomial distribution filter) were retained. In the F1 progeny, positions with sequencing depths of ≥ 3 and 0 were defined as heterozygous and homozygous, respectively. For a given candidate position/marker, if the number of F1 individuals defined as homozygous or heterozygous was less than 120, the marker was excluded from further analysis. Only one heterozygous position was selected as a marker within a given 10-kb interval. In total, 221 and 282 positions were selected as P1-and P2-specific presence/absence-type heterozygous markers, respectively (Additional file 1: Table S7).To developing parental line-specific linkage maps, P1-Map and P2-Map, recombination fraction (rf ) values between all pairs of markers on a given scaffold were calculated for both parents using the recombination pattern of the 150 F1 individuals. To minimize incorrect mapping, scaffolds were divided at positions where rf values exceeded 0.25 from the initial marker position (Additional file 2: Figure S9). Only two flanking (distal) markers per scaffold were selected, corresponding to 477 and 493 P1-and P2-specific markers, respectively. These markers were used to develop P1 and P2 linkage maps according to the pseudo-testcross method [18] using the backcross model of R/qtl [89]. Due to the use of the pseudo-testcross method, the initial maps contained both the coupling and repulsion-type markers. Consequently, the genetic distance in linkage groups was larger than expected. To avoid the effect of repulsion-type markers when calculating genetic distances, these markers were converted to coupling-type markers. If a marker showed a high logarithm of odds (LOD) score and an rf value > 0.5, it was defined as repulsion type and was therefore converted to the coupling-type genotype. This conversion was carried out gradually by changing the threshold of the LOD score from 10 to 5, and then to 3. After converting all repulsion markers to coupling markers, linkage maps were developed using markers showing LOD score > 3 and rf value < 0.25. Accordingly, a total of 21 and 23 linkage groups, each with a minimum of three markers, were generated for P1and P2-Maps, respectively (Additional file 1: Table S8 and Additional file 2: Figure S10).To develop chromosome-scale pseudo-molecules, TDr96_F1 scaffold sequences were anchored onto the two parental-specific linkage maps using the selected RAD markers. To combine the two maps, the number of scaffolds shared between all possible linkage group (LG) pairs corresponding to the two maps was determined (Additional file 2: Figures S11, S12). LG pairs that shared the largest number of scaffolds were combined using the same scaffolds. Each combined LG represented a pseudo-chromosome, which was designated/numbered according to the P1-Map LG designation (see Fig. 2 and Additional file 2: Figure S11). After combining the two maps to construct the pseudo-chromosomes, P1-and P2-specifc scaffolds were ordered according to their original order in their respective LGs. If the order of scaffolds could not be decided because the order was similar in both the P1-and P2-Maps, the order in P1-LG was adopted (Fig. 2). Finally, the ordered scaffolds were connected by 1000 nucleotides of \"N\" into a single fasta file for each pseudo-chromosome (Additional file 2: Figure S12).DNA samples obtained from the two parental lines, TDr97/00917 (P3, female) and TDr97/00777 (P4, male), as well as samples pooled in equal amounts from 50 male (male-bulk) and 50 female (female-bulk) F1 individuals obtained from the cross between P3 and P4 were subjected to WGS. Libraries for sequencing were constructed from 1-μg DNA samples with a TruSeq DNA PCR-Free LT Sample Preparation Kit (Illumina) and were sequenced via 76 cycles on the Illumina NextSeq 500 platform. Short reads in which more than 20% of sequenced nucleotides exhibited a Phred quality score of < 20 were excluded from further analysis. To perform QTL-seq analysis of F1 progeny, two types of analyses are required. In the first analysis, the SNP index and ΔSNP index are calculated at P4-specific heterozygous positions. The second analysis is performed using P3specific heterozygous positions. To identify P4-specific heterozygous positions, the P3 \"reference sequence\" was first developed by aligning P3 reads to the reference genome sequence of D. rotundata and replacing nucleotides of the D. rotundata reference genome sequence with nucleotides of P3 at all SNP positions showing an SNP index of 1 (Additional file 2: Figure S17c). SNP detection, calculation of SNP index, and replacement of SNPs were carried out via step 2 of QTL-seq pipeline version 1.4.4 [90]. Short reads obtained from both the male and female parents were then aligned to the \"reference sequence\" and heterozygous SNP positions between the two were extracted. A SNP was defined as heterozygous if the same position showed an SNPindex value ranging from 0.4 to 0.6 in one parent and a value of 0 in the second parent. Of the selected markers/ positions, only those having enough depth in both parents (>15) were used for analysis of SNP-index values in the bulk-sequenced samples. P3-specific heterozygous positions were identified similarly using the P4 \"reference sequence.\"After identifying P4-and P3-specific heterozygous positions, the Illumina reads from the two bulk-sequenced samples (male and female bulks) were aligned to the reference sequences using BWA [44] and subjected to Coval filtering [91] as previously described. When the P3 reference sequence was used for alignment, the SNPindex values were calculated only at all of the P4-specific heterozygous positions. By contrast, when the P4 reference sequence was used for alignment, the SNP-index values were calculated only at the P3-specific heterozygous positions. In both cases, positions with shallow depth (< 6) in either of the two samples were excluded from analysis. The ΔSNP index was calculated by subtracting the SNP-index values of the male bulk from those of the female bulk. To generate confidence intervals of the SNP-index value, an in silico test simulating the application of QTL-seq to DNA bulked from 50 randomly selected F1 individuals was performed as described previously [28] (Additional file 2: Figure S22). The simulation test was repeated 10,000 times depending on the alignment depth of short reads to generate confidence intervals. These intervals were plotted for all SNP positions analyzed. Finally, sliding window analysis was applied to SNP-index, ΔSNP-index, and confidence interval plots with a 1-Mb window size and a 50-kb increment to generate SNP-index graphs (Additional file 2: Figure S18).Identification of putative W-region by de novo assembly of female and male parental genomes and mapping of bulked DNA from female and male F1 progeny DNA samples obtained from the two parental lines, TDr97/00917 (P3, female) and TDr97/00777 (P4, male), were separately subjected to de novo assembly. Libraries for sequencing were prepared with a TruSeq DNA PCR-Free LT Sample Preparation Kit (Illumina) and were sequenced for 251 cycles on the Illumina MiSeq platform. Contigs were generated using the DISCOVAR De Novo assembler [29], resulting in P3-DDN and P4-DDN, respectively. Separately, wholegenome resequencing of bulked DNA was performed on bulked DNA samples obtained from 50 female F1 (Female-bulk.fastq) and 50 male F1 (Male-bulk.fastq) progeny, all derived from a cross between P3 and P4. Two reference sequences, P3-DDN and P4-DDN, were combined to generate P3-DDN/P4-DDN. Short reads from the female and male bulks were separately mapped to P3-DDN/P4-DDN using the alignment software BWA [44]. After mapping, the MAPQ scores of the aligned reads were obtained. Under our conditions, if a short read was mapped to a unique position of the reference sequence, the MAPQ score was 60, whereas if the read was mapped to multiple positions, MAPQ was < 60. Since two reference sequences (P3-DDN and P4-DDN) were fused to generate P3-DDN/P4-DDN, most genomic regions were represented twice. Therefore, most short reads mapped to two or more positions, leading to a MAPQ score < 60. The reads that mapped to the P3-DDN/P4-DDN with MAPQ = 60 were judged to be located in either P3or P4-specific genomic regions. After finding these P3-or P4-specific genomic regions, the depth of short reads that covered the regions for Female-bulk.fastq and Male-bulk.fastq, respectively, was evaluated. If the depth of Female-bulk.fastq was high and the depth of Male-bulk.fastq was 0 or close to 0, such genomic regions were retained as putative W-regions (Fig. 6 and Additional file 2: Figure S20).The primer sequences used for amplification of sexlinked markers sp1 and sp16, as well as the control Actin gene fragment (Dr-Actin), were as follows:PCR primers for sp1 fragment: sp1-F; 5'-GATCTGGCTTCCTCCATCTTG-3' sp1-R; 5'-GCTTGGGTGGTTAGTTTATTGTTTG-3' PCR primers for sp16 fragment: sp16-F; 5'-AATGTGTTTAACAGGGTGAATTC-3' sp16-R; 5'-GAATTCAGCCGAATATACTTATTC-3' PCR primers for Dr-Actin gene fragment: Dr-Actin-F; 5'-CAGGGAAAAGATGACCCAAATC-3' Dr-Actin-R; 5'-CCATCACCAGAATCCAGCAC-3' PCR was performed using the following conditions: 30 cycles of 98 °C for 10 s, 55 °C for 30 s, and 72 °C for 1 min. For CAPS analysis of the sp1 marker, the amplified DNA was digested with EcoRI. All PCR products were electrophoresed on 1.5% agarose gels.Approximately 4,932,582 bp simple sequence repeat (SSR) motif-containing sequences were predicted in the D. rotundata genome. Within this region, SSR sequences with enough flanking regions were identified and evaluated for use in primer design. Accordingly, 134,101 SSRcontaining sequences, excluding those with single base repeats, were identified. The SSR information for these sequences was analyzed using GMATo [92] version 1.2 Build 20130106 with the following parameters: m (minimum motif length) = 2, x (maximum motif length) = 10, and r (minimum repeat number) = 10. The necessary information was obtained for 22,164 SSR-containing sequences in the assembled genome, 12,724 (57.4%) of which were anchored to the genetic map (Additional file 1: Table S19). Primer pairs were designed for 1000 of these sequences using Primer3 [93] software release 2.3.6 with the following parameters: product size = 100-500, primer length = 18-22 bp (optimum 20 bp), GC content = 40-60% (optimum 50%), and Tm = 57-63 (optimum = 60.0).","tokenCount":"8866"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5baf95a7199a347c5d673eaec2d1326c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3921138b-14d3-49a0-9632-a258eeb37bb7/retrieve","id":"-955250365"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8ce0b564-dfa5-43ef-b8d5-eacf1fa2092d","pagecount":"19","content":"An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good:• The willingness to publish the fruits of research in scholarly journals without payment, for the sake of inquiry and knowledge.• The world-wide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal literature and completely free and unrestricted access to it by all scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds Open access Venn diagram, modified from Farquharson & Wadsworth (2018) © Nature / David Parkins• The digital age represented a significant change in the way society interacts with technology, and scientific publications were no exception.• The world of scientific publishing has had a transcendental advance, especially due to the rapid evolution of ICTs, which transferred the great majority of publications from hard copies to digital media.The truth hides behind a paywall…• Most journals are traditionally linked to paying for a subscription to printed journals, and that in the digital age retain that business model.• These publishers have partially addressed the OA model concept, by including it within their publication options, but subject to the payment by the authors of APCs, which depending on the publisher can represent the payment of several thousand dollars.…but the lies are free• Companies present themselves as scientific publishers to offer publish papers under OA with much smaller APCs• They claim that follow a rigorous peerreview process, but it has been revealed that said arbitration is flawed or sometimes non-existent• The most striking cases being the stings known as \"Star Wars\" and \"Seinfield\".• Predatory publishers will publish anything as long as the author pays the APC.• Take advantage of naive or hasty authors.• Sneak into legitimate literature, making them harder to identify.• No quality control and aggressive marketing tactics.• They give open access journals a bad name web.archive.org/web/20170110160849/https://scholarlyoa.com/aboutHow bad this can be?• Critical issues of broad public debate:• Any author can take advantage of the facilities to publish in a predatory journal to mislead unsuspecting readers or generate \"evidence\" to reject or support a specific narrative. …And contribute to an informed dialogue on editorial issues and try to mitigate the impact and influence of predatory publications.1. Predatory publishing is a big issue 2. Their potential impacts on the scientific community.3. Guidelines on how to detect when a publication is potentially predatory.\"The elephant in the room\" AI generated imageA literature review was conducted on the impact of predatory publications on research.The methodology is divided into:• Source Selection: Web of Science, Scopus, academic repositories, opinion articles.• Search and data collection: Keywords such as \"predatory publishing\", \"open access\", \"scientific publications\". Filtered by date to assure topicality and relevance.• Literature analysis: Patterns and trends were identified in the methodological approaches used in the articles examined, as well as the criticisms and controversies surrounding Beall's List and subsequent publications. Special attention was paid to ethical and quality aspects in the literature review, considering possible biases and divergent perspectives.*Limitations: Although various sources of information were used, there is a possibility that some relevant works have been inadvertently omitted.Common Problems New Authors FaceThe Matthew Effect (Robert K. Merton, 1968) • Accumulation of recognition and funds for scientists with reputation.• Disadvantage for novice researchers due to the pressure of \"publish or perish\"• Greater risk of resorting to Predatory journals.• It became a prominent metric of journal scientific quality.• Limitations include citation bias, diversity of academic fields, and possible manipulation by journals/publishers.• Insufficient transparency in data used for calculation.• In Beall's original list, 1,310 predatory journals were counted.• By 2014, ≈8,000 predatory journals were documented, and in that year alone they had published around 420,000 articles.• Asia and Africa contributed 3/4 of authors. Authors paid an average APC of 178 USD per article for articles typically published within 2 to 3 months of submission (Shen & Björk, 2015). • A number of publications have managed to sneak into legitimate literature.• For papers published in predatory journals, it is assumed that no peerreview has happened, therefore findings are not be validated by the academic community.• Even if it contains relevant and/or accurate data, by being cited in legitimate literature it is indirectly contributing to validating the entire content published in said source. Editorial pollution: a threat to science and agriculture• This poses a greater challenge in fields such as agriculture, where at least two highly controversial issues are involved: climate change and GMOs.• Given the lack of scientific rigor in predatory publications, anyone can find ideal conditions to spread pseudoscientific opinions.• Not only can science be corrupted, but it can also influence the public agenda through the media.gizmodo.com/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-1707251800How to identify a potentially predatory publication • Authors must focus on quality over quantity, avoiding citing sources from potential predatory journals, and maintaining constant dialogue with funders to counter the \"publish or perish\" pressure.• They must also safeguard scientific integrity and academic reputation by verifying that the journal they plan to publish with is legitimate. If an unfamiliar journal is being considered, the editorial policies, committee, copyright, fees, and publication timelines should be checked.• Authors' choice of where to publish should not be based on the rush to publish that some journals promote, as this can compromise the rigor necessary to assess the quality of the work.","tokenCount":"862"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a6ab340d94e604c42420c3d043b3eeda","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e55c8257-fe58-48b5-8bb0-0b6017d8f198/retrieve","id":"1793858584"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6187d26c-c108-4da3-90b4-456387235523","pagecount":"3","content":"1.0 Introduction: Machinga ADD which comprises four districts of Balaka, Machinga, Mangochi and Zomba has been hardly hit by the Cyclone Freddy. The ADD experienced Cyclone Freddy from 11 th March, 2023 to 15 th March 2023. The Cyclone, which was associated with strong winds and heavy rains resulting into flooding of rivers and flat areas displacing people and damaging crops, livestock and infrastructure including fisheries and irrigation infrastructure in the process.Nearly 154,816 farm families i.e., 59,718 male-headed households and 95,098 femaleheaded households have been affected by Cyclone Freddy through collapsed buildings, flooded and washed away crop fields, and killing or injuring livestock. An estimated crop area of about 56129.46 ha has been affected.The Cyclone did not spare our Ukama Ustawi Trials such that trials especially 32 out of 150 babies were submerged in water while the Innovation Trial in Songani Site in Zomba as the worst hit. Cyclone Freddy had a negative impact worthy of noting in Zomba District than the other districts Soon after Cyclone Freddy, the Agriculture Sector in all the four affected District Councils undertook rapid assessment to establish the type of loss and damage, severity and suggested interventions that would assist in mitigation of effects of the Cyclone amongst the affected communities. This report covers, weather and its effects on crops and livestock, damages on crops and livestock, challenges, and general recommendations.1.0 Weather Situation and its effects: It was generally hot and very humid with cloudy conditions with little or no rainfall activities days before the Cyclone. The rains associated with Cyclone Freddy started on 11 th March, 2023 in most parts of the ADD and lasted until 15 th March, 2023. The continuous and high intensity rains were accompanied by strong winds which affected not only infrastructure but also people, crops and livestock. Refer to Appendix for rainfall details.The intense and continuous rains caused excessive floods causing damage to crops such as maize, rice, sorghum, millet, cotton, groundnuts, sesame, cowpeas, pigeon peas, banana, sweet potatoes, cassava and various vegetables. Most damage was caused by flooding waters running through the fields washing away crops therein and in some cases rising water submerging crops especially in the CA fields and flat dambo areas. Crops like maize, which was mostly at maturity and drying stages was severely affected as in some cases sprouting of the maize on the cobs was observed. Most of the affected crop have very low chances of recovering due to siltation resulting into total loss of the crop and food and income insecurity. Other crops such as rice which ranged from vegetative to maturity were also affected as most of the crop was submerged in flooding water. Other crops include tobacco, pigeon peas, cowpeas, sorghum etc.  Cyclone Freddy has negatively affected agriculture production in various aspects. This may lead to food and income insecurity. There is therefore need for implementation of immediate and long term mitigation measures.","tokenCount":"484"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9c1ab7f0e3e5af75bcf502639970fb4e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/84acbd67-5f2b-46c7-be74-85a27c9d67cb/retrieve","id":"-1446410812"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1a1bd6c7-db92-4d9d-bcbc-33edc6dd92f3","pagecount":"100","content":"Many species remain unknown to science in the world's wild places.Never before has the biosphere, the thin layer of life we call home, been under such intensive and urgent threat. Deforestation rates have soared as we have cleared land to feed ever-more people, global emissions are disrupting the climate system, new pathogens threaten our crops and our health, illegal trade has eradicated entire plant populations, and non-native species are outcompeting local floras. Biodiversity is being lost -locally, regionally and globally.Yet this biodiversity sustains our lives. Open your fridge, peek into your medicine cupboard, examine your living room, feel your clothes. For thousands of years, we have searched nature to satisfy our hunger, cure our diseases, build our houses, and make our lives more comfortable. But our early exploration of useful traits in species relied on rudimentary tools, and indigenous knowledge was lost as local traditions were downplayed and globalisation emerged. As a result, humanity is still a long way from utilising the full potential of biodiversity, in particular plants and fungi, which play critical roles in ecosystems. Now, more than ever before, we need to explore the solutions they could provide to the global challenges we face.New species are still being scientifically named and described each year, but, at the same time, others are moving towards extinction -losing the battle against the threats they face. A detailed understanding of these two sides of the coin is critical to conserving plants and fungi, along with the useful characteristics they hold. The responsible exploration of natural products, through advances in biotechnology and other techniques, will help us identify and utilise the useful features of plants and fungi to fight new diseases and deal with the emerging challenges facing our planet. Many species that are new to science are already known and used by people in the region of origin -people who have been their primary custodians and often hold unparalleled local knowledge. It is therefore critical that any benefits derived from those species primarily contribute to the well-being of those people.This report tackles the knowledge gaps and unlocks the known and potential benefits of fungi and plants for us and our planet. Drawing upon the expertise of 210 researchers in 97 institutions across 42 countries, this unparalleled collaborative effort, generously funded by the Sfumato Foundation, aims to tell the world where we might find solutions to the challenges we face. Although there is no single or easy way out of the environmental crisis, the relevance of plant and fungal science cannot be understated. This is the fourth report in Kew's State of the World's series, which focused on plants in 2016 and 2017, and fungi in 2018. This is the first time that plants and fungi have been combined in one report, to highlight their intrinsic links and joint benefits. It is also the first time that the report is accompanied by a full volume of expert-reviewed scientific publications in the New Phytologist Foundation's journal Plants, People, Planet (which can be accessed at https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley. com/toc/25722611/2020/2/5). These freely accessible articles provide the references, background data, analyses and interpretations for this report, which has been written in a way that I hope you will find accessible and engaging.In a publication that focuses on the sustainable uses of plants and fungi for humankind, it is important to state an obvious but increasingly forgotten aspect: that nature has a value of its own. We share this planet with millions of other species, many of which existed long before us. Despite the fact that an exploitative view of nature has deep roots in our society, most people today would agree that we have no moral right to obliterate a species -even if it has no immediate benefit to us. Ultimately, the protection of biodiversity needs to embrace our ethical duty of care for this planet as well as our own needs.I hope you will share my enthusiasm for the findings presented in the next 12 chapters and that your appreciation for, and engagement with, fungi and plants will not be the same afterwards. Our challenges may be large, but as long as plants and fungi remain there is hope and opportunity.Professor Alexandre Antonelli Director of Science Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Now, more than ever before, we need to explore the solutions that plants and fungi could provide to the global challenges we face State of the World's Plants and Fungi 2020 In an unparalleled international collaboration, this report draws upon the expertise of: 210 researchers in 97 institutions across 42 countries seeking out species before they disappearIn this chapter, we find out: how exploration and detective work are revealing thousands of new species to science every year; which novel plants and fungi could yield new foods, timber and medicines; how a newly described fungus could help us save the banana; and why it took 160 years to name the bears' breeches Barleria deserticola. Gladiolus mariae is only known to grow on two mountains in Guinea. The Kew scientist who encountered it in the wild named it after his wife.The name of the fungus Lecanora solaris refers to the bright yellow 'sunny' colour of the fungus.Cordyceps jakajanicola is a newly named fungal parasite of cicadas.Every year, as scientists explore the world's ecosystems, search herbaria and fungaria, sequence organisms' DNA and, increasingly, browse social media, they come across species of plants and fungi that have not been scientifically described. In 2019, botanists registered 1,942 newly named species of vascular plants on the International Plant Names Index (mainly flowering plants, ferns and gymnosperms). And mycologists recorded 1,886 novel fungi on the equivalent Index Fungorum.Current threats to global biodiversity, from climate change, logging and land-use change, make the task of cataloguing species a race against time. Often, by the time a new species has been described and named, it is facing extinction. This means species that might be valuable as foods, medicines or fibres -or that play important roles in ecosystems, such as by helping to circulate nutrients -are disappearing before we've even had a chance to explore their characteristics.\"People often think that every species has been located and classified but it's not the case,\" says Dr Martin Cheek, Senior Research Leader on the Africa and Madagascar team at Kew. \"There are still vast numbers of species on this planet that we know nothing about and don't even have names for. So that's the job we do in the Identification and Naming department at Kew. Once we have identified a species, the next step is to find out what its potential uses are, and whether it's a priority for conservation.\" The rate at which new species of Begonia are being scientifically described has increased rapidly over the last two centuries. Between 2014 and 2019, an average of 60 new species of Begonia were published per year, making it one of the fastest-expanding genera. The pie chart shows where the 46 species of Begonia named in 2019 come from, mainly South-East Asia.\"The genes present in the newly named species might, for example, be useful in helping to make the current crop pestor disease-resistant, or to enable it to grow in other habitats with different rainfall or soil fertility patterns.\"Potential new medicines were also among the plants new to science. Eryngium arenosum, encountered by scientists in Texas, USA, comes from a genus containing plants used to treat inflammation, high blood sugar and scorpion stings; Artemisia baxoiensis, pinpointed in Tibet, is closely related to the antimalarial Artemisia annua; and three previously undescribed species, located far apart in Italy, Poland and on a Mexican Pacific island, are from the Oenothera genus. Also known as evening primrose, Oenothera species produce gamma linoleic acids used to treat systemic sclerosis, eczema and psoriasis.The revelation to science of the tree Cedrela domatifolia, from the mahogany family (Meliaceae), might provide us with a new source of timber. And eight newly described species from the palm genus Calamus, found in South-East Asia and India, could, like their close relatives, supply rattan of value to the multibillion-dollar cane furniture trade. Meanwhile horticulturists are likely to be excited by 28 newly named species of tree fern, 46 novel Begonia species (see Figure 1) and the spectacular red-flowered Gladiolus mariae. Scientists encountered the gladiolus on an isolated mountain in Guinea, West Africa.The fungal kingdom yielded species new to science, too: from mycorrhizal fungi that form mutualistic relationships with plants, to plant pathogens, animal-associated fungi and lichens. Among the mycorrhizal fungi, 51 came from the family containing milkcaps and brittlegills (Russulaceae). Mushrooms in this family form associations with plants that range from giant Lithocarpus trees in South-East Asia to dwarf willows (Salix arctica) in the Arctic. A further 37 species were newly described across 15 genera of the Boletaceae. These include eight species of the genus Strobilomyces, from which the edible 'old man in the woods' mushroom hails.One of the most important fungus namings of 2019 was that of the species Fusarium odoratissimum, responsible for Panama disease of the Cavendish banana. This fungus had previously only been recognised as one of several Fusarium oxysporum strains, or genetic variants. The species began to spread in Cavendish plantations across Asia in the 1990s, later arriving in Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. It is now also gaining ground in South America. Some 50 billion tonnes of Cavendish bananas are grown every year, accounting for 47% of the global banana crop.\"Fusarium odoratissimum did not have an official name before, and there had been no proper study of the species limits within the complex,\" explains Dr Tuula Niskanen, Research Leader in Mycology at Kew. \"However, several species have now been identified, and finally we have a name for the one that is currently threatening the global production of the Cavendish banana. That means we now have a better way to communicate information about this disease and target research. It's good to know our enemies, because once we know them, we can find better ways to control them.\" Some fungi live in symbiotic associations with photosynthetic partners (algae, cyanobacteria, or both) forming lichens. In 2019, more than 200 species of 'lichenised' fungi from 37 families and 87 genera were named scientifically. Mycologists came across them in all kinds of environments, from highaltitude tea plantations in Sri Lanka to Ecuador's Galapagos Islands and dry tropical forests in Mexico. Demonstrating the value of citizen science to taxonomy, Allographa kamojangensis was only identified from Indonesia after a photo of it was posted on the Facebook group 'Lichens Connecting People'.Current rates of new plant descriptions are likely to continue. The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, the most comprehensive and regularly updated species list of its kind, records around 350,000 accepted species, of which 325,000 are flowering plants. Ten years ago, scientists thought that the vast majority of flowering plants had been described and named. But the subsequent stream of species revealed to science suggests there are many more to find, as do the experiences of botanists undertaking fieldwork in the tropics today.When it comes to fungi, we have even more left to catalogue. Currently, 148,000 species have been identified, primarily in the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota phyla. But scientists believe that more than 90% of species remain unknown to science. They estimate that there are between 2.2 to 3.8 million species on Earth. The main reason we know so little about fungi is because they lead very cryptic lifestyles. Whereas almost all plants are visible above ground, fungi often remain concealed.\"The study of fungi is mainly based on their spore-bearing structures, including the mushrooms that we see above ground, and many species only produce them at certain times of the year,\" explains Dr Niskanen. \"Some species don't even produce them every year -perhaps only every ten yearsand some species don't produce them at all. The species we know best are those that produce mushrooms. Those that don't produce any visible spore-bearing structures are thus the least known so far.\"Between the 1990s and 2018, three countries consistently yielded the highest numbers of newly described species of plants: Brazil, China and Australia. However, in 2019, Australia (with 86 newly described species) was knocked out of the top three by both Colombia (121) and Ecuador (91). Brazil retained the number one spot (216), which it has held since 2008. Every year, 200 or more new species are described from Brazil, equating to 10% of the global total. China took second place (195) in 2019.The dominance of Brazil, China and Australia is likely connected to the fact that all have rich treasure troves of biodiversity and large numbers of professional taxonomists. On the other hand, the Democratic Republic of Congo yielded only seven new species descriptions, despite being tropical Africa's largest country and home to many species-rich habitats. This likely reflects the lack of taxonomists, scientific infrastructure and security, as well as periodic hazards such as outbreaks of the Ebola virus.Northern temperate and boreal countries yield very few novel plants these days, being far less diverse than the tropics and having been very well surveyed over the years. When it comes to fungi, however, species that are new to science can still be found almost anywhere, their locations reflecting areas with the most research activity. In 2019, most newly named species of fungi came from Asia (41%) and Europe (23%), with nine from the UK. At the other end of the scale, Antarctica yielded 0.5% of the fungal scientific novelties (see Figure 2).Describing and naming a new species to science can take time. For plants, the vast majority are described using morphology alone, in other words, on the basis of their flowers, fruits, leaves and other parts. First, a scientist has to collect a specimen of a plant suspected as being unknown to science to deposit in a herbarium; then they must compare it to reference specimens of similar species to ensure the find has not, in fact, already been described. Finally, they have to choose a name and publish its characteristics in the scientific literature. This process can be protracted -Barleria deserticola was first collected 160 years ago, but only encountered again in 2009 and not given a formal scientific name until 2019.Advances in DNA technology have helped to speed up the naming of species in recent years, particularly for fungi. Unlike for plants, a single DNA marker known as the 'internal transcribed spacer', or ITS, is often able to distinguish many fungi to species level. The new techniques have also revealed many species new to science from environmental samples, for example from soils. However, one of the problems associated with DNA-based methods of description is that for a fungus to be officially named by the scientific community as a new species, it is customary to have a reference specimen in a fungarium. \"The idea is to have something that is physical so people can go back and do more studies of the species if needed,\" says Dr Niskanen. \"However, for fungi that don't, for example, produce mushrooms, or can't be cultivated, you don't really have anything you can put in a fungarium. An alternative could be storing a soil or DNA sample that would contain the genome of the species.\"The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 15 calls for the protection of terrestrial ecosystems and halting of biodiversity loss. Programmes to conserve species identified as threatened through extinction risk assessments (such as those of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species) provide a route to achieving this. However, we can't assess how threatened a species is until we know it exists. This makes locating, describing and naming species a critical task if we are to conserve plants and fungi for future generations.In this chapter, we explore: how scientists work out which species may go extinct; why they are adopting statistical methods used by election pollsters; different ways to evaluate losses from extinction; why species that seem to be thriving may be doomed; and how Artificial Intelligence is helping us identify which species to conserve.Human activities are accelerating biodiversity loss. Natural ecosystems provide useful services for humanity, such as regulating climate, preventing floods and filtering water. As the building blocks of ecosystems, plants and fungi have the potential to help us address current environmental challenges, such as climate change. However, these natural benefits could be compromised by biodiversity loss, caused by humans clearing or degrading natural vegetation and over-harvesting wild species, as well as by shifting weather patterns.If we are to protect the world's plants and fungi -part of our 'natural capital' -we need to understand the threats they face and whether they are at risk of extinction. This involves assessing the conservation status of species, including identifying biases and gaps in our knowledge. \"It's important to have a clear idea of which plants and fungi are at risk where, because that information should inform every new development and every conservation action,\" says Dr Eimear Nic Lughadha, Senior Research Leader in the Conservation Science department at Kew.The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is the global gold standard for assessing species' extinction risk to inform priority conservation actions. Assessments are conducted using five criteria, including geographic range and population size. Together with threats (see Figure 1), these determine the category to which a particular species is assigned: Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, Least Concern or Data Deficient.Such assessments are a powerful tool for supporting conservation policy, planning and action. They help authorities to delineate protected areas, guide allocation of funding and influence development decisions. For example, the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) requires clients to use the global Red List to avoid activities that would reduce populations of Critically Endangered or Endangered species.Although the Red List is the most comprehensive source on global extinction risk for species, just 116,177* of the 2.1 million or so known species of plants, fungi and animals are represented on it -approximately 6% (see Box 1, over page). Plant coverage was boosted to 10% by the addition of 19,000 conservation assessments between 2017 and 2019, but coverage of fungi is far lower. A mere 285 of 148,000 described fungal species are assessed on the Red List, equating to 0.2%. As Chapter 1 explained, many more species of plants and fungi have yet to be scientifically described (estimates suggest at least two million), and these will also require assessments.The major threats to plants (A) and fungi (B) that have been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.Natural ecosystems provide useful services for humanity, such as regulating climate, preventing floods and filtering water. As the building blocks of ecosystems, plants and fungi have the potential to help us address current environmental challenges, such as climate change. However, these natural benefits could be compromised by biodiversity loss, caused by humans clearing or degrading natural vegetation and over-harvesting wild species, as well as by shifting weather patterns.If we are to protect the world's plants and fungi -part of our 'natural capital' -we need to understand the threats they face and whether they are at risk of extinction. This involves assessing the conservation status of species, including identifying biases and gaps in our knowledge. \"It's important to have a clear idea of which plants and fungi are at risk where, because that information should inform every new development and every conservation action,\" says Dr Eimear Nic Lughadha, Senior Research Leader in the Conservation Science department at Kew.The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is the global gold standard for assessing species' extinction risk to inform priority conservation actions. Assessments are conducted using five criteria, including geographic range and population size. Together with threats (see Figure 1), these determine the category to which a particular species is assigned: Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, Least Concern or Data Deficient.Such assessments are a powerful tool for supporting conservation policy, planning and action. They help authorities to delineate protected areas, guide allocation of funding and influence development decisions. For example, the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) requires clients to use the global Red List to avoid activities that would reduce populations of Critically Endangered or Endangered species.Although the Red List is the most comprehensive source on global extinction risk for species, just 116,177* of the 2.1 million or so known species of plants, fungi and animals are represented on it -approximately 6% (see Box 1, over page). Plant coverage was boosted to 10% by the addition of 19,000 conservation assessments between 2017 and 2019, but coverage of fungi is far lower. A mere 285 of 148,000 described fungal species are assessed on the Red List, equating to 0.2%. As Chapter 1 explained, many more species of plants and fungi have yet to be scientifically described (estimates suggest at least two million), and these will also require assessments.The major threats to plants (A) and fungi (B) that have been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.Agriculture & aquaculture Biological resource use Some families, such as the cactus family (Cactaceae), are overrepresented on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, while others are under-represented. These imbalances need to be taken into account in global estimations of extinction risk.\"We are progressing rapidly but there are two traps that we need to avoid,\" says Dr Nic Lughadha. \"The first trap is thinking that an individual species assessment tells us everything we need to know about that species' risk of extinction. And the second trap is thinking that the subset of species that have been assessed, and the stats around them, tell us everything we need to know about the risk to plants and fungi globally.\"Plants on the Red List are not collectively representative of the global situation because multiple motivations have driven how species have been selected for assessment on the list. These include: the availability of information; human interest in useful, attractive or unusual species; national assessment initiatives; and a focus on assessing species or groups suspected to be exceptionally threatened. In addition, there are well-documented geographic, taxonomic and temporal gaps and biases.Comparison with comprehensive lists of all vascular plants and those with recorded uses enabled an international team of researchers led by Kew to quantify some of these biases. The work revealed that plants from tropical Asia are underrepresented on the Red List, while those from Africa are over-represented. Some of the most species-rich families are among the most under-represented, including the daisy, orchid, grass and mint families (Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Poaceae and Lamiaceae, respectively). Together, these comprise almost a quarter of all vascular plants.Meanwhile, the Red List over-represents families targeted by assessment programmes, such as the cactus family (Cactaceae) and the myrtle family (Myrtaceae).Polling companies face a similar challenge with data biases during political elections. \"Their problem is that the people who answer the phone or respond to an online poll are not a representative sample of all registered voters,\" explains Dr Barnaby Walker, Conservation Science Analyst at Kew. \"However, the pollsters have access to demographic data too, which lets them see additional attributes of those registered to vote by local area, such as age and qualifications. This allows them to adjust their forecasts to correct for the bias in the sample of voters who responded to their polls.\"Dr Walker and colleagues applied the same statistical modelling method used by some pollsters -called multilevel regression and post-stratification -to correct for certain biases in the global Red List data. Accounting for under-and overrepresented groups and areas enabled the scientists to infer extinction risk more accurately. The model predicted the overall proportion of threatened species to be 39.4%, slightly lower than the 43.7% of vascular plants assessed for the Red List that are considered threatened. They found the threat levels of the myrtle, laurel, beech and sedge families (Myrtaceae, Lauraceae, Fagaceae and Cyperaceae, respectively) to be among the most underestimated, with those of the ebony (Ebenaceae) and palm (Arecaceae) families among the most overestimated. In general, threat levels are underestimated for plants across large parts of the Americas. These findings can be used to guide future assessment priorities.As well as estimating extinction risk, it is important to understand how the risk of extinction is changing over time. To identify trends in extinction risk, scientists developed the global Red List Index (RLI). The index value is updated as species are reassessed, tracking genuine changes in extinction risk for an entire group. This index can monitor progress towards achieving global biodiversity targets. Since plant coverage on the Red List is incomplete and biased, a sampled approach is used, with species drawn at random to represent the geographical and taxonomic breadth of plants globally.As part of ongoing efforts to determine a global RLI trend for plants, the research team re-analysed the extinction risk of 400 species of monocots (plants with only one seed leaf, for example grasses, orchids, palms and sedges) and legumes (members of the pea family: Fabaceae) occurring in the mega-diverse countries of Brazil and Madagascar. These relatively well-known groups were chosen as a proxy for overall plant diversity. A decreasing RLI value indicates that species are moving towards extinction. The study found that there was a slight decrease in RLI for monocots and legumes overall, with no significant change for Brazil, and the steepest downward trend in Madagascar. Repeating conservation assessments over time can reveal trends and enable comparison between different groups of organisms (see Figure 2).While conservation risk assessments and trends are helpful for understanding the status of, and threats to, plants and fungi, they only show part of the picture. Extinction results not only in the loss of a particular species, it also wipes out the unique evolutionary history that the species represents, including irreplaceable features and unique combinations of functions, some of which could be beneficial to humans. If a species is the sole survivor of an old lineage on the 'tree of life', its loss will eradicate greater evolutionary history than if it recently evolved and has several close relatives.Take the genus Ginkgo, for example, which is the only remaining genus in the order Ginkgoales. The sole surviving species of this group is Ginkgo biloba, now isolated in the tree of life on a long branch representing hundreds of millions of years of unique evolutionary history. Today, Ginkgo biloba only grows in the wild in China, in a few isolated populations, but it is widely grown in gardens and parks around the world. \"If Ginkgo biloba went extinct, we'd lose all that evolutionary history back to where the species branches off the main tree of life,\" says Dr Félix Forest, Senior Research Leader in Analytical Methods at Kew.The loss of evolutionary history can reduce the likelihood that a group of organisms will contain enough diversity for its species to adapt to future changes. There is, therefore, a growing focus on encompassing plant evolutionary history when planning conservation priorities. The 'Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered' (EDGE) approach involves combining a species' extinction risk, deduced from a conservation assessment, with its evolutionary distinctness, determined from its position on the tree of life and the number of close relatives it has.While widely used in the animal kingdom, this method has only been applied to a few plant groups -and no fungito date. This is because it requires comprehensive knowledge of the relevant portion of each kingdom's tree of life.A) The Red List Index (RLI) of species survival for sample species of monocots and legumes from Brazil and Madagascar. RLI = 1.0 equates to all species being of Least Concern conservation status; RLI = 0 is the equivalent of all species being Extinct. As the graph indicates, monocots are more threatened than legumes, and species occurring in Madagascar are more threatened than those in Brazil. B) RLI of species survival trends depicted for various other plant and animal groups. If the maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba) goes extinct, we will lose hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary history.BOX 1: Global progress in assessing plant and fungal extinction riskIn response to global targets set by the Convention on Biological Diversity, botanists and mycologists face the challenge of assessing the status of all plants and fungi. The large number of species yet to be described is adding to the challenge. \"Fieldwork in understudied regions and habitats, along with taxonomic revisions and DNA-based environmental sampling, are all revealing new species,\" said Prof. Gregory Mueller, Chief Scientist and Negaunee Vice President of Science at Chicago Botanic Garden, part of the team that carried out the research described in this chapter. \"These new discoveries exacerbate the challenge of assessing the conservation status of all species to enable appropriate conservation action.\" For plants, the collective assessment efforts of thousands of experts are compiled in the ThreatSearch database managed by Botanic Gardens Conservation International. ThreatSearch now contains global assessments for around 30% of plant species. However, these include assessments using a variety of systems and standards. For a more consistent approach, scientists use the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; the IUCN plant assessments are also indexed in ThreatSearch -making ThreatSearch the 'one-stop shop' for plant assessments. No similar resource is yet available for fungi.Abarema filamentosa, from the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, has been assessed as Vulnerable (to extinction). Only when we know the conservation status of a species can we take targeted action protect it.The number of recorded modern extinctions for plants, by country or state (the true number is likely to be far higher). The ongoing rate of plant extinctions is up to 500 times the pre-Anthropocene background extinction rate for plants, with some islands particularly badly affected (see also Chapter 12).0-1 2-4 5-10 11-37Scientists at Kew are currently tackling the challenge of obtaining genome-scale data for at least one genus of all 14,000 flowering plant genera and all 8,200 fungal genera under its Plant and Fungal Trees of Life Project. Automating the analysis of these trees of life, and using the EDGE approach, could provide a powerful tool for monitoring the changing threat to biodiversity over time.Scientists are also exploring the concept of extinction debt. A direct relationship exists between the size of an ecosystem and the number of species it contains: the species-area relationship. This dictates that when an ecosystem such as a forest or wetland shrinks, species loss follows. However, the reported 600 modern plant extinctions (see Figure 3) are far fewer than would be expected from observed habitat loss. This is because extinctions are delayed. After habitat is lost, the area continues to support a similar number of species until the surplus -the extinction debt -is lost through a process of 'relaxation' and a new equilibrium established matching the species-area relationship.\"Imagine a sudden disaster destroying 90% of a forest,\" says Prof. John Halley, Professor of Ecology at Greece's University of Ioannina, who was part of the Kew-led research team. \"While some plants will go locally extinct immediately, most species will still occur in the 10% that remains. However, the reduced area means that some, especially species that were rare anyway, will now be permanently exposed to dangerously low population levels. So, a proportion of the plants we can see growing now, and which we may think are fine, are in fact in a game of Russian roulette against the environment to get from one generation to the next. Extinction is postponed but not avoided.\"If we are to conserve plants and fungi before they go extinct, experience suggests we do not have time to conduct a full conservation assessment for every species. However, new 'rapid triage' approaches, supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI), are helping to identify priorities for assessment. In addition, open-access resources that automate certain Red List assessment tasks are widening access, helping to speed up and standardise the process. And citizen science and remote-sensing observations have the potential to help keep extinction assessments up to date.\"We need to have a rough idea of the conservation status of everything -and we now have ways to achieve that with AI that are up to 90% accurate,\" says Dr Nic Lughadha. \"The techniques are good enough to say, 'this area has a lot of species that haven't been assessed but are almost certainly threatened'. And knowing that will enable us to identify the most important areas to conserve in the immediate future.\"This chapter is based on the following scientific paper published in Plants, People, Planet, where you can find more information and references: Nic Lughadha et al. (2020). Extinction risk and threats to plants and fungi. Plants, People, Planet 2(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10146Explore Chapters 3-7 to learn about how we are unlocking the useful properties of plants and fungi.In this chapter, we explore: the new genetic technologies helping us feed the world; how scientists can harness genes from wild species to breed climate-resilient crops; the fungi used as 'factories' to produce nutrients, chemicals and medicines; and how we're saving genetic diversity for future generations.Since scientists first sequenced the genome of thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), huge strides have been made in understanding the genes that underpin useful traits. By 2050, there will be two billion more people on the planet than there are now. As cities swell to accommodate them and climate change affects weather patterns, the amount of land and water available to grow crops and raise livestock will shrink. So, we will have to feed more people and develop new renewable bioproducts, while reducing pressure on and revitalising the degraded ecosystems that are our planetary life-support system. The question is, how?One way is to employ genetic tools and techniques developed in recent years to make plants and fungi more useful to us. For example, we can breed genetic diversity that exists in wild species back into modern food, fuel and other crops. This will make them more robust, so they are able to tolerate shifting climatic conditions and fight off emerging pests and diseases. And we can apply new molecular approaches to understanding and re-engineering fungal processes, for medicine and food production.Many modern crops have low genetic diversity. This is the result of continuous selection and breeding that has taken place over thousands of years. Early farmers would have chosen to breed from plants that had a high yield, bore tasty fruit or coped well with the prevailing environmental conditions. We know they also selected for traits that made crops easier to harvest, by, for example, rejecting plants that readily shed seeds. With no knowledge of genetics, they would have made their choices based on visual characteristics. However, limiting the plants they bred from would have gradually eroded the genetic diversity in their crops.The field of genetics only emerged in the 19th century, after Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel unravelled the laws of inheritance through studying pea plants. Further developments for plants came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when hybridisation experiments in Europe yielded a new oat variety and wheat hybrids with enhanced yields. And a great stride was made in 1953 when molecular biologists discovered the structure of DNA. The first fungal genome (the complete set of genetic information, including all genes) to be sequenced was baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in 1996, with the first plant genome, that of the thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), sequenced four years later. Two decades on, the genomes of more than 3,000 fungal and 500 plant species have been sequenced, and these numbers are growing rapidly as sequencing speed increases and costs fall. This new field of science has enabled scientists to match particular traits observed in plants to their underlying genetic make-up, a capability of great value in crop breeding. Plant breeders search populations of wild or lightly domesticated species for different forms of genes (known as alleles) and try to combine them favourably to make crops with desirable properties. \"Many organisms, including humans, contain two copies of each gene within each cell, and children inherit one copy from each parent,\" explains Dr Paul Kersey, Deputy Director of Science at Kew. \"By ensuring your parent plants each have two identical copies of a desirable allele, then you can guarantee the offspring will show the favoured trait.\"In theory, the ideal end result would be a perfectly engineered crop line, where every position in the genome would have identical copies of the most favourable alleles. However, sometimes an allele for an undesirable trait will play an important role in the biology of an organism (which is why highly bred dogs often end up with functional problems). And if the entire population only possesses one type of allele for a gene, even one that offers a big advantage in a particular environment, plants can end up being over-engineered for the conditions they have been bred to thrive in. In the process of removing unwanted alleles, traits such as tolerance to different climatic conditions, or the ability to fight pests, can sometimes be lost.Another challenge is that traditional crop breeding takes time. A breeder wanting to make an existing variety resistant to a particular disease must cross non-resistant and resistant plants, grow the offspring to maturity, infect them with the pathogen and test the response. They must repeat this process until they achieve a plant that combines the favoured traits of the original variety with disease resistance. Introducing a new rice variety into the field generally requires six to eight generations of inbreeding and takes around ten years.Accelerating this process is critical, given the speed at which we must step up global food production. Fortunately, innovative approaches that exploit low-cost techniques for DNA sequencing, new molecular modification tools and advances in imaging technology are increasing the precision with which new plant and fungal varieties can be developed, as well as reducing the time required to get them to market.By mapping the distribution of variant alleles across many plant genomes, it is possible to identify 'genetic markers': alleles whose presence is associated with desirable traits. Breeders can take the progeny from a cross and sequence them while young to see if they exhibit the required marker. As the individuals displaying this signature are likely to have the desired trait, growing plants to maturity and testing them, say, for disease resistance, is no longer required.Another emerging option for accelerating breeding cycles is a technique called 'high-throughput phenotyping'.New genetic techniques are reducing the time taken to bring new crops to market.Traditionally, a highly experienced breeder might identify plants with certain traits, such as high yield, using eyesight alone. Modern imaging and drone technology are now enabling this process to be automated. Algorithms taught to recognise the visual signatures of desired traits are being used to analyse footage of plants imaged in automated greenhouses or captured by drones.Genetic modification (GM) can bypass the need for a lengthy breeding process altogether. A desired transgene (a gene sourced from another species) or cisgene (one sourced from a member of the same species or a close relative) can be introduced directly into the genome of a cultivar that already possesses other desirable traits. In recent years, these techniques have been used to enhance the nutritional content of several crops, including increasing the iron and zinc content of rice, and boosting the omega-3 content of oilseed rape.In perhaps the most famous example, 'golden rice' has been engineered using genes from the daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) and the soil bacterium Erwinia uredovora to produce betacarotene, a precursor of vitamin A. The hope is that this genetic form of fortification might help to reduce vitamin A deficiency. The deficiency causes between 250,000 and 500,000 children to go blind each year, and half die within 12 months of losing their sight.Despite its clear benefits, GM has received bad press over the years because of the belief that it may harm the environment. Recent studies suggest that any ecological impact is likely to be influenced by the biology of the crop and of wild species growing nearby, as well as by the transgene incorporated into the plants. While it makes sense that we carefully regulate how GM is used, it is important that the possible environmental risks of cultivating GM crops are weighed against those of hunger, poverty and biodiversity loss due to the cultivation of less productive traditional crops.Gene editing provides an alternative to inserting whole genes into crops. Currently, the most efficient, flexible and cheapest approach -known as CRISPR/Cas -is adapted from a genome-editing system that occurs naturally in bacteria. It enables DNA to be added, deleted or altered. This method has been used in food and other crops to improve yield, nutritional composition, digestibility, shelf life, tolerance to cold and drought, and resistance to disease, insects and herbicides. Only very small amounts of DNA are altered or introduced (sometimes only one single unit of the genetic code) and the change is precisely targeted.Maize is one of the most widely grown crops but much diversity remains available to breeders.Despite being used in foods, drinks and medicines for at least 6,000 years, the enhancement of fungal species for humans has lagged behind that of plants. Targeted breeding of fungi for food only took off in the 1980s, when one of the first hybrid strains of the widely cultivated edible mushroom Agaricus bisporus was developed. Since then, scientists have produced many fungal hybrids, including those that are being tested for their ability to make new forms of beer and biofuels.\"Breeding fungi is very different from breeding plants because the sexual reproduction system in fungi can be much more complicated,\" says Dr Ilia Leitch, Assistant Head of Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology, and Senior Research Leader at Kew. \"With plants, you can often simply take two individuals and cross them. But with fungi, there can be a whole complexity of mating types; this makes breeding fungi to have new characteristics much more challenging.\"Fungi are also fundamental to the methods used to synthesise important products that we rely on in our everyday lives. These range from medicines, such as statins and antibiotics, to biofuels. Some have diverse uses; for example, species of Penicillium are used to produce antibiotics, contraceptives and cheese.\"There are natural uses of fungi, where you exploit natural products such as proteins or antibiotics for human purposes,\" explains Dr Kersey. \"And then there are uses where you use the fungal cell as a 'factory', subverting the fungal metabolism to make a particular product. It is desirable to use fungi in this way, as they are quick to grow in liquid culture at a relatively high density. Chemical engineering companies grow fungi to produce industrial quantities of nutrients, chemicals, medicines and so on.\"In the past 15 years, the sequencing of fungal genomes has improved our understanding of the workings of fungal secondary metabolites, compounds associated with many useful biological activities. These developments, together with advances in computational methods and tools for understanding genomic data, have greatly increased our ability to identify and produce fungal bioactive compounds and helped scientists find new ways to screen for them. \"The analysis of fungal genomes has shown us that fungi can produce many more bioactive compounds than we currently know,\" says Dr Jérôme Collemare, of Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, in Utrecht, the Netherlands, who contributed to the review on which this chapter is based. \"There is a wealth of diverse metabolites to explore using genomics, and we are only at the beginning of this exploration.\"A promising find is that bacteria-fungi and fungi-fungi co-cultivation often give rise to new compounds with important antimicrobial properties. For example, scientists were able to prompt the fungus Coprinopsis cinerea to produce the antibacterial compound 'Lagopodin B' (a potential new antibiotic) by cultivating it in the presence of bacteria. However, so far, only interactions specific to particular combinations of species have been discovered, so further exploration is needed to unlock the full potential of this approach.Early farmers selectively bred from plants with favoured traits, which gave rise to landraces suited to local conditions. Later, commercial breeding of cultivars resulted in uniform crops with little genetic diversity. Today, breeders seek crop wild relatives and landraces with useful properties, such as drought resistance, so they can harness their genes to make modern crops more resilient. Breeding cycleTo overcome the loss of genes arising from plant and fungal breeding programmes, scientists have begun searching for additional sources of genetic diversity. For plants, there are two promising sources: crop wild relatives (CWR), the wild species from which modern crops derive and their close relatives; and landraces, which are genetically diverse varieties of the same species as the elite lines of today's crops (see Figure 1). Landraces have been produced by farmers employing traditional agricultural practices, rather than modern breeding programmes, by saving seeds from plants with traits that enable them to thrive in their local environments.To retain genetic diversity for use in future breeding programmes, we must conserve CWR and landraces. In situ conservation of CWR involves preserving the natural habitats where they grow, including whole ecosystems. In contrast, saving the genetic diversity held within landraces is achieved through their ongoing cultivation by farmers. Ex situ conservation is where genetic material from plants is conserved outside natural habitats, for example in seed banks.Initiatives such as the 'Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change' programme, led by the Crop Trust in partnership with Kew and others, have helped to plug gaps in ex situ CWR collections and ensure genetic material is curated and stored in seed banks so as to safeguard its long-term viability. However, since scientists estimate that 8-20% of flowering plant species cannot be stored this way because their seeds do not tolerate drying, alternative storage approaches, such as cryopreservation (rapid freezing and storage at very low temperatures) and pollen storage, are being developed.The challenge facing humanity of feeding more people with less land and water resources while nurturing the environment, is enormous. However, nature provides a much larger store cupboard of species than we currently use. For example, of the 7,039 edible plant species documented in Kew's dataset of useful plants (see Chapter 4), we rely on just 15 for the bulk of our food energy intake, and we have barely scratched the surface when it comes to utilising fungi. Applying our expanding knowledge of genetics to these natural resources to develop new foods, medicines and other products (see Chapters 4, 5 and 6) is our best hope of supporting both people and planet in the future.This chapter is based on the following scientific paper published in Plants, People, Planet, where you can find more information and references: Kersey et al. (2020). Selecting for useful properties of plants and fungi: Novel approaches, opportunities and challenges. Plants, People, Planet 2(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10136Read Chapter 4 to find out how making better use of underutilised species may also help to enhance future food security.In this chapter, we learn: why we urgently need new food crops; which plant families have the most edible plants; that there are more than 7,000 known species of edible plants we could be eating; why akkoub, chaya and fonio might be in our future kitchens; and that crop diversity is key to feeding the world's growing population.A farmer harvests millet in Nepal. Several varieties of millet remain overlooked by mainstream plant breeders but could be developed for wider use. When it comes to feeding our future population, the world is in a precarious position. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), just 15 crop plants contribute to 90% of humanity's energy intake, and more than four billion people rely on just rice, maize and wheat. Millions of people around the world suffer from hunger or obesity because they lack a balanced, nutritious diet, and this figure will likely rise as the global population expands to an estimated ten billion by 2050 (see Figure 1).Meanwhile, climate change is threatening to unleash weather conditions, pests and diseases that our current crops will struggle to cope with. If humanity is to thrive in future, we need to make our food production systems more diverse, resilient and environmentally sustainable. One option for doing this is to identify future nutritious crops that are better equipped to deal with the less predictable weather conditions to come. However, to do so, we first need to know more about what edible plants exist, where they grow, and what environmental conditions they favour, tolerate or are vulnerable to. Working with a team of international collaborators, scientists at Kew set out to answer these questions and pinpoint overlooked and underutilised plants that might be suitable as future crops under a changing climate.\"The conservation and sustainable use of the widest diversity of crops and varieties is intrinsically linked to sustainable agriculture and food systems,\" says Dr Rémi Nono Womdim, Deputy Director of the Plant Production and Protection Division at the FAO, who contributed to the research. \"We wanted to address these vital issues and highlight the importance of using a broader diversity of crops to ensure a resilient, sustainable and nutritionally rich agricultural future.\" FIGURE 1: By 2050, it is anticipated that the global population will have increased tenfold since 1800We need to find new, sustainable ways to feed the rapidly rising global population in a way that overcomes all types of malnutrition.Rice, maize and wheat are the staples of more than half the people on Earth The scientists began by examining plants listed as 'human food' within a dataset of useful plant species collated in recent years by researchers at Kew. This unearthed 7,039 known edible plant species across 2,319 genera from 288 families. \"The dataset includes wild species from which our modern crops derive; 'minor' or 'orphan' crops that have been 'neglected' by agricultural researchers, plant breeders and policymakers alike; and a range of wild species that rural and indigenous communities collect fruits, seeds, leaves and other edible parts from,\" explains Dr Tiziana Ulian, Senior Research Leader in Kew's Natural Capital and Plant Health department. \"The latter are often an important source of micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals.\"The next step was to find out more about the taxonomic diversity of these plants -in other words how widely they are spread across the 'tree of life'. The team found that the most important sources of human food were almost all vascular plants (flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, horsetails and clubmosses), accounting for 7,014 species of the 7,039. The remainder were bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts), and green and red algae. The edible vascular plant species belonged to 2,300 genera from 272 families. The families yielding the highest number of edible plants were the pea family (Fabaceae; 625 edible species), palm family (Arecaceae; 325), grass family (Poaceae, which includes cereals; 314), mallow family (Malvaceae, which gives us cocoa, okra and durian; 257) and daisy family (Asteraceae, which includes sunflowers and lettuces; 251).The researchers were keen to find out how the distribution of these edible species across plant families compared to that of currently used major food crops. Of the edible plants extracted from Kew's dataset, only 417 species (5.9%) featured on a list of major crops compiled by the FAO. Three of the richest families for contemporary crops also hosted species recorded as edible on the useful plant list -the pea family (51 species), grass family (27 species) and mallow family (21 species). This overlap suggests that potential exists for bringing to the wider market underutilised species that are presently only used locally as foods.When the scientists mapped the global distribution of the edible plants, they found that the number of species decreased from low to high latitudes. This tallies with the pattern seen for total plant diversity. By comparison, the proportion of major crops tends to increase from species-rich, forested, warm and wet areas, to regions characterised by drier climates, rugged terrains and large human settlements. There are very few highly domesticated plants found at high latitudes, as with wild species. Understanding where both underutilised species and widely grown food crops thrive at the present time can help us identify what plants will grow best where under forecast future climatic conditions. A thistle-like plant that grows almost exclusively on undisturbed rocky soils in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.The unripe inflorescences (flower heads) are consumed as a vegetable in many ways, including fried with olive oil and garlic; pickled; added to omelettes; or eaten with meat and chickpeas. Conservation/threats Akkoub is heavily harvested from the wild, which drastically reduces seed availability. It affects the plant's reproduction, and therefore its survival, so sustainable cultivation and use of this species is crucial.A small-trunked tree, also known as the screw pine, which grows in coastal lowlands from Hawaii to the Philippines. Supported by prop roots, it can withstand drought, strong winds and salt spray.Male and female pandanus grow as separate trees. The female plant produces large segmented fruit akin to a pineapple. This can be either eaten raw or cooked. The leaves are often used to flavour dishes.Rising sea levels. The highly nutritious leaves and shoots of chaya, also known as tree spinach, are a popular vegetable in Mexican cuisine. They are high in protein, vitamins, calcium and iron. However, raw chaya leaves are highly toxic and require simmering in water for 20 minutes.A drought-tolerant trailing perennial native to arid parts of southern Africa.Widely eaten, when roasted the seeds taste similar to cashew nuts. The beans are boiled with maize meal, or ground to a powder for making porridge or a cocoa-like drink. They also yield oil, butter and milk, and can be eaten as a meat substitute. The tuber and young stems are high in protein. Older tubers contain 90% water by weight.A grass species that grows wild across the savannas of West Africa.Fonio is cultivated locally as a cereal crop. Fast growing, it can tolerate dry conditions but is labour-intensive to harvest. Its small grains are used to make thick and thin porridges, couscous and drinks. The cereal is high in iron, calcium and several essential amino acids.there is Potential to bring underutilised species presently only used locally as foods to the wider market The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is the go-to indicator for the conservation status of the world's biodiversity. Of the 7,039 edible plant species in Kew's dataset, 30% appear on the 2020 IUCN Red List. Although most species (78%) are identified as 'Least Concern', more than 234 species (11%) are reported as being threatened with extinction. Without efforts to conserve them, we could lose potential foods before we have even understood their value.Many food crop species are grown quite widely, so it is likely that their extinction risk will be relatively low. However, particular populations, including some significant farmers' landraces that are well adapted to grow under local climatic and environmental conditions, might still be threatened. An example listed online on the Brockwell Bake Wheat Gateway is the Welsh wheat landrace 'Hen Gymro', which disappeared from cultivation in the 1920s. Breeding programmes now aim to reintroduce it to south-west Wales, where its tendency to show resistance to rusts makes it ideally suited to the moist, mild climate. Landraces of less widely grown crops are also under threat. 'Edemert', a landrace of the banana relative enset (Ensete ventricosum) with distinct characteristics and uses, is known from only one community in Ethiopia. It is therefore vital that future conservation priorities reflect important local variations within species, as well as capturing the global picture.Informed by literature and knowledge from collaborative projects, networks and international agencies, the scientists outlined a selection of promising neglected and underutilised edible plant species (see Figure 2 for examples). Ranging from the peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) of the Americas to the bulbous chervil (Chaerophyllum bulbosum) of Europe and marula (Sclerocarya birrea) from Africa, they encompassed both wild species and crops that have been cultivated locally. Many of the species have multiple uses, rather than simply being food. For example, the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) from Africa, which has nutritious edible fruits and flowers, yields a butter primarily used in cosmetics. Many African countries are rich in edible plant species (see Figure 3).\"One of my favourites is the baobab (Adansonia digitata),\" says Dr Ulian. \"This African 'upside down' tree is a multipurpose species; you can use almost every part of the plant. The fruits and seeds are eaten by local people, the white pulp is used medicinally to treat fevers and diarrhoea and can be mixed with water to make a refreshing drink, and the bark fibre is used to make paper, rope, and clothing. On top of that, water is held in the trunk and the tree also provides shade. The fruits, in the form of powder, have already reached the London market. The powder can be sprinkled on cereal or yoghurt for breakfast or mixed into smoothies and juices, providing a rich source of vitamin C, fibre and antioxidants.\"To make our food systems more robust in future, we must diversify the spectrum of species used, protect biodiversity and safeguard essential ecosystem servicesSuccessfully developing future foods will require us to learn from our previous mistakes. In the 1960s, when droughts in India threatened wide-scale starvation, scientists developed new wheat varieties. These made more efficient use of soil nutrients; had shorter, stiffer stems that could support the weight of heavier ears of grain; and could grow at any time of the year, enabling farmers to sow more crops annually. New irrigation schemes, pesticides and fertilisers helped to maximise food production. As a result of this 'Green Revolution', cereal outputs more than doubled in Asia between 1970 and 1995, significantly reducing the risk of hunger.However, this boost came with an environmental cost. The shift in practices polluted waterways, degraded land, reduced biodiversity and made crops more susceptible to pests and diseases. Perhaps most importantly, the Green Revolution accelerated the cultivation of crops as monocultures. Selectively breeding crops for traits such as high yield and consistent plant height facilitated mechanised harvesting. Retaining genes that conferred these favoured traits resulted in other genes being lost, such as those that made plants better able to tolerate varied environmental conditions.Ultimately, the Green Revolution produced crops that met the demands of large-scale cultivation but which had diminished genetic diversity -and therefore lower resilience (see also Chapter 3). And because subsidies, higher yields and other factors encouraged farmers to grow the new 'designer' crops, they stopped producing more genetically diverse and resilient local varieties. Many of those varieties, and the traditional knowledge associated with growing them, became lost as a result. This has ultimately affected dietary nutrition because the crops farmers abandoned had previously been important sources of critical micronutrientssuch as iron, provitamin A and zinc -for poor communities.To make our food systems more robust in future, we must diversify the spectrum of species used, protect biodiversity and safeguard essential ecosystem services that maintain good soil and water quality. It is a tall order, as the recent development of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) as a global crop shows. Although this underutilised species from Latin America is now available in many countries, only a small number out of the 120 or so varieties that exist can be bought outside its region of origin.Farmers are cultivating the varieties for which there is the largest market. As a result, global demand is being met by a few varieties known as 'quinoa real-types'. \"While we want underutilised species like quinoa to become more widely cultivated, the focus must be on using local species and diversifying the range used, to sustain local agriculture as a means of supporting local livelihoods, and achieving local and global food security,\" says Dr Ulian. \"This is because those local species are better adapted to the local conditions. Also, having not undergone mainstream breeding, they have a higher genetic diversity than major food crops.\"Multipurpose neglected and underutilised species from different regions, such as those identified by Kew and collaborators, will be key to shaping a more sustainable and diversity-driven agriculture in the future, while safeguarding ecosystems and the services they provide. However, if such foods are to compete in the existing marketplace (which is dominated by a few commodity crops), agricultural subsidies and incentives will need to be rethought. Whereas Green Revolution approaches were generally 'top down', with governments imposing particular crops on farmers, new approaches must be 'bottom up', where farmers help to co-design and co-deliver food production systems.\"The thousands of underutilised and neglected plant species, known also as orphan crops, are the lifeline to millions of people on Earth tormented by unprecedented climate change, pervasive food and nutrition insecurity and economic disempowerment,\" says Dr Stefano Padulosi, Senior Scientist, Integrated Conservation Methodologies and Use, at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, who contributed to the study. \"Harnessing this basket of untapped resources for making food and production systems more diverse and resilient to change, should be our moral duty to current and future generations.\"This chapter is based on the following scientific paper published in Plants, People, Planet, where you can find more information and references: Ulian et al. ( 2020). Unlocking plant resources to support food security and promote sustainable agriculture. Plants, People, Planet 2(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10145Read Chapter 5 to find out more about how plants and fungi could also help to diversify the crops used as renewable sources of energy.In this chapter, we investigate: why we only use six species for energy crops; the methods of producing 'green' energy that are harming the environment; India's success with community-scale energy initiatives; the problem plants being put to use to produce electricity; and why fungi are key to future sustainable energy production.Problem plants, such as the river-choking water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes), are among species being explored as new sources of bioenergy. Most of us take energy for granted as we tap away on our phones, switch on the lights, cook our meals and turn up the heating or air conditioning. But some 840 million people, mostly living in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Oceania, still have no access to electricity. And three billion people lack non-polluting cooking fuels and technologies.Over the past 20 years, the energy sector has diversified from hydrocarbons into bioenergy, wind and solar, as part of efforts to cut carbon emissions and slow climate change. The continued need to rethink energy systems presents the opportunity to address energy poverty where it persists, and ultimately extend access to clean, sustainable energy to all. As renewable sources of bioenergy, plants and fungi have a huge contribution to make to reducing both carbon emissions and energy poverty. Fungi, in particular, have much unexplored potential within the bioenergy sector.A comprehensive evaluation of the plant and fungal kingdoms as sources of energy had been lacking, so an international team of researchers led by Kew set out to fill this knowledge gap. Their work involved assessing how plants and fungi currently contribute to energy security, and identifying species with the potential to be matched with emerging technologies and used at local scales in the future. They found that, despite the greatest need for biofuels and the richest biodiversity being in low-income countries (see Figure 1), most research has focused on growing a handful of plants in temperate settings.\"Research in bioenergy has focused almost exclusively on a very small number of plants that are grown as monocultures, posing further risks to deforestation and land-use conversion, and potentially resulting in food-versus-fuel conflicts as well,\" explains Dr Olwen Grace, Senior Research Leader in the Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology department at Kew. \"Some potential plant and fungal sources of energy, which are in use on a small scale but could potentially be expanded, have been overlooked. Instead, research has focused on a few crop species grown for industrial energy supply chains.\"Rather than helping to reduce greenhouse gases and alleviate energy poverty, some of the methods we currently use to produce bioenergy are harming the environment and people. Crop production, for example, is one of several causes of deforestation in the Amazon, releasing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to the atmosphere and threatening species. Sugarcane for bioenergy is one such crop.FIGURE 1: Regional variation in native fuel species (by country or state) as a proportion of total species richness Countries with seemingly high proportions of fuel species, such as many African countries, are often among those suffering the most from energy poverty.Native sp. % In 2019, a ban on sugarcane cultivation in the Amazon was lifted, which is likely to amplify rates of deforestation. And models predict that sugarcane will push agriculture into naturally vegetated areas of both the Amazon and South America's Cerrado savanna as a result of higher global demand for ethanol by 2030.The use of traditional wood fuels for cooking, meanwhile, accounts for 1.9-2.3% of global CO 2 emissions. In some countries, such as Nepal and Uganda, unsustainable harvesting of wood for fuels supports 82-90% of energy used; despite this, both countries suffer from energy poverty. Smoke from open fires and inefficient cooking stoves, known as the 'killer in the kitchen', causes significant health problems, particularly for women and children.Unsustainable harvesting of wood is even more prevalent in drylands, where water scarcity limits the number of trees. Accounting for around 41% of land globally, drylands overlap with regions affected by energy poverty. For example, in dryland areas of eastern Uganda, 98.8% of households use fuelwood for cooking and preserving food, mostly from Acacia species (trees and shrubs in the pea family, Fabaceae).Further issues are arising from introductions of biofuel crops. For example, attempts to introduce Jatropha curcas (which is of Central and South American origin) to Africa and Asia for its seed oil have met with limited success. People have found collecting the fruits strenuous and time-consuming, handling the seeds has caused skin irritation, and appropriate processing technologies have not been widely available.Jatropha curcas can thrive outside its native range, and future climate scenarios are set to give it a further boost. It is therefore possible it could spread uncontrollably in future, with implications for the species it interacts with. In Madagascar and Ethiopia, Australian Grevillea species introduced as fuel but rejected by locals have grown into unplanned, low-diversity forests.Bioenergy initiatives that are having positive impacts on biodiversity and communities stand as examples for future initiatives. In East Africa, the indigenous tree species Croton megalocarpus supports a sustainable seed oil industry that provides biofuel for electricity. One microenterprise, EcoFuels Kenya, sources more than 3,000 tonnes of wild-collected nuts each year. The company processes the nuts to extract oil which replaces diesel in generator engines, while the husks are converted to livestock feed and organic fertiliser.\"It's a brilliant example of local-scale fuel production,\" says Dr Grace. \"Not only is it a sustainable industry supplying businesses but it has the potential to be used for household energy, and already benefits thousands of people, many of them women, in rural Kenya.\"Use of firewood for cooking causes health issues and depletes habitats.In southern India, Hassan Biofuels Park has pioneered the concept of community energy gardens. Sustainable local plant materials that are readily available to communities are matched with appropriate local bioenergy technologies. The approach encompasses cultivating these fuel plants on marginal and degraded land, and as shade trees; using household waste to supply additional biomass; engaging communities to manage wild forests sustainably; and initiatives to clear problematic introduced species.Since this concept was launched in 2007, there have been significant changes in national and state biofuel policy and legislation in India in response, and the approach has now also been adopted in Nepal. \"Globally a huge energy transition is taking place,\" says Prof. Jon Lovett, Chair of Global Challenges at the University of Leeds, UK, who was part of the Kew-led research team. \"Technology such as bioenergy gasifiers, solar power and smart mini-grids are now available at a price that can enable a shift away from reliance on expensive large-scale energy infrastructure towards community-based systems, with energy generation and transmission developed in tandem with local needs.\"New bioenergy solutions could bring considerable gains beyond the benefits of reduced energy poverty to biodiverse nations. The grass genus Miscanthus is among the first crops for which bilateral agreements have been developed under the Convention on Biological Diversity to guide breeding of new varieties from wild germplasm collections from Asia. A naturally occurring hybrid, Miscanthus × longiberbis has now been commercially grown to overcome the risks associated with cultivating introduced Miscanthus species as energy crops. The grass has also been proposed as a substitute crop to grow on land currently supporting maize for fuel, potentially using half the land and a third of the water to produce the same amount of bioethanol.There are around 350,000 known species of vascular plants, of which at least 2,500 species are documented sources of fuel or bioenergy. Despite this, just six crop species -maize, sugarcane, soybean, palm oil, rapeseed and wheat -yield 80% of global industrial biofuel. These staple bioenergy plants are also important food crops, and conflicts have arisen over whether land should be used to grow food or fuel.A better approach is to find new bioenergy crops that can be grown on marginal lands not needed for growing food, particularly in the world's drylands. Introductions of Jatropha curcas were motivated, at least in part, by its ability to thrive in such areas. However, the subsequent negative outcomes for biodiversity serve as a reminder that using local species is preferable. \"Bioenergy is an untapped resource in low-income countries that could help alleviate poverty, enhance community livelihoods and improve energy access in remote areas,\" says Dr Elisabeth Rianawati, Senior Researcher at the Resilience Development Initiative in Indonesia, who also contributed to the research.Identifying promising new species to match with emerging technologies for small-scale bioenergy production calls for specialist knowledge of plant and fungal taxonomy. It is possible to use an understanding of the evolutionary relationships between plant species to identify relatives of already exploited species that might have similar useful properties. This approach is most effective when seeking species that share characteristics with a plant already in use (for example, one containing carbohydrates already used for bioenergy).Another approach is to use automated methods to search across datasets to identify plants with particular characteristics. Widespread screening is needed to capture more data on traits of interest, such as oil, carbohydrate content, wood density, and habitat or cultivation preferences. With our knowledge of plants presently far greater than that of fungi, and therefore more identified material available for screening, these methods are presently more appropriate for identifying potential plant bioenergy sources. Only 148,000 species of fungi have been named to date, of an estimated 2.2-3.8 million. Fungi that might prove useful for bioenergy are therefore more likely to be discovered by broad, highthroughput genomic screening programmes.Fungi have great potential within the bioenergy sector, for example expanding their current use for pre-treating woody plant material. Fungal enzymes produced by species such as the filamentous Trichoderma reesei break down vegetation and can be cultured sustainably. They can enhance bioenergy recovery from plants and also make more energy from waste products of bioenergy processes -waste glycerol from biodiesel production, for example. And microbial fuel cells can be run on fungal enzymes, such as those from baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), to generate electricity from plant biomass.Problematic plant species are being turned into sources of bioenergy as a way to control them. For example, introduced aquatic plants that have spread rapidly are emerging as a new source of wet feedstocks in low-income countries. Plants such as water hyacinth that have caused problems by blocking waterways in the past, are now being processed to produce heat, electricity and bioethanol. Meanwhile, in arid environments, fast-growing succulent plant species that can thrive on marginal soils with limited irrigation are being investigated for bioenergy. Algae are another emerging source; they can be farmed offshore or in bioreactors, helping to minimise the impact of energy production on terrestrial biodiversity and land use.Rather than helping to reduce greenhouse gases and alleviate energy poverty, some of the methods we currently use to produce bioenergy are harming the environment and people A sugarcane plantation encroaches on rainforest in Brazil. Sugarcane is used to produce the biofuel ethanol.A promising model for the future is for communities to produce renewable energy to meet their needs using species of local origin matched to appropriate technologies. Plants capture energy from the sun and store it in their tissues. This material, ranging from leaves to woody branches, can be chemically complex, incorporating oils, sugars and other compounds. We can convert energy stored in biomass into more useful forms by thermal or biological means. This makes plants ideal sources of bioenergy.Thermal conversion of biomass produces heat and electricity from combustion (burning in the presence of oxygen), pyrolysis (decomposition of matter heated in the absence of oxygen) and gasification (conversion of plant matter in the presence of steam to carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen). Biological conversion involves anaerobic digestion or fermentation. Anaerobic digestion produces biogas (a mix of methane and CO 2 ), while fermentation yields liquid fuels for vehicles.Generally, thermal conversion technologies require feedstocks with low moisture and ash levels but high lignin content (such as wood, straw and other forestry products), while biological conversion calls for wet feedstocks that are rich in carbohydrates (such as animal feedstocks, non-woody crops and biodegradable matter from sewage farms).Fungi are used extensively to enhance the retrieval of bioenergy from plants. Looking to the future, they represent an exciting potential source of new bioenergy technologies.In future, fungi are likely to play a major role within bioenergy.The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 aims to address the lack of access to electricity and energy for cooking and ensure affordable, reliable, sustainable and clean energy for all. An important benefit of locally generated energy is that it helps to light homes in the evenings, meaning homework can be completed after dark. This has a positive outcome for education and for development in low-income countries. Plants and fungi represent a vast, untapped source of feedstocks for existing bioenergy technologies, which can help to achieve this goal. However, overcoming the negative impacts of current bioenergy provision requires the bioenergy sector to diversify with sustainable, local sources of feedstocks matched to accessible technologies (see Box 1).Achieving this will require specific efforts from a range of actors. Researchers and funding bodies must scale up efforts to identify locally appropriate plant species with biofuel potential in low-income countries, where plant diversity is high and energy poverty most acute. Governments and international aid programmes need to introduce clean cooking technologies and encourage agrodiversity alongside biodiversity conservation. And industry should invest in technologies developed for local species that can supply varied ecosystem services within bioenergy 'landscapes', encompassing foods, carbon storage, shade, water management, air quality, support for pollinators and biocultural value.\"I think that energy poverty and Sustainable Development Goal 7 can be addressed sustainably within a decade if there is the political will, given that we have a diverse pool of plants and fungi to explore and a vast array of suitable emerging technologies,\" says Dr Grace. \"There is real potential to harness the advances in engineering to support diverse, sustainable and resilient landscapes supporting the most essential human needs -food, water and energy. In this chapter, we learn: that nature represents a largely untapped medicine cabinet of treatments; how our current use of species for healthcare is causing biodiversity loss; that a compound found in apples inspired a new class of drugs; why fungi are key to securing drug supplies in the future; and that industrial waste is being used to make pharmaceutical steroids.Artemisinin from the plant Artemisia annua is used to treat malaria. Examining the plant 'tree of life' is helping scientists pinpoint new medicines. Plants and fungi have provided or inspired some of our most important drugs (see Box 1). We have nature to thank for cancer-fighting vincristine and etoposide, the painkillers morphine and aspirin, the heart condition drugs digoxin and warfarin, and a suite of antibiotics, among others. However, the search for new drugs is far from over, because noncommunicable diseases, including cancer and heart disease, remain responsible for almost 70% of deaths globally, and communicable ones, such as malaria and tuberculosis, also affect billions of people. The risk of new infectious organisms emerging is ever present, too, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown.With around 4,000 species of plants and fungi being scientifically described for the first time every year, the world's wild ecosystems represent a medicine cabinet of many as-yetunknown therapeutics. However, our present use of natural products for healthcare is contributing to biodiversity loss, so we need to find new approaches that support the conservation of plants and fungi. Emerging technologies, such as the use of 'fungal factories' to manufacture pharmaceutical compounds, might provide a solution.We use plants and fungi as medicines by harnessing the complex compounds they produce as strategies for their own survival. These include compounds to ward off pests, diseases and other attackers, and for overcoming environmental challenges, such as high levels of ultraviolet light from the sun. For example, the Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia) and Cephalotaxus species, both in the yew family (Taxaceae) produce the toxic compounds paclitaxel and homoharringtonine, respectively. These have been developed for use in certain chemotherapy regimens, as they destroy cancer cells.The use of compounds from nature in mainstream medicine is extensive. Of 185 small-molecule drugs approved for cancer between 1981 and 2019, 65% were derived from, or inspired by, natural products. In recent years, a compound found in apples (Malus species) and other plants was the inspiration for a new class of drugs -the 'flozins' -developed to control glucose levels in people with diabetes. For chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, new drugs have been developed that are based on the alkaloid compound atropine, which occurs in some members of the potato family (Solanaceae), such as Brugmansia species. And plants are emerging as potential sources of vaccine adjuvants; for example, a chemical made by the soap bark tree (Quillaja saponaria) is included in a shingles vaccine and is being developed for use in vaccines against malaria and tuberculosis.\"Scientific advances are enabling us to explore the untapped potential of the world's plants and fungi for their medicinal value, and to discover other roles they may have to improve health and well-being,\" says Dr Melanie-Jayne Howes, Research Leader in Kew's Natural Capital and Plant Health department. \"These scientific developments not only benefit humanity directly, but they also demonstrate the value of plants and fungi, providing an additional incentive for conserving biodiversity.\"Since the accidental discovery of penicillin from Penicillium rubens in 1928, fungi have yielded many valuable drugs. Among them are the some of the most commonly prescribed medications in the UK -the cholesterol-lowering statins. These are derived from various filamentous fungi, including Aspergillus terreus strains and Penicillium citrinum. And the fungus Tolypocladium inflatum is used to produce the immunosuppressant ciclosporin, which helped to revolutionise the success of organ transplants.Complementing such pharmaceuticals are herbal medicines, functional foods (those that provide benefits over and above their nutritional value) and dietary supplements such as nutraceuticals (foods, or parts of them, that have health benefits). Growth in the use of these is booming, driven by a rise in the prevalence of certain chronic diseases and the search for therapies where conventional treatments are lacking.Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, provides an example. Since 2002, every drug developed for this disease has failed in clinical trials, and those that show promise are often not available for widespread clinical use. Consequently, there is much interest in investigating the role of nutraceuticals and plants already in our diet that may improve cognitive functions. At Kew, scientific research is in progress with partners to find plants that may help to slow cognitive decline associated with ageing or dementia.Historically, unconventional medicines, primarily herbal remedies, have played a central role in the health systems of low-income countries, where mainstream healthcare is often too costly for many. For millions living in rural areas, traditional healers are the main health providers and sources of medicines; worldwide, as many as four billion people rely on herbal medicines as their primary source of healthcare. In China, herbal medicines represent around 40% of all healthcare services. The world's wild ecosystems represent a medicine cabinet of many as-yet-unknown therapeutics BOX 1: Plants and fungi we use as medicines Scientists use various methods to seek out new treatments. These include examining traditional uses of species, exploring the similarities in related species where one is already used as a medicine, and using existing treatments for one disease to try to treat another.The Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia) produces paclitaxel (below), a toxic compound that has been developed for use in some chemotherapy regimes.Two drugs used today in chemotherapy -vincristine and vinblastine -were developed from the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus).In recent years, a compound found in apple (Malus species) and other plants was the inspiration for a new class of drugs -the 'flozins'developed to control glucose levels in people with diabetes.The soap bark tree (Quillaja saponaria) contains chemicals called saponins. One, when purified, has been found to enhance the efficacy of certain vaccines. It is now used in a shingles vaccine.Work at Kew has revealed that sage (Salvia officinalis), rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) and lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) show promise against cognitive decline.Traditionally used as a tea to treat fevers in China, Artemisia annua is a source of artemisinin. This compound and its derivatives are used to treat malaria caused by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite.Of 185 small-molecule drugs approved for cancer between 1981 and 2019, 65% were derived from, or inspired by, natural products.The global demand for naturally derived medicines, along with other pressures, is threatening some species. Of the 25,791 species of plants documented to be of medicinal use, 5,411 have been assessed under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Of those, 723 (13%) are categorised as threatened. Only six species of medicinal fungi have been assessed, one of which, Fomitopsis officinalis, a wood-inhabiting parasitic fungus, has already been pushed to the brink of extinction.South Africa is among the world's top users of medicinal plants, with some 27 million people relying on traditional healthcare. Overharvesting and the unsustainable use of wild medicinal plants is a major concern; experts believe that a drop observed in the number of species traded between 1998 (700) and 2013 (350) may be due to a reduction in available plant diversity. The collection of bulbs, bark and roots for sale is particularly destructive, leading to the plant dying after harvesting in around 86% of cases.Scientific and technological advances have the potential to help us make better use of plants and fungi as sources of medicines. The Plant and Fungal Trees of Life project, led by Kew, is helping to untangle the evolutionary relationships within each of these kingdoms based on their DNA. This could enable scientists to more accurately predict species most likely to produce similar compounds with medicinal properties.By scrutinising the relationships revealed by these genetic trees of life, scientists can identify 'hot zones', where species with a particular medicinal use are clustered. For example, knowing that the bark of Cinchona (a genus of trees belonging to the coffee family, Rubiaceae) contains antimalarial quinine, has helped to identify the genus as a hot zone for other potential antimalarial compounds.The subfamily Rauvolfioideae, part of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), is another antimalarial hot zone. However, not all members of this subfamily have been reported to have antimalarial activity. An example is the genus Skytanthus, which originates from areas in South America where malaria is not present. Such plants might well contain antimalarial compounds, but local people are highly unlikely to have recorded them as useful against the disease if it is not transmitted there. Taking a phylogenetic approach therefore has the potential to reveal previously hidden knowledge about species that could yield medicinal compounds.Since the 1990s, the pharmaceutical industry has shifted away from exploring new plant-or fungus-derived medicines. Necessary legislation to protect biodiversity, coupled with difficulties in isolating sufficient supplies of active chemicals from nature and a focus on synthetic drugs, have contributed to this. Now, the situation is changing. Libraries containing fractions of natural products are being made accessible to scientists, reducing the need for collection from the wild. And advances in analytical chemistry and computing are making it easier for scientists to identify the complex structures of potentially useful compounds from miniscule samples of plants and fungi.\"At Kew, we investigate the chemical diversity of plants and fungi to understand the scientific basis for their uses, including their role as sources of medicines, or for our health as part of our diet,\" explains Dr Howes. \"To do this, we use analytical chemistry techniques to detect and characterise compounds, which often involves, as a first step, preparing an extract from sampled plant or fungal material. Emerging technologies mean we can now even detect and characterise compounds from preserved herbarium and fungarium specimens without damaging them, expanding access to a vast range of accurately identified species.\" (See also Chapter 8.)Our expanding knowledge of the biosynthetic pathways that plants and fungi use to produce compounds is boosting our chances of creating sustainable supply chains for a wider range of medicines for the future. Once we know the specific genes and enzymes a species uses to synthesise a particular medicinal compound, we can potentially transport that biosynthetic pathway into a different organism, such as a yeast. The yeast is then able to produce that compound, once more reducing the need for researchers to collect material from the wild.\"Natural products can be very complex and difficult to synthesise,\" says Dr Jérôme Collemare, Group Leader at the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute in Utrecht, the Netherlands, who contributed to the review on which this chapter is based. \"The use of fungi is clearly an advantage because they can be used in fermentation-based industrial processes. Thanks to advances in genomics, synthetic biology and biotechnology, it is now possible to develop filamentous fungi as cell factories for the large-scale production of bioactive compounds, not only of fungal origin, but also from other organisms such as plants.\"The Himalayan and American mayapples (Podophyllum hexandrum and P. peltatum respectively) contain podophyllotoxin, a compound used in the manufacture of some anti-cancer drugs. Containing a higher level of podophyllotoxin, P. hexandrum is the preferred source; however, its trade is restricted because wild populations are under threat. Scientists recently identified the genes responsible for biosynthesising podophyllotoxin, and reconstituted this metabolic pathway in a different plant, Nicotiana benthamiana. This breakthrough could make it possible to produce the compound more sustainably in future.The role of plants and fungi for medicines is evolving beyond simply providing new compounds to treat diseases. Our growing understanding of natural product chemistry is enabling plant and fungal molecules to be discovered thatThe yew species Taxus brevifolia is the original source of the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel.Strains of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus terreus are a source of statins, which are drugs used to lower cholesterol.Brugmansia sanguinea, native to Latin America, is one source of the drug atropine. This species is now extinct in the wild.A compound that occurs in species from the apple genus (Malus) inspired drugs used to control glucose levels.Only six species of medicinal fungi have been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Eburiko (Fomitopsis officinalis), which is one of them, is in decline and already believed to be extinct in Spain.Our expanding knowledge of the biosynthetic pathways that plants and fungi use to produce compounds is boosting our chances of creating sustainable supply chains for a wider range of medicines for the future Ta m i u® provide structural building blocks from which drugs can be produced. A portion of the structure of the drug oseltamivir, used to prevent flu and treat its symptoms, is very similar to a chemical called shikimic acid, which occurs in certain plants. Manufacturing oseltamivir involves extracting this chemical from star anise (Illicium verum) and using it as the starting material to synthesise the drug (see Figure 1).The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 is \"to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being at all ages\", while the World Health Organization seeks \"to achieve universal health coverage, address health emergencies and promote healthier populations\". Despite some successes, we remain a long way from meeting these goals. Cancer, dementia, malaria and other major diseases remain prevalent in society, and the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly highlighted our vulnerability to novel diseases. \"We need solutions at hand before facing the future global health challenges,\" says Dr Collemare. \"Drug discovery and development is such a long process that we need to invest now in prospecting for natural compounds if we want to have these solutions in time.\"There is great potential to develop new therapeutics from nature in future. Advances in science and technology are providing effective ways to identify useful chemical compounds, source them sustainably, and synthesise them readily.Even waste could have a role to play in our future healthcare and make the use of our natural resources more efficient; waste from sisal (Agave sisalana) leaves following fibre extraction by the textile industry is now being used to make pharmaceutical steroids. Novel approaches and techniques can help us draw inspiration from nature for future medicines, while preserving the biodiversity of our planet.This chapter is based on the following scientific paper published in Plants, People, Planet, where you can find more information and references: Howes et al. ( 2020). Molecules from nature: Reconciling biodiversity conservation and global healthcare imperatives for sustainable use of medicinal plants and fungi. Plants, People, Planet 2(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10138 Read Chapter 7 to find out how ecosystem services from trees, bees and fungi are improving the health of our cities.In this chapter, we explore: how urban trees reduce flooding, lower temperatures and clean the air; the importance of tree diversity; why quality not just quantity of trees is key to coping with climate change; the new pests that are headed our way; why we should care about soil; and how encouraging beekeeping might cause more harm than good.Urban trees provide valuable ecosystem services and enhance citizens' well-being.The city trees we plant now must be able to withstand shocks and global change, not just over decades but potentially centuries Trees are unsung heroes of our cities. They capture pollutants to clean the air; soften rainfall's impact on soils; reduce flooding by soaking up rain; lower temperatures through shading; and help mitigate climate change by capturing and storing carbon. In the years to come, they have the potential to help make our cities more resilient to what scientists predict will be more variable and extreme weather. However, to ensure we gain the greatest benefit from the ecosystem services trees provide, we must plan our future cityscapes wisely.The trees growing in cities today tend to be a mix of native and exotic species. In the UK, common native species include silver birch (Betula pendula) and English oak (Quercus robur), while popular exotics include the sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) and London plane (Platanus × hispanica). The presence of non-native species reflects the historical movement of plants around the world by humans, both intentionally and accidentally. For example, the London plane, which is a cross between the American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) and Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis), is thought to have arrived with travellers from Spain in the 17th century.Globally, urban treescapes comprise only a handful of genera, including maple (Acer), ash (Fraxinus), plane (Platanus), elm (Ulmus), spruce (Picea), oak (Quercus), honey locust (Gleditsia) and lime (Tilia) (see Figure 1). In Scandinavia, Tilia × europaea and silver birch dominate; in Lhasa, China, poplar (Populus) and willow (Salix) are the most common genera; and maple species are widespread in US cities. Just five tree taxa account for around a third of trees in London's parks, gardens, playing fields and streets: sycamore, English oak, silver birch, ash and plane.As well as taxonomic diversity being limited, genetic diversity within species is often low too. This is because specimens grown in nurseries for municipal planting are often clones or derived from limited source plants. However, diversity is key to ensuring our cities' trees are resilient going forward. If we only rely on a few species, with a limited range of genes across individuals, our urban trees will be poorly equipped to survive diseases or pest attacks, or to tolerate changing weather conditions.The lingering impacts of Dutch elm disease serve as a stark reminder. This beetle-dispersed fungus (Ophiostoma ulmi), native to Asia, was accidentally introduced to Europe and the USA in the 1920s. In the late 1960s, at a time when elms were popular urban trees, a new, more virulent strain emerged. Having no resistance to the disease, elm populations outside of Asia were decimated. The UK alone lost 25 million trees, and city tree canopies have yet to fully recover.Of 6,896,687 trees grown in 67 locations, the ten most common species per location account for more than 2,722,991 trees (39.5%), of which eight genera make up almost 80%. Acer is the most widely grown genus, accounting for 20% of city trees.Trees are unsung heroes of our cities. They capture pollutants to clean the air; soften rainfall's impact on soils; reduce flooding by soaking up rain; lower temperatures through shading; and help mitigate climate change by capturing and storing carbon. In the years to come, they have the potential to help make our cities more resilient to what scientists predict will be more variable and extreme weather. However, to ensure we gain the greatest benefit from the ecosystem services trees provide, we must plan our future cityscapes wisely.The trees growing in cities today tend to be a mix of native and exotic species. In the UK, common native species include silver birch (Betula pendula) and English oak (Quercus robur), while popular exotics include the sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) and London plane (Platanus × hispanica). The presence of non-native species reflects the historical movement of plants around the world by humans, both intentionally and accidentally. For example, the London plane, which is a cross between the American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) and Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis), is thought to have arrived with travellers from Spain in the 17th century.Globally, urban treescapes comprise only a handful of genera, including maple (Acer), ash (Fraxinus), plane (Platanus), elm (Ulmus), spruce (Picea), oak (Quercus), honey locust (Gleditsia) and lime (Tilia) (see Figure 1). In Scandinavia, Tilia × europaea and silver birch dominate; in Lhasa, China, poplar (Populus) and willow (Salix) are the most common genera; and maple species are widespread in US cities. Just five tree taxa account for around a third of trees in London's parks, gardens, playing fields and streets: sycamore, English oak, silver birch, ash and plane.As well as taxonomic diversity being limited, genetic diversity within species is often low too. This is because specimens grown in nurseries for municipal planting are often clones or derived from limited source plants. However, diversity is key to ensuring our cities' trees are resilient going forward. If we only rely on a few species, with a limited range of genes across individuals, our urban trees will be poorly equipped to survive diseases or pest attacks, or to tolerate changing weather conditions.The lingering impacts of Dutch elm disease serve as a stark reminder. This beetle-dispersed fungus (Ophiostoma ulmi), native to Asia, was accidentally introduced to Europe and the USA in the 1920s. In the late 1960s, at a time when elms were popular urban trees, a new, more virulent strain emerged. Having no resistance to the disease, elm populations outside of Asia were decimated. The UK alone lost 25 million trees, and city tree canopies have yet to fully recover. Plants invest up to 20% of the carbon they fix through photosynthesis to support fungi, in exchange for up to 80% of their nitrogen and 100% of their phosphorus needs Today, new pests are eyeing up our city trees. The Asian and citrus long-horned beetles (Anoplophora glabripennis and A. chinensis), from South-East Asia, are now among the most serious threats. One estimate of tree loss to A. glabripennis in US cities is 30% tree mortality -or 1.2 billion trees -valued at USD 669 billion. Able to thrive on a range of broad-leaved trees and shrubs, these pests present a threat to treescapes globally. Meanwhile, the fungus Ceratocystis platani is causing the disease plane tree wilt, which is killing specimens within three to seven years of infection. With planes common in many European cities, losses from the disease could be devastating.Climate change is also a major threat. Most tree species in cities in the northern hemisphere originated in moist, temperate forests. This makes them less suitable for the warmer, drier conditions forecast for the future. \"Our strategies for replacing urban trees that are coming to the end of their life must involve using diverse species lists,\" explains Prof. Phil Stevenson, Senior Research Leader in Kew's Natural Capital and Plant Health department. \"The trees we plant now have got to be able to withstand shocks and global change, not just over decades, but potentially over centuries.\"Meeting the demand for robust trees in the future will require changes to sourcing and planting strategies and procedures. Presently, city authorities are primarily motivated by tree-planting targets as a response to climate change. For example, Shanghai, Los Angeles, New York and Sacramento aim to plant between one and five million trees apiece, while London has committed to increasing tree canopy cover by 10% by 2050. But if trees are to survive pests, diseases and climate shifts in future, the focus should be on quality not just quantity of trees.A starting point for selecting species for future city planting schemes is to assess the ecosystem services that we need in our cities, choose diverse species that can deliver those services, and ensure individuals are genetically diverse (see Figure 2, over page). To do so, we may need to consider rare and less traditional tree species, including exotics. In Scandinavia, for example, it is not feasible to rely solely on native trees for urban green infrastructure, because the region has limited native woody flora, and the majority of those species do not thrive in dry city environments.The capacity for trees to deliver ecosystem services such as sequestering carbon or reducing impacts from storm waters is species dependent, making careful selection critical. However, levels of tolerance to warmer and drier climatic conditions can also vary within some species. This is especially the case for trees with a large natural distribution; the characteristics of maples, American ash (Fraxinus americana) and northern red oak (Quercus rubra) populations differ according to rainfall levels and habitat type. This means city tree suppliers will need to have detailed knowledge of the provenance and characteristics of plants in their stocks.Botanic gardens and nurseries influence the range of urban tree species available to municipal authorities. However, because they have tended to focus on species of ornamental and conservation interest, the ideal genetic stock for developing resilient urban landscapes may not exist in current collections. Remedying this will involve collecting new source stock from the wild, and making species available that have traits such as drought tolerance and disease resistance. These characteristics are controlled by specific genes that could be bred into cultivars for use in urban settings.\"We need to ensure that selected trees have robust genetic architecture that will enable them to tolerate future conditions; it's no good planting a tree that is currently suitable for Oslo, when in 30 years Oslo will be too hot and too dry for it,\" says Henrik Sjöman, Scientific Curator at Gothenburg Botanic Garden, Sweden, who contributed to the review on which this chapter is based. \"Ideally, we need to have nursery growers working in concert with laboratories. Most nurseries operate a low-technology system of propagation and cloning but we need more information on genetic diversity, which currently can only be undertaken in well-equipped, state-of-the-art labs. That said, in time, DNA sequencing could potentially be more widely adopted at a much lower cost and used to inform selection of cultivars.\"As well as considering the trees themselves, we need to give thought to the environments in which we plant them, and the organisms they interact with and depend on. Ninety per cent of all known terrestrial plant species form symbiotic interactions via their roots with naturally occurring fungi in soil, forming 'mycorrhizas' (literally, fungus roots). Nurturing this relationship to support trees' mineral nutrition is therefore critical.Mycorrhizal fungi increase the volume of soil that trees can explore with their roots; they do so by using their network of filaments (mycelium) to reach into smaller pores, accessing water and nutrients otherwise unavailable to trees. Plants invest up to 20% of the carbon they fix through photosynthesis to support fungi, in exchange for up to 80% of their nitrogen and 100% of their phosphorus needs. This mutual exchange of essential nutrients enhances the productivity and biomass of trees, and strengthens their defences against pests and diseases.Cities are often harsh environments for plants because of disturbance, pollution, drought, radiation, heat and microclimatic extremes. On top of this, there are often insufficient mycorrhizal fungi in the soil to support plant nutrition and growth. Studies show that mycorrhizal communities vary widely across wild, rural and urban habitats. Atmospheric pollution and 'eutrophication' -where soils become overloaded with nutrients from run-off -contribute to the less-diverse communities of fungi in cities. Having suboptimal mycorrhizal nutritional support can compromise a tree's success in becoming established and its ability to thrive in an urban ecosystem. \"Trees are most effective and efficient at providing ecosystem services when they are big,\" says Prof. Stevenson. \"A big tree sequesters more carbon (especially via its mycorrhizal associations), is capable of trapping more pollution, provides greater flood prevention, can reduce noise pollution, generates a huge amount of pollen and nectar as forage for bees and other insects, and gives more shade. When renewing or establishing new urban ecosystems, therefore, the trees need to become established and grow quickly. The way to do that is to maximise soil quality, especially in the early years, which includes making sure trees have these essential associations with mycorrhizal fungi.\"Supporting mycorrhizal fungi is especially critical because, over time, trees sequester vastly more carbon below ground, via their roots, than they do above it. Trees pump carbon to the mycorrhizal fungi, which extend into the soil with their filaments. The fungi act as carbon sinks in soil, representing up to a third of the soil microbial biomass. Moreover, some mycorrhizal fungi compete with decomposers for the limited resources held in soil organic matter. This suppresses decomposition rates, further boosting the amount of carbon stored in the soil.Overview of the services provided by trees and mycorrhizal fungi in urban ecosystems. Wildlife habitat and diversity Genetic diversity microclimatic extremes. On top of this, there are often insufficient mycorrhizal fungi in the soil to support plant nutrition and growth. Studies show that mycorrhizal communities vary widely across wild, rural and urban habitats. Atmospheric pollution and 'eutrophication' -where soils become overloaded with nutrients from run-off -contribute to the less-diverse communities of fungi in cities. Having suboptimal mycorrhizal nutritional support can compromise a tree's success in becoming established and its ability to thrive in an urban ecosystem. \"Trees are most effective and efficient at providing ecosystem services when they are big,\" says Prof. Stevenson. \"A big tree sequesters more carbon (especially via its mycorrhizal associations), is capable of trapping more pollution, provides greater flood prevention, can reduce noise pollution, generates a huge amount of pollen and nectar as forage for bees and other insects, and gives more shade. When renewing or establishing new urban ecosystems, therefore, the trees need to become established and grow quickly. The way to do that is to maximise soil quality, especially in the early years, which includes making sure trees have these essential associations with mycorrhizal fungi.\"Supporting mycorrhizal fungi is especially critical because, over time, trees sequester vastly more carbon below ground, via their roots, than they do above it. Trees pump carbon to the mycorrhizal fungi, which extend into the soil with their filaments. The fungi act as carbon sinks in soil, representing up to a third of the soil microbial biomass. Moreover, some mycorrhizal fungi compete with decomposers for the limited resources held in soil organic matter. This suppresses decomposition rates, further boosting the amount of carbon stored in the soil.Overview of the services provided by trees and mycorrhizal fungi in urban ecosystems.Cities are often harsh environments for plants because of disturbance, pollution, drought, radiation, heat and microclimatic extremes Chapter 7. Building urban resilience with trees, bees and fungi 53Cities are often harsh environments for plants because of disturbance, pollution, drought, radiation, heat and microclimatic extremesThe strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) is an increasingly popular city tree in northern European city parks and provides important nectar resources for wild bees, such as the buff-tailed bumble bee (Bombus terrestris), in late summer and early autumn.Does London have too many honey bees? Recent evidence indicates that 0.13 km 2 of green space is required per colony, or that 1 km 2 can sustain 7.5 colonies. Colour coding identifies the relative forage availability within a grid of 1 km 2 hexagons for each colony, ranging from 1 km 2 foraging area per colony (dark green = surplus) to <0.133 km 2 (dark yellow = unsustainable). In yellow areas, the available forage is insufficient for the honey bee colonies, let alone other competing bee species.Engaging city dwellers with their local flora, fauna and fungi provides a path to encouraging greater conservation of biodiversityWe must also consider above-ground interactions in trees, because many tree species depend on pollination by animals. Pollinators, in turn, rely on trees for pollen or nectar as food, and, for some species, as nesting sites. Per unit area of land, trees are able to provide far more nectar and pollen than herbaceous plants, although having a mixture of habitats is beneficial and promotes plant and pollinator diversity.Arguably the most important group of pollinators globally is bees; worldwide there are over 20,000 species. Ensuring that urban bee populations are healthy can therefore help to underpin the vital ecosystem services that city trees provide and support pollination of nearby crops. In the Neotropics, where tropical rainforest is an important biome, the dominant bee taxa -including stingless bees (Meliponini), orchid bees (Euglossini), leafcutter bees (Megachile) and carpenter bees (Xylocopa) -rely heavily on trees for nesting and food.Presently, assessments of the ecosystem services provided by urban tree species rarely include benefits to bees. The databases used by urban planners either lack data on tree-pollinator interactions or only list whether or not a particular tree species benefits honey bees, rather than considering support for other pollinators. Because some bee species rely on a single or limited number of plants for food, planning decisions that exclude particular species can have drastic consequences on bee populations. We need more detailed research on the value of different urban tree species for bees, to inform planning decisions.\"Some bees are 'oligolectic', which means they feed on pollen of just a few species, often within the same genus, which exposes them to greater risk of starvation if their host plant is not available,\" explains Prof. Stevenson. \"Understanding plant-pollinator relationships is therefore critical for promoting bee diversity. In Europe, most oligolectic species forage on native herbaceous plants, so promoting these plant species is important. And in Australia, many oligolectic bees are pollen specialists of endemic trees and shrubs in the myrtle and protea families (Myrtaceae and Proteaceae); there, trees are critical for supporting bee diversity of potentially at-risk groups.\"Messages around biodiversity and ecosystem services have not always been clearly communicated. For example, campaigns encouraging people to save bees have resulted in an unsustainable proliferation in urban beekeeping. This approach only saves one species of bee, the honey bee,with no regard for how honey bees interact with other, native, bee species.In some places, such as London, so many people have established urban hives that the honey bee populations are threatening other bee species. Increasing evidence shows that there is insufficient forage to support current beehive numbers in London (see Figure 3). This is a problem for bee conservation, as honey bees outcompete wild bees by monopolising floral resources. Moreover, some reports suggest honey bees can transmit diseases to other wild species. So, beekeeping to save bees could actually be having the opposite effect.\"In many city parks you'll see signs telling you about the birds, bats, fungi, trees, grasses and wildflowers that live there, says Prof. Stevenson. \"This is fantastic, as positive interactions with nature in cities are known to improve well-being and inspire changes in lifestyles that promote conservation of biodiversity. However, what they don't say is how all these organisms interact. We need much more information on the interactions and interdependence of organisms, and we mustn't be afraid to give people more complex information.\"We need to limit human activities that cause biodiversity loss, because the welfare of people and that of nature are mutually dependent. With more than half the global population now living in urban areas, engaging city dwellers with their local flora, fauna and fungi provides a path to encouraging greater conservation of biodiversity. The hope is that if people see the benefits they derive from urban green spaces in terms of cleaner air, flood protection and enhanced well-being, they will be motivated to help protect biodiversity worldwide for the benefit of humanity as a whole.This chapter is based on the following scientific paper published in Plants, People, Planet, where you can find more information and references: Stevenson et al. (2020). The state of the world's urban ecosystems: What can we learn from trees, fungi and bees? Plants, People, Planet 2(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10143Explore Chapters 8-11 to find out why collections, collaboration and global policy all have a role to play in the exploration of plant and fungal properties.In this chapter, we find out: how information stored in collections around the world underpins scientific research; that herbaria alone contain nearly 400 million specimens; how digitisation and data aggregation are widening access to collections; and how linking specimens to DNA samples, images, chemical profiles and other data will help reveal new insights. What can a 100-year-old herbarium specimen of twigs and leaves from Torminalis glaberrima tell us? To start with, it provides indisputable evidence that in 1920 the wild service tree, as it is also known, grew in the spot from which the specimen was collected. As T. glaberrima is an indicator species for ancient woodland, it also provides clues that the site was once wooded. And, if we visit that location today and find a farmer's field, it may reveal information about human activities in the intervening years.Around the world, specimen collections -including dried plants and fungi in herbaria and fungaria, living plants and fungal cultures grown in botanical gardens and mycological institutes, and seeds stored in seed banks -have long yielded information valuable to science. However, no one had fully investigated the extent of this combined resource. Scientists from Kew, working with a team of international collaborators, undertook a review to find this out. They sought to identify taxonomic and geographical gaps in collections, the extent to which specimens have been digitised, and new collection types needed to support research.\"The world's collections are a unique resource for documenting biodiversity because they give you evidence for what occurred where and when,\" explains Dr Alan Paton, Head of Collections at Kew. \"An individual specimen is an auditable building block, with which you can do all kinds of analyses. The better the state that evidence is in, the more complete the picture we can build of what biodiversity we currently have, as well as what we had in the past, to help us with planning for the future.\"According to Index Herbariorum, there are 3,324 active herbaria in the world, containing 392,353,689 specimens (December 2019). North America (Canada, Greenland, Mexico and the USA) has the most, with 844. However, Europe, with slightly fewer herbaria (828), holds 45% of global specimens. This reflects the European origin of the herbarium tradition -which began in Italy in the 16th century -and the fact that Europe retains many specimens gathered from overseas by colonial explorers. Work is under way to repatriate the information from many of these specimens through digitisation programmes (see also Chapter 9). Temperate Asia (including Russia and China) has the third-highest number of herbaria but the largest number of associated staff, indicating high levels of curation and research.Mapping the distribution of the collection locations of vascular plant species aggregated in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, together with data in the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, revealed areas of good and poor coverage. For example, some African countries that are biologically very diverse, are poorly represented in collections data.Using biological resources wiselyThe island of New Guinea has 13,634 known species of vascular plants but only a handful of herbaria to document this vast diversity.\"Herbaria, like all natural history collections, not only preserve a record of life on Earth, but foster international collaborations in research, conservation and education,\" says Dr Barbara Thiers, Patricia K. Holmgren Director of the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, the New York Botanical Garden, who was part of the Kew-led review team. \"Working as a community to share specimens and digitised specimen records and images amplifies the power of these resources for addressing our current environmental challenges.\" Some botanically diverse areas have few herbaria. For example, the island of New Guinea has 13,634 species of vascular plants but only five herbaria. By comparison, the UK has only 2,233 native species but 223 herbaria. And although 178 countries have at least one herbarium, many of these collections do not have readily available data showing how many specimens they hold, how many are digitised, and how this information is spread across taxonomic groups (e.g. seed plants, algae, bryophytes, ferns and related groups, and fungi). This restricts our understanding of gaps in collections data and the specimens that have yet to be digitised (see Figure 1). There is also much to be done in training more taxonomists, to allow us to make sense of the vast collections and understand more about biodiversity.Regarding living collections, analysis of the PlantSearch database hosted by Botanic Gardens Conservation International indicates that 107,340 accepted species grow in botanic garden collections, representing 31% of vascular plant species. However, 93% of these species are held in temperate parts of the world. As a result, a temperate species has a 60% chance of being cultivated within the botanic garden network, whereas a tropical species has only a 25% chance.Several plant lineages, including bryophytes (the mosses, liverworts and hornworts) and some lineages of vascular plants with clusters of tropical genera, are under-represented in living collections.107,340 accepted species grow in botanic garden collections, representing 31% of vascular plant species The digitisation and aggregation of data on specimens in collections is enabling people around the world to access items from their computers. However, the majority of specimen and collections data remain undigitised. The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), a programme of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, calls for at least 75% of threatened plant species to be held in ex situ collections by 2020, preferably in the country of origin. Such collections include living plants in botanic gardens and seeds stored in seed banks. In recent years, the GSPC target has driven an increase in the number of seed conservation facilities for wild species. Today, at least 350 botanic gardens in 74 countries carry out seed banking. Between them, they have banked seeds from 57,051 species (17% of seed plants). These include more than 9,000 taxa that are globally threatened with extinction, and 6,881 tree species.Kew's Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) at Wakehurst in West Sussex, holds the world's most diverse store of seeds from wild species. Its success is a product of seed collection by a global network of partners in more than 95 countries, collectively known as the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership. The MSB supports partner countries to establish local seed banks, so that collections can be duplicated in the country of origin and the UK. Around 10% of the species stored in the MSB are extinct in the wild, rare or threatened, and some 20% of taxa are endemic at country or territory level. Seeds of plants from tropical Asia, southern America and the Pacific, however, are presently under-represented.\"The partnership is not close to the target of banking 75% of threatened species yet,\" says Dr Paton. \"There are issues around how we deal with tropical trees, because some very threatened species don't have seeds that can be stored under normal desiccation regimes. Cryopreservation will allow us to do more with seeds and other tissues such as pollen and shoot tips; however, the technique we use with one species might not be transferable to another. So, we also need to think about how else we can reach the target. We may have to consider establishing managed 'seed orchards' as an ex situ technique to maintain seed stocks for species that are difficult to preserve.\"Coverage in collections of fungal specimens lags far behind that of plants. Of the 2.2-3.8 million fungal species that scientists believe exist, only 148,000 species have been described and named. Importantly, just over 17% (25,611 species) are cultured and publicly available. Centres registered with the World Data Centre for Microorganisms make available 3.2 million strains of microbes for research, including 849,724 fungal strains. These resources are held in 793 culture collections in 77 countries. However, they are concentrated in Europe (250 collections) and North America (197). Africa, a mega-diverse continent, has only 18 collections.One issue around preserving fungi is that methods used to isolate individual species from naturally occurring colonies generally favour fast-growing, common fungi. If researchers are to study rare and new organisms, more species need to be available in collections. \"There's an area of research emerging that is preserving microbial communities rather than individual species,\" says Dr Paton. \"This is particularly helpful if you're interested in the microbiome [the microbes and fungi] around a tree root. \"Because if you only isolate the common taxa, you're only preserving a bit of the available diversity rather than all of it.\"In future, all samples relating to a particular specimen will be digitally linked. For example, a plant in Kew's Temperate House may be linked digitally to DNA samples and chemical profiles, facilitating wider research.Today, we obtain information from historic specimens in ways that their original collectors would never have dreamed possibleThe molecular revolution of recent years has increased demand for samples of tissue and DNA from both plants and fungi. As a result, biodiversity repositories and institutes are increasingly opening up biobanks for preserving tissue (usually leaves from plants and spore-bearing structures from fungi) and extracted DNA. The Global Genome Biodiversity Network coordinates this activity for non-human organisms, across a network of institutions. In doing so, it provides an infrastructure for the global effort to sample DNA and build a full picture of the genetic 'tree of life' on Earth.Data aggregation is helping to make digital data on collections more widely accessible (see Figures 1 and 2). The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) provides anyone, anywhere, with open access to data on all types of life on Earth, encouraging the use of collection data for research. Nearly 2,500 peer-reviewed academic papers have been linked to data providers in the GBIF network, including herbaria and botanic gardens. The facility is therefore adding value to collections and highlighting their importance. Regional data aggregations, including the Atlas of Living Australia and Brazil's Reflora Virtual Herbarium, enhance the use of collections data in specific geographic regions, while also facilitating digital repatriation of specimens.\"Aggregating data has had a huge impact on the use of collections,\" says Dr Paton. \"Imagine if GBIF didn't exist and you wanted to plot where a species grows, you would probably have to consult about ten different herbaria and it would take you a long time, even if they had digital records available. When I started at Kew in 1990, I would have to manually consult the hard copy of the library catalogue or Index Kewensis to find data on species. Having online access to literature and specimens, especially aggregated data, means I can do things much faster. I can get a better idea of where things are, and of species variation and distribution.\"Despite the progress made through data aggregation, the majority of specimens and collections data remain undigitised. Although GBIF brings together data from 85,576,113 preserved specimens of plants and fungi, this equates to only around 21% of the estimated number of specimens in the world's herbaria. The largest proportion of digitised specimens is from North America; at the other end of the scale, Africa, tropical Asia and the Pacific regions are very poorly represented. And while 95% of vascular plant species and 82% of bryophytes are represented, data are available on only 55% of known fungal species.The project team's investigation of collections highlights how advances in molecular science, seed banking and digitisation have helped enhance and widen access to accurately named plant and fungal specimens.However, the gaps and biases revealed show there is great scope for further improvements. Overcoming these demands action, including: governments and aid agencies supporting national collections in biodiverse areas; accelerating digitisation and mobilisation of data through aggregators; standardising nomenclature; collecting taxa from key areas to support national priorities; developing environmental biobank collections to better represent fungal material; providing training in biodiversity science; and researching ex situ storage of species with seeds that cannot tolerate the desiccation that is part of the standard seed-banking process.Making such moves will help scientists draw new data from collections, to address issues such as biodiversity loss and climate change. Today, we obtain information from historic specimens in ways that their original collectors, including the likes of European naturalists Charles Darwin and David Livingstone, would never have dreamed possible. For example, scientists have sequenced DNA from a yam collected in 1782, and other specimens have been used to calculate how carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have changed, by examining the density of stomata on leaves. In the future, as-yet-unknown technologies and approaches will facilitate new opportunities, including curating 'extended' specimens, where items in collections are linked to a wide array of data.\"Curators of collections will use specimen identifiers to track and link how material has been used,\" says Dr Paton. \"The idea of an extended specimen means that you will be able to link an image, a DNA sequence and a chemical profile all to a single specimen. How that specimen is then used won't just be limited to someone looking at its physical material; it might be used by researchers interested in its chemistry, collector, cultural value, DNA, or relationships to other species. So it will extend the use of that specimen in different contexts. At the end of the day, the value of collections comes from their use; it's not the fact that you have them, it's the fact that they are used for something that gives them their value.\"This chapter is based on the following scientific paper published in Plants, People, Planet, where you can find more information and references: Paton et al. ( 2020). Plant and fungal collections: Current status, future perspectives. Plants, People, Planet 2(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10141Read Chapter 9 to find out why collaborations are critical to successful scientific research.working together is key to a sustainable future for allIn this chapter, we learn: why collaboration is critical to scientific research; how tens of millions of plant and fungal specimens underpin such work; about the teamwork that created the world's largest virtual tropical herbarium; how Guinea formed partnerships to develop its botanical capabilities; and why farmers in São Tomé and Príncipe are growing fungi.With biodiverse ecosystems, specimen collections, experts and financial resources dispersed around the world, collaboration is critical in scientific research.Information Facility provides access to more thanrecords from 1,600 institutions Globally, institutions hold hundreds of millions of preserved and living plant and fungal specimens. Lined up on shelves in jars of spirits; dried and pressed onto herbarium and fungarium sheets; frozen in seed banks; grown in culture collections; and displayed as thriving exhibits in botanic gardens, they each harbour data on their species' characteristics, favoured habitats and climates, and vulnerabilities. Together, they form the cornerstones of our knowledge of the plant and fungal kingdoms (see also Chapter 8).With new technologies now available to investigate them, these collections offer huge potential for enhancing our understanding of biodiversity, unearthing useful species and providing nature-based products and approaches to support sustainable development. However, if we are to outpace species loss as we hone our knowledge, we need to expand these collections and make them more accessible. International collaborations that are built on trust and transparency, and underpinned by a workable legal framework, provide the best means to achieve this.The world's preserved botanical and mycological collections mostly date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. During this period, extensive European and American exploration led to the publication of many 'Floras', volumes detailing the plants and fungi of particular regions or countries. However, in the past 50 years, significant national collections of preserved plants and fungi amassed by local botanists and mycologists have supplemented the specimens gathered by early travelling naturalists.Each specimen provides the who, what, when and where for that organism, and can also include descriptions of its form and colour, its habitat, and details of its lifecycle, such as flowering and fruiting time. Collectively, this information can reveal valuable insights into how the distribution of species has changed over time, in response to pressures such as deforestation and climate change. For example, such records show us that the number of plant species on European mountaintops increased fivefold between 1957-66 and 2007-16, a shift linked to rising temperatures.\"Preserved specimens can be 250 years old or more,\" says Tim Pearce, Conservation Partnership Coordinator at Kew. \"You frequently come across collections from the 1800s where a record might say 'large tree, up to 50 feet, found among forest' and then you go back to exactly the same spot and, lo and behold, there is no forest at all, it's just farmland, or urban sprawl. So, these collections give us the opportunity to track the persistence of plant populations at a particular site, over time.\"The extent of living collections of wild and cultivated plants has also expanded in recent times. The success of ex situ conservation techniques has underpinned the growth of national agricultural and forestry gene banks, along with the more recent creation of conservation seed banks for wild plants, such as Kew's Millennium Seed Bank (MSB). Together, these keep the seeds of tens of thousands of important plant species alive and available for use in the coming decades or even centuries. Meanwhile, botanic gardens around the world have developed their propagation skills and collectively hold many hundreds of thousands of individual living plants; these serve as a huge interpretive resource for millions of public visitors each year. And fungi too, usually held as living isolates, are being successfully conserved and made available to scientists. All these living ex situ collections are providing a vital resource for research into medicine, food security and conservation.New technologies for extracting DNA are adding value to herbarium and fungarium specimens, enabling scientists to quickly unravel genetic relationships between species, and publish plant 'phylogenies' or 'trees of life'; the closer two species are on the tree (i.e. the fewer branches connecting them), the more closely they are related. Scientists look for the close relatives of species already in use in agriculture, forestry and medicine that could potentially be developed as new crops or serve as sources of medicinal compounds (see Chapters 3-6). Advances in genomics have made it possible to identify the genes for traits such as high grain yield, the ability to tolerate salinity, and resistance to diseases and pests. This greater genetic understanding is enabling scientists to use living collections to accelerate breeding programmes and enhance the conservation of many useful threatened plant species.In the past 50 years, significant national collections of preserved plants and fungi amassed by local botanists and mycologists have supplemented the specimens gathered by early travelling naturalists Using biological resources wisely Herbaria such as Kew's hold preserved plant specimens dating back to the 19th century and earlier.Advances in digital technology, meanwhile, are facilitating the aggregation of datasets. For example, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) provides access to more than 1.4 billion records (including observations, preserved samples, fossils and living specimens) of all types of life on Earth in nearly 53,000 datasets supplied by 1,600 institutions. Plant-focused aggregations include the Botanical Information and Ecology Network, JSTOR Global Plants, and the Australian Virtual Herbarium. Meanwhile, PlantSearch acts as a comprehensive database of plant taxa in botanic gardens and similar organisations. And collaboratively stewarded 'metacollections', detailing the provenance and characteristics of seeds, living plants and tissue samples held in botanic gardens, are also being developed.Among the findings of the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was that \"a major obstacle to knowing (and therefore valuing), preserving, sustainably using and sharing benefits equitably from the biodiversity of a region is the human and institutional capacity to research a country's biota\". A challenge is that areas of high biodiversity, biological collections, scientific experts and financial resources are widely dispersed around the planet. This makes it impossible for any one country to work in isolation to describe and sustainably use its plant and fungal resources.The need to rapidly catalogue, understand, conserve and evaluate valuable plants and fungi has prompted new collaborations to emerge between national and international scientific institutions, governments and local communities. Some recent projects serve to demonstrate the achievements that can be made by bringing botanists, collections, new technologies and local people together. Brazil, Guinea, and São Tomé and Príncipe are among countries that have recently benefitted from powerful scientific collaborations.Brazil's Reflora programme began in 2010, seeking to \"retrieve and make available images and information concerning Brazilian plants deposited chiefly in overseas herbaria\" and \"increase knowledge and conservation of the Brazilian flora\". This involved two parallel efforts. The first digitised Brazilian herbarium specimens in overseas collections and 'virtually repatriated' them in the Reflora Virtual Herbarium (RVH), hosted in Brazil. The second funded opportunities for Brazilian students and researchers to access collections and undertake collaborative research in other countries.Today, RVH combines 3.7 million digital specimen images sourced from six herbaria in Europe, four in the USA and 72 in Brazil, forming the world's largest virtual tropical herbarium.Half of scientific publications citing Reflora mention conservation, with applications ranging from the rediscovery of a rheophyte (an aquatic plant of fast-moving water) not seen for 170 years, to development of species checklists for use in monitoring and managing protected areas. Another Reflora resource is the List of Brazilian Flora, an online platform hosted by the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, through which 900 scientists from Brazil and elsewhere are collaborating to complete the first online Flora of Brazil.Factors behind Reflora's success include strong existing relationships between the institutes and scientists involved; a common understanding of the importance of unlocking data from Brazilian herbarium specimens and making it widely accessible; and the choice of a public university with values closely aligned to Reflora's purpose -the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro -to develop the online platform.\"The programme's success is due in part to its broad scope,\" explains Dr Rafaela Forzza, Herbarium Curator and Senior Researcher at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, who contributed to the scientific paper on which this chapter is based. \"We worked with many different herbaria but accommodated their individual workflows. Obtaining images of specimens deposited in overseas herbaria has long been a dream for many Brazilian botanists -and a dream that's shared is more likely to come true.\"In Guinea, achieving positive outcomes for botanical conservation required starting from scratch. Before the current programme began in 2005, most historical botanical specimens collected in Guinea resided in herbaria in Europe and Senegal. Local botanists, having little access to these collections, had limited ability to identify and prioritise areas for in situ conservation. The University of Gamal Abdel Nasser (UGAN), working with Kew, recognised that protecting its botanical wealth from an expanding extractive industry demanded a national herbarium and a programme of botanical exploration, which, in turn, called for well-trained scientists.This led UGAN to establish the Herbier National de Guinée (HNG) and Guinea's Ministry of Higher Education and Research to authorise a new Masters Course in Biodiversity and Sustainable Development. Today, collaborators from both Kew and Belgium's Ghent University contribute to this teaching programme. The partnership resulted in a programme to delineate new protected areas for plants. A national working group on Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) and Species Conservation Action Plans provided unprecedented opportunities for academics, government staff and non-governmental organisations to collaborate on plant conservation, and, in March 2019, led the government to commit to protecting 22 TIPAs. This unlocked new funding opportunities, including a grant to conserve Guinea's Critically Endangered national flower Vernonia djalonensis.\"Obtaining images of specimens deposited in overseas herbaria has long been a dream for many Brazilian botanists -and a dream that's shared is more likely to come true\" Brazil has formed the world's largest tropical herbarium, using digitised specimens from physical collections in 82 herbaria.Engaging local people, who are the true custodians of ecosystems, is vital for effective conservation.\"The long-term collaboration with our partners at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has re-invigorated the research and conservation of Guinea's plants, and raised the quality of our training to a new cadre of young national botanists on modern approaches to taxonomy and plant identification,\" says Dr Sékou Magassouba, Director General of the HNG, who was also an author on the paper. \"Through our databases and by publishing the book Threatened Habitats and Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) of Guinea, West Africa -the first of its kind in Africa -we have mobilised important scientific data, ensuring they are integrated into decision-making for national biodiversity priorities.\"To be truly effective, conservation programmes need to engage local people, as they are the real custodians of species and ecosystems. In São Tomé and Príncipe, which is a renowned global biodiversity hotspot, foreign institutes had made many new discoveries of fungi over the years but there was little recognition of the value of these findings among islanders. In 2019, a collaboration between the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and the island nation's Directorate General of Forests set out to fill this gap.São Tomé and Príncipe's forest resources are under pressure from its growing population, and in future, as woodlands continue to be depleted at lower altitudes, small farmers are likely to be forced to move to higher elevations. Most endemic fungi occur on higher ground, so the collaboration sought to develop markets for edible and medicinal mushrooms, and train farmers in green economy and entrepreneurship. So far, several genera of known species with potential for domestication have been identified. \"Improving people's livelihoods through a resource that is part of their natural heritage is the best way to develop a sense of pride, ownership of and responsibility for the continued sustainable management of that resource,\" says co-author Dr Susana Gonçalves, who is the project's leading mycologist and works closely with the local island communities. \"This community-led approach, only possible with the partnerships in place, is paving the way for an enduring solution to forest and fungi conservation in São Tomé.\"All collaborative international conservation programmes have one thing in common: their need to access and share biological genetic material across the world. The legal framework through which this is presently managed is the Nagoya Protocol of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). However, some scientists have criticised the protocol for stifling the sharing of material for research programmes (see also Chapter 10). For example, concerns have been raised that the protocol does not sufficiently differentiate between commercial and non-commercial research uses, and that there are not robust methods in place for tracking resources to ensure that material loaned for pure research purposes does not end up being exploited commercially. This has made some countries wary of sharing any material.\"The Nagoya Protocol set out to make sure that the benefits accruing from somebody like me going out and collecting genetic material -whether those benefits accrue to me as a researcher, to the science community or the common good -should be shared equitably with the country of origin,\" explains Kew's Pearce. \"There are challenges throughout this process. At the beginning of any new partnership, it can take a long time to reach a set of terms that parties at all levels agree on. In the early 2000s, when we were establishing Kew's global MSB Partnership programme, the time taken to negotiate agreements was often measured in years rather than months. But it has to be said that the process developed trust and mutual respect between the partners. The long-term benefit of growing these relationships into lasting collaborations has been immense.\"One approach that avoids unnecessary delays is that adopted by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. This agreement, which also works in harmony with the CBD, seeks to promote the \"conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use\". The Treaty covers 64 major food and forage crops, guaranteeing farmers, plant breeders and scientists timely access to genetic material related to these crops.The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 highlights the need for national, regional and international collaboration to support many of the other SDGs, which are due to be achieved by 2030. Meanwhile, a 2019 report by an independent group of scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General stresses that: \"no country is yet convincingly able to meet a set of basic human needs at a globally sustainable level of resource use\". Fulfilling such goals under current political landscapes and governance structures is a tall order. However, if scientists can work quickly to decode the messages stored in collected and wild specimens, and provide leaders with evidence that might trigger action, we will be better placed to deliver a sustainable future for all.This chapter is based on the following scientific paper published in Plants, People, Planet, where you can find more information and references: Pearce et al. (2020). International collaboration between collections-based institutes for halting biodiversity loss and unlocking the useful properties of plants and fungi. Plants, People, Planet 2(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10149 Read Chapter 10 to find out how the legal mechanisms used to protect natural resources can both help and hinder scientific research.In this chapter, we explore: the aims of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora; whether these legal mechanisms are stifling scientific research; the Nagoya Protocol's effectiveness in encouraging countries to share genetic resources; and the need for robust compliance systems. With biodiversity loss quickening, we need to step up efforts to name, classify, describe and protect species before they become extinct. If we do not, we may lose useful plants and fungi before understanding their true value. Conducting this work requires extensive international collaboration (see Chapter 9) and a global policy framework that encourages the sharing of scientific material. This is because the biodiverse ecosystems, specimen collections, scientific experts and financial resources needed to underpin research into biodiversity are widely dispersed around the planet. A functioning legal framework through which researchers can access and undertake research on plant and fungal resources, and which prevents exploitation of valuable genetic material, is therefore critical.Legal mechanisms already exist to control the movement of genetic material around the globe. These include the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). They aim to protect vulnerable species and ecosystems, and promote the sustainable use of resources. However, some studies had suggested these mechanisms might be stifling research. In response, an international team of collaborators, led by Kew, set out to assess how effective the Conventions have been in supporting the scientific research vital to achieving their goals.Focusing on the kind of investigations that plant and fungal experts conduct -involving taxonomy, seed biology, genomics, ecological interactions, ecosystem services, and the effects of climate change -the researchers examined how helpful the mechanisms within the CBD and CITES are in supporting non-commercial research. Their findings suggest that recent moves to make the Conventions more research-friendly are beginning to have a positive effect, but that there is room for further improvement.The CBD was agreed in 1992, with the aim of tackling global biodiversity loss. Its three objectives are: the conservation of biological diversity; sustainable use of biodiversity; and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from use of genetic resources. The Convention's Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) mechanism was intended as an incentive for countries to invest in conservation (see Figure 1). As such, it was a key reason why many of the 196 Parties (countries that are signatories to the CBD and have also committed to implement its objectives at a national level) ratified the Convention, particularly those with high biodiversity.The CBD recognises the rights of countries to manage their own natural resources and introduce legislation to control access to genetic resources. In an effort to encourage governments to smooth the way for noncommercial research, it required Parties to 'create conditions to facilitate access to genetic resources for environmentally sound uses'. However, the different ways in which countries interpreted the CBD led to criticism that overly complex legislation was hampering research. And with less research taking place, countries were failing to reap the anticipated benefits needed to support national conservation efforts.\"Countries began to introduce a range of legislation,\" says China Williams, Senior Science Officer in Science Policy at Kew. \"Non-commercial users of genetic material, such as botanic gardens and research institutes, often had to go through complex mechanisms to access specimens for research, and commercial companies weren't always sure if they had legal certainty that they could use or develop material. Crucially, the biodiverse provider countries weren't getting the benefits they expected. As a result, there were calls for a more legally binding way of approaching the benefit-sharing part of the Convention.\"The outcome of discussions was the Nagoya Protocol. Negotiated by Parties to the CBD and adopted in 2010, the Protocol came into force in 2014. This guided countries on how to frame access legislation and introduced a legally binding compliance regime to enforce benefit-sharing. Importantly, it sought to address criticisms of the complexity of ABS legislation by encouraging Parties to implement \"simplified measures on access for non-commercial research purposes\". Now emerging from its bedding-in phase, the Nagoya Protocol calls for Parties to encourage the development and sharing of codes of conduct, guidelines and best practices or standards in relation to ABS. To ensure compliance with national legislation, it states that Parties should issue a permit as evidence that they have granted access based on prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms. On issuing a permit, a country must upload the relevant details to an online Access and Benefit-Sharing Clearing House (ABSCH), which produces an Internationally Recognized Certificate of Compliance (IRCC) in return.To assess the effectiveness of the CBD and Nagoya Protocol in promoting research in biodiversity, the Kew-led research team analysed ABS measures in 20 countries, including at least one on each continent (excluding Antarctica). They consulted the ABSCH to identify trends in access to material and see which countries, if any, had introduced measures intended to simplify access to genetic material. And they examined patterns in the issuing of IRCCs.  Of the 20 countries assessed, 11 had put in place simplified measures, with France, Spain, the Republic of Korea and the Dominican Republic doing so following ratification of the Nagoya Protocol. Beyond these 11, Namibia, Ethiopia, Malaysia and Vietnam had introduced simplified access measures but only for research taking place in country, for national researchers or researchers based at national institutions. In Brazil, access was simplified for some types of research but not for the fundamental, non-commercial research that forms the bedrock of biodiversity science. Kenya, the Philippines and Uganda had not introduced any simple access measures. And one country, Japan, had not put access measures in place.The case of Brazil exemplifies the kinds of challenges arising where simplified access to resources is not available for conducting basic research. Having greater biodiversity than any other nation, with 55,000 known species of plants alone, Brazil is a hotspot for plant and fungal research. While not a Party to the Nagoya Protocol, it has introduced ABS legislation to regulate access to genetic heritage (including both information and physical material) for research, technological development and economic exploitation of products.All research must be registered on an electronic system, with foreign researchers having to be associated with Brazilian institutions. However, some researchers have reported that they have been prevented from publishing descriptions of new bacterial species because they have been unable to reconcile the requirements of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes with Brazil's strict laws on the sharing of material.\"In my opinion, the decision to require foreign researchers to collaborate with Brazilian institutions aims to promote more scientific development in the country. However, while this requirement may make sense in cases of applied research and technological development, in the case of basic research it has a negative result for Brazilian science, as we have been witnessing,\" says Dr Manuela da Silva, Director of Biological Collections at Fiocruz, Brazil, who was part of the Kew-led research team.The reluctance of some countries to introduce simplified access measures to cover all research taking place suggests they may have concerns over being able to track and control material once it has left their shores. Overcoming this would require compliance procedures in the user country that are trusted by the provider country. \"Lack of transparency and legal certainty that ensure compliance in the user country are among major concerns for provider countries, which often lack both the financial and technological capacity to effectively follow up on agreed terms and conditions, and to track their genetic resources and associated knowledge,\" says Dr Gemedo Dalle, Associate Professor of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and former Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, who also contributed to the study. Where Kew sent material to:Where Kew received material from:*Now in Asphodelaceae (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group IV)Using biological resources wisely Specimens arrive at Kew from all over the world. Robust tracking of biological material is critical for compliance with international conventions.Coco de mer (Lodoicea maldivica), which only grows in the wild in the Seychelles, is protected under Appendix III of CITES.Biological specimens from around the world are vital to Kew and partners' research into biodiversity.In the UK, a Party to the Nagoya Protocol, there has been a compliance procedure in operation since 2015, and sanctions for non-compliance. Users are required to comply with the regulations in force in the UK; awareness-raising and active enforcement is ongoing.In terms of IRCCs, the researchers found that the number of certificates had more than doubled to 1,192 in the six months prior to 1 February 2020. Eight of the 20 focal countries had registered IRCCs, representing 95% of all certificates uploaded. Of the total certificates, 59% were for non-commercial purposes and 41% for commercial uses. \"I think it is a good sign that the number has risen,\" says Williams. \"It shows that countries are engaging with the process and also have the capacity to use it.\"Introduced in 1975, CITES regulates international trade in wildlife and wildlife products -ranging from plants and food, to leather goods and souvenirs. Its aim is to prevent international trade from threatening the survival of wild plants and animals. As of 2019, it had 183 Parties and covered roughly 30,000 species of plants. Fungi are also covered but, as yet, no species have been listed. As with the CBD, Parties abide with CITES regulation by implementing legislation in their own countries.Three Appendices denote different levels of protection from trade, based on the threat from commerce to the organism concerned. Appendix I includes species in danger of extinction from international trade, for example Rothschild's slipper orchid (Paphiopedilum rothschildianum); international trade for commercial use is prohibited for all Appendix I species. Appendix II includes species that are not currently threatened, such as the big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), but which may become so if trade is not monitored. Trade in these species requires a permit. Appendix III includes species that are protected in at least one country and where the government concerned has requested help to support their regulation, for example the coco de mer palm (Lodoicea maldivica).To accommodate the needs of non-commercial research, CITES established the Registered Scientific Institute (RSI) Scheme. Countries are encouraged to register RSIs; these organisations can share material freely with each other without requiring permits (see Figure 2, pg 76). So far, 74 Parties have registered a total of 857 scientific institutions with the CITES Secretariat. Between 2014 and 2019, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK all registered new scientific institutions, from one RSI registered in Denmark to 17 in Australia.To assess the effectiveness of the RSI scheme, the researchers sent questionnaires to CITES Management and Scientific Authorities within the 20 study countries, as well as EU member states 1 . They requested annual reports and information on the performance of the RSI scheme.Overall, responding Parties felt that while it was important to register institutions involved in species conservation, it was difficult to use the scheme or interpret its language. For example, the scheme could not be used where CITES was not implemented in both countries involved in the exchange of material. Some respondents felt it was easier to apply for a one-time permit than obtain material via the scheme.\"As with the Nagoya Protocol of the CBD, it is left up to individual countries to decide on criteria for registration,\" says Dr Carly Cowell, Senior Science Officer for CITES at Kew. \"So, some countries might only allow national bodies to be RSIs; others permit private organisations. Some might charge; others might not. In the UK, organisations have to provide the government with a full list of their collections, and information on how they are managed, stored and kept secure.\"Time is running out for us to understand and conserve the world's immense biodiversity. If we are to speed up cataloguing of resources, scientists working around the globe need to be able to continue undertaking research on genetic material. The investigation by Kew and partners shows there is widespread acceptance of legal frameworks such as the CBD, Nagoya Protocol and CITES. However, more must be done to encourage countries to embrace these Conventions, and for them to work effectively.Nurturing greater trust at government level among Parties requires robust compliance systems, while standardised application systems would make life easier for the end-user scientists. \"I'm pleased to see increased recognition of the need for clear, transparent online systems where there is simplified access for non-commercial research,\" says Williams. \"I think that will encourage research in CITES-listed and non-listed species and their use, and through this should come increased benefits. You don't get benefits without use, and the mark of success is seeing benefits from the research going back to the countries of origin.\"This chapter is based on the following scientific paper published in Plants, People, Planet, where you can find more information and references: Williams et al. (2020). Conservation policy: Helping or hindering science to unlock properties of plants and fungi? Plants, People, Planet 2(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10139Read Chapter 11 to find out how better patenting procedures could help us to commercialise and conserve natural resources.In this chapter, we investigate: why so few plants and fungi have patents associated with them; successes and failures of the patenting system; India's multidisciplinary approach; and how patenting nature-based products can generate wealth, reduce poverty, enhance human well-being and encourage conservation.There is potential to patent many more products made using plants and fungi. Humanity evolved using plants and fungi for food, medicines and materials, but over the millennia the number of widely used species has dwindled. As other chapters in this report show, the number of plants and fungi we rely on for food and renewable energy, in particular, is a fraction of what it could be. With 347,298 known vascular plant species and potentially upwards of 2.2 million fungal species on the planet, this represents a missed opportunity. Not only could we all stand to benefit from new products, but the commercial use of our natural resources might help to incentivise their conservation at a time when biodiversity loss is accelerating.Kew and an international team of collaborators set out to investigate the number of plants and fungi in commercial use, using patents as a proxy for innovation. They aimed to explore the extent to which we are utilising our natural resources and identify barriers that might be limiting naturebased product innovation. \"We chose to examine the use of natural resources through the eyes of patents because that is a clear step to commercialisation,\" explains Prof. Monique Simmonds, Deputy Director of Science at Kew. \"When I started the project, I had envisaged we might use around 20% of known plant and fungal diversity, but the proportion is actually much, much smaller than I thought.\"To find the exact figure, the research team consulted a 2013 publication in the journal PLOS ONE (published by the Public Library of Science) entitled, 'Biological diversity in the patent system'. The authors of this publication reviewed 11 million patent documents from the USA, the European Patent Convention and the International Patent Cooperation Treaty published between 1976 and 2010. After cleaning and harmonising Latin names, they found that 26,111 species of plants and 7,918 species of fungi were associated with patents. Further removal of ambiguous plant names by the Kew-led research team reduced the number of plant species to 21,395.Prof. Simmonds and colleagues divided these figures by the numbers of known species of vascular plants (347,298) and fungi (148,000) to derive the percentages associated with patents. For plants, the result was 6.2%, and for fungi, 5.4%. Using the 2.2 million estimate for the calculation brought the percentage of fungal species linked to patents down to 0.4% (see Figure 1).\"I think it is a real shame that more plant-and fungusderived materials aren't subject to appropriate patents, because it would increase the economic value of biodiversity,\" says Prof. Simmonds. \"More people would realise the potential plants and fungi have, because many of those patents would have resulted in some form of commercialisation. And provided appropriate systems were in place, that would result in money going back to the place where the biodiversity came from.\"The basic principle for patenting an innovation is that it must be new, involve an inventive step and be capable of development through industry. A patent endows its owner with the legal right to exclude others from making, using or selling their invention for a defined period of time. In exchange, the owner of the intellectual property must set out the details in a publicly available document. There is currently no universal patent available; parties must therefore file patents in individual countries for international coverage.The rules around use of genetic material are guided by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Agreed in 1992 and ratified by 196 Parties, the CBD seeks, among other objectives, the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arisingConsidering the human race evolved using plants and fungi as foods, medicines and materials, relatively few species are used in patented commercial products. The patenting process has sometimes been controversial, as these examples show:Pelargonium sidoides featured in a patent for a product treating upper respiratory infections. When challenged, the patent was revoked due to \"lack of an inventive step\".Since 2010, Africa's indigenous San and Khoi organisations have demanded that patents associated with the use of Aspalathus linearis for rooibos tea recognise the role their indigenous knowledge played in the drink's development.Properties from Sceletium tortuosum, traditionally used as a mood enhancer, were patented without the consent of San traditional healers who had contributed knowledge. A benefit-sharing agreement was later signed to pay royalties to the San.Patents filed for use of the plant Carapa guianensis, from Brazil, were later rejected due to 'prior art', because the patents covered uses that already existed.Patents applied to the Ethiopian plant Eragrostis tef have hindered the country's use of its own genetic resources.Patenting of the active ingredients of Hoodia gordonii for developing anti-obesity products was done without involving the indigenous San of southern Africa, who had long used the plant to stave off hunger. A benefit-sharing agreement was later agreed with the San. Eragrostis tef from use of genetic resources. Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) laws established nationally in line with the 2014 Nagoya Protocol are the vehicle for delivering this. The idea is that any benefits arising from commercialisation should be shared with local people who have contributed knowledge about the species through, for example, their traditional use of it (see also Chapter 10).Some notable cases have arisen where patents have been granted without sufficient consideration of contributed local knowledge. One concerns the crop teff (Eragrostis tef). First domesticated in Ethiopia between 4000 and 1000 BCE, teff is used to make injera, a flatbread eaten as a staple in the country. In 2003, Dutch company Health and Performance Food International (HPFI) filed a patent with the European Patent Office covering processing of teff flour and related products in the Netherlands. Two years later, it signed an ABS agreement with the Ethiopian Institute of Biodiversity Conservation, and the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organisation. It was granted the patent in 2007.The ABS agreement gave HPFI access to teff varieties and the right to use them to make various non-traditional food and drink products. In exchange, HPFI agreed to channel monetary and non-monetary benefits back to Ethiopia. However, when HPFI went bankrupt in 2009 -having only paid EUR 4,000 (approximately USD 4,700) to Ethiopia -it transferred the intellectual property around teff to new companies that were not party to the original agreement. This not only curtailed the return of benefits to Ethiopia, it prevented the nation from using its own teff products and from setting up new ABS agreements in countries covered by the patent.When the patent owners sued another Dutch company, Bakels, for infringing its intellectual property, the Dutch patent office declared HPFI's initial patents invalid in the Netherlands because they lacked inventiveness; they deemed the process of milling flour and making a dough to be a traditional Ethiopian practice. At present, the patents are still valid in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy and the UK, but the ruling presents a good opportunity for Ethiopia to challenge these. The case clearly exemplifies a breakdown in the spirit of the CBD -which should have seen Ethiopian stakeholders engaged from the outset and gaining from the deal -as well as a lack of rigour from patent agents.\"Successful Access and Benefit-Sharing agreements can be achieved only if all parties (genetic resource providers and recipients developing products through patenting) start the process in good faith,\" says Prof. Sebsebe Demissew of the Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management at Addis Ababa University, and Executive Director of the Gullele Botanic Garden, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who was part of the research team. \"Both parties are beneficiaries if the process is transparent and the benefits shared with communities.\"There are cases where courts have ruled against companies' violation of the rights of traditional communities. An example is that involving the manufacture of soap, made from the murumuru palm tree (Astrocaryum murumuru) in Brazil. The Asháninka people, of Acre state in northern Brazil, had long worked in partnership with Asháninka Apiwtxa Association and the Indigenous Research Centre (CPI). They used their traditional knowledge to identify native plant species that might be used in products. However, in 1996, a researcher hired by Asháninka Apiwtxa and CPI started a company, called Tawaya, without consulting or involving the indigenous people, intending to make murumuru soap.After registering with the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency in 2004, Tawaya began marketing the soap in 2005. The following year, the Federal Public Ministry in Acre initiated a civil public lawsuit to investigate whether Tawaya had exploited traditional knowledge. In 2019, the Genetic Heritage Management Council ruled in favour of the Asháninka. It considered that Tawaya had made improper use of the traditional knowledge in manufacturing the product without sharing the benefits with the indigenous community. The company was ordered to pay a BRL 5 million fine (just over USD 930,000).\"The ruling will send the message out to companies that if they are going to file a patent to make something like a cosmetic or soap, then they need to show inventiveness, and not just be replicating an existing use of the plant,\" says Prof. Simmonds. \"In this case, the company chose to manufacture the soap in more or less the same way as the local community, not recognising that this was considered 'prior art' and thus not new.\"India sets a good example on how to approach patenting of plant and fungal material. Between 1982 and1988, the Government of India launched a multidisciplinary research project, involving many institutions, called the 'All India Coordinated Research Project on Ethnobiology'. This project documented traditional uses of biodiversity and shared the information, including for patenting decisions. In 2002, the government established an ABS and Patent process. The Indian Biodiversity Act requires companies to obtain prior approval from the National Biodiversity Authority to obtain biological resources for any form of commercial use or patent approval.To date, the authority has received more than 3,500 applications and signed over 1,000 ABS agreements, resulting in 2,428 patent applications for inventions, of which 729 have been granted. It aims to encourage patenting of naturebased products while ensuring that benefits generated by the patent holder are shared according to the ABS agreement.\"Successful Access and Benefit-Sharing agreements can be achieved only if all parties (genetic resource providers and recipients developing products through patenting) start the process in good faith\"The patent system has been criticised in recent years for failing to prevent the misappropriation of traditional knowledge, such as methods long used by communities to make foods and medicines.In the last ten years, the following types of products using plants and fungi have been patented through the European Patent Office. These benefits are intended to help conserve India's natural resources and support development of local communities. Other countries could emulate this approach, although those with an oral tradition of passing on knowledge might struggle to easily document traditional plant uses.The Kew-led team searched records of plant-based patents filed in the past decade at the European Patent Office. They identified 25,765 patents for food, medicine, environmental uses, cosmetics and enzymes, while the equivalent search for fungal-related innovations revealed 12,522 patents (see Figure 2). Most applications came from China, South Korea and the USA (and Japan for fungi). The innovations ranged from use of the hinoki cypress tree (Chamaecyparis obtusa) to control odours, to the application of a species of white rot fungus, Phanerochaete sordida, to degrade neonicotinoid insecticides. Very few applications came from biodiverse countries in Africa or South America, other than South Africa and Brazil, respectively.Some countries and companies remain guarded about patenting nature-based products because of past experiences of 'biopiracy'. Countries are concerned about being exploited, while companies worry that uncertainties over accessing genetic material and sharing benefits leave them vulnerable. The absence of a worldwide patent is also an issue, as paying for many national patents can be prohibitive for small ventures. And some places simply don't have the infrastructure in place to facilitate patenting. \"Very few patents are coming from Africa, as there isn't always the infrastructure for filing them,\" explains Prof. Simmonds.New technology may lend a hand to make the patenting process for plant and fungal material more straightforward. DNA technology is making it possible to patent traits conveyed in 'nucleic acid sequences' (the genetic code in an organism's DNA). Using this approach, a company could take a trait that enables a plant to store water and use it within a cultivar to make a drought-tolerant crop, for example through gene editing. In such a circumstance, a local community may be owed benefits for highlighting the water-storing capabilities of the plant to the company. However, if the patent covered the insertion of this gene into another species, it would be unlikely that the community would have any claim over the gene-editing aspect of the process.The commercialisation of products derived from plant and fungal resources via patents has the potential to generate wealth, reduce poverty, improve human well-being and raise awareness of the value of biodiversity, incentivising its conservation. Therefore, a case can be made to increase the diversity of plants and fungi being used in commercial goods. However, this demands better patenting infrastructure in some countries, greater research on the natural resources in biodiverse nations, and stronger international agreements governing access to and sharing of benefits. Fulfilling these goals could bring new foods, medicines and materials to fruition that will support humanity in the millennia to come. \"it is a real shame that more plant-and fungus-derived materials aren't subject to appropriate patents, because it would increase the economic value of biodiversity\" Among recent patents is one associated with using the hinoki cypress tree (Chamaecyparis obtusa) to control odours.In this chapter, we find out: that botanists disagree on how many flowering plants there are in the UK, and mycologists are finding 50 new fungi there a year; that the UK's overseas territories have many unique plant taxa; why in-depth knowledge about species is critical for conservation; and how ash dieback disease could cost the UK £14.6 billion.  1) to the equation, we still have much to learn. These are the main findings of a review of the status of, and threats to, plant and fungal diversity in Great Britain and the UKOTs. Conducted by Kew and an international team of collaborators, the study examined data on vascular plants and bryophytes, plus freshwater, terrestrial and marine algae. For fungi, the scientists assessed Basidiomycota, Ascomycota (including lichenised fungi), and other groups for which data were available. Geographical coverage was limited to Great Britain, following the British Red Data Book for Vascular Plants, with the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland excluded. The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia were also excluded due to the difficulties of disentangling data from the whole island of Cyprus.\"As we worked on the paper, we realised there are still a lot of unknowns about what information gaps exist,\" said Prof. Michael Fay, Senior Research Leader in Conservation Genetics at Kew. \"We've identified areas that we know quite a lot about, but we've also identified where the gaps are. The real take-home message for me is that there isn't an absolutely standard list of the UK's vascular plant flora. So, if somebody asks, 'How many genera do you have?' or 'How many species do you have?', there isn't one answer -even for the UK.\"The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) database lists 3,025 native vascular plant taxa comprising 2,233 species, 425 subspecies and 367 varieties. There are an additional 5,976 non-native taxa. The BSBI list differs from others mostly because of lack of agreement around the exact number of apomictic taxa -those that reproduce asexually, without fertilisation -in Britain. UK temperate rainforest is a globally important lichen habitat that occupies just 1% of Earth's land surface.For example, natural hybridisation and apomixis have led some botanists to recognise more than 400 species of brambles (Rubus).The uncertainty around the status of apomicts is important because if you accept them as species to be counted individually as part of Britain's overall flora, then you also raise the number of endemic taxa -that is, those that do not occur naturally anywhere else -and therefore also the number of rare taxa. This has important implications for conservation.The 2014 update of the checklist of bryophyte flora of Britain and Ireland (based on data collected by the British Bryological Society) lists 1,069 species (767 mosses, 298 liverworts and four hornworts), along with five subspecies and 33 varieties. One new introduction has since been added, along with 16 species that had previously been overlooked or assessed differently. Seven bryophytes are currently considered endemic to Britain. The 2016 revision of the Natural History Museum's seaweed checklist, meanwhile, includes 644 native taxa (348 red algae, 110 green algae and 186 brown algae), along with 31 non-native species.The diversity of freshwater algae is less well documented. The 2011 Freshwater Algal Flora of the British Isles reports 3,173 taxa (including 14 phyla and 2,480 species), with green algae accounting for 1,588 species and 626 subspecific taxa. The majority of green algae (1,400 taxa) are single-celled, microscopic organisms in the order Desmidiales. There are also 30 stoneworts recognised, but these data need updating. In addition to the species listed above, other authors suggest that 2,800 species of diatoms -algae with cell walls built from silica -also inhabit Britain's freshwater environments.Estimates for the number of UK fungal species range from 12,000 to 20,000 species, with at least 50 new additions each year. No comprehensive checklist of British fungi exists. There are, however, a few recent or updated checklists for specified groups of fungi in specified geographic areas, for example lichens and Basidiomycota in Britain and Ireland (curated by the British Lichen Society and Kew, respectively); and rusts, smuts and powdery mildews in Wales (authored by the Welsh Rust Group and other specialists). Defining and listing non-native fungi is difficult, because there is usually little evidence to show how the incomers arrived. Some nonnative plant pathogens, such as the eastern Asian fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, which is responsible for ash dieback disease, are a major challenge (see Box 1, over page).\"Many people associate fungi with the mysterious emergence of mushrooms and toadstools seen in autumn,\" says Dr Martyn Ainsworth, Research Leader in Mycology at Kew. \"But many more fungi lead hidden lives inside plants or soil and may only reveal themselves when their DNA is sequenced and analysed. We need to sequence and, where necessary, re-identify our national fungal reference collections and integrate the results with those rapidly accumulating from environmental sequencing. The resulting DNA-backed national fungal distribution maps would be an innovation as mycologically exciting as the invention of the microscope.\"The European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) is native to the UK and mainland Europe. In Britain, it is the second most abundant tree species in small woodland patches and the third most abundant in larger areas of forest. As many as 125 million trees exist in UK woodlands, with a further 27-60 million growing in hedgerows, along roads and railways, and within towns and cities.More than 1,000 species are associated with ash: 12 birds, 55 mammals; 239 invertebrates; 78 vascular plants; 58 bryophytes; 548 lichens; and 68 non-lichenised fungi. Of these, 45 are believed to have only ever been found on ash. The UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs estimates the social and environmental benefits of ash woodlands in Great Britain to be worth more than £230 million a year (USD 295 million). However, the species is threatened by ash dieback disease, caused by the eastern Asian Hymenoscyphus fraxineus fungus, which is now present throughout Europe.Recent analysis of data across Europe shows ash mortality rates differ depending on woodland type. The total cost of the disease to the UK, encompassing felling dead trees, replanting new ones and the loss of ecosystem services, has been estimated at £14.6 billion (USD 19 billion). Following a screening trial for tolerant trees, 3,000 saplings have been planted as the basis of a future breeding programme.The UKOTs -14 former British colonies that have elected to remain under British sovereignty -comprise islands and peninsulas throughout the world's oceans. Together, they cover an area seven times the size of the UK. Although they host a rich flora and mycota, there has been no systematic analysis of the status of UKOT plant and fungal diversity because no centralised data resource exists to facilitate it.From online databases, including Plants of the World Online, the review team estimates the current known flora of the UKOTs to be 4,093 vascular plant taxa (including species, subspecies and varieties). While native status is not always known, on average 60% of taxa are considered native, ranging from 88% for the Turks and Caicos Islands down to 21% for St Helena and 18% for Ascension Island, which have both been highly affected by introduced species. The UKOTs have 191 endemic plants, and a further 17 are recorded as extinct. Three territories, Tristan da Cunha, St Helena and the Cayman Islands, account for 64% of this endemism. New species sometimes emerge; the cliff hair grass (Eragrostis episcopulus) was first described from St Helena in 2012, and the Falkland nassauvia (Nassauvia falklandica) from the Falkland Islands in 2013.Far less is known about non-vascular plants in the UKOTs. There are records of 110 species for St Helena, of which 26 are endemic; the island is considered a centre of endemism for bryophytes. For Ascension Island, 87 species (60 mosses, 23 liverworts, four hornworts) have been recorded, including 12 endemics and four near endemics. And while the Falkland Islands' online portal for liverworts and hornworts reports 146 taxa, data are thin on the ground for other territories. Meanwhile, information on seaweeds is sparse across the UKOTs, with new species regularly reported.\"In recent years, we have made considerable progress in our knowledge of the status of UK seaweeds, although we are only just beginning to understand the scale of seaweed diversity for the UK's overseas territories,\" says Prof. Juliet Brodie, Merit Researcher at the Natural History Museum, London, who was part of the Kew-led review team. \"For example, our recent work on the Falklands Islands' seaweed flora revealed that more than 25% of species were undescribed and that there is a wealth of diversity yet to be catalogued.\" The review team was unable to summarise UKOTs fungi because of lack of data.The richness of vascular plants is relatively low in both Britain and the UKOTs, although some overseas territories have many endemic species. Phylogenetic diversity -the evolutionary history represented within a group of organisms -is also likely to be low, although this has not been rigorously tested. Nonetheless, there are some wild plant and fungal assemblages and habitats of international significance. Many of these have been recognised and protected under UK legislation, and further areas have been defined as Important Plant Areas (IPAs) and Important Fungus Areas, a programme developed by PlantLife International.Only two of the UKOTs have completed IPA assessments. This work has identified 17 IPAs in the Falkland Islands and 18 Tropical IPAs, or TIPAs, in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The BVI are home to globally and nationally threatened plants, as well as nationally threatened habitats. \"Having accurately mapped distributions of threatened species and habitats included in the national GIS [Geographic Information System] helps enormously with planning decisions,\" says Nancy Woodfield-Pascoe, Deputy Director for Science at the National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands, who was also part of the review team. \"We are actively involved in advising the BVI Government on the biodiversity importance of sites during the development planning process.\"The other UKOTs have delineated various protected areas and reserves. For example, St Helena's unique cloud forest is protected as the Peaks National Park; Ascension Island's remaining cloud forest is conserved in Green Mountain National Park; and Montserrat's key biodiversity, threatened by eruptions from the Soufrière Hills volcano, is conserved in the Centre Hills Reserve.Understanding what biodiversity exists and where it occurs is critical for conservation. This is because decisions around priorities for conservation are based primarily on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Until species are named and their conservation status assessed, they cannot feature in conservation initiatives.For Britain, the online Red List maintained by the GB Red List Group on the BSBI's website lists 152 vascular plant taxa as Critically Endangered or Endangered according to IUCN Red List criteria. This includes some species of whitebeam (Sorbus) and lady's mantle (Alchemilla), which are mostly apomictic, along with some other critical taxa, primarily eyebrights (Euphrasia), which hybridise widely. It does not include apomictic brambles or dandelions (Taraxacum). There is also a published Red List for Great Britain, and separate Red Lists for England and Wales.Regarding non-vascular plants, more than 20% of Britain's liverworts and more than 25% of its mosses are in an IUCN threat category, so at risk of extinction. Around 13.5% of British bryophytes are also threatened at European level, and many species at the global level. A provisional Red List for UK seaweeds, meanwhile, cites a third as 'Data Deficient', indicating that we know too little about their distribution to assess their conservation status.Estimates for the number of UK fungal species range from 12,000 to 20,000 species, with at least 50 new additions each year Although edible, the bearded tooth (Hericium erinaceus) is legally protected against picking in Britain and is a conservation 'priority species'.They are, however, threatened by habitat loss, harvesting, non-native species and climate change.Distribution and status data are likewise lacking for most freshwater algae, but we know that the rivers, streams and ponds they inhabit are largely degraded. Stoneworts (Charales) are among the most severely threatened plants in Britain. Living in fresh and brackish water, where they provide food and habitats for fish, they are very sensitive to water quality. Of the 30 known species, 17 are nationally rare or extinct. Nitrate and phosphate run-off from urban areas and farming is particularly detrimental to them, as they struggle to compete with nutrient-loving algae.Forty-five British species of fungi (out of 280 on the global Red List) are globally threatened or near threatened. The fact that most inhabit nutrient-poor, grazed grasslands identifies this habitat as particularly vulnerable. However, as mycologists assess more fungi, more at-risk fungal habitats will likely emerge. UK temperate rainforest is a globally important lichen habitat that occupies just 1% of Earth's land surface. Overall, the threats facing fungi in the UK are habitat loss, climate change -particularly alternating droughts and deluges -and nitrification. However, only one family of British fungi has an officially approved Red List, highlighting a significant knowledge gap.\"Many threatened British species are covered by conservation programmes, being, for example, listed on Section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act [which lists species and habitats considered to be of principal importance for conserving biodiversity in England] or Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act [which lists plants and fungi requiring protection from destruction, picking or trade],\" explains review co-author Ian Taylor, Senior Specialist (vascular plants) for Natural England, which is the UK government's adviser for the natural environment in England. \"Section 41 has enabled Natural England to focus conservation action on those species objectively assessed as being most in need of it -it's helped level-up the playing field across the taxonomic spectrum and given due prominence to plants and fungi.\"A global Red List for UKOTs is far from completion, although many territories are undertaking Red-Listing assessments with a focus on rare and endemic taxa. Currently, 515 taxa have been globally assessed: around 21% of the total. Of these, 135 are in a threatened category, with 52 Critically Endangered, 47 Endangered and 36 Vulnerable taxa. The top four threats to these taxa are developments related to tourism and recreation, invasive species, the expansion of urban areas, and agriculture. National Red Lists have been completed for the Falkland Islands and Cayman Islands, and are in progress in several other territories. Bermuda has been testing new approaches to accelerating the Red-Listing process (see also Chapter 2).The conservation status of UKOT fungi represents another major knowledge gap. More than half of lichen species on St Helena are categorised as rare, and five are thought to be extinct on the island. However, only St Helena's endemic foliose lichen Xanthoparmelia beccae is on the global Red List, where it is listed as Vulnerable. A smut fungus from the Falkland Islands, Anthracoidea ortegae, is also listed as Vulnerable.\"Unless species are included on the global Red List, people can't point to politicians to say, 'this is a globally important species',\" says Dr Colin Clubbe, Head of Conservation Science at Kew. \"If there is a new hotel or a cruise-ship dock being planned in one of the Caribbean UKOTs, it is invaluable to be able to say 'in this area, we have six globally threatened species, representing 50% or more of their global populations'. This provides the evidence for our partners to push for conservation action.\"Habitat loss and fragmentation, out-of-control introduced species, pollution, exploitation and climate change are having a significant effect on Earth's natural environments. Recent studies indicate that 75% of terrestrial lands worldwide have experienced some type of land-use change. And, in 2020, the World Economic Forum ranked biodiversity loss as the third highest risk to the global economy.Conservation efforts, including the incorporation of endemic and threatened species into living collections and seed banks, and the designation of protected areas, are contributing to preventing biodiversity loss. The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, led by Kew, has catalysed seed conservation activities globally, and 72% of the UK's seedbearing plants are banked at species level. UKOTs are at varying stages of seed conservation: seeds from the native floras of all of South Georgia, 81% of the Falkland Islands, 43% of Turks and Caicos Islands, and 41% of St Helena are banked at the Millennium Seed Bank. In addition, many species are being cultivated in native plant nurseries in-territory.Setting conservation priorities requires detailed knowledge of biodiversity and threats. Targeting the knowledge gaps outlined here, the greatest of which are for fungi, can help inform conservation decisions for Britain and the UKOTs. Action is urgently needed to prevent species from going extinct and secure the future of these vital natural assets.This chapter is based on the following scientific paper published in Plants, People, Planet, where you can find more information and references: Clubbe et al. (2020). Current knowledge, status and future for plant and fungal diversity in Great Britain and the UK Overseas Territories. Plants, People, Planet 2(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ ppp3.10142To find out more about the valuable scientific work that Kew carries out, visit www.kew.org/science","tokenCount":"30351"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"14a520a29a059954cd27c94287464b13","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3349a57c-9c43-46e0-bdd3-5855b7f0f762/retrieve","id":"-2085550760"},"keywords":["agricultural technology adoption","agricultural input quality","agrodealers","knowledge","information asymmetries","perceptions","information clearinghouse JEL Codes: D82","D83","O13","O33","Q12","Q16","C93"],"sieverID":"6b6055dd-49ea-4399-8003-f59defce5d12","pagecount":"58","content":"in 1975, provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition. IFPRI's strategic research aims to foster a climate-resilient and sustainable food supply; promote healthy diets and nutrition for all; build inclusive and efficient markets, trade systems, and food industries; transform agricultural and rural economies; and strengthen institutions and governance. Gender is integrated in all the Institute's work. Partnerships, communications, capacity strengthening, and data and knowledge management are essential components to translate IFPRI's research from action to impact. The Institute's regional and country programs play a critical role in responding to demand for food policy research and in delivering holistic support for country-led development. IFPRI collaborates with partners around the world.The adoption of new agricultural inputs and technologies (such as seed embodying genetic gain, inorganic fertilizers, or agro-chemicals) remains tepid in areas where they can make the largest dierence in terms of food security, poverty reduction, and biodiversity preservation (Suri and Udry, 2022;Gollin, Hansen, and Wingender, 2021;Borlaug, 2007). Several explanations for the low uptake of agricultural technology among smallscale, resource-poor farmers in low-and middle-income countries have been explored and tested with increasing depth and rigor in recent years. These include access to information about existence, use, and benets of the technology (Ashraf, Giné, and Karlan, 2009;Van Campenhout, 2021), procrastination and time-inconsistent preferences (Duo, Kremer, and Robinson, 2011), heterogeneity in the net benets derived from the technology (Suri, 2011), missing markets for risk and credit Karlan et al. (2014), and challenges related to learning about new technologies (Hanna, Mullainathan, and Schwartzstein, 2014).More recently, issues related to the quality of inputs and technologies have been proposed as a key constraint to their adoption by smallholder farmers. Bold et al. (2017) build on the observation that farmers generally cannot easily assess quality from visual inspection at the time of purchase, so information asymmetries between sellers and buyers characterize the market for agricultural inputs, in turn crowding out the market for quality inputs in Uganda, similar to the lessons learned from Akerlof's seminal Market for Lemons study (1970). However, subsequent research suggests ambiguity in whether these quality issues are attributable to agro-dealers intentionally adulterating their products, or whether they lack the requisite knowledge and skills to preserve quality (Barriga and Fiala, 2020). Furthermore, it is not always clear whether these quality issues are signicant: while some studies argue that input quality is indeed lacking (Ashour et al., 2019), others argue that farmers may mistakenly perceive quality deciencies even when the product meets the required standards (Michelson et al., 2021;Wossen, Abay, and Abdoulaye, 2022).We investigate some of these issues through a eld experiment conducted with both agro-dealers and smallholder farmers in their catchment areas in the nascent market for improved, high-yielding maize varieties in eastern Uganda.1 We focus partly on agro-dealers because they are an essential marketing channel for inputs and technologies in countries with large smallholder farmer populations living in remote areas with poor infrastructure. A reasonably dense network of semi-formal agro-dealers provides access to seed, fertilizer, agro-chemicals, and tools, and may be combined to provide agricultural advisory services and credit facilities, both formal or informal.Yet small-scale agro-dealers may also be weak links in the supply chain for quality inputs. For instance, the semi-formal nature and scale of agro-dealers may mean they lack knowledge on proper handling and storage of agro-inputs. Barriga and Fiala (2020) 1 In the context of this study, high-yielding maize varieties refers to both open-pollinated varieties and hybrids. While the distinction may be lost on some, it is a nuance that is recognizable to many colleagues working in the elds of plant breeding and seed sector development.document various issues related to handling and storage that may reduce input quality in the Ugandan seed supply chain. For example, agro-dealers often repack seed from larger bags packed by seed companies into smaller bags in order to oer quantities that are convenient and aordable to smallholders. As a result, important information including variety name, expiry date, or planting instructions are lost, while the material used for re-packagingair-tight polyethylene bagsaect aeration, moisture, and seed viability. Other agro-dealers sell from open bags, which can similarly lower seed viability (Bold et al., 2017). In a rst hypothesis, we thus posit that simply providing information to agro-dealers will increase seed quality and subsequently improve farmers' product experience, ultimately encouraging them to adopt improved maize varieties.However, we recognize that providing information only to agro-dealers may not necessarily remedy the fact that seed quality cannot easily be observed by farmers.Furthermore, we expect that small scale agro-dealers are subjected to less regulation and oversight than their larger counterparts in manufacturing, import, or wholesale operations that are situated further up the supply chain. This means that agro-dealers may still be incentivizedeven with trainingto underinvest in quality management and preservation. In a context similar to ours, Homann et al. (2021) examine maize (grain, not seed) in rural Kenyan markets and nd an absence of incentives for sellers to address food safety problems because they are not observable to their buyers. The same issue carries into seed markets, and in a worst-case scenario, agro-dealers may intentionally sacrice quality to reduce costs and increase prots, e.g., by mixing improved or fresh seed with local or old seed, or even with grain. There is some evidence that may be consistent with this kind of adulteration and counterfeiting in the Ugandan agricultural input supply chain. Bold et al. (2017) nd that hybrid maize seed contains less than 50% authentic seeds and that 30% of nutrient is missing in fertilizer. Ashour et al. (2019) nd that the average bottle of herbicide is missing 15% of the active ingredient and nearly one in three bottles contains less than 75% of the ingredient advertised.But even in cases where agro-dealers provide quality inputs, the fact that quality can not be easily assessed by farmers at the time of purchase may be problematic if farmers hold negatively skewed cognitive beliefs about seed quality sold by agrodealers. 2 Michelson et al. (2021) show that the nutrient content of inorganic fertilizers in Tanzania meets industry standards, but farmers nonetheless persist in their belief that it is adulterated. Wossen, Abay, and Abdoulaye (2022) show that farmers in Nigeria routinely misperceive the cassava variety they are cultivating, and that eorts to address misperceptions could potentially improve farmers' investment choices and productivity outcomes.In a second hypothesis, we conjecture that making quality observable to both buyers and sellers will increase adoption through various mechanisms. First, buyers may shift from sellers that sell low quality inputs to sellers that provide high quality inputs.Second, sellers may start to compete on quality, either by increasing quality if there is 2 There are many reasons why these beliefs are likely to be biased downwards, including negativity bias and loss aversion (Rozin and Royzman, 2001;Kahneman and Tversky, 1979).still room for improvement, or by making the quality attribute of their products more salient to buyers. Finally, in light of the new information, farmers may adjust their perceptions of the quality of technologies.The two hypotheses are tested in a randomized control trial (RCT) among 350 agrodealers and an associated 3,500 smallholder maize farmers in their catchment areas in eastern Uganda over the course of two agricultural seasons. The rst hypothesis involves a fairly standard intervention where we provide a one day training for agro-dealership owners and managers on proper storage and handling of seed. For the second hypothesis, we build on Hasanain, Khan, and Rezaee (2023) and implement a decentralized information clearinghouse that is based on crowd-sourced information on quality provided by agro-dealers which is then aggregated and made public, much like yelp.com or tripadvisor.com. In particular, we ask farmers to provide star ratings to agro-dealers in their vicinity, and use these ratings to construct scores and rank agro-dealers. We then disseminate these scores to farmers. We also provide the score, together with their relative position in the rankings, to the agro-dealers.We nd that the information clearinghouse improves outcomes for both agro-dealers and farmers. Clearinghouse treated agro-dealers receive more customers and have higher revenues from maize seed than control agro-dealers. Clearinghouse treated farmers are signicantly more likely to use improved maize varieties from agro-dealers, and have higher yields than control farmers after two seasons. Impact also seems to stem from treated agro-dealers who increase their eorts and expand the services that they provide to farmers. Treated agro-dealers are also more likely to be registered with the Uganda National Agro-input Dealers Association (UNADA), perhaps to signal quality now that it has been made salient to farmers. Finally, we nd that farmers in the treatment group rate maize seed of agro-dealers in their neighborhood better, suggesting that the clearinghouse treatment is also eective in changing perceptions.The agro-dealer training does not have a clear impact on dealers, nor on farmers in associated catchment areas. Interestingly, we do nd that the information clearinghouse increases agro-dealer knowledge about proper seed storage and handling. Upon exploring interaction eects between the training and the clearinghouse treatment, we also nd that the training becomes eective for agro-dealers that are also in the clearinghouse treatment group. This is consistent with Bold et al. (2022) who point out the importance of simultaneously addressing demand-side constraints to make training more eective.Our study contributes to a large literature on the eectiveness of providing training to small businesses in developing countries. Helping entrepreneurs to grow small rms by teaching them business skills has yielded mixed results when subjected to rigorous impact evaluation methods (eg. Karlan and Valdivia, 2011;Drexler, Fischer, and Schoar, 2014;Giné and Mansuri, 2021)}. While these studies often suer from methodological issues such as low statistical power, it has also been argued that simply providing knowledge may be insucient to move the needle (McKenzie and Woodru, 2013).More promising results have emerged recently when the focus shifts from traditional trainings to trainings designed to instill personal initiative (Campos et al., 2017).3 Our study similarly shows the importance of (external) motivation in making trainings reach their objective.Our study also contributes to the literature that shows how providing product information to consumers can solve the lemons problem through a variety of economic mechanisms. First, by enabling consumers to screen on quality, they can now shift to better quality products. For instance, Lane, Schonholzer, and Kelley (2022) show that commuters in Nairobi choose for the safe busses after information on safety records of dierent busses was made publicly available. Second, public disclosure of product information makes it possible for sellers to dierentiate on quality, and indeed, start competing on it, in turn lifting the market out of the low quality equilibrium. For example, Bennett and Yin (2019) show that entry of a chain store (with a solid reputation for quality) leads to higher overall drug quality and lower prices in India. For the market for antimalarial drugs in Uganda, Björkman Nyqvist, Svensson, and Yanagizawa-Drott (2022) show that the presence of a non-governmental organization providing a superior product led to a stark reduction in the share of rms selling fake drugs.We also contribute to a growing literature on the importance of social comparison, self-image, and social norms in determining behavior. Allcott and Rogers (2014) nd that a social comparison-based intervention consisting of mailing reports of home energy use to households reduced their energy consumption dramatically. Gosnell, List, and Metcalfe (2020) report on an experiment with airline pilots where dierent strategies to increase fuel eciency (including performance feedback and prosocial incentives) are tested. We suspect that, in addition to the threat of farmers shifting to better rated agro-dealers, psychological factors such as professional identity and a sense of social obligation may even be more important drivers for agro-dealers to improve.The article further ts into an emerging literature that tests how crowd-sourced information can be used to to reduce information asymmetries. Even though advances in Information and Communications Technology and the rise of e-commerce has led to numerous platforms that allow for consumer feedback and a variety of websites that aggregate crowd-sourced reviews, there is surprisingly little evidence on the eects of these developments. The few rigorous studies that are available report impressive impact. Reimers and Waldfogel (2021) compare the eects of professional critics and Amazon star ratings of books on consumer welfare and nd the eect of star ratings on consumer surplus to be more than ten times the eect of traditional (expert) review outlets. In the context of smallholder agriculture, Hasanain, Khan, and Rezaee (2023) implement a crowd-sourced information clearinghouse in the market for articial insemination of livestock in Punjab, Pakistan, where individual signals of quality are noisy.They nd that farmers who receive information enjoy 25% higher insemination success.3 Personal initiative is dened as a self-starting, future-oriented, and persistent proactive mindset.We designed an experiment with two interventions (detailed in the next section) that aim to induce quality improvements (or perceptions thereof ) in the seed market, and evaluate their impact on a set of outcomes related to market performance, technology adoption, and productivity. The interventions are randomized at the agro-dealer catchment area level. These catchment areas are clusters of towns, villages, markets, trading centers, and other key market sheds where agricultural market activity tends to operate, and are typically host to several agro-dealers. Clustering agro-dealers into catchment areas is done on the basis of geographical location. 4We randomize at the level of the catchment area (instead of opting for randomization at the less aggregate agro-dealer level) for three reasons. Firstly, randomizing at the level of the individual agro-dealer prompted ethical concerns and was thus ruled out a priori. Specically, in cases where two or more agro-dealers operate in very close proximity to each other, treating only one of them may lead to a competitive (dis)advantage.Randomizing at the catchment level substantially reduces the risk of (dis)advantaging agro-dealers in this way. Secondly, catchment-level randomization reduces the likelihood of spillovers from treated to control agro-dealers. Thirdly, catchment-level randomization allows us to extend the evaluation to the measurement of treatment eects on farmers (and not just agro-dealers) because all farmers in the catchment area are now exposed to agro-dealers who all received the same treatment.We used simulations to determine the sample sizes required to detect eects of the treatment on selected outcomes at both farmer and agro-dealer levels. 5 The simulations show that if the number of catchment areas is larger than 112, our experiments will return statistically signicant results 80% of the time on a selection of primary outcomes. This corresponds to approximately 318 agro-dealers. Based on further simulations to study impacts at the farm-household level, we decide to collect information on 10 farmers per agro-dealer, leading to a sample size of 3,180 households. 6 The two interventions are combined in a eld experiment that takes the form of a 2 2 factorial design. The power simulations focused on the individual treatments, implying that we are likely to be under-powered to estimate interaction eects between the interventions (Lin, 2013;Muralidharan, Romero, and Wüthrich, 2019) 3 InterventionsTo determine the content of the training and to ensure it is suciently anchored in the study site and context, we consulted experts from several Ugandan organizations using semi-structured interviews and a workshop to identify problems in the seed sector and in agro-dealer retailing practice, and to discuss eective and realistic solutions and best practices to address seed storage and handling issues. We then developed a training manual to ensure standardization and a simple but visually appealing poster illustrating the most important practices. Participants in the interviews and workshops included individuals from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAAIF), the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) the Uganda Seed Trade Association (USTA), and the Uganda National Agro-Dealers Association (UN-ADA). The roll-out of the experiment began in 2021 (Figure 1).In each treated catchment area, all agro-dealers were selected for a training, and for each treated agro-dealer, both the owner and shop manager were invited. The owner was invited because several recommended techniques and practices required that new investments were made in the agro-dealership, while the shop manager was invited because many of the recommendations are hands-on practices that would ultimately fall under the manager's purview for day-to-day operations. Of 166 agro-dealers that were invited, 140 sent at least one person, leading to a compliance of 84%. 7The trainings took place in May 2021, a time when agro-dealers are not too busy, and early enough to ensure they could apply newly learned practices in the second agricultural season. Trainings were held in locations that were easily reachable by the agro-dealers. Trainings were organized in small groups, with an average of 10-15 agrodealers participating. To deal with COVID in a responsible manner, participants and trainers were required to keep the proper distance, wear face masks, and frequently disinfect their hands. All attendants were compensated for transport, and both lunch and refreshments were provided. Participants were further incentivized to engage in the training and pay close attention with an oer of a free portable seed moisture meter, subject to passing a short content knowledge tests comprised of a short series of multiple-choice questions at the end of the training. 8 The agro-dealers were also given a copy of an informational poster used in the training to remind them of best practices. In each training, the trainers explained correct handling and storage practices for improved maize seed and used the poster and an example seed bag for illustration.Participants then rehearsed the more challenging practices like measuring moisture using a moisture meter. The trainings were organized and conducted in collaboration with UNADA.At the time of baseline data collection (April 2021), we asked sampled farmers to rate all agro-dealers that operated in the catchment area on multiple characteristics.Enumerators were guided by a tablet-based application that iterated through all agrodealers in the catchment area. For each agro-dealer, we provided the common names that are used to refer to the agro-dealer, a description of where the store is located, and a picture of the store front (obtained during the agro-dealer censussee Subsection 5.1). If farmers knew the agro-dealer, they were asked to provide ratings using the questions listed in Table 1. For example, we asked farmers to rate the maize seed that an agro-dealer sells on a scale of one to ve stars on seed germination. As can be seen in Figure 1 , we implemented the clearinghouse in two consecutive seasons, so ratings were collected again in January 2022. Ratings were always collected after harvest, when smallholders were able to assess seed quality based on observing germination and yield, the resistance against droughts, pests and diseases, and how quickly the crop matured The place can be described as description.Please rate this agro-dealer on: Quality and authenticity of seed 1 star 5 stars Please rate the maize seed that this agro-dealer sells on:General quality 1 star 5 stars Yield as advertised 1 star 5 stars Drought tolerance as advertised 1 star 5 stars Pest/disease tolerance as advertised 1 star 5 stars Speed of maturing as advertised 1 star 5 stars Germination 1 star 5 stars (i.e., duration).A potential concern arises from asking treated farmers to rate agro-dealers because it may increase awareness among farmers of the existence of all agro-dealers in the area, so that this awareness eect could confound the clearinghouse eect. To address this concern, we also iterated through the agro-dealers in the catchment areas with farmers in the the control group to make them similarly aware of the existence of agrodealers in their vicinity. However, control farmers were not asked to rate agro-dealers as the process of rating an agro-dealer's seed could make quality more salient, which we consider to be a key aspect of the treatment.Based on the answers of all farmers about all agro-dealers in a catchment area, we computed an average rating for each agro-dealer. These ratings were translated into both words and star ratings to ensure that they were easily comprehensible to farmers and agro-dealers when disseminated. See Appendix A.2 for details on the rating computations..Our ability to test the eectiveness of the clearinghouse treatment requires precise timing for the dissemination of these agro-dealer ratings. Dissemination occurred before farmers started buying seed for the next agricultural season, allowing treated farmers to use the new rating information when choosing whether and where to purchase inputs (Figure 1). Ratings were disseminated to farmers through short message service (SMS) and in person, as detailed below.Text messages Farmers were sent one text message per agro-dealer in their proximity by SMS in one of three local languages---Lusoga, Lugwere, or Samia---chosen at the sub-county level to increase specicity. For farmers in the treatment area, the message read:Hello from AgroAdvisor! Did you know that customers from [name of the agro-dealer ] rate the quality of maize seed sold there as [okay/good/very good/excellent ]?To isolate the eect of the ratings from more general eects that may arise from sending SMS messages, we also use a placebo for the control group that consisted of an \"empty\" SMS that only pointed out the existence of the agro-dealers in the control farmer's catchment area. This also makes it more dicult for farmers to identify if they are being treated or not, thus reducing the likelihood of reactivity eects and experimenter bias.In person The enumerators also re-visited the farmers in our sample. For this purpose, we designed a visually appealing tablet-based application that cycles through all agro-dealers in the catchment area of each farmer and provides their ratings. The application generates the following statement:We wanted to let you know that customers from [name of the agro-dealer ] rate the quality of maize seed sold there as [okay/good/very good/excellent ]!The quality of the maize seed that this agro-dealer sells received a score of[score ] out of 5!The application also displayed the stars associated with the score. Again, for control group farmers, the application cycled through the agro-dealers in the control areas without providing ratings to control for any eect that may arise from simply being reminded of the existence of agro-dealers.Agro-dealers received their ratings by means of a report on laminated paper that was delivered to their agro-dealerships. The front of the report is a visually appealing certicate with a logo and the agro-dealer's general rating (Figure 2). We encouraged agro-dealers to prominently display the ratings in the agro-dealership, similar to a certicate of excellence from TripAdvisor or similar rating apps.The back of the report provides additional information, including the individual ratings that the seed sold by the agro-dealer received for overall quality, yield, drought and disease resistance, speed of maturing, and germination, and the average (combined) ratings of other agro-dealers in the same catchment area in a table, visualized by stars.This shows agro-dealers their relative position in the area, potentially incentivizing the agro-dealer to improve their ratings.The entire process of collecting and disseminating ratings was done twice, the rst time targeting the second agricultural season of 2021 and the second time targeting the Kafuko Farm Supply scoresThis was based on 18 reviews.This score means that farmers in the area think that the quality of the maize seed this shop sells is:Excellent!Figure 2: SeedAdvisor certicate rst agricultural season of 2022 (see Figure 1). Repeating the treatment was important to capture dierent dynamics of particular impact channels on certain outcomes. For instance, if seed quality is good but farmers hold pessimistic beliefs about the quality, disseminating information may already result in increased adoption and yield eects after a single season. However, if agro-dealers engage in counterfeiting, the threat of farmers switching to more honest agro-dealers may lead them to improve quality, which will only be reected in subsequent ratings. This in turn could increase adoption but the eect of this on yields will only become apparent during harvest in the second season.Repetition may also be important for the eectiveness of certain impact pathways. For instance, agro-dealers may be more likely to change their behavior if they know that they will be scored again in the near future.We estimate intention-to-treat eects on outcomes at both the agro-dealer level and the farmer level. To increase power, we condition the estimates on (mean-centered) baseline values of the outcome variables. We estimate the following specication using Ordinary Least-Squares to obtain the average treatment eect for agro-dealer level outcomes:where Y ij is the outcome for agro-dealer i in catchment area j at mid-or endline, Y 0ij is the corresponding outcome at baseline, T j is a dummy for the treatment status of catchment area j, X ij is a vector of controls for the orthogonal treatments in the factorial design (demeaned and interacted with the main treatment eect, see Lin, 2013;Muralidharan, Romero, and Wüthrich, 2019), and ε ij an error term that is potentially correlated within catchment areas. The coecient β is the estimated average treatment eect. For farmer-level outcomes, a similar equation is estimated, where Y ij is now the outcome variable for farmer i in catchment area j at midline or endline, Y 0ij is the corresponding outcome at baseline, and all other terms are dened as in the agro-dealer regression above.Because we randomize at the catchment-area level, we use cluster-robust variancecovariance matrices that cluster standard errors at this level. For outcomes at the farmer level where we have almost 3,500 observations in 130 clusters, the original form of the sandwich estimator that does not make any small-sample correction, is used.For outcomes at the agro-dealer level where we have almost 350 observations in 130 clusters, we use the BellMcCarey adjustment (Imbens and Kolesár, 2016).We also follow several pre-registered principles for variable construction. For continuous variables, trimmed values are used to reduce the inuence of outliers. In particular, we trim 1% of each side of the distribution for agro-dealer level outcomes and 2.5% of each side of the distribution for farmer level outcomes. Inverse hyperbolic sine transformations are used if variables are skewed, with skewness being dened as the adjusted Fisher-Pearson coecient of skewness exceeding 1.96. Outcomes for which 95% of observations have the same value within the relevant sample are omitted from the analysis.We account for multiple hypothesis testing by aggregating dierent outcomes within a family into summary indices, following Anderson (2008). 9 While these indices are useful to answer the question of overall impact of the intervention on a family of outcomes, it is not straightforward to interpret the eect size. Zooming in on individual outcomes within each family, eect sizes become more meaningful and show which variables drive the results. That is why we also report the treatment eects on individual variables, though we advise care in interpretation.The agro-dealer sample was obtained by listing all agro-dealers in 11 districts in southeastern Uganda. After the census, which resulted in a sample of 348 eligible agrodealers, these agro-dealers were assigned to 130 catchment areas (for details, see Section 2, Footnote 4 in particular). This procedure led to an average of three agro-dealers per catchment area, ranging from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 18. 9 Each index is computed as a weighted mean of the standardized values of the outcome variables. The weights of this ecient generalized least squares estimator are calculated to maximize the amount of information captured in the index by giving less weight to outcomes that are highly correlated with each other. To connect agro-dealers to customers, we asked agro-dealers for the names of the villages where most of their customers come from. Then enumerators were instructed to randomly sample ten households that grow maize in these villages. Consequently, about 3,500 smallholder maize farmers were sampled. Allocation of farmers, agro-dealers and catchment areas to the dierent treatment cells of the factorial design is summarized in Table 2.Baseline data was collected from agro-dealers in September and October 2020 and from farmers in April 2021. Midline data from both farmers and agro-dealers was collected in January and February 2022, and endline data from farmers and agro-dealers was collected in July and August 2022.At the level of the agro-dealer, enumerators were instructed to interview the person who is most knowledgeable about the day-to-day operations, which was usually the shop manager. As part of this initial quality assessment process, a bag of maize seed was also purchased at each agro-dealer, although only 232 of the 348 sampled agrodealers had seed in stock at the time of the baseline interview. Enumerators were also instructed to note down a series of objectively veriable quality indicators related to storage. Often, this also meant that enumerators inspected stores at dierent locations that were separate from the sales outlet.At the farm household level, enumerators were instructed to interview the person most knowledgeable about maize farming. However, a set of questions deals with the household head, who could be or could not be the respondent. In addition to general questions about farming and input use, the farmer was asked to enumerate all maize plots, from which a random plot was chosen, and detailed data was collected on that plot. 10This subsection describes the baseline sample. Information about the average agrodealer can be found in Table 3. The average respondent is 32 years old; 60% are male and more than 90% nished primary education. In 55% of the cases, the respondent is also the owner of the agro-dealership.We see substantial heterogeneity among agro-dealers. Some are small informal stores that are located in rural areas and sell maize seed and other agricultural inputs in addition to consumer items to a small customer base and only during the planting season. Others have many customers, are located in towns and only sell inputs and equipment used in agricultural production. The average agro-dealership was established 5 years prior to the baseline survey date, is located 7 km from the nearest tarmac road, and services an average of 41 customers per day. Among the sampled agro-dealers, 74%only sell farm inputs and equipment. 60% reported that they provide credit and 46% that they oer advisory services.Information was also collected to provide an initial assessment of the quality of maize seed sold at the sampled agro-dealers. This included specic questions on seed storage and handling. Furthermore, with the shop manager's permission, enumerators drawing on training provided to them at the outset of the studyinspected the area where seed was stored and noted the conditions. We nd that 65% of agro-dealers had problems with pests such as rats or insects, while 16% store maize seed in open containers, thus exposing the seed to a range of pests and contaminants. Not surprisingly two thirds of the agro-dealers sampled reported that they had received at least one complaint about seed they sold from a customer during the prior season.Turning to the seed samples obtained from the agro-dealers, our measurements of moisture content in the bag indicated an average of 13.6%, with a minimum of 10.3% and a maximum of 17.4%. On average, these moisture rates were above the recommended rate of 13%, suggesting potential for the growth of molds and pests that can negatively aect seed quality and performance. In terms of labeling for quality, 68% of the purchased seed bags contained a printed packaging date, only 18% had an expiry date, and only 8% displayed a quality indication label issued by the National Seed Certication Services (NSCS). 11Table 4 reports means in the farmer sample. The average household head in our sample is 49 years old; 78% are male and 51% have nished primary education. The average household size is 9 people, and the typical homestead is located 4 kilometers from the nearest agro-dealer and 9 kilometers from the nearest tarmac road. The average farmer has 23 years of experience with maize cultivation and cultivates 3 acres of land for all crop including maize.Half of the farmers in our sample planted improved maize seed on at least one of their plots during last season, with 1 out of 3 farmers purchasing this seed at an agro-11 Typically, maize seed is certied by NSCS, a division of the Department of Crop Inspection and Certication (DCIC) in MAAIF. Certied seed is indicated as such with a blue tag or sticker axed to the package, and quality declared seed is indicated by a green tag or sticker.dealer. Only 25% applied inorganic fertilizers such as di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) or nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) on the randomly selected plot. Yields on these plots is about 440 kilograms per acre.We include standard orthogonality tables with pre-registered variables for both agrodealers and farmers to test if treatment and control groups are comparable in terms of a set of baseline characteristics (Tables 3 and 4 respectively). Some of these characteristics are unlikely to be aected by the intervention, while others are drawn from the set of outcome variables that will be used to measure the intervention's impact and explore the underlying mechanisms at play in the next sections.For outcomes at the agro-dealer level reported in Table 3, we nd that from a total of 32 comparisons, only one is signicant at the 5% signicance level and two are signicant at the 10% level. For outcomes at the farmer level reported in (Table 4, out of 32 comparisons, one is signicant at the 10% level. In all, we conclude that these results show reasonable balance at baseline.Table 5 reports attrition levels in the treatment and comparison groups. We failed to collect data from 12% of agro-dealers and 2% of farmers at midline, and from 14% of agro-dealers and 1% of farmers at endline. To test if non-response is related to one of the treatments, we regress the likelihood of leaving the sample on the treatment indicators. We nd that clearinghouse treated agro-dealers are signicantly less likely to leave the sample.The dierential attrition may be due to a larger share of control agro-dealers going out of business, while the clearinghouse treatment cushioned some agro-dealers in the treatment catchment areas against bankruptcy at a time when COVID-19 hit. As in biomedical RCTs where dierential attrition rates may be due to excess mortality in the control group, the attritors are likely the ones that would have beneted most from the treatment. As such, the unadjusted selection-contaminated estimates provide lower bounds for the true treatment eect (Angrist, Bettinger, and Kremer, 2006;Duo, Glennerster, and Kremer, 2007).We now present impact of the two interventions on both agro-dealer level outcomes and farmer level outcomes. We separately report eects one agricultural season after the intervention (referred to as impact at midline) and two seasons after the intervention (referred to as impact at endline).    3) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels.For reasons of transparency and replicability, all outcome variables are described in the registered pre-analysis plan which can be found in the American Economic Association Randomized Controlled Trial Registry. In addition, before midline data collection, the entire econometric analysis was run on simulated data and also registered in a mock report (Humphreys, De la Sierra, and Van der Windt, 2013).12 All documents, code, and data were under revision control and are publicly accessible in a GitHub repository which provides time-stamped records of all changes made over the course of the project. 13Tables 6 to 15 present results in a common layout. Column (1) provides baseline sample means with standard deviations in parentheses to help gauge eect sizes. 14In column (2), we provide the average treatment eect of the agro-dealer training at midline, while column (3) reports the average treatment eect of the information clearinghouse treatment at midline. Standard errors are reported in parentheses below the coecient estimates. Column (4) reports the number of observations used in the 12 A mock report is a dynamic report that integrates all code, such that when midline and endline data becomes available, one simply has to replace the simulated data with the real data. We use the knitr engine to integrate R code in L A T E X (Xie, 2017). 13 The presentation of results in this paper diers somewhat from the way it was pre-registered and presented in the mock report (and midline report, endline report, and previous versions of this manuscript). In particular, we reorganized the presentation of the results to match a structure where we rst look at impact on outcomes at the end of the causal chain and then look at impact on intermediate outcomes to explore potential mechanisms. While this change does aect the construction of some of the indices, overall conclusions remain the same. Several pre-registered tables can be found in Appendix A.3. The entire analysis that follows the pre-registered structure can be found through the project history in GitHub, for instance here.14 Note that these sample means are reported in levels to allow for this interpretation of eect sizes, even though we may report the dierence between treatment and control group after using inverse hyperbolic sine transformations. estimations at midline. Columns ( 5) and ( 6) report average treatment eects of the training and the clearinghouse treatment respectively at endline, that is, after two seasons. Column (7) reports the number of observations that was used in the endline estimations. As noted in Section 4, we account for multiple hypothesis testing by aggregating dierent outcomes within families into overall summary indices, following Anderson (2008). Results for these indices are reported at the bottom of the tables. 15We start by testing if the interventions aected general business operations of agrodealers (Table 6). Sales volume and price, revenue, and number of customers and maize varieties in stock are the key outcomes of interest. A measure of sales volume was constructed by asking agro-dealers how much of a specic maize variety they sold in the previous season. We restrict attention to the four most popular improved varieties, two of which are hybrids (Longe 7H and Longe 10H) and two of which are open pollinated varieties (OPVs) (Longe 4 and Longe 5). Total quantity sold is the sum of quantities sold of these four varieties. We also asked agro-dealers about the sales price of the four varieties at the start of the season and then calculated the simple average at the agro-dealer level. We then calculate the revenue (expressed in million UGX) by rst multiplying prices with quantities sold and then summing over the four varieties. 16 We also include the number of customers that bought maize seed on an average day at the start of the season, as well as the number of maize varieties that the agro-dealer had in stock.Table 6 shows that we do not nd an impact of training agro-dealers on their business operations. At both midline and endline, the impact on the index is not signicantly dierent from zero. No particular pattern emerges to explain these insignicant results, and there is little signicance among any of the outcome variables when estimated separately. At midline, we nd a negative impact of the training on the average sales price. At endline, the training seems to have reduced amounts sold, which is also reected in a lower revenue.We do nd a positive impact of the information clearinghouse intervention on agrodealer operations. At midline, the overall index is signicantly higher among agrodealers in the clearinghouse treatment group. Among individual outcomes, treated agro-dealers sold more maize seed at a higher price, albeit not signicantly so. However, in combination, this lead to revenues that are almost 20% higher (and this dierence is signicant at the 10% level). 17 At endline, the positive eect of the clearinghouse 15 In the regressions with these overall indices, we do not control for the baseline values because this would imply having the result only for dealers and farmers who have no missing values for any of the variables constituting these indices at mid-/endline and at baseline, severely reducing statistical power. 16 One dollar was about 3600 UGX at the time of the study. 17 For reasonably large values, coecients of regressions that involve a dependent variable that has been transformed using the inverse hyperbolic sine can be interpreted as elasticities (Bellemare and Wichman, 2020).intervention seems to become stronger, with the overall index now signicant at the 1% level. The eect is driven by a 31% increase in the number of customers that a treated agro-dealer attracts, which translates into 6 additional customers per day.The next set of results focuses on the eect of the interventions on operations related to one particular variety, specically, the most recently released hybrid (Longe 10H) in Table 7 and the most recently released OPV (Longe 5) in Table 8. In addition to the business operation outcomes reported in Table 6, we also include outcomes related to stock management, given that seed quality decreases with shelf-life. We asked the agrodealers how much of the particular seed was carried over from the previous season. Many agro-dealers reported that they did not carry over any seed, leading to low baseline means. Furthermore, we asked the agro-dealers to estimate how much they bought from any provider during the same season. For both varieties, this is slightly more than what agro-dealers reported to have sold. We expect our treatments to decrease the amount of seed carried forward and increase the amount of fresh seed procured from providers. We also asked the agro-dealers to estimate how much of the seed stock was lost or wasted during the season, and how often they ran out of stock. We expect the interventions to reduce both losses and stock-outs.For both varieties, we do not nd signicant eects of the training nor the clearinghouse treatment at midline. At endline however, all individual coecient estimates move in the expected direction for the information clearinghouse, and when outcomes are combined in an index, the eect is positive and statistically signicant.Moving one step further up the impact chain, we explore whether reported increases in the number of customers, sales, and revenues are likely driven by an increase in the quality of maize seed sold by these agro-dealers. To do so, we instructed enumerators to buy a random bag of seed from each agro-dealer. This bag was then inspected on a range of attributes (bag integrity, lot number, packaging date, and shelf-life, etc) and moisture was measured. Our quality tests of the seed purchased and collected during the survey did not indicate any eects, although due to the fact that not all agro-dealers had seed in stock, we may be facing statistical power issues. More information can be found in Appendix A.1.We rst examine harvest-related outcomes for farmers and report the results in Table 9. We start by examining production, plot size, and production scaled by plot size (i.e., yield) on a randomly selected maize plot. We also look at market participation (amount sold, sales price, and revenue from maize sales) and how much grain farmers save to use as seed in the next season. While we expect positive eects on harvest and sales, the amount kept as seed enters the index negatively.The coecient estimates for the overall index show no eect of the agro-dealer training, and a positive eect of the information clearinghouse, albeit only after two seasons of implementation. Farmers that live in areas where the clearinghouse was implemented report higher production and productivity at endline than control farmers   3), ( 5), and (6) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns (4) and ( 7) report number of observations; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes. § Due to the skewness of this variable, the regression was run after an Inverse Hyperbolic Sine transformation. Coecient estimates can therefore be interpreted as percentage changes. The baseline mean column shows the untransformed variable. Due to the skewness of this variable, the regression was run after an Inverse Hyperbolic Sine transformation. Coecient estimates can therefore be interpreted as percentage changes. The baseline mean column shows the untransformed variable.1The comparisons were only made for agro-dealers which had Longe 10H in stock at mid-or endline. Due to the skewness of this variable, the regression was run after an Inverse Hyperbolic Sine transformation. Coecient estimates can therefore be interpreted as percentage changes. The baseline mean column shows the untransformed variable.1The comparisons were only made for agro-dealers which had Longe 5 in stock at mid-or endline.that live areas where the clearinghouse was not implemented. Yield dierences are signicant at the 1% level and amount to 10% of the baseline mean. Finally, we look at the amount of maize that farmers retain for seed in the next season. At midline, we see that, in line with expectations, clearinghouse treated farmers save less grain for seed.To further explore the large and signicant eect of the clearinghouse on yields, we investigate whether specic subgroups of farmers experienced yield gains more than others. Rerunning the regression only for farmers who did not adopt at baseline led to a coecient of 56.44 with a standard error of 17.38 (hence, signicance at the 1% level).For farmers that did adopt at baseline, we nd a coecient of 30.79 with a standard error of 20.38 (hence, no signicance). This indicates that the eect is plausibly driven by farmers who did not use improved maize seed at baseline, started using improved maize seed due to the clearinghouse and, in turn, realized higher yields.Moving up on the causal chain, we test if the interventions aect the use of agricultural technology by farmers. In particular, we examine the use of purchased maize seed as a second important family of outcomes at the smallholder level. For the agrodealer training, we do not nd any eect at midline, nor at endline. The eect of the information clearinghouse treatment on overall use (or adoption for convenience) as measured by the index is positive and signicant at the 5% level at mid-and endline.Zooming in on individual outcomes, we start with a subjective assessment of seed used by asking farmers if they \"...used any quality maize seed (like OPV or hybrid in seed) on any of their plots\". We see that at midline, farmers that were subjected to the clearinghouse treatment were 3.5 percentage points more likely to answer this question with yes than control farmers. After two agricultural seasons, the dierence between treatment and control farmers increases to 4.2 percentage points. Related, we ask if farmers bought high-yielding maize varieties at an agro-dealer for any plot. At midline, we nd a dierence between the clearinghouse treatment and control groups of about 6 percentage points, and this amounts to an almost 20% increase relative to the baseline mean. At endline, the dierence is about 3 percentage points, but not signicant. We do not nd an impact of the clearinghouse on the amount of seed that farmers bought at agro-dealers. However, note that estimates are based on a small sample size (n=599 at midline and 621 at endline) that was conditional on having purchased seed from an agro-dealer.Next, we turn our attention to the use of purchased maize seed on a randomly selected plot. For the use of seed from either hybrid or open-pollinated maize varieties, we nd positive treatment eects of the clearinghouse, although the coecients are insignicant. 18 As for the more general questions above, we also ask if the seed that was used on the random plot was obtained from an agro-dealer. We nd an almost 5 percentage point treatment eect for the clearinghouse at midline and an almost 4percentage point eect at endline. Conversely, we estimate the clearinghouse eect 18 Here, we asked farmers which variety they planted in the previous season. If a farmer used Longe 10H, Longe 7H, Longe 7R/Kayongo-go, Bazooka, Longe 6H, Longe 5/Nalongo, Longe 4, Panner, Wema, KH series, or other hybrid/OPV, and this seed was not recycled or farmer-saved but newly purchased, it counted as hybrid/open-pollinated maize seed.  3), ( 5), and (6) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns (4) and ( 7) report number of observations; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes. § Due to the skewness of this variable, the regression was run after an Inverse Hyperbolic Sine transformation. Coecient estimates can therefore be interpreted as percentage changes. The baseline mean column shows the untransformed variable.on the use of farmer-saved seed on the randomly selected plot. Againand in line with our expectationswe nd that farmers that were exposed to the clearinghouse treatment reduced their use of saved seed, albeit only signicantly so at midline. Finally, we examine the product of the amount and the price of maize seed, i.e., the total expenditure on seed for the plot. We see that in areas where the clearinghouse was implemented, farmers invest signicantly more in seed.For the agro-dealer training, the underlying mechanism is fairly straightforward: it potentially changes agro-dealer knowledge and behavior through learning, which results from exposure to, and uptake of, new and salient information. The information clearinghouse is a multifarious intervention in that it solves a variety of potentially interlinked information problems simultaneously. If the quality of maize seed is sucient but some farmers believe that agro-dealers provide sub-standard quality, a clearinghouse may correct their perceptions. If the quality of seed diers between agro-dealers,the clearinghouse provides farmers with information that may help them to switch to agro-dealers selling better quality products. Furthermore, the rating system directly incentivizes agro-dealers to stay ahead of immediate competitors. They can do this by improving the quality of the products they oer, or by signaling that the quality of products they oer is good. In this section, we investigate the relative importance of these dierent impact pathways.The primary mechanism underlying the agro-dealer training is learning, which is in turn expected to increase knowledge of treated agro-dealers.  3), ( 5), and ( 6) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns ( 4) and ( 7) report number of observations; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes.1For this variable, only non-recycled (newly purchased, not farmer-saved) seed counted hybrid/open-pollinated seed. § Due to the skewness of this variable, the regression was run after an Inverse Hyperbolic Sine transformation. Coecient estimates can therefore be interpreted as percentage changes. The baseline mean column shows the untransformed variable.midline, but the coecient is just shy of signicance at the 10% level. The (insignicant) eect of the training is strongest at midline, which seems reasonable as the training was organized only once at the start of the study (Figure 1). Interestingly, we nd knowledge eects from the clearinghouse treatment, particularly for agro-dealer knowledge related to seed storage seed and handling. This eect becomes stronger over time, which again seems reasonable as this treatment was repeated. This result suggests that the clearinghouse treatment, with its focus on seed quality, prompts agro-dealers to actively search for information on better ways to store and handle seed.The above suggests that providing only knowledge through training is unlikely to improve outcomes when demand-side constraints are binding, echoing Bold et al. (2022).In our setting, extra knowledge at the agro-dealer level is only useful if farmers are able to appreciate the eect of it (see also Homann et al. (2021)). To examine this further, we exploit the factorial design of the experiment, and focus on the subset of agrodealers that were assigned to both the training and the clearinghouse treatment. We indeed nd a signicant positive interaction eect on key outcomes at the agro-dealer level at endline (most notably on the overall operations index, as in Table 6). The positive interaction eect seems to be driven by signicant improvements in eort and practices (as in Table 12). We also nd a positive interaction eect on the index of agro-dealer knowledge about seed at midline, but the eect is not signicant, possibly due to insucient statistical power to test interactions. Results on these interaction eects are available from the authors upon request.The information clearinghouse provides agro-dealers with an incentive to become better than their direct competitors to attract more farmers (Lane, Schonholzer, and Kelley, 2022). Furthermore, the performance feedback provided through the treatment may motivate agro-dealers to become better and increase quality through behavioral channels such as social comparison and self-image eects (Gosnell, List, and Metcalfe, 2020).Agro-dealers can attempt to increase quality by changing the way they store and handle seed. Furthermore, and particularly if they already use appropriate storage and handling methods, they may increase eort and start providing more or better services in an attempt to (indirectly) aect ratings. 19In Table 12, we provide evidence that agro-dealers who are exposed to the clearinghouse indeed invest more eort than agro-dealers in the control group. The tableshows results for one overall index and four individual indices that each capture different dimensions of eort, services, and practices. The rst index focuses on eort and service provision as reported by agro-dealers themselves, and is composed of seven 19 For example, if agro-dealers already provide quality inputs but farmers complain about low yields, agro-dealers may provide training/advice and recommend complementary inputs to get optimal results. This could increase yields, in turn increasing farmer perceptions of seed quality. Or, agro-dealers may provide insurance or cash back guarantees, which may then be interpreted by farmers as a signal that agro-dealers sell high quality.  3), ( 5), and ( 6) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns ( 4) and ( 7) report number of observations; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes.1The index of dealer knowledge about seed storage contains 5 variables: whether dealer knows how long seed can be carried over, how seed should be stored after repackaging, what the min. distance between oor and seed is, how seed should be stored in storeroom, whether seed should be repackaged.variables: whether the agro-dealer (1) oers explanations on how to use the seed they sell to farmers, (2) recommends complementary inputs to get optimal results from improved varieties, (3) provides advisory services or training, (4) oers discounts for large-quantity purchases, (5) oers credit, ( 6) received a seed-related customer complaint since last season, and ( 7) accepts mobile money payments. A second index summarizes the perceptions of farmers who purchase from these agro-dealers. This index is also constructed from seven variables: whether a agro-dealer (1) oers refunds or insurance, (2) provides credit, (3) oers training or advice to customers, (4) delivers to the farmgate, (5) provides after-sales service, ( 6) accepts dierent payment methods, and ( 7) sells small quantities. Farmers' answers to these questions are aggregated at the agro-dealer level before the index is computed.To handle and store seed correctly, a combination of investments and labor-intensive practices are necessary. Also during the agro-dealer training, we recommended a mix of practices that are in reach of dierent types of agro-dealers, some of which may have excess labor while others may have access to money to invest. A third index groups a set of labor-intensive seed handling and storage practices. It contains six variables:whether seed is stored (1) in a dedicated area, (2) in correct lighting, (3) on appropriate surfaces, and ( 4) not in open containers; whether the agro-dealer has a pest problem;and whether the agro-dealership looks clean and professional. Data for these variables were collected by enumerators through visual inspection, and none are self-reported by agro-dealers. A fourth index summarizes capital-intensive seed-handling practices, based on six variables: whether the roof is (1) leak-proof, (2) insulated;(3) whether the walls are insulated; whether the agro-dealership is (4) ventilated, and (5) displays any ocial certicate; and (6) whether expired seed is handled correctly. Most of these variables were collected or at least conrmed by enumerators through visual inspection, only one of them (whether expired seed is handled correctly) is self-reported. 20We nd that the clearinghouse intervention increases agro-dealer eort and services, especially at midline, where the coecient of the overall index is signicant at the 1% level. This eect is driven by treated agro-dealers who signicantly raised their eort and services, according to farmers. We see that the impact persists until endline, where the signicant eect on the overall index seems to be driven by the self-reported measure of eort. We do not nd that the agro-dealer training improves services or practices.In markets characterized by asymmetric information, signaling is often used to solve the ineciency problem (Spence, 1973). In our case, as it is dicult to assess seed quality via visual inspection, agro-dealers may use various strategies to signal to customers that their products are of good quality. Becoming a member of professional organizations is one way to do so, as these memberships signal professionalism. Agro-dealers who try to signal quality will also not shy away from inspections. On the contrary, they may actively seek inspection so that they can advertise the result in their agro-dealerships. 20 To test whether social desirability aects this result, we exclude the last variable from the index and rerun the analysis, since agro-dealers might report that they handle expired seed correctly but, in reality, choose not to do so for strategic reasons such as cost management. Doing this does not change the coecients for the index of capital-intensive seed-handling practices in any notable way.  3), ( 5), and (6) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns (4) and ( 7) report number of observations; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes.1The index of dealer eorts and services, self-reported contains 7 variables: whether shop oers explanations, complementary input recommendations, extension/training, discounts for larger quantities, credit, did not receive seed related customer complaint, accepts mobile money.The index of dealer eorts and services, according to farmers contains 7 variables: whether shop oers refund/insurance, credit, training/advice, delivery, after-sales service, accepts dierent payment methods, sells small quantities. The answers are aggregated at dealer level, then the index is computed.3The index of labor-intensive seed handling practices contains 6 variables: whether seed is stored in dedicated area, in correct lighting, on correct surface, not in open containers, whether shop has no pest problem, cleanness and professionality rating by enumerator.Table 13 collects a set of variables related to signaling quality, including memberships in UNADA and other professional associations, trading licenses, the number of inspections in the last season, and warnings or conscations of seed after inspection.We nd that at endline, judging by the overall index, the clearinghouse treatment led to a signicant increase in compliance with or participation in quality assurance measures. Looking at the individual outcomes, the overall eect seems to be driven by an increase in registrations with UNADA. We also see that treated agro-dealers were inspected signicantly more often.An important potential mechanism underlying the eect of the information clearinghouse at the farmer level is the possibility that farmers switch from lower rated agrodealers to those with better ratings. To explore this mechanism, we asked farmers if they switched agro-dealers since the previous season. Results (Table 14) indicate that only 17% of farmers reported switching at baseline. However, at midline, a signicantly higher share of farmers in the clearinghouse treatment group reported switching agrodealers. Also at endline, we nd a higher propensity for switching among clearinghouse treated farmers.Increased switching in itself does not necessarily mean that farmers move from lower-rated agro-dealers to higher-rated ones. To investigate this, we calculate the dierence between the rating of agro-dealer the farmer is switching to and that of the agro-dealer the farmer is switching from. If farmers move to better-rated agro-dealers, this dierence is positive. We nd that this is indeed the case, and more so during the second season, although the dierence is not signicantly dierent from zero at conventional levels (p-value = 0.166).At the agro-dealer level, we nd that the clearinghouse treatment led to a signicant increase in the number of customers (Table 6). This can not be explained by farmers switching, since switching involves an increase in customers for some agro-dealers at the expense of others, leaving the average number of customers of agro-dealers in the treatment group unaected. When we look at changes in customers over time, we actually do not see that the increase in customers is largest for agro-dealers with high ratings. This suggests that the impact of the clearinghouse treatment on perceptions to which we turn nextmay be particularly important for agro-dealers with low ratings, osetting any potential loss that is due to the switching mechanism.Finally, the clearinghouse may change farmer perceptions of the quality of seed sold by agro-dealers. Table 15 provides impact on two measures of farmer perceptions of quality. First, we asked farmers if they think that maize seed that can be bought at agro-dealers is counterfeit or adulterated. At baseline, two in three farmers responded armatively to this question, indicating substantial pessimism about quality. Columns  3), ( 5), and ( 6) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns (4) and ( 7) report number of observations; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes. § Due to the skewness of this variable, the regression was run after an Inverse Hyperbolic Sine transformation. Coecient estimates can therefore be interpreted as percentage changes. The baseline mean column shows the untransformed variable.  3), ( 5), and ( 6) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns (4) and ( 7) report number of observations; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes.1We report the mean and standard deviation at midline because this variable was not collected at baseline.(2) to (5) show the impact of the clearinghouse for the full sample. The treatment does not signicantly aect farmer perceptions as measured by this variable at midline or endline. However, we expect the eect of the clearinghouse on perceptions to be strongest for farmers who did not use improved maize varieties at baseline. Therefore, we repeat the analysis for this subgroup of farmers in columns ( 6) to (9). At midline, farmers that did not adopt at baseline and live in areas exposed to the clearinghouse are 12.5 percentage points less likely to think that agro-dealers sell adulterated seed than similar farmers in areas not assigned to the treatment.Second, we look at rating data to assess farmer perceptions of product quality. In particular, we look at the index of maize seed ratings that combine ratings for general quality, yield, drought tolerance, pest and disease tolerance, time of maturity, and germination of seed obtained from various agro-dealers. 21 These ratings are aggregated at the farmer level (since one farmer generally rates multiple agro-dealers) and then the index is calculated. 22 We see that the index is positively and signicantly aected by the clearinghouse treatment, even though the eect is only signicant at the 10% level. If we restrict the sample to farmers that did not adopt improved maize varieties at baseline, the treatment eect on the ratings is signicant at the 5% level. The impact on the overall index that combines the two perception related indicators is also signicant for this sub-sample.The improvement in farmer opinions and ratings may reect a real increase in the quality of seed, because the clearinghouse improved agro-dealers' seed handling eorts and practices, thus improving seed quality. However, in Appendix A.1 we show that we do not nd clear evidence that the clearinghouse treatment aected a set of (imperfect) quality proxies of the seed the agro-dealer sell. Furthermore, looking at Table 12, we nd no evidence that agro-dealers change seed handling practices in response to the clearinghouse treatment. As such, it does not seem that the change in perceptions reects a real change in quality.An alternative explanation is that the quality of maize seed at most agro-dealers in our sample is sucient but (non-adopting) farmers misperceive it. This is in line with Michelson et al. (2021) and Wossen, Abay, and Abdoulaye (2022) who establish that input quality is generally good but that farmers' beliefs are often incorrect, so that one simply needs to rectify this misperception to increase adoption. Consistent with this explanation, we nd that two in three farmers thought that maize seed at agro-dealers is counterfeit or adulterated at baseline. At the same time, note that the average agrodealer was rated 3.4 out of 5 at baseline which indicates that perceived seed quality was reasonable. The fact that ratings are relatively high is probably due to the fact that farmers who rate have experience with seed from agro-dealers. Because of the clearinghouse treatment, mostly non-adopting pessimistic farmers notice that adopting 21 As the act of rating agro-dealers was an essential part of the clearinghouse treatment, we only collect ratings in control areas at endline and so can only test this hypothesis at endline. 22 To compute this index at the farmer level, we restrict the sample to observations where a farmer needs to have rated at least one agro-dealer in the catchment area on all components of the index. This procedure leads to a sample size reduction, which in turn may aect statistical power.   4) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns (3) and ( 5) report number of observations; columns (6) to (9) mirror this structure for the sub-sample of farmers that did not adopt at baseline, **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes.1The index of farmer's maize seed ratings contains 6 ratings: general quality, yield, drought tolerance, pest/disease tolerance, time of maturity, germination. The ratings are aggregated at farmer level (one farmer rates multiple agro-dealers), then the index is computed. Note that treatment and control groups can only be compared at endline. At base-and midline, only clearinghouse treated farmers rated dealers in their proximity because being confronted with these questions is part of the treatment. Hence control dealers were not rated and this line is left blank at midline. At endline, all farmers rated all agro-dealers, so that this variable can be investigated.peers do not share their pessimism, and they adjust their perceptions. Furthermore, the clearinghouse aects several measures of adoption already at midline. If we assume that changing agro-dealer behavior and farmers noticing this change takes some time, rectifying incorrect perceptions of smallholders must have played an important role in increasing their adoption.In this study, we hypothesize that seed quality deteriorates because agro-dealers lack Recently, Dar et al. (2023) showed that an information intervention targeted at private input suppliers is eective in changing their behavior and in increasing farmerlevel adoption, which seems to contradict our null result for the training at rst sight.However, their information treatment is very dierent from ours: instead of training these suppliers in seed handling and storage at the agro-input shop, they give them access to a new seed variety for their own learning, hoping that they will spread this information to their clients who will use it on the farm. Moreover, Dar et al. (2023) nd that business incentives and reputational concerns play a key role when dealers share information and give advice, which is in line with our nding that incentives matter.The information clearinghouse clearly aected the market for maize seed in our study area: sellers and buyers started behaving in line with our theory of change. Agrodealers reported more business and smallholders reported increased use of purchased maize varieties, in turn increasing production outcomes. This eect seems to partly originate from agro-dealers who expanded service provision and signal quality to farmers to outperform their competitors. We nd some evidence that the clearinghouse induced farmers to switch between agro-agro-dealers, but most of the impact on farmer outcomes seems to be driven by the fact that the clearinghouse improved the opinions that farmers held about agro-dealers and their products.The signicant impact of the clearinghouse indicates that farmers cannot judge the quality of maize seed at the time of purchase. If the quality of a product can not be easily assessed at the time of purchase, one solution is to make sure consumers do not have to, through regulation and quality assurance. Most LMICs regulate seed quality in the formal market with codied standards, inspections, and certication systems.However, and particularly in countries that lack institutional capacity to implement and enforce the regulatory framework, the reach of these quality assurance systems and the seed market in generalis limited. As a result, seed certication provides farmers with a relatively weak and unreliable indication of quality. A decentralized approach that relies on crowd-sourced quality signals such as the clearinghouse may be more eective.Furthermore, peer ratings are likely to measure the dimensions of seed quality that matter most to smallholders. While it is possible to objectively measure seed quality (e.g., by sending mystery shoppers, followed by DNA ngerprinting) or agro-dealer practices (e.g., by sending objective inspectors incognito), it is plausible that farmers are not concerned about genetic purity (indicating whether the seed embodies the genetic characteristics of a specic variety) but mainly care about seed performance (e.g., germination rate, vigor, and yield). The opinion of peers who are familiar with the heterogeneous conditions farmers face, may be more useful and trustworthy for smallholders than the judgment of an inspector or DNA test.A key assumption underlying the clearinghouse mechanisms is that, while individual farmers can not assess the quality of seed at the time of purchase, collective experience does provide useful information. This is because farmers can learn from experience, and use this information when making decisions in subsequent seasons. Empirically, however, farmers may have diculties drawing a causal link between seed quality, on the one hand, and plant emergence, growth, and harvest, on the other hand given the extensive set of confounding variables at play (rainfall, soil quality, pest and disease pressure, inputs, management, and plant genetics), the complexity of genotype-byenvironment-by management (GÖEÖM) interactions, or the stochastic nature of many of these variables. In addition, Bayesian learning takes time, and opportunities to learn are few (even tough in Uganda there are two agricultural seasons). This partly explains the rich body of research on the role of peer eects in technology adoption: the ability to combine own experience with the experience of farmers in a similar location is therefore likely to provide a good signal about the quality of seed (Conley and Udry, 2010;Bandiera and Rasul, 2006;Foster and Rosenzweig, 1995). As farmers are thus unlikely to discover quality of inputs themselves, an information clearinghouse that relies on peer ratings is expected to increase data points that farmers can use when making adoption decisions.While the crowd-sourced information clearinghouse tested in this study may also be feasible at scale, the clearinghouse idea cannot not be approached naively. There is con-siderable controversy surrounding the credibility of reviewing platforms and the ability of sellers on these platforms to improve their ratings with payments to consumers to provide favorable ratings, automated bot reviews, and other strategic practices. There are also more practical considerations, such as how long ratings should remain valid, or how to deal with sellers who receive high ratings on one set of attributesseed quality, in this casebut perform poorly in other categories, for example, by engaging in unfair labor practices, discriminating against certain types of customers, engaging in anti-competitive behavior, or promoting environmentally hazardous products. Rating platforms could potentially amplify these practices and biases rather than address them. While this paper oers both proof of concept and an empirical test of theoretical predictions about the relationship between observable product quality and buyer and seller behavior in a market characterized by asymmetric information, further piloting and testing is needed at increasingly larger scales to test additional hypotheses about market performance, supply and demand responses, and productivity, welfare, and resilience outcomes.To assess the eect of the training and clearinghouse intervention on the quality of seed sold by agro-dealers, we bought a bag of seed at each agro-dealer and inspected it on a number of attributes. First, we measured the moisture content of the seed.In Table A1, we see that the clearinghouse treatment reduced moisture as expected, but the parameter is estimated imprecisely, perhaps due to the smaller data set as we were not able to source seed from all agro-dealers and the comparisons were only made for agro-dealers from which the enumerator was able to buy a bag of maize seed at mid-or endline. We further look at the integrity of the package and whether it shows important information such as the packaging date, shelf-life and the lot number. We do not nd that the clearinghouse treatment nor the agro-dealer training aected quality proxies of the seed that agro-dealers sell. However, because our proxies of seed quality are far from perfect and we rely on a smaller sample, we cannot safely conclude that the treatments did not aect seed quality. 2323 Assessing seed quality is not only challenging for farmers, but also for researchers. Even though investigating moisture is an attempt to test the quality of seeds in a quantitative and objective way, this variable is one-dimensional and only a weak indication of seed quality. Additional ways to capture seed quality include lab testing to measure purity as the rate of extraneous, non-seed material in the bag, germination using a germination chamber, grow-out tests for genetic purity using morphological analysis, and DNA ngerprinting to test for genetic purity using single nucleotide polymorphisms tests. The comparisons were only made for agro-dealers in which the enumerator was able to buy a bag of maize seed at mid-or endline. Also, we do not control for the baseline values of the outcome variables in the entire table because only 144 of the 179 dealers who had seed at midline also had seed at baseline and only 183 of the 265 dealers who had seed at endline also had seed at baseline, so that controlling for baseline values would reduce the sample sizes drastically.What to do if a treated dealer does not receive a single rating? If a shop in a treated catchment area is not rated by a single farmer, e.g., because no farmer in our sample knows him or her, we could ll in the catchment area mean as his or her rating.However, this is not as innocent as it seems because it is likely that the lack of ratings is not random. Poor quality dealers have less customers, so their likelihood to get rated is lower. Giving them average catchment area ratings inates the ratings of these low quality dealers. Instead, we simply told farmers that we do not have information about this shop (implicitly informing the farmer that it exists). 16 of 193 treated dealers were not rated by a single farmer in the rst round.Should more ratings lead to better ratings? Some agro-dealers were not rated by any smallholder in the rst round, while others were rated by up to 22 smallholders. If dealer A is rated by 10 farmers and gets rating 3,5 and dealer B is rated by 1 farmer and gets rating 3,6, we treat dealer B as the better dealer. Even though receiving many (few) ratings can be related to good (poor) quality (the lack of ratings could be nonrandom, see previous paragraph), there could be other reasons why dealers are rated by many (few) farmers. Furthermore, giving higher ratings to better-known dealers could harm new dealers entering the market and dealers who are discriminated, e.g., due to their gender. Also on TripAdvisor, having more reviews than a rival hotel does not lead to a better rating.Should ratings depend on catchment area dealer performance?The following examples show that ratings should not depend on catchment area averages. In an area with poor quality dealers in which one dealer is a bit better than the rest but still poor, we do not want this dealer to be rated well (i.e., expose farmers to poor quality dealers). Similarly, in an area with good dealers in which one dealer is a bit worse than the rest but still good, we do not want this dealer to be rated poorly (which would be unfair towards him or her). On the other hand, less than 9% of agro-dealers received a rating below 3 out of 5, so we would throw away valuable data if we would only disseminate good scores without any variation. Therefore, we take the distribution of ratings into account by using quintiles. Consequently, less dealers receive rating 4 or 5, more dealers receive rating 1 or 2. This could strengthen the eect of the treatment on dealer eort. If dealers get ratings 1 or 2 instead of 4 or 5, they could feel more inclined to improve their scores. Consequently, also the eect on seed quality itself could be larger. However, the clearinghouse should also have a signaling eect, which might be weaker if more dealers are rated 1 or 2 instead of 4 or 5 (dealers would seem to be of worse quality to farmers). Therefore, we chose words with a positive connotation as the quintile names for rating dissemination. As most dealers received a good or very good rating before taking the distribution into account, we ensure that even a 2 is still communicated as good to farmers to not weaken the signaling eect. That is why the rst quintile is translated to okay and gets one star, the second one is named   3), ( 5), and (6) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns (4) and ( 7) report number of observations; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes. § Due to the skewness of this variable, the regression was run after an Inverse Hyperbolic Sine transformation. Coecient estimates can therefore be interpreted as percentage changes. The baseline mean column shows the untransformed variable.1The index of capital-intensive seed handling and storage practices contains 6 variables: whether roof is leak-proof, whether roof is insulated, whether walls are insulated, whether shop is ventilated, whether any ocial certicate is displayed, whether expired seed is handled correctly.The index of labor-intensive seed handling and storage practices contains 6 variables: whether seed is stored in dedicated area, whether shop has no pest problem, whether seed is stored in correct lighting, whether seed is stored on correct surface, whether seed is not stored in open containers, cleanness and professionality rating by enumerator.3The index of all seed handling and storage practices contains 12 variables: the ones included in the index of capital-intensive practices and the ones included in the index of labor-intensive practices.The index of dealer's eorts and services contains 7 variables: whether shop oers explanations, complementary input recommendations, extension/training, discounts for larger quantities, credit, did not receive seed related customer complaint, accepts mobile money.  3), ( 5), and (6) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns (4) and ( 7) report number of observations; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes.1The index of dealer's motivation and satisfaction contains 3 variables: whether dealers see themselves working as agro-dealers in future, would recommend working as dealers, how happy dealers feel when they come to work. We report the mean and standard deviation at midline because these variables were not collected at baseline.The index of dealer's self-ratings contains 5 ratings: location, price, product quality, stock, reputation.3The index of dealer's eorts and services according to farmers contains 7 variables: whether shop oers refund/insurance, credit, training/advice, delivery, after-sales service, accepts dierent payment methods, sells small quantities. The answers are aggregated at dealer level, then the index is computed.The index of dealer's knowledge about seed storage contains 5 variables: whether dealer knows how long seed can be carried over, how seed should be stored after repackaging, what the min. distance between oor and seed is, how seed should be stored in storeroom, whether seed should be repackaged.The index of dealer's knowledge about seed contains 4 variables: whether dealer knows which seed variety to recommend if farmer complains about poor soil, if farmer complains about little rain, if farmer is late for planting, what to tell clients about yield benets of hybrid seed.  3), ( 5), and (6) report dierences between treatment and control groups and standard errors below; they are clustered at the level of randomization; columns (4) and ( 7) report number of observations; **, *, and + denote signicance at the 1, 5 and 10% levels; † indicates that the variable is included in the overall index; larger indices indicate more desirable outcomes.1For this variable, only seed which was not farmer-saved counted as hybrid seed and only seed which was not recycled too often counted as open-pollinated seed.","tokenCount":"13610"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d72b97247b7ac94da65e86bfd69cd2df","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/45349b56-4abc-4df3-9543-76570e50e836/retrieve","id":"-1586283400"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"22b4ae03-da8a-48ef-9189-526a8dcfcca2","pagecount":"16","content":"Impacto económico potencial y resultados de la investigación en forrajeras tropicales para la Orinoquia colombiana (Convenio MADR -CIAT) L. Rivas y C. Lascano' Presentación En este documento se analiZa el impacto económico del uso de nuevos cultivares y materiales forraje ros en las explotaciones ganaderas de la Orlnoquia colombiana. Los resultados son el producto del trabajo de investigación adelantado entre 1994 y 2001 d entro del convenio de cooperació n téc nica y clen tifi ca suscrito entre el Min isterio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (MADR) de Colombia y el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). Se presentan: (1) Las oportunidades que ofrecen los productos tecnológIcos desarrollados durante el período de r eferenci a, en términos de sus atri b utos productivos y económicos, y su adaptabilldad a los diferentes nichos ecológicos existentes en la Orlnoquia de Colombia: (2) las ventajas de nuevos materiales forrajeros que se encuen tran en estados avanzados dentro de los procesos de investigación y liberación: (3) las posibilidades de otros productos resultantes de l Convenio tales como nuevas metodologias. bases de datos y fue ntes de información. (41 los n iveles de productividad y las areas s u sceptibles de impacto con los nuevos materiales forrajeros. teniendo en cuenta la información c1entifica disponible; (5J la estimación de los beneficios económicos . en términos del valor presente de la producción adicional deIivada del empleo de los nuevos materiales en diferentes ruchos ecológicos y sistemas de producción de la Orinoquia; (6) el impacto en la formación de capital humano colombiano mediante las actividades de investigación en producción y u Wización de forrajeras.Los beneficios econ ómicos s e calculan para un horizonte de tiempo de 10 anos (2002 -20 11) . Para la s imulación de la adopción de los n uevos materiales forrajeros se utiliza un modelo logistico. que asume porcentajes muy bajos de dicha adopción en las fases iniciaJ es. con el fin de elaborar estimaciones aj u stadas a la actual realidad nacionaJ . Se adop taron supuestos conservado res en relación con la magnitud de las areas de impacto y los niveles de productividad d e los nuevos materiales (Cuadro 1) .La conclusión principal de este estudio indica que la inversión de fondos públicos nacionales conjuntamente con fondos internacionales para la modernización de la ganadería en la Ortnoquia de Colombia es altamentt:: rentable para el país. ya que Ja relación beneficio-costo de la inversión realizada es muy alta, y p uede estar en el rango 20-30 a 1. Las estimaciones muestran que la inversión efectuada a traves del Convenio MADR-ClAT para investigación en forraje ras genera un fluj o de beneficios an u a les. que expresada en dólares americanas de 2002. tie ne u n valor presente aproximado de US$189 millones. eq uivalente a un flujo a nual de US$3 l millones (Cuadro 2). En el Piedemonte se contabiliza el 85% de los beneficios talaJes vs. ] 50/0 en la Altillanura . El sistema de producción doble propósito (carne y leche) genera un valor adicional de la producción de US$ 112 millones. mie ntras que las actividades de engorde d e vacunos generan bene fi cios por US$77 millones. (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003) Variedades disponibles y en proceso de liberación El trabajo coordinado de las entidades involucradas en el Convenio ha penniUdo la liberación de nuevos c ultivares de gra mineas forrajeras y L eguminosas de usos múltiples para beneficio d e productores de Colombia , Entre ellos se destacan los Siguientes:  cercanos a 30 l/ha de MS, siendo superiores a los de ouos cu lti vares de Brachiaria . Estos altos rendimientos de forraje pennilen utilizar cargas animales s uperiores a 2.5 UA/ha con una frecuencia de pastoreo entre 14 y 21 días en la época d e lluVias y producciones de leche d e 8.5 kg/día con vacas de Holstein y Hols tein-Cebú . • Cratylia argentea ev. Veranera. E s te c ultivar liber a do por COI-poica en noviembre de 2002 es una legumi nos a arbus tiva que ha s ido evaluada a mpliamente en diferentes eCOSistemas de Colombia , desde las sabanas bien drenadas con suelos de baja fertilidad en la • , Altillanura y Piectemonte de Llanos Orientales hasta zonas de la Amazonia y laderas en el Cauea con suelos de mediana fertilidad.condiciones en las que ha mostrado buena adaptación en sitios h asta 1200 m.S .n .m . con climas húmedos y subhúmedos y entr e 5 y 6 meses de época seca. En los sitios de evaluación tien e, en tre otras ventajas. las siguientes: (1) presenta una alta reten ción foliar. particulannente de hojas jóvenes y buena capacidad de rebro te durante la epoca seca. siendo ésta una d e s us principales caractensticas: (2) e n estado fresco es una buena alterna tiva para la alimentación de vacas en producción:(3) en condiciones de trópico subhúmedo se puede utiliza r pa(a la elaboración de ensilaje: y (4) s uministrada en forma fresca secada al sol o ensilada con una ración rica en energia (caña de azúcar) puede s u stituir el uso de con centrados comerciales en vacas lecheras de mediana producción . lo cual es una excelente alte rn ativa para la alimentación de vacu n os durante la epoca seca, Desmodium hete rocarpon subsp. ovalifolium ev. Maquenque : Es una leguminosa de uso múltiple liberada por Corpoica en noviemb re de 2002. Los estudios realizados en Colombia por Corpoica. y el ClAT con esta leguminosa muestran que tiene una excelente tolerancia a la sombra y buena cobertura del suelo en p lantaciones de cauch o y palma aceitera con un menor costo de establecimiento y manejo en comparación con el tradicional uso de kudzu . Se adapta bien a un amplio rango de sitios, localjzados entre O y 1300 m .s. n .m., con una precipitación anual s uperior a 2000 mm: no tolera periodos prolongados de sequía. E l estab lecimiento y desarrollo de D. oualifolium cv. Maquenque bajo cu ltivo de caucho en la Altillanura han sido buenos como lo indica una cobertura mayor que 80% en la época de ll uvias, siendo superior a la cobertu ra lograda con kudzu tradicionaJ (55%). Por otra parte. este cultivar tiene una gra n utilidad para rehabilitar pasturas d eg radadas de Brachiruin spp debido a s u alta capacidad para fijar nitrógeno, su persistencia bajo pastoreo y su bajo costo de establecjmiento.Como resultado de las investigaciones en el Convenio . no sólo se han entregado nuevos c ultivares sino que también se tienen otras accesiones en estados avanzados e n e l proceso de libe ración. e ntre las cuales sobresalen las sigu ientes; Híbridos de Bracbiaria con resistencia a salivazo . El salivazo de los pastos (cercópidos) se ha considerado como la plaga más Jimitante para la producción forraje ra en zonas tropicales bajas . Esta plaga ataca especialmente las especies de Brachiaria y es una de la s causas m ás frecuente de la degradación de pas turas. Como resulta do d el esfuerzo de 10 años de trabajo y gracias a la cofmanciación del MADR se tiene en la actualidad un hibrido apomíctico (Brachiana ClAT 36062) con aJto grado de resistencia a salivazo, c uya propagación se debe h acer con ma terial vegetativo ya que no produce semJ llas.Nuevo híbrido ev. Mulato (Brachiaria CIAT 36061). Se caracteriza por s u rápido establecimiento; alta producción d e forraje, especiaJmente en la epoca de lluvias: y alta calidad nutJitiva. Este híbJid o disponible comercialmente se ha evaluado en el Magdalena Medio y se encuentra en proceso de evaluaciones en la región Caribe y Llanos Olientales. Su mayor potencial productivo en la Altillanura se e n c u e ntra co mo co mp one nte en las r otac i o n es de s is tem as agropaslOliles. partic ularmente con maíz adaptado a s ue los ácidos.Arachis pintoi 18744. Es una legu m inosa pereIUle de múltiple propósilo que puede ser utilizada como banco d e p ro teína. como compone nte en las pasturas mixtas de gramíneas y leguminosas. como cobertura en plantaciones permanentes o como plan la ornamen tal. Se destaca por s u alta calidad forrajera y capacidad de carga. Presenta excelente adaptación a zonas tropicales bajas con precipitaciones entre En el Cuad ro 3 se presenta la productividad potencial de la nueva tecnología de rorraj es en comparación con la tecnología tradicional. En las Figuras 1 y 2 se presenta una estimación de la proyección en la evolución de la a dopción de las nuevas opciones forrajeras. tomando como referencia la s ituación ac tua l en el proceso de ace p taCión por los prod uctores en la región.El disei'lo de nu evas metodologíns de investigac.ión es un producto deJivado elel proceso de desarrollo de gennoplasma que permitirá reducir incluye la caractetización agronómica de 5374 accesiones de gramíneas y legu minosas evaluadas en estaciones experimenlaJes del ClAT y de Corpoi ca en Colombia. También se Incluy e la evaluación de la adaptación de 2209 accesiones forraje ras. representativas de los ecosistemas de sabanas , laderas y márgenes de bosque eXi stentes en el país.En el transcurso del Convenio se ha proporc1onado capacitación cienUfica de alto nivel a 186 profesionales y técnicos colombianos. Esta actividad ha sido desarrollada a través de cursos especia.li2.a.dos de tiempo comple to y dedicacIón exclusiva. tesis de pregra do y posgra do, y prácticas con estudiantes.Con la formación de capital humano se espera: (1) Transferir a los participantes los nuevos conocimientos y me todologías generados en el proceso de investigación con forrajeras, y (2) reducir el tiempo y los costos en el desarrollo tecnológico de la región . En el Cuadro 4 se resumen las actividades de capacitación dentro del Convenio MADR -ClAT. ","tokenCount":"1634"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8a744133ec440e8832b5b5a67168edd7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f41a6777-d35c-424b-b455-6f80e5c5942d/retrieve","id":"-1051132372"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d170f2b5-c224-422d-89ee-58738c7f1d12","pagecount":"13","content":"Adoption of smart-valley increased from 110 ha in 2012 to 474 ha in 2014. Recent evidence show the approach has reached 45,000 ha in Nigeria. In 2019, the total area increased to 1030.94 hectares in Benin and Togo and adopted by 6110 farmers. In Sierra Leone, the total area tracked was 179.3 hectares and adopted by 460 rice farmers. Results show that the impact of the smart-valley on the rice income is 439.Low productivity is the main characteristic of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Adverse effects of climate change increasingly reduce both productivity and production. Rice plays an important role in the food security of population. However, rice production faces many constraints, including low water control and soil fertility management. In order to improve water control and soil management and increase the productivity of local rice production in the context of climate change, a new technology (smart-valley approach) was introduced in Benin and Togo since 2010. The aim of this study is to assess the adoption, the diffusion and impact of smart-valley approach. Data were collected from 590 rice farming households in Benin and Togo. Results revealed that land tenure, total available area, paddy price and production in the lowland increase the adoption of smart-valley approach. Adoption of smart-valley approach increased from 110 ha in 2012 to 474 ha in 2014. In addition, the adoption enables producers to increase the yield by 0.9 ton/ha, the net income by USD 243 per hectare under the condition of climate change. The study suggests that large diffusion and training on the technology would help for adaptation to climate change and improving their livelihood of smallholder rice farmers (Arouna and Akpa, 2019).Evidence from 2018 surveys in Nigeria indicates that the Smart Valley approach has been applied on 45,000 ha in the following areas: Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Niger, Kogi, Bauchi, and Gombe (Wakatsuki et. al., 2018).In 2019, the total area tracked for smart-valley increased to 1030.94 hectares in Benin and Togo and it was adopted by 6110 rice farmers (2116 male and 3994 female). In Sierra Leone, the total area tracked for smart-valley was 179.3 hectares and it was adopted by 460 rice farmers (282 male and 178 female). Results show that the impact of the smart-valley on the rice income is 439.65 US$/ha in Sierra Leone & Liberia (Arouna, 2020).• http://www.kinki-ecotech.jp/download/sawahtech/SawahTech(5Paper)25Sep18.pdfPart II: CGIAR system level reporting • 2429 -Smart-Valleys approach for enhancing rice yield and reducing yield gap in West Africa (https://tinyurl.com/2m8t6v3b)• 595 -SMART-Valleys: a new participatory approach for land and water management in Benin and Togo (https://tinyurl.com/2k69mryp)Low productivity is the main characteristic of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Adverse effects of climate change increasingly reduce both productivity and production. Rice plays an important role in the food security of population. However, rice production faces many constraints, including low water control and soil fertility management. In order to improve water control and soil management and increase the productivity of local rice production in the context of climate change, a new technology (smart-valley approach) was introduced in Benin and Togo since 2010. The aim of this study is to assess the adoption, the diffusion and impact of smart-valley approach. Data were collected from 590 rice farming households in Benin and Togo. Results revealed that land tenure, total available area, paddy price and production in the lowland increase the adoption of smart-valley approach. Adoption of smart-valley approach increased from 110 ha in 2012 to 474 ha in 2014. In addition, the adoption enables producers to increase the yield by 0.9 ton/ha, the net income by USD 267 per hectare under the condition of climate change. The study suggests that large diffusion and training on the technology would help for adaptation to climate change and improving their livelihood of smallholder rice farmers (Aminou and Akpa, 2019). SMART-valleys is a low-cost, participatory and sustainable approach to develop inland valleys for rice-based systems. Major advantages mentioned by farmers are the increased water retention in their fields, less risk of fertilizer losses due to flooding and increased rice yields. The SMART-valleys approach follows a step-wise procedure focusing on design, lay-out and construction of low-cost water control infrastructure after a careful selection procedure paying attention to both socio-economic and biophysical factors and making extensive use of farmer knowledge. Evidence from 2018 surveys in Nigeria indicates that the Smart Valley approach has been applied on 45,000 ha in the following areas: Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Niger, Kogi, Bauchi, and Gombe. In 2019, the total area tracked for smart-valley increased to 1030.94 hectares in Benin and Togo and it was adopted by 6110 rice farmers (2116 male and 3994 female). In Sierra Leone, the total area tracked for smart-valley was 179.3 hectares and it was adopted by 460 rice farmers (282 male and 178 female). Results show that the impact of the smart-valley on the rice income is 439.65 US$/ha in Sierra Leone & Liberia (Arouna, 2020).","tokenCount":"815"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"df51079fca9ca25cd2187ddaff9c1fe3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/70de890b-cb07-4e04-8f56-38b9adb983bd/content","id":"588169825"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"943cafc0-6dad-4472-bc95-0d9a3dcca3df","pagecount":"1","content":"Maize (Zea mays L.) is a major food crop in sub-Saharan Africa (FAO, 2011a) and is currently grown in nearly 100 million hectares across 125 developing countries Maize varieties with increased drought tolerance to abiotic stresses including heat and drought stress plays an important role in stabilizing yield and mitigating against climate change (Easterling et al. 2007;Hellin et al. 2012). Identification of stable and high yielding varieties is a challenge to breeders due to the presence of genotype (G) by environment (E) interaction which cannot be interpreted based only on G and E means.The selected hybrids and OPVs were compared with the best commercial checks in 94 sites across, two seasons under small farmers' conditions using genotype (G) plus genotype x environment (GE) interaction (GGE) biplot based on the site regression (SREG) model.Elite maize hybrid and open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) were selected under optimal (well fertilized and well-watered conditions), rain fed, low soil nitrogen and managed drought stress environments. The selected hybrids and OPVs were further tested in CIMMYT regional trials in eastern and southern Africa in more than 90 locations The trials were subsequently divided into two categories based on yield levels; high yielding trials >=3 t ha (n = 47 sites) and low yielding trials < 3 t ha (n =47 sites). Gender disaggregated trait preference data were generated on a sub-sample of the trials and varieties were compared based on composite preference index. The average grain yields across eastern and southern Africa ranged from 5.5 t ha to 3.6 t ha in high yielding trials and 2.1 t ha to 1.4 t ha for low yielding trials. Across the two seasons CZH0616, CZH0837 and Pan 53 had highest grain yield and stability across two seasons. Before harvest, women focused on big cob size, good standing, early maturity, and good lodging resistance. After harvest, they emphasized big cob size, good tip cover, shiny kernels, good grain quality, and high yield. Before harvest, male farmers focused on big cob size, early maturity and good germination. After harvest, they emphasized big cob size and good grain ","tokenCount":"345"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/1336342791.json b/data/part_3/1336342791.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..02684c532dc5a70cae73d8af1625e0714b12a86c
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8fcdccefb0fc2f9d969f8aa45ee089d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d61a8dea-10da-452f-b54e-4cf99dab78fc/content","id":"-1220171828"},"keywords":["During inauguration session","Photo credit: Uttam Barman Above: During discussion","Photo credit: Uttam Barman"],"sieverID":"02f45239-9d5c-4412-9635-0be12f3335aa","pagecount":"9","content":"Agriculture (BAAG) and Former Executive Chairman, BARC 1. Maize Association of Bangladesh (MAB) Mr. Md. Mizanul Hoque, Vice-President, Maize Association of Bangladesh (MAB), informed that MAB established in 2002 as non-governmental organization to promote maize in supporting nutritious food security in Bangladesh. He shared MAB's vision, mission and they focused on maize production expansion opportunities in the new areas and strengthen the capacity building among the maize dealer & farmers on modern technology and varieties.Dr. Golam Faruq, Director General, BWMRI, presented the current situation of maize production in Bangladesh and the country's requirement, indicating the area under maize cultivation, yield and seed requirements, and future projections. He outlined the thrust of current institutional research and its future priority, and identified potential areas of maize expansion, such as haors and chars.Dr. B. M. Prasanna, Director, Global Maize Program, and CGIAR Research Program Maize, CIMMYT, discussed current maize production and its future agenda, and the trade-off in terms of its industrial use. To introduce a popular cropping pattern such as aman rice-mustard-boro rice and to build international capacity, requires a review of the country's farming scenario. A pilot project could be implemented as part of a feasibility study. However, producing maize with a higher oil content compromises its yield, which remains a major concern. The corn oil industry, involving local production, may not be a feasible option in Bangladesh.Ms. Stephanie Cheesman, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Cropping Systems Agronomist, CIMMYT, presented her experiences of maize-based fodder production in Ukhiya upazila. She emphasized the desirability of short duration maize and its suitability for fodder, and the unintended consequence of maize in the area involving women in the dairy industry.The Prospect, Challenge & Our Expectation Dr. Abul Kalam Azad, Fellow, Bangladesh Academy of Agriculture (BAAG) and Former Executive Chairman of BARC, reiterated the need to get germ plasm with a higher oil content into the Bangladesh environment and include it in cropping patterns. He explained global corn oil production and its potential in Bangladesh, and the government's priority in import reduction of edible oil through increasing oil crop production and the process of oil production. He outlined the different industrial uses of maize and the prospects for local oil production, pointing out the dearth of skills in oil production in the country, and that this may need attention.After the presentations, the following observations and opinions were expressed: Farid Uddin Ahmed, Fellow, Bangladesh Academy of Agriculture 1. Scaling up production of maize is essential, both in newly accreted (char) land and in freshwater swamp areas like Sunamgonj and Netrokona. I have worked in both and find there is still scope for bringing more areas under cultivation.2. There is a need to promote maize for two purposes -grain and silage. The communities living in the area of Ukhiya near Teknaf have been using the maize plant as fodder (for them, cobs are not as important as the dearth of fodder -due to the Rohingya influx, grazing land has been reduced).3. It is too optimistic to consider that Bangladesh will produce corn oil as an output of maize production. Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), commonly known as Science Laboratory, has already completed research as mandated, conducting pilot level testing of production followed by industrial scale feasibility. Corn oil production was not found to be feasible in Bangladesh.Lutfur Rahman, PhD, Fellow, Bangladesh Academy of Agriculture & Former Professor, Genetics and Plant Breeding, BAU 1. The workshop organized by CIMMYT in collaboration with BAAG and BARC was the first initiative, well-covered program to address the potential and constraints impacting on maize production and its uses in Bangladesh (although the processing sector's participation was not as visible as one would expect considering the workshop's title).2. However, some points of clarification are needed. According to the workshop: -Bangladesh's total annual consumption of maize is 7.5 million tons. -We produce 5.5 million tons annually.Annual imports total two million tons. -Poultry, fishery and livestock feed account for 90% of the maize grain the country produces.-Total seed needed, annually, is 9500 tons -local production is <90 tons. -Per acre income as shown in the Maize Association of Bangladesh (MAB) presentation appeared to be too high.When maize is processed and stored for industrial uses, the moisture content must not be more than 12%. However, according to expert opinion, this has been recorded as 14% and income also estimated based on that moisture value.-Land needs to be available at least for 100 days to cultivate one maize crop.Providing this status of maize production but omitting to report on the condition/status of processing and industrial uses (including the connectivity of the industries using maize for different feed and food uses) seems to be a serious gap in the presentation.The following points of observation were provided in response:1. As maize is one of Bangladesh's most important cash and food crops, and farmers are already interested in its production, the specific need is to link farmers/groups of farmers with the country's processing industries to secure a better and appropriate market price. 2. Funding individual farmers through a banking channel will not be as effective as through groups.Farmers' groups can produce large quantities for industries to buy at a reasonable and previously agreed price. This will result in a contract farming system which provides a winwin for both parties as practiced by the seed industries. 3. In respect of R&D and the development of varieties able to produce yields greater than 12 tons per hectare, several very important points need to be considered. Inbred lines that produce more than 10 tons per hectare will be required with international collaboration. 4. BWMRI could start a maize pilot project with CIMMYT's assistance, involving the following:(1) large-scale testing of CIMMYT inbred or hybrid seed in different environments (and more particularly in the southern belt of the country under non-to low irrigation support)(2) designing a project to ensure the adequate participation of the country's private industries and DAE and NGOs, which would be useful (3) BWMRI leading the program in collaboration with CIMMYT to determine the potential of the composite varieties/inbred/hybrids, not only in terms of yield but also for duration, location, and quality traits such as vitamins and nutrients, and oil composition (this will take not more than three cropping seasons, as the materials will be supplied by CIMMYT) (4) at the same time, BWMRI ensuring its own program is in place aimed at the further improvement of the varieties already in the fields (5) recognizing that maize has diversified uses, from popcorn and sweetcorn to baby corn, with the entire biomass able to be put to diverse uses such as silage, fodder and soil-improving materials, including using its soil stabilizing capability. Dr. Md. Abdus Salam, Member Director (Current Charge), Planning and Evaluation Division, BARC -An action plan is needed for maize expansion and lodging resistance, with the involvement of MoA and considering the similar experience of the onion production action plan.The workshop focused on maize production and promotion of its diversified use. It is important to include the private sector, without which it would be difficult to increase business. Increasing hybrid maize and sweetcorn has strong potential in the climatic conditions of Bangladesh.-Corn for oil production is for tropical regions which is very difficult to consider independently of other issues in the industry; it requires more thought.There needs to be a way forward in seed sector development, with specialized zones, and involving both public and private sectors.-Implement a pilot in partnership with the private sector to address issues in the value chain.-Implement an additional project with private actors.Together, this will enable a complete idea of what the 'future of Bangladesh' will look like.Krishibid Mr. Zakir Hossein, Deputy Director, DAE -We need to introduce good maize varieties, because our target is to produce 12 ton/ha, increased from current averages of 10 ton/ha. Mr. Md. Mizanul Hoque, Vice-President, Maize Association of Bangladesh (MAB)-MAB, established in 2002 as non-governmental organization to promote maize in supporting nutritious food security in Bangladesh.The 30% percentages perception of wheat flour mixed with maize has no authentic data, considering the processing of wheat and maize is different.-11,000 tons of seed is imported by the private sector, and BWMRI assigns 5 percent of its land to seed production which is insignificant. Linkage between R&D and industry needs to be strengthened to facilitate the expansion and industrial use of maize.-We need to provide a five-year projection of seed requirements. Maize is also used as fodder, besides feed and other uses.In regard to corn oil, the process is very difficult in Bangladesh and would need a suitable variety/variety.A pilot project in collaboration between CIMMYT and feed companies could provide opportunities to work jointly. We need to increase production in line with demand.Maize contains only 5% oil. This is a by-product but should be a main product.In the corn oil extraction industry dry corn grain and then oil is extracted by solvent extraction, known as dry milling. The remaining milled product is used for production of either starch or feed etc. However, in Bangladesh wet milling process is used for recovery of germ and oil.-What is Bangladesh's limit of production? The industry currently obtains 3% oil, which goes mostly unused (except in the soap industry). Corn oil contains 7% fatty acid, as well as dextrose and fructose which can replace cane sugar in syrup.In Bangladesh, at a moisture content of 14% or more, micro-biological activities are active.In terms of the quality of maize, maize contains industrial dust, vitamins, 6.5% germs and protein. More foreign matter is present in poultry and hatchery mixture.-BWMRI needs to develop research into post-harvest processing to achieve product diversification.Dr. Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, Executive Chairman, BARC, thanked CIMMYT for organizing the workshop jointly with BAAG and MAB. He expressed his wholehearted gratitude for the presence of honorable National Emeritus Scientist, Dr. Kazi M. Badruddoza, and said he found the workshop very impressive and interactive, with effective feedback. He made the following points:-The current focus is food security; we are a little closer to our production target. The GOB has in place the priority strategy that the agriculture sector needs.-A strong commitment is needed at both the public and private levels to augment maize production.-Technology alone is not sufficient; it needs to go hand-in-hand with policy and financial support.-There needs to be a focus on achieving better quality harvests and post-harvest activities.-BWRMI needs to develop an action plan to ensure self-sufficiency in maize.Dr. Wais Kabir, Former Executive Chairman, BARC, summed up by mentioning the following issues:-It seems international donors are not supportive of breeding programs for the industrial development of maize (that is, the corn oil industry). The government can encourage the private and public sectors in the development of maize with a high oil content and seek international collaboration.-Sacrificing yield by producing maize with a higher oil content could constitute a threat to maize expansion in Bangladesh.-A pilot research initiative for corn oil production by BAAG and other partners may be undertaken involving the private sector. This could further study the profitability and marketing of producing corn oil compared to importing it, taking economies of scale into consideration.-BWMRI needs to revitalize research into product diversification with regard to maize, and the workforce to be deployed accordingly.-BAAG/BWMRI may engage some young scientists to explore the potentiality of corn oil production in Bangladesh.The meeting ended with thanks to everyone for their valued participation.","tokenCount":"1890"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/1347850831.json b/data/part_3/1347850831.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3070676fc13ef88bdc15964b3128bb03e501208c
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"df7b92b967b784df5f66e09124291d01","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/23ac64c2-db2a-4181-900e-b0a97e1b7424/retrieve","id":"231076302"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"df3d72cb-6cb9-465f-9d51-16ff264b0997","pagecount":"63","content":"Modelo teórico: el enfoque de programación lineal (PL) 8Modelo empírico de simulación 9Nuevos cultivares de Brachiaria 9Resultados y discusión Sistema de producción doble propósito Análisis de sensibilidad en el sistema doble propósito Sistema de producción especializado de carne Análisis de sensibilidad en el sistema especializado de carne Relaciones entre ingreso, sistema de producción y tamaño de la finca Costo reducido y 'precio sombra'El caso de los pequeños ganaderos de Centroamérica F. Holmann * y L. Rivas ** Este estudio forma parte integral de las actividades del proyecto \"Fomentado la productividad, calidad, inocuidad y comercio de la carne bovina en Centroamérica\" coordinado por ILRI (Instituto Internacional de Investigación en Ganadería, por sus siglas en inglés) y financiado por el Fondo Común de Productos (CFC, por sus siglas en inglés) . Los autores agradecen a CFC y las agencias alemanas para el desarrollo y la investigación {Bundesministerium für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) y Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)} por el financiamiento y publicación de este estudio.En este estudio se evalúa la viabilidad económica de nuevas opciones forrajeras en diferentes escalas de finca y sistemas de producción en Centroamérica, dentro del marco del mejoramiento de la competitividad ganadera y la conservación de la base de recursos naturales. Se genera información económica relevante que ayuda en el mejoramiento y el diseño de políticas económicas y tecnológicas tendientes a la aceleración de los procesos de innovación y cambio en la región.Para el logro de los objetivos se analizaron el retorno y la viabilidad económica de las inversiones en pasturas mejoradas basadas en el híbrido cv. Mulato de Brachiaria y en la leguminosa arbustiva Cratylia argentea cv. Veraniega, considerando como escenarios posibles fincas de subsistencia, pequeñas y medianas con sus sistemas de producción y limitantes internos y externos.La información utilizada fue tomada en un muestreo en 123 fincas ubicadas en Costa Rica (30), Nicaragua (32), Honduras (35) y Guatemala (26) teniendo en cuenta la estructura del hato, el uso de la tierra, la producción de leche y carne y el uso de insumos para alimentación animal.Esta información sirvió de base para estimar los parámetros productivos y reproductivos y la utilización de mano de obra familiar y contratada en cada tipo de explotación los cuales, a su vez, permitieron establecer los tamaños de finca siguientes: (1) de subsistencia donde la función objetivo del productor es el autoconsumo y su principal actividad es la agricultura, (2) pequeño, con ganadería de tipo comercial, y (3) mediano.Para analizar y evaluar los diversos escenarios planteados y calcular los indicadores de rentabilidad de las explotaciones se utilizó un modelo de programación lineal multiperiódica, que permite evaluar cada uno de los tamaños de finca incluyendo los escenarios siguientes: (1) el productor adopta el cultivar (cv.) Mulato para reemplazar las áreas de la finca que se encuentran en pasturas nativas y, adicionalmente, suplementa el hato durante la época seca con la leguminosa arbustiva C. argentea. Los incrementos en productividad e ingresos se estimaron teniendo en cuenta dos situaciones, primero, las ganancias en respuesta animal en relación con una línea base y, segundo, en un escenario igual al anterior pero asumiendo alternativamente que la finca posee el sistema de producción doble propósito y luego cambia a un sistema de producción especializado en carne.Los resultados obtenidos indican que la inversión en pasturas mejoradas es económicamente rentable y representa una buena opción para incrementar el bienestar de los productores y sus familias. No obstante, debido a falta de flujo de caja, para que esta inversión sea viable, los productores necesitan de una línea crediticia durante un período varía entre 2 y 7 años, dependiendo del sistema de producción y del país. La adopción de los cultivares Mulato y Veraniega resulta en incrementos significativos de la carga animal, lo que genera la posibilidad de ampliar el tamaño del hato. El número de vacas por hato se puede incrementar entre 2.1 y 3.5 veces en el sistema de doble propósito y entre 2.6 y 6 veces en el sistema especializado de carne. La producción de leche se puede incrementar entre 2.3 y 3.5 veces en el sistema doble propósito y la de carne entre 3.7 y 4.5 veces en el sistema especializado en carne. La inversión en pasturas mejoradas no solo trae beneficios económicos para los productores sino también ganancias sociales, así, en el sistema doble propósito es posible aumentar el empleo entre 1.5 y 4 veces y en el especializado en carne entre 1.8 y 3 veces.El parámetro de mayor impacto como ingreso neto es la fertilidad de los animales en el hato. Un aumento del 10% en la natalidad anual del hato mejora los ingresos entre 12% y 19% en fincas de subsistencia y pequeñas y entre 14% y 21% en fincas medianas, dependiendo del país y del sistema de producción. El segundo parámetro en importancia en relación con el ingreso es la productividad de leche en fincas en sistema doble propósito o de carne en fincas con sistemas de producción especializados. Un incremento del 10% en la producción actual por vaca resulta entre 10% y 13% de aumento en el ingreso en fincas de subsistencia, entre 12% y 15% en fincas pequeñas y entre 12% y 19% en fincas medianas. El mejoramiento en otros parámetros productivos, como la mortalidad de terneros, inducen una muy baja respuesta en el ingreso neto de la finca (< 3%).El sistema doble propósito resultó ser mejor opción económica que el sistema especializado en carne. Se observó que el potencial de generar ingresos está fuertemente asociado con la orientación económica de la actividad ganadera, en efecto, las fincas de subsistencia que tienen sistema doble propósito tienen la capacidad de generar entre 28% y 35% más ingresos que aquellas similares especializadas en carne. En las fincas pequeñas esa proporción varía entre 68% y el 84%, y en las medianas el rango de aumento de ingreso se ubica entre el 107% y 145%.El costo reducido, que muestra el ingreso que se pierde por la entrada en el sistema del modelo de una tecnología forrajera que no aparece en la solución óptima inicial, indica que eliminar 1 ha de Brachiaria híbrido cv. Mulato para reemplazarla por 1 ha de la gramínea tradicional B. decumbens generaría una pérdida anual entre US$57 y US$115 en fincas de subsistencia. De igual manera, reemplazar 1 ha Cratylia por 1 ha King grass (Pennisetum spp.) generaría una pérdida anual entre US$136 y US$195, dependiendo del país.El precio sombra de la tierra, que representa la cantidad de dinero que el productor estaría dispuesto a pagar por una unidad adicional de un determinado factor limitante agotado, en fincas con tamaño de subsistencia varía desde US$47/año en Costa Rica hasta US$131/año en Guatemala. El precio sombra de la energía es cero, lo que significa que hay un excedente de este nutriente en la ración y, por tanto, este recurso no es limitativo. El precio sombra/kg de proteína varía entre US$1 y US$1.7, lo que indica que este recurso en deficitario en la época seca para optimizar el exceso de energía existente en la dieta. Esta optimización se alcanza mediante la fertilización de los bancos de Cratylia con el fin de aumentar la cantidad de biomasa disponible o suplementando durante la época seca con proteína de bajo costo, como pollinaza. El precio sombra del capital en el sistema doble propósito varía desde US$1.38 en fincas de subsistencia hasta US$2.14 en fincas medianas, y en el sistema de producción especializado de carne, respectivamente, desde US$1.11 hasta US$1.37, lo que significa que la inversión en pasturas mejoradas permite pagar altas tasas de interés.Los resultados de este trabajo demuestran que la inversión en investigación para el desarrollo de germoplasma forrajero mejorado, contribuye significativamente al mejoramiento de los ingresos de los pequeños productores, mientras hacen un uso más racional de los recursos disponibles, particularmente de la tierra, lo cual tiene importantes implicaciones en términos de la competitividad y sostenibilidad de la producción y del crecimiento económico general y crecimientoEl pastoreo extensivo en zonas tropicales degradadas y de baja productividad es el sistema más común de producción ganadera en América Latina, esta condición unida a los periodos de sequías prolongadas que son frecuentes en la región se traducen en bajos coeficientes técnicos y pobre desempeño económico de las explotaciones ganaderas (Rivas, 2002).En el pasado reciente, la tendencia hacia un crecimiento extensivo de los sistemas ganaderos implicó la utilización en una proporción cada vez mayor de áreas nuevas, frágiles ecológicamente y de menor capacidad productiva, las cuales bajo esquemas de manejo no adecuados favorecieron daños severos en el ecosistema, entre ellos, deforestación, erosión, compactación y pérdida de nutrientes del suelo. En varias zonas esta tendencia se manifestó por un sistema agrícola-ganadero de trashumancia, caracterizado por el uso temporal de áreas nuevas y la tala indiscriminada de bosques (Rivas, 2002). Ante esta situación, las instituciones nacionales e internacionales han orientado sus esfuerzos de investigación en el desarrollo de nuevo germoplasma forrajero de alta calidad y productividad, adaptado a las condiciones de baja fertilidad de los suelos en zonas tropicales con épocas secas prolongadas (Rivas, 2002). Como resultado de estas investigaciones se han identificado gramíneas y leguminosas forrajeras mejoradas con potencial para aumentar la productividad animal por unidad de área, permitiendo un uso alternativo de la tierra con ganadería en aquellas zonas más frágiles (Holmann y Lascano, 2001).La falta de información sobre la utilización de estos nuevos materiales forrajeros y su integración en los sistemas de producción existentes, así como su viabilidad económica, han sido las principales barreras para su adopción generalizada. Esta situación es agravada, muchas veces, por los pequeños productores quienes frecuentemente adoptan sistemas mixtos de ganadería y cultivos, lo que dificulta la toma de decisiones acerca del uso de recursos.En Centroamérica la ganadería vacuna en pastoreo es una de las principales alternativas que demanda el uso de los suelos. Casi dos terceras partes de las tierras con aptitud agrícola se destinan a pasturas, una proporción que varía entre países, desde 51% en Honduras hasta 82% en Costa Rica (Cuadro 1). La magnitud de estas cifras explica la alta incidencia que el uso y manejo de las pasturas tienen sobre la conservación y el uso productivo de los recursos de tierra en la región. Este hecho es más relevante si se considera que actualmente una alta proporción, aproximadamente 60%, de estas pasturas presentan problemas de baja productividad. reducción de la pobreza y conservación de la base de recursos naturales;(3) se analiza el retorno y la viabilidad económica de la inversión en pasturas mejoradas y su potencial en diversas escalas de producción, en particular en los grupos de pequeños productores que representan una fracción significativa en el total en la región, así, en Honduras el 95% de las fincas que poseen ganado tienen menos que 50 ha, en Nicaragua el 67% menos que 35 ha y en Costa Rica el 75% son menores que 40 ha (ILRI, 2004).La información utilizada en el estudio proviene de un muestreo en fincas de la región y de 123 entrevistas a productores ganaderos -30 en Costa Rica, 32 en Nicaragua, 35 en Honduras y 26 en Guatemala. Estas encuestas fueron realizadas al azar en las principales cuencas ganaderas de estos países por técnicos de instituciones nacionales responsables de la investigación y transferencia de tecnologías en ganadería. En ellas, se recopiló información sobre la composición del hato, los patrones de uso de la tierra, la producción de leche y carne y el uso de insumos para la alimentación animal, con el fin de estimar los parámetros productivos y reproductivos, el empleo de mano de obra familiar y contratada y los indicadores de rentabilidad de las alternativas evaluadas.Con base en los resultados de las encuestas se definieron los tamaños de fincas ganaderas más representativos (Cuadro 2) siguientes: (1) de subsistencia, en la cual la función objetivo es producir para autoconsumo y su principal actividad es la agricultura; (2) pequeño, el propietario destina una parte de la producción de la finca para autoconsumo y vende el resto en el mercado; y (3) mediano, el productor está totalmente orientado hacia el mercado de productos ganaderos. Esta información constituye la línea de base, a partir de la cual evolucionan los diversos escenarios planteados en el estudio y los cuales son evaluados desde el punto de vista económico, empleando para el efecto un modelo de simulación.La información económica sobre los precios de la leche y la carne recibidos por los productores en los países seleccionados, el valor comercial del ganado y los costos de establecimiento pasturas mejoradas aparecen en el Cuadro 3.Cuadro 2. Uso de la tierra, estructura del hato, parámetros productivos y reproductivos y utilización de mano de obra familiar y contratada en tres tamaños de fincas en Centroamérica Este enfoque ha sido empleado durante varios años a diferentes escalas de análisis como una herramienta muy útil para el trabajo en economía normativa en el ámbito de la finca, la cuenca hidrográfica, la región y el país. Los análisis con enfoque de PL generan información útil para la toma de decisiones a escala de finca y para la formulación de políticas estatales adecuadas que permiten un mejor empleo de los recursos a escalas micro y macro. Este modelo enfrenta el problema básico de la economía: la asignación eficiente de recursos escasos, considerando varios usos alternativos. De aquí se deriva su amplia utilización en actividades de planificación, formulación y diseño de políticas económicas. Las metodologías de PL conducen a la determinación de la mejor asignación posible (óptima) de los recursos económicos disponibles, teniendo en cuenta restricciones del sistema en análisis tales como escasez y calidad y capacidad productivas, que pueden ser de orden biológico, económico y social. La mejor asignación posible de los recursos conduce a la optimización de una función objetivo, que alternativamente puede ser la maximización de los beneficios económicos o la minimización de los costos involucrados en los procesos productivos. El modelo teórico de PL se plantea como:≥ donde, Z = es la función objetivo, que en el presente estudio se define como el beneficio neto resultante de la implementación de las nuevas opciones productivas en el ámbito de la finca.A = es una matriz de m x n , que representa los coeficientes técnicos de las actividades productivas y alternativas de decisión consideradas, y X = es un vector columna en el cual se incluyen estas últimas. b = es el vector columna que representa el nivel de las restricciones bajo las cuales se optimizará Z .Las condiciones de no-negatividad del modelo garantizan que las actividades y alternativas de decisión que entren en la solución óptima tomen valores numéricos positivos.En el presente estudio se considera que este enfoque analítico resulta muy apropiado, debido a que las restricciones de mano de obra, capital y tierra pueden constituir un grave obstáculo para la modernización de la ganadería regional.Para calcular el retorno económico a la inversión en pasturas mejoradas se utilizó un modelo de simulación desarrollado inicialmente por el Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) y la Red Internacional de Sistemas de Producción Animal en América Latina (RISPAL), el cual fue luego expandido por el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). Este modelo, que utiliza técnicas de optimización mediante programación lineal, fue implementado en una hoja electrónica con el objetivo de evaluar ex ante los costos y beneficios de diferentes alternativas de uso de la tierra y las interacciones entre componentes tecnológicos y la productividad biológica (Holmann y Estrada, 1997).El modelo asume que la función objetivo de los productores es maximizar el ingreso neto anual y genera la información necesaria para estimar el retorno económico a la inversión en nuevas tecnologías ganaderas basadas en germoplasma forrajero mejorado. Su estructura flexible permite al usuario construir diversos escenarios alternativos en función de sus intereses particulares y capacidad analítica.Las gramíneas del género Brachiaria son una alternativa posible para enfrentar las deficiencias en cantidad y calidad de forraje que son comunes en zonas bajas de América Latina tropical.Las especies de este género tienen un amplio rango de adaptación a condiciones adversas de clima y suelos y una alta productividad (Rivas y Holmann, 2005)  Guiot y Meléndez, 2003;c. Plazas, 2002 Falta;d. CIAT, 2001;e. Enriquez, 2002;f. CIAT, 2004. Para el efecto se recopiló la información disponible sobre producción de carne y leche con grupos de animales en pasturas de B. decumbens y del híbrido cv. Mulato (Cuadro 4).La respuesta en productividasd se simuló empleando los promedios del Cuadro 3 (24% más leche, 32% más carne y 86% más carga animal) que representan las ganancias en productividad fisica, resultantes de la inversión en pasturas mejoradas.Los resultados de las encuestas mostraron que la mayor parte de los productores depende del uso de pastos de corte y se ven forzados a invertir en alimentos concentrados para complementar la dieta basal de sus animales. Para hacer frente a esta situación, el CIAT y el ILRI estan promoviendo la utilización de alternativas forrajeras basadas en el uso de leguminosas arbustivas. Ahora, existen suficientes evidencias que demuestran que esta alternativa permite mantener la productividad del hato durante la época seca a un menor costo que la suplementación con alimentos concentrados (Cuadro 5). Los resultados de la investigación (Cuadros 4 y 5) y los datos de línea base que se presentan en el Cuadro 2, permitieron definir los parámetros forrajeros y de producción animal de las alternativas evaluadas con el modelo de simulación (Cuadros 6 y 7).El modelo evalúa cada uno de los tamaños de finca bajo los escenarios siguientes:1. El productor reemplaza las pasturas nativas por el híbrido cv. Mulato y establece la leguminosa arbustiva Cratylia argentea (cv. Veraniega, Argel et al., 2001) para suplementar el hato en las épocas secas. En este caso, se estima el incremento en productividad e ingresos en función del aumento esperado de la respuesta animal en relación con la línea de base fijada previamente;2. El escenario anterior se desarrolla bajo los sistemas doble propósito y especializado en producción de carne.Cuadro 6.Parámetros de productividad animal utilizados en el modelo en los distintos tamaños de finca y sistemas de producción tradicional y mejorada en América Central. En estudios anteriores se encontró que los productores pequeños generalmente no tienen un flujo de caja adecuado para hacer inversiones en pasturas mejoradas (Holmann et al., 2004), por tanto, se asume que la finca adquiere un crédito para realizar estas inversiones a una tasa de interés anual del 10%. La diferencia entre el ingreso neto de la línea base (año cero) y el ingreso neto en un año determinado se destina al pago de la deuda del crédito hasta que la finca genere un flujo de caja positivo.Debido a la ausencia de resultados de investigación confiables en la zona del estudio sobre la respuesta en reproducción y mortalidad de terneros como consecuencia de la mejor nutrición por el uso de nuevos híbridos de Brachiaria, se asumió que estos parámetros a. Equivalente a 20% de la producción de biomasa de la época de lluvias.b. Equivalente a 30% de la producción de biomasa de la época de lluvias para las gramíneas y del 100% para Cratylia argentea.En los Cuadros 8 a 10 se observan la situación actual (línea base) para cada tamaño de finca (subsistencia, pequeño y mediano) y el escenario al cual es posible llegar (meta u objetivo) en términos de crecimiento del hato, producción de leche y carne, ingreso neto y generación de empleo, como resultado de la inversión en pasturas mejoradas para reemplazar las áreas de la finca que se encuentran en pasturas nativas de baja productividad. En estos Cuadros también aparecen el número de años de financiación con crédito, requeridos para que la propia finca genere el flujo de caja positivo adecuado que le permita continuar su expansión y el horizonte de tiempo necesario para lograr el objetivo posible en cada tamaño de finca.Finca de subsistencia. Este es un grupo de productores de especial relevancia desde el punto de vista del diseño de las políticas enfocadas a aliviar la pobreza y mejorar la equidad social, por tanto, debe ser el objetivo de tales políticas.La inversión en el híbrido cv. Mulato y en Cratylia para reemplazar las áreas de la finca en pasturas nativas (en este caso, 4 ha) permite incrementar el tamaño del hato en la base pasando de 2 a 5 vacas en Costa Rica y a 7 vacas en el resto de los países (Cuadro 8). El caso de Costa Rica es diferente a los demás países debido a que la proporción gramínea:leguminosa que se establece en la finca es mayor (3.7 ha de cv. Mulato y 0.3 ha Cratylia, es decir, 92% de la gramínea), mientras que en el resto de los países la proporción de gramínea es menor (2.5 ha de cv. Mulato (62%) y 1.5 ha de Cratylia). Esta diferencia es debida, entre otros factores, al mayor costo de la mano de obra (US$6.40/día), por tanto, en este país es más rentable producir leche y carne dando mayor énfasis al pastoreo directo con gramíneas. En el resto de países, con costos inferiores de mano de obra, se justifica económicamente establecer una mayor área de leguminosa para corte y acarreo, que demanda más mano de obra ( 50jornales/año con Cratylia vs. 8 jornales/año con una gramínea mejorada) pero que permite aumentar significativamente la carga animal.Cuadro 8. Inventario de vacas, producción ganadera, generación de empleo, necesidades de crédito y tiempo necesario para alcanzar el pleno potencial productivo (objetivo) en fincas de subsistencia de doble propósito en Centroamérica. El proceso de inversión a través del tiempo para lograr las metas propuestas en términos de siembras anuales de pasturas mejoradas, crecimiento del hato, necesidades de crédito, aumento del ingreso neto y generación de empleo o utilización de mano de obra familiar y contratada se incluyen en los Cuadros 1.1 a 1.4 del Anexo 1.Finca de tamaño pequeño. Según el modelo, este tamaño de explotación presenta un comportamiento similar al de la finca de subsistencia (Cuadro 9). En Costa Rica la tendencia es alcanzar la meta u objetivo de crecimiento con menor cantidad de vacas en el hato debido a que el alto costo de la mano de obra obliga a su uso más intensivo, dando como resultado el predominio de pasturas con una mayor proporción de la gramínea. En Guatemala, Honduras y Nicaragua, donde el costo de la mano de obra es menor, se favorece el uso de Cratylia que demanda más labores de cultivo que la gramínea. Esta circunstancia genera un potencial más alto de intensificación en términos animales/unidad de área, debido a la producción de biomasa y la buena calidad forrajera de la leguminosa.Cuadro 9. Número de vacas, producción ganadera, generación de empleo, necesidades de crédito y tiempo necesario para alcanzar el pleno potencial productivo (objetivo) en fincas pequeñas de doble propósito en en países de Centroamérica. Brachiaria híbrido cv. Mulato 0 6.9 0 6.9 0 6.9 0 10.2Cratylia argentea 0 6.1 0 6.1 0 6.1 0 2.8 Generación de empleo (jornales/año) 0.9 1.9 0.9 1.9 0.9 1.9 0.9 El flujo de la inversión a través del tiempo para lograr las metas propuestas en términos de siembras anuales de pasturas mejoradas, crecimiento del hato, necesidades de crédito, aumento del ingreso neto y generación de empleo o utilización de mano de obra familiar y contratada se incluyen en los Cuadros 2.1 a 2.4 del Anexo 2.Con una tendencia similar a las fincas de tamaño de subsistencia, las fincas pequeñas tienen la capacidad de mejorar significativamente la producción de leche y carne, el ingreso y la generación de empleo.Finca de tamaño medio. En este tamaño de finca, nuevamente los resultados siguen el comportamiento observado para las fincas de subsistencia, tanto en el caso de Costa Rica como en los demás países (Cuadro 10). La información sobre las estrategias de inversión en cada país se incluyen en los Cuadros 3.1 a 3.4 del Anexo 3.Cuadro 10. Número de vacas, producción ganadera, generación de empleo, necesidades de crédito y tiempo necesario para alcanzar el pleno potencial productivo en fincas (objetivo) medianas de doble propósito en países de Centroamérica. El análisis de sensibilidad permite estudiar la magnitud y el sentido de las variaciones de la solución inicial, frente a cambios de variables críticas tales como parámetros técnicos, de productividad y de precios y costos. Este análisis tiene carácter parcial, ya que cuando cambia el nivel de la variable que se analiza el de las demás permanece constante, por ejemplo, permite conocer, independiente del tamaño de finca, cuándo dos parámetros técnicos (por ej., fertilidad y producción de leche por vaca) y uno económico (por ej., precio de la leche al productor) son los de mayor impacto sobre el ingreso neto del ganadero. En el Cuadro 11 se observa, para el Cuadro 11. Sensibilidad del ingreso neto debido al mejoramiento del 10% en la fertilidad y la productividad animal y a la reducción de un porcentaje igual en la mortalidad y los precios de los productos ganaderos, en varios tamaños de finca en sistemas doble propósito en países de Centroamérica a . caso de varios tamaños de finca en sistemas doble propósito de Centroamérica, la sensibilidad del ingreso neto frente a un mejoramiento del 10% en la fertilidad y la productividad del hato ganadero y una reducción de la misma magnitud porcentual en la tasa de mortalidad de terneros y en los precios al ganadero.Un aumento del 10% en la fertilidad del hato con respecto a la tasa de parición actual mejora los ingresos entre 17% y 19% en fincas de subsistencia, entre 16% y 19% en fincas pequeñas y entre 14% y 20% en las medianas, dependiendo del país donde ocurra el cambio.El segundo parámetro en importancia por su impacto sobre el ingreso es la productividad de leche. Un incremento del 10% en la producción actual de leche por vaca resulta en un ingreso entre 12% y 13% mayor en fincas de subsistencia, entre 12% y 15% en fincas pequeñas y entre 12% y 18% en fincas medianas.Los precios de la carne y la leche son críticos ante la posibilidad de que los productores de la región deban ajustarse a un nuevo marco económico derivado del CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement). Una reducción del 10% en el precio de leche recibido por los productores implicaría una baja entre 14% y 19% de los ingresos totales en las fincas de subsistencia, entre 13% y 16% en las pequeñas y entre 13% y 20% en las medianas. Una reducción de igual magnitud en el precio de la carne igualmente provocaría una caída de los ingresos, pero menor a la que ocurre cuando bajan los precios de la leche. Lo anterior es debido a que en los sistemas de producción doble propósito los ingresos y el flujo de caja dependen en gran parte de la venta de leche.Un incremento de 10% en el peso vivo animal actual al destete de los terneros provocaría un moderado crecimiento de los ingresos, entre 4% y 5% en fincas de subsistencia y rentabilidad del establecimiento de áreas más extensas de leguminosas de corte y acarreo (por ej., 2.5 de cv. Mulato y 1.5 ha Cratylia).Al igual que en las situaciones analizadas anteriormente, en estas fincas los productores no cuentan con el flujo de caja necesario para el establecimiento de las nuevas tecnologías forrajeras y es necesario contar con un flujo de crédito por períodos entre de 4 y 5 años, tiempo necesario para que la explotación alcance la autosuficiencia financiera y continúe haciendo las inversiones necesarias para llegar a la meta de crecimiento propuesta (ver Anexo 4).Cuadro 12. Número de vacas, producción ganadera, generación de empleo, necesidades de crédito y tiempo necesario para alcanzar el pleno potencial productivo (objetivo) en fincas de subsistencia especializadas en producción de carne en países de Centroamérica. Finca pequeña. En este tamaño de finca, al igual que en el tamaño de subsistencia, el hato inicial es de 7 vacas, siendo más pequeño que en sistemas de producción doble propósito. La inversión en pasturas mejoradas tiene grandes beneficios económicos, en producción y en el campo social, entre ellos: en relación con la línea base de cada país, el ingreso neto incrementa 6.6 veces en Guatemala, 8 veces en Honduras, 10 veces en Nicaragua y 12 veces en Costa Rica; la producción de carne crece más de tres veces (3.5) en Honduras y Nicaragua, se triplica en Guatemala y crece más que el doble en Costa Rica (2.5); la inversión en pasturas mejoradas permite incrementar la generación de empleo en un rango que varía entre 2.5 y 4.5 veces.En el Cuadro 13 y en el Anexo 5 (Cuadros 5.1 a 5.4) se incluye la información detallada para cada país sobre los aumentos en las áreas sembradas con pasturas mejoradas, inversión adicional requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta u objetivo propuesto. Finca mediana. Los resultados encontrados en este tamaño de finca indican que la inversión y los beneficios obtenidos de las pasturas mejoradas dependen, al igual que en los casos de fincas de subsistencia y pequeñas, de la facilidad de crédito por un plazo entre 2 y 5 años hasta que la finca genere su propio flujo de caja que le permita continuar con las inversiones requeridas hasta alcanzar el objetivo (ver Cuadro 14 y Anexo 6).El comportamiento del ingreso neto en este sistema frente a los cambios de los parámetros considerados en el estudio es similar al observado en el sistema doble propósito, o sea, que independiente del tamaño de la finca, las variaciones de los parámetros de fertilidad y productividad de carne son las que tienen un mayor impacto sobre el ingreso. Así, un incremento de 10% en estos parámetros aumenta el ingreso en forma proporcional entre 11% y 21% (Cuadro 15). La reducción del precio de la carne tiene un impacto altamente significativo sobre los ingresos del productor. Una reducción del 10% en el precio de la carne reduciría los ingresos netos entre 21% y 39%, lo que significa una reducción más fuerte que en el caso de producción con sistema de doble propósito. Esto se debe a que en el sistema especializado de producción de carne los productores dependen de un solo producto para obtener la totalidad de sus ingresos, lo que no ocurre en los sistemas doble propósito. Lo anterior explica, en gran parte, la amplia difusión del sistema doble propósito en zonas tropicales bajas de América Latina, un sistema flexible que les permite a los productores ajustarse de mejor forma a las fluctuaciones del precio relativo carne/leche y minimizar los riesgos propios de la ganadería.Relaciones entre ingreso, sistema de producción y tamaño de la fincaEl análisis de los resultados en las fincas de subsistencia con los sistemas de producción doble propósito y especializado en carne, muestran que en el primero se genera un mayor ingreso (entre 28% y 35% más) que en el segundo sistema (Cuadros 8 y 12).La gran capacidad de generación de ingresos del sistema doble propósito también ocurre en las fincas ganaderas pequeñas. En comparación con las fincas especializadas en producción de carne, este sistema genera incrementos en los ingresos en una proporción que varía desde 67% en Nicaragua hasta 84% en Guatemala (Cuadros 8 y 12). Al igual que en las fincas con tamaño de subsistencia, el sistema de doble propósito ofrece al pequeño productor la oportunidad de obtener mejores ingresos que el sistema especializado en producción de carne.En fincas de tamaño mediano el desempeño económico de los dos sistemas de producción antes mencionados tiene un comportamiento igual al que presentan en las fincas de tamaño pequeño. No obstante, es importante señalar que la magnitud del impacto del sistema doble propósito, en términos de generación de ingresos, en la finca mediana es mayor que en los otros tamaños de finca estudiados. Los incrementos en el ingreso se sitúan desde 107% en Nicaragua) hasta 185% en Costa Rica (Cuadros 8 y 12).El ingreso neto/vaca por año según el tamaño de la finca y el sistema de producción se incluye en el Cuadro 16, siendo mayor en el sistema doble propósito. Se puede observar que existe un gradiente ascendente de rentabilidad por unidad animal en la medida que aumenta el tamaño de la finca. Las fincas medianas tienden a ser más rentables que las pequeñas y éstas, a su vez, más rentables que las de subsistencia. Esto se debe a que las explotaciones más grandes tienden a mejores parámetros productivos lo cual se refleja directamente en el comportamiento económico, así lo muestran los resultados en las encuestas en este estudio (Cuadro 6). En la medida en que el tamaño de la finca aumenta, mejora la tasa de fertilidad, decrece la mortalidad de terneros y aumenta la productividad de leche por vaca y por lactancia, lo que concuerda con los resultados de estudios en Colombia (Holmann et al., 2003).Cuadro 16. Ingreso neto según tamaño de finca y sistema de producción ganadero en fincas de Centroamérica (US$ de 1994 ).Sistema de producción y tamaño de finca Costo reducido y 'precio sombra'Estos conceptos económicos comúnmente se utilizan en los análisis bajo el enfoque de programación lineal. En el presente estudio, el costo reducido muestra el ingreso que se pierde por incluir en el modelo una tecnología forrajera que no ha sido considerada en la solución óptima. El precio sombra, también conocido como precio de escasez, representa la máxima cantidad de dinero que el productor estaría dispuesto a pagar por una unidad adicional de un determinado factor limitante que se agotó en el proceso productivo.El costo reducido para las alternativas forrajeras tradicionales así como el 'precio sombra' de la tierra y de la proteína como nutriente limitante durante la época seca en el sistema de producción de doble propósito se incluyen en el Cuadro 17. Como se observa, eliminar 1 ha de cv. Mulato para reemplazarla por B. decumbens generaría una pérdida anual entre US$57 y US$115 en fincas de tamaño de subsistencia. De igual manera, reemplazar 1 ha Cratylia por King grass generaría una pérdida anual entre US$136 y US$195, dependiendo del país.El precio sombra de la tierra en fincas con tamaño de subsistencia varía desde US$47 en Costa Rica hasta US$131 en Guatemala. Esto significa que un productor en Guatemala estaría dispuesto a pagar hasta US$131 anuales por el alquilar de 1 ha adicional de tierra con el fin de dedicarla a la ganadería en sistema doble propósito, empleando la alternativa de pasturas mejoradas. Para el caso del sistema especializado de producción de carne, la situación es similar a la anterior (Cuadro 18).Cuadro 17. Costos reducidos de las alternativas forrajeras tradicionales y 'precios sombra' de la tierra, proteína y energía digestible en diferentes tamaño de finca, bajo el sistema de doble propósito en países de Centroamérica. Precio sombra para la proteína y la energía. El precio sombra de estos componentes de la producción animal se incluyen igualmente en los Cuadros 17 y 18. Como se observa, el precio sombra de la energía es cero, lo que significa que hay un excedente en la ración y, por tanto, no es limitante. El precio sombra de la proteína varía entre US$1 y US$1.7 por kilogramo de proteína digestible, lo que indica que durante la época seca este nutriente es deficiente y no permite optimizar el exceso de energía existente en la dieta. En consecuencia, para mejorar aún más el sistema de producción se debería: (1) hacer una fertilización adecuada en el banco de proteína de Cratylia para aumentar la biomasa y la proteína total producida por hectárea, o(2) suministrar un suplemento con mediano a alto contenido de proteína de bajo precio, por ejemplo, pollinaza procesada.Cuadro 18. Costo reducido de las alternativas forrajeras tradicionales y 'precios sombra' de la tierra, proteína y energía digestible en diferentes tamaños de finca, bajo el sistema especializado de producción de carne en países de Centroamérica. Para evaluar la primera opción se asumió un incremento en la producción de biomasa del 30% debido a la fertilización con 150 kg/ha de un fertilizante 10-30-10, aplicado al final de la época de lluvias; para la segunda opción se asumió un consumo de 3 kg/vaca por día de pollinaza durante la época seca a un precio comercial de US$0.04/kg, aunque esta es una práctica utilizada en muchos países de Centroamérica actualmente su uso como suplemento para animales está siendo restringido.Tanto en el sistema de doble propósito como en el especializado de producción de carne, la fertilización del banco de Cratylia permite aumentar la biomasa y la cantidad total de proteína disponibles para los animales y consecuentemente, incrementar el hato entre 7% y 9% y el ingreso neto entre 11% y 15%, dependiendo del país (Cuadros 19 y 20).Cuadro 19. Incrementos en el hato y el ingreso neto resultantes del empleo de nuevas fuentes de proteína (Cratylia fertilizada y pollinaza) que permiten optimizar el uso de la energía disponible en fincas de Centroamérica con sistema doble propósito. Cuando se analiza el efecto de la suplementación con pollinaza sobre los sistemas de producción doble propósito y especializado en carne, se observa que el beneficio es aún mayor que el obtenido con la fertilización del banco de Cratylia. En los países en estudio, la suplementación con pollinaza durante la época seca permite mantener más animales y mejorar el ingreso en comparación con el uso del banco de la leguminosa. Costa Rica es el más beneficiado con esta alternativa, ya que el uso de la pollinaza permite incrementar el hato y el ingreso neto en mayor proporción que en los demás países, debido al mayor uso de pasturas mejoradas en forma directa por los animales y al bajo costo de este subproducto en este país.Cuadro 20. Incrementos en el hato y en el ingreso neto resultantes del empleo de nuevas fuentes de proteína (Cratylia fertilizada y pollinaza) para optimizar el uso de la energía disponible en sistemas ganaderos especializados en producción de carne en países de Centroamérica. Precio sombra del capital. El precio sombra del capital en el sistema de doble propósito varía desde US$1.38 en fincas de subsistencia hasta US$2.14 en fincas medianas (Cuadro 21).En el sistema especializado de producción de carne éste varia desde US$0.76 en fincas de subsistencia hasta US$1.37 en fincas medianas. Esto significa que la inversión en pasturas mejoradas permite pagar tasas de interés anual muy altas (entre de 38% y 114% en sistemas doble propósito y entre 11% y 37% en sistemas especializados de carne).De la misma manera, el precio sombra es mayor en sistemas doble propósito debido a que éste genera mejores ingresos que el sistema especializado en carne y, por tanto, estaría dispuesto a pagar un mejor interés por el capital prestado. Por otro lado, en la medida que el tamaño de la finca es más grande, el precio sombra también incrementa. Esto se debe a que las fincas con mayor tamaño tienen parámetros técnicos más eficientes y generan mejores ingresos que les permite tener precios sombra más altos. • La inversión en pasturas mejoradas como una estrategia para acelerar el crecimiento es una alternativa socialmente rentable por su impacto en la reducción de la pobreza, el mejoramiento de la competitividad de la producción doméstica y el aumento de la oferta de alimentos y de materias primas. Este impacto se traduce en una mayor generación de empleo, incremento de los ingresos de los productores de pequeña y mediana escala, aumento de la oferta de carne y leche y en una mayor eficiencia en el uso de la tierra.• No obstante que las explotaciones ganaderas evaluadas en este estudio son de subsistencia o entre pequeñas y medianas, la mano de obra y el capital financiero son las principales limitantes para su intensificación a través del uso de pasturas mejoradas. En países como Costa Rica, donde la mano de obra es escasa y tiene un alto costo, los sistemas de alimentación basados en gramíneas como B. brizantha cv.Toledo son los más utilizados. En la medida que el costo de la mano de obra es menor, incrementa la participación de leguminosas como Cratylia.• La proteína fue identificada como el nutriente más limitante en la época seca, y así lo indica su precio sombra. Por esta razón el uso de nuevas leguminosas forrajeras tienen un papel muy importante en los procesos de intensificación de la ganadería en la región. Bajo las condiciones actuales de los sistemas de producción evaluados, la oferta de energía metabolizable no constituye un obstáculo, ya que su precio sombra es cero.Lo anterior sugiere la necesidad de continuar las investigaciones con nuevas leguminosas forrajeras de alto contenido de proteína.• Los ingresos de los productores están determinados por factores técnicos y económicos.Entre los primeros se destacan la fertilidad del hato y los índices de productividad en términos de carne y de leche por unidad animal. Independiente del tamaño de la finca, un cambio porcentual en estos parámetros, induce variaciones más que proporcionales en el ingreso del productor. En los sistemas doble propósito, como es de esperar, los cambios en el precio de la leche tienen un impacto muy significativo en la economía de los productores. Esta es una variable exógena al sistema y en consecuencia no controlable por el productor, representando, por tanto, un importante factor de riesgo.• Otros parámetros técnicos, como el peso al destete o la tasa de mortalidad de terneros, tienen una moderada influencia sobre el ingreso al productor. No obstante, se debe anotar que estos son variables endógenas, como también lo son la fertilidad y los índices de productividad del hato resultantes del funcionamiento interno del sistema y que pueden ser mejoradas a través de la alimentación y el manejo, lo cual permite disminuir riesgos dentro del negocio ganadero.• La inversión en pasturas mejoradas para incrementar el bienestar de los productores es económicamente rentable. Debido a falta de flujo de caja, para que esta inversión sea viable, los productores necesitan de una línea crediticia en que varía entre 2 y 7 años, dependiendo del sistema de producción y del país.• Los resultados de este trabajo demuestran que la inversión en investigación para el desarrollo de germoplasma forrajero mejorado, contribuye significativamente al mejoramiento de los ingresos de los pequeños productores, mientras hacen un uso más racional de los recursos disponibles, particularmente de la tierra, lo cual tiene importantes implicaciones en términos de la competitividad y sostenibilidad de la producción y del crecimiento económico general y crecimientoIncremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta de desarrollo propuesta (objetivo) en fincas de subsistencia con sistema de producción doble propósito en Centroamérica Cuadro 1.1. Incremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar el objetivo de desarrollo propuesto en fincas de subsistencia con sistema de producción doble propósito en fincas de Guatemala. Novillas producidas en la finca (#) 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4.4 4.9 5.4 5.9 6.6Vacas Novillas producidas en la finca (no.) 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4.4 4.9 5.4 5.9 6.6Vacas Novillas producidas en la finca (no.) 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4.4 4.9 5.4 5.9 6.6Vacas a. Se asume que la diferencia entre el ingreso neto de la línea base (US$838/año) y el ingreso neto en un año determinado se destina al pago de la deuda (por ej., US$1760 en el año 2 menos US$838 en el año base dejan US$922 para pagar deuda al final del año 2).Cuadro 2.4. Incremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta de desarrollo propuesta (objetivo) en fincas pequeñas con sistemas de producción doble propósito en Costa Rica.Línea base 1 2 3 4 5 6 7(objetivo)Novillas producidas en la finca (no.) 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4.4 4.9 5.4Vacas a. Se asume que la diferencia entre el ingreso neto de la línea base (US$1079/año) y el ingreso neto en un año determinado se destina al pago de la deuda (por ej., US$2263 en el año 2 menos US$1079 en el año base dejan US$1184 para pagar deuda al final del año 2).Incremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja, y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta de desarrollo propuesta (objetivo) en fincas medianas con sistema doble propósito en países de Centroamérica Cuadro 3.1. Incremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta de desarrollo propuesta (objetivo) en fincas con sistema de producción doble propósito en Guatemala. Novillas disponibles para crecimiento de hato (no.)3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4.5 5.0 5.6 6.2 6.9Tamaño a. Se asume que la diferencia entre el ingreso neto de la línea base (US$3461/año) y el ingreso neto en un año determinado se destina al pago de la deuda (por ej., US$4446 en el año 2 menos US$3461 en el año base dejan US$985 para pagar deuda al final del año 2).Cuadro 3.2. Incremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta de desarrollo propuesta (objetivo) en fincas medianas con sistemas de producción doble propósito en Honduras. Novillas disponibles para crecimiento del hato (no.)3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4.5 5.0 5.6 6.2 6.9Tamaño a. Se asume que la diferencia entre el ingreso neto de la línea base (US$2821/año) y el ingreso neto en un año determinado se destina al pago de la deuda (por ej., US$3818 en el año 2 menos US$2821 en el año base dejan US$997 para pagar deuda al final del año 2).Cuadro 3.3. Incremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta de desarrollo propuesta (objetivo) en fincas medianas con sistema de producción doble propósito en Nicaragua. Novillas disponibles para crecimiento del hato (no.)3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4.5 5.0 5.6 6.2 6.9Tamaño Novillas disponibles para crecimiento de hato (no.) 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4.5 Se asume que la diferencia entre el ingreso neto de la línea base ($14/año) y el ingreso neto en un año determinado se destina al pago de la deuda (por ej., US$66 en el año 2 menos US$14 en el año base dejan US$52 para pagar deuda al final del año 2).Anexo 5Incremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta de desarrollo propuesta (objetivo) en fincas pequeñas con sistema especializado de producción de carne en países de Centroamérica Cuadro 5.1. Incremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta de desarrollo propuesta (objetivo) en fincas pequeñas con sistema especializado en producción de carne en Guatemala. a. Se asume que la diferencia entre el ingreso neto de la línea base (US$690/año) y el ingreso neto en un año determinado se destina al pago de la deuda (por ej., US$1041 en el año 2 menos US$690 en el año base dejan US$351 para pagar deuda al final del año 2).Cuadro 6.2.Incremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta de desarrollo propuesta (objetivo) en fincas medianas con sistema de especializado de producción de carne en Honduras. a. Se asume que la diferencia entre el ingreso neto de la línea base (US$554/año) y el ingreso neto en un año determinado se destina al pago de la deuda (por ej., US$866 en el año 2 menos US$554 en el año base dejan US$312 para pagar deuda al final del año 2).Cuadro 6.3. Incremento del área en pasturas mejoradas, inversión requerida, crecimiento del hato, flujo de caja y crédito necesario para alcanzar la meta de desarrollo propuesta (objetivo) en fincas medianas con sistema especializado en producción de carne en Nicaragua. a. Se asume que la diferencia entre el ingreso neto de la línea base (US$380/año) y el ingreso neto en un año determinado se destina al pago de la deuda (por ej., US$695 en el año 2 menos US$380 en el año base dejan US$315 para pagar deuda al final del año 2).","tokenCount":"7998"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"170b025cde9e18c34d6390a96d58dcdf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b43698d8-b533-43dc-8f93-60c5c08d646b/retrieve","id":"1974745381"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f1f56969-8666-4358-a2b9-25dbef813462","pagecount":"21","content":"International Agnicultural Research Institutes (IARCs), such as IITA, are confronted with the task of developing technologies for mandate areas that span ecological zones, countries and continents. To fulfill this task efficiently requires an understanding of how technological requirements vary across the mandate area. This can be achieved by characterizing in biophysical and socioeconomic terms both environments and existingJpotential technologies. Characterization provides information which can be used to set research priorities, extrapolate research results, and target existing technologies to appropriate areas for extension purposes.Characterization of environments and technologies requires (1) a conceptual model from which the factors to be used for characterization can be derived, and (2) data on the incidence of these factors. The factors constituting characterization, and, therefore, the data requirements, change as characterization progresses. A first cut at b m d macm-characterization, for instance, would rely heavily on theory and secondary data. A meso-level characterization would involve broad-based primary data collection. Detailed micm-characterization would require in-depth studies. Each of these levels could be used to validate and refine the earlier stages. Characterization, therefore, involves a continuous process of upgrading information and undemanding.Methodologies for socioeconomic characterization are noc as highly developed as those for biological and physical characterization. Nevertheless, considerable advances have been made in recent years at IARCs which are summarized by Grandin (undated). Mos: of this work has focused on the meso-level characterization of environments based on primary data collection, through village level group or individual interviews. and observation. This monograph focuses on first cut socioeconomic characterization which can be carried out with secondary data, prior to more detailed characterization based on field work. Drawing heavily on the work of Binswanger (1986) as a conceptual framework, it develops criteria for the socioeconomic characterization of environments and technologies, and explores the interaction between biophysical and socioeconomic criteria.The' basic assumption underlying the development of criteria is that, within biophysically homogeneous areas, farmers adopt technologies which economize scarce, and hence, expensive resources, and make ample use of abundant, cheap resources (Hayami and Ruttan 1985). If environments were categorized according to relative resource endowments, and rechnologies according to relative resource requirements, it would be possible, within ecologically uniform areas, to target technologies to appropriate socioeconomic environments. This may seem to imply that biophysical and socioeconomic characterization can be carried out independently and sequentially. Significant interactions between the two, as this monograph shows, preclude this step-wise approach.Existing technologies interact with ecological factors, such as soils and rainfall, to determine the resource requirements of these technologies, or the quantity of resources, such as land, labor, or fertilizer required to produce one unit of output. These resource requirements, combined with the prices of each of these resources, determine the cost of producing one unit of output under these technologies. If it is assumed that a new technology will not be adopted unless it lowers the unit cost of production, then the implication is that technologies which increase the resource requirements of high-priced resources are unlikely to be adopted.Accurate data on the prices of inputs and outputs are dficult to collect and are subject to considerable fluctuations over time and space. As a result, most of the literature makes a reference m the importance of socioeconomic characterization, but usually eliminates it from Fust cut characterization, on the grounds of its ephemeral and site-specific nature (Bunting 1987). Economic theory can, however, be used to predict relative endowments (and by implication. relative prices) of resources, and the literature on intensification shows that these predictions can be made from factors which are more stable over time and space.The change from extensive to intensive agriculture has been hypothesized to occur as a result of ~onulation densitv. and access to markets (Bosemo 1965. Binswanner andMclntirc 1987) anb government p o k y e l e and Stone undated). h i s monograph argues that these three factors are the major determinants of relative prices, and can therefore be used in combiiation with ecological factors, and access to technology, to characterize environments according to the type of technology likely to be demanded by farmers in the area Technologies can similarly be characterized according to their resource requirements.Environmentaltechnological matches can be identified which allow for wider adoption of technologies (fig. 1). The framework can be used on an ex-ante basis to guide technology development. It can also be used by extension services to target available technologies to appropriate environments.The practical application of this framework for the categorization of environments will require guidelines on the definitions of high and low levels of population density and access to markets. Taking the case of population density fmt, Binswanger and Pingali (1988) show that it is essential to take differences in soil and climate into account, in order to capture the abundance of land relative to population. They adopt FAO's estimates of potential calorie production at an intermediate level of technology, and relate that to World Bank population projections for the years 2000 to 2025. (This time horizon reflects the long gestation period for the development of agricultural technologies). Binswanger and Pingali then define high densitv as 250 woole oer million kilo calorlcs of rx)tcntial nroduction bv the vcar 2025. Only one coun&y (kigeria) in the humid and subhimid tropics of West aid ~e & a l Africa falls into this category. Nigeria however accouns for 46% of the population of this region. The medium density countries are Sierra Leone, Togo, Ghana, and Benin (100 people per million kilo calorics of production). Low density counulcs arc 1.1ber1a. Tare, cong&. ~b t e d'lvoir~.. Camcroon. CenuJ African Kcnublic. and Gabon. l'his exercisc could be taken as a starting'point. It wbuld be important, hbwevir, to the extent data are available, to subdivide each country as much as possible, and at least by agroecological zone. On access to markets, the methodology of Carter and Jones (1989) could be used as a starting point. The target area is divided into 12\" latitude and 12\" longitude grid cells. Grid cells which have a road, navigable river, or railway are defined as areas of gocd access. Clearly this can be refined and corrected at later stages of characterization, based on field verification.  Low population density with good access to markets has not been considered as a category because it is unlikely to be stable, as in-migration is likely to shift it into category UPDIGAM.The types of technologies likely to be demanded by farmers in each of these environments are given in Table 1. Desired technologies are categorized according to the intensity with which they use resources, following Binswanger (1986). All columns in Table 1 refer to resources or the ratio of resources per unit of output Column 1, therefore, refers to the ratio of land and labor required to produce one unit of wtput, while column 7 refers to the quantity of land required to produce one unit of output The first row shows that LPDPAM farmers demand technologies which are land-intensive, i.e., with high ratios of land use relative to the use of labor, purchased inputs (such as fertilizer), and machinely (columns 1 to 3). This is because land is abundant relative to labor in areas of low population density, and purchased inputs are difficult to locate and costly to transport, and therefore expensive, in areas of poor access to markets. Capital markets are also poorly developed in LPDE'AM areas, because land, being low in value, cannot serve as collateral (Binswanger and McIntire 1987). In the absence of collateral, interest rates are prohibitively high, and loans difficult to obtain. This further inhibits the use of purchased inputs and machinery. Land abundance also leads to undeveloped labor markets. Labor cannot be hired to augment family labor (Binswanger and McIntire 1987). Demand for output, and therefore output price, are low in areas of poor market access. Fanners are consequently interested only in technologies which use low levels of resources, such as labor, purchased inputs, and machinery per unit of output (columns 8-10). Either a high or a low ratio of purchased inputs to machinery is acceptable as long as the quantity of both units per unit of output remains low (column 6). The only input they are willing to use in abundance is land, because it is plentiful and therefore of low value. Farmers prefer an extensive agricultural system, where production is increased by expanding the area under cultivation and labor productivity is high. Note that since fanners prefer high land,output ratios and low ratios of all other inputs to output, the implication is that they are unlikely to be interested in technologies which increase yieldlha by increasing inputs such as fenilizer.The second row shows that in HPDPAM areas, technologies with low levels of land relative to labor are demanded (column 1). This is because land is scarce relative to labor. As population density increases and land becomes scarce, fallow periods decline, and farmers try to increase output per unit of land, i.e., intensification occurs. Yield-increasing technologies become more attractive. Farmers in the HPDPAM category are interested in technologies that increase yield by increasing labor use (column 8). This is because labor is relatively cheap in HPD areas. Also land scarcity leads to the development of labor markets This makes labor hiring possible.  **Ratio can be high or low, but a high level of both inputs per unit of output would be acceptable.Farmers are not, however, likely to adopt technologies which increase yields by using high levels of purchased inputs, (column 9), because in these environments access to inputs is not easily obtained. Nor are they interested in labor-saving machinery, because labor is cheap.The last row shows that in HPDIGAM environments, farmers are interested in making use of purchased inputs, as well as labor, for increasing yields (columns 8 and 9). This is because of the improved access to input markets in this category. Also, improved access to markets increases output demand, and therefore output price. This increases the marginal return to the use of all types of inputs, and induces farmers to use high levels of inputs to produce a marketable surplus. This increases the availability of cash, and further encourages the use of purchased inputs. The effect is further augmented by the development of capital and labor markets, resulting from the increased value and scarcity of land. Interest rates therefore decline, loans are more easily obtained, and labor can be hired to augment production. All these factors combine to produce a transition to an intensified agricultural system, where farmers are interested in using high levels of labor and purchased inputs, in order to increase yield.As intensification progresses, and farmers incomes increase, a substantial proportion of their incremental income is spent on locally produced, labor-intensive g o d s and services (Hazell and Roell 1983). This increases labor demand and wages, and ultimately makes it economical I O use labor-saving machinery. Today, there is very little evidence that intensification in West and CenlIal Africa has increased sufficiently for this phenomenon to occur. Therefore, farmers in HPDIGAM areas are unlikely to be interested in high levels of machinery use (columns 5 and 10). Note that seasonal labor shortages can and do occur at periods of peak labor intensity. These factors. however, require an in-depth understanding of the farming systems and cannot be captured in a first cut characterization exercise.It should be pointed out that the three categories of environments in Table 1 are not necessarily in sequential order. Areas can move from LPDPAM to HPD/PAM or diuectly to HPDfGAM, if increases in population density are accompanied by governmental efforts to improve infrastructure, particularly roads. It also implies that the movement to intensive agriculture is not necessarily autonomously achieved by increases in population density, because access to markets can remain undeveloped. While HPD does stimulate infrasmctulltl dc\\clopmcnt lo somc extent, i f populallon gro\\hlh I \\ very rdpld as In Afnca, governmc'ntal Inlcn.enuon In 1nfr.btructurc dcvclopnicnt may be requ~rcd w sh~ft m a s Into the HPDJGAM category (Lele and Stone undated).'puel u! s%u!nes aqi q uoyodord u! panes s! h a ~q J e w pue 'par!nbai IOU Lllensn s! hau!q3e~1 'slndu! paseq3~nd pue icqel qloq ro 'ioqel iaql!a JO asn aql U! ah!Sualu! S! pue 'puel sanes aiojaiaqi Lrpueqsnq do13 .(pa![dde osle s! iaz![!uaj j! Lluo a n n q j a Lllensn s! q$!qm Li!suap 8ugueld pasear3u! s! aldtuexa uv) ,slndu! paseq3md pue icqel qloq jo arow 8upn Lq lo '(8u!paam jo ase3 aq] ut se) 'icqel aiow 8u!sn Lq i a q a ' p(a!L aseai3uI 'Li!suap lueld io 8u1paam panoidm! se q3ns 'sa~!13eid kpueqsnq do13 .]old JO az!s alues aql woij anuana iaq8!q a Zupnpoid Lq puel anes Lllensn Laql 'arojaiaql [leian0 .laqrew a q spoon lsanmq [[nj a41 arojaq alqepene are Laql asne3aq a3!id raqZ!q e ie plos aq L[@nsn os[e ue3 L a q ~ 'do13 %U!MO~[OJ aql JOJ ia![ma p u e ~ I %u!mrj Lq puel anes saga!ren Lpea 'ianamoq 'sa!%o[om [[e UI .sagawn uoseas llnj jo asoql u e q ram01 aq 01 L[ayc[ are spp!L 'Ll!~nlew L [ m wcuj panlde3 aq ol a8~uenpe reln~pmd ou s! araql JI 'asear3u! spla!L aaeiane 'u~aiied [ p j u ~i aqi a uo!ie~dt?pe ialiaq s m q p Llunlem Alma JI ' s i o ~x j e~e3!8o1oml%e uo spuadap p1aFL uo sa!ia!mn %uun1ew-L1rea JO I3ajja a u .a3!id iaq%!q e ie p~os 3 urn Laq J! 'pue~ jo Ll!luenb ralpws e uorj awo3u! awes a q 8u!~npoid Lq p u e ~ anes Laql 'ianamoH .smdu! jo asn a q a preaar qqm pnnau osle am Li!lenb %ugea iallaq q!m saqa+?A Letters in pmnthesis refer to high cash ryulrzmens, due to delayed benefits.Both inputs likely to increase '***The substitution of herbicides for hand weeding does not increase yield, and therefore is not land-saving. Instead it saves labor, and increases the use of purchased inputs.The issue of ox-plows is more complex. Pingali et al. (1987) show that the shift from hand hoeing to ox-plows cannot be regarded as a simple matter of substituting other inputs for labor, as in the case of herbicides. An important reason for the adoption of oxplows is that it enables farmers to increase the intensity of land cultivation, by making it possible to overcome the labor constraints that prevent the cultivation of a larger land area. This means that a smaller proportion of the fanner's total holding needs to be left fallow each year. Ox-plows are therefore land-saving as well as being labor-saving.Technologies which increase the sustainability of production, by making long term improvements in soil quality, are next illustrated by alley cropping. In alley cropping, hedgerows of leguminous trees are planted at intervals on farmers fields. Arable crops are grown in the alleys between the hedgerows. During the cropping season the hedgerows are pruned, and crops are mulched with prunings. The objective is to increase the possibility of more intensive cultivation by increasing soil quality, through biological nitrogen fixation and mulching. Alley cropping consists of three stages : establishment (when the seedlings of leguminous trees are established), maintenance (when hedgerows are nurtured), and the productive period, when the benefits in the form of increased yields are obtained (Dvorak 1989). In the first two stages, alley cropping is land-using and labor-using. In the productive stiige, it becomes land-saving and labor-using. Since benefits only become available after a period of time, the technology will not be attractive in environments where farmers discount the future at a relatively high rate. This feature is accommodated in the framework by characterizing capital requirements as high (columns 9 and 10). Although alley cropping is not capital intensive in that i t does not require purchased inputs or machinery, it is cash intensive in the sense that it creates an inter-temporal liquidity problem, by cutting down income in earlier years in order to obtain higher gains in future. This is a feature of any technology characterized by delayed benefits.Tables 1 and 2 are now matched with each other to predict the type of technology likely to be acceptable in different socioeconomic environments. Technologies which are characterized as high (H) in any of the last four columns of Table 2 are unlikely to be adopted in environments which are categorized as low (L) in the same column in Table 1. This is because the technology is intensive in an input which is expensive (or scarce) in that environment. Thus, fertilizer responsive varieties are unlikely to be attractive in LPDIPAM or HPDPAM because the technology uses a high level of purchased inputs (column 9 in Tables 1 and 2). Technologies characterized as L in the last four columns of Table 2 save the corresponding inputs. Some of these inputs are saved only in proportion to the land saved, and this is indicated by a neutral (N) characterization in the first three columns. Thus, for fertilizer responsive varieties, labor and machinery are saved only because land is saved (columns 1 and 3 in Table 2). But the technology is inuinsically land-saving, and therefore gives the largest savings in HPD environments, where farmers are anxious to save land because it is scarce or expensive (column 7 in Table 1). Technologies also need to be compared with others which achieve the same objective. For example, yield can be increased by either a resistant variety or a fertilizer responsive variety. In HPD/GAM environments, both technologies would be compatible with the resource base. However, if incorporation of resistance involves a sacrifice in fertilizer responsivcness, farmers in HPDEAM would prefer fertilizer responsive varieties. This technology enables them to take advantage of purchased inputs which are relatively cheap in that environment because of GAM. Note that we are still considering environments which are internally homogeneous from the biophysical point of view. This assumption will be relaxed later.A comparison of Tables 1 and 2 shows as follows.Fertilizer and fertilizer responsive varieties, also hybrid maize, are likely to be most suited to HPDIGAM environments. Resistant varieties, varieties with higher eating quality, and the use of predators in the biological control of pests would be attractive to farmers in all environments. Earlymaturing varieties would be most rapidly adopted in land-scarce environments, and in areas where they reduce the risk of unfavorable weatherlpest conditions. Crop husbandry technologies which requite only additional labor would be attractive in both HPD environments. However, if they also require purchased inputs, they would be adopted only in HPDIGAM areas.Herbicides, even though labor-saving, would be unlikely to be adopted in LPD areas, because of poor access to inputs. They are most likely to be adopted in HPD/GAM areas, but even here they would be adopted only if they were highly effective and cheap. This is because the resulting labor-savings are small, since labor is cheap in HPD areas.Ox-plows, even though labor-saving, would be most likely to be adopted in HPDICAM environments. This is because the major objective of adopting ox-plows is to increase the size of the area cultivated, which is most atuactive to farmers in CAM areas, facing an elastic demand for their products. The land-saving characteristic of ox-plows gives higher benefits in HPDIGAM arcas, not only because land is scarce, but also because labor and purchased inputslha are higher than in other areas. Therefore, the savings in labor, which are obtained by saving land, are also higher.Alley cropping would be attractive to farmers in HPD areas, in the productive phase, because it is land-saving and labor-using. A problem arises, however, in the establishment and maintenance stages, which are intensive in land as well as labor. This is unlikely to be attractive in HPD areas where land is scarce. The lower the rate at which the future is discounted, the more likely are farmers in HPD areas to accept the unattractive features of the first two stages. Discount rates are likely to be lower in HF'D areas when compared with LPD areas because of the better development of capital markets. Farmers in HPDIGAM, however, might prefer to attempt to maintain soil fertility through the use of purchased inputs, since access to markets is good. Alley cropping is therefore most likely to be adopted in HPDPAM areas. Note that if alley cropping is regarded instead as a method of controlling erosion, it may also be attractive to farmers in HPD/GAM areas, because erosion cannot be easily controlled by using purchased inputs. The basic problem with alley cropping is, however, the conflict in the use of resources between the earlier and later phases. Discount rates would therefore. have to be very low before alley cropping is adopted (Ehui et al. 1990).The analysis so far has looked at variability in socioeconomic environments holding constant ecology, government policy, and farmer access to technology. The implications for relaxing each of these will be considered briefly in turn.Ecological differences interact most significantly with socioeconomic variables via their impact m the marginal products of inputs. Climatic and edaphic factors may cause differences in the marginal products of different inputs applied to the same crop, as well as differences between crops. This gives certain environments a biophysical comparative advantage in the production of a particular crop. These differences in comparative advantage interact with the socioeconomic factors discussed so far. For instance, in a particular ecology, fertilizer may not be used even in areas with HPD and CAM, if low solar radiation results in a very low response of maize to fertilizer. It is also important to use agroecological information to build up a picture of the farming system as a whole, and carry out the economic characterization within this context For example, agroecological data will indicate the crops which have a comparative advantage. The other crops are likely to be grown as subsistence crops, and therefore without the HPDIGAM types of technology, such as high levels of fertilizer, even in HPDIGAM areas. An example is the forest zone of Nigeria, where wee crops such as cocoa and oil palm have a comparative advantage. Even though many of these areas have HPDJGAM, foodcrops are generally not cultivated with HF' DIGAM type technologies.Lele and Stone have illustrated that Government policy plays a significant role in promoting or impeding intensification, and the adoption of HPDPAM and HPDIGAM type technologies. Government policy is classified into categories for the purpose of this exercise:policies that distort prices, policies that relate to inhastructure and the provision of services, and polices that affect the dishibution of resources.Examples of distortions are over-valued exchange rates, subsidized input or output prices, and export taxes. The distinguishing feature of these policies is that they prcvent prices from reflecting the relative scarcity of resources in the country. Therefore they create inefficiency by inducing the increased use of scarce resources, or inhibiting the use of abundant resources. It would be dangerous and irresponsible to allow distorted incentives to guide the characterization of environments and the setting of research priorities. For example, the adoption of labor-saving devices such as herbicides and machinery may be induced in HPD areas, even through foreign exchange is scarce, via subsidies or over-valued exchange rates. This adoption should not be used to justify research on screening herbicides, or the development of machinery, because these technologies would be contrary to the resource base of the counuy, and therefore an inefficient use of resources for the country as a whole. Characterization of environments should therefore be corrected for distortionary government policy, and be based on the relative scarcity or abundance of resources.Characterization should, however, take into account government policy on infrastructure and services. Much of this, such as road construction and marketing infrastructure, will have been taken into account in the assessment of access to markets.Others are similar in impact to a change in the availability of resources. Health services, for example, make an area more labor-abundant Certain other policies are similar in impact to a change in prices. A stable economic climate, for example, can be interpreted, in effect, as a more favmble price environment In addition to the quantity of resources, the distribution of resources within a country can also affect the relative prices of resources. In a comparison of two countries with the same population density, the ratio of land to labor prices would be higher in the country with a more unequal dishbution of land. Land-saving technologies would therefore be more attmctive in areas of highly concentrated land ownership. Land ownership in most of We$ and Central Africa is relatively equitable. However, examples of unequal access to loans and purchased inputs are not difficult to fmd. This would increase interest rates and the prices of purchased inputs, and inhibit the use of HF' DjGAM technologies. Government policy on the distribution of resources, therefore, should be incorporated into the analysis.Fanner access to technology and training affects farmer demand for technology. Fertilizer, f a example, will not be adopted even in HPDGAM areas, if fertilizer responsive varieties are not available, either because the technology does not exist, or because it has not been extended to fanners. Nor will ox-plows become widespread in HPD/GAM environments, if none of the existing arable crop varieties can be grown profitably for a marketable surplus. Technologies requiring sophisticated management skills, such as economic thresholds for insecticides, will not be adopted unless farmers have access to the necessary training.The interactions described above show that socioeconomic characrerization has to be integrated with :government policy, and fanner access to technology and training, before fanner demand for technology can be determinedAn analytical framework for the socioeconomic characterization of environments and technologies was developed, based on the theories of induced innovation and intensification. The analysis divided environments into three categories, based on combinations of population density and access to markets, and identified the types of technologies likely to be appropriate in each category. The exercise illustrated that there are substantial differences in the types of technologies likely to be demanded by farmers in different socioeconomic environments. Interactions between agroecological and socioeconomic characterization were discussed, and ways of incorporating the policy environment and farmer access to technology were illustrated. Clearly, characterization involves an integration of these different aspects.Because this monograph provides a framework and iuustration of characterization, rather than characterization per se, the empirical conclusions must be regarded as indicative. Nevertheless, the results illushate that technologies such as resistant varieties, early-maturing varieties, varieties with high eating quality, and biological control of pests through the use of predators, are likely to be most easily adopted. Yield-increasing technologies such as fenil'ue~ responsive varieties, hybrid maize, and crop husbandry technologies are most likely to be adopted in areas of high population density and good access to markets. Such conditions exist in parts of West and CenM Africa, an example being the Nonhem Guinea Savanna of Nigeria, where intensive forms of agriculture are practiced. Yield-increasing technologies should therefore be carefully targeted to these areas. Even if the occurrence of such areas is rare in West and Central Africa, the development of technologies appropriate for these areas shwld not be neglected because: (I).the potential for production increases is high. and (2).increasing production in these areas would relieve pressure and degradation in marginal areas.The analysis also illustrates that it may be difficult to find a niche for alley cropping, because of the conflict between the types of resources required in the earlier and later phases. Developers of technologies, such as alley cropping, where an initial period of investment is required before benefits become available, should endeavor to have the same pattern of resource use in both the \"investment\" and \"productive\" stages. Technologies which require investments in land quality are most likely to be adopted in areas of high population density, and should match the resource endowments of high density areas.Characterization is a continuous process. The analytical method described here can be considered as a fust cut at characterization which can be used for developing broad guidelines for research priorities. It is incapable of exploring the complexities of farming systems, which are important determinants of technologies acceptable to farmers. As more detailed studies using primary data are carried out, and these complexities are related to systematic factors, modification and refinement of research priorities arising out of the fust cut characterization should take place. It should be emphasized that this exercise has concentrated purely on the demand for technologies. Research priorities can only be set after supply side factors, such as the cost of developing technologies, have also been taken into consideration.Characterization exercises of this nature can contribute significantly to the efficient allocation of scarce research resources, and greatly enhance the potential for agricultural research to make a positive contribution to food production in sub-Saharan Africa","tokenCount":"4745"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"01221ca0b9d849d51884ce28b82287f8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/604a1217-bd2e-492f-856e-bfb271d29a32/retrieve","id":"883596726"},"keywords":["grain yield","Oryza glaberrima","Oryza sativa","photosynthesis","postattachment resistance","predictive breeding","witchweed"],"sieverID":"ba655222-b9b3-48bf-89dc-503048c02dbc","pagecount":"14","content":"The parasitic weeds Striga asiatica and Striga hermonthica cause devastating yield losses to upland rice in Africa. Little is known about genetic variation in host resistance and tolerance across rice genotypes, in relation to virulence differences across Striga species and ecotypes.Diverse rice genotypes were phenotyped for the above traits in S. asiatica-(Tanzania) and S. hermonthica-infested fields (Kenya and Uganda) and under controlled conditions.New rice genotypes with either ecotype-specific or broad-spectrum resistance were identified. Resistance identified in the field was confirmed under controlled conditions, providing evidence that resistance was largely genetically determined. Striga-resistant genotypes contributed to yield security under Striga-infested conditions, although grain yield was also determined by the genotype-specific yield potential and tolerance. Tolerance, the physiological mechanism mitigating Striga effects on host growth and physiology, was unrelated to resistance, implying that any combination of high, medium or low levels of these traits can be found across rice genotypes.Striga virulence varies across species and ecotypes. The extent of Striga-induced host damage results from the interaction between parasite virulence and genetically determined levels of host-plant resistance and tolerance. These novel findings support the need for predictive breeding strategies based on knowledge of host resistance and parasite virulence.Species of the Striga genus (Orobanchaceae family) are obligate hemi-parasitic plants that parasitize roots of host plants via a specialized organ called the haustorium (Musselman, 1980). Striga spp. (henceforward referred to as Striga) are most prevalent in tropical Africa, where they pose serious threats as weeds in rainfed cereal production systems (Parker, 2012). The most important species in rice are Striga asiatica and Striga hermonthica (Rodenburg et al., 2010). Together with the related but less widespread Striga aspera (Willd.) Benth., they constrain rain-fed rice production in 38 African countries, with an estimated incidence rate of 12% (Rodenburg et al., 2016). Average Strigainflicted yield losses of rice in farmers' fields range between 21% and 80% (Elliot et al., 1993;N'Cho, 2014). The extent of these losses is a function of many factors, including the Striga infestation level, environmental conditions and the genetic interaction between host-plant genotype and parasite ecotype (host-parasite specificity), which determines the level of Striga resistance and tolerance.Host-plant resistance to Striga is defined as the ability to reduce or prevent infection (Shew & Shew, 1994), while tolerance refers to the extent to which effects of infection on the host plant are mitigated (Caldwell et al., 1958). Mechanisms that prevent or reduce Striga seed germination rates are categorized as pre-attachment resistance, while those that prevent or reduce the success of root penetration or establishment of the vascular connection between host and parasite are called post-attachment resistance (Yoder & Scholes, 2010). As a consequence of the large genetic variation within and between Striga ecotypes (populations), complete host-plant resistance (immunity) against this parasite is rare. As host damage can be inflicted by a few parasitic infections, varieties with partial Striga resistance should also have good levels of tolerance to avoid yield losses in the field (Rodenburg & Bastiaans, 2011).A number of studies have shown the existence of genetic variation in resistance to different ecotypes of Striga across a range of rice genotypes. For example, Harahap et al. (1993) showed that four genotypes of Oryza sativa were partially resistant to S. hermonthica in western Kenya. Riches et al. (1996) and Johnson et al. (1997), identified five genotypes of the African rice species Oryza glaberrima and two O. sativa genotypes with partial resistance against an ecotype of S. aspera and S. hermonthica in northern Côte d'Ivoire. Under controlled environments, Jamil et al. (2011) identified a number of interspecific New Rice for Africa (NERICA) cultivars with pre-attachment resistance against S. hermonthica, while Cissoko et al. (2011) identified cultivars with post-attachment resistance (within the same germplasm pool) against an ecotype of S. hermonthica and S. asiatica.These studies assessed either resistance among a relatively diverse group of rice genotypes against one Striga species or ecotype in the field (Harahap et al., 1993;Jamil et al., 2012), or resistence among a genetically related group of rice genotypes (i.e. the NERICAs) against different Striga species or ecotypes (Cissoko et al., 2011;Jamil et al., 2011;Rodenburg et al., 2015) under controlled environment conditions. Thus, these and other studies have resulted in a pool of known genotypes resistant to a specific ecotype of Striga, but limited information on how broadspectrum resistance is against genetically different species and ecotypes, and how expression of resistance is affected by environmental variability. Moreover, none of the previous studies has conclusively established genetic variation in Striga tolerance in rice and the potential mechanistic background of tolerance in infected hosts. Identification of genetic sources of broadspectrum resistance and effective tolerance in rice germplasm is critical for marker-assisted and conventional breeding programmes to develop useful cultivars for affected rice farmers.The objectives of this study were therefore to determine whether Striga resistance among a diverse set of rice genotypes (some with previously identified resistance to Striga) is specific to a particular Striga species or ecotype, or broad-spectrum; whether resistance against Striga is sufficient to maintain high rice grain yields under Striga-infested conditions in different environments; and whether genetic variation in Striga tolerance exists in rice and through which host-plant morphological or physiological traits this can be assessed. Achievement of the last objective would also shed light on the mechanisms underlying tolerance to this parasite.Twenty rice genotypes of different species and origins (Table 1), 19 of which had putative Striga resistance, were grown in Strigainfested plots at Kyela, Tanzania (Striga asiatica (L.) Kuntze), and at Namutumba, Uganda, and Mbita, Kenya (both Striga hermonthica Benth.). The interspecific rice cultivar NERICA-2 was included as a Striga-resistant and high-yielding check against which the performances of all other genotypes were compared across sites, Striga ecotypes and years. The cultivar IAC165 (Oryza sativa ssp. japonica), originally from Brazil, was included as a Striga-susceptible check. Seeds of all rice genotypes were obtained from the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), Cotonou, Benin. Seeds of S. asiatica and S. hermonthica were collected in  the previous season from plants parasitizing rice at Kyela, Tanzania (Sa-Kyela) and Namutumba, Uganda (Sh-Namutumba) and maize (Zea mays L.) at Mbita, Kenya (Sh-Mbita) in farmers' fields surrounding the experimental field sites. These seeds were used to supplement the existing soil seed bank in the field trials as well as for the controlled environment studies.The S. asiatica field screening trials were conducted during the rainy seasons (February/March-July) of 2014 and 2015 in Mbako (9°35ʹS, 33°48ʹE; 525 m above sea level, asl), in Kyela District, Mbeya Region in southern Tanzania (Supporting Information Table S1). Kyela District is a S. asiatica-endemic upland rice-growing area. This screening trial was executed in an already infested farmer's field. Rainfall data were obtained from a rain gauge installed in the middle of the field (Table S1; Fig. 1).The S. hermonthica field screening trials were conducted during the long rainy seasons of 2014 and 2015 (March-August/ September) at two locations: in a farmer's field in Nsinze, Namutumba District, Uganda (00°51ʹN, 33°41ʹE; 1125 m asl); and at the farm of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) at Mbita (0°43ʹS, 34°20ʹE; 1141 m asl), in Suba District, western Kenya (Table S1). Both trials were laid out on heavily Striga-infested fields. Rainfall data in Namutumba were obtained from a nearby meteorological station, and in Mbita from ICIPE's meteorological station at the experimental farm (Table S1; Fig. 1).All field trials were laid out in a randomized block design with six replicates. At Kyela each plot, representing an individual genotype, measured 1.25 9 3.75 m (4.69 m 2 ) and contained five rows of 15 hills with an inter-hill distance of 0.25 9 0.25 m (Table S1). At Mbita and Namutumba, each plot measured 1.25 9 2.75 m (3.44 m 2 ) with five rows of 11 hills with the same hill and row distances as in Kyela. Plots were separated by one open row of 0.25 m to avoid neighbour effects. Each replicate was separated by a 1.25-m alley.Each plot received supplementary Striga seeds that were mixed with 200 g of white sand and incorporated in the upper 5-10 cm of soil. An amount of 0.21 g of S. asiatica seed m À2 (germination rate: 70%) was provided at Kyela, in both years. At Namutumba, the S. hermonthica seed infestation rate was 0.29 g m À2 in 2014 and 0.26 g m À2 in 2015 (germination rate 90%) and at Mbita this was 0.29 g m À2 (germination rate 90%) in both years.For crop establishment and weed control, we followed procedures described in Rodenburg et al. (2015). At all sites, fertilizer was applied at 35 d after sowing (DAS). In Kyela, nitro-genÀphosphorusÀpotassium (N-P-K; 20 : 10 : 10) was applied at an equivalent rate of 100 kg ha À1 , while at Namutumba and Mbita, N-P-K (17 : 17 : 17) was applied at a rate of 50 kg ha À1 (Table S1).The number of Striga plants that emerged within the central area of each plot (comprising 27 rice hills) was recorded regularly. At Kyela, counting was carried out at 71 and 88 DAS and at harvest in 2014, and at 43, 54, 71, 82 and 105 DAS and at harvest in 2015. In Namutumba and Mbita, Striga plants were counted bi-weekly, at 43, 57, 71, 85, 99/100 DAS and at harvest in both years. These data enabled the assessment of the maximum number of emerged Striga plants (NS max ), a measure of Striga resistance in the field (Rodenburg et al., 2005). At harvest, emerged Striga plants within each observation area of 27 hills in each plot were collected, oven-dried at 70°C for 48 h, and weighed on digital weighing scales, for the assessment of Striga biomass dry weight.At harvest, the height of the rice plants growing in the central nine hills was measured from ground level to the tip of the tallest panicle. Rice panicles were harvested from the same central 27 hills of each plot and air-dried for 2 wk, after which rice grains were separated from the panicles and weighed. Grain moisture content was assessed, using a digital grain moisture meter (Model SS-7; Satake Eng. Co., Tokyo, Japan), to correct rice grain dry weights to 14% moisture content. Rice straw biomass dry weights were assessed for plants from the central nine hills within each 27-hill harvest area, and included all aboveground rice biomass, except panicles. The straw was oven-dried at 70°C for 48 h before weighing.To determine the impact of the field environment on the resistance ranking of the genotypes, a subset of 11 genotypes were A pot experiment was carried out in the screen house of AfricaRice, from October 2015 until February 2016, using natural incoming light (70% of light intensity outside the screen house). Plastic 10-l pots (height: 27.5 cm; diameter: 25 cm) were filled with a sand : soil mixture at a ratio of 2 : 1. The soil was collected from the experimental farm of Sokoine University of Agriculture, in Morogoro, and the sand was collected from the shores of the Ruvu River, adjacent to the Ruvu irrigated rice scheme. This mixture contained 0.17% N, 6.7 ppm P and 228 ppm K, and had a pH (H 2 O) of 6.8 (Crop Nutrition Laboratory Services Ltd, Nairobi, Kenya). The pot experiment comprised two Striga levels (Striga-infested and Striga-free) and nine rice genotypes, following a randomized complete block design with four replications. It included the O. glaberrima genotypes ACC102196, CG14 and Makassa, the O. sativa genotypes IR38547, WAB56-104, WAB928 and IAC165, and the interspecific genotypes WAB935 and NERICA-10. Thirty-six pots (half of the experiment) were infested with S. asiatica seeds, and the other half contained Striga-free soil (control treatments). For the Striga-infestation treatment, the upper 10 cm of soil was mixed with 0.050 g of viable S. asiatica seeds. During the 10 d after Striga infestation, the soil in each pot was kept between field capacity and saturation to allow Striga seed preconditioning. Fertilizer was applied at a rate equivalent to 100 kg of N-P-K (17 : 17 : 17) ha À1 (c. 1.2 g per pot), and mixed with the upper 10 cm of soil during Striga infestation. Rice was sown at a rate of six seeds per pot (10 d after Striga infestation) and thinned to three plants per pot at 14 DAS. Throughout the experiment, in all pots soil moisture levels were maintained between field capacity and saturation.Rice plant height from ground level to the tip of the tallest leaf (at 43 and 57 DAS) or panicle (at maturity) was measured to assess maximum height. At maturity, rice grains obtained from the three plants in each pot were threshed, air-dried for 10 d and weighed. The grain moisture content of each sample was assessed to standardize grain weights to 14% moisture content. At harvest, rice straw (leaf, stem and rachis) was collected from each pot, oven-dried and weighed to establish total aboveground straw biomass dry weight. Emerged Striga plants were counted every 3 d starting after the first Striga emergence in each pot, to assess maximum aboveground Striga numbers (NS max ).Photosynthesis was measured with the Li-Cor 6400XT from Li-Cor Bioscience (Lincoln, NE, USA). Light-saturated leaf CO 2 assimilation rates (A max ) of rice were measured at 1200 lmol m À2 s À1 (photosynthetically active radiation (PAR); over the waveband 400-700 nm) at c. 30, 45 and 60 DAS (AE 2 d). On each occasion, measurements were conducted on four consecutive days, with one full replicate per day, between 11:00 and 15:00 h. The same plants were used for repeated measurements. Measurements were always made halfway along the length of the youngest fully expanded leaf. During the measurements, leaf temperature ranged between 29.1 and 39.6°C. Relative humidity in the leaf chamber was controlled to stay within the range of 35-50%. The inlet CO 2 concentration was set at 400 ppm and depletion never exceeded 20 ppm.Before analyses, data were checked for homoscedasticity and normality following Sokal & Rohlf (1995). Following these tests, field data on rice grain and Striga dry weights were analysed using a linear mixed model. We tested whether there was a significant location 9 year 9 genotype interaction effect, and, where this was the case, we fitted a model for each location (Kyela, Mbita and Namutumba) separately, and tested whether there was a significant year 9 genotype interaction effect within each location. We first performed a log-likelihood ratio test for the homogeneity of variance and, when the variance was not constant, we took into account the heterogeneity of the variances. When the year 9 genotype interaction effect was significant (P < 0.05), we fitted a model for each year separately, where genotype was considered a fixed effect and block, nested in replicate, and replicate were considered random effects. For parameters for which there was a significant cultivar effect, Dunnett's method (Dunnett, 1955) was used to compare each genotype with NERICA-2, which was used as a control. For analyses of the maximum number of emerged Striga plants (NS max ), a generalized linear mixed model (McCullagh & Nelder, 1989) was used under the assumption of a Poisson distribution. Least-squares means (LS-Means) and associated SE derived from the linear mixed model were computed. Spearman rank correlations for parameters measured in the field were calculated between LS-Means of NS max and Striga dry weight (DW Striga ), between NS max and rice grain yield, and between rice grain yield and rice plant height.The rhizotron and pot data were analysed following checks for homoscedasticity and normality. ANOVAs were followed by a comparison of means using Tukey's honest significant difference test. Striga-inflicted losses in plant height (Height) and light-New Phytologist (2017) 214: 1267-1280Ó 2017 The Authors New Phytologist Ó 2017 New Phytologist Trust www.newphytologist.com saturated photosynthesis (A max ) were calculated relative to the Striga-free control for each genotype as ½ðX c À X s;i Þ=X c  100% (X c , the mean Striga-free control value of parameter X, calculated over four replicates; X s,i , the value of parameter X of a Strigainfected plant of replicate i.) The Striga-inflicted losses data were analysed using a generalized linear mixed model with a binomial distribution. All data were analysed using SAS/STAT software, Version 9.2 of the SAS System for Windows (SAS Institute, 2011).Year by rice genotype interaction effects on NS max were highly significant (P < 0.001) at all sites, requiring analysis per year (Table S2). At all sites and in all years, rice genotype had a highly significant (P < 0.001) effect on NS max (Table S2). The genotype ranking showed that the resistant check NERICA-2 was always among the most resistant genotypes (Fig. 2). Highly significant (P < 0.001) correlations were found between NS max and Striga biomass in all field trials (Table S3).In Kyela in 2015, a year with generally high S. asiatica infection levels, only SCRID090 and Ble Chai showed similar levels of resistance to NERICA-2. All other genotypes had significantly (P < 0.01) higher infection levels. Twelve genotypes proved moderately resistant, with Makassa, CG14, NERICA-10, NERICA-4 and Agee being the most resistant. Five genotypes were clearly susceptible: UPR, WAB935, WAB928, IAC165 and WAB56-50 (Fig. 2b). In 2014, a year with generally lower infection levels in Kyela, the genotype ranking was similar, although 11 genotypes showed resistance levels equivalent to that of NERICA-2, and two genotypes, MG12 and Ble Chai, were significantly (P < 0.01) more resistant. Six genotypes (UPR, WAB935, WAB928, IAC165, IR49255 and ACC102196) were significantly (P < 0.05) more susceptible (Fig. 2a).In Mbita in 2014, a year with generally high infection levels, three genotypes, NERICA-10, WAB935 and IR49255, had similar resistance levels to S. hermonthica to NERICA-2, and three genotypes, SCRID090, IR38547 and WAB928, were significantly (P < 0.01) more resistant. Thirteen genotypes had significantly (P < 0.01) higher infection levels than NERICA-2. Four of them (NERICA-4, WAB880, Ble Chai and Anakila) proved moderately resistant, while five (IAC165, WAB56-104, WAB56-50, CG14 and Makassa) were very susceptible (Fig. 2c). The ranking in 2015, with generally lower S. hermonthica infection levels, was similar but showed less differentiation between genotypes. Five genotypes (NERICA-10, WAB935, IR49255, SCRID090 and WAB928) had similar infection levels to NERICA-2, and the remaining genotypes were all significantly (P < 0.05) less resistant (Fig. 2d). In Namutumba, the years were more similar in terms of S. hermonthica infection level (Fig. 2e,f). In 2014 only five genotypes had similar resistance levels to NERICA-2. In 2015, four of them, WAB935, SCRID090, WAB928 and NERICA-10, were as resistant as NERICA-2. All other genotypes were more susceptible (Fig. 2e).In rhizotron screens (controlled environments), genotype rankings on Striga numbers and Striga biomass dry weight were similar to those observed in the field (Figs 2, 3). In both field and rhizotron screens, WAB928 showed susceptibility to S. asiatica (Kyela), but high resistance against both S. hermonthica ecotypes (Mbita and Namutumba) (Figs 3, 4). Similarly, although less pronounced, IR38547 was generally susceptible to S. asiatica (Kyela) in both rhizotron and field screening but resistant to both ecotypes of S. hermonthica (Figs 3, 4).At each site, significant year by genotype interaction effects on rice grain yields under Striga-infested conditions were observed (Table S4), requiring analyses per year. In each year and at each site, highly significant (P < 0.0001) genotype effects on rice grain yields under Striga-infested conditions were observed. Similarly, significant correlations between rice yield and rice plant height were observed in Kyela and Namutumba (Table S3).Under conditions of generally low S. asiatica infection levels, at Kyela in 2014, the resistant check genotype NERICA-2 had the highest rice grain yields (Fig. 5a) but yields were generally low. In 2015, the rice grain yields were much higher overall, despite the higher overall Striga infection levels (Fig. 5b). ACC102196, Agee, Anakila, Makassa and CG14, all O. glaberrima, had significantly (P < 0.05) higher grain yields, while WAB935, IR38547 and WAB928 had significantly (P < 0.01) lower yields than check genotype NERICA-2.In Mbita, rice grain yields under S. hermonthica-infested conditions were comparable across years (Fig. 5c,d). A large number of genotypes (12 in 2014 and 13 in 2015) were statistically as high yielding as NERICA-2 and only one genotype (NERICA-4 in 2015) had a significantly (P < 0.05) higher yield than NERICA-2. The remaining seven (in 2014) and five (in 2015) had significantly (P < 0.05) lower yields than NERICA-2.In Namutumba, grain yields as high as that of NERICA-2 were obtained from six genotypes in 2014 (WAB56-104, Anakila, NERICA-10, SCRID090, WAB880 and NERICA-4) and eight genotypes in 2015 (ACC102196, Ble Chai, NERICA-10, Agee, CG14, SCRID090, WAB880 and NERICA-4) (Fig. 5d,e). All other genotypes had significantly lower grain yields. NERICA-2 and SCRID090 were the most stable in yield across years, while a number of genotypes showed high yield variation between years. Across sites and years, NERICA-2, -4 and -10, and to a lesser extent SCRID090 showed stable high yields when grown under Striga-infested conditions.In situations with generally high Striga infection levels (Kyela 2015 and Mbita 2014), genotype means of rice grain yields showed significant (P < 0.05) negative correlations with means of maximum aboveground Striga numbers (NS max ) (Table S3 reference lines (horizontal and vertical) through NERICA-2 enables the identification of genotypes in four quadrants, relative to the check genotype (Fig. 6): quadrant I comprises genotypes that are more susceptible but also higher yielding than NERICA-2 under Striga-infested conditions; quadrant II contains genotypes that are more susceptible and lower yielding than Very few genotypes were found in quadrant IV in any of the years and sites. In Kyela in 2014, there was no genotype with a better performance than NERICA-2 and in 2015, only Ble Chai had a similar resistance level and as high a yield as NERICA-2. In Mbita, in 2014, only IR38547 and SCRID090 performed similarly to NERICA-2. The performance of NERICA-10 was similar to that of NERICA-2 in terms of S. hermonthica resistance and yield in both years in Mbita and in Namutumba but none of the genotypes performed better than NERICA-2.Seven genotypes were identified in quadrant I in Kyela in 2015. Six of them were O. glaberrima genotypes (Makassa, CG14, Agee, ACC102196, Anakila and MG12) and the other one was an interspecific (NERICA-10). At the S. hermonthica-infested field sites, NERICA-4 was consistently as high or higher Other genotypes that featured in this quadrant under S. hermonthica infestation were WAB880, CG14, SCRID090, Makassa and Agee. WAB56-50 and -56-104, the O. sativa parents of the NERICA genotypes, were almost always in quadrant II, with higher Striga infection levels and lower yields than NERICA-2. Some genotypes were as resistant as or more resistant than NERICA-2, but had much lower yields (quadrant III), notably Ble Chai and Anakila in Kyela in 2014, WAB928 and WAB935 in Mbita and WAB928, WAB935 and IR38547 in Namutumba.To shed light on the role of tolerance in host-plant performance, a pot experiment was conducted with Striga-free compared with Striga-infested plants of a subset of genotypes, with CG14, ACC102196, Makassa and NERICA-10 as potential tolerant lines and with S. asiatica from Kyela as the parasite ecotype.Given the significant correlations between rice grain yield and rice plant height in the field (Table S3), we used plant height as a proxy for crop performance in the pot experiment. Highly significant (P < 0.01) negative effects of Striga on plant height were observed on 43-d-old rice plants (Table S5). There was a significant infection by genotype interaction effect on rice plant height at 43 (P = 0.024) and 57 (P = 0.0004) DAS as well as on the maximum plant height (P = 0.0038). Significant genotypic differences were observed in Striga-inflicted (maximum) height (P < 0.0001; F = 17.6) losses relative to uninfected control plants. Height losses across genotypes ranged from 32% (ACC102196) to 63% (IAC165).Significant (P < 0.05) negative effects of Striga infection on leaf photosynthesis were observed on 30-d-old rice plants and even more pronounced effects were observed 15 d later (Table S5). Infection by genotype effects on leaf photosynthesis were only significant at 45 DAS. When compared within genotypes, four genotypes showed a significantly (P < 0.05) lower rate of photosynthesis in leaves of Striga-infected plants compared with the Striga-free controls at 30 DAS (Fig. 7b). Photosynthesis of genotypes ACC102196, Makassa, CG14, WAB928 and WAB935 was not significantly affected at 30 DAS. At 45 DAS, all but one genotype (ACC102196) showed highly significantly (P < 0.001) reduced photosynthesis levels in Striga-infected compared with Striga-free plants (Fig. 7c). In ACC102196, the reduction of photosynthesis was also significant (P < 0.05) but less pronounced compared with other genotypes. For an accurate assessment of tolerance, the genotype-specific differences in Striga infection levels should be considered. In the pot experiment, CG14 (NS max = 10) was significantly (F = 15.7; P < 0.0001) more resistant than six other genotypes. Only NERICA-10 (NS max = 15) and IR38547 (NS max = 16) were equally resistant. With an NS max of 43 Striga plants, WAB928 was significantly more susceptible than any other genotype except ACC102196 (NS max = 31). The latter was as susceptible as IAC165, WAB935, WAB56-104 and Makassa (NS max = 22-27).The extent of height losses was relatively independent of infection level (Fig. 8a). A number of genotypes with small to moderate height losses compared with controls (ACC102196, WAB928 and WAB935) had high Striga infection levels, while some genotypes with the greatest height losses (e.g. NERICA-10) were among the least infected. Comparison of relative height losses between genotypes with similar infection levels indicated genotype differentiation in Striga effects. For NERICA-10, Striga infection had a greater effect on plant height than equally resistant CG14. Given their high infection levels, ACC102196 and to a lesser extent WAB928 were less affected by Striga in terms of plant height reduction.Losses in photosynthesis were also relatively independent of infection level (Fig. 8b,c). Again, the more resistant genotypes seemed to incur higher losses than the more susceptible ones, with more pronounced differences at 30 DAS (Fig. 8b) compared with 45 DAS (Fig. 8c). At 30 DAS, NERICA-10 and IR38547 showed the greatest negative effects of Striga. Relatively low (≤ 50%) Striga-inflicted losses in photosynthesis at 30 DAS were observed with CG14, Makassa, WAB56-104, WAB935, ACC1021196 and WAB928. Most notable were ACC1021196 and WAB928, as they showed the smallest effects despite the highest Striga infection levels (Fig. 8b). Fifteen days later, at 45 DAS, Striga effects on photosynthesis were more severe, leading to near-total losses in the majority of genotypes, irrespective of Striga infection level. Only WAB56-104 and ACC102196 maintained these losses well below 80% (Fig. 8c).Does Striga resistance occur among genotypes and is it Striga species-or ecotype-specific or broad-spectrum?At each site, a relatively large number of resistant rice germplasms were confirmed or newly identified. However, the level of resistance of rice genotypes in the field varied with Striga species and ecotype, as well as between sites and years. Climate variations affected overall Striga infection levels across genotypes, as shown before by Johnson et al. (1997). In the current study this is illustrated by the differences in overall infection levels between 2014 and 2015 at Kyela and Mbita which were associated with clear differences in rainfall between the years. This was further supported by the observation that in Namutumba, where rainfall was comparable in the two years, Striga infection levels were similar. However, environmental effects did not alter the expression of resistance; at low infection levels, it just became more difficult to distinguish between the resistance levels of the  genotypes. In years of high infection, quantitative differences in resistance were more obvious and the resistance rankings corresponded well with those obtained in the controlled environment experiments. The genotype rankings in the S. hermonthica-infested sites at Mbita and Namutumba were similar. Consistent broad-spectrum resistance against S. hermonthica (hence against both ecotypes) was observed among a large number of genotypes including NERICA-2, -4 and -10, WAB928, -935 and -880, IR38547 and -49255, SCRID090, Ble Chai and Anakila. In Kyela, many genotypes resistant to S. asiatica were also found (i.e. Ble Chai, NERICA-2, -4, and -10, SCRID090, CG14, Makassa and Agee). The resistance in the NERICA cultivars confirms previous findings (Cissoko et al., 2011;Jamil et al., 2011;Rodenburg et al., 2015;Samejima et al., 2016).While resistance rankings at Namutumba and Mbita (S. hermonthica) were very similar, differences were observed in overall infection levels between the ecotypes at both sites. The field infection levels in Namutumba were similar and rather low in both years, while in Mbita the infection levels were similar to the levels in Namutumba in 2015 but much higher in 2014. The experiments carried out under controlled environment conditions showed similar results; higher infection levels overall were observed with S. hermonthica from Mbita than with S. hermonthica from Namutumba, suggesting that the Mbita ecotype was more virulent than the Namutumba ecotype for these rice genotypes. Between Striga species there were even more notable differences. First, against S. asiatica very few, if any, genotypes showed effective post-attachment resistance in the rhizotron experiment, to the extent shown against the two S. hermonthica ecotypes where parasitic biomass approached zero on a number of genotypes. Second, while there was some overlap in the genotypes of rice with good resistance against S. asiatica and S. hermonthica, there were also some striking differences in species-specific reaction types. For example, WAB928 and WAB935 were very resistant to both ecotypes of S. hermonthica but were among the most susceptible to S. asiatica in the field. Similarly, IR38547-B-B-7-2-2 and IR49255-B-B-5-2 were resistant to S. hermonthica ecotypes but moderately susceptible to the S. asiatica ecotype. This observation on contrasting reaction types between Striga species was confirmed with WAB928 and IR38547 under controlled environment conditions. Thus, our data show that some genotypes of rice exhibited ecotype-specific resistance, others exhibited resistance against the two ecotypes of S. hermonthica (but not the ecotype of S. asiatica) and two genotypes (NERICA-2 and SCRID090) showed very strong and reliable broad-spectrum resistance across both parasite species and ecotypes. Three others (NERICA-4 and -10 and Ble Chai) were also consistently among the more resistant to both Striga species and ecotypes. To determine whether the observed differences in the resistance of specific rice genotypes against the two S. hermonthica ecotypes and the S. asiatica ecotype reflect a Striga species difference requires follow-up studies with a wider range of ecotypes screened under controlled environment conditions.Is resistance against Striga enough to maintain high rice grain yields under Striga-infested conditions in different environments?Encouragingly, the rice genotypes that exhibited good broadspectrum resistance were among the high-yielding and farmerpreferred varieties and thus could be introduced and promoted more widely in Striga-prone areas. Moreover, they provide valuable additional sources for resistance breeding. Effective breeding, using marker-assisted selection (MAS), would, however, require the identification of the genes or quantitative trait loci (QTLs) underlying the Striga resistance, as demonstrated by Swarbrick et al. (2009).Some rice genotypes, that is, WAB935 and -928 in Kyela and IAC165, WAB56-50 and WAB56-104 in Mbita, were very susceptible and had low grain yields. Conversely, a number of rather susceptible genotypes, for example O. glaberrima genotypes Makassa, CG14, Agee and ACC102196, still had good grain yields despite relatively high infection levels. The yields obtained by some of the other less resistant genotypes, including Anakila, Agee and CG14 (all O. glaberrima), appeared more variable across years. Yield stability under Striga-infested conditions seems therefore to be one of the merits of resistance, but more data are required to support such a conclusion. Yield performance of the NERICA cultivars, for instance, could also be the result of their general environmental adaptation and high yield potential (Saito et al., 2012;Sekiya et al., 2013).Correlations between rice grain yields and Striga numbers (both S. asiatica and S. hermonthica) were only significant under situations of high parasite pressure. This confirms previous studies, both with rice (Rodenburg et al., 2015) and with sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) (Rodenburg et al., 2005). The inconsistency of this correlation indicates that resistance, responsible for reduced Striga infection levels, is not the sole determinant of high yields under Striga-infested field conditions. In years with lower Striga infection levels, tolerance and yield potential, rather than resistance, seem to be important, confirming previous studies by Rodenburg et al. (2005Rodenburg et al. ( , 2015)).Does genetic variation in tolerance to Striga exist in rice germplasm and which host-plant morphological or physiological traits can be used to predict tolerance?In studies to identify tolerance in maize (Pierce et al., 2003) and sorghum (Bebawi & Farah, 1981;Showemimo, 2003), the extent of stunting of the host plant is often used as an indicator for tolerance. In our study, the usefulness of the reduction in height of the main stem of Striga-infected rice (as a percentage of the uninfected plant) could be assessed as this parameter ranged between c. 30% and 65% as a function of the rice genotype. Based on this measure, ACC102196 and WAB928 proved to be more tolerant than the other cultivars. This is in agreement with the yield data from the field trials for ACC101196, but not for WAB928 (which was very low yielding). Possibly the yield potential or environmental adaptation of WAB928 is suboptimal, causing a low baseline yield level, but this requires additional investigation.In this study, measurement of the rate of photosynthesis at 30 DAS was a better discriminator of tolerance (lower levels of Striga damage) between the rice genotypes than the reduction in height of infected plants. The ability of maize and sorghum varieties to maintain high rates of photosynthesis under Striga infection has also proved a good indicator for physiological tolerance (Gurney et al., 2002;Rodenburg et al., 2008). The rice cultivars began to exhibit the damaging effects of Striga very quickly after attachment, confirming previous findings (e.g. Cechin & Press, 1994;Watling & Press, 2001). Measurements of the rate of photosynthesis also became less discriminating and predictive of tolerance with time after infection, illustrating the need to make these measurements early during the host-parasite interaction.The O. glaberrima genotypes Makassa, ACC102196 and CG14 showed good tolerance in comparison to many of the O. sativa genotypes used in this study. They showed no significant Striga-induced reductions in leaf photosynthesis at early stages of the host-parasite interaction when CO 2 assimilation rates of other genotypes were already severely reduced. CG14 and Makassa were also relatively high yielding in Mbita, even in a year when infection levels were generally high such as 2014. All the O. glaberrima genotypes screened at Kyela showed higher yields at higher S. asiatica infection levels than NERICA-2. the species O. glaberrima is generally not high yielding (Dingkuhn et al., 1998), these relatively high yields, despite high infection levels, are probably indeed the outcome of effective physiological tolerance. This observation also agrees with that of Johnson et al. (1997), who found lower levels of Striga damage on Striga-infected O. glaberrima cultivars compared with O. sativa cultivars. Based on these observations, O. glaberrima germplasm may be a good source of 'tolerance' genes that could be exploited for breeding this trait into Striga-resistant cultivars.Resistance and tolerance are not often found together in the same genotype. Some susceptible cultivars show high levels of tolerance to Striga damage, for example ACC102196 and WAB928 in the current study, while some cultivars with good resistance are highly sensitive to one or two parasite attachments, for example NERICA-10. A similar combination of high resistance but high sensitivity was observed in the sorghum genotype N13 (Rodenburg et al., 2005). Thus, in order to control Striga and maintain high yields, both tolerance and resistance are required in cultivars recommended to farmers. The high genetic variability of the parasite seed bank means that even strongly resistant cultivars may be infected by a few Striga individuals, leading to yield losses if the genotypes do not possess some degree of tolerance. Conversely, tolerant genotypes will allow the build-up of the Striga seed bank if they do not possess some degree of resistance. Thus, varieties with both resistance and tolerance, grown in combination with other control measures, will provide a feasible and durable solution to farmers and delay the evolution of virulence in parasite populations.This is the first study to compare the resistance levels of the same suite of rice genotypes in three regions of Africa infested by different genetic ecotypes of S. hermonthica and S. asiatica. First, we have shown that the resistance ranking of rice genotypes in the field was very similar to that under controlled environment conditions, thus demonstrating that resistance was genetically determined. Second, some rice genotypes exhibited broadspectrum resistance to all the ecotypes of Striga, while others exhibited ecotype-specific resistance. Finally, the resistance rankings of rice genotypes at Mbita and Namutumbaboth areas infested with S. hermonthica ecotypeswere similar, suggesting that the parasite virulence genes in these populations were similar. This contrasted with the virulence profile of the S. asiatica ecotype, as some of the rice genotypes exhibited different resistance rankings. We have shown that tolerance was also genetically determined, and the level of tolerance varied across genotypes, as evident from the extent to which Striga-inflicted losses in plant height and photosynthesis were differentially mitigated across genotypes, but it was independent of the level of resistance in these genotypes. Thus, the grain yield of a given rice genotype obtained in a Striga-infested field is the result of the inherent yield potential of that genotype and the level of host resistance and tolerance against the field-specific parasite species and ecotype. These novel findings provide invaluable information for molecular and conventional rice breeders, and strongly support the need for predictive breeding strategies to be employed for affected staple crops such as rice. For such a predictive breeding approach, knowledge of the molecular genetic background of host resistance and tolerance can be coupled to that of the prevailing parasite ecotype in a specific region in order to breed cultivars with effective defence.","tokenCount":"6268"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4d464fea79bd1ef06144e6154aac98fe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e46b115e-5789-4961-b7db-ab96e3903fae/retrieve","id":"1807642864"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ecbdc3fe-aa67-4b00-b760-cf9b02ca2e36","pagecount":"24","content":"Provide processes and methodologies to facilitate participants' understanding and implementation of gender in their work areas related to the dual purpose cattle value chain.1. Create opportunities to reflect on our work with gender from a personal to an organizational level.a. Gender equity, equality and personal perceptions.b. Gender-disaggregated statistics in livestock production and information gaps between women and men in the livestock sector in Nicaragua  Communication and interaction with mixed groups. Group dynamics to address gender topics with men, women and families. Recognize/value women´s work in livestock farms. Understand what the gender roles in farmer families are. Incorporate gender approach in farm diagnostics. Incorporate value chain analysis in rural development projects.Group session: interpreting statements about the social construction of gender  Group 1: \"Colonization introduced gender differences, where none previously existed.\" (Lugones, M. 2008).Group opinion: Gender differences existed previously, even before colonization, since women had a domestic role while men worked more in agriculture, but colonization exacerbated these differences through the patriarchal system and the new religion imposed by the colonizers. Indigenous culture almost disappeared. This has resulted in an invisibility and lack of recognition of the role of women that we are still living. Group 2: \"The oppressive gender system that was imposed in Yoruba society (Africa) through colonialism ... covers the subordination of females in all aspects of life\" (Oyewumi, 1997)Group opinion: Subordinate women represent an inferior position in all aspects of life because subordination is always an inferior position imposed by the colonial system. An oppressive system imposes itself as a power relationship. The author perceives this as a negative situation (differentiation) and qualifies it as oppressive. Group 3: \"Many Native American tribal communities were matriarchal ... and understood gender on equal terms, not in subordination terms that European capitalism imposed\" (Allen P.G., 1986;1992) Group opinion: The author is implying that in a matriarchal society decisions were made by women and relationships were more equitable. A model of subordination was imposed and/or adopted by external imposition. We ask ourselves: When we talk about a matriarchal system, does it mean that it is a gender equality system? Is equality promoted in a matriarchal society? Is a system ruled by women more just and does it promote egalitarian relationships than a system governed by men? Group 4: \"The imposition of the European state system is the most enduring legacy of European colonial rule in Africa. The exclusion of women from the public sphere is a tradition that was exported to Africa during this period \"... \"The transformation of state power into male power was achieved by excluding women from state structures. This reflected a deep contrast with the organization of the Yoruba State, in which power was not determined by gender\" (Oyewumi, 1997).Group opinion: Social construction is a European imposition, taking into account that African women had positions of power (queens) and there were no differences or exclusionary practices based on gender. Colonization brought female exclusion to Africa. Group 5: \"The internal chief presided over the tribe, village or group, dealing with maintaining harmony and managing internal affairs. The male red chief presided over the mediation between the tribe and those outside of it\".\"Most individuals fit within tribal gender roles based on propensity, inclination and temperament. The Yuma had a tradition to designate gender based on dreams: if a woman dreamed about weapons, she became male for all practical purposes\" (Allen, 1986;1992).Group opinion: Dreams are used to share roles and make decisions. The statement indicates that in the social structure of the Native Americans, the roles are pre-defined. Dreams are used to decide and women could not become warriors unless they dreamt it. There are still many matriarchal systems that indicate that the line of succession is matrilineal with certain characteristics, including the decision-making power of women. Matriarchal does not mean that women have power over men, it means that women (especially mothers), in some indigenous populations, such as the Garifunas, have the leading role in important aspects of life. It is important to study each context to understand the meanings of matriarchal systems in each specific population. In the case of the Yoruba, the important thing is that besides dreams; which were traditionally interpreted to assign roles, is that they were decided on the basis of propensity, inclination and temperament, not by gender. There are ancient elements that cannot be adapted to our situation, we tend to interpret roles of women and men from our education and experience on gender, which is why it is important to study the social context in which we will do research. We must understand the social structure first, in order to analyze gender dynamics.Presentation by Patricia Lindo (workshop facilitator/gender and value chain expert).Working for gender equality revolves around three criteria: social justice, poverty alleviation/food security and competitiveness and business.The first criterion states that the benefits of growth and development should be distributed equally between men and women, as both are contributing. The second criterion emphasizes that women are important actors for poverty alleviation because when resources are managed by them, nutrition, health and education of families improve considerably.The third criterion states that gender inequality has high economic costs because women generate economic growth from their labor contributions.Finally, there must be a balance between the criteria, to avoid commodifying equality.Presentation by Mieke Vanderschaeghe (gender and cattle value chains expert)In Nicaragua, the statistics on livestock tend to conceal the work of women. For example, the National Agricultural Census (CENAGRO) indicates that 23% of livestock producers are women, but in reality, they are involved in a much higher percentage, since livestock production is based on a household economy where work and contributions of women are fundamental.Women participate in most chain linkages, but face many barriers. The main is male dominance in livestock, which prevents their visibility, value and even self-recognition as actors in the sector; this limits their decision-making power and control over revenues and resources to produce.In addition, there are barriers for women to access services because credit, technical assistance and projects tend to focus on the first link of the value chain where male interests prevail, devaluing women´s business in milk processing.The case studies to obtain such data were: There are strong cultural factors that influence how surveys are designed that make women´s role invisible, for example, the data from the Agricultural National Census did not include information about families.It is important to ask ourselves how to separate the contributions within the family in a way that the data reflect the reality and the participation of women in the entire value chain can be made visible. In this sense, qualitative methods allow capturing more factual information, for example through biographical methods.The data presented are primarily focused on households with primary activity, but if we take into account households with secondary activities, how would data of participation of women vary?In secondary farm activities, there are women that own more cattle than men. In this sense, the Bono Productivo1 has had a big impact and it is important to make small producers more visible and change the scheme, thinking more about small producers instead of the bigger ones.Presentation by Patricia LindoThe word \"transversalización\" was translated to Spanish from the English word mainstreaming. It means integration and it emerged during the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995. Two years later, gender mainstreaming was adopted by the United Nations as a focus on policies and programs.To understand mainstreaming, it is important to also understand equality, both legally and de facto (as non-discrimination, as state accountability and as substantive).A gender mainstreaming strategy implies that the concerns of women and men are integrated into all policies and projects, and there are specific activities aimed at empowering women. This entails an institutional transformation.Among the aspects that have favored mainstreaming is the presence of sanctions and mandatory procedures to integrate gender in an institution or project, or that equality is considered \"good business\". While the ultimate goal of these aspects is not equality, if we look at the glass half full, we conclude that \"it is better than nothing.\"Finally, it is important to see gender as a change of attitude; we must start from ourselves, in our work spaces to mainstream gender.It has been possible to incorporate the gender approach in several projects but sometimes gender mainstreaming has made women´s work less visible. A year ago, the organization established a 5-axes theory of change, one of which is gender.In some universities (UPOLI, UCA and UNA) there has been gender mainstreaming done in study profiles.Research and Higher Education Centre)At an institutional level, CATIE has had a gender policy since 1995 that has not been updated, but recently a gender strategy was developed in the MAPNorway program. It is difficult for organizations to understand specific actions for women.At an institutional level, we have no gender policy but efforts have been made since 2007. Some projects have integrated a gender approach; we realize that these are only strokes because there is no institutional gender line.Only 1 out of 9 programs has a gender strategy (PROGRESA) but many gender-related changes are being made. One of the greatestachievements is that the institution designates an exclusive budget for women (25% is intended for women´s training in technology).CIAT has a long history with gender. 10-15 years ago there was a program dedicated to gender and participatory research and also a large gender program with researchers, but they disappeared. Now there is more emphasis on gender because there are strong demands to include gender in 20% of programs in order to receive funds. The risk is that mainstreaming can make women invisible, whichis why it is best to integrate it more concretely.When analyzing the constitution, equality among people is raised to state institutions but not for civil society organizations to implement. This is a big gap in terms of gender mainstreaming.Presentation by Kathy Colverson, gender theme leader of Livestock and Fish.The focus of the Livestock and Fish research program is to increase productivity in smallscale systems:One of the cross-cutting components of the program is gender, which has a strategy that aims to achieve four main outputs: Capacity development, Access and control of resources in livestock and fish value chains, gender transformative approaches and gender and nutrition.During 2013, many activities have been developed. Among the main successes: capacity development initiatives in 4 countries, a value chain toolkit with gendered questions was created and shared, M & E indicators drafted and proposals on GTAs were developed. For 2014, the gender component of the program aims to continue making alliances with local partners and developing their skills through different training activities. Also in this year, the effectiveness of the tools will be evaluated for gender analysis of the value chains (including data on consumption) and proposals that incorporate the GTA (gender transformative approach) will be developed. 'by the poor'  poverty reduction  'for the poor'  food securityThe gender strategy of Livestock and Fish and my work -actions developed by organizations that can be linked to the gender strategy outputs.  Through workshops on food and nutrition security, creation of family gardens, to promote a diet rich in protein.Group exercise to identify key inequalities and contributions of women in the value chain, how these contributions can help achieve the results of the gender strategy and what actions can be taken to enhance these contributions and reduce inequalities.  Limited participation in marketing and decisionmaking. From their empirical knowledge, they contribute to increase productivity and improve the quality of milk production, which creates better access to markets. Presentation by Patricia LindoIn Nicaragua, women participate primarily in agricultural value chains of major products, processing for retail and small-scale, in small businesses for subsistence and on postharvest marketing activities.It is clear that women add value, but they do so in unfavorable conditions and their work is considered as informal \"craftwork\" therefore unsupported by promotion policies, credit and technical assistance.Although women are present in the entire chain, the producer status is held by men as well as the partner or family representative status.To work with a gender approach in value chains, the traditional concept of the family´s role in economic development should be demystified, as family members have different interests and intra-household relations are governed by power relations because men are controlling the family´s work, production and income.Based on the facts mentioned above, this methodology offers a new look at the concept of family, promoting dual-headed households and the negotiation power of women. It is also important that the work of women is valued as an integral part of value chains.The objective is that the staff from organizations working with cattle value chains is able to acquire gender sensitive facilitation skills for mixed groups, families, women, men and young people, to discuss about their contributions and benefits to/from the value chains.It is based on a case developed with a cooperative in the town of Siuna where MASRENACE-GTZ and Oxfam-GB PRODER established a partnership to improve the dairy chain in 2008. This case was developed in a 2009 workshop after a team of consultants facilitated the gender integration process in a dairy cooperative in Siuna for four months. For the workshop, partners and their wives / husbands were invited, with the objectives of:1. Contributing to both men and women´s visualization of the competitiveness of their product in the context of the competitiveness of the chain, and the ability to articulate it. 2. Contributing to the recognition of women and men´s contributions to the dairy chain. 3. Contributing to the discussion on the control of the benefits of their participation in the dairy chain. 4. Contributing to raise awareness of the importance of decision-making and joint control over products of labor (productive and reproductive), particularly in dairy revenues.In the workshop, a mapping of the dairy chain was performed, and subsequently an exercise with Tool: Visualization of contributions of men and women to product quality and gender gaps in benefits (Vanderschaeghe & Lindo, 2009). They were asked to work separately (men and women) using the following guide questions: ¿What is women´s contributions to milk quality?  ¿What is men´s contributions to milk quality?  ¿What are the benefits of women´s work in milk production?  ¿What are the benefits of men´s work in milk production?  ¿Are these benefits equal?  If they are not: ¿ How to improve the benefits for women?In the Livestock and Fish Gender Workshop, the participants group was divided into two subgroups. Each subgroup read and discussed the answers obtained from men and women from the cooperative. The objective of this exercise was to think about how gender roles can influence in the differences and similarities of the answers.The workshop participants were asked to work with the following guide:-From the responses of men and women from the cooperative, how would you facilitate the discussion with this group of producers?-What questions would you pose to achieve visibility and recognition of women, and generate changes in people´s perceptions?-What key messages would you tell this group to motivate changes in their way of thinking?-How would close this exercise?Group 1The first step taken by the group was to analyze how to address the debate and the inconsistencies in men and women´s responses. The group´s proposal was to start the discussion with the following questions:Why do opinions differ regarding incomes and benefits? Why aren´t women members of the cooperative and why are the benefits uneven? How are women able to perform so many activities during the day? Would men be willing to cooperate with domestic work?After discussing the questions above, the group proposed to deliberate key messages with the producers: i) Integrating views and perceptions on the work of men and women to share different perceptions ii) value the positive experiences of men such as their contributions to household chores, iii) Ask a couple to share their experience on sharing housework.Finally, as closure: Perform a psychodrama with the producers about how cow milking occurs (how the family prepares for this activity and the type of work that women do ... etc.).The group would begin addressing the producers with three key questions: The objective of these questions is to think about the economic value of women´s daily housework. This group suggested to finish the discussion with key messages related to women´s undervalued work.Group 1-In facilitation processes, it is not advisable to begin asking the question \"Why?\", particularly in psychosocial processes where attitudes, habits and cultural practices are involved, asking \"Why?\" may have a sense of judgment and should be avoided in all circumstances to prevent individuals and groups from feeling judged by what they do, say or think.On the other hand, trying to integrate women and men´s opinions is a very good idea; without leading the responses to a consensus, taking into account that men and women producers are entitled to think differently from each other and that has to be recognized and validated. It is also a good idea to stimulate and recognize the housework that some men perform.Group 2-Introducing the discussion by asking men and women´s opinion about the workshop results is a very good start because it is important to encourage dialogue from both sides, especially about their thoughts and feelings towards a specific topic or situation.In conclusion, when facilitating a discussion, we must recognize and stimulate good gender practices within value chains, as a way to increase women´s self-esteem and recognition.Observations from the participants about the gendered value chain analysis tool for producers: For information about livelihood, it would be best to use other methods different than focus groups, for example, surveys. Furthermore, the format of the tools is similar to an interview rather than a focus group guide. The tool is too long.  For quantitative data, it would be better to use more specific methods.  There is no description on how to approach the group, perhaps a few introductory ice-breakers could be added. Some of the activities are too complicated (the seasonal calendar for example) and could be simplified. The tool seems to be designed for a workshop rather than a focus group as it addresses specific issues and not a general exchange of views. Previous to the livelihood exercise, the concept should be built.After the workshop, each participant individually and anonymously completed a survey to assess the workshop and provide valuable feedback. 93% of the participants felt that the format, agenda and schedule of the workshop was excellent.100% said the theme of the workshop was relevant to their work. They also said that the level of knowledge the facilitator and her interaction with the participants were excellent.As for the contents learned in the workshop, among the most commonly mentioned: how invisible the work of women is, gender initiatives and work being developed in Nicaragua, tools for analyzing gender in value chains, concepts, methodologies and quantitative data for gender analysis.Most participants agreed that the best thing from the workshop was the freedom to express their ideas and to interact with the facilitator, allowing fluidity better flow of the issues and a richer exchange of experiences.On the other hand, time was a limiting factor that the participants identified when asked what they liked least about the workshop.All the participants said they would attend a similar workshop again.Yoga to energize the group!","tokenCount":"3200"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4369a8fa46585218b51e3ed27ca018b0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e46bcee4-0333-4f78-8d03-9adf6d277a7f/retrieve","id":"1401798140"},"keywords":["Passport","characterization","evaluations) -Crop curation -Facilitated access and visibility of collections to Users -Exchange of information Workflow and process -Acquisition / Introduction -Regeneration / Multiplication -Conservation(Inventory/Monitoring) -Viability tests -Phytosanitary tests -Safety duplication"],"sieverID":"3cd4086d-163c-460e-90e5-404cd96b7cbb","pagecount":"13","content":"CIAT HQs CIAT -Genetic Resources Program Germplasm registered into Multilateral System of the Treaty Crop Conservation Rank No. of taxa No. of origin country No. of accessions Bean (Phaseolus) Seeds 1 46 110 37.560 Tropical Forages Seeds 1 33 28 6.643 Cassava (Manihot) in vitro 1 734 75 23.140 813 67.343 Germplasm accessions as International Public Goods \"The genetically heterogeneous materials handling is one of the most critical in a genebank operations\" Identification -Knowledge about collections","tokenCount":"76"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7f94ca2988bbfb18f9326047aefb339f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c9b25d97-16ee-4f0a-9de4-2b4240790fdc/retrieve","id":"386453607"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3645363c-f3b0-4091-8812-4f3690869e32","pagecount":"7","content":") is an important staple food crop in Africa and South America; however, ubiquitous deleterious mutations may severely decrease its fitness. To evaluate these deleterious mutations, we constructed a cassava haplotype map through deep sequencing 24 diverse accessions and identified >28 million segregating variants. We found that (i) although domestication has modified starch and ketone metabolism pathways to allow for human consumption, the concomitant bottleneck and clonal propagation have resulted in a large proportion of fixed deleterious amino acid changes, increased the number of deleterious alleles by 26%, and shifted the mutational burden toward common variants; (ii) deleterious mutations have been ineffectively purged, owing to limited recombination in the cassava genome; (iii) recent breeding efforts have maintained yield by masking the most damaging recessive mutations in the heterozygous state but have been unable to purge the mutation burden; such purging should be a key target in future cassava breeding.For millions of people in the tropics, cassava is the third most consumed carbohydrate source, after rice and maize 1 . Even though cassava was domesticated in Latin America 2,3 , it has spread widely and has become a major staple crop in Africa. Although its wild progenitor, M. esculenta sp. falbellifolia, reproduces by seed 4 , cultivated cassava is notably almost exclusively clonally propagated via stem cutting 5 . The limited number of recombination events in such vegetatively propagated crops may result in an accumulation of deleterious alleles throughout the genome 6 . Thus, mutation burden in cassava is expected to be more severe than that in sexually propagated species. Deleterious mutations are considered to be at the heart of inbreeding depression 7 . Even in elite cassava accessions, inbreeding depression is extremely severe, and a single generation of inbreeding may result in a >60% decrease in fresh root yield 8,9 . In this study, we sought to identify deleterious mutations in cassava populations, with the goal of accelerating cassava breeding by allowing breeders to purge deleterious mutations more efficiently.We conducted a comprehensive characterization of genetic variation by whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of 241 cassava accessions (Fig. 1, Supplementary Fig. 1 and Supplementary Table 1). On average, more than 30× coverage was generated for each accession. To ensure high-quality variant discovery, variants from low-copynumber regions of the cassava genome 10,11 were identified to develop the cassava haplotype map II (HapMapII) (Supplementary Fig. 2), containing 25.9 million SNPs and 1.9 million insertions/deletions (indels) (Supplementary Table 2), of which nearly 50% were rare (minor-allele frequency <0.05) (Supplementary Fig. 3). The error rate of variant calling, i.e., the proportion of segregating sites in the reference accession, was 0.01%. The correlation between read depth and the proportion of SNP heterozygosity was extremely low (r 2 = 6 × 10 −5 ). Haplotypes were phased, and missing genotypes were imputed with high accuracy with BEAGLE v4.1 (ref. 12) (accuracy r 2 = 0.966) (Supplementary Fig. 4). Linkage disequilibrium was as low as that in maize 13 and decayed to an average r 2 of 0.1 in 3,000 bp (Supplementary Fig. 5).Cultivated cassava had lower nucleotide diversity (pairwise nucleotide diversity (π) = 0.0036) than did its progenitors (M. esculenta sp. flabelifolia, π = 0.0051). In addition, a close relationship between the two species was observed in a phylogenetic analysis (Supplementary Fig. 6). Both lines of evidence supported the hypothesis that cultivated cassava was domesticated from M. esculenta sp. flabelifolia 2,3,10 . To evaluate population differentiation of cassava, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed and showed substantial differentiation among all cassava species and hybrids (Fig. 1a): cultivated cassava showed moderate genetic differentiation from its progenitors (fixation index (F st ) = 0.16) and high genetic differentiation from tree cassava (F st = 0.32) and wild relatives (F st = 0.44) (Supplementary Table 2 and Supplementary Fig. 7). However, PCA showed very little differentiation among cultivated cassava (Fig. 1b), and cultivated cassava within geographic subpopulations presented unexpectedly Cassava haplotype map highlights fixation of deleterious mutations during clonal propagation l e t t e r s low values of F st (0.01-0.05) even though these subpopulations were sampled from different continents (Supplementary Table 2). This result suggested that despite clonal propagation, there has been sufficient crossing to maintain cultivated cassava in one breeding pool.Sequence conservation is a powerful tool to discover functional variation 14,15 . We identified candidate deleterious mutations by using genomic evolution and amino acid conservation modeling. The cassava genome was aligned to seven species in the Malpighiales clade to identify evolutionarily constrained regions in the cassava genome. On the basis of the genomic evolutionary rate profiling (GERP) 16 score, nearly 104 Mb of the genome (20%) of cassava was constrained (GERP score >0) (Supplementary Fig. 8). The evolutionarily constrained genome of cassava (104 Mb) was comparable to that of maize (111 Mb) 17 in size, but was smaller than that of humans (214 Mb) 16 and larger than that of Drosophila (88 Mb) 18 . GERP profiling also identified a remarkably asymmetric distribution of constrained sequence at the chromosome scale (Supplementary Fig. 9). In addition to the constraint estimation at the DNA level, consequences of mutation on amino acids in proteins were assessed by using the Sorting Intolerant From Tolerant (SIFT) program 19 . Nearly 3.0% of coding SNPs in cultivated cassava were nonsynonymous mutations (Supplementary Table 2), of which 19.3% (57,952) were putatively deleterious (SIFT <0.05). Because the strength of functional prediction methods varies 14 , we combined the criteria of SIFT (<0.05) and GERP (>2) to obtain a more conservative set of 22,495 deleterious mutations (Supplementary Fig. 10).To estimate the individual mutation burden, we used rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), which diverged from the cassava lineage 27 million years (Myr) ago 10 , as an outgroup to identify derived deleterious alleles in cassava. The derived allele frequency (DAF) spectrum showed that cassava (4.6%, Fig. 2) appeared to have more fixed deleterious mutations than maize (3.2%, DAF >0.8) 20 when compared at the same threshold (SIFT <0.05). Across cultivated cassava, there were 150 fixed deleterious mutations. These deleterious mutations cannot be purged through standard breeding, which relies on recombination of segregating alleles, but they are potential targets for genome editing 21 . Together with the other 22,345 segregating deleterious mutations, the mutation burden in cassava was substantial. Given the several millennia of breeding in the species, why are these deleterious mutations still present in cultivated cassava, and how have breeders been managing them? We evaluated recombination, selection, and drift as the main processes controlling the distribution of deleterious mutations in cassava.Recombination is an essential process to purge deleterious mutations from the genome 22 . In vegetatively propagated species such as cassava, recombination is expected be less efficient in purging deleterious mutations. This hypothesis was supported by a weak correlation between the recombination rate and the distribution of deleterious mutations (Pearson's r = −0.066, P = 0.13, Fig. 3a). Deleterious mutations were nearly uniformly spread across the cassava genome (Fig. 3b and Supplementary Fig. 11) rather than being concentrated in low-recombination regions, as seen in humans 23 , fruit flies 24 , and maize 17 . Thus, recombination, which is presumably rare in a clonally propagated crop, does not effectively purge the mutation burden in cassava.Domestication is important in the evolution and improvement of crop species. The major domestication trait of cassava is the large carbohydrate-rich storage root. Cultivated cassava has a starch content 5 to 6 times higher than that of its progenitor 4 . Another domestication trait is the decreased cyanide content in roots 4 . Every tissue of cassava contains cyanogenic glucosides 25 . Ketones, cyanohydrin, and hydrogen cyanide are the key toxic compounds formed during degradation of cyanogenic glucosides 25,26 . These toxic compounds must be eliminated before human consumption. To identify the genomic regions under selection during domestication, the cross-population composite likelihood ratio (XP-CLR) 27 was used to scan the genome in Latin American cassava (LAC) accessions and the progenitor (M. esculenta sp. flabelifolia). We identified 203 selective sweeps containing 427 genes in LAC (Supplementary Fig. 12a). Genes in these sweep regions showed enrichment in starch and sucrose synthesis (3.8-fold enrichment; false discovery rate (FDR) = 7.2 × 10 −3 ) and cellular ketone metabolism (3.4-fold enrichment; FDR = 5.3 × 10 −3 ) (Supplementary Fig. 12b). The results suggested that selection during domestication increased the production of carbohydrates and decreased the cyanogenic glucoside content in cassava. Likewise, selection signatures of a recent bottleneck event in African cassava (AC) accessions were also evaluated. A total of 244 selective sweeps were identified, containing 416 genes. These genes were enriched in serine family amino acid metabolism (4.2-fold enrichment, FDR = 2.1 × 10 −6 ) and cellular response to stress (  A total of 9.1% genetic variance was captured in the first two principal components. LAC, Latin American cassava; ACC, Asian cultivated cassava; EAC, East African cassava; WAC, West African cassava; CWL, crosses between WAC and LAC. FDR = 4.9 × 10 −6 , Supplementary Fig. 12c,d). Because l-serine is involved in the plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses 28,29 , together with the functional enrichment in cellular response to stress, this result may reflect that disease-resistance accessions were selected for in a recent breeding program in Africa 9 . How was the mutation burden shaped in the selective sweeps? We found that LAC, compared with progenitors, showed 25% fewer (P = 0.009, Fig. 4a) deleterious alleles in sweep regions. Similarly, AC, compared with LAC, exhibited a 35% decrease (P = 2.1 × 10 −7 , Fig. 4b) in sweep regions. In addition to the comparison among populations, significant within-population decreases in deleterious alleles were observed by comparing sweep regions with the rest of the genome. For example, selective sweeps exhibited a 44% decrease (P = 9.7 × 10 −12 , Fig. 4c) in deleterious alleles in LAC and a 41% decrease (P = 8.7 × 10 −130 , Fig. 4d) in AC. This result suggests that haplotypes containing fewer deleterious alleles have been favored during selection.However, drift after domestication may have played a more important role in affecting mutation burden in cassava. Although LAC and AC, compared with their progenitors, had a similar number of deleterious alleles (P = 0.42, Fig. 5a), they exhibited a prominent increase in total burden by 26% (P = 9.1 × 10 −9 , Fig. 5a) and a shifted burden toward common deleterious variants (Supplementary Fig. 13). The increase in deleterious alleles during domestication has also been found in dogs 30 . The results suggest that the severe bottleneck in domestication and the shift from sexual reproduction to clonal propagation have resulted in a rapid accumulation of deleterious alleles in cultivated cassava.How have breeders been able to maintain yield, given the substantial increase in mutation burden in cultivated cassava? The answer became apparent when the homozygous and heterozygous deleterious alleles were compared. In cultivated accessions, compared with progenitors, the homozygous-mutation burden substantially decreased, by 23% (P = 7 × 10 −3 , Fig. 5b), regardless of the elevated frequency of deleterious alleles (Supplementary Fig. 13), whereas the heterozygous-mutation burden markedly increased, by 96% (P = 8.1 × 10 −7 , Fig. 5c), despite the decreased genetic diversity in cultivated cassava (π = 0.0036) compared with progenitors (π = 0.0051). In addition, we also compared the observed and mutation burdens under the assumption of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) in cultivated cassava. The relative depletion of the homozygous-mutation burden and the excess heterozygous-mutation burden would not have been present unless they were selected for and maintained. The results showed a decreased homozygous-mutation burden (LAC, 5.6% decrease, P = 0; AC, 10.3% decrease, P = 0, Fig. 5d) and an increased observed heterozygous-mutation burden (LAC, 3.5% increase, P = 1.5 × 10 −312 ; AC, 6.9% increase, P = 0, Fig. 5e), thus indicating a significant deviation from the HWE expectation. These results suggested that breeders have been trying to manage the recessive deleterious mutations in the heterozygous state to mask the harmful effects.Mutations with a large homozygous effect are more likely to be recessive 31 . We found that nearly 64.5% of deleterious mutations occurred only in the heterozygous state. Although the low allele frequency prevents effective tests for excess heterozygosity of these deleterious mutations, these mutations are more likely to be strongly deleterious, thus resulting in the significant yield loss in the first generation of selfed cassava plants 8,9 . These mutations were in genes (n = 7,774) exhibiting functional enrichment in primarily macromolecule catabolism and biosynthesis. In contrast, the deleterious mutations existing predominantly in the homozygous state (proportion of homozygotes >70%) were present in genes (n = 245) exhibiting functional enrichment in amine and ketone metabolism, as well as chemical and stimulus responses (Supplementary Fig. 14).Using deep sequencing from a comprehensive and representative collection of 241 cassava accessions, we developed HapMapII, l e t t e r s a valuable resource for cassava genetic studies and breeding. In this vegetatively propagated species, deleterious mutations have been accumulating rapidly, owing to limited recombination and a domestication bottleneck. Although breeding efforts have successfully maintained yield by selecting high-fitness haplotypes at several hundred loci and handling most damaging mutations in the heterozygous state, breeders have been unable to purge the mutation burden. Instead, they have shielded deleterious mutations by increasing the heterozygosity while screening thousands of potential hybrids (Supplementary Fig. 15). In the short term, this practice for managing mutation burden may produce gains in yield. In the long term, however, a mutational meltdown may be triggered by new mutations, decreasing genetic diversity in the breeding pool, and clonal propagation. Deleterious mutations should be important targets for future genetic research and breeding of cassava. In genetic research, mutations in fast-evolving regulatory regions must be evaluated by examining conservation from closely related species (divergence <5 Myr ago). In addition, dominance effects of deleterious mutations and the interactions among them must be qualified from populations; for breeding, dedicatedly designed crosses and selfing can be applied to eliminate deleterious mutations efficiently. Purging deleterious mutations from cassava, combined with genomic selection and genomic editing technologies 21 , should improve this globally important crop.  A bottleneck during domestication increased the mutation burden by 26% (P = 9.1 × 10 −9 ). Demography in Africa had no significant influence on the mutation burden in African cassava accessions (P = 0.42). (b) Homozygous-mutation burden in cassava populations. Domestication decreased the homozygous-mutation burden in cultivated cassava by 23% (P = 7 × 10 −3 ). (c) Heterozygous-mutation burden in cassava populations. Domestication increased the heterozygous-mutation burden in cultivated cassava by 96% (P = 8.1 × 10 −7 ). (d) Comparison between the observed homozygous-mutation burden (n = 10,000) and the expected homozygousmutation burden (n = 10,000) under the assumption of HWE in cultivated cassava. (e) Comparison between the observed heterozygous-mutation burden (n = 10,000) and the expected heterozygous-mutation burden (n = 10,000) under the assumption of HWE in cultivated cassava.Samples and whole-genome sequencing. To maximize the diversity and representation for cassava, all samples were selected on the basis of breeders' choice and diversity analysis from accessions included in Next Generation Cassava Breeding project (URLs). Whole-genome sequences were generated from 241 cassava accessions including 203 elite breeding accessions, 16 progenitors (M. falbellifolia and M. peruviana) 2,3 , 11 hybrid/tree cassava accessions and 11 wild relative cassava accessions (M. glaziovii and others) (Supplementary Table 1). Wild M. glaziovii has been extensively used in cassava breeding programs to transfer disease-resistance alleles to cultivated cassava (for example, in the Amani Breeding Program) 10 . Among 241 cassava accessions, 172 accessions were sequenced at the Genomic Diversity Facility at Cornell University. Standard Illumina TruSeq PCR-free libraries were constructed with an insert size of 500 bp. Sequences of 200 bp in length were generated with the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform, and sequences of 150 bp in length were generated with NextSeq 500 Desktop sequencers. The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center generated ~20× coverage sequences for 15 elite cassava accessions. Sequences for the remaining 54 cassava accessions were collected from HapMapI 10 , generated at the University of California, Berkeley.The cassava genome was found to have large amounts of repeat sequences. The 518.5-Mb cassava genome (v6.1) has ~51% repetitive elements with several common recent retrotransposons 10 . To exclude misalignment and to ensure high-quality variant discovery, these repeats were prefiltered by aligning the reads to a bait 10 containing repeat sequences and organelle sequences (Supplementary Fig. 2). The Burrows-Wheeler alignment with maximal exact matches (BWA-MEM) algorithm 32 was used to align and filter repeat reads. We set the --c parameter option to 100,000 to maximize the power to detect repeat reads. Remaining reads after prefiltering were aligned to the reference genome (v6.1) 10 with BWA-MEM 32 with default parameters. All alignment files were converted to BAM format 33 . To perform high-quality variant calling and genotyping, especially for rare variants, we developed an in-house pipeline, FastCall (URLs), to perform stringent variant discovery. The alignment records were generated from alignment BAM files with the mpileup tool in Samtools 33 . The following procedures were included in FastCall: (i) genomic positions with both insertion and deletion variants were ignored, because these sites were probably in complex regions with many misalignments; (ii) for multiple allelic sites, if the third allele had more than 20% depth in any individual, the site was ignored; (iii) for a specific site, if the minor allele did not have a depth between 40% and 60% in at least one individual when the individual depth was greater than 5, the site was ignored; (iv) a chi-squared test for allele segregation 13 in all individuals was performed. Sites with P values greater than 1.0 × 10 −3 were ignored; (v) On average, over 30× depth was used for individual genotype calls.The genotype likelihood was calculated on the basis of a multinomial test, as previously described 34 . To remove potential spurious variants arising from paralogs, an additional filter was applied to keep only variants with a depth between 7,500 and 11,500 (Supplementary Fig. 4b). The missing data composed approximately 4%. The genotypes were imputed and phased into haplotypes with BEAGLE v4.1 (ref.12) with a default window size of 50,000 SNPs.Error-rate estimates of HapMapII. The cassava reference accession AM560-2 is a S3-derived inbred 11 . Therefore, few genetic polymorphisms were expected in the reference genome. The percentage of polymorphic sites across the reference genome was identified as the false-positive error rate of cassava HapMapII (Supplementary Fig. 4a). To estimate imputation accuracy, a total of 10% of the known genotypes (with a minimum read depth of 10) were masked before imputation with BEAGLE. The correlation (Pearson's r) between the imputed genotype and the masked genotype was calculated to evaluate the imputation error.Population genetic analysis. SNP density, pairwise nucleotide diversity (π), Tajima's D and the fixation index (F st ) were calculated with VCFtools 35 (Supplementary Table 2). SNP density was calculated in 100-kb nonoverlapping windows, Tajima's D and F st were calculated in 5-kb nonoverlapping windows. Values of π were calculated with variant and invariant sites. PCA was carried out with a distance matrix generated in in Trait Analysis by Association, Evolution and Linkage (TASSEL) 36 . Phylogenetic analysis was performed with the Analysis of Phylogenetics and Evolution (APE) package 37 in R software (Supplementary Fig. 6).Recombination-rate analysis. Genetic-linkage-map positions were obtained from the cassava HapMapI source 10 and the International Cassava Genetic Map Consortium (ICGMC) 38 . Genetic-linkage-map positions (in centimorgans) were projected to HapMapII sites through simple linear interpolation between the markers.Genomic evolutionary rate profiling (GERP). Constrained portions of the cassava genome were identified by quantifying rejected substitutions (strength of purifying selection) with the GERP++ program 16 . Multiple whole-genome sequence alignment was carried out for the seven species in the Malpighiales clade of the plant kingdom, including cassava, rubber (H. brasiliensis) 39 , jatropha (Jatropha curcas) 40 , castor bean (Ricinus communis) 41 , willow (Salix purpurea) 42 , flax (Linum usitatissimum) 43 , and poplar (Populus trichocarpa) 44 . Whole-genome alignment was carried out with the Large-Scale Genome Alignment Tool (LASTZ) 45 . Phylogenetic tree and neutral branch length (estimated from fourfold degenerate sites) analyses were used to quantify the constraint intensity at every position in the cassava genome. Cassava genome sequences were eliminated during the site-specific observed estimates (rejected substitution (RS) scores) to eliminate the confounding influence of deleterious derived alleles segregating in cassava populations present in the reference sequence.Identifying deleterious mutations. Amino acid substitutions and their effects on protein function were predicted with the SIFT algorithm 19 . Nonsynonymous mutations with SIFT scores <0.05 were defined as putative deleterious mutations. SIFT (<0.05) and GERP (>2) annotations were combined to identify the deleterious mutations in constrained portions of the genome. These deleterious mutations were used to calculate the cassava mutation burden.The rubber genome was used as an outgroup to identify the deleterious alleles in the cassava genome. At a given position, if a cassava reference allele matched the rubber reference allele, the allele in cassava was categorized as an ancient allele. If a cassava allele was different from the rubber allele, the cassava allele was defined as a derived allele. If the cassava genome was not aligned to the rubber genome, or both reference and alternative alleles did not match the rubber genome, that particular site was ignored. Reference accession (inbred, generation S3) and introgression lines were removed during estimation of mutation burden for each accession.Identifying selective sweep regions. The cross-population composite likelihood approach (XP-CLR) 27 was used to identify the selective sweeps for two comparisons: Latin America cassava accessions (test populations) versus progenitors (M. esculenta sp. flabelifolia, reference population) for domestication events, and African cassava accessions (test populations) versus Latin American cassava accessions (reference population) to assess recent improvement in Africa. A selection scan was performed across the genome with a 0.5-cM sliding window between the SNPs with a spacing of 2 kb. A genetic map of cassava generated by the International Cassava Genetic Map Consortium 38 was used in the XP-CLR analysis. XP-CLR scores were normalized with Z scores and a smoothed spline technique in the R package (GenWin) 46 . Outlier peaks were selected if they were above the ninety-ninth percentile of normalized values. AgriGO 47 and REVIGO 48 tools were used for gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis.Mutation burden in cassava accessions. The numbers of derived deleterious alleles present in cassava accessions were counted to identify the mutation burden in cassava accessions in three models (homozygous-mutation burden, heterozygous-mutation burden, and total mutation burden). The homozygous-mutation burden is the number of derived deleterious alleles in the homozygous state. The heterozygous-mutation burden is the number of derived deleterious alleles existing in the heterozygous state.The total mutation burden is the number of derived deleterious alleles existing in an accession (2× homozygous-mutation burden + heterozygousmutation burden) 15,49 .A bootstrap approach (with replacement) was used to resample cultivated cassava accessions from both Latin American (24 samples) and African (174 samples) breeding pools. The process was repeated 10,000 times to generate the distribution of expected homozygous and heterozygous-mutation burden. For each resampling, where b ho is the expected homozygous-mutation burden under HWE, b he is the expected heterozygous-mutation burden under HWE, n is the total number of deleterious mutations identified (n = 22,495), and d i is the allele frequency of the ith deleterious allele in the sampled population. The observed mutation burden was calculated for each accession, as described in the section 'Mutation burden in cassava accessions' . The means of observed homozygous and heterozygous mutation were used for the comparison.Statistical tests. The significance of the Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was determined by two-tailed Student's t tests. The difference between groups was tested by unpaired two-tailed Welch's t tests, assuming unequal variance between groups. n represents the sample size.","tokenCount":"3952"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fc5762de523c8e9f36bcadc99ceac4a6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/75230f6b-5629-4f02-bde4-66463a7f0c52/retrieve","id":"1573469780"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"424b1a5a-a55c-4ebe-9ec2-7c62346a5354","pagecount":"14","content":"In this issue: As we enter the close-out phase of the Feed the Future Nigeria Integrated Agricultural Activity (NIAA) this July 2024, it is with a deep sense of accomplishment and optimism that I reflect on the strides we have made together in promoting agricultural productivity and developing a sustainable seed system across Northeast Nigeria. Over the past five and a half years, our collaborative efforts, supported by USAID and executed by IITA and ICRISAT, have brought about transformative changes in the lives of smallholder farmers and their communities.In May and June, we witnessed remarkable advancements through various initiatives and success stories that exemplify the positive impact of our programs. One of our significant achievements has been the completion of the Group Dynamics and Leadership capacity development sessions for Community-Based Seed Entrepreneurs (CBSEs) in Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, and Yobe States. This training, facilitated by the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC), has empowered 497 cooperative leaders with essential skills in group work, conflict management, resource planning, and effective leadership. By fostering a mindset of collaboration and strategic decision-making, we have laid a strong foundation for sustainable seed production and entrepreneurial growth.Our partnership with NASC has been instrumental in aligning our efforts with USAID's goals of increasing access to certified seeds and strengthening the market system. The recent donation of 17 tons of certified seeds to the Borno State Government and another 7 tons to the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which are proceeds of certified seeds recovered from CBSEs after a successful 2023 wet season, underscores our commitment to supporting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and vulnerable populations. The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Borno State Government marks a significant milestone in our journey, paving the way for the establishment of the Agriculture Technology and Business Incubation Centre and the scaling up of the CBSE model in the state.Success stories from our participants highlight the tangible benefits of our interventions. Justina Alhassan from Kaltungo, Gombe State, experienced a tenfold increase in her maize yield, while Mina Simon Ali from Kakli Do Ape, Billiri LGA, tripled her grain harvest. These achievements, enabled by improved seed varieties and modern farming techniques, have not only enhanced food security but also boosted economic stability for their families and communities. Philemon Fada's journey in Kamo Lah, Kaltungo LGA, showcases the profound impact of our initiatives in fostering sustainable farming practices and economic growth.As we prepare to conclude the Activity, the gratitude and positive feedback from our beneficiaries inspire us to continue advocating for the needs of smallholder farmers.The call for an extension of our support and the need for processing machinery in communities like Kaltungo and Billiri highlight the ongoing challenges and opportunities for growth. We remain committed to ensuring that the benefits of our programs are sustained and that the foundation we have built continues to support the livelihoods of farmers across Northeast Nigeria. I extend my heartfelt thanks to USAID, IITA, ICRISAT, NASC, and all our partners for their unwavering support and collaboration. Together, we have achieved remarkable progress, and I am confident that the seeds of success we have sown will continue to flourish, fostering a prosperous and food-secure future for the region.Chief of Party Feed the Future Nigeria Integrated Agricultural Activity (NIAA)During the exchange of questions and answers with the beneficiaries in the quarter house Biu Borno state.Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity (NIAA) Newsletter 36th Edition May/June 2024 EditionThe Feed the Future Nigeria Integrated Agricultural Activity (NIAA) in collaboration with the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has just completed the Group Dynamics and Leadership capacity development sessions for the Community-Based Seed Entrepreneurs (CBSEs) cooperatives in Adamawa, Borno, Gombe and Yobe States. The Group Dynamics and Leadership curriculum is designed to help small groups interact more efficiently and make more strategic decisions. It also intends to encourage equal participation and effective leadership within the CBSE groups by addressing several key themes. The Group Dynamics and Leadership Training is an interactive and learner-centred curriculum that uses experiential learning methodology to help learners relate new content to their everyday lives. According to the NIAA Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, Mr. Sebastian Shikel, this is \"learning by doing for easy comprehension and adaptation to improve group dynamic challenges among cooperatives members\"The training which was facilitated by Mr. Idris Dantosho Aliyu, Director of Seed Industry Development, National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) took participants through sessions such as group work mindset, group formation process, conflict management and prevention techniques, using resources for planning and implementation as a group, importance of registration and records keeping and others.This training aligns with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) indicator that focuses on the \"number of farmers accessing certified seeds from Community-Based Seed Production System\". This speaks to strengthening the market system in the seed industry through the Community-Based Seeds Enterprise (CBSE) cooperative model for a sustainable livelihood; and to provide seeds that are competitive, available, affordable and adaptable to specific climate conditions.It is of note that the training completes the certification process of the 150 CBSE Cooperatives having passed through comprehensive training in best agronomic practices, effective communication (internal and external) business development, financial literacy/management and also getting them duly certified by NASC to operate as authorized and licensed seed entrepreneurs. The Activity promoted good value-chain crops such as cowpea, rice, sorghum, millet, soybeans and maize.The training relied on experiential learning methodology to help learners relate new content with their everyday lives. In this way, CBSEs can apply the skills in their various group, as well as retain the lessons with greater ease. Since CBSEs are responsible as active learning agents in the process, the participants are encouraged to share experiences and engage in the activity. Four Hundred and Ninety-seven (497) cooperative leaders and members attended the training, this consisted of chairmen, secretaries, treasurers and group members across all implementing states of the Activity. The training was held in Gombe-Kaltungo LGA on 28th May, Yobe -Potiskum LGA Secretariat, on 30th May Borno -Biu, on 1st June and Adamawa State-Yola, on 3rd June, & Gombi LGA, 4th June 2024. Mr. Bassey Archibong, the market systems and livelihood specialist for the Activity, while reiterating the importance of the training emphasized, that \"the training came at the right time for the CBSEs as they kick-start their journey into profitable commercial seed entrepreneurship.\" He further expressed confidence in the Activity of the CBSE cooperatives as they commence their seed businesses.The Community-Based Seed Entrepreneurs (CBSE) in Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, and Yobe states have recently undergone comprehensive training in improved seed production and marketing techniques. This initiative, a collaboration between the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) and the Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity (NIAA), aimed to enhance the skills and knowledge of the local seed entrepreneurs, enabling them to improve their seed production and business operations. The training sessions were tailored to meet the specific needs of the seed entrepreneurs, focusing on modern seed production techniques and effective marketing strategies. By providing these essential skills, the initiative aims to improve the quality and availability of seeds, which is critical for boosting agricultural yields and ensuring food security in the region. The training has had awide-reaching impact: high-quality seeds produced and marketed by trained CBSEs lead to better crop yields for farmers, increasing their incomes, and guaranteeing sufficient food supply in the communities.Of note is the participation of women in the training, this is particularly important because supporting female entrepreneurs in agriculture promotes gender inclusivity and ensures that the benefits of improved agricultural practices reach all members of the community.LGA Adamawa stateThe fourth annual Agricultural Inputs Fair, hosted by the Activity, recently concluded with remarkable successes, leaving an indelible mark on the agricultural communities across the intervention states of Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, and Yobe. Spanning from April 29 to May 12, 2024, this landmark event served as a pivotal hub for innovation and growth within the agricultural sector, underscoring the scale potential of collaborative efforts and resource accessibility.The Agricultural Inputs Fair has grown into a crucial platform where stakeholders from various facets of the agricultural industry converge. It offers a unique opportunity for farmers, suppliers, researchers, and experts to come together, share invaluable knowledge, and explore the latest advancements in agricultural inputs. The fair's core objective is to provide farmers with access to high-quality inputs, such as certified seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. These inputs are essential for enhancing farm productivity and efficiency, ultimately contributing to the overarching goal of achieving sustainable agricultural development and food security in the region. The turnout for the Agricultural Inputs Fair was impressive, with a total attendance of 2,894 participants across all locations. This enthusiastic participation is proof of the fair's growing reputation and the crucial role it plays in the agricultural calendar of these states. The event's success was further made clear by the encouraging sales figures, particularly the achievements of the newly certified Community-Based Seed Entrepreneurs (CBSE) cooperatives. These cooperatives, which had undergone rigorous training and certification processes, were able to sell over 5 tons of certified seeds during the fair. The breakdown of seed sales is as follows: Adamawa accounted for 3.07 tons, Borno for 1.83 tons, Gombe for 0.45 tons, and Yobe for 0.40 tons.The impact of the Agricultural Inputs Fair on the local communities cannot be overstated. One of the most notable outcomes has been the improved access to high-quality inputs for farmers removing the barriers of distance and high costs. By obtaining certified seeds and other essential agricultural inputs, farmers are better equipped to enhance their crop yields and quality. This access to superior inputs is a critical factor in driving productivity and, ultimately, the economic well-being of the farming communities.Moreover, the fair facilitated a vibrant exchange of knowledge and best practices. Farmers had the opportunity to interact with suppliers, researchers, and agricultural experts, gaining insights into innovative farming techniques and sustainable practices. This exchange of knowledge is invaluable, as it empowers farmers to adopt new methods that can improve their efficiency and productivity. Economically, the fair provided a boost to the local seed producers. The sales generated by the CBSE cooperatives not only validated their hard work and commitment to quality but also provided them with the financial incentive to continue improving their practices. This economic upliftment is important for the sustainability of the seed system and the broader agricultural sector.These cooperatives, which had undergone rigorous training and certification processes, were able to sell over 5 tons of certified seeds during the fair.The fair also played an important role in strengthening the seed system in the region. By making certified seeds more accessible to farmers, the fair has contributed to improving the overall quality and reliability of the seeds used in farming. This is a critical step towards ensuring food security, as high-quality seeds are essential for achieving consistent and productive harvests.The 2024 Agricultural Inputs Fair has proven to be a transformative event for the agricultural communities in Northeast Nigeria. By encouraging collaboration, providing access to high-quality inputs, and facilitating knowledge exchange, the fair has significantly boosted agricultural productivity and sustainability of the CBSE model being piloted by the Activity in the northeast of Nigeria. The impact of this year's fair will continue to resonate, driving ongoing improvements in the agricultural sector and contributing to the long-term goal of food security for all. As we move ahead on the close-out plans of the Activity, the lessons learned and the successes achieved this year will serve as a strong foundation for continued growth and development in the region. The collaboration between NIAA and ADAS aims to integrate the CBSEs into a broader agribusiness framework, ensuring that they benefit from comprehensive business development support. During the meetings, CBSE leaders were tasked with presenting their Economics of Production (EoP) and detailing the crops their cooperatives intend to cultivate in the 2024 wet season. This information is important as ADAS plans to synchronize the EoPs of the CBSEs into their overall agricultural framework, promoting a cohesive and well-structured approach to farming in the region.To further advance this initiative, a key meeting was held on Wednesday, May 22, 2024, at the NIAA office in Yola. This gathering included representatives from ADAS and elected leaders from the CBSEs of the seven intervention LGAs in Adamawa State. The purpose of this meeting was to finalize the onboarding process of the CBSE cooperatives into the ADAS program and to discuss the implementation details for the upcoming wet season.The partnership between NIAA and ADAS is poised to significantly impact the agricultural landscape in Adamawa State. By providing CBSEs with business advisory services and integrating them into a larger agribusiness framework, the initiative aims to enhance the sustainability and profitability of these seed enterprises. The support provided through this collaboration will not only help CBSEs improve their production capabilities but also ensure that they are well-prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities of modern agriculture.The collaboration between NIAA and ADAS is a crucial step towards fostering a sustainable Seed System model in Adamawa State. By empowering CBSEs with the necessary tools, knowledge, and support, this partnership is paving the way for a more active and prosperous agricultural sector in the region. As the 2024 wet season approaches, the efforts of NIAA and ADAS will undoubtedly contribute to the overall growth and development of the agricultural community in Northeast Nigeria.  2. Scaling Up the CBSE Model: Expanding the successful community-based seed production system to increase accessibility and affordability of high-quality seeds.Services: This will enhance the government's agriculture extension network's capacity and train extension agents and private sector agribusiness entities to effectively support farmers. The Borno State Government has also assured their commitment to mobilizing the resources needed to achieve the objectives outlined in the MoU fully. They are working closely with FAO and other donors to develop a comprehensive framework for cooperation, ensuring that the necessary support and partnerships are in place.As part of this collaboration, other key areas will be improving market systems, enhancing youth and women's engagement in agri-entrepreneurship, and diversifying livelihoods to strengthen community resilience. The initiative also aims to build a robust monitoring and evaluation system to track progress and ensure that the targeted outcomes and results are achieved. By leveraging modern techniques, high-quality seeds, and community-based models, the collaboration has the promise of a lasting impact on the livelihoods of farmers in Borno State.As the Activity draws to a close in Northeast Nigeria, this commitment is a sustainability measure in ensuring that the farming community continues to enjoy offerings of the five-and-half-year engagement that has now culminated in the Seed System Development for Northeast Nigeria, a model that has a potential for nationwide scaling and benefits. This is the success story of Justina Alhassan in Kaltungo, Gombe State. This story highlights the journey of Justina and other farmers in her community, who have experienced remarkable changes in their agricultural practices and productivity thanks to the introduction of quality seed varieties by the Feed the Future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity (NIAA), an Activity funded by USAID and implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). One of the core objectives of NIAA is to increase access to improved seeds for smallholder farmers. Justina Alhassan's story is a good example of the achievement of this goal. Her ADP Extension Agent, representing her at the recent Agric Input Fair in Kaltungo, shared their collective gratitude for the support received from the Activity.Previously, Justina and her fellow farmers struggled to achieve substantial harvests, often yielding only five bags of produce from their efforts. The introduction of improved seed varieties, such as Samaz 51 maize, has changed farming in Kaltungo for the better. Justina's supervisor proudly reported that Justina, who planted Samaz 51, harvested an unprecedented 45 bags of corn per hectare of farmland. This remarkable increase in yield is proof of the effectiveness of the IITA-developed improved seeds which are draught-resistant and high-yielding and also the effectiveness of the agricultural practices promoted by NIAA. Farmers were taught better farming techniques, which, combined with quality seeds, significantly boosted their productivity. This success is also a reflection of the strengthened partnerships between the National Agricultural Seeds Council, agricultural research institutions like IITA, and smallholder farmers. Through these collaborations, farmers in Kaltungo have gained access to certified seeds, which is crucial for sustainable agricultural growth. These partnerships have ensured that the benefits of improved seed varieties reach the grassroots level, enhancing food security and economic stability in the region.The increased yields from improved seeds have had a direct impact on the economic and nutritional status of the farmers. With higher productivity, farmers like Justina now have more produce to sell, increasing their income and enabling better living standards. This aligns with NIAA's entrepreneurship goals of increasing income and improving nutrition status among participants. The additional income from the surplus harvest allows these farmers to invest in better nutrition for their families and communities, contributing to overall well-being.The gratitude expressed by Justina's community for the agricultural intervention underscores the sustainability and long-term benefits of the program. Although there is a sense of sadness about the potential close-out of the project, the farmers are hopeful for an extension. They recognize the impact and wish for more members of their community to benefit from the intervention, ensuring that the improved seeds and practices become a permanent fixture in their agricultural endeavours.As NIAA continues its efforts, the hope is that more communities will experience similar transformations, paving the way for a prosperous and food-secure future in Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, and Yobe states. The success story of Justina Alhassan and her community in Kaltungo is an example of how targeted agricultural interventions can drive significant economic recovery and growth in rural areas. By increasing access to improved seeds and promoting sustainable farming practices, NIAA has not only enhanced agricultural productivity but also contributed to the overall development and resilience of smallholder farmers. Mina's journey embodies NIAA's core objective of increasing access to improved seeds and promoting sustainable agricultural practices. Reflecting on her past farming experiences, Mina recalled how her efforts would yield a modest 11 bags of grains on 1 Hectare of farmland. However, after adopting the new farming techniques introduced by NIAA and utilizing improved seed varieties like Faro 61 rice, Mina's productivity soared. This year, she proudly reported harvesting an impressive 35 bags of grains. This is evidence of the efficacy of the enhanced agricultural practices and superior seed quality. This significant increase in yield has brought about a transformative change in Mina's household. The additional produce has not only boosted her family's food security but also enhanced their economic stability. Mina, along with other smallholder farmers, has transitioned from subsistence farming to becoming business-oriented seed producers and traders. This shift aligns with NIAA's entrepreneurship goals of increasing income and improving nutrition status among participants. The higher income from increased yields allows farmers like Mina to invest in better nutrition and overall well-being for their families and communities.The success of Kalki ka Ukku Appe is also a reflection of the strengthened partnerships between the National Agricultural Seeds Council, agricultural research institutions like IITA, ICRISAT and smallholder farmers. These collaborations have ensured that improved seeds reach the grassroots level, fostering sustainable agricultural growth and resilience. The gratitude expressed by Mina highlights the sustainability and long-term benefits of such interventions. She, like many others in her community, is hopeful for continued support and looks forward to more members benefiting from these transformative agricultural practices.Mina's success also underscores the increased value of annual sales from farms receiving USG assistance and the enhanced value of agricultural-related financing accessed by farmers. The introduction of certified seeds from Community-Based Seed Production systems has played a crucial role in this transformation, empowering smallholder farmers to achieve greater productivity and economic stability.By increasing access to improved seeds and promoting sustainable farming practices, NIAA has significantly enhanced agricultural productivity and contributed to the overall development and resilience of smallholder farmers. As the Activity continues its efforts, the hope is that more communities will experience similar transformations, paving the way for a prosperous and food-secure future in Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, and Yobe states.Mina Simon Ali, Billiri LGA, Gombe State.In the Kamo Lah community within the Kaltungo Local Government Area of Gombe State, the impact of the Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity (NIAA) is being experienced. Philemon Fada, a member of the Kam-Lau Community-Based Seed Entrepreneurs, shared her remarkable journey at the recent wet season agricultural inputs fair held in Kaltungo, shedding light on the profound impact of NIAA's initiatives on their farming practices and livelihoods.During the event, Philemon Fada, a member of the Kam-Lau Community-Based Seed Entrepreneurs, highlighted the profound impact of NIAA's initiatives on their agricultural practices. Philemon recounted how, within just a year of the group's establishment, they have seen significant growth and development, thanks to the invaluable support from USAID and IITA. Previously, the farmers relied on outdated techniques and the use of stored harvested grains for re-cultivation. However, the introduction of modern farming techniques and high-quality seed varieties has revolutionized their approach to agriculture. \"We are grateful to USAID and IITA for their support and look forward to continued collaboration,\" she said. This shift has not only enhanced their productivity but also paved the way for sustainable farming practices.The benefits of these improvements are evident in the community's increased agricultural productivity. By adopting high-quality seeds and modern techniques, the farmers have experienced higher yields and improved crop quality. This transformation aligns with NIAA's goals of increasing access to improved seeds and promoting the adoption of better agricultural practices among smallholder farmers. Philemon's story explains the initiative's success in fostering economic recovery and growth through a sustainable seed production and distribution system.Elevating Yields: Philemon Fada's Story with NIAA in Kamo Lah highlighted the community's need for continued support. The people of Kaltungo, Apo, and Billiri are collectively calling for an extension of NIAA's presence by an additional two years. The acceptance and assistance from American partners have been instrumental in their progress, and the community believes that more time is needed to adapt to these new methods fully. Philemon assured that with this extended support, the communities would experience even greater positive changes.Furthermore, Philemon emphasized the urgent need for agro-equipment to process their harvested grains, particularly rice and soybeans. The absence of processing machines poses a significant challenge for the farmers, affecting their ability to maximize the value of their produce. By providing the necessary machinery, NIAA and its partners can further enhance the productivity and economic stability of these communities. Philemon Fada's story from Kamo Lah is a good illustration of the impact of NIAA's agricultural interventions. By increasing access to improved seeds and promoting sustainable farming practices, NIAA has significantly enhanced agricultural productivity and contributed to the overall development and resilience of smallholder farmers. As NIAA continues its efforts, extending its support and providing essential machinery will ensure that more communities like Kamo Lah can thrive and secure a prosperous future. The heartfelt gratitude and prayers for safe journeys back home are a testament to the deep appreciation for the positive changes brought about by NIAA and its partners. To achieve these objectives, the Activity works with a coalition of public and private sector partners to facilitate improved agro-input and extension advisory services to serve vulnerable populations; strengthen the institutions that form the market system and the networks that serve smallholder farmers disenfranchised by conflict, and facilitate the engagement of youth and women in economic and entrepreneurial activities.Feed the Future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity IITA-Abuja, Beside Old WaterWorks, Kubwa, Abuja FCT, NIgeria.Mobile: +234-9062927839 Email: p.silwal@cgiar.org @niaausaid niaa_usaid niaa_usaid niaa_usaid","tokenCount":"3934"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ade03a6108d5d6f6e757e3939ae67a29","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f474c814-8a7a-4ff5-b27e-6d0b83a14e52/retrieve","id":"-1788633485"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"985d71c1-982e-4d86-8bba-5e8fd64bb95a","pagecount":"2","content":"Out of 39 large, medium and small dairy processing plants in Uganda, SALL is today the largest. It employs 515 staff, it has the capacity to handle about 550,000 litres of milk per day, it has an annual turnover of over US$ 30 million, and a market share of over 70 percent for pasteurized milk. SALL is the only milk processor based in Kampala, but for Gouda Gold cheese factory, with majority of other processing plants located in either the Western or Central milk sheds.SALL is manufacturer of 'Fresh Dairy' range of dairy products. These include:• Fresh pasteurized milk packaged in 1000ml litre, 500ml and 250ml sachets. The milk is available as whole milk (3.4% fat), full cream (fat-rich) and slim-milk (99.5% fat-free).• Ultra-Heat-Treatment (UHT) milk, produced in 1000ml, 500ml, 250ml Tetra Brick aseptic packs and available in four flavours: plain, vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. UHT milk is also available in 500ml Tetra Fino aseptic low cost carton pouches along with 200 ml Tera Cone Aseptic packs. UHT low-fat and slim milk are available in 500ml & 1 litre aseptic packs. • Yoghurt, in cups of 500ml, 250 ml, 150ml and 100ml as well as in sachets of 400ml in plain, vanilla, mango, butterscotch, banana and strawberry flavours.• Butter salt and unsalted, packaged in 500g and 250g hygienic foil as well as in 5kg cartons.• Ghee, packaged in 1000ml and 500ml tin containers and 20 litre tins.• Instant Powder milk, available in 400g and 900g packs.Fresh pasteurized milk represents the major business for SALL, with about 45 to 50 percent of the milk processed daily used to produce pasteurized milk. About 30 to 40 percent of the processed milk goes into UHT milk, and the rest into the other dairy products.SALL is a buyer of milk and a seller of dairy products. It largely buys from district cooperatives in Western and Central Uganda, which have established about 135 milk collection centres equipped with coolers and generators as well as testing kits provided by SALL.Over 20,000 farmers (either specialized dairy or mixed farmers), which have been trained in hygienic practices for milk handling, bring their milk to the collection centres, where milk is cooled down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius). The milk is transported to the so-called Bulking Centres, managed by the Cooperatives, where it is chilled a second time. SALL insulated tankers then take the milk to the processing plant in Kampala.'Fresh Dairy' products target lower middle to high-income consumers, with recommended retail prices averaging UgSh 1,500 to 1,600 (US$ 0.6 to 0.7) per litre of pasteurized milk in March 2011.Milk is directly distributed to some retailers, including hypermarkets, supermarkets, specialized shops, dukas and kiosks, as well as hotels, schools and other institutions. Distributors play a key role in distributing dairy products across Kampala as well as across Indirectly, thousands of retailers also sell SALL products, which they buy from wholesale channels located in Kampala and upcountry markets. In addition, dairy products are exported to about ten countries, including COMESA and Middle East countries; ghee is exported to India.Milk production in Uganda is insufficient to satisfy existing demand (the country is a net importer of milk) and SALL finds difficulties in getting sufficient and timely supply of milk (which leaves over 80 percent of its processing capacity unused).To address this major constraint, SAAL is adopting a two-pronged approach. On the supply side, the company has been supporting farmer cooperatives and, most recently, it has been sponsoring a farmer awareness programme -which includes training of farmers by Indian and local veterinarians as well as distribution of medicines and other inputs at wholesale prices price to producers; it has been initiating operations to set up its own dairy farm; it plans to work with the government and other stakeholders to encourage farmers to adopt modern farming methods such as improved stocking and cattle breeds.On the demand side, it has been trying to 'create' its own market: it has made efforts to reduce retail prices through introducing the 'Tetrafino', a 30 percent cheaper packaging material; it has set up contracts with about 24 schools, to which it sells milk in 250ml sachets on a daily basis; it has initiated the Fresh Dairy Branded Kiosk Self Employment Scheme, a franchising for distributing and selling the company's milk products in Kampala and Entebbe (over 100 kiosks have been established so far); it has been collaborating with the Dairy Development Authority (DDA) to increase the awareness among the population of the importance of consuming 'safe' milk sold through the formal market, which currently accounts only for between 10 to 20 percent of all milk sold in the country.Data Need, if any SALL has its own sources of information as, like all active companies, gets direct and indirect information on market status and trends through its business partners and through observing daily price trends.However, with the aim of expanding its operation and satisfy the unmet and growing demand for milk in Uganda, SALL would appreciate updated information on districts with relevant surplus production of milk as well as on potential trends of milk production in the country. Some of this information is available, but in most cases is either presented in formats which are of little use to SALL (e.g. only regional data are available or data are summarized in maps with no detail numbers attached) and based on data which are more than five year old, in a country where, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, annual GDP growth averaged 7.6 percent in 2000-2009 and where, in the last two years, the livestock sector grew by about 14 percent. ","tokenCount":"936"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a6e2e81004204983141aae05eb687a73","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8f612fe2-cdd1-45a5-9834-bc5a07d0bbef/retrieve","id":"1247405261"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ea02fdf4-77e5-4492-86b7-337b1d4f6eb1","pagecount":"36","content":"Bioversity International is an independent international scientific organization that seeks to improve the well-being of present and future generations of people by enhancing conservation and the deployment of agricultural biodiversity on farms and in forests. It is one of 15 centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an association of public and private members who support efforts to mobilize cutting-edge science to reduce hunger and poverty, improve human nutrition and health, and protect the environment. Bioversity has its headquarters in Maccarese, near Rome, Italy, with offices in more than 20 other countries worldwide. The organization operates through four programmes: Diversity for Livelihoods, Understanding and Managing Biodiversity, Global Partnerships, and Commodities for Livelihoods.The international status of Bioversity is conferred under an Establishment Agreement which, by January 2010, had been signed by the Governments of Algeria,Mike Ambrose, Chair of the Working Group on Grain Legumes of the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR), welcomed the participants to its fourth meeting, organized at the Congress Centre of Lisbon, Portugal, as a satellite meeting to the Sixth European Conference on Grain Legumes. He was pleased to see members and observers from the Conference. He also announced the detailed programme of the meeting, which has the following objectives:• Provide a forum for interaction between members • Review progress and outputs of the workplan for Phase VII • Identify uncompleted items of the workplan and how these might be fulfilled • Inter-regional cooperation -new initiatives or links • Discuss an invitation from the Global Crop Diversity Trust • Identify priorities for proposals for submission for funding in Phase VIII of ECPGR.Gérard Duc, Vice-Chair, speaking of plant genetic resources, expressed the need to build a bridge between the genomic approach on one side and the genetic resources collections on the other. He regarded this as the challenge of this meeting, i.e. the aim should be to build such a bridge as fast as possible.The Chair's report (Mike Ambrose)   Workshop on Conservation, Management and Regeneration Methods for Grain Legume Genetic Resources This workshop was organized by María José Suso, Margarita Vishnyakova, Alvaro Ramos, Mike Ambrose and Gérard Duc in Valladolid, Spain, on 22-23 September 2005.The organizers initiated an online survey of current practices in Grain Legume germplasm regeneration, assisted by the ECPGR Secretariat prior to the meeting. The objectives were the following:• Identify key issues and areas for further work • Disseminate findings and records of discussions • Develop collaborative research proposals and joint experiments • Develop, promote or refine protocols as required.The executive report of the meeting is available from the Grain Legumes Working Group's Web page (http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/workgroups/grain_legumes/grain_legumes.htm).The following key points were summarized as the main conclusions of the meeting:• Cross-tabulation of questionnaire results and a revised summary are still outstanding;• Major gaps in knowledge of breeding systems of many grain legume species were identified and evidence gathering is required;• Guidelines for regeneration protocols are required (they should be practical, Web-based and be based on actual experiences); • There is a need to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity among insect pollinators; • Awareness of the complementarity between in situ and on-farm conservation for allogamous species was increased.It has been a very successful exercise to mobilize the Working Group (WG) to provide material to the project. A supply of Pisum germplasm was supplied to the project, with 2000 samples from eight European collections.In return, GLIP provided some support for the ECPGR Satellite Meeting, including a budget for the registration fees of some participants, a meeting room and lunch on the first day.This meeting responded to issues raised at the meeting of all Network Coordinating Groups (March 2006, Bonn, Germany) and discussed the progress of the workplan, the initiative for A European Genebank Integrated System (AEGIS), the European Internet Search Catalogue (EURISCO), inter-regional cooperation and in situ and on-farm activities. Planning of a workplan for Phase VIII also started.M. Ambrose and two other members attended a meeting to develop a Global Conservation Strategy for chickpea, lentil, grass pea and faba bean in February 2007.Work Plan: Implementing Genetic Reserves and On-Farm Concepts) M. Ambrose attended a meeting of AEGRO. Although grain legumes are not included in the project, lessons can be learned from this exercise and the Group will have chances to maintain a close relationship with AEGRO in the near future.This meeting will need to define activities to be prioritized by the Network for Phase VIII.The Group will need to review its priorities more frequently in the future, to be sure to make the best of available opportunities.The Chair aimed to run an efficient and friendly meeting, encouraged all participants to voice their views and comments, and intended to promote discussion and to arrive at constructive and achievable objectives.María José Suso presented the results of an international survey on the State of the Art of Grain Legume Management in genebanks. This was carried out by María José Suso, Margarita Vishnyakova, Alvaro Ramos, Mike Ambrose and Gérard Duc, assisted by the ECPGR Secretariat. The questionnaire was sent to 73 experts and received 31 responses, representing the curators of about 180 000 grain legume accessions. The questionnaire revealed that the deterioration or decrease of viability of accessions is the main reason leading to regeneration in 26% of the cases. In many cases, the percentage of accessions in urgent need of regeneration is around 20%, while the average interval between two successive regenerations is 8.5 years. Frequent limiting factors are the isolation tools for allogamous species and manpower. The differential response of different pollinators in quality and amount of seed produced has been seriously underestimated. The available sources of information on the subject tend to generalize rather than to address the variability of systems operating within a genus or species, and information on the crops with little breeding history is lacking. Proposals for future action include: collation of specific data by species and location based on actual experiences; evaluation of the mating system by using standardized experiments; development of a list of new associated floral descriptor traits. A holistic approach is recommended for the management of germplasm, involving the pollination mechanisms and pollinator agents.Lorenzo Maggioni, ECPGR Coordinator, briefed the Group about the latest decisions of the ECPGR Steering Committee at its Tenth Meeting (Riga, Latvia, September 2006) and explained the criteria foreseen for the allocation of Network budgets during Phase VIII of ECPGR (2009-2013), including the need for the Networks to prepare project proposals with activities and outputs. He also updated the Group on the progress of \"A European Genebank Integrated System\" (AEGIS) and on recent international developments: Standard Material Transfer Agreement of the International Treaty; EC Regulation (Gen Res) 870/2004; Seventh Framework Programme (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/); Global Crop Diversity Trust (donation by the Gates Foundation of US$ 37.5 million); and the Svalbard Seed Vault.Mike Ambrose mentioned the Global Conservation Strategy Meeting for chickpea, lentil, grass pea and faba bean, which he was invited to attend on 19-22 February 2007 in Aleppo, Syria. The outcome takes the form of Global Strategies and specific actions to target problems of regeneration/safety-duplication and knowledge gaps. It costs a lot to put strategy meetings together, therefore he thought that The Trust will be unlikely to take a dynamic approach to modifying the existing strategies. As a result of the meeting, key ex situ collections essential to the global community were identified, with unique or specialist material. Work will be done to ensure safety-duplication in International Collections (including Svalbard). The importance was acknowledged of maintaining species-specific focus in the strategy. Insufficient knowledge of global resources was recognized and the importance of networking and coordination was underlined.The chickpea, lentil, faba bean and grass pea strategies were initiated in October 2005 and discussions took place at the Fourth International Food Legume Research Conference (IFLRC-IV), 18-22 October 2005, in New Delhi, India. A survey of collections, content and status of conservation was undertaken in April-May 2006. A Strategy Advisory Group Meeting took place on 19-22 February 2007 in Aleppo, Syria. The grass pea strategy is available for download, while the chickpea, lentil and faba bean strategies will be completed by December 2007. 1 The process is funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), Australia.For the future, The Trust is not looking to coordinate actively beyond the publication of Global Crop Strategies. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) collections are of high strategic relevance and key to future coordination. ECPGR is seen as a key regional programme for engaging with the revision of strategy and the coordination of possible projects/activities. The Database contains data on about 4200 accessions, received from 5 institutes. On the other hand, EURISCO contains data from 17 institutes, although the total number of accessions is about the same, since several institutes are holding fewer than 10 accessions each.Regarding the Phaseolus Database (http://www.genbank.at/phaseolus), 34 institutes from 27 countries were approached and 31 838 records were received. Even after the last meeting of the Grain Legumes WG (July 2001, Kraków) and the call for data sent out in 2003, passport data of some countries are still missing in the CCDB, but are available from EURISCO.Characterization data for five additional descriptors are included for ca. 1000 records (3%).It seems that the three characterization descriptors agreed at the first meeting of the Working Group (July 1995, Copenhagen) (Plant type, Seed colour and Seed size) are not sufficient in themselves to identify the accessions since they are environment dependent. There are also problems with the definition of the colours (e.g. difference between bluish lilac and reddish violet is difficult to determine) and the colours also change with the length of time in storage.Emergency measures to regenerate important material from the collection previously maintained at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, were coordinated by members of the Working Group. This was done with mixed success and the current situation is that Italian institutions in Bologna and Viterbo have multiplied about 400 accessions and the seed obtained was split into two batches, which were sent to the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Linz, Austria and to Warwick HRI, Wellesbourne, UK, for long-term conservation.There were no big changes in the Vicia faba Database since the last meeting in Kraków in 2001, with 12 500 entries. Passport data will be available shortly on the ECPGR Web site (http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/databases/Crops/vicia_faba.htm).The task force survey (2005) identified 4500 additional entries in European ex situ collections, indicating that European ex situ collections host 50% of the world resources of Vicia faba. These should if possible be added to the Database. Other plans include the identification of duplicates and complementation with phenotypic data. Help will be needed from the Working Group to accomplish these tasks.Collections are mostly kept by public institutions. Accessions are regenerated at a rate of 12% each year (17% need urgent regeneration). In order to prevent the genetic lines from intercrossing, regenerations are expensive, but some collections are maintained under openpollination.In other cases, attempts are made to control outcrossing with male sterility. Some initiatives are going into the building of mass reservoirs. Some orphan collections have been detected. Often there is no safety-duplication.Priorities have been defined as follows:-Need to concentrate on composite, reference and core collections, with phenotypic and genotypic data: the FababeanGRIC project (see below, page 15) is addressing this point. These collections will have a high value for association genetics and \"ecotilling\" strategies, which require material of guaranteed genotypes. • Austria (Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Linz) 86 accessions maintained ex situ with passport and phenotypic data.• Azerbaijan (Genetic Resources Institute, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (GRI, ANAS), Baku)27 accessions maintained ex situ and characterized (8 with seed composition data).• Bulgaria (Institute for Plant Genetic Resources (IPGR), Sadovo)692 accessions maintained ex situ, with passport and phenotypic data. Collection of local landraces is a priority.• Czech Republic (AGRITEC, Šumperk)391 accessions, mostly cultivars and breeding lines, with passport data, 118 with phenotypic data.The Rennes collection has been included in the Dijon collection. There are 2000 accessions, regenerated in insect-proof cages (10%/year). A reduced collection of 996 accessions has been defined on the basis of passport and phenotypic data. Genotyping with SSR was initiated in collaboration with ICARDA (Generation Challenge Program). A new database (LegumBase) has been built (http:/www.inra.fr/legumbase). Pool populations including male sterility were created.• Germany (Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben) 1920 accessions (50% landraces and traditional cultivars of Vicia sp.), 9% regenerated per year; documented with the Genebank Information System (GBIS) and the documentation system for plant genetic resources in Germany (PGRDEU).• Portugal (National Institute of Biological Resources, (INRB, I.P.))788 accessions, mostly landraces maintained ex situ.• Slovak Republic (Slovak Agricultural Research Centre, Research Institute of Plant Production (SARC-RIPP), Piešťany)58 accessions (20 landraces, 25 cultivars). Passport data available from EURISCO.• Turkey (Aegean Agricultural Research Institute (AARI), Izmir)373 accessions maintained ex situ. 31 landraces were recently collected. 100 genotypes were phenotyped in nurseries in 2004. An ongoing breeding programme includes yield trials on 15 lines. Ongoing plans for genotyping.Syika Angelova asked whether breeding lines should be kept under long-term conservation. G. Duc thought that the final product of the breeding could be maintained if possible, but it would not be possible to maintain all the material generated during the breeding process. In France, mass reservoirs are maintained.M. Ambrose offered help from the UK for phenotyping accessions. Alvaro Ramos reminded the Group that all the knowledge created through the Valladolid workshop on regeneration should be taken into account.In a presentation prepared by Graça Pereira, M.M. Tavares de Sousa and Isabel Duarte, it was stated that the European Cicer Database was established in 1995, and changes occurring between 2002 and 2007 were presented. The composition of the collections per country and information on specific collections was given. The Database should be updated by the manager, either to incorporate the information that countries send or to download already existing information from EURISCO.Three countries informed the Group that safety-duplication had not been undertaken; partial safety-duplication was made within Portugal, and no information was available from other countries. This situation should be improved.The collections from Albania, Bulgaria and Portugal need urgent regeneration.Breeding programmes are going on in Bulgaria, Portugal and Turkey. In Portugal, the National Plant Breeding Station (Estação Nacional de Melhoramento de Plantas, ENMP) in Elvas is undertaking adaptation studies of material from different environmental regions, which could be of national interest. For grain legume crops, the most important limiting factors of production are attacks from severe diseases and drought during spring. Studies are taking place at ENMP to understand the physiological and morphological plant mechanisms to avoid drought. Similarly, since the beginning of the 1990s tolerant lines are being selected against Ascochyta blight, starting from local material combined with exotic lines. Five highly tolerant lines against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceris have been selected.A. Ramos highlighted the point that institutes where there is no breeding programme need help from international organizations for urgent regeneration, also to demonstrate to governments that this is an important activity.A presentation provided by Lerzan Gül Aykas reported that the Lens Database was established at the Aegean Agricultural Research Institute (AARI, Izmir, Turkey). A first survey was made in 1997, aimed at identifying the existing collections of Lens spp. in Europe. A second survey was carried out in 2001 to update available information on the collections. Finally, the Database was made available online on the IPGRI (now Bioversity International) server in May 2002. Unfortunately, since 1997, very few European countries have added data to the Lens Database and no additional contribution was received. Therefore, since the last meeting of the Working Group on Grain Legumes in Poland ( 2001), there been no significant changes. At present, The ECPGR Lens Database contains a total of 4681 records from 8 countries. Three of the biggest collections (Russian Federation, Turkey and Spain) hold about 88.5% of the total number of accessions. The structure of the Database was organized according to the FAO/IPGRI Multi-crop Passport Descriptors. Data for a minimum of 18 passport descriptors were requested. The data from eight countries represent seven lentil species (Lens culinaris (4579 accessions), L. ervoides (19); L. lamottei (5); L. montbretii (5); L. nigricans (38); L. odemensis (9) and L. orientalis ( 4)), and Lens sp. ( 22). Analysis of data shows that Lens accessions originate from approximately 66 countries, while the country of origin of 579 accessions is unknown. Due to incompleteness of data, it was not possible to identify the duplicate accessions. It was emphasized that donor numbers and donor institute should be completed if this information is available. The Lens Database is planned to be updated according to the FAO/IPGRI Multi-crop Passport Descriptors and will be converted to the EURISCO descriptors with additional information in 2008.The report on the Lens Database was uploaded on the Web after the meeting (http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/Workgroups/grain_legumes/Index_CountryReps.htm).G. Duc explained that data from France were not sent since the collection is very small.No update was available on Lupinus.Mike Ambrose stated that many new germplasm resources were being developed, including mutants and other populations. A complete report would be provided later.The ECPGR Glycine Database was started in 1998 and it includes passport data from 8 countries, 9 institutes, with a total of 11 000 entries. Attempts are being made to update the DB. Some large collections are still missing, such as the data from Bulgaria (900 accessions). It is however possible to download these data from EURISCO. Most entries are from the N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation) (>6000 accessions). The largest world collections are in the USA (18 000) and China (12 000). Europe is not the main continent where soybean is grown. The potential for the further growth of the DB is high. The DB is available from the ECPGR Web site (http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/databases/crops/glycine.htm). The management of the DB is time-consuming and it is currently difficult to carry it out properly. The current DB manager should also be re-nominated.S. Angelova said that there are some difficulties in Bulgaria to manage the documentation of soybean accessions.M. Ambrose asked M. Vishnyakova to contact her colleagues and verify whether the DB can be maintained at VIR or not and then inform the Group accordingly.A presentation provided by Stanko Georgiev informed the Group that, according to decisions taken at the ECPGR ad hoc meeting on Arachis held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in November 2002, the IPGR-Sadovo, Bulgaria was selected as the managing institute for the European Arachis Database. Unfortunately, up to now Bulgaria had received no data from the other four partner countries that participated in the meeting and the only information available is on the status of the Bulgarian groundnut collection.In 2007 the collection contains a total of 722 accessions, including 379 in long-term conservation and 343 in medium-term conservation and in a working collection. Local varieties and breeders' lines constitute 40% of the collection and those of foreign origin represent 60%.The main part of the groundnut working collection (80%) consists of breeders' lines created through hybridization.The results of field investigations demonstrate that more than 25% of breeders' lines have very good productivity and exceed the standard 'Kalina' average by 15-30% in the yield of pods. They also possess combined resistance to fungal diseases caused by Phylosticta arachidis, Fusarium spp., Alternaria alternata, Cercosporella arachidicola, Oidium arachidis and Verticillium alboatrum. The size of the seeds of the new Bulgarian groundnut breeding lines exceeds those of the 'Kalina' variety and can be used as the initial material for creating more promising varieties.S. Angelova informed the Group that Stanko Georgiev had retired and two young researchers were now continuing his work on groundnut.It was noted that no report was made of the \"Vicia sativa complex\" Database. The ECPGR Database on Vicia spp. is maintained by the Institute of Plant Genetics, Bari, Italy (http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/databases/Crops/Vicia.htm).A quick survey was made in the Group about institutions looking for safety-duplication and offers for safety-duplication:• Institute needing support for safety-duplication: INRA-Dijon for Vicia faba.• Institute offering space for safety-duplication: Banco Português de Germoplasma Vegetal (BPGM), Braga, Portugal.S. Kratovalieva informed the Group that Macedonia (FYR) is safety-duplicating all the national collection in the Svalbard Seed Vault (approximately 650 accessions).M. Ambrose asked the Group what were the needs for urgent regeneration, apart from Albania and Georgia, which were already listed. The WG could then forward the requests to the Global Crop Diversity Trust for possible funding M. Veloso said that she would like to regenerate the Portuguese Vicia faba collection in the fields of the National Plant Breeding Station (ENMP) of Elvas. That regeneration will be carried out by ENMP with the technical advice of a Spanish colleague who is a specialist in V. faba germplasm multiplication.G. Duc suggested the regeneration of well identified genotypes to be used for association genetics strategies. A composite collection of homozygote lines for specific genes should be defined on the basis of the European collection and it should be maintained and protected against intercrossing. M.J. Suso advised that an inbred collection was already available at ICARDA. G. Duc agreed that the Group should take into account the variability of the ICARDA collection, without duplicating the effort, but he also thought that the variability that is present in European landraces is not represented elsewhere (for example the small-seeded faba bean).M. Ambrose thought that this initiative could be feasible for the ECPGR WG and asked for offers to join the effort. He offered to regenerate 10-15 accessions at the John Innes Centre, Norwich.A. Carboni was able to offer facilities for regeneration at the Research Centre for Industrial Crops of the Agriculture Research Council (Consiglio per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura, Centro di Ricerca per le Colture Industriali, CRA-CIN), Bologna.It was clarified that there are two distinct objectives, one being the production of homozygote genotypes to reveal genes, the other being the maintenance of original populations in their heterozygous condition, to supply populations for organic farming, climate change, functional crops, etc. M.J. Suso warned the meeting that regeneration methods for maintaining the level of heterozygosis and heterogeneity of landraces by using open-pollination conditions is becoming increasingly important to face global climate change. Climate changes exacerbate concerns about the interaction of insect pollinators and plant pollination. Global warming could disrupt the timing of pollination with serious negative impacts to both plants and pollinators. By using open-pollination conditions for legumes' regeneration not only the within-crop genetic interactions (heterozygosis and heterogeneity) but beneficial ecological interactions (plant-pollinator) would be preserved. Thus, during regeneration, issues such as wild biodiversity (for instance bees and bumble bees pollinators) in the agro-ecological system where the legume populations grow should not be neglected and should be monitored.M. Ambrose concluded that this initiative should be further developed and included in the future plans of the Working Group.The status of national grain legume collections was presented by S. Angelova (Bulgaria), A. Carboni (Italy), S. Kratovalieva (Macedonia FYR) and M. Vasić (Serbia).Country reports were provided by the representatives of Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Macedonia FYR, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia and Turkey.Available reports were uploaded on the Web after the meeting (http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/Workgroups/grain_legumes/Index_CountryReps.htm).(Syika Angelova)The most important habitats and plant communities were recorded during seven collecting missions carried out in the last five years. Floristic regions including sites with high diversity of grain legume and oil crop wild relatives were the following: Strandja-Sakar Mountains, Rhodopi Mountains, South Dobrudza, Tracian Plain and Black Sea. Data were recorded including ecological, geographical and taxonomic information. The most representative genera (in terms of the number of species) in the wild flora of Bulgaria are Vicia, Lathyrus, Brassica and Linum. Species of genera Lupinus, Cicer, Pisum and Lens were identified in one or two floristic regions and some of them were represented by single plants.Interesting traits relating to plant vigour, growth habit, earliness and others were detected. Cold tolerance is present in common vetch (Vicia incisa and V. angustifolia) and grass pea (Lathyrus cicera), drought and disease resistance in common vetch (Vicia angustifolia) and lupin (Lupinus angustifolius).The genebank is looking for partnership opportunities to explore possibilities for the use of crop wild relatives in Bulgaria. At present there are no breeding programmes in Bulgaria for Lupinus and Lathyrus. Interest towards these crops is however growing for use in organic agriculture in regions with acidic soils and high altitude. The lupin is not a traditional crop for Bulgaria but it has been used there for a long time. and integration of these tools in existing information systems; • Finally and most important, elaboration of a methodology for generation of the aforementioned strategies based on existing generic methodologies and experiences extracted from the four crop and landrace studies; • The promotion of the development of National CWR and landrace conservation strategies within the EU member states as components of an integrated EU strategy is the overarching goal of this project.The project is open to collaboration and the Grain Legumes WG will need to maintain sufficient contacts and to receive inputs from this project. The project has a challenging programme of putting together methodologies and doing the methodological work also on behalf of other crop groups that are not represented among the project partners.M. Ambrose opened a discussion on the utilization of collections. Large datasets are developing and it is necessary to make the link between the material and its use. M.J. Suso stressed the point that too much emphasis is put on introgression approaches (transfer of highly heritable qualitative traits that are governed by one or few genes), and that breeders also need to develop incorporation approaches (development of new, genetically broad adapted populations with wide variation and acceptable performance level). Analysis of breeding pools led to the realization that new sources of genes for pest and disease resistance are needed in order to avoid crop vulnerability. However, two things should be taken into account: firstly, heterozygosity and heterogeneity are potential buffering mechanisms against unpredictable stresses. Secondly, it has been demonstrated that heterozygosity and heterogeneity are associated with decreased crop vulnerability. Consequently, more emphasis needs to be put on an increased level of heterozygosity and heterogeneity accomplished by developing diverse populations utilizing a wide range of genotype mixtures and improved landraces.G. Duc brought examples of relationships with breeders. In France small groups of breeders agreed to collaborate with the public sector for maintenance. They are convinced of the value of populations for recurrent selection programmes and agreed to build populations in collaboration with the public sector. As a second example, a small private company agreed to share the conservation work and contribute to the renewal of the lupin collection.A. Carboni stated that in Italy state company breeders receive funds from small commercial companies for phenotyping. Breeders are promoting landraces since there is a new market for them.M. Ambrose reported that in the UK there is demand from breeders for material that has gone through pre-breeding in the case of pea, while, differently from France, there is no active collaboration between private and public sectors for grain legumes, but only for cereals.M. Ambrose said that the factors which attract funds in legume research are related to food and nitrogen fixation. However, breeders are only interested in yield (resistance to drought, virus, etc.), and never in nitrogen fixation. M.J. Suso mentioned that another important element of legume crops is the ecological service of supporting pollinators. There is a trend in sustainable agriculture for environmental objectives to be incorporated into plant breeding objectives. Breeders are encouraged to develop breeding approaches that strive to integrate food production into the healthy functioning of agro-ecosystems. In the particular case of legumes, this approach could help to preserve and enhance bee fauna by providing suitable floral resources within the crops themselves. In parallel, legume breeding for sustainable agriculture is linked to the development of non-food services such as environmental services. Legumes are visited by a great number of social, eusocial and solitary bees. Foraging places and nesting sites for solitary and social bees are some of the ecological services provided for legumes in sustainable agriculture. The provision of floral resources within the crop for supporting beneficial insect pollinator populations could be a promising strategy to enhance the environmental function of legumes.G. Duc informed the Group that marker-assisted selection could be the means to ensure a link between the collections and the interests of the breeders. In France, a marker within a gene was developed to detect trypsin inhibitor in pea. There is a small company that has already adopted this screening technique.M. Ambrose added that similar markers have been developed for mildew resistance. (Mike Ambrose) An invitation was made by the Global Crop Diversity Trust to collate proposals for priority regeneration and safety-duplication of collections for funding over three years. This only relates to Annex I crops (i.e. chickpea, faba bean, lentil and grass pea) and only to material originating within the region and not already duplicated in a CGIAR or other international collection. Accessions should be at risk (e.g. reduced viability) and should be available on terms consistent with the International Treaty. There must also be willingness to safetyduplicate the material in an international collection. Proposals could include an element of characterization and the recording of traits, particularly of any associated with climate change. Collections at the Agricultural Research Institute Lushnje, Albania and Yurjev Institute for Plant Production Kharkiv, Ukraine have already been specifically approached by The Trust. VIR collections are also being addressed under a specific project.The Chair invited the Working Group members to come forward with information about material that could need urgent regeneration and therefore support from The Trust, since the requests could be compiled and submitted for funding.A proposal from Georgia was discussed and it was recommended that it could be funded by The Trust.A request from Ukraine could not be discussed because of lack of information M. Veloso mentioned that the faba bean collection in Oeiras (Portugal) needs regeneration. Duplicates could be sent to the Seed Vault in Svalbard and to ICARDA. The regeneration will take place anyway, but additional funds would need to be secured.S. Angelova said that landraces in Bulgaria are still valuable and need to be collected and regenerated.Regeneration is necessary to allow for distribution of seeds. The Group is supporting the application and the suggestion is that characterization is attached to it.L. Holly declared that the financial situation was uncertain in Hungary and the genebank needed to multiply 300 accessions from different grain legumes (chickpea, cowpea, lentil and faba bean). They were planning to duplicate accessions at ICARDA. Phaseolus coccineus accessions need isolation spaces. The genebank may need some help from WG members.S. Kratovalieva proposed to apply for funds for regeneration and to obtain enough seed to make the material available.W. Kainz informed the Group that in Austria they use isolation space of 500 m with plant barriers. There would be no capacity to help other countries.It was agreed that the NCG would compile the list of regeneration priorities for the Network and send it to the ECPGR Secretariat for delivery to The Trust. M.J. Suso commented that some standard criteria were needed to ensure proper regeneration.M. Ambrose concluded that the Network will collect information on how regeneration is done in the various partner institutions.The European Association for Grain Legume Research (www.grainlegumes.com/aep) is a multi-disciplinary platform to accompany and facilitate the progress in legumes at the EU and international scales, with the objectives of stimulating research and exploiting the results. Activities consist in scientific conferences, communication and promotion, thematic workshops and dissemination events, facilitating project setting-up and interactions, and stimulating technology transfer. The new Executive Committee for 2007-2010 is composed of Judith Burstin (INRA, France), Noel Ellis (JIC, UK), Diego Rubiales (CSIC, Spain) and Christophe Salon (INRA, France). Examples were given of the new projects where AEP has been involved. AEP is open to any collaboration. The organization will have only a small reduced budget and one employee. Next meeting will be held in Turkey in April 2010, jointly with the Food Legume Research Congress (i.e. the two main grain legume organizations together). The main emphasis will be on the importance of grain legumes for human health.M. Ambrose reminded the Group that AEP knows of the activity of ECPGR, since Mike and Alvaro have usually organized genetic resource sessions during the AEP meetings. Probably in 2010 we will not organize an ECPGR meeting together, since there is a need for a longer ECPGR meeting (not just a satellite), but there will still be a presence from our Group.A. Carboni asked whether we could propose a project for characterization of a grain legume core collection.G. Duc replied that AEP does not financially support projects itself, but is a supportive forum for ideas, collaborations, etc. However, we could do more than we did in the past and we could put a poster on the Web site of AEP to display the activities of ECPGR, as well as advertising the ECPGR Web site.M. Ambrose specified that ECPGR can also fund meetings for project preparation.It was agreed to develop a PDF poster of the ECPGR Working Group activities.Cooperation with ICARDA and China on Vicia faba genetic resources (Gérard Duc) A France-China bilateral cooperation is ongoing with Dr Xuxiao Zong, Institute of Genetic Resources, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Beijing, Coordinator of the National Network on Grain Legume Genetic Resources, and with Ms Shi-yin Bao, Yunnan Institute of Food Crops, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS). CAAS undertakes phenotyping and genotyping (amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) characterization of faba bean resources) and has established a national network for collection, evaluation of landraces and breeding. China has the largest area for production of faba bean with 324 000 ha (3t/ha), and 100 000 ha of pea (2t/ha).The institute holds a collection of Yunnan landraces and undertakes a large faba bean and pea breeding programme with 300 crosses and 3000 nursery lines/year. A network of evaluation is also established. Traits of interest are yield, cold tolerance, disease resistance, protein, sugar, adaptation to cooking and cleistogamous faba bean.The French-Chinese collaboration consists in exchanges of pea and faba bean accessions and joint evaluations for winter hardiness, disease resistance, protein content and male sterile faba bean.A second collaborative project is ongoing with ICARDA, focusing on the \"Development of a composite collection and the genotyping of faba bean\". Principal Investigators are Bonnie Furman, Michael Baum and Wafaa Choumane, ICARDA, Aleppo, with collaborators G. Duc, INRA-Dijon, France, and M.J. Suso, Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible, Córdoba, Spain. The total project budget is US$ 35 400. Preliminary results have detected a high number of alleles per locus and showed a high level of genetic diversity identified with the SSR primers. Next steps will be to complete the characterization of the composite collection with SSRs and then to enlarge the genotyping to other collections.(Mike Ambrose) Pea is not a mandate crop for CGIAR collections. In the absence of a focal point, it was decided to form a Pisum Genetic Resources Consortium (PeaGRIC), with the aims of creating a single portal for the Pisum research community, of developing an international reference collection of Pisum and of facilitating agronomic and molecular characterization of the reference collection. 2 The consortium is open to registrations and people wishing to register should contact Mike Ambrose.A proposal similar to PeaGRIC is under development for faba bean. The principal reason to make such a proposal is that half of the global collections are outside Europe and it would be valuable to connect ECPGR activities with other collections. A proposed action is to build a composite collection. In this allogamous crop, priority should be given to isolating lines or populations with useful traits. Phenotyping will target seed quality for different markets (including organic and local); ecological benefits (including interactions with pollinators, disease and parasites) and energy benefits in cropping systems; impact on and adaptation to climate change; nitrogen use and water use efficiency; and adaptation to new crop management systems (i.e. intercropping, low input systems).Genotyping will be done with common markers (SSR from the Generation Challenge Program). Another objective is the development of a reference collection. The guidelines of the Valladolid meeting should be followed for the methodology of regeneration. Research should be carried out on gene flow and interaction with pollinators. Materials adapted to breeding should be prepared, i.e. dynamic genepools, mutant populations and core collections. A joint evaluation of the variability for some traits or genes of interest within a network of breeders should be started. Regarding documentation, a joint or interconnected database and Web site should be developed. Interactions with breeders for better use and data feedback should also be organized.Volunteer members of the consortium are expected to join from genebanks and research institutes, from breeders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and associations for organic farming.2 Furman BJ, Ambrose MJ, Coyne CJ, Redden B. 2006. Formation of PeaGRIC: An international consortium to co-ordinate and utilize the genetic diversity and agro ecological distribution of major collections of Pisum. Pisum Genetics 38:32-34.G. Duc will send a message to try to identify who are the curators who would be interested in joining the core group. This initiative is just beginning.M. Ambrose commented that it is important to specify that single species portals are necessary, since each crop has its own issues and problems and requires specific attention. • Continuously updating the Task Force survey and ECPGR Databases• Entering the core or reference collection in projects addressing diverse traits of interest (agronomy, food, feed, biomass, industrial uses, etc.)Group members agreed that priorities for the Group would mainly be in the area of characterization for valuable traits, especially related to climate change and disease resistance. The following activities were planned:• Flowering time This trait would be important for all legume crops and related to climate change adaptation. Collection of information on degree-days and day length, together with flowering time in different parts of Europe is something that has not been done before. It was thought that a project could be prepared for funding by the EU or The Trust. M. Veloso, Portugal, offered to coordinate this activity on behalf of the Group.• Presence of pests It would be useful to monitor where pests are distributed at any time, since the area is changing and can be influenced by climate change. The Group could offer a monitoring service, by recording presence or absence. M. Veloso, Portugal, offered to coordinate this activity on behalf of the Group.This trait is important in Bulgaria, Portugal and UK. The Group could describe and characterize this trait. M. Ambrose, UK and S. Angelova, Bulgaria offered to coordinate this activity on behalf of the Group.• Phaseolus ideotype Bean breeders need to develop a new habit for the crop, something like a soybean habit. Suitable traits have already been cloned in pea and in Arabidopsis. The Group activity could consist in looking for determinate habit in Phaseolus.A. Carboni, Italy, offered to coordinate this activity on behalf of the Group.• Vicia faba pollinators and flower morphology Traits that are important for pollinators should not be lost. These are also important for their ecological value for legumes. There is not enough expertise in the Working Group regarding Vicia faba pollinators and flower morphology. M.J. Suso, Spain, offered to get in contact with experts and provide further details.The Group should focus on the most important traits and make sure that the data are made available to breeders.The NCG considered as an action point the need to contact the Documentation and Information Network and to plan an activity for characterization improvement.• In situ / on-farm The Group will remain in contact with the AEGRO project.It is important to compare the results of different methods. It is a research question that is not easy to address. M.J. Suso, Spain offered to provide a flow chart on how to approach the problem.Mike Ambrose was reconfirmed as Chair of the Group and he asked Gérard Duc to remain as Vice-Chair. The NCG was completed with the nominations of Siyka Angelova (especially for in situ/on-farm activities) and Andrea Carboni.Thanks were expressed by the Chair to the ECPGR Secretariat, with a special mention to Lidwina Koop for her support in the organization of the meeting. Thanks were given to all the participants, with the promise to remain in contact to develop a collaborative workplan. ","tokenCount":"6691"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d7e29ecb9d0f2930e4d59095fb9c527f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4d91cdaf-d6ad-4b6e-a1bd-5554a0c99f44/retrieve","id":"-1732609622"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c37e5979-1023-4134-82c6-015108b7f309","pagecount":"5","content":"Tài liệu trích dẫn Trung tâm Khoai tây Quốc tế.(2018). Nhà lưới ươm giống khoai lang tránh nhiễm dịch bệnh và sâu hại. Dự án tăng cường khả năng phục hồi lương thực nhờ cây lấy củ vùng Miền núi và Duyên hải thuộc Châu Á Thái Bình Dương.Trung Tâm Khoai tây Quốc tế. Laguna, Philippines. Trung tâm Khoai tây Quốc tế (CIP)• 22 ống nước (loại đường kính 27mm, 4m dài);• 2 dây kéo (1 dây khóa kéo 1 chiều, 1 dây khóa kéo 2 chiểu để có thể dùng ổ khóa)• ¼ kg thép cột.• 3 3 chữ T PVC, và 9 đầu nối ống PVC thẳng;• 1 hộp keo dán ống nước PVC;• 17 cọc tre, dài 0.5m để cố định khung nhà ươm;• 2 cọc gỗ dài 6m và;• 2 cọc gỗ dài 3.5m. Khung vườn ươm được phủ bằng lưới từ phía trên và 2 bên bằng tấm lưới có kích thước (6.1mx 6.2m) theo hình 2, dùng dây thép cố định lưới vào khung vườn ươm  • Tưới 1 ngày 2 lần (sáng sớm và chiều tối). Lưu í khi trời mưa không nên tưới nước để tránh vườn ươm bị ứ đọng nước.• Trong 5 ngày đầu sau khi trồng, cần phải lưu í không được để vườn ươm bị khô.• Ghi bản tên loại giống và ngày ươm trong vườn ươm.Số lượng dây giống thu được phụ thuộc vào tỷ lệ nhân giống của từng loại giống, cách chăm sóc vườm ươm và nhiệt độ. Chồi bắt đầu nhô lên khỏi mặt đầu sau khi ươm từ 4-6 tuần, và có thể thu hoach được khi chiều dài của dây giống đạt từ 25-30cm. Và khoảng 15 ngày sau lần thu hoạch thứ nhất, có thể thu hoạch lần thứ 2.Mỗi củ có thể sinh ra đến 15 dây giống, và có thể có 6 dây giống cùng mọc trên 1 củ cùng một lúc. Theo một số kinh nghiệm thực tế cho thấy mỗi củ hữu hiệu có thể sinh ra nhiều dây giống cùng một lúc (Hình 5).Giả định nếu ươm 400 củ ở 2 luống ươm, sau 6-8 tuần mỗi củ có thể sinh ra 3 dây giống, vì vậy nếu ươm 400 củ thì có thể thu hoạch được 1,200 dây giống.• Thu hoạch lần đầu sau ươm từ 6-8 tuần, cắt 3 dây going dài nhất• Thu hoạch lần 2 sau 10-15 ngày thu hoạch lần đầu, cắt 3 dây giống dài nhất.• Thời gian những lần thu hoạch: cứ 10-15 ngày thu hoạch một lần.• Bón phân Ure sau mỗi lần cắt với tỉ lệ 13gr/m 2 • Nên dùng các thuốc trừ sâu sinh học tự làm tại nhà bằng ớt chẳng hạn để diệt rệp, ruổi trắng, virus bây bệnh đốm vòng ngay khi có triệu chứng xuất hiện.Hình 5. Củ hữu hiệu được dùng để ươm trong nhà lướiSau một thời gian, nhà lưới ươm giống cần được sửa chữa theo các bước như sau:• Cần thăm vườn ươm thường xuyên (ít nhất 1 tuần 1 lần) để kiểm tra xem lưới có bị thủng hay không hoặc các vấn đề khác liên quan khác. Phải cần lưu í rằng, chỉ cần một lỗ nhỏ trên lưới phủ thì rệp hoặc ruồi trắng có thể bay vào.• Sử dụng kim may áo quần để vá lại những nơi bị thủng. Có thể dùng các miếng lưới nhỏ, được cắt cẩn thận từ lưới che phủ của vườn ươm hoặc kiếm đâu đó.• Cửa vườn ươm phải luôn luôn đóng và hạn chế số lần ra vào. Khi mở cửa vườn ươm phải làm thật cẩn thận tránh làm rách lưới.• Sau khi vá xong, nhớ phun thuốc trừ sâu bệnh.Schulte-Geldermann, E., Agili, S., Ndolo, P., Phillip, N., & Low, J. (2012). ","tokenCount":"638"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f8458abff6051c6ed126f0678854c73d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e8f507c4-ca2b-4ab9-b08f-842327592169/retrieve","id":"2081120259"},"keywords":["value chains, food markets, food waste, food systems","input supply chains","agricultural research"],"sieverID":"0cb46e82-b62b-4a39-a03b-144dd2d10e8a","pagecount":"132","content":"The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.Responses to each Reviewer under the points, in bold. December 2, 2017 Relevant to all reviews: Overall, we cut 5,000 words from the text to make it tighter.Note that the text was not marked with the changes because we did such major cuts (5000 words) to the text while adding the material that we note below.-Reviewer 1 -The authors are to be congratulated on having prepared a timely overview paper that succinctly synthesizes a wide set of existing studies of transformational change in food systems in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The comprehensive, multi-dimensional and cross-regional comparative framing make it a uniquely valuable contribution to the literature. Having said that, I believe that the manuscript can be significantly strengthened. In addition to a number of fairly minor modifications, additional work is required to ensure that the final paper maximizes it's contribution to the existing literature and so that it's contribution is more lasting. This can be done by broadening (and thereby updating its scope) to make it more forward looking and responsive to current debates. I organize my brief recommendations around four broad points: (1) scope, (2) additional analyses, (3) definitions, (4) typos. Scope I strongly recommend that the authors incorporate consideration of a wider set of factors in their analysis, including:(a) Environmental impacts of the transformational changes (on soil, water, biodiversity, climate change.) For example, pg 23, ln 16 , longer supply chains are not only exposed to climate change-related shocks, but they also contribute to a larger carbon foot print. Similarly, in section 5.3, pg 35 and after, some recognition of the environmental costs of technological changes associated with intensification on water, soil and biodiversity would help round out that discussion. Other examples can be cited.Response: We have added this to the performance/impacts section 6, so collected in one place under environment rubric. (b) Roles and effects of changes in the finance system on transformations across segments of the food system supply chain. This discussion would fit best in section 2 that addresses the \"dendritic\" nature of the food system. Timely, affordable and adequate financial flows, after all, are the lubricant and enabler of each of the system's segments and thus require some discussion.Response: We have added finance to both section 2 and to conduct/organization/institutions changes in section 5.2.(c) Nutritional consequences of the food system transformations. Changes in the output mix of the farm sector (e.g. pgs 13 and after), as well as rising consumption of processed foods have direct impacts on consumer health, including both malnutrition (lower nutrient dense diets) as well as obesity and diabetes. These negative impacts need to be at least referenced, and ways to mitigate these threats suggested. In the context of current global debates on nutrition, it is advised that a single reference to the non-communicable diseases (pg 47, lns [12][13][14] is grossly inadequate.Response: Nutrition effects have been added to section 6 on impacts/performance.(d) Distributional and equity consequences of the transformations in both input and output markets (impacts on small farmers and poor consumers). The paper too often uses an \"average\" construct to describe major trends. However, because the welfare impacts on both farmers and consumers from any single transformational element are often diametrically different for different income classes, these should be addressed briefly or at least recognized, with references to related literature. Thus on pg 6 ln 7, the meta conditioners should include both income growth and distribution And on pg 13 section (c) it would be appropriate to include best estimates of how expenditure patterns vary across income groups, especially the lowest and highest deciles or quintile in both rural and urban areas. Similarly, on pg 21 lns 18-22, and pg 22, ln 8.Pgs 31-33, section 5.1. Current draft places too much emphasis on imported technologies and largely ignores the wide number of successful new agricultural production technologies that have been developed by R&D conducted within the regions, including Africa.Response: We have supplied examples from each of the three regions and a general point in section 5. Pg 34, Need to acknowledge frequent negative impacts of consolidation in wholesale and retail markets serving urban areas in general and supermarkets in particular on small farmers in the absence of major institutional changes at the farm community level.We have added more on issue and occurrence of exclusion in the face of concentration in the supply chain, in section 6 on performance.Pgs 36-42. The flow of the paper seems to break here by departing from comparative analyses within the three regions to a review of anecdotal experiences from OECD (developed) country food and agriculture systems. Paper should retain its focus on a review of empirical evidence in Africa, Asia and L. America to make its points.Response: Our focus is made more emphatically on developing regions examples, but we believe it is valuable and reinforces our points to show parallelism between the currently developed countries' experience (when they were developing countries) and currently developing countries. This highlights the basic system phenomenon driving the changes, showing the specific context does not alter the logic of the sequence of change and the economic reasons for it.Pg 46, lns 4-10. The tautological argument is weak and unconvincing. Small farmers don't necessarily benefit in the short and medium terms by increased volume of production. The Asian GR demonstrated this due to distorted input and land tenure systems, etc. And with modern procurement systems demanding more timely, bulk and higher and more consistent quality of production, small farmers can also lose out in the short-term unless institutional innovations in farmer organizations are implemented.Response: These qualifications are noted in the part on what benefit and what challenge the volume increase per se has on farmers. Then we discuss quality requirements as an additional challenge. All of this is now more fully treated in the performance and impacts section, section 6.Pg 7, ln 18 and after. Need to define what constitutes an \"urban\" area more rigorously and across regions, taking into consideration, primary, secondary and tertiary cities and towns. It is impossible to understand the results presented without a clear definition of size and structure. A footnote would work.Response: We added this in section 3.2. where urban shares are first discussed.for the directionality of the change process? The paper suggests that it has been positive for small holder farmers and poorer urban consumers at the aggregate level. However as Kaplinsky and other have noted the development of value chains tends to concentrate power at the expense of primary producers. I guess my point here is that the performance of modern food systems needs to consider the way inclusion, nutrition and environmental sustainability performance is tracking. Should public policy simply take a lazire fair approach and let the private sector proceed unshackled? Or is this an approaching era where public policy needs to intervene once more to ensure that that directionality of performance is inline with, for example, the SDGs. What does this say about the governance of food system transformation going forward? Might it start to look like self-regulation by the private sector on issues such as sustainability and ethical business practice (which there is some evidence of)? What might the role of the public purse be in this context? As a kind of related aside, a recent world bank publication, the Innovation Paradox, makes the point that MSEM in developing countries don't have the innovation capacity to absorb technical innovations from else where, therefore technology catch up is slower than expected. In the food sector this might mean that sustainability facing innovations that are popping up in modern food systems might be slow to diffuse in transitioning systems unless public investments are made in building the innovation capacity of MSME. Just a thought!Response: To reflect this, we build into section 6 on performance the issues of producer exclusion (both farmers and SMEs), and reference calls to address that, and nutrition/obesity issues on the consumption side, and reference calls for some type of regulation.Finally, a selfish point (as a semi-aridist). The paper doesn't mention the course grains, sorghum and millets. I guess your analysis suggest that these will simply be replaced by maize, wheat and rice and drought tolerance etc can be improved in these for more arid areas, even in the face of climate change. What would that imply for the performance of the food system in arid regions where the sorghums and millets have been historically important? Are pulses a special case in India??Response: In the section on shifts in demand we have added the striking case of the rise of processed millet/sorghum in prepared dishes marketed for example in Senegal and Nigeria, a riposte for coarse grains in the convenience battle. We also added that in the SME proliferation part in the midstream discussion.In conclusion, a fantastic paper that I really enjoyed with perhaps some options for minor tweaks.Response: we are grateful.-Reviewer 3 -I really enjoyed reading this paper for its informative narrative on changes in VCs. It explains how VCs have transformed in history (hence, the many references to USA, Europe). It does also contain enough reference to developing countries to be relevant to the SI, but there the linkage to poverty reduction can be strengthened. I'd conclude that VC development can support small farmers, but most likely those who have the agency and resources to hop on board (hence, not likely those in a poverty trap) -correct?Response: Agreed, and added/emphasized in/ to effects/performance part (where we note \"actor incomes\" but have made it fuller link to poverty reduction and poverty traps in the second paragraph of section 6 which treated your point but can be filled out to emphasize.It paper needs a hard edit and some tighter focusing.Response: Hard-edited and cut substantially with (relative) focusing (although the terrain is broad per TOR).Response: Revised according to this point. Can remove the internal prefaces to sections (e.g. Section 5.3) \"In this section we discuss the technology changes that occurred as the food system transformation occurred, and thus by extension the impact of technology research in IARCS and NARS and private companies on that transformation. We start with upstream, then look downstream. Within each, we start with commoditization-facilitation technologies (that get costs down), and then go to product differentiation-facilitation technologies (that help produce other attributes like quality and safety).\" Section 7 is very important for the SI. But it is too much a rehash summary of preceding sections and not enough in concluding what next for R&D, supported by references.Response: we removed the summary and beefed up the implications discussion.0Highlighting the role of agricultural researchThe \"food system\" (the dendritic cluster of R&D value chains and the value chains linking input suppliers to farmers, and farmers upstream to wholesalers and processors midstream, to retailers then consumers downstream) has transformed enormously over the past 50 years. The most rapid change occurred only in the past 25 years. It shifted from being a traditional system to a mix of transitional and modern. From a historical perspective, the transformation was abrupt, not gradual. Reardon and Timmer (2014), illustrating with Asian evidence, explain the drivers as a confluence of \"five interlinked transformations:\" (1) Downstream demand side change \"pulling\" system transformation: Our paper extends the above work by comparing transformations, extending analysis to Africa and Latin America and updating analysis of Asia. We also extend the analysis to the role of agricultural research as a determinant of food system transformation. Here \"agricultural research\" includes both research on the inputs and farm segment (breeding, input design, agronomic practices, and so on) and research on the off-farm post-farm segments (on technologies and organization of processing, packaging, logistics, wholesale, retail).We address four questions:(1) How are food systems transforming?(2) How have research and non-research factors (urbanization, income growth, diet change, policies) influenced food system transformation?(3) What have been the effects of transformation on consumers and on small and medium farmers, as well as on system performance measures such as supply of affordable and safe and quality food, and efficiency and waste in the system? By chain-rule logical extension, we thus examine how research affects consumers and farmers via the \"pathways\" of food system transformation.(4) What are the implications of the transformation for agricultural research strategies?Our findings lead to the two main messages of the paper.First, the research community, hitherto mainly focused on the farm segment of the system, needs to take into account the entire food system and its transformation in their research strategies. This will determine whether innovations in farm technology and products lead to profitable marketed output by farmers. Increasingly, the urban market, the food industry firms that mediate access to the urban market, input supply chains, and agribusiness firms that determine the development of input supply chains, set the market incentives and conditions for the affordability and profitability of new farm technologies, and thus their adoption.Second, the research community needs to understand and act on the importance of processing and logistics and wholesale (of outputs and inputs) in the food system, and research on these offfarm components of the food system. Research on and productivity of technologies for input manufacture and output processing, packaging, logistics, and commerce have equal weight in the performance of the food system relative to the farm sector. Investment in research and development (R&D) for these off-farm segments needs a much higher profile in the context of the transformed food system where off-farm segments occupy 40-70% of value added and costs of food.To address the research questions we face two challenges. First, unlike other pathways of the impacts of research on farmers and consumers, such as breeding research on farm yields, it is particularly complex to examine research impacts on food systems and thence on farmers and consumers. Research is just one of the conditioners of the transformation and its impacts. The emphasis must be put on discussing the transformation itself and positing impacts of research in combination with other factors (such as urbanization). Second, as food system transformation in these regions is relatively recent, and the great majority of studies have been on the farm sector, empirical evidence on the transformation of the off-farm segments of the food system is only emerging and incomplete. We do our best to survey what is available.The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 lays out a conceptual framework. Section 3 explores \"downstream\" drivers of food system transformation -urbanization, income growth, diet change, infrastructure investments, and policies. Section 4 examines trends in the transformation of the structure, and Section 5, in its conduct (including technology change). Section 6 discusses emerging evidence of the system's performance. Section 7 presents implications for agricultural R&D strategies.The food system can be thought of as \"dendritic,\" linking R&D, finance, input, and output supply chains, as follows.The first and \"core\" supply chain is the output value chain. An example from the rice system is an output value chain composed of rice farmers producing paddy, which is collected by rural wholesalers or transporters and taken to mills where it is de-husked and polished. The rice is taken by wholesalers to urban wholesale markets and then to retailers.The second and upstream \"feeder\" supply chains are the farm input supply chains, such as seed, fertilizer, farm equipment, labor, and arable land. These in turn are fed by input supply chains further upstream, such as the supply chain from phosphate mines to phosphoric acid plants to phosphate fertilizer factories.The third and downstream \"feeder\" supply chains are those supplying inputs to the postfarmgate segments, in a sense \"laterally.\" An example is the truck and fuel supply chains to rice wholesalers.The fourth \"pan-system feeder\" supply chain is that supplying finance into every segment of every chain in the dendritic system. This can be formal or informal credit supply chains, or the most common in developing countries, own finance from retained earnings.The fifth \"feeder\" supply chain is a broad set of public assets apart from agricultural research institutions such as infrastructure, police protection, and court systems for contract enforcement.The sixth set of \"feeders\" is the R&D supply chains which supply technology and product innovations. For instance, companies and the National Agricultural Research System (NARS)and the International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) breed new seeds which feed seed supply chains which supply paddy farms. Moreover, universities and companies form publicprivate partnerships that involve an emerging \"educational-industrial complex\" (Zilberman et al. 2012) where innovation starts at university research centers and ideas are then further developed either by applied research centers (like the CGIAR and NARS) or by private sector entities (startups, small companies, and major corporations). The innovations in agricultural technology, food processing, packaging, logistics, and so on that are supplied by R&D value chains are often powerful drivers of change in the other parts of the system.The segments in each of the above value chains, and the six value chains themselves, are intertwined in \"intersectoral (or intersegment) linkages.\" An increase in demand or supply from one segment \"induces\" investment in another segment or chain (Hirschman, 1958). The induced investment can be in physical capital or hiring labor, but it can also be in the formation of an R&D supply chain: innovators (public or private) cum entrepreneurs design and market new technologies or new products to meet demand in other value chains. For example, if supermarket chains demand shelf-stability in vegetable varieties they contract to procure, innovators can endogenously implement a vegetable breeding innovation to breed a shelf stable variety, as derived demand from farmers wishing to supply the supermarket chain.But seen from the perspective of a given food system, there can be exogenous R&D \"investment\" that is not induced by factor scarcity or attribute demand in that food system. The R&D supply chain may endogenously arise in another context (another country, another product, etc.) and then present a technological innovation \"exogenously\" to the given food system. An example is the creation and manufacture of extruders for feed processing in the US. It might then be transferred to Bangladeshi feed mills using imported machines embodying this innovation.This would give the importer a competitive advantage and perhaps induce concentration in the feed supply chain in Bangladesh.There are three \"meta conditioners\" that encouraged and facilitated nearly all the transformations we discuss.First, growth in income and population in the three regions was crucial as a pull factor.Incomes rose, especially starting in the 1980s in Latin America and Asia outside the transition countries (China, Vietnam, and India) and 1990s in Africa and the Asian transition countries.Income growth, along with increasing opportunity cost of time as women worked outside the home in urban and rural areas, led to diet and shopping changes discussed below.Second, policy liberalization and privatization occurred during the 1980s and 1990s (from the transitions in China and Vietnam, to the de-reservations in India, to structural adjustment programs in all three regions). This led to a minimization of governments' direct role in food systems. It also increased private sector MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) that stepped into the void left by parastatals, with MSME proliferation encouraged by the expanding urban markets. The policy changes also led to entry of large-scale domestic and foreign firms such as processors and supermarket and fast food chains, as well as large input firms. The massive ingress of foreign companies was abetted by liberalization of the once-ubiquitous foreign direct investment (FDI) regulations in the 1980s-2000s.Third, governments instituted large infrastructure programs in Asia and Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s and in some African countries (e.g. Ethiopia, Minten et al., 2014b) in the early 2000's. This reduced transaction costs and formed the foundation for food supply chain development from rural areas to the burgeoning cities and towns.In a traditional situation, the urban share of the population is low. Supply chains are mainly short and local, serving villages and nearby towns. But as urbanization occurs, supply chains must stretch out from the cities and grow longer as the city needs a larger and larger catchment area to feed itself. Some fresh produce and chickens and aquaculture may be produced in periurban areas (rural areas near towns), but less perishable products such as grains and roots/tubers are produced far from cities and brought in. Even horticulture products and chicken and milk are increasingly produced far from cities as processing -such as vegetable freezing and ultra-high temperature milk processing -are located far from cities where production costs are lower (Reardon, 2015).  2011). The latter figure masks heterogeneity between countries; for instance, the urban share in Nigeria is 50% by 2015 (Bloch et al., 2015).Moreover, the urban food market is in fact the majority food market on average in the three regions. This is because urban areas have higher incomes than rural areas (e.g., in ESA, Eastern and Southern Africa not including South Africa, urban income per capita is double that of rural; Tschirley et al., 2015), enough so to overwhelm the negative relation of income and overall food budget share noted by Engel's Law. In an Asian study of Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, and Vietnam, Reardon et al. (2014b) show that while 38% of the population is urban, 53% of food consumption is urban. Even in the poorest region, ESA, 26% of the population is urban but cities consume 48% of food produced and sold (Dolislager et al., 2015).To feed the cities, rural-urban supply chains have grown rapidly. Haggblade (2011) estimates this growth at 600-800% over three decades for Africa; Reardon and Timmer (2014) have it at roughly 1000% in Southeast Asia in the same period.As incomes rise, \"Bennett's Law\" (Bennett, 1954) predicts a shift toward a higher proportion of non-staples in the diet. At a system level, this means that with development (which we roughly proxy by GDP per capita), one expects disproportionate growth of the supply chains of non-staples such as vegetables and fruit, meat and fish, dairy, and edible oils. Table 1 shows this with macro data from FAOSTAT for 1970 to 2013 with shares of tons of consumption-bydisappearance.For Africa, the share of cereals inched down from 28% to 26%, roots/tubers stayed stable at around 20%, and non-staples rose from 50 to 55%. There was however some composition change in cereals consumption especially in West Africa toward rice, discussed below.For Asia, the non-staples rise was more dramatic: cereals were 40% in 1970, inched down to 37% by 1990, and then dropped to only 24% by 2013. Timmer et al. (2010) use macro data on rice to show that in most Asian countries there has been a stagnant trend in rice consumption per capita, and even in some cases a gradual decline. Roots/tubers moved from 15% to only 3% over the period. By contrast, the striking winner in the diet was non-staples, soaring from 46% to 74%.Latin American diet composition changed less during the period compared to the other two regions. This could be because a considerable part of Latin America's rapid development occurred in the 1960s-1970s, two decades earlier than most of Africa and Asia. Even by 1970 staples were only 30% of Latin American consumption, and that share had only dropped to 24% by 2013, and non-staples to 76%, like Asia.Recent micro level survey data on household food expenditures corroborate the above macro figures.For Asia, Reardon et al. (2014b) analyzed household survey data (LSMS) from 2010 and found that that for South Asia (Nepal and Bangladesh) and Southeast Asia (Indonesia and Vietnam), the share of cereals (mainly rice) in the food budget in value terms was about 26% for urban and 37% for rural households on average. Interestingly, the poorest tercile was only a little higher: 37% for urban and 47% for rural areas. Despite average income differences between the South Asian sample and the Southeast Asian sample, they found the shares of cereals in urban food budgets were similar (29% in South Asia and 23% in Southeast Asia). Meat and fish averaged 30% of the urban budget -itself equal to the grain share. Horticulture products averaged 15%. Together meat/fish and horticulture average 45%, more than grains all together.Another study showed similar results for India: Indiastat (2010) showed that the share of cereal in the urban diet (in value terms) dropped from 36% in 1972 to 23% in 2006, and in the rural diet, from 56% to 32%.It may come as a surprise that African findings from LSMS analysis do not differ sharply from Asia's. For ESA urban and rural areas, Dolislager et al. (2015) found for Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, that the share of grains (mainly maize) in urban food expenditure (in value terms) was 34%, and rural, 39%. The share of non-grains in urban food expenditure was 66%, and rural, 61%. As in Asia, they found the patterns for the poor stratum were not that different from the other strata.For West Africa urban areas, Hollinger and Staatz (2015) analyzed data from urban food expenditure studies. Where the main staples are grains alone (Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal), they found that the share of grains in diets in value terms increased some over several decades: from 33 to 38%, and 62% of expenditure is on non-grains. Animal products and fish are the foremost items in this set: in the 2000s they formed a quarter of the total. Fruits/vegetables average another 12% (compare that with 16% in Asia and the US). Meat plus horticulture products equal grain expenditure in the urban Sahel. They found that for the countries where grains plus roots/tubers are the staples (Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria), the share of grains dropped from 27 to 23% and tubers/roots rose from 14 to 17% over the 1990s to the 2000s. The share of non-staples (neither grains nor roots/tubers) was about 60%. Again meat/fish was found to be 21% of expenditure, and horticulture products, 17%: together (38%) they have nearly the share of staples (grains and roots/tubers), 40%.Research in the 1980s-1990s examined the incipience of processed food purchase in developing regions, driven by a new era of income increases and emerging urbanization and the rise of rural nonfarm employment. Processed food began to be sought as a time-saver for women whose opportunity cost of time increased as they entered the labor force outside the home in urban and rural areas, in Latin America (e.g., Amat y Leon and Curonisy, 1981, Peru); Asia (e.g., Senauer et al., 1986, Sri Lanka); and Africa (e.g., Bricas and Muchnik, 1985 for West Africa; Kennedy and Reardon, 1994 for East Africa).There has been a revival of interest in processed foods in developing regions in the 2000s.This occurred with the confluence of (1) urbanization and increased incomes;(2) easing of import of processed foods; (3) FDI and domestic investment in processing following liberalization and privatization.In Africa, processed foods have penetrated both rural and urban markets. In the ESA study of Tschirley et al. (2015), 56% of urban household, and 29% of rural household food expenditures (in value terms) went to processed foods. Some half to two-thirds of processed foods are lowprocessed, like packaged flour or noodles and bread. These are usually domestic products and time-savers for women. More processed packaged foods are usually a mix of domestic products and imports. For Nigeria, Liverpool-Tasie et al. ( 2017) found that while imported processed goods dominate in numbers of types of products, they are a minority in retail volume terms. Of course, a number of these products depend at least partially on imported raw materials such as flavorings, wheat, and milk powder.In Asia, Pingali (2006) noted a \"Westernization\" of diets with packaged convenience foods emerging. Reardon et al. (2014b) (for the Asian countries noted op cit.) found that urban households dedicate 73% of food expenditures to processed foods, and rural households, 60%.Surprisingly, the penetration of processed food did not differ much over income terciles in the African and Asian consumption analyses. Women in poorer and richer households are pressed for time working out of the home in rural nonfarm employment and urban jobs, and the quest for convenience in processed foods instead of laborious home processing characterizes both.First, the surge in demand for livestock products has translated into the precipitous rise of demand for maize as a feed grain. A striking example is in China: maize (mainly for feed) had been half of the tonnage of rice in 1993 but by 2013 overtook rice (Zheng, 2013). In Bangladesh, aquaculture grew 25-fold in three decades (nearly all for the domestic market), spurring a massive rise in the feed industry and demand for maize and other feed grains (Hernández et al., 2017). Liverpool-Tasie et al. (2016) found in Nigeria that the maize-based feed industry grew 600% in the past decades as derived demand from the booming aquaculture and chicken sectors.Second, the rise of demand for convenience foods by consumers has as a derived demand a rapid rise in wheat and rice. In Asian areas where rice traditionally reigned, wheat has made inroads in the form of noodles and bread (Senauer et al. 1986, for Sri Lanka;Pingali, 2006, for Asia overall). Timmer (2015) shows for Southeast Asia that wheat imports rose from 1 million tons in 1961 to 13 million by 2010, and wheat consumption from 2.8% to 11.5% that of rice.In West Africa where millet and sorghum and tubers are the traditional staples, rice and wheat have rapidly increased with the drivers noted above (Reardon, 1993). While rice doubled in tons of domestic production in ECOWAS over 1987 to 2009, domestic rice output stayed at about 55-60% of self-sufficiency, and imports of cereals (mainly rice) soared from 1 billion to 5 billion dollars in those two decades (Hollinger and Staatz, 2015). There has been a recent surge in commercialization of prepared and packaged millet dishes in rural areas so coarse grains may be making a significant convenience riposte.In East Africa, the rise of wheat consumption has also been driven by convenience food demand (Kennedy and Reardon, 1994). Wheat consumption in West Africa has also started to rise not just via the half century old luxury of bread for the middle class, but now as cheap fast noodles and bread and bean sandwiches for the poor. An example is the rapid spread of the Indonesian multinational Indofood's \"indomie\", a packaged (wheat) ramen noodle, produced by Indofood FDI in Nigeria (cooked often with egg, and thus a fillip to egg consumption) (Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2016b).Third, in a number of countries there is a shift toward higher quality grains, such as finer rice in Bangladesh. In Ethiopia, there is a shift away from the cheap red teff to the more expensive and preferred white teff. This increasing shift in intra-cereal demand drives changes in the portfolio of farmers as well as changes in the milling sector (Minten et al., 2013(Minten et al., , 2016)).There has been a lot of variation in the timing of take-off and speed of transformation of food systems across products, regions, countries within regions, and zones within countries. In general the transformation is over three stages of structure and conduct change.(a) The least advanced stage is the \"traditional\" system. This tends to be spatially short (\"local\") and fragmented in structure, using technologies with little capital and much labor, with no contracts or formal standards, and spot markets linking all segments.(b) The next stage is the \"transitional.\" It is spatially long (as cities grow and their catchment area is larger and larger) but still fragmented. Chain actors use a mix of labor-intensive and capital-intensive technologies. There are emerging public standards of quality. But still spot market relations dominate.(c)The most advanced stage is \"modern.\" It is usually spatially long. But it is consolidating in various segments (such as in retail, the rise of supermarkets). There is also some \"dis-intermediation\" such as supermarkets buying directly from processors, or urban wholesalers directly from farmers. Private standards are emerging, and some use of contracts. Capital intensification is common as the modern stage tends to coincide with higher wages in the economy. More quality and safety control are demanded by the food industry.There have been waves of diffusion of food system transformation over space and products in the developing regions.The spatial waves are as follows (Reardon and Timmer, 2012).(a)The first wave included East Asia outside China (such as South Korea) and South America such as Brazil, with transformation taking off in the 1980s.(b)The second wave was in Mexico and Central America and in parts of South America (such as Colombia, Chile), Southeast Asia outside \"transition\" countries, and South Africa (with the take-off starting in the 1990s).(c)The third wave, taking off mainly in the 2000s, includes the \"transition\" countries, China, Vietnam, and India, and South American countries \"catching up\" such as Peru and Bolivia.(e) The fourth wave, in the 2000s, includes parts of Africa especially in southern (Zambia)and eastern Africa (Kenya) and emerging in West Africa such as in Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal.The product waves are as follows. The grain value chains transform earliest, animal products next, and fresh fruits and vegetables last. Food volumes grew a lot from 1970 to now with the steepest increase from 1990 to 2013 (the latest year in FAOSTAT). This pattern roughly tracks the path of \"economic development\" or average income growth. Table 1 shows \"food supply quantities\" from FAO food balance sheets for 1970, 1990, and 2013. These are measures of \"domestic consumption by disappearance\" per capita, calculated starting with aggregate production, adding imports, and deducting disposal of the output (exports, waste, storage for the next year, and use as seed). We then use their population data to derive aggregate consumption by disappearance per region. This is a rough measure as it is only in physical terms, not value or nutrition terms. A physical measure probably underestimates growth in value terms as non-staples and processed foods, which grew the fastest, have higher prices on average than grains or roots/tubers. But our goal here is not fine precision but orders of magnitude and key trends. Several points emerge.First, in 43 years, the total \"food system\" in these three regions grew from 1.3 to 5 billion tons, 4-fold, faster than population grew (from 2.6 to 6.5 billion, 2.5 fold). Interestingly, the trends did not differ much over the three regions. Africa's food volume expanded 1.8 times in the first two decades and then 2.1 times in the following 25 years, hence 3.8 times over 43 years.Asia's total food supply rose 1.8 times in the first 20 years and then 2.1 times in the next 25 years, for overall growth of 3.8 times. Latin America's rose 1.7 times in the first 20 years and then 1.7 times in the next 25 years, for overall growth of 2.8 times.Mirroring demand changes, output per category grew overall, but with relative gains for nonstaples over the four decades -in Africa, 340% in cereals volume, 400% in non-staples; in Asia, 220% in cereals, 590% in non-staples; in Latin America, 230% in cereals, and 300% in nonstaples.Second, imports as a share of food supply (net of exports) have risen, but are still minor. In Africa, tons of imports rose 11 times over the 43 years -from 7% to 15% to 21% of consumption by disappearance. In Asia, they rose 7 times and went from 9% to 13% to 18% of total consumed tons. In Latin America, they rose 7 times, and went from 3% to 6% to 9% of consumption. Import growth occurred steadily over the whole half century; it was in the policy debate in Africa in the 1980s/1990s (see Reardon, 1993) and has continued in the debate in the 2000s (African Development Bank, 2016).Third, agricultural exports, while often important in policy debates, are small compared with the domestic food system. In Africa, these reached 7% of the level of domestic consumption; in Asia, 10%; in Latin America, 22%. It was especially in Latin America that exports rose in the well-known story of its agricultural export success in the globalization period.(a) Growth of rural to urban food supply chains When the urban share was low, supply chains were short, with farmers feeding themselves and local villages and towns. As the urban share rose, and the cities grew, supply chains stretched further and further to fulfill the enormous needs of the cities. As domestic supply chains surge to feed cities, several points stand out.First, seen from the countryside, most food goes to cities. As noted above, roughly 50-75% of domestic food supply now goes to cities; in the 1970s it was but 20-30% depending on the region. Even in the least urbanized and poorest region, ESA, 46% of cereal consumption (homeconsumed by farmers and purchased by rural and urban households) is consumed in urban areas;61% of purchases of cereal, 52% of fruit and vegetables, 58% of meat and fish, and 63% of edible oils are consumed in urban areas (Reardon et al., 2014d).Second, the product categories output growth plus the rise in the share of urban consumption in total national consumption both noted above together yield the result that one can double or triple the product category volume growth rates to get a rough idea of how much the volume of rural-to-urban supply chains increased over 45 years. For instance, for Africa, this means that non-staple rural-urban supply chains increased about 800 to 1000% (depending on the sub region). That figure is about 1800% for non-staples in Asia. These enormous climbs represent a major investment by actors along the supply chain from farmers to urban retailers and wholesalers.Even rural consumer markets are developing fast.First, in Africa over three decades, rural population grew from 0. Second, rural purchases of food are now substantial. The traditional situation was one of farm households being either self-sufficient or buying a little of their food. While Mellor (1976) in India and Reardon et al. (1988) in Africa pointed out that many rural households, even farmers, were net buyers of grains, the share of total consumption from purchases was on average traditionally low. This of course differed by semi-arid versus more humid areas, such as in Senegal, where purchases of food were important for the drought prone areas and much less important in the relatively lush areas (Kelly et al., 1993).But recent data show high shares of purchased food in rural diets in Africa and Asia. In ESA, Dolislager et al. (2015) show rural households bought 44% (in value terms) of food they consume; Liverpool-Tasie et al. (2016b) show 70% in Nigeria. Sibhatu and Qaim (2017) show that 42% of calories consumed of rural Ethiopian households are from purchased foods. In the Reardon et al. (2014b) Asian study, rural households purchase share averaged 73%. Third, recent evidence shows these purchases are mainly financed by rural nonfarm employment (RNFE) as well as by agricultural product sales. Very little is purchased on credit, whether from informal or formal sources (Adjognon et al., 2017, for Africa). RNFE is roughly 40% of rural household incomes in Africa and Asia, and a much higher share of total cash available, and far higher than migration income or credit flows (Haggblade et al., 2007).There are challenges for farmers of longer supply chains, with urban markets becoming the main markets faced by farmers.First, in longer supply chains, small farmers face more competition. Urban traders seek a diverse set of zones to reduce seasonality and supply risk. They have the logistics and purchasing power to require that different regions compete for their procurement. This means that farmers from a given zone no longer have a \"protected\" (by transaction cost barriers) local market but are competing with farmers large and small from other zones for the urban market.Local farmers also vie with imports for city markets. But local farmers and rural processing enterprises have even to vie with cheap packaged processed foods from urban areas coming into rural areas, often via the conduit of secondary city/rural town markets (Reardon et al., 2007b).An example is Indofoods' packaged noodles and drinks into rural towns in Indonesia and Nigeria (Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2017), or Maseca's ready-made tortillas or mix coming into rural towns in Mexico (Rello, 1996).Second, as urban markets modernize with the rise of supermarkets (discussed below), the competition by a region for supplying to urban supermarket procurement centers heightens, and becomes more challenging yet with the imposition of private grades and standards. Reardon et al. (2007) and Berdegue et al. (2005) illustrate this for the cases of Mexico and Central America.Large processing firms and supermarkets based in towns also tend to prefer supply regions with low transaction costs, and eschew contracting with farmers in hinterland zones (Barrett et al., 2012).Third, longer supply chains mean heightened vulnerability to shocks that beset long exposed chains -shocks of climate change (Reardon and Zilberman, 2017), energy cost spikes, disease outbreaks, food safety crises, and sociopolitical strife. A case in point is the vulnerability to all these represented by the south-north and north-south maize and egg supply chains in Nigeria (Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2016).In a local traditional short supply chain, very little of the value added of the chain is due to off-farm components of the supply chain -the midstream (wholesalers, logistics agents, processors) and downstream (retailers). The farmer sells the grain or milk to neighbors and transports it herself. The consumer buys the raw product and processes it herself.As the chain grows longer, the market volume grows large enough, and economies of specialization emerge in the midstream and downstream segments, the off-farm components' shares rise compared with traditional chains. Typically the farmer's share in the total value added of the supply chain drops as the counterpart to post-farmgate segments' development. Reardon (2015) reviewed evidence and produced a rough estimate for Asia and Africa food supply chains of about 40% of value added from farms, 40% from midstream (what he calls the \"hidden middle\" as this segment is usually ignored in both policy debates and research) and 20% from the downstream. This share varies over products and regions.b) Emergence of a \"Quiet Revolution\" of small off-farm food system enterprises As supply chains develop to cities, and gradually consumers purchase processed products, there is a proliferation of midstream MSMEs in wholesale and processing, as well as upstream in input supply. This is part of the \"transitional stage\" and is the dominant situation now in Africa and South Asia. Recent studies in South Asia, China, Vietnam, and Africa have termed this a \"Quiet Revolution\" wherein tens of thousands of MSMEs emerge (Minten et al., 2010;Reardon et al., 2012bReardon et al., , 2014c)). Four examples intrigue.First, there has been a rapid emergence of MSME potato cold storages in Bihar (Minten et al., 2014) and Western Uttar Pradesh near Delhi (Das Gupta et al., 2010). The storages diffused due to a confluence of trends -the rise of nearby cities, the improvement of road links and electricity grids, the introduction of a disease-resistant and long-shelf-life potato varieties by the NARS, and a flood of private investments by local small/medium entrepreneurs.Second, there has been a proliferation of SME \"outsourced agricultural services\". Examples include SME providing mobile combine services for small rice farmers in China (Zhang et al., 2017) and Myanmar (Belton 2017). There has also been a diffusion of \"sprayer trader\" services in mango areas of Indonesia and the Philippines: teams of skilled laborers equipped with sprayers and vehicles and ladders go from farm to farm and prune, spray, harvest, sort, and market mangoes for small and medium farmers targeting demanding urban and export markets (dela Cruz et al., 2010;Qanti et al., 2017).Third, Minten et al. (2016) show that the value chain of teff (the leading cereal in Ethiopia)has developed rapidly over the past decade. There has been a proliferation of MSME mills-cumretailers, wholesale, and logistics firms spurred by Addis's development and road improvements.The development of the teff value chain is in turn correlated with increasing adoption of modern inputs by farmers, and shift from cheap red varieties to the more expensive, higher quality white teff varieties and uptake of improved varieties of the latter.Fourth, in Senegal in the past decade, the millet supply chain has rapidly transformed with the emergence of processed and prepared millet products. Badiane (2016) shows that this transformation has featured the development by small female-headed enterprises of branded packaged millet and millet-cum-dairy products for the Dakar market.As markets expand with longer supply chains, and especially where there are economies of scale or economies of scope, such as in processing or retail procurement and storage, and largescale firms are more efficient than small firms, segment concentration tends to occur. Some segments of a chain may concentrate while others stay fragmented for some time. For example, in the dairy sector in Zambia, some small farms sell to large processors who sell some of their output to supermarkets (Neven et al., 2016). In the Bangladesh rice sector, town-based larger wholesalers have competed out of the market many small rural brokers, but the wholesalers sell on to many small urban millers and small retailers (Minten et al., 2013). Reardon (2015) conceives of the evolution of concentration as a \"J curve\" with three stages.The first stage in many developing countries has been the establishment of government grain retail and wholesale parastatals to serve emerging urban markets, building economies of scale as a counter to the traditional fragmented supply chain, and to obviate what governments perceived as \"exploitative traders.\" This is the leftmost part of the J of concentration over time.The second stage occurs after market liberalization and the privatization of the parastatals.The vacuum thus left attracts investments at least initially by many MSMEs. This is the bottom of the J curve; it can be broad or narrow depending on how long the MSMEs can hold out against competition or acquisition by large private firms.The third stage is the steep rightmost part of the J, and is the re-concentration that occurs after competition thins the ranks of MSMEs and large firms emerge to outcompete or buy the small firms. The emergence is usually spurred by FDI liberalization as seen in Latin America in the 1980s/1990s and domestic investment regulation relaxation (such as \"de-reservation\" in India in the late 1990s. The large firms arise at first in the midstream and downstream (processing, wholesale/logistics, retail, and fast-food) and later in upstream (seed, chemical, and machine agribusiness firms) (Reardon et al. 2003 for supermarkets; Reardon and Timmer, 2012 for processing and wholesale; Popkin and Reardon, 2017 for fast food). Supermarkets in Central America have shifted to buying directly from agribusiness firms for crops in which the latter are engaged (e.g., pineapples, bananas) (Berdegué et al., 2005).Also, large scale firms in different segments facilitate each other's growth through \"coevolution.\" To reduce transaction costs and make sure private standards are met, supermarket chains tend to source from large processors. An example of this is supermarket chains in China sourcing mainly from large rice mills (Reardon et al., 2014c). Large processors target product differentiation to the requests of supermarkets, such as for milk and juice products by Nestle in Brazil (Farina et al., 2005). Large logistic and wholesale multinationals as well as processors \"follow\" supermarket chains into new countries, in \"follow sourcing\", as with Baakavor following Tesco into China (Reardon et al., 2007b).Furthermore, large firms have a tendency to try to \"cut out the intermediaries\" and sell or buy directly -\"disintermediation.\" This is done mainly to cut costs, as well as control quality or assure traceability. For example, larger wholesalers based in towns and cities have in India gone well along the path of eliminating use of traditional village brokers in order to buy directly from rice and potato farmers (Reardon et al., 2012b).Finally, supermarkets and processing companies also have a tendency for \"re-intermediation\"-to shift from procurement on the traditional fragmented spot market to use, as much as possible, specialized, dedicated wholesalers to procure and market (Reardon and Berdegué, 2002). They are charged with applying quality and safety standards of the chains or processor, selecting regular suppliers such as farmers or supplier villages or coops who can meet the standards, and collecting or marketing exclusively for the chain or processor. An example is large rice millers in China relying on specialized agents to wholesale their branded packaged rice (Reardon et al., 2012b), and supermarkets in Latin America and Africa and China using dedicated wholesalers to source produce according to the private quality standards of the chains (Reardon and Berdegué, 2002 for Latin America, Weatherspoon and Reardon, 2003for Africa, and Hu et al., 2004and Michelson et al., 2017 for China).Many basic industrial and agricultural innovations were generated in the past 200 years since the British industrial revolution (itself partly based on the earlier Chinese innovation of horizontal loom, Braudel, 1979), and the subsequent agriculture technology and food system revolutions in the US and Western Europe. In particular in the past 100 years food system technology innovations emerged (often the fruit of machine engineering and chemistry linked to the industrial revolution) in the US and Western Europe. These were two way drivers in the food system transformation in these two regions. These technology innovations were in agriculture (such as chemical fertilizer, hybrid maize, tractors, pesticides, genetic modification, and so on), in processing and wholesale and transport (motorized mills, trucks, refrigeration, freeze drying, and so on), and in market organization and communication (chain stores, self-service retail, supermarkets, private standards, ICT).Many of the food system innovations from the US and Western Europe were then transferred and adapted in developing Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the past 50 years in the system transformation waves as demand side and policy conditions grew receptive and propitious for their transfer. The channels of transfer included: (1) massive waves of foreign direct investment (FDI) by agribusiness, processors, logistics and wholesale, and retailers; (2) investments by local entrepreneurs and public sector in innovations from the US or Western Europe they observed in FDI activities or on a business trip or university education, or read about on the internet.The local private entrepreneurs and public sector in developing countries as well as innovating \"Western\" companies diffused those initial innovations, adapting and modifying them to local conditions. Just as in the \"West\" the initial innovations had developed as packages of inter-dependent innovations (such as the example of Tyson with genetic variation, contracting, private standards, piecing and cooling or freezing, long distance transport, and marketing in supermarkets), the transfer of one or more innovations, in technology or organization, brought with it the cluster of other related innovations both in technology and products, and in market organization.Of course, not all of the basic innovations during the past 50 years were transferred initially from the \"West.\" There was a wave of technology innovations, some basic and new and others applications and adaptations of prior innovations generated in international research institutes based in developing countries (such as IRRI's developed of modern varieties of rice in the 1960s in the Philippines, David and Otsuka, 1994) and in the large NARS in the developing regions.Examples include the foundational work in rice varieties in Taiwan and Japan in the 1920s-1930sand China and India in the 1950s-1970s (Barker and Herdt with Rose, 1985) and Argentina and Brazil (for no-till cropping technology innovation in the 1960s-1970s, see Trigo et al., 2009). In other NARS, there was significant adaptation work done that amounted to innovation in application, such as the Zaria maize work cited below.Technology and product innovations are not \"neutral\" in their impact on the structure and conduct of food systems. The impact itself is often endogenous to the deliberate system designs of the innovator, as argued by Zilberman et al. (2017). They examine the proactive links between innovators' innovations and their \"implementation,\" to generate and protect an initial advantage and profit arising from the innovation's superiority (in cost or quality or safety) to the technology or product it supplants. They depict as endogenous the structure and the conduct of the supply chain based on that innovation.In that sense then, the food system changes we observe, especially in the modern phase, are emanations of the strategies of innovating companies. These strategies are sets of technologies and institutions and organizations chosen to implement the innovations. But they also \"induce\" innovation in other companies to \"co-evolve\" and help (symbiotically) the initial innovators implement the innovation. An example of this is given below of co-evolution of Nestle and Tetrapak investments in the Brazilian dairy industry.Understanding both the role of public research and private innovators, and the linkages between technological, organizational, and institutional innovations in developing food systems, is central to our analysis. Below we explore in more detail these innovations.First, organizational and institutional change occurs at different rates over products. Thus, in Mexico, for grains and meat one can find fully coordinated supply chains from farmers to supermarkets, with (1) branding and packaging; (2) direct purchase from suppliers or special agents, (3) distribution centers, ( 4) public and private standards, and ( 5) some contracts. But for fresh produce, one finds supermarkets relying on a mix of: (1) spot market relations in wholesale markets, (2) off-market specialized wholesalers such as Pedraza, and (3) direct contracts with large agribusinesses (Reardon et al., 2007).Second, product quality and safety standards are an important coordinating \"institution\" in transforming food systems, emerging in three stages.(a) In the 1970s/1980s in developing countries there was a gradual emergence of public standards of quality to allow for long-distance grain trade with low transaction costs and risk, and phytosanitary public standards to allow for animal and horticulture product trade.(b) With product differentiation and the rise of trade in perishables, private standards for quality and safety began to emerge in the 1990s and 2000s especially manifest in export and processing. These were formulated by supermarket chains, large processors, and fast food chains to reduce losses in processing, increase shelf life, control quality and consistency, and assure safety (Reardon et al., 2001;Henson and Reardon, 2005;Swinnen, 2007). Examples include Nestle's quality certification for grated coconut in Brazil (Farina et al., 2000) and potato variety specification for French fry production by McCain's for McDonald's in Argentina (Ghezan et al., 2002).(c) Gradually governments have instituted public food safety regulations for retail and food service (for example, in China, Jia and Jukes, 2013).Third, finance arrangements evolved as coordination mechanisms, in three stages.(a) In traditional systems, traders \"tie credit,\" advancing money or inputs to the farmer at the start of the season and expecting the harvest from that farmer at a prearranged price and with an implicit interest rate (Bardhan, 1980).(b) In transitional systems, there is competition among traders and risks of side selling, and farm households have off-farm cash sources. Tied credit disappears or is rare (e.g., Adjognon et al. 2017 for Africa). These show that formal and even informal finance are rare for farmers for agricultural investments; most cash is supplied from retained earnings form off farm jobs and farm product sales.(c) In modern supply chains, in the cases where food industry firms must rely on small farmers to complete their supply, and small farmers face \"idiosyncratic market failures\" for credit and inputs, food industry sometimes use \"resource provision contracts\" (Austin, 1981) (for Latin America, Key andRunsten, 1999, for Madagascar, Minten et al., 2009).Breeding research and variety change have been fundamental forces in fueling the \"throughput\" of feedstock in the transforming food system. R&D supply chains for new seeds and other inputs depend critically on a combination of the development of private seed markets as well as private and public sector breeding of improved seeds.There are two ways we can link product demand change (diet change) over a product cycle (niche to commodity to differentiated products) and food system transformation, to breeding research.The first path has received the most attention: grain breeding for drought or flooding and disease resistance and adaptation to small farmer conditions. The best known example is the Green Revolution and the system of NARS and IARCs that emerged to form R&D supply chains of new seeds (Lipton with Longhurst, 1989;Hayami andRuttan, 1971, Binswanger, 1978).Another example is the shift from local varieties to breed for broad agroecological adaptation, such as the breeding of maize to fit drier areas an institute in Zaria in Northern Nigeria in the 1980s (Byerlee and Eicher, 1997).The second path links product cycle, breeding, and \"commoditization.\" This path has received little attention in the literature. One variant has been a focus on breeding for traits of quality and ability to store and process. A good example is the shift from traditional flint to innovated/bred dent maize in output composition induced by the take-off of industrial maize milling in the mid-1800s in the US. Research to breed for quality and processing has recently emerged in developing countries as urban demand rose. An example is teff variety breeding for quality for the urban Ethiopian market (Minten et al., 2016) and rice quality in Bangladesh (Minten et al., 2013).Supply chain development, urbanization, and industrialization of external input supply tend to be correlated. This drives down the cost of capital inputs (irrigation equipment, seeds, fertilizer, insecticides, herbicides, tractors and combines and sprayers), inducing their diffusion. Both the private sector, IARCs, and NARS have been engaged in R&D over the past century that have influenced the quality and cost (and existence) of these inputs. Four examples of private sector R&D cum extension supply chains of these innovations are of interest.First, as labor costs rose in the US and the UK in the 1940s, herbicides were created by private companies and government and were used to substitute for hand weeding. This innovation diffused in the US over the 1940s to the 1990s (Swinton and van Deynze, 2017). Due to increases of labor costs in developing regions, a parallel adoption of herbicides has occurred in waves similar to the system transformation waves from the 1970s to the 2010s (Haggblade et al., 2017).Second, as demand for machine use rose in the US in the 1800s as farms extensified and labor constraints appeared, the combine was invented by private persons in the US and Scotland. It diffused over the century, shifting from horse to steam to gas engine powered, with a string of innovations by companies such as John Deere. It was then adapted for small farms in the 1970s in Japan by Kubota, and from there diffused widely over developing Asia and into Africa in the subsequent decades.Third, as demand for water in horticulture rose in Germany, Australia, Israel, and California from the 1860s to the 1960s, there were a series of innovations from clay to plastic tubing that came to be termed drip irrigation. Again, as with the innovations above, starting in the 1970s it was adapted and diffused to developing countries, with innovations by companies like Netafim of Israel and then Jain Irrigation of India.Fourth, Notore Chemicals in Nigeria are a major supplier of agro inputs. They have developed a system for training and input distribution which uses local rural people to be their sales agents and credit and extension officers (Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2015).As with farm technologies, a gradual increase in wage rates combined with a decrease in physical capital prices (from local industrialization and imports) induced midstream and downstream capital intensification and productive capital upgrading. Demand side factors such as demand for new products, new quality and safety attributes, and greater and more storable volumes also induced technology change.R&D supply chains to create and deliver new off-farm technologies noted below developed along with investments in the off-farm segments as \"induced technological innovation.\" These sometimes started as basic science innovations in public research institutions with subsequent adaptation and further innovation by private companies. Many were the inventions of individual inventors, or of R&D units of companies. Some were all three of these, such as the cluster of inventions and improvements around freezers or tractors. As in farm technologies, much of the initial innovation occurred earlier, in currently developed countries historically, and then was transferred and adapted to developing countries. We provide several prominent illustrations.These have been fundamental to the elongation and de-seasonalization of the food system. Minten et al. (2016), for Ethiopia, show a rapid shift from transport of teff by foot (head loads) to animal transport (donkey/horses, carts), to motorized transport, and then from small trucks of 4-5 tons to truck-trailers of 20 tons -a thousand years of transport change in a decade. Systems that had been relatively local switched to long distance commerce as large trucks and train lines combined to move potatoes from Northern to Southern India, abetted by potato varieties with tougher skins to transport further and store longer (das Gupta et al., 2010). A surprising case occurred in Myanmar: in 2011, bus transport was privatized and liberalized; bus lines proliferated and competed. One way they competed was by adding an iced cold shelf in the buses for fish to be transported from aquaculture areas in the south to Mandalay in the north. This gave rise to nearly 200,000 tons of fish moved by small merchants via many buses (Belton et al., 2017). Zhang and Hu (2014) note the large role of infrastructure investments in improving logistics in the potato value chain from hinterland Gansu to the coastal cities.For example, as animal product value chains have transformed, poultry, fish, milk cow, and hog rearing has shifted its center of gravity from scattered small farms to peri-urban agglomeration to clustered sites with small and medium commercial farms further from cities near cheap input bases (for aquaculture in Bangladesh, see Hernandez et al., 2017;dairy in Brazil, Farina et al. (2005); hogs and chickens in Thailand, see Poapongsakorn, 2012; for hogs in China, see Schneider (2011). There has been a concomitant rise of large processing firms for pigs and chickens, with location of large farms and large processing firms near the cities of China and Thailand, in a major shift away from scattered countryside processing operations in the 1990s and before.These are important to elongation of supply chains from near cities to near areas with low cost natural resources. For example, with rapid development of the frozen fish industry, fish is increasingly shipped longer distances within countries. An example is frozen fish from aquaculture areas in the South of China to Beijing, mainly developed in the 2010s as an outgrowth of an initial export operation base (Bai et al., 2017). Another case is the rise of frozen potatoes shipped long distance in Argentina to the burgeoning fast food chains (Ghezan et al., 2002), and frozen green vegetables and sweet corn in Chile (Milicivec et al., 1998).A similar change took place in dairy in Brazil (Farina et al., 2005). There was a combination of four internationally-transferred technology and organizational innovations that led to a massive increase in milk consumption, a rise in average dairy farm size and the exit of many small farms, and a spatial shift from peri-urban production to dairy production in cheap grain Food technology breakthroughs have been part of revolutions in food systems for a long time, from the invention of beer brewing in China and Egypt six millennia ago, and tofu and miso processing two millennia ago in China. With the recent rapid transformation of the food system, a dense cascade of such innovations has occurred this time packed in short time. These innovations reduced the cost, increased the shelf life, and vastly increased the hedonic attributes range, of processed products. For example, in baking there were a series of advances in extrusion, frozen dough production, emulsifiers and enzymes, microwaves, ovens, and automation over the 20 th century (Kamel and Stauffer, 1993). These innovations mainly started in Europe and the US, and then were transferred to developing regions. The same occurred with extrusion used for pelleted feeds and noodles. This led to rapid diffusion of pelleted, floating feed for example in Bangladesh aquaculture (Hernandez et al., 2017), and diffusion of Japanese ramen noodles manufactured by Indofoods in Nigeria (Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2017).Demand for time saving in shopping induced transfer of retail \"technologies\" and organization, like supermarkets and chain stores. An example is the adoption of bar codes and electric scanners for inventory control. Food safety concerns among urban consumers of perishables and rural and urban consumers of maize and peanut products induced food safety cum waste control measures like pasteurization of milk, addition of aflatoxin binders in stored maize by traders and millers, and humidity measuring devices and grain driers by traders and warehouse owners.In the past century there has been an intense stream of major technological innovations in agriculture and rest of the food system. At the time of their emergence, many of the technologies we discussed above were \"disruptive\" in the sense that they quickly and fundamentally changed the spatial or industrial organization structure of the system, its overall volume, its seasonality, and so on. Recent times have also brought a new generation of technologies that promise to, and have started to create sweeping changes in the overall global economy as well as food systems.We note three examples.The first is the emergence of gene-editing, CRISPR (Ledford, 2015). This promises to reduce the cost and time and increase the breadth of applications of genetic modification. That may change the amplitude and frequency of changes in the system, such as rapid iteration of changes in disease and drought resistance, improving quality, and increasing shelf life of products.The second is the rapid development of robots in the food system (Reardon et al., 2017). The general path of diffusion has been from upstream to downstream, and from developed to developing countries. The innovation has moved from incorporation of computer elements into existing machines (such as precision farming tractors and electric-eye conveyor belts for sorting fruit) to stand-alone non-autonomous machines (such as directed farm surveillance drones, restaurant food preparation robots such as at Zume Pizza in San Francisco) to stand-alone autonomous machines emerging (pre-programmed or real time self-directing such as Bayer's pilot \"spider robots\" that walk fields and monitor and perform activities such as spot application of herbicides, or warehouse box packers and stackers). These technologies are being applied both where labor is becoming more expensive but also in situations of cheap labor but other factors determining their use (such as the recent emergence of cashier-less supermarkets in India;Indiaretailing Bureau, 2017). The rapid rise of robots will have a series of easily foreseen consequences for the food system (such as a reduction in unskilled labor in all segments) and unforeseen and complex changes wrought on the structure and conduct.Third, the application of emerging big data tools for food systems research may also speed up the way we organize, convene, and inspire new agricultural research opportunities in the future (http://bigdata.cgiar.org)The immense changes wrought by the rapid and recent food system transformation have had a series of impacts. Here we indicate emerging evidence and points of debate on these impacts.However, a thread that runs through all the impacts is that the results have been mixed, with transformation being a two edged sword bringing benefits and challenges.System transformation has increased the volumes and length of supply chains, and deseasonalized supply. One thus moves away from \"niche\" local markets to nationally integrated and often more efficient markets. This leads to better price integration and smaller marketing costs (as shown in cereal market analysis in Ethiopia; Minten et al., 2014b).But the elongation of supply chains as well as the increase of perishables has raised concerns internationally, since the 1970s, that waste and loss in developing country food supply chains are substantial; for example, FAO (2011) hypothesizes, repeating a position taken for decades, that there is as much as 20%-30% waste and losses for cereals and pulses and meat and milk and fish, 40% for roots and tubers, and 50% for fruits and vegetables.However, the hypothesis of high shares of waste is quite doubtful as revealed by empirical field studies. Bellemare et al. (2017), Affognon et al. (2015), and Sheahan and Barrett (2017) argue that measures of food waste are conceptually flawed and have led to an over-estimate of waste in food systems. Most systematic survey-based studies of actual actors in the supply chains tend to have much lower figures than the FAO hypotheses. Several of many possible examples follow: a) Lipton (1982) in India had direct measurement-based findings of low loss rates, and at that time questioned the then extant FAO estimates of 30-50% loss in grains.b) Greeley (1986Greeley ( , 1987) ) had similar findings of low waste/loss in rice in Bangladesh and shows that high waste/loss assertions/estimates from the 1970s that had become common wisdom were actually based on flawed data or no data. c) A unique \"stacked survey\" based loss/waste measurement approach (Minten et al. 2016b andReardon et al., 2012) that included details on waste in each segment of the value chains of potatoes and rice in China, India, and Bangladesh. They found only about 5% loss/waste over the whole supply chain for potato (excluding consumer level waste) and about 1% for rice.d) A similar stacked survey estimate for post-harvest losses in the teff value chain in Ethiopia were found to be 2.2-3.3% of the teff harvest (Minten et al., 2016c).e) Kaminski and Christaensen (2014) used national level representative surveys of farm households for post-harvest losses in Malawi, Uganda, and Tanzania, and found a range of 1.4% to 5.9%, much lower than the post-harvest loss estimate of 8% for grains by FAO (2011). They found that loss was concentrated among 20% of farms in hotter and humid areas, with less market access.f) Reyes et al. (2016), in a survey of 575 wholesalers and retailers in Nicaragua and Honduras, found post-harvest losses among them to total 8% for beans and 21% for tomatoes.There is mounting evidence that transformation of food systems has lowered the cost of food and reduced sharp seasonality in its supply. Some of the evidence is from the \"quiet revolution\"where the diffusion of SMEs in supply chains accomplished this; we return here to the example of potato cold storage proliferation in India (das Gupta et al., 2010;Minten et al., 2014), and processed teff for poor consumers in urban Ethiopia (Minten et al., 2016). Other evidence shows this for the \"modern revolution\" such as in dairy in Brazil and Argentina (Farina et al., 2005), grains and vegetables in Delhi supermarkets versus traditional markets (Minten et al., 2010, and for an overall review, Minten and Reardon, 2008.).Moreover, processed foods and other time saving devices have positive consequences of liberation of women's time for education, labor market participation, and child care (for Nigeria, see Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2016b).Yet there are a series of well-documented concerns of the rise of fast food and ultra-processed foods leading to obesity and health problems such as diabetes (Popkin, 2014, for Asia and Popkin and Reardon, 2017, for Latin America).There are several recent reviews of the impacts of food system transformation on small farmers and the evidence tends to be mixed (Reardon et al., 2009).On the one hand, longer supply chains link rural areas to growing urban markets; diversifying food systems open opportunities to farmers to grow high value crops, meat, fish, and dairy. Some farmers enter resource provision contracts as discussed in Gow and Swinnen (1998); and others enter contracts offering price stabilization compared with traditional spot markets (Michelson et al., 2015).On the other hand, the available evidence shows that it tends to be the upper tier or half of small farmers who can access the modern channels, the urban markets, and the non-grain markets, as they require placement near enough to roads, water access, and specialized skills and equipment. Eventually as the chains modernize and increasingly demand quality and safety, those farmers reached must make basic investments in those attributes and that narrows the winners. The evidence shows that small farmers can still be included, but tend to not be the hinterland or asset-poor farmers (Reardon et al., 2009).Both from the high-value diversification products being produced, and the large amount of activity post-farm gate occasioned by longer and more developed supply chains, there is a great deal of rural nonfarm employment linked to food supply chains generated by the transformation.There is growing evidence that women and youth are especially benefitted as these are low entry barrier jobs in transport, commerce, food preparation, and small scale processing (for Africa, see Tschirley et al., 2016).As the food system modernizes there is, however, a challenge presented by cheaper urban processed foods penetrating rural areas and displacing traditional small enterprises (Reardon et al., 2007b), as well as dis-intermediation and large scale distribution firms displacing petty traders.Developing countries face the trade-off between efficiency and reduction of supply risk to cities via diversification of supply sources as food systems develop, and increasing risks that can accost long exposed supply chains such as from shocks from climate, environmental degradation, food safety, disease, sociopolitical unrest, and energy costs. Reardon and Zilberman (2017) argue that the strategies and investments that supply chain actors are and will take to mitigate or cope with those shocks will probably hasten the transformation, and in particular the concentration of the system. This is a particular challenge to governments to help the hinterlands and asset-poor.There are several key implications of our analysis of the pathways of transformation of food systems for agricultural research strategies of the IARCs and NARS.First, IARCs and NARS have a strong vested interest in researching, understanding, and taking into account the whole food system and its transformation, adapting their strategies, plans, and choice and design of innovations in technologies and products. This also includes understanding the changing government policies, as well as private sector institutions (such as private standards) and procurement system and marketing organization. This is important for several reasons. Opportunities and bottlenecks along all three sets of supply chains determine the potential success of IARC/NARS innovations in the farming segment. Emerging requirements of the changing food system -in terms of product types, quality and safety attributes, shelf life, cost, consistency, seasonality, volumes, and so on -should influence priorities for IARC/NARS innovations. This will help to determine whether innovations in farm technology and products lead to profitable marketed output by farmers, and thus ultimately, whether farmers will have the incentive to adopt new technologies. It is important for the research community to take into account that farmers themselves have deeply changed from just a few decades ago, far more involved in markets, commercialization, having intensified and diversified farming, and IARC/NARS strategies need to keep up with that change.Second, IARCs and NARS innovations need a supply chain to implement the innovations they generate. The upstream innovation is the beginning, not the end, of the process. The private sector in the food system is the centerpiece of the supply chain that delivers that upstream innovation. It is essential that IARCs/NARS understand the strategies, behavior, and needs of these two powerful sets of private sector actors, as the latter are essentially and in practical terms in charge of the direction of the entire food system. 25 years ago the private sector in the food system could be just a sidelight and \"specialized\" issue at the margin of food system thinking and agricultural research strategies: by becoming the dominant, central player in the food system, the private sector cannot be relegated to just a potentially interesting group to consult and observe at the edges. It is now at the center. It is now the group that decides what systems and structures will market and implement the innovations of technologies and products generated by the IARC/NARS. The ability of the latter to understand, adapt to, and selectively partner with the private sector will in the next decades be an important part of determining the performance of IARC/NARS innovations. In addition, important innovations are needed in transforming research institutions, investing in institutional change that would then be a key driver for technical change. There is a risk that rapidly transforming food systems would leave behind international and/or national public research organizations that are not transforming themselves to the new realities.Third, the public research community needs to understand the importance of research on the off-farm components of the food system. Research on and productivity of processing, packaging, logistics, and commerce technologies have equal weight in the performance of the food system relative to the farm sector, and investment in research and development (R&D) value chains for these technologies and value chains for the inputs to these segments need a much higher profile in the context of the transformed food system where post farm segments occupy 40-70% of value added. An argument for post-farm-gate research (so that it allows reduction of marketing margins in value chains to improve efficiency in the value chain) is usually a win-win for consumers as well as for producers. Moreover, returns on research (RoR) at the farm level clearly depend on concomitant innovations in the supply chain to supply inputs for or market the output of the innovation.Finally, we have signaled the importance of universities and CGIAR and NARS and companies forming public-private partnerships to generate and embody an \"educationalindustrial complex\" (Zilberman et al. 2012) where innovation starts at university research centers and ideas are then further developed either by applied research centers (like the CGIAR and NARS) or by private sector entities (startups, small companies, and major corporations). The involvement of university researchers in further development of the innovations has been identified as the contributor to success as well as effective marketing extension and outreach that is an important component of the overall supply chain that renders innovation into marketable products that generate income and employment for actors all along the food system.  The food system is the dendritic cluster of R&D value chains and the value chains linking input suppliers to farmers, and farmers upstream to wholesalers and processors midstream, to retailers then consumers downstream. Developing regions' (Africa, Asia, and Latin America) food systems have transformed very rapidly in the past several decades. Urbanization has been rapid, supply chains have grown long, diets have transformed deeply, structural changes have occurred both with consolidation (such as the rapid rise of supermarkets) and proliferation of small and medium enterprises (SME's) in the midstream of the value chains. Technology change, and the R&D systems that support it, have been extremely important to the transformation of food systems in developing regions. This has been equally important and innovative both at the farm and farm inputs level, and in the post-harvest segments. The transformation of food systems has been accompanied by lower food prices to poor consumers, low waste in long supply chains, increased vulnerability to shocks such as from climate and energy costs, and higher incomes and greater market opportunities for farmers who have been able to participate. It remains that low asset resource poor farmers are still challenged to diversify production and meet cost and quality and safety requirements of the developing urban markets. The implications for agricultural research are that IARCs and NARS should invest in understanding the whole food system and its transformation, and take it into account in adapting their strategies, plans, and choice and design of innovations in technologies and products. The supply chain is needed to implement upstream innovations, and thus the private sector, small and large, are key implementation actors for research innovations. Finally, the public research community needs to understand the importance of research on the off-farm components of the food system. Research on and productivity of processing, packaging, logistics, and commerce technologies have equal weight in the performance of the food system relative to the farm sector.ABSTRACT. Developing regions' food system has transformed rapidly in the past several decades. The food system is the dendritic cluster of R&D value chains, and the value chains linking input suppliers to farmers, and farmers upstream to wholesalers and processors midstream, to retailers then consumers downstream. We analyze the transformation in terms of these value chains' structure and conduct, and the effects of changes in those on its performance in terms of impacts on consumers and farmers, as well as the efficiency of and waste in the overall chain. We highlight the role of, and implications for agricultural research, viewed broadly as farm technology as well as research pertaining to all aspects of input and output value chains.The \"food system 1 \"has transformed enormously over the past 50 years, with the main part of the years in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. We further include attention to the role of and lessensfor agricultural research 2 strategies. We address four questions:The food system is the set of input and output value chains that link input suppliers to farmers, and farmers upstream to wholesalers and processors midstream, to retailers then consumers downstream.2 Note that here \"agricultural research\" includes both research on the inputs and farm segment (breeding, input design, agronomic practices, and so on) and research on the off-farm post-farm segments (on technologies and organization of processing, packaging, logistics, wholesale, retail).(1) How are food systems transforming?  Our findings lead to the two main messages of the paper.First, the farm-focused research community needs to take into account the entire food system 14 and its transformation in their research strategies. This will determine whether innovations in 15 farm technology and products lead to profitable marketed output by farmers and thus ultimately 16 whether farmers will have the incentive to adopt new technologies. In the medium run, the urban 17 market, and the food industry firms that increasingly mediate access to it, and input supply  To address the research questions and justify those two messages we face two challenges.  Second, as food system transformation in these regions is relatively recent, and the great 17 majority of studies have been on the farm sector (as a holdover from the conventional wisdom 18 extant decades ago when the food system was highly dominated by the farm segment and local 19 traditional markets), empirical evidence on the transformation of the off-farm segments of the 20 food system (input supply chains, output wholesale, processing, logistics, retail) is relatively 21 limited and emerging and incomplete. We do our best to find and survey the key evidence, and 22 suggest where it is strongest and weakest.The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 lays out an illustrated conceptual framework linking 1 research and non-research drivers of pathways (transformation of the food system), and thence 2 on system performance. Section 3 lays out \"downstream\" drivers of overall food system   The food system can be thought of as a \"dendritic\" system linking input supply chains and output 11 supply chains. The agricultural research and development \"supply chain\" is just one of six sets of 12 linked value chains. As an illustration let us examine the dendritic system in which a rice value 13 chain is the central output value chain.The first and \"core\" supply chain is the output, here rice, value chain. It is composed of rice 15 farmers (using land, labor, and capital such as machines and seeds and fertilizer) producing 16 paddy. It is collected by rural wholesalers or transporters and taken to mills where it is de-husked 17 and polished. The rice is then taken by wholesalers to urban wholesale markets and thence to 18 retailers.The second and \"first round feeder\" supply chains, upstream in their totality from the output 20 supply chain, are the farm input supply chains. For rice farmers these are the value chains of 21 seed, fertilizer, and farm equipment. These in turn are fed by \"second round\" input supply chains 22 further upstream, those delivering phosphate to fertilizer factories, and steel and plastic to 1 equipment factories, and so on.The third and \"first round feeder\" supply chains are those supply inputs to the post-farmgate 3 segments of the output value chain, in a sense \"laterally\" into those segments. An example is the 4 truck supply chain and fuel supply chain supplying the rice wholesale segment.The fourth supply chain in the dendritic cluster is usually thought of as \"factor markets.\" 6Those of \"capital\" and \"intermediate inputs\" we have put above in the second and third points 7 above (for example, chicks are intermediate inputs, and a supplied machine or fertilizer is a 8 factor input). But here in this fourth category we put land and labor. These are also supplied in a 9 supply chain: labor is \"produced\" demographically, then processed (education and experience) 10 then delivered (transport) to the worksite. Land is originally the wilds, processed as deforested The segments in each of the above value chains, and the six value chains themselves, are 1 intertwined in \"intersectoral (or intersegment) linkages.\" The essential idea of linkages is that an 2 increase in demand or supply from one segment \"induces\" investment in another segment or 3 chain (Hirschman 1958). Production linkages can be upstream or downstream. An increase in  The induced investment can also be in the formation of an R&D supply chain cum technology 10 or product innovation. This occurs when innovators (public or private) or entrepreneurs design  But seen from the perspective of a given food system, there can be exogenous R&D 17 \"investment\" that is not induced by factor scarcity or attribute demand in that food system. The 18 R&D supply chain may endogenously arise in another context (another country, another product, 19 etc.) and then present a technological innovation \"exogenously\" to the given food system. An 20 example is the creation and manufacture of extruders for feed processing in the US to increase 21 efficiency in both feed processing and feed consumption/use in the livestock sector. It might then 22 be transferred to Bangladesh large feed mills who imported machines embodying this 1 innovation. This would then induce a structural change in the feed supply chain in Bangladesh.We will return to this in the conduct section as it is a common technological innovation 3 vector in developing country food systems. There are three \"meta conditioners\" that encouraged and facilitated nearly all the 9 transformations we discuss. These conditioners are themselves mutually dependent.First, income combined with population growth in the three regions was crucial as a pull factor.Incomes rose, especially starting in the 1980s in Latin America and Asia outside the transition 12 countries (China, Vietnam, and India) and 1990s in Africa and the transition countries. The size 13 of the food market increased and its composition diversified as discussed below. Typically urban 14 areas have higher incomes than rural (e.g., in ESA, Eastern and Southern Africa not including 15 South Africa, urban income per capita is double that of rural; Reardon et al. 2014). Furthermore, 16 household income growth tended to be correlated with women's increasingly working outside 17 the home both in urban areas, and with a lag, rural areas. In turn, this increased the opportunity 18 cost of time of women and led them to seek conveniencesuch as in processed foods,  and Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s. This reduced transaction costs and formed the 8 foundation for food supply chain development from rural areas to the burgeoning cities and 9 towns, and food distribution and processing within urban areas. This in turn facilitated 10 urbanization itself. In some places in Africa (such as Ethiopia), there have also been massive 11 road infrastructure investment programs. For example, the total length of all-weather surfaced 12 roads in Ethiopia tripled in less than 15 years, from an estimated 32,900 km in 2000 to 99,500 13 km in 2013. This substantially improved connectivity of agricultural markets in the country. In 14 1997/98 only 15% of the population was within three hours of a city with a population of at least 15 50,000, a proportion that increased to 47% by 2010/11 (Minten et al. 2014). The distance of the chain is determined from a procurement perspective by throughput needed  This same process occurred in Latin America, Asia, and now Africa, with several points salient. 9 First, the urban share of the population has risen vertiginously in the past half century, in 10 waves across the regions.(1) Latin America's urbanization was earliest, with the urban share roughly 40% in 1950, 12 55% in 1970, 65% by 1990, and 75% by 2010 (UN 2014).(2) Asia's urban share was only 20% in 1960, rising to 45% on average by 2011, and    a specific sub-region masks the heterogeneity in all regions; for instance, the urban share 1 in population in Nigeria is 50% by 2015 (Bloch et al. 2015).Rather than being starkly different in terms of urbanization, Africa and Asia are converging 3 on urban shares. ESA's share is close to South Asia, and West Africa's, close to Southeast Asia.Second, the urban food market is in fact the majority food market on average in the three 5 regions. This is because urban areas have higher incomes than rural areas, enough so to 6 overwhelm the negative relation of income and overall food budget share noted by Engel's Law.In an Asian study of Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, and Vietnam, Reardon et al. (2014b) show 8 that while 38% of the population is urban, 53% of the (purchased) food market is urban. Even in 9 the poorest region, ESA, 26% of the population is urban but cities consume 48% of food 10 produced and sold in the countries (Dolislager et al. 2015).Third, the urban food market has grown very fast in several decadeshence so has the rural-12 urban food supply chain. Haggblade (2011) estimates this growth at 600-800% over three 13 decades for Africa; Reardon and Timmer (2014) have it at roughly 1000% in Southeast Asia in 14 the same period. As incomes rise, \"Bennett's Law\" (Bennett, 1954) predicts a shift toward a higher proportion 20 of non-staples in the diet. At a system level, this means that with development (which we 21 roughly proxy by GDP per capita), one expects disproportionate growth of the supply chains of 22 non-staples such as vegetables and fruit, meat and fish, dairy, and edible oils. Table 1 shows this 23 with macro data from FAOSTAT for 1970 to 2013 with shares of tons of consumption-by-1 disappearance.(1) For Africa, there was only gradual change over the 43 years, with the share of cereals 3 inching down from 28% to 26%, roots/tubers stable at around 20%, and non-staples 4 rising from 50 to 55% -a slim majority.(2) For Asia, the results were more dramatic: cereals were 40% in 1970, inched down to 37%  (2010) use macro data on rice to show that in most Asian countries there has been a 8 stagnant trend in rice consumption per capita, and even in some cases (country and strata 9 and zones) a gradual decline. Roots/tubers moved from 15% to only 3% over the period.10 By contrast, the striking winner in the diet was non-staples, soaring from 46% to 74%.  found that that for South Asia (Nepal and Bangladesh) and Southeast Asia (Indonesia and 20 Vietnam), the share of cereals (mainly rice) in the food budget in value terms was about 26% for 21 urban and 37% for rural households. Government of India (2010) showed that the share of cereal 22 in the urban diet (in value terms) dropped from 36% in 1972 to 23% in 2006. In the same period, 23 the share of cereals in rural diets dropped from 56% to 32%. Despite average income differences 1 between the South Asian sample and the Southeast Asian sample, the shares of cereals in urban 2 food budgets were similar (29% in South Asia and 23% in Southeast Asia). Meat and fish 3 averaged 30% of the urban budgetitself equal to the grain share. Horticulture products 4 averaged 15%. Together meat/fish and horticulture average 45%, more than grains all together.LSMS survey findings belie the idea that Africa is sharply different from Asia in food trends.For ESA urban and rural areas, Dolislager et al. (2015) found for Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and 7Zambia, that the share of grains (mainly maize) in urban food expenditure (in value terms) was 8 34%, and rural, 39%. The share of non-grains in urban food expenditure was 66%, and rural, 9 61%. Interestingly, they found the patterns for the poor stratum were not that different from the 10 other strata.For West Africa urban areas, Hollinger and Staatz (2015) analyzed data from urban food 12 expenditure studies. Where the main staples are grains alone (Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal), 13 they found that the share of grains in diets in value terms increased some over several decades: 14 from 33 to 38%. Thus two-thirds of consumer expenditure is on non-grains. Animal products and 15 fish are the foremost items in this set: in the 2000s they formed a quarter of total food 16 expenditure. Fruits/vegetables average another 12% (compare that with 16% in Asia and the 17 US), so meat plus horticulture products equal grain expenditure in the urban Sahel. Ghana, and Nigeria), the share of grains dropped from 27 to 23% and tubers/roots rose from 14 20 to 17% over the 1990s to the 2000s. The share of non-staples (neither grains nor roots/tubers) 21 was about 60%. Again meat/fish was found to be 21% of expenditure, and horticulture products, 17%: together (38%) they have nearly the share of staples (grains and roots/tubers), 40%.  Processed food was seen as a time-saver for women whose opportunity cost of time increased as  There has been a revival and broadening of interest in urbanization and food systems in the 9 2000s. This occurred with the confluence of ease of import of processed foods and substantial 10 FDI in processing as well as domestic investment in the 1980s and 1990s. Recent work has 11shown that its penetration is now substantial, in Asia (e.g., Pingali 2007) and in both urban and 12 rural Africa and Asia (e.g., Tschirley et al. 2015 andReardon et al. 2014b, respectively).It is often thought in Africa that the processed food is imported as final manufactured items.  In the ESA study of Tschirley et al. (2015), 56% of urban household food expenditures (in 19 value terms) went to processed foods, and for rural households, 29%. In the Asia study of 20 Reardon et al. (2014b), urban households were found to dedicate 73% of food expenditures to 21 processed foods, and rural areas, 60%. This did not differ much over middle class versus poor 22 families in the African and Asian studies: the quest of convenience in the face of opportunity 23 costs of time dominated for both. It is interesting that in processed food penetration so far, rural 1 Asia is like urban Africa, and that both Africa and Asia are tending in the same direction.  First, the surge in demand for livestock products has translated into the precipitous rise of 6 demand for maize as a feed grain. A striking example is that maize had been half of the tonnage 7 of rice in 1993 but by 2013 overtook rice in production in China (Zheng, 2013). As in the US, 8 nearly all maize in China goes into feed for animals. In Bangladesh, the aquaculture domestic 9 supply chain grew in volume 25 fold in three decades (nearly all for the domestic market); this 10 led to a massive rise in the feed industry and demand for feed grains (Hernandez et al. 2017).11 Liverpool-Tasie et al. (2016) show that the maize-based feed industry grew 600% in the past 10 12 years as derived demand from the aquaculture and chicken sectors that have recently started a 13 rapid shift to the use of feed in Nigeria.Second, the rise of demand for convenience foods by consumers has as a derived demand a 15 rapid rise in wheat and rice as non-traditional grains for processed products. In Asia areas where 16 rice traditionally reigned, wheat has made inroads in the form of noodles and bread (Senauer et 17 al. (1986), for Sri Lanka; Pingali (2007) for Asia overall). Timmer (2013) shows for Southeast 18Asia that wheat imports into Southeast Asia rose from 1 million tons in 1961 to 13 million by 19 2010, and wheat consumption from 2.8% to 11.5% that of rice.In East Africa, the rise of wheat consumption has also been driven by convenience food 21 demand (Kennedy and Reardon 1994) as in Southeast Asia. In West Africa, there has been a rise 22 of wheat and rice in consumption for similar reasons (Reardon 1993;Hollinger and Staatz, 23 2015). Wheat consumption in West Africa has also started to rise not just via the half century 1 old luxury of bread for the middle class, but now as cheap fast noodles and bread sandwiches for 2 the poor. An example is the rapid spread of the Indonesian multinational Indofood's \"indomie\", a 3 packaged (wheat) ramen noodle, produced by Indofood FDI in Nigeria, that appears ubiquitous 4 in Nigeria (cooked often with egg, and thus a fillip to egg consumption) (Liverpool-Tasie et al.  Due to this shift to rice and wheat for convenience, some countries' governments have been 7pursuing \"import substitution\" drives for grains, such as recommended by African Development 8Bank ( 2016). Examples include drives to be self-sufficient in rice in Senegal and \"tropicalized 9 wheat\" in Nigeria (Ohimain, 2014). This follows earlier waves of similar \"internalization\" of 10 exotic food species, such as in Africa where maize, introduced from meso-America, and only 11 \"took off\" a century ago (McCann, 2000), or such as cassava (Nweke 1996), introduced from 12Brazil into Africa with a period of intense promotion and relatively sudden diffusion. It remains 13 to be seen whether the new wave of substitution (promoting local production of tropical wheat 14 and local rice) will also massively succeed in the way maize and cassava where introduced.Third, in a number of countries there is a shift toward what consumers perceive as higher 16 quality grains. For example, in Bangladesh, there is a shift toward higher quality rice (away from 17 coarse rice toward more fine rice). This has had implications for the milling sector (they are 18 doing more rice polishing) and for farmers from whom wholesalers and millers are demanding 19 the higher quality varieties (Minten et al. 2013). In Ethiopia, there is a shift away from the cheap 20 red teff to the more expensive and preferred white teff. This increasing shift in intra-cereal 21 demand drives changes in the portfolio of farmers (Minten et al. 2016). As an initial qualifier, note that in a dendritic food system at any moment some value chains 3 may be in one stage while others in another. Moreover, there has been, as one would expect, a lot 4 of variation in the timing of take-off and speed and stage of transformation of food systems 5 across products, across regions, and across countries within regions, and across zones within 6 countries. The classifications we discuss below are found in different distributions (discussed 7 further in subsequent sections) across the heterogeneous sets of developing countries.We observe three stages of structural and conduct change of the food system.(1) The least advanced stage is the \"traditional\" system. This tends to be spatially short 10(\"local\") and fragmented in structure, using technologies with little capital and much labor, 11 with no contracts or formal standards, and spot markets linking all segments.(2) The next stage is the \"transitional.\" It is spatially long (as cities grow and their catchment 13 area is larger and larger) but still fragmented. Chain actors use a mix of labor-intensive and 14 capital intensive technologies. There are emerging public standards of quality. But still spot 15 market relations dominate.(3) The most advanced stage is \"modern.\" It also is usually spatially long. But it is 17 consolidating in a number of segments (such as in retail, the rise of supermarkets). There is also 18 some \"dis-intermediation\" such as supermarkets buying directly from processors, or urban 19 wholesalers directly from farmers. Private standards are emerging, and some use of contracts.Capital intensification is common as the modern stage tends to coincide with higher wages in an 21 economy and more quality and safety control are demanded by the food industry.The second set of stages is the waves of diffusion of food system transformation over space 1 and products. The first wave was the earliest group of developers in developing regions (after the 2 earlier waves of transformations of food system in what are now the \"developed countries\").(1) The first wave included East Asia outside China (such as South Korea) and South America 4 such as Brazil, with food system transformation taking off in the 1980s.   The fourth wave that is emerging in the 2010s includes West Africa.12 There are also waves of diffusion of transformation by product category, with grains value 13 chains transforming earliest, animal products next, and fresh fruits and vegetables last. (These The structure of the food supply chains in the developing regions has been transforming 18 rapidly, especially in the past two decades. By structural change of the food system we mean the 19 following, which also serves as a preview of the section's structure:(1) volume growth in the overall system;(2) product composition change of the system;(3) spatial elongation of the value chains, including growth in rural to urban, rural to rural, 1 and urban to rural supply chains; 2 (4) restructuring of the overall system, including an increase in the share of post-farmgate 3 segments as well as emerging \"disintermediation\"; 4 (5) concentration or de-concentration of individual segments.We treat each of these important changes in turn. 13 Table 1 shows \"food supply quantities\" from FAO food balance sheets for 1970, 1990, and 14 2013. These figures are FAO's measure of \"domestic consumption by disappearance\" per capita, 15 that starts with aggregate production, adds imports, and deducts disposal of the output (exports, 16 waste, storage for the next year, and use as seed). We then use their population data to derive 17 aggregate consumption by disappearance per region. This is a rough measure of the food system 18 expansion as it is only in physical terms, not value or nutrition terms. A physical measure 19 probably underestimates growth in value terms as non-staples, which grew the fastest, have 20 higher prices on average than grains or roots/tubers. But our goal here is not fine precision but 21 orders of magnitude and key trends. Several points emerge.First, in 43 years, the total \"food system\" in these three developing regions grew from about 1 1.3 to 5 billion tons, 4-fold, faster than population grew (from 2.6 to 6.5 billion, 2.5 fold).2 Interestingly, the trends did not differ much over the three regions.  (2) Asia's total food supply rose 1.8 times in the first 20 years and then 2.1 times in the next   Second, imports as a share of food supply (net of exports) has risen over the decades, but is 13 still a minority. In Africa, tons of imports rose 11 times over the 45 yearsand constituted from 14 7% to 15% to 21% of our rough measure of consumption by disappearance. In Asia, it rose 7 15 times in tons and went from 9% to 13% to 18% of total consumed tons. In Latin America, it rose 16 7 times in tons but again a small share: from 3% to 6% to 9%. Africa and Asia's import growth Third, agricultural exports, while often important in policy debates, are relatively small 1 compared with the domestic food system. In Africa, these reached about 7% of the level of 2 domestic consumption; in Asia, 10%; in Latin America, 22%. It was especially in Latin America 3 that exports rose in the well-known story of its export success in the globalization period.  590% in non-staples; in Latin America, 230% in cereals, and 300% in non-staples.12 Second, the rapid demand growth for meat and fish created a concomitant surge in feed 13 supply chains, and derived from them, supply chains for domestic ingredients for feed, especially 14 of maize (such as from Northern to Southern Nigeria), oilseed cake, fodder, rice bran, cassava.These supply chains quickly form and grow as rapid growth in animal products consumption is     As noted above, roughly 50-75% of domestic food supply now goes to cities. This is very 1 different from the 1970s when that share was roughly 20-30% depending on the region. When 2 the urban share was low, supply chains were short, with local farmers feeding themselves and  First, seen from the countryside, most food goes to cities. About 75% of Indonesian mangoes 7 are sold to Indonesian urban consumers; another 5% is home-consumed, and 20% are sold to 8 rural consumers; only 0.1% are exported (Qanti et al. 2017). In ESA, the least urbanized and 9 poorest region, 46% of cereal consumption (home-consumed by farmers and purchased by rural 10 and urban households) is consumed in urban areas; 61% of purchases of cereal are in urban 11 areas. In overall consumption, urban is 52% of fruit and vegetables, 58% of meat and fish, and 12 63% of edible oils (Reardon et al. 2014b).Second, the product categories growth plus the rise in the share of urban consumption in total   Mellor (1976) in India and Reardon et al. (1988) in Africa pointed out that a lot of rural 13 households, even farmers, are net buyers of grains, the share of overall food that was purchased 14 was traditionally low. This of course differed by semi-arid versus more humid areas, such as in 15 Senegal, where purchases of food were important for the drought prone areas and much less 16 important in the relatively lush areas (Kelly et al. 1993).    Fourth, it appears that this skyrocketing of food purchases by rural households is financed 1 mainly by rural nonfarm employment (RNFE) as well as by agricultural product sales. Very little 2 is purchased on credit, whether from informal or formal sources (Adjognon et al. 2017, for 3 Africa). RNFE is roughly 40% of farm household total incomes in Africa and Asia, and a much 4 higher share of total cash available, and far higher than migration income or credit flows 5 (Haggblade et al. 2007). The share can be even higher, such as in China, where the share of rural   First, urban markets have become the main markets facing farmers. This is an important 12 opportunity as it presents a source of effective demand far greater than the typical rural area.Second, however, the urban market also poses challenges in two sets of ways.Even in the absence of modernization such as the rise of supermarkets. Urban traders seek a 15 diverse set of zones to reduce seasonality and supply risk. They have the logistics and purchasing 16 power at times to require that different regions compete for their procurement. This means that 17 farmers from a given zone no longer have a \"protected\" local market but are competing with 18 farmers large and small from their zone and others for the urban market. They might even be 19 competing with foreign suppliers who sell via importers to urban wholesale markets (Reardon   Processing firms and supermarkets based in towns also tend to prefer supply regions with low 3 transaction costs, and eschew contracting with farmers in hinterland zones (Barrett et al. 2012).Third, a key consequence of the above is that as rural purchases grow, rural to rural and urban 5 to rural (especially of processed food) flows increase. The latter makes the proximity of rural 6 suppliers to secondary/tertiary cities a two-edged sword. On the one hand, the proximity brings 7 the benefits of agglomerated upstream and downstream services in the supply chain that farmers 8 need for profitable commercialization and intensification. On the other hand, the close-by towns 9 are conduits for a steady flow of cheap packaged processed foods that may benefit consumers on 10 the cost side but compete with existing or would be small enterprises in the villages (Reardon et 11 al. 2007b). There are many examples of this, such as Indofoods packaged noodles and drinks into 12 rural towns in Indonesia and Nigeria (Liverpool-Tasie et al. 2017b). There is also an archetypal 13 case of ready-made tortillas or tortilla mixes coming into rural towns from urban processing 14 firms in Mexico (Rello, 1996).Fourth, longer supply chains linking rural to urban, rural to rural, and urban to rural, means 16 heightened vulnerability to shocks that beset long exposed chainsshocks of climate change 17 (Reardon and Zilberman, 2017), energy cost spikes, disease outbreaks, food safety crises, and 18 sociopolitical strife. A case in point is the vulnerability to all these represented by the dynamic    As the chain grows spatially longer, the market volume grows large enough, and economies 8 of specialization emerge in the midstream and downstream segments, their shares rise a lot 9 compared with traditional chains. Reardon (2015) reviewed evidence and produced a rough 10 estimate for Asia and Africa food supply chains of about 40% of value added from farms, 40% 11from midstream (what he calls the \"hidden middle\" as this segment is usually ignored in both 12 policy debates and research) and 20% from the downstream. This share varies over products and 13 regions.  a rural broker selling to a traditional small retailer in a local town. As supply chains develop to 19 cities, and gradually consumers purchase processed products, there is a proliferation of 20 midstream MSMEs in wholesale and processing, as well as upstream in input supply. This is part 21 of the \"transitional stage\" and is the dominant situation now in Africa and South Asia. Typically 22 the farmer's share in the total value added of the supply chain drops fast during this period as the 1 share of intermediaries and logistics and processors rises.A series of recent studies in South Asia, China, Vietnam, and Africa have termed this a \"Quiet 3 Revolution\" wherein tens of thousands of MSMEs emerge to develop in a \"grassroots\" way the 4 food system (Minten et al. 2010;Reardon et al. 2012Reardon et al. , 2014c)). These studies show how dynamic    Second, there has been a proliferation of \"outsourced agricultural services\" in the form of 1 MSMEs providing combine services for small rice farmers in China (Zhang et al. 2017) and 2 Myanmar (Belton 2017), and cotton farmers in Peru (Escobal et al. 2000). These are mobile 3 teams equipped with combines go from farm to farm and province to province. They provide 4 speedy, skilled service that compensates for small farmers' lack of the ability to buy their own 5 machine, or the skill and time to rent their own machine. Moreover, the the machines 6 is typically much larger than local owned or rental machines, so that the harvesting and threshing 7 can be done quickly, and in a timely way for higher market prices before the glut. An analogous 8 service is performed by MSMEs called \"sprayer traders\" in mango zones of Indonesia and the 9 Philippines; teams of skilled laborers equipped with sprayers and vehicles and ladders go from 10 farm to farm and prune, spray, harvest, sort, and market mangoes for demanding urban and 11 export markets (dela Cruz et al. 2010;Qanti et al. 2017).12 Third, Minten et al. (2016) show that the value chain of teff (the leading cereal in Ethiopia) 13 has developed rapidly to serve the Addis Ababa market over the past decade. There has been a 14 proliferation of MSME mills-cum-retailers and rapid transformation all along the supply chain.The recent development of the teff value chain was found to be driven overall by significant 16 growth in Addis and increase in incomes (with a doubling of income and a doubling of teff  As market volume and investment capacity permit large enterprises to develop (anywhere 15 along the chains, from inputs, to farming, to wholesale, to logistics, to retail), these firms have a 16 tendency to try to \"cut out the intermediaries\" and sell or buy directly. This is done mainly to cut 17 costs. This is termed \"dis-intermediation.\" This is associated with the \"transitional\" and 18 \"modern\" stages of the supply chain. For example, larger wholesalers based in towns and cities 19 have in India gone well along the path of eliminating use of traditional village brokers in order to 20 buy directly from rice and potato farmers (Reardon et al. 2012). Supermarkets in CentralAmerica have shifted to buying directly from agribusiness firms for crops in which the latter are 22 engaged (e.g., pineapples, bananas) (Berdegué et al. 2005).Supermarkets and processing companies also have a tendency for \"re-intermediation\" -to 1 shift from procurement on the spot market to use, as much as possible, of specialized, dedicated 2 wholesalers to procure and market (Reardon and Berdegué, 2002). They are charged with 3 applying quality and safety standards of the chains or processor, selecting regular suppliers such 4 as farmers or supplier villages or coops who can meet the standards, and collecting or marketing 5 exclusively for the chain or processor. An example is large rice millers in China relying on 6 specialized to market their branded packaged rice (Reardon et al. 2012), and supermarkets 7 in Latin America and Africa and China using dedicated wholesalers to source produce according 8 to the private quality standards of the chains (Reardon and Berdegué, 2002 for Latin America,  In short local supply chains to small towns or rural areas, the market volume does not permit 14 the emergence of large-scale firms. At a micro level, for a firm to attain scale, potential market 15 sales as well as investment capacity are needed. The potential market can come from increase in 16 scale of demand due to consumer income increases; or access to a secondary or mega city that 17 represents large agglomerated demand. These large effective demands can be supplied by many 18 small firms and farms. But if the technology is characterized by economies of scale, this 19 encourages firms to invest in scale. This is typically the case with processing, and where 20 transport and warehouse and cold chain are needed, with wholesale. As the need for coordination 21 and inventory control rise with marketing scale, and bargaining power in procurement with 22 buying scale, there can also be economies of scale and scope in retail.At the segment level, if competition is only on cost (hence the \"commodity\" stage of the 1 product cycle) and the large firms or farms are more efficient than the small, concentration can 2 occur. This is often observed in the \"modern stage\" of supply chain development, at least for 3 some segments. those segments there will be concentration. In others the structure may stay 4 fragmented for some time. For example, in the modern portion of the dairy sector in Zambia, 5 small farms could be selling to large processors who sell some of their output to supermarkets 6 (Neven et al. 2016). Or, in a late \"transitional stage,\" in long supply chains with some 7 disintermediation (such as town-based wholesalers competing out of the market the small rural 8 brokers, but selling on to many small urban millers and mainly small retailers; this is the case of 9 the Bangladesh rice supply chain (Minten et al. 2013).  The first stage is the high fragmentation that characterizes the traditional supply chains. As an 13 initial move to serve incipient urban markets and build economies of scale and obviate what are 14 perceived as \"exploitative traders\", governments sometimes introduce parastatals in this stage, 15 especially for basic grains. These partially concentrate the wholesale and retail segments, hence 16 providing the leftmost part of the J of concentration over time.The second stage occurs after market liberalization and the privatization of the parastatals.The vacuum thus left, as well as the propitious logistics and demand side conditions that also  The third stage is the steep rightmost part of the J, and is the re-concentration that occurs as 1 competition among MSMEs has it that some emerge as winners and expand, and FDI 2 liberalization and other investment regulation relaxation (such as \"de-reservation\" in India, 3Reardon and Minten 2011), induce investment by large private processing, wholesale/logistics, 4 supermarket chains, and fast-food chains. This has involved, especially since the early/mid 5 1990s, waves of diffusion of supermarkets and large processors in particular (Reardon et al. 6 2003, Reardon and Timmer 2012). Much of this started as regional or global FDI, and then has 7 generated intense domestic capital investments.In the second and third stage of transformation of the food system there is \"co-evolution\" of 9 the segments. In the second, \"transitional,\" stage, there is both spontaneous private sector co-10 evolution as wholesalers and processors proliferate to serve the burgeoning urban retail sector.There is also conscious public intervention, as municipal governments construct public  In the third, \"modern\" stage, private sector coevolution is intensified and at large scale. The 17 importance of coevolution is that it accelerates the system transformation and raises entry 18 requirements for small firms that want to compete either in the commodity market (on cost) or in 19 quality differentiated products. Supermarkets tend to source from large processors so as to 20 reduce procurement transaction costs and make sure of quality and eventually food safety. An 21 example of this is relative concentration of reliance by supermarkets in China on large scale rice 22 mills (Reardon et al. 2012b). Large processors target product differentiation to the requests of 23 supermarkets, such as for milk and juice products by Nestle and others in Brazil (Farina et al. 1 2005). Large logistic and wholesale multinationals as well as processors \"follow\" supermarket 2 chains into new countries, in \"follow sourcing\", as with Baakavor following Tesco into China 3 (Reardon et al. 2007).Relative to the traditional stages, the transitional and modern stages have occasioned the most 5 \"conduct\" change in the food systemwith new technologies, organizational forms, and new 6 institutions of private standards and contracts. We turn to this change next.  These \"West-origin\" innovations were transferred and adapted in the past 50 years in the 4 spatial and product waves we discuss above, as demand side and policy conditions grew  In that sense then, the food system changes we observe, especially in the modern phase, are 7 emanations of the strategies of a large number of innovating companies. These strategies are sets  Europe, transferred this to large scale processing FDI in Brazil; at the same time and of course 13 linked, Tetrapak, with its vacuum packaging innovation, set up in Brazil to provide packaging to 14 Nestle and others (Farina et al. 2005). For efficiency of the set of UHT plus packaging plus large 15 scale manufacture of both, farmers needed to contract with Nestle and implement private 16 standards pertaining to levels of protein sediment, bacteria, and fat in the milk they delivered.    Organizational change can be analyzed in terms of \"markets and hierarchies\" in the words of 1 Williamson (1981). Actors can choose to transact via the uncoordinated spot market, such as 2 brokers coming to a wholesale market to buy and sell, or via some degree of coordinated or 3 hierarchized market. An intermediate or transitional form could be the use by a supermarket 4 chain of the specialized/dedicated wholesalers noted above, as agents to buy or sell, and in doing, 5 implement its quality and safety standards and price points. A full form could be a tight contractwhere standards and price are specified to suppliers of the supermarket or processor, usually as a 7 direct, disintermediated relation.As the food system moves from traditional to transitional to modern, there is a shift 9 organizationally from spot to transitional to fully coordinated. This tends to occur fastest in 10 grains, oil seeds, and processed products, and next fastest in fresh meat, and slowest in fish and 11 produce. Thus, in Mexico for example, for grains and meat one can find fully coordinated supply  These were especially manifest in export operations and processing sectors, with gradual 5 emergence in perishables for supermarkets. Usually these were imposed by supermarket chains, 6 large processors, and fast food chains, and their procurement agents, to reduce losses in 7 processing, increase shelf life, control quality and consistency, and assure safety (Reardon et al. 8 1999; Henson and Reardon, 2005;Swinnen 2007). Examples include Nestle's quality 9 certification for grated coconut in Brazil (Farina et al. 2000) and potato variety specification for food safety regulations for retail and food service (for example, in China, Jia and Jukes, 2013). In 14 some cases there is strong argument for economic and health impacts of regulation but 15 implementation is difficult (such as in the case of aflatoxins in maize and peanuts in Africa, see 16 Khlangwiset and Wu, 2010).   In this section we discuss the technology changes that occurred as the food system 1 transformation occurred, and thus by extension the impact of technology research in IARCS and 2 NARS and private companies on that transformation. We start with upstream, then look   The contribution can be thought through along the lines of the product lifecycle in three 13 stages: (1) the product traditionally or as the result of an innovation emerges as a \"niche The first path has received the most attention, and that mostly for grains: the focus has been 3 on breeding for drought or flooding and disease resistance and adaptation to small farmer 4 conditions. The best known example is of course the Green Revolution and the system of NARS   (Byerlee and Eicher, 1997).The second path links product cycle, breeding, and commoditization market development.This second path has received relatively little attention, although the little received is mostly for 15 grains.The first variant of this second path is intra-product. It has focused mainly on breeding for better for milling than the flint varieties). At the same time, the breeding of the dent maize (by 1 the Reids, farmers in Illinois) in the 1850s, initiated a dent maize seed industry (R&D supply 2 chain as well as seed breeding and multiplication and sale). This \"induced\" a shift in the farm 3 segment to shift from flint to dent maize. One could thus see the initial \"shock\" or inducement as 4 coming from the seed segment or from the processing segment, and having linkage impacts 5 either downstream or upstream on farms. In fact the two were a confluence of changes, as 6 the processing industry needed the dent maize attributes to be produced to spur the mill sectors' 7 growth, and the dent seed industry needed the downstream farms and mills to demand dent maize 8 seed and grain.Research attention in developing countries has recently been directed to the above trend 10 linking grain varieties, urban supply chain growth, and milling industry transformation. One 11 example is teff variety differentiation for quality for the urban market of Addis Ababa (Minten et 12 al. 2016). Another is a similar trend for rice varieties in Bangladesh (Minten et al. 2013).A second good example of breeding for \"commoditization\" in the food system is from    Third, as demand for water in horticulture rose in Germany, Australia, Israel, and California 9 from the 1860s to the 1960s, there were a series of innovations from clay to plastic tubing that 10 came to be termed drip irrigation. Again, as with the innovations above, starting in the 1970s it   Myanmar is mainly produced near and sold in the mega city (Belton et al. 2017). A similar thing 8 is happening with poultry and hog production in developing regions. Their initial commercial 9 production base is in small operations around cities. These tend to shift both structurally from 10 scattered home enterprises to larger farms and integrated operations, and spatially to from 11 scattered rural sites to agglomerated areas near the cities. In Thailand, the share of backyard pig 12 farms dropped from 55% to 20% of pigs over 1993 to 2008; large chicken farms have grown 13 from 39% to 57% of chickens over the same period (Poapongsakorn 2012). In China, backyard 14 (small-scale) pig production was 95% of the market in 1985 and 27% in 2007 (Schneider 2011).There has been a concomitant rise of large processing firms for pigs and chickens, with location 16 of large farms and large processing firms near the cities of China and Thailand, in a major shift 17 away from scattered countryside operations in the 1990s and before.     growth, and urbanization, and food system transformation. In this section we will lay out the 1 main elements of the third point, the impact of transformation on performance. Several points 2 stand out.3 First, it is nearly tautological that the expansion in volume of the food system, given that it is 4 80% domestic, has benefited small and medium farmers, as those constitute the bulk of 5 producers for domestic markets in the three regions. Moreover, the strong tipping of the product 6 composition toward non-staples, which are usually higher value per ton or hectare or day, mean 7 that at least the farmers who have been able to diversify are able to gain from that shift. The  Second, the available evidence shows that it tends to be the upper tier or half of small farmers 11 who can access the urban markets and the non-grain markets, as they require placement near 12 enough to roads, and some water access. At first the excluded must shrink as supply chains get 13 longer and longer. But then as the chains modernize and increasingly demand quality and safety, 14 those farmers reached must make basic investments in those attributes and that narrows the 15 winners. The evidence shows that small farmers can still be included, but tend to not be the 16 hinterland or asset-poor farmers (for a review, see Reardon et al. 2009).Where food industry firms need small farmers, and the latter suffer from idiosyncratic market 18 failures and asset constraints, with modernization, some food industry firms supply \"resource 19 provision contracts\" (Austin 1981 andGow andSwinnen 1998)     It also appears that from the cost and quality (and increasingly safety, if private standards are 5 met) viewpoint, the modern transformation also benefitted consumers, eventually with lower 6 prices compared with traditional markets, as both the supply chains modernized and 7 supermarkets shifted to modern procurement systems. For the case of Delhi, see Minten et al. 8 (2010), and an overall review, Minten and Reardon (2008). The gains were most evidenced in processed and semi-processed foods, which are about 85%  Fourth, with both the quiet and the modern food system revolutions, we note that there has 17 been an increase in volumes and length of the supply chains. One thus moves away from small 18 \"niche\" local markets to nationally integrated and often more efficient markets. This leads to 19 better price integration but also to a marketing system with relatively smaller marketing costs (as 20 shown in cereal market analysis in Ethiopia, for example; see Minten et al. 2014).Fifth, both from the high value diversification products being produced, and the large amount 22 of activity post-farm gate occasioned by longer and more developed supply chains, there is a 23 great deal of rural nonfarm employment linked to food supply chains generated by the 1 transformation. There is growing evidence that women and youths are especially benefitted as 2 these are low entry barrier jobs in transport, commerce, food preparation, and small scale 3 processing (for Africa, see Tschirley et al., 2016). Finally, while there are general estimates of food losses and waste along supply chains (from 5 farm to consumer) in developing countries put at roughly 20%-30% for cereals and pulses and 6 meat and milk and fish, 40% for roots and tubers, and 50% for fruits and vegetables by FAO   (Minten et al. 2016b andReardon et al. 2012) that included 13 details on waste in each segment of the value chains of potatoes and rice in China, India, and 14 Bangladesh. They found only about 5% loss/waste over the whole supply chain for potato 15 (excluding consumer level waste) and about 1% for rice. Kaminski and Christaensen (2014) used 16 national level representative surveys of farm households for farmers estimates of post harvest 17 losses in Malawi, Uganda, and Tanzania, and found a range of 1.4% to 5.9%, much lower than 18 the post-harvest loss estimate of 8% for grains by FAO (2011). They also found that the areas of 19 loss were concentrated among 20% of farms, that were in hotter and humid areas, with less 20 market access (which for us means less developed food systems, in hinterland zones). Lipton   1982) in India had had similar findings, and at that time similarly questioned the then extent 22 FAO estimates of 30-50% loss in grains.23 Sheahan and Barrett (2017) contend that it is worthwhile, however, to analyze cost effective 1 measures reduce loss and waste, but argue that pre-harvest actions (such as improved varietals) 2 or chemical sprays and IPM for fields or storage and hermetic technologies (bags and silos) to 3 store more effectively may be warranted, especially in view of some especially problematic loss   First, we showed that the food systemthe cluster of three sets of supply chains, of inputs, 16 outputs, and upstream and downstream technology R&D -is transforming relatively suddenly, 17 rapidly, and profoundly. It is fair to say that the basics of research strategy and priorities were 18 laid out several decades ago when the food system was deeply different from today, and are due  and thus food systems are in non-staples as consumer demand has diversified way beyond basic 1 grains, into meat and fish (and thus derived demand for feed-grains too), edible oils, dairy, fruits, 2 and vegetables. Within grains, there has been a strong shift toward higher quality cereals. Urban 3 demand is now about half to three-quarters of the market that farmers face, and the needs of 12 Second, IARCs and NARS have a strong vested interest in researching, understanding, and 13 taking into account the whole food system and its transformation, adapting their strategies, plans, 14 and choice and design of innovations in technologies and products. This also includes 15 understanding the changing government policies, as well as private sector institutions (such as 16 private standards) and procurement system and marketing organization. This is important for  innovations. This will help to determine whether innovations in farm technology and products 22 lead to profitable marketed output by farmers, and thus ultimately, whether farmers will have the 1 incentive to adopt new technologies.2 Third, we have shown that the great majority of the food system's structure, conduct, and 3 performance are determined by the innovations, investments, and behavior (technology, buying, 4 and selling choices) of the private sector. This includes the emergence to extreme importance to 5 food systems both the vast numbers of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that have 6 emerged in the \"quiet revolution,\" and the powerful agribusiness firms, processors, logistics and 7 wholesale companies, and supermarket chains that have become ubiquitous and important in 8 their emerging dominance of urban food economies and input supply chains. The food system 9 now is a powerful, dynamic locomotive that is growing and moving and changing driven nearly 10 exclusively by the decisions and investments of the private sectorthe supermarket chains, the 11 large processors, the big wholesale and logistic firms, the agribusiness firms, as well as the 10's 12 of thousands of MSME's, both farms and off-farm segments, that are making massive aggregate 13 investments upstream and downstream in the system.IARCs and NARS innovations need a supply chain to implement the innovations they 15 generate. The upstream innovation is the beginning, not the end, of the process. The private 16 sector in the food system is the centerpiece of the supply chain that delivers that upstream 17 innovation. It is essential that IARCs/NARS understand the strategies, behavior, and needs of 18 these two powerful sets of private sector actors, as the latter are essentially and in practical terms 19 in charge of the direction that the entire food system. 25 years ago the private sector in the food 20 system could be just a sidelight and \"specialized\" issue at the margin of food system thinking        ","tokenCount":"21980"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ce93b4d2206bfc0e10774e30a1356c76","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/49606726-bb92-4d60-9267-a90f0cda2fa4/retrieve","id":"-1855385281"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"21c268ff-58ca-45a4-b299-e999d0f18b6f","pagecount":"27","content":"• Dairy production and market trends in Tanzania • Good returns compared to most traditional agricultural commodities• In come generation for poor producers and market intermediaries through participation in processing and marketing• Food security, good nutrition, poverty reduction and environmental protection• Traditional consumption habits• Agro-climate/milk production potential Current trends of dairying in Tanzania  Non-marketable smallholder production and value often not considered Production to double: share from 36% to 52%.To be mainly driven by \"Dairy Revolution\"   • Local competitiveness with imports may vary considerably but generally indicate that local smallholders can compete effectively.Smallholder dairy producers in Tanzania and elsewhere in developing countries can effectively compete, mainly due to strong local demand. This can further be be enhanced by:• Improving economies of scale (e.g., through collective action)• Access to services and appropriate technologies• Improving infrastructure• Creating an overall enabling policy and institutional environment for all participants in the sector","tokenCount":"147"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6a768ddef2b75c6ec31e9e829f1a2195","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/10c9156f-8f98-4dec-916f-30464a254fc7/retrieve","id":"-1978668216"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a5809e01-13f4-48a5-9331-8917b2ab6485","pagecount":"19","content":"This country brief is part of the outputs for Work Package 5 of the CGIAR Initiative on Agroecology. The focus of Work Package 5 is understanding and then influencing individual and collective agency and behavior among food system actors (FSAs) to drive inclusive and equitable agroecological transformation. Through learning from past experiences relevant to agroecological transformation, this country brief aims to inform the development of the Agroecological Living Landscapes (ALL) and the approach to the Agroecology Initiative's (AE-I's) activities in Kenya. The aim is to investigate successes and failures in achieving behaviour change, the nature of the change(s) achieved as well as the aims and assumptions behind the actions planned to enable change. The country brief outlines the trends in initiatives that make a significant contribution to agroecological transformation in terms of numbers of initiatives, types of initiatives, and AE principles promoted.The Transformational Agroecology across Food, Land, and Water Systems Agroecology Initiative (AE-I) aims to support the transformation of agri-food systems in target countries, including Kenya. Agroecology (AE) is defined as a science, set of practices, and social movement rooted in principles around resource efficiency, resilience, and equity (HLPE, 2019). As it constitutes a systems transformation, agroecological transition requires the involvement of diverse actors at many levels of the agri-food system.In Kenya, AE-I's activities are focused on Makueni and Kiambu counties. Activities are organized through Agroecological Living Landscapes (ALLs), which are multi-stakeholder groups working to design and test AE practices, develop alternative business pathways, and support AE behaviour changes.To support the process of agroecological transformation, AE-I work package 5 (WP5) focuses on understanding the drivers of behaviour change and agency among agri-food system actors. We begin our exploration of behaviour change processes in Kenyan agri-food systems through an analysis of past initiatives related to agroecology in this context. Through this analysis, we seek to understand common approaches, assumptions, and factors contributing to the success and failure of past behaviour change efforts relevant to the AE-I.The agroecology initiative in Kenya is implemented in two counties, Kiambu and Makueni county. Kiambu County is in the central region of Kenya whereas Makueni County is located in the eastern region of the country. Agriculture is the primary economic activity in both counties. Makueni's agriculture is largely focused on subsistence, although 50% of fruits and animal products that are produced in Makueni are reported to be sold (Mwangangi et al. 2012). Both large-and small-scale production are frequent in both counties, but Makueni has a higher percentage of small-scale farms. In Kiambu, which produces food and cash crops, the average farm size ranges from 0.36 Ha for small-scale farming to 69.5 Ha for large-scale farming (Kiambu County Government, 2013). The typical farm size in Makueni is 3.44 ha for small-scale farmers and 30.4 ha for large-scale farmers (Makueni County Government, 2013).Both counties experience a bimodal rainfall pattern with Kiambu experiencing long rains from mid-March to May while short rains start in mid-October to November (County Government of Kiambu, 2018). This pattern differs slightly from Makueni, where long rains begin in March/April and short rains in November/December (Makueni County Government 2013). However, the annual rainfall varies with altitude, with the upper zones receiving greater rains-500 mm in Makueni and 2000 mm in Kiambu-than the lower zones, which only receive 260 mm in Makueni (County Meteorological Office, 2021) and 600 mm in Kiambu (Kiambu County Government, 2021). Both counties rely heavily on rain-fed agriculture, although in Kiambu irrigation is primarily used by individual farmers who engage in large-scale agriculture, particularly for export goods, which include cash crops like coffee and horticultural crops (Kiambu County Government, 2013). However, just 9% of homes in Makueni use irrigation, and the majority of those who do tend to their kitchen gardens (Mwangangi et al. 2012).Diverse crops are cultivated and various animals are raised in the two counties, with maize, green grams, pigeon peas, and sorghum dominating in Makueni (Makueni County Government, 2013). Makueni also produces pawpaw, oranges, and mangoes, among other fruits. In Kiambu, the main food crops are maize, beans, Irish potatoes, bananas, and vegetables, with maize serving as the staple food. Additionally, coffee and tea, which are mostly grown in the county's highlands, are major cash crops in Kiambu. Horticultural crops such French beans, snow peas, kale, cabbage, garden peas, tomatoes, spinach, and carrot are also cultivated (Kiambu County Government, 2021). Fruits grown in Kiambu county include avocados, mangoes, and pineapples. Cows are the most produced animals in Kiambu. Other livestock produced in the county include poultry and pigs. Livestock production in Makueni include dairy cattle, beef cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, poultry, and pigs (Makueni County Government, 2013).Both counties share three distinct agroecological zones; Kiambu is classified as having the Upper Highland, Lower Highland, Upper Midland, and Lower Midland Zones (Kiambu County Government, 2013), whereas Makueni is classified as having the Upper Zone (primarily Kilungu and Mbooni), Middle Zone (Wote area), and Lower Zone (Kibwezi areas) (MoALF, 2016). The soils of Kiambu County can be divided into three groups: volcanic footbridge soils, plateau soils, and high-level upland soils (Kiambu County Government, 2013). In contrast, the soils of Makueni County vary in both structure and texture, ranging from sandy-clay loam to clayey, sandy-clay loam (Mora-Vallejo et al. 2008, referred from MoALF 2016).The objective of this analysis was to document and learn from past efforts to encourage agroecological transition in the Agroecological Living Landscape (ALL) target areas. To do so, we first generated an inventory of past initiatives related to agroecology that have been implemented in Makueni and Kiambu counties in Kenya over the last ten years (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022). The thirteen HLPE principles of agroecology (HLPE, 2019), which were divided into three aspects of agroecology-integrated natural farming, the circular economy, and social justice (van Dien & Fuchs, 2023)-were used to identify the pertinent initiatives. Only initiatives that addressed at least one principle from each category were recorded.The search for relevant initiatives started with a review of the Inter-sectoral Forum on Agro-biodiversity and Agroecology (ISFAA)'s map of agroecological projects in Kenya 1 , followed by searches on Google and Google Scholar. The search used the following keywords: Makueni, Kiambu, agroecological practices, agroforestry, permaculture, regenerative agriculture, organic agriculture, integrated pest management, climate-smart agriculture, and sustainable farming systems. Initiatives that began prior to 2012 but ended within the reference years were also included. Co-creation of knowledgeLand & natural resource governance Participation Details on each initiative were extracted from available blogs, briefs, project reports, and organization websites and recorded in the inventory. Reviewers identified the type of initiative (project/program, community based/grass roots initiatives, collective action, or social movement), funding and implementing organizations, start and end years, target regions and beneficiaries, primary activities, and agroecological principles addressed, based on available information. Links to the reviewed documents were included in the database. Relevant grey literature and peer-reviewed literature were also reviewed. There were some instances where information like the start and end dates for certain efforts could not be accessed, particularly when information available on the websites was limited.Following development of the inventory, five initiatives were selected as case studies for in-depth assessment. Selection criteria were:o Initiative implementation had ended.o Geographic relevance: Two initiatives were selected from Kiambu, two from Makueni and one that was implemented in both counties.o Relevance to agroecology: Initiatives addressing the most principles in each county were selected.o Diversity in implementing organizations: At least one initiative implemented by a bigger organization and one initiative implemented by a local organization (local NGO or CBO) were prioritized.To develop the case studies, key informant interviews were organized around the five selected initiatives. The aim of the in-depth interviews was to learn more about the initiatives' theories of change, approaches to creating behaviour change, as well as factors contributing to the initiatives' successes and failures in generating behaviour change. Both ALL target sites 51-2 0More than 5 33Data obtained on 103 past initiatives shows a slightly higher percentage of documented agroecology (AE) projects were implemented in Makueni county (52%) compared to Kiambu county (43%). AE programs implemented in both counties account for roughly 5% of all documented initiatives.An evaluation of actors implementing agroecological initiatives in the target ALLs shows that most of the initiatives were implemented by international organizations, consortiums, government bodies, local NGOs, and research institutes as shown in Figure 1. County wise, most AE projects implemented in Kiambu were by local NGOs, consortiums, and international organizations. In Makueni, the bulk of implemented AE initiatives were done by international organizations, government organizations, consortiums, and research institutions. Other implementing actors included charity organizations, communitybased organizations (CBOs), public and private companies, youth groups, etc. The AE initiatives assessed fall under three categories: projects and programs, community based/grassroot initiatives and collective actions. Projects and programs represented the bulk of past initiatives. The least common type of initiative was collective action, with only two such initiative reported in Makueni. These results are presented in Figure 2.The average initiative implementation time for all projects was estimated to be five years. Longer initiatives were documented in Kiambu (average seven years) compared to Makueni at four years.  Only five out of the 103 initiatives examined specifically mentioned agroecology in their interventions. However, AE principles were widely addressed. Figure 3 shows the frequency at which AE principles were applied in initiatives across the two target counties. The average number of principles applied in the documented initiatives listed was five. Findings show a high application of biodiversity, synergy, soil health, economic diversification, co-creation of knowledge and land and natural resource governance principles. Fairness, animal health and input reduction were the least applied principles where only 10, 14, and 15 out of 103 projects initiatives reviewed had addressed the respective principles. Although input reduction was not directly applied, many initiatives applied approaches to ensure dependence on agrichemical inputs did not increase. The thirteen principles of agroecology can be divided into three aspects of agroecology: 1) integrated natural farming, 2) circular economy and 3) social justice (van Dien & Fuchs, 2023). When all of the principles applied across the initiatives are pooled, these three aspects of AE are relatively evenly represented in the database (Figure 4). The most commonly addressed aspect among the reviewed projects was integrated natural farming, which represented 35.1% of all principles covered, followed by circular economy (32.8%) and social justice (32.1%).Projects and programs by NGOs, government organizations, charitable organizations, research organizations, and private companies formed the bulk of implemented initiatives. Many of these institutions are focused on sustainable agricultural development, and most on agriculture, economic growth, and food security broadly. These included local governments, federal ministries, and major international development organizations such as FAO and WFP. Several initiatives involved CGIAR institutions that focused on agricultural development outcomes and uptake of new technologies. A smaller number of initiatives involved organizations focused on natural resource conservation.Actor motives were not generally made explicit. However, we can see from the inventory that biodiversity, synergy, soil health, and economic diversification were priority areas of intervention among the actors implementing the initiatives in the inventory while input reduction and fairness was the least commonly covered principles. Social equity principles in general, fairness, social values and diets, and connectivity were not a common focus among implementing partners.Around 50% of all initiatives included in the inventory claimed to use a co-creation process. Key informants for each of the selected case study initiatives similarly mentioned that initiative design was done in consultation with different stakeholders or that field visits were conducted to understand the priorities of the target group, but none explicitly demonstrated a process where the initial design was done together with different stakeholders. The data suggest that actors were only consulted, and it is the project teams themselves that designed and planned interventions. This indicates that the initiatives employed a relaxed definition of co-creation that encompassed a consultative process without direct participation in design.The AVCD program was the only initiative that mentioned a specific strategy on involving stakeholders. Through meetings and workshops, it brought together senior county officials, international NGOs, and a local non-profit input provision company. As the project was funded by USAID, it followed the USAID policy on the journey to self-reliance (J2SR) which has the aim of supporting partner countries to lead their own development and to make use of and build on existing systems to achieve sustainable and long-term results.The behaviours that the case studies focused on targeted mainly farmers, and occasionally other value chain actors such as produce buyers and marketers, credit institutions, and policy makers such as county governments. Although most key informants could not provide explicit theories of change, most initiatives appeared to operate under the assumptions that farmers play a crucial role in AE transformation and should be the primary targets for behaviour change. As such, the targeted behavioural changes focused on AE production practices, such as transitioning from input intensive crop varieties to more resilient ones, using manure and crop residues, and practicing integrated pest management, permaculture, and shade-planting of coffee. Two projects (AVCD and ICE) promoted product aggregation and cooperatives as means for farmers to secure more income. Additionally, two projects (AVCD and ICE) aimed to change farmers' behaviours as food consumers by diversifying nutrition sources and incorporating indigenous food into diets. Noticeably, behavioural change related to diets targeted mostly women as current gender roles place women as the main care takers and the ones responsible for household chores such as cooking.Other agri-food system actors were a secondary focus of behaviour change. One case study initiative (KENDBIP) engaged with financial institutions to improve farmers' access to credit, and two worked with local input providers-KENDBIP with masons to produce biogas digesters, and ICE with local agrodealers around input supply. Another two initiatives (FOSEK and AVCD) engaged with product buyers/marketers to build linkages between producers and markets. Two initiatives (BIBA and ICE) also encouraged policy makers to start promoting and accepting agroecology in ministries and policies at the county level.Following review of the inventory, we identified four broad approaches that initiatives have taken to behaviour change: capacity enhancement; market level support for value addition and innovations; landscape level natural resource governance; policy level instruments and services.The KII revealed that awareness-raising campaigns, capacity building, and trainings were the most common activities implemented to achieve behaviour change objectives. For example, to improve farmers' diets, they were provided with training and awareness about local indigenous crops that are resilient to climate change. Media shows and SMS messages related to nutrition were especially targeted at women. Initiatives encouraged farmers to engage in the seedling business, promoted women's participation in the coffee sector and decision-making processes, and supported input reduction and organic farming practices as pathways to achieve desired change. Diversification of livelihoods was encouraged through awareness creation, community dialogues, and exchange visits.Notable was the focus of several initiatives on farmer-to-farmer learning through exchange programs and training-of-trainers (ToT) approaches. BIBA Kenya, for instance, leveraged champion farmers and ToTs to promote AE practices, while ICE organized farmer exchanges, community dialogues, and field days for peer learning.Outreach and awareness-raising tactics were employed for other agri-food system actors. For example, ICE and Biba promoted policy change by raising policymakers' awareness about AE's benefits and potential. Sensitization campaigns through media platforms and reports covering agroecology practices help involve the public in decision-making processes. Other mechanisms used was to involve religious leaders in sensitization efforts.Only one project, AVCD, had specific activities to diagnose which push and pull factors would be the most effective to change behaviours. A study conducted as part of the project identified barriers and opportunities to behaviour change and formed the basis for AVCD's social behaviour change communication approach. As part of the component dealing with climate resilient crops, TV cooking shows were introduced to raise awareness about the benefits of the crops and change the common perception of these crops as \"food for the poor\". The campaign was a way of raising the demand in pursuit of the accessing the dietary diversity of the beneficiaries.For the remaining projects, behaviour change pathways were not explicitly targeted through studies on push and pull factors but were rather developed from assumptions that a behaviour would change if capacity building was offered through trainings, farm visits, and ToT.including practical trainings such as demonstration activities, campaigns and field days; training courses; farmer to farmer exchange, Trainer of Trainers, village extension officers, etc.connecting small-scale producers and consumers via market linkages, sustainable value chain development, value addition activities, provison of market information systems, etc.Landscape level natural resource governance community learning and landscape-level adoption of nature-based solutions to sustain and enhance ecosystem services and secure equitable access to resources for vulnerable groups ,including through Community Forest Associations (CFAs), Water Resource Users Associations (WRUAs), youth groups, producer groups, integrated pest management, etc.enabling agroecology and sustainable food systems; food safety standards, etc.The inventory revealed that out of all the initiatives assessed, only eleven had a specific focus on women and/or youth. Out of the eleven projects, three initiatives exclusively catered to women, and one out of the three stressed gender transformative approaches. Limited engagement with diversity and inclusion considerations in these initiatives could be one of the contributing factors to the AE principle of fairness being underrepresented.The project focusing on gender transformative approaches stressed that as a first step, it is crucial to conduct workshops to challenge disempowering norms. According to the project, this is central to inclusive restoration. Case study initiatives showed varying levels of engagement with GESI concerns. Some focused primarily on engaging women as participants in activities and measuring gender-disaggregated behavioural outcomes (AVCD and KENDBIP). Other case study initiatives explicitly targeted youth and women, such as through youth trainings in partnership with 4K clubs in BIBA. FOSEK supported women and youth in setting up nursery businesses for income generation, but also to support availability of inputs. One initiative (FOSEK) went further and aimed to enhance women's participation in the traditionally male-dominated coffee production sector and men's wider participation in household reproductive through gender transformative training methods. Two initiatives (FOSEK and ICE) reported challenges in shifting gender dynamics due to norms around women's engagement in value chains.Two of the case study projects worked with people with special needs. In one case, this was not a strategic intervention but rather by coincidence as one of the farmer groups they cooperated with already worked with this marginalized group.Key informants from some case study initiatives reported that they achieved success in creating behaviour change by providing a wider range of support than just training. For example, one of the key factors contributing to the success of the AVCD project, as reported by a beneficiary, was the provision of a comprehensive support package. This package included various elements such as certified seeds, training on agricultural practices, field visits, and SMS information services for weather updates and other relevant information. KENDBIP also reported that financial incentives for farmers and training for local technicians was critical to initiative success.Another contributing factor to initiative success was attention to income generation, which was often tied to market linkages. A pivotal element of the FOSEK project's success was the strategic involvement of coffee marketers. FOSEK's approach involved a focus on both the supply side (farmers) and the demand side (marketers). Facilitating market linkages helped foster a stable and reliable market for coffee farmers and contributed to behaviour change. AVCD also sought to build farmers' linkages to markets, which played a crucial role in ensuring its success (ILRI 2021) by creating an income-based incentive for farmers to change their behaviors and to keep practicing the promoted techniques. BIBA, while not itself focused on market linkages, reported that growing consumer demand for safe food had played an important role in its success.Several key informants reported that leveraging local groups and social structures contributed to initiatives' success achieving behaviour change. This included using peer-to-peer learning to spread practices. Training of Trainers (ToT) and field/farm visits were identified as factors that contributed to the success of past initiatives, as they enabled valuable knowledge exchange and practical learning opportunities. In the context of the FOSEK project, working with TOTs using the farmer-to-farmer approach facilitated outreach to many farmers and helped ensure the sustainability of the project.Partnerships with local groups and service providers were also reported as a success factor. For instance, in the AVCD project, partnerships with agrovets and local seed suppliers enabled wider access to new technologies and services and therefore wider adoption of promoted practices. Similarly, KENDBIP prioritized training of local technical officers to continue spreading knowledge of biogas production. FOSEK found success in part by working through existing coffee cooperatives rather than individual farmers, and ICE reported that building long-term relationships with communities was important to its success.Limited co-design, or the collaborative design process involving multiple stakeholders, was identified as a factor contributing to initiatives' failure. Projects that lacked adequate co-design efforts were noted by key informants to have misalignment with stakeholder goals, insufficient engagement of relevant stakeholders, and limited ownership and commitment, leading to suboptimal outcomes. AVCD, for example, reported that limited co-design with farmers had led to some misalignment with their interests, while the lack of involvement of the private sector, which was echoed in the FOSEK project, limited knowledge sharing, financial opportunities, and the potential for sustainable outcomes.Some of the failure factors reported were linked to the appropriateness of promoted technologies and practices. Key informants for each of the five initiatives mentioned concerns related to climate appropriateness, high labour or financial requirements, and/or general farmer disinterest, indicating poor alignment between introduced innovations and producer needs. These failure factors again underscore the risks of limited co-design with producers.Inadequate support from relevant public and private institutions emerged as another factor limiting initiatives' success in creating behaviour change. The lack of timely and accessible extension services was mentioned as a barrier to the success of the AVCD project. Extension services play a vital role in providing farmers with up-to-date and relevant information, and the absence of such services limited the project's ability to deliver timely support and guidance. Misaligned policies and lack of support at higher levels were also identified as factors contributing to failure. Without supportive policies and adequate backing from higher-level institutions, agroecology initiatives may face challenges in terms of resource allocation, institutional coordination, and long-term sustainability. BIBA, for example, reported that fertilizer subsidies and opposition from industry were challenges in generating wider support for organic agriculture. The respondent from ICE also reported that government policies discouraged seed saving.The inventory of agroecology initiatives in Makueni and Kiambu counties in Kenya over the past ten years reveals that a diversity of behaviour change interventions have been implemented to promote agroecological practices and address the underlying issues in food and agricultural systems. However, evaluation of projects reveals several patterns. Firstly, although the majority of projects incorporate agroecological activities, there is a lack of explicit mention of agroecology as an approach in the project documents. This lack of acknowledgment may hinder the recognition of agroecology's potential in transforming agricultural practices and natural resource management. Additionally, while biodiversity, synergy, soil health, economic diversification, cocreation of knowledge and land and natural resource governance were identified as priority areas of past interventions, some other principles such as input reduction, animal health, and fairness have historically received less focus.Second, gender equality and the inclusion of marginalized populations were sporadically incorporated in project activities, indicating a need for specific targeting and investment in these areas. To ensure social justice and inclusive development, it is necessary to prioritize the incorporation of gender equality measures and consider marginalized groups beyond women and youth. Furthermore, targeting women alone for nutrition trainings risks reinforcing the gender roles rather than transforming them, which could be achieved along with sustained behaviour change by targeting both women and men for nutrition outcomes.The inventory and in-depth review of five case study initiatives provided important insights that can help guide AE-I implementation in Kenya to achieve and sustain behaviour changes that support AE transition.1. Prioritize co-design processes. Over 50% of the initiatives claim to involve a co-creation process with various stakeholders. However, the data suggests that the design and planning of projects were primarily done by the project teams themselves, indicating room for improvement in involving stakeholders in the initial design phase. Key informant reports from all case studies that promoted practices were not well-suited to local climates, production conditions, or farmer preferences all underscore that co-design processes with producers were inadequate. Two initiatives further reported that co-design with product buyers/markets was inadequate to ensure their buy-in.2. Focus on social inclusion. GESI was infrequently addressed among initiatives, both in the inventory and among the case studies. Even some of the case study initiatives that targeted women struggled against social norms that limited their control over household processes, involvement in project activities, and leadership in cooperatives. These challenges suggest the need to focus on shifting gender norms in ways that create space for women, youth, and other marginalized groups to benefit from future initiatives.3. Focus on entry points to change beyond farming trainings, especially market linkages and policies. Several initiatives attributed success in creating behaviour change to multi-dimensional interventions that went beyond farmer trainings. Some provided inputs and support to farmers. Especially important in two initiatives were linkages with markets that provided farmers with a source of income and incentive for long-term behaviour change. In addition, several initiatives illustrated how institutions and policies that are weak or unsupportive can undermine progress achieving behaviour change. In summary, to enhance the effectiveness of these projects, it is crucial to work in partnership with local institutions, engage in co-design with diverse stakeholders, and pair trainings and awareness-raising with other interventions targeting support institutions, policies, and market linkages.","tokenCount":"4259"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c8f6350a5d2260ef0f30f63812a77013","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cb478c9b-17cb-49ab-8c2f-ef0fefadb598/retrieve","id":"2017656730"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2715902e-370a-4fab-86a6-22767e235b3e","pagecount":"4","content":"Cover Participatory meeting on post-harvest handling as part of the Singida project. Every member was allowed to ask and present their views to clarify and develop a way forward (Photo: Anthon Mtui) I n a nutshell, experience capitalization is about making implicit knowledge explicit and sharing this knowledge widely. In the Kigali workshop, we became familiar with some of the theory, and at this point we were eager to learn how to put it into practice.Fortunately the workshop was not just theoretical, but about actually starting your own experience capitalization process. The first step was to select an experience of your own. I needed to select an experience that I knew very well, for which there was sufficient information, and for which there was potential to draw useful and relevant lessons from.I decided to document our experience, working as service provider for the Singida project in central Tanzania. For this project, I was the team leader in Manyoni District. The Singida project was about empowering producers and strengthening market linkages. This was mainly done through improving productivity and post-harvest handling, and by improving households' access to capital. It ran from 2015 to 2017, and was part of a larger project on marketing, infrastructure, value addition and rural finance (MIVARF) funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).As project leader, I knew a lot about this project, and I was responsible for writing regular progress reports. I felt I had some important lessons to share on how we were managing to improve the production of sunflowers, and improve market access and fair shares for smallholders. Furthermore, as the project had had positive results so far, I thought it would not be hard to find motivated participants to take part in the experience capitalization process.In the next part of the workshop, I had to describe the project in detail, so I looked into everything which was done so far, the results achieved and the main difficulties faced. Although I had to focus on my own case, it was good that we were there together as a group. We could discuss and give each other suggestions.One of my challenges was that we had so many different activities in the Singida project. For example, we brought together key players like producers, processors, buyers, government officials, and financial institutions, and set up a forum committee who were actively involved in the activities of the project. To improve farming practices, we organised \"farmer field schools\",In 2017 I was invited to participate in an experience capitalization workshop organised by CTA in Kigali. I had no clue what experience capitalization was about, and what I could gain from it. When I arrived in Kigali, I found out that I was not the only one.negatively. In these meetings, we also discussed the best ways of sharing the experience once it is written down as a story.In the second workshop, in Arusha, we discussed our progress with the process of experience capitalization. It was useful that we had each managed to describe and analyse our experiences beforehand. We were ready to write. We learned more about documenting (writing, editing), and we thought about how to go about using the lessons learned from the experience in the future. Furthermore, we discussed our sharing strategies and talked about how to mainstream the experience capitalization processes in our own organisations. It turned out that I was not alone in having enthusiastically returned from Kigali to share my first lessons on experience capitalization with my management team and colleagues.The workshop gave me the confidence to draft a first story of my experience. I e-mailed it to my colleagues, who quickly gave me their feedback. I also sent my story to the workshop facilitators for their comments. When the article was finished, I shared it with the project stakeholders, including local politicians. In order to reach a broader audience, I am planning to publish the article in an international journal, as well as in a couple of Tanzania's newspapers.Besides these ambitious plans for my first story, I am working with my colleagues to get to work on documenting their experiences. I will facilitate this process and we are now trying to set up a knowledge sharing centre in the focal area of the project.where \"lead farmers\" who practiced new approaches, transferred their skills and experiences to fellow farmers. To reduce post-harvest losses, we set up a warehouse, with a corresponding warehouse receipt system. To improve sales, we organised collective marketing in producer groups. It was difficult to describe so many activities but the progress reports I had written previously, and my memory, helped with this part of the process. The next step in the workshop was the analysis, in which I had to dig a bit deeper. Why did things go wrong? And why did other things succeed? For example, some stakeholders were reluctant to be involved in the forum committee. We found out that it was because no allowances were paid. However, in the end it turned out to be positive not to pay allowances, as only the most enthusiastic people became involved. Another example is that we learned that it was very important to involve local leaders and local processors to gain farmers' confidence for the cooperative approach we wanted to use. Their involvement helped a lot in gaining the farmers' trust.At the end of the workshop, I had a good description and analysis of my experience. However, I still wanted to add more information from other stakeholders, share it with my colleagues for their input, and verify the recommendations and conclusions.At home, while preparing for the follow-up workshop in Arusha, I tried to collect more information from the farmers, the processors, and my two colleagues with whom I worked on the project. I did most of this in face-to-face meetings where I started by explaining the goal of the experience capitalization process. After this introduction, I collected their views on why things turned out positively or Why only stick to documenting our experiences at work, we can gain a lot from also keeping track of the lessons learned from life in general!","tokenCount":"1021"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f15edf924f5552aa7361c1a43e6c4f92","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a7fae9bb-62d1-42df-b5bf-1220dde4e922/retrieve","id":"866557880"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"85c12d8e-37e3-4c10-aaea-744cdd03fca5","pagecount":"29","content":"The Innovation for Africa Climate Risk Insurance (InACRI) aimed at addressing some of the demand side barriers (for example acceptability, access, liquidity, and basis risk) and supply side barriers (for example high administration, monitoring and loss verification costs) to adoption of indexbased crop insurance by small-scale farmers (for a detailed review see for example Platteau et al., 2017), through designing a product tailored to meet the needs and preferences of the farmers. To achieve the objective, a farmer needs assessment regarding risk management and crop insurance was conducted first through a household survey and second, through a lab-in-the-field experiment to determine the farmers' level of awareness about-, and preferences for insurance (for details from the needs assessment see Muriithi et al., 2022). Among the many lessons learnt from these exercises was that albeit the high interest farmers had in crop insurance, many of them were ill-informed about crop insurance; what it is, how it works, actors in the crop insurance space, and the pros and cons of insuring one's crops. This finding corroborates many other studies that highlight lack of knowledge (good understanding) on crop insurance as one of the main barriers to adoption by small-scale farmers (see for example Cole et al., 2013). To address this important gap, the INACRI project partners under the leadership of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) designed training manuals for both farmers (farmers' manual) and technical people (trainers' manual), that would be used to enhance farmers' understanding of crop insurance as one strategy of enhancing demand for insurance. Evidence has shown that improving farmers' understanding of crop insurance can increase adoption (Lampe & Würtenberger, 2020). The manuals were designed through a participatory process (example of such a process see Mwongera et al., 2014)-the technical team collated and synthesized the content, which was then scrutinized, revised, and validated by stakeholders in a workshop. The main goal of the manuals was to capture fundamental concepts about crop insurance not considered in existing crop insurance manuals, simplify concepts to levels easily understandable by small-scale farmers, and demystify crop insurance as a risk management tool.Both manuals are centered around risk in agriculture (types of risks, and risk attributes), risk management (what it is and associated strategies), and crop insurance (what it is, basic concepts, types of insurance, and its role in managing agricultural risks). A good understanding of crop insurance requires a good understanding of both agricultural risks, and the gains from effective management of the risks. The trainer's manual aims not only to elaborate concepts but also explain how the concepts should be presented to the farmers to enhance understanding. The farmer's manual is tailored to accommodate typical small-scale farmers in developing countries, characterized by low literacy levels.Educated farmers can use either the trainer's or farmer's manual. This documents the effectiveness of using the manuals in enhancing farmers' knowledge of indexinsurance. The training exercise was a joint effort of the INACRI project and the Accelerating the Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project. In its quest to increase adoption of climate smart agriculture technologies, the AICCRA project has four main priorities namely knowledge sharing, building partnerships, scaling innovations, and fostering gender and social inclusion. In the following sections of the report, we describe the approach we used to undertake the training. The training was conducted in Meru County, one of the semi-arid and arid counties of Kenya-some subcounties for example Igembe are highly exposed to drought, meaning that food insecurity in such subcounties is also high. Other than enhancing the farmers' knowledge of crop insurance, the training exercise also aimed at building the capacity of local people in undertaking effective training on crop insurance.This report is organized as follows. In section 2, we describe the approach we used in the training highlighting the selection, composition of both farmers and trainers, and the hands-on activities done in the training. In section 3, we present the strategy we used to assess the impact of the training. In section 4, we present the findings and conclude in section 5.We leverage on two main gains through building the capacity of local people: i) their ability to speak the local language, ii) proximity with the farmers, which means continued correspondence between trainers and the farmers, and iii) likelihood to foster credibility/trustworthiness, meaning that farmers are likely to perceive the information as reliable. Evidence has shown that the source of information influences credibility of the information (Van Campenhout, 2021).The local trainers comprised both men and women randomly selected from a pool of field assistants who had worked with CIAT before. The trainers had at least a degree/diploma in agricultural or agricultural related fields, and vast experience in data collection (the field assistant received a rigorous training in previous data collection exercises with CIAT), and a good knowledge of the local culture, social dynamics, and the county's agricultural sector. The experience and knowledge of the local social and cultural structures were important enablers of effective communication and training.The farmers involved in this training were randomly selected from the pool of farmers involved in the needs assessment and the lab-in-the-field experiment under the INACRI project. The INACRI farmers were randomly selected from all the 9 sub-counties of Meru (Imenti Central, Imenti South, Imenti North, Buuri, Tigania East, Tigania West, Igembe Central, Igembe South, and Igembe North) for representativeness. Important to note is that the sub-counties represent different production systems and agricultural risk management priorities and needs. For the training, we purposefully selected 4 centrally placed training \"stations\" in Buuri, Imenti Central, Tigania East, and Igembe Central, though farmers we selected from all the sub-counties. 30 farmers were selected for each station, 120 in total for the 4 stations. The selected farmers were informed about the training a week prior to the training.The trainers were trained for four days on both manuals. The training ended 2 days prior to the start of the farmers' training to ensure that the trainers delivered the information clearly-evidence has shown that the effect of informational interventions fades with time (Bailey et al., 2020). The goal of the trainers training was to: i) enable the trainers to understand concepts related to agricultural risks, and agricultural risk management, ii) enable the trainers understand what crop insurance is, how it works, and its role in risk management, iii) and most importantly to enhance their capacity to train farmers on crop insurance as well as for the training team to gain insights on how to improve the farmer training-co-learning (Marinus et al., 2021). To achieve this goal, we used a mix of training approaches (lectures, discussions, and hands-on activities) to train the farmers. From Dale's cone of experience (Dale, 1946), the rate at which people accumulate knowledge depends on the learning style, where learning through verbal symbols (words, and the usual narration extension) is at the top of the pyramid and learning through experience at the bottom. For this reason, we crafted some of the concepts in the training manuals into hands-on activities and tasks to enhance experiential learning.Each day of the training was dedicated to a specific topic/concept. Day 1 covered agricultural risks, day 2 covered agricultural risk management, and day 3 covered crop insurance. Day 4 was spent recapping the three main topics from the previous training days, and training the trainers on the farmer training modalities, the hands-on activities, and how to respond to any questions from the farmers. The trainers trained in trios; one lead trainer, and two assistant trainers. The main training points for the trainers were as highlighted below. The key messages to the trainers/and farmers:1. Agricultural risks a. Farmers face many risks (production, financial, institutional, personal, market, technological). (For more details see Komarek et al., 2020). b. Risks cause harm (i.e., reduce yields, threaten livelihoods, harm the environment) (D'alessandro et al., 2015).   The key messages to the trainer (and farmers) a. Agricultural risk management refers to all the activities done to either adapt, cope, avoid, reduce the impact of risks, or the frequency of the risk.b. There are several risk management strategies for agricultural risks. These strategies can be onfarm, or market-based. They can also be ex-ante or ex-post. c. There is no silver bullet for risk management. e. Farmers should be keen when selecting an insurance product. Remember that the goal of this training is to enhance the understanding of small-scale farmers on crop insurance. You will conduct the training mainly in the local language, or Kiswahili in some cases where some concepts may not have translations in the local language.  Ensure that all farmers understand the concepts. Be patient with farmers who may not understand as fast as others. In some cases, ask farmers who have understood concepts to explain to the rest who have not. This fosters farmer participation in the sessions. The idea is to make the sessions as engaging and interesting as possible. Ask farmers questions to jog their minds, and to keep them engaged. Sometimes you may need to engage them in some physical activities to re-invigorate them. Break concepts into short sessions where possible, to give farmers time to reflect. Coordinate well with fellow trainers. One trainer will be the lead in, for example facilitating the sessions. The other trainers will support in for instance taking notes, responding to questions, ensuring that the concepts are clearly presented by the lead trainer, and managing time (e.g., informing lead trainer when participants should have a break or go for lunch). The role of the assistant trainer is also to make sure that the lead trainer has explained all the concepts in the main manual and facilitated all the activities as explained in the training. A mock presentation to ensure that the trainers understand all the aspects and dimensions of the training. The outcome of interest is knowledge. We measured knowledge as the total score of questions answered correctly out of the 9 questions we asked the farmers before and after the training. This approach is widely used (see for example De Brauw et al., 2018;Shikuku et al., 2019). Though the approach of assessing knowledge retention immediately after the intervention reduces the likelihood of spillovers and the effect of other factors other than the intervention, the downside of it is that it doesn't account for factors that lead to information \"fade-out\". This has implications on the use of the attained knowledge as we discuss in the results section. We assign the questions equal weights-for each question answered correctly, the farmer got one point (see equation 1), where \uD835\uDC3E \uD835\uDC56 is the knowledge for farmer i at point j (either before or after), and x is a vector of the questions (see all questions in annex 1).In total, a farmer would score 22 points. Since the intervention was not a pure experiment in that we did not have a pure control group, impact in this case is the difference in the knowledge mean before and after the training as in equation 2, where ∆\uD835\uDC3E \uD835\uDC56 is the change in knowledge for farmer i, and \uD835\uDC3E \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC34 and \uD835\uDC3E \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC35 are the knowledge scores for farmer i after and before the training respectively.The difference in equation 2 is a single difference, which does not address confoundedness as in difference-in-difference estimation (Asian Development Bank, 2004), implying that our measure is indicative rather than actual impact. Nevertheless, as we highlighted earlier, the short time lag between the before and after measurement of knowledge reduces the likelihood of other factors other than the training affecting knowledge.Lastly, we assess whether the association between the training and knowledge is significant by estimating equation 3 using a linear mixed effects model (equation 3), which considers the repeated nature of the dependent variable (i.e., knowledge measured before and after the training for the same farmer) 1 .\uD835\uDC3E \uD835\uDC56 is knowledge before or after the training, \uD835\uDEFC is the mean of knowledge before the training, \uD835\uDEFD 1 is the effect of the training on knowledge, \uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC56 is a vector of covariates, and \uD835\uDC52 \uD835\uDC56 is an error term.Many of the farmers who attended the training had on average 22 years of farming experience (see table 1). Farm sizes were about 3 acres on average, with farmers from Imenti having the smallest average farm size. Overall, many of the farmers were over 46 years old; farmers from Buuri were slightly younger since only 53% were above 46 years. The dominance of older people reflects the situation at the national level. The average age of a farmer in Kenya is 60 years (MoAL&I, 2019).Many of the farmers (63%) practice agriculture only as the main economic activity, which underscores the important role that the agricultural sector plays in the economy of Meru and Kenya in general.Lastly, more than half (54%) of all the trained farmers had a primary level education and below. Low literacy levels are likely to correlate negatively with understanding and knowledge accumulation, and ultimately technology adoption. ), sex (male, female), education (primary education and below, above primary education), and occupation (farming only, farming plus formal employment, farming plus other occupations, farming plus business, farming plus informal employment)). Out of the 120 farmers invited, 103 turned up for the training. Three farmers were invited by their neighbors to the training. We did not have demographic data for the 3 farmers.Analysis of knowledge scores before and after the training shows that farmers answered 18 questions correctly on average before the training, with no difference across training stations (see table 2). The high overall knowledge score before the training can be linked to the earlier exposure of the farmers to index insurance. After the training, farmers answered 20 questions correctly on average-an improvement of 2 questions from the mean score before the training. More rigorous studies assessing effectiveness of training farmers in workshops find a significant positive effect on knowledge (for example Marinus et al., 2021). We further assess whether the positive association between the training is significant using the analysis of variance (anova), which is analogous to a standard t-test (see figure 6). The results show that the association is strongly significant, an indication that the training influenced knowledge even though the farmers were already well knowledgeable about index insurance. We speculate that the use of our approach is likely to result in greater changes in knowledge in cases where farmers don't have prior knowledge about (exposure to) index insurance.A similar assessment of knowledge between men and women shows no difference in knowledge between men and women before and after the training (see figure 7), which is in line with other studies (see for example BenYishay et al., 2020). We conduct the regression analysis to assess the association between farm size, age, education, and years of farming experience with knowledge. We find no association between the knowledge scores and farm size and years of farming experience (table 3). We find a weak negative association between knowledge score and being more than 55 years and old. The significant intercept is an indication that there are other factors we did not look at in our analysis that influence knowledge.  Significance: *** = p < 0.001; ** = p < 0.01; * = p < 0.05In this report, we have described a training strategy we used to train farmers in Meru County and tested its effectiveness in enhancing farmers' knowledge about index insurance. We used 8 local trainers to train 103 farmers randomly selected from a pool of 1333 farmers initially drawn from all the subcounties of Meru County for the INACRI project. We found a significant positive association between farmers' knowledge about index insurance and the training even though the farmers already had exposure to index insurance. We do not find evidence for a knowledge gap between men and women before and after the training, unlike the conventional understanding that lack of information is more rampart in women than men, which means that men and women can gain information equally when the information is packaged in a manner that addresses barriers to learning such as language.Though our findings are plausible since they align with some earlier studies, our study had some limitations. First, we did not have a comparison group, and second, the intervention was not purely random, which means that we cannot claim that training caused the change in knowledge. Third, we had a small sample size which may not be representative, and lastly, we only looked at knowledge at a single point-we never assessed information retention by the farmers, and whether the training influenced farmer decisions. More rigorous studies should fill the mentioned knowledge gaps. The training touched on agricultural risk management and the strategies used to prevent, cope, and mitigate the risks. The strategies could be for on-farm, market, and ex-post.Farmers wanted to know how best to manage pests.Digging a pit, laying grass, putting potatoes, and covering with soil as a storage method.Use of yellow stickers dipped in grease as a way of baiting pests.Encourage the formation of groups to access soil testing services at affordable prices to ensure their soils are healthy.Bee keeping in forested areas to protect crops against elephants and buffalos.Conducting soil treatment using locally available resources to decrease the use of pesticides Activity 3: Crop insuranceActivity dates 25 th July 2023The farmers were taken through the fundamentals of insurance, its benefits, process of taking up the cover, types of insurance covers, and what to look for in a policy document.Names and locations of insurance companies offering crop insurance.How loss assessment and verification is done for index insurance.Farmers noted that though some of them had bought crop insurance they still didn't know the processes of taking up a crop insurance cover and what they should be looking for in the policy document. Farmers appreciated the insurance journey.Farmers suggested for a session/workshop that looked at insurance in detail.They also suggested that more farmers should receive the training they received. The training touched on agricultural risk management and the strategies used to prevent, cope, and mitigate the risks. The strategies could be for on-farm, market, and ex-post.In this training station, farmers also wanted to know alternative strategies for managing pests (Note: pests and diseases, and drought were identified as the most problematic risks in Meru County).Prioritized risk management strategies from the hands-on activity included: Storing produce to sell when prices are good. Selling directly to consumers instead of brokers  Product \"diversification\" (i.e., sorting, and charging more for high quality produce). Purchasing seeds early enough when prices are low  Working as groups to reduce labour costs Activity 3: Crop insuranceTalk about crop insurance Activity dates 28 th July 2023The farmers were taken through the fundamentals of insurance, its benefits, the process of taking up the cover, types of insurance covers, and what to look for in a policy document. They asked whether there is insurance for khat/miraa. The training touched on agricultural risk management and the strategies used to prevent, cope, and mitigate the risks. The strategies could be for on-farm, market, and ex-post.Farmers wanted to know the best methods for seed preservation Risk management strategies identified  Treating seeds with paraffin and batteries before planting to prevent control soil-borne diseases  Proper storage practices (e.g., using airtight tanks)  Using a mixture of tobacco, red pepper and Sodom apple to control pests Discover more at https://aiccra.cgiar.org/","tokenCount":"3211"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8647542e3f12f9c600e16747aac52ce8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ab588060-bb17-47ce-ac38-c08f0dcf93e7/retrieve","id":"-620481773"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"61c8409f-ded5-4cc3-9436-f3dc183604b0","pagecount":"4","content":"Recommendations: Summary R.J. Delve,* M.E. Probert † and J.P. Dimes §The purpose of the project 'Integrated nutrient management in tropical cropping systems: improved capabilities in modelling and recommendations' (ACIAR Project no. LWR2/1999/03) was to test and enhance a modelling capability that can be applied to farming systems where both organic and inorganic sources of nutrients are used. In tropical regions, organic materials are often more important for maintenance of soil fertility than fertilisers, yet current fertiliser recommendations and most crop models are unable to take account of the organic inputs and the different qualities of these organic inputs used by farmers.When the project commenced, simulation modelling had a limited ability to predict the effects on soil processes and crop growth of organic sources that differed in 'quality'. APSIM was chosen because it had draft modules to describe the release of nutrients (both nitrogen and phosphorus) from manures (Manure module) and the dynamics of P in soil (SoilP module), and it contained routines to limit crop growth under conditions of water, N and P stress. At the start of the project, these modules were largely untested. The project tested, and where necessary improved, the APSIM Manure and SoilP modules, so that they can be applied to the management of soil fertility, especially in low-input systems in the tropics.Resource-poor farmers regularly make decisions on the use of scarce nutrient sources in crop-livestock production systems. The decisions made generally reflect farmer experience (of expected returns) and livelihood preferences. However, for resource-poor farmers, 'experience' is often limited by the feasibility and capability of the farmer to experiment with alternative management practices. In the case of allocating animal manure for crop production, this decision is usually taken with limited knowledge of the impact of the potential of alternative uses on plant production and soil and water resources. A deeper understanding of the comparative values and usefulness of manures and other locally available resources and sources of P would help fill such knowledge gaps, offering the possibility for increased production and efficiency of mixed crop-livestock systems. While efforts are required to expand our knowledge of the biophysical aspects of alternative uses of organic nutrient sources, similar efforts are also required on the socioeconomic driving forces behind farmers' decision-making.N content or C:N ratio are the primary indicators of decomposition and N release across a range of plant materials of different quality. However, other parameters (such as lignin and polyphenolics) are needed to explain the variation observed in N mineralisation studies.Measurements for assessing plant resource quality include an extensive array of proximate analyses (lignin, acid-detergent fibre (ADF), total soluble polyphenolics, and a variety of condensed tannins). Decomposition is determined by the combination of these different factors. Indirect methods that can serve as 'integrative measures' of resource quality are discussed in Section 3 of these proceedings. These include aerobic decomposition, near infrared reflectometry (NIR) and in vitro dry matter digestibility. Results from these integrative methods correlated well with mineralisation rates estimated in the traditional leaching tube experiment and have the potential to predict this laboratory estimation of resource quality.From this cross-method analysis, the minimum data set to assess organic resource quality consists of N, lignin, and soluble polyphenol content. This finding is consistent with conclusions from earlier efforts. Considerations of cost and speed also need to be compared where more than one method is available. Aerobic incubations are one of the cheapest but slowest methods, whereas NIR is the fastest. Although NIR instrumentation is expensive to set up, for routine analysis of many samples it could become cost effective. Construction of spectral calibration libraries in centralised laboratory facilities would greatly increase the efficiency of NIRS use for routine organic resource characterisation in laboratories and dramatically reduce the costs of such analyses.Existing laboratory incubation experiments and SWNM network trials in East and southern Africa situated in diverse agro-ecological zones and soil types were used to test the manure module (see Section 4). The field experiments used manures of differing quality and combined organic and inorganic sources of N. These trials provided data on the short and long-term effects on nitrogen availability, soil organic matter and crop production -information that is necessary for testing APSIM and to provide the insights needed for making any modifications to APSIM.Initially, as in other models of soil organic matter turnover, the model assumed that the soil organic matter pools (BIOM and HUM) have C:N ratios that are unchanging during the decomposition process. Additions of fresh organic matter (FOM) are considered to comprise three pools (FPOOLs): the carbohydrate-like, cellulose-like and lignin-like fractions.Each FPOOL has its own rate of decomposition, which is modified by factors to allow for effects of soil temperature and soil moisture. Although the three fractions have different rates of decomposition, they did not have different compositions in terms of C and N content. During this project we concluded that, to simulate release of N from diverse sources of manure, the model could match observed short-term release patterns only if the pools had different C:N ratios. This insight came from the results of laboratory studies that showed variable N-release patterns depending on the C:N ratio of the soluble fraction of the manures (Probert et al., these proceedings). The APSIM Manure module has been modified so that the pools can now be specified to have different C:N ratios. This enabled the effects of different qualities of organic resources on N-mineralisation patterns to be simulated in accordance with observed responses, especially during periods immediately following manure application.The SoilP and modified maize modules that existed when the project commenced explored the feasibility that it might be possible to include P-stress as a limitation to growth in APSIM crop models. During this project, as it became clear that that was indeed feasible, two significant advances were made.Firstly, the P status of the crop had been considered only on a whole plant basis. This is not consistent with how N is modelled in the APSIM crop modules; in particular, it is far from ideal when a sequence of crops is to be simulated (for example, how to handle P in residues at harvest?). The development was to simulate the partitioning of P to different plant components (leaf, stem, flower, grain, root) throughout the life of the crop. A consequence of this development is that the data requirements for specifying the P dynamics in the crop are much greater, because P concentrations in the various plant components need to be described. A new parameter set (specifying P concentrations and stresses) was created for maize (based on results from an earlier experiment at Katumani -ACIAR Project no. 8326).The second improvement was in the P-uptake routine. In the prototype, this was directly related to the amount of labile P in a soil layer. Current understanding suggests it ought to be related to the P concentration in solution at the root interface. A new routine was introduced into the code and 'tuned' to the Katumani experiment. Testing against other data sets (particularly that from Maseno on a very different soil with much higher P sorption characteristics, and from Machang'a) showed that the new uptake routine and parameter set was transferable.Having shown that the model could simulate P-deficient maize, the P routines were put into an APSIM crop template so that, in principle, any model using the template can be P-aware, provided the necessary parameter set exists to define P concentration in the plant and the effects of P stress on the plant growth processes.The initialisation of the APSIM SoilP module requires inputs for labile P and P sorption on a soil layer basis. In this project, labile P has been identified with bicarbonate extractable P (Olsen P), though further testing on a wider range of soils is needed. It is unlikely that there is a 1:1 fit between the conceptual labile P of the model and any soil P test. The measure of 'P sorption' used is the amount of P sorbed at 0.2 mg L -1 .For model-testing purposes, the only additional crop variables beyond those needed to validate the N and water routines would be P concentrations in plant components and P uptake. The parameter set required to make a crop model 'P-aware' comprises values for the maximum, minimum and senesced P concentration in the different plant components through the growth cycle of the crop, together with factors specifying how P stress affects photosynthesis, leaf expansion and phenology.Unfortunately, during the project, no data set from Latin America, Africa or Asia contained all the required data to thoroughly evaluate the model. Ideally, for testing the ability of the SoilP module to simulate effects of P on crop growth, one would want to look at crop growth (yields, phenology, leaf area, nutrient uptake), soil water and rooting depth, mineral N in soil, soil P test values and, in a long-term experiment, soil organic matter. To address this, ongoing fieldwork in Latin America will be used for further testing of the model.None of the data sets explicitly addressed the effectiveness of P in organic sources. In the model, mineralisation of P is simulated in a similar manner to N and will be determined by the C:P ratios of the substrate and the soil organic matter being synthesised. Using typical values for C:P in soil microbial biomass of 10-35, leads to the inference that net P mineralisation from an organic source would require a C:P of less than 100 (i.e. a P concentration of greater than 0.4% in tissue). This does not conform with published data. The cause of the disparity is again thought to lie in the C:P ratio not remaining constant during decomposition. For P, the watersoluble fraction has a much lower C:P ratio than the total C:P. Therefore, in the enhanced SoilP module the release of plant-available P from organic inputs depends on the FPools having different C:P ratios.Long-term experiments covering a range of soil types were identified by project collaborators in East and West Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, and were used to test the new APSIM modules for predicting nutrient release and plant growth under field conditions. Results show that the model performed well across a wide range of applications, from simulation of N and P supply to crops where P constraints were more severe than N, to long-term P and C dynamics, and for crop responses to different rates and qualities of manures, responses to inorganic and manure combinations, and residual benefits of manure.Using the long-term data for the Machang'a experiment, the model was shown to accurately predict crop responses to inputs of manure or fertiliser, while the predicted dynamics of labile P in soil were similar to the measured Olsen P data. Of course, none of these simulations was perfect, and discrepancies between observed and predicted data were reported. Notably for the Maseno data set, where soil P was determined irregularly (and soon after fertiliser application), the agreement between observed and predicted values was poor. In some cases, the lack of fit between model and observed data will arise from limitations in the modelling capability, e.g. there are effects of manures other than N and P that cannot be modelled. In other cases, the discrepancies are due to our poor understanding of the observed responses, which limits our interpretation.Generally, experiments, especially long-term ones, are not established with model validation or development in mind. This project used existing long-term experiments from East and West Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia and, of course, found some shortcomings in the available data. While this did not hamper model development, it has prevented the evaluation of model performance from being as thorough as one might like. Accordingly, new experimentation was established during this project in Latin America, to overcome these data constraints and for further testing of APSIM.The 'P-aware' maize model was a major breakthrough in our thinking of how to explicitly reflect soil P dynamics and especially P limitations in crop simulations. There is a clear need to apply the new capability to other crops. During this project, fieldwork was initiated to conduct experiments that would permit parameter sets to be assembled. This work was co-funded from other projects. The crops being studied are cowpea and millet (funded by IFDC in West Africa), pigeonpea, groundnut and sorghum (funded by DFID and ICRISAT in India), and canola (funded by CSIRO in Australia).Many of the soils in Africa and Latin America are P-fixing and/or P deficient, and these projects are now contributing further modelling capability for P dynamics in these farming systems. The SoilP module developed and evaluated within this project has provided the opportunity for these other projects to proceed, and this is a major outcome and one measure of the project's success.The ACIAR-funded project LWR2/1999/03 developed a unique capability in simulation modelling by introducing the ability to have crops respond to P constraints and to model N and P dynamics following addition of manures of different quality. There remains a need to test these routines against a wider suite of data sets, especially for a wider range of cropping systems and soil types.The external review team made several recommendations about follow-up activities with project partners. In the short and medium terms, these were to: 1. generate a few high-quality contrasting data sets for validation 2. refine and publish the data collection protocols for others to use 3. start working with end users including farmers to utilise model outputs. A two-year project extension has since been funded by ACIAR to address the first two recommendations and, at the same time, strengthen the skills of current APSIM users in the project. The major components of this extension are as follows: 1. The N and P capabilities of the APSIM Manure and SoilP modules are being further tested against existing data sets in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Field studies established during the project were designed to provide a comprehensive data set for testing of the SoilP module and the P routines in the maize module. These studies are still in progress. 2. As part of the testing activities above, researchers from Latin America and Southeast Asia would be exposed to the use of the APSIM model and how it might be applied in the carrying out of their research activities and in extending, to the farming community, the results of their research. Training in the use of APSIM for the partners would be a component of this activity. 3. The data collection protocols for manure characterisation are being refined and published, so future researchers collect data that are appropriate to Manure module use. Also, the minimum data set protocols for APSIM are being updated.","tokenCount":"2432"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"34ca15a367294de29b5e3d6661fb472f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1a31b0bb-073b-4009-bac1-57fbedd6c2b7/retrieve","id":"-257323634"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f6c3bc8f-60d2-450a-99e3-c72f707fb112","pagecount":"8","content":"Sediments are inorganic materials produced by the weathering and erosion of rocks and soils. They are carried in rivers as either fine sediments carried by water (suspended load) or coarse 'bedload' (larger sediment fragments that generally move along the bottom of the riverbed) (Mekong River Commission, 2011:43). In a 'natural' river, habitat and species composition are strongly influenced by sediments (MRC, 2011:43;WCD, 2000:78). Between one-and two-thirds of a river's nitrogen and phosphorus content are attached to fine sediments (MRC, 2011: 43), and nitrogen and phosphorus are essential to ecosystem health and biodiversity.The amount of sediment transported by a river (the sediment load) is lowest during the dry season and highest during the first months of the flood season, when loose sediments weathered during the dry season are washed into rivers (MRC, 2010). Sediment load is also influenced by population growth, land clearance, land-use change, reservoir construction and other infrastructural development (Walling, 2008). The two major sources of sediment in the Mekong River basin are the Lancang sub-basin and the '3S' area, which includes the Mekong tributary rivers Se Kong, Se San and Sre Pok. These two sources are thought to produce approximately 70 percent of the sediment found in the Mekong River (Kummu et al., 2010;Clift et al., 2004;MRC, 2010).Sediment data for the Mekong is difficult to obtain and there is no definitive study on how much sediment is transported through the system (Kummu and Varis, 2007;Kummu et al., 2010). Sediment data down to Pakse is relatively good, and estimates range between 150 and170 million tons; but it is not well understood how much sediment is trapped by the floodplains downstream from Pakse (Kummu and Varis, 2007;Liu et al. 2013).A river's energy, and therefore its capacity to carry sediment, is determined by the flow and speed of the river. When a river slows down, such as when it enters a reservoir, it drops suspended sediment or loses its capacity to move heavier sediments. The physical barrier created by dams results in sediment 'trapping' behind dam walls (MRC, 2009;Morris and Fan, 1997;Thorne et al., 2011;Fu et al., 2008).Sedimentation is a serious concern for dam planners and engineers, as it reduces reservoir storage capacity. If left unchecked, it will eventually cancel out the dam's capacity to regulate water flow and supply, thereby negating many of its intended benefits, be they for hydropower, irrigation, recreation or other purposes (Morris and Fan, 1997;Thorne et al., 2011;Vörösmarty et al., 1997).Dam builders try to compensate for sediment trapping by ensuring that there is enough 'dead storage' in a reservoir for sediment deposits. This means that the reservoir only retains the full volume of water that it was designed for at the beginning of the dam's life. In spite of dead storage, as time goes by sediment accumulates and the dam continues to lose storage capacity until the impoundment area is filled with sediment (Morris and Fan, 1997;Thorne et al., 2011;Fu et al., 2008).Sediment loads are an important transboundary concern. A number of studies suggest that sediment delivery from the upper Mekong has decreased in recent years, although they differ on the extent of this change. Some suggest the figure could be as high as a 50 percent reduction at the dam site since the completion of the Manwan Dam on the Lancang Jiang River in 1993 (Lu and Siew, 2006;Fu and He, 2007;Kummu and Varis, 2007;Adamson, 2009;Wang, et al., 2011).Dams are highly efficient at trapping sediments. The Manwan Dam lost 20 percent of its storage capacity to sediment Compiled by: Ilse Pukinskisdeposits during the first ten years of operation, representing a loss of 20 million cubic meters of sediment to the mainstream Mekong. It is estimated that the completed Lancang cascade of dams will trap some 90 percent of the upper Mekong sediment contribution to the lower basin (Kummu and Varis, 2007;MRC, 2010:73).When estimating the rates of sediment accumulation in reservoirs, it is important to account for 'trapping efficiency', how this may change over time, and how dams upstream of the reservoir in question might reduce sediment delivery to a downstream reservoir (MRC, 2009:16). Estimates suggest that as much as 50 percent of the Mekong sediment load will be removed by hydropower projects in China and the 3S rivers alone. Should all twelve Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) mainstream dams be constructed, the sediment load could be halved again (ICEM, 2010;MRC, 2011).These estimates are considered conservative in light of the uncertainty surrounding i) our current understanding of fine sediment transport, and ii) our current understanding of the trapping efficiencies of lower Mekong mainstream dams and in-reservoir sediment dynamics (ICEM, 2010:77;Kummu et al., 2010:182;Roberts, 2004).It is important to note that any attempt to predict future sediment loads in the Mekong basin is complicated by limited data availability, sediment model accuracy, uncertainty surrounding future land-use changes and global warming, as well as natural variability (Thorne et al., 2011;Adamson, 2009).Dams alter the capacity of a river to transport sediment and also decrease the amount of sediment available for transport (Kummu and Varis, 2007). Substantial reductions in sediment supply can trigger widespread changes to the shape, course and structure of a river that will impact upon habitats, ecosystems and agricultural productivity (MRC, 2011). Downstream of the reservoir, impacts often include changes to basin ecology, water transparency, sediment balance, the amount of available nutrients and the river's course (Morris and Fan, 1997). Changes in sediment load and flow can be especially detrimental to coastal and offshore zones (ICEM, 2010;Fu et al., 2008;MRC, 2011;MRC, 2009).An estimated one percent of existing reservoir storage volume in the world is lost to sedimentation each year. This loss of storage capacity is detrimental for hydropower dams as it reduces the volume of water that can be captured in a reservoir for energy generation (Morris and Fan, 1997;Fu et al., 2008).The first sediments to deposit in a reservoir will be large, coarse sediment (small stones, grit and gravel). The first dams built on a river will generally accumulate more sediment because there are no upstream dams to trap it (ICEM, 2010). Sedimentation may affect a dam's mechanical equipment, including reservoir floodgates and turbine intakes, and compromise their structural integrity (MRC, 2009). Run-of-river hydropower dams do not suffer from such problems as much as reservoir dams, because they are not designed to create reservoirs. Run-of-river dams still slow a river's flow rate, causing sediment to be deposited, but at a potentially slower rate than in reservoir dams. Run-of-river dam designers must still be aware of potential damage to turbines and other mechanical equipment (Morris and Fan, 1997). Dam designers try to minimize sediment deposition to ensure the longevity of dam operations, as well as structural safety (MRC, 2009;Morris and Fan, 1997).Dams that trap sediment will release water with a reduced sediment load and, therefore, excess capacity to transport materials (Kondolf, 2008). Known as 'sediment hungry' water, this water erodes riverbeds and banks until the water can no longer carry materials, at which point a new equilibrium will be reached. In the Mekong, it is expected that this process will result in coarsening of the streambed and widespread changes to river habitats, including the elimination of many fish spawning beds. This process could potentially have widespread impacts, reaching down to Vietnam's highly productive food producing delta (MRC, 2010;MRC, 2009;Kummu and Varis, 2007;Roberts, 2004;Thorne et al., 2011;WCD, 2000;Morris and Fan, 1997). Whether or not this will happen has yet to be seen. Not all the potential impacts are entirely negative. For example, sediment trapping may prove beneficial to some aquatic ecosystems, such as coastal marine ecosystems, which might otherwise be harmed by excessively high levels of suspended sediment in water (Rogers, 1990;Morris and Fan, 1997).Suspended sediments contain nutrients that are essential to maintaining river systems. A large proportion of the phosphorus and nitrogen found in a river are associated with sediments (Koponen et al., 2010;Lu and Siew, 2006;Thorne et al., 2011) Phosphorus is important because it controls primary production in freshwater ecosystems. Precise estimates of the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen attached to sediments in the Mekong are difficult to make due to a lack of data on nutrient binding and the size of particles involved. It is estimated, however, that about two-thirds of the phosphorus in the Mekong is associated with sediments (MRC, 2011; Thorne et al., 2011). Some estimates put the fine-sized suspended sediment load delivered to the Mekong floodplains and delta at 26,400 tonnes per year (ICEM, 2010).Dams decrease the concentration of suspended solids in rivers, thereby reducing the amount of nutrients available downstream (Koponen et al., 2010;Lu and Siew, 2006;Thorne et al., 2011;MRC, 2011;Rosenberg et al., 1997;Nikula, 2005). It is estimated that if Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam were to proceed with the construction of 11 mainstream and 71 tributary dams (in addition to the six existing mainstream Chinese dams), the fine-sized suspended sediment load of the Mekong would be reduced by 75% (to approximately 6,600 tonnes per year). Approximately 25% of this reduction would be a result of mainstream dam construction (ICEM, 2010). Alternatively, during periods when water is released, areas downstream of dams will experience unnaturally high concentrations of sediment and associated nutrients (MRC, 2011).Reduced sediment loads will impact on both natural and human environments. In the following sections we examine some of these impacts in depth.Trapping of sediments may decrease the biological productivity of rivers. Upstream of dams, increased sediment loads will alter reservoir ecology, affecting the quantity and type of fish present (Kummu and Varis, 2007;Morris and Fan, 1997;WCD, 2000). Most Mekong fish species lay eggs that attach to the riverbed, so increased sediment and silt may bury or damage eggs (MRC, 2011;MRC, 2010;ICEM, 2010;Roberts, 2004). Downstream of dams, sediment trapping could lead to a decline in both biodiversity and productivity of fish and other aquatic species. Adapted to the sediment-rich conditions of the Mekong basin, fish and other aquatic species may not be able to adjust to changes to their feeding and spawning grounds (Kummu and Varis, 2007;Morris and Fan, 1997;WCD, 2000). Reduced nutrient availability will affect aquatic plant growth, a major source of food for Mekong fish and an important component of fishery food chains (MRC, 2011(MRC, , 2010;;ICEM, 2010;Roberts, 2004). Negative impacts on marine fisheries are also a possibility (MRC, 2011;Hai et al., 2009). Downstream of Vietnam's Yali Falls dams, Cambodian communities have reported dramatic declines in fish catches since the dam's construction. The fisheries decline has been linked to increased turbidity and sediment loads (a result of sediment hungry waters eroding riverbanks), which has smothered algal growth. High sediment loads have resulted in sediment deposition and in-filling of important fish habitats: there has also been a negative impact on fish species that cannot tolerate high sediment loads (Wyatt and Baird, 2007).When rivers flood they deposit sediments on floodplains. Floodplains are highly fertile and play an important role in agricultural productivity. Reductions in suspended sediment load and associated nutrients will also impact on the region's agricultural productivity (ICEM, 2010;MRC, 2011). Immediate impacts on regional rice production are expected to be 'modest', but long-term impacts may be more serious. Reduced sediment loads will also result in the loss of agricultural land in inundated areas, riverbank gardens and floodplains. The poor will be most affected by these losses of agricultural land (ICEM, 2010;Hai et al., 2009).Commercial and recreational navigation will be impacted by sediment accumulation at locks, delta areas, marinas and boat ramps during periods when sediment-laden water is released from dams (Morris and Fan, 1997). During periods of water storage, when dam gates are closed, it is likely that destabilization of riverbanks and bed erosion by sediment hungry waters downstream of dams will have a detrimental impact on navigation in the Mekong Delta, an area of high river transport use (ICEM, 2010). However, it is possible that sediment trapping will have a positive impact on navigation by reducing the amount of sediment deposited into channels that serve as navigation routes (Hori, 2000).The seasonal flooding of the Cambodian floodplains, including the Tonle Sap Lake, is the basis of the Mekong's high productivity. Every year, approximately 80 percent of the sediment and nutrients entering the lake system are retained after flood waters recede. This natural fertilization contributes greatly to agricultural and fisheries productivity (MRC, 2005;Sarkkula et al., 2003;Kummu et al., 2008;Nikula 2005;Zalinge et al., 2003;Sarkkula et al., 2003;Zalinge et al., 2003).Decreased suspended sediment concentrations pose a serious risk to nutrient balance in the lake, and therefore to the system's productivity (ICEM, 2010;Sarkkula et al., 2003;Koponen et al., 2010). A decrease in the fertility of the flooded forests that serve as important habitats and breeding grounds for fish will reduce the size of fish landings (Kummu et al., 2008). If all planned mainstream and tributary dams are built, it is estimated that productivity in large areas of the Cambodian floodplains will be halved (Koponen et al., 2010).Some studies estimate that 79 million metric tonnes of sediments reach Vietnam's Mekong Delta each year, of which 9 to 13 million tonnes are deposited on floodplains and the rest contributes to the enlargement of the delta and fertilizing coastal fisheries (Huang and Tamai, 1999;Fox and Sneddon, 2005). Sediment deposited in shallow coast-al waters protects the coast from wave-induced erosion. Reduced sediment supply will increase coastal erosion (Wolanski et al., 1996), a process that is likely to be made worse by sea level rise due to climate change. Bank erosion downstream of reservoirs as a result of sediment hungry water will only partially compensate for sediments that become trapped in reservoirs (MRC, 2010:73). An estimated one million people will be directly affected by coastal erosion and land loss in the Mekong Delta by 2050 (IPCC, 2007).Vietnamese agriculture and marine capture fisheries are dependent on sediment for nutrient transport (Wild and Loucks, 2012;ICEM, 2010). A reduction in sediment load is likely to imply significant costs for both agriculture and marine fisheries. Agricultural development and urbanization may provide alternative sources of nutrients, but the precise impacts of these on the delta are not well understood (ICEM, 2010).While the sedimentation of reservoirs is often considered an irreversible process, water supplies and electricity generated from dam projects cannot be considered sustainable unless the sedimentation process is controlled (Morris and Fan, 1997).Ideally, dams will be built in a way that minimizes their tendency to retain sediment, thereby reducing impacts on the environment and agricultural productivity, as well as reducing potential liability for compensation payments to downstream stakeholders (MRC, 2011). Sustainable sediment management will take into account the watershed, river, reservoir and dam in question and the cumulative impacts of dam cascades. The process would include a sedimentation assessment (Morris and Fan, 1997), consideration of appropriate site selection and dam design, and an operation strategy and consistent monitoring and management (MRC, 2009).To avoid sedimentation, and preserve relatively normal nutrient transport patterns to downstream areas and limiting morphological impacts, dams must be cleared of sediment regularly (Thorne et al., 2011). Removing and disposing of sediments that have accumulated in reservoirs is an expensive and difficult process (Morris and Fan, 1997). There are several options for sediment removal, including sediment routing, sediment bypass, sediment flushing (or sluicing), mechanical removal and sediment traps (MRC, 2009). Dams can significantly reduce sediment problems by building flushing gates into the dam wall. These are located at the base of the wall, and are opened periodically to let sediments out of the reservoir. This will also, to some extent, help ensure that beneficial uses of sediment downstream can be maintained. Virtually no dams on the Mekong, however, have flushing gates, in part because it increases dam construction costs, and because that would mean that some portion of the reservoir water would be used for flushing and not for electricity generation.Dam planners must determine which method is appropriate for each dam. Managing sediment in a cascade of dams will require coordination between government authorities, dam planners and operators and the many agencies advocating on behalf of environmental health as well as the livelihoods of people who derive a living from the river and its ecosystems (MRC, 2009).One idea in circulation is that increased fertilizer use could compensate for reductions in nutrients due to decreased suspended sediment concentrations. This has yet to be tested. It is possible that the majority of nutrient rich sediment originates in the mountains (particularly in China), in which case fertilizer would not compensate for the extent of nutrient losses. More data is necessary to better understand the nutrient cycle of the Mekong (Koponen et al., 2010).Another proposed solution is 'sediment augmentation', or the deliberate addition of sediment downstream of a dam. Sediment augmentation must account for the volume of sediment trapped in reservoirs as well as the downstream river's decreased velocity, and therefore, decreased capacity to move sediment. The ecological effects of sediment augmentation must also be considered (MRC, 2009).The potential impacts of dam development on sediment and therefore on nutrients, river and marine ecosystems and livelihoods are considerable. Comprehensive data and assessments of the dynamics of sediment and nutrient transport in the Mekong are limited, particularly those that account for the combined effects of cascades of mainstream and tributary dams. While more studies are needed to better understand better the complex interactions of sediment in the Mekong, it should also be recognized that uncertainty will never be completely removed by models and theoretical predictions. Dam planners, managers and policy makers are advised to proceed with caution, even when building dams that take into account adaptive sediment management and which account adequately for uncertainty (Thorne et al., 2011). Given the complexity of interactions between sediment, nutrients, ecosystems and numerous other variables, \"experiments in real life\" should be closely monitored.","tokenCount":"2931"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d62dd4b7950d88878e8d073ccd12464a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/78841ced-7ed3-4c94-bf29-15ad091279a6/retrieve","id":"1894711719"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1effc23b-59f1-4bea-932e-7e18f35230b0","pagecount":"8","content":"Avances en la Investigación de Atributos de Adaptación de Plantas Forrajeras a Suelos Acidos de Baja Fertilidad La siembra de especies forrajeras es una alternativa para elllJanejo de suelos ácidos de b¡,ja fert il idad en el trópico. La baja disponibilidad de nutrimentos en el suelo es la principal límitante para la adaptación y producción de especies de gramíneas y leguminosas en esta región. Una estrategia de investigación es desarrollar cultivares de especies que tengan una alta eficiencia para obtener nutrimentos del sucio y para utilizarlos en el crecimiento.Las plantas adaptadas a sucios ácidos tienen atributos relacionados con su habilidad para obtener nutrimentos en ambientes donde el pH es hajo y el contenido de aluminio es alto. El entendimiento de estos mecanismos es fundamental para dc. •;;arrollar procedimientos de selección de plantas forrajeras más ericientes en uso de nutrimentos limitanlcS en el sucio.El grado de variación intcrcspccífica e inlracspccílica en la capacidad para ohtener y utilizar nutrimentos debe estudiarse cuidadosamente para desarrollar plantas adaptadas a suelos ácidos de baja fertilidad o para mejorar la eficiencia que poseen para ohtener y utilizar nutrimentos. El mejoramiento de esta adaptaci6n. sin pérdida de rendimiento de forraje o de su c\"'idad, contribuirá a que disminuyan los requerimientos de insumos. los costos de producción animal y los problemas ambientales causados por la degradaci6n de pasturas.Hasta la fecha se han realizado varios estudios sobre la adaptación de plantas forrajeras a sucios ¡ieidos con los Número 3, Diciembre de 1997 resullados siguientes:CJ Se identificaron varios atributos en 8rachiaria que podrían ser útiles como rndiees de selección de genotipos por tolerancia a baja fertilidad en el suelo, entre ellos, la producción de área foliar, la longitud de la raíz y la eficiencia de absorción de fósforo (P) por unidad de longitud de la raíz.o Se encontró que en 8rachiaria la variación genotípica de algunos atributos de la planta era mayor que la variación dehida a cambios en la disponibilidad de nutrimentos.a Se demostró que la adaptación de 8 . ruziziensis a Oxisoles de haja fertilidad es menor que en el caso de 8 . decumbens, debido a su capacidad limitada para alterar el fraccionamiento de materia seca entre las raíces y la parte aérea a medida que la disponibilidad de nutrimentos disminuye en el suelo.a Se observó que la variación genotípica en producción de área foli ar y porcentaje de nitrógeno (N) en las hojas de las especies de nrachiaria, es mayor que la variación en ahsorción de este nutrimento a partir del suelo.CJ Se demostró que en Brachiaria existen atributos como la'longitud y la ramificación de la raíz que afectan la absorción de P y calcio (Ca) de esta gramínea en los suelos de baja fertilidad.actual dentro del Proyecto Gramíneas y Leguminosas Forrajeras del CIAT es: (1) Continuar con estudios sobre mecanismos hioquímicos y moleculares de tolerancia de 8rachiaria al estrés debido a suelos ácidos; y (2) determinar las diferencias genotípicas en este género y en especies seleccionadas de leguminosas, asociadas con tolerancia a suelos de baja fertilidad y con la absorción y utilización de nutrimentos.GramIIrUII, u,u--Fo~.,... Mecanismos bioquímicos y moleculares de tolerancia al estrés debido a suelos ácidos Simulación del síndrome de suelos ácidos. Al comparar el efecto tóxico del aluminio (Al) sohre dos especies de Brachiaria cultivadas bajo condiciones adecuadas de nutrición (solución nutritiva completa) y en condiciones Iimitantes (solución nutritiva incompleta) se encontró que B. ruz;ziellsis, que no se adapta bien a suelos ácidos, fue significativamente menos tolerante a Al en condiciones limitantes que B. decumbells, que sí está adaptado (Figura 1). En consecuencia, se investigaron mecanismos que podrían estar relacionados con la tolerancia de Brachiaria a este elemento.Interacción del aluminio y el fósforo en los ápices radiculares de la planta. Cuando las plantas de las especies anteriores crecieron en presencia de Al, las raíces de B. decumbens tendieron a aumentar su contenido de P, incluso cuando crecieron en una solución que contenía bajas concentraciones de nutrimentos (ver Figura 2).Recientemente se ha sugerido que la exudación dc fosfato por los ápices de la raíz actúa como un mecanismo de exclusión dcl Al en el trigo y el maíz. Por lo tanto, existe interés en determinar si la acumulación de P, que es estimulada por el Al, está localizada en los ápices radiculares, de donde podría ser exudada como fosfato inorgánico, si fuera necesario. Para tal efecto, se empleó la emisión de rayos X inducida por protones (PIXE) para ubicar la distribución de nutrimentos en los ápices radiculares. Los resultados preliminares indican que, al parecer, ese fenómeno ocurre, por lo menos, en B. decumbens (ver Figura 2, B). Actualmente se están realizando experimentos para determinar la intensidad de la exudación de fósforo en función de la distancia medida desde el ápice de la raíz.Aislamiento de genes inducidos por el estrés de suelos ácidos. Cuando se conozcan mejor las bases fisiológicas de los mecanismos de adaptación de gramíneas y leguminosas a suelos ácidos, sería de gran utilidad aislar los genes involucrados en este fenómeno, por dos razones importantes. En primer lugar. partiendo de las secuencias de los genes o de los promotores, sería posible diseñar marcadores moleculares con el fin de facilitar la selección de genotipos por adaptación a suelos ácidos. En segundo lugar, se podrían empicar genes específicos de interés para hacer transferencia directa de genes cntre los cultivares de Brachiaria, evitando así el obstáculo de la propagación apomíctica. Para aplicar esta estrategia. se preparó una genoteca sustractiva de ADNc enriquecida con genes inducidos por estrés de sucios ácidos en el La amplij¡cación del ADNc que permanece después de la sustracción reveló varios genes inducidos por estrés. los cuales emergen como bandas diferenciadas del fondo difuso de ADNc no sustraído (Figura 3). Inicialmente, se escogerán cuatro genes que correspondan a bandas claramente visibles, para el análisis de secuencias. Sin embargo, cuando se concluyan los experimentos que tienen objetivos fisiológicos, será posible diseñar estrategias más espccfficas para seleccionar genes de esta genoteca.En general. los estudios antes descrilos sobre mecanismos de adaptación a los suelos ácidos indican que la buena adaptación de B. decumbel/s a estos suelos de baja fertilidad se puede atribuir a su capacidad de acumular fósforo en las zonas meristcm:íticas de los ápices radiculares, con el fin dc minimizar la lOxicidad que causa el aluminio.  Atributos de la planta asociados con tolerancia a baja oferta de nutrimentos Genotipos de DrachÚJria. En la actualidad se está rcali;.r.ando un estudio dc campo en Carimagua. LlanosOrientales dc Colombia, para evaluar las diferencias en aU;:lptación a sucios y la persistencia de algunos genotipos dc Brachillria e identilicar atrihutos clave ,Isuciados con este comportamiento. El ensayo comprende 17 introoucciones. incluyendo nueve acccsiones (cuatro progenitores) y ocho recombinantcs gcnéticos dcltrahajo de mejoramiento de Brachiar;tl. Se tiencn dos niveles de aplicación inicial de fcrtililanles como parcclas principales: hajo (kglha): 20 de p. 20 de K. 33 de Ca. 14 de Mg. 10 de S; y altu (kglha): 80 de N. 50 de p. 100 de K. 66 de Ca. 2K de Mg. 20 de S \",os \",ic\",nutrimentos).Como suhparcclas se incluyen los genotipos.El ensayo se somete a pastoreo intensivo pcriúdico, según el fOITólje en oferta. La.~ mediciones indic~lf(lO una variaci6n genotípica notoria de rCOlJimiento de forraje y del área [oliar al final de la estaci6n húmeda y durante la fa.'\\c de establecimiento. En el nivcl hajo de aplicacitin inicial de fertilizantes, uno dc los rccomhinantes genéticos del Programa de Mejoramiento de 8rachiaria (BRN093/ 3204) tuvo un rendimiento muy alto de rornlje en comJXIraci6n con otras introducciones. Genotipos de Arac/¡i. y de Stylo.,aIJt/¡e.,. En los cstudios realizados ha.'\\la ahora se ha encontrado variaci6n intergenérica e interespccífica en la tolerancia de varias leguminosas forrajeras tropicales a haja oferta de nutrimentos, cuando se cultivan en sucios de texturas arenosa y arcillosa. En un experimento de invernadero se estudiaron las direrencias genotípica.\" en la tolerancia a hajos niveles de fertilizaci()n utilizando 24 genotipos de seis especies de leguminosas (CUalro genotipos de cada una de las esrccies: A. pililO;, S. gll;nne\"sü, S. capitalCl, CellllUJema macrocarpum, C. brasi/itmum y C. IJIlbescells. Como indicadores de tolcram:ia a baja fertilidad se midieron los alributos de la parte aérea y de las raíces de la planta.Los resulLados indicaron que ciertos atrihutos de la planta son arccwdos por la oferta de nutrimenlos y por el genotipo. El nivel de producción de .írea foliar. sin oferta externa de nutrimcntos. prescnl6 mayor vuriélción genotípica que los demás ¡urihutos de la planta. Como era de esperarse. el aumento en la orerta de nutrimentos mejoró el renúimiento de rorraje y estimuló la prooucción del área foliar. Sinemhargo. la variaci6n genotípica en varios atributos de la planta fue mayor que la variación inducida por el nivel de oferta de nutrimento..;. En el Cuadro I se presenta la variación genotípica cn los atributos de plantas dc A. pillloi y S. 8uicmellsis cultivadas con haja ofcrta de nutrimentos. Entre los genolipos de Ame/¡is, A. pililo; CIAT 18748 fue el que mantuvo la mayor concenlraci6n de P inorgánico cn las hojas y distribuyó la mayor parlc. proporcionalmente. de nitrógeno a las hojas. De las accesiones de Sty/o.mlllhc.';, S. guiallells;s CIAT 11844 presentó la mayor concentración de P inorgánico en las hojas.Estos resultados indican que la adaptación de A. pilltoi CIAT 18748, en comparaci6n con el cultivar comercial CIAT 17434, a la haja orcrta de nUlrimenlos cn el sucio fue sobresaliente. tal como lo indicó el nivel de distrihuci6n de N en las hojas y el mantenimiento de una concentración adecuada de P inurgánico en cll:ls.Diferencias genotípicas entre leguminosas en el desarrollo de la raíz y la parte aérea. Se realizaron do. experimentos dc invernadero para comparar el crecimiento y el desarrollo de las raíces y para estudiar la rcltlci6n entre el crecimiento radicular y la parte aérea durante el eSlablecimienlo de los genolipos A. \"illloi CIAT 17434 y 22160. S. Kuiallcn.,is CIAT IK4 y S. c:l/I'illllll CIAT 1315.Las plant:ls se cultivaron en un Oxisol franco-arcilloso en el que se aplicaron niveles bajos dc fertilizante. El empleo de miniril.otrones (cajas de plexiglás) facilitó la cvuluación visual de las diferencias en el desarrollo radicular.Entre las leguminosas incluidas en el estudio, S. copitoto presentó un sistema radicular de tamaño notoriamente rná.~ pequeño (Figura 4). Además, el desarrollo de las raíces fue nuís lento en S. copitoto que en S. gu;m,ellsis. El nivel de ramificación y la longitud total de la raíl. fueron también inferiores en S. copitota que en las otras Icgumino)ijus. No se presentaron diferencias significativas en el tamaño del sistema radicular entre las dos accesiones de A. ¡';lIto;, aunque A, pinto; CIAT 22160 prescnt6 mayor ramificación dumnte la fasc de estahlecimicnlo de las pl{¡ntulas.Estos estudios indican que. S. capitalCl tiene pobre adaptación a Oxisolc..'i franco-arcillosos debido a que sus raíces son más gruesas y lienen menor número de ápices radiculiues; esto cOl1trihuyc a que la absorci6n dc Ca se rcdu l.ca. lo cual no se ohscrv., en S. guinllcIIsü o en A. pillloi.Cuudn, 1, ))ifl.'rcndas gcnnlípicus en lu. o¡ atrihuto.o¡ de IC~lIl11iuusa.\"i rurrnjc\",o¡ tn'pÍl'»le~ lL'if'K'h.du,~ mn tolcnmeh F'q:ura 4. Diferencial¡ en el lamailo del sislcnm r.xIiculur (en minirizolroncs) y en el crecimiento de la panc oérca de cuatro leguminosa .. cultivada. .. en maceta. .. con baja oferta de nulrimcnlOs en un O\"isol franco-arcillosu de Carimugua.En un experimento de invernadero•sc examinaron las diferencias genotípicas en absorción y en utili7.aci6n de P de 15 genolipos pcrtenccienles a seis especies de Brachiaria (tres genotipos de cada una de las siguientes especies: B. decumbens. B. briznnlha, H. ruziziensis, B. humidicola y B. dic/yo\"eura). El P se suministr6 en eualro niveles: O, 20, 50 Y 200 kglha.Los rcsullaoos indicaron que. tanto el genotipo como el nivel de oferta de P en el sucio afectaron los alribUIOS de la parte aérea de las plan l., (Cuadro 2). Dos atribulos de la planta -eficiencia de absorción de P y longitud de la raízprcscnlaron mayor varim . .:ión genotípica que los demás atributos evaluados. Como era de esperarse, el aumento en la oferta de P mejoró el rendimiento de forraje al estimular la producción de área foliar.La v¡lriación gcnotípic¿1 en los atributos de las plaQlas culliv.d.s con 20 kg/h. de oren. de P indica que la variaci6n en longitud de la raíz. en la ahsorción de P por la parle aérea de las plantas y en 1;:: cfiL ¡encia de Cuadro 2.. FJ'ccto del suministro de P en 111 variación de genotipos de 8rac/daria semhrado5 en un OKtwl frunro--arclllO.5O de Carimagua.Las mcdidones se hicil:rnn dcspu& de 53 días de credmk=nto. En general, estos estudios indican que varios alributos de la planta en Brachíaria fueron afcctados por el genotipo y también por la oferta de P en el sucio. Braciliaria humidicola CIAT 679 fue sobresaliente en términos de longitud de la raíz y la absorción de P por la parte aérea.  1.5-2.81.1-1.9Estos estudios proporcionan una base para una investigación estratégica orientada a la identificación de atributos de las raíces y de la parte aérea de especies forrajera.~. Esto contribuirá a una mayor eficiencia en la selección y el mejoramiento. e igualmente a la identificación de nichos ecológicos para el germoplasma forrajero. El libro de 285 páginas es el resultado de un taller de trabajo realizado en el CIAT con la panicipación de 52 investigadores en el tema, provenientes de varias partes del mundo y que fue auspiciado por el Consorcio Tropileche con el objeto de definir estrategias para la investigación biológica y sociocconómica en fincas bajo el sistema de producción de doble propósito.Mediciones en Animoles. Se incluyen temas relacionados con las fuenles de variacion en la produccion y composicion de la leche de vacas en un sistema de pastoreo secuencial, el uso de indicadores en la sangre y la leche para determinar el estado nUlricional y reproductivo del ganado vacuno, el uso del radioinmuno-ensayo de progcstcrona para mejorar la producción animal, el manejo de la nutrición de la vaca y la relación vaca-temero,la cuantificacion de la interaccion genotipo:ambientc en sistemas de producción, el análisis del efecto del grupo genético sobre la producción de leche y el comportamiento reproductivo en una finca de doble propósito.Aplicación de Modelos para Oplimiwr el Uso de Recursos. Se tratan temas sobre: la modelación de sistemas de producción de leche, los modelos económicos de nivel agregado como instrumentos de apoyo a la investigación agropecuaria. y la aplicación de un modelo de simulación a sistemas de doble propósito en la región Pacffico Central de Costa Rica.Metodologías para Careterizar el Uso de la TIerra, involucrar a productores y Medir la Adopción y el Impacto de Nuevas tecnologías. Se presentan: una clasificación de los sistemas de producción animal; los principales indicadores económicos y ambientales en sistema~. dc doble propósito; una metodología para caracterizar sistemas de uso de tierras en Acre. Rondónia, y Pucallpa en la Amazonf~; un sistema de monitoreo de producción a nivel de la vaca, el hato y el productor; la investigadon participativa con productores pccuario..co; una metodología para la evaluación de adopción e impacto de Arachis pintoi en Colombia; y el caso de la adopción de Calliandra calolhyrsus en Embu, Kenia.Se incluyen, además, las recomendaciones y conclusiones de los grupos de trabajo y un índice abreviado de materias. ","tokenCount":"2513"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b6e2b2ac8d5952112f9134fbdbfaadc5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2c299487-36ca-43c5-9494-852b80aa28e6/retrieve","id":"354445047"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"58b6c7cb-3aae-4a3f-af41-f1b1c6202c95","pagecount":"15","content":"This introduction to the special issue deploys a framework, inspired by realist synthesis and introduced in Section 1, that aims to untangle the contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes associated with investments that link poverty reduction and rural prosperity within a broad agri-food systems perspective. Section 2 considers changes in contexts: Where are agricultural research investments most likely to be an engine of poverty reduction? Over the past 25 years, there have been profound changes in the development context of most countries, necessitating an update on strategic insights for research investment priorities relevant for the economic, political, social, environmental, and structural realities of the early 21st Century. Section 2 briefly surveys changes in these structural aspects of poverty and development processes in low-income countries, with particular attention to new drivers (e.g., urbanization, climate change) that will be of increasing salience in the coming decades. In Section 3, we turn to mechanisms: What are the plausible impact pathways and what evidence exists to test their plausibility? Poor farmers in the developing world are often the stated focus of public sector agricultural research. However, farmers are not the only potential beneficiaries of agricultural research; rural landless laborers, stakeholders along food value chains, and the urban poor can also be major beneficiaries of such research. Thus, there are multiple, interacting pathways through which agricultural research can contribute to reductions in poverty and associated livelihood vulnerabilities. This paper introduces an ex ante set of 18 plausible impact pathways from agricultural research to rural prosperity outcomes, employing bibliometric methods to assess the evidence underpinning causal links. In Section 4, we revisit the concept of desired impacts: When we seek poverty reduction, what does that mean and what measures are needed to demonstrate impact? The papers in this special issue are intended to yield insights to inform improvements in agricultural research that seeks to reduce poverty. History indicates that equity of distribution of gains matters hugely, and thus the questions of \"who wins?\" and \"who loses?\" must be addressed. Moreover, our understanding(s) of \"poverty\" and the intended outcomes of development investments have become much richer over the past 25 years, incorporating more nuance regarding gender, community differences, and fundamental reconsideration of the meaning of poverty and prosperity that are not captured by simple head count income or even living standard measures.The last three decades have seen significant progress in reducing poverty and boosting prosperity. Nevertheless, approximately 800 million people continue to live in extreme poverty (World Bank, 2017). Moreover regional progress has been uneven, with Sub-Saharan Africa accounting for half of the world's extreme poor. Therefore, much remains to be done in terms of international efforts to reach the target for 2030 as articulated under Sustainable Development Goal 1 (SDG 1), i.e. eradicate extreme poverty.Poverty is a multidimensional concept and poverty reduction is achieved through many routes (Alkire and Foster, 2011). No countryputting aside city stateshas achieved prosperity without growth in productivity in multiple sectors (agriculture, industry, services) and for many countries this growth process has been mutually reinforcing. However, agriculture can and does play a central role in reducing poverty, since the majority of the world's poor are still rural people who depend upon agriculture for their livelihoods (Webb and Block, 2012). Fostering agricultural growth can serve as a critical entry point for designing effective strategies to transform the rural economy and meet SDG 1 (Christiaensen et al., 2010), and investments in agricultural research for development (AR4D) are key to agricultural growth (Fuglie, 2017). A considerable amount of publicly-funded agricultural research has taken place in the CGIAR, a worldwide partnership addressing AR4D. The CGIAR has three System Level Outcomes (SLOs) aligned with the SDGs and under SLO 1 aims to assist 100 million people, of whom 50% are women, to exit poverty by 2030. 1  Evidence to date suggests that investment in AR4D provides high economic returns (Hurley et al., 2016), and has been an effective tool to combat poverty (Adato and Meizen-Dick, 2007;Renkow and Byerlee, 2010;Pray et al., 2017). Results from a recent simulation study have revealed that investment in agricultural research reduces poverty more than irrigation, water holding capacity, or infrastructure investments and is even more beneficial when coupled with these other investments (Rosegrant et al., 2017). Nonetheless relationships between AR4D strategies and investment priorities for poverty reduction continue to be debated. Apparent lack of consensus concerning the key links between AR4D and its impact on poverty reduction is a barrier to clarity and effectiveness in development strategy as well as weakening the case for public investment.Consensus has been elusive (in part) because these multiple links involve:• systems of numerous components, in which major interactions can be non-linear, complex, and interdependent;• interventions aimed at affecting components and outcomes also are numerous, complex, and interdependent;• implementation of interventions requires partnership and concerted cooperation across multifarious organizations and scales;• key phenomena (e.g., both socioeconomic and ecological processes) display emergent properties, meaning that there may be no clear \"line of sight\" linking intervention points (say in fields, farms, or firms) with desired impacts (viz, poverty reduction); and,• prospects for desired impacts are context dependent.The compendium of papers in this special issue grew out of the 2016 CGIAR Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC) Science Forum (SF16) that was held from 12 to 14 April 2016 in Addis Ababa on \"Agricultural research for rural prosperity: rethinking the pathways 2 \". This set of papers does not constitute the proceedings of the Forum. Rather, insights from the Forum were used to identify strategic gaps, constraints and opportunities in this broad field and to frame a coherent and comprehensive collection of research papers from a systems perspective. Each assesses the evidence for the key causal connections linking AR4D to poverty reduction for their focal pathway(s) and suggests priority research questions, implications for research methods and design, and for necessary AR4D partnerships.Realist research (Dieleman et al., 2012;Rycroft-Malone et al., 2012) is an emerging method developed to address complex system interventions with the characteristics faced in the particular case of AR4D. The structure of this paper (context in part 2, mechanisms in part 3, and impacts 3 in part 4) is directly inspired by the realist research literature. As with that body of work, our objectives with this special issue are \"identifying underlying causal mechanisms and exploring how they work under what conditions\" (Rycroft-Malone et al., 2012). And, like those authors, our basic task is to determine \"what works, for whom, in what circumstance …\" (Rycroft-Malone et al., 2012). In contrast to the structured rigor of \"realist synthesis\" (sensu R. Pawson), this paper is a more modest effort to characterize concisely the vast inter-related literature on AR4D context, mechanisms, and impacts as a framework and foundation for the expert assessments of specific mechanisms in the subsequent papers in this collection.2. Context: where are agricultural research investments most likely to be an engine of poverty reduction?Among the five bullets listed in Section 1 above, most concern systems properties within the scope of AR4D that will be addressed in various ways in the other papers in this special issue. The exception is the last point on context, which is the focus of this section. Context has long been recognized as a key consideration in agricultural development (e.g., Lewis, 1954;Johnston and Kilby, 1975;Timmer, 1988;Tomich et al., 1995). Specifically, similar mechanisms may have different prospects for success depending on context, and these contextual matters conditioning success can shift over time. For example, the recent review by Pray et al. (2017, p. 4) concluded that the notion that AR4D investments were associated with poverty reduction now holds \"for Asia and Africa but not in the Americas.\" This section considers relevant long term changes of four main types: structural transformation, agrarian differentiation, urbanization of human populations, and climate destabilization. It concludes with a note on some other factors and emerging sources of uncertainty.Economic growth involves patterns of change in economic structure across many sectors; these patterns have been a mainstay of development economics for decades. Two variables receive particular emphasis in this structural transformation literature: agriculture's share of gross domestic product (GDP, as a measure of aggregate income) and of the economically active population (as a measure of labor); both measures tend to fall as GDP rises. Because of the centrality of labor productivity and employment in poverty reduction, Tomich et al. (1995) argued that priority for agricultural development investments should go to those countries with more than 50% of their economically active population primarily dependent on agriculture. 4 In 1990, there were 58 of these \"countries with abundant rural labor\". Fig. 1 shows how agriculture's share of GDP changed for the 37 of 58 countries for which data are available to compare GDP shares over approximately 25 years (1990 to 2015); sequenced from lowest to highest by their GDP per capita in 1990 (Tomich et al., 1995, Table 1.1, p. 11). Of the 37, four of the five that had significant increases in agriculture's share of GDP (Chad, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, and Togo) also experienced civil war or active insurgencies, as did two of the three for which this measure stayed essentially unchanged (Pakistan and Sudan). The other 29 all have seen significant declines in the share of agriculture in GDP.While these long term comparisons of GDP shares face important difficulties, the challenges of comparing changes in agriculture's share of the labor force are even more daunting. Indeed, for the 37 countries in Fig. 1, comparable data on agriculture's labor force share spanning this period are only available for a few. Johnston and Kilby (1975, p. 194) present data on the contrasting cases of structural transformation in the United States (1820States ( to 1970) ) and Japan (1885Japan ( to 1970)). To be sure, there can be setbacks to the decline of agriculture's share of the labor force, as occurred in Japan right after World War II; but the long term patterns are the same in each case. While agricultural labor force may continue to grow in absolute size in the earlier decades, nonagricultural labor grows faster. This decline in the relative size of agriculture in the labor force accelerates after the absolute size of the agricultural labor force peaked in the US after World War I and in Japan after World War II. Overall, the relative size of the agricultural labor force declines for each country from over 75% in the 19th century to well below 5% for each country in the 21st Century (Tomich et al., 1995, pp. 67-69;World Bank, \"World Development Indicators\", Table 2.3). Another perspective can be gained from the related (but not identical) distinction between rural and urban population. 5 Jayne et al.   (2014) use UN data to show that total rural population already had peaked in China before 2000 and has declined dramatically in absolute numbers. Of the remaining developing regions in Asia and Africa, total rural population is projected to peak almost everywhere before 2050. The exception is sub-Saharan Africa, where rural (and urban) populations are projected to continue to increase significantly until at least 2050 (Fig. 2).One corollary of this general pattern of GDP shares falling faster than labor force shares is known as the \"agricultural productivity gap\" (Gollin et al., 2014): measures of productivity per worker in agriculture fall behind other sectors throughout much of the process of structural transformation. Barrett et al. (2017, p. 6) emphasize that for sub-Saharan Africa, this disparity may arise more from high unemployment than low productivity per hour worked. Whether this gap arises from gaps in productivity, or employment, or both, shortage of opportunities for productive work is an important contributor to mass poverty. As Fig. 1. Shares of GDP in agriculture for 37 countries, 1990 and 2015 (in 2010   Pray et al. (2017, p.7) observe, since a central aspect of AR4D investments' effectiveness in poverty reduction rests on these structural patterns and related labor force differences, \"This leverage eventually disappears as countries become richer, because a smaller fraction of the workforce remains in agriculture …\".In their effort to synthesize strategic insights from agricultural and rural development experiences of the 1960s-1980s, Tomich et al. (1995) built a case for the feasibility and desirability of a broad-based agricultural development strategy aiming for a \"unimodal\" agrarian structure (the distribution of farms by size). Recognizing differences across farms and within households, the point nevertheless was that a single agricultural strategy could raise productivity on the vast majority of farms in a country (including especially the majority of farms that were small-and medium-scale operations, but also some large farms), entrain economy-wide growth multipliers, including growth in income and employment in the rural non-farm economy, and thereby create a growth dynamic that tightened labor demand and dramatically reduced poverty. 6  Looking ahead to prospects for 2050 and based on 21st Century experience, Hazell (forthcoming) foresees growing differentiation within the agricultural sectors of developing countries, with small farms becoming smaller and more numerous; more part-time farmers, particularly among smallholders, for whom agriculture is a modest and diminishing share of household income; and growing bifurcation between large and small farms, commercial and non-commercial farms, young and elderly farmers, and geographically well-situated regions (both rural and urban) versus isolated, marginal rural areas. In contrast to the Tomich et al. strategic view for the late 20th Century, Hazell makes the case that contemporary conditions require that AR4D strategies aimed at poverty reduction must consider a typology of different smallholder types with very different resources, connections to markets, and hence economic prospects and AR4D needs. 7 To these categories, we must also add important differences in household structure and intra-household differences across farms, even within the same communities, and the culturally-mediated roles of gender and marital status in access to education and health services and to land, irrigation water, forests, and other resources as well as proscriptions on social interaction, affecting both labor market participation and wages, and which systematically disadvantage women and girls and make them more likely to experience poverty (Sen, 2001). 8Our species passed an historic turning point with the new millennium: we now are predominantly an urban species for the first time. According to the World Bank (\"World Development Indicators\"), world population was 54% urban in 2015 compared to 43% as recently as 1990. Urban population shares are positively related to GDP per capita, but most low and middle income countries also have seen significant increases in urbanization over the past 25 years. For the 60 countries in Fig. 3 the 58 from Tomich et al. (1995) plus the two newest, South Sudan and Timor L'este -48 saw their urban share grow by more than 5 percentage points and only 5 experienced a decline in the share of urban residents from 1990 to 2015. During this period India's urban share increased from 26% to 33% while China's increased even more dramatically, from 26% urban in 1990 to 56% in 2015.D'Amour et al. ( 2016) project that expansion of cities through 2030 will continue to occur on some of the world's most productive croplands, as has been the case through much of human history, with the vast majority of this cropland loss from forthcoming urban expansion in Asia and Africa. They also project that cropland lost to urbanization globally by 2030 will account for 3-4% of crop production in 2000. This is a noteworthy number to be sure, but to understand the most important implications of urbanization for AR4D, one must consider two other phenomena: dietary transformation and shifts in non-farm economic activities related to food and agriculture. One important driver of these dietary patterns is the decline in starchy staples and rising consumption of dairy, livestock, and seafood products, edible oils, and fruits and vegetables that accompanies rising household income and food expenditure, known as Bennett's Law. For example, a recent study of shifting food demand in the 15 West African countries by Zhou and Staatz (2016) suggests that while there may be ongoing shortfalls in production of rice and wheat, the focus of food policy needs 6 There are many elements to this analysis, but one empirical pattern that underpins the case that there is no tradeoff between production efficiency and social equity while wages are low is the empirical evidence pointing to an inverse relationship between farm size and productivity (often proxied by crop yields). Initially drawn mainly from research in Latin America and South Asia (Berry and Cline, 1979), other evidence indicates a strong inverse relationship persists in sub-Saharan Africa (Barrett et al., 2017). to broaden to include foods for which demand will increase more quickly, in line with Bennett's Law. But urbanization also is associated with significant changes in human diets above and beyond the effects of prices and income, typically shifting food consumption toward sources that are more convenient, including supermarket shopping and meals away from home, and often toward greater reliance on more processed foods (Hawkes et al., 2017;Minten et al., 2017). In Africa, an extreme version of these phenomena is expressed in \"consumption cities,\" a term coined by Gollin et al. (2016b) to describe urbanization involving high import shares, including relatively high reliance on food imports, and a large share of employment in non-tradable services rather than manufactured goods. Barrett et al. (2017, pp. 2-3) associate these \"consumption cities\" with \"greater slum formation, higher urban poverty, larger ruralurban income gaps, and more inequality …\".All of the contextual factors covered in this section so farstructural transformation, agrarian differentiation, and especially urbanizationlead to growth in transportation distances, grading, aggregation, storage, and other marketing functions plus processing and manufacturing; wholesale and retail food sales, including food hawkers and stalls, cafés and restaurants; and even agrotourism; as well as natural resource flows, recycling, and waste management at each step. Each of these depends on agriculture, but none counts within the agricultural sector in the accounting conventions that produce GDP estimates. Put simply, the development process brings a big shift from farm-level production to myriad services and manufacturing. Reardon et al. (2018, Fig. 3. Share of total population in urban areas for 60 countries, 1990 and 2015. Source: The World Bank. 2017. \"Table 3.12 World Development Indicators: Urbanization.\" Data Catalog. URL: http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/3.12. in this issue) present data on the scale and significance of these activities in contemporary developing countries, illustrating the particular importance of labor-intensive service sector growth related to food and agriculture.This is why Barrett et al. (2017, p. 14) call for the strategic focus to be … \"as much on the post-harvest value chain and the rural non-farm economy as on farm-level production\". Those authors make that argument for sub-Saharan Africa, but it applies with growing force across the developing world. Indeed, we argue in our review of impact pathways and mechanisms in Section 3 of this paper that this \"food systems perspective\" (Fig. 3) holds important insights on opportunities for growth in income and employment, and hence poverty reduction and rural prosperity, through AR4D. This food systems perspective, which provides the overarching conceptual framework for the next section of this paper and this special issue, includes a \"value chain\" running from agricultural inputs all the way through human wellbeing as its backbone, supported by the natural resource base and also encompassing wastes from these value chain activities, which can be recycled or reclaimed into resource flows in some cases. Fig. 3 also portrays the food system as a quintessential example of a coupled ecological and social system, spanning both landscapes and \"lifescapes\".Evidence has mounted since the 1990s that there has been a \"great acceleration\" of changes in \"the state and functioning of the Earth System\" since the mid-20th Century (Steffen et al., 2015). In particular, the set of assessment reports of the fifth assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5) concluded that \"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia\" (IPCC, 2013, p. 4). This warming is projected to increase variability in climate and weather (Thornton et al., 2014, p. 3313). Risks from extreme weather and climatic uncertainty always have been challenges for farmers, pastoralists, and fisher folk, but some of the changes that already have been seen are unprecedented in human history and uncertainties ahead may conceal significant vulnerabilities across our food system.Among key risks of climate change that have been identified with \"high confidence,\" the IPCC included \"… breakdown of food systems linked to warming, drought, flooding, and precipitation variability and extremes, particularly for poorer populations …\" and \"loss of rural livelihoods and income due to insufficient access to drinking water and irrigation water and reduced agricultural productivity, particularly for farmers and pastoralists with minimal capital in semi-arid regions\" (IPCC, 2014, p. 13). Effects of climate extremes on agricultural production are expressed through sensitivity of crop yields to extreme daytime temperatures, 9 elevated ozone levels, spread and competition from invasive weeds, drought and flooding, with greatest negative effects for food and agriculture projected to occur in the tropical and subtropical developing countries (IPCC, 2014;Thornton et al., 2014). Although the strongest effects of climate change are likely to be at the agricultural production stage, and most research has focused on crop yield impacts, climate destabilization also threatens other aspects of the food system, including food safety (Vermeulen et al., 2012) and destruction or disruption of critical food system infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, ports, storage and processing facilities, or the power grid (Reardon and Zilberman, 2018). Prospects for sea level rise from global warming have changed markedly across the various IPCC assessment cycles and remain highly uncertain; estimates incorporating new ice sheet models and data after IPCC AR5 suggest that global mean sea level rise \"could exceed 2 m by 2100\" (Oppenheimer andAlley, 2016, p. 1375); compounding uncertainties regarding inundation of low-lying cropland and coastal cities, including many of the Earth's great metropolises, and inducing migration by huge numbers of people.Climate destabilization is but one of several important factors underlying the new reality of non-stationarity in key life support systems. 10 Integrated ecosystem assessment practice provides some guidelines on underlying economic, demographic, sociopolitical, cultural (and religious), and technological drivers to be considered in assessing dynamics of change in Earth systems (Tomich et al., 2010, p. 88). 11 Some of these economic and demographic drivers have been discussed above in Sections 2.1-2.3, though these are not exhaustive by any means. For example: aging of the human population, particularly in rural areas, brings its own sweeping implications.Trade policy is one of the most important sociopolitical drivers of the food system, particularly the durability of an always-elusive \"consensus\" on free trade that has been advocated since the mid-19th Century. Despite significant progress on reducing trade barriers since WWII, history shows that this is easily reversible. \"Liberal\" trade in food commodities is particularly problematic politically and socially. Moreover, mounting problems of invasive pests and novel diseases accompanying global change also may add pressure on trading regimes. Emerging cultural shifts with implications for the food system include concerns with the welfare of livestock and their international manifestation in vegetarian, vegan, and animal rights movements.Any contemporary consideration of possible disruption of the food system (for good or ill) through technological change would have to include the displacement of the public sector role by private investment as the leader in agricultural R&D; CRISPR-Cas9 biotechnology; and other separate prospects for applications of modern genetics to the ecologies of entire biomes (e.g., soil, plant, and gut biomes of humans and livestock). The sensor revolution, including wearable devices, spans scales from the individual person or small patches within fields to entire regions and the whole planet; these in turn may enable rapid development of food system informatics with its own potential for disruption of food business models. Included in this is the emerging commercial viability of synthetic substitutes for red meat and potential for invertebrate sources of animal protein (e.g., arthropods) for humans, pets, and livestock.Each of these possibilities encompasses complex economic, social, and technological changes. Many other sources of uncertainty are less obvious because they span sectors. Consider the possible reaction and implications for concentrated animal feeding operations of a plausible historic disruption of the human health system linked to non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock. Food and energy interactions are another potent source of feedbacks (Pelletier et al., 2011), including biosphere-scale tradeoffs between food versus biofuel (Rosegrant and Msangi, 2014) and biomaterials.While often listed as the primary intended beneficiaries of AR4D, poor smallholder farmers are not the only potential winners, nor is a 9 In temperate regions, \"chilling hours\" necessary for production of some deciduous fruit trees may not be met because of warming of winter nights.10 Non-stationarity is the term for uncertainty in key model parameters, the Earth System modelers' version of the financial sector adage \"past performance is no guarantee of future results.\" This creates an imperative for greater investment in foresight efforts by our scientific leaders, national policymakers, international organizations, funders, and others who shape AR4D policies and priorities (Pingali and Serraj, 2018).11 Though true foresight lies beyond human capabilities, there are proven methods for improving consistency and rigor in dealing with uncertainty in Earth's life support systems, including the food system. One practical step is the consistent assessment of qualitative uncertainty, developed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by Moss and Schneider (2000); also see Mastrandrea et al. (2011); contributors to this special issue have been encouraged to employ this approach.positive outcome guaranteed. Indeed, poor farmers can lose out in the innovation process. In addition, it is important to recognize that rural landless laborers, traders and entrepreneurs, and food consumers (including the urban poor) also are among the groups who can benefit (or lose). As a starting point, which will be elaborated and qualified in the balance of this paper (see Section 4 below), there are at least four important and complementary mechanisms out of poverty for rural people in developing countries: (1) increased farm income; (2) decreased food prices;(3) greater employment opportunities and higher wages (in real purchasing power) due to tightening demand for rural labor, including farm labor; and (4) rural to urban migration (World Bank, 2008). In practice, there are multiple, complex impact pathways through which AR4D could contribute to reductions in poverty.In this section, we consider both the direct ways AR4D can increase farm income and the equally important indirect effects of AR4D, operating through agricultural labor demand and multiplier effects that expand employment in the non-farm labor market (both rural and urban), and complementary innovations in institutions and policies. In addition to short-term income effects on poverty, investments in assets, including both natural and human capital, provide the basis for longterm poverty reduction. Moreover, effects on poverty (for good or ill) often depend on additional complementary activities and investments both within and beyond agriculture. And, as discussed in the previous section, the likelihood of success overall is shaped (often decisively) by the broader context. However, it also is important to note that the important topics of ruralurban migration and international migration as pathways out of poverty are beyond the scope of this special issue.Here too, the results can be mixed. In Nepal and parts of India, for example, men are migrating or pursuing non-agricultural livelihoods (Sunam, 2017), leaving women with greater responsibilities in agriculture (\"feminization of farming\"), without necessarily the resources to meet those responsibilities.Impact pathway analysis (Springer-Heinze et al., 2003) is a widelyaccepted technique in international development practice for systematic analysis of causal relationships linking development investments (e.g., AR4D) through to impacts (e.g., poverty reduction). 12  The primary purposes of this section are to present an ex ante set of 18 plausible poverty impact pathways (Table 1) and to introduce the collection of papers in this special issue, which have been invited to clarify causal hypotheses underlying these pathways, assess the empirical evidence linking AR4D investments to poverty impacts, and to consider potential trade-offs; for example, situations in which innovations may be detrimental to groups of poor people or increase income inequality. Many of the papers in this special issue address more than one of our 18 impact pathways; in this section we bring up each paper in turn regarding its respective focal pathway.Following the terminology of \"outcome mapping\" (Smutylo, 2001), Table 1 is organized to show relationships spanning AR4D activities, their outputs, uptake, outcomes, and poverty impacts for our 18 ex ante pathways. Building on an initial list of eight pathways linking AR4D with poverty reduction, approximately 200 expert participants at the ISPC's Science Forum 2016 made further suggestions in semi-structured sessions. These suggestions were compiled into 18 ex ante pathways in a results-based management format (Table 1).Standard bibliometric tools were used to describe the scope and time trends in publications from 1990 to 2015 for each pathway as a measure of adequacy and currency of data on key cause-effect relationships. A string of search terms was developed for each pathway (Table 2) and queried in Elsevier Scopus, Web of Science, and Ovid. Keywords and Boolean combinations were iteratively tested and adjusted in order to reduce the numbers of irrelevant results. Scopus returned significantly more publications for all pathways than Web of Science or Ovid, with a high rate of overlapping results; because of this, Scopus was used as the primarily bibliometric tool.Bibliometric search strings and number of publications (\"hits\") for our 18 impact pathways. Source: Data from Elsevier Scopus. URL: http://scopus.com.Search term string Hits a All b (\"poverty reduc*\" OR \"poverty alleviat*\" OR \"poverty impact\") b All searches prefixed with a string to include poverty reduction, poverty alleviation, or poverty impact and all truncations of these terms.As can be seen in Table 2, the number of publications per poverty impact pathway during that time period varies by three orders of magnitude, from a low of 68 for food waste (pathway 15) to more than 10,000 publications each for value chains (pathway 6) and national food and agricultural policies (pathway 18). At least for publications indexed in Elsevier's Scopus database, publications meeting the search criteria in Table 2 appear to be increasing with time for each of the poverty impact pathways (Fig. 5); it is no surprise that one of the newest areas of research, food waste (pathway 15), also has the fewest publications.Investment to increase agricultural productivity through breeding of new varieties of crops, livestock, poultry, and fish (pathway 1) combined with improved management practices (pathway 2) has been fundamental to the case for AR4D investment since at least the 1960s. Hayami andRuttan (1971, 1985) used evidence from an international cross section of countries to link agricultural productivity growth to increased incomes (in cash and kind) for poor farmers; increased employment opportunities in agricultural markets even for landless rural laborers; and, higher wages overall because of increased demand for farm and non-farm labor. These potential poverty-reducing effects are focused within the \"landscapes box\" (including input supply and farm-level production) of Fig. 4; as we will see below, these innovations entrain effects across the value chain, with potentially large benefits for urban workers and food consumers as well.Widening application of low-cost modern genetic testing (\"genetic fingerprinting\") and other increasingly rigorous impact assessment methods have raised some questions and qualifications regarding the scope of adoption of some major staple crop varieties (Ilukor et al., 2017;Walker and Alwang, 2015). Alwang et al. (2017, this issue) employ meta-analysis to critically examine the links between AR4D investments to increase staple crop productivity and poverty reduction. (Unfortunately, it was not possible to secure a comparable paper regarding investments intended to increase productivity in livestock or aquaculture).  As noted by Krishna (2010), to reduce poverty overall, it is not enough for the poor to increase their incomes; it is also important to reduce the likelihood of people becoming poor. This is particularly true for rural households. Thus, in addition to concerns with \"average\" productivity trends over time, all farmers face numerous challenges, risks, and vulnerabilities, including climate variability and extremes (droughts and floods), pests and diseases, adverse price changes, institutional failures and political upheaval, to name a few, that can devastate farm production and hence income. Uncertainties raised by climate change (Section 2.4) greatly accentuate all of these potential risks and uncertainties. 13 Innovations to minimize production risks and uncertainties through breeding (pathway 3) and risk-mitigating agricultural practices and other risk management mechanisms (pathway 4) for crops, livestock, poultry, and fisheries can reduce vulnerability for poor farmers; and, as a consequence, create more stable demand for farm and non-farm labor (pathways 3 and 4).Even more than pathways 1 and 2, AR4D investments for pathways 3 and 4 have focused on the \"landscape box\" in Fig. 4. Hansen et al. (2018, this issue) consider the role of AR4D investments in mitigation of risks and uncertainty, with emphasis on approaches to uncertainty resulting from climate destabilization (Section 2.3), as a means of reducing poverty. Our bibliometric analysis (Table 2) suggests a surprising imbalance here between the poverty impact pathway for breeding aimed to reduce production risk (pathway 3 with only 388 hits) versus agricultural practices to reduce production risks (pathway 4 with 4182 hits). Hansen et al. (2018, this issue) also consider how climate shocks can propagate uncertainties and vulnerabilities across food supply chains and promising measures on how food supply chain actors might mitigate shocks through, for example, diversification of agricultural investments, including rigorous development of evidence to guide these investments to greater resilience (Global Panel, 2015a).Underpinning all this is the existence of necessary input supply chains for plant and animal germplasm, nutrients, and other agricultural inputs (pathway 5). Our bibliometric analysis suggests this is only a moderately well-studied impact pathway (1455 hits in Table 2), which is a bit of a riddle given the centrality of input supply, to the \"seed-fertilizer revolution\" that was central to the so-called \"Green Revolution\" (Tomich et al., 1995).In contrast to the relative paucity of attention to input supply (pathway 5) in Table 2, Scopus bibliometric analysis indicates that publications on output market opportunities and \"value chains\" is one of the two poverty impact pathways for which publications are most numerous (10,697 \"hits\" for pathway 6 in Table 2). Reardon et al. (2018, this issue) explicitly address the entire value chain (spanning from \"landscapes\" to \"lifescapes\" and also consider food waste streams (pathway 15) in Fig. 4; their analysis makes a strong case for broadening and extending consideration of AR4D priorities to a food systems perspective, especially in light of the contextual changes discussed above (Section 2).Diversification of crops from starchy staples (grains, roots, and tubers) to livestock, poultry, and fish; pulses and oil seeds; vegetables and fruit; livestock feed and fodder; biofuel and other products (often from agroforestry and forest trees) and extending beyond commodities to services such as ecotourism, can increase income for poor farmers and rural workers (pathway 7). Diversification toward profitable agricultural production options such as livestock, poultry, fish, edible oils, fruits and vegetables has received a significant amount of AR4D research emphasis (e.g., 5317 \"hits\" for pathway 7 in Fig. 4). There is little doubt that in the right contextviz., the demand patterns predicted by Bennett's Law when a country reaches \"middle income\" statusshifting to production of commodities and services with positive income elasticities holds profitable opportunities for farmers, including small-scale farmers (Siegel et al., 2014).However, we would argue that too much of the \"diversification\" literature focuses on the production side to the neglect of the crucial role of prosperity-driven demand patterns in shaping profitable production opportunities (the \"landscapes box\" in contrast to the \"lifescapes box\" in Fig. 4). Barrett et al. (2017, p.5), for example, argue that \"diversification is too often thought of as just a risk mitigation strategy … The rural non-farm sector thus provides a crucial bridge between commodity-based agriculture and livelihoods earned in the modern industrial and service sectors in urban centers …,\" foreshadowing the argument developed in Reardon et al. (2018, this issue) and spanning the entire backbone of the food system, from inputs and farm level production to marketing and processing, and ultimately to consumption and food waste management (Fig. 4). Moreover, each of these steps is potentially highly labor-intensive, which is a positive attribute in creating labor demand and higher wages for workers at the bottom rungs of the socioeconomic ladder in the poorest countries, whether they are rural or urban.A separate pair of pathways concern the resource base underpinning every aspect of our food systems (Fig. 4). More effective natural resource management (NRM) through AR4D investment to improve and develop new practices and technologies, combined with AR4D research on institutions and policies, can contribute to increased incomes for the poor through innovations in natural resource governance, property rights, and rural livelihoods, thereby reducing vulnerability for rural communities and poor farmers; more stable demand for farm and nonfarm labor; improved distribution of wealth, benefitting poor people; improved environmental health, and empowerment of the rural poor to improve their livelihoods (pathway 8).As discussed by van Noordwijk (2017, this issue), NRM policy research and institutional innovations can also build security of tenure and access to resources (i.e. land, fisheries, grazing, forests, freshwater for domestic use and for irrigation) and thereby have sweeping implications for reduction of poverty and vulnerability to external threats, both biophysical and anthropomorphic. Even more recalcitrant cultural, social, political, and economic injustices in access to these resources can perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of chronic poverty despite all these other AR4D investments. Since the ability to feed and educate children adequately determines so much of their prospects (as discussed immediately below), ingrained social, cultural, political, and economic factors that differentiate opportunities of men from women and boys from girls (see Section 4) are directly implicated in the persistence of poverty (pathway 9). Meinzen-Dick et al. (2017, this issue) conduct a comprehensive survey of the literature on the links between women's land rights and rural poverty, including through the effects on consumption and investments that affect intergenerational transfers.It may appear obvious that AR4D investments that support improvements in human nutrition and health important for reduction (pathways 10, 11, and 12). Increased labor and greater labor force participation to increase wages for laborers and incomes for poor farming households underpin all pathways from AR4D to prosperity.Although it is widely argued that incorporating nutrition objectives into AR4D can produce improvements dietary quality, hence on nutrition for the poor (Gillespie and den Bold, 2017;Pingali and Sunder, 2017), rigorous empirical evidence linking these results on to reduction of poverty has been elusive. 14 Part of the challenge in marshalling evidence for AR4D impact pathways linked to health and nutrition arises from potential confounding factors, such as access to 13  Knight (1921) distinguishes \"risk\", for which probability distributions are knowable (based on the notion of stationarity of system parameters; viz., the past is a reliable guide to the future) from \"uncertainty\", for which probability distributions are unknown ex ante. As we argued in Sections 2.3 and 2.4 above, this pure uncertainty in Knight's sense is increasingly important in our food systems and other key life support systems on our planet.14 Hoddinott et al., 2013, is one of the relatively few examples.health services, child feeding practices, water, sanitation and hygiene, education, consumer preferences and food handling practices. At the same time, a mother and child's adequate, high quality and diverse diet acts on poverty reduction and rural prosperity through multiple longterm (intergenerational) pathways; these include reduced childhood morbidity (which carries mortality risks and treatment costs), appropriate school attendance and higher educational attainment, lifetime physiological and cognitive development, and total income earned via adult labor productivity (Alderman et al., 2017). Empirically tracing such long-chain resultsfrom investments in agriculture through pregnancy and childhood diets all the way to adult wagesrepresents a major research challenge. Few longitudinal panel and prospective birth cohort surveys have been able to meet the numerous costs and challenges involved in following individuals from pregnancy to adulthood and into the subsequent generation (Morrow and Dornan, 2017). The few that have achieved this, at least in part, have generally documented the positive value of meeting dietary needs on early child growth and development, leading to much improved health, education and physiological status (Prendergast and Humphrey, 2014;Ramirez-Zea et al., 2010). However, much more needs to be understood regarding key determinants and mechanisms along this longest of pathways.In light of evidence that illness is one of the major reasons that people fall into poverty (Krishna, 2010), it is a point of particular concern that human health effects of food safety (pathway 11) have received relatively limited attention in the AR4D literature, including innovations in field practices, post-harvest management and food storage, processing, and distribution, plus creating enabling policy and institutional environments to reduce contamination and food-borne pathogens for consumers. Unsafe food is a significant cause of disease and death, with the global burden of food-borne diseases estimated at 33 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), 15 and the uncertainties accompanying climate change and emerging science on naturally-occurring food-borne toxins and on the gut microbiome (Sections 2.3 and 2.4) increase the importance of these issues. Separately, and more directly, occupational health of farmers and farm workers (pathway 12) is affected by exposure to pesticides and other agri-chemicals, risk of injury (both acute and chronic) associated with agricultural production practices, alteration of ecosystems due to agricultural practices that contribute to water and vector-borne diseases, and prospects for emergent zoonotic diseases associated with intensive animal husbandry (e.g., virulent flu virus strains and antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria). Underinvestment in research on these topics is not limited to the developing world; it is almost universal. Some opportunities for significant gains in human wellbeing rest with familiar practices such as integrated pest management to reduce pesticide use and lie squarely within the \"landscape box\" of Fig. 4; however, even more worrying threats to food systems and health systems may require heretofore unprecedented integration of R&D strategies across our food systems and crossing boundaries between our food and health systems, including only partially-understood potential risks from widespread (mis)use of pesticides and other agrichemicals, growth hormones, endocrine disruptors, and antibiotics in our food systems as well as environmental pollution from other pharmaceuticals and personal care products entering our food system through contaminated water.The effectiveness of educational investments to build agricultural skills as well as basic literacy and numeracy (pathway 13) is well studied (4210 hits in Table 2). Such investments have been a well-established development priority for a long time (Tomich et al., 1995, Chapter 8). Although not typically grouped within AR4D, reasonable people may disagree whether this topic (and indeed others) was a priority for this special issue. Since these basic educational investments do not seem controversial in their impact on poverty; they have intrinsic value in and of themselves (Schultz, 1975;Sen, 1981 and1989) particularly as means to deal with uncertain prospects like those discussed in Sections 2.3 and 2.4; and because they tend to be politically popular, a paper on pathway 13 was not sought for this special issue.Agricultural productivity growth also tends to lower food prices, which benefits the poor who are net purchasers of food, and spend a large proportion of their incomes on food (pathway 14). This whole food system effectemphasized by Reardon et al. (2018, this issue)with productivity-boosting innovations in rural landscapes producing poverty reduction in distant \"lifescapes\" (Fig. 4) is one of the greatest benefits of the \"Green Revolution\" and also produced some of the seminal work on AR4D impact assessment (Scobie and Posada, 1978).Food waste has received more attention in recent years in relation to the environmental \"footprint\" of food systems (Chen et al., 2017). At the same time, food waste management has received little attention in the context of poverty reduction (pathway 15); our bibliometric study found only 68 citations on this topic in Scopus (Table 2). Nevertheless, if food waste is a significant problem in developing countries, there may be expanded employment, entrepreneurial, and income opportunities for poor households in both rural and urban areas through expansion of labor-intensive recycling enterprises and other initiatives to reduce food system waste and convert waste into commercially-valuable resources; yet another possibility that emerges from a whole-food-system perspective (Fig. 4). Reardon et al. (2018, this issue) consider food waste (pathway 15) within the broader scope of food and agricultural markets and value chains (pathways 5, 6, and 14); the results of their analysis of the limited evidence that is available are provocative, to say the least.The scope and limits of \"food safety net\" programs to reduce poverty (pathway 16) has received a great deal of study since they became common during World War II and persisted through the post-colonial period in many developing countries. Because of their continued prevalence, potential fiscal burdens, and opportunity costs entailed vis-àvis AR4D and other development investments, these programs have been the subject of continuing research, including major studies led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). From 1990 to 2015 alone, we found 8957 hits in Scopus for pathway 16 (Table 2). Many of these have generated influential policy-relevant findings on, for example, food subsidy programs (as in Egypt), conditional cash transfers tied to health and nutrition (Mexico), labor-intensive public works supporting food transfer (India, Niger), rural finance for consumption smoothing (Mali, Madagascar) and food transfers in the context of famine or other humanitarian crises (Ethiopia, Sudan) (Hazell and Slade, 2015). Such work has recently focused more narrowly on cost-effectiveness, distributional impacts by income level and gender, and potential for cash or vouchers in lieu of food transfers (IFPRI, 2015). While many large national programs transferring income or food in poorly targeted and cost-inefficient ways have received much criticism, the continuing potential for effective public procurement and food transfers to achieve nutrition aims remains on the policy agenda of many low income countriesin part because of the opportunities presented to simulate domestic food production, marketing, and processing (Global Panel, 2015b).Research and institutional development for national AR4D capacity by this we mean research on national agricultural research and extension systems and strategiesand to build capacity for national food and agricultural policy (food policy analysis, political economy of food policy) can enhance national capacity for poverty alleviation (pathways 17 and 18). India is a very important case for any consideration of AR4D policy because of its size, its diversity, its complex challenges mixed with remarkable recent progress and, perhaps especially, because India is the world's largest democracy. Dey et al. (2018, this issue) present a case analysis from a long-term study of the interplay between a national non-governmental organization, the Honey Bee Network, and Indian AR4D priorities. Finally, Benfica et al. (2018, this issue) use a mix of methods and data for Mozambique to explore one of the most strategic questions regarding AR4D: given a range of possible investmentse.g., irrigation infrastructure, extension advice, or improved seeds and chemical fertilizerswhat should be the top priorities for development investment and how can we know?The links across some of the posited pathways remain poorly understood and evidence of effects is stronger for some pathways than for others. Moreover, as argued in Section 2 above, the strength and effectiveness of each depends greatly on structural and contextual elements that extend beyond the agricultural sector. Taken together the papers in this special issue seek to offer insights to inform improvements in the design of AR4D which seeks to reduce poverty. Owing to this heterogeneity and the agrarian differentiation discussed in Section 2.2, pathways to reduction of poverty may be very different for different groups of poor people, requiring different strategies and policies. Thus, it is important to distinguish different categories and characteristics of the rural poor; we turn to that topic in Section 4.4. Impacts: reducing poverty, increasing resilience, and promoting rural prosperity By conventional measures (e.g., the gap between income and some designated \"poverty line\"), the World Bank (Olinto et al., 2013, p. 1) reckoned for 2010 that \"more than three quarters of those living in extreme poverty are in rural areas and nearly two thirds of the extremely poor earn a living from agriculture.\" Despite significant advances in the developing world overall since 1980, progress has been slowest in the lowest income countries (Olinto et al., 2013, p. 6).Since at least the 1980s, development institutions have recognized that these conventional income-and head-count based poverty concepts convey only part of the story, especially for chronic poverty. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MDPI), developed for the UNDP Human Development Report since 2010, measures 10 indicators of deprivation in the dimensions of health, education, and standard of living (see Alkire and Robles, 2017;UNDP, 2016). As Hulme and Shepherd (2003, p. 406) concluded, \"… it is now widely accepted by analysts and policy makers that poverty is deprivation in terms of a range of capabilities in addition to incomeeducation, health, human and civil rightsand that these capabilities are significant in their own right and in terms of their contribution to economic growth and income enhancement …\".The seminal work on this \"entitlement\" or \"capability\" approach is Sen's study of famines (1981): \"In understanding the proneness to starvation, we have to view them not as members of the huge army of the 'poor,' but as members of particular classes, belonging to particular occupational groups, having different endowments, being governed by rather different entitlement relations.\" Sen shifted the focus of assessment of poverty or prosperity from measurement of \"commodities or incomes\" (which in his view confuses means with ends) to \"evaluating the importance of various functionings in human life\" (Sen, 1981, p. 44), These include states of being (nutrition, health, and other aspects of individual well-being) and also the capabilities for active pursuit of a full and satisfying life: access to education and productive resources, economic self-determination, cultural and social connections, and political voice to fulfill one's own potential.Sen's perspective of \"poverty as capability deprivation\" (Sen, 1999) underpins the \"sustainable livelihoods\" approach now widely employed in development thinking and practice, including AR4D (Adato andMeizen-Dick, 2002, 2007). This approach expands conventional AR4D considerations to encompass gender bias and institutional mechanisms for greater equity in resource access, property rights, and redistribution of assets as means to address poverty, as well as basic human rights. Gender equity is particularly important in this regard, not only because of the strong gender gaps in resource access and capabilities, but also because of the importance of improving the status of women and girls for ending the intergenerational transmission of poverty.While income or consumption-based measures and even the multidimensional poverty index are standardized, participatory poverty assessments draw on localized definitions of poverty, which may include other aspects, including social exclusion. Krishna (2010) used participatory poverty assessments to examine poverty dynamics over time, including factors affecting the likelihood of falling into poverty. Such approaches can be aligned with emerging notions of building resilience, which means \"helping people, communities, countries and global institutions prevent, anticipate, prepare for, cope with, and recover from shocks and not only bounce back to where they were before the shocks occurred, but become even better off\" (Fan et al., 2014, p. 4). Emphasizing the dynamics and uncertainty characteristic of these systems, Barrett and Headey (2014, p. 188) ask \"… what does good measurement mean in the context of … resilience: risk, vulnerability, chronic and transient poverty, and food insecurity; and complex interactions between shocks and stressors at various scales and between households and their social, economic, and biophysical environments?\"Although poverty generally is measured at the household level, and most AR4D interventions take place at field, landscape, or watershed scales or within the agricultural sector as a whole, poverty, resilience, and prosperity manifest at individual (intra-household), household, community, regional, and national scales. As stressed by Hoddinott (2014, p. 25), measurements of impact for individual units is insufficient and a systems perspective is indispensable, with special importance to human capital formation (health, schooling, nutrition) as a means of building sustainable resilience … Barrett and Swallow (2006) note that constraints at various scales within these systems can lead to \"fractal poverty traps\", which require concerted action to overcome.This cross-scale aspect of these complex casual relationships among AR4D investments, interventions, outcomes, and impacts presents significant challenges for monitoring, evaluation, learning, and impact assessment, and consequently for attribution of results. 16 Poverty, resilience, and prosperity each is an emergent property of the agri-food systems that AR4D is intended to affect, which materially complicates learning and impact assessment. Impact assessment methodology is well beyond the scope of this introduction to the special issue. Linking poverty impacts to A4RD is difficult, even for relatively well-researched pathways such as breeding to improve crops and livestock (pathway 1). Even in this case, unless AR4D products (crop varieties, livestock breeds, agronomic practices, or other innovations) are specifically introduced in a setting where poverty impacts can be observed against a clear counterfactual, the inference problem is severe. Farmers who adopt technologies typically are different from those who do not, and the corresponding selection bias makes it problematic to interpret differences between the groups as resulting from the technology. In cases where research products can be introduced in some randomized fashion, with an appropriate research design, poverty impact can in principle be inferredbut only if observations continue over a sufficiently long time horizon. A key lesson is that poverty impacts are almost impossible to measure reliably unless the initial research design is structured around this goal. Without thoughtful research design at the early stages, there is no statistical technique that can provide convincing evidence after the fact.Moreover, the strategic challenge is not confined to the development of metrics for M&E and methods for impact assessment. Clark and coauthors (Clark et al., 2016;Anadon et al., 2016) argue that AR4D and other forms of innovation so often fail to work for sustainable development \"because impoverished, marginalized, and unborn populations too often lack the economic and political power to shape innovation systems to meet their needs\" (Anadon et al., 2016, p. 1). This is particularly applicable to women, who generally have less voice in AR4D systems. The implications of these challenges for metrics and indicators as well as partnerships, governance, transparency, and mutual accountability, are topics to which we return in the concluding paper of this special issue.This paper approaches prospects for AR4D to contribute to poverty reduction as a systems problem, requiring consideration of shifting contexts, interconnected mechanisms, and complex outcomes and impacts. In the concluding paper in this special issue, we revisit these considerations and their implications for impact pathways, partnerships, and priorities. Changes in the context of these efforts in the developing world over the past three decades have fundamental implications for AR4D priorities. Structural transformation has significantly reduced the number of countries in which agriculture plays the dominant role in the economy, either in terms of GDP or employment. At the national level, the conditions that underpin the most compelling case for AR4D will largely be confined to sub-Saharan Africa in the decades ahead. 17 At the same time, a combination of structural change, better methods, and more nuanced understanding of chronic poverty has revealed the need for a more multifaceted approach to AR4D that targets the needs, constraints, and opportunities of specific groups, including women farmers and laborers. In light of these changes, plus the urbanization of the human population, it is necessary to embrace a food systems perspective well beyond farms and fields, the traditional foci of AR4D, to longer and increasingly complex food chains encompassing myriad activities off-farm and extending all the way to urban areas. Finally, mounting sources of uncertainty, vulnerability, and potential disruption in these food systems (for better or worseand from a host of drivers, not just climate change) suggest that flexibility, adaptability, and resilience are important considerations in AR4D strategy.The food systems perspective reveals a large number (indeed an unmanageably large number) of plausible pathways, from the conventional AR4D investments in breeding and livestock improvement to food waste recycling and food policy research. We now turn to our collection of papers that explore these implications for specific poverty pathways, with consideration of causal relationships across each pathway in light of changing context and understanding gained from decades of AR4D experience.","tokenCount":"9315"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c46654b3cda88a47764599a1595735ec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/79e88d0c-db5f-4688-b9e6-9afa71726e01/retrieve","id":"-994397096"},"keywords":["barley","genebank","genomic prediction","ICARDA","IPK","prediction ability"],"sieverID":"24f28874-e1c7-4950-a598-05620b04ff57","pagecount":"13","content":"Genome-wide prediction is a powerful tool in breeding. Initial results suggest that genome-wide approaches are also promising for enhancing the use of the genebank material: predicting the performance of plant genetic resources can unlock their hidden potential and fill the information gap in genebanks across the world and, hence, underpin prebreeding programs. As a proof of concept, we evaluated the power of across-genebank prediction for extensive germplasm collections relying on historical data on flowering/heading date, plant height, and thousand kernel weight of 9,344 barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) plant genetic resources from the German Federal Ex situ Genebank for Agricultural and Horticultural Crops (IPK) and of 1,089 accessions from the International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) genebank. Based on prediction abilities for each trait, three scenarios for predictive characterization were compared: 1) a benchmark scenario, where test and training sets only contain ICARDA accessions, 2) across-genebank predictions using IPK as training and ICARDA as test set, and 3) integrated genebank predictions that include IPK with 30% of ICARDA accessions as a training set to predict the rest of ICARDA accessions. Within the population of ICARDA accessions, prediction abilities were low to moderate, which was presumably caused by a limited number of accessions used to train the model. Interestingly, ICARDA prediction abilities were boosted up to ninefold by using training sets composed of IPK plus 30% of ICARDA accessions. Pervasive genotype × environment interactions (GEIs) can become a potential obstacle to train robust genome-wide prediction models across genebanks. This suggests that the potential adverse effect of GEI on prediction ability was counterbalanced by the augmented training set with certain connectivity to the test set. Therefore, across-genebank predictions hold the promise to improve the curation of the world's genebank collections and contribute significantly to the long-term development of traditional genebanks toward biodigital resource centers.Collections of plant genetic resources (PGRs) are a valuable source of diversity that provides the basis for developing diseaseresistant, nutrient-dense, and climate-resilient crop varieties (Hoisington et al., 1999). However, given the vastness of genebank holdings, selecting the most suitable accessions with specific desirable traits for breeding is challenging. The limited passport information and basic phenotypic characterization for important agronomic traits and the lack of robust and costefficient phenotyping capacities are currently chief among the bottlenecks restricting the full exploitation of plant genetic resources (Furbank and Tester, 2011;McCouch et al., 2013;Anglin et al., 2018). Because the characterization of entire collections in genebanks is resource-intensive and timeconsuming, high-throughput genomic tools have been proposed to leverage the potential of genebank collections. Tremendous advances in genotyping technology sharply reduced the cost of genotyping, facilitating the generation of large-scale sequencing and genotyping datasets for entire genebank collections (Kilian and Graner, 2012). Pioneering international projects have thus genomically characterized comprehensive collections of genetic resources and are making this information available in biodigital resource centers. For instance, the Federal Ex situ Genebank hosted at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben, Germany, has genotyped its barley collection (22,626 accessions) using a genotyping by sequencing (GBS) platform (Milner et al., 2019). This information and the plant material can be accessed and visualized through the BRIDGE web portal (https://bridge.ipk-gatersleben.de/). The Seeds of Discovery initiative, which aims to promote the effective use of PGR, has characterized 37% and 66% of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) wheat genebank accessions, respectively, using sequencing-based diversity array technology (DArTseq; Sansaloni et al., 2020).Systematic valorization of the produced genomic data has made rapid advances in subsequent genomic studies and breeding purposes. In combination with the genomic profile, genebank's comprehensive historical phenotypic data, accumulated over the years, provided useful information about genetic gaps in collections (Volk et al., 2021). Different genomic approaches were widely implemented to close the gap between genebank management and prebreeding. For instance, genome-wide prediction has been proposed to effectively impute phenotypic information for entire genebank collections based on representative subsamples of entire collections for which genotypes and phenotypes have been recorded. These panels can be used as training populations for genotyped accessions lacking phenotypic records (Yu et al., 2016).Several studies have demonstrated the potential of using genomewide prediction for genebank collections (Crossa et al., 2016;Kehel et al., 2020;Jiang et al., 2021;Schulthess et al., 2022). Alternatively, genome-wide prediction based on training datasets generated in other genebanks has the potential to increase the attractiveness of collections around the world by providing information to users for a wide range of traits. This approach has been used in a study to predict yield breeding values for winter wheat accessions maintained at INRAE (L'institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement) using IPK-PGRs as training data, but the validation of the predictions was not implemented (Schulthess et al., 2022).To fill this gap, we integrated our study data across the two important barley collections maintained at ICARDA and IPK. Prior to applying genomic prediction, a strategic pipeline to curate the non-orthogonal historical data was implemented for the IPK collection (Gonzaĺez et al., 2018b). The same rigorous quality assessment including plausibility checks, outlier corrections, and bias estimation due to the historical seed regeneration patterns was applied independently for each of the winter, spring, and facultative ICARDA barley populations. Therefore, our study makes use of comprehensive historical phenotypic and genomic data of 9,344 and 1,089 barley accessions from IPK and ICARDA genebanks, respectively. The main goal was to evaluate the potential and limitations of genome-wide predictions across genebanks using IPK and ICARDA historical phenotypic data. In particular, our objectives were to 1) assess the quality of ICARDA historical data for heading date (HD), plant height (PH), and thousand kernel weight (TKW); 2) study the population structure of both IPK and ICARDA collections; 3) examine the prediction ability of the same given traits within ICARDA population defined by growth habit and row type; 4) assess the benefits of across-genebank prediction in imputing phenotypes of ICARDA accessions relying only on the IPK genebank (one-sided approach) or 5) on a combined IPK-plus-ICARDA training set (integrated approach).  1). Across traits, 48,882 data points were recorded for HD, PH, and TKW, mostly in unreplicated field trials. Heading date was recorded as the number of days when 50% of the plants in each observation plot have emerged to 75% from the flag leaf sheath (Z57 stage according to Zadoks et al., 1974) starting from the date of sowing. PH was measured from the ground level to the top of the spike, including awns, at the end of the flowering period. TKW was determined in grams by weighing a representative sample of grains harvested at ∼12.5% moisture basis, counting grains, and extrapolating the weight to 1,000 grains. Approximately 50% of the accessions were phenotyped for HD and PH for 2 years, while TKW had the lowest percentage (18.4%) of accessions with 2 years of observations. ICARDA collection included 7,576 spring, 881 winter, and 4,164 facultative barley accessions. In addition, approximately 14% of the accessions (2,369) have ambiguous growth habit records, and 9% (1,566) have no available information. The majority (72%) of the accessions were six-rowed type, while two-rowed barley represented 24% of the total collection. The classification of winter, spring, and facultative ICARDA accessions was not derived from a premeditated experimental design. Rather, the barley accessions were sown toward the end of November or the beginning of December, without deliberate consideration of vernalization treatments to induce the winter type. The accessions' responses to prevailing environmental conditions were closely monitored and meticulously recorded. Under favorable circumstances, the presence of winter types became evident, as all spring accessions demonstrated successful progression to the heading and maturity stages. Nevertheless, in several instances, the natural ambient temperatures failed to provide sufficient vernalization, leading to the classification of certain accessions as winter or facultative types due to their inability to reach the heading stage, with only a limited number of plants in the plots achieving successful maturity. However, an interesting aspect emerged concerning facultative accessions being able to integrate cues from both winter and spring conditions, resulting in a marginally prolonged period to reach the heading stage. This growth type exhibits cold tolerance and can set seeds without the need for vernalization, indicating their adaptability to varying environmental cues.Phenotypic data from IPK included information on 6,957 spring and 2,387 winter barley accessions collected from the IPK campus (Gatersleben, Germany; latitude 51°49′22.5″N, longitude 11°16′40.6″E, 110.5 m.a.s.l.). Spring barley subpopulation included 4,425 six-rowed and 2,532 two-rowed accessions. Winter subpopulations included 1,901 and 486 accessions of six-rowed and two-rowed accessions, respectively (Supplementary Table 2). The accessions were phenotyped for flowering time (FT), PH, and TKW (referred also to as thousand grain weight) during their regeneration in the past seven decades, and the associated phenotypic information was previously described in detail by Gonzaĺez et al. (Gonzaĺez et al., 2018a;Gonzaĺez et al., 2018b). FT was recorded as the number of days when 50% of the plants in each observation plot reached the flowering counting from January 1 of each year for winter types and from the sowing date onward in the case of spring types. The flowering stage for both winter and spring corresponds to stage Z65 (Zadoks et al., 1974). High correlations have been reported between flowering time and heading date as a result of their closeness during crop phenology (Gol et al., 2021;Celestina et al., 2023). Therefore, we considered FT from IPK accessions as a proxy trait for HD of ICARDA material in acrossgenebank prediction. PH and TKW of IPK accessions were assessed as previously described for the ICARDA genebank. Each of the three traits was analyzed using a linear mixed model for quality assessment routines and performance estimation (Gonzaĺez et al., 2018a;Gonzaĺez et al., 2018b). Outlier removal led to high heritability estimates exceeding 0.8, and the resulting best linear unbiased estimations (BLUEs) for each of the traits were used in this study.Phenotypic data analyses for the ICARDA collection were performed following the methods specified for the IPK genebank (Gonzaĺez et al., 2018a;Gonzaĺez et al., 2018b). Analyses were conducted for winter, spring, and facultative accessions separately, and the accessions with non-unique records of growth class were excluded. The following linear mixed model was applied:where y is the m-dimensional vector of phenotypic records, m is the common intercept term, g is the n-dimensional vector of genotypic effects, Z 1 is an m  n design matrix allocating each record to the corresponding accession, t is the l-dimensional vector of year effects, Z 2 is an m  l design matrix allocating each record to the corresponding year, i is the s-dimensional vector of genotypeby-year interaction effects, Z 3 is the corresponding m  s design matrix, and e is the residual term. In Equation 1, we assumed that m is a fixed parameter, while the remaining components are random in the way g, and e ∼ N(0, Is 2 e ). The broad-sense heritability was estimated as, where ŝ 2 g , ŝ 2 t , ŝ 2 i , and ŝ 2 e are the estimates of the corresponding variance components, q is the harmonic mean of the number of evaluated years per genotype, and p is the harmonic mean of the number of replicates per genotype (Holland et al., 2003).Model 1 was also used for the outlier test with slightly different assumptions, that is, treating g as a vector of fixed effects instead of random. The residuals were first standardized by the rescaled median absolute deviation from the median, and then a Bonferroni-Holm test was applied to flag the outliers (Bernal-Vasquez et al., 2016). A data point was declared as an outlier by the implemented test according to a predefined significance threshold of p-value < 0.05. After removing the outliers from the initial dataset, model 1 was fitted again to recompute variance components and broad-sense heritabilities as well as to calculate the genotypic BLUEs. For BLUE computation, the same assumptions in model 1 as specified for outlier correction were considered. All mixed models for phenotypic analyses were fitted using the ASReml R package version 4 (Butler et al., 2017).A total of 22,626 accessions from the IPK were previously fingerprinted using GBS technology (Milner et al., 2019). In this study, 1,803 ICARDA accessions were characterized based on the same method: briefly, DNA was digested with PstI and MspI (New England Biolabs) restriction enzymes, and sequencing was performed with Illumina HiSeq 2500. Read mapping and variant calling were performed essentially as described by Milner et al. (2019). After adapter trimming with cutadapt (Martin, 2011), reads were aligned to the MorexV3 reference genome sequence assembly with BWA-MEM (Li, 2013). Alignment records were converted to Binary Alignment/Map format with samtools and sorted with Novosort (http://www.novocraft.com/products/novosort/). Variant calling was performed with bcftools (Li, 2011). Variant matrices were filtered and formatted with a custom script (ipk_dg_public, 2018) prior to input into R via the SNPRelate package (Zheng et al., 2012). Only bi-allelic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with less than 10% heterozygous calls were retained. After this filtering, GBS profiles were integrated with the BLUEs (after outlier correction) of 9,344 IPK and 1,116 ICARDA accessions with known row-type information (Supplementary Tables 1, 2). In this integrated dataset, a final total of 27,610 SNPs was retained after applying quality control criteria (call rate >0.95 and minor allele frequency (MAF) >0.05).Genetic relationships among 1,116 ICARDA and 9,344 IPK accessions were investigated using a principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) based on the Euclidean distances computed from markers. PCoA was performed using the \"ecodist\" R package (version 2.0.9).For genomic predictions, 27 ICARDA accessions having phenotypic information but belonging to the 2RF row-type group were excluded because this row type did not exist among IPK accessions. Row-type 2RF comprises barley accessions in which each spikelet contains two rows of seeds, the two outer rows of seeds being larger and more prominent, forming ridges along the length of the spikelet. The inner seeds may be smaller or less developed. The distinction between the two-rowed and 2RF classifications is based on the level of detail provided about the seed arrangement within the spikelet on the barley head. Among the genotyped ICARDA accessions, 1,071, 1,057, and 1,081 accessions were phenotyped for HD, PH, and TKW, respectively. For IPK, 9,341, 9,298, and 7,575 genotyped accessions had BLUEs for FT, PH, and TKW, respectively. Three different genome-wide prediction models were applied: 1) genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP; VanRaden, 2008), 2) extended genomic best linear unbiased prediction (EGBLUP; Jiang and Reif, 2015), and 3) reproducing kernel Hilbert space regression (RKHS; Gianola and van Kaam, 2008).The GBLUP model exploits the additive effects of all markers and has the following form:where y is the n-dimensional vector of BLUEs obtained from the phenotypic data analyses, b is the k-dimensional vector of fixed effects including covariates (if any) and the intercept, X is the corresponding design matrix (if there are no covariates in the model, then b = m the common intercept and X = 1 n a column vector of ones), g A ∼ N(0, G A s 2 g ) is the n-dimensional random vector of (additive) genetic values, and e ∼ N(0, Is 2 e ) is the residual. G A = ZZ } is the VanRaden G-matrix, where Z = M= ffiffi c p , M is the n  s matrix of marker profiles coded as 2 − 2p, 1 − 2p, and − 2p(p is the allele frequency), c = o s i=1 2p i (1 − p i ), and s is the number of markers.The EGBLUP model is an extension of the GBLUP model by considering additive-by-additive epistatic effects between all pairs of markers:where g AA ∼ N(0, G AA s 2 g ) is the n-dimensional random vector of additive-by-additive genetic values, while all other notations are the same as in the GBLUP model. The epistatic covariance matrix was calculated as follows (Jiang and Reif, 2020):where ∘ denotes the Hadamard product of matrices.The RKHS model originated from a semi-parametric approach, but its form is similar to the GBLUP model with a different covariance matrix (de Los Campos et al., 2010). The RKHS model exploits additive and epistatic effects among markers up to any order, but the weights for different orders of epistasis were implicitly fixed (Jiang and Reif, 2015). In our implementation, we followed the \"kernel averaging\" approach (de Los Campos et al., 2010); i.e., we considered the following:where g i ∼ N(0, K i s 2 g i ) and other notations are the same as specified in GBLUP. The element in the jth row and kth column of), where x jl is the lth marker profile of the jth individual, and (h 1 , h 2 , h 3 ) = (0:1, 0:5, 1).All genomic prediction models were implemented using the R package BGLR (Peŕez and de Los Campos, 2014).We evaluated the prediction ability of the GBLUP, EGBLUP, and RKHS models using the following scenarios for ICARDA accessions.Fivefold cross-validation was applied separately within each growth class among ICARDA accessions. For each growth class, accessions were randomly divided into five subsets, each with balanced proportions of accessions sampled from both row types, of which four subsets served as the training set with the remaining as the test set. The sampling was repeated 20 times.Here, only information from the IPK barley collection was used to predict ICARDA accessions. Five sub-scenarios, 2a-e, with different combinations of training and test sets were considered to assess prediction ability in the case of merging the different row types and within each row-type subpopulation (Supplementary In this approach, the same sub-scenarios described in scenario 2 were implemented with a slight adjustment of the training sets. The phenotypic records of 30% of ICARDA accessions were integrated with the respective phenotypic records of the IPK dataset to predict the rest of ICARDA accessions. Twenty random samplings were considered and performed separately.For each scenario, each of the three genomic prediction models was implemented twice, one ignoring the row-type subgroup information and the other modeling the row type as a fixed covariate. The influence of the row type on the prediction ability was investigated by comparing the prediction abilities that resulted from these two cases. For all three scenarios, the prediction ability was estimated as the correlation between the observed and predicted values of all accessions in the test set. In addition, the prediction ability for each row-type subgroup was also calculated separately. The standard error was estimated using a bootstrap approach with 1,000 samplings.Linear mixed models combined with rigorous quality assessment were implemented for historical IPK data and described in detail in recent works (Gonzaĺez et al., 2018a;Gonzaĺez et al., 2018b). Briefly, based on a two-step quality control that considers plausibility checks of trait values and outlier corrections, high heritability estimates (above 0.8) were obtained for the traits under consideration (Supplementary Table 4). Moreover, heritability increased by 17% by removing a maximum of 2.5% outliers for the IPK collection. The same strategy was applied in the analysis of historical phenotypic data from ICARDA. The outlier correction resulted in the exclusion of up to 1.74% of the total accessions and increased the heritability by up to 41%, depending on the trait and growth class (Table 1). Heritabilities observed for the ICARDA barley accessions were lower than those for IPK (Table 1; Supplementary Table 4). This discrepancy in heritabilities can be attributed to several factors, including disparities in phenotyping conditions and prevailing environmental stresses. It is noteworthy that ICARDA accessions TABLE 1 The number of outliers for each trait in each growth class and the influence of removing outliers on the estimated broad-sense heritability for ICARDA collection.Growth class N data N outlier N geno N geno _ out ĥ 2 ĥ 2 out D ĥ 2 (%) N data , the number of phenotypic records; N outlier , the number of outliers; N geno , the number of accessions; N geno _ out , the number of accessions that were identified as outliers; ĥ 2 , the estimated heritability; ĥ 2 out , the re-estimated heritability after removing all outliers; D ĥ 2 , the difference between the estimated heritability after and before removing all outliers (in percentage); HD, heading date (days); PH, plant height (cm); TKW, thousand kernel weight (g).El Hanafi et al. 10.3389/fpls.2023.1227656 Frontiers in Plant Science frontiersin.org were grown in a harsh environment characterized by frequent drought and heat stress. Such challenging conditions can significantly impact the phenotypic expression of traits, resulting in lower heritability estimates. The stress-induced variability can mask the genetic component, leading to decreased heritability values. In contrast, the German environment provided an optimum growing condition for the IPK accessions and, hence, led to higher heritabilities by reducing the environmental noise, which could otherwise affect the genetic expression of the traits. TKW was the most heritable trait in each growth class with heritability estimates exceeding 0.65 (Table 1). In contrast, HD and PH had moderate heritabilities with values ranging from 0.32 to 0.50. Of the total number of accessions (two-and six-rowed row types) with both phenotypic and genotypic data (1,264), 1,089 accessions were retained after outlier correction (Supplementary Table 5). These accessions were used for genomic prediction analyses.Regarding BLUEs, wide phenotypic variation was observed in each growth class for both genebank collections (Figure 1). For ICARDA accessions in general, HD was between 92.27 days and 165.92 days, PH between 33.19 cm and 136.05 cm, and TKW between 12.43 g and 71.7 g (Figure 1A). For IPK accessions, FT varied between 128.31 days and 178.15 days, PH between 50.44 cm and 176.51 cm, and TKW between 15.64 g and 68.44 g (Figure 1B). Except for FT across growth habits of IPK accessions, no significant average differences (p-value ≥ 0.05) were observed between either growth habits or row types within IPK and ICARDA genebanks indicating that the genotyped fractions of both collections cover a similar space of phenotypic diversity, at least for the assessed historic traits. However, the significantly earlier average in FT of IPK spring compared to winter accessions (D = 69.9 days, p-value< 2.2e−16) is most likely due to the different reference day, i.e., January 1 (winter types) vs. sowing date (spring types), used to express this trait. Moreover, no significant average differences were observed between IPK and ICARDA genebanks regarding PH and TKW (p-value ≥ 0.05).The genetic structure of ICARDA and IPK collections was investigated through a PCoA based on the Euclidean distance matrix estimated using 27,610 SNPs. At first glance, the accessions derived from the ICARDA genebank seem to occupy a relatively small area of IPK diversity space. However, this result should be interpreted carefully since only 1,116 genotyped ICARDA accessions were used in this analysis (Figure 2A). Extensive genotyping of the ICARDA collection is necessary to highlight the specifics of that collection. The facultative accessions of the ICARDA collection did not form a clearly delineated group from the rest of the accessions (Figure 2A). In the spring and winter barley subpopulations, the six-rowed and two-rowed accessions were clearly separated with some exceptions pointing to admixture (Figures 2B, C).The fivefold cross-validated prediction abilities within the population of ICARDA accessions varied widely among traits and populations defined by growth habits and row types (Figure 3).Box-whisker plots showing the distribution of best linear unbiased estimations of heading date (HD; days), flowering time (FT; days), plant height (PH; cm), and thousand kernel weight (TKW; g) of up to (A) 1,089 ICARDA and (B) 9,344 IPK accessions for two-rowed (white boxes) and six-rowed subgroups (gray boxes). Distribution is shown separately for winter, spring, and facultative barley.Genebanks are considered a reservoir of untapped genetic diversity for potential climate-relevant traits and improved adaptation to various biotic and abiotic stresses (Anglin et al., 2018;Guerra et al., 2022;Leigh et al., 2022). Phenotypic characterizations and documentation of genebank material are essential to promote the effective use of plant genetic resources because without them, searching for valuable accessions with desirable agronomic traits is like searching blindfolded for the proverbial needle in a haystack (Mascher et al., 2019). However, the genetic landscape that genebank managers must navigate to access information of their accessions is labor-and resource-intensive. As an interesting alternative, we explored the potential of genome-wide predictions to overcome the phenotyping bottleneck and hence unlock the genetic merits of plant genetic resources in two genebanks. Comprehensive historical data from IPK and ICARDA on flowering/heading date, plant height, and thousand kernel weight collected during seed regeneration cycles were used to demonstrate the combined powers of across-genebank predictions to support genebanks with trait information on accessions.Genome-wide predictions for ICARDA accessions were conducted at two levels: predictions within and across genebanks. Within the ICARDA genebank (Figure 3), which was set as a benchmark scenario, the prediction ability of heading date, plant Percentage change (%) in average prediction abilities from modeling the row type as a covariate within the population of ICARDA accessions using genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) over omitting the row-type covariate for heading date (HD; days), plant height (PH; cm), and thousand kernel weight (TKW; g) according to different growth habits. Positive (negative) changes correspond to improvements (declines) in prediction ability.Prediction abilities of extended genomic best linear unbiased prediction (EGBLUP) method for heading date (HD; days), plant height (PH; cm), and thousand kernel weight (TKW; g) of ICARDA accessions obtained by applying a one-sided across-genebank prediction approach. W_W, winter to winter (scenario 2a); S_S, spring to spring (scenario 2b); W_F, winter to facultative (scenario 2c); S_F, spring to facultative (scenario 2d); WS_F, winter and spring to facultative (scenario 2e).El Hanafi et al. 10.3389/fpls.2023.1227656 height, and thousand kernel weight is positively associated with their heritability (Table 1). This relationship between prediction ability and heritability has been reported previously (de Oliveira et al., 2018;Arojju et al., 2020). Moreover, despite the statistical model applied, prediction abilities differed only marginally with GBLUP showing a slight advantage over other models (Supplementary Table 6). Therefore, we can propose the use of GBLUP as the default genomic prediction model to impute phenotypic values within a genebank. For the one-sided across-genebank predictions, despite the large differences in prediction ability between traits, the difference in prediction abilities was less pronounced between models (Supplementary Table 7). However, the best-performing model (EGBLUP), accounting for additive-by-additive epistasis, did not show sufficient prediction performance within the ICARDA genebank (Supplementary Figure 1). Interestingly, the integrated approach clearly underlined the contribution of the borrowed information from the ICARDA genebank to enhance the prediction ability (Table 2), hence making it more promising for predictions across two contrasting genebanks. Therefore, genome-wide prediction can be an excellent alternative to populate genebanks with phenotypic estimates in a cost-and time-effective way. This will help to bridge gaps between genebanks, enrich genebank information, and help in capturing the genetic diversity and allelic richness present across genebank collections. In the same context, we have demonstrated the profit of genome-wide prediction to predict the facultative type across genebanks using the pooled spring and winter populations and, hence, unlock the valuable diversity of this unique growth habit that provides the flexibility to be sown either in the fall as winter or even as a spring crop.Considering the relatively limited number of facultative types in the IPK collection, a promising approach would be to predict the growth habit of accessions with missing information, effectively extending the population size and, hence, bolstering predictive abilities. Furthermore, an intriguing alternative to genome-wide prediction would be the utilization of functional markers for classification. However, the current use of GBS data poses limitations, preventing a detailed functional marker-based classification, particularly for the haplotypes at VRN-H2 and VRN-H1. Nonetheless, we are optimistic that this limitation can be addressed with an increased density of genomic information. By leveraging genotypic data that incorporates information from functional markers with genome-wide prediction abilities, we could develop a compelling strategy that holds great potential for precise growth habit predictions. With these innovative methods on the horizon, we anticipate gaining a deeper and more nuanced understanding of growth habits in genebank accessions. The continuous advancement of genomic technologies and functional marker applications will undoubtedly pave the way for a new era of precision in predicting growth habits, fostering significant progress in barley breeding and crop management strategies.On a large scale, we observed that the IPK genebank covers most of the neutral molecular diversity existent among the portion genotyped of the ICARDA collection (Figure 2). In addition, for most evaluated traits across the different growth habits, modeling a population-structure-related covariable like row type did not improve predictabilities for ICARDA accessions (Figure 4). This suggests that other factors beyond population structure are influencing predictions for the ICARDA genebank and limit the prediction ability for situations where phenotypic data are exclusively available in one genebank. To gain more knowledge about this and minimize any confounding effect of population structure, we further explored the phenotypes of ICARDA-like IPK accessions and their close relatives from the ICARDA genebank (Euclidean distance< 0.01; Supplementary Figure 2). In the best case, the imperfect correlations between relative pairs were 0.63, 0.41, and 0.68 for HD, PH, and TKW, respectively. In fact, ICARDA accessions were phenotyped in the Central West Asia North Africa (CWANA) region, where the environmental conditions differ significantly from the European weather conditions due to frequent drought and terminal heat stress. We thus conclude that phenotypic plasticity as a result of the interaction between genotypes and the environment could be one of the main factors reducing the connectivity between training and test sets in across-genebank prediction scenarios.Genetic resources are vital for future food security. The deployment of advanced technologies would provide an unprecedented opportunity to profit from the immense natural diversity stored in genebanks. Following the successful proof-ofconcept implementation of genome-wide predictions within genebank accessions (Crossa et al., 2016;Yu et al., 2016;Kehel et al., 2020;Jiang et al., 2021;Schulthess et al., 2022), we expanded this integrative strategy to a broader context for the enrichment of genebank phenotypic information across genebanks. The integrated across-genebank prediction was successfully applied to estimate the breeding value across two contrasting genebanks using a larger population size and larger marker density. However, the results were conditioned by two main factors: trait heritability and connectivity of the training population to the test set. To capture the variance resulting from the genotype × environment interaction (GEI), methods have been developed and applied to fit detailed variables in the models and deal with genetic/environmental heterogeneity within datasets (Crossa et al., 2022;Rogers and Holland, 2022). From our observations, we assume that a proportion of accessions from the ICARDA genebank with similar environmental features was informative enough to improve the prediction abilities. Particularly for historical multilocations data, it would be also worthwhile to deploy models that take into consideration the time-series/spatial structure of different The results were expressed in terms of the percent of increase or decrease for each respective growth-type and row-type subpopulations across the traits. RKHS, reproducing kernel Hilbert space regression; GBLUP, genomic best linear unbiased prediction; W_W, winter to winter; S_S, spring to spring; WS_F, winter and spring to facultative.environmental conditions. Alternatively, due to the large effect of weather variables on the genotypic response of accessions held globally in genebanks, grouping the accessions into a small number of clusters with similar features (e.g., climate patterns and trial management) might be a feasible approach to identify megaenvironments driving their separation. The identification of these mega-environments could provide useful information for optimized training populations and thus improve the prediction accuracy across genebanks.","tokenCount":"5220"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8e4e686327f93d489902105ff4a7fbf8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_15706i.pdf","id":"2122732575"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6de7ebc1-c6f7-4232-a60a-d31b25e50e31","pagecount":"46","content":"INTRODUCTION + REMERCIEMENTS -PROGRAMME DU SEMINAIRE -INTERVENTIONS * Presentation de 1'IIMI par Mr Kurt A. LONSWAY, Directeur du projet IIMI-PHI-Niger * --D6finitions du concept genre et de l'approche genre dans l'agriculture et dans l'irrigation\" par Mirjam Schaap, Consultante Sociologue de 1'IIMI-Sri Lanka Presentation des etudes faites B Saga et Tillakalna sur le t h h e \"relation genre et irrigation\" par Madame DAD1 Fatima Massalatchi, Agronome Assistante de 1'IIMI-Niger-programmes, des partenaires et des financements.Associer les autres pays IIMI dans les actions recherche-d6veloppement ayantun impact imm6diat et une r6percussion r6gionale.- La riziere est perpue ici comme un champ collectif dont la responsabilite incombe aux hommes (maris) ; les femmes de nos jours, ne veulent pas rentrer dans la parcelles pour y travailler car elles considerent cela comme une honte.Les changements intervenus aprbs la creation du p6rimbtre :-Les femmes ont perdu leurs champs de cases occup6 par le perimhtre et ont moins facilement acc&s aux terres bas-fonds, L'dlevage qui Btait et demeure une activite tr&s bien appr6ciee par les femmes est devenu maintenant moins facile B pratiquer cause de l'acchs difficile de l'eau du fleuve pour les animaux et Be la perte de nombreuses aires de pgturage :-Lev temps de travail des femmes a augment6 car en plus de 1 hrvernage ,elles apportent maintenant le repas a manger pour leur mari qui sont sur les parcelles. AU cas oh le mari a engage la main d'oeuvre, les tPches et le temps de travail des fennnes se multiplient :Le principal avantage que les femmes ont tire de l'introduction du Hrimbtre est l'acchs aux unites de culture attelee qui a facilite le labour de leurs champs de case bien que la plupart d'entre elles paient ces prestations de service. Les femmes qui ont leurs champs de cas situes & proximit6 des canaux d'irrigation, utilisent cette eau pour alimenter leurs cultures en cas de deficit pluvial ; -Le site marahher de Banigoungou exploit6 par les femmes dudit village est un avantage pour celles-ci bien que qua sa superficie n'est que 2'5 ha (petite par rapport a celle du Hrimbtre) avec plus d'une centaine de femmes cultivant deux ou dix petites planches et oh il manque parfois de l'eau pour irriguer (pBriode de recolte).  Le veuvage est essentiellement le seul moyen perrnettant aux femmes d'avoir accbs laterre amhagee. Dbsormais, les responsables charges de l'attribution des terres des futurs perimbtras doivent penser aux femmes et leur donner des parcelles en ayant en tgte qu'elles sont des chefs d'exploitation qu'elles peuvent l'6tre ou sont appelees un jour ti l'6tre.Les fenunes ont perdu des terres (champs de case, champs dunaires) en m&me temps que les hommes au moment de la creation de nombreux perimbtres. Elles doivent &re dedomagees elles aussi et ne pas attendre le dbcbs de leur mari pour leur attribuer la parcelle. D'ailleurs, nombreuses sont celles qui ont affirm6 ne jamais mettre la main dans une parcelle pour travailler si ce n'est qu'aprbs la mort de leur mari. Donc l'attribution d'une terre constituerait une forme d'apprentissage l'agriculture irriguee pour certaines et dviterait B certaines l'endettement pour engager la main d'oeuvre qui leur cofite d'ailleurs chbre .A Saga, les femmes perdent une bonne partie des recoltes utilisee pour le remboursement des prtits qu'elles prennent en debut de campagne pour payer la main d'oeuvre.Pour leur Bviter l'escroquerie, des commerqants qui leur prement un sac de riz de 5.000 F pour un pr& de 3.000 F et parfois 2.500F, la cooperative doit penser h leur donner un credit social dont beneficient certains membres.Pour les perimhtres d6jB existants, on leur attribuera au fur et B mesure les terres arrachees aux exploitantes qui en payaient pas leurs redevances pour qu'elles les exploitent.I1 faudrait aussi que les exploitantes soient representees au niveau des organes de la coop6rative et incorpor6es auprhs de certaines structures de gestion oh elles feront un apprentissage B la gestion : garantir que leurs points de vue et opinions sur la gestion du perimetre soient accept& par les autres colLBgues homes.On peut aussi leur cr6er une structure parallele avec une reprksentation au niveau du bureau de la cooperative. Les objectifs de depart de sa recherche 6taient de :-Montrer comment les femmes ont-elles pu obtenir des parcelles sur le perimetre Dakiri ?Apprbcier l'impact du pbrimhtre sur leur situation.-Connaitre leurs activit6s socio-bconomiques et -Cependant, la richesse des donnees recueillies sur le terrain a pernis de relever quelques problhmes specifiques aux femnes qui entravent leurs travaux agricoles plus particulibrement.I \"  -Les culture s irriauees A l'instar des hommes, les femmes exploitent elles-mkmes leurs parcelles sauf, quelques unes (5 %) qui pour des raisons d8ige avanc-5, n'interviennent que ponctuellement sur leurs parcelles lors du repiquage et du desherbage.Les principales speculations developpees sont le riz en hivernage pour la grande majoritd ( 8 0 %) et quelque fois du mals, du mil, des arachides, sur les parcelles situees trop en hauteur en fin d'amdnagement. Les parcelles en situation d'inondation se prbtent bien t a la riziculture en contre-saison. A cette pdriode, les mgmes speculations y sont pratiquement developpees en plus de l'oignon, des patates et des lbgmes salon la configuration de la parcelles (en hauteur ou sans difficult& d'irrigation).sur la plaine, presque toutes les tiches sont executdes sans trop de difficultds par les femes : B l'exception du piochage et de la preparation des pdpinibres. Selon elles, le piochage estune tiche trbs dure pour laquelle elles sont moins aptes. pour cette tache, 90 recourent B m e main d80euvre salariee. Le prix de cette operation gui varie en fonction de la superficie de la parcelle et de la periode d'execution est plus cher en hivernage a cause de la raretd de la main d'oeuvre salaride. Aussi, les femmes ne maftrisent pas les techniques de preparation des pdpinibres qui ont dt6 enseignees uniquement aux hommes. Toutefois, quelques unes les prdparent seules ( 5 %) ou participent aux c8tBs de leurs Bpow ou leurs enfants B cette preparation (10 %). Celles qui prdparent seules leurs pdpinibres les ont appris avec leurs 6 p o w ou responsables de blocs.Ces tfiches sont accomplies avec lraide de la main d'oeuvre familiale (enfants, B p o u x , frbres et rarement les co-dpouses sauf si elles sont toutes attributaires : dans ce cas, il y a m e sorte d'entraide).L'entraide familiale intervient surtout lors du repiquage, du fauchage, du transport, du battage et du vannage. Les tsches qui ne sont pas couramment executees par les femmes sont faites par leurs enfants lorsqu'ils sont grands : dans le cas contraire, ce sont les 6poux qui les font.Cependant, l'entretien des parcelles de bon nombre de femmes accuse du retard par manque de main d'oeuvre familiale qui travaille prioritairement sur la parcelle de l86poux. Celui-ci intervient pourtant rarement sur celle de son dpouse lorsqu'il fini de desherber la sienne. Le cas des foyers polygames est encore plus frappant . En ef f et , lorsque les f emmes d'un mame menage ne SOnt pas toutes attributaires de parcelles, il est hors de question pour lfBpoux d8intervenir sur les parcelles de celles qui SOnt exploitantes car les autres en feront un problhme de jalousie.La disponibilite de la main d'oeuvre influence les rendements des parcelles. Pour remddier au manque de cette main d'oeuvre familiale, les femes recherchent la solution dans l'utilisation Malgr6 toutes difficult& auxquelles sont confrontees les femmes a l'exploitation de leurs parcelles, celles-ci constituent cependant la principale source de revenus qui leur permet de subvenir aux depenses qui leur incombent et d'stre autonomes vis-a-vis de leurs Qpoux. Pour assurer correctement leurs responsabilites de pilier du mknage, les femmes s'adonnent aussi B l'agriculture pluviale.Come dans la plupart des sociktes traditionnelles africaines, toutes les femmes disposent de champs de grandes cultures. Mais avec la degradation de l'environnement de plus en plus manifeste dans la rdgion, beaucoup de femmes eprouvent des difficult& B obtenir des terres cultivables. Elles ont des petits lopins de terres (1 ZI 4 ) repartis dans plusieurs enaroits. La superficie des champs varie de 0 . 0 8 B 1,12 ha. La petitesse de ces champs s'expliquent aussi par la surcharge du calendrier agricole des femmes. Ce gUi ne leur permet pas d'exploiter de grands champs. A ce pro+s', une de nos interviewkes nous disait ceci :\"Je n'exploite pas de grandes superficies parce qu'il y a beaucoup de choses B faire la fois : les travaux des exploitations de 1'Qpoux (champs de brousse et parcelle irriguee), ceux de mes exploitations et aussi les travaux m6nagers\".La distance approximative des champs 8. leurs concessions est de 2,5km en moyenne. Ces champs sont emblaves en mil, en sorgho (pour ceux situds dans les bas-fonds), des arachides, du pois de terre, du &same, des l&gumes (gombo, oseille, etc ... ). Le pois de terre est presque toujours en culture pure et cette production a une importance significative dans la sociAtd gourmantche : c'est pourquoi, toutes les femmes le cultivent. En effet, lorsqu'il y LUY dkcbs dans une famille, toutes les femmes de cette famille sont tenues d'apporter une quantite de ce produit qui sera preparde en association avec du maPs pour les personnes venues a l'enterrement.Dans leurs champs, elles travaillent pratiquement seules sans aide. Crest seulement ZI la recolte que llbpoux et les jeunes garqons coupent les tiges de mil pendant que les femmes rkcoltent les bpis: C'est donc le chacun pour soit comme le disait une de nos interlocutrices.Les enfants ayant leurs champs personnels d'arachide, travaillent avec leur @re, gardent les animaux si bien qu'ils nlinterviennent que rarement dans le champs de leur &re. Les hommes recourent aussiB llentraide pour &re au rendez-vous du calendrier agricole; ce qui n'est pas possible pour les femmes. Quelques unes seulement Une autre disait :\"Je n'ai jamais vendu du mil depuis que je SUiS mariee, j'en donne h mon pbre qui est inactif\".Mme WABADIWAO disait ce propos : \"Durant 4 mois, c'est moi gui travaillait pour nourrir mes enfants. ~'Bpoux qui avait m i q 6 b50 m'envoyait juste un peu d'argent pour que j'achPlte les habits des enf ants'*.En plus de ces activites champgtres, les femmes pratiquent aussi de l'elevage.Leelevage est pratique par presque toutes les femraes. Mais, il n'est pas aussi d6velopp4 que celui des homes. Les femes 4lPlvent , ,. i de la volaille, du petit betail surtout et quelque rare fois du gros betail (2 femmes). La volaille est gBn6ralement destinke h l'autoconsonunation soita lroccasion des fktes ou soit pour pallier au manque de condiments. Le betail (en particulier les moutons) est venu B l'approche de la f&te de la Tabaski : c'est la periode propice de vente. Avec ltam6nagement, les animaux ne souffrent plus du manque dleau; ils vont s'abreuver dans les canaux d'irrigation. Par contre, ces animaux divaguent partout (sur les parcelles, dans les champs de case) B la recherche des piturages : cela dBtruit les exploitations des paysans et engendre des conflits entre eux.Depuis quelques temps, les femmes sont confrontees aux vols frequents des produits de leur elevage et ? i la decimation des animaux suite aux Bpizooties ddveloppees dans la zone.Les problemes que rencontre l'blevage ne sont pas specifiques aux femmes : ils sont caracteristiques & la zone.Halgre 1'intensittS des travaux agricoles et menagers des femmes, cela ne les empikhent pas de developper des activitbs lucratives.Les activites commerciales ne sont pas aussi d6veloppees dans la zone que celles agricoles. En effet, 4 2 % de 1'6chantillon s'adonnent & quelques activitbs informelles qui leur procurent des revenus plus ou moins suffisants. Elles se resument la vente da baignets (21 % ) , de riz btuve (12 %) , de la cola, des boules de mil ou foura ( 4 % ) et autres (restauration, tabac, sucre, met gourmantchb, poudre de n&6, pois de terre bouillie etc . . . ) vendus par trbs peu de femmes. Ces produits sont vendus au march6 ou B domicile.Outre les activites de restaurations pratiquees en toute saison, mais uniquement les jours de march&, puis la vente de la cola et de la poudre de n6r6 disponible en debut d'hivernage, les autres activites de commerce sleffectuent en contre-saison parallhlement ti l'exploitation des parcelles irriguees. Cette periode est la plus indiquBe pour les femmes qui disposent d'un laps de temps dil B la baisse dlintensite ou la fin des travaux agricoles d'hivernage pour exercer leurs activites.Ainsi, ti la fin des rBcoltes, chaque femme renoue avec ses activitbs commerciales et les arrstent immediatement B la tombBe des premieres pluies pour se consacrer entikrement aux travaux champetres.Toutefois, lors de la f6te des masques qui se deroule generalement en d&ut d'hivernage dans plusieurs villages h differentes dates, les femmes ont encore la possibilite de prolonger leurs activitBs commerciales. C'est une f&te coutumiere de rejouissance et de retrouvaille mais Bgalement une occasion pour faire de bonnes affaires : partout sledifient des hangars de commerce.La vente de ces produits varie de 2 10 fois par mois et les revenus generes par vente oscillent entre 175 et 3.000 F. Le volume de vente depend de la quantite du produit et de l'appreciation que les gens ont de ce produit. ces activites plus ou moins importantes pour les femmes, leur procurent des revenus qui bien que modiques dans l'ensemble, leur permettent de subvenir & leurs besoins quotidiens.Pour beaucoup de femmes, ces activitBs ont de l'importance car elles contribueraient & augmenter leurs revenus de leur permettraient d'avoir de quoi satisfaire leurs besoins. Selon ces dernieres, grsce B ces activites, qu'elles ne vendent pas toutes leurs productions rizicoles qui servent d'appoint B l'alimentation familiale.Certaines trouvent qua le riz etuv6 est plus rentable que paddy, mais se plaignent de la difficult6 du travail et du manque crucial du boisde chauffe dans la zone. Pour les vendeuses de cola c'est surtout en hivernage qu'elles gagnent beaucoup d'argent parce que B cette periode particuliere, les @ens ont besoin de la cola pour solliciter les travaux d'entraides.Pour quelques femmes par contre, leurs activites commerciales ne sont pas importantes puis qu'elles ne leur procurent pas ou pas assez de benefices. Elles les exercenttout simplernentpour pouvoir subvenir 11 importe de souligner les difficult& auxquelles se heurtent les femmes pour l'dvaluation de leurs revenus qui sont immediatement investis dans les depenses familiales.Aussi, elles ne maitrisent pas bien la notion de capital et de benefices car les produits utilis6s pour leur commerce proviennent en general de leurs champs (mil, haricot, poids de terre, etc ...) ; si bien qu'elles ne considerent comme depenses que l'argent servi B l'achat du beurre de karit6 pour les grillades.Cela expliquerait sans doute le fait que beaucoup de femmes estiment leurs activites rentables. leurs petits besoins du moment.Le perimetre irrigu6 de Dakiri en depit du fait qu'il a augment6 le volume de travail des femmes, constitue cependant un apport considerable pour elles.Autrefois, les femmes n'avaient pratiquement pas d'autres sources de revenus en dehors de ceux tires de la vente de quelques produits agricoles provenant de leurs champs personnels. Ces produits dont la plus grande partie entre dans la consommation familiale sont aussi confront& au caractere aleatoire de la pluviom6trie. Elles eprouvaient donc d'enonnes difficult&? pour satisfaire leurs besoins et ceux de leurs familles. Ce faisant, les femmes Btaient trop dependantes de leurs (cpoux qui devaient satisfaire leurs besoins mais aussi subvenir aux besoins de leurs enfants. Compte tenu de cette situation, les 6poux n'avaient pas beaucoup de consideration pour leurs bpouses. Les conditions de vie des femmes 6taient vraiment penibles car selon certaines, beaucoup ne mangeaient m&me pas 8 leur faim.Mais avec l'amenagement de la plaine et l'obtention de parcelles par certaines femmes, leur vie a considerablement Bvolue.En plus des revenus tires de la vente de l'arachide, l'exploitation des parcelles des femmes sur une ou deux campagnes, contribue 8 auqutenter leurs revenus.Les revenus generBs par la vente des produits agricoles sont investis dans d'autres activites telles.l'achat de betail pour l'blevage, le developpement du petit commerce (vente du riz paddy ou 6tuv6), d'oignon, de mais, de patates, etc ...).Ces reGeiius sont dgalement utilises pour l'achat de cereales en guise de soutien h leur dpoux surtout en cas de deficit c6realier.11s sont utilises pour satisfaire les besoins des femmes at ceux de leurs familles pour l'achat d'articles mhagers et des effets vestimentaires.De plus', les produits du riz, d'oignon qui, auparavant, dtaient B la seule portbe des couches sociales aisees : puis de se nourrir convenablement.En some, le p&rim&tre irrigue a rehauss6, de beaucoup, le niveau de vie de la population en general et celui des femmes (surtout attributaires) en particulier. I1 a contribue A rendre les femmes plus kpanouies, qui Mneficient d'un peu plus d'6gard de leur dpoux h cause de leur modeste contribution aux depenses du menage. Le @rim&tre a dgalement apporte un plus aux femmes qui sont devenus plus BveillBes, plus ouvertes d'esprit grace aux passages repet& des agents de 1'IIMI qui se sont entretenus avec elles. Selon les femmes, ces entretiens sont une premiere expBrience pour elles en matihre d'enqu6te de terrain.Le perilnetre constitue de nos jours, l'unique espoir de la zone qui, chaque annee est confrontee aux caprices des pluies. Sans celui-ci, la majeure partie de la population aurait migre vers d'autres zones jugees plus favorables pour cause de famine. L'expbrience de Dakiri doit servir de modele aux autres p&im*tres amknag6s si l'on veut atteindre l'objectif de l'auto-suffisance aliraentaire et de l'auto-promotion reelle du monde rural, tant pr6nees dans les plans de d6veloppement. C o m e l ' a si bien dit Monsieur CON ABLE^ \"Tant que la situation de la femme africaine ne s'am6liorera pas, 1'Afrique ne s'am6liorera pas\".V/ -SUGGESTIONS Pour parvenir ti une meilleure integration des femmes sur le perimhtre de Dakiri, il serait nkcessaire qu'elles soient allkgkes de leurs travaux agricoles par l'installation de moulin et d'un peu plus de forages.La sensibilisation des hommes SLIT le bien €onde de la participation des femmes aux activitks de dkveloppement s'impose.La mise en place d'un systhme adkquat de formation sur les techniques modernes de production qui puissetoucher les femmes est une necessitt5. -Les participants ont remarque que le travail a 6te bien fait et qu'il a degage une trhs grande discrimination entre l'homme et la femme.On remarque aussi que les etudes et les recherches dejili faites ne sont pas mbmorisees pour qu'elles servent de m6thodologie.Les participants ont 'demand6 de faire une etude comparative qui fera ressortir des eldments de comparaison relatifs ili la participation des femmes avec les autres amenagements d'une part et entre le Niger et le Burkina Faso d'autre part.11s ont aussi signale que malgre que les femmes ont herite des terres (champs) qu'on leur a retire, elles ont bt6 oubliees lors de l'attribution des terres amenagees des perimetres. 11s ont pour cela prbp'osb de tenir compte du crithre du chef de famille qu'il soit homme ou femme pour attribuer les parcelles. Et prevoir un mecanisme de suivi sur 1e terrain pour assurer l'integration des femmes en associant les ministhres concern&.I1 faudrait aussi voir si le problhme de participation de la femme B l'agriculture n'est pas li& & la culture car l'heritage au Niger s?explique par le fait que les hommes sont plus actifs que les femmes. Si cela se justifie, il est inutile de donner des parcelles aux femmes qui ne vont pas les exploiter.L'Btude n ' a pas fait ressortir le temps de travail des femmes et hommes au Niger pour permettre de savoir si la femme nigerienne est surchargbe ou pas. Come au Burkina Faso oil il est de 96 h par semaine pour la femme et 56 h par semaine pour les hommes.Un participant a l'impression que parfois nous nous laissons emporter par les passions car il constate qu'il y a trop de discrimination : est-ce que ce n'est pas aussi la meme chose pour les hommes qui sont en faiblesse de caractere (allusion au remplagage des tuyaux et arrachage de t6te de robinet).La separation des perimhtres masculins et ferninins n'est pas une solution a envisager car cela risquerait d'engendrer des problkmes aux femmes. I1 faudrait plut6t qu'il y ait des parcelles oil les hommes et les femmes vont travailler ensemble pour atteindre l'objectif. Si la participation de la population locale B la creation d'un amenagement est une garantie pour la reussite future du perimhtre, les bailleurs de fonds doivent tenir compte de cela dans 1,avenir.pour les pkrimhtres irrigues, faut-il commencer a leur appliquer l'approche genre au risque d'entrainer des bouleversements sociaux ou les laisser ainsi.A Saga oh les femmes ne veulent plus rentrer dans les parcelles pour y travailler : faut-il continuer leur en donner ? Quel sera l'avenir du pdrimbtre ? A Tillakalna, un participant pense que l'urgence serait de regler le problemme d'organisation et de gestion plutat que de chercher i 3 appliquer l'approche genre. Etant donne qu'il existe une comnission d'attribution des parcelles, ne serait-il pas important d'associer le ministere de la promotion de la femme dans cette commission afin de palier aux problbmes de discrimination? L'attribution doit tenir compte de la volont6 de travailler des femmes, il faut rdamenager toutes les zones non exploitkes pour agrandir le p6rimhtre de manihre tt ce que tout le monde puisse en b6n6ficier.A travers les 2 6tudes de c a s , les situations sont les mhtes. Qu'est-ce qu'on peut avoir des 6lbents de comparaison entre les zones ? Dans la plupart des p&rimhtres am6nages, crest le nom du chef de famille qui est port6 sur le papier ; on a pas tenu compte de la femme.Au niveau de l'attribution, on porte g6n6ralenent le nom du chef de famille (home) n'est-il pas la la raison qui explique le nombre eleve des homes ?  Les discussions se sont faites sous f o m e de debat animd o t ~ des participants ont essay6 de repondre a tour de rble aux questions posees. I1 ressort que les experiences ne sont pas nombreuses au niveau individuel et institutionnel sauf pour quelques uns mais un constat a Bte fait. On parle de l'integration de la femme depuis 2 0 ans mais le but recherche n'est pas que la femme soit egale a l'home mais gue le profit et l*acc&s aux rdcoltes soient equitables.Les participants aux discussions du premier groupe ont abouti aux conclusions et recommandations suivantes. I1 est ndcessaire d'incorpcrrer l'aspect \"genre\" d8s le debut dans 1'6laboration de toute action de recherche en milieu rural en tenant compte des rdalitds et en associant au maximum tous les partenaires. L'approche doit &re syst6matique. 11 est indispensable de sensibiliser tous les acteurs de d6veloppement au concept genre pour rnieux faire participer les fenuaes au processus de ddveloppement et toutes prises de ddcisions relatives B l'avenir collectif. I1 faut que toutes les institutions inscrivent le Volet Formation de la femme dans leur programme. IIHI doit nettre un accent sur l'animation des groupes qui est importante. Ces dquipes (Socioloqie, Hydraulique, Pddologie, etc. ..) doivent travailler en dtroite collaboration et Bviter de mener separement des enqugtes.   Le groupe N ' 2 a passe en revue les questions qui ont bte posees pour guider l'dchange.Aprhs un tour de table, il est ressorti gue dans le groupe genre encore moins plus specifiquement sur le theme genre et irrigation.Une seule participante en a entendu parler il y a 15 an6 I1 est egalement ressorti une incomprehension du concept un peu ouvert de \"genre\" voire une confusion entre genre et developpement et IFD (Integration des Femmes au DBveloppement).On retient que les anglophones sont plus B l'aise dans l'exploitation du concept que les francophones.La comprehension que les participants ont de l'approche genre et developpement est la prise en compte des relations traditionnelles (socio-culturelles) entre les hommes et les femmes afin que ceux-ci aient des avantages dgaux des interventions de developpement sans que cela ne cause de bouleversements du systhe social ou entrainer des clivages.C'est une approche qui doit iitre integree A tous les cycles de projets car il sera par exemple difficile d'inserer des elements au cours de l'evaluation ou de l'execution d'un projet alors qu'on n'en a pas tenu compte dans la conception. 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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5632a30d0c9c2dda7ef139702af14f55","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c26a6c63-b069-493e-a400-36da5e8d2fe3/retrieve","id":"729893290"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6d544ac7-ce1f-4049-9a00-0fa03b5e0941","pagecount":"60","content":"The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is a strategic partnership of the CGIAR and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future.In the past 40 years, great gains in agricultural production have been made in many areas of the world through the intensification of agriculture and the expansion of agricultural lands. Such measures, although associated with increased productivity, have also been associated with increased GHG emissions. From 2005 through to 2010, 12 percent of global GHG emissions were estimated to have come from agriculture (IPCC 2007). Annual GHG emissions from agriculture are expected to increase further in coming decades due to escalating demands for food and energy from a growing population. One of the biggest challenges we now face is how to increase food and nutrient security whilst simultaneously managing agricultural land for climate change mitigation.Globally, when all GHGs are considered, the technical mitigation potential from agriculture is estimated to be ~5,500-6,000 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (megatonnes CO 2 e) yr -1 by the year 2030 (IPCC 2007). A large amount of this mitigation potential is estimated to be in developing countries; for example, the potential for mitigation through agriculture in the African region is estimated at 17 percent of the global total, and the economic potential is estimated at 10 percent of the total global mitigation potential. Agricultural systems in many parts of the developing world are dominated by smallholder farmers (typically with holdings less than 1-2 ha depending on the country). The actions of smallholder farmers could therefore have a significant part to play in GHG mitigation. This presents a window of opportunity for smallholders to not only gain environmental benefits from carbon friendly practices, but also to receive much needed financial input, either directly from carbon financing or from development agencies looking to back carbon friendly activities.The problem remains, however, as to how smallholder farmers, or those representing them, can quantify carbon gains resulting from agricultural activities. This paper gives a general overview of landscape approaches taken to date, before summarizing resources available for landscapelevel carbon quantification today. This is followed by a discussion of resource and knowledge gaps before providing recommendations for the future development of methods.The term landscape can mean different things in different contexts. In the context used here, in relation to smallholder farmers in developing countries, the landscape scale refers to an area that is larger than the farm scale -which could include multiple farms and other forms of land cover, in conjunction with the biophysical situation. The biophysical situation can refer to a catchment or watershed or any other geographic or ecological boundary. An assumption is also made that the area is continuous, encompassing a mosaic of land-cover and land-use types that are dynamic, as are the relationships that connect them. In addition, landscapes are usually defined by social aspects and involve a wide range of stakeholders. For many landscape-scale interventions, political and administrative boundaries may be used for practical reasons. The Sangha Group (2008) defines a landscape as: \"… the physical and biological features of an area together with the institutions and people who influence the area and their cultural and spiritual values.\"For GHG accounting, landscape-based approaches can include those that treat the landscape as a single unit, making assumptions about land use and management across the whole area. They can also include more complex approaches that simulate flows of nutrients, water or energy between subunits within the landscape. Either way, ideally, a landscape analysis should be spatially integrated, recognizing that the landscape as a whole is more than the sum of its parts. Dealing with the landscape as a system allows analysis to focus on hotspots, both in temporal and geographic terms and on selected sources and sinks that are most likely to change.In addition, there are many landscape relevant methods that were originally designed for use at other scales. For example, farm-level methods can and have been used to agglomerate results for smaller areas and some national-scale methods can be used by refining input data for the landscape scale. All these approaches are considered here.Individual smallholder farmers in developing countries can be marginalized from GHG mitigation activities for a variety of reasons. First, there are requirements in terms of the money, facilities and expertise needed to carry out GHG accounting that can be out of reach for individual farmers. Second, individual farmers may not have access to organizations and initiatives that provide incentives for mitigation activities. Third, the mitigation potential of individual smallholder farms is generally too low to make mitigation activities worthwhile (Berry 2011). Fourth, mitigation activities may compete with 1. Introduction smallholder interests in achieving greater food security and avoiding climate and other risks, such as by locking them in specific agricultural practices. The FAO in its 'Climate Smart Framework' advocates a landscape-scale approach, which considers impacts in terms of watersheds and ecosystems (FAO 2010).Landscape-scale quantification enables farmers to pool resources and expertise that can put participation in carbon markets within their reach. Transaction costs can be spread between farmers and other stakeholders involved in the landscape (local government, larger farms, cooperatives, carbon credit buyers, NGOs and so on). This can be particularly relevant when smallholdings cover a diverse range of agricultural practices requiring various expertise and resources for GHG accounting. For example Plan Vivo is a very successful pro-poor scheme set up to allow smallholder groups in developing countries to access carbon financing for carbon friendly land management activities. Total costs associated with developing, reviewing and registering a project are estimated between US$7550 and US$12550, although costs do vary widely (Plan Vivo 2012). The registration process alone can require substantial funds that are more likely to be leveraged by several groups working together.In addition to accounting practicalities, the same advantages of landscape-scale management that apply to land management in general, also apply to management for climate change mitigation. Patterns within the landscape can be recognized and used to improve mitigation and manage resources more efficiently. For example, a landscape-scale approach allows 'transhumance' (the movement of livestock from one area to another) to be included in a way that would not be possible in a farm-level analysis. Indeed mitigation activities by smallholders working alone can sometimes have negative mitigation impacts at the landscape scale (Butterbach-Bahl, pers com). For example, an individual smallholder could decide to incorporate crop residues into the soil rather than allowing his neighbours' animals to graze them, thereby increasing soil carbon. This neighbour could then be forced to look for alternative land on which to graze his animals and clear a patch of native vegetation, releasing GHGs from the biomass and soil. However, an extreme example of this does show the benefits of taking a landscape approach that accounts for all land uses and possible interactions between them.Recognition of such links between smallholder activities can provide opportunities to increase mitigation at the larger scale. This applies not only to management for mitigation but also to climate change adaptation. In complex landscapes (for example parkland systems in West Africa) many land-use systems are hard to define as definite units of land use, such as 'forest' or 'pasture', and hence a landscape approach is needed when dealing with the landscape as a system in its entirety. Funding agencies, governments and NGOs are increasingly recognizing the need to consider multiple ecosystem services and the trade-offs amongst them. A landscape-scale approach to GHG accounting and mitigation activities has the potential to detect conflicts of interest between stakeholders over different ecosystem services that may go undetected if activities are carried out at the farm level. In a similar way, landscape-scale activities related to watershed, economic or social management, can impact GHG mitigation activities and need to be considered if mitigation is to be sustained. Economic and social considerations can sometimes present greater challenges than technical ones in developing countries if institutions and the knowledge base are weak and there are problems enforcing agreements (Sayer and Dudley 2008).Among the largest constraints of GHG accounting at the landscape-scale is the paucity of suitable methodologies and models. The development of methodologies for nationalscale accounting has been driven by the need to report to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) (IPCC 2003;IPCC 2006). Site-and farm-scale methodologies and models have been developed because people tend to work at this scale due to financial and practical constraints. The development of landscape-scale approaches has been hindered in part by problems associated with defining a landscape boundary and accounting for GHG emissions and removals within that boundary. Methods to detect and address leakage have been developed in recent years (Gershenson et al. 2011) but they are still evolving, especially in the case of mixed landscapes with multiple land uses. This lack of methodological clarity can in part be attributed to the difficulty in defining the boundaries of the landscape. Such boundaries can be quite limited, such as where all products are used for subsistence or are traded locally. But where commodities are traded internationally, such as high value timber, the landscape boundary essentially has to be extended to all the countries where that commodity is being utilized.The definition of 'landscape' that is used for a GHG assessment will vary, depending on a variety of factors including who the assessment is being carried out for, the rules and guidelines provided by any funding agency or accreditation agency, whether the assessment is ex-ante or ex-post and practical considerations such as access, etc. It is therefore difficult to give an ideal way of defining a landscape for a GHG assessment.Landscape-scale assessments require a comprehensive approach that takes into account multiple land-use categories and multiple sources of GHGs. This can make sampling strategies costly, especially if a high level of precision and accuracy is required. However, there are certain economies of scale when sampling for multiple purposes. Ground-level sampling schemes can involve the collection, processing and analysis of thousands of samples requiring high inputs of labour and expertise. The use of innovative techniques, such as spectral reflectance for soil carbon, can reduce sample numbers and processing time, but measurements still have to be calibrated against libraries of previously analysed samples, which are yet to be developed for many countries. Landscape analysis will inevitably involve large datasets, whether these data come from ground sampling, remote sensing, flux towers or a combination of these and other sources. In developing countries the cost of many technologies may be prohibitively high. In addition, social and political constraints may stand in the way of data collation. For example, smallholders may be operating in an environment where it is disadvantageous for them to reveal how much they produce and where there is a lack of trust in local governors. Gender issues can also arise if crops are cultivated by women but communication to outside parties is carried out by men. The technical capacity to process landscape-scale data can in itself be an issue, especially in countries where well-financed academic and research institutions are sparse. Understanding the data also presents unique challenges.Approaches that use 'activity data' (information on land management activities and the areas in which they occur) can be useful (IPCC 2006). They utilize the types of land management information farmers are likely to have anyway and therefore can reduce cost. This can be useful in a developing country smallholder context where GHG accounting will work best if it is not too burdensome for those involved in reporting. This extends to the smallholders themselves who should ideally gain some benefit (either financial or practical) from any information gathering activities needed for GHG accounting. However the accuracy of methods using activity data relies on the activity data itself being accurate. At the landscape scale this can be problematic, especially in areas encompassing multiple smallholdings. Smallholders may be unwilling to provide activity data and institutions with overall responsibility for a landscape may be lacking or ineffective. Accuracy also depends on availability of appropriate emission factors (coefficients that describe GHG emissions) and these are often lacking for developing countries (Section 2.3).In situations where landscape-scale GHG accounting is carried out for credit in a carbon market results must be accompanied by an estimate of uncertainty. Sources of uncertainty vary at the landscape scale from those found at the farm scale. This is because biogeochemical processes operate and interact at different scales (Veldkamp et al. 2001). When numerous spatial data points are aggregated to produce a landscape assessment, overall uncertainty tends to be reduced. In addition, the proportionate contribution of different sources of uncertainty changes with scale. For example, highly heterogeneous soil properties that contribute large uncertainty to analysis at the field or farm scale tend to partially cancel out at the landscape scale. Landscape-scale assessments therefore require appropriate means of estimating uncertainties and this should be kept in mind, especially if farmscale estimates are aggregated up to give landscape-scale assessments.Sources of uncertainty and acceptable levels of precision and accuracy differ when working at the landscape scale, as opposed to the farm or national scale. Uncertainty results from three major sources of uncertainties: (i) on activity data (inventory), (ii) due to year to year variability (climate and induced management practice variation) and (iii) on emission factors (Gibbons et al. 2006). Their different combinations imply that there is no direct and linear link between the scales and uncertainties. For instance, it is easier to get reliable data for administrative regions, whatever the scale, rather than for watersheds or ecoregions. At farm level, most activity data can be provided quite accurately by farmers, whereas at landscape level, data will be based on statistics and on regional available data or expert knowledge; thus uncertainties can be quite important. Evaluating the impact of these uncertainties is often quite difficult, and certainly the best way to reduce them is to go through an iterative process, ensuring a high accuracy for activities with most impact on the result. The accounting of uncertainty in calculators is therefore a crucial point, but extra effort is still needed in most of them for a full accounting of uncertainties.Ideally, in addition to dealing with heterogeneous areas with multiple GHG sources and sinks, landscape-scale methods should account for multiple interactions between GHGs and take an integrated approach. However, trying to capture this level of complexity can lead to approaches that are prohibitively demanding, both in terms of expertise and financing. Most landscape-scale methods and approaches deal with individual or limited numbers of sources and sinks. Most have also been designed for specific, often very different remits. As such, there can be no 'best' landscape-scale GHG accounting approach, as suitability depends on the purpose for which the assessment is being carried out.In this review we firstly give an overview of approaches that have been taken, before considering some of the resources that are available now for those wanting to do GHG accounting at the landscape scale, in a smallholder developing country context.Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contextsMeasurements are an essential element of GHG assessments at any scale. In addition to providing a direct assessment of carbon stock changes and GHG emissions, they underpin assumptions made in models. Taking measurements at the landscape scale presents obvious practical problems in terms of cost and resources. Measurements are therefore most useful in landscape-scale assessments when they form part of an integrated approach involving other methods, such as remote sensing for stratification (Section 2.2), and modelling for scaling up (Section 2.3) (CBP 2011a; Goidts et al. 2009).To implement a measurement strategy several steps are needed, including clear definition of the landscape boundary, stratification of the landscape and selection of the sampling methods and sampling size (Ravindranath and Ostwald 2008;Hairiah et al. 2011). The sampling method and strategy depend on the heterogeneity of the landscape, the pools/emissions to be considered, the level of accuracy and precision required and most importantly, the resources available. Proper consideration of all of these factors, in addition to techniques that focus on 'hot spots' of likely carbon/GHG flux should be taken to ensure efficient use of resources. The development of new mobile technologies, such as GPS applications, and the widespread use of mobile phones in developing countries, offer new ways of accurately reporting sampling sites and landscape boundaries. In addition, advances in hand-held video mapping devices linked to GIS and a GPS offer a means of reducing the number of samples needed (Stohlgren et al. 2000). Scaling up of site-scale ecological measurements has been the subject of much research and debate (Wu and Li 2006). Methods range from hierarchical patch dynamic scaling, which assumes the landscape is the sum of its parts but does not account for horizontal interactions between patches (Wu 1999) to the use of dynamic ecosystem models, which simulate biophysical processes (Section 2.3).Landscape-scale sampling strategies for carbon stocks in woody biomass generally employ allometric equations based on simple measurements, such as diameter at breast height and total tree height (Section 2.3). Initially these have to be derived from destructive sampling of whole trees, which is very time-consuming and expensive. The sampling strategy that should be taken varies, depending on the type of land cover in question and the activities being carried out (for example, trees in forests or trees in the landscape in settlements, orchards or agroforestry) (CBP 2011a;CBP 2011c;Hairiah et al. 2011). In situations where multiple smallholdings have single trees of different species, this can be problematic if a high level of accuracy is required and generic equations are not acceptable.Heterogeneity in soils also presents a problem for sampling. Soils show high heterogeneity in soil organic carbon (SOC) content at the plot scale, let alone the landscape scale. Trying to capture this heterogeneity in all soil/land-use combinations in a diverse landscape can result in thousands of samples being taken. Ideally, before determining how many sampling sites are needed, preliminary measurements should be taken to estimate existing variance in each stratum. A step-by-step guide to doing this is provided by Hairiah et al. (2011). One approach is to use a nested sampling design with clusters of samples within a grid, such as the design presented in the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) (CBP 2011d). This can reduce the number of samples needed; however, large numbers of samples still need to be collated and processed.Many laboratory methods to measure soil organic carbon (SOC) require a lot of sample preparation and analysis time (wet combustion, dry combustion) or involve expensive equipment (LECO), further increasing costs. Advances in the use of diffuse reflectance infrared (IR) spectroscopy provide the potential to greatly increase sampling density, with little increase in analytical cost (Shepherd and Walsh 2007). Developments of mobile IR devices that can be used in the field can also remove the need to take samples back to the lab and increase sample sizes further (Knadel et al. 2011). In terms of application in developing countries, a drawback of this technique is the need for calibration libraries, which, although being steadily developed for many regions, are still far from comprehensive.Eddy covariance (EC) is a technique commonly used to quantify the vertical flux of CO 2 , heat and water vapour in the atmosphere. It allows an estimation of exchange between the 2. General overview of approaches to date biosphere and the atmosphere (Baldocchi et al. 1988). In 1997 a global network of flux towers (FLUXNET) was initiated and today there are in excess of 400 EC-towers across the globe (Chen and Coops 2009) associated with FLUXNET and other national and regional initiatives (NEON, China Flux, Ameri-flux). However, less than 20 exist on the African continent, with a similar situation in Latin America and Asia. Advantages of the technique include the fact that continuous measurements can be taken without the need for people in the field; it is also nondestructive and can account for exchange over large areas simultaneously (depending on the number of towers used). Disadvantages are that in order to work effectively the terrain needs to be flat and homogeneous and stable environmental conditions are required (wind, temperature, humidity and CO 2 ). In addition, instrumentation is generally expensive and requires complex set-up and calibration.In terms of landscape-scale application there are uncertainties and difficulties with scaling up eddy covariance (EC) fluxes taken at the ecosystem level (typically less than 3 km for each site) to the landscape scale. Scaling up to the landscape scale by simple extrapolation and interpolation is considered unreliable due to the heterogeneity of landscape surfaces and the non-linearity of the processes underlying biosphere/ atmosphere exchanges (Levy et al. 1999). For landscapes dominated by smallholders, further uncertainties arise, as EC does not work well in landscapes with a mosaic of multiple land-use systems.Micrometeorological techniques, emissions factors and process-based models are indispensable tools to quantify GHG emissions at landscape scales. However, their utility is limited when considering GHG fluxes from landscapes dominated by smallholder agricultural systems. Characteristics indicative of these environments -non-uniform topography and diverse, interspersed plant cover -mixed with logistical and contextual considerations such as security, access, a lack of activity data, and biased emissions factors, impede their application (Section 1.3). The shear number of potential confounding factors would seemingly suggest that the oft-applied methods may be misleading or unsuitable for quantifying GHG fluxes for complex landscapes in developing countries.Scaling up chamber-based measurements present another, less frequently applied option. Chambers are typically used to quantify gas fluxes over small spatial scales. Because chambers cover a very limited fraction of the soil surface (<1m 2 ), there are concerns over extrapolation to larger spatial extents (100s or even 10,000s m 2 ). Chamber design, its positioning, and deployment can greatly influence flux estimates (Davidson et al. 2002;Rochette 2011;Rochette & Eriksen-Hamel 2008). Scaling up from uncertain flux estimates, potentially propagates common measurement errors. It is for this reason that scaling up chamber-based estimates must be done with caution, or it will tend to yield biased quantification of landscape fluxes.Despite the challenges, scaling chamber-based measurements has provided reasonable estimates of largescale GHG emissions for a variety of ecosystems and landscapes. Comparable results derived from chamber and micrometeorological techniques show evidence of the value of the approach at moderate spatial scales. Schrier-Uijl et al. ( 2010) examined CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes from a non-uniform grass ecosystem on peat soils and found that chamber-based measurement were only 16.5 percent and 13 percent different from eddy covariance measurements, respectively. Such high level of agreements was only obtained when stratifying the landscape into various source components, measuring hotspots of emissions and using all source areas in the scaling equation; simply scaling up from field measurements alone was inadequate. Stratification and intensification of sampling in this way will inevitably incur extra costs and therefore may not always be feasible. However the work of Schrier-Uijl et al. ( 2010) does highlight the inadequacies of scaling up without stratification.Similar results have been shown for N 2 O. Using two adjacent agricultural fields -one maize and one alfalfa -scaled static chamber estimates of N 2 O were between 7 percent and 33 percent of eddy covariance estimates (Molodovskaya et al. 2011). The largest deviations between the two techniques correspond with changes in wind direction and turbulence, factors that alter the efficacy of eddy covariance methods, and contributed to differences in estimates in other comparative studies (Wang et al. 2010). Agreement between results shown in these studies and others like them (such as Laville et al. 1999;Smith et al. 1994) demonstrate that scaling up is feasible. Plenty of evidence, however, indicates poor agreement between methods (Hendriks et al. 2010;Pavelka et al. 2007), highlighting the need for careful scaling procedures to ensure robust and meaningful estimates.Standards of practice to scale up chamber-based measurements are still very much developing. But there appear to be some common approaches that tend to improve estimates. To begin with, it is important to separate the landscape into its component parts. Stratifying the landscapes guides the development of an appropriate sampling strategy, in both space and time, and provides important information on the extent of source areas, a factor critical to scaling. Previous research in the region can be invaluable to facilitate stratification. For example, a landscape-scale study of N 2 O emissions from forests in northeast USA used previous work that related nitrification potential to elevation, slope and aspect Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contexts in order to locate sampling sites (Groffman et al. 2006). Often in developing countries, relevant information is unavailable. Under this circumstance, remote sensing and spatial analysis tools may substitute to some degree. Assuming spatially and temporally representative fluxes have been measured, the next critical step involves a scaling approach. Scaling methods range in sophistication from simple functions based on mean flux and source areas to the parameterization of empirical models. Mixed results have been found for both and appear to be related to inherent variation in soil processes that promote GHG evolution, environmental conditions, experimental artefacts, and difficulty in attributing source contribution. Thus, identification of the 'best' scaling method remains unresolved.Chamber-based methods, though rarely employed, provide a relatively low-cost and potentially reliable way to verify flux estimates in non-uniform environments. Though the approach has been shown to be effective in relatively small landscapes (100 km 2 ), it is impossible to know the accuracy at much larger scales (Groffman et al. 2006). It is important to recognize that measurement approaches are complimentary to the other tools. At present, further refinement and standardization of scaling methods is needed to help projects and researchers understand the limitation and apply this method.Remote sensing is the gathering of data about an object or area of analysis without being in direct contact with the object. There are a variety of sensors used in making earth observations that are either active or passive sensors. Active sensors include LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and RADAR (radio detection and ranging) that emit energy and measure attributes of the returned energy. Passive sensors do not emit energy, but rather measure sunlight or other sources of radiation reflected off the landscape or other object of analysis. Remote sensing has been used for the past several decades to monitor land cover and land-cover change throughout the tropics (Skole and Tucker 1993). The magnitude and rates of tropical deforestation have been well documented through standard remote sensing methods and techniques (FAO 2011). Remote sensing has also been used to document the various drivers of tropical deforestation, including logging, fire, largescale commercial agriculture, and smallholder agriculture (Wang et al. 2005;Matricardi et al. 2010).The primary uses for remote sensing in quantifying landscape GHG emissions in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector are stratification of the landscape (Hairiah et al. 2011) and quantification of land-cover change. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) refers to this land area parameter in GHG emissions calculations as a type of activity data, or the magnitude of human activity (IPCC 2006). Remote sensing techniques are well established to classify land covers and to quantify changes in area between land covers through time series analysis of historical remote sensing data (GOFC-GOLD 2011). But remote sensing techniques are increasingly able to also estimate landscape carbon density and carbon stocks -a type of IPCC emissions factor that is also required for calculations of landscape greenhouse gas emissions (Goetz et al. 2009). Remote sensing methods are maturing for estimating above-ground biomass stocks by measuring forest greenness, and even soil organic carbon stocks, by measuring soil reflectance in a variety of land covers and at multiple landscape scales (Saatchi et al. 2011;Betemariam et al. 2011). Low (200 m per pixel) or moderate (30 m per pixel) resolution satellite data can be used to measure the fractional cover of largescale closed canopy forests and then correlated with ground measurements of forest carbon density to map carbon stocks across large area landscapes. Analysis of multiple date satellite data can then estimate greenhouse gas emissions or sequestration from land-cover change. Fine (<1 m per pixel) resolution satellite data can be used to directly measure crown attributes of individual trees in open forests or in nonforest land covers (Palace et al. 2008). The above-ground biomass of these individual trees can be determined through allometric relationships between crown characteristics and above-ground biomass to map landscape carbon in open land covers, such as woodlands, savannahs, agroforestry systems, and human settlements. Airborne or spaceborne LIDAR sensors can directly measure tree height in closed canopy forests, which correlates to above-ground biomass of various forest types. Soil reflectance values from satellite imagery can be correlated with laboratory measured reflectance values from near infrared spectroscopy of SOC stocks to map these across large agricultural landscapes (Betemariam et al. 2011).Carbon offset markets and national inventories for the UNFCCC typically require monitoring, reporting and verifying greenhouse gas emissions, strictly in units of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (tCO 2 e). This type of measurement and monitoring requires the large financial expense of implementing a field-based carbon inventory for the five carbon pools (above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass, deadwood, litter and soil organic matter) in the six IPCC landuse categories (forest land, crop land, grazing land, wetlands, settlements, other land) within the project boundaries, and may become cost prohibitive. However, there are other related metrics that can provide insightful analysis into the carbon benefits resulting from smallholder investments and activities on their lands. Monitoring and evaluation efforts for development projects may seek a lower cost option to determine the impacts of their investments on smallholder landscapes. Remote sensing data are commonly used to develop indexes to assess biophysical parameters. For example, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is a common remote sensing index to quantify seasonal greenness of forest land cover. The Carbon Benefits Project (CBP) (a project funded by the Global Environment Facility GEF) proposes several categories of project assessments and indexes that are built upon remote sensing analysis of coarse, moderate and fine resolution satellite imagery, that are cost effective for large-scale projects involving many smallholders across large landscapes (CBP 2011b). Parameters such as hectares of land-cover change, default carbon stocks, topography, fire occurrence, and social and biodiversity selfassessment, can be integrated with satellite data and analysis to develop simple but robust indexes that illustrate landscape carbon benefits in large regions. These indexes offer a low cost means of monitoring and evaluating the impacts of development efforts and changes in the agricultural and forested landscapes.Although the high cost of satellite remote sensing data has historically been a barrier to access, for researchers in both developed and developing countries, there are now multiple data sources that provide free, or low-cost satellite data including both MODIS and Landsat satellite data from the US government. Although free and low-cost data are now readily available, technical capacity to store large datasets and process complex remote sensing datasets still remains as a barrier for smallholders, researchers, and government agencies in developing countries. While government agencies have been the primary early developer of satellites and sensors for remote sensing, private commercial companies are now providing fine resolution satellite data (<1m pixels) although costs around US$15/km 2 may still be a barrier for access to these commercial satellite data. Aerial LIDAR flights and data collection are also available from commercial vendors but costs are again a barrier for access to data in developing countries.Smallholder agricultural systems are typically more complex than industrial agricultural systems (large-scale monocultures) and may also incorporate more above-ground woody biomass on their land through the use of agroforestry systems. The global availability of fine resolution satellite data, where single pixels (0.5m) are smaller than individual tree crowns, allows for detection and measurement of trees as objects in agricultural landscapes (even trees as small as 10 cm in diameter at 1.3 m often have crown projection areas >10 m 2 ). Crown attributes measured by satellites can be related directly to aboveground biomass through specialized allometric equations, or simply to diameter at breast height (DBH), for input into standard allometric equations that predict above-ground biomass from DBH. Landscape carbon in complex smallholder agricultural systems can then be mapped by integrating remote sensing analysis and basic tree inventory methods in the field. The Carbon Benefits Project is developing remote sensing methods and integrating them with online carbon management tools to enable smallholders to measure and monitor carbon in trees outside forests, agroforestry systems, and other non-forest land covers (CBP 2011a). Although smallholder farmers would not be involved with remote sensing analysis, they certainly can contribute basic tree measurement or forest inventory data from their land. These inventory data can be uploaded into an online geographic information system that calculates carbon stocks and emissions associated with current land cover and potential land-cover changes.Landscape-scale assessment of GHGs in agriculture can present a number of practical problems. Data are needed from large heterogeneous areas, often for multiple points in time, and the collection of these data can be expensive and time consuming. Models (simplified versions of a system used to estimate outputs) can offer a means of estimating information where comprehensive large-scale measurement campaigns are not possible. They also offer the possibility of making predictions about the future carbon stock changes and GHG emissions. All models are based on a set of assumptions about a system that give an approximation of the actual situation. They therefore have an inherent level of uncertainty (which can be quantified with appropriate methods) and this should be kept in mind when deciding whether a model should be used for an assessment. The purpose for which a GHG assessment is being carried out (such as a report to a funding agency, an inventory, or a project to gain certification from a carbon market) and the associated level of accuracy and precision, should determine the type of model that is used, and indeed whether a model is used at all.Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contextsAll models require input parameters that describe the system they represent. For GHG accounting models some of these input parameters relate to types of land use and management and the area on which it occurs (Activity Data -AD) and some relate to coefficients describing emissions of GHGs (Emission Factors -EF) or removals of GHGs (Removal Factors -RF). The IPCC undertook a huge international effort to develop a computational method for estimating GHG fluxes that uses both these types of data (IPCC 2003;IPCC 2006) and includes a large database of EFs and RFs plus default information on climate, soil type and land use/management (tillage and productivity). The method can be employed using this default information (a Tier 1 approach using default data provided by the IPCC) or, if available, country-, region-, landscape-or even project-specific data (a Tier 2 approach using country-specific data). The IPCC also advocate using a Tier 3 approach where possible, where advanced models with detailed country-specific data are used. Further details of the IPCC Tier system can be found in the IPCC Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) (IPCC 2003). There are two issues with using the IPCC method for landscape-scale assessments in developing countries. Firstly, if a Tier 1 approach is used, much of the data available for deriving the empirical factors in the IPCC default approach are from studies in North America and Europe (typically more are available for temperate versus tropical areas and mesic versus arid areas) (IPCC 2003). This situation is slowly being redressed as developing country EFs are published for various sectors; for example, CH 4 emissions from livestock in Africa, (Herrero et al. 2008), and N 2 O emissions from agriculture in India (Garg et al. 2012). Nevertheless, huge gaps in developing country data remain. The IPCC manage an online database to which new EFs and RFs can be submitted (http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/ EFDB/main.php). However, this is currently underutilized by those holding information from developing countries.Secondly, the IPCC approach was originally designed for use at the national and subnational scale, to provide a simple method for compiling national inventories. Therefore the default method was designed to be as simple as possible and uses limited and highly aggregated data, which may not be applicable if used at a smaller scale. These problems can be addressed in part by taking a Tier 2 approach, using project-specific EFs and RFs developed for landscape-scale application. The IPCC method is a computational model considering the change in GHGs and carbon stocks in one step (such as one stock for year 1 and another for year 20) and assuming a linear rate of change over the period. This means it does not account for fluctuations throughout the period in question, or deal with dynamic interactions that occur within the system in the way that dynamic models do.Despite the issues mentioned above, the IPCC approach provides the only standardized, globally applicable method for GHG accounting for the agricultural sector. Therefore it has been used as the basis for several GHG accounting tools that can be used at the landscape scale in developing country areas (ALU, USAID AFOLU Calculator, the CBP Simple Assessment, the CBP Detailed Assessment, EX-ACT and the Cool Farm Tool). All of these tools (with the exception of the USAID AFOLU Calculator and the CBP Simple Assessment) allow the user to input their own EFs and RFs and take a Tier 2 approach. Outputs from some of these tools (ALU and the CBP Simple Assessment, The CBP Detailed Assessment) have a spatial element allowing a more detailed analysis of spatial units within the landscape. Details of these particular tools are given in Section 3.In contrast to a one-step approach, regression models are generally based on equations developed from longterm studies or wide-ranging observations. Regression approaches in GHG accounting in the agricultural sector have been used in many different ways for different source categories. Some examples are given below.Biomass carbon stocks -Landscape-scale approaches often include the need to quantify stock changes in areas of forest, or non-forest areas where trees occur in the landscape. Allometric equations used to estimate biomass or volume of above-ground woody vegetation can also be applied to estimate carbon stocks in any system with woody vegetation, including agroforestry systems and perennial cropping systems. Further equations can be used to estimate belowground biomass from above-ground biomass. Those carrying out landscape-scale assessments have the option to draw on published databases of allometric equations that cover the relevant species. Some examples include those compiled by USDA for North America (Jenkins et al. 2004), by the CarboAfrica Project for sub-Saharan Africa (Henry et al. 2011) and by the World Agroforestry Centre for Agroforestry Species (Kuyah et al. 2012). Species-specific equations are always preferable, as tree species differ in wood density that can affect carbon stocks. However, in a landscape-scale assessment, especially those including tropical forests where hundreds of species may be present, the use of generalized equations may be necessary (Gibbs et al. 2007). -Falloon et al. (2002) summarized a number of approaches that have been taken to estimate SOC stock changes at a large scale. These include simple regression approaches where a model was developed from a number of long-term experiments in a region, and an assumption was made that current trends in SOC stock change will continue into the future (Smith et al. 2000). Such approaches have the disadvantage of assuming that all the site-scale studies used can be treated as representative and equally valid in an analysis. More complex regression-based approaches, based on spatially explicit soil databases were taken by Kern and Johnson (1993) and Kotto Same et al. (1997) to make spatially explicit regional analyses. These studies had the advantage of taking into account spatial heterogeneity in soil type; however they still assume a linear rate of change in SOC stocks that is unrealistic, especially following land-use change (Paustian et al. 1997). where FA is the amount of fertilizer applied. Factors were determined by a statistical analysis.A simple conceptual model termed the 'Hole in the Pipe' (HIP) model (Firestone and Davidson 1989) has been used in several studies to estimate spatial and temporal variation in soil N-oxide flux at the landscape scale. Verchot et al. (2006) used the model to estimate the impacts of conversion of forest to agriculture on N-oxide emissions in a watershed in Sumatra. The model is based on the underlying biogeochemical controls of N-oxide emissions, making the assumption that total N-oxide gas flux (NO + N 2 O) is proportional to the rate of N cycling. Davidson and Verchot (2000) tested the applicability of the model to varying land-use categories (forest, grassland, cropland) in temperate and tropical conditions. They found good agreement between model and measured results at most sites and deemed the model to be broadly applicable, but added the caveat that in common with most models, accurate results require site-specific calibration.Simple models such as the ones described above can be very useful tools for GHG accounting across landscapes, especially if analysis is being done for a single source/sink category. In cases where a simultaneous analysis of all sources and sinks is required, numerous regression models can prove cumbersome.Using dynamic process-based ecosystem models offers a way of meeting the need for more comprehensive GHG analysis covering multiple GHG sources and sinks and some of the interactions between them. Ecosystem models such as Century (Parton et al. 1988) and DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) (Li et al. 1992) have the advantage of describing the underlying dynamics of a system. They use complex functions to describe the movement of SOC through different pools and include submodels of plant productivity, water movement and the turnover of N, P and K. Such ecosystem models are designed for site-scale application and although there are some drawbacks to using them at the larger scale (Paustian et al. 1997), they offer potential for modelling landscape-scale processes.Use at the landscape and larger scale involves linking the ecosystem model to a geographical information system (GIS). Falloon et al. (1998) provided an early example of this when they devised a method of linking the RothC model to spatially explicit soils, land-use and climate data via a GIS, and used it to estimate regional changes in SOC for an area of central Hungary. RothC is a relatively straightforward soil carbon model, which does not model plant productivity. Extensive work has been carried out at Colorado State University (CSU) linking the more complex Century model to a GIS to make state-and regional-scale estimates (Paustian et al. 1995(Paustian et al. , 2001(Paustian et al. , 2002)). Climate, soils and land-use datasets associated with specific geographic areas are overlain in a GIS to create a unique set of polygons that define driving variables needed to run the Century model. The approach formed the basis of the development of the GEFSOC Modelling system, a scalable system which allows the user to estimate the impacts of varying land management practices on carbon stocks in soils and biomass using two models (Century and RothC) linked to a GIS (Easter et al. 2007;Milne et al. 2007). The GEFSOC system developers used data from four contrasting ecoregions to develop a system with greater applicability to developing countries. Paustian et al. (1995) point out the need to evaluate Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contexts model performance in the conditions particular to the region under investigation, as most ecosystem models have been developed in North America and Europe and this can limit their applicability to developing country conditions. Therefore, a large part of the development of the GEFSOC system involved parameterization and evaluation of the Century and RothC using data from four developing country test cases (Bhattacharyya et al. 2007;Cerri et al. 2007;Kamoni et al. 2007).Use of ecosystem models linked to GIS for landscapescale GHG assessment involves a certain level of expertise in ecosystem modelling and GIS. This can prohibit use by farmers' groups or those representing them. With this in mind, scientists at CSU have developed a user-friendly online system, COMET VR, which involves multiple Century runs linked to a database of soils, climate and land use for the USA. The user only needs to have knowledge of current and historical land management in his/her parcel of land to be able to estimate landscape-scale changes in carbon stocks in soils. Although COMET-VR is restricted to estimates of SOC changes in the USA, this type of approach has enormous potential for estimates of net GHG balance in agricultural landscapes around the world.A slightly different approach is taken by the APEX model (Gassman et al. 2009). Rather than using overlain layers of GIS to create unique polygons the model user has to divide a given watershed into subunits. Each subunit has homogenous soils, climate and land use. Users can then link these units to model the flow of water and nutrients between them. The APEX model is a multi-unit version of the EPIC Model. EPIC (The Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator) was developed to assess the effect of soil erosion on soil productivity. EPIC has components for hydrology, snowmelt, water table dynamics, weather, erosion, nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus), pesticide fate, soil temperature, crop growth, tillage, plant environment control and economics (Williams 1995). As APEX is a version of EPIC, its primary focus is impacts of land-use management on water and nutrient loss. However APEX does model carbon and nitrogen cycling, providing emissions of CO 2 and N 2 O in its output. There is potential to extend the linked unit approach so that other biophysical processes affecting GHG emissions are also linked. Further details of the APEX model are given in Section 3. This section of the report gives an overview of some resources that are currently available for GHG accounting at the landscape level in developing countries dominated by smallholders. It is acknowledged that the resources listed here are a selection only. Resources are discussed in four categories: 1. Calculators, 2. Models, 3. Methodologies and Protocols, and 4. Integrated Toolsets. Definitions for these categories are based in part on those used by Denef et al. (2012). 'Calculators' include automated tools, either standalone programs (based in Microsoft Excel or Access or similar software) or web-based programs that require specific inputs from the user to run calculations in the background. 'Models' refers to ecosystem simulation models that generally expect the user to understand the processes simulated by the model when using it and 'Methodologies and Protocols' consist of written guidelines for measuring and monitoring GHG emissions.It is recognized that there is overlap between these categories and some of the options discussed fit into more than one category. Most examples are meant to be used in conjunction with each other (for example, calculators require data, and methodologies and protocols are needed to collect these data). The fourth category 'Integrated Toolsets' is included for two specific examples that integrate guidance on measurement and quantification methodologies with calculators and models. For each category at least one example is discussed in detail. Examples were chosen that show relevant geographical coverage that can be applied at the landscape level and cover multiple sources of GHGs (see also Table 3.2). In many cases, but not all, multiple land uses are considered; exceptions are the Cool Farm Tool and SALM, which consider only cropland. These were included as they provide examples of approaches that could be used on a purely agricultural landscape and, in the case of SALM, are designed to be used in conjunction with other tools. Consideration was also given to how accessible the resources would be to groups working in developing countries (see also Table 3.1). Information for the examples was gathered by distributing questionnaires to the resource developers. Completed questionnaires were then synthesized to produce the text in this section, plus a more detailed description of each resource that is given in Appendix 1.Increasingly, funding bodies and other organizations require the projects and activities they fund to report on their carbon impact. This can be difficult for projects where climate change mitigation is not the primary focus. To address this problem, many funding bodies have developed their own calculators, which simplify the GHG accounting process. These typically allow the user to run the IPCC method and/or linear or dynamic models by entering data into a user-friendly interface and provide output in a summarized format. Some are standalone programs that the user downloads (EX-ACT, Cool Farm Tool, ALU), whereas others can be used online (USAID AFOLU Calculator, CBP Simple Assessment).Several calculators have been developed to look at the carbon impact of single commodities (The International Wine C Calculator, Agri-LCI models). Others have been designed to consider single source categories or subcategories (WB ARD C Calculator and the IPCC LULUCF Calculator for soil C sequestration, MANURE for emissions from manure etc.). In addition, many calculators are country-or region-specific using emission factors and underlying datasets for a specific national situation (COMET-VR USA, GHG in Agriculture Tools-Australia). Typically there are more examples of these for developed countries, where activity data are more reliable and there have been more scientific studies to develop emission factors.In general, a landscape-scale assessment involving many smallholdings will cover a range of commodities, land-use categories and GHG source categories. Therefore if a single calculator is to be used for an assessment, it needs to reflect this. Calculators also need to be built on datasets with relevant geographical coverage if they are to be used in developing countries. Those that are not built using developing country datasets need to allow the user to input area-specific emission factors where necessary. The four examples given below fit all of these criteria to varying degrees. Calculators are described in terms of how they can be used at the landscape level, their applicability to smallholder situations in developing countries and novel features such as inclusion of uncertainty estimates and non-land-use emissions amongst others.Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contextsThe USAID AFOLU Carbon Calculator was developed by Winrock International, in collaboration with the USAID Global Climate Change team, to give USAID missions an easy way of complying with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)'s policy of mainstreaming CO 2 as an agency-wide results indicator. The emphasis of the toolset is on agriculture, forestry and other land uses (AFOLU) -it was originally called the Forest Carbon Calculator -but tools have been added recently for specific reporting on carbon change in grazing lands and croplands. The main contacts for the tool are Felipe Casarim and Nancy Harris at carbonservices@ winrock.org. The tool was first released in 2007 but has been updated multiple times since. It comprises six online and freely available calculators at http://winrock.stage.datarg.net/ CarbonReporting/Welcome. The tools cover the following activities: forest protection, forest management, afforestation/ reforestation, agroforestry, cropland management and grazing land management, and produce reports on above-ground forest biomass carbon, peat carbon and soil carbon. Nonland-use emissions are not covered.The tools encompass 119 different countries mainly in tropical and subtropical areas so have high relevance to developing countries. The six tools all use different methods with a general underlying database derived from extensive literature reviews and the IPCC 2006 Guidelines for AFOLU (IPCC 2006). In terms of application at the landscape scale, the tools use an underlying default database that has information at the administrative unit (the scale therefore varies greatly depending on the country and region you are working in). These default data are used with the 'Level A' basic application of the tool. 'Level B' allows the user to enter project-specific information if known, so the scale and accuracy can be increased.No estimate of uncertainty is given with the output and the developers are very clear in saying that the tools are not designed to produce the level of accuracy needed for carbon financing. The calculator provides a management effectiveness rating that is used as a measure of the success of project activities in terms of preventing GHG emissions or increasing removals from land-use change activities. This could be used to indirectly account for leakage. Issues of permanence are not addressed. Output gives carbon change in CO 2 equivalents for activity type, administrative unit and project. Output is not spatially explicit beyond the administrative unit. The toolset has been designed to be used by people with all levels of formal education. The tools are very easy to use at both Level A and Level B and are therefore relevant to those likely to be reporting on smallholder agriculture in developing countries (see Table 3.1 for suitability to users). The emphasis of the tool was originally on projects involving the addition or removal of trees and the tools for forests are therefore more detailed than the tools for cropland. However, the developers plan to improve these tools in the future. They also plan to improve both the spatial capabilities of the tool and default datasets.Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT) EX-ACT was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to provide anyone developing agriculture and forestry projects (programme officers, funding agencies and ministries) with a tool to estimate the impact of projects on GHG emissions and carbon sequestration (Bernoux et al. 2010). Although it was firstly developed for ex-ante analysis it can be used for project tracking. The tool consists of an Excel file and is free to download from the FAO website: http://www.fao.org/tc/exact/en/ The main contacts for the tool are Louis Bockel and Martial Bernoux from FAO and IRD respectively (EX-ACT@fao.org). The first version was released in December 2009 and the second version (v. 3.3) in August 2011. Version 4 was released in English in September 2012 with the inclusion of yield estimates for major crops.EX-ACT has mostly been developed using the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC 2006) in conjunction with other methodologies and reviews of default coefficients (Smith et al. 2007;Lal 2004). This makes it globally applicable. It assesses the impact of agriculture and forestry activities on carbon stock changes per unit of land and CH 4 and N 2 O emissions in tCO 2 e per hectare per year. The tool covers all GHG emissions linked with LULUCF activities covered by the 2006 IPCC Guidelines (IPCC 2006) plus some additional sources. This means it covers emissions associated with the following: carbon stock changes during land-use conversion, biomass or residue burning, flooded rice cultivation, organic soils, livestock production and inputs of lime, fertilizer and manure. In addition, the tool provides comprehensive coverage of non-land-use emissions associated with agriculture, such as those from the production, transport, storage and transfer of agricultural chemicals and emissions from energy use and infrastructure (electricity and fuel consumption associated with buildings and irrigation systems, both construction and maintenance).The output of EX-ACT is a carbon balance resulting from project activities (for example, what would happen above a baseline scenario?). Output is not spatially explicit. This is accompanied by a rough estimate of uncertainty (a percentage rounded up to the nearest 10 percent), which is calculated using the method given in the IPCC 2006 Guidance (IPCC 2006). Issues of leakage are not addressed specifically but could be addressed by manipulating input information if the user decided to do so. Permanence is not addressed, but the uncertainty results could be used to highlight categories where problems of permanence might arise. No analysis of social or economic impacts is included, although output has been used to feed into economic analysis using Marginal Abatement Cost Curves (Bockel et al, 2012) EX-ACT was originally designed to work at the scale of the development project (from thousands to millions of hectares) many of which are at the landscape scale. The user determines the scale so it can easily be used at the landscape scale. Advantages of use for a landscape-scale assessment include the wide range of ecosystem types and activities and emissions sources covered by the tool, including non-agricultural emissions associated with various landuse activities. A drawback is that it does not have a spatial element, so users will derive a single output for the entire geographic area they describe; however, this is broken down by land-use categories.EX-ACT has been designed for use by anyone after a short training course (one to two days). It is an Excel file and can be used by anyone with a reasonable understanding of Excel. The fact that the tool uses standard Windows software and does not rely on an internet connection (other than to download it) makes it very accessible to users in developing countries. Tier 1 emission factors are supplied or the user can input their own data. It does however require a fair amount of detailed information. The Tool itself and the Guidelines are available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. EX-ACT was not designed for carbon markets and is not certified. However when compared to the BioCarbon Fund project and Climate Community and Biodiversity Alliance standard, it gave similar results in terms of total carbon sequestered. EX-ACT has already been used in 30 projects and policy appraisals concerning 24 different countries and so is being widely used. It has recently been used on a largescale ex-ante assessment of two rural development projects in Brazil dominated by smallholder farmers (Branca et al. 2013). It has a permanent team dedicated to its development and maintenance.The Cool Farm Tool (CFT) was developed to be a decision support tool for farmers and growers to help them gain a better understanding of the sources and sinks of agricultural GHG in their production practices. The main emphasis of the tool is on arable land, although livestock and woody perennial crops are included. The intended users of the tool are multinational or national food and beverage companies, farmers, cooperatives and development and other organizations that work with growers. The tool was developed by Unilever, the University of Aberdeen and the Sustainable Food Laboratory. The first version was released in early 2010, subsequent versions in early 2011 and a new version in May 2012. The main contact for the tool is Daniella Malin at the Sustainable Food Laboratory (Daniella.malin@gmail.com). The CFT is an Excel file, which can be downloaded free from the Cool Farm Institute, website: www.coolfarmtool.org. In addition there are some online questionnaires that help users format their data, making it more accessible to farmers.The tool has global applicability as it uses equations, either based on modifications of the IPCC approach or on other sources in the literature (Hillier et al. 2011). It comprises a number of submodels dealing with arable crops, woody perennial crops, livestock and land-use change to or from grassland, arable land and forest. GHG emissions include CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O resulting from soil disturbance, fertilizer use, resident nitrogen, crop residue management, pesticide use, livestock production and land-use change. In addition the tool covers carbon stock changes in soil and biomass resulting from management changes. Emissions from on-site electricity use, fertilizer and pesticide production and transport (for inputs and of the final product) are also included.Output is net GHG emissions in CO 2 e in tables, graphs and charts, broken down by emissions sources and sinks. Output is not spatially explicit, as it is for individual agricultural products. The tool does not assess uncertainty and the authors state that the tool is not intended as a carbon market access mechanism, but can provide a screen for carbon market opportunities as it can be used to run 'what if' scenarios. Leakage and permanence are not addressed. The tool was originally designed to be used for individual products, but can be used at any other scale if details of all the products produced on those scales are known. For example, if a landscape includes a large number of small diverse farmers growing beans, milk, beef, corn and vegetables and large grazing and forested areas, users would use the CFT to quantify the GHG on this landscape by: 1. characterizing the farmers (larger, smaller, some that grow one type of crop some that grow another); 2. calculating the GHG emissions of each Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contexts crop of each typical farmer and multiplying by the number of farmers in each category; 3. sum these crops and farmers. If the grazing areas or forested areas have undergone change in the last 20 years you would add these to the sum.In terms of applicability to smallholders in developing countries, one of the benefits of the tool is that it is designed mainly to use information a farmer may have readily available and so can be used without a lot of extra data collection. In situations where farmers are scattered across a landscape and it is difficult to get them together, this offers an advantage. The tool is in Excel so uses standardized software available in most countries. The accompanying online questionnaire is available in English and Spanish. The tool itself is available only in English, although there are plans to make it available in more languages, starting with Spanish. The tool is currently being used by a number of companies and NGOs (some representing thousands of farmers) in at least 23 countries. Details of case studies where it has been used are available at http://www.coolfarmtool.org/CaseStudies. Many of these are for single commodities, however examples of application to numerous smallholders across a landscape in Kenya are also given. Although not designed for use in carbon markets, the CFT has been tested widely by voluntary standards systems. Rainforest Alliance, Utz Certified, Fairtrade (FLO-Cert), Solidaridad and 4C Association are considering integrating it into their auditing programmes.Future plans are to develop a web-based version of the tool to improve the transparency, scalability, user guidance and user interface. There are also plans to enable integration of CFT into other supply chain GHG and life cycle analysis (LCA) resources used by private companies, commercial service providers and public interest organizations. The Cool Farm Tool was recently accepted by the GHG metric working group for the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops and will be recommended to the Coordinating Council.Agriculture and Land Use National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Software -ALU ALU was developed by Colorado State University as a practical tool for those compiling national GHG inventories for the UNFCCC, and includes emission source categories in the agricultural, land-use, land-use change and forestry sectors (also referred to as the agriculture, forestry and other land-use sector, AFOLU). The tool is available for download free of charge from http://www.nrel.colostate.edu/projects/ ALUsoftware/. The contact for the tool is Stephen Ogle (Stephen.Ogle@colostate.edu). A prototype version was released in 2007 followed by the current version in 2011. The ALU software is based on the IPCC method from the revised 1996 guidelines, and further developed in the 2000 and 2003 guidelines, along with some information from the 2006 guidelines. The software has not been fully updated to conform to the 2006 IPCC guidelines because they are not the official reporting guidelines for the UNFCCC. However, it is anticipated that ALU will be revised to fully conform to the 2006 guidelines when accepted by the convention as the official guidance for reporting GHG emissions. The software organizes into four modules the different stages involved in producing an inventory, thereby simplifying the process of producing an inventory of GHG emissions and removals related to agricultural and forestry activities. Development has focused on providing a tool for use in non-annex 1 countries, although it has global application. Users can upload their own spatial data for soils, climate and land use, or use default information. Likewise, the user can input their own emission factors or use IPCC defaults. The tool is designed for producing annual inventories, in addition to analysing potential emission reductions with a 'mitigation function' that uses the emissions inventory as the baseline.ALU covers land uses found in the IPCC guidelines: forests, croplands, grasslands, wetlands, settlements, other lands and emissions from livestock. The associated emission source categories include enteric methane, manure methane, manure nitrous oxide, biomass burning non-CO 2 greenhouse gas emissions, soil nitrous oxide, biomass carbon stock changes and soil carbon stock changes. Non-land-use emissions (fuel use etc.) are not included. Output from the tool gives emission estimates for all source categories listed above in tonnes of the respective GHG, in the form of an Excel workbook. Uncertainty is not addressed in the current version, but a version will be released in 2012 with uncertainty based on the simple error propagation method described in the 2006 IPCC guidelines. Leakage and permanence are not addressed. Economic analysis is not included, but the tool is designed to be able to utilize information from an economic analysis to project mitigation potentials.The tool was designed for use at the country scale and contains defaults intended for national-scale application. However, the software also incorporates user-specific factors, so could be applied at the landscape scale by entering emission factors that are specific to the landscape, addressing the influence of lateral flows on energy and matter on emissions. For this type of application, the user would have to compile activity data at a finer scale than is typical of a national inventory, which often rely on national or regional data. Landscape applications would need to map individual crop fields, pastures and forest stands and connections among the various land parcels across the landscape of interest. This type of compilation would most probably occur in a GIS software system, with data being imported into the ALU software afterwards. Emission factors could then be assigned, based on the landscape relationships and emissions estimates.The results could then be exported into reporting tables or incorporated back into the GIS software. Field measurements to gather data for user-specific emission factors would entail resources and expertise and this would likely be needed in a landscape application, as existing factors, such as those provided by the IPCC, do not attempt to address the influence of landscape relationships on emissions. However, IPCC defaults are provided if measurements are not feasible and users can also take data from previous studies, if these exist. The software does assume a fair knowledge of the IPCC method and the terminology it employs, and this could be a barrier for non-expert users.As a national inventory tool, ALU has not been certified for acceptability to carbon markets. However it is designed for UNFCCC reporting, so if the same standards are acceptable for carbon markets or certification schemes, then the tool could be used for this purpose. To date, national compilers in approximately 30 countries have been trained to use the ALU software and over half of these governments are actively using, or are in the process of starting to use the software for their national inventory reporting to the UNFCCC.As opposed to calculators, the use of models for the assessment of GHGs requires some understanding of the model itself and how it represents the system. For landscapescale assessments that utilize a model linked to a GIS, some expertise in GIS is also needed. The use of models is therefore often limited to academic and research institutions. Examples of ecosystem models that have been, and can be used in this way, are Century and DNDC. Century (Parton et al. 1988) was originally designed for use in the USA, but has now been parameterized and tested in many different countries, including Kenya, Jordan, Brazil and India (Kamoni, et al. 2007;Al-Adamat et al. 2007;Cerri et al. 2007;Bhattacharyya et al. 2007). The system is available for download from http://www. nrel.colostate.edu/projects/century/. A project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) produced a system which links Century, the RothC model and the IPCC method to a GIS (Milne et al.;2007;Easter et al. 2007). The method used datasets compiled in developing countries and the system is available for download from www.nrel.colostate.edu/projects/ gefsoc-uk/. DNDC (Li et al. 1992) was also originally designed for use in the USA, but has now been applied in several other places including China, India, Costa Rica and Europe (Giltrap et al. 2010). Examples of regional and landscape-scale application include work in Germany (Neufeldt 2005;Neufeldt et al. 2006) and Australia (Kiese et al. 2005). The model is available for download from http://www.dndc.sr.unh.edu/.Models linked to a GIS in this way carry out individual model runs for each intersection of soils, climate and land-use information (polygons), but their representation of horizontal transport of nutrients, or other materials between polygons, is limited to non-existent. Ideally, landscape-scale approaches should consider horizontal interactions between units in terms of GHG emissions and carbon stock changes and the drivers behind these. However, in reality this is highly complex and is therefore not addressed by most modelling assessments. An example of a biophysical model that takes an integrated approach is the APEX model (see example below). The model has a greater focus on soil and water conservation than GHG emissions and as such, horizontal interactions are limited to the transport of water and nutrients.APEX is an ecosystem model developed by Texas Agrilife -Blackland Research and Extension Center. It is available for download from the websites http://epicapex.brc.tamus.edu/ downloads/model-executables and http://winapex.brc.tamus. edu/downloads/model-executables or can be obtained from the developers on request. The main contacts for the model are Dr Jimmy Williams (jwilliams@brc.tamus.edu) or Evelyn Steglich (esteglich@brc.tamus.edu). APEX was designed to allow agricultural planners, researchers, universities, and landuse planners managing whole farms and small watersheds, to obtain sustainable production efficiency, maintain environmental quality and address environmental problems. It can be used at any geographic location if data are available. It was originally designed for use in the USA and therefore the underlying database it uses contains weather, soil and typical management information for the USA; however, the assumption is that users will input their own information.The first version of APEX was released in 1998 and the latest in 2008. APEX is a process-based model to simulate management and land-use impacts for whole farms and small watersheds on carbon and nitrogen cycles, carbon and nitrogen storage, and nutrient loading and losses, through volatilization, leaching, erosion, and denitrification. It also assesses CO 2 sequestration via plant growth. APEX is a multi-field version of the EPIC model and can be executed for a watershed that is subdivided, based on fields, soil types, landscape positions or subwatersheds. It is based on carbon and nitrogen cycling algorithms, initially developed by Izaurralde et al. (2006) for EPIC, which, in turn, are based on concepts used in the Century model (i.e. kinetic pool approach). Leaching equations are used to move organic materials from surface litter to subsurface layers. It has a DOS version (APEX) as well as two Windows interfaces (WinAPEX and ArcAPEX). A key feature of APEX is its ability to estimate SOC losses caused by wind and water erosion.APEX covers different types of agricultural management with an emphasis on soil and water conservation. It includes Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contexts livestock grazing, pesticide, water and floodplain management and tree cropping. It simulates carbon losses including eroded carbon, CO 2 emissions (respiration from decaying residue) and N 2 O from fertilizer and mineralization. The model also includes CO 2 emissions from farm machinery and there is a simple income cost analysis for farm activities. Output from the DOS version is in text format. Output from WinAPEX is in Microsoft Access tables, and output from ArcAPEX is both Microsoft Access tables and text files. APEX does not include any uncertainty analysis, but multiple runs changing individual parameters can be used for a Monte Carlo analysis and indeed, this has been done for some examples (Steglich pers. com).APEX can be applied at the landscape scale by dividing a watershed into many homogeneous subareas based on soil type, landscape position or subwatershed. Subareas can range from a few m 2 to 1000 or more ha depending on the desired level of detail. An advantage of using APEX at the landscape scale is that it models the flow of water, sediment, nutrients, and pesticides between subareas within the landscape, taking a more integrated approach than simply summing up distinct areas. This means it could be used to consider issues of emissions displacement or leakage to geographically neighbouring non-study areas.The inputs needed for the model are quite detailed as it works on a daily time step. For use in developing countries in landscapes with multiple smallholder farmers, data acquisition could be an issue (as with most detailed ecosystem models). For the DOS version, expertise in DOS and data analysis is needed to run the model and to process the text file results. For the Windows versions, output is given in Access, so database expertise is needed to interpret the results. Advantages of the tool are the fact that it accounts for carbon losses through erosion and that it takes an integrated approach, modelling nutrient flow between subareas. APEX has not been certified for use by any voluntary reporting standard or carbon market. It is being used widely, including by the Natural Resources Conservation Service in the USA, in its National Conservation Effects Assessment Project analysis.There is a wide range of methodologies and protocols that could be used for landscape-scale GHG accounting in agricultural landscapes. Many of the carbon standards and offset programmes involved in the voluntary carbon market include protocols for aspects of agriculture and land use. For example, the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) has protocols for grassland management, Afforestation/Reforestation (A/R) and the adoption of sustainable agricultural land management (see Section 3.4 on integrated toolsets). The Climate Action Reserve (CAR) has protocols for livestock projects, forest projects and rice cultivation projects, and is developing a protocol for nitrogen management (to be released 2012). Plan Vivo provides standardized protocols specifically aimed at smallholder farmers, but the emphasis is very much on tree-based activities (A/R, agroforestry and forest restoration). The compliance carbon market has yet to fully include land management activities and therefore the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) only provides protocols on A/R and manure management. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has a specification document for quantifying GHG emissions at the project level (ISO 14064-1:2006) but the sections for agriculture and forestry are not very well developed (ISO 2006).For projects wishing to do reporting for purposes other than accreditation, the above protocols may prove too onerous. For this reason many funding agencies (GEF, FAO and the World Bank) have developed their own protocols to ensure standardized reporting from the activities they fund. A lot of work has been carried out by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and other CGIAR centres through the Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins (ASB), which provides resources specifically for those living and working on forest margins. Comprehensive manuals have been developed for measuring carbon stocks across formerly forested landscapes (Palm 2005;Hairiah et al. 2011) and measuring carbon stocks in landscapes dominated by peatland soils (Augus et al. 2011). In addition, methodological planning and training materials are being produced by ASB's REALU (Reducing Emissions from All Land Uses) project, which takes a broad approach, encompassing emissions from all land uses at the landscape scale (ASB 2012).For smallholders in developing countries, protocols that meet the following criteria are likely to be most useful: that they provide clear comprehensive advice on all stages of GHG assessment from designating boundaries to laboratory analysis; that they include examples of low-cost strategies and strategies which don't demand high technical expertise. The two examples below were chosen as they meet these criteria, but many others exist.This guidebook was developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to provide methods for estimating carbon stocks and changes resulting from GEF project interventions. The contact for the guidebook is the lead author, Timothy Pearson (tpearson@winrock. org). The guidebook can be downloaded free from Winrock International's website http://www.winrock.org/Ecosystems/ files/GEF_Guidebook.pdf The guidelines aim to assist project developers, managers and evaluators, and implementing and monitoring agencies. They are targeted at non-experts and a user-friendly format has been adopted. The methods can be applied anywhere geographically and cover ex-ante, project tracking and ex-post analysis. They were published in 2005 and there are no plans for further versions or updates.Methods are drawn from IPCC guidelines, the Winrock C Methods Manual and the US Voluntary Reporting of GHGs Program (1605b). The guidelines are relatively concise (64 pages) and use accessible language to guide the user through all aspects of GHG/carbon reporting. Topics include choosing a sampling plan with an appropriate level of accuracy and precision, developing a baseline scenario, developing a measurement and monitoring plan, taking field measurements and analysing data. Methods for estimating all relevant carbon pools and emissions or avoided emissions of non-CO 2 GHGs are provided. Carbon pools covered are: trees above and below ground, dead wood, forest floor, soil organic carbon and harvested wood products. The methods focus on terrestrial systems, but can also be applied to wetlands, mangroves and any coastal or freshwater system dominated by plants.The guidelines provide specific guidance on analysis of collected data. Details are given on how to track confidence intervals of collected field data and use a propagation of errors method to sum errors from the various sources. There is a section discussing leakage; however, assessment methods are not included. The guidelines were written in 2004 and this precedes development of most methods for leakage assessment. Similarly, 2004 was before developments occurred on buffers or most other forms of permanence management. No guidance on tracking other ecosystem services or analysing economic and social impacts is given. GEF projects vary in size from whole landscapes, or even regions, to small-scale interventions at the farm level. The guidelines provide the necessary steps for field measurement and analysis of field measurements of carbon stocks and changes. These approaches can be applied at any scale, including landscape, or even national. The authors point out that stratification will become increasingly important the higher the scale. At present most GEF land management projects do not have climate change mitigation as a primary goal; however, this is expected to change. The guidelines therefore aim to provide guidance suited to managers of land degradation, biodiversity and other land management projects, who are perhaps new to carbon inventory methods. Most GEF projects are located in developing countries and many involve numerous smallholder farmers. The guidelines were therefore written with this in mind. Constraints to the use of these guidelines include the costs and capacity associated with measurement, monitoring and analysis. Such capacity typically exists in individuals trained in forestry, soil science or ecology.The guidelines were designed to integrate assessment of carbon benefits into GEF projects. That said, the methods are entirely appropriate for carbon markets and certification schemes. The question will be the level of precision targeted and degree to which quality assurance and quality control processes are implemented. The level of uptake of the guidelines is not known; however they have influenced other subsequent publications (Sourcebook for Biocarbon Fund Projects and the Sourcebook for REDD).Carbon Inventory Methods -A handbook for greenhouse gas inventory, carbon mitigation and roundwood production projects This is a review, or a 'cookbook' of inventories, developed by different entities of the UNFCCC, FAO and Winrock International. The contacts are the two authors N.H. Ravindranath (ravi@ces.iisc.ernet.in) and M. Ostwald (madelene.ostwald@liu.se). The book is commercially available (Springer ISBN-3: 978-1-4020-6546-0) at US$190, so it is relatively expensive. However, it may be available through academic libraries. In addition UNDP purchased copies of the handbook and supported its use for training and capacity building programmes, so copies could be available if organizations have links with UNDP. The book was developed mainly for practitioners -professionals in forest inventories, soil chemistry and education -and for project developers and evaluators. It has a focus on developing countries, having had its origins in a UNDP-GEF manual developed earlier by one of the authors. The book is available in an English version (2008) and a Chinese version (2009).The handbook brings together multiple methods of project development, implementation and monitoring. It provides step by step information on sampling procedures, field and laboratory measurements, application of remote sensing and GIS techniques, modelling and calculation procedures, and sources of data for carbon inventory. A unique feature is that it provides practical guidance for different types of projects. It covers forest, grassland, agroforestry systems and cropland (with a focus on perennial terrestrial systems). It does not however provide specific guidance on emissions from livestock and livestock inventory. It mainly deals with carbon in terrestrial systems (above and below ground, dead wood, litter and soil). Non-land-use emissions associated with agriculture are not covered. Guidance on how to collate and format data is given, again tailored to different types of projects, carried out at different scales.A chapter on uncertainty analysis is included in the book. Indicators relate to lack of data and representativeness (for example, due to variations), sampling and measurement errors. The book provides descriptions of the types of leakage that can occur and refers to quantification methods. The issue of permanence is discussed but no methods are proposed.Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contexts Methods to determine the economic or social consequences of land management or impacts on other ecosystem services are not included. The book provides a range of different methods, relevant to different scales. The authors point out that heterogeneity (complexity) is a more limiting factor than the fact that an activity or project covers a landscape. Certain chapters are particularly relevant to landscape-level assessment. For example, Chapter 14 deals with carbon inventory using data from remote sensing. Techniques for estimating and monitoring project boundaries, stratifying project areas and developing sampling regimes are given for all scales, including the landscape scale.In terms of relevance to smallholders or those representing smallholders in developing countries, knowledge of biology and mathematics is useful for all methods suggested and essential for some. For the more technically advanced methods, users need field equipment, computer programs, programming skills and remote sensing information that can sometimes be costly. An advantage of the book is that it provides a range of methods suited to different project types and resource levels, with advice on how the user can decide which one is appropriate. Many of the methods are based on the IPCC Good Practice Guidance designed for reporting to the UNFCCC Secretariat and a large number are in line with methods used for many of the voluntary market certificates. There are no plans to update the book at the moment.In reality, landscape-scale assessments of GHGs require a combination of ground sampling, use of data from census, remote sensing or other sources, and modelling to upscale results and make forward projections. Fitting all these aspects together needs to be done carefully to minimize uncertainties and maximize use of scarce resources. This is especially true in heterogeneous landscapes dominated by smallholders in developing countries. However, examples of integrated resources that provide guidance on all of these aspects, in particular collecting data for all of the parameters needed to run specific calculators and models, are few and far between. Two examples are given below: the first, SALM, is applicable to cropland only but provides an illustration of an accredited protocol for collecting data for, and utilizing the RothC model at the landscape scale. The second, CBP, provides a comprehensive toolset, including online calculators, protocols and models for carrying out GHG assessments in heterogeneous landscapes, with an emphasis on developing countries.SALM is a method developed by Joanneum Research in conjunction with Unique Forestry Consultants, funded by the World Bank. It was developed for, and is being used in the 'Western Kenya Smallholder Agriculture Carbon Finance Project' and has recently (December 2011) been approved by the Voluntary Carbon Standard, making it an acceptable method for reporting to voluntary carbon markets. The main contact for the method is Niel Bird (niel.bird@joanneum. at). A free PDF file of the method is available for download from www.v-c-s.org. The method is designed for use by smallholders in developing countries, but it can be applied anywhere where studies demonstrate that the use of the RothC model is appropriate for: (a) the IPCC climatic regions of 2006 IPCC AFOLU guidelines, or (b) the agroecological zone (AEZ). The method covers ex-ante, project tracking and ex-post analysis.The method is a protocol for estimating and monitoring GHG emissions of project activities that reduce emissions in agriculture through the adoption of sustainable land management practices (SALM); for example, crop management, land-use management and residue/waste management. It does not include direct emissions from livestock and cannot be applied to wetlands. Land must be cropland or grassland at the start of a project. It consists of a set of guidelines to estimate baseline and project emissions and removals, using measurements and monitoring plus modelling for SOC. The methodology uses input parameters to accepted biogeochemical models (at the moment just RothC) for estimation of soil organic carbon. N 2 O emissions from fertilizer use and carbon stocks in woody perennials follow CDM A/R methodologies. N 2 O emissions from nitrogen fixers and residue and N 2 O and CH 4 emissions from burning residue are covered by other equations taken from the literature. It also includes emissions from on-farm vehicle and machinery use. A monitoring survey and sample activity baseline are provided to help users format data.Guidance on estimating uncertainty is given for soil carbon only. Guidance on assessing several forms of leakage is given relating to biomass production, use of manure and fuelwood and use of fossil fuels for cooking, heating and transport. Issues of permanence are not dealt with.Data are monitored at the farm level but are agglomerated to the sum of all participating farms, which the developers describe as a 'partial landscape level'. The method therefore assumes that the impacts of farm-level activities are additive. This approach requires a project participant to act as an agglomerator, collating information from individual farms. This person needs to have skills in farm-level surveying, basic statistics and the ability to use the RothC model, and also must have access to scientific libraries. Given this, the developers indicate that the method can only be used by those with a certain level of scientific training, which could possibly exclude use by those running farmers' cooperatives. The method has been designed for use in agricultural landscapes where sustainable land management practices occur on cropland or grassland (as described above). It would therefore not be appropriate for use in landscapes where other mitigating activities such as afforestation/reforestation or wetland restoration, are also taking place and would in these circumstances have to be used in conjunction with other VCS methodologies.To date, the methodology has been used by the project for which it was designed, plus inquiries and detailed questions about modelling and applicability have been received from two other organizations. Unique Forestry Consultants and FAO have produced a web-based tool to identify available studies and potential applicability in many developing countries. The RothC model is one of the simpler SOC models and as such has limitations. Future plans include how to modify and adapt the model to fit specific agricultural management options, rather than modifying the methodology. For example, RothC does not specifically address reduced tillage (at the moment).The Carbon Benefits Project (CBP) is a recent initiative funded by GEF, which has developed a suite of tools, guidelines and protocols for GEF projects to report on the carbon benefits (carbon stock changes and GHG emissions) of their land management activities. Tools can be used by any land use/ management project and are freely available from http:// www.unep.org/climatechange/carbon-benefits/cbp_pim. Potential users include the UN-REDD, offset projects in LULUCF and monitoring and evaluation activities for any agency. Some tools can be used online and others downloaded as stand-alone software. The tools have been developed in two components, one using a range of modelling and other tools, with more emphasis on cropland and grazing land, and the other focusing on measurement with emphasis on carbon stocks in trees (in forests, agroforestry and trees outside of forests). The two components are discussed separately here although they are designed to be used in conjunction with each other.The tools in the Modelling Component of the CBP were developed by Colorado State University in conjunction with partners from eight different countries. Contacts for the tool are Eleanor Milne (eleanor.milne@colostate.edu) and Mark Easter (mark.easter@colostate.edu). The tools are available free of charge and can be used online, except for the Dynamic Modelling Option, which can be downloaded from http:// www.unep.org/climatechange/carbon-benefits/cbp_pim. The tools can be applied globally and can be used for ex-ante and ex-post analysis and project tracking. The system has three options:1. The Simple Assessment which is an online tool based on the IPCC method. It requires users to input land management information and uses default IPCC factors. It was released in 2012.2. The Detailed Assessment, also based on the IPCC method, but allows users to enter their own project-specific information and emission factors. This will be released later in 2012.3. The Dynamic Modelling option, which is a version of the Century Ecosystem Model linked to a GIS.All three options utilize an online map facility to define project boundaries and activity areas. The tools compare a baseline and a project scenario to determine incremental carbon benefits. Also included are a guidance section providing help on monitoring strategies, field sampling etc., a costs benefit analysis and a DPSIR (drivers, pressures, state, impact, response).The toolkit covers all of the ecosystems classified in the IPCC GHG Inventory Methods for Agriculture, Forestry, and other Land Uses (IPCC, 2006). It covers emissions of all three major GHGs (CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O) from all sources covered by the IPCC approach and carbon stock changes associated with all carbon pools. Non-land-use emissions are not dealt with.Output is in the form of a PDF file with emissions and stock changes broken down by project areas, source and source subcategory. A detailed report (Excel file) will be added soon, which can be imported into a GIS.GEF projects vary in scale so the tools have been designed to be used at any scale. The Simple and Detailed Assessments are designed to work on areas from a few ha to approximately ten million ha. The Dynamic Modelling option has been used at the landscape to subnational scale, but can be applied at any scale if data are available. The first step to using the system is to define the geographic boundary of the project and then identify within this where land management activities are taking place. The user either draws polygons on screen on a web-based map, defines points, or uploads a GIS file. The size of these 'Project Activity Areas' is determined by the user.In doing this the user can capture multiple areas of different land-use activity within a single landscape and carry out a landscape-scale assessment. The process is repeated for the initial land use, a baseline scenario and a project scenario.For the Simple Assessment and the Detailed Assessment, management information is then entered for each area, orMethods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contexts group of areas, for seven different land-use categories and livestock. An advantage of the system is that several similar areas can be grouped together and land management information only has to be entered once.In terms of relevance to smallholder farmers groups, the Simple Assessment can be used with the sort of activity data a land management project is likely to have and just requires an internet connection (as it is an online tool). For the Detailed Assessment, local datasets and measurements can be used to improve estimates, so costs and expertise associated with field sampling can apply. For the Dynamic Modelling option, expertise in GIS and ecosystem modelling are required. The Simple Assessment tool is available in English, Spanish and Chinese. The modelling tools are not certified by any carbon scheme at the moment, but would be useful in scoping the suitability of a project for certification. During development of the tools there were 10 workshops, each involving between 20 and 30 people. The Simple Assessment is currently being used in case study projects in Brazil, China (two projects), Kenya and Niger/Nigeria. Future plans are to add a database of biometry measurements from agroforestry, reforestation and afforestation projects, and to add French and Brazilian Portuguese versions of the tool.The CBP Measurement tools were developed by Michigan State University (MSU), in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund and the World Agroforestry Centre. The main contact for the tools is Mike Smalligan, (smallig2@msu.edu). The tools are free of charge and can be accessed from the web. They have global coverage and can be used for ex-ante and ex-post analysis of project activities, together with ongoing monitoring throughout the project's life cycle. The tools were released in March 2012. The measurement system provides the means to quantify carbon stocks and stock changes directly, using a combination of remote sensing observations, ground calibration and web-enabled GIS. The system also provides estimates of CH 4 and N 2 O from direct field and remote sensing measurements. Non-land-use emissions are not covered.The primary focus of the toolsets is on forests, agroforestry, woodlands, savannas and landscapes with trees outside of forests. It is also applicable in croplands, grasslands, wetlands, and settlements. Carbon stocks covered include SOC and above-and below-ground woody biomass (litter and dead wood are not covered). The approach allows for large area landscape assessments of carbon for REDD, A/R, and agroforestry systems at very high spatial resolution.The tool output is a standard report in a PDF file. In addition there are online displays of data. Output includes tCO 2 e sequestered, changes in hectares from land without trees to land with trees (criteria varies for each module), tCO 2 e sequestered/$ invested. The fifth module specifically provides landscape indicators of carbon benefits, including landcover index, tree-crown-area index, carbon-stock index, fire-risk index, watershed index, and social, economic and biodiversity index. The toolset also contains a number of project planning tools, such as an agroforestry tree database, a species selection tool, a project boundary and land-cover stratification tool and a manual for engaging communities in carbon measurement and monitoring. The user can calculate uncertainty separately using the IPCC error propagation method. The remote sensing components of the tool can be used to monitor leakage outside the project boundaries. The tools do not define leakage, but allow each project to define leakage according to selected carbon standards or project requirements. The tools address risk rather than permanence. Direct guidance on economic impacts is not given; however, a tool for assessing social co-benefits under CCBA (Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance) criteria is included.The tools were specifically designed for landscape-scale application where local field inventories can be linked to remote sensing (RS) and they require field sampling to allow for statistical analysis of strata within the landscape. Minimal ground sampling is then scaled up to landscape and regional levels through RS analysis of both SOC stocks and woody biomass carbon stocks. The SOC measurement protocol requires vehicles, skilled labour, specialized soil sampling tools, GPS devices, desktop computers, specialized software, laboratories equipped with near infrared spectroscopy, or access to external soil analysis laboratories.The non-CO 2 GHG measurement protocol also requires extensive inputs such as vehicles, skilled labour, GPS devices, specialized field sampling gas exchange chambers, gas sampling equipment, a nitric oxide monitor, desktop computers, specialized software, and labs equipped with a gas chromatograph. The woody biomass measurement protocol needs vehicles, skilled labour, standard forest inventory equipment, specialized forest inventory tools, GPS devices, access to free and commercial satellite data, high power computers with extensive storage capacity, specialized RS software, technical capacity for RS and GIS and access to a lab for plant tissue analysis. The online Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) system necessitates computer servers, geospatial databases, extensive knowledge in GIS, and wideranging computer programming skills. Some aspects entail a workflow to be carried out in a remote sensing or GIS facility and some of the modelling uses workflows that are done 'off the web'.The CBP measurement tools are compatible with regulatory markets and voluntary market standards, but they have not been reviewed or directly approved by any market or standard. The measurement tools have only just been released; therefore uptake is currently limited to the case study that was used during development in Kenya.  Section 2 of the paper described some of the key features of the different tools developed for GHG and carbon stock accounting by distinguishing between measurement-based approaches and models. Indeed all measurement-based approaches build on models that allow the observable datasets to inform target variables (in this case GHGs or carbon stocks); and all modelling approaches build on observable metrics (such as management practices and activity data) that feed into the models, whether they use simple regressions that link EFs to activity data, such as those of the IPCC Tier 1 and 2 approaches, or derive the target values from complex interrelationships in mechanistic ecosystem models, such as CENTURY or DNDC.One clear distinction between EF-based calculators and measurement protocols and tools on the one hand and ecosystem models on the other, is that the former are stocktaking approaches, while the latter are based on flows between different compartments of the system. In essence this allows ecosystem models to simulate emission pathways and make predictions about the future for a variety of possible cases; whereas all other instruments essentially treat the time between two stocktaking exercises as black boxes and can only make predictions that are based on past emission trajectories.These different features do not necessarily render mechanistic models superior to simple regression models or measurement approaches. Rather the different approaches are needed for different purposes and complement each other. While calculators allow for fairly quick assessments of baseline emissions and potential emission changes under an altered management system (for example, conventional versus no-tillage agriculture), mechanistic models would allow simulation of emission flux changes over time, including a variety of subsequent land-use measures and their interactions, (for example, considering the residual effects of previously accumulated litter). Furthermore, while modelling approaches, whether simple or complex, require relatively little measurement input and can derive outputs at fairly low costs, measurement approaches are ultimately needed to verify model outputs and integrate the various emission flux changes following real management decisions into a single value. This allows evaluation of the effectiveness or efficiency of different management changes over time.While all models described in this paper can be used to address landscape approaches by connecting the units via GIS, only APEX deals with flows from one compartment to the next. By their structure, regression models or calculators cannot take lateral fluxes into account, but in principle mechanistic models could be designed to accommodate this feature. Lateral flows become important where slope induces mass transport out of one compartment into the next. For instance when nitrogen leaches into groundwater and is then transported off site it can be emitted as N 2 O from an adjacent compartment. However, whether such emissions will be of a significant order of magnitude remains unclear. On the other hand, measurement tools do take account of such landscape dynamics if the measurement area is sufficiently larger than the area targeted by any given land-use change. This, though, requires a statistically representative measurement regime and the need for a significantly larger measurement area could raise the costs for quantifying lateral flow effects beyond economic feasibility.Section 3 describes a number of different calculators, models and measurement tools currently available for GHG and carbon stock assessments at landscape scales. In this section we will look at these instruments through the lenses of the targeted user groups, view different GHGs as well as source and sink categories covered; and discuss important advantages and constraints.Table 3.1 shows the primary user groups that the different instruments were developed for, based on the assessment of the tool developers, as well as other potential users. However, this may lead to an uneven interpretation, since the tool developers' understanding of the different user groups is likely to vary. Nonetheless, the table does allow identification of some characteristics of the different types of tools with regard to their usability for a number of user groups. All tools except ALU, APEX and SALM appear to have been primarily designed to report carbon sequestration and GHG emissions to funding agencies. ALU and carbon inventory methods were developed for the provision of inventories and APEX and carbon inventory methods were primarily for use in research. However, most developers believe that their tools could be used for all other purposes as well, if only after some training (where government staff who are not scientifically trained are considered the least capable of using the tools). This suggests that most of the tools appear to be suitable for the preparation of inventories and for research.With the exception of SALM, a protocol that assesses soil carbon enrichment and N 2 O and CH 4 emissions following the introduction of conservation agriculture practices and crop and residue/waste management, none of the tools are ready for use by the carbon markets. The VCS recently approved SALM, and it seems that the voluntary or compliance market could approve several of the tools if they are submitted.For instance the CBP toolsets as well as the two methods/ protocols ('Integrating Carbon Benefits' and 'Carbon Inventory Methods') would lend themselves to being used by carbon projects working at landscape scales, due to the number of gases and the wide range of emission/sink sources covered, as well as their treatment of important issues like leakage and uncertainty required for use in carbon projects. The calculators could possibly also be used for this purpose, though their reliance on IPCC Tier 1, or at best Tier 2 level emission factors, and the fairly crude treatment of improved management practices, could render them unsuitable for many improved management practices -or generate mitigation values that are insufficient for project-level MRV.Table 3.2 shows that most tools deal with all three GHGs relevant for agriculture and land-use change. Only the USAID AFOLU carbon calculator and the carbon inventory methods focus exclusively on CO 2 , whereas APEX estimates CO 2 and N 2 O but not CH 4 . However, none of the tools described, even those using Tier 3 mechanistic models to estimate carbon stock changes, use more than an emission factor approach to assess N 2 O or CH 4 . The table also shows that the only source/ sink category covered by all tools is cropland. Rangeland and grassland, agroforestry, forests, and land-use change are covered by most tools, whereas livestock and rice production are only covered by a small set of calculators using Tier 1 or Tier 2 emission factors, and none of the measurement protocols or Tier 3 modelling tools. Urban trees, vineyards/ orchards and horticulture are only explicitly distinguished in a few of the tools, but could possibly be covered as speciality crops or agroforestry. Wetlands appear to be a special case similar to land-use management, most tools deal with both categories. Possibly those tools that don't could easily be extended to cover wetlands as well. Energy use and other source categories, which also largely cover certain energy related emissions, are mainly included in the calculators, whereas they are not part of the mechanistic models or measurement tools.The only tool that seems to be covering all source/sink categories is the ALU calculator. The EX-ACT and CBP modelling calculators cover nearly all source/sink categories with the exception of horticulture and vineyards/orchards. The Cool Farm Tool covers nearly all source/sink categories with the exception of wetlands and urban trees and contains on-farm energy consumption, allowing for farm-gate GHG assessments of management systems. Having originally been developed for tree-based systems, the USAID AFOLU Carbon Calculator focuses on the assessment of carbon stock changes of forests and other tree-based management systems, but more recent inclusion of range and grassland, as well as cropland, now renders the tool more useful for other USAID projects. Nevertheless, lacking assessment of N 2 O and CH 4 , the tool is less well positioned to deal with agricultural management practices.Additional attributes Table 3.3 provides an overview of advantages and constraints of the tools with respect to their accessibility, requirements, type of analysis and additional attributes. All tools, except for the carbon inventory methods, are available free of charge.Only the AFOLU Carbon Calculator and the CBP tools have online capabilities, making them more flexible in their use. Most of the tools can however, be downloaded from the web, which can be an advantage for regions in the developing world that have low internet bandwidths or unstable connections. Several of the tools are available in a number of languages, which is a clear advantage for extension services that frequently do not speak English, although often only the user guidelines are available in another language, rather than the tool itself. Despite French being spoken widely in West and Central Africa only EX-ACT offers guidelines in that language.The CBP Simple Assessment will be available in French at the end of 2012. The language restrictions of extension services, or national government agencies, may therefore reduce the choice of tools to those that seem most accessible from the language perspective, such that provision of guidelines in common languages apart from English, may be a good way to ensure greater user friendliness and uptake.Cost and specialist expertise and equipment can be critical constraints when considering the use of one over another. Low-cost and knowledge requirements for using the calculators is opposed by higher costs and more expertise and equipment needed for carrying out the inventory protocols and measurement tools, as well as using the Tier 3 dynamic ecosystem models. Hence, while the former can be used for ex-ante estimates of the benefits that can be expected, the latter will most likely only be used where there is a clear carbon and/or GHG benefit from land-use or management change. Given these features of the measurement tools and inventory methods and protocols, it appears advantageous Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contexts to verify them for use within the voluntary and compliance markets for more widespread use.In principal, all of the described calculators could be made spatially explicit; for example by developing scripts that run the calculators in a batch process, with the information required by each plot and then exporting it into a GIS, (in the way that this has been done for ALU and the CBP modelling tools). APEX is different in its approach to addressing spatial output as the model connects different landscape compartments dynamically, which makes it more accurate where considerable lateral flows can be expected, such as in watersheds or on terrain with steep hills. By virtue of their approach, measurement tools are necessarily spatially explicit, but whether the results reflect the area under consideration depends largely on an appropriate sampling design. This can be a hindrance in many developing countries with poor infrastructure where reaching randomly predefined sites for sampling can be very challenging. However, if properly designed and carried out, measurement approaches will reflect carbon stock changes more accurately than any model and should therefore be used to calibrate modelling tools that can be run at much lower costs. As for GHG flux measurements, these cannot be carried out cost-effectively within any MRV system, due to their high spatial and temporal variability. Over time measurements of land-use systems with clear distinctive features will eventually allow improvement of modelling tools, but currently far too few examples exist from developing countries, particularly from Africa and Southeast Asia, to calibrate the existing regression and mechanistic models to reflect tropical soils from low-input farming systems.Most of the tools that provide guidelines or estimates of uncertainty build on the IPCC best practice guidance ( 2006), which relies mainly on error propagation. In addition, the inventory methods and protocols as well as the measurement tools provide information on quantification errors, such as those related to ground-based sampling or remote sensing, where these technologies are important. It is well established that uncertainties in environmental modelling are scale dependent (Heuvelink 1998) (Section 1.3), with some source of uncertainty gaining or losing significance as one moves from the farm to the landscape scale. Therefore tools that aggregate farm-level data to produce a landscapescale assessment may produce misleading estimates of uncertainty if the same summation approach is applied to sources of uncertainty. For example, when considering soil N 2 O emissions, soil inputs contribute a larger share to total uncertainties at the point scale than they do at the landscape scale (Nol et al. 2010). Uncertainty estimates are required for use in carbon market projects; therefore the USAID AFOLU Carbon Calculator, or the Cool Farm Tool, would have to develop guidelines on assessing uncertainty if they were to be used for that purpose, though the developers currently do not have that intent.Permanence of carbon sequestration can be a serious problem for some land-use changes. For example, if trees are reforested for a carbon project and then cut down after the project comes to an end, or when minimum tillage is introduced in a conservation agriculture project that is expected to sequester soil carbon, but subsequent soil ploughing leads to loss of the labile organic matter fraction.For tree-based systems, better knowledge of the expected use of the planted trees could inform contracts in carbon benefit projects, such that the VCS now only recognizes 50 percent of the carbon sequestered in the trees in A/R projects to account for post-contract usage.A similar treatment could be envisaged for soil carbon sequestration projects. The accuracy of the estimate depends on information of farmers' management practices following the end of the project. Regular audits could inform project managers of how project participants react and make projections of future land-use change that could then be considered in the expected total carbon sequestration at the end of the project and beyond. While the carbon calculators would account for permanence of above-ground carbon stock changes, they would not be able to capture changes in soil management practices. Process-based models would be able to account for the losses due to land management changes, but ultimately only ex-post measurements of tree cover changes or soil carbon stocks, allow verification of how much of the sequestration estimates have turned into hot air.Leakage is dealt with only indirectly, if at all, and only by extending the area of the landscape being assessed beyond the project boundaries. This approach captures leakage that occurs when the demand for a commodity (such as charcoal) is satisfied from an adjacent area following the start of a biocarbon project, or where protection of high carbon stock landscapes (such as forests) leads to conversion of high carbon stock landscapes in the vicinity of the project area. However, where the landscape conversion or degradation occurs from spatially dislocated areas, the tools will likely miss the leakage effects. This is a strong argument for whole landscape accounting approaches and nesting of projectbased carbon and GHG accounting into national-level accounting. In addition, there are other types of leakage that are not addressed with any of the tools. For example, people-based leakage occurs where biocarbon project innovations lead to migration of people to other regions because the new management (such as afforestation) does not satisfy their livelihoods any longer. In that case the project would have to account for the additional emissions resulting from the migrants' new livelihood activities. Alternatively, if the management change leads to higher productivity the project would have to discount for the difference between conversion rate and productivity related emission increase even if the changes occur outside the project boundaries (van Noordwijk and Minang 2009). While the described forms of leakage may not be suitable for inventory tools working at the landscape level, the guidelines accompanying the tools should address the difficulties in properly dealing with emission displacement and make suggestions as to how the area of influence can best be identified, so as to find indicators of how large the assessment area would have to be to account for the leakage.Only three of the tools described provide any kind of social or economic analysis. By far the most advanced approach is used in the CBP modelling tools that allow analysis of the project using a DPSIR framework. While it may not be central to the task of providing a carbon stock and GHG inventory, access to socio-economic information embedded in the inventory tools is useful for project developers and funding agencies. Such tools can have particular significance for landscape-scale assessments where conflicts of interest in terms of land management for carbon benefits may arise and landscape-scale strategies need to be devised.Of the calculators considered here, EX-ACT, the Cool Farm Tool and ALU have been tested and used widely, including examples of landscape-scale application for all three tools. This provides an advantage for smallholders in developing countries as in-country training has been carried out and some capacity to use the tools already exists. The CBP has also carried out a number of training sessions for its Simple Assessment Tool but as a new tool, capacity is still being built.The APEX tool has also been widely used and tested, although greater skills are required to use it than with the more userfriendly calculators.Other issues specific to landscapes dominated by smallholders Landscapes dominated by smallholders may also see large temporal variations in land-use and management practices, as smallholders may try out new crops, or react to market and subsistence pressures. The EX-ACT tool deals with temporal variation by splitting the analysis into two phases: an implementation phase (the active phase of the project commonly corresponding to the investment phase), and a capitalization phase (a period where project benefits are still occurring as a consequence of the activities performed during the implementation phase). The CBP tools allow the user to build together a string of runs to give a final analysis.The minimum period for a report is one year, so a user could in theory build a string of 20 year-long analyses, with land management practices being different in each year for any or all of the multiple areas defined.Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contextsThere currently exists a window of opportunity for smallholders in developing countries to gain from carbon-friendly land management practices, not just environmentally, but also financially, as funding agencies and carbon markets find ways to reward practices that mitigate climate change.Taking a landscape-scale approach to implementing and assessing carbon-friendly practices is advantageous for a variety of reasons, the most obvious being that a landscape approach can account for competing land-use pressures. • have a user-friendly format• be accessible to smallholder groups and those representing them (online or from funding agencies)• give guidance for different types of projects and activities• cover all sources of GHG emissions and carbon stock changes• give protocols suited to a range of circumstances from low to high tech.Measurements are used in conjunction with modelling techniques to scale up estimates and if required, to make estimates of future or potential change. Models have also advanced considerably in the past decade, with techniques of linking them to GIS to carry out spatially explicit analysis now common (Easter et al. 2007). At the landscape scale more work needs to be done on developing models which can simulate all of the complex interactions between different emission sources and sinks of GHG. In addition, where measures of uncertainty are provided, methods need to be tailored to landscape assessment. Ideally such models would then be linked to social and economic models, which could help identify the real world potential of a technically feasible GHG mitigation strategy.Several calculators have been developed which have relevant geographical coverage for developing countries and can be used for landscape-scale assessment. Each has been developed for specific purposes and each has different attributes and weaknesses; therefore one cannot be recommended over another. None of the calculators reviewed have been certified as acceptable to a voluntary carbon market, with most being developed for reporting purposes for funding agencies. This is an obvious area for development, with the inclusion of tools for the calculation of permanence and leakage being important.Finally, landscape-scale methods for the quantification of GHGs and estimation of change require complex datasets drawn from a variety of sources (such as remotely sensed land-cover information, census or local data on land management, ground-based measurements of carbon stocks and GHG fluxes etc.). To make the best use of these different sources, integrated methods and tools are needed that include guidance on how to take measurements to inform specific models and calculators, how to collate and format data, and how to interpret results. Such resources could open up landscape-scale GHG quantification to a wider range of stakeholders including those representing smallholder farmers.An early example of such a resource is the CBP toolset.The various calculators are meant to give USAID missions and partners an easy way to comply with USAID's policy of mainstreaming CO 2 as an agency-wide results indicator.119 countries, all countries where USAID is present with land-based projects (tropical/subtropical regions).The tool is not designed to produce carbon project-specific estimates, so is neither ex-ante nor ex-post. It does not compare scenarios with each other. However, it can be used to indicate areas where carbon financing could take place and so could be said to take an ex-ante approach in that sense.Tool first released in 2007 and updated regularly since then.Comprises a set of web-based calculation tools that cover the following activities: forest protection, forest management, afforestation/reforestation, agroforestry, cropland and grazing. The toolset was originally developed for projects involving forests, with the cropland and grazing options being less detailed and more recently added. The tools produce yearly estimates of the C0 2 impact of land management activities up to 30 years.All tools operate at two levels, Level A, which only requires information on project location and size and a rating for management effectiveness (the user chooses a % effectiveness, definitions are given in the manual) and Level B, which allows the user to change default parameters with project-specific data.Each tool uses a different approach so they are in fact different calculators, but in general they are based on equations derived from extensive literature reviews and the IPCC 2006 Guidelines for AFOLU for parameters such as biomass accumulation rates, biomass carbon stocks, and country-specific remote sensing information for deforestation rates. Some parameters in some tools currently default to 0 due to lack of information (e.g. illegal logging rate and biomass loss from fire) but the developers plan to update these as and when information becomes available. The user always has the option to replace values with their own value in Level B.Forest protection, forest management, forest restoration/plantation, agroforestry, cropland management, grazing land management.Above and below-ground forest biomass carbon, peat carbon, and soil carbon.Output format Numeric, table and graphical. Output gives CO 2 benefit by activity type, administrative unit and project. Output not spatial.Indicators covered CO 2 equivalent.No uncertainty. Leakage partly addressed in project effectiveness ratings but not directly estimated. Discussions to expand leakage estimations underway. No permanence.Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contexts 3. Application at the landscape scale Scale tool/method was designed for Subnational scale, more specifically at countries' administrative unit scale.How the tool/method can be applied at the landscape scaleThe tool can be applied broadly, at the landscape level, as well as at the project scale. That is because the default underlying database is set up with robust administrative unit scale data; however, users can modify default data with project-specific information if known. The tool is designed to allow for user determination of how specific output will be.The tool is designed to accommodate all levels of formal education from users. All calculators in the tool function on two levels: Level A and Level B. Under Level A, the only information required to generate a CO 2 impact result is the size, or area of the project, and the management effectiveness, which is a qualitative rating of how effective the project has been at achieving its stated goals. Level A was designed to derive a CO 2 benefit using minimal information provided by the user. Under Level B, the user is given options to change default parameters by entering project-specific data. The calculator-specific documentation links provide detailed information about each of the parameters and how the default value for each parameter was derived. This is to help users decide which data to use (e.g. to change the default data or not).Programme officers Scientists yes yes yes yes yes yesThe tool is not meant to provide the level of accuracy needed for carbon financing, but may provide early indication of areas that have potential for such financing. The calculators produce estimates of sequestration or avoided emissions of carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide equivalents using sound and transparent science.Uptake/usage of tool No information provided.The USAID AFOLU Carbon Calculator will be expanded and upgraded with new funds acquired from USAID. This amendment to the tool will add new features and improve current capabilities. Amongst the changes expected to take place in upcoming years, are to: Uncertainty calculated using IPCC method. Rough % given with output e.g. 10, 20, 33 or 50%. The land-use conversion matrixes can in principle address leakage, thus it allows the user to capture activity shifts and tracking changes in practices.When addressing uncertainties (see above) the tool targets the categories where a problem of permanence might arise (CO 2 emissions linked with carbon stock changes).No, but output could be used in economic analysis.The tool was originally designed to work at the scale of the development project (from thousands to millions of hectares).The user determines the scale so it can be used (and has already been applied at) the farm or even country scale.Requires a computer with Microsoft Excel (from version 2003 onwards). Tier 1 coefficients are supplied or the user can input their own data (emission factors, carbon stocks). The guidelines are given in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Tool not designed for carbon markets and not certified. However when compared to BioCarbon Fund project and CCB standard it gave similar results in terms of carbon sequestered and fluxes of GHG.Uptake/usage of tool EX-ACT has been used in 30 projects and policy appraisals concerning 24 countries. More details on the website, including some case studies on projects, value chains and policies (see \"EX-ACT Applications\" on the website). Case studies in Brazil have been published in Branca et al. (2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2012.04.021A permanent team is dedicated to EX-ACT, thus the tool will be updated regularly. Version 4 will be released in 2012 and will include estimates of yield for main crops.3. Application at the landscape scaleThe tool was originally designed to be used for individual products but can be used at any other scale if all the products produced on those scales are known.How the tool/method can be applied at the landscape scaleIf for example a landscape includes a large number of small diverse farmers growing beans, milk, beef, corn and vegetables and large grazing and forested areas, you would use the CFT to quantify the GHG on this landscape by 1. Characterizing the farmers (or categorizing if there are different types of farmers say, some larger some smaller, some that grow one type of crop some that grow another The Cool Farm Tool continuedThe tool is aimed at national greenhouse gas inventory compilers. It is intended for reporting past greenhouse gas emissions to the UNFCCC and to project future mitigation potentials. The software is particularly useful for those who have previously been using the IPCC spreadsheets to produce national inventories and want a quicker more user-friendly tool.Geographic coverage ALU has global application. Users can upload their own spatial data for soils, climate and land use or use default information. Likewise the user can input their own emissions factors or use IPCC defaults.The tool is primarily for producing annual inventories so information is entered for a complete year for an ex-post analysis. However users can use the 'mitigation' function to project future emissions/ mitigation potential using a previous year as the baseline and explore different land-use scenarios.A prototype version was released in 2007. Version 1 of the ALU was released in 2008. Versions 2 and 3 were released in 2010 and 2011, respectively.The ALU software is based on the IPCC method using the revised 1996, and 2000, 2003 guidelines with some information from the 2006 guidelines. The software organizes the different stages involved in producing an inventory into 4 modules thereby simplifying the process of producing an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and removals related to agricultural and forestry activities.The ecosystems covered include the land uses found in the IPCC guidelines: forest, croplands, grassland, wetlands, settlements and other lands. Livestock systems are also addressed in the tool.The tool covers emission source categories associated with the agriculture and land use, land-use change forestry sectors, including enteric methane, manure methane, manure nitrous oxide, biomass burning non-CO 2 greenhouse gas emissions (crop residue, grassland/savannah and forest fires), soil nitrous oxide, biomass carbon stock changes (forest, deforestation, perennial crops/agroforestry, silvipasture/savannah, and settlements) and soil carbon stock change (all land uses).The tool provides emission estimates for all source categories listed above and the units are tonnes of the respective GHG.Uncertainty is not addressed in the current version. A version will be released in 2012 with uncertainty based on the simple error propagation method described in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines. Leakage and permanence are not addressed.No, but the tool is designed to utilize information from an economic analysis to project mitigation potentials.Scale tool/method was designed for Country/nationalHow the tool/method can be applied at the landscape scaleThe tool could be applied at a landscape scale but would require emission factors that are specific to the landscape, because the defaults are intended for national-scale applications. However, the tool is designed to incorporate user-specific factors.Agriculture and Land Use National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Software -ALU Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contexts 4. Relevance to smallholders and developing country farmersThe tool requires a compilation of activity data for a country or the scale of the application. These data may be available in national agricultural and forestry statistics, remote sensing data, and other largescale datasets. Compiling these data can take several months. Field measurements can be used to gather emissions data for derivation of user-specific factors, but defaults are provided for most factors if measurements are not feasible and data are not available from previous studies. The tool assumes a fair knowledge of the IPCC method and the terminology it employs. Uptake/usage of tool National compilers in approximately 30 countries have been trained to use the ALU software. Over half of these governments are actively using, or in the process of using the software for their national inventory.6 Future plansThe ALU software will have uncertainty routines in the coming year, and the biomass carbon stock change method is being developed for countries that have a national forest inventory.Agriculture and Land Use National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Software -ALU continued3. Application at the landscape scale Scale tool/method was designed for Farm/small watershed.How the tool/method can be applied at the landscape scale A watershed can be divided into many homogeneous subareas . These can be based on fields, soil type, landscape position or subwatersheds. The APEX subareas can range from a few m 2 to 1000 ha or more depending on the desired level of detail. Thus, landscapes can be divided into as many segments as needed.The subarea is the basic element in APEX. Surface and subsurface flows are routed downstream from subarea to subarea along with sediment, nutrients, and pesticides. An advantage of using APEX at the landscape scale is that it models the flow of water and nutrients between subareas within the landscape.The APEX database contains weather, soil information and typical management for the U.S. The user would need to provide specific management data if it differs from that contained in the APEX database. Expertise is required for interpreting results. APEX has not been certified for use with any voluntary reporting standard. The changes in carbon over time are reported. Carbon dynamics depend on interactions with water, temperature, crop residues and available nitrogen.The Natural Resources Conservation Service in the USA is using APEX in the national Conservation Effects Assessment Project analysisThe development team plans to continue expanding and refining APEX to meet the needs of agricultural managers worldwide.Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender model APEX continued 51 3. Application at the landscape scale Scale tool/method was designed for Designed for use at the project scale (likely something between a farm and landscape) but can be used at any scale.How the tool/method can be applied at the landscape scale A lot of GEF projects involve both landscape-scale assessment and numbers of smallholders. The guidelines provide the necessary steps for field measurement and analysis of field measurements of carbon stocks and changes in carbon stocks. These approaches can be applied at any scale including landscape or even national. The importance of stratification will increasingly come into play the higher the scale. At higher scale it is likely there will be lower requirements for precision and since 2004/2005 the developers say they would have moved toward using simpler (default) approaches for calculation of minor pools rather than measurement.Financial resources to cover measurement teams and analysis. Capacity in terms of field measurement and data analysis. Such capacity typically exists in individuals trained in forestry, soil science or ecology. Basic additional training would enhance the ability of such individuals to lead and manage measurement and analysis programmes.The guidelines do not focus on changes in activity data -specifically remote sensing of forest, cropland or grassland areas. However, indirectly such abilities will be needed. Basic equipment is needed for field measurement such as measuring tapes, distance measuring equipment, sampling frames and soil probes. Where destructive samples are taken such as for dead wood, forest floor and soil carbon, access to a laboratory will be needed. The guidelines were designed to integrate assessment of carbon benefits into GEF projects. That said, the methods given are entirely appropriate for carbon markets and certification schemes. The question will be the level of precision targeted and degree to which quality assurance and quality control processes are implemented.Uptake/usage of method/protocol Developers are not sure of uptake, however these guidelines, went on to influence the Sourcebook for Biocarbon Fund Projects (with the World Bank) and the Sourcebook for REDD (with GOFC-GOLD) both of which have had very heavy uptake and usage.None at this time.Global but with focus on the developing world.Ex-ante, project tracking or ex-post All three.Versions and release dates This is a handbook that brings together multiple methods mainly dealing with carbon inventories within land use. It provides step-by-step information on sampling procedures, field and laboratory measurements, application of remote sensing and GIS techniques, modelling and calculation procedures along with sources of data for carbon inventory.A unique feature is that it provides practical guidance for different types of projects 1) development, implementation and monitoring of carbon mitigation in forest, agriculture and grassland sectors, 2) national GHG inventory in agriculture, forest and other land-use categories, 3) forest, grassland and agroforestry development and 4) commercial and community forestry roundwood production.Forest, grassland, agroforestry systems and cropland with a focus on perennial terrestrial systems.Mainly carbon in terrestrial systems (above and below ground, dead wood, litter and soil).Assistance in formatting data provided?Yes, it gives several suggestions depending on data availability, finances and time.Carbon stocks and changes over time.A chapter on uncertainty analysis is included in the book. Indicators relate to lack of data and representativeness (e.g. due to variations), sampling and measurement errors. Methods suggested are simple error propagation and Monte Carlo Simulations.The book provides descriptions of the types of leakage that can occur and refers to quantification methods. In terms of permanence the issue is discussed in the book but no real methods are proposed.Methods for the quantification of emissions at the landscape level for developing countries in smallholder contexts 533. Application at the landscape scale Scale tool/method was designed for For project levels (which can include landscapes)How the tool/method can be applied at the landscape scale All methods suggested would fit landscape-level assessments where heterogeneity (complexity) is more the limiting factor than the fact that it covers a landscape. Certain chapters are particularly relevant to landscape-level assessment. For example Chapter 14 deals with carbon inventory using data from remote sensing. Techniques for estimating and monitoring project boundaries, stratifying project areas and developing sampling regimes are given for all scales including the landscape scale.Access to the book and knowledge is in English (or Chinese). For the more simple methods suggested in the book, a measuring tape can be sufficient. Knowledge in biology and mathematics is helpful for certain assessments and a requirement for others. For the more technical advanced methods, users need field equipment, computer programs and programming skills and remote sensing information that can sometimes be costly. An advantage of the book is that it provides a range of methods suited to different project types and resource levels with advice on how the user can decide which one is appropriate. Things to consider when choosing an appropriate approach are discussed e.g. the purpose of the inventory, the focus of the project/intervention, the size of the area in question, the land uses in the area and the resources available (money, people, expertise, facilities). Uptake/usage of tool Usage is not knownCarbon Inventory Methods continued 59 4. Relevance to smallholders and developing country farmersThe SOC measurement protocol requires vehicles, skilled labour, specialized soil sampling tools, GPS devices, desktop computers, specialized software, laboratories equipped with near infrared spectroscopy, or access to external soil analysis laboratories.The non-CO 2 GHG measurement protocol requires vehicles, skilled labour, GPS devices, specialized field sampling gas exchange chambers, gas sampling equipment, a nitric oxide monitor, desktop computers, specialized software, and labs equipped with a gas chromatograph.The woody biomass measurement protocol requires vehicles, skilled labour, standard forest inventory equipment, specialized forest inventory tools, GPS devices, access to free and commercial satellite data, high power computers with extensive storage capacity, specialized RS software, technical capacity for RS and GIS, and access to a lab for plant tissue analysis. The online MRV system requires computer servers, geospatial databases, extensive knowledge in GIS, and extensive computer programming skills. The CBP Measurement Tools are compatible with regulatory markets and voluntary market standards but they have not been reviewed or directly approved by any market or standard.Tools not yet releasedThe developers of the Carbon Benefits Project intend to support and revise the tool as ongoing GEF support allows.Carbon Benefits Measurement Tools continued CCAFS Report No. 9In partnership with:Research supported by: Fund Fund CCAFS Report No. 9The GHG (greenhouse gas) mitigation potential from the agricultural sector is set to increase in coming decades.Much of the agricultural mitigation potential lies in developing countries where systems are dominated by smallholder farmers. There is therefore an opportunity for smallholders not only to gain environmental benefits from carbon friendly practices, but also to receive much needed financial input, either directly from carbon financing, or from development agencies looking to support carbon friendly activities. However, the problem remains of how to quantify carbon gains from mitigation activities carried out by smallholder farmers.This paper gives an overview of approaches that have been taken to date for landscape-scale GHG quantification, covering both measurement and modelling and the reliance of one upon the other. This is followed by an analysis of some of the resources that are available for those wishing to do GHG quantification at the landscape scale in areas dominated by smallholders.","tokenCount":"22573"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"57e98a0c4d4b9872e27f683a9d25302c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/88c4a8ac-b9f5-443a-a503-43ca4956dab7/retrieve","id":"-871013521"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"342bb860-a03d-41bc-9cde-8ad00cb6e4e8","pagecount":"121","content":"Sistema de valoración de las variables del Coeficiente de impacto ambiental (CIA) (Kovach et al., 1992) 19 Niveles y tratamientos del factor en estudio en la evaluación de la reducción del impacto ambiental de 6 tecnologías para producción de papa. Tiazo, Chimborazo 2008 31 Análisis de varianza para el % emergencia de seis tecnologías de producción de papa. Tiazo, Chimborazo. 2008.    A Dios y a mis padres por haberme permitido nacer y seguir viviendo.Al Centro Internacional de la Papa por haberme brindado la oportunidad de realizar esta investigación especialmente al Ing. Arturo Taipe, por la confianza depositada en mí y toda la ayuda ofrecida en todo el desarrollo de esta investigación, al Egresado Darío Barona por sus aportes compartidos a esta investigación.Al Conpapa Chimborazo, por todo el apoyo económico aportado durante la realización de la investigación, en particular a la Ing.Paulina Espín, Ing Gabriela Narváez, Ing. Sandra Zavala y a don José Ausay por haberme brindado su confianza y amistad.A la facultad de Recursos Naturales de la Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo por abrirme las puertas para recibir los conocimientos que a lo largo de mi carrera he adquirido y en especial al Ing. David Caballero y a la Ing. Lucia Abarca por su aporte en la realización de esta investigación.A todas aquellas personas que de una u otra forma estuvieron presentes con sus consejos y aportes que contribuyeron a la realización de esta investigación. Tasa de Impacto Ambiental (TIA) y número de aplicaciones de seis tecnologías de producción de papa. Tiazo-Chimborazo. 2008. El cultivo de la papa es uno de los productos más importantes del país, sin duda uno de los más significativos en la alimentación mundial. La papa está presente en la dieta diaria de la población, especialmente de la Sierra. En Ecuador casi toda la papa que se produce se consume localmente alcanzando un consumo per cápita de unos 25 kilogramos al año (SICA 2007).Aproximadamente el 80% de la oferta comercial de la producción nacional de la papa se comercializa en fresco para consumo doméstico. Las industrias procesadoras de papa demandan el 20% restante para la producción de hojuelas y bastones. El cultivo de la papa es una actividad que concentra e involucra a 88.130 productores, del total de los cuales el 32.24% son productores pequeños con unidades menores a 1ha, el 29.54% producen papa como cultivo solo y el 2.7% la cultivan en asocio con otros productos (SICA 2007).Las condiciones climáticas del Ecuador son propicias para el desarrollo de plagas y enfermedades que afectan al cultivo de papa; con el afán de controlar las principales plagas y enfermedades del cultivo, como son \"gusano blanco\" (Premnotrypes vorax) y \"tizón tardío\" (Phytophthora infestans), el productor realiza una elevada frecuencia de aspersiones de agroquímicos muy peligrosos. Por esta razón se considera que en algunas regiones del Ecuador; el cultivo de papa es uno de los principales causantes de contaminación ambiental y es considerado de riesgo para la salud humana debido a los pesticidas altamente peligrosos que se usan para su cultivo.El gusano blanco (Premnotrypes vorax), es la principal plaga en el cultivo de la papa en elEcuador. Este insecto puede provocar el 48% o más de tubérculos con daño cuando no se aplican las medidas adecuadas de control. Las pérdidas de rentabilidad alcanzaron 44% en Chimborazo y 22% en Cañar. El alto nivel de incidencia y daño, las pérdidas elevadas de rentabilidad, los altos costos y la dependencia exclusiva de pesticidas muy peligrosos exigen desarrollar técnicas eficientes, menos contaminantes y de menor costo para su control.En la provincia del Carchi, en el 100% de parcelas cultivadas con papa, utilizan fungicidas e insecticidas y los agricultores usan diversos productos; con frecuencia se mezclan y estas combinaciones son aplicadas en una sola fumigación. Así, cada parcela recibe más de siete aplicaciones con 3 insecticidas o fungicidas en cada una. Estas mezclas de fungicidasinsecticidas son aplicadas cada 10 a 20 días, dependiendo de las condiciones climáticas como también de la situación económica de los agricultores. Algunos agricultores encuestados habían utilizado 38 formulaciones diferentes de fungicidas comerciales que contenían 24 ingredientes activos (Crissman et al. 2003). Los estudios revelaron que se usan 18 ingredientes activos diferentes de organofosforados y piretroides, estos son empleados para el control de plagas del follaje, un 47% de los agricultores usan carbofuran que es un insecticida altamente toxico y contaminante, como principal insecticida para el control de gusano blanco. Para ahorrar tiempo en la aplicación y alcanzar lo que ellos reconocen como una mezcla más potente, con frecuencia mezclan diversos productos, tanto insecticidas como fungicidas (incluidos algunos con los mismos ingredientes activos), casi siempre se mezcla fungicidas de contacto con fungicidas sistémicos (Crissman et al. 1998).En América del Norte y en algunos países de América del Sur como Chile, actualmente se están implementando sistemas de evaluación del impacto ambiental de tecnologías de producción, basados en el \"Coeficiente de Impacto Ambiental\"o CIA. Este modelo se lo considera relativamente fácil de usar y ha sido presentado frecuentemente en literatura científica como un medio útil para estimar los posibles riesgos ambientales y de tecnologías asociados con el uso de pesticidas. Además, el enfoque del modelo permite la integración en un solo valor numérico la enorme cantidad de información toxicológica que existe sobre un determinado pesticida. Este \"Coeficiente de Impacto Ambiental\" sirve para determinar la \"Taza de Impacto Ambiental\"o TIA que nos indica el impacto que causa un pesticida o tecnología al ambiente y la salud humana, pudiendo ser utilizado como indicador del mayor o menor impacto ambiental. Los técnicos pueden diseñar estrategias de bajo impacto ambiental mediante el uso de un manejo integrado de plagas y enfermedades tomando en cuenta el CIA (Barros 2001).Los institutos de investigación como el Centro Internacional de la Papa, Conpapa Chimborazo y la Escuela de Ingeniería Agronómica de la ESPOCH, buscan apoyar una producción más, saludable y sustentable. Para esto el CIP ha desarrollado nuevas y mejores variedades de papa, teniendo en cuenta principalmente la precocidad y la resistencia duradera a tizón tardío, tal es el caso de los clones CIP 387205.5, CIP 386209.10 y CIP 575045; que son muy promisorios para ser utilizados en la presente investigación, por permitir un manejo menos contaminante para el medio ambiente y la salud de las personas.Las variedades más utilizadas en la industria son Diacol-Capiro, Superchola e INIAP-Fripapa. Estas variedades son muy susceptibles a plagas y enfermedades, por lo tanto, su cultivo contamina más el medio ambiente y son más riesgosas para la salud de las personas, ya que, el número de aplicaciones que se requiere para su cultivo es mayor. Comparar algunos parámetros de calidad para procesamiento de tres clones avanzados frente a las variedades.Comparar los beneficios económicos que representan cultivar los tres clones avanzados frente a las tres variedades ampliamente utilizadas.El centro de domesticación de Solanum tuberosum se encuentra en los alrededores del lago Titicaca, cerca de la frontera actual entre Perú y Bolivia. Existe evidencia arqueológica que prueba que varias culturas antiguas, como la Inca, la Tiahuanaco, la Nazca y la Mochica, cultivaron la papa y hoy en día se cultiva en las regiones templadas de todo el mundo.Luego fue introducida en Europa a partir del siglo XVI, siendo hoy unos de lo cultivos de mayor producción y consumo en todo el mundo indispensable para la canasta familiar (FAO 2007).La papa tiene la clasificación taxonómica que se describe a continuación (Huamán 1986).Familia: SolanaceaeEspecie: tuberosumLa papa es considerada como el cuarto alimento básico a nivel mundial, después del trigo el arroz y el maíz, con una producción de 316 millones de toneladas en el 2006, reportada en los 10 principales países productores (FAO 2007).El cultivo de la papa constituye una actividad económica importante en las provincias paperas de nuestro país. En el 2006, la superficie cosechada de papa en el Ecuador fue de 42.029 hectáreas originando un volumen de producción de 40.4276 toneladas métricas.por hectárea (SICA 2007).En la región norte el clima permite el cultivo de papa intensivo. El principal sistema de producción es papa-papa-otro cultivo (por ejemplo cebada, maíz o fréjol) por uno o dos años. Los agricultores siembran todo el año dependiendo de la distribución de las lluvias.La producción es intensiva con un alto uso de productos agroquímicos. Carchi, que solo ocupa el 25% del área nacional cultivada con papa, produce el 40% de la cosecha nacional anual (SICA 2007).La zona central de producción de papa tiene la mayor cantidad de tierra cultivada con papa. El clima de la provincia es muy heterogéneo. Los vientos cálidos de la zona amazónica afectan la franja de la cordillera oriental, suavizando el clima específicamente en el área ubicada en el Cantón Chambo. Como resultado de fuertes variaciones de altitud (entre 2.200 a 3.600 m.s.n.m.), temperaturas medias entre 6°C y 15ºC, topografía y lluvias entre 250 a 2.000 mm anuales, la provincia presenta una amplia diversidad de zonas ecológicas.Se distinguen dos estaciones: invierno lluvioso de octubre a mayo y verano seco de junio a septiembre. El riesgo de granizadas es mayor durante febrero, marzo, mayo y octubre a diciembre.Las heladas se presentan en la mayoría de las zonas de influencia de la cordillera central y occidental, con mayor riesgo en los meses de enero, marzo, julio, agosto y diciembre.Existen tres zonas productoras de papa. En presencia de una alta humedad relativa la gran cantidad de esporangióforos se desarrollan en el las hojas afectadas sobre todo en el envés y saliendo a través de los estomas. Cada esporangióforo produce esporangios que pueden ser transportados de un lugar a otro por corrientes de aire hacia otras hojas o demás partes de la planta. Al caer en una película de agua en el esporangio libera zoosporas que se desplazan en el líquido penetrando a la epidermis de una manera directa favoreciendo el desarrollo de la lesión.Este ciclo puede repetirse varias veces en el lote de cultivo si las condiciones ambientales son favorables (González 1977).El tizón tardío de la papa causado por Phytophthora infestans es una de las enfermedades más devastadoras de la papa a nivel mundial. En 1845 causó en Irlanda la destrucción total de los campos de papa que era la principal fuente alimenticia de ese país, produciendo la muerte de miles de personas y la migración de muchos sobrevivientes a otros lugares de Europa y Norte América (Forbes y Pérez 2007). Phytophthora infestans puede destruir lotes enteros en pocos días si no se manejan adecuadas medidas de prevención y control del patógeno (González 1977).En los países en desarrollo, esta enfermedad afecta a 3 millones de hectáreas de tierras productoras de papa, y las pérdidas agrícolas se estiman en US $2750 millones al año (FAO 2007).En Ecuador, tizón tardío es el mayor problema en el cultivo de la papa y por ende para los agricultores. Las condiciones climáticas imperantes en la sierra ecuatoriana, son las más favorables para la lancha. La enfermedad puede atacar el follaje de las plantas desde la emergencia hasta la cosecha. Los agricultores del norte del país realizan más de 18 aplicaciones usando de preferencia fungicidas sistémicos para controlar la lancha en variedades susceptibles, incluso cuando los agricultores usan fungicidas, la epidemia se vuelve severa y tienen un 100% de pérdida por lancha. El costo de control es alto. Los agricultores gastan del 5 al 20 por ciento del total de los costos de producción en fungicidas (Kromann 2007).El manejo integrado consiste en el empleo de diferentes métodos de control con la finalidad de disminuir o evitar las pérdidas que ocasiona la enfermedad (Huarte y Capezio 2006). Al implementar el manejo integrado se logra que el agricultor tenga una mayor rentabilidad, además de evitar daños a la salud humana y al medio ambiente (Pérez 2001).El manejo de tizón tardío es uno de los pasos más costosos entre las actividades que se deben realizar antes, durante el cultivo y luego en la etapa de poscosecha. El manejo integrado de Phytophthora infestans incluye una serie de medidas, entre las cuales tenemos al control genético, químico, cultural y legal (Pérez 2001).En el Ecuador, los agricultores utilizan el control químico como método principal de control de lancha. En la región de Tungurahua el promedio de aplicaciones por ciclo de cultivo fue de 3. El número de controles promedio en la región de Carchi fue de 8. En la región de Chimborazo, el número promedio de controles fue de 3 (PNRT-Papa INIAP 2007).En las variedades con cultivares con resistencia genética el inicio y desarrollo de la enfermedad es mucho más lenta que en las variedades susceptibles. La utilización de variedades con resistencia cualitativa puede reducir en un 80% la aplicación de fungicidas (Huarte y Capezio 2006).La resistencia horizontal resulta muy bien complementada con el uso de fungicidas. De esta forma en variedades resistentes el control químico puede empezar cuando se observen los primeros síntomas de la enfermedad (Pérez 2001).El control químico es sin duda la medida de mayor uso a nivel mundial especialmente en países europeos y Norte América, donde la variabilidad genética del patógeno venció la resistencia de los cultivares empleados. El número de aplicaciones depende del nivel de resistencia de cultivares utilizados y las condiciones medioambientales (Erwin y Ribeiro 1996b).Los primeros fungicidas efectivos desarrollados para el control de tizón tardío de la papa fueron los cúpricos posteriormente aparecieron los bisditiocarbamatos estos últimos son los más ampliamente usados pero tienen graves problemas con respecto a la exposición del agricultor y al medio ambiente y finalmente otros compuestos llamados actualmente de contacto. Una nueva era comenzó con la aparición de de los fungicidas sistémicos (Schwinn 1995).Las presiones contemporáneas tendientes a la protección del medio ambiente y la salud humana han abierto las puertas a un tipo diferente de productos químicos: los activadores de resistencia y a los fungicidas de origen natural o similar que en general tienen bajo impacto ambiental. En la actualidad existe una gama amplia de productos para el control de tizón tardío con los cuales se pueden desarrollar estrategias de control químico más efectivas, eficientes, económicas y sensibles con el medio ambiente y la salud humana (Schwinn 1995).Por lo antes mencionado, el Centro Internacional de la Papa busca inculcar a los agricultores para el uso de fungicidas de acuerdo a la resistencia de la variedad de papa que se está utilizando (susceptible o moderadamente resistente), y de acuerdo al clima de la zona donde se cultiva (zonas tizoneras y no tizoneras) (Forbes y Pérez 2007).1.El gusano blanco pertenece a la siguiente categoría taxonómica (Alvarado 1996  (Alvarado 1996).El insecto en su forma adulta se alimenta de las hojas de plantas de papa y de malezas. El daño más severo lo ocasionan las larvas, las cuales barrenan los tubérculos reduciendo el valor comercial de la cosecha (Valencia 1989).Premnotrypes vorax se encuentra distribuido en la región andina desde Chile hasta Venezuela, por lo que en algunos países se le conoce como el gorgojo de los Andes. En el Ecuador se le conoce como el gusano blanco o arrocillo. La presencia de gusano blanco comúnmente incrementa los costos de producción por uso de plaguicidas. Los daños provocados en el tubérculo se hacen evidentes en el momento de la cosecha. En las provincias de Cañar, Carchi, Chimborazo y Cotopaxi, los niveles de pérdida del valor comercial de los tubérculos afectados oscilan entre 20 y 50% (Gallegos y Ávalos 1995).El momento más oportuno para la eliminación de los adultos empieza 30 días antes y termina 30 días después de la siembra. En este lapso se recomienda un período de campo limpio (sin residuos de plantas). Se puede bajar la población de gusanos blancos a través de la captura de adultos antes de que ovipociten y controlando en forma directa las larvas en el suelo (Pumisacho y Sherwood 2002).En Ecuador el número promedio de aplicaciones realizadas para el control de gusano blanco con insecticidas durante el ciclo de cultivo de la papa es de 4. En Carchi se observa el número de aplicaciones más alto con 8 aplicaciones por ciclo de cultivo, mientras que el promedio de aplicaciones por ciclo de cultivo en las regiones de Tungurahua y Chimborazo es de 2 (PNRT-Papa INIAP 2007).Entre las medidas preventivas tenemos: empleo de trampas con insecticidas, uso de plantas cebo, control de los bordes del campo si en el lote contiguo se ha cosechado papa, rotación de cultivos para reducir las poblaciones, eliminación de residuos de cosechas (Montesdeoca y Narváez 2006).En los casos en que no se haya logrado una eficaz eliminación de los adultos hasta antes de la emergencia, se recomienda el control químico con un máximo de tres aplicaciones de Para enfrentar el problema de la polilla guatemalteca y mantener las poblaciones por debajo del nivel de daño económico, lo más conveniente es un manejo integrado de la plaga el cual consiste en: uso de semilla certificada, selección y desinfección de los tubérculos-semilla, buena preparación del terreno, profundidad adecuada de siembra, aporques altos, entre 30-40 cm. (dependiendo de la variedad), frecuencia de riego (mantener el suelo con suficiente humedad, lo más cerca posible de su capacidad de campo), cosecha oportuna, eliminación de residuos de cosecha y de las plantas espontáneas, rotación de cultivos, limpieza y mantenimiento de los almacenes, almacenar la semilla en silos rústicos o de luz difusa, uso de feromona sexual, uso de productos químicos. La estrategia de control ha estado dirigida a reducir los niveles poblacionales de la plaga y con ello las pérdidas económicas (Acevedo 1995).Colocar de 15 a 20 trampas con feromona por hectárea de cultivo de preferencia una en cada borde del lote al realizar la preparación del suelo; estas trampas indicarán la presencia y población de la plaga. Las trampas se revisan cada 8 días para contar las polillas capturadas, cambiar el agua jabonosa, y decidir la colocación de más trampas y efectuar otras medidas de control (Acevedo 1995).Para lograr un buen control químico de la polilla guatemalteca es necesario tomar en cuenta algunos criterios como son:Selección de los productos a utilizar (insecticidas). Selección del momento de aplicación (Acevedo 1995).En las recomendaciones emitidas por los centros de investigación y de asistencia técnica se destaca el uso de insecticidas químicos sólo como una medida complementaria dentro del manejo integrado de plagas de la papa. Este enfoque se diferencia del sistema tradicional en el cual las aplicaciones de productos químicos se realizan de manera calendarizada según el desarrollo del cultivo y sin tener en cuenta la ocurrencia o el grado de infestación de la plaga (Acevedo 1995).La Agricultura sustentable es la actividad agropecuaria que se apoya en un sistema de producción que permita obtener producciones estables de forma económicamente viable y socialmente aceptable en armonía con el medio ambiente y sin comprometer las potencialidades presentes y futuras del recurso suelo (Darts 2008).La aplicación de un Manejo Integrado de Plagas y Enfermedades (MIPE) es indispensable ya que el principio elemental del MIPE se basa en la mejor combinación de medidas culturales, de control biológico, químico y por medio de manejo del cultivo para controlar enfermedades, insectos y malezas con el cual se puede cultivar de una manera más económica, ambientalmente segura y socialmente aceptable (Global Crop Protection Federation 2000).Para que los agricultores acepten una estrategia MIPE esta debe ser vista por ellos como una alternativa real y ventajosa respecto de la que comúnmente practican. Las consideraciones económicas son esenciales; después de todo la agricultura es una actividad económica en la cual el agricultor hace las inversiones y corre los riesgos. Es natural que su actitud sea conservadora y solo acepte las cosas tangibles, evidentes y demostradas (Cisneros 1999).Muchos agricultores tradicionales han desarrollado formas de producción altamente adaptadas a las condiciones locales. En algunos casos son verdaderos modelos de producción sostenible. Sin embargo, en muchos casos es necesario intensificar la agricultura tradicional tanto en lo que se refiere a la producción por superficie como a la productividad del trabajo (Benzing 2001).En el MIPE el agricultor es el protagonista práctico de la adopción y ejecución de los programas ya que es el único que puede aceptar un sistema que le ofrezca eficiencia técnica y beneficios económicos (Cisneros 1999).Por consiguiente se hace necesario desarrollar continuamente herramientas no químicas innovadoras, así como nuevas estrategias y aportes para integrarlos en los programas MIPE ya existentes. De esta manera se compensan los riesgos ocasionados por las técnicas químicas convencionales y problemas de resistencia de plagas a los que se exponen los agricultores. La comunidad internacional no solo está demandando más alimento sino también mejor calidad de alimentación, agua y ambiente (Maredia 1999).1.El departamento de manejo integrado de plagas y enfermedades de la Universidad deCornell desarrolló un método llamado Coeficiente de Impacto Ambiental (en adelante lo denominaremos como CIA). Este método reduce la información del efecto de un determinado pesticida para el medio ambiente y las personas a un solo valor numérico sencillo. Para lograr esto se desarrolló una ecuación basada en tres componentes principales de la producción agrícola: un componente del trabajador, otro del consumidor, y otro ecológico (Kovach et al. 1992).El CIA es un método fácilmente aplicable y una herramienta de gran ayuda para técnicos agrónomos de diferentes ramas. Este puede ser usado eficientemente para comparar desde el punto de vista del impacto, diferentes estrategias o programas de manejo de plagas y enfermedades de un cultivo (Muhammetoglu y Uslu 2007).Para simplificar la interpretación de la extensa información, que se genera antes de la aprobación de un pesticida determinado, se toma en cuenta la toxicidad del ingrediente activo de cada pesticida y el efecto sobre cada factor ambiental evaluado. La toxicidad fue agrupada en categorías baja, media y se la asignó una escala de uno a cinco. Un valor de uno corresponde un impacto mínimo en el ambiente o una toxicidad baja y el valor de cinco se considera como altamente tóxico o que tienen un efecto negativo importante en el ambiente (Kovach et al. 1992).La fórmula para determinar el valor de CIA de un pesticida en particular es el promedio del efecto sobre el productor, sobre el consumidor, y sobre el medio ambiente. La descripción de los componentes de cada efecto se encuentra descrita en el Cuadro para ayudar a los agricultores del estado de Nueva York en la producción de frutas y hortalizas. Se seleccionó e implementó la opción de control de plagas que provoque el menor impacto ambiental. Actualmente el método se lo ha ajustado para utilizarlo en algunos otros cultivos y también ha servido para evaluar y comparar diferentes tipos de manejo de cultivos como son tradicional, integrado y orgánico (Barros 2001).Los valores del CIA para los principales pesticidas se hallan publicados y cualquier usuario puede acceder a ellos mediante el siguiente enlace:http://nysipm.cornell.edu/publications/eiq/files/EIQ_values07.pdf.Una vez que el valor de CIA se define para el ingrediente activo de cada pesticida los cálculos de uso de campo pueden comenzar. (Kovach et al. 1992).Se incorporan las variables para cada situación específica como son dosificación (en kilos o litros por hectárea) la concentración de ingrediente activo en la formulación y el número de aplicaciones que se realizan por temporada de cada pesticida, con lo que se obtiene la siguiente fórmula: IA = CIA x Dosis/ha x Formulación x Nº Aplicaciones.IA: Impacto AmbientalLuego las TIA finales de cada pesticida son sumadas dando como resultado la \"Tasa de Impacto Ambiental Total\" (denominada TIAT) de cada estrategia de manejo o sistema de producción (tecnología) la cual se utiliza para comparar los TIAT por medio de un método estadístico y de esta manera determinar cual es la tecnología o estrategia que genera una menor contaminación (Kovach et al. 1992).La magnitud del CIA es el riesgo potencial de un pesticida determinado mientras la magnitud de la TIA es el riesgo asociado con el uso de ese pesticida (Gavillan et al. 2001).Los mayores problemas ambientales en los agroecosistemas del cultivo de papa se deben al incremento del uso de plaguicidas. Existe un \"círculo vicioso\" el mayor uso propicia más resistencia, resurgimiento y aparición de nuevas plagas bajo estas condiciones los impactos económicos y ambientales son lamentables. La contaminación se produce debido a la permanencia del plaguicida en el suelo a su dispersión en las áreas vecinas por acción del viento y a su introducción a los cursos de agua (acequias, ríos y lagunas), amenazando de esta manera la salud humano y de los animales domésticos y silvestres como a los insectos polinizadores y a otros organismos benéficos (Global Crop Protection Federation 2000).Los pesticidas son sustancias xenobióticas, que son usadas en la producción de los cultivos para el control de plagas, enfermedades y malezas. Como los cultivos generalmente se los realiza al aire libre la aplicación de pesticidas por definición implica su emisión al ambiente (van der Werf y Zimmer 1997).Muchos plaguicidas en particular el carbofurán es un insecticida altamente tóxico y sus productos de transformación tienden a lixiviarse y a contaminar el agua subterránea. Los efectos nocivos a largo plazo sobre el medio ambiente y las poblaciones que viven río abajo siguen siendo desconocidos. Por estas razones el uso de plaguicidas a pesar de tener sus efectos positivos en la producción agrícola debe ser motivo de preocupación continua para la población (Stoorvogel et al. 2003).Los agricultores que siembran papa en Carchi utilizan una amplia gama de plaguicidas que se aplica con frecuencia con la finalidad de maximizar sus rendimientos por encima del promedio nacional. La información indica que el uso de plaguicidas en Carchi está concentrado en el cultivo de papa, aunque no se encontraron plaguicidas prohibidos.Varios productos altamente tóxicos y peligrosos son comúnmente utilizados dentro de ellos tenemos mancozeb, carbofurán, profenofos y metamidofos. Estos productos son aplicados con bombas de mochila en condiciones que permiten una amplia posibilidad de exposición al productor. (Crissman et al. 2003).Con el incremento del uso de plaguicidas se incrementaron significativamente los accidentes y las enfermedades asociadas. Según datos de la OMS anualmente se intoxican dos millones de personas por exposición directa o indirecta a plaguicidas del total las 3/4 partes de afectados pertenecen a los países en vías de desarrollo donde se utiliza el 25% de la producción mundial de los plaguicidas (Olivera y Rodríguez 2008).En el Ecuador se ha realizado un estudio en la cual se reportaron cincuenta casos de envenenamiento por pesticidas. La mayoría de envenenamientos ocurrieron por la exposición ocupacional de esto el 33% se da en varones (33/50) con los químicos más comunes de la región como son: carbofuran (29), mancozeb (15) y metamidofos (11) (Crissman et al. 1994b).Los efectos nocivos producidos dependen del tipo de pesticida así como de la dosis, la vía y el tiempo de exposición. Los efectos agudos (vómitos, diarrea, aborto, cefalea, somnolencia, alteraciones conductuales, convulsiones, coma, muerte) están asociados a accidentes donde una dosis alta es suficiente para provocar los efectos que se manifiestan tempranamente. Los crónicos (cánceres, leucemia, necrosis de hígado, malformaciones congénitas, neuropatías periféricas a veces solo malestar general, cefaleas persistentes, dolores vagos) se deben a exposiciones repetidas y los síntomas o signos aparecen luego de un largo tiempo de contacto con el pesticida, dificultando su detección (Olivera y Rodríguez 2008).De acuerdo a los exámenes de laboratorio realizados revelan una medida más baja de colinesterasa de los glóbulos rojos corregida con hemoglobina de los miembros de la finca en comparación con un grupo testigo de trabajadores (no expuestos a plaguicidas). De acuerdo a esto los insecticidas organofosfatos y carbamatos reducen los niveles de colinesterasa esto constituye una indicación de que un efecto tóxico está en progreso.Exámenes clínicos revelaron que el 93% de los miembros de la finca que trabajaban con pesticidas experimentaron lesiones de la piel y en las pruebas neuropsicológicas mostraron una reducción del desenvolvimiento en los resultados de muchas pruebas entre los miembros expuestos de las fincas. Rosenstock et al demostraron que los organofosfatos causan efectos neurotóxicos de este tipo tanto agudos como crónicos (Crissman et al. 1994a).Reducción del uso de pesticidas.La utilidad de estudiar el impacto ambiental es poder evidenciar el alto uso de pesticidas sus efectos y las posibilidades de reducirlos (De Jong y De Snoo 2002).El método para calcular el CIA desarrollado por Kovach (1992) es un sistema de apoyo para la toma de decisiones del agricultor con respecto al uso de pesticidas que tengan bajo impacto hacia insectos benéficos y los trabajadores de la granja (Levitan 2000).La efectividad contra las plagas y enfermedades el riesgo de fototoxicidad y el costo de la aplicación son los principales factores considerados por el agricultor en la búsqueda de un pesticida que le sea útil en la producción de su cultivo (van der Werf y Zimmer 1997).Pero se desea cambiar el riesgo de químicos menos eficaces usados en grandes volúmenes a químicos más eficaces usados en pequeños volúmenes. Este objetivo puede ser caracterizado bajo la denominación de \"Agricultura Sustentable\", \"Prevención de contaminación\" o \"Reducción de riesgo\". Cualquiera de estos términos, agrupan metodologías que tienen como objetivo evaluar el riesgo-ambiental de los pesticidas en la salud humana y el medio ambiente; comparando entre tecnologías de producción como también comparando el riesgo con el tiempo (Levitan 2000).Por lo mencionado anteriormente las reducciones cuantitativas en el uso de pesticidas medido solamente en términos de kilogramos de ingrediente activo tienen un problema mayor y no son un buen indicio de agricultura sana. La reducción en la cantidad de pesticida usado resulta del reemplazo de grandes volúmenes de pesticidas de bajo riesgo con bajos volúmenes de pesticidas de alto riesgo, por lo que no existe una reducción en los riesgos ambientales asociados con el uso de pesticidas (Gavillan et al. 2001).Esta disminución en el uso de pesticidas ocurre porque se utilizan nuevos pesticidas aplicados en dosis bajas, con mayor eficiencia de aplicación y la introducción de programas de manejo integrado de plagas reducen el uso de pesticidas (Gavillan et al.Además de la reducción de volúmenes y de opciones de pesticidas seguros y la combinación con resistencia genética sirve para reducir el número de aplicaciones de pesticidas, contribuyendo de esta manera a reducir en gran medida el impacto ambiental (De Jong y De Snoo 2002).Para complementar lo antes mencionado la introducción de nuevas tecnologías (nuevas variedades más precoces y resistentes a tizón tardío) es un factor que contribuye a la reducción del uso de pesticidas ya que existe un cambio en el sistema de producción de los cultivos por fuerzas de mercado (Gavillan et al. 2001).El uso intensivo de pesticidas en la agricultura tiene una gran relación con la productividad. La contaminación ambiental por los pesticidas hace que exista una ruptura en las funciones del agua natural, aire y suelo; la alteración del ecosistema resulta en efectos perjudiciales en los ciclos de los nutrientes o la toxicidad para organismos benéficos. Los impactos ambientales derivados del uso de pesticidas son comúnmente  El experimento se ubicó en la provincia de Chimborazo en el Cantón Riobamba en la Parroquia de San Luís en la Comunidad de Tiazo San Vicente.Longitud: 78º 37' W Latitud: 01º 43' S Altitud: 2642 m.s.n.m.Temperatura promedio anual: 13.4ºCPrecipitación promedio anual: 519.1 mm Humedad promedio anual: 67.7%Clasificación ecológica: Se encuentra en el callejón interandino y corresponde a estepa espinosa, Montano Bajo (ee -MB), según Holdrige (Cañadas 1984).Textura: franco arenosoTopografía: PlanaLibro de campo, estacas, piola, flexómetro, herramientas de labranza, letreros, bomba de mochila, baldes plásticos de 20 y 200 litros, válvulas de presión constante, equipo de protección para la aplicación de pesticidas, sacos, balanza, sensores de clima para temperatura y humedad relativa (Hobos Por Series Model H08-032-08) y para precipitación (Watchdog rain gauge model 120), fundas plásticas y de papel, barreno, GPS.Fertilizantes, fungicidas, insecticidas, fijador, reactivosTubérculos -semillas de genotipos y variedades de papas, semilla de avena.Computador, lápiz, hojas de papel, cámara fotográfica.El factor en estudio fue tecnologías de cultivo de papa, que incluye un genotipo de papa (clones o variedades) y las prácticas agrícolas comunes recomendadas (clones) y usadas (variedades) por cada uno de los ellos. Estas tecnologías se detallan en el Cuadro 2.Los tratamientos evaluados fueron seis tecnologías para el cultivo de papa. Además se sembró una parcela satélite por cada tecnología, donde no se aplicó ningún tipo de control para tizón tardío (Phytophthora infestans), ni para gusano blanco (Premnotrypes vorax), llamado testigo absoluto. Estos testigos absolutos se utilizaron para verificar que existieron las condiciones climáticas adecuadas para que se desarrolle naturalmente la enfermedad.Los componentes de cada una de las tecnologías fueron: variedad o clon, manejo de tizón tardío, manejo de gusano blanco gusano blanco, densidad de siembra, número y épocas de aporques, el corte de follaje y la fertilización con macro nutrientes (nitrógeno, fósforo y potasio).Para obtener la estrategia de manejo de tizón tardío y gusano blanco, de cada una de las tecnologías se utilizó información primaria y secundaria. Además se utilizó las sugerencias realizadas por técnicos y agricultores; esta información fue de gran ayuda para diseñar las  Para el análisis funcional se realizó pruebas de significación de Tukey al 5% para los tratamientos.El análisis económico se realizó según la metodología de presupuesto parcial del Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento del Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT 1998).Este análisis es útil para hacer recomendaciones a productores y para seleccionar tecnologías alternativas. Las recomendaciones tecnológicas a los productores no deben basarse solamente en la premisa de que una tecnología es rentable (o sea los incrementos en los retornos son más grandes que los incrementos de los costos) si no que también debe satisfacer el criterio de que la tasa marginal de retorno debe estar por encima de la tasa de retorno mínima aceptable. El beneficio neto de una tecnología determinada es obtenido sustrayendo los costos totales que varían de los beneficios brutos en campo. Una vez determinados los beneficios netos de cada tratamiento lo siguiente es realizar un análisis de dominancia. Este se hace clasificando las tecnologías, incluso la tecnología que el productor usa normalmente, para ordenarlas de menor a mayor, en base a los costos que varían y en conjunto con sus respectivos beneficios netos. Moviéndose del tratamiento de menor al de mayor costo que varía, la tecnología que cueste más que el anterior pero obtenga un menor beneficio neto se dice que es la \"dominada\" y es excluida del análisis final.Una vez eliminados todos los tratamientos dominados, la tasa marginal de retorno entre tratamientos es calculada, comenzando con la tecnología de menor costo y siguiendo con la próxima tecnología más alta. La tasa marginal de retorno es calculada expresando la diferencia entre los beneficios netos de ambas como un porcentaje del costo total adicional.La tasa marginal de retorno calculada da una indicación de lo que el productor puede esperar recibir, en promedio al cambiar de tecnología. Por lo tanto, una tasa marginal de retorno del 150%, al cambiar de una tecnología 1 a una tecnología 2 implica por cada dólar invertido en la nueva tecnología el productor puede esperar recobrar el dólar invertido más un retorno adicional de $1.50.Finalmente, la curva de beneficios netos nos permite comparar todos los tratamientos no dominados. De esta forma se puede observar gráficamente lo antes mencionado.La superficie de cada unidad experimental tuvo 36 m2, (6m de largo, 6m de ancho); los surcos estuvieron espaciados a 0.8m (Clones) y 1.1 m (Variedades). Se obtuvo 5 surcos para variedades y 7 surcos para clones. Cada surco de variedades tuvo 20 plantas y para clones 17 plantas por surco sembradas a las distancias recomendadas (Cuadro 2). Cada unidad experimental tuvo 100 plantas para variedades y 119 plantas para clones; la unidades experimentales estuvieron rodeadas por cortinas de avena de 0.80 m para contrarrestar el efecto entre parcelas y la deriva de la mezcla de pesticidas cuando se realizaron las aplicaciones. Todo el experimento ocupo una superficie de 1540 m2.Control de parcelas adyacentes: Para evitar el efecto de borde se evaluaron solo los tres surcos centrales en los tratamientos con variedades y los 5 surcos centrales en los tratamientos con clones, y en ellos se eliminó dos plantas en cada extremo lateral. Esto ocurrió con todas las variables excepto para severidad en la que se tomó en cuenta la parcela total. Se sembró 0.80 metros de avena al contorno de cada parcela para evitar que los manejos fitosanitarios produzcan un efecto de deriva e interferencia.1.Las siguientes variables tienen el carácter de informativas. Para ellas no se realizó análisis de variancia pues no están relacionadas a los objetivos de la investigación y se las comenta en el desarrollo de resultados y discusión.La evaluación de la microflora y microfauna se realizó durante y después de las aplicaciones de los tratamientos en el ensayo, para estos estudios se recolectó 1 kg de suelo que fue muestreado en todas las parcelas donde se ubicaron los tratamientos además se tomó otra muestra de la parcela testigo. Los análisis se realizaron en el Laboratorio de protección vegetal del INIAP. Se contabilizó las poblaciones de los principales organismos microbiológicos (benéficos y dañinos) y se determinó la influencia de la aplicación de las 6 tecnologías en estos organismos.Se registró el número de plantas cosechadas en cada parcela neta.Se registró el número de aplicaciones en cada uno de los tratamientos del experimento.En el laboratorio de Nutrición del INIAP se realizaron las pruebas para determinar el porcentaje de sólidos y el contenido de azúcares reductores en mg/100g de muestra de cada uno de los tratamientos.Se realizaron pruebas de fritura para chips y bastones de los tubérculos de cada tratamiento según las recomendaciones del CIP (CIP 1997). Las pruebas se hicieron en diferentes procesadoras de papa de las ciudades de Riobamba, Ambato y Cuenca.De cada tratamiento se realizó un control interno de calidad, para calificar la semilla obtenida, por parte del personal del Conpapa Chimborazo.Las siguientes variables cuantitativas son las de mayor importancia y que están en relación directa con los objetivos de la investigación de estas se realizó ADEVAS para cada una.Se contó el número de plantas emergidas. El valor se expresó en porcentaje en relación al número de tubérculos sembrados. Se registró la fecha en la que se produjo una emergencia del 80 al 90%.Se registró el peso de tubérculos cosechados en cinco plantas tomadas al azar de cada parcela neta; el valor se expresó en kg/planta. Esta variable sirvió para calcular el rendimiento total por hectárea de cada tratamiento.A la cosecha se evaluó el rendimiento en kg/parcela neta, considerando cuatro categorías de tamaño de los tubérculos: comercial de primera (> 60g), comercial de segunda (46-59g), semilla (30-45g) y desecho (< 30g). El rendimiento se expresó en t.ha -1 .La severidad de tizón tardío se determino visualmente evaluando la cantidad de tejido foliar afectado por Phytophthora infestans. Esta variable se expreso en porcentaje entre 0 y 100%, correspondiendo 0% a una planta sana y 100% a una planta totalmente enferma, las lecturas se realizaron cada cuatro días.Se tomaron algunas consideraciones para la toma de datos y el cálculo de la severidad de tizón tardío. Las evaluaciones del porcentaje de área foliar con lesiones de tizón tardío iniciaron inmediatamente después de la observación del primer síntoma. Las evaluaciones culminaron de inmediato cuando los genotipos susceptibles estuvieron severamente afectados. Se registró la fecha de cada evaluación para determinar los días después de la siembra en el que se realizaron estas evaluaciones.Por tener diferentes tiempos de maduración cada uno de los tratamientos, se consideró utilizar el Área Bajo la Curva de Desarrollo de la Enfermedad (AUDPCr por sus siglas en ingles). Los índices o niveles de enfermedad foliar (tizón tardío), se expresaron en valores de AUDPCr. El índice AUDPCr tiene la ventaja de que agrupa en un solo valor todas las valoraciones realizadas de manera que se calcula la superficie de la curva delimitada por los ejes cartesianos X = Fecha e Y = Nivel de enfermedad, mediante el cálculo de la integral correspondiente (Shaner y Finney 1977) se calculó con la siguiente fórmula: Donde Yi=proporción de tejido afectado en la i-ésima observación; t=tiempo (días) en la iésima observación; n= número total de observaciones; y d=duración del ciclo de cultivo.De cada tratamiento se llevó un inventario de las aplicaciones y de los pesticidas utilizados (ingrediente activo, número de aplicaciones y cantidad). El CIA de cada pesticida utilizado se tomo de la tabla de pesticidas de Kovach, et al (1992) (Anexo 3). Existieron 2 productos (propineb y profenofos) que no constan en la tabla y que fueron utilizados en el experimento.El valor del CIA del ingrediente activo propineb es de 14.6. Este valor se obtuvo de valores de ingredientes activos de la misma familia química que se encuentran en la tabla de (Pradel et al. 2008).Con los valores del CIA de todos los pesticidas utilizados, se calculo el impacto ambiental total sumando los valores de impacto ambiental parciales de cada aplicación. Los tratamientos que tienen el valor más alto de IAT se los considera más peligros y contaminantes asignándoles un valor del 100% de impacto ambiental. Luego se realiza, reglas de tres simples para calcular el porcentaje de disminución en el impacto ambiental de cada una de las demás tecnologías evaluadas en comparación con la tecnología más contaminante y peligrosa. Los valores del cálculo de impacto ambiental están definidos por hectárea.Se tomó de muestra de suelo para su respectivo análisis: con un barreno a 0,30 m de profundidad se tomaron 10 sub-muestras siguiendo una línea en zigzag dentro del área de ensayo), se efectuó una labor de arado, dos de rastra y la surcada fue manual de acuerdo a las densidades de siembra específicas de cada tratamiento.Se utilizó semilla de calidad de cada uno de los clones y variedades; los tubérculos tenían brotes vigorosos. La siembra se realizó colocando al fondo del surco un tubérculo-semilla a la distancia descrita en el Cuadro 2 para cada una de las tecnologías. Luego se tapo en forma manual, con azadón a una profundidad entre 10 a 12cm.Para los clones CIP 386209.10 y CIP 387205.5 se aplicó 75% de la recomendación del análisis de suelo que equivales a 337.5 kg/ha de (18-46-0), 131.25 kg/ha (urea) y 131.5kg/ha de sulpomag a la siembra se aplicó todo el fósforo y potasio y el resto de nitrógeno se colocó al aporque.Para el clon CIP 575045 se tomo en cuenta el 100% de la recomendación del análisis de suelo equivalente a 450 kg/ha de (18-46-0), 175 kg/ha de Sulpomag y 175 kg/ha de urea, en la siembra se colocó todo el fósforo y potasio y el resto se aplico al aporque.Para las variedades la fertilización fue 1:1 es decir un quintal de fertilizante por un quintal de semilla, la mitad del fertilizante se colocó a la siembra y la otra mitad se aplicó al aporque, debido a la textura franco arenosa del suelo.El rascadillo (control de malezas manual), medio aporque y aporque se realizaron en forma manual al momento recomendado para cada clon o variedad como consta en el Cuadro 2Todas estas labores culturales se las efectuó con el fin de asegurar las plantas al suelo y evitar daños mecánicos de los tubérculos, además de mantener el cultivo libre de malezas.Los controles fitosanitarios dependió del manejo especificado para tizón tardío y gusano blanco de cada uno de los tratamientos. Sin embargo, los controles fitosanitarios para pulguilla se realizaron de acuerdo a la incidencia de la plaga en todos los tratamientos como se detalla en el (Cuadro 2).La precipitación, se registro con el sensor WatchDog (Rain data logger, Model 120), mientras que la temperatura y humedad relativa se registró con el sensor HOBO (Pro series, Onset RH-Temp). Estos equipos procesan y transfieren la información a los usuarios mediante un software electrónico denominado Specware 6.0 (Watchdog) y BoxCar Pro 4.3 (HOBO). Los registros se hicieron a intervalos de 10 minutos (calibración de los sensores).Se realizó una cosecha manual, se contó peso y se clasificó los tubérculos de cada clon o variedad de acuerdo a las categorías determinadas Ver (Anexo 4)Para la evaluación en primera instancia se cuenta los quintales de semilla cosechado; luego tomamos una muestra de 200 tubérculos los cuales son tomados al azar de cada quintal. La sanidad de la semilla se realiza mediante observación visual y a través del método indexado, el índice es la relación entre la incidencia y la severidad. La escala utilizada es (0) sana, (1) muy ligera, (2) ligera, (3) moderada, (4) severa.0* Sana + 1*Muy L +2*Ligera +3*Moderada + 4*Severa I= 4*número total de tubérculos de la muestra Para que una semilla sea de calidad 1 en index debe ser igual o inferior a 30% y si sobrepasa este porcentaje la semilla califica como seleccionada.Para estos análisis se tomó una muestra al azar, de 1kg de tubérculos cosechados, un día después de la cosecha de cada una de las tecnologías: Diacol-Capiro, Superchola, I-Fripapa y Clon CIP 386209.10. Se envió 500gr de cada muestra al laboratorio de residuos de plaguicidas del Servicio Ecuatoriano de Sanidad Agropecuaria (SESA-MAG), para que se realice la detección y cuantificación de organofosforados y ditiocarbamatos. Otros 500g de cada muestra se enviaron a la Comisión Ecuatoriana de Energía Atómica (CEEA), al laboratorio de análisis de residuos de plaguicidas, para que se realice la detección y cuantificación de carbofuran.Se tomaron de cada uno de las tecnologías 500g de muestra de tubérculos y se envió al departamento de nutrición y calidad del INIAP, en el laboratorio de servicio de análisis e investigación en alimentos para determinar el contendido de azúcares reductores y porcentaje de humedad.Después de la cosecha se recolectó 5 kg de papa comercial de primera de cada clon y variedad. Estas muestras se mandaron a diferentes procesadores de papa en la ciudad de Riobamba (Negocio Familiar Anita), Ambato (Industrias Fanny). Para procesamiento de papa chips, y para las papas de tipo bastón se realizó en Riobamba en los locales, Papíos, Sebas y Pollo Ejecutivo donde se analizaron parámetros como color, sabor, crocancia, consumo de aceite, tiempo de fritura, etc.El análisis de varianza para la variable emergencia (Cuadro 3) de seis tecnologías de producción de papa, estableció diferencias significativas para el factor tecnologías. En el análisis de varianza, para severidad (expresada en valores de AUDPCr) de tizón tardío, que se resume en el Cuadro 5 se detectó diferencias altamente significativas para el factor tecnologías. El promedio general fue de 0.083502 y el coeficiente de variación fue de 19.78%, aceptable para este tipo de variables en esta clase de experimentos (Arturo La tecnología utilizada con Superchola también es digna de destacarse pues se logra un mejor control que I-Fripapa y mejor que Diacol-Capiro. Si se toma en cuenta, que el manejo de tizón tardío fue similar para Superchola y Diacol-Capiro, se llega a la conclusión de que la susceptibilidad de Diacol-Capiro es mucho mayor.El manejo realizado con I-Fripapa se encuentra en el límite de lo que podría ser una recomendación por compartir el rango de significación con Superchola y bajo de sí solo se ubican las tecnologías poco eficientes para el manejo de tizón tardío.El clon CIP 575045 es un caso especial, según varios reportes poseían un notable nivel de resistencia y por ese motivo se lo incluyó en el estudio. En una réplica de esta investigación realizada en el CIP-Quito se mostró como resistente (Barona 2008) mientras que en otra investigación realizada en el mismo sitio pero un mes más tarde, tuvo un comportamiento muy susceptible (López 2008), similar al que se registró en esta tesis.Estos resultados nos permiten suponer que el clon CIP 575045 posee una resistencia vertical y que está gobernada por muy pocos genes, lo que le permite al patógeno mutar fácilmente y provocar infecciones en el follaje de este clon.Grafico 2. Severidad de tizón tardío (AUDPCr) obtenidas con seis tecnologías para producción de papa para la reducción del impacto ambiental. Tiazo, Chimborazo. 2008.En el Grafico 3, se presentan las curvas de progreso de la enfermedad, se puede destacar el alto nivel de resistencia genética de los clones; CIP 387205.5 y CIP 386209.10 pues al observar la curva de progreso de la epidemia del testigo (AUDPCr 0.0053 y 0.022 respectivamente), que no recibió ninguna aplicación, es muy similar a la de los tratamientos que si recibieron aplicaciones de fungicidas para controlar P. infestans y que en general tienen un AUDPCr muy bajo. Al contrario de estos clones todas las otras tecnologías necesitan alguna medida de control pues según se observa la curva de severidad de los testigos, en todos los casos alcanzaron el 100 % en el período comprendido entre los 80 y los 100 días después de la siembra.Con las variedades Superchola, I-Fripapa y Diacol-Capiro se logró un buen control de la enfermedad con las estrategias planteadas y ejecutadas. El clon CIP 575045 como lo mencionamos antes presenta una conducta especial, con una susceptibilidad extremadamente alta ya que aun con el manejo de tizón tardío prodigado se tuvo una severidad similar al testigo sin aplicación y en ambos casos se alcanzó los mayores valores de AUDPCr. El análisis de varianza para el rendimiento (t.ha -1 ) de seis tecnologías de producción de papa, se detectó diferencias altamente significativas para el factor tecnologías, mientras que para las repeticiones no se detectó diferencias significativas. El promedio general fue de 36.48 t.ha -1 y el coeficiente de variación fue de 14.53 % con un R-cuadrado de 0.829 descrita en el Cuadro 7.Cuadro 7 Análisis de varianza para el rendimiento de seis tecnologías de producción de papa. Tiazo, Chimborazo. 2008. El rendimiento, también se ve afectado por la tasa de severidad de tizón tardío ya que es inversamente proporcional a la severidad del patógeno a mayor severidad menor rendimiento y a menor severidad mayor rendimiento, pero en las cinco tecnologías no se dio esta premisa, debido a que las estrategias utilizadas fueron eficientes para el control de tizón tardío y en si el rendimiento no se vio afectada por este hecho.Mientras que para la tecnología CIP 575045 + MIPE el rendimiento fue bajo, debido a una alta severidad de tizón tardío en la etapa de floración lo que afecto significativamente el llenado del tubérculo y en si a la producción.En cambio para la tecnología Superchola + manejo convencional, el rendimiento fue bajo debido a que en la cosecha se obtuvo una gran cantidad de tubérculos pequeños que en su mayoría no engrosaron en su totalidad afectando de esta manera la calidad del producto y en sí al rendimiento.Grafico 6. Rendimiento de seis tecnologías de producción de papa. Tiazo, Chimborazo.Las pruebas de fritura, para las seis variedades de papa se efectuaron en las diferentes procesadoras de papas, donde se pudo constatar y apreciar los siguientes parámetros de calidad, tanto para chips como para bastones, las mismas que se resumen en el Cuadro 9.De acuerdo a los resultados obtenidos en el laboratorio del INIAP podemos observar que los contenidos de azucares reductores se encuentran dentro de los rangos permitidos para la industrialización, de acuerdo a datos establecidos por (Moreno 2000) el cual manifiesta que 20 mg/100gr de azucares reductores, es el contenido ideal para procesamiento y más de 330 mg/100gr de azucares reductores es inaceptable por cuanto se obtiene un producto de color marrón oscuro y de sabor amargo, respecto al contenido de materia seca la industria busca un mínimo de 20% y 24% Teniendo como resultado que todos las tecnologías son aptas para consumo en fresco y para procesamiento e industrialización de las papas de tipo chips y tipo bastón. Anexo 8.Cuadro 9.Contenido de azúcares reductores y pruebas de calidad en la evaluación del impacto ambiental de seis tecnologías de producción de papa. Tiazo, Chimborazo. 2008. Para realizar el análisis económico, se utilizó la metodología de presupuesto parcial del CIMMYT, que no incluye todos los costos de producción sino solo los que son afectados por los tratamientos alternativos considerados a los que se denomina costos que varían (CIMMYT 1998).Lo primero fue definir e identificar los costos que varían en cada tratamiento Cuadro 11 el resto de costos se entiende fueron constantes para todos los tratamientos del experimento.De esta manera se estableció que los jornales para las labores de cada tecnología, los niveles de fertilización y los productos utilizados para las aspersiones fueron los únicos costos que varían entre las tecnologías.Con los datos obtenidos del rendimiento por hectárea de cada uno de los tratamientos se calculó el Beneficio Bruto (BB) en dólares, que representa comercializar la producción.Para estos cálculos se utilizó el precio de comercialización de la papa al momento de la cosecha. Para este cálculo se utilizo el precio de la papa al momento de la cosecha Cuadro rentables pues se obtienen beneficios netos más altos que con CIP-575045, I-Fripapa, Superchola y Diacol-Capiro. Estos importantes beneficios netos de los clones se deben principalmente a los altos rendimientos que se alcanzaron un 90% de los tubérculos fueron de primera categoría y también a los precios altos al venderlos. Ahora bien es necesario destacar que cuando se realizó la cosecha y comercialización de la producción, la papa atravesaba por una época de precios muy altos, llegándose a comercializar a 34 dólares el quintal de Superchola de primera. Por otra parte se debe tener en cuenta que los consumidores y el mercado de la ciudad de Riobamba, donde se vendió la cosecha, tienen buen grado de aceptación las variedades de piel blanca y pulpa amarilla como es el caso de los clones CIP 387205.5 y CIP 386209.10.Para verificar si esta rentabilidad es efectiva y real se debería hacer un ejercicio del análisis económico con precios ficticios que representen el valor de los clones CIP 387205.5 y CIP 386209.10 en época de precios bajos y en aquellas zonas en donde el mercado y los consumidores prefieren variedades tipo Superchola y castigan con precios bajos a aquellas variedades que no se les asemejen.En el Cuadro 14, se puede observar la TIA de cada tratamiento, se puede observar que existe una diferencia muy grande entre las tecnologías CIP 387205.5 y CIP 386209.10 con MIPE y las variedades con manejo convencional. Capiro, I-Fripapa y Superchola obtuvieron el impacto ambiental más alto con valores de TIA entre 400 y 500 mientras que los clones CIP 386209.10 y CIP 387205.5 presentan el impacto ambiental más bajo con valores de TIA de 67. El clon CIP 575045 obtuvo un TIA de 119. Se debe destacar que mientras mayor sea el valor del TIA, mayor será el grado de contaminación que causa la tecnología.Para interpretar la TIA detallada en el Cuadro 14, se representó en porcentaje, para visualizar la reducción del impacto ambiental de las diferentes tecnologías evaluadas. La TIA más alta de las tecnologías Diacol-Capiro y Superchola, ambas con manejo convencional, fue asignada como el 100% del impacto ambiental registrado durante el experimento. La tecnología I-Fripapa con manejo convencional registró una TIA del 81.45% lo que significa que el impacto ambiental se redujo en un 20% aproximadamente.Por otro lado para la tecnología del clon CIP 575045 con MIPE la TIA fue del 23.52% logrando disminuir el impacto ambiental alrededor del 75% en relación a las tecnologías anteriores. Por último para las tecnologías de los clones CIP 387205.5, y CIP 386209.10 con MIPE se observó una TIA del 13.25% alcanzándose de esta manera la máxima reducción del impacto ambiental del 86.7%.En el mismo Cuadro 14, también se detalla el número de aplicaciones, tanto de insecticidas como de fungicidas y a grandes rasgos se debe destacar que en las variedades se usan tres veces más la cantidad de fungicidas y dos veces más la cantidad de insecticidas, que en los clones CIP. Esta es una de las causas de que la TIA presentado por las variedades y clones y su respectivo manejo. La otra causa es el tipo de plaguicidas utilizados en cada una de las aplicaciones y tecnologías ya que el número de aplicaciones se realizó tomando en cuenta el desarrollo de la epidemia en cada tecnología (resistencia presente en el clon o variedad e interacción con el medioambiente y clima). Para las variedades Superchola y Diacol-Capiro cuya susceptibilidad a P. infestans es ampliamente reportada, fue necesario aplicar fungicidas sistémicos como metalaxyl, cymoxanyl y dimethomorph que están asociados con un CIA alto como consta en el Anexo 3, que se ve incrementado por el hecho de que las presentaciones comerciales de estos vienen en mezcla con mancozeb, que es un pesticida con elevado CIA. Por el contrario los clones CIP, gracias a su resistencia, se pudieron manejar solamente con productos protectantes como clorotalonil y fosfitos con CIA bajos y que siempre se aplicaron tomando en cuenta un umbral de lluvia acumulada de 50 mm, lo que permitió reducir el número de aplicaciones.La precocidad de cada uno de los genotipos utilizados en cada tecnología fue otra fuente de reducción de aplicación de fungicidas.  5 35,77x10 5 12,89x10 6 4,87x10 6 18,17x10 4 28,35x10 3 8,20x10 6 28,18x10 5 37,52x10 6  13,01x10 4 0 110x10 2 CIP 387205. 5 15,22x10 5 44,39x10 4 11,12x10 6 2,25x10 6 5,26x10 4 34,27x10 3 3,51x10 6 6,12x10 6 103,04x10 6 57,88x10 5 0 20x10 2 CIP 575045 26,40x10 5 43,03x10 4 66,59x10 7 45,92x10 6 7,46x10 4 5,45x10 4 16,64x10 6 26,14x10 4 27,55x10 6  3,27x10 5 0 7,5x10 3CIP 386209,10 34,02x10 5 39,9x10 4 125x10 7 30,05x10 6 13,26x10 4 13,66x10 3 12,68x10 6 3,27x10 6 8,65x10 6  8,74x10 4 0 45x10 I-Fripapa 15,42x10 5 46,86x10 6 7,71x10 5 2,66x10 6 15,42x10 4 3,72x10 4 5,93x10 6 33,99x10 5 15,42x10 5  33,99x10 5 0 140x10 2Diacol-Capiro 17,65x10 6 40,55x10 5 34,71x10 7 2,77x10 6 12,35x10 4 23,9x10 3 10,59x10 6 6,66x10 5 3,53x10 6  8,66x10 4 0 140x10 2 Testigo 6,24x10 7 10,63x10 5 34,62x10 7 59,05x10 5 5,6x10 4 42,01x10 3 10,21x10 6 24,46x10 5 19,29x10 6  1,06x10 6 0 7,5x10 3   32 días = Primer análisis microbiológico 127 días = Segundo análisis microbiológicoDe acuerdo a los resultados podemos concluir que:1. Las tecnologías que causan un mayor Impacto Ambiental son las tecnologías de Diacol-Capiro y Superchola con manejo convencional, debido a la susceptibilidad que presentan a plagas y enfermedades y por ser tardías.2. Las tecnologías CIP (386209.10 y 387205.5) con prácticas MIPE presentaron un menor impacto ambiental, debido a la precocidad y resistencia a tizón tardío permitiendo de esta manera reducir el número de aplicaciones y el uso de pesticidas tóxicos para el ambiente y la salud humana. 2. Evaluar el impacto ambiental en diferentes tipos de clima, suelo y altitud, para verificar las variaciones por efecto de estas variables.3. Determinar detalladamente los cambios en la composición microbiológica del suelo para determinar con mayor claridad los efectos de los pesticidas sobre poblaciones de microorganismos benéficos.4. Para futuras investigaciones con los clones empleados en la presente investigación considerar mayores distanciamientos entre surcos.La presente investigación plantea: la evaluación del impacto ambiental y económico derivado del uso de genotipos resistentes al tizón tardío y precoses cultivados con agroquímicos menos peligrosos y con prácticas MIPE, en la comunidad de Tiazo San Vicente en la provincia de Chimborazo, las tecnologías utilizadas: CIP 387205. ","tokenCount":"9729"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"76c403e0575b1c9f413a4cc458133a44","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cd400913-5f5d-403e-930d-a9b148a8d046/retrieve","id":"1565464871"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ac1ddf0e-184c-4c84-8ac5-65a4862a9268","pagecount":"16","content":"avancée dévastatrice d'une souche de fièvre aphteuse à travers l'Asie, l'Afrique australe et finalement l'Europe n'a guère ému les nombreux pays où ces maladies sont endémiques. En Europe, elle a démontré la fragilité de la ligne de protection. Dans les pays en développement, elle souligne la nécessité aiguë d'augmenter les moyens de protection et de surveillance.L'on a encore en mémoire les images, diffusées dans le monde entier, des bûchers de troupeaux de bovins, de chèvres et de moutons abattus dans plusieurs régions de Grande-Bretagne au début 2001. Dans sa réponse à l'éruption de fièvre aphteuse, ce pays a donné l'impression de fouiller de manière obsessionnelle les entrailles de sa politique agricole et d'engager -quoique très peu en conviennentune sorte de rituel vaudou traduisant l'angoisse de vivre dans un monde insalubre. Les brasiers engloutissant des millions d'animaux malades étaient-ils l'appel de détresse d'une agriculture en perdition?De janvier à juillet 2001, 1 800 cas ont été recensés et au total, plus de trois millions de bovins, de moutons, de chèvres et de porcs ont été abattus et incinérés. En termes statistiques, c'est une simple égratignure, mais la cicatrice est profonde en termes économiques et émotionnels. Ces mesures draconiennes ont été reproduites dans d'autres pays d'Europe moins touchés, puis les choses sont revenues à la normale. En quelques semaines, la maladie était contenue et l'objectif princi-Epizooties et santé animale • pal de ce massacre -préserver le commerce de la viande -était atteint.Selon les rapports du Veterinary Records, la souche du virus de la fièvre aphteuse qui a atteint la Grande-Bretagne a été d'abord identifiée en Inde en 1990. Elle s'est répandue en Asie en direction de Taiwan, d'où elle a gagné l'Afrique australe, semant la désolation sur son passage. En Afrique du Sud, des centaines de milliers d'animaux infectés ont été abattus au début 2001 ; la fin de l'épizootie a été annoncée le 11 avril.Aucun continent n'est épargné. La dernière apparition de la fièvre aphteuse en Amérique du Nord remonte à 1929, mais les vastes plaines herbeuses d'Amérique du Sud ont été touchées aussi durement que la Grande-Bretagne, bien que par une souche différente. Au début de 2001, l'Uruguay comptait 1 300 foyers et l'Argentine 1 200 : ils ont vacciné 49 millions de têtes de bétail. En Afrique subsaharienne, la souche la plus récente s'est limitée au Sud, mais fin 2000 des cas avaient été signalés dans 16 pays, du Sénégal au Swaziland. Aucun foyer n'a été signalé récemment dans les Caraïbes ou le Pacifique.Outre la fièvre aphteuse, il existe de nombreuses autres maladies endémiques du bétail. Parmi celles qui causent les plus grands dommages, citons l'anthrax, présent en Afrique australe, la fièvre de la vallée du Rift en Afrique de l'Est, la peste porcine en Espagne, la grippe aviaire en Asie et la maladie de Newcastle (peste aviaire) en Afrique de l'Ouest.Les animaux sauvages peuvent être porteurs de ces maladies et d'autres, et donc jouer un rôle dans leur transmission. Tout comme la vaccination, qui offre une bonne protection, une mesure importante de prévention dans de nombreux pays consiste à mieux isoler le bétail des animaux de brousse.On estime le coût des éruptions récentes de fièvre aphteuse dans les pays du Nord à des dizaines de milliards de dollars, mais grâce aux subventions et aux assurances, les effets financiers ont relativement épargné les populations. Il n'en va pas de même dans les pays en développement.. Peter Roeder, du Service vétérinaire de la FAO, l'a souligné à plusieurs reprises au début de 2001 : « Partout où l'on élève du bétail, la fièvre aphteuse est une menace pour l'économie. La lutte contre les maladies épidémiques des animaux et des hommes est loin d'être gagnée ; pour les maladies animales, elle commence à peine dans la plus grande partie du monde. » Avec la fièvre aphteuse, le risque économique est double : vous ne pouvez exporter vos bêtes si elles sont atteintes, mais si vous les vaccinez, elles sont considérées comme porteuses du germe et ne sont plus exportables. Pauvre et malade ou pauvre et vacciné, voici la seule alternative ! Il semble que la crise de la fièvre aphteuse au Nord trouve son origine dans des mesures d'économie. N'est-ce pas ironique ? Des techniques intensives d'élevage, des réductions budgétaires dans les services vétérinaires et la fermeture des abattoirs locaux, qui a augmenté les transports d'animaux, sont autant de facteurs qui ont favorisé la maladie.Un souci autrement plus grave, toutefois, c'est la transmission à l'être humain d'une maladie animale telle que l'anthrax, la tuberculose et, plus récemment, l'encéphalopathie spongiforme bovine (ESB) ou maladie de la « vache folle ». Cette maladie est ainsi nommée parce qu'elle attaque le système nerveux et détruit une partie du cerveau, ce qui conduit les animaux à trembler et à tituber.La propagation de l'ESB est probablement liée à une pratique séculaire qui consiste à ajouter à la nourriture du bétail des farines à base de viande et d'os de moutons. Certaines de ces farines seraient provenues de moutons atteints de la « tremblante » et la réduction de la température de cuisson des farines, pour diminuer les coûts, aurait été le principal facteur déclenchant. La première « vache folle » a été identifiée en 1986. Depuis, 180 000 vaches ont été abattues en Grande-Bretagne et environ 1 300 cas ont été identifiés ailleurs en Europe.La forme humaine de la maladie, la nouvelle variante de la maladie de Creutzfeld-Jakob ou nvMCJ, provoque une perte de mémoire, puis l'effondrement de tout le système nerveux, plus rapidement que la MCJ qui touche naturellement environ une personne sur un million. La nvMCJ a tué 80 personnes en Grande-Bretagne et 2 en France. Les mécanismes de transmission ne sont pas encore totalement expliqués. La période d'incubation pouvant dépasser dix ans, le nombre des victimes futures pourrait s'élever à 10 000 ou 80 000 en Grande-Bretagne. Personne ne sait au juste… L'ESB et la nvMCJ ont-elles atteint d'autres pays ? Peut-être. Comme les systèmes de contrôle sont défaillants dans de nombreux pays en développement, on peut le supposer. En réalité, personne ne sait.Ce qui est en revanche certain, selon un communiqué conjoint de l'Organisation mondiale de la santé, de la FAO et de l'Office international des épizooties, publié à Paris à la mi-juin 2001, c'est que « des matières potentiellement infectées ont été diffusées dans le monde via le commerce de bovins vivants ainsi que de certains produits et sous-produits bovins. Tous les pays doivent rapidement évaluer dans quelle mesure ils ont pu être exposés et doivent entreprendre les actions nécessaires. » Les spécialistes de ces organisations ont conseillé aux gouvernements d'interdire les farines animales pour les ruminants et de mettre en place des mesures de suivi et de contrôle. Ils ont aussi demandé des moyens supplémentaires pour aider les pays en développement à évaluer leur exposition potentielle à des produits contaminés par l'ESB et à gérer les risques. Les trois organisations ont appelé à diffuser des méthodes d'autosurveillance et recommandent aux consommateurs d'éviter certaines matières à risque (moelle épinière, cervelle, yeux, certaines glandes et certaines parties de l'intestin des bovins, ovins et caprins). Elles exhortent les scientifiques à informer le public de tout nouveau risque, si inquiétant soit-il.Dans le passé, les systèmes agricoles des pays ACP et d'autres pays en développement ont souffert de façon disproportionnée de certains aspects négatifs d'innovations techniques et de procédures réglementaires. Aujourd'hui, les voici en butte à deux nouveaux soucis : la vulnérabilité du secteur de l'élevage à de telles maladies et la transmission de maladies animales aux humains. Chaque étape de la filière de la viande -surveillance, contrôle de qualité, traçabilité, promotion de l'exportation, commercialisation -devient plus complexe et coûte plus cher.Au-delà de la menace sur le commerce, ce qui est en jeu, c'est un risque massif et incontrôlable pour la santé animale comme pour la santé humaine. Le plus triste de cette histoire, c'est que la négligence, voire l'irresponsabilité des riches va coûter cher aux pauvres aussi.  Pour la grande majorité des paysans ACP, il en va tout autrement. La plupart assurent eux-mêmes la production, la sélection, le stockage et la distribution ou l'échange de leurs semences. L'assurance d'un rendement satisfaisant, la bonne adaptation des plantes aux conditions locales, leur résistance aux maladies et aux ravageurs constituent les principaux critères de choix des petits agriculteurs. Le secteur formel -qu'il soit commercial ou public -a du mal à les prendre en compte. Résultat : les petits paysans sont livrés à eux-mêmes.On note pourtant un début de changement dans ce domaine. De plus en plus, les chercheurs, les bailleurs de fonds et les ONG tentent de rapprocher les systèmes formel et informel de production de semences, conscients que les uns et les autres peuvent y gagner : la petite agriculture en s'appropriant de nouveaux savoirs et en bénéficiant de semences améliorées, et le secteur formel, en accédant à des variétés locales aux traits génétiques intéressants -bon goût, longue conservation, bonne résistance à la sécheresse et aux maladies.La mayonnaise commence à prendre. Des instituts de recherche internationaux qui s'in-téressent aux cultures vivrières locales commencent à jouer les intermédiaires entre les agriculteurs et les firmes industrielles. Au Malawi, des paysans sont sélectionnés pour multiplier des semences d'arachides. Au Rwanda, des agriculteurs invités à visiter les parcelles expérimentales d'une station de recherche ont expliqué aux chercheurs qu'ils voulaient bien des nouvelles variétés de haricots à haut rendement, mais qu'il leur semblait plus important qu'elles puissent supporter la pauvreté du sol, le voisinage des bananiers et les pluies torrentielles.Ainsi, la recherche pour l'amélioration des semences se rapproche de plus en plus des communautés agricoles afin de s'accorder aux réalités et aux objectifs qui sont les leurs. D'où des méthodes plus participatives d'expérimentation et un élargissement notable du champ de la recherche sur les systèmes agraires.Les chercheurs ont intérêt à faire preuve de créativité et à avoir le sens des relations humaines dans une communauté, avertit Lisa Leimar Price, spécialiste de l'Université et Centre de recherche de Wageningen (Pays-Bas). Faute de quoi, la voix des femmes ne sera pas entendue. Or, les femmes jouent un rôle essentiel dans la gestion des variétés végétales. À côté de ses tâches purement agricoles, c'est la femme, en effet, qui sélectionne les variétés selon des critères de goût, de couleur, de commodité. La rapidité de cuisson, par exemple, est un critère important quand le bois de chauffage se fait rare. C'est la femme qui expérimente les nouvelles variétés dans son jardin avant de les semer au champ si l'épreuve est satisfaisante. Les femmes contribuent ainsi au maintien et à l'évolution de la biodiversité locale. La diversité biologique est étroitement liée aux moyens financiers. Les familles les plus pauvres se préoccupent plus de tout ce qui favorise la résistance des variétés aux maladies et à la sécheresse. Elles accordent moins d'importance à des critères « de luxe », comme le goût ou le rendement potentiel.Une approche créative et participative semble donc nécessaire à la mise en place de systèmes locaux viables de gestion des semences. Un soutien technique extérieur peut contribuer au développement de variétés résistantes et faire ainsi reculer la famine. Cette démarche peut aussi aboutir à la constitution d'une banque de gènes locale et vivante, une parcelle collective spéciale où les paysans cultivent chaque année leurs variétés sélectionnées pour les conserver à la disposition de la communauté.Certes, il y a toujours le risque d'une catastrophe naturelle ou d'une perte de récolte qui contraint les paysans à vendre ou à consommer leur propre production. Il est donc essentiel qu'ils puissent stocker ailleurs, dans des banques de gènes, les graines des variétés qu'ils ont mises au point. C'est là pourtant que le bât blesse. Ce type de structure n'est accessible qu'à des multiplicateurs soigneusement choisis, pas aux petits agriculteurs.Paysannes et paysans, chercheurs, vulgarisateurs et techniciens, tous essaient à leur manière de rapprocher les systèmes formel et informel de fourniture de semences. Il n'y a pas de recette universelle. Face à l'ampleur des diversités culturelles et génétiques locales, il faut prendre le temps d'adopter des solutions sur mesure.Rôle des petits exploitants dans les systèmes de production de semences. Rapport de synthèse d'une visite d 'étude, Zimbabwe, 1999. CTA, 2000, 34   Mais en économie, comme dans la vie, il y a voisins et voisins. Avec certains, il se peut qu'on n'ait rien d'autre en commun que la proximité. C'est parfois le cas pour les économies nationales : il arrive que les principaux produits d'un pays trouvent un meilleur marché hors de la région, ou que les voies de communication fonctionnent mieux vers l'extérieur qu'à l'intérieur d'une région.Néanmoins, il y a presque toujours des avantages à développer un marché régional. Le principal est l'économie d'échelle : comme ils ont accès à un plus grand nombre de consommateurs, les points de vente de produits alimentaires transformés et de biens manufacturés deviennent plus viables. Cependant, ceux qui s'intéressent à l'agriculture ont noté que ces économies d'échelle ne sont vraiment intéressantes que pour des produits à haute valeur ajoutée : parfois des produits alimentaires très élaborés, mais plus souvent des biens industriels manufacturés ou semi-manufacturés.Du point de vue du nombre de personnes qu'elle mobilise, l'agriculture est la principale activité économique de la plupart des pays ACP. Pourtant, le sol rapporte moins que le sous-sol. Pour de nombreux ministères des finances, l'agriculture passe en deuxième lieu, derrière les activités d'extraction de minerais, de métaux précieux ou de combustibles fossiles. Parfois, elle ne vient même qu'en troisième place, après le secteur industriel. Il reste, bien sûr, une vingtaine de pays ACP -principalement en Afrique centrale, dans les Caraïbes et le Pacifique -où l'agriculture est le plus grand secteur exportateur et les difficultés qu'ils éprouvent à développer leur commerce agricole sont bien connues.De manière générale, le commerce en Afrique est dominé par l'exportation de produits miniers et industriels hors du continent. Selon l'Organisation mondiale du commerce, le total des exportations de l'Afrique s'élevait en 1999 à 132 milliards d'h (dont la moitié vers l'Europe). Près de 63 milliards concernaient des produits miniers, y compris le pétrole, des États du Maghreb, du Nigeria, de l'Angola, du Gabon et d'autres pays producteurs. En seconde place venaient les produits manufacturés, pour 40 milliards d'h dont plus de 6,5 milliards vers d'autres pays africains.Les exportations agricoles, principalement vers l'Europe et l'Asie, atteignaient 26 milliards et les échanges de produits alimentaires ou agricoles entre pays africains 3 milliards. La part de la (relativement) puissante économie de l'Afrique du Sud est importante dans ce montant : outre qu'elle est présente dans presque toutes les brasseries d'Afrique subsaharienne, elle vend aujourd'hui à tout le continent de grandes quantités de produits alimentaires transformés et semi-transformés.En fin de compte, 2,3 % seulement des exportations africaines de 1999 étaient agricoles et dirigées vers des pays africains. Les futures stratégies pour développer le commerce agricole régional doivent donc se référer à ce chiffre issu des statistiques (quoique, par nature, celles-ci ne rendent pas compte du commerce transfrontalier clandestin). Un chiffre étonnamment modeste au regard des nombreux accords qui ont été signés pour promouvoir le commerce régional (voir encadré). Mais si modeste qu'il soit, il a son importance. En effet, les exportations agricoles hors du continent ont chuté depuis 1996. Entre 1998 et 1999, le taux des exportations agricoles vers l'Europe a baissé de 13 % tandis qu'à l'intérieur du continent africain, il augmentait de 6 %.Est-ce un signe favorable pour le développement quantitatif et qualitatif du commerce régional ? On peut en fait se demander si la séquence favorite du « local-régional-mondial » est réaliste pour toutes les régions. Certes, les accords commerciaux régionaux favorisent le processus de libéralisation du commerce et de l'économie locale, en exposant petit à petit les producteurs à la concurrence avant que ne soufflent les vents impétueux de la mondialisation. Soulignons que cela ne vaut pas pour tous les pays ACP. Dans le Pacifique, et plus encore dans les Caraïbes avec leur dynamique CARICOM, le commerce régional a réussi à développer un plus grand marché, à réaliser des économies d'échelle et à aider les économies à s'ajuster à la libéralisation du commerce multilatéral. Les malheurs de certains secteurs, comme celui de la banane, dans le contexte de la mondialisation ont été en partie mitigés par les efforts du CARICOM pour diversifier et pour développer le marketing de niche.Finalement, cette préférence de plusieurs économies ACP pour le commerce régional est-elle une étape gagnée ou une étape perdue sur la route vers le marché mondial ? Le temps, les statistiques et les balances com-merciales le diront. Pour le secteur industriel, le potentiel de croissance est clair. Certains pensent que cette croissance, et l'amélioration du niveau de vie qui l'accompagne, entraînera le commerce agricole dans son sillage. Mais pour favoriser la croissance nécessaire dans le secteur agricole, il faut peut-être plus. Dans un monde où -pas plus que les vents, les oiseaux et les virus -les opportunités d'échanges mondiaux et les attraits du commerce électronique ne reconnaissent les frontières parfois artificielles des « régions », il faut être plutôt sûr de soi pour persister dans la préférence régionale et la défendre.✍ Centre de commerce international CNUCED/OMC ITC, Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneve 10, Suisse Fax : +41 22 733 44 39 E-mail : itcreg@intracen.org Site Web : www.intracen.orgOrganisation des États des Caraïbes orientales (OECS) : Antigua et Barbuda, la Dominique, Grenade, Montserrat, Saint-Christophe et Nevis, Sainte-Lucie, Saint-Vincent et les Grenadines. Barbuda, les Bahamas, la Barbade, Belize, la Dominique, Grenade, le Guyana, la Jamaïque, Montserrat, Saint-Christophe et Nevis, Sainte-Lucie, Saint-Vincent et les Grenadines, le Surinam, Trinité et Tobago.Parmi ses membres on compte les pays suivants : Iles Cook, États fédérés de Micronésie, Iles Fidji, Guam, Kiribati, Iles Marshall, Nauru, Nouvelle-Zélande, Niue, Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée, Samoa, Iles Salomon, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. Communauté économique et monétaire de l'Afrique centrale : Cameroun, République centrafricaine, Congo, Guinée équatoriale, Gabon, Saô Tome et Principe, Tchad.Burundi, République démocratique du Congo, Rwanda.Angola, Burundi, Comores, République démocratique du Congo, Djibouti, Égypte, Érythrée, Éthiopie, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Maurice, Namibie, Rwanda, Seychelles, Soudan, Swaziland, Ouganda, Tanzanie, Zambie, Zimbabwe.Angola, Burundi, Cameroun, République centrafricaine, République démocratique du Congo, Congo, Guinée équatoriale, Gabon, Rwanda, Saô Tome et Principe, Tchad.Bénin, Burkina Faso, Cap Vert, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambie, Ghana, Guinée, Guinée-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritanie, Niger, Nigeria, Sénégal, Sierra Leone, Togo.Guinée, Liberia, Sierra Leone.    Pour les personnes qui ne produisent pas certaines enzymes (la moitié de la population du Soudan) ou qui ont eu une hépatite, les risques de développer un cancer sont multipliés par quinze. Le problème est aggravé par le fait que, pour leur consommation personnelle, de nombreux agriculteurs transforment en beurre des arachides de qualité médiocre.Au début des années 90, après l'embargo commercial qui a entraîné l'effondrement d'une partie de la production d'arachide en Afrique de l'Ouest, de nombreux pays européens ont fixé des seuils stricts de taux d'aflatoxine. Ces taux allaient de zéro aflatoxine détectable à une moyenne de 10 unités par milliard (microgrammes par kilogrammes) pour la consommation humaine, (5 unités par milliard pour l'espèce la plus dangereuse, l'aflatoxine B1). Il existe de nombreux procédés pour détecter les toxines dans la nourriture, mais ils sont trop coûteux pour les petits producteurs. Les mesures préventives sont une meilleure solution, par exemple la prévention du stress thermique pour les céréales et le sorgho et l'irrigation en période de pollinisation. Pour l'arachide, la prévention de la sécheresse avant récolte permettra d'éviter le craquèlement des cosses qui favorise l'invasion par l'aspergillus. Il est recommandé d'éviter le stockage des céréales et des arachides en milieu humide et de ne pas nourrir les animaux, notamment la volaille, avec des céréales ou des arachides de mauvaise qualité.■ Une nouvelle convention sur la sécurité et la santé dans l'agriculture (voir Spore 91) a été adoptée à très large majorité lors de la conférence générale de l'Organisation internationale du travail (OIT) fin juin 2001. Elle sera valide dès sa ratification par deux pays membres de l'OIT ; ensuite, c'est à chaque pays de la ratifier pour pouvoir la mettre en application sur son territoire.  La GWS a développé cette approche dans le cadre du projet Amanzuri, financé par le gouvernement hollandais, dans la région de l'Amanzuri qui abrite la plus grande mangrove du Ghana. Dans cette zone, les villages sont d'accord de cesser la chasse et participer aux activités  L'objectif était d'étudier -pour les reproduire dans leurs pays -les systèmes de production intensive qui ont des rendements nettement plus élevés que les 5 tonnes par hectare obtenues avec des méthodes traditionnelles. Ces systèmes se fondent sur la monoculture avec des rangées très denses de 2 500 à 4 000 plants à l'hectare, alignés de façon à recevoir un maximum de soleil et un minimum de vent. Cela nécessite une irrigation parfaitement programmée, l'élimination des mauvaises herbes et l'utilisation d'engrais, de fongicides et de pesticides, bien que la faible incidence de la cercosporiose dans ce système permette de réduire les doses de fongicide.  Le safou est un fruit apprécié des communautés rurales du Cameroun depuis toujours et sa culture offre de belles perspectives de revenus en Afrique de Ouest et du Centre. La publication de ce Guide de la culture du safoutier est une remarquable initiative d'un auteur et d'un éditeur africains qui ont su anticiper la demande du public. Il arrive à point nommé pour satisfaire un intérêt croissant des agriculteurs pour l'exploitation du safoutier. L'auteur connaît bien son affaire : spécialisé en sylviculture et il anime depuis 1987 le réseau africain du safou (ASANET). Ce guide décrit les étapes de la production, de l'établissement d'une pépinière à la conservation des fruits en passant par la plantation et la lutte phytosanitaire. La participation poursuit un objectif juste et louable, dans tous les aspects du développement rural comme urbain. Mais dans la réalité, les populations qui sont décrites comme « participantes » ne sont guère plus que des spectatrices. Au niveau de la base -pour continuer à utiliser le jargon habituel -on note un scepticisme et une lassitude justifiés pour les stratégies dites participatives de développement agricole.Qu'est-ce qui n'a pas marché, et en fait, cette approche a-t-elle trouvé sa voie? Voici le type de questions fondamentales qu'un groupe de 'gourous de la participation' se pose dans ce courageux ouvrage. Quelques-uns des plus fervents adeptes de la participation, qu'il s'agisse de conseilleurs du Nord ou de brillants esprits du Sud, ont examiné leurs propres expériences : Pretty, Farrington, Guèye, Floquet… Des études de cas au Burkina Faso, en Ethiopie, en Guinée et au Rwanda sont présentées en même temps que des perspectives    'est, par exemple, la conjonction favorable de la pluie, de l'ensoleillement et de la température qui permet de réussir une récolte. Un paysan réussira plus ou moins bien en fonction de ses capacités de gestionnaire et de son aptitude à combiner ces facteurs climatiques avec des intrants adaptés.L'expérience montre que, sur une période plus ou moins longue, les agriculteurs sont souvent confrontés à plusieurs problèmes graves. Ceux qui pratiquent la riziculture pluviale dans les basses terres du Nigeria peuvent souffrir la même année de sécheresse et d'inondation, ce qui entraîne une perte de 80 % à 100 % de leur récolte. Mais il y a aussi les maladies et les ravageurs : dans le Nigeria oriental, une attaque de mouche des galles du riz a ainsi détruit 80 % des récoltes en 1988.Parmi les autres problèmes récurrents, mentionnons la destruction des récoltes par le bétail des Peuhls, fréquente dans le nord du Nigeria. Les troubles survenus alors que les agriculteurs défendaient leurs cultures contre des éleveurs Peuhls armés ont coûté la vie à nombre d'entre eux. Il y a aussi les feux de brousse, qui ne sont pas toujours bien contrôlés, et peuvent détruire les cultures comme les récoltes stockées.Comment font les petits paysans du Nigeria, autrement dit 70 % de la population active du pays, pour subir tous ces événements et rester tout de même mariés à leur terre « pour le meilleur et pour le pire » ? J'ai observé avec beaucoup d'intérêt des hommes puissants -des militaires à la retraite, par exemple, ou des chefs de village riches et influents. Je les ai vus plier bagage après deux ou trois ans seulement d'activité agricole. Ils avaient amené de lourdes machines pour défricher et cultiver, et les résultats ? Il n'est même pas besoin de quitter les routes pour voir les ravages de l'érosion sur leurs terres. Des carcasses de hangars et de silos sont abandonnées dans la brousse, à tel point qu'on se demande s'ils n'ont pas été construits pour des animaux sauvages qui seraient alors plus favorisés par le Ciel que leurs homologues domestiques ! À un moment, il y a eu une prolifération de ce genre d'agriculteurs au Nigeria. Pensaient-ils qu'il suffisait de semer de l'argent pour récolter des millions ? Ils ont été bien déçus ! Ils avaient seulement oublié que par essence l'agriculture exige de travailler dur, de prendre des risques, de s'engager totalement, avec détermination.Les petits paysans, eux, sont attachés à leur terre, qu'il pleuve ou qu'il vente. Jamais nous ne louerons assez leur courage face à leurs si nombreux problèmes ! Ce n'est pas le manque de pluie qui les découragera de cultiver l'année suivante. À ces moments-là, ils parlent des faiseurs de pluie, des gens qui prient pour faire venir les pluies quand celles-ci sont en retard. Dans certaines régions du Nord, les plants de riz sont cultivés en pépinières environ un mois avant les pluies. Il faut pendant ce temps apporter l'eau de cours lointains et de mares qui s'assèchent un peu plus chaque jour. Les paysans cultivent aussi des plantes à cycle court, comme le mil et le niébé. Quand on voit la variété de ce qu'on trouve sur le marché, et que l'on réalise que tout cela est produit par les paysans, leurs mains, leurs houes et leurs machettes, on ne peut qu'être admiratif.Ce sont eux aussi qui savent changer de vitesse quand il ne leur suffit plus de produire pour consommer et qu'ils envisagent d'envoyer leurs enfants faire des études, bien que ce soit au Nigeria plus difficile que jamais. Ils voudraient aussi des véhicules motorisés pour transporter leur récolte, à la maison, puis au marché, mais cela aussi suppose d'en avoir les moyens.L'électricité installée par le gouvernement actuel leur apporte un nouveau confort. Ils vont bientôt vouloir acheter des équipements domestiques, des télévisions et des magnétoscopes. Ces nouveaux appétits vont nourrir leurs ambitions, mais celles-ci seront freinées par la parcellisation de leurs terres, du fait du système foncier : encore un défi ! Tous ces petits paysans méritent nos félicitations pour la part immense qu'ils prennent à la production alimentaire mondiale. Ils seraient mieux épaulés si les infrastructures qui leur sont nécessaire étaient mieux adaptées, si les intrants étaient subventionnés… Mais au bout du compte, leur avenir est dans leurs mains et dépend aussi de facteurs que personne ne contrôle ! SPORE 94  ","tokenCount":"4461"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4770ed9eab4d6a9fa93204d85de25df2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b66eb112-893d-4502-b172-73bcfe4332fa/retrieve","id":"259942544"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d589d1d2-a6b7-4c6e-a0e9-d41360973c24","pagecount":"12","content":"Xanthomonas Wilt of Banana (BXW) is a complex problem in the African Great Lakes Region that is affecting the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers. Since the first disease reports from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2001, BXW has been studied widely. The majority of these studies focus on the technological or biophysical dimensions, while aspects and influence of socio-cultural, economic and institutional dimensions only recently started to gain attention. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the broader BXW problem using a systems perspective, with the aim to add to the understanding about reasons for poor uptake of appropriate disease management practices, and limited ability to prevent rather than control BXW in the region. We comprehensively describe and analyse the various problem dimensions, and determine relations with data, information, knowledge, and connectivity. Building on this, the paper explores and discusses entry-points for the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and citizen science tools to better address BXW in banana production systems.Infectious crop diseases continue to cause large yield losses with underestimated social and economic impacts in developing countries (Vurro et al., 2010). Xanthomonas Wilt of Banana (BXW), caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum, affects production of all types of bananas, in all major production regions in East and Central Africa (Tripathi et al., 2009). The disease is detrimental to banana-based farming systems, due to easy spread, rapid in-plant development, absence of resistant cultivars, and inevitable death of infected plants (but not the whole physically interconnected mat due to incomplete systemicity) in absence of disease resistant varieties (Tripathi et al., 2009). Banana is an important source of livelihood for millions of farmers, providing food and income, as well as playing an important role in the social life of populations in the African Great Lakes Region (i.e. Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) (Van Damme et al., 2014). For example, 30% of the cultivated land in the region is occupied by banana (Van Asten et al., 2004), and in a country like Rwanda banana contributes to approximately 50% of the diet of 32% of the households (Nkuba et al., 2015). Hence production declines not only impact household income but also food and nutrition security, and social and cultural wellbeing.BXW is a complex problem that is rooted in a multitude of challenges, embedded and cross-cutting in six different system dimensions, and has shown to be persistent and recurrent. Since the first disease reports from central Uganda and east DR Congo in 2001, BXW has been studied widely. Most studies focus on the technological or biophysical dimensions (Biruma et al., 2007;Shimwela et al., 2016;Tinzaara et al., 2016) and cultural practices. Key practices are the originally recommended Complete Mat Uprooting technology (CMU), and the increasingly suggested Single Disease Stem Removal technology (SDSR) (Box 1). CMU and SDSR should be combined/applied with other endorsed practices, e.g. early removal of the male bud using a forked stick, disinfection of tools, selection of clean planting material, in order to be most effective. Aspects and impacts of the non-technological dimensions (i.e. socio-cultural, economic, institutional, and political) only recently started to gain attention. Yet, addressing a complex problem like BXW requires an integrated approach with attention for both technological and non-technological dimensions (Schut et al., 2014a). In other words, a focus on solving individual (technological) challenges will likely be ineffective when failing to simultaneously understand and address interrelationships with (non-technological/socio-cultural, economic, institutional, and political) challenges, and the roles of different actors, and different system levels.As amplified by Cieslik et al. (2018) in this issue, opportunities to collect and exchange data, information, and knowledge emerge from the enhanced availability of mobile/smart phones, smart Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and internet in low and middle income countries. Moreover, these innovations give prospect to resolve communication and connectivity related challenges in rural areas. The emergent robust, affordable and low maintenance sensing, data processing, visualization and other ICT enabled features have also led to growth in the number of so called citizen science initiatives (Buytaert et al., 2014). Citizen science (also referred to as environmental or participatory monitoring) was introduced by Irwin (1995) more than two decades ago as a concept that enables active involvement of nonscientists in research design, data collection and data interpretation (Buytaert et al., 2014). Until now, most citizen science initiatives occurred in high-income countries where volunteers engaged in monitoring and reporting of environmental aspects (e.g. counting birds or insects, monitoring spread of communicable diseases). However, similar initiatives start to take off in developing countries too. Wageningen University and Research's Environmental Virtual Observatories for Connective Action (EVOCA) programme explores the potential of such ICT-based citizen science platforms for tackling complex socioecological problems in six case studies in Africa. The complex problem of BXW that we focus on in this paper represents one of those case studies.In this paper, we contribute to two strategic gaps in the scientific literature: (i) comprehensive understanding of both the technological and non-technological BXW problem dimensions (ii) how problem dimensions are related to (the lack of) data, information, knowledge, and connectivity. In doing so, the paper has three main objectives: (i) to comprehensively describe and analyse BXW in the Great Lakes Region, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of the complex problem, (ii) to determine the potential role of data, information, knowledge, and connectivity in addressing the problem, and (iii) to explore whether and how citizen science and ICT-based platforms can contribute to overcoming specific BXW problems in Central Africa.The next section provides a short historical background on banana farming and BXW in the Great Lakes Region (Section 2). A conceptual and methodological framework is presented in Section 3. Thereafter, the main characteristics of the BXW problem in the region are identified and discussed per system dimension (Section 4). In Section 5, we explore how these characteristics are interlinked with data, information, knowledge, and connectivity challenges. In the same section, we analyse how citizen science and ICT could offer appropriate intervention mechanisms for the identified problem characteristics. Lastly, Section 6 provides a reflection on our findings and some practical recommendations.2. Historical overview and gaps in our understanding of BXW and its management in the Great Lakes Region 2.1. History, symptoms and spread of BXW Bananas form an important staple crop in East and Central Africa.Box 1 Description of managing BXW, the traditional and the alternative way.Uprooting of an entire banana mat after diagnosis of BXW, even if only one plant in the mat shows symptoms, has long been the recommended control BXW practice. Although very effective in removing most of the inoculum causing BXW, Complete Mat Uprooting (CMU) is tedious, labour intensive, time consuming. A side-effect is that asymptomatic plants are removed too. It requires from farmers to replace the removed mats with new planting material. This need makes CMU costly, further aggregated by high labour demand and longterm impact on production. Moreover, for optimal impact, i.e. reduce risk of reinfection, CMU should be practiced by all infected farmers in an area. Farmers are often reluctant to remove an entire banana mat when disease symptoms are minor and symptomless shoots could potentially still bear an edible bunch. Nevertheless, Blomme et al. (2017) suggest that in regions with intensive, market-oriented banana systems, where the goal is to eradicate BXW from the field, CMU could be a preferred management option. In addition, CMU would be applied where the disease appears for the first time in a location and is still limited to a few mats. Unfortunately, CMU cannot guarantee long term eradication of BXW, as there is always a risk of reinfection under small-scale farming conditions (Tinzaara et al., 2013).The alternative way Single Diseased Stem Removal (SDSR) Single Diseased Stem Removal (SDSR) technology is based on understanding that adjacent/physically attached shoots of an infected mother stem/plant are often disease free. SDSR is a less intensive alternative to CMU. Continuous removal of symptomatic plants, cutting them at soil level when observing first symptoms, can drastically reduce inoculum levels and disease incidence over time (from up to 80% to below 2% within 3 months, and below 1% within 5-10 months) (Blomme et al., 2017). Advantages of SDSR over CMU are low cost, and simple and easy applicability. Additionally, farmers can individually control BXW in highland settings with highland type bananas [AAA-EAH genome group] (van Schagen et al., 2016). This lessens need for collective action in AAA-EAH dominated systems in high elevation settings, allowing for effective out-scaling of the technology by targeting individual households. Nevertheless, a collective approach is preferable to prevent the incursion of inoculum from neighbouring infected farms. In lowland areas and in ABB dominated systems where insect vector mediated transmission is rampant, early male bud removal should be rigorously applied too. With SDSR there is no need for replanting and productivity of a BXW infected field can be restored in a relatively short time with non-removed shoots that reach their harvest stage. This makes SDSR a suitable management strategy for subsistence banana systems that target management of BXW at acceptable levels (< 1%) (Blomme et al., 2017). However, SDSR does not remove all inoculum and requires rigorous application for as long as disease is present on or near a farm. Practice alongside other cultural management practices is critical (e.g. male bud removal, and tool sterilization), making BXW management still knowledge and labour intensive and necessitating continuous training and extension efforts.Among the worlds' top ten producers of cooking bananas, Uganda ranks first, and DR Congo holds the 8th position (FAO and FAOSTAT, 2014). For production of dessert bananas Tanzania is the world's 8th largest producer, and Rwanda the 10th (FAO and FAOSTAT, 2014). More than 50% of Sub-Saharan Africa's production takes place in the African Great Lakes Region (Frison and Sharrock, 1998;Blomme et al., 2014). Bananas are of major economic importance in this region, forming an important part of peoples' daily diet and providing income and food security to millions of smallholder households.BXW was first reported in Ethiopia on enset (Ensete ventricosum), a relative of banana, in 1968 (Yirgou and Bradbury, 1968) and hereafter on banana in 1974 (Yirgou and Bradbury, 1974) (Fig. 1). BXW was recognized as a thread for banana production in the entire region, but remained confined to Ethiopia until first outbreaks were observed in Central Uganda in 2001 (Tushemereirwe et al., 2003). Since then BXW has spread through to DR Congo (2001), Rwanda (2002), Tanzania, Kenya (2005) and Burundi (2010) respectively (Karamura et al., 2005;Niko et al., 2011;Tushemereirwe et al., 2003). Trans-boundary transmission of the disease has been reported. For example, in Rwanda, BXW was first identified in the North-Western region around Rubavu district, where local farmers mentioned seeing first symptoms around 2002-2003. BXW most likely spread into Rwanda from DR Congo's Kivu region due to continuous exchange of people and goods across the Rubavu-Goma border and the fact that first outbreaks of BXW in DR Congo were confirmed near this border in the Masisi region north of Goma (Reeder et al., 2007).Several governments took rigorous actions in an attempt to eradicate BXW. For example, Uganda installed task forces assigned with the mission to cut down and destroy infected plantations/fields, remove male buds to prevent insect vector transmission, and control cutting of bunches with non-sterilized tools (Tushemereiwe et al., 2006). These types of interventions are rigorous and have had effect in reducing disease incidence (Bouwmeester et al., 2016). However, the invasive nature of uprooting entire plantations received little support from farmers (Blomme et al., 2017). Although disease eradication has been achieved in some sites, BXW has reached endemic status in other sites where resurgence is observed after a period of control, often due to a less rigorous application of control measures (Tinzaara et al., 2014). Additionally, endemicity of BXW is sometimes attributed to lack of awareness and knowledge about disease transmission, diagnosis, and disease management by stakeholders across the value chain. Alternatively, reluctance of farmers to actively apply awareness and knowledge due to the invasive/time-consuming nature of recommended practices can be a cause. As complete eradication of the disease has proven difficult to achieve, the focus has shifted towards development of strategies that use SDSR and complementary approaches to reach a situation in which BXW is manageable and disease incidence minimized to economically acceptable levels.Since the first reports of BXW in the Great Lakes Region in 2001, there have been numerous publications analysing the disease. Initial focus of academic literature was on improving understanding about the disease's epidemiology and control (mainly building on existing knowledge from banana bacterial wilts in Asia and Latin America), and later on strategies to develop BXW resistant banana cultivars, mostly through genetic engineering (Tripathi et al., 2009;Biruma et al., 2007). This contributed to considerable progress in terms of knowledge about the technological and biophysical dimensions of BXW, including disease epidemiology, bio-engineering of resistant varieties and, updating/finetuning cultural control practices. Based on increased understanding of e.g. within plant and mat systemicity and disease spread/dissemination, cultural control practices were developed and updated. The concentration on understanding the biophysical and technological dimensions of the crop protection problem corresponds with findings by Schut et al. (2014c), who concluded that there is generally much less attention for other problem dimensions (e.g. socio-cultural (e.g. stakeholder beliefs, or locally preferred practices), economic (e.g. costs of disease management), and institutional (e.g. trade policies, or disease control strategies)). Capturing the impact of these system dimensions, e.g. on BXW transmission at farm and regional scales, as well as the role of surveillance and control mechanisms, and their impact on combating BXW (Tinzaara et al., 2016;Markham, 2009), becomes gradually more important now that focus shifts from developing knowledge to developing suitable interventions. This includes investigating (i) diversity among farmers, their production objectives and barriers for adopting (BXW) technologies, (ii) effective strategies of information provision and capacity development for farmers, (iii) information needs and communication preferences to better understand and address constraints and challenges, and (iv) how multi-stakeholder processes can support joint problem identification, analysis and collective action (Schut et al., 2014c). This diagnostics paper does not offer such an investigation, yet it conveys the importance of each problem dimension by providing a comprehensive assessment of their contribution to the persistence of BXW.The conceptual framework for this study is rooted in three coherent theoretical concepts that fit the study's purpose: (i) systems perspective on complex agricultural problems, (ii) ICT for agriculture and citizen science, and (iii) theoretical understanding of data, knowledge, information, and connectivity. Each of these concepts responds to one of the study objectives. We use systems perspective to frame our analysis of BXW in Section 4. Theory on ICT for agriculture and citizen science informs our assessment and discussion of potential contributions of ICT in addressing BXW. Furthermore, the four intervention categories presented in the discussion section build on the notion that ICT for agriculture and citizen science are approaches for generating and exchanging various classes of content, as well as connecting people. The concepts of data, knowledge, information, and connectivity additionally help to perceive differences between the categories.Complex agricultural problems are problems in the agricultural domain that cannot be resolved but rather have to be managed. Complex agricultural problems are typically unstructured, embedded in the agricultural system and therefore persistent, relentless, and crosscutting (Weber and Khademian, 2014). BXW can be considered a  Yirgou and Bradbury, 1974;Karamura et al., 2005;Niko et al., 2011;Tushemereirwe et al., 2003;Yirgou and Bradbury, 1968;Castellani, 1939). complex problem as it too is persistent, unresolvable, and embedded and cross-cutting in the banana system. BXW is rooted in a multitude of challenges in various system dimensions (i.e. biophysical, technological, social, cultural, economic, institutional, and political) (Markham, 2009), and as past experiences have shown that technology-based solutions do not necessarily provide the full answer, an alternative approach, which is more integrated and knowledge-based, is required (Markham, 2009). Addressing such problems rather requires collaboration between different actors (e.g. farmers, extensionists, researchers), at different levels (e.g. local, regional, national) to address challenges in different dimensions (e.g. social, economic, institutional) (Schut et al., 2014d). Improving understanding of the interplay of various system dimensions is important, given that current efforts to out-scale interventions and technologies, which gave promising results at local or farm level, mostly yield unsatisfying success rates (Tinzaara et al., 2016). This associates with the notion that interventions aiming to solve crop disease issues must be tailored to a specific crop production system (Jogo et al., 2013), and that farmers should be offered management options fitting with their local and individual context (Blomme et al., 2017).With their strength to allow for co-creation of knowledge and joint reflection, contemporary ICTs offer immense potential for addressing a variety of today's complex agricultural problems. For example, interventions in which contemporary ICTs such as mobile phones complement or replace face-to-face agricultural service delivery are increasingly observed (FAO, 2017). As much as ICTs can be useful, they should not be seen as a panacea for solving all complex agricultural problems, or for providing all pieces of the puzzle that are required to manage complex problems (Deichmann et al., 2016;Nelson, 2010).Contemporary ICTs (e.g. mobile phones, tablets) are a key driver for the recent boom in citizen science initiatives. Citizen science initiatives focus on crowd-sourcing data from citizens, often in conjunction with an online, ICT-based platform (Fradera et al., 2015). The term citizen science represents (i) a science that assists the needs and concerns of citizens and, (ii) a form of science developed and enacted by citizens themselves. Most citizen science platforms aim to monitor the environment and foster collaborative research, learning, and action (Cieslik et al., 2018). Citizen science emerged from the observed need for an approach to enhance dialogue between scientific and citizen groups, as well as to recognize the added value of building on expertise and understandings possessed by citizen in decision making processes (Irwin, 1995). Benefits include increased awareness and knowledge, and a more participatory and democratic research process for citizens, while scientists profit from faster access to larger data sets for studying complex problems at lower costs (Fradera et al., 2015). Identified challenges with citizen science include the potential difference between who participates and the population targeted, reliability of data collected, and communication of models developed based on citizen science data (Buytaert et al., 2012).Deployment of ICT tools and citizen science-based interventions in agriculture are only useful when they mediate in generating and sharing content or connecting people in the agricultural system. It has been argued that ICT-based platforms can enhance connectivity between disassociated populations, enabling participatory monitoring (collection and exchange of data), broad accessibility of information, and dialogue about scientific-based models (knowledge creation) (Jalbert and Kinchy, 2016). To further conceptualize this, we first look at the understanding of, and differences between, data, information, and knowledge. These have been described widely (Alavi and Leidner, 2001;Leeuwis and van den Ban, 2004;Ackoff, 1999) and the difference between the two concepts can be subtle (Alavi and Leidner, 2001;Leeuwis and van den Ban, 2004). Given the scope of this paper we use broader definitions of the three terms. In this study, we understand data as raw facts and numbers from observations or measurements (for example outputs from measurements of the number of banana mats infected with BXW); information as processed or interpreted data made tangible in useful descriptions (for example a message informing extensionists that 20% of all banana mats in a region are infected with BXW and need to be managed with appropriate cultural control practices) that turn it into something that is accessible and actionable; and knowledge as interpreted and personalized data and information (for example the knowledge that with a 20% plant incidence rate SDSR is the most effective management strategy for farmers operating in that region) (Alavi and Leidner, 2001;Leeuwis and van den Ban, 2004;Ackoff, 1999).Knowledge is influenced by and influences for example mindset, behaviour, and learning processes (Leeuwis and van den Ban, 2004). It also informs people's capacity to understand patterns to which they can take action (Alavi and Leidner, 2001;Ackoff, 1999). Data, information, and knowledge are connected through a forward flow: data is processed into information, which is then assimilated into knowledge. A reverse flow is possible too, when knowledge explains information and filters and processes data (Heeks, 2018).The difference between information and knowledge is that the first entails processed data useful to its recipient, while the second aggregates information to a higher level by assimilating it into a coherent framework of understanding (Heeks, 2018). This brings us to the additional description of knowledge as the sum of what has been perceived, discovered and learned (6).Alavi and Leidner ( 2001) make two important points to take into account for exchanging information and knowledge that is actionable to a receiver: (i) most information has little value to a user unless it goes through a process of reflection, enlightenment, or learning, and (ii) knowledge is individual and to be useful for someone else it needs to be expressed and communicated in such way to a receiver that it is interpretable. This links with the notion that uncontextualized knowledge, that is analysed and interpreted by experts and then projected back to a locality, is likely inappropriate for utilization (Cieslik et al., 2018;Leeuwis and van den Ban, 2004).Lastly, we understand connectivity as the ability of and opportunity for stakeholders to interact and collaborate, as well as to coordinate and organize themselves (Bennett and Segerberg, 2012). Connectivity relates to how people interact, and who interacts with who, and can therefore influence collection and exchange of data, information, and knowledge. The absence of effective stakeholder collaboration and connectivity can form a bottleneck for agricultural system development (Schut et al., 2014a), is often related to heterogeneity in communities and weak leadership and control arrangements, power imbalances and information asymmetries (Poteete et al., 2010;Olson, 1965), and a limiting factor to solving complex agricultural problems (Schut et al., 2014b). For example, banana farmers excluded from interactions with extension officers and operating individually are more likely to lack access to information about BXW management. According to Bennett and Segerberg (2012) digital innovations foster opportunities for communicative ways of organizing that do not rely on formal organizational coordination but rather on self-organizing networks, thereby creating new spaces of interaction that can be accessed by many. Cieslik et al. (2018) argue that this may be of relevance in the context of environmental management in developing countries, hence for an agricultural challenge like BXW.Although much of the data presented in this paper apply broadly across the Great Lakes Region, we sometimes focus on specific BXWrelated issues in Rwanda. This is for three reasons. First, BXW has been a recurring problem in Rwanda since the initial identification in 2002, -National level political actors determine allocation of funds and efforts for crop extension services (Cioffo et al., 2016) despite attempts to control it. Officials in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources articulated existence of keen interest for innovations providing a lasting solution (Ministry of Agriculture, personal communication, July 2017). Second, Rwanda has the most ambitious objectives for use of ICT in rural and agricultural transformation in the African Great Lakes Region. The country profiles itself as the ICT hub in Africa and adopted several policies and strategies to enhance the use of ICT among which the 'National ICT for Rwandan Agriculture Strategy' (Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, 2016). Third, Rwanda is the main focus country of the EVOCA case study that was the entrypoint for our diagnostics study.Data for this qualitative paper were gathered through various methods: literature and secondary data review, scoping field visits, semi-structured interviews, and semi-structured group interviews. The methods' focus on BXW was stronger than on ICT and citizen science in response to our research objectives. This mixed approach was appropriate since it (i) allowed for a broad assessment of scientific and field level knowledge and understanding about BXW, (ii) provided the necessary input to unravel the research problem across all system dimensions both technologically and socially in Section 4, and (iii) supported development of suitable pathways for interventions in Section 5. More specifically, Table 1 in Section 4 was developed based on review of literature and secondary data, while Table 2 in Section 5.1 emerged from synthesizing information from Section 4 and linking this with the data, information, knowledge and connectivity concepts as laid out in the conceptual framework.First, literature and secondary data were reviewed. For the BXW, banana systems, and citizen science related literature snowball sampling was used, tracing references in articles to identify additional relevant peer-reviewed articles and grey-literature. Advancements in understanding of technological and biophysical aspects, that led to changing/fine-tuned ideas about appropriate BXW control strategies, and recently developed interest for social aspects were considered. Therefore, recent publications (from 2015 to 2017) were consulted first and supported identification of older relevant publications. ICT for agriculture related literature was purposively selected from a set of articles retrieved through search queries in Web of Science, Scopus and CAB-abstract. Selection took place based on relevance in relation to the study objectives. Catering for developments in the research field, focus was on recent publications (after 2007). Second, scoping visits to banana production areas in Rwanda's Eastern Province (Kayonza District, 2 areas visited) and Southern Province (Kamonyi District, 1 area visited) took place between January and June 2017, and Burundi's Muyinga District (August 2017, 2 areas visited). Sampling was purposive, based on presence of existing projects from IITA (CIALCA, in Rwanda) and Bioversity International (DFAP-AMASHIGA, in Burundi). Third, aforementioned visits facilitated semi-structured interviews in Rwanda. We purposively selected 2 lead farmers who represented members of a banana innovation platform in Kayonza, covering experiences with BXW, disease incidence in the area, and management strategies. Fourth, four semi-structured group interviews were organized with in total approximately 50 smallholder farmers (mixed male, female, age) in Muyinga, Burundi, focusing on experiences with different control strategies and use of mobile technologies. These interviews asked a regular set of questions used by project staff during routine visits with the addition of questions about mobile technology by the researcher.This section unravels the different dimensions of BXW as a complex problem and identifies different challenges under each of the six system dimensions. Table 1 summarizes for each dimension a problem description and characteristics that are discussed in detail in adjacent paragraphs. We build on findings and interpretations from scientific literature and secondary data, and supplement by input retrieved from field visits and focus group discussions.Biophysical characteristics refer to issues of biological nature that may or may not be controlled. Roughly, edible bananas are divided into four categories, each with their own varieties and purposes: (i) dessert (sweet yellow banana, eaten ripe), (ii) cooking (unripe green bananas for cooking, also known as matoke), (ii) plantain (for cooking and frying), and (iv) juicing (also called beer banana, used for production of local brews) (Vurro et al., 2010). Another means of categorization is in different subgroups: East African highland cooking and brewing cultivars (AAA-EA), exotic brewing, dessert and roasting types (AB, AAA, AAB, ABB) and hybrids (Nkuba et al., 2015). No resistant cultivars have been identified (Tripathi et al., 2009), and the locally popular and widely spread ABB cultivars ('Pisang Awak' or 'Kayinja') are particularly prone to insect vectored transmission of Xcm (BXW) (Nkuba et al., 2015). This cultivar is particularly common in non-commercial, lowmanagement areas further which adds to risk for disease transmission. Susceptibility of banana to BXW and infection risk are intensified by the large and, especially in Rwanda, densely populated banana growing areas in the Great Lakes Region. Different vectors for BXW transmission are: airborne (insects, bats, or nectar sucking and fruit pulp eating birds), contaminated garden tools, infected planting material and browsing animals. Especially airborne vectors are a typical biophysical challenge. The Great Lakes region is specifically suitable for this type of transmission (Mwangi and Nakato, 2009), due tofor exampleinsect favourable climatological conditions and, the aforementioned human population density and pressure on land. The resulting lowered ability to predict and control disease spread clarifies why BXW can suddenly pop-up in previously unaffected areas.BXW symptoms appear as early as 3-4 weeks (Tripathi et al., 2009) and up to 16 months (Ocimati et al., 2013) after infection, depending on conditions. Recent studies confirmed that BXW does not necessarily infect or cause symptoms in all shoots physically attached to an infected (mother) plant in a mat, a condition that is referred to as incomplete systemicity (Ocimati et al., 2015). Symptoms of BXW are progressive yellowing, withering and necrosis of leaves; fruits that rapidly and prematurely ripen and show internal browning; shrivelling/rotting male flowers and bracts, stem and bunches; withering and rotting of the entire plant (Biruma et al., 2007).The lack of BXW resistant cultivars necessitates use of cultural management practices. Survival of the inoculum on tools used in such practices and presence of e.g. free roaming animals (Tinzaara et al., 2013;Blomme et al., 2014) increases the complexity to prevent transmission within fields and over (long) distances. Biophysical characteristics impact chances of BXW resurgence after a disease-free period. Tendency is to reduce rigour after incidence levels reduced significantly, while in fact continuous field monitoring and application of appropriate management practices are needed (Tinzaara et al., 2013). This makes fighting BXW labour intensive both nationally and locally however. Our discussions with farmers showed that farmers indeed tend to reduce monitoring practices when disease pressure is low, especially for fields further away from the homestead. Additionally, farmers critiqued impact of neighbours who fail to appropriately maintain their bananas and thereby increase disease infection risks.Technological characteristics relate to the role technological advances play in solving agricultural issues. For example, technological advances like improved diagnostics, disease management strategies, and generally improved agronomic practices can all reduce risk of major disease outbreaks. Research on BXW led to improved diagnostics and increased knowledge about epidemiology, as well as the development of different technologica options for e.g. diagnostics, management and control. These options however face limitations, e.g. SDSR does not completely remove inoculum and CMU is labour intensive and requires replanting of uprooted mats.Absence of BXW resistant cultivars forms a, partially, technical issue too. Efforts to develop transgenic cultivars with resistance are in an advanced stage, however not yet to the point of marketability. Additionally, transgenic cultivars are (1) only available for some popular cultivars, and (2) not or limitedly acceptable within existing regional bio-control policies. Also, clean planting material is perceived as expensive while its availability is low. Correspondingly, we observed that farmers mostly sourced unscreened material (i.e. suckers/lateral shoots) from own or neighbouring farms, a practice posing the risk of disease spread/(re)introduction (Tinzaara et al., 2013).Socio-cultural challenges are mostly the result of common one-sizefits-all approaches that insufficiently respect needs and interests of diverse groups of farmers. Despite advances made, the epidemiological knowledgeability of extensionists and farmers is still insufficient to address the problem effectively (Tinzaara et al., 2016). For example, our interviews with trained farmers in Burundi revealed that some still struggled with recognizing the disease. Also, not all respondents applied regular or proper tool disinfection mostly due to limited awareness of the most appropriate practice. Incomplete knowhow/understanding and subsequent suboptimal implementation of appropriate control and prevention strategies leads to new and resurging BXW epidemics.Farmers of different gender, age and socio-economic groups pursue different livelihood strategies to ensure food, income and nutrition security, and face different land, labour and other resource constraints (Klapwijk et al., 2014). Information about and access to markets forms an output constraint (Okello et al., 2012). Smallholder, including banana-based, farming systems are thus diverse and complex. For example, van Damme et al. (2013) found three distinct categories of banana producers in the Great Lakes Region based on characteristics such as land-size and productivity. Analysis of the largest group of farmers, those with medium-sized farms, showed additional heterogeneity (e.g. in number of crops and crop management practices) which the authors attributed to varying risk coping strategies. This contributes to system resilience but impedes rapid transitions towards increased productivity (van Damme et al., 2013). Next to typologies based on farming system and livelihood characteristics, it is useful to differentiate according to the willingness of a farmer to invest and change practices. Hence, 'Silver bullet' solutions to production constraints are an illusion given the system's complexity (Giller et al., 2011), and thus technologies and service provisions like awareness campaigns and trainings, need to target the specific challenges and opportunities of vulnerable farmer groups (Blomme et al., 2017;Blomme et al., 2014).Current farmer involvement in the search for innovations with positive cost-benefit ratio is limited (Mwangi and Nakato, 2009). This may impact local awareness about BXW and understanding of disease severity and spread (Tinzaara et al., 2016;Tinzaara et al., 2013) despite the many campaigns aiming to inform farmers. The result is disease transmission through, for example, non-disinfected farm tools or browsing domestic animals (Tripathi et al., 2009). Moreover, information provision about disease transmission, spread and control is ambiguous, inducing beliefs that BXW cannot be controlled effectively (Ndayihanzamaso et al., 2016). The resultant is low adoption of control and prevention technologies, limited collective action, late disease diagnosis, and ultimately poor sustainability of disease control efforts (Ndayihanzamaso et al., 2016).Literature makes note of other persisting mindset issues and, indeed, during our scoping field visits and group interviews many of following challenges came to the surface. Farmers largely base decisions about disease control mechanisms on the economic risk involved, i.e. the estimated cost of controlling BXW needs to outweigh the estimated cost of losing the crop (Gent et al., 2013). In addition, perceptions of control technique effectiveness determine adoption decisions (Blomme et al., 2017). For BXW this mindset proves problematic as initial symptoms are mild with limited impact on plant mat productivity. Farmers are hence hesitant to quickly act as benefits of traditional control mechanisms, such as CMU, have no short-term visibility (Blomme et al., 2017), while the effort required to apply them and the negative tradeoffs are immediately visible. Additionally, the perception exists that individual efforts are ineffective due to the high chance of reinfection if neighbours do not manage their fields (Blomme et al., 2017). Hence, most interventions have a curative control character and are implemented when disease manifestation and crop losses are visible in a large portion of a field.The lack of considering gender issues when designing and disseminating interventions to control BXW is problematic as technology uptake affects and is affected by gender relations (Blomme et al., 2017). For example, gender roles influence success of management practices such as SDSR. Blomme et al. (2017) discuss potential conflicts between male (usually managing the perennial banana) and female (usually managing annual (inter) crops) household members during the application of SDSR. This is the case when SDSR is practiced during the growth period of the intercropped annual crop, which can then be disrupted/damaged by people walking in the field for monitoring or cutting and falling of (especially large) diseased stems. Consequently, annual cropping seasons should be considered when planning SDSR activities, for example by the removal of all visibly diseased plants before onset of the annual cropping season as to match labour demand by men and women, and limit movement in the field during the growth period of annual crops.Economic characteristics relate to the devastating impacts of BXW on household food, nutrition and income security, and the inefficient attempts to prevent and control it. From a scientific point of view, fundamental research is expensive, time consuming and complex. Economic impact and thus return on investment are not fully understood (Biruma et al., 2007), though its impact on food security is likely substantial. Accurate data on the short-and long-term economic impact of BXW are limited and mostly assumption based (Vurro et al., 2010;Nkuba et al., 2015). However, without effective control BXW certainly causes yield losses up to 100% (Nkuba et al., 2015) especially in ABBdominated production systems. The initial control measure to drastically reduce field inoculum levels (CMU) is cumbersome as it is time and labour intensive, and therefore expensive. Also, replanting is inadvisable before 6 months of fallowing (Blomme et al., 2014) and, adding time until first bunch production (approx. 18 months), production losses entail about 24 months. All along households' food, income and nutrition security are disrupted. Understandably, farmer willingness to control BXW with such cost-ineffective techniques is low (Blomme et al., 2017). Additionally, lack of sufficient strategies/timely intervention approaches to prevent large-scale, and severe outbreaks induce unnecessary high control costs both locally, nationally, and regionally. Although SDSR technology is more farmer friendly, it still requires significant time and labour investments, especially in the initial application phase with high incidence levels. Consequently, farmers may perceive reason to opt for more economic coping strategies, e.g. switching other crops. Lastly, a dichotomy exists between farmers with and without off-farm income generating activities. The first has low motivation for continuous investment in banana management as it is not the main source of income. In group interviews this was mentioned as a concern and nuisance. The latter lacks room for financial manoeuvre both for managing the crop and when BXW affects the production while bananas provide an important income source.Institutional challenges relate to the diverse appearances and performance of the institutional environment in the Great Lakes Region that affect ability to implement BXW control and prevention strategies at scale. Appropriate frameworks, guiding policies and byelaws (e.g. quarantine measures) are largely absent (Tinzaara et al., 2013). The institutional situation moreover differs per country (Vurro et al., 2010) complicating potential for and willingness to engage in regional action.Trans-boundary pathogen transmission is difficult to prevent since both banana produce and planting material travel across borders without restraint. Additionally, surveillance methods are ineffective (Tinzaara et al., 2016), due to a common lack of organization, regularity or accuracy. Although Rwanda currently conducts a countrywide BXW mapping exercise, the absence of national and regional strategies and collaborations for continuous surveillance and intervention decreases ability to forecast disease spread. This affects potential for timely disease diagnosis and action, thereby impacting infection rates and crop yields. Interventions hence largely have a curative character due to limited research and developments for BXW prevention, and absence of predictive early-warning systems for BXW spread/ resurgence hotspots (Bouwmeester et al., 2016) to inform governments about targeted investments.Extension services, including those for control and prevention of pests and diseases, in the Great Lakes Region are generally the responsibility of national agricultural research institutes. Research and (extension) service providers have a role in finding solutions that can increase development of and access to agricultural services by all farmers (Poulton et al., 2010). Continuous interaction between farmers and service providers to make extension services more demand-driven, inclusive, and widely available can contribute to increasing benefits from rural development for all farmer categories. However, Government extension systems are often incapable to provide farmers with adequate support. Traditional extension services are usually expensive, ineffective or both, and more efficient extension models are required to improve this situation (Kabunga et al., 2011). Indeed, we observed that Rwanda's Twigire Muhinzi extension programme aims to follow an approach that is demand-drive and participatory. Yet, Cioffo et al. (2016) noted that local actors, like sector and district agronomists, who assumedly are the most important providers of such demand-driven extension services often lack budgetary and decisional autonomy, and instead rely on top-down decisions and actions that may or may not match local realities. Although our primary data did not capture it, the nature of Rwanda's agricultural system tells that this issue may apply here too.An important challenge in the fight against BXW is the lack of healthy planting material. This is both a technological, socio-cultural, and an institutional constraint. The lack of a working formal seedsystem forms an obstacle for reestablishment of uprooted fields. In absence of sufficient high-quality planting material from micro-(tissue culture) or macro-propagation (suckers or suckers-derived plantlets), farmers rely on unregulated sources. The socio-cultural practice to obtain planting material free of cost rather than purchasing it aggregates the issue. Most farmers source suckers from their own fields (60%) or neighbouring fields (30%) (Tripathi et al., 2009) thereby risking obtainment of BXW contaminated planting material (Tinzaara et al., 2013), a habit that was confirmed by farmers during group interviews.Political characteristics result from top-down structures in some of the Great Lakes countries (e.g. Rwanda), and lack of collaboration and coordinated efforts between key stakeholders within and across different levels. Additionally, mobilization and sensitization of stakeholders along the value chain is inadequate (Tinzaara et al., 2016). The result is that current capacities and efforts to out-scale interventions and technologies often have unsatisfying results.Most extension services still have a strong top-down, linear, and technological orientation, and focus on the development, transfer, adoption and diffusion of crop (protection) technologies to farmers (Schut et al., 2014b). This despite the alleged shift of extension services towards a more systemic and participatory approach. A bottleneck is that decisions about fund allocation and priority crops are made by political actors at national level, thereby limiting agenda-setting and bargaining power of local actors.The lack of participatory and demand-driven approaches (Van Asten et al., 2004;Kubiriba et al., 2012;Nkuba et al., 2015) results in poor understanding of local agro-ecological and socio-economic context and related challenges, and has caused low adoption of technologies by farmers and relatively low buy-in of governments in scaling BXW prevention and control measures. The result is low stakeholder awareness about the BXW problem and its impact, with negative impact on interest for participation and investment in collective control and prevention initiatives. This translates in lack of regional mechanisms for surveillance and monitoring, and limited collaboration between stakeholders in the different affected countries (Tinzaara et al., 2013). This on the one hand complicates introduction of suitable regional institutional frameworks, and on the other hand prevents scaling of effective control strategies.The previous section presented an extensive series of findings based on our review of the literature, and interactions with farmers and banana experts. These provide a starting point to analyse how BXW challenges are related to data, information, knowledge, and connectivity constraints, and how ICT and citizen science can play a role in overcoming such BXW challenges (Table 2).Relationships with knowledge and connectivity dominate, while data and information score lower. This confirms not necessarily the absence of data or information, but rather their relevance and reliability, as well as inclusive access form an issue (Bruce, 2016;Walsham, 2017). Regardless of some successful intervention approaches (e.g. through the use of Farmer Field Schools in Uganda (Tinzaara et al., 2016;Kubiriba et al., 2012)), communication related problems are present for BXW. Concerning data, we see limitations in the amount of reliable and up-to-date data about disease diffusion patterns, severity of outbreaks, and effect of control measures, as well as socio-economic and socio-cultural data that could feed into farmer decision-making tools and an early warning system. Development of informed policies and prevention strategies is also hindered by the absence of large-scale accurate data. Another data problem is the missing link between data collection and action-oriented research. The diversity of stakeholders causes two problems that we link to information. Firstly, the use of onesize-fits all approaches results in a lack of actionable information, customized to the perceptions, practices, and resources of diverse target groups. Secondly, available information is not up-to-date (e.g. about current disease incidence) nor adapted to the local context (e.g. on use of preferred cultural management practices), fails to link technological and socio-economic data, and therefore either inaccessible or nonuseful for various target groups. Knowledge problems include gaps in understanding of long-and short-term disease impact, and poor awareness of both the problem and suitable solutions for BXW by farmers and extension agents, causing negligence to take timely action. Additionally, both horizontal (between farmers, and between extension agents) and vertical (across value chain, and across innovation system) exchange of information that is translatable into actionable knowledge is limited. Absence of connections and collaborations between stakeholders at all levels is a cross-cutting problem that prevents effective exchange of data, information, and knowledge.5.2. The potential of citizen science and ICT-based tools for overcoming data-, information, knowledge-and connectivity-related BXW challenges Based on our findings we have developed four different intervention pathways: (1) data for prevention of new outbreaks, (2) information for BXW control, (3) knowledge for enhanced capacity to act timely and influence decision making and, (4) connectivity for connective action. These pathways build on the impression that citizen science and ICT enabled collection of data, exchange of information and knowledge, and stakeholder connectivity could positively contribute to addressing BXW. In summary, large scale data from citizen science would support timely diagnosis of new and recurrent/re-emerging (i.e. resurgence) disease outbreaks. Information exchanged through a digital platform could help farmers and extensionists to make decisions about actionable control strategies. Knowledge developed by engaged stakeholders can enhance capacity to act timely and increase dialogue. Lastly, connectivity between stakeholders would allow building of self-organized networks.Current efforts to manage BXW are mostly targeting control of the disease after it has been diagnosed in a farm or area. Adoption of preventive measures such as male bud removal, and tool sterilisation has been limited. More successful results have been obtained by taskforces that surveyed an area for disease outbreaks and enforced rigorous action when disease was diagnosed. However, such measures meet farmer reluctance for impracticability (Blomme et al., 2014) and are reported as too costly to be sustainable for smallholders (Tushemereiwe et al., 2006). Yet, the need for monitoring does not end with the control of BXW in a region given the high risk of resurgence and continuation of surveillance activities is critical. Thus, there is need for cost-efficient and effective interventions that enhance the ability to identify disease outbreaks early on thereby reducing necessity to control severe outbreaks in a late(r) stage. A system in which citizen science and ICT tools are used to crowd-source environmental data (e.g. about disease spread, incidence and severity), and that links existing (scientific) data with field level observations from farmers and extension service providers could be helpful here, possibly combined with historical and real-time data from satellite images or collected by drones. In such a system, farmers would play a leading role, sharing data (e.g. on location, BXW incidence and severity) that can support real-time monitoring and prediction of disease spread and incidence that would then provide decision support to farmers about accurate management strategies, to extensionists about hotspots for monitoring and training, and governments about where to focus investments.Citizen science and ICT tools can support better access to information and in a far timelier manner, as well as increase meaningfulness and interpretability of information. This can positively affect farmer decision-making, and in turn be a first step towards improved technology adoption rates, more sustainable disease control, and increased prevention. Farmers base decisions on local conditions, and this needs to be considered when providing farmers with decision support (Wood et al., 2014). For example, enforcing the practice of CMU to control BXW spread in a region where bananas are mostly grown as a subsistence crop resulted in farmers rejecting/poorly adopting the practice due to its expensive and cumbersome nature (Blomme et al., 2014;Tushemereiwe et al., 2006). Albeit from a scientific perspective CMU may be the preferred technology for most effective disease eradication (or reduction in overall field inoculum level), technologies like SDSR could be more appropriate in a specific farming context and therefore better meet farmer needs and demands resulting in better uptake and impact. Digital innovations may support gathering and assessing appropriate information and control strategies for a specific farmer in a specific locality. For example, app or SMS based services could be combined with more conventional forms of communication used in the banana system to gather, process, and exchange information relevant to individual farmers or farmer communities. Experiments with the use of mobile phones for multiway interaction between science and practice for the control of BXW in Uganda showed opportunities for more costeffective disease control and surveillance in the region (Nakato et al., 2016). This is promising given the lack of strong national and regional surveillance and monitoring mechanisms necessary for management of BXW (Tinzaara et al., 2014). Other examples of existing initiatives that provide farmers and extensionists with a tool for rapid diagnostics and control advice on crop pests and disease diagnosis are PEAT's Plantix and Penn State University's PlantVillage. Examples of crop specific tools are Africa Rice's Rice Advice, and ICAR-National Rice Research Institutes' RiceXpert. Thus, we observe opportunities tofor exampleprovide decision-support on suitable BXW control strategies to different groups of farmers, including those who normally have difficulties to access information, such as women. This could include sensitizing farmers about risks of locally sourced plant material or, providing information about locally available clean seed resources. Bringing together all information needed for informed decision-making enhances the reliability and consistency of that information for farmers or other end-users.Knowledge is critical for addressing complex problems as they are intertwined with peoples' actions and processes of change (Leeuwis and van den Ban, 2004). Not knowledge about BXW as such is key, but rather knowledge that can enhance the capacity of stakeholders in terms of understanding, defining and strategizing the broad range of existing and new challenges for addressing BXW. This also builds on stakeholder perceptions and beliefs about effective BXW management (Blomme et al., 2017;Blomme et al., 2014).However, for knowledge to become actionable it needs to be interpretable, something difficult to achieve with one-size-fits-all knowledge. ICT and citizen science could support here, integrating local and scientific knowledge and experiences. A suitable intervention would be the introduction of a digital platform (based on existing digital technologies and platforms such as WhatsApp, SMS, and Unstructured Simplified Service Data (USSD)) to exchange data, information, knowledge and expertise. Integration with a wide variety of digital technologies and platforms makes the platform inclusive for a larger variety of stakeholders. This way ICT and citizen science can enhance availability, accessibility, accuracy, and actionability of the knowledge and knowhow needed to make informed decisions at individual, household and institutional levels by assembling existing knowledge and translating it into new knowledge that is adjusted to the needs and context of its user. Additionally, it allows for collection of scientific and practical evidence of BXW's spread and impact (e.g. data on crop and economic losses) that can convince policy makers to engage in national and regional action.Although newer management practices such as SDSR make individual level control of BXW very effective under certain conditions (e.g. at highland sites with AAA-EA type bananas), stakeholder collaboration and connectivity remain an important bottleneck when aiming for BXW prevention rather than control. General absence of wellfunctioning networks providing assistance in monitoring, surveying and controlling crop diseases in developing countries results in incomplete data and provides a hurdle to effective disease control and prevention (Vurro et al., 2010). Hence, there is a need for scientists and farmers to collaborate and turn available information into relevant, actionable farming knowledge (Bruce, 2016). This especially for knowledge-intensive agricultural problems, like BXW, that require intensive training and extension efforts and close collaboration between trainers and learners (Kabunga et al., 2011).Experimentation with new forms of social mechanisms and exchange of contextualized information through ICT and citizen science provides an entry-point for engaging farmers in research and development activities, creating opportunities for targeted, multi-way, multilevel interaction. Citizen science and ICT can enhance such multi-way information exchange by collecting the feedback from farmers to the research community that can shape new research questions and improve service delivery to farmers (Kindred, 2015;Phillipson et al., 2012). Additionally, ICT provides opportunities for more inclusive services that benefit a larger number and broader variety of stakeholders (Bruce, 2016), and can support improved understanding and communication about best-bet practices according to science, and bestfit practices following farmers' context. Already some banana technologies stem from such a participatory, collective approach (e.g. SDSR and cost-effective macro-propagation). Although face-to-face interactions with experts will still be needed, citizen science and ICT can enable, complement, or accelerate these approaches.This paper contributes to a deeper understanding about BXW in the Great Lakes Region by unravelling this complex agricultural problem. We found that the BXW epidemic/constraint is a resultant of numerous challenges across various system dimensions and is not only caused by biophysical and technological challenges. Identified challenges sequentially link with data, information, knowledge, and stakeholder connectivity challenges. This finding has largely been neglected in studies and interventions this far, potentially contributing to meagre results of efforts to control existing and prevent new or recurrent disease outbreaks. Literature on ICT and citizen science innovations suggests that these could potentially be put to effective deployment for addressing such information and communication related challenges. Related to this we identified four action pathways: Citizen science and ICT innovations based on these pathways are likely more cost-efficient and have an ability to reach larger groups of farmers than current extension services and interventions for disease management. However, ICTs nor citizen science alone will offer the panacea to a longstanding agricultural problem like BXW. Alternatively, they should be considered useful new modalities that support tackling such problems. We recommend that research and development efforts to address BXW in the Great Lakes Region should not primarily focus on the development of new tools and applications. Instead the focus should be on the identification of best-fit options for combining face-to-face interactions with ICT and citizen science-based innovations for problem solving. ","tokenCount":"8854"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4d9686e06ee6e73157898f0fb1464368","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/476a8ef9-372f-4ae2-a1c6-a2f34752baf3/retrieve","id":"-1575281176"},"keywords":["CSIRO","IRD","CIRAD","ICARDA","Bioversity International and ILRI"],"sieverID":"a34155ae-8e37-423b-b42d-8de331174a16","pagecount":"82","content":"and various Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), national agricultural research systems (NARS) and private sector partners. This consortium strives to support beneficiaries in 13 priority countries in South Asia (SA) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with the mission of improving rural livelihoods and nutrition by prioritizing demand-driven innovations to increase production and market opportunities along value chains.The CRP-GLDC Flagship Program 1 aims to enhance the impacts of research through improved targeting and priority setting. Gender-sensitive prioritization of varietal attributes in target countries defined the end-user preferred traits that should be targeted by breeders. The work on rural aspirations generated evidence on technology targeting and scaling efforts. While the gender and youth research focused on the integration of youth and the effects of migration on feminization of agriculture, studies on adoption and impact generated evidence of progress towards the SLO targets.The Flagship Program 3 focused on variability among pearl millet blast isolates, scaling up of biocontrol agents against pests and diseases, and microorganisms for plant growth promotion. Sustainable intensification and diversification of integrated cropping systems and high-yielding and early maturing soybean and cowpea genotypes were identified. Sustainability of farming systems at farm and household levels, modelling and development of decision support tools, resilience of the households, diversity of diet and capacity strengthening of key stakeholders were key areas of focus.The Flagship Program 4 contributed to cultivars releases that combine traits related to production, markets and consumers that contribute to nutritional security, climate resilience, driving new value chains, promoting employment opportunities among youth and women, and contributing to environmental sustainability. For example, partnership with the national programs resulted in the commercialization of 30 GLDC crop cultivars including chickpea (10), lentil (5), groundnut (5), sorghum (2), pearl millet (5), soybean (1) and finger millet (2) in Africa (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Kenya) and Asia (India). These include first chickpea varieties released by ICRISAT in Malawi with yield potential of 3 t per ha to help crop diversification, besides machine harvestable chickpea in Ethiopia and India with resistance to wilt, drought tolerance and early maturity. The Product Profiles of the GLDC crops were designed and/or revised through stakeholder consultations and feedback from Crop Network Groups and value chain studies. As a part of breeding modernization, ICRISAT established automated seed processing, data collection and seed inventory, besides RapidGen facilities for rapid generation advancement of its crops.The Flagship Program 5 used crop wild relatives to address priority traits, released and advanced molecular breeding products in groundnut, pearl millet, and chickpea. The deployment of markers including trait-linked Single nucleotide polymorphisms, quality control (QC) and mid-density panels, and protocols for rapid generation advancement in GLDC crop breeding programs were achieved. New tools and breeding technologies such as mutant populations, genome editing, and genetic engineering have provided new approaches for addressing intractable traits such as striga resistance in sorghum and rancidity in pearl millet at ICRISAT. Under the Flagship Program 6, 2.8 million (M) households (58.5% represented by women) accessed various technologies for varieties, integrated crop management and labor saving technologies, representing a 10.3% achievement above the annual target of 2.5 M. CIAT released twenty-five new bean varieties including 16 stress tolerant and 8 high iron beans (HIB), and produced 5,905.7 t seed for partners. The number of people accessing HIB varieties increased by 49% in 2020 compared to 2019.In Ethiopia, beans provide essential nutrition and income to nearly 4 M smallholder farmers. The \"White gold\" beans are white pea beans, nutrient-rich and market-oriented baking types that when exported, fetch farmers three times more income than crops such as maize. With favorable traits that enable farmers to survive climate and market shocks while also feeding their families, these improved beans have now been adopted by approximately 2.5 M farmers, covering up to 65% of the total national bean area. Together with improved crop management practices, these varieties significantly increased yields from an average of 0.5 t/ha in 2004 to 1.6 t/ha in 2016. For farmers, this has translated to increases in food and other important expenditures by as much as US$ 217 per person per year (PPP).The two high oleic groundnut varieties Girnar 4 (ICGV 15083) and Girnar 5 (ICGV 15090) are among the 17 biofortified varieties of eight crops that the Indian Prime Minister dedicated to India during the 75th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on October 15, 2020. These varieties contain about 80% oleic acid, making them a healthier choice, and with the longer shelf life desired by the confectionary industry. The high oleic varieties are currently being tested in Myanmar and Bangladesh for release. Further, the government of Telangana state in India has committed its support and began engaging in seed production of high oleic varieties by the public sector Telangana State Seed Development Corporation Ltd (TSSDC) to promote the high oleic value chain in India. Private seed businesses (like Hindustan Insecticides Limited -HIL) have taken up seed production of these varieties.The fast-track land reforms of 2000 in Zimbabwe ignited a reduction in bean production as largescale commercial farming gave way to small scale cropping. Hence, a project was launched in 2015 aimed at reviving bean production and productivity through the dissemination of four high-yielding resilient bean varieties. These had reached 36% more farming households by 2019. The adopting households now harvest 347 kg more beans per hectare, thereby enabling them to consume 3.6 kg more beans PPP.The CRP-GLDC is on track to achieve the key SLO targets such as the adoption of improved varieties, increased yields and incomes and poverty reduction. A systematic review and synthesis of adoption studies showed that over 21.9 M smallholder farmers adopted improved varieties of GLDC with an aggregated planted area of over 20.5 M ha in the target countries (Woldeyohanes et al. 2020). In Bangladesh, the adoption of lentil varieties increased yields by 40% (580 kg/ha) and gross margins by 47% (US$ 501/ha), assisting an estimated 657,600 people to exit poverty. While in Nigeria, the adoption of improved groundnut varieties helped an estimated 1.5 M people exit poverty (Melesse et al. 2020), the adoption of improved chickpea varieties in Ethiopia led to a 58.5% increase in yields and 5% increase in household dietary diversity (Murendo et al. 2020).Over 18,000 adult parasitoids, Therophilus javanus have been released in Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria, and the technology validated for the deployment in West Africa. In Southern Africa, our team was able to reach 115,206 households, 309,558 farmers including 112,675 women applying improved technologies on 440,743 ha. A comprehensive framework was developed and piloted for assessment of farming systems sustainability and training of stakeholders. A Target Population of Environments approach laid the ground for modern geography-specific crop improvement methodologies across the CGIAR and partner institutions.New varieties, allied innovations and responsive national breeding systems, expanded, resilient, and inclusive production, value chain, trading, and consumption of nutritious grain legumes and dryland cereals contributed to Program level outcomes. Several firsts included the release of the chickpea cultivars in Malawi, dual-purpose pearl millet hybrid in Burkina Faso, chickpea varieties with yield potential of 3 t per ha by ICRISAT to help crop diversification in Malawi, besides machine harvestable chickpea having resistance to wilt, drought tolerance and early maturity in Ethiopia and India. The first high oleic groundnut varieties were dedicated by the Indian Prime Minister to the nation during 75th anniversary of FAO. Overall, thirty GLDC cultivars were released by ICRISAT, ICARDA and IITA, including lentil (5), groundnut (5), chickpea (10), sorghum (2), pearl millet (5), soybean (1) and finger millet (2) in Africa (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Kenya) and Asia (India). GLDC crop product profiles were designed and/or revised through stakeholder consultations, feedback from Crop Network Groups and value chain studies. The improved/new machinery at IITA, ICARDA and ICRISAT improved the efficiency of field trials and, thereby increased the heritability. As a part of breeding modernization, ICRISAT established automated seed processing, data collection and seed inventory, besides RapidGen facilities for rapid generation advancement of its crops.Significant progress has been made in trait discovery, marker applications and the release of molecular-assisted breeding products. Pre-breeding activities in soybean were on the introduction of 63 lines sourced from the Colombian private sector; four lines performed well both under normal and reduced P application. In chickpea, introgression lines with wild relatives showed high levels of Botrytis grey mold resistance and good agronomic performance. The characterization and advancement of transgenic events with stacked Bt genes for resistance to Helicoverpa armigera in pigeonpea, and on reducing/eliminating aflatoxins using Host-Induced Gene Silencing in groundnut continued at ICRISAT with generation advancements. Using CRISPR the primary strigolactone pathway genes were targeted in sorghum for durable pre-germination resistance. Three high oleic molecular breeding lines in groundnut in India and three chickpea molecular breeding lines (2 in India, 1 in Ethiopia) and several other molecular breeding lines were advanced by ICRISAT in groundnut, chickpea and pearl millet. The deployment of molecular markers in routine breeding programs in most crops resulted in more than 2.5 M marker data points generated so far at HTPG. Assays were developed for a small set of unique and polymorphic SNPs and initial validation of QC panels for breeding application in groundnut, pearl millet, sorghum, pigeonpea and chickpea. Besides, 10 trait-linked SNP panels for breeder preferred traits in sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea, finger millet, soybean and cowpea were also validated for forward breeding. The selection of SNPs for mid-density panel were achieved in sorghum, pigeonpea and groundnut that would significantly support genomic selection and genomics-assisted breeding efforts. RapidGen methodologies for accelerated breeding cycles (4 to 6 per year) in cowpea were developed using 10 genotypes.PABRA promoted varieties and integrated crop management technologies benefited 2.8 million households (10.3% above the target). High Iron Bean varieties were integrated in the COVID-19 emergency plan in Kenya to establish 1 M kitchen gardens with high yielding climbing beans. Private seed entrepreneurs distributed certified, and quality declared seed (5,905.7 ton) of new biofortified varieties supported by better messaging in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Zimbabwe. Gender and youth empowerment strategies for entrepreneurship and value addition were explored through marketing of new bean varieties and bean-based food products meeting consumer and industry demands. Enhanced root penetration for efficient use of inputs was researched with a novel phenotyping tool to estimate the size of root systems, based on capacitance and an electrical field (Root Capitance Potential). Parental lines derived from the tertiary gene pool improved crop synchronization, grain filling under drought, plant habit as well as higher iron. Value of the tertiary gene pool for the improvement of grain mineral concentration and the agronomic traits, and genetic mapping for agronomic traits in a MAGIC population of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) under drought conditions and Improving African bean productivity in a changing global environment were established. For reducing yield losses, including those caused by climate change, Mesoamerican genes were introgressed into Andean types for disease and heat resistance, resulting in heat tolerant HTA lines. Genetic gains were enhanced on station and on farm with bean varieties with greater yield potential. Multi-site nurseries of 200 lines were established with at least five partners in Africa and over 300 lines were distributed in Latin America and the Caribbean.FP1: http://gldc.cgiar.org/progress-in-fp1-priority-setting-and-impact-acceleration-2020/ FP3: http://gldc.cgiar.org/progress-in-fp3-integrated-farm-and-household-management-2020/ FP4: http://gldc.cgiar.org/progress-in-fp4-variety-and-hybrid-development-2020/ FP5: http://gldc.cgiar.org/progress-in-fp5-pre-breeding-and-trait-discovery-2020/ FP6: http://gldc.cgiar.org/progress-in-fp6-common-bean-for-markets-and-nutrition-2020/A news article published in collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) outlines the use of recovery funds in a way that improves the African food system towards better outcomes. A study was conducted to assess the awareness and perception about the pandemic, the coping mechanisms and the type of disruptions in the production systems of groundnut value actors in Ghana. Besides, it also looked at its effects on household agricultural production, marketing, household consumption and nutrition outcomes. This study generally showed that while awareness about the pandemic was very high among groundnut value chain actors, the percentage of actors who were aware about the preventive measures and their perception of the pandemic-related disruptions to the groundnut supply chain differed across the actors. This emphasized the need for education on the preventive measures in order to contain the spread of COVID-19 which may reduce labor availability and crop productivity.While the pandemic delayed some activities that will be accomplished by mid-year, others had to be cancelled/postponed due to travel restrictions/lockdown (e.g., collection of new isolates of pearl millet downy mildew and blast pathogens from farmers' fields, exchange visits for researchers/technicians, training sessions and field days. However, the use of radio messages to support farmers across project locations on extension advisories was explored. Extension agents in the farming communities as well as lead farmers were provided important information through phone calls and messages to convey to farmers. Where possible, online meetings were conducted to discuss issues and disseminate information. We also produced quick assessments to understand the effects of COVID-19-induced lockdowns on agricultural systems and rural livelihoods in South Asia that suggested context-specific policy responses at different levels from household to regional. A couple of suggested strategies like promoting local agri-food systems, mapping skills and identifying alternative deployment of returnee migrants to rural areas and the cautious easing of restrictions to enable farm harvest and movement of food commodities were useful in building government responses to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 in India. In Mali, farmers had to reduce the net sown area under maize and cotton due to the non-availability of markets because of the pandemic-related restrictions.In FP4, there have been delays owing to COVID-19, particularly in variety releases, conducting trials and seed chain and capacity building activities. Improved phenotyping facilities are required for diseases, and for assessing nutrient-use efficiency. Precision experimental field plots need improvement to enhance the efficiency of trialing.No research in FP5 was relevant to or was seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.During the pandemic situation, PABRA used digital platforms to communicate with partner organizations and farmers and field extension activities were sustained by information disseminated through WhatsApp platform, radio and TV stations (Capitalizing on digital tools to sustain bean production, trade and consumption amidst COVID-19 -(pabra-africa.org). Alongside these media channels, extension teams carried out field work adhering to the health guidelines laid down in each country, including social distancing/minimizing physical contact, use of facial masks, handwashing/hygiene, among others. PABRA continued to expand the MasterCard Farmer Network (MFN) in Uganda and Tanzania while complying with standard operational procedures, using virtual meetings to keep close interactions with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and provide technical backstopping as they adapted to fluctuations in the bean trade locally and regionally. PABRA sensitized farmers, consumers and processors on the nutrition and health benefits of beans to encourage more production and consumption during COVID-19. The nutritional and health benefits of beans consumed in different ways was explained through media and other digital platforms. In Kenya, PABRA leveraged Global Affairs Canada (GAC) efforts and partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives to contribute to the National Action Plan aimed at tackling food crisis accelerated by the impact of COVID-19. Under a new initiative officially launched in September 2020 in Kenya, three High Iron Beans (HIB) varieties were integrated in the emergency plan to establish one million kitchen gardens to enhance household nutrition.In FP1, the urban food systems work was revisited to consider the COVID-19 pandemic situation. In FP3, the joint development of a phenotyping facility by ICRISAT and CIMMYT was instrumental in screening sorghum and Maize lines, respectively for the Fall Armyworm (FAW) and helped in strengthening collaboration with the CRP-MAIZE. The household and farming systems level studies for agricultural sustainable intensification were extended to make quick assessments to understand the effects of COVID-19 in India. In FP4, modernizing GLDC crop breeding was identified as a priority to realize enhanced rate of genetic gain where additional activities were supported. A new investment was made in Africa to improve the breeding and testing processes, and operational efficiency across five GLDC crops, supported by the AVISA grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the Crops to End Hunger (CtEH) initiative. In FP5, application of markers in breeding programs were expanded on trait-linked SNPs, QC SNPs and mid-density SNP panels. Rapid generation advancement protocols were extended to cowpea and lentil. The focus on high priority and urgent traits such as blast in pearl millet was increased. In FP6, a new technical team supported the deployment of climate information services in Burundi, Eswatini, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.In FP3, the collection of new isolates of pearl millet downy mildew and blast pathogens from farmers' fields, exchange visits and field work on assessment of whole farm model decision support could not be done at village/farm levels. GIS-based work to quantify landscape-scale indicators was carried over to 2021. In FP5, based on the mid-term CRP reviews in 2019, research areas such as native genetic and discovery for pod borer and herbicide tolerance activities using crop wild relatives (CWR) were deprioritized.The urban food systems work under CoA1.2 has been adjusted to consider implications due to COVID-19. In FP5, considering the urgent need for developing QC and mid-density SNP panels in GLDC crops, analysis of existing sequence data in pearl millet, sorghum, pigeonpea, finger millet, chickpea and groundnut was enhanced to identify unique polymorphic SNPs to be used as QC panels that were validated in global lines of groundnut and sorghum. For deploying Genomic Selection, the work on developing mid-density panel was initiated on similar lines as QC with the EiB platform. Panels for sorghum, groundnut and pigeonpea with ~5000 SNPs each were provided to EiB for assay development. In FP6, instead of a physical training, a digital training was done due to the COVID-19 pandemic.In 2020, CRP-GLDC produced 121 peer-reviewed journal articles, of which 90% were International Scientific Indexing (ISI) and 80% were open access. This publication category includes over 700 knowledge products with reporting relevance to CRP-GLDC, including major types of reports, working papers, data and news items. Of these, 94% have Altmetric scores, and the highest engagements come from Mendeley readership and engagements via Twitter. Ignoring internal reports and other materials with access restrictions, the Altmetric statistics for GLDC materials can be augmented by aggressive promotion of knowledge products mature for public use, such as news items, journal articles and blogs via outlets with large potential traffic like Facebook and Twitter.The top 10 knowledge products with highest Altmetric scores ranging from 39.00 to 134.03 were all journal articles, mostly published by open access journals. For instance, Lekha et al. (2020) feature an innovative way to address the cost and limitations of current pigeonpea hybrid breeding with a two-line hybrid system that makes seed production simpler. By integrating transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics, the molecular mechanism underpinning fertility transition responses was discovered, thereby providing a process-oriented hybrid breeding framework for pigeonpea. In a multi-perspective article based on experiences in GLDC operating regions in SA, ESA and WCA, Ojiewo et al. ( 2020) explain the delivery of genetic gains in farmers' fields, i.e., seed systems research to bridge the gap between trait discovery, deployment and delivery through innovative partnerships and action learning. This article presents advances in groundnut research for development from crop production and stress management to food and nutrition value and aflatoxin. LaRue et al. (2020) delve into aspirations to understand the direction of rural development in order to avoid randomly applying interventions. Aspirations among youth are key to understanding the trajectory of rural farming in the future and informing current policies to take them into account.In 2020, CRP-GLDC made investments to upgrade the Publications page on the CRP-GLDC server where three repositories (MELSpace, ICRISAT OAR and CGSpace) were linked to show knowledge products in one place. This exercise improved the harvest rate and usability of the page.Gender integration and social inclusion approaches involving inclusive and equitable participation in agricultural research and technology development besides benefit sharing were applied to broad areas of research and activity themes. Studies on 'Youth realities, aspirations, and opportunity structures in agriculture' resulted in a youth strategy paper that highlighted the understanding of context-specific definitions of 'youth' so that young people are not excluded from programs. The findings show that while there were opportunity structures such as diverse agro-climatic conditions, high demand for agricultural products both in domestic and international markets, increased availability of improved varieties and a digital revolution for technology and information diffusion that could support meeting some of the identified potential and aspirations of youth, there are still critical areas of deficit. Local norms handicap female youth, giving males more access to and benefit from available opportunities. Unlocking the potential of female and male youth in dryland areas requires focusing on three pillars: (i) Inclusive participation, where both male and female youth are targeted in consideration of their needs and realities, (ii) Equity, where female and male youth are enabled to access and use resources and opportunities relevant to agricultural transformation, and (iii) Facilitating youth agency by providing them a conducive environment (social, economic and supportive policies) to exercise their potential as active agents of change. The strategy concluded that socio-cultural, economic and technical barriers to youth engagement in agriculture need to be addressed through cultural transformation and rebranding of agriculture to spur their participation.Two studies conducted by ICARDA and ICRISAT contributed to efforts on gender integration in the breeding program. For example, the lentil breeding program has released a new variety in Ethiopia that accounts for less shattering to reduce drudgery for women. The result of the trait preference studies conducted by ICRISAT in three countries in WCA contributed to the development of crop market-driven, gender-responsive product profiles where women and men faced similar production constraints, they shared similar varietal trait preferences, whereas differences were apparent with variations in the conditions of production and roles or responsibilities of male and female producers.Intensive outmigration in dryland areas affects women's roles in agriculture and related activities, with broader implications for productivity and gender equity. Access to assets by women in rural communities, while being a major challenge is also a pathway to empowerment. The study on effects of men's outmigration on women's roles in agriculture, and it wider impacts in the context of dry areas (rangeland, irrigated production and rainfed) revealed that women are carrying out more labour, both on and off farms. The feminization of agrarian labour may reduce women's earnings to the detriment of household incomes, making them more susceptible to economic, social, and cultural marginalization. This highlights the importance of developing interventions specially tailored to mitigate the negative effects on women while protecting them by leveraging the positive effects of feminization of agricultural labour. The study recommends developing interventions targeted at structural changes; not just on those at the individual and household levels, that might offer only a limited change in women's well-being. Using data from the Village Dynamics Studies in South Asia (VDSA), a survey was conducted to understand women's access to and control over assets in the semi-arid tropics of India. The data provides evidence that the gender asset gap is a good indicator to track progress on gender equality and women's empowerment. However, there is no such evidence on ownership and control of assets disaggregated by gender (Rustagi and Menon 2011; see also Padmaja and Bantilan (2015). Preliminary analysis of such data reveal that women rarely have sole ownership of agricultural land or have no awareness of their land rights. Gender-disaggregated asset data facilitates gender equality and women's empowerment through improved control over assets, various processes of formalisation, land titling, state-supported enterprise development, community participation, formation of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and the provision of micro credit to women.Mainstreaming gender awareness and contributions along the bean value chain continues through a series of activities. PABRA partners implemented bean production activities in Eastern Uganda in collaboration with the Eastern Agricultural Development Company (EADC), a women-led social enterprise, due to the low participation and involvement of women in the EADC platforms. The starting point was to train women as model farmers to promote climate-smart technologies, including NAROBEAN-1, a climate-resilient HIB variety. Between April and September 2020, 6,160 (3,265 women) model farmers were integrated as change agents in their communities. The cumulative number of trained change agents was 19,213 (42.4%; 8,143 women) model farmers across PABRA members.Opportunities should intentionally be planned with and extended to female and male youth groups from different social spectra. Combining elements of the 'developmental' and 'opportunity structure' approaches, we suggest a dynamic process in aspiration formation, recognizing that aspirations develop within a set of constraints that impact gender stereotypes and personal perceptions. The following two major studies were carried out in WCA and ESA:1. The studies in ESA were conducted in the drylands of Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania using common focus group discussions, key informant interviews and life history interview guides. Interestingly, the local communities define 'youth' differently, where age may not be considered as a strict criterion. Marriage, leaving school and certain traditional rites of passage, for example, may mark a transition to adulthood, even for adolescents. Contrary to prevailing stereotypes, many young people want to stay in the countryside and work in agriculture and consider it a fallback option. Female youth are discriminated against in various ways since land inheritance is transacted mainly through the boy child or through marriage; unmarried females tend not to inherit land. Teenage girls who are married or are mothers tend to see themselves as adults, as do their communities which often keep young mothers from taking advantage of youth programs. Barriers to youth involvement in agriculture for both males and females include the lack of land, capital, extension services and information about modern technologies. While the strategy paper calls for context-specific local definitions of 'youth', other recommended interventions include technical, business and market training, besides providing convenient finance credit or grants (e.g., interest-free and without collateral). Youth should also have access to profitable technologies such as drought-resistant, fast maturing grain and legume varieties, besides help in establishing enterprises based not just on farming, but also on post-harvest transformation, transportation and marketing.2. Youth studies in WCA were conducted on 'Transforming and harnessing the potential of rural youth in agri-food value chains in Mali and Nigeria' that identified, characterized and mapped the opportunities and segments of agri-food value chains for youth. Findings show that 75.76% of youth are mainly engaged in the production segment of agri-food value chains. Processing was observed to be the segment where majority of female youth were engaged, but mostly using manual traditional food processing methods. The study concludes that active involvement of youth in all the agri-food value chains is necessary for the sustainability of agriculture. To make the production segment more vibrant and attractive to youth, policies should be designed to support and incentivize their full participation in all segments. The study recommends interventions in infrastructure, regulations and specific training in agricultural practices targeted at harnessing their full potential, so that no one is left behind.FP6 has been building the capacity of young farmers in seed production, mechanization and market linkages in collaboration with TARI, Maruku. For example, Pastory Tarasisi, a recipient of the training along with four youths, is addressing issues of seed availability and accessibility in his ward in Missenyi District in Tanzania where 1,250 farming households were reached with quality seeds. He also offered threshing services to 50 farming households in eight villages, from which he earned Tsh. 1.6 million (approximately US$ 690) in just six months. Another example of engaging Kenyan youth in bean business to boost income is that of Florence Malemba, an extension officer who is also the focal point for bean growers. In 2020, with the support of certified Nyota seed, she provided training to other youth interested in agriculture and showcased how it was possible to make money and feed from farming.The Sustainable intensification systems with diversified crop mixes, cropping patterns and sequences that capitalize on synergies between and among crops and systems were developed. Technologies that increase resilience and enhanced resource use efficiency in the systems are being promoted to increase productivity on smallholder farms. In collaboration with the CRP-CCAFS, a framework to quantify vulnerability and resilience was developed by accounting for a smallholder household's ability to adapt and respond to climatic risk. A suite of systems modelling tools/framework for codesigning resilient farming systems such as farm household typologies, whole farm system model as decision support and farming systems sustainability assessment framework were tested and validated. The capacity of extension systems and NARS partners in India and Niger to use these tools was strengthened. Crop modelling tools developed to identify G×E×M options to enhance resilience and productivity of sorghum in India enabled target stakeholders to understand spatial variability.FP6 continued work to address drought tolerance where replication data for bean experimental lines was selected for tolerance to drought, high temperatures, low P and high aluminium in the soil and high Fe/Zn grain content. Journal articles were published on genetic mapping for agronomic traits in a MAGIC population of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) under drought conditions and Improving African bean productivity in a changing global environment.Climate change remains at the core of the SDC project where work continues on profiling promising and acceptable Integrated Crop Management (ICM) technologies for bean production that address improving production and productivity and adapting to climate change.Since climate variability is negatively impacting production, PABRA has developed a Digital Agro Climate Advisory (DACA) to help bean farmers manage risks associated with climate shocks through climate information and advisories. During 2020, guidance and approval were solicited from the Independent Advisory Committee (IAC) which includes seven non-CGIAR members and five ex-officio CGIAR members, including the Director General of the lead center. Two meetings of the IAC were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on 15 June and 15-16 October 2020. The second meeting also included an interactive review session with the FP leaders and cross-cutting theme leaders. Currently, there is a vacancy on the IAC due to the resignation of a member, which will be discussed in the next IAC meeting in the first half of 2021.The Director of CRP-GLDC, who was also the Deputy Director General for Research at ICRISAT, reports to the Director General of ICRISAT and chairs the Research Management Committee (RMC), where the responsibility of implementing the CRP-GLDC rests. The RMC has 14 members, including four FP Leaders, a Senior Gender Scientist, three cross-cutting theme leaders, three Center Focal Points and the CRP-GLDC Director. The RMC is primarily responsible for the establishment, execution and monitoring of the CRP research portfolio, strategy, work plans and annual budgets. In 2020, five meetings of the RMC were held virtually due to the pandemic. Overall, FP management is the responsibility of the FP leaders who are supported by the CoA leaders of the respective Flagships.The FP leaders devote at least 40% of their time on the CRP-GLDC's operational activities, funded from W1 and W2, and supported by W3 and bilateral projects. These CRP leadership positions combine management responsibilities with active research leadership. Collaborative activities with the CRP-PIM contributed to the draft CGIAR Foresight Report which included knowledge-sharing and joint scientific products through the established of a community of practice on foresight. A joint publication resulted from collaborations with FTA and one on mainstreaming orphan crops based on a collaboration with FTA and the CRP-A4NH. Partnership with EiB helped in the development of gender-responsive product profiles. With the CRP-RTB, the focus was on the analysis of MEL-based social networks aimed at identifying CRP-GLDC actions that have contributed towards knowledge products and analyzing the ones that are effective in increasing multi-disciplinary publications, besides evaluating how the CRP-GLDC adds more collaborations to the knowledge exchange networks. CPR-GLDC did not manage any intellectual assets directly but through partner institutions as evidenced by the submitted Innovations and Outcome Impact Case Reports (Ref. Table 3).The CRP-GLDC completed 10 of the 15 MELIA studies (Table 10). The impact of GLDC adoption was computed while accounting for possible errors from access to technology transfer and improved seed for groundnuts in Nigeria, chickpea in Ethiopia and sorghum and finger millet varieties in Ethiopia and Tanzania. New studies are ongoing to assessing GLDC impacts on CGIAR SLO nutrition targets, natural resource management in farming systems in Africa and South Asia, and livelihood and ecological impacts on fallow periods, particularly for ICARDA lentils.Around scaling efforts, studies are looking at difference-in-differences design of a large-scale rural development program that scaled some GLDC crop varieties and management practices; analyzing 18 impact studies to ascertain the potential of GLDC varieties to intensify smallholder agriculture and improve livelihoods in semi-arid regions of SSA and SA, besides reviewing GLDC scaling projects against idealized scaling frameworks at the GLDC proposal stage.An online open access tool for farming system sustainability assessment has been developed and is undergoing validation in India. Collaboration with SMO led to the integration of MEL and MARLO towards the CGIAR Results Dashboard. Further work will lay the foundation for a one-CGIAR Result-Based Management approach.CRP-GLDC planned a mid-term review of its POWB 2020 to provide an overview of the activities affected due to COVID-19. While the review process supported the advancement of 2020 reporting, it also provided FP leaders with a status update that was useful for the preparation of the POWB for 2021. This approach could lessen the limitation of developing the POWB for the following year before reporting for the preceding year. Investment of funds on additional activities in 2020 focused on either new high-impact activities or those linked to already completed or ongoing activities which build on existing results to develop outputs further. Activities that aggregate existing results e.g., data and findings to come up with more mature knowledge products were also prioritized. The implementation of a knowledge management activity within FP1 to document the increased collaboration among CRP-GLDC scientists using publications has supported a more efficient way to collect publications from global databases and inform librarians and scientists to update their records. This strategy can support the One CGIAR in more timely reporting of research results. Instead of launching an independent campaign for the 2020 Open Data Day, CRP-GLDC capitalized on a joint campaign with partner CRPs and CGIAR centers led by the MEL Platform, amplifying the exposure of blogs and testimonies from GLDC scientists while exercising cross-CGIAR collaborations.While the pandemic has stopped or postponed several events, the CRP-GLDC supported major events held virtually, on topics such as genomics in modern breeding programs for food security, health and nutrition and genome editing in agriculture.While the CRP-GLDC continued to operate with the unfunded FP2 in 2020, projects worth US$ 2.58 M supported through W3/Bilateral funds were mapped to FP2. Not having FP2 was partly mitigated by having a cross-cutting theme on MPAB since 2019. In view of the changes in implementing the current research portfolio due to the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a mid-term review of the POWB 2020 was conducted with special consideration of and assessment of impacts of COVID-19 and possible corrective measures. The review focused on: (i) work plan deviations resulting in either ongoing activities being switched to new COVID-19 activities or the incorporation of pandemic-related research in ongoing activities, and (ii) corresponding measures at the milestone, activity, output and deliverable levels, and financial resources. However, due to the impact of COVID-19, the CRP-GLDC reported an unspent 2.49% of the total CRP-GLDC budget of US$$ 8.14 M which will be carried forward to 2021 in order to complete the planned milestones and MELIA studies of 2020.The W1/W2 funds were essentially used to carry out the planned research activities of POWB 2020.In addition, FP 1 undertook multidimensional ex-ante impact evaluation to identify the most promising GLDC research options by developing TOPSIS_ShinyApp that breeders and other practitioners can use for multi-criteria ranking of GLDC technologies. These funds were also used to:(1) conduct research on aspirations aimed at targeting and scaling agricultural innovations;(2) assess the potential impact of GLDC crops on urban food and nutrition security; (3) characterize the youth in the drylands of Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia; (4) conduct a multifaceted impact assessment of GLDC innovations; (5) revise GLDC's theory of change and impact pathways and ( 6) analyze the MELbased social network to evaluate the performance of the CRP-GLDC. In FP3, these funds supported studies on the adoption of innovations at farming systems level. In FP4, these funds were used to commercialize GLDC crop cultivars to meet market/industry needs; climate resilient cultivars such as early maturing soybean, groundnut and chickpea, and forage cultivars of sorghum and pearl millet to support crop-livestock systems and cultivars with host-plant resistance. Partnerships with the private food industry and seed sectors, genotyping and drone-based imaging service providers, and knowledge sharing through CNGs were also supported. In FP5, funds were mainly utilized to support and leverage W3/bilateral projects in the strategic/priority/critical focus areas including the development of QC panels and enabling technologies. In FP6, these funds were spent to advance work on iron and zinc biofortification and crop resilience.The CRP-GLDC budget of US$ 10.731 M was expressed in PoWB 2020. However, the final allocation received was US$ 9.855 M (92% of the original FinPlan), of which US$ 8.140 M was channeled via W1/W2 and US$ 1.715 M via W3.The W1/W2 budget of US$ 8.140 M was spent at 98% and the remaining unspent budget of 2% (US $ 170 K) will be carried forward to 2021 to implement the ongoing activities of 2020 on the request of CRP-GLDC participating centers.The total budget for W3/bilateral was planned at US$ 52.637 M and was utilized at 78% in 2020.PART B. TABLES The ongoing adoption studies will be completed and documented in 2021.Regional: Africa, Asia An adoption and impact study of improved chickpea varieties in Ethiopia showed that adoption led to a 5% increase in household dietary diversity. To represent that the SLO contribution is relevant to the entire country, the sampling study randomly selected four kebeles in each district, and within these about 60 households were randomly selected. A total of 1193 farm households were surveyed using a standardized survey instrument. Accordingly, the results are fairly nationally representative and should be interpreted as the potential impacts of improved chickpea adoption in the whole of Ethiopia.  The strategy aims to concurrently achieve the following outcomes: Expanded, resilient and inclusive production, value addition, trading and consumption of nutritious grain legumes and dryland cereals in target countries, and improved capacity and inclusivity of agri-food system stakeholders to collaboratively develop innovations that respond to the needs of women, men and youth in GLDCbased livelihoods and value chains. The CRP-GLDC Youth Strategy which is the most significant tool developed within this policy case has been informing the implementation of CRP-GLDC initiatives, and will contribute the further CGIAR initiatives especially the CGIAR Gender Platform.    │CRP-GLDC Annual Report 2020 │68Part C: Additional evidence is accessible through the Management Information System and relevant links in the reportThe CRP-GLDC MIS system (mel.cgiar.org) allowed the reporting of data all year round as soon as information was available across research teams. Following are charts that provide a sense of the progress made by the program in target countries. ","tokenCount":"6496"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c7bd9c48f06670dd0d561684b295fb3c","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://jlsb.science-line.com/attachments/article/44/J.%20Life%20Sci.%20Biomed.%206(2)%2022-32,%202016.pdf","id":"-1107952468"},"keywords":["Domestic goat","Genetic distance","Heterozygosity","Microsatellite marker","Polymorphic information content"],"sieverID":"736e8199-7526-420e-9a12-a10cf68557ac","pagecount":"11","content":"Genetic characterization requires knowledge of genetic variation that can be effectively measured within and between populations. It is considered as an important tool for sustainable management or conservation of a particular population. Presence of limited diversity may hamper the possibility of populations to adapt the local environment in the long term, but loss of genetic diversity can also more immediately lead to decrease fitness within populations. In this paper, genetic diversity of more than 120 domestic goat populations found in various parts of the world has been summarized. The paper is limited only to the diversity study conducted by microsatellite loci. In all the goat populations reviewed, the within population genetic diversity is extremely higher than between population variation which might be due to the uncontrolled and random mating practiced among the breeding flock. However, the technical as well as statistical data management deficiencies, like selection of microsatellites and other sampling biases, observed in the reports could have their own influences on the limited and weak variations obtained within and among populations. The genetic distance among populations is very narrow especially populations found within states. In general, goats are the most transported animals during the lengthy commercial and exploratory journeys took place in the old world long time ago. This contributed the goat to have narrow genetic differentiation compared to other ruminant livestock. The technical fissures observed in the past efforts on identification and structure analyses of the goat populations might also demand further works to design appropriate conservation and breeding management programs.Genetic diversity has been shaped by past population processes and will also affect the sustainability of species and populations in the future [1]. Maintenance of genetic diversity in livestock species requires adequate implementation of conservation priorities and sustainable management programs [2]. It is also a key to the longterm survival of most species [3] and widely used to categorize animals in the world [4]. However, isolation-bydistance [5], historical and geological factors [6], physical barriers [7,8] and ecological factors through morphological adaptation to local conditions [9] are some of the factors which are suspected in disrupting patterns of genetic structure and gene flow of a given population. Especially in domestic animals, the gene flow disruption is overseen more by human intervention than by physical barriers [10].Farm animal genetic diversity is required to meet current production needs in various environments, to allow sustained genetic improvement, and to facilitate rapid adaptation to changing breeding objective and serves as a tool for animal breeding and selection [11][12][13]. However, classifying the genetic diversity based on historical, anthropological and morphological evidences [14] as well as their geographical origin are not satisfactory and enough for the purpose of conservation and utilization of these resources. In addition, phenotypic characterization provides a crude estimate of the average of the functional variants of genes carried by a given individual or population, and the appropriateness of phenotypic traits to study the genetic variation between populations is very limited [15]. Hence, comprehensive knowledge of the existing genetic variability is the first step for the conservation and exploitation of domestic animal diversity [16].Goats are considered the most prolific ruminant among all domesticated ruminants especially under harsh climatic conditions [17]. The high versatility, moderate size and hardy nature of goats made them ideal as a food resource in the lengthy commercial and exploratory journeys that took place in the old world a long time ago [18]. Today, there are >1,000 goat breeds (www.fao.org/corp/statistics/en/), and recently >861.9 million goats are kept around the world with the respective continental share in Million: Asia (514.4), Africa (291.1), South America (21.4), Europe (18.0), Central America (9.0), Caribbean (3.9), Northern America (3.0) and Oceania (0.9) [19]. The existence of such a large gene pool is important for the potential future breed preservation and for the development of a sustainable animal production system [2].The absence of well-managed conservation genetics programs and the uncontrolled introgression between indigenous as well as foreign breeds are seriously threatening the future of many populations in various parts of the world [20]. The high gene flow and the admixture of the breeds can result low level of genetic differentiation [21]. This has also an implication of the presence of terrible risk that most breeds may perish before they have been exclusively recognized and exploited. Microsatellite marker is the main molecular markers employed to identify and characterize genetic diversity of domestic goats found in various corners of the world by various scholars. However, following financial and other reasons, most of the efforts conducted may not be as supportive as expected in revealing the required information for designing appropriate and sustainable goat breeding programs. Therefore, given the limited number of efforts conducted on domestic goats, strength and gaps (with emphasis) of past efforts have been summarized and possible 'the way forward' is suggested in this paper.Genetic diversity refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species that serves as a way for populations to adapt to changing environments. It represents diversity within a population [22] and it is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary. With more variation, it is more likely that some individuals in a population will possess variations of alleles that are suited for the environment. Those individuals are more likely to survive to produce offsprings bearing that allele. The population will continue for more generations because of the success of these individuals (http://genetics.nbii.gov/GeneticDiversity.html).Choosing the appropriate breed or population for conservation is one of the most important problems in the conservation of genetic diversity in domestic animals. Some of the parameters which can help the study of genetic diversity within a population are expected heterozygosity estimates and allelic distribution; and they are believed as they are good indicators of genetic polymorphisms within a population [22][23][24]. On the other hand, the precision of estimated genetic diversity is a function of the number of loci analyzed, the heterozygosity of these loci and the number of animals sampled in each population [25].Estimations of expected and observed heterozygosities are measures of genetic variability within a given population [23]. The expected heterozygosity is the proportion of heterozygotes expected in a population; whereas, observed heterozygosity is the percentage of loci heterozygous per individual or the number of individuals heterozygous per locus [26].As it is indicated in the table, several reports confirmed the status of genetic variability of different goat populations (Table 1) and genetic diversity (HE and HO) estimates observed in goat of Sri Lanka, Australia, Korean, Botswana and in some Indian and Brazilian goat populations were below 0.5. This is because of maintaining microsatellite loci which had registered heterozygosity estimates below 0.5 in the respective breeds during the analysis. Literatures suggest that heterozygosity estimates having greater than 0.5 heterozygosity estimates are believed to be appropriate for genetic diversity study [44,45]. Similarly, some of the estimated values were also closer to the margin. These low estimates imply that there might have been high selection pressure, small population size, minimal or null immigration of new genetic materials into the populations. Similar low genetic diversity estimates were reported for Argentinean and Chilean goat populations despite the small sample sizes used in the analysis [18].Whereas the remaining estimates conclude that the studied populations have substantial and high amount of within population genetic diversity. This might be due to low selection pressure, large population size and immigration of new genetic materials [41]. High value of average expected heterozygosity within the populations could also be attributed to the large allele numbers detected in the tested loci [46]. In most of the above diversity estimates, the observed heterozygosity (HO) and expected heterozygosity (HE) estimates for each locus and goat population are closer to each other indicating no overall loss in heterozygosity (allele fixation) [40]. However, few of the microsatellites studied by various scholars (e.g. [41]) had higher observed heterozygosity than expected heterozygosity estimates that probably indicate the existence of sampling bias [45]. On the other side, heterozygosity estimates of nine domestic Swiss goat herds were higher than Wild Ibex goats and Bezoar goats with the mean HE ranging from 0.51 to 0.58 for domestic herds and from 0.17 to 0.19 for the wild species [47]. The lowest heterozygosity, the lowest genetic variation within the population, estimates are comparable with the mean observed (HO=0.12±0.16) and expected heterozygosity (HE=0.16±0.20) values of Tswana goat population [43] which is because of the effects of inbreeding and selective breeding in small and closed population. This idea is supported by Caňón et al. [48] who stated the positive correlation (r = 0.35) of population size with heterozygosity estimates. Low amounts of genetic diversity increase the vulnerability of populations to catastrophic events such as disease outbreaks that indicates high levels of inbreeding with its associated problems of expression of deleterious alleles or loss of over-dominance [2]. It can also destroy local adaptations and break up co-adapted gene complexes ultimately leading to the probability of population or species extinction [2].The allelic distribution is the other measure of genetic variability in a given population [23,43]. The primary disadvantage of using allelic richness, i.e. the corrected mean number of alleles reflected in the standardized sample size [49], as a measure of genetic diversity is that it is highly dependent on sample size: large samples are expected to contain more alleles than small samples [50]. Similarly, more alleles are expected to be found in a region sampled many times than in a region sampled few times. Private allelic richness has the same problem: large samples are expected to have more private alleles than small ones. On the other hand, intensive sampling of genetically similar populations may reduce the number of private alleles to any population. Therefore, a region that has been sampled intensively may appear to have fewer private alleles than a region sampled less intensively. These problems have a straightforward statistical solution: rarefaction can be used to compensate for differences in sample size and number [50]. The mean number of alleles and expected heterozygosities are very accurate indicators of the genetic polymorphism within a population [41]. Mean observed alleles (na) that explain high level of polymorphism of the studied microsatellites were reported for several goat populations (Table 2).Though the mean number of alleles (MNAs) indicated in table 2 showed the suggested minimum estimates, except some Ethiopian, Brazilian, Egyptian, Italian and Iran goat populations, comparatively the average as well as the range of alleles estimated were the highest estimation (14.9 mean number of alleles with a range of five to 43 alleles per locus for 45 breeds) for the 45 goat populations studied in the Mediterranean regions [48] (Table 2). In addition to this, all the microsatellites (30 microsatellites, which is the maximum coverage) were covered during the study. One of the reasons for the lowest estimates of MNA per locus, in many of the studies, might be because of using very few bucks, e.g. 3-5 bucks per year for Tswana goat for 16 years of almost closed breeding program at BCA farm [43]; and it might also be because of directional selection for parasite resistance/tolerance coupled with increased productivity [51] that possibly accumulates inbreeding. Similarly, among the 26 loci of twelve Chinese goat populations, 17 were polymorphic and the number of alleles varied between 4 (ILSTS005) and 19 (BM2113); the remaining nine loci (excluded from the analysis) tested had less than four alleles or non-specific PCR products [16]. The later screening procedure was not undertaken by many of the authors. For studies like genetic distance, microsatellite loci should have no fewer than four alleles to reduce the standard errors of distance estimates [25].For the other goat populations relatively encouraging estimates of MNA were reported. However, though those reports explain the existence of high polymorphism, the average number of alleles depends on sample size, number of observed alleles tends to increase with increasing population size and the number of sires used in a breeding program. This is because of the presence of unique alleles in populations which occur at very low frequencies [41,43].In general, heterozygosity deficiency may be resulted because of the presence of a null allele which is the allele that fails to multiply during PCR using a given microsatellite primer due to a mutation at the primer site [25,53], small sample size where rare genotypes are likely to be included in the samples [2], Wahlund effect, that is presence of fewer heterozygotes in population than predicted on account of population subdivision and decrease in heterozygosity because of increased consanguinity (inbreeding) [11]. Higher heterozygosity provides better assignment performance [54] and the loss of alleles is probably the consequence of repeated founder effects during migration events [55].Literatures state that the polymorphic information content (PIC) values depict the suitability of the markers and their primers used in the study for analyzing the genetic variability of a given population. Hence, microsatellite markers having greater than 0.5 PIC value are considered as highly informative and highly polymorphic [56,57]. Therefore, highly polymorphic markers were employed for the goat populations indicated in Table 2.In contrast to this, lower PIC values of microsatellites (for instance Korean goats PIC = 0.35, [28]; for Egyptian and Italian goats of few loci PIC=0.221, 0.482 & 0.389 [42] and for India goat having 28% of the loci <0.5 PIC [58]) which were expected to be excluded were included in the analysis. In fact, the PIC is determined by heterozygosity and number of alleles [41] and this makes microsatellite markers the choice for genetic characterization and diversity studies. In particular, the high PIC values of a particular marker suggest its usefulness for genetic polymorphism and linkage mapping studies in goats and 60% of microsatellite loci had significant hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE).FIS is a measurement of the reduction in heterozygosity of an individual as a result of non-random mating within its subpopulation [59]. It is an average increase of homozygous loci by decreasing the heterozygous loci with the same proportion [43]. It is less suited to reflect historical processes because it has a different, more rapid dynamic than does gene diversity [59]. A high positive FIS indicates a high degree of homozygosity and vice versa [45]. Inbreeding coefficients is estimated for populations which show significant deviation from the HWE [26]. This indirectly implies that inbreeding coefficient (FIS) [59] is significant for significant HWE estimation; but it may not work for all loci of a population.Based on this background, moderate and high level of inbreeding coefficients were reported by various scholars for different goat populations; for instance, for Marwari (FIS=0.26; [32]), Jamunapari (FIS=0.19; [66]), Mehsana (FIS=0.16; [60]) and Kutchi (FIS=0.23; [31]) breeds of India, Ardi goat breed (FIS =0.18 with only 50% of the markers under HWE; [41]) of Saudi Arabia, Tswana goat breed (FIS =0.12; [43]) of Botswana are some of the reports having high level of inbreeding. However, particularly for Tswana goat breed, the FIS estimate ranged from -0.2340 (INRA006) indicating low levels of inbreeding at that marker locus to 0.8772 (MCM527) depicting high levels of inbreeding. This might be because of the small population size, closed breeding system and very limited number of breeding bucks used for many consecutive years in the farm [43]. The lowest heterozygosity and MNA estimates indicated in table1 and 2 above strengthen this rationale. However, tolerable mean value of FIS (0.03) with the range of -0.223 to 0.220 was obtained for 17 microsatellites (with 12 MNA per locus and a range of 0.586 to 0.790 HE estimates) of 12 Chinese indigenous goat populations [16].The moderate level of inbreeding may be a result of moderate levels of mating between closely related individuals under field conditions and may be the uncontrolled and unplanned mating that caused high level of inbreeding. On the contrary, very low inbreeding value (FIS=0.10) were reported within 45 rare breeds of 15 European and Middle Eastern countries [48] compared with the above reports and the discrepancy between the observed and expected heterozygosities and the difference between the observed and effective number of alleles could confirm the existence of inbreeding [48]. Still the level of inbreeding estimates in all the 45 breeds studied except the two populations (St. Gallen Booted goat breed of Switzerland, FIS = 0.048 and Thuringian forest goat breed of Germany FIS =0.049) are not tolerable because the estimated values obtained were higher than 0.05. From thirty microsatellites used, twenty-four of them were in H-W equilibrium (p>0.05) and is more than 90% of the total 45 populations of European and Middle East goats studied [48]. However, small number of loci which were in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium: only seven loci (ILSTS011, SPS113, ILSTS029, SRCRSP3, MAF70, ILSTS005 and OarAE54) i.e., only 50% of the total fourteen microsatellite markers, showed Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) (p>0.05) in Ardi goat population of Saudi Arabia [41]. Similarly, only 55% of the total microsatellites used showed HWE (P>0.05) in Alpine Saanen and Moxotó dairy goat populations in Brazil [40]. Such findings indicate the presence of effect of selection or uncontrolled breeding practice in the study populations [41]. Huge deviation from HWE (16 out of 20 loci), i.e. only 20% showed HWE (P>0.05), was observed on Kanniadu goats of India [67]; the possible reasons for the deviations pointed out were existence of \"null\" alleles, high mutation rate and size of homoplasy of microsatellite loci, besides the small study population. On the other hand, four out of the 12 loci (SRCRSP5, MCM527, ILST087 and INRA006) that differed significantly from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) were observed indicating subjection of, particularly, those loci to systematic selection and dispersive forces such as genetic drift and inbreeding [43]. In this study, five out of the total 12 loci were monomorphic (fixed allele) that could be linked to genes responsible for parasitic resistance, and this goes in line with the study made by Beh et al. [68].The large proportion of loci without of HWE might be because of those loci being under within major histocompatibility complex [69] and under strong natural selection pressure [70]; or it might be because of the presence of null or non-amplified alleles, allele grouping defects, a sampling structure effect, selection against heterozygotes or inbreeding [40]. In other study, it is also stated that deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium could also be due to a variety of causes including: excess of heterozygote individuals than homozygote individuals [71] in contrast Mahmoudi et al. [2] who stated heterozygosis deficiency is one of the parameters underlying departure from HWE), migration, high mutation rate at microsatellite loci and artificial selection .The simplest parameters for assessing diversity among breeds are the genetic differentiation or fixation indices. Several estimators have been proposed (e.g. FST and GST), the most widely used being FST [72], which measure the degree of genetic differentiation of subpopulations through calculation of the standardized variances in allele frequencies among populations. Statistical significance can be calculated for the FST values between pairs of populations [73] to test the null hypothesis of lack of genetic differentiation between populations and, therefore, partitioning of genetic diversity [74]. Hierarchical analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) can be performed to assess the distribution of diversity within and among groups of population [75].In relative to other markers, microsatellite data are commonly used to assess genetic relationships between populations and individuals through the estimation of genetic distances [76][77][78][79][80]. The most commonly used measure of genetic distances is Nei's standard genetic distance (DS) [81]. However, the modified Cavalli-Sforza distance (DA) is recommended for closely related populations where genetic drift is the main factor of genetic differentiation, as is often the case in livestock populations particularly in the developing world [82].Genetic relationship between populations is often visualized through the reconstruction of a phylogeny, most often using the neighbor joining (N-J) method [83]. However, a major drawback of phylogenetic tree reconstruction is that the evolution of lineages is assumed to be non-reticulated, i.e. lineages can diverge, but can never result from crosses between lineages. This assumption will rarely hold for livestock where new breeds often originate from cross-breeding between two or more ancestral breeds. The visualization of the evolution of breeds provided by phylogenetic reconstruction must, therefore, be interpreted cautiously.Multivariate analysis and more recently Bayesian clustering approaches have been suggested for admixture analysis of microsatellite data from different populations [84]. Probably the most comprehensive study of this type in livestock is a continent-wide study of African cattle [85], which reveal the genetic signatures of the origins, secondary movements, and differentiation of African cattle pastoralism.Based on comparison of genetic distances that measure genetic drift, with microsatellite data set, the Reynolds distances underestimate the divergence of eastern Mediterranean goat populations (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Albania and Cyprus) with a high heterozygosity [48]. Model-based clustering [84] of the goat microsatellite genotypic values indicates that the most significant subdivision is at the level of breeds or groups of closely related breeds [48]. Analysis at lower K-values may indicate a subdivision of the goat population [86] that preceded breed formation.In relative to other reports, lower average values of FST for the four goat populations clusters (East Mediterranean: FST=0.033, Central Mediterranean: FST=0.040, West Mediterranean: FST=0.051 and Central-north European: FST=0.069) were obtained [48] than the values of 0.14 recorded for Asian goats [27], of 0.17 for Swiss goat populations [49] and of 0.10 for a set of Chinese goat populations [16]. Similar low estimate of mean differentiation among populations (FST = 0.0717) was also reported that indicates presence of mixing among population and the most variability occurs within a population [40]. This might be because of gene flow among most breeds has probably been restricted by geographical isolation rather than adherence to pedigree; i.e. a geographical restriction of genetic contacts of population may cause geographical clines or maintain clines that predate breed formation [48].FST values for each pair of the goat populations in Ethiopia varied from 0.001 to 0.040 [22]. The average FST values over all microsatellite loci was 0.026, indicating that a 2.6% of total genetic variation corresponded to differences among populations, whereas 97.4% was explained by difference among individuals. Similarly, it was also noted that 5% of the total variation occurred due to population subdivision, while the remaining 95% of the variation existed among individuals within the goat ecotypes [24].It was recommended that the highest genetic distance (FST) to be higher than 0.25, moderate to be between 0.05 and 0.25 and the lowest estimate below 0.05 [46,87]. In general, the genetic distance between populations obtained by many of the scholars [16,21,22,24,40] is almost negligible (<0.05) and/or moderate (0.05<FST<0.25) values. Some of the authors revealed significant genetic distance estimates among populations. This implies that, despite the limitations of sampling and other related statistical management limitations stated above there is relatively moderate genetic sub-differentiation among the goat populations. A fixation index (FST) of about 0.15 is considered to be an indication of significant differentiation among populations [88]. In line with this, as an indirect way to measure quantitative genetic diversity, a fixation index (FST) of about 0.25 total genetic variance could be explained among-breed genetic variance [49].In the phylogeny tree analysis employing both the NJ and UPGMA trees might be good. However, it would have been more informative if the fitness of the trees were statistically tested. This limitation makes the result blurred and difficult to arrive at certain conclusion with either of the phylogenetic tree analyses. In addition, besides to the polymorphic nature of microsatellites there might be a chance to face monomorphic nature of them. Hence, this demands some techniques to isolate such loci. However, there is no clear methodology that describes whether such techniques were employed or not. Monomorphic microsatellite loci were obtained while studying the Indian domestic goat populations and dropped out from the analysis [30]. Probably, the minimum estimates of MNA per locus obtained in the microsatellite loci genotyped might be an indication of absence of employing some screening techniques. Such limitations were seen in many of the studies.Apart from the least sample size used in some of the studies, e.g. Halima et al [24] who used eight animals to represent a population and which is quite far from FAO recommendation for SSR marker analysis [89], the number of samples used for a study was not equal which leads the genetic diversity parameters like HWE and MNA to be sensitive for biasness; or there is no any technique indicated in the papers which was employed to handle such a limitation [90]. Large samples are expected to have more alleles than small samples [91]; however, the degree of influence of small sample size is weak as compared with the size of number of markers to be used [90].In addition to the procedures to be followed in handling unequal sample size, selection of microsatellite loci which are efficient in polymorphism and techniques of screening monomorphic loci [93] and design of statistical genetic analysis in general are not clearly indicated in the papers and might bias the readers. This ultimately could have their own influence on implementation of further activities of improvement and conservation breeding programs. On the other hand, only very few or no microsatellite loci used in the analysis showed higher observed heterozygosity values than expected heterozygosity values [16,22,24,39,40]. This probably implies the existence of sampling bias [45]. In addition, some of the microsatellite loci (table 1) had shown HE and HO estimates of less than 0.5; however, it was suggested that such loci having values less than 0.5 are not appropriate for heterozygosity evaluation [44,45]. Similarly, the number of alleles found per locus is the other indicative in evaluating the efficiency of loci; hence, though it was not seen in some of the studies found in table 2, the number of alleles to be found per locus for remarkable genetic diversity of a population should be equal or greater than four [25,92]. These all points remark as the microsatellites could be dropped out or could require to be prudent in selecting microsatellite. Apart from that it is important to note to be keen in selecting microsatellites to deliver strong recommendation that serves for effective sustainable conservation and breeding management strategies.Genetic diversity studies carried out on domestic goat at various parts of the world were compiled in this paper. More than 120 goat populations were included in the review. These all goat populations were studied with microsatellite markers. The results indicated that there is high within population genetic variations and very narrow population differentiation among the goat populations studied. On the other side, limited sample sizes which are not equal for the populations included in the respective studies, weak efficiency of the markers employed for the analysis (e.g. few numbers of alleles per marker, very low heterozygosity estimate per marker, etc) which lead to bias the parameters measured or absence of handling techniques to capture those limitations are observed in most of the studies. In general these all demand further works to support the goat breeding interventions.","tokenCount":"4460"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"04dcc583ad39f94b87f223ab4060a4d0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H040053.pdf","id":"-237505702"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"50177eed-d2f1-4288-8bc4-429e42217906","pagecount":"42","content":"Now the stock have started dying, for the Lord has sent a drought; But we're sick of prayers and Providence -we're going to do without; . . . As the drill is plugging downward at a thousand feet of level, If the Lord won't send us water, oh, we'll get it from the devil; Yes, we'll get it from the devil deeper down.From 'Song of the Artesi an Water' (1896) by A.B. Banjo Paterson, Australian bush poetAustralia is a large country, covering 7.69 million square kilometres, with a relatively small population of 20 million (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2005). Agriculture accounts for a paltry 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) and only 6.88% of the land surface is under arable cropping, with 0.03% under permanent crops. In 1997, 5% of the labour force was directly engaged in agriculture (http://worldfacts.us/Australia. htm) compared with 22% in industry and 73% in services. These statistics set it a world apart from densely populated agrarian countries such as India and China.Although agriculture has declined from being a major contributor to national wealth (>27% of gross national product (GNP) in the late 1980s), it still has a strong export focus. There have been considerable structural adjustments in agriculture in the last 20 years in response to Australia's commitment to free trade, removal of input and output subsidies and widespread application of 'user-pays' principles in service sectors. The recent strength of the mining sector with strong global demand for iron and aluminium has contributed to the relatively small contribution of agriculture to GNP.Australia is a democratic federation of six states and two territories, united by the Commonwealth government (federal government). Cohesion within this structure is cemented by centralization of income tax collection, the revenue of which is redistributed to the nine (central, state and territory) governments. There is a third layer of local government at the municipal (urban) and shire (country) levels. The state, territory and local governments can also contribute by raising some local revenue (e.g. states via petrol levies and local government via service levies).Water is the responsibility of the state and territory governments (henceforth referred to as 'states' or jurisdictions) under the Australian Constitution, each having independent water laws and distinct policies. However, inter national issues, common jurisdictional concerns and Commonwealth leverage of Section 96 of the Australian Constitution (which allows the Commonwealth to grant financial assistance to any state on terms determined by the Commonwealth) have accelerated the development of a federal role in the national water policy (McKay, 2002).Issues of national significance that concern the Commonwealth and all state governments are dealt with by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). The COAG deals with a wide raft of issues through a number of ministerial councils. These councils facilitate development and implementation of national plans and proposals that would otherwise be impinged by the division of constitutional powers between the federal and state governments.The Natural Resources Management Ministerial Council (NRMMC) was formed in 2001 'to promote the conservation and sustainable use of Australia's natural resources'. All Australian and New Zealand government ministers responsible for natural resource management issues are members. Decisions of the Council require consensus of the members. The reorganization through which the NRMMC evolved saw this Council absorb roles and responsibilities previously held by the Agricultural Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand (ARMCANZ) and the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Committee (ANZECC). Many current national water policies were therefore developed through the ARMCANZ and ANZECC.Within this structure, the National Groundwater Committee (NGC) is a senior intergovernmental network that shares information and provides insight into the national groundwater policies and resource management, research directions, priorities and programmes. It also provides advice on groundwater issues, including those pertaining to surface water-groundwater interactions. The subject of groundwater is dominated by two issues:1. salinity management; 2. extractive use.Salinity management is perhaps more important, given the significance of irrigation-induced salinity problems, particularly in the state of Victoria, and of the parallel but slower development of dryland salinity in the state of western Australia. Irrigation-induced salinity largely occurs because of the rise in water table, due to progressive accessions from irrigated fields and water supply infrastructure, where the groundwater is naturally saline or intersects naturally saline soils and rock formations.Dryland salinity is emerging as a widespread and serious problem in catchments that have been cleared for dryland agriculture and pasture (National Land and Water Audit (NLWA), 2001): shallow-rooted crops and grasses transpire less water each year than the native scrub and forest, resulting in small net annual accessions, which, over 50-100 years, have also contributed to the rise in water table and attendant local salinization, particularly near streams and inland water bodies. The most alarming estimates of potentially affected areas for 2030 run to approximately 20 million hectares.Since the main focus of this chapter is on the use of groundwater in agriculture, with only a passing reference to other sectors, it is instructive to set the context of irrigation development and water resources management in Australia.In the first decade of the 19th century, Australia's agriculture dealt mainly with sheep, wool, beef and wheat production. The comparatively slow development of the irrigation sector compared with that of dryland reflects the high river flow variability characteristic of Australia, and the associated prerequisite of securing water supply through dam development. Despite the greater water resources in northern Australia, the history of urban and market access have largely dictated the geography of the irrigation industry, which is today dominated by development in the southern half of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) (see case study 1).From 1901 (since the Federation) to the early 1990s, Australian governments were determined to 'drought-proof' the continent through river development (Tisdell et al., 2002). Development of water courses and provision of security of supply were seen as a public good, necessary for the development of the nation. As agents for water resources, the states were the primary developers of surface water infrastructure. This resulted in extensive dam building and associated engineering works, which are represented by the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme, a huge engineering feat that captures and redirects 5044.5 l (1121 gallons) of water from its natural course down the Snowy River into the MDB system. The dam's construction (which spanned 25 years and involved more than 100,000 workers) illustrates the level of cooperation between governments, which was fuelled by the general optimism of the development era.Irrigation development was associated with concentrated efforts to settle high potential areas following the two World Wars -normally discussed as 'soldier settlement'. Private irrigation trusts were also established in the late 19th century, but were relatively small scale compared to state-sponsored developments. Public investments for dam construction, channel infrastructure and promotion of expansion within the industry made for an industry dominated by the heavily subsidized surface water irrigation industry. In contrast, groundwater development has been sparse, privately financed and localized, with a greater emphasis on non-agricultural use, partly due to the extensive development of surface water resources.The goodwill generated by shared development ambitions and successful collaborative social and engineering projects have served intergovernment communication through similar jargon and shared responsibilities. This history underpins the relatively cooperative endeavour of water reforms today.The development agenda of the early and mid 20th century declined since the 1970s, with the realization that the resource base in key areas (notably the MDB) was being jeopardized. It was realized, in the late 1970s, that the licensed volumes within the MDB exceeded the available supply on which interstate water-sharing arrangements were based (Turral, 1998). It was clear that the value of building additional dams would therefore come at a cost of filling existing storages. Quite clearly, in the developed irrigation sites, there was no surface water to harvest and any further development would reduce the security of supply to existing users.Furthermore, the irrigation industry was increasingly aware of the environmental overheads of their own practices. The expense and political sensitivities relating to the riverine impact of salinity were expanding, and there was growing pressure for irrigators to internalize these costs by improving farm management. Rivers and inland wetlands were impaired by reductions in in-stream flows and, in some cases, through inversion of flow patterns, as irrigation water is released from dams in summer, whereas natural flows are mostly concentrated in winter in south and east Australia.In the early 1980s, issues surrounding the proposal to dam the Franklin River resulted in an explosion of public debate and environmental awareness relating to river development. The Franklin Dam was a Tasmanian proposal, which was successfully halted by the Commonwealth Government on the basis of the World Heritage listing.In terms of water development, the significance of the Franklin Dam was twofold:1. It confirmed (by precedent) a Commonwealth power to intervene in activities previously held to be state responsibilities. 2. It clearly demonstrated, through polls, the public priority of environmental sustainability.Coincidentally, the state governments were also reluctant to continue to subsidize the operation, maintenance and replacement of irrigation systems. As a result they were corporatized (Victoria) or fully privatized (New South Wales, NSW) in the 1990s, and are now run by professional managers responsible for farmer-dominated management boards. The governments also recognized the full environmental and financial costs of water diversion and transmission, and maintenance overheads of the existing infrastructure. Tisdell et al. (2002) clearly summarize:[A] singular construct of water capture and reticulation, which traditionally reflected the primacy of national development, was increasingly seen as failing to capture the multiplicity of water outputs, ecosystem functions and the changing societal objectives of maintaining in-stream values and water quality.Surface and groundwaters are both licensed by, or on behalf of, the state governments, under state-specific water legislation and policy; licence details therefore vary considerably across the states.A level of security is normally applied to water licences. This is traditionally based on the purpose for which the licence was originally issued. The accepted priorities of water supplies (from highest to lowest) are: town supply, stock and domestic, perennial crop (e.g. vineyards and orchards) and annual crops (e.g. grains).Most water licences are specified in volumetric terms as an entitlement, based on a certain level of historical security of supply (exceeding availability in 99% of years, in the case of Victoria). Volumetric measurement and charging for surface irrigation water have been the norm throughout most of the MDB since the 1960s and date back much longer in Victoria. The actual amount a licence-holder can obtain in 1 year is determined pro rata by the announced allocation, which is reviewed every month, based on different formulas that incorporate available storage, plus minimum (1:100 year) expected rainfall volume, less the volume required by high-priority uses. The precise formulation of the allocation and entitlement rules varies from state to state, particularly in relation to environmental reserve, environmental flow rules governing dam operations and the ability to carry over unused allocations from one year to the next.To some extent, this 'share' approach was the result of an explicit rejection of the 'prior appropriation' doctrine practised by the western states in America (Tisdell, 2002). It could nevertheless be contended that environmental and some native water titles can claim priority at least partially by virtue of history. The capacity of a share approach to entirely avoid prior appropriation issues also rests heavily on sound definition and hydraulic understanding of the water resource being licensed, implicitly assuming that these licensing frameworks account for any hydraulic connectivity between institutionally independent resources (e.g. surface water and groundwater).In the MDB, interstate water shares were agreed in 1915 and those limits were not tested by water resources developments until it was realized (in the late 1970s) that the licensed volume exceeded the available resource, notably in NSW (Turral, 1998).Subsequently, it was realized that the existing licensed volume already exceeded the sustainable water resource and that, at the prevailing rates of irrigation expansion, the actual diversion would exceed sustainable limits by 2020 (MDBC, 1996) and possibly approach the volume of annual runoff to the sea. A Cap on diversions of surface water within the MDB was agreed in 1995, set not to exceed the volume diverted at the extent of agricultural development in 1994. It was left to each state to work out how to implement the Cap and it has been independently audited annually since then. The idea of a rolling cap was implemented de facto, which allows states to overrun the Cap in low allocation years provided they balance this in subsequent above-average years. Since 2000, 3-4 years of consecutive drought, with less than the previous 1:100 year water availability, have put some strain on this arrangement. The largest volume of unused licences is in NSW, due to the existence of sleeper and dozer 1 users and relatively conservative withdrawals by many farmers in response to the lower security of supply in NSW, where there is considerably less interannual storage volume than in Victoria.Water trading has been activated through private, state and central initiatives since the mid-1980s, although temporary trading has a long and informal history. The liberalization of water trading since the mid-1990s has activated some of this unused volume, putting further strain on the security of supply to existing users (Panta et al., 1999). The market is dominated by temporary transfers of unused allocation within a season and activity reflects the general drought cycle and water resources availability, whilst permanent trades account for less than 1% of the licensed volume (Turral et al., 2005). Most of the water trade is between irrigators within a particular state, and interstate trading is currently limited by questions of exchange rate between upstream and downstream transfers (Etchells et al., 2004).Reforms in water resources management in Australia have proceeded along three main lines, which have complementary origins in the community and in government: (i) state-driven water accounting and allocation reforms, pricing, cost recovery, removal of subsidies and administrative reform; (ii) a communityinitiated movement for better land and water management -now commonly lumped under the banner 'LandCare'; and (iii) the development and specification of environmental flows, river flow rules and strategies to mitigate in-stream salinity and algal blooms. Land and water have been considered complementary factors in this process.The Brundtland Report (World Commission of Environment and Development, 1987) highlighted the international importance of co-dependency between environmental and economic policy in achieving sustainability. Australia responded through the National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development (NSESD, COAG, 1992) (http://www.deh.gov.au/esd/national/nsesd/strategy/index.html), which adopted the 'precautionary principle' as a guiding philosophy. This strategy had three broad objectives:1. to enhance individual and community well-being by following a path of economic development that safeguards the welfare of future generations; 2. to provide equity between generations; 3. to protect biological diversity and maintain essential ecological processes and life-support systems.Management of surface water has been high on the agenda and the laboratory has often been the MDB, due to the extent of irrigation and surface water development. Regulation of the river has allowed increased reliability in agricultural production through a combined dam storage volume equivalent to 2.8-3 years of mean annual flow, but this security has occurred at the expense of river health (MDMBC, 1996).As a component of the NSESD, reform of the water industry was tied to microeconomic reforms via the National Competition Policy reform package (1995). Within this package, financial benefits of microeconomic reforms were distributed on the basis of performance against specific reform agendas, including that of water (Tisdell et al., 2002), through 'tranche' payments of central tax revenue to individual states on compliance with agreed targets. In tandem with reforms focused on the MDB, the COAG began a process of reform aimed at removing subsidies and ensuring competition and economic efficiency. COAG (1994) water reforms were intended to allow water to move to its most productive use by enabling water markets and full cost recovery of the operation and maintenance of irrigation systems. This incentive initiated rapid institutional changes, including significant legislative amendment. By the necessity of relevant time frames, these were implicitly driven by the dominant surface water issues.Recognizing continuing resource issues and the need for further reform to fully develop and deliver full cost pricing policies (van Bueren and Hatton MacDonald, 2004), the COAG agreed to the National Water Initiative (NWI) in 2004 (COAG, 2004). The NWI objective explicitly identifies its application both to surface and groundwaters, and more specifically the issue of surface water-ground water connectivity. This implies an inconsistent implementation of earlier COA OPG, 2004(1994) reforms across surface and groundwaters, which is generally acknowledged as a lag between implementation of surface and groundwater reforms in most states.In agreement with the NWI, the COAG delegated the following responsibilities to the NRMMC:1. overseeing implementation of the NWI, in consultation with other minister ial councils as necessary and with reference to advice from the COAG; 2. addressing ongoing implementation issues as they arise; 3. providing annual reports to the COAG on the progress with actions being taken by jurisdictions in implementing the NWI; 4. developing a comprehensive national set of performance indicators for the NWI in consultation with the National Water Commission (NWC) (set up to implement the NWI).Somewhat contentiously, the NWI proposed a fund to buy back surface water for the environment based on financial contributions from the state and central governments. This was derailed for some time due to the Commonwealth's intention to fund NWI from the Natural Heritage Trust, at the expense of previously agreed initiatives and payments to the states.The story of LandCare is rich, varied and interesting and is well documented elsewhere (Ewing, 1996). It began with genuine, community-based initiatives in irrigated salinity management in Victoria and catchment management for dryland salinity in western Australia in the mid-1980s. LandCare became a national programme in 1992, following the historic joint initiative of the Australian Conservation Foundation (an environmental NGO) and the National Farmers Federation. By 2001, there were 4500 LandCare groups incorporating 50% of farmers and 35% of land administrators. This phenomenal growth in community-based management of natural resources and associated investment went largely unevaluated until 2000, when the National Land and Water Audit (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002) was established to set a benchmark on resource availability, use and condition, and allow future evaluation of the impacts of community and other initiatives on the resource base. Simultaneously, many felt that there were too many voices from the plethora of LandCare groups, sometimes working at too local a scale. This resulted in the creation of umbrella groups for coordinated community-based management, now well established, such as the Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) in Victoria. Despite fears of a creeping bureaucratization of grass-roots initiative, CMAs have emerged as a central force in natural resources management, where essentially the community decides and partly self-funds management plans and their implementation, using state agencies and commercial companies as advisers and consultants.In conjunction with the NWI, there are other state-level initiatives, such as the 2004 Victorian White Paper 'Securing our Water Future Together' (DSE, 2004), that move the focus of land and water management to be framed more tightly within the concepts of environmentally sustainable development. With that broad introduction to the setting and recent institutional reform in the water sector as a whole, we now turn to the specifics of groundwater.A series of water resources assessments were conducted in Australia, with a primary focus on surface water. These assessments included:  (1985).Most of these studies were complemented by detailed hydrogeological and water resources assessments in the states, but had historically focused on resource development, and there was little information on actual groundwater use. The NLWR. A provides the most comprehensive national overview of groundwater availability and use in Australia to date. It estimated that the national groundwater availability amounts to 25.78 billion cubic metres per year on average, of which 21 billion cubic metres is of potable quality (NLWRA, 2002). Total abstraction in 1996/97 amounted to less than 10% of this at 2.49 billion cubic metres. On the face of it, this does not look to be a problem. However, poor distribution of groundwater use across available resources has resulted in overallocation of many good-quality and readily accessible groundwater stores -often the alluvial plains of prior and existing riverbeds within which surface water irrigation districts lie. The sustainable yield of groundwater in each state is shown in Table 15.1 and is disaggregated by salinity status, showing that about 63% is of high quality. It shows that salinity concerns are greatest in Victoria, western Australia and south Australia (SA). Salinity problems are on the rise in specific localities in NSW.Nationally, about 50% of total groundwater abstraction is for irrigated agriculture (Table 15.2), but this figure rises to 65% in Victoria and NSW and is highest in SA at 80%. Groundwater allocation is a little over one-fourth of the total national water resources availability and less than one-third of the surface water allocation. The available resource in Northern Territories (NT) (Table 15.2) is enormous compared with actual allocation, so the fact that actual use exceeds allocation is not necessarily significant in resource management terms. The same story is broadly true for Tasmania. Rural water use includes stock and domestic water provision, and the majority of water abstracted from the Great Artesian Basin (covering large parts of NSW, Queensland and NT) is for pastoral use. A detailed breakdown of groundwater use is available for 286 out of 538 groundwater management units across the nation, and summary data are available for 377 of them. Groundwater is the sole source of water for many rural towns, mines and associated settlements.Many surface-irrigated properties in northern Victoria and throughout NSW also have bores as drought insurance and for supplementing surface water supplies. Generally they abstract from deeper, higher-quality aquifers, which are separated from saline layers by an aquitard. Nevertheless, some provide water of suboptimal quality which is mixed with surface water before being applied to the crop (known colloquially as 'shandying').In many areas, actual use is significantly less than allocation (Table 15.3). However, the local balance of use and conservation can be highly variable between years. While groundwater development in western Australia, NT and the Australian Capital Territory is dominated by priority (town supply, stock and domestic) uses, intermittent surface flows have resulted in the agricultural development of groundwater as a primary agricultural source in many parts of SA. SA is also distinguished by the security of its surface water supply via the Murray River, which is a volume secured in agreement with Victoria, NSW and the Commonwealth (case study 1). This allows SA much tighter accounting mechanisms than can be accommodated by the less certain water budgets of other states.Groundwater development for irrigation has not received the significant subsidies characteristic of surface water irrigation. The process for irrigation development of groundwater has evolved directly from policies put in place to ensure that groundwater development processes could readily accommodate the high priority of remote town, as well as stock and domestic, supplies. The typical process has been for an irrigator to nominate preferred bore sites on a property, and apply for a groundwater licence. Assessments of nominated sites are made, and licences issued according to bore yield and need. The full cost of infrastructure (installation, operation and maintenance) is borne by the irrigator. In practice, bore owners have generally been fairly free to go about their business. Lack of a linear supply system (river or channel) limits natural centralization, which encourages communication between groundwater stakeholders. By the very nature of this decentralized development, groundwater users are characterized as being highly independent, autonomous and protected by: 1. ownership of infrastructure located on private land; 2. limited detail of scientific understanding of cause-and-effect relationships between resource availability and resource use.The private investment and operation of infrastructure make changes to groundwater management difficult and highly dependent on social willingness to comply (see case study 2).Australian groundwater irrigation development is a natural response to surface water availability, markets and the expanding politics and compliance overheads of surface water development. In many established irrigation areas, groundwater development has been characterized by a tangible trade-off between poorer water quality and enhanced supply security. Table 15.4 summarizes resource and institutional differences between surface and groundwater irrigation. Salinity management and extractive use have dominated public awareness of groundwater. Salinity management has been the dominant issue to date, given the significance of irrigation-induced salinity problems, particularly in the state of Victoria. Irrigation-induced salinity largely occurs because of rise in water table due to progressive accessions from irrigated fields and water supply infrastructure, where the groundwater is naturally saline or intersects naturally saline soils and rock formations.There has been an increasing realization that surface and groundwater resources are inextricably linked -which is obvious at one level and yet quietly underrecognized, perhaps due to the relatively low historical use of groundwater.Groundwater exploitation has risen in tandem with competition for surface water resources. The development of groundwater as a 'back-up' supply for irrigation properties is additionally increasing the demand for groundwater development in existing irrigation areas, in NSW and Victoria. Table 15.5 shows that groundwater use has tripled between 1983/84 and 1996/97 in NSW, Victoria and western Australia. Abstraction in Queensland actually declined, largely as a result of a programme to cap all the bores in the Great Artesian Basin, many of which had been flowing freely for years, gradually reducing artesian pressure and causing concern about 'senseless' wastage.Although western Australia and the NT have the greatest reliance on groundwater, the primary users in these jurisdictions are urban, rural (town, stock and domestic) and mining. The capital of western Australia, Perth (population 1.5 million), is the largest groundwater-dependent city in Australia.Despite various earlier initiatives to quantify water resources in Australia, it was progressively realized that, as a lot of groundwater use was neither licensed nor measured, steps would have to be taken to bring this in line with surface water management. Historically, the British riparian tradition of landowner access to groundwater had continued long after surface water had been declared a state (and peoples') resource to be allocated through licensing. Table 15.6 shows that only a small number of groundwater management units were metered before 2000, although it is important to note that the majority of large agricultural abstractors, especially those operating within the large surface irrigation schemes were licensed and metered by this time.Coupled with the lack of detailed knowledge on abstraction, the rising trends in total groundwater use prompted the introduction of legislation and initiatives designed to respond to three major principles of ecologically sustainable development of groundwater:• Water level and pressure should be maintained within agreed limits and should not diminish.There should be no degradation of water quality.Environmental water needs should be determined and sustained.The National Framework for Improved Groundwater Management in Australia in 1996 (ARMCANZ, 1996a) set in train subsidiary policies and legislation in the states. Core recommendations were to publicly identify sustainable yield, allocation and use of aquifers as well as limit allocations to sustainable yields. Others included the enablement of trading of groundwater licences; improved integration of surface and groundwaters; management and licensing of highyielding wells and provision of all drilling data by contractors; provision of funding for investigation in high-priority areas; and the introduction of full recovery of the costs of managing groundwater.This framework resulted in tangible outcomes in terms of the definition of 72 groundwater provinces, and 538 groundwater management units, with associated water resources assessments and the initiation of groundwater management plans. Preliminary definitions of groundwater provinces and some management units go back to definitions made in the Water Review (1985), but these had only been partially developed. Figure 15.1 shows a summary of the degree of abstraction relative to sustainable yield in the groundwater  management units of Australia. The management units are defined on the basis of water availability, water use and aquifer characteristics including depth, thickness and salinity. The NLWRA (2001) reported that more than 50% of the management units were extracting less than 30% of sustainable yield, with a further 19% between 70% and 100%, and 11% exceeding annual sustainable yield. Overall, 83 units (15%) were judged to be overallocated. Three management units, all in Victoria, had developed environmental allocation plans. The framework is supported by two further national initiatives, and coordinated by the Department of Heritage and Environment -the National Principles for the Provision of Water for Ecosystems (ARMCANZ, 1996b) and the National Water Quality Management Strategy Guidelines for Groundwater Protection in Australia (ARMCANZ, 1995). A summary of groundwater-dependent ecosystems as envisaged in this and other work is given in Box 15.1. There are two further supporting frameworks:1. Overallocated Groundwater -A National Framework for Managing Overallocated Groundwater Systems has 13 recommendations designed to provide policy guidance for the states grappling with the serious issue of how to reduce the licensed volumes of overallocated groundwater aquifers. Associated with this policy paper is a Best Management Practice Manual, which suggests a broad range of approaches that are available to groundwater managers to reduce allocations and use (NRMMC, 2002a-c). 2. A National Framework for Promoting Groundwater Trading identifies the fundamental requirements for trading of groundwater as well as the impediments to groundwater trading.The 13 recommendations address both the preconditions for trading and the requirement for a trading regime to operate. Methods to encourage trading are identified, as are the benefits of groundwater trading. The disadvantages of trading in overused systems are also identified. The document also asserts the following:• The current level of monitoring of groundwater use (through the metering of bores) was low and more comprehensive data were required to correctly estimate sustainable yields.Commonly agreed methods for estimating sustainable yields and defining environmental water allocations for groundwater-dependent ecosystems were yet to be developed.• Some states and territories have released new groundwater management policies; however, generally groundwater management reform was lagging behind those in surface water.We will now turn to the central issue of sustainable yield: how this is defined, effected by groundwater-dependent ecosystems, and the characteristics of groundwater licensing and trade.Many countries (e.g. the USA and India) have widely adopted the concept of 'safe yield' (i.e. annual recharge) as a sustainable extraction limit. In many instances, this adoption is necessitated by high levels of groundwater development, but it has limited ability to account for hydraulic connectivity between water resources and environmental dependencies (Custodio, 2002; see also Llamas and Garrido, Chapter 13, this volume).Australia's relatively recent development of groundwater allows a more conservative approach to sustainable yield. As any significant development of an aquifer will alter the water balance and have some impact, 'sustainability' must be interpreted as 'social acceptability of impacts' (Herczeg and Leaney, 2002). The central role of community in defining sustainable yield was noted by ARMCANZ (1996a):As any definition of sustainable yield embraces a range of technical as well as social, environmental and economic factors, it is necessary for considerable community input to make judgement of what is sustainable.The NGC (2004) agreed the following definition of sustainable groundwater yield ('sustainable yield'):The groundwater extraction regime, measured over a specified planning timeframe, that allows acceptable levels of stress and protects dependent economic, social, and environmental values.In adopting this definition, the NGC requested it be used with the explanatory notes provided, abridged in Box 15.2.While implication within this definition and accompanying explanatory notes is to adopt a conservative approach to sustainable yield, the definition has been designed to allow for groundwater 'mining'. The willingness of the states to accept 'mining' -'the exploitation of groundwater at a rate that is much greater than recharge' (Custodio, 2002) -as 'sustainable' has resulted in differences in the application of sustainable yield across the states. SA, in particular, accepts the notion of controlled depletion on the basis that (assuming no groundwater-dependent ecosystems) the groundwater is of no benefit if unused.Box 15.1. Defi nitions of groundwater-dependent ecosystems in Australia. (Adapted from Hatton andEvans, 1998, 2003.) • terrestrial ecosystems that show seasonal or episodic reliance on groundwater;• river base fl ow systems, which are aquatic and riparian ecosystems in, or adjacent to, streams or rivers depending on the input of groundwater base fl ows, especially during dry seasons in seasonally dry climates or perennially in arid zones; hyporheic zones; • aquifer and cave ecosystems, often containing diverse and unique fauna;• wetlands dependent on groundwater infl ux for all or part of the year;• estuarine and near-shore marine ecosystems that use groundwater discharge.Box 15.2. Explanatory notes to accompany the nationally accepted defi nition of sustainable groundwater yield. (From NGC, 2004.) It is recognized that sustainable groundwater yield should be expressed in the form of an extraction regime, not just an extraction volume. The concept is that a regime is a set of management practices that are defi ned within a specifi ed time (or planning period) and space. Extraction limits may be expressed in volumetric quantity terms and may further specify the extraction or withdrawal regime by way of accounting rules and/or rates of extraction over a given period and/or impact, water level or quality trigger rules. The limits may be probabilistic and/or conditional.An oft-used means of defi ning the extraction regime has been by way of a maximum volume that may be taken in any single year. In some cases, where drawdown beyond the rate of recharge may be acceptable, it may be only for a specifi ed period, after which time the rate may be less than the rate of recharge to compensate. In some cases and under specifi c circumstances (e.g. high or low rainfall years), the amount of water that may be taken may be greater or lesser than the longer-term value, and the conditions for this can be specifi ed.The approach recognizes that any extraction of groundwater will result in some level of stress or impact on the total system, including groundwater-dependent ecosystems. The concept of acceptable levels of stress as the determining factor for sustainable yield embodies recognition of the need for trade-offs to determine what is acceptable. How trade-offs are made is a case-and site-specifi c issue and a matter for the individual states to administer.The defi nition should be applied in recognition of the total system. That is, it should recognize the interactions between aquifers and between surface and groundwater systems and associated water dependent ecosystems.In calculating sustainable yield, a precautionary approach must be taken with estimates being lower where there is limited knowledge. Application of the calculated sustainable yield as a limit on extractions must be applied through a process of adaptive management involving monitoring impacts of extraction. Sustainable yields should be regularly reassessed and may be adjusted in accordance with a specifi ed planning framework to take account of any new information, including improved valuations of dependent ecosystems.The approach recognizes that extraction of groundwater over any time frame will result in some depletion of groundwater storage (refl ected in a lowering of water levels or potentiometric head). It also recognizes that extracting groundwater in a way that results in any unacceptable depletion of storage lies outside the defi nition of sustainable groundwater yield.Where depletion is expected to continue beyond the specifi ed planning time frame, an assessment needs to be made of the likely acceptability of that continuation and whether intervention action might be necessary to reduce extraction. If intervention is likely to be necessary, planning for that action should be undertaken so that it can be implemented at the end of the specifi ed time frame.Major considerations in determining the acceptability of any specifi c level of storage depletion should be 'intergenerational equity', and a balance betweenThe national definition of sustainable yield does not identify a standard planning time frame. The cumulative nature of extraction impacts and temporal response of aquifers can make the planning time frame a critical component of groundwater planning. These attributes of groundwater make sustainable yield estimations particularly subject to changes in social values and technical knowledge (see case study 2). Community understanding of groundwater availability can be difficult to progress with regard to the differences between the amount of water stored in an aquifer and the rate of recharge of that storage.Before the identification of groundwater management units and adoption of sustainable yield philosophies, it was not uncommon for water licences to provide access to a volume of water that could be taken as either surface water or groundwater ('conjunctive licences'). As a result of the COAG (1994) agreements to establish accounting mechanisms able to facilitate trade, conjunctive licences are progressively being separated into surface water and groundwater licences and this separation is considered complete in most states.The identification of groundwater management units and adoption of sustainable yield practices within these management boundaries has allowed issue and management of groundwater licences to reflect that of surface water licensing. Thus groundwater licences comprise a share (still considered a volume in many areas) and an allocation. The introduction of groundwater management plans in overallocated areas alters the previously assumed 1:1 relationship between share and volume.Where groundwater licences have been translated from volume to share through introduction of groundwater management plans, forecast of allocation is provided across the lifespan of the plan (typically 5-10 years). Thus, groundwater users have forewarning and can adapt if the plan requires a decrease in allocation. This is fundamentally different to the security offered by surface water and is of great importance to regional economies during drought where the storage/share ratio is low (e.g. NSW).In locations where groundwater mining is not advocated, groundwater sharing plans typically address overallocation through an adjustment period by successively reducing the value of groundwater shares each year over the duration of the plan. In some areas where significant reduction was required (e.g. the Namoi, see case study 2), governments have provided financial support to assist regional The defi nition recognizes that groundwater resources have multiple values, some of which are extractive while others are in situ (e.g. associated water-dependent ecosystems) and all have a legitimate claim on the water resource.communities to adjust to lower water availability. The other common practice to assist economic viability of communities in such instances is to develop carry-over capacities. As with surface water, this capacity allows unused (volumetric) allocation from 1 year to be transferred into the following year. Two primary constraints affect the capacity for such carry-over: (i) the physical limitation of bore yield; and (ii) the institutional limitations identified in the relevant groundwater management plan. While carry-over does not increase the net volume of available water over duration of a plan, it does allow for individuals to 'save' groundwater entitlements for drought years when surface water is not available.The implementation of sustainable yield as an extraction regime rather than just a volume has generally been facilitated by the subdivision of groundwater management units into zones. They may be subject to different management constraints and practices (including trade) depending on zone-specific characteristics such as aquifer dynamics, level of development, water quality objectives, water level objectives and/or water pressure objectives. Case study 2 provides some insight into the manner in which zones can be used.In accordance with COAG (1994) water reforms, groundwater management trade is progressively being enabled. Groundwater trade typically develops in fully allocated systems once enabled through institutional arrangements dictated via groundwater management plans.Groundwater markets are geographically defined by groundwater management plans, and often restricted by institutional, technical and practical constraints applicable to zones subject to those plans. Generally speaking, groundwater trade in overallocated systems is considered a problem, and limited until overallocation has been addressed. Thus (nationally), groundwater trade is somewhat influenced by the priority development of groundwater management plans for overallocated resources and therefore tends to be localized (and can be restricted to zones within management areas).The isolated nature of groundwater infrastructure and high costs of bore construction provide for narrow water market. Groundwater trade involves accessing more water from a bore rather than supplying more water via a channel. In practice, the high private overhead and risk of stranded assets associated with groundwater development for irrigation have limited the practical separation of groundwater property rights and land property rights A national overview of groundwater markets was compiled in 2003 (Fullagar and Evans, 2003). This overview found that established rural groundwater trade markets existed only in SA and southern Victoria, for both temporary and permanent transfers. Prices for temporary trade ranged from AUS$0/m 3 to AUS$2.80/m 3 . Prices for permanent trade ranged from AUS$0.325/m 3 to AUS$21.50/m 3 . The broad range in prices is a direct reflection of the nature of markets within different groundwater management units: the niche wine markets in SA (notably McLaren Vale) allow far greater prices than do dominant crops in other states. Although only about 150 groundwater trades were estimated to occur annually in Australia (more than 50% of these in SA), expansion of groundwater trade is anticipated (Boyd and Brumley, 2003;Fullagar and Evans, 2003) as it is progressively enabled through implementation of the water reform process.As observed earlier, the focus of Australian public discussion and political interest in groundwater has now progressed from salinity management per se to recognizing the need for improved management across the surface and groundwater components of flow systems as well as the impact that limited surface water availability is having on groundwater development of adjacent aquifers. Thus, while saline base flows have been increasing, there is a risk that goodquality base flows will decrease.Institutional (planning and management) separation of surface and groundwaters has allowed potential double allocation across a flow system (i.e. allocating the same yield once as surface water and again as groundwater).In response to this issue, a national workshop addressing the management of hydraulically connected surface and groundwaters (Fullagar, 2004) recommended the adoption of five principles (see Box 15.3), the first of which was subsequently adapted and adopted as a component of the NWI objective. These principles are consistent with the issues and knowledge gaps that are handled by the NGC (2004).Behind this work is the general belief that the sustainable productive capacity across a flow system (surface and/or groundwater) can be maximized by taking the 'right water, from the right place, at the right time' -this is the essence of the Australian interpretation of conjunctive water management. 2  Managed aquifer recharge (including artificial groundwater recharge) is one aspect of surface and groundwater integration that has an interesting, if particular, history in Australia. There is increasing interest in capturing storm water, flood water and reclaimed or recycled water and diverting it to an aquifer either to recover lost storage or to enhance aquifer yield.Before the 1960s, excessive private groundwater development for irrigation in the Burdekin delta, Queensland, led to sea water intrusion. In the mid-1960s, management of the Burdekin River was revised to provide for the replenishment of the delta aquifer through artificial recharge. The Burdekin became the largest groundwater-dependent irrigation scheme in Australia, with more than 35,000 ha of sugarcane and vegetables, adjacent to a surface-irrigated scheme of roughly the same area. Groundwater levels and yield have been systematically managed Box 15.3. Recommended principles for managing hydraulically connected surface water and groundwater.Where physically connected, surface water (including overland fl ows) and groundwater should be managed as one resource.(including overland fl ows) and groundwater unless proven otherwise.and/or overland fl ows should be identifi ed and eliminated by 2014.Water users (surface water and groundwaters) should be treated equally.through artifical recharge from the Burdekin Falls dam since then. Recent economic analysis indicates that effective recharge may be adequately provided from irrigation return flows alone, with better benefits from the primary use of the irrigation water compared to direct recharge (see e.g. Hafi, 2003).This example illustrates an unusual Australian development of surface water to respond to groundwater depletion, which contrasts with the more common problem of surface water depletion and increasing reliance on groundwater for drought management, whilst at the same time groundwater faces increasing degradation through salinity.It is primarily economic costs of aquifer storage and recovery that have to date restricted practical interest to the high-value niche markets of SA. Noting the water values in McLaren Vale (see previous section on groundwater trade), it is not surprising that artificial recharge has created some interest. Water management in McLaren Vale involves the (privately initiated and funded) relocation and use of reclaimed water from an off-site treatment system (Grasbury, 2004). Interest in recharge has largely related to the need to secure winter storage in order to optimize use of this alternative water supply (10,000 million litres per year). In this instance, artificial recharge is economically viable and funding is not a primary issue. Trials have shown it to be a technically viable option (Hook et al., 2002); however, obtaining necessary regulatory approvals have proven to be difficult: there are few precedents to build on, and obtaining approval thus requires a significant degree of government commitment.Addressing surface water-groundwater interaction requires an understanding of the geographic distribution and volumes involved. Braaten and Gates (2003) made a statewide assessment of river systems in NSW, overlaying major streams with groundwater depth data and the locations of irrigation bores. The results demonstrated that river losses and/or gains are most closely correlated to groundwater levels in the mid-sections of the major rivers where alluvial systems are well developed, narrow and constricted, and groundwater depths are shallow.The profile of issues associated with surface water-groundwater interactions is perhaps best represented by the interjurisdictional activities that are in progress in context of the MDB (the catchment for the Murray and Darling rivers; Fig. 15.2). The MDB covers 1,061,469 km 2 , and includes almost three-quarters of Australia's total irrigated land. About 70% of water used for agriculture in Australia is for irrigation in the MDB. The MDB extends over three-quarters of NSW, more than half of Victoria, significant portions of Queensland and SA and includes the whole of the Australian Capital Territory.States retain responsibilities for natural resource management. The Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) is an interjursidictional institution established 'to promote and coordinate effective planning and management for the equitable, efficient and sustainable use of the water, land and other environmental resources of the Murray-Darling Basin' (MDBMC, 1992). The Commission reports to a ministerial council comprising ministers from each of the jurisdictional governments (including the Commonwealth) and a representative of the MDB community. Resolutions of the council require a unanimous vote.The story of surface water allocation, the Cap on surface water in the MDB, has been presented earlier in this chapter; these policies were based specifically on river management and as such took no account of groundwater (MDBMC, 1996). Concerns relating to irrigation-induced salinity had been registered as early as 1911 within the MDB (Wilkinson and Barr, 1993). Accordingly, initial MDBC interest in groundwater was associated with water quality management and the impact of salinity to in-stream water quality -this interest subsequently expanded to encompass concerns regarding the mobilization of salts from dryland farming areas. In 1996, a technical report (MDBC Groundwater Working Group, 1996) was released with the aim of 'progressing the setting of policy and programs to achieve a higher utilization of groundwater within the Basin's water resource allocation'. This report was followed in 1998 by another, which specifically outlined the impact that limited access to surface water would have on demand for groundwater, and the need to manage potential hydraulic impacts between surface and groundwaters (MDBC Groundwater Working Group, 1998). This report fed into general concerns that groundwater development could threaten river base flows -an impact with potential to thrust groundwater management into the central quantitative concerns of Cap agreements. The three means by which groundwater management may threaten the integrity of the Cap are (Fullagar, 2001):1. reduced quantity of base flows through interception; 2. reduced quality of base flows through poor salinity management; 3. reduced capacity for governments to remain committed to the Cap in the event where viable alternative water supplies are lost.A number of strategic studies were initiated to assess associated risks. These studies looked at: (i) the projection of groundwater extraction rates and implications for surface water; (ii) estimation of base flow in unregulated catchments of the MDB; and (iii) a review of groundwater property rights in Australia.To provide a more comprehensive picture of water consumption within the MDB, the annual MDB Water Audit Monitoring Report (1999) began including groundwater consumption statistics in 1999/2000. Subsequent records (see Table 15.7) show a general increasing trend in groundwater consumption within the MDB, which peaked in response to the critical drought conditions of 2002/03.The Review of the Operation of Cap (MDBCMC, 2000) found that the Cap had been a critical 'first step' in sustainable management of river resources in the MDB. The report included a recommendation to develop a groundwater management strategy for the MDB based on:• jurisdictional management of sustainable yields;• investigations clarifying how groundwater management practices may impact upon the integrity of the Cap in the future. MDBC (2003) publicly released a report estimating an average reduction in surface water flow of 600 million litres for every 1000 million litres of groundwater use (Sinclair Knight Merz, 2003). Under groundwater development of the time, this amounted to a 2% undermining of the Cap, which was projected to increase to 7% in 50 years.While the geological history of alluvial aquifer development implies some hydraulic relationship between groundwater and surface water, quantifying the potential for 'double allocation' is complicated by management and planning time frames, and time lags between groundwater flows and streams. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this work is the proactive manner in which the multiple jurisdictions have acknowledged and agreed to progress with a highly technical and political issue. This cooperation highlights the political importance given to ensure the long-term viability of existing surface water agreements underpinning management of the MDB. More broadly, groundwater interest within the MDBC structure is indicative of a wider interest in recognizing and realizing any potential environmental and/or productive opportunities associated with conjunctive water management.Investigations associated with the development of an MDB groundwater management strategy continue. Consistent with broader water reforms, the primary focus of this research is to:• establish consistent approaches to calculating sustainable yields for aquifers within the basin;• build a framework for managing the combined use of surface and groundwaters;• develop tools to help manage external groundwater impacts from irrigated areas;• develop an approach to manage groundwater systems that have been overallocated;• establish an evaluation process to help monitor and report progress against benchmarks and targets for managing groundwater resources.In the following section, we focus on the development of groundwater policy at state level, with the case of NSW, and then take a more detailed look at an interesting example of efforts to bring an overexploited aquifer system back to sustainable levels in the Namoi Valley, which lies in NSW to the north of the MDB.The total NSW groundwater resource is estimated at 5110 billion cubic metres, which is an enormous quantity of water, approximately 200 times the storage capacity of all dams in the state (DLWC, 2003). However, it has highly variable characteristics in terms of depth, yield, quality and spatial and temporal recharge. The sustainable yield is a tiny fraction of this (0.12%) at 6.19 billion cubic metres, of which 15% is too saline to use for most purposes. It is however a large resource and has been thought of as an effective buffer in drought.In 1990, there were 70,000 licensed bores operating in the state of NSW, extracting 530 million cubic metres per year for irrigation, 15 million cubic metres per year for industry, commerce, mining and recreation and 60 million cubic metres per year for rural towns. Through the 1990s there has been increasing emphasis on high-value agriculture, with vegetables and fruits (grapes) leading the value table, and attracting higher-technology irrigation inputs (micro-sprinkler and drip irrigation) and accounting for a significant proportion of groundwater use. There has also been rapid development of groundwater since the early 1980s for conjunctive use on cotton and other commercial crops in the northern part of the state. There are few large dams in the northern river valleys and river flows are directly diverted, or harvested and stored in large on-farm dams known as 'ring-tanks' or 'turkey's nests'. Although cotton prices fluctuate considerably, the values shown in Table 15.8 indicate the price drivers for higher-value and intensified agriculture and the corresponding irrigated areas for each major crop.The NSW Water Administration Act (1986) gave the minister of water resources the right to control, manage and use groundwater via the Department of Land and Water Conservation (DLWC), principally through licensing of use. Land use planning has been seen as crucial to the maintenance of groundwater quality and has been administered by the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, working in cooperation with local government authorities under the remit of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act of 1979. The protection of surface and groundwaters is governed by the Clean Waters Act of 1970 and the Environmental Offences and Penalties Act of 1989, both of which are administered by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).In 1997, the government of NSW released its State Groundwater Policy Framework (DLWC, 1997), which was then supported by three subsidiary policies on: (i) groundwater quality protection (1999); (ii) groundwater quantity management (2000); and (iii) groundwater-dependent ecosystems (2000). The guiding principles of the policy framework are given in Box 15.4.In 1998, a risk assessment was conducted for 98 aquifers across the state by the DLWC and 36 were found to be at high levels of risk. Of these, 4 aquifers suffered from water quality degradation and 32 from overallocation, and consequently 14 were embargoed from further development. The remaining potential for further groundwater development was judged to be limited to aquifers in some of the smaller inland river tributaries and valleys, some of the coastal sand and alluvial aquifer systems and 'unincorporated areas' (those within a groundwater province, but outside a designated groundwater management unit).Implementation was also to be guided by risk assessment, so that increased focus and levels of management would be applied to more stressed aquifers on a priority basis. The management tools envisaged in the framework document included (DLWC, 1997): • supporting guidelines for local government and industry;• creation of aquifer resources and vulnerability maps;• an education strategy;• legislative mechanisms for groundwater management;• licensing tools and conditions for users that better reflect resource protection objectives;• economic instruments applicable to groundwater management.At the time the framework was released, there were already 13 groundwater management plans in existence, and a further 5 in preparation, and the experience gained thereby was effectively incorporated into the policy. Groundwater management plans are to be reviewed on a 5-year basis and reporting is undertaken by community-staffed Groundwater Management Committees, supported where necessary by state funds. Reporting is biennial, and requires comparison of measurable indicators against the plan's targets. Much of the ensuing debate in NSW has hinged on the definition of sustainable yield, and within this, determination of volumes available for development. Statewide this has been defined as 100% of the long-term average recharge with further reductions advised to reserve water for groundwater-dependent ecosystems. A pilot process was undertaken in the Namoi Valley to reduce abstractions to sustainable levels -through consultative processes and committees -and defining sustainable yield was at the core of the negotiations.Box 15.4. Principles of the NSW Groundwater Policy Framework. (From DLWC, 1997.)• An ethos for the sustainable management of groundwater resources should be encouraged in all agencies, communities and individuals who own, manage or use these resources, and its practical application facilitated. • Non-sustainable resource uses should be phased out.• Signifi cant environmental and/or social values dependent on groundwater should be accorded special protection. • Environmentally degrading processes and practices should be replaced with more effi cient and ecologically sustainable alternatives. • Where possible, environmentally degraded areas should be rehabilitated and their ecosystem support functions restored. • Where appropriate, the management of surface and groundwater resources should be integrated.• Groundwater management should be adaptive, to account for both increasing understanding of resource dynamics and changing community attitudes and needs.• Groundwater management should be integrated with the wider environmental and resource management framework, and also with other policies dealing with human activities and land use, such as urban development, agriculture, industry, mining, energy, transport and tourism.Since different formulas are used in different states and territories, and in many the amount of data is increasing and the reliability of assessment is improving, there are some cases where the estimate of sustainable extraction has actually risen since 2000.The Namoi River catchment lies in north-east-central NSW and covers approximately 42,000 km 2 , as shown in Fig. 15.3. The river flows 350 km from east to west and there are three major storages on the main stem and its tributaries: Keepit, Chaffey and Split Rock dams. The catchment includes part of the Liverpool Plains that has been subject to long-term investigations of fertilizer and agrochemical pollution of groundwater. Rain generally occurs in summer but is highly variable between years and seasons, from as high as 1100 mm/ year over the Great Dividing Range in the east (upper catchment) to as little as 470 mm/year in the downstream area in the west. As in the rest of southeastern Australia, potential evaporation generally exceeds rainfall rising from 1000 mm/year in the east to more than 1750 mm/year in the west.Groundwater is generally sourced from quaternary alluvial aquifers running along the major stream lines, but there are also two low-yielding sandstone aquifers. The total volume of groundwater storage is estimated to be 285 billion cubic metres, of which 89% is of low salinity (less than LGA boundaries Namoi catchment Gwydir catchment 1000 mg/l total dissolved solids (TDS) ). In 1988, there were 1639 highyielding tube wells, mainly in the paleo-channels or alluvium adjacent to the river, with maximum yields as high as 200 l/s. Average groundwater use at this time was 200 million cubic metres per year, which was equivalent to recharge these aquifers. Small volumes are also sourced from porous sandstone aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin, which stores the bulk of the groundwater in the Namoi Valley (243 billion cubic metres) at depths of 520-810 m below ground level. Although TDS are generally less than 1200 mg/l, the water has high sodium content and is not suitable for irrigation, but is used for stock watering and for town and rural drinking water. Groundwater in fractured rocks (basalt) is sometimes sourced for stock and domestic supplies, but yields are low and success in drilling is variable.The Namoi accounts for about 40% of NSW's total groundwater use and is one of the most intensively developed irrigation areas in the state, with largely private investment through agri-business (e.g. Auscott and Twynhams) and large landholders who have moved into intensive irrigation development. Cotton is essentially a 'young industry', with highly mechanized large-scale layouts, mainly using furrow and bed irrigation. Substantial research has been undertaken into tightly scheduled irrigation and irrigation agronomy, coupled with trials on micro-irrigation and drip tape, but the consensus is that furrow and bed irrigation is best suited to the vertisol soils and has cheaper capital and operational costs, which attract less risk with volatile cotton prices.Groundwater has been extensively monitored since the 1970s, with 560 piezometers at 240 sites in 1995, and a further 470 licensed bores monitored on 175 properties (Johnson, 2004). This data allowed the completion and calibration of a groundwater model of the Lower Namoi in 1989 and its subsequent refinement.The chart in Fig. 15.4 shows the rapid development of groundwater, principally to irrigate cotton, lucerne and wheat since the late 1970s, increasing from less than 15,000 ha to around 35,000 ha. The surface-irrigated area in 1988 was marginally larger at 36,544 ha. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) undertook the first assessment of groundwater use in 1991, and recharge was estimated to be just over 200 million cubic metres per year. After community consultation, a contentious agreement was brokered to implement a policy of 'controlled depletion' of 220 million cubic metres per year on average, in the full knowledge that the economic life of the aquifer would then be only 30 years (i.e. till 2020). The idea of controlled depletion meant that an annual average recharge plus a further 10% or so annual depletion would be allowed.However, it was not long before many people in the community as well as in public administration decided that a more sustainable long-term solution would be preferable, and that mining the aquifer was in very few peoples' interest. Further assessment and modelling studies indicated that average usage in the Namoi was below recharge, but at the same time it was overallocated with sleepers and dozer licences and punctuated by periodic overuse, corresponding to low surface water allocation years (Fig. 15.5). However, at this stage, the  assumption was still that sustainable extraction equated to 100% long-term average annual recharge and that there were no groundwater-dependent ecosystems in the valley.Even at this most optimistic formulation of sustainable extraction, some subsystems were 3-4 times overallocated, and no further development was allowed in all zones (see Table 15.9) except zone 6 where the water table continued to rise. There was an in-principle agreement to phased reductions in allocations to 35% of existing values during 1996-1998, but in practice this proved very difficult to agree and implement. Following national and state initiatives for groundwater management reforms, a series of modelling assessments were undertaken and then supported by a Social Impact Study, conducted by CSIRO with, and on behalf of, the community. Initial stakeholder assessments on fair reallocation and the definition of environmental flows were made to develop the full process (Nancarrow et al., 1998a,b). The main focus of the assessment was to understand differential treatment of active and unused licences, as well as the likely impacts on the community and their expressed priorities. The consultation was conducted in 1999, and the main characteristics are summarized in Box 15.5.The results were incorporated into the Water Sharing Plan, seeded in 1999, which was expected to be formalized in 2000 and followed by swift implementation. The Namoi study was effectively a pilot for other groundwater management units in NSW, but in the end, the final plan was not agreed and published until 2003, and began implementation only in 2004, having progressed through one of the most severe and extended droughts on record (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004).The principle source of contention concerned the definition of sustainable extraction and the preference of many in the community to maintain this at 100% annual average recharge. In 1999, DLWC supported the continued abstraction of 100% annual average recharge and proposed a 10-to 15-year period to determine and implement a transition to incorporating an environmental share of the resource. In response to the paper 'Perspectives on the Sustainable Development of Groundwater in the Barwon Region', presented to the Namoi Groundwater Management Committee, the Nature Conservation Council of NSW drafted a hard-hitting response (http://www.nccnsw.org.au/ water), and suggested the immediate and precautionary implementation of 70% as an environmentally sustainable yield in underused zones, with a 10year transition for the overexploited zones. They proposed formulas to cut back allocations to sustainable limits for each zone, which were eventually adopted in the water sharing plan after some modification (2003).Simultaneously, combined surface and groundwater assessment studies were undertaken with hydraulic and social impact models linked together (Letcher and Jakeman, 2002). The investigators noted that many such studies require approximately 3 years for model completion, by which time the initial key issues might no longer be relevant. They commended the development of models to be sufficiently flexible for reapplication to other problems, and to emphasize the difference between outcomes and policy developed from models, compared to accurate prediction. Despite considerable community involvement, they note that great effort is required to explain model outputs and accept uncertainty and iterative solutions. They also noted that stakeholders must be encouraged and assisted to have more realistic expectations on the appropriate and inappropriate uses of models and their outputs, and implied that gaining feedback through public seminars and discussions was insufficient. The final Water Sharing Plan (MLWC, 2003) documents the agreed reductions in allocation and the rules associated with allocation and monitoring. The plan defines 13 separate groundwater management zones within the Namoi Valley and determines the long-term average recharge for each one (Table 15.9). The largest zone, in terms of geographic area, water resources and use, is the Lower Namoi, a contiguous near-stream alluvial aquifer. However, wells that were drilled deeper through unconsolidated sediments of the Lower Namoi and into the Great Artesian Basin were not included in the plan. The crux of the matter is the process by which allocations will be reduced to address current overallocation (Box 15.6).Previous drafts of the plan were consistently opposed by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW (see Report Card on Water Sharing Plans), which recommended against gazetting the Namoi Water Sharing Plan in 2003 on the grounds of insufficient allocation for the environment.The final assessment of extractable water for agriculture was undertaken on the basis of environmental health requirements (taken at approximately 30% of annual recharge) and other high-priority uses (utility licences and native title use), and considers the long-term aspects of climate variability. The domestic and stock rights were calculated separately, and then the actual agricultural demand was also determined (Table 15.9). In fact native title rights in the Namoi amounted to zero and so had no impact in this case, and it can be seen that the stock and domestic and utility licence volumes are generally modest. A simple formula that pro-rated new licensed volume in proportion to available resources, reserved licence and prior licence volumes resulted in the revised figures and the percentage reductions in zonal allocations summarized in Table 15.9. It can be seen that there are no reductions in zones 6, 9 and 10, and water levels have been rising in zone 6 due to recharge from surface irrigation and other surface water-groundwater interactions.The plan makes allowance for future revision of estimates of sustainable extraction volumes and sets limits on the maximum (over)abstraction within 1 accounting year, compared to the longer-term (3 years) average extraction as reported to the minister. Typically, the maximum 1-year overabstraction limit is 25% greater than the nominal long-term value given in Table 15.9.Water availability is determined by continuous monitoring and compares the average abstraction with the extraction limit over the current and preceding 2 years, with some upper limits set on water availability in some zones. Water accounting is conducted annually over a water year that runs from 1 July to 30 June. To minimize interference between adjacent bores, no new agricultural bores can be approved within 100 m of an existing well or 200 m from an existing property boundary, and are subject to further expert hydrogeological findings as appropriate. They must also be more than 400 m from an existing monitoring well and 500 m from an existing domestic water supply well. Finally the plan was scored by the DLWC on how well it met the 38 targets of the State Water Management Outcomes Plan. The transition period allowed for the full implementation of environmental allocation was finalized at 10 years. It will be implemented through re-specification of licences, such that the sustainable Box 15.6. Objectives and performance indicators for the groundwater sharing plan, Namoi.The objectives of the plan include:• protection maintenance and enhancement of ecosystems dependent on groundwater; • protection of the structural integrity of the aquifers and of their water quality;• management of extraction so that there is no long-term decline in water levels;• preservation of basic landholder rights access to the groundwater sources and assurance of fair, reliable and equitable access through management of local impacts and interference effects; • contribution to the protection, maintenance and enhancement of the economic viability of groundwater users and communities; • assurance of suffi cient fl exibility in account management to encourage efficient use of groundwater resources and to account for the effects of climate variations.The performance indicators selected to monitor the objectives include:• change in groundwater level and climate adjusted levels;• change in groundwater level adjacent to dependent ecosystems;• change in groundwater quality;• change in economic benefi ts derived;• extent to which domestic, stock, water utility and native title rights have been met; • change in structural integrity of the aquifer.licence volume is now formally allocated with supplementary water allocations that will be gradually reduced to zero over the transition period.A socio-economic evaluation of the plan was conducted by the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, in late 2003 (Institute for Rural Futures (IRF), 2003). This was preceded by a number of studies undertaken generally for water sharing plans in NSW by Australian Consultants International Limited (ACIL) in 2002, and by the DLWC in conjunction with the CSIRO-conducted exercise. A number of expert commentaries were also written by other observers, including the Australian Bureau for Agriculture and Resource Economics (Topp, 2000), which illustrates not only the importance and pioneering nature of the Namoi case, but also the pluralistic and broader interests and perspectives brought into play by the state, the water users and the environmental lobby groups. It also shows that different studies are employed at different times for different purposes, even if they seem to cover the same territory -for example, dealing with public or users' perception and priorities in the evolution of a plan and a more dispassionate, objective assessment of the impacts of that plan after it has been declared.The IRF study looked in detail at the economic impacts by commodity and zone, using primary data, secondary data and a farm modelling analysis. The farm analysis was extended to regions, and complemented by industry and social impacts. It was conducted at a time when an earlier version of the Water Sharing Plan was deferred for 6 months, and simplified water allocation reductions, similar to those voluntarily agreed by the user community, had been reinstated.Some farmers indicated that they would acquire, or try to acquire, increased surface water supplies to substitute for 'lost' groundwater allocation, and set their future farming strategies accordingly; hence various scenarios of future water use were investigated, including the impact of trading. However, the authors lamented the lack of reliable information on the interaction between streams, irrigated fields and aquifers and the extent to which surface water could be substituted for groundwater.Groundwater-irrigated farms were estimated to contribute AUS$384 million or 56% of the gross value of agricultural production in 2000-2001. The analysis of all zones indicated a future loss of production of AUS$26.7 million in 0-9 years (under the plan) and a further AUS$42.3 million in 10-20 years (post plan), considerably more than the structural adjustment compensation of AUS$18 million proposed by the NSW government. An alternative plan of AUS$120 million compensation had also been proposed, but cut back to this value, amounting to an average of about AUS$70,000 per affected property. As a result, it was felt that some owner-operators would be forced to amalgamate and expand or to cease operation due to reduced net income of reduced water allocation. The mitigating impacts of new enterprises, new technology and possible higher-price regimes in the future were all positive. Overall, it was expected that irrigated production would contract, with cereals reducing far more than irrigated cotton, and would be partially compensated by an increase in rain-fed wheat and sorghum. Lucerne production would decline and there would be an increase in feedlot cattle production and a corresponding reduction in open grazing. Little change in high-value cropping was anticipated. At a regional scale, it was estimated that gross regional product would decline by 2% in 0-9 years and by 4% thereafter (10-20 years), with corresponding reductions in household income of 2% and reductions in employment of 2%. Social impacts were not quantified, but explained in qualitative terms, such as loss of employment, reduction in school population, reduced local spending and knock-on effects on service industries. The report identified the town of Gunnedah as the focal point of declining cotton production, which was expected to concentrate closer to existing service centres in Narrabri.Although the Water Sharing Plan was developed in close consultation with the community over a long period, individual property owners are reported to have spent as much as AUS$ 250,000 in trying to challenge the plan in court (Rural Reporter, 30 August 2003).The story continues to unfold with the same pressures from users, environmental groups and resource managers coming into play. The plan was due to be implemented towards the end of 2004, but was delayed and is now scheduled for implementation in 2006. In the current iterations, research continues on surface water-groundwater interactions and the resulting effects on water allocation policy (Ivkovic et al., 2004). Preliminary conclusions indicate localized reductions in stream base flow, likely to be attributed to groundwater use. More extensive investigation continues, but it is likely that there will be further pressure on limiting both surface and groundwater abstraction, until a balance that is acceptable to the community has been achieved. This will no doubt continue to be a robust and noisy process.Although there are obvious structural differences between Australia and developing countries such as those in South Asia and China using groundwater, there are still useful insights to be gained. The contextual differences include population, particularly the farm population (20 million well users in India vs. 70,000 in NSW) and corresponding farm size, where Australian holdings range from hundreds to thousands of hectares. As a result, the number of wells in Australia is relatively modest and licensing and metering are not the daunting tasks presented in, for example, the Indian subcontinent. The lessons for Australia itself can be briefly summarized as follows:1. Ensure that groundwater and/or surface water reforms happen in tandem to avoid lags in policy development and implementation. 2. Recognize groundwater-surface water interactions and aim to use these proactively rather than reactively. 3. Ensure that sustainable yield takes into account the temporal and geographic distribution of water use as well as the sustainable volumes available for development. 4. Zonal approaches can be used to fine-tune sustainable yield management.Ownership of policies is critical to compliance, especially where overallocation or isolated infrastructure is involved. 6. Interindustry and interjurisdictional issues relating to aquifer development should be pre-empted -economic inequities between industries can complicate resolution. 7. Regular monitoring and reporting underpin management, understanding and compliance -groundwater issues can only be managed if they are recognized or addressed early enough.However, Australia shares a common heritage of a philosophy of statesponsored development of agriculture and irrigation in particular. This has been focused particularly on the development of a commercial agricultural economy with a major focus on exports. As the world market has become more competitive and rural sector's economic share of GNP has declined, the state has been less inclined to support the agriculture and has plunged it into global free trade with an enthusiasm and commitment seen in few other parts of the world. Coupled with the rising conviction that environmental management is of crucial i mportance, the federal government, through the COAG, has pursued reform objectives, based on clearly defined economic, environmental and social principles. These have been developed by state leaders and explained, sold and forced on the states' populations through combinations of incentives and penalties.This has occurred against a background of genuine (if expensive) public participation in natural resources management, which has been transformed from disparate local initiatives into a national movement, and then rationalized to some extent through catchment-based management organizations that retain a strong community ownership and membership. Politically, the environmentally conscious urban electorate has become significantly more powerful than the rural lobby, whilst at the same time the true guardians of the rural environment are those who live and work there -predominantly farmers. In contrast, there is probably no broad-based consensus on economic reform and national competitiveness (masked at the ballot box by other issues), and this has allowed the central government to take the lead on potentially unpopular reforms with much less public participation and discussion.Public participation involves genuine dialogue and often rancorous discussion supported by publicly available information. Although some information is recognized to be still far from perfect, there is a good general understanding of the resource base and its constraints, if less than perfect knowledge of actual groundwater use. With respect to groundwater, there has been a big step forward in the understanding of allocation in relation to sustainable resource use and this has led to hard-to-negotiate adjustment programmes to reduce overallocation, which is intrinsically easier than dealing with overconsumption, which in India is the real problem in absentia of rational energy pricing and any form of allocation system (see Shah, Chapters 2 and 11, this volume). On the inside, the debate is noisy and fragmented, giving a very different impression to the 'contestants' on the ground compared with observers trying to synthesize experience and progress from the outside. However, noise and dispute are welcome signs of a dynamic and healthy process, and in the end contribute to more balanced sets of outcomes than administration by fiat, whether it is honoured in practice or in the breach.Public availability of data, commitment to find more when it is insufficient and access to modelling and other impact assessments, commissioned by the community, by the state or in collaboration, all contribute to a more transparent and better-argued politics in natural resources management.There is an increasing tendency to look at structural differences between developed and developing countries and then say 'obviously this cannot be done' or 'that does not apply'. There is an increasing body of literature questioning integrated water resources management, especially its more prescriptive formulations (Biswas et al., 2005). However, sound principles and practices need to be applied if we wish to achieve sustainable development of water resources and not overdevelop or degrade the resources for future generations.This chapter shows that groundwater management is a complex, multifa ceted process that is dynamic and has continually changing contexts, problems and challenges, just as with surface water. It also illustrates clearly that surface and groundwater management needs to be integrated in many cases, although this adds further complexity, more stakeholders, greater need for data and so on.However, structural differences between Australia and, say, India mask differences in the size and importance of groundwater as a sector. In India, it is a much more significant contributor to both the economy and the individual welfare and, as such, should be accorded serious attention concerning its future sustainability. The recognition of this importance has either escaped the government's notice (by now, unlikely) or has been submerged by other conflicting short-term agendas and solutions. The Australian experience shows that initiative and active involvement by different interest groups working at different levels and for different ends can move towards a longer-term agenda, for broadly similar reasons of welfare and stability that confront developing countries.An important point is that an effective process, based on a combination of policy, economics, science and participation can be, and has been, established. Attention to detail has been a fundamental plank in groundwater reforms, considering resource availability, use, environmental consequences, economic benefits and losses, and accounting for the range of stakeholders' perspectives and views. This does not mean that all stakeholders' needs and concerns are satisfied -far from it -but they are ultimately negotiated and cajoled towards what is believed to be a better position. A commitment to monitoring should ensure that results can be evaluated and the effectiveness of different policies and positions determined in a continuing and dynamic cycle of 'adaptive management'.Countries such as India can learn from broader federal mechanisms of carrot and stick policies, applied to their own contexts. The Australian case shows how a strong and purposive government can rub shoulders with true public participation. There are positive lessons in the detailed development of process, interagency cooperation and genuine participation at state level. In India, managing approximately 20 million tube well owners looks like an impossible issue even though they represent only 1/50th of the whole population. At state level this number may reduce to a million tube well owners, amongst other millions of citizens -and becomes immediately more tractable, although daunting. Guiding and resourcing local authorities to manage jointly and locally with the community require commitment, clear direction and professional and serviceoriented public agencies.None of these reforms have happened overnight in developed countries and have a backdrop of a long history of changes in technology, management, ideology and public institutions. Change does not happen rapidly and cannot be expected to do so, miraculously, in developing countries. Solutions adapt to problems through the simple and pragmatic business of trying them out and gaining experience, confidence and trust. Exact models of management cannot be expected to be transplanted and made to work in different contexts, but different components offer potential to provide solutions if there is the broad policy and incentive structure to maintain commitment to learn and adapt on the ground.To find solutions it is necessary to define problems, and there is great potential to do this more effectively, thoroughly and in more detail from a range of stakeholders' perspectives. How to do this with large numbers of stakeholders remains a challenge, which is only partly solved by increasing education and awareness.1 Sleepers and dozers are licence-holders who pay for their entitlement annually, but use little or none of it. Typically they run mixed farms with rain-fed crops and substantial livestock holdings, for which they keep water entitlement as insurance in drought years, either for fodder production or direct stock watering. There are no 'use-it or lose-it' provisions (as in the US prior appropriation doctrine) for water licences in Australia. 2 'Conjunctive water management' encompasses both productive and environmental objectives, and some account of any hydraulic interdependency between surface and groundwaters is generally implicit to Australian use of the term. Consistent with the notion of sustainable yield as a 'regime' rather than volume and a rejection of 'prior rights', Australian terminology assumes fairly specific 'flow system' connotations and thus may be distinguished from aggregation of conjunctive use (e.g. according to Raju and Brewer, 2000) and activating use of aquifer storage services (e.g. characteristic of conjunctive water management in the USA, Blomquist et al., 2004).","tokenCount":"13623"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c9a9e7fb087df0a9e0f26a553bb70463","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cdae1ea1-d908-4577-9337-d3a8723aabaf/retrieve","id":"190592379"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"64545811-803c-42bc-bc06-8c18ace5f88b","pagecount":"31","content":"Objective of module 2: Gender strategy development • To increase participants' knowledge on how to use gender-sensitive data to develop gender-responsive programs, strategies and interventions and apply this with their own programs and organizations. Levels Core Gender Capacities Environmental Organizational Individual Gender analysis and strategic planning A.I A.II A.III Gender responsive programming, budgeting and implementation B.I B.II B.III Knowledge management and gender responsive M&E The focus of this module will be on the core gender capacity of gender responsive programming, budgeting and implementation, while significant attention is given to the differences between accommodating and transformative approaches (the core gender capacity on innovation in gender responsive approaches). focus on external, program issues. Specific contents and outcomes for each program.• What are gender responsive approaches (from gender accommodating to gender transformative approaches) and how to recognize the differences in practice?;• How to develop a gender equity vision for your program or research?;• What is gender mainstreaming and how to design a gender mainstreaming strategy? Focus module 2Gender Capacity Assessment Outcomes, 2015 2. Gender responsive approaches• Consider gender roles and relations and respond to these through:-Gender accommodating approaches -Gender transformative approaches• Do no harm to women• Facilitate movement to a more gender equal societyGender responsive approaches…Gender accommodating and transformative approaches• Which type of approach is your organization applying at the moment?-Write the name of your organization on a post-it and locate it on a flip chart• Discuss case studies on gender integration strategies (best practices)What is gender mainstreaming• Strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs.• Is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programs, in all areas and at all levels.• can include gender accommodating or transformative approaches or a combination of those.• GM strategies are specific with objectives, activities, budgets• Ultimate goal is to achieve gender equalityHistory of gender mainstreaming• The concept of gender mainstreaming was first mentioned at the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985.• The concept was formally used in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China when it was integrated into the Beijing Platform for Action.• Dual approach of achieving gender equality and empowerment of women proposed -Gender strategic (empowerment focus)-Integrated (gender equality as a cross cutting issue)Women's Empowerment• The ability of women to take control over their lives:• setting their own agendas, gaining skills, building selfconfidence, solving problems and developing self-reliance.• Ability to make choices and have a voice• Institutions and organizations can support processes that can nurture self-empowerment of individuals or groups• Aims to establish policies or practices that give a certain social group (women in this case) preferential treatment in the access to and control of resources or services in order to improve the quality of life• Empowerment requires a series of affirmative actions that enable women to carry out their activities with greater autonomy and self-esteem.• Examples are policies that promote property of land for women or scholarships targeted specifically at womenWomen in Development (WID)• Aims to integrate women into the existing development process by targeting them, often in women-specific activities.• Women are usually passive recipients in WID projects• Emphasis is on making women more efficient producers and increasing their income• Many WID projects are not sustainable because they did not transform unequal relationships, which are necessary to maintain changes on the long run.• Such projects tend to be blind to men's roles and responsibilities in women's (dis)empowermentGender and Development (GAD)• The approach focuses on addressing unequal gender relations which prevent equitable development and which often lock women out of full participation.• GAD seeks to have both women and men participate, make decisions and share benefits.• GAD is informed by gender analysis unlike WID Gender budgeting• The process of conceiving, planning, approving, executing, monitoring, analyzing and auditing budgets in a gendersensitive way• Involves analysis of actual expenditure and revenue (of your organization) on women and girls as compared to expenditures on men and boys• Helps to decide how policies need to be made, adjusted and reprioritized• Is a tool for effective policy/program implementation where one can check if the allocations are in line with policy/program commitments and are having the desired impact.• Form mixed groups • Form groups by organization• Follow steps written down in the gender equity tree (Tool 2.6.2)• Aids institutionalization of shared gender equity perspective as an effective mechanism for promoting gender equity/equality at all levels of the organization (internally and externally).• Includes production processes, marketing, organizational structure, decision making, access to and control of resources, capacity development etc.• Assign a budget to the implementation of the strategy for its success• Everybody in the organization is responsible for the success implementation of the strategy• Assign someone or team to monitor and evaluate its implementation• The strategy affects everybody in the organization• Recall the gender issues developed so far• Each participate:write down two gender equity objectives you want the organization to achieve internally (e.g. internal policies, structure, staff, mission etc write down two gender equity objectives you want the organization to achieve externally (e.g. target groups, collaborations, interventions, research etc)-Share with team -As a team prioritize one internal and one external objectives• Form groups and select 2 objectives from each category II. At internal level (this will be dealt with in module 3)Objective II.1: Bring the participation of women in the organizations staff to 50%.Outcome Indicator 1: Within four years 50% of the staff will be women. The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock aims to increase the productivity and profitability of livestock agri-food systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and eggs more available and affordable across the developing world.This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.The program thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR system","tokenCount":"985"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c5aabfd35b850a242ae16fec66578cd8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4319b278-eaed-4af8-99ff-1b6570f82192/retrieve","id":"-1317722928"},"keywords":["Drip spacing","marketable yield","water productivity","Pan Coefficient","Kobo"],"sieverID":"885122b0-5581-43c8-bf19-2e95a27aac92","pagecount":"6","content":"The irrigation system in Kobo-Girrana valley is extensively developed into modern drip irrigation using ground water sources. Tomato and onion are among the major vegetables grown under drip irrigation. However, the drip lateral spacing is fixed to 1m for all irrigated crops. This lead to low crop water productivity, loss of land, less net return income and un-optimized irrigation production. An on-station experiment was conducted to determine the effect of drip line spacing and irrigation regime on yield, irrigation water use efficiency and net return income. The experiment was carried out for two consecutive irrigation seasons in 2010/11 and 2011/12 at Kobo irrigation research station. The experimental treatments were: two lateral spacing of single row and double row corresponding to each test crop and three irrigation regime (Kp = 0.8, 1.0 and 1.2). The results revealed that an interaction effect between the lateral spacing and irrigation regime was obtained in marketable yield and water productivity of test crops. Application of 0.8 Kp with 2m lateral spacing and 1.2 Kp with 1m lateral spacing provided relatively higher marketable yield of tomato and onion, respectively. Similarly, high water productivity was recorded with same irrigation depths and spacing regimes as to the yield. This result generally revealed that one lateral design for each two plant rows gave high net income than the one lateral design for each one plant row for drip irrigated fresh marketable yield of onion and tomato. An optimized production and irrigation efficiency can be attained by applying irrigation depth adjusted by the given pan coefficients and drip lateral spacing in Kobo areas.Onion and Tomato are among the major vegetable crops grown in Kobo Girana valley. Recently, use of drip irrigation for these crops has increased through government assisted ground water resources. Currently significant area is under drip irrigation development. However, the drip lateral spacing is fixed to 1m for all irrigated crops. This lead to low crop water productivity, loss of land, less net return income and un-optimized irrigation production. Lateral spacing is always a compromise b/n optimal water distribution and lateral cost. So, it is imperative to investigate whether spacing adjustment and using one lateral pipe between two plant rows is effective and economical in terms of initial investment cost and irrigation management efficiency. As a result, this study was conducted to determine the effect of drip line spacing and irrigation regime on yield, net return and irrigation water use efficiency.The experiment was carried out in Kobo irrigation sites for two consecutive years of 2011 and 2012 for onion and tomato. Kobo research station is situated at 12.08º N latitude and 39.28ºE longitudes at an altitude of 1470 masl. The 15 years mean annual rainfall is about 630 mm and average daily reference evapotranspiration rate of 5.94 mm. The soil type in the experimental site is silty clay loam which has average infiltration rate of 8 mm/hr, pH value of 7.8, average FC and PWP of 11.5% and 3.2% on volume basis, respectively.The drip system was gravitational type which stand 1.5 m head difference from the ground and consisted of PE laterals of 16 mm in diameter and PE manifold pipeline of 32 mm diameter. The discharge rates of the emitters were calculated as 0.9l/h and emitter spacing was chosen as 0.50 m. The experimental design was factorial RCBD with 4 replications. Six treatments were composed from two factors: lateral spacing (single and double) and three irrigation regimes (0.8, 1 and 1.2). For tomato and onion 1 m and 2 m lateral spacing and 0.5 and 1 m lateral spacing were used, respectively. The amounts of irrigation water applied (Im 3 ) in the irrigation treatments were determined by Class A pan evaporation using the equation given below: I = A*Ep* Kp*P where A -is the plot area (m 2 ) Ep -is the cumulative pan evaporation amount for the 4-days irrigation interval Kp -is the coefficient of pan evaporation (i.e. Kp =0.8, 1.0 and 1.2) and P -is the percentage of wetted area (Pw) or percentage For tomato and onion 30 and 10cm plant spacing was used respectively.The percentages of wetted area were determined by methods from Keller andBliesner (1990) andYildirim (2003). The Pw was the average horizontal area wetted in the top 15-30 cm of the crop root zone as a percentage of the each lateral line area. Thus, the percentages of wetted area measured in the experimental site were 90or 45% for lateral spacing of single or double, respectively. The first irrigation for all plots was based on water deficit that would be needed to bring the 0-60 cm layer of soil to field capacity. Subsequent irrigations were applied considering the 4-day irrigation interval. Irrigation water use efficiency is generally defined as crop yield per water used to produce the yield (Viets 1962;Howell 1996). Thus, IWUE was calculated as fresh fruit weight (kg) obtained per unit volume of irrigation water applied (m3). The net income for each treatment was computed by subtracting all the production costs from gross incomes. All calculations were done based on a unit area of 1 ha (Koral and Altun 2000;Inan 2001).As observed in Table 1, lateral spacing and different irrigation regimes had a separate significant effect on marketable yield of onion. However, there were no interaction effects between different lateral spacing and irrigation regimes (pan coefficients) on marketable yield of onion. The highest and the lowest marketable bulb yield of 23.54 and 18.21 ton/ha were obtained due to the effects of 1m lateral spacing with 120% of pan amount and 0.5 m with 100% of pan amount, respectively.Lateral spacing highly affected marketable fruit yield but different irrigation amounts didn't show a significant effect on marketable fruit yield of tomato. A maximum of 21.53 ton/ha marketable fruit yield was obtained due to the effect of double lateral spacing. There was no an interaction effect of plant spacing and irrigation amounts on marketable yield of tomato. The amount of marketable yields was slightly decreased as the amount of irrigation water applied increased. The maximum (23.41 ton/ha) and minimum (15.88 tone/ha) marketable yield of tomato was obtained due to effects of double row spacing with 80% pan coefficient and single row spacing with 120% pan coefficient.  As indicated in Tables 2 and 3 above, lateral spacing and different irrigation regimes separately affect water productivity and had an interaction effects on water productivity of onion. Maximum 9.85 and minimum 3.06kg/m 3 water productivity existed due to the effects of double row with 100% pan coefficient and single row with 120% pan coefficient, respectively. The value of water productivity decreased as the amount of irrigation amount increased.For tomato crops, the irrigation water use efficiencies ranges from 1.6-6.13kg/m 3 depending up on treatments. The maximum irrigation water use efficiency of 6.13kg/m 3 was obtained from double lateral spacing (2m) with 80% pan coefficient. Similarly, Mbarek and Boujelben (2004) showed that IWUE was greatest with double rows in the tomatoes grown in the greenhouse. Generally the highest water use efficiencies occurred in double lateral spacing with small pan coefficients. Furthermore, IWUEs differ considerable among the treatments and generally tends to increase with a decline in irrigation (Howell 2006). IWUE is an important factor when considering irrigation systems and water management and probably will become more important as access to water becomes more limited (Shdeed 2001).On the other hand, water productivity can be increased by increasing yield per unit land area. In addition, water management strategies and practices should be considered in order to produce more crops with less water.Economical analysis and evaluation were computed by using the results of this study based on investment, operation and production costs. Based on the irrigation amount of each treatment in the growing season irrigation duration, labour cost for irrigation and pump cost were estimated. The production costs were computed by considering all production inputs (i.e. costs of seeds, ploughing of land, transplanting, hoeing, weeding, pesticide, fertilizer, harvesting etc.) for onion and tomato. The production costs were similar for each treatment and calculated as Ethiopian birr (ETB) 10,000.00/ha for onion and ETB 7000/ha for tomato in the production season. On the other hand, drip irrigation system costs can vary greatly, depending on crop (plant and therefore, emitter spacing and hose) (Solomon 1998).Thus, based on lateral length, connections, tapes and drippers for the treatment in which the lateral spacing was 1 m and the investment costs were 26% less than in the treatment in which the lateral spacing was 0.5 m for onion. And for tomato, 2 m lateral spacing had 20.64% less investment cost than 1 m lateral spacing. The investment cost of drip system was calculated with 7 years life period (Enciso et al. 2005). According to the calculation for onion 1m lateral spacing with 120% irrigation amount gave the maximum yearly net income of ETB 81,415.93. On the other hand, less net income of ETB 58,957.35 was obtained in 0.5 m lateral spacing with 80% irrigation amount. And for tomato, the lowest ETB 28,761.00 and highest ETB 49,175.00 yearly net income were obtained due treatments of single row spacing (1 m) with 120% irrigation amount and double row spacing (2 m) with 80% irrigation amount, respectively. This result generally revealed that one lateral design for each two plant rows gave high net income than the one lateral design for each one plant row for drip irrigated fresh marketable yield of onion and tomato.In the experimental study of onion, 692 mm irrigation water amount in 0.5 m lateral spacing with 120% pan coefficient gave a marketable yield of 20.55 ton/ha. However the highest fresh marketable yield of onion (23.54 ton/ha) was obtained by the effect of 1 m lateral spacing with 120% pan coefficient which requires a total seasonal irrigation requirement of 346mm.A maximum water use efficient of 9.85 kg/m 3 was recorded by 1 m lateral spacing with 100% pan coefficient followed by 7.1 kg/m 3 water use efficiency of 1 m lateral spacing with 120% pan coefficient.Investment costs in the design of one lateral for two crop rows were 27% less because the length of laterals, dripper numbers and connections were fewer than the design of one lateral for each crop row. Also the yield obtained was high compared to the treatment with one lateral for each row. Consequently, economic analysis based on investment and production costs, yields obtained, amounts of irrigation water applied per ha, was done to compare these two treatments. As a result, 1 m lateral spacing with 120% irrigation amount was given the highest as ETB 81,415.93 yearly net income return.For tomato drip lateral spacing determination study the maximum marketable yield of 23.41 t/ha was obtained by treatment effects of 2 m lateral spacing with 80% pan coefficient to which total seasonal irrigation water amount of 225 mm.Similarly 2 m lateral spacing with 80% pan coefficient gave the maximum water use efficiency of 6.13 kg/m 3 . Fresh marketable yield slightly decreases as the irrigation regime increases. To get optimum tomato production using one lateral pipe for two plant rows and 80% pan coefficient of irrigation regime is recommendable.Drip irrigation cost of double row lateral spacing was 20.64% less than a single lateral spacing for each crop rows. A maximum marketable yield obtained in treatment of 2 m lateral spacing by 80% pan coefficient contribute for a high economical yearly net return income of ETB 49,175.An optimized production and irrigation efficiency can be attained by applying irrigation depth adjusted by the given pan coefficients and drip lateral spacing in Kobo areas.Generally in Kobo Girana area double lateral spacing is more economical than a single lateral spacing design for onion and tomato vegetables.","tokenCount":"1938"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1999765dd3f5663243ca9e94baa56615","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e57bc0bc-8cd8-4298-984d-e30c22b0ca11/retrieve","id":"-453091814"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9158c980-a651-4be5-ac71-d8affc1fff2e","pagecount":"21","content":"CIAT encourages wide dissemination of its printed and electronic publications for maximum public benefit. Thus, in most cases, colleagues working in research and development should feel free to use CIAT materials for noncommercial purposes. However, the Center prohibits modification of these materials, and we expect to receive due credit. Though CIAT prepares its publications with considerable care, the Center does not guarantee their accuracy and completeness.Predominantly smallholder agricultural landscapes in rural Africa are undergoing decades-long continuous crop production coupled with poor land management practices that have exhausted agricultural soils. People traditionally responded by expanding into new areas resulting in agricultural extensification.Many smallholder agricultural landscapes are part of a complex landscape mosaic that includes areas of high biodiversity value. One type of extensification is the conversion of riparian zones into farmland, causing severe landscape degradation. This has distant impacts from water pollution and reduced surface flow for conservation areas downstream.Beyond biological and physical impacts, land degradation has serious social consequences. Degraded rural landscapes suffer from outmigration of youth, mostly young men, leaving behind an ageing population. With the loss of human capital, there is a loss of social capital. The ability to restore degraded land collectively is significantly reduced with fewer youth and skilled people who remain in degraded communities.The current discourse on financing land restoration argues that private finance is necessary to achieve global restoration targets. Rural agricultural smallholder communities have become unbankable however and remain highly depended on traditional donors. We need innovative business models and strategic investments to reverse the cycle of disinvestment and reduce dependence of these communities on external aid.The proposed model provides a blueprint for private investments in rural farmland that will restore degraded landscapes, revitalize communities, and preserve areas of high biodiversity value. Private investments are used to set up farms in micro-catchments (see Figure 1), explained further in Section 3 below.The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has worked with Makueni County government (Kenya) and local communities over the last two years to develop a business model that is contextually appropriate to the region's farm systems and land use. This CPIC blueprint presents the LandscapeCPR (Landscape Collective Participatory Restoration) approach with three example business cases in Kaiti, Kilome and Kibwezi West sub-counties in Makueni County (Appendix A).The full business model is published in a CIAT Report titled Landscape Restoration Fund for a Landscape CPR Business Model. Parts of this report are copied below in this CPIC business blueprint. The report also presents a framework for a potential Restoration Fund that can be set up in Makueni County, or be modified for any other county in Kenya.In Kaiti sub-county, the target restoration catchment is in an area suffering from continued gully erosion where some gullies have been growing for 20+ years. Local (Ward-level) government resources are limited and community members lack the technical capacity to restore these gullies and reverse erosion.This area has also seen significant outmigration of youth. Baseline household surveys indicate significant incidence of hunger and malnutrition. The riparian zones are completely occupied with small farm plots of 10-100 m 2 . The conservation impact in Kaiti sub-county is the continued degradation of riparian zones which serve as important biodiversity habitats for pollinators and pest control species, important ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. Degraded riparian zones also continue pollution and reduction of surface flows that are important for protected areas downstream such as in Tsavo National Park.  This blueprint contributes to restoring smallholder agricultural landscapes. This is achieved by investing in farms that create financial, social and environmental returns. The model is designed to set up community cooperatives that are guided to develop a landscape restoration plan.The farm management invests in community revitalization and restoration activities through assistance in setting up tree nurseries, providing alternative options to farmers who have occupied riparian zones, and providing training in sustainable land management and improved agronomic practices. Community members will also be trained in monitoring of restoration impacts, e.g. measuring water flow and quality.Identifying key metricsIncreased tree cover in ecologically sensitive zones. Suitable tree seedlings will be provided to current plot owners in riparian zones. Trees and native grasses are an important part for gully restoration.Increased crop, tree and plant diversity. A more diverse landscape provides more resilient habitat for species that provide pollination and pest control services. They also increase resilience for families in terms of diverse tree crops, e.g. avocadoes. We plan to use the Agrobiodiversity Index 3.Improved soil quality. Proper soil management increases organic carbon over time, which increases soil water holding capacity, allowing efficient uptake of nutrients and improves resilience to drought.Increased water availability. Increased water availability is an important factor in downstream conservation areas. This will be achieved through both collective terrace restoration, riparian zone restoration, and installation of water pans to avoid further decline in water availability. Efficient irrigation infrastructure will be installed on the collective farm.Increased knowledge of sustainable land use management practices. To assess the ongoing sustainability of the initiative, another key metric for success will be improvement in farmers' knowledge of and ability to implement sustainable farming practices in the longterm.Standardized Global Impact Investment Network IRIS metrics for social, environmental and financial performance may include (https://iris.thegiin.org/metrics): Units/Volume Produced (PI1290), Units/Volume Sold: Total (PI1263), Land Directly Controlled: Sustainably Managed (OI6912), Biodiversity Assessment (OI5929), Threatened Species Policy (OI1618), Ecosystem Services Provided (PD8494), Type of Land Area (PD3922), Area of Trees Planted: Total (PI4127), Producer Price Premium (PI1568), Units/Volume Purchased at Price Premium (PI2422), Pesticide Use (OI9891), Land Directly Controlled: Treated with Pesticides (OI2569) and Ecological Restoration Management Area (PI9556).LandscapeCPR works by developing profitable and professionally managed farms that act as drivers of restoration (restoration engines) at the micro-catchment scale. Rather than develop one restoration master plan for all of Makueni County (~800,000 hectares), LandscapeCPR focuses on micro-catchments that are 2,000 hectares on average (see Figure 1). The SWAT hydrologic model was used to delineate roughly 400 micro-catchments. We aim to set up LandscapeCPR farms in 100 most degraded catchments which is roughly 25% of Makueni County area or roughly 200,000 hectares.The advantage of working at the 2,000 hectare scale is that communities can be engaged to collectively develop catchment restoration plans. Most catchments fall within the boundaries of one Sub-county and one Ward which makes the administrative process easier as each sub-county and Ward office must be consulted. The micro-catchments usually cover multiple villages which means greater need for collective planning and implementation among villages. Given the relatively small scale, it is possible to literally \"see\" the boundaries of a catchment from a central location, which allows community members to envision a future restored landscape with new biodiversity corridors, agricultural production zones, restored gullies and flowing stream, thereby increasing community ownership.The portion of financial returns from the farm that support restoration activities ranges from USD 1,000 to 2,000 per month after the farm is fully operational. These activities are planned and implemented by a farmer cooperative that will develop a landscape restoration plan. This size of investment can be absorbed by rural smallholder communities where people's income are near the poverty line of USD 2 (PPP) per day. One potential risk of the LandscapeCPR model is the lack of availability of land for purchase or lease. However, during preliminary community sensitization meetings in late 2019, we found that all communities have land available and were eager to support the LandscapeCPR model.We aim to set up LandscapeCPR farms in 100 micro-catchments in four years which equates to a restored area of 200,000 hectares. The cumulative environmental and social impact of investments in LandscapeCPR will have measurable financial, social and environmental returns.The organization and governance structure of LandscapeCPR is explained in more detail in the CIAT Report of the same title. The text below is copied from the Executive Summary of the report.The LandscapeCPR business proposed in this document is a farm development and assetmanagement model, in which an asset manager operating equitably, transparently and on a \"do no harm basis\" develops investment opportunities for impact investors seeking financial, environmental and social returns by organising:• Purchase of a farm (\"LandscapeFarmCo\") following a due diligence process which ensures the land purchase process will not disadvantage vulnerable individuals or communities in areas in which the farm is located • Investment for restoration of the farm's ecological function and productivity increase • Creation of an outgrower network of smallholder farmers into a professionally-managed farmer cooperative, which supplies LandscapeFarmCo (the \"nuclear farm\") with produce. Produce offtake contracts will require land restoration as a condition of produce sale, and • Sale of the improved farm and its outgrower network to either the farmer cooperative or a third party buyer, thereby returning investment funds to investorsThe business will take the following structure organised as an investable and exitable structure into four components, elaborated below Figure 2.Figure 2: LandscapeCPR business structure.LandscapeCPR will be able to set up and run clones of LandscapeFarmCo, both within one landscape and across multiple landscapes. As such, the model is designed to be both replicable and scalable.The business is also designed to be \"exitable\". Within a defined timeframe, LandscapeCPR will arrange for the sale of LandscapeFarmCo and its associated outgrower network to either the Farmer Cooperative or an aligned third party buyer.Three levels of products and services will be sold.At the farm level, each \"restoration engine farm\" (LandscapeFarmCo) will produce farm products that are suitable for local agro-ecological conditions and meet the interests of the community. For example, the Kilome community expressed an interest in producing French Beans and pomegranates. In Kibwezi West, the focus will be on finger millet while communities in Kaiti are already members of a dairy cooperative and wish to invest in drought tolerant varieties of improved forages.Ownership Relationship Produce Supply Relationship Professional Management Services ContractLandscapeCPR will also provide expertise as a consulting service, and it will sell sustainable farm companies after a set time period (e.g. the exit strategy). During the farm maturation period, the farmer cooperatives will be supported to develop proper institutions and governance structures so that they are capable of purchasing the farms after several years. Additional details of the different components of LandscapeCPR, their functions and products/services sold, are below:• \"LandscapeCPR\": will (i) organise investment for development of new farms, (ii) incorporate, build and sell sustainable farm companies, and (iii) provide proprietary expertise, know-how and farm management systems for set up of farming businesses, all on the LandscapeCPR model. LandscapeCPR is the asset manager.• \"LandscapeFarmCo\": will (i) acquire land, (ii) establish farming systems for (a) increased onfarm produce yield, (b) improvement of ecological function, and (c) marketing and sale of produce. Improved farming systems will comprise (i) assets such as boreholes, irrigation systems and water storage, as well as (ii) management systems for those assets and farm staff.LandscapeFarmCo will be owned by FarmHoldCo.• \"FarmHoldCo\": will hold the investment in underlying farming assets, which will be held in the name of the investors. Multiple FarmHoldCos will ultimately be established.• \"Farmer Cooperative\": will organise and mobilise smallholder farmers for distribution of inputs, training, production and produce aggregation. LandscapeFarmCo will take an ownership share in the cooperative in order to ensure that a professional management supplied by LandscapeFarmCo under a management services contract will manage the Farmer Cooperative.The investment costs and expected cash flow figures for each of the three case studies are presented in Appendix A. As can be seen in these tables, we assume that each investment will be paid off in two years with 5% interest. This assumes that investments are made by impact investors with patient capital.Depending on the commodity and initial state of each farm, we expect an initial investment of USD 75,000 to 125,000 per LandscapeFarmCo enterprise. Restoration of 100 landscapes thus requires an investment of approximately USD 10,000,000 (USD 10 million).Factors that determine this start-up cost include lease vs purchase of land, need for irrigation investment (e.g. borehole), and full farm infrastructure. Management costs will be determined by the level of soil degradation of the farm at start-up. While labour is generally available and cheap, LandscapeCPR aims to hire at least 50% women and pay competitive wages inclusive of benefits.Fully functional farms will be sold, or the lease transferred, after 7 to 10 years. By this time, farmer cooperatives are fully developed with strong governance structures and they will have the first option to buy or take over the lease. If financing is not available, farms will be sold to a 3 rd party buyers. After this time, we expect that community revitalization will be noticeable and measurable, and annual investments in restoration activities will continue to have environmental returns (e.g. restored riparian zones that increased surface flows).Investments in landscape restoration will also be income generating. For example, the Kilome community plans to invest in pomegranate production (such that it fits with the landscape restoration plan) and these trees will start producing when they reach maturity after five years.Increased milk production will have financial returns within the first year in Kaiti.LandscapeCPR has some external dependencies that are further elaborated in the business model report. A summary is below:1. Land availability. East Africa has developed an active land commodity market in recent years. Land is becoming less tied to cultural and meaning and is increasingly a commodity that is actively bought and sold by all sectors of society. Preliminary community meetings has indicated an abundance of land for sale in each of the three intervention sites, and community members are very supportive of the business model, seeing clear benefits. Nevertheless, we will develop an assessment of each land purchase or land lease to ensure that no people are disenfranchised in the process. This \"do no harm\" principle is a critical piece of the LandscapeCPR business model.Riparian Zone Restoration. People who have 'occupied' riparian zone are most likely also the most vulnerable members of a community. It is important to take care of the most vulnerable groups in each community which include women, the elderly and ethnic minorities.Government buy-in. The Makueni County Restoration Fund is an innovative way to rapidly scale up the LandscapeCPR model. However, without the Fund, the model can also work. Moreover, at the local Ward level (the third smallest administrative level after county and sub-county), we have thus far received enormous support for this business model.The business model has several risks that must be considered 1.Access to market. The success of the initiative vitally depends on the farm manager's ability to sell the farm products. This is the main revenue stream for the farm. The community will also increase profits, e.g. from milk and pomegranate, but these are outside the LandscapeCPR model. Farms will not be set up without prior commitments from offtakers in Nairobi, e.g. for French Beans.Access to Investors. While successful intensive farming operations have successfully obtained private financing, the LandscapeCPR business model with the community and landscape restoration mandate is new to investors and there is a risk that investors are not willing to engage in an unproven business. Grants may be necessary to develop a proof-ofconcept in order to reduce the risk of later-stage investors.Willingness of key stakeholders to participate. Under the LandscapeCPR approach, there is an assumption that community members can be organized in a cooperative to plan and implement landscape restoration activities. Kenya has a long history of developing community cooperatives, e.g. 'saccos', and we are confident that this will not form a major constraint.4.The financial instruments being sought to fund the business model A general funding ecosystem for similar investments is shown in Figure 3 below. A model that operates in the impact investment space requires a modified funding ecosystem as shown in Figure 4. Ultimately, a combination of different financial instruments, e.g. blended finance, are sought.   The relative size of these instruments and basic information on their termsIf LandscapeFarmCo were to be financed entirely by debt from an impact investor, e.g. patient capital, it requires an investment of USD 75,000 to 125,000 for each farm which can be paid off in two years at 5% interest. These terms will vary depending on the location, the condition of the initial farm, and the required investment in infrastructure (e.g. some places do not require a bore hole). In order to set up 10 to 15 farms in year 1, LandscapeCPR requires a USD 1.25M investment.Investor types and the finance they provide at different stages of project maturityLandscapeCPR will make use of the following forms of capital, particularly in their early stage: The next step is to develop a full business plan with associated financial projections including justification for grant funding and mitigation instruments.This section is copied from Section 4 in the CIAT Report.The model will return value to investors, (i) in the short term through sale of agricultural produce, and (ii) in the long term by sale of mature farms as a going concern to either investors who share the investment objectives of the business or landscape-based farmer cooperative groups. The farmer cooperative members will be the outgrowers developed by the LandscapeFarmCo business, such that the sale is to the outgrowers themselves, thereby creating a locally-owned vehicle for sustainable landscape management once the LandscapeCPR business has exited.These returns will attract the private investment necessary to both set-up the farms, and finance buy-out of the farm when it reaches maturity.We aim to achieve the exit within 7-10 years, matching investor fund cycles. Whilst the landscape restoration cycle may take up to 25 years, it is intended that systems are embedded, stable and functioning autonomously over a shorter time period.In order to facilitate this exit, LandscapeFarmCo will be set-up by a farm development and assetmanagement company (LandscapeCPR) which also holds the intellectual property relating to management systems used to set up and run LandscapeFarmCo. Once LandscapeFarmCo is sold, LandscapeCPR will collect the proceeds of the sale and return this sum to investors, less its share of the return. Subject to requirements, investors can also invest directly in LandscapeFarmCo and exit upon sale of shares. Both models may be required because many funds are restricted in the geographical mandate of their funds.This is not a new business model. Farm development businesses exist around the world, and some also add sustainability as a dimension to their management. For example, several businesses acquire commodity farmland, develop it into an organic farm and run it on behalf of their investors before disposal at a supposed increase in price. Examples of such businesses include Farmland LP, Impact Ag, Iriquois Valley, Land Fund Partners, Local Farms Fund, Sustainable Farm Partners and Biological Capital, all of which are US-focused.The \"nucleus\" farm/outgrower model is also not an innovation, as many such businesses exist in East Africa. The novelty of LandscapeCPR is leveraging these models to incentivize adoption of sustainable agricultural practices and participation in the wider landscape, which builds on a track record of experience of training smallholders in Good Agricultural Practices by the contracting offtaker.The innovation in the above-described approach is in linking the asset management model to the outgrower model as a vehicle for financial and environmental returns at scale in a landscape.LandscapeCPR is replicable and scalable across other smallholder landscape geographies. We are in the process of developing concept notes and proposals for different grants, and we plan to seek input and funding from private (impact) investors.Three business cases are presented below for production of (1) improved forages in Kaiti, (2) French beans in Kilome and (3) finger millet in Kibwezi West. For each business case, a potential partner has been identified. For Kilome and Kibwezi West, these are private companies, and for Kaiti, this is a local cooperative.Depending on the case, the initial investment varies, as do the return on investment and total investments in restoration activities after five years. For each case, LandscapeFarmCo companies will be set up and are expected to have positive balances after three years. ","tokenCount":"3292"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"014a55efff020ecdeed47aaa8e529a07","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://apps.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/Publications/PDFS/BC22024.pdf","id":"-2142535330"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"887dceb7-2478-460e-b81c-d985ff1b4100","pagecount":"21","content":"Certification aims to restore consumer trust in value chains, addressing social and environmental issues of public concern.• Indonesian policies support coffee farmers to follow 'good agricultural practice' to increase global market access, expecting its standards to gain global recognition.• Cost-benefit evaluation of certification requires accounting stands of producers, processors/ traders, governments of exporting countries, certifiers, consumers and global citizens.• Farmers' preferences regarding eco-certification in Indonesia are primarily economically driven, as it is weakly institutionalised in the farmer's context.• Eco-certification schemes have increased the quality of smallholder produced coffee, indirectly improving the economic performance.Global supply chains are undergoing rapid transformations that change the way food is produced in developing countries and traded across the world. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of different certification schemes that require farmers to adopt certain production and quality standards in order for them to gain access to international markets for highervalue products. Such certification schemes (e.g. Fairtrade, Organic and others) are founded on ethical codes that try to address the social and economic conditions of farmers as well as contribute to environmental sustainability. However, there is still an ongoing debate on whether farmers in producing countries like Indonesia actually benefit. This chapter explores coffee eco-certification schemes in Indonesia and, in particular, does a cost-benefit assessment of local standards across the coffee certification value chain.The superseding chapter on \"Cocoa and coffee in Asia: contrasts and similarities in production and value addition\" (Chapter 26) touches briefly on the experience with various ecocertification schemes that operate globally and connect issues at the primary production level, wherever on the globe, to concerns of consumers. Indonesia has not been a front runner in these schemes (many of which originate in Central and South America), but several schemes are operational, and experience with them has been mixed. This chapter summarises a number of recent studies on coffee certification in Indonesia, anticipating that it provides relevant material for comparisons with African countries where these same schemes operate, but maybe still in earlier stages or with partial coverage. The chapter starts with a perspective on why and how these schemes have emerged in the first place.Certification of compliance with standards is relevant where trust by end-consumers is at stake (Mithöfer et al 2017). It can form an assurance, beyond the direct quality of the product, that the production process has avoided negative social and/or environmental impacts that have become a public concern but may not yet be sufficiently regulated and enforced in common practice. Beyond certification against global standards, there currently are alternatives to achieving certification via geographic branding of unique identities and locally declared social plus environmental standards. A focus on what problems certification is supposed to solve for whom may imply lower expectations for direct farmer benefits or poverty alleviation.Certification can implicitly communicate that blame for existing problems is shifted to noncertified 'others' but can also contribute to generic solutions and acceptance of the good practice in farming, processing and the whole subsequent value chain (Mithöfer et al 2017, Leimona et al 2018).There has been significant debate on the 'impacts' of such certification schemes, mostly with a focus on whether or not participating farmers are better off than non-participating ones or whether environmental impacts of certified farms differ from those that are non-certified.A challenge to such studies is that certification cannot be expected to be randomly applied, and certification schemes may (initially) select farmers who met the standards anyway. There has been less focus on the underlying questions of when, where and how the certification as a process emerged.Indonesia, a historic leader in coffee exports, currently ranks fourth, after Brazil, Vietnam and Columbia, while being the number two producer of Robusta coffee (after Vietnam). Indonesia, with more than 17 thousand islands and high biodiversity values, may well represent the largest diversity in coffee-producing landscapes. Yet, the country has been relatively slow in participating in the various certification schemes for social and/or environmental aspects of its coffee production. A reason could be that there have not been major scandals or highprofile publications that threaten the global marketing of Indonesia's coffee and, as such, led to the emergence of locally attuned certification schemes. Actually, one of the early 'fair trade' schemes used the name 'Havelaar' that refers to a 19 th -century scandal that called attention to the plight of poor coffee producers, forced to cultivate this crop in a colonial economy (Salverda 2005); but Havelaar coffee did not get a foothold in Indonesia.In this chapter, we will synthesise a number of recent case studies on coffee certification in Indonesia (Ibnu et al 2015, 2018, Astuti et al 2015, Arifin 2021) to better understand the process of how smallholder coffee farmers view the eco-certification based on their daily practices, social-economic relations with other stakeholders and their institutional contexts in the overall global value chains (Bitzer andGlasbergen 2015, Glasbergen 2018). Our specific targets are to:Examine the interrelations between coffee eco-certifications and smallholder livelihoods in Sumatra, Indonesia, andEvaluate the cost-benefit accounting scheme of certification from the perspectives of producers, processors/traders, governments of exporting countries, certifiers, consumers and global citizens.Coffee eco-certification at the global level generally deals with sustainability standards and environmental governance (Arifin 2010, Neilson 2018). Fairtrade certification specifically focused on social issues, developed in parallel with eco-certification standards with an environmental focus such as organic and shade-grown or bird-friendly schemes. Over time, more inclusive and broader schemes that incorporate social, environmental, as well as economic perspectives emerged (Glasbergen and Schouten 2015). A synthesis of case studies of coffee certification from developing countries (DeFries et al 2017) suggested positive effects across the board, albeit in various ways such as income, demand-side market creation, supplyside production efficiency and quality improvement. Analysis disaggregated by certification schemes in Uganda found that one certification scheme contributed to the significant improvement in household living standards, while others did not (Chiputwa et al 2015).Arabica coffee is produced in mountain ranges and on volcanic slopes in Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Bali and Nusa Tenggara, and the eastern island of Papua. Robusta coffee is mostly derived from areas below 800 meters above sea level in the southern half of Sumatra and East Java. Both Robusta and Arabica coffee farmers generally harvest, pulp, ferment, wash, and dry the beans at their farms, before selling to traders who grade and sell to domestic and/or world markets. Coffee eco-certification in Indonesia started in the early 1990s, although at a very limited scale, about a decade after Northern coffee buyers adopted such schemes, mostly for produce from Central and South America. Sumatra produces more than 70% of Indonesia's coffee. Production in the provinces of Lampung, Sumatra and Bengkulu accounts for the largest share (49% combined, mostly marketed through the port in Lampung), followed by North Sumatra, Aceh and West Sumatra (21% combined, mostly marketed through Medan).Coffee production in Java contributes 14%, with the port of Surabaya also connecting produce from Bali, Sulawesi and adjacent islands to global markets (Arifin 2021). Coffee certification schemes in Indonesia differ in scope and history (Table 25.1). For Indonesia, coffee is generally acknowledged as the pioneering industry for sustainability standards and certifications, followed by palm oil, cocoa, tea, and others (Reinecke and van Hage 2012).In Before the wide adoption of agroforestry in the 1990s, the expansion of coffee on steep slopes in Sumatra through migrant labour (often with local investors in the background) was often the major issue in terms of biodiversity conservation and watershed integrity. The migrant farmers lacked tenure security and were likely to stay with production systems geared to short-term returns, hoping they could avoid eviction before the first major harvest in year 4, rather than going for the more diversified systems that were actually superior in economic evaluations (as well as environmental ones), if the low discount rates of secure tenure were used (Budidarsono et al 2000, Gillison et al 2004). Where coffee farmers encroached into national parks after these have been established (there are also cases where the park was established after settlement, requiring a different type of policy response), environmental damage and rural poverty (driving migration) coincided -but the primary strategy for conservation must be to make such illegal farms less profitable (by increasing effectiveness of patrolling, e.g. involving more of the legal park neighbours in the effort), along with efforts to support sustainable land use surrounding the park. The basic need for certification is a 'legality' test -but with coffee bags easily transported at night and most control systems open to under-the-table payments, this is no easy task.The adoption of agroforestry systems by smallholder farmers was supported in conjunction with a government program on community-based forestry management (HKm). The presence of shade trees and MPTS is among the most important requirements to qualify as a legal recipient of HKm user-rights, in addition to rules and responsibilities of farmers' groups and other related institutional arrangements to secure the user-rights (van Noordwijk et al 2002, Arifin 2021). When eco-certification schemes were introduced in the 1990s, these coffee agroforestry adopters were among the first groups joining the certification programs, particularly those whose land status is clear and clean, not conflicting with protected forests and the national parks. They expected to gain recognition and higher prices without change in their practices.In a survey of 408 farmers in Tanggamus (Lampung Province), agroforestry adopters had 1,834 coffee trees per hectare plus 346 other trees, and non-adopters had 1,776 coffee trees per hectare with only 49 other trees. About half the farmers had achieved eco-certification (mostly 4C and some RFA, with more stringent certification criteria), while the others were in the process of adoption. Farm income analysis showed significant differences between agroforestry adopters and non-adopters (regardless of certification). The benefit to cost (B/C) ratio was 6.92 for agroforestry adopters and 5.76 for non-adopters. The price premium on high-quality coffee or the beans that meet the quality standards set by the coffee buyers has made a difference in the economic performance of farm-household joining sustainability certification, as have revenues from multipurpose trees and from other crops. The HKm scheme required farmers to establish farmers' groups, not only serving administrative purposes but also to develop institutional arrangements and solid organisations for the purpose of sustainable resources management (Arifin 2010, Neilson et al 2018).Our studies (Arifin 2021) showed that smallholder coffee farmers in the different groups did not differ much in terms of their preferences in adopting eco-certifications. Smallholders' preferences were comparable across the groups of 4C, RFA, UTZ, INOFICE (Local Organic)and non-certification. The average number of years of education of coffee farmers was 8.5 years, but more than 70% of coffee farmers had not completed high school education.Although the smallholder farmers have been cultivating coffee for an average of 15 years, they were relatively new participants in the certification programs, with on average only 2.3 years of participation at a time of data collection. Interestingly, coffee farmers who owned larger farms and were less dependent on non-coffee income were likely to join a certification program.Coffee farmers were asked eight attributes of (stated) preferences of eco-certification (Ibnu 2017)  Farm-level certification does not mean that all coffee is sold in certified channels and vice versa. In a study of Arabica coffee value chains in Aceh (Astuti et al 2015), more than half of the certified Arabica coffee was actually marketed to collector traders of certified coffee (simplified as 'certified traders') and the rest to collector traders of non-certified coffee (simplified as 'conventional traders'). Certified coffee was sold to conventional traders when farmers need direct cash payments. Certified traders also received non-certified coffee to meet minimum requirements set by certified exporters. Both certified traders and conventional traders sometimes also serve as a mixed channel in this coffee value chain as these traders also obtain coffee across the groups. The certified Arabica coffee beans are then sold to exporters either directly (75%) or through cooperatives and KUBE. Some cooperatives in Aceh are selling the certified coffee (about 10%) directly to the international markets, especially those that have historical trading partners, before the introduction of eco-certification. Only small parts of certified coffee are marketed to domestic coffee roasters and domestic markets.Robusta coffee value chains. Exporters of Robusta coffee have obtained significantly higher profits in trading certified coffee, whereas for Arabica exporters, differences were not statistically significant, probably because the sample size was small. Certification schemes have led to increasing coffee quality produced by smallholder farmers so that such procedures and practices of certifications have indirectly improved the quality of economic performance of smallholder farmers. The low bargaining power of farmers relative to other actors in the coffee value chain did not change much by joining certification schemes (Astuti et al 2015). associations must be handled with extra care.A minimum condition for eco-certification to emerge and survive is that it is at least neutral in overall benefits minus costs for six main stakeholders: producers (smallholder farmers), processors/traders, governments of exporting countries, certifiers, consumers and global citizens. The standards and eco-certification will remain contested unless all groups perceive net benefits from their accounting stance. Table 25.2 presents a matrix consisting of several cells of benefits and costs, which are synthesised from case studies of coffee eco-certification in Lampung and Aceh and from other relevant cases available in the literature. From a smallholder farmer accounting stance, the recurrent costs of participation in certifications schemes can consist of increased labour demand (C1) and reduced yield (C4), while especially at the start transaction costs with certifiers (C3) and investments in documenting legality and existing practice (C2) take time. In the longer term, reduced expansion and constrained innovation (C5) play a role. On the positive side, these costs can be outweighed by exposure to improved practices leading to higher productivity (B3), improved relations with (local) government entities and associated benefits (B4) and increased market share and (potentially) enhanced competition amongst buyers if demand for certified products exceeds supply (B2).The primary attraction, however, is expectations of a price premium for higher quality products and/or as direct recognition for the certification (B5). In specific cases where 'issues' became hot, regained trust (B1) can play a role (beyond B4). Whether or not the net balance can be positive depends on local context and existing constraints.Much of the early literature on these costs and benefits was based on coffee producers in Latin America (for example, Encroachment by migrant farmers into national parks has been a major issue, especially in Lampung on the southern edge of Sumatra (Philpott et al 2008), with past episodes of high world market prices linked to successive waves of influx (Verbist et al 2005). Certification may, first of all, prove the legality and escape a negative image, rather than benefitting from a positive incentive system. Roaster companies and coffee exporters usually pay the certification costs and membership fees to become part of global initiatives and avoid negative press.Although coffee yields are higher in the proximity of forests that provide nesting sites for bees that provide pollination services, the economic value of converting that forest exceeds the economic gain in form coffee yields (Olschewski et al 2006).Case studies of 'relationship coffee' in Sulawesi, Bali and Java (Vicol et al 2018) concluded that benefits from value chain upgrading interventions by application of 'good agricultural practice' did not primarily benefit the otherwise marginalised rural communities. As benefits were captured by key individuals within the producer community who are able to accumulate wealth and consolidate their social position.In some cases, smallholder farmers joining certification schemes also continue to sell their beans to conventional traders as these traders directly pay their beans in cash. These traders also provide advance loans to cover production costs, using their right to purchase a specific volume of coffee beans in the future as the basis. High dependence on collector traders means that the bargaining position of coffee farmers is very weak. Coffee farmers tend to maintain such relationships with collector traders for 'social capital' reasons beyond economic rationality, relating to trust and socio-psychological factors. Local traders do not care about certification. They buy coffee from coffee farmers everywhere, including those who cultivate coffee in protected forest areas. Farmers who cultivate coffee in the forest areas are allowed government with an extendable contract system, but they are not able to participate in private certification. Hence, in the future, there will likely always be a substantial share of uncertified coffee farmers.Global coffee traders play important roles in the value chain of coffee eco-certification in Sumatra, in particular, Lampung and Aceh. Beyond the costs and benefits for farmers, certification involves, from a processor/trade perspective, higher costs for processing and traceability (C6), but may have co-benefits (B6) for easier adherence to technical quality standards. Apart from the specific requirements for speciality and eco-certified coffee, the value chain for coffee in Indonesia consists of collector-traders at the village level, selling to larger traders at sub-district and district level, to be marketed to coffee exporters or local roasters. Market structures tend towards oligopsony, where collector traders have stronger market power in determining the farm gate price, although coffee quality influences the market-clearing price. Collector traders and middlemen sometimes conduct sorting and grading activities to set aside coffee beans that do not meet higher quality standards. These traders are also facing a weak bargaining position before the larger traders and coffee exporters, where the market structure tends to be an oligopsony or sometimes monopsony. Certification generally involves a shift in traders, with winners and losers at the local level. Roles of local middlemen as providers of credit are often seen as exploitative but can be deeply rooted in social structures and not easily replaced.Exporters that are affiliated directly with global roasting companies face simpler procedures with less space for negotiations. Under the coffee certification system, targeting speciality coffee markets, global coffee buyers and foreign companies usually establish subsidiary trading and roasting companies in coffee producing regions in Indonesia. Certification costs are generally considerable so that local coffee traders are reluctant to pay these costs and maintain memberships. Coffee traders affiliated with global coffee buyers generally take care of certification costs, which either transmits the costs to smallholder farmers or to consumers and retail coffee markets. If the local-based traders and global affiliated coffee traders are competing fairly, the farm gate price of coffee shall be high enough to provide adequate economic rents for smallholder farmers (Daviron and Vagneron 2011). Otherwise, smallholder farmers could be trapped in an inter-locking coffee value chain system either to local coffee traders or global affiliated coffee traders operated in rural areas of coffee-producing regions in Indonesia.There are no coffee eco-certification in Indonesia as part of exports. An estimated 10-15% of the total 400 thousand tons of coffee was exported under the five major certification schemes. These global coffee traders and coffee roasters generally buy coffee from local traders in two ways: (1) simple open buying, (2) contract buying from farmer groups affiliated with eco-certification schemes. Both become the focus of attention of our analysis as they are significantly affecting the performance and market structure of global value chains in Indonesia. Nevertheless, one should note that these global coffee traders and roasters might also buy conventionally certified high-quality coffee beans, or beans that are not certified according to the major coffee eco-certification schemes.At the global trade level, coffee exporters are trying to obtain a fairer price from their overseas' partners. They may see the meddling with production standards as a breach of their sovereignty as regulators (C7) but may see benefits in increased market access and premium prices (B7). Indonesian coffee is mostly exported to Germany, Japan and the United States.However, increasing domestic demand due to growing coffee retails and café industries in big cities and changing lifestyles or urban population has been somehow affecting the coffee trade. Nevertheless, the global demand for high-quality coffee tends to increase in recent years, which has resulted in a rapid increase in the development of speciality coffee, such as Mandailing, Toraja/ Kalosi, Gayo, Lintong and Bali Kintamani coffee. These speciality coffee brands are from typical Arabica highlands, and more recently, have been associated with ecocertifications. Generally, the international price of Arabica coffee is relatively higher than that of Robusta. At the time of writing in May of 2018, the international price of Robusta was US$ 1.96 per kilogram, a significant decrease from US$ 2.23 per kilogram in May of 2017. Whereas the price of Arabica was US$ 2.99 per kilogram, which was also a decrease from US$ 3.30 per kilogram in May of 2017 (Commodity Prospects of the World Bank 2018). Some government initiatives to develop Arabica coffee are, however, not quite successful, mostly because of agronomic and other technical requirements. The government and coffee stakeholders are now developing Robusta specialities, starting from Lampung Specialty, Semendo, Washed Java, Flores and Papua Coffee. These typically have a full body and relatively low acidity. Each region is known for a typical cupping profile, although there is a great deal of diversity within each region. Such new initiatives and eco-certification shall contribute to the improvement of price premium and farm-gate price received by smallholder farmers.Certification does provide employment (B8), business opportunities and income streams (B9) for those involved in the process. Coffee eco-certification started in Indonesia in 1992with Gayo Mountain Organic Coffee from the Takengon region of Central Aceh, followed by organic coffee cooperatives in East Timor, Utz Certified coffee in Aceh, Lampung, East Java, and in Sulawesi, and the Starbucks CAFÉ Practices scheme being introduced to suppliers in North Sumatra, Aceh and Toraja South Sulawesi (Mawardi 2014).Certification standards encourage more sustainable land management practices in Aceh, Toraja, and Bali, where organic, low input, and shade-grown practices have been adopted by coffee farmers. After some years, the coffee eco-certification had somehow affected the price structure of coffee, where traders tend to be more open in explaining price information to the farmers. Collector traders selling the organic \"certified\" coffee to exporters could receive a higher price, compared to non-certified Arabica coffee, because of a rather direct link with the international coffee speciality market. Due to the cost of the traceability systems needed to ensure the integrity of the 'organic' branding, the farm-gate price premium received by Arabica farmers was small (Arifin 2021).Standards that relate to the expansion of coffee production may be more difficult to enforce than those that relate to existing, on-farm production, as it relates to heavier coordinating efforts among stakeholders. The amount of coffee illegally harvested from the Bukit Barisan Selatan national park in Lampung is only a small percentage of the total for the province, but coffee expansion is a major threat to the park, and its publicity is a major issue for all coffee from the province. Existing standards are not water-tight in preventing illegal coffee from entering certified trading streams, risking trust in the certification scheme (C8).The buyer of certified coffee may experience the \"warm-glow\" effect that comes with making a voluntary donation (see for e.g., Elfenbein and McManus 2010), but can also expect an above-average technical quality of the product (B10), and gains in social standing in his or her direct environment (B11), justifying the price premium paid. CAFÉ, the Starbucks standard scheme, does not mention environmental governance as such but encourages natural resource conservation. The certification of Organic, RFA, FLO and Utz have a sustainability focus on environmental governance, covering a wide range of environmental conservation and biodiversity issues. The 4C scheme advocates the conservation of water, soil, and biodiversity, although its implementation in the field is not as simple as it is written. In terms of market access and networking, to serve as a single buyer and has market power of monopsony, while the other five certification schemes also have a limited number of buyers and might have an oligopsony market power.In industrialised countries, some evidence shows a substantial consumer's support for coffee eco-certification (C9), although a segment of price-sensitive consumers will not pay a large premium for the Fair-Trade label (Hainmuller et al 2014). Coffee consumers are only willing to pay a price increase of 1.1% for Fair Trade Certification (Carlson 2010), noting that demand for higher coffee is inelastic, which could be associated with brand loyalty and preferential tastes. Interestingly, the demand for lower price coffee is more elastic, where a 9% increase in retail price leads to a 30% decline, as buyers switch to low-price unlabeled alternatives.The suggestion has been made (Jongenburger 2016) that coffee roasters and retailers use consumer preference for certified coffee to differentiate their product, increasing mostly their own profits. Beyond 'willingness to pay' studies and recorded elasticities, there have been relatively few studies unpacking the motivation of buyers of certified coffee; a sense of responsibility for one's own actions is linked to concerns over global security (Jongenburger 2016). Trust whether (specific forms of) certification achieves its goals is critical (C10), but dependent on incomplete information (50). Competition between multiple certification schemes may undermine the trust in any of them.Global citizens, even if they do not involve in buying certified products, may benefit (as 'free riders') if the severity of global environmental and social issues is reduced (B12). However, it is possible that all attention given to certification of the parts of the sector that weren't causing problems deflects attention from solutions to the primary issues (C11) (Mithöfer et al 2017).It could also be that reductions in physical yield due to 'more environment-friendly' production systems that can get certified induce a further expansion and opening up of remaining forest areas elsewhere. This potential cost (C12) is the equivalent of 'leakage' in the climate change mitigation debate and requires sector-wide accountability rather than rules that focus on the certification of specific producers.A new mediated partnership model for sustainable coffee production in Indonesia (Wijaya et al 2017) starts from bottom-up agricultural development of practices of smallholders, focuses on the economic interests of farmers and connects to global sustainability certification. For applications in Bali, Flores and Java, they identified several critical factors that need to be than concluding that this approach can be easily scaled. Experience in Indonesia with 'Geographical indications' as an alternative to certification of individual farmers is growing rapidly (Neilson et al 2018). In contrast to the generally positive experience with this approach in India (Mithöfer et al 2017), the efforts in Indonesia were found not to provide tangible economic benefits to producers. They conclude that the inability to capture value is due to the poor alignment of the local institutional environment with lead firm strategies so that further technical support is unlikely to achieve value capture.Rather than by the economic rationality of Econs and status are primarily at the consumer end of the value chain, requiring producers to prove affiliation by adherence to 'rituals', identified as 'good agricultural practice', even though there is no guarantee that this practice is better in the local context than what had emerged locally as 'normal practice'. The direct reference to external power in the use of boycotts and additional requirements (beyond the direct quality of products), is easily interpreted by national governments as an encroachment into their sovereignty.In response to the self-regulation in markets, as started in oil palm with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), governments have created their own 'certification' bodies, such as the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) standard in palm oil (van Noordwijk et al 2017) and Indonesian Sustainable IS-Coffee standard for coffee, expecting markets to trust the government, where they wouldn't trust farmers. As government certification is primarily based on compliance with existing regulations, obliging all farmers to be certified implies an expectation that this new rule, in contrast with existing rules, will be followed. It may be optimistic that a positive 'geographical indication' can be achieved for a country like Indonesia as a whole.Even though private governed primarily by market mechanisms, the establishment of partnerships between private sectors and smallholder farmers also play an important role in establishing the basis of governance of eco-certifications. A clear legal framework, written codes of conduct and other necessary consensus provisions have further contributed to the improved benefits of smallholders, private sectors and other parties involved. Local institutions that shape the governance of eco-certification provide an incentive system for smallholders to perform well in meeting the quality standards of coffee production, hence the value chain and rural livelihood. This calls for further studies on the institutional arrangements of eco-certified coffee agroforestry in the global value chains, including the efficiency level of the chains, the sophistication of certification partnership, contracts and regulations that govern quality assurance and other empowerment programs. Mandating certification according to nationally determined standards for all coffee producers may increase administrative control and transaction costs with limited change in practice, and it may not add to global competitiveness nor farmer income unless consumers at the end of the value chain are convinced of its effectiveness.1 Certification aims to restore consumer trust in value chains, addressing social and environmental issues of public concern, but the global nature of certification may not provide a close match with local concerns of farmers and public governance agencies.Indonesian policies support coffee farmers to follow 'good agricultural practice'to increase global market access, expecting its standards to gain global recognition addressing the generic global concerns and providing more detailed evidence on local responses.Cost-benefit evaluation of certification requires recognition of the separate accounting stands of producers, processors/ traders, governments of exporting countries, certifiers, consumers and global citizens; only when there are net benefits for all actors along the value chain can we expect certification to get effective support.Farmers' preferences regarding eco-certification in Indonesia are primarily economically driven, as certification is weakly institutionalised in the farmer's context.Existing eco-certification schemes have increased the quality of coffee produced by smallholders, indirectly improving the economic performance of the farms; the primary benefits have been in knowledge transfer and in a stimulus to collective action.","tokenCount":"4956"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5abdffecfcf3cc5ef4091277faf29ee3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/913fafbb-3db4-4bf8-bbb5-c5c2099b2d29/retrieve","id":"1701303257"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"062290cf-2687-41c5-ac90-da874f1b8bc0","pagecount":"19","content":"Banana production landscapes in the African Great Lakes Region (AGLR) have been under immense pressure from Xanthomonas wilt (XW) disease over the past two decades. XW, first reported on banana in central Uganda and eastern DR Congo in 2001, has since spread to the entire AGLR. XW is currently spreading westwards from hot spots in eastern DR Congo highlands, putting the plantain (Musa AAB genome) belt of central and west Africa at risk. In-depth understanding of the key variables responsible for disease spread, current hotspots, and vulnerable landscapes is crucial for disease early warning and management. We mapped aggregated disease distribution and hotspots in the AGLR and identified vulnerable landscapes across African banana production zones. Available data on disease prevalence collected over 11 years was regressed against environmental and expert developed covariates to develop the AGLR XW hotspots map. For the Africa-wide risk map, precipitation, distance to hotspots, degree of trade in fresh banana products, production zone interconnectedness and banana genotype composition were used as covariates. In the AGLR, XW was mainly correlated to precipitation and disease/banana management. Altitude and temperature had unexpectedly low effects, possibly due to an overriding impact of tool-mediated spread which is part of the management covariate. In the AGLR, the eastern part of DR Congo was a large hotspot with highest vulnerability. Apart from endemic zones in the AGLR and Ethiopia, northern Mozambique was perceived as a moderate risk zone mainly due to the predominance of 'Bluggoe' (Musa ABB type) which is highly susceptible to insect-vectored transmission. Presence of XW hotspots (e.g. eastern DR Congo) and vulnerable areas with low (e.g. north-western Tanzania) or no disease (e.g. Congo basin, western DR Congo and northern Mozambique) pressure suggest key areas where proactive measures e.g. quarantines and information sharing on XW diagnosis, epidemiology, and control could be beneficial.More than one third of Africa's banana (Musa spp.) production, or nearly 11% of world production, comes from the African Great Lakes region (AGLR), i.e., Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda [1], which is a centre of diversity of East African highland bananas and plantains [2,3]. Banana provides 30-60% of food energy needs for over 70 million people in this region [4,5] and contributes to incomes of farm households and businessmen along the value chain of the crop [6,7]. Since two decades, banana production landscapes in the AGLR have been subjected to immense pressure from pests and diseases on top of several abiotic constraints. The outbreak of Xanthomonas wilt disease of banana (XW) has drawn the greatest attention due its rapid rate of spread and severe impact on production. The disease was first observed on banana in 1974 in Ethiopia [8].In the AGLR, it was first observed in 2001 in central Uganda [9] and eastern DR Congo [10], and has over a period of a decade spread to the whole AGLR [11][12][13][14]. Within the affected countries, the disease has spread to new zones at rates dependent on the agroecological conditions and the characteristics of the production systems. High spread rates have been reported in lower altitude areas (<1500 m) of central Uganda [15] with slower rates reported at high elevations (>1500 m) of eastern DR Congo [10]. The disease is currently spreading westwards from the current hot spots in eastern DR Congo, towards the Congo basin, putting the plantain belt of central and west Africa at risk. XW disease results in severe yield losses reaching as high as 100% if control is delayed, severely compromising food and income security of households and communities [16][17][18]. Potential economic losses between US$ 200 and 295 million a year due to delayed intervention have been estimated for Uganda [16,19]. In Tanzania and Rwanda, a 35% drop in sales and doubling of prices due to XW were reported [20]. In Uganda, [1] reports 50% less production for 2014, compared to 2002 while area under banana declined by 39%.Over the past 15 years, various research and extension efforts have been put in place to manage and contain the disease. For example, several XW epidemiology studies have been conducted and control strategies fine-tuned [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] farmers sensitized and trained; and bylaws and task forces formed to foster control [17,31,32]. No disease quarantines have been set up in the region to contain the disease. If attempted, low success rates are anticipated due to lack of efficient detection tools at border points, porous nature of borders and common ethnicities at borders with some households being separated by the borders [17]. Once established, landscape-wide XW control is difficult and total eradication is impossible [33]. Ocimati et al. [25] reported long incubation periods of up to 24 months and latent infections. Though helpful for reducing disease incidence and recovery of yields, the current measures have been reactive and are not adequate for containing the disease, especially not from spreading to new locations.Knowledge of the vulnerable landscapes and disease fronts could prevent or minimize negative effects due to the disease. Here we aim to map XW incidence and identify the XW disease fronts and the vulnerable landscapes across Africa. Making XW spatially explicit can guide the design of interventions for disease management and containment. Maps will be important for surveillance; risk assessment; priority setting and resource allocation; and strategizing for disease management and containment. Mapping will also allow identification of vulnerable sites for a more pro-active disease prevention strategy, rather than the commonly applied reactive strategy. Our objectives were (i) to map the spatial spread of XW disease and the vulnerable landscapes of the AGLR, collating available disease incidence survey data and environmental and social co-variates from the various countries in the region, and (ii) to develop a first, coarse XW disease risk map for the rest of Africa. Deliberating on these XW spatial risk maps with stakeholders is anticipated to pro-actively guide decisions and strategies for XW prevention and management at landscape and regional level. This study will build on existing XW mapping exercises in the region [12,15,[34][35][36] that have often been region-or country-specific.The study area (Fig 1) consists of two geographical zones. The first zone, is the African Great Lakes region (AGLR) and measures about 1000 x 1000 km 2 . The area includes Rwanda, Burundi, the main banana growing areas in western Kenya, Uganda, northern Tanzania and the eastern DR Congo. The East African highlands are part of the African Rift System with Lake Victoria as the central basin. The area has a diverse agroecology, resulting from a large variation in altitude (550-4600 m above sea level; CGIAR-CSI, 2008), mean annual rainfall (500-2300 mm; [37]) and mean annual temperature (from 3 to 26 o C; [37]). A large part of the area is very suitable for growing crops such as banana and plantains, maize and cassava because of fertile soils and high rainfall. Agriculture in the region can predominantly be characterized as subsistence farming with complex mixed cropping. This zone is dominated by the east African highland bananas. Plantains (AAB genome) can be found in high abundance in parts of eastern DR Congo while the ABB types can be found localized in patches across this zone, with higher concentrations in central Uganda. All surveys were carried out in this zone.The second (much larger) zone covers all the banana growing zones in Africa, including the AGLR. The area covers 28 tropical or subtropical countries in Africa with a very diverse agroecology resulting from its sheer size and the African Rift System that cuts it in two (Fig 1). It borders two oceans, has several mountain ranges, river systems/basins and extensive forested areas. The areas in the west and central Africa are dominated by plantains while the east and central African highlands (AGLR) are dominated by the east African highland banana (AAA genome). Other AAA genomes (e.g. Cavendish types) are prevalent in the central, east and southern parts of Africa. Both study areas are delimited using administrative boundaries (Global Administrative Areas vs. 2.8; www.gadm.org).Data collection. Survey datasets: The data set for mapping the AGLR was collated from nine ground-based surveys conducted between 2005 and 2016 across the zone 1 (Figs 1 and 2) and comprised of a total of 4,760 farms. An ellipse is added for each survey to show its geographic extent (Fig 2). The smallest extent is that of survey E, where all samples lie within a 3 km distance. The largest one is survey H, where the samples lie within 1000 km distance. Only survey H covers the entire area of interest. XW incidence/ distribution was recorded through farmer interviews and diagnosis of banana farms/fields. The coordinates of the sample locations were recorded with a handheld GPS with an error margin of about 10 m. The surveys measured XW as binominal (present or absent) or categorical values (percentage incidence of infected plants in a farm (i.e. 0 to 100%)). For uniformity, all measurements were transformed to binominal values (1 = present or 0 = absent).Dataset of covariates: Most of the area of interest for the AGLR risk mapping is devoid of samples. Environmental variables (e.g. altitude, rainfall, temperature) and banana cultivar composition have a relationship with XW disease [17,21,35,36,38]. Precipitation, temperature and altitude influence insect vector activity and thus the incidence and severity of XW disease [21,39,40]. The ABB banana types are particularly prone to insect-mediated infections due to their non-persistent neuter flowers [18], as such depending on their concentrations and farm management practices, landscapes containing them tend to be more prone to XW infection. Environmental characteristics/banana types can thus help to predict the incidence of XW or the risk of infection at the unobserved locations. The environmental variables (e.g. topography, vegetation, temperature, precipitation) and major markets were obtained from publicly available predictor maps. Data on the distribution and abundance of ABB types in the AGLR was obtained through literature review and expert knowledge. The level and organization of extension services and thus disease management also plays a key role in the spread, incidence and severity of the disease. To capture this, through expert judgement, management was incorporated as an additional covariate using a scale varying between 0 and 1, '0' denoting no efforts to manage XW disease and '1' strong research, extension and management efforts to control XW. Indicator regression kriging. To develop the XW disease map for the AGLR, the indicator regression kriging method was used. Indicator regression kriging is a geostatistical interpolation method that spatially interpolates a response variable, making use of point observations of the target variable and auxiliary data [42,43]. Bouwmeester et al. [35], used the method to map XW in the East African highlands. In this study, the same technique was applied, but multiple merged survey datasets were used, instead of just one, and hence the spread of XW was predicted for a larger area. Bouwmeester et al. [35] used data of 2006/7 only, and since then the disease has spread to other areas in the region. The methodology involves two stages. In the first stage, the binary survey variables are regressed to auxiliary environmental (e.g., terrain, climate, land cover) and social (e.g. management) covariates. In the second stage, the regression residuals are interpolated using simple kriging and added to the regression map to further improve the spatial prediction of XW incidence across the entire region.Regression analysis: Regression models predict at the unobserved locations using the relationship between the observed locations and the environmental auxiliary covariates. We used 16 auxiliary covariates (Table 1) that were thought to have a plausible and significant relationship with XW or its vectors and for which spatially exhaustive maps in the public domain or literature and knowledge were available. An overlay of the survey locations and covariates resulted in a database with XW presence and 16 covariates. This database served as input for fitting the regression models. We applied logistic regression because the dependent variable (XW presence) is binary, either 1 for present or 0 for absent. The theory and practical application of logistic regression is well explained by [44] and by Bouwmeester et al. [35] and therefore only briefly described it in this article. The general logistic regression model was built in four steps:1. All 16 covariates (Table 1) were entered into a univariate logistic regression model. Covariates with a significance level less than 0.25 were included in further analysis because these may be significant in two-way interactions.2. The 16 covariates (Table 1) were then entered into a multivariate logistic regression model. With stepwise regression, the covariates that were not significant at the p = 0.05 level were removed one at a time.3. Two-way-interactions between covariates were included to check for combined effects that improve the likelihood ratio. Initially, all possible covariate interactions were examined. All interactions with a p-value less than 0.05 are deemed significant and included in the model, again using a stepwise approach.4. The goodness-of-fit of the final model was assessed in terms of deviance and compared to the null model (i.e., the model without covariates) using the likelihood ratio test.Finally, the derived logistic regression model was used on the covariate maps, and yields a regression prediction map for zone 1 of the study area. The R Statistical software [45] and the Raster package [46] were used for the regression analysis.Spatial interpolation: In most cases, the regression model will only describe part of the variation in the response variables. Through regression kriging, the regression residuals were interpolated with kriging and used to correct the estimate of the regression model. Kriging predicts at unobserved locations by taking a weighted average of the surrounding observations, where the kriging weights depend on the spatial autocorrelation between the variable at the prediction and observation locations. The spatial autocorrelation is characterized by the semivariogram that plots the semivariance, i.e., a measure of the degree of variation, as a function of geographical distance [42]. In regression kriging, the residuals from the regression analysis are used instead of the observations directly. We estimated the semivariogram model parameters based on visual interpretation of the semivariance plot. Next, simple kriging of the regression residuals was applied since the regression residuals have zero mean [43]. Finally, the simple kriging method yields a kriging prediction map for zone 1 of the study area. The GSTAT package in R [47] was used for this.XW prediction map. To predict the XW incidence of the entire region, the regression prediction map was simply added to the kriging prediction map. Cells were set to zero if the sum of the regression-and the kriging-values was negative and cells were set to 1 if the sum exceeded 1.For the development of XW infection risk map at the Africa-wide level, we cannot directly rely on the current surveys because these cover only the AGLR. Therefore, variation in environmental covariates is beyond the range of the samples, and the calculated relationships for study area 1 will not hold. Also, XW is currently not present in the lowland plantain growing zones of west and central Africa and not in the Cavendish (AAA genome) growing zones in eastern and southern Africa. Management as a covariate would also not work for the Africa wide context due to the absence of the disease.To overcome this challenge, a prediction of infection risk was estimated by calculating a background risk level to all banana growing zones in Africa based on the relationship between XW disease and selected covariates (environmental and expert generated). This background risk was then corrected based on expert knowledge. The expert assessment of covariates was attained through a two-step procedure. In the first step, a questionnaire was administered to 14 experts on XW epidemiology, to determine the importance of ten suggested covariates on a scale of 1-5 (Fig 4). Rank '1' stands for not important while rank '5' denotes very important in influencing XW disease. Table 2 lists the covariates that were finally used for the Africa wide XW risk map. Subsequently, and using the selected covariates, three experts with good understanding of XW disease epidemiology and the banana production zones, independently ranked the risk scores for each production zone/ country.Most of the banana production zones for which the XW infection risk was calculated were downloaded from the crop-mapper application (www.crop-mapper.org). The zones were modified using ArcGIS [48] because some zones were 1) overlapping, 2) were entered twice, 3) were split into small polygons or 4) were displaced. In some countries, zones were added because they were missing in the crop-mapper application despite having significant banana production [1]. The geographic location of these missing zones was based on the maps of Map-SPAM V2 [49] banana production.After editing there were 121 zones within 28 African countries. In some countries there were many zones with a maximum in Guinea of 15, whereas in other countries like Madagascar there was only one zone. To each zone relevant covariate data were added. The relevance was determined through expert assessments and by interpreting correlation coefficients between environmental data and XW samples in the East African Highlands (Table 2).The values of the covariates had very different ranges (Table 2). To make comparisons possible all values were standardized. To calculate the infection risk of each zone, five covariates (genotype, connectivity, trade, precipitation and distance) were simply summed. Four other covariates (e.g. production zone size, production level, temperature and altitude) were also considered but not used in the end because the resulting maps suggested a non-useful relation. It was assumed that the covariates genotype, connectivity, trade and precipitation increase risk, whereas distance decreases risk. It was also assumed that all covariates have an equal weight in determining risk.Pearson's correlation between XW incidence and all covariates were significant at the p = 0.05 level, except for the two covariates market and vegetation squared (Vegsq) (Table 3). Three covariates (precipitation squared, precipitation and management) had an absolute correlation coefficient of 0.35 or higher, suggesting a higher contribution to the observed variation in XW disease occurrence. All precipitation covariates, except the variability in precipitation, were positively correlated to XW. This suggests XW incidence is higher during the wet/humid seasons. In contrast, the disease management factor was negatively correlated with the XW incidence. Thus, a higher occurrence of XW is expected in landscapes that either had no access to management information or in which disease was poorly managed.The deviance of the regression model was 25.9% smaller than the deviance of the null model, which indicates the covariates (S1 Appendix) improved the goodness of fit of the model and explain a larger part of the variation than the null model. The covariates management ('man'), precipitation seasonality ('precvar'), precipitation in the driest month ('precmin') and precipitation ('prec') (S1 Appendix) had relatively high absolute values, just like the correlation values (Table 3). Similar to observations with the correlations, this suggests that the management and the precipitation related covariates had the highest contribution to the observed variation in the model, thus XW occurrence. A shift in the sign for 'prec' and relative importance of covariates is observed in the regression coefficients (S1 Appendix) in comparison with correlation values (cf. Table 3). These changes may be explained by the fact that the covariates are themselves correlated, which is very much the case between 'prec' and 'precsq' with a correlation efficient close to 1. In the regression model all covariates and interactions are lumped together in multivariate model, whereas the correlations are univariate. In the multivariate regression model the contribution of a specific covariate may entirely be covered by another one, as is probably the case for 'prec'. With the final regression model a regression map was calculated (Fig 5A). The kriging prediction map was calculated from the regression residuals. First a semivariogram was calculated (S2 Appendix). It is a near nugget variogram, meaning that there is little spatial autocorrelation between residuals. With the semivariogram a kriging prediction map was calculated (Fig 5B). The map consists of different colour shades around the samples representing relatively small positive or negative prediction values. In the blue areas the sample kriging prediction values were higher than the regression model predictions (i.e. >0) whereas in the red areas the values were lower (i.e. <0). The kriging prediction value in most parts of the study area is zero, the average value of the residuals, i.e. the kriging predictions were the same as the regression predictions.The XW incidence map of the East African Great Lakes region (Fig 5C ) is the sum of the regression predictions (Fig 5A ) and the kriging predictions (Fig 5B). The areas with black stripes/ dashed lines correspond to masked areas, where the altitude is above 2500 m, forests or national parks and deemed unsuitable for banana production. The resulting high-resolution map had a cell size of approximately 1 km, which may be too detailed and difficult to translate into clear-cut policy decisions or recommendations. Therefore, an aggregated map showing the XW incidence per district was created by calculating the average value for all cells in a district (Fig 5D). Both, the high resolution and aggregated XW incidence maps strongly resemble the regression map as the influence of the kriging is limited and local. The maps show that the risk XW spreads beyond the original data points (Fig 2 ) given the biophysical conditions and management is high. The disease has a high likelihood of being in all districts of Uganda and eastern DR Congo. The eastern part of DR Congo is a potential large hotspot with high XW occurrence. Uganda has a moderate to high XW occurrence/incidence. Clusters of potential XW hotspots were also visible in the Kagera region of north-western Tanzania, western parts of Burundi and Rwanda, southern Burundi and in western Kenya at the border with Uganda. Large portions of Burundi, Rwanda and the banana producing zones in Tanzania, have low levels of or no likelihood of appearance of XW. However, large portions of the survey regions were devoid of data (as surveys did not cover all banana production regions), though could potentially be having the disease.The XW infection risk for all banana production zones in tropical Africa derived from expert developed covariates (Fig 6 ) shows one zone in Tanzania, two zones in Ethiopia and the infected zones in the AGLR to have a very high risk (>4.5) due to the presence of the disease in these zones. A high-risk score of 2.1-4.5 was observed for one production zone in Mozambique, a large zone stretching from north eastern-central DR Congo, a zone in northern Ethiopia, zones in Kenya and Tanzania. Production zones in Egypt, Sudan, South Africa, Guinea, Togo, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire had the least risk to XW infection.Banana genotype effects on the landscape risk of XW were strong in Mozambique and parts of the AGLR ( Fig 7). Connectivity of landscapes and inter country trade also had strong contributions to the XW risk in the AGLR. Presence of the ABB-genotypes that are prone to insect-mediated infections, connectivity to a hotspot, and trade increase the risk of exposure to XW disease. Risk variability in the western part of Africa was mainly influenced by the distance from the hotspots and the level of precipitation ( Fig 7). A long distance from the hot spot(s) and a low precipitation is associated with a lower risk. Risk in the northern parts of Africa were mainly influenced by the low amounts of precipitation.Xanthomonas wilt disease of banana has rapidly spread across the AGLR and the plantain belt of central and west Africa is currently at risk. This study developed risk maps showing the aggregated spatial XW disease distribution and hotspots in the AGLR, and vulnerable landscapes across African banana and plantain production zones (Figs 5 and 6). In the endemic zones of the AGLR the occurrence and incidence of the XW disease was largely explained by precipitation and management (cf. Table 3, S1 Appendix). The occurrence of XW increased with precipitation and declined with increasing level of disease/banana management.High precipitation offers a conducive environment for both the pathogen (Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm)) and the host [51]. Higher XW severity and incidence has often been reported on farms during the rainy season in contrast to the drier seasons [12,38]. Using Maxent and regression, [36] also reported precipitation to be positively correlated to XW and to predominantly explain XW development in Tanzania. Rainfall and water availability can affect the survival, vigor, multiplication, spore production, inoculum dispersion, spore germination and penetration of a pathogen [51][52][53][54].A humid microclimate within the crop can result in stomatal opening allowing microbes to enter the plant apoplast [54] and also modulate bacterial population and disease incidence [55,56]. Xcm bacteria are in the group of proteobacteria, that are sensitive to desiccation [57,58] and thus likely to be favored by high humidity in plant tissues. Results from [30] show banana plants that receive an adlib supply of water to be more susceptible than those that received a moderate water stress, and observed that banana plants tended to remain in a latent state when moisture in the soil was deficient. High humidity has been associated with suppression of R gene mediated Hypersensitive Response that involves rapid plant cell death at point of infection in some plant species [59], though not yet investigated or reported for Xcm. Shimwela et al. [36] suggests the short distance spread of XW causing bacteria through rain splashes as the possible explanation for the higher correlation of XW infections to high rainfall or the rainy season. Infections through rain splashes would however be feasible in the presence of wounds on healthy plants and bacterial ooze on the ground and inflorescences, that would be most likely associated with farm management practices or pest damage. For example, Xcm has been reported to infect plants and cause disease if it comes in contact with fresh wounds on the roots or corms resulting from nematode or tool damage [26,60].Management plays a crucial role at regulating disease pressure on farms. XW is spread over both short (at field level and between close fields and farms) and long distances mainly through contaminated farm tools, insect vectors and infected planting material and occasionally through fruit/nectar feeding birds and bats [17]. To prevent spread or reduce disease inoculum and incidence, tool sterilization, early male bud removal using forked sticks (prevents insect-mediated infections), removal of infected bunches, plants and or mats are recommended. Where these practices have been applied, the disease has been contained or kept to lower levels of severity or incidence [17,18,21,22,32,33,38]. Increased use of farm tools most often without sterilization in the rainy season during field preparation, pruning of leaves to introduce annual crops could also contribute to the higher incidence in the rainy season [12,17,18].Altitude and temperature have also been reported to influence XW spread, mainly through their effect on insect vector activity. Insect vector numbers and population activity is lower at higher and cooler altitudes resulting in a lower disease occurrence and severity [39,40]. But unexpectedly low correlation and regression coefficients between XW and temperature and altitude were obtained, possibly due to the larger impact of tool-mediated XW spread (captured in the disease management covariate-cf. Table 3, S1 Appendix). More so, the endemic AGLR sites are dominated by the east African highland banana types that are not very prone to insect-mediated XW transmission given most of them have persistent male floral bracts and flowers [12].In the AGLR, multiple disease hotspots were observed in the entire study area (Fig 5). The eastern part of DR Congo was a large hotspot, while Tanzania had most of its production zones XW free (cf. Fig 5). The XW status in eastern DR Congo could be attributed to the lower level of control/ management efforts due to a weaker extension support system. A recent study in eastern DR Congo reported a low adoption of XW management practices, while only 32.3% of farmers had accessed some training on XW management over the past five years [61]. The distribution of this training was skewed with some regions having zero access. The eastern DR Congo also has high precipitation that has been shown in this study and studies of [35] and [36] to be correlated with high infection levels. In contrast, Rwanda had a strong extension effort, including a mandatory government driven effort to uproot swathes of plantations in disease hotspots in western Rwanda with plans to reintroduce the crop after a few years of fallow [62]. In contrast, production zones in Tanzania are distant from each other, preventing the spread of XW.Clusters of XW hotspots were also visible in the Kagera region of Tanzania, central and eastern regions of Uganda, the western part of Burundi and in the western part of Kenya on the border with Uganda. This could be attributed to the rapid rate of spread over short distances (e.g. though contaminated farm tools, insect vectors, small ruminants, infected planting materials and rain splashes/floods).Apart from the endemic zones in the AGLR and Ethiopia, northern Mozambique was perceived to be at a very high risk mainly due to the omnipresence in backyards of 'Bluggoe' (Musa ABB type) which is highly susceptible to insect, bird and bat-vectored transmission. Ocimati et al. [63], observed a significant association between the presence/absence of the XW-susceptible ABB types with disease incidence on a farm. The ABB banana types have also been blamed for the rapid spread of XW in Uganda (period 2003 till 2006) from the initial point of infection in Luwero district in Central Uganda. Proactive preventive measures in both the southern part of Tanzania and northern part of Mozambique and Malawi will be crucial for preventing a southward spread of the disease. These could include community awareness to improve surveillance and introduction of infected planting materials or fresh products and installation of quarantine measures. Similar measures are also needed to prevent the westward spread of the disease into the Congo basin and the plantain growing belt of west Africa.The surveys carried out in the AGLR were an accurate method of scouting for XW disease. However, their reach was limited by the need of a high financial investment, time constraints and limited access to some of the study locations (leading to convenience sampling). The study shows that geostatistical approaches can overcome the above challenges and use limited surveys or data points to make valid and precise predictions beyond the surveyed areas. Bouwmeester et al. [34], through cross-validation reported regression kriging to yield unbiased predictions of XW occurrence. The regression model however suffers some limitations and may not as such capture part of the variation in XW. First, not all underlying processes that cause spatial variation in XW incidence e.g., mode of transmission, distribution of susceptible host types and level of disease management are known or can be effectively represented by covariates in the model. The mode of spread of XW is complex, involving mainly farming tools, insect vector spread and planting materials. Spread through these modes can be minimized through cultural management practices. In the current study, a management covariate based on expert knowledge and available literature was incorporated to capture some of these aspects (cf. Table 1,Fig 3). The ABB Musa types are also known to be highly susceptible and a covariate on the distribution of ABB Musa types (cf. Table 1, Fig 3) was as such incorporated on the basis of expert knowledge and available literature. These covariates based on expert knowledge may suffer from errors due to failure to capture minor details e.g. variations over short distances and a lack appropriate scale but give valid predictions over large geographical scopes. For the Africa-wide risk map, a prediction of infection risk was estimated based on the relationship between XW disease and selected environmental and expert developed covariates because the variation in environmental covariates outside of the AGLR was beyond the scope of the surveys. These covariates could as such suffer from errors and or lack appropriate scale. However, this exercise gives us the first coarse XW disease risk map for the rest of Africa that can offer a platform to pro-actively make decisions and strategies for containing the disease to the currently affected zones.XW is spread across most of the AGLR. All banana landscapes in this region are vulnerable. Efforts in the region could focus on managing/reducing the disease and its damage on productivity. Landscapes with high precipitation are hotspots of XW or highly vulnerable to XW infection. Management plays a crucial role on the current XW incidence and prevalence. Improving extension services is crucial for the management of the disease in the AGLR. Extension efforts should be concentrated to such landscapes to curb or reduce the XW pandemic. Production zones in northern Mozambique and central lowland DR Congo are potential gateways for the spread of XW southwards and eastwards, respectively. Proactive measures are crucial for the prevention of the disease to these production zones. Possible actions could include the institution of quarantine measures and provision of relevant information and training on diseases diagnosis and epidemiology. The integration of expert judgement in development of covariates that are not readily available yet capture underlying processes that cause spatial variation was crucial in improving the regression outcomes.","tokenCount":"5488"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fc982e0cfed5b88ba4f0527757fa0fce","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H044095.pdf","id":"-1739835308"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a9345dac-353a-437e-9862-9b94f6d9bd64","pagecount":"5","content":"evidence that these have helped Mexico move towards sustainability; and that Mexico's efforts need to produce better results before they can be held out as a model that other groundwater-using countries can follow. However, our comparative analysis does suggest the outline of a framework that tells us what might work where.How countries respond to the challenge of sustainable management of their groundwater economies depends on a constellation of factors that defines the peculiar context of each country. This constellation of factors differs vastly across regions and countries; and these differences have decisive impact on whether an approach that has worked in one country will work in another with a different context. As a simple illustration of this point, table 6  The nature of the political system also matters. Iran has been able to impose a complete ban on sinking of new tubewells throughout its central plains that encompass rd 2/3 of the entire country. But Mexico has been trying to ban new tubewells in its bajio for 50 years, and has yet not succeeded. China has a large number of tubewells scattered over a huge country-side; yet chances are that over the coming decade, it will be able not only bring these within the ambit of its permit system but also succeed in influencing their operation. Doing something like this in India or Pakistan will remain unrealistic for a long time to come because of their political structures and systems.Besides what is feasible and practical, there is also the question of social impacts of approaches adopted. In Mexico and the US, where a miniscule proportion of people depend on groundwater for livelihoods, governments may easily adopt a tough regulatory posture.In South Asia, where over half of the total population may directly or indirectly depend on groundwater use for their livelihood, it is not surprising that political and administrative leadership is reluctant to even talk about regulating groundwater use, leave alone acting on it. In point of fact even in China, where political resistance from farmers is not an overriding issue, and Mexico where irrigator class is small enough to be ignored, governments have steered clear of tough regulatory measures.Table 5 lists a tentative set of 'contingencies' that seem to influence the way different countries respond to groundwater over-development. Countries where public systems will aggressively manage the groundwater economy by proactively intervening in demand and well as supply side will have some of all of the context factors in the middle column aligned in an enabling mode, as outlined in the right-hand column. Where some or all of the context factors operate in a disabling mode, public intervention will tend to be absent, or half-hearted or even perverse; here, proactive response to groundwater depletion will commonly be in the form of projects to enhance supply rather than containing demand. This is perhaps why no amount of opposition from within or outside will deflect China from its mega-project for South-North water transfer; and no matter how much scholars emphasize the upstream-downstream externalities of decentralized water harvesting and recharge, governments and communities in western and southern India will for long pursue these proactively as a strategy of sustaining groundwater irrigation and a more equitable allocation of a basin's water between catchment areas and downstream irrigation commands. Many of these contextual factorssuch as political system, nature of local authority structures--seem best taken as given; in any case, these are unlikely to change to overcome groundwater depletion and degradation. The only major contextual variable that may change and produce far reaching impact on groundwater stress in many regions of Asia is overall economic progress. In the medium to long run, economic progress may be the biggest source of increased stress on water resources as well as the most powerful safety valve. This is because Asia's socio-ecologies under severe groundwater stress are dominated by agricultural sectors that serve as the parking lot for their rural poor. Majority of South Asian and North China farmers are into far ming because they can not find off-farm livelihoods. With growing non-agricultural sectors of these economies, it is very likely that population pressure on agriculture will ease. With groundwater use in agriculture becoming less of a livelihoods issue and more of a food security issue, we can expect that demand management will increasingly become politically more acceptable. There is increasing indicative evidence that overall management of national water sectorsas well as access to water and sanitation-seem to depend more on the stage of economic development of a country than on its endowments of water resources.Figure 16, based on ongoing IWMI's analysis using recently released Water Poverty Index, shows that 'Water Access Poverty' an indicator of the extent to which countries can provide access to water for agricultural, domestic, industrial and environmental sectors is determined more by the PPP-adjusted per capita income of the 154 countries covered than by their water endowments. Similarly, Figure 17 shows that the quality of water environment too follows the Environmental Kuznet's curve: at early stages of economic growth, when the use of water as a factor of wealth creation is low, the quality of water environment is high; it tends to decline as economies grow and indulge in intensive use of water in agriculture and industry. However, as incomes improve, there is internal demand and support for 'environmental amenity', which results in more proactive management of water and other natural resources. Until the majority of a  nation's people are driven by livelihoods concern, as is the case in much of South Asia and North China plains, governments and water sector managers will continue to face resistance to demand management and regulation. In the long run, then, economic growth may provide the biggest safety valve that may release the inexorable pressure experienced by natural resources, in particular groundwater.In discovering windows for sustainable management of national groundwater economies, then, it seems crucial to focus on the broader micro, meso and macro-level adjustment processes that will shape the interaction between resource use and broader socio-economic change.In understanding these adjustment processes, IWMI's ongoing work suggests strong need to distinguish between regions with hard rock formations with 'bounded aquifers' from regions with alluvial aquifers. In the hard rock areas, after a threshold of groundwater development is reached, farming communities seek out approaches to managing their groundwater resources from monsoon-to-monsoon basis. In India, adoption of rain water har vesting, decentralized groundwater recharge, micro-irrigation technologies and water saving crops is maximum in hard rock areas where farming communities are forced to view their aquifers as water bank accounts. In the alluvial areas of South Asia as well as North China plains, where tubewell owners can continue their extraction apace by regularly deepening their wells, farming communities' seem supremely unresponsive to demand management interventions or to water saving farming technologies. In these latter regions, proactive demand management is of paramount significance.","tokenCount":"1138"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1786683ec0809646639c5ebd86e67fac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e27c8f22-959b-404d-b8a8-582e12a0f605/retrieve","id":"978948867"},"keywords":["crop diversity","seed development","black-eyed pea","value chain","markets","enduser","policy","research"],"sieverID":"e9f2404f-b961-4d31-a23a-648dfe278c97","pagecount":"18","content":"Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) is a vital legume crop for Zambia's urban and rural households. The crop is an important legume used as human and animal food and as a component of the agricultural production system, which improves the fertility of many depleted soils because of its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Government through the ministries of health and agriculture recommend its' use. Despite the importance of cowpea in the nation, there is limited information on the crop along with its' value chain components. This review aims to assemble pertinent information on cowpea and its value chain components in Zambia. A critical look through the food system from production to consumption reveals the prevailing gaps in knowledge and output. The information covered here touches on crop breeding, production, marketing, processing, and consumption. This paper delves into various literature, bringing out the salient issues that are not commonly discussed about on the crop. It is a situation analyses focusing on finding solutions to improving the relevance and appreciation of the crop. There is a need for agricultural policies to promote cowpea production and use with the active participation of relevant actors. This would create a conducive environment for determining user needs, and leading to the development of beneficial impact-related activities at various stages. The country needs to begin incorporating a variety of crops within the food system to complement maize to improve nutrient intake, contribute to climate-smart practices, and sustainability of agricultural practices within communities in Zambia.Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.), commonly known as the black-eyed pea, is a legume of significant importance to the livelihoods of millions of people in less developed countries, especially in the drier tropics. It is a relatively drought-tolerant and warm-weather crop that drives well in semi-arid regions of the tropics where other food legumes do not perform well. The crop's performance is favoured in Zambia, with an average annual temperature of 30°C and rainfall ranging between 800 mm to over 1000 mm (Hamududu & Ngoma, 2019). The crop is prevalently grown and produced by small-scale farmers, particularly in the Southern province of Zambia, the most drought-prone area in the country, with parts of it receiving as little as 500 mm of annual rainfall (Kaluba et al., 2017). The crop also provides the bulk of highly nutritious, inexpensive dietary protein intake and valuable micronutrients for many poor households, hence the reference to it as a \"poor man's crop\" (Gondwe et al., 2019). This may change as the crop is currently receiving increased attention from political and development organizations (Ousmane et al., 2020). The development of dual-purpose varieties in the country (Munyinda, 2020) provides for grain and vegetable consumption, including animal fodder. This complements the feeding options of the prominent traditional animal rearing system, focusing on dairy and cattle in the various provinces. The use of cowpea in the country does not end there; the crop is also an excellent soil infertility remedial crop. Also, it is used in pest and disease control, especially when grown in rotation with cereal crops, a system practiced across the country (IAPRI, 2021a). Undoubtedly, cowpea has a great potential for production and use in Zambia, especially as an indigenous climate-friendly crop and cheap protein source with various potential markets. As recently published by multiple authors, the promotion of food and dietary diversity strategies calls for collective efforts to support the production of diverse, healthy, and environmentally sustainable foods, with legumes, among them cowpeas, as crucial complementary crops (Gondwe et al.,2019;FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, W. and W, 2017;IAPRI, 2021a). Therefore, one question that arises; is cowpea delivering as a crop within the food system in Zambia? Despite all the valuable characteristics that the crop possesses and exhibits, there are several aspects, be it challenges or advances in the cowpea value chain in the country, which have not been extensively discussed and documented. Consequently, the paper presents an overview of potential opportunity areas for the crop which could be useful in years to come for strategic approaches to cowpea and its place in the food system of Zambia. The paper covers a wide range of aspects in the crop's value chain based on a review of literature and policy documents, with the provision of relevant models and recommendations.Cowpea is a crop currently being grown and produced primarily by smallholder farmers. To foster crop production, the government has included the crop in the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) as a good crop diversity option (among others, such as soybean and rice) in complementing the maize-focused production and consumption systems. Due to historical maize-centric agricultural policies, the Zambian food system has solely relied on maize as the main staple (Alamu et al., 2021;Mulenga et al., 2020). The dependence on maize production and use is precarious and inimical to improved household and nutritional security (Chilufya & Mulendema, 2019). According to developmental policies, such as the Eighth National Development Plan (MFND, 2022) and the National Agricultural Policy (2012-2030), diversification of crops, including cowpea, produced, consumed, and their value addition is vital for Zambia. With the current climate change effects (floods and drought) being experienced in Zambia, cowpea is a priority crop being recommended to farmers by the government (Mulungu et al., 2021). However, through various situational updates, the government recently identified inadequate capacity for value addition regarding the complementary indigenous crops and a low variety of preparation methods of nutritious meals across Zambia to ensure balanced diets (Mofya-Mukuka & Musonda, 2016). The realization that utilization of cowpea was poor among the households and, within markets, was consequently affecting the crop production among the farmers. Therefore, agricultural departments (Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI), Universities) and various organizations (Food and Agricultural Organisations (FAO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (GIZ)) began and are fostering research and extension services, particularly on production, consumption, and value addition as critical components for achieving food security within the country. International development organizations (World Food Program (WFP) and GIZ) are supporting deliberate projects where cowpea is being promoted in production and processing as well as utilization within the value chain (Marinda et al., 2018;WFP, 2020). Zambia Agricultural Research Institute, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the University of Zambia (UNZA) are playing an active role in research-based advancements within the cowpea value chain, although not at the pace of improvement as the other legumes (i.e. groundnuts; ZRI, 2021). More focus is mainly on soybean, beans, and groundnuts. This is disadvantageous to many low-end users as some of these legumes are high input and labor intensive, region specific and many small-scale farmers are not financially able to grow them, for example, soybean. Current policies need to be strengthened, through the implementation process, the proactive use of legumes in our food system, particularly cowpea, to contribute to improved food and nutrition security in Zambia (IAPRI, 2021a).The average cowpea yields in Zambia have remained low, ranging from 0.2 to 0.8 tons/ha against a potential yield of 3 to 4 tons/ha (Nkhoma et al., 2020a). The yield gap is attributable to a low number of improved high yielding cultivars, increased use of local varieties, poor soil fertility, poor agronomic practices, and abiotic and biotic production constraints (Mbuma et al., 2021). The development of seed cultivars that are locally adapted has always been seen as a means to improve seed quality, maintain the plant genetic pool and purity and reduce the effects of many stresses that affect crops in various places (Hove & Bakker, 2020).ZARI working with seed companies, universities, have led the way in variety development and research of cowpea. However, almost all the organizations involved in plant breeding in the country have only been using conventional methods (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, W. and W, 2017;Maria Figueira Gomes et al., 2019). Before the 1980s, Zamseed, a local seed company, spearheaded cowpea variety research using conventional means. In 1984, the seed company released two varieties (Shipepo and Muliana). These varieties are no longer in production. The next variety to be released by the company was Lutembwe, in 1993 and Bubebe was released in 1995. Due to the use of conventional plant breeding methods, it takes a long time before another cowpea variety could be released.The delay in release of subsequent varieties, results in varieties that are ineffective and less valuable, as at the time of pre-release, many environmental, social, and biological changes and needs would have arisen. With the prevailing changes in climatic conditions and the evolution of different insects and diseases, the outstanding characteristics of these old varieties and agronomic performance would have eventually deteriorated. It has been shown that most legumes, including cowpea, have lost many alleles for high productivity, seed quality, pest, and disease resistance in the process of adaptation to environmental stress (Horn & Shimelis, 2020). However, Lutembwe is still a popular variety among farmers, despite being released 29 years ago. It demonstrates high stability for most traits and would be a good source of genes as a parent to introgress into other varieties. However, limited information and awareness about the availability of new varieties may be contributing to the popularity and continual use of older varieties such as Lutembwe. ZARI also bred and released varieties; Musandile, Namuseba, and Mtilizi in 2004, 2011, and 2018, respectively, to increase yields and productivity and mitigate adverse environmental impacts. Furthermore, UNZA, in collaboration with local partners and an external partner (International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)), embarked on crop improvement and development of cowpea varieties with high yield potential and with tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses in 2016 (Munyinda, 2020;Simunji et al., 2019;Tembo et al., 2017). The University of Zambia Breeding program released two varieties, Lukusuzi andLunkwhankwa, in 2018 (IAEA, 2020;Horn, 2016;Horn & Shimelis, 2020).Induced mutations with gamma radiation were used to generate novel alleles not previously existing in the local germplasm. At present, some molecular breeding techniques and genomic resources, such as polymerase-chain reaction (PCR), single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), and genetic diversity, are being used in the development of varieties by the research institutes and universities in Zambia (FAO, 2016;Kirkhouse trust, 2022). More genomic tools, such as the use of quantitative trait loci (QTL) in trait selection, linkage mapping, marker-assisted breeding and reference populations (candidate gene associations), and intercountry learning are being used to increase cowpea breeding advancements (Boukar et al., 2016).Variety release in Zambia have shown lapse in seed multiplication, resulting in deficient commercial availability of the released varieties in cowpea and legumes (IAPRI, 2021a). Legumes are overlooked in seed multiplication programs by the government and most seed companies, as they are self-pollinating and are not profit earners (low returns on investment). A few seed companies and research departments use smallholder farmer seed systems to maintain (community seed banks) and multiply seeds (contract farming) because smallholder farmers are more prominent in the provinces than commercial farmers, who may not necessarily be interested in growing the crop. More support and promotion of small-scale seed producers is recommended as it empowers the farmers with income and food security (Munyiri, 2020). The list of cowpea varieties developed to date in Zambia is shown in Table 1.The characteristics of the varieties developed and released are not documented, and the preliminary features are shown in Table 2 There is limited information on nutrient use efficiencies and toxicities for the varieties in the crop except for a recently released variety, Lukusuzi and the nutritional characteristics of the varieties are also not available. More research still needs to be conducted to identify and improve cowpea trait performance, especially with the current soil fertility challenges that the country is experiencing (Ngoma et al., 2021). Nkhoma et al. (2020a) documented that the yield stability of the varieties in various agro-ecological zones. Furthermore, another study by Nkhoma (2011) looked at the anti-nutritional factors in cowpea, and Hachibamba et al. (2013) studied the effect of cooking on phenolic and antioxidant content in cowpea. However, very little information has been generated since then on the nutritional quality of the various varieties (Gerrano et al., 2019) and the farmer preferences (Nkhoma et al., 2020a).Farmers in Zambia widely grow unimproved landraces due to the low availability of improved and locally adapted farmer-preferred cultivars (Horn, 2016). However, there is no recent information on the prevalence of local and improved seeds among farmers (Tripp et al., 1998). Identifying and maintaining diverse sources of cowpea genetic material (including local and wild varieties) is helpful to conserve traits and improve the adaptability of the varieties. Although seven varieties are documented as released, most of them are not commercially available and do not fully carry  farmer-preferred quality traits. Hence, the high tendency for farmers to use local varieties. Government as well as private companies need to work together to ensure that the varieties are commercially available, by putting the right-seed access policies and a decentralized seed system in place to complement the commercial seed system. It is also important to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the responsible institutes to carry out their activities and evaluate their performance The scarcity of recent information on cowpea in Zambia indicates that much work needs to be done on this important crop yet disregarded and overlooked. The world food programme and GIZ have on-going projects in different districts across Zambia (Richards & Bellack, 2016;WFP, 2020) to improve various aspects of the cowpea value chain. Cowpea productiivity in Zambia varies across the country, although yields are usually very low, <700-800 kg/ha (Munyinda, 2020). According to a 2004 supplemental survey (Mofya-Mukuka, 2021; Mofya-Mukuka & Musonda, 2016), cowpeas were grown in all Zambian provinces, although production was highly concentrated in a few areas (Figure 1). The national outlook may have changed over the years, but the Southern Province is still the major cowpea producing region of the crop (WFP, 2020). The Southern Province is a drought prone area and this demonstrates that cowpea performs relatively well under drought conditions where most crops cannot grow well. In this region, cowpea production complements livestock production. More production figures across the country are needed to be able to provide a status of the crop and possible interventions to be developed accordingly.Most of the available data concentrates on beans and groundnuts (IAPRI, 2021a), with many instances where the production data for cowpea is pooled with that of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris; Harris, 2019). This is probably due to the low yields and use of cowpea among households. In one document by Mwanamwenge and Cook (2019), cowpea production was the second to least (Bambara nuts) for two concurrent seasons, 2017/18 and 2018/19 (Figure 2). The yields were among the lowest in the two seasons. The data revealed that cowpea had low production and yield in the country. This has been attributed to low market drivers (Mwanamwenge & Cook, 2019), inadequate processing capacity, value addition, and business models, and consumption and use (Ministry of Agriculture, 2012). Currently, there are a few companies purchasing cowpea grains in various regions, Good Nature (GNA) agro (Eastern Province), Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) (Eastern Province), and WFP (Southern province). These companies are providing the Source: Supplemental survey FSRP, 2008 needed cowpea market, which the farmers are not meeting in terms of supply. Additionally, other countries, such as Botswana, are also potential markets for cowpea producers. Moreover, the produce is usually bought at very low prices, attributed to low quality. Since no appropriate and established value addition processes are in place at the farmers' community level and financial stresses, lead to sale of produce at low prices.During the production cycle, information on the availability of the crops after harvest is collected by the Ministry of Agriculture. This is to monitor the availability of all primary foods consumed by the majority of the population through the national Food Balance Sheet (FBS; NFNC/MoA, 2021). The nutritious FBS (Table 3) is derived from the national FBS by showing food categories and types. In contrast, Figure 3 shows the available supply as of March 2020 (IAPRI, 2021a), based on the production and yields of the crops. Although it is encouraging to have cowpea appearing in the FBS, utilization is still low (Figure 3), showing that there is indeed potential and opportunity for the crop at the national level.Recent studies conducted through a participatory approach have had farmers indicate that among many constraints faced, they had limited knowledge of cowpea agronomic practices, which was associated with low production and productivity (Table 4; Nkhoma et al., 2020a;Mwanamwenge & Cook, 2019;IAPRI, 2021b). The constraint could be perceived two-fold; there  being insufficient knowledge on practices that are supposed to be used in farmer fields, or limited information dissemination (via extension systems). Additionally, the lack of improved seed topped the list, suggesting the urgent need for awareness creation on available varieties. To improve seed availability, private and public engagements is encouraged, and engagement of the private and public institutions, as well as use of community seed banks to increase seed multiplication especially among rural communities.A look at the available information on cowpea agronomy and production practices suggest sufficient knowledge in the growing and production of cowpea. Recent cowpea growing guides (ZAS, 2019) cover a broad range of topics through the production system of cowpea in Zambia. The crop performs well in hotter and drier parts of Zambia, replacing the common bean as a food crop for grain and leaf in those areas. Thus, the suggestion that the Southern province is likely to be still the higher production province and user of the crop is corroborated. Other provinces, such as Eastern and Central provinces, would be good growing locations. The optimum sowing times are December to January. Optimum time sown plants tend to have elongated internodes, more vegetative and have a higher yield than those sown at the very early (ZAS, 2019). This is attributable to temperature changes as well as rainfall. The right growing conditions, trigger the production of appropriate hormonal responses to result in phenotypic responses useful for plant growth.Some cowpea varieties also have some tolerance for waterlogging (Oloruna et al., 2021). Nonetheless, well-distributed rain is still crucial for the normal growth and development of cowpeas. The frequency and unreliability of rainfall pose problems to cowpea growth in Zambia. In some areas, the frequency of rain is too high, resulting in flooding, while in some other areas, it is so unreliable that moisture conservation and/or loss remain important for crop production. Cowpeas utilizes soil moisture efficiently and are more drought-tolerant than groundnuts and soya beans. In areas where annual rainfall is high (Northern province), cowpeas could be planted at a time to coincide with the peak period of rainfall during the vegetative phase or flowering stage so that pod-drying could take place during dry weather. Adequate rainfall is very important during the flowering/podding stage. Cowpeas react to severe moisture stress by limiting growth (especially leaf growth) and reducing leaf area by changing leaf orientation and closing the stomata.In terms of soil preference, cowpeas are grown on a wide range of soils but perform better in sandy loam soils, which are less restrictive to root growth. This adaptation to lighter soils is coupled with drought tolerance through reduced leaf growth, less water loss through stomata, and leaf movement to reduce light and heat load under stress. Cowpeas thrive in well-drained soil and less on heavy soils. Additionally, low soil fertility does not deter the crop as it thrives, making it one of the most resilient legume crops suitable for Zambia's low input and water-limited production systems (Nkhoma et al., 2020a).Cowpea is unique compared to soybean; for example, it has the presence of nodular bacteria specific to cowpea (Bradyrhizobium spp). This characteristic makes it suitable for cultivation in the hot, marginal cropping areas of Southern Africa and the cooler, higher rainfall areas (DPP/ARC, 2011). Additionally, the bacteria help fix 70 to 350 kg/ha of atmospheric nitrogen. Some 40 to 80 kg of this is deposited into soils as a natural mineral nitrogen source contributing to soil (Sindhu et al., 2019). The crop requires a soil pH of between 5.6 and 6.0. Optimum soil pH and moderate temperatures favor bacterial survival and nodulation (Marsh et al., 2006) and improve cowpea crop performance through high N 2 fixation. Nodulation potential of the crop is mostly achieved due to poor soil phosphorous fertility. The crop only fixes atmospheric nitrogen when there is sufficient plant available P in the soil.Based on the information presented, there is sufficient available knowledge on optimum growing conditions and practices within the country. Therefore, extension services (public and private) need to package this information for dissemination to the farmers. Poor institutional linkages in outreach and promotion were reported by Chisanga et al. (2017). It is recommended that more information and extension service interaction with other ministries (Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ministry of Education (MOE)), farmers and public/private organizations should occur. Additionally, harmonization among the actors in the value chain in the messages delivered to the farmer is required. To ensure there is no miscommunication and/or misunderstanding among the farmers, and as a means not to replicate efforts and focus on key information.Insect pests are the most critical constraints to cowpea production because each phase attracts several insect pests. Cowpea is very attractive to insects (Dingha, 2021) due to the biochemical signals that the plant produces. The main pests during the growing season are pod sucking bugs (Riptortus spp., Nezara viridula, and Acantomia sp.), aphis (Aphis fabae, Aphis craccivora), blister beetle (Mylabris spp.), and pod borer (Maruca vitrata; Tembo et al., 2017). However, the bruchid weevil (mainly Callosobruchus maculatus) is the leading pest during growing and storage (Tembo et al., 2017).Apart from insect pests, the most important disease of cowpea is stem rot caused by Phytophthora vignae. This disease frequently occurs in wetter areas and heavier soils that may become waterlogged. Bacterial canker, bacterial blight (Xanthomonas vignicola) causes severe damage to cowpeas, while the most frequent virus encountered is the aphid-borne mosaic virus (CabMV). Fungal diseases, are Fusarium wilt, Cercospora leaf spot, rust and powdery mildew. Cowpea is susceptible to nematodes and should not be planted consecutively on the same land. No variety in Zambia (Table 2) is tolerant to key pests and diseases. Research is underway to identify promising tolerant genotypes for insects and diseases at UNZA and ZARI. This is because chemical control is costly, particularly for small-scale farmers and is not sustainable (FAO & IIBC, 1992). There is still a need for continued breeding efforts for cowpea given the evolution of the pathogens that cause the major diseases of cowpea and also the possible emergence of new biotypes of the cowpea pests. These continued breeding efforts are also needed to develop varieties that are more resilient to climate change.Parasitic weeds such as Striga gesnerioides (Willd.) and Vatke and Alectra vogelii (Benth.) affect cowpea production (Horn et al., 2020). Weeds have been reported as a dominant constraint to production by the farmers in Zambia (Chisanga et al., 2017;Nkhoma et al., 2020a). Striga gesnerioides and Alectra spp. are the principal parasitic weeds attacking cowpeas in Zambia. The most common Striga species pest to cowpea is S. gesnerioides (Jamil et al., 2021). There is limited research in this area. As a result, farmers are advised to improve soil fertility where this weed is a problem by using manure. Striga finds an ideal environment for its proliferation with soils low in organic matter and soil biological activity (Ayongwa et al., 2011).Finally, in most cases, the harvesting of cowpea coincides with the onset of the dry season, when the dry pods can remain about a week awaiting harvesting without spoilage. However, dry pods are not left in the field longer than 2 weeks after full pod maturity to avoid pest infestation or shattering. Most smallholder farmers are encouraged to harvest with care at the appropriate moisture content (16%) so that there are limited injuries to the grain. Most of the small-scale farmers in Zambia harvest the crop manualy by hand and sundried. At time of harvest, storage facilities should have been prepared and cleaned, which does not happen mostly and these tend to excercabate pre-harvest mismanagement (ARC, 2021).The post-harvest handling section covers cowpea shelling, storage and marketing, processing and utilization. Breakages usually occur during the shelling as many farmers hit the cowpea so that separates from its pods. Local seed companies will want the seed cleaned and bagged, while others like the Namibian markets will take the grain in bulk and clean it themselves, at a moisture content of 12%. Local off-takers are encouraged to train farmers on proper harvest methods to reduce damage levels. Grading begins just after harvest and shelling, with grain graded for color, size, insect damage, and firmness. The fresh, tender leaves are usually picked by the women and youth and sold in the local markets. Furthermore, the leaves are dried to store for the dry season, usually, after steaming. Alternatively, they are sun-dried, for 1 to 3 days. With these methods, storage for up to a year is possible because dried and cooked leaves are not damaged to the same extent by insects as dried grains. Excessive losses of Beta carotene, vitamin C, and lysine, amino acid often occur in sun-dried leaves (Ndawula et al., 2004). However, minimal cooking can reduce these, followed by drying in the shade. Not many studies have been conducted in this area of preservation. Innovations of improved on-farm storage mechanisms and structures are necessary within the country.Smallholder farmers in Zambia do not have the proper-stage storage facilities and as such most of the crop deteriorates, and complete crop loss is reported due to insect pest damage (Damiri et al., 2013;Tembo et al., 2017), especially if it is being stored for an extended period. Most storage facilities are not well aerated, and bagged grains are placed on the ground, a breeding ground for attack by pests and rodents. This identifies another key challenge that needs to be addressed: losses mainly caused by financial, managerial and technical constraints in harvesting and handling techniques and storage and cooling facilities. Several studies are being carried out on varieties tolerant to storage pests (Siyunda et al., 2022), identifying technologies and methods that would help reduce the losses, such as using hermetic technology commonly known as PICS bags. Hermetic technology refers to the process of storing respiring productsusually durable crops with low moisture content, such as dry pulses, seeds, or grains-in sealed, airtight, or semi-airtight containment systems (Dijkink et al., 2022). Implementing organizations (e.g., GIZ and MoA) have developed training modules for postharvest management and integrated them into the curricula of farmer field schools and advertised on interactive radio shows, particularly in Eastern province. By introducing and demonstrating innovative techniques and methods in postharvest processes, producers can be trained and, at the same time, made aware of how to avoid losses.Several studies carried out under the Pulse Value Chain initiative, conducted from 2011 to 2015 in Zambia (Amanor-Boadu et al., 2015), as well as the Cowpea Collaborative Research Support Programme (2001;Singh, 2004), tackled a number of cowpea marketing components. Market participation was an important variable in transforming subsistence cowpea into commercial crops to help address poverty and income challenges that confront many smallholder producers (Moono, 2015). Profitability was associated with location, with the Southern province as the most profitable region (Mtchotsa, 2014). This scenario might have changed over the years, because of the recent increase in the production and use of cowpea and shows that there is improved demand for cowpea through GNA and COMACO purshases, with more potential for business from marketers and processors (IAPRI, 2021a). Additionally, the Northern province has a fair cowpea production (Nkhoma et al., 2020a). It would thus indicate that many households produce their own consumption and generally do not buy.Other studies looked at the profitability of producing cowpea (Zulu et al., 2011), supply chain participation in the cowpea value chain (Ngoma et al., 2011) and cowpea producers' choice of marketing channels (Mzyece, 2011). Zulu et al. (2011), reported that cowpea was potentially a profitable crop since most of the farmers that grew cowpeas were found to have positive gross margins. The study results further showed that 79% of the farmers produced cowpea, but few farmers (21%) sold their cowpeas. Thus, few participated in the market, which could be due to the lack of market and unattractive prices. Most cowpea is supplied to local markets, such as Soweto, and only 6% had existing contracts with buyers (Mtchotsa, 2011). Market opportunities for the crop need to be explored by the government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), development organizations and individuals.In Zambia today, various seed companies, notably GNA and Afriseed, are key in cowpea seed development and as markets (out-grower schemes), dealing with over 500,000 farmers and delivering country wide. Good Nature Agro provides cowpea seed to farmers in the Eastern province with technical extension and advice for improved production. After harvest, the farmers pay for the seed loan with seed (150%) and Good Nature Agro buys the rest of the seeds at a premium (K12/kg ≈ $0.67), package and sell the seed on the market. Furthermore, companies such as COMACO purchase cowpea grain from the farmers at competitive prices, and sells most of it while the rest is processed into food products such as a cowpea snack (CP snack for children) under their \"Its'Wild\" brand of products (Figure 4). The seed multiplication for cowpea under COMACO is just commencing.Cowpea is used both as a vegetable and grain in Zambia (Fanta Fhi, 2017). Cowpea leaves are also an important component of the market, where their quality, taste, and color should be maintained. Cowpea leaves are sold and consumed in most African countries, such as Zambia, South Africa, Ghana, Mali, Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi (DPP/ ARC, 2011). The semi-spreading varieties are suitable for use as a vegetable. Fresh leaves and growth points are often picked and eaten the same way as swiss chard or bean leaves. Dried leaves are preserved and eaten as a meat substitute (ZAS, 2019). In many localities across the provinces, cowpea leaves are harvested fresh as a vegetable alone or for peanut soup preparation or cured for future use during the cold dry season when there is no rain to sustain the crop production. Cowpea is commonly consumed as a dried grain in Zambia. It may also be cooked together with other vegetables to make a thick soup or ground into a meal or paste.Additionally, in the Southern province, the dried grain is boiled and mixed with boiled maize grains (dried) and consumed. The use of fresh (green) cowpea seeds as a seed vegetable provides an inexpensive source of protein in the diet (Carneiro da Silva et al., 2019). Similarly, fresh, immature pods may be boiled as a vegetable. The green pod is rarely consumed in Zambia, nor are the grains consumed fresh.It is envisaged that cowpea meals can be served with various popular maize meals, custard, bread, pap, and rice in Zambia when production is increased, and utilization awareness improves. There are multiple products that the small-scale farmers make in their homes, such as fritters, sausages, and biscuits (CUTS and WFP, 2018) but no company has formalized or commercialized any of these products. The trading of seeds and processed foods provide both urban and rural areas with opportunities to earn regular income. A local company (Sylva Food Solutions) purchases fresh leaves from small-scale farmers, sun dries the cowpea leaves (kachesha in the local language), packs them and sells them in retail stores (that serves the urban communities; Figure 5). In addition, information on consumer preferences is vital for informing various actors along the value chain, such as plant breeders, marketers, and processors. Consumer preferences for taste, seed size, seed coat, and eye colors vary from place to place and affect food use (Table 3.3). For example, Ghanaian consumers pay a premium for black-eyed, whereas those in Cameroon discount black-eye. The most common seed coat color preference is white, but consumers prefer red, brown, or mottled grains in some areas. Up to nine different varieties may be on sale in a single domestic market (Ishikawa et al., 2019). In Brazil, the commercial varieties include Smooth White, Rough White, Smooth Brown, Evergreen, and Crowder (Martey et al., 2021). In Zambia, very little is documented on cowpea's farmer and consumer preferences; neither is cowpea being marketed at premium places, such as hotels or eating places. Consumer preferences were documented for a cowpea-maize snack (Alamu et al., 2021) and a cassava-cowpea snack (Alamu et al., 2021), providing valuable information on critical end-user traits that must be considered at various value chain stages. However, much more still needs to be done in many provinces across Zambia and with more food product types, presenting opportunities that business entities can take up and promote. The MoA working together with MoH, would promote the crop as essential for nutrition, particularly for women and children (Ministry of Health Zambia, 2006).A food systems model analyses focusing on cowpea was created as shown in Figure 6 to have an overall perception of the review. The feedback loop presentation generated in Vensim ® software illustrates the interactions of various processes and actors around cowpea' value chain within the food system. The figure shows the importance of the end-user needs and requirements as they affect and connect with all other operations in the system. The model highlights that cowpea systems just like any other crop, are complex and inter-connected. It includes various key components, such as choices which affect consumer nutrient intake, food demand, market availability, also affecting cowpea production and seed development. At each point of the model, information is being generated into a knowledge outputs, feeding back into the loops to ensure improved liveihoods, nutrition, seed and crop production, plus innovations development. The system operates at optimum when there is interaction among the stakeholders within (researchers, consumers, producers, processors, marketers, government departments, NGO's) and external (development organizations) to the system.The developed model depicts the various areas of importance in cowpea development highlighted in this document, with their interactions and associations. The outstanding areas are nutrition, food diversity, choices, markets, production, seed, product development, information, knowledge development and its' provision, prevailing policy environment for effective implementation and user uptake.Cowpea is definitely an essential crop in Zambia, although known as a poor man's crop, it has a place at all levels of the Zambian society (rich or poor). As such, messages on cowpea should be adapted to remove the poverty perception in them but show that the production and use of the crop could lead to improved livelihoods and well-being. The proactive implementation of critical hotspot areas along the value chain with key stakeholders spearheading the process and offering checks and balances is needed. It is recommended that cowpea be part of the government's farmer support programs (as it is for maize). Furthermore, concerted efforts to expand the cowpea industry through price policies, such as high floor prices, are required to cushion farmers as they trade and foster its market. A strong private sector presence and active participation in the production and marketing is necessary. Additionally, deliberate policies to encourage market and processor-oriented actors to participate in marketing and using the crop as part of value addition would also create a demand and a positive ripple effect across the food system.The local research has dedicated the bulk of studies toward high yielding cowpea cultivar and germplasm development. However, studies on other important traits and improved methods of variety development that are vital to cowpea research programs should be undertaken. Breeding efforts should be focused on climate resilience in its entirety, on pests, disease, water (drought tolerance) and nutrient use efficiency. End user preferences should also be a basis of variety selection to meet their needs. Investment in the commercialization of the already developed seed varieties is necessary to unlocking a lot of potential in the varieties. Other industrial uses of cowpeas need to be identified and look at potential markets that would boost production, consumption and use. This could result in increased demand, leading to increased price incentives for producer market participation. This will in turn also improve the accessibility and availability of cowpea seed and grain.The extension services in the Ministry of Agriculture with other institutions, such as the central statistical office (CSO), Agricultural Marketing Information Centre (AMIC), MoE and MoH, should focus on strengthening capacities on improved cowpea production and nutrition practices to increase cowpea productivity to ensure up to date information on the crop. Public-private partnerships should develop appropriate, affordable, and simple cowpea farming and utilisation technologies. Accessibility and use of these simple technologies would improve supply chain participation. Ultimately, cowpea is indeed a crop worth investment and promotion in Zambia.","tokenCount":"6099"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"990ffde7996eff17e4e6d2df071fddd1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0323816e-f147-4f08-afb5-3223ca26b084/retrieve","id":"-412332493"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7f83ee3c-96c7-41cb-9b15-774c75df4b4d","pagecount":"2","content":"En los últimos años se ha dado un importante impulso al crecimiento de las economías de los países de América Latina y el Caribe, el cual no se ha traducido en una disminución de la vulnerabilidad a la inseguridad alimentaria a la que está expuesta una parte importante de la población del continente. Berdegué y Fuentealba [1] han demostrado que mientras que el PIB ha aumentado en promedio un 25% en toda la región de América Latina en los últimos 30 años, el porcentaje de pobres rurales sólo se ha reducido del 60% al 52%. Además de la pobreza crónica en las poblaciones rurales también ha agravado la desnutrición en muchos países de la región. Un alarmante 7% de los niños de esta región tienen bajo peso y el 15% tienen un retraso de crecimiento. Además los países de la región aún muestran niveles de desigualdad muy altos en relación con otras regiones del mundo y se presentan brechas sociales que necesitan ser atendidas para hacer más inclusivo el modelo de desarrollo. La pregunta es ¿cómo podemos trabajar en el marco de sistemas de producción basados en papa para mejorar esta situación?.El enfoque moderno de la agricultura reconoce la necesidad de desarrollar un nuevo modelo que articule la agricultura, la nutrición, la salud humana y la generación de ingresos de los productores y sus familias [2]. Este modelo debe orientarse a mejorar la articulación entre los sistemas de producción y los sistemas alimentarios en zonas geográficas específicas, para reducir la vulnerabilidad a la inseguridad alimentaria mediante la innovación. En este marco conceptual, el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) está desarrollando un enfoque de trabajo multidisciplinario en la región Andina mediante el proyecto IssAndes (www.issandes.org) con una serie de socios nacionales de investigación y desarrollo. Este proyecto busca sacar un mejor provecho de los sistemas de producción basados en el cultivo de la papa, columna vertebral de la alimentación de las poblaciones rurales en las regiones alto-Andinas. La papa es un cultivo con ventajas comparativas porque crece rápidamente, es adaptable, produce mucho por unidad de tiempo y de superficie de tierra. Además, es un cultivo poco afectado por las fluctuaciones de precios de alimentos a nivel internacional. Las papas son ideales para lugares donde hay poca tierra y con mano de obra disponible, condiciones características de gran parte del mundo en desarrollo y especialmente de las zonas alto andinas. Sin embargo, el modelo también reconoce que se deben incluir variables como la diversificación productiva, educación nutricional y la incidencia en políticas públicas para generar escalas.La propuesta de intervención en seguridad alimentaria y nutricional se enfoca de manera integral y complementaria, como se percibe en el gráfico adjunto. Se actúa principalmente a nivel deEn los trabajos implementados en Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador y Perú se han logrado diversos resultados e innovaciones en función a las cinco dimensiones de la problemática de seguridad alimentaria: (1) Disponibilidad: Variedades de papas nativas y mejoradas con mayor volumen de producción y mejor calidad nutricional con contenidos más elevados de hierro y zinc; métodos de producción de semilla de calidad (2) Acceso: Mejoras de ingresos por la calidad de la producción y acceso a mercados diferenciados; (3) Uso: Dietas diversificadas que incluyen variedades de papa con mayor contenido de zinc y hierro y enfoque de educación nutricional dirigido a niños, niñas y madres; (4) Estabilidad: Productores han diversificado su producción y consumo con diversos productos agropecuarios, estrategias de control adecuado de plagas (polilla) y enfermedades (Tizón) que evolucionan con el cambio climático;(5) Institucionalidad: Espacios públicos comprometidos con inversión pública a nivel territorial y a nivel nacional y con medidas de apoyo que toman como referencia el enfoque de agricultura y nutrición.","tokenCount":"614"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7230c37b4b31944c04f4a0fa0afd16b1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f976cd70-3697-4564-943e-5f19ec5d36e7/retrieve","id":"1433226663"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4a408329-eaf4-45c7-94fa-25fdd851513a","pagecount":"3","content":"Disclaimer: This document is intended to disseminate research and practices about production and utilization of roots, tubers and bananas and to encourage debate and exchange of ideas. The views expressed in the papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position of RTB, CGIAR or the publishing institution.1. Purpose: to provide actionable evidence on policy and investment options to accelerate seed system and market development in countries where vegetatively propagated crops (VPCs) are important to food security and agricultural development 2. Level: entire seed system (national level and key production areas for the selected crop) c. secondary data analysis, drawing on data related to seed use, sources, prices, and related information contained in existing household, farm, and market surveys, where available d. field visits using key informant interviews and focus group discussions with seed producers, traders in local markets where formal and common seed is traded, and researchers at experimental stations that produce seed e. workshops with key stakeholders in each country to validate and triangulate data and information collected and analyzed using the above methods 11. Which methods can be used in combination with the tool: literature review, document analysis, key informant interviews (KII), focus group discussion (FGD), stakeholder validation workshop 12. Gender: KII checklists specifically ask about gender differences regarding use and implications of regulations for VPC seed producers and users (gender responsiveness level 1: gender is a significant factor in this tool, but it is not the main reason for using it)","tokenCount":"250"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"eda8a8f3a6423b36fb2389115143c61d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9e3e845c-7567-4b9a-a6f2-1071bad45813/retrieve","id":"-1742443020"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c9ddcf3b-59dc-40a7-b357-b3efaa49a210","pagecount":"28","content":"Increasing number of hot days 3. Less predictable precipitation patterns 4. Increased extreme weather events B. Climate Related Security Risks -7 C. Institutional Framework -10 1. Institutional Context D. Climate Security Integration -12 1. Degree of integration 2.Climate and security risks are compounding in Yemen, impacting its population clearly and directly, but also through less visible, indirect effects. While violent conflict, at both the national and local levels, is likely to continue in the near future, the effects of climate change are projected to grow more pronounced over time. Problems including rising temperatures, rainfall variability, desertification, and vanishing water reserves are all set to intensify, exacerbating both the drivers and the effects of the conflict on the population. At the same time, this volatile security situation is decimating the natural environment, leading to a vicious, expanding cycle of insecurity. Such outcomes are complex, and likely to present themselves in a variety of ways. The following dynamics are currently at play and are predicted to become more pronounced over time:• Rising water insecurity will threaten livelihoods and contribute to further conflict.• Climate change and conflict will drive displacement, worsening the human security of the most vulnerable. • Climate change will further erode social cohesion.• Extreme weather events will cost lives, damage infrastructure, and threaten intercommunity conflict.• Urgent security risks will damage ecosystems in a negative feedback loop.To manage these issues and mitigate their effects on the population, authorities must ensure that policies, particularly around sectors critical to climate change, peace, and security, consider the relationship between climate change and security dynamics. Currently, climate security is not adequately integrated into policies, with several key challenges inhibiting mainstreaming and implementation. These challenges are largely rooted in financial constraints and the ongoing war, which has halted functioning statehood with disastrous effects on the provision of basic services, let alone the realisation of policy ambitions regarding climate change and sustainable peace. However, many mitigatable challenges are also preventing climate security mainstreaming in policy. These include a lack of institutional awareness, both around climate change and climate security links, technical capacity limitations, and critically -financial constraints. Due to these factors, in combination with the active conflict situation, neither climate security nor other climate change policies have been effectively implemented, with concerningly sparse action taken on the combined effects of environmental and security dynamics. While these very real constraints explain inaction, the necessity of managing and mitigating insecurity is only increasing. National, regional, and international actors are required to undertake efforts to support the climate security integration into policy and ensure implementation to all feasible extents.This roadmap aims to guide Yemeni policymakers in streamlining climate security consideration into policy and to highlight priorities for support to donors. The roadmap considers the nation of Yemen as a whole, targeting institutions within the internationally-recognised Government of Yemen. Recommendations should be implemented with regard to the changing conflict situation, adjusted according to new conflict and climatic developments.Supported by:Yemen is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change globally. Increased temperatures, rainfall variation, and extreme weather events are impacting Yemen now and are expected to worsen. Related environmental challenges, including water scarcity and desertification, will be exacerbated as the effects of climate change become more pronounced.Between 1971 and 2020, Yemen's mean annual temperature increased by 0.42°C per decade. 1 This is more than double the global average rate of increase (approximately 0.15°C-0.2°C per decade since 1975). 2 Yemen's temperatures are projected to increase with large regional and seasonal differences within the country. In a scenario of continued high emissions, mean annual temperature will increase by 2.42°C to 28.00°C for the period 2040-2059. 3 Increasing number of hot daysThe number of \"extremely hot days\" per year, defined as days surpassing 35°C, is expected to significantly rise in Yemen. Higher anomalies are expected along the coasts and in the highlands. The largest increase of 51.40 days annually above the reference period (1995-2014) is expected in Hajjah for the period of 2040-2059, primarily during spring and fall months. 4 Coastal regions will experience the greatest projected increase in number of high Heat Index days annually by the mid-century, with temperatures in the hottest days expected to rise between 4 and 7 degrees. 5 Current temperature rises and an increased number of hot days are expected to worsen evaporation of Yemen's very limited ground water, exacerbating water scarcity.From 1971-2020, Yemen experienced a decrease in annual precipitation of 6.25 mm per decade. All regions are expected to experience an annual increase in precipitation by 2040-2059, with heavy flooding punctuating long drought periods. However, the outlined precipitation projections vary regionally and interannually, with significant uncertainty. Some predictions expect rainfall to decrease in Yemen overall. 6 While northern highlands are projected to experience the largest seasonal percent increases above the reference period, central and southern parts are expected to show median annual increases in rainfall intensity. It is important to note that any future increase in precipitation will not eliminate Yemen's high drought risk. 7Extreme weather events, including droughts, flooding, and storms are on the rise in Yemen. 8 Dry spells have become longer, leading to severe droughts that are set to increase in intensity and frequency. Long spells without rain are likely to increase, leading to issues with food supply. 9 At the same time, typhoon periods, torrential rain, and flash flooding are intensifying and expected to worsen, further reducing soil quality, threatening critical infrastructure, water quality, economic activities, and endangering the population. Occurrences are also expected to become more erratic, with variability in rainfall and extreme weather events becoming increasingly difficult to predict and therefore, to plan for. 10 Climate-related security risks refer to the physical, economic, or societal impacts of climate change that significantly alter political stability, human security, or national security infrastructure, as well as the impacts of security and conflict on the environment and climate. 11, a Combined with the effects of conflict, the climate security situation in Yemen ranks among the worst globally. The war has resulted in enormous casualties as a direct consequence of the conflict, with huge numbers of deaths also occurring from indirect effects, including a lack of water, food, and medicine. Already facing acute natural resource issues prior to the war, Yemen has seen increased resource scarcity and competition as a result of conflict. At the same time, the effects of climate change have been found to exacerbate insecurity and instability, further engendering competition over dwindling resources. Climate-related security risks have been presented individually below, however, policymakers should note that these threats are interdependent and overlapping.Climate change threatens Yemen's already scarce water resources, compromising livelihoods, water security and driving violent conflict. As of 2022, 18 million, or 56%, of Yemen's population lacked access to safe drinking water and sanitation. 12 Densely populated urban areas are experiencing the worst effects, with Sana'a among the most water-stressed cities on the planet. 13 With more than half the population unable to access sufficient sanitation, water-borne diseases have become widespread, with at least 200,000 cholera cases reported in 2020. 14 Inefficient water management practices will worsen the effects of climate change over time. The agricultural sector has extracted Yemen's groundwater aquifers at an unsustainable rate for decades, with government-subsidised irrigation schemes depleting dwindling resources to extract water to grow profitable crops such as qat, a water-intensive, domestically consumed, mild narcotic that is the basis of more than half a million jobs in Yemen. 15 Every year, approximately 3.5 billion cubic metres are extracted, with just 2.1 billion cubic metres replaced. 16 Climate change is and will continue to reduce water availability, increasing the likelihood of conflict at the local level. Yemen has a long history of local water conflicts, with approximately 4,000 people being killed per year over water disputes before the civil war, accounting for 70-80% of rural conflict deaths. 17 Since, the state vacuum that has emerged from conflict has meant that the government has been unable to enforce water regulations, with landowners arbitrarily digging wells, depleting aquifers and blocking communities from access. Competition has risen as a result, often escalating into violent conflict. Conflicts may occur between individuals, or families, when one community member builds a well too close to another, but can also involve entire villages or tribes and heavy armament. Thousands of casualties are seen every year.As time goes on, individuals in rural areas will have to take longer journeys for water. Women, who are traditionally responsible for water collection, will face differentiated dangers including gender-based violence on these routes, particularly in the midst of conflict. Climate change impacts are displacing more Yemenis and leading to increased migration, straining urban resources and humanitarian relief funds. As of 2023, there were 4.5 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Yemen. 19 Climate change-induced resource scarcity and environmental disasters are becoming increasingly prominent drivers of displacement alongside those directly related to the conflict. 20 Many homes and livelihood sources are being washed away by flash flooding, while long periods of drought and water scarcity undermine the viability of rural livelihoods, rendering life too difficult to maintain in rural areas. Such and similar environmental pressures increasingly contribute to rural-urban migration dynamics, which are in turn feeding into escalating competition over humanitarian aid and access to health services in urban areas. In cities and rural areas, tensions are arising between IDPs and the local community over natural resources. 21 As climate change progresses, longer droughts and other environmental disasters will make livelihoods more precarious, causing further displacement and acting as a push factor for rural-urban migration.The effects of climate change threaten vital livelihoods, straining social cohesion. Due to the conflict, weak state institutions, low levels of educational attainment, and environmental conditions, livelihoods are highly difficult to maintain in Yemen. Labour force participation for ages 15-24 is among the lowest globally, at 26.5% in 2023. 22 Of those participating in the workforce, almost half are employed in the shrinking agricultural sector. 23 Increased temperatures due to climate change, inefficient natural resource management, and unsustainable cultivation practices will see heightened challenges for agriculture over time, leading to fewer income opportunities. Agricultural activities directly and indirectly provide 73.5% of total employment in Yemen, with livelihood loss expected to be rampant as Yemen's water reserves become unable to sustain the pre-war status quo. 24 Women are likely to be particularly affected, as agriculture counts 66% of women's employment, in comparison to 45% of total direct employment. 25 Livelihood insecurity is worsening economic conditions for Yemenis, impacting social cohesion. Previously, \"people were flexible, people were supporting each other. Now, as climatic and other pressures are rising and with the absence of the state, people are fighting, even within families\" over livelihood issues. 26 Droughts, water scarcity, desertification, and other interlinked threats are adding pressure to livelihoods in Yemen.Ruins of \"Crow Fortress\", Thula, Yemen (asamw, unsplash)Climate change will exacerbate food insecurity. Yemen is currently suffering from one of the world's worst food crises, with 17.4 million people in need of food assistance. 27 The country's food systems are expected to face additional strain due to climate change, risking human security in and of itself, and exacerbating the potential for conflict.Food insecurity is a longstanding phenomenon in Yemen, with the conflict exacerbating underlying issues, vulnerabilities, and exposure. Prior to the war, just 25% of Yemen's food was produced domestically, with this figure substantially decreasing in the years following the outbreak of war. 28 Such issues are exacerbated by poor agricultural governance, particularly with regard to qat production, where myopic benefits to elites are prioritised over the population's food provision. The depletion of water reserves, in combination with desertification, will give way to lower agricultural outputs in the medium to long-term, meaning that the cultivation of essential crops will be even less viable. At the same time, climate change-induced temperature increases will mean that more water is needed to produce the same crop yield, creating a vicious cycle of resource depletion. 29 The agricultural sector has been severely damaged by the conflict, both from a labour perspective due to displacements, and from an infrastructural one. Between January 2018 and September 2020, Yemen's farms were struck by shells and airstrikes at least 918 times, almost one incident per day. 30 Many fields are now inaccessible due to the prevalence of explosive devices in Yemen's croplands (particularly in the west). Meanwhile, rural-urban migration has shrunk the workforce in rural Yemen, meaning that there are often labour shortfalls in crop production.Between 1971-2013, 1637 natural disasters were recorded in Yemen, causing 4,126 deaths, and the destruction of 22,392 homes. 31 The changing climate is predicted to see an uptake in the number of extreme weather events, which are likely to become more impactful due to the conflict. The capacity of Yemeni communities to cope with such events -through, for example, building up cash reserves or the selling off of certain assets -has been steadily eroded due to insecurity and dysfunctional internal markets. Post-disaster recovery efforts are expected to become much more difficult as hostile conditions persist. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that there are very few early warning systems in place to predict extreme weather events and Disaster Risk and Recovery (DRR) Plans are missing. Yemen already has very high mortality rates from extreme-weather related disasters, accounting for approximately 60 percent of all disaster mortality in the MENA region (as of 2017). 32 An increase is expected both in terms of drought periods, leading to desertification and water scarcity, and torrential rain, which intensified the strength of cyclones and flash floods. Vulnerable infrastructure is likely to see further damage. Disasters are also likely to impact social cohesion over time. In recent years, flash floods and cyclones have disrupted wadi courses, leading to conflict over property boundaries between landowners. 33 Security and climate threats ricochet off one another in a spiral effect, risking lives. As climate change increases conflict risks, Yemen's ongoing civil war has decimated much of the country's rich natural environment, exacerbating insecurity over time. The critical danger the Floating Storage Unit Safer (FSO) posed to millions of Yemenis before it was cleared in 2023 serves as a reminder of the spiralling effects of conflict and environmental neglect. 34 Now, nine years of conflict have damaged huge swathes of Yemen's natural landscape, as well as the infrastructure that could abate some of the effects of climate change e.g. water infrastructure. Moreover, millions of landmines are strewn across Yemen's countryside, damaging biodiversity but also straining livelihoods, combining with the effects of climate change to exacerbate climate-related security challenges e.g. displacement, resource competition etc. 35 Institutional FrameworkEffectively, Yemen is governed by two primary authorities, across two broad territories, who vie for power through political and military means. Sana'a, Yemen's capital, and its surrounding areas in the north and west, are under the control of Houthi armed forces. The internationally-recognised Government of Yemen rules over Aden, controlling or strongly influencing most of the remainder of the country. Many of the ministries established prior to the war have survived or been duplicated by the Houthi-led interim authority across its territories. These include key ministries related to climate change, climate security, and peace and conflict. A secessionist-aspiring authority in the south, the Southern Transitional Council also wields a high degree of local legitimacy and power in the south, while large powerful tribes command significant authority in some regions. As stated, this paper only provides recommendations to the internationally-recognised government.A key institutional body to address climate security issues is the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE). Within the MWE exist many sub-units and committees responsible for managing various issues related to climate change, including the Climate Change Unit, National Water Resources Authority (NWRA), the Rural Authority for Water Projects, and the local water and sanitation corporation. Also under the MWE is the Environmental Protection Authority, which is the national focal point for the UNFCCC and international funding bodies, such as the Green Climate Fund. The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and Fish Wealth (MAI) is an important climate change actor too. The MAI is powerful, with the vast majority of the country's water consumption prior to the war being used for agriculture, primarily qat. Cross-ministerial coordination between the MAI and MWE has historically been fraught, however, a coordination mechanism was set up between the ministries to address these challenges. 36 Challenges have reportedly included an overlap in mandate, however, many of these challenges have been overcome at the policy level. The MWE is responsible for the development of policies and allocation of water resources whereas the MAI is tasked with implementing policies and overseeing construction, particularly with regard to irrigation infrastructure. 37 The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation is responsible for coordination between government plans and for ensuring that processes are uniform and inclusive of needs from across the country.Since the outbreak of the war, policy development and implementation have effectively come to a standstill. However, prior to the conflict, the government had developed policies and strategies related to climate change that are pertinent to climate security. These include national strategies for biodiversity, agriculture, water management, sustainable development and poverty reduction. Additionally, and supported by the international community following the outset of the war, Yemen has also drafted mitigation and adaptation plans, including National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), the updated National Adaptation Plan, Initial, Second and Third National Communications, Intended National Determined Contribution (INDCs), Renewable Energy and a Technology Needs Assessment (TNA), the National Strategy for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (NSREEE) and the National Biodiversity and Action plan (NBSAP) of 2016, which is among the few policies that had been proposed after the onset of the war. 38 Several actors relevant to security are present, with the security situation demanding the bulk of institutional attention. A notable ministry in this regard is the Ministry of the Interior (MoI), which is responsible for internal defence and law enforcement, as well as weapons import. The Supreme Council for Civil Defence falls under the authority of MoI, which is responsible for disaster management and response. 39 Less formalised, but crucial to conflict resolution are local conflict management systems, especially concerning resource management. Local systems historically played a very important role in resource governance and conflict resolution. In the event of a dispute over water resources, the first response has always been at community level. Pre-war, should no resolution be found to a local resource conflict, the NWRA would step in, and only after that, the formal courts. 40 For a variety of reasons, Yemenis are often reticent to take their complaints to court, usually opting for local resolution mechanisms. 41 In parts of southern Yemen, the Al-Khayyel system, whereby a local, highly respected expert would manage water extraction and allocation, traditionally governed local resources. This system has been in place for decades and has been particularly prevalent in the governorate of Hadhramaut, although its effectiveness has declined since the outbreak of conflict. 42 While other regions in Yemen do not use the specific Al-Khayyel system, water resources are traditionally managed by a locally respected figure . 43Map of Yemen (adelphi)Generally, climate security is not adequately integrated into policies, including security, or even environmental policies. For example, the National Water Sector Strategy and Investment Programme (NWSSIP) does not outline adaptation strategies, nor does it make clear references to the potential impacts of climate change on water management. 44 The policies pertaining to climate change that do exist, such as the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), were by and large written prior to the outbreak of war and do not reflect the current national security situation, nor are they based on the latest -or even most reliable -climate science available at the time of composition. 45 Due the country's massively struggling economy prior to the conflict, policy documents produced by the Yemeni government have been transparent about the considerable limitations that inhibit their research and subsequent policies.Since the onset of conflict, institutions have generally been unable to develop sufficient climate change policies. 46 For example, ahead of the Paris Agreement negotiations, Yemen submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, indicating its commitment to participating in climate action. However, following the escalation of conflict, Yemen did not take further action and is now one of four remaining countries not to have ratified the Paris Agreement. 47 With the support of the UN, Yemen is currently working on submitting its first NDC. The development of up to date policies is further hampered by the fact that very little data on climate change and climate security was collected in Yemen even prior to the war which policymakers can draw from.An even greater challenge facing the nation is that, since the outbreak of conflict, there has been no effective implementation of even the policies that do exist. 48 In recent years, the MWE has held \"no supervisory role\" whatsoever in terms of licensing, meaning that who gets to dig wells (thus, dominate the water supply) is determined by their perceived power within the area, regardless of state regulation. 49 Correspondingly, the MAI has been severely limited in carrying out the MWE's policies, with little to no new water infrastructure constructed since the conflict began. 50 Even if the political situation stabilised sufficiently to allow for the implementation of existing policies, institutional barriers would prevent effective implementation. Limited statehood has meant that there is often overlap between bodies, reducing productivity. For example, implementation of relevant policy often overlaps between the MWE and MAI, leading to challenges. 51 At the local level, previously defined systems to secure environmental management, such as the Al-Khayyel system, have changed. Communities have partially filled the state gap on climate security in some cases, for example in terms of disaster response. 52 In many cases, communities themselves rebuild roads, bridges, and houses following an event, as they do not expect the government to intervene. 53 In recent years, there has been an uptake in the integration of climate change and security in policymaking, led by the EPA. The 2017 National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan II, for example, illustrates the risk of water conflicts, should natural resources not be effectively managed. 54 The recently published Technology Needs Assessment demonstrates significant and detailed integration of these dynamics, frequently mentioning the effects of the conflict on climate change policymaking and provides insight into, and projections on, climate security dynamics in the future. Examples of this include expected demographic and mobility trends, the composition and evolution of water and food systems, and livelihoods. It also considers potential externalities of climate change adaptation strategies, noting that upstream rainwater harvesting could result in serious community conflict, should populations downstream not receive their fair share of water reserves. 55 Since the start of the civil war, there has been no effective management system in any institution in Yemen, including in the areas of security and environment -both considered together and separately. 56 Institutions in Yemen have been methodically eroded by the war. As long as it continues, governmental infrastructure will further weaken, reducing the capacity for climate change mitigation and adaptation. 57 In many situations, communities have stepped in, providing services typically provided by the state. These communities are highly constrained by capacities and resources, and responses have not been uniform. 58 While weather-induced disasters have caused communities to step in and help one another in many cases, other trends, such as increased IDP figures, livelihood disruption, and the blurring of land property delineations, are straining social cohesion. 59 Amidst ongoing conflict and a humanitarian crisis, climate change prevention, mitigation, and adaptation are not high on government agendas. 60 Current priorities are limited to the conflict and respond to the pressing humanitarian crisis. 61 While these threats are severe and immediate, a lack of action on long-term issues amid a looming climate crisis will exacerbate these problems over time.Environmental and climate change topics appear sporadically in Yemeni policy. 62 Where related issues, including water management and other crucial concerns do appear, they are rarely connected to peacebuilding or security policy. While some cross-sectoral, institutional mechanisms to address environmental topics, such as the Water Sector Coordination Committee, are being developed, none exist yet that tackle conflict and environmental dynamics together.Coordination is also lacking within climate change governing bodies. For example, officials within the EPA are frequently assigned different projects but do not sufficiently coordinate, potentially due to staffing Queen Arwa Mosque, Jibla, Yemen (asamw, unsplash)shortfalls. Furthermore, while the EPA technically reports to the MWE, coordination is lacking between the two bodies, particularly with regard to projects commissioned by donors. 63 There is also an established climate change committee which involves all the relevant institutions and entities but it is not operationalized due to some technical and institutional challenges. These include limited technical and institutional capacity, low knowledge and awareness of the necessary steps, no operational manual nor terms of reference for the committee and unarticulated delineation of roles and tasks. 64Water management is a longstanding problem in Yemen that long precedes the civil war. 65 Violent conflict over water resources is also a historic issue that cannot be exclusively attributed to the effects of anthropogenic climate change. However, the existence of these issues prior to the impacts of climate change-induced temperature change, desertification, and weather variability expected under the most likely climate projections, amplifies the challenges they will pose in the future, with the conflict preventing advance preparation.Even if the conflict was not preventing policy implementation, a clash of priorities between the MAI and MWE could pose a significant barrier to sustainable water management. Historically, the MAI has controlled resources to the benefits of wealthy elite landowners and does not take the environmental concerns of the MWE sufficiently into account in policymaking. 66 While MWE attempts to sustainably manage water reserves, the significantly more powerful MAI is not committed to implementing the NWSSIP. 67 However, the MAI is taking part in the Committee on Climate Change, currently being developed by the EPA. 68 Details on the scope and mandate of the new committee were not available at the time of writing. At times, there is no clear delineation between the responsibility of national government bodies and local authorities in planning for, and responding to, climate-related security challenges, leading to inefficient management and vertical incoherence.Key policies written to govern natural resources in Yemen before the outbreak of the civil war did not sufficiently account for climate change projections. Now, Yemen's policy arena is beginning to consider climate change more frequently, however, the conflict has prevented thorough policy devising and implementation. 69 One exception to this is the National Biodiversity Strategy, however, the authors were unable to verify the extent to which the strategy is being implemented.Within many social structures in Yemen, it is believed that women are not involved in conflict, and should not partake in peace and reconciliation processes as a result. 70 Yemen ranks the second lowest in the world in terms of gender parity, with traditional tribal structures sustaining patriarchal paradigms, particularly in rural areas. INGOs are concerting efforts to engage women in local water management, a key point of local conflict in rural areas. 71 The absence of marginalised groups including women in decision-making processes further limits the efficacy and applicability of environmental policy and local management practices.Efforts are being undertaken currently to improve gender equity in policymaking. Climate financing is sometimes contingent on women's participation and Yemen is developing its gender policy to fulfil the requirement of the Green Climate Fund. 72 This policy will be applied to all climate change governance.However, while efforts such as this are being undertaken, effectiveness is as of yet unclear. This is solidified by the fact that mainstreaming women's participation is not a top priority of national climate security governance. 73 Areas perceived to have more impact such as adaptation are seen as more important, highlighting that climate security governance and gender are viewed somewhat as trade-offs, rather than mutually-supportive objectives.Climate change discussions remain low-level in Yemen. 74 While it is clear that climate change will affect Yemen's security situation, the precise nature of this impact is difficult to assess, particularly regarding the impact of conflict on climate change vulnerability. 75 Policymakers have been transparent about the knowledge gap in this regard, with Yemen's only Initial National Communication (INC) to COP noting that the government simply does not have the know-how or finances to sufficiently research climate change. 76 Capacity is also lacking at the ministerial level, reducing the potential to receive climate finance. 77 Without possessing sufficient knowledge and understanding of the Yemeni environmental context to access international funding for climate change, climate security governance suffers in turn. Critical data required for the design and formulation of climate security-sensitive policies -such as place-and community-specific vulnerability mapping and accurate climatic projections -is frequently lacking.Yemen is the least wealthy country in the Arabian Peninsula and has one of the lowest socioeconomic standards globally. 78 The conflict has plummeted the nation into an exaggerated state of poverty, with basic needs provided for in large part by aid from international organisations. The provision of international financial support -particularly for the purposes of managing climate change -is also unstable, due in large part to the conflict. One of the countries most vulnerable to climate change on the planet, Yemen has received critically low levels of international climate finance. 79Authorities that are undertaking significant efforts to respond to the climate crisis are suffering because of resource constraints. The EPA, for example, is significantly understaffed. As a result, projects hire consultants to implement projects on a short-term basis, who then leave, inhibiting sustained action. The EPA frequently highlights that it needs new staff to improve its impact, but no meaningful change has happened. 80 Alsonainah, Sana'a, Yemen (asamw, unsplash)Initiatives, particularly regarding reconstruction and recovery, tend not to consult local communities and councils before implementing plans. This has led to a host of issues, including the wasting of resources on plans that are not viable or useful for communities. For example, in Hajjah, a dam was built in an area deemed not useful by locals, who expressed that the resources could have been put to much more efficient use had they been consulted. 81 While local councils are well placed to work on such issues and offer an intermediary role between communities and high-ranking officials, they lack the resources and expertise to play productive and positive roles. 82Policies and action plans operate on short-term bases that do not last over time. For example, reconstruction efforts following conflict damage or extreme weather events are not built to last long periods, or even, beyond the next incident, leading to avoidable waste and compromising the sustainability of interventions.Flimsy material is often used that is destroyed in the storm. This has been seen in particular with regard to the rebuilding of household pipes. 83 The authors were unable to verify at the time of writing if such material is used because of resource constraints or because reconstruction is seen as a temporary solution, given the fragility of the political and environmental situation. This problem is likely to become worse over time, given the increasing frequency of flooding, for example. Currently, such climate change projections are not adequately integrated into reconstruction policies. Meanwhile, efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, the conflict, and other dynamics are inhibited by political short-sightedness and a lack of follow-up. While capacity-building workshops for stakeholders are frequently held, they are offered on a one-off bases, without the continued training, coordination, and funding needed to make such efforts worthwhile over time.Yemen is facing a climate security crisis that must urgently be addressed. The ongoing conflict, shrinking natural and monetary resources, and growing humanitarian demand is reducing the capability of Yemen's authorities to build resilience to climate change impacts. Government actors need to undertake efforts to minimise these growing threats to every feasible extent. International donors must support Yemen's government in developing the institutional architecture to tackle these challenges. Climate finance for Yemen must be significantly stepped up by donors. The recommendations and entry points presented below intend to provide donors and policy makers at the national, regional and international levels with suggested steps to engage with these policy challenges over the short, medium, and long-term.Donors embed the recommendations outlined in this roadmap within country plans and strategies, providing the necessary implementation funding.Climate security is threatening a broad range of aspects of Yemeni life, and is likely to undermine already strained resilience. The challenges are wide-spread, but interconnected, with many areas needing to be addressed simultaneously and coherently. A comprehensive framework to coordinate climate security action is needed at the national level, that enables Yemeni policymakers, civil society, and other national actors to identify their needs and priorities regarding climate security. Doing so will help guide domestic and international policy and programming to address the complex relationship between climate change, conflict, and peace in Yemen. This roadmap is a first step but should be developed by national actors, with the financial and technical support of the international community, to ensure policy is relevant, efficient, and effective in combatting Yemen's many challenges. International donors are well positioned to support national actors in advancing this initial report. Further, their own Yemen country plans and strategies should reflect the priority areas presented in the Yemen Climate Security roadmap so as to align donor action and resources with country needs and priorities.• Provide support to country team offices to develop national consultation processes in collaboration with key government stakeholders to review findings and recommendations of this roadmap towards finalisation.• Review country strategies and plans, as well as ongoing programming, and embed roadmap recommendations accordingly.Improve climate security knowledge, capacities, communication and programming.Countries, particularly those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, need to be prepared to identify key concerns and embed them within strategies and plans at all levels. As well as crucial to the mitigation of impacts, these steps will help unlock critical climate finance. At the institutional level, climate change knowledge and its links to security are at the initial stages of development in Yemen.Many key stakeholders do not see climate change as a security issue, and those who do lack technical research and knowledge on how to move forward. A capacity shortfall is preventing motivated Ministries from accessing climate finance, leading to inaction on climate security.• Build climate security capacities among government actors. Capacity-building could include a conceptual introduction to climate and climate security risks with a Yemeni focus, as well as technical tools to improve climate security governance from an institutional perspective. One priority area for capacity-building is the access of climate finance. The lack of climate finance Yemen has received in the past five years has cost the country crucial adaptation time. International stakeholders and government actors should prioritise building technical know-how in applying for climate finance. Capacity-building training must not take place on a one-off, ad hoc basis, but ensure follow-ups are sufficient as to be effective. Another priority area is to increase local authorities' conflict management capacities in the face of water conflicts. Capacity-building will require not only enhancing technical know-how among governing actors but also a significant expansion of personnel. Authorities such as the EPA should be prioritised as a body in need of more and trained staff to carry out its ambitious agenda.• Conduct thorough climate change, conflict, and climate security assessments at different levels and within various sectors. One possible priority area for research is the durability of existing and planned infrastructure, given the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and the quality of reconstruction following disasters or conflict damage. Another potential topic is a cross-sectoral assessment of water reserves that incorporates climate change projections, current resource management practises, and that provides real insight on future availability to frame policies. Such assessments should integrate dynamics at the local level, including water conflicts and gaps between policymaking and implementation. As well as contributing to climate change adaptation, such research could work as a gateway to environmental peacebuilding, particularly with regard to local water conflicts. Given resource constraints and the fragile security situation, all assessments will face considerable limitations. However, such challenges should not deter action, and research should nonetheless be conducted to the extent that is possible. Policymakers are recommended to enlist the financial and technical support of the UN and IGOs. Assessments are recommended to undertake efforts to include women researchers. Rural women, in particular, can be integrated into processes by being employed to conduct surveys and research in their areas. 84 • Support comprehensive communication strategies around climate security into plans and processes to ensure all stakeholders, from high-ranking policymaking to local authorities and community members, are aware and participating in current plans. Communication strategies must consider local dynamics such as very low levels of educational attainment, high illiteracy rates, and the exclusion of women from certain social spheres.• Promote information sharing at the international level and support alignment with regional initiatives and development partners. This could include ongoing meetings between international climate finance donors and national actors. As with capacity-building, knowledge-sharing initiatives must not occur sporadically but aim to build relationships with longevity. One means of achieving this is to develop a Climate Security Working Group that meets on a consistent basis to discuss relevant, changing security dynamics, ongoing institutional needs, lessons learned from one another, funding opportunities, and more. Such a group should include high-ranking officials, international organisation representatives, local authorities, and civil society. As a starting point, opportunities for climate security financing should be shared whenever possible.• Develop climate security capacities at the local level. Given the bridge between policymaking and implementation, action should ensure that local communities are not forgotten in the mainstreaming process. Capacity-building at this level should be targeted towards the needs of communities, for example, in improving management of shared water reserves or demarcating property lines following a natural disaster. Local stakeholders should be consulted regarding their priorities prior to engagement.• Develop a coordination mechanism among all the climate change-related entities. A climate change committee has been established to act as the coordination body of climate change issues and the climate change Unit as the UNFCCC Focal Point will serve as the executive secretariat of the committee. Therefore, an effective and detailed manual is needed to operate the committee and achieve its mandates. Moreover, capacity-building for committee members is recommended to efficiently enhance climate coordination between all the relevant stakeholders from all the different sectors.• Develop a database and information management system for climate change. Incorporating climate security considerations in policymaking.Given that climate policy remains at the initial stages of development in Yemen, an opportunity exists to mainstream climate security considerations from the beginning of the policy process. Due to the extreme resource constraints the government is grappling with, action should be consolidated into areas in which efforts can achieve maximum impact.• Include climate security considerations in policies currently in the process of being developed. Current activities should be prioritised from a climate security perspective. For example, the update of NWSSIP is a crucial opportunity to include such considerations. The incumbent Climate Resilience Recovery plans and Renewable Energy Investment Planning and Design could also be targeted as an instrument of climate security action.• Policy design should ensure sensitivity to previously omitted dynamics, such as conflict, climate, and gender. This process should holistic, not siloed, considering the intersectional and interdependent pathways of such issues. For example, gender sensitivity should be mainstreamed into climate and conflict strategies, and not confined to women's empowerment policies. While mainstreaming women's participation in policy is a challenge in Yemen, targeted, locally-sensitive action plans can narrow this challenge. One potential area policy actors could explore is more inclusion of civil society, particularly from urban areas, where women are at the forefront of environmental activism. 85 To achieve an intersectional climate security policy, a broad range of stakeholders from multiple ministries should be included in the process, particularly at the early stages.• Coordinate between relevant sectors to ensure holistic climate security implementation, including, but not limited to, water and food systems' management. As the Climate Change Committee is in the process of being launched, efforts should be undertaken to ensure it considers climate security as a fused threat, and conceptualises links to conflict and human security more broadly. Coordination of this kind should not be limited to once-off meetings but be streamlined.• Identify specific communities and geographies where climate security risks are most impactful to design climate and conflict sensitive approaches and action plans. As climate security is better integrated into policy should specific communities and geographical areas be identified, it is recommended to incorporate this practise into national policymaking as much as is possible. This will require allocated funding to identify and consult local communities.• Work closely with community level actors to ensure needs are reflected in policies and processes, and that strategies account for possible synergies and capacity to work with those or build off of their knowledge to address concerns on the ground. Local actors should be involved in as much of the policy process as is feasible, from data collection, policy advising, and implementation. Government actors and INGOs, however, should also be aware of structures within communities that might operate as barriers to inclusive, comprehensive action, for example, gender dynamics.• Government actors are recommended to undertake an assessment of climate finance architecture, identifying gaps between funding opportunities and actual grants, devising strategies to bridge these discrepancies. A thorough climate financing strategy should be developed to budget for medium and longer-term actions. Further, budgetary alignment needs to be better considered between planning and concerned ministries, with specific action plans included in policies and strategies.• Enhance technical and institutional capacity in climate change and climate security. Intensive training and capacity building workshops are needed to raise the knowledge of climate change and climate security among policymakers at the technical level.Socotra, Yemen (Andrew Svk, unsplash)Streamline climate security across policies, frameworks and planning.While international actors must remain aware that existing security, environmental, and resource policies are not being implemented due to the conflict, stakeholders should also remember the importance of preparing robust, long-term plans, not least because effective climate governance could contribute to peace.• Develop and sustain ministerial coordination of climate and security. Emerging initiatives such as the Water Sector Coordination group and the climate committee are potential areas to consider in terms of longterm support. With the appropriate funding and technical support, such groups can ultimately take on the responsibility of administering climate security action over time. Coordination can be improved by specifying detailed roles and scope of work within coordination committees, with guidelines developed on climate security policymaking to align activities and support relevant actors. Some possible activities for coordination groups could include the development of district-level climate security risk profiles, as national actors are in a better position than international counterparts for local-level analysis. In time, these groups could take over capacity-building efforts, overseeing trainings at the local level. Donors are recommended to support the continuation of these groups in the long run as much as possible through financial support and exerting efforts to minimise institutional barriers to their creation, including overly lengthy bureaucratic processes in international organisations.• Review key national policies, frameworks, strategies and embed climate security considerations where relevant. Incorporate climate security considerations into future policies, accounting for the limitations of current assessments in Yemen and taking a dynamic, flexible, and consistent approach to climate security research and integration over time. Yemen is recommended to engage more with the international environmental governance systems, by disclosing NDCs, submitting a fourth National Communication to the Conference of Parties, and other initiatives. Such efforts should include climate security considerations, such as the effects of climate change on livelihoods, food, water, migration, and conflict. Such efforts will only be possible with support and funding from the international community. Donors are recommended to prioritise climate finance for Yemen.• Reconstruction and long-term planning should incorporate climate change projections including temperature change, desertification, and subsequent climate security results such as increased migration.One critical consideration will be the increasing rate of extreme weather incidents, requiring reflection in terms of where and how to rebuild. Yemen's most likely climate scenario should frame reconstruction plans.• Develop plans, strategies, and policies to engage the private sector in climate investment. The engagement of the private sector is one of the key issues that can enhance the implementation of climate actions in the country in all levels including climate security issues. For instance, there is a significant weakness in terms of climate investment, such as investment in renewable energy, innovative agriculture technologies, clean transportation, etc.• Ensure programmes and initiatives are cross-sectoral, referencing the interlinkages of climate and conflict, and link climate risk, adaptation, conflict prevention and peacebuilding. The development of robust climate security policy for the future is contingent on the acknowledgement of systemic issues that interact with one another in complex, changing ways. Climate security mainstreaming involves collaboration between actors to a much greater extent than siloed activities. As well as a challenge, these efforts have collective benefits that reach far beyond their immediate scope, potentially facilitating peace in Yemen that is sustainable over time. Groups from across the political spectrum in Yemen have already convened to discuss shared environmental challenges as part of a wider peace-building initiative. These efforts should be continued, with the understanding that environmental security and peace go hand in hand.","tokenCount":"7550"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e0c990411e5e0280341a9d0f505d8716","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d078677e-42a2-40ad-a886-288d54e0b8a1/retrieve","id":"951607622"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"03c0d939-b3bc-414b-aecc-d8c6effecd0d","pagecount":"145","content":"These are the major changes in ILRI's portfolio since the 2008-2010 MTP: Global research for development challenges 1 Aligning and integrating research outputs around over-arching livestock development challenges (see Box 1) 2 Establishing cross-project working groups for climate change and emerging diseases. 3 Adapting the research agenda in animal genetic resources, including sustainable use, to support the action plan from the FAO-convened meeting at Interlaken in September 2007. Research Programs Targeting and Innovation 1 Merger of operational projects on livestock systems evolution and targeting pro-poor livestock interventions 2 Stopped work on household decision making models 3 Evolving work on livestock and climate change from targeting of vulnerability climate change impact hotspots to livestock adaptation options in priority target systems 4 Moving to the application of innovation systems tools in feeding, breeding, health and livestock value-chain projects Markets 1 Expanding role in evaluation and lesson learning as part of a large dairy development project in East Africa managed by development partners 2 Strengthening of team on livestock value-chains 3 Evolving role in avian influenza and zoonotic emerging disease research. Moving from risk assessment and response capacity of veterinary services to operational testing of control and mitigation options and research into factors for emergence of new diseases Biotechnology 1 Research support to ECF vaccine commercialization building on registration dossier developed with Galvmed and Infection and Treatment Vaccine production in 2008. Over the next 3 years transfer of improved production methods to the regional commercial sector and technical support to quality assurance (outbreak investigations with molecular characterisation) 2 Vaccine CCER review delayed to late 2008 to ensure a strong panel chair was recruited. 3 Frontier research landscape genomics combining new genomics information on livestock breeds with livestock systems information People, Livestock and the EnvironmentThe International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works at the crossroads of livestock and poverty. ILRI's global strategy is to focus research efforts on strengthening the role that livestock play in poverty reduction, livelihoods, and environmental sustainability (Figure 1). The strategy takes into account the new market opportunities being created for small-scale livestock producers by increasing local and global demand for high-quality livestock products (termed the Livestock Revolution) and the many pathways by which livestock has traditionally reduced poverty. Specific research programs address:1 the vulnerability of livestock producers to income loss when their livestock assets are lost to disease or inadequate forage and water as well as their vulnerability to zoonotic diseases; 2 the challenge of sustainable intensification of smallholder livestock systems for increased productivity; and 3 the potential for sustainable increases in income from expanding markets for safe, high-quality, and affordable livestock products.ILRI is the only CGIAR centre that works on livestock research. It works in Africa and Asia, with offices in East, Southern and West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and China. ILRI partners strategically with others national livestock research institutes and veterinary services, advanced research institutes and universities, community leaders, and the private sector --to generate and synthesize knowledge and approaches that can help poor people cope with economic and environmental vulnerability and take advantage of growing livestock opportunities. Through such partnerships, ILRI seeks to influence changes in culture and process as well as technologies which support innovation at all levels. ILRI provides leadership in the global research community on conserving and characterizing animal and plant genetic resources of importance to the livestock sector.In addition to coordinating the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Research program, which enables all centres to collaborate in research on a range of cross-cutting livestock problems, ILRI pursues its research agenda through four inter-related projects relating to the outcomes included in Figure 1:Project 1. Targeting and Innovation. Where do we go and how do we get there? How livestock priorities are evolving, how innovation systems can improve livelihoods and reduce poverty, impact assessments, knowledge systems, gender analysis, and other tools.Project 2. Improving Market Opportunities. What interventions will enhance smallholder participation? Smallholder competitiveness in changing markets, changing demand and market institutions, measures to assure animal health for market access and trade.Project 3. Biotechnology --Biosciences and bioinformatics for animal health and genetics. Vaccine research, diagnostics, characterization of animal genetics, working models for livestock genetic improvement.Project 4. People, Livestock and the Environment. Developing environmentally-efficient production options for intensifying livestock systems, reducing vulnerability in pastoral and agropastoral systems, securing forage diversity for sustainable livestock feeding.Within each theme, research is implemented in three operating projects that focus on research outcomes in the medium term (58 years). These operating projects are further elaborated under the Project narratives below.Since its preparation of the 2008-2010 MTP, ILRI has continued to implement important initiatives that were highlighted in that MTP: establishment of the Biosciences east and central Africa (BecA) platform, alignment with ICRAF in corporate and research support services, expanded human resource capacity development; and others. Drawing on recommendations from the External Program Management Review (EPMR), partners, the Board of Trustees, and various Center-Commissioned External Reviews (CCERs), ILRI has, since the 2008-2010 MTP: sharpened the focus of Projects 1 and 4; reshaped its vaccine program; expanded its efforts in West and southern Africa and South/Southeast Asia; and closed research activities in Latin America, redefining its role in that region to support of programs led by others.1 Changes to operational structure moving from 5 to 3 operational projects. New projects focus on sustainable intensification (integrating feeding, water use, and environmental issues), pastoral systems and a continuing project on forage genetic resources2 strategic papers on drivers of change in crop-livestock systems and tradeoffs in food, feed, fuel and conservation agriculture developed by cross-centre teams to inform decisions in late 2008 about new research initiatives3 Development of new research and research-development partnerships in south Asia and south-east Asia building on partner workshops and strategy launched in 2007/8 4 Implementation of a regional research program coordinated with SADC (next 5 years) building on initial research projects on livestock value chains, animal health (trans-boundary and zoonotic diseases), and reducing vulnerability to what? 5 After considerable effort over several years, a 10-year GEF-funded animal genetic resources project commenced in 2008 (Gambia, Guinea, Mali, and Senegal) 6 Closed research activities on improving productivity and market success of beef production systems in Central America. ILRI will confine its future role in the region providing livestock expertise to support projects led by others.Over-arching challenges:1 Sustainable Intensification of smallholder mixed crop-livestock systems increasing productivity though better and sustainable use of limited natural resources 2 Reducing Vulnerability of livestock-dependent households in marginal systems subject to biophysical and socio-economic shocks1 SPS and markets Improve the capacity of the poor to meet sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements through risk-based approaches, analysis of opportunities and value chain analysis 2 Vaccines and Diagnostics to reduce the productivity, market access and asset impacts of tropical animal and zoonotic diseases 3 Animal Genetic Resources Improved livestock breeds for the poor, either through better use of indigenous animal genetic resources or better cross-breeding programs. 4 Emerging Diseases Predict and prevent emerging diseases and mitigate the impact of emerging zoonoses on the poor 5 Climate change Prioritize and improve livestock-mediated adaptationThe main CGIAR system priorities (SP) to which ILRI research contributes are the two livestock-specific system priorities;• Income increases from livestock (SP 3B)• Conservation of indigenous livestock (SP 1C)Over 50% of ILRI's resources go towards the above two system priorities. ILRI also contributes to several other priorities where livestock play an important role in the ecosystem (SP4) and/or the policy and institutional research agenda (SP5). Many of the new elements introduced by the CGIAR system priorities such as income improvement, more coordinated efforts in natural resource management, and integrating policy and institutional research with technologies are central to ILRI's strategy and research plan. The relative investment of ILRI in CGIAR priorities by CGIAR project are found in Table 1. Further details of contributions to specific CGIAR priorities were given in the 2008-10 MTP. As a facilitator of research-for-development activities, ILRI hosts some additional stand-alone capacity building activities that complement ILRI's own research program. These include: 1 the regional network component of the BecA project (governed and managed by a regional steering committee and the BecA secretariat) and the 2 non-research components of the IPMS project that support specific development and capacity-building activities 3 spatial analysis training in Targeting and Innovation, 4 training in participatory epidemiology to improve surveillance for infectious diseases in Markets and 5 training on livestock genetic resource capacity in Biotechnology.On development activities, the Market Opportunities project has some development activities within the IPMS (Improving the Productivity and Market Success) project and a research-into-use project using evidence from previous research on developing livestock value chains in north-east India. The Frontier research in Biotechnology is evolving work on livestock landscape genomics described on the previous page.ILRI and the regional plans for collective action in Africa ILRI supports the Regional Plans for Collective Action in Africa, a new Alliance-led process to catalyze the contributions of global agricultural research to regional agricultural research priorities. For eastern and southern Africa, ILRI in collaboration with ICRAF supports the coordination unit and actively engages in the research flagship projects.System-wide and eco-regional programs ILRI coordinates the CGIAR System-wide Livestock Program (SLP) and participates in 6 other system-wide programs (see Box 2 below). ILRI's participation in these programs is determined by the opportunities for livestock research to add value to the objectives of the program and its capacity to contribute. Livestock research could add value to some system-wide and eco-regional programs in which ILRI does not currently participate, but limitations in human resource capacity necessitate focus on a sub-set of programs.The SLP is a multi-centre initiative that adds value to the outputs of individual CGIAR centres and their partners by creating and exploiting synergies in crop-livestock research to reduce poverty in areas where small-scale mixed crop-and-livestock production is widely practised. Details of the global activities of the SLP are presented separately, as an ILRI project narrative. Each participating centre in the SLP also highlights its contribution to SLP in its centre medium-term plan. Additional details are found in the SLP project narrative. Below are the highlights of ILRI's contribution to the SLP.As a convener of the SLP, ILRI hosts and provides logistic and administrative support to the Program Coordination office, chairs the Livestock Programme Group and ensures that the required expertise in livestock is available for projects led by centres other than ILRI. ILRI research plays three major roles in the SLP. The first is in coordinating research on major drivers of change in crop-livestock systems. ILRI is leading the work on understanding drivers and anticipating and assessing changes (reported under the Targeting and Innovation Project). The second major area is providing livestock nutritional expertise so that important feed traits can be incorporated into the germplasm breeding and dissemination programs of CGIAR centres working on plants used as dual-purpose food-feed crops (reported under the People, Livestock and Environment Project). The major thrust has been on establishing methods for assessing, and indicators of, feed value of important crops so that these can be incorporated into crop breeding and seed systems. The third area in which ILRI contributes to the SLP is in coordinating research on innovative partnerships and strategies for mitigating feed scarcity in crop-livestock systems.Initial work has been conducted with public, private and NGO partners in India and Nigeria and is expected to expand in 2006/7 to scale-out lessons in these two countries and to extend studies to Ethiopia, Syria and Vietnam. This is reported under the Targeting and Innovation and People, Livestock and Environment themes.Other system-wide and eco-regional programs One of the 6 system-wide initiatives that ILRI contributes to is the Collective Action and Property Rights Initiative (CAPRi). An ILRI scientist serves on the steering committee and assists in CAPRis PhD fellowship program. ILRI also has a research project funded under the CAPRi initiative.Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi), led by IFPRI 6 Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA), led by CIAT 7 Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains (RWC), led by CIMMYT 8 Strategic Initiative on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (Urban Harvest), led by CIP 9 System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP), led by Bioversity 10 System-wide Livestock Programme (SLP), led by ILRI ____________________________________________________________ ILRI (People, Livestock and Environment Theme) has been working with members of the Rice-Wheat Consortium (RWC) for the Indo-Gangetic Plains since 2005 to describe and understand crop-livestock interactions in the rice-wheat systems of these plains. The research adopts a systems perspective to evaluate the contributions of crops, livestock and their interactions to the livelihoods of resourcepoor families and to propose policy options and institutional and technical interventions to improve livelihoods and the management of the natural resources. ILRI (People, Livestock and Environment Theme) is working closely with other CGIAR centres as part of the System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP) in the areas of forage and livestock genetic resources. ILRI is applying the common CGIAR centre policy instruments and guidelines on genetic resources, biotechnology and intellectual property rights developed through the program. The SGRP plays a strategic role in coordinating collaborative action among centres on genetic resources management, research and capacity development. This program represents the system at international fora and contributes to global agendas and policy development. ILRI is involved in the system-wide upgrading of genebanks and activities on the collective action for the rehabilitation of global public goods in the CGIAR genetic resources system through the SGRP.ILRI is actively involved in bringing a livestock-water use dimension to the CPWF. Most of the ILRI contribution is in joint research projects with IWMI in the Nile Basin. There are also efforts to extend the methodologies and knowledge gained to projects in other river basins and to cross-basin comparisons. This work is reported under the People, Livestock and Environment Project.The role of ILRI continues to be in providing strategic scientific advice and research inputs. ILRI has helped to identify science entry points, investment priorities and context-specific technical, policy and institutional options for reducing poverty at three of the programs pilot learning sites.The Center has over the past years undertaken major efforts to reposition itself for future livestock research needs and a changing funding context. This has involved a significant draw down on reserves to invest in attracting key staff for the new areas of the research agenda: emerging diseases, food safety, value chains, and management of the biosciences platform. We have rationalized the physical infrastructure of the institute by devolving assets being underutilized, investing in the upgrading of strategic areas such as IT, establishing offices in Asia and Southern and West Africa and upgrading our laboratory facilities. We have also invested in strengthening the human resources management and managerial skills in ILRI.These investments have placed ILRI in a strong position to respond to a rapidly growing and changing global livestock agenda. We see strong growth in demand for research into dynamic markets for livestock products, particularly in Asia, the growing competition between human food, animal feed and biofuels, the growing environmental concerns associated to the worldwide expansion of livestock production, the worlds nervousness about emerging zoonotic diseases, particularly Avian influenza, and the interaction of the above issues with international concerns about the impact of climate change on developing countries. Overall, there is a growing awareness of the importance of agriculture and agricultural research to feed the world and contribute to equitable and sustainable development across countries and we are confident that ILRI will be able to be a major contributor to this process and attract the expanded financial resources for livestock research that will be required.ILRI has been able to attract a growing number of large project grants from traditional donors and increasingly from new donors. We recognize that there is high uncertainty about a number of key factors influencing our financial outlook such as the short and medium term outlook for unrestricted fund contributions to the CGIAR, the long term weakness of the US Dollar (the currency of most inflows to ILRI) and the economic conditions prevailing in countries where ILRI has large operations.. The critical challenge for ILRI is to rapidly learn to successfully manage a growing portfolio of larger restricted projects in an efficient and effective manner. This involves enhancing our ability to attract and combine a range of disciplinary skills to design innovative science based solutions, to manage human and financial resources (particularly staff time and partnerships), to effectively monitor, evaluate and learn quickly to adjust to changing circumstances and needs.After a spike in restricted expenses in 2008 due to the construction of the BecA Research platform funded by a grant from the Canadian government, the overall cost of the ILRI portfolio is expected to come down to $50m in 2009 and then grow again at a conservatively estimated rate of between 5 to 10% per year based on current fund raising projections. This growth will be based largely on restricted projects. . We plan to maintain the undesignated reserve levels at about US 10 million over the period. We expect to reach a scale of about USD 65 million of expenditure by 2013 (see Table 2). The livestock sector in developing countries is changing rapidly due to demand and supply factors that strongly influence economic growth, poverty, and supply of livestock products. On the demand side, dietary changes induced mainly by income growth and urbanization, are changing market conditions for livestock products.Growing demand for bio-fuels is increasing competition for biomass between food, feed, and fuel. Climate change and degradation of natural resources put increased pressure on the ability of ecosystems to sustainably produce adequate livestock products to meet the rising demand. There are also diverse actors in the livestock sector, such as private agribusiness, producer organizations, non-governmental organizations, and philanthropy. Responses to a changing livestock context may marginalize poor people and degrade natural resources. Increasing demand and rising prices for livestock products may also provide new opportunities through price incentives and institutional innovations through public-private-NGO partnerships for using livestock in research strategies that support specific pathways from poverty.ILRI's Targeting and Innovation Project analyses the complex interactions between livestock systems, poverty, and the environment. The project has three main user groups, and tailored impact pathways to reach each one. One of the main users our research results are other researchers, inside and outside ILRI, in order to set their research agendas. The major way we reach these groups is via collaborative research and dissemination of results in scientific fora. To engage with policy makers at international and national scales, the project conducts targeted, often commissioned, analyses on key issues of policy relevance. This close communication between researchers and users of the output from design through implementation enhances the likelihood that the results will be used in economic planning processes and policy dialogues that aim to influence the livestock agenda. Research activities on key drivers, trends, and future evolution of livestock systems and implications for poverty and the environment contribute to SP4B, SP4C, and SP5A. The work on livestock and opportunities for income growth and employment and the role of livestock in reducing vulnerability to shocks are applied in specific contexts such as conservation of indigenous livestock (animal genetic resources) in SP1C and demand driven growth opportunities from livestock in SP3B. The work on livestock, livelihoods, and vulnerability contributes to SP5D while innovation in livestock systems contributes to SP5B and SP5C.Description:Research activities use analytical tools and methods, including Geographic Information Systems, trends analysis, spatial analysis, and scenario modelling to identify key issues and challenges and signal their importance to other ILRI projects and decision makers. The project has three major strategies for developing international public goods. First, IPGs are created from synthesis of empirical information and results from case studies to generate policy relevant knowledge on livestock-poverty and their implication for sustainable development. Livestock products have long been a pathway for income generation by the poor. Rapidly growing and changing livestock markets in the developing world provide real opportunities--but also significant challenges--to participation of the poor. Threats to smallholder farmers arise from the increasing integration and complexity of livestock product markets, increasing demand for food quality, safety and convenience, and at the producer level, constraints to smallholders productivity and ability to produce high quality products due to lack of technology, inputs, resources and information. This Project addresses a range of inter-related issues around smallholder participation in markets, from productivity and access to inputs at the farm level, to the policies in animal trade and disease control at the international level.Some consumer segments in developing countries, particularly in Asia, are clearly demonstrating higher demand for Western-style product quality and safety attributes, and markets now offer an increasingly integrated modern market chain that places value on food safety, high and uniform quality, and on increased production volumes to capture economies of scale in collection and processing. These higher end markets, part of the supermarket revolution, will play an increasingly important role even in poor countries. However, due to demand for cheap products with traditional characteristics, markets for traditionally processed, or unprocessed informal products continue to predominate in most developing countries, even while demand for higher quality increases at the higher income end of the market. Because traditional and indigenous products are not easily supplied by larger-scale formal markets, or substituted for by imports, they create unique opportunities for small scale producers and market agents, many of whom are poor. The research program encompassed by the Project builds on those unique opportunities, whether in the form of raw milk, fresh pork, indigenous poultry, or range-fed, organicallyraised small stock, and across a range of markets, from local to international. In both informal and formal market chains food safety is a concern from the point of view of both health and nutrition of producers, consumers and market actors and as a potential barrier for smallholders access to higher end markets. This research program addresses the dualistic nature (traditional and modern) of livestock product markets and aims to help bridge the gap, supporting the role of smallholders in the transition process, and aims to provide research support to assist these actors and processes to provide opportunities for the poor.Because livestock market chains are long and complex, they provide multiple opportunities for the poor to participate through input and service supply, and in myriad ways in the marketing and processing of livestock products. ILRI thus assesses livestock value chains (including inputs and services supply) for pro-poor opportunities, then targets sectorally and regionally the best systems and components where the poor can benefit (with focus on dairy, small ruminants, pigs, and poultry).Although research shows that many smallholder livestock products remain competitive with output from large-scale farms and with imports, there is considerable scope for helping the poor who might otherwise be left behind to join a market-driven pathway to improving their livelihoods through livestock, hence a focus on smallholder competitiveness. This requires not just improved output market linkages, but also support to increased farm productivity through access to improved technologies and appropriate and reliable livestock services and inputs the backward linkages that support productivity.The Output 1:Description: Smallholder competitiveness in changing markets: The target of the first Output is to enhance competitiveness of poor producers through research on mechanisms that improve farmer access to the inputs, services, and knowledge products needed to increase productivity and profitability of their livestock activities, as well as improve their ability to capture better value for their marketed livestock products. Market-oriented production relies not only on feeds, breeds, and drugs, but also on information and knowledge regarding appropriate technologies and market opportunities. Emphasis is placed on identifying technologies, institutions and policies that will sustainably support market-oriented production by smallholder farmers. The focus is farm-level, action-oriented, and recognizes the complex, multi-objective nature of poor farm households and the particular constraints that they face in gaining access to the relevant public services and private-sector markets. The work typically involves low-income livestock keepers, service and input suppliers, and development actors in smallholder settings, and buyers and integrators in mixed crop-livestock systems and intensifying peri-urban systems. There are two main areas of attention in this Output: a) institutions and strategies to support sustained uptake of improved production technologies, and b) contractual and organizational arrangements to support smallholder participation in markets. Value chain analysis of markets for input and services is being undertaken within the IPMS project in Ethiopia. New areas of emphasis within this Output address markets for inputs and services to smallholder producers, including animal health inputs in West Africa, and feed/fodder markets in India.However even the most competitive small farms may not be viable if they cannot respond to the challenges of changing demand for food safety, quality, and standardisation. Design of better marketing institutions and strategies would allow smallholders to meet new requirements, hence a focus on changing demand structures that motivate the need for new institutions. These need to be implemented in the context of the continued dominance of the traditional, informal markets that resource poor producers and consumers chiefly rely on, so that bridging the gap between formal and informal markets, in terms of quality and safety, must be one objective. Alignment to CGIAR Priorities:Countries of Planned Research:Description: Changing demand and market institutions: This Output addresses the drivers of change in livestock markets supplied by the poor, including potential changes in demand for better quality, increased safety, and higher levels of processing. It considers private sector and collective responses to new market opportunities and requirements, the impact of changes in industrial organization through the supply chain on small-scale producers, and the means for helping the latter and small-scale market agents to respond. It also assesses the impact of these changes on access by poor urban consumers to low cost livestock-source foods. The Output increasingly examines the actual safety characteristics of livestock products in alternative market channels, and applies a quantitative risk analysis approach to understand potential food safety livelihood synergies or trade-offs to inform decision makers. The primary targets are institutional options for smallholder livestock producers and the supply chains that serve them. A secondary target is options for appropriate levels of food safety and enhanced risk mitigation strategies in local markets. Some of the work is action-oriented and includes pilot testing of technical and institutional options where appropriate, with development partners. The project incorporates the public health dimensions of food safety and risk analysis to complement the existing focus on market standards related to food safety. Some of the new work within this Output focuses on new and innovative tools for diagnosing livestock value chains, and guiding development interventions within those.Beyond these domestic markets, global procedures for control of animal disease face major challenges from changes in the global configuration of livestock production and consumption and from significant changes in technology options for disease control. The costs of compliance with these standards are often too high for smallscale operators in developing countries to meet, hence a focus on animal health for trade.Alignment to CGIAR Priorities:Countries of Planned Research:Description: Animal health for market access and trade: This Output addresses the animal-health related barriers to the access of poor and small stakeholders to local, national, regional, and/or international markets. Through the identification, development, and evaluation of animal disease control, surveillance, or livestock and livestock commodity certification methods, this operating project assists stakeholders to meet animal health and food safety standards restricting their access to various markets. This work draws attention to the high costs of compliance with existing SPS and other standards facing producers in developing countries who wish to sell into rising export markets. It also evaluates in selected cases the costs and benefits of alternative procedures for equivalent levels of animal disease control proposed for developing countries. Risk analysis from veterinary epidemiology is combined with analysis of the costs and benefits of different options and policies, including the implications for both direct and indirect impacts on the incomes of the poor. Such methods further provide the basis for improved pro-poor decision and policy-making through the assessment of cost-effective animal health alternatives and allowing stakeholders to more effectively respond to zoonotic and emerging diseases that potentially reduce market opportunities such as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and Rift Valley fever. The increasing attention to emerging diseases is a result not only of immediate threats to human health from avian flu, but also the awareness of longer term strategies to mitigate ongoing risks of these \"public bads\", that are tied to intensifying production and marketing systems. This area will be a key focus over the medium term, and is expected to grow. Furthermore, through applied research and capacity-building, the output disseminates innovative and more effective animal health and food safety solutions that contribute to an increase in market participation. The focus of partnership with lab-based organizations (such as ARIs) and policy and standard-setting organizations (such as OIE, FAO and CODEX) is to demonstrate interactions between the context and practical requirements of developing countries with the technical options available in different parts of the world.Alignment to CGIAR Priorities: Countries of Planned Research:Output 1:Technical, institutional and policy options identified and promoted, that increase the ability of smallholder livestock producers to sustain and expand viable livestock enterprises For all three Outputs in this Project, the strategy for pathways to convert our outputs into outcomes and impact is oriented towards three different deliverable types, meaning types of knowledge for target users. These deliverable types are policies, development solutions (technologies and strategies), and methodologies. A key unified strategy for delivering in each of these areas is working through partnerships; however those partnerships vary according to type of deliverable, and to the stage of delivery. The focus is on building national ownership of results, and engaging key decision-makers at policy, development and private investment levels early in the research, through national collaborators and joint projects. Particularly in research towards technical and institutional options, action research and pilot testing is conducted jointly with development partners, either public or non-governmental institutions or the private sector. Working with local and national partners to demonstrate potential for impact is essential for proving the relevance of research outputs, and for drawing the strategic lessons for applications in other setting and regions internationally.\"Developmental outcomes and impact: The partnership strategy for delivering these types of technology and institutional strategy impacts lies in working through Joint Research and Development Partnerships at national and local levels. The key to success is the effective linkage of researchers with investors and development agencies and implementers. These sorts of partnerships typically include government extension services and regulators, private-sector investors and service providers of both small and large scale, including business development service (BDS) providers, NGOs and producer associations. ILRI's role may be facilitating, catalysing or leading such partnerships, depending on need, as well as synthesizing and translating the lessons learned to generate global public goods. Such development Partnerships conduct: joint outcome mapping and regular monitoring and evaluation, joint R&D planning, field research to pilot test the technology and institutional strategies that emerge from research, joint communication development, inter-site exchanges, and short courses to improve skills to increase uptake. In such cases the ILRI research role is just one of several components, aimed toward better science-based targeting and application of development interventions, with a view toward learning lessons with international relevance. The Outcomes targeted by these technology and institutional strategy-related outputs is a) the sustained uptake of pro-poor institutional models and technologies, through improved capacity of development partners and b) demonstrated market innovations with international relevance. Depending on the type of issues addressed, Impacts will be in the form of improved welfare of resource-poor producers, market actors, and/or consumers.\"Policy outcomes and impacts: The partnership strategy for delivering at the policy level is to work with Advocacy Coalitions at international, regional and national levels, using policy-research outputs that have regional and global relevance. The key to the success of such coalitions is that partners pursue shared pro-poor goals but have different and complementary capacities. They are likely to include some policy partners and decision makers themselves, and feature credible researchers, global information networks, and research and development donors. A key element to success is to include pro-poor civil society organizations that have a particular interest in and specialized capacity for pro-poor policy advocacy. Global relevance is demonstrated in a) policy approaches tested locally and nationally that can be adapted to other countries and settings, and b) policy engagement strategies that can also be applied to other commodities, systems and issues elsewhere. The Outcomes targeted by these policy-related outputs are: a) changes in mind set among policy makers, accompanied by increased capacity to address wider range of sometimes complex pro-poor policy questions, followed by b) actual pro-poor shifts in public policy and investment interventions, either in the form of written or implemented policy. Depending on the type of policy addressed, Impacts will be in the form of improved welfare of resource-poor producers, market actors, and or consumers.\"Methodology outcomes and impacts: The partnership strategy for delivering new or refined research methods and tools is to work through Multi Level Research Partnerships. The key to success in these cases: being a bridge between the international science community, ARIs, other IARC, and NARS. These partnerships typically include cutting-edge ARIs usually based in the North, IARCs with complementary skills and interests, and capable NARS institutions and individuals. Alternatively, as in the case of action research on methodology in surveillance and animal health delivery, appropriate partners include public sector service delivery organizations, non-governmental organizations and international agencies involved in program implementation. Again, there are a number of examples in this Project of these types of Partnerships, which are strongly aimed at research capacity building among our research partners that will in turn lead to positive development consequences, rather than direct welfare impacts on our primary target beneficiaries.The Outcome targeted by these methodology and skills -related outputs is a) the development and dissemination of improved research methods internationally, and b) increased research capacity nationally and regionally. Depending on the type of issues addressed, and rather more indirectly than in the above cases, Impacts will be in the form of improved capacity for sustained research on livestock marketing and related policy issues to improve welfare of resource-poor producers, market actors, and/or consumers.The outcome and impact strategy for this Output (smallholder competitiveness) mirrors the three types of partnership strategies described above Developmental outcomes and impact: For this particular Output, an important example is the East Africa Dairy Development project, a large scale four-year development project in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda led by Heifer International. ILRI's role is guiding design, leading targeting of implementation to ensure benefits for the poor, and lesson learning from development interventions for wider strategies. The non-research partners work directly with producers and market agents, and so allow the scaling up of research outcomes for impact that is sustained due to their continued presence and role after donor project cessation. Other examples are seen in pig systems work in NE India in Nagaland.Policy outcomes and impact: For this Output, an example also lies in the EADD project above, in which ILRI is leading the modelling of dairy policy impacts, and through the projects links to host governments, will be able to influence pro-poor policy, and the implementation of pro-poor dairy interventions of the development partners in three countries in that region. Another example lies in the Pig Competitiveness project in Vietnam where, through partnership with the national Centre for Agricultural Policy the key implementing partner, project outcomes will have influence on pig sector policies.Methodology outcomes and impact: For this Output, some examples of these partnerships include the joint work with IFPRI and national partners that adapted integrated modelling approaches to address the complexity of contract farming/industrialization in pig systems in Vietnam, linked to Univ. of Queensland. ILRI is also working through a joint programme on zoonoses with a public health partner, the Swiss Tropical Institute, to develop One Health approaches to addressing the complex interactions of animal and public health mitigation efforts.Output 2: Technical, organizational and policy options identified, evaluated and promoted for the improvement of market institutions that serve smallscale, poor and disadvantaged producers, market actors and consumers, in the context of rising demand for reliable quality, food safety and increased openness to trade Developmental outcomes and impact: For this Output, an example lies in the dairy work in Assam, NE India, where having first led a diagnostic activity to guide the State Governments dairy development strategy, ILRI now is supporting local development partners in a new effort to introduce and scale up traditional milk market interventions based on a BDS model adapted from East Africa. In all of these cases, outcome mapping or similar planning exercises help to manage the evolution of ILRI's role among other partners from leader in some cases, catalyst in others, to facilitator and supporter as R&D project matures. In all cases, the partnership with development partners in specific settings is used as an opportunity for ground-truthed lesson-learning about market and technology innovations for application in other international settings Policy outcomes and impact: An important example of this type of Advocacy Coalition approach can be found in the work led by some of this Projects team members, on pro-poor policy change towards greater acceptance of small-scale milk marketing in East Africa. In 2009 the work continues at a regional level in East Africa, with ILRI now playing a smaller facilitating and capacity building role in support of an effort led by the East and Central Africa Program on Agricultural Policy Analysis (ECAPAPA, a network of ASARECA) aimed at applying the same policy lessons in Regional Policy Harmonization. Similarly, in the State of Assam in NE India, the same policy lessons are being adapted and applied, with ILRI supporting capacity of the Assam government to address traditional milk markets.Methodology outcomes and impact: For this Output, an example lies in the work with national universities in East Africa and with Cornell University to develop adapted disease and food safety risk assessment approaches that address the data-poor and unregulated informal milk and meat markets in developing countries, which to date have never been developed.Output 3: Strategies and policies identified and promoted for greater impact on poverty reduction through improved quality and safety of livestock commodities and products in national and international markets, through multi-disciplinary research in veterinary epidemiology, economics, and risk analysis Developmental outcomes and impact: For this Output, a key area of developmental impact lies in work with government partners across West, East and Southern Africa on supporting decision making capacity in addressing risks from avian flu. In that work, Veterinarian Sans Frontier (Belgium) plays a key developmental role under ILRI scientific guidance.Policy outcomes and impact: In the case of animal health policies as addressed by this Output, it is often essential to engage international organizations and standards setting organizations such as the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), highlighting equity and poverty alleviation issues through risk-based rather than rule-based approaches. ILRI is currently engaged in such coalitions to influence the animal health policies to better serve the needs or resource-poor producers and developing countries, though engagement with key Ad Hoc committees that draft OIE positions. We are also working with the Intergovernmental Bureau for Animal Resources of the African Union (AU-IBAR), to influence the uptake of more pro-poor approaches for complying with SPS issues in animal product trade.Methodology outcomes and impact: A growing partnership is with the Royal Veterinary College in the UK, involving joint work on animal disease risk mapping and modelling for application to avian flu and other emerging diseases.The international public goods generated by this Project emanate from the basic approach applied throughout: a) Analyzing livestock value chains in their entirety (technical, institutional and policy elements) b) From that analysis, identifying sectors and regions with greatest opportunities for the poor to benefit from markets either as input suppliers, producers or market agents. c) Evaluating and demonstrating the transferability of policy approaches learned or innovations developed (e.g. dairy policy: East Africa to South Asia; policy approaches: East Africa dairy to Southeast Asia pigs) d) Influencing the international agenda to embrace pro-poor market approaches that apply risk based systems with a variety of options for the poor to succeed.The international public goods emanating from the research represent in all cases lessons for innovations in policies or institutional strategies that emanate from research in a specific site or context that have generic relevance in other sites, eco-regions and continents, and so have strategic international implications. They can be categorized in a manner related to the three types of outputs that are described above in the Impact Pathway discussion.Because public policies play a key role in market regulation, infrastructure and performance, policy-related IPGs figure prominently in the work of the Markets Project. A key example is the work on policies to address small-scale informal milk markets that began in Kenya, described above, and associated with Output 2 in the Logframe. The policy-related IPG lessons from that work are a) the policy option itself, of formalising raw milk trade, and b) the analysis of the process of policy change emanating from research. Although the original work was Kenya-specific, interactions with stakeholders in other countries, some outside the region, demonstrated that policy-makers elsewhere could benefit from the lessons learned.As described above, the lesson is now being applied in other countries in E Africa and in NE India.A key area of attention for the Markets Project is the application of risk-based approaches to understanding food safety and animal disease implication of livestock and livestock product markets. Such approaches are required to go beyond simple rule-based, no-risk policies, to understand potential tradeoffs in risk vs. livelihoods among various participants in market chains from consumers to livestock producers themselves. This work is generating IPGs in a number of areas, including methodology innovation to adapt the approach to developing country settings, new institutional and regulatory options to best balance risk and livelihoods, and in the future, new understanding of policies to allow poor countries to apply equivalent risk control measures to meet SPS standards in livestock exports (Output 3).Finally, in the area of methodologies, the Project is for example developing the use of participatory techniques to better adapt epidemiological surveillance and research methodologies to the realities of developing countries and small-holder communities. These tools are also being developed as more sustainable methods for use by national governments to comply with SPS requirements and enhance access to markets. Another example relates to methodologies for addressing value chains that are currently being revised, the objective being to better identify leverage points (interventions that would have the highest impact) while ensuring good scientific rigour in the analysis (Output 2).The Markets Project is one of ILRI's most geographically diverse, and has staff based in several regions of SSA, in South Asia, and in several countries in Southeast Asia.Mirroring the variety of locations, the range of partners that the Project works with is similarly diverse, although it follows generally the types of partners and roles described above in the description of impact pathways. A key focus for this Project is building on the strengths of partners who offer development outcome platforms for generating strategic learning and IPGs.South and Southeast Asia are areas of increasing attention for the Project, and the work there addresses all three Output areas in the Project portfolio. The overall goal of this Project is to mitigate threats to livestock assets so as to reduce risks of worsening poverty. This is achieved by applying biotechnological tools to reduce mortality and morbidity and through the identification of, and improved access to, appropriate animal genotypes and better understanding and use of genetic diversity inherent in these livestock populations. The use of locally adapted and disease resistant livestock, of diagnostic tests for disease surveillance, food safety and market access and of vaccines for disease prevention are considered to be effective technologies through which the livestock assets of the poor can be secured and multiplied, and are at the core of the research in this Project.Since 2001, ILRI has focused its vaccine research on developing a sub-unit vaccine for East Coast fever (ECF). In collaboration with several international partners, ILRI had identified parasite components (candidates) believed to be responsible for immunity to ECF. The next phase of this research focused on trying to put these components in formulations which induce the correct immune response -a cytotoxic T cell response. Various systems were evaluated. This has been a challenging undertaking. Because this problem is not limited to ECF and exists for several human diseases, notably HIV, malaria and cancer, ILRI, in the course of 2007 explored the possibility of working with several vaccine research laboratories around the world to develop a coordinated approach to this challenge, in the expectation that a solution can be achieved more expeditiously. Based on experience to date, the realistic expectation is that a sub-unit vaccine is still some years away. Hence, attention has shifted to the available infection and treatment method of vaccination (ITM).Although effective, ITM has considerable drawbacks, most importantly a complicated and expensive production process and the necessity for liquid nitrogen storage of the vaccine from point of production to point of use in the field. However, there is an increasing demand for this vaccine from livestock owners. Starting in 2007, ILRI has engaged in a technology transfer project, the main components of which is to apply a production protocol (which has previously been used by ILRI) to manufacture a batch of the vaccine. The process is designed to engage and train future producers of the vaccine, and to improve the robustness of a commercial-scale production process.Under the stewardship of AU-IBAR, ILRI is working with several entities including PANVAC (Pan-African Vaccine Centre of AU) and an international non-for-profit organization, the Global Alliance for Livestock Vaccines (GALVmed), to develop a dossier that will underpin the registration of the vaccine. Significant progress was made in 2007 and the activities continue in 2008. ILRI will also provide technological support for the widespread deployment of the vaccine in eastern and southern Africa.During the medium term this will include an assessment of the immune responses generated by ITM vaccination in different cattle breeds. It is expected that these activities in ITM will have an impact in the immediate term in the control of ECF, while awaiting the development of a cheaper, more practical vaccine.The expertise which has been generated by the long-standing ECF vaccine research effort has attracted collaborative projects on bovine tuberculosis (BTB), contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and tropical theileriosis, where ILRI works with several consortia conducting multifaceted research projects. The BTB and CBPP projects take advantage of ILRI's expertise in bovine immunology. In the MTP period, particular attention will be given to CBPP, due to its economic importance in Africa and lack of knowledge of the immunology of this disease. Similar to the ECF situation, deployment of current imperfect CBPP vaccine is the only available solution for now. The focus will be on understanding how the present vaccine works as a basis for developing an improved product. Work will also continue on identifying candidate antigens from the tick vector of ECF, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, for use as a transmission blocking vaccine. ILRI's role in the tropical theileriosis project is to identify antigens recognized by immune cells and is a logical extension of the previous work on ECF. These projects are in their nascent stages and future directions and scope will be examined as part of a broader assessment of our priorities in both vaccine and diagnostics research through partner consultations and a CCER that is being conducted in 2008 (previously planned to be completed in early 2008, this has had to be delayed to accommodate availability of panel Chair). This process will involve close collaboration with ILRI's Targeting and Innovations Project.In diagnostics research, previous work was aimed at the development of assays for use by NARS for sero-surveillance and as epidemiological tools, in particular for tickborne diseases and trypanosomosis. Work will now include the development of tests that can facilitate market access through the development and deployment of rapid diagnostic assays. This activity will be developed in collaboration with the Markets Project. ILRI's work in African Swine fever is aimed at identifying the extent of genetic diversity in East African isolates of the virus. Lack of knowledge of this diversity has constrained the application of the diagnostic assays developed using isolates from other regions. Important aspects of this project will use the new BL3 laboratory and the BecA genomics platform. The need for better diagnostic tools for CBPP, in particular for the latent carrier animal, is hampering efforts to control this disease. ILRI is taking a genomics-based approach to address this problem, which will also benefit from the facilities of the BecA/ILRI shared research platform. ILRI is also undertaking a new major field project (the Infectious Diseases of East African Livestock IDEAL funded by the Wellcome Trust) in western Kenya aimed at establishing baseline information on diseases which affect calves for the first 12 months of life, the efficiency of diagnostic assays for these diseases and whether there is a correlation between disease susceptibility and genotype in these animals under smallholder management.Work on AnGR characterization seeks to map and quantify the diversity in livestock populations in developing countries. ILRI's role in molecular characterization is in developing the sampling, genotyping and analysis protocols and their optimization and application on strategically selected samples from different regions of the world. The goal is to provide a global overview of the distribution of diversity, including hotspots of diversity. The tools are then made available for application at country level to fill the local/regional gaps with the global analyses providing an interpretation context. A large body of information has been generated and made available through various publications and information system (e.g. Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System -DAGRIS), the development of which will continue in the current MTP. Substantial progress has also been made in developing diversity assessment protocols/tools. Attention in the medium term will shift to refinement and dissemination through training to facilitate broader application of these products and tools, especially in Africa and Asia. Work started in 2007 to complete the integration of DAGRIS with the complementary FAO DAD-IS database has now been completed. The work on DAGRIS will continue to focus on facilitating national partners to record and curate their own data and to enhance access. This will provide an integrated, publicly-accessible system for measuring, documenting and evaluating genetic diversity, largely devolved to national partners as an important knowledge base to inform conservation and use. This will be an important source of research-based evidence for policy and decision making. Our focus has now shifted to the really critical traits (e.g. disease resistance) for poor people facing high risks in marginal environments, including examination of likely implications of climate change. We will apply a two-pronged approach. One will be a landscape genomics approach to ask the questions: what genetics are where and how are they shaped by the dynamics on the landscape in which they reside? This attempts to capture critical aspects of the production system in which they occur including the physical environment, disease pressure and human selection, interacting with market pressures and opportunities. Understanding this co-evolution will inform future conservation and use strategies and policies. A sub-component of this approach, combining genomics and infectious (human and livestock) disease burden has now started with the monitoring of an indigenous population of Western Kenyan zebu (in the IDEAL project alluded to above). The research activities in this new initiative will generate a large number of new information on the livestock genome, the productivity traits and the environment. It will require complex multi-layer analysis.The other thread of research will be a continuing focus on lab-based discovery of functional genes to try and unravel mechanisms of gene function (e.g. disease resistance/tolerance), the output of which has potentially diverse applications, including in vaccine, diagnostics and therapeutics research. This work which currently focuses on trypanotolerance in cattle and helminth parasite resistance in sheep will, resources being available, begin to look at other high priority diseases, such as avian viral diseases (e.g. Avian Influenza, Newcastle disease) and Rift Valley fever. The work will be underpinned by progress to date on broad-scale genetic diversity mapping and ILRI's gene discovery research capacity. This upstream research stream will provide insights into mechanisms of gene functions which will have potential to contribute to vaccine and drug research for both livestock and humans.Working models for livestock genetic improvement for small-holders in developing countries remains a critical need. At the same time, and in many cases because of this gap, introduction of inappropriate genotypes is a continuing problem. Even in situations where potential of specific germplasm has been demonstrated (e.g. dairy cattle crossbreds in medium potential areas), absence of appropriate technologies for delivery and institutional structures that can assure sustainable supply present a major constraint. Work in breeding strategies will aim to identify appropriate genotypes for production systems in which smallholders predominate. In market led systems focusing on dairy production, we will undertake a synthesis of past successes and failures to learn lessons that can inform future strategies. This work will build on experiences of the market oriented smallholder dairy project in which ILRI has been involved for several years. Potential options for system improvements involving adaptation and tweaking the ways in which a range of off-the-shelf technologies such artificial insemination and other reproductive technologies and approaches can be better used will be assessed and pilot-tested. A proof of concept study involving a combination of technologies -in vitro fertilization with sexed semen, followed by embryo transfer (SIFET) to produce replacement heifers of specific genotypes for smallholder dairy systems is on-going. The first set of activities has focused on optimizing the laboratory protocols to improve success rates with in vitro fertilization that will result into an economic number of embryos consistently being raised to term under conditions which simulate available infrastructure in developing countries. If successful, this technology could increase the proportion of female calves (or males depending on the system) and would provide an effective method for delivering first-cross (F1) replacement animals. It could also triple the rate of recovery from cattle losses following drought or other disasters. In the more marginal systems, analysis of the potential for communitybased breeding approaches to deliver long-term (genetic) change using local breeds as base material, or to introduce genotypes which have proven successful in similar environments elsewhere, will be examined (e.g. through a GEF-funded project in West Africa). The possibility for a multi-country, multi-breed, evaluation of promising dairy cattle breeds that have demonstrated promise elsewhere (e.g. the Brazilian Guzera in comparable systems in Africa) will be explored. It had been considered that gene discovery work would identify genomic regions (QTLs) responsible for disease resistance, and that these would subsequently be introgressed into livestock populations to increase or introduce the resistance attribute. Significant progress has been made in QTL identification for both trypanotolerance in cattle and helminth resistance in sheep. This work is more advanced for trypanotolerance in cattle where several QTLs of relatively small effects have been identified. Although ongoing study of the mechanisms underlying these genomic regions is expected to reveal important insights into the biology of disease susceptibility, feasibility for application in breeding programs will be re-examined: Where a trait is controlled by many genes of large effects, technical and economic considerations make it less attractive to use DNA markers in breeding programs. This underscores the focus on adapting existing breeding technologies in the medium term. An analysis of the prospects and potential to use genetic information (including genetic markers) and/or conventional breeding approaches to select for disease resistance in developing countries will be undertaken, principally through simulation studies, during this MTP period. This work will facilitate the development of strategies/approaches for utilizing the rapidly cumulating genotype (e.g. SNPS) information in breeding programmes. Prospects for developing countries to benefit from the on-going SNP discovery projects around the world can be increased significantly if good quality phenotype data is available. In this connection, ILRI will, in the medium term, work towards the development of standard protocols for systematic recording and management of phenotype data on key livestock species.Characterization and improved utilization of AnGR will contribute to CGIAR System Priority 1 which aims at sustaining biodiversity for current and future generations and specifically to SP 1C which focuses on conservation of indigenous livestock. The gene discovery research is a special case of 1c and is in alignment with Priority 2d on Genetic enhancement of selected species to increase income generation by the poor, more specifically to goal 3 on smallholder livestock improvement for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Research in this Project is also linked to System Priority 3, opportunities for high-value commodities and products, specifically to 3b, income increases from livestock, goal 1 of which is to reduce production risks through development of low cost vaccines and diagnostic tools and development of breeding strategies, which include breeding for adaptive attributes such as disease resistance.We see a clear link between priorities 1c, 2d and 3b. In many of the systems in which we are working, market forces are very important and influence decisions on breeding programs, requiring that market drivers be factored into both conservation and use programs.In the 2009-10 period, on-gong work in upgrading the physical laboratory infrastructure will be completed and the full operationalization of the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) and ILRI shared research platform will be well underway. The platform and the activities and partnerships it is catalyzing is increasing ILRI's reach and expanding the impact of its expertise -in such areas as immunology, molecular epidemiology and animal genetics through collaborative projects involving NARS and ARIs.New or improved vaccines and diagnostics: There are three additional output targets for vaccines and diagnostics, two for 2009 and one for 2011. Description: This project aims to develop biotechnological products to support disease control in production systems in which poor livestock keepers form an important part and to facilitate access to markets. The main activities are development/adaptation of vaccines and diagnostic tools (for both disease control and food quality certification) for priority livestock diseases in developing countries.Alignment to CGIAR Priorities:Countries of Planned Research:Description: This project aims: to improve our understanding of the range of diversity presently available in livestock so that it may be used as a resource for future needs; this includes understanding of where maximum diversity exists and therefore where breeders should look for resources to meet new and rapidly changing requirements; to understand the role of genetic diversity in conferring resistance to disease and other physical stresses; and to understand the mechanisms underlying specific traits notably resistance to trypanosomiasis and helminthosis to contribute to utilization (Output 3)Alignment to CGIAR Priorities: Countries of Planned Research:Description: The Operating Project aims to improve livelihoods of poor livestock keepers through both genetic improvement programs and better utilization of available livestock genotypes. Current portfolio include: identification of technological, institutional and policy constraints to access and use of appropriate breeds and crossbreds; development of breeding strategies and tools; development of ex istu conservation strategies; and capacity building to support conservation and use of AnGR. There are some important linkages and synergies between this output and output 2. In particular, the genomic regions and ultimately genes for disease resistance identified in output 2 will be essential components of research on markerassisted selection (MAS) and marker-assisted introgression (MAI) and development of strategies of how these technologies may be utilized in breeding programs.Alignment to CGIAR Priorities: Countries of Planned Research:Output 1: New/improved vaccines and diagnostics (Africa and Asia) (3-5 years) The strategy to translate outputs to outcomes and eventually to impact involves working with consortia of strategic international collaborators (including advanced research institutes, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)) and national partners. The aim is to ensure that the best practices, at both the technical and institutional levels, can be applied to a range of diseases under different settings. For example, the ITM work will facilitate the African Unions Inter-Africa Bureau on Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) efforts to develop, with the Departments of Veterinary Services (DVS), a regulatory framework for the deployment of the vaccine in relevant countries. The strategy to realize commercialization involves early engagement of relevant stakeholders in the product development continuum. Demand for the vaccine has been established through the sale of previously manufactured vaccine, and expressed interest by the private sector in the production and distribution of the vaccine, and national assessments conducted in close collaboration with AU-IBAR and DVSs. ILRI and GALVmed have produced a dossier to facilitate registration and the production of the vaccine by the private sector or other public sector entities. ILRI has the expertise and facilities to assist countries wishing to deploy ITM to assess the suitability of the current parasite components in the vaccine, and to determine if new components should be incorporated. Discussions with current and potential distributors of the vaccine will ensure that research aimed at improvements of the vaccine will be practical, and will reduce the cost or otherwise increase the use of the vaccine.Output 2: Phenotypic, neutral and functional genetic molecular diversity of AnGR characterized, quantified and mapped to inform livestock conservation and utilisation strategies (Global, 5 10 years) Similar to the strategy for vaccines research, the approach here involves early engagement of key stakeholders, from national program scientists who facilitate on the ground activities sampling and analysis -to the FAO which provides intergovernmental mechanism for effecting policy change.Collaboration with international agencies such IAEA/FAO Joint Division in AnGR has also been instrumental in providing training for a large number of NARS scientists from Asia who have spent time at the ILRI labs using standard protocols to analyze samples from their own countries. The Project has had extensive collaboration with the FAO AnGR group over many years, for example in the development of sampling strategy, short list of candidate microsatelite markers for molecular diversity assessment, conceptualization of activities in economic valuation of animal genetic resources and development of on-farm phenotypic characterization protocols. ILRI scientists have also participated in the initial planning and subsequently reporting of the global assessment of the state of animal genetic resources, the State of the Worlds AnGR (SoW-AnGR). ILRI's key role has been in development of characterization approaches, targeting, information management, and catalyzing action by national systems primarily through partnerships in research processes, capacity building programs and sharing of knowledge through various avenues. SOW-AnGR, the Convention on Biological Diversity and other international mechanisms have been used to get the global issues known while active partnerships with international organizations (e.g. IAEA) and ARIs (e.g. SLU) help to facilitate broader regional and national reach of activities. This process and the international partnerships it has engendered have helped improve the understanding of the AnGR issues in different regions of the world, and to identify gaps in policy and opportunities for sustainable use, especially at the national level. ILRI's strategic role in AnGR work and the global engagement we have pursued has provided opportunities to influence important players including national governments and donor agencies.Output 3: Livestock breeding and conservation programmes suitable for low-input systems established to enhance productivity and adaptation. (Sub Saharan Africa, South Asia and South East Asia, 3 5 years) Although ILRI's involvement in breeding strategies is recent, we have built on the partnership network developed over the years through AnGR characterization work. The strategy identify relevant partners and engage them starting from problem identification through to the design of interventions and their implementation. Most of this work will involve NGOs, farmers and farmer associations. Working directly with them will ensure that resulting, promising breeding models are picked up early and adoption process starts in the course of project implementation. For example the approach for SIFET (use of sexed semen, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer) to deliver crossbreds for smallholder systems will involve national universities with expertise and some experience in reproductive technologies, private sector entities involved in delivery of breeding services and farmers representing the end users of the technology.ILRI's biotechnology research is designed to address issues of regional and global relevance and to generate public goods that have international application. The international public goods expected out of this research include: technologies/products (vaccines, diagnostics) that are applicable across multiple countries/regions, methods/approaches (breeding strategies, diversity assessment protocols, antigen identification protocols, institutional arrangements that work in delivering certain types of technologies and generic lessons learnt in engaging certain types of institutions), tools (e.g. databases such as DAGRIS and training resources such as AGTR as prototype tools that regions/countries can adapt and apply to manage AnGR information), knowledge/information (e.g. the characteristics, distribution and status of specific indigenous AnGR contained in the DAGRIS, genome sequences). Examples include: ? ILRI's involvement in the ITM vaccine production and deployment is part of a unique activity delivering a thermolabile, infective inoculum in regions of severely limited infrastructure. This also will inform the prospects of other, similar approaches, e.g. malaria, where the possibility of using attenuated or irradiated parasites to immunize humans is the subject of serious research. ? Gene discovery work examining cattle-trypanosome interactions is revealing fundamental aspects of the inflammatory response and this understanding of mechanisms of resistance is already seeing direct application in human health and in other disease models. For example, results from this work have catalyzed a pilot project in human health in a hospital in Manchester (UK) which involves routine monitoring of patients for cholesterol, focusing in links to patient ability to handle infections. ? The concept of BecA as a generic shared research platform and lessons learnt in its implementation will inform similar efforts elsewhere e.g. NEPADs African Biosciences initiatives in southern Africa, West Africa and North Africa ? In the area of AnGR, diversity assessment protocols as well as results which provide quantitative data on extent of diversity and identify diversity hotspots for different livestock species are global public goods already being widely used in many parts of the world. ? The training resource on AnGR is, based on survey evidence to date, a highly demanded tool in developing regions and both the CD and web-based versions are already in use for graduate teaching in many countries. The tool is empowering university trainers to deliver more (developing country) context-relevant teaching of AnGR courses.Deliberate engagement with NARS as partners/collaborators and as scholars is considered an effective means for knowledge dissemination and for facilitating the translation of results into outcomes. The research teams are supported by an institute Intellectual Property Unit that ensures that proactive defensive patenting and appropriate contracts with collaborators are used to manage IPGs, ensuring that these become available for, and accessible to, those who need them.The principal partners involved in the ECF vaccine research include GALVmed (ILRI and GALVmed have collaborated on developing registration dossier, which will serve as a basis for product registration, technology transfer and an improved production protocol for ITM). The T.annulata project is funded by the Wellcome Trust and is led by the University of Edinburgh (which provides MHC constructs and T cell lines for identification of T. annulata antigens Growing populations, increasing urbanization and changing markets, especially increased demand for livestock products in the developing world present new challenges and opportunities for small-scale livestock farmers, herders and landless people. Meeting a doubling in demand for livestock products and doing so using the same resource base and in environmentally sustainable ways that do not exclude poor people will be challenging. This project addresses the sustainably improving productivity pathway out of poverty as described in ILRI's strategy through conducting research on both productivity enhancing feed strategies, taking advantage of improved food feed crops and forage germplasm, improved feeding strategies and balancing these with environmental challenges. Research is directed towards the productivity and environmental management dimensions of increasing income from livestock through better market participation (SP3B and SP4) and environmental challenges in the context of reducing vulnerability of pastoral systems (SP4) while forage diversity which underpins these areas, contributes to SP1A.Congruent with the indications in the previous MTP, the project outputs have been realigned to better address an integrated approach to productivity and environment challenges in relation to intensifying crop livestock and pastoral systems (pastoral systems here refer to both pastoral and agro-pastoral systems dependant on rangelands, covering some 35 million km2 with ILRI's focus being on tropical systems). Thus, there are now three outputs which are summarized below, together with their relationship to the previous outputs. This is in response to the EPMR ( 2006) recommendation for greater clarity of focus and inclusion of pastoral systems, as well as numerous external and internal drivers that have helped shape an agenda designed to address research for priority Livestock Research-Development Challenges (as described above). It is also important to note that the specific research focus of this project, delivering largely technical and biophysical elements needs to be considered and conducted in relation to broader and at times more dominant issues which may be addressed through the research of others within or outside of ILRI.Research that aims to provide environmentally efficient production options for intensifying livestock systems builds upon research to mitigate livestock feed scarcity, increase productivity in crop livestock systems, together with research on livestock water productivity (SP4c). Information and material from forage diversity work is also an input into the feed production options explored here. Whilst in many developing countries, smallholders in mixed crop livestock systems currently provide most livestock products, the future challenge will be to address their role in changing market circumstances, whilst managing environmental goods and services in ways that ensure sustainable production of feed to address livestock productivity and competitiveness. The research is conducted against a background of many rapidly evolving challenges such as biofuel competition for biomass, rapidly fluctuating/rising prices of feeds and livestock products and impacts of climate change. Research outputs are aimed at informing users about strategies for enhancing livestock productivity through feed options, appropriate feed and natural resource management options in relation to their requirements for water and land, and towards the end of the MTP period, the research will provide information that can guide choices about intensifying livestock production in crop livestock systems in relation to public bads and goods and the related incentives for producers.Research to address reducing vulnerability of livestock-based livelihoods, ecosystem goods and services in pastoral and agropastoral systems builds upon research on sustaining lands and livelihoods together with research on livestock water productivity (SP4c). Human population density and climate change are major drivers, both of which undermine the resilience of these environments, deepen the vulnerability of livestock keepers and impact on the availability of the ecosystem services on which they depend. Research here focuses on ensuring that the vulnerability and risk dimensions are addressed with increasing emphasis on the potential of such systems to provide a range of environmental goods and services as opposed to livestock productivity per se. A key issue is the ability to respond to a number of variables that operate at different spatial and temporal scales. Research will provide information on environmental impacts of risk mitigation options (drawing where appropriate on our forage diversity work), market opportunities and payment for ecosystem services that can guide decision makers.Securing forage diversity for future livelihoods builds on the forage genebank work as in previous MTPs and provides inputs to the other two research areas. ILRI's role in characterization and diversity assessment is closely linked to the above two outputs, making better use of the diverse forage resources available as part of improved feeding strategies for sustainable livestock production systems. Given the changing nature of livestock systems we can anticipate that the role for forage species will also change. There will be new demands to feed animals to respond to market opportunities, as well as opportunities for both forages per se as well as the genes within forage species to address changing ecosystem needs and mitigate land degradation, often resulting from climate change. In order to meet such demands, many of which cannot at present be precisely predicted, and to ensure that the diversity contained within many thousands of forage species is not lost, there is a need to conserve, manage and document the diversity of forages. This activity is part of a coordinated effort on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of management of forage diversity under the System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP). Making better use of these valuable resources remains a priority for ILRI and in line with ILRI's role as a knowledge institution, increased focus will be given to knowledge management and sharing about forage diversity. ILRI's role will be more of an information portal, engaging with others who also generate information, to provide a coordinated approach to sharing knowledge on forage diversity across the CGIAR and with other partners.Research to develop environmentally efficient production options for intensifying crop livestock systems directly addresses SP3B in the context of providing options for management of the intensification of livestock production to improve the balance between productivity and economic growth, environmental sustainability and social equity. Aspects of this research also address SP4, notably in relation to water productivity for intensifying systems (SP4C) and sustainable agroecological intensification (SP4D). Feeds research which includes working with crop centres and the SLP on food-feed crops addresses SP2D.Research aimed at reducing the vulnerability of livestock based livelihoods in pastoral lands addresses SP4D (especially in low potential areas) and, with the inclusion of our earlier work on livestock-water productivity, SP4C. The focus is on assessing the environmental dimensions of diverse livestock based strategies to improve the adaptive capacity of livestock keepers and the rangeland systems on which they depend.Forage diversity work is at the core of SP1, with the allocation in line with SP1 on crop biodiversity. Research to enhance the availability and use of Napier grass in East Africa contributes to SP3B.This project has three outputs, focused around the central issues of improving productivity through feeds in intensifying crop livestock systems while optimizing use of land and water; improved adaptive capacity for pastoral systems and forage diversity. This represents a change from the previous MTP where there were four outputs dealing with mitigating feed scarcity, forage diversity, livestock-water productivity and sustaining lands and livelihoods. The new output configuration builds upon these but aims to integrate the research portfolio around two key dynamic livestock challenges intensifying crop livestock systems and reducing vulnerability in pastoral systems. ILRI will continue to refine the agenda and strengthen its staff capacity and partnerships to address this during this MTP period.Description: Activities to address this output include macro level studies together with the Targeting and Innovation Project to assess the water and land requirements for feed production, targeting the increasing demand for livestock products and feed in intensifying crop livestock systems in SSA and South Asia. Initially assembled data sets will be used, together with case study information on land and water productivity for livestock to develop a conceptual framework and a predictive tool for assessing livestock feed requirements in relation to land and water potential, including where appropriate, in irrigated systems (large or small scale) or using waste water for fodder production (with IWM). Such studies will help to sharpen the focus of research to address more specific feed options which will also take account of resource use needs. As crop livestock systems become more closely linked to markets and begin to intensify, new feed related aspects need to be considered such as options for transporting feed (already happening for example in parts of south Asia, Sudan), processing and transporting feed with small scale entrepreneurs potentially increasing interaction with the private sector. The interaction of feed aspects with improved access to better breeds and veterinary care also needs to be factored in. Approaches for assessing feeding strategies in relation to productivity and environmental needs based on increasingly dynamic situations (feed prices, competing biomass demands, livestock product prices) will also be developed. These studies link closely to value chain assessments led by ILRI's Market Project which will help target implementation points and the sequence of interventions. The feed research will continue to include and build upon research that relates to inclusion of feed traits in crop breeding implemented in collaboration with crop centres and the SLP. Feed research will be increasingly placed in the context of innovation system approaches in collaboration with the Targeting and Innovation Project and especially using the research in the fodder innovations work in Ethiopia, Syria and Vietnam (in the SLP context). The third area of research applicable here concerns the environmental impacts of intensifying livestock production and addressing how such impacts may best be mitigated. This is an area for which ILRI is currently developing new partners and recruiting a new senior staff member to address, meaning the research portfolio will be refined in the next MTP period.Research to address this output builds on our capacity in food-feed crop research, fodder market analysis and optimization of crop residue based diets by supplementation and feed processing implemented closely with CGIAR crop centres, the SLP, NARS partners, feed manufacturer as well as the network of collaborators engaged in livestock-water research, notably in the Nile Basin and especially with the CPWF.Alignment to CGIAR Priorities:Countries of Planned Research:Description: An initial activity to address this output is to synthesize the past methods and approaches from research on livestock and sustainable land use, mainly in East and West Africa to provide a tool box of options that can be used in changing pastoral systems. Research dimensions here focus on providing the environmental assessment to complement other research in relation to different risk mitigation and adaptation options. In this respect, for pastoral systems, social based risk mitigation options (for example index based livestock insurance), as studied by the Targeting and Innovation Project have the potential to impact on the environment in diverse ways, and providing information on such potential environmental impacts can be important to help appropriate decisions. Adaptive options for pastoral systems include greater market participation, with again the need to provide assessments that enable the environmental impacts of such to be evaluated in collaboration with the Markets Project as well as Biotechnology (in relation to the use and conservation of animal genotypes, impact of animal health opportunities) and with ILRI's forage diversity work. It is increasingly recognised that for pastoral systems with low livestock productivity, an important (non-market) livelihood strategy may be to use livestock management options as a way of improving stewardship of natural resources, with the potential for payments for ecosystem services offering new livelihood opportunities. In this respect, environmental assessment of different options and how these may be measured will be an important research contribution. Management of water resources is crucial for dry land pastoral systems and here ILRI will build on its expertise in livestock water productivity, considering especially the hotspots around watering points/reservoirs where there are opportunities for improved management for better environmental, human and animal health. Our research, together with the Targeting and Innovation Project also includes studies of institutional arrangements that impact on natural resource management in pastoral systems.Key partners are both research and development, bringing together advanced research institutes with developing country national programmes and universities.ICRISAT is an important CGIAR partner for dryland areas. Development partners and aid agencies as well as development funding agencies will partner in using the research results to generate outcomes.We have strong partnerships with IWMI and the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) that combine expertise and a growing inventory of intervention options to reduce vulnerability of pastoralists and agropastoralists who depend on small reservoirs and other natural and human developed water resources. Opportunities exist to link to other initiatives, research programs and institutions in dry land areas of Africa in ways that will maximize the reach of this output while avoiding duplication of investment in research and development.Alignment to CGIAR Priorities:Countries of Planned Research:Description: This output addresses the international responsibility of conserving the more than 18,000 forage accessions as a global public good, as well as making the information on this material available and accessible so that it can contribute to changing global demands for feeds and natural resource management as well as provide the potential to discover and use genes for biotic and abiotic stresses. This context determines the focus of activities on conserving and understanding the diversity of the forage germplasm, and sharing the knowledge about this all of which is implemented in the context of the system wide efforts convened by SGRP. Conservation of diversity includes efficient and effective best practices for germplasm management, health, regeneration and safety back up of the collection in relation to stratification approaches to make sure that the most used material is readily available whilst ensuring all accessions are safely conserved. Diversity assessment aims to evaluate collections of species identified as important for use in changing livestock systems to meet current and future demands, as well as to assemble information generated by others. Participation in development and subsequent use of a global crop registry and on line ordering system through a collaborative project of the SGRP ensures information and forage material are readily accessible in the public domain.Within ILRI, this project provides a service function in providing forage germplasm and therefore contributes to the other two outputs in the project on feed-related issues, with the Targeting and Innovation Project on impact and with IPMS project and the Improving Market Opportunities Project on delivery of improved germplasm for livestock market systems. Alignment to CGIAR Priorities:Countries of Planned Research:Output 1: Environmentally efficient production options for intensifying crop-livestock systems are available Intensifying crop-livestock systems, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, are requiring more and better livestock feed supplies as well as improved livestock management options to mitigate environmental degradation. The Projects previous work has provided a sound platform that enables crop breeders (CGIAR and NARS) to evaluate crop residue quality, and strategies to engage with the seed sector once dual purpose varieties are identified. However, broader approach is now needed to provide NGOs, development agents and small scale entrepreneurs with appropriate tools to rapidly determine suitable feeding strategies to cope with increasing feed demand using combinations of food-feed crops, forages, purchased supplements and compound feeds together with innovative strategies for biomass management in relation to competing demands for soil health and energy. The re-aligned research portfolio is designed to provide this information as well as relating such options to the land and water requirements and, in the slightly longer term, the potential environmental impacts. This at times means that we need to cultivate buy in from non-livestock partners who have important decision making roles. Making choices about where to promote intensification of crop livestock systems, and using what resources from within and outside the system has the potential to make a tremendous contribution to the livelihoods of the millions of farmers currently engaged in such systems and who are going to face significant transitions in the coming decades. Such choices will also be important for minimizing the environmental impact of intensification in smallholder systems. Research that provides tools for assessing appropriate feeding strategies using the range of available resources combined with innovation research to understand how these feed based research outputs can be scaled out and up is being conducted with grassroots research and development organizations working with ILRI's Targeting and Innovation Project in collaboration with SLP partners in West Asia, North Africa, South and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, including the ILRI-led project on Improving the Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers (IPMS).Multidimensional crop improvement aims at routine inclusion of crop residue fodder traits into crop improvement and cultivar release criteria and decisions. ILRI builds capacity for international and national improvement institutions to phenotype this trait quickly and cheaply by training in feed analysis using Near Infrared Spectroscopy, giving access to a wide range of NIRS equations and by assistance in setting up NIRS techniques for example for cultivar release agents. Feed manufacturers are linked to crop improvement and cultivar release agents to improve their information of and access to crop residues/by products from improved cultivarsOutput 2: Approaches that contribute to reducing the vulnerability of livestock-based livelihoods, and enhancing ecosystem goods and services in pastoral and agropastoral systems are available By providing tools and methods that help researchers and development agents who are engaged with pastoral systems to design appropriate livestock management strategies that balance livelihood, environmental and equity dimensions we anticipate that their efforts will impact positively on pastoral livelihoods and the environment on which they depend. Development and emergency relief agents who engage in social risk mitigation schemes (drought relief, insurance, re stocking after drought, etc) also need access to information on the environmental implications of different approaches so that they can make informed decisions that will not damage or destroy the ecosystem goods and services that support these vulnerable communities. The arena of payment for ecosystem services is vast, and the project aims to provide strategic information on livestock based options in relation to management of ecosystem services (especially water) and how these can be measured by those who are engaged in higher level development and implementation of such schemes. Similarly, where increased opportunities exist for pastoralists to participate in livestock markets, information on approaches that balance productivity with land and water use is an important input for decision makers who may influence where this is promoted ultimately impacting on the livelihoods of such pastoral communities. A number of capacity building initiatives are planned including working with universities in Tanzania and Kenya, and with UNEP together with advanced research institutes to develop elements of curricula and country development plans especially focused on ecosystem services, poverty and livestock livelihood studies. In West Africa capacity strengthening will include GIS training and communication approaches in relation to information for pastoralists on market access.Output 3: Forage germplasm secured and available as part of a rational global system of genetic resources conservation and sustainable use The forage diversity for which ILRI has a global responsibility is saved, studied and used to help sustain smallholder farming systems. This ensures that the ILRI maintained material continues to be managed according to international genebank standards, that high quality planting material is available for distribution on request, and that an appropriate duplicate collection is established for safekeeping. The project will continue to collate, package and share knowledge with national systems in forage seed production, germplasm health and characterization to improve capacity of users to better select from among the range of diversity available. Through the SGRP, we are also contributing to inter-centre projects on documenting best practices for germplasm management, developing a global forage registry and on-line ordering of germplasm to support partners' access to knowledge on forage diversity. The project is taking advantage of the range of new web-based knowledge sharing tools to reach a wide audience, while continuing to provide information in hard copy for those without internet access. As part of the overall capacity strengthening activities of ILRI, the project provides face to face learning opportunities for technicians and researchers in forage seed production, forage characterization, germplasm health diagnostics (linked to BecA) and genebank management as well as facilities and support for graduate research in these areas.ILRI's Targeting and Innovation Project is helping the People, Livestock and the Environment project to identify where systems are intensifying most rapidly and to make macro-level feed and resource based assessments that will help ensure these studies have wide relevance. For intensifying crop-livestock systems where over 600 million smallholders produce much of the developing country meat and milk, transitions in the coming decades are going to be significant. These will entail new market opportunities with implications for resource management to improve productivity and environmental services, set in the context of rising prices for both animal products, food and feed as well as increasing competition for biomass and improved access to better breeds and animal health. Our research aims to target key issues in such transitioning systems and aims to provide assessment tools (e.g., to assess and manage trade offs) and practical options that will be applicable in such systems in different world regions. Working in a number of environments in both SSA and S Asia increases the robustness of the approaches and information generated here.Close collaboration with ILRI's Targeting and Innovation Project is also important for identifying hotspots for work on reducing vulnerability of pastoral systems. Here we consider not only the biophysical information, but how to target approaches according to other dimensions market access, institutions, etc. This means that the environmental information generated will be useful to development agencies and policy makers in other regions with similar characteristics. One of the major tasks in the early part of this MTP period is to synthesize approaches and methods for addressing livelihood issues in pastoral lands this will have wide applicability for researchers and development agents engaged in pastoral systems.The ILRI-maintained forage germplasm and related information are IPGs freely available for all users. ILRI has ensured the IPG in-trust status of its forage collections and related information by signing in 2006 an agreement with the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Access to this material supports current forage development while also providing a source of diversity for addressing diverse challenges in the future.Ensuring the forage collection is a part of a global crop registry through collating the information on the diversity and adaptive traits is another IPG dimension to this work.Given the prominent roles of livestock in so many agricultural production and marketing systems, our research necessitates working with diverse groups of partners in many diverse ways. As agriculture in the developing world intensifies in response to the increasing demand for food, integrated production of crop and livestock becomes an important livelihood strategy. Integrated crop-livestock production allows for an efficient use of resources in small-scale farms because it provides a means to use labor effectively and the byproducts of one activity are key inputs for the other. This is critical given natural resource limitations as well as greater climatic uncertainties. At the same time, demographic growth, urbanization and rising incomes are leading to a rapidly expanding demand for livestock products in developing countries, with the majority of the expected growth in production occurring in small scale crop-livestock farms. This trend, commonly referred to as the livestock revolution, provides opportunities for crop-livestock producers to generate income and improve their overall household livelihood, but also increases the pressure on their natural resources due to the need for producing livestock feed. Studies indicate that large-scale intensive industrial systems, which are also increasing in response to market demand, have a considerable impact on the environment, in particular through pollution of water and air and emission of gases to the atmosphere. Over recent years, the increasing demand for fuel has led to important changes in the objectives of agricultural production worldwide, in particular due to the growing industry of bio-fuels. Scientific knowledge, especially in the areas of genomics, has opened new avenues for technological change, while at the same time development and research systems have become more aware of the need for a better understanding of the innovation process.These dynamic changes in agriculture in relation to poverty, markets, scientific progress, environmental impact and industrial uses of crops call for appropriate policies, institutional support and technologies that increase farm productivity, enable crop-livestock producers to reap fully the benefits of participating in livestock markets and prevent the negative impact of agriculture on the environment. Such options are much more easily attained when International Centers and their partners combine in a research consortium approach to share organizational resources and to facilitate the cross-fertilization of ideas and experiences from one geographic area to another. This is the raison d'être of the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme (SLP). The Programme builds upon the expertise and investments of twelve CGIAR centers (CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRAF, ICRISAT, IFPRI, IITA, ILRI, IRRI, IWMI and WARDA) on food crops, natural resource management, policy, institutional analysis and livestock to create synergies and leverage the resources within the system to address the global research needs of small-scale crop-livestock farmers in a coherent and integrated manner. The SLP thus serves as a platform for networking and coordination and as a springboard for high priority and broadly cross-cutting research projects. Beyond its research programme, the SLP also serves as a system-wide focus for information and knowledge exchange on crop-livestock systems through its website http://www.vslp.org and joint publications.The proposed MTP for 2009-2011 for the SLP maintains the Programmes original focus on creating and exploiting synergies in croplivestock research and addressing feed and related natural resource management, policy and institutional issues. However, the balance of the project portfolio is evolving as the Programme seeks to understand better how livestock systems are changing in response to population growth, urbanization, livestock market economies and other external factors. There is an increased emphasis on land-and water-based solutions for the sustainable (ecological) intensification of small-scale farms, including initiatives addressing 87 bio-fuels, and their impact on livelihoods through improving food security and income opportunities.Over the past year, there have been some delays in the implementation of SLP activities due to the departure of the SLP coordinator in mid 2007. It has taken some time to recruit a new coordinator, who will be in post in September 2008. An interim SLP coordinator has been in place during this interim period and has supported the development of two strategic SLP studies implemented by crosscentre interdisciplinary teams. The first is on developing an analytical framework and assessing drivers of change in key croplivestock systems. The second is on the tradeoffs between food, feed and fuels in smallholder systems. These studies will inform SLP priorities and research programmes over the medium term from late 2008 early 2009. The programme has three major outputs, as highlighted in the following paragraphs, which may be modified based on the results of these on-going studies and discussions of how their implications will be implemented by the SLP and SLP members.Research priorities derived from a dynamic understanding of drivers of change in crop-livestock systems continues with ILRI playing a leading role and the substantial involvement of CIMMYT, CIAT, CIP, IFPRI, IWMI, ICRISAT, IITA, IRRI and their partners. Recognising the rapid transitions and challenges anticipated for crop-livestock systems, this research seeks to better understand the drivers of change and their likely impacts, for priority crop-livestock systems. The knowledge gained will serve to define and refine the research entry points and priorities set for the second and third years of this medium term. The research includes specific studies on strategic issues related to biofuel production and its trade-offs and the impact of the biofuel industry on small scale crop-livestock systems.Research led by ICRISAT, in partnership with ILRI, analyzing the potential role of sorghum in the bio-fuel industry will continue.Identifying technological, policy and institutional options for improving crop-livestock systems is addressed by research on staple crop improvement, institutional innovations for fodder and trade-offs in natural resource management. The research conducted by CIMMYT, ICARDA, ICRISAT, IITA, ILRI and their partners on improvement of staple crops as entry-point for improving feed supply in mixed farming systems has developed new approaches for genetic enhancement and dual purpose cultivars, especially in millet, sorghum, maize, and legume crops. As these results are expanded to crops such as rice and cassava through initiatives involving IRRI, WARDA, CIAT, ILRI and their partners, there is the need to address broader issues on the impact of these approaches and technologies on systems productivity, sustainability and livelihoods and the requirements for their effective use in innovation systems (included in the third output below) involving national and international research crop breeding programmes, seed releasing agencies and both private and public seed systems. During the previous MTP, this research was expanded to address the tradeoffs and synergies between the need for livestock feed and resource conservation following two lines of work. First, in systems characterized by low soil fertility, soil and animals compete for the nutrients contained in crop residues. In these systems CIAT, CIMMYT, ICRISAT, IITA, ILRI and their partners conduct research to assess the tradeoffs and synergies among animals, crops and soil in order to maximize the efficiency of nutrient use and to improve livelihoods. In the current MTP, complementary research will assess the tradeoffs and the impact of the competition between food, feed and energy, including biofuels. Second, in systems where water is the main constraint, the SLP will support work, led by IWMI with inputs from ILRI and ICRISAT and their partners, to minimize the competition for water between livestock and other uses and to maximize, at the farm and watershed level, the productivity of water in relation to feed and drinking needs of animals. During this MTP, these areas of research on trade-offs and improving the efficiency of utilization of natural resources will be further strengthened drawing on the strategic frameworks developed in 2008 -2009. The research led by ILRI and ICRISAT to address institutional and policy options to reduce vulnerability of more extensive systems -pastoral and agro-pastoral in Kenya and Niger will be concluded.Making available information on options for improvement of priority crop-livestock systems involving the poor recognizes that the development and successful adoption and use of feed technologies by smallholders require the synergies from a wide range of existing and new partnerships and delivery systems. Within the SLP, and with the support of DFID and IFAD, ILRI, ICRISAT, IITA, CIAT, ICARDA, ICRAF and their partners are conducting research aimed at enhancing the capacity of networks of organizations involved in rural development to respond to the needs for feed of small scale, poor farmers. Learning lessons about how diverse service providers (technologies, information services) can interact better to address the needs of the poor is central to this research. These lessons will be shared internationally and options will be sought for their application in a broader international context. As this research will be reaching completion before the end of this medium term, the SLP will increase its efforts to better inform policy and decision makers in the development and research domains to increase institutional capacity to meet the needs for information, technology and services of poor crop-livestock producers.As a whole, the SLP focuses on ways to reduce poverty in areas where small-scale crop-livestock production sustains the livelihoods or rural people. In doing so the SLP contributes to the CGIAR System Priority 3, reducing rural poverty through diversification and emerging opportunities for high value commodities and products, specifically priority 3b (income increases from livestock).The systems approaches to research on the production and utilization of food-feed crops applied in SLP contributes through the better definition of selection criteria to the CGIAR System Priority 2, producing more and better food at lower costs through genetic improvements, and more specifically priority 2a (maintaining and enhancing yields and yield potential of food staples).Research on livestock feed and natural resource use aims at developing approaches to increase productivity and farm income through the sustainable use of land, water and soil nutrients. In doing so it contributes to the CGIAR System Priority 4, poverty alleviation and sustainable management of water, land and forest resources, specifically priorities 4c (improving water productivity) and 4d (sustainable agro-ecological intensification in low-and high-potential areas).By understanding how private, public and civil institutions can interact better to develop effective feed innovation systems the SLP supports the CGIAR System Priority 5, Improving policies and facilitating institutional innovation to support sustainable reduction of poverty and hunger, specifically priority 5d (improving research and development options to reduce rural poverty and vulnerability).The increased focus of the Programme to better inform policy decision makers in the research and development systems contributes directly to Priority area 5 Improving policies and facilitating institutional innovation to support sustainable reduction of poverty and hunger, specifically priority 5d (improving research and development options to reduce rural poverty and vulnerability).The focus of the SLP for this medium term continues to be on drawing together synergies from different centres to address diverse challenges of crop-livestock systems. However, recognizing the rapid changes in such systems, the initial part of the period will focus on improving understanding of how livestock systems are changing in response to different drivers, and using such evaluation to identify priority entry points for research. There is an increasing emphasis on seeking solutions that address the need for sustainable management of natural resources (land and water) to facilitate the intensification of crop livestock systems including initiatives addressing bio-fuels, and their impact on livelihoods through improving food security and income opportunities. The project has three outputs, addressing the drivers of change (and providing context for future research), identification of technological, policy and institutional options to address the challenges of these changing systems, and the context of information synthesis and dissemination aspectsDescription: This research uses spatial and temporal modeling and geographical information systems that integrate data on demography, socio-economics, agro-ecologies and livestock and crop markets to analyze the dynamic evolution of crop-livestock systems in order to anticipate their development and research needs. Initial steps include the development of an analytical framework to facilitate evaluation of the drivers of change, and their likely impacts. This will then be built upon to identify research entry points which in turn will influence the future direction of the SLP research activities. The trade-offs in biomass use for crop, livestock and soil had already begun to feature in the SLP activities, including the demand for biomass for bio-fuel is a new dimension here and will be addressed through a strategic study of the impact of the bio-fuel industry on crop livestock systems. Both the drivers of change research, and the bio-fuel assessment will feature case studies as one dimension of their evaluation. Specific research on the use of sweet sorghum for bio-fuel and livestock feed with ICRISAT and ILRI will be implemented.Building on the comparative advantage of the skills and data sets in different centres, ILRI plays a leading role in the research on drivers of change together with the substantial involvement of CIMMYT, IFPRI, IWMI, ICRISAT and their partners. CIMMYT, together with CIAT, CIP, ICRISAT, IFPRI, IITA IWMI, IRRI, ILRI project 1 and partners have a significant role in the bio-fuel studies. Alignment to CGIAR Priorities: Countries of Planned Research:Description: Building upon previous research on specific aspects of food-feed crops, studies are underway to address the tradeoffs and synergies between the need for livestock feed and resource conservation. This includes research to identify options that enhance synergies and reduce negative trade offs between livestock and conservation agriculture, facilitated through projects in the Indo Gangetic Plains, West Africa and Central America. Specific options and recommendations arising from this research will be articulated during this MTP period.Research to identify entry points to improve synergies of water use in crop-livestock systems will be based initially on research in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, firstly providing information to develop datasets which relate the water and land requirements of feed production and then building upon these to develop a conceptual framework. This research aims at developing generic strategies and models of broad relevance and applicability to increase the productivity and sustainability of crop-livestock systems.One further aspect of technological, policy and institutional studies for natural resource management includes determining options that contribute to reducing the vulnerability of more extensive systems. The research led by ILRI and ICRISAT to address institutional and policy options to reduce vulnerability of pastoral and agro-pastoral societies in Kenya and Niger will be concluded with the documentation of options for policy makers.Research on trade offs and synergies between livestock and conservation agriculture is being conducted by CIAT, CIMMYT, ICRISAT, IITA, ILRI and their partners. Research funded by BMZ and implemented by IWMI, ICRISAT, ILRI and partners addresses livestock water productivity in crop-livestock systems. ILRI, ICRISAT and partners in Kenya and Niger are focused on the evaluation of options to reduce vulnerability in extensive systems.Alignment to CGIAR Priorities:Countries of Planned Research:Description: Research conducted to enhance the capacity of organizations to respond to diverse feed needs for crop livestock farmers will conclude during this MTP period, with the results from a number of countries will be drawn together to synthesis options for feed innovations to better inform policy and decision makers in the development and research domains to increase institutional capacity to meet the needs for information, technology and services of poor crop-livestock producers. Research here also seeks to build upon work conducted by the centres on food feed crops and forages to address the policy and institutional dimensions that are needed for effective dissemination of such technological options, in particular in the context of innovation systems involving national and international research crop breeding programmes, seed releasing agencies and both private and public seed systems. The lessons learnt and being further refined in India and Nigeria, will be tested and adapted in Ethiopia, Syria and Vietnam to understand how providers of technologies, information and services, including the private and official sectors and civil organizations, can interact better to address the needs of the poor. Recommendations arising from research on such options in Nigeria, India, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Syria will be articulated.Research on fodder innovations is conducted with the support of DFID and IFAD, through research led by ILRI, together with ICRISAT, IITA, CIAT, ICARDA, ICRAF and their partners.Alignment to CGIAR Priorities:Countries of Planned Research:Output 1: Research priorities derived from a dynamic understanding of drivers of change in crop-livestock systems By applying consortia-based approaches to create and exploit synergies in crop-livestock research, the immediate impact of the SLP is a CGIAR system partnership that is more effective in supporting the MDGs through international agriculture science. In this consortia based approach, SLP plays a critical role in the development of frameworks and models that can be applied by the partners to set priorities and assess interventions. This supports better targeted research and development investments and thus enhances the likelihood of these efforts having positive impacts on poverty alleviation and enhanced sustainability.Output 2: Technological, policy and institutional options for improving crop-livestock systems produced from research findings Working in a multi-disciplinary mode involving agro-forestry, crop, livestock, social and systems-analysis scientists, the SLP partners develop approaches to assess the role and value of crops, fodder trees and forages as feed resources. These approaches are applied in current crop breeding programmes in international and national research organizations to select cultivars with superior value in traits of economic importance as feed. At later stages in the research-development continuum, seed systems provide the mechanism to make the superior dual-purpose cultivars available to end users and beneficiaries. Potential tradeoffs among feed traits, food yields and the need for soil conservation in sustainable agricultural strategies are analyzed and used to develop tools to aid decision making.Strategies are developed to produce food, feed and energy through the sustainable use of land, water and soil nutrients. These strategies are translated into tools usable by national research and development partners as well as by policy/decision makers.Output 3: Information on options for improvement of priority crop-livestock systems involving the poor developed and made available to key decision makers The principles that underlie the functioning of successful feed innovation systems are understood by analyzing the ways in which networks of institutions involved in the use of feed technologies operate. These networks include associations of farmers and local communities, extension services, official and private enterprises involved in production and dissemination of seed, feed and related inputs, non-government organizations and policy/decision makers. As the principles that govern feed innovation systems are understood, opportunities to enhance the capacity of these networks are identified. It is hypothesized that the enhanced institutional capacity results in the provision of high quality feed-related services to poor crop-livestock producers and landless livestock keepers. The overall outcome of this research is international and national research systems, networks of service providers, development actors and policy makers that are better informed and more able and interact better to address the needs of small scale poor crop-livestock producers and their landless counterparts. This enhanced capacity of research and development systems is the mechanism that mediates scaling up and out the impact on poverty alleviation, food security and sustainable development.Lessons learned and knowledge generated with the SLP and other programmes are shared in a number of formats, both web-and print-based. The Programme website serves both as a mechanism to share research results, and as a system-wide source of information and knowledge on crop-livestock systems.The generic research approach followed by the SLP partners to ensure the delivery of IPGs includes specific actions at various levels in the research process: 1) The Programme conducts research on problems of broad relevance that prevail beyond national boundaries and regions; 2) The research partners use approaches and methods that allow for the results obtained to be of generic applicability. These methods generally involve trans-country and trans-regional analysis as well as synthesis of the problems investigated; 3) Research partners and stakeholders have specific roles determined by their complementary competencies ensuring multi-disciplinary inputs in the research activities. Generally, partners are located in several countries across geographical regions covering the spectrum of the conditions that define the research problem; 4) The results and outputs of the SLP are placed in the public domain making the research findings available to the international scientific and development communities; 5) Users of SLP outputs are targeted in countries, production systems and a diversity of market access situations covering a broad spectrum of conditions that determine the nature of the problem investigated .In 2007, WARDA joined CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRAF, ICRISAT, IFPRI, IITA, ILRI, IRRI and IWMI as a member of the SLP. The function of the twelve centers is three-fold. First, they collectively develop a global strategy and identify priorities for the Programme in a coherent manner across the CGIAR system. Second, they provide scientific inputs in their core areas of expertise in the development and implementation of specific research activities. Third, they provide supervision to research activities and serve as a bridge for the Programme to link with other SWPs, CPs, NARS and research organizations in developed countries. In addition to these functions, ILRI hosts the Programme, provides logistic and technical support to its Coordination office and acts as its legal representative to establish letters of agreement with partners and donors.All SLP projects are required to have a strong participation of NARS. These institutions, including decision makers, are key collaborators as they know best the realities of the countries where the activities are implemented and they are also the main target and elements of the change sought by the Programme. National institutions from Bangladesh, China, Ghana, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam and Zimbabwe participate in the current MTP. They link either through other CGIAR Programmes (for example RWC through CIMMYT and other partners, and the SSA-CP through IITA and ILRI) or directly with Centers for project design and implementation. The RWC plays a key role in activities in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, while the SSA-CP are involved in work in Northern Nigeria and Southern Niger. There are linkages with the Water and Food CP through collaboration with IWMI.SLP strives to involve more research organizations from developed countries in its projects: Hohenheim University (Germany) participates in a project on dual-purpose maize; the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (Denmark) participates in a project on livestock and soil conservation in West Africa; ETH contributes to research on the trade-offs between using legumes for soil enhancing or as animal feed resources in Central America; and, the University of Wisconsin (USA) participates in research to reduce vulnerability to droughts in agro-pastoral and pastoral systems in East and West Africa. These organizations ensure that the best of frontier science plays an important role in the Programmes projects. ","tokenCount":"18542"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"11befcafc09a2fb4c5a55c43c7b35ea0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/896422c1-5e4d-4c85-99cb-cca9b4cc6339/retrieve","id":"887053208"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b1554ed9-bbc3-485d-ad9c-e3ee42af85c9","pagecount":"55","content":"The publications in this series record the work and thinking of IWMI researchers, and knowledge that the Institute's scientific management feels is worthy of documenting. This series will ensure that scientific data and other information gathered or prepared as a part of the research work of the Institute are recorded and referenced. Working Papers could include project reports, case studies, conference or workshop proceedings, discussion papers or reports on progress of research, country-specific research reports, monographs, etc. Working Papers may be copublished, by IWMI and partner organizations.Although most of the reports are published by IWMI staff and their collaborators, we welcome contributions from others. Each report is reviewed internally by IWMI staff. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically (www.iwmi.org) and where possible all data and analyses will be available as separate downloadable files. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgment.IWMI's mission is to provide evidence-based solutions to sustainably manage water and land resources for food security, people's livelihoods and the environment. IWMI works in partnership with governments, civil society and the private sector to develop scalable agricultural water management solutions that have a tangible impact on poverty reduction, food security and ecosystem health.The authors: Fraser Sugden is a Researcher -Social Science at the Nepal Office of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Kathmandu, Nepal; Sanjiv de Silva is a Researcher -Institutions and Policy at the headquarters of IWMI in Colombo, Sri Lanka; Floriane Clement is a Researcher -Institutional and Policy Analysis at the Nepal Office of IWMI in Kathmandu, Nepal; Niki Maskey-Amatya is a Research Officer -Social Science at the Nepal Office of IWMI in Kathmandu, Nepal; Vidya Ramesh was a Senior Scientific Officer at the Hyderabad Office of IWMI in Andhra Pradesh, India, at the time this research study was conducted; Anil Philip is a Scientific Officer at the Hyderabad Office of IWMI in Andhra Pradesh, India; and Luna Bharati is a Senior Researcher -Hydrology and Water Resources, and Head of the Nepal Office of IWMI in Kathmandu, Nepal. Sugden, F.; de Silva, S.; Clement, F.; Maskey-Amatya, N.; Ramesh, V.; Philip, A.; Bharati, L. 2014. A framework to understand gender and structural vulnerability to climate change in the Ganges River Basin: lessons from Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 50p. (IWMI Working Paper 159). doi: 10.5337/2014.230 / climate change / adaptation / gender / river basins / economic aspects / income / microfinance / social structure / political aspects / labor / health hazards / risk management / waterborne diseases / natural disasters / education / living standards / poverty / households / agriculture / collective action / Bangladesh / India / Nepal /As the reality of climate change becomes accepted in the scientific community, it is critical to continue to understand its impact on the ground, particularly for communities dependent on agriculture and natural resources. To do so, the analysis of vulnerability -in other words, the capacity of communities to cope with the effects of change -is critical. An extension of this is the analysis of social structures, and how they shape patterns of vulnerability and the capacity for individuals or groups to adapt. This review presents a framework for understanding structural vulnerability to climate change in the Ganges River Basin countries-Nepal, India and Bangladesh -with a focus on the role of gender in shaping vulnerability. This paper reviews the extensive academic and 'gray' literature from the region to identify a set of key economic and social inequalities which shape how men and women are differently affected by climate change and their capacity to adapt.The impact of climate change in the Ganges River Basin is complex. With regard to agriculture, the most notable stress is the increased unpredictability of weather patterns. This includes extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and cyclones, not to mention more subtle changes related to the onset of the monsoon and the frequency of rainfall. An increase in temperature extremes is also a notable concern, affecting both winter and summer cropping. The impact has locally specific manifestations according to the geography. For example, falling water tables exacerbated by droughts is a concern in some parts of the Gangetic Plains; extreme events such as flooding or cyclones can lead to an increase in saline intrusion in the Ganges Delta, while they can cause more frequent landslides or other mass movements in the Himalayas.With regard to 'vulnerability' in the context of climatic stress, this paper takes a broadly social constructivist approach. In other words, vulnerability is not considered as a consequence of natural hazards alone. Instead, it is related to one's resilience and capacity to cope with, or adapt to, the context of natural hazards, a process which is intricately connected to social structures such as gender, class, caste and ethnicity.A first form of 'gendered' vulnerability to climate change relates to labor. In a region with highly inequitable gender division of labor, the workload of women can be increased by climate change. Women often play an important role in natural resource-based livelihood activities which fall within the sphere of reproduction such as the collection of fuelwood and water. Ecological changes such as salinity intrusion or changes in groundwater availability can force women to travel longer distances. There is often a class dimension, whereby women from wealthier households have their own resources such as tube wells in their homesteads, and thus their burden is less.A second reason why the gender division of labor is important for vulnerability is that women and men often have separate control over different income sources. If climate change undermines a particular livelihood activity, this may differentially impact men's or women's individual incomes. This impacts women in South Asia in particular, as the personal income they can control is often more limited than that of men. Gender norms which restrict their involvement in the public sphere in activities such as labor and trade mean that agriculture and natural resource-based livelihood activities often represent the primary sources of personal cash income. These activities are highly vulnerable to climate change.Gendered vulnerability can also emerge from more complex processes such as male outmigration, which is often a primary response to climate stress on agriculture for the most marginal cultivators. While the seasonal or permanent migration of male household members can increase women's control over income and household affairs, it can also increase their vulnerability to shocks. For example, women-headed households that have increased following male out-migration are viii particularly vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods, with the loss of family support networks. Similarly, their workload is often increased as they have to take on responsibilities of former male labor on the farm, particularly in poorer households that cannot afford to hire outside laborers.Climate change not only puts women under increased economic stress, but can also affect their welfare in other more complex ways. For example, women are more likely than their male counterparts to suffer in the period following natural disasters when, often, a larger number of females than males face fatalities. This can occur for multiple reasons including the fact that women often leave the homestead last, have less access to information and warnings, or face restrictions on entering public storm shelters. Similarly, during food crises which follow natural disasters, women often forgo an adequate diet to ensure that children and other family members remain well fed. The economic stress brought about by climate change and associated natural disasters has also been shown to increase cases of violence against women. This includes an increase in the trafficking of girls, as well as an increase in violence and harassment of women brought about by increased competition for resources both within the household, and between households.Another set of questions this review addresses relates to the capacity for households and individuals to adapt to climate change. In particular, women's capacity to adapt to climate stress has been shown to be more limited than men's, for multiple complex reasons. In South Asia, women face numerous legal and cultural barriers in owning or inheriting property. The tendency for land to be registered in the male name restricts women's bargaining power in the sale of the produce of their land, and women-owned holdings are often too small for many productivityenhancing or climate-smart technologies. Lack of land also restricts women's access to agricultural services (for which landownership papers are required), and renders them more dependent upon common-property-resource-dependent activities, such as livestock-rearing, which are often highly vulnerable to climate stress. A related challenge for women's adaptation to climate change is accessing finance, lower levels of education, and more restricted social networks and access to markets, all of which restrict their capacity to diversify into new livelihood activities.There are numerous state programs aimed at facilitating climate change adaptation at a local level including those oriented at disaster preparedness and improving the resilience of agriculture. However, the capacity of women to benefit from state resources or to contribute to local-level decision making is often limited. Even in the context of equal rights on paper, women often face discrimination due to entrenched cultural norms when policies are implemented. At the same time, national-level policies and practices often fail to account for the needs of women or value women's agroecological knowledge.Policy interventions to facilitate equitable climate change adaptation for both men and women include ensuring women's rights to land, making more effective use of microfinance through a more integrated approach. Other proposals include the promotion of collective action and cooperative structures amongst women, and the integration of indigenous knowledge into programs for adaptation to climate change. Underlying this is a need for bottom-up climate change adaptation planning, which understands local needs and knowledge, including those of both men and women. Programs and policies for adaptation of climate change will also be more effective if the roles of local institutions which provide incentives for collective action are better understood.It is also clear that gendered vulnerability to climate change intersects class inequalities. Addressing structural poverty at a much broader level clearly emerges as being a central condition for successful adaptation and mitigation, particularly given that women from poorer households are the most vulnerable to climate change. There is also a need for strong enabling policies and institutional mechanisms that embed a commitment to tackle gender equality across society. Legal and societal commitments to gender equality are essential so that poor women, their families and their communities are given the capacity to adapt to the adverse impact of climate change.A considerable focus of vulnerability research today is concerned with climate change. The Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007) states that due to increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, for the next two decades, a warming of about 0.2 °C per decade is projected. The rise in temperature will affect the hydrological cycle, which in turn will have an impact on rainfall and runoff patterns and the general availability of water. Furthermore, climate change has an effect not only on water resources, but also on agricultural production systems, forestry, fisheries, human settlements and health in many parts of the world. The South Asian region faces alarming environmental and socioeconomic challenges in its effort to protect valuable natural resources, and the uncertainty and risks associated with climate change are likely to exacerbate these challenges. Illness and malnutrition attributable to the global burden of climate change were already highest in South Asian countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar andNepal in 2000 (UNFCCC 2007). Across Asia up to one billion people could face critical water shortages, culminating in drought and land degradation by the 2050s (Cruz et al. 2007). An overwhelming body of scientific evidence now clearly indicates that climate change is a serious and urgent issue (Stern 2007).The IPCC defines vulnerability in the context of climate change as \"the degree, to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes\" (McCarthy et al. 2001: 6). However, it is crucial to note that vulnerability is intricately connected with existing social structures. This paper presents a framework for understanding vulnerability to climate change in the Ganges River Basin, focusing on Nepal, India and Bangladesh -with a focus on the role of gender in shaping vulnerability. While this by no means accounts for all of the social structures which lead to gendered patterns of vulnerability, this paper reviews the extensive academic and 'gray' literature from the region to identify a set of key economic and social inequalities which shape how men and women are differently affected by climate change, and their capacity to adapt to these stresses.The Ganges River Basin covers 981,371 km 2 shared by India, Nepal, China (Tibet) and Bangladesh, and is home to a population of 655 million. The basin is drained by the Ganges River and its tributaries. The Ganges River originates in Uttar Pradesh, India, and many important tributaries including the Mahakali, Gandak, Koshi and Karnali originate in Nepal and Tibet. The region is facing significant pressures of population and poverty, unregulated utilization of resources and low levels of productivity (Sharma et al. 2010).This review draws on literature from the countries in which much of the Ganges River Basin is situated -namely, Nepal, India and Bangladesh. Although it draws on literature from elsewhere the focus, where possible, is on studies within the Ganges River Basin itself. Having outlined the main climatic 'hazards' in the region, the study reviews the main intra-household social relations which differentiate men and women which have been identified from the literature, and explores the ways in which this has led to gendered patterns of vulnerability in the context of climate change. The next part of the paper looks at the different capacities of men and women to adapt to climate change as a result of these social structures, before outlining ways in which state and non-state actors can formulate effective policies to promote equitable adaptation strategies.Across the Ganges River Basin, there is large variation in the spatiotemporal distribution of water. The primary source of water is the summer monsoon (June to September) and snowmelt from the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal, China and Uttarkhand of India. The monsoon provides a significant proportion (67-92%) of the region's annual precipitation over a duration of just 4 months, which means this region has the highest seasonal concentration and variability of rainfall in the world (World Bank 2009). Water is plentiful during the monsoonal period and flooding may occur. In contrast, during the dry period between monsoons, areas become water-stressed and flows may be inadequate to supply irrigation demand, significantly reducing outflow to the Bay of Bengal (Nishat and Faisal 2000;Karim 2004;Majumder 2004;Islam and Gnauck 2007). During the dry months, ice and snowmelt from the region's mountains are of critical importance. Moreover, when monsoons are weak or delayed, water supply from melting ice and snow may limit or avert catastrophic drought (Barnett et al. 2005;Jianchu et al. 2007).The population density within the basin varies from less than two persons per square kilometer in the upper reaches of the Ganges in Nepal and China to more than 500 people per the same area downstream in parts of India's Bihar and West Bengal, as well as Bangladesh. However, with industrialization, urbanization and population growth rates of 1.5% in India, 1.6% in Nepal and 1.3% in Bangladesh, water and food demands will continue to increase in the coming decades (Hosterman et al. 2009).Future changes in air surface temperature and precipitation due to climate change are anticipated to affect monsoonal patterns and intensity, mountain ice and snowmelt and the variability of other climate and water systems (Hosterman et al. 2009). Recent studies report gradual widespread warming which is expected to increase temperatures by up to 2 °C in 2050 and 4 °C by 2100 (Moors et al. 2011). Furthermore, surface air warming has been recorded as being progressively greater at higher altitudes (Liu and Chen 2000;Moors et al. 2011). Increased warming at higher altitudes is predicted to result in earlier thawing of snow and ice, sublimation of snowpack and glacial water, and formation of glacial lakes which, as a result, will impact runoff and thus water availability (Hosterman et al. 2009).Annual total precipitation changes in the Ganges are still uncertain. Regional differences in future precipitation levels suggest a small decrease is more likely towards the western part of the Ganges River Basin by 2100, though with an increase towards the east (Moors et al. 2011). The variability of precipitation is reported to increase, particularly in terms of interannual variability of daily precipitation (Cruz et al. 2007). Furthermore, high seasonal concentration and variability of precipitation are predicted to increase the intensity and frequency of extreme events, with increased sediment erosion and flooding during wet spells, and droughts during dry spells (Trenberth et al. 2007;Bates et al. 2008;Hosterman et al. 2009;Moors et al. 2011).The literature on climate change from all three countries suggests that agriculture is the livelihood activity which is at risk by far the most owing to its vulnerability to multiple hazards that are likely to be aggravated by changing weather patterns. The potential future livelihoods impact can be observed by documenting the existing impact of climate-induced stress on agriculture in each of the three countries.As noted by the Bangladesh Parliament's All Party Group on Climate Change and Environment and the UK All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group ( 2009), almost two-thirds of the workforce in Bangladesh is employed in agriculture which itself accounts for about 20% of the country's GDP. Farming communities in Bangladesh remain some of the most vulnerable, with agriculture being affected by changes in temperature, rainfall and humidity, as well as hazards linked to its coastal location including storm surges and salinity intrusion (CCC 2009b).Flooding in Bangladesh causes extensive damage to crops, particularly for the spring and monsoonal rice crop. The prolonged flood of 1988 did not allow farmers to transplant on time, leading to a 45% loss in production (Karim et al. 1996). In the aftermath of flooding, cultivated land sometimes gets buried under sand (CCC 2006), decreasing soil productivity (WEDO 2008). Furthermore, increases in waterlogging and acidification related to changing precipitation patterns affect 0.7 million hectares (Mha) and 0.6 Mha of cropland, respectively, in the country (CCC 2007). An inadequacy of fodder due to waterlogging means livestock-rearing cannot be sustained, while homestead vegetable production also becomes difficult (CCC 2009a). Chadwick et al. (2001) note that the loss of land due to erosion is also a significant problem where communities are settled outside of polders along river banks.Aside from extreme precipitation events, annually, droughts in Bangladesh affect about 2.32 Mha of cropped land during Kharif (summer monsoon) and 1.2 Mha of such land during Rabi (winter) seasons (CCC 2007). Combined with increased spread of floodwaters and longer duration of flooding in the monsoon, and a reduction in Boro (spring) rice cultivation due to reduced availability of groundwater and surface water, the total area suitable for rice production may stagnate or possibly decrease in the future. Under a severe climate-change scenario associated with 60% moisture stress, yields of Boro rice might even reduce by 55 to 62% (CCC 2006).Irrigation is a widely used method to reduce drought risks; in the absence of rainfall, irrigation from surface water and groundwater sources prevents drought-related crop damage. However, constraints are emerging due to low flows in rivers during the pre-monsoonal months. In the southwestern parts of the country, due to a reduced flow regime in the Ganges-dependent areas, surface irrigation becomes extremely difficult (CCC 2006). CCC (2009b) claims that, other than in the low-flow season, available water resources are sufficient to meet present irrigation demand. However, over the next 25 years, due to the increase in the absolute size of Bangladesh's population, the per capita water availability will be progressively reduced. The annual per capita water availability in 2025 is estimated to become just 7,670 m 3 as compared to 12,162 m 3 in 1991 (Ahmad 2006).Salinity intrusion is a more acute problem in the coastal region, and this is expected to have an extra bearing on agriculture and the availability of potable water, especially in the winter months. In the absence of sufficient rainfall, the soil in the coastal areas starts to desiccate, and because of capillary actions salt rises up at the surface of the soil and accumulates at the root zones (CCC 2009b). The salinity conditions in the coastal areas are also exacerbated by reduced dry-season freshwater supplies from upstream sources, and saline water intrusion due to sea-level rise (CCC 2009b). The rise of sea-level along the southwestern region is likely to cause areas suitable for monsoonal paddy production to decrease significantly in the years to come. Salinity problems are often intensified when high spring tides inundate low-lying coastal areas, especially when they are associated with cyclonic storm surges. Many of the crop varieties, especially those of food grain varieties, are not salinity-tolerant. As a result, a large extent of land in the coastal districts is already unsuitable for a number of crops.Aquaculture in fishponds is an important livelihood in Bangladesh. It is already known that climate change would increase the extent of monsoonal flooding. Therefore, the potential threat to culture fisheries would also increase under climate change (CCC 2006). Cyclones and saline water have caused ghers (shrimp ponds) to be damaged and fish to die.The agriculture sector represents 35% of India's GNP and sustains the livelihoods of nearly 75% of the population (GoI 2004;Scott 2008). This sector is also highly dependent on the southwest monsoon (June-September), and 60% of the crop area is under rain-fed agriculture which is therefore highly vulnerable to climate variability and change (GoI 2004;Scott 2008).The Ganges River Basin in India includes some of the most populated and agriculturedependent regions of the country, in particular the plains states of West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In these states the combined pressures of climate change and population growth are likely to have a significant impact on agriculture in the years to come. Unlike Bangladesh, salinity intrusion and cyclones are not present to the same degree in the Indian section of the Ganges River Basin. Nevertheless, large parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are drought-prone, and floods occur with regularity along the main rivers. Any increased variability in precipitation is going to put severe pressure on agricultural production. In over 50 years there have been 15 major droughts in India (Mall et al. 2006). In 1987, there was a severe drought which caused a decrease in food production by 3%. A more recent example occurred during 2002-2003, when there was a 19% decline in the annual summer monsoon leading to an 18% decline in food grain production. The grain production during the drought of 2002-03 decreased to 174.19 million tons (Mt) from a record level of 212.02 Mt in 2001-02 (Mall et al. 2006). Similarly, increased incidences of flooding will increase soil erosion, increase the rate of sedimentation in rivers and reservoirs, and shorten the life span of dams which provide irrigation water (Mall et al. 2006).As with Bangladesh, rising population will reduce the scope for irrigation to cope with changes in precipitation. An integrated vegetation and hydrology model estimated that the water demand for irrigation in the context of both climate change and rising population would increase from 383 to 953 km 3 /yr. This is reportedly 2.5 times higher than the scenarios of the 2008-2011 period (Rost et al. 2008;Fader et al. 2010;Biemans et al. 2011). However, the available surface water and reservoirs cannot meet the demand. Most of the additional supply should come from other sources such as groundwater or interbasin transfers. Total crop production could grow by up to 90% if all the crops are fully irrigated (Paroda and Kumar 2000;Moors et al. 2011). However, intensification of agriculture and industrial development affect the quantity and quality of both groundwater and surface water.A decline of the groundwater table has been observed in many parts in the Ganges River Basin. Between 1994 and 2005 the average rate of decline was about 0.15 m/year in the western Gangetic Plains and in some places it was as high as 0.35-0.4 m/year (Samadder et al. 2011). Based on satellite data, Rodell et al. (2009) estimated a depletion rate of the groundwater aquifer by 0.04±0.01 m/year between 2002 and 2008. They attributed this to increased tube well irrigation and other anthropogenic uses. Even in areas where the groundwater is underutilized, such as the eastern Gangetic Plains, it is poorly developed due to low rural electrification, high prices for diesel fuel, and tiny and scattered landholdings (Shah 2007;Sugden et al. Forthcoming).Other climate-change-induced hazards which affect agriculture in the Gangetic Plains of India include abnormal temperatures and humidity which affect crop productivity, and the incidence of pest infestation and epidemics. Pathak et al. (2003) note also that the negative trends in solar radiation and an increase in minimum temperature result in falling yields of rice and wheat across India's Gangetic Plains. A Wheat Growth Simulator model identified that a temperature increase in January results in a decline in wheat yield (Hussain et al. 2005). For every increase in mean temperature, there is a decline in grain yield by 428 kg/ha (Hussain et al. 2005). With increase in temperature, pest activity can increase as its hibernation is delayed. Similarly, during severe winters the plant's defensive systems are lowered and they become susceptible to pest attacks (Hussain et al. 2005).Out of the three countries, Nepal -which lies entirely within the Ganges River Basin -remains the most dependent on agriculture, with over 80% of the population dependent on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods (World Bank 2009). The risk analysis organization, Maplecroft, ranked Nepal as the fourth most vulnerable country in the world based on 2010 vulnerability assessment and mapping of climate change in vulnerable countries (Maplecroft 2012). Climate change projections predict an increase in precipitation extremes such as floods and droughts, having wide-ranging consequences (Karki et al. 2009;NPC 2010). Communities are vulnerable to the same drought and flooding events which affect communities to the south in northern India. In 2008, the Koshi River floods displaced thousands in the lowlands, and inundated large areas of farmland, while in 2009, Nepal recovered from a severe drought, the worst in 40 years. Although groundwater depletion is not as severe a problem as in some parts of the Gangetic Plains further west, as in India, there remain socioeconomic constraints to accessing groundwater to cope with droughts (Bhandari and Pandey 2006).In the hills, there are an additional set of hazards including landslides and other mass movements (Karki et al. 2009;NPC 2010) which are likely to increase with a rise in extreme precipitation events, causing considerable damage to land and property. In the mountains, declining snowfall due to rising temperatures affects seasonal water availability at higher altitudes, while also increasing the rate of glacier retreat. Reductions in water availability due to reduced glacial storage are also likely to change the hydrological flow regimes not only of Nepal's major rivers, but across the entire Ganges River Basin, reducing what is available for agriculture downstream (Webersik and Thapa 2008;Karki et al. 2009).The concept of vulnerability has multiple definitions, but in general it refers to a tool to measure the extent to which a system or population is susceptible to harm (Adger 2006: 6). The study of vulnerability usually has the aim of identifying means through which well-being can be enhanced through reducing risk and promoting resilience (Adger 2006). Ribot (2010) distinguishes two approaches to analyze vulnerability: the risk-hazard and social constructivist frameworks.This tends to understand vulnerability as multiple outcomes of one biophysical event (as an impact analysis), as a \"dose-response relation between an exogenous hazard to a system and its adverse effects\" (Fussel and Klein 2006: 305).This seeks to explain vulnerability as due to multiple causes. The focus is on lack of entitlements. Entitlements are a key concept in Sen's analysis of vulnerability to hunger and famine. Entitlements are the rights and opportunities people own or claim to command different commodity bundles (Dreze and Sen 1991). In a vulnerability analysis, one can consider how assets are sufficient to cope with climate-induced stresses and shocks. The concept of entitlements is similar to that of 'assets' which is utilized in the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. A central methodology of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach is to examine the different types of 'livelihood resources' or 'assets' available to households or individuals (e.g., economic, physical, social), which in turn affect vulnerability to shocks (Scoones 1998;Moser 1998).The integrative frameworks, which this analysis will utilize have expanded on the social constructivist framework, and vulnerability is viewed as resulting from a combination of biophysical and social factors. These frameworks bring together the different approaches. Adger (2006) uses the concept of a social-ecological system which suggests that social and natural structures are interrelated, and that distinctions between the two are arbitrary. Using an integrative framework Bohle et al. (1994) identified the three following components to vulnerability: a. Risk of exposure to crises, stresses and shocks (e.g., drought, flood, unpredictability of rainfall, etc.).b. Risk of inadequate capacities (e.g., lack of entitlements/assets) to cope with stresses, crises and shocks.c. Risk of severe consequences of crises, risks and shocks.This study will explore how vulnerability is induced by the livelihood resources or assets one has at his or her disposal in the context of biophysical hazards induced by climate changethese include access to land, finance, natural resources, social networks and human capital such as education. While this draws on the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach, Scoones (2009) argues that the original framework must be expanded to acknowledge the structural bases of power. In other words, analysis of assets is not sufficient unless one understands what structures access to assets and services. Such an approach, grounded in political economy, requires an engagement with the entrenched social structures which mediate access to different livelihood resources in given contexts. Little (1991) defines a structure as a feature of a social system that persists over an extended period of time, whose properties are independent of the particular persons who take up roles within it. Social structures can be imbued with power relations grounded in class, religion, ethnicity or gender. The focus of this paper is to identify the social structures which shape access to assets in the context of climate change, and affect patterns of vulnerability and resilience. Agrawal (2008) emphasizes that structural and group characteristics such as gender, caste, race, age, ethnic affiliation, and indigineity, even when they are not consistent predictors, are often closely related with vulnerability. The sensitivity and vulnerability of different groups to climate impacts vary enormously depending on their institutional links, material endowments, occupational patterns and asset portfolios, and social networks. Especially important in this context is the role of institutions which mediate individual and group access to assets and services. This study reviews the extensive literature to identify gendered social structures, and how these shape patterns of vulnerability.One of the most significant means through which gender structures vulnerability is associated with the distinct intra-household division of labor in Nepal, Bangladesh and India. The gendered division of labor refers to the system through which work is divided between men and women. A division of labor in the greater part of the world, whereby women bear the burden of both productive and reproductive tasks but do not retain an equal share of household income, has been well documented (Deere and de-Janvry 1979;Benholtd-Thomson 1982;Deere and Leon de Leal 1982;Folbre 1982;Gibson-Graham 1996;Agarwal 1998;Gibson-Graham et al. 2001). In other words, women bear disproportionate responsibility for activities such as child-rearing, food preparation, and meeting the households' water and fuel needs, while having to simultaneously work on the farm alongside their male counterparts. They are not however, able to control the income from the farm in proportion to the input of their labor.In rural Nepal, a significant 'reproductive' labor burden is collecting water, a phenomenon aggravated by the rugged geography. Studies have shown how women in Nepal contribute up to 70% of the labor required for water management, with up to 30% of their daily labor time being taken up collecting water (WfWP 2004). In a study from three villages in western Nepal, it was found that women work up to 18 hours a day (collecting fuel, fodder and water), 1 while men normally work up to 13 hours (plowing fields and herding) (Regmi and Fawcett 1999). In 'leisure' hours, women knit, weave and sew (activities within the domain of reproduction), while men were found to spend their leisure time drinking and playing cards. In all the communities interviewed, the women reported that they used to collect water four to five times a day, totaling 80 liters per family per day (Regmi and Fawcett 1999).Gendered labor contributions in India and Bangladesh are no less skewed (Upadhya 2004;Sultana 2009). In a common household in rural Bangladesh a woman is expected to maintain hygiene, ensure water supply, collect fuelwood, cook for the family, care for children, the sick, and the elderly, undertake the burden of post-processing of all agricultural produce, raise poultry, and maintain a courtyard vegetable garden. Reproductive responsibilities in particular are considered unmasculine. For instance, men rarely participate in fetching domestic water (drinking, cooking) as that is deemed a feminine task for younger women and girls (Sultana 2009). Also in Bangladesh, women and girls have been found to walk 2 to 5 hours a day to collect water (Crow and Sultana 2002).Leaving aside 'reproductive responsibilities,' in many contexts women perform more agricultural labor than men in the first place. Women have been found to be responsible for a significant 75% of household food production in sub-Saharan Africa, 65% in Asia and 45% in Latin America (Stoparic 2006). A research report undertaken by ICIMOD ( 2008) noted that, in India, women carry out 4.6 to 5.7 times the agricultural work of men, while in Nepal, the corresponding figure is 6.3 to 6.6. According to Venkateswaran (1995: 20), women in India are estimated to contribute, on average, from 55 to 60% of the total labor of farm production.While it has been established that an unequal division of labor exists, how does this affect vulnerability to climate change? Firstly, a number of studies have shown how a changing climate can increase the already high labor burden for women. When one considers the time already taken for women to collect water, increased water scarcities in the future may mean women and girls have to spend more time on this already arduous task. This decreases the opportunities for girls to attend school or invest time and labor in other income-generating activities (Cap-Net et al. 2006). In Bangladesh, it has been shown how the severe disruption of local freshwater sources following floods, cyclones and saline intrusion has created an acute crisis for households. However, it is up to women, irrespective of their physical condition, to provide drinking water for their families. Women in Bangladesh need to walk long distances, sometimes up to 10 kilometers every day over rough terrain, in search of water. This consumes an enormous amount of their time and effort (WEDO 2008). In saline-and drought-prone regions for instance, women have to find extra time to combat the impacts of salinity on availability of potable water and fuelwood, to avoid having their husbands complain about delays in serving food, often leading to physical assault of the wives (CCC 2009a). As availability of these natural resources declines, women have to walk longer distances to collect them. Similar findings were evident in Upadhya's (2004) study from North Gujarat in India. During periods of water scarcity, women often have to walk for up to 2 hours a day to wells in neighboring villages, reducing the time they have for other livelihood activities. This also applies to livestockrearing, a productive task in which women bear a disproportionate responsibility. Women often have to travel to distant areas to locate water for their herds.Women are regularly compelled to make trade-offs in order to balance their multiple chores. Crow and Sultana (2002) reveal that access to higher-quality water might have to be forgone, for example, in order that children can be kept safe or other household chores can be completed on time -increasing the vulnerability of the household as a whole. With regard to Nepal, it has been argued that responsibility to take care of the family increases with declining water availability, jeopardizing women's opportunities to work outside the home or attend school (Mitchel et al. 2007;FAO 2007).The burden of collecting fuelwood has also increased for women in the context of ecological change. In developing countries, rural women depend on fuelwood as an energy source to cook food for the family and they spend more time collecting this resource than men or urban dwellers (WEN 2010;FAO 2011). In the hill villages of Nepal, women perform 82% of the fuelwood collection work, yet with climate change forest productivity is impacted, reducing the availability of fuelwood and increasing the workload of women (WEN 2010).The workload of women has also been shown to increase in the context of natural disasters induced by climate change. For example, following flooding in Bangladesh, day-to-day tasks such as cooking become more time-consuming as rising water levels compel women to raise their stoves or go to neighbors' houses to prepare food. There is also an increase in tasks such as cleaning and maintaining the house following a flooding event (World Bank 2010). In the absence of agriculture, many people in the waterlogged areas cannot easily provide fodder for their cattle, and women have to go to distant places to gather grass. In marginal land such as chars (river islands) and river embankments, with rising water levels in adjacent rivers, women tend to take responsibility for a significant part of the relocation work (CCC 2009a).While it is clear from the examples above that climate change can lead to an increased work burden for women, this also varies considerably according to other axes of inequality -most notably caste and class relations. For example, while the number of labor hours required to collect water has increased due to climate change, wealthier households often have a reduced burden due to favorable access to year-round water sources such as tube wells. In a study of three villages in the western Nepal Tarai (southern plain land) it is shown how women from the lower caste Mallah community often have to travel much further to collect water from tube wells than their higher caste counterparts who would only need to travel 5 to 10 minutes. This is because the husbands of the better-off farmers have been able to influence the installation of tube wells so that they could be close to their homes (Regmi and Fawcett 1999). Similar findings are evident in Bangladesh. Sultana (2009) notes that while women in wealthier households may be powerless within their own families, they may at least have access to the privately owned tube wells of their families (and thus with easier access to water). Similarly, when women are members of a landowning or powerful family, they are generally able to command some control over the women in sharecropping, agricultural laboring, or poorer/dependent families, in helping them fetch safe water (Sultana 2009). Similar findings were evident in the tidal belt where a few members of the Rakhaine tribal community of that village had no source of safe water supply, unlike their Bengali counterparts, meaning girls had to walk long distances to fetch water (World Bank 2010).Varying cultural norms between differentially situated households, combined with economic realities can also amplify differences between women. In Bangladesh, Sultana (2009) finds that while some women exercise their limited agencies in a variety of ways, it would appear that the majority of women have internalized certain norms of female behavior. These are grounded in their understandings of what it means to be a good mother, daughter or wife. In this context, it is a sign of family honor to be able to keep daughters-in-law within the house and its vicinity and not subject them to public visibility (Sultana 2009). The sentiments of wealthier households were stronger on this front, resulting in a reduced workload for tasks such as fetching water (Sultana 2009). Khondker (1996) suggests that economic necessities are rapidly eroding values of female honor, especially amongst poorer women who have little option but to engage with society to secure increasingly scarce resources such as potable water. In contrast, women from wealthier classes who employ laborers have the option of paying others to procure such resources. Therefore, the impact of values regarding sex segregation is not uniform across classes and appears in such instances to have an inverse influence on gender equality.A second reason for the importance of the gender division of labor is that women and men often have separate control over different income sources. If climate change undermines a particular livelihood activity, this may differentially impact men's or women's individual income sources. This impacts women in South Asia in particular, as the sources of personal income they can control are often more limited than those of men.First, in the sphere of nonfarm labor, women often receive less pay than male counterparts, ranging from 57 to 79% of men's salaries in Nepal, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, putting them again at a disadvantage when it comes to financial resources and buffers to cope with climate change and disasters (CBS 2009;FAO 2011). A case study from Dolakha in Nepal found discrimination in wage structure in three enterprises studied -even though women had higher proportional representation in the decision-making body than men (Acharya 2009).Second, and perhaps most significantly, women often have far more limited engagement in the public sphere, limiting their income-generating opportunities. In Bangladesh in particular, gender plays a central role in the organization of social structures and norms through the differentiation of rights and responsibilities of the individual within his or her personal space, the family and household, and society at large. This combines with the influence of the tradition of purdah or separation of women from men (Lönnqvist et al. 2010) that defines and enforces rules of feminine \"modesty\" with respect to their dress, behavior and activities within and outside the household (Sultana 2009). Although less pronounced in Nepal and India, gender ideologies still limit women's involvement in the public sphere. In Nepal for example, men are traditionally more engaged in livelihood activities which are commercial and in the public domain, while women play a disproportionate role in livelihood activities which do not involve market engagement (Saxena 2011). Nellemann et al. (2011) point out that much of the labor performed by women in rural Nepal is unpaid, casual in nature and restricted to the home and farm and thus receives no economic recognition.One consequence is that women often have fewer opportunities to labor for cash outside the household. More significant perhaps though is that women often have limited control over agricultural income. Women in India, as in most countries, perform the greatest share of agricultural labor, yet they often have little control over the product of their labor (Agarwal 1998). In Upadhya's (2004) study from Gujarat, women are shown to be heavily involved in agricultural activities such as sowing, weeding and harvesting, while men bear a greater responsibility for the marketing of produce -and this income is controlled entirely by men. Even with regard to livestock, drawing from data in Nepal, Table 1 shows that while women are often involved in tending livestock, men are more often in charge of selling and buying. Nevertheless, livestock remains an important asset for women in Nepal, particularly when they do not own land (IFAD et al. 2009;Nellemann et al. 2011).Bearing in mind that women have more limited income sources, particularly with regard to controlling what is earned from crop sales, how does this differentially affect their vulnerability to climate change? On one level, in the first instance, the loss of cereal-producing agricultural land due to natural disasters will directly affect men who are almost always the owners or lessees of agricultural land and the primary beneficiaries from the labor demand and income derived from agriculture. However, men are more likely to have alternative income sources, while for women, vegetable production and home gardens combined with rearing livestock are often their core sources of income (WEDO 2008). Livestock activities, in particular, such as dairy production, are often one of the few income streams that women control, as Upadhya (2004) shows with regard to Gujarat. Any adverse impact of climate change on these activities alongside cereal production is likely to disproportionately affect women. In Bangladesh, vegetable production is frequently undermined by waterlogging, acidification, inundation and salinity intrusion. This causes a direct dent in women's income and undermines their ability to provide food for their families (CCC 2009a). Also a large number of livestock deaths occur in cyclonic storm surges (World Bank 2010). Following flooding, it is more difficult for women to collect fodder for livestock, and disruption to travel means that veterinarians cannot visit villages, and local people cannot easily procure medicines for their animals (WEDO 2008).Aside from the risks that climate change poses for agriculture-based activities women depend on, the degradation of common property resources also disproportionately affects women's access to income. The role of common property and open-access resources are integral to the food security of poorer rural households, livelihoods and coping strategies in Bangladesh, Nepal and India (Rahman et al. 2007). Beck and Ghosh (2000) argue, for example, that 12-13% of poor people's income in India is derived from common property resources, but that within these land-poor communities, 70-78% of the resource-harvesting activities are in the women's domain. Resource harvesting from communal ecosystems are often one of the few sources of cash women can personally control (Agarwal 1998). In this context, the degradation of wetland, forest and river ecosystems often disproportionately affects women.Despite this, it is worth noting that even when women are able to directly earn income themselves, this does not necessarily mean they will control it. For instance, Kelkar (2009) suggests that the proportion of women who are not able to retain their earned income in Bangladesh is over 40%. This is in addition to the fact that rural women's average wages are only 60% of those of men (ADB 2010).Climate change has accentuated migration in many areas of Gangetic Plains. First, people migrate from their homes in response to rapid onset of disasters like flooding or landslides or, slow onset disasters like drought and land degradation which affect their access to basic needs such as food and water (WEN 2010). It has been estimated that by 2050 around 150 million people (Myers 1993; Stern 2007), will be displaced permanently by climate-related phenomena such as droughts, floods and hurricanes (Stern 2007).It is important to note that permanent migration is triggered by a combination of social and environmental factors (Kraler et al. 2011). In Nepal, the overall impact of climate change on migration is difficult to predict because the latter is highly variable due to varying political, social and economic structures at the local level (Boano et al. 2008). A study conducted in the Chitwan Valley of Nepal showed that environmental factors do not appear to significantly affect the migratory behavior of better-off high-caste Hindus. The latter's migration choice is instead shaped by human capital, social capital, and demographic factors (Massey et al. 2007). The same study showed that the odds of undertaking a local move are 31% greater for lower-caste Hindu and non-Hindu groups when they perceive agricultural productivity to be declining, and the odds of moving locally rise by 10% for these groups with each additional 100 minutes required to gather fuelwood.Similarly, the causes of migration in Bangladesh vary according to location and social factors. In a study based in nine different locations in Bangladesh, Ahmad (2012) reports that of those households reporting migration, only 6% had members who migrated permanently, and over 60% migrated for livelihood reasons, while 14% migrated because of climatic hazards. These ratios are however quite different in the coastal areas. For example, the rapid growth of Khulna (coastal southwest) as an urban center is attributed to people being forced to migrate in search of alternative livelihoods from rural coastal areas by climate-related disasters (IDS 2011).Out-migration is a coping strategy adopted by both men and women but there are significant gender outcomes. Ahmad (2012) reports that in the past decade, an average of 77% men compared to 23% women have migrated from nine study areas in Bangladesh. Therefore, women-headed households have become an important part of the rural economy. They are estimated to form between 15 (Mitchel et al. 2007) and 20-30% of households in Bangladesh (ADB 2010). This may be of a temporary nature (seasonal male migration) or permanent if the husbands go outside the area for employment and never come back (CCC 2009a), or have died during a climate disaster.In general, men are known to migrate to nearby areas and work as agricultural or other laborers, while women migrate to large cities, because there are limited economic opportunities for them in rural areas (Ahmad 2012). In the coastal zone of Bangladesh, besides lifetime migration, people also resort to seasonal migration to seek employment and for other reasons. Male workers stay for longer periods (averaging 74 days) than female workers (14 days). Murshid and Yasmeen (2004) believe, however, that female migration is likely to increase because poverty, natural disasters and mobility are correlated. The frequent cyclones make coastal women particularly vulnerable. Impoverished women increasingly seek jobs outside their homes. In these contexts the challenge is much greater than that of men as it contests the 'nonmobile' construction of women's role in society.A notable trend in Bangladesh is the large number of young single women migrating to urban centers (Ahmad 2012). The same author indicates that poor migrants are not able to escape climate variability as they live in city slums located in lower-lying areas. This is likely to be the case especially for women. As observed by the Women's Environmental Network (WEN 2010), the prospects for many women who do migrate are hampered by their limited skills (besides farming) and educational levels, and they struggle to adapt to a radically different situation, having left their community and other assets behind. ADB (2010) confirms that the proportion of women is increasing and women now predominate among migrants of ages 15-25, and suggests that such migration flows will contribute to larger patterns of social change.In Nepal, women primarily migrate within Nepal (Table 2).Women formed only 11% of the total population of over 762,000 out-migrating from Nepal in 2001/02 (CBS 2001), a figure which has risen significantly in recent years. As overseas migrants are the majority, the proportion of female-headed households has steadily increased from 13.6% in 1995/96 to 19.6% in the 2003/2004 Nepal Living Standards Survey and 26.6% in the 2010/2011 survey, a phenomenon particularly acute in rural areas (Table 3). This results in new forms of vulnerability which will be discussed in the next section.  Migration may lead to growing insecurity and instability in the regions of origin, transit and destination, due to increased competition over resources such as water and land. Moreover, a deterioration of state capacity under the stress of climate change could lead to an increase in social disorder and instability. Ansorg and Donnelly (2008) note the sizeable role played by both intra-country and cross-border migration in Bangladesh. They show that sociopolitical pressures are increasing as more and more people migrate due to more frequent flooding, rising water salinity and inundation of land. Saul (2012) cites the intense competition over 'free' but scarce khas (state-owned land). This has led to tensions and violence between migrants themselves, as well as between migrants and local communities. This includes local gangs seeking to charge rent on such lands. The impact of migration can have a selective effect according to gender and other axes of differentiation. Male out-migration may result in increased workloads for the women left behind and barriers for accessing services like healthcare and relief (Zahur 2009;Kraler et al. 2011). Female-headed households are particularly vulnerable. Clearly, the burdens placed on such women will be greater than normal as women will be required to assume the roles played by their husbands, especially of primary income earners. Over 95% of female-headed households in Bangladesh are below the poverty line, underlining the acute vulnerability of this significant subset of women. Female-headed households tend to suffer more frequently from food insecurity, and their livelihoods and coping capacities are constrained by low education, poor skills, and low earning ability. Many of these households also consist of women who have been divorced or widowed, and who are culturally discouraged from remarrying. These women are forced to engage in income-generating activities outside the home for their survival, but generally earn less than their male counterparts (Islam 2011). The same author gives the example of women working in fisheries in the Sunderbans where they are usually paid 70% of the wage that men earn for doing the same job. In India, men's migration was also reported to increase gendered vulnerability by leaving women, who have fewer resources, to take control of agriculture (Alston 2006). Raihan et al. (2010) found that while the men are away, women left behind have to often borrow money at high interest rates to buy food. Any money saved is often only enough to pay back the debt. Sometimes people borrow money to get through the lean period by selling labor to the large landowners in advance, although the price for labor sold in advance is only 50% of the price in the agricultural season. Many women are thus caught up in a vicious circle of debt, having to take out a new loan to pay off the old one. In tidal flood-prone areas, men usually stay near the sea for fishing for months, leaving the women in the villages. World Bank (2010) found that social insecurity is high as theft increases and women become susceptible to harassment by other men. An interesting finding is that, in order to ensure that their wives do not become disloyal to them behind their backs, the men usually feel more comfortable leaving their wives behind when they are pregnant.A report by the CCC (2009a) notes that members of women-headed households are concerned with loss of homesteads, loss of housing for months and years, physical insecurity, the loss of self-as well as family-esteem, lack of both production opportunities and food security in the aftermath of climate events. When men are away, the onus of household well-being falls on the relatively under-empowered women. Masika (2002) however questions this widely held view that male out-migration (or death) makes women more vulnerable because in some instances male migration can give women greater decision-making powers, and open up new livelihood possibilities for them. Even with regard to female migrants themselves, Ahmad (2012) found that migrants in Bangladesh, especially women, have greater access to economic opportunities and markets compared to those in rural areas despite being disadvantaged by poor education and illiteracy. Despite this, migrants' earning capacity increases in urban areas, increasing their potential to acquire assets and capital.It is important also to note the inter-sectionality of gender with class and caste when looking at the levels and impact of male out-migration. In a study from Chitwan in Nepal, the role of falling agricultural productivity on encouraging local and distant out-migration was confined to lower-caste Hindu and non-Hindu groups suggesting that caste privilege may protect people from the negative effects of environmental deterioration (Massey et al. 2007). This shows women's vulnerability is rooted in multiple mechanisms.A recent study from the World Health Organization assessed gender inequality in life expectancy, comparing shortfalls in longevity for males and females with their respective biological maxima. It revealed large differences between shortfall inequalities of women and men in low-income countries as well as large shortfall inequalities in life expectancy among women in low-income countries (Hosseinpoor et al. 2012). Worldwide, on average, women's life expectancy is 4.69 years higher than that of men. In Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, the relationship is opposite, a phenomenon which has commonly been attributed to the traditional cultural bias against females in these countries (Neumayer and Plumper 2007).South Asia is also characterized by imbalanced sex ratios. Fikree and Pasha (2004) argue that discrimination at each stage of a woman's life contributes to this imbalance, ranging from selective abortions, neglect of daughters, and poor access to health care for girls and women. This reflects how women in South Asia are more vulnerable than men in terms of health. The following sections examine to what extent such vulnerability intersects with health risks induced by climate change.There is ample evidence that during natural disasters, women and girls are more prone to mortality compared to men and boys. Statistics from Nepal and Bangladesh are compelling. In Nepal, flood-related fatalities were found to be significantly higher according to gender and age. One study recorded them at 13.3 per 1,000 for girls (aged between 2 and 9 years), 9.4 per 1,000 for boys of the same ages, 6.1 per 1,000 for adult women and a much lower 4.1 per 1,000 for adult men (WHO 2005;Bartlett 2008). In cyclone-prone areas in Bangladesh, it was found that most casualties of cyclone Aila were women (World Bank 2010). The mortality rates of females in flood-, drought-and salinity-prone areas in Bangladesh were 33, 42 and 25%, respectively. In contrast, the mortality rate of men in both flood-and salinity-prone areas was only 17% of the total (Rabbani et al. 2009).The causes of this difference are complex. Studies from Bangladesh and Nepal have suggested that, in the case of natural disasters, women are more susceptible to injuries and death than men because they do not get information in time (World Bank 2010). Furthermore, after disasters, poor and low-caste women who have less access to public space due to domestic responsibilities, also face difficulties accessing assistance and information extended in the time of disasters (Dhungel and Ojha 2012). The traditional gender division of labor was also found to impact men's and women's vulnerability to natural disasters. In India, it is reported that during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, many women were waiting at the seashore for the fishermen to arrive home (Oxfam International 2005) and as a result more women were hit by the waves, which had their most fatal impact when reaching the coast.Women's vulnerability during disasters however, intersects with their socioeconomic and class status with women from poorer households more vulnerable than their better-off counterparts (Neumayer and Plumper 2007). For instance, better-off households in Bangladesh often have bricked or semi-bricked houses which are more resistant to floods, therefore minimizing the loss of lives and assets. The better-off can also afford to avoid living in disaster-prone areas, and due to their economic condition they can better withstand the losses caused by floods (Khondker 1996). The most vulnerable group affected by Hurricane 07B in the Godavari Delta in India was reportedly migrant and scheduled (low) caste women who formed the major part of the landless agricultural laborers (O'Hare 2001).Social norms also have an influence on gendered vulnerability to disasters, particularly in Bangladesh where the rule of the purdah prevails. For instance, in the case of cyclones, the cultural norms dictating that women cannot leave the household until everyone else has evacuated was a major reason why a disproportionate number of women died in the 1991 cyclone (Nelson et al. 2002;Dasgupta et al. 2010). Women in Bangladesh do not feel comfortable to go to public shelters, which are often overcrowded and lack user-friendly facilities for women. Even in cases where they are willing to take refuge in public shelters, their husbands are often found to be reluctant to accompany them due to anticipated adverse social and religious responses (CCC 2009a). Similarly, in earthquakes in India, more men survive events at night because men sleep outside when it is warm (e.g., on rooftops). This is socially unacceptable for most women, and thus they remain trapped inside their homes (Krishnaraj 1997).More anecdotal, it is also reported that social norms on dressing codes also affect women's vulnerability to natural disasters as some women suffered injuries and were disabled when their sarees got entangled with tree branches on their way to cyclone shelters (World Bank 2010).Similarly, an ODI study in Nepal found that the way rural women and girls wear clothes limits their swimming capabilities in times of flood, impairing their adaptive capacity (Jones 2010).Insecurity of food related to climate change is likely to increase the risks for women's nutrition. Women's diet is not only crucial for their health but also for fetus and infant development during pregnancy and breast-feeding periods. Yet, in South Asia women's diet is often neglected and, during crises, might be sacrificed to meet the nutritional requirements of other members of the household. In some famines, it was reported that a larger number of females than male victims die at a very young age or as infants. This reflects a discriminatory access to food during crises with a bias against female babies and children, as argued by Greenough (1982) and Agarwal (1990) for the Bengal famine of 1943/1944, and Dyson (1991a, b) , b) for South Asian famines more generally. In some instances, during a period of food scarcity, a woman may be malnourished even though she has to lactate an infant and nurture another child in her womb (CCC 2009a), resulting in low birth weights and poor health outcomes for newborn babies. Khondker (1996) observes that ideologies rooted in self-sacrifice and obedience to the husband as household head lead women to put their own interests last. Such values and beliefs are prevalent in patriarchal societies like in Bangladesh, where rural men sometimes pay limited attention to women's diet (Baten and Khan 2010). The distribution of food within the household is highly gender-biased with women typically eating last what is left. This is exacerbated during climatic events such as floods, droughts, cyclones, and waterlogging. Such events reduce agricultural production and cause food insecurity in the household because poor people cannot afford to purchase food from the market. The intra-household food allocation has been a traditional coping strategy for dealing with food scarcity based on the 'value' and 'worth' culturally assigned to men and women. In a recent study conducted in Andhra Pradesh, India, such a strategy appeared to be exacerbated during a dry year (Lambrou and Nelson 2010).Findings from flood, drought and saline areas of Bangladesh presented by Rabbani et al. (2009) however seem to suggest that the above view of women's disadvantaged nutritional status during hazards is a generalization that does not always hold true. Rather than women being consistently the worst affected, men, women and children are differently affected in different hazard contexts. Women were in fact the most vulnerable (90%) in the flood-prone area in terms of food availability whereas males were the worst affected (95%) in the drought-prone area. On the other hand, children suffer much more (95%) during a hazard period in the salinity-prone area.Global warming is creating favorable temperatures for many epidemics. Regional increases in mean temperature and precipitation, resulting in greater humidity, have facilitated the spread of many vector-borne infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue and encephalitis (Tsai and Liu 2005). In Bangladesh, floods, waterlogging, drainage congestion, and cyclones due to climatic change, have increased the incidence of diarrhea, cholera and typhoid. In Nepal, the prevalence of typhoid, cholera and diarrheal diseases has been amplified due to extreme droughts, flooding, and poor sanitation (Regmi et al. 2008). The spread of these waterborne diseases is tightly related to the effectiveness of sanitation systems. In the case of floods, sanitation systems are often under waist-high water, contaminating the entire waterbody (Neelormi et al. 2009). Furthermore, in Bangladesh, females were found to be the prime consumers of saline water within their family (CCC 2009a), and the salinization of drinking water presents a particular threat to the large numbers of pregnant women in coastal areas who are already being diagnosed with preeclampsia, eclampsia and hypertension (Nicholls et al. 2007). Sultana (2009) notes that social norms mean families sometimes consume contaminated water rather than risking family honor by allowing women to travel far from the home to collect better-quality water.Besides material losses and physical assaults, increased climate stress is exposing a growing number of girls and women to the psycho-social impacts of hazards. These hazards include anxiety and lack of sleep and a feeling of being desperate and helpless. After disasters, families often have to relocate, sometimes permanently, to safer grounds. This has a severe impact on social support networks and family ties which are particularly important for women to cope with -as they have less access to formal services and support than men. While such stresses are not restricted to women, due to their role as care-givers, they also face the burden of looking after other family members, even when they themselves are in great distress (Mitchel et al. 2007).Aside from increased vulnerability to health risks for women, climate change can also increase the 'social' vulnerability of women with an increase in violence against them. WEDO (2008) states that female migration, mostly from female-headed households, contributes a major share to the informal urban labor market, and that the majority of these women come from areas affected by weather-related disasters. It also notes that migration does not always improve their lives as some are left with little choice but to compromise dignity by begging. More critically however, such young women are often lured into prostitution by professional gangs, with the promise of jobs elsewhere (CCC 2009a). In fact, according to Swarup et al. (2011) there is anecdotal evidence of an increase in child trafficking as a result of climate-induced disasters. These children include both economic migrants and girls who have been orphaned by a climate disaster as they have no legal support, psycho-social support, vocational training, or livelihood opportunities. Swarup et al. (2011) found that following Cyclone Sidr in 2007, a significant proportion of girls of a schooling age migrated to the towns to work as domestic workers and in the garment industry. Most of them never returned to school. Some were forced into prostitution, particularly those from the poorest families.There also appears to be some evidence that the social instability associated with the degradation of resources during and after natural disasters is fueling an increase in violence against women in Bangladesh ( Darlymple et al. 2009). Lack of employment, income and resources during and after hazards can increase psychological stress and tensions in households and lead to domestic abuse. Male relatives of many women have been reported to express their frustration verbally or physically. Reasons for this abuse which are reported include women not being able to serve food on time, to not being able to procure relief materials (WEDO 2008). In a survey recently conducted in six drought-prone villages of Andhra Pradesh, India, almost 30% of both men and women respondents reported an increase in fights and arguments in the family which were connected to climate stress over the last 30 years (Lambrou and Nelson 2010).Apart from domestic violence, natural disasters also put women more at risk regarding harassment and violence outside the household. According to Ahmad (2012) women and girls experience increased levels of violence during and after hazards, and women from extremely poor households face increased levels of physical violence outside the home (10%). Women from middleincome groups are usually more sheltered from abuse outside as they have to abide by social norms and family honor, although greater violence is reported within the home for this group (30%).In the cyclone-prone areas of Bangladesh, it is common that young girls and even adult women are harassed on their way to cyclone shelters. In the drainage congested and flood-prone areas, when women have to stay on the roads or cyclone shelters for prolonged periods, they feel uncomfortable sharing the space with strange men (World Bank 2010). Women also face harassment when collecting relief supplies as sometimes they have to walk long distances through water (WEDO 2008) and stand in long queues with male strangers for collection. Moreover, such an act on the part of a woman is not considered to be 'respectable' in social norms and those queuing for relief generally face hardships in post-flood normal life (CCC 2009a). In Nepal, it is also reported that during natural disasters, women and girls are frequently subjected to intimidation, harassment and gender-based violence (Nellemann et al. 2011), notably when traveling long distances in search of resources like fuelwood and water (UN Women Watch 2009).It has been established that gender inequality combined with the additional structures of class and caste increases the vulnerability of some women to climate change, particularly those from poorer socioeconomic groups. However, it is also useful to approach the issue of vulnerability through the lens of resilience and adaptation. Vulnerability stems not only from the impact that climate change has upon the labor burden, income or one's health and welfare but also from the reduced capacity of some social groups to adapt to ecological change. It is in this context that access to livelihood resources or 'assets' becomes particularly important, as these are key criteria which can facilitate adaptation. At the same time, unequal distribution of these resources is one of the key reasons for vulnerability to often parallel existing social structures. Rural women, from all income groups in India, Bangladesh and Nepal have less control than men over all types of livelihood resources (human, social, natural, physical and financial capital). As women have less control, they are not able to transform capital into diversified livelihoods and incomes, especially to climate-resilient incomes.In Bangladesh, women's livelihood strategies are strongly influenced by various factors, such as inadequate access to land, knowledge and information, not to mention commercial isolation from markets (Siddika 2008). Similarly, concerning Nepal, it has been argued that, with more limited access to land, education, information and social networks, women have reduced opportunities to adapt to natural disasters and agricultural decline under climate stress (Dhungel and Ojha 2012;Jungehulsing 2012). At the same time, women from indigenous and Dalit communities in Nepal are predicted to be more vulnerable still, given that they face dual discrimination (ICIMOD 2008).Different livelihood resources which shape adaptive capacity will be reviewed in this section, and the degree to which access is gendered will also be explored.The construction and rigid enforcement of gendered social practices over ownership of resources and rights regarding decisions over their management operate to significantly disadvantage women. One of the most significant examples of this is women's inability to own property in their marital home or access their parents' inheritance (World Bank and AusAID 2007). Land is a critical asset for women in developing countries as they rely on subsistence agriculture for livelihoods, particularly for female-headed households due to the migration of male members of the household, death, or divorce of their husbands (RDI 2009).Some of the most notable challenges are evident in Nepal. Despite recent political changes, women's access to land has been impeded by antiquated laws which do not accept women as individuals, but rather define them in the context of her relationships with their grandfather, father, husband, or son. Nepal's citizenship laws are still essentially based upon patrilineal decent, meaning that a woman without a father or husband still finds it difficult to acquire citizenship documents which allow her to purchase land or inherit property (Mahato 2012). Even for those with citizenship documents, inheriting property is by no means straightforward. The Interim Constitution which was in place at the time of writing is influenced by the amended Country Code or MulukiAin (Eleventh amendment 2002) which combines Hindu laws and beliefs, British and Indian codes, and traditional rules amongst the Newars in the Kathmandu Valley (RDI 2009). The amended civil code discriminates against women through numerous provisions and laws. For example, it states that a widow has the right to inherit her husband's property but has to return the property if she remarries. Daughters may inherit equally with sons; however, if she is married after inheriting, she must return her share to her parents. Recently, some improvement has been made to this Country Code, through allowing unmarried daughters to inherit ancestral property regardless of age, although they still need permission from a male family member to buy properties or sell them. Even when women possess land or property, it is inherited by their male heirs, i.e., sons after their death (Rich-Zendel 2006;RDI 2009;SIGI 2012). A consequence is that women often struggle to receive their fair share of property. In Nepal, women contribute 60% of agricultural production but they own only 10% of land including 4% of arable land (CEDAW 2010;Action Aid 2010;SIGI 2012).In India, land inheritance and ownership laws vary by state, and different laws are present for different groups of people on the basis of their religion (RDI 2009). Under Hindu personal law, 'ancestral land' is inherited and co-owned by male family members following their birth. 'Separate property' is divided into equal shares amongst male and female children, and the widow or mother of the deceased. The 2005 Succession Amendment Act considers daughters also as co-owners of ancestral land, entitled to part of the property. Nevertheless, widows still do not have this right. Other inequities are present under the Muslim personal law, whereby widows and daughters can inherit property, but only half of what is received by their male counterpart. Under Christian law, the widow receives one-third and the sons and daughters receive equal shares, unless there are no children. Individuals can choose to avail of the secular family law, but this is rare (RDI 2009). Although there are discriminatory provisions in religion-based laws, women are also excluded from owning property due to custom, and it is common for women themselves to choose to not take up their rights to property (Agarwal 1998). As a result, privately owned land is invariably held in the name of the male family members. A recent survey suggested that only 10% of private land owned across the country was in the name of women. Similarly, land reforms since independence have often resulted in communal land over which women once had rights being registered in the name of men (RDI 2009).Similar inequities in women's access to land are present in Bangladesh. Despite equal access to property being enshrined in the legal system that grants women the same legal rights as men to purchase and own land or hold joint titles with husbands, out of 17.8 million agricultural holdings 2 only 3.5% (0.62 million) were female-owned in 1996 (World Bank and AusAID 2007). According to Islamic law, daughter, mother and wife are under all circumstances entitled to some share in the inheritance, yet they are not treated at par with their male counterparts, i.e., son, father and husband. Women can inherit the property of their husband or father, but their inheritance is half that of brothers and children. Usually women give their inheritance to their brothers, so as to remain on good terms with them and be able to visit the parental home. In cases of divorce or abandonment, women do not have joint property rights and have to seek shelter with brothers (Sarwar et al. 2007;Holmes et al. 2010;Ahmad 2012). Women from Hindu communities do not inherit their parents' property, but they receive dowry/gifts at the time of their marriage in the form of money, assets and jewelry, which are not in their names. A widow under Hindu law inherits the same share as a son. However, social and customary practices effectively exclude women from accessing land and other assets (Sarwar et al. 2007;Holmes et al. 2010). Ahmad (2012) found that due to inheritance and personal laws, lack of information about legal rights, and/or inability to access the judicial system many women and girls lost access to property after their husbands or fathers died in the cyclone Sidr.While it is clear that there are inequalities in men's and women's access to land, how does this affect their vulnerability to climate change? First, lack of access to land reduces women's access to income which can facilitate adaptation through livelihood diversification. Ownership of land has the potential to increase women's bargaining power and control over the sale of the produce of the land. Therefore, despite the high proportion of agricultural work women are expected to perform and the importance of this work for household livelihoods, women often have little personal control over their income (Agarwal 1998). The land which women do have some control over (if not ownership rights) is usually restricted to their homesteads. With regard to Bangladesh, however, Naved (2000) notes how the relatively small size of women-operated holdings limits the feasibility of some technologies and the choice of agricultural crops. This makes it more difficult for women to adapt their agricultural practices to a changing climate. At the same time, the gender division of the workplace between men and women validated by the system of purdah sometimes does not allow women in Bangladesh to grow their own crops in the cultivable land owned by the family.Second, lack of landownership can also result in exclusion from agricultural services. An ADB (2010) report makes the interesting and relevant observation that women in Bangladesh are often not considered \"farmers,\" in part because they do not own land, and consequently with agricultural extension and information on new technologies being usually directed to men. Thus women miss out on agricultural extension and information about new technologies such as crop diversification, livestock varieties, hybrids and animal breeds with new varieties with higher drought-, heat-, flood-and salinity-tolerance, which are recommended as adaptation options to climate change.Third, lack of landownership often renders women more dependent upon resource harvesting from common property resources such as forests and grazing lands (Agarwal 1998;Meinzen-Dick and Zwarteween 2001;Saxena 2011). As noted above, degradation of common property resources, aggravated by climate change, puts women in a more vulnerable position than their male counterparts who have alternative income sources. Dependence on ecosystems can lead to further insecurities in the context of ecological degradation, not to mention exclusion from the management of these resources. For example, Beck and Ghosh (2000) give the example of a cooperative which was formed to manage a fishery tank in West Bengal. Although it improved livelihoods and conserved the aquatic ecosystem, membership was mostly limited to men. Women who had previously enjoyed open access to collect fish, fodder and water lilies were now excluded as they were not members and had limited influence over the rule-making process (Beck and Ghosh 2000). Community forest management in Nepal has been considered a success story in alleviating poverty and enhancing conservation and sustainable development (Uprety et al. 2012). However, studies have also shown gender and caste/ethnic disparities regarding forest management. For example, the participation level of women in the decision-making body studied in 58 community forest users in Nawalparasi, Lalitpur and Baglung was found to be 43%, when compared to 58% for men (Uprety et al. 2012).Of course, it is important to note again that gender and class intersect, particularly when it comes to women's access to land. Richer households are more likely to have plots of land which women can control. In a study from Bangladesh, Ahmad (2012) notes that among income groups, women from the nonpoor group had the highest level of adaptive capacity, as determined by their asset base, transformative capacity and income, and hence were the least vulnerable. With regard to access to, and control over, common property ecosystems as well, there are class and caste differences. In the study of community forest user groups in Nepal by Uprety et al. (2012) it was found that Dalit men and women had more limited participation level in decision-making bodies.Adapting to climate change through investment in new technologies or changing agricultural practices invariably requires capital. Women, however, have much more limited access to financial resources. As noted above, women have far more limited access to income within the household due to lack of landownership, and limited involvement in the marketing of produce. However, women in India, Bangladesh and Nepal also face constraints in accessing credit from bankssomething which is essential for large-scale investments.Again, this is related to landownership. Without land titles in their names, women lack collateral to receive loans from the banks (Ahmad 2012). Nevertheless, there has been a growth of microfinance schemes across the region, providing collateral-free loans, phenomena which have fundamentally changed women's access to financial services in rural areas (World Bank and AusAID 2007). Holmes et al. (2010), however, find that the impacts of credit on women's empowerment in Bangladesh have been mixed, while recognizing a significant shift in the visibility of women in rural villages. According to Murshid and Yasmeen (2004) women sometimes manage to use credit to make small purchases and hold assets in their own names. They also make the point that access to loans also has risks for women particularly when the loans taken are used and controlled by the men, and women have no say in deciding where and how to invest/spend the money, although it is they who are liable for their repayment. World Bank and AusAID (2007) also note that microcredit financed activities that women are likely to take up (food processing, bamboo craft, livestock) have lower returns than activities that men take up (tailoring, rickshaw-pulling and market activities). Similar constraints with microfinance schemes for women in the context of Nepal are noted by Rankin (2001). A worrying trend is the tendency for women to find themselves in patterns of indebtedness to microfinance banks, taking multiple new loans to pay their debts.In Nepal, poor and vulnerable groups can access microcredit, microinsurance or microsavings through membership in user groups or cooperatives formed by nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to sustain their livelihoods and cope with negative impact of climate change (ILO 2007;Hammill et al. 2008). An IFAD study in Asia has found that women's access to microfinance has provided them with economic empowerment, increased self-confidence and self-esteem and bargaining power at the household and community level. In Nepal, it has been found to have allowed a 68% increase in decision-making power of women in the areas of maternal and children's health and education, business investments, buying and selling of property and decreased domestic violence (Kulkarni 2011). There are however, challenges also. Microfinance may provide space for men to use women as new sources of 'revenues' as lenders prefer women as their clients due to higher repayment rates and reliability (Goetz and Gupta 1996;ILO 2007). Furthermore, women borrowers invest mostly on household nutrition, health, children's education and sanitation when compared to male borrowers (Goetz and Gupta 1996;ILO 2007;Hammill et al. 2008).However, some scholars argue that although women are borrowers of money they have less control over it due to two reasons; men's monopoly over the market and gender relations (Goetz and Gupta 1996;Kulkarni 2011). Once again the gendered division of labor limits women to household activities, giving space for men's economic control. Gender relations means women transfer credits to survive marriage (Hammill et al. 2008). From these arguments it can be concluded that women have less access to credit and capacity to invest on household utility than men, while market inaccessibility may devoid them of livelihood opportunities and family welfare in times of crises.Climate funds targeted for vulnerable groups therefore need to be carefully administered to bring expected impacts in facilitating adaptation. However, it is important that such initiatives identify women's and men's specific roles and responsibilities in the community, their access and control over resources, their inclusion in decision-making processes, as well as their particular capacities and needs in relation to climate change adaptation (Prasai 2010).In India, various microcredit schemes have also been implemented by both government agencies and NGOs, especially in South India. Almost three-quarters of the total microfinance clients in India are concentrated in just four southern states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu (Latifee 2006). However, large parts of northern and northeastern states have limited coverage. Existing evidence of the impact of microfinance programs on women's empowerment is limited. Research from Bangladesh and India reaches different conclusions even when evaluating the impact of the same programs (Kabeer1998). Beyond economic empowerment or increased well-being, some of these programs like SEWA and Working Women's Forum in India are said to have been effective in linking rural women to macro-level gender advocacy. This has made women's informal contribution to economic sectors more visible in national and international policy debates (Mayoux 2000).India and Nepal are still characterized by a wide gender gap in literacy rate despite a sharp increase in women's literacy over the past 20 years (Tables 4 and 5).  In both Nepal and India, these averages conceal disparities among different castes, ethnicities and religions (Table 2). In Nepal, Tarai Dalits have the highest rate with 76.4% not going to school at all, compared with 62.4% for Muslims, 56.8% for Tarai middle castes and 45% for Janjatis. Gender disparities are again high in the Tarai middle caste group, where only 6% of the 6-10 year old boys compared to 42% of the girls are not in school (Bennett 2005). In India, the 2001 census suggests a Muslim woman has fewer chances to be literate than a Christian or a Hindu woman. However, the influence of caste and religion in India was found to be intricately linked to individual and community circumstances, such as one's parents' education (Borooah and Iyer 2005).Educational levels of girls in South Asia are largely driven by social norms. In Bangladesh, education is tightly related to marriage norms and practices. Daughters only 'belong' to their natal family, both culturally and economically, until they are married (World Bank and AusAID 2007). Therefore, parents have few economic incentives to invest in girls' education. Furthermore, girls usually have to stop their education when they get married. Overall, Bangladesh has the highest rate of early marriage in Asia and ranks among the highest worldwide. It has been estimated that in 2004, 48% of all girls between 15 and 19 years of age were married, divorced or widowed (Holmes et al. 2010). In India, Gandhi Kingdon (2002) similarly argues that the gender gap in literacy can be explained by parents' differential treatment of sons and daughters in education and women's role in the society. Parents sometimes believe that a daughter's enrolment in school is not necessary if they are destined to be a housewife (Gandhi Kingdon 2002). In Nepal, a primary reason for the gender gap in education is that girls have to work in lieu of their mothers in household labor and therefore have fewer opportunities for formal education than boys (Oxfam International 2009). Another item of statistics from the Nepal Living Standards Survey in Nepal shows that 31% of rural girls (age 6-24 years) do not attend school at all with the reason being listed as 'help at home' compared to 13% of rural boys with the same reason.Climate change also affects women's education by a complex interplay with existing social norms. When climatic hazards deteriorate the livelihood status of a household in Bangladesh, marrying off young girls can be a means of shedding some of the financial burden (World Bank 2010). Such girls are required to abandon their schooling so they can focus on their duties as wives. Early marriage was found to be relatively high in drought-prone areas, where there is chronic poverty due to crop loss and generally low levels of education (World Bank 2010). Early and forced marriages have also risen as a result of climate-induced disasters in Bangladesh (Swarup et al. 2011). For example, this was observed in the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr in 2007 where one interviewee claimed that as many as 50% of the girls in her school left due to marriage. In Nepal, changing climate was also found to affect girls' education by increasing their labor burden to gather wood and collect water when resources become scarce. This has triggered school dropouts in many areas (Oxfam International 2009;Baten and Khan 2010;Nellemann et al. 2011).The links between education and women's ability to use livelihood diversification as a coping and adaptation strategy in the face of climate change are not difficult to see. Lower levels of education reduce the capacity of women to access information (e.g., about their legal rights to hold land titles) and limit their means to interpret that information. Uneducated women and girls have also more limited access to resources such as credit or knowledge of new technologies, and have a reduced ability to make their voice heard in decision making over resources management at home and in the community. This can affect their capacity to understand and to act on information concerning climate risks and adaptation options (Prasai 2010).In India, men's and women's education and literacy levels were found to affect their access to information on the weather (Lambrou and Nelson 2010). In Bangladesh, Mitchel et al. (2007) found that adopting hybrid seeds requires knowledge and skills that are often lacking in poor, remote and marginalized communities. Since women are less likely to have an education and have limited access to information, their engagement in activities like this, which might contribute to improving their safety, capacity and well-being, is curtailed. Rabbani et al. (2009) believe that technology adoption by women is undermined also because culturally, women in Bangladesh, especially in rural areas, are reluctant to take any decisions on their own. Lastly, the impact of education on intra-household decision making in Bangladesh was the focus of World Bank and AusAID (2007) which looked at actual education levels of interviewees and their attitude to educational equality between spouses. It found that education beyond primary level increases the likelihood of women being consulted on major consumption decisions, but it is more important for older women whose age may give them an advantage. It is necessary to challenge the conventional view that since men interact with the outside world, they possess more intelligence and thus have more legitimacy to take decisions.As women often do not have legal rights or do not take part in formal decision-making processes, social networks and informal rights are also of particular importance to them in order to secure access to resources and assets (Jackson 1998). In a case study in a village of Orissa, India, it was found that social networks and privileged kinship ties were key factors that helped upper-caste women to better cope with disasters, notably by providing them adequate shelter (Ray-Bennett 2009).Women's access to markets has an important role in shaping their independence in terms of access to cash, which influences their capacity to make decisions on health, education or nutrition. Women's roles in agriculture are significant, e.g., producing homestead crops and looking after livestock. In Bangladesh, women's post-harvest activities are estimated to contribute over 50% of value to crop production (Thomas 2004). Yet, fewer than 10% of rural women have access to markets, largely because of social and cultural norms which do not allow women to interact with men in public. Women are largely dependent on male family members to buy and sell produce, restricting their independent economic activities outside the household (Holmes et al. 2010).Similarly, a study carried out in 12 villages across six districts of Nepal and India indicated that marketing falls into the male's domain (Nellemann et al. 2011). The prevailing gender division of labor implies that women have less direct access to monetary benefits which put them in a vulnerable situation accentuated by their 'landless' status and formal and customary laws that make them devoid of assets to cope with the changing climate (Jones 2010).The state plays a crucial role in facilitating adaptation to climate change for communities in the Ganges River Basin through mediating in disputes in access to livelihood resources at the local level. However, as with accessing the means of production, finance, education and social networks, access to state services or having a say in government decision making is not necessarily equal for men and women.Bangladesh is committed to international and national laws, institutions and policies to promote gender equality. The country has ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and agreed to the Optional Protocol in 2000. At the national level, Bangladesh has also enacted a number of laws to protect equality of rights and opportunities. For example, the Constitution of Bangladesh grants equal rights to women and men in all spheres of public life and this has been supplemented by a number of acts and ordinances to protect women's rights. These include the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1980, the Child Marriage Restraint Act (amended in 1984) and the Family Courts Ordinance of 1985 (Holmes et al. 2010). Although women's right to freedom from discrimination is a constitutionally entrenched fundamental right, it is overshadowed by the operation of traditional ideologies and social norms that continue to undermine women's rights to equality (Holmes et al. 2010).In Bangladesh, the National Agriculture Policy (MoA 2008) includes commitments to women's access to agricultural extension and their technological empowerment through efforts to ensure women's equal access to agricultural inputs (e.g., seed, fertilizer, credit, education and training, information, etc.). The need to ensure women's access to productive resources, inputs, and services is also highlighted in the National Food Policy (MoFDM 2006). The policy agenda outlined in the National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (NSAPR-II) also makes numerous references to ensuring that extension services reach women in relation to crop production, including high-value cash crops, and to livestock, fisheries, and forestry, as noted by the ADB (2010).However, Ahmad (2012) notes that access to local public institutions that can help increase adaptive capacity in Bangladesh is still gender-biased and, as a result, women are often not able to access information and support. In both rural and urban areas, men are the primary contact with all public institutions supporting disaster-risk management (DRM) and climate change, while women are the primary contacts with NGOs (Ahmad 2012). Similarly, the study by Rabbani et al. (2009) indicates that women's participation in training related to climate change issues is insignificant. According to a recent study, fewer than 10% of women in Bangladesh have contact with state institutions, especially those that can help in recovery and adaptation. These include, for example, extension and local government services in rural areas and professional associations (Ahmad 2012).Women's access to public institutions has remained relatively low for several reasons. First, despite more progressive laws and policies, extension services are, in practice, still excluding women because of persistent beliefs among male-dominated staff. In Bangladesh, most employees of governmental service-providing agencies are male, as are field-level workers of the Department of Agricultural Extension. In India, it was reported that extension personnel introducing new varieties intended for higher drought or heat tolerance rarely speak directly with women farmers (Kurukulasuriya and Rosenthal 2003).Social norms also considerably hinder women's access to public institutions, support and information. Even when extension officers in Bangladesh are willing to interact with women, the dominance of men in public life constraints women's access to state services and cuts off their ability to communicate their specific needs and ideas on how these should be met. Ahmad (2012) notes that women in Bangladesh have to face restrictions on mobility, which limit their access to extension staff and training opportunities. Furthermore, women in rural Bangladesh are usually less assertive in front of outsiders and are, therefore, not comfortable in sharing their knowledge, findings and learning with male officials (Anwar and Rozario 2012). Moreover, as already noted, the few women who are elected to local government bodies (Upazilas and Union Parishads) are unable to take the leadership to disseminate local knowledge within their respective Upazilas or Unions (Anwar and Rozario 2012).In Nepal, multiple programs have targeted women farmers. However, according to a study in the eastern Nepal Tarai, women's capacity to form and participate in farmer groups appears to be considerably lower than men's (Sugden 2009). This parallels national-level concerns in the Agricultural Perspective Plan-Implementation Action Plan which reports that fewer than 40% of participants in farmer groups are women, out of whom only one in four occupies roles in their executive committees (The IDL Group 2006). As in Bangladesh, gender ideologies restrict women from participating in public life and interacting with men. The latter discourage them from joining male-dominated farmer groups and the associated training programs (Sugden 2009). Most women felt that it was immediately assumed by farmer group organizers that they were 'less educated' and thus not suitable candidates to participate in programs, whether or not this was the case. Furthermore, the higher work burdens of women, particularly those from poorer classes, meant that they would not have time to participate in lengthy group meetings (Sugden 2009). Khondker (1996) notes that in Bangladesh during natural disasters, the traditional gendered social norms (which forbid women from interacting with men who are not family members) and gender-insensitive arrangements are two reasons why the majority of women do not go to the relief centers. Their decisions also reflect rational calculations to protect their domestic assets. The government's insensitivity towards the social norms within which women must act was seen again in the fact that women were not represented in the personnel involved in distributing relief goods.ADB (2010) cites limited awareness and understanding of women's rights and needs within local government organizations as an important impediment to women's participation, and thus to their ability to ensure essential services are provided. In Bangladesh, the primary units of local government, namely Upazilas Parishads (UZPs) and Union Parishads (UPs), have a broad set of responsibilities in relation to village development (see next section for details). Despite having an important role in identifying the poor for relief and social safety-net programs, their elected members and chairpersons (mainly men) were found to have little awareness and understanding of women's rights and needs (ADB 2010).Despite the provision of reserved seats in UZPs and UPs, women face various structural and cultural barriers that limit their capacity to act as effective representatives (Nazneen and Tasneem 2010). This includes the disapproval and resistance by men, of women taking up such public roles, and more general constraints faced by women in a patriarchal social structure.Hossain and Akhter (2011) note that women remain visibly marginalized and lack functional authority at the UZP level. Women's representatives' offices are often not centrally located, while they face constraints accessing day-to-day office resources by all-male UZP chairs. World Bank and AusAID (2007) also note that women members face serious problems in participating in UP functions due to resistance by the chairman and other members. These differences meant that decisions over contentious issues were left to the (often male) chairman to take. Nazneen and Tasneem (2010) also suggest that the gendered division of labor in Bangladesh limits women's time and ability to participate in formal political and planning activities.Women are also either wholly absent or present as a form of tokenism in local resource management institutions. Prime examples include the Water Management Organizations (WMOs) in the coastal polders of Bangladesh, introduced by the government to decentralize and democratize the management of water resources and associated infrastructure. Increased participation by women is a key theme of the National Water Policy (1999), which includes commitments to ensuring an enabling environment for women to play a key role in community organizations for the management of water resources. This is also reiterated in the Guidelines for Participatory Water Management, issued in 2000 by the Bangladesh Ministry of Water Resources which is applicable to all flood-control, drainage, and irrigation projects. The National Agriculture Policy also commits the government to facilitating increased participation by women in decision making. Research (unpublished) by the International Water Management Institute into the performance and workings of WMOs, Water Management Associations and sluice gate committees has highlighted the almost total dominance of men despite express legal provisions for the inclusion of women in these institutions. The confinement of women's roles mainly to the homestead is again a major factor both directly and indirectly. Men's attitudes are important, and it may be necessary to persuade them to support the involvement of their wives and other women. The findings of one survey were that women participated at lower rates in communities in which a significant proportion of men objected to the participation of their wives (ADB 2010).With regard to irrigation management associations in Nepal, the study by Zwarteveen and Neupane (1996) provides evidence of women unconsciously choosing not to participate in the association due to culturally embedded ideas of proper gender roles. In India, research conducted by Agarwal (2001) on participation in joint forestry management projects indicates that while women may be active in all-women community groups, their participation in other mixed community-based organizations is generally low. In some cases, women were actively excluded by men even though spaces were reserved for women in the local councils (Roy and Venema 2002).In the Ganges River Basin, a number of organizations are involved in implementing climate change adaptation projects. Where adaptation activities do exist however, they are often uncoordinated, and fail to create conditions that enable and support adaptive strategies based on an understanding of differential vulnerability according to gender divisions (Ahmed and Fajber 2009).In Nepal for example, investments have mostly been made in agriculture, promoting technologies to build resilience of farmers, as well as in water management, biodiversity management, and capacity building of government officials. Research organizations like World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Department for International Development (DFID) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are implementing adaptation projects for communities (MoE 2010). Climate change adaptation funds mostly transfer support in the form of a loan or grant bilaterally, multilaterally or directly through NGOs and international nongovernment organizations (INGOs). These funds are then mobilized by the communities in the sectors of food security, health, education, and disaster risk reduction as per the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) (MoE 2010). Nepal has a strategy for adaptation programs to target the most vulnerable groups like marginalized Dalits women, and disabled persons (GoN 2009). Adaptation funds are accessed through group membership. However, a study has concluded that Dalit men and women have no time to be involved in group activities or their participation is dominated by men and women from higher castes (Bennett 2005). To make national climate change adaptation policies effective, strong steps must be taken to ensure men and women of poor Dalit and ethnic communities can participate to access adaptation funds. Ayers (2011) suggests that in Bangladesh the framing of adaptation as 'impacts-based' in the 2008 National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) creates challenges in enabling vulnerable people to define their own adaptation priorities. Although the guidelines for NAPA development state the importance of \"bottom-up, participatory approaches\" in developing NAPAs, the focus on impacts has resulted in a technocratic approach to identifying risks by first dividing analysis into sectorally based working groups, then defining risks as climate change impacts geographically and by sector. It is only after this that communities are consulted to verify this information. This, in turn, has led to incorrect inferences and assumptions leading to ineffective policy responses. Of critical importance also is the failure to change the vision of communities as homogenous groups, thereby failing to incorporate spaces for the different communities and their specific vulnerability contexts, including intersecting divisions such as gender and age. NAPA, for example, makes only a few references to children as being amongst the most vulnerable population groups, and the needs of certain vulnerable groups such as adolescent girls are not acknowledged (Swarup et al. 2011).In India, the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) recognizes that climate change has different effects on men and women, the latter of whom it suggests are the most vulnerable. Unfortunately, Ahmed and Fajber (2009) note that this understanding has not been translated into NAPCC's assessment of the mechanisms to support adaptation. This is due to the limited availability of gender disaggregated data on climate risks and the relatively poor documentation of adaptation programs or the lessons they can provide in terms of building resilient communities.A key challenge for men and women in adapting to climate change is the ability to voice their different needs and perceptions in the planning and implementation of initiatives that address climate change. In India -and across South Asia -gender identity intersects with other social stratifiers such as caste and class (Ahmed and Fajber 2009). Climatic risks often overlay with power-laden tensions between different identity groups, making it difficult for vulnerable women to voice their concerns, or to participate in planning activities.Poverty and lack of voice, according to World Bank and AusAID ( 2007) are the most significant barriers to participation. The structure of the decision-making systems -the traditional emphasis on elders and men -excludes several categories of individuals from these systems. Age is also one of the most important determinants of hierarchy and participation, with younger citizens (men and women) often excluded from these decision-making processes. Although WEDO (2008) claims that compared to the 1980s, barriers to women's involvement in decision making have been largely removed, it acknowledges that women still face challenges in influencing processes that matter most to them.The limited participation of women is important given that men and women often have different needs in the context of climate change. The division of labor between men and women implies differences in priorities and perceptions of the reality (Nellemann et al. 2011). For example, in a study in the hills in Sankhuswabha District of Nepal by ICIMOD, men considered water shortages for irrigation a serious problem while many women viewed sanitation and household water access and supply as the most serious issues, a perception linked with their responsibility for collecting and carrying water (cf. Nellemann et al. 2011). Similar observations were made in areas affected by floods such as Assam and Bihar in India where men related disasters to migration while women were concerned by immediate household livelihoods and sustenance (cf. Nellemann et al. 2011). The distinct roles and responsibilities of men and women in providing food to their families might influence the way climate change has affected their livelihoods and their perspectives on potential solutions (Lambrou and Nelson 2010). While it is evident that men and women have different priorities or perceptions of the impact of climate change, these have been poorly integrated in climate change interventions.While the value and potential of local (and especially women's) traditional knowledge are recognized by social scientists, this does not seem to be the case with formal and informal planning and decision-making structures at local and national scales. Thus WEN (2010) notes that women's vast knowledge about water resources is often ignored as they rarely participate in decision-making structures, and Rahman et al. (2007) lament that this knowledge is rarely taken into consideration in the design and implementation of adaptation strategies.This risk is especially high given that women in rural Bangladesh are marginal groups and do participate in decision making and influence policymaking in the same way as their male counterparts. As a result, gender-mediated wisdom on climate change adaptation has not been considered in the design, dissemination and replication of methodologies (Anwar and Rozario 2012). In farming communities, knowledge about farming is shared and exchanged in public places such as markets, mosques, temples, and shops, etc., spaces which are generally dominated by men. Women often feel their voices are ignored in these contexts, being viewed as 'farmwives' rather than real farmers (Anwar and Rozario 2012). The same authors also point out that society as a whole always ignores the value of indigenous knowledge by continuing to perceive the knowledge and practices of women as unscientific or as a hindrance to development. Anwar and Rozario (2012), again with regard to Bangladesh, also found that there were few initiatives for women to establish linkages with local government institutions so that they could play an active role in sharing their knowledge and coping strategies concerning climate change. The situation was different in the indigenous communities involved in the study such as the Marma community. Here, the village headman and elders take women's views and opinions into account by allocating land to them for farming. This grants them access to, and control over, productive resources leading to more efficient use of resources and increased productivity.Another area where women's participation is limited is disaster-response preparedness. In a study from India by Ahmed and Fajber (2009), women reported that during or after a disaster, they are not consulted in community-level decision making. In fact, Ahmad (2011) suggests that even the local governments of many rural and vulnerable communities had limited awareness of, or 'voice' in, the climate preparedness programs at higher levels of government. Therefore, there seems to be a major gap between national programs trying to develop communities' resilience and the local needs of women and men.While it may be inappropriate to make generalizations, research by Wong (2009) suggests that disaster-preparedness projects can be prone to not appreciating the particular dynamics of empowering women since this itself challenges entrenched gendered social structures. The research found that in the coastal zone of Bangladesh, women were included in local committees largely for practical reasons because most of the men are out at sea. While project organizers needed the women to make day-to-day decisions during this time, when men returned they were allowed to challenge the decisions and make amendments. Furthermore, the officials from the participatory government agency, the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), felt that technical posts should be taken up only by men as women were perceived as either less technically competent or lacking interest in certain issues.A close examination of the division of labor within the committees also showed that the female committee members did not challenge gender inequality and stereotyping (Wong 2009). Males would often be in control of external communications, while women did more general administrative tasks. Women who were interviewed explained that they were 'less educated, (and have) fewer vocabularies than men,' so it was better for men to represent the community and to liaise with the government officials. This self-exclusion constrained women from building wider social networks, and showed the extent to which they rationalize their own subordinate social position. The findings by Wong (2009) also suggested that women who did participate were not the poorest in their village. The women on the committees had already been active in local affairs. In contrast, the very poor women, such as those who were widowed or the disabled, and women without sons, had very limited participation. Rabbani et al. (2009) also find that participation of females in disaster-risk management (DRM) plan/processes in Bangladesh is imbalanced. Over 90% of people interviewed in several study sites were not involved in any DRM activities or plans. In the salinity-prone area only 9% of respondents were involved in DRM-related activities compared with 7% in the flood-prone area and 2% in the drought-prone area. It appears that most of the women involved in the DRM activity/plan/committee only join seminars or meetings, and only 12% of them are involved in the decision-making process.It is clear that men and women are affected in different ways by climate change in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. On the whole, the literature suggests that women are rendered more vulnerable due to existing social structures. In the context of an entrenched gendered division of labor, women face an increased workload both directly, due to climate-induced agroecological stress, and indirectly due to male out-migration. Furthermore, when gender-specific livelihood activities are undermined due to ecological change, both genders are affected, but the lack of alternative income sources for women often causes greater vulnerability, particularly given their disproportionate dependence upon livelihoods based on common property resources. However, it must be emphasized that the impact of the gendered division of labor on vulnerability is highly dependent upon other axes of inequality such as class and caste. Another form of vulnerability is related to the health and welfare of men and women, a phenomenon particularly acute following frequent natural disasters.It has also been shown how gendered vulnerability to climate change can be better understood if one accounts for the different adaptation capacities of men and women in the context of climate stress. First, women's more limited access to key livelihood resources, namely land, finance, educational resources and information can limit the potential for them to diversify their income. This is aggravated when women are excluded from, or face discrimination in, accessing state services. Second, an important adaptation strategy is migration. While this can offer new sources of income, it is often heavily gendered, with most migration in India, Nepal and Bangladesh being limited to men. This can also increase the vulnerability of those left behind, particularly women-headed households that can be left with a greater workload and more limited resources. A final reason for women to face difficulties in adapting is their more limited participation in projects and planning to address climate change at both the local and national level.The remaining question in this context is how can state and non-state policies and interventions support local institutions and foster the local capacity of men and women to equitably adapt to climate change?It is important for state and non-state actors to raise awareness in communities of women's rights to inherit and buy property. Access to property in women's names can increase their bargaining power within the household, and even their control over agricultural income, allowing more diverse climate-smart livelihoods. Even if women cannot acquire land rights, there are other ways for women to access the means of production to provide a source of personal income. Kelkar (2009), for example, notes that rural microcredit loan programs in parts of Bangladesh have enabled women to circumvent these practices by leasing land (largely for growing vegetables, not field crops) as well as by taking over the management of fishponds from their husbands.Microfinance can offer opportunities for women's empowerment to facilitate livelihood diversification, but programs should be integrated with appropriate training and extension for productive activities. Naved (2000) and Kelkar (2009), for example, look at project interventions by donors and NGOs in Bangladesh to assist women to break into the male-dominated aquaculture sector, by obtaining user rights over fishponds from the government, by providing training and credit. The author highlights the value of group formation which enabled the women to withstand the pressure applied by men. Naved (2000) recognizes that an important dimension of this mechanism is that it challenges the traditional gender division of labor. When the project was proven successful in bringing about financial returns, women's position within households and communities was strengthened. These findings therefore suggest that the ability to collectivize and pool capital and bargaining power may be one strategy for women to gain some degree of emancipation from the everyday forms of male dominance.Following on from the last point, it is seen that collective action enables people to move from their own individual capacities to collective, systematized action (Raihan et al. 2010). GENDERNET (2011) also presents the view that when women band together in a cooperative structure, both their economic and social standing in the household improves, increasing the options for livelihood diversification in the context of climate change. A case study from Bangladesh shows how women have formed an organic farming cooperative and pooled their resources. This has allowed them to extend loans to its members to buy seed and other farming inputs without resorting to microcredit which, it claims is often inflexible, has an exorbitantly high interest rate attached to it and requires repayment to begin immediately, putting enormous psychological pressure on the borrowers.Over the decades, rural communities have used their indigenous knowledge to reduce their vulnerability to past climate variability and change (Rahman et al. 2007). Including this knowledge into disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation programs can contribute to local empowerment and enhance sustainability. In Bangladesh, Siddika (2008) acknowledges that women are at the heart of such adaptation. Women have knowledge of protecting communities from flooding by managing and maintaining water sources, building wind-resistant housing, planting trees to mitigate erosion, preserving seeds, composting to improve soil quality, and conserving safe drinking water. In many communities, women hold the most reliable knowledge about promoting food security, preserving threatened food supplies, and ensuring their family's survival in the face of shortages. Anwar and Rozario (2012) provide further illustrative examples from Bangladesh, such as the use of sugar to reduce soil salinity, and the raising of cultivable land to save it from inundation during flooding and tidal surges. The authors also emphasize that women's relation with, and perception of, their environment, tend to be comprehensive and multidimensional.There is a need for global policy frameworks on adaptation which give adequate attention to local perceptions of risk and vulnerability (Ayers 2011). This should give direction to national government priorities and program-planning processes. Ayers (2011) notes that the present 'impacts-based' approach emphasizes external scientific and technological expertise to define climate change problems, while formulating technological adaptation solutions. However, such an approach does not account for how the impacts of climate change are, in fact, experienced on the ground. Therefore, adaptation programs need to be planned, implemented and managed locally wherever possible to ensure greater sensitivity to social structures and the different needs and experiences of men and women. Ayers (2011) also notes that the framing of risk should be changed so it acknowledges the interaction between local drivers of vulnerability and climate impacts, as well as the associated factors of culture and social organization that would facilitate or inhibit adaptation options.It is crucial that women and other marginalized groups are fully involved in decision making, and that their needs are reflected in both policies and interventions. A major reason this has not happened is that the processes involved in policy articulation and program development tend to be top-down and operate on untested assumptions of what people need, rather than asking the people themselves for the information. Effective examples include, for example, the representation of women in Union Parishads in Bangladesh which was viewed as tokenistic by some (e.g., World Bank and AusAID 2007; Haque 2009), while others (e.g., Nazneen and Tasneem 2010;Hossain and Akhter 2011) have recognized the potential this provides for channeling a wide range of development and disaster management support from both the state and non-state actors to meet diverse needs of men and women.It is clear that gendered vulnerability to climate change intersects with class inequalities, and women from marginalized and poor households are often those who face the greatest challenges to adaptation. Addressing poverty clearly emerges as being a central condition for successful adaptation and mitigation, and several authors have concluded that adaptation can only happen through addressing the development gap (Raihan et al. 2010). It is important therefore that adaptation to climate change in India, Bangladesh and Nepal goes side by side with interventions which seek to address entrenched inequalities. In Nepal, for example, this includes maintaining dialogue with government departments to inform debate on critical issues such as land reform (Sugden and Gurung 2012).Adaptation planning and funding alone however cannot respond to the needs of poor communities and women. It also requires strong enabling policies and institutional mechanisms that embed a commitment to tackle gender equality across society. For adaptation financing to be effective and equitable, legislative and societal commitments to gender equality are essential to allow poor women, their families and their communities the capacity to adapt to the adverse impact of climate change. Nongovernmental and governmental actors need to advocate for legislation which guarantees equal rights for women, such as those relating to inheritance and citizenship rights, while greater efforts are required to mainstream gender equality norms within the structures of the bureaucracy.","tokenCount":"19945"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c2f4c90b8a42f677c3dc49b593c72304","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/36169839-3503-4f72-b3cf-8b9a6d8050bb/retrieve","id":"886886027"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9ed53f59-8f52-40d6-9012-b354b38ad289","pagecount":"1","content":"• We found that the loose flower plucker had higher plucking rate than hand plucking, minimum damage to flowers and plant during harvesting of flowers, no injury to fingers (thumb and index finger) (Table 1 & 2)  • From Table 1 & 2, it is cleared that the pain experience and plucking efforts during hand plucking of loose flowers were more than Plucking with the help of DFR Flower Plucker. • it was also observed that the flower quality during both the methods of plucking was good. • With the help of this flower plucker we can reduce the damage to the plant during harvesting like uplifting of plants, breaking of branches of plant etc. • Developed DFR Loose Flower Plucker was suitable for women and used for harvesting of loose flowers of following crops: Marigold, Chrysanthemum, Crossandra, Gaillardia Rose, China Aster etc.• Harvesting efficiency of DFR loose flower plucker had higher than hand plucking• Minimum damage to flowers and plant during harvesting of flowers.• This innovative gadget is ideal for women because of its women friendly features viz. simple design, small in size, light weight, easy to carry and storage, low production and plucking cost, and higher plucking efficiency and above all zero injury to fingers.• Floriculture is in Indian culture. Floriculture remained homestead till 1990 and became commercial enterprise due to liberalized economy and the seed act.  ","tokenCount":"229"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"77ed82c7d908ab59dc63d11b022c762c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/019ce288-ae4b-402c-a4b3-2232ebe88e11/retrieve","id":"1033910644"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bec82df8-6b82-4b37-9819-e190049248f6","pagecount":"2","content":"The July issue of 'Livestock Matter(s) presents a round-up of livestock development news, publications, presentations, images and upcoming events from ILRI and its partners.Azage Tegegne, a senior scientist working with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Ethiopia has received recognition from Australia's James Cook University for his outstanding contributions to agricultural research in Africa. Tegegne, an Ethiopian, was one of 12 recipients of the 2013 James Cook University Project news ILRI publishes report on rapid appraisal of Ethiopia's live cattle and beef value chain Despite the prominence of cattle in Ethiopian society and its economy, relevant qualitative and quantitative information is both scarce and subject to a variety of interpretations. Mobilizing cattle, and their supporting natural and human resource base, in a sustainable manner for development purposes is therefore a challenge that begins with identification of problems and opportunities about which there is limited agreement.What are the options for sustainable intensification through livestock feeding? How can we best deal with the competition for biomass between livestock feeding and soil fertility? These are some of the questions that future research on livestock keeping needs to address in order to feed and maintain the 600 million rural poor people worldwide who rely on livestock for their livelihoods.From 24 June to 5 July 2013, the BecA-ILRI Hub hosted a training workshop on the use of the newly installed Illumina genome sequencing machine (MiSeq). The training conducted by Claudia Hasche, a senior field application specialist from the Alliance Global Group included both wet-lab sessions as well as a number of presentations describing the MiSeq system and its different applications.Matters ARISING is the news update of the Africa RISING program. It brings you news and updates on from our projects in East, West and Southern AfricaImproving the breeds of farm animals is one important way of resolving food problems to ensure food security for the sustainable development of humanity. On 22 July, the Country Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System (C-DAGRIS) was launched in Nairobi.Saving the world's genetic wealth: Scientists in Kenya propose plans for first livestock genebank SciDevNet reports on a 'livestock genebank' that's needed to help conserve breeds and populations of farm animals, especially the wealth of diversity remaining in Africa and other developing regions, that are fast being eroded through cross-breeding and importations of exotic stock.Smallholder farmers who have settled on intensive agriculture as a way to adapt to climate change are facing threats to their health and livelihoods from animal diseases previously thought to have been eliminated, experts warn. Kenya is no exception to these new pressures on the lives of the struggling poor. According to experts from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), diseases such as anthrax, Rift Valley fever and sleeping sickness are now common in regions experiencing climate shifts.The CGIAR Consortium recently released its second annual CGIAR Research Programs (CRP) performance assessment report which took stock of CRP performance during 2012. According to the report, the first evidence of the CGIAR reform's potential for improving scientific and development synergies within the system is becoming evident. Further, the overall picture emerging is of a CGIAR system that is well positioned to capture significant synergies, both within and across the CRPs, in a way that was not possible before the reform. Financial costs of disease burden, morbidity and mortality from priority livestock diseases in Nigeria: Disease burden and cost-benefit analysis of targeted interventions  Study of the Ethiopian live cattle and beef value chain  Agricultural productivity and greenhouse gas emissions:Trade-offs or synergies between mitigation and food security? More on http://mahider.ilri.orgThis month we feature photos from the 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW6), in Accra, Ghana, 15-20 Jul 2013 Upcoming events ","tokenCount":"612"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e1ee3bf66a41fc2b2e2eb30ba7fb648e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/64e56133-29c9-44ce-8001-76b92535a5c6/retrieve","id":"-1652731384"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5bb8dfcf-88e4-4ad4-b13c-bcbcec35be85","pagecount":"14","content":"La formation a porté principalement sur la compréhension des principes FEAST, les questionnaires et la manipulation des outils, utilisant donc principalement l'ordinateur. Une descente de terrain a été organisée afin de permettre aux participants de savoir collecter les données de terrain, les entrer et les analyser en utilisant l'approche et l'outil FEAST. Le tableau 1 ci-dessous présente le programme de formation. La formation a débuté par un mot d'ouverture prononcée par la Directrice du Bureau Provincial de l'Environnement, de l'Agriculture et de l'Elevage de Makamba. Le responsable de l'élevage ILRI a pris la parole pour échanger sur le programme et l'importance de l'atelier.A la fin de la formation, les participants ont été soumis à un exercice d'évaluation qui a consisté à exporter les données FEAST après les avoir entrées puis les envoyer par mail à un collègue tout en copiant le formateur.Ainsi, le formateur a analysé les données exportées sur fond de leur praticabilité et les interventions suggérées.Les résultats ont été catégorisés selon les performances de chaque participant de la manière suivante :-  ","tokenCount":"173"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ac54fe808a45d37f3fa2bba3a845ae86","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9c1a273d-b487-4434-bf3f-5248040a3b8b/retrieve","id":"-532389529"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9877ac38-7c1f-467e-9531-01f312eeaf35","pagecount":"8","content":"The cassava plant (Manihot esculenta Crantz). is known by many names. In English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean and some other areas it is commonly known as cassava; in the Americans manioc; in Asia and the PaCific. talJioca. In Frenchspeaking .countries it is normally called manioc, 1n Brazil. mandioca or occasionally 2101. while 1n Spanish Latin-America, it is called yuca.Cassava is grown in a wide range of environments --from 30 0 N to 30 0 8 of the equator; from sea level to 2.000 m elevation; 18 0 to 3S o C temperature ranges; SO to 5.000 mm rainfall; and in rich and poor soils of pH 5 to 9. Thus the \"cassava belt\" coincides roughly with FAO EconOmic Class II or the developing countries.In terms of production, cassava is now the eight~most important food crop in the world after wheat, rice, potatoes, maize, barley. millets and sorghum, and sugar. The crop is mainly grown as an intercrop by subsistence farmers, of course In some countries (Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia) it is grown as a sale crop; over 90% of the \\'Iorld's cassava production is used for human food. Reasons advanced for the predo;n1nance of this crop iR subsistence agriculture include: I. ease of propagation --no seeds or roots must be stored for planting material; 1. relatively high yield in terms of calorific output per calorie of labor input; 3. relatively inexpensive to produce; 4. crOQ is not season bound and may be harvested throughout the year; 5. can gro'\" on soils too \"poor\" for other crops; The production of cassava is concentrated mainly in Africa (east of the Bandama River in Ivory Coast). South America and South-East Asia. Brazil Is by fartfte largest national producer followed by Indonesia, Zaire, Nigeria, Tanzania and India (Table 2). Figure 1 shows the relative importance of cassava and other !ood crops on a global basis --note that the cassava/yam belt also corresponds with most of the high population areas in the world. V'orld production of cassava is thought to have increased by about 35% over the past ten years; an annual increase of about 3. 5~4 a year. The increased ~:oduction is mainly a result of new acreage; higher yields per hectare account for less than 10')( of this increase in output. On an annual basis, this is an increase 0' about 44 k~/ha per year. for cassava/cassava based products include:1. changes in population;?.changes in the price of cassava relative to substitute and complementary foodstuffs;3. changes in per capita incomes;4. changes in tastes and preference;S. 1ndustrial uses of cassava (starch, animal feeds etc.).3.1 Changes 1n population. In the developing countries population growth rates seem to be growing at between 2.5 and 3.3% a year, thus other things being etJUal, the demand for cassava for human consumption would increase likev11se.3.2 Relative prices. As the price of one commod1ty sh1fts relative to another it is usual that there will be an increase in the use of the relatively cheaper commodity.A study of relative prices (1n Western N1geria) suggests that the price of cassava products have remained reasonably stable with respect to cereals. Thus little substitut1ve effect between cassava and cereals would be anticipated if past relative prices are used as indications of the future.3.3 Changes in per capita incomes. As incomes rise, it is normal for the purchaser to increase (decrease) his consumption of various items. For example, as 1ncomes rise, a large proportion of this increase --for the low income group -may be spent on buying more bread, minerals, etc. The income elasticities of demand (which measure the % increase in demand for a commodity resulting from a one 0/ increase in income) for cassava is low, probably between -.1 and +.1.One would not anticipate large changes 1n the demand for cassava due to income effects.Taking the above factors into account, Professor Olaylde and others have estimated that the demand for cassava for human consumption in Nigeria wIll increase by some 35% over the next ten years (taking 1975 as the base year).This is roughly equal to the increase in population or slightly above.3.4 Industrial uses of cassava. The major industrial uses of cassava are as livestock feed (mainly in Europe); starches (for use in paper manufacture, confectionary, textiles); and for producing alcohol. The largel!t sIngle use has been for livestock feed, in 1972 nearly 2.0 million tons of cassava chips and pellets were imported into Europe from Thailand. 1 With the price of cassava pellets in Europe at around $90 a ton, requires, after allOwing for shipp1ng, transport and processing costs, that the price of roots in Nigeria would have to be below NIO to Nl2 a ton to be competitive with the crop exported from Thailand.As the price of roots for human consumption is somewhat higher than this in Nigeria (MIS to N~O a ton) it is unlikely that industrial demands for cassava for industrial uses can compete with demands for human consumption in Nigeria.lIt is possible that the demand for cassava pellets in Europe will fall in future as the price of protein concentrates rises relative to feed grains. In the EEC, during the first decade of the Common Agricultural Policy the price of feed grains was kept artificially high. In such a Situation the additional cost of making up the protein deficit in livestock rations from using cassava as opposed to cereals was less than the economic advantage of the lower cost of cassava than of cereals as an energy source. However, as the relative prices of protein concentrates and cereals in the EEG are now more in line with world prices it is less economic to use cassava In formulated livestock feed.The future supply of cassava will depend on its profitability relative to other forms of agricultural produci'frm. In consequence, the supply of cassava will be influenced by:1. the relative prices of cassava and competitive crops;2. the relative yields of these crops;3. the relative labor requirements of the crops;4. government attitudes towards increasing the production of cassava; andThe prices of cassava, yam and maize in Nigeria (after allowing for seasonal price fluctuations) tend to move together --apparently gari and maize are sufficiently close substitutes as staple foods that the price of one never deviates very far from the other. Thus it appears unlikely that the price of cassava will rise relative to other products, so pr1ce incentives are unlikely to cause a \"pull\" to increase the supply of cassava at the expense of other food crops.The relative return per unit of land and labor are influenced by relative yields as well as relative prices. Thus, if the application of new technology to food crop production increases the yield of one crop relative to another, it will become profitable to shift resources to the crop with the now relatively high yield. It is left to the reader to speculate on which crops are likely to have their ~ields increa sed most, relative to others, due to the NAFPP.The supply of cassava in NIger1a has increased by about 2. 5~~ a year over the past ten years, i.e. roughly in line with the projected increase in demand for cassava for human consumption. This increase in supply as previously mentioned, has come about largely by increasing area as opposed to increasing yield per hectare. 'Nith population density and so the presence of land becoming more accute, in future, the output of cassava per hectare and per manday of labor must be increased above current levels.In consequence, while in the past cassava production has increased roughly in line with population growth rates, the capability to do so in the future, unless output per unit of land can be increased, is less certain.","tokenCount":"1276"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9e2c398b10531b207470dacfa018e4f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eefe1325-4ff7-4f0a-a58f-c019d1a1781e/retrieve","id":"1816447062"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"358efb25-dd2b-43b2-aa2d-4db260005f90","pagecount":"18","content":"This report documents a summary of the Stakeholder Forum of the Sub-sector Working Group on Irrigation (SSWG-IR) organized on 20 March 2024, in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR. It was hosted by the Department of Irrigation (DOI), Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), with support from Asian Development Bank through the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), with 50 participants representing from relevant government agencies, development partners and farmer organizations.The Stakeholder Forum was to enhance coordination between SSWG-IR and relevant stakeholders for more effective resource utilization and harness synergies in irrigation planning and implementation on a semi-annual consultation basis. Specific objectives of the first forum of the year 2024 were:• To present main results from the irrigation sub-sector review (ISSR) conducted in 2018/2019.• To reflect key recommendations from the review as ways forward and priorities to the Irrigation Development Plan from 2024-2025 and Vision to 2030 of DOI.Key sessions of the event included a) a presentation session of DOI's irrigation policy and the irrigation development plan from 2024-2025 and Vision to 2030 and the ISSR's results and b) a discussion session. Key discussion outcomes on the Review's results and ways forward were as follows:• Overall feedback on ISSR's results: it was agreed that the ISSR's results were good and still valid to the current situation. A few suggestions for further improvements were about adding more comprehensive factors affecting efficiency in irrigation utilization and further details on operational and know-how approaches in some recommendations, i.e. more specific roles of relevant sectors to facilitate effective cross-sectoral cooperation. • Reflecting ISSR's results: it was a dynamic reflection on both key challenges affecting the irrigation development and recommendations from the Review and further participant contributions to support the Irrigation Development Strategy 2024-2025 and Vision to 2030 in Lao PDR. o On the challenges, the efficiency in irrigation utilization was the main point of the discussion, which was associated with other emerging factors, i.e. high production of irrigated agriculture, farmer choice on non-farm employment, and a lack of financial access for irrigation maintenances. o On the recommendations and ways forward, many participants suggested that groundwater irrigation with solar technologies should be an investment focus to help address high energy cost, enhance climate resilience, and facilitate agricultural commercialization and crop diversification, for instance. Cross-sectoral cooperation among relevant sectors within MAF and other ministries was another recommendation that many participants expressed their interest and willingness to support through existing institutional systems and institutional mandates. Capacity building needs for public agencies at the local level and farmer organizations was also suggested as a priority in the irrigation development.  The event had two key sessions in addition to the opening and closing remarks by the chairperson. These included a) presentations on the irrigation policy and the irrigation development plan from 2024-2025 and the ISSR's results and b) following discussions about the presented findings of the Review and priorities/ways forward for continued irrigation development. The agenda was attached in Annex 2. Key messages/information of these sessions were summarized as follows:The The presentation was delivered by Dr Mark Dubois, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI)'s Country Representative in Lao PDR and Regional Representative in the Southeast Asia, as shown in Photo 2. Key contents of his presentation included:• Background of the review -The review was conducted in 2018/2019 by IWMI and WorldFish in cooperation with DOI, with funding from ADB. The Review was to assess opportunities and constraints of irrigated agriculture in Lao PDR and identify intervention areas or options for sustainable improvements of irrigation services, i.e. modernization of irrigated irrigation and integrated ecosystem services and fisheries in the design and operation and management system. • Methodology -The Review was made through analyzing more than 18,000 irrigation schemes from 2015/2016 database of DOI and 2017/2018 irrigated mapping, in addition to document reviews and stakeholder consultations at the national, the provincial and the district level. • Findings on challenges influencing the irrigation development in Lao PDR -The Review conceptualized challenges into three categories in relation to physical, socio-economic and capacity constraint and highlighted underlying interlinked challenges such as deterioration of irrigation schemes, degradation of upstream watersheds, and insufficiencies of water governance and data collection and management. • Recommendations -The Review outlined overall recommendations of both upland and lowland schemes and their specific recommendations. o The overall recommendations were about: ▪ Economic improvements of farmers using irrigation for agriculture and fisheries. ▪ Strengthening planning and management through improving monitoring, data collection and analysis. The discussion session was facilitated by Dr Dubois, following his presentation. During the session, all participants were asked to share their thoughts on key challenges and recommendations from the Review and their experiences, which are still influencing irrigation development and modernization. Key topics of the discussion were outlined in the next section -Summary of the discussion.A brief introduction on the objectives and plan to have a simple survey on existing/active irrigation projects of the stakeholders was announced by Dr Dubois, after the discussion section. The survey is to have comprehensive information on key actors implementing irrigation projects in different provinces and districts in Lao PDR, types of irrigations, purposes of utilizations and outcomes.The Forum received good contributions from the participants in terms of sharing their thoughts, experience, lessons learned and suggestions to reflect the Review's results in sustainable improvements in irrigation development. Their key topics raised during discussion were conceptualized as follows:It was acknowledged by the participants that the Review's results were still valid to date from its initial release in 2019 and good for dissemination to all relevant sectors and stakeholders. For example:• Ms Anna Mutta, SNV found the findings of the Review remained relevant to the current situation.She also proposed other participants to share the Review's results with other stakeholders within MAF and other ministries who were not attending the day's event.However, there were also some suggestions for further improvements to the Review's results. These included:• Mr Takuya UO, Embassy of Japan: o He found that the presented Review's results were not comprehensive regarding the causes of efficiency of the irrigation. He learned that there were many irrigation canals in Lao PDR were made in soilnot properly made in concrete, which affected the efficiency of water supply. He suggested that the Review should have this reflected. • Mr Soulivanh Pattivong, International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD) also observed other points in the Review's results that need to be improved as follows:o No clear approaches for extension of using new technologies, integrating the government mechanism, using knowledge of the community and involvement of the private sector. o No clear roles and responsibilities of relevant sectors recommended for cross-sectoral cooperation.Review was not well reflected some other factors influencing the efficiency of irrigation utilization, such as farmer's choice to cultivate only one season per year and opted for non-farm employment or due to a high cost of electricity cost for pumping water during dry seasons.The Forum discussed some key topics in relation to both challenges and recommendations as ways forward for the irrigation development and modernization as follows:Efficiency in utilization of the irrigation schemes, in particular, those water-pump irrigation schemes seemed to be a highlighted challenge of irrigation development, for the discussion. Many influenced factors were raised during the discussion, in addition to those factors identified in the Review, as follows:• Mr Takuya UO, Embassy of Japan who pointed out that the efficiency of the irrigation was also associated with the irrigation design. He learned that many irrigation canals in Lao PDR were soilbased canals which had less efficiency in water supply than concrete canals. o Dr Chanthakhone Boualaphanh, NAFRI, who also supported that soil canals were not often efficient in water supply due to high water lossso that she suggested that construction/design of irrigation should be one of the considerations. • Dr Phanxay Inxay, Department of Extension and Cooperatives (DEAC) also raised other factors influencing the efficiency of irrigation utilization, such as: o In some areas, farmers chose to cultivate only one season per year because the yield of the seasonal cultivation was sufficient for their household consumption, even though water supply was available for year-round cultivation. o In the other case, many young farmers in the provinces along the Mekong River often chose not to do rice farming in the dry season and migrated to Thailand to do off-farm employment instead. This also caused a lack of labor forces for agricultural production and insufficiency in the use of irrigation schemes. o He also learned that some farmers stopped their rice cultivation due to the high cost of electricity. o In response to the challenges and increase efficiency in irrigation utilization, he expressed his support to the recommendation to promote diverse use of irrigation for other crops apart from rice. He also raised a successful case in Savannakhet where farmers used irrigation to grow other high value crops.Many participants share their positive thoughts on groundwater irrigation as a potential way forward. These included:• Dr Thatheva Saphangthon, DALaM shared his thoughts that irrigation development may need to step back to utilize groundwater and groundwater management for responding to droughts and floods. He found that a project in Pakxan on groundwater with water gates to control water supply was a good example to minimize the electricity cost for water pumping and enhance joint efforts among different sectors.expressed his support for the Review's recommendation on promoting groundwater irrigation, because groundwater was often considered clean, so that it was suitable for clean agriculture production, as part of the development strategies of MAF. • Dr Chanthakhone Boualaphanh, NAFRI shared her suggestion that a key point to consider for the groundwater irrigation were about identifying suitable areas and cooperating among relevant sectors to promote groundwater use. • Mr Saykham Sithavong, Faculty of Water Resources, NUOL also supported that relevant projects should consider the fact that groundwater was insufficient in many areas in Lao PDR.o He also supported the Review's recommendation on re-charging groundwater through digging ponds and wells.The discussion covered capacity building for public agencies and farmer strengthening. Details of the areas for the capacity building were as follows:• Mr Takuya UO, Embassy of Japan urged for the needs of capacity building for local partners to maintain irrigation facilities, i.e. operation and maintenance of pumps. • Mr Saykham Sithavong, Faculty of Water Resources, NUOL also raised that human resources are still a crucial issue, recalling many existing irrigation projects while a lack of the technical officers who had irrigation profession at the local level. He added that there are only one or two technical officers with irrigation professions in some districts, led to deployment of non-irrigational technical officers to work in irrigation projects, which was often challenging. o He also expressed his support to the recommendation on capacity building for farmers, in particular, the capacity on water management and utilization. He observed that farmers in some areas seemed to have a lack of ownership in the management of irrigation water, as they often did not take the initiative to fix irrigation schemes, i.e. broken water pipes to prevent water loss and broken canals. • Mr Soulivanh Pattivong, IFAD raised a point of farmer strengthening as another way forward, recalling the fact that farmers in Lao PDR were often considered smallholders and this characteristic would cause a high cost of their production. He elaborated that these smallholder farmers should be strengthened through formulation of farmer organizations with formal registration and scale-size of at least 100 or 1,000 members, not as small as 20-30 members.suggested that, with the importance of water management being emphasized, there should have supporting projects to build capacity on water management at the field level to help farmers increase their water management capacity and reduce the cost of the water use.Cross-sectoral cooperation was another recommendation of the Review that received good feedback from many participants, even though this may not be a new initiative for irrigation interventions. Key discussions and suggestions were about institutional-based cooperation on integrated water resources management and water management to increase efficiency in irrigation utilization, as follows:• Ms Anna Mutta, SNV shared her thoughts on the way forward to facilitate cross-sectoral cooperation that there was a need to bring in all relevant sectors within MAF and other ministries into dialogues about the Review's findings, in particular, the cooperation to increase efficiency of water use and demand across the sectors, recalling the fact that many sectors are competing for water resources.• Dr Thatheva Saphangthon, DALaM expressed his support for the cross-sectoral cooperation around irrigation strategies and applications and emphasized that the focus should be on a systemic approach, i.e. watershed management which was already outlined in the development policy of the Lao Government. o He recommended that the watershed management system should accommodate mitigation of those species as there are sources of food, nutrition and livelihoods of the surrounding community. According to his survey in 2020, in Namnguem Basin, many fish species from small catchments and rivers were main sources for food, nutrition and livelihoods of the people. • Dr Chanthakhone Boualaphan, NAFRI also expressed her support for the cross-sectoral cooperation and willingness to take part of the initiative in any coming irrigation projects, for instance, NAFRI could take lead on introducing new seed varieties together with others who may work on soil improvement, organic fertilizer production and market promotion. She added that these would help farmers to cope with expensive production inputs, enhance market access and extensive production and irrigation use. o He also shared his thoughts on development of water sources around flood-prone areas that this would be better to continue the development with an aim to support agricultural commercialization, recalling the fact that the national food security has been achieved. • Mr Soulivanh Pattivong, IFAD also found the need to have cross-sectoral partnership to support the irrigation interventions. However, he suggested that this should start with determining clear responsibilities of each sector including MONRE, not only MAF. o As part of the initiative, he emphasized the need to also involve the private sector because they have the networks in production, technical support and market. o He appreciated the recommendation on the research and development (R&D) cooperation among relevant sectors to provide evidence-based research for policy makers, through existing mechanisms. • Dr Phanxay Inxay, DEAC shared his thoughts to expand capacity support to different types of farmer groups such as vegetable production groups, livestock groups and other cooperatives who may require water for their productions, as to increase efficiency in irrigation utilization. • Mr Koh Myung Seong, EDCF also expressed his support for the cooperation initiative on rural transformation framework, to support farmers to make an easy transition from subsistent farming to market-oriented production. He elaborated that rural communities were often on subsistent farming and had different challenges to enhance their livelihoods, although they may have more resources for agricultural production across the year. He added that the challenges around a lack of labor forces and low-income from farming often forced them to migrate to cities to find better job opportunities.These topics were discussed as food-for-thoughts to ensure efficiency in irrigation utilization and operation and management. Key contributors to the discussion were as follows:• Mr Takuya UO, Embassy of Japan shared his thoughts on the need to have sufficient access to financial sources by the relevant agencies from either the Government or international organizations to ensure irrigation operation and efficiency, for regular irrigation maintenance. He elaborated that irrigation facilities would require maintenance after a couple of years because they often would be broken, while the relevant public agencies cannot manage to maintain due to the financial constraint. He added that there were still few accesses sources of finance for the government for irrigation maintenance purpose.• Mr Soulivanh Pattivong, IFAD observed that financial access was commonly raised as another important factor to facilitate the groups to optimize their investments through commercial banks and other financial institutes. However, the matter of a suitable interest rate for loans has not yet been discussed. • Dr Sathathep Thammachack, Lao-Korean Irrigation Development and Cooperation Center also suggested the need to establish irrigation funds which can be sourced for the maintenance. o In addition, he shared his thoughts on the need to re-assess the investment rate of irrigation. He added that the current investment rate of $5,000/hectare for irrigation system development may not be sufficient for a good irrigation system with concrete canals with water gates and on-farm systems to enhance water management capacity. • Mr Khammouan Phaymany, Lao Farmer Network (LFN) expressed his concern for the high cost of electricity for water pump for rice cultivation during the dry season and proposed to the higher authorities to consider how to support farmers to cope with the energy costs who learned from his network farmers that the high cost of electricity was a very significant factor causing farmers to stop. o He added that the current electricity rate of LAK 700,000 -LAK 900,000 per Rai (0.16 hectare) was high and would cause a loss for rice farmers as they often did not generate income from their subsistent farming. • Dr Latsamy Phounvisouk, NAFRI shared her lessons learned from Vietnam as food for thought that the exemption of fees for agricultural land and irrigation use maybe factors influencing their sustainable agricultural production and market access. There were also interesting topics raised during the Forum, in response to other recommendations of the Review. These includes:• Technology application: Dr Sathathep Thammachack, Lao-Korean Irrigation Development and Cooperation Center shared his positive thoughts on the Review's recommendation to apply technologies to enhance its efficiency and to response to the phenomenon of labor shortage, however, an underlying challenge would be about means to maintain performance of the IT system. • Reduction of irrigated areas: Dr Phanxay Inxay, DEAC learned that an emerging issue in the irrigation development was a reduction in the irrigated areas due to different factorsone of those was an expansion of urban areas led to a conversion of rice fields into construction land, for instance. This is often found in large cities, like in Vientiane Capital. • Low forest coverage: Mr Inpone Senekhamtry, EU shared his thoughts that low forest coverage in the upstream areas would be the major issue for the reduction of water for irrigation for the current and the future.The Stakeholder Forum successfully achieved its key objectives to receive constructive feedback from key stakeholders for the ISSR Review's results and to the results as ways forward to the implementation of the irrigation development plan. Key outcomes of the Forum were summarized as follows:Overall feedback on ISSR's results: o It was agreed that the overall results of the Review conducted in 2018/2019 prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, are still valid to now and good for further dissemination to all relevant sectors and stakeholders. o However, there were a few suggested improvements such as adding more factors affecting efficiency in irrigation utilization, i.e. type of irrigation canals which should be in concrete because soil canals often had higher loss of water supply; specifying clear approaches for extension services on technology applications and utilization of local knowledge; and determining specific roles and responsibilities of different sectors to facilitate effective cross-sectoral cooperation.The Forum also shared their thoughts on key challenges and recommendations from the Review's results, as influencing factors and ways forward in support to the Irrigation Development Strategy 2024-2025 and Vision to 2030 in Lao PDR. Key topics of the discussion were as follows: o The efficiency in irrigation utilization was the main challenge that many participants found the need to address it, in addition capacity of public agencies and farmer organizations on operation and management of irrigation schemes, for instance. o Key causes affecting the irrigation efficiency raised in addition to those identified in the review were a) type/design of irrigation canals which were not suitable for ensuring efficiency in water supply and water management on the farm-level, for example, b) a farmer's choice to cultivate only one season per year and left un-used irrigation schemes in dry seasons for off-farm employments and c) cost of electricity for pumping irrigation. o The participants also expressed their strong support on some key recommendations of the review to enhance the efficiency and other challenges as follows: o Cross-sectoral cooperation among relevant sectors within MAF and other ministries was one of the recommendations that many participants expressed their interest and willingness to support through existing institutional systems and institutional mandates. Some also believed that this cross-sectoral cooperation should be expanded to involvement of the private sector and different groups of agricultural farmers, i.e. animal production groups. o In similar to the recommendation on capacity building that some participants proposed that farmer group strengthening should be part of the plan. Key capacity needed for the farmers were water management skills and group performance to enhance their collective advantages. o Increasing financial access was also considered crucial means for the public agencies to maintain irrigation schemes and contribute to its efficiency.o Groundwater irrigation seemed to be a promoting solution to both the participants and DOI, as its potential to address the cost issue of pumping irrigation, agricultural productions for both food security and commercialization for farmers in the areas with lack access of pumping irrigation. • Some food-for-thoughts were also raised during the discussion. These were:o Government incentive/subsidy to enable farmers to handle the high cost of electricity for pumping water. o Advocating for joint demarcation of areas for irrigated agriculture to support the irrigation development and also enhance efficiency in irrigation utilization. o Reassessing the estimate investment rate of irrigation to enhance capacity of irrigation facilities in water management and water supply sufficiencythe current rate of US$5,000/hectare was not feasible for modernized irrigation schemes.DOI was proposed to undertake some key follow-up actions, as part of the ways forward based on the suggestions from the stakeholders and secretariat perspective, as follows: o Disseminate the Review's results with relevant sectors within MAF and across the ministries as well as other stakeholders through different platforms and means, for example: o Set up/seek opportunities to have follow-up meetings with the sectors outlined in the Review's recommendations to discuss cooperation, i. ","tokenCount":"3674"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5954d65247e66de7aa682b892f6cdd7","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://ciat-library.ciat.cgiar.org/Articulos_Ciat/Digital/SB113.3R49C.1_Reuni%C3%B3n_de_Trabajo_sobre_Fortalecimiento_de_Sistemas_para_Mejorar_la_Calidad.pdf","id":"-629954483"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0f0d5eae-7543-41fa-8d1a-fe324b7d2faf","pagecount":"283","content":"La certificaci6n de semillas ha tomado en los últimos años una gran relevancia en la mayorla de los países latinoamericanos. El apoyo mutuo en el desarrollo de esta clase de acciones ampliara en forma significativa el intercambio de semillas dentro del ~rea, influyendo significativamente en el desarrollo econbroico y social de 105 países. Vale la pena resaltar la necesidad de reforzar los sistemas de control externo y los de control interno de calidad de semillas, para que éstos trabajen mancomunadamente y tengan un importante impacto en los paIses.En reuniones anteriores los organismos de certificación solicitaron al CIAT la realización de una reunión que les permitiera conocer los avances de la certificación de semillas en otros países con tecnología mas avanzada y así poder analizar Sus enfoques y perspectivas, con el fin de utilizarlos como una herramienta en el desarrollo de sus propios programas. Por esta razón, 1. Unidad de Semillas del CIAT decidió efectuar esta Reunión de Trabajo, la cual se llev6 a cabo fuera de su sede, como una forma de apoyo a la real izaci6n del XII Seminario Panamericano de Semillas. Durante este evento la Unidad de Semillas recibió el apoyo del Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganaderla, y Pesca del Uruguay. por intermedio de su Dirección de Granos 1I0IGRA\", cuyo Subdirector y Coordinador de 1. Unidad Ejecutiva de Semilla. In9.Agr. Gustavo Blanco Damarco, prestó una constante e invaluable colaboración durante el transcurso de la mencionada Reunión.El CIAr, a través de su Unidad de Semillas, agradece a todos los expositores y partiCipantes por el eficiente trabajo realizado. el cual permitió cumplir con los objetiVOS y propuestas, y a su vez espera que 1as conclusiones puedan ser imp'ementadas en los respectivos países. La Unidad de Semillas podr~ colaborar en el impulso de algunas acciones que permitan el desarrollo de los sistemas de control de calidad en América latina y el Caribe.los objetivos de esta reunión fueron los siguientes: l.Identificar mecanismos para asegurar la calidad de la semilla por parte de los productores.2. Determinar factores que aseguren el éxito de un programa de control interno de calidad de semillas y que favorezcan su utilización.3. Promover una mayor participación de los programas de certificación de semillas en la transferencia de tecnología.Facilitar la integración de los organismos encargados de promover la calidad de semillas de la región.La reunión se organizó en cuatro actividades principales:1.Presentación de ponencias sobre tecnología y control interno y externo de calidad; 2.Aspectos de organización, operación y financiación de programas de certificaci6n de semillas y otros sistemas oficiales de control de calidad; 3.Mesas redondas relacionadas con los temas anteriores;ConfonllaciOn de cuatro grupos de trabajo relacionados con el control interno y externo; los mecanismos para acelerar la transferencia de tecnología; y los pasos necesarios para lograr una mayor uniformidad en la terminología, los estándares y procedimientos en el control de calidad. La agricultura mundial es cada vez más prOductiva y mas sofisticada; ha desarroilado un sistema en el que dla a dia hay menos cabida para cometer errores.Los niveles altos de producción comienlan con una buena poblaci6n de pl~ntulas vigorosas y sanas. Esto significa que la semilla que se siembre debe Ser de buena calidad. Para garantizar una agricultura productiva que parta de semilla de buena calidad, se debe desarrollar y utilizar sistemas para asegurar que la siembra de semilla de calidad sea adecuada para suplir las necesidades de los usuarios de semillas. Las leyes de semillas deben proporcionar esttindares minirnos de calidad de la semilla. Las agencias gubernamentales deben realizar inspecciones y aMlisis para asegurar al usuario que 1. calidad que exige es la calidad que recibe. Se necesitan programas de certiFicación o similares que sirvan de guía para la prOducción, el acondicionamiento, y el mercadeo de semilla de buena cal idad. Los usuarios deben conocer 1a disponibilldad existente, y deben saber reconocer 1. semilla de buena calidad y, a menudo~ saber c6mo utilizar la semilla de buena calidad.la agricultura mundia1 está echando marcha hacia adelante. cada vez produciendo más para alimentar nuestra creciente población~ El número de personas comprOlr.etidas en la producci6n agrícola continúa disminuyendo. la producción agrícola se esta volviendo más sofisticada a medida que se incrementa el uso de maquinaria, fertilizantes y plaguicídas, y semil~a de variedades mejoradas; por io tanto tenemos un sistema en el que el margen de error se est~ estrecha~do aún mas. Nos vemos obligados a cometer menos errores en 1a producción agrícola de 10 Que podlamos hace s610 unos pocos años.Este sofisticado sistema de producción que se ha desarrollado y que continúa en desarrollo, requiere el m&ximo beneficio de cada insumo y se inicia a partir de la semilla. Sin un. población de plantas uniforme y adecuada. se perjudica seriamente desde el mismo inicio el potencial para obtener rendimientos óptimos. las semillas son el punto de partida de la producción agricola. El agricultor debe tener suficionte cantidad de semillas de calidad adecuada para minimizar el riesgo involucrado al iniciar la producción de un cultivo. La semilla debe suplir la necesidad del agricultor que la esta sembrando.Para suplir esta necesidad debemos tener sistemas para la producción~ el acondicionamiento, el almacenamiento, y la distribución; sistemas capaces de llevar semillas a nuestros agricultores; semilla que cumpla con sus expectativas y requerimientos. Esto se debe hacer a un costo aceptable para el agricultor y que permita a la compa~ía de semillas o a 1a agencia gubernamental seguir operando~ Estos logros se pueden alcanzar únicamente si podemos controlar la calidad de nuestros productos para asegurar al usuario que 10 que recibe es 10 que necesita y 10 que espera.Los factores externos, tales como 1as leyes de semil1as, deben ser adecuados para garantizar la calidad del prOducto y, sin embargo, 10 suficientemente indulgentes para no excluir del mercado los materiales que se necesitan. Las leyes de semillas generalmente permiten la venta de productos de calidad mlnima. En la mayoría de los casos. los usuarios exigen una calidad en el producto superior a 10s esttindares establecidos por las leyes de semillas.Además de proporcionar 105 estt\\ndares mínimos de ca1idad, las leyes de semillas son regulaCiones de \"veracidad en el etiquetado\", diseñadas para garantizar que el comprador está recibiendo 10 que el comerciante asegura que est6 vendiendo.los programas de certificación o similares generalmente tienen estándares más cercanos a los exigidos por el mercado que los estandares mlnimos establecidos por la ley de semillas. Estos es tanda res también se deben establecer para satisfacer las necesidades del agricultor y tener en cuenta las capacidades de producenn. Por ejemplo, a veces es imposible producir semilla de ciertos cultivos, que esté libre de semilla de malezas indeseables. No se pueden establecer estandares que exijan semilla libre de malezas, pero sI que el número de semillas de malezas sea 10 suficientemente bajo para minimizar los efectos adversos en la producción del cultivo.Esto no significa que nos prestamos a 1. producción y venta de semilla de mala calidad, sino Que desarrol1amos est&ndares que son reales, con los cuales se puede trabajar y que, al mismo tiempo, son 10 suficientemente efectivos para satisfacer las necesidades de la producción de cultivos.Los programas de certi .ricación reguladores, sino m~s bien como abastecimiento de semilla de o similares no se deben mirar como programas diseñados para ayudar en el buena calidad para la prOducción agrícola. Debe ser un sistema que ayude al semi11ista a producir semilla de mejor calidad y no que 10 obligue a cumplir con una serie de regulaciones. la certificaciOn no necesita estar dentro de una organización gubernamental.Puede ser independiente, asociada con organizaciones de extensión o de investigación. la certificación debe estar autorizada por el gobierno y con permiso para funcionar, pero no tiene que ser una agencia del gobierno.Un control interno de la calidad que garantice la satisfacción de las necesidades de los agricultores, debe recibir y recibir~ la mayor atenci6n por parte de los semi 11 istas. Es decir, los estt'índares establecidos debeo ser realistas; no obstante, deben satisfacer las necesidades y exigencias del agricultor.Si los productos no son de uoa calidad gen~tica. fisiológica, y f1s1camente aceptable, el mercado eventualmente eliminar~ esa fuente de semillas si existen otras alternativas. Para pOder sobrevivir, se debe tener clientes que regresen afio tras a~o. Esto es cierto tanto en los programas privados corno eo los públicos. Si el producto no es satisfactorio habra poca o nioguna demanda de él. los sistemas de control de calidad deben comeozar en el campo y continuar hasta que el agricultor haya recibido y/o sembrado la semilla.Es de extrema importancia en todas las fases de la producción que la semilla de calidad se encuentre disponible en el mercado. La semilla de buena calidad es el producto final de uo buen comienzo y del seguimiento a través de todas las fases, desde la selecciOn en el campo hasta el mercado.Todos eo la organizacióo deben Ser conscientes de la calidad. Deben reconocer los procedimientos~ tener instrucciones adecuadas para hacer el seguimiento de los procedimientos, y tener en cuenta las consecuenci as s i nO se siguen los procedimi entos. la admi ni s traci 6n debe comprometerse con la calidad si el sistema ha de ser efectivo.Si las decisiones administrativas comprometen los estándares de cal idad con el fio de veoder semilla, entonces los programas para garantizar la calidad fracasarán. Es decir, si algún segmento de la or9anilaci~n no cumple con su responsabilidad, e1 programa fracasará.El control de calidad debe garantizar que el agricultor reciba buena semilla, resultado del compromiso de toda la organIzación.Una vez que Sé asume este compromiso y se determina el nivel de la calidad de la producción, se deben seleccionar los procedimientos para asegurar que estos estandares sean alcanzados. Se deben tomar medidas para asegurar que se sigan los procedimientos + El mejor método es desarrollar un Manual de Control de Calidad. Este documento debe definir el nivel de calidad aceptable en todas las áreas, desde el campo hasta la semilla lista para ser despachada. Debe describir en detalle todos los procedimientos y las pruebas para la evaluaci6n de la cal idad, de tal manera que 00 quede duda en la mente del personal eO cuanto a qué es aceptable y qué 00 10 es.Se debe responsabilizar a alguien de un programa de control y/o confianza en la cal idad. Esta persona debe tener la autoridad para tomar decisiones acerca de la implementación de las pollticas de la organización relacionadas con la calidad de la semilla y asegurar que Se logren los Objetivos propuestos utilizando los servicios de todo el personal de la compañia. El control de calidad involucra al personal en todas las &reas de la organización --desde el fitomejoractor y el personal de campo, hasta el almacenista y distribuir del producto final. Si las decisiones tomadas no se extienden a cada área del programa de semillas, ser~ dificil lograr un control de calidad efectivo y garantizar la calidad.La educación del usuario de semillas ~s importante para que reconozca la calidad. Est~ puede lograrse mediante el servicio del personal de extensión, de otras agencias gubernamentales tales como los ministerios de agricultura, de compañías privadas,. y mediante las mismas agencias reguladoras y de certificaci6n. Los usuarios deben saber cuáles son las leyes de semillas y 10 que significan. Deben reconocer la certificación como uO medio para garantizar la buena calidad de la semilla.las organízaciones públicas y privadas deben proporcionar semilla de calidad adecuada y los usuarios (agricultores) deben estar en capacidad de distinguir entre los niveles de calidad disponibles. Sin embargo, los procesos y operaciones del beneficio de semillas Se deben llevar a cabo dentro de condiciones bastante específicas a fin de evitar da~os a la semilla. Es por ~sto que para poder hacer uso de esa tecnología, para obtener y asegurar la calidad de la semilla, se debe tener un sistema de control interno de ca 1í dad.Un lote de semillas puede estar compuesta de semillas en varios estados de madurez, semi 11 as enfermas ~ semi nas de otras variedades ylo especies, semillas de malezas y material inerte. Además, muchas veces las semillas cosechadas no están en condiciones físicas (humedad, telTlperatura~ wateriales indeseables) y/o fisio16gicas (latencia, enfermedades, insectos, problema de llenado) para ser almacenadas o ser directamente sembradas. Se pueden hacer algunas operaciones pO$cosecha para beneficiar el lote a fin de que pueda ser utilizado confiablemente en la siembra.Desde el momento en que las semillas alcanzan la madurez fisiológica están almacenadas en el campo expuestas a las condiciones adversas del medio ambiente como son la lluvia, el rocfo, las altas o bajas temperaturas, los vientos, los insectos, los pájaros, las ratas, y los microorganismos. Por estas razones, la cosecha debe hacerse 10 mh pronto posible después del punto de madurez fisiológica.Especies como las forrajeras en general y muchas variedades de arroz y leguminosas que presentan un alto indice de desgrane natural requieren realizar la cosecha cuando las semillas todavio tienen un alto contenido de humedad --por ejemplo, semillas de Lolium multiflorum con 30% de humedad pueáen producir mas de 1 t/ha--pero si permanecen en el campo hasta que las semillas alcancen 13% de humedad, 1. producción disminuye a menos de 0.2 tIna.Con las actuales variedades de arroz, adema s del inconveniente del desgrane natural, también se presenta el problema de fracturas ocasionadas por altos gradientes internos de humedad ylo temperatura de la semilla. Estas fracturas tienen poco efecto en la calidad fisiológica de h semilla, a no ser que se produzcan muy cerca del embrión. El arroz tan pronto alcanza una humedad por debajo del 24% puede ser cosechado mec8nicamente+Entonces. para evitar el deterioro en el campo, el desgrane natural, y las fracturas, las semillas se cosechan con un alto contenido de humedad, requiriéndose que el equipo esté muy bien ajustado para minimizar las pérdidas de cosecha y los daños mec~nicos. las especies y muchas variedades de semillas tienen un rango óptimo de humedad para realizar la cosecha y minimizar los problemas de pérdidas y daños mec!nicos.Después de la cosecha, las semillas son trasportadas a la Unidad de Beneficio de Semillas (UBSl para recibir los manejos de poscosecha. La operación de recepción en la UBS consiste b~sicamente en caracterizar sus atributos físicos y fisiológiCOS. Por 10 tanto, el control interno de calidad es muy importante para conoCer la historia de cada lote.En general, un lote está constituí do por más de una tonelada de semillas y para conocer su humedad, pureza, y viabilidad es necesario hacer un buen muestreo para que la pequefia cantidad de semillas utilizada en las pruebas ~vlabllidad 200-400 semillas) realmente represente el lote.La cosecha de las semillas con alta contenido de humedad (18-24%) hace obligatorio el secamiento de las mismas para aumentar su potencial de almacenamiento. los elementos que intervienen en el secamiento deben estar dentro de ciertos límites, para no exponer la calidad del lote de semillas: Temperatura del Aire Hay una relación estrecha entre la capacidad de secamiento del aire y la temperatura, para una misma huwedad absoluta, por 10 cual es aconsejable calentar el aire para aumentar asi la velocidad del sacami ento. Ese ca 1 entami ento tiene un 1 imi te, dependí ando de-1 a humedad de la semí11a. Para arroz con más del 18~ de humedad se recomienda que la temperatura máxima de la semilla no sea superior a 35°C, mientras que la semilla con 14% de humedad puede ser calentada hasta 42\"C.Humedad Relativa (HR) Las semillas son materiales higroscópicos; pierden o ganan humedad en función de la HR del aire ambiente. Comercialmente se calienta el aire para disminuir la HR y acelerar así el secamiento.En los secadores intermitentes, se calienta el aire de tal forma que la HR baje hasta 5-15'X para acelerar el secamiento. Sin embar-go, ésto mismo no se puede hacer en los secadores estacionarios donde la semilla no se mueve durante todo el tiempo de secamiento~ la HR debe estar entre 40-70~, pues si est& por debajo de 40X la semilla de la capa inferior entrará en equilibrio higroscópico con menos del 9.0% de humedad, quedando muy susceptible el dano mecánico. Con HR superior al 7Q%, las semillas entrarán en equilibrio higroscópico con mas del 14.0%, el cual es alto para el almacenamiento.El aire cumple dos ~unciones durante el secamiento: una es aportar la energía necesaria para que las semillas pierdan agua al ambiente y la otra es trasportar la humedad extra~da fuera de la masa de semillas.En general, cuanto más alto sea el flujo del aire, m~s rápido es el secamiento y mejor para la semilla, hasta un punto donde al aumentar el flujo de aire, la velocidad de secamiento permanece constante. Por otro lado, un flujo de aire bajO, (2m 3 /min/semilla), aplicado a semilla con un 20% de humedad, har~ que el secamiento sea muy lento, ocasionando el deterioro rápida de la semilla.El sistema intermitente permi~e una gran velocidad de secamiento (1-2% por hora) y facilita mantener la identidad de los lotes de semilla.Sin embargo, este sistema puede causar dai'ios mecánicos en semillas susceptibles (soya) debido al número de vueltas que la semilla debe dar al atravesar el sistema elevador-secador. El sistema estacionario minimiza los da~os mec&nicos y las mezclas varietales. Sin embargo, con este sistema es difícil mantener la identidad del lote porque sue1e ser usado después del secamiento para almacenar las semillas totalmente. es decir, con capas de semilla de ha~ta 5 o más metros de altura, 10 que provoca l. mezcla de los lotes.~OMPIMIENTO DE LA LATENCIA La latencia minimiza el deterioro (semilla de soya)t y evita la germinación de las semillas en la planta. Sin embargo, no eS deseable si en la época de la siembra las semillas est~n todavía latentes.Comercialmente hay en la práctica dos m~todos para romper latencia:Calor Las semillas de arroz necesitan 55°C durante 4 dlas, mientras que las semillas de Paspa1um, requieren 60 c C durante 6 dias para el rompimiento de la latencia. Otras semillas tambi@n necesitan alta temperatura. Para que ése tratamiento no caU$e daiío, la sefl'li11a debe tener un contenido de humedad por debajo del 12%; cuanto mas seca esté la semilla, mayores temperaturas soporta.Muchas semill as de pastos necesitan ser escari.ficadas, v. gr. Centrosema, Capica; la escari+'icación se hace con ácido sulfúrico concentrado. El tiempo de exposici6n al ~cjdo es crítico y debe ser suficiente para romper la latencia (20 a 30 minutos) y no dañar la semilla.La éscarificaci6n también puede ser mecánica y, en éSé caso~ despu~s del proceso la semilla debe ser sembrada dentro de un período de 2-3 meses, pues las semillas escarificadas tienen un bajo potencial de almacenamiento.Se puede considerar que todos materiales indeseables y su grado los lotes de semillas contienen de remoción depende principalmente de la diferencia \"ísica entre ellos y de la disponibíl idad de equipo de trabajo de la empresa de semillas, pues en la practica por cada unidad de material indeseable que se desea separar también se remueven de 2 a 5 semillas deseables.Hay diversas máquinas desarrolladas para hacer las distintas separaciones de materiales, cuya utilización depende del cultivo y del material ;ndeseab1e que se desea separar. Sin embargo, la máquina de aire y zaranda es común para todos 105 lotes de sewillas.La m~quina de aire y zaranda es básica en toda UBS y muchas veces cuando no vienen problemas del campo, es suficiente para limpiar las semi llas.La relación entre las propiedades físicas de la semilla y su calidad fisioló9íca~ se expresa mejor y m&s consistentemente con el peso espec1fico en semillas de gramíneas forrajeras, arroz, y trigo, entre otras. La separación\" de las semillas con menor peso específico resultara en un lote de semilla de mas alta calidad. Para hacer esa separaC10n se utiliza la mesa de gravedad, en la cual las semillas lívianas tienden a salir por un lado y las pesadas tienden a salir por el otro lado de la mesa. En general, si la máquina está trabajando bien, la diferencia en porcentaje entre el peso especifico de la fracción pesada y 1. fracción liviana debe ser superior al 7.0%.Trasporte Oentro de la UBS, durante el beneficio, la semil1a es trasportada a granel varias veceS antes de ser empacada. Entre los medios de trasporte, e1 elevador de cangilones es el de uso m~s común y e1 que puede ocasionar mezclas varietales y da~os mecánicos.Se pueden utilizar varios procedimientos para minimizar las mezclas varietales además de la limpieza del elevador; por ejemplo, colocar una arandela o sup1emento detrás del cangilón que cree un espacio de : 1 cm para el flojO facil de 1. semilla. En la cabeza del elevador se coloca una protección en V invertida por debajO de la polea depósito de semina. Para minimizar los dalias aconsejable que la velocidad lineal de la banda sea para evitar el mecáni cos, es a 1 rededor de 1 m/s€g y el diámetro de la polea superior por lo W€nos 25 cm, para que la semilla sea descargada suavemente de Tos cangilones y no sea lanzada.Para desempeñar so 'unción la semilla debe superar muchas adversidades antes de germinar, emerger, y producir una nueva planta. Existen productos que protegen la semilla de enfermedades, insectos, humedad alta y baja del suelo, temperatura baja y productos fitot6xicos.Generalmente el tratamiento más común que se hace a la semilla, busca protegerla en el suelo hasta su emergencia.Hay enfermedades trasmitidas por semillas --como en el caso del frijol--y otras enfermedades que pueden atacar pocos días despu~s de la emergencia de la semilla como es el caso de Pyricularia en arroz. Para cada caso hay un grupo de productos específicos, por 10 cual el tratamiento requiere conocimientos sobre el cultivo y las condiciones de siembra.Los insectos pueden atacar las semillas mientras estan todav;' en el campo (ma;z, frijol, trigo) requiriendo fumigación tan pronto como sea posible, con el fin de eHminar los insectos en todas sus fases de desarrollo.Después de esa operación es aconsejable proteger el lote de semillas con insecticidas residuales.Cuando la humedad del suelo es insuficiente para la germinación, la semilla queda almacenada en el suelo; en este caso cuanto más seca esté mejor. Es posible proteger la semilla con un producto hidrófobo (aceites en general) y/o fungicidas hasta cuando las condiciones del suelo sean adecuadas para que la semilla germine. En el caso de soya, si ocurre una 11uvia insuficiente después de la siembra. la semilla sufrir~ daños por la rápida imbibición de agua; en este caso, el producto hidrófobo puede ser benéfico. Productos Fitotóxicos las malezas son uno de los principales factores que pueden disminuir el rendimiento de un cultivo; la aplicación de herbicidas es uno de los mecanismos más eficientes para combatirlas. Si se trata la semilla con un producto que inhiba la acci5n del herbicida t es posible que éste tenga un espectro más amplio y sea más eficiente. Esta tecnología se está desarrollando para semillas de pastos, sorgo, y arroz (para el control de arroz rojo).Para aplicar los protectores, es necesario que la empresa de semillas tenga un buen sistema de contro1 lpterno de cill idad, pues si se hace el tratamiento a un lote de semillas que 1uego éS rechazado por baja calidad en uno de sus atributos, este producto tampoco puede ser comercializado como grano, creando así grandes perjuicios.Enfatizando: el almacenami~nto de la semilla empieza en el campo, después de la madurez fisio1ógica y termina con la germinación. Ourante este intervalo son varios los factores que contribuyen a su deterioro.Es el factor Que más influye en el potencial de alwacenamíento de la semilla. Dependiendo del período requerido de almacenamiento, la semilla debe tener un contenido m~ximo de humedad el cual es influenciado Dor la temperatura.En genera 1, a 25° e, la semi 11 a con 13% de humedad se puede almacenar bien durante stds meses, mientras que con humedad por debaio del g% tiene un potencial de almacenamiento de mAs de cinco af'l•QS. A las semillas --como san higroscópicas--Se les debe verificar con frecuencia su contenido de humedad, principalmente las ubicadas en el exterior de1 arrume, pues están ¡l1(ÍS en contacto con el aire ambiente y reaccionan más frecuentemente a los cambios de humedad.Para almacenamiento a alternativas es reducir la humedad Temperatura largo plazo, una de las mejores de las semillas por debajo del 8%. Oespués de la humedad, la temperatura es el factor que m~s influye en el deterioro de la semilla y para a1macenamientos a términos largos y medianos es aconsejable mantener los dos factores bajos (18'C y 45% H~ para tennino medí o). Esas condie! ones de almacenamiento son buenas para tres años y se pueden obtener con un aislamiento ténnico y de humedad, utilizando acondicionadores de aire port&tiles y deshumidíficadores sencillos.En el caso de las semillas que no estén protegidas con un insecticida residual, es necesario hacer fumigación cada 2-3 meses. No se puede olvidar que además de las semillas el almacén también debe ser tratado con insecticida (reSidual) para romper el ciclo de los insectos.El potencial de almacenamiento y el vigor de 1. semilla varlan entre especies y algunas veces entre variedades; por ejemplo, se sabe que la semilla de cebolla es de vida corta y la de arroz es de vida larga. El deterioro síempre ocurre en la semilla (es inexorable), pero ya existe tecnología para revigorizar la semilla coando el deterioro estS muy avanzado. Por esta razón, la calidad fisiológica de la semilla debe ser analizada con periOdicidad para pOder tomar a tiempo las medidas necesarias. Como un organismo vivo, toda semilla muere~ Sin embargo, existen pruebas que detectan el estado de deterioro de una semi11a antes de morir.Charles C. Baskin Se necesitan otras pruehas distintas a los aná1 isis estándar de germinación y pureza para un programa efectivo de control de calidad. Se pueden realizar algunas pruebas antes de las pruebas de germinación y pureza. la semilla puede ser aceptada o rechazada con base en los resultados de estas pruebas. las pruebas tales como humedad de la semnla, dai'ío mecánico, tetrazolium, .v acidez libre de grasa est~n en esta categoda. En conjunto con los an~lisis de germinación y pureza, se pueden llevar a cabo otras pruebas tales como las de envejecimiento acelerado, de germinación a baja temperatura, de suelo en frío, de conductividad, y otras pruebas para la identificación varietal. Es necesario suplementar las pruebas estándar de germinación y el análisis de pureza para un efectivo control de calidad.Existen diversas pruebas que pueden ser útiles en un programa de control de calidad. Estas generalmente complementan o suplementan las pruebas estándar de germinación y pureza básicas en todos las programas de semillas. Algunas pruebas pueden realizarse antes de 1a prueba de germinación estándares en estas estándar y~ si las semillas no alcanzan los pruebas t pueden Ser recf1azadas aOn sin beneficiarse de una prueba de germinación.El contenido de humedad de la semilla es básico en la cal idad de la semil 1 a. Las pruebas de humedad pueden fea 11 zarse electrónicament~,. por ejemplo, utilizando probadores electrón1cos de humedad para diversas especies. Estas pruebas se pueden utilizar para aceptar o rechazar las semil1as o para determinar si es necesario secar la semilla antes del almacenamiento.Otra prueba es la evaluación por daño mecanico. Los estandares de un programa de control de calidad deben incluir pruebas por daño mecanico en los casos en que estas pruebas sean aplicables; en cultivos como e1 maíz, 1. soya, y el algodón, es relativamente faci1 determinar el daño mec&nico.Se utiliza la prueba de verde rapido para las semillas de malz. las semillas se sumergen en una solución que tiñe las areas partidas en la parte verde del pericarpio; luego se lavan las semillas. Un examen visual de las semillas lavadas permite evaluar la cantidad y severidad del daño mec~nico.La observación visual de la considerables del daño mecanico. (hipoc1orito de sodiO) puede ser soya puede detectar canti dades la prueba de remojo en cloro aún mas rlipida que la inspección visual. Esta prueba requíere aproximadamente 30 minutos. Se puede realizar la prueba en acetato de endoxyl en caso de que se requiera un analisis mas detallado.Para detectar el da~o mecánico en la semilla de algodón se requiere deslintar la semilla con licido y luego realizar una inspección visual de la muestra. Se ha desarrollado un sistema de clasificación para el algodón que permite una evaluación m §s rigurosa.Es necesario recurrir a 1. amplificación para lograr una evaluación mas detallada.Ciertos niveles de daño meclinico son aceptables. Cuando listos se exceden, la semilla no debe ser utilizada para la siembra. El nivel de da~Q aceptable dependera del respectivo programa de control. La prueba de tetrazolio es de gran utilidad en el control de calidad. Es relativamente rlpida y requiere una inversión m~níma en equipo. Cualquier analista que sea capaz de llevar a cabo una prueba estandar de germinaCión puede ser entrenado para realizar e interpretar la prueba de tetrazo1io.La prueba de tetrazollo puede estimar la viabilidad y el vigor y puede utilizarse para solucionar problemas urgentes, para detectar .1 dano por desgaste, el daño mecSnico, el dono por calor, las quemas qulmicas (como por ejemplo el dano con ácido en la semilla de algodón), y el dano ocasionado por insectos en la soya. Esta es una de las pruebas mas versStiles disponibles. la prueba de acidez libre de grasa es útil para evaluar la calidad de las semillas de aceite. Se utiliza extensamente en la evaluación preliminar de la semilla de algodón.Todas estas pruebas se pueden realizar antes de la de germinación y en un periodo de tiempo relativamente corto. la semilla puede ser aceptada o rechazada con base en los resultados, sin tener que realizar pruebas más complicadas. la prueba de envejecimiento acelerado --sometiendo la semilla a temperaturas altas y a humedad relativa alta durante periodos de tiempo cortos, y luego dej~ndola germinar--se puede .plicar corno prueba de vigor y para seleccionar la semilla que se va a traspasar a la siguiente estaciOn de siembra. Esta prueba se utiliza extensamente como prueba de vigor en soya.Una vez se ha establecido una relación entre las condiciones especlficas de almacenamiento y la genuinación de 1. semilla despu~s del envejeCimiento acelerado, la prueba puede ser utilizada para estimar la vida de la semilla en almacenamiento; por 10 tanto, permite la selección de los lotes de semilla que se deben traspasar o desechar por no ser apropiados como semilla después de periodos normales de almacenamiento# Las pruebas de estrés por frlo se utilizan extensamente en malz y algodón y, en menor grado, en otras especies. la prueba de frlo en algodón inCluye la siembra de la semilla en suelo o en una mezcla de suelo/arena ajustando el sue10 a un contenido de humedad prescrito\" manteniéndolo a temperaturas bajas durante varios días, y luego trasladando la semilla sembrada a una temperatura m~s favorable para la emergencia. La emergencia se cuenta a partir de un determinado número de días. Esta prueba se utiliza en muchas de las prinCipales compañías productoras de semilla de maiz.La prueba de germinación a temperaturas bajas para el algodón incluye la siembra de la semi!la envuelta en toallas de papel, coloc~ndolas a una constante de 18 e durante siete días, y luego contando las pl~ntulas que tienen un tamaño combinado de raiz/hipocoti10 de 4 mm de largo o mas. Esta prueba est~ ganando mucha aceptación en la industria de semillas.Las pruebas de conductividad miden la conductividad eléctrica del agua en la que se han empapado las semillas. Se ha establecido una estrecha interrelación en el caso de las arvejas (Pisum ,pp.). La prueba parece ser potencialmente úti1 en otras especies. El equipo para medir la conductividad ha sido computarizado, lo cua1 permite una i\"terpretaciOn sofisticada de los resultados.Existen otras pruebas: la prueba del cloruro de hierro para determinar el dano mecanico en las semillas de leguminosas, prueba en la que las areas dañadas se tornan negras; la prueba del hidr6xido de potasiO para la identificación positiva de arroz rojo; la prueba de color del hipocotilo; la prueba de peroxidasa para la identificaci6n varieta1 en soy.; y la prueba del fenal para la identificación varietal en trigo. Estas pueden ser de utilidad en un programa de control de calidad. los detalles de las pruebas mencionadas est~n disponibles.PARA GARANTIZAR lA CALIDAD DE LA SEMILLA Al tratar con microorganismos trasmitidos por la semilla, el semil1ista tiene en cuenta los siguientes aspectos: reducción en el rendimiento; p~rdida de la germinación y el vigor: trasmisión del patógeno al nuevo cultivo por medio de la semilla; regulaciones de cuarentena de plantas para semillas que se van a exportar. Las semillas se cultivan en tres ambientes: en el campo de producción, durante el almacenamiento, y en el campo sembrado.Se pueden implementar las practicas de control durante cualquiera o todas estas fases. Esto se logra por medio de 5 métodos h4sicos: el maneja; el tratamiento de la semilla; los productos qulmicos \"pI icados al cultivo; la prueba de sanidad de 1. semilla: el mejoramiento buscando resistencia. Se puede utilizar un amplio rango de opCiones durante el proceso completo de producción para el control por manejo. Hay tres métodos b~sicos para el tratamiento de la semilla: físico: biológico; y químico. los fungicidas aplicados al campo de producción de semillas se utilizan para controlar la infección de las semillas antes de 1. cosecha.En países subdesarrollados, donde 1. fuente principal de 1. semilla puede ser la que el agricultor guarda de su cultivo de granos, se debe asignar alta prioridad al mejoramiento por resistencia al deterioro de la semilla. Cuando se conoce la cantidad de loócu10 trasmitido por la semil1., que es el que genera el riesgo de desarrollar una enfermedad severa, 1a prueba de sanidad de la semilla puede ser una práctica efectiva de control. los métodos 9Emerales para analizar la sanidad de la semilla son los siguientes:  En el caso de semillas se está trabajando con un producto de naturaleza biolOgica y el control de calidad en semillas se considera como un atributo inherente a la vida y a la interacciOn con las presiones del medio ambiente. El control de calidad es clasificado en dos tipos: control externo (oficial) que tiene soporte en las leyes y normas establecidas por gobiernos y el control interno de calidad que involucra acciones positivas de los productores independientemente de la existencia de reglamentaciones oficiales. Entiéndase como control interno de calidad una serie de actividades sistematicas y contjnuas que junto con actitudes de comportamiento positivo Siglo XX! tendríamos 6 billones. Para enfrentar un desafio de tal naturaleza tenemos que adoptar tecnologlas modernas que nos garanticen la m~xima utilización de los potenciales genéticos en el área de fitotécnia.los nuevos y más productivos cultivares desarrollados por los trabajos de mejoramiento genético necesitan tener un veh1cul0 de diseminación de sus características agronómicas y morfológicas hasta el agricultor.La semilla es en verdad el único puente estable y responsable del traslado de estas características. Entre otros puntos importantes de este paquete trasferidor de progreso. se pueden citar algunos aspectos que caracterizan la importancia de la semilla:1.Representa el vehículo responsable de la perpetuación y diseminación de las especies.Es una entidad organizada, con un contenido de informaciones genéticamente codificadas, que Se trasmiten de forma estable y continua; la semilla eS la forma mlls eficiente y prllctica de preservar las especies.3. La semilla en sí representa el vehículo que evita la diseminación de enfermedades. plagas y malezas, cuando es manejada en forma adecuada.Muchas otras caracterlsticas podrían mencionarse. Para obtener las mayores ventajas de todas esas características hay necesidad de establecer controles específicos de calidad de semillas para obtener un producto que trasmita estas cualidades de generaciOn en generación. los aspectos vinculados al desarrollo de programas de control de calidad de semillas son una de las estrategias tratadas en este trabajo de forma resumida y sencilla. los autores no tienen pretenSión de agotar el asunto dada su complejidad y el poco tiempo disponible en esta importante reuniOn de trabajo.En toda acti vi dad es si empr. necesa rl o tener un contro 1 de ta 1 forma organizado que permita averiguar y verificar si los resultados obtenidos en la actividad ejecutada son compatibles con las exigencias del cliente para el cual se estll procesando el producto. En verdad el control tiene una amplitud y un significado muy extenso y se vuelve rn!s complejO al ser ejecutado, a medida que se Van ampliando sus operaciones y aumentando el volumen de los productos a controlar. los entendidos en la materia clasifican 1. calidad como el grado d. excelencia. nobleza, aptitud, y esencia de un producto. Según Machilene. las características de calidad de un producto están basadas en 105 criterios sobre los cuales éste es juzgado por los consumidores.En la industria la calidad puede ser evaluada por el consumidor a través de su color, la textura, el olor, el sabor, el peso J y otros criterios. Así, en la industria automovillstica la calidad de un vehículo puede ser evaluada por su forma aerodinámica, por su acabado, su color, su durabilidad, su resistencia, etc.Para el conocimiento del control interno de calidad, la industria de fabricaciOn de automOviles fija varfimetras definidos de medidas cualitativas. En estos casos el establecimiento de estos patrones es mas sencillo, ya que se esta trabajando en la evaluación de un producto de naturaleza no biológica. El control de calidad de semillas es un atributo inherente a la vida y a la interacción con las presiones del medio ambiente que rodea el producto. Dentro de este concepto, control interno de calidad de semillas, fue definido por Gregg como un \"trabajo sistem!tico y continuo de monitoda para asegurar una uniformidad de los factores de calidad evaluados\". Otra definición es dada por Boonyart como \"un conjunto de actividades orientadas para la identificación, la corrección, la eliminaciOn, y la prevención de problemas que afectan la calidad de lotes de semílla. rt Estas definiciones son realmente muy amplias y consecuentemente poco ajustadas a todos los procedimientos complejos involucrados en el control de calidad.En el pensamiento moderno el control de calidad tiene una función mucho mas amplia que la de realizar un muestreo. ejecutar un análisis~ comparar los resultados con los estándares de calidad, y aceptar o rechazar un lote de semillas; en el concepto moderno\" el contro1 interno de calidad tiene una denominación de control total de calidad. Este concepto involucra un volumen grande de actividades que van desde los aspectos agronOmicos y los análisis cualitativos, hasta 1. toma d. decisiones.de 10 que se pretende en este articulo, el control de calidad puede ser clasificado en dos tipos: control externo y control interno.1. El control externo de calidad se apoya en las leyes y normas oficialmente establecidas por los gobiernos; en este caso la acción de la iniciativa privada es un tanto pasiva.2. El control interno de calidad involucra acciones positivas de los empresarios., los productores, y los comerc'iantes de semillas\" independientemente de la existencia de reglamentaciones oficiales.De ahora en adelante hablaremos del control interno de calidad. ya que el control externo es suficientemente conocido.Dentro de esta linea de pensamiento un programa de control interno de calidad debe contemplar aspectos de plane.ción que definan claramente quién. cuando. cómo. dónde. y con qué intensidad se va a realizar este control Interno.USe entiende como control interno de calidad una serie de actividades sistemáticas y continuas que junto con actitudes de comportamiento positivo posibilitan la toma de decisiones gerenciales de carácter preventivo y correctivo, para lograr la preservación de una buena imagen del empresario semil1ista y la plena satisfacción de la clientela\" (eamargo y Andriguetto).El control interno de calidad puede ser dividido para efecto didactico en tres tipos o categor;as; 1) Oficial; 2) Individual; 3) Asociativo.Se conduce basicamente dentro de empresas o instituciones oficiales que producen las clases de semillas genéticas y básicas y que han de seguir las normas de control externo de calidad; tienen sus propios est&ndares, los cuales son mas r1gidos que los estándares externos.Este control se realiza en algunos paises en donde la investigaciOn Control Interno Individual en el que la iniciativa privada no tiene efectivamente en la producci6n ySe caracteriza, como en el primer caso, por una acción independiente del establecimiento de estándares propios más rígidos que los estándares establecidos por el sector oficial. Normalmente, las compa\";as involucradas en este tipo de acción necesitan hacer inversiones financieras para la construcción de su propio laboratorio de control de calidad y la contratación de personal especializada en esta área.Se caracteriza por una acción conJunta para el establecimiento de estándares comunes, la infraestructura de beneficio, el laboratorio de análisis y el adiestramiento del personal. Este tipo de control ha tenido un alto nivel de desarrollo como medida para disminuir los costos del control interno de calidad. Así, las asociaciones de productores de semillas nacionales, regionales, o estatales han adoptado este sistema independientemente de si tienen un control oficial efectivo de campo, de laboratorio, y de la fiscalizaci6n del comercio de semillas.Generales El control interno de calidad tiene comO Objetivo producir y comercfalizar semi11a de alta calidad fisica, fisiológica, genética~ y sanitaria. mediante acciones propias de carácter preventivo y correctivo, generando una imagen de seriedad y confianza para ei usuario de la semilla. En términos organizacionales y de número de personal involucrado en el control interno de calidad a nivel de campo, p1anta de beneficio., laboratorio, y comercializaciOn t podremos tener un organigrama de acuerdo con la Figura 1.sistema de control interno de calidad en una organización depende fundamentalmente del nivel de sofisticación y desarrollo de la organización; así en el inicio de la implementación de un sistema de control interno de calidad el gasto para el montaje de la infraestructura es ~s alto.A medida que se ejecuta el programa de control, los costos operacionales se disminuyen. Es importante enfatizar que en un control interno de calidad el costo se paga con una alta tasa de retorno; así, una empresa por falta de control interno de calidad esta sujeta normalmente a los siguientes problemas:1.Alto porcentaje de rechazo en campos.2. Mayores gastos en viaticos, combustibles, y desgaste de vehículos para realizar reinspeccion~s de campo. 3. Altos porce\"tajes de rechazos de lotes en el laboratorío. 4. Gastos en viáticos, combustible, y gasto de vehlculos para atender reclamaciones.Gastos para cubrir las indemnizaciones. 6.Gastos en pago de multas a los organismos oficiales en la fiscalización del comercio.Pérdida de los derechos de incentivos gubernamentales (en algunos países).8.Pérdida de prestigio ante su cliente por la mala calidad de la semilla y por flO cumplir con los contratos de venta, por la apariencia inadecuada de la semilla y otros. 9.Por desmotivación de los empleados de la empresa bajando la moral de los recursOS humanos fijos.los numerales mientras que imponderables.(1 \\ acons iderados pérdidas ponderabl es. son considerados como pérdidas En la mayoría de las industrias, los costos directos de la inspección de los productos se calculan a través de la siguiente fórmula:Número de Inspectores Número de Empleados Productivos Los resultados obtenidos con esta fórmula deben girar en torno del 10% de acuerdo con C. Macheline.En el caso de semillas la siguiente fórmula se considera más adecuada:Ganancia Neta de la CompañiaSe cree que un costo entre I 1{2 a 2% ser1a razonable para una industria de porte medio.Para una mejor comprensión del control interno de calidad, se propone la siguiente divisi6n de las fases:Fase Exploratoria Comprende algunos tópicos importantes antes de planear la \"embra, tales como: selección del cultivar, selección de regiones, selección de las contratistas, y origen de la semilla.Fase Inicial Esta fase comprende el conocimiento local de las &reas de la finca a sembrar, asl como todas las operaciones tlpicas de presiembra (preparación del suelo, limpieza de la sembradora, época de siembra, y demas labores culturales recomendadas por la investigación para el citado cultivar'. En esta etapa de la siembra, se deben observar las poblaciones de plantas recomendadas, ajustando la calidad de la semilla utilizada a la densidad de siembra y haciendo un muestreo en diferentes sitios, para comprobar la salida de la semilla y del fertilizante.En la emergencia y en la fase vegetativa se debe proceder a la toma de submuestras para determinar la población de plantas. las cuales varian de acuerdo al cultivo. Por ejemplo:TAMAno DE LA SUBMUESTRA 4 lineas de 1 metro lineal 4 lIneas de 5 metros lineales 4 lineas de 20 metros linealesSe deben tomar cuatro submuestras en diferentes puntos del campo de forma que Sean representativas del área de siembra.En esta fase se debe planear adecuadamente las actividades del control interno~ porqu€ muchas de las prácticas culturales se rea1izan en esta fase. As\\ durante la fase de desarrollo vegetativo y floración se puede hacer la eliminación de plantas atlpicas, teniendo en cuenta los contrastes de caracteristícas morfológicas.Este trabajo es complementado en la precosecha y en esta fase el campo es preparado para la cosecha.La cosecha es considerada una operación de fundamental importancia para la calidad de la semilla a producir. Debe ser ejecutada 10 más próximo posible a la madurez fiSiológica y las combinadas deben Ser ajustadas y limpiadas de forma que no causen da~o mecánico y mezclas varíetales en 1. semilla. Estos ajustes se deben realizar por 10 menos tres veces al día, en función de las determinaciones del nivel de daños causados a la semilla.Análisis sencillos pueden ser realizados tres veces al día (mañana, mediodía, y tarde), tomando dos submuestras de 100 semillas y colocAndo1as en una soluciOn de hipoc1orito de sodio (3-5%) o en agua. Siempre que el porcentaje de daño mecánico sea superior al 10% en soya y 7% en frijol, la máquina debe ser regulada para bajar este nivel. Esta es una acción correctiva de control interno.fase de Refinamiento En esta fase la semilla ha pasado por una serie de controles que le han garantizado su aprobación tanto ~el control interno cow~ del control externo (oficial); sin embargo, los cUldados de control interno de calidad deben persistir en esta fase para que no se pierda todo el trabajo anteriormente realizado:RecepclOn. Solamente se recibirá en la unidad de beneficio de semilla material con calidad garantizada desde el campo. Se debe realizar un muestreo preliminar en el momento en que la semilla está siendo pesada a la entrada de la planta; de esta muestra se debe hacer análisis de humedad, pureza, germinación, daño mecanico, tetrazolio, y otros an~lisis rapidos. los lotes que no presentan niveles mínimos aceptables de calidad, deben ser rechazados y comercia1izados como grano. los lotes ~s húmedos deben ser localizados separadamente, cerca de los secadores, y deben ser los primeros en ser secados. A los lotes secos, se les debe realizar an61isis con el juego de zarandas manuales, para decidir qué tipo de zaranda se debe utilizar y la secuencia adecuada de beneficio.!:!~1impieza.Pasada la etapa anterior la semilla entra en la fase de prelimpieza. Al1i se eliminan los materiales indeseables de tamaño superior a la semilla, en es~a etapa debemos observar: a.La velocidad de los elevadores no debe ocasionar daño mecánico a la semilla, los canjilones, la base y la cabeza del elevador debe estar libre de semillas de otros cultivares b.La regulación de la al imentac;ón de la máquina de prelimpieza debe ser adecuadamente ajustada de tal forma que peno; ta una perfecta separación de los materiales indeseables separables en esta máquina.3. Secado. En esta fase se puede perder todo el esfuerzo realizado en las fases anteriores y esto ocurre frecuentemente debido al inadecuado manejo de las fuentes de calor, del tiempo de exposición, y de la velocidad de secamiento. Se recomienda que durante el proceso de secamiento se realice un muestreo cada tres horas para determinación de humedad. los resultados de estas determinaciones permiten hacer ajustes a la temperatura de secamiento. Otro aspecto importante a tener en cuenta es el uso de temperaturas bajas para 10tes con alto grado de humedad, en el inicio del secamiento la temperatura se debe aumentar a medida que la semilla se va secando; esta temperatura no debe ser mayor de 42' C. 4. Almacenamiento. En el almacenamiento se depositan los frutos de todo el esfuerzo realizado en un sistema de producción de semillas, por 10 tanto el depósito o almacén debe tener las mejores condiciones posibles para minimizar la pérdida de 1. calidad de la semilla. Algunos aspectos principales que se deben tener en cuenta en los almacenes en esta fase son los siguientes: a. Estar limpio y libre de insectos b. Demarcar las &reas del piso c. Permitir una amplia circulación del aire en el ambiente d. Evitar la entrada de pájaros e insectos, con mallas de protección é.En esta fase se deben considerar aspectos de control interno de calidad que garanticen la calidad final del producto y la satisfacción de la clientela atendida.Para alcanzar estos objetivos se debe proceder periódicamente 1. semilla en el laboratorio, identificar a analizar adecuadamente los empaques, e iniciar un trabajo de propaganda eficiente que permita la venta del producto almacenado. Una de las fases m&s criticas de la pérdida de calidad en la distribución, es el desconocimiento de las empresas trasportadoras sobre 1. calidad de las semillas, 10 cual puede ocasionar pérdidas totales o parciales. Esto ocurre porque la semilla puede humedecerse, mezclarse, recalentarse por causa del sol; además puede ser recibida y almacenada en condiciones adversas por una gama muy heterogénea de intermediarios. Estos intermediarios deben ser entrenados por las compaf'i1as productoras sobre la \"'orma en que deben preservar la semilla.Finalmente todos los datos y observaciones realizados durante la fase productiva y de comercializaci6n deberán ser catalogados y analizados en tal fonna que permitan tomar decisiones gerenciales preventivas y correctivas.Una inf\"onnaci6n adecuadamente organi zada I que pueda ser ana 1i zada en gráficas y demuestre los factores más preocupantes en términos de calidad, permitirá con mayor facilidad la toma de decísiones gerenciales.AS1, por ejemplo, si a una empresa se le rechaza en el laboratorio alrededor del 20% de sus lotes por baja germinaci6n, 5% por mezcla varietal, ?:O% en malezas, y 0.5% por enfermedades, sera. recomendable para mejorar .stos problemas que se analice en primer orden las fallas 'isio16gicas que afectan la producción. Esta medida se reflejará en el ingreso económico y en la imagen de la empresa.Este trabajó representa solamente un breve resumen de un manual que está siendo preparado por los autores con el título de \"Manual de Control Interno de Calidad\", en el cual se consideran algunos aspectos de car~cter practico y de experiencia profeSional.Dada la complejidad del control interno de calidad, en este trabajo solamente se tiene en cuenta los aspectos mas generales. Si con éstos se logra aportar algunas ideas útiles sobre el control interno de calidad. los autores se sienten satisfechos. A partir de ese momento, APASSUL ha tenido un crecimiento din~mico y bien estructurado que ha sabido responder no solamente a las solicitudes de sus asociados sino a las del propio gobierno que desea ver solucionado el problema de semíllas a través de programas: bien estructurados, con su propio control interno de calidad.Gracias a la din~mica y al excelente trabajo desempeñado por APASSUL, el agricultor brasilero y especialmente el de Río Grande, puede contar con semillas de alta calidad para su siembra; durante este período los socios fundadores de APASSUL llegaron a ser m~s de 300.La semilla producida era denominada fiscalizada, y no tenia control de generaciones. Uno de los objetivos de la Asociación era promover el control de ca 1 i dad de la semi 11 a produe ida. Los avances en el logro de este Objetivo se pueden considerar en tres etapas:l.Al inicio de la década de 1970, APASSUL creó un departamento y contratO Ingenieros )\\grónomos, Técnicos Rurales, Laboratorios y Economistas como personal de apoyo; el adiestramiento de este personal fue realizado por entidades de investigación y empresas fabricantes de maquinaria y equipos. Se construyeron tres laboratorios de semillas en sitios estratégicos, tales corno Passo Fundo, Santo Angelo, y Porto Alegre.Como no se disponia de un programa de certificación de semillas y no había producci6n de semillas basicas, se inici6 la producción de una clase de: semilla denominada !tpurificada\" para tri?o y soya, que sirvi6 para que los asociados renovaran su semilla.Para facilitar esta acción se construyó una Unidad de Beneficio de Semillas con maquinaria y equipos modernos, los cuales también se util izaron en el adiestramiento del personal asociado.Tambi~n se mejoró la legislación vigente a través de la participación activa de las subcomisiones de semillas (soya, trigo, frijol, etc) y de la ComisiOn Estatal de Semillas y Mudas (CESM) .Se ofrecieron cursos r&pidos en la sede y en los sitios de producción. Por intermedio de la Agenda APASSUL, se envió información sobre legislación y Ucnicas de producción; se creó un departamento de economía rural para trabajar en costos de producción de granos y semillas. la segunda etapa se inició al final de la década del 70 y principios del 80; durante este periodo se promovió el entrenamiento del personal de APASSUL y de sus socios a través de cursos en Universidades de Passo Fundo. El departamento técnico de AMSSUL dictaba la c&tedra de tecnología de semillas; los laboratorios analizaron un mayor número de muestras, se incluyeron los analisis de vigor y los resultados eran entregados con mayor rapidez. Se 10gr6 el objetivo de que se considerara a los laboratorios de semillas como un importante aliado en el control interno de calidad.Posteriormente a muchos estudios, se logró implantar el programa de certificaciOn de semillas a cargo de la Secretaria de Agricultura del Estado y se buscO la manera de dinamizar y perfeccionar el sistema. Se estructuró la producción de semillas b&sicas (EMSRAPA-Secretaria de Agricultura y CEP/Fecotrigo) por intermedio de convenios de investigación y de la Unidad de Beneficio de Semillas.Ademas de la Agenda' APASSUL, se editO un boletín mensual y un informativo semanal ¡, se implantó un Centro de Procesamiento de Datos (CPD) donde actualmente se desarrollan programas estadísticos de producción y costos. y la emisión de boletines de analísis de semillas.Se organizaron excursiones de prOductores asociados~ en el país y en el exterior (Estados Unidos); actualmente se planea realizar viajes de estudio al Uruguay, Argentina, y Europa. Se estructuraron laboratorios de patología de semillas y se iniciaron trabajos de experimentaci6n en frijol, soya y trigo, en colaboración con I'T (Investigaci6n y Semillas). EMBRft,PA. laEstatal en Investigación de Soya.Con 10 comentado anteriormente nuestra Asociación está colaborando efectivamente en el control de calidad de la producci6n de semillas básIcas y de la semilla producida por los asociados.Se realiza un recuento sobre la fundación y ubicaciOo de la empresa de Semillas del Llano \"Semillano\", su red de distribución y las cantidades de semillas que se comercializan en arroz, sorgo, pastos tropicales, y leguminosas forrajeras; se menciona la implementación de nuevos programas de investigaci6n como apoyo a la producciOn. También se hace referencia a las relaciones de la empresa con el Organismo Oficial de Certificaci6n.El autor describe en detalle los procedimientos m~s ut i1 izados en su control interno de ca 1 i dad, tales como: toma de muestras, radicación y registro, homogenización, porcentaje de humedad, pureza. viabilidad, germinaci6n, tratamiento para latencia, y otros an&lisis.Destaca la metodologla que se utiliza en caso de reclamos sobre la calidad de la semilla vendida. Menciona algunos trabajos de investigación en semillas, especialmente sobre t~cnicas de análisis.la empresa Semillas del llano IISemil1a no l! s fue creada hace trece años en los llanos Orientales de Colombia, con el propósito de producir, mu1tiplicar, y comercializar semillas en diversas regiones agrlcolas y pecuarias.Villavicencio, ciudad localizada a una altura de 450 m sobre el nivel del mar, con temperatura promedio de 27°C y una humedad relativa del 80%.Mediante una red de 50 distribuidores localizados en las principales ciudades y regiones agropecuarias del pals, se comercializan por año m~s de 6,000 toneladas de semilla de arroz, 100 de sorgo, y 100 de pastos tropicales y leguminosas forrajeras. de semillas de arroz, sorgo, pastos forrajeras al Caribe y Centro y Sur.méric ••Todas las actividades y procesos de campo, planta, y mercadeo son ¡upervls.das por el Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICAl. entidad ficlal encargada de 1. certificación de semillas y del control de 1S semillas en distrlbuci6n.:tualmente se implementa un programa de cultivo de tejidos, orientado 1;cialmente a la obtención de nuevas variedades de arroz mediante el 1tivo de anteras. los campos de producción y otro para las semillas que están en proceso de beneficio y de aquellos lotes que han terminado este proceso~ 3.Homogeniz~cf6n y división. Se utiliza el divisor IIBoerner\" para las semillas que fluyen fácilmente, tales como arroz. Kudzu, Brachlaria, etc. Para las semillas que no fluyen fácilmente (brozosas) tales como semilla de pasto Angleton, Puntero, y ~.~ropogont se emplea el sistema de oct&neo nasta obtener la muestra de trabajo.4. Determinación de la humedad de la semilla. Para semillas de pastos Se utiliza el método de la estufa a una temperatura constante de 130\"C; para semillas de otros cultivos se utiliza el probador de humedad llUniversal ll • 5.Porcentaje de pureza. Se realiza un análisis de pureza a la semilla proveniente de campo (arroz paddy verde); con ayuda de un soplador se extrae el material liviano y lue90~ en forma manual y con la ayuda de zarandas~ se remueve el material mAs pesado, para fina1mente determinar la presencia varietal y as1 proceder a realizar la recQmendací6n sobre Su acondicionamiento. Después de haber sido acondicionada la semilla; se realiza su análisis de pureza, siguiendo las normas de la ISTA.Para el an~1isis de se\",illas de pastos brozosos, se utiliza un soplador j1General u y se determina el número de cariópsides por gramo; las cariópsides se extraen utilizandQ una lija número l?O y un caucho, con el cual se frota la semilla sobre la lija.Porcentaje de viabilidad. La prueba de viabilidad por medio del tetrazo1io se realiza en todos los lotes de semillas de pastos t ta;es como ~.rachi~ria ~~~umbens y Panicum maximuT'1; en caso de necesitarse un resultado rápido se trabaja con cari6psides libres.Para la semilla de pastos brozosos la prueba de viabilidad en tetrazolio se realiza utilizando cari6psides libres, de remojo. En las pruebas de viabilidad se metodología internacional.en su etapa utiliza laPorcenta;e q~ germinación. Para realizar las pruebas de germinación, se dispone de un invernadero, el cual presenta temperaturas altas durante el día y bajas en la noche; se utiliza de predecir el potencial de germinación de la semilla sólo con observar la calidad de la semilla. Para un tecnólogo, la caHdad deber& cubrir atributos tales como: pureza varietal, pureza nsica~ y calidad fisiológica, y estar libre de patógenos portados por la semilla.La fllosofia de la empresa ha sido satisfacer necesidades y por lo tanto mantener un mercado. Ante el crecimiento de los programas de producción se hizo necesario el establecimiento de un programa de control interno de calidad desde el ano de 1962; este programa esta encaminado a prevenir 10$ errores o defectos; mantener regulados y bajo control los procesos; y evitar el desperdicio, las devoluciones, y los reclamos; se debe detectar los errores y los defectos 10 m~s temprano posible para tomar oportunamente las medidas preventivas o correctivas.Actualmente, el avance positivo del programa se ha logrado. través de la motivación de cada uno de los integrantes de 1. empresa y no solamente de quienes trabajan en el ~rea de control. Esta motivación ha sido un refleja de la misma motivación del gerente y de los objetivos y po11ticas de calidad de la empresa.El programa de producción para el aM de 1960 fue de 4292 toneladas con un total de 2009 muestras analizadas en todo el proceso poscosecha; la oficina de control de calidad contaba con sólo 3 técnicos dedicados bAsicamente a las tareas de poscoseche; para el ano de 1975 el programa creció a 124,141 toneladas con un total de 52,747 muestras analizadas. y 52 técnicos.Para 1987 se prevee un volumen de producción de 140,157 toneladas y de 59,549 muestras analizadas; el recurso humano se elevó a 116 técnicos; la razón de su incremento sustancial se debió a la necesidad de intensificar la supervisión de campo independientemente de las regulaciones del personal de producci6n.Para 1987 la Unidad de Control de Calidad puso en ejercicio un manual de procedimiento, el cual contempla un flujo de acciones, procedimientos, y formatos, desde la selección de productores hasta los procedimientos a seguir ante posibles reclamos.Esta acción surge ante la necesidad del proceso de descentralización administrativa que se inició a principios del afio pasado. con la designación de 12 gerencias regionales, cada una con sus respectivas unidades de operación; éstas suman un total de 47 plantas localizadas estratégicamente en todo el pais.Considerando que el control de calidad interviene en todas las etapas de producción, recepción t acondicionamiento, y almacenamiento de semillas, PRONASE ha realizado cursos internos con temas generales, orientados a un número reducido de sus técnicos. Es evfdente la necesidad de capacitar y uniformizar criterios entre el personal que pertenece al programa de control de calidad; para el año de 1988 se tienen contemplados cuatro cursos regionales en el peis destinados para el personal de control de calidad.Finalmente 7 la vida de cualquier organizaci6n semi llera se basa en su habilidad para suministrar semillas de buena calidad. Un programa efectivo de control de ca1idad~ puede hacer la diferencia entre el éxito y el fracaso de la organización y de la introducción de una nueva especie o variedad.BASE lEGAL DEL SISTEMA OFICIAL DE CONTROL DE CALIDAD . El CASO DE BRASIL .El autor relata cOmo históricamente la producción y comercialización de semilla en el Brasil se basaba en la actuación del sector oficial y de un reducido nOmero de empresas privadas; no se tenIa una ley; por 10 tanto e.istla un intenso mercadeo de semillas. Con base eo la importaci6n de grandes vo16menes en 1963, se creó la necesidad de !lna ley y se solicitO la cooperaciOn de 1. Agencia para el Desarrollo lnteroacional (USAJD) quien contrató los servicios de la Universidad de Mississippi (EE.UU.) y el 13 de Julio se aprobó la ley 4727, la cual se reglamentO por el decreto 57061 del 15 de octubre de 1961. En octubre de 1967 se estableció el Acto Ministerial, el cual se consideró como el acto responsable del gran progreso del sector semi l1 ero y definió el fortalecimiento de los trabajOS fitot~cnicos, y de prOducción de sem111a b~sica; estableció lineas especificas de crédito para inversiones educativas encaminadas a incrementar el uso de semilla; asumió el compromiso de trasladar para la iniciativa privada la producción y comercial ización de seml1 las y estableció el Plan Nacional de Semillas. En 1977 se promulgó la nueva ley 6507, la cual trata de la producción, fiscalizaci6n. y comercializadOn de semillas y prop&gulos. Su Reglamento 81771 tiene un alcance amplio, cubre el control de la producción y el comercio, las campanas de promoción y la dirección de la investigación. La aplicación ~e la ley, su reglamento, y la definición poHtica del sector permitió el surgimiento de una iniciativa privada fuerte y estable. Sin embargo, despuéS de 10 años, esta ley necesita de algunos estudios detallados para su adaptación y desarrollo, de acuerdo con el avance clentlfico del pals.• 65 .Brasil se basaba en la actuación del sector oficial y de un reducido nGroera de empresas privadas, para atender una demanda incipiente debido a un total desconocimiento de las ventajas de la utilización de semillas de alta calidad. En esta época de investigaci6n fitotécnica, no se dfsponía de muchos recursos financieros y humanos. no hab1a semilla basiea de cultivares mejorados, y tampoco un sistema organizado de producción de semilla fiscalizada y certificada.Esta situación se reflejaba en la ausencia de una ley de semillas, y de normas, reglamentos, y politicas para el sector semillista. Por lo tanto existla un intenso mercadeo basado en la importación de grandes volúmenes de semillas.Con el fin de evitar los abusos en la comercialización de semillas surgi6 en 1963 la necesidad de crear una ley de semillas, para 10 cual se solicitó la cooperación de USAIO. Esta contrató los servicios de la Universidad de Mississippi y junto con la contraparte local elaboró un anteproyecto de Ley Que 'ue aprObado elUde julio de 1965. BAsicamente, esta l~ trataba de la fiscalización del comercio de semillas y prop~gulos dentro de la filosoHa de l. veracidad del etiquetado.Complementariamente a la Ley 4727 surgió el Decreto 5706 del 15 de octubre de 1965 que reglamentó e instituyó las normas y directrices para la ejecución de la fiscalización del comercio de semillas y propágulos en todo el territorio nacional.Otro punto de carácter histórico en el Slstema brasilero de semillas fué el establecimiento de una Pol itica Nacional de Semillas el 3 de octubre de 1967 por Acto Ministerial 524, el cual es considerado como el primer acto responsable del gran progreso del sector semillista de Brasil. Este decreto definió claramente el interés gubernamental de desarrollar el sector semillista y también definió la actuación del gobierno y la iniciativa privada en todas las fases de producci6n y mercadeo de semilla •• En lIneas generales el Acto Ministerial 524 definió el fortalecimiento de los trabajos fitotécnlcos y de producción de semilla b&sica: estableclO lineas especIficas de crédito para producci6n e inversiones educativas para Incrementar el uso de semilla certificada: asuml6 el compromiso de trasladar a 1. iniciativa privada la producción y comercialización de semillas; estableció un programa para formaci6n de recursos humanos y especificas para semillas; y estableció el Plan Nacional de Semillas.Con estos instrumentos legales el gobierno y la iniciativa privada trabajaron cooperatlvamente por mas de 10 a~os, alcanzando un progreso fanUstlco y llegando a convertirse en 10 que es hoy 1. Industria Srasllera de Semillas.Con el progreso del sector semil11sta surgi6 la necesidad de un perfeccionamiento de la legislaci6n; el Ministerio de Agricultura creó un grupo de trabajo para hacer estos estudios.La legislación sobre semillas que actualmente rige en el país es una ley mixta, donde se reglamenta practicamente la gran mayoría de los aspectos vinculados a T. producci6n y comercialización de semillas dentro de una visi6n sistemática, en la que cada segmento del sector agrícola tiene sus responsabilidades definidas. los resultados del grupo de trabajo surgieron en 1977 cuando se promulgó la nueva ley de semillas. Esta Ley recibió el No. 6507, y trata de la InspecciOn y la fiscalización de la producción y del comercio de semillas y propagulos en todo el territorio nacional.El objetivo general de la Ley 6507 es garantizar a los agricultores la disponibil idad de semillas de alta calidad buscando un aumento de la productividad y la regulación del abastecimiento a la poblaci6n. Como objetivos especjficos tenemos los siguientes: proteger al productor y comerciante de semillas, propiciar una competencia legal; disminuir la diseminación de enfermedades y malezas, uniform'izar procedimientos, etc.Como puntos relevantes de la Ley tenemos:1.Es aplicable a personas físicas o jurídicas que produzcan, manejen, preparen, acondicionen, almacenen, transporten, o comercialicen semillas y propágulos.Para ejecutar sus actividades, las personas tienen que estar registradas en el Ministerio de Agricultura.El organismo competente para ejecutar la Leyes el Ministerio de Agricultura a través de la Secretaría Nacional de Producción Agropecuaria (inspección y organización) y la Secretaría Nacional de Defensa Agropecuaria (fiscalización del comercio). 4.El Ministerio de Agricultura puede delegar competencia para ejecución de la Ley a otros organismos y entidades públicas.Son privativas del Ministerio de Agricultura todas las actividades referentes a ~iscalización del comercio internacional de semillas.6.Las servicios de inspección de campo se cancelan de acuerdo con los volúmenes producidos en el final de las campa~as; las multas e infracciones también 50n canceladas a1 gobierno.7.los pagos son depositados en un fondo rotativo que vuelve a las estados para el mantenimiento, mejoramiento, y expansi6n del sector a nive1 local.Establece sanciones adminIstrativas para las personas que no cumplan con la Ley, y sus reglamentos y normas; estas sanciones incluyen advertencias, multas, suspenSión de la comercialización, aprehensi6n, condenación, y suspensión y cancelaci6n del registro.La Ley 6507 fue reglamentada a través del Decreto 81771 el 12 de julio de 1978 y en líneas generales trata de los siguientes aspectos:1. Establece patrones mínimos de calidad a nivel nacional.2. Permite los ajustes de los patrones de acuerdo con las peculiaridades de los estados. 3. Realiza la definición de los diferentes conceptos. 4. Establece los sistemas de producci6n de semilla fiscalizada y certificada. 5. Define la participaci6n de la investigaciOn como un organismo recomendador de variedades. 6. Crea y define las entidades certificadoras y fiscalizadoras. 7. Normatiza los sistemas de producción de semillas. 8. Vigila el control de calidad de semillas a nivel de laboratorio realizado por laboratorios oficiales y particulares autorizados. 9. Vigila que los an~lisis de semillas sean conducidos de acuerdo con las reglas nacionales para an&1isis de sélllilTas y segOn las normas de la ¡STA, cuando se trata de exportación. 10. Exige que la semilla haya sido identificada antes de ser comercializada. La aplicación de la ley y su reglamento permitió el surgimiento de una industria de semillas fuerte y estable; sin embargo, después de 10 anos de aplicación necesita ser objeto de estudios detallados para su adaptación al desarrollo tecnológico que vive la empresa de semillas, y a los avances cientlficos del pais. El ArtIculo Quinto hace mención de 1. producción de sem;llas~ e indica la sanidad de semillas. $in embargo la ley presenta algunas dificultades en cuanto a su operación y existen problemas como el de control de precios y el uso de semina que no es certificada y que la ley no reglamenta ni contempla.La legislación de semillas en lV,éxico se rige por la ULey Sobre Producci6n, Certificación y Comercio de Semillas\", publicada en el diario oficial del 14 de ~bril de 1961.Este ley considera nueve capítulos, de los cuales se har~ referencia a los ma.s relevantes a juicio del autor, con el propósito de presentar un resumen.En el CapItulo Primero se establece el objeto de la Ley que a la letra dice: \"La presente Ley tiene por objeto regular el fomento de 1. agricultura mediante la producción. beneficio. registro, certificación. distribución. comercio. y utilización de semi11as de variedades de plantas útiles al hombre. IIsí tambi~n se menciona que se declaran de utilidad pública: l)los trabajos de investigación para el mejoramiento de las variedades de plantas existentes; 2) 1. calific.ción de variedades de plantas; 3) la producción y beneficio de semillas; 4) la certificación de semillas y las actividades de distribución, venta y utilización de semillas certificadas; y 5) las campafias de información y propaganda, encaminadas a generalizar el empleo de semillas certificadas y a la realización de mejores prácticas de cultivo.Productora Nacional de Semillas, con la cual coordinará la producción de semillas mejoradas que se requieran prioritariamente para fomentar el desarrollo agrícola del país.El Capitulo Cuarto trata de la calificaciOn y registro de las variedades de plantas. El Comité calificador de variedades de plantas tiene como responsabilidad: 1} calificar las variedades de plantas; 2} ordenar la cancelaciOn del registro de variedades destinadas a la producción de semillas certificadas. cuando se incribe una nueva variedad del mismo cultivo con características y comportamiento significativamente superiores a las ya inscritas; 3) emitir opinión ante la Secretaría de Agricultura y Recursos Hidráulicos en todos los casos de importación o exportación de semillas. como a los de material básico. El producto de esos derechos se asi9nará al presupuesto de dicha Secretaría.El Capítulo Séptimo hace referencia al comercio de semillas; en éste se indicó que 5610 podrán ofrecerse al público como semillas certificadas aquellas que producidas y beneficiadas de acuerdo con las disposiciones de la misma Ley y sus reglamentos, tengan condiciones normales de viabilidad y estén amparadas con los certificados y etiQuetas que expida el Servicio Nacional de ¡nspecciOn y CertificaciOn de Semillas. Por otra parte, se menciona que las personas físicas o sociales que se dediquen a la importación, exportación. producción, beneficio, almacenamiento, distribuci6n, o venta de semillas, estar!n obligadas a registrarse en el Servicio Nacional de InspecciOn y Certificación de Semillas y a sujetarse a las inspecciones que ~ste realice de acuerdo con sus facultades, ya sea en sus predios o en sus instalaciones, almacenes, o expendios.El Capítulo Octavo menciona sOlo un artículo relacionado con la sanidad de las semillas, que dice: \"El Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias determinará las normas fitosanitarias relativas a la producción' y beneficio de semillas que deban ser certiffcadas, y el Servicio Nacional de Inspección y Certificación de Semillas vigilara la aplicación y el cumplimiento de dichas normas. 11 El Capitulo Noveno habla acerca de las infracciones, sanciones, y procedimientos; una sección menciona que ser! causa de multa el hecho de expedir semillas certificadas sin las etiquetas oficiales requeridas por esta ley y sus reglamentos.Considerando algunos de los artículos como sobresalientes para cumplir con el objetivo de la exposición, podría mencionarse que la Ley a 1a que se ha hecho referencia es completa en la mayorla de los conceptos de una legislación. No obstante., presenta algunas 1 imitaciones en cuanto a su operación ya que no se cuenta con el reglamento de Ley en funcionamiento y ésto no permite la planificaci6n de la producción de semillas, entre otras actividades.As! también, existen otros problemas de control COmo el de los precias y el uso d. semilla no certificada y que la ley y su reglamento no contemplan. Sin embargo, se ha pensado en abordar ~stas y otras 1 imitaciones para apoyar la producción de semilla de calidad y en cantidad suficiente como 10 demanda la agricultura nacional. El sistema de certificación de semillas de Uruguay para los principales cultivos se basa en normas internacionales de la AOSCA (Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies) y la ISTA (International Seed Testing Association), con ligeras modificaciones para adecuarlas a las condiciones del país; tiene como objetivo poner a disposición de los productores semillas de origen conocido, de variedades superiores previamente evaluadas, multiplicadas, procesadas y distribuidas de acuerdo con normas que aseguran su pureza e identidad genética.Los principios básicos sobre los que se sustenta el sistema se pueden resumir así: l.Su aplicación Se realiza solamente con variedades identificadas, que hayan sido previamente ensayadas por 10 menos durante tres anos, y posteriormente aprobadas por el organi sroo es~ecia1i zado que para tal fin ha previsto 1. ley. 2. Toda s\"\",illa certificada de cualquier categorla debe descender directamente t por una o varias generaciones, de material parental auténtico del cultivar que se trate. 3. Para cada generaclOn intermedia y para la semilla que va a entregarse al agricultor, deben quedar bien establecidas las condiciones y/o requisitos que debe reunir el producto. 4. El cumplimiento de 10 dispuesto en la Ley y la reglamentación correspondiente debe ser comprobado por medio de inspecciones de caHdad durante la chacra, siembra, cultivo. cosecha, y acondicionamiento, a trav~s de analisis de laboratorio y de siembra de parcelas de poscontrol.La certificación de semillas se apl icó en el pals a partir de la certificaci6n dé semillas en el pals es realizada por la Unidad Ejecutora de Semilla (DIGRA), la cual cuenta con personal muy calificado que ha realizado diversos cursos en el exterior. Algunos cuentan con mas certificación de campo de veinte años de experiencia en la y de laboratorio. las pruebas de poscontrol son llevadas a cabo en forma conjunta por técnicos de certi&icación y por técnicos de DIGRA que trabajan en el área de descripción varietal con el fin de realizar e1 registro de cultivares y proteger a los obtenedores de nuevos cultivares. Los ensayos son realizados dependientes del Ministerio de en Estaciones Experimentales Agricultura y Pesc •• La prOducción de semilla base es realizada en criaderos privados y criaderos oficiales; controlados por la Unidad Ejecutora de Semillas. las semillas certi'ie.das son producidas por semilleros privados, controlados por DIGRA.La producción de semilla b3sica y certificada es regulada por las recomendaciones efectuadas por Subcomisiones Asesoras de Certificación, integradas por técnicos privados y estatales que de acuerdo con las necesidades recomiendan la producción de semilla básica y certificada, determtnada de acuerdo con las posibilidades de producción. Teniendo en cuenta que los consumidores de bienes no trasparentes no tienen poder para protegerse a nivel individual, indica que los programas de certificación deben proporcionar los medios para garantizarle al comprador un producto de calidad; adem~s menciona la promoción como un interés común entre semillistas.La semilla es un insumo en un sistema de producci6n y se comercializa en el mercado de la misma manera que otros insumes, tales como los fertilizantes y pesticidas.Sin embargo. la semilla posee características especificas que influyen en la demanda y determinan su uso. Dos de estas características son la falta de trasparenc;. y la similitud con el producto final, FALTA DE TRASPARENCIA La semilla posee muchos atributos específicos que conciernen al agricultor que va a utilizarla; uno de éstos es la composición genética de la variedad que seleccione el agricultor, otros incluyen la germinación, el vigor, y la ausencia de enfermedades, de semillas de ma 1 ezas, y de ma ter; al; nerte. A todos es tos a tri butos se los ca 1; fi ca en genera 1 como n ca 1; dad de 1 a semi11 a\"; desafortunadamente, el agricultor que compra la semilla no puede ver todos esos atributos.Por ejemplo, la semilla de papa libre de virus tiene la misma apariencia que la semilla contaminada. Asimismo, la semilla de una determinada variedad de arroz puede ser difícil de distinguir de otra variedad.El agricultor que utiliza una semilla no puede determinar visualmente la calidad de ésta, por lo tanto la semilla no es un bien \"trasparente\".Una de las características más importantes que afectan el mercado de semillas es la similitud de la semilla con el producto final obtenido por el agricultor. Mientras la papa en su forma final es similar en apariencia a la papa utilizada para siembra, el tomate como producto no se parece a la semilla de tomate.Cuando el producto final se asemeja a la semilla, el agricultor tiene la opción de sustituir la semilla por sus propios materiales (granos, tubérculos, y otros) para la siembra. Este es el caso más común en productos tales como arroz, avena, cebada, frijol, maíz, sorgo, soya, tri go I y otros.¡C6mo deciden los agricultores cuales semillas son mejores para sembrar? ¿Cómo determinar la calidad de las di'erentes semillas disponib'es, incluyendo sus propios materiales? Tíene que haber una manera de diferencíar la semilla de los granos comunes en el mercado; es decir, la semilla debe recibir un tratamiento diferente a través de todo el proceso de mercadeo. Puesto que la calidad de la semílla no puede ser evaluada a simple vista, es necesario identificarla can etiquetas, que aseguren que el producto ha sido sometido a todo un proceso tecnológico para su produccíón. Esto le facilita al agricultor reconocer la semilla como on producto verdaderame\"te superior al útiles para garantizarle produCCión y distribución.grano común. Estas etiquetas tambi~n son la integridad en todo el proceso de Se encuentran disponibles varios mecanismos para diferenciar la semilla de los granos y de otros materiales; a continuación se describe .lgunos:Muchas de las prácticas realizadas para mejorar la calidad y facilidad de manejo de la semi11a cambian su forma o aparienCia física; por ejemplo, la Hmpieza elimina las basuras y la semilla dañada; la clasificación le da un tama~o y una apariencia mas unifonmes. Generalmente se adicionan tintes de color a estos productos para prevenir el consumo humano o animal. La semilla se empaca en bolsas u otros envases para hacer mas fácil su identificación.Generalmente, la semilla se distribuye por medio de canales de abastecimiento de insumas Q direct.amente de los productores de semi na a los agricultores. El ubicar la semilla en los mismos sitios de expendio de granos generaria dudas en el comprador; y la opinión que tenga el agricultor de la persona o institución Que distribuye semillas puede ser el factor más importante, para aumentar la confianza del agricultor en la semilla que se ofrece.Las compa~ías llevan a cabo un control interno de calidad para proteger su reputación en el mercado; los emblemas permiten diferenciar la semilla de buena calidad y la imagen del productor.Cuando las instituciones privadas y públicas trabajan mancomunadamente para apoyar el sector agricola a través del programa de certificación, el agricultor puede confiar en la etiqueta de certificación; inclusive la misma palabra \"certificada\" representa un simbolo de calidad y garantla para el usuario de la semilla.Protección al Consumidor los consumidores de bienes no trasparentes no tíenen poder para protegerse a nivel individual; dehen confiar en el sistema de competencia o en algún otro medio de regulación.• Para protegerse de los expendedores inescrupulosos. los programas de certificación proporcion.n los medios p.ra garantizarle al comprador la buena calidad de la semilla.La promoción es un interés coman de los semillistas. Es evidente que los productores de semillas estan tan interesados cOrno los usuarios en asegurar la calidad de la semilla que se vende. los anali,is de calidad y l. certificación pueden ser actividades fundamentales para ayudar a diferenciar la semilla de los productos de consumo; ésta, a su vez. ayuda a desarrollar mercados y a fortalecer la demanda. En Sri Lanka la semilla producida tenla calidad variable; hace 10 años se inició un sistema do? certificación de semillas, y en la actualidad el país es autosuficiente en arroz.A medida que el sector agr1cola se beneficia de los mayores rendimientos al utilizar semi1la de buenas variedades~ aumenta la producción de alimentos.La investigaci6n en cultivos esta enfatizando especialmente el desarrollo y la identificación de variedades e hlbridos mejorados adaptados a condiciones agroclimáticas especificas. El valor de estas nuevas variedades e híbridos genéticamente mejorados se reconoce sólo cuando se utilizan.E1 sistema de certificación de semillas., proporciona el mecanismo que facilita este procesa; el uso de variedades mejoradas por medio del sistema resulta en un desarrollo agricola más acelerado.Se pueden dar tres ejemplos específicos para ilustrar cómo la certificaciOn de semillas ayudó en el desarrollo agrlco13 de los Estados Unidos: l. A medida que las Estaciones Experimentales Agrícolas inicialmente desarrollaban variedades mejoradas en los aflos 20, la certificación de semillas ayudaba a mantener las variedades identificadas y a que hubiera disponibilidad de la semilla de estos materiales.2. Con la introducción del malz hibrído en los años 30 y 40, se establecieron cientos de nuevos multiplicadores de semillas con la ayuda de los sistemas de certificación de semillas y de extensión agrícola.de certificación de semillas. Más tarde se multiplicó semilla de sorgo y de mijo híbridos y de variedades enanas de trigo y de arroz mediante el mismo sistema. India llegó a ser autosuficiente en la producción de alimentos.En TOnel, se multiplicó una nueva variedad de trigo y se vendió la semilla sin certificar, y la introducción de la variedad casi fracasa. La semilla germinO pobremente~ PosteriQrmente, se construyó un laboratorio de análisis de semill.s, se estableció un sistema de certificaci6n de semillas, y 1as futuras introducciones no tuvieron obst~culos.La producción de trigo se incrementó sustancialmente.En Sri Lanka la semilla producida por el sistema del Departamento de Agricultura presentaba una calidad variable. Hace aproximadamente 10 afios se inició un sistema de certificaci6n de semillas. Este proporciona el único sistema de control de calidad en el país.Actualmente cerca de siete por ciento de los agricultores util izan semilla adecuadamente certificada.Los agricultores de semilla secundaria (sin certificar) hacen una multiplicaci6n de segunda fase~ los rendimientos son altos y el país es autosuficiente en arroz. la certificaci6n de semillas puede ahora ayudar a desceotralizar el sistema para incluir productores privados, reducir el pape1 de1 Departamento de Agricultura, e incluir otros cultivos.El servicio Tes proporciona fuentes confiables de semilia de buena calidad de variedades mejoradas. La semilla certificada les da una oportunidad de utilizar variedades nuevas. mejoradas, y les asegura 1a identidad y la pu~eza genética del material. El conjunto de variedades mejoradas y de semilla de buena calidad abre nuevas oportunidades para muchos usuarios y les permite incrementar su producción agrícola y sus ingresos.Un programa de certificación de semillas efectivo hace posible que los usuarios de semillas tengan acceso a variedades mejoradas por primera vez. Sin este sistema, tal vez nunca se hubieran beneficiado del germoplasma mejorado. Adero!., a medida que se introducen nuevas variedades con características mejoradas, tales como rendimiento alto, habilidad de establecimiento, o resistencia a enfermedades, se puede hacer cambios rápidamente cuando el sistema esta funcionando bien.Un programa de certificación de semillas permite que operen varios grupos de producción y mercadeo de semillas y, por 10 tanto, desarrollen un ambiente competitivo. En este contexto, el usuario puede obtener semilla al mejor precio posible y no necesita pagar precios excesivamente altos debido a la escasez de materiales.A medida que el sector agrícola rendimientos posibles al utilizar se beneficia de los mayores semilla buena de variedades mejoradas~ aumenta la producción de alimentos. los incrementos en la producción de alimentos tienden a reducir los costos y el consumidor se beneficia de los costos más bajos de los alimentos. La semilla de buena calidad, la genéticamente pura, también puede mejorar la uniformidad y calidad del producto final cuando el mercado está en capacidad de diferenciar los productos de consumo con base en la cal idad.El estudio de los paises que tienen una agricultura que avanza rápidamente muestra que todos cuentan con un sector semil1ista efectivo. Por otro lado, los paises cuya agricultura es débil también son débiles en 10 que respecta a la investigación en cultivos y al desarrollo de sU sistema de producción y mercadeo de semillas. Se ha encontrado que el sistema de certificación de semillas es una de las mejores formas de fortalecer el sector semi11ista y llevar las variedades mejoradas a 10$ u$ua~ios de semillas. No es un programa de semillas completo. No logrará todo 10 que se requiere en el desarrollo del sector semil1ista. Sin embargo, la experiencia ha demostrado a trav~s de 105 años que un buen programa de certificación de semillas puede contr;buir significativamente al desarrollo agrícola y, en última instancia, al desarrollo global de un país. tenido un desarrollo adecuado. Teniendo en cuenta 1. experiencia obtenida en la visita a muchos pa 1 ses, se rea 1 i zo una encues ta con 1 a s personas que trabajan en certificación y se 10gr6 obtener una información interesante. La mayoría de las paises cuenta con una legis1ación, estableciendo requisitos de comercial ización y certificación o sistemas de producción; todos los países encuestados tienen programas de certificación; en el 68% de los casos, la certificación de semillas es una dependencia directa del Ministerio de Agricultura y el 32% restante tiene una organización con cierta autonomía. Los programas estrictamente púb 1i cos y centra 1i zados presentan desventajas de recursos, financiación y agilidad para prestar el servicio. la situación financiera del 70% de los casos indica estar en dificultades; el 70% indica que las normas son actualizadas periódicamente. A pesar de las dificultades, se observa un deseo de cambio hacia un papel de promoción, educacion, prevenei on, y apoyo a la industria de semi1las. los programas de mejoramiento genético de cultivos son un acontecimiento de nuestro 5;910« Cuando aparecieron las variedades apareció el concepto de certificación (un sistema de control de calidad) como un plan brillante para asegurar la integridad genªtica y la identidad de las semillas que comenzaban a ingresar en el mercado. Algunos documentos muestran que en Europa, Canadá, y Estados Unidos en su primera etapa de producci6n de semillas exist1an casos en los que las variedades se mezclaban muy r&pidamente y casos en los que una misma variedad se encontraba en el mercado con muchos nombres. frente a estos problemas, para facilitar la multiplicación ordenada y sistem~tica de las nuevas variedades y para ordenar el mercado, se ideó la certificación y la legislación sobre semillas.Sin e\"'bargo, existen indicaciones de que la certificación y otros programas de control externo de calidad se han quedado en su estado inicial de idea brillante en muchos países en desarrollo~ Existen interrogantes, entre los cuales podemos mencionar los Siguientes: 1.¿Han cump1ido en forma efectiva con su objetivo?2. ¿Cuáles son los problemas que les impiden alcanzar su objetivo?3. ¿Están innovando sus mecanismos y actividades para responder a necesidades reales del pa!s y a la evolución de la agrícultura en general y de la industria de semillas en Darticular? 4.¿Qué opciones existen para su desarrollo en el futuro?Con el propOsito de responder éstos y otros interrogantes, se han visitado muchos programas de certificación de fuera y dentro de la regibn. También se realizó una encuesta sencilla con las personas que  Bolivia (1986). Entre todas las legislaCiones de la región, Paoama, Costa Rica, y Bolivia han creado entidades de carácter autónomo para desarrollar la certificación de semillas. En el caso de Panamá, existe el Comité Nacional de Semillas como un cuerpo colegiado; en Costa Rica existe la Oficina Nacional de Semillas con una Junta Directiva representativa del sector; y en Bolivia existen los Consejos de Semillas donde participan directivos de los distintos organismos públiCOS y privados del sector.Para evaluar este aspecto, en el diagn6stico se pregunt6 si 1a certificación dependí. directamente del Ministerio, o de alguna entidad autónoma, o tenia otra forma de organización y si su forma de organización le dificultaba el logro de sus Objetivos.Todos los paises tienen programas de certificación. En el 68% de los casos, es una dependencia directa del Ministerio y el 32<;; restante tiene una organizaciOn con cierta autonomfa. En este segundo grupo existe una variedad de formas de organización. Asl por ejemplo, en Bolivia la certificación depende del Consejo de Semillas, el cual es aut6nomo; en Colombia depende del Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (¡CA), el cual es un instituto de investigaciOn descentral izado del Ministerio de Agricultura; en Guatemala depende de la Dirección General de Servicios Agrlcolas (DIGESA); en El Salvador depende del Centro de Tecnología Agrícola (CENTA), el cual eS un Centro dependiente del Ministerio; en Panam& existe un Comité Nacional de Semillas, el cual es un órgano colegiada. En estos casos, el Jefe de Certificaci6n responde directamente al Director de la institución.Se observa gran simil itud entre la mayor1a de 10s países de América Latina al haberse establecido la actividad de certificación dentro de sus Ministerios de Agricultura O dentro de una dependencia del Ministerio. Esto por un lado es una indicación del interés de los organismos públiCOS de promover el desarrollo de semillas a través de esta función púb1ica.• 99 • centralizadas presenta serias desventajas.Estas desventajas sobresalen sobre todo al analizar los recursos, la financiación, y la agilidad en la operación del servicio.La experiencia ha demostrado que encontrar la forma más apropiada de organización es una de las claves para el éxito de la certificación. Formas que permitan la autonomía ejecutiva y financiera, la participación del sector semillista, la continuidad del directorio, la estabilidad del personal profesional, y, sobre todo, la agilidad y la calidad del servicio han demostrado ser más efectivas que aquellas que no permiten reunir estas características.Se recopiló información sobre la disponibilidad del personal, su nivel de capacitación, la disponibilidad de vehículos y de equipos de laboratorio, la financiación, etc. S610 el 44% de los casos indica que cuenta con suficientes vehículos para ejecutar sus trabajo y un 38% indica que el personal cuenta con suficiente capacitación y experiencia. Aquellos programas que dependen sólo del gobierno en su financiación parecen ser los más a.fpctados. En muchos programas se piensa que no existe suficiente personal, o suficientes laboratorios, etc. En muchos casos, un breve análisis muestra que existen recursos en el paíS pero no están siendo utilizados.La situación financiera de muchos organismos de certificación parece estar en serias dificultades. El 70% de los casos indica que la .financiación es insuficiente. Este estimativo coincide con el 70% que depende principalmente de las áreas del gobierno y de las asignaciones de su institución para la ejecución de sus actividades. A ésto se anaden las características de inflexibilidad en el destino de esos recursos que no llegan a tiempo. Algunos programas están captando fondos con los cobros realizados por los servicios prestados. Un 80% de los programas realizan cobros. Un breve análisis por país permite ver que Colombia y Bol ;via financian más del 80% de su presupuesto con ingresos recibidos por sus servicios. Contrastando con ~sto, tambi~n se encuentran casos en los que no existe ingreso propio o éste representa menos del 5% de su presupuesto. Este grupo incluye a República Dominicana, Perú, Panamá, Paraguay, El Salvador, Ecuador, y Santa Catarina en Brasil.Algunos programas indicaron que los recursos obtenidos por cobro de servicios van a un fondo finico de donde son redistribuidos.Si 1. certificación de semillas tiene como objetivo dar un buen servicio en forma agil, naturalmente necesitarA innovar sus recursOs flSicos t humanos, y financieros. solventes y econ6micamente viables.Los paises o estados que han avanzado han aprendido una lección clave: para que el servicio sea útil, debe ejecutarse cerca de los agricultores y con la participación activa de ellos. Esta caracter1stica, combinada con financiaci6n apropiada, sí ofrece mayores perspectivas de ~xjto.Para diagnosticar este aspecto se hicieron preguntas relativas al nOmero de inspecciones de campo~ la actualización de normas y estandares, la rapidez del servicio de an~1isis, las actividades de educación/promoci6n. y la coordinación con otros gr'Jpos claves como programas de investigaciónj semilla básica y con los productores de semillas.Actualmente el 70% de los casos indica que las normas son actualizadas periódicamente. Mas aún, indica que en esta actualización hay participaCión de representantes de los sectores oficial y privado! ya sea integrando una Comisión Nacional de Semillas como en la Argentina~ un Consejo de Semillas como en Bolivia, o una Comisión Estatal de Semillas como en los Estados del Brasil.Las inspecciones de los campos de multiplicación constituyen uno de los trabajos que demandan mucho esfuerzo en términos de personal, vehlculos, y apoyo logístico. Todos los casos indican que realizan inspecciones de campo.Existen variaciones en el número de inspecciones entre paises para un mismo cultivo (Cuadro No. 1).Muchas visitas de campo Dueden significar que el servicio es demasiado paternalista y que no está promoviendo la capacidad del semillista para implementar su propio control interno de calidad.El lOO~ de los programas también indica que la toma de muestras es realizado por personal propio. Esta característica aparentemente lógica, necesita ser analüada en profundidad.Chile indica que util iza persona' de>bi damente ca 1 i fi cado de las empresas tambi~n para tomar algunas muestras. Ningún país usa laboratorios privados para los trabajos de analisis; contrasta con el estilo de trabajo de algunos programas en Europa y Norteamérica donde se han lle9ado a integrar los recursos existentes del sector públ ico y del sector privado. La experiencia ha mostrado que esta integración tiene un efecto sinerg~tico porque permite utilizar los aspectos ventajosos de cada grupo.Algunos paises como SQlivia, Colombia, Guatemala, y Paraguay indican que 105 resultados del an&lisis de laboratorio se tienen listos a los 8-10 días de la recepción de la muestra. Otros como Chile, Perú, y Santa Catar1na ~ Paraná, y Río Grande do Sul en Sras; 1 indican que requieren m&s de 20 días para obtener los resultados. Estas di~erenc;as, en parte, pueden ser debidas al cultivo que manejan y a problefnas técnicos intr1nsecos de la semilla.Sin embargo, la lentHud de este servicio puede ser un serio factor limitante en la aceptación del servicio por parte de la industria.A pesar de todas estas dificultades, en 1a región se esta notando un deseo de cambio hacia un papel de promoción. educación, prevención de problemas, y apoyo al desarrollo de la industria de semillas en general. En algunos paIses el apoyo no sólo se esta prestando a las industrias establecidas, sino que certificación esU promoviendo el desarrollo de pequeños núcleos de producción de semilla en aque110s casos donde la industria comercial no puede atender las necesidades. También muchos de los casos (70-75%) indican que desarrollan cursos para técnicos de las empresas~ para analistas, para inspectores de campo\" y envYan sus técnicos fuera del país para compenetrarse con otras técnicas y experiencias. Casi todos indican que a pesar de ello, el desarrollo de cursos dentro de su pais no ha tenido la frecuencia necesaria y que debería ser más dinámico y masivo.Algunos paises presentan situaciones que merecen destacarse: 1. Argentina indica que los recursos materiales del Estado son 1 imitados y 10 continuarán siendo en el futuro, por 10 que se estudia la trasferencia de las tareas de certificación a entidades técnicas privadas t con supervisión del Estado.Bolivia considera que tiene huena organización y busca su autofinanciamíento.Brasil indica que \"la evolución de certificación en el futuro depender~ de su integración a la asociación de los productores de semillas que es la entidad m&s estable y menos polHica\". 4.Colombia indica que en el futuro se necesitara encarar la producción de semilla del pequeño agricultor, para 10 cual faltarán técnicos. También se propone conformar la unidad de investigación en semillas. 5.Chile indica que tiene en estudio la privatización del sistema, con la supervisión de la Unidad T~cnica de Semillas del Servicio Agricola y Ganadero (SAG).Honduras está trabajandO en el mejoramiento de la estructura t función t y financiación de certificación para que ésta funcione m~s eficientemente~Paraguay indica que est& implementando la estrategia de trasferir la producci6n y comercio de semillas a la iniciativa privada, dando al estado el papel de asistencia técnica y control de calidad. Esta estrategia está dando buenos resultados. afirmando que independientemente de si la agencia es privada, oficial. o mixta, 10 importante es que productores y consumidores estén equitativamente representados en su Junta Directiva. En EE.UU. la mayorla de las agencias de certificaciOn se autofinancian con lo que cobran a los agri cu Itores .Cita del libro de Wheeler y Hill titulado \"Semillas de Pasturas\": \"Al terminar el siglo pasado~ comenzaron a aparecer variedades de semillas mejoradas en la universidad. No existía ningún sistema extensivo para la multiplicación, la distribuci6n, o la identificación. Durante muchos a~os 105 congresistas distribuyeron gratuitamente pequenos paquetes de semilla a los agricultores. Sin embargo, se favorecían muy pocos agricultores con esta distribución al azar. Estos pequeños lotes de semillas tenían que ser multiplicados. En la mayorla de los casos, los agricultores no estaban equipados para incrementar estos pequeños lotes y no estaban capacitados en los métodos para mantener la pureza varietal o para preservar o acondicionar la semilla. Por tanto, gran parte de la semilla que se distribu1a nunca estuvo disponible para su utilización agrícola en general. Las estaciones experimentales que sacaban semilla de una calidad superior. pero sin un m~todos para hacer un seguimiento que asegurara la pureza. encontraron que, sin algQn tipo de supervi$ión~ la pureza y el valor de esta semil1a se perdía muy pronto. La variedad se mezclaba con otras.Relativamente pocas personas estaban en condiciones de beneficiarse de este servicio practico de fitomejoradores. el que debería estar ampliamente disponible.A no ser que se desarrollara algún sistema para hacer un seguimiento a estas variedades después de ser distribuidas desde las estaciones que las originaron, y asegurarse que la semilla verdadera correspondiente al nombre yarietal tuviera amplia disponibilidad y por tantos años como fuera necesario, la contribución de este trabajo a la agricultura estaría perdido.Este problema tenía que ver no s610 con los fitomejoradores de la estación experimental, sino también con los agricultores miembros de las Asociaciones de Mejoramiento de Semillas que se estaban desarrollando en varios estados durante el período 1903-1918. El problema también era de interés para el comercio de semillas involucrado con los prOblemas de identificación de las variedades que manejaba, y preocupaba investigaci6n quienes estuvieran disponibles a los administradores de las programas de estaban ansiosos de que los resultados para los agricultores. Como resultado, se formó un número de estas asociaciones, con diversos nombres, entre 1903 y 1911, prinCipalmente en los estados centrales y del centro norte. En 1919 algunos representantes de estas asociaciones y de las estaciones experimentales se reunieron para discutir y evolucionar un programa. El resultado fue la Asociación lnternacional para el Mejoramiento de Cultivos, la cual Se estableció oficialmente. Algunos de los conceptos de la certificación de semillas nacieron en ese entonces y en esa reunión. También se desarrollaron algunos de los detalles y es tanda res para la certificación de cultivos. Mientras que todos los estados y las asociaciones tenían un objetivo similar, el mejoramiento de los cultivos a través de los mejores métodos disponibles, los métodos mediante los cuales formaron sus asociaciones pareclan variar de Estado a Estado\".Actualmente encontramos alrededor de tres tipos diferentes de agencias de certificaci6n en los Estados Unidos. El tipo predominante es la Asociación para el Mejoramiento de Cultivos. El segundo tiene que ver con el gobierno estatal y con los departamentos estatales reguladores de la agricultura; y el tercero es una mezcla de universidad y gobierno estatal. No creo que el vehlculo mediante el cual se logre la certificaci6n haga alguna diferencia; 10 que sí es importante es que la agencia de certificación tenga una representación equitativa entre productores y consumfdores en su Junta Directiva o que ambas partes estén a cargo del maneja de la agencia de certificación. Por ejemplo, se tiene una agencia donde est §n representados solamente los productores o éstos son mayoría; entonces se encontrar~ que la agencia de certificación naturalmente se inclinar § a favor de los productores. En otras palabras, serIa f&cil construir \"atajos\" para que mas campos de semillas pasen los requisitos. Por otro lado, si los consumidores estuvieran mejor representados en la Junta Directiva de una agencia de certificación, entonces los estandares y procedimientos van a ser tan exigentes que los productores no van a poder producir rentablemente la semilla deseada por el consumidor final. Por lo tanto~ se requiere de un equilibrio entre productores y consumidores para administrar una agencia de certificación. En muchos casos, en las asociaciones de mejoramiento de cultivos en Tos Estados Unidos se tiene una estrecha relación can las estaciones agrícolas experimentales o con las universidades. Así mismo, tienen sus propios estatutos como organizaciones independientes.A veces las personas que observan desde afuera y que revisan los procedimientos de certificación se confunden. Parece como si una organizaci 50 privada cons ti tuida par productores de semi 11 as, en un determinado Estado~ se ha llamado a sf misma una asociación de mejoramiento de cultivos y está haciendo la certificación en forma privada. Esto no es cierto. La certificacHln 1 a hace un tercer partido objetivo que est& gobernado por una Junta Oirectiva~ en la cual se cuenta con la representación tanto de productores como de consumidores.Aparte de esta.s organizaciones que son estrictamente de los departamentos estatales de agricultura. muy poco dinero proviene del gobierno. En mi caso, en el Estado de Oregon, todos los dOlares deben provenir de fuentes externas. De hecho, la ley dice que el programa de certificaci6n para el Estado de Oregon debe autofinanciarse.Nosotros estamos en condiciones de financiar nuestra organizaci6n simplemente cobrando a los agricultores una tarifa muy baja por certificar sus cu1tivos~ Nuevamente! 10 que cobran las diferentes agencias variará dependiendo del tipo de programa, del ta .. .año de los cultivos, de la cantidad de inspecciones, etc., que se deben llevar a cabo. Yo creo que es justo decir que la mayoría de las agencias de certificación de los Estados Unidos se autofinancia y que recibe muy poco dinero externo del gobierno* La mayor~a de las veces, los agricultores dentro del Estado pagan por el programa de certificación. La reco1ecci6n de las tarifas varía de un Estado a otro. El hecho es que la mayorla de las personas que están cultivando semilla certificada paga los programas de certificación.Se debe mencionar que algunas Asociaciones de Mejoramiento de Cultivos tienen sus propios laboratorios de análisis de semillas. Hay otras que cuentan con los laboratorios de semillas oficiales del Estado, y hay algunas que solamente cuentan con laboratorios privados en los cuales se examina la semilla certificada.Tal como 10 indiqué, en Estados Unidos certificación de semi11as desde principios de tenemos programas de la década de 1960 y, en su mayor1a, la semilla certificada ha sido bien recibida. Se debe aclarar, sin embargo. que en Estados Unidos la semilla se puede vender por nombre varietal sin certificación. Esto se debe contrastar con el programa de la OECD en Europa y con el Program.a Canadiense, en los que solamente es posible vender semilla por nombre varieta1 cuando está certificada.Puesto que la semilla se puede vender por nombre varietal sin certificación, gran parte de la semilla que se comercia en Estados Unidos no est& certificada. Por tanto, existe muy poco conflicto hasta ahora en cuanto a 10 que tiene que ver con la industria de semillas y las agencias de certificación de semillas.Sencillamente nosotros decimos en nuestras propagandas de AOSCA que si hay una preocupación como consumidor acerca de la variedad, entonces la mejor selección seria semilla certificada. la semilla certificada es la única garantla de la variedad. El autor hace referencia a cómo han evolucionado las reglas del esquema utilizado por la OEeD (Organización de CooperacíOn y Desarrollo Económico) y a la forma como se establecieron las 1 istas de definiciones y términos, especialmente en la designación de generaciones. Uno de los objetivos de la OECO es estimular el uso de semillas de calidad dentro de los paises participantes. El sistema OEeO requiere que la certificación de semillas sea responsabi1 ídad del gobierno. El autor hace especial énfasis en que el sistema OEeO está disefiado para hacer posible que los agr; cu 1 tares y 1 as autori dades conf! en en los resultados del control real izado a la producción en otro pais.La OEeO como tal no certifica semilla. La certificación es realizada en los países miembros del sistema por medio de sus Servicios Oficiales de Certificación de Semillas. Las n'glas del esquema OECO han evolucionado en los últimos treinta a.'los, empezando por la rnetodoiog1a utilizada por los países miembros. Una de las primeras tareas y tal vez la más importante fue la de establecer una 1ista de de-rinicíones y términos usados, particularmente en la designac;6n de las diferentes generaciones: prebásica, b&sica, y registrada. E' objetivo del esquema es estimular el uso de semilla de alta calidad t dentro de los paises participantes. Esto es verdad si logramos encontrar una buena parte del efecto del control en las generaciones inicialesj por esta razón se le presta una atenci6n muy particular a la producción de semilla básica.El éxito del esquema depende de la estrecha relación y cooperación entre los investigadores y las autoridades de certificaci6n en los países participantes. El esquema define al investigador como la persona u organ;zaci6n responsables por la producción o el mantenimiento de un cultivar. Como país de origen de un material se consldera el país donde se mantiene el cultivar.Cada país participante es responsable de la decisl6n de qué cultivares podr~ admitir bajo un esquema de certificaci5n. Tales cultivares son colocados en una lista y publicados.Esta lista es revisada anual~ente por cada país participante. La Secretaría de l. OECD publica un. recopilación de estas listas nacionales. la cual es conocida como 1/1 ista de cultivares ll • El sistema OtCn requiere que la certificación de semillas sea responsabilidad del gObierno. Esto no necesariamente aumenta la calidad de la semilla; pero el sistema OECO es<:á dise~ado para hace\" posible que los agricultores y las autoridades acepten con seguridad los resultados del control de h producción realizado en otro país, por 10 regular dis~ante y con idioma diferente. La confianza mutua es un e i emento vi ta 1 en 1 a operaci 6n del esquema. Anua lmente se rea 1; za una reunión para discutir los problemas y progresos más importantes. Definir pollticas regionales de producción, comercialización, y promoción de semillas.Semillas y otras instituciones.Fiscalizar la semilla de producción naciona1 e importada a través de los Servicios Regionales de Certificaci6n de Semillas.Aprobar nOrmas especificas y regiona1es de certificación de semillas.5. Aprobar planes y presupuestos de los Servicios de Certificación de Semillas y otros servicios que pudiera tener a su cargo.6.Aprobar tarifas de certificación de semillas producidas en la Coordinar con los organismos pertinentes todas las acciones necesarias inherentes a la promoción de la ;nvestigac;6n t producci6n t mult;plicación~ y comercialización de semillas.Gestionar la obtención de recursos financieros para el funcionamiento del propio CNS.Promover y dar norfl1as sobre el intercambio de semil1as entre regiones.Llevar el Registro Nacional de Semillas.lo Fiscalización de la producción de semillasFiscalización de la importación de semill as  1.El Director de la División de Semillas 2.El Jefe de la Sección de Certificaci6n de Semillas 3.Un representante de la Subgerencia de Investigación del ICA 4.Un representante de la Oficina de Regulaci6n T~cnica del Ministerio de Agricultura 5.Un representante del Departamento de Semillas de la Caja Agraria 1.La Subgerencia de Investigación y Trasferencia se relaciona con el Programa de Producción de B~sicos, dependiente de la División de Centros y Estaciones, en el aspecto de coordinar las cantidades básicas de semillas que se han de producir así como en la asignación de ésta a los productores.Hay una estrecha vinculación con los programas de Investigación, ya que los materiales producidos por éstos deben ser inscritos ante la División de Semillas, con el objeto de poder ser comercial izados.También existe relación con los programas de investigación que manejan especies cuyas semillas para siembra son importadas, ya que son aquellos los que deben emitir los conceptos de adaptaci6n para la introducción de estos materiales.Existe una estrecha relación entre los diferentes programas de investigación y la División de Semillas en la elaboración de la legislaci6n.Para la inscripción de los materiales producidos por la empresa privada es necesario contar con los conceptos de evaluación de los respectivos programas de investigación.Los laboratorios de la División apoyan los programas de investigación a través de los análisis de calidad efectuados, tanto a los materiales experimentales como a la semilla básica.Los técnicos de Certificación asesoran el Programa de Producción de Básicos y realizan inspecciones de los campos para la producción de semilla básica.Un representante de la Subgerencia de Investigación participa en el Comité Técnico Asesor de la División de Semillas, en el cual se dan lineamientos de políticas para la División.I)entro de la Subgerencia de Fomento y Servicios existe relaci6n con las Divisiones de:1. Sanidad Vegetal en el aspecto de aprobar conjuntamente las importaciones de semillas con el fin de que los materiales que ingresen estén libres de problemas fitosanitarios.2.También se presta apoyo mediante los análisis de calidad de las semillas que ingresan al país.3. Insumos Agr1colas, en el sentido de realizar los análisis de calidad a la semilla que se encuentra en comercialización.Presta asesoría también en los aspectos relacionados con legislación sobre semillas.Asistencia Técnica Agrícola en el suministro de información dirigida a fomentar el uso de semilla certificada a nivel de los agricultores que utilizan recursos del FFA.Desarrollo campesino a través de la asesoría en el proceso de producci6n de semilla tanto en el campo como dentro del proyecto nací ona 1 de produce; ón de semi 11 asIntegrado (DRI) para el pequeño en áreas de Desarrollo Rural agricultor.colabora con algunos distritos no involucrados Igualmente se dentro del plan nacional en la estructuración de proyectos de producción de semillas, dirigidos al pequeño productor.Divulgación mediante la asesoría prestada en la elaboración de los medios de comunicación para actividades de transferencia de tecnología.Estudios Regionales mediante la colaboración en los aspectos económicos de los proyectos dirigidos a la producción de semilla para el pequeño productor.Entre las entidades con las cuales la División de Semillas tiene relaciones funcionales est~n:1. El Ministerio de Agricultura, el cual marca las políticas a segui r por parte de 1 I ns ti tuto como qu i era que és te depende estructuralmente de dicho Ministerio.De otra parte, la legislación en materia de certificación de semillas es promulgadaCuadro 1 localización, áreas de influencia, y especies certificadas por las oficinas locales del ICA. La certificación es realizada solamente por ia Oficina Nacional de Semillas en diez especies. Las diferentes labores son real izadas por 8 ingenieros agrónomos y 3 técnicos de nivel medio. la actividad de control de mercadeo se ejecuta por medio de facturas oficiales para la venta de semilla. Con e1 fin de tener una mayor cobertura en capacitación se ha d~señado un programa que abarca los principales aspectos de la producción y certificación de semillas.La actividad de semillas está reguiada por un ente estatal. con ~ines definidos como órgano rector de semillas en el país, conocido como 1a Of;c~na ~ac;onal de Semi1 1 as.El marco legal de la Oficina Nacional de Semillas se dió mediante la Ley No. 6289 del 4 de diciembre de 197R, otorgando facultades y directrices de operación muy específicas y se dió la base para el buen desarrollo de esta actividad. la Oficina cuenta con personería jurídica y recursos fínancieros propios.La Oficina Nacional de Semillas esta regida por una Junta Directiva, Departamento Administrativo-Financiero. Su responsabilidad es el manejo financiero de la Institución. La Oficina Nacional de Semillas es una empresa estatal, con la particularidad de financiarse con los recursos provenientes de la prestaci6n de sus serv i cios.Los i \"gresos se obti ene\" por los si gu i entes conceptos: a. Certificación de semillas -Superficie efectivamente sembrada -Volumen de semilla certificada -Venta de semilla b. Inscripción de plantas procesadoras de semillas. c. Permisos de importación y exportación d. Ensayos de variedades e. Permisos de comercialización (distribuidores).También la Oficina Nacional de Semillas ha recibido aportes financieros extraordinarios provenientes de préstamos externos de entidades tales como el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BIO).La Oficina Nacional de Semillas funciona corno un ente catalizador y rector de las actividades del sector, manteniendo una relación integral entre Tas wismas. La Oficina Nacional de Semillas contribuye financieramente con las universidades y el Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería para ejecutar la investigación; destína un 10% de su presupuesto anual a estas actividades, en forma complementaria a 'os presupuestos asignados.La Oficina Nacional de Semillas determina 1as necesidades nacionales de semilla básica e indica al Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganaderia por intermedio de sus Estaciones Experimentales y las empresas privadas para que ?foduzcan las cantidades necesarias de esta categoría, las cuales se disttlbuyen a las empresas prívadas y públicas.t1 control externo de cal idad 10 ejecuta la Oficina Nacional de Semillas en forma integral y en igualdad de condiciones para e1 sector público y privado.Sector público. El estado tiene una planta procesadora de semillas, que produce básicamente aquellas en que no participa la empr~sa privada como son: frijol y marz~ No obstante participa en un 15% del mercadeo de semillas de arroz, como una función estab,lizadora del mercado.Sector ~rivado. La empresa privada participa en diferentes etapas de la actividad semi11ista, dependiendo del rubro.Tienen ácceso a los materiales provenientes de les Centros Internacionales, generan su propia investigación, la cual es controlada y avalada por el Estado a través de la Oficina ~acional de Semillas; liberan cultivares; y multiplican y comercializan. Todo este procedimiento es controlado por la Oficina Nacional de Semillas; las empresas pagan el servicio que se tes suministra.Empresas que tienen integración horizontal del mercado son las que compran algunas categorías básicas y las multiplican en categorías registrada y certificada, para luego comercializarlas.Estas empresas son las que compran semillas certificadas de producción nacional O importadas. y las comercializan a nivel nacional e i nternac i ona 1 • ORGANIZACIOK DE LA CERTIFICACION La certificaci6n se lleva a cabo s610 a través de la Oficina Nacional de Semillas, la cual est~ centralizada en la capital de la república.Costa Rica es un país de tan sólo 50.000 km 2 con excelente infraestructura vial y con una extensión entre fronteras m&xima de 600 km, por 10 tanto la movilización es ágil.Las superficies de producción de semillas están centralizadas por rubro, lo que oermite administrar con mayor eficiencia técnica y menor costo de certificación. Actualmente esta Oficina maneja 10 programas de certificación: algodón, arroz, cacao. café (semillas y plantas de vivero}, frijol, maíz, papa, pastos, sorgo, y soya. Estos programas son ejecutados por ocho ingenieros agrónomos y tres técnicos de nivel medio que se desempeñan como auxiliares.La certificación consiste btisicamente en cuatro inspecciones durante el ciclo del cultivo, control del proceso. toma de muestras oficiales, an~lisis de muestras en el laboratorio. y control de mercadeo. Estas dos últimas actividades se realizan con apoyo externo de la Oficina Macional de Semillas.El Laboratorio Oficial. de conformidad con la Ley de Semillas. es el Centro para Investigaciones en Granos y Semillas de la Universidad de Costa Rica; el personal que evalúa las muestras oficialas pertenece a la Universidad de Costa Rica y no está bajo la responsabilidad administrativa del organismo certificador.La otra actividad de control de mercadeo. se ejecuta por medio de facturas oficiales para la venta de semillas, emitidas por la Oficina Nacional de Semillas a las empresas comerchiizadoras de semillas; dichas facturas deben estar previamente registradas y acreditadas por la Oficina Nacional de Semillas.Las facturas oficiales tienen numeración continua y juego de copias para diferentes organismos del Estado Que son 10s que complementan el control de ventas y uso de 'Semillas certificadas, ejemplo da esos organismos son: seguro de cosechas\" crédito, y entidades reguladoras de la actividad comercíal de granos. la actividad de control de mercadeo persigue cuatro objetiVOS básicos: -Proteger a los agricultores -Incrementar la tasa de utililaciOn de semilla cer~ificada ~ Propiciar una sana competencia y fortalecimiento de la industria semillera. -Proveer recursos fínancieros a la entidad certificadora.CAPACITACION y TRASFERENCIA DE TECNOlOGIA la Ofícina Nacional de Semillas tiene como marco filosófico \"el fortalecimiento de 1. actividad semi11ista en forma integral\".Para el ~xlto de un programa de semillas, la capaCitación debe darse desde los niveles superiores de orden po11tico hasta los de usuarios de semillas. Se debe elaborar una estrategia integral y un programa general y otro específico para cada beneficiario de la capacitación. la Oficina Nacional de Semillas, recurre a diferentes instancias para lograr sus Objetivos de capaCitación. los centros internacionales, principalmente el Centro lnternacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), han contribuido enormemente con este propósito a travt?$ de la Unidad de Semillas; asimismo empiezan a dar sus frutos los aportes eo capacitacibn del Centro loteroacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) y la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO).Como estrategia, la Oficina Nacional de Semillas ha diseñado un programa de capacitación de la siguiente forma: l. Curso de Tecnología de semillas eo la Facultad de Agranom1a, para estudiantes universitarios de nivel de 1 i cenci atura; este curso se da en forma colegiada con profesores universitarios y funcionarios de la Oficina Nacional de Semilla, 2. Mesas redondas sobre la actividad de semillas en Costa Rica, con la participación de funcionarios de alto nivel (Ministros, Presidentes, Gerentes de Instituciones Públicas y Privadas) del sector agropecuario en relación con la actividad de semillas.3. Cursos internacionales sobre tecnología de semillas y uso de recursos genéticos con el apoyo de ARTES. CIAT. CIMMYT. FAO, Y CATIE. En estos cursos se da la participación pública y privada. Se realiza un curso con frecuencia mlnima de cada 2 a~os.Cursos naciDnales sobre tecnología de semillas, con participación privada y pública y con financiamiento de ambos sectores. Mínimo un curso por afto.Dlas de tarr•oo; cada programa tiene la responsabilidad de realizar un día de campo por año orientado a profesionales del sector agropecuario y a los agricultores.6.Charlas de capacitación a funcionarios de la empresa privada de semillas a nivel medio.7.Char 1 as, conferencias~ y mesas redondas a nivel de grupos de apoyo.Actualmente estamos elaborando nuestros propios audiovisuales y bolet,nes informativos para lograr una mayor penetración en la capacitación de los grupos involucrados.El artículo se refiere al sistema seguido por Chile en la Certificación de Semillas. la cual es ejecutada por el organismo oficial del Ministerio de Agricultura. Hace referencia a la ley de semillas que rige la investigación t producción, y comercio de semillas y a las principales especies que están dentro del esquema de certificación. Enuncia las condiciones que debe cumplir un material para que sea registrado; además, hace mención del cambio que Se operará al traspasar al sector privado, la Asociación Nacional de Productores de Semillas, y la eJecución de las actividades que desempeñará certificaciOn de semillas ante el enfoque.La certificación de semillas eS oficial, y la ejecuta la Unidad T~cn;ca de Semillas del Ministerio de Agricultura.Dentro del sistema se cuenta con la ley de semilhs y los decretos reglamentarios que rigen la investigación, la producción, y el comercio de semillas de especies agrlcolas y frutales, complementado ésto con las normas de certificaci6n correspondientes, dictadas con base en las recomendaciones del comité normativo.Se cuenta con un registro de variedades aptas para la certificati6n en el cual las variedades son inscritas una vez que demuestran su condición de diferentes, estables, homogªneas, y con un valor agron6mico industrial sobresaliente. Esto es probado ~or dos años por la Unidad Técnica en las propias estaciones experimentales o dentro de la red de ensayos cooperativos que opera para el caso de los cereales. la fuente de material genético se encuentra en las estaciones experimentales creadoras de variedades y la producción es ejecutada por agricultores, particulares, empresas! Y cooperativas.La certificación es voluntaria para todas las especies para las cuales existen variedades inscritas en el registro de variedades como cereales, arroz. aVf'na, cebada, alfalfa, ma~z.frijoles, lenteja, lupino, lolium, pasto ovillo! girasol, colza, remolacha, trébol rojo, trebol subterráneo, entre los principales. El poscontrol de 1 a semi 1i a certi ficada se efectúa para el \\00% de 1 a seml1 la probAsica y bAsica y llega al 10% para el caso de la etapa C2. Se utiliza la designación de etapas de acuerdo al sistema OECO de certificaci6n varietal.El esquema de certificación opera en el organismo eJecutor con supervisores por grupo de cultivos a rivel central, encargados de establecer las normas de certif~cación y supervisar la ejecución de las mismas. Esta última eS real izada por inspectores de semillas destacados en ocho de las 13 regiones en que se divide el pals. El número de estos inspectores está en relación con el número de hect~reas y con las espeCies que est~n dentro del sistema.En lo que se refiere a especies agríco1as. la ejecución de las actividades de certificaci6n se traspasará al sector privado, (la Asociación Nacional de Productores de Semillas) en 10 relacionado con aspectos tales corno inscripción de los semilleros, inspecci6n de los mismos, muestreo y análisis de la semilla, otorgamiento de tarjetas de certificaci6n y emisión de certificado final, reservándose el estado la promulgación de las normas y la supervisión de 1. ejecución de la certificaci6n por el organismo autorizado, la manutención del registro de variedades aptas para la certi~icaciOn, la ejecuciOn de poscontrol, y la certificación derivada de compromisos internacionales tales como Hasta finales de la d~cada del 70 el control de calidad de la semilla prodUCida en el país lo. realizaba el Ministerio de Agricultura a través de una empresa de producción estatal denominada Empresa Nacional de Semillas rENASEM) la cual producía y comercializaba las semillas de cultivos b13sicos tales como arroz, malz, y -Frijol. Por otro lado el sector privado, especialmente los dueños de molinos, comercializaban granos de arroz rlespuªs de una 1impieza previa como semilla sin ningún control. Igualmente se importaba toda la semilla de maíz, sorgo, hortalizas, y otros; tal situación díó como resu1tado continuos reclamos por parte de los agricultores, aduciendo que la semilla presentaba baja germinación y estaba contaminada con semill.s de malezas, arroz rojo, y mezc1as varietales.Además, gran parte de la semilla importada de malz. sorgo, y cebolla no correspondh a la recomendada por la investigación y no estaba disponible oportunamente en las épocas de siembra, 10 que incidía negativamente en la producci6n agrícola del país.Si bien es cierto que existla el Decreto No. 132 de abril de 1967, el cual regulaba la producci6n, importación, y comercialización de semillas y establecía requisitos mínimos de calidad en las diferentes categorías, estos eran inalcanzables e imposibilitaban iniciar un programa de semillas. A partir de 1987 l1'ediante el Decreto EJecutivo No. 3 del 5 de abril de 1978 se creó el comité nacional de semillas que dejó sin efecto todas las regulaciones existentes en sel1'illas.Controlar que la semilla o material de propagación utilizados en la actividad productiva cumplan con los requisitos de calidad y velar por el cumpliwiento de las normas legales Que regulan la materia.Asesorar en la planificación y ejecución de la politiCe semillista nacional y coordinar las actividades que en este campo desarrollen las instituciones públicas y privadas.3. Analizar permanentemente e1 estado de aprovisionamiento de semillas requeridas por la agricultura nacional y recomendar las medidas que hagan pOsible su sumi\"is~ro oportuno y en condiciones favorables. Fomentar y regular conjuntamente con el MIDA la producción, el procesamiento, y la comercialización de semillas.?.~ecomendar al Ministro de Desarrollo Agropecuario las medidas a tomar en asuntos Clue se relacionen, afecten,. o beneficien las políticas de producción, promoción, abastecimiento, y uso de semillas mejoradas.Aprobar los sistemas prácticos y técnicos para el procesamiento, el almacenamiento, y la y comercialización de semillas.4. Reglamentar de acuerdo con la pOlítica del MIDA las importaciones y exportaciones de la semilla y de los nuevos materiales b!sicos.5. Certi'icar la calidad de las semillas utilizadas en la actividad agrícola.• 137 • 6.Autorizar el uso de las variedades e híbridos en siembras comerciales. de la AOSA para utilizarlos en la suplementación de las pruebas de germinación y el analisis de pureza y para el uso en programas de control de calidad.El trabajO del comité de arbitraje proporciona un medio para que los laboratorios comparen y estal'ldari cen sus procedimi entos y resultados de las pruebas.El trabajo de la AOSA (Association of Official Seed Analystsl se realiza principalmente por medio de comités. Tres de estos comités han hecho las mayores contribuciones al área de control de calidad de semillas: el Comité de Normas, el Comité de Investigación, y el Comité de Arbitraje. El Comité de lnvestigaci6n se compone de numerosos subcomités; a19unos de estos suhcomités tales como el subcomitª de vigor y el subcomité de la prueba de tetrazolio son permanentes. Los otros subcomités se nombran por periOdos m §s cortos, hasta que realicen una tarea aS1gnada, luego se disuelven.Los nuevos subcomités se designan de acuerdo con las necesidades.La AOSA trabaja estrechamente con 1. Sociedad de Tecnólogos de Semilla Comercial, una organización de Analistas de Semillas que trabajan en y para la industria, para la misma industria de semillas, y para otras organizaciones que trabajan con semillas.Las \"Normas de Analisis de Semillas\" de la AOSA incluyen únicamente las pruebas de germinaci6n y el análisis de pureza y son la gula para analizar la semilla. las leyes de semillas reconocen las I1NormasH como procedimientos oficiales para analizar semillas para 1(1$ laboratorios reguladores. Las IlNonnas\" son utilizadas tambi~n por compañías y otros laboratorios privados que realizan analisis de semillas.Se hacen cambios en las tlNormas!l únicamente después de que se acepta la necesidad de éstos, se han investigado a fondo los nuevos procedimientos, y se ha demostrado que mejoran los procedimientos que están en uso. las recomendaciones para los cambios se hacen al Comité de Normas. Este Comité revisa la información que respalda los cambios sugeridos, luego recomienda la acci6n a todos los miembros. los cambios deben ser aprobados por los miembros en pleno, presentes en la reunión anua1. las normas proporcionan procedimientos uniformes para el anAlisis de germinaci6n y pureza.las otras publicaciones de la AOSA tales como el \"Manual de AnAlisis de Vigor!l., el HManual para ia Prueba de Tetrazolio H ; las pruebas de pureza varietal y otras pruebas son compiladas para ser utilizadas por los laboratorios en la suplementación del análisis de germinación y pureza. para proporCionar lnformación a los semil1istas y a las compañ1as de semi1l as l y para ser uti iízadas en los programas de control de calidad.Los cambios se hacen a medida que la investigaci6n suministra informaci6n para cambiar o para agregar pruebas, o para desarrollar nuevas publicaciones.El trabajo del Comité de Arbitraje proporciona opor~un;dades para que los analistas de semi11as comparen los resultados de sus pruebas con los resultados de las pruebas de los analistas de otros laboratorios.Esto también sirve para estandarizar 1as pruebas entre laboratorios.Un problema principal en el analisis de semillas es que los laboratorios y los anal istas dentro de los laboratorios pueden no seguir los procedimientos exactamente como est~n descritos. La O/Regla\" permite procedimientos de analisis alternos en algunos casos; en otros los analistas pueden variar el procedimiento. Esto no ocasiona tanto problema en una prueba de germinación como en algunas de 1as pruebas de vigor. Sin embargo, cuando se trata de pruebas de estrés en particular, es de extrema importancia seguir exactamente los procedimientos establecidos. Las condiciones de la prueba deben estar estrictamente controladas o los resultados de la prueba serán de poco val Of.ESTANDARES y PROCEDIMIENTOS ALCANZABLES la uniformización de estándares entre regiones o grupo de países toma tiempo y algunos países deben dedicarse a estandarizar un grupo de normas, 10 cual es un objetivo que vale la pena cumplir.La Asociación de Agencias Oficiales de Certificaci6n de Semillas (AOSCA) es una organización cuyos miembros son las agencias responsables de la certificación de semillas en sus respectivas áreas. fue fundada en 1919 bajo el nombre de Asociación Internacional para el Mejoramiento de Cultivos y está compuesta por Agencias Certificadoras de Semillas de Canadá y los Estados Unidos. Estas agencias mantienen una estrecha relación de trabajo con la industria de semillas; con las agencias reguladoras de semillas; y con las agencias gubernamental es involucradas en el desarrollo internacional del mercado de semillas, la investigación agrlcola, y los servicios de extensión. Los primeros dos objetivOS de la Asociación son: 1) Establecer estandares de 1. pureza e identidad gen(!tica y recomendar los esU,ndares mínimos de calidad de la semilla para las diferentes clases de semilla certificada; 2) Estandarizar las regulaciones de cert;~icaci6n de semil1as y los procedimientos operacionales en la certificación de semillas entre agencias.La AOSCA realiza su trabajo por medio de comités de productos agrícolas: el comité de trébol. el comité de alfalfa, el comité de gramíneas, el comité de granos pequer,os, etc~ Estos comités están compuestos por representantes de los prOductores y los consumidores y se reunen para determinar un grupo mínimo de est~ndares. Es decir, un conjunto de estándares mínimos que los productores sean capaces de alcanzar y con los cuales los consumidores-queden satisfechos con respecto a la calidad de la semilla que van a recibir.Parece ser que ésta es la parte importante al tratar de estandarizar cualquier acuerdo de trabajo: lograr que el productor y el consumidor estén satisfechos con el conjunto mínimo de estandares. ian pronto como ambas partes llegan a un acuerdo. entonces en la AOSCA se transforma ese grupo mínimo de estándares en un Grupo Nacional. Una vez que se han decidido y se han acordado los Estandare5 Nacionales, el Objetivo es toda la industria de semillas. Esto es, el Mercadeo de Semillas, el Analista de Semillas, los Funcionarios de Control de Semil1as, y se llega a un acuerdo con ellos sobre ese grupo mínimo de estiíndares. Tan pronto se tiene el consenso dentro de la industria, se llega a 1a Ley feder\"al. Debe mencionarse aquí que es necesario tener algún mecanismo para obligar\" a todas las partes a1 cumplimiento <ie pOr\" 10 menos los esUndares mínimos que se han acordado. Parece ser muy importante que se logre .lguna meta y que todos estén dispuestos a trabajar por la obtención de ese objetivo en particular.En la experiencia de AOSCA hay .lgunos problemas relacionados con esta clase de procedimiento; por ejemplo. el hecho de que algunos países o esta<ios tengan que reducir sus practicas de producci6n para alcanzar el denominador común.Este es un problema entre los pa1ses latinoamericanos en particular~ debido a que algunos países pueden ofrecer sus productos a niveles muchos mejores y w~s altos que otros.Como resultado, el estandar final acordado puede ser muy bajo. También se debe mencionar que todo este asunto requiere mucho tiempo. Es un objetivo que vale la pena y es alcanzable, pero también consume mucho tiempo y requiere una atenci6n constante. Por ejemplo, se podrfa decidir establecer los estándares m1nimo$ en un momento determinado y luego, durante el a~o, se podrla descubrir que es extremadamente facil alcanzar este estándar y podría elevarse para el año siguiente. 0, probablemente puede ser cierto lo contrario; que se han establecido estándares muy altos. Se descubre entonces que ningún país es capaz de alcanzar este estándar particularmente alto y por 10 tanto el siguiente ano se acuerda el reajuste. De esta manera se han ubicado dos prOblemas básicos. la ADSCA se ha dividido por regiones en los Estados Unidos. Todas estas regiones se reunen una vez al año. las regiones podrían hacerse cargo de refinar más un grupo de estándares. He aquí un ejemplo: Probablemente los del Oeste, al analizar los estándares de los granos pequeños, deciden que éstos tienen un nivel muy bajo. Todos especulan acerca de que ciertamente podrían prOducir granos de semilla certificada con una calidad genéticamente mucho más alta que 1. establecida en los estándares mínimos de 1. AOSCA. Eso quiere decir que en la región Occidental pueden discutir y llegar a un acuerdo sobre un est~ndar más alto. Asimismo es posible que algunos países en América latina puedan acordar que su semilla será por 10 menos tan buena como los estándares m1'nimos que se hayan acordado, pero que también es muy probable que sea mucho más alta.acordado que hay un grupo mínimo de esUndares. Sin embargo, eso no quiere decir que todos los estados, o que todos los paises, tengan que alcanzar sólo el grupo minímo de estandares; 10 que quiere decir es que no pueden estar por debajO de ese grupo mínímo t pero ciertamente pueden estar por encima de él. Una vez que una regiOn en particular o un determinado número de paIses haya decidido que puede prodUCir semi'la a un nivel más alto, entonces depende de ese grupo de pa1ses, O de esa región, el COnvencer al resto de las regiones de que ellas también podrl.n alcanzar un grupo mas alto de est~ndares mlnimos. Se puede regresar a los comités de productos agrícolas dentro de la AOSCA y ajustar los estándares para alcanzar el nivel más alto. Es un proceso que toma tiempo y alguien o algunos paises deben dedicarse a estandarizar un grupo de normas para este fio.El autor comenta que la Asociación Internacional admisión de miembros en la Asociación y autoriza a las estaciones miembros para elaborar los certificados de la ¡STA.los congresos de la ¡STA se realizan tres veces a! año. la Asamblea Ordinada es la maxima autoridad de la Asociación. Estos congresos organizan seminarios sobre la producci6n de semi11as. el control de calidad, y la distribución.Las primeras reuniones de los cient1ficos y tecnó1ogos en semillas comenzaron en 1870~ Ya en ese tiempo los institutos de an&lisis de semillas sintieron la necesidad de aplicar procedimientos comunes como requisito previo para obtener resultados uniformes.Sin embargo, fue después del establecimiento de la Asociación ¡nternaciona! de Análisis de Semillas en 1924, que se obtuvieron las primeras Reglas ¡nternacionales para el Análisis de Semillas. Era de mucha importancia tener estas Reglas en una etapa inicial de la investigación de semillas. De esta manera, se tuvo una base más s6l ida para su posterior desarrollo, 10$ mejoramientos, y las extensiones, a medida que se logró una nueva tecnolog1a y se desarrollaron nuevas y mejores pruebas. Mientras que las Reglas de 1931 estaban contenidas en 20 páginas, ahora son una publicación voluminosa de 220 paginas. Además de estas reglas, se han pUblicadO numerosos manuales que cubren cada uno de los principales capltulos de las Reglas.LoS trabajos de los científicos y tecn61ogos en semil1as establecen la evidencia científica en la cual estan basadas las Reglas~ A menudo ha habido desacuerdos y se han postergado las decisiones Y/o la solución ha sido s610 compromisos aceptables. la mayor parte del trabajo se realizó en el Decimoquinto Comité T~cnico de la ¡STA que cantO con la participaci6n activa de mas de 300 personas.Creemos tener ahora métodos est&ndares aceptables para analizar semi11as, 105 que de hecho son utilizados en un gran número de paises a través de todo el mundo.Aunque nuestro programa árbitro del anaTis;s demuestra discrepancias en los resultados de las pruebas, las Reglas y los manuales están contribuyendo enormemente a la uniformidad en el análisis de las semillas.Para aumentar su uniformidad, la Asociación organiza y patrocina talleres de trabajO, seminarios t y reuniones con el proPósito de trabajar en los procedímientos de analisis y lograr acuerdos sobre las definiciones e interpretaciones de los métodos prescritos. el an41isis de la sanidad de la semilla en Passo Fundo, Brasil.Los talleres y seminarios se organizan de tal manera que introduzcan técnicas modernas de análisis de semillas a pa1ses y regiones donde el control de calidad de semillas se está desarrollando.En 105 patses industrializados los laboratorios miembros 3 T fontan una mayor responsabilidad como anfitriones de los talleres. La ¡STA no tiene los recursos para financiar la organización de talleres y seminarios regionales. Esto se hizo una vez en 1965, cuando se organizaron talleres en Brasil, Kenia, y Nueva Zelandia, pero el tremendo trabajo invol ucrado en proporcionar apoyo financi ero, búsqueda de conferencistas, selección de candidatos, y organización de viajes, etc. implicó tanto tiempo y dinero a aquellos involucrados en la planl+;caci6n y la organización que éste se convirtió en el primero y único intento da compromiso con tal nivel de responsabilidad.En cambio se ha establecido relaci6n con la Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) y a solicitud de ellos se les ha proporcionado una lista de los científicos y tecn6logos en semillas que están dispuestos a asistir a talleres sobre el tema de análisis y próducción~ y distribuci6n de semillas. La ISTA ha estado involucrada en talleres y seminarios en América Latina y el Caribe (Argentina, Colombia) CostaRica, ~onduras, Jamaica, Pera, y Trinidad y Tobago) durante los últimos 10 a~os.Cuando se organizan talleres/seminarios en países industria~i.zados, generalmente no hay problemas en la consecución de participantes activos por ejemplo, aquellos que trabajan en laboratorios y sus supervisores inmediatos.En los p.~sas an dasarrollo, donde al nivel da desarrollo da los programas de semillas es más bien variado, es m&s difícil encontrar las personas adecuadas. Sin embargo, por medio de una seleccí6n cuidadosa, en estrecha colaboración con las autoridades locales. generalmente se consigue un grupo razonablemente homogéneo.La organización de los tal leras an los paises industrializados es importante para la aplicación uniforme de las Reglas y para todas las ideas y conocimientos que se adquieren durante las discusiones t demostraciones, y conversaciones con colegas. Esto también es cierto en los pa1ses en desarrollo, pero la información proporcionada en este caso debe: ser de una naturaleza mas general, que trate sobre los principios generales y sobre las pruebas de semillas normales, sir muchos problemas. Adamás, los talleres en los paísas en desarrollo tienen la importancia de proporcionar una única oportunidad para que los participantes se reunan y discutan prOblemas mutuos.La realización de dichos talleres se recomienda prioritariamente. El número de personas que trabaja en el control de calidad de la semilla y los problemas relacionados es limitado; por 10 tanto, los talleres, serninarios t y reuniones son importantes para estas personas. Los gastos de organización, incluyendo viajes y viáticos deben estar cubiertos en un 100% por fondos .xternos.Debe entenderse que la ¡STA no .sU involucrada en los estandares de calidad de la semilla, pero sI en los procedimientos esUndares para analizar las semillas. Estos procedimientos estan siendo utilizados en muchos mas pa 1 ses, ademas de los 60 pa! ses mi embros. Las Reglas para el Ana1isis de Semillas se publican en los tres idiomas oficiales de la Asociación: Inglés, Francés, y Alemán, y han sido traducidos al Español, Arabe, Ruso y Chino, y se presume que a otro nlimero de idiomas menOS populares.la literatura de contribuyendo a una los procedimientos internacionalmente.la ¡STA --particularmente los manua1es--est~ mayor uniformidad en cuanto a la terminologla y a de análisis a nivel nacional, regional, eOtro logro de la ¡STA está en facilitar la distribuci6n de semillas a través de las fronteras internacionales mediante el establecimiento de los Certificados Internacionales de An~l;sis de Semillas. Estos fueron presentados Semillas en 1931.junto con las Reglas de la ¡STA para Fueron divididos en tres clases:el AnaHsis de El Certificado ¡nteroacional Naranja del Lote de Semillas utilizado cuando se toma la muestra y la prueba se realiza en el mismo pals.El Certificado loternacional Verde del lote de Semillas utilizado cuando se toma la muestra en un país y la prueba se real iza en otro pals.El Certificado Internacional Azul del Lote de Semillas cuando la muestra no es tomada por una persona con autorización oficial. La estación por consiguiente no puede garantizar la cone:d6n entre el lote y la muestra.El Certl'icado Naranja es el que m&s se utiliza. En 1985 se utllizó un total de aproximadamente 115,000 certificados: 104,000 Naranja, 1,800 Verdes y 9,200 Azules. El comercio de semillas a través de las f\"ronteras internacionales es una operación complicada con la aduana t las operaciones bancarias, etc. El Certificado Naranja de la ¡STA na sido una garantla para la calidad del lote de semillas utilizado por los comerciantes de semillas durante más de 50 aftoso En las Reglas de la ¡STA los tal'1i1F,os de los lotes han sido limitados a 20,000 kg para lotes de semillas de especies más pequenas. EnBrisbane el tamaño m:iximo del lote de semillas para cereales se ha incrementado a 25,000 kg Y un equipo de trabajO compues~o por miembros de la Federación de Comercio Internacional de Semillas (FIS) y de la ISTA esta estudiando las posibilidades y los problemas para incrementar el tamaYl:o del lote también para las especies. de semillas mAs pequeñas. El tama'o del lote ha sido un teMa de constante discusión en la ISTA. y en 1a FIS y en las reuniones con,iuntas. Hay una diferencia de opiniones entre los paises prOductores/exportadores de semillas que desean tama'os grandes y sin limite de los lotes de semilla, y los países importadores de semillas que desean que los lotes de semillas de tamaño máximo Sean limitados a un nivel razonablp.. Cuando se establecen 105 estándares. de calidad en un pats, se debe ~5tudiar las posibilidades para la producción de semilla y colocar los est~ndares. a un nivel tal que el mercado pueda ser abastecido con suficiente semilla de una calidad razonable. No vale la pena colocar los estándares a un nivel que sólo puedan ser cumplidos por unos pocos productores.Los paises con un programa de semillas completamente desarrollado comenzaron con pruebas y estándares relacionados con la pureza física, el contenido de semilla de malezas, y la germinación. Pasaron 30, 40 t 50 aftos antes que las pruebas y estándares para determinar la pureza del cultivar y las enfermedades fueran introducidas.Puede: ser aconsejable comenzar en una forma modesta y desarrollar el programa de semillas gradualmente. Tratar de comer m~s de 10 que se puede asimilar puede l1evar a frustraciones y desconciertos.La garantla de la genuinidad y pureza del cultivar puede comenzar como una simple inspección de campo por parte de los funcionarios de extensión que conocen las características de los cultivares y las enfermedades portadas por la semilla. En una etapa posterior se pueden introducir las técnicas de laboratorio e invernadero, y las pruebas de parcelas en el campo para controlar la pureza del cultivar y se puede introducir un programa completo de control de calidad de la semilla.  De re'erenci a vegeta 1 (LANARV)Este último es el laboratorio que tiene por Objetivo asegurar la calidad de los productos de origen vegetal que son comercializados en Bras il.El LANARV es el organismo del Ministerio de Agricultura responsable del desarrollo del sistema de laboratorios en el area vegetal. Tiene seis departamentos, entre ellos los laboratorios Regionales de Apoyo Vegetal (LARV). que tienen por finalidad reunir todos los laboratorios que estudian la calidad de los productos vegetales y los Laboratorios de An&lisis de Semillas (LAS) a los que da un funcionamiento sistemático y normas uniformes de acción.Uno de los objetivos de LANARV es la promoción de estudios y de desarrollo de técnicas para el análisis de productos fitosanitaríos, semillas y otros insumos agricoTas.Las metas especHicas de apoyo al sector de semillas son hechas por LANARV a trav~s de: l. legislación especIfica3. Ootaci6n de los laboratorios ya existentes 4. Entrenamiento del personal t~cnico y del personal de laboratorio 5. Revisión y reedición de las reglas para análisis de semillas 6. Recomendación de investigación de metodologfas para nuevas especies y cultivares. 7. Estudio e introducción del exa~n de fitosanidad en análisis de semillas. 8. Edición del Manual de Procedimientos para los LAS 9. Reuniones periódicas del personal de los LASO encargado de los laboratorios oficiales. sujetos a la inspecci6n por parte del mismo. Los LASP estan localizados en las siguientes regiones: l. Norte: Roraima, (donde no hay LASO).2. Nordeste: Bahía y Pernambuco 3. Centro Oeste: Distrito Federal, Golas, Mato Grosso do Sul, y Mato Grosso. 4. Sudeste: Esplritu Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro. y Sao Paulo 5. Sur: Paran~. Rlo Grande do Sul, y Santa Catarina.Actualmente hay un total de 170 LASP en el pals. Ademas de los LASO y los LASP existen los laboratorios de investigación (EMBRAPA y sus divisiones Estatales), los laboratorios did&cticos (Universidades) y los Laboratorios Regionales de Referencia Vegetal (LARV).Los LASO se encargan de fiscalizar los otros laboratorios. Hay uno en cada región, pero el crecimiento acelerado del número de lASP, en algunas provinCias como Minas Gerais, Rlo Grande do Sul. Paran~ y Sao Paulo sugiere la necesidad de aumentarlos O de tener uno en cada una de estas provincias.Reglas para el An!.l.isis de Semillas El Ministerio de Agricultura tiene sus propias reglas para el analisis de semillas, las cua1es est §n basadas en reg1as internacionales para análisis de semillas (ISTA). en las reglas de la AOSA y en la experiencia e investigaciones rea1izadas por técnicos brasileros. Para• asegurar el control de calidad no sólo es suficiente la existencia de las reglas por sí mismas; el Ministerio de Agricu1tura (MA) nombró en cada región un LASO cOmo LARV, para la uniformización del sistema de control de calidad.Manual de Procedimientos para los LAS Con el fin de facilitar y uniformizar el trabajo en los Laboratorios, el MA inició la organizaCión de un Manual de Procedimientos para los LAS, a través de hojas sueltas. con informaciOn importante.El LANARV hace recomendaciones a ARRATES sobre investigaciones, metodologla, y anélisis para nuevas especies o cultivares. Esta asociaclOn a su vez canaliza tales recomendacIones por intermedio de sus Comisiones de AnAlisis, Comisión de Patologla de Semnlas, o de reglas para analisis.El LANARV aporta a ARRATES los fondos necesarios para las investigaciones.Entrenamiento del Personal de LASO El LANARV propicia el entrenamiento del personal de LASO y principalmente de aquel que trabaja en los LARV.Reuniones del Personal de LASO (51 El U\\NARV propicia reuniones periódicas del personal de LASO principalmente con el fin de uniformizar la actuaci6n de los mismos en la evaluación de la calIdad de las semillas.Aunque el lANARV haga esfuerzos varios para que el control de calidad en los Laboratorios de Analisis de Semillas del pa1s sea una realidad, hay mucho aún por hacer. ya sea creando nuevos LASP, los cuales realizarlan una fisc.lizacíOn más exigente. Hay tambiªn una falta de literatura especIfica en portuguéS que complemente la capacitación de cursos cortos.El articulo hace especial énfasis en la orientaci6n de la OECO (organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico) para lograr resultados ateptados internacionalmente. Este esquema est& básicamente encaminado a ia certificación varietal. Los esUndares de pureza son publicados en 1. Lista de Cultivares. También hace mención sobre la existencia de estándares de intervalos entre siembras de cultivos de la misma especie y del aislamiento entre especies de polinización cruzada. La OECO utiliza los estándares relacionados con el tamaño del lote recomendados por la ISTA. El esquema OECO no es una adaptaci6n de normas; son procedimientos encaminados preferiblemente a lograr resultados aceptados a nivel internacional.El esquema OECD está básicamente orientado a la certificación varietal. La contaminaci6n con otras especies normalmente se lJuede reconocer en el laboratorio y por 10 tanto se reqistra en 105 certificados de la ¡STA.Es así como los esquemas prescriben solamente estándares de inspeCCión de campo para aquellas espeCies que pueden presentar polinizaCiones cruzadas y para cultivares cuya semilla es dificil de distinguir en el laboratorio.Se han elaborado estándares d~ pureza para ciertas especies los cuales se pUblican en la Lista de Cultivares. las especies incluidas son fáciles de inspeccionar, permiten hacer los conteos sin dificultad o son de autopolinizaci6n, en cuyo caso es fácil identificar las plantas fuera de tipo. Otras especies tienen esUndares de campo con una tolerancia m!xima relacionada con el número de contaminantes en una area determinada.Los est&ndares relacionados con el intervalo entre siembras de cultivos de la misma especie, dependen del período de dormancia que normalmente presentan las semillas del respectivo cultivo. Dichos intervalos en tiempo son mucho menos importantes que las distancias entre hileras y plantas.Las especies de polinización cruzada tienen es tanda res que determinan el nivel de aislamiento de otras fuentes extra~as de polen, 10 cual puede ocasionar polinizaciOn cruzada con el cultivo. Estas distancias dependen de los insectos, de las barreras rompevientos, y del tipo de polen. Cuando se siembran cultivos que florecen en diferente época no es necesario utilizar barreras rompevientos u otro tipo de medidas. la producción de semilla de remolacha es un caso particularmente comp 11 cado.No se requieren distancias de ais1amiento para cultivos de autopolinizaci6n; solamente es necesario dejar un espacio entre cultivos o establecer barreras menores para e1iminar las mezclas; es importante recordar que algunas especies de autopolinización se pueden comportar como de polinización cruzada en algunas condiciones determi nadas.Existen est~ndares especiales para l. producci6n d. semilla d. hlbridos; estos requieren la eliminaci6n de la fuente de polen indeseable.La OteO utiliza los esUndares de tama~o del lote enunciados por la ISTA. Es aconsejable que el certificado dé la ISTA acompañe cada certificado de la OEeD; existen varias razones para propagar esta idea por razones de mercado. Se espera con mucho interés los resultados de las discusiones entre la ISTA y la FIS.4ay estándares de acuerdo con el Mbito de crecimiento de las especies, particularmente en aquellas épocas en las que las diferencias entre cultivares son ~s claramente expresadas.El desarrollo de un pals está lntimamente vinculado a los aspectos cualitativos de generación y transferencia de tecnolog1a. En tecnologl'a de semillas, la transferencia de características agronómicas y morfológicas con un elevado grado de excelencia cualitativa ha encontrado un fuerte aliado en las organizaciones asociativas. ABRATES es una aSGeiati6\" civil de carácter técnico científico. sin intereses económicos, religiosos, o politicos, que congrega técnicos de la iniciativa privada y pública, constituyéndose en el foro más importante de debate sobre problemas vinculados a la tecnologla de semillas de Brasil, ABRATES está organizada de acuerdo con 10 que ordenan los estatutos; tiene un directorio ejecutivo, un consejo fiscal, representantes estatales, y comit~s técn; cos. Esta conformado por cinco comités técnicos: patología de semillas, semillas forestales, vigor, análisis, y semilla genética y básica. Anualmente elabora un plan de trabajo que contempla una serie de actividades. En el periodo 1984-1987 realizó cerca de 35 publicaciones, incluyendo más de 600 trabajos. ABRATES realiz6 cinco (5) congresos brasile~os de semillas con un promedio de 560 participantes. ABRATES es el más importante punto de convergencia técnica, de espíritu cooperativo, y el eslabón que une el sector a todos los segmentos involucrados en el desarrollo agrícola del Brasíl.E1 desarrollo agrícola de un país está íntimamente vinculado a los aspectos cualitativos de generación y transferencia de tecnología en los que el hombre ha usedo varias metodologlas y estrategias de control total de calidad, para preservar y transferír las características $ocíoeconómicas con un mínimo de pérdida en el proceso de mu lt i P 1 i caci On de ma terí a 1 es propaga tí vos. En tecno 1 ogl a de semillas, la transferencia de características agronómicas y morfológicas con un elevado grado de excelencia cualitativa ha encontrado un fuerte aliado en las organizaciones asociativas.La base de los-principios teóricos del !lasociativismo ll no seran tratados de forma académica. El tema presentado se basa en l. experiencia vivida por el autor, quien ha trabajado junto a ABRATES desde su creación en 1970.En este trabajo se pretende tratar en 'arma tangencial algunas acciones desarrolladas por la Asociación Brasi1e~a de Tecnologla de Semillas (ABRATES), con la esperanza de que algunas de sus metodologías de trabajo se puedan ajustar a las peculiaridades de otros países y sirvan como fuente bibliogr~fica para la materia.ABRATES es una asociación civil de carActer técnico-científico, sin interés económico, religioso. ni político que congrega técnicos de la iniciativa privada y pública, constit\"y~ndose como el foro m~s importante de debate sobre problemas vinculados a la tecnología de semillas del Brasil. Congregar técnicos y personas interesadas en el progreso de la industria brasileña de semillas. 2. Apoyar y estimular la ejecuci6n de trabajos técnico científicos.Promover y ejecutar 1 a formaci On de recursos humanos en tecnología de semillas. 4. Divulgar ampliamente los resultados de investigación en semillas. 5. Cooperar con la industria de semillas en las soluciones de prOblemas técnicos de su interés.O!'j¡an!zación ARRATES est~ organizada de acuerdo con 10 que ordenan 105 estatutos y en líneas generales posee un Directorio Ejecutivo, un Consejo Fiscal, Representantes Estatales. y Comit~s Técnicos, En tata 1 esta conformado por cinco comités técnicos a saber: Patolog1a de Semillas, Semillas Forestales. Vigor, Analisis. y Semilla Genética y Basica,Anualmente la asociación elabora un plan anual de trabajo, en el cual se especifican las actividades y los presupuestos necesarios para ejecutarlas. Las principales actividades que contempla el plan anual de actividades son:l. Realización del Congreso arasile~o de Semillas.2. PromociOn y ejeCUCión de reuniones, simposios, seminarios, ta 11 eres . 3. Publicación de la revista brasileMa de semillas. 4. Publicación de un periódico informativo. 5. Distribución y venta de material bibliogr~fico. 6. Participación en la CornisiOn Nacional de Semillas. 7. Ejecución directa a través de las asociaciones de trabajos de investigación en tecnología de semillas. 8. Intercambio internacional de asuntos de interés general. 9. Ejecución de campa~as educativas para aumentar la tasa de utilización de semillas.Actividades de ABRATES en el periodo 1984-1987 Hasta el presente ABRATES, ha realizado cinco congresos brasile~os de reconocido el papeT que puede desempenar en la uniformízaci6n de normas y procedimientos relacionados con la calidad de la semilla. Desde su fundación la Asociaci6n ha promovido diferentes actividades tales como cursos y reuniones anuales de los cuales se han obtenido resultados positivos: presentaci6n de trabajos de investigación, conocimiento de mejores híbridos y variedades, promoción del uso de semilla. Se ha pub1icado un manual de semilla de buena calidad, y además se están realizando diferentes proyecciones para el futuro. la Asociaci6n Regional de Tecn6logos de Semillas ha reconocido que es d. pri\",er orden el papel que debe d.sempe~ar en la uniformizaciM de normas y procedimientos relacionados con la calidad de la semilla, por cuatlto sus asociados ademas de pertenecer a los paises de Centroamérica y eT Caribe son lideres de los Programas Nacionales quienes están en la capacidad de realizar esta labor.Desde su fundación la AsociadOn ha promovido las siguientes actividades.Curso sobre 1IControl de Calidad'1 realizado en Costa Rica en 1987.? Curso sobre uBeneficio de Semillas H realizado en El Salvador en 1987.Cursos sobre JlMercadeo de Semi11a ll , llevados a cabo en Guatemala y Panamá.4. Reuniones anuales del PCCMA, de Tas cuales se han destacado las siguientes acciones: a. Presentación de trabajos de investigación.b, Elección de Mesa Directiva, e, Conocimiento de los mejores híbridos y variedades (arroz, frijol, hortalizas, sorgo) los cuales son evaluados a nivel regional, lo cual permite comparar el comportamiento de los materiales de cada pals en toda la región, d, Programas de investigadón en semillas, teniendo en cuenta las buenas relaciones existentes entre ARTES, CIAT, CIMMYT, Desarrollo de estos programas de acuerdo con los problemas que hay que resolver en cada país, Los resultados de estos programas se evalúan anualmente en cada pals, e, Respaldo a las Asociaciones Nacionales de Tecnólogos y a los productores de semillas en cada país, Durante la realizaciOn en el CIAT (Colombia) en Noviembre de 1986 del Seminario sobre IIOesarrol10 de Asociaciones de Semillas\", se estudiaron posibles planes de programas de trabajo de FELAS, los cuales consideraron tres grandes areas: 1) fortalecimiento de asoci aciones y programas de semillas;2)producci6n y comercialización de semillas; y 3) ciencia y tecnología de semillas. Las reglas de comercio son esenciales para el mercadeo internacional; es imposible para el semi11ista de un pals vender semi 11 a a un comprador en otro pa í s a menos que ambos tengan un entendimiento acerca de la calidad. FE LAS ha hecho un primer aporte en esta area, realizando acciones conducentes a interesar a ALADI. En el Seminario Panamericano realizado la semana anterior,. se reunieron cuatro grupos de trabajo que plantearon una serie de recomendaciones y de ace; ones que debe real izar FELAS. Esta federación planifica sus actividades con base en las recomendaciones y tareas surgidas de esta clase de eventos.La Federación Latinoamericana de Asociaciones de Semillas (FELAS) reúne a todas las asociaciones de semillistas de América Latina, tanto de tecnólogos y productores como de comerciantes de semillas. FElAS tiene en sus estatutos los siguientes Objetivos;1.Propender por la vinculaci6n de los especialistas en semillas a través de sus asociaciones en los paises latinoamericanos y favorecer el intercambio de conocimientos, capacitaci6n, integración, y relaciones comerciales.Promover la formación de nuevas asociaciones afines, regionales y nacionales t y fortaiecer las ya existentes~Mantener estrechas relac; ones con insti tuciones l sociedades, y empresas que desarrollen actividades afines tanto nacionales como internacionales, públicas y/o privadas.4. Orientar las instituciones oficiales y/o privadas de los paises que lo soliciten, en la definici6n de pollticas y estrategias que incentiven el desarrollo del sector semíl1ista.Propiciar y apoyar los programas de capacitación científica, técnica, y de mercado de 10$ miembros de las asociaciones regionales y nacionales.6. Organizar y mantener un banco de datos e informaci6n sobre las actividades de semillas, y publicar trabajos de interés para los asociados.de Semillas, y definir con el Comité Organizador del evento ,.programación, organización, y ejecución de cada Seminario Panamericano.FELAS eS una organlzaciOn de formación reciente; no podemos referirnos aOo a resultados de su gestión. Comentaremos sí las proyecciones establecidas, asi como los primeros pasos de la Federación en relación con las normas y procedimientos para el comercio de semillas de calidad en el continente.Durante la realizaci5n en el CIAT en Noviembre de 1986 del Seminario sobre \"Desarrollo de Asociaciones de Semi llas ll , se estudiaron los posibles planes y programas futuros de trabajo de fElAS y se identificaron tres grandes áreas de trabajo:1. Fortalecimiento de asociaciones y programas de semillas.ProducciOn y comereializaciOn de semillas. 3. Ciencia y tecnología de semillas.Con relación al fortalecimiento de las asociaciones y los programas de semillas se proyectan las siguientes acciones:1. Ayudar al desarrollo y fortalecimiento de las Asociaciones.Proveer asesoría y servicio técnico.Promover la vincu1ación de nuevas asociaciones a FElAS.4. Evaluar permanentemente a FE lAS para adecuar sus servicios a las necesidades de la región. 5. Evaluar y buscar soluciones a la prob1em~tica de las industrias y de los programas de semillas.6. Promover reuniones regionales y subregionales. 7. Propender por la capacitación formal y no formal en la región. 8. Cooperar en la actualización de reglamentos y leyes de semillas.Dentro del ~rea de ProducciOn y Comercialización de Semillas se proponen las siguientes actividades:1.Hacer un diagnóstico periódico de la oferta ,v la demanda de semlllas en los pa1ses, para facilitar el comercio en la región.Facilitar el intet'cambío regional de semillas mediante la uniformidad en la nomenclatura y la legislación.que impiden la fluidez del mercado de semillas.Mantener estadísticas sobre mercadeo y producción.5. Oesarro11ar reglas para facilitar el comercio de semillas y proveer arbitrajes en caso necesario.Fortalecer las asociaciones de productores y comercializadores de semi 11a. 7.Proveer información sobre comerci o y producción de semi 11 as, provenientes de paises fuera de la región. 8.Promocionar el intercambio de tecno1oglas y de información sobre producción y comercio.l.as reglas de comercio son esenciales para el mercadeo internacional de semil1 as y si rven como base para el arreglo de di screpancias a nivel nacional e internacional. Para el se\",i11ista de un país es imposible vender la semilla a un comprador de otro país a menos que ambos tengan un entendimiento acerca de la definición de la calidad esperada, los analisis de semillas, los procedimientos usados, etc.FELAS ha hecho un primer aporte en esta área de trabajo, rea 1 izando acciones conducentes a interesar a IILAOI en el tema del comercio de semill as.Un representante de dicho organismo tuvo activa participación en el reciente XII Seminario Panamericano de Semillas realizado en Uruguay, dictando una conferencia acerca de los l/Mecanismos que favorecen el Comercio de Semillas en los PaIses.\"En el Seminario de Semi Has se reunieron 4 grupos de trabajo, los cuales plantearon una serie de recomendaciones que posteriormente ser1an aprobadas. Asimismo se hicieron de encargos a FELAS, entre los cuales se resumen los siguientes:1. Solicitar a FELAS la creación de un sello de calidad FELAS, que identifique en el comercio de nuestra región aquellas semillas que cumplan los requisitos internacionalmente aceptadOS en términos de calidad, germinación, y pureza.Gestionar ante las autoridades de ALAOI sU intervención para que los gobiernos de los países miembros, a través de sus Ministerios de Relaciones Exteriores t revisen~ modifiquen, y adopten una nomenclatura comOn como medio para facilitar el comercio de semillas, para 10 cual se recomienda la plena vigencia de la NABALAOI.Qecomendar a FELAS que solicite ante ALADJ su reconocimiento corno portavoz de las Asociaciones de Semillistas de la región.Encomendar a FELAS la confección de un Directorio de Productores y Comercializadores de Semillas, debidamente reconocidos por la Asociación Nacional de Semillas de cada pais. la cobertura del Directorio identificaría empresas, especies, y variedades de semillas.Pedir que FELAS haga el seguimiento de las recomendaciones aprobadas por los Seminarios Panamericanos de Semillas en los países participantes. Para este fin FElAS deber6 vincularse y cooperar con organismos nacionales e internacionales, autoridades de gobierno, y con quien corresponda.Para facilitar el intercambio de semillas dentro y fuera de la región se sugiere que fElAS recomiende los mecanismos necesarios para unificar terminologla, estAndares de certificación y comercialización en la región y estrechar los niveles de cooperación con organismos tales como ISTA, OEeO, AOSA, ASTA, FIS, etc.Que FElAS haga una petici6n formal a la ISTA para que el idioma espa~ol sea incorporado como uno de los idiomas oficiales en congresos~ seminarios, asociación realiza, debido mas hablada en el mundo.a que el espanol es la tercera lengua FElAS planifica sus actividades con base en las recomendaciones y tareas surgidas de los eventos mencionados, y en las que surjan en esta Reunión de Trabajo. En relación con el tema, nuestra actividad se realiza alentando a las asociaciones para que -desarrollen actividades tendientes a la búsqueda de las normas adecuadas para su país Ylo región, que lleven a la promoción y uso de semillas de calidad.Por otro lado debemos realizar actividades tendientes al desarrollo necesario del comercio de semillas entre los pa1ses latinoamericanos; algunos ejemplos de estas acciones son: l. Estudios y propuestas de normas comunes del comercio de semilla. 2. Estudio y dHusión de 10 que producen, exportan, e importan nuestros países. 3. Homogenizaci6n de las normas anallticas y los est~ndares de cal idad .Esta propuesta será realizable si se continúa trabajando COn espíritu solidarío y en la búsqueda del ideal sobre el que tanto se ha discutido en estas dos últimas semanas: el logro de la integración de nuestros países en el área de semillas.Johnson E. 00U91aS los sistemas externos de control de calidad complementarios se pueden definir como un programa externo que sirve para complementar el sistema de certificación de semillas. Algunos ejemplos de las modalidades de este tipo de programa son: 1) semilla identificada, 2) semilla fiscalizada, 3) veracidad en el etiquetado, y 4) semilla de calidad declarada.los sistemas externos de control de calidad complementarios son importante aún en muchos palses de la región que cuentan con sistemas avanzados de certificación de semillas. Son importantes porque permiten: 1) mejorar la calidad de toda la semilla que llega al mercado, 2) aplicarlos a un amplio rango de situaciones, 3) implementar los programas con m~s facilidad que las actividades de certificaci6n de semillas, 4) asignar ~s responsabilidad a los vendedores de semillas, y 5) suplir necesidades que el servicio de certificaci6n no puede cumplir por sí solo.Los programas externos de control de calidad tienen diversos componentes en comOn. En algunos programas de semillas deben provenir de una fuente identificada, pero no necesariamente tienen que haber sido sembrados de semina certificada. Las inspecciones de campo 00 son necesarias como parte de estos programas; sin embargo, en algunos casos una agencia externa puede inspeccionar un pequeño porcentaje de los campos o se hacen arreglos para autorizar a una persona perteneciente a 1a empresa de semillas para que haga las inspecciones. Los estandares minimos de calidad de semillas se aplican a toda la semilla vendida. Estos estandares normalmente son ~s bajos que los requeridos para semilla certificada, pero es posible que la semilla sea tan huena o mejor que la semilla que ha sido certificada. Normalmente se especifica el método para marcar la semilla.Otros componentes incluyen la necesidad de evaluar por 10 menos la germinacilin y la pureza física de la semilla pero los análisis no tienen que hacerse en un laboratorio oficial. Se especifica un períodO para exigir que se vuelva a analizar la semilla si ésta no se ha vendido. Se delega autoridad para hacer muestreos al azar de la semi 11 a a medi da que ésta se vende. Se eS tab 1 ecen mu Has s i no se cumplen los requisitos del programa. las estipulaciones de este tipo de programa frecuentemente son ob 1 i gatori as para toda 1 a semilla comercializada.Hoy en día, este tipo de programa ofrece un alto valor potencial para los países de la región.Se puede utilizar cuando no hay disponibilidad de semilla básica o certificada. Es una manera de tener un programa de control de calidad durante emergencias en las que no hay disponibilidad de semilla certificada para satisfacer 1a demanda. A medida que se establecen los productores/vendedores de semilla en pequefia escala, por diversas razones puede ser imposible ejecutar un sistema de certificación de semillas, pero se podr1a contar con él programa complementario para proporcionar un mfnimo de garantías de calidad. La industria comercial de semillas en los sistemas más avanzados puede necesitar más flexibilidad de la que es posible a través del sistema de certificación de semillas. Este tipo de programa proporciona un mecanismo para moví1 izar la semilla de un país a otro con cierto nivel de seguridad respecto a su calidad, aunque los estlindares de certificación de semillas no sean similares en los dos países.l.Revisar la legislación de semilla vigente y determinar el tipo de medidas complementarías de control de calidad que existen.SEMILLA Es necesario hacer una sucinta relacHm histórica. Esta comienza con el intenso crecimiento de la agricultura argentina en su reglón• 187 -pampeana, sobre los epicentros por~uarios de Rosario, Buenos Aires, y Bahia !:nanca. La super~icie sembrada con el principal cereal, el trígo, era apenas 1.200.000 ha en 1930. Sí bien desde 191~ comenzó la labor de f\"itomejoramiento de ese cultivo, con la llegada al pais del técníco ínglªs \\iillíam Backhouse, debe estímarse que hacia 1930 la mayoría de las siembras se real izaba'!') con semillas propias de los d9ricultores, en una mezcla de poblaciones de origen europeo y norteameri cano.Abruptamente la gran crisis de 1930 afectó la exportación de trigo argentino. de trigos Se calcula que en eSe tiempo el 6Q% de los cu1tivos eran blandos. de baja ca 1 i dad panadera, y a tendí endo a 1 as exigencias europeas de lograr trigos correctores --exigencias que Se incrementaron ante el derrumbe de los mercados~se entendió que las exportaciones trigueras argentinas corr1an serios riesgos de ser desplazadas por trigos de me50r aptitud panadera o correctiva) como los de Canadá.Para enfrentar el prob1ema~ el gobierno argentino dictó la Ley de Granos ~o~ 12.253 en Octubre de 1935, destinada a ordenar el comercio de cereales. Incluy6 en su artículo un Capítulo que se denominó llFomento de la Genéticaf! que antes de aSégurar el uso de buena semilla, procuraba impedir, en el caso del trigo, el uso de los cultívares de mala aptitud panadera. En efecto, se estableció un requisito de inscripción de los nuevos cultivares, para lo cual se deb1a evaluar en primer lugar su calidad industrial, en segundo lugar su buen comportamiento a: lai5 enfermedades y, en último término, su productividad.Para lograr ese propOsito la Ley establecía que las personas que Se proponían difundir una variedad nueva lo COMunicaran al Ministerio de Agricultura con suficiente anticipación, para que éi5te l1 pudiera tomar medidas. para fiscal izar y estudiar el comportamiento de las nuevas variedades en comparación con las existentes en la zona ll (Art. 24, Ley No. 12.253). Ese avíso y la consíguiente accíón de1 Mínisterio de Agricultura, permitía a las personas utilizar en SuS establecim,entos el Ministerio de de 1 a fi sca 1 izaci 6n (Decreto No. 75.609 De la atenta lectura de lo arriba mencionado, es evidente que la filosofía del sistema de semillas se basaba en la autorización para difundir una nueva variedad. la cual debla emanar del poder del organismo público (el Ministerio de Agricultura) encargado de velar por la calidad de la semilla ofrecida a los agricultores.Por lo tanto, la acci6n oficial se enmarcaba en 1. figura del fiscal civil. Casi de inmediato y como una extensión inevitable del criterio de autori zadón, se regl amentó e1 carácter de 1 as sucesivas multiplicaciones.todas Esta pr~ctica surgi6 como complemento de la necesidad de clasificar los trigos en tres tipos comerciales (duros, semiduros, y blandos) segOn su aptitud panadera, operaci6n que se realizaba con cada partida de mereaderia (en ese entonces totalmente movi Hzada en bOlsas). Se generó una prktica en las operaciones comerciales, a cargo de los l/recibidores\" (al principio idóneos. luego persona1 técnico auxiliar preparado en cursos), que consist1a en verificar en cada partida las variedades que hablan intervenido. Con ªsto, se estaha reconociendo basada en las características que \"la diferenciación del grano presenta con frecuencia dificultades considerables; esta tarea se hace más difícil cuanto más estrecha sea la relación de la variedad en cuestión con sus progenitores o 11neas seleccionadas de un mismo cruzamientot!. Tambi én confundían l'Os efectos de variabil i dad que se observaban en cosechas de cultivos producidos en diferentes condiciones ambientales.Por eso afirmaban que: II más que una descripción real de los mismos. es el manipuleo constante ... lo que nOS permite su reconocimiento\", En otras palabras, que se requeria personal entrenado, ,\"uestras \"estandard\" comparativas, y una gran experiencia, para poder diferenciar las variedades en una partida de trigo. También debe recordarse que se empleaban características de la glurna, que siempre en mayor o menor proporción acompafian a las partidas de granos. Naturalmente esta práctica, difundida entre todos los operadores trigueros, adquiri6 una habitua1idad que aún persiste pese a que las aptitudes panaderas se han uniformizado en relación con los tres tipos comerciales del pasado.Sin embargo, desde la misma sanción de la Ley de Granos se comenzaron los trabajOS de descripción de cultivares, llevados a cabo combinando las observaciones en campo y en el laboratorio; estos descriptores fueron importantes para la labor de inspección de los cultivos para semilla bajO fiscalización. La identificadOn de los lotes de granos destinados a siembra persistió pese a estar prohibida la comercialización de semilla no fiscalizada. De esta lectura surge claramente que el identificador es el rotulador responsable, sea de semil1a \"fiscalizada\" (de cultivar inscrito y producida con el contralor del organismo de ap1icaci6n), o de la semilla \"coman\", cuya identidad genética no puede ser corroborada, (salvo en el caso del trigo) o sea, de 1. verdadera (y única) semilla identificable. Por eso, para un observador ajeno a las vicisitudes históricas exclusivas de nuestro pals, puede entenderse que 1. semilla \"identificada\" eS simple y llanamente semilla comercial rotulada.Procuremos resumir los conceptos!1.El propÓSito central de la política de semillas diseñada en 1935 fue que sólo se crearan (y difundieran) cultivares con adecuada calidad comercfal t para 10 cual debfan ser autorizados, previo estudio e inscripción. Nació asl la semilla fiscalizada. El resto era la semilla común, marginada de la Ley.2. La nueva Ley de Semillas, sin descuidar el criterio anterior, legaliz6 la semilla común requiriendo que fuera rotulada seyón normas. NaciO as; la semilla identificada.3. El concepto (mundialmente asumido) de certificación fue entendido cOmO una caracteristica exclusivamente v!lida en la clase fiscalizada.Es necesario revisar cr1ticamente los conceptos fiscal izací6n/ certificación/identificación, con el propósito de encuadrar todas las especies agricolas en el marco legal. calidad de identificada a la expresión \"común\", que refleja m&s apropiadamente su condición de semilla sin identidad genética avalada.Quedaría por resolver un cierto grado de confusión entre fiscalización y certificación. Suponiendo que el primer término se refiere a \"autorizaciOn\", podríamos restringir su emp1eo a los cultivares incluidos en el cat~logo, probadas su calidad industrial y valor agronómico. El segundo término cenir1a exclusivamente los aspectos relativos a su condición de identidad genética, lograda a través de los procesos habitu.les de producción, con control en sus multiplicaciones sucesivas. Para resolverlo se requiere una modificación de l. Ley No. 20.247.Si tomamos en cuenta los requerimientos nacionales (la República Argentina es un país exportador de cereales y oleaginosas), la necesidad de proteger los derechos de los fitomejoradores (que sólo pueden obtener regalías de producciones \"identificadas\" con nombre del cultivar), los criterios del comercio internacional, y la necesidad de que todas las especies agrícolas cuenten con semillas u órganos de propagación legalizados, surge la necesidad de forjar un distinto criterio de clases de semillas. Tentativamente podríamos hablar de: 1. Fiscalizada (Autorizada), De cultivares inscritos en el catálogo (de inscripción obligatoria en las principales especies) con base en pruebas de calidad comercial y valor agronómico. 2. Certificada. Semilla con identidad genética reconocida por controles en la producción de sus multiplicadores.Identificada (Rotulada). Destinada al usuario; su identidad genética es asumida por el identificador.Comercial. Semilla rotulada sólo en sus características intrlnsecas de calidad.En el caso de la primera pueden preverse dos combinaciones. l. fiscalizada-certificada: reúne todas las condiciones de contralor (se asemeja a nuestra \"fiscalizada\" actual y a las l/certificadas\" de grandes cultivos en países de la C.E.E.l.Fiscalizada-identificada: se asemeja al criterio de \"veracidad del rOtulo ll , previas exigencias de inscripción para su comercialización.La clase certificada permitirla asegurar la multiplicaci6n controlada sin la necesidad de requisitos previos de especies cuyas diferentes calidades caracterlsticas esenciales (por ejemplo en inscripci6n con ciertas comerciales son sus plantas de vivero y horticolas) o cuando aún no pueden establ ecerse criterios mlnimos para su fisca1izaci6n (inscripci6n).La clase identificada permitirla el abastecimiento de semillas con identidad genªtica reconocida en especies de menor significación econ6mica (por ejemplo. ornamentales), respetando los derechos del productor de obtener regalias por sus producciones.Finalmente, la semilla comercial sin identidad genªtica pemitirla legalizar la oferta de semilla en aquellos espacios en que no es vital Par. concluir senalamos que este sucinto relato manIfiesta las dificultades para internacionalizar (inCluso regional izar) los sistemas de diferentes paises.En cada uno hay pr&cticas tradici anal es, dificul tades que se dehen superar; y conceptos arraigados en las mentes de funcionarios, técnicos, y empresarios semillistas. La búsqueda de un léxico uniforme o, por 10 menos, de criterios de equivalencias aceptables por todos, puede ser un primer paso que ayude a forjar un sistema latinoamericano de semillas que, a El sistema de producción de semilla fiscalizada en Brasil encuen+:ra soporte legal en la Ley 6507 y 10 reglamenta el Decreto 81771; fue idealizado muchos a~os atr §s cuando el país no tenía un sistema avanzado de rnejoramiento genético que hrindara apoyo a un trabajo de certificaciOn nacional de semillas; por otro lado en este perlada no se contaba con suficiente personal cal i ficado para trabajar en un sistema m~s avaozado de producci60 de semillas. la alternativa fue establecer un sistema que no fuera tan rígido como certificaci6n, y que sin embargo garaotizara el abastecimiento de los agricultores con semillas de calidad.De acuerdo coo la ley, el Ministerio de Agricultura es el organismo responsable del control de la producción de la semilla fiscalizada, a través de la Secretaria Naciooa1 de Producción Agropecuaria \"SNAP\" que coordina todo el trabajo de semillas y propágulos en todo el territorio nacional.Estatalmente el control de la produccióo de semilla fiscalizada es realizado por la Delegación Federal de Agricultura IIDFA!! a través de los Servicios de Seguimiento de las Pollticas de Producción \"SEAPRO\". En estos casos el propio Mioisterio ordena y ejecuta el trabajo.En muchos estados, el Ministerio de Agricultura delega poderes a través de convenios a otras entidades públicas, para que actúen como organismos fiscalizadores. Dentro del organismo 'isca1izador se nombra el departamento o sección responsable de la ejecución de las actividades de la producción de semilla fiscalizada. En este sistema, la responsabilidad de la calidad de la semilla produCida es competencia de un director técnico de la compañla. la producción de semilla en cada Estado es asesorada por uoa Comisión Estatal de Semillas (CESM), que es un cuerpo colegiado compuesto de subcomisiones técnicas por cU1tlVO~ Estas subcomisiones establecen 10s patrones y normas de producción, los cuales son utilizados por la entidad fiscalizadora y el órgano ejecutor. Una Comisi6n Nacional de Semillas asesora al Ministro de Agricultura en los asuntos de política del sector (Ver Organigrama). Fiscalizador.Productor/Responsable Técnico A Para efecto did!ctico se optó por comparar los sistemas de producción de semilla fiscalizada con el sistema de producción de semilla Es conveniente resaltar que el Numeral 12 \"Control Parcial deGeneraciones\" se presentó como una consecuencia de que en algunos casos no había suficiente semilla b3sica para atender la demanda; por 10 tanto, para satisfacer la necesidad de semilla fiscalizada, parte de la semilla certificada es utilizada por una generación adicional. En casos extremos la primera generación de semilla fiscalizada es también utilizada por una generación mas, produciendo la semilla fiscalizada (ver Flujograma utilizado en algunos estados del Brasil).La semilla producida en Brasil bajo el sistema de producción de semilla fiscalizada tiene su control de calidad efectivo y en muchos casos su calidad es comparable con la calidad de la semilla certificada.Es importante destacar que este sistema es responsable de la producción de aproximadamente el 80% de 1. semilla sembrada en Brasil, la cual alcanza un total de tres millones de toneladas. En Estados Unidos existe una legislación nacional y una estatal que regulan la calidad de la semilla producida. Aunque existen diferencias específicas entre estados, la veracidad en el etiquetado se garantíza a nivel federal. Se concluye que hay pocos esfuerzos dedicados a preservar la calidad genética de la semilla.En los Estados Unidos hay un Acta Federal de Semillas y también numerosas Leyes Estatales de Semillas y una Ley Nacional de Semillas para todos los estados. Se exigen muchos de los mismos requerimientos para cualquiera de las dos, ya sea nacional O estatalmente. Aún así, cada estado parece tener diferentes requerimientos. Es deci r f un estado tiene un listado de malezas nocivas mientras que otro estado tiene otro listado diferente. Por seguridad puede haber un traslado, pero no obstante hay una lista diferente para cada uno de los estados. Algunos estados tienen diferentes requerimientos en cuanto a prueba de germinaci6n actualizados.Algunos estados tendrán diferen~es requerimientos para el etiquetado mínimo. Vale la pena anotar que tanto el Acta federal de SeMillas como las Leyes Estatales de Semillas han sido elaboradas con base en la IIveracidad en el etiquetadol!. La Agencia Federal Reguladora tiene 11 personas para hacer cumplir los requerimientos del etiquetado.Ellos llaman a las agencias reguladoras para que realicen las investigaciones necesarias. Algunos estados tienen aún menos personas con quip.n realizar el trabajo regu1ador. Pueden tener menos recursos para dedicarle a este fin.Cuando Sé considera los millones y mi110nes de libras de semillas que se venden a través de los Estados Unidos durante un af\\o, la cantidad de personas que realizan el trabajo regulador es mlnima. Generalmente, todo el trabajO regulador tiene que ver con los estándares mecánicos de calidad de la semilla. Esto es veracidad en el etiquetado. Como ejemplo se puede tomar esta cita del Acta Federal de Semillas, Sección 201: Será ilegal que cualquier persona trasporte o despache para ser trasportada en el mercado interestatal cualquier semilla agrícola o mezcla de semillas agrlcolas con prop6sitos de siembra a menos que cada recipiente lleve una etiqueta con la siguiente informaci6n: nombre de la clase o clase y variedad de cada componente de semilla agrlcola presente en m&> de un 5%; número del lote u otra identificación; origen declarado de acuerdo con un parágrafo y sección en particular; porcentaje por peso de la semilla de maleza, incluyendo la semilla de malezas nocivas; tipos y proporción de semillas de malezas nocivas; porcentaje por peso de semilla agrleola diTerente de aquellas incluidas bajo otro parágrafo y secciones; porcentaje por peso de material inerte; el porcentaje de germinación para cada semilla agrleola que exceda el 5% del total y, si es necesario, el porcentaje de semilla dura; mes y año calendario en que se completó la prueba; también deben aparecer en la etiqueta el nombre y la direcci6n de la persona que transporta o despacha la semilla. Esta es una descripción r~pida de 10$ requerimientos de etiquetado bajo el Acta Federal de Semillas.Se dedica muy poco esfuerzo a la calidad genética. Usualmente la mayoría de las agencias de certificaci6n de semillas funciona independientemente de las oficinas reguladoras de semillas. y estas agencias desempeñan un papel importante porque son la única garantla de la variedad. Es cierto que la semilla con veracidad en el etiquetado puede o no estar marcada en cuanto a la variedad. Pero muchas veces se declara la variedad y ésta aparece en la etiqueta de anaJísís. Muchas veces en los Estados Unidos se vende semilla con l1variedad no especificada ll t pero se vende sólo como especie~ S510 la certificaciOn de la semilla permite controlar la pureza genHica de acuerdo con 10 que aparece en la etiqueta de anAlisis. De hecho. es mucho mas difIcil y costoso demostrar la variedad o la pureza genética que la pureza mecánica. Todas las agencias reguladoras de semíllas en los Estados Unidos ana litan la genninaciOn y pureza mec&nica de la semilla o la presencia de malezas y semilla de malezas nocivas. Por otra parte, muy pocos realizan trabajos en 10 que se refiere a tomar una determinación sobre la variedad o los factores genéticos de la semilla que se ofrece para la venta. Por 10 tanto, ésta es la razón por la cual la certificaci6n de semillas se ha convertido en un programa importante en los Estados Unidos. Se establece ademas una serie de malezas objetables que varlan para cada cultivo. Las tolerancias que se establecen en la ley son: O semillas de malezas prohibidas por kilogramo de semilla, entre 3 y 5 de malezas objetables; y un maximo entre 10 y 15 de malezas totales. Estas tolerancias varlan entre los distintos cultivos.En el caso de las forrajeras se establecen como malezas prohibidas las especies de Cuscuta y el Sorgo de Alepo. Se establece un maximo general de 1% de contenido de malezas con un m~ximo de 0.5% de trébol de olor (Melilotus indicus).Los envases de semilla comercial deben llevar impresa una serie de inscripciones! 1.Nombre y direcci6n de la persona flsica o jurldica que rotul a o vende la semilla. 2. NOmero que le corresponde de acuerdo con el registro general de comerciantes y productores de semilla. Si los usuarios de semilla encuentran que la semilla no se ajusta a las normas pueden denunciar el hecho a la Unidad Ejecutora. Si ésto se comprueba, la firma vendedora deber~ devolver al consumidor el precio de la semilla. La denuncia deber! presentarse dentro de los 30 dias de recibida la semilla y antes de terminar l. siembra.IMPLICACIONES EN CUANTO A LA CALIDAD r CANTIDAD DE SEMILLA COMERCIAL DISTRIBUIDA EN EL MERCADO La semilla de categor1. comercial es la 111&5 utilizada en el mercado uruguayo. La proporci5n de uso de semilla comercial y certificada varh con los cultivos. Salvo en el caso del arroz, donde predomina la semilla certificada, en los dem&s cultivos predomina ampliamente la semilla comercial.A pesar de que en la semilla comercial no hay un control generacional, los estandares de comercialización se acercan mucho a los de la semilla certificada, siendo en el caso de cereales y oleaginosos casi iguales.Otro aspecto que vale destacar es el hecho de que haya un Ingeniero AgrOnomo responsable de la semilla (cuyo nombre figura en la tarjeta); ésto aumenta las garantlas de la calidad, especialmente de la pureza varieta1~Con respecto a esta última, cabe agregar que en la mayoría de los casos, la semilla comercial es hija de semilla certificada. Esto es especialmente cierto en el caso de cereales y ole.ginosas.Un adecuado y concienzudo control por parte del sector oficial, junto con una importante competencia en la producci6n y venta de semillas~ da como resultado una semilla comercial de gran calidad que esta casi Siempre por encima de los mínimos establecidos por la ley.Por otra parte, considerando la imposibilidad actual de que la totalidad de la semilla producída sea certificada, por un prOblema log1stico, vemos que la semilia comercial ha cubierto un gran espacio en el mercado, asegurando al agricultor el suministro de semilla de buena calidad, en cantidad suficiente.Cree11lOs que el éxito del uso de semilla comercial en el Uruguay se debe principalmente a las siguientes razones: l. Est&ndares de comercializaci6n adecuados a la realidad.2. Existencia de un Ingeniero Agrónomo responsable de cada lote de semilla que sale al mercado. 3. Presencia de un gran número de entidades semi11istas compitiendo en el mercado. 4. La presencia simultánea de semilla comercial y certificada en el mercado hace que, a traYés de esta última, haya una referencia de calidad, especialmente en pureza varietal. 5. En su mayor' a , las empresas que producen semillas dentro del esquema de certificaci6n, producen también semilla comercial. Propender por el desarrollo de programas de investigación para que se pueda tener un flujO de nuevas variedades mejoradas y establecer un régimen de protección de los materiales de la empresa privada, con el fin de facilitar la iniciativa de producir materiales.Asegurar que las cumplido CDn un agronómí co.variedades que se van prDceso de evaluación a certificar hayan de comportamiento3. Fortalecer los programas de producción de semilla b~sica y los ingresos generados por la venta de estos materiales y reinvertirlos en el programa de mejoramiento y producción de semilla basica.Real izar una identificación varietal y un mantenimiento de las características de los matpriales originalmente 1iberados.Propender por un marco legal especifico para la certificación, elaborado de tal forma que permita la implementacifin de normas flexibles y adaptadas a las circunstancias.Buscar mecanismos para lograr una mayor estabilidad de los funcionarios de certificación.Ofrecer capacitación permanente a los funcionarios del servicio.Elaborar manuales de procedimientos como complemento del entrenamiento practico en las tareas de certificación.Incentivar la creación del control interno de calidad y asl concientizar al productor sobre su responsabilidad de la calidad de la semilla que vende.10. Implementar un servicio de inform~tica y estadlstica que permita anal izar y divu1gar toda 1a infonnación generada por certificación de semillas.11. Establecer, que dentro del servicio de certificaci6n. una secci6n cuya función sea la de difundir y promover el uso de semilla certificada, especialmente al pequeño y mediano agricultor.12. Puscar colaboraci6n de organismos internacionales para mejor sistema.13. Divulgar las bondades de la semilla certificada para propender porque ésta sea m~s utilizada, en vista de la importancia del comercio de semilla no certificada en la mayor'ia de los países, lo cual limita el desarrollo de sistemas organizados de certificación.14. Promover la conformaci6n de asociaciones para que éstas pasen a constituirse como instrumento de apoyo en la aplicación de los sistemas de certificación.15. Mantener una relaci6n estrecha con universidades e institutos de investigaci5n.1.Implementar lineas de crédito destinadas a la producción, a la comercialización, e inclusive a los usuarios de semi11a certi fícada.para promover la implantación de lineas de crédito.1. Buscar que e1 organismo de certi~icación tenga autonomía técnica y financiera. del grupo sobre mecanismos aplicables para que los servicios de certificac16n de semilla puedan participar en forma efectiva en la transferencia de la tecnologia tanto a los productores de semilla como a los usuarios de este insumo.El grupo escogió la alternativa de considerar diferentes aspectos dentro de los mecanismos tales como:l. Lineamientos de un Organismo de Certificaci6nAnal izando los diferentes temas, se llegó a las siguientes conclusiones:Realizar un diagnóstico sobre la disponibilidad y la calidad de la semíl1a que utiliza el agricultor, con el fin de enfocar el servicio de certificación de se~il1as.2. Considerar la certificación como un nexo entre el investigador y el agricultor, 10 que se convierte en un medio de trasferencia de tecnología.Normalizar y actualizar la certificación de semillas para facilitar el desarrollo de la industria semillista.Ser un agente de cambio y crear confianza en la industria de ,emil1 as.5. Asesorar la producción de semilla b~sica.Considerar el fínancia¡r¡;ento como necesario para instrumentar el buen funcionamiento del servicio de certificación.Promover la creación de empresas privadas y/o asociaciones de productores de semillas con el fin de abastecer la demanda de semillas en cantidad y calidad.l.Trabajar con agricultores líderes con el propósito de establecer dias de campo, pruebas de verificación genética, parcelas demostrativas t y otras actividades que permitan la difusión de las ventajas de la semilla de calidad.Promover reuniones con los Hderes regionales e lnstitucionales de crédito, las asociaciones de profesionales f los distribuidores de semillas t y otros organismos involucrados con el fin de promover el uso de semilla certificada.Elaborar y publicar una lista nacional o boletín de semilla certificada en los campos de los usuarios.Realizar un seguimiento del comportamiento de la semilla certificada en los campos de los usuarios.Confeccionar guías técnicas y manuales que promuevan la producción de semilla de calidad.6.Desarrollar boletines o afiches en los cuales se anuncien las ventajas de la semilla certificada y colocarlos en lugares visibles como bancos t mercados, agencias de extensión? oficinas de gobierno, y asociaciones de profesionales.Realizar campañas pUblicitarias por los medios de comunicación individuales y masivos que incentiven el uso de semilla de calidad.Propiciar la realización de giras de las personas involucradas en la producción de semillas tanto regíonal como internacionalmente con el fin de observar la tecnología generada.Impulsar la creación de la cHedra de tecnología de semillas en 1as universidades donde exista la facultad de agronomía y, en aquellas donde se haya implementado, ofrecer un soporte técnico y colaborar con el desarrollo de la misma.lO. Promover la creación de laboratorios oficiales.11. Promover el control interno de calidad de las empresas.12. Realizar campañas de adiestramiento a extensionistas.13. Estimular la formación de asociaciones de semíllistas y tecnólogos de semiilas, como organismos que puedan impulsar la utilización de semilla de buena calidad. región, una mayor uniformidad en el control de la calidad con el 'in de facilitar la integración de los mercados y el movimiento de semílla ntre paises:Se debe considerar las actividades que pueden desarrollar las organizaciones actuales, tales como asociaciones nacionales, regionales, e internacionales en aspectos relacionados con:1. la uniformidad y la compatibilidad de las normas, los est&ndares y procedimientos.. La uniformidad y/o compatibilidad de los análisis de semillas. 1.Uniformizar la tecnología para su uso en las leyes, reglamentos, normas técnicas y reg1as de análisis de semillas.2.Uniformizar normas para la recomendaci6n de cultivares para entrar en los sistemas de producción de semillas.3.Uniformizar criterios para el establecimiento de un sistema latinoamericano de in.formaci5n y documentación en el (irea de semillas.Estudiar mecanismos que faciliten la identificación y corr~rcio de semillas de buena calidad, como material perenne, entre los países de Latinoamérica.UNIFORMIDAD Y/O CO~1PATlBILlDAO EN LOS ANALlSIS DE SEMILLAS Justificación Actualmente en América Latina. la comercia l ,ización de semillas dentro de cada país así como entre países, enfrenta graves problemas debido a la falta de uniformidad en la metodología de análisis. Por lo tanto. es necesario plantear mecanismos que aseguren una r~pida. efectiva, y homogénea estrategia en el control de calidad.Esta estrategia debe fundamentalmente seguridad, coMiabiliaad, y repetibn idad aná1isis. Por 10 tanto se propone:encamir.a~$e a lograr la en los resultados de los 1.Distribuir metodologías utilizadas para especies que presentan problemas en el aná1isis.2.Realizar pruebas de referencia entre estados, reglones y países para las especies comercializadas en América Latina.Realizar entrenamfentos t cursos, mesas redondas, y paneles con el objeto de uniformizar y compatibil izar los criterios para la realización de los análisis.Elaborar un anexo latinoamericano a las reglas internacional, conteniendo las especies no incluidas en éstas y que son comercializadas en nuestros palses.Estrategias 1.Formación de una comisión de trabajo permanente con un coordinador general. Designación de sub-comisiones de trabajO con sus respectivos coordinadores t conformadas de la sigui ente manera:a. Subcomisión de leyes y reglamentos.b. Subcomisión de reg1as de análisis.c. Subcomisi6n de comercialización interna y externa.d. Subcomisión de información y documentación.Con la finalidad de lograr los objetivos propuestos, se solicitar& la colaboración de las asociaciones nacionales, las instituciones de investigación, las universidades y empresas privadas de los países de América Latina.Funciones de la Comisión de TrabajoEl coordinador de cada subcomisiOn deberá recopilar toda la información pertinente de los paises de ~\",érica Latina, solicitándola a sus miembros.2. La subcomisión debera analizar las diferencias y semejanzas de los documentos recibidos. tienen representantes que asisten a 1as la AOSA tendra un representante en la mayoría, sino en todas J las reuniones de las organizaciones mencionadas anteriormente.La AOSA ofrece copias de publicaciones, revistas cientlficas, y boletines. los miembros de 1. SCST, a 105 Analistas Canadienses de Semilla Comercial, y a los miembros de 10 ISTA. Esto asegura una amplia distribución de la información que genera la AOSA. Muchas bibliotecas universitarias y algunas personas particulares se suscriben a la revista Seed Technology y al Boletín de la AOSA, 10 cual proporciona una distribución adicional de la infonnación. Hay disponibil idad de juegos de diapositivas y de otra informaci6n sobre semillas~ que se puede prestar a cualquier persona que 10 solicite a trav~s del Comit~ de Relaciones Públicas de la AOSA. Cada año un sinnúmero de organizaciones utilizan este material.A través de estas relaciones de trabajo, 1. AOSA demuestra que nos hernos dado cuenta del valor y de la necesidad de la cooperación, de la colaboración, y de1 intercambio de informaci6n entre todos los segmentos de la industria de semillas.La Asociación de Agencias Oficiales de Certificación de Semillas (AOSCA) durante los últimos aftos ha dedicado atención al desarrollo de un vinculo entre la AOSCA y las agencias de certificación de semillas en América latina. la AOSCA ha participado en un taller latinoamericano de semillas y en el Seminario Panamericano de Semillas realizado en Cali, Colombia. El Comité Ejecutivo de la AOSCA ha desarrollado una propuesta de vinculación con América Latina. El Durante los últimos dos aMs, la Asociación de Agencias Oficiales de Certificación de Semillas (AOSCA). con la ayuda de Johnny Oouglas, ha estado revisando la oportunidad de estab'ecer un vlncul0 con las agencias de certificación de semillas en América latina. las sugerencias recientes fueron aceptadas en ju110 por los miembros en pleno y por la Junta Directiva de AOSCA. La AOSCA ha participado en un taller latinoamericano de sem1l1as y en el Seminario Panamericano de Semillas realitado en Ca11, Colombia. El Comité Ejecutivo de la AOSCA ha desarrollado una propuesta de vinculación con América Latina y hace las siguientes recomendaciones a la \\Junta Oirectiva:1.Que el Comité de Estatutos considere otra categoría de miembros diferente a la del miembro asociado. Estos miembros, pa í ses que tengan 1 a preocupac i ón y que neces Hen ayuda en re 1 acl ón con la certificación de semillas. $i es posible, quisiera pedir la cooperación del Secretariado para que me proporcione los nombres y las direcciones de las personas que sirven de contacto, que trabajan con la certificación de semillas en sus respectivos pa~ses.Adicionalmente, quisiera pedir que si hay preguntas o áreas donde se requiera ayuda_ que se mencionen en este momento y que se especifique con quién querr'ían trabajar en los Estados Unidos. Se supone que cambiaremos la categoría para ser miembro de tal manera que podamos tener representantes de América Latina participando en nuestros comités de Productos Agropecuarios --aquellos que mencione a comienzos de la semana--y partiCipando en sus deliberaciones, de tal manera que ustedes puedan entender mejor la utilidad de estos comités.La Asociaci6n Internacional de Análisis de Semillas (ISTA) siempre ha mantenido una colaboración estrecha con otras organizaciones con el fin de promover la producción, el control, y la distribuci6n de semilla de buena calidad. Uno de SuS esfuerzos ha estado dirigido a la uniformidad Internacional en los términos técnicos y en los nombres cientlficos de las plantas, para 10 cual se han publicado listados ~ue se actualizan perl6dicamente. La ¡STA colabora con la FAO en diversos proyectos para promover la utilización de semilla de calidad y resolver los prOblemas de cuarentena de plantas. Asimismo, sostienen un estrecho intercambio de Informaci6n.Durante el Congreso de la ISTA. celebrado en Washington en 1950, se acordó qUé, contrario a 10 que se propuso, la ISTA no se convirtiera en ona comisión de la FAO, sino que trabajara en estrecha colaboración con esta organización. Se adoptó una resoluci5n para este efecto. A través de los a~os, la FAO y la ISTA han realizado diversas tareas en 1 as cuales han 11 egado a una sol ud 5n en forma coopera t i va. La resoluci6n se elaborO para incluir:1.ColaboraciOn en .1 sentido de que los empleados de la FAO se convirtieran en miembros de los comités técnicos de la ISTA. Esto funcionO bien en la década de los 50 y los 60 pero actualmente hay sOlo una modesta participación de la Fft.O en los comités técnicos de la ¡STA.Cooperación en la nomenclatura para lograr una mejor uniformidad de los términos técnicos y de los nombres comunes y científicos de las plantas.En esta última tarea la FAO y la ISTA también han colaborado con el Congreso Internacional de Botánica. La ISTA ha estado a la vanguardia de este trabajo, 10 cual ha resultado en la publ icación de la \"Lista de Nombres Establecidos de Plantas de la ISTA\". Esta primera 1 ista apareció en 1966 y contenla 1283 nombres. Posteriormente se ha acordado adicionar otros nombres diversos.La segunda edición apareció en 1985 y en el Congreso de 8risbane se añadieron otras 38n especies. La lista Establecida de la lST.~ se ha convertido en una publicación importante para el mejor entendimiento a nivel internacíonal y se utiliza como referencia por parte de otras organizaciones internacionales tales como FAO.OECa, UPOV, FIS, y otras.Otro logro importante es el IIGlosario MultilingUe de Nombres Comunes de Plantas. Cultivos de Campo, Gram~neast y Vegetales ll • el cual eontiene los nombres científicos y comunes de las plantas de las especies que aparecen en las normaS de la ISTA. Esta publicación es muy útil, particularmente en el mercadeo de semillas, pero también en organizaciones e institutos que trabajan con semi1las y plantas a nivel internacional.La lSTA está colaborando con la FAO en proporcionar asistencia técnica a un ¡¡¡ran número de proyectos organizados por la FAO en los paIses en desarrollo para promover la utilización de semilla de calidad.Se llegll a este acuerdo en 1968 y se hizo efectivo en 1970. ¡nclula:4.a. Establecer un banco de tecnólogos en semillas, quienes servirían de consul tores y expertos preparados para ayudar en el número cada vez mayor de proyectos de 1 a FilO en los países en desarrollo.b. Indicar cu~les laboratorios de análisis de semillas estarlan dispuestos a proporcionar capacitación en muestreo. ao&11sis, certificación, y otros aspectos de control de calidad de la semilla.c. Se logró proporcionar a la FilO los nombres de m~s de 60 expertos dispuestos a trabajar en el extranjero y 13 laboratorios de la ¡STA estuvieron de acuerdo en proporcionar capacitación y facilitar sus instalaciones para estudiantes de los países en desarrollo.la FilO también solicitó colaboración en los problemas de cuarentena de plantas. Aunque ésto no siempre es organizado por los laboratorios de análisis de semilla, la ¡STA y su Comité de Fitopatologia (el cual es muy activo, actualmente bajo la dirección entusiasta del Dr. Paul Neergaard y antes del Dr. elaude Anselme y los colegas de su comité) han contribuido mucho para aumentar el conocimiento acerca de enfermedades portadas por la semilla y de su detección, 10 cual por supuesto ha sido benéfico tambi€n para el servicio de cuarentena.Constantemente se han mejorado y se han ampliado las nonnas, incluyendo nuevas enfermedades y nuevos métodos. Se han publicado manuales con hojas de trabajO para las diversas enfermedades, con una descripción detallada de los m€todos; también est& disponible una serie bastante extensa de diapositivas~ Adicionalmente, el Comité, y en particular su líder, han publicado un extenso número de articulos sobre enfermedades portadas por la semilla, el cual es muy útil en esta dificil tarea.Otra contribución importante ha sido la organización de un sinnúmero de talleres a diferentes niveles y sus contribuciones en la realización de cursos y seminarios. También se debe mencionar el certificado de 1. ISTA en vista de que la FAO se refiere a este certificado como un modelo al establecer programas de semillas en pa1ses en desarrollo.El último punto en el programa de cooperación FAO/ISTA era el de intercambiar literatura.Como muchos lo saben, la ¡STA ha publicado las memorias desde su fundación en 1924. En 1973 fueron reorganizadas y ahora aparecen con el nombre de l'Seed Science and Technology\". Esta publlcaci6n tiene alrededor de 800 a 1000 páglnas. Con sus artículos cientHlcos y técnicos se ha convertido en una publicación importante en su campo y se distrlbuye a m~s de 1200 suscriptores en todo el mundo. La maneja un comité editorial y los art1culos que se reciben para ser publicados son revisados por expertos en ese campo en particular.Adem&s de intercambiar literatura con la FAO, también se ha sostenido un acuerdo de intercambio con la AOSA con la cual la ISTA ha trabajadO en estrecha colaboracíOn desde su fundaciOn. Esto es natural, pues hasta clerto punto los miembros de la AOSA son también miembros de la ISTA y los miembros de la AOSA están muy bien representados en los comités técnicos de la ISTA. Se debe mencionar al Dr. O.L. Justice como uno de los miembros más sobresalientes de la cooperación AOSA/ISTA. Como presidente del Comité de Normas de la ISTA luchó hasta lograr uno de los cambios más importantes en las Normas de la ¡STA al introducir el método llamado por los americanos \"0uicker Method (QM)\". El también fue el arquitecto del actual formato de las normas y fue Presidente de la ISTA durante 1962/65. Ha existido una cooperación estrecha entre la AOSA y la ISTA y nuestras Normas son en general muy similares.En el anl!Usis de pureza existen algunas diferencias entre la AOSA y la ISTA. En el análisis de pureza de la ¡STA, se consideran todos los cultivares de una especie como semilla pura si es obvio que hay otros cultivares presentes --se puede real izar una prueba especial o se le infonna al cliente que hay una mezcla de cultivares en su lote-mientras que, por otro lado, las normas de la AOSA intentan el an&lisis de pureza, distinción entre los cultivares, y cfilculo del porcentaje de pureza con base en uno de los cultivares.A través de los años, la ISTA también ha mantenido una cooperación fructlFera con la Organización para el Desarrollo y la Colaboración Económica (OECO) en sus actividades con los \"Esquemas para la Certificación Varieta1 de Semilla que se Moviliza en el Comercio Internacional!1~ Muchos institutos miembros de la ISTA organizan este sistefl1a en sus respectivos países, mientras que otros pertenecen a institutos donde la identificación varieta1 en las pruebas de parcelas en el campo, as'i como las inspecciones de campo, y el análisis de semillas, se llevan a cabo por parte de diversos departamentos de este instituto. En algunos países, sín embargo, las pruebas de parcelas en el campo, las lnspecciones de campo, y la clasificaci6n fina1 7 por un lado, y todas las demás pruebas de calidad de la semilla por otro lado, se llevan a cabo en institutos separados con muy poca interre1aciOn y cooperaciOn.El tener todas estas actividades en un instituto ofrece ventajas tanto para el agricultor como para la empresa de semillas, y para el personal de control. En los paises donde el sistema ha trabajado durante un largo tiempo puede ser dificil cambiarlo. Sin embargo, particularmente en paises donde se esU desarrollando un programa de semillas, se debe prestar atención a estas ventajas:El instituto puede contratar en forma permanente un mayor número de personal, puesto que el período de analisis en el laboratorío y el período de pruebas de parcelas de campo y de inspecciones son diferentes, de tal manera que se puede utilizar parte del personal para hacer ambas tareas.documento estandar que es fácil de leer por parte de los funcionarios aduaneros, el personal de cuarentena, los empleados de bancos, y otras personas que estén involucradas en el control de la importación y exportación de semillas.En los últimos anos ha aparecido una nueva estrella en el delo de la identificación de cultivares y de control de calidad de semillas: El Sindicato para la Protección de Nuevas Variedades de Plantas (UPOV). Es importante que tanto la OECD, la UPOV, y la lSTA colaboren y que sigan de cerca el desarrollo de las normas y procedimientos en cada organización. Esto no ha sido muy difIcil puesto que desde el punto de vista científico/técnico son casi las mismas personas que representan sus palses en estas organizaciones.La Organización de Estandare. lnternacionales (ISO) está colaborando con la lSTA en el sentido de que esta organizaci6n ha aprobado las normas de la ISTA como un est!ndar internacional. En pruebas y procedimientos que también involucran Qtras industrias, ellos tratan de unificar los procedimientos en cuanto sea posible, por ejemplo, en el muestreo, en el análisis de humedad, y en las determinaciones de peso, 1as cuales involucran la industria de granos .... la AsociaciOn lnternacional de Qufmica de Cereales (ICC), la cual esta colaborando con la ¡STA. La ISTA colabora con el CIAT y espera establecer contacto y colaboración con las organizaciones nacionales y regionales de América Latina.Es muy necesario que las organizaciones internacionales trabajen juntas y unifiquen sus esfuerzos para estandarizar las normas y procedimientos internacionales en cuanto sea posible.Esto es un prerequisíto para que haya una uniformidad razonable en las definiciones, en las interpretaciones, y en los resu1tados de los analisis para evitar confusiOn y desacuerdo cuando se comercia semilla a través de las fronteras internacionales~El Vigésimo Segundo Congreso de la ISTA en Edimburgo, Escocia se celebrarA en julio de 1989. Simón Cooper, Oirector del Instituto de Control de Semillas tiene laboratorios recién construidos. El también ha prometida que se podrA evaluar uno de los productos mas populares del país en el sitio de producción.Agradecemos y darnos la bienvenida al CIAT y al Ministerio de Agricultura del Uruguay por haber invitado a la ¡STA a esta reunión. He aprendida mucho mas sobre la situación de esta región y espero Que esta reunión contribuya a mejorar aún ~s los contactos y la colaboración entre la ¡STA y ustedes. Yo haré 10 mejor de mi parte.Gracias. Y EXTERNOS DE CALIDADEl esquelllil uti1 izado por la OECO esU abierto a paIses que no son miembros de este organismo y pertenecen a la ONU O a sus agencias especializadas; la solicitud de ingreso debe ser rea 1 izada a través de los gobiernos de los pa í ses solicitantes. Una vez realizada la solicitud, se acuerda una visita de inspecci6n. Si la solicitud es aprobada por el Consejo de la OECO, dicho pals deber~ aplicar las reglas y la semilla deber~ ser etiquetada bajo el esquelllil OECO; deberá asistir a las reuniones anuales y pagar de US$l.OOO a 1.500. La OECO coopera muy de cerca con el ISTA y la fAO. La OECO y la CEE son dos organismos distintos. La OECO no está en conflicto con la A05A; la termi no 1 agio ut 11 izada por cada organi zac i 6n es f~eil de entender.El esquelllil de la OECO (Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Econ6mico) está abierto a paises que no siendo miembros de la OECO, son miembros de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas, o de sus agencias especializadas~ Las solicitudes de admisión como miembros deben ser remitidas por los gobiernos de los paIses so 1 icltantes a la Secretaria General de 1 a OECD.Es conveniente pasar la solicitud a través de la embajada de los respectivos paises en Paris. Se programa una visita de inspección y los gastos de viaje los paga el pals solicitante. Si la solicitud es aprobada por el Consejo de la OECO, el pais solicitante aplica las reglas y la semilla debe ser etiquetada bajo el esquema de la OECO. Un representante debe asistir a las reuniones anuales y paga una tarifa equivalente al 1%del manejo del esquema, alrededor de US$120Q-1500.Para .1gunos paises, el costo de afiliación es muy alto; otros encuentran pocas ventajas en afiliarse a 1. OECO. la Secretaría de la OECD está en condiciones de enviar copias actualizadas de sus normas a aquellos países que puedan encontrarlas útiles, sin la intención de que dichos paIses se afilien al esquema. la OEeO coopera muy de cerca con la ¡STA y la FAO. Existe una estrecha relacion en el mercadeo de semillas. Sin embargo. la mitad de los mi~mbros de la OECO esUn en la Comunidad Económica Europea (CEE); estas dos organizaciones son distintas e independientes. El esquema de la OEeO no est& en conflicto con la AOSCA; inclusive los Estados Unidos es un importante e influyente miembro y utiliza los marbetes de la OECO en el mercado internacional de semillas; la estrecha relación entre la terminologla utilizada por cada organización la hace facil de entender.Los idiomas oficiales de la OECO son el inglés y el franCés; aOn asi Espana y Portugal son miembros y aplican el sistema OECO; EspaM colabora frecuentemente con la versión en Español de las publicaciones.Producir y comercializar semillas de alta calidad flsica, Facilitar la toma de decisiones gerenciales.g. Contribuir a la preservac;6n del medio ambiente.h. Minimizar la diseminación de plagas y enfermedades.i.Trabajar coordinadamente con el control externo u a~icial.j.Evitar reclamos. Para el inicio de una industria de semillas esta relación se sitúa alrededor del 2% ya que debe poner especial énfasis en detectar las fallas de coordinación iniciales, una vez establecida la empresa este valor deber~a descender al 1%.Las fases de control interno se agrupan según pertenezcan a una de las tres etapas: Producción. Poscosecha o Mercadeo.  ","tokenCount":"34917"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"81a3983ead3169341d5b02ff13d7b143","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9d5d54e5-ae86-499a-95d1-341b552666ba/retrieve","id":"1592203391"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1a9cb76b-761a-4304-8d04-d9bf81feaba5","pagecount":"25","content":"Condiciones técnicas previas para montar un telecentro ¿Necesita una bicicleta?Sugerencias para establecer el uso del telecentro Para buen baile, música variadaRecomendaciones sobre lo que no debe hacerse con un telecentro Voxpopuli,voxDeiEl papel de la comunidad en la planeación del telecentro Entre madres, madrinas y madrastras Importancia del perfil de la organización anfitriona Dimeconquiénandas...Recomendaciones a la hora de buscar socios y aliados ADiosrogando...Sugerencias para ubicar sede del telecentro No martille con el tacón del zapatoRecomendaciones para la adquisición de programas Las cuentas claras...Perfil de las personas que operan un telecentro Nunca es tarde para aprender Importancia de la capacitación para el éxito del telecentro Ganancia más allá del dinero Cómo abordar la sostenibilidad del telecentro En el camino salta la liebre Consejos para aprovechar oportunidades Marineros: ¡leven anclas! Recomendaciones finales para poner en marcha el telecentro Cuidado con los espejismos Advertencia sobre el uso de las TICProyecto InforCaucaComenzando el año 2000, el salón comunal de Pescador, una vereda del centro del departamento del Cauca (Colombia), estaba repleto. Había representantes de diferentes organizaciones locales -agricultores, profesores, pequeños comerciantes, líderes indígenas, políticos-interesados en enterarse de un proyecto que venía en camino, llamado InforCauca, que pretendía poner a funcionar algunos telecentros en esa región.Salvo algunas excepciones, la mayoría de los asistentes quería formar parte de ese proyecto, así no tuvieran claro de qué se trataba; escasamente habían oído hablar de internet y no había una forma clara de explicarles lo que era un telecentro, por una simple razón: nosotros, los promotores del proyecto, tampoco teníamos muy claro el concepto, y menos los alcances que un telecentro pudiera tener. Nuestros conocimientos se limitaban a lo que habíamos leído sobre algunas experiencias en países africanos, algunos casos aislados en Perú y Ecuador y a una visita fugaz que hicimos a Colnodo, en Bogotá D.C., para conocer la experiencia de ellos con tres telecentros urbanos conocidos como Unidades de Información Barrial, habiendo sido los pioneros en el uso de estas nuevas tecnologías de comunicación e información (TIC) aplicadas al desarrollo comunitario en Colombia. De paso, hablamos con una operadora de uno de esos telecentros.Fue prácticamente el principio del reto. Con mucho entusiasmo, pero también con muchas dudas y temores debido a nuestra inexperiencia, arrancó InforCauca, gracias al respaldo que nos brindó el Centro Internacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo (IDRC-CIID), del Canadá, a través de dos expertos: Gilles Cliche y Ricardo Gómez.Desde entonces transcurrieron tres años. Fueron tres años de mucho aprendizaje, donde se recorrió un camino con subidas y bajadas, con no pocos obstáculos, algunos que parecían infranqueables, pero que se pudieron sortear con el apoyo solidario de muchos socios que decidieron emprender este fascinante viaje con nosotros.Por ellos y con ellos llegamos al final de la ruta trazada. Y este producto es el fruto de ese viaje, que esperamos sea útil para otros potenciales viajeros que ven en el uso de las TIC, una oportunidad excepcional para optimizar el trabajo en pro del desarrollo de sus comunidades.Pretenciosamente le hemos denominado \"Guía\", mas en realidad es una recopilación de consejos y recomendaciones para tener en cuenta a la hora de montar un telecentro comunitario.El mensaje, escrito en un lenguaje coloquial, va dirigido a organizaciones comprometidas con el desarrollo comunitario, pero no descarta a otros actores interesados en involucrar las TIC para impulsar proyectos locales o para visionar otras aplicaciones en beneficio de la gente.Este producto consta de cuatro secciones, además de esta Introducción y los Agradecimientos: 1) La guía, 2) Información específica, 3) Testimonios, 4) Ecos de InforCauca.En la primera parte aparece la guía propiamente dicha, y tiene dos opciones: En una, el usuario puede bajar e imprimir todo el documento (sólo texto). La otra opción es interactiva, y permite apreciar la guía con algunas escenas animadas por tres simpáticos protagonistas: Tico, Taco y Tuco -un niño, un caballo y un perro, en su orden-para que acompañen a quienes desean conocer el camino que se debe recorrer.¿Por qué un niño, un caballo y un perro? Porque en un proyecto que involucre el montaje de telecentros se necesitan personas entusiastas que tengan mucha imaginación y disposición para aprender (como los niños); se requieren amigos leales que nos acompañen siempre (como los perros) y socios que nos ayuden a sacar adelante el trabajo (como los caballos).La segunda sección contiene información específica que hace referencia a los que es un telecentro, los pasos enumerados para su montaje, los gastos de sostenimiento y un documento sobre Linux, como posible alternativa para el soporte de programas.La tercera sección registra los testimonios de los principales actores del proyecto InforCauca, como fueron los operadores de los tres telecentros, los socios locales de esos telecentros y los usuarios.La cuarta sección, denominada Ecos de InforCauca, presenta un resumen del proyecto, un perfil de los socios principales, una descripción de los telecentros y, finalmente, el punto de vista de los representantes de las diferentes instituciones socias del proyecto sobre las lecciones aprendidas a lo largo del viaje, destacando los aciertos (puntos fuertes) y los desaciertos (puntos débiles) que, a juicio de los protagonistas, no se deben repetir.Buen provecho.(Subir)Amigos del Proyecto InforCauca:Me llamo Antonio y represento a una organización que trabaja en beneficio de una comunidad rural.Me enteré del proyecto de los telecentros comunitarios que ustedes adelantan en el departamento del Cauca, Colombia, y estamos interesados en averiguar más sobre su experiencia.Nos gustaría saber qué son los telecentros y qué pasos debemos seguir para tener uno de ellos.De antemano, gracias por su colaboración.Nos agrada responder su carta en la que manifiesta el interés de su organización en montar un telecentro y solicita nuestras recomendaciones para ello.No le habíamos contestado antes, porque no queríamos precipitarnos en dar suposiciones, puesto que nosotros apenas estábamos recorriendo el camino. Pero ya llegó el momento de atender su solicitud.En su misiva, Ud. quiere saber qué es un telecentro comunitario y nos pide que le expliquemos los pasos para el montaje de un sitio de éstos.Vamos por partes. Léalas con atención, conozca nuestra experiencia, y al final decida si su organización está preparada para esta empresa.Proyecto InforCauca (Subir)Primer paso: Mira antes de saltarLos refranes son una síntesis de la sabiduría popular. Se acude a ellos en el momento justo, para sentenciar, advertir o reforzar una situación. Con su venia, vamos a usar estas máximas populares para ser más claros con los pasos que se deben seguir para poner a funcionar un telecentro comunitario.El primer consejo es: \"Mira antes de saltar\". Esto significa que no se puede iniciar el montaje de un telecentro sin antes saber lo que es, cerciorarse de que existen las condiciones técnicas, comprender para qué le puede servir a su organización y a las comunidades del área de influencia, cuál será el papel de la organización anfitriona, quiénes serán los socios, qué servicios se prestarán, quiénes lo van a operar y administrar, cómo se financiará...Con una visión conjunta más clara puede sacarle el mejor provecho al telecentro comunitario, teniendo en cuenta que se trata de una herramienta y que, como tal, requiere de personas que sepan usarla.(Subir)Breve explicación sobre lo que es un telecentro comunitarioUn telecentro comunitario se puede comparar con una persona. Cuando se pregunta ¿qué es una persona? puede responder enumerando una lista de componentes: Es un conjunto de huesos, músculos, nervios, arterias, cerebro, corazón, muchos órganos vitales... ¿Todo esto es una persona? Sí, pero es mucho más. La lista forma parte del cuerpo humano, pero también puede formar parte del cuerpo de cualquier animal mamífero.Entonces, ¿qué es una persona? A lo anterior, añadámosle otros componentes: es un ser viviente que piensa, que actúa, que siente, que ríe, que lucha, que llora, que tiene penas y alegrías, que sueña, que goza, que sufre... Es la suma de materia y espíritu.Con un telecentro comunitario pasa igual. Se puede decir que un telecentro es un espacio con computadores, programas, teléfono, fax, conexión a internet, escáner... pero esto no es un telecentro comunitario. Podría ser una sala comercial de Internet. O, volviendo al ejemplo inicial, equivaldría a los componentes del cuerpo de cualquier mamífero, pero no es una persona.Un telecentro comunitario es gente comprometida con su entorno, gente que lucha, que aprende, que visiona, que sufre y que goza de errores y aciertos, gente que ve en las nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación una herramienta muy útil para utilizarla en beneficio de todos. Al igual que la persona, un telecentro comunitario es la suma de materia y espíritu.Ahora que ya sabe que los telecentros comunitarios tienen cuerpo y alma, lo invito a leer algunas definiciones que nuestra gente realizó, buscando darle más luces para entender la esencia de esta herramienta tecnológica.(Ver Información Específica: ¿Qué es un telecentro?) (Subir)En ocasiones nos pasa. Por estar entusiasmados con una tarea, olvidamos detalles que, a la postre, echan al traste planes e ilusiones.A la hora de montar un telecentro nos puede ocurrir algo parecido. ¿Qué tal descubrir que en la zona donde se van a instalar los equipos no se puede tener internet porque no hay conexión telefónica, que es el mecanismo más común para ello? ¿O saber, después de que se han averiado los equipos, que la zona donde está el telecentro es un punto privilegiado para atraer rayos?Siguiendo con esos dos ejemplos, para ambos hay solución, si se insiste en seguir con el telecentro en esa zona, pero la inversión que debe hacerse es mucho más costosa que lo que puede valer el telecentro mismo. ¿Se justifica exponerse a ello? o ¿no será más conveniente averiguar con anticipación si están dadas las condiciones técnicas en la zona para montar el telecentro?Cuando hablamos de condiciones técnicas hacemos referencia a la energía eléctrica y a la conectividad, es decir, la infraestructura de telecomunicaciones existente (radioteléfono, líneas telefónicas, red digital integrada, enlaces satelitales, microondas, fibra óptica, cable coaxial, etc.) que permite conectar el computador con internet.En América Latina, el servicio eléctrico no es el problema. Prácticamente, las redes de energía llegan a rincones apartados. En cambio, la conectividad es una limitante seria para el desarrollo de los telecentros comunitarios, especialmente en zonas rurales. Entre más apartadas de los centros urbanos estén las regiones, más difícil y costoso es el acceso a las telecomunicaciones.En aras del ahorro de recursos para poder invertir más en la capacitación de la gente, lo más sensato es montar un telecentro en zonas donde haya facilidades de conectividad.La manera más común de conectarse a internet es a través de una línea telefónica. Sin embargo, hay que averiguar con anterioridad si el costo del minuto corresponde a una llamada local o a larga distancia. Eso marca la diferencia y hace viable o no el funcionamiento del telecentro.(Subir)¿Necesita una bicicleta?Vamos a comparar un telecentro con una bicicleta. La gente, por lo regular, no adquiere una bicicleta sin saber qué uso le va a dar. ¿Para qué sirve una bicicleta? Es un vehículo que permite realizar muchas actividades, unas más útiles que otras, dependiendo del criterio del usuario.Puede ser un medio para hacer ejercicio (genera salud); o un medio de transporte (genera salud y ahorro); también puede ser una herramienta de trabajo (genera ingresos); o un medio de competencia deportiva (genera fama). Pero, si se usa poco, también una bicicleta puede ser un lujo que tiende a convertirse en un estorbo.Lo mismo pasaría con un telecentro. Sirve para realizar muchas cosas, pero siempre habrá algunas más relevantes que otras. Al igual que con una bicicleta, el usuario del telecentro tiene que familiarizarse con él, aprender a manejar todos sus componentes y, luego sí, sacarle el mayor provecho. Porque un telecentro también puede subutilizarse y terminar convertido en un lastre para su organización.Un telecentro comunitario tiene muchas posibilidades de uso. Algunas tan simples como facilitar a los muchachos la consulta para tareas escolares o permitirle a la gente contactarse con familiares y amigos o encontrar al otro lado del mundo a un buen samaritano que le ayude a resolver un problema que parecía imposible de solucionar entre su comunidad. (Ver Opinión de los usuarios: Natalia encontró a su ángel guardián en internet)También sirve para encontrar información útil de mercados, de precios, establecer contactos, capacitarse a distancia, formular denuncias, promover regiones turísticas, publicitar trabajos comunitarios, establecer comercio electrónico, gestionar proyectos, encontrar donantes y muchas otras actividades. (Ver Ecos del Proyecto: Telecentro de Tunía)Un telecentro puede tener varios enfoques. Uno de ellos puede ser la Educación, porque obviamente al grupo que más le llama la atención el uso de las tecnologías de información y comunicación (llamadas TIC) es a los jóvenes. (Ver Ecos del Proyecto: Telecentro de Tunía -Experiencia de Interculturanet)Los agricultores organizados pueden tener en el telecentro una herramienta poderosa para enriquecer su proceso de investigación, buscando nuevas opciones, estableciendo vínculos con organizaciones, aprendiendo cómo publicar sus logros en un sitio web. (Ver Proyecto SIDER)Los expertos en planeación del uso de la tierra a escala municipal ven en los telecentros un escenario que podría facilitar ese proceso y la implementación de planes que involucren a comunidades e instituciones estatales y ONG.Asimismo, el telecentro podría facilitar el trabajo de los consorcios para el manejo comunitario de cuencas hidrográficas, en la que podrían involucrarse grupos juveniles.A la hora de preguntarse para qué sirve un telecentro, un punto de partida será el trabajo participativo que involucra a organizaciones y comunidades. Luego, se deben informar profusamente sobre otras experiencias (éxitos y fracasos) para no tomar decisiones equivocadas, con la falsa ilusión de que las TIC van a solucionar todos los problemas.Es recomendable contactar a otras organizaciones que han trabajado con telecentros, visitar los sitios web de ellas, leer artículos y, de ser posible, intercambiar opiniones. Estas acciones tienden a controlar el entusiasmo que genera un proyecto de éstos, pensando que es la panacea, y brindan información valiosa para evitar enfoques erróneos del naciente telecentro.Como puede ver, no hay una fórmula rígida para saber de antemano cuál será el enfoque principal del telecentro. Ese enfoque está supeditado al contexto, a las organizaciones que lo lideran, al dinamismo y necesidades de la comunidad. El secreto está en tener visión de cómo las TIC pueden articularse para la satisfacción de necesidades concretas. (Ver Ecos del Proyecto: Telecentro de ACIN) (Subir)Recomendaciones sobre lo que no debe hacerse con un telecentroCuando se organiza un baile, por lo general se pone a sonar música variada para todos los gustos. Cada cual decide si baila todos los ritmos o espera la tonada que más le agrade para salir a la pista.Si por el contrario, el baile se hace con un solo ritmo, los únicos que asistirán a él serán, obviamente, los amantes de ese ritmo. Los demás buscarán otras opciones en otra parte.Con los telecentros sucede lo mismo. Si desde un comienzo se decide por un solo enfoque (es decir con un solo ritmo), está excluyendo a muchos usuarios y tiende a fracasar rápidamente. Tenga en cuenta que los intereses de los potenciales usuarios -o sea, la comunidad y las organizaciones-son muy amplios, puesto que tienen que ver con todos los aspectos de sus vidas.¿No cree que sería muy frustrante que alguien llegue al telecentro para averiguar por determinado tema y tajantemente le dicen que allí no se puede?A la hora de proponer los posibles enfoques, hay que abrir mentes y corazones y demostrar el compromiso con el desarrollo rural o, para decirlo en un sentido más amplio, con la innovación rural.Se corre el riesgo de convertir al telecentro en una sala de conexión a internet, donde sólo van los que ya saben, y que éstos se limiten a navegar sin rumbo o a \"conversar en línea\" (chatear) con otros usuarios. Para eso están las salas comerciales, conocidas también como cibercafés.Uno de los papeles estelares del telecentro comunitario es generar procesos de capacitación y acercamiento de la gente hacia el uso provechoso de las TIC.De ahí la importancia de tener visión con respecto al uso de esta herramienta e identificar necesidades concretas de información. De lo contrario, el telecentro está condenado a convertirse en una sala de computadores. Y eso significaría pérdida para la organización anfitriona, puesto que tuvo que invertir, y como toda inversión, se hace para generar ganancias sociales o económicas.(Subir)El papel de la comunidad en la planeación del telecentroAunque la idea de montar un telecentro comunitario surja de una organización y ésta sea la administradora, debe tener muy claro que la herramienta tecnológica no será para su uso exclusivo y excluyente.Una garantía de éxito es involucrar, desde el comienzo de la planeación del telecentro, a personas de la comunidad, para que opinen, propongan, sugieran, y así generar en ellas un sentido de pertenencia. (Ver Información Específica: Consejos teóricos para ponerlos en práctica)Esta estrategia representa ganancia para todos. La organización anfitriona gana porque va a tener aliados y promotores constantes, que se encargarán de seducir a otras personas para que se acerquen a las TIC. De paso, la organización fortalecerá su imagen corporativa frente a la comunidad.También gana la comunidad porque tendrá la oportunidad de explorar las nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación en busca de alternativas de desarrollo.Por supuesto, ganará el telecentro porque tendrá usuarios convencidos de su utilidad, máxime cuando saben que ellos han tenido papel protagónico y se han tenido en cuenta los intereses comunitarios.Es en esta etapa donde se da un proceso de seducción y enamoramiento entre organización, comunidad y tecnología, tratando de buscar la forma más adecuada para articular las TIC a proyectos y actividades que ya están en marcha.(Subir)Los cuentos infantiles clásicos presentan la imagen de la madrastra como el personaje malo que disfruta haciendo sufrir a su hijastro. A la madre, en cambio, la muestran como un ser bondadoso, dispuesto a sacrificarse por el hijo. La madrina esta ligada a la figura de una mujer bonachona, que está atenta al crecimiento de su ahijado, para orientarlo, animarlo y ayudarlo cuando sea necesario o cuando falte la madre.Si tomamos estas referencias (sólo como un supuesto, porque también hay malas madres, madrinas indiferentes y excelentes madrastras), un naciente telecentro comunitario puede tener la suerte de encontrar una buena madre, hacerse a una excelente madrina o caer en manos de una perversa madrastra. Todo depende del tipo de la organización anfitriona.¿Cuál sería el perfil de una organización para ser considerada como potencial buena madre o una excelente madrina de un telecentro?Tiene que ser una organización madura, con una estructura administrativa sólida, y que goce del reconocimiento de la comunidad.Debe ser una organización con experiencia de trabajo con la comunidad, comprometida con ésta, que crea en la capacidad de la gente para realizar obras de desarrollo, y que propicie oportunidades para lograrlo. Igualmente, que conozca el entorno y que pueda dar cuenta de las necesidades y de la problemática de su área de influencia.Tiene que ser una organización con mucha visión y apertura a las nuevas ideas, y que vea en la comunicación una estrategia útil para el desarrollo de sus programas de trabajo y el cumplimiento de su misión.Deliberadamente no se habla de recursos porque no es un factor determinante para ser una buena madre de un telecentro. En cambio, sí es indispensable que la organización entienda la importancia estratégica que tiene el nuevo hijo, tanto para ella como para su entorno social. Si hay esa comprensión, todo lo demás es posible.Hasta ahí todo bien, dirá Ud., pero ¿cuál sería una organización con perfil no apto para manejar un telecentro?Un telecentro corre el riesgo de no sobrevivir si da con una organización cuyo estilo -valga la contradicción-es paternalista. Es decir, que ayuda a la comunidad pero le genera dependencia, y no hace nada por crear capacidad entre la gente. A la hora de buscar socios, hay que tener olfato para detectar este tipo de organizaciones desde un principio.Otro tipo de organizaciones con tendencia a ser malas madres o perversas madrastras son aquellas que tienen un organigrama rígido, muy jerárquico, donde la toma de decisiones es muy difícil y donde los líderes están amarrados a posiciones muy conservadoras.Tampoco son recomendables las organizaciones grandes (aunque tengan varias de las características positivas), cuando manejan demasiados proyectos y asumen muchas responsabilidades, porque se corre el riesgo de que el telecentro se convierta en \"un asunto más\" y se minimice su potencial.(Subir)Dime con quién andas...Estamos en una época de trabajo mancomunado, de alianzas estratégicas, en las que se juntan voluntades y capacidades para alcanzar mejores resultados sin duplicar esfuerzos.En el caso del montaje de un telecentro comunitario, de entrada debe haber una alianza sine qua non, o sea, necesaria, entre la organización anfitriona y la comunidad. Pero es recomendable buscar socios y aliados.Para el caso de los socios, el conocimiento previo de las organizaciones será un elemento valioso. Para esto hay que confrontar si cumplen con los requisitos más importantes que ya se mencionaron. Luego sí se puede entrar a seducir y proponer, advirtiendo que un proyecto de esta naturaleza requiere de mucho compromiso, mucho tiempo y mucha imaginación.No se deben aceptar socios impuestos por compromisos institucionales, si no cumplen con los requisitos.No hay un número límite de socios. El modelo de telecentros administrados por varios socios sigue en ensayo, y su éxito depende de muchos factores, incluyendo la cultura organizacional de los miembros. Mas, sea cual fuere el número, todos los socios, sin excepción, deben estar comprometidos con el naciente telecentro, acordar y respetar unas reglas de juego y estar dispuestos a no rendirse ante el primer tropiezo.Nuestra experiencia sugiere que es mejor que haya uno solo muy comprometido y no cinco o seis donde nadie asume la responsabilidad y donde existen intereses y compromisos diferentes. (Ver Ecos del Proyecto: Telecentro de Tunía)Pero puede haber otras opciones. Una podría ser la de una organización muy comprometida y una junta o comité que represente a otros sectores de la comunidad. En este caso, los representantes no tendrían tanto poder de decisión; más bien, su papel sería asegurar que el telecentro se maneje para el bien comunal, pero la administración tiene que ir por cuenta de la organización anfitriona.La búsqueda de socios también está condicionada al enfoque o enfoques que el telecentro va a tener. Si es una comunidad que tiene problemas de educación, entonces hay que acercarse a los establecimientos educativos; si es de salud, con las instituciones pertinentes, y así por el estilo.No es recomendable buscar como socios a personas particulares, y mucho menos que sean las administradoras del telecentro, porque se corre el riesgo de privatizar el servicio o volverlo más operativo buscando el lucro económico y descuidado el impacto social.(Subir)A Dios rogando...Es posible que la siguiente noticia le parezca mala: No se haga ilusiones si piensa que le va a llegar ayuda fácil para financiar el montaje de un telecentro. Es más, me atrevo a decirle que podría no llegar ni un centavo para ello.Ahora le doy una buena noticia: Una vez montado el telecentro, es muy factible que la ayuda para su organización y para la comunidad sí le llegue. Pero, primero tienen que apropiarse de la herramienta y gestionar actividades y proyectos que involucren las nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación. (Ver Ecos del Proyecto: Telecentro de Tunía) Sin embargo, antes de montar un telecentro, siempre será válido averiguar sobre posibles ayudas que se puedan obtener. Un paso es indagar sobre los programas existentes a escala local, regional y nacional, que impulsen el acercamiento a las nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación (conectividad, masificación del uso de computadores, capacitación, etc.).Por lo general, estos programas están impulsados por entes estatales, pero también hay algunos promovidos por organizaciones privadas. Cerciórese del alcance del proyecto, de los requisitos para que su organización o su comunidad sea tenida en cuenta y proceda. (Ver Ecos del Proyecto: Telecentro de Siberia) Si no existe esa posibilidad, hay que explorar por fuera del país, y buscar la orientación de los que están al tanto de este movimiento. En el caso de América Latina y el Caribe existe la ventaja de contar con una organización que coordina una red de telecentros. Se trata de Somos @ telecentros (www.tele-centros.org). Contáctelos y encontrará buenos amigos con buenos consejos.Otros potenciales aliados son las universidades, que pueden orientar en el diseño y uso de contenidos, apoyar en lo concerniente a la capacitación y colaborar en el soporte de equipos y programas. Identifique los centros de educación superior existentes en el área de influencia, busque un espacio para explicarles su proyecto y, si es convincente en los alcances sociales, encontrará un apoyo importante.Venga o no venga esa ayuda inicial, se debe tener claro que la inversión semilla corre por cuenta de los promotores del telecentro, sin esperar ganancias a corto plazo.(Subir)Imagínese un pequeño restaurante de un poblado, situado en la cima de una empinada loma, muy distante de la plaza principal, y a donde sólo se llega a pie. Para entrar hay que atravesar la sala de una casa, dos dormitorios y un gallinero; además, tiene que enfrentarse con el dueño del local que es un cascarrabias y con un perro amenazante... Si va una vez, no vuelve. Con respecto al restaurante, es factible que dure un mes, ¡o mucho menos! Igual ocurriría con un telecentro. Como es un servicio abierto al público, debe estar localizado en un sitio de fácil acceso, cerca de todo, que sea un espacio con ventilación adecuada, con buena iluminación y que no haya obstáculos que intimiden a los usuarios. Tiene que ser un local donde haya facilidad de conexiones eléctricas y telefónicas y que garantice la seguridad de los equipos.Puede ser un local independiente (exclusivo para uso del telecentro) o puede estar dentro de la sede de una organización. En este último caso, es indispensable que la organización anfitriona permita la entrada del público... haciendo buena cara, siempre.El local donde va a funcionar el telecentro, necesariamente, tendrá que ser sometido a una adecuación técnica. Eso significa inversión. Por lo tanto, debe escogerse muy bien el espacio, de tal manera que requiera lo mínimo. Esto sería rejas de seguridad, instalación de cables de energía, tomacorrientes (los suficientes para que todos los equipos funcionen), polos a tierra, línea telefónica. No está por demás una buena limpieza (o cambio) de piso y pintura en las paredes.(Subir)Para elaborar un sencillo cajón de madera se necesitan unas pocas herramientas y materiales adecuados. Un buen serrucho, una regla o escuadra, un buen martillo, clavos y, por supuesto, madera. Habrá elementos adicionales, dependiendo del terminado del cajón: lija, brocha, pegante, pintura... Ahora bien, si el reto es elaborar un cajón tallado, va a requerir herramientas mucho más específicas: formones de pala, formones de mediacaña o gurbias, cuchillos de diferentes formas, limas, laca... Sería inútil pretender fabricar un cajón tallado utilizando cubiertos de mesa, alambre, goma de mascar... Con un telecentro pasa igual. Hay que proveerlo con las herramientas adecuadas -no importa que sean usadas-que permitan cumplir con las tareas básicas: un buen computador (con módem incluido), una impresora, una línea telefónica y, por supuesto, conexión a internet. Es necesario incluir un regulador de voltaje (evita muchos dolores de cabeza ante los inusitados altibajos de la corriente eléctrica). Estos implementos deben ir acompañados de programas básicos: procesador de palabras, presentaciones, bases de datos...Si se quiere ampliar el servicio habrá que dotarlo de un escáner, un fax, una fotocopiadora. Y dependiendo de los enfoques, habría que conseguir programas específicos de diseño o de otro tipo.Aunque el dicho dice que \"a caballo regalado no se le mira el colmillo\", en el caso de los computadores es saludable pedir la asesoría de un experto para que examine el estado del obsequio, y diga si se justifica invertir dinero en su actualización. Normalmente, los equipos de informática que se regalan o se venden a precios bajos ya son obsoletos y, a veces, sale más caro actualizar que comprar un equipo nuevo.¿Cuál sería, entonces, el equipo adecuado? No hay una respuesta contundente, puesto que depende de los usos que se le vaya a dar al telecentro. Si se piensa en tareas de diseño de páginas para internet o sitios web, si se van a ofrecer trabajos de diseño de folletos o de procesamiento de gráficas, o programas de sistemas de información geográfica, va a requerirse de un computador con amplia capacidad de almacenamiento y con gran velocidad para procesar datos. En este caso, debe pensarse en adquirir uno de última generación.Ahora bien, si la pretensión inicial es más modesta y se quiere tener conexión con internet, procesar datos para trabajos de oficina y tareas escolares, requerirá de una máquina menos robusta y mucho más económica en costos. Y de éstas es más factible encontrar quien las obsequie o las venda baratas. Pero siempre asesórese de alguien que sepa.(Subir)De nada sirve un computador si no tiene programas para ponerlo a trabajar. Por ello, a la par con los equipos hay que escoger los programas que se van a utilizar en el telecentro. Hay unos básicos que no deben faltar. Son los llamados programas de oficina (procesador de palabras, base de datos, presentaciones) y los antivirus. Hay otros, también indispensables, que permiten navegar por internet.Existen programas más especializados y su adquisición dependerá de los servicios que va a prestar el telecentro. Son programas de diseño, graficadores, de contabilidad, etc.Pues bien, cualquiera que sea el programa, debe ser adquirido legalmente, es decir, debe pagarse por la licencia que permite su uso comercial. No caiga en la tentación de adquirir un programa pirata. Es muy fácil conseguir copias ilegales de cualquier programa... ¡Hasta gratis!, pero... ¡mucho cuidado! La Ley puede sancionarlo drásticamente y perder toda la inversión, pues incluye el decomiso del computador.Esta inversión se debe hacer con los llamados programas comerciales. Si se busca disminuir costos, contacte a los representantes de las grandes empresas de computación y pídales la colaboración (convénzalos de la función social y el alcance del proyecto). Otro camino es buscar el apoyo de una institución de educación superior que le permita adquirir, mediante convenios especiales que ellos manejan, programas a más bajo costo.Ahora bien, existe una alternativa que está tomando fuerza dentro del movimiento latinoamericano de los telecentros, puesto que permite hacerse a programas ¡legales y gratuitos! Se trata de Linux, que sigue fortaleciéndose cada vez más, representando un duro contendor contra las líneas comerciales. (Ver Información Específica: Linux) Un consejo: Se debe definir desde un comienzo la plataforma tecnológica del telecentro (programas comerciales o programas libres), y no pensar en cambios posteriores. Eso facilita las capacitaciones.(Subir)Las cuentas claras...Por tratarse de un sitio de acceso público donde se ofrecen servicios comerciales, un telecentro está en la mira de las autoridades competentes y debe cumplir con todos los requisitos legales para su funcionamiento.Por eso hay que hacer las cosas bien desde el principio. Para comenzar hay que averiguar en su región las responsabilidades legales que tendría un sitio como el telecentro, en materia de telecomunicaciones. Averiguar qué actividades están permitidas y cuáles no. Si se pagan o no impuestos por los servicios que se van a ofrecer.Hay que asesorarse de expertos para buscar salidas legales que le permitan al telecentro funcionar con el mínimo de erogaciones en materia tributaria, teniendo en cuenta el carácter social del servicio.Por nuestra experiencia, se sugiere que el telecentro esté amparado bajo el manto de una organización ya establecida.Otro tipo de responsabilidades legales tiene que ver con las alianzas y convenios interinstitucionales. Hay que encontrar caminos de cooperación que no generen nuevas responsabilidades ante la Ley; que haya claridad en los acuerdos y compromisos de los socios o aliados con respecto al telecentro (administración financiera, servicios, control, usos, etc.).(Subir)Frente a la pregunta ¿qué es lo más importante de un telecentro?, la respuesta es unánime: las personas que lo operan.Por eso, una de las tareas más delicadas -antes que pensar en adquirir equipos-es identificar a la gente que va a manejar el telecentro. ¿Dónde encontrarla? Pues, dentro de la misma comunidad.Los posibles candidatos no necesitan saber de computadores. Eso es lo de menos. Se busca, preferiblemente, que sean personas conocedoras del entorno social, cultural y político donde va a estar el telecentro, puesto que así podrán orientar los servicios de acuerdo con demandas y necesidades locales y, por otro lado, permite que los potenciales usuarios se acerquen con más confianza. Tienen que ser personas con vocación de servicio comunitario y ganas de compartir con los demás, tanto el conocimiento como la información.Personas con visión e interés en la comunicación, espontáneas, abiertas al diálogo, entusiastas y con ganas de aprender constantemente.Deben ser personas con mucha imaginación y dinamismo, que no se rindan ante el primer obstáculo... ni ante el segundo, ni ante el tercero, para sacar adelante el telecentro.Una vez identificados los candidatos, hay que invertir en ellos para capacitarlos. Y hay que acometerlo desde un principio, para generar una capacidad básica y crear las condiciones para que ellos se inspiren y contagien con su entusiasmo al resto de la comunidad. A la postre, tanto los operadores como la comunidad y el telecentro crecerán juntos.Un consejo sabio para los operadores, mientras están en el proceso de capacitación básica, es que deben contactar a operadores de otros telecentros, para que sepan que no están solos, que hay gente a quien se puede consultar y despejar dudas. Que sepan que no es necesario cometer errores si otros ya los han cometido. Existen recursos (literatura, sitios web) sobre lecciones aprendidas que les permitirá a estos noveles operadores arrancar de la mejor manera. (Ver Testimonios de operadores de InforCauca) (Subir)La capacitación es uno de los componentes vitales para garantizar el funcionamiento exitoso de un telecentro; es una actividad que debe ser constante, con un comienzo, mas no con un final programado. Dicho de otra manera, la capacitación se inicia con el telecentro y culmina con él.Los candidatos obligados a recibir la mayor parte de la capacitación son los operadores del telecentro, pero a lo largo del proceso también se involucran a otros actores que forman parte de la organización anfitriona, de otras organizaciones y de la comunidad misma.La capacitación debe ir en varios niveles. Al principio debe estar orientada al manejo de las herramientas (cursos prácticos de manejo del computador -ojalá con los propios equipos del telecentro, internet, programas básicos). Luego, debe enfocarse al desarrollo de competencias y capacidad local para visionar el uso de las tecnologías en beneficio comunitario, de la organización anfitriona y del telecentro mismo (formación en el diseño de medios de comunicación tradicionales y electrónicos, que permitan recoger, sistematizar y difundir la información local; cursos de administración, planeación, elaboración de proyectos...).La capacitación debe ser muy práctica, de tal manera que la gente aprenda haciendo. Es recomendable evitar los cursos formales, rígidos y extensos, y concentrar el esfuerzo en talleres cortos y sustanciosos, con tareas concretas y con aplicaciones reales en el entorno.Los operadores del telecentro, por ser alma y nervio de éste, deben familiarizarse con el manejo de las herramientas, tener un concepto claro de la función del telecentro y -muy importante-saber cómo funciona la organización anfitriona, conocer los criterios de trabajo, las líneas de acción, para poder proponer proyectos que involucren el uso de las TIC que fortalezcan el plan de acción institucional en beneficio de la comunidad.El otro papel estelar de los operadores es seducir a potenciales usuarios, capacitarlos en el manejo de las TIC, lograr que venzan el temor a la tecnología y que se apropien de las herramientas, acompañarlos, orientarlos y animarlos hasta que puedan volar solos. ( Ver Testimonios de usuarios) (Subir)Cómo abordar la sostenibilidad del telecentro Si se piensa montar un telecentro como una empresa comercial para obtener ganancias económicas, la realidad puede derrumbar sus sueños, perder la inversión y echar al traste con su entusiasmo por las TIC.En cambio, si se tiene claro el concepto de lo que es un telecentro y cuál es su función social, la organización y la comunidad van a ganar mucho más que dinero, y hasta es posible recuperar la inversión y mantener estable el funcionamiento del telecentro.Para abordar el tema de la sostenibilidad o rentabilidad del telecentro hay que hacerlo desde dos frentes: el económico y el social. Y ambos tienen que estar inmersos en la planeación y ejecución del proyecto.La rentabilidad económica tiene que ver con ingresos y egresos monetarios del telecentro. (Ver Información Específica: Gastos principales de un telecentro).La rentabilidad social se refiere a todo lo que la organización anfitriona y las comunidades pueden obtener del telecentro, ya sea a través de capacitación, recepción y divulgación de información pertinente, nuevos contactos, gestión de proyectos, asesorías virtuales, fortalecimiento de imagen corporativa, etc.El apoyo que, desde un comienzo, brinde la organización anfitriona es determinante para garantizar el funcionamiento normal del telecentro. Si la organización ve al telecentro como parte de sus fortalezas, con seguridad va a encontrar caminos o alternativas para su sostenibilidad. ¿Cuáles son esos caminos? Nosotros hemos identificado tres: 1) Ingresos a cambio de servicios, 2) Apoyo directo de la organización anfitriona (y de los socios) y 3) Gestión de proyectos.Ingresos a cambio de servicios. Una tarea inherente al telecentro es ofrecer servicios al público, tales como capacitación básica en el manejo del computador, navegación por internet, correo electrónico, trabajos locales -cartas, hojas de vida, impresiones, envío de fax, fotocopias. En la medida en que avanza la capacitación de los operadores, el telecentro puede ofrecer servicios especializados, como diseño de sitios web para organizaciones, publicación de folletos o boletines institucionales básicos, capacitación a grupos... Es sano cobrar por los servicios al público para que la gente valore el uso del telecentro. Claro está que deben ser precios asequibles para la gente de escasos recursos y, en ocasiones, para algunas personas, ciertos servicios deben ser subsidiados por el telecentro.En zonas donde no hay una cultura del manejo de las TIC es difícil imaginar que el telecentro va a sobrevivir sólo con ingresos por servicios. Por eso hay que aplicar otras estrategias.Apoyo directo de la organización anfitriona. La organización tiene que estar convencida de que el telecentro es o va a ser vital para su trabajo. Para ello tiene que apropiarse de las herramientas, encontrar su utilidad al interior de la institución y, luego, apropiar partidas dentro del plan de gastos generales, para el funcionamiento del telecentro. Esta ayuda puede ser en dinero o en especie. Por ejemplo, adecuación y préstamo del local, pago de los servicios públicos (energía, agua, teléfono), reposición de insumos de papelería, pago de salarios o parte de los salarios de los operadores, pago de la capacitación, mantenimiento de equipos.Otro componente clave, relacionado con el anterior, consiste en la gestión de proyectos. La organización anfitriona tiene que llegar al punto de ser capaz de gestionar proyectos en los que el telecentro figura como pieza clave para su ejecución, y en los cuales se aplicarán las TIC en iniciativas de desarrollo que cazan con la misión y visión institucional. En el rubro de gastos de estos proyectos debe incluirse una partida para el telecentro.Uniendo estos tres aspectos -recursos por servicios, apoyo directo de la organización anfitriona e ingresos por proyectos-el telecentro puede ser sostenible.(Subir)Puede sonar paradójico, pero para el montaje de un telecentro se requiere tener los pies sobre la tierra y la imaginación por el cielo. Dicho de otra manera, hay que tener una dosis de prudencia y otra de osadía. Tanto la una como la otra son importantes durante el proceso de planeación del telecentro, por ser los ingredientes que animan a ponerse en marcha, a sabiendas de que \"el horizonte no está despejado\".La prudencia impide dar pasos en falso y obliga a buscar lecciones aprendidas de quienes ya han recorrido el camino; la osadía, a su turno, hace que se avance intuitivamente, pero aguzando los sentidos para aprovechar las oportunidades que se cruzarán en el camino.Este consejo tiene mucho que ver con la sostenibilidad del telecentro. Al momento de planear las fuentes de ingresos, será obvio que la primera será ofrecer servicios al público.La segunda, o sea, el apoyo directo de la organización anfitriona, no necesariamente puede darse desde un comienzo (aunque sería lo ideal); pero, en la medida en que ésta vea la utilidad de las TIC en beneficio propio, la adopción del telecentro será un hecho.En cuanto al tercer camino (a juicio nuestro, el de mayor proyección de sostenibilidad), como es el de gestión de proyectos que involucren el uso de TIC, sólo puede darse cuando ya hay un camino recorrido, ha habido apropiación de las herramientas por parte de los actores locales y tienen una visión más clara de lo que pueden hacer con ellas. Es en este momento cuando empieza a despejarse el horizonte.También es el momento para agudizar más los sentidos y aprovechar las oportunidades. El telecentro e internet serán claves en esa tarea. Es aquí donde juega un papel importante hacer parte de redes; también es buena estrategia de promoción publicitar el trabajo local ante otras organizaciones, intercambiar saberes, promocionar la imagen corporativa, buscar aliados, hacer amigos, denunciar abusos. Importante, también, dar a conocer la experiencia del trabajo con TIC ante organismos gubernamentales que manejen políticas de conectividad o proyectos de telecomunicaciones. No necesariamente se hace para pedir ayuda (que es factible), sino para establecer relaciones políticas y recibir el aval estatal.Esta nueva forma de relaciones públicas virtuales abre puertas a un mundo que, de otra manera, seguirá siendo lejano y extraño a nuestro entorno.(Subir)Cuando el capitán del barco ordena levantar anclas, ya todo está listo para iniciar la travesía por alta mar. Los equipos están calibrados, la tripulación conoce sus funciones y existe una carta de navegación que permitirá transitar por la ruta adecuada hasta llegar al puerto de destino.Aunque lo ideal es tener un viaje tranquilo, la tripulación es conciente de que puede aparecer alguna tormenta, mas todos deben estar preparados para sortearla con éxito. Si el equipo no está listo para el viaje ni para enfrentar contingencias y si no existe un plan preconcebido, las posibilidades de naufragio o de extravío son enormes.Un telecentro también puede extraviarse o naufragar si inicia el viaje sin tener todo listo. Pero... ¿qué es tener todo listo?Significa que ya se ha identificado la organización anfitriona del telecentro, que la iniciativa ha sido socializada con gente clave de la comunidad, ya se ha definido el propósito y los enfoques, se han vinculado los operadores, se ha adecuado el sitio, ya se tienen los equipos, hay claridad sobre los servicios que se van a prestar, los costos de los mismos y horarios de atención.Los impulsadores del telecentro deben tener claro el papel de cada actor, con funciones y responsabilidades. Saber, por ejemplo, quién se responsabiliza de la administración (recaudo de dinero, pago de obligaciones, reposición de insumos).Debe diseñarse un plan de trabajo muy aterrizado para saber hasta dónde se avanzará en determinado tiempo y qué se espera alcanzar en ese lapso. También se debe estar preparado para enfrentar imprevistos. Entonces sí, ¡leven anclas! (Subir)Advertencia sobre el uso de las TIC Las nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación (TIC) tienen un extraño poder de seducción. Si uno no está atento, corre el riesgo de quedar hechizado y trasladarse a un mundo irreal (mundo virtual, le dicen en el ambiente de la informática) donde usted cree que la tecnología será la solución para todos los problemas.Las TIC pueden generar la ilusión de que se está haciendo algo, cuando en realidad no se está haciendo nada; pueden crear la ilusión de que se tienen contactos cuando en realidad no existen y lo único real es que se están malgastando los recursos en conexiones inoficiosas a través de internet, para enviar mensajes que no llegan. Este mundo virtual genera, al principio, un ambiente de felicidad (la novedad de navegar por el ciberespacio), pero se revierte en angustia cuando pasa el tiempo y se da cuenta de que la vida real, en términos tangibles, no cambia nada.Ilusamente se piensa que basta con colocar información en internet, publicitando su organización o su comunidad, para que la ayuda del mundo se vuelque hacia su región. Y no hay tal. Se requiere saber llegar a donde se quiere llegar y ser constante a la hora de hacer los contactos. Para ello hay que apropiarse de las herramientas; para apropiarse de las herramientas tiene que despojarse del temor natural de hacerlo y, una vez vencido, estar alerta para no caer en el hechizo cibernético.Dicho de otra manera, si ya tiene la bicicleta, aprenda a manejarla y sáquele provecho. Y, como lo comprobará, si no pedalea no avanza... o se cae.(Subir)","tokenCount":"7365"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0c4a973bd1ae6383ea6327b045fe2f3f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c895e3db-5f79-4eff-80e0-458dfba9c4cf/retrieve","id":"952326962"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"37f4d791-3183-45f5-a819-9446f8d7b34f","pagecount":"6","content":"Figure 6. Opinions of23 participating farmers in seed-priming trials ofwheat in rabí 1997-1998 in Kothamba and Dalvai Savli villages in LunawadaVirk, D.S., AJ. Packwood, and J.R. Wílcomhe. 1997. Yarietal testíng and popul.risatíon and research Iinkages. In Researchfor rainfedfarming. proceedings afthe ICAR-ODAjoint workshop, September 11-14,1995, CRIDA,   Hyderabad, edited by J.C. Katyal and 1. Farrington. Hyderabad, India: Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture.Witcombe, J.R, 1999. Do farrner-partíeípalory melhods apply more lo high pOlenli.1 areas Ihan lo marginal ones? Outlook on Agriculture 28:43-49.Rice is the most important monsoon-season crop grown in lhe Punjab. The area under rice has increased progressively over lhe last 20 years, reaching 2.5 million hectares in 1998-99. The average yield of 3.5 t ha• l in 1997-98 (Ihe highest for any state in lhe country) decreased to 3.2 t ha-l in 1998-99 due lo lhe attack of tungro virus rusease. Allhough there has been an increase in the area and total production in lhe state, there has not been any appreciable increase in productivity over the past decade.The increasing area planted lo rice is the result of a decrease in lhe area planted to cotton and other less profitable crops. The increasing area under rice presents a number of problems:• increased water use Two features of the large-scale cultivation of rice are relevant lo Ihe present study:l. the widespread transplanting ofrice early in the season, contrary lo extension recommendatíons 2. trends in varietal adoption, such as the widespread cultivation of a single variety We discuss these issues here and presenl evidence in support of an altematÍve approaeh to that of conventional extension: participatory varietal seleetion for new varieties.Time of transplanting is a major factor Ihat substantially ínfluences rice yíe!d. A transplanting schedule has becn recornmended by lhe Punjab Agricultura! University (PAU) to get the highest yie!d and prepare lhe fields in time for the following wheat crop. It is recommended that varieties Jaya, IR8, and aH Punjab rice (PR series) varieties should be transplanted ITom ! 0-20 June, with the exception oflhe early-maturing variety PRI03, which should be transplanted ITom 20-30 June. PAU has issued a general guideline stating lhat where lhe rice area is large, lhe transplanting period should extend equally around 20 June (pAU 1996).Surveys conducted in the Punjab (Singh 1998(Singh , 1999) ) over four years (1996)(1997)(1998)(1999) revealed lhat transplanting in the Punjab starts ITom 1 May (figure 1). By lhe end ofMay, about 22% of the rice erop is transplanted, and by lhe middle of June, about 65% of the crop is already in lhe field. This early planting is more conspicuous in the Patiala district, where about 50% of lhe rice is transplanted by lhe end ofMay and 89% by mid-June. Why farmers praclice early transplanting contrary lo extension recornrnendations is an interesting question, Participatory rural appraisals (PRAs) done with farmers reveal sorne ofthe reasons farmers transplant late:• the availability of tube-well irrigation and a cheap, fia! rate for electricity• the continued employrnent oflabor afier the wheat harvest• the limited choice of early-rnaturing varieties, since high-yielding cultivars tend to have longer maturation periods and need earlier transplantingEarly transplanting ofrice has led to multiple problems such as the foIlowing:• a loweríng of the water table from greater exploitation of ground-water resources (During May and June, the water requirements for crops are at their peak. The early transplanted crop requíres 20% to 30% more water [PAU 1996].)• the loss of nutríents frem evaporation in the extremely hot months, resulting in increased use of chemicals aríd degradation of the environment• an inerease in diseases and inseet pests• less opportunity for green manuringOld varietíes are cultívated on a large area. P A U has reeornmended a number of varieties of rice; however, farmers still prefer to grow old varieties, The varietal surveys conducted by P AU's sernor extension specialist (farm management) showed that 36% orthe area in the stale duríng 1999 was occupied by varieties released 15 years ago, e,g\" PR 106, IR8, Jaya, PR In Patiala, the adoption of nonrecornmended varieties was higher than in the Punjab as a whole (average of 53% over rour years), Among nonrecornmended varieties, Pusa 44 has the highest adoption, Itoecupiednearly 50% ofthe areain the Patiala distriet in 1996 to 1999, Pusa 44 is highly susceptible to bacterialleafblight (BLB), and the large-scale cultivation ofPusa 44 has helped to build up the BLB pathogen, which causes losses in other varieties. However, farmers prefer Fusa 44 for its high yield and resistance lo lodging, Three participatory approaches were used in thís study: Eleven villages (Kalifewala, Chalaila, Kalwa, Barsat, Bhedpura, Gajjumajra, Kaidopur, Dhengera, Partapgarh, Kartarpur, and Jauramajra) were selected to represent agroclímatic situations in the Patiala district. Three villages(Gajjumajra, Bhedpura, and Barsat) represented salt-affected arcas with soils having a pH hetween 9.0 and 9.5. Ofthese II villages, F AMP AR trials were conducted in six and IRD. in the rest. AH viHages have either metaled or good earthen approach roads. AH of the agriculturalland is irrigated !Tom canals or tube wells.Farmers were selected lo represent small, medíum, and large landholdings. Willingness to experiment with new varieties was tbe key factor in selecting farmers. A total of 497 farmers were involved in participatory research in the kharif(monsoon season) of 1999.Twelve varieties were tested in participatory trials: IR36, IR64, HKR 120, HKR 126, Pant Dhan 4, Pant Dhan 10, Gurjari, Kalinga TIl, Govind, Pusa 834, PR 111, and PR 114. Of these, varieties, PR 111 and PR 114 are recornmended for the Punjab. All other varieties are out-of-state released varieties. Small bags (2-5 kg) of seed (varying according lO the demand of farmers) were given to farmers with the understanding tbat they would grow the new variety alongside their local variety under the same management and that they would participate in the evaluation.","tokenCount":"956"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5928b946ead6091a5741dfa573701256","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4e9ac6bc-9e81-4951-8a47-12b24521c15c/retrieve","id":"-622445003"},"keywords":["Tharu community","climate change","adaptation","perception","innovation"],"sieverID":"5a0dcdc9-3afe-4efe-be46-6ad4a6e98f76","pagecount":"8","content":"This paper brings out perceptions and observations of Tharu communities (Rana and Chaudhary), inhabitants of Shakarpur VDC of Kanchanpur and Gadariya VDCs of Kailali on climate change and its impacts on their livelihood strategies over the years. In addition, the paper explores some initiatives taken by the local communities to minimize its effects and impacts. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were organized to collect and analyze vulnerability contexts on climate change and its impact on various sectors like, agriculture, forest, livestock, biodiversity, infrastructure, human casualties and water sources. Similarly, information on available service providers and their contribution was garnered through secondary sources. Local communities are facing these changes over the time and adapting strategies as per their own traditional knowledge, skills and information. Most of these strategies are biodiversity friendly, economically viable and socially acceptable. However, these innovative steps should be shared for larger scale dissemination after validating with scientific review and justifications.Nepal is one of the least developing countries (LDCs) based on defined criteria for LDCs that is, low income, human resource weakness and economic vulnerability with only US$ 210 GNP/capita (Huq et al., 2003). Also, it is amongst the most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of human induced climate change in future, as poor people are highly vulnerable to climate change impact and they have lowest capacity to deal with it (LI-BIRD, 2009). It is therefore, essential to develop coping and/or adaptation strategies to deal with such adverse impacts and also to ensure that such adaptation measures are suitable to wider dissemination and important for climate change policies in line with existing national and sectoral development activities. In this background, Nepal ratified United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1994 in order to take actions against climate change and its impacts in country.*Corresponding author. E-mail: smilingsiri@gmail.com.Nepal's temperature is increasing at a high rate 0.06 degree Celsius per year compared to the world scenario (GON/MOE, 2066 B.S.). Grass root communities are also experiencing this increment and also facing extreme weather events such as erratic rainfall, longer droughts, landslides, floods both in terms of magnitude and frequency that ultimately leads to climate change impacts in their daily life mostly in the field of agriculture, forestry and natural resource management. At this juncture, they are coping and adapting these impacts based on their prevailed traditional knowledge, skills and experiences. Such farmers' adaptive innovations, techniques, methods and processes based on their own knowledge, skills to lower down or to prevent from devastating climate change impacts are location specific and community specific. These innovations should be documented and disseminated so that other communities from distant locations should get benefits from these adaptive initiations.Tharu community, an indigenous community living in Terai Landscapes, is well known for their traditional skills Int.NGO.J. This study used the participatory tools and methods in order to generate qualitative and quantitative information about climate change impacts and community based adaptation strategies to climate change. Primary information was acquired using focus group discussions (FGDs) with farmers, members of Biodiversity Conservation and Development Committee (BCDC) and CFUGs. One day focus group discussion was carried out in each village. Each meeting was attended by over 50 participants and share their views and experiences in an informal environment. During FGD, participatory tools like matrix ranking (impact of risks and disasters vs. livelihood assets), timeline (for identifying major events and frequency of occurrence) and local knowledge documentation (documenting local knowledge, technology and practices related to coping and adaptation strategies) were applied. In addition, quantitative data related to crop losses, climate change impacts on different sectors were collected through key informant interviews and weather data were collected from district weather station. Gender, age, social position and income of respondents were considered during the process. Information gathered were analyzed and tried to validate with scientific reviews and justifications.Past and current climatic stresses and frequencies of such stresses were analyzed using timeline over the 30 years. These subjective perceptions of farmers revealed that how the communities are affected by climate stresses over the years. According to respondents, climate risks and hazards are increasing in terms of magnitude; frequency and severity of impacts are high as compared to past events.While discussing and drawing timeline with community in both localities, almost 90% of the respondents perceived that risks and uncertainty of the climate has increased. The timeline showed that occurrence of climatic stresses like flood, drought, river bank erosion, windstorm and hail increased in recent years as compared 25 -30 years back, even drought and 2 -3 times flooding in a single season.Based on timeline; flood, drought, river bank erosion, hailstorm, windstorm and hail were seen as most prominent climatic stresses in the studied sites (Figures 1  and 2). Among them flood, drought and river bank erosion were common in both sites, but differences in their intensity. In Gadariya, drought is more prominent as it comes in first places while ranking among farmers and  1-low/no impact, 2-medium impact, 3-high impact, 4-severe impact.community (Table 1). But in case of Shankarpur, flood is more severe than drought (Table 2). Farmers observed long term drought at time of monsoon which affect on late transplanting of rice in year 2008 and also 2 -3 times flooding at September and October due to abnormal heavy rainfall for 4 -5 days, which impacted huge losses in agriculture, livestock, forest, water resources, infrastructures and even lead to human casualties. Agriculture is the mostly impacted sector in both sites, as more than 95% of the people engaged in this sector for their subsistence in the studied sites, which is followed by livestock, forestry, infrastructure, human casualties and water sources.Impact on agriculture: Agriculture is central to human  as it is main source for sustenance, livelihood and economy and is probably the human enterprise most vulnerable to changes in climate. The communities living in western terai are also facing the problems due to changes in climatic patterns. Impacts induced by such climatic stresses can be seen in their households, farms and their surroundings. Uncertainty and uneven occurrence of rainfall that is, drought impacting untimely plantation and harvesting the seasonal crops led to decrease in production per unit land. In addition, flooding at the time of harvesting swept out the consumable agriculture produces impacting huge agricultural lost even agricultural land based on farmers' perception, changed cropping patterns, decreased soil fertility, loss of some local landraces, introduced new crop varieties, observed new diseases and pests declined productivity and changed management practices were some of the observed changes due to climate change (Figure 3). Flood induced huge loss of arable land up to 20 -30 bighas (1 Bigha equivalent to 0.6 Hectare) and also lost of landraces like Gaguwa, Raimanuwa, Jhinawa, Sauthyari, Satha Dulhaniya, Suhawat, some of mango landraces. Declining productivity mostly seen in rice, wheat, maize due to changes in rainfall patterns, but in case of lentil, production was increased in the season after occurrence of flood (up to 60 -70 quintal/bigha) in  Shankarpur, Kanchanpur.In livestock sector, direct and indirect impacts were observed, while lost/decrease in livestock number either due to flood or injuries/outbreak of new disease as direct decrease in grazing land, loss of fodder and forages as indirect impacts induced by climate change (Figure 4). While seeing severity of impacts based on farmers' perception in studied sites, there were minimum impacts on livestock injuries and new breeds but high severity in decreasing grazing land and loss of livestock life in both sites.Forest is also an important sector of Tharu communities as they are still depending on it for various livelihood options. It is also in critical condition due to climate induced changes as some of native species (Sal -Shora robusta, Sissoo -Dalbergia sissoo, Khayer -Acacia catechu, Simal -Bombax ceiba, Bijaysal -, Padan, Tun, Siris -Albezia lebbek, Asna, Amala -Emblica officinale) were lost and also loss of timber, firewood species (Figure 5). Introduction of some invasive species such as Besaram, Lantana camara and these species are replacing native species in agriculture land, river basin areas and also in forest that impacts biodiversity in long run. Some forest species like Eucalyptus, Melia azedirch, Figure 6. Farmers' perception on severity of impacts on infrastructure 1-low/no impact, 2-medium impact, 3-high impact, 4-severe impact. Climatic risk and hazards especially flood, river bank erosion and windstorm has severe impacts on infrastructures like buildings, bridge, roads, foot trails etc (Figure 6). As Shankarpur is prone to flood, there was severe impact on suspension bridge in Donda River, which directly obstructed farmers movement especially for agricultural purposes. In case of Gadariya, windstorm damaged individual buildings and community building as well.Tharus of the studied sites indicated that climate risk and hazards had also impacted on human casualties and injuries in some cases (Figure 7). Mostly flood followed by heavy intense rainfall and intense windstorm greatly impact on human casualties. One of the farmers in Shankarpur informed that they have to stay alert whole night at the time of monsoon and/or intense rainfall as they do not have any early warning system in their village. New disease outbreak led by climatic stress is highly severe in Gadariya and severe in Shankarpur.Water sources are great problem for Gadariya either for drinking purpose or for irrigation purpose. According to farmers, climatic stress enhanced contamination of water (severe impacts in both cases), destruction of water sources severe impact in Gadariya and high impact in case of Shankarpur and lack of irrigation water is severe in Gadariya which is not severe in Shankarpur (Figure 8).Farming communities with their traditional skills and local knowledge are custodian regarding use and management of genetic resources. They are also experiencing climate change impacts at grass root level and they are more eager to deal and adapt with these changes with their own knowledge, resources and ascribed information at their own level. Tharu communities, as survivors at the time of horrible malaria epidemic in Terai region, are rich in traditional knowledge for climate change adaptations. Farmers in studied sites also adapted some initiations based on their own knowledge and skills, which can be seen in different sectors.In Gadariya, where more than 95% population are Chaudhary Tharus, farmers are cultivating maize, sugarcane, til, fodders instead of rice in the fields due to uncertainty of rainfall at the time of monsoon. They are cultivating fodder crops as loss of grazing lands due to flood and that why, they keep the livestock in stall feeding. As flood induced decrease in soil fertility, farmers are utilizing dried leaves of Sal, Asna as compost after collected from forest and used as farm litter. Direct rice seed sowing (Ghaiya dhan) is followed by some farmers instead of planting rice due to lack of water at the time of planting. Watermelon cultivation in the field and also in river basin area is becoming popular among farmers in escape water stress condition in the field. Thati ghar and seed storage in raised area using wooden flakes is famous in the locality to save seed/grain at the time of flood. Maize cobs are stored and dried in Gharanga.In case of Shankarpur, where more than 90% farmers were originally Rana Tharu, the communities also cultivated maize instead of rice in some farmers field while others adapted the changing climate by cultivating early maturing rice cultivars like Chaite -4, Chaini, Hardinath, Radha -4, Anjana, Nimoi in order to escape flood. In addition, farmers preferred flood resistant cultivars -Tilki and Shyamjira in their fields. These landraces survived in flood occurred in October 2008, which gave some relief to the farmers that were suffered from massive flood (Sagun, Care Nepal, 2009). On the other hand, Vegetable farming (cauliflower and pototo) and sugarcane are replacing rice due to untimely occurrence of rainfall in the locality, which ultimately impacted on food habits also. In some parts of the river basin area, water stress tolerant crops like groundnut, tomato, bottlegourd, cucumber, watermelon cultivation is becoming more common and satisfying farmers' needs. Seeds and grains are stored in second floor of their Int.NGO.J. houses and also in elevated places in the building to escape flood. Bimal et al. (2009) also found similar cases in their study in Kailali district.Trend of livestock rearing is either decreasing or confined to stall feeding due to lack of grazing lands that led to cultivation of fodders and forages especially Berseem, Bakaino, Bajra in marginal land and so called low productive fields in both sites. In Shankarpur site, cattle sheds are shifted in raised area within the settlements and also cattle were brought to higher elevation to lessen effects on livestock due to flood.Farmers are determined and initiated to minimize the impacts of climate change in forest sector both individually and collaboratively. In this case, they have planted Bamboo, Khar, Munj, Amriso in flood prone areas and also initiated bio-fencing with support of different stakeholders. Individually, some innovative farmers used Besaram plant for hedgers, walls, fencing, composts and thatches in agricultural fields which are growing massively throughout the region.Due to occurrence of more frequent floods, tharu people started to construct double storey housings in both sites either to store food grains and to escape themselves from flood especially in higher elevated areas with foundation in higher places, which were not common in these localities. In addition, some farmers have captured the land in upland forest areas and huts were prepared there, which led to summer and winter housing in upland and lowland respectively, which means summer housing in upland to avoid flood and winter housing in lowland for different agricultural management and practices in Shankarpur. In Gadariya, where drought and windstorm is more severe, farmers started constructing building which faces North-South instead of traditional practice of East-West to avoid windstorms and also single door system which is more prominent than two door system in their houses.Climate change impacts in different sectors also led to change in food habits of the communities. Tharu people in both areas ate Dhindo and Chapati instead of rice as rice growing area is decreasing and being replaced by other crops due to climatic stresses. People in Gadariya prepared Mand, which is liquor made from rice, soybean and chickpea in dry sunny weather to escape from thirsty.As water excess and shortage both created climatic stresses to the farming communities, farmers in Shankarpur constructed dam (Tatbandhan) in Donda River with their own initiation and support from different district line agencies and conservation related organization to lessen its impacts in their agriculture, food security and livelihoods. On the other hand, farmers in Gadariya constructed dam in Koilahi Lake to store rainwater, which can be used in irrigation purpose to escape water stress condition at the time of rice plantation with the support of TAL and WTLCP.Adaptation is the best way to deal with climate change stresses in developing countries like Nepal. Farming communities had already experienced these adaptation initiatives in their own local conditions and with knowledge and skills. Tharus being inhabitants of Terai region are facing climatic stresses each year and they are adapting these changing climates with their traditional skills and experiences. These adaptive initiations have somehow logics and ethics that should be documented, validated, shared and disseminated to other farming communities as well in wider geographical areas.As Nepal is a geographically diverse country, the adaptation strategies that community adapted might vary based on location, specific climatic stresses and also depend on the traditional knowledge and skills community owned. Adaptation strategies for Gadariya and Shankarpur VDCs are different based on climatic risks and hazards they are facing. That's why, technologies for adaptation should be location specific, which requires investment for researches both at higher and community level.","tokenCount":"2591"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"85ed080f31b78d51d34fb36a98fcca89","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/44672cb0-0bd6-4ce5-9c39-436f7865e7e7/retrieve","id":"-1252743039"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dcbdc7f7-4477-49c4-870a-70287c7e9a0d","pagecount":"8","content":"Water security is essential for a safe, just and sustainable future and is integral to all of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Water insecurity for poor people in the Global South threatens global commitments to 'leave no one behind.' Water security means achieving and sustaining access to an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks to people, environments and economies. This is becoming harder to achieve. Climate change is causing water risks to increase with every increment of warming, with rural communities and smallholder farmers the most exposed. Fears are rising that climate change could outpace adaptation where vulnerability is highest, and future water security therefore depends on both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Alongside the global energy transition, there must be an urgent transition to water security.Change is needed across the water system. Water systems are complex, and are shaped by physical, ecological, social, economic and political influences. Transforming water systems entails delivering and scaling sustainable solutions for water across food, land, energy and ecosystems, to reduce future water risks and strengthen social and gender equality. Progress is contingent on lifting barriers caused by lack of data and information, weak water governance, social exclusion, gaps in knowledge and skills, and lack of finance. Now is the time to accelerate this agenda.IWMI develops, tests and scales science-based solutions for water management in the Global South and uses knowledge and evidence to strengthen policy and investment for water security. We aim to deliver excellence in research and apply our research-for-development model through diverse, collective action partnerships to achieve social, economic and environmental outcomes.The IWMI Strategy 2024-2030 is an ambitious agenda for research and innovation on water security. It reflects the complexity and severity of current and future challenges in water management. It aims to use research for development to accelerate progress on Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) -Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all -as well as national and regional development priorities. As we respond to calls from our host governments and partners to increase the contributions we make and the impacts we achieve, we are backing this Strategy with an action plan to drive partnerships, growth and higher organizational performance.The world's transformative agenda is off-track, and research and innovation must respond. IWMI leads water systems science in the CGIAR integrated partnership and its contributions to CGIAR's mission and SDG 2 (end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture). Partnership within CGIAR, in turn, enhances the scale and impact of IWMI's contributions to future water security.Achieving the SDGs depends on solutions for water, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has recognized the need to integrate water management into climate action. In the Global Biodiversity Framework, governments have agreed that solutions for the biodiversity crisis must incorporate water. Still, the available solutions to meet these commitments fall short.The UN 2023 Water Conference, the first intergovernmental conference on water since 1977, was convened to galvanize action on SDG 6 and accelerate inclusive, sustainable and climate-resilient development through water. The conference concluded that water is an indispensable catalyst for health and well-being, and for securing food and nutrition security and energy for all. Participants called for policies and investment to enable the scaling and acceleration of progress towards water security. The conference also launched the Water Action Agenda, which documents over 800 commitments to action and investment. IWMI's commitment to the Water Action Agenda was our Transformative Futures for Water Security initiative.We work with our colleagues and partners to develop multidisciplinary, contextually relevant solutions to complex problems.We use our skills and expertise to generate rigorous, relevant and highquality evidence and aspire to the highest standards in everything we do.We are accountable and build trust and respect with each other and our partners, maintaining strong ethics, with zero tolerance for harassment, intimidation, or discrimination.We believe in human dignity regardless of gender, identity, background, or circumstance.Prior to the UN 2023 Water Conference, IWMI co-convened the Transformative Futures for Water Security dialogue and heard from more than 1,000 contributors from more than 440 organizations in policy, business, development and science communities of the Global South. They came together to generate eight high-ambition missions for science-based, collective action on water security. The missions establish shared priorities for collective action by all stakeholders, and they give IWMI a framework for demand-led research and innovation.In 2024-2030, IWMI will apply agile, interdisciplinary and systems-oriented research for development to address complex water problems.By harnessing the power of collective action, we aim to ensure that adaptive, robust solutions have lasting impacts. We focus on IWMI's comparative advantages and research excellence to leverage the complementary capacities of our partners to achieve joint social, economic and environmental outcomes. ","tokenCount":"801"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/1885407990.json b/data/part_3/1885407990.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a1c8b51394c7374e09bbfe5f7be9d88a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f6ca92a5-af8d-461b-80bf-d2dfaa117c25/retrieve","id":"1567434079"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cb6c26aa-8563-4bc2-9410-1a43b9112262","pagecount":"24","content":"a. To develop methods for breaking dormancy and overcoming seed sterility of wild Manihot species aS a means to increase the percentage oí germinationAdaptation and to1erance to different abiotic atresses in the wi1d gene pool has been pointed out by several cassava researcnerR. For example~. eh10rostieta grows in sa1ine soils in North East Brazil, and~. subspicata as wel1 as '~_ . ,,:t:::, ~. pseudoglaziovii are adapted to drought conditions. !his fact would make M. chlorostict'a a good candídate for breeding programmes to improve productivity in arid lands and saline soils.. Another stricking example of adaptation are disp1ayed by ~. attenuata and M. rubrieaulis which may provide useful genes for toleran ce to eool temperatures in eassava breeding beeause they grow at elevations of about 1600-1700 m. !herefore, the availability of a wide speetrum of wild Manihot germplasm should be stressed. to hroaden the genetie base of eu1tivated cassav. (see appendix 1 and 11).!he feasibility of gene transfer frolO wild Manihot species to eultivated germplasm seems to be promising. Rahn (1932) reported successful hybridizatiou between !:l.. eseulenta aud~. diehotoma., Fl hybrids from ~ esculenta aud ~. pohlií eros ses were obtaiued by Silva in 1984;and recently Nassar (1986) reported the cross-compatibility of caS8ava cultigens with ~. reptans, !:l.. frutieulosa, !:I. oli~ gantha and!:l.. tripartita. Severa1 attempts to hybrídize !:l.. esculenta with other five wild Manihot specíes were unsuceessful. Althought there is no data on eytology and bilateral compatibility of parental genotypes in these reports, they provide a very usefulprelimínary informatíon on interspecific crosses within the genus Manihot (see appendix 111).!he limited literature, on the other hand, of Manihot cytogeneties suggests that the ehromosome number i8 uniform throughout the genus and that M. esculenta is cross-compatible with several different wi1d species. Rowever, compsrstively few wild species have been available in living collections, and further researeh on interspecifíc hybridization may show that currently accepted generalization are not well founded.In fact, wíld Manihot germplasm dísplays unique potential1y useful qualities in resistance to pests and diseases snd to1erance to abiotic stresses, as well as dwarf forms that have increased produetion in may others crops. pringlei have been reported to be extremely endangered species. Therefore. saving these genotypes and maintaining them in a seed genebank and or in sn in vitro active genebank could be one of the main objectives of this projeet.In the last 20 years a lot of work has been done on taxonorny, ecology and germplasrn colleetions of wild Manihot species. ~ogers and Appan (1973) described 98 specíes related to cassava (See Appendíx 1);. and recently another new species, M. neusana, has been described, which has to1erance to low temperature and resistance to stem borer (Nassar, 1985).During the last decade, several expeditions to collect wild Manihot species throughout the main centers of diversity of this genus have been carried out.Most of these collecting expeditions were done with IBPGR~ and CIAT support.As a result of this, sorne living collections of wild Manihot species were rai- _ Taking into account previous experienee at eIAT, all seeds will be disínfected with mereury bichloride, washed wíth dístílled sterilized water, and the embryos disseeted form each aecessions or speeies, placed in culture media and incubated at 32 0 e and 27 0 e (day and night respectively) with a photoperiod 12 hours and an illuminatíon of 5000 luxo It has also been found that treatment of seeds befo re embryo culture at 60 0 e during 20 days can enhance embryo development, resulting in twice as many plants in eomparison with untreated seeds.Seedling raised through embryo culture will be micropropagated. Medium 4E(widely used to micropropagate cassava), will be tested. Replicated cultures will be used for in vitro storage in a slow growth medium, and another group -of plants will be grown in the greenhouse until flowering for cytological and morphological eharacterizations llsing IBPGR descriptora.. ELECTROPHOREsrs Electrophoresis pattern relatioshíps between wild Maoihot species will be carried out to recogoize evolutionary groups. This work will be perforrned wi th the applicatioo of\"\"\" esterase (EST) in polyacrilamide gel electrophoresis. lo vitro shoots grown from meristem tips will be used for electrophoresis.Wild genotypes which successfully reach maturity and flowering stage in the field or greenhouse will be used in wide cross experiments with cassava, Cytologicaland morphological ídeotification as well as the breeding behavior of parental genotypes aod their hybrid progeny will be investigated. !he crossabílity relationships between wild Manihot species and M. esculenta will be al so investigated using a genetic designo Interspecífic hybrids will be studied in the light of their fertilíty, cytogenetic mature and crossability with the purpose of improving efficiency of wild germplasm utilization and transfer of alien gene variation to cassava germplasm.   -  ","tokenCount":"775"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/1907530472.json b/data/part_3/1907530472.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"db9307e5d780c0c84b088351f3357404","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a1642cf6-17c3-4456-9349-279d5467b17c/retrieve","id":"-268375271"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e7cfac36-8057-40d2-9123-f5b5ff9eb856","pagecount":"2","content":"Vers un système d'information des marchés fiable et à moindre coût en Afrique O n considère que l''absence d'informations correctes et appropriées sur les marchés constitue un obstacle majeur aux efforts déployés en vue d'améliorer les secteurs de l'agriculture dans les pays africains. Et pourtant, très peu de petits exploitants ont accès à ces informations. L'accès insuffisant aux informations sur les marchés empêche les agriculteurs de suivre l'évolution des prix et réduit leur capacité de négocier avec les commerçants. Afin de combler ce manque d'information, les organisations donatrices ont investi dans les systèmes de développement des marchés de manière à fournir un appui aux petits exploitants. Dans les années 1970, de nombreux systèmes d'information gouvernementaux sur les marchés ont été établis mais aucun n'a réussi à fournir aux agriculteurs des données adéquates et actualisées. En conséquence, les donneurs ont abandonné leur contribution financière et ont mis fin à leurs opérations. Afin de définir de nouveaux moyens permettant de fournir aux agriculteurs des informations sur les marchés, le CIAT et une série de partenaires comprenant l'IITA, le CTA et l'USAID ont élaboré un agenda de recherche visant à mettre au point de nouveaux systèmes d'information des marchés. Ces systèmes étaient conçus aux niveaux local, national et régional. Les résultats des travaux entrepris ont montré que parmi les éléments de base induisant le succès des systèmes d'information des marchés figuraient :l'externalisation de la gestion par les gouvernements • le choix en faveur opérations à faible coût • le recueil des informations essentielles telles que les prix et les informations d'intérêt sur les marchés • la collecte de l'information au moyen de sources fiables et la re-diffuser le jour même ou dans les deux jours • la diffusion de l'information auprès des agriculteurs et des commerçants de façon régulière en ayant recours aux radios FM, aux téléphones portables, au courrier électronique et à Internet. Pour appuyer ces processus, l'équipe de recherche devait avoir à sa disposition un système de gestion des données simple pour l'entrée, le stockage et la distribution de l'information. Un partenariat avec une société informatique du secteur privé, Busylab (www.busy.com), basé à Accra au Ghana, a permis de mettre en place ce système. Il s'agit d'un système d'information des marchés d'utilisation facile et de moindre coût, géré au Ghana et en Ouganda sous le nom de Tradenet.Tradenet est une plateforme informatique qui permet d'accéder facilement aux données commerciales par téléphone portable (SMS), fax, ou Internet au moyen d'ordinateurs équipés d'assistants numériques personnels. Cela permet aux agriculteurs et aux commerçants de recevoir quotidiennement des informations sur les prix, de télécharger des fichiers audio/vidéo, d'accéder à des documents de recherche, de publier des offres de vente et d'achat auprès de l'ensemble de la communauté, et de contacter les participants à d'autres marchés. Un responsable des données vérifie les informations entrantes et donne l'autorisation finale (par SMS, courrier électronique ou en ligne) de manière à garantir la constance de la qualité des données. Après approbation, les données sont entrées dans la base de données et copiées sur un serveur en ligne. Outre les données numériques, Tradenet peut contenir des fichiers texte et son. Les stations de radio peuvent ainsi télécharger et re-diffuser auprès d'une large audience des programmes informatifs et éducationnels en utilisant les fichiers son (MP3).Tradenet offre la possibilité de poster des listes régulièrement mises à jour de fournisseurs de services, de commerçants et de services financiers. Avec le temps, ce registre pourra également présenter la côte de popularité des entreprises sur la base du respect des règles de bonne conduite. Les nouvelles versions de Tradenet permettent la formation de groupes de sorte que les personnes intéressées par une marchandise en particulier peuvent créer leur propre zone d'informations et gérer cette partie du site. Tradenet fonctionne par le biais de sponsors nationaux et de groupements de producteurs qui incitent les médias tels que les radios, la presse et les annonceurs à diffuser l'information. Les maisons d'édition fournissent des informations sur les marchés dans le but d'attirer un plus grand nombre de lecteurs/auditeurs, ainsi que le parrainage publicitaire. Tradenet ne génère pour le moment aucun revenu; le coût de son fonctionnement (d'environ 5 000 dollars/an) est pris en charge par des projets de développement financés par le secteur public. Les informations diffusées par radio ou courrier électronique sont délivrées gratuitement. Les utilisateurs de SMS paient 25% des frais aux sponsors de Tradenet, ce qui a représenté un revenu de 1 200 dollars en Ouganda (0,01 dollar par envoi à raison de 120 000 envois/an). ","tokenCount":"751"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/1938193434.json b/data/part_3/1938193434.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0f9d66e79a9358b7674d0a02db8b13ea77501e8f
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2a9ce72ba4a0d371a325719c1d8760d1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/94ded36f-947a-40e3-b9df-0111f08fb7a6/content","id":"-575828053"},"keywords":["CIMMYT archives","Wasim Iftikar","IITA archives"],"sieverID":"0e7ff316-4fb7-4cfb-9eb4-c7d89c1682fe","pagecount":"24","content":"During 2016, the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) made strong progress on both of its research strategies, stress resilient and nutritious maize, and sustainable intensification of maize-based systems. In total, 111 improved maize varieties based on germplasm from MAIZE lead centers, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), were released through MAIZE partners in 2016. These include 76 in sub-Saharan Africa, 27 in Latin America and 8 in Asia. Besides high and stable yield potential, some of the special traits stacked in these varieties include drought tolerance, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), tar spot complex (TSC) resistance, Quality Protein Maize (QPM), increased provitamin A content ( -To view an interactive version of this map, click here.Over 5.5 million hectares were under improved MAIZE-derived technologies or management practices in 2016 as a result of CRP research; directly reaching more than 11 million smallholder farmers. As we transition into Phase II (2017II ( -2022)), MAIZE remains committed to finding sustainable solutions to the challenges faced by smallholder farmers around the world.Improved maize varieties released by MAIZE partners in 2016, with depiction of some special traits. The map includes eight provitamin-A enriched varieties based on MAIZE germplasm that were released under A4NH CRP in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa (1 in Mexico, 7 Mali,3 in DRC, and 1 in Nigeria) in 2016.From emerging pests and diseases such as fall armyworm and maize lethal necrosis, to drought and heat stress that threaten livelihoods and food security, MAIZE and partners are working together to help farmers feed our growing population under a changing climate. We would like to extend our deepest thanks to our donors, without whom none of this work would be possible.Thank you to all who have supported and followed our work throughout Phase I (2012-2016), we look forward to sharing our updates and achievements with you in the years to come.In May 2016, India recorded its highest temperature ever when a town in the western state of Rajasthan reached 51 degrees Celsius. The searing heat across South Asia critically damaged crops and destabilized food security in the region. In continuous drought hit years of 2014 and 2015, 330 million people in India across 10 states Across South Asia, MAIZE scientists with the Heat Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) project made great progress on variety development and deployment in 2016. The project licensed 18 new heat-and drought-tolerant hybrids to partners for deployment and scale-out, including both public and private sector institutions.HTMA seed partners at commercial seed production field at Kaveri seeds, Jiyanpur, India.were affected. To address such repeated catastrophes, CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) scientists have been hard at work to develop and deploy heat-and droughttolerant maize varieties specific to the region for the vulnerable smallholder farmers that need them most.\"Water use efficient droughtand heat-tolerant maize hybrids have significant potential to reduce irrigation frequency, which in turn will help reduce high-energy consumption and other detrimental effects on the environment and increase available water for agricultural purposes\".Twelve new seed companies, including five each from Pakistan and Bangladesh and two from Nepal, signed research collaboration agreements and formally joined the project. In addition, a joint hybrid initiative by CIMMYT and DuPont Pioneer under HTMA helped in identifying promising combinations, and DuPont Pioneer selected two hybrids for further large-scale testing.As women now make up over 50 percent of the agricultural labor force in Bangladesh and more than 60 percent in Nepal, HTMA is working to ensure that female farmers get equal opportunities as their male counterparts in training and capacity building. Under the HTMA project, special emphasis was given on participation of both male and female farmers, especially in onfarm demonstrations, and during various capacity development activities such as trainings, workshops and refresher courses organized under the project.A total of 16 students, including 7 M.Sc. and 9 Ph.D., received long-term training under the project. Over 400 scientists, including 304 male and 98 female participants, that, if current trends persist, much of the region is likely to experience an average yield reduction of up to 15 percent in 2030 and 25 percent in 2050. However, regional simulations conducted by the study indicated that by improving heat tolerance alone, it is possible to reduce maize yield loss by up to 36 and 33 percent under rainfed conditions and by 93 and 86 percent under irrigated conditions in 2030 and 2050, respectively. This suggests that heat-tolerant maize varieties have the potential to shield farmers from severe yield loss due to heat stress and help them adapt to climate change impacts. This target area covers more than 1.5 million hectares in India, which translates to a seed market potential of about 34,000 metric tons and offers the opportunity to address the needs of over two million households. The region's climate and other dynamics make seed marketing risky, unpredictable and unattractive, meaning that it is often overlooked by the private seed sector -exactly the kind of underserved area MAIZE seeks to target. The project plans to market a limited quantity of hybrid seed in 2017 followed by a full market launch in 2018.A 2016 assessment study on the impact of current and future heat stress on maize and benefits of heat-tolerant varieties in South Asia found \"Temperature increases associated with climate change and high vapor pressure deficit, or less water content in air, pose huge pressure on irrigation water. During periods of heat and drought stress, farmers are forced to increase the frequency of irrigation to save the crop from drying out and to prevent yield loss,\" said P.H. Zaidi, maize physiologist and breeder working with the HTMA project.Evidence from climate simulation studies presents an alarming picture of developing country maize production in the decades to come. Higher temperatures, as well as more severe and frequent droughts, are predicted to seriously undermine national food security and rural livelihoods. For example, the results of a study using big data in refining the geospatial targeting of new drought-tolerant (DT) maize varieties in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe indicated that more than 1.0 million hectares (Mha) of maize in the study countries is exposed to a seasonal drought frequency exceeding 20 percent. To enhance the climate resilience of smallholder farming requires a mix of interventions, including new technologies as well as institutional innovations. Stresstolerant maize varieties must form a central part of the mix, providing farmers with tangible insurance against crop losses. varieties grown in SSA in terms of main yields -DT maize varieties have more stable yields, which translates in a more stable income. The study comprised countries in eastern, southern and West Africa and focused on the period 2007-2016, a decade that shows the substantial investments and advances in DT maize development and uptake in target countries. Benefits were estimated to be US$395 million for producers and consumers in the aggregate target countries during the study period. The increased availability of data -including near-real-time remotely sensed drought measures and georeferenced on-farm trial data -provides opportunities to select varieties which perform better under certain conditions leading to more robust and efficient technology adoption recommendations and targeting.Spatial modeling further shows that DT varieties give a yield advantage of up to 40% over the commercial check varieties across drought-prone environments. There is thus huge potential for marketing the new varieties in these countries and also wide scope for using big data analytical tools to enhance the targeting and uptake of this and other new technologies. CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) researchers have put GIS tools to various other uses as well, such as mapping innovation and maize nursery sites (for integration into a unique digital maize atlas being developed by MAIZE) and updating climate change impact data for Mexico.A key study estimating the impact of DT maize varieties in 13 target countries in sub-Saharan Africa, found that DT maize varieties outperformed popular commercial maize MAIZE researchers are gathering crucial evidence from adoption and ex post impact studies, which will help guide and muster support for continued development and dissemination of DT maize. Using new plotlevel data from surveys of 3,700 farm households in Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the researchers measured DT maize adoption rates and examined key factors that influence adoption. They found considerable variation in adoption between countries -from 9 percent in Zimbabwe to 61 percent in Malawi. In 2016, 6,705,000 farmers have benefited from MAIZE-derived varieties and 2,700,000 hectares were sown with these varieties. Boosting the uptake of DT maize will require that seed companies and agro-dealers redouble their efforts to expand seed supplies in local markets, with emphasis on selling seed in affordable 1 or 2 kilogram micro-packs. Major promotional efforts are also needed to raise awareness and understanding of the benefits of the new varieties, as the new varieties have great potential to reduce food insecurity and boost incomes at the household and national levels. As population growth, climate change impacts, and other challenges put increasing strain on the global food system, the development of advanced tools to guide decisions about food security at all levels is becoming ever more urgent. In collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), University of Minnesota in the USA, Wageningen University in The Netherlands, and others, MAIZE researchers are contributing importantly to this end through new approaches to foresight, exante impact assessment, and targeting of improved agricultural technologies.In response to growing interest in the use of microlevel bio-economic models, researchers moved ahead with the construction of a prototype model for ex-ante impact assessment and presented this work to the international modeling community. The tool has great potential for helping target new technologies with greater precision, taking into account conditions such as the climate, soil, market access, and others. The challenge is to make the tool sufficiently generic and modular (using open-source software) that it can be applied widely by a growing community of modellers. Despite a strong El Niño in 2016 that left more than half of Malawi's population in need of food relief, farmers experienced a great response from CA systems and DT maize varieties. The best DT variety (Peacock 10) planted under CA demonstrated 66 percent higher yields in comparison with the best non-DT commercial variety (DKC80-53). This shows that a joint promotion of both of these climate-smart technologies, CA and DT maize varieties, can reap the benefit of both approaches as they are mutually re-enforcing.Farmers were able to harvest comparably more maize than their peers in the 2016 cropping season while also spending 35-45 less labor days in the CA systems, where direct seeding was practiced, as compared to preparing conventional ridging and applying traditional weed control strategies. These multiple benefits preferentially benefit women and children who are usually tasked for this backbreaking work. Nepiyala Thope, a farmer from Chinguluwe, a small village in Central Malawi, appreciated the time she saved with CA. \"We spend less time on the CA fields and use this time to expand our land area, relax at home, look after our children and make doughnuts to sell in the market and earn extra income. All of this benefits our households,\" Thope said. MAIZE's work on GxExM, the genotype by environment by management interaction, spans from southern Zimbabwe to southern and central Malawi and eastern Zambia to support farmers with options they need to adapt to climate change. A study by MAIZE scientists published in 2016 on the benefits of CA and DT maize in Mozambique found that direct seeded manual CA treatments out yielded conventional tillage treatments in up to 89 percent of cases on maize. The study also found that improved DT maize varieties out yielded the traditional control variety by 26 to 46 percent (695-1422 kg ha−1) on different tillage treatments, across sites and seasons. In the future, as farmers will have to produce more food on less land in an uncertain climate, sustainable cropping systems and CA must be examined as viable options to improve food security and livelihoods.In the second study, \"Adoption and Impacts of Sustainable Agricultural Practices on Maize Yields and Incomes: Evidence from Rural Zambia,\" Manda et al. ( 2016) report that SAPs such as CA are essential in mitigating risks from climate change. For example, it was found that when practicing crop rotation and crop diversification (components of CA), farmers are sowing a diverse range of crops that can perform well under a range of environmental conditions and, due to different sowing dates and maturity periods of these crops, harvest produce at different times of year. This reduces the risk of total crop loss if drought strikes. Indeed, the retention of crop residue, another SAP, was found to be a vital factor in \"improving the soil and retaining moisture especially in drought prone areas\". The results of the Zambia study clearly suggest that \"farmers are adopting these SAPs to reduce the effects of droughts\" (Manda et al., 2016). The study goes on to recommend the need for policy interventions that promote the combined adoption of improved maize varieties and SAPs, such as a maizelegume rotation and residue retention, which can boost yields and farm incomes especially among resource poor farmers who cannot afford inorganic fertilizers.Taking the science to the people: Real results Mexico, known as the \"cradle of maize\", is home to much of the crop's genetic diversity. Across the country, smallholder farmers are the guardians of much of this diversity, planting \"heirloom\" maize varieties known as landraces. However, limited access to markets threaten farmers' ability to continue growing their traditional maize. The CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) and partners are working to help smallholder farmers market their maize to national and international buyers at a fair price, improving lives and livelihoods while giving farmers stronger incentives to conserve valuable genetic resources in their fields.Landraces are descendants of ancient maize varieties that have been handed down through generations and have adapted to different climates and regions of Mexico, developing special traits such as resistance to local stresses like drought, heat or disease, in addition to unique qualities and flavor that local communities prize for use in traditional foods. Not only is this genetic diversity crucial in the development of improved stress-tolerant maize varieties, the unique taste and colors of this ancient maize are now coveted by consumers around the world. However, many of the farmers that grow these landrace varieties live in marginalized rural communities with little access to larger markets. MAIZE and partners, such as the National Institute of Research on Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock (INIFAP), are working to help change this.As part of efforts to help organize smallholder farmers, researchers began training farmers to provide excess grain at a reasonable price negotiated on a group basis. In the past, many of these rural smallholder farmers have been forced to accept extremely low, unfair prices for their maize in order to have money for farming inputs such as labor and fertilizer, due to lack of access to formal markets. With funding from MAIZE, these farmers are learning how to access markets, based on knowledge of quality requirements, grain moisture and aflatoxin testing, and the use of hermetic bags to prevent insect damage during storage and transportation. Researchers also advise farmers on demand of specific maize color variants from culinary markets so that they can plant accordingly. One of the farmer groups sent its first container of nearly 20 tons of a local landrace to a company in the USA, which sells to more than 60 high-end restaurants. A major restaurant chain in Mexico has also approached the group of farmers.\"As rural smallholder farmers, we haven't been able to take advantage of the market on a larger scale,\" said Jaime Ariza Franco, one of the local farmers. \"In the past we have only been able to sell in to local intermediaries, and sometimes have had to accept extremely low, unfair prices in order to feed our families. We know that our maize has incredible flavor and quality, and are excited that it will now be enjoyed and appreciated by an international audience.\" Daniel Sanchez, the son of one of the farmers in the group, is hopeful about the prospects this partnership has for his family. He hopes to go to college to become an agricultural engineer, and now that his family has received the training necessary to sell to an international market, this dream could become a reality. \"Before we could only sell our maize in Mexico at very low prices that didn't even cover our basic expenses. Now that we have access to better national and international markets, things will get better for my family.\"The culinary communities' interest in authenticity and traceability of product that supports small farm families has provided an opportunity to enhance smallholder farmers' profitability, while expanding knowledge and opportunities for conservation of Mexico's treasured maize germplasm diversity. The key has been the involvement of scientists with a depth of knowledge of the country's maize diversity and long-term links to smallholder farmers in communities that conserve this diversity of native maize.A farmer in the farmer group helps load his traditional maize onto a truck that will be sent to high-end restaurants in the United States. Photo: Jennifer Johnson.Improved maize varieties and agricultural practices are changing the lives of female farmers and their families in the village of Badbil in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, India. Farmers in Badbil, a remote and deeply impoverished tribal village with high poverty and low literacy rates, have traditionally planted a local rice variety called Sathia. However, rice production is declining due to regularly occurring droughts and declining rainfall, leaving much of Badbil's agricultural land fallow. Scientists with the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) are working to help farmers use suitable maize hybrids and agricultural technologies to increase agricultural productivity in drought-prone Odisha.Maize yields in Badbil have traditionally been low due to the use of unimproved varieties, traditional sowing methods and lack of information about good agronomic practices, especially weed and nutrient management. This particularly affects children, as maize cake is a common breakfast and snack for children in the area, and low maize production often means they receive less food. To address this issue, the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) has been working with women's self-help groups in Badbil since 2013 to promote the uptake of better agronomic practices, such as sowing with a seed drill and applying site-specific nutrients, and identify the best performing maize hybrids.Women farmers in the plateau region of Odisha play an integral role in increasing maize productivity. Photo: Srikanth Kolari/CIMMYTIn 2016, ten self-help groups composed of 105 women members cultivated hybrid maize a total of 80 acres at Badbil village up from 30 acres in 2015, increasing the area under hybrid maize cultivation by more than 150 percent.Around 100 tons of dry grain were purchased from the women's self-help groups by a poultry feed mill at a price of Rs. 15,000 (USD $233) per ton, giving the groups a net profit of Rs. 18,000 to Rs. 20,000 (USD $280-$310) per acre, an excellent return on investments.These improved maize yields are helping female farmers not only increase their income, but also their family's food security. \"In addition to selling dry grain, we fed roasted maize and maize cake to our family members during the rainy season, besides distributing green cobs to neighbors and relatives for consumption,\" said Jobha Murmu, a member of the Johar Jaher Ayo self-help group.CSISA-led interventions, jointly with Odisha's Department of Agriculture, have supported the groups in adopting improved practices such as mechanized line sowing using seed drills, application of pre-emergence herbicide, controlling weeds using power weeders and nutrient application management, as well as in the marketing and selling of dry grain.The work of self-help groups in Badbil on converting unused fallow land into productive cultivable land through maize farming has become a successful example for many farmers in neighboring areas. Their success story was published on the front page of a leading local newspaper, 'The Samaja,' on September 15, 2016, entitled \"Women farmers produced gold in plateau.\" Because of this work, this remote village is now known for turning fallow lands into golden maize.In 2016, CSISA directly supported maize cultivation with the use of best management practices in more than 4500 acres in the Mayurbhanj district, a nearly 200 percent increase over 2015. Because of this work, maize farming in the region has changed from labor intensive and less profitable traditional practices to modern, efficient agricultural techniques with higher yields, and has asserted women's fundamental role in the agricultural sector.Children enjoy fresh maize cobs grown by their mothers. Photo: Wasim Iftikar/CSISA. Members of the self-help groups apply potash fertilizer to maize fields after sowing. Photo: Wasim Iftikar/CSISA Scientists found that the commercial check hybrids were highly susceptible to MLN under artificial inoculation, giving a mean yield of 0.69 tons per hectare (t/ha), while the mean grain yield of the first-generation and secondgeneration hybrids under MLN artificial inoculation were 3.41 and 4.49 t/ha. This significant yield increase can help improve the food security and livelihoods of farmers that have suffered crop losses from this disease. While the percentage of tolerant material discovered was low, since 2015 the MAIZE team has succeeded in releasing a number of MLN-tolerant maize hybrids in eastern Africa, including five released through partners in 2016 and 22 currently under development. For example, in 2016, the NASECO seed company commercialized nearly 20 tons of certified seed of \"Bazooka\" in Uganda, a variety developed by researchers with MAIZE, and harvested around 300 tons of certified seed to be commercialized in 2017. In addition, the MAIZE team produced and distributed 100 kg of seed of MLN-tolerant pre-commercial hybrids to nine partners in East Africa for national performance trials and on-farm demonstrations.Due to the low percentage of materials with tolerance to MLN, there is a need to further expand the genetic sources of resistance to this complex disease. To this end, MAIZE scientists decided to focus their efforts on maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV), the virus that is the major factor in MLN disease and to which most of the material screened was susceptible. Starting in 2015, MAIZE scientists focused on evaluating heirloom maize varieties known as landraces from areas of Latin America and the Caribbean that are known to have high incidences of MCMV and other viruses as well as high levels of maize genetic diversity.To date, over 1,000 landrace accessions and populations have been evaluated and the 20 most promising landraces for MCMV tolerance have been crossed to high-performing elite lines from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and then selfed, or self-pollinated, to create new advanced progenies for advanced evaluation.To date, over 900 F3, or third generation, maize lines have been evaluated in the greenhouse for MCMV tolerance. These lines have additionally been genotyped in order to evaluate if the genetic source of any observed tolerance is from novel alleles, or gene forms that have not been used before, or is from alleles that already exist in elite breeding materials. The F4 lines derived from the F3 lines with observed MCMV tolerance have been produced and are being sent to the MLN screening facility in Naivasha, Kenya for more in depth evaluation in 2017. Breeders hope to begin releasing semi-inbred lines with novel alleles for MCMV/MLN tolerance to the maize breeding community in late 2017 and in 2018. The root parasitic Striga, also known as 'witch weed' or 'violet vampire' due to its deceptively beautiful purple flowers, is a pervasive and recalcitrant problem of cerealbased systems in many parts of Africa. As a root parasite, Striga causes significant damage by attaching itself to a maize root, where it extracts the water and nutrients it needs, stunting or killing its host. Indeed, Striga does most of its damage underground before emerging above the surface. As such, farmers cannot do much to save their crop when they see the weed and its flowers appear. Although ISMA practices work well, there are reports of variability in the extent of control achieved by Striga control options, particularly host plant resistance, in different agro-ecological zones. For example, maize varieties that show tolerance in a specific geographical location, when taken to another test location do not perform as well as the landraces in these locations. Therefore, there is a need to further understand the basis of Striga diversity and host-parasite relationships in order to deploy suitable control methods that will remain effective over time and across different locations. \"Just last year, a new brutal invader landed in Africa, the fall armyworm, destroying thousands of hectares of maize crops. There is hence an urgent need to develop and deploy ecologically sustainable, economically profitable, and socially acceptable control measures against these new bio risks attacking maize in Africa.\" be substantial. Diverse host plants assure the survival of the spittlebug during the off-season, with preference for shady and moist environments. Some natural enemies are found to be associated with the pest, but their impact is presently still unknown. Eight isolates of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana -which can act as a parasite of insectshave shown promising results as biocontrol agent against the spittlebug. Studies to assess their endophytic competence in the maize plants -the degree to which these isolates increase the resistance of the maize plants to the spittlebug -are underway. The CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) is also funding a project to develop bio pesticides for the control of spittlebugs on maize crops in Togo together with the Laboratoire de Biosécurité et de Biotechnologie at the Institut Togolais de Recherche Agronomique (ITRA).Spittlebug (Poophilus costalis) is the most widespread and damaging species observed on maize in Togo and Ghana. Although maize farmers are aware of the damage made by the spittlebug, most of them do not apply any control measures. Infestation rates vary from one season and from one region to another, but are generally higher in the coastal and moist savannas; with peak densities of over three adult spittlebugs per maize plant. With up to 40 percent yield loss, economic damage canA new, destructive, maize pest, the invasive fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), has suddenly appeared in West, Central and southern Africa, causing panic among maize farmers. It was first reported in West Africa in January 2016 and had assumed epidemic proportions by the first quarter of 2017 in several southern African countries, including Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. To date, Zambia has confirmed reports that almost 90,000 hectares of maize have been affected, Malawi reports some 17,000 hectares have been hit, Zimbabwe reports a potential 130,000 hectares affected, while in Namibia, approximately 50,000 hectares of maize and millet have been damaged, according to the FAO.Scientists are in intensive discussions with various research and development institutions based in Africa, as well as integrated pest management (IPM) experts to identify the best possible short-, medium-and long-term solution to this major menace. Control of the fall armyworm will require a multi-pronged approach, following the principles of IPM, including chemical control, biological control, hostplant resistance, agronomic management at different scales resistance to the insect pest. MAIZE agronomists will also be experimenting on suitable agronomic management practices to minimize the damage from the fall armyworm in maizebased cropping systems. (video) (field, farm and landscape), and a community-and GIS-based tracking and early warning system. Scientists will undertake experiments to screen elite maize germplasm to identify potential sources of even partial This map reflects countries with comfirmed reports of Fall Armyworm as of April 28, 2017. Other countries might not have conducted systematic surveillance; therefore, lack of reporting in some cases could be due to lack of surveillance (and might not be because of lack of incidence Most maize subsistence farming in Africa has been carried out without the use of pesticides, as insect pest damage before the emergence of spittlebugs and the invasion of the fall armyworm remained low and would not have justified the expense of buying and applying pesticides. The situation is different now, where farmers are desperate to save their crops and resort to any insecticide they can find on the market. However, from a technical standpoint, applying pesticides to these types of insect pests is challenging, as one needs to apply the right product, usually in a very short window of time where the pest is exposed before boring into the plant. But also from an economic standpoint, the cost of buying and applying the appropriate insecticides will not be profitable for most of the average maize farmers in Africa with less than 2 hectares of maize fields. MAIZE and partners are committed to working to find appropriate and sustainable solutions to these new threats.Nearly all of sub-Saharan Africa is affected by Busseola fusca (Fuller), an indigenous stem borer that occurs at higher altitudes. Various control strategies have been tried, but all have limitations and none has provided a complete solution. The four general approaches to stem borer control are chemical, biological, cultural, and host plant resistance. Chemical control is costly and risky to humans and the environment and using systemic insecticides provide only protection at early attacks but not against the borers feeding in the cob. Biological control requires trained personnel, and the disruption of natural enemies due to extensive pesticide use has often led to resurgence and pest population explosion besides the concern of pesticide residue on the marketable produce. Cultural methods are only good when combined with other methods and involve the manipulation of aspects of crop agronomy to make the habitat less favourable for the pests or more favourable for their natural enemies. Farmers often do nothing but to bear the losses.MAIZE and partners have emphasized on host plant resistance, whereby resistance developed through conventional breeding or through transgenic technology is availed to farmers encapsulated in the seed, a fact that ensures the technology is affordable, safe, easy to use, and that farmers need not purchase more than the seed. Use of stem borer resistant maize increases efficiency of farming through reduction or elimination of the cost of insecticides and reduction of yield losses from stem borer damage.Bt maize provides a new management tool for small scale farmers and has the potential to increase yields where stem borers are a major constraint. Bt maize represents genetically modified maize that is capable of producing an insecticide -Bt protein -that can kill certain chewing insects. MON810 is a genetically-engineered, stem borer insect-pest resistant maize event that carries the Cry1Ba Bt gene from a common soildwelling bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis. The gene helps Bt maize to resist damage by major stem borers in Africa.","tokenCount":"5090"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a9da87d4a1abadf38c4bdc06fed7b9ea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/92b52502-1e40-4890-a697-974e6491f90b/retrieve","id":"2078613196"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"01edeb78-d3d6-467d-af6e-7ea1479fd0e2","pagecount":"6","content":"Merja Veteläinen, Coordinator of the Network Coordinating Group (NCG) on Forages welcomed the participants to the ad hoc meeting, held in connection with the XXVIIIth Meeting of the Fodder Crops and Amenity Grasses Section of EUCARPIA in La Rochelle, France. The meeting was organized as a self-funded ad hoc meeting due to insufficient budget for the Forages Working Group (WG) to arrange all planned activities during the ongoing ECPGR Phase. However, it was felt that it was important to update the WG workplan in relation to the allocated funds for the WG activities during Phase VIII of ECPGR. Also recent developments in AEGIS prompted the need for the NCG meeting to be held at the beginning of Phase VIII.The participants attending the meeting were: Evelin Willner, Petter Marum, Beat Boller and Merja Veteläinen. Chris Kik was also supposed to attend, but last minute obstacles prevented his participation. During the conference the NCG communicated also with Jean-Paul Sampoux and Stéphane Fourtier, respectively the former and new Database Manager for the Perennial Medicago Database. An Ghesquiere, also a member of the Forages WG, took part in the meeting as observer.The Forages WG workplan and budget 2009-2013 were discussed. Merja Veteläinen informed that the WG had received a budget of € 27 700 to be used for one WG meeting, which is insufficient in relation to the workplan presented by the WG and especially concerning the necessary work with Forage Central Crop Databases (CCDBs), leading to the establishment of a European Forage Collection (EFC), as part of AEGIS.Discussions on individual workplan items are summarized below.The Working Group on Forages manages altogether 23 different databases of which 9 (Poa, Trifolium pratense, Trifolium repens, Medicago sativa, annual Medicago, Lolium, Phleum, Festuca and Dactylis) are considered priority databases. Generally, the main goal during the ongoing ECPGR Phase is to define the primary holder of each forage accession in these databases as a fundamental step in the implementation of AEGIS goals. The progress has until now been quite modest. The reasons for this were discussed. It was concluded that there were many organizational reasons that have slowed down the progress: the existence of two parallel European PGR documentation systems (CCDBs and EURISCO), and the fact that the work carried out by the CCDB managers is not always acknowledged and supported by the hosting institutes. The change of CCDB managers is also a crucial point for the continuity of each single database development. In light of these obstacles, it was decided that the NCG should discuss how to develop the existing Forage CCDBs and their organization. In this context the following recommendation from the ECPGR Steering Committee was also taken into consideration: \"Fragmentation of the forages catalogues into too many DBs (23) was considered inefficient and the SC therefore encouraged the Network to consider merging some of the DBs.\". Two alternative options for the reorganization of the DBs were discussed: (1) to merge all forage databases into one and (2) to merge databases by taxa/DB manager. For alternative 2, the following suggestion was made: It was decided that the detailed workplan concerning the Forage CCDBs and the process leading to the definition of AEGIS accessions will be updated when confirmation will have been received from the present Database Managers on the new organization and management of Forage Databases. The aim is to agree on this matter by the end of November 2009. Communication will be done by email. When the Chair will send the request to confirm the responsibility to manage a certain database, the DB manager will also be asked to obtain confirmation from his/her respective institute that it will support the related responsibility.It was also decided that possibilities to organize educational meetings for new Database Managers by the experienced Database Managers will be worked out. Evelin Willner mentioned that a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) programme may allow invitation of the Polish Database Manager for such a meeting to Germany. It was also decided to inquire to the ECPGR Secretariat regarding available resources or information about relevant opportunities for this kind of activities.The Forages WG workplan does not include any specific activities on characterization and evaluation (C&E), but the WG has decided to encourage genotyping initiatives with the aim of identifying similar accessions and understanding the diversity of European forage crops. However, there are good possibilities to make progress with inclusion of already existing C&E data in the Forage CCDBs. It was decided that possibilities to utilize NordGen's \"dynamic data analyzer\" for inclusion of C&E data into the Poa database will be elucidated during the ongoing ECPGR Phase and especially during the next WG meeting.After the meeting, the Group was informed by the ECPGR Secretariat about the initiative of the ECPGR Documentation and Information Network to include C&E data into EURISCO. This initiative will therefore also need to be monitored.Merja Veteläinen briefly reported to the NCG the previous meeting of the AEGRO project (\"An Integrated European In Situ Management Work Plan: Implementing Genetic Reserves and On Farm Concepts\") held in Germany. Since in situ conservation of forages is a relevant matter to be considered for the Forage WG, she suggested that the AEGRO project leader, Lothar Frese, could be invited to the next Forage WG meeting to inform on the project developments and how they can be utilized in the ECPGR Networks. It was decided that this could be done if funds for the purpose could be raised.On-farm conservation of forages was also discussed. It was pointed out that it is an important task for the WG to encourage individual countries to carry out both on-farm/in situ conservation as an integral part of the conservation and utilization of forage crop genetic resources. The first important step to enhance this activity could be a preliminary inventory of already existing European sites. Also a model for in situ/on-farm database inventory should be developed. It was decided that Beat Boller would provide information about the development of a Swiss solution for an in situ/on-farm database inventory as a basis for discussion during the next WG meeting.After the meeting, a new call for proposals was launched by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme. The possible development of relevant project proposals related to the establishment of European wild relatives and landrace inventories will therefore need to be monitored by the Group.The timing and venue for the next WG meeting was discussed. The important aspect in the discussion was to find a solution that would allow both WG members and Database Managers to attend the meeting. The request from the ECPGR Secretariat to hold WG meetings during the latter part of the ongoing Phase was also considered.Concerning the timing of the WG meeting, it was felt that it would be important to arrange the meeting at the latest in 2010 in order to discuss and implement the workplan and especially the restructuring of the databases with the entire WG as soon as possible. Thus, it was decided that the meeting would take place in May 2010.Two alternative meeting venues were discussed, namely Finland and Germany. It was decided that the WG Chair and Vice-Chair would calculate the costs for meeting arrangements in their respective countries and sites (Jokioinen and Malchov) and that the less expensive site would be selected. This should be done by the end of August 2009.Merja Veteläinen informed the NCG about the upcoming call for proposals for competitive AEGIS grants. She explained that the grant scheme will support initiatives contributing to the establishment and operation of AEGIS. This possibility to apply for funds was discussed and it was concluded that the present WG goals to assign unique European forage accessions and share the conservation task between germplasm collections is well in line with AEGIS goals. Since the present WG budget is scarce and does not allow funding of any specific activities, it was decided that the WG would develop a proposal to the grant scheme. The preliminary plan is to apply for funds for the education of Database Managers in order to increase their ability to effectively carry out the whole process leading to the assignment of Most Original Accessions (MOS), Primary collection holder (PRIMCOLL) and European Forage Collection (EFC). Note: Deadline for applications is expected to be 18 October 2009.Merja Veteläinen informed the NCG on the FP7 Capacities Work Programme 2010: Research Infrastructures. The ECPGR Secretariat has prepared a draft project outline and asked for comments. The project outline was discussed and comments from the NGC were formulated as follows.The Forages NCG will not comment on the structure of the proposal, but suggest the following activities/themes to be included:There is a need to review and update the different guidelines (collecting, regeneration, etc. of forage crops) developed by the Forages WG and to compile them into one single publication to be used by the forage crop germplasm holders. It is suggested to include the production of this document as one activity of this work package (WP). We would estimate that one single person could be hired for this task within the Network for a short time period.We suggest that one of the forage crops (e.g. perennial ryegrass or red clover) be included as model crop in this WP. Our justifications are based on the fact that these crops are generally cross-pollinating and thus more problematic to characterize and evaluate than self-pollinating crops. Thus there is an urgent need to establish a common method. On the other hand, there is already well-established cooperation between plant breeders and germplasm curators in this field (as in the example presented by Evelin Willner at the EUCARPIA Conference in the case of Lolium perenne). In addition, there are also old data available for forage crops that could be utilized in this context. Another issue is to establish a method on how to present DNA population data in the databases. For C&E data we wish to point out the utility of NordGen's tool \"dynamic data analyzer\" that could be tested in this WP.We wish that the ECPGR Secretariat consider the above-presented suggestions of the Forage Network Coordinating Group and also keep in mind the ongoing exercise to establish the European Forage Collection (= identify MAAs) (WP2).The Forage Network Coordinating Group will be available as the partner for WP2 and thus participate in the WP formulation.It was decided that M. Veteläinen would send the comments immediately to the ECPGR Secretariat.The Group approved all the decisions taken during the meeting and M. Veteläinen/ECPGR Secretariat will request the endorsement from the entire WG. A dialogue on merging of databases will be carried out by email with present and future DB managers. An application process for the AEGIS grant scheme will also be initiated by email once the call has been published.The meeting was closed and Merja Veteläinen thanked all the participants for their active participation in the meeting and for dedicating their time to the Forage WG during the EUCARPIA Conference.","tokenCount":"1815"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8781421d7c1686e756b289a71b7a5f50","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/af5612c7-1979-455f-8390-f255f82a3ada/retrieve","id":"992008758"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"953c3408-60f0-41d7-874f-eefa27ac4acd","pagecount":"16","content":"Social protection programs (SPPs) are designed to help individuals and households cope with chronic poverty, destitution, and vulnerability (World Bank, 2018). In the context of food systems, SPPs can help tackle the challenge of affordability of healthy diets. Nutritionsensitive SPPs include conditions or additional interventions that enhance impacts on nutrition (Ruel and Alderman, 2013). This research note organizes SPPs in South Asia using an existing framework, describes their characteristics (scale, entitled benefits, and eligibility) and provides examples of features that can be added to SPPs to make them more nutrition-sensitive. December 2023 Research Note 11Existing social protection programs can be made more nutrition-sensitive by incorporating design features such as:• Targeting households with pregnant women and/or young children (under 2 years old).• Using targeting mechanisms to reach the poorest, most food insecure households with limited access to nutritious foods.• Including a nutrition behavior change communication (BCC) component.• Linking the program to health services and ensuring that beneficiaries have access to -and use -preventive/curative health services/• Including interventions to empower women.• Providing or ensuring access to foods (or food vouchers) with a high nutritional value.• Including other measures to promote healthy diets and improve nutrition outcomes.Source: World Bank Atlas of Social Protection: Indicators of Resilience and Equity (ASPIRE) project (World Bank, 2018).What makes an SPP nutrition-sensitive? There is no standard formal definition of nutrition-sensitive, but in this note, we offer a working definition and provide examples of how SPPs can be made more nutrition-sensitive.While all transfers, whether cash or food, can increase food consumption, nutrition-sensitive SPPs enhance their nutritional impact through design features such as targeting, behavior change communication (BCC), linkage to health services, empowering women, or other measures to improve nutrition outcomes.Cash may or may not be nutrition-sensitive, depending on the nature and objectives of the transfer (Manley et al., 2022). Any cash that a household receives is an additional resource to purchase food, and poor households typically spend more than half of their income on food (Lipton, 1983). However, to be nutrition-sensitive, the transfer should be linked with nutrition goals and objectives. For example, a cash transfer that includes BCC on healthy food purchasing behaviors would be more nutrition-sensitive than a cash transfer without such BCC.Food transfers may or may not be nutrition-sensitive, depending on the type of food provided and the nature of the nutrition problem in the population targeted. For example, a cooking oil subsidy in a population with high rates of overweight/obesity and micronutrient (MN) deficiencies would not be expected to lead to improvements in MN status and could worsen overweight/obesity.The contribution of food transfers to nutrition relative to cash transfers can be enhanced by judicious choice of foods and by the inclusion of (bio)fortified foods, especially in areas where MN deficiencies are prevalent. As with cash, a full assessment of the nutrition sensitivity of food or other in-kind transfers includes the role of design features beyond the budgetary support from the transfer.Programs that empower women or that are linked to a nutrition intervention such as BCC are likely to increase the nutrition sensitivity of the SPP; and there is evidence that they indeed have greater impact on nutritional outcomes when incorporated into the SPPs (Manley et al., 2022).Similarly, programs can be made more nutrition-sensitive by targeting households with members in the \"1,000 days\" period from pregnancy to the child's second birthday, a critical window for improving nutrition.It should not be forgotten that coordination across multiple agencies responsible for planning or delivering different intervention components is critical for achieving nutrition impacts through SPPs. Some of the best opportunities for improving nutrition may lie at the intersection of agriculture, food system, education, and health sectors. For example, a school meal program may be enhanced through tie-ups with local farmer organizations and healthcare workers to introduce fresh vegetables to meals and educate students about healthy diets. Without proper interministerial coordination, however, such a program would likely have limited success.The following features can be considered in the design of new SPPs or as add-ons to existing SPPs to make them more nutrition-sensitive:• Targeting households with pregnant women and/or young children (under 2 years old).• Using targeting mechanisms to reach the poorest, most food insecure households with limited access to nutritious foods.• Including a nutrition BCC component.• Linking the program to health services and ensuring that beneficiaries have access to -and use -preventive/curative health services/• Including interventions to empower women.• Providing or ensuring access to foods (or food vouchers) with a high nutritional value.• Including other measures to promote healthy diets and improve nutrition outcomes.There is evidence that including several of these features may lead to greater nutrition impacts. For example, in Bangladesh, a randomized controlled trial found that including both agriculture and nutrition trainings led to larger impacts on dietary diversity than either training alone (Ahmed et al. 2023).In Table 1 on the following pages, we list different types of SPPs and indicate potential opportunities to make them more nutrition-sensitive. We note that not all SPPs were designed with nutrition in mind or have obvious entry points for adding nutrition-sensitive components, hence we judge that some types of SPPs have limited scope for enhancing nutrition sensitivity. However, the examples provided for increasing nutrition sensitivity are illustrative, and each program team should discuss the best ways to make their program more nutrition-sensitive based on available resources, beneficiary needs, and the context.  We used information from socialprotection.org, supplemented with web searches and discussions with in-country partners, to identify the number of SPPs that currently exist in each country (Table 2). To limit the scope of this note, we only included programs under the initiative of the national governments. Most of the programs included are large-scale programs covering most of the respective country.Bangladesh had the most SPPs ( 27) and Pakistan had the least (6). Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6 provide additional details on program scale, entitlements, and eligibility requirements in each country.      Photo credit: Samuel Scott","tokenCount":"985"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e0e283fee06b4669dfcef500b8941cbd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/336dccf2-98a3-401f-b764-65e241f979ad/retrieve","id":"-209718089"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"38bfe725-5d2c-4bca-a406-12d5ce3717a4","pagecount":"76","content":"La reproduction et la diffusion des différents chapitres de ce livre est encouragée sous licence Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode.fr) sous réserve de faire figurer : -le copyright du CTA, conformément à la licence Creative Commons 4.0, en incluant le nom de l'auteur et le titre de l'article ou du chapitre ; -l'avertissement précisant que le CTA, l'UE ou le FIDA n'assument en aucun cas la responsabilité des vues, produits et services des auteurs. CTA, 2019. Innovation et promotion des chaînes de valeurs de produits agricoles locaux en Afrique. Série Capitalisation des expériences 10. Wageningen, Pays-Bas, CTA. ISBN 978-92-9081-645-4 Nous espérons que ces différents articles inspireront vos stratégies d'action et que l'innovation sera davantage mobilisée pour une transformation décisive du secteur agricole en Afrique.Le projet « Capitalisation des expériences pour un plus grand impact dans le développement rural » est mis en oeuvre dans différentes parties du monde par le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA), en collaboration avec l'Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO) et l'Institut interaméricain de coopération pour l'agriculture (IICA) avec le soutien financier du Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA). Il vise à faciliter l'adoption d'un processus de capitalisation d'expérience dans les initiatives de développement rural dans le cadre desquelles il peut améliorer l'analyse, la documentation, le partage et l'utilisation d'enseignements et de bonnes pratiques dans une optique d'apprentissage continu, d'amélioration et de passage à grande échelle.Les cas présentés dans le présent livret ont été sélectionnés et rédigés par ceux et celles qui ont participé au projet. Les informations et opinions exprimées dans chacun des articles engagent la seule responsabilité de leur(s) auteur(s). La reproduction des contenus est autorisée sous réserve de mentionner la source.Le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA) est une institution internationale conjointe du Groupe des États d'Afrique, des Caraïbes et du Pacifique (ACP) et de l'Union européenne (UE). Le CTA opère dans le cadre de l'Accord de Cotonou et est financé par l'UE. Pour en savoir plus, rendez-vous sur www.cta.int.Le Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA) investit dans les populations rurales, les dotant des moyens d'augmenter leur sécurité alimentaire, d'améliorer la nutrition familiale et d'accroître leurs revenus. Le FIDA est ucne institution financière internationale et une agence spécialisée de l'Organisation des Nations unies dont le siège est situé à Rome, le hub alimentation et agriculture de l'ONU. Depuis 1978, il a accordé 18,5 milliards $ sous forme de subventions et de crédits à faible taux d'intérêt à près de 464 millions de personnes. Pour en savoir plus, rendez-vous sur www.ifad.org.Ces travaux ont été réalisés avec le soutien financier du FIDA. Cependant, ils relèvent de la seule responsabilité de leur(s) auteur(s) et ne reflètent en aucun cas la position du CTA, de l'Union européenne ou du FIDA. L'utilisateur pourra apprécier le bien-fondé des propos tenus, des arguments formulés, des techniques expérimentales et des méthodes décrites dans le présent document.C ette publication est un nouveau volume rendant compte des résultats des exercices de capitalisation d'expériences réalisées dans le cadre du projet « Capitalisation des expériences pour un plus grand impact dans le développement rural » mis en oeuvre par le CTA, IICA et la FAO avec l'appui du FIDA. Les pratiques décrites ont été développées par différents acteurs agricoles avec le soutien d'organisations et de partenaires divers.L'innovation est au coeur de ce volume, du point de vue des techniques de production, des plates-formes d'innovation et de l'accès au financement. L'innovation agricole, qui peut se définir comme l'ensemble des processus liés au développement de produits, de services ou de procédés agricoles, nouveaux ou améliorés, du maillon de la production à celle de la consommation, est un facteur déterminant de la modernisation et de la performance du secteur. Il s'agit d'un des domaines stratégiques dans lesquels il est crucial de davantage investir en Afrique. Certains articles traitent des actions réalisées par des plates-formes d'innovation, à l'image de celles mises en place au Bénin dans la filière riz, ou au Burkina Faso dans la filière niébé. L'importance de ces plates-formes n'est plus à démontrer. Il est important de mieux faire connaître leurs actions, de faciliter leur durabilité, de les connecter davantage aux systèmes nationaux d'innovation agricole (lorsqu'elles sont mises en place par des acteurs non gouvernementaux), de renforcer la prise en compte des savoirs locaux, l'implication du secteur privé, des chercheurs ainsi que celle des jeunes. D'autres articles rendent compte des expériences d'initiatives s'attachant à faciliter, souvent de manière novatrice, l'inclusion financière et l'accès au financement, notamment au niveau des femmes rurales (voir l'article de Haoua Kone-Barry ou celui rédigé par Alain Razafindratsima). Dans son rapport « Unlocking growth in the era of farmer finance » la firme internationale Dalberg Global Development Advisors nous informe que 150 milliards de dollars de besoins en financement des petits producteurs dans les pays en développement ne sont pas comblés. Il est donc important d'innover également pour l'accès au financement agricole, y compris en mobilisant les technologies numériques de communication.  L e potentiel des produits agricoles locaux reste insuffisamment valorisé pour l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire et des revenus des populations rurales en Afrique de l'Ouest. La valorisation des produits locaux comme le riz local, le niébé, le fonio, le mil et le sésame est possible à travers la promotion des chaînes de valeurs incluant les maillons clé de la production, la transformation et la commercialisation. De nombreuses technologies modernes de productions agricoles ont été rejetées du fait de leur inadéquation face aux réalités agro-climatiques, socio-économiques et culturelles des petits producteurs. Cependant les contraintes auxquelles doivent faire quotidiennement face ces derniers nécessitent la quête permanente de nouvelles solutions efficaces et adaptées à leurs conditions. L'innovation agricole est pourtant nécessaire pour le développement des chaînes de valeurs en Afrique de l'Ouest. Cette innovation porte non seulement sur les nouvelles technologies agricoles mais aussi sur l'espace de production de ces technologies et les modèles de financement agricole.Le concept de plateforme d'innovation se réfère à un ensemble de parties prenantes ayant des intérêts communs autour d'une problématique donnée, d'un défi ou d'une opportunité en vue d'améliorer les performances d'une filière au profit des différents acteurs. La création de tels espaces multi-acteurs, favorisant l'innovation technologique et le développement des relations d'affaires entre acteurs, permet aujourd'hui de donner de la valeur à ces produits agricoles jadis négligés. Des expériences conduites ces dernières années pour accompagner l'innovation paysanne ont produit des résultats très encourageants dans divers domaines comme la conservation des sols et des eaux, le développement de nouveaux itinéraires techniques de production et la nutrition animale.Ismail Moumouni est consultant pour CTA et pour diverses institutions nationales et internationales. Il a facilité plusieurs processus de capitalisation des experiences en Afrique de l'Ouest. ismailmm@gmail.comIsmail Moumouni L e riz est l'une des filières prioritaires retenues pour servir de levier au développement agricole au Bénin. Incontournable pour la sécurité alimentaire, sa consommation est en constante augmentation. Cette forte demande de riz est comblée par l'importation, en provenance d'Asie, de riz non étuvé, propre, moins cher, mais aussi moins nutritif. En effet, la productivité du riz au Bénin est faible, du fait de l'utilisation de techniques non optimales (variétés locales, semis à la volée, etc.), tandis que la transformation primaire basée sur l'étuvage ne garantit pas sa qualité. Les femmes étuveuses ont des difficultés à s'approvisionner en riz paddy pendant toute l'année et les relations d'affaires entre les acteurs de la chaîne sont très faibles. Ces acteurs ne sont pas suffisamment bien organisés pour conquérir les marchés urbains. Les institutions de recherche ont mis au point des techniques améliorées de production et de transformation.Le projet d'Appui à l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire par le renforcement de la compétitivité de la chaîne de valeur ajoutée riz local étuvé (PARCR) a été initié pour améliorer la compétitivité du riz local. D'une durée de trois ans, ce projet de recherchedéveloppement fut une réussite, puisqu'il a engendré une augmentation significative de la consommation locale. Il nous permet donc de tirer plusieurs enseignements utiles pour la promotion des chaînes de valeur locales en général.Le projet PARCR a été mis en oeuvre dans deux communes du département de l'Alibori (Banikoara et Gogonou) par l'ONG DEDRAS en collaboration avec l'organisation néerlandaise Woord en Daad, l'Institut national des recherches agricoles du Bénin (INRAB) et la faculté d'agronomie de l'université de Parakou (FA/UP). DEDRAS était chargée de la coordination et des interventions sur le terrain. L'INRAB a piloté les processus d'innovation technique dans la production et la transformation du riz paddy. La FA/UP a piloté les études/recherches et les processus d'innovation organisationnelle et institutionnelle. Woord en Daad a apporté une assistance technique à toutes les activités du projet. L'enquête de référence effectuée au démarrage du projet a permis d'identifier trois piliers sur lesquels s'appuyer pour améliorer la compétitivité du riz local étuvé : les piliers « Plateforme d'innovation », « Production » et « Transformation ». Une plateforme d'innovation est un groupement d'individus représentant souvent des organisations, réunis dans le but de trouver des solutions aux problèmes communs qui limitent leurs performances. Ici, elle est composée de producteurs, transformatrices, commerçants et consommateurs de riz, de structures de recherche et de vulgarisation, de meuniers pour l'égrenage, de soudeurs pour la fabrication locale de kit d'étuvageDe 2015 à 2017, l'ONG DEDRAS et ses partenaires ont mis en oeuvre, au Bénin, le projet d'Appui à l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire par le renforcement de la compétitivité de la chaîne de valeur ajoutée riz local étuvé (PARCR). Reposant sur trois piliers synergiques, ce projet a permis d'améliorer la production et la qualité du riz paddy grâce à l'adoption du système de riziculture intensif, l'efficacité de l'étuvage et la qualité du riz étuvé grâce à des kits d'étuvage, et de renforcer les relations d'affaires entre les acteurs de la chaîne de valeur riz local étuvé.Couverture Avec le projet PARCR, les paysans améliorent la production du riz grâce à l'adoption du système de riziculture intensif et d'éleveurs pour la gestion des parcours et la valorisation du son de riz. Concernant le pilier « Production », des Champs écoles paysans (CEP) ont été installés pour promouvoir le système de riziculture intensif (SRI) qui s'appuie sur les principes de gestion des mauvaises herbes, de la fertilité du sol et de l'eau dans une vingtaine de villages par commune. Le CEP est une unité de démonstration, d'apprentissage et d'application réunissant environ 25 producteurs. Des rencontres périodiques sont organisées pour partager des expériences sur les pratiques agricoles. Enfin, dans le cadre du pilier « Transformation », deux modules de formation ont été déroulés au profit des femmes étuveuses. Le premier concernait les bonnes pratiques hygiéniques de production de riz étuvé, et le second la technologie améliorée d'étuvage du riz utilisant un kit composé de marmite et bac d'étuvage. Par ailleurs, un technicien a été recruté, formé et positionné dans chaque commune pour accompagner la mise en oeuvre des activités quotidiennes du projet.Le pilier « Plateforme d'innovation » fut déployé en premier afin de mettre les acteurs en relation et de créer un espace d'information, d'échange, d'identification et de résolution collectives des problèmes. Dans son exécution, il s'agissait d'abord d'identifier les acteurs impliqués dans la chaîne de valeur riz local étuvé, puis d'organiser avec eux un atelier de sensibilisation, de structuration de la plateforme, d'approfondissement de diagnostic et de planification d'activités prioritaires. Au démarrage, les participants s'attendaient à ce que les charges de leur participation à la plateforme soient supportées par le projet. L'information n'était pas parvenue à temps à certains acteurs, comme les éleveurs peuls. Ces derniers, concernés par la valorisation du son de riz, sont dispersés dans des hameaux qui ne sont pas toujours couverts par les réseaux de téléphonie mobile. Pour surmonter ces contraintes, les invitations aux activités ont été envoyées beaucoup plus tôt aux participants pour permettre à chacun de prendre ses dispositions, les facilitateurs des plateformes ayant identifié des personnes de contact servant de relai de communication dans les villages. Pour réduire les charges liées au déplacement, de petites réunions de proximité furent préférées aux grands rassemblements qui restaient cependant nécessaires. Une fois les acteurs mis en relation, l'ampleur des obstacles à l'amélioration de la production et de l'étuvage de riz paddy s'est très vite révélée. Le processus d'innovation s'est alors poursuivi dans les maillons spécifiques de la production et de la transformation.L'accompagnement des CEP, maillon central du pilier « Production », a consisté à identifier les producteurs intéressés, constituer des groupes d'apprentissage par village, organiser l'apprentissage et suivre les Une fois les acteurs mis en relation, l'ampleur des obstacles à l'amélioration de la production et de l'étuvage de riz paddy s'est très vite révélée.producteurs. Très tôt, les contraintes auxquelles les producteurs étaient confrontés pour l'adoption du SRI sont remontées à la plateforme. Parmi elles : l'indisponibilité d'engrais et de semences de la variété IR841, qui leur a été recommandée dans le SRI, la réticence des structures de microcrédit à en octroyer aux producteurs -le faible niveau d'organisation des filières ne leur garantissant pas le recouvrement des créances -, ainsi que la pénibilité et l'exigence en temps du semis en ligne. Les facilitateurs de plateformes ont donc aidé les producteurs à rechercher un arrangement avec les structures de distribution d'intrants (engrais et semence IR841) et les institutions de microcrédit. Des mécanismes ont été élaborés pour mettre en confiance les institutions de services, basés sur la mise en gage d'une quantité de riz paddy dont la valeur correspond à peu près au montant des dettes du producteur. Collecté juste après les récoltes, ce riz est vendu plus tard à des prix plus élevés pour le remboursement des dettes. Pour faire face à l'exigence en temps du SRI, les producteurs ont formé et motivé leurs enfants, surtout les filles, pour effectuer le semis en ligne.Dans le cadre du pilier « Transformation », les facilitateurs ont identifié les transformatrices et organisé des formations sur l'utilisation du kit d'étuvage. Les groupements d'étuveuses ont reçu un kit d'étuvage et furent ensuite suivis dans l'usage de ce kit. Plusieurs contraintes sont apparues dès la première campagne agricole, notamment l'éloignement du point de vente, qui augmentait le coût d'acquisition des kits, la réticence des structures de microcrédit à octroyer des prêts aux étuveuses (leur permettant de constituer des stocks de riz paddy) qu'ils jugent insuffisamment bien organisées pour inspirer confiance, ou, plus inquiétant, le rejet inattendu par ces dernières de la variété IR841 en raison des plaintes adressées par les consommateurs sur la qualité de ce riz après cuisson. En réponse à ces contraintes, le projet a organisé la formation d'artisans locaux, qui ont fabriqué des kits d'étuvage dans chaque commune, et élargi les accords de crédit obtenus en faveur des producteurs aux étuveuses. En outre, les chercheurs de l'Institut national de recherche ont conduit des essais qui ont permis de mettre au point une technique appropriée de cuisson du riz IR841 à laquelle les « femmes vendeuses du riz » ont été formées.Le principal critère d'évaluation du pilier « Plateforme d'innovation » est l'amélioration des relations entre les acteurs en retenant comme indicateurs la fréquence de rencontres d'échange et de travail, le nombre de goulots d'étranglement identifiés et l'établissement de nouveaux liens d'affaires. Nous avons ainsi noté des échanges plus fréquents entre les membres des plateformes sur diverses préoccupations (via téléphone ou de petites séances de discussions au village) à la faveur desquels des obstacles ont pu être identifiés et traités. Nous avons également constaté l'établissement de relations d'affaires entre les acteurs. Les forgerons fabriquent des kits d'étuvage qu'ils mettent à disposition des étuveuses à crédit. Les étuveuses s'approvisionnent en riz paddy chez les producteurs SRI, qu'elles préfinancent pour garantir leur approvisionnement en riz paddy de qualité.L'amélioration des rendements est le critère qui nous permet d'évaluer le pilier « Production », les indicateurs étant le niveau d'adoption de bonnes pratiques agricoles par les producteurs et l'augmentation du rendement et de la qualité du riz paddy. Désormais, plus de 75 % des producteurs pratiquent le SRI : semis en ligne à bonne date (15-30 juin), application de fumure, démariage, etc. En conséquence, les producteurs utilisent moins de semences, multiplient leur rendement par deux et obtiennent du riz paddy plein, donc de meilleure qualité. Un producteur de riz de Banikoara témoigne : « Au cours de la campagne agricole 2016, je me suis contenté d'une petite superficie de moins de 0,25 ha de riz. Lors de la récolte, tout le monde a été surpris de constater que ma production était supérieure à celles de mes frères, juste en adoptant une bonne technique de semis. J'en conclus qu'une grande emblavure ne garantit pas toujours une bonne production. »  Les innovations majeures introduites et développées au sein de la plateforme d'innovation ont su répondre aux attentes des productrices. Devenue une référence dans la sous-région ouest-africaine, elle leur a permis de doubler leurs revenus.L a productivité du niébé s'est accrue au Burkina Faso dans les années 2000 : de 300 kg/ha dans les années 1980, elle est passée à un rendement moyen de 500 kg/ha (Comité interprofessionnel filières céréales et niébé, 2010). La région du Centre-Nord, dont relève la province du Bam, est l'une des principales zones pourvoyeuses de niébé, dont la culture est pratiquée sur de petites superficies (0,25 ha en moyenne) avec une faible maîtrise ou une méconnaissance des technologies améliorées de production et de transformation. Une enquête diagnostique, réalisée en 2010 par le Programme d'appui aux filières agro-sylvo-pastorales (PAFASP) sur la filière niébé dans la zone agroécologique concernée, a fait ressortir plusieurs opportunités justifiant la mise en place d'une plateforme d'innovation pour booster la filière. Forte de 2000 membres, l'Union provinciale féminine Namagbzanga (UPFN) de la province du Bam, localité située à 120 km au nord de Ouagadougou, la capitale du Burkina, est l'organisation porteuse de la plateforme d'innovation sur le niébé. Avant sa mise en place, les femmes de l'UPFN étaient confrontées à quatre contraintes majeures : une méconnaissance des semences de qualité, un accès limité aux terres cultivables, un faible accès aux sources de financement et l'absence d'une chaîne de commercialisation suffisamment organisée et fonctionnelle. « Ces difficultés ont découragé plusieurs femmes, qui ont abandonné leurs champs Le Programme de productivité agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO)/Burkina a appuyé, en juillet 2013, l'Union provinciale féminine Namagbzanga (UPFN) de la province du Bam au Burkina Faso pour la mise en place d'une plateforme d'innovation sur le niébé. En moins de trois ans, l'introduction au sein de cette plateforme de cinq nouvelles variétés de niébé à haut rendement, le plaidoyer pour l'accès des femmes aux terres cultivables et au crédit bancaire et l'amélioration du circuit de commercialisation ont permis de booster la productivité du niébé et de doubler le revenu des productrices.Le concept de plateforme d'innovation se réfère à un ensemble de parties prenantes liées par des intérêts communs autour d'une problématique donnée, d'un défi ou d'une opportunité en vue d'améliorer les performances d'une filière au profit des différents acteurs. La plateforme d'innovation peut être comprise comme une collaboration entre plusieurs acteurs/ actrices (producteurs/productrices, chercheurs, structures d'appui-conseil, institutions financières, autorités locales, chefs coutumiers, projets et programmes, médias…) pour stimuler et soutenir le développement d'une filière agricole.technologies et assuré, en collaboration avec le PPAAO, le rapportage des activités.Pour rendre effective et fonctionnelle la plateforme d'innovation sur le niébé, trois étapes importantes ont été conduites : i) identification des acteurs, des rôles respectifs et diagnostic des contraintes ; ii) analyse et validation des actions à conduire en vue de lever les contraintes ; iii) développement sur le terrain des actions validées par les acteurs.Les activités menées dans le cadre de la plateforme d'innovation se sont décomposées en quatre grands volets qui ont tous conduit à des résultats positifs. Cinq nouvelles variétés de niébé à haut rendement ont été introduites au sein de la plateforme d'innovation. Les productrices ont adopté et diffusé, à travers des visites commentées, ces variétés qui produisent en moyenne 800 kg/ha en 60 jours contre 500 kg/ha en 90 jours pour les anciennes variétés. « Ces variétés sont appréciées par les productrices grâce à leur haut rendement, leur cycle court, leurs gros grains et la couleur blanche des grains, » atteste la présidente de l'UPFN et présidente de la plateforme d'innovation, Awa Ouédraogo.Dans plusieurs villages, des chefs coutumiers ont mené des plaidoyers en vue de faciliter l'accès des femmes aux terres cultivables et de plus grandes superficies. Grâce à cet engagement, les superficies octroyées à ces dernières ont atteint dans certains villages trois ha alors qu'elles ne disposaient que de 0,5 ha auparavant. C'est notamment le cas du village de Yalka, dans la commune de Kongoussi, et des villages de Rouko, Gankaré, Sabcè et Guibaré.Des partenariats ont été mis en place avec des institutions de microfinance, ce qui a permis d'accorder 200 millions FCFA de crédit à 800 membres de la plateforme d'innovation en 2016 contre 75 millions FCFA avant sa mise en place. « Notre participation aux visites commentées sur les parcelles de production du niébé nous a convaincus de la qualité du travail et des rendements possibles, nous encourageant ainsi à augmenter les crédits accordés aux femmes pour la production du niébé, » reconnaît Aminata Cissé, responsable de la Caisse populaire de Kongoussi (chef-lieu de la province du Bam).Enfin, le circuit de commercialisation avec la SONAGESS s'est amélioré et renforcé : 465 t de niébé ont été vendues en 2016 pour un montant de 120 millions FCFA contre des ventes moyennes annuelles de 280 t pour un montant 72 millions FCFA avant la mise en place de la plateforme d'innovation. « J'ai réalisé, en 2016, un bénéfice de 665 000 FCFA après laLes acteurs ayant contribué à cet accroissement de revenus sont segmentés en trois catégories : les acteurs du changement (instituts de recherche, services d'appui-conseil, décideurs politiques, chefs coutumiers, médias), les catalyseurs du changement (projets et programmes de développement, institutions de microfinance, structures d'achat) et les bénéficiaires du changement (organisation des productrices porteuse de la plateforme d'innovation). Ces acteurs ont joué un rôle complémentaire dans la conduite des activités. Ainsi, l'Institut de l'environnement et de recherches agricoles (INERA) et l'Institut de recherche en sciences appliquée et technologies (RSAT) ont proposé les technologies à adopter et assuré les formations relatives à ces dernières. La Direction générale des productions végétales (DGPV) a identifié et proposé les technologies à adopter, et capitalisé les acquis au profit du système de vulgarisation et d'appui-conseil agricole au niveau national. Les décideurs politiques et administratifs, parmi lesquels le Haut-commissaire (la plus haute autorité administrative au niveau provincial), ont contribué à la sensibilisation des acteurs politiques (députés, maires, élus locaux...) et à la résolution des problèmes. Les chefs de villages ont quant à eux aidé à la sensibilisation des populations sur les questions susceptibles d'entraver la bonne marche de la plateforme et mené des plaidoyers pour l'accès des femmes aux terres cultivables et de plus grande superficie. Les radios locales ont assuré la diffusion de l'information sur la plateforme et les activités en direction du public au niveau local et national. Le Programme de productivité agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO)/Burkina a apporté son appui financier et technique aux activités de la plateforme et assuré, en collaboration avec le comité technique de gestion de la plateforme d'innovation, le suivi et la capitalisation des acquis. Les caisses populaires facilitent l'accès des productrices et transformatrices de niébé aux crédits. La Société nationale de gestion de sécurité alimentaire (SONAGESS) assure l'achat et le stockage du niébé. Enfin, l'UPFN a proposé plusieurs innovations, animé l'ensemble du groupe des producteurs et productrices engagés à adopter des La plateforme d'innovation permet l'établissement de relations solides et de confiance entre les acteurs de la microfinance et les productrices, ce qui a contribué à accroître le montant des crédits accordés aux membres. En outre, le contrat d'achat entre la SONAGESS et la plateforme d'innovation garantit la commercialisation de la production.Les productrices ont adopté ces variétés qui produisent en moyenne 800 kg/ha en 60 jours contre 500 kg/ha en 90 jours pour les anciennes variétés. vente à la SONAGESS de 5 400 kg de niébé, affirme Bibata Gansoré, 52 ans, productrice dans la province du Bam, mariée et mère de six enfants. Le bénéfice a servi à payer des vivres, se soigner, payer la scolarité des enfants et contribuer au bon fonctionnement de la plateforme d'innovation. »Ces résultats probants ont été obtenus grâce à la conjugaison d'une série de facteurs. En premier lieu, l'engagement de l'Union porteuse de la plateforme d'innovation a été crucial. Une union bien structurée, dynamique, avec un partenariat diversifié et disposant d'animateurs endogènes servant de relais pour l'encadrement des productrices.Deuxièmement, la résolution des conflits s'est faite de façon endogène. Ce fut notamment le cas pour l'harmonisation des prix de vente du niébé : des échanges entre les acteurs de la production ont permis de s'accorder sur les prix à pratiquer. Cela a conduit à l'utilisation d'outils conventionnels de mesure. L'organisation de collectes communes et l'acheminement groupé des productions vers la SONAGESS et les sites de foires et marchés du niébé ont permis de résoudre les problèmes liés au transport. Quant aux difficultés d'obtention de terres cultivables et de plus grande superficie aux femmes pour la production de niébé, elles ont été surmontéesEn dépit des succès enregistrés, des défis restent à relever pour rendre la plateforme d'innovation plus performante. Il s'agit, entre autres, d'accroître la production pour répondre à une demande de plus en plus croissante, de renforcer les capacités techniques et financières des acteurs de la chaîne de valeur niébé, mais aussi de renforcer la capacité des membres de la plateforme d'innovation à l'utilisation des outils de gestion.En novembre 2015, la plateforme d'innovation du niébé a obtenu le prix de la meilleure plateforme d'innovation de l'Afrique de l'Ouest décerné à Dakar par le Conseil ouest et centre africain pour la Recherche et le développement agricoles (CORAF/WECARD) en collaboration avec la Banque mondiale. La récompense de 6 millions FCFA a permis de financer la construction d'un magasin de stockage de niébé de 100 t à Kongoussi (chef-lieu de la province du Bam). La construction de ce magasin marque ainsi la volonté affichée des acteurs de la plateforme d'innovation d'inscrire leur action dans la durée.La reproductibilité et le passage à l'échelle de cette expérience se sont manifestés à travers la mise en place de plateformes d'innovation dans d'autres filières, en l'occurrence le riz, la mangue, le karité et la tomate. Le prix obtenu à Dakar a par ailleurs fortement accru la notoriété de la plateforme d'innovation. Ainsi, de nombreux partenaires de la sous-région (Bénin, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambie, Ghana, Mali, Niger et Sénégal) sont venus en voyage d'études pour s'inspirer du modèle burkinabé. Les actions d'Afrique Verte dans la filière fonio ont consisté à relancer la consommation du fonio dans les marchés urbains dominés par un fonio de qualité médiocre décrié pour la présence de grains de sable et pour un emballage jugé peu attractif. Elle a oeuvré à positionner le fonio comme une source complémentaire de céréales pouvant contribuer à la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle au Burkina Faso. Plusieurs acteurs ont été impliqués dans la réalisation de ces actions ; des acteurs directs (fournisseurs de semences, producteurs, transformatrices et consommateurs) et des acteurs Ce document décrit les principales actions conduites par Afrique Verte Burkina Faso depuis 2009 pour la relance de la consommation du fonio. Il présente les innovations opérées par les transformatrices de céréales pour permettre au fonio de gagner en notoriété auprès des ménages urbains et d'être accepté dans les supermarchés et les restaurants.• l'organisation d'ateliers de contractualisation entre producteurs et transformatrices pour faciliter l'accès au fonio ;• la stimulation des femmes urbaines et rurales à la transformation du fonio ;• la promotion de nouvelles technologies de décorticage du fonio associant les équipementiers et les structures de recherche nationales ;• l'analyse périodique de la qualité du fonio issu des unités de transformation artisanales dans des laboratoires agrées ;• l'organisation de journées de dégustation réunissant des ménages, des consommateurs urbains et des leaders d'opinion ;• la facilitation de la participation des femmes transformatrices aux foires et salons autour des produits agricoles au Burkina Faso et à l'étranger ;• la facilitation de l'accès aux crédits pour les femmes transformatrices.Ces activités sont menées à bien grâce au dispositif technique et organisationnel efficace développé par Afrique Verte, qui comprend une coordination technique avec des animatrices d'appui. Cette équipe permanente est renforcée par des experts en qualité et en finance.  innovation. L'organisation des femmes au sein d'un réseau actif de transformatrices à Bobo Dioulasso, Banfora, Ouaga, avec un apprentissage entre pairs, une solidarité et une émulation, et assurant le lien entre les producteurs de fonio et le marché, a permis d'aboutir à des résultats plus rapidement que prévu.Comme le montre le témoignage de Madame Gnoula, les femmes transformatrices ont su intégrer les exigences des consommateurs urbains en termes d'hygiène et d'emballage. Elles ont prouvé qu'elles pouvaient, avec de petits outils et de la rigueur, proposer des produits adaptés à la demande. La capacité de ces femmes pourtant peu instruites à opérer des innovations complexes et à s'inscrire dans une logique de mobilisation de crédits pour propulser les affaires a aussi constitué un facteur de réussite des actions entreprises. Soulignons toutefois que s'il est utile de prendre en compte les suggestions des consommateurs pour offrir des produits de qualité, les distributeurs jouent également un rôle clé dans le succès de l'augmentation de la consommation de ces produits dans les marchés urbains. Ils méritent d'être associés aux stratégies de commercialisation dès le départ.    Malgré les difficultés rencontrées lors de la mise en oeuvre de l'initiative (faible réceptivité des femmes à l'innovation, sècheresses, attaques de parasites, problème de commercialisation de l'huile du sésame), le processus de structuration des femmes autour de la transformation du sésame a induit plusieurs résultats et impacts positifs.   Les activités du groupement Wafakay, dans la commune de Téra à l'ouest du Niger, se résument à la commercialisation des céréales, au petit commerce et à l'embouche de petits ruminants. Ce groupement essentiellement constitué de femmes est membre de l'union Harey Ban, dont l'objectif est d'améliorer les conditions de vie des femmes et des enfants à travers des activités génératrices de revenu. À ces activités s'ajoute désormais la fortification d'un aliment traditionnellement consommé au Niger : le mil.Le projet DIAPOCO fait intervenir plusieurs acteurs : i) les membres de l'union et du groupement, pour la mise en oeuvre des activités sur le terrain, l'organisation des femmes et la gestion du petit matériel ; ii) le centre de santé, pour la sensibilisation autour de la farine fortifiée afin de promouvoir sa consommation, le suivi et l'encadrement des femmes ; iii) des élus locaux fortement impliqués, pour l'intégration de l'initiative dans le plan de développement communal ; iv) des radios, pour mettre en oeuvre la stratégie de communication visant àLa farine fortifiée est un mélange de farine (ici, l'aliment véhicule est le mil) et de prémix. Spécialement conçu pour la fortification des farines, ce prémix contient du fer (sous forme de sulfate de fer), du zinc (sous forme d'oxyde de zinc) et de l'acide folique sur support d'amidon de maïs. Pour la fabrication de la farine, le mil est nettoyé, puis décortiqué chez des meuniers. Il est ensuite lavé et séché avant d'être torréfié et réduit en farine dans un moulin. La farine fortifiée est réalisée avec des formules simples (pré-mélanges). Le pré-mélange m1 est composé de 10g de prémix et de 90g de farine de mil. Le pré-mélange m2 est composé de 20g de m1 auxquels l'on ajoute 80g de farine de mil. Ces dilutions successives permettent de diminuer la concentration de micronutriments dans le mélange final. Ainsi, le mélange m3 est constitué de 50g de m 2 et 4 950g de farine de mil. La farine fortifiée obtenue est alors pesée et conditionnée dans des sachets de 500g afin d'être stockée avant d'être vendue. partager les objectifs, les activités et les résultats de l'initiative avec une large communauté ; v) l'équipe technique d'AcSSA, pour l'appui technique, le conseil et l'accompagnement des bénéficiaires.L'initiative a donné lieu à plusieurs actions parmi lesquelles une visite d'échange à Niamey de quatre membres du groupement Wafakay dans l'unité de transformation de la farine fortifiée où a été lancée l'expérience ; la restitution des échanges aux autres membres du groupement et de l'union, et l'expression des besoins en équipements ; une rencontre entre les responsables de la collectivité de Téra, du centre de santé et des radios ; les achats et la mise en place des équipements et des matières premières ; la formation in situ des vingt femmes du groupement (techniques de transformation de la farine fortifiée, préparation de la bouillie, vie associative, gestion des unités de transformation et techniques marketings).Le groupement Wafakay a reçu une dotation initiale comprenant des produits bruts (3 t de mil et 3 kg de fortifiant), des équipements et matériels de travail (torréfacteur, farineuse, mélangeur, balance, thermosoudeuse, emballage, étiquette, marmites, Le succès de cette nouvelle farine se mesure par son utilisation par un grand nombre d'habitants de la commune de Téra et des alentours, aussi bien pour lutter contre la malnutrition que pour faciliter le sevrage des enfants.la mise en oeuvre du plan de développement communal comme stratégie de lutte contre la malnutrition et la pauvreté. Deuxièmement, un marketing adapté, avec une campagne de communication participative et inclusive. La diffusion d'émissions radios en langues locales (débats, interviews, témoignages, spots) en phase avec les préoccupations des populations, a contribué à l'appréciation de la farine enrichie locale nommée « Hamniya ».Ainsi, le groupement Wafakay, qui ne disposait au départ que de 50 000 FCFA en fonds propres, a pu augmenter son capital grâce à la vente de la farine fortifiée. Les femmes ont transformé 1000 kg de mil et ont obtenu 580 kg de farine fortifiée, vendue pour un montant total de 580 000 FCFA. 250 000 FCFA ont ensuite été prélevés afin de faire des crédits sans intérêts aux femmes du groupement, ces dernières travaillant sans rémunération. Plus généralement, l'initiative a permis d'améliorer le revenu de ces femmes et de réduire la malnutrition chez les enfants tout en valorisant des produits locaux (le mil, localement produit) et en mobilisant la population locale.  Avant le projet DIAPOCO, les mères des enfants malnutris utilisaient des bouillies simples à base de céréales, et achetaient des produits industriels (tels que les produits Nutriset Plumpy'nut, lait F100 et F75) lorsque ceux-ci étaient disponibles, ce qui n'était pas toujours le cas. C'est de cette situation qu'est née l'idée de fabriquer sur place de la farine fortifiée à base de céréales locales. Aujourd'hui, le succès de cette nouvelle farine se mesure par son utilisation par un grand nombre d'habitants de la commune de Téra et des alentours, aussi bien pour lutter contre la malnutrition que pour faciliter le sevrage des enfants. L'équipe de recherche a d'abord travaillé à domestiquer les trois variétés de banane plantain sous serre puis, après avoir obtenu des résultats encourageants, a mené une évaluation en milieu réel pour s'assurer de leur adaptabilité. Pour ce faire, elle a adopté une démarche de recherche participative associant étroitement les chercheurs et les acteurs du monde rural et décomposée comme suit : i) identification participative de la thématique de recherche ; ii) apport de la technologie par la recherche ; ii) identification du site pour la démonstration en milieu réel et d'un(e) producteur(rice) ; iv) organisation d'une visite commentée couplée à une séance de dégustation regroupant l'ensemble des parties prenantes (chercheurs, partenaires techniques et O riginaire d'Asie du Sud-Est, le bananier plantain est cultivable dans les zones tropicales où les pluies peuvent atteindre 1100 mm d'eau par an. Dans la sous-région ouest-africaine, il est notamment produit en Côte d'Ivoire et au Ghana. Durant les trois dernières décennies, la consommation de la banane plantain, en provenance de ces deux pays, est entrée dans les habitudes alimentaires des Burkinabè, notamment ceux habitant dans les centres urbains. Elle est consommée sous forme de frites, chips, foutou, accompagnée de sauce ou simplement grillée.Les revenus générés par le commerce de la banane plantain sont très attrayants. Le prix de vente de la tonne de banane varie en effet entre 120 000 et 140 000 FCFA selon les périodes de l'année. Un camion chargé de bananes plantains génère autour de 1 500 000 FCFA de bénéfice à Ouagadougou (Bambio Z. François, 2015). Nonobstant les opportunités qu'offre cette filière, force est de constater qu'elle est peu développée au Burkina Faso, ce qui rend le pays fortement tributaire des importations. On enregistre d'ailleurs une nette progression de ces importations, ce qui témoigne d'une demande locale en hausse constante. Les quantités de bananes plantains importées sont passées de 1 146,1 t en 2008 à 5 084,6 t en 2013, soit une évolution de plus de 300 %.Pour répondre aux besoins de consommation des populations, réduire la dépendance du Burkina aux Pour répondre à une demande croissante et réduire le taux de dépendance des importations, le bananier plantain de Côte d'Ivoire a été introduit au Burkina Faso par le Programme de productivité agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO-Burkina) lors d'une expérience menée de novembre 2014 à décembre 2015, à Diarradougou. Avec des rendements atteignant 22 t/ha et un poids des régimes allant jusqu'à 17 kg, l'équipe scientifique estime que les résultats obtenus sont satisfaisants.Couverture Les objectifs de cette expérience sont de promouvoir l'adoption du bananier plantain et contribuer à l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire financiers, producteurs, transformateurs et consommateurs) pour partager les résultats de l'expérience ; v) mise en place du dispositif expérimental relaté dans le protocole de recherche.La zone retenue pour l'expérimentation fut l'ouest du Burkina, dans la région des Hauts-Bassins. Plus précisément, il s'agissait du périmètre maraîcher de Diarradougou, commune rurale situé à 20 km de Bobo Dioulasso, chef de lieu de ladite région, où règne des conditions agroécologiques et climatiques favorables (accès à une source d'eau pour l'irrigation et pluviométrie variant de 800 à 1100 mm) à cette culture.La productrice a été choisie parmi les membres du groupement des producteurs de la banane douce du périmètre. Ce choix s'est fait selon trois critères prédéfinis : accessibilité de la parcelle, existence d'un point d'eau pour l'irrigation, et engagement du bénéficiaire. Les plants pour la pépinière et un appui conseil technique lui ont été fournis tout au long de l'expérimentation.Le dispositif expérimental mis en place par l'équipe de recherche fut le suivant : i) des superficies exploitées de 0,9 ha pour PITA 3, 0,9 ha pour FHIA 21 et 1,25 ha pour Big ebanga ; ii) 25 t de fumure organique appliquées à l'hectare ; iii) 1 t d'engrais minéraux (NPK et urée) recommandée à l'hectare ; iv) deux passages pour l'irrigation par semaine jusqu'à la reprise de croissance des plants et des passages tous les 4 à 5 jours après la reprise de croissance des plants jusqu'à maturité.Les objectifs à moyen et à long terme de cette expérience sont de promouvoir l'adoption effective de cette nouvelle culture au Burkina, diversifier les productions agricoles et les sources de revenus, générer de nouveaux emplois au profit des acteurs du monde rural, et contribuer à l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire et à la qualité nutritionnelle des populations.En suivant fidèlement les différentes recommandations techniques des trois variétés, des résultats intéressants ont été constatés. Ainsi, le délai de floraison est de sept mois pour la variété PITA3 et huit mois pour les Il est possible -et rentable -de pratiquer la culture du bananier plantain au Burkina Faso.« Au départ, j'étais très sceptique, mais aujourd'hui je suis une femme heureuse au regard des résultats obtenus. Je suis très satisfaite et fière d'être un exemple pour mes camarades producteurs. J'ai appris beaucoup de choses de cette expérience, qui m'aideront même pour la production de la banane douce. Cela confirme l'adage \"Qui ne risque rien n'a rien\" ». Sylvie Kassongo, bénéficiaire de l'expérimentation de production de la banane plantain La conduite participative de l'expérimentation, l'implication de tous les acteurs (producteurs et chercheurs) tout au long du processus et la prise en compte de toutes les opinions ont permis de relever les défis rencontrés. La réussite de l'expérience doit aussi beaucoup au dévouement de la productrice bénéficiaire, à l'appui conseil technique assuré par l'équipe de l'INERA et à l'accompagnement des autorités administratives à travers l'appui financier du PPAAO. À l'instar des autres producteurs membres de son groupement, Saïdou a bénéficié d'une formation de cinq jours assurée au niveau local par la Direction provinciale du ministère de l'Agriculture et des aménagements hydrauliques ainsi que des formateurs endogènes. À l'issue de cette formation, il a reçu du matériel de production (marteau, pic axe, râteau, brouette, triangle à pente, gants, bottes, etc.) La rigueur est un des traits qui caractérisent le mieux Saïdou : il se fixe des objectifs et met tout en oeuvre pour les atteindre. Dès la fin de la formation, il a établi un calendrier et un plan d'action grâce auxquels il a pris de l'avance par rapport à ses camarades. Aux premières pluies, il avait déjà effectué ses semis. C'est que le producteur avait été convaincu par l'expérience de son père, bénéficiaire du projet avant lui. Grâce au renforcement de ses capacités, celui-ci avait aménagé deux parcelles, une de 1,5 ha en demi-lunes et une autre de 1 ha en zaï, sur des terres dénudées. Il avait alors récolté 70 charretées de sorgho sur la parcelle S itué dans la province du Kourwéogo, dans la région du Plateau-Central, le village de Roundé est caractérisé par la dégradation des ressources naturelles et l'abondance de terres abandonnées, impropres à la culture. Cette situation est une conséquence du changement climatique, qui se manifeste notamment par la sécheresse, l'insuffisance de pluies et parfois des inondations et des vents violents. Les producteurs procèdent donc à l'abattage des arbres alors même qu'il y en a de moins en moins, détruisant la flore de la région. Ceux qui n'ont pas la chance de disposer de terres vierges sont contraints de quitter le village à la recherche d'un mieux-être, ce qui contribue à le dépeupler, le privant ainsi de ses bras valides. En parallèle, les difficultés d'accès aux équipements et intrants agricoles ainsi qu'une faible connaissance des techniques de conservation des eaux et des sols entraînent une baisse considérable des productions céréalières et de la productibilité de l'élevage, ce qui expose les communautés à une insécurité alimentaire permanente.C'est pour résoudre ces difficultés que Solidar Suisse a lancé un projet de deux ans, de 2015 à 2016, visant à améliorer la sécurité alimentaire des populations pauvres et vulnérables de la région du Plateau-Central au Burkina Faso et à améliorer les conditions de vie des producteurs. Ce projet fait suite à une première phase, de 2013 à 2014, qui a enregistré des résultats forts La demi-lune est peu pratiquée par les producteurs en raison de la pénibilité du travail qu'elle nécessite. Fort heureusement, certains producteurs sont prêts à braver cette pénibilité pour se lancer dans la réalisation de cette technique qui présente de nombreux avantages. Saïdou Ouédraogo est de ceux-là. Cet habitant du village de Roundé, dans la commune de Niou au Burkina Faso, et membre d'un groupement de producteurs bénéficiaire du projet Sécurité alimentaire de Solidar Suisse, a réussi l'impossible : cultiver du riz, céréale très gourmande en eau, sur une terre jadis laissée à l'abandon.Couverture L'application de techniques de conservation des eaux et des sols procure aux bénéficiaires l'opportunité de varier leur production convaincu de l'efficacité de la technique de la demilune, il décide de cultiver du riz dans son village.Il réalise alors des demi-lunes sur une superficie totale de 88,3 m 2 de terres dénudées et fait une récolte prodigieuse de 233 kg qu'il se garde de vendre, réservant cette manne pour la consommation familiale. Il souhaite faire profiter ses proches des fruits de son exploit avant de les partager avec la population. Habituellement, la variété cultivée par Saïdou, le riz FKR 19, a un rendement de 5 à 6 t/ha avec un cycle de 115 jours. Le producteur a récolté la même quantité en seulement en 80 jours grâce aux demi-lunes, et uniquement avec de l'engrais organique. En 2016, il tenta à nouveau l'expérience, cette fois sur une superficie de 204,8 m 2 en utilisant de l'engrais chimique. Il récolta 700 kg de riz… Saïdou le téméraire entend aujourd'hui poursuivre l'aventure en se lançant prochainement dans la production d'igname, tubercule habituellement produit dans les zones humides. aménagée en demi-lunes et 40 charretées de la même spéculation sur celle aménagée en zaï. En comparaison, il n'avait récolté que 15 charretées sur son ancien champ de 2,5 ha, exploité en parallèle.Contrairement au sorgho, qui est une des plantes cultivées les moins exigeantes en eau, le riz est une céréale qui nécessite beaucoup d'eau. Il est de ce fait cultivé dans les zones marécageuses ou les bas-fonds. Parmi les trois provinces de la région du Plateau-Central, la province du Kourwéogo est la plus défavorisée en termes de qualité des sols et de répartition de la pluviométrie, et donc la moins propice à cette culture. Saïdou, qui a auparavant vécu dans un pays où la pluviométrie est abondante et maîtrise les techniques de la culture du riz, va toutefois réaliser l'impossible. Enhardi par l'expérience de son père, et Les savoirs locaux de nos parents, pour peu que l'on s'y intéresse, constituent une véritable richesse à exploiter en association avec les innovations agricoles. Les producteurs ont tendance à préférer les techniques de zaï au détriment des demi-lunes en raison de l'intensité de l'effort à fournir pour réaliser celles-ci. C'est donc en toute logique que la difficulté à convaincre ces derniers à pratiquer les demi-lunes (mais aussi la passibilité des acteurs du projet euxmêmes, notamment les associations de mise en oeuvre, face à cette situation) constitua le principal défi du Projet Sécurité Alimentaire de Solidar Suisse.Pourtant, les demi-lunes sont plus résistantes et durables dans le temps que les zaï (5 à 7 ans contre 3 ans). De plus, la quantité d'eau nécessaire aux demi-lunes est moins importante que pour les zaï (les semis dans les demi-lunes peuvent se faire avant l'installation définitive de la saison des pluies). Autre avantage intéressant, elles requièrent une superficie moins importance, ce qui contribue à résoudre le problème de plus en plus récurrent du foncier. Elles sont en outre efficaces pour récupérer les terres en glacis. Les demi-lunes conviennent donc aux terres dégradées, et présentent l'avantage, une fois qu'elles sont réalisées, de nécessiter moins de travail.L'application de cette technique de conservation des eaux et des sols procure aux bénéficiaires l'opportunité de varier leur production ; elle a permis à certains d'entre eux de pratiquer des cultures qu'ils n'auraient pas pu exploiter auparavant à cause de l'aridité des sols.L'intervention menée par Solidar Suisse a été innovante à plusieurs égards. Des voyages d'étude ont été organisés à l'intention des partenaires de mise en oeuvre pour leur permettre d'apprendre d'autres acteurs intervenant dans le même domaine. Les ressources internes de ces partenaires, ainsi que des agents de l'Etat au niveau local, ont été mis à contribution pour la formation des producteurs qui a aussi bénéficié de la contribution d'anciens bénéficiaires et producteurs modèles. Le fait que les différents participants soient familiers les uns avec les autres a permis de renforcer la confiance.Les résultats obtenus l'ont été grâce à la combinaison de plusieurs facteurs. D'abord, le projet a su apporter une réponse adéquate aux besoins des bénéficiaires. La rigueur que s'est imposée Saïdou dans l'exécution de son activité ainsi que l'adhésion et la motivation des différentes parties prenantes ont contribué pour beaucoup à la réussite de l'utilisation des demi-lunes. En outre, le recours aux savoirs locaux par les producteurs eux-mêmes (comme le décryptage des signes de la nature permettent de savoir s'il pleuvra suffisamment ou non) a amélioré la qualité des actions.L'expérience de Saïdou permet ainsi de tirer plusieurs leçons très utiles. La conviction est le premier facteur, et la rigueur personnelle une qualité indispensable, qui déterminent tous deux la réussite de l'utilisation de techniques complexes, comme les demi-lunes. En outre, les savoirs locaux de nos parents, pour peu que l'on s'y intéresse, constituent une véritable richesse à exploiter en association avec les innovations agricoles. I dentifiée par la Fédération des organisations des producteurs de banane du Mali comme une filière porteuse pour le développement économique national du pays, et dotée d'un fort potentiel de production (estimé à 35 000 t par an), la filière banane est pourtant sous-exploitée. En dépit de la position géographique favorable du Mali, différentes contraintes affectent sa production, notamment la non maîtrise des techniques appropriées. Or, la banane contribue à la sécurité alimentaire (elle représente une source substantielle de glucide) et constitue une opportunité socio-économique.L'une des préoccupations du Programme de productivité agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO-Mali), qui supporte la filière banane malienne depuis 2011-2012, est le développement et la diffusion de technologies en vue d'accroître la production agricole pour assurer la sécurité alimentaire et réduire la pauvreté. Aussi a-t-il initié, à l'intention des membres de la Fédération, une formation sur de nouvelles techniques de production visant à améliorer la productivité des bananerais et les revenus des producteurs. L'expérience a débuté dans le bassin de production à Koutiala (Sikasso) avant d'être étendue dans d'autres localités du cercle de Dioïla (Koulikoro).Le diagnostic effectué en 2010 par la Fédération sur la production de la banane au Mali, en particulier à Koutiala, a fait ressortir une diminution de la productivité des pieds de banane de 20 à 40 % de leur potentialité productive ces cinq dernières années due à un mode d'irrigation inapproprié, à l'apparition et au développement de la cercosporiose (une maladie de la souche de banane), et surtout à une méconnaissance de nouveaux itinéraires de production de la banane.Une formation sur ces nouveaux itinéraires a donc été mise place dans les zones de production avec pour objectifs i) d'accroître la productivité des pieds de banane en augmentant le poids des régimes des bannerais ; ii) de diminuer l'intensité de main d'oeuvre nécessaire dans les champs de banane ; iii) de permettre un développement végétatif normal du bannerais ; iv) de réduire les risques de cercosporiose ; v) et de permettre un bon murissement de la banane afin d'augmenter sa qualité organoleptique.La stratégie adoptée pour atteindre ces objectifs fut l'établissement d'un contrat de collaboration avec la Fédération des organisations des producteurs de la banane. Le chargé de la filière a dû suivre des formations en Côte d'Ivoire pour renforcer son expertise sur les nouveaux itinéraires de production.Pour améliorer la productivité des bananeraies et les revenus des producteurs de banane, la Fédération des organisations des producteurs de banane du Mali, en concertation avec le Programme de Productivité Agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO-Mali), a lancé un plan stratégique de développement de la filière consistant dans le renforcement des capacités de ses membres. C'est dans ce cadre que le PPAAO a initié un transfert de technologie dit « nouveaux itinéraires de production de la banane » dans le bassin de production à Koutiala (Sikasso).Couverture En plus de sa contribution à la sécurité alimentaire, la culture de la banane est un facteur de lutte contre l'exode rural et l'orpaillage en milieu rural devaient former à leur tour 80 producteurs dans les zones de production de la banane. Cette stratégie a permis de toucher un grand nombre de producteurs.L'évaluation technique menée par le Programme-Mali auprès des bénéficiaires dans le bassin de Koutiala a révélé plusieurs résultats positifs. Les 50 formateurs relais formés ont ainsi touché plus de 3 965 producteurs dans plusieurs villages. Le développement végétatif des plants de banane est désormais normal, et même excellent, ce qui permet au bananier d'arriver à maturité physiologique en huit ou neuf mois au lieu de douze mois. La combinaison des techniques (effeuillage, nettoyage, respect des écartements, etc.) a permis de passer à un rendement d'une tonne pour 25 régimes (contre moins d'une tonne pour 50 régimes auparavant). L'oeilletonnage, qui consiste à supprimer les rejets du bananier pour ne garder qu'un ou deux rejets par pieds-mère, a permis de réduire la quantité d'engrais à apporter aux plants de trois sacs à un sac et demi et d'augmenter le poids des régimes (70 régimes par t auparavant contre 30 régimes par t aujourd'hui). L'effeuillage, consistant à supprimer les feuilles mortes et celles du bas pour une meilleure aération de la bananeraie, a considérablement réduit l'infection par la cercosporiose et les grattages sur le fruit. La coupe de la fleur et la mise en place de tire-sève ont contribué à la maturité physiologique plus rapide du fruit. Le tuteurage, c'est à dire la mise en place d'une fourche de soutien afin d'empêcher les gros régimes de tomber au sol, a permis de réduire les pertes de bananes.Le nouvel itinéraire de production a permis de mettre en valeur 999 ha de surface supplémentaires.Les nouvelles techniques de production, importées de la Côte d'Ivoire, consistent à la destruction des rejets du bananier, l'effeuillage, la coupe des fleurs et la fertilisation. Elles ont été appliquées sur la banane Grande naine principalement cultivée au Mali. Cette variété a été choisie du fait de sa capacité d'adaptation aux conditions climatiques des zones de production et de son aptitude à se reproduire au champ par voie végétative (elle produit le matériel végétal, les rejets, nécessaire à la création de nouveaux plants).Pour bénéficier de cette intervention, les producteurs devaient posséder des parcelles de production et disposer d'équipements agricoles (motopompe et accessoires …), être capables de comprendre et d'appliquer les messages techniques et les conseils, se montrer motivés et disponibles. Une première séance de formation a concerné 50 formateurs relais qui La banane Grande naine a été choisie du fait de sa capacité d'adaptation aux conditions climatiques des zones de production et de son aptitude à se reproduire au champ par voie végétative.En vue d'assurer la durabilité du projet, la technique de production enseignée a été associée à la technique de plants issus de fragments de tige (PIF). Celle-ci répond au problème de vieillissement des bananeraies qui explique en partie les baisses de rendement enregistrées ces cinq dernières années et constitue un sérieux handicap pour le développement de la culture de la banane. C'est pourquoi la promotion de la technique PIF a été une innovation appréciable, accessible à tous les producteurs, même les plus petits, à moindre coût. Elle constitue une opportunité d'assurer la souveraineté semencière de la filière et de permettre une durabilité de la production de la banane au Mali.À travers les nouveaux itinéraires de production de la banane se dessinent les caractéristiques d'une nouvelle professionnalité de producteurs, et un ensemble de conditions qui définissent les traits d'une communauté apprenante et émergente dans la production de la banane au Mali. Cette communauté doit faire face à un certain nombre de défis :• Des difficultés de mobilisation de ressources financières pour amener un grand nombre de producteurs à la maitrise des nouvelles technologies de production de banane ;• L'insuffisance des mesures portant sur le renforcement de l'organisation des acteurs, la structuration de la filière, l'accès au financement, le développement des infrastructures adéquates pour une meilleure valorisation de la banane, les bonnes pratiques de gestion des eaux de surface, le développement du marché intérieur et l'amélioration de la qualité de la banane ;• De mauvaises conditions de stockage et de transport des bananes, qui contribuent pour beaucoup à l'altération de la qualité du fruit ;• La non sécurisation foncière, qui limite de plus en plus la culture de la banane aux environs des grandes villes, plus précisément dans le district de Bamako. Les terres se font rares du fait du développement de la ville et de la spéculation foncière qui atteint aujourd'hui même les villages éloignés ;• L'insuffisance de soutien matériel, financier et technique apporté aux femmes productrices de banane, celles-ci s'intéressant de plus en plus à la production de banane ;• L'insuffisance d'agents spécialisés dans le suiviaccompagnement des acteurs de la filière banane.En plus de sa contribution à la sécurité alimentaire, la culture de la banane est un facteur de lutte contre l'exode rural et l'orpaillage en milieu rural, car elle représente une formidable opportunité d'insertion socio-économique pour les jeunes. A u cours des campagnes 2011 et 2013, le déficit fourrager enregistré au Niger, de l'ordre de 16 471 000 t et 6 708 832 t de matière sèche, a fait perdre au cheptel nigérien environ 2 725 427 têtes de bétail, toute espèce confondue, soit 13,51 % de l'effectif total. Les espèces ovines, caprines et bovines ont été les plus affectées avec des proportions respectives de 37,48 %, 33,06 % et 27,14 % de cette perte. Pire, cette crise pastorale consubstantielle à la crise alimentaire a entrainé la décapitalisation du cheptel avec comme conséquence un bradage (vente à vil prix d'environ 1 435 202 têtes d'animaux) qui a fortement réduit les revenus des éleveurs et impacté négativement leurs conditions de vie. C'est dans ce contexte que l'idée de mise au point de la technologie du bloc multi-nutritionnel densifié, un aliment pour le bétail simple à élaborer à l'aide d'équipements et de produits locaux, a vu le jour au Niger.Sur financement du Programme de productivité agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO), des spécialistes d'alimentation et de nutrition animale de l'Institut national de la recherche agronomique du Niger (INRAN), des cadres des services publics de l'élevage et du Centre de développement de l'artisanat agricole et du machinisme rural (C-DARMA) ont La technologie de bloc multi-nutritionnel densifié pour le bétail (BMNDB) a été concrétisée grâce à un financement conjoint de l'Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO) et de l'État du Niger. Elle a été imaginée en réaction à la série de crises pastorales que le Niger a connu depuis son indépendance, en particulier celle de 2009-2010. La maîtrise de la fabrication du BMND est vivement souhaitée, car elle offre à la fois un moyen pour lutter contre l'insécurité alimentaire et pour améliorer les revenus des ménages.peut être préparé facilement dans les milieux ruraux et périurbains. Cela est d'autant plus intéressant qu'il n'y a aucun impact négatif majeur sur l'environnement : sa fabrication ne nécessite pas de coupe d'arbres et tout le fourrage utilisé est généralement réservé à l'alimentation des animaux. Cette innovation s'inscrit dans un contexte national où l'élevage intensif est pratiqué dans presque tous les ménages et où la demande en BMND est forte.La série d'images ci-dessus montre les différentes étapes de la fabrication du BMND. On voit d'abord des sacs contenant les matières à broyer, puis des prototypes de broyeur de tiges et des sacs contenant les tiges broyées. Le processus se poursuit avec le malaxage de tiges broyées avec les autres sousproduits agroindustriels, les minéraux, les liants et les vitamines. C'est surtout à partir de cette étape que commence la formation à la technique de fabrication du bloc qui conduit à la confection des briquettes ainsi étiquetées. La dernière image montre un test d'appétibilité du BMND mené sur des caprins.Les éléments cités ci-haut montrent que l'expérience est une réussite, mais aussi qu'elle a vocation à s'inscrire dans le temps, plusieurs facteurs militant pour la durabilité de la technologie de bloc multinutritionnel densifié pour le bétail au Niger. Tout d'abord, les sessions de formation sur la mise au point de cette innovation se poursuivent dans toutes les régions du pays. Ensuite, elle s'inscrit dans un contexte national où l'élevage intensif est pratiqué dans presque tous les ménages et où la demande en BMND est forte. En outre, le projet a bénéficié dès le départ d'un important soutien politique. Les unités de fabrication du broyeur sont toutes locales ; elles sont implantées dans quatre régions du Niger. Les ressources nécessaires à la fabrication du BMND sont elles aussi disponibles localement. Enfin, le BMND est et demeure respectueux de l'environnement avec un impact négatif très mineur. L'opération, qui visait au départ les éleveurs et associations d'éleveurs, a suscité l'intérêt des instituts de recherche et d'enseignement, des ONG et des services de vulgarisation, aussi bien au niveau national que sous-régional. Initiative des pouvoirs publics, lancée en réponse au déficit fourrager qui a causé la crise pastorale, le BMND constitue un moyen pour lutter contre l'insécurité alimentaire mais devient également une véritable activité génératrice de revenus et créatrice d'emploi, notamment pour une certaine catégorie de la population (les femmes et enfants ramasseurs de tiges).Hamidou Souley est responsable de suivi et évaluation du projet. hamsouleymane@yahoo.fr Les travaux de recherche d'un projet commissionné sur la « Mise au point des blocs multi nutritionnels densifiés de productions à base des ressources alimentaires locales » ont abouti à la mise au point de cinq formules dans l'embouche ovine. Les béliers nourris avec trois de ces formules ont réalisé les meilleures performances de croissance pondérale avec un gain de poids moyen de 83 g sur une période de 75 jours.Si ces résultats sont encourageants, le processus de fabrication du BMND ne se fait pas sans difficulté. Des pannes du broyeur, qui peuvent durer plusieurs jours, voire des semaines, surviennent fréquemment. À la demande des utilisateurs, les unités de fabrication du broyeur ont donc envisagé la création de points de vente de pièces de rechange au niveau des chefs-lieux de communes où sont installés ces broyeurs. En outre, le coût relativement élevé du broyeur (de 350 000 à 500 000 FCFA l'unité) par rapport au revenu moyen des producteurs et éleveurs rend son acquisition difficile. Seuls les gros opérateurs y ont facilement accès. Pour les autres, une mutualisation des efforts est nécessaire. À ce titre, les unités de fabrication ont imaginé l'évolution de la version thermique (qui a un coût de fonctionnement élevé) vers une version solaire, avec un coût d'entretien presque nul. Soulignons également la difficile conservation sur le long terme du BMND, qui peut être attaqué par les moisissures. Le sous-projet commissionné du PPAAO sur le BMND doit proposer des formules résistantes à cette moisissure. L es banques de céréales permettent aux ménages ruraux d'acheter ou de vendre des produits alimentaires à un prix inférieur à celui pratiqué par les commerçants pendant la période de soudure ou en cas de mauvaise campagne agricole. Dans la région Nord du Burkina Faso, où intervient la coopérative Viimbaore/Naam, les banques de céréales ont été développées par la Fédération nationale des groupements Naam à la suite des grandes sécheresses des années 1970-1980 pour lutter contre l'insécurité alimentaire. Cependant, malgré le rôle capital qu'elles jouent pour répondre aux enjeux de la sécurité alimentaire des populations, elles ont été confrontées à d'importantes difficultés de financement, de gestion et de gouvernance, ce qui a conduit à la fermeture de nombreuses d'entre elles faute de stock suffisant.Dans l'optique d'améliorer l'approvisionnement et d'éviter les ruptures de stock, SOS Faim, avec le soutien du Fond belge pour la sécurité alimentaire, a apporté son appui au réseau de banques de céréales pour une meilleure structuration et la mise en place d'un système de financement durable des stocks de produits. Ainsi, les banques de céréales, qui prennent désormais l'appellation « Grenier de sécurité alimentaire (GSA) », ont-elles été dotées d'un fonds de roulement centralisé. Celui-ci permet d'octroyer chaque année aux GSA, initiés par des groupements à la base et appartenant à tout le village, des avances (crédits) de fonds pour la constitution et la diversification de stocks alimentaires de proximité. Un taux de 7 % est appliqué afin de couvrir une partie des coûts de fonctionnement et de maintenir le capital.Fortement dépendant de conditions agroclimatiques aléatoires, le bilan céréalier dans la zone d'intervention de la coopérative Viimbaore/Naam est dans une situation permanente de déficit. De ce fait, la couverture des besoins alimentaires des ménages reste non satisfaite et dépend des marchés céréaliers des zones excédentaires. Cela favorise les fluctuations de prix et rend difficile l'accès des ménages les plus vulnérables aux céréales. Ainsi, le fonds de roulement mis en place par la coopérative a pour objectif de faciliter les activités d'approvisionnement et de commercialisation des produits alimentaires de base des GSA dans une perspective de financement durable et autonome à travers la responsabilisation des acteurs. Il permet aux GSA de se procurer des stocks de denrées qu'ils peuvent vendre aux populations tout au long de l'année et accroît la visibilité de la coopérative et l'efficacité de ses interventions dans la lutte contre l'insécurité alimentaire.Les systèmes de stockage alimentaire de proximité jouent un rôle primordial dans la sécurité alimentaire des populations des pays du Sahel. Les banques de céréales permettent aux ménages ruraux d'accéder aux denrées de base pour couvrir leurs besoins, surtout en périodes de soudure et de mauvaise campagne agricole. Cependant, elles ont été confrontées à de nombreuses difficultés qui ont limité leur efficacité et entrainé la fermeture de certaines d'entre elles. C'est la raison pour laquelle des méthodes de financement durable et autonome ont été envisagées, à l'image du fonds de roulement adopté notamment par la coopérative Viimbaore/ Naam dont l'expérience est relatée dans ce document.s'engage à mettre en place un dispositif de collecte/ recouvrement du fonds et à affecter un animateur pour le suivi des activités du GSA. Le GSA doit en outre disposer d'une infrastructure et des équipements adéquats de stockage ou avoir la capacité d'en louer. Il utilise exclusivement le fonds de roulement pour approvisionner le stock et diversifier les produits alimentaires, et dispose d'un organe de gestion composé de quatre membres dont trois femmes. Il sursoit à la vente à crédit et promeut plutôt leur vente au détail, surtout aux ménages vulnérables.L'octroi du fonds de roulement est soumis à l'examen de la demande, défendue par les responsables du GSA, par un comité d'octroi qui statue et donne l'accord de financement. Cet accord permet à la coopérative de procéder au transfert du montant accordé sur le compte bancaire du GSA dans les 72 heures.Un dispositif de suivi à différents niveaux permet le contrôle de l'utilisation effective du fonds pour les approvisionnements des GSA en produits vivriers. Enfin, pour la gestion transparente et pérenne du fonds, plusieurs acteurs sont impliqués dans le processus. Il s'agit :• des unions Naam porteuses de la demande de fonds de roulement pour les GSA de leur ressort territorial ;• des groupements abritant les greniers de sécurité alimentaire ;• des comités de gestion (Coges) chargés de la gestion quotidienne du grenier ;• du comité d'octroi, qui statue sur les demandes de fonds de roulement ;• du comité de recouvrement, qui appuie les Coges dans le recouvrement des fonds par les GSA ;• du Conseil d'administration de la coopérative ;• de l'équipe d'appui technique de la coopérative ;• des institutions de microfinance que sont les Baoré tradition d'épargne et de crédit (BTEC) et le Réseau des caisses populaires du Burkina (RCP) abritant les comptes des greniers de sécurité alimentaire ;• D'ECOBANK, qui abrite le compte fonds de roulement central.L'adoption du fonds de roulement central a permis l'atteinte de résultats satisfaisants à divers niveaux de réalisation de la coopérative. Elle a également permis de renforcer significativement les capacités financières des GSA.Avant la mise en place du fonds de roulement, le système de financement consistait à des subventions ponctuelles ou à des dotations en stocks gérées de façon à reconstituer de nouveaux stocks. Certaines dotations étaient renforcées par les productions issues des champs collectifs. Ce système comportait des limites dont les nombreuses ruptures de stocks enregistrées par les banques, la mauvaise gestion (stock vendu à crédit, détournements, inadéquation aux besoins de la population, etc.) et l'offre limitée des produits. Au regard de ces difficultés, et de l'offre limitée sur les marchés, les banques de céréales n'arrivaient pas toujours à assurer la sécurité alimentaire des populations ou à faire face aux chocs et crises alimentaires récurrents dans la zone. Le fonds de roulement permet ainsi aux GSA de contribuer à réguler les marchés vivriers et de renforcer le pouvoir de négociation des producteurs et consommateurs ruraux face aux commerçants.Pour ce faire, il est octroyé chaque année suivant les conditions et critères suivants. Le GSA ne doit pas être redevable de crédits souscrits pour les campagnes antérieures. Il doit procéder au remboursement du crédit en fin de campagne (après 11,5 mois) en une seule fois ou en trois échéances réparties sur l'année. Toutefois, pour un fonctionnement optimal du fonds, la coopérative doit révéler plusieurs défis dont l'accroissement du taux de consommation du fonds par les GSA, la définition d'une stratégie de motivation des membres des comités de gestion (qui s'investissent dans les activités des GSA sans aucune contrepartie) et la conciliation des missions sociales et des objectifs économiques des GSA et de la coopérative. En d'autres termes, les GSA doivent poursuivre leurs missions d'appui des populations pour l'accès aux produits alimentaires à prix réduit tout en parvenant à produire de petites marges bénéficiaires afin d'assurer leur autonomie financière.Les GSA bénéficient de la forte implication des femmes dans leur gestion d'une part (les comités de gestion sont quasiment exclusivement composés de femmes, qui se sont avérées être de bonnes gestionnaires des fonds de roulement reçus) et de la participation de la population locale à toutes les étapes (choix des produits, prix de vente, suivi du stock, etc.) d'autre part. La solidarité, l'entente, l'entraide, la cohésion sociale et la non-discrimination entre les acteurs font que tous bénéficient du fonds de roulement centralisé et travaillent au remboursement intégral des crédits. La capacité d'assurer les charges de fonctionnement à hauteur de 50 % par les fonds propres mobilisés indique que les acteurs partagent un esprit de durabilité du système.En outre, la démarche est transparente, avec l'instauration d'un contrat dont les clauses sont lues publiquement et connues par le maximum de personnes de la communauté bénéficiaire et la tenue publique des assemblées générales de bilan de campagne.L'adéquation du dispositif à la situation et aux besoins du public cible a aussi contribué à sa réussite. On peut citer la mise en place d'outils de gestion simples et adaptés aux acteurs et aux activités, l'existence d'un cycle de financement élaboré en fonction du cycle de production agricole, et l'octroi progressif du fonds de roulement aux GSA selon leurs capacités et le respect des engagements antérieurs.Soulignons enfin l'importance de la contribution des animateurs des unions, qui jouent le rôle d'interface entre les unions, les groupements, les GSA et l'équipe technique de la coopérative ; des communes, qui participent au suivi des financements et aident à la légalisation des documents contractuels ; de la gendarmerie et de la police, qui interviennent en cas de retard de remboursement et aident au recouvrement des créances impayées.À la lumière des résultats obtenus dans le cadre de l'expérience de la coopérative Viimbaore/Naam, on peut ainsi conclure que l'existence et la mise en place d'outils de gestion simples et adaptés, ainsi que l'instauration d'une culture de redevabilité, permettent une bonne gestion du financement d'un système de stockage de proximité susceptible de contribuer efficacement à l'atteinte de la sécurité alimentaire.Estelle Traore est responsable opérationnelle chargée de l'accompagnement de la coopérative Viimbaore/Naam. estelle_traore@yahoo.fr  C'est pour cette raison que la FEPA-B, composée à 52 % de femmes, met oeuvre depuis 2001 un programme spécifique qui prend en compte les besoins de ce groupe. Ce programme comporte quatre volets : i) l'autonomie financière de la femme rurale ; ii) sa participation à la prise de décisions ; iii) l'allègement des tâches des femmes rurales ; iv) l'accès aux facteurs de production.La première composante du programme de la FEPA-B, l'autonomie financière de la femme rurale, vise à faciliter l'accès des femmes aux crédits à travers la mise en place d'un fonds de garantie auprès d'une institution de microfinance. Dans cette optique, la FEPA-B, avec l'appui de ses partenaires, a établi une alliance avec la Fédération des caisses populaires du L es femmes représentent 51,7 % de la population du Burkina Faso. 78 % d'entre elles, soit 5 655 451 de femmes, vivent en milieu rural. Elles réalisent plus de 60 % des activités de production et sont présentes dans tous les secteurs d'activités, participant ainsi à l'économie nationale. Il est reconnu que l'accès des femmes aux financements favorise l'accroissement de leur pouvoir d'achat et leur contribution au soutien de la famille, à l'éducation et à la santé de leurs enfants. Plus généralement, donner un pouvoir financier à la femme augmente le pouvoir financier de la nation dans son ensemble.Pourtant, le financement des activités économiques des femmes rurales (petit commerce, embouche, stockage et commercialisation de produits agricoles, culture maraîchère, transformation des produits locaux, etc.) constitue aujourd'hui encore un défi majeur. En effet, du fait de leur vulnérabilité et de la faiblesse de leurs revenus, ces femmes ont un faible accès au financement car elles ne remplissent pas les conditions pour obtenir un crédit auprès des institutions de microfinance. Très peu disposent de garanties traditionnelles, telles que des titres fonciers ou des permis urbains d'habiter. Cette absence de garanties les prive de crédits, pourtant indispensables pour lancer et mener à bien leurs activités.Elles subissent par ailleurs les pesanteurs socioculturelles. Les hommes n'acceptent pas que leurs Un fonds de garantie, créé par la Fédération des professionnels agricoles du Burkina (FEPA-B) au sein d'une institution de microfinance, permet désormais aux femmes rurales d'accéder à des crédits adaptés à leurs activités à des conditions négociées. À travers cet accompagnement, la FEPA-B contribue à l'autonomisation financière de la femme burkinabè et à l'amélioration de ses conditions de vie. Cette approche, mise en place à partir de 2010 par l'Union provinciale des professionnels agricoles du Houet (UPPAH) dans le cadre du « Programme femme », a permis à 779 femmes de bénéficier de crédits pour un montant total de 79,4 millions FCFA au cours de l'année 2016-2017.Burkina (FCPB). Ainsi, un protocole d'accord a été négocié et signé en 2001 pour une période de trois ans renouvelable. À travers ce protocole d'accord, un fonds de garantie permet aux femmes rurales membres des groupements villageois féminins de la FEPA-B d'accéder aux crédits à des conditions négociées.Le fonds de garantie couvre les femmes bénéficiaires pour une durée de trois ans durant laquelle elles peuvent constituer leurs fonds propres. En cas d'impayés, la caisse ayant accordé le crédit peut puiser dans le fonds de garantie à hauteur de 50 % du solde restant dû. Cette approche innovante, adaptée aux conditions socio-économiques des femmes rurales, poursuit un triple objectif : pallier le manque de garanties nécessaires pour accéder au crédit, faciliter l'accès des femmes rurales au crédit grâce à un allègement des modalités et des conditions ainsi qu'un raccourcissement des délais de traitement des dossiers, et leur permettre de constituer progressivement un fonds propre afin de poursuivre leurs activités sans crédit, ou peu, après les trois ans de couverture du fonds de garantie La FEPA-B fournit d'abord à l'institution de microfinance une liste des différents groupements ayant fait l'objet d'une étude diagnostique avec toutes les informations nécessaires (date de création, nombre de membres, activités principales, capacité de gestion, etc.). Dans un premier temps, des actions de sensibilisation, d'information et de formation sont entreprises auprès de ces groupements pour renforcer leurs capacités et connaissances en matière de gestion de crédit. Après cette étape préparatoire, les femmes formulent, avec l'appui des animatrices endogènes et des responsables des unions, leur demande de crédit adressée aux responsables des caisses de crédit de leur localité. Les demandes précisent l'activité envisagée, le montant sollicité et l'échéancier de remboursement. Elles sont analysées par la caisse qui s'assure de la faisabilité du projet avant de mettre en place le crédit. Les femmes qui obtiennent ainsi du crédit bénéficient également de formation sur la gestion du crédit.Au cours de l'année 2017, cette expérience a permis à 779 femmes issues de 32 groupements féminins de bénéficier de crédits pour un montant total de 79 400 000 FCFA. En termes d'épargne, elles ont pu mobiliser la somme de 18,697 millions FCFA et constituer un fonds de groupe de 2,273 millions FCFA. Les 779 bénéficiaires ont par ailleurs vu leurs compétences et connaissances dans le domaine de la gestion des activités économiques et du crédit renforcées.Les principales intéressées affirment que la création du fonds de garantie les a soulagées. Elles accèdent (surtout les plus pauvres) à des petits crédits plus facilement. Les affectations des bénéfices acquis sont multiples. Les femmes déclarent en utiliser une partie pour les besoins de la famille (alimentation, santé, éducation et habillement des enfants, etc.), leurs besoins propres (achats de pagnes, bijoux, chaussures, argent de poche, etc.), ou la solidarité sociale (participation aux mariages, décès, baptêmes, ou contribution aux besoins de prêt de parents et amis).76 % des femmes parviennent à réinvestir une partie des bénéfices dans leur activité et dans l'épargne.Pour assurer la durabilité de l'expérience, des séances de concertations des différents acteurs impliqués dans le processus devront être organisées régulièrement. Des actions de sensibilisation, d'information sur le processus d'octroi du crédit et de formation (à la gestion du crédit et de l'épargne, à la gestion des activités économiques) des bénéficiaires seront toujours nécessaires pour une plus grande réussite de la facilitation d'accès au crédit. Le suivi permanent des femmes bénéficiaires par les animatrices endogènes, ainsi que la mise en place d'outils simples et efficaces, contribuent à une meilleure gestion de leurs activités.En définitive, nous avons vu que la facilitation de l'accès des femmes rurales au crédit permet un épanouissement socio-économique de ces dernières. Au delà, cela conduit également à l'émergence de femmes leader au sein des groupes, des femmes qui gagnent en confiance, sont plus sûres d'elles et participent activement au développement de leur localité.Haoua Kone-Barry est chargée de programme, responsable de l'accompagnement et du suivi des initiatives économiques des organisations de femmes pour le compte de la FEPA-B. konehaoua3@gmail.com 76 % des femmes parviennent à réinvestir une partie des bénéfices dans leur activité et dans l'épargne. Elles se montrent déterminées à employer le crédit dans l'intérêt de la famille et à le rembourser dans le but de pouvoir en obtenir un autre. Jusqu'à présent, aucun retard n'a d'ailleurs été constaté dans le remboursement des prêts contractés. Cela prouve d'une part le sérieux des femmes dans l'exercice de leurs activités, et d'autre part l'adéquation du programme à des besoins réels.De manière générale, la facilitation de l'accès au crédit à travers le fonds de garantie a eu des impacts visibles sur la situation et les conditions de vie des femmes rurales qui se sont améliorées grâce aux revenus issus des diverses activités économiques entreprises suite à l'octroi de financements. Ces femmes ont gagné en confiance et sont devenues plus indépendantes.Le développement d'alliances et de synergies avec le Réseau des caisses populaires du Burkina (RCPB) dans une optique d'intérêts et d'avantages mutuels est un des facteurs de succès les plus importants pour l'accès des femmes rurales au crédit. La forte implication de l'Union départementale appuyée par l'Union provinciale du Houet dans le choix, l'encadrement et le suivi des bénéficiaires est également crucial. L'engagement des autorités locales (chef de village, délégué du village) ainsi que des acteurs de la FCPB et de ses démembrements dans les différentes zones (unions provinciales et départementales) contribuent fortement au bon recouvrement des crédits. Soulignons également l'importance des animatrices endogènes, chargées de l'accompagnement des femmes dans leurs activités économiques et du suivi du crédit, et du comité de suivi des crédits à l'UPPAH. La mise en place de caisses de microfinance en général, et le développement de crédits avec éducation en particulier a pour finalité d'améliorer l'accès des populations au financement de proximité. Pour atteindre cet objectif, le projet AD2M a d'abord cherché à densifier les caisses de microfinance en s'appuyant sur un partenariat avec la seule institution de microfinance présente dans la zone : le réseau CECAM (Caisse d'épargne et de crédits agricoles mutuels). Compte tenu des conditions défavorables à la mise en place de microfinance dans les régions Menabe et Melaky (enclavement, faible densité de population, fort taux d'analphabétisme, pauvreté et insécurité rurale), tous les spécialistes prédisaient l'échec de toute tentative allant dans ce sens.Des appuis à l'installation des caisses ont été fournis à l'institution de microfinance avec la construction de Depuis 2010, à Madagascar, le projet d'Appui au développement du Menabe et du Melaky (AD2M) soutient le développement d'un réseau de microfinance dans le but de faciliter l'accès aux services financiers des populations vulnérables. Dans une démarche de finance inclusive, le projet a mis en place un crédit innovant, le Crédit avec éducation (CAE), adapté aux besoins spécifiques des femmes. Le crédit, testé dans deux caisses à partir de 2012, est vite devenu le crédit le plus sûr avec un taux de remboursement de 100 % à l'échéance témoignant ainsi de la viabilité d'une telle initiative.A u sud-ouest de Madagascar, dans les régions Menabe et Melaky où intervient le projet d'Appui au développement du Menabe et du Melaky (AD2M), l'accès au financement formel est très faible. Cette vaste zone de 20 000 km², qui comprend deux régions, sept districts et 19 communes rurales, ne compte qu'une seule caisse de microfinance. En outre, les conditions d'octroi des crédits, qui nécessitent des garanties, excluent la frange la plus vulnérable de la population d'un éventuel financement par cette unique caisse.Or, le besoin en services financiers est réel. Les exploitations agricoles, de type familial, affichent une superficie moyenne de 1 ha pour un ménage de six personnes et une faible productivité. Elles disposent d'une faible capacité d'épargne et ont un taux d'endettement souvent très élevé. Les petits producteurs les plus vulnérables sont aussi ceux qui commercialisent les volumes les plus réduits et qui ont, avant la récolte, des besoins de trésorerie relativement élevés. De ce fait, ils n'ont d'autre choix que de recourir aux services des usuriers, qui pratiquent des taux d'intérêt dépassant 100 %, ou de vendre une partie, voire la totalité, de leur production « sur pied » avant la récolte à des prêteurs informels à des prix deux à trois fois plus bas que le prix payé après la récolte. Ce type de transactions maintient les producteurs dans une forte précarité et entraîne une spirale sans fin d'endettement et de paupérisation.bâtiments, l'équipement en matériels roulants (moto), informatiques et mobiliers de bureau, et la formation du personnel, notamment les animatrices. Le projet a aussi subventionné les pertes d'exploitation de la microfinance durant quatre ans, sachant qu'elle ne pourrait être rentable qu'au bout d'un certain temps d'exploitation. Ceci s'est fait de façon dégressive : 100 % des pertes en année 1, 75 % en année 2, 50 % en année 3 et 25 % en année 4. Le projet a aussi doté les caisses d'un fonds de 150 millions MGA pour l'octroi des premiers crédits aux bénéficiaires.Toutefois, les personnes vulnérables, notamment les mères célibataires, très nombreuses dans la zone, restaient exclues d'un tel dispositif car la microfinance exige des garanties matérielles pour obtenir un crédit. Or la plupart de ces personnes ne possèdent pas d'actifs, une situation aggravée par l'insécurité rurale (vol de bovidés) qui sévit depuis ces dernières années puisque le bétail constitue la principale garantie des ménages. Le CAE a donc été conçu et développé par la microfinance en 2012, sous l'impulsion du projet AD2M, afin de permettre à cette frange de la population d'accéder au financement.Contrairement aux services traditionnels, ce crédit n'exige pas de garantie matérielle. Les bénéficiaires, uniquement des femmes regroupées au sein d'associations de crédits solidaires (ACS), se cautionnent mutuellement pour rembourser les crédits qui restent toutefois individuels. La formation du groupe et le choix des membres sont libres, sans aucune intervention extérieure. Des animatrices dédiées au suivi des ACS sont recrutées et formées par l'institution de microfinance.Les crédits, qui concernent principalement des activités génératrices de revenus à rotation rapide, sont octroyés pour une durée de trois mois avec un taux d'intérêt de 24 %. Après remboursement du premier crédit, que l'on appelle « cycle de crédit », le groupe a droit à un deuxième cycle de trois mois, et ce jusqu'à neuf cycles de crédit. Le montant octroyé, qui est très modeste au départ, augmente avec le cycle, passant de 40 000 MGA par personne en premier cycle à 1,5 million MGA par personne en neuvième cycle de crédit. Le remboursement se fait mensuellement, mais étant donné le caractère de retour de fonds rapide des activités, des provisions hebdomadaires sont constituées au niveau du groupe afin que le recouvrement ne pèse pas trop sur la trésorerie en fin de mois. Après le neuvième cycle de crédit, les bénéficiaires intègrent la microfinance classique.Des formations sont dispensées aux bénéficiaires du CAE, afin de leur permettre de bien gérer le crédit octroyé (gestion de la trésorerie, compte d'exploitation), mais également soutenir leur épanouissement (sensibilisation à l'hygiène alimentaire, planning familial, prévention du VIH, etc.).Le mobile banking est utilisé par les caisses où il y a une couverture téléphonique afin de faciliter et surtout sécuriser les transactions. Cette technologie innovante, qui permet de consulter le solde, payer les échéances de crédit et retirer de l'argent via son téléphone portable, n'est encore qu'au stade pilote dans certaines caisses mais les résultats obtenus sont encourageants. Suite à la mise en place de caisses de microfinance, une amélioration notable de l'accès des populations rurales des régions Menabe et Melaky aux services financiers de proximité a été observée entre 2010 et 2017. Durant cette période, 3 500 personnes ont pu intégrer le système de microfinance. Si la zone d'action du projet ne comptait qu'une seule caisse au démarrage, 10 communes sur les 19 sont actuellement couvertes après l'extension dans le Melaky en 2013. Le nombre d'adhérents de ces caisses a presque triplé, passant de 1 330 en 2010 à 3 500 en 2017, dont 1 500 femmes. Le taux de participation aux activités de microfinance a aussi augmenté, passant de 20 % à 71 %.Une culture de crédit s'est ainsi installée petit à petit. Le montant de crédit octroyé annuellement dans la zone a plus que doublé, passant de 610 millions MGA en 2010 à 1,4 milliard MGA en 2017, avec un octroi cumulé de 8 milliards MGA pour près de 5 000 dossiers de crédit durant cette période. Le montant moyen octroyé par dossier de crédit est de 1,6 million MGA, soit 13 % supérieur à l'ensemble de CECAM des régions.Une étude menée en 2015 a également fait ressortir que le recours à la finance informelle, en particulier l'usure, a notablement diminué, passant de 10 % à 2 %.Une étude d'évaluation d'impact menée en 2015 montre que le revenu moyen annuel des ménages emprunteurs de crédits CECAM est 1,6 fois supérieur à ceux des non bénéficiaires.diversification aux soupes et repas, ceux-ci passent à 30 000 MGA par jour, » se félicite-t-elle. Et le remboursement du crédit ne lui pose aucun problème. Elle fait d'ailleurs très attention à cela car les mauvais payeurs sont bannis du groupe et elle se doit de donner l'exemple en tant que présidente. Avec l'augmentation du montant de crédits consentis au fur et à mesure de l'évolution du cycle, auquel s'ajoutent les bénéfices de son commerce au chantier, elle a pu ouvrir une épicerie au village. Vitorine ne compte pas s'arrêter là : « Actuellement en sixième cycle, je peux louer des rizières et je compte, à la fin du neuvième cycle, acquérir une parcelle rizicole ou des bovins. » La mise en place des caisses de microfinance et du crédit CAE constitue une véritable innovation. Cette expérience montre clairement que l'on peut mettre en oeuvre une finance rurale « inclusive » pour offrir des services financiers de proximité spécifiques aux ménages les plus vulnérables, même dans des zones difficiles, leur permettant de sortir de la pauvreté et d'améliorer leurs conditions de vie.La réussite du projet doit beaucoup aux appuis conséquents octroyés à l'institution de microfinance, aussi bien les investissements « structurants », que les activités de développement agricole menées par le projet (qui ont créé une dynamique économique plus favorable à la microfinance) ou l'encadrement de proximité des bénéficiaires par l'intermédiaire des animatrices.Toutefois, dans le cadre d'un futur partenariat de mise en place d'une telle initiative, il est nécessaire d'impliquer davantage les institutions de microfinance pour qu'elles se positionnent davantage comme « porteurs de projets ». Les fonds de crédits, qui constituent en quelque sorte le fonds de roulement des institutions de microfinance, pourraient par exemple être supportés en totalité par ces dernières. S elon les chiffres avancés par le programme FORMAPROD, 300 000 jeunes arrivent sur le marché de l'emploi chaque année à Madagascar, qui ne parvient pas à satisfaire cette importante demande. La plupart des jeunes au chômage rejoignent alors la campagne, non pas parce qu'ils veulent s'y installer mais parce qu'ils n'ont pas d'autre choix. Sans qualifications, ils deviennent exploitants sans pouvoir espérer obtenir davantage que de médiocres rendements. Cela explique le fait qu'avec plus de 80 % d'agriculteurs, la Grande Île n'arrive pas à nourrir sa population et soit contrainte d'importer des denrées alimentaires de toutes sortes.Face à cette situation alarmante, le gouvernement de Madagascar a initié des programmes de développement oeuvrant à la formation et l'installation des jeunes ruraux. Avec une zone d'intervention couvrant treize régions et 86 millions $ de financement, FORMAPROD est l'un des plus importants du pays. Placé sous tutelle du ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'élevage, ce programme a démarré en 2013 pour une durée de 10 ans et vise notamment à former aux métiers agricoles, accompagner et installer 100 000 jeunes qualifiés. Le processus d'insertion professionnelle de ces jeunes se résume en ces étapes : le recrutement, l'orientation, les formations proprement dites et l'accompagnement à l'installation (ou la mise en oeuvre des projets professionnels). C'est cette dernière étape qui nous intéresse ici. À l'issue de sa formation, le jeune a deux options : soit il attend l'arrivée d'un kit de démarrage pour commencer son projet professionnel, soit il démarre tout de suite son activité avec ses propres moyens. C'est ce que l'on appelle « l'installation par autofinancement », et c'est la voie que le jeune Dimby a choisi de suivre.Former les jeunes, les doter des matériels et intrants nécessaires au lancement de leur activité, et les accompagner dans l'exécution de leur projet professionnel font partie du processus d'insertion professionnelle. Il s'agit de leur offrir un métier pouvant leur procurer des revenus stables tout en contribuant à l'augmentation de la productivité agricole à Madagascar. Les formations sont confiées aux centres et établissements de formation ou aux consultants formateurs, sinon aux professionnels du métier (tuteurs). Quant à la dotation des kits d'installation, c'est une structure dénommée Fonds de développement agricole (FDA) qui s'en charge. L'installation des jeunes après leur formation représente un enjeu à l'aune duquel est mesurée la réussite du processus d'insertion professionnelle. En effet, pour évaluer les résultats du programme, il En juillet 2017, Dimby, un jeune père de famille de 29 ans, a suivi une formation technique en porciculture auprès du Centre de formation professionnelle de Bevalala. Au lieu d'attendre l'arrivée du kit d'installation fourni dans le cadre du programme FORMAPROD, il a décidé d'acheter les quatre porcelets nécessaires au lancement de sa ferme d'élevage avec ses propres fonds, ce qui lui a permis de démarrer son activité seulement un mois après sa formation. Cette expérience réussie d'installation par autofinancement nous permet de tirer plusieurs enseignements utiles pour l'atteinte des objectifs du programme FORMAPROD.Dimby fait du salariat agricole tout en étant exploitant, tandis que sa femme est vendeuse de pain et de fruits au marché local. Il a suivi une formation de douze jours en porciculture auprès d'un Centre de formation à Bevalala, en juillet 2017. Sans attendre l'arrivée du kit (porcelets et alimentation des porcins), il a immédiatement lancé sa ferme d'élevage sur les conseils du Conseiller en insertion professionnelle (CIP) qui l'a recruté et orienté. Il a acheté quatre porcelets avec l'argent que lui et sa femme avaient mis de côté et les a engraissé en suivant les techniques acquises lors de la formation. Il fabrique lui-même alimentation de ses animaux à partir de produits agricoles.Nombreux sont les résultats positifs de l'expérience menée par Dimby dans le cadre du programme FORMAPROD, mais nous nous limiteront aux plus significatifs. Premièrement, grâce à l'autofinancement, l'installation de Dimby dans le monde professionnel et le secteur agricole a été très rapide et relativement facile. Il a démarré son activité seulement un mois après la fin de la formation alors que les autres, dans l'expectative du kit, ont attendu de six mois à un an. Il n'a perdu ni de temps ni les connaissances acquises car il a immédiatement mis en pratique tout ce qu'il avait appris lors de sa formation.À l'heure où j'écris ces lignes, Dimby possède une petite ferme d'élevage porcin qui tourne bien et dont il s'occupe avec attention. Ses animaux sont en bonne santé et bien nourris. Les quatre porcs acquis atteindront les 100 kg dans sept à neuf mois et le jeune homme pourra alors tirer des bénéfices de leur vente, lui permettant d'étendre son exploitation progressivement (augmentation du cheptel et agrandissement du parc). « J'évalue ces bénéfices à environ 400 000 MGA (soit 125 $) par tête. Si j'arrivais à vendre chaque tête à 1 million MGA (312 $), j'obtiendrais convient de prendre en compte non pas le nombre de jeunes formés, mais le nombre de jeunes installés.Normalement, après la formation, chaque jeune élabore un projet professionnel et reçoit un kit d'installation (ou de démarrage) en fonction de l'activité qu'il a choisie. Cependant, des facteurs indépendants du programme peuvent retarder l'arrivée de ces kits, certains jeunes attendant une année entière avant de les recevoir. Cette situation est un facteur de démotivation pour les bénéficiaires du programme au point que certains décident d'abandonner leur projet professionnel (on estime qu'environ 5 % des jeunes se désistent et changent d'orientation à cause de ces retards). Or, un jeune qui se désiste, c'est un investissement perdu. Pire encore, les déçus sont susceptibles de diffuser des informations discréditant le programme, véhiculant l'idée que celui-ci ne tient pas ses promesses et engagements, ce qui rendrait les futures activités de sensibilisation difficiles. Faute de solution, l'équipe du Programme s'est contentée de recommander au FDA d'alléger autant que faire se peut les procédures d'octroi et d'activer les dotations. Mais cela s'avère compliqué à cause de l'étendue de la zone d'intervention concernée.C'est pour remédier à ce problème que l'équipe du programme FORMAPROD a encouragé le jeune Dimby à expérimenter l'autofinancement de son activité. Il ne s'agissait pas de l'inciter à renoncer définitivement au kit promis, mais de le convaincre de lancer son projet professionnel avec ses propres moyens.Grâce à l'autofinancement, l'installation de Dimby dans le monde professionnel et le secteur agricole a été très rapide et relativement facile.1,6 million MGA (soit 500 $) de bénéfices, » a-t-il affirmé. Surtout, Dimby exerce un métier qu'il aime.Deuxièmement, en utilisant ses fonds propres, Dimby n'a pas de dettes à rembourser, contrairement à la plupart des jeunes qui ont eu recours au crédit et remboursent leurs créanciers après le premier cycle. Pour lui et sa famille, l'élevage porcin ne peut apporter qu'un surplus de revenus, et donc des améliorations dans leurs conditions de vie. À travers son métier, le jeune homme contribue également à l'augmentation de la production animale globale de sa région.L'autofinancement d'un projet professionnel nécessite toutefois de relever un certain nombre de défis. Tout d'abord, en utilisant ses économies comme fonds de démarrage, Dimby a pris de gros risques ; il sait qu'il n'a pas droit à l'erreur et qu'il est dans l'obligation de réussir pour ne pas décevoir les siens. Il est vulnérable à la survenance de certains évènements, comme une peste porcine qui pourrait décimer son cheptel.Si une telle catastrophe n'est heureusement pas arrivée, l'autofinancement de l'installation de Dimby a entraîné un déséquilibre dans le budget du ménage, dont une grande partie a été dédiée à la nourriture des porcelets en raison de la cherté des produits alimentaires utilisés au détriment des besoins de la famille qui a dû « se serrer la ceinture ». Le fonds disponible pour le petit commerce de la femme de Dimby a aussi été impacté. Il a donc été très difficile de trouver un compromis permettant d'élever les porcs comme il se doit sans négliger les besoins vitaux du couple.Par ailleurs, quand il a démarré son activité, le jeune Dimby ne s'attendait pas à ce que la disponibilité des intrants pour l'alimentation des porcins soit aussi limitée dans la zone et les dépenses associées aussi élevées. En effet, il a dû faire face à la flambée du prix du riz à Madagascar durant l'année 2017. Quand le prix du riz, à la base de l'alimentation des malgaches, augmente, tout le reste suit. Aussi bien les produits dérivés du riz, que les autres céréales comme le maïs, ou les tubercules comme le manioc et la patate douce, principales matières premières pour l'alimentation de porcin. Ces produits deviennent rares, et donc chers. Il a donc fallu rationnaliser l'alimentation des animaux,pour mettre en oeuvre une activité initiée dans le cadre d'un programme de développement. Dans la plupart des cas, les bénéficiaires attendent ce qu'on leur a promis avant de se lancer. Le fait que Dimby ait consenti à s'autofinancer témoigne -et garantitd'un engagement fort vis-à-vis de son futur métier.Si l'exploit de Dimby a été mal interprété par certains jeunes, qui y ont vu le signe d'un favoritisme de FORMAPROD ou, pire, ont pensé que les kits promis avaient été détournés, il en a inspiré beaucoup d'autres, qui essaient aujourd'hui de lui emboîter le pas. « Je suis d'avis que l'on peut toujours débuter avec le peu qu'on a ; il n'est pas forcément nécessaire d'attendre le kit pour démarrer. Deux ou trois porcelets peuvent suffire pour lancer une petite ferme d'élevage porcin, » affirme ainsi Saturnin, un jeune éleveur de porcs dans l'Est de Madagascar.Divers paramètres ont contribué à la réussite de l'expérience de Dimby. Premièrement, un meilleur ciblage et une meilleure orientation de la part du Conseiller en insertion professionnelle, qui a su détecter un jeune très motivé et assurer un bon suivi et accompagnement de proximité. Deuxièmement, le fait que la ferme de Dimby soit implantée à Mangamila Anjozorobe, une zone favorable à l'agriculture, ce qui lui a permis de subvenir aux besoins alimentaires de ses animaux malgré la pénurie de denrées agricoles et la flambée des prix. Troisièmement, le fait que Dimby et sa femme aient déjà de petites activités rémunératrices (le salariat agricole, pour Dimby), ce qui leur a permis de mettre de l'argent de côté et de mobiliser ce fonds pour la ferme. L'implication de la femme de Dimby et les soutiens psychologiques de ses parents ont également été très importants.La mise à l'échelle de cette expérience faciliterait l'atteinte du principal résultat attendu du programme FORMAPROD (100 000 jeunes ruraux installés en 10 ans). Pour que la pratique de l'autofinancement soit effectivement suivie par un plus grand nombre de jeunes, quelques mesures méritent toutefois d'être prises une mauvaise gestion dans ce domaine conduisant à une perte assurée. L'approvisionnement en produits vétérinaires est aussi très difficile dans la zone d'installation de Dimby ; il faut faire une centaine de kilomètres de route pour en trouver. Conserver ces produits, en particulier les vaccins, demande des équipements et des compétences spécifiques. Or, il est impératif que les animaux soient vaccinés et soignés en cas de maladie. Dimby et les autres éleveurs ont donc décidé de se rassembler et d'envoyer un représentant afin qu'il effectue des achats groupés.Pour surmonter chacune de ces difficultés, le jeune éleveur a bénéficié d'un accompagnement de proximité, ce qui l'a beaucoup rassuré. Son conseiller en insertion professionnelle a dû rompre avec ses habitudes pour lui rendre visite plus souvent afin de l'encourager et l'aider à bien gérer et protéger son exploitation.Dimby n'est bien sûr pas le seul jeune de sa zone installé dans le monde professionnel depuis la mise en oeuvre du programme. Pourtant, rare sont ceux à y être parvenus (ou même à s'y être essayés) si rapidement après leur formation et la démarche adoptée ici relève de l'innovation aussi bien de la part du Conseiller en insertion professionnelle que du bénéficiaire lui-même. D'une part, inciter un jeune formé dans le cadre du programme à autofinancer son activité est à la fois osé et difficile, de la part d'un CIP. D'habitude, on lui recommande d'attendre le kit de démarrage ou d'emprunter de l'argent auprès d'une institution de microfinance. Cela provoque, on l'a vu, des risques de démotivation et d'endettement. Le conseiller de Dimby a choisi d'adopter cette attitude dans le but d'accélérer son installation et d'atteindre plus rapidement l'objectif du Programme FORMAPROD. D'autre part, il n'est pas fréquent de trouver un bénéficiaire qui ose mobiliser ses économies Les jeunes qui ont recours à l'autofinancement s'investissent davantage dans ce qu'ils entreprennent que les autres.par les responsables concernés. En premier lieu, il faudrait standardiser le processus d'installation de tous les jeunes formés à Madagascar. Cela ne pourrait se faire qu'au niveau du Ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'Elevage, qui ordonnerait aux projets ou programmes sous sa tutelle de se conformer à un processus d'insertion professionnelle standard. Il s'agirait par exemple de poser comme condition d'octroi d'un kit le démarrage de son activité par ses propres moyens, sauf pour la production nécessitant un investissement important comme l'élevage de vache laitière.Il faudrait également mettre en place des structures pérennes capables d'assurer l'accompagnement de proximité des jeunes après la formation, car l'équipe du programme n'est pas mobilisable indéfiniment. La constitution d'une association de formateurs ou tuteurs professionnels dans la région Amoron'i Mania en est un parfait exemple. En définitive, l'expérience très intéressante de Dimby nous permet de tirer plusieurs enseignements.Les deux premières étapes du processus d'insertion professionnelle des jeunes, la sensibilisation et l'orientation professionnelle, sont cruciales et nécessitent un important travail de la part de CIP compétents. La réussite du processus dans son ensemble dépend de la façon dont ceux-ci auront conduit ces deux phases.Des jeunes véritablement intéressés par une activité professionnelle et suffisamment motivés feront tout pour réussir leur installation. Ils seront plus enclins à démarrer leur activité avec ce qu'ils ont pour les développer progressivement. Il est donc important de distinguer ces jeunes des opportunistes, qui ont tendance à se décourager à la moindre difficulté. Les caisses de crédit de l'Union nationale des mutuelles d'investissement et de crédit oasien et des zones pluviales (UNMICO) s'adressent à tous les producteurs vivant dans les villages de leur zone d'intervention. Chacun peut devenir adhérent, à condition d'être capable de mener une activité génératrice de revenus et de souscrire une part sociale d'adhésion. Les adhérents de la caisse se réunissent ensuite en assemblée générale constitutive pour désigner les organes de gestion. Les caisses de crédit de l'UNMICO constituent un réel outil de développement autogéré. Chaque caisse créée devient une entité autonome, constituée par les sociétaires vivants dans une zone délimitée, favorisant ainsi la pleine participation des bénéficiaires à tout le processus de mise en place et d'appropriation.M algré l'existence de 18 banques commerciales, le secteur financier mauritanien a du mal à répondre aux besoins financiers du pays. Centré exclusivement sur le milieu urbain et périurbain, il exclut une grande partie de la population, notamment rurale. Or, le manque de ressources financières de cette population a toujours été une contrainte majeure pour optimiser la production. Si, ces dernières décennies, le Gouvernement a lancé plusieurs projets et programmes pour résoudre la problématique du financement agricole, ces différentes initiat ives n'ont donné que des résultats assez mitigés. En effet, elles ne couvraient qu'une partie très limitée des filières agricoles et ne prenaient pas en considération les petits agriculteurs et éleveurs ruraux qui constituent près de 60 % de la population vivant principalement des activités agricoles. En outre, les procédures d'octroi de crédit des institutions financières n'étaient pas adaptées aux besoins et conditions de vie de ce groupe vulnérable exclu du système bancaire classique.C'est ce qui a amené la Mauritanie, en étroite collaboration avec le Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA) et l'Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO), à appuyer l'émergence d'institutions financières décentralisées. La mise sur pied de caisses de L'économie rurale mauritanienne est basée sur l'agriculture et l'élevage. Un diagnostic participatif a fait ressortir un fort besoin de financement de proximité autogéré, adapté à la situation et aux besoins des petits agriculteurs et éleveurs ruraux. C'est ainsi que furent créées les Mutuelles d'investissement et de crédit oasien (MICO) et les Caisses d'épargne et de crédit agricole (CECA), dont l'objectif est l'octroi de financements portant notamment sur les campagnes agricoles, l'alimentation du bétail, les activités génératrices de revenus et l'autoconsommation en période de soudure. Les caisses ont été lancées en 1998, avec la création d'une première caisse pilote, puis étendues à l'échelle nationale. On en compte aujourd'hui 54, reparties sur l'ensemble du territoire national.Cette démarche a conduit à une certaine homogénéité sociale et a favorisé des relations de confiance, nouées entre les membres, ainsi qu'une connaissance approfondie de ces derniers et de leurs besoins de financement. Grâce au nombre de bénéficiaires relativement réduit, la qualité des emprunteurs et leurs activités sont appréciées plus facilement. Les caisses ont également permis l'obtention de crédits avec des formalités adaptées et un plus grand contrôle des activités de recouvrement à des coûts réduits, ainsi que l'adoption de procédures simples permettant un dénouement de l'ensemble des opérations au niveau local et leur maîtrise par un nombre élevé d'élus potentiels.L'objectif principal de ces caisses de crédit est d'apporter de façon durable des services financiers de proximité adaptés aux besoins des populations vulnérables, notamment rurales, pour financer localement toutes les activités viables. Le choix des activités éligibles est basé sur des critères objectifs, pertinents, adaptés et approuvés participativement par les bénéficiaires dans l'optique, notamment, de lutter contre l'usure.Ces caisses sont organisées de manière uniforme conformément au modèle mutualiste : au sommet du pouvoir, on trouve l'assemblée générale qui élit les membres du conseil d'administration, du comité de crédit, du conseil de surveillance et modifie le statut et le règlement intérieur. Le conseil d'administration est chargé de la gestion administrative et financière de la caisse. Le comité de crédit est chargé des études des demandes de crédit, l'octroi de crédit et l'accompagnement de proximité des bénéficiaires sur la gestion administrative, comptable et financière des projets financés. Le conseil de surveillance est chargé du contrôle interne du fonctionnement de la caisse.Les procédures de crédit varient d'une caisse à une autre suivant leurs spécificités. À titre d'exemple, certaines caisses conditionnent l'accès au crédit à la plantation d'un arbre pour lutter contre la sècheresse en contribuant à la fixation des dunes de sable préservant ainsi l'environnement. Les caisses ont une durée de vie de 99 ans renouvelable.Ces caisses se situent dans un processus durable de pérennisation et d'appropriation des mécanismes par les populations rurales pour un développement local endogène. Elles ont permis aux petits agriculteurs ruraux d'accéder plus facilement aux services financiers, suivant des procédures adaptées à leur situation. Les adhérents reçoivent des dividendes à la fin de l'exercice financier annuel. Les caisses ont conduit à une augmentation de la production agricole ainsi qu'à une amélioration des revenus des ménages et de la qualité de l'habitat. Une telle démarche a également eu pour effet la consolidation et la création d'activités génératrices de revenus, particulièrement féminines, l'autonomisation des femmes et des jeunes en matière d'organisation, de gestion et de prise de décision, mais aussi la fixation des populations rurales, contribuant ainsi à lutter contre l'exode rural. Au 31 décembre 2017, elles avaient octroyé plus de 50 000 crédits pour un montant cumulé de 7,78 milliards d'ouguiyas dont 61,4 % destinés à l'agriculture (maraîchage, phoeniciculture, cultures pluviales et autres cultures sous-palmiers), 12,2 % à l'élevage, 11 % à l'artisanat, 10,3 % au petit commerce et 5,1 % à l'autoconsommation.Ainsi, les caisses de crédit de l'UNMICO sont devenues un modèle de bonne pratique se caractérisant essentiellement par leur grande adaptabilité au milieu rural et leur adéquation avec les principes de la finance islamique.Les caisses ont été marquées par une certaine instabilité liée à la situation matrimoniale des jeunes femmes élues dans les instances dirigeantes. En effet, après leur mariage, celles-ci ont tendance à quitter la localité avec leurs époux laissant ainsi leur position vacante. Il faut alors recommencer à zéro le renforcement des capacités de nouveaux élus.Il était par ailleurs difficile de mobiliser les femmes pour les formations d'une durée de plus d'une semaine en dehors du village. Généralement, les organes de gestion des caisses sont administrés par des hommes. L'étendue du territoire national, plus de 1 million km 2 , n'a pas facilité le suivi et l'encadrement des caisses.En outre, les populations de la zone couverte par les caisses éprouvent de réelles difficultés à assurer leurs remboursements en cas de mauvaises récoltes consécutives à l'irrégularité des pluies ou autres calamités telles que le péril acridien.Pour faire face à ces difficultés, des séances de formation pratique et sur le tas relatives à la bonne gestion, à l'organisation, aux rôles et responsabilités des organes de gestion et à la réglementation ont été organisées au profit des membres des instances dirigeantes. Beaucoup des séances de sensibilisation et d'information ont également été réalisées au profit des hommes et notabilités sur le genre. La responsabilisation des adhérents et leur appropriation de la démarche ont donc été des facteurs clé dans la réussite des caisses autogérées. Le concept est adapté au contexte rural mauritanien, ce qui permet une mobilisation de l'épargne locale destinée à financer les crédits appropriés aux conditions spécifiques des bénéficiaires. Les caisses sont également en phase avec les prescriptions religieuses. Enfin, le taux de capitalisation élevé renforce la stabilité financière des caisses répondant ainsi aux besoins des sociétaires.Sid'Ahmed Bessid est directeur général de l'UNMICO. Il est spécialisé en microfinance en milieu rural. dg@unmico.netLa durabilité d'un projet dépend largement du degré de participation des bénéficiaires à sa conception, sa mise en oeuvre, son fonctionnement et son évaluation. Une forte participation de la population (à la gestion, aux assemblées générales, etc.) témoigne d'un niveau élevé d'appropriation du mécanisme. On constate également que les projets qui marchent correctement sont ceux initiés par les populations elles-mêmes, sans influence extérieure. Ainsi, la viabilité d'un projet nécessite-t-elle que l'on ne considère pas uniquement les populations cibles comme des bénéficiaires, mais aussi comme des responsables chargés de l'élaboration, de l'organisation et de la gestion dudit projet. Le sentiment d'être des participants actifs réellement responsables et engagés est plus fort chez les populations dans le cadre de l'approche dite « à la demande » que lorsqu'il s'agit de projets dont la mise en oeuvre a été décidée hors de leur communauté. ","tokenCount":"18318"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"35e99305fa0f40a2cfcda8da3076c9f5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d6d2f7e6-e27f-499f-b6cd-36780c36513a/retrieve","id":"-1942939752"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cc54fa8b-6e73-4b85-aa10-e0c8de38ac05","pagecount":"15","content":"Introduction Undersowing of cereals with forage legumes Simultaneous sowing Alternative crop geometry to accommodate forage legumes Contribution of forage legumes to food crop production Legume-based cropping techniques Conclusions ReferencesIn the subhumid zone of Nigeria, the majority of the cattle owners are pastoralists, who are now settling and will continue to settle in the midst of arable farming communities. To a settled pastoralist, raising crops becomes as important as cattle keeping. There are also many mixed farmers in the subhumid zone, both within and outside Nigeria. Subhumid conditions are favourable for both cropping and livestock enterprises. However, arable farming is spreading at the expense of traditional grazing land. But increase of arable farming does not seem to discourage movement of livestock or their permanent residence within the zone. This imposes a strain on the dwindling grazing resources. Under present farming systems, cropped land deteriorates rapidly. Under these circumstances, development of integrated pasture-livestock-crop systems offers a method of accommodating and improving both crop and livestock production.Under the smallholder subsistence farming practised in the subhumid zone, a single household does not cultivate more than 2 to 3 ha at a time even if land is readily available. The small size of farms is primarily due to the labour required for various cultural operations.Undersowing cereal crops with a forage legume appears to offer a simple method of enhancing the quality of grazing after grain harvest. It imposes minimum inconvenience to or change in the traditional cultural practices.Experiments were carried out for 2 years (1980 and 1981) to determine the optimum time of undersowing various stylo cultivars into sorghum. Stylosanthes guianensis cv Cook and S. hamata cv Verano were chosen because they grow well under subhumid conditions. The experiments involved the following treatments:1. Control, i.e. sole crop of sorghum (C 0 ). 2. Sorghum plus stylo planted on the same day (C 1 ). 3. Sorghum plus stylo planted after 3 weeks (C 2 ). 4. Sorghum plus stylo planted after 6 weeks (C 3 ). 5. Sorghum plus stylo planted after 9 weeks (C 4 ).In 1980, a local sorghum variety and S. hamata were used. Since phenotypic and genotypic variations were found in the local variety, the experiment was repeated in 1981 with sorghum (variety 5912) recommended by the Institute of Agricultural Research, Samaru, and S. guianensis cv Cook.The time of undersowing was found to be critical and specific to the legume type. Planting S. hamata cv Verano after 3 weeks and S. guianensis cv Cook after 6 weeks caused minimum grain yield reductions and increased the quality of available fodder (Table 1). The crude protein (CP) cement of the total fodder from undersown plots was greater than that of the crop residue alone. Grain yield reductions were a function of the productivity of the introduced stylo (Figure 1).Despite its simplicity and low cost, this technique will apply only to farmers with small numbers of stock because of the small areas that are cultivated. Thus farmers with a few small ruminants or two draught oxen should find it useful. Pastoralists with large herds will not appreciate its value for feeding purposes, but they may use it as a source of seed and for spreading the legume in fallow land following the last crop. Where farmers cultivate larger areas with the aid of animal power, undersowing cereals could substantially raise the output of good quality fodder. For example, in the subhumid zone of southern Mali, where an average farmer claims he is able to cultivate between 7 and 10 ha/year, it may be possible, given yields similar to those obtained in Kaduna (Table 1), to raise the total protein output of fodder from 1785 -2550 to 2905-4150 kg/7-10 ha unit/farmer, simply by undersowing sorghum with S. guianensis cv Cook 6 weeks after sowing the grain crop.In the following year, self-seeded regrowth will have to be controlled for at least 3 to 6 weeks from the time of planting the sorghum, because of the latter's otherwise slow initial establishment. During early growth sorghum does not withstand competition from Stylosanthes and can easily be smothered (Table 1).The results of another experiment, carried out in 1983, suggest that sorghum (variety 5912) can compete effectively with Centrosema pascuorum, Alysicarpus vaginalis and Macroptilium lathyroides without staggered planting dates. These legumes caused no significant differences between the yields of sorghum when undersown and when sown as a sole crop (Table 2). In this case sowing the forage legumes on the same day with the grain crop has the advantage of eliminating the need for extra labour for undersowing later on. Although the total amount of fodder per unit area from each of the crop-legume mixtures did not vary significantly from that obtained from sorghum as a sole crop, the increase in legume content raised the quality of the fodder (Table 3). a/ Figures between and among corresponding columns followed by one or more common letters do not differ at the 5% level of significance. b/ Due to the early start of the dry season the yields of grain and fodder were generally below expectation for the sorghum cultivar used.The seeds of the six legume types were broadcast and slightly worked into the soil of all three replications. Sorghum was planted either on flat seedbeds or on ridges. Ridge making involved more work but resulted in higher grain yields (Table 2). Crop residue yields did not differ significantly between planting on the ridge and on the flat. When sorghum was planted alone on the flat the residue from it was 42% lower than when planted on ridges, but there was no significant difference in legume production between ridges and flatbeds (Table 3).The possibilities for incorporating forage legumes through simple adjustments in plant geometry and fertilizer application were also investigated with S. guianensis cv Cook. A mixture of sorghum and soybean, as traditionally planted on ridges according to local practice, was taken as a reference model (Figure 2, pattern 2) for comparison with different crop-forage combinations (Figure 2, patterns 3-7). On one ridge, two sorghum stands were planted 0.3 m apart, with soybean in between, while S. guianensis cv Cook was planted alone on the other ridge (inter-row planting or alternate row planting -Figure 2, pattern 7). This variation offered a good compromise for growing a two-crop and one-forage mixture without having adverse effects on grain yields compared with sole cropping (Table 4). Undersowing sorghum with soybean did not cause as severe a grain reduction as undersowing with stylo. Both sorghum and soya grain yields responded to the application of nitrogen. With N application to the sorghum row, they produced comparable yields when planted either separately on different ridges or together on the same ridge and alternated with stylo rows. When fertilized with 80 kg of N/ha the inter-row sowing of stylo, with sorghum and soya on alternate ridges, produced 8.2 tonnes of fodder per ha. Out of this, 1.6 tonnes were made up of stylo (CP = 13.1%), increasing the CP yield over sole-crop sorghum from 216 kg to 391 kg/ha.Undersowing and inter-row sowing were also tested in researcher-managed, farmer-implemented trials. Thirteen farmers who had previously planted sole-crop sorghum were recruited at Abet in 1981 and persuaded to undersow or inter-row sow their crop with Stylosanthes. When inter-row sown the total sorghum plant population was maintained by planting two stands per position instead of one. Inter-row sowing resulted in a reduction of about 10% in grain yields compared with the sole-crop control. Undersowing resulted in a grain in loss of about 30% (Figure 3).The value of the grain loss from inter-raw sowing was less than that of the extra fodder gain, based on the comparative cost of obtaining the same amount of protein from cottonseed cake.Stylosanthes was also more productive on ridges (Table 4) but farmers will not expend labour on ridge making and then plant only half their ridges with cereal unless they either own livestock or have access to a market for the fodder. Land under S. hamata cv Verano and S. guianensis cv Cook for various lengths of time supported higher maize yields compared with those from uncropped or previously cropped areas. This became evident from trials using maize rows (four replications) to assess the effect of different rates of N (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 133, 166, 199 kg/ha) on grain and fodder productivity of land that had had the following histories:1. Uncropped for a number of years. 2. Cropped for 3 years.3. Under S. hamata cv Verano for 2 years. 4. Under S. hamata cv Verano for 3 years. 5. Under S. guianensis cv Cook for 1 year. 6. Under S. guianensis cv Cook for 2 years.The results of this experiment are summarized in Figure 4, from which the amounts of N required to be applied to a soil cropped for 3 years to achieve crop yields equivalent to the various legume fallow treatments can be derived. The amounts are given in Table 5.  The main crop benefitted from N amounts equivalent to 90 and 110 kg/ha from soil that had been under S. hamata cv Verano and S. guianensis cv Cook for 3 and 2 years respectively. It produced much higher yields, approximately 1.2 to 2.2 tonnes/ha over and above those from previously cropped or uncropped soils.The more rapid improvement of soil under stylo than under natural fallow has favourable implications for forage cropping in the subhumid zone. However, for how long such an improved soil could support cereal production has not yet been determined. Studies in Kenya (Maher, 1951;Webster, 1954) showed that the beneficial effects of a grass pasture were lost after 1 or 2 years of grain cropping.There may be other legumes resistant to anthracnose that could impart greater benefits to soil than S. guianensis cv Cook and S. hamata cv Verano in the subhumid zone. In a screenhouse study where maize was grown for 6 weeks in pots using soil collected from legume introduction plots after two growing seasons, several lines showed higher beneficial effects (Table 6). The different lines were acquired from CIAT (Columbia) and were not inoculated at the time of planting.Table 6. Total dry matter (DM) yield of maize in pots using soil collected from plots of respective legumes after two growing seasons, 1984.Rate of soil regeneration under a legume is a function of the legume's concentration and productivity. A concentrated legume stand cannot be maintained indefinitely. After 2 or 3 years fodder banks tend to be invaded by nitrophilous grasses in response to the build-up of N in the soil. A cereal crop can be planted to use the surplus nitrogen instead, thus benefitting not only itself but also the legume, the subsequent concentration of which will be improved.Land preparation after-a natural fallow is geared towards producing a clean seedbed. Methods may include burning, stumping large trees and shrubs ridging, etc. But when clearing an area that has been under a legume, farmers should not aim at its total removal. The crop and legume phases should each be short because, as noted above, gains in soil fertility are not long lasting. Hence, there is a need to maintain adequate legume seed reserves for re-emergence.Again, the presence of legumes amongst the grain crop residue is of value to livestock, but as noted above the regrowth of the legume must be controlled for the first 3 to 6 weeks in order to avoid competition after sowing of the grain crop at the start of the following growing season.In the light of these considerations, research has been carried out on two techniques: superimposed cropping and intersod transplanting.Superimposed cropping means growing a cereal every year in areas also sown with forage legumes. The essential feature is that the cereal grows while the legume is kept under control by manual weeding or by herbicide application. Once the grain crop is fully established and able to withstand competition the legume is allowed to regenerate from seed and contribute to the total poet-harvest fodder. This system requires large legume seed reserves in the soil, and thus a good seed return after each growing season. The presence of adequate seeds with different sensitivities will ensure regeneration of the legume after land preparation and weed control have eliminated early legume flush.In an experiment at Kurmin Biri where sorghum was planted in an area under Stylosanthes hamata cv Verano, application of a herbicide Round-up (glyphosphate) at 3 litres/ha before planting the grain crop -did not reduce early re-emergence of the legume, although the initial flush was totally killed. The growth rate of sorghum planted on the flat was low compared to that planted on ridges (Table 7). Sorghum planted on the flat was smothered completely by the legume in spite of herbicide application. When the soil was ridged and the grain crop sown early in the season, legume emergence was low and was confined to the valleys, while grain crop growth was faster (Table 8). This low emergence was probably due to burial of most of the legume seeds under the ridges. Application of herbicide after making the ridges but before planting the grain crop did improve grain yields from both legume and non-legume areas but, in the former, legume content of the final fodder was reduced as compared with that from unsprayed ridges. Although grain and fodder yields of sorghum were low (probably due to moisture stress imposed by the early start of the dry season in 1983), there appears to be a clear yield advantage from ridging, especially when grain crops are superimposed on a legume area (Table 8). This result suggests that a planted legume fallow or a fodder bank should be cultivated using ridges in the traditional manner. The presence of a forage legume may provide better protection against soil erosion than a sole crop. However, an important consideration for a farmer is the relative labour requirements for ridging a soil that has been under a legume compared with that which has not. This still needs to be tested.Intersod transplanting means transplanting cereals into established legume swards. Ridge making is a labour-intensive operation. The extent of land that can be prepared for cropping largely depends on the labour availability at the appropriate time. Techniques that reduce labour requirements and/or spread labour demands into slack periods would thus benefit the farmer. Farmers in the ILCA study areas habitually transplant millet and, to a lesser extent, sorghum.Sorghum is transplanted when it has to be re-established during the growing season or when opening rains are late in the year. Seedlings raised in nurseries are easier to irrigate than when they are on larger plots.Building on this traditional practice, preliminary attempts were made to transplant sorghum and millet into 1-year-old plots of S. hamata cv Verano. Nurseries of sorghum and millet were established in June and July, and seedlings were transplanted in July and August into separate plots of S. hamata at 30-and 25-cm spacings respectively along the rows. The rows, each 30 cm in width and 1 m apart, were cut or strip-hoed within an established plot of S. hamata. In some plots the herbage between the rows was also cut and removed from the plots at the time of transplanting.Transplanting into stylo reduced grain yield of the two cereals by 20 to 38% compared with the yield anticipated on traditional ridges without stylo (Table 9). Removing stylo from between as well as within rows at the time of planting improved grain yields of transplanted millet. ","tokenCount":"2570"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"209335bbb373ea9d050d66128b58e1aa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6f8be71d-b324-49fb-ba14-b1670fb5b38a/retrieve","id":"-1665641535"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"381589dc-29ad-474d-a563-5d16bdd3e03f","pagecount":"19","content":"Although food is not a scarce resource in this world of plenty with its globalised economy, yet almost 800 million people wake up hungry and go to bed hungry every day.Rapid population growth has intensified pressure on both arable and pastoral land.Despite rural-urban migration, the actual number of people dependent on agriculture has increased, due to rapid population growth in the area. This has intensified pressure on both arable and pastoral land, but endemic poverty has made it impossible to raise living standards in already fragile ecosystems. Population increase has been accompanied by a decline in the natural resource base as more wood and other organic matter such as manure is consumed, hastening deforestation and erosion. The farmed area has extended into marginally cultivable areas and rangeland. Shrinking land resources have not been balanced by increases in productivity; in fact, there is evidence of declining yields.Recurrent drought is one of the principal factors thwarting adequate food production, distribution and access in the area. I do not think there is any other corner of the world where droughts come with such regularity and force as they do here in the Horn of Africa. Across large tracts of arid and semi-arid land, scant and unreliable rainfall makes drought an inevitable fact of life in the region. Although this has been the case for centuries, a string of recent droughts-1972-73, 1984-85, 1987, 1992-94, 1998-2000-have had a particularly devastating effect, with more than a million dying and millions more suffering famine.While an earthquake or flood comes very quickly and the immediate effect is devastating, a drought is a slow and painful disaster, often building up over months and frequently leaving a whole country's population debilitated.As the fingers of drought squeeze tighter and tighter and the population has less and less food their traditional coping mechanisms I do not know of any other corner of the globe where droughts come with such regularity and force as they do here in the Horn of Africa.Drought is a slow and painful disaster, often building up over months and frequently leaving a whole country's population debilitated.become more and more challenged and break down. Scant food reserves are soon depleted and people have no choice but to consume the seeds for the next planting season, mortgaging their future to survive for the day. Animal herds cannot survive, and scarcity causes food prices to skyrocket. Many try to subsist on wild plants, too weak even to dig for roots. The impact on farmers can last for many crop cycles, often destroying livelihoods with minimal chance of recovery. The last of these drought periods affected 16 million people, equivalent to a quarter of the population of Britain.But drought, even if it is the most catastrophic natural hazard in the region, is by no means the only hazard. Floods periodically affect localised parts of even the most arid regions, damaging communications, destroying farmland and polluting water supplies, often with after-effects that last long after the subsidence of the flooding. I remember visiting Somalia during severe flooding a few years ago. Nobody knew what to do-apparently it does not flood in Somalia! We planned to airlift in large boats but were unable to do so because most of the runways were affected by the flooding. We finally managed to bring in small boats in light trucks!Conflict in pastoralist areas is a way of life with cattle raids not uncommon in northern Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, occasionally accompanied by heavy loss of life. Drought can also bring groups into conflict and the search for new pastures becomes a risk, even a lifethreatening danger, as competing herders vie for whatever is left of the grasses in the rapidly degrading environment. Conflict can also occur when a community responds to drought with mass migration to urban areas. And added to all this is the history of political turbulence in the area which occasionally escalates into actual warfare, most recently between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Thankfully these hostilities are now over, yet the aftermath lingers-many have been displaced by the war, and mine clearance will take many years.In this century and the last, the international community has accepted the moral responsibility to help poor people around the world. We have acknowledged that it is not acceptable for people to die of starvation when there is enough food in this world for every human being, and our deeds reflect this. Through the humanitarian aid programmes of bilateral donors, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the UN family, and through government agencies, we have worked together to respond to cries for help and avert famine in the Horn of Africa, in North Korea, in El Salvador and throughout the world. But it is the Horn that particularly concerns us here.Drought in the Horn of Africa, 2000 April 2000 brought to our television screens harrowing pictures of emaciated, starving people across vast tracts of land in the Horn countries, particularly in Somalia, Ethiopia and northern Kenya. More agonising stories came from Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan and Tanzania. Scant and irregular rains over the preceding two years had turned into a real and devastating drought, precipitating one of the worst food crises in decades. Worsening water and health conditions, combined with exhaustion of food stocks at household level, led to what we feared most: the beginning of large-scale migrations in search of water and food. We have seen such population movements in the past; they are a sign of distress, and result in a high incidence of starvation and deaths. They must be avoided by all means and aid, on a massive scale, was the only solution.It is not often that the international community acts promptly. But in this case, thanks to a combination of correct initiatives and prompt action, we drew attention to the crisis and set up vital co-ordinating machinery in record time, and famine was averted. I had the privilege of acting on behalf of the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in spearheading the response, and I wish to acknowledge the enormous generosity of donors in contributing to this resounding success. Thank It is not acceptable for people to die of starvation when there is enough food in this world for every human being. you. Thanks to many of you in this room who interceded on behalf of the people of the Horn, lobbying your officials to ensure that capital and resources were allocated and delivered quickly.It was this teamwork that was a major part of our success in dealing with the drought in the Horn of Africa. The level of response to UN agency requests was the highest of any UN consolidated appeal in the world in the year 2000, with 69% of the requested resources raised. We did particularly well on food needs, with more than 1.3 million tonnes of relief food delivered in record time, and we also responded with non-food items such as water purification systems, drilling equipment, livestock support, seeds and tools and the all-important health care. An extensive logistical network was put in place to handle such a largescale effort, and co-ordination of the assistance was efficient and smooth. We can be pleased with the result, but those who are the most pleased are the people, hundreds of thousands, indeed millions, who had access to the relief we provided:The women, who have new wells for their water . . . wells that often cut hours from their treks to fetch water home to cook their family meals.The women who can look forward to raising new animals after the destruction of the previous years, camels which give them milk and transportation, animals which they can sell.The women who know that at least for a few months they have food to feed the family.The children who can go to school, who can eat adequately, and who will grow in strength to face the difficult times ahead.The men who have more hope in their future, who can rebuild their lives, their herds, their food stocks.The families, who may now have some access to health care and clean water.Relief aid-an avoidable necessity?They are all grateful, and yet . . . what next? By the end of 2000, the Secretary-General thanked the donors and we said that a famine had been averted, but that the crisis was not over. This year, after almost three months, the UN has received a mere 12.4% against the appeal, yet the needs are still great. How many times over the past 25 years have we been in the same position? A crisis, time to react, a relief response that is often too late, and a period of self-satisfaction that a calamity has been averted-and yet the longer-term problems remain. For example, last September I visited the drought-stricken area of Gode, in Ethiopia, where Oxfam had rehabilitated some wells. It cost £100,000 sterling to provide clean water for 90,000 people for three years. Can you imagine-that means about one pound per person, for clean water for three years. This is the kind of thing that was achieved last year with drought relief. But this is also the kind of thing that is so important for us to work on over the long term.Since the disastrous drought of 1984-85 when more than a million people died in Ethiopia, we have improved in many areas: early warning, logistics, mobilisation and delivery of resources. But we still respond to crises knowing that the same cycle will come again, that there is still no escape from nature; that we have not yet learned to build to prevent food crises ahead of time. We have not found a way to build the capacity of potential drought victims and of the chronically poor farmers to resist the natural disasters of the future.With this level of vulnerability, it is no wonder that more than half of the population in the region survives on less than one US dollar a day. One dollar a day is the price of a litre of milk in developed countries, or one bus ride in a capital like Rome. We pledged at the World Food Summit in 1996 to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by the year 2015. In the Horn of Africa, in the almost five years since the Summit, we have hardly moved an inch.We keep people alive with food, but as they do not have seeds to plant, they need food again next year. We keep them alive with food, but they have no clean water, so they are often sick. We are helping people to stay alive, and we must, and we will continue to do so. But we can also help people to be stronger, with more of a commitment to clean water and health care, and we can help people to improve their bodies, their minds and their lives for the long term if we give more for seeds, tools, livestock and education. We must think of the future, and we must think in terms of reducing the need for relief assistance in favour of policies that create a sound foundation for lasting food security for all. We must think in terms of reducing the need for relief assistance in favour of policies that create a sound foundation for lasting food security for all.Our challenge, then, is to find and establish ways in which the international community can help the governments of the region to maintain and sustain their rural populations, so that they can more successfully withstand these drought periods.SHIFT TO PROACTIVE POLICIES: SEARCH FOR LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY It was a year ago, in fact one year today, that Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, appointed me as Special Envoy for the Drought in the Horn of Africa. At the same time, I took the initiative to set up a high-level Task Force under the chairmanship of the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization to 'address collectively the challenge of promoting long-term food security and development in the region'. The resulting inter-agency report dealt with long-term structural issues that play a part in the occurrence of famine, and was published in November 2000. It draws attention to some of the underlying causes of food insecurity in this region. I hope it will serve as a platform for future action as you and others work on answering the challenges set by these factors. Let us look at some of the issues involved.Despite the relative success of the relief effort, losses among the pastoralist communities of the Horn of Africa have highlighted their vulnerability to drought, raising questions about the sustainability of the pastoral way of life in the area. In Ethiopia pastoralists have lost over 50% of their livestock, and some 60 to 70% of the pastoralist communities in Somalia and northern Kenya have been badly affected by the drought. Similar hardship has been experienced in Eritrea, where 40% of the population are pastoralists, and in Djibouti, where most of the population outside the capital depend on livestock for subsistence.Even during relatively stable periods, the pastoral way of life encounters problems. Pastoralists traditionally range over long distances in search of pasture, which can bring them into conflict with other groups as population pressure increases, as well as taking them some distance from actual or potential markets. They also become more prone to disease.There are, of course, variations in the economies of different pastoralist groups. Some, such as those in the Somali regions of Lower Juba and Bay, rely on the sale of their animals in neighbouring Kenya. Others have shifted their herd composition to respond to market demands for milk and milk products, though this has increased their vulnerability, as dairy cattle are less able to withstand drought conditions. Others produce animals for export to the Gulf countries, but this trade has been severely hit by recent outbreaks of Rift Valley fever, which have prompted the Gulf States to impose a ban on cattle imports from all Horn of Africa countries. Although I did hear an interesting comment the other day, that perhaps there is a positive side to this ban, as it gives time for communities and families to rebuild herds and stocks in order to resume trading at a more stable level. It is also in the interests of the international community to work with the countries in the Horn so that by the time the herds are relatively replenished and the ban has been lifted, those whose livelihoods depend on animals will be much more independent and stable.Just how sustainable is this apparently precarious way of life? In a workshop last October at Isiolo in Kenya, organised as part of the drought response programme, the conclusion was a resounding 'yes', it is sustainable, and it must be preserved. Despite being beset by obstacles in the form of chronic insecurity, inadequate infrastructure and inappropriate government policies and laws, pastoralism remains the most suitable use of vast tracts of semi-arid land. With appropriate management systems in place, the benefits can be economic, environmental and social: productivity and trade benefits will accrue, sensitive semi-arid ecosystems can be preserved and social welfare mechanisms can assist community well-being.Despite the importance of pastoralism in the economies of the Horn countries, yet insignificant attention was given to it in terms of extension services and research. The inter-agency report (mentioned above) highlights the inability or lack of will on the part of governments to deliver services such as health, education and water to these vast areas where costs of delivery are especially high. It mentions a sequence of ill-conceived projects, and points out that there have been few initiatives promoting self-reliance among pastoralists since the early 1990s.The 20 million pastoralists in the Horn of Africa have to have their voices heard. They have to be fully included in the planning processes of the economies of their countries, such as the poverty reduction strategies and anti-poverty plans, as well as in the design of the development and relief programmes supported by the international community. They have to be given increased access to investment and trade.All this requires a willingness on the part of the authorities, from central through regional to community level, to open a door to co-operation with these marginalised people, through organisations which can understand and represent their needs. Of course it is difficult to sit and discuss these issues with nomadic people who are always on the move, but this surely is the challenge, to use extension services more creatively in order to reach these people and help them with their animals.It has become fashionable to talk about the important role of women in society, but it is impossible to talk about these issues and not talk about women, and any time you hear long boring speeches like this one and the person does not talk about women, then they have not covered everything! Yet few people are really aware of the central role they play in food security in most developing countries. Women provide 46% of Africa's agricultural labour, produce about 70% of its food, perform almost 60% of the marketing and do at least half of the tasks involved in storing food and raising animals. Most women in Eastern African countries live in rural areas, where they constitute more than 80% of the agricultural sector labour force. They are central to the selection, breeding, cultivation, harvesting and preparation of food. In the field they sow and weed, apply fertiliser and pesticides, and harvest and thresh the crops, and they also raise livestock and manage dairy production. And their importance is Women provide 46% of Africa's agricultural labour, produce about 70% of its food, perform almost 60% of the marketing and do at least half of the tasks involved in storing food and raising animals.The 20 million pastoralists in the Horn of Africa have to have their voices heard. They have to be fully included in the planning processes of the economies of their countries. increasing as men leave farming for urban centres and the cash economy.Yet women farmers are often among the poorest, and they are getting poorer. Women make up 60% of the world's 1.2 billion poor, and it is calculated that the percentage of women below the poverty line has increased by half since the early seventies. Yet men, despite the fact that they are often in combat or in towns, remain the main decision makers regarding farming practices, and they control the finances.Many women have said to me, 'Do not send me money, because then my husband will take it. And if you, this lady from the World Food Programme, is interested in helping me with food issues in my household, then send me food. Because when food comes into my house, I am in charge of it. But when money comes into the house, my husband is in charge of it. And his priorities are not necessarily food.' This lack of independence is a key area that needs to be confronted.Nor does women's control of livestock management necessarily give them access to extension services, and studies indicate that they tend to profit little from such support. But there are solutions. I saw a fascinating project in the Kajiado District of Kenya in September where the Semi-Arid Rural Development Project, a Dutch NGO, was bringing in camels and giving ownership titles to Maasai women. The women were so proud and pleased. Now they have a milk source, transport support and potential income. And as their husbands were away with their dwindling herds, these camels were also life saving.We need more such ideas and projects. It is important that we rethink our attitude to the role of women and find ways of capitalising on the skills, commitment and resilience of the female labour force. This will require an attitudinal change, giving women more rights in decision making, in finances and in ownership of the animals. Projects need to empower women and improve their skills alongside those of men. There needs to be equal opportunity for women to have access to credit, to markets, to organisations such as co-operatives, to vet- It is important that we rethink our attitude to the role of women. We have to give women more rights in decision making, in finances and in ownership of the animals. Projects need to empower women and improve their skills alongside those of men. erinary services and extension programmes, as well as to education and health.But first and foremost, we need to talk to women, listen to them and find out what they want, and include those concerns in the policies we are developing. This applies even when we send food aid: if we send in hard kernel corn that takes a long time to grind and takes a long time to cook, that means more water, that means more work grinding it, that means more firewood. And the best way to find these things out is to talk to the cook. Not just because she is the cook, but also because she is the one in the family who cares most about food security. She may not know what that term means. Who in the world knows what it means, except the people in this room, and people like us who are writing reports! All she knows is that she is hungry, her children are hungry, she wants to feed them. That is her mission in life. And so if we partner with her, if we find ways to support her, we are going to do a whole lot more overall to decrease those 800 million people who are food insecure around the world, and we are really going to be able to make a difference. If we paid attention to the work, and to supporting the people who do the work, we would get a lot further along in this process of building food security all around the world.The drought cannot be viewed in isolation. National and international supporting environments, enlightened governance and policies, and the commitment of the authorities to guaranteeing food availability, are all essential factors in dealing with the problem of food insecurity. The countries of the Horn of Africa have rarely seen gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates exceeding the rates of population growth. Heavy dependence on the agricultural The drought cannot be viewed in isolation. National and international supporting environments, enlightened governance and policies, and the commitment of the authorities to guaranteeing food availability, are all essential factors in dealing with the problem of food insecurity.sector results in acute GDP fluctuations from year to year, depending on good rains or droughts.Unfortunately, most governments in the area have little to meet the crises relating to food insecurity, relying on external funding for almost all relief efforts. In addition, for the past three decades, governments in the region have invested what little they have in the higher potential growth sectors, to the detriment of the rural population. Moreover, the people in the more remote areas rarely have a spokesperson or organisation to represent them. Their voices are either not heard, or their representatives mistrusted. Rural people must be empowered so that their needs are heard.This unfortunate situation is compounded by the fact that Official Development Assistance (ODA), is never very high in the Horn in comparison with other developing countries, has fallen by 40% since 1990. It is currently equivalent to US$ 15 per capita per year. Worse, the percentage of this reduced pot going to agriculture has declined from 13 to 7%. Today, donor governments seek maximum output for minimum input. Faced with major development needs closer to home, and requiring less investment for more economic and political return, central governments, banks and donors opt not to invest in the 'peripheral' areas.In addition, donor governments require accountability, they need to persuade their publics that the money is being well spent. With this comes the responsibility of communication-we need to show the world that their help and support is working and that they must continue to help and support in order to create a future for the disadvantaged. The decrease in the number of children on the brink of starvation is a success story; the increase in the number of children being fed at school is a success story; the increase in the number of people with access to sanitised water is a success story. The lists go on but these are often not communicated to the public, causing them to believe that there is no success, making it harder for donors to realise that the Horn of Africa still needs their help.Despite reduced ODA to the region, the international community has consigned large sums to the Horn of Africa in the form of large-scale food donations and other relief assistance, and while this has saved lives, it has also created dependence. Neither UN programmes, nor the bilateral assistance projects, have successfully addressed the problems of chronic poverty and access to food. Insecurity, lack of infrastructure, weak implementing partners, shortage of educated staff, all discourage investment in these impoverished territories. It is time to reflect on whether we should shift attention from life-saving relief aid to more long-term national and international efforts to build rural livelihoods that are sustainable for the future. It is better to invest now well, than to call for aid later.There are, however, positive signs. The growing importance of poverty reduction strategy papers has provided a framework within which the poor can be targeted, and many countries are now viewing them as essential components of their economic development programmes. The process is being helped by the freeing up of many economies, and the pressure of the international community to redirect debt relief to areas where the poor predominate.It is imperative that governments come to terms with the challenge of a rural society that constitute the vast majority of their human resource, and take steps to boost investment in the rural areas-investment not just in production and productivity, but also in education, health, extension services, infrastructure and diversification of economic activities in general.The environment in which this drought has occurred is a turbulent one and those governments who have made a commitment to their people need to realise that they must take further action to support those communities affected, not just by drought and flood, but by war and other internal conflicts. Donors, banks, NGOs and organisations like ILRI will continue to provide assistance, but there is a limit to their responsibility. The governments of the region must stand up and face these issues and go beyond just basic assistance, beyond food or medicine, and give their people the stable economic and political environment, which enables them to achieve the quality of life they deserve.I was pleased and honoured to be invited to present this lectureThe governments of the Horn region must go beyond just basic assistance, beyond food or medicine, and give their people the stable economic and political environment, which enables them to achieve the quality of life they deserve.at ILRI. For one, the drought of the last year has hit the livestock owners with particular intensity, and it is therefore apt to talk about challenges to food security in this forum. Secondly, if we want to improve the resource base of the poor, we must make every effort to improve the productivity of the people most likely to be affected by natural disasters.Research is therefore critical to the success of our plans for the future and it is something to which, in the international community, we have never made enough of a commitment. Before I came here, I managed a programme in the US Department of Agriculture for domestic food assistance in the US, and spending US$ 6 million on a research project in that context was not a lot of money. If I considered spending US$ 6 million on a research project for the World Food Programme, I think some people might throw me out of the building. My annual budget is only US$ 1.7 million and the work I spend it on is not considered such a high priority, either by WFP or in general Societies, both here in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere, are changing with the advent of a more global economy and of marketing systems that largely bypass the traditional pastoralist mode of living. Herds still move long distances, and dependence on local markets is predominant. Prices fluctuate with the rains and availability of food. That, in principle, means that pastoralists are still involved in a barter economy-not a global one.However, urban markets are developing fast, and there is a high demand for animal products, but deficiencies in infrastructure, marketing, quality control and conservation remain formidable obstacles. Research leads to the development of technologies that will help livestock owners increase their productivity, improve the health of their animals and introduce control measures so that they are able to maintain their livestock at optimum levels, meeting the growing demand for meat and dairy produce. In addition, improvements in the quality of livestock and in marketing systems provide better access to nutritious animal products for the poor. This is why programmes, such as those conducted at ILRI, are so important. Research conducted here at ILRI responds to the specific needs of poor farmers, with the ultimate aim of helping them be part of the new economy. A particular case in point is the meat import ban imposed by the Gulf countries because of the Rift Valley fever outbreak. We remain faced with the prospect of having to provide food aid to these people, who have not only faced three successive drought periods, but now cannot sell the animals that they have so painstakingly raised once rains do come. In such instances livestock research can assist in the development of testing systems and vaccines to help prevent further outbreaks of the disease.Communication is the key to the success of ILRI and its workfinding out from agriculturalists and farmers alike what their needs are before engaging in any programme. Above all, it is essential that research results be made available to the pastoralists in a form and manner that is easily understood, and that they be helped to support their stocks. Women in particular, the principal agents in small-scale animal production, deserve the benefits of a potential revolution in productivity and marketing techniques.The outlook for food security in this region of Africa can never be bright without sound national policies. Policies must target the poor, and resources, national and external, must be channelled deliberately to the poorest areas. These are remote, fragile and highly famine-prone highland areas and low-lying arid and semiarid lowland areas throughout the Horn. Technological innovations, and improvements in infrastructure and communications, must be directed increasingly towards them. Educational opportunities and health services must be given attention, as this will automatically lead to initiative, innovation and improvements.This cannot be achieved without involving the people, at community level, in the decision-making processes, so structures that allow thisThe outlook for food security in this region of Africa can never be bright without sound national policies. Policies must target the poor, and resources, national and external, must be channelled deliberately to the poorest areas.Research conducted here at ILRI is so important because it responds to the specific needs of poor farmers, with the ultimate aim of helping them be part of the new economy. must be part of the change process. Poverty reduction strategies, being developed now in all the Horn countries, are a good beginning, and must be pursued by governments with vigour and full commitment.Those strategies involve better use of natural resources; improved nutrition and health to reduce disease and mortality; and improved education and living standards that will slow down population growth and improve economic opportunities. But there are areas and countries that will never be able to produce enough food for their populations, so improvements in infrastructure which enable food to be moved from surplus to deficit areas are crucial to food security at the community level.So let us focus our work on people who are really in need. Let us build communication systems and make partners of the people who need the assistance and have a vested interest in food security-the women, the pastoralists, other residents of the region. Though vulnerable, these people constitute a great untapped resource, and if we can find more effective ways of supporting them, and enabling them to take advantages of the opportunities that come their way, then we can help the entire region to become more prosperous. ","tokenCount":"5412"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"47a5c57bd5575be9e18234b7b03b17ff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d5d16232-183c-4cb3-aba9-13067820c303/retrieve","id":"1238755676"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ffa597b4-61fa-4f8e-aef6-90f1c4409898","pagecount":"31","content":"The agriculture sector in West Africa which employs 68% of the total population and contributes about 30% of the Gross Domestic Product is dominated by rain-fed, smallholder, crop, livestock, and integrated crop-livestock/agro-pastoral farming systems. Total productivity of the farming systems is generally low due to several biophysical and socioeconomic factors, including weak integration of the crop and livestock enterprises, low soil fertility, land degradation, low and variable rainfall, shortages of labour and trained manpower, high post-harvest losses, limited value addition, scarce use of mechanization, poor market access, lack of enabling institutions and policies, and poor adoption of improved technologies.The Africa RISING West Africa (WA) Project is one of the three regional USAID-funded Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) projects operating in Ghana and Mali under the title 'Sustainable Intensification of Key Farming Systems in the Guinea-Sudano-Sahelian Zone of West Africa'. The project aims at providing pathways out of hunger and poverty for smallholder families through sustainably intensified farming systems that sufficiently improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base. It is managed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, and implemented by multi-stakeholder research-for-development platforms comprising of international and national research and development partners from the public and private sectors, community-based organizations, farmers' interest groups, service providers and market actors.In Phase I (2012-2016), participatory and multi-disciplinary research resulted in implementation of baseline studies and literature reviews that generated a critical mass of data and information that is available to guide prioritization, planning, and implementation of Phase II. Climate-smart (high-yielding, early-maturing, drought and disease tolerant) crop varieties; as well as good practices to improve cereal-legume-vegetable cropping; soil fertility and water management; livestock feeding, housing, health-care and breeding management; and reduction of food waste and spoilage were identified as issues to be addressed by the project. Results were communicated in different formats, but mainly in publications, reports, and success stories, and a few technologies were taken to pilot scale for uptake and adoption. Individual and institutional capacities for SI and integrated croplivestock research were strengthened. Phase II proposes to build its continuity on the solid research partnership foundation but also on harmonized activities across countries along common research and development outcomes. The WA project will strengthen strategic partnerships with development institutions, and leverage on their entrepreneurial approach for success in taking technologies to scale.The WA Project subscribes to the purpose and theory of change expressed in the umbrella document. The project will continue to generate research outputs that will support the farm-based households of smallholders to improve their livelihoods by increasing income and improving diets. Dependent on the livelihood strategy there will be different roles of farming, ranging from subsistence to enterprise-oriented agriculture. This implies a diversity of intensification pathways that utilize different packages of technologies and practices to realise sustainable intensification. Action research will be supported by extension material and rural development strategies that will be developed to stimulate technology and educational dissemination activities, and extended to about 92,000 households by the year 2021. These activities are designed to respond to the goals of smallholder households by accelerating adoption of technology breakthroughs that promote sustainable land management; increasing diversification of crop and livestock production to improve household diets in a manner that favourably affects the most vulnerable smallholders, particularly women and children; and increasing adoption of value addition to and the marketing of farm products as a means to improve incomes. Different sustainable production approaches are likely to be required within contrasting agro-ecological zones and socio-economic settings in what are otherwise similar smallholder systems and these will be addressed through typology characterization and targeting.Building on current, and developing more functioning partnerships between research and development will be the basis for the envisaged success of Phase II of the WA Project. The Figure 3 shows numbers of beneficiary households that the WA Project is targeting directly through the research process and in partnership with development projects. The projections are increasing because of the current partnership with Africa RISING's Large-scale Diffusion of Technologies for Sorghum and Millet Systems (ARDT_SMS), and the Livestock Technology Scaling projects in Mali; and the ATT, N2 Africa, and Taking Cowpea and Groundnut to Scale projects in Ghana. In Phase II, the WA Project will continue to explore research and development partnership opportunities with the curent development partners with whom the partnership extends beyond Africa RISING Phase I, as well as with several new partners. The new partners include: Camfed, CARE, Grameen ADRA, CRS in Ghana; and AKF and FASODJGUI in Mali. Exploration of new partnerships leads to the assumption of at least an annual 10-15% increase in beneficiary targets over the Phase II period. This partnership mechanism also ensures that the project activities have impact beyond the project life through continued promotion of the technologies by the partner organizations.Phase II of Africa RISING in WA will be guided by achievements and lessons of WA Project Phase I, but also guided by the harmonisation with the Africa RISING projects in the Ethiopian Highlands and East and Southern Africa based on the approaches and principles outlined in the umbrella proposal. Research outputs are generated under seven broad strategies representing viable entry points for technological integration, being genetic integration involving introduction of new crops and varieties to overcome existing stresses; manipulation of crop ecologies to get more food and feed on limited land and maximise biological nitrogen fixation; integrated soil fertility management as a cost-effective approach to replenish soil fertility; introduction of land management technologies to reduce soil loss and enhance water productivity; improved livestock feeds and feeding, housing, health-care and breeding management; introduction of post-harvest approaches to reduce food waste and improve food safety; and introduction of nutrient rich food crops and nutrition sensitive agriculture practices and technologies for improved household nutrition. Details of the flagship technologies under these strategies are given in Table 3 in the Africa RISING West Africa Phase 2 proposal. Bringing these technologies together in creative ways will begin to tip the scales in favour of sustainable farming. There will be need for integration of scientific evidence generated in Phase I into decision-guides and principles that can be taught and scaled out as simple rules of thumb and packages targeting agro-ecosystem and socioeconomic circumstances, defined by the SI domains (productive, economic, social, human and environmental). It is the scientific information backing these packages that will form the basis for engaging development partners with whom we plan to conduct R-in-D and quickly scale up to beneficiary numbers that Africa RISING alone is unable to achieve.We have also learned the importance of gathering feedback from the farmers and other stakeholders which allows for adaptation and iteration of activities during the research process. The WA Project will use R-in-D/Innovation Platforms as one major vehicle for this process, making them more effective, autonomous, and inclusive, especially of the private sector, for sustainability. They are meant for research priority setting, design, and dissemination. This approach will make it possible for research to package and complete the development of SI innovations and support their delivery and adoption in the region to achieve the planned outcomes.Phase II will also explore new research areas emerging from Phase I experiences and feedback, notably, using results from farming systems analyses and farm types to inform research targeting and technology dissemination; post-harvest management and value addition; nutrition sensitive agriculture; labour-saving mechanization solutions for smallscale farmers; focusing attention on climate-smart solutions and the effect of agricultural practices on ecosystems health. The project will also develop a livestock research strategy to increase the impact of livestock-related activities, especially those on small ruminants, poultry and pigs; develop a coherent capacity building strategy for different levels -farmers and researchers; develop a nutrition strategy to harmonize nutrition-related activities with the crop and livestock activities and with national nutrition approaches; engage in purposeful inclusion of gender and youth concerns and involvement in the SI process; and develop more rigorous and quantitative approaches for measuring diffusion and early adoption of SI technologies.The Africa RISING Project in West Africa (Africa RISING WA) shares the umbrella purpose of the Africa RISING Program aimed at creating opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainably intensified farming systems that improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve the natural resource base. This is guided by the unique characteristics of, and challenges and opportunities existing in the Africa RISING WA Project countries of Ghana (Figure 1) and Mali (Figure 2).  Phase I (2012-2016) of the Africa RISING Project in West Africa (Africa RISING WA) is being implemented in the Guinea and Sudano-Sahelian Zones in northern Ghana (Figure 1: Northern, Upper West, and Upper East Regions) and southern Mali (Figure 2: Sikasso Region). The area is characterized by a fast growing, relatively young population (>60% under 25 years) which is predicted to reach 574 million by 2050 1 .Agriculture characterized by rain-fed, small-scale crop, livestock, and integrated croplivestock/agro-pastoral farming systems dominates the economy of the West Africa project region. The sector employs 68% of the population and contributes about 30% of the GDP, making it the most important source of livelihood for the rural poor who make up about 54% of the total population (Table 1).The rapidly growing human and livestock population is driving agriculture towards greater intensification and putting pressure on the land, soil, water, and vegetation resources. Demand for food/feed has outstripped supply, resulting in widespread food insecurity, poverty, and natural resource degradation. The small-scale crop-livestock farmers need to adopt sustainable intensification (SI) technologies and practices to reverse the changes. Low productivity across all farming systems is the major challenge for the region's agriculture. Factors responsible for the low productivity include land degradation and low soil fertility; climate variability; high post-harvest losses and limited value addition; shortage of labor and limited use of mechanization; poor market access; absence of enabling institutions and policies; shortage of trained manpower; and poor adoption of improved technologies.Most of the crop and livestock production in Ghana and Mali is characterized by low productivity and poor market orientation 2;3 . Most farmers grow cereals, legumes, and vegetables for home consumption and cash. Crop yields are low, and there are several factors cited to explain the low yields, including lack of appropriate varieties, poor agronomic practices, and limited use of inputs, frequent drought, declining soil fertility, pests and diseases, and limited access to information. For example, a survey in Ghana showed that only 9% of farmers used certified seeds and the average yield of maize on farmers' fields was 1.7 t/ha compared with 6 t/ha on experimental stations 4 . An estimated 90-95% of seeds for Mali's traditional coarse grain come from informal farmer-to-farmer sources and village market exchanges 5 .Livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry) are reared for meat, milk, land preparation, transport, manure, and cash under extensive and semi-intensive management with limited housing, feed, shelter, health care, and breeding 6;7;8 . Livestock production accounts for approximately 30% of Mali's agricultural GDP, and 80% of Mali's agricultural households own some form of ruminants -cattle, goats, sheep, or camels 9 . The major constraints on production are poor nutrition due to seasonal variation in the availability of quality feed and limited access to veterinary services, improved livestock breeds, quality feed and water 10;11 . The poor husbandry practices result in high mortality rates and low productivity.Improved SI innovations to increase productivity of the small-scale crop-livestock systems were developed during Phase I. The Africa RISING WA team has the opportunity in Phase II to scale-out the tested and validated innovations in collaboration with development partners and to conduct multi-disciplinary adaptive research to refine and adapt those which are yet to be validated. Research on extension of least-cost rations, markets to increase net profit, and dairy production to improve household nutrition and income will be explored.Environmental degradation is one of the key factors contributing to low productivity in WA. Soils in the region are inherently low in fertility, especially in contents of organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus 12;13 . Fallow periods which were traditionally used to restore fertility have declined in length and are disappearing with cropping intensity and population growth. The crop and livestock enterprises are weakly integrated, preventing maximum use of the synergies derived from integrated crop-livestock production. Coupled with inadequate availability and use of organic and inorganic fertilizers, continuous cropping is leading to nutrient losses from farmlands 14 . During Phase II, the project team will undertake multidisciplinary research on integrated crop-livestock production to improve nutrient cycling and nutrient use efficiency. Technical research and outreach on improved soil and water management will be strengthened. West African agriculture and food systems are climate dependant and recognized as one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change 15 . Climate change is already leading to low and erratic rainfall and sporadic occurrences of droughts in the region which have consequences for crop and livestock production. For example, farmers in Ghana identified drought as the most important shock/event which may have a negative impact on their crop and livestock production 16 . During Phase I, limited water-related research was undertaken in the Upper East region of Ghana. There is an opportunity in Phase II to test and promote appropriate technologies for small-scale irrigation, water re-use, and water harvesting (e.g., waste/water recycling, rainwater harvesting), and watershed management. Another opportunity will be to formulate and test climate-smart agriculture packages based on some of the promising SI technologies from Phase I.Post-harvest losses are high because most farmers have limited knowledge on stored-grain management 17 . Storage is often done in homes using traditional silos and jute bags without routine fumigation or adequate protection from pests 18 19 . Current farmer threshing and shelling practices are labor intensive and lead to breakage. Poor sorting and drying lead to pest and disease infestation and mycotoxin contamination. Lack of improved storage facilities for grain as well as the absence of improved technologies for proper storage management push farmers to sell their produce right after harvest when market prices are very low, hence reducing their farm incomes.Also, adding value to crop and livestock products to improve quality and market value is limited at the household and community levels in the region 20;21;22 . Where value addition is practiced (e.g., milk-processing), it is mostly done by women using traditional, outmoded, and time consuming methods which increase their workload and result in low-quality products with limited shelf-life. There was limited research on post-harvest and value addition in Phase I. There is need for project partners to pursue post-harvest and value addition research, including improvement of local storage and value addition methods in Phase II.Throughout the region, cultivation of land is mainly by hand tools, with few farmers using animal draft implements in Ghana 23 and Mali 24 . There is little use and/or adoption of smallscale machinery resulting in acute seasonal shortages and inefficient use of labour for farm operations. Continuing reliance on simple farm tools and manual labour accentuates the drudgery of farm work and discourages the youth from going into agriculture. The WA project team has an opportunity to introduce, test, and adapt small-scale machinery to reduce drudgery and increase labor use efficiency.Limited access to the input and output markets by farmers, and the lack of enabling institutions and policies are major challenges to SI of the small-scale crop-livestock farming systems in the region. The link is weak between the small-scale farmers and the market actors (processors, traders, and consumers). Farmers have difficulties in getting access to market information, and there is little or no value addition at the farm and community levels to improve the market value of crop and livestock products. In Phase I, fodder markets were surveyed in Ghana, and market prices of agricultural commodities were monitored monthly in Mali. The Africa RISING WA research team has the opportunity in Phase I to conduct research on collective marketing, value addition, effective linking of various market actors, alternative marketing information channels, and market niches for underutilized crop and livestock products.Lack of trained manpower at all levels is a major constraint to increasing productivity of the farming systems in West Africa. For example, in Ghana the number of agricultural extension agents has dwindled, making it difficult to disseminate information on agricultural practices from the research station to the farm. In Mali, there is need to train more agricultural technicians (BSc) and scientists (MSc and PhD) to produce a new generation of agricultural scientists to replace the large cohort that is nearing retirement 25 (Staatz, 2011). About 24 graduate students were co-supervised by the scientists of the WA project during Phase I. The project team will train more graduate students in Phase II. In addition, short-term courses will be organized for early-career scientists and extension staff to build institutional and individual capacities for research on SI.Adoption rates of SI technologies in West Africa are generally low. This has been attributed to several factors, including weak extension services, poor communication channels for scaling-up/out improved practices, and lack of enabling markets and institutions. The Africa RISING WA team plans to partner with key stakeholders in each country to adopt and adapt technology dissemination approaches that have the potential to take proven technologies to scale.The rationale behind the vision of success for the second phase of Africa RISING WA is described in detail in the accompanying umbrella proposal for the three projects.Africa RISING WA Phase II vision of success is based on the premise that technology breakthroughs occurring through research can improve the lives of the smallholder farmers if they are fine tuned to more site-specific agricultural and socio-economic settings, and mechanisms are developed to put these technologies into farmer practice. Africa RISING WA research partners have, and will continue to develop proven SI technologies, and their operational approach with development partners (R-in-D) who have expertise in design and implementation of integrated community-based scaling will seek to meet impact targets as described below. These approaches were piloted during Phase I; research and development partners successfully worked together to assist farmers to access and better use farm inputs, cropping and livestock management technologies and practice for natural resources conservation. As a result, the beneficiary households at the end of the Africa RISING WA Phase I (2016) are about six times more than the original targets set for the research component (Figure 3).The mandate for research partners was to identify and evaluate candidate technologies through participatory, on-farm approaches which, by their nature engages few farm households. During the latter part of Phase I, researchers realised that combining the the best performing interventions into information and technology packages and field testing them through networks of development projects would create an opportunities for identifying the the most effective interventions that would be mainstreamed into wider rural development programs, beyond Africa RISING WA zones of influence.Partnerships were developed, initially with FtF supported development projects (see section 6.4 of the Africa RISING West Africa Phase 2 Proposal) whose visions of success required availability of informed productivity enhancing innovations for scaling-up and -out in the target communities. Both research and development projects are cognizant of the mutual benefits and synergies that would accrue from joint undertakings; Africa RISING generates these innovations as its outputs and development partners provide opportunities for learning through action research (R-inD) and scaling-up and -out of the research innovations.In Phase II, Africa RISING WA will continue to explore these opportunities with the current development partners with whom the partnership extends beyond Africa RISING Phase I, as well as new partners (including non-USAID supported) and thus increase the return to investment by USAID Feed the Future in the two countries' FtF zones of influence. The success of these partnerships form the basis for the proposed beneficiary targets given in Figure 3. It is expected that by the end of Phase II, Africa RISING WA will conduct research with about 12,000 households (up from about 4,000 now) and scale SI technologies and practices to 92,339 households through various development partners (up from about 24,000 now).These totals were estimated based on the number of current and potential households directly involved in the project's research and development activities; and on the current and potential number of households that are exposed or will be exposed to the activities of Africa RISING WA and its development partners. Examples of existing development partnerships in Mali and Ghana are given under Section 6.4 of the proposal document. For Africa RISING, the adoption of research-derived innovations directed at the SI of smallholder agricultural production systems allows rural households to make more efficient use of the resources available to them. Consequently, they can produce more without compromising the needs of future generations. This increased production can translate into a range of livelihood outcomes through improved income flows, better household nutrition, and increased human capacity.If the research conducted accounts for multiple sustainability domains (productive, economic, social, human and environmental), the long-term equity and viability resulting from the SI innovation, developed and promoted by the Africa RISING program, will be enhanced. A demand-driven approach based on long-term engagement with both research and development partners ensures that appropriate SI innovations will ultimately be scaled to receptive and informed beneficiary households.Africa RISING will continue to follow a nested theory of change (ToC) adapted to more clearly support phase II of the program. At the top level in the ToC, two distinct types of research are identified with significantly different types of outcomes.Much of the research in this category seeks to reveal the nature of the target systems, and the constraints and opportunities characteristic of these systems. Other generic methodical and diagnostic (M&D) research seeks to understand more clearly and identify potential improvements in the SI processes. Direct SI impacts attributable to this type of research are not anticipated. Its outcomes are more facilitative and the research outputs delivered will help to ensure a more demand-driven 27 focus for the action-oriented research (see below). These outputs will also improve the relevance and targeting of the action-oriented research outputs, improving their adoptability and potential to generate impact. Much of the Africa RISING M&D research has been implemented during phase I, so phase II will not be replicating these broad diagnostic studies which were the focus of the first 18 months of the project. It is likely though that some of the research-in-development (R in D) partnerships at the core of phase II will require specific diagnoses of constraints and a stratification of intended beneficiaries to improve relevance and adoptability of promoted interventions.Embedded in the M&D section of the theory of change, three major types of M&D research seeking to clarify different key issues relating to SI and the identification of appropriate SI trajectories are distinguished:• System diagnosis: this research covers all aspects of the biophysical and social characterization of the target systems and communities for Africa RISING. It includes the identification of researchable constraints and opportunities, and a thematic research prioritization. • Trade-off analysis: conducting systems diagnoses can identify potential solutions for constraint alleviation and promising SI trajectories; however, multiple stakeholders and multiple objectives within households mean that these are always subject to unintended consequences and trade-offs which may outweigh the benefits realised-and will clearly limit adoptability. Formal trade-off analyses allow for the rejection of options compromised by these externalities and/or identification of mitigating measures to strengthen promising interventions. • Typologies and equity: diversity in target groups has two major consequences for SIrelated innovations: i) one size does not fit all; most innovations are only adoptable by sub-groups within a target community; and ii) taking a portfolio of SI interventions as a whole, such as that developed by Africa RISING, must ensure equitable access so that all sub-groups have options which are appropriate for them. The use of household typologies, coupled with effective ex-ante impact assessment and well-targeted actionoriented research, helps to ensure these principles are met.The phase I projects of Africa RISING all implemented broad-based action researchprioritized via the M&D research undertaken-to identify, test and validate interventions/innovations that promote SI and its benefits across multiple domains for stakeholders. This kind of research will continue, to varying degrees, across phase II projects, but will be augmented by action-oriented research specifically linked to development partnerships scaling Africa RISING and associated technologies (i.e. the outputs of phase I).All Africa RISING action-oriented research is directly linked to developmental impacts in one or more of the five SI domains:• Productivity: interventions targeting the productivity domain seek to promote directly the intensification part of SI with impacts on food security and income; • Economic: research in the economic domain focuses on factor productivity and the value chain function with the ultimate aim of impacting on poverty levels and prevalence; • Environmental: research in this domain needs to identify unintended environmental consequences of innovations promoting productivity and economic wellbeing (in particular), as well as landscape scale interventions to support SI. Targeted impacts include more stable and resilient production, and the mitigation of environmental damage. • Social: the outcomes of research in this domain include strengthening of social capital, and identifying and supporting opportunities for collective action to impact beneficially on social cohesion; and • Human: major elements of the human domain for Africa RISING are the health and nutrition outcomes generated along SI trajectories. These may be targeted both directly and indirectly on the general wellbeing and capacity of individual beneficiaries.While Africa RISING research activities may primarily target one domain, all are likely to result in outcomes across several domains. This can be beneficial in strengthening adoptability, but also necessitates a clear vision of potential negative trade-offs.  There is an interested and motivated community of learning and practice.END.","tokenCount":"4273"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"724669f7a3c7161b9ed3da75016945cb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/44af1b2a-b0bd-4dac-bf7c-6a4dbfacedab/retrieve","id":"1528152967"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4b02f0bd-3059-4a8a-99b6-1203619b1677","pagecount":"2","content":"Research on climate change and agriculture is developing at a fast pace. However, substantial knowledge gaps exist between farmers, researchers, policymakers, politicians, the media and other stakeholders.CCAFS strives to engage with all these stakeholders regularly and bridge these networks by using innovative communication tools to disseminate science-based evidence from research and also to understand how perceptions and feedback from the fi eld can be integrated into research.By regularly hosting workshops and events that serve as integral knowledge platforms to discuss emerging issues in climate change and agriculture, CCAFS reaches out to a variety of people. Knowledge products like policy briefs, working papers, blogs, newsletters and videos, and events like farmers' fairs, fi eld visits, conferences and policy workshops are complemented by strategic social media tools to communicate our research and share information.• To develop strategic networks with policymakers, political leaders, media, researchers, farmers, and civil society groups in the South Asia region.Government agencies, research institutes, CGIAR centres, NGOs/INGOs, community-based organizations, civil society groups, media organisations and farmers cooperatives.• Organize workshops and policy meetings with different stakeholders in the region.• Publish policy briefs, Info Notes, journal articles, op-eds, workshop reports, working papers, newsletters, blogs and photo essays on CCAFS research areas.• Organize farmers' fairs, fi eld visits, training programmes, focus group discussions and media fellowships.• Develop informative videos on climate-smart agriculture success stories and work with agriculture extension workers to disseminate these.• The Climate-Smart Agriculture Learning Platform (CSALP) newsletter was launched by the President of Nepal in 2012. It highlights current research on climate-smart agriculture and promotes its integration into national agriculture research and policy agendas. It aims to make climate change science more accessible to policymakers, scientists, political leaders, rural communities and the private sector. The newsletter currently reaches nearly 1000 subscribers.• In 2012, nearly 20 Members of Parliament in Nepal attended a science-policy-media workshop organised by CCAFS to discuss the status of research on climate change impacts on agriculture.• In 2014, a workshop on crop insurance was held in New Delhi with policymakers and industry representatives.Recommendations from the workshop were incorporated into the review committee's report for the government's new crop insurance policy.• As part of the Climate-Smart Village project, farmers' fairs were organised in Haryana, Bihar and New Delhi. Multimedia on climate-smart technologies and practices and other extension material were disseminated to farmers.• CCAFS has produced over 20 short video features on climate-smart agriculture practices that are distributed to farmers and agriculture extension workers in South Asia.The fi lms are regularly screened in community centres and village markets. Farmers also have the option to upload the videos on their mobile phones through village kiosks.• Through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, CCAFS research and updates reach nearly 13,000 subscribers globally on a daily basis.• Between 2011 and 2013, CCAFS South Asia conducted 16 major workshops and trainings on a wide range of topics related to climate change, agriculture and food security. Major workshops were on: trainings on using the crop yield forecasting toolkit, adaptation prioritisation toolkits, baseline surveys, climate smart agriculture, gender and climate change adaptation and institutions and policies to scale out climate smart agriculture.• More than 8,000 participants attended the training-oftrainer workshops on gender and climate change in Nepal and India between 2012 and 2013.The ","tokenCount":"541"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0c778b76b4eab84715421e6cec5517d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/616c09ea-dfa6-4230-92fa-e805745f994b/retrieve","id":"168988878"},"keywords":["Colombian cattle systems","environmental impact","global warming potential, greenhouse gases (GHG)","livestock production systems","Mitigation"],"sieverID":"13152713-da5e-4302-a804-f57d1b94e2b7","pagecount":"23","content":"The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.The Alliance is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.By 2050, the global demand for animal products is expected to increase by more than 70% compared to the demand in the year 2010, due to accelerated population growth and increased individual incomes. Consequently, the livestock sector should increase production levels to satisfy the demand increase (Steinfeld et al., 2006). Yet, increasing production levels following a business as usual (BAU) approach would lead to increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and greater use of natural resources. Therefore, livestock producers must adopt cost-effective and climate-friendly practices to increase their productivity, while also reducing their negative environmental impacts.Dual-purpose cattle systems (DPS) constitute more than 75% of all dairy cows in Latin America, and are responsible for 40% of total milk production (Rivas and Holmann, 2002). DPS are defined as cattle production systems where the objective of the farmer is to derive economic benefits from the sale of both milk and meat. Specifically, cows are partially milked, and the residual milk is consumed by their calves (Rojo-Rubio et al., 2009). In Latin America, DPS based on extensive grazing systems, where the herd of cattle are maintained exclusively on pastures, with little or no use of external inputs. Consequently, production levels are low in comparison to specialized dairy systems (González-Quintero et al., 2020).Colombia has the fourth largest cattle herd in Latin America (FAO, 2013), which in 2019 was comprised of 27.3 million heads with an annual milk and beef production of 7.3 million liters and 933 million kg, respectively (FEDEGAN, 2019). In Colombia, DPS account for 35% of the cattle population, and 58% of national milk production of the regular market. Most of the Colombian DPS farms are characterized by large natural open pastures, using low amounts of inputs and having low milk production per lactation (3.5 L cow -1 day -1 ) (Carulla and Ortega, 2016;González-Quintero et al., 2020).The Colombian government is committed to reduce the national GHG emissions by 20% from the national BAU scenario between the baseline year 2010 and the year 2030 (Gobierno de Colombia, 2015). This goal has underscored the need for implementing mitigation actions focusing on the productive sectors that contribute a large proportion of the GHG emissions. In Colombia, agriculture is responsible for 26% of national GHG emissions, and ruminant enteric fermentation contributes more than 31% of the GHG emissions attributed to the agriculture sector (IDEAM et al., 2016). Therefore, mitigation efforts to effectively reduce GHG emissions and meet the set targets should, inevitably, consider the Colombian cattle production sector.Life cycle assessment (LCA) allows for the compilation and appraisal of inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts of a product throughout its life from cradle to farm gate or to grave (Guinée, 2002). Worldwide, several studies have used the LCA methodology for the integral assessment of the environmental impacts and the identification of hotspots as well as enabling the identification of mitigation options for the activities with the higher impacts (Cardoso et al., 2016;Oishi et al., 2013;Rotz et al., 2016;Sejian et al., 2018;Styles and Jones, 2008;Thomassen et al., 2008b;Weiler et al., 2014). However, there are no studies that have evaluated the environmental performance of the Colombian DPS especially with data collected directly from producers, and in the Latin American region, studies that have assessed the carbon footprint of DPS are few (Gaitán et al., 2016;Mazzetto et al., 2020). To our knowledge, this study uses the largest number of farms for LCA's in DPS, dairy and beef systems in the world. The general lack of comprehensive studies makes it is difficult to establish appropriate GHG mitigation actions for the DPS. Such comprehensive studies would inform the development of more sustainable livestock farming systems and contribute to the accomplishment of national GHG emission reduction targets.The present study aims to (1) estimate the environmental impact of dual-purpose farms quantified based on GHG emissions, non-renewable energy use, and land use (LU), using a farm gate LCA approach with data gathered directly from the farms in Colombia; and (2) to identify the main hotspots of negative environmental impacts; and propose possible mitigation options and their cost-effectiveness.A LCA approach was used to assess the carbon footprint (CF; GHG emissions per kg product), non-renewable energy use, and land use of DPS in Colombia. The LCA was done by the attributional method, which aims to quantify the environmental impact of the main co-products of a system in a status quo situation (Thomassen et al., 2008a). The publicly available specification (PAS, 2050: 2011) (BSI and Carbon Trust, 2011) was used, which is based on LCA and allows the quantification of GHG emissions in the life cycle of products. Modelling was done with Microsoft Excel. For estimating CF, global warming potentials for a time-frame of 100 years were used: 28 for methane; 265 for nitrous oxide; and 1 for carbon dioxide (IPCC, 2014).The system boundary was defined by the environmental impacts related to the DPS in a \"cradle to farm-gate\" perspective (Figure 1). The direct or primary emissions are those generated within the farm system (on-farm) and the secondary (off-farm) emissions are those upstream emissions related to the production and transport of imported resources such as feed, fertilizer, and amendments to soils (BSI and Carbon Trust, 2011). The functional units used were 1 kg fat and protein corrected milk (FPCM) and 1 kg live weight gain (LWG) leaving the farm gate.When a process produces more than one output, the environmental burden must be assigned between those outputs based on an allocation method (BSI and Carbon Trust, 2011). To divide the environmental burden between milk and meat three methods were used (Rice et al., 2017): a) Economic allocation that was based on the price per kg and the total amount of milk (FPCM) and meat (LWG) produced per year. b) Energy allocation that was based on the energy content (MJ) and the total amount of milk (FPCM) and meat (LWG) produced per year. c) Mass allocation was based on the quantity of milk (FPCM) and live weight gain (LWG) produced per year.The present study includes data collected by using surveys conducted on 1313 farms located in 13 Departments within Colombia. The data represent one calendar year and were collected during the period 2014 to 2015 by 2 projects: Ganadería Colombiana Sostenible and LivestockPlus. The criteria used to select these farms, the information included in the surveys, the main characteristics of farms, and the description of the study area were specifically described by González-Quintero et al. (González-Quintero et al., 2020).Milk production was standardized to fat (3.7%) and protein (3.3%) corrected milk (FPCM) (Carulla and Ortega, 2016). Live weight gain (LWG) was quantified as weight (kg) of animals produced from the farm, assuming no change in size of stock on the farm and no animals bought into the farm. Gross energy concentration was calculated from daily gross energy (GE) intake estimated for each animal category based on diet digestibility and daily net energy requirements for maintenance, activity, growth, lactation, and pregnancy. Dry matter intake (DMI) was computed by dividing herd specific gross energy intake values by the energy density of the feed (18.45 MJ per kg DM) (IPCC, 2019). Pasture productivity (t DM ha -1 yr -1 ) and nutrient content and digestibility (%) were estimated based on (i) the region and municipality where the farm was located into the country, (ii) the identification of the main types of pastures for each region by using the atlas of bovine production systems in Colombia (Pulido-Herrera et al., 2005), and (iii) expert criteria. Use of fertilizer and lime was expressed as the amount applied over an area (ha) of improved pasture.The average and the 5 th , 25 th , 50 th , 75 th and 95 th percentiles of the variables used to describe the farms are presented in Table 1. Estimations of primary and secondary emissions were performed on an annual basis using 2019 Refinement to 2006 IPCC (IPCC, 2019). Equations and emission factors (EF) used for the estimation of the primary emissions of CH4 and N2O for each pollutant are summarized in Table 2.  10.33 in IPCC (Gavrilova et al., 2019) Milk PR%: [1.9 + 0.4 The amount of organic dry matter in manure was calculated from the herd specific gross energy intake; digestibility of feed consumed; default values for ash content in dry matter and CH4 producing capacity; and the methane conversion factor.A nitrogen balance at farm level was made to check for possible N surplus and thus risk of N leaching. For each farm, surplus of N was quantified and expressed in kilogram N applied per ha. N input was estimated by multiplying the amount of each input purchased by its percent N content. Annual N deposition was assumed by a standard (15 kg N ha -1 ) (Bobbink et al., 2010), and N fixation was set as zero. The N outputs were estimated by multiplying the amount of milk and live weight produced by their N content. The difference between the N surplus at farm level and the N lost by gaseous emissions was too low for most of farms, therefore, N loss from manure and N fertilizers through leaching of the N was assumed to be negligible. Emissions from livestock respiration (Steinfeld et al., 2006) and the variation in soil carbon stocks at farm level were not taken into account.Emission factors (EF) used for the estimation of the secondary emissions from imported feeds and fertilizers are summarized in Table 3. These GHG emissions corresponded to production and transport of these agricultural inputs. Energy used for consumption of fossil fuels on-farm and transportation of inputs from factory to farm, were calculated according to the Planning Unit of the Mines and Energy of Colombia (UPME, 2016), and the Ecoinvent database (Weidema et al., 2013). Off-farm energy requirements related to the production of agricultural inputs were estimated by using specific factors obtained from Agri-Footprint, Ecoinvent, and European Life Cycle Reference Databases (Durlinger et al., 2014;Weidema et al., 2013) as shown in Table 3.The land use was calculated as the sum of the on-farm grazing area, and the area off-farm required to produce the purchased feeds. The grazing area was obtained from the surveys of each farm, and the off-farm area from Agri-Footprint database and Ecoinvent database as shown in Table 3.Results are presented as means, minimum and maximum values. A principal component multivariate analysis (PCA) was performed with the PCA procedure from the FactoMineR package (Husson et al., 2015). This shows relationships among total environmental impacts (CF, land use, and non-renewable energy use) per kilogram FPCM and kilogram LWG resulted from economic allocation, and several quantitative variables (kg FPCM cow -1 year -1 ; kg FPCM ha -1 year -1 , kg LWG -1 year -1 ; kg LWG ha -1 year -1 , stocking rate, % of area under improved pastures, kg fertilizer ha -1 yr -1 , feed purchased as % of DMI, T forage production DM ha -1 yr -1 , and L diesel consumption ha -1 year -1 ). To perform a numerical classification of farms, a Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components (HCPC) was done with the HCPC procedure from the FactoMineR package (Husson et al., 2015). The Ward algorithm was used to build the tree, and then the k-means consolidation to establish the clusters. For each cluster, average of farm characteristics and environmental impacts were computed. In addition, a nonparametric approach of Kruskal-Wallis was used to determine differences among clusters, followed by a post hoc test using the Kruskal-Nemenyi test (Pohlert, 2016).Scenario analysis was conducted by introducing improvement strategies for analyzing possible future technological changes that lead to GHG emissions reductions. The selection of these strategies was based on the characteristics of clusters identified, literature review and expert opinion (Bogaerts et al., 2017;Cardoso et al., 2016;Mazzetto et al., 2015). In the scenario analysis, we considered as a mitigation measure the establishment of improved pastures to increase forage yield and the stocking rate and improve the forage quality on-farm. In addition, the adoption of electric fences that allow rotational grazing was also considered as a good pasture management practice that could be adopted by farmers in conjunction with the mitigation measure. We evaluated the adoption of improved pastures only in the area necessary for producing the current forage demand of cattle, which is less than the current area that farmers use for cattle rearing activities, and by this, the stocking rate can increase. We assumed the establishment of a forage plant with dry matter digestibility equal to 65%, crude protein content of 12%, dry matter productivity of 35 T ha yr -1 , and that can be implemented in the low tropics (< 1200 masl).Additionally, we estimated the relative costs of the establishment and maintenance of improved pastures and electric fence, and the quantities of GHG emissions that would be reduced after implementing these measures. Consequently, we were able to quantify the economic benefits associated with achieving reductions in GHG emissions. The GHG emissions reductions of this measure were estimated as the annual average of the difference between the total GHG emissions of the baseline scenario and the total emissions under the scenario based on the adoption of the different mitigation measures (de Oliveira Silva et al., 2015). For estimating the GHG emissions from electric energy use by operation of electric fences, we used an electricity consumption of 42 kWh ha -1 yr -1 (Gutiérrez et al., 2018), and an emission factor for electric energy use in Colombia of 0.199 kgCO2 kWh -1 (UPME, 2016). The cost-effectiveness of the mitigation measures was estimated as the difference between the gross margin in the baseline and the gross margin in the scenario with the mitigation measure implemented, divided by the GHG emissions reductions. The gross margin in both scenarios was estimated as the difference between the revenues and expenses of farms in a period of one year. Revenues come only from the hypothetical sale of all live weight (LW), and all milk produced per farm per year. Prices of milk and meat sold were obtained from the Colombian National Cattle Ranchers Federation (FEDEGAN, 2019). Farm expenses were composed of investment and maintenance costs for the implementation of improved pastures and electric fence. The associated costs for the establishment and maintenance of this measure was calculated according to Gutierrez et al. (2018), which accounted for farm operations and quantities of inputs required (e.g., land adaptation, seeding, fertilizers, amendments to the soil, forage seed, and electric fence).Nitrogen surpluses obtained at the farm gate are usually attributed to N lost by gaseous emissions (i.e. NH3, N2O and NOX), leaching and runoff of nitrate to surface or groundwater, and soil N stock changes (Penati et al., 2011). Due to the low amounts of inputs and low stocking rates, the DPS was characterized by low N surplus per ha (14.7 kg N ha -1 year -1 ) in most of the farms used in the current study. In comparison high input farms used as much as 186 kg N ha -1 year -1 (Penati et al., 2011). In some farms, the main N input was the atmospheric deposition (15 kg N ha -1 ), as purchased N fertilizer was low (11 kg N ha -1 year -1 ). The mean N outputs in milk (6.5 kg N ha -1 year -1 ) and meat (6.0 kg N ha -1 year -1 ) were similar, which reflects the dualpurpose orientation of the farms. On average, the total N surplus was 15.0 kg N ha -1 year -1 , at the same time, direct and indirect N emissions were 15.9 kg N ha -1 year -1 . These results are comparable to those of Penati et al. (2011) for Italian extensive highland dairy systems (6.4 kg N ha -1 year -1 ), which are characterized by the low N inputs.Emissions from enteric fermentation was the main source of CH4 emissions, while the contribution of manure deposited on pastures was very small (Table 4). This behavior is typical for extensive cattle systems in the Latin American tropical region where excreta management is rare (Cerri et al., 2016;Gaitán et al., 2016;Mazzetto et al., 2020). 183.5 a AU: Animal Unit (1 AU being either 1 cow, or 3.3 female and male calves less than 1 year, or 1.7 female and male calves 1 -2 yr, or 1.3 heifers 2-3 yr, or 1.3 steers 1-2 yr, or 0.8 bulls)In general, we observed that direct N2O emissions from excreta deposited on grazed pastures were the main source of N2O emissions (51%), while indirect N2O emissions from volatilization of NH3 amounted to 28.7% of total emissions, mostly coming from animal excreta (27%) (Table 5). The contribution of fertilizers, in both direct and indirect emissions, was too low mainly due to the low adoption of this practice. Carbon dioxide emissions due to liming and burning of diesel fuel had large variation among farms, which depended on the quantities of lime and diesel fuel used (Table 6). Economic, energy, and mass methods were used to assign the environmental burdens between milk and live weight gain and to identify variations. When using these allocation methods, the proportion of environmental burdens allocated to meat differed, with the economic method assigning the greater burden, followed by energy content (Table 7). When applying mass allocation, emissions per kg LWG were lowest and emissions per kg FPCM were highest. Rice et al. (2017) found a similar trend as ours for the proportion of GHG allocated to meat depending on the allocation method used, increasing from the mass, to the energy, and to the economic allocation method. As recommended by Rice et al. (2017) when selecting an allocation method, the quality and reliability of data should be the most important factor. Consequently, in the multivariate analysis we decided to include results of the environmental performance of farms after economic allocation, which is associated to the fact that the ratio of milk and meat prices has been steady in Colombia (FEDEGAN, 2017).In Latin America, an LCA study for DPS in Nicaragua allocated the total environmental burden to milk (Gaitán et al., 2016). Similarly, an LCA dairy study in Brazil did not consider allocation approaches (de Léis et al., 2015). An LCA study for dairy systems in Peru (Bartl et al., 2011) and the evaluation of cow-calf stage in an LCA for beef production in Mexico (Rivera-Huerta et al., 2016), found identical proportions as our economic approach after applying the economic allocation method. In addition, an LCA study in Costa Rica that included DPS, applied an expanded boundary LCA of coupled dairy and beef production to avoid the allocation of environmental burdens (Mazzetto et al., 2020). As there is no consensus among LCA studies regarding which allocation method to apply, the estimation of impacts per product cannot be established precisely, and variations in results can exist. A common framework for allocation would allow, for future LCA evaluations, the partitioning of environmental burdens amongst co-products on a consistent basis, and consequently, identify hotspots and behaviors per product, and compare results between studies. This would also facilitate the establishment of policies aimed at supporting mitigation and adaptation actions for the cattle sector.In all the clusters most of the GHG emissions arose from on-farm activities related to enteric fermentation and manure deposited on pasture (Figure 2). Fertilization, and excreta management were limited, therefore the contribution of N2O to on-farm emissions was much lower than CH4 from enteric fermentation. On-farm carbon dioxide emissions were low due to the little use of machinery and liming. The ranking of off-farm emissions was mostly influenced by the amount of purchased feed, followed by agrochemical inputs and transport. A similar structure of GHG emissions distribution was also reported for DPS in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, which were low input dependent and based the feeding strategy adopted in sown and naturalized pastures (Gaitán et al., 2016;Mazzetto et al., 2020). Our results have a similar trend in the distribution of GHG emission of cattle milk and meat for the Latin American countries reported by Gerber et al. (2013), with methane being the main source of emissions. Gerber et al. (2013) assigned around 50% of total emissions to enteric fermentation (without counting emissions from land-use change), however, these figures are lower than our findings where this source of emissions accounted for more than 70% of total emissions. The above is mainly related to the fact that studied farms were low input farms and most emissions were from the animals. When farms intensify their production, GHG emissions arising from animals reduce, while those from excreta management and inputs production and use increase (Rotz, 2018).The large number of farms assessed (n=1313) provides a potential to identify relationships among environmental performance and farming practices, allowing for the proposal of strategies to increase productivity and mitigate GHG emissions.According to the bi-plot resulting from the PCA (Figure 3), milk yield (kg FPCM cow -1 year -1 ; kg FPCM ha -1 year 1 ) and meat production per hectare were positively correlated to the stocking rate (AU ha -1 ), as they were located in the same area of the graph. These variables were negatively correlated to emission (per kg FPCM and per kg LWG) and LU (per kg FPCM and per kg LWG). This means that increased milk per cow and ha, and meat per ha leads to reduced CF and LU per kilogram FPCM and per kilogram LWG. The analysis also showed a positive correlation among percentages of area of improved pastures, fertilizers application rate, forage production per ha, and non-renewable energy use (per kg FPCM and per kg LWG). Farms with high percentages of improved pastures used more synthetic fertilizers, which explains the positive correlation with non-renewable energy use.After cluster analysis, four groups of farms were identified (Table 8). Average milk production for all farms are similar to the lower values of the production ranges reported for DPS in Latin America (Gaitán et al., 2016;Rojo-Rubio et al., 2009). However, results of cluster 1 and 3 are comparable with average values reported for DPS in Colombia, while clusters 2 and 4 presented lower yields. Farms of all groups base their feeding strategy on grazing on sown pastures all year round, with feed purchased (% of DM) being lower than 4% of DM in all clusters, a typical characteristic of extensive cattle systems in Latin America (Rao et al., 2015). Cluster 1 (261 farms) had the highest milk yield, meat production (per ha), stocking rate and diesel fuel consumption. This cluster presented the second largest application rate of fertilizers, area of improved pastures, and dry matter production. This led to the lowest results for GWP and land use among clusters, and the second lower results for non-renewable energy use due to high diesel fuel consumption.Cluster 2 (220 farms) had the highest area of improved pastures and application rate of fertilizers. These farms had the highest dry matter production and the lowest stocking rate, which points to an inefficient use of the pasture. In addition, the production parameters were also low. Due to these characteristics, this cluster presented the highest non-renewable energy use and the second highest values for GWP and LU.Cluster 3 consisted of 603 farms, had the highest LWG (per AU), the second highest milk yield (per cow and per hectare), meat production per ha, and stocking rate, and the lowest consumption of diesel among groups.Additionally, the area of improved pastures, fertilizer application rates, and dry matter production were the lowest amongst clusters. These characteristics led to the lowest non-renewable energy use and the second lowest value for GWP and LU. Despite the lower implementation of improved pastures and forage production among clusters, these farms had high milk and LWG production.Cluster 4 included 229 farms, had the lowest milk yield, LGW production (per AU), area of improved pastures, application rate of fertilizer and stocking rate. The low productive performance of these farms led to the highest GWP and LU, and the second highest non-renewable energy use among groups.The CF results were negatively correlated with milk production. This result, in terms of CO2-eq per kg FPCM, is in agreement with the findings of Gaitán et al. (2016) for DP farms in Nicaragua. This means that a general increase in productivity, per animal and per hectare, might reduce CF, as was also suggested by de Léis et al. (2015) for dairy production systems in Brazil. Results for Cluster 1 are similar to those reported for intensive silvopastoral systems in Colombia (Rivera et al., 2016), and slightly higher than those for climate smart farms in Nicaragua (Gaitán et al., 2016). In addition, results for Cluster 3 are comparable to the level estimated by Rivera et al. (2016) and Gaitán et al. (2016) for conventional systems, while values for Clusters 2 and 4 are higher than those reported in these studies. Due to the lower milk yield and stocking rate, our results are higher than CFs informed for specialized dairy farms in developed countries (Ross et al., 2017;Sejian et al., 2018;Styles et al., 2018).In Latin-America, CF from beef systems range from 9 to 43 kg CO2-eq per kg LWG (Dick et al., 2015;Modernel et al., 2018;Ruviaro et al., 2015). Our results are at the lower end of this range and are also similar to CF informed for specialized beef production systems (Alemu et al., 2017;Mogensen et al., 2015). Emissions for Clusters 1 and 3 are comparable with those reported for more intensive systems, while results for Clusters 2 and 4 are closer to those of extensive systems. The relatively lower values found in this study are probably a consequence of the allocation of emissions between co-products, with a lower proportion assigned to meat, while in pure beef systems all GHG emissions are allocated to meat. This suggests that meat produced through DPS could be more environmentally friendly than meat produced in purely beef systems. The existence of a system where beef can be supplied from dairy farms while maintaining productivity within the dairy industry has been proposed as a good option to reduce GHG emissions from beef production in Ireland (Casey and Holden, 2006). Thus, well managed dual-purpose farms could attain higher meat production, replacing a greater percentage of meat from exclusively beef systems and thus reduce environmental burdens from the cattle sector. This could be an effective strategy to accomplish the national goals of GHG emissions reduction.The process which had the most energy use was fertilizer production off-farm. Cluster 2, which relies more on external inputs, showed the highest demand for non-renewable energy. Despite Cluster 1 having the second-largest fertilizer application rate, its high milk and meat yields reduced the impact of non-renewable energy use. Cluster 3 had the lowest non-renewable energy use per kg milk and meat of all the four clusters. This trend was also reported in dairy systems in Colombia, where a conventional system had higher nonrenewable energy used than a silvopastoral system, mainly due to its higher used of external inputs (Rivera et al., 2016). Results for clusters 1, 3 and 4 are lower than those reported by Zucali et al. (2017), Battini et al. (2016), andModernel et al. (2013), however, results for Cluster 2 are similar.The grazing area was identified as the most important contributor to land use, with more than 98% in each cluster. Similarly, Dick et al. (2015) reported that grassland occupied large areas (~100% of the farm area) on farms based on extensive and improved beef systems in Brazil, and Rivera et al. (2016) found that 92% of land use in intensive silvopastoral dairy systems in Colombia was left to pasture cultivation. Increasing stocking rate while maintaining the availability and quality of forage, could be an effective strategy not only to reduce land use but also GHG emissions.Clusters 1 and 3 had higher milk productivity (per cow and per hectare) and meat production per ha than clusters 2 and 4. This can be due to better herd reproductive practices (González-Quintero et al., 2020), which have been reported as strategies that allow the increasing of herd productivity in Latin American cattle systems (Holmann et al., 2003). In turn, clusters 1 and 2 were characterized by higher dry matter per ha of pasture and a larger proportion of improved pastures. This might be due to better pasture renewal practices than the other 2 clusters. These practices are associated with mechanization, fertilization, weed control, planting grass, rotational grazing, and electric fences (González-Quintero et al., 2020).Two production strategies can be identified among dual-purpose farms. The first, depicted in Clusters 1 and 2, is basing the feeding strategy on a combination of improved and natural pastures, combined with the highest fertilizer application rates. The second is found in farms of Clusters 3 and 4, where the feeding strategy is based on grazing natural pastures, with low input of fertilizers. However, there was a significant difference in terms of productivity of milk and meat (per ha) between clusters from each way of production strategy. This led to a lower GHG emissions in Clusters 1 and 3 compared to Clusters 2 and 4.The above analysis provides insight into possible technological changes and management options that can increase the productivity parameters and improve the environmental performance of DPS. In order to move from Cluster 2 to Cluster 1, livestock managers should improve pasture management and increase stocking rate. Similarly, to change from Cluster 4 to Cluster 3, farmers should adopt the good agricultural practices developed by farms from Cluster 3 which corresponded to rotational grazing, reproduction practices such as artificial insemination, controlled natural mating and reproductive control on cows, and record-keeping to better control farm activities. With these changes, it would be possible to reduce GHG emissions without vast investments.For the right establishment of policies aimed at supporting mitigation and adaptation actions for the cattle sector in Colombia, it is important to know the relative cost-effectiveness for the implementation of improved pastures as a mitigation measure. Results for the first year, after the implementation of improved pastures, showed positive cost-effectiveness for clusters 1, 2 and 4, while the result for Cluster 3 was negative (Table 9). However, for the following years after the implementation, the cost-effectiveness for all clusters was negative. The above suggests that cost savings can be achieved by adopting improved pastures, while reducing GHG emissions. Additionally, it is important to note that in the first year GHG emissions reductions were achieved for all clusters. Similar cost-effectiveness values were obtained in a study conducted in Brazil, where the implementation of improved pastures for land restoration reached negative cost-effectiveness (de Oliveira Silva et al., 2015). Carbon footprint (% variation with baseline), CO2-eq kgFPCM -1 1.6 (-25%) 2.0 (-37%) 1.6 (-34%) 2.2 (-48%)Carbon footprint (% variation with baseline), CO2-eq kgLWG -1 6.8 (-25%) 5.0 (-37%) 6.9 (-34%) 9.5 (-48%)Reductions in total GHG emissions led to a lower CF in all clusters in comparison to the baseline (Table 9). Cluster 2 reached similar values as Cluster 1, and Cluster 4 obtain even lower values than Cluster 3, due to an increased quality and yield of grasslands. By increasing the pasture productivity, less area is required to meet the same demand of the baseline, which means forage availability optimally fulfill cattle nutritional requirements. These new CFs figures, especially for clusters 1 and 2, are close to values reported for specialized dairy systems in Latin America and developed countries (Bava et al., 2014;Dalgaard et al., 2014;de Léis et al., 2015;Salvador et al., 2017), which points out the possibility of DPS to achieve better environmental performance with negative cost-effectiveness.Around 69.2% of the studied farms had less than 50 animals, which agrees with the percentage distribution of livestock farms in Colombia where 82% have less than 50 heads of cattle and are considered to be small ranchers (González-Quintero et al., 2020;ICA, 2019). In addition, DPS in Colombia are known to have low adoption of technology, low productive parameters and low profitability (González-Quintero et al., 2020). Studied farms were pastured based systems and rely mostly on the use of natural pastures and a lesser extent on improved ones. Because of the low farm profitability and socio-economic status of DPS, economic investment is a barrier to the adoption of improved pastures. Most of the Latin American countries, except for Brazil and Argentina, do not have policies or governmental programs for mitigation and adaptation to climate change focusing on the agricultural sector (González-Quintero et al., 2015). Therefore, it is necessary to provide incentives for the adoption of improved pastures such as increased availability and accessibility of seeds, inputs, and subsidies for labor, tax exemptions, financing technical assistance, payment for environmental services (PSE), and soft loans (Murgueitio, 2009). These incentives, which include public policy instruments, are important for achieving the implementation of these kinds of measures on a larger scale, allowing producers to have access to projects that foster measures for increasing cattle productivity and increasing environmental benefits.The largest source of GHG emissions in dual-purpose systems in Colombia arises from cattle herds, where methane from enteric fermentation and N2O from excretions deposited on pastures are the main contributors to GHG emissions. Therefore, the carbon footprint of products leaving the farm will be sensitive to the amount of enteric methane and nitrous oxide from pastures in relation to the amount of milk and meat produced.The current study identified two production strategies, a more intensive strategy with high proportion of improved pasture and higher fertilizer application rates and a more extensive strategy with low input of fertilizers and grazing on natural pastures. Both strategies had a cluster of better farms (Cluster 1 and Cluster 3) that provided low carbon footprint values which were in the same range and a cluster of farms that had higher carbon footprint values (Cluster 2 and Cluster 4). Within both strategies, the two groups of farms had either low or high milk yield per cow and productivity (milk and meat) per ha. This suggests that both extensive and more intensive strategies for the dual-purpose cattle systems can lead to lower carbon footprint values and provide promising mitigation options. The balance between the inputs used and the onfarm emissions in relation to the milk and meat produced is the main determinant for the outcome of the carbon footprint and improvements that optimizes the effective use of resources will reduce the carbon footprint.Despite the differences in management practices between both production strategies, our results suggest that the identification of an adequate fertilizer application rate and the implementation of better agricultural management practices, such as improved pastures had the potential to increase both the quality and amount of animal feed and reduce the carbon footprint. Therefore, these farming strategies are promising mitigation measures for reducing GHG emissions per kg of milk and meat at the farm gate after allocation, for dualpurpose cattle systems in Colombia. In addition, the mitigation practices showed a negative costeffectiveness after the implementation period.This study contributes to a better understanding of the environmental impacts of intensive and extensive dual-purpose systems in Colombia. By highlighting a cost-effective mitigation option, this paper provides an insight into the sustainable intensification process for the Colombian dual-purpose cattle systems.","tokenCount":"5903"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ab1fed7e12ae47ae099bac0ef0df5113","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/693f3523-639c-4419-a4d2-be1258bdbcb6/retrieve","id":"-1795819448"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"59e820d6-a05e-4dc6-ab94-e988e0b9241d","pagecount":"1","content":"Extending the shelf life of cassava through waxing Waxed cassava roots from Costa Rica sold in France at 1.89€/kg, Commercial waxing operation at a pack house in Uganda.A researcher buying a box of waxed cassava roots from a supermarket, Rapid postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD) is a challenge facing cassava-the roots lose market value within 24 hours and spoil after 72 hours. Simple coating of fresh root with melted wax (140-12.5 kg wax/t or $0.016/root) is commercially used in Latin America to extend the life of fresh roots for export. It has been tested successfully in Uganda. The technology keeps the cassava root in its fresh form and quality for at least 14 days, making it possible to market it over longer distances and minimize postharvest losses, therefore contributing to higher incomes of growers and traders, and increasing utilization and food security.The commercial success of this technology depends on farmers learning and willing to apply careful harvesting, handling, packing, and transporting of roots meant for waxing. More awareness is needed to reduce the current concerns about the effectiveness of the technology. Waxing addresses the negative impact of the rapid spoilage of cassava on farmers' income. The next step is to outscale the innovation and adapt the business model to Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Ghana, and East African countries. The interest and capacities of traders, supermarkets and grocery operators must be built to provide shelf-space for waxed cassava roots. Finally, financial linkages for interested entrepreneurs are needed.The scaling approach involves engagement with local entrepreneurs to make investments in waxing technology and with traders and supermarkets to market waxed roots. The local entrepreneurs, together with primary cassava producers, will be trained in agronomic practices that support the effectiveness of the technology (varietal selection, ridging, pruning, etc.), and an appropriate marketing model for each location and consumer segment will be developed. Partnerships will be established with dynamic youth in the cities who can use ICT to engage in marketing and distribution.In Uganda, primary producers, traders, researchers, and extension workers have worked together in outscaling the technology. Through the RTB-ENDURE project, two enterprises have adopted the technology and are currently selling waxed cassava roots to traders, restaurants, supermarkets, and consumers in Uganda. The technology is helping farmers and traders to extend the shelf-life of fresh cassava roots to reduce postharvest losses, relieve marketing pressure, and target emerging market opportunities in the major cities with a potential to expand into the regional market.Two enterprises for cassava root waxing exist in Uganda. At least 144 Ugandan farmers, traders, researchers, and students have benefited from the establishment of the two waxing pack houses. More than 30 restaurants, food vendors, hotels, and other marketers were engaged in 2016.Nearly 400 consumers are estimated to have consumed or purchased waxed cassava roots in 4 months only. The urban consumers were willing to pay US$0.71/kg for the waxed roots against US$0.31-0.42/kg for non-waxed roots.","tokenCount":"481"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"771ffb523d6f46d10b6bfe23fee5883d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/64a27eb3-303a-49af-a3d6-0c9b1b76013c/retrieve","id":"160301817"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"478a04ed-e094-4042-a222-0430890c9b04","pagecount":"22","content":"Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Value chain development (VCD), which facilitates the participation of smallholders and small and medium rural enterprises in higher value markets for agricultural and forest products, has become a key component in the strategies of many development agencies, donors and governments (Humphrey and Navas-Alemán, 2010;Staritz, 2012). VCD is widely seen as a way to combine economic growth and equity objectives by enhancing value chain performance while simultaneously reducing poverty among smallholders, including women and other marginalized groups (Stoian et al., 2012).The rise of VCD in development programs has led to a flood of guides and diagnostic tools. These guides and tools provide practitioners and researchers with a framework to engage with market actors, to identify market opportunities, the conditions for market access, and the capacity of smallholders and other actors to engage in the chain. However, most assume that users will identify critical elements in the context, understand their relevance for VCD, and make the necessary adjustments for data collection and analysis (Donovan et al., 2015) [1]. Consequently, they provide an incomplete picture of how policy, institutional and market trends, culture and local circumstances could shape the possible outcomes of interventions to strengthen specific value chains with smallholders and other resource constrained actors, or the actions needed to reduce uncertainty for different actors in this chain. Similarly, many value chain guides and tools see performance as driven primarily by financial incentives. They quantify how much of the product flows through different market channels, and they measure costs and revenues to estimate how much value is added at each stage in the chain. The result is a snapshot that captures \"stylized facts\" about the value chain frozen in time. They pay scant attention to value chain dynamics; what happened in the past and what could happen in the future go un-mentioned.By contrast, analyses of specific value chains have revealed the importance of contextual factors for understanding the dynamics of VCD and the underlying reasons for successful performance. A study of the value chain for shea nuts, for example, shows how an oligarchy of middlemen has successfully adapted to changes in the contextthe end of state regulation, market liberalization and political shocksand defeated efforts by processors and NGOs to source shea directly from suppliers (Rousseau et al., 2015). Poorer smallholders may be excluded from high value agricultural markets by their limited capacity to adapt to market risks (Poole and Donovan, 2014;Tobin et al., 2016). Cooperatives, which are often expected to play a critical role in VCD, may be unable to adapt sufficiently to market conditions to become viable businesses that can serve their members effectively (Donovan et al., 2017). On a larger scale, historical studies of global value chains show how these are created, by policy and by conflicts between different interest groups (Mintz, 1985) and how they have adapted to changing contexts over time (Beckert, 2015). This disconnect between value chain guides and the academic analysis of value chains highlights the need for tools to identify these contextual factors at the diagnostic stage of VCD. How robust is the value chain to unexpected shocks? What might happen if conflicts develop between different value chain actors? How might value chain stakeholders adapt to meet these challenges? How long might this adaptation take?Questions like these are critical for VCD with smallholders in developing countries. There are examples of the successful integration of smallholders in value chainssuccessful for now, that is (Stoian and Donovan, 2008;Harper et al., 2015). But there are also examples of mixed success (Donovan et al., 2008;Ricketts et al., 2014) and outright failures (Donovan and Poole, 2014). Indeed, the failures may well outnumber the successes. This should not surprise us. Experience in Africa and Latin America has revealed the struggles of smallholders to participate in relatively demanding and high-risk business environments across a range of agri-food sectors (Conroy et al., 1996;Reinhardt, 1987;Dolan et al., 1999;Gibbon and Ponte, 2005). Furthermore, in business as in evolution, \"it is failure rather than success which is the distinguishing feature of corporate life\" (Ormerod, 2005, p. 12). Fewer than half of today's Fortune 500 companies were listed as such 20 years ago (Fortune, 1996(Fortune, , 2015)). From a business perspective, therefore, failure is not an aberration but the norm. The risk of failure is particularly high in value chains in developing countries where smallholders are active participants. Smallholders are more likely to have limited access to information, productive assets, and fewer degrees of freedom to adjust to shocks. Such chains tend to have multiple layers that increase the odds of failure, and supply is subject to shocks from changes in the political and legal contexts and in agro-ecological conditions such as droughts or the incidence of pests and diseases.We argue that understanding the performance of value chains involving smallholders needs to move beyond the conventional focus on \"upgrading\" and \"governance\" to focus more strongly on the complexity inherent in value chains and the capacity of value chain actors to respond to changes in the context. This suggests the need for an expanded conceptual framework to help us understand the factors that create complex systems, and the ways that value chain actors can adapt to changes in the context. This paper presents a conceptual framework based on an analogy between value chains involving smallholders and complex adaptive systems. Complex systems thinking has been applied to a wide range of social sciences (Kiel and Elliot, 1997;Fuller and Moran, 2001;Lansing, 2003) and to foreign aid (Ramalingam, 2013) but has been largely absent from discussions on value chains in a rural development context [2].Are smallholder value chains really complex systems? Some economists object that the argument from analogy is unscientific, because only if the economy really is a complex system can we ever discover universal laws like those in biological systems (Beinhocker, 2007). This raises questions about the nature of economic models. When economists develop a model they think of themselves as picturing the \"real world.\" However, what they may really be doing is imagining a world which they then picture in the form of a model (Morgan, 2014). They create an imaginary world (\"a complex system\") which they use to explore the real world. In this view, economic models can also function as analogies or as metaphors (Gilboa et al., 2014). In the same way, the conceptual framework presented here imagines smallholder value chains as complex systems. Instead of thinking about value chains as if they were a complex system, we ask what if they were a complex system. Like a metaphor, the conceptual framework presented here functions as a tool of interpretation, helping us to see a pattern and connections in smallholder value chains that we might otherwise miss.We have applied the theory of complex adaptive systems to VCD involving smallholders to provide researchers with an expanded conceptual framework to understand value chain performance over time. The framework is then applied to selected case studies of value chains involving smallholders, thus providing insights into its usefulness and options for future refinements. The scope of this paper is limited. Our aim is not to review the current conceptual frameworks for VCD or to advise practitioners on how smallholder value chains might adapt to complexity. Rather, our aim is to suggest that complex adaptive systems offer a way of thinking about smallholder value chains that can help explain their performance. The focus, therefore, is on the common properties of complex adaptive systems and their relation to experience with smallholder value chains. We suggest that this perspective is relevant for smallholder value chains because of their greater exposure to uncertainty, shocks, and sudden changes, and also that this perspective is helpful by focusing attention on the contextual factors that help determine performance as well as the need for VCD to build capacity for adaptation.We use the analogy of a complex adaptive system to answer the following three questions:RQ1. Which common properties of complex adaptive systems are most relevant for understanding value chains and their development?RQ2. Can we combine these common properties into a conceptual framework that can enhance our understanding of value chain performance?RQ3. How can this framework be used to develop research questions, and applied to realworld case studies of smallholder value chains?The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 summarizes relevant research on complex adaptive systems. Section 3 presents a conceptual framework, while Section 4 discusses applications to smallholder VCD. The final section concludes.16 JADEE 8,1We begin by defining terms before summarizing the common properties of these systems and their relevance for smallholder value chains. Our aim is not to give a potted history of thinking about complex adaptive systems (see Mitchell, 2009, for the full story and; Rosser, 1999 for a shorter account) but to isolate the key features of such systems relevant for thinking about smallholder value chains.Writers distinguish between complex adaptive systems, where adaptation plays a large role and non-adaptive complex systems, such as a hurricane (Mitchell, 2009). This paper focuses on complex adaptive systems because it seeks better management as well as understanding of stakeholder reactions, interactions, and adaptations in response to systemic shocks.Because thinking about complex adaptive systems has emerged from a range of disciplines, with each discipline contributing key ideas, there is no universally agreed definition of a complex system or a \"unified theory\" of complex systems (Gleick, 1998). However, the essence is captured by Mitchell's definition:A system in which large networks of components with no central control and simple rules of operation give rise to complex collective behavior, sophisticated information processing, and adaptation via learning or evolution (Mitchell, 2009, p. 13).Complex adaptive systems challenge two fundamental assumptions of neoclassical economics. First, a complex adaptive system is not in equilibrium, but in constant movement. Second, complex adaptive systems challenge the concept of \"representative agents,\" or the assumption of \"a single actor who rationally calculates the decision that will maximize his or her self-interest from now until the end of time\" (Ormerod, 2005, p. 179). Challenging these neoclassical assumptions has generated new fields of research. Evolutionary economics and the new growth theory both assume dis-equilibrium (Nelson and Winter, 2002). Similarly, the theory of interacting agents has contributed to the growth of behavioral economics, helping to understand stock market fluctuations and the business cycle (Ormerod, 1998), why companies succeed or fail, why inferior technologies may dominate the market (Ormerod, 2005), and the operation of social networks (Durlauf, 2005;Mitchell, 2009). Just as viewing the economy as complex adaptive system has given new insights into economic behavior, so complex adaptive systems can enrich our understanding of the motivations, capacities, and behavior of value chains involving smallholders and offer insights into how to improve their performance.Despite the lack of a single definition, complex systems share \"common properties\" (Mitchell, 2009, p. 293), which can provide the building blocks for a conceptual framework for VCD involving smallholders. In this section, we identify and describe seven common properties of complex adaptive systems that we believe to be most relevant for understanding value chains in which smallholders are important participants. Time.Once we admit that an economy exists in time, that history goes one way, from the irrevocable past into the unknown future, the conception of equilibrium […] becomes untenable ( Joan Robinson, 1974quoted Arthur, 2015, p. 23).In most value chain analyses in the rural development arena time is not considered because markets are regarded as stationary: they exist in equilibrium, or move imperceptibly from one equilibrium to another. At equilibrium an outcome simply persists and so time largely disappears, or in dynamic models it becomes a parameter that can be slid back and forth reversibly. Equilibrium also tells us nothing about the time required to move between 17 Smallholder value chains different equilibria (Ormerod, 2005). How long does it take for the price of a given crop to move to new equilibrium after a shock? Is the adjustment made rapidly, and the last few steps slowly, or is the path to a new equilibrium an entirely smooth process?In complex systems, by contrast, the system is in a constant state of change or disequilibrium. Because change is measured over time, time is a property of complex systems. Time also enters complex systems through path-dependence, where the system becomes \"locked\" into a particular trajectory by events or shocks that have occurred in the past [3]. In economics, this may result in \"technological lock-in\" where a technology becomes the industry standard despite the existence of superior alternatives (the QWERTY keyboard, for example) (Durlauf, 2005). This implies the need to see value chain performance in historical perspective, analyzing the sequence of events that created shocks and led to adaptation by one or more chain actors. An example of market dis-equilibrium is the world coffee price crisis resulting from the rapid growth of coffee production in Vietnam during the mid-1990s and changes in technologies used by coffee roasters, which devastated coffee production in many parts of the world for nearly half a decade (Osorio, 2005).Sensitivity to initial conditions. Complex systems are sensitive to small changes in initial conditions. The classic example is meteorology, where tiny changes in the parameter values of weather models lead to wildly divergent weather forecasts (Gleick, 1998). This is known as the Butterfly Effect (\"a butterfly causing a hurricane on the other side of the world by flapping its wings\").The Butterfly Effect is caused by non-linearity. A good example is the logistic curve used to model population growth. Changing the parameter value of the curve (R) increases the non-linearity of the equation and beyond a certain value (3.1) the curve starts to oscillate. When the value is further increased to between 3.5 and 3.6 the logistic curve becomes \"chaotic\" or apparently random (Gleick, 1998;Mitchell, 2009). Thus, even in a simple model in which all the parameters are exactly determined, long-term prediction is impossible. By contrast, in a linear system, large results must have large causes. In linear systems, therefore, change is predictable, just as each value on a straight line at Time A is directly proportional to the value at Time B.A complex systems perspective suggests that the performance of a value chain is sensitive to initial conditions. For example, when Kenya imposed an excise duty of 50 percent on sorghum beer in 2013, this effectively killed the industry (Orr, 2018). Similarly, the decision by the European Community to impose a maximum level of aflatoxin contamination of two parts per billion made it more difficult for groundnut growers in Africa to penetrate European markets and threatened to reduce trade flows by 63 percent (Otsuki et al., 2001). Thus, the impact of a small change, such as a tax rate or a quality standard, can vary greatly depending upon the exact circumstances in which that change is made. While some small changes may have small effects, others can have very big effects. According to Ormerod (1998, p. 96), \"this is the whole logic of the complex systems approach.\"Endogenous shocks. In complex adaptive systems, shocks are distinguished from sudden changes to emphasize that shocks are endogenous or generated from within the system. In neoclassical economics, where the economy is in equilibrium, shocks are by definition external to the system. Business cycles are incorporated by allowing that economic equilibrium must adjust from time to time to such outside changes (Ormerod, 2005). By contrast, in complex systems shocks can arise internally, created by the system itself. Innovation is a prime example. In neoclassical growth theory, innovation is exogenous to the economy, something measured simply as a residual once other factors of production have been accounted for. By contrast, new growth theory sees innovation as endogenous, because investment in innovation generates increasing returns which results in further 18 JADEE 8,1 investment and so on, in an endless cycle (Beinhocker, 2007). Moreover, innovation does not produce a one-off disruption to equilibrium but an ongoing sequence of demand for further technologies in a self-reinforcing cycle (Arthur, 2015). Innovation, therefore, is not imposed from outside but intrinsic to the working of the economy.A complex systems perspective implies that we should not see shocks as only external to the value chain, but also as generated from within, by uncertainty, by technological change, and also by \"interacting agents,\" whose individual behavior can have unpredictable results for the system as a whole. For example, the hike in excise duty for sorghum beer in Kenya was provoked by the government's need for extra revenue and what was seen as excessive profit-taking by Kenya Breweries (Orr, 2018). Similarly, the international coffee agreement to regulate production and world prices collapsed because of competition from new entrants that made such regulation unworkable (Talbot, 2004). In both cases, shocks that affected performance were generated from inside the value chain as the result of conflicts between different value chain actors. Shocks differ from sudden.Sudden change. Since neoclassical economics views the economy as being in equilibrium, it is wedded to the idea that change is gradual. This is based on the Darwinian theory of evolution where small variations operating through natural selection lead to gradual change over time. By contrast, complex systems are characterized by sudden changes where the system lurches suddenly to a new equilibrium. The idea of a \"Tipping Point\" -\"the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point\"has been used to explain sudden changes in consumer behavior (Gladwell, 2000) or in crime rates, where sudden jumps in crime can result from quite small changes in rates of social deprivation (Ormerod, 1998). Sudden changes are caused by feedback loops. For example, the higher the crime rate, the more criminals in the population, the weaker the social sanctions against crime, and the less incentive to stop being a criminal, which in turn results in more crime. This is a positive feedback loop, where the system shows explosive behavior. If a system contains only negative feedback loops (or diminishing returns, in economics) it converges to equilibrium and the \"stationary state\" that haunted classical economists. A system that shows a mixture of both positive and negative feedback loops exhibits \"complex behavior\" (Arthur, 2015).Value chains involving smallholders are vulnerable to sudden changes that disrupt performance. These include food safety standards that may lead to being locked out of particular markets, the loss of a major buyer, a sudden pest outbreak, or a policy U-turn that can destroy a value chain overnight. Following the imposition of international food safety standards, for example, more than half the smallholders growing green beans in Kenya were dropped from the value chain immediately (Narrod et al., 2008).Uncertainty. Uncertainty refers to situations where the probability of a given outcome is itself unknown (Ormerod, 2005)[4]. Uncertainty is recognized to have a strong impact on decision making by individual firms (Wilding, 1998):I may be choosing to put venture capital into a new technology, but my startup may not know how well the technology will work, how the public will receive it, how the government will choose to regulate it, or who will enter the space with a competing product. I must make a move but I have a genuine not-knowingnessfundamental uncertainty. There is no \"optimal\" move (Arthur, 2015, p. 5).The same holds true of value chains where smallholders play an important role. Some threats to its performance are known and steps can be taken to mitigate them (e.g. actions to reduce production losses from known diseases, access to credit for purchase of inputs, and to support the management of a newly organized cooperative). But some threats are unknown, because we do not know what the system will do next. These include changes in the political and legal framework, changes in consumer preferences, outbreaks of pests and diseases, and changes in comparative advantage between countries. The future is not just unforeseen but unforeseeable. This implies long-term support to build the adaptive 19 Smallholder value chains capacity of actors in smallholder value chain, which may ultimately include the capacity to switch from one value chain to another.Interacting agents. The property of complex systems with the biggest impact on economics is that of \"interacting agents,\" defined as the \"interdependence in behavior across individuals\" (Durlauf, 2005, p. F238). Neoclassical economics uses the convenient fiction of representative agents in whom individual tastes and preferences are fixed. In contrast, complex adaptive systems have heterogeneous, interacting agents whose tastes and preferences are influenced by those of other agents (Kirman, 1992). The classic example is the ant model, in which the foraging behavior of individual ants is determined by the behavior of other ants (Ormerod, 1998). Similarly, for some consumer goods (movies or smart-phones), individual consumers have to discover their preferences, which is why the opinions of others influence their behavior so strongly. The theory of interacting agents also helps explain how inferior products can drive out superior technology and why stock markets boom and bust (Ormerod, 1998).The concept of \"interacting agents\" has important implications for system performance. First, small observed differences between agents can have a large effect on the overall system. For example, a mild racial preference by individualsavoiding being a minority groupcan result in complete racial segregation in a neighborhood or even an entire city (Ormerod, 2005). Second, interacting agents produce unpredictable results. Even if we know exactly how individuals will behave, we still cannot predict the behavior of the system because the whole is more than the sum of the parts (Ormerod, 1998). Once tastes and preferences are allowed to change, the economy is no longer in equilibrium. As economic agents interact they produce novel and unexpected outcomes, which in turn lead to adaptation and change (Arthur, 2015). Thus, the property of interacting agents is a source of uncertainty generated from within the system.Interacting agents can also help explain aspects of value chain performance. Value chains have several stages where actors have different functions and different, sometimes conflicting, goals and preferences. Interactions between these functional actors play an important role in the performance of the value chain. This is vertical interaction between agents. In addition, each separate function in the value chain may have several actors. This is horizontal interaction between agentsa critical feature of smallholder businesses, such as cooperatives and farmers' associations. In both cases, interactions can have positive or negative outcomes. Actors are not homogeneous and their goals and behaviors may conflict, but actors can also share goals and cooperate to achieve a common objective.Table I shows how interacting agents might affect the performance of value chains involving smallholders. We distinguish between interactions between internal value chain actors, and between these internal value chain actors and support service providers. Below we highlight some examples of vertical and horizontal interaction between agents.Some interactions occur horizontally between internal value chain actors:• Smallholders join cooperatives or associations to benefit from cheaper farming inputs, collective marketing, credit, and other services, but cooperation may breakdown if there is elite capture, free riding or other forms of unequal benefitsharing that create distrust between agents.• Even if collective smallholder businesses are based on relationships of internal trust, they face a dilemma when deciding if a given surplus is distributed among members (e.g. as dividends) or reinvested in the business.Competition between buyers and processors can lead to price-wars between rival firms (a \"race to the bottom\") or to cooperation and price-fixing by cartels. • Consumers influence other consumers to buy products that meet specific ethical or quality standards (e.g. fair trade).• Consumers increase demand for new and exotic products (e.g. Quinoa or avocados) that result in new and more lucrative markets for smallholders.Other interactions occur vertically between internal value chain actors:• Collective smallholder businesses may develop as multi-tier enterprises, with base cooperatives as first tier, marketing cooperatives as second tier, and advocacy organizations as third tier (e.g. the international co-operative alliance).• Business partnerships between cooperatives and large-scale buyers for the production of high value chains, such as horticulture for supermarkets and certification cocoa.Finally, some vertical interactions occur between internal value chain actors and governments:• Buyers use trade associations to lobby governments to introduce legislation or nontariff barriers to give them a cost advantage over foreign competitors or for tax-breaks if they buy from local producers.• Governments impose international food safety standards that increase costs for smallholders who must either meet these standards or seek alternative markets. Adaptation is defined as \"change in behavior to ensure survival or success\" (Mitchell, 2009, p. 13). Adaptation, therefore, is the mechanism to cope with the uncertainty of complex systems. Some economists take a biological view and argue that firms can plan and strategize to avoid failure, or that failure itself can function as a means of adaptation through learning (Harford, 2011). Others are more skeptical, arguing that \"the complex interactions between individuals give rise to inherent limits to knowledge about how systems behave at the aggregate level\" (Ormerod, 2005, p. 226). Although private firms plan and strategize, they share the same pattern of \"extinctions\" as biological species, suggesting limits to their ability to cope with changing conditions (Ormerod, 2005). Successful adaptation may even be due to pure chance (Ormerod, 2005). In short, although complex systems are defined by their ability to learn, adapt, and evolve, adaptation has limits. Adaptation is the key to understanding the evolution of global value chains, which are driven by the unceasing quest for competitive advantage. As the historian of the global value chain for cotton concludes:The constant reshuffling of the empire of cotton, ranging from its geography to its systems of labor, points towards an essential element of capitalism: its ability to constantly adapt. Again and again a seemingly insurmountable crisis in one part of the empire generated a response elsewhere: capitalism both demands and creates a state of permanent revolution (Beckert, 2015, p. 441).Adaptation, therefore, is the distinguishing feature of the wider economic system in which value chains involving smallholders are embedded. Their performance in an economic system characterized by \"permanent revolution\" greatly depends on how well the different actors can adapt to constant and at times abrupt change in market conditions.Figure 1 applies adaptation to value chains involving smallholders. Buyers, markets, commodities, coordination, and regulatory frameworks may all differ across these chains. However, certain characteristics usually go together. Perishable, high value commodities Value chains where smallholders sell on spot markets are simple in the sense that they have fewer functions and actors. However, they also share the properties of complex systems, because their lack of vertical integration and weak coordination makes them less stable and less able to adapt to endogenous shocks and sudden changes. An additional level of complexity is added by the fact that smallholders are not a homogeneous group but include both smallholders who are already successful commercial farmers as well as emergent or potential commercial farmers (Department for International Development, 2015). These groups usually differ in their access to resources and in their capacity for adaptation. By contrast, value chains where large agribusinesses play a key role are more complex in the sense that they have more functions and actors, but they have streamlined the coordination problem and their global reach gives greater control in sourcing material and finding buyers. This makes it easier for them to adapt to changing market conditions.One common form of adaptation in smallholder value chains, therefore, is through the business model. These models come in different shapes and sizes (Haggblade et al., 2012). The most common model is one of individual smallholders selling in spot markets. The three other modelsorganized smallholders selling in spot markets, contract farming, and integrated agribusinessshare a common rationale, which is to optimize the performance of the value chain by reducing the chance of something going wrong. They provide value chain actors with a buffer that helps reduce risk (which is known), cope with uncertainty (which is unknown), and reduce the potential for endogenous shocks generated by conflicts within the system. In other words, these three business models are institutional mechanisms for managing complexity.Where value chains involving smallholders successfully adapt, it is often thanks to an appropriate business model. This is particularly true for high-quality consumer markets. Experience has shown that smallholders can produce food of the required quality, and that \"policy makers have to be wary of the pessimism that is common with regard to smallholders\" ability to meet stringent food safety standards' (Narrod et al., 2008, p. 371). In Kenya, however, successful adaptation to meet these standards has required the right institutional support, with farmer organizations contracted by exporters, a certification agency funded by donors and NGOs, and government investment in cold storage facilities (Narrod et al., 2008). Similarly, Colombia's value chain for specialty coffee is founded on the Colombian Coffee Growers' Federation, an integrated agribusiness owned by smallholders that tightly controls all stages of the chain to ensure compliance with stringent quality standards and protect the brand (Bentley and Baker, 2000). Where adaptation proves too difficult, the solution may lie in alternative markets. For example, when Malawi was unable to reduce aflatoxin contamination of groundnuts to the level required by the EU, the industry switched to producing groundnut oil, where a simple filtration process reduces aflatoxin to a safe level (Emmott, 2013).Where smallholder value chains lack the appropriate business model adaptation may be less successful. For example, despite strong demand for finger millet in Kenya, efforts to develop an inclusive business model to increase imports from Uganda were not successful largely because of poor decision making which resulted in an intermediary-driven business model rather than a buyer-driven model as originally intended (Orr and Mwema, 2013).Similarly, small-scale forest users providing palm heart to local processing plants in the Bolivian Amazon were unable to adapt to sudden changes in market conditions in Brazil, their main buyer, because they lacked a business model that could identify alternative market outlets (Stoian, 2004). Even where appropriate models exist, many smallholders may be unable to benefit from them because they lack the minimum level of assets and skills to participate in the value chain. Successful adaptation may require new functions in the chain. If a critical mass of actors to perform these functions is not available, the value chain may breakdown; or if smallholders fail to adapt to new conditions, the value chain may become reorganized around them.Adaptation can prove too difficult even for agribusiness companies. One striking example is the introduction of refrigerated containers for bananas. Formerly, bananas were transported in refrigerated ships owned by a few transnationals that controlled global trade. Refrigerated containers broke this monopoly. Today, most bananas sold in the European Union are bought and transported by small and medium exporters while transnationals own the ships (Anania, 2015). In this case, innovation created an endogenous shock within the value chain to which transnationals could not adapt. As Ormerod (2005) argued above, there are limits to adaptation.All these business models depend to a greater or lesser degree on support service providers (research, input suppliers, finance), as well as government policy (trade and fiscal policy, grades and safety standards, labor laws). Government policy can make or break a smallholder value chain, as shown by the case study of sorghum beer in Kenya (Orr, 2018). Government policy can also determine risks for private investors. In Africa, privatization and market liberalization policies in the 1990s mean that systemic investment risks (price risks, economic coordination risks, opportunism risks) are no longer borne by governments but by private agents (Dorward et al., 2004). These risks may make it unprofitable for buyers or service providers to support smallholder value chains. Without these support service providers, smallholder may be unable to function effectively. In this case, others may have to step in to create the conditions required for the value chain to succeed. A case in point is the smallholder value chain for pigeonpea in Eastern Africa, which required coordination between research, seed suppliers, and exporters to correct the market failures preventing the development of the chain ( Jones et al., 2002).In this section, we integrate the common properties of complex adaptive systems into a simple conceptual framework. We provide a visual representation that can help us see a value chain as a complex adaptive system.This framework was developed with two objectives in mind. The first was to focus on value chain dynamics. Mostthough not all -VCD guides pay limited attention to these dynamics, which are consigned to a black box called \"the enabling environment.\" An exception is the guide developed by the International Institute for Environment and Development (Vermeulen et al., 2008) which develops a conceptual framework that identifies three sources of dynamism:(1) drivers of change, or \"the main external factors that cause change in the value chain\";(2) trends, or \"the directions of change in the chain, caused by the drivers\"; and(3) institutions, or \"the rules of the game,\" that \"enable change to take place.\"This guide uses these categories to \"explore future scenarios in relation to uncertainties about drivers and trends and understanding the future implications for the value chain, its 24 JADEE 8,1actors and the inclusion of small-scale producers.\" it views these dynamics as external to the value chain. We expand this framework to include not only the dynamics in the wider system (the \"enabling environment\") in which the value chain is embedded, but also the dynamics that are internal to the value chain, such as the interactions between value chain actors and their capacity for adaptation.Our second objective in developing this framework was to provide a tool for value chain analysis. We distinguish between heuristic devices and analytical tools. As Kaplinsky and Morris (2001) point out, most VCD guides use heuristic devices, such as value chain maps, that generate and describe data. These serve a useful function. However, VCD also requires analytical tools that can help explain the behavior of value chain actors and why performance varies over time. Our framework seeks to go beyond heuristic devices and to provide an analytical tool in the form of a set of conceptslinked together in a systematic waythat can be used to deepen our understanding of value chain performance. These concepts -\"pressure points\" in the value chainserve as entry points for researchers to drill down into the internal dynamics of the value chain, revealing its inner workings and helping to explain the behavior of the value chain actors.Figure 2 shows the conceptual framework. The components of this framework include:(1) Seven common properties of complex systems that we consider relevant for value chains involving smallholders.(2) Five common propertiessensitivity to initial conditions, endogenous shocks, sudden change, adaptation, and interacting agentsthat directly affect the dynamics of the value chain.(3) Two common propertiesuncertainty and timeare shown as outer rings to show that they affect the five common properties in the inner ring. (5) Feedback loops operate between the five common properties in the inner ring.To avoid cluttering the diagram, only some of these loops are shown here. Adaptation and interacting agents, for example, can lead to endogenous shocks and sudden changes.Conspicuously absent from this framework is risk. In economics, \"risk\" is defined as a situation where the probabilities of an outcome can be measured (Knight, 1921). Risk and uncertainty can be hard to distinguish in practice. For example, if there is a quantifiable probability that a tax increase of X percent will reduce demand for a given commodity by Y percent, then we know the risk to sales associated with this tax increase. But what is the risk of the tax being imposed? This might depend, inter alia, on which political party wins the next election, budget requirements, the influence of the Ministry of Finance, or on lobbying by the industry most affected by the change. Since these probabilities cannot be quantified, the decision to increase the tax must be uncertain. This suggests that many of the \"risks\" associated with VCD are better described as \"uncertainties.\" While this conceptual framework may help researchers better understand the complexity of smallholder value chains, from a managerial perspective what practitioners need are better ways to manage complexity, including diagnostic tools that improve foresight and allow faster adaptation. Based on experience with these case studies, we plan to develop such tools for smallholder value chains. This will form the subject of a separate paper.This section outlines two ways in which the conceptual framework can be applied to value chains involving smallholders. The framework can be used to: ask new research questions and analyze case studies.Table II provides a set of research questions to explore complexity in value chains and value chain interventions, with questions for each of the seven common properties of complex systems. Although these questions are not exhaustive, they suggest that the type of questions generated when we apply the conceptual framework to a specific value chain. A common set of research questions is needed to allow meaningful comparisons across different value chains, where smallholders play an important role and where interventions have been carried out to develop the chain.Many guides to VCD involving smallholders lack fully developed case studies showing how tools can be applied (Donovan et al., 2015). We discuss how the conceptual framework in Figure 2 might be used to analyze such case studies.A criticism of current analytical approaches to value chains involving smallholders is that \"they remain qualitative and often case-specific\" (Rich et al., 2011, p. 221). In other words, they do not allow researchers to test hypotheses about the impact of alternative upgrading strategies or policy options. For example, the International Livestock Research Institute has used stochastic dynamic (SD) models, simulation, and game theory to understand livestock value chains in Africa (Hamza et al., 2014;Naziri et al., 2012;Rich et al., 2011). One research problem was to develop the value chain for beef exports to the Middle East. An SD model was constructed to make an ex ante evaluation and compare the effectiveness of 26 JADEE 8,1Finally, if the objective is to test the relevance of the framework for value chain, the case studies may the common properties judged most relevant for that particular chain. The four case studies in this special issue follow the third approach. While this rules out using the framework to make systematic comparisons between the case studies, it shows the flexibility of the framework as a device for framing narrative and analysis, and how the context influences which of the seven common properties are most important for value chain dynamics.Box 1 gives a schematic example of the qualitative approach, applied to khat in Kenya. Here, the conceptual framework is used to frame the information about a specific case. This approach has obvious limitations. Unlike the SD modeling example, the case studies are not ex ante but ex post. They do not identify the shocks and uncertainties that might affect the performance of the value chain in the future. Moreover, qualitative case studies cannot formally test hypotheses about the relative importance of different properties in explaining the performance of the value chain. However, what the qualitative case study approach does offer is a way of understanding the past that can suggest ways to improve performance in the future and, by using the same framework of comparison, allowing us to show how specific properties of complex adaptive systems can affect the performance of smallholder value chains.Designing interventions to link smallholders with value chains will benefit from greater attention to the contextual factors that shape value chain performance over time. Smallholder value chains are volatile, with sudden changes of fortune and conflicts between Box 1. Smallholder value chains as complex adaptive systems: Khat in Kenya Time: for the past five years Kenya's exports of khat (Catha edulis) have grown by 10% per year, earning $232 million and making khat the country's most valuable regional export. In February 2015, however, this expanding and highly lucrative value chain suddenly collapsed. Uncertainty: although legal in Africa, khat is banned as a harmful drug in the USA, Canada, China, and most European countries. An influential Somali lobby group campaigns against trade in khat on the grounds that addiction causes unemployment and family breakdown. The export market also depends on efficient air cargo services since khat has to be consumed within three days. Sensitivity to initial conditions: about 40% of the Kenyan crop is exported, with two thirds of exports going to Somalia, and one-third to the Somali diaspora in Europe. A Europe-wide trade ban on khat would therefore have a significant impact on the performance of the khat value chain. Shocks: following a ban on khat imports by the Netherlands in 2012, the UK became the hub for illegal trade in khat to Europe and the USA. In June 2014, supported by Somali lobbyists, the UK declared khat a Class C drug, effectively closing the European market to imports from Kenya. Interacting agents: the Europe-wide trade ban led to oversupply in the regional market for khat, which resulted in falling prices in Somalia. Farmers in Kenya saw the price of khat (locally known as miraa) fall by one-third. At the same time, the Somali government increased taxes by 100% to $200 per bag. This reduced demand from khat traders in Somalia who believed that consumers were unwilling to pay higher prices. Middlemen in Kenya responded by suspending the 16 daily flights from Nairobi to Mogadishu needed to supply the Somali market. Adaptation: the Kenya Miraa Farmers and Traders Association (KMFTA) has held discussions with the British opposition Labor party and hopes that the ban will be lifted in case of a change of government. The association will now move to the European Court of Justice to challenge the UK ban. Since the ban, government officials in Kenya have been meeting regularly with growers to discuss the latest developments and the possibility of growing alternative crops. Conclusion: the experience of the khat value chain in Kenya makes sense when analyzed as a complex system where shocks produced sudden and unpredictable outcomes, where interacting agents created a \"cascade\" that closed down the value chain, and where asymmetric power between value chain actors and nation states prevented successful adaptation.JADEE 8,1 value chain actors that may lead to the breakdown of the chain, or the crowding out of smallholders. suggests the need for an expanded conceptual framework to help understand the capacities of poor actors to engage in value chains and the major drivers of value chain performance over time. This paper re-conceptualizes value chains involving smallholders from the perspective of complex adaptive systems.Conventional value chain guides that pay limited attention to contextual factors and focus on the price incentives for value chain actors fail to reflect the variable performance of value chains involving smallholders in developing countries. Many of these value chains are volatile, with sudden changes of fortune and conflict between value chain actors that may lead to the breakdown of the chain, or the crowding out of smallholders. This suggests the need an expanded conceptual framework to help understand the major drivers of value chain performance over time and the role of smallholders and smallholder business development in these chains. This paper re-conceptualizes value chains involving smallholders from the perspective of complex adaptive systems.Complex adaptive systems share several common properties that can help explain the variable performance of smallholder value chains. We identified seven common properties that we combined to build a conceptual framework. We emphasize that this is a framework, not a model. It is not a predictive toolbeing nonlinear, complex systems are unpredictable. Instead, the framework provides a set of concepts that allow us to structure the analysis of a specific value chain, compare performance across different value chains, evaluate the effectiveness of adaptation, and identify more general lessons for the successful development of value chains involving smallholders.In the final analysis, the usefulness of the framework has to be judged by its relevance for individual cases. We applied the framework to four case studies of value chains across different crops and continents. Because no two value chains are alike, the framework was used selectively, applying the common properties of complex adaptive systems that are most relevant for each individual case. In combination, the results will allow us to judge whether the framework has the potential to add to our knowledge of value chains involving smallholders.1. An exception is the M4P guide (Department for International Development, 2008) which pays attention to the political, legal, and market context in which chain actors operate.2. For exceptions, see Cooke et al. (2008), Curran and Cooke (2008), Curran (2008), and Ramalingam et al.Environments in which a shock or a set of shocks has permanent effects on a system\" Durlauf (2005): F225. 4. By contrast, \"risk\" is a situation where the probabilities of an outcome can be measured (Knight, 1921). To distinguish this meaning from ordinary usage, in economics this is sometimes called \"Knightian\" risk. ","tokenCount":"7484"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4f9350cbdc56ebe2b6106ed28c799b62","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/921c409b-df55-4e99-b317-c85e6458ddc8/content","id":"-1200121116"},"keywords":["maize model","planting density","nitrogen fertilizer","yield","Northwest Ethiopia midland"],"sieverID":"840b2c5b-9ba7-4e53-b8c4-3c7aec1b03d9","pagecount":"14","content":"This study determined the most effective plating density (PD) and nitrogen (N) fertilizer rate for well-adapted BH540 medium-maturing maize cultivars for current climate condition in north west Ethiopia midlands. The Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT)-Crop Environment Resource Synthesis (CERES)-Maize model has been utilized to determine the appropriate PD and N-fertilizer rate. An experimental study of PD (55,555, 62500, and 76,900 plants ha −1 ) and N (138, 207, and 276 kg N ha −1 ) levels was conducted for 3 years at 4 distinct sites. The DSSAT-CERES-Maize model was calibrated using climate data from 1987 to 2018, physicochemical soil profiling data (wilting point, field capacity, saturation, saturated hydraulic conductivity, root growth factor, bulk density, soil texture, organic carbon, total nitrogen; and soil pH), and agronomic management Abebe ZelekeMaize is the most essential food security cereal crop in the world, followed by wheat and rice. It accounts about 60% of global human consumption, livestock feed and raw materials for industrial purposes. Maize has profound effects on the livelihoods of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It can be widely grown crop in various agroecological zones and seasons throughout all of Ethiopia's peripheries. However, the average maize productivity is very low as compared to the global average due to climate condition and inappropriate agronomic management practices. The optimum planting density and nitrogen fertilizer levels can significantly improve the yield of maize. For this reason, planting density and nitrogen fertilizer levels for the current climate period have been optimized by help of decision support tools. Therefore, farmers have to be motivated to adopt these findings with strong confidence to increase maize productivity on the Northwest Ethiopian midlands and similar agroecological zones.data from the experiment. After calibration, the DSSAT-CERES-Maize model was able to simulate the phenology and growth parameters of maize in the evaluation data set. The results from analysis of variance revealed that the maximum observed and simulated grain yield, biomass, and leaf area index were recorded from 276 kg N ha −1 and 76,900 plants ha −1 for the BH540 maize variety under the current climate condition. The application of 76,900 plants ha −1 combined with 276 kg N ha −1 significantly increased observed and simulated yield by 25% and 15%, respectively, compared with recommendation. Finally, future research on different N and PD levels in various agroecological zones with different varieties of mature maize types could be conducted for the current and future climate periods.Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most essential food security cereal crop in the world, followed by wheat and rice (Yarnell, 2008). Similarly, among the main cereal crops grown in Ethiopia, maize is the most productive and comes in second in terms of production area behind teff (Eragrostis tef (Zuccagni) Trotter). Although it is a widely grown crop in a variety of agroecological zones and can be grown successfully in various seasons throughout all of Ethiopia's peripheries (Aman & Dawid, 2020), the average maize productivity is only 3 tones ha −1 , which is low when compared to the global average of 5.6 tones ha −1 (Abate et al., 2015). This is due to a number of factors, like climate change, declining soil fertility, limited input use, insufficient technology, poor seed quality, infestations of pests and diseases, and inappropriate agronomic management practices.In particular, nitrogen fertilization and planting density and maize varieties in agronomic management practices are the three widely used practices that can interactively affect the grain yield of maize in smallholder maize farming (Teshome et al., 2021). Moreover, the optimizing planting density and N-fertilize level for medium-maturing maize types are among the most widely studied strategies of adapting to climate change (Xu et al., 2021). Meng et al. (2022) was also concluded that high-density planting and the proper application of N fertilizer can significantly improve the light energy efficiency and yield of maize. Jiang et al. (2021) demonstrated that optimizing agronomic crop management practices would assist to make policy development on mitigating the negative impacts climate change on maize production. However, the majority of studies on optimizing planting density and N-fertilize levels for specific maturing maize varieties did not take climate change into consideration in our study area. Despite seasonal and climatic variations, the recommended amounts of 69-207 kg N ha −1 for 44,444 to 62,500 plant ha −1 have not yet changed. Currently, the majority of farmers and the private sector in the study area frequently use more nitrogen fertilizer than is recommended to increase maize yield. However, more fertilization often results in low N utilization efficiency as well as adverse impacts on the environment and human health (Ren et al., 2020). Optimal planting density helps to limit the environmental consequences brought on by excessive N fertilizers because of the canopy's capacity to absorb nutrients and water (Zhang et al., 2021). Therefore, increasing N-fertilizer along with planting density may be able to overcome these issues.The various approaches and different methods have been used to integrate management of N fertilizer input and the planting density (Xu et al., 2021). Most of these were generated from the spatial field experimental data collected at a specific location in our study area. However, these approaches are traditional, and the findings are seasonal, site-specific, laborious, and expensive. Further, the recommendations may not be applicable elsewhere due to diverse environments, soils, and seasons. Thus, these recommendations, combined with farmers' local practices should be evaluated using decision support tools (DSTs) to determine the appropriate planting density and N-fertilize levels for the current climate period.The use of decision support tools (DSTs) may improve these approaches by simultaneously capturing variation caused by season, soil, crops, and climate for long-term sustainable productivity (Ren et al., 2020). These tools included crop simulation models that were capable of forecasting crop productivity under various crop management options for current and future climate conditions. The DSSAT-CERES-maize model, in particular, is the most relevant for this study since it is the most widely used crop-weather model in the world and is frequently used to determine the optimal planting density and N fertilizer rate for maize growth and yield (Hoogenboom et al., 2019). We used detailed data on the soil profile, maize crop management, and 32-year climate for model calibration and evaluation in the study area. Thus, the objectives of this study were to optimize planting density and nitrogen fertilizer levels for maize production under current climate condition in northwest Ethiopia midlands.The experiments were conducted at the four experimental sites of Ambomesk, Kudime, Tekeldeb, and Anedent in the Mecha area of the Northwest Ethiopian Midlands in the years 2020, 2021, and 2022 (Figure 1). Geographically, it is found at 11° 41'06\"latitude and 37° 16' 37\" longitude. The area's average elevation is 2000 m above sea level. The mean annual rainfall was 1603.3 mm, and the mean minimum and maximum temperatures were 12.3°C and 26.7°C, respectively (Figure 2). The experiments were conducted near irrigation facilities so as to maintain optimum moisture by irrigating when the soil moisture was below field capacity. The soils in the district have a clay texture, are inherently medium in natural fertility, and have a high moisture retention capacity. The predominant soil is deep and has a red-brown color (Nitosols).Treatments consist of three rates of nitrogen (138, 207, and 276 kg N ha −1 ) and three maize planting densities (55,555, 62,500, and 76,900 plants ha −1 ) (Table 1). We obtain 138 and 207 kg N ha −1 and 55,555 and 62,500 plants ha −1 from recommendations, whereas 276 kg N ha −1 and 76,900 plants ha −1 are obtained via farm practices. The experiment has been laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The medium-maturing maize variety BH540 which is well adapted to the agroecology of the study area, has been used as an experimental material. Every year of the experiment, the experimental field was prepared before planting using the conventional tillage method. The land had to be flattened by hand. Bunds and ditches were constructed for each replication and the entire experimental field. The net plot size of each experimental plot was 5 m in length by 4 m in width (20 m 2 ). Blocks were separated from each other by 1 m, while experimental plots within each other were separated by 0.5 m. Planting was completed in the first, second, and third years on May 3, 28 May 2020, 2021, and 1 June 2022, respectively. Double seeds were planted per hill at spacings of 80 × 45 and 80 × 40 cm to maintain 55,555 and 62500 plants ha −1 , respectively, while single seeds were planted per hill at spacings of 65 × 20 cm to maintain 76,900 plants ha −1 . During planting, one-third of the granular urea was applied per hill prior to planting and then incorporated into the soil to minimize nitrogen volatilization and rapid nitrification. The remaining two-thirds of the urea was applied as a side dressing after 45 days of planting, 5 cm away from the plant, and covered with soil to minimize nitrogen volatilization. DAP (diammonium phosphate) was applied to all study plots at a rate of 200 kg ha-1 during planting as the primary source of P. In fact, each N rate that was administered as urea was subtracted from the 18% of N that was available in DAP fertilizer (a total of 36 kg N ha −1 ). Two inter-cultivations were carried out, along with weeding, to maintain the plots' weed-free status and improve their aeration.Climate data from 1987 to 2018 were obtained from the Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) dataset in Ethiopia. ENACTS is a gridded 4 × 4 km dataset compiled at weather stations and meteorological satellites (Dinku et al., 2014), and its performance has been evaluated in many areas of the country (Alemayehu & Bewket, 2016). The Ethiopian National Meteorological Agency provided ENACTS data for 10 locations in each of the three maize agroecological zones in the Northwest Ethiopia (Table 2). Because of the following fundamental factors, ENACTS data have been utilized for climate studies recently: a. Due to the small number of stations, traditional measurements of climate characteristics did not accurately represent all the study sites (Source: National Metrological Agency, Bahir Dar Branch)  (Alemayehu & Bewket, 2016). b. Because of the uneven distribution of the ground stations, there may be significant distances between them, sometimes exceeding 50 km. c. Due to recently installed stations, the majority of them did not offer long seasonal data records for trend research (Alemayehu & Bewket, 2016;Asfaw et al., 2018;Dinku et al., 2014); d. due to the fact that the station datasets have a significant amount of missing values (Asfaw et al., 2018).The soil profile collection and categorization of the generic horizons of the profiles and soil types were conducted for model calibration and evaluation based on FAO guidelines. We used the average results for the physicochemical properties of the soil because there was no significant difference between the testing sites. Accordingly, soil variables that have been analyzed for model calibration are as follows: the lower limit (wilting point); the drained upper limit (field capacity); saturation; saturated hydraulic conductivity; root growth factor, bulk density, soil texture (sandy, clay, and silt), organic carbon, total nitrogen (total N); and soil pH in water (Table 3).Leaf Area Index LAI: leaf area (LAI) can be simply estimated by multiplying the length of the leaf (L) and its width (W) by a constant correction factor of 0.75 as suggested by Francis et al. The total sampled leaf area per sampled area of the experimental plot was then used to calculate the leaf area index. Grain Yield (GY), t ha −1 : after the final harvest, threshed, cleaned, dried, and weighed with sensitive electrical balance and then adjusted to 12.5% moisture and then converted into hectare basis. Biomass Yield (B), t ha −1 : was a total weight of plants from the net plot area harvested at physiological maturity and sun dried, and converted into hectare basis.The data obtained from the experiment (observed) and the model (simulated) were subjected to a statistical analysis. SAS version 12 was used to calculate the analysis of variance (ANOVA) for both observed and simulated agronomic data. While the means were separated with the Ducan multiple range test.The CERES-Maize mode is the excellent realistic crop simulation model for optimizing the nitrogen fertilizer and planting density on maize crop. For this reason, the DSSAT-CERES-maize model, in particular, is the most relevant for this study since it is the most widely used crop-weather model in the world and is frequently used to determine the optimal planting density and N fertilizer rate for maize growth and yield. When properly calibrated and evaluated, the CERES-Maize mode can be used to generate data for genotype by environment interactions and stability studies of maize genotype in the absence of observed field data (Adnan et al., 2020).The CERES-Maize model was calibrated using climate data from 1987 to 2018, physicochemical soil profiling data, crop parameter data, and agronomic management data from the experiment   carried out in 2020-2021 at two (Ambomesk and Anedent) experimental location in northwest Ethiopia midlands. Genetic coefficients of maize crop varieties (BH540) were generated for the calibration and validation of the DSSAT-CERES-Maize model using DSSAT 4.7. The genotype coefficient calculator (GENCALC) is software that is used to estimate genetic coefficients in DSSAT 4.7, which has six genetic coefficients that describe the growth and development of a maize cultivar (Table 4)In this model, each timeframe for physiological development and the growth phase is governed by thermal time. As a result, P1, P2, and P5 govern anthesis and maturity phenology, while G2 and G3 govern grain filling, and PHINT controls leaf phenology (Jones et al., 1998). The performance of the model calibration was measured by comparing statistically the simulated and observed values of the growth and development parameters.The experiment conducted in 2022 at four experimental locations (Ambomesk, Kudime, Tekeldeb, and Anedent) in the northwest Ethiopian midlands served as a basis for validating the DSSAT-CERES-Maize model that had been calibrated. Model simulation performance was estimated by comparing the simulated and measured days to anthesis, days to physiological maturity, biomass at harvest, grain yield, and leaf area index at maximum. Three of the statistical indicators also used for calibrating and evaluating the performance of DSSAT included the coefficient of determination (R 2 ), the normalized root means square error (NRMSE), and the index of agreement (d).The deviation statistics were calculated using Equation ( 1 M Where Si is the estimated value, Mi is the measured value, n is the number of values, and M is the average of the measured values. The RMSE summarizes the average difference between observed and predicted values, while the NRMSE shows the relative size of the average difference without units and this statistic is unbounded. We consider NRMSE ≤ 15% as \"good\" agreement; 15-30% as \"moderate\" agreement; and ≥ 30% as \"poor\" agreement (Liu et al., 2014). The index of agreement (d) (0 ≤ d ≤ 1) is a descriptive measure and has values ranging from 0 to 1. The higher the index value the better the model performance. Its formula is as follows: As recommended by (Liu et al., 2014), when d ≥ 0.9 this indicates \"excellent\" agreement; when 0.8 ≤ d < 0.9, then we consider this as \"good\" agreement; when 0.7 ≤ d < 0.8, then there is \"moderate\" agreement; and when d < 0.7 there is \"poor\" agreement between measured and predicted values. R-Squared (R 2 ) is another statistical measure of fit that indicates how much variation of a dependent variable is explained by the independent variable(s) in a regression model.The six genetic coefficients for the medium-maturing BH540 maize cultivar generated from the model calibration trials conducted during the 2020 and 2021 seasons are shown in Table 3. The genetic coefficients for these cultivars were estimated using the genotype coefficient calculator (GENCALC) on the basis of 2020 and 2021 season experiments (Table 5). The DSSAT-CERES-Maize model simulated maize parameters very well after genetic coefficients (P1, P2, P5, G2, G3, and PHINT) were calibrated.The observed and simulated days of anthesis (DOA) and maturity (DOM) for the BH540 maize variety under the best levels of PD and N fertilizer treatments are shown in Tables 4 and 5. In the DSSAT-CERES-Maize model, the values of simulated days of anthesis and physiological maturity were 73 and 139, respectively. Similarly, the observed values of days of anthesis and physiological maturity were 73 and 139, respectively, in calibration and evaluation experiments. Hence, this result indicated that the observed and simulated days of Phenology (DOA and DOM) matched exactly for BH540 maize varieties in all experimental years (Tables 6 and 7). Moreover, there was no deviation between observed and simulated values in maize phenology. Similar findings were observed by Srivastava et al. (2019), who found that the observed and simulated DOM under the variety BH540 matched exactly in Ethiopia. Thus, phenology was calibrated with higher accuracy than other parameters for all treatments. The result of the model calibration and evaluation of LAI, GY and B for the medium-maturing (BH540) maize varieties associated with in the best combination of PD and N-fertilizer levels under current climate condition is shown in Tables 6 and 7 and, Figure 3(a-c), Figure 4. Similarly, the statistically estimated indices result for comparing simulated and observed LAI, GY and B values in model calibration and evaluation was 69%≤ R 2 ≤65%, 5.88% ≤ NRMSE ≤ 7.66%, and 0.83 ≤ d ≤ 0.86 and 99% ≤ R 2 , 3.96% ≤ NRMSE ≤ 7.66%, and 0.82 ≤ d ≤ 0.91, respectively (Tables 6 and 7). From these results, the highest d-stat and R 2 with the lowest NRMSE values were observed. This showed that, the calibration and evaluation of the DSSAT-CERES-Maize indicated \"good\" to \"excellent\" agreement between simulated and observed values for LAI, GY and B for the BH540 maize varieties (Tables 6  and 7). Thus, the calibration of the DSSAT-CERES-Maize model was highly accurate for the medium maturing BH540 maize varieties in the best combination of planting density and N-fertilizer levels in northern Ethiopia's midlands under the current climate conditions. The results are directly comparable to those of Srivastava et al. (2019) and Abera et al. (2018) who confirmed highly accurate observed and simulated maize growth parameters in Ethiopia.   Grain yield (kg ha -1 ) HWAMS HWAMM Linear (HWAMS) The analysis of variance revealed that grain yield, biomass, and leaf area index were all significantly (P < 0.01) affected by the interaction effects of PD and N fertilizer levels (Table 8). Accordingly, the highest observed and simulated grain yield, biomass and leaf area index were measured at a combination of the 276 kg N ha −1 and 76,900 plants ha −1 level (Table 8 and  Figures 4, 5 and 6). On the contrary, the minimum observed and simulated grain yield, above ground biomass and leaf area index were obtained from 138 kg N ha −1 and 55,555 plants ha −1 level (Table 8 and Figures 5, 6 and 7). This result indicated that all biological yields were increased by enhancing planting density and N fertilizers scenario levels consistently from the lowest to the highest ingredients (Figures 5,6 and 7). The primary reason for the higher biological yields at the highest planting density with the highest N fertilizer level levels might be caused by the maximum per unit area. Previous research findings also indicated that the highest biological yields were recorded from the combination of maximum PD with maximum N fertilizer levels (Alam et al., 2003). Moreover, application of 76,900 plants ha −1 combined with 276 kg N ha −1 significantly increased observed and simulated maize yield by 13-25% and 3-15%, respectively, compared with recommendation in a study area (Table 8 and Figure  5). According to Meng et al. (2022) and Zhai et al. (2022), maize yield can be greatly increased by high planting density and proper nitrogen fertilizer treatment. Therefore, this result indicated that there is a possibility to use the highest grain yield per unit area by PD with sufficient N fertilizer levels when all other conditions are favorable since N nutrient demanded may increase as PD increases. This study has also generated adequate information for improvement and implemented the best recommend package of PD and N fertilizer levels for the BH540 and related maize hybrid in the study area.Planting density and N-fertilizer levels were still optimized through the process of the field work for specific times of year and at a certain place. However, on-farm decision-making in these systems is frequently challenging due to a variety of uncontrollable treatment defects, such as the weather, the seasons, and soil change. Thus, systematic incorporation of the required input data into simulation models and decision-support systems produces realistic predictions of optimal PD and N-fertilizer level  for current climate conditions. The DSSAT-CERES-Maize model, in particular, is the most relevant for this study since it is the most widely used crop-weather model in the world and is frequently used to determine the optimal PD and N-fertilizer rate for maize growth and yield. The DSSAT-CERES-maize model was then calibrated and evaluated using copious amounts of information on the soil profile, maize crop management, and a 32-year (1987-2018) climate period. In the calibration and evaluation, good to excellent agreements were found between the observed and model-simulated DOA and DOM, B, LAI, and GY. Thus, the optimal combination of nitrogen fertilizer and planting density levels was 276 kg N ha −1 and 76,900 plants ha −1 for the medium-maturing maize variety BH540 under the current climate conditions in the northwestern Ethiopian midland. Therefore, farmers have to be motivated to adopt these findings with strong confidence to increase maize productivity on the Northwest Ethiopian midlands and similar agroecological zones.","tokenCount":"3620"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f48158b47d842d8c2e8220c00d775bc2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8b88ebc7-0a31-4c49-8a65-a4da0aa9ba65/retrieve","id":"612453968"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c57f85c2-9379-4ea1-866a-cb956860012b","pagecount":"64","content":"Support key institutions and organizations libraries through the supply of relevant and up-to-date information based on their identified needs. CTA is to support these institutions through their Publications Distributions Services.The current study was initiated and funded by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). In the \"Evaluation of the Implementation of the Mid-Term Plan (1997-2000)\" there were various issues raised as to the fact that CTA needed to develop a more proactive approach in regard to its choice of partner organizations and beneficiaries. Also highlighted were the issues that traditionally, the Pacific and Caribbean regions have not received sufficient attention in CTA's programmes and activities. Consequently CTA has commissioned this study selecting eight Pacific Island Countries to undertake an information needs assessment study.The extent of agricultural information services provided is not compatible with the percentage of population engaged in agricultural activities, and the increase in introduced crops and livestock, as well as the introduction of new information and communication technology.Lack of financial support was found to be the major constraining factor affecting and limiting access to needed information resources, infrastructure development such as telecommunication and power supply, and required human resources.Development of infrastructure such as rural telecommunication and electrification systems will require government interventions. However, factors such as information and human resources require cohesive policy and strategies by all the different players in the agricultural sector.The following conclusions are drawn from the study:1. More horizontal exchange of information rather than vertical exchanges, and a more participatory approach to identifying information needs of farmers is required.2. With limited budgetary support, more co-ordinated effort is required by institutions and organizations to form information consortia for the benefit of sharing resources, i.e. both equipment and human.3. More efforts have to be made to utilize information sources effectively, such as radio and TV, to support the dissemination of information in rural areas.4. Information resources and services within PNG are very fragmented, and institutions and organizations in the country are working in isolation. There is a need to find effective mechanisms to allow for better access to available information within the country for all who need it. The initiative by NARI and CIC-CGSD to develop an integrated agricultural information system is one approach by which the information can be made available to everyone in the research arena and other organizations needing this information. Other organizations within the renewable resources sector should contribute to this system so as to develop it into a national agricultural information database.5. A coherent national policy is required to build up the capacity of information staff together with a transparent national structure that addresses organisational linkages in the field of information services. The national policy should also provide for intensive dialogue at various levels to identify users and their specific needs, technical options, the roles of various institutions and create policy support. Some research institutes within PNG have their own information strategies to address their own research needs, however a major limiting factor for these institutions is the finance needed to keep the information systems working. Therefore, institutions and organizations needed to consider developing networks particularly to look at IT-related issues that would minimise expenditure, optimise resources, and encourage collaboration. A new approach is required by the government of many developing countries to see the potential of ICT as a tool for advancing education and research. For this to be effective, telecommunication policy, regulatory and user-related issues need to be addressed. Developmental trends in educational requirements for IT in the developing countries needed to be studied.The following recommendations for CTA interventions are:• Provide information services to key institutions to support decision-making in the agricultural sector for the provision of better research recommendations, through the supply of SDI and document delivery services for its various researchers.1.The task of CTA is to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development, and to strengthen the capacity of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilise information in this area. CTA's programmes are oganised around three principal activities: (i) providing an increasing range and quantity of information products and services and enhancing awareness of relevant information sources; (ii) supporting the integrated use of appropriate communication channels and intensifying contacts and information exchange (particularly intra-ACP); and (iii) developing ACP capacity to generate and manage agricultural information and to formulate information and communication management (ICM) strategies, including those relevant to science and technology.In January 2002, CTA's Strategic Plan (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005) was implemented and CTA's activities were distributed among three operation programme areas/departments:• Information Products and Services• Communication Channels and Services• Information and Communication Management Skills and SystemsThese operational departments are supported by Planning and Corporate Services (P&CS) which is charged with the methodological underpinning of their work and monitoring the ACP environment in order to identify emerging issues and trends and make proposals for their translation into programmes and activities. This current exercise, therefore, falls within the mandate of P&CS.CTA works primarily through intermediary organizations and partners to promote agriculture and rural development. Through partnerships, CTA hopes to increase the number of ACP organizations capable of generating and managing information and developing their own information and communication management strategies. The identification of appropriate partners is therefore of primordial importance.The \"Evaluation of the Implementation of the Mid-Term Plan\" (1997-2000) emphasised the need for CTA to develop a more pro-active approach and elaborate criteria for decision-making with regard to the choice of partner organizations and beneficiaries. Beside partner identification and selection issues, the observation has also been made that, traditionally, the Pacific and Caribbean regions have not received sufficient attention in CTA's programmes and activities. Furthermore, the admission of six new Pacific member states under the Cotonou Agreement means not much know about them, hence the need to develop CTA intervention strategy and provide more targeted assistance 1 . Finally, various national and regional partners with whom CTA has had a long-standing relationship have requested for the current study in order to provide more targeted assistance to their beneficiaries.The objectives of the current study are as follows: • To identify agricultural needs of key actors / beneficiaries for CTA products and services;• To identify needs of potential actors / beneficiaries of CTA activities and services in terms of building capacity for information and communication management; • To identify potential partners / beneficiaries for CTA activities and services;• To develop some baseline data to facilitate subsequent monitoring activities.The study should assist the three operational departments of the CTA as well as its local representatives to improve and better target interventions and activities aimed at potential partners and beneficiaries (including women, youth, private sector and civil society organizations); to have a more informed picture of their needs and aid in the elaboration of a strategy and framework of action. The study should also highlight where there are specific needs for CTA's products and services thereby enabling improvement in the delivery of the same.Data for the study were collected using the following methods: • The desk review of available literature and information sources including the findings of programme evaluations; • The conduct of face-to-face interviews with relevant stakeholders and concerned parties; and • Limited use of questionnaires.The following institutions and organizations were visited and contacted: The write up of the study report followed closely the format provided by CTA through its designated regional coordinator. After receiving and incorporating comments from the coordinator on the draft reports submitted in July, the report in drafts was forwarded to CTA in November for their perusal and comments.Papua New Guinea (PNG) is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, the second largest island in the world. PNG shares the island with West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) a province of Indonesia. It is the largest country within the South Pacific region with a land area of 462,243 km 2 with over 80% forested, and an economic fishing zone of 2.4 million km 2 . Papua New Guinea's terrain is mostly mountainous with coastal lowlands and rolling foothills, and is surrounded by 600 small offshore islands of raised coral and coral atolls.PNG is divided politically into four regions: the New Guinea Islands Region (comprising the island provinces of Manus, New Ireland, East and West New Britain, and Bougainville), Momase Region (the northern coastal areas including the provinces of Morobe, Madang, East Sepik and Sandaun), the Southern Region (including the provinces of Western, Gulf, Central, National Capital District, Oro and Milne Bay) and the Highlands Region (which covers mostly provinces in the highlands of PNG including, Eastern Highlands, Simbu, Western Highlands, Southern Highlands and Enga). There are 20 provinces all in Papua New Guinea.Agriculture, Forestry and FisheriesAgricultural population, land use and farming systems 13. Papua New Guinea is predominantly agro-based with about 87% of its population engaged in smallholder farming. Only a small proportion of the population is engaged in formal paid jobs (4.5%), with a small percentage (8.5%) of the rural population depending entirely on subsistence; that is, growing food mainly for consumption.About 30% of PNG's land area is suitable for agriculture development, however only one quarter is regularly under production (1% of total land area), and about another quarter is used at lower levels of intensity. The remaining half of the land is far from villages with poor market access and is constrained in its use by customary ownership restrictions. About 90% of the land with agricultural potential is held under customary land tenure within which clans grant individual families land usage rights, but do not transfer parcels of land.There are two forms of production systems: (1) export tree crops production system, such as coffee, cocoa, coconut, oil palm and rubber, and (2) food crops production system including sweet potato, yams, cassava, banana, taro, potato, sago, sugarcane, corn and peanut.Farming systems are highly adapted to the local environment. There are four main farming systems: (1) Sago and taro based farming systems in the wet lowlands; (2) yams, bananas and cassava based systems in the dry lowlands; (3) taro and sweet potato based systems in the highlands and its fringes; and (4) sweet potato and Irish potato systems in the higher altitude valleys.Smallholders have traditionally accounted for most of the output of the main export and staple agricultural commodities, namely coconut, coffee, cocoa, oil palm, rubber, chilli, pyrethrum and, recently vanilla.The principle crops for domestic consumption include sweet potatoes, bananas, taro, yams, sugarcane, corn and peanuts. Virtually all smallholder crops are rain-fed, intercropped, with low input levels and low productivity. Food crops account for more than 50% of the total agricultural output; about 25% of the produce is marketed.The livestock sub-sector accounts for about 12% of total production in PNG, of which subsistence pig and poultry production accounts for two-thirds. Broiler production dominates the commercial sector, followed by beef, eggs, crocodile skins and pork. Pigs play an important economic and cultural role at the village level, particularly in the highlands, providing wealth, status and protein.Agriculture plays a significant role in the economy of PNG. It accounts for the livelihoods of 87% of people in the rural areas, provides employment for 25% of the workforce in the formal sector, contributes 14% of foreign exchange earnings and contributes to 25% of GDP. The agriculture sector also provides markets for the industries and service sector, and is a source of capital, labour and products for the other sectors.Agricultural exports are limited to tree crops and some alternative crops including tea, rubber and vanilla. Export earnings during 2000 were valued at K955.5 million which is 16.5% of total export earnings.The agriculture sector has performed poorly in the last two decades. The main cause was the halving of world market prices for tree crops commodities (coffee, cocoa, copra and palm oil), which was only partly offset by domestic policy action (devaluation of the kina, subsidies). Other factors contributing to the poor sectoral performance include low productivity in smallholder production systems, poor product quality, high costs of production, (high labour, transport and processing costs), excess processing capacity and costly marketing systems. This combination of factors has made PNG significantly noncompetitive in many of its traditional agricultural export markets.During the last two decades, the agriculture sector was not performing well. Consequently various consultations and reviews proposed a major restructure within the agriculture sector. This resulted in the establishment of commodity-based research institutes within PNG. The main reason for this restructure was to improve performance, both in terms of research capabilities and for more directed efforts aimed at a specific crop or issue.Four new commodity-based research institutes now exist within PNG: (i) Cocoa Coconut Institute of Papua New Guinea (CCI) 2 ; (ii) Coffee Industry Corporation's Research and Grower Services Division (CIC-RGSD) 3 ; (iii) Oil Palm Research Association (OPRA) and (iv) Ramu Sugar's Sugar Breeding Centre.The late 1990s also saw further restructure of the DAL Research Division. Research and technical functions related to food crops were transferred over to the new National Agricultural Research Institute; the marketed fruits and vegetable project component was transferred to the Fresh Produce Development Company (FPDC 2001); and the agricultural quarantine regulations and surveillance was transferred to the National Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection Agency (NAQIA) (DAL 2003).At the national political level, further devolution of power was enacted through the 1995 National Organic Law (NOL) on Provincial Governments and Local Level Governments, which replaced the 1977 Organic Law on Provincial Governments and shifted the roles of resources and responsibilities to the provincial and local level government and changed powers, structures, roles and responsibilities of national government departments. Under the 1995 Organic Law, districts must provide extension services in agriculture, fisheries, commerce and industry, environmental management, women and youth.This enanctment also resulted in the restructuring of many departments including DAL, and the creation of other organizations such as the regionally based Division of Provincial and Industry Support Services (P&ISS). The further decentralisation of powers from provincial government to district and local levels now means that direct involvement of national and line departments will now diminish (Mesa 2001). The devolution of powers and responsibilities of research and extension to mostly semi-government or statutory government agencies means that the primary role of the Department of Agriculture and Livestock will be to formulate policy advice for the national government, coordinate donors' inquiries, and undertake monitoring and evaluation exercises.The vision for agriculture is: increased agricultural productivity, food security, income generation and employment resulting from well-coordinated and collaborative sector.The policy framework of the agriculture sector is premised towards developing capacity in the sector to enable it to improve the social, physical and economic well-being of rural producers by increasing their productivity, incomes and providing them with employment opportunities.Four areas have been given high priority and represent the key elements of PNG's sector development programme:The equitable delivery of quality agricultural services, including fisheries; • Increased food security and nutritional levels for those involved in subsistence agriculture with little cash production;The development of export commodities, including diversification into alternative crops in order to reduce vulnerability to price fluctuation of traditional export crops;The development of downstream processing for agricultural crops, fish, timber and other resources, including cottage industries.The key elements of agricultural production and food security are to strengthen agricultural research and planning at all levels, improve agricultural extension services and to enhance food production and food security.The development strategy recognises that the smallholder sector continues to be the backbone of agricultural production systems whereas the largeholder private sector will be important for commercialisation of the agriculture sector.Papua New Guinea's largest renewable resource is its forest, both from the natural and plantation sources. About 36 million hectares of land is forested of which 15 million hectares is classified as productive forest containing high quality tropical hardwoods considered suitable for development. Of the 15 million hectares of productive forest a total of 4.86 million hectares had been identified with 37 forest concessions for development. These concessions contain 76.6 million m 3 of tropical hardwoods, which are available for harvest. The majority of the remaining resources are located in the western and northern half of mainland Papua New Guinea.It is estimated that about a third of the total land area has forestry production potential, but 70% of that area is still not adequately mapped. Whilst the customary landowners and clans own most of the forests, the Government issues logging licences to private operators.Papua New Guinea Forest Authority (PNGNFA) is a statutory corporation formed in 1993 to lead the forestry reform process and devise programmes to management the tropical rainforests. The Authority administers the industry through resource acquisition or on management contract with traditional landowners (forest resources customary owned) and invite investors to develop the resource on behalf of the State and landowners. The forest revenues are distributed between the three parties. The policy instruments that are in place to ensure that the forest resource is developed on a sustainable basis and to ensure that equitable benefits to the main stakeholders namely the customary landowners, Government and investors prevail, and the main enabling frameworks through which the industry is administered are as follows:• Forestry Act and Regulations• National Forest Policy• National Forest Plan• Logging Code of Practice• Other operational manuals.The Authority monitors and ensures compliances of the rules and regulations including contracts between the State, landowners and investors. It also promotes and develops policies relating to the industry.Research and development is carried out by the PNG Forest Research Institute, whilst PNGNFA is mandated to undertake monitoring, evaluation and policy issue.At provincial levels, under the 1995 NOL, roles and responsibilities of implementation of projects are shifted to the district and local level governments.Papua New Guinea claims jurisdiction over 2.4 million km 2 of ocean, the third largest Declared Fishing Zone (DFZ) in the region. The fisheries zones include an extended reef system, numerous islands and an extensive coastline. These create huge opportunities but also present an enormous challenge for monitoring and control (National Fisheries Corporate Plan, 2003).Papua New Guinea has an extensive and valuable fisheries sector ranging from inland river fisheries, aquaculture, coastal bêche-de-mer and reef fisheries to the prawn trawl and large-scale deep water fisheries. Those participating in the industry include the artisanal community, medium-sized domestic prawn and tuna longline operators and large international purse seine fleets in the deepwater tuna fisheries.Under the Fisheries Management Act 1998, the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) is \"responsible for the management and development of the fisheries sector in accordance with the provisions of this Act under the overall policy direction of the Ministry\" and \"shall perform and exercise its functions and powers on behalf of Papua New Guinea\".NFA is a non-commercial, statutory authority owned by the government and people of PNG. As a statutory authority NFA is required to implement government policy for managing and developing fisheries as a national asset.The Minister of Fisheries has overall responsibility for policy direction in accordance of the Fisheries Management Act. The Minister is required to provide an annual report to the Speaker for presentation to Parliament on the performance of NFA in terms of its functions and financial performance. The report is also provided to each provincial government.The objectives and guiding principles in respect of fisheries waters are: • Promote the objective of optimum utilisation and long term sustainable development of living resources and the need to utilise living resources to achieve economic growth, human resource development and employment creation and a sound ecological balance; • Conserve the living resources for both present and future generations;• Ensure management measures are based on the best scientific evidence available, and are designed to maintain or restore stocks at levels capable of producing maximum sustainable yield, as qualified by environmental and economic factors including fishing patterns, the interdependence of stocks and generally recommend international minimum standards; • Apply a precautionary approach to the management and development of aquatic living resources; • Protect the ecosystem as a whole, including species which are not targeted for exploitation, and the general marine and aquatic living resources; • Preserve biodiversity;• Minimise pollution; and• Implement any relevant obligations of Papua New Guinea under applicable rules of international law and international regulations.45.In addition it is required that the rights of customary owners of fisheries resources shall be fully recognised and respected in all transactions affecting the resource or the area in which the rights operates.The government's objective towards fisheries is to develop a fishing industry that is internationally competitive, generates employment, expands local food supply and reduces imports.Because of the significance of the rural economy as a vehicle for economic growth of the country the government recently has given greater emphasis and priority to improvement in rural sector as emphasised in the recent Medium Term Development Strategy (MTDS) (GOPNG 2000).The general policy objective for the renewable resources sector (RRS) including agriculture, fisheries and forestry according to the recent Medium Term Development Strategy (MTDS), 2003 to 2007, emphasises the ability of economy to create productive employment opportunities particularly in the rural communities in the following order: The recent Government's Development Strategy push for rural empowerment and for a strong and vibrant agricultural sector has directed the agricultural sector to realign its focus towards a more cohesive and collective policy development. In so doing, the agricultural sector under the guidance of the Department of Agriculture and Livestock has been given the task of developing a National Agricultural Development Plan (NADP). The overall goal of the NADP is to stimulate and induce growth with the full participation of all the stakeholders (farmers, private sector, NGOs, government institutions, donor agencies). It is anticipated that the NADP will give the individual plans of the different agencies some sense of national purpose by producing a unified direction for agricultural development and Government's Export Driven Recovery Policy. It will aim to rationalise and maximise efficiency in the use of limited development funds and resources, clarify the roles and responsibilities of different players, particularly that of the Department of Agriculture and Livestock. Implementation of the specific plans and development strategies will be the responsibility of the commodity boards, statutory agencies and provincial governments (Dekuku et al., 2004).Issues: Capacity, Services and NeedsIn PNG, the capacity to access and utilise information is affected by many factors. The rural farmer is constrained by physical access (mobility) due to poor road conditions, illiteracy (a factor that influences the choice of which information sources or communication medium he/she is able to use), and socio-economic factors (gender, culture, finance). These factors have often led the farmer to rely mainly on the extension officer to be his/her main source of information.The degree of access by various organizations and institutions is determined by what sources of funding they receive. Government institutions do not receive much funding and therefore have to prioritise their budget allocations often assigning low priority to information and communication sections.Private organizations are in a much better position as they are able to generate their own income and depending on their priorities, they allocate resources accordingly.Lack of funding support has been noted as the major bottleneck affecting accessibility to other resources and services.Various factors will be discussed here that have impacted on the management capacities of information and communication in PNG. For the purpose of this discussion, such factors such as human resources capacities, technological capacities, institutional frameworks and finance will be discussed.On a national level, communication and information systems are adequately available. Refer to Annex 2.3 which presents the various means of media and telecommunications.The discussion will look at the information and communication management capacities under three different categories: (i) government agricultural and related institutions; (ii) private sector agriculture and related institution; and (iii) community based organizations.This category includes the commodity-based research institutions (CIC Research & Grower Services Division, Cocoa Coconut Institute of Papua New Guinea, Oil Palm Research Association) and the fully Government-funded statutory institutions such as the National Agricultural Research Institute, PNG Forest Research Institute and National Fisheries Authority.Human resource capacity devoted to agricultural information/communication sector is adequately provided. Each institution has an information officer/publications officer to manage the information section. The qualification levels of the above persons are university degree in either agriculture or science. Coupled with that are also librarians in the case where the institution has a library facility. Most often the librarian is a qualified librarian and/or with Grade 10 certificate having had experience in library management.The information/communication unit of these institutions is structured around the premise of information provider/generators. As such various positions held within this unit are: liaison officer, scientific editor, publications officer, and librarian.The liaison officer is the most senior person in most cases, followed on with the scientific editor and or the publications officer. These positions attract degree-holders usually in agriculture, science or journalism. The librarian on the other hand is either a qualified librarian with a degree or certificate in librarianship or either a grade 10 Certificate holder with basic training or experiences in library management. Today more and more libraries are moving towards virtual facilities and therefore librarians in PNG require ICT skills to search for information and also to manage their current information resources. Many information staff and even scientific staff require skills in accessing and searching information online.Information Resource Capacities: Scientific staff are able to support the information advisory services however, there is a general lack of up-to-date technical information in specific areas as outlined below. The various commodity-based research institutes have a basic library facility, a publications unit and an in-house printery which does black and white printing. Multi-colour documents are given to commercial printers.Budgetary support is adequately provided to support the publishing and production of publications emanating from the institutes. However, library support is not adequately provided due to high costs of journal subscriptions, reference books and manuals. Many of the various institutes' libraries are either supported by information provisions supplied by regional organizations (SPC) or international organizations such as FAO and CTA. Most of the libraries current holdings are out of date.Communication resource supports are seen as essential tools. The three main commodity research institutes (CCI, CIC-RGSD and OPRA) have opted for local area network (LAN) to be set up within their organizations. This should solve the problems of Internet and email access. During the time of study, it was noted that Internet and email access is only limited to at least 5 computers the most, except for UNITECH which has a LAN system. Computers are adequately supplied to mainly scientific staff. The accessibility to Internet and email is depended on the number of direct telephone lines available or whether there is a LAN in place.The research institutions have a great strength in providing information related to their specific commodity based crops. CCI supports cocoa and coconut related information, while CIC-RGSD can support coffee-related information and OPRA and the Oil Palm Industry Association (OPIC) support oil palm-related information. Institutions within this category play a very critical role as information generators and providers.This includes institutions such as the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), the PNG Forest Research Institute (FRI), the National Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA), the National Fisheries Authority and the Department of Agriculture and Livestock.Prior to structural reforms within the agriculture sector in the early 80s, the then Department of Primary Industry had a very good information unit which included several libraries, and a printery (which is still maintained under DAL). However, after the restructure and transfer of assets and functions to respective institutions, DAL is now left with a small library collection; other library materials have been scattered within various sections or destroyed.NARI, FRI and National Fisheries Authority have good library facilities and are supported by bilateral and multilateral donors and have adequate human resources capacities to manage these libraries. Communication capacities in terms of Internet and email access are still poorly developed due to lack of budgetary support.Tertiary agricultural institutions such as University of Technology (UNITECH), University of Goroka (UOG) and University of Vudal (UOV) have good libraries and communication systems. However, the libraries lack up-to-date library materials due to high costs of journal subscriptions and reference books.As these are institutions of higher educational learning, support for journal articles and reference materials are essential.Generally the above institutions, principally the publicly wholly funded (e.g. NARI), and partially funded (e.g. CCI, CIC-RGSD) research institutes received very modest Government financial support in the last government budget, as did the universities that focus on agriculture. Assistances from bilateral and multilateral donors have assisted in building up capacities such as NARI with assistance from the ACNARS project 4 . Other institutions such as CIC-RGSD and CCI with a previously well-earned reputation and research capacities have declined. The current institutes are below critical mass, individually making them largely unsustainable, which adversely affects their capacity to undertake credible applied research. Crucially it also means that there is a scarcity of useful information available for dissemination.Improved capacities within the information and communication sectors of the above institutions are very critical as they serve as the base for access to agricultural information in PNG.Many of the institutions within this sector provide the input supply, processing and marketing infrastructure and services base for the smallholders. The entrepreneurial and managerial expertise of these businesses is a critical factor in the competitiveness of PNG's agricultural industries, but increasing social disorder and unattractive returns has resulted in a withdrawal of their operations from many parts of the country.Information/communication sectors are adequately supported such as access to Internet and Email but with limited support in the area of library management. But this is not seen as a priority especially for providing information to the public.75.These include farmer associations, private firms, particularly those servicing outreach contract farmers, non-government organizations (NGOs) and church groups. Many of these groups have been pro-active in seeking technical, market and financial information for their clients from a whole range of sources. They have much closer ties with their farmer base than traditional extension services and they have the capacity to tap into international databases through the Internet. However, these 'grassroots' organizations demonstrate weaknesses in genuine community needs (as opposed to political wish lists) and identifying, designing, implementing and monitoring projects that actually deliver benefits to the community on a sustainable basis.Much valuable information for the agricultural community has been generated by research in PNG. A large amount of this information is available in the various institutions within PNG. This information is made available to the public in many formats depending on the target audiences. Below are the types of agricultural information available at the specific institutions.Commodity-based institutions have information on specific crops such as coffee (CIC-RGSD), cocoa and coconut (CCI), oil palm (OPRA). The National Agricultural Research Institute provides information on food crops, alternative cash crops and livestock.Coffee Information: Can be obtained from the Coffee Industry Corporation. Current available information are: Cocoa and Coconut Information: can be obtained from Cocoa and Coconut Institute. Information provided are on cocoa and coconut breeding, agronomy and husbandry techniques, pests and disease control. Information on market price and market access is available from the Kokonas Industries Koporesen and the Cocoa and Coconut Board.Information on Commercial Sugarcane is available from Ramu Sugar Ltd's Agriculture and Development Section on the various aspects of sugar breeding, agronomy and husbandry techniques, pests and disease control. As Ramu Sugar Ltd is diversifying into cattle research, oil palm and peanut, information on these crops and livestock will be made available from Ramu Sugar Ltd.Information on livestock and staple food crops such as sweet potato, yam, taro, banana, cassava, alternative cash crops such as vanilla, pepper, turmeric and on resource management such as soil maintenance can be sought from NARI and DAL.NARI currently undertakes research on the following crops and livestock. Current agricultural information that can be supplied from NARI are: Information on the market and post-harvest production of fresh vegetables is available from the Fresh Produce Development Company. FPDC works mostly with farmers and therefore their information is available in simple English and Tok Pisin (lingua franca).Fisheries information that can be provided by the National Fisheries Authority: • Estuarine water fishery (beche-de-mer, barramundi, prawn and lobsters)• Deep sea water fishery (tuna)• Inland Fishery (Tilapia, carp, trout)• Reef Fishery 86.On the other hand, NGO groups and church-based organizations such as the Christian Leadership Training Centre (CLTC), Lutheran Development Services (LDS), Baptist Church, Adventist Development Relief Agencies (ADRA), Salvation Army, Community Development Initiative Foundation (CDI) and individual publishers are also publishing information to meet the needs of their clients.A list of the types of agricultural information and publishers within PNG is provided in Table 1. Very good for the educated public but not so effective for illiterate farmers. However, farmers have been seen to purchase these leaflets to be read to them by their children.The publishers identified in Table 1 are those who normally publish extension-type publications that are distributed interested clients including farmers.Farmer to farmer: the most effective means by which farmers learn by doing from other farmers.Library services have played a significant role in meeting the needs of agricultural research institutions, researchers, other NGOs, private organizations and students.The types of services provided through the library services are: photocopy of available literature, interlibrary loan services, electronic databases (CD ROMs), bibliographic references and online access to the Internet.Support for information resources and products have come from various international and regional organizations to several organizations including NARI, DAL, CIC-RGSD, CCI, and National Fisheries Authority (NFA).The following international organizations have been supporting PNG with the supply of information products and services as identified during the study research:• Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) -supporting agricultural institutions with the supply of CABI Crop Protection Compendium • Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) -distributing FAO books to certain organizations and agricultural institutions through its Publication Distribution Quota services and online access to agricultural journals (AGORA). • Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) -SDI services, CD ROM support, Publications Distributions Services (credit points) and QAS.Other external donor agencies including the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Union (EU), SPC have also provided information support to their PNG project partners through the provision of relevant reference materials.As observed by the author during the study, information services in the agricultural sector in PNG are very fragmented and information resources are poorly managed. Many agricultural research libraries and information sections work in isolation from each other and there is not much sharing of information within or between organizations.In the end, finding out about available information depends on whom you know and what is available and where. There are no proper mechanisms in place for identifying available sources of information and types of services available, although very rich information resources are available within the country. Huge efforts are required to assemble them and make them accessible for use but the skills and know-how to manage and collate this resource is lacking.The importance of having access to information on past research is very crucial. It allows for better planning, reduces time, makes better use of available resources and cuts down on costs.This does not mean that PNG lacks historical research information. Filing cabinets, archive rooms, libraries, or even scientists hold collections of the many trials and experiments, journal articles and papers that are equally as important for any research planning. Information does not only reside in books but also with the people who are specialists in their own right. Hence, the mobilization and collation of information to make it more accessible is very crucial for proper agricultural planning.Interestingly there is a project 5 currently being undertaken in PNG funded by the ACNARS project, an AusAID funded initiative which is working closely with a team of librarians and information officers from the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) and Coffee Industry Corporation through its Research and Grower Services Division (CIC-RGSD) to develop a system that is intended to enhance the libraries' capacity and put in place an electronic framework to facilitate the efficient and effective management and use of information within research organizations in the agricultural sector. Over 20,000 records have been assembled incorporating 13,000 records from PNG Agriculture Bibliography (developed by the Australian National University (ANU) Land Management Group in Canberra) and just over 7,000 records contributed by SPC, NARI and CIC-RGSD. The expected outcome of this project is better, more credible research and consequently improved access to agricultural information within Papua New Guinea. These include records of 457 publications for distribution/sale (about 124 from NARI, 163 from DAL, 32 from FPDC, 109 from CIC-RGSD and 29 records from CCI).The integrated agricultural research information system's main aim is to contribute to providing 'agricultural information services, extension service support and other technical assistance to the agricultural sector' in Papua New Guinea. 100.This system not only contains catalogues of CIC-RGSD and NARI library holdings but also contains extension materials that have been produced by DAL, CCI, CIC-RGSD, and NARI. The system is also capable of compiling bibliographies of various crops automatically. For example, all coffee bibliographies are automatically compiled as information is entered. Eventually, records of the contact details, qualifications, skills, and interests of all scientific and technical staff within NARI, CIC-RGDS and other institutions and their various disciplines will also be available complementing what is already available in the catalogue database.The benefits this system can offer are:• Providing access to information and knowledge resources of collaborating institutions (currently, NARI and CIC-RGSD) Institutions, especially other commodity-based research institutions (e.g. CCI, New Britain Palm Oil Ltd, Ramu Sugar, FRI), FPDC and DAL, are encouraged to participate in identifying and cataloguing library materials, and by contributing to the extension materials database and database of people and their expertise.The NARI/CIC information system is moving towards addressing the issue of information mobilization for both researchers, extension officers and even agricultural research clients to be more effective in promoting the role agricultural research in order to alleviate poverty and sustain productivity. It also aims to develop an agricultural research information databank leading to a real science-based knowledge system in PNG.Formal agricultural research in PNG is compartmentalized into specific research areas as outlined above. Other informal research is undertaken by various NGOs, church-based and private sector organizations.However, some of these institutions do not have organised libraries to meet the informational needs of its researchers. For example, the Cocoa Coconut Institute of PNG does research on cocoa and coconut yet does not have an organized library and also has no effective arrangements for access to overseas information resources. All information needed is gathered in an ad hoc fashion, depending on personal contacts. Another example is the Department of Agriculture and Livestock, as the apex agricultural ministry in the country, receives a lot of support for information resources from international organizations such as FAO and CTA but has no capacity to manage these useful information resources nor to share nationwide.The study identified wide-ranging information needs by different target groups of the agricultural sector in PNG.Rural farmers normally seek information during the initial stage of cash crop establishment. In other words, farmers' information seeking behaviours are driven by cash income opportunities. The type of requested information would be mostly on production techniques, market information, where to sell their produce or in the case of entrepreneurial farmers seeking information on current world prices. 2. Vegetables (include all horticultural crops including introduced; Brassicas, cucurbits, legumes (beans), edible alliums, salad and fruit vegetables and mushrooms). These crops have strong cash generating opportunities and therefore the following research areas and information are of priority:• Genetic resources• Production and post-harvest information• Mechanisation,• Processing and marketing• Pest and disease control• Soil fertility and fertiliser.3. Fruits and nuts (these crops play a significant role in supplementing nutritional requirements of the people within PNG. Although it has not been seen to have export potential in the past, recently there is a growing need for these crops to have exportable significance.  8. Natural resource management is fundamental to the long-term sustainability of food security in PNG. The country is following a current trend of dependence to overdependence on imported food. Increasing land pressure due to population increase is also having a significant impact on how natural resources are being managed. Urbanisation is also impacting on peri-urban agriculture and information is required in the following areas for farmers to understand the significance of natural resource management:a. Soil management: soil fertility maintenance and related issues are the main areas of concern. Within increasing pressure exerted on soil due to population increase, the fallow periods are significantly reduced resulting in lower production. Another example is the urban drift which is causing proliferation of peri-urban gardening.b. Invasive species such as water hyacinth, giant African snails and other invasive weed species are threatening the existence of useful natural resources, hinder and impact on the effective utilisation of these resources by man, impact on agricultural production and pose risk to human.c. Water storage and irrigation: since the last drought in 1997-98, this is a major need.d. Land use planning: as population increase and land resource decreases, efficient planning on how the land is to be used is very critical e. Efficient use of organic materials is yet to be fully realised in PNG. This is an area where information is required which can provide benefits in alleviating and correcting many soil problems particularly for resource poor farmers in rural areas. 9. Integrated Production Systems is the main mode of production for most farmers in PNG through mixed cropping systems. The main reasons for this widespread use of integrated production system in PNG are: the desire to maximise use of resources, avoid risks of low productivity due to adverse weather, pests and diseases. By adopting a mixed system, there is some insurance in times of risks such as drought, and it also minimises the risks of price fluctuation. If price falls in one commodity they can be earn an income from the other. However there are areas where information is required and these are: b. Economic significance of integration. For new species look at how to assess species integration for their compatibility, productivity, sustainability and profitability.The following needs identified above were collated from a wide range of stakeholders including farmers, Primary industry organizations, institutions and private agricultural institutions.It must also be noted here that a lot of valuable information generated by research in PNG have not been document and therefore remains inaccessible. Bourke (1999) noted a total of 403 unpublished research reports/papers located in PNG in 1999 that are yet to be published.112.Three main capacity needs are identified from this study: (i) staff training needs, (ii) information resources and (iii) information policy intervention.There is a general lack of skilled manpower in the area of information resource management. Many of those who are employed within the information and communication sections of specific institutions and organization have been put there as a result of their previous experience acquired while on the job. In most NGOs, information and communication staffs are either Grade 10 or 12 school certificate holders.In those institutions where there are no qualified librarians, there is need for training in basic library management skills. Computer skill training was identified as another capacity building needs. There exist limited skills in the use of other ICT such as radio, TV, web-based technology to effectively transmit and transfer agricultural information to the various target audience. Training is required in this area also.As also noted from the study, many libraries are poorly stocked and therefore there is need in updating most libraries with up-to-date information resources. ICM skills for better and effective planning of resources are needed. Currently the initiative by NARI and CIC-RGSD is pointing towards better management of resources but there is training need in areas such as digitalizing of resources for easy access. However, not all libraries identified under this project have electronic cataloguing systems, and for those with an electronic library catalogue, the software is not standard. There is a need for standardized software and also for standardized tools to increase compatibility.The underlying limiting factor affecting agricultural information and services within PNG is the lack of an information policy. There exists no information policy to guide the implementation of information services, the acquisition of materials and the recruitment of staff needed for the information and communication units of the various agricultural and rural development organizations. Coupled with that there are no set strategies developed and in place to create effective information management systems. This is a critical factor. As noted by the author, the formulation of effective information policies and strategies will drive the implementation of successful agricultural and rural development projects. What this means is that information needs can be streamlined and effectively targeted at the right audience with the right messages. Many of the organizations surveyed noted a lack of capacity to develop effective extension materials for farmers. However, what was also observed is that there are other means of communication that the institutions and organizations involved in agricultural and rural development could utilise. Lack of basic infrastructure such as telephone and electrification system requires political intervention if the significant impact of these systems is recognized by Government.Many of the initiatives in terms of information services are supported by external funding agencies. Sustainability is a major concern, because experience has shown that once the term of these external funds cease, support for information services has also ceased due to a lack of funds from within. To ensure that activities and services of international and regional organizations support national requirements rather than their own agendas, external funding agencies need to acknowledge existing potential and requirements of the recipient organizations. Ultimately, funding agencies would like to see that what has been introduced is sustained in the future. 118. Walton (2000) rightly points out that the reason for lack of capacity building stems from the fact that in most or almost all organizations involved in research and development in the Pacific, lack an appropriate information policy. This lack of appropriate information policy and strategy contributes to ad hoc policies involved in the purchase of computers without specific requirements for the types of software to be purchased and used within specific organizations and the recruitment of relevant and qualified staff.Vernon (2001) stated that although managers and scientists can have access to more information then ever before with the advancement of telecommunications technologies revolutionizing agricultural research, the critical question remains unanswered: are managers and scientists able to use it to improve the efficiency and relevance of what they are doing? He argues that the need for an information policy is a must. An information policy and strategy provides guidelines as to the purposes for which information within an organization is to be used, as well as on how it is to be managed.Again Walton (2000) states correctly that many of these staff involved in the information and communication sections of various research and developmental institutions tried to do their best but due to lack of appropriate policies there is little understanding of what constitutes a credible information service. These staff are just doing what they are instructed to do.Policy interventions are required from the agricultural sector and the government of the day to realise the impact information and communication technologies will have in advancing agriculture.Papua New Guinea, a large country in terms of geography and demography (culture and languages), poses many challenges when considering the most effective approach to achieve successful agricultural and rural development activities. With over 87% of its population living in the rural areas, and a low literacy rate of 56% compared to other Pacific Island countries, targeting a specific sector of the population is a real challenge mainly for the reasons stated above.Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy and agricultural research is the catalyst required for development. However, in most cases, the agricultural information required to support agricultural research and extension, is very poor. Libraries are poorly stocked while there is a general lack of qualified persons within the agricultural information sector to effectively manage information for effective agricultural and rural development planning.Budgetary support is also a major constraint. The lack of an effective information and communication policy is also a major bottleneck to effective planning. The lack of an effective information and communication policy has also been found to contribute significantly to unqualified staff, and inappropriate equipment and information services as institutions are acquiring these things on an ad hoc basis and without proper planning and strategies.Support for information resources and services are currently provided mainly by external funding agencies and external project collaborators for those institutions and organizations who are partners and collaborators with the same.A critical analysis of the information needs and capacities of the various partners and beneficiaries of agricultural information and services reveals the following conclusions:The emergence of the new ICT has also changed the role of research, extension and education. There are new emerging partners in the way agricultural research information and knowledge is being disseminated. There is a new shift in thinking how information needs can be met. More horizontal exchange of information rather than vertical exchanges and a more participatory approach to identifying information needs of farmers is required.With limited budgetary support, more concerted efforts are required by institutions and organizations to form information consortia for the benefit of sharing resources, i.e. both equipment and human.There is still heavy dependence on ineffective communication means of disseminating information unsuitable to the needs of the rural populations. More efforts have to be made to utilize effective information sources, such as the radio and TV, to support the dissemination of information and in turn knowledge. But this again requires political interventions and political will.Information resources and services within PNG are very fragmented. Institutions and organizations are working in isolation. There is a need to find effective mechanisms to allow for easy accessibility to available information within the country for all who need them. The initiative by NARI and CIC-CGSD to develop an integrated agricultural information system is one means by which the information can be made available to everyone in the research arena and other organizations needing this information services. Other organizations within the renewable resources sector should contribute to this system so as to develop it into a national agricultural information database.• A coherent national policy is required to build up the capacity of information staff together with a transparent national structure that addresses organisational linkages in the field of information services. The national policy should also provide for intensive dialogue at various levels to identify users and their specific needs, technical options, the roles of various institutions and create policy support. Some research institutes within PNG have their own information strategies to address their own research needs, however a major limiting factor for these institutions is the finance needed to keep the information systems working. Therefore, institutions and organizations needed to consider developing networks particularly to look at IT-related issues that would minimise expenditure, optimise resources, and encourage collaboration. A new approach is required by the government of many developing countries to see the potential of ICT as a tool for advancing education and research. For this to be effective, telecommunication policy, regulatory and user-related issues need to be addressed. Developmental trends in educational requirements for IT in the developing countries needed to be studied.Agricultural information providers such as agricultural institutions, NGOs and even other farmers' groups have met the needs of their clients mainly through the provision of simple extension leaflets or training. Agricultural information providers on the other hand have been providing information based mainly on the type of research they have been conducting. Often, the information being disseminated may not really meet the needs of the farmers. For instance, a study conducted by Powaseu (1995) found out that although coffee leaf rust was a major concern in the 80s, and the then PNG Coffee Research Institute was mandated to come up with a rust-resistant variety, farmers were reluctant to adopt this variety. In this case, the coffee extension division went out to create awareness of this new coffee resistant variety and selected farmers were given seeds of this to plant. The study found out that not many farmers willingly planted the seeds. Therefore understanding farmers' behaviours and farming practices should be studied also for adoption to take place.Many of the issues raised are not any different to other developing countries and each country is developing strategies and plans to alleviate and strengthen its own information system. The suggestion is that the agricultural sector on a sectoral level needs to consider all these issues and plans and should attempt to develop a research agricultural information system that will see the development of ICTs as a tool to advance research in PNG. However, one should also bear in mind the impact of ICTs on the lives of the rural communities, considering the current constraints.128.Assessing the information needs of PNG agricultural sector has been a major challenge and also an opportunity to really understand the strength and weaknesses and look at opportunities available. The study conclusion provides opportunities in areas where CTA's interventions can make a difference. Therefore the study recommends the following areas:As identified from the study, the information needs of the different sectors of the agricultural systems are varied. Farmers' needs are in the area of 'how to do' type information. Agricultural research institutions needs are research based. Therefore CTA intervention is required in the following areas:• Provide information services to key institutions to support decision-making in the agricultural sector for the provision of better research recommendations, through the supply of SDI and document delivery services for its various researchers.• Support key institutions and organizations' libraries through the supply of relevant and up-to-date information based on their identified needs. CTA is to support these institutions through their Publications Distribution Services.130.On a micro-level, the agricultural sector has to audit where there are weaknesses and bottlenecks that might impede the development of the Government's focus on the agricultural sector as the foremost national development priority. Information and communication management skills and effective systems have been identified in the study as areas that needed to be looked at. Information has the power to empower people economically and politically but the mechanism to make this a reality is lacking. CTA's interventions in the interim will help the country to streamline its efforts to develop mechanisms and systems that will foster the country's national development strategies as identified in section 2.1 of this report. Thus CTA's intervention is required in the following area:• Fund in-country workshops to develop information and communication policy and strategies mainly for the managers of information and communication units in the agricultural sector.As identified in the study, the most used communication channels are the library systems, however, various key organizations are opting for collaborative approaches to communication and information services such as the resource centre options. There are limited skills in the areas of:• Web-based systems and development of web sites• Radio script writing and radio broadcasting• Extension writing and publishing 132.Therefore training is required in the above areas. In conducting these training courses the expected participants should be drawn from all sectors of the agricultural sector such as researchers, extensionists, entrepreneurial farmers, youths and women farmers.In addition, in-country training for information officers and librarians on the design of cost-effective and participatory ICM systems should be provided.Assessment of Agricultural Information Needs in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States: Phase1: Pacific, Country Study -Papua New Guinea CTA works primarily with intermediary organizations and partners to promote agriculture and rural development. Through partnerships, CTA hopes to increase the number of ACP organizations capable of generating and managing information and developing their own information and communication strategies. Thus CTA sees the identification of relevant partners as very important.The Evaluation of the Implementation of the Mid-Term Plan (1997-2000) emphasised the need for CTA to develop a more pro-active approach and be strategic in the choice of partner organizations and beneficiaries. The Strategic Plan and Framework for Action -2001 -2005, identifies the following strategic issues such as: improved targeting, geographical coverage, decentralisation, regionalisation and thematic orientation.There was also the concern that the Pacific and the Caribbean have not received sufficient attention in CTA's programmes and activities. Also with the admission of 6 new Pacific member states under the Cotonou Agreement, not much is known about these new 6 member states hence the need to develop CTA intervention strategy and provide more targeted assistance.Phase I of this study is being conducted in the Pacific region. Papua New Guinea is one of those 8 Pacific countries undertaking this study.The objectives of the study are as follows:• To identify agricultural information needs of key actors/beneficiaries for CTA products and services; • To identify needs of potential actors/beneficiaries of CTA activities and services in terms of building capacity for information and communication management; • To identify potential partners/beneficiaries for CTA activities and services;• To develop some baseline data to facilitate subsequent monitoring activities.The study should assist the three operational departments of the CTA as well as its local representatives to improve and better target interventions and activities aimed at potential partners and beneficiaries (including women, youth, private sector and civil society organizations); to have a more informed picture of their needs and aid in the elaboration of a strategy and framework of action. The study should also highlight where there are specific needs for CTA's products and services thereby enabling improvements in the delivery of the same.The study was carried out using a combination of qualitative and quantitative rapid appraisal methods including:• The desk review of available literature and information sources including the findings of the programme evaluation • The conduct of face-to-face interviews with relevant stakeholders, concerned parties and individualsList of all institutions involved in agriculture and rural development activities, including private sector and civil society organisations, with name, contact details, type and role of institution Select list of key institutions involved in agriculture and rural development, with extensive data and information on the institution, the problems faced and why it is considered a key actor It is also expected that the results of this study will lead to identification / update of some priority agricultural information themes which will feed into a possible prioritysetting exercise in the Pacific in 2004.Papua New Guinea's largest renewable resource is its forest, both from the natural and plantation sources. About 36 million hectares of land is forested of which 15 million hectares is classified as productive forest containing high quality tropical hardwoods considered suitable for development. Of the 15 million hectares of productive forest a total of 4.86 million hectares had been identified with 37 forest concessions for development. These concessions contain 76.6 million cubic meters of tropical hardwoods, which are available for harvest. The majority of the remaining resources are located in the western and northern half of mainland Papua New Guinea.It is estimated that about a third of the total land area has forestry production potential, but 70% of that area is still not adequately mapped and located. Whilst the customary landowners and clans own most of the forests, the Government issues logging licences to private operators.Papua New Guinea claims jurisdiction over 2.4 million square km of ocean, the third largest Declared Fishing Zone (DFZ) in the region. The fisheries zones include an extended reef system, numerous islands and an extensive coastline. These create huge opportunities but also present an enormous challenge for monitoring and control.Papua New Guinea has an extensive and valuable fisheries sector ranging from inland river fisheries, aquaculture, coastal beche-de-mer and reef fisheries to the prawn trawl and large scale deep water fisheries. The range of participants covers artisanal community to medium sized domestic prawn and tuna longline operators to large international purse seine fleets in the deepwater tuna fisheries.Two distinct sub-sectors can be distinguished in the agriculture sector:1. Estates, which hire labour and which produce mainly tree crop products for export; and2. Smallholders who grow cash crops, mainly for export, and staple root crops, fruits and vegetables for their own consumption or for sale on a small-scale in their immediate vicinity.There are two forms of production systems: (1) export tree crops production system, such as coffee, cocoa, coconut, oil palm, rubber, and (2) food crops production system including sweet potato, yams, cassava, banana, taro, potato, sago, sugarcane, corn and peanut.Farming systems are highly adapted to the local environment. There are four main farming systems: (1) Sago and taro based farming systems in the wet lowlands; (2) yams, bananas and cassava based systems in the dry lowlands;(3) taro and sweet potato based systems in the highlands and its fringes; and (4) sweet potato and Irish potato systems of the higher altitude valleys.Smallholders have traditionally accounted for most of the output of the main export and staple agricultural commodities, namely coconut, coffee, cocoa, oil palm, rubber, chilli, and pyrethrum and recently vanilla.The principle crops for domestic consumption include sweet potatoes, bananas, taros, yams, sugarcane, corn and peanuts. Virtually all smallholder crops are rain-fed, intercropped, have low input levels and low productivity. Food crops account for more that 50% of the total agricultural output and about 25% of the produce is marketed.The livestock sub-sector accounts for about 12% of total production in PNG, of which subsistence pig and poultry production accounts for two thirds. Broiler production dominates the commercial sector, followed by beef, eggs, crocodile skins and pork. Pigs play an important economic and cultural role at the village level, particularly in the highlands, providing wealth, status and protein.Agriculture is a key component of the Renewable Resource Sector and is the mainstay of the economy. The agriculture sector accounts for 87% of the livelihood of the rural population, provides employment for over 25% of the workforce in the formal sector, contributes to 14% of foreign exchange earnings, contributes 25% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and provides markets for the industries and services sector, a source of capital, labour and products for the other sectors. This 87% of the population produces all the food for subsistence and provides a base for income generation for these people.Agricultural export is limited to tree crops and some alternative crops including tea, rubber and spices. Export earnings during the 2000 valued at K955.5 million which is 16.5% of total export earnings.Over the past decade, the performance of the agricultural sector has been mixed. For the cash crop sub-sector, there has been strong growth in oil palm. Smallholder coffee also grew strongly towards the end of 1990s, but has since contracted in the wake of falling international commodity prices and poor growing conditions in 2000. Food crop staples (which also included introduced food crops) grew steadily over the past decade, although the 1997-98 droughts heightened concern over food security in certain parts of the country (Department of Agriculture and Livestock, 2003).Other factors contributing to the poor sectoral performance include low productivity in smallholder production systems, poor product quality, high costs of production, (high labour, transport and processing costs), excess processing capacity and costly marketing systems. This combination of factors has made PNG significantly non-competitive in many of its traditional agricultural export markets.As a result, private sector agricultural investment has been insufficient. Maintenance and replanting of smallholder tree crops have come to a halt, plantations have laid off almost 20% of their labour, no major new investments have been undertaken by private sector plantations and use of modern imported inputs have dropped by about one-third. Public sector allocations for the agriculture sector have also declined, both absolutely and relatively. The forestry subsector has suffered in the same period from absence of a coherent and implemented national forestry plans, unclear ownership, unclear legal rights, unclear government objectives and increased world market competition from neighbouring countries.Expenditures for food imports have increased. In 1995, PNG spent about PGK56.5 million on importation of rice into PNG. With the exception of poultry, pigs and vegetables, the domestic supply of crop and livestock products have stagnated or even declined. Commercial food, grain and tuber production has increased in recent years but has not kept pace with population growth.• Primary produce: coffee, cocoa, coconuts, palm kernels, tea, rubber, sweet potatoes, fruit, vegetables; poultry, pork, tuna fish, timber • Secondary products: canned fish, instant coffee, packaged tea, frozen poultry products, coconut oilTrade agreements that include agriculture• Lomé Convention -PNG receives non-reciprocal tariff and other preferences from EU on many goods as well as financial assistances. • Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) -is committed to achieving free trade and investment in the region on agricultural goods and services by 2020.• South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Agreement (SPARTECA) -is a nonreciprocal agreement between Australia and New Zealand on one hand and the island nations of the South Pacific Forum on the other. It, too, provides duty-free, unrestricted and concessional access for most products originating in PNG. • Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) -PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji are members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, which has agreed to reduce or eliminate tariffs on certain products traded within the group.• Australia under Australia PNG Trade and Commerce Relations Agreement (PATCRA) that establishes a non-reciprocal free-trade area providing duty-free access for all exports to Australia. General System Preference (GSP), (where 27 industrialized economies allow PNG's exports duty-free into their markets):• USA (fisheries and agricultural products),• Germany and United Kingdom (coffee and cocoa)• Japan (timber)• International Coffee• Agreement, International Cocoa Agreement,• Association of National Rubber Producing countries,• Asia and Pacific Coconut Community,• International Tropical Agreement, and• International Spice Agreement.Sectoral policy related to agriculture, fisheries and forestsThe agriculture sub sector is a major component of the Renewable Resource Sector. The government's vision is that the agriculture sector has a role and potential to make a significant contribution to the national economy, with the ultimate aim of improving the living standards of the people. The government also recognises that development in this sector can also help to reduce law and order problems. The vision of agriculture is: increased agricultural productivity, food security, income generation and employment resulting from wellcoordinated and collaborative sector.The policy framework of agriculture sector is premised towards developing capacity in the agriculture sector to enable the sector to improve the social, physical and economic wellbeing of rural producers by increasing their productivity, incomes and providing them with employment opportunities.Four areas have been given high priority and represent the key elements of PNG's sector development programme.The equitable delivery of quality agricultural services, including fisheries,Increased food security and nutritional levels for those involved in subsistence agriculture with little cash production,The development of export commodities, including diversification into alternative crops in order to reduce vulnerability to price fluctuation of traditional export crops, andThe development of downstream processing for agricultural crops, fish, timber and other resources, including cottage industries.The key elements of agricultural production and food security are to strengthen agricultural research and planning at all levels, improve agricultural extension services and to enhance food production and food security.The development strategy recognises that the smallholder sector continues to be the backbone of agricultural production systems whereas the largeholder private sector will be important for commercialisation of the agriculture sector.The Papua New Guinea Forest Authority was formed in 1993 as a statutory corporation, to lead the forestry reform process and devise programmes to management the tropical rainforests. The Authority administers the industry through resource acquisition or on management contract with traditional landowners (forest resources customary owned) and invite investors to develop the resource on behalf of the State and landowners. The forest revenues are distributed between the three parties. The policy instruments that are in place to ensure that the forest resource is developed on a sustainable basis and to ensure that equitable benefits to the main stakeholders namely the customary landowners, Government and investors prevail, and the main enabling frameworks through which the industry is administered are as follows:1. Forestry Act and Regulation, 2. National Forest Policy, 3. National Forest Plan, 4. Logging Code of Practice, and 5. Other operational manuals.The Authority monitors and ensures compliances of the rules and regulations including contracts between the State, landowners and investors. It also promotes and develops policies relating to the industry.Under the Fisheries Management Act 1998, the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) is \"responsible for the management and development of the fisheries sector in accordance with the provisions of this Act under the overall policy direction of the Ministry\" and \"shall perform and exercise its functions and powers on behalf of Papua New Guinea\".NFA is a non-commercial statutory authority owned by the government and people of PNG. As a statutory authority NFA is required to implement government policy for managing and developing fisheries as a national asset.The Minister of Fisheries has overall responsibility for policy direction in accordance of the Fisheries Management Act. The Minister is required to provide an annual report to the Speaker for presentation to Parliament on the performance of NFA in terms of its functions and financial performance. The report is also provided to each provincial government.The objectives and guiding principles in respect of fisheries waters are:• Promote the objective of optimum utilisation and long term sustainable development of living resources and the need to utilise living resources to achieve economic growth, human resource development and employment creation and a sound ecological balance; • Conserve the living resources for both present and future generations;• Ensure management measures are based on the best scientific evidence available, and are designed to maintain or restore stocks at levels capable of producing maximum sustainable yield, as qualified by environmental and economic factors including fishing patterns, the interdependence of stocks and generally recommend international minimum standards; • Apply a precautionary approach to the management and development of aquatic living resources; • Protect the ecosystem as a whole, including species which are not targeted for exploitation, and the general marine and aquatic living resources; • Preserve biodiversity;• Minimise pollution; and• Implement any relevant obligations of Papua New Guinea under applicable rules of international law and international regulations.In addition it is required that the rights of customary owners of fisheries resources shall be fully recognised and respected in all transactions affecting the resource or the area in which the rights operates.The government's objective towards fisheries is to develop a fishing industry that is internationally competitive, generates employment, expands local food supply and reduces imports.  In every population, some depend on others for their daily subsistence. This can be approximated by the dependency ratio but in this context it represents more a feature of the age structure of the population than a true measure of dependency. The dependent population is defined as those aged less than 15 years and those aged 65 years and over. The working group is those aged 15-64 years. There are over 800 different local dialects also referred to as Tokples. However, three common languages are widely spoken in Papua New Guinea. English is the language of education and commerce, whilst Pidgin (lingua franca) is widely spoken and is also the language of communication. Motu is only spoken in the Southern region of Papua New Guinea.According to the 2000 Census, the overall literacy rate (literate in at least one language) for PNG was 56% as can be seen in Table 2.4 above. In the urban areas one would expect literacy rate for English to be higher than Pidgin. In the rural areas, tokples literacy would be higher.The level of educational attainment of the population is an important determinant of its capacity to be economically independent. Increasing levels of education indicate development progress both at an individual and societal level. Access to education for children 6-16 years is compulsory in PNG.The current school system in PNG divides the population into several groupings. Elementary refers to the early years of education and covers Elementary Prep, Elementary Prep 1 and Elementary Prep 2. Primary is grades 3-6 and top-up refers to grades 7 and 8. Finally, secondary is grades 9 to 12. The system is designed to allow for school leavers from the topup and secondary levels.Overall 51% of PNG's citizen population aged 5 years and over counted at the 2000 Census had received some formal schooling. The level of attendances though is quite different in the urban compared to the rural areas. Just over three quarters of people counted in urban areas had received some schooling compared to less than half in the rural areas. The proportion of males and females currently attending school are the same in the urban areas which is about 25%, but in the rural area proportionally more males than females are currently in school, 17% and 15% respectively.There are just under 10 Teachers Training Colleges offering Diploma Courses in Secondary Teaching. Four national high schools cater for Grades 11 and 12 and with the government education policy of setting up secondary levels schools within each provinces, the number of students attending Grades 11 and 12 have increased.A total of 5 Universities, two of which are church-run offer a wide range of courses. Up till 1990s, the government paid for students' fees attending the 3 government universities. About the mid 1990s the government changed its policies and introduced the User Pay Policy. This has had impact on the students' enrolment as most students come from poor rural families who are not able to afford the exorbitant fees.The department of Health provides dispensaries and public health facilities all over PNG. The government also subsidises, and works closely with, church groups, which provide medical facilities. Hospital charges are based on the ability to pay, so services are either free or have negligible charges.Electricity to rural areas is very negligible. Access to electricity is only available in the major provincial centres and within its peripheries. The main source of energy for PNG is fossil fuels, mainly firewood accounting for about 74% of total source of energy. Hydropower accounts for 26% of source of energy for PNG households.Of the nearly 5.1 million citizens counted in private dwellings in PNG at the 2000 Census, 1 million (20%) had not been born where they were enumerated and were therefore classified as migrants.A considerable urban drift towards the National Capital District (NCD) being the nations capital and due to its urban nature and status, which combine to offer better employment opportunities.A total of 454, 000 citizens born in PNG were not living in their province of birth at the 2000 Census. The main destination provinces for these people were NCD (119,000), Morobe Only 1 TV station: EMTV • Run by Media Niugini Ltd• Owned by the Nine Network (Australia)• Operates 12 hours, 7 days in English and Tok Pisin.• Has coverage in most major centres: Madang, Lae, Rabaul, Vanimo, Port Moresby, Goroka, Kimbe, Kavieng, Mendi, Tabubil, Kainantu.The PNG Telecommunication Authority (PANGTEL) is the sole national regulatory, licensing authority and promoter of telecommunications and radio communications, including television, and broadcasting services in PNG.Telikom PNG however, is a company established by a Company Act in 1999. It is 100% nationally owned and currently has three subsidiaries: Information needs met, from where and by whom: CTA (supplies information resource support for the organizations and individuals through its many information support services provided for ACP countries; FAO (distribution of publications through its FAO Publications Quota Distribution services)Main information needs not satisfied: CTA has been generously supporting NARI through its various services and products as mentioned above. Recently, NARI also was given online access to AGORA facilitated by FAO.One of the areas that might require CTA intervention is in the area of Extension Publications training and also in computer training skills.Most of NARI's main programme centres do not have LAN system and most staffs have no access to email. This has created a lack of networking with colleagues within the organizations and outside of the organization.Why institution selected as key: NARI is the leading agricultural research institute in PNG.It currently collaborates with a lot of partner institutions in PNG and its main target audiences are the smallholder farmers.Objective/mission statement: Undertake research into the economic, social, political, legal, educational, environmental and cultural issues and problems of Papua New Guinea and to formulate practical solutions to these problems.The Institute focuses its research on the following areas:• Economic studies -focuses on macroeconomic, microeconomic, and sectoral policies that affect national development • Education studies -evaluation of all levels of education, with priority on critically assessing and reviewing the Government's ongoing education initiatives and development programmes ","tokenCount":"12675"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0c209206e422a3f899beed58cf9b6f40","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6a83df1a-5db5-4d9e-9e02-6de0d8596485/retrieve","id":"-712246641"},"keywords":["Da\"","CA 95616 Teí","(91tlP52 _ _ ~ Telex: 91G-531-0785 -FAX (916) 752..a512"],"sieverID":"4147c9d8-9d6f-425a-ab9e-0f333806c05d","pagecount":"186","content":"e !-'l'BE c::xH:lUL'llM'IVI!: GRXIP Cfi ~aw:. lIGRIaJLruaAL PBSINIaI TBCHNICAL l\\DI1ISORY CCJlMITTEE r!i? CSO(lúf :!; 't~ (OlECClON HI5I0RKA REPORT OF THE OF THE CENTRO INTERNACIONAL DE AGRICULTllllA TROP!CAL (CIAT) r@~~1? ~~.I 1 8 !tAro 2004 --UNICA? DE l,fO\"MACIO\" y Dv\\,UMUUACION Tl\\C SEX:RETARIAT P'OO) AND 1\\GRIaJL'l'IlRE ORGANIZA.TICfi OF 'l'BE tMI'l'BD NM'ICfiSTAe commended the Chairmen and Members of the External Review Panels of CIAT for the in-depth appraisal of the work of the Centre. It was pleased that both Panels found CIAT to be a well-managed lnstitution with solid achievements, excellent staff, strong links with national programmes and advanced institutions, and generaIly approved oí CIAT's vision as it entered the next decade. TAC endorsed the recommendations of the Review PaneIs and offered some additlonal points for ClAT's consideration. TAC had received a draft of CIAT's Strategic Plan for the 1990s and would welcome an opportunity to diacuss CrAT's response to TAC's commentary on the External Reviews as the Strategic Plan was finalized.Conduct oí the Review TAC approved of the procedures the Panels used in conductlng their Reviews. It appreciated the efforts made in conducting country visits, and the intensive consultatians with CIAT staff and their collaborators. TAC was aware that the External Programme Review Panel based its conclusions on an extensive analysis of the issuea considered, but all of these were not included in the reporto This was unfortunate because the Committee's consideration of the Review would have be en facilitated if the analysis had been presented more fully in the wrltten reporto However, this did not imply a disagreement with the observations of the Panel.TAC was in general agreement with CIAT's approach in developing a strategy for the 19908. TAe would weIcome greater clarity as to the analyses that led to CIAT's judgements as reílected in its draft Strategic Plan. The Committee supported CIAT's efforts to ensure an appropriate balance between programmes, and appreciated the Panel's observations on this matter. TAe would like to be kept informed of the results of ongoing studies on this issue by CIAT such as the congruence analysis now in progress. Specifir.al1y, TAC \"ouId weIcome more informatíon írom CIAT as to the justificatian far the retention of its ongoing programmes, and the exclusion of possible new initiatives.The Panel. as does TAC, commended CIAT for its commitment to attend to the needs of disadvantaged producers which was refIected in its focus on low-input strategies; but the Panel also expressed doubt about the long-term viability of this strategy. In a subsequent version of the Strategic Plan, TAC wouId appreciate a clearer articulatíon of CIAT's low input strategy with respect to tbe sources and amounts of the additional inputs required to sustain the yield increases CIAT projects to be necessary, and to time-scale considerations.TAC was in general agreement with the Panel's recommendations on the Centre's act1vities. The Comrníttee would like to make the fo110w1ng further comments on ClAT's commodity research programmes.Beans: TAC recognized the progress made by CIAr in varietal development but was concerned about the slow adoption by farmers of improved bean varieties. The Committee would appreciate elaboration of the rationale for the present size of the Bean Programme, both in absolute terms and in relatíon to the other three commodity programmes of the Centre.Pastures: TAC was impressed by the improved technologies developed by the Pastures Programme, and welcomed CIAT's efforts in studying the problems oí their adoption by farmers. The Committee suggested that CIAT consider giving greater attention to integratíon of pasture production in smallholder farming systems of Central America and Asia. The Committee also supported CrAT's efforts to obtain pasture germplasm from other institutes and agencies such as ILeA and CSIRO.Cassava: TAC would welcome more information as to how the resultsCIAT cassava demand study had helped to shape the directions and activities of the Cassava Programme. It noted that the study on cassava demand in sub-Saharan Africa was not yet completad, ~nd referred to the critical coruments previously made by TAC about the nature and size of the Cassava Programme. In a revision oí the Strategic Plan, TAC would appreciate provision of more information on the rationale and justification for the present allocation of effort$ ta various components of the programme, especially post-harvest activitie~ such as drying, processing and marketing.Rice: TAC noted the significant impact of the Rice Programme and agreed with the Panel's recommendations with respect to this Programme. It was pleased to note the Centre's efforts to improve the methods usad in the research procesa.TAC concurred with the Panel that CIAT's strategy of lnclu~ion of socio-economic research within multidisciplinary commodity programmes had worked very well. The Committee was pleased to note the strong interactions that took place between the commodity team workers and the contributions by social sclentists in the process of setting priorities for biological research within programmes.TAe noted that eIAT's management was giving greater attention ta setting prioritles across programmes and that its programme economists were making a contribution to this process. The Committee wished to encourage this type of intradiscipllnary activity acraBS programmes. If CIAT implemented its plan to create an additional programme on agro-ecological research and resource management that would work across commodities as well as ecosystems, it may consider the incorporation of soclo-economics research that would focus on thls and other activities.TAC commended the Panel for ita thorough review of CIAT's training and informatíon activities and concurred with the Panel's recommendation that CIAT explore ways to achieve wider awareness snd v ~teater usé of its SINFOC (Scientific Information Centre) commodity collections. It also supported the Panel's recommendation that CIAT review the scope ahd timing of its training programme in consultatíon ¡¡11th commodity programme and national research leaders.TAC concurred with the External Review PaneIs that CIAT was a well managed and efficiently organized Centre. The Committee agreed with the recommendations made by the Panels with respect to optimal organization of mansgement snd awaited the new Director General's initiatives ln this regard. The Committee would like to stress that the incoming Director General should have flexibility to implement the recommendations of the Panela based on his judgement, and that of the Board of Trustees, in the context oi the Iong-term strstegy of the Centre.TAC supported the Panel's recommendation that CIAT establish a biosafety committee to ensure coordinated supervision oi bioresearch activities and to monitor requírernents for the release of genetically altered material. Inter-Centre consultation on thIs tapie would be desirable.TAC noted with satisfaction the Panel's conclusion that CIAT's facilitiés were excellent acd that the level of resources available to ehe Centre was adequate in relatíon to its present activities and pIanned future programmes.TAC was very pI ea sed that the Panel found excel1ent relations to exist between CIAT and its staff and its collaborators in national programmes, advanced lnstitutions and other CGIAR Centres. TAC was pleased about the high regard in which CIAT was now held in the countrles where it worked. The Committee would welcome further information on the role of the private sector and of the non-associated centres ln CIAT's future research strategy. The CIAT Board and Management commend the TAC for the selection of a well qualified and balanced External Program Review (EPR) panel. We commend the team rnembers for the great diligence, thoroughness and sound judgrnent exercised in their prodigious and complex task carried our within a very tight schedule and involving arduous travel to distant points. We wish to particularly register our appreciation for the adroit leadership given to this task by the EPR Chairman. We also value the openness and thoroughness dernonstrated by the tearn in the many discussions they held with program leaders and scientists and with the Center management.The CIAT Management, the Board Program Committee and the full Board of Trustees have thoroughly reviewed the information contained in the written and verbal reports of the EPR Panel and are in general agreement with the overall conclusions and recommendations made. We particularly appreciate and agree with the overall assessment of the Center's program activities and the endorsement of the strategic plan.We have carefully considered the recommendations, suggestions and observations contained in the report, and have given particular attention to those that rnight require sorne rnodification to the strategy and operations of the Center and its programs. We recognize that the EPR report is addressed to the TAC and will be submitted for final approval by the CGIAR; thus we will reserve final judgrnent on key issues until we have received the views of the TAC and the CGIAR. However, we also considered the report of the EPR as a valuable input into the strategic planning exerc~se, now being completed. The presentation of the EPR report was especially tirnely in that it carne at the sarne time the Board was considering the final draft of the Center's strategic plan for the 1990s. We have, therefore, already taken sorne of the recommendations and suggestions into account in the final version of that plan. Specifically, we agreed with the cornrnents in section 3.7.2 (p. 67) of the report drawing the attention of CIAT's policy rnakers to the need to pursue the topic of resource allocation arnong commodity programs in greater depth and be eventually prepared to modify the use of CIAT's resources in the coming years. The rnatter, although discussed during the planning process, had not been explicitly stated in the draft version of the strategic plan.In response to this recommendation we have added a section in Chapter 3 of the strategic plan on \"cornmodity balance,\" in which we elucidate the criteria that have been used in the past to evolve the current commodity rnix and resource allocations among thern, and those that will be used in considering any modifications to these allocations when the operational plan is developed.The CIAT Board and Management considered these issues as important and interrelated and initiated a thorough discussion of them. There was broad agreement with the general objectives of these recommendations but misgivings about the practicality and desirability of some specific aspects. We considered that it would be premature to make final decisions on these until the incoming DG has had the opportunity to study these matters and make his recommendations to the Board. Early action on these matters is anticipated. '1 . ' / . , On all other recommendations we are in substantial agreement with the EPR Panel; in most cases steps to implement them were already underway before the Review, and the recommendations usefully drew attention to the need to give greater ernphasis to these matters. We record our cornrnents on them below, chiefly for clarification purposes.Panel recommendations:(1) that a greater effort should be made in the Bean Program, with the GRU, to increase germplasm screening activities and to speed up the processing of backlogged materials;CIAT agrees with the need for more rapid processing and screening of the germplasm collection in beans. ClAT has successfully negotiated with lCA for the construction, near Bogotá, of a long-awaited facility which will provide greatly increased quarantine capacity in Colombia. While CIAT has had contracts with other organizations in third-country quarantine projects, these have proved insufficient in relation to the backlog of those 9,000 viable matarials which remain unprocessed at this time. This increased ix quarantine capacity in Colombia, combined with the continuing activities in third-country quarantine, should reduce the backlog to a normal level within the next three years. Screening of germplasm is a continuing activity and most of the 25,000 presentlyprocessed material s have been screened for a range of disease and insect resistances and specific plant and environmental characters. As new material is processed through quarantine it undergoes the same screening process. (See strategic plan, p. 30.)(2) that CIAT take steps to assemble information on the occurrence and distribution of major constraints to bean production in Africa:CIAT agrees that the inforrnation on major constraints in Africa should be assembled in one analysis. At the moment inforrnation is available from all three regional programs with respect to the major constraints in each country. A bean map has been prepared for Africa and this is being revised and updated with new information being gathered by the econornist who was recently appointed to the African programo This information, combined with what is already available, and together with an updated map, will be analyzed in the near future and presented in one report which will outline the degree to which biological, environrnental and socioeconomic constraints are affecting bean production in Africa.(3) that the Rice Program pursue more actively the use of population improvement methodologies like reeurrent selection;CIAT agrees, as evidenced by the fact that the Rice Program recently recruited a breeder with such an expertise. The Program has also developed male sterile lines for recurrent selection in the uplands and is transferring this character to the irrigated lines.(See strategic plan, p. 37.) (4) that, sinee the yield trials have frequently shown rather poor statistical precision, the Rice Program make a serious effort to explore the reasons;CIAT agrees, noting that the area in question is an ecosystem in which neither it nor other lARCs ha ve previous rice experience, and with a unique set of environmental constraints. Having identified many of these constraints, the Program has responded by increasing the size of its experimental plots, the number of replications and the sampling methodology.x (5) that the GRU should intensify the effort to have experts decide on a manageable core collection consisting of a limited number of accessions that contain an appropriate amount of gene tic variability;CIAT agrees on the need to create core collections. At the moment, however, consensus within the scientific community as to what precisely constitutes such a grouping is lacklng.It is agreed that core collections would allow the assembly of a key, representative set of materials which could be used for characterization studies, including work at the molecular level, and for provision of germplasm which is general1y representative of the wide range of germp1asm availability in the various collections at elAT. CIAT will close1y monitor the current debate on this subject to assist in formulating its own policies towards core collections.In the meantime there is need to reduce the collections to more manageable numbers by identifying duplicates. The GRU will continue to work along these lines using various genetic markers.(See strategic plan, p. 45.) (6) that, considering the increased activities necessary for the tropical pastures and cassava collections and its great genetic variability, CIAT seek resources for adequate statfing tor the Genetic Resources Unit:CIAT agrees that increased resources for the Genetic Resources unit will be necessary as the unit increasingly takes over responsibilities for the tropical pastures and the cassava collections. The arrival of the new Unit Head in late 1989 will facilitate reassessment of the Unit's requirements, which wil1 be addressed within the limits of funding available to CIAT. (7) that CIAT considers duplication of the collection and the maintenance of a collection of sexual cassava seeds, as insurance against the possible loss of the living cassava collection maintained in tissue culture:ClAT agrees on the need to duplicate the cassava collection. This will have to be done comprehensively using various methodologies. The cost of duplicating international collections by meristem conservation in other institutions tends to slow the use of this methodology for duplication. A collaborative projeet proposal has been presented to IBPGR for a feasibility study on the use of sexual seed as a conservation media.It seems appropriate for CIAT to develop basie research on the concepts underlying the use of sexual seed conservation in cassava as one complementary means for conserving the collection. The other possibility xi is the use of cryopreservation, which is already under study at CIAT in collaboration with IBPGR.If a breakthrough can be achieved in this area it may be possible that the whole collection (either as meristems or sexual seeds) can be duplicated and sto red in liquid nitrogen at far lower costs than any of the other methodologies.(see strategic plan, p. 45.) (S) that even greater efforts be made to find special funds and other resources to allow the BRU to expand;CIAT agrees with the need for the BRU to expand its activities and every effort has been made to develop collaborative research projects in developed and developing countries which can provide an expanded overall effort on the CIAT commodities in which the BRU would play a crucial parto The development of the advanced research networks should be seen as a particularly effective means by which collaborators in advanced laboratories can increase and better coordinate their research efforts on CIAT comrnodities. CIAT is also seeking special funds for advanced research at headquarters on work for which we have a comparative advantage. Many such special projects at CIAT will be in conjunction with collaborative research projects taking place in other institutions.(See strategic plan, p. 46.) (9) that an internal biosafety committee be established very guickly;CIAT agrees that a biosafety comrnittee should be established. A survey will be made of similar comrnittees in other institutions in order to establish the guidelines by which the CIAT cornmittee should operate.In establishing this cornmittee CIAT will take into account any biosafety guidelines which may be established by the Colombian Government.(10) that CIAT management give greater attention to clarifying the role and future responsibilities of the AESU;In its strategic plan CIAT has proposed the undertaking of a study to determine what role the Center should have in an ecosystem-focused approach, and whether or not a new program should be created to deal with sustainability issues. Any alteration of the Unit's current role will await the outcome of such a study. (See strategic plan, p. 21.) (11) increased attention to the needs of program experiments in decisions on commercial cropping by station Operations;Xll CIAT agrees that a proper balance is required between commercial operations and the need to attend program experiments. The Deputy Director General in charge will be evaluating the needs of the programs in order to ensure that experimental use continues to receive preferential treatment.(12) integrated strategies across CGIAR Centers in dealing with national programs, particularly in non-mandate specific activities such as management training, on-farm research and networking, and in areas of overlapping mandate such as the maize/bean intercropping so important in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa;CIAT agrees, and has already initiated such efforts, as shown by the agronomy trials training course held in Ethiopia in conjunction with CIMMYT, the joint training courses on grain legume research held in Africa in conjunction with lITA, and the forthcoming Central American regional training program in on-farm research (also with CIMMYT).(See strategic plan, p. 13.)(13) being selective in responding to the broad range of demands that have come out of NARDS consultations;CIAT agrees that it cannot respond equally to all requests or suggestions that result from our constant interaction with NARDS. We believe that we should be involved in only those in which we have a comparative advantage.It is encouraging to note that, in contrast to the consultations related to the development of the first plan \"CIAT in the 1980s,\" when many suggestions were made that various commodities be added to our portfolio, 19 of the 20 NARDS' leaders who responded on this subject in our recent questionnaire agreed with the statement: \"CIAT's current commodity mix is the right one.\" However, the \"demands\" are usually not in relation to additional commodities but rather for types of technical assistance, training, development activities and location-specific research that might best be done by others. We agree that we need to strike a balance between being responsive and saying \"no\" when appropriate.(See strategic plan, p. 13.) (14) that, commending CIAT's effective development of the steering committee model and network activities in Africa and Latin America, the Center continue its support for these efforts;CIAT agrees that steering committees are an effective means for regional integration and participation and will continue such efforts. An important consideration is the financial resources required to guarantee the future existence of network activities and steering ( 15) Xlll committees as CIAT involvement in a particular regional network is scaled down. (See strategic plan, p. [22][23] that in view of ClAT's success in working out a model for collaboration with EMBRAPA in Brazil, in cooperation with lITA, in relation to the Cassava Program for the semi-arid parts of Africa, the Center continue to work toward similar outreach plans with other highly developed national systems;ClAT agrees that the model being proposed for Brazil¡ CIAT/Africa cooperation is an example of the type of cooperation that can be effective without the inherent dangers of other bilateral arrangements. At the moment negotiations are in progress and it is expected that extra-core funding will be obtained. The possibilities for other such arrangements will be limited by the rate at which national programs develop sufficient strength to assume international responsibilities.(See strategic plan, p. 12.) (16) that CIAT headquarters reinforce the efforts of its staff in Africa for inter-center collaboration in training and research¡ CIAT agrees on the importan ce of inter-center cooperation, a primary feature of our regional programs, particularly in Africa. CIAT and CIMMYT have also developed joint activities more recently in Latin America. lt is felt that this type of inter-center cooperation is an effective means for reaching national programs so that training efforts avoid duplication and are fully integrated with one another. CIAT will continue to seek collaborative linkages with other international centers and regional organizations.(17) that CIAT pool its knowledge and experience with others, including ISNAR, for the training of research managers;CIAT is still exploring ways of making its research management experience available to NARDS. Any specific training activity on this subject will be coordinated with ISNAR, as agreed at last year's IARe workshop \"Human Resources Development through Training.\" (18) CIAT contact with other Centers for an integrated approach on sustainability; This is the approach envisioned by CIAT, particularly if the Center expands sustainability activities to the ecosystem level. The strategic plan (p. 20) refers specifically to the need for an interinstitutional approach to the American tropical forest ecosystem. In addition, the joint CIAT/IFPRI project \"Natural Resource Management and Agricultural Development in the xiv Humid Tropics\" began ayear ago and the first workshop will take place in Peru in November 1989. (See strategic plan, p. 20.) (19) that CIAT systematize its on-going inventory of national program training needs and its schedule for filling them. This will require consultation not just with leaders in commodity research programs but with national research leaders;CIAT agrees, and a specific objective to this end is included in the strategic plan (p. 51).(20) that CIAT explore ways to get wider awareness and greater use of its SINFOC commodity collectiens and other bibliographic reseurces;CIAT recegnizes the need te improve NARDS' use of its information services. Improved mailing list software has recently been incorporated and activities to get better distribution lists from CIAT and NARDS' staff are in progress.(See strategic plan, p. 50-51.)(21) attention te the balance between demand for services frem the publicatien program and resources available fer it;CIAT agrees. We consider the solution to be categorization and prioritization among publications rather than increasing resources. (22) careful analysis of policies for pricing publicatiens and other CIAT materials te make sure they accemplish the desired distribution;CIAT agrees. A recent example of careful pricing comes from one of CIAT's latest publications: traditional production would have lead to a cost of US$38.80 per unit. After careful analysis ef the various cost components, a high-quality product was produced and made available for $16.00. However, it is recognized that money transfer is also an important barrier to a wider distribution in the Latin American market, where CIAT has a unique language role to play. ( This Third External Pro~ram Revlew se es CIAT entering lts third decade with twenty successful years behind it. Ihe Center has a longstanding reputation for imaginatiye decisions on changes of course and, more recently, for innovative links with its national system partners in the glo~al agricultural research system.The Center's strategy paper \"CIAT in the 19905\" r\"flects the emergence of foad self-reliance as a philosophy fOr freeing prpduction force s to feed th~ world's poor. Prominent features of the strategy are an evolving interface with ClAT's national system partners -including the devolution of some crop ímprovement and training aetivitles to stronger partners -and a move upstream towards a higher proportion pf strategie research. Both are underp~nned by a heightened awareness cf the need for sustainable land rnanagernent and sustainable nacional re$eareh ~fforts.While the strategy paper earefully addresses the question of balance in chese importart dimen.ions, it i~ less explicit on the balance across CIAT programs. This has be en relatively stable ovar che last decade and the Center's plans see this historical balance continuing. The Panel asks CIAT to carefully considar whether the balance aerasS programs will continue to be appropriate tmrough the 1990 •.The Center has had sol id achievements from its commodíty programs. National systems have relaased forty-six bean varietíep incorporating C¡AT material and these are grown on sorne 350.0PO ha annually, mainly in Latin Ameriea and the Caribbean. The Bean Progra;n's nat;ionally driven regional networks are leading the way to a eloser partnership with national systems in Africa.Tha Cassava Program has played an lmportant role, collaborating with lITA and others, in the successful biological control of the mealybug, rampant in the major cassava growing areas of Afriea. Ir has stimulated an openipg of new markets through novel utilizatíon technology in both Colombia and Eeuamor.  CIAT also has solid achlevements as a Center. lts perceptions of the future drew it to support upstream research unlts which have already made signlficant contributions to the cornmodity programs. Its philosophy and clase interactions with lts national system partners have driven the Center to identify productive collaborative mechanisms.. Results are seen in the use 'of steering cornmlttees by lts regional ,programs, in the energetic fostering of research networks, in the use of funds for contracting out research to developing country lnstitutions, snd in the willingness to support a role for strong national programa in regional research.The Panel cornmends CIAT scientists for thel.r cornmitment and hard work. lt eornmends Center management for fostering an atmosphere in whieh cornmitment flourishes. The Panel lOas impressed with the scientific work pursued by GIAT's Programs snd Units. It apprecia~es the increasing understanding of the physiological basia of resistanee and the new ideas on the intensity of challenge, and the nature oE durable and partial resistance, Elowing to the breeding programa. The Panel was pleased with the widening collaboration with centers of excellence, enlarging the resourCe base focused on solving problems oE key importance to CIAT's clients.The Panel endorses,the shíft to research on yield potential and abiotie stresses in the Bean Pror,ram snd urges it, together with the GRU, to accelerate the processing of the backlog of collected gene tic material. The Cassava Program and BRU are cornmended for the in vitra tissue culture collection. The Panel feels it important to duplicate the collection as soon as possible; it needs constant care aud events beyond CIAT's control may threaten this. The Rice Program has made a significant contrlbutlon to the rapid development of rice research in national systems. The Panel commends the program for its awareness of this growing capaclty and its planned response to move upstream in its germplasm improvement. Sorne extra attention to experimental design and analysis would be justifiedby the Programo The Tropical Pastures Program faces the dilemma of a reduction in its germplasm collection aétivities at a time when ~he rapid expansion of land use in its manda te areas threatens the survlval of many species.The Panel recognizes the serlous and affective efforts made by the Center in settlng up the advimced research suppo'rt units; the GRU, which holds the world collections of gene tic material in beans and cassava and many tropical pasture species; also the BRU and the VRU which represent xxvii CIAT's stake in the new biology. The Center should take early steps to establish a biosafety committee. These and other common facilities have led an increase in discip1inary research and have encouraged intra-disciplinary interaction and a synergy among the scientists concerned. The Panel commends this development and would urge similar interactions ln other disciplines to capture similar benefits. Understandíng crop behavior aeross a variety of environments would be a fascinatíng focua for both physio1ogists and agronomists and would be of great potential valúe to ClAT's research.The Seed Unit and the Agroecological Studies Unit are also of great value. The latter may form a platform for CIAT to pursue the iasue of sustainability at the system level, supplementing the stronger $ustainability perspective that the commodity programs plan to bring to their work.CIAT has innovated effeetively in íts interactions with national systems. The Panel can on1y eneourage the enthusiastic continuatian of the trends which have already emerged. It h~s one reservation. Although CIAT acknowledges that many national systems remain weak, its plans for the devolution of some breedíng work, and particu1arly its plans for the devolution of training, assume strength in the national s~stems.The Panel would encourage a review of these plans after a careful evaluation, with its partners. on the status of national systems, treating the different sub-regions in Latin Ameriea and Africa independently to ensure plans are properly adjusted to the cireumstanees of each.Programo Although the new structure cannot be fully evaluated, it seems to have clarified lines of responsibility and encouraged forward 100king leadership. The Panel would ask the Program to look carefully at the role of and demands on the Training Associates as CIAT changes its mix of in country, regional and headquarters training.Because the goal of ClAT's commodity programs ls to improve erop yields and profitability, especially for small farmers, the Center must ensure the delivery of appropriate, problem solving teehnologies ta the user. The Seed Unit, the Farmer Participatory Research Project as well as the on-farm research training, al1 have this objective. Yet every CIAT investmant in this delivery process competes with the scientifie work for which the Center was created. The challenge, as now defined at CIAT, is to find a least cost strategy for cornmunicating useful research information to usera and getting feedback from tham.The Centar wants ta make its scientific informatíon widely accessible but has only had partial suceess. In the light of the budgetary and foreign exchange problems in many developing countries, CIAT needs to look at che pricing policies fer all the information it distributes to make sur a it reaches the intended audiences.The Panel recommends: chat a greater effort snould be made in the Bean Program, with the GRU. to lncrease germplasm screening activities and to speed up the processing of backlogged materials; Chat CIAT take steps to assemble lnformation on the occurrence and distributlon of major constraints to bean production in Africa; that the Rice Program pursue more actively the use of papulatían improvement methodologies like recurrent selection; that. sinee the yield triala have frequently shown rather poor statistical precision, the Rice Program make a serious effort to explore the reasons; that the GRU should intensify the effort to have experts decide on a manageabl e core collection consisting of a limited number of aecessions that eontain an aPpropriate amqunt of genetle variability; that, eonsíderíng the increased aetivitíes necessary for the tropical pastures and cassava eollections and its great genetic variability. CIAT seek resources ior adequate staffing for che Genetie Resources Unit; that CIAr considers duplicarían of the collectíon and the maintenance of a collection of sexual cassava seeds, as insurance against the possible 105S of the living cassava collection maintained ir tis5ue culture; that even greater efiorts be made to find speeial funds and other resources to allow the BRU tp expand; that an intennal biosafety commíttee be establíshed very quickly; that CIAr management give greater attention to clarifying the role and future responsibilíties of the AESU; increased attention to the needs of program experiments in decisions on cornmercíal cropping by Station Operations; integrated stracegies across CGIAR Canters in dealing with national prograrns. particularly in non-mandate specific activlties sueh as management training, on-farm research and networkíng, and in are as of overlapping mandate sueh as the rnaize¡bean intereropping so important in Latin America. the Caribbean and Africa; baing selectiva in responding to the broad range of demands that have come out of NARDS consultations; xxix that, commendíng CIAT's effective development of the steering committee model and network actívitíes in Afríca and Latin Amerlea, the Canter eontinue its support for chese effores; that in view of CIAT's success in working out a mbdel for eollaboratíon wlth EMBRAPA in Brazil, in eooperation with lITA, In relaeion to ehe Cassava Program for the semi-arld parts of Afríea, the Center continue to work toward similar outreaeh plans with other highly developed national systems; that CIAT headquarters reinforee the efforts of its staff in Afriea for inter-Center eollaboration in training and researeh; that CIAT pool its knowledge and experienee with others, including ISNAR, for the training of research managers;CIAT contaet with other Canters for an integrated approaeh on sustainability; that CIAT systematize lts on-going inventory of national program training needs and its schedule for filling them. This will require consultation not just with leaders in cOrnmodity research programs but with nationál research leaders; that CIAT explore ways to get wider awareness and greater use of its SINFOC commodity eollections and other biblíographic resources; attention to the balance between demand for services from the publication program and resources available for it; careful analysis of policias for pricing publications and other CIAT materials to make sure they accomplish the desired distribution;that top management at CIAT be redefined to ihcorporate che third level in che hierarehy (the program Leaders) and Chat a Management Cornrnittee be establíshed, to be chaired by the Director General and to meet regularly and frequently. with an ádvance agenda and formal mínutes recorded; that the íncomíng Director General, in consultatíon wich the Board of Trustees. evaluate the current organízational structure in the light of the criteria listed by the Panels; the appointment of a Coordinator of Research Support to supervise the work of CIAT's advanced biology units as well as all the other researeh services in the interim.The External Reyiew Procesa of the Consul cati ve Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)From its inception, the CCIAR was concerned that the research efforts it supported be effective in achieving its objectives. To that end lts Technieal Advisory Commtttee (TAC) was specifieally eharged with undertaking ftindependent external assessments on the overall sclentific quality and effectiveness of each Center\".Commencing with the International Rice Research Institute (IREI) in late 1975, TAG established a pattern of periodic external reviews (originally known as quinquennial reviews) of Centers funded by the CGIAR.Over time, the objeetives and terms of reference of these reviews have been refined to take into aecount the experience and the needs of members of the Group.Part of this evolutionary process was the separation in 1983 of external program and management reviews, although they are still generally undertaken simultaneously.In its review of the CCIAR Priorities and Future Strategies l! during 1983-85, TAC developed a goal statement and eight program objectives as a framework for reviewing the diverse research and research-related activities in the System. TAC al so called for a thorougb study of how external reviews cou1d eontribute more effectively to the management of the System. One outcome is the development of Terms of Reference which the CGIAR is expected to consider in October 1989. Interim Terma of Reference, based on findings of the TAC review of CGIAR priorities and the impact study, have been usad for this Third External Program Review of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).In May 1986 CGIAR adopted a statement of its goal: \"through international agriculture research and related activities, to contribute to increasing sustainab1e food production in developing eountries in such a way that the nutritional level and general economic well-being of low income people are improved\", lt aecepted eitht program approaches to advance this goal through researeh and related activities of the System. 2JTAe foresaw a relative long-term decline in crop productivity research, the largest program approach. As elaborated in the TAC Review of Priorities, continuing research efforts by the CGlAR were needed in technology generation, food and agriculture policy, and instltution building. TAe considered that the technological challenge would be significant. With limited land reserves for expansion, production would have to be lntensified under diversa environmants. At the same time, such environments must be carefully managed if gains in productivity were to be sustaíned over the long termo As population pressure on natural resources mounted, there would be a growing tension between urgent short-term demand for food and the longer-term goal of protecting the natural resource-base on which agricultural productivíty depends.Ecologícally sound technologies and management practices for improved production vould need to be tailored to the specific conditions of a vide range of agroecological zones and socioeconomic conditions. Demand vould grow for a broader range of technologies, responding to greáter complexity in technological requirements, as the more difficult envlronments were brought under intensive production. Post-harvest and processing technologies would also be needed to address changes in food consumption patterns resulting from growth in urbanization and income. A particular challenge would be increasing the productivity of rainfed agriculture, especially in Che less-favoured environments, many of which are ecologically fragile, have already undergone significant degradatíon, and are under continuing pressure. Technologies would be needed not only to increase productivity in the short term, but also to rebuild the natural-resource base for future agricultural production.TAC recommended that the System strengthen its research activities in resource management and conservatian, integrating concerns for long-term agricultural sustainability into its multidisciplinary cornmodity research programs. Further, TAe recommended that the CGlAR as sume a more prominent catalytic role within the global system to encaurage expanded efforts in resource management and conservation among national research systems. It was the intent of TAC's recommendation to stress the need for a long-term perspective when evaluating productivity, and to underscore the principIe that short-term gains at the cost of the stability and quality of the netural-resource base were unacceptable.In evaluating research activities, TAC examined the cornmodíties currently in the collective mandate of the CGlAR. After applying the indicators for determining the priorities among cornmodities, lt concluded that changes in current prloritles should be made. Those recommendations which affect ClAT's mandated commoditles, are enumerated below:Cassava: TAC recommended that while current global (and Asían) effort on cassava be maintained, there should be a small shift in effort fram Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa, pending the outcome of a global market study. lt was expected that this global study vould help elucidate the complex situation in Latín America, where demand for cassava for food seems to be declining and lts use in animal feeding is dependent on government policy.Phaseolus Bean: rAC recommended maintaining research on phsseolus bean at current levels. It endorsed CIAT's expansion of this work into Eastern Africa snd urged greater attentíon to enhancing yield stability.Rice: TAG recommended that CelAR's support for the oVeral! rice research effort be reduced and that future concentration should be more on non-irrigated systems and on basíc research on irrigated rice, in collaboration whith specialized institutíons. TAC strongly supported the shíft of research to non-irrigated rice, whieh had already oeeurred in Latín Ameriea. Overall the relative alloeation to rice research for Latín Ameríea should remain at current levels.TAC recommended that research on ruminant production be moderately increased and that such research should concentrate on improvlng rumlnant nutritíon. Rangeland and pasture improvement programs, together with the management of livestock, should be strengthened considerably. For Latín Ameriea, in order to help reduce pressure for further land clearanee, TAC also endorsed researeh to incresse the productivity and earrying capacity of degraded pastures in the humid tropics and in mixed cropjlivestook systems on moderately acid soils. Terms of Reference and Background Documentation !he EPR Panel was forma1ly charged with evaluating the relevance and appropriateness of CIAT' S programs, its past achlevements and scientific stature, and -in the context of the CGlAR goal -its priorities, policies, and strategies for achieving the objectives set out in its mandate. !he charge specifioally implied thst the Panel should take a stratagic forward-looking vlew of the Center, snd be concerned with matters of scientific detail only as necessary to carry out the charge.In accordanoe with the Interim Terms of Reference (Annex II), questions and issues were callated which are specific to CIAT and raised by celAR members, the CIAT Board and management, the Chairman of the Panel, and the Chairman and members of TAC. The list of questiona ia an integral part of the Terma of Reference.Background documents on the mandate, history, program evo1ution, and previous external reviews were provided to Panel Members by CIAT and the TAC Secretariat. The list of documents availab1e to the Panel is given in Annex 111. In June, the Panel was briefed on CIAT's research programs and visited its fie1d stationa in Colombia. Sorne panel members visited CIAT co11aborative programs in Ecuador. Meetings with government officials and senior research scientists were also arranged to discuss cooperativa activitias. Subsequently, the Panel split into two sub-groups, one visiting Costa Rica and Brazil and the other Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Tanzania. Finally, the Panel returned to CIAT, 10 Saptember 1989, to complete its assessment and write its reporto Detai1s of the Panel' s activities and visits are provided in Annex IV.The Structure of the ReportThe Panel has structured its report so that this introduction ls followed by a series of ana1ytical chapters dealing with CIAT's origins, the evo1ution of its mandate slnce the Second Externa1 Review in 1984 and its strategies for the future, plus its current research and research-related programs, research management and support services, and interactions with national, regional and international institutions. These chapters are followed by the Panel's overall assessment of ClAT's program content and direction, the likely effectiveness of proposed directions, the size and scope of its activltles in the future, and its relationships with the countries it serves.The Panel has felt free to make any observations and recommendations tt considered significant. It recognizes that the report it has prepared, fer which it accepts sole responsibility, in no way commits TAC or the COlAR to any consequent serien. lt wishes to emphasize that the Panel Hembers reached eonsensus with respect to the report and were unantmous in support of its recornmendatlons. The final chaptar, HAn Overvtew and Recommendatlons\", presents the Panel's maln conclusions and recommendations. A summary has been provided.Follow-up to the Report On completion of the review and oral presentation of the findings to the CIAT Board and Senior Staff, the Chairman of the Panel will formally transmit the Panel's report to the Chairman of TAC. TAC will request the Chairmen of the EPR and the EMR to present the Panels' findings, and CIAT its reactions, at the 50th TAe Meeting at the World Bank, Washington, D.C., 23-27 October 1989. TAC will consider the report in the presence of the CIAT Board Chairman, che Director General, and a number of CIAT senior staff. Following the preparation of a written commentary on both reports, che Chairman of TAe will transmit the EPR report to the CCIAR, together with the TAC Commentary and the reactiona of CIAT. During its first ten years the Center dírected most of its efforts towards the American tropics. CIAT's original geographical orientation was the tropical lowlands of Latín Ameriea and the Caribbean; all four of its commodities are basic staple foods in this region. CIAT has since been given world responsibilities for cassava and beana, expanding its mandate into Asia and Eastern Afriea. However, Latin Amerles remaina the main regional focus of CIAT in the development of its research programs. An sssessment of the resource base of these regions is found in Annex VI.The food economy of the regions of the world where CIAT concentra tes its actions has to be analyzed in the setting of a broad international food and agricultural sector.A remarkable food and agricultural system has emerged on the international scene, based in large part on new technologies in transportation and eommunication. In fact, for almost every country the food and agricultural sector is the best integrated internationally, despite the barriers to trade in agrieultural commodities. Most eountries either import or export agricultural products; some countries do both.This system should permit governments to reduce, cautíously, the importance they attach to food self-security or self-sufficiency, allowing them to exploit more fully other comparative advantages. The concept of achieving food self-reliance has been defined aS the capacity of a nation to provide a sufficiently stable food supply to all of its inhabitants, either from domes tic production or from production of exportable goods to cover the cost of commercial imports.Implications for CIAT, within the actual mandate of commodities, are that biological and social scientists working togecher with partners of national programs should be able to generate che most efficient technology in the most efficient place, so as to ansure the highest social rate of return for the resourees invested.In the míd-1960s the Rockefe11er and Ford Foundations eollaborated to estab1ísh an international agricultural research center in Latín America. An agreement was signad by the Colombian Government snd the Roekefe11er Foundation on 12 May 1967, to create CIAT. The Center was officially decreed as a Colombian institution on 4 November the same year. CIAT headquarter facilities were dedicated on 12 October 1973, by whieh time the Canter had been brought under the aegis of the CGlAR System. The Foundations, the original founders, intended to create Han ínstitutíon serving tropical Latín Ameriea and the Caribbean.\"In 1977 the Board further stated:\"the CIAT programs have evolved to encompass the following responsibilitles:-Principal responsibilities for beans (Phaseolus vulgaris and related species) and cassava (Manihot esculenta);-Principal responslbilities for tropical pastures (specific responsibilities for the acid. infertile soils of the American tropica).Regional responsibilities for rice (speeific responsibilitles for the American tropics).\"In recognition of the broader obligations assigned to CIAT by the CGlAR System for given commodities. the Center defined the two categories of •principal\" and \"regional\" responsibilities: Principal Assemble, maintain and make available the world germplasm eollection.-Conduet specialized strategie research.-Generate improved produetion technology components for, and deve10p cooperative activities with, national systems in all regions of the developing world where the commodlty 15 important and no sister CGlAR Center is assuming regional responsibilities. Provide in-service training for professionals in the specializedjstrategie areas of research on a global basis. -Provide specialized in-service and product oriented training for professiónals from countries where no other CGlAR Center has regional responsibilities . • Collect, process and dissemlnate information on the commodity on a global basis. Backstop the activities of other institutions with regional responsibilities for that commodity.This eategory applies when a sister CGIAR Center has principal responsibility for a commodity. In close cooperation with that center, CIAT takes on selected responsibilities, especially the generatian of improved production technology and in-servlce production orientad training. Together with natIonal research systems it identifies principal production constrsints and, in close collaboration with the responsible canter, \"seeks to facilitate such activities ss are required to overcome such constraints\", Tha Board of Trustees eventually approved the following mandate for CIAT, as one of several agricultural research centers within the CGIAR: \"To generate and deliver, in collaboratlon with national and regional institutions. improved technology which wll1 contribute to lncreased preduction, productivity and quality of specific food commodities in the tropics, principally countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, thereby enabllng producers and consumers, especially these with limited reseurces, te increase their purchasing power and improve their nutrition\".The Second Review in 1984 commented on the wording in the description of principal responsibl1ities, preferring \"no sister centar has been assisned responsibilities in che region\" to \"is assuming responsibilitias\", to avold eonfusion among Canters and batwaan Cantar s and national programs. The Panel encouraged the Tropical Pastures Program to consult with ILCA in operationalizing its principal, world-wide mandate for pastures in the lowland tropics and sub-tropics on acid and infertile soi1s. The Panel also agreed that the Tropical Pastures Program should not assume responsibility for all tropical pasture species.There have been no changes in CIAT's mandate in the five years since the Second External Program Review in 1984. The recently prepared long-range plan \"CIAT in the 1990s: A Strategic Plan\" (Revised Draft September 1989) describes CIAT as: \"a development-oriented, agricultural research institution dedieated to the app1ication oE sclenee toward lasting a11eviation of hunger and poverty in developing countries\". and makes a restatement of its mission; \"to contribute to economic development and poverty reduction in developing countries by applying modern seience to the generation of new technology that will increase food production and produetivity. This mission can be accomp1ished only by working in partnership with various institutions, especially national agricultural research organizations\".ClAT's Development since tbe Seeond EPR in 1984The Board statement of ClAT's operational manda te in 1977 was Eollowed by further focussing and development prior to the Second EPR in 1984. The Swine Unit was phased out in 1979 and a Seed Unit created the same year. The Rice Program broadened its focus to eneompass up1and rice in favoured environments in 1981. From 1983 CIAT began to aecelerate the implementation of its mandate Eor beans and eassava outside Latin America.Since 1984 there has been expansion of stafE in a11 programs and a change in the balance of staffing, with a higher proportion located in the regions outside Colombia. These developments are summarized in the following table extracted from the staffing information in CIAT documentation; it excludes visiting scientists and post-doctoral fellows. The Panel has therefore used the TAC paper aS a background document against which to discuss ClAT's strategies and research priorities. The TAC paper sets the System-wide objectives and the strategies for attaining these objectives. The Center's strategic plan for the 1990s defines its speeific objectives and the operational processes proposed to achieve these. ZIThe Panel has examined CIAT's plan and its priorities against these objectives and against current concerns for food production, environmental degradation and national research system development, more specifically in Latin Ameriea and Africa. In doing so it has attempted to address the question as to how well CIAT i5 prepared, both scientifically and managerially, for the deeade of the 1990s and bayond.The planning process for CIAT's strategy for the 19905 is described in seetion 6.2.4. It is based on projeetions for trends in ClAT's cornmodities, its view of the evolution of national agricultural research and development systems and the trends in seience and teehnology research. lt al so adds, as an explicit objective, one which has always been implicit in tts work, namely natural resources management and agricultural sustainabi1ity. To the year 2000 CIAT expects regional self-sufficiency in beans, though with strong sub-regional differences, a deflclt in besf, a developing industrial market for cassava and a deficit in rice in Latin America. In Africa a very large deficlt in bean production 15 expected CGIAR Priorities and Future Strategies, TAC Secretariat, 1987.CIAT in the 19905: A Strategic Plan. and an increasing role for cassava ls predicted; grasa legume pastures could contribute to sustainable agricultural productlon in eertain areas. Demand for eassava ln Asia for industrial use 15 expected to inerease and cassava is expected to play an important role as a food in some of the poor countries of Southeast Asia (Kampuchea, Laos, Vietnam). CIAT al so sees some opportunities for tropical pastures in Southeast Asia to replace Imperata or to provide forage under plantation crops.CIAT expects the national programs to change in both quality and number of scientists; it expects these to rema in highly variable, especially in respect to their financial resources. Though the long-term trend is likely to show an lmprovement, there are likely to be continual fluctuations in quality and support.CIAT expeets that the rapid advances in blophysieal and social sclences will make new approaches to research possible. Its strategy ls to ensure that these advances are used to salve problema of poor farmers and low resource consumers, and it expects to implement this by developing linkagas with laboratories in both developed and developing countrles. As a consequence of its moya upstream CIAT pIans to reduce its efforts in applied research, especiaIly in conventional breedlng; part of this would be taken over by national programs. CIAT's accomplishments to date in applied research are expected to free resources for strategic research by making possible diveraion of efforts, usually within disciplines.CIAT pIans to increase its involvement in developing technologies that would slow down or halt the degradation of fragi1e ecosystems and that would lead to the rec1amation of degraded land. The challenge facing CIAT as a research institution is to define which of the problema involved in sustainability are susceptible ta and require research, and then to select from among them those problems for which CIAT has a comparative advantage. CIearly ClAT's main advantage is the ability to give research on its manda te crops a sustainability perspective. This includes developing varieties that grow better in the specific environments; better erops provide bettar ground cover and more root mass in the soil. Improved cultural practices enhance this, as does pest snd disesse resistance.It will be seen that CIAT is deaply invo1vad in fiva of the eight objectives of che ce System, namely:(1)Managing and conserving natural resources for sustainab1e agriculture. (2) Increasing the productivity of essential food crops. (3) lncreasing the productivity snd eco1ogica1 stabllity of livestock production systems. (4) Strengthening national agricultural research capacities.(Integrating efforts both between and among Centers of the ce System.The strategic plan envisages a growth in financial resources. Through 1993, it does not envisage any major changes in balance among the Programs though, as indicated in Chapter 3, there will be substantial changes in emphasis within Programs. Background \"In Brazi1, ,iexico, and Central Anterica, heans eonstitute between 10-30% of dietary protein. In these countries and East Africa beans are the main source of non-cereal protein, because they are genera11y the most inexpensive form of protein. In countrles such as Rwanda and Burundi, peop1e derive more pro te in from beans alone than from all animal products combinad. Static yields, and highly variable output and price, create a critical prob1em to milliona of smal1 farmers and poor urban consumera.\" (EPR 1984).Beans face biotic (pests and diseases) and abiotic (drought, low P, Reid soil, etc.) stresses which the poor farmers who generally grow them often lack the inputs to handle. A more sustalnable solution to OVercome these prob1ems ls through genetie improvement.ClAT's Bean Program has the critical mass of scientists, unequalled collection of bean genetic resources, excellent facilities and weII-estabIished networks for a concertad attack on this prob1em. Significant progress has been made, but major problema remain. !he Bean Program describes its overall goal as improving availability and income for poor people by improving the productivity of beans through the rapid development and transfer of technology in collaboration with national agricultural research institutlons in countries where beans are an important food. Specific objectives are to: (1) Develop scientific innovations that overcome majar productivitylimiting constraints.(2) Strengthen national capacity far bean research and technology transfer.(3) Accelerate the transfer af bean production technolagy by exchanging germplasm, scientific methodologies and information through international networks.!he Program continues to emphasize genetic improvement, the development of practical and rapid screening techniques, the study of mechanisms conferring desired tralts, the study of genetics of inheritance of traits, and the development of breeding materiaIs with deslred traits in useful backgrounds. ClAT' s focus i8 increasingly on developlng parental matarials and methodologies, as national programs assuroe more responsibility for the selection of advanced lines and developme finished products or varieties.TIle Program focuses on the gene tic improvement of resistance to important pests and diseases. lmproved materials developed from this approach would require low input, thus offering resource-poor farmers the opportunity to grow them. Improvement 15 also sought for yield potential, drought resistance, earliness, nitrogen fixation, and adaptation to acid and low phosphorus soils, The Panel endorses these objectives and strategies.It also concurs with the 1984 EPR recommendation that larger effort should be given to breeding for higher yield potential under conditions of higher soil fertility, primarily to develop beans that eould be competitive under favoured environments. Of the 41,061 individual samples in the Phaseolus collection (four cultivated Pbaseolus species and wild species), 5,200 were received in a very poor state from existing national collections and are considered non-viable seeds, Of this group the number likely te be permanently lost (i,e. not recoverable frem duplicates in other colleetions received or not easily and correctly identified in ne'\" collection missions) is of the order of 800, Continuing work in processing this large number of materials has placed a total of 25,758 in the active collection and a backlog af 9,692 now remains. TIle new CIAT-financed quarantine facility at lCA Bogota, now under canstruction, will be a major step toward accelerating the quarantine clearance of this backlog.TIle Panel recommends that a greater effort should be made jointly with the GRU to lncraase screening germplasm activities and to speed up the precessing of backlogged materials, especially those coming from the primary centers of diversificatíon, so that they can be fully exp10ited.The Panel reeognizes the progresa the Bean Program has made in finding safe \"'ays to move seeds from high risk to low rIsk areas and from Africa. TIle partial success achieved is based en two approaches, For seed of African origin, CIAT has been funding the Instltute of Horticultural Researeh in the UK to provide third-country quarantine of bean seed. To date at least 1,000 accessions have passed through this route. CIAT-bred materials have been put through a 'cleaning process\" to / 14 ascertain freedom from bacteria1, funga1 and viral diseases prior to exportation, under the supervision of the CIAT P1ant Quarantine Committee and the Plant Health Laboratory. About 6,000 bred materials have passed through the process before going on to national programs.Between 1985 and 1988 CIAT breeders made 11,236 crosses in their efforts to arm p1ant types with resistance to biotic (i.e. diseases and pests) and abiotic constraints (Le., drought, soil acidity and low phosphorus availabil ity , nitrogen needs).The crossing program was planned in consultation between national bean leaders, regional and headquarters staff. This procedure in deciding what crosses to make has assured the participation of national programs in attending to priorities previously identified by them.Breeding has been increasing1y done in collaboration with national institutions. By 1989, over 40 new varieties from the CIAT internationa1 network had been released by NARS and were in widespread production in Latín America and six new varietíes \",ere getting wide use in Africa. (CIAT in the 1990s).The level of activities \",ith respect to high yield potential has increased substantlal1y during the perLod in review. The most recent findings showed that selection for yíe1d directly was more effective than index selection based on a wider range of factors. It was possible to improve seed yie1d by erossing the germplasm group of high-yielding, small-seeded, middle American cultivars with medium-seeded germplasm from the highlands of middle America. Furthermore, ana1ysis of data for 1984-1986 showed that 25% of 1,257 lines are high-yielding with varying degrees of resistance to one or more diseases.CIA! has achieved modest snap bean improvement since it began work on the crop in 1983. The principal objective has been to incorporate diaease resistance and tropical adaptation from the dry bean improvement program into green beana. Improved germplasm has been evaluated in a number of loeations throughout Colombia. One climbing snap bean line is presently being grown and marketed by farmers in the Cauca Department.Interspecific hybrids of f. vulzaris x f. acutifolius have been obtained by embryo rescue, offering the possibility of obtaining hybrids with other related species and thus exploiting resiatance genes and other desirable traits from them.Studies to identify the mechanism of popping in popbeans (common beans which burst \",hen heated like popcorn) have been initiated. Toasting popbeans requires much less fuel than boiling beans; hence they have potential in areas \",ith acaree firewood like Central Africa.Work in pathology has been focused on identificatíon of sources of resistance, development of screening techniques. atudíes on pathogen variation, studíes on resistance mechanisms and atudíes on genetics of resistance.Techniques developed to identífy resistant germplasm for several major diaeases have led to identification of the sourcea of resistance to them.The genetícs of resistance were established for the first time for anthracnose and angular leaf spot.Twelve germplasm accessions possessíng different mechanísms of resistance were selected as the most promising new sources of bean geminivirus resistance among the 1,660 accessions evaluated in six Latín American Countríes. The combinatíon of such genotypes wíth different express ion of BGMV-resistance/tolerance has resulted in even higher and more atable levels of resiatance in several non blaek-seeded breeding Unes.The characterlzation of the principal bean golden mosaic virus isolates existing ín Latín Amerlca has been undertaken and efforts are now in progress to eharacterize them at the molecular level in collaboration with scientists from the University of Wisconsin. A breakdown of gene tic linkages between seed colour and resistance to common mosaie virus has been accomplished for beans of Central America.Significant progress has been made in understanding the mechanism and inheritance of resistance to a storage pest known as weevil bruehids and on techniques for selectíon of resístant materíals in segregating populations.Confirmation of arcelin as the factor responsible for resistance to the Mexican bean weevil (Zabrotes subfasciatus) but not to the bean weevíl (Acauthosceljdes obtectus) introdueed important changes in the selection of bruchid-resistant genotypes. As soon as nutritional safety of arcelin 15 confirmed lines with confirmed, resistance to Z• subfasciatus and commercial ased size and colour will be released to national programs for evaluation.Techniques for selection of bean materíals for resistanee to leafhopper (EmpQasca kraemeri) have been refined and have led to the selection of numerous promisíng lines of red, white, black and eream seeded materials.Tissue culture technique for regenerating wiId relativas of f. vuliaris and accessions of P. acutifolium has been developed. Interspecific hybrids of p, yulgaris snd p, scutif01ius have be en obtsined by embryo-rescue techniques, Protein (phaseolln) snd isozymes electrophoretic characterizatlons of f. vulgaris gene pools have been established and have be en utilized to study germplasm evolution. variability snd dispersa1.Collaborative research projects in bean biotechnology have been established in various advanced institutions and universities.Studies for Latin Amerlca conducted by the Agroecologica1 Studies Unit show that 60% of the bean production area ls affected by drought. whereas 85% of the area has serioua soil constraints.Studies on limitations to yield potential confirmed that remobilization of N during pod-filling is associated with declining photosynthesis. Hechanisms to improve N uptake and partitioning are being sought.Greater drought to1erance has proved to be associated with more efficíent and abundant roots. differences in leaf water use efficiency, and drought escape through earliness. The outstanding tolerance of tepary bean (P. acutifo1ius) has been confirmed. so mechanisms studies and interspecific croSSeS (produced by the BRU) are also being pursued.Hodest progress in breeding for improved N-fixation has been obtained in small-seeded indeterminate genotypes. Studies are under way en screening methods and inheritance for such characteristics as early nodulation, late nodu1e senescence, and insensitlvity to mineral N. Genetlc dlversíty of Rhizobium phaseoli for characterlstlcs such as potential effectlveness. stress to1erances. and competitiveness has be en demonstrsted. Inocu1ation studíes show responses in plant growth and yie1d on sorne farms. Priority ls being given to mechanlsms of R. phaseo1i surviva1 and competitiveness.Low phosphorus availability has been identlfíed as the greatest single 5011 constraint. and research has been initiated to identify traits conferring superior adaptatlon to 5011 P deficiency, such as root structure and function, superior mycorrhizal symbiosís, and efficient P partitioning.Demonstrated cultivar and species differences in adaptation to soil constraints make the Program optimistic for progress through genetic improvemenr, but inereasing produetion through agronomie improvement is not negleeted. Headquarrers aerivities will inelude research on novel fertilizen (e. g. foliar applieations of P) and backstopping of soH fertility research of regional programs snd NARS.The bean economics seerion providas socio-economic guidelines for techn010gy deve10pment and releas e snd also assesses che degree of suecess obtained with new teehnology.During the period in review, the seccion studied such issues as impaet of new teehnology, consumer aeeeptance of new varieties, ete. Results eould assist plant breeders in developing new varieties. Similarly, development of production-oriented training courses eould henafit from the feedback of economists and sociologists.The seetion condueted a snap bean potential study showing the importance of this crop for small farmers, for local consumption in Asia and Latín America and for export in Africa. Snap beans are effactive income generators for small farmers due to their labour intansity and high productivity. Estimates show that demand for snap beans will increase by 45% by the year 2000. Population growth and urbanization represents 311 of the expected demand growth, equally shared by China and the rest of the daveloping world. Preliminary results from Colombia suggest that the yield increase potential of 30% from IPM technologies and ímpro\\'ed varietíes will be important in meeting growing demando There i5 80150 great potential for the disease and pest resistance already developed for tropical dry beans being transferred to snap beans. Tha Panel endorses and encourages this activity.Tannins and sypsin inhibitors in beans detract frem their value in human nutrition. CIA! recently established a tannin screening technique which discriminates amongst tannins in respect to their protein-binding capacity. A collaborative research project with Italy 15 investigating the importance of sypsin inhibitors.The Rean Program has helped estsblish or strengthen national programs in several develeping countries. partieularly in Latin Amerlea, the Great lakes regíon of Africa and Eastern and Southern Africa. A similar effort iB being made for snap beans.A study on the dístribution and importance of viruses naturally infecting the COmmon bean and its relatives In Africa has be en initiated in collaboration with the Institut fuer Viruskrankheiten der Pflanzen. Rraunschweig, FRG. Similar studies should be accelerated on the major biotic and abiotic constraints to bean production. Such a larger study could be undertaken by the Bean Program and the national programs in Africa to supply objective data for planning and implementation. The Panel recommends that CIAT take steps to assemble information on the occurrence and distributlon of major constraints to bean production in Africa.CIMMYT has been working with CIAT on the use of suitable maize for triala with climbing beans. The Bean Program ls also collaborating with AVRDC in breeding for disease resistance in bean fIy and with ISFeR on germplasm activities.Good collaboratlve research exists between the Bean Program and numerous advanced research instltutions and universities in both developed and developing countries. There are at present 12 senior scientist essentla1 positions at headquarters: one 1eader, three p1ant breeders, one pathologist, one entomo10gist, one physiologist, one p1ant nutritionist, one microbiologist, two agronomists and one economlst.One Roekefeller Foundation-funded anthropologist i5 stationed in Africa.Outposted staff conslst of 17 scientists of which 11 are in essentlal positions and 6 financed through special funds. Two scientists are in the Central Ameriea Regional Bean Network (Costa Rica).A coordinator (plant breeder) is in Costa Rica, and agronomist in Guatemala, a coordlnator (pathologist) in the Andean Regional Sean Research Network stationed in Peru, an agronomist in Ecuador, a coordinator (croppíng systems agronomíst), an anthropo10gist and a breeder in the Creat 1akes of Africa (Rwanda); one agronomist (Pan-Arica Coordinator) in Ethiopia; a breeder, an economist and an agronomist in Uganda serving the Eastern Afriea Network; five scientists in Southern Afríea, four of whom are stationed in Tanzania (one pathologist who is coordlnator), one entomologlst, one plant breeder, and a cropping system agronomist). The breeder posltion in Malawi la vacant.The gradual phasing out of CIAT staff in regional programs which has been effective in the Central American Regional Program needs to be reviewed perlodically in regard to the three areas of CIAT regional programming in Afriea, but there ls a feeling that ir wi11 take more than five yeara to adequately strengthen che current local staff there.The Bean Program has a working budget of US$6,748,OOO to support its varied activiries. With the exception noted in the germplasm section, the CIA! laboratory and field facilities are still adequate both at Palmira, at aubstations, and at lCA collaborating research stations.Like any other IARC with a cornmodity orientation the Bean Program has emphasized the collection and identification of diverse germp1asm to serve as a pool from which desirable genes can be used when needed. Most local cuItivars from Latin America are stored at CIAT and thus lt serves as a repository for their valuable genetic resources.From 1985 to date, in col1aboration with NARS, many new soureeS of disease and pest resistance have been discovered and incorporated into commerciaI1y acceptable cultivars. The 46 new CIAT-derived varieties are grown on at Ieast 350,000 ha. in Latin Ameriea and Afriea, and the resulting value of íncreased produetíon i5 near1y US $50 million annually, more than seven times the eost of CIAT bean researeh. The Bean Prograro has a1so contributed irnmensely in strengthening the bean researeh capacity of national programs, through a major training effort snd through che formation of international snd regional networks as in Eastern, Central and Southern Afriea, Central Ameriea and che Caribbean and the Andean Region.Future sctivitiesAlthough the Bean Program will continue to place its roaín emphasis on genetie ímprovement, this type of research will change both in methods and priorit:ies.Inereased attention will be given to germplasm enbaneement snd pre-breeding, and les s effort wil1 be made on developing finished lines. (CIAT in the 1990s). This strategy can be seen in the ehange of resouree allocation from 1982 to 1990 and 2000 (Table 2).The Panel endorses the aforementioned new work-p1an on beans for the 19905. Emphasis on research to cut losses from pests snd diseases ls expeeted to be reduced as current work offers better control me asures , Yield potential wíll continue to merit priority attention. Regional programs and networking wil1 be expanded to permit better serviee to the weaker or sms11er national prograros in Afriea snd Central Ameriea. The Bean Progrsm expects simultaneously to eneourage joint scientific efforts The Panel aeknowledges the dedieation and outstanding work of the Bean Program in fulfilling its stated objectives in eol1aboration with the national programs. The rapid acceptanee of improved germplasm eollaborative developed by CIAT and national programs, its re1ease and eommereial production on at teast 350,000 heetares in Latin Ameriea and Afriea, has eonfirmed the value of this improved germplasm.The Panel recornmends that a greater effort should be made with che GRU to increaae germplasm sereening aetivitles and to speed up the proeessing of backlogged materíals.The Panel also recommends that CIAT take steps to assemble information on the occurrenee and distribution of major constraints to bean production in Afriea.Cassava ProgramDemand potentia1 atudies in Latin Ameriea and Asia eonfirm cassava's continued role both as a source of food and income for the less privileged in the tropics. In terms of caloríes it is the fourth most important crop grown in the tropics after rice, sugarcane and maize.Cassava ls grown mostly by small farmers. Consequently, improved production and processing technologies must be simple, low-cost, and self-sustainab1e.ClAT's comparative advantages in germplasm evaluation and pre-breeding, generatlon of knowledge, networking and communications, and links with former trainees can be harnessed to continue improving cassava production around the world, particularly in Afriea, Latin Amerlea and Asia.The Cassava Program's stated gosls are to eontribute msterially to increased income and food supplies for sma1l farmers and to improve food availability in developing countries in the tropics. In close collaboratlon wlth national programs, it seeks to:(1)Develop basle components of produetion technology for stable, cassava-based cropping systems with low costs per unir output.(2) Develop techno1ogy that allows CaSSava to be grown on presently under-explolted lands.(3) Develop processing technology that makes cassaVa a low-cost high quality, convenient food.(4) Develop both production and processlng technologies that are costcompetitive, increase farmers' lncome, and are sufficiently labour intensive to generate emp10yment for 1andless labour.(5) Deve10p marketing strategies that reduce the marketing margino (6) Stimulate the development of markets for cassava that provide a stable price floor for the raw material, thus givlng farmers the incentive to lncrease production and thereby reduce price fluctuations for the consumer.( The cassava germplasm collection has increased from 3,680 to 4,566 accessions since the 1984 EPR. Seventeen lITA hybrids with cassava mosaic disease resistance were also introduced to the collection. In addition to storage as living collections in the field and as seeds in a cold room, 4.200 clones representing 92% of the co1lectlon are in in ~ culture. About 1,200 clones in vitro have be en introduced to CIAT during the periodo A descriptor list for cassava based on morpho1ogical traits plus biochemica1 descriptor-po1ymorphic isozyme markers have be en deve1oped.During the period in review, the Program has distributed 992 elite cassava clones in in vitro (disease-free) condition to at 1east 20 countries in Latin America and Asia. (In vitro introduction from Latin America to Africa ls prohibited by quarantine regulation.) Moreover, 188,636 seeds from the cassava co11ection and elite crosses have been distributed to Latin America, Asia and Africa. Noteworthy is the introduction to Africa of elite materiaIs with mite resistance which have be en crossed with mosaic resistanc germpIasm frem lITA and of materials with highland adaptatíon.The Panel commends the Cassava Program for assembling the largest collection of cassava germplasm, evaluating it, maintaining it in in vitro conditions, and making it available to potential users around the world.Since che 1984 EPR, the Program has produced 2.040 crosses combining reslstance to various disease and pests and tolerance to soil stresses. These have generated at least 82,916 hybrid seeds, in addition to at Ieast 500,000 seeds derivad from open pol1ination of over 300 parents. Choice of parentals for the crossing program ls based both on performance in Colombian testing sites and on consultations with national programs. Over the past five years 17 new variatíes based on CIAT germp1asm have been re1eased or are in final stages of pre-release in eight countries: three in Mexico, one in Panama, six in Colombia, two in Thailand, one in China, two in the Phi1ippines, and one each in Malaysia and Indonesia.Pre1iminary trials have shown that cassava can successfully be grown from true seed under experimental condition. Although many problems have to be resolved in this area. the possibi1ity exists now of understanding and developing the technology to benefit resource-poor farmers who face problems in using the traditional cuttings as seed. The Panel encourages the Cassava Program to pursue this new lead.Work in cassava pathology has focused on che identification of resistant genotypes, problems involving vegetative planting materiaIs, identification of resistant genotypes, and integrated disease management. Resistant genotypes were identified for cassava bacterial bIight, superelongation, fusariurn root rot, phytophthora root rot, anthracnose and diplodia root roto !he integrated disease management (IDM) approach, whlch lncludes the use of cultural practices, biologlcal control, varietal resistance, and sanitary measures has been explored and has shown promising results.From research on the atorage of meter-long cuttings the Program has demonstrated that cuttings should be stored in at Ieast 80% relative hurnidity; that treated cuttings kept under a tree or in indirect sunlight can provide good establishment; that siza of bundles doas not affect establishment; but that storage of cuttings should only be done when necessary, since yield ls affected by using storad cuttings for planting.A new method has be en deveIoped for che interchange of indexed vegetative caSSaVa planting materiaIs that makes it possible to obtain 90-100% establishment 20 days after packing and adult plants 7-10 manths lateroThe virology section has identified whitefly (Bemesia tuberculata) as a suspected vector of the mosaic component of the frogskin disease of cassava. !he virus indexing protocol of CIAT has been refined. !he combination of therrnotherapy with meristem-tip culture and virus indexing of the merlstem-tip cultured plants can assure freedom from known viruses.The cassava entomology program focuses on mites, mealybugs, the cassava hornworm, whiteflies and the burrowing bug.Work on biological control of mites has been done in close collaboration wich lITA. CIAT efforts have concentrated an the use of agroecological data to focus the search for effective natural enemias. A number of natural enemy species have been shipped to lITA for mass rearing and liberation.Since low levels of mealybug resistance are svailable in the cassava germplasm, research efforts have focused on natural enemies. Predstors and parssites of Phenaeoccus manihoti are being evaluated and the Venezuelan Llanos have be en identified as a possible new souree of effective natural enemies. !he most practical control for hornworm is the use of virus, a natural enemy that can be manipulated, maintained and managed at a relatively low costo Use of this virus is being applied by farmers in Colombia snd Brazil. No research on the safe use of Baculovirus has be en conducted at CIAT but it has been used as a biocontrol agent in the United States where very strict food and drug regulations are enforced. lCA (Colombia) is now in the procesa of releasing three cassava varietíes based on CIAT germplasm with resistance to whiteflies. Furthermore. intercropping cassava with cowpea reduces whitefly populations under certain circumstances and may offer an alternative for whitefly management.As an alternative to chemical control of the cassava burrowing bug, the allelopathic properties of crotolaria are under investigatíon. Although intercropping with crotolarla 15 not practical because of the resultíng decrease in cassava yield, the repellant chemicals released by crotolaria roots are being studied.Since the 1984 EPR, sígnificant actívities in bíotechnology have been undertaken in support of the Cassava Programo Plant regeneration has been obtaíned by somatic embryogenesís of eassava clones, and this methodology has been used to demonstrate genetie transformatíon of cassava tissue culture. Work towards transformed plants ís underway. Cassava reproductive biology studies have been initiated to develop in vitro pollen germination, ovule culture and isolated pollen culture as a means of obtalning haploidy in cassava.Isozymes electrophoretic analysis for germplasm characterization and generic studíes have been developed and the technique is currently used to screen the entire cassava collection for duplicates as well as to develop geographic relationships. Moreover, the research network for advanced cassava biotechnology was established in 1988 and key constraints to cassava production and utilization were identified for priority attentlon by the network.The Panel cornmends the Biotechnology Research Unit for its support of the Cassava Program and urges it to continue these activities.Plant physiology research has continued to provide breeding and management wlth baslc understanding of physiological processes. Photosynthetic characteristics of cassava have been closely studied. Cassava leaves were found to posseas relatively high photosynthetic rates achieved at high temperature, high light intensity and high relative humidity. They also showed lower photorespiratory rate, lower 00 2 compensation point, initial fixation of CO? by both C 3 and C 4 cycles and elevated aetivity of the key C enzyme PEP carboxylase. These traits indicate high photosynthetic efficiency of cassava compared to C 3 crops. Such traits enhance the ability of cassava to withstand prolonged drought and increase its water use efficiency. Cassava is as efficient a user of water as C 4 crops like maize, sorghum, millet and sugarcsne.Cassava tolerates a relatively long period of drought once the erop is established. !he explanation rests on the capaeity of cassava leaves to fix atmospheric CO 2 and partially close their stomata and the plant's ability to maintain a predawn leaf water potential. lt al so reaets to changes in atmospheric humidity by closing ics sComaCa in dry air when evaporative demands are high.!he aforemenCioned observations suggest the possíbility of selecting cassava cultivars wíth higher photosynthetic capacity and drought tolerance for use in the semi-arid condiCions of Northeast Brazil or in sub-Saharan Africa.Planting cassava on contour ridges effectívely reduced run off and soíl loss. Also, application of fertilizers, leading to better cassava canopy cover resulted in less so11 eroaion compared to traditional practices. Uslng grass barriers at seasonal intervals and planting cassava with permanent soíl cover in the form of forage legumes have also proven effective in eontrolling soil eroS ion. Several cassavs genotypes with more dense fibrous roots in che surface soil have shown their ability to compete and produce well in association with forage legumes.!he Panel recognizes the excellent upstream sctivity in che physiology section snd eneourages it to msintain such activities.The objective of this section is to develop improved eassava-based cropping systems for representative agroecological areas, particularly of Latin America. On-farm testing of improved technologícal components and development of methodology for on-farm research with national institutions are al so part of this section's responsibilities.The cropping system section has established a network of cassava researchers in the North Cosst of Colombia to plan and coordinate field rasearch and to discuss more specific topics such as cassava seed production by farmers snd the coordination with lCA and ClAT's Agroecological Studies Unit. Similar groups of scientists conduct cropping systems research in Panama, Ecuador and Paraguay and a group of researchjextension personnel will soon implement their first on-farro trial with cassava in Northeast Brazil.!he on-farro testing of newly released varieties in assoeiation with other crops and the tasting of available technology to seed control, seed protection and seed selection are receiving spectal attention. lntercropping studíes show that improved maize varieties not on1y outyie1d the traditional variety but al so allow the cassava intercrop to yield more.Tbe utílization section concentra tes its work on storage of fresh roots for human consumption and small-scale drying for the production of cassava flour as a human food and cassava meal for animal faad. Product and procass development follows a three stage process: research, pilot plant testing, and commercial introduction of the technology in development projacts.Since the 1984 EPR, the technology for cassava root storage has been refined to yiald a new method that is eaaier, faster snd simpler to carry out, uses less water and less fungicide, and thereby reduces costs.ClAT, in collaboration with engineers from the University of Valle, has improved the capacity of the chipping machine from 3-4 tons¡hr to 10 tons¡hr. A pedal operated cassava chipper has been developed that can chip 400 kg¡hr when operated by two people taking ID-minute turns. lt costs US $235, of which 60% ls the cost of materials. Tbe section has been looking into development of simple artificial drying techniques and is collaborating with lCA and the National Agrarian University, to produce feed concentrates with cassava as the principal source of energy.In a joint project with the University of Valle, a small seale process for the production of eassava flour (1 ton/day) has been developed. Tbe teehnology is beíng tested under real conditions in a pilot plant established in the north coast of Colombia in cooperatíon with the Colombian lntegrated Rural Development Fund and a farmers' cooperative.Studíes of the potential of cassava, as recommended by the 1984 EPR, have been conducted in several countries of Latín America and Asia and are under way for Africa. Tbe findings eonfirm the importance of cassava as souree of food and íneome for the less privileged in the tropíes. Moreover, related studies have shown that cassaVa can compete in a multiplicity of markets with other basie starch sourees if there are no price distortions.A workshop sponsored by ClAT, CIP and lITA in September 1988 in Colombia discussed possible ways of improving the diagnostic capabilities for roots and tubers production systems.Tbe section works closely with the utilization section on the development of cassava flour as a partial substitute for wheat flour in bakery products. An 85% wheat-15% cassava mix (or composite flour) has be en produced in Colombia at a cost of $83 (1988 prices) a kilo, which i5 profitable up to a 50% margin between the cassava producer and the wheat milI. An \"at home use test\" (consumer acceptability trial) indicated that consumers will purchase composite flour bread if the price and quality of the product are maintained.In supporr of the integrated cassava projects, studies Were conducted to determine the economic profiles and cost structures of wheat flour milIs as well as Bogots's bakeries; to assess current outlets for fresh cassava/flour in Ecuador and the current usage of cassava in farmer households in Paraguay; and to identify changes in cultivated cassava area in Ecuador and Colombia. A monitoring system has also been designed for use in the integrated pilot projects to provide informatíon on the distribution of beneflts and the adoption of technology.CIAT has been playing a significant role in the establishment of national programa in eassava in several developing countries.The activities of the CIAT regional program in Asia, which ía based in Thailand, are centered around breeding and agronomy. Its objectives are to facilitate exchange of germplasm between CIAT headquarters and Aslan national programa ~d among national programs and to strengthen national program capabili,ies in varietal evaluation and selection. In agronomy, the accent is on the setting up of collaborative research projects to tackle problems of eros ion control and maintenance of 5011 fertility.In Latin Amaríca CIAT maintaíns close línks wíth national cassava programs through teehnical cooperation and training of researeh and extension personnel. CIAT is particularly active in helping national programs set up integrated cassava production, processing and marketing pilot projeets. These projects are underway in Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Brazil. In Panama, Colombía and Ecuador they have led to the stablishment of cassava drying industries on a commercial scale.The Cassava Program's effores in Africa are channeled through lITA. Since the 1984 EPR, the extent of eooperation between CIAT and lITA has grown substantially.A liaison scientist (plant physiologist/breeder) who will be involved also in testing improved germplasm in se1ected 1ocations in Afriea has been posted to lITA. A Brazl11an projeet funded by CIAT in the northeast will develop improved cassava germplasm for the semi-arid sub-Saharan Afriea via lITA. CIAT has received 17 hybrids with resistance to mosaie and has sent to lITA 15,205 seeds of elite materíals with mite resistance. Crosses combining mosaie and mi te resistanee were begun in 1988. CIAT has been sending lITA the most promising species of natural enemies of mealybugs for mass rearing and liberation.The collaboratlve study of eassava in aub-Saharan Afriea, belng exeeuted by lITA with the sssiatance of CIAT and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, atarted in September 1988 through a meeting in which experts snd resource persons were invited to prepare detalla.The Panel commends CIAT and lITA for this significant expansion of cooperation and encourages its continuance.Problem areas in the Cassava Program have been prioritized for the most part on secondary data supplied by national programs or obtained by CIAT staff. This is understandable because incidence and damage, psrtieu1ar1y of disesses and pests, vary greatly due to seasons, years, snd loeations. More objective data on the constraints affeeting cassava production could further sharpen CIAT's program foeus. The Panel urges that joint efforts be mounted to initiate this activity in the major growing areas.Good collaborative research exists with various universities and advanced research institutions in both developed and developing countriea. The Panel partlcularly commends the Cassava Program for increasing these linkages with basle research institutes that have a comparative advantage in methodology that make the partnership cost-effective for CIAT.There are 12 senior staff in essential positions in the Cassava Program: a leader (vacant), one entomologist, a utilization specialtst, a physiologist, two plant breeders (one assigned at headquarters and the other stationed in Thailand), a soíl scientist/agronomist stationed in Thai1and, a plant patho10gist, an agronomist and a physiologist/plant breeder stationed at lITA to act as liaison between CIAT and lITA, an economist (vacant), and an agronomistfbreeder to be stationed in Brazil (vacant). In addition there are three senior research fellows: an anthropologist stationed in Ecuador, a utilization specialist and a caSSaVa specialist stationed in Brazil; post-doctoral fellows in entomology and in plant braeding, and a visiting food technologist. The Program i5 supported by 8 associates, 22 assistants and an administrative assistant.The Program has adequate labaratories and greenhouse facilities at CIAT headquarters, a house at Pivijay on the north caast of Colombia, snd field facilities as well aS on-farm sites that caver five of the six edaphoclimatie zones. Support services also are available at al1 stations. The inauguration of a new faci1ity for caSsava photosynthesis work has significantly increased the level of this activity, particu1arly in the physialogy section.The Program has a working budget of US $3,239,000 far 1989.The Cassava Program has emphasized the establishment, identification, and characterization of a world germp1asm co11ection mainta!ned iD vivo and iD ~, virus indexed, and avai1ab1e for safe internationa1 distribution ta national programs. The bank has been especially successful in broadening the germp1asm base in Asia and Africa. Materials to1erant to African mosaic have been introduced to Latin America for the first time using sophisticated techniques to ensure that they are virus free. The first hybrids from these eros ses have been sent to Africa for testing. In the past five years 17 new varieties based on CIAT germplasm have be en released or are in final stages of pre-release in eight countries. To date al1 improved germplasms released have been eva1uated under pest and d!sease pressure in marginal areas (i.e. low P and drought prone) and al so under favoured environments.The Program has developed system packages of recommendations for soil conservation and fertility maintenance, production of quality plantíng material, cultural practicas for insect and disease control and planting patterns. Moreover, its research activities in various disciplines have contributed immensely in the identification of problems and in finding suitable solutions.The technology for fresh cassava root storage has been refined and is now in commercial use on a small scale in Colombia. The cassava drying industries for animal feed have already taken off in Mexico, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador and are being piloted in Paraguay, Brazil and Cuba.The Cassava Program's involvement in the training of more than 400 scientists, extension agents, university professors, etc., has resulted in the strengthening of existing or the formation of new cassava programs.Alchough the new goal of the Program does not differ substantially from the long-term plan as expressed in \"CIAT in the 1980s\", the new plan gives the following strategic objectives:(1)\"Augment and characterize the Manihot germplasm collection for more effective utilization.(2) Develop and make available production systems for sustainable and ímproved cassava production in different agro-ecosystems.(3) Improve the quality of cassava products for human consumption and animal feed. (4)Facilitate the movement and adoption of new production and post-harvest technologies to stabí1ize and increase the production of hígh quality roots and leaves.(5) Strengthen and improve research and technology transfer capabilities of national research snd development.\"!hese new strategies will call for some change in resourCe allocatlon. Activity in crop improvement 15 expected to increase with growing demand from national programs for new elite germplasm and populations for specific ecosystems, whereas collection and characterization of the manihot germplasm will decrease as work on this is completed. Projects in integrated activities and cultural practices will move toward national programs over the decade. Research on true sead as a propagation material will be given emphasis because of its promising potential. Crop management research with national programa will foeua on the complete cropping systems, including intercropplng, biologlcal control, plant resistance, other pest management, and true and asexual production. Strong emphasis will continue on soil conservation and fertility maintenance research with national programs. Utilization and processing will see a shift toward product development on flour and starch for human consumption and research on root and leaf quality. Special attention will be given to Afriea because of the opportunities cassava offers there. Vigorous regional programs and the placement of a CIAT liaison officar at lITA are creating a favourable climate for the kind of studies of germplasm tolerance to stresses that will be needed. Joint research activities with strong country programs are being planned.!he Panel recognizes the outstanding team work of the Cassava Programo Togethar they have successfully generated a considerable body of knowledge where ltttle was known before. !his knowledge has been effectively used in developing improved germplasm, better production technology and improved utilization of cassava by national programs. !he commercial growing of improved materíals developed collaboratively between CIAr and national programs, and the rapid expansion of the cassava drying industries in several countries particularly in Latin America, are opening new markets. !he Panel supports the proposed Cassava Program strategies expressed in \"CIAT in the 1990s\".Rice Program!he CIAT Rice Program traces back to the 19508, when the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture snd the Rockefeller Foundation undertook a collaborative rice-breeding effort with the objective of solving the b21! blanca (white leaf) virus problem. Eventually, the Program evolved to emphasize breeding in order ta bring the Creen Revolution in rice to Latin America, with gpecial attention to irrigated environments. Today's Rice Program focuses on Central and South America and the Caribbean, with che necessary adjustments to deal with a broader range of ecosystems and issues. Breeding variecies tolerant for acid and high aluminum content soils are now included among the major objectives. Having a regional mandate, rice is the smallest of the Center's commodity programs but it takes advantage of the great amount of research resources available froro other Centers with global (IRRI) and regional mandates (WARDA, lITA and IRAT/CIRAD). Emphasis continues to be on germplasm development, but integrated crop roanagement and socio-economics were recently incorporated into the programo Rice 18 an extremely lmportant food in a region that faces an annual defieit of 1.2 milIian MT. Annual per capita consumption averages about 30 kg and ranges from less than 5 kg in Guatemala to over 60 kg in Panama. Demand has grown in the last 20 years at an annual rate of abaut 3.5X. lf this trend continues, by the year 2000 production wi11 have to near1y double. corresponding ta an increase from the current 17 million tons to over 30 millian. The Rice Program's mission has been defined as:\"to contribute to the improvement of the nutritional and economic we11-being of rice growers and consumers in Latin America and the Caribbean by supporting NARDS effarts to increase rice production and productivity through the development, dissemination and implementation of appropríate technology and informatíon\".Rice is grown in a wide range of environments in Latín America: tropical lowlands, acid soil savannas, Andean valleys, eoastal deserts and temperate climates. The Rice Prograro has recognized three broad ecosystems for rice production: (1) 10w1and, (2) mechanized upIand and (3) traditional upland.The lowland system (irrigated. rainfed 10w1and and poor1y drained valley bottoms) ls by far the most productive, accounting for about 60X of the harvest. yet oceupying only 33% of the area. The mechanized upIand systems cover over 4 millton ha of primarily saVanna and cerrado environments but produce on1y 26% of the harvest. Traditional upland farming systems are particularly important in Brazil and on a smaller scale in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Panama. The distribution and environmental eharacterizatlon of the different systems are poorly understood for the regíon as a whole. This should be solved by the callaborative projects under way with CIAT's Agroecological Studies Unit (AESU) aimed at characterizing and mappíng the rice production systems.The region may also be subdivided into four geopolítical zones: Central America and Mexico, the Caribbean. Tropical South America, and Temperate South America.Most of the rices grown on irrigated and favoured upland are modern semidwarfs. Improved tall varietíes are commonly grown in the meehanized upland area, and unimproved traditional tall materials predomina te in traditional upland systems. Yields for the upland materials average only around 1 t/ha. These varietles are reasonably wel1 adapted to coromon soll stresses such as low pH and high aluminum saturatíon, but do not respond to inputs and tend to be susceptible to lodging and to the principal biotlc stresses. It can be seen that there ls graat need for improvement of upland systems ,of cultivation. But, even for lowland and favoured upland the genetic basia of improved varieties 15 rather narrow and an effort to widen it is highly desirable. Also there la a great need for improved crop management so that modern varieties can express their yield potential and be produced at lower costo Important in this regard is research on IPM (Integrated Pest Management).CIAT's intensive rice program initia11y emphasized breeding for more favourable environments. Recent1y greater attention has been directed to more harsh environments, especially the acid soi1s of the tropical Savannas and cerrados. The Program undertakes intensive research in its experimental stations, coordinates networks, offers tralnlng courses, and supports regional meetings, workshops and conferences. Rice 15 plagued by a number of pests, weeds and diseases, and farmers have been continuously using greater amounts of agrochemicals. CIAT ls strongly dedicated to developing an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program to deal wlth the resulting environmental, toxicological and economic concerns by reducing the level of pesticides farmera must use to control pests, weeds and diseases. Other current activities of the program are also directed by a sustainability perspective and oriented to the appropriate and efficient use of inputs.CIAT maintains good interaction with scientists from NARS, lncludlng reciprocal field visits, which contributes to improved selection of materials sulted to the different environments.CIAT also collaborates with NARS within the International Rice Testing Program (IRTP), which provides advanced lines in nurseries and informs developing countries of the latest rice research.The Experiment Station of Santa Rosa (Villavicencio), located in the Llanos of Colombia, i5 a good place for selecting for reslstance, since practically all of Latin America's major rice diseases, especially bIast, are found there. Similar \"hot spot\" sites have been identified and used in Peru, Panams snd Guatemala. Most countries of the region have released improved varieties developed through breeding activities based on CIAT germplasm.Extensive ríce crossings are continuously made, yielding early generatíon breedíng línes (F 1 , F 2 and F 3 ) that are routínely sent to stronger NARDS. The genetic base of the tropical irrlgated germplasm is now being broadened through the incorporation of African and Asian germplasm.The Program carries on an increasing amount of anther culture in Fl and F 2 generatíons seeklng to speed up the process of obtaining homozygous lines. On the whole, the number of plants regenerated la rather low for indica tropical irrigated types (about 10 plants per cross), which limits the possibility of genetie recombination. For upland types and japonica grown in areas which permit only one generation advance per year, the response is substantially greater. Somaclonal variation study yielded 325 somaclones from Oryzica-2. Although preliminary results showed some promise, the technique ls considered to offer more limited possibilities than a few years ago.A better characterization of the rice-growing environments of the region 15 underway in collaboratlon with the AESU (Agroecological Studies Unit).Rotation systems involving rice and pastures (legume and grass) are being evaluated for the acid soil savanna regiona of Colombia in collaboration with the Tropical Pastures Programo Socioeconomic studiea to diagnose rice production constraints have been conducted in collaboration with NARS for several countries (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Central America, Venezuela and Brazil).A survey of the human resources and activities of all national rice programs was conducted in 1988, which provided a clearer picture of the strengths and weaknesses of these nationel programs pertners.The Program is well assisted by qualified staff scientists who are seriously involved and dedicated to solving the problema snd improving the production of rice in Latin America.At headquarters the Program ls staffed by one program leader (a pathologiat), two breeders, one pathologist, one agronomist, one entomologist involved in IPM, one economist and one liaison scientist from IRRI dedicated to IRTP (International Rice Testing Program).At the Sta. Rosa Experimental Station (Villavicencio), there i5 One breeder for tropical irrigated rice and for population improvement and One post-doctoral fellow working as agronomist for the integrated rice-pasture management.For the Caribbean Rice Improvement Network, the Program maintains one agronomist-breeder and one agronomiat engineer for small machinery development and utilization in the Dominican Republic, and One agronomist in Haiti.It la felt that the addition of one physiologist especially to carry out studies to understand root development in the harsh upland conditions is desirable.The Rice Program is well supplied with facilities and equipment to carry out all activities in a satisfactory way. Its total budget is US $1.912 million.One of the most significant achievements of the Program is tts close relationship with NARS that contributes to a substantial strengthening of those partners. Recent accomplishments indicate that some NARS are becoming increasingly self-sufficient in applied rice breeding. For instanee in 1987, from a total of 24 new varietles released in Latin America, 12 were che result of crosses made by national programs. CIAT has helped sorne programs characterize their germplasm banks and working collections snd has encouraged them to make cheir own crosses.Twelve of the national programs, representing 90% of the Latin American rice-growing area, generated their own crosses during the period 1983-87 by making an average of 1,900 eros ses per year, a figure higher than that of GlAT. Although this indicates a substantial amount of breeding work, the number of improved varietie8 that resulted 18 comparatively small; this issue that should be addressed by GlAT.Same other research achievements are also worth mentionlng:Characterizatlon of the rice blast fungus population at Sta. Rosa has revealed its extreme pathogenic variability rather than a few \"super races tlClAT breeding lines are now characterized for a large number of important agronomic and economic traits such as disease and insect reaction, tolerance to edaphoclimatic stresses, and grain quality.A semi-contrallad field screening method developed in PaImira for che hoja blanca virus permits the evaluation of thousands breeding lines per season.Thirty-one rice varieties for irrigated and favoured upland conditions based on CIAT-developed germplasm have be en released in 11 countries.The savanna breading project, based on traditional and improved African and Brazilian material, has produced advanced lines with desired tralts that are tolerant to acid s011s with aluminum saturation levels above 80%.Genetic mediation of che ability of the Sogatodes oryzicola plant hopper to support replication and therefore transmit tha rice ~ blanca virus has been determined, togethar with the mechanisms of tolerance and antibiosis against that pesto A simpler and cheaper crossing method, based on a technique originally developed by GNPAF and lRAT scientists, has been adapted for use by nacional programs to increase their effectiveness in making and axploring the potentials of their own crosses.GIAT has succeeded in using, very successfully, anther techniques; it has be en a joint activity between the Program and the BRU. Teating and releaaing neW varieties is a lengthy process, in many cases taking Over a decade. CIAT 15 looking for ways to expedite the procesa; expansion of anther culture in national programs would be one of these. The process i5 also being speeded through closer cooperation among research, extension programs and the development process. Early on-farm testing, cooperation with the seed industry, and early multiplication of basic and foundation seed of promising lines are accelerating the process. For example, Oryzica Llanos 4 and Oryzica Llanos S, obtained from lines assessed from crosses made ln early 1984, Were in farmers' fields in 1989.CIAT ls facing the challenge to develop a rice production system with long-term stabillty. To achieve this goal CIAT is planning to integra te classlcal areas of research (germplasm development and management of diseases, pests and weeds) with others such as crop rotation, institutional lssuas and marketing.Since the germplasm base of improved varieties for the region ls rather narrow, an affort will be mada to diversify the genetic basis of lowland germplasm by incorporating African and Asian materials in combinatíon vlth the CIAT acid soil upland breeding population.A promising area iJr germplasm enhancement should be the development of breeding methodologies for population improvement. The use of recurrent selection in heterogeneous materíals, after the incorporatíon of the male sterile characteristic or vith the use of hand crossing, should be successful and is an area where CIAT has comparative advantage. Research aimed at increasing the frequency nf desirable genes, llnked to the pedigree methodology, should provide better parents of broader genetlc basis to be used more effectively by NARS.The link with the Tropical Pasture Program ls balng enhanced to deveIop rotations in whích rice viII serve as an economic means to establish improved pastures.Over the coming decade the Rice Program should reinforce its efforts to develop into a canter of informatlon on rice research and development of relevance to the regian. This will be done in conjunction vith IRRI.In the are a nf varietal improvement CIAT will give much more emphasis to breeding for the high rainfall upland system, where opportunities for substantial improvement are greatest. In order to accomplish the desired goal for soils that are quite variable snd characterlzed by high acidity snd aluminum content, a better understanding of root physiology ls badly needed.In replicated yield trials is often rather high, especially under the adverse conditions of the acid upland soils, an effort should be made to better understand the factors responsible and develop appropriate experimental techniques.To effectively accomplish these shifts CIAT plans to phase out many activities that should be undertaken by NARS. This should be carefully dssessed, since there has been great variability among as well as within NARS along che years. In any case, a more explicit definitíon of the activities where more reliance i5 to be placed on NARS ls advisable.The Panel is pleased to acknowledge the effectiveness of the activitles carried out by the Rice Program, which have led to significant contributions for rice lmprovement in the region.Considering the great number of crosses that are being made, especially by national programs, and the limited number of lmproved cultivars that have resulted, CIAT should intensify its effort to identify genatic materials that might have greater potential for improvement, siming st the same time st increasing the germplasm base of the breeding programs. Some consideration should also be given to the question of whether the eros ses have be en adequately exploited in order to yield new varieties.Many national programs continue to benefit from the research developed at CIAT. CIAT must al so be commended for its excellent comprehensive studies of the rice situation in countries of the region, most recently in Venezuela and Ecuador. This klnd of study should be expanded in other countries to try to minimize critical constraints by addressing those problema in training courses.The Panel notes impressive progress in breeding activities undertaken in collaboration with national programe. Improved cultivars derived from CIAT material s have been released and are being widely grown by farmers in most countries of the region.The Panel recornmends that the Rice Program pursue more actively the use of populatlon improvement methodologies like recurrent selection.Since the yleld trisls have frequently shown rather poor statistical precision, the Panel recornmends that the Rice Program make a serious effort to explore the reasons.Ibe Tropical Pastures ProgramMeat and milk continue to provide an important part of the diet of the people of tropical Latin America. Their share of the food budget exceeds 20% even amongst the poorest quintile, and relative consumption by the poorer groups increases sharply with rising incorne. Not surprls1ngly these commodities usually are given a high priority in the formulation of national food policíes.In the last decade low domestic prices for feed grains, coupled with technlcal change in poultry production, stimulated a large increase ln poultry output while•beef and milk production falled to keep pace with popu1ation growth. Net imports of milk powder doubled to about 4 million tons annua11y and beef prices rose. Projections of the food production deficits expected in tropical Latin America (Tren4s in CIA! Commodities, 1989) suggest a change from the present small surplus of beef to a decreasing self-sufficiency with imports of 360,000 MT in the year 2000. A doubling of the present deficit in milk output, from 4.2 MT to almost 9 MT (about 21% of production), is also anticipated.Beef and mi1k production have increased in the last decade approximate 1.3% annua11y, roughly 1% below the rate of increase in human numbers. Previously almost all the production increase had come from an expansion in stock numbers, but in the last decade productivity increases per animal have become evident, particularly in milk production (Trends in CIA! Commodities, 1989). The potential for further increases in productivity per animal as well as per unit of land area are very large; the work of CIAT and others indicates that with improved pastures in the tropical savannas a ten-fald increase in autput per hectare ls possible. A five-fald increase could be achieved by replacing degraded grasslands in the rain forest with improved pastures.Successive statements of the goal, strategy and priorities of the pasture work at CIAT indicate a progressive evolution and clarification of the program. The Beef Production Systems Program, initiated in 1969, sought to increase cattle productivity in the 10w1and tropics through a combination of animal health, herd management and mineral nutrition measures. A 1976 reorganization of this Program emphasized the improvement of tropical pastures as the means of achieving the beef production objective. The first long-terro plan, •CIAT in the 1980s•, added the tasks of: (1) promoting the economical1y snd ecologically sound expansion of the agricultural frontier, and(2) releasing more fertile lands (from livestock grazing) for expanded crop production.The conjunction of the increased research experience in tropical 1ivestock and pasture development, the recammendations of the last EPR, and increasing concern with environmental tssues now leads the TPP to a further modificatlon of these earlier statements. The baslc objective of increasing 1ivestock output remains unehanged but the new strategie plan, •CIAT tn the 1990s•, notes the goal of the TPP is:•To contribute to the overall eeonomic growth and social we1fare of both rural and urban populations in the tropics by increasing their access to beef and milk products through increases in the production of sustainable, pasture-based production systems.\"The irnmediate objectives of the Program are now stated as: (1) \"Document the soundness and cornmercial feasibility of using grass-legume pastures.(2) Enhance the rapacity of improved pastures in maintaining or recovering soil quality of pasture-based production systems on marginal lands.(3) Develop sustainable pasture-based production systems on marginal lands.(4) Strengthen national capabilities in the context of supply and demand for legume-based pasture technologies within the region.\"Simply stated, the aim of CIAT's Pastures Program is to improve beef and milk production by means of improved grass/legume pastures. Pasture improvement in tropical acid soils necessitates the use of a wide range of legume and pasture species, many of them new to agriculture and with biological characteristics that are quite unknown. These plants must be collected from the wild, screened for adaptation and useful attributes, manipulated genetically to modify performance, and managed and fertilized in a manner compatible with both persistence and high productivity. The difficulties and time requirements of these tasks are large and easily overlooked; they are also complicated by an interaction with changes occurring in other sectors of agriculture.Dver the last decade a significant shift of major cattle populations towards the more marginal areas of Latin America is evident, driven essentially by the intensification of cropping in more densely settled regions. Although CIAT has sought to promote a low cost, low use of fertilizer approach by selecting grass and legume species adapted to the acid and infertile soils of the frontier zones and resistant to pests and pathogens, the costs of pasture improvement are still relatively high in relation to land prices. In years past the choice between expanding the land area in use or intensifying the productivity of existing pastures was a simple one. As land values increase and pasture improvement techniques become more easily and cheaply attained, 31 million ha of the 92 milI ion ha pasture area in the Brazilian cerrado have already been planted to improved grasses. An awareness of the fertility building role of legume-based pastures is also increasing. It is in these circumstances that CIAT expects to overcome the still widespread lack of knowledge amongst farmers that investment in legume-based pastures is a credible option. Attractive rates of return to pasture improvement are now evident, although the adverse cash flow associated with it in its early years remains a significant barrier. The use of cash crops in combination with pasture establishment will further enhance the adoption of new pasture technology.Five themes recur in considering the current workp1an of the TPP:(1) A greater choice of technology and germp1asm i5 now avai1able as a resu1t of ear1ier efforts to identify promising pasture species;(2) Regional pasture networks provide increasing capacity to evaluate and distribute this material and document its commercial viability.(3) National authorities are recognizing the value of improved pastures to protect the natural resource base while increasing the productivity of land already in use.(4) There i5 heightened awareness of the possible impact of biotechnology on the technological efficiency of pasture improvement.(5)Much more co1laborative research with other units in CIAT and elsewhere will be required.ClAT's TPP has a modest staff and budget. Professional staff number 18 positions and T:nge across the biological disciplines; 5 are outposted to the regional centers. The present budget ls US$ 3,653,675. In the next few years TPP plana to reduce current efforts to broaden variability in the germplasm collection in order to provide resources to explore promising opportunities in pasture-crop integration, in silvo-pastoral systems and in nutrient cycling through soils-plants-animals. One \"essential\" additional staff position is requested to strengthen work on production systems in the isohyperthermic saVannas and the humid tropics, snd two \"desirable\" posts are proposad to support the expansion of work in Afrlca and in Southeast Asia. lmprovements in animal production in tropical Latin America resulting from ClAT's pasture work are still modest; lt could not be otherwise given the time scale required for such change. But the signs of change are there. For the first time an improvement in animal productivlty underpins the statistics availab1e. Large areas (500,000 ha) of the continent have been sown with Andropogon gayanus, one of the improved grasses introduced by CIAT, and Stylosapthes capitata is now being widely planted in the Llanos. Early estimates of the benefit:cost ratio of CIAT's pasture research suggest a 33:1 response. More importantly, a continued research effort into pasture improvement prevides the only feasible approach to ímproving the feed base for Latín American's urgently-needed increase in livestock production without decimating the forest resources of the region.The CIAT collection of tropical grasses and legumes now numbers about 23,000, amongst which herbaceous pastura legumes from acid savanna soi1s predominate, including a small number of shrub legumes. !he 1egume collection accounts for about 831 of the inventory.!he 10S5 of the availability of gene tic diversity in uncollected plants, arising from a rapid intensification of agriculture, 18 an inereasing worry; CIAT collection teams, when making repeat visits to previous eollection sites, note the reduced prevalence of target spacies. Quite apart from its immediate utility to pasture improvement, the CIAT germplasm collection provides some safeguard against the genetic eros ion now evident in wild populations.Duplication of similar accessions within the collection enlarges storage and screening costs. Maximizing genetic variability in smaller colleetions is now becoming more practical via \"genetic fingerprinting\". The Panel encourages CIAT to continue to support germplasm diversification, screening and culling initiatives.CIAT's palicy af providing ready access to germplasm resources ensures widespread availability of this material. To date, internal quarantine and disease control practices have been seen as giving sufficient reassurance about the potential danger of spread of pathogens by the wide distribution of pasture germplasm. Nonetheless, this remains an area of concem, and the Panel encourages CIA! to pursue its current efforts to eliminate the possibility of the transmission of viral and other pathogens via seed distribution.The strengthening of ongoing work to expand the \"in vitro tissue culture\" storage of germplasm is also warranted. These techniques facilitate: (1) the conservation of species that form little or no true seed;(2) a means of more rapidly propagating species with late sexual maturity;(3) the distribution of germplasm free of pathogens;(4) the growing to maturity, via embryo-rescue or protoplast fusion, of crosses of plants that would not otherwise produce viable progeny.(5) the induction of new genetic variability.Insect, fungal and viral problems are particularly severe in the sub-humid and humid tropics. CIAT has chosen to tackle these constralnts primarl1y through the selection of reslstant or resillent accessions. They have on staff a pathologist, entomologist, microbiologist and a plant breeder; they also have access to the services of the CIAT Virology Research Unit. TPP adaptation studies are increasingly oriented to problems associated with the optimizatíon of nutrient cycling and to nitrogen fixation and phosphorus uptake by legumes. These topies are also being pursued by encouraging their study at research instltutes elsewhere.!he TPP continues to base its evaluation of accessions under conditions of very limited 5011 amelioration. Its scientists seek to assemble pastures adapted to limited soil nutrients and tolerant to low pH and high Al 1evels. Results from the increasing work on crop rotations that make use of improved pastures with 1egumes are documenting the nature of the positive changes occurring in soi1 fertilíty as a consequence of pasture improvement. !he large increase in yields of upland rice production following improved pastures in the Llanos of Colombia provides practical testimony to this soil fertility effect.Evaluation of new accessions to the Pastures Program fol1ows a stepwise procedure in which CIAT ls seeking a declining role at che farm testing stage. Evaluacion proceeds from initial row evaluation, chrough small plot cutting and grazing trials, to farm paddock experiments. To an increasing degree national research institutlons, particular in Colombia (lCA) and in Brazil (EMBRAPA) , are assuming responsibilicy for evaluation and performance studies at the farm leve1. CIAT is now planning to explore che ecologiea1 reasons for changes in planc populations to seek a better understanding of soil-p1ant-management interactions and of che factors contributing to the differences observed in the nutritive va1ue of different accessions.The supply of an adequate quantity of seed from the increasing number of prornising accessions emerging from the TPP is a critical bottleneck in achieving widespread impact of an improved species. Seed production begins with inicial multiplication of che very few seeds associated with a new accession. !his enables field screening and applied research on the reproduction and harvesting of the aecession. Subsequent work is required to find ways to promote the commercial produetion of chat seed. Responsibility for different aspects of seed produetion are shared with the CIAT Seed Unit, as are components of tralning in seed production. !he Panel endorses che current seed production efforts of the TPP and encourages attempts to seek additional special funding to support an expansion of this work.Pasture training by CIAT ls carrled out in three maln ways: (i) training at headquarters, (ii) training in CIAT regional eenters (iii) training assistance to natlonal institutions. In the perlod 1980-1988, 420 professionals have received 2,000 man-monchs of specialized training in pasture agronomy, in the assessment nf pasture quality, in soil-plant nutrition and in seed production. !he regional centars of the TPP in Costa Rica, Brazil and Peru enable an increased decentralization of pasture research craining and facllitate greater assistance to national trainlng programs. In 1989 CIAT plans a special effort to encourage the further training of university leeturers in pasture agronomy. An agressive program of adding to the pool of NARDS seientists through M.Se. and Ph.D. training ls also envisioned. The Panel strongly supports the multi-faeeted approaeh to pastures training taken by the TPP.Four regional RIEPT sub-networks (Central Ameriea, Llanos, Humid Tropies and Cerrado) are now in operation. Others in West Africa and Southeast Asia are in the planning phase. Selected aecessions of germplasm of likely utility to each network are provided by CIAT and subjeeted to a series of evaluation trials at diverse sites within eaeh reglon. The flrst trials were essentially eoncerned with viability and seasonal production. Seleeted material is now moving into farm grazing trials using both beef and milk produetion to a55ess pasture improvement. RIEPT has an advisory committee made up of national pasture researeh leaders. CIAT publishes, in an attraetive quarterly journaI (Pasturas Tropicales), che results of network trials along with current research informatíon from its own research as well as other sources. Through these networks the TPP is clearly reaching field scientists in national programs and enjoys particularly productive relationships with narional pasture and livestock organizations. These networks are proving to be a most valuable means of strengthening lnformation flows, technical training and pasture improvement. Linkages of the TPP to other international groups such as CSIRO (Australia) and university groups in North Ameriea are close, but constrained in effectiveness by the funds and time available to cultivate tham.The possible reduction of efforts to seek wider germplasm variability is a cause of concern to the Panel, because the loss of wild plants of potential importance to pasture improvement i5 now widespread. To the extent the proposed strengthening of the central germplasm unit of CIAT (GRU) compensates for a reduction in TPP collection activities, this concern is mitigated, but if the GRU ls unable to sustain this work TPP faces a dilemma: will it be necessary to consider modest reductions in the effort to seek a better understanding of the pasture complex in order to ensure that unique germplasm is collected and stored before it is lost forever? There i5 no easy answer that the Panel seeks to recommend, but it does wish to highlight this difficult issue. lt 18 al so evldent that viral infection is present in many pasture legumes. Ensuring freedom from infectlon in germplasm available for distribution ls of highest priority, snd present linksges between the CIA! Virology Research Unie and TPP deserve every support.A similar dilernma occurs in regard to the support to be given to attempts to use bioteehnology ta resolve speeific pasture problems. The likely impact of bioteehnology on eIAT's pasture work ls promising, particularly as Stylosanthes is most amensble to tissue snd protoplast culture, but practical results remain to be demonstrated. To what extent should CIAT lnvest scaree resourees in the biotechnology potential? The Panel believes biotechnology i5 likely to have an important impact on certain aspects oi plant improvement that are oi great importance to the TPP, and believes CIAT will need to make a continuing judicious investment in it.The work oi the TPP has been characterized by ilexibility as needs and opportunities change. To an increasing degree its work involves close collaboration with other programa and units and its success increasingly depends on the strength and viability oi this collaboration.The staii oi TPP are clearly a productive, hardworking snd cooperative group, and they are strongly motivated, well trained and aware of the large responsibility they carry to produce early practical results. Their output could be enhanced if further funds for upstream training and collaborative research (particularly in certain aspects of biotechnology), and a few items of relatively expensiva but potentially very useful analytical equipment were available. The publication record of TPP scientists is reasonable. More importantly, they are a stable group whose work ls highly respected by the staif of national programs. The overall conclusion of the Panel is that the TPP continues to make good progress and well justifies the continued support of the CGlAR.The Panel endorses the proposed work plan oi the Tropical Pastures Programo It also urges particular attention to the iollowing points:The pasture improvement efforts oi CIAT are of particular importance to the protection of rain forast and to minimizing land degradatíon in fragile areas. Forest protection would be enhanced by encouraging a wider understanding oi the progress now possible through tropical pasture improvement. Gurrent work at CIAT on the integration oi crops, pastures, livestock and agroforestry provides a critical component of improved systems of sustainable land use. The Panel encourages CIAT to pursue this work.The particularly iragile lands of tropical Latin America are found principally in areas of piedmont and at higher altitudes. lt seems likely that the present range of CIAT pasture material could be used at higher elevations than are presentIy accepted as the target area; an attempt to extend the range of their present use is desirable.CIAT has assembled an invaluable collection oi pasture material and in so doing has developed particular skills in locating, assembling, documenting and screening the pasture plant resources of the world. The Panel considers it is essential that these efforts are continued through the joint afforts of the GRU and TPP.While biotechnology has yet to make an important impact on agricultural output, the potential it ofiers in many aspects of CIAT's work on grasses and legumes warrants an increasing involvement in this area.Understanding the physiological processes which underlie successful management of pasture production systems i5 critical to long-term improvement. It is an increasingly important part of the TPP work plan.The major task now is to convlnce Latln American farmers and their governments that land improvement through legume based pastures ls already possible, thereby building political support for the broader and longer-terro effort required. Germplasm conservatíon ls receiving increasing attention in recent years because of the increaslng risk of genetlc eros ion, combined with an increased demand for wider germplasm diversity in international and national breeding programs in both developed and developing countries. The Germplasm Resources Unit (GRU) was created at CIAT in 1976. Initially the work was related mainly to the Bean Program, taking care of the large Phaseolus collection. Gradually the GRU took responsibillty also for tropical pasture germplasm and cassava. Ihis move will be consolidated wíth the availability of the new facilities under construction. The primary goal of the eRU is Co ensure conservation and dístribution of germplasm of the three commodities for which CIAT 18 respons1ble. lt embraces both the cultivated and wild relatives of domesticated specíes of Phaseolus vulgaris and Maníhot esculenta, as well as selected genera of tropical pastures.In order to achieve its objectives, the eRU's actívities are basically similar to most of the germplasm banks, and refer to the followíng:(1)Assembly of a germplasm collection through specific collecting missions and by incorporating accessions from existing national collections and also by taking the advance selected mataríals produced by breeding programs, as ls the case of beans.(2) Documentatíon on che origin, morphological and agronomic characteriscics of the accessions.(3) Conservation of the samples of seeds undar appropríare conditions, i.e., low temperature and low seed moisture content, plus the tight packing, and maíntenance of the Manihot collectíon in in vitro shoor tip cultures. For security reasons, there i5 alwaY5 an effort to duplicate the accessions to be storad ín other institutíons.(4) Distribution of seed samples and tiasue culture (Manihot) to other programs under request and subject to plant health checks in the CIAT Plant Health Laboratory.(Training members of NARS counterparts in order to qualify tham for the proper germplasm conservatíon and utilizatíon. Thís ia done in collaboration with IBPGR. (6) Research activities related to the application of modern genetic finger-printing toola to help understanding the gene tic structure of the accessions. Other research is plannad to provida a better understanding of the collection, including work in cytogenetics.The GRU maintains a collection of 41,061 aeeessions of Phaseolus germplasm that is the largast of the world, 20,500 aecessions of tropical grass and legumes species and 4,000 accessions of the eultivated species of cassava plus 32 wild species.The GRU has a senior staff level head, and a newly appointed person wi11 cake up the position in October. In addition chere are three associates, one M.Sc. for baans and one B.Sc. each for cassava and pastures, plus one B.Sc. assistant for beans. There are also two M.Sc. assoeiates doing collaborative research on Phaseolus in che CIAT-University of Gembloux projeet, one Ph.D. IBPGR liaison seientist plus a further one to be incorporated saon, and one senior research fellow on CIAT-IBPGR studying che wild Phaseolus collection. A newly appointed post-doctoral fellow will soon begin research on the pasture species in the collection. AIso relatad to che GRU, the Plant Health Laboratory has one M.Sc. associate and one B.Sc. assistant, The core budget assígned to the GRU ls US $115,000. In addition, specíal funds are received for the Gembloux and IBPGR activities. Considering the further needs of work on pasture and CaSsava an increased budget will be necessary for the Unit.The world's largest collections of Phaseolus beans, tropical legumes and grasses, and cassava (Manihot) have been aS5embled and are serving as foundations to achieve the goals of the three main commodities CIA! is responsible foro The aboye colleetions are not only an invaluable reservoir of genes but also a back-up so1ution in case of partial or complete 10S5 of national collections. CIAT has already returned original germplasm collections of beans to several countries in the Middle East and Gentral Amerlea that had lost their colleetions. The availabllity of germplasm to national programs is a continuous and dynamic servlce. The Unie has distributed more that 60,000 bean accessions to 64 countríes.The bank has served the purpose of stopping the tramendous genatie eros ion that has been underway for several years in the national bean germplasm eollections, due mainly to a lack of adequate facilities andjor of specialized personnel for a proper management.Variability studies in Latín American collections have be en made using morphology and isoenzymes.The GRU 15 al so involved in an active research program wíth f. lunatus where che entire collection of 2,833 samples are being rejuvenated for seed increase. Activitíes are underway regarding morpho-agronomic evaluatíon, catalogue of accessions, seed-borne BCMV, electrophoretic survey and embryogenesis survey in collaboration with BRU.Studies on f. vulgaris and f. lunatus in Afriea and America, have indicated differential variability between the two areaS' These studies have given guidance and priorities for collecting strategies.Researeh is under way on interspecific hybridizatioll involving ~. caccineus and f. polyanthus as donar parents in arder to introduce desirable traits into ~. vulgaris.Studies comprising gene pools of f. vul~aris fram Mesoamerican and Andean regions disclose sorne cases of genetic incompatibility indicating an incipient spaciation process within che common bean.The GRU 1s supplied w1th facilities and equipment for maintaining che accessions of beans and pastures both for short-and long-term conservation. New facilities are being built (scheduled to be ready by early 1990), that will allow a significant increase in the capacity of the GRU. This will permit the maintenance of 50,000 accessions of beans, 50,000 accessions of pastures and 10,000 samples oi cassava in vitro tis$ue culture. The CIAT-IBPGR in vitro germplasm conservatíon project on cassava has provided the scientific basis for the maintenance oi the ín vitro collection in the new facilities.The GRU will al so give emphasis to identifying duplicates, which will contribute to decreasing the number of samples to be maintained.There is an increasing trend in collecting and evaluating wild Phaseolus. The projects on f. coccineus and~. lunatus are underway with evaluatíon and rejuvenation of seeds. Conservation in of land races of Phaseolus is betng considered seriously by the GRU.The GRU also ís consídering the possibilíty of the establishment of a core collection that would comprise a limited number of accessions that contain an appropriate amount of genetie variability.The strategic plan for the 19905 has strongly suggested a priority for the \"eleaning\" of the germplasm stored in the Unit. This recommendation, although expensive, should be initiated for beans as soon as possible.Gradually, the GRU will take complete responsibility for the management of the germplasm collections of cassava and tropical pastures. This means not only conservation, but also introduction, roultiplication, morphological and genetical character1zation, distribution and data management. All the aboye work in the three comrnodities 1s conducted in close association with the respective commodity programoThe measurement of the available gene tic variability in the three commodities will be a very large task but will provide a necessary background for all the scientists world-wide who are involved in the improvement of those crops.The Panel recognizes the seriousness with which CIAT ls dealing with germplasm conservation and related activities carried out by its CRU. Substantial genetic variability of the three commodities (beans, cassava and tropical pastures) is already available for use in the breeding programa of CIAT as well as of the national programs. Also continued interest is roaintained in increasing the collections.Coad facilities are available for seed storage in cold chambers, both for short-and long-termo To guarantee the security of the germplasm collection, duplicate samples are being sent both to Centro Nacional de Recursos Geneticos (CENARGEN), to Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (EMBRAPA). in Brasilia, Brazil, and to Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Enseñanza (CATIE), in Costa Rica.Ibe GRU counts on the most efficient equipment for seed and in vitro storage, including spare equipment for emergency problems. However, in this regard, the living collection of in vitro cassava tissue culture i5 at risk. lts Care cannot be interrupted.Duplication of the collection would be valuable insurance. The storage of sexual seed, while not identical to the living collection, would reduce the risk of loss of irreplaceable germplasm.The Panel recornmends that the GRU should intensify the effort to have experts decide on a manageable core collection consisting of a limited number of accessions that contain an appropriate amount of genetic variability.Gonsidering the increased activitles necessary for the tropical pastures and cassaVa collections and tts great genetic variability the Panel recommends that CIAT seek resources for adequate staffing for the Unit.As insurance against the possible loss of the living cassava collection maintained in tissue culture, the Panel recommends that CIAT considers duplication of the collection and the maintenance of a collection of sexual CaSsava seeds.CIAT initiated work on tissue culture techniques in the 1970s. Shortly thereafter it became apparent that the progress being achieved in cellular and molecular blology made it deslrable to expand the initial research on tissue culture work into a unit capable of utlllzing other new biological techniques for manipulating the germplasm used at CIAT. Justification for chis approach was also evident in the comparativa paucity of research on cassava, beans and tropical pastures in the major research centers of many countries. The Second EPR of CIAT recommended the establishment of an inter-disciplinary research structure to interact wlth the commodity prograrns in biological research applications. The Biotechnology Research Unit (BRU) of CIAT was established in 1985, and provided CIAT's response to this recommendation.The goal of che Unit, as defined in the CIAT strategic plan ls \"to increase the application oi new methodologies derívad from the t\\€W biology for greater efficiency in plant improvement and to develop means for increased utilizatíon of a wider range of germplasm varíability in the crops and pastura species of crAT's mandáte~.Currently, most efforts in the BRU comprise cell and tissue culture applications, with an increasing emphasis on the use of bíochemical and chromosome fragment markers to assist conventional breedíng practices.The in yitro cassava bank comprises 4,200 clones and 27 wild rnanihot species, making up 90% of the global cassava collection. The cryopreservation of germplasrn, induction of haploids through microspore and anther culture, the electrophoretic analysis of genetic variability and the use of wide hybridization techniques through embryo rescue and protoplast fusion are now in corumon use at CIAT and these technologies are being passed to the commodity programs as they come into routine use.The BRU, like other programs and units, has besn particularly active in developing collaborative research with advanced research institutions elsewhere, especially in respect of seeking a better understanding of plant resistance mechanisms to stress. The direct work of the BRU concentra tes on those problems where traditional research approaches have becn inadequate and where the new biological tools can aid in solving specific commodity problems. This work ls undertaken jointly with the commodity programs and a sense of practical utility pervadas the effort.The staff of the Unit is made up of two essential senior staff posicion, one CIAT-funded and two special project funded post-doc positions, plus research associates and technicians. The budget is $ 406,000 plus $ 115,000 in special funds.In the next five years the network approach of linking research workers in advanced research laboratories to practical problems of cassava, beans, rice and pasture which are susceptible to biotechnological solutions will be consolidated. The utilization of established techniques will be steadily devolved to the CIAT commodity programs, and new technological developments will be incorporated in the work programo An advanced research network is now working on a series of priority problems defined by a cassava workshop at CIAT. A similar exercise is now under way for beans. In the case of rice the BRU links the Rice Program to the Rockefeller Rice Biotechnology Network.The formation of the BRU responds to the needs of CIAT to keep pace with new developments in biological research. It is a productive, efficient Unit, competently staffed and well regarded by the plant breeders at CIAT. It is a growth center in the organization and will be hard pressed to supply the many demands already being made upon it. The Panel commends CIAT for its initiative in establishing this Unit and recommends that even greater efforts be made to find special funds and other resources to allow it to expandoThe establishment of an internal biosafety committee at CIAT is now a necessary adjunct to the expansion of the BRU. The Panel strongly recommends that this committee be established very quickly. It should base its guidelines on those now published for similar committees in Australia, the USA and the OECD countries.The BRU also has the potential to generate technologies with significant cooonercial application. The Panel encourages CIAT to explore these opportunities within the guidelines for commercial ventures presently being established by the CCIAR System.The CIAT Virology Research Unit (VRU) was established in 1988. It is associated with but separate from the Biotechnology Unit. The VRU arose out of the increasing need of the commodity programs for specialized and sophisticated assistance in resolving the many virus problems that limit the production of CIAT mandated crops and which inhibit the transfer of germplasm across national boundaries. The VRU now consists of a well equipped general virology laboratory, electron microscopy facilities and a radioisotope laboratory used principally for diagnostic purposes (cDNA probes) and for characterizing viral nucleic acids. Currently the VRU has two staff virologists capable of covering studies ranging from the isolation of viruses to the molecular characterization of their genomes; they are supported by four M.Sc. associates. The current budget is $364,000. The Unit provides support to the four commodity programs and is production-oriented. Its goal, as defined in the CIAT strategy paper, is: n To develop, in collaboration with the commodity programs, appropriate virus dlsease control and phytosanitary procedures for the species in the CIAT mandate\".Viro10gy research at CIAT has a distlnguished record. In 1979 CIAT implemented an intensive germplasm screening methodology for bean common mosaie virus (BCMV) and was quickly able to introduce resistance to this virus in most of the breeding lines produced by the Bean Program to date. More reeently the VRU identified several sourees of resistance to bean golden mosaie virus (BGMV) and there ls now hope that beans will be brought baek into production in large are as where the crop could not be grown because of this virus. Bean dwarf mosaic virus was a further problem that caused the 1055 of thousands of hectares planted to beans in South America, but now susceptible cultivars have been replaced with resistant genotypes.The isolation and characterization of rice hoja blanca virus (RHBV) and the implementatlon of a reliable sereening methodology to develop lines resistant to RHBV ls another important achievement, considering that this virus had been causing major epidemics in Lat!n America since 1935.The viruses isolated from cassava in Latin America have proved so far distinct to those found in Africa. Rapid diagnostic tests are now avallable for those cassava viruses of wide geographieal distribution. The VRU is now concentrating its efforts on two cassava diseases of unknown etiology which exist in Colombia and complicate the certification of virus-free cassava clones. Cooperative work between the Biotechnology and Virology Units has allowed the development of protocols to produce virus-free germplasm of cassava through tissue culture and indexing techniques.In pasture legumes lt ls now apparent that plant viruses, some seed-borne, are present in some aecessions. The immediate task is to lsolate these vlruses and develop diagnostic techniques to detect infected germplssm and ensure the availability and distribution of disease-free material.In condueting its work plan the VRU maintains good contact with national research programa snd provides them with training and support in the technologies it Uses. In the next five years the VRU will increaaingly seek to incorporste, through conventional plant breeding and gene tic engineering, resistance te plant viruses affecting elAT's commodities.The VRU ia an exeellent Untt providing highly specialized research aa well as diagnostic support to ClAT's plant improvement programs. lts work, particularly in genome chsracterization snd gene tic engineering, everlaps some sspects of the work of the BRU and there has been active diseussion within CIAT on the desirability of merging the BRU, the GRU and the VRU. In the view of the Panel there ia no particular virtue in the merger of these Units. Each has a clear and specific responsibility, while equipment and knowledge-sharing, and collaborative work are in place. The responsibility of CIAT to ensure the virus free status of its germplasm, and its role in ridding production crops of viral infection, dictate that every effort be made to maintain the integrity and work of the Virology Unit.The A~roecoloiical Studies Unit This Unit arose from two CIAT initiatives of the late 1970s. One was the classification of the major agroecological zonas of the tropical lowlands of Latin Amarica using remota sensing, the other was an agroclimatie study of the bean crop in Latin Ameriea based on its erop gaography. Subsequant work has emphasized the study of crop distribution to analyza and classify tha environment experieneed by various crops. This has entailed the formation of an extensive database oi climatic records, soils data and crop distribution information. More recent efforts focus on using this information by means of geographic systems and adding socio-economic data.The formal goal of the Unit is: \"To collect, catalog and analyze biophysical and socio-economic information to aid in both the adaptation of mandated crops to different environments and understanding the way land is being used in selacted eco-systems\".The AESU seeks essentislly to identify homolog are as across regions and to provide base data to examine agricultural systems within specific ecosystems.The Unit is lead by sn agronomist/agroclimatologist snd has one other senior staff position supported by two post-doctoral fellows, with two technicians and other support-staff. Its annual budget is $330,000.Data base maintenanee and improvement occupiea a substantial part of the work of the Unit, as does the assistance it provides to CIAT staff in accessing this material.Project work 18 presently centered on the classification and mapping of environments for beans and rice in Latín Ameriea and eross eontinent comparisons for cassava between Afriea and Latin America.Future projects include identification of cassava regions in Asia.The AESU has assembled a large quantity of valuable data and ls making good progress in making this available in usable formo In the next decade CIAT plans ta strengthen this Unit to provide information on the natural resourCe status of specific eco-systems. This work is expected ta provide a foeus for the increasing emphasis on the sustainability of farming systems. But there ls soma vagueness and uncertainty as to whare it seeks to ga and how it can best complement CIAT program activities. The Panel recornmends that CIAT management give greater attention to clarifying the role and future responsibilities of this Unit.This apecial project, funded by the Kellogg Foundation, grew out of the lFDC¡ClAT project on soll fertility studies with phosphate. lnitially concerned with eliclting farmers' perspectivas on the design and evaluatlon of fertilizer experiments, its objectives have widened on becoming an lndependent project in 1987;Oto develop, eva1uate and disseminate particípatory methods for putting agricultural scientists in regular contact with an important client group, smal1 farmers, so that technology design, testing and transfer 18 carried out wlth an accurate knowledge of the criteria and preferences small farmers are likely to use when making decisions about adoption\". The project has a worldwide reputation among professional peers for its lnnovative approach to on-farm research methodologies. The project is modifying the interface developed in farming systems research, where the social scientist represented the perspective of the farmer in experimental design and evaluarion. Ir ís moving rowards a direct interface be. the farmer and the bio1ogica1 scientist. It will make a uníque1y v, contribution ro rhe debate on whether informal, communiry-based rese. can be an effective a1ternarive to formal, costly, adaptive research structures wichin nacional research systems. !he goal statement for the Seed Unit in \"CIAT in the 1990s• is: \"To complement the cornmodity programs by developing techno10gies and methodologies that facilitate the avai1ability of improved seed to farmers and ensure longer productive life to genetically improved varietíes\".The strategic objecCives of che Unir are a1so elaborated there as: (1) Produce basic seed of promising lines and newly released varieries of CIAT commodiry programs.(2) Develop low-input technologies ro overcome the most pressing problems related to field deterioration, drying, conditioning, and storage.(3) Design, test, and promote institutional models appropriate for nonconventional seed production by small farmers.(4) Train national partners on three essentlal components of seed supply systems: basic seed production; seed quality control; and seed production by small farmers.The Seed Unit recognizes three major systems of seed production: traditional systems (farmer secd) , conventional systems (industrial seed), and non-conventional systems.!he Unit places great emphasis on non-conventional systems, which comprise a broad range of production and distribution schernes to provide high-quaIity planting materials in regions unattended by certification programs.Non-conventional systems, designed to produce good quality seed using somewhat simplified technology, are the only way, in sorne regions, to facilitate channelling and transfer of resources, services and existing t\"chnologies to small farmers. Although the rules and standards followed are usually les s demanding, the qualitative results achieved are clase to those of conventional systems. In fact, non-conventional systems may gradually evolve to more advanced systems.The Seed Unit, during the perlad in review, focused on development of human resources, research on seed quality, development of informatíon materials, and production of breeder seeds of bean, cassava and selected forage crops snd distribution of other seeds of non-CIAT mandated crops.CIAT began workshops and seminars on seed questíons as early as 1985. Development of seed production capabilities within each country has continued primarily through training, conferences and technlcal collaboration. In 1988 the Seed Unit conducted three training courses at headquarters and three abroad (in Salvador, Guyana, and Brazil), with a total of 145 participants. It cooperated in 14 other courses in Central and South Ameriea and Africa. These workshops provided a forum where professionals could deveIop plans, recommendations and approaches to help seed activities advanee more rapidly.The Seed Unit research has involved seed quality in C~ntrosema ~, during storage, effect of agrochemícals on bean seed quality, effect of moisture on storage of beans, and effect of drying methods on rice seed quality.Nine publications were completed in 1988, incIuding several designed to give practical advice on application of improved technologles.The Unit produeed breeder seeds of three bean variatíes for release in 1989. Tropical pasture seed production has been contracted with a third party, using specia1 funds jointly managed by TPP and the Seed Unit. Several agreements have also been achiaved, working jointly wlth CIAT's Cassava Program and cooperatively with lCA's Seed Division, to help prívate and pubIic organizations produce lmproved cassava planting materíaIs.The Seed Unlt has two approved essentlal staff posit.ions, a se¡;d technologist and a seed production specialist. An anthropologist, fundad by the Roekefeller Foundation, and a senior fellow trained in agricultural economics support the Seed Unlt. For 1989, the Unit has a working budget of US $595,000.The Seed Unit reports substantial progre ss in: (1) Training seed technologists.(2) Heightening awareness at the leadership level of the importance of aeed programs.(Generating technology and agronomic practices which improve seed quality.(Providing information support to the regional seed network.3.5.6.5. Future ActivítiesAcceptance by CIAT of the core budget status recommended by the 1987 Seed Unit Study Report has given the Unít a fírro base from which to plan for the immediate future. Its strategy in the 1990s will focus on developrnent of the artesanal seed supply by generatíng component technologies, commodity-specific thrusts, and human resource development.3.5.6.6.The Panel considers that the Seed Unit has made fully satisfactory progress in its period of operatíon. The rapid adoption of improved varieties depends to a large extent on the capability of national programs and their seed production agencies, whether public or prívate. In several Latín American countries the Seed Unit has cleary dernonstrated its ability to develop the technical skills and leadership support for a healthy seed industry. It is generating new technology and developing agronomic practices that promote seed qualíty, and ít has contributed to the strength and integration of a regional seed network.The Panel finds the strategíes of the Seed Unít as expressed in \"CIAT in the 1990s\" approp,riate and likely to be effective. The Panel encourages an effort to gather available information on the seed situation (availability, production, marketing and distribution) in Latin America, Asía and Africa for forage 1egumes, beans and cassava. Issues of seeds are worldwide. The Panel be1ieves that the time has arrived for an international workshop on the subject, and urges CIAT to consider conducting such a workshop, in cooperation with other CGIAR commodity Centers and including other interested parties. The proliferation of these Units is of concern to sorne scientists who feel the succéssful model oi the multi-disciplinary commodity programs to be threacened. The Panel, however, commends CIAT ior its initiatives with both upstream and downstream Units. As well as servicing the needs of the programs effectively, che Panel believes the cross-program units are an economic means to identify principIes, methods and processes useful to more than one programo Ir also believes that the intra-disciplinary interaction that the common facilities and cornmon objectives of several of che untts stimulate is healthy for seience in CIAT. The Panel urges CIAT management to further encourage intra-disciplinary interactions acrcss programE. Such interactions should be limited to perhaps 15% of scientists' work programs and should always address an opportunity or problem area with potential benefits to more than one commodity programoThe Panel believes that these Units represent a substancial investment in CIAT's future and, together with the central services similarly facing more Sopl1isticated demands, deserve coordinated supervision. As noted in the discussion of the Biotechnology Unit the Panel a1so recommends the immediate setting up of a biosafety committee.Finally the Panel has noted the uncertainty of direction within the Agroeealogical Studies Unit. lt may be that this Unit can be strengthened and developed to provide CIAT with a broader systems perspective. Ibis could aid management in balsncing ies program and regional commitmene and supplement the sustainability perspective in the commodity programs. The Panel saes no evidence that commodity programs are overly dependent on what is, by definition, a temporary personnel group. Certain support units rely much more heavily on fellows for staffing. For the time being this is acceptable, because the missions of some of these Units have not yet fully taken formo A flow of postdoctoral and senior research fellows can help in that process. Later a more balaneed staffing approach wi11 be desirab1e.The Panel understands Chal: the iasua of reeruitment of core personnel from the pool of fellows has be en díscussed in the Center. lt sees problems if sueh reeruitment is seen aS an easy substitute for the eareful worldwide search through whieh senior staff positions should be filled. It would equally be reluctant to see a categorical ban on appointing ideally-equipped persons from the fellows and visiting seientist group.  Station Operatíons i5 headed by a senior scientist supported by five staff at the scientific and supervisory 1evel. lt has a current annual budget of $784,000. It has a mandate froro CIAr management to maximize lncorne by cropping the unused and off-season 1and for commercial purposes. If commercia1 targets are achieved, Station Operations receives a $50,000 supplement to its budget as an incentive for good performance. 'In 1988 income from commercial operations realized $203,549 against expenses of $136,706, a profít of $66,842.Carimagua oecupias 22,000 hectares in the Llanos and ls the main station for the Tropical Pastures Programo rhe Station administrator ls an ICA staff rnernber and CIAT and lCA share the budget. ClAr's share is currently $616,000, including four scientific and supervisory staff to support the management of the atation. !he CIAr Cassava Program also works on the Carimagua atation.The Panel comrnends the well maintained appearance of CIAT stations and facilities. However, there is evidence that the mandate for Station Operations to maximize commercíal production ls distorting prlorities for machinery and labour and sometimes jeopardizing experimentation. rhe husbandry practices followed in some of the erops grown for sale leave the land unsuited for planting tria1s. The net contribution to CIAT income (sorne $66,000 in 1988) is being obtained at a cost in terms of the extras needed ta ready land for experimenta and the goodwill between scientists and Station Operations. !he Panel recommends increased attention to the needs of program experiments in decisions on commercial cropping.The DSU is a central group to support and advise CIAT programs in mathematical statistics and computing techniques. The Unit reports to a Deputy Director General and has three functions: Biometry and data analysis; Information managernent with emphasis on data bases for information storage and use; and Provision and maintenance of appropriate computer hardware and software to serve scientific program needs through CIAT's IBM 4331 and its 60 terminals. These responsibilities are fulfilled by two sections in che Unit; A Biometry Section composed of statistical consultants and statistical programmers, snd a Database Development and Management Section composed of analysts and programmers.As a further, fourth function, the Unit currently provides sorne six one-week training courses ayear for NARDS researchers as we11 as for CIAT' S associates and assistants in the use and interpretatíon of quantative techniques via rnainfrarne and microcomputer software.The Unit head, its only senior scientist position, has been vacant for almost ayear. Current staffing ls of four local staff at the Masters level and seven at the Bachelors level or equivalent. Attached to the Unit are six staff paid for by the Progrsms, including two from Tropical Pastures at the Masters level. The current budget ls $522,000.Since the second EPR, the use of microcomputers has expanded within CIAT. There are now sorne 170 microcomputers under the control of individual staff, sorne usad by program scientists aS a substitute for the mainframe. The DSU does not support microcomputer software. The effects of the introduction of the microcomputers has been to reduce scientists' demands for routine statistical processing and shift it to advice and support on more complex statistical questions.Four commodity-oriented databas es have been developed using IDMS/R software for each of the CIAT programs. Each is designed to keep records on germplasm accessions, accession performance at each selection stage, accession evaluation across selection stages, and experiments in pathology, plant nutritíon, etc., which support accessíon evaluation. The Tropical Pastures data base is the most complete. Work on the Rice database on1y started two years ago and has benefitted from experience with the others. DSU holds the agroecological database developed by the Agroecological Studies Unit, itself an offshoot of DSU. This has data on climate, land systems, rnaps and microregions for the four CIAT commodities. Other general databases include the CIAT trainee information system. FAO information on production and trade, and UNESCO CDF/ISIS, a bibliographic database.The introduction of microcomputers to CIAT, particular!ly the use of desk-top machines by sorne scientists for both routine and more sophisticated analysis, presents the current organization of the Data Servlces Unit as something of a dilemma for management. Thls ls evldenced by the fact that the Unit has had no head for almost ayear, despite the fact that the former head's resignation could be anticipated perhaps as much as two years before his actual departure. Scientlsts seem to be seeking more sophisticated advice on experimental design and analysis, and a further move in this direction \",111 arise from an íncreased amount of upstream work. At the same time the application of the data bases, given the cost of assembling them, ia an urgent need.There have been two frultless searehes for a new head of the DSU; sinee then the Panel understands that a eonsultative procesa is ongoing aimed towards the reorganization of information management in the Center. Reeruitment to the DSU position \",111 be delayed untíl the framework for this reorganization is clear.The Panel understands the delay. lt recognlzes the need for coordination of the various aspects of the information function but is some\",hat sceptícal of the utillty of integrating all sources of data to meet Center-wide information needs.Finally the Electronic Processing Commlttee has taken a hard line on microcomputor software for particular sclentific applications. Young scientísts coming to CIAT will continue to be highly computer literate and have a good grasp of the specialized software in their own fields. Th\" Panel believes that Program funds should be available for such purchases. The sums are very modesto 3.6.4.The Research Services Unit Ihe largest section in the Unit ls the Analytical Services Laboratory (ASL) providíng analyses of soils, plants, water and fertilizers as a service to the Programs and the Research Support Unlts. Recently the ASL has taken over the water unit for producing distilled and pure water. Other sections are for the greenhouses, screenhouses and growth rooms and the lnstrument maintenance service.There has been no senior scientist in the Unit, which is supported by four scientific and supervisory grade personnel. The Unit comes under the supervision of the Research Services Committee and the eurrent annual budget is $320,000.Evidently the situation is similar to that in the Data Services Unit. The demands on the ASL are becoming more sophisticated than it can adequately handle. A post-doctoral fellow has recently been appointed to the ASL.An early decison is needed on whether to upgrade the equipment and provide appropriate technicians to raise the quality and speed of the existing service and cope with increasingly sophisticated needs froID Programs and Support Units.The issue of whether to have service contracts or carry equipment repair costs as failures occur al so needs resolution to allow prompt attention.Ibe Panel recornmends increased attention to the needs of program experiments in decisions on commercial cropping by Station Operations.Ibarnes from CIAT Research 3.7.1. An assessment of the mandate area CIAT's operational mandate has not been static but has evolved over time influenced by a number of interacting concerns over and above the perceived needs •for research as defined by the Center. Ibe nature of the expertise of CIAT, the recognition of opportunities for research, the politlcal realities in which the Centar flnds ltse1f and the experience developed through the years with regard to things it can do best have be en the driving forces to find aetion 8pace regarding the geographical area eovered as well as cornmodlties and related activlties.Ibe Panel cornmends CIAT and its staff for advances being made; highlights of these have been noted as achievements in the individual seccions of this chapter.Ibe Panel considers that che central themes around which CIAT must maintain lasting research strength are those related to research problems in tropical and sub-tropical regions for the mandate commodities. Relative to the temperate world these are the reglons where accumulated know1edge, gearad to the generation of improved agricultural technologies, ls stil1 modest and CIAT has a clear role for eontributions. Since CIAT' s mandate covers areas in Asia, Afríea and Latin Ameriea, where other CelAR Centers also have mandates and responsibilities for eornmodities that are eomrnon to many important production systems, che Panel recornmends integrated strategies in dealing with national programs, partíeularly in non-mandate specific aetivities such as management training, on-farm research and networking, and in areas of over1apping mandate such as the maizejbean intercropping so important in Latin Ameriea, the Caribbean and Afríes.Finally, the Panel recommends being selective in responding to the broad range of demands that have come out of NARDS consultations. A more rational division of labour in the global system, gulded by the comparative advantage of each oE the components, has be en pointed out by TAC. Ibe regions in which CIAT opera tes differ in many ways, and a continuous effort ls required to monitor and evaluate regional eapabilities and better define the Center's intervention policies in each region.Latin America snd the Caribbean regían became net food importers after the 1970s, and food deficits are expected to reach doub1e the current level by the year 2000. Discrimination against agriculture due to early industrialization substitution policies has caused agricultural output growth rates to decrease, and food deficits have increased imports. For the whole of the region, food imports rOSe at an annual rate of over 7% between 1979 and 1984. Of particular importance for the region are cereal s , vegetable oi15 and milk, but a1so rice, beans and beef. Comparative advantages remain for production of foods now imported, and increased efforts ta save the foreign exchange now committed to imports \"Ire warranted.CIAT's related cornmodities for tropical Latin America wi1l count for approximate1y $2.5 billion of imports by the year 2000.The 1979 plan of CIAT provides estimates of che likely benefit:cost ratios associated with its major research activities. These range from 8:1 for beans, to 15:1 for tropical pastures, at a 10% discaunt rate (see section 3.7.3.).The opportunities associated with increased agricultural research have in the past encouraged the countries of the region to increase expenditures in their national research programs from about $140 million in 1960 to about $269 mil1ion in 1980 (Scobie, 1987). CIAT's research budget ls only about 5% of this amount. lt follows that the impact of CIA! lies not in the additional funding it brings but in its influence, through collaboration, on national research programs. lts sustained and stable fundlng, its international linkages and the excel1ence of its work provide the basic dimensiona of its potential to contribute to increased agricultural production.In bean production the influence of CIAT on technical change is most apparent in Costa Rica. Up to 1986 Costa Rica importad an average of 10,000 tona p.a. of beans. In the last five years bean production more than doubled, allowing exports af 10,000 tons. New technolagy via the ralease of new varieties accounted for much of this large change.Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Guatemala have also released improved bean varietiea now grown on 44% of the total bean area in those countries; their annua1 production growth rate of beana averages 8%.The influence of CIAT On rice productlon ls notable. Approximately half oi the total of rice production in the regíon now comes from varieties originating from CIAT germplasm. This incremental production adds about US $2 billion per year to the value of regional rice output. The recent deve10pment of new varieties adapted to the acid savanna lands, and new production systems based on the intercropping of rice with legume pastures, are adding still further to this impacto Gassava is grown on1y in tropical areas. It i5 essentially a crop of srua11 and poor farmers in marginal areas, and until recently little was known of tts biology, genetics and improved utilization. Better varieties, biological control of pests and pathogens, the production of true seed, and integrating production, processing and marketing will be key components of any improvement in the technology of cassava growing.CIAT is achieving progress in these topics. Its impact on overall cassava production is still small, but i ts work is providing the elements essential for the production increases now predicted.In its work on tropical pastures CIAT has demonstrated the marked improvement possible in animal performance and productivity as a result of establishing legume-based pastures on the poor acid soils of the extensive savanna areas. Low productivity is a characteristic even of well-managed native savanna. The grass legume mixtures which CIAT has identified have more than doubled liveweight gains per animal and shown a ten-fold increase in productivity per ha. CIAT's results enable a large increase in low cost animal production to occur in savanna lands, with the potential to protect forest lands by relieving the pressure to expand continually the grazing are a to provide for the necessary production increase.CIAT' s impact to date has been insufficient to reverse Latin America's decline in food self-sufficiency, but without its contribution the situation would have been worse. Policies influencing agriculture are becoming more favourable in many countries, and the momentum of technical change that CIAT is helping to stimulate is steadily increasing. The juxtaposition of these two events raises the possibility that, with continued support of CIAT' s activities, production deficits in Latin America could be overcome within the next decade.The budget of CIAT is balanced amongst: the commodities it deals with the major agroecological zones of its mandate area both social and production objectives a combination of research and other activities -upstream and downstream research and the mix of scientific-social disciplines in use.The starting point for ensuring adequate support to each commodity program is the concept of a \"minimum research budget\" (MRB), i.e., the budget which is necessary to maintain the essential activities of that programoIn commodity research programs like those at CIAT, the activities generally regarded as essential include: germplasm collection and exchange -filling the research gaps of major importance and wide applicability linking advanced and developing country research providing a focal point of commodity information and training.There activities.are no absolutes in determining the size and cost of these It is unlikely that the MRB for any commodity would be less than US $2 million per annum, an amount that would maintain the research unit but allow only limited active research.In considering any allocation of funds among commodity programs a further series of considerations come into play. Amongst these are; -the size of the industry -the likely productivity of research the likely relevance of the commodity to the future of the regíon -the scientific capability of national programs and the private sector.The \"size\" of each cornmodity industry is a use fuI abbreviation for the agglomeration of four factors in assessment including: (1) the contribution of the commodity to the value of agricultural production at the national and regional level, (U) lts role in the diet, (1U) its production and use by different lncome groups, and (iv) the projected gaps between market demand and national production. Table 4 provides estimates from a congruence analysis for the first of these factors together with benefit:cost ratlos for research. 1/The broadest classif1cation of the agroeco1ogícal zones of tropical Latín America provides three groupings: (i) the Andean zone, (ti) the humid forest area, and (li1) the lowland savanna. Further classification of each by area in crops, pastura, forest and natural grassland follows with a listing of human and livestock densities and possible erop types. In considering commodlty activities and their social implications across these regions, the general picture which emerges is that beans are largely found in Brazil and Mexico and on small farms in the hlghlands of other countries af Latín America and che Garibbean and in Africa. Rice is essentially a 10wIand activity of both small and largar farmers. Gassava ls confined to sma11 farms in the more marginal 10wIand so11s and 15 aspecially important in Brazil and Paraguay.Livestock are wldely distributed across al1 zones and sizes of farms. Land degradation is a particular problem in the upland areas, where intensiva cropping is leading to erosion, and in the hum id foreat zone where, deforestation both for opportunistic cropping and for pasture expansion, la prevalent.When the commodity allocations of CIAT are examined in relatían to the componenta of induatry slze and other factors influencing priority setting, a number of additional observations arise.Gongruence analysis is utilized as a first approximation for examining the alIocatlon of a research budget among cornrnodities. VaIue productlon is taken as a proxi for the social vaIue of each cornmodity. Other things equal, the rule 15 that each commodity should be given research reSQUrces in the same proportion as their share in the total value of production, i.e. research intensity equal to one.   Bean production is taken for tropical Latin America (TLA) and Africa, cassava for TLA and Asia, rice for TLA and tropical pastures as beef and mi1k for TLA.(**) 1989 budget: essentia1 activities (***) For a 10% discount rate; from \"CIAT in the 80s\"Significant deficits in beef and mi1k, rice and beans are 1ikely in the next decade even though many parts of the region do not 1ack a comparative advantage in increasing their production.In rice CIAT's budget al1ocation is congruent with its relative econornic and dietary importance, a1though the IRRI contribution to global rice improvement provides an argument fer lower expenditure fer research at CIAT, especially for irrigated areas. Rice yie1ds appear to be approaching a physio1ogica1 barrier, and improvements through CIAT research seem most 1ike1y, in the short term at 1east, through the breeding of strains adapted to new production areas and resistant to a wider range of biotic and abiotic stresses. In seeking to achieve these objectives in relation to areas where rice i5 mest important, it i5 apparent that Brazi1 domina tes production and has good nationa1 research facilities fer this cornmodity. The emergence of a strong private sector, including research in rice, i5 a150 now apparent in Colombia and Brazil. In Colombia, Central America and the Caribbean, rice has particular importance, but in the latter two regions it also faces particular deficiencies in production and in research support.Cassava production in Latin America is a1so dominated by Brazi1, the producer of 80% of the region's total output. Paraguay and Colombia account for a further 15 percent. In Asia the 1argest producers are Thailand (40%) and Indonesia (40X).In Africa cassava provides about 26% of caloric intake in the equatoria1 countries and 18% in the eastern and southern region. It is a crop which shows large differences in yie1d between experimental stations and small farms, in part because the usual vegetative reproduction rnakes disease control particularly difficult.Possibilíties of producing cassava varietie5 which yield true seed are partícularly attractive, while the emergence of the erop as a 5ignifícant souree cf livestock and fish feed and stareh encourages further research efforts. CIAT's overall allocation to cassava research 15 somewhat below what the economic importance of the erop mlght suggest, but as Brazil is the critical ca5sava center in Latin America, the national program in that country might reasonably be expected to carry much of the load, lsaving CIAT to concentrate on modifying germplasm to produce greater disease resistance and true seed and strengthening its collaborative work in Afriea with lITA.Unlike those for cassava and rice, research allocations for beans at CIAT appear larga, about threa times what thelr relative economie importance would suggest. The contribution of beans to protein consumption i5 important in Brazil (20%), Mexico (11.4%) and in sorne countries of Central America and the Caribbean and throughout the highland areas of Eastern, Central and Southern Afrlca but not in most other areas.Beans, lika cassava, constitute an important part of the production system of smal1 farmers, lt is a erap on which limited research has be en done in the past and where considerable improvements should be possible, particularly in stress tolerance. Somewhat hired research intensity might be justify on these grounds, particularly if bean research in Afríca offers the opportunity for significantly higher benefits.Livestock production based on tropical pastures is a majar component of Latin America's agricultural economy. Meat and milk provida an important part of the diet of all income groups, and animal agricultura makes up an important part of 5mall farm, as well as large operations. By thoze standards, research in tropical pastures appears significantly underfunded at CIAT. Projected benefit:cost ratios are particularly high although advances in pasture research may take longer to achieve, given the nature of the crop and the adoption problems that come along. New technologies in pastures offer sígnificant promise as a deterrent to deforestatíon. Elsewhere in chis report it ls argued that destruction of forests i5 strongly associated with unsound policy meaSUreS and past failuras to improve sufficiently the productivity of existing agricultural lands. Brazil and Mexieo produce 65% of the total beef and rnilk in tropical Latin America, but tropical pastures research ls relatively poorly developed in both national systems. The potential for improving large areaS of low productivity pasture lauds, particularly in the Llanos and Cerrado areas, is very large. Yet, present pasture research and development efforts in these areas, and part1cularly in upland regions, are extremely modestoThe data on which this analysis 1s hased are not as good as one might wish, but they suggest that CIAT should consíder whether it is giving too much relativa attention to beans and insufficíent to pastures and livestock. Geographical focus may also warrant reviston, with the Rice Program needing to give greater relative emphasis to Central Ameriea and the Garibbean, the Gassava Program to Africa, che Bean Program to all three areas and the Pastures Program to the upland arcas of Latin Amarics.The dominance of Brazil in all these products, and che strength oE its research sysrem, suggest scope for even greater collaboration in research wirh that country and a greater devolution of sorne CIAT research to it.The increasing urbanization of Latin Amerlca emphasizes the role oE the urban poor as beneficiaries of CIAT's work. Their need for food adds urgency to GlAT's work on raising productivity and reducing production costs. No particular change in CIAT's relative emphasis on the efficiency vs. distribution problern seems needed at presentoThe Panel is particuIarly sensitive to the complexity and detail required for any valid review of the allocation of resources. lt is also aware that the principal usefulness of any formalized process of priority satting i. to inform and make more expllcit sorne of the alements involved in the declslons to be made regarding the allocation of the research budget. The purpose of the analysís in chis ehapter is not to suggest allocations, but to draw the attention of CIAT's policy rnakers to che need to pursue this tapie in greater depth and be eventually prepared to rnodify the use of CIAT's resources in the coming years. The Panel would not wish to eornrnit CIAT to a changa in resource use basad on the aboye observations.Trends towards strategic researchThe Strategic Plan sta tes chat CIAT should move upstream in the 1990s. lt supports this planned move on the grounds that recant developments in cell biology and genetie engineering offer great opportunities, that sorne national programs are growing stronger, and that che accomplishments to date in applied research make possible a diversion of efforts (usually within disciplines) to more strategic research.The Panel would agree that recent developments in biotechnalogy presant practical opportunities for problem-oriented research, and sectlons 3.1 -3.4. discuss both the ongoing work and the opportunities that are being openad up. These seetions draw attentian to the crucial questions that need answering if the cOlrunodity programs are to make the needed progress. Increments in technology are usually gradual, but creativa ideas are needad if majar advances are to be made, and the Panel supports the mOYa upstream to help provida t.hese advanees.The Panel considers that another area where the Center can move further into the realms of strategic research, as well as providing improved coverage of some of the applled research areas, ls in the field of intra-disciplinary research.CIAT headquarters does not always have a critical mass of a particular discipline within a program, though it may have across programs. The Panel arranged informal discussions with intra-disciplinary groups (plant breeders, pathologists/physiologists, sociologistsl economists, agronomists and post-harvest/seed unit staff) to learn how they collaborate across programs. The Panel was also interested in areas where intra-disciplinary collaboration could improve the support to cornmodity programs, in particular because young sclentists today come to CIAT with a greater degree of specialization than ever before and chus have a greater interest in and capacity to contribute to upstream research.At present the degree of collaboration varies considerably from discipline to discipline. !he Panel ls not advocating a formal matrix; it believes that scientists collaborate when it is to their advantage to do so and that collaboration works best when there is a well-defined problem focus. However, the multiple objectives espoused by CIAT (production of faed as well as food, income generation, post harvest processing and storage, sustainability of che environment and che recognition of the need to davelop locally adapted gerrnplasrn) all add ta che need for an across cornmodity as well as a within cornmodities focus. !he Panel have cherefore expanded an this therne for physiology and agronomy.Physiology research can lead to the improvement of crop productivity in terms of yield potential (e.g., photosynthetic efficiency, canopy structure, phenology), soil adaptation (e.g., resistance to mineral toxicities, efficient acquisitiorl and use of mineral nutrients), climatic adaptations (e.g., drought, temperature, photoperiod), or crop quality (e.g., forage digestibility, consumar acceptability, nucritional value).CIAT physiology research has been somewhat limited but recant appointments have strengthened the effort. Early appointments were a cassava physiologist in 1972 and a bean physiologist in 1974. More recently a bean physiologist was hired in 1983, a bean microbialogist in 1984, apastures ecophysio1ogist in 1985, a casssva physiologist in 1985, a bean plant nutritionist in 1988, a pastures N cycling specialist in 1989, and a pasturas plant nutritionist in 1989. The total number of plant physiologists 18 now seven.CIA! has deve10ped modest facilities for physiological research since 1980. These are now being upgraded to meet the research needs of the recently appointed physiologists. To keep pace with the dernand further expansion of the facilities, particularly for the study of soil-plant relations, ls presently being planned. lnter-program cooperation will facilitate the purchase and use of advanced research equipment, the collaboration of universities or advanced research institutions in developed countries, the availability of graduate students (perhaps from LOCs) , the assistance of experts in short-term consultancies, and increased instrumentation support at CIAT. Specific research themes which cut across cornmodity programs, such as root function in acid soils, might be among the subjects of formal upstream networks.There is a very large gap between farmers' yields and those on experiment stations in three of CIAT's crops, as in most others. CIAT's breeding program and its production of new varieties have raised the yield ceilings for both experiment station and farmers, but they will not, of course, close the gap. lt exists for many social, economic and technical reasons, and its reduction offers a good opportunity for productivity gains in the next five ta ten years.On-farm research programs have been able to elucidate several of the factors, often cultural and economic, which contribute to this gap, but agronomic research in the development of suitable soil and crop management technologies must surely present an important opportunity to help reduce the disparity. During the Panel's field visits, attention was drawn to the influence of CIAT's research philosophy; its high pro file in plant breeding had induced sorne national programs to follow the CIAT role model and devote more resources to plant breeding than to agronomy. CIAT's strategy paper states that its Bean Program will stimulate national programs to develop sustainable and productive crop management systems. The Rice Program has expressed its interest in generating integrated crop management technologies for a more judicious use of agrochemicals. The Pasture and Cassava Programs al so have agronomic work. All of the commodity programs have agronomic components in their regional programs. The Panel believes that each of the programs will have to generate crop management technologies; though these will be location specific in detail, the principIes and the CIAr role model will be important. A better understanding of the problem posed by soil acidity, for example, would serve all the programs well, especially in their breeding work.CIAT, with its large data base on erop performance over a wide range of environments, its Agroecological Studies Unit and its group of cornmodities covering a large number of environments, is in a strong position to use its intra-disciplinary strengths to understand crop behaviour under a range of agronomic and meteorological conditions. Breeding could be more sharply focused if the abiotic as well as the biotic factors were clearly understood, and the Panel believes that intra-disciplinary research could contribute ta these and other aspects of strategic research.Target groupg and gender issues Equity conslderations have long influenced CIAT's orientation. This 15 clearly stated in \"CIAT in the 1980s: Revisited\": \"CIAT has identified limited resource producers and consumers as the principal beneficiaries of its work. This orientation clearly associates qua1ity of life objectives with production goals, thereby influencing commodity choice and technology design.\"The •CIAT in the 1990s• strategy paper (September 1989) is similar in tone. It demonstrates further thought on both the geographic and research strategy implications of the general commitment and is explicit in mentioning both men and women. It highlights the fact that: \"Consumers benefit: most from agricultural research as increased productlvity and reduced production costs lower food prices ..... CIAT's strategy cannot aim exclusively at increasing production by 10w income farmers. The highest social return on research investment must be an important criterion in the formulation of the Center's strategies and its programs.\"The more sophisticated discussion of outcomes and beneficIaries is al so evident where the commodity programs spell out the targets of their own strategies. The dual targets of poor consumers and poor producers offer a strong rationale, particularly valuable to CIAT because of the dichotomy among programs. Beans and cassava are social crops, largely produced by small farmers. Most commercial output of rice and livestock products ls from largar farms. Where markets are supplied almost exclusively by small farmers, technology development ls particularly complicated in having to meet the acceptsbility critería of both sets of producers, related to their production conditions, and of consumers related to their preferences.In the June draft of \"CIAT in the 1990s\" (p.41), The Bean Program clearly relates its regional focus ta its orientation to poor producers and consumers. The Program emphasizes that Afrtca and Central Ameries deserve a htgh priority on sIl counts, while other areas merlt are lower priority as fewer objectives can be achieved with each effort. The Cassava Program detects the beginnings of a shift in sOrne Latin American countries to industrial cassava, produced on more commercial units, aS rural population declines, and underlines its intention to reorder tts priorities as the shift occurs. Finally the Pastures Program, while acknowledglng that its major potential impact will be on the prices poor urban consumers have to pay, an issue increasingly important as urbanizatlon proceeds apace, ls also able to highlight a potentially vital contributlon to stabilizing the actlvíties of poor colonists on the forest fringes.The Panel commends CIAT and its Programs for offering strategtc eonclusions which show graat sensitivity to the physical and human circumstances within which they operate, They offer testimony of effective integration of social scientists into the Programs and they validate difficult management decision' on structure earlier in the Center's life.Through the Agroecological Studies Unit and the Farmer Participatory Research Project CIAT ls a1so contlnuing the development of methodologies to improve the targeting of research. The AESU is notable for its pioneering attempt at the macro-level to reconclle physical and socio-economic circumstance in identifying target areas, termed micro-regions, for the programs. lt i5 a complex task properly thought of as strategic research. At the other end of the spectrum, at the micro-level, the Farmer Participatory Research Project ls seeking ways to draw men and women into the research procesa in their capacities as producers, processors and consumers.Socio-economic research Soclo-economic research at CIAT has long been integrated lnto commodity programa to ensure its inclusion in the work of multidiscipllnary teams. The Panel ls of the opinion that this strategy has worked well. Everybody has benefited from strong interaction among commodity team members, and social scientists have been able to contribute to the settlng of priorlties in biological research. The work of the economista has be en regarded as a team product rather than independent contributions. This has be en instrumental for serious discussions and for consideration in diagnostics and proposals.The opportunities economists have had to contribute have be en greater than thelr capacity to respondo Methodologica1 research for on-farm research work, strategic planning of commodity research, micro-economic support for development activities, adoption studies for generated technologies and ~ ante analysis of the likely impact of research are the main areas around which economists have worked jointly with commodlty scientlsts. Their productivity has been quite high wich more chan 300 pub1icacions in the last eight years.Economic information on ClAT's manda te commodities was initially very scarce ando in the case of cassava, a1most non-existent.Economista and other social scientists can provide severa1 classes of socio-economic information required within GlAT, by its crop scientists. by its administrators, and by the donors in allocating funds to ClAT. Crop scientists have clearly benefited from che integration of socio-economic research into the multi-disciplinary commodity teams. However, little use has been made of economic research capacity by CIAT adminlstrators for Center-wide management decisions.The Panel believes socio-economic research should contribute more to ClAT's work in che following additional areas:(1) rssues of sustainability in estimating externalitles of sustainable technologies,(2) Ex ante analysis of likely impacts of research, second round effects, and the monitoring of impacts.(3) Setting of priorities across programs and ín other areas ín support of research management decisions; and(4) Issues related to the competitiveness of agricultural production in developing countries, production diversification. and adjustment problems. topies which are ready for ínter-center cooperatíon in a scheme of regionally differentiated program thrusts.The knowledge that CIAT social scientists have of farmers' adoption behavlour and chelr production systems, and other economic informatíon pertaining to superior crop varietles and associated additlonal farro input s and market priorities, ls seen as a crucial input for some of the suggested areas of socío-economlc research.Sustainable agricultura and the ehallenge of che environmental degradation 3.7.7.1. The issues CIAT's strategy paper seatas that sustaínability is one of the three issues of most critical importance to che Center in che future. TAC has defined sustainable agriculture as \"the successful management of resources for agriculture to satisfy changing human needs while maintaining or enhancing the quality of the environment and conserving natural resources\". 11 The converse would be the use of the wrong farroing systems, in the wrong way on the wrong 1andscapes, to satisfy short-term needs.The Panel interprets the TAC concept as embracing two objectives: maintaining a positive growth in agricultural production, while sustaining the resource base. Growth with sustainability would present no problem given unlimited resources, but sustainability is essentially a search for efficient long-run agricultural growth when resources are exhaustible. This means that social banefits must cavar the social costs. The problem remains one of how to quantify some of the inherent problems. Negative indlcators (105s of rainforest, 10ss of germpIasm, sedimentatíon in reservoirs) are measurable. Sorne work has been done in Zimbabwe on the relationship between population density and land degradatían; in well-defined agroecological systems this 5eemB to give use fuI correlations.Production: Implicatíons International Agricultural Research, TAe, 1988. The Panel's interpretation of the TAC concept 18 illustrated by some of the problems in tropical Latin America. Tha CIAT strategy states that much of the increase in bean productlon has come because of increaaes in land under cultivation, often in marginal areas. Cassava is also a crop of marginal areas. Current production practices put large areas of forest land at risk when brought into cropping and livestock production. In a very broad sense Latin America's marginal lands are the Andean hillsides snd the Amazonian forests. Of CIAT's four mandate crops, only rice is produced on the better soils. Cassava, beans and pastures are grown in marginal areas in the sense that the soils are very low in nutríents andjor the topography so steep that soil losses occur under usual farming practices. However, environmental degradation 15 more than the 1058 of soils or vegetation. It ls also the intensification of soil borne pests and diseases as cultivation intensifies and as fallow periods disappear.The national governments with their control of policies snd agricultural services, the international and bilateral development agencies with their funding, and the International Agricultural Research Centers as leaders of the global communíty of tropical agricultural research have vital roles in che effort to control environmental degradatíon. The ce Centers have two majar roles. The first is to help define the approaches that will be needed to provide the technical and policy inputs for solutions of the probleID. The second is to participate in research programs in which they have a comparative advantage in providing information, new knowledge and new technologies that will contribute to sustainability. In the area of policy, CIAT and lFPRI are collaborating in a project for the Peruvian Amazon. To make substantial progress on such problems inter-Center cooperation will be necessary.As en institution largely devoted to generation of new agricultural technology through commodity improvement, CIA! must be concerned with the lnteraction of technology and sustainability. The question ls which of the problems involved in sustainability require research and then to select frOID among them those problems for which CIAT has a comparative advantage or can develop one at reasonable cost. Basically the Center has to convert the many ideas being expressed on the concept of sustainability into a very few operational projects. crAr has comparative advantages in creating new technologies that can meet the sustainability criteria. This can be done by conventional as well as non-conventional methods. Conventional methods relate to varietíes that grow better in specific environments, including the related lmproved cultural practíces and integrated crop management. Non-conventional methods, for which CIAT is actually developing comparative advantages, relate to work being done on such subjects as biotechnology, microbial associations, and physiological and environmental stresses.Both sets of methods tend to reduce the \"externalities\", thus providing means for efficient production growth in the long runo An lmportant issue is whether the eliminatlon of externalities results in slow-growth or fast-growth agriculture. Application of non-conventional methods and generation of superior technologies would support the latter. However, work with NARDS will be vital. Yays have to be found of marrying the short-term need for food with the long-term goal of sustainability.ClAT's philosophy i8 that research should a1m to maximize the yields from germplasm at relatively low levels of purchased inputs. The Center emphasizes that ~ input s does not mean n2 lnputs. The inputs concerned include fertilizers, lime, herbicides, Insecticides and fungicides. No mention i5 made of low energy inputs through machinery; small farmers generally do not use tractors, but rely mainly on animal draft power.One reaSon for CIAT's commitment to a 10w input strategy ls the fact that for many of its farmer clients inputs are physically unavailable or uneconomic. A second reaSon ls that some lnputs have a detrimental effect on the environment, mainly herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. Rice in Colombia typifies a high input system with pesticides applled by air on large farms. However, the small farmers of the world are also uslng pesticides (for example, fungicides on beans in Colombia and bean seed dressings in Rwanda). The IARC answer 15 to develop varietles that are pese and disease resistant, but some pests and diseases are not amenable to this approach; such resistance al so tends to lose ies effectiveness over time. Centers have been moving more towards an integrated strategy with agronomic and chemlcal as well biological approaches. CIAT's rice program la an example of this.The Panel ls concerned about how to reconclle the low input philosophy of CIAT with the concept of sustainability of agricultural production and the protection of fragile areas. Do low input strategies affect sustainability, or do they in some cases simply trade short-term gains for long-term los ses? The main reason farmers expand into fragile areas ls that they do not obtain enough productlon from existing areas. In the environmental sense CIAT could distinguish between low input systems that are needed from an economic point of view and those that are desirable from a technlcal and environmental point of view. Phosphate and lIme may not be economic under certain present circumstances but they certainly present no environmental hazards. Intensified production on savannas, where land deterioration ls not such s severa problem, would relieve some of the pressures on the fragile forese snd hill lands. Apare from rice which is grown on both good snd poor soi1s, on the latter as a pioneer crop, CIAT's mandate crops are often grown on poor sol1s, particular1y in Latin America.The Panel agrees that a research program should be designed to be congruent with the actual or potential resources of its clients, and should develop germplasm that performs better under a given level of ínpuca chan farmers' existing materials. But this poses the question: can this \"nil/low input-modese oueput\" system supply ehe growing demands?In Afrícs population increasea of 3% or more will continue for sorne time. Sustained productivity growth of this order has been achieved in some agricultural systems, using substantial inputs. Vell documented studies of long-term trends in agricultural productivity suggest increasea of 1% to 1.5% due to plant improvement alone. The Panel has thus strong reservations about the ability of low input/modest output production systems to produce sustained increases at the level needed and would suggest chac the programa concerned look at the potentiala of cheir low input strategy to meet the projecCed demands and co organize data, from cheir experience and information on the use of cheir improved variecies, to hypothesize what sustainable productlvity increases are llkely to be under chelr low input scenario (in terms of percentage increases per annum).The Panel believes that the work of the Agroeeological Studies Unit should continue to be aimed at better charaeterization of agricultural production areas in Lacin America. Such refinements would include the collection and analyses of data on climate, land and vegetation. Several international and many nacional organizations are concerned in the generacion of sueh data. CIAT should aim for excellence in supplying agroecological information as it does for agricultural research information and information on germplasm. However, CIAT should confine its activities to those involved with its commodities. The Panel does not think that CIAT should become involved in the generation of primary data on the effect of land use on soil eros ion and run-off or on land clearing technologies. Moreover, the Panel considers that crAT can make a substantial contribution to the understanding of farmar attitudes co so11 resource conservatlon through its on-farro research activities. Such work would also provide sorne of the concepts needed for improving predictions about farmer behaviour as land becomes a more and more SCarce commodity.The Panel believes that work could be expanded to include, for one or more of the ecosystems identified in Latin Ameriea, information on strategies for intervention including methodologies for characterization, analysis and evaluation of institutional and management approaches and training. The Panel believes that CIAT is in a unique situation in Latin America for organizing this type of work on behalf of, and in cooperation with, other Centers like CIMMYT, CIP, ISNAR and IFPRI. The Center should consider enhancing the capacity of the Agroecological Studies Unit to undertake such activities. Re1ations with the Host Goverument Ibe agreement to create CIAT was signed in 1967, so that there has been a 1itt1e over 20 years of interaction between the Center and the Colombian government. In such a familial relationship there are always minor irritations and differences in perception, but relationships have generally been excellent and the Panel commends both the Host Government and the Center for the efforts that have gone into the maintenance of these relations.CIAT is in a rather different situation from several of the other crop-oriented Centers in that two of its mandate crops form a re1atively low percentage of the total value of Colombia's agricultural production (Cassava 5.2%, beans 2.09%) and bean quality requirements for Colombia are rather unique. Even improved tropical pastures, while potentially of great importance, cover a small are a at presento Consequently the attention that national agricultural research systems can give to cassava and beans is limited. On the other hand, CIAT's involvement, while of course done with a continental or global perspective, still gives it high profile in these crops compared with the local research effort. ICA, the Colombian research institution, and CIAT have had recently a review of activities and have signed an agreement through which steering committees wil1 be organized for each CIAT cornmodity. lt is hoped that this agreement will bring cIoser relations between the two institutions.Ibere is sorne sensitivity in the national program to the perception that the outside world lacks appreciation of the Colombian research system's role in ClAT's sUCCesses. Ibe Panel can only commend the continuing efforts of all concerned to be sensitive to these perceptions.ClAl and the National Research Systems. In certain respects, these perceptions are correcto There 15 certainly a much larger pool of trained scientists. But che development of self-sustaining research institutions has been hampered by shortages or violent year-to-year fluctuations in funding and by a lack of foreign exchange for essential equiprnent and libraries. Performance of NARS may also be constrained in sorne countries by poor policy commitment to research, few highly trained research scientists (critical masa), poor research planning and evaluation capacitiea, and the non-conducive research atmosphere created by lack of incentives and motivation which has almost extinguished creativity.As a consequenee Che reality of the situation, confirmed by CIAT scientists working with che national programs and in the visits of che Panel to country programs, is that really strong self-sustaining national programs are the exception. Financial crunches, particularly the debt erises in Latin Ameriea and Government financial crises in Afriea, have rendered many systems weaker and les s effeecive than chey were lOor 15 years ago. In some countries, indeed, the research systems have stagnaced and in a few have become almost inoperative.CIAT continues to focus on strengthening and complementing the activities of collabarating national programs in the areas af ics comparative advantage within its on-going programs. It offers collaborative and suppart activities ta strengthen national commodity programs, and it seeks to cacalyze and reinforce regional and sub-regional networks with the goal of progressive reduetion in the need far CIAT input.Regional programs and networks.Regional programs directly involve CIAT in a particular region, in cooperation with national programs, to develop research aetivities and tasks which will strengthen the capacity af national agencies ta generaCe agricultural technolagies which will increaae productivity and production. They normally provide the means for increased levels of horizontal cooperation and integration and facilitate the building of networks. Networks are groupings of participating institutions and scientiats interacting with each other around a priority commodity or problem in a way which will encourage horizontal cooperatlon.Both regional programs and networks are usually monitored by committees of the participants and by day-to-day bilateral cooperation with NARS. 4.2.3.2. Regional programs Regional programa are operated through outposted staff.The Cassava Program has two staff in Bangkok to serve che Asían region, one in Brazil as part of a development project, and another located at lITA serving as CIAT liaison.The Bean Program has twelve outposted scientist in East, Central and Southern Africa, two outposted scientists based in Guatemala and Costa Rica to serve the Central American and Caribbean region, and two outposted scientísts in Peru and Ecuador to serva the Andean region. In addition it has an agronomist in Brazil. The twelve international staff stationed in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda work with the national programa in breeding. agronomy, entomology, pathology, economies, anthropology snd on-farm researeh. Three of these staff, the eeonomist stationed in Uganda, the entomologist in Tanzania and the training officer in Ethiopia, have Pan-African responsibilities.The regional program model based on outposted staff has be en CIAT's mechantsm to strengthen the national research systems, to feed in research products from its headquarters program and to feed back local germplasm and information for its headquarter programs. lt is expected that such regional programs will phase down wlth the increaslng strength of the national programs, but that networks will grow in strength and usefulness. CIAT expects that the national agricultural research and development systems with which it works will improve in the quality and quantity of the resources at their disposal and that their research and development priorities will change over time. The complexity of conditions in national programs will be considerable; sorne may be better funded but short of operational support, with well-trained staff but a lack of funding. On-farm research will help close the gap between research and extension. Increased plant breeding capacity in some systems will enable them to take over work previously performed by CIAT. There will be more work on sustainability and export crops and sorne national programs will move \"upstream\".The outcome of this will be a changing pattern of relationships between national programs and IARCs with a movement into a much more collaborative mode.CIAT has already developed mechanisms for sharing responsibilities with NARS in the regional programs and in the networks and has established research cooperation with a range of NARS who are not integral parts of regional programs. Increasingly CIAT sees NARS taking up activities which were previously provided as a service by CIAT. The latter is part of the general evolution of NARS. CIAT has also developed mechanisms for NARS partners to participate in decision-making at the regional level.CIAT has considered three ways in which it could institutionalize the sharing of responsibilities with NARS.(a) by continuing the trends described above which are already in place; or (b) by developing projects with particular countries which are designed to utilize the comparativa advantage of those individual country programs to do work which will be of value to other country programs within the overall international effort in a particular commodity. These projects would emphasize research which is of an additive nature to ongoing national activities and would involve or,CIA! partieipation in che transfer of the teehnology to other regions of the eontinent and the world;(e) by transferring Che responsibilitles for particular groupings of activities to individual national programs, whieh would then be responsible for developing the normal international cooperation linkages with other countries where such new technologies eould be aeeepted to have application.In general CIA! sees merit in (a) and (b) above but not (e). !he Panel eoneurs; the latter lnvolves developlng another complex of aetivities essentially duplicating those already available. lt would no doubt generate resistanee from small eountries against a plan that would require them to depend on some other natlon's program for assistance when an international and neutral alternative exists in the form of the particular IARC. !he model (e) would be almost impossible in Africa given present eireumstanees and ls probably unworkable in Asia and Latin Ameríea.In all countries visited by members of the Panel, CIA! staff have established excellent rapport with their colleagues in the national systems. CIA! is viewed as responsive to the expressed needs of the NARS and an important catalyst in motivating local staff and developing research plans. NARS leaders ascribe partieular value to the training offered by the Genter to key local researchers. Panel members were impressed by the quality of the CIA! field staff. !hey appeared especially sensitive to local conditions, relationships, and issues snd gave every evidence of personal commitment to development in their regions. !heir role in building sustainable research capacity through training and research collaboration, as opposed to conductlng independent research, was evldent. !he Center has selected staff well for these assignments, in which outstanding personal characteristics and qualifications are needed.Several NARS leaders particularly commended the recent collaboratlon in training between CIAT and CIMMYT, and urged more such examples. In this way limited resources can be combinad to offer workshops that are not commodlty-specific.Despite the effort that has gone into strengthening their staff and leadership, strong self-sustaining national programa are by no means common in the developing world. !his 18 particularly so in Afriea. Many national programs are generally handlcapped by severa limitations of operational funds and foreign exchange funds for capital. Furthermore, the research programming and management capacities are generally weak. These and other constraints limit the productive performance of the NARS.The Panel believes that CIAT will need to continue its involvement with strengthening national research programs, into the foreseeable future. The nature of this involvement, the time horizon and the appropriate time to withdraw will depend on the individual country strengths.By the nature of its work CIAT is uniquely equipped to strengthen national research programs in its specific manda te crops. But while there are spin-offs, one strengthened commodity program does not create an effective research institution. Moreover it ls posslble that the CIAT intervention pushes the national program towards the Center's mandate and priorities possibly creating an imbalance. Several such programs, as for example by a group of centers working in unison, would contribute much more to institutional development. Even more effective in the long run would be a combination of Centers and donors. This is, however, unusual and the Panel has noted that the normal pattern is one of a functioning commodity program operating effectively but below the management level of the national system as a whole. lt is doubtful if such a program could survive if CIAT withdrew its technical and financial (usually quite small) support.Even when national research systems are strong, there is frequent criticism of the lack of linkages between them and extension systems. The major shortcomings are usually described as a lack of adaptive research and a lack of feedback about farmers' problems.CIAT's work with farmers in a range of on-farm research programs has developed methodologles whereby these problems can be tackled. However, such programs consist of highly skilled manpower-intenslve activities which are irrepllcable at this time for most national systems on a system-wide scale. !he Panel supports the principIe that on-farm research ls the vital link for the two-way flow of information to and from the research systems by way of the extension systems. However, its institutionalization raises formidable problema because of cost and lack of trained staff. The Panel believes that CIAT has a role in working with selected national programs to develop least cost on-farm research methodologles that could be widely applied within the level of resources available te national systems.The relatively poor financial resources and their volatile nature make the management of national research systems extremely difficult. Unfortunately this situation wll1 be tbe nOrm for many such systems lnto the foreseeable future and research managers have to leam to make the best of it. Formal training in research management could help. !he Panel recognizes ISNAR's responsibility in this area but considers that CIAT's knowledge of research systems, its contacts with the scientists involved, lts reputation as a research organization and its understanding of the political processes are all advantages whlch could be utilized by those developing research management training programs.The steering committees of the African regional bean program appear to be a particularly successful innovation in that they promote information sharlng and collaboration by researchers in the countries concerned, the donors, and CIAT. The aim is that the formation of these committees will ensure the sustainabl1ity of bean research when and if CIAT involvement ends, and that they will eventually become strong enough to attract and handle directly the donor funds currently channeled to them through CIAT. CIAT's plan to reduce the number of staff assigned to the African region in five years may be overly optimistic. Indeed. there is some question in the mlnd of Panel members as to whether the current staffing in this region ia sufficient. given the scope of the responsibilities CIAT accepted. For example, CIAT wants to fill one position in the Great Lakes Region with a pathologist with pan-African responsibilities, while the regional steering committee has opted for a breeder. although both are needed, while the single regional economist based in Uganda has a formidable pan-African agenda that is unrealistic. lt is expected that more multi-country regional sub-projects. particularly in Africa, will emerge in order that more than one national program is involved in a particular subject area. This will place more emphasis on increased horizontal cooperation and will increase the need in Africa for a Pan-African Advisory Committee made up of selected members from the other committees of a regional nature.There will also be increasing pressures on CIAT to become more closely involved in research ~ ~ rather than limit their involvement to the institution building/research cooperation which is now evident. This will be stimu1ated by NARS evolution towards stronger commodity teams. The need for CIAT to be more involved will be dictated by problems still requiring strategic research on solutions; e.g. bean fly, nitrogen fixetion in poor soils, cropping systems and soi1 erosion, etc.The outcome of these pressures could be further dedication of particular scientists to research while still maintaining some staff in their present institution building activities. The Panel does not see the need for a special facility for the regional programs to carry out research. This increased research emphasis by CIAT staff should be possible throUgh arrangements with national programs in the region. Tha future of the three regional programs now in existence in Africa will depend on the donors' negotiations in 1991 and will be conditioned by the decisions taken by TAC with respect to essential/desirable staff categories and the related chances of finding the funda in CIAT core budget. 4.2.5.6. CIAT collaboration with strpn, NAlS CIAT's collaboration with EMBRAPA in Brazil in building that system's capacity to ass1st in agricultural development in Africa 1s worthy of special note. The outreach plans of this h1ghly developed national system seem likely to provide an important model for future agricultural assistance.Another example of CIAT willingness to share responsibil1ties with stronger national research systems 1s the drought resistance stud1es in beans which are under discussion between CIAT, Brazil and Mexieo.The Panel eommends CIAT on its effective development of the steering committee model and network activitles in Afriea and Latin Ameriea and recommen4s that CIAT continue its support for these efforts.The Panel notes CIAT's suecess in working out a model for eollaboration with EMBRAPA in Brazil. in cooperation with lITA, in relation to the eassava program for the semi-arid parts of Afrlca. Panel recPmmends that CIAT continue to work toward similar outreaeh with other highly developed national systems.The Panel appreciates the initiative of CIAT staff in Africa for inter-Center collaboration in training and research, and recommends that CIAT headquarters reinforee these efforts.The Panel recommends that CIAT pool its knowledge and experience with others, including ISNAR, for the training of research managers.Relationships with Re&ional and International Or&anizations 4.3.1.National programs of countries collaborating with CIAT are simultaneously associated to regional organizations that carry responsibilitles for research and technical cooperation in agriculture. With CATIE (Turrialba. Costa Rica), CIAT maintalns relations through the RIEPT, and conversations are under way to develop joint activities around sustainability issues in the humid and sub-humld tropics. CIAT la working with PROCIANDINO and support for CARO! through the PROCICARIBBEAN Network 1s under discusslon. Through the Beans Network of Southern Afrlea CIAT maintains relationships with SACCAR. 4.3.2.Regional organizations, elther of research or teehnical eooperatlon, have a great deal of experience in working with national programa and could be of help to CIAT in strengthening networking activities. Ibis ls the case for IICA and CAROI; both ínstitutions are actually involved in conversations with IDB for the estab1ishíng of networks in Central America and the Caribbean region. CATIE, besides col1aborating with CIAT in tropical pastures research and in holding dup1icate samples of Center's germp1asm co11ection, offers possibílities for working on tssues of sustainability through its recently created Integrated Natural Resources Management Programs. The Panel is aware of talks underway to strengthen ClAT's relacions with these regional organizations.Co11aborative Research with Universities and Other Advanced InstiCutionsCIAT activities CIAT has a large number of collaborative research projects with institutions in developed countries. Ibe 1988 list (Annex VIII) ineluded projects with 13 universities (6 USA, 4 FRG, 2 Belgium, 1 Israel), two sister Centers (IRRI, lITA) and a range of research institutions in Italy (5), UK (3), Colombia (1), FRG (1). More projects have come on-stream since the 1988 list was prepared. Ibese projects aim at increasing the understanding required for the solution of production problems, and involve the use of researeh techniques in which CIAT does not have comparative advantage within its on-going programs.Ibis collaboration is dynaroic and neW projects are continua1ly being negotiated. Ibe system i8 CIAT-driven in the sense that CIAT defines the researeh needs and project ideas normally come from staff, management and sometimes CIAT collaborators. Considerable flexibility by CIAT is requíred to cope with differing bureaucratic requirements of the donor agencies in col1aborating countries. Ibe funds for these projects come from extra-CIAT sources in most instances. Sorne developed countries do not have collaborative research projeets. and some in particular are notable absentees from the list of countries contributing to CIAT's eol1aborative projects. Ibe 1ack of appropriate funding mechanisms in some developed countries for this type of collaborative research was one of the topies at the inter-Center meeting he1d to discuss this type of research cooperation at Bad Homburg in FRG in 1987. Ibe issue he re is chat collaboration with some centers of research exce11ence ls excluded because of eurrent funding procedures. Hopefu1ly, the steady expansion in advanced researeh networks wil1 provide a stimulus for al1 donors to develop sn interest in these projects.Gollaborative research projects between CIAT snd developing country lnstitutions and universities are now emerging particularly through the regional prograros. Funding for more basie research areas ls hard to identify. Projects of a more applied nature are norma11y funded through the Regional Steering Committees in the eategory of regional sub-projeets.Ibe Panel supports and encourages increased involvement of the academic staff froro universities in research projects as partners with national research programs. In 1989 CIAT has budgeted US $100,000 for such contract research and innovative initiativa.The Panel encourages CIAT in devoting funds to developing country institutions and/or universities. It a1so applauds the effort CIAT is now making to strengthen the training available to the academic staff of sorne universities.CIAT has reinforced contacts with universities in the developing countries through CIAT training programs, sabbatical leave visits to CIAT and ClAT information systems.To date the expansion of upstream research of this type has not involved CIAT in significant extra costs, but staff visits, project preparation and supervision costs are increasing and need to be carefully budgeted.Collaboration with Other International Research Centers 4.5.1.An IRR! liaison scientist has been continuously stationed at CIAT with responsibility for the International Rice Testing Program in Latin Ameriea. A more general agreement of cooperatíon for achieving closer collaborations and joint actlvities has be en effective since 1984.ClAT and lITA have cornmon interests in rice and cassava. Collaborative work in rice has been good and discusslons are underway to further increase jolnt work with YARDA, lITA and IRRI. In cassava research, traditionally a saurce of sorne friction between the Centers, thlngs are much better now and ClAT has stationed a liaison scientist at lITA.A joint collaborative agreement between CIAT and ILCA was signed in March 1983. This made it possible for ClAT to base lts East African bean work in Ethiopia, using ILCA as headquarters for support services and as a legal base. The agreement provides for a wide range of joint activities including germplasm and Rhizobium collection transfers and preservation, the interchange of documentation and training materials, joint workshops, the interchange of staff and the establishment of an International Tropical Pastures Evaluation Network.ClAT also maintains relations with other international centers by hosting scientists and their experiments, when work i8 of relevance to the region but CIAT has no assignment of responsibilities for it. CIAT provides a base for regional staff of the CIMMYT Maize Programo ClMMYT gives advice on suitable maize cultivars for use in on-ferm research, aS well as meteríaIs for on-station triaIs. An IBPGR regional coordinator is based at CIAT under a CIAT/IBPGR collaborative agreement by which assistance and support ls obtained with germplasrn collections.Regional Staff from the IFDC, INTSORMIL and INTSOY are also based at CIAT. With IFDC in particular, joint research is currently carried out in the context of the phosphorus project and CIAT's commodity research programs. CIP is also getting administrative support from CIAT for its work in Colombia.Other non-CGIAR international agricultural research centers Apart from the long-standing interaction with the International Fertilizer Development Center, which has a staff member hosted by the Center to work collaboratively on sources of phosphate. CIAT has few interactions with IARCs outside the CGIAR. lt has no agreements or contracts with other international centers. The other limited interactions which exist are on an informal basis.AVRDC screens for bean fly for CIAT in Talwan. If a ClAT Regional Bean Program ls set up in Asia, snap beans are likely to be a central component and would encourage closer collaboration with AVRDC. Currently there are contacts on snap beans both with AVRDC and China but for the near future geo-politics may frustrate more formal relationships.CIAT 18 al so discussing bean fly research with the lnternational Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi, Kenya. CIAT is interested in help from ICIPE to look at the physiology of the fly. CIAT also has limited contact with the International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF). also in Nairobi. In both cases only initial discussions on possible areas of mutual interest have be en held.The Panel strongly supports the intensifications of collaboration of CIAT with other CGIAR and non-CGIAR Centers. Networks and in-country training offer opportunities for inter-center collaboration in downstream activities that are already underway. Issues in biotechnology and sustainability deserve exploration for inter-center collaboration. Upstream research brings methodologies, training and highly sophisticated equipment and there should be space for mutual consultations and exchange of experiences. Sustainability is another area for whlch the Panel recQmmends CIAT contact with other Centers for an integrated approach. Regarding hosting scientists from other Centers whose work 18 of relevance to the regions, Panel recognizes that many times CrAT facilities offer great help to thelr research activlties. However, it should be kept in mind that NARS appreciate staff posted in thelr own programs, working with national colleagues on a daily basis through the local research infrastructure. By normal staff attrition, three of these Units and the Program as a whole will have had new leadership oVer a two-year periodo A more comprehensive goal statement has broadened the TCSP role:To support GIAT's research and institution-strengthening roles through the training of NARDS staff, provision of scientific and technical information, promotion of cooperation among NARDS snd between them and GIAT, and fostering a favourable policy environment for agricultural research through public information.For many reasons the TCSP budget does not give a realistic picture of training and communications expenditures. Direct costs of training (travel, lodging, training materials, etc.) are a major out1ay, but more than 40% of those costs are now coming from special projects, home countries and other outside sources.Gommodity programs provide an enormous amount of training service without budgeted cost, and also contribute their energies to the preparation of training materíaIs. TCSP units generate sorne income from sales, and special project funds pay for other aspects of their work.In 1988 GIAT's core budget provided $2,882,000 for the Training and Communication Support Programo a little less than 11% of the Canter's total. About 35% of the TCSP core budget is allocated to documentation and dissemination, 25% to specialized courses, and 20% to individualized training. Gonferences and seminars account for about 10%. A modest but desirable a1location is shown for research on making GlAT's communication of technical and scientific information more efficient.Authorized core staffing for 1989 inc1uded four senior staff and 39 scientific and supervisory parsonne1. The Units are definite1y not overstaffed for the work they are expected to do,Since the aarly 1980s CIAT has sharpened lts training priority focus to increasa its attentlon to building national research capacity. Preference for its commodity-specific productlon courSes has been given to research-oriented participants who also take a second phase of individualized disciplinary training to strengthen their role in their commodity research teams at home.Research strength has also be en built by ad hoc group events and individualized training in single disciplines or related to particular prob1ems or techniques.Although CIAT was never in a posltlon to give fellowship aid to graduate students, it also reafflrmed its interest in supporting their M.Sc. and Ph.D. study by offering opportunities to do thesis research in cooperation with scientists at CIAT.Training is important in each commodity programo Half of the senior staff and 80% of the support staff spend at 1east 150 hours ayear in support of training goa1s. Throughout the 1980s the training function grew steadily. There were 80% more rice program trainees at CIAT headquarters in 1986-88 than in 1980-82.Increases were 64% for cassava, 40% for tropical pasturas, and 34% fer beans, fer an overa1l increase of nearly 50%. One notable expansion has heen in training for the emerging field of on-farm research, at headquarters and also in-country. CIAT continues to be interested in supporting graduate study for young scientists. During the first eight months of 1969 lt was host to 23 students doing thesis research, 11 of them at the Ph.D. level. Students from deve10ped countries who bring their own financial support always make up a large share of both totals; regrettably only 5 of this year's Ph.D. reaearch students are from developing countries.Between 1980 and 1988 CIAT had provlded training at its headquarters station for nearly 2200 professionals. More than 90% were from Latín America and the Caribbean. CIAT's appraisal ls that \"by and large a satisfactory capaclty of human resources for adaptive research has be en deve10ped in most countries where CIAT's commodities are important and where the Center ls expected to operate.\" Although Chapter 4 of this report appraises the situation more cautlously, lt recognizes that CIAT's training achlevements have greatly improved the human resource component of agricultural development.Future aetivlties: trainingClAT's strategle plan for the 1990s deplores the fact that \"existing technology transfer professionals have usually recelved little lf any specific training to perform their role effectively, and the NARDS lack the eapacity to meat this need,\" At the same time, the Centar questions whether such training 15 the best investment of the scarce time of CIAT scientific personnel or other Center resources, To de al with this dilemma, CIAT ls now committed to the following training strategy: (1) Training at CIAT headquarters viII move increasingly avay from multi-disciplinary courses oriented tovard crop production and utilization. Stress viII be placed, instead, on the disciplinary training or other advanced scientific specialization.(2) CIAT viII give vigorous leadership to the expansion of training capacity at regional and national levels, both for adaptive and on-farm research snd for commodity production problem diagnosis and solution (snd the seed sector).(3) As national or regional capacity grows, CIAT viII reduce its direct involvement in in-country and regional training. (Provision of training materials is, hovever, seen as a more or less permanent function compatible vith CIAT's obligation to convey its reaearch product to ultimate usera).This three•part strategy is consistent vith TAC's advice (CGIAR Priorities and Future Strateeiesl to \"scaIe down the production and breeding courses at headquarters\" and \"continue to offer at headquarters the short, highly focused courses in research methods and speciaIized skills.\" The training strategy of the future viII depend heavily on hoy vell CIAT keeps informed about specific country needa. Senior acientists at CIAT have wide knowledge of country staffing situations. Nevertheleas, the frequency of personnel shifts both at CIAT and in national programs make that knovledge vulnerable. The Panel recommends that CIAT systematize its on-going inventory of national program training needa and its schedule for filling them. This wilI require consultation not just with leaders in cqmmodity research programa but vith national research leadera. CIAT commodity scientists wilI need to pool information with CIAT training personnel (especiaIly the training program leader) and also work with other IARCs to identify deficiencies.A major change in CIAT tralning strategy will be to pursue energetically TAC's advice to \"concentrate on the training of trainers to york at the national level and on the preparation of training materials\". crAT's primary emphasis in its program of tralnlng trainers will be on assisting and encouraging NARDs to \"set up or strengthen their own apparatuses to meet the more downstream training requirements of their professionsl staff.\" National training capacity is more realistic for large countries than small, and CIAT will be prepared to support regional as well as national efforts.CIAT's first systematic Train-the-Trainer effort has been in a rice program in the Dominican Republic. Working with national programa in Central America and the Caribbean, CIAT selected participants it vas confident would have training responslbllities at home. The course is producing modules and outlines for rice training which the participants expect to offer there. CIAT viII continue to provide them with advice, further in-service training, and suitable training materials.The Sean Program i5 a150 at work on plana to strengthen lncountryjregionaltraining in Central America and Brazil, and over time the cassava and tropical pastures will move in a similar direction.The Panel endorses experimentation with the train-the-trainer strategy but sees a danger in relying too heavily on it. The stragegy will succeed only to the degree that national partners have both the will and the resources to build training programs of their own or make a durable commitment to regional cooperation. It depends on countries choosing good potential trainers, keeping tham in that function, and providing them with facilities and support --giving them a Job to do and the tools to do it. In many countries those are unrealistic expectations at this time.The Panel endorses the goal of relieving CIAT of responsibility, as soon as possible, for training either in adaptive research snd production or in the \"downstream\" functions of technology trsnsfer. The Panel expects that a mixed and changing strategy will be used, depending on the CIAT commodity snd also on the relative size and strength of the national programs with which it works.For a long time CIAT scientists have been increasingly involved in individual, as contrasted with group, training activities. This trend is expected to continue, at least for headquarters training. Individualized training is expensiva, labor-intensive, and time-consuming. Considerable vigilance will be needed to insure that lt i5 well-planned, wellsupervised, and carefully evaluated.In 1988 the Biotechnology Research Unit offered \"second generatian\" training to established commodity 5eientists who wanted up-dating on tissue culture. This year the Sean Program plans a more general refresher course for mid-career scientists. Need for this kind of up-dating will grew, and CIAr i5 te be commended for taking the initiative in offering it. 5.3.3.4. Support fer M,Sc. snd Ph.D. study CIAr program leaders do not consider thesis research students a burden, and report unused cspaeity to cooperate in theais research. It ls becoming increasingly clear that the problem is much more one of money than of structure. Additional funds are desperately needed to support graduate study for agricultural scientísts in the developing world. If they were available, the other problems of CIAT support to M.Se. and Ph.D. study would not be insuperable.The Panel renews the urging of previous reviews that CIAr seek funding for full fellowship support for graduate study, including thesis researeh with ClAT, for present or prospective cellaborators in country programs.There ls a wider pool of graduate students from developing countries who are not now involved with CIAT commodities or cooperating country programa. CIAT does not consider it efficlent to use its scarce thesis research facilities to support them, becauae their commitment and future employment are uncertain. However, the Panel believes the Centar could banafit by offering a limited number each year of \"thesis assistance grants\" (1nternational travel, meala, 10dg1ng, and the normal research costs) to persons from developing countries who are not now in national programa but who are interested in doing research at headquarters on CIAT commodities. Ibe probable flood of applicants for such awards could be turned to good use if highly competitive awards attracted more of the best young scientists to CIAT commodities.The 1980-87 total of 131 headquarters trainees from Asia and Africa is expected to increaae sharply as CIAT gets deeper into its Asian cassava and African bean programs. In the first eight months of 1989 alone, CIAT's headquarters station was host to 36 Asian and African trainees.CIAT's programs have developed impressive and well-regarded in'country and regional training activities in their regions. These include courses, workshops and monitoring tours and are oftan inter-centar in nature. Ibe Panel commends CIAT's willingness to go some extra steps to serva these distant clients, and urges a continued effort to do so. (2) lf those duties are likely to grow, rnake sure associates have the necessary in-service training opportunities to equip them to do the work expected of them.(3) Even with the present scope of duties, recogni~e that persona in such a key training role need greater opportunities for continued professional growth. This growth could be in training skills snd computer competence as wall as in their disciplines.Proposed changes in CIAT training strategy will require increased cooperation and coordination with other regional and international agencies. CIAT has already initiated such efforts in the 1987 agronomy trials training course in Ethiopia (with CIMMYT) and the forthcoming Central American regional tralning in on-farm research (again with CIMMYT). CIAT has also run joint training courses with lITA in Africa on .field methods for grain legume research. The Panel commends CIAT's awareness of this need for inter-agency cooperation in training, and particularly encourages CIAT efforts to offer training in cooperation with orber IARCs.The achievements of CIAT in training are impressive. CIAT alumni are in key scientific and administrative positions in most countries of Latin America. Users uniformly applaud CIAT's attention to trainlng materlals. Training manual s are described as helpful and comprehensive. Good progress is being made in translating a number of CIAT's key Spanishlanguage materia1s on beans and cassava into English and French to meet CIAT's new training needs on other continents.There is al so appreciation of and considerable demand for CIAT's widely acclaimed audio-tutorial materials. although the prices necessarily charged to cover production costs are high enough to raise the question of how realistically available these materials are to poor countries and to institutions facing fiscal and exchange problems. The Panel concurs in CIAT's view that the 1984 EPR recommendation (ro assign a permanent staff position to leadership of the Audiotutoria1 Materials Section) is too narrow considering the changes that are occurring in training needs and technology.Facilities for training at CIAT are in general excellent. No obvious deficiencies exist in che quality and equipment of classrooms. provision of teaching aids and training materíals. outdoor recreation facilities. lodging. snd mea1 service. Facilities for study and group social/cultural appear to be less satisfactory.The Panel suggests thst CIAT use trainee evaluations and its own planning devices to find out how much the lack of these study and social facilities reduces satisfaction with training and how the deficiencies can be remedied. The lnformation Unit ls primarily s library snd documentation enterprise. It maintains a comprehensive collection of the printed references likely to be required by CIAT scientists, a computerized bibliographic database on CIAT commodities, and access (on-line or otherwise) to similar databas es elsewhere.CIAT has al so accepted the goal of making its materials and bibliographic service easily accessible to scientists elsewhere. 5.4.2. Actiyities and achievements: informatign seryices Tbe library's book collection now comprises about 43,000 volumes, sud 10,000 more are available on microfiche. A Riblio¡raphic Rulletin listing all new non-serial -llbrary acquisitions goes regularly without cbarge to CIAT's own scientists and to 160 institutions worldwide with whom lt has exchange relationships. Tbe library also maintains files of 2,800 serial s or journals. Many of the library's materials are not yet covered by a computer-accessible catalog and abstracts, but a budget allocation has already be en mada for that purpose.Tbree commodlty information centers (Scientific lnformation Centers, or SINFOCs) also maintain comprehensive collections, emphasizing ehe kind of materials nOL usually held in libraries. Tbe 10,000 documenta on cassava and a similar number on field beans are the largest collections of their kind in the world. About 6,000 items have been collected on tropical pastures. AIl three collections are computerized and regular bibliographic publications or the results of searches are generated as printouts. CIAT's bibliographic services are principally made available to scientists elsewhere through commodity Abstract Reviews issued two to four times ayear for cassava, beans, and tropical pastures. Current technology has mada lt relatively easy to produce ltems like the recent specia1 bibliography on Reans in Africa and a similar one in process on cassava in Southeast Asia. The Pages of Contents of 900 scientific journals are assembled and pub11shed for distribution at regular intervals to 700 subscribers in al1 parts of the world. CIAT then offers photocopy servlce to provide any subscriber with a full copy of any article whose title proves of interest.Those responsible for library and SINFOC eollections are exploring distribution of compact disks instead of printed bibliographies and printouts, so that users can search at their own convenienee in their own lnstitutions. Whatever ultimate choiees are made, this alertness to opportunity for change i8 commendable.Tbe Panel urges CIAT management to assist the Unit in following, evaluating. and making effieient use of the new and emerglng technologies for providing bibliographic service.Users of CIAT's bibliographic services are unaniroous in their enthusiasm for it. The library is valued by CIAT staff, who also use the copying service extensively. The published bibliographies it distributes have a valued place in libraries where CIAT commodities are important.Non-users are perhaps more of a problem. For example, in 1988 there were only 65 cassava abstract and 23 bean abstract subscribers in all of Southeast Asia and Australia-New Zealand. Only 4% of 345 bibliographic searches requested froro the SINFOCs came froro all of Africa and Asia, while 40% came froro Colorobians nat directly associated with CIAT.Less than 5% of the requests for photocopies of reference materials from the CIAT collection in 1988 carne from outside Colombia and only 23 requests from all of Asia and Africa.Cost is no doubt a factor, but CIAT is not unwilling to subsidize target users if it can find reasonable ways to do so. What is striking is the enormously greater use of all of these services by Colombian scientists and students than by those from other countries. This is not a cause for complaint; it is mentioned only as evidence that a service highly valued in the immediate region ought to be attracting a similar level of use in other countries where CIAT's mandated commodities are important.The Panel recommends that CIAT explore ways to get wider awareness ' and greater use of its SlNFOC commodity collections and other bibliographic resources. It suggests that photocopying charges be reviewed to see whether any revision in rates i5 feasible, justified, and likely to promote use of the service by CIAT's intended users. lt also notes that other IARCs are developing bibliographic database capacity like CIAT's, and endorses CIAT interest in shared effort and cooperation.Ibe Publication Function 5.5.1.Activities and achievements: publicationsThe Publications Unit produces or cooperates in producing CIAT annual and program reports, network newsletters and publications, books and technical reports, seminar and conference proceedings, and training materíals. An innovation in the past 18 months, the introduction of ENGSPAN (computer translation from English to Spanísh), has glven CIAT interesting new capacity to provide English language scientific reports to Spanish-language users.Future activlties: publications Most CIAT publications now are addressed to researchers working with its mandated commodities.But CIAT feels it has unique capacity to serve \"technology transfer intermediaries\" as well, because of the expertise and experience of its staff in diagnosing production problema and offering technological solutiona for s wide range of ecologies snd farming systems. CIAT hopes to be able, over time, to have some of its \"publication editors\" take on new duties as \"writers\" to help scientists convert their material into usable popular formo 5.5.3. Assessments: publications CIAT publications have sn enviable reputation for the accuracy of their contents and the care with which they are edited and produced.Demands on the Publications and Graphic Arts Units have increased greatly in recent years, and the trend will continue. Up-dating of older materials, service to networks, and growing demands of the CIAT public information effort will add to the normal worklead. In addition, the strategic plan commits CIAT to the new task of making available \"specialized materials to the whole spectrum of upstream to downstream oriented audiences, including technolegy intermediaries.\"The proposed budget and staffing pattern for 1993, which show no significant increase, raises questions as to whether the workload issue i5 belng squarely faced. There has been considerable unhappiness throughout CIAT about slowness in production of publication, and the blame is properly put on limited resources to keep up with the load.One problem may be the lack of a systematic way to prioritize publication requests and needs. lf resources are scarce, careful choices must be made about publication length, urgency, format and distribution. The Panel recomroends attention to the balance between demand for servlces from the publication program and resources available for it. lt also urges that the expected audience and intended use for each publication be taken into account ln setting priorities.The Panel believes that commitment to publications in aid of technology transfer should be approaehed with caution, limiting them to materiaIs that are general (l.e. not location-specific) in nature, that emerge from CIAT's own researeh, and that do not reduce its capacity to produce needed publications or deliver other services te the sclentific community. An already overloaded unit must not be assigned new duties without either new resourees or relief from sOrne current obligations.Where publications go and how they are used ls the ultimate measure of their value. The Panel weIcomes CIAT's decision to review its mailing lista and target more carefully its publication announcements and distribution. In light of budgetary and exchange problems in many national programs, the Panel recornmends eareful analysis of policies for prieing publicstions and other CIAT materíaIs to make sure they accomplísh the desired distribution.Pro&ram Aetiyities in Transition 5.6.1.The Center has a good conferenee facility that offers a favouraQ1e setting for productive exchanges among technieal and seientiftc people. Fifteen to 20 conferenees are held ayear, and total attendance is at least 600 or more. !he conference program ia managed, with no apparent serious cOnflicts or problems, within the framework of the training structure.MUCh conference activity is commodlty related. Typleally, two to four times a yesr there are meetings of bean, cassava, tropical pastura or rice groups. Intersction among in5titutions ls encouraged; within the past year CIAT was able to co-sponsor a useful eonferenee with lITA and CIP on questions of root/tuber produetion.Two ehanges in operstion sre plsnned: without redueing service to eommodity programa, the array of conferences each year will become more varied, lnvolve new partners, and inelude more eross-disciplinary or eenter-wide lssues. Conferenee management will al so go beyond logistieal questions to include advioe and help on how to structure conferences to make them more produotive.Besides press releases and media contacts, CIAT relies on two major publ!c informatlon to01s: CIA! Internatlonal and crAl Report (Informe ~).Both publicat10ns have been very well received, are of good profesaional quallty, and merit continued support.CIAT International ls a magazine-type publication which 15 scheduled to appear twice ayear with reports in popular language on CIAT program changes and research achlevements.CIAT Report, issued annually in Eng1ish and Spanish for general distribution, gives a brief but systematic overview of the year's program, highlighting activities of apeoial importance. Money has been saved snd reader needs better served by issuing the detailed snnual reports for each programming unit as separate publications for a more limited circle.CIAT's strategic plan stresses that in coming years a more aggressive policy will be followed Oto mske the importance of CIAT's activities as widely known as possible.\"The industrializad countrles are mentioned as well as the developing nations ln which CIAT commodities are important. The Panel agrees that continued effort along thase lines 15 desirable, with particular attention to CIAT efforts to carry out a resesrch program that ls fully consistent with sustainability gosla.The Panel recommends that CIAT systematize its on-going of national program training needs and its schedule for fll1ir_ This will requlre consultation not just with leaders in cOmmodlty res\" ... _.~ programs but with national research leaders.The Panel recommends that CIAT explore ways to get wider aWareness and greater use of its SINFOC commodity collections and other bibliographic resources.In light of budgetary and exchange problema in many nstional programa, the Panel recommends careful analysis of policies for pricing publicat10ns and Qther CIAT materials to make sure they accompllsh the desired distr1bution.The Panel recommends attention to the balance between demand for services from the publication program and tesources available for it./ 100 CHAPTER 6. ORGANlZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND PROCESS 1/ 6.1. lntroduction ClAT's management, like that of the other lARCs, faces a continuing challenge of balancing requirements for greater efficiency and accountability with the need to crea te an environment that fostera innovation and scientific progress. Increasing Bize and growing pressure from donora seeking reassurance for their treasuries that their money ls being used effectively impose the demand for accountabl11ty, and the need ta respond to donor pressure 15 a fact of life for the centers. lf anything, it is llkely to grow if the rate of funding increase declines and more activitles are added to the CGIAR System. On the other hand, scientlsts worry that more and more of their tlme ls taken up in respondlng to these pressures.ClAT's scientific staff are already extremely busy. The reasona are obvious: a heavy travel schedule, a huge number of visitors, many reviews and meetlngs, and no •closed\" season for field work. They have a large cadre of excellent support staff who must be kept bus Y on the essential routine work. Time for analysis and reflection on the progress óf research i8 limited.There are other pressures upon CIAT as well. The Center must declde how to incorporate the issue of sustainability, how best to respond to the pressing but disparate needs of the NARS and how far and how fast to mOve some of its work upstream. Most of this will require increasing collaborative work: collaboration among CGlAR and non-CGIAR Centers as they work with national programs and regional networks and organize training; collaboration with other centera, multilateral organizations, and national programs on sustainability tssues; and collaboration with advanced laboratorles in upstream work. The elements of all these have existed in previous decades, but they will certainly grow stronger in the 1990s.These pressures are also certain to lead to changes in research thlnking. For example, upstream research may well be more speculatlve than the research that la currently the norm; the probabilities of success are less, while the póssibility of a high payoff from such isolated successes ia greater. lt 15 relatively easy to predict that a plant breeding program, given time and resources, will come up with an improved plant and to measure progress accordlngly. Progress in upstream research will be much more difficult to measure; its management will require a lighter rein and its impact ls likely to have a different time perspective.This Chapter was written jointly by the EMR and EPR PaneIs and appears in both reports. This chapter, prepared jointly by the EMR and EPR Panels, reflects upon these coneerns, upon past achievements of the Center, and upon its future goals. Here the Panels suggest some directions CIAT might fo1low as lt enters the next decade, when demands will lnevitably change, and new challenges will come to the fore.Structure and Process at CIAT Today A Director of Finance and Adminístration (DFA) , on the same level, supervises an Executive Officer who, in turn, manages human resources (for locally recruited staff) and other administrativa functions, and a Controller, responsible for financial management. Several small units report directly to the DFA: a Projects Off ice to coordinate reparting to donors, a Personnel Off ice for internationally recruited staff, an Off ice handling administrative systems and procedures, and the CIAT Míami Office.An Office of Internal Auditing has an administrative relationship to the DFA but a direct reparting line to the Director General. The De also has an internationally recruited Assistant, wha, among other functions, serves as Secretary to the Board of Trustees.CIAT was founded with and has maintained a commodity focus, although the orientation of che units, and thus their names, has changed over time. Currently, there are four commadity pragrams: Beans, Cassava, Rice, and Tropical Pasturas. Each has respansibility for both research and institutían-building via training and collaborative research with national programs. In addition, a Training and Communications Support Program has be en placed recently on the same organizational level.The Bean Program ls ClAT's largest in terms of the number of internationally recruited staff, a substantial number of whom are outposted in Brazil, Gosta Rica, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. All report to the program leader, although there i8 also a coordinatar for East and southern Afríea and the Great Lakes Region, resident in Ethiopia.The Cassava Program has scientists in Brazil, Ecuador, and Thailand as well as at Palmira; all report to che program leader. The Units are managed by their respective heads under a DDG. Research projects are formulated by an ongoing, informal dialogue among unit heads, program scientists, and program leaders to identify thrusts important to the programs. The DDG arbltrates on priorities. With respect to the Genetic Resources Unit, the program leadera make up an informal committee to negotiate priorities among themselves. To the best of the Panels' knowledge. this mechanism has not yet be en extended to the newer Units.The Units themselves may identify opportunities they see as having potential snd bring these to the programs to gain support for their initiatives.The main research service i9 Station Operations, with responsibility for the upkeep and operation of the ClAT experiméntal atationa at Palmira. Santa Rosa, Qu1l1chao, and Popayán. The Data Services Unit provides computer services. maintains the databas es , and gives advice on experimental design and analysis through lts Biometry Section. The centrally organized Analytical Services Laboratory (ASL) supplements laboratory services within each Programo lts main function is the analysls of so11 and plant tlssue.All three of these services respond to demands from the Programs and the Research Support Units. Scientists put forward their needs independently. Problems in resolving demands are negotiated with program leaders. In the cases oC Station Operations and the ASL, in the last resort thare ls arbitration by small committeas: for Station Operations this is composed of the program leaders and the superintendent of the service; for the ASL it is the Research Services Committee, made up of a scientist from each programo Again, final arbitration ls with the DDG.For the past fifteen years, CIAT has had s CorceCul leader who has imparted to the Centar his own strongly hald valuas regarding the critical importance of ClAT's mission and the need to uphold high standards of both research and management in pursuing it. His own commitment and conCidence have generated the same among the staCf, and the Panels are very pleased to note the widespread pride in ClAT's achievements.ClAT's senior management also beneflts from the combinatlon of skills, experience, and knowledge brought to the Center by its two Deputy Directors General, who share with the Director General a strong commitment to CIAT's mission and fundamental values.CIAr defines its \"management team\" as made up of the DG, the two DDGs, and the DFA, whóm it currently refers to as the \"Directors.\" Ibey meet frequently but irregularly, perhaps three times a week for varying periods of time averaging an hour per meeting. Ibere are a1so countless one-on-one meetings among these persons to discuss issues as they arise, and they circulate their chronological files of correspondence to keep abreast of each other's concerns. Since a1l four travel frequently, it often occurs that one must make a decision in an are a norma1ly the responsibility of another.Ibe Director General holds month1y staff meetings: one month with al1 so-cal1ed principal staff--Senior Staff, Postdoctoral Fellows, Senior Research Fellows, Visiting Scientists, and the top rank (GAS) of the 10cal1y recruited administrative staff; the secónd month with Senior Staff only. Biennual1y, he has a private meeting with each member of the Senior Staff.In pursuit of his goal of participatory management, the Director General has appointed staff to a number of cross-unit standing committees: Ibe Administrative Policy Committee, chaired by the DG, meets as needed--every two to three months--to advise the DG on matters related to personnel policies, management procedures, and key administrative issues, snd is a sounding board for staff concerns on these matters. Ibe management team, the Executive Officer, and two elected Senior Staff representatives comprise the membership.Ibe Leadership Gróup is composed of all members of the management team except the DG, plus al1 Program Leaders. Chaired by one of the DDGs, it was established to discuss various inter-program and Center-wide There are also committees to discuss/coordinate research services, sustainable production systems, fie1d operations, electronic data processing, personnel classification, space planning, Palmira landscaping, and ARCOS (CIAT's staff news1etter).The third important layer of management on the scientific side includes the Program Leaders. These are a11 senior and well-recognized scientlsts, most of whom have spent a number of years at CIAT and seem to have imbibed what may be called the \"CIAT Culture.\" Although their individual styles differ, the Panel s have the impression that they believe in, and practice, participatory management within their respective programs. The senior sclentlsts participate in research program planning and program implementation through constant, though informal, interaction. Most of the units also organize weekly staff meetings to share information and raise substantive research-related issues. From all the evidence, the Program Leaders provide strong and supportive leadership while, at the same time, they have succeeded in creating a col1egíal atmosphere.The Program Leaders must depend on the two DDGs for coordination of their research and outreach accivities and for resolution of any conf1icts of interest.CIAT began work on its earlier strategic plan in 1979, cu1minating in the publication of \"CIAT in the 1980s: A Long-ranga Plan for the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical\" in 1981. This plan was developed through a consultative process involving CIAT staff, the Board of Trustees, and representatives from collaborating NARS and advanced research institutions. In 1985, the Canter prepared a rolling five-year version of the original plan, \"CIAT in the 19805 Revi5ited: A Medium-term Plan for 1986 to 1990.\" This was drafted following the 1984 External Program Review and was designed to address the key strategic iasues raised by the Review.P1anning for the subsequent 5trategy--\"CIAT in the 19905\"--started in October 1987 with discussion by the Board's Executive Comrnittee on the planning procesa. The process thereafter consisted of Centar staff dialogue, interactions with Board members, and meetings with research leaders from Asia, Afriea, and Latín America. Regional meetíngs and the Annual Program Revíews that occurred during the period provided additiona1 opportunities to discuss ideas and review progress.In April 1989, the Program Comrnittee and the full Board considered a completed draft. The refinement of this document has been usad by the Panels as a framework against which to revíew the Center's programs and management. Panel members were impressed by the care devoted to the process and by the wide-ranging consultatíon involved. Nonetheless, they believe that, while the strategy properly charts a path for ClAT's future, it should not form a straitjacket to constrain the creativity of the Center's selentists.In 1988, aftar the start bue wel1 Lefo<\" che completion of che strategíc planning proeess, CIAT responded to requests from TAC and che CGIAR to prepare a fíve-yaar program and funding plan. In spite of the timing vis-A-vis the long-term planning underway, this \"operational\" document reflectad many of the ideas being considered in the long-term plan. CIAT expects to develap a revised five-year plan on the completion of the strategic plan.On an annuE.l basls, CIAT prepares a program and budget plan in accordance with the requirements and tlmetable established by the CGlAR. This document la reviewed by the CelAR Secretariat and TAC, submitted to the donors iOI: funding, and f1nal1y approved to become the operating plan for the fiscal (calendar) year.There are three other planning and review mechanis,\"s at CIAT designed to uphold scientific standards and ensure relevance to ehe Center's objectivea: Internal Program Review, held program-by-program and including al1 headquarters and outposted staff, usually achedu1ed juat prior to the Annual Program Review, to examine on going activities in considerable depth; Annual Program Review, a one-wcek event held at the end of eaeh calendar year and attended by a11 staff (including outposted) and involving an intensive evaluation of one program each year with bricf reports on the activities of the other three. Members of the Program Committee. new Board members, and, of late, sorne external scientists have be en co-opted to participate in these proceedlngs;Program Committee of the Board of Trustees meets twice annually. once in conjunction with the Annual Program Review, to a5sess and report to the full Board on the Center's program plans.The Report of the External Management Review contains additional discussion on the planning process. particularly on its relatlan to budgeting, and makes several recornmendations to better integrate planning at al1 levels.Panel members are unanimous in their judgment that CIAr is a ski11fully managed institutlon. Management problems that have arisen have been attacked vigorously, with the result that none of the iasues raised balo,\", represent matters of critical concern, although they deserve attention.As demonstrated by the establishment of standing committees and the other lines of cornmunieation, top management seeks to encourage broad partieipation in deeision-making. Management's philosophy is to delegate whenever possible to the level elosest to the aetion and to make paliey and resouree alloeation decisions that are Center-wide or that lnvolve more than one unit on the basis of appropriate consultation with those involved, but without abrogating the authority of the responsible offieer. lt is extremely difficult in a short vistt to any institution to determine whether or not an expressed management philosophy 18 actualized. Certainly the Panels observed general, and in many cases high, satisfaction with the work environment, a finding that would be unlikely if staff perceived they were not listened too The reeent culture audit al so evideneed wldespread agreement that \"frequent internal consultatíon facilitates work.\" On the other hand, the Panels believe that the principIe of participatory management could be strengthened to the benefit of CIAT as a whole tf closer eornmunication between the second and third layers of the organization could be achieved and if there were a clearer delegation of authority to the Program Leaders.The commodity programs are the heart of CIAT's research system, and cornmodity Program Leaders have a good deal of autonomy, although sOrne claim that management occasionally makes decisions on both staffing and programmatic matters without consultation. The Panels have every belief that the Program Leaders manage their programs well. The scientific staff appear to have great loyalty to their leaders snd generally feel thst they receive sol id support for their research. However, Program Leaders are strongly defensive of their programs, concerned about whether they will get the kind of service they need from research support units, and somewhat apprehensive of inter-disciplinary collaboration across programs, lest it diminish the maln thrust of the programs, where their firat loyalty lies. The Panels did not find this surprising, but believe that, while it will not stop changes in direction--CIAT's past record emphasizes this--it does make it harder for the Center ta respond to new situations.As noted, the DG, the two DDGs, and the DFA comprise top management. They mest frequently, ahare their chronological files, and otherwise communieate so as to be able to serve as alter egos for one another during their recurrent travel absences. The Panel s sense, despite the existence of the Administrative Policy Committee (chaired by the DG) and the Leadership Group (chaired by one of the DDGs), that staff perceive this to be a somewhat closed group that does not adequately \"touch base\" vertically. However, the management thinks that informal communication does take place on a day to day basis.The Panels believe that decision-making and intra-center cooperation would be enhanced if the next layer of authority were incorporated into the top management team.This does not imply any change in hierarchical authority; rather lt promotes CIAT's aecepted principIe of participatory management. The Program Leaders are in close touch with the scientific staff and with conditions and concerns of the NARS, and they would bring a valuable perspective to management deliberations, In addition, and perhaps more importantly, their participation would stimulate a broader view of overall CIAT strategic issues en their part, he!p break down the \"four-centers-in-one\" mentality, and foster greater inter-program collaboration. Thus the Leadership Group should be superseded by a formal Management Committee constituted by the DG, the two DDGs, the DFA, the four commodity Pregram Leaders, and the Program Leader for Training and Communications Support. The inclusion of the Iast-named leader is necessary because of the inereasing role of trainlng as an input into NARS development. Yhen appropriate to the agenda, the Executive Offlcer and/or the Controller should also join the group, and the Assistant to the DG should serve as seeretary.The Committee's meetings should be sufficientIy regular and frequent. It 5hould be chaired by the Director General whenever he i5 avaiIable, with an agenda planned in advanee and minutes prepared and distributed. The agenda might include: mechanisms for joint ventures between/among programs, strategies to relate to NARS, new initiatives for the Center, and administrative issues. In fact, the Administrative Policy Committee should probably be abolished with its issues brought before this group.The Panels recommend that top management at CIAT be redefined to incorporate the third level in the hierarchy (the Program Leaders) and that a Management Committee be established, to be chaired by the Director General and to meet regularly and frequently, with an advance agenda and formal minutes recorded, In addition, che Panels would like to see steps taken to ensure that the Program Leaders' authority ls in aecord with the responsibility expeeted of them. While they should be he Id accountable for the outcome of program work and for the management of program resources, they should also be delegated concomitant authority. For example, they should direct recruitment and selection of staff--to be sure, with adequata consultatíon and the right of final approval reserved to the DG and che respective DDG; they should be their scientists' first line of contact in decisions related to work plans, sabbatical laaves, performance evaluation, and other personnel matters; they should be involved more direetly in resource pIanning; and they should design the special projects for their programs, The image of authoríty would be effectively strengthened, in the Panels' view, if the title of Program Leader Were upgraded to Director. (lf this were done, the DFA might be titled Associate Director General for Finanee and Administration, thus placing che functlon aboye program leadership while sti1l below the DDGs and emphasizing the preeminence of CIAT's programmatic work.)The Panels recognize that an increase in delegated authority may absorb more of the Leader's tiroe and divert them from personal research. The fact is, however, that program staffs are large, and someone close to the front line must attend to management of research within the program and coordination with other units, oversee relations with national prograros, manage the program's resources, and deal with inevitable personnel issues. The PaneIs recognize that there are several structural models that could achieve these objectives, each with some advantages and some disadvantages, bur have not carried out a detailed analysis of all the alternatives.The Panels recornmend that the incoming Director General, in consultation with the Board of Trustees, evaluate the current structure in the light of the criteria listed above.The successful identifieation of upstream opportunities, particularly in both biotechnology and virology, signals that the units--while stlll support units in that thelr efforts must further the commodity improvement goals of CIAT ro be relevant and acceptable--will be a growing souree of researeh initiatives.Given the strategic move upstream, it is important that the organization and structure of CIAT encourage such moves and, if management finds it appropriate in pursuit of Center goals, further development of the units. While the Panels see no reason for their amalgamation, a course that has be en contemplated, these considerations suggest that coordination and collaboration will allow cost-effective use of facilities and will generate synergy among unit staff in the search for new ideas and research opportunities.In support of these objectives, the Panels believe management should appoint a new internationally recruited staff member on the level of the Program Leaders to oversee and coordinate the three advanced biology units (Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Virology), the Agroecological Studies Unit, and the Seed Unit. At the outset, the holder of this position should concentrate on coordinating the work of the advanced units with the research plans of the commodity programs, which themselves would be responsible for commissioning any other upstream work needed from advanced institutions. Overall coordination of university contacts would then rest with the DDGs. Initially the new leader might al so be responsible for supervision of Data Services, the Analytical Services Laboratory, and Stations Operations, ensuring that they serve the research needs of the commodity programs efficiently and effectively.The Panels recommend the appointment of a Coordinator of Research Support to supervise the work of CIAT's advanced biology units as well as a11 the ocher research services in the interim.At sorne later point when programs in these areas are mature, it may prove desirable to give these activities the status and increased autonomy of a \"Program\" and designate the person involved as Program Leader (or Director).To promote coordination with the more immediate problem-solving work of the programs, the Panels suggest that informal committees involving the Program Leaders be established with respect to biotechnology, virology, and seed production, similar to the one already in place for genetic resources.Strengthening competence in disciplines CIAT's strategic plan asserts the intention to continue management of its research on the basis of multidisciplinary teams organized around single cornmodities and supported by specialized research units. However, the Center does raise the question as to how researchers in individual disciplines can maintain scientific excellence.One way it suggests is through publication in high-quality refereed journals as was also recommended by the second EPR. The Panels noted that CIAT scientists turn out large numbers of publications--about 300 in 1987--with 12% published in internationa1 journa1s and most of the remainder in CIAT-sponsored publications.CIAT argues rightly that its manda te i5 to produce improved technology. Nonetheless, its task ls also to contribute to scientific leadership in tropical agricultural science and to sclentific thinking that has global applícability. Thus, the Panels endorse the encouragement of increased publicatíon in refereed journals included in the CIAT \"Policíes and Procedures Manual\" (No. 1.08 of 15 July 1985) and inclusion of this item in the personal evaluation form and suggest that management devise other specific means for accomplishing this objective.Another way the Center could strengthen competence in disciplines would be ro provide opportunítíes for intra-disciplinary interaction. This occurs naturally in the advanced biology units; more effort wl11 be required to bring it about with respect to scientists attached to the commodity programs.Measures might include: encouraging scientists to set aside some research time for collsboration on sn opportunity or a problem are a wlth potential benefit to more than one program, encouraging regular attendance at disciplinary meetings, and informal workshops to focus on new findings or new methodologies in a given discipline.There is another side to the coin, however. Some program staff see a danger that scienrists in the highly specialized research units will develop their own disciplinary agendas that might not be relevant to the perceived research needs of the programs. The challenge will likely increase as the Center moves into more upstream research, where breadth versus deprh of knowledge in a particular segment of science will have to be determined. In the final analysis, however, the personality and ambitions of the individual scientist will probably be a decisive factor in settling this issue.Various members of the two PaneIs had the opporruniry to meet mar~ of the sclentists in CIAT's outreach operations. There are 32 currently stationed outside Colombia, projected to increase to 37 in 1993. Unlike sorne of the lARCs where outposted staff reporr to a Director for Outreach, ClAT's outposted scientists are an integral part of their respective commodity programs. The PaneIs confirmed that this is a satisfactory arrangement as far as the individual scientists are concerned.However, the problems facing outposted staff are very different from those facing staff at Palmira, and it is difficult for managers from headquarters visiting for short periods to appreciate fully the petty frustrations that are the hallmark of their day-to-day operations. Among them are seemingly irrelevant financiaI reporting requirements, delays and misunderstandings in decisions, problematical research infrastructure, and the need to spend considerable time on administrative mattera that would be dealt with by support units at headquarters. For example, scientists must themselves recruit assistants and manage them in accordance with local laws and customs, sometimes involving several countries. The Panels want to emphasize, however, that these problema do not affect the high quality of the work done by ClAT's outposted scientists. They are recorded as perceptions that deserve management attention.Clear1y. the independence demanded of outposted staff as we1l as the nature of their work wirh national programs suggests that special personal characteristics must be among the qualifications sought. Tbese include cultural sensitivity. adaptability. competence in negotiation. and pedagogic ski lIs as weIl as substantial research experience. Tbe CIA! scientists met by the Panels seemed especially well suited to their assignments.Tbe Panels would also consider it valuab1e for staff to spend more time at headquarters before being posted elsewhere than appears to be the case presently. Tbere is probab1y no better way to understand CIAT's culture and purposes or to build a commitment to the Center's strategic goals and operational objectives.Tbe Panels strongly endorse the placement of CIA!'s outposted scientists in the NARS facilities in most countries in which they are posted, while retaining a regional brief. Tbis close association has certainly strengthened ClAT's responsiveness to lts clients' needs and could be practiced by other CelAR Centers. Tbe development of Steering Committees in the African Bean Program has been very succes5ful in giving the national scientists a major role in determining program dlrection. On occaslon. however. there may be confllcts within the Steering Committees about priorities. It i5 essential that the members themselves resolve these before the Center becomes involved. Tbe Steering Committees should be encouraged in their independence and the Center and donors should be very sensitive to imposing their views on the Committees. Tbis ls likely to be counterproductive.Increasing NARS participation in operational planning An important element of ClA!'s manda te ls assistance in building reaearch capacity within national programs. As Center staff have so clearly demonstrated. a long-term lmpact i5 moat effectively pursued through a collegial approach. In order to ensure, therefore. that the Center's operational plans are in harmony with the current needs and interests of the NARS, the Panels suggest that management conslder inviting a few selected leaders of the appropriate commodity research programs of the relevant NARS to take part in the Annual Program Review. CIlAPTER 7 -CENERAL ASSESSKENT AND FIlT\\JRE DlRECTIONS CIAT 15 one of the older Centers af che system; lt started with a very broad brief whích has be en gradually narrowed over the years by cutting sorne programs while expanding or redirecting others. The Center operates on a mix of global, regional and cornmodity mandares.It is relatively eaay to define the program and focua of a eornmadity program but regional mandates are subject to polítical pressures as well as technical eonsiderations. The deteriorating foad situation in Afríea, the levels of poverty and hunger, the rapid population inerease and the lack of growth in its economy will demand increasing attention from every aspecto including research, of the international donor community. However, several national research programa must be at and/or near the limit of their eapacity to effeetively absorb ce System network projects. Eveu more crucial is theie likely ability to opera te and maintain these projects when a Center withdraws.Though it has made great strides in developing food production, Asia' s food supply remains precarious and it faces major problems in expanding incomas, so that cash crops, both traditional and non-traditional, have a major role in the future.In Latin Ameriea the regional and national disparities in land distribution mean a large number of resource-poor farmers are dependent on a few crops for food and ineome. The larger farmers wi11 continue to dominate the supply of food for urban areas. and al so for agricultural exports so desperately needed for foreign exchange.OVerarching a11 of these is the question of natural resourCe degradation. Warld attention has been focused on the Amazon but this is only a part, though a very visible one, of a global problem which is not confined to the tropical lowlands.CIAT's strategie plan has addressed these issues and has artempted to find a balance between these eompeting and sometimes conflicting demands. Operationalizing this plan to allocate enough resourCeS 1.e. a critical mass of research resources to address the under1ytng technical cornponents of these issues will be a continuing challenge to the Center.The Panel found that the strategie plan was use fuI in fulfilling its terms of references to address the question \"the appropriateness and effectiveness of the Center poliey and strategy for the development of its programo. The Panel believes that, apart fram the visible output of this planning exereise, the intangible output, the experience gained by all those involved in the process, ls invaluable. lt would be useful if this experience could be eaptured for the benefit of other lARCs and national programs. Very substantial efforts and resources are golng lnto strategic planning in agricultural research systems. The benefits may not be known for several years, but CIAT's experienee would be very useful in guiding others as to the usefu1ness of both the process and the outcorne.The achievements of the research programs have been noted in Chapter 3. For rice the impact of the research continues to enhance agricultural production in Latin America and the Center has had an important role in maintenance research on the crop. Because of the nature of the sub-sector in Colombia farmer yields in both irrigated and favoured upland areas are quite close to those on experimental farms. However, production costs are very high and CIAT's research is contributing to cost reduction by lowering the amount of inputs, particularly pesticides. This i5 a contribution to both lowered production costs and decreased environmental contamination.CIAT's role in cassava work includes both the conventional research activities on improving productivity and work on post-harvest conservation and eonsumption. While eassava has been a major cash crop in parts of Asia for many years (for starch and more recently for animal feed) its development in Colombia and Ecuador as a cash crop for both feed and food opens up sorne useful possibilities for increasing rural ineomes. The Center's work on beans has secured widespread recognitlon and the example of the rapid spread in Guatemala of CIAT national program bean varieties, illustrates the major role to be played by a combination of an effective national program and a variety that was markedly superior in yield to the local variety, because of its reslstance to virus.Varieties of grasses emanating from the eollection and breeding program at Carimagua have spread widely. However, the development of grass legume mixtures promises to open up new prospects of development for the Llanos. Grass legume pastures, as part of a rotation with cash erops like rice or soybean, present an unequalled opportunity for development of large areas of poor lands.CIAT has had an important impact in other areas of agricultural development. The training programs have made a substantial contribution ro the growth of scientific capaclty within national research systems and the information system has been used by scientists throughout the tropics. Users of the bibliographic service strongly support it but its circle of influence needs to be much wider. Lack of scientific information of any sort i8 a chronic problem throughout most of Africa. This ls perhaps even more important in the universities than in national programs. Students graduating from these universities have little familiarity with up-to-date literature, particularly the commodity oriented materíals for which CIAT can be rightly proud.CIAT' s efforts in seed production research are tackling a long standing and difficult problem facing agricultural development partlcularly for small farmers growing mainly subsistence crops. Small farmers are always prepared to pay commercial prices for hybrid maize, for example. The increased yields resulting from the combínation of hybrid seed and fertilizers make it worthwhile for them to do so. If farmers do not use inputs, other than improved seed, the question then becomes one of estimating whether increased yield will induce the farmer to buy new seeds from large or small seed producers. If lt ls, then there are likely to be opportunities for the artisanal seed producers that are being encouraged by CIAT.The Panel was impressed with the quality and quantity of research in the Programs of CIAT, particularly in regard to work on adaptation to stress and in the extent of the release of new varieties with multi-resistance to a spectrum of biotic and environmental stresses. Genetie improvement in these materials has been assoeiated with an increase in the understanding of the physiological bssis of this resistance and of agronomic practices which help reduce the stress. There is a solid flow of researeh results, and of germplasm, to the national programs CIAT is serving and to international agriculture. New persistent legumes snd grasses for tropicsl pastures, upland rice varieties tolerant of acid so11s with high Al levels, beans with broad resistance to disease plus increased yield potential and cassava free of viral pathogens are specific examples.In producing this material CIAT is aware it is not sufficient to screen merely for tolerance. New ideas about the intensity of the challenge, infection levels, the dynamics of pest and pathogen populations, and the nature of durable and partial resistance are being integrated into the breeding programa.A notable feature of ClAT's approach to its extensive inter-country collaboratlon ls the incorporation of its outposted staff within national services, another is the multi-disciplinary approach it takes to its commodity programs in which the lnterplay of economists and biological scientists has been most productive. A significant move to upstream research is also taking place with the establishment of specialized units in biotechnology and virology. CIAT is sensitive to the need to ensure the work of these units remains problem-oriented and that they serve the needs of its commodity programs. A significant number of collaborative research projects with other institutions are in place thereby widening the pool of expertise that CIA! can draw upon and enlarging its research base in a cost-effective manner.Ibe low input philosophy proclaímed by CIAT has its origins in a distributlon objective, of seeking to help the poor sectors of the farming community. lts slgnificance in operational terms lies in the emphasis given to producing lateral resistance to vsrious stresses, snd not to the negligible use of purchased inputs, particulsrly fertilizer. lt is a philosophy open to misinterpretation on two counts, its restricted meaning at CIAT, and its utility in a region where there iB an urgent need to increase the productivity of agricultural land.A major challenge 18 how to improve production gains in ita manda te are a without compromlsing the orientation to resource -poor farmers. Steady incremental advances in the genetic yield potential of ita target-crops are likely to accrue which, when screened over a decade and so, will make a significant overall contribution to food production, but these advances would be increased by exploiting to a greater degree the potentials available in better agronomic and pest control practices, larger fertilizer inputs in reducing harvest and past-harvest losses, and by giving greater explicit recognition to the large quantity of market supplies which originate from larger farms.Land degradation in Latin America arises through deforestation and cultivation of fragile, often upland soils. Tax incentives snd policies that encourage exploitation of new lands, particularly forest areas, and low productivity in existing farm areas lead to these expansions. New agricultural technology can influence unsatisfactory policies and increase productivity and thus encourage sustainable systems. Sustainability of production 18 a principle that CIAT embraces with enthusiasm.Its staff are well aware that both resource-rich and resource-poor farmers may sacrifice ecological stability for short-term gains but only the latter are driven by the imperativa of survival. The concepts of sustainability and a low input phllosophy are compatible when foad supplies are adequate, but as the deficits projected for the next decade increase prices, and hence poverty, the conflict between these approaches wl11 become more pressing and the need for CIAT to broaden its approach that much greater.Ocher areas of activity oi the research programs where the Panel has sorne concern focus on the need to ensure adequate resources for collecting and screening of germplasm, for che collation of information on the occurrence and distribution of maj or production constraints, in increasing the statistical precision with which some yield trials have been conducted and in examining the balance of resources provided to each programo 7.3.Relations with NARDS is a theme that permeates mosr of the discusslons on international agricultural research. To the lARes it means the development of national research capacity. CIAT, as Chapter 4 points out, is deeply involved nor only through its commodities research, but al so through tts training programs and tts regional networks; lt plans to increase this involvement in the coming decade. However CIAT, in common with other IARCs, faces some formidable problems in helping the development of NARDS. Weaknesses in national research and development programs are a reflection oi the weaknesses in the public sector generally. All segments of the public sector Buffer from the same kinds of problems, though they may differ in degree. Indeed research systems may suffer even more from lack of resources than other public sector enterprises because the visible impact takes time and the value of research output depends so much more on quality rather than quantity. In a few countries weak public sector research is compensated for by strong private research institutions.Tbe strength of CIAT's client NARDS varies withln and among regions and among cornmodities; these strengths and weaknesses haya many causes. In Latin America even the best institutions are suffering severe financia1 difficulties.lt is difficult to predict the impact of these on scientists' morale or how long it takes before a research institution losses its scientific momentum. Institutional decay can be very rapid, institutional development very slow.In Africa research institutes suffer from lack of well-trained and experienced staff and lack of financial resources. While the former can be improved fairly quickly the latter may take years to overcome taking into account the slow growth of the economies. So the outlook for developing self-sustaining research institutions in Africa is rather bleak and, as there seem to be few examples of self-sustaining research programs within weak institutions (without donor intervention), Genter collaboration with national programs should be viewed as a long-term understanding.Another area of challenge to CIAT ls the fact that CIAT's manda te commodities have a dominant role in agricultural production in only a few areas, unlike wheat, rice and maize. The Center does not of course, work with national programs without their invitation; nevertheless the presence of CIAT may influence national programs in various ways; it may unbalance the priorities; lt may lead the national institution to decide that its limited resources could be used better on other important crops. On the other hand the national institutions might regard the presence of a vigorous and successful research program as a demonstration of what research can do, thus eonfirming to the national policy makers that research is worthwhile.The network system has the capability of counter-acting some of these pressures.It helps to give the research a broader base over several countries, where a particular commodity is collectively important, but 1ess important on a country basis. It imparts a degree of stability to the research systems. Perhaps more important, it imbues the scientists involved with a sense of motivation. In East Africa the Panel was very pleased to note that the national scientists appeared to have a good morale, in spite of the many and serious logistie and financial problems which were part of their daily lives.The Panel thinks that it would be a mistake to have too many Center staff in a particular network. It recognizes that there are urgent problema but numbers alone will not solve them. Over a 5-10 year perlod it may be possible to bulld a network that ls intellectually selfsustaining. Whether it will be financially se1f-sustaining is another matter. In theory CIAT shou1d withdraw when the former is attained, but then its withdrawal would likely lead to the collapse of the network for financial reasons.Training is one of the crucial areas in developing national research capacity and this has received very strong support from scientists and program leaders at CIAT. CIAT's strategic plan for the 1990s deplores the fact that many NARDS are not yet in a position to provide training for the technology transfer professionals who help move research findings into farm practice. Yet it doubts the wisdom of investing searee time of CIAT scientific peraonnel or other Center resources in such training. To de al with this dllemma, CIAT is now committed to a strategy conslstent with TAC's advice (CGIAR Priorlties and future StrateKies) to \"scale-down the production and breeding courses at headquarters' and concentrate on \"ahort, highly-focused courses in research methods and speclalized skills.\" This wlll include courses to familiarize mid-career scientists with new research developments and techniques. The second part of the new training strategy is more difficult --to build national or regional tralning strength in the areas of production, adaptive research, and technology transfer. Although timeconsuming now, CIAT's commitment to helping build this strength should, in the long run, release rather than absorb lts staff strength and energies.There is afurther question about CIAT' s role in training at the level which links research and extension. Kany reports deplore the weaknesses of these linkages and most suggest that on-farm testing has a major role in stimulatlng the linkages and providing the feed back that research needs. All too often, unfortunately, this is rhetoric and there la little meeting of minds in the two separated institutions. Training in on•farm teating is more than the provision of techniques and methodology. It is the changing of attitudes, particularly of researchers that ia an important part of the technology development process. If the Center's withdraw5 from this particular area it i5 difficult to see who is going to fill the resulting vacuum. Few other institutions can match the IARC's record in changing attitudes to agricultural research.The EMR and EPR PaneIs have wr1tten a joint chapter on the management of the Center. The Panels have been unanimous in their view that the Center has been well managed. Scientists are a180 unanimous in 8aying management has been fully supportive of their efforts. The concern of the Panel has been with the future, the new challenges to the Center as it moves more of its research upstream. the development of the NARDS, the issues of sustainabl11ty and the generally increasing complexity of inter-Center collaboration, as the System takes on new tasks. In suggesting ways in which CIAT could change to meet these challenges, the Panels have been well aware of the complexity of managing these tasks.The External Review Panel thank the management and staff of CIAT for the support they have given to us at all stages of the review. The open nature of the discussions, the prompt and positive responses to requests for time, the helpful attention of the Assistant to the Director General and the support staff and the hospitality of the Director General and the Board have enbanced the productivity of the Panel and made its task an enjoyable one.The Panel appreciated the opportunity for the Chairman to attend the meeting of the Board in March and have informal discussions with the Trustees. Also the opportunity to present its findings to the Board and the scientific staff at the end of the review.The EPR is grateful for the reception of its members by ICA officials in Bogota and in ICA Stations in Colombia. It ls also grateful for the reception accorded its members by officials of the national research services in Thailand, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda. The willingness of busy officials to discuss CIAT is a reflection of its standing with its partners.The Panel wish to extend its grateful thanks to Ms Marioara Lentini of the TAC Secretariat, together with Maria del Socorro Lesso and Maruja Rubiano of CIAT for their continually pleasant demeanour in the face of long hours worked and their unfailing helpfulness in the preparation of the reporto It has been a pleasure and a privilege to Panel Members to spend a short time within the CIAr community.CIAT is a well-managed institution. This was the main conclusion of the first External Management Review, which took place in 1984, and it is very much the impression of this Panel.. CIAT Today. Since 1984, many changes have taken place in eIAT's internal and external environment. It is a much larger institution; its research programs are more complex; infrastructure and facilities are more developed; and outreach activities are much more extensive. As a result of changes in the external environment, the Center has had to go beyond its primary objective of rapid increase in food production. The issues of sustainability, environmental protection, equity, and gender have had to be accommodated in its plans and programs. The funding position is becoming increasingly difficult; hence, CIAT must be more proactive in the management of its finances. Finally, there is a growing tension between the need and the desire for upstream research and institution-building tasks. In general, CIAT has responded to these changes judiciously and well.Legal status and Goyernance. In the past year, CIAT attained international organization status. Although the process was lengthy and difficult, the Center handled it successfully. With this new status, CIAT is now able to operate with greater confidence, both within its host country and in other parts of the world.CIAT's relationship with Colombian institutions is cordial and constructive.It also has agreements with and staff posted in 12 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia; there are less formal arrangements with a number of other countries that permit the Center to work collaboratively with local scientists, distribute nurseries, collect germplasm, etc. In the Panel 's view, these relationships are generally excellent.The Panel reviewed the Board's performance in the areas of pOlicy-making, oversight, management of Board operations, and relationship with management as well as the process of the selection of the new Director General. OVerall, the Panel considers the performance of the CIAT Board to be satisfactory. Its committees appear to operate effectively, although the Panel recommends that the terms of reference of the Executive Committee and the Audit and Operations Review Committee be defined more clearly.Organizational Structure and Process. The External Management and Program Review Panels have jointly examined the organizational structure and process of CIAT. Panel members are unanimous in their judgment that CIAT is skillfully managed and its leadership is well qualified and resourceful. As a recently conducted cultural audit suggests, the management and the staff at all levels widely share the norm to uphold high standards of both research and management in pursuing ClAT's mission.The Panel s believe that the principIe of participatory management could be strengthened to the benefit of CIAT as a whole and recommend that top management be redefined to incorporate the third level in the hierarchy (the Program Leaders) and that a Management Committee be established, to be chaired by the Director General and to meet regularly and frequently, with an advance agenda and formal recorded minutes. Organizational structures invariably evolve over time, based on historical circumstances as well as the talents and abilities of existing personnel. The two Panel s recommend that the incoming Director General, in consultation with the Board of Trustees, evaluate the current structure in the light of the criteria listed in Chapter 3 of this reportoThe successful identification of upstream research opportunities, particularly in biotechnology and virology, is a strategic goal of ClAT. To promote this, the Panel s recommend the appointment of a Coordinator of Research Support to supervise the work of ClAT's advanced biology units as well as all other research services.ClAT's strategic plan asserts the intention to continue management of its research on the basis of multidisciplinary teams organized around single commodities and supported by specialized research units. lt does recognize, however, the importance of maintaining excellence in relevant scientific disciplines. The Panel s suggest that the Center design mechanisms to promote intradisciplinary interaction.The Panel s endorse the close integration of ClAT's outposted scientists in the four commodity programs and commend the collegial relationships they have developed with the national agricultural research services with which they work. There is a need, however, for ClAT headquarters to help them reduce time spent on financial management and administrative chores.Planning, Budgeting. and Review. Over the past two years, ClAT has engaged in an elaborate process of strategic planning and, at the time of this review, has a plan in final draft. The next step is to revise its medium-term and annual operational plans to better reflect these strategic objectives.CIAT's budgeting and reporting system has been improved since the last EMR, and the final budget for each cost center serves as a firm plan against which expenses can be controlled. However, participation in the budgeting process has not been as broad as it might be, and the Panel recommends that the process be revised to include consultation on all aspects of the budget, including staffing patterns and costs, with those who will have the responsibility for budget implementation, down to the level of each cost center. This revision, by building staff commitment, should enhance budget compliance.Management of Human Resources. CIAT has an extremely well-qualified local staff, many of whom haya bean employed by the Center for an unusually long periodo The personnel function is highly professional and uses careful analyses of the local employment market to set salaries and benefits. The fact that CIAT has shown great sensitivity to the concerns of the local staff is reflected in the positive results of the recently completed cultural audito Partly in response to strongly felt interest, a training needs assessment is now underway. We recommend that management pursue vigorously the assessment of needs in the area of staff training and career development, design a more systematic set of policies to respond to the identified needs, and commit adequate resources to assure their realization. communications with this staff group is another area that needs attention.There are currently 86 Senior staff positions at CIAT, in addition to 18 Postdoctoral Fellowships and 16 Senior Research Fellowships. Management pays considerable attention to recruitment for these positions, each of which represents a substantial investment by the Center and an important element in its ability to reach strategic goals. It needs to investigate remedies to recruitment constraints. To assist members of the Senior Staff to better fulfill their management responsibilities, we recommend that all first-line supervisors be trained in financial management as is relevant to their assignments, as well as in supervisory skills. To meet the career development interests of staff, CIAT has recently instituted a policy of short-term study leaves. As another measure, that could as well help scientists translate their substantial data into scientific publications, we recommend that CIAT seek or help identify funding for and recruit well-qualified Masters and Ph.D. candidates to conduct their dissertation research under the supervision of CIAT Senior staff scientists.CIAT has shown itself to be committed to planning at every level. We believe that preparation of an annual workplan by each individual scientist is a rung on the planning continuum that will ultimately ensure fulfillment of the strategic goals. In addition, such workplans become the basis for an equitable and objective performance evaluation and a means of course correction for the subsequent year. Therefore, we recommend that CIAT design and implement a system of individual performance planning and evaluation. Financial Management. Financial management at CIAT has improved substantially since the last EMR and is one of CIAT's areas of strength. The development and implementation of an improved management information system has led to important improvements in financial control and reporting, especially at the Palmira headquarters. We recommend that efforts be continued to extend these improvements to CIAT's outposted staff.Changes in the international economy have affected CIAT by both altering its usual cash flow pattern and by causing changes in its expected income due to fluctuations in currency exchange rates. We recommend that CIAT increase its working capital reserves to protect itself against delays in the receipt of contributions from donors, and that it pursue, with the CGIAR and other centers, the development of innovative funding mechanisms so as to improve its long-term financial stability. We also recommend that the CGIAR Secretariat and the centers jointly establish procedures so as to take advantage of opportunities for debt conversion operations. General Administration. CIAT's general administration was commended by the Panel not only for its service and efficiency but also for its deep commitment to improving its own capabilities in providing the necessary support for the Center's research operations.The CIAT of tomorrow may differ significantly from the CIAT of today programmatically and in terms of its manda te , yet we believe its administrative structure and managerial processes have imparted a resilience to the institution to cope with the uncertainties of the future. \"Through international agricultural research and related activities, to contríbute to increasing sustainable food production in deve10ping countries in such a .. ay that the nutritional level and general economic .. ell-being of lo .. income people are lmproved. uThe Ob' ect i ves QLEPRs are: l.-to evaluate for the CGIAR the programme of the Centre, in particular wíth respect to: 2.-lo assess for the CGIAR, in the context of its goal:(a) the appropriateness and effeetiveness of the Centre's po1icy and strategy for the development of lts programmel (b) the standing in the world of the Centre's programme and staff in research, training, and relatad activities, and its relationships with other lARCs, national and international organisatíons, and prívate interests concerned with the research¡ 1 \"Centre\" for the purpose of this document comprises the Board, the Director and staff of all CGlAR institutions, whether designated as Association, Board, Centre, Institute, Laboratory or Services. in light of 1 and 2 aboye, to revie~ and eomment on the he effectiveness oí the Centre's provisioos for:(a) developing and upaating ita objectives and the strategies to reach them (operational mandate, long-term plan, medium-term projections);(b) measuring results and impact of past efforts and, as a consequence. adjusting príorities by dropping, adding or modifying activities as required;(e) ensuring appropriate allocation of resources to: researeh Majar Latin American ecosystems are the Tropical Forests, the South American Savannas and the Andean Hillsides. These main regions have to be expanded with other zones where important production systems inc1uding rice, beans and eassava are found. Afriea and Asia also haya large areas where CIAT is actually working.The Tropical Forests ecosystem is comprised of two large areas; (a) a semi-evergreen seasonal forest region, characterized by a short but defined dry perlod (3-4 months), occupying vast areas of the Amazon and Orinoco basins of Bolivia, Brazi1, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Venezuela, as we11 as sizeab1e areas in Central America and the Caribbean; and, (b) the tropical rain forests, \",lth higher total rainfall and no defined dry period, occurring in the Andean Piedmont of the Amazon in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru as well as in the west central lowlands of the Amazon basin, including southeastern Colombia, northeastern Peru and northwestern Brazil.Farmers poor in land and resources are drawn to this fragiIe environrnent by land availability and the opportunity to produce crops using nutrients released by Che burning of the forest cover. This fertility depletes rapidly and the colonists moye an. The challenge is to halt deforestation by means of an appropriate system that will ensure sustainable use of land and water resources. New acid-tolerant pastures developed by CIAT hold great potential, particularly for reclamation of already degraded areas.Within the ecosystem of the South American S avanna s , two sub-ecosystems can be considered: (a) well-drained tropical savannaS or the lowland areas (Llanos) close to the equator, and areas of higher elavation represented prlmarily by che Cerrados of Brazil; and (b) poorly-drained tropical savannas oecurring primarily in the lowlands of Bolivia (Beni), Brazil (Pantanal de Mato Grosso), Colombia (Casanare), and Venezuela (Apure).Savanna regions can support extensiva livestock systems on native pastures even though the acidity and low fertility of the soils have produced only poor quality native grassland vegetation.Carírnagua, the ICA/CIA! experimental statíon located in the eastern plaíns oi Colombia, is the majar forage screening site for the well drained savannas. CIAT has collected snd evaluated there many grasses and legurnes that are acid tolerant snd perform well undar natural soil conditions. Integrated \"ley farming ll schemes which combine crops (acid tolerant rice lines and cassava) and improved pastures are being developed for the Llanos of Colombia.ANNEX VI -Paga 2 Tha ecosystem of the Andean Hillsides encompasses mid-elevation areas of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.Small farms and dual-purpose systerns are very irnportant in this ecosystem. Cropping of hillsidas has been exacerbated by high population pressure. Similar characteristics appear in che hillside mid-elevation areas of Central America and Mexico. Bean production tends to be concentrated at intermediate and high altitudes in areas with high rural population densities within this ecosystern. Particularly important are systems of bush, semiclimbing and climbing beans in different associations with maize.These major ecosystems eertainly take a great part of the CIAT's mandate area. However, seattered across tropical and subtropical South Ameriea and in large regions of Mexieo and Central Ameriea, are other areas with rainfall patterns ranging from subhumid to humid types: low to medium altitude tropies. eool highlands and sub-tropical areas, and irrigated aud non-irrigated coastal regions. In all of these, important production systems for rice, cassava and beans occur.Humid and sub-humid eeosystems with low fertility soils snd fragile and eroding tropical hilIs and mountain slopes, are not restricted to Latin Amertea and the Caribbean. Eastern and Southern Afriea as well as West Asia and North Afríea, have important areas where beans are a signifieant source of both caloríes and protein. In Southeast Asia, wíth vast are as ranglng from acid to moderately acid soils, natíonal pasture research programs are successfully testing CIAT germpIasm. Southern aud Eastern Asia are al so important cassava produetion areas covered by ClAT's mandate.The food eeonomy of the tropies CIAT's actual manda te then, is coneerned with vast areas in the three regions of the world: Latin Amerlca, Africa and Asia. They share a eornmon need for improved agricultural technologies, but the differenees in their resouree base, cultural values and patterns of development call fer different maero-eeonemíc and agrieultural policies and requira that CIAT and other lARCs working thete have regionally-differentiated program researeh thrusts.The following seetiens briefly describe the food eeonomy in eaeh region.Rates of growth in produetion of major food crops have been consistently better for Latin Amariea over the 1ast 25 years than for other regions ang developing countries. From 1962 to 1972 total foad production grew at arate of 4.2% in Latin American, eompared to 3% over a11 developing countries.In the following decade the Latin American growth rate was equal ta the overall average. In the 19605 growth in ANNEX VI . Page 3 yie1ds per hectare accounted for 35X of Latin America's increased food output, while in the 1970s this contribution had risen ta over 60X.Urbanization has been a driving force in last two decades. In the early 1960s, 51.2% of Latín America was rural compared to 30.7% in 1986. Thls transformatlon has had a dramatic impact on the food system, consumer preferences, and the deve10pment of agro-industry.Growing lncomes, greater urbanization, increased labour force, and popu1ation growth (2.6% in 1961/70 to 2.4% in 1981/86) a11 combined to continua11y íncreased demand for food.Overal1, growth of food consumption in Latin America has exceeded the growth of production sínce 1970. In the 1960s the region was a net food exporter; in the years 1961-65 nearly four million tons per year were exported. By 1978-80, this trade had become almost four milI ion tons of net imports. Cereals and vegetable oils account for a very significant part of the rise in food imports of Latln America.What has happened in Latin America? Both non-economic and economic factora enter into its poor agricultural performance in recent years. Civil and political upheavals have helped to create a discouraging environrnent for investment and production opportunities. Changes in world production and financial markets haya worsened the terms of erade for traditional agricultural exports. Finally, and perhaps most important, early industrializatíon policies of import substitution and overvalued exchange rates discrlminated strongly against agriculture in many Latin American countries.A long period of industrialization disequilibrium and rapid debt accumulation, plus other unfavourable internal and external factors, have created in Latin America problems with no precedent in history. Probably no other region has been as hard hit by the international debt crisis, although toward the end of the decade this crisis has caused a realignment of exchange rates, improved domestic competitiveness of the agricultural sector and stlmulated exporta.With significant comparative advantages in a number of agricultural products, stabilization and adjustment policíes are beíng implemented wíth the goal of creating foreign exchange savings or generating foreign exchange earnings to act as a major source of economic reactivatíon.Rapid incorporation of new technologies into production systems is also needed, both to help reconquer the domestic market loat to imports and to improve trade competitiveness for exports to the world markets. In addition Latin America will need help in facilitating agricultural trade adjustment.Economic performance of sub-Saharan Africa has be en consistently weak for more than a generation. By the 19BOs per capita incornes had fallen to about three-quarters of the level reached by the late 19705. In most sub-Saharan countries aggregate par capita calor le availability 1s below the minimum nutr1tional standard. Serious malnutrition 1s the ANNEX VI -Page 4 result, wich sorne 60;; of che population estimated to suffer from insuffieient proteín-energy intake. This regían has had the slowest expansion of food production, not only per eapita but also in total, among the world's regions.Poor performance has been due to externa1 factors as we11 as weak economie domes tic policies and unusually high population growth.Yields of major food crops haya been stagnant for two decades, and production increases in the 1960s were achieved solely through area expansiono As the rata of growth in are a cu1tivated slowed in che 1970s, the annual production growth rate fell to 1.2%, well below the population growth rata of 2.9% te 3.3%.Recently, many African countríes have adopted structural adjustrnent programs, improving export and domestic commodity prieing policies and government economic management. However, these measures are not likely to produce irnmediate responses given the wide gap between production aud population growth rates and other structural constraints.Unlíke the sítuatíon in other developíng regions, increases in produetion of agricultural nontradables in sub-Saharan Africa are not market driven. Close to 70% of the people in Africa live in rural areas, consuming most of what they produce. Raising the real income of these people is a prerequisite of any poliey aimed at improving the African standard of living, and that calls for irnmediate emphasis on increasing food supplies.Cassava and beans offer exeellent opportunities for increasillg such supplies through productivity gains.Contribution of eassava and beans to calorie intake and protein intake respectively, are of paramount importanee in Equatorial and East-Southern Afriea.Developing agricultural teehnology that 1s adoptable within sueh an eeonomie envíronment í5 a challenge. Suitable technology must meet the standards of low cost with mínimal risk. Nevertheless it is likely that growth in productívity of food to match growth of population will require substantial inputs into the agricultural producing economies.Given the urgeney of inereasing food supplies in sub-Saharan Africa, \"intelligent borrowing\" has been poíntad out as an important souree of acquiring new agricultural technology.Asia is the largest and most haavily populated of the developing regions of the world. In the first years of the post-war period, the combination of the bulk of the population residing in the rural sector, hígh population densities, extremely limitad farm siza, and arate of growth in food production that barely kept pace with population, created a sense of despair about Asia's ability to faed itsalf. Over the past two decades, the Green Revolution has stirred optimism by allowing growth in the agricultural sector to proceed at a relatively high rate.The rice economy is about the only homogeneous element that runs through the different agricultural seetors of tropical Asia. Rice is the ANNEX VI -Page 5 major calorie source in the diet as well as the major \"ource of farm income.Cassava i5 the second most important carbohydrate staple, followed by maize.Unlike other regions a large portian of Asia's rural populations i5 landless, making much of the rural population dependent upon wage incorne for their food. As a result, despite progress in food production it is estirnated that more than 60:t of Asia' s people are undernourished. A considerable share of the hungry are in countries that have attained food self-sufficlency.Rapid structural change through export-oriented industrialization ls occurring in many of the economíes of Southeast Asia. The urbanization and income changes inherent in this process are inducing rapid diversificatlon in food demand and in turn creating new opportunities for the agricultural sector. An example ls the rapidly rislng demand for livestock products and in turn for feed gralns.Diversification will be demand-led under these circumstances, and will be best-stimulated by policies that do the most to lncrease rural income and employment. ","tokenCount":"50921"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aa4940b8968cc4a29ec8716099ec8240","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H044089.pdf","id":"-1764770375"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"449d20a6-38a8-4cc6-bf0d-d929325d968e","pagecount":"3","content":"There are few places in the world where water has become 'everybody's business' quite like it has in Gujarat, particularly, Saurashtra and Kutch. The decentralized movement for water harvesting and groundwater recharge that has emerged as a groundswell in this region represents an effort whose scale matches the magnitude of the water scarcity and drought-proneness that increasingly haunt Western India. Many questions arise about the impact of this movement of which four seem particularly relevant: First, in principle at least, can decentralized water harvesting and groundwater recharge result in net improvement in basin or region level welfare? If not, is there emerging evidence of the movement waning, and people getting disillusioned, now that it has operated in a hyper-active mode for over a dozen years? Has the decentralized water harvesting and recharge movement stayed just thatwater harvesting and recharge movementor has it marked the first step to decentralized water resource management by communities? And, for populous, waterscarce countries like India, does Saurashtra represent aTushaar Shah IWMI-India [ ] t.shah@cgiar.org quirky exception or the harbinger of a broader, mainstream trend? If so, what might be its wider implications?The evidence reviewed offers some tentative answers: [a] Decentralized groundwater recharge can at least ensure security of the main kharif crop for most farmers in Saurashtra and Kutch; and if a large number of people are adversely hit by this activityincluding towns peoplethere seems no significant sign yet of any big time opposition to water harvesting; [b] there seems little evidence of the waning of people's faith in the power of decentralized water harvesting to improve their livelihoods; [c] there are some early signs of an emerging consciousness of the need for water demand management, especially in agriculture; but this is essentially in response the need to save crops from declining well yield. There is no clear answer to the last question since Saurashtra and Kutch are different from other parts of Gujarat and Western India in several aspects of their socio-ecology.There is evidence that recharge movement has produced broad-based positive impacts. The primary benefit is ensuring the security of the kharif crop which, farmers in Saurashtra and Kutch are unsure of in three years out of five because of frequent early withdrawal of monsoons. The water harvested and available close to the point of use has ensured that the kharif crop is saved from moisture stress towards the close of the season; and social value of this benefit is indeed great. This is enough to induce farmers to take farming seriously again, to invest in land care, as also in inputs. Water harvesting and recharge works also alter the micro-ambiance; helps establish vegetation and increase biomass.There is much discussion of up-stream/down-stream inequities. In contrast, some suggest we need to focus on overall welfare of the state. MS Patel, Gujarat's Secretary of Water Resources, and a big supporter of decentralized recharge works, is one of the exponents of this view. According to Patel, of the 6.4 m ha of total land mass in Saurashtra, 4.2 m ha is under cultivation. Its 120 dams irrigate 3.5 lakh ha; Narmada is expected eventually to irrigate 4.5 lakh more bringing the total irriga ted area to 8 lakh ha. As of now, groundwater irrigates 12 lakh ha. Still, 22 lakh ha is totally rainfed, limited to a single kharif crop. These farmers can be stabilized only if the kharif crop is securedwhich can be done only through WHSs. In the 22 lakh ha of rainfed area, annual agricultural output is only Rs 1000-1500 crore; this, according to him, can go up to Rs 5000 crore with kharif-crop security. Patel also believes that the real water use efficiency issue in Saurashtra is not storing water in big versus small reservoirs, but in reservoirs versus aquifers. The water lost by evaporation 33 from 2200 m m of water stored in reservoir is 600 m m which is greater than the total domestic water requirement 3 of Saurashtra estimated to be 500 m m .According to Patel, the big answer to Gujarat's water problems is check dams and more check dams. At a rate","tokenCount":"684"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"de53850c3490771e236a5899eb57ef35","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b45f3cce-bf91-4a97-8c96-a398550186b3/retrieve","id":"-1256745022"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1e7ec4c3-558d-44f7-85c2-f7aeab62f0b4","pagecount":"34","content":"Lushoto District is part of Tanzania's most important milk production regions; depending on the village, 25-95% of households own improved dairy cows. However, land pressure is high and both income and food security are low. The aim of this study has been to assess the potential of various forage cultivation intensification strategies ('scenarios') to improve physical production and income of smallholder cropdairy farmers in Lushoto district, Tanzania. Representative farms were created in the FarmDESIGN model with data from household surveys, feed analyses, milk measurements, soil samples and GPS measurements from 20 farms in Ubiri village. Two baseline farms were modeled, to account for the sample range in labor availability: 4 farm households were headed by a single (grand)parent; as such, available labor was about half the level of households with at least two members active on-farm full-time. The baseline farm without such labor-constraints ('HL' for 'high labor') owns two dairy cows, the baseline farm with limited labor ('LL') does not own cattle. A participatory scenario development workshop revealed the most promising intensification strategy: Napier cultivation on the plots close to the homesteads. Bio-economic performance under this scenario was modeled for each representative farm, the main management difference between HL and LL being that the latter does not collect natural grasses from public land in addition to Napier cultivation. The scenario shows potential for substantial improvement compared to the baseline: a tripling of milk production, a net cash income increase of 147%, and no reduction in household food production on the representative farm without labor constraints. This scenario seems promising for both farms, but it should be noted that [1] the farms would become structurally reliant on mineral fertilizers and imported maize bran, and [2] the LL farm runs a negative carbon balance because it does not import natural grasses, thereby threatening long-term soil fertility. Results needs to be validated by future research, but they show potential for improving livelihoods of smallholder dairy farmers in Lushoto.Studies of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) agriculture have consistently shown so-called yield gaps: differences between actual and potential crop yield levels (Tittonell & Giller, 2013). These gaps held for Asian smallholder agriculture alike until the 1970s, when the Green Revolution-with its reliance on irrigation, mineral fertilizers and synthetic biocides-brought a boost to yields, effectively ending widespread famines and food insecurity. A Green Revolution equivalent for SSA never materialized. Studies of Asian agriculture, however, indicate that the Green Revolution style of farming might not be the best way forward either Irrigated arable farming has lowered groundwater tables; the region's reliance on mineral fertilizers has increased its dependency on petroleum oil and agriculture's environmental pollution from nutrient leaching and greenhouse gas emissions; and biocide application has led to health problems among farmworkers and consumers alike (e.g. Byerlee, 1992;Singh, 2000;Gupta et al., 2003). SSA and Asian agriculture can be stereotyped to two extremes of tropical farming: the former characterized by little inputs and low yields, the latter by a strong reliance on inputs and equally robust yields. Half a century later, a branch of agricultural science calls for \"ecological intensification\" (Tittonell & Giller, 2013, p. 76), i.e. more agricultural outputs-food, fibre, fuel and services-from less inputs-chemicals, fuel and oil-derived materials-by harnessing ecological processes.In most of SSA, however, the ongoing importance of agriculture for rural livelihoods leads policymakers to focus on the 'intensification' component, whether ecological or not (Tittonell & Giller, 2013). Arable farmers in many SSA regions struggle to increase productivity in line with human population growth. In degraded or low-potential areas, characterized by soil losses from erosion and nutrient and organic matter deficiencies, the issue is most urgent; in higher-potential areas, where all suitable land has been cleared for cultivation, productivity improvements are the only way forward (Waithaka et al., 2006). SSA's cereal yield per hectare grows by around 1% per year, its tuber yields per hectare grow by 0.6% per year; with the inclusion of increasing land under cultivation, food production in SSA rises by around 2% per year while the population grows at 3% per year (Tittonell & Giller, 2013). Many smallholder farmers in SSA are trapped in poverty: without purchased inputs such as certified seeds and fertilizers, or livestock disease prevention and treatment measures, their enterprise will remain low-investment, low-return (Waithaka et al., 2006).In certain respects, Tanzania's agricultural sector is typical for the East African region (FAO, 2016a). Its average farm size is 1.5 hectare, slightly smaller than in Ethiopia (1.82 ha) but larger than in Uganda (1.12 ha) and Kenya (0.86 ha). The average Tanzanian farm household income is 4,062 USD/year, compared to 3,132 USD/year for Kenya and 2,698 USD/year for Uganda. For Tanzania, 70 percent of the farm household income comes from on-farm labor, compared to 85 percent for Ethiopia and 56 percent for Kenya. Tanzanian farmers on average own 2.1 Tropical Livestock Units (TLU), slightly lower than both Uganda (2.3 TLU) and Kenya (2.2 TLU). The percentage of farm households using motorized equipment, as well as the percentage of agricultural land under irrigation are low in all East African countries: 1.2% to 4.3%. Average fertilizer use, finally, shows a wider range: only 1.3 kg/ha in Uganda, 20 kg/ha in Tanzania, and 74 kg/ha in Kenya (FAO, 2016a).Tanzania's important cash crops include coffee, cotton, sisal and cashew nuts, among others. The region's climatic and geologic conditions dictate each cash crop's relative importance, so one will mostly find coffee in the moderate mid-and highlands, cotton wherever plenty of rainfall allows it, sisal in the dry lowlands, and cashew trees in marginally fertile coastal regions (Makoi, 2016).After Ethiopia and Sudan, Tanzania has the largest cattle population in Africa; however, 96% is of the East African zebu breed with limited potential for milk production. The improved dairy cattle, i.e. crossbred or exotic, mainly Friesian or Ayrshire, are concentrated in the cooler highland regions of Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Mbeya, and Tanga provinces. At an estimated 480 million USD (Kurwijila et al., 2012), the Tanzanian production value of milk is comparable to that of beans, or of cassava, or cashew nuts, coffee, cotton and sisal combined (Bank of Tanzania, 2015). At 43 liters per capita/year production can be considered low (Maass, 2015). It is unable to keep up with rising demand, rendering Tanzania a net milk importer (Kurwijila et al., 2012).Lushoto is one of five districts in the northeastern Tanga province, located in the West Usambara Mountains, around 500 km south of the equator. The district has a temperate/sub-tropical climate and mid-and highland altitudes. The West Usamabara Mountains' population density is 120 people/km 2 , although corrected for productive land the figure has been estimated at 900/km 2 (Jambiya, 1998); as such, land pressure is high. The agroecology can be characterized as humid midlands, on gneiss rock (Sakané et al., 2012). Agriculture employs 85 percent of its people (Mangesho et al., 2013). All households grow crops, albeit mostly at small scale: two-thirds of households have access to less than one hectare; onethird to 1-5 hectares. All households at least partially consume what they produce: 25 percent produces exclusively for own consumption, 75 percent sells products like fruits and vegetables as well. Sixty-one percent also grow one or more pure cash crops-primarily coffee. Lushoto agriculture is fairly diversified: 50 percent of households produce five to eight agricultural products, while another 34 percent produce more than nine (Lyamchai et al., 2011). Maize and beans are the most important crops in terms of (nonmonetary) income; banana, cassava, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and tomatoes follow (Mangesho et al., 2013).The Tanga region, to which Lushoto District belongs, is considered an important milk-producing region, so the average number of improved dairy cows per Lushoto farm can be expected to be higher than the national average. Data on the average number is unavailable, but 25-95% of Lushoto farms, depending on the village, owns improved dairy cows. The crossbreed's milk production potential is around 15 liters a day, but average actual production is 4 liters/day; the local breed produces 2 liters/day on average. At 1 liter/day/household, Lushoto dairy farmers keep little for own consumption (Mangesho et al., 2013). The cows are generally underfed in both quality and quantity, sometimes by more 30 percent of their metabolizable energy (ME) requirement (Maass, 2015), even though farmers sometimes go as a far as 20 kilometers to obtain fodder. Sixty percent of farmers supplement the fodder with crop residues, but the far majority of the cows' ME is from naturally occurring and collected fodder; only 9-14 percent comes from cultivated fodder (Mangesho et al., 2013). Nevertheless, improved fodder production and feeding practices are not the only crucial issues for higher milk production; animal housing should be improved as well. Particularly in Lushoto's zero-grazing systems, where cows are now typically tied to a tree, better housing and hygiene would have \"a major effect on dairy cow performance\" (Maass, 2015, p. 10).Despite the diversification of food production in Lushoto, only 4 percent of households are \"food secure\", i.e. without struggle to feed all household members throughout the year; 53 percent of households is food secure during 6-9 months/year, while another 35 percent is food secure during less than 6 months/year (Lyamchai et al., 2011). Improved milk productivity could be a major step forward to food security, as the associated rise in cash income could buy food when household crop storages near exhaustion.Objectives \"In view of the rather disappointing impact of our efforts over the last half-century,\" Tittonell et al. (2015, p. 126) argue for an ex-post impact assessment of the past two decades' worth of modeling and systems analysis studies of smallholder farming \"to enhance the livelihoods and the prospects of rural people across the developing world\". A considerable portion of SSA smallholder farming modeling studies, however, either focuses exclusively on the biological aspects while ignoring the economics and social aspects, or vice versa. This study joins biological and economic aspects of smallholder farming, so to illuminate pathways to improved household income and the associated environmental impact.Academic literature on smallholder farming systems analysis often addresses the concept of trade-offs: simultaneous shifts towards and away from competing objectives due to a change in relative resource allocation among them. The use of crop residues as feed or soil amendment is one example (Tittonell et al., 2015). Financial decision-making by smallholder farmers is another: investments in crop and livestock production for cash compete with increasing household food consumption, health expenses, education and other needs (Waithaka et al., 2006). In the area here studied, farm management is dictated by various trade-offs, both of inputs-animal feed competes with soil amendment for crop residues, animal and crop management compete with one another for labor, crop yields compete with soil fertility for organic matter-and of outputs-leisure time vs. income, food self-sufficiency vs. cash income, and cash income vs. independence from purchased inputs. This study aims to shed more light on some output trade-offs that dictate management of smallholder crop-dairy systems in Lushoto District, Tanzania.To what extent could forage cultivation on smallholder mixed crop-dairy systems in Lushoto district, Tanzania sustainably improve their production and income?Hypotheses Tittonell et al. (2009) modeled smallholder farm performance in western Kenya. The representative farm model was configured with various intensification strategies for sustainably enhancing production and income. The strategies were made up of three intensification components: [1] increased use of external nutrient inputs, [2] changes in land allocation between food and fodder crops, and [3] changes in the productivity and efficiency of the livestock subsystem. Among their findings: the combination of P application with increased Napier cultivation at the expense of food crops would increase biomass productivity and milk production but decrease production of edible energy and protein. This underlines the trade-off between food self-sufficiency and cash income.The MilkIT project (Maass, 2015) reported the most promising interventions for improved milk production in Tanzania. For intensive mixed crop-livestock systems, rainfed grass cultivation and irrigated fodder production (grasses as well as maize and sorghum) were prioritized. Waithaka et al. (2002), also in western Kenya, found that smallholder farmers' primary objective is household food supply; cash income comes second. The modeling study that ensued (Waithaka et al., 2006) found that net income could be increased through smaller areas under maize and beans, and larger areas under cash crops.Based on these three studies, the hypotheses for this study were: 1. Increased Napier cultivation combined with the application of mineral fertilizers can increase milk production; 2. Increased Napier cultivation can increase cash inflows corrected for management-related expenses ('net cash inflows' from here onwards); 3. Farmers prioritize food self-sufficiency over cash income; intensification strategies should thus minimize any loss of household food production to accommodate for increased cash inflows.Within the Lushoto district, a group of 20 farmers was identified in Ubiri who was to participate. The village is situated between approximately 1,180 and 1,260 meters above sea-level. Terracing is rare so nearly all fields are situated at a slope gradient. The majority of Ubiri's farmers own dairy cattle, usually kept in sheds made from wood, sheet metal and cloth.The reason for selecting this specific group was twofold. Firstly, 15 out of 20 farmers were members of the village's 'Innovation Platform', a local organization with the aim of improved milk production; we suspected that they might be more forthcoming about their household and farm management than nonmembers (Paul et al., 2015). Secondly, the farmers live in close proximity of one another; taken together, their homesteads and nearby plots (< 500 meters from the homestead) form a small landscape. See Figure 1. The primary motive for farm-scale modeling is \"to achieve (...) a holistic view of the farming system, rather than a view of single components\" (Waithaka et al., 2006, p. 246). Indeed, this study employed modeling to analyze farms as bio-economic systems made up of interdependent components, and to quantify some of the changes to those components brought about by adjustments to farm management. Farm performance was modeled with FarmDESIGN (Groot et al., 2012) . chemical and biological flows to, through and from the farm, the resulting balances, animal feed and manure balances, the labor balance, and the economic results are all for one period. The effects of period 1 farm performance on attainable yields and herd size during period 2 therefore aren't taken into account, although additional model scenarios could be developed for subsequent periods. In addition, the prices of inputs and outputs are external to the model because its boundaries surround a single farm. FarmDESIGN, so its creators argue, can be valuable for designing mixed farming systems and potentially supports the learning and decision-making of farmers, farm advisers and scientists (Groot et al., 2012).To estimate potential maize yields with the application of mineral fertilizers, Janssen et al.'s (1990) Quantitative Evaluation of the Fertility of Tropical Soils (QUEFTS) model was employed. It takes soil fertility data (organic carbon, nitrogen, Olsen phosphorus, convertible potassium, pH), NPK crop parameters-for maize, in this case-and the mass of applied nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to estimate maximum attainable yields per hectare. The model estimate is an aggregate of estimates [1] taking in to account each macronutrient separately, [2] from all possible sets of macronutrients (i.e. NP, NK, PN, PK, KN and KP, where e.g. the NP and PN estimates are similar but not identical). The model's three-step process and its estimates with each intermediate step show which soil macronutrient contents limit attainable maize yields most.A subjective plot gradient ranking was formulated for the nearby plots, because the GPS device used was known for its unreliable altitude measurements: 1 signifies a flat plot; 2, a slight gradient estimated under 20 degrees; 3, a gradient estimated from 20 to 40 degrees; 4, a gradient estimated over 40 degrees.We asked the farmers what they considered the major constraints to improved farm management in two ways: [1] the final question of the household survey addressed desired innovations and the barriers to those innovations; [2] the workshop included a group question, 'What would be your first farm-related purchase with a cash gift equal to your annual cash income?' to draw out their primary concerns.The creation of a new farm typology specific to this study area was deemed unnecessary as the sample is rather uniform. Instead, Tittonell et al.'s (2009) typology of farmers in western Kenya can be used: 17 out of 20 farms belong to type 3; the remaining three farms, comparable to the rest except for their lack of cattle, belong to type 5.Farm type 3 (Figure 2, from Tittonell et al., 2009):• Own crossbred or local cattle who remain tethered near the homestead year-round, fed on natural grass complemented with crop residues, Napier and banana leaves; • Most of the crops residues is removed from the fields to feed the livestock; • Cattle manure is collected in a pit together with household waste and crop residues; • Of the three macronutrients, soil P and K contents pose the largest constraints to enhanced crop yields.  Rangeland Science. As such, he was capable of identifying the majority of given animal feeds, including the naturally occurring grasses. He weighed all given feed, separated according to species, using a hanging scale. He measured milk production with a measuring cup. Finally, he collected three samples of the most common feeds from separate farms, as well as three manure samples from separate farms.3. A short walk with each farmer around their homestead and nearby plots enabled the drawing of a schematic map of the plots, including each plot's estimated slope gradient and land use per rainy season. GPS measurements of plot corners enabled later creation of a farm map with GIS software. Finally, topsoil samples were taken from each plot. 4. A workshop with all 20 sample farmers to develop farm management scenarios in a participatory setting. We briefly presented three scenarios. The first implicitly dealt with constraints, explicitly asking the participants on what they would first spend a hypothetical gift equal to one's annual cash income: [1] increase herd size; [2] buy forage; [3] buy manure/mineral fertilizers; [4] buy casual labor;[5] buy cattle with improved genetics. This scenario was dealt with by the group as a whole. The other two-hypothetical farm-landscape configurations based on results from data collection methods [1] through [3]-were discussed in three sub-groups. Each sub-group was facilitated by a Swahilispeaking staff member of TALIRI or CIAT. Facilitation entailed two main responsibilities: [1] further explanation of scenarios if so required by the farmers; [2] guidance and stimulation of the discussion using a number of preconceived questions. Modeling of crop-livestock interactions at the farm level combined with participatory scenario development enables the assessment and fine-tuning of a farm management strategy before actually implementing it (Waithaka et al., 2006).Data from the household surveys, feed and milk measurements, and GPS measurements were plugged into SPSS for linear regression analysis. Total income-cash inflows plus the value of own products consumed by the household-and total cash inflows were each used as explanatory variables. Both regressions employed five independent variables: [1] total plot size (in acres); [2] maize yield (kg/ha); [3] bean yield (kg/ha); [4] number of livestock units (LUs), where cows count for 1 and sheep/goats for 0.2;[5] labor investment (hours/ha). Explanatory value of the regressions was assessed via the adjusted R 2 -, p-and F-values.The average size of the 20 sampled farm households was 5.6 persons, 3.3 of whom were active on the farm. The average farm consisted of 4.0 plots: 1.9 plots within 500 meters from the homestead and 2.1 plots farther away. We did not visit the faraway plots; as such, our GPS measurement data pertains to the plots close to the homesteads only.Average total plot area, as reported by the farmers, was 2.1 acres. However, GPS data from the plots close to the homesteads showed that farmers overestimated their land size by an average of 80 percent, reducing their farms' average size to 1.16 acres. Only 3 farms were larger than 2.5 acres, or 1 hectare.There was no correlation between farm area and household size.One of 20 farms solely consisted of flat plots; 18 farms were composed of plots with varying slopes; one farm only had faraway plots we did not visit. Slopes were classified subjectively, because the GPS device used was known for its unreliable altitude measurement. A score of 1 signified a flat plot; 2, a slight gradient estimated under 20 degrees; 3, estimated 20-40 degrees; 4, estimated over 40 degrees. The average plot classification is 2.52, i.e. an estimated gradient of around 20 degrees. Terracing wasn't done on any of the sample farms.The sampled farmers reported growing nine crops in total. All farmers grew both maize and beans, nearly always intercropped. Bananas were grown by 10 farmers; cassava by 4 farmers; sweet potatoes by 3 farmers; potatoes and Napier by 2 farmers each; tomatoes and green peppers by 1 farmer each. All farmers applied farmyard manure, i.e. cattle manure mixed with feed-refusals and household waste. None applied mineral fertilizers.The sample farms owned an average of 1.05 FAO Sub-Saharan livestock units (LUs), with cattle as 0.5 LU and sheep/goats as 0.1 LU. (Chicken or ducks were not managed by the sample farms and their production was negligible, therefore they were excluded from the LU count.) Seventeen out of 20 sample farms owned cattle, of which 16 owned at least one adult improved dairy cow. Of the four farms without an adult dairy cow three were single-(grand)parent, female-headed households; the 16 farms with adult cattle include just one single-(grand)parent household.We identified and weighed all species in one day's cattle feed at the same 12 farms where we measured milk production. Early November being the end of the dry season, we expected the proportion of cultivated feed close to its annual minimum, and naturally occurring fodder near its maximum. Daily fresh feed per farm weighed 115 kg on average, of which we estimated that 91 kg was actually consumed. One day's consumed fresh feed per cow equivalent (1 per cow, 0.2 per goat or sheep) weighed 30 kg on average-substantially lower than a 350 kg dairy cow's estimated fresh weight requirement of 65-85 kg/day (Gachuiri et al., 2012).We distinguished 26 species among the sampled farms' cattle feed, of which we identified 18. The five most common species-Phragmites australis or common reed, Zea maysor maize residues, Pennisetum purpureum or Napier grass, Musa or banana leaves, Cynodon dactylon or Bermudagrass-accounted for 62% of given feed and 59% of consumed feed.The levels of metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) in the above five feeds were extrapolated to the remaining 41% of consumed feed to come up with an estimate for daily ME and CP intake/LU: 88 MJ and 0.59 kg, respectively (see Table 1). The estimate for daily ME intake should enable a 300 kg dairy cow to produce 10 kg of milk, but the CP estimate would allow for just 4 kg of milk (FAO, 2016b).Just 1 of 12 sampled farmers supplied water to the animals, and even then just 20 liters for four cows and two sheep. Farmer-reported total fresh yield figures were combined with GPS-measured plot sizes to calculate values for fresh yield per hectare. Both the average and median were included to account for the disproportionate influence of outliers. See Table 2 for the results. Thirteen out of 20 interviewed farmers reported milk production during the previous year. They were asked to estimate minimum and maximum daily milk production, to account for seasonal variability. The lowest reported minimum is 2 liters/day; the highest reported maximum is 15 liters/day. In an attempt to verify their responses, we measured one day's milk production at 12 farmers. This happened during the first half of November, the end of the dry season when milk production is expected to reach its minimum. With 5 of 12 farmers, measured milk production was lower than their reported minimum. The average (median) farmer-reported minimum milk production, however, was nearly equal to our measurements: 4.7 (4.0) reported versus 4.8 (3.9) measured liters/day.The average (median) annual labor requirement per farm household was 4,446 (3,956) hours, or 12.2 (10.8) hours per day. All 20 interviewed farmers evidently reported crop-related labor; 18 farmers also reported livestock-related labor, i.e. caused by ownership of cattle, goats and/or sheep. The average (median) labor division between crop-related and livestock-related activities was 47 (44) and 53 (56) percent, respectively. In terms of labor requirement, feed collection was the largest single activity: its average (median) proportion of livestock-related labor was 59 (64) percent, or 31 (32) percent of all farm labor. See Table 3 for a sample distribution of labor hours per year.  The sample's average (median) reported annual cash inflows amounted to 818,875 (470,000) Tanzanian Shillings, or 375 (215) US Dollars. Excluding the two farm households without large livestock, the average was 8 percent higher at 883,972 TSh. or 405 USD. Across the farm households with large livestock, crop products generated 43 percent of cash inflows and livestock generated 57 percent, nearly all in the form of milk. It is worth noting that 5 of 18 farmers with large livestock reported zero cash inflows from livestock products because their cow(s) didn't lactate during the previous year; livestock products from the 13 farms with lactating cows generated 78 percent of their annual cash inflows. See Table 5. In order to discern possible statistical relationships between various farming aspects and (financial) performance, I ran six regressions. The analyses shared the same five independent variables: [1] total plot size (in acres); [2] maize yield (kg/ha); [3] bean yield (kg/ha); [4] number of livestock units (LUs), where cows count for 1 and sheep/goats for 0.2; [5] labor investment (hours/ha).Total income-cash inflows plus the value of own products consumed by the household-as dependent variable yields an adjusted R 2 of 36% and is significantly determined by [3] bean yield (α=10%). Total income from crop products: adjusted R 2 is 52% and significantly determined by [1] total plot size and [3] bean yield (α=5%). Total income from animal products: adjusted R 2 is 28% and significantly determined by [4] number of LUs (α=1%).Total cash inflows yields an adjusted R 2 of 58% and is significantly determined by [1] total plot size, [3] bean yield and [4] number of LUs (α=5%). Total cash inflows from crop products: adjusted R 2 is 70% and significantly determined by [1] total plot size and [3] bean yield (α=1%). Total cash inflows from animal products: adjusted R 2 is 37% and significantly determined by [4] number of LUs (α=5%).Notably, neither [2] maize yields nor [5] labor investment significantly determine any of the six income Figures at α=10%. In short, the farm household survey data better explains cash inflows than total income. Table 6 summarizes the regression results. Regression analyses with milk production (liters/day/lactating cow) against the consumed mass of various combinations of feed species (kg/day) yielded no significant results: F Significance with the 4 most given feeds as independent variables was 0.65; with the 5 most given feeds, 0.80. It appears that the variation in milk production could be explained by other factors, like the cattle's age, genetics, or point in lactation phase at the time of measurement; however, there is no sample data on these factors.Scenario 1: An immediate doubling of annual cash incomeThe hypothetical situation was posed as 'If your annual cash income would double overnight, which farm management change would you implement first?'. The farmers were asked to vote for one of five categories: Fifteen out of 21 participating farmers had less than half of their total acreage close (< 500 m) to the homestead; the majority of these farmers' acreage was 500-3000 m from their homestead. However, except for fruit trees and some occasional cassava on the nearby plots, we observed no land management differences between the nearby and faraway plots.The scenario posed was thus: all participating farmers fully commit their nearby plots to forage crops (mainly Napier, but also Bracchiaria, Desmodium or Guatemala grass) and manage the faraway plots as they wish. The overarching question to the farmers: what do you think about this idea?The sub-group discussions' guiding questions 1. If ¼ acre could provide enough forages to feed an adult milk cow year-round, would that change your opinion about this scenario? 2. If your milk production would increase, would that change your opinion? If so, how much extra milk production would you want under this scenario? 3. If you could sell the Napier your own cattle don't need, would that change your opinion? If so, what Napier price would you want under this scenario? 4. If both your cash income but also your labor requirements would increase under this scenario, would you consider realizing it? After about 30 minutes, each sub-group presented their discussion results to the group as a whole. Guiding questions 1. and 2. were addressed implicitly, questions 3. and 4. were addressed explicitly.Two out of three sub-groups named an expected increase in milk production and reduction of labor as this scenario's main benefits. One of those two sub-groups additionally mentioned increased ease of applying manure as an expected benefit. The third sub-group, less total acreage between them than in the other sub-groups, wasn't as positive about the idea. To them, forage crops on all nearby plots would sacrifice too much of their food crop production; they proposed a compromise with only part of the nearby plots under forage and all other plots under food crops.None of the sub-groups saw Napier sales as a particularly interesting or even feasible possibility. Two out of three sub-groups explained that their cattle would need all forages grown on the nearby plots.None of the sub-groups perceived this hypothetical trade-off as particularly challenging. Two sub-groups explained that during a few brief periods per year households were labor-constrained, which could be alleviated by labor-sharing between neighbors. The third sub-group simply said that the households have sufficient spare labor to cope with the trade-off. Scenario 3: Feed or food crop specialization Currently, all participating farmers grow food crops; some additionally grow forage crops. We thus posed the somewhat extreme scenario that all farmers fully commit to either forage or food crops. Regardless of their specialization under this scenario, the farmers would be free to choose their cattle herd size. Each sub-group was further divided in two: only forage crops, and only food crops. Again, the leading question was 'What do you think about this idea?'. Exclusive forage cultivation Two out of three sub-groups listed expected increased in milk and manure production as the main benefits of becoming a forage-only farmer. One of those sub-groups additionally mentioned expected income from selling bulls as well. The third sub-group, with relatively little land, would only consider it if combined with cattle with improved genetics; yet, even then they would prefer a combination of food and forage crops as the cattle can eat food crop residues as well. The main drawback of this scenario, agreed on by all subgroups, is increased exposure to risks of livestock or drought. Without food crop cultivation, there would be no back-up. Further, two sub-groups mentioned a general lack of extension and veterinarian services, which further increases the risk of livestock diseases and genetic erosion.The sub-groups saw mostly drawbacks to this scenario. If combined with a smaller herd size, it would make them dependent on other farmers' manure or mineral fertilizers. In addition, two sub-groups mentioned increased exposure to maize price risks as a drawback. One sub-group would only consider food crop specialization with improved seeds.Two sub-groups would consider cultivating forages only if combined with milk production of least 10 liters/day (currently around 5 liters/day on average). One sub-group put the threshold at 20 liters/day, or a milk price of 800 TSh./liter (currently 500 TSh./liter). Two sub-groups put the minimum Napier price at 40 TSh./kg fresh material; the third sub-group didn't set a minimum because they believed they would need all Napier for their own cattle. All sub-groups demanded a minimum manure price of 25 TSh./kg residue-free (currently 10 TSh./kg).Only one sub-group was able to set minimum prices before they would consider cultivating food crops only: 1000 TSh./kg of maize (currently 500 TSh./kg); 80,000 TSh./acre's worth of maize residues (currently 60,000 TSh./acre); 2,800 TSh./kg of beans (currently 1,250 TSh./kg).The representative Ubiri farmIn order to simulate farm performance under specific scenarios or optimize for various objectives, a fictional farm representative of the 20-farm sample is needed. In terms of household size, farm size, and number of plots this farm closely approximates the sample's average values: five household members; one acre of arable land; three plots, of which one half-acre plot near the homestead and two quarter-acre plots farther away. Although smaller than the sample average (1.16 acre), the representative farm size was set at 1 acre (0.4 hectare) for ease of calculation and presentation.For crop yields (kg/ha) two figures were used, so to show Ubiri farms' current as well as potential performance. Baseline ('standardized') crop yields were taken as the sample average after exclusion of the top and bottom two, so to account for possible inaccuracies in the farmer-reported data.With a combination of soil sample data from Ubiri and nearby Mbuzii (see Table 7), QUEFTS estimated attainable maize yields at 3,104 kg/ha without fertilizer application. This was 44% higher than the 2,158 kg/ha sample average. Potential yields with fertilizer application, as modeled by QUEFTS, were therefore converted to relative increases from the 3,104 kg/ha baseline. The model estimate is an aggregate of estimates [1] taking in to account each macronutrient separately, [2] from all possible sets of macronutrients (i.e. NP, NK, PN, PK, KN and KP, where e.g. the NP and PN estimates are similar but not identical). The model's three-step process and its estimates with each step show which soil macronutrient contents limit attainable maize yields most. As such, the model estimated that the Ubiri/Mbuzii soils would primarily benefit from phosphorus application, secondarily from extra potassium and thirdly from nitrogen application. It further estimated that the application of diammonium phosphate (DAP), which consists of 18% nitrogen and 46% phosphorus, and NPK (18%, 22%, 17%) could increase attainable maize yields beyond the 3,104 kg/ha baseline level. With QUEFTS and the local fertilizer prices, it was possible to calculate a tentative estimate of optimal application levels. The estimate is tentative for its foundation on three assumptions: [1] current maize yields are 2,000 kg/ha despite a sample range of 410-4,839 kg/ha; [2] fertilizer application would only affect maize yields, even though the sample farmers nearly always intercrop maize with beans, and in some cases with bananas or tubers; [3] the commercial value of maize is independent of yields. I ran QUEFTS with DAP and NPK applications at 50 kg/ha increments, up to total fertilizer application of 600 kg/ha. Considering that fertilizers cost 1,500 TSh./kg and maize commands 500 TSh./kg, QUEFTS can be used to find the optimal level of DAP and NPK applications: 100 and 400 kg/ha or 50 and 450 kg/ha, respectively. See Table 8.Table 8. Attainable maize yield increases at various DAP and NPK application levels, relative to the baseline without any application of external fertilizers. Green (red) cells represent profitable (unprofitable) application increments; bold (italic) percentages represent optimal (dominated) application levels. For the scenarios, the attainable maize yields estimated with 100 kg/ha of DAP and NPK each, i.e. +63% than the standardized average, were used.On a 1 acre farm, however, 500 kg/ha of fertilizers adds up to 200 kg at 300,000 TSh., nearly half the sample's standardized average cash income of 636,700 TSh./year. In other words, farmers might consider the optimal fertilization strategy for maize production excessively risky for implementation. To account for risk aversion, a non-optimal but less costly fertilization strategy would be to combine 100 kg/ha DAP with some amount of NPK below 400 kg/ha. For the scenarios, I used the attainable maize yields estimated with 100 kg/ha of DAP and NPK each, i.e. +63% than the standardized average.For beans, bananas and cassava, the sample's top reported values for attainable yields were used after exclusion of the top 10 percent to account for possible inaccuracies in the farmer-reported data. For Napier the sample offered insufficient data; consultation of various forage researchers active in Lushoto and western Kenya yielded a conservative estimate of 50 Mg/ha/year fresh weight.See Table 9 for the Baseline and locally attainable dry matter yields.Based on the workshop results, Scenario 3, 'Cropping specialization', wasn't taken up in the model: the sample farmers showed little interest to follow the-indeed rather extreme-intensification strategy unless milk production, crop yields and prices improved considerably. Therefore, in the following, two versions of Scenario 2, 'Forages on all nearby plots'-with Napier as cultivated forage-are described. Farm management indicators under Baselines ('HL' for 'high labor', 'LL' for 'low labor') and Scenarios 2HL and 2LL can be found in Table 9; economic performance, as modeled by FarmDESIGN, is shown in Table 10. The reason for developing two versions of what is essentially the same scenario: to accommodate for 20% of the sample farms, where labor availability is limited due to the death of one or both parent(s) (in the latter case of which a grandparent heads the household). In line with the sample average, the representative Baseline HL farm owns two adult, crossbred milking cows. Forage cultivation among the sampled farms is rare to the point of non-existent. It was therefore not included in the Baseline farm's crop management. Instead, the representative Baseline farmer grows maize and beans on all three fields, intercropped with banana on 0.25 acre and cassava on another 0.25 acre. Two household members work on the farm full-time. The cattle are fed with crop residues, and natural grasses collected from public land. The nutrients imported via the natural grass prevent nutrient mining within the farm, so there is no need for mineral fertilizers.The Baseline LL farm reflects the sample's four single-(grand)parent, female-headed households. Labor availability is around half the level of Baseline HL; as a result, Baseline LL does not own cattle. Crop management and yields are the same as for Baseline HL, although Baseline LL risks nutrient mining as it doesn't import natural grasses as feed nor purchases mineral fertilizers. LL farmers generally help each other during labor-intensive periods, leading to somewhat more crop-related labor than on Baseline HL.See Table 9 for the Baseline farms' management indicators; see Table 10 for economic performance. Representative farm under Scenario 2HL, 'Napier cultivation supplemented with natural grasses' Scenario 2HL can be considered a hybrid of the workshop's Scenario 2 and Baseline HL, i.e. Napier cultivation on the plot near the homestead while still collecting natural grasses from the public wetlands. It assumes that a ⅜ acre plot close to the homestead is planted with Napier and banana trees; the faraway plots are planted with maize and beans (⅜ acre) and maize, beans and cassava (¼ acre).The additional forages increase milk production and thereby cash income: this expanded feeding strategy enables herd expansion from two to three milk cows. The three adult crossbred milk cows are fed with Napier, residues from all crops except beans, natural grasses-common reed (Phragmites australis) and Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) at a 2:1 ratio-and purchased maize bran. The natural grasses and maize bran sufficiently enrich the farmyard manure that external fertilizers are not needed to restore soil nutrient balance, but to reach locally attainable maize yields 40 kg NPK and 40 kg DAP are needed. See Table 9 for a summary of farm management under Scenario 2HL.Under Scenario 2HL, average milk production could reach 2.8 liters/cow/day-double Baseline HL's 1.4 liters/cow/day. Labor requirements total 3,423 hours/year-within 3 percent of the Baseline. In sum, Scenario 2HL shows the greatest potential for cash income without increasing the Baseline's labor requirements. See Table 10 for Scenario 2HL's performance indicators relative to the Baseline HL.Compared to Baseline HL, the farm under Scenario 2HL has less land available for food crop cultivation. However, the model simulation with the third-highest yields for maize, beans, cassava and banana shows that a five-person household with one acre under Scenario 2HL can be self-sufficient for food calories. The household under Scenario 2HL would sell a portion of the bean and banana yields and keep all other food crops; it would additionally keep one liter of milk per day during the year's seven-month lactation period.Both under Baseline HL and Scenario 2HL, the representative farm would be self-sufficient for food calories at 2,653 and 2,697 kcal/person/day 1 , respectively, around half of which in the form of maize (see Figure 4).Compared to Baseline HL, gross annual income under Scenario 2HL-gross cash income plus the value of own products consumed by the household-is +88% at 3.0 million TSh. or 1,387 USD. This difference can be separated into +35% income from crop products and +204% income from milk.Gross annual cash income under Scenario 2HL is +192% than on Baseline HL at 1.9 million TSh. or 853 USD, separable into +82% cash from crop products and +258% cash from milk. Due to the recommended purchases of 1,000 kg maize bran and 80 kg fertilizers, the resultant net cash income difference is smaller at +147%. 1 Based on nutritional data from SELFNutritionDATA (http://nutritiondata.self.com/).Representative farm under Scenario 2LL, 'Napier cultivation on nearby plots' Scenario 2LL is similar to 2HL but less labor-intensive, i.e. it combines food crop and forage cultivation with dairy cattle ownership without natural grass collection from public land. It reflects the relatively constrained labor availability among 20% of the sample, which are single-(grand)parent households. As such, performance under Scenario 2LL is compared to the Baseline LL farm, which does not own cattle. Crop allocation is identical for Scenario 2HL and 2LL: ⅜ acre close to the homestead under Napier and banana trees, ⅜ acre under maize and beans, ¼ acre under maize, beans and cassava. The representative household thus remains self-sufficient for food calories. Napier and crop residues are fed to two adult crossbred milk cows, although part of the bean residues directly go to the farmyard manure; a modest maize bran purchase (300 kg/year) would be required to fill the cattle's energy and protein requirements.In addition to the farmyard manure, the plots are fertilized with NPK and urea to prevent nutrient mining.(Note that, under Scenario 2HL, there would be no need for purchased mineral fertilizers to prevent nutrient mining because it imports natural grasses). In other words, Scenario 2LL is less labor-intensive but more capital-intensive. See Table 9 for a summary of farm management under Scenario 2LL.None of the interviewed farmers were self-sufficient for cattle feed; all relied on public wetlands for the collection of natural grasses, mainly common reed (Phragmites australis) and Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon). These grasses were generally of low nutritive value, i.e. high in structural value but low in energy and protein, and leave the cattle structurally underfed at all sampled farms. Furthermore, feed collection was the sample's most labor-intensive single activity, accounting for 31 percent of total labor hours. Under Scenario 2LL, however, the farm approaches self-sufficiency for cattle feed. This would affect the farm in two main respects: [1] the farmer no longer needs to collect feed from the public lands but cuts Napier from the nearby plot or uses crop residues, which frees up 2.8 hours/day on average; [2] Napier has higher nutritive value than the area's natural grasses, which allows the cattle to meet their energy and protein requirements at higher levels of milk production. Total labor under Scenario 2HL amounts to 2,485 hours/year, i.e. only slightly more than one full-time worker's capacity. In sum, it shows promise to reduce labor and increase income at the same time. See Table 10 for Scenario 2LL's performance indicators relative to Baseline LL.Compared to Baseline LL, gross annual income under Scenario 2LL-gross cash income plus the value of own products consumed by the household-is +121% at 2.4 million TSh. or 1,119 USD. Annual cash inflows under Scenario 2LL is +436% than on Baseline LL at 1.3 million TSh. or 585 USD.The final notable difference between Baseline LL and the farm under Scenario 2LL can be found in the net cash inflows, i.e. cash flows corrected for management-related expenses. Baseline LL risks nutrient mining, as it doesn't import natural grasses or mineral fertilizers. The representative farm under Scenario 2LL only imports 300 kg dry maize bran. In order to prevent nutrient mining, the farmer could add 142 kg NPK; in order to reach the locally attainable maize yield, another 40 kg NPK and 40 kg DAP are applied. This 222 kg fertilizers would come at a cost of 26% of total cash inflows. Resultant net cash inflows under Scenario 2LL are +283% than on Baseline LL, considerably less than the +436% total cash inflows.The results of this study reveal potential to improve milk production and income among smallholder farmers in Lushoto, Tanzania without threatening household self-sufficiency for food calories. Waithaka et al. (2002) found that smallholder farmers' primary objective is household food supply; cash income comes second. It is not entirely clear from the results what the Lushoto sample farmers considered their primary objective, though Scenario 1 from the workshop (how to spend a hypothetical gift equal to one's annual cash income) offered a hint. Nine out of 20 farmers voted to spend it on (mineral) fertilizers, i.e. on their crops, while another nine voted to spend it on their cattle. Furthermore, the group rejected Scenario 3, \"feed or food crop specialization\". Roughly speaking, crop cultivation increases household food supply and cattle improves cash income through milk sales. In other words, the Lushoto sample as a whole does not clearly prioritize one objective over another.Economic performance on the representative farm household, as modeled in FarmDESIGN, shows considerable improvement from Baseline HL to Scenario 2HL, 'Napier cultivation supplemented with natural grasses'. The adjusted feed mix increases production and income: triple the milk production thanks to herd expansion from two to three cows and double the milk production per cow; double the return to labor; and more than double the net cash inflows. However, Scenario 2HL implementation would increase the farm's reliance on purchased inputs: farm-related costs rise from 6% (Baseline HL) to 21% (Scenario 2HL) of gross cash income.Modeled farm performance under Scenario 2LL shows that Napier cultivation could lead to considerable improvement for the representative labor-constrained single-(grand)parent household as well. In comparison to Baseline LL, which is without cattle, total income more than doubles and net cash inflows nearly quadruple under Scenario 2LL, mainly because of milk production from two cows. However, this strategy has two serious drawbacks: [1] like under Scenario 2HL, the farm becomes much more reliant on purchased inputs-primarily on mineral fertilizers to prevent nutrient mining-at a cost of 35% of cash inflows, up from 8% for Baseline LL; [2] although still within one person's availability, the labor requirement under Scenario 2LL is 70% higher than under Baseline LL. A single-(grand)parent household could alternatively choose to implement Scenario 2LL with one instead of two cows. This would reduce required labor by max. 650 hours/year, but total income and net cash inflows would drop by max. 19% and 51%, respectively.In a way, the results are similar to earlier outcomes. Tittonell et al. (2009) found that P application combined with increased Napier cultivation and decreased food crop cultivation could increase biomass productivity and milk production. Although biomass productivity was not included as a performance indicator in this study, Napier's estimated yield of 50 Mg/ha/year is substantially higher than any other evaluated crop's yield estimates. Furthermore, soil sample analysis indeed identified P as the mostlimiting macro-nutrient, but based on estimates generated with QUEFTS, application of P and N could do more to increase yields than application of P alone.As part of a project to improve milk production on mixed systems in Tanzania, Maass (2015) identified rainfed grass cultivation and irrigated fodder production as the most promising strategies. Irrigated fodder production was not taken in to account here, but rainfed grass cultivation indeed shows potential to improve milk production.Potential farm performance under Scenarios 2HL and 2LL, although seemingly promising, is partially determined by assumptions and simplifications; this is inherent to modeling studies. Due to the static character of FarmDESIGN models, two important issues were ignored in the analysis: [1] relevant market dynamics, i.e. the effect of changes in farm performance and strategy on prices; [2] the possibilities of (a) a long Napier establishment period, (b) slow responsiveness of maize to fertilizer application, (c) and degrading soil fertility.1. If Scenarios 2HL and 2LL would be implemented at a large scale, with the expected increases in crop and milk production as a result, local prices would be expected to change. The prices of mineral fertilizers and maize bran might rise with increased demand, whereas the price of beans could be depressed by boosts to production and marketing. This possible combination of increased costs and reduced revenues could hurt the farmers involved, and might lead to feedback loops which cannot easily be quantified. a. Napier grass needs several seasons for robust establishment, as was observed among multiple local farmers. The 50 Mg/ha/year fresh yield here used-and the associated milk productionthus might not be observable in the first few years. In addition, Napier is known to be a heavy nutrient miner, perhaps even more so than the model accounted for. Special efforts might therefore be required to maintain soil fertility (Waithaka et al., 2006). b. None of the sample farmers applied mineral fertilizers to their plots-to borrow from Tittonell & Giller (2013), they have remained rather 'ecological'. One possible reason could be slow yield responsiveness to mineral fertilizers, which come at substantial costs to the farm household. The potential 63% boost to maize yields, as estimated with QUEFTS, might not be realistic in the short term: before poor fields can respond to nutrient inputs, they should be rehabilitated with longterm additions of organic matter (Tittonell & Giller, 2013). \"Adequate soil organic management is thus a prerequisite to get good responses to fertilizer investments\" (Tittonell et al., 2015, p. 122). c. At an average of 24.3 g/kg, the organic carbon content in the sample farms' topsoils is substantially lower than in the Ubiri's natural feed area (40.2 g/kg). This difference between cultivated and semi-natural land is in line with Winowiecki et al. (2015). Furthermore, the C balances on the representative farm under Baseline LL and Scenario 2LL are estimated at -729 kg/ha and -860 kg/ha, respectively. Carbon mining to this extent won't hurt the C content in the short term-30 cm deep topsoil with a 1 g/cm 3 mass density would contain 72,900 kg/ha of carbon-but it undermines the sustainability of Scenario 2LL nevertheless.The overarching limitation here is the sensitivity of the model output to differences between the model input and reality. Prices might change, yields might disappoint, more time between lactations might hurt milk production. For instance, a milk price reduction from 500 to 300 TSh./liter ceteris paribus would reduce net cash income by 39% under Scenario 2HL (by 40% under Scenario 2LL), and lower Napier yields under Scenario 2HL would mean that herd expansion might not be possible after all. Perhaps the only way to deal with these uncertainties would be to implement one of the strategies here analyzed, after possible adjustment by the farmer(s) involved, on a demonstration farm (see Waithaka et al., 2006). This would allow us to assess the amount of time and, possibly, additional investments of labor and money before the modeled performance becomes realistic.The idea of a demonstration farm spawns perhaps the most important question concerning this study's results: why, if the combination of Napier cultivation and purchased inputs can boost farm performance so strongly, aren't any of the sample farms following this path? One possibility is the value that farmers attach to food self-sufficiency: the results indicate that Napier cultivation at the expense of maize and beans doesn't necessarily hurt food crop production if combined with mineral fertilization of the maize fields, but reduced acreage under food crops might reduce food production expectancy. Another possible reason for farmers' unwillingness to intensify might be that the scenarios here analyzed are relatively capital-intensive. The costs of purchased inputs pose a financial risk. A risk-averse farmer might therefore decide against the purchases considered in the model, so to ensure the farm's financial independence. In this case, locally attainable yields and milk production levels are unlikely to be realized, and household income cannot be expected to improve.As underlined under point 2c. above, the soil carbon content of the sample farms is lower than that of the area's semi-natural land, and the negative C balance under Baseline LL and Scenario 2LL would degrade it further. A better understanding of the importance of soil carbon contents to crop yields in the middle and long term could deepen the value of this study's results.Under Baseline HL and Scenario 2HL, the representative farm relies on natural grasses from public land for a portion of the cattle feed. It was modeled that 1,200 kg DM common reed and 600 kg DM Bermuda grass are collected each year, which would require up to 0.8 acres (0.32 ha) 2 of public land, which is 80% of the farm's total plot size. Landscape analysis might be able to assess strategies that rely on public land such as these, especially their resilience in the face of population growth. Another limitation to this study is that Lushoto might stand out among similar socio-ecological systems, because natural grass from public land is available ad libitum. It might reduce these results' representativeness for other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.This study's sample farmers clearly prefer the use of crop residues as animal feed over soil amendment: the latter tactic wasn't observed on any of the 20 sample farms. A relevant aspect left unexamined in this study is the size of this trade-off, i.e. between relatively fast (animal responses to feed) and slow (soil quality improvement) effects (see Tittonell et al., 2015). Because the sample farms undertake no soil protection measures, local soil losses from water erosion are also part of the knowledge gap. Naturally horizontal fields are non-existent in the study area, and terracing is rare; as a result, nearly all fields are located at a gradient and undoubtedly lose soil during heavy rains. FarmDESIGN can take into account nutrients and organic matter lost due to erosion, but estimates for this study area weren't available. Quantitative comparison of different management styles pertaining to crop residue use, or estimates of soil loss from erosion, might give a better idea of the local feed-versus-soil-amendment trade-off.An adjusted feed strategy from Baseline HL-in this case a combination of crop residues, Napier grass, and natural grasses-is likely to improve milk production. Under Scenario 2HL, it can meet the nutritional requirements of three instead of two cows, each producing twice the amount of milk produced under Baseline HL. Yet, based on our observations, another two management adjustments could further improve milk production: [1] the addition of water to the feed, and [2] better manure management. 1. Out of 12 farmers visited to identify and weigh given livestock feeds, only one farmer supplied water to the animals, and even then just 20 liters to four cows and two sheep. It is unlikely that crossbred dairy cows are able to meet their water requirements with the water contained in the feed alone. Extra water is thus likely to improve milk production. The size of that improvement, however, is not clear. Future research and interventions is advised to address this issue. 2. The cows owned by the sample farms are tethered in wooden sheds that are only slightly larger than the animals. There is little space to move around, and little freedom to choose where to lie down. Unless the farmer removes the manure and dries the shed floor once or twice daily, the cow will be less inclined to lie down and ruminate. Few sample farmers indeed clean the shed daily, which might limit milk production. Furthermore, better management could increase nitrogen use efficiency. Based on Rufino et al. (2011), who studied cattle farmers in northeastern Zimbabwe, poor manure management and storage for up to 12 months led to low nitrogen efficiency of 20-30% between N excreted and N applied. At the other end, optimal manure management as studied in the highlands of East Africa, where storage was up to 6 months, leads to much higher nitrogen efficiency of 80% (Rufino et al., 2007, as cited in Rufino et al., 2011). Farmyard manure nitrogen efficiency on this study's sample farms-where manure management probably wasn't optimal but storage was up to 6 months-can be expected somewhere between the two extremes. The FarmDESIGN model included a 60% farmyard manure availability rate-a lower actual rate would increase the external fertilizer requirement to prevent nitrogen mining, which would unnecessarily hurt farm income and increase its environmental impact.Finally, well outside the scope of this study but undoubtedly instrumental to improving smallholder farm management and income, are the roles of formal education-many Lushoto children still leave school at age 12-and extension services, which are hardly present in the study area. These observations are in line with Waithaka et al.'s (2006) work in western Kenya.Half a century since the Green Revolution transformed agriculture in Asia, farmers in SSA still struggle to increase productivity in line with the continent's population growth. Some agricultural scientists propagate ecological intensification-more agricultural outputs from less synthetic and petroleumderived inputs by harnessing ecological processes-but in most of Africa, the economic importance of smallholder agriculture has led policymakers to focus more on intensification than ecological processes.In Lushoto District in Tanzania, 25-95% of households own improved dairy cows (Mangesho et al., 2013) but milk production levels have struggled to realize their potential. Both at the district and national level, milk production has therefore been identified as a promising mode of intensification. Because grazing is nearly non-existent in Lushoto, this study's focus has been on the extent to which fodder cultivation could sustainably improve the sample farms' milk production and income, and on the associated trade-offs with household food production and required labor. The first ex ante hypothesis was that increased Napier cultivation combined with the application of mineral fertilizers could increase milk production and net cash inflows. Based on the second hypothesis, that farmers prioritize household food production over cash income, intensification scenarios were developed so that household food production would not suffer.In the participatory scenario development workshop, Napier cultivation on the plots close to the homestead was confirmed as a promising strategy to improve milk production and cash income. Estimates generated with QUEFTS and FarmDESIGN showed that increased area under Napier doesn't necessarily reduce household food production if combined with structural NPK and DAP application. With additional maize bran imports, a household without labor constraints could triple total milk production, increase its return to labor by 95%, and improve net cash income by 147% compared to the Baseline HL farm. A single-(grand)parent household, where farm labor availability is more limited, could increase total income by 121% and net cash income by 283% compared to Baseline LL.Before interventions could be developed from the scenarios, however, further research should fill a number of remaining knowledge gaps. Little is known on the local establishment period of Napier and crop responsiveness to mineral fertilizers, or of the required labor and capital investments before improvements to production and income become observable. Furthermore, it might be more rewarding for local farmers to focus on improved watering and cattle housing instead of Napier cultivation. Those strategies' return on investment is unclear, however, and as such cannot be assessed in relation to this study's results. Finally, the apparent benefits of Napier cultivation come with two caveats. Firstly, it adds risk to the farm household: financial risk through structural and substantial purchases of mineral fertilizers and maize bran, and risk to food self-sufficiency due to reduced acreage under maize and beans. Secondly, the mineral fertilization levels included in the intensification scenarios are not only much higher than the SSA norm, they surpass the European norm. One should wonder if such external nutrient dependency is desirable, even if it would lead to improved rural livelihoods.","tokenCount":"9968"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b7e7daaed1cfed2d3b9e0c26b029656e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/PDF/H041877.pdf","id":"-1123697309"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c7dfd215-fc10-4e1c-b869-6e548aed4159","pagecount":"15","content":"This paper examines the impact of quality and reliability of irrigation on water productivity of individual crops and cropping system in the farm through comparison of crops watered by different types of irrigation systems such as canal irrigation; well irrigation and conjunctive use. Then it analyzes the actual factors that drive differential productivity, and which change due to change in quality and reliability regime of irrigation. The study area is Bist Doab area in Punjab and the analysis was carried out for two agro-climatic regions, both semi-arid, one having medium to high rainfall and the other having low to medium rainfall. The first location (Changarwan) is predominantly canal and well irrigated, whereas the second location (Skohpur) has well irrigation and conjunctive use.The analysis involved working out an index called \"irrigation quality index\" for different types of irrigation systems, and then compares water productivity of individual crops vis-à-vis estimated values of this index, for each location. The crop water productivity parameters analyzed are: physical productivity of water in kg/m 3 ; and water productivity in economic terms.Overall, the irrigation quality index was higher for: well irrigated fields as compared to canal irrigated fields and fields irrigated by both wells and canals in Skohpur; and canal irrigated fields for most crops in Changarwan.The criteria for evaluating irrigation systems have undergone major modifications in the last 30 years from the classical irrigation efficiencies to measuring performance using a variety of indicators (see Bastiaanssen and Bos, 2001), taking into account productivity of irrigation water with accent on yield (Perry and Narayanamurthy, 1998;Sarwar and Perry, 2002;Seckler et al., 2003), and revenue enhancement per unit of depleted water (Barker et al., 2003); and equity in water distribution (Svendson and Small, 1990). As scarcity of irrigation water is becoming evident in many regions and demand for water increasing from other competing sectors of use (Perry and Narayanamurthy, 2001), there is a need to assess the quality of irrigation services in relation to productivity of water rather than land (Sarwar and Perry, 2002). This means, the criteria for assessing systemwide irrigation management strategies adopted by irrigation agencies also needs to be revisited. In other words, the factors that need to be taken into account for assessing the quality of irrigation also needs to change, the reason being the factors that influence yield are not exactly same as those, which influence water productivity.Crop water productivity can be defined either as the yield per unit of water depleted in crop production or applied for crop production; or the net return from crop production per unit of depleted water or water applied (Kijne et al., 2003). Hence, the key drivers of change in water productivity are: amount of water depleted in crop production as it changes both the numerator and denominator of productivity parameters; and all crop inputs including crop variety, fertilizer and pesticide dosage and labour as they determine the crop yields and net returns, which change the numerator of water productivity. Now let us see how the reliability and quality of irrigation affects these drivers; and therefore water productivity. It is an established fact that while crop yield or biomass production increases in proportion to increase in transpiration, at higher doses, irrigation does not result in beneficial transpiration, but non-beneficial evaporation. This way, increased evapo-transpiration does not result in proportional increase in yield of crops (Vaux and Pruitt, 1983). Non-recoverable deep percolation is another non-beneficial component of the total water depleted from crops during irrigation (Allen et al., 1998). This also increases at higher dosage of irrigation.It is very likely that with greater quality and reliability of irrigation, the farmers are able to provide optimum dosage of irrigation to the crop, controlling the non-beneficial evaporation, and non-recoverable deep percolation. The result will be that the consumed fraction will remain low, and the fraction of beneficial evapotranspiration within the consumed fraction (CF) (depleted water) will remain high 2 . It is also possible that with high reliability of available supplies, even under scarcity of irrigation water, the farmers can adjust their sowing time such that they are able to provide critical watering, thereby obtaining high yield responses. Both result in higher water productivity. Further, if more reliable irrigation water is available, farmers would be encouraged to use high yielding varieties, and apply adequate amount of fertilizers and pesticides to their crops, resulting in better crop yields. Hence, the overall outcome of improved quality and reliability of irrigation would be higher water productivity.The purpose of the paper is to: i] develop quantitative criteria for measuring the quality and reliability of irrigation water that capture the complex physical variables relating to irrigation and affecting crop water productivity; ii] assess the impact of quality and reliability of irrigation on water productivity in agriculture, through analysis of individual crops; and then, iii] analyze the factors that cause differential water productivity, and which change due to change in quality and reliability regime.The recent past has seen an increase in enthusiasm among irrigation researchers worldwide, in trying to develop indicators for measuring performance of irrigation systems and also to assess the impact of different irrigation management strategies on crop yields and productivity of land and water quantitatively, in view of the growing shortage of irrigation water, and the competing demands for water from other sectors. Four main strategies, which were examined are: providing deficit irrigation; improving the timeliness of irrigation; precision irrigation; and improving the quality and reliability of irrigation. One of the motivating factors behind this is to identify the best strategy for improving the performance of irrigation systems, given its potential as a powerful tool to manage the demand for water in agriculture. Svendson and Small (1990) analyzed farmers' perspective of irrigation system performance. They found that the way farmers evaluate performance of irrigation systems mainly concern the outcomes and impacts of irrigation systems rather than the processes involved in managing irrigation such as staffing policies of the agency, pattern of communication and nature of farmers' participation in water users associations. According to them, the ten important measures that farmers use to assess irrigation system performance are: depth related measures viz., adequacy, equity and timeliness; farm management related measures such as tractability, convenience and predictability; and water quality related measures viz., temperature, sediment content, nutrient content, toxics and pathogens. How these criteria can be converted into normative indicators for analyzing irrigation system performance, or even strategies for improving the same were not addressed. Bastiaanssen and Bos (1999) argued that a new generation of irrigation performance indicators such as adequacy, equity and productivity could be quantified using remote sensing data, based on previous work by several scholars such as Azzali and Menenti (1987), Bastiaanssen (1994), Menenti et al. (1989), Moran (1994), Roerink et al. (1997). For instance, Menenti et al. (1989) measured equity in irrigation water distribution by evaluating the actual flow per unit irrigated area, at different spatial scales, in which the irrigated area was measured using satellite data. Moran (1994) used vegetation index and surface temperature to assess the adequacy. Bastiaanssen (1994) expressed adequacy in irrigation as a ratio of the total energy consumed by the crop in the form of ET and the total energy available for ET, and computed it from surface energy balance. He argued that equity in irrigation performance could be evaluated by taking a digital overlay of the SEB, with administrative boundaries and calculating the coefficient of variation across space. Roerink et al. (1997) extended the ET fraction approach used by Bastiaanssen (1994) and calculated coefficient of variation of actual ET over total water supplied to quantify productivity.There were lots of anecdotal and research based evidences from around the world showing differential productivity gains in well irrigation over canal irrigation vis-à-vis yield and water productivity, and this gain has been attributed to virtues of well irrigation over canal irrigation such as timeliness, and greater quality in terms of adequateness and control over water delivery (Llamas, 2000;Chakravorthy and Umetsu, 2004). Some empirical studies showed positive impact of timeliness of irrigation on paddy yields in canal command areas (Meinzen-Dick, 1995). Whereas some studies showed positive differential yield and net returns from crop production in diesel engine irrigated crops over electric-pump irrigated crops (Kumar and Patel, 1995), with the difference being attributed to access to and control over irrigation possible with diesel engine operated wells, i.e., the ability of the farmers to irrigate the crop as and when required or better \"timeliness\".Studies in Pakistan Punjab showed greater yields obtained by farmers who use conjunctive irrigation in canal command areas as compared to those who use only canal water for their wheat and rice crop (Hussain et al., 2003). A study by Sarwar and Perry (2002) in Indus plains of Pakistan, which simulated crop growth and ET under different irrigation schedules, using SWAP (Soil-Water-Atmosphere-Plant) model showed that it is possible to enhance crop water productivity through deficit irrigation. The study showed 47% higher crop water productivity under deficit irrigation conditions as compared to unrestricted irrigation supply condition, which led to the conclusion that while applying water to meet the exact crop water requirement would be the right strategy under situations of plentiful water, in situations of scarcity, restricted water supply would be the strategy to maximize productivity of water. But, whether irrigation is in deficit regime, or in water surplus regime, is highly crop specific, and their actual impacts on crop production cannot be assessed realistically, unless the farmers' response in terms of crop choices are also modeled.According to another analysis by Perry and Narayanamurthy (1998), rationing irrigation to make it available during critical stages, which correspond to points where the yield sensitivity to ET is high, is a useful strategy in enhancing crop yields. However, there are practical problems in assessing quality of irrigation in terms of water availability during critical stages, and then applying it to devise appropriate water delivery policy for an irrigation scheme. First: the sowing time for crops varies significantly across farmers within the same irrigation command thereby the timing for critical watering changes across farmers. Second: farmers in many irrigation systems in Asia grow multiple crops with critical stage with respect to \"growth response to ET\" differing widely. More over, the quality of irrigation available from an irrigation system cannot be assessed in relation to water availability during critical stage alone.In a nutshell, review of available irrigation literature shows that the studies cover either analysis of different indicators for analyzing irrigation system performance from different perspectives -farmers and irrigation agencies; use of different scientific methodologies to assess the performance of irrigation schemes in terms of crop yields or crop growth; or different approaches to improve the performance of irrigation systems in terms of their outcomes, under a set of conditions existing in the field vis-à-vis crops and climate; or merely qualitatively analyze the impact of quality of irrigation on crop yields. But, it is important to note here that the real field outcomes of introducing irrigation management strategies suggested by such crop growth-based econometric models (see for instance, Perry and Narayanamurthy, 2001) would deviate from the model predictions. This is because such models fail to take into account the farmers' decision making variables with regard to crop choices under different irrigation water supply regimes. Most of the studies assess productivity in relation to land.Such studies, therefore, leave major information gaps about the governing parameters in irrigation management that need to be manipulated for improving the performance and that are critical for working out operational policies for irrigation management, and their expected outcomes. There is hardly any empirical research that attempts to develop quantitative criteria, which uses measurable physical indicators, for assessing the quality and reliability of irrigation and which captures the complex variables such as timeliness of irrigation, physical access to irrigation water source, water delivery rates and control over water delivery 3 . Such quantitative measures are important for working out operational policies for irrigation management.Further, very little is known about how improved quality and reliability of irrigation cause differential productivity, and the extent to which they contribute. What is best known is the physical processes involved in plant growth, and how that changes with irrigation. But, what is needed is the real life impacts of different irrigation management interventions like improving \"quality and reliability\" of irrigation on productivity of water.In Bist Doab area of Punjab, the climate varies from semi arid to hot, sub-humid from south west to north east (Hira and Khera, 2000). The Bist Doab area provides a unique opportunity to analyze the impact of reliability of irrigation on crop yields and water productivity. The reason is the presence of farmers using canal water, groundwater and both in the same location with similar agro-climate. Also, incidentally, there are pockets where reliability of canal irrigation is quite high, against locations which are traditionally known for poor quality canal irrigation. This can help overcome the problem of wrongly attributing differential productivity to a particular source of irrigation.One of the locations (Changarwan village) chosen for the study in Hoshiarpur district, which receives adequate amount of canal water from Shah Neher canal. Very few farmers have wells, which are located outside the command. But, farmers who receive canal water do not practice well irrigation. The area, which is part of the sub-mountainous region of Punjab, receives nearly 900mm of rainfall, and is hot and sub-humid. The second location (Skohpur village) located in Nawanshehr district is well known for intensive well irrigation, and the canal water supply is generally poor, except in very good rainfall years. The area receives a mean annual rainfall of approximately 450 mm (source: based on Hira and Khera, 2000). Most of the farmers who receive canal water also practice well irrigation, at least for some crops.The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of quality and reliability of irrigation on field level water productivity of crops. This is done by comparing the physical productivity of water for individual crops; and water productivity in economic terms under different types of irrigation systems with differential quality and reliability vis-à-vis the irrigation quality and reliability index for these systems.The quality and reliability of irrigation influences water productivity in many different ways. First, good quality and reliable irrigation services provide farmers with the opportunity of optimizing the dosage of irrigation, which can help prevent non-beneficial evaporation of soil moisture from the field during the crop development stages and residual moisture in the soil after the crop harvest thereby bringing the depleted water close to beneficial ET. Reliable and quality irrigation would motivate farmers to use fertilizers adequately, use high yield-ing seed varieties, invest in agronomic practices and also go for high-valued crops that involve more risk. This would positively affect yield. Since, differential input costs need to be factored in the productivity analysis, combined physical and economic productivity of water also need to be compared. Further, since cropping pattern might change from one source to another, overall net water productivity (Rs/m 3 ), including all the crops needs to be compared for understanding the real impact (Kumar, 2005).Since there are perceptible differences in the quality and reliability of irrigation between canal irrigation and well irrigation and also between well irrigation and conjunctive use, the impact of reliability and quality on water productivity can be compared by comparing field level water productivity of depleted water for the same crop for these different sources (both in Kg/m 3 of applied water and Rs/m 3 of applied water). It is also important to quantify the quality and reliability of irrigation using certain realistic criteria based on physically measurable indicators. Then the productivity values for different sources will be compared against the estimated values of quality and reliability of the source.The sample size for Changarwan village is 36, with 18 farmers using canal irrigation and 18 using well irrigation. In case of Skohpur village the sample size is 35, of which the farmers using well irrigation are 21 and those adopting conjunctive use are 14. Among these, there are 3 farmers who use only canal water supply for irrigating certain crops.Primary data were collected from the sample farmers, in both the locations using real time monitoring. The data collected included: area under different irrigated crops; date of sowing and harvesting; the actual irrigation schedules including the timing and duration of each watering; crop outputs; the price of produce (price at which it is being procured by Food Corporation of India); the discharge of pumps; canal discharge rate.The differential quality and reliability of irrigation vis-à-vis a crop can be quantitatively estimated by using certain irrigation related physical parameters. They are: water control index; no. of irrigations; average duration per watering per unit cropped area; and maximum time duration between two waterings during the entire crop season. It is argued here that higher frequency improves the quality and reliability of irrigation. Also, the greater the duration of watering, the better would be the quality. On the contrary, greater the time gap between two watering for the same crop, poorer would be the quality of irrigation and greater would be the chances for crop damage due to water stress. Correct dosage of water could prevent leaching of fertilizers and other nutrients in the soil, thereby maintaining good growth.Quality and reliability of irrigation for wells, canals and conjunctive use for a farmer, with respect to a given crop is assessed in terms of an irrigation quality index ( l δ ) defined by Id are the number of irrigations and duration of irrigation (hr/acre), respectively, given by the sample farmer l for a crop; l t is the maximum time duration between any two consecutive watering given by sample farmerfor l the crop in days. l q is the rate of water delivery (l/s) for that farmer. It is assumed that a water delivery rate of 15 litres per second is best for the crop for which the index would be one and accordingly the values of coefficients a and b were estimated. Further, the relationship between q and ψ is assumed to be according to a convex curve. From the index δ obtained for each farmer in the sample, the mean values would be estimated and compared against the field level water productivity.The way quality and reliability of irrigation is measured for a particular farm will have to be different from that for a particular field. This is because unlike in case of a field, in a farm, there would be many crops, each having different irrigation requirements, in terms of dosage and frequency. Therefore, assessing the quality and reliability of irrigation in relation to number of irrigations given, duration of irrigation and the maximum time duration between two waterings would be futile. For a farm, the parameters that matter when it comes to comparing reliability and quality between two sources of irrigation are: 1] the total time duration for which water is available at the farm gate for a given cropped area; 2] the time interval between two consecutive water deliveries at the farm gate; and, 3] the degree of control with which water can be applied in the field, which is determined by water control index.Quality and reliability of irrigation with respects to all the crops in a farm can be assessed quantitatively as a function of the water control index ( ψ ); the average duration of water delivery per unit cropped area in the farm farm t (hours per ha); and an inverse function of the cumulative time interval between water deliveries in the farm farm off t − (hours). The underlying premise in developing these criteria is that greater the duration of water delivery in the farm, greater would be the ability of the farmer to manage his irrigation. Larger the time interval between two water deliveries, lesser would be the reliability of the water supplies. Again, higher the water control index, greater would be the ability to provide optimum dosage of irrigation.The detailed analytical procedure employed for estimating water productivity parameters is available in Kumar et al. (2008).Based on real time data on irrigation schedules, duration of irrigation and the water delivery of the source, the irrigation quality index was estimated for all the sources, viz., well irrigation, conjunctive irrigation and canal irrigation. The estimates for Changarwan are provided in Table 1 and that for Skohpur are provided in Table 2. As Table 1 shows, the IQ value is higher for well for all crops except paddy. This is understandable. In the case of wells, for a given crop, the number of irrigations was much higher. Also, the time gap between two consecutive watering was higher. In the case of paddy, the index is slightly higher for canal. Source: author's own analysis based on primary data In the case of Skohpur, there are three sources of irrigation, i.e., well, canal and conjunctive use. The IQ values are higher for well irrigation except for kharif bajra and maize. For maize, the IQ value is highest for conjunctive irrigation, and in the case of bajra the value is highest for canal. The mean values of crop yields, and estimated mean values of irrigation dosage, and water productivity in physical and economic terms for the major crops viz., paddy, maize, bajra, wheat and barseem for well irrigated crops and canal irrigated crops are presented separately in Table 3 and Table 4. Comparing crop yields between irrigation sources show higher yield values for canal irrigated fields. The comparison shows the following: 1] the irrigation dosages are much higher for canal-irrigated fields for all the five crops; 2] physical productivity of water is higher for well-irrigated fields, for paddy, maize and wheat; and 3] the values of water productivity in economic terms are higher for well-irrigated fields for maize, bajra and wheat.The irrigation dosages are excessive for fields, which are receiving canal water. But, still the yields are much higher for these fields when compared to well-irrigated fields in spite of the fact that the well irrigated fields are getting adequate quantities of water. One important reason for this differential yield is the chemical quality of irrigation water available through canals. As reported by the farmers in Changarwan village, the canal water, which comes from Bhakra irrigation scheme in Punjab-Himachal border is very rich in many minerals from the hilly catchments in the Shivalik hills. The continuous availability of this water for the past four decades had made the land receiving this water also very fertile. Hence, the nutrient regime in the soil is much higher in the canal irrigated fields.The mean values of crop yields, mean values of estimated irrigation dosage, and mean values of estimated water productivity in physical and economic terms for the major crops irrigated by wells, canals and conjunctive method in Skohpur village are presented separately in Table 5, Table 6 and Table 7, respectively. Comparison across sources shows the following: 1] the depth of irrigation is highest for fields irrigated by canals, followed by conjunctive use, and lowest for wells for paddy and wheat; 2] the yield is higher for well irrigated fields for paddy, and barseem, whereas it is higher for canal irrigated fields in the case of maize; 3] the physical productivity of water is higher for well irrigated fields in the case of paddy, bajra, and wheat and highest for canal irrigated field in the case of maize. As regards water productivity in economic terms, values were higher for well-irrigated fields for all crops except bajra.Season Crop Source: authors' own estimates based on primary dataTable 8 shows the estimates of irrigation quality index for five major crops under two major sources of irrigation, viz., wells and canals, and the corresponding estimates of physical and economic productivity of water for these crops for Changarwan village. It can be seen that in situations where the irrigation quality index is higher, the water productivity in economic terms is higher. The only exception is barseem. Another interesting observation is that water productivity in economic terms does not follow the same trend as that of physical productivity of water. The physical productivity of water was found to be higher for fields, which have lower irrigation quality index, in the case of paddy, bajra and barseem.One reason for this could be the difference in duration of the crop between fields under different sources of irrigation. In crops such as bajra and barseem where only leafy biomass is harvested, if water is available in plenty through excessive water delivery, farmers might take more harvests of these fodder crops with more number of irrigations. This would reduce the value of IQ, but may not reduce physical productivity of water as the biomass output would increase in proportion of the amount of water. Source: authors' own estimates based on primary dataTable 9 shows the estimates of irrigation quality index for five major crops under well irrigation, canal irrigation and conjunctive use, and the corresponding estimates of physical productivity and economic productivity of water for these crops for Skohpur village. Similar to what was seen in the case of Changarwan, comparing well irrigated crops and canal irrigated crops in Skohpur shows that water productivity (Rs/m 3 ) was found to be higher for fields which have higher estimated values of irrigation quality and reliability except paddy. We have begun our analysis with the premise that improved quality and reliability of irrigation, expressed in terms of irrigation quality index (IQ), would be able to manipulate the water productivity parameters through controlling the major drivers of change in water productivity such as irrigation dosage, fertilizer and pesticide inputs.Increase in irrigation dosage, largely, increases the beneficial evapo-transpiration from the crop, and therefore the crop yield. But, excessive irrigation will not have any positive effect on crop yields. On the other hand, it increases the value of denominator of water productivity. We have seen that the IQ values are much higher for well-irrigated fields for both the locations. Simultaneously, the irrigation dosages are much higher in canal irrigated fields as against well-irrigated fields for most crops in Changarwan. Also, it was much higher in canal irrigated fields and field irrigated by both canals and wells, than that of well irrigated fields for most crops in the case of Skohpur. This means that the highest influence of IQ index is in controlling the water delivery in the field.Excessive dosages of irrigation are likely to reduce both the physical and economic productivity of water. But, fertilizer and pesticide dosage and labour input are also other drivers of change in water productivity as they can increase the yield, without changing the denominator of water productivity in kg/m 3 . Generally, their effect on physical productivity of water would be positive. At the same time, these inputs can increase the cost of production significantly, and therefore its marginal impact on the net returns may not always be positive. We have begun our analysis with the assumption that better quality and reliability in irrigation services would lead to optimal use of other inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and labour.Comparative analysis of crop inputs such as fertilizer, pesticide and labour use between crops, which receive irrigation of differential quality and reliability does not fully support this hypothesis. In Changarwan, for instance, the change in levels of fertilizer and pesticide dosage with change in source of irrigation was found to be significant only for paddy, wheat and maize. What emerges from the comparison is that the dosage of these inputs does not increase with increase in reliability of irrigation water (Table 12). This is evident from the fact that canal-irrigated fields, which have lower reliability, do not necessarily receive lower dosage of fertilizer and other inputs. One reason could be that as the irrigation dosage is very high in the case of canals resulting in heavy percolation, farmers provide for leaching of fertilizers, which occur due to it. Another reason could be that the quality and reliability does not matter so much for fodder crops such as bajra and barseem, farmers try to obtain higher yield through higher dosage of inputs. Significant difference in labour use was found between sources, for three crops viz., paddy, maize, and barseem. Here, contrary to what was generally perceived, labour input was higher for fields, which received irrigation water of lower reliability.Analysis for Skohpur (Table 13) shows that there is no general pattern in the input use vis-à-vis source of irrigation or quality and reliability of irrigation. Similarly in the case of labour input also, no general pattern is seen to be emerging. As a result, lower quality and reliability of irrigation does not necessarily result in lower water productivity in physical terms, but in economic terms, as shown by majority of the cases from both the field locations. The quality and reliability of irrigation had some impact on the cropping pattern chosen by the farmers. The well irrigators in Changarwan were allocating more area under maize during kharif season as compared to canal irrigators (see Table 14 and 15). Obviously, maize is a low water consuming crop when compared to paddy. But, it is not a highly water-efficient crop either. There are two reasons for greater preference for maize. One is the water shortage during summer months induced by restricted power supply in the farms. The other is the high cost of diesel required for pumping groundwater. In Punjab, monsoon arrives in the first week of July, while the transplanting of paddy starts in June itself. During the month of June, the potential evapo-transpiration of the crop rapidly goes up due to very high temperatures and high aridity, and the crop needs frequent waterings. This makes paddy production with diesel pump irrigation an un-attractive proposition for the farmers. But, the canal irrigators in the same village get plenty of canal water for paddy, with good reliability as seen from the estimates of quality and reliability of canal water supply for paddy in that village. Hence, they are able to allocate more land for paddy.Contrary to this, in Skohpur village, the reliability of canal water supply is very poor. This is evident from the discussions with the farmers, and the irrigation quality and reliability index estimated for canal water supplies for paddy. The lower reliability of canal water supplies is forcing farmers to allocate much less area for water-intensive paddy. The main reason for this is that the returns from paddy are dependent on the adequacy of irrigation water applied, as seen from the comparison of net returns from paddy. While the well irrigators get net returns of Rs. 12000 from an acre of paddy, the canal irrigators get Rs.3900 per acre in that village. Hence, we could infer that quality and reliability of water influences the cropping pattern wherein the farmers choose crops, which give higher return from every unit of land they cultivate. In this paper, we have developed quantitative criteria for assessing the quality and reliability of irrigation water, and using these criteria, a composite index called the irrigation quality index was developed. The index uses the water control index, a function of water delivery rate; the frequency of irrigations; the duration of irrigation; and the maximum time gap between two consecutive waterings as the determinants. The index was worked for different crops under three different sources of irrigation in Bist Doab area.Overall, the irrigation quality index was found to be higher for well irrigated fields as compared to canal irrigated fields and fields irrigated by both wells and canals in Skohpur village. But, the estimates of irrigation quality index were found to be higher for canal irrigated fields than well-irrigated fields in the case of Changarwan village for a few crops. This is in confirmation with what the farmers in these villages perceive about the quality and reliability of irrigation water deliveries from canals from the respective villages. Hence, we could conclude that the quantitative criteria evolved for estimation of this composite index are realistic.Comparison of irrigation quality index estimated for major crops under different sources of irrigation vis-à-vis the water productivity of the respective crops show that differential reliability has an impact on economic productivity of water (Rs/m 3 ). The fields, which received irrigation water of higher quality and reliability got higher water productivity in rupee terms. But, the impact of differential quality and reliability was not visible on physical productivity of water for fodder crops.Contrary to the belief that higher quality and reliability of irrigation would result in better yields, the fields, which were receiving high quality irrigation gave lesser yields as compared to those which received poor quality irrigation. This was primarily due to the high nutrient load which canal water contained that increased the yield of those crops substantially. Also, fodder crops also gave higher yields under less reliable irrigation water supply. Hence, one can conclude that improved quality and reliability of irrigation would help enhance the water productivity in crop production. Nevertheless, the index developed here is not adequate to assess the IQ of crops, which can be harvested many times. Also, it needs refinement to take into account the difference in chemical quality of irrigation water.","tokenCount":"5511"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dabc397ca5b8054a85808ed1fba682b2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5c9f97b5-0617-42a7-8bc0-0eba69040743/retrieve","id":"925537345"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7a00b271-8433-4eb1-9bb7-a367b45768c6","pagecount":"5","content":"Climate change is among the most important challenges facing humanity today. Fortunately, climate change emerges at the same time as another major change in human history. This is the Data Revolution, epitomised by the unprecedented amounts of data produced by a wide range of means: satellite sensors, GPS, social media, wearable devices, and so forth. It was the Industrial Revolution that started the massive use of fossil energy that generated the climate problem. Perhaps the Data Revolution can provide the solution?Data are already key for renewable energy management. Varying levels of sun and wind need to be carefully matched to the fluctuating energy needs of users. So-called 'smart energy grids' feed on data. They constantly measure and forecast energy production and energy use patterns, match supply and demand, and detect energy waste. Also in the agricultural sector, climatic information has become an important focus of innovation in modern systems. In 2013, Monsanto took over the Climate Corporation, a United States-based climate information service provider, for US$ 1 billion. This made the strategic value of climate data highly evident.But what about smallholder farming in the (sub-) tropics? Climate change destroys information: local knowledge gradually loses its value as rainfall patterns change and new pests and diseases appear (Quiggin & Horowitz, 2003). The creation of new knowledge, adaptive management, and 'smart' management will require constant data flows. Obviously, the digital divide between rich and poor affects what is possible. Even so, the worldwide, steady expansion of mobile networks is making digital communication more and more accessible to smallholder farmers. Mobile networks have made rural communities leapfrog directly to mobile banking in certain countries. What is needed to make a similar shift in agriculture?We believe that five emerging concepts related to the data revolution are key in this context. In the following sections, we explore these concepts to understand ongoing efforts and the future potential of data-driven approaches to agricultural climate action in smallholder agriculture. Although we list these concepts here separately, the description of each of the concepts will make clear that they are highly interconnected.The idea of lean data emerged to address the need to monitor the social and environmental impacts of investments. Often, efforts in these areas are evaluated when they are well underway. This limits the degree of learning during their implementation and the scope of adjustments that can be made. Lean data involves using digital means to collect a minimalistic set of indicators at a frequent rate that allow monitoring of what is going on. For example, constituent voice measurements use very simple means to retrieve information about the perception of key stakeholders in change processes. Using simple Likert scales, participants indicate how they feel about the intervention in which they are involved. This allows project managers to keep their finger on the pulse. If they observe sudden changes or trends in the data, they can further investigate the causes through more qualitative inquiry.Another interesting lean data idea has been piloted by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The 5Q concept serves 'real-time' project monitoring using mobile telephone surveys, collecting the feedback of beneficiaries (Figure 1). Farmers respond via mobile phone to ultra-short questionnaires that are administered through automated voice response. By making questions conditional on the answers to previous questions, rich information can be obtained even though each farmer only answers five questions at a time (hence the name 5Q). The information can be used for timely corrective action during the project cycle. The pilot found some limitations in the ability to synchronise the survey with ongoing field activities, but showed the potential of the 5Q approach (Jarvis et al, 2015).The lean data approach has been applied more specifically to agriculture in the Rural Household Multiple Indicator Survey (RHoMIS), developed by a collaborative group from the CGIAR (Hammond et al, 2016). This survey format stems from the realisation that a small number of variables can predict household food security status (Frelat et al, 2016), and that similar sparse indicators are needed for other aspects of farm performance. Climate-smart agriculture (or sustainable agricultural intensification) is about managing the trade-offs (positive and negative) across a large number of indicators, trying to avoid progress on one indicator causing a negative impact on another. The multiple aspects that need to be managed include productivity, poverty, greenhouse gas emissions, food security, gender and social inclusion. Systems approaches are widely advocated to deal with the multidimensionality of climate change, but there is a need for easy-to-use, quantitative tools to underpin these approaches.The RHoMIS selects standard indicators for each of these aspects that are validated and require a relatively small number of questions. By including only questions that contribute to calculating these indicators, it avoids the 'design by committee' syndrome, which often leads to long questionnaires that satisfy the curiosity of the experts but that are neither complete nor parsimonious. The use of standard indicators and digital data collection tools (Open Data Kit with Android devices) also makes it easy to process the data automatically. This makes the results of the data analysis directly available, enabling the use of the resulting insights immediately to target project interventions. The strength of RHoMIS is not that it provides in-depth insights into any of these aspects, but that it allows the broad study of relationships between the different aspects. More in-depth, focused studies could follow-up on particular aspects identified from an exploratory analysis of RHoMIS data. The RHoMIS is already widely used for target-setting, monitoring and evaluation purposes (Hammond et al, 2017). It shows how the lean data approach can not only support adaptive management, but can be combined with a systems approach, which is another strong need for climate action.Crowdsourcing is another important concept in the ongoing Data Revolution. Many information-related tasks are still best done by people. Digital means, however, make it easy to distribute tasks to large groups of people, and retrieve and combine the results. This makes it possible to scale the realisation of information-based tasks to levels that were not possible before.An example of one such task is the transcription of weather data. Many old records with handwritten meteorological records exist; ships would typically keep detailed records of weather conditions. These data are now of much value in calibrating climate models. However, text recognition software has trouble recognising handwriting from several centuries ago. The Old Weather project therefore employed online volunteers to transcribe these records (www.oldweather.org). People are motivated to contribute as volunteers for various reasons: the scientific value of the tasks or the personal connection to the persons who wrote these records. The project website makes the task part of a game-like challenge, in which records of achievement are being kept and people receive badges or roles depending on their contribution. Until now, 20,000 people have participated in transcribing millions of records. These data are added to the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS) climate database (Freeman et al, 2016). The crowdsourcing idea has also been applied to experimentation for climate adaptation in the agricultural sciences. Bioversity International (CGIAR) developed the triadic comparisons of technologies (tricot) methodology to make it possible for large numbers of farmers to 'massively test' different technologies (van Etten, 2011;van Etten et al, 2017). In tricot, each farmer receives a combination of three technologies (for example, crop varieties or types of inputs); they then test and compare the technologies using a very simple on-farm trial format. By giving farmers different, partially overlapping combinations of technologies, larger sets of technologies can be compared: for example, sets of 10-20 crop varieties. Crowdsourced field-testing not only expands the number of trials but also makes clever use of the diverse growing conditions of each field (in terms of weather, soil, planting date, other management choices) to analyse environmental adaptation in a single year. Crowdsourcing provides a bottom-up, data-intensive approach to climate adaptation, which should complement more top-down approaches, based on causal modelling. The strength of the crowdsourcing tricot approach lies in its external validity. Crop models are calibrated with data produced on agricultural research stations, which may not represent real conditions on farmers' fields. In contrast, the tricot approach samples a wide range of farm conditions that actually occur locally.The term big data denotes the massive quantity of data that are produced by humans interacting with digital media, by sensors, by business transactions, crowdsourcing, gene sequencing, etc. There are different definitions of big data around and there is overlap with the other key concepts in this paper, but the term big data emphasises the data management challenges that this data deluge has caused, as well as the emerging possibilities. For example, opportunities arise from data that are being generated as a side-product of other processes. Examples include digital transactions (online purchases, mobile money transfer, credit card use, etc), the clicking behaviour of website visitors, the terms used by search machine users, messages shared through social media, loyalty card use, and so on. Big data also results from the digitisation of data that were previously only available in analogue format (texts, images, audiovisual materials) or by adding a common structure to data that consists of separate small datasets. Big data generates many opportunities for innovative data analysis, for example by combining data from different sources or by repurposing data to detect real-time trends in time and space.Big data is different from scientific data. Big data tends to rely on less control over sampling or observation. But the wide coverage or real-time nature of big data may override concerns about representativeness or the lack of experimental control. For example, social media users may not be representative of the world population, but they constitute such a large group that the data they produce may be relevant even if not fully representative. Science was traditionally based on deriving conclusions from scarce data through model-driven inference. Now, new methods are needed to deal with big data. At the same time, the limitations and risks of using big data need to be taken into account and better studied. Due to its limitations in terms of representativeness as well as ownership and privacy issues, big data will not completely substitute 'small data' studies but rather complement these (Kitchin, 2016).For climate action in agriculture, it is clear that big data approaches have promise. For example, Simko & Pechenick (2010) present a method to aggregate crop trial data from different crop breeding trials, in spite of differences in experimental conditions, rating scales or proxies used. Lobell et al (2011) have shown that existing crop trial data can be repurposed to study the effects of climate on crop yield. Different efforts are underway to create consistent databases with crop trial data, standardising data formats. Data standardisation requires the development of 'ontologies', which are documented standards that describe the underlying elements and variables that are contained in the datasets and how these different elements/variables are interlinked (Shrestha et al, 2012). Big data approaches are still incipient for applications in smallholder agriculture and wellcoordinated efforts are needed to achieve their full potential.One important product that shows the power of big data for agriculture is the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) dataset (Funk et al, 2014). This dataset is based on the interpolation of precipitation data produced by weather stations combined with satellite radar data and goes back several decades. The resulting dataset is quasi-global and gives daily precipitation estimates on a 5 x 5 km resolution grid. An important achievement is to source data from national meteorological institutes and others sources, which requires an important investment in social capital, as the availability of public meteorological data under unrestrictive licenses is on the decrease (Ramirez, 2012).The idea of ubiquitous computing is the opposite of the usual practice of concentrating computing mainly in a single device (PC or laptop), and shaping our tasks around this technology. Instead, it proposes to embed computing directly into use objects to integrate the digital devices into the routines of users. The idea of ubiquitous computing is closely related to (but not synonymous with) a number of other concepts, such as the Internet of Things (eg thermostats and light sensors talking with the lights and curtains in your house) and wearable devices (fitness watches, computing integrated into clothing and so on).The idea of ubiquitous computing is interesting in smallholder farming because currently farmers often find it difficult to combine computing tasks with their daily practice. Important obstacles are illiteracy and the difficulty of finding a specific time and space for computing tasks. If data acquisition, processing, and feedback are fully integrated into the tools and tasks of farmers and designed according to their abilities and needs, it will be more likely that computing will positively affect their farming practice.In modern farming, ubiquitous computing is already highly developed. Precision farming technologies make tractors constantly send and receive data to adjust planting density, fertilisation rates and so on within fields. Precision farming is an important part of climate action. Controlling input dosage, for example, can reduce wastage and avoid greenhouse gas emissions from fertilisers.For smallholder agriculture, ubiquitous computing also holds promise, but is still in its infancy. One example is the development of the Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) weather station network, which addresses the dearth of weather data in Africa. This initiative has designed a weather station that is extremely low in maintenance by avoiding any sensors with moving parts (Figure 2). It is connected to the mobile network to send the data it collects and is powered by a solar panel. These features help to overcome some of the main limitations of weather station networks in poor rural areas.Another ubiquitous computing initiative, Talking Plants, focuses on practices around crop seeds, exploring the use of sensors to measure humidity of seeds in storage, and video as a medium to record farmers' information about their seeds, including their personal story, which often has much significance (Heitlinger et al, 2014).It is evident from these two examples that careful design is needed for successful ubiquitous computing solutions. The design process needs to centre on the eventual users, taking into account their specific needs and interests, which may differ among users in terms of gender, age and other social factors. We believe that such design efforts would be very important in helping to bridge the current digital divide.Eventually, climate action depends on human decisionmaking, so it is crucial that data are converted into understandable information through information design. This concept refers to making data available in formats that allow users to derive insights to inform decisions. Over the last decade, complex, interactive visualisations have become available for personal computers, stimulating creativity to generate new visualisation formats. At the same time, scientists have made much progress in understanding how human visual perception works (Ware, 2013). Human visual perception is a pattern-seeking system that is intricately linked with human cognition. Interactive visualisation is being increasingly recognised as having a place in scientific knowledge generation. It should afford the discovery of new information by exploring the data and drilling down to get more detail (Ware, 2013).For example, Steed et al (2013) argue that knowledge discovery from climate simulation data calls for increased visualisation capacity. Simulation data generates many models and scenarios, each producing output in the form of multiple variables. Data reduction as a preparation to then create simple visualisations can remove many of the features, precluding the generation of new insights. Steed et al (2013) created an analysis tool (EDEN) that includes interactive, multidimensional visualisation techniques that are more appropriate for the big data era.We are not aware of parallel efforts in agricultural climate science that are at an advanced stage, however, the issues are very similar. We believe that more investment is needed in information design in agricultural climate studies.It is clear that the Data Revolution is already underway to support climate action in smallholder agriculture. Many solutions are within reach from a technological perspective, but still require substantial effort and creativity to be adapted to smallholder agriculture through user-centred design. This involves building systems that respond to local problems with intensive feedback from future users; making the institutional arrangements, or generating business models, to make their use sustainable; and influencing the enabling environment so that these approaches gain long-term policy support and are embedded in solid regulations.We think that data-intensive approaches are attractive for development investment. They can create practical solutions in agricultural climate action with concrete, visible benefits for farmers. Also, they generate business opportunities, create space for community initiatives, and provide entry points for more responsive policy. In other words, data-driven climate action provides opportunities for a wide range of actors, which could guarantee broad institutional support through an appeal to different institutional styles. From a climate action perspective, this broad appeal is a crucial success factor (Verweij et al, 2006).In terms of policy and institutions, data governance is key, in order to balance privacy and data property rights with wider innovation possibilities provided by access to data. Innovation opportunities would quickly narrow if a few monopolistic players occupy the innovation space provided by the Data Revolution. Proactive policy, as well as public support and investment, will therefore be crucial in establishing an open space for business and community organisations in a way that will give rise to the interdependent, decentralised data management systems that are needed for agricultural climate action. ","tokenCount":"2882"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"782415111270fd28cc97f06b57aff430","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0b6d5287-ebf5-466e-9689-ea37d839e269/retrieve","id":"318610418"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b41b6031-87b0-4799-84e4-4105b846eed0","pagecount":"86","content":"Agradecemos la colaboración prestada por los Integrantes de FEBESURCA, las Juntas de Acueductos Veredal y en general a la comunidad que habita el área de la subcuenca del rio Cabuyal así como a Integrantes de las diferentes Instituciones del consorcio CIPASLA que colaboraron con apoyo [ogístlco e información.Igualmente a cada una de las siguientes personas: Información general de los acueductos 3.2 Acceso a los acueductos por veredas ' 1 zonasCosto promedio de Sistemas artesanales de riego 3.4Requerimientos de agua para tomate (CROPWAT) 3.5Resultado de los análisis físíco-quimícos 3.6Información hidrológica -Cuenca Río Cabuyal 3.7Precipitación mensual (en mm) 3.8Evapotranspiración potencial mensual en mm segun Penman-Monteith, Eto. Cuenca Río Ovejas 3.9Caudal promedio Mensual Ovejas abajo en m 3 /s 3.10 Caudal promedio Mensual Ovejas abajo en mm 3.11 Datos climáticos para dos estaciones en la cuenca del Río Cabuyal 3.12 Balance hídrico de la cuenca del Cabuyal 3.13 Caudal del Rio Cabuyal en Itsls 3.14 Caudal actual y estimado del Río Ovejas en mm/mes• Modelo de simulación AWBM 3.15 Caudal simulado del Rio Cabuyal -Modelo AWBM 3.16 Parámetros proporcionados por el modelo AWBM para el Río Cabuyal 3.17 Distribución de los suelos segun estaciones climáticas y profundidades de suelo en Ovejas. Métodos artesanales de riego 3.2 Uso actual del agua en la subcuenca del Río Cabu;/al 3.3 Evolución de la temperatura y del oxígeno disuelto entre los sitios de muestreo 3.4Evolución de los residuos en suspensión y de la turbiedad entre las estaciones 3.5Evolución del Amoniaco, nitritos, nitratos y fosfatos entre las estaciones 3.6Balance hidrico: precipitación -evapotranspiración en mm 3.7Delimitación del área hidrológica medida en la Tarabita. Localización de lipos de suelo por profundidad 3.8Variación del flujo del Río Ovejas 1974Ovejas -1988 3.9 3.9 Curva de duración del flujo -Río Ovejas 1974 -1988 3.10 Balance hídrico de la cuenca del Ovejas 3.11 Representación del comportamiento del agua en la zona de estudio 3.12 Hidrología del Río Cabuyal 3.13 Determinación gráfica del flujo base según AWBM 3.14 Determinación gráfica de la constante de recesión 1< según AWBM 3.15 Comparación del caudal real con simulado según WATBAL 3.16 Comparación del caudal real con simulado según AWBM 3.17 Localización de zonas potenciales de riego y sus fuentes El Programa de Laderas se inició en 1992, con el objetivo de \"mejorar la calidad de vida de los agricultores de las laderas, mediante el desarrollo de sistemas de producción agrícola sostenibles y viables comercialmente\"'. En Colombia, el programa se dedica principalmente a trabajar en la sub-cuenca del rlo Cabuyal, situado en las montañas de mediana altura en el suroeste colombiano.En una reunión de planeación por objetivos, realizada en 1993, por habitantes de la sub-cuenca, indicaron que la escasez de agua durante la estación seca era uno de sus principales problemas. Dentro de los intereses en conflicto que se viven dentro de la sub-cuenca del río Cabuyal, está el relacionado con el agua, especialmente durante los meses secos (julio y agosto). Durante la estación seca, el agua que viene del sistema principal de agua potable es insuficiente para todos sus beneficiarios, lo cual obliga a los habitantes de las zonas bajas a buscar fuentes alternas (pozos o pequeiios arroyos) para obtener el agua del uso doméstico. Los agricultores de la zona baja acusan a los de la zona media de utilizar el agua de uso doméstico para irrigar sus sembrados de verduras, lo cual causa la escasez en las zonas bajas. Sin embargo, los agricultores de la zona media dicen que la cantidad de agua ha disminuido como resultado de la deforestación originada por los agricultores de la zona alta de la subcuenca, donde se originan las aguas 2 •Por tanto, los agricultores solicitaron al Programa de Laderas que investigara la posibilidad de tener más agua disponible (por ejemplo, para irrigación), utilizando los recursos de agua existentes en el área, como los pequeños arroyos y rios. Al mismo tiempo, el INA 1'\" se interesó en el potencial de irrigación de la sub-cuenca, pues ellos planeaban implementar unos cuantos sistemas de irrigación a pequeña escala en áreas de laderas.De otro lado, una gran planta hidroeléctrica en el río Cauca, que provee electricidad para Cali, está ubicada a unos 15 kms. abajo de la sub•cuenca. En este momento, el agua que sale de la sub-cuenca no .está beneficiando a esta planta hidroeléctrica, pues el rio Ovejas (del cual es tributario el rio Cabuya!) se une al rio Cauca un poco más abajo de la presa. Sin embargo la CVC• está desarrollando planes para desviar el rfo Ovejas con el objeto que sea una fuente adicional durante la época secas. Es entonces obvio que un aumento en el uso del agua (por ejemplo para irrigaciÓn) tendría un impacto en las cantidades de agua que salen de la subcuenca.El CIAr\" Y elllMI' decidieron, en un esfuerzo conjunto, llevar a cabo una investigación sobre el uso actual y potencial del agua, tomando en cuenta los intl~reses en conflicto dentro y fuera de la sub-cuenca, como los descritos anteriormente. La investigación contó con el apoyo dellNAT y de CIPASLA a y se inició en abril de 1996. Los resultados se presentan en este informe.Se procuró organizar el documento siguiendo los lineamientos definidos en el plan de trabajo acordado con INAT pero en algunos casos, la estrecha mlación entre los temas nos condujo a unificar algunos de los mismos. En un primer término s•e presentan los objetivos del estudio seguido de la revisión de literatura de fuentes primarias y secundarias. En un tercer punto, se presenta el diagnóstico de uso actual y potencial del a!~ua en la sub-cuenca. Al interior del diagnóstico de uso del agua en agricultura, se incorpora la información relacionada con las metodologias artesanales de riego. A la manera de discusión del diagnóstico, se plantean los conflictos actuales y potenciales sobre el agua en la zona. Posteriormente, se abordan las metodologías no convencionales para determinar perlod•os criticos de riego y las estrategias locales de cosecha y manejo de escorrentia. Para ce.rrar esta sección, se presenta una descripción de la hidrología y de los recursos de agua disponibles apoyados en el uso de modelos. Una discusión final sobre el numeral 3 cierra est~1 sección.Con base en los términos del convenio, se incluyen en el numeral 4 y 5 lo relacionado con la valoración y ajuste de la metodología dellNAT para la Identificación de proyecto y los resultados de la consultoría que constituye un estudio complementario.Breve descripción del área de estudio El área de estudio la constituyen 22 veredas del municipi':) de Caldono en el departamento del Cauca. Comprende 7400 has. considerando los límites administrativos locales (veredas), el área hidrológica es de 3296 has. El río Cabuyal desemboca en el rro Ovejas cerca del sitio conocido como la Tarabita en límites con el municipio de Buenos Air'9s. Comprende alturas que van desde 1150 a 2200 m.s.n.m. (Figura 1.1) Según la clasificación de zonas de vida de Holdrídge, en la subcuenca se encuentran las zonas de vida Bosque húmedo premontano y Bosque muy húmedo premontano. los suelos son considerados de baja fertilidad por su bajo contenido o disponibilidad de fósforo, con cenizas volcánicas, acidez por debajo de 5.5, rojizos. y en algunas zonas con avanzados procesos de erosión. Presenta un paisaje de leve a fuertemente quebradO encontrándose pendientes superiores al 75 %.La cuenca está atravesada por la via Panamericana (Cali -Popayán) a la altura del corregimiento de Pescador. Los principales cultivos de lél región son el café, la yuca, el fríjol, tomate, plátano y pastos. Un 15 % del área está aún cubierta por vegetación boscosa entre nativa e introducida. Su población es cercana a los 5500 habitantes entre mestizos e indígenas de los grupos Paez y Guambianos. Los más cercanos y principales centros poblados de influencia en la cuenca son Siberia, Pescador, Mondomo, Piendainó y Santander de Quilichao.El objetivo general del estudio es mejorar el uso efectivo y ,;¡ostenible del recurso agua en la subcuenca del Cabuya!. Para diagnosticar el posible incremento del uso del agua (por ejemplo, s CONSORCIO INTERINSTITUCIONAL PARA UNA AGRICULTURA SOSTENIBLE EN LADERAS para irrigación), se realizó una comparación entre el uso actual y el uso potencial del agua. En vista de los intereses conflictivos dentro y fuera de la sub-cuenca, se hizo una evaluación del posible impacto que representaría hacer un uso más intensivo del agua. Aunque se debe prestar atención a los intereses en conflicto fuera del área, se hace especial énfasis en el impacto dentro de la sub-cuenca. Se espera que la información generada con este estudio sea usada ¡....-por los agricultores dentro de la sub-cuenca, como una herramientas para Muros análisis sobre los proyectos alrededor de este recurso.Se formularon las siguientes preguntas para la investigación: Qué fuentes de agua se encuentran en la sub-cuenca? Cuánta es la cantidad total de agua disponible en la sub-cuenca? Cómo se utiliza actualmente el agua? Qué fuentes de agua se usan y cuáles no se usan? Qué intereses en conflicto existen relacionados con el agua? Cuál es el potencial de intensificar el uso del agua, por ejemplo, para irrigación? Cuál es el impacto sobre las cantidades de agua en la zona baja, si se aumenta el uso del agua?A lo largo del presente documento se dará respuesta a cada una de estas preguntas.A pesar del gran número de instituciones dedicadí~s al estudio y manejo de recursos naturales en el departamento del Cauca, para la zona del río Ovejas y en especial. del rio Cabuyal, pocos son los estudios especificos relacionados con el recurso agua. La Corporación Autónoma Regional del Cauca CVC, fué la institución que en su momento (actualmente rlo Cabuyal no está dentro de su área de jurisdicción), acopió y produjo la mayor cantidad de información. A pesar que existen numerosos registro!; climáticos de diferentes estaciones manejadas por CVC e HIMA~ y estudios generales de suelos, son escasos lOS estudios encaminados a procesar esta información y sobre los cuales se puedan orientar decisiones. Tal vez la excepción la constituyen los estudios de impacto aSiociados al proyecto de Desviación del Río Ovejas, el cual está encaminado a complementar las obras de la Salvajina e incrementar la capacidad de generación hidro-energética de este embals(~.'o De otro lado, el Programa de laderas del CIAr y numerosas organizaciones no gubernamentales han estado trabajando en el área desdE! hace varios años. La mayorla de los estudios están referidos al manejo de los suelos, prácticals de cultivo, agricultura orgánica, uso de variedades mejoradas de cultivos como el frijol, yuca, pastos; agroindustria rural, etc. A raiz de la conformación del consorcio CIPASLA , se están dando a conocer estos trabajos. Un estudios dirigido a evaluar la factibilidad de proyectos de mini-irrigación\" utilizando modelos de simulación ex-ante, es tal vez el caso más específico relacionado con el presente proyecto. Más adelante será retomado para contrastar los resultados obhmidos.Se recolectó, analizó y sistematizó la información disponible en CIAT, INAT, CVC y otras instituciones. Se recopiló información climática de las estaciones listadas en el anexo 1. La información relacionada con suelos se retomó de los estudios de CVC -IGAC'2 y se desagregó para su utilización en los modelos, Un resumen de las caracterlsticas de los suelos del área se presenta en la Tabla 2.1. La cartografía del área de trabajo se retomó de Planchas a escala 1:25.000 y 1:10,000 del IGAC, parte de esta fue digitalizada y procesada para el análisis del terreno e identificación de áreas de muestreo de agua y ml~dición de caudales, Se retomo información relacionada con la subcuenca del ri o Cabuyal existente en los siguientes estudios:-Censo diagnóstico de la Subcuenca del Río Cabuyal, llevado a cabo por el programa de laderas del CIA T en el año 1995 y el cual recopiló aspe'ctos socioeconómicos y biofisicos de cada una de las fincas al interior de las 23 veredas, -Coberturas de Uso de la Tierra del año de 1994 con base en fotografias de la zona a escala 1 :32000, retomadas de un estudio previo de CIAT '3 , -Cobertura de Asociaciones de Suelos de la cuenca del rlo Ovejas a escala 1 :50000.Para actualizar y corregir los mapas topográficos existentes, se usaron fotos aéreas (escala 1 :5000), En combinación con los cuestionarios sobre recursos de agua y prácticas del uso del agua, se invitó a los agricultores a que indicaran en las fotos dónde estaban ubicados los recursos de agua existentes, y si los usaban para propósito doméstico, agrlcola o industrial. Cuando fue necesario, se visitaron Jos sitios con los informantes para verificar la información suministrada. La información obtenida de estos ejercicios participativos con ayuda de mapas, fue digitalizada posteriormente, en formato Arclnfo, compatible con los mapas ya disponibles, Desafortunadamente, sólo se dispuso de un 60% del área en estas fotos. Para la parte restante, se usaron mapas topográficos. Aunque los agricultores tuvieron mayor dificultad para orientarse con los mapas que con las fotos aéreas. con este método también se obtuvieron resultados satisfactorios. A través de tres encuestas estructuradas'4 se identificaron los usuarios actuales y potenciales del recurso agua en 23 veredas. En cada un'l ellas se hi:¡:o contacto directo con los presidentes de las Juntas de Acción Comunal o con lidl~res conocidos. Algunos de ellos son representantes en FEBESURCA's, quienes conocen de manera anticipada el desarrollo de proyectos de desarrollo e investigación por parte de I:~s instituciones en tal forma que la colaboración fue permanente por parte de los miembros dE! la comunidad.La primera encuesta estuvo dirigida a identificar la disponibilidad del recurso, los diferentes tipos de actuales usuarios y la manera como es utili:<:ado. También se identificaron conflictos existentes y potenciales relacionados con el agua. Se entrevistaron uno o dos informantes claves por vereda para un total de 23 encuestas. El segundo cuestionario indagó por las técnicas de irrigación existentes. Cincuenta personas fueron entrevistadas sobre sus métodos de irrigación, costos y beneficios.Los sistemas actuales de agua para consumo humano parecían ser una fuente importante de agua, no solo para uso doméstico sino también para usos agrícolas. En tal sentido, se decidió hacer un tercer cuestionario de entrevista estructurada, con miembros de las comités responsables del manejo de los sistemas. Se hicieron 9 cuestionarios, uno por cada sistema de agua de consumo humano. Los formatos de estos cuestionarios se presentan en el Anexo 2.Se identificaron tres tipos de uso de agua con sus correspondientes usuarios: Uso doméstico, Agrícola e Industrial, los cuales se describen a continuaciól1.Un 86% de los habitantes reciben agua para usos domésticos proveniente de 9 sistemas de agua potable, 6 locales y 3 interveredales. Las personas que no tienen acceso a estos sistemas, especialmente en las veredas de la parte alta, tienen sus propias mangueras para traer agua de los arroyos, o tienen pequet'ias fuentes de a~lua, o usan po:¡:os privados.14 En las encuestas estructuradas, \"los términos concretos y la ',ecuencia de las preguntas son determinados previamente. Todos los entrevistados responden a las mismas pregunt~ls y en el mismo orden\". PATTON, 1980. Acueductos: Las Tablas 3.1 y 3.2 presentan una descripci6n general de los acueductos y el acceso de la poblaci6n a este servicio, Según la encuesta veredal hay 9 acueductos que suministran agua a las 22 veredas, los cuales están divididos de la siguiente manera: Acueductos Interveredales: a. La Laguna -Pescador: Este acueducto surte 11 veredas (La Laguna, El Porvenir. Pescador, Crucero/Pescador, La Campiña. Potrerillo, Los Quingos, La Llanada, Palermo, El Socorro y El Caimito), Fue construido por el Comite de Cafeteros del Cauca en 1974, toma el agua del río Cabuyal cuya bocatoma se localiza en la vereda El Oriente. En 1987 se amplia para abastecer un mayor número de pobladores, se tomó agua adicional de un zanjón localizado en la misma vereda, en el momento existen dos bocatomas que surten un tanque del cual distribuyen el agua a las 11 veredas beneficiarias. Se benefician aproximadamente 695 familias (2309 habitantes). El acueducto es manejado por una junta de acueducto formada por representantes de algunas de las veredas beneficiarias, las principales funciones que desempeña la junta son: operaci6n, mantenimiento y recolección de las tarifas del acueducto. Dentro de este acueducto los problemas más comunes que se presentan son: la utilización del agua para riego lo cual disminuye la cantidad de agua para la zona baja, el no pago de las tarifas por parte de los beneficiarios y la escasez de agua en épocas secas para los usuarios de la parte baja, b. Carrizales (Usenda): Este acueducto surte de agua un total de 8 veredas, 4 (Cabuyal, Panamericana, El Rosario y Buenavista) dentro de la .subcuenca y otras 4 que están localizadas fuera, Fue construido por la Federación Nacional de Cafeteros del Cauca en 1986. Toma su agua del río Ovejas, la bocatoma está localizada en la Tadea Usenda (Silvia -Cauca). Se benefician aproximadamente 196 familias (2467 habitantes). Es manejado por la junta de acueducto conformada por representantes de cada una de las veredas. Dentro de los problemas más comunes que se presentan en este acueducto están: Fallas en el diseño del sistema, como inapropiada dimensión y calidad de la tuberia, lo que genera fugas de agua por presión alta; los usuarios no pagan las tarifas y debido a la falta de recursos no se hace el mantenimiento requerido; también se presenta utilización del agua del acueducto en riego lo cual disminuye la cantidad del recurso para los usuarios de las partes más alejadas, c. Santa Barbara -Ventanas: Este acueducto surte de agua a doS veredas de las cuales toma su nombre; fue construido por la Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros del Cauca Y ,los habitantes de las veredas en 1975. Las fuentes de agua son el río Guaycoche y la quebrada La Colorada, las bocatomas están localizadas en la vereda Buenavista. Surte aproximadamente 127 familias (516 habitantes). Es administrado por una junta de acueducto conformada por 5 representantes de las dos veredas, 2 de Santa Barbara y 3 de Ventanas, los problemas que se presentan con más frecuencia dentro de este acueducto son: tuberia de muy baja dimensión lo que hace que el agua no llegue a todo el sistema, también utilizan el agua del acueducto para riego disminuyendo la cantidad de agua a muchos de los usuarios, Otras Fuentes de Agua para Uso Domestico:La fuente principal de agua en la subcuenca es el río Cabuy~ll. Hay 295 zanjones (Quebradas) que tienen agua todos los meses del año. Son utilizados como fuentes de consumo humano en las épocas secas o en casos en que los acueductos fallan o no tienen suficiente agua para surtir a todos los habitantes. Igual sucede con los 64 aljibes reportados en las encuestas. Los aljibes o pozos profundos son de aproximadamente 18 metros de profundidad cada uno, ha disminuido su utilización desde que los habitantes tienen acceso al acueducto.La estimación de la cantidad de agua para uso doméstico se hizo con base en el Estudio Nacional de Aguas realizado por el Departamento Nacional de Planeación, el cual estima los consumos rurales de agua en 140 Itslhab/día para clima cálido, 120 Itslhab/día para clima medio y 80 Its/habldía para clima fria. La temperatura media de cada nivel es asi: clima cálido 24° C o más, clima medio entre 17 y 23° e y clima frío 16° C o menos. Para el presente caso la subcuenca es considerada de clima medio. A la cantidad de ¡~gua utilizada para consumo humano se le sumo el consumo animal. Existen pocas explotaciones pecuarias dentro de la subcuenca razón por la cual sólo se incluyeron las familias que tenian más de cinco vacas, más de cinco cerdos, más de veinte gallinas y/o pollos de engordEI.La cantidad total de agua utilizada de la cuenca hidrológica para consumo domestico se estimó en 358 m'/día, y considerando el área administrativa de las 22 veredas en aproximadamente 660 m'/día.Se hizo evidente que aunque no hay un sistema de irrigación adicional al de El Cidral, existen métodos artesanales que algunas personas han implementado, tales como bombas de motor o extracción del agua de los sistemas de acueducto, para irri~lar sus cultivos individuales durante los meses secos (julio/agosto) 1 ••Está localizado' en la vereda El Cidral el cual es utilizado pc)r los usuarios como acueducto, ya que carecen de infraestructura adecuada para ampliar la capacidad del acueducto de la vereda. Este mínídistrito fue construido por el HIMA T hace aproximadamente seis años y se entregó a los usuarios para su manejo. EIINAT tiene un proyecto de rehabilitación de la bocatoma y las tuberías. A raíz de esto se creó recientemente la junta de usuarios del minidistrito (antes no existía), a quienes se planea dar capacitación sobre el mantenimíento, administración y manejo del mismo.EIINAT construyó un pequefto esquema de irrigaci6n que benefiei6 a 19 familias, pero este esquema se usa como sistema de agua para consumo humano.volumen aplicado a cada cultivo, sin embargo, el almacenamiento de agua en los tanques permite estimar a los agricultores un total de 6.6 m3 por riego. La Tabla 3.3 presenta los costos promedio de cada uno de estos sistemas y la Figura 3.1 un esquema gráfico de cada uno de ellos.Estimación de la Cantidad de Agua para Consumo Agrícola Para hallar la cantidad de agua consumida en la cuenca para riego de los cultivos, se hizo una división entre quienes consumen el agua del acueducto para uso agrícola (aproximadamente 280 usuarios) y los que utilizan el agua de otras fuentes (más o menos 40 usuarios). Utilizando el tomate como cultivo principal cuyos requerimientos son del orden de 1.7mm/día (ver Tabla 3.4), considerando la evapotranspiración calculada con CROPWAT en 3.5mm/día y con una eficiencia del 70%, la cantidad de agua que se consume es: En la subcuenca existen algunas actividades industriales que se abastecen de agua tanto de los acueductos interveredales como de algunos de los zanjones cercanos a los lugares donde están ubicadas. Aunque el impacto de las industrias sobre la cantidad de agua no parece ser muy significativo, para realizar el calculo de la cantidad de agua consumida se tuvo en cuenta las que aparentemente tienen mayor consumo.Se encontraron cuatro rallanderias localizadas dos en el Crucero de Pescador, una en La Laguna y una en Los Quingos; seis ladrilleras localizadas una en Cabuyal, tres en el Crucero de Pescador, una en El Porvenir y una en La Laguna; tres minas de cascajo localizadas en El Cidral; una fabrica de concentrados para animales localizada en La Laguna (la cual está empezando a funcionar); diez y nueve procesadoras de pollos localizadas diez y siete en La Campiña y dos en Pescador; una panadería localizada en el Crucero de Pescador; dos lecherías localizadas en el Crucero de Pescador y en La Campiña; dos estaciones de servicio localizadas una en el Crucero de Pescador y una en El Oriente. La Figura 3.2 presenta un resúmen del uso actual del agua en la subcuenca del río Cabuyal.Se definió un plan de muestreo del agua para análisis fisico-químicos a realizar en el Laboratorio de aguas de la Universidad del Valle con el apoyo dE! una estudiante de doctorado de la Universidad de Toulouse -Francia. Se tomaron muestr~ls en cinco puntos estratégicos de la subcuenca a saber: el tanque del acueducto, antes df~ la primera rallanderia, luego de la segunda rallanderia, en la via panamericana y 300 metro!; antes de la desembocadura en el rio Ovejas.Con el fin de explicar los resultados de los análisis fisico-químicos presentados en la Tabla 3.5, las definiciones de los parámetros medidos, dados por G. Roldán P. son los siguientes:Turbiedad: Término que se usa para describir el grado de opacidad del agua, producida por las partículas en suspensión como humus, arcilla, detritos orgánicos e inorgánicos. particulas coloidales, etc. Se reporta en fotocolorímetros. Un agua turbia puede contener partículas que son tóxicas o ayudan a acumular substancias tóxicas en I¡I agua. El valor ideal máximo es de 5 NTU (Nephelometric turbidity units) y preferiblemente < 1 para hacer la desinfección más eficiente. pH: Mide el grado de acidez o basicidad de una muestra de agua. En los ríos no contaminados, el pH depende del origen de las aguas y de la natural'!za de la geoglogía del terreno. Se encuentran pH débiles (5.5 a 6.5) en las regiones graníticas de origen volcánico. Ph fuerte (6.5 a 7.5) en las regiones calcáreas. Menos de 5.5 o mayor de €:.5 las aguas son contaminadas. Alcalinidad: Es una medida de la capacidad del agua pana neutralizar ácidos. Por lo general. la alcalinidad se debe a los componentes de bicarbonatos e hidróxidos en el agua. Dureza: Con este parámetro se determina la cantidad de iones alcalino-térreos como magnesio, calcio, etc. presentes en el agua. Demanda Bioquímica de Oxígeno: DB05-20•C: Mide la <:antidad de materia orgánica oxidable en el agua. El agua es dejada en un lugar oscuro a 20 c C durante 5 dias. Conductividad: Es la capacidad del agua de transportar una corriente eléctrica. La carga de iones de Ca, Mg, y otros minerales es su determinante. Valores entre 50 y 300 umhos/cm se encuentran en aguas cuyos terrenos son graníticos de orillen volcánico, Valores entre 300 y 700 umhos/cm se encuentran en terreno calcáreo. Las conduGtividades más altas se encuentran en suelos salino. Cianuros: Compuestos cianogénicos se encuentran en las aguas residuales del proceso de extracción del almidón de yuca. Los valores tolerados debl~n estar por debajo de 0.01 mg/L. Fofatos: Aunque no hay acuerdo sobre su regulación en aguas de consumo, valores por debajo de 5 mg/L son considerados aceptables. Contaminllción de origen orgánico aumenta considerablemente la cantidad de fosfatos. Nitritos: Es el producto de la transformación del amoniaco por bacterias llamadas nitrosomonas. Se encuentra en cantidades pequeñas en aguas no contaminadas. por el contrario, su presencia en el agua indica contaminación por materia orgánica. Nitratos: Es el producto de la transformación de los nitritQs por bacterias llamadas Nitrobacter. Se encuentran naturalmente en el agua por descomposicón de la materia orgánica vegetal. Si su concentración es mayor de 10mgll indica que es un agua contaminada. Oxígeno Disuelto: Elemento necesario para soportar la vida en el agua, El agua fresca alcanza valores de 14. COliformes; Es la medida de Coliformes total y fecal. Es importante resaltar que los valores puntuales no reflejan el verdadero estado del recurso, en especial cuando el flujo de contaminantes es intermitente como es el caso de los residuos del procesamiento de la yuca en las rallanderias e incluso los efluentes orgánicos de las viviendas. El costo de un monitoreo continuo es bastante alto lo que conduce a distribuir el muestreo en diferentes épocas del año. Sin embargo, conclusiones previas sobre el estado del recurso que pueden extraerse del muestreo realizado indican que el agua no presenta Indices altos de contaminación.Los conflictos existentes en la subcuenca con respecto al uso del agua se presentan principalmente por la utilización del agua para consumo humano en prácticas agricolas como riego.Aunque por lo general las entidades e ingenieros que diseñan y construyen los sistemas de agua para consumo humano (acueductos) y los sistemas para irrigación (distritos de riego) consideran que estas dos unidades van separadas y que tienen parámetros de disetlo diferentes tanto en términos de cantidad y calidad, los habitantes de la cuenca parecen.no tener en cuenta estas diferencias: se observó que el único sistema de riego lo usan exclusivamente para propósitos domésticos, mientras que el agua de los acueductos la usan ampliamente para irrigación. Esta práctica es causa de conflictos entre los usuarios de los sistemas de agua para consumo, puesto que estos no han sido diseñados con propósitos agrlcolas'8.En el sistema de agua para consumo más grande en la subcuenca (Laguna -Pescador) el cual cubre 11 de las 23 veredas y beneficia al 45% de la población total, la población está sufriendo por escasez de agua durante los meses de verano, porque los habitantes de la zona media utilizan el agua para regar sus cultivos (tomate principalmente).Entre los usuarios del acueducto se viene discutiendo la posibilidad de colocar contadores de agua en cada una de las viviendas que se benefician de este servicio. Asi se podrla cobrar por la cantidad de agua que consume cada familia, de manera que las personas que consumen mayor cantidad de agua (los que utilizan riego) tendrán mayores costos por la mayor cantidad de agua que consumen. Sin embargo, esto no garantiza que los problemas de escasez de agua en la zona baja se resuelvan.De acuerdo con las entidades que construyen los acueductos veredales, no se permite el uso de agua de consumo humano para prácticas agrícolas, Si se cobra el agua, por unidad de consumo sería como si se legalizará la utilización del agua para prácticas agrlcolas y la gente podría utilizar la cantidad que quisiera, siempre y cuando pague la cuenta.Además las personas que no riegan sus cultivos con el agua del acueducto -porque esta prohibido-, podrían empezar a hacerlo. La introducción de los medídores de agua no reducirá el agua que se usa 18.Para irrigar 1 ha de tierra se estima una cantidad de 16,700 litros por dia, mientras que para uso domestico, 150 litros por dia son suficientes. para propósitos agrícola, al contrario, podría aumentar, lo cual empeoraría el problema de los habitantes de las zonas bajas.Los habitantes de la zona medía atribuyen la disminución de la cantidad de agua a la deforestación, sin embargo, nadie garantiza en qué medida la reforestación incrementa la disponibilidad de agua o la regulación de los caudales. En un estudio donde se revisaron 94 experimentos en cuencas para determinar el efecto de la vegetación en las existencias de agua, reveló que las existencias de agua tienden a incmmentar, y no a disminuir, con la deforestación 19. Otros autores dan más importancia a la v~~getación de los bordes de los ríos y al manejo de la vegetación herbácea para aumentar el caud¡11 durante las épocas secas 20 • El factor más crítico para el buen funcionamiento del sistema es la limitada capacidad del mismo (15 lis), ya que aún en los meses secos, el flujo mínimo disponible en la fuente es de 25 lis., 10 l/s por encima de su capacidad. Existe la esperanza de mejora,\" el funcionamiento del sistema actual (10 115 medidos en la época seca), por ejemplo, mejorando la bocatoma y reparando los escapes o fugas de agua.En los sistemas locales de agua para consumo doméstico no se presentan conflictos por el uso del agua para propósitos agrícolas ya que el recurso no E~S utilizado para este fin, sin embargo, se presenta escasez de agua por los problemas mencionados en cada uno de los acueductos, la mayoría referidos a problemas de diseño y mal mantenimi'9nto. Estos problemas serian relativamente fácil de solucionar reparando o reemplazando los tubos, mejorando las tomas o aumentando el tamai'lo de los ta,1qUeS, Los miembros de los comités organizadores de 5 sistemas se proponen aumentar las tarifas del agua para poder financiar estas mejoras. Sin embargo, es necesario algún apoyo té~nico y financiero de fuentes extemas, Aunque varios sistemas comparten la misma fuente, 110 hay conflictos de agua entre los sistemas de agua para consumo humana (todavía), y apenan en forma independiente. De todas formas, es recomendable que los comités organizadores de los sistemas locales continúen con su clamor por el agua, para evitar problemas en el futum. Los asuntos sobre el uso del agua mencionados anteriormente se analizan mejor con los usuarios del agua, utilizando como plataforma sus respectivos comités organizadores.El método para fijar las necesidades de riego más utilizado por los campesinos entrevistados es el hecho de que falte lluvia por más de ocho dias en la región. Cuando esto ocurre aplican el riego. Otros métodos utilizados para saber cuándo tiemm que regar son: el momento en que las plantas comienzan a presentar sintomas de marchitamiento y cuando se observa que el suelo está seco.Los entrevistados informaron además que la producción sin riego es cero en las épocas secas (2 meses/año aproximadamente) con la aplicación de riElgO en este tiempo obtienen buena producción en sus cultivos, sin el riego en este tiempe, de sequía la gente no se atreve a 19, Bosch & Hew!ett, 1982. 20 Ponce, V.M. Y Lindquíst, D.S. 1990 sembrar porque sabe que puede perder su cosecha. Se mencionó adicionalmente, que los rendimientos son aún mejores cuando se cuenta con la lluvia y se dispone de riego en series sucesivas de días secos.Dentro de la revisión de literatura sobre estrategias locales de cosecha y almacenamiento de agua se destaca el estudio del Banco Mundial 21 • Sin embargo, la mayoría de este tipo de estudios se han realizado en zonaS ecológicas con marcado déficit hídrico lo cual los hace poco pertinentes para ambientes como la subcuenca del río Cabuya/. Allí se reportaron cuatro diferentes sistemas de cosecha y/o almacenamiento del agua. El agua es tomada de los nacimientos y quebradas y luego es utilizada para fines agrícolas principalmente. A continuación se describen los sistemas:Tanques: 36% de los casos, la mayoría son de forma rectangular, el material con que los construyen generalmente es ladrillo recubierto de cemento. Están situados cerca al lote de cultivo o a las casas de manera que hace pOSible utilizar el agua de riego para consumo humano en las épocas en que hay escasez del recurso. El volumen promedio de almacenamiento es de 7m3.Reservaría:10% de los casos, son huecos o excavaciones en el suelo generalmente recubiertos de plástico para evitar la filtración del agua en el suelo. Están localizados cerca a los lotes de cultivo para regar en las épocas secas y tienen un volumen que no sobrepasa los 15 m3.Trincho: 26 % de los encuestados reportaron estructuras realizadas con madera o piedra en los nacimientos o quebradas para detener y subir el nivel del agua y luego bombearla hacia un tanque o reservorio. Su capacidad de almacenamiento es cercana a los 20 m3.Estanque: 14 % de los casos. Son estructuras de forma parecida a los reservorios, se utilizan para almacenar agua para riego y además para cultivo de peces tanto comestibles como ornamentales. Su volumen promedio es cercano a los 100 m3.Metodología.Para obtener el total de cantidad de agua disponible en la sUb-cuenca, se estudiaron datos hidrológicos y climatológicos. Para el río principal de la sub-cuenca (el río Cabuyal) no existen series de datos sobre el flujo, a largo plazo. La CVC y CIPAStA realizaron 7 mediciones del flujo, durante un período de 2 años (1994 y 1995). Aunque son de gran valor, no son suficientes para predecir el flujo del rlo. ya que tanto el patrón de precipitación como el del caudal del rio son muy irregulares dentro de un mismo año y a través de varios años; sin embargo, existen datos diarios para un período de 15 años sobre el flujo del río Ovejas, del cual el Cabuyal es tributario. Estos datos fueron usados para estimar los parámetros que determinan la relación entre precipitación y escorrentía. Para este propó~:ito se eligieron dos modelos para computadora. El primero, el Modelo AWBM 22 de Balance de Agua para Cuencas, es un modelo semidistribuido que sirve para comparar flujos de cuenca obsl~rvados y simulados y permite calibrar parámetros internos del modelo.Utiliza datos diarios de precipitación, escorrentía y evapotranspiración mensual. El segundo, WATBAL 23 (evap,rain,soilcp,cropfc,avail,runoff,eratio) realiza el balance hídrico por el método de Keig & Mcalpine(1974). Esta rutina calcula el agua disponible en el suelo, la escorrentía, la deficiencia de agua y la relación evapotranspiración actual/evapotranspiración potencial para un periodo de tiempo.\".Para complementar los datos climáticos faltantes, se hizo un análisis de regresión múltiple para identificar la similitud en el comportamiento de la precipitación entre las diferentes estaciones. Los valores de correlación encontrados fueron altos de manera que se estimaron los valores faltantes utilizando los valores existentes de las otras estaciones. En los casos en que el valor estimado sobrepasaba el máximo del año en esta estación, el estimado se reemplazaba por el máximo real u ocurrido. En los casos en que el estimado daba negativo, se asignaba el valor O.De otro lado, se identificaron los valores de la moda y del percentil al 85%. En aquellos casos en que estos valores eran iguales, el valor estimado se cambiaba por el percentil 85.Los datos de flujo del río Ovejas se usaron para calibrar el primero de los modelos. Una vez calibrado, éste se aplicó al río Cabuyal. Los resultados fueron comparados con datos de flujo existentes, medidos por la CVC.Se presenta una descripción de las características hidrológicas y climáticas de la región así como de los resultados de la aplicación de los modelos. La Tabla 3.6 presenta un resumen de la información hidrológica al interior de la cuenca por zonas y veredas.Se seleccionaron seis estaciones de clima representativas de la cuenca del río Ovejas, y se analizaron datos mensuales de temperatura (Figura 1.1). La precipitación anual promedio para el período estudiado 25 asciende a 2065 mm, con un período seco pronunciado en julio y agosto (70 y 80 mm respectivamente)(Tabla 3.7). La temperatura promedio diaria varía poco durante el 22 23 24 25.A CATCHMENT WATER BALANCE MODEL WATER BALANCE Jones, P. Comunicación personal Le. 1974Le. -1988, años seleccionados con base en disponibilidad de datos. año, pero difiere considerablemente de un sitio a otro, dependiendo de la altitud. La temperatura promedio diaria que se reportó varió entre 13 oC (2650 msnm) y 21°C (1200 msnm). La evapotranspiración potencial de acuerdo con Penman fue calculada con CROPWAT 2 ., ésta resultó ser más o menos regular por un año, con valores más altos en julio y agosto (período seco, y por tanto menos nublado), y valores menores en noviembre (época lluviosa, nublada). El total potencial de evapotranspiración (ET o ) varía entre 1106 mm y 1306 mm por año, dependiendo de la altitud (Tabla 3.8) La necesidad de irrigación surge en el periodo de finales de junio a mediados de septiembre (3 meses), cuando la evapotranspiración total excede el 80% de la precipitación probable (Le. la precipitación estadísticamente ocurre 4 de cada 5 años). Ver Figura 3.6. Hidrología la CVC registró el flujo para el río Ovejas en un lugar ubicado 200 metros abajo de la desembocadura del río Cabuyal en el Ovejas (Figura 3.7). En este punto, el área de la cuenca del río Ovejas comprende 61.500 ha. Los datos del flujo diario del río para 1974 a 1988 fueron analizados. Durante estos años, el promedio del flujo fue de 19m 3 /s, con flujos mínimos medios en agosto y septiembre (8.5 m 3 /s) y un mínimo absoluto de 4 m 3 /s. Aunque el flujo del río muestra una gran variación durante los años en la época lluviosa, el flujo mínimo durante agosto a septiembre es más o menos regular (Figura 3.8). Expresado en milímetros, el promedio de agua en la sub-cuenca asciende a 990 mm (para más detalles ver Tablas 3.9 y 3.10). La Figura 3.9 muestra la curva de duración del flujo para el río Ovejas desde 1974 hasta 1988. Una curva con una subida muy pendiente es el resultado de un flujo que varía marcadamente y que está alimentado por precipitación directa, mientras que una curva con una subida relativamente plana es el resultado de un flujo bien sostenido por emisiones de superficie o por descargas de agua subterránea. Al final de la curva de duración se muestra el comportamiento perenne del abastecimiento en el área de la cuenca; una curva plana al final indica una gran cantidad de abastecimento y una curva pendiente indica una cantidad despreciable 27 • La curva para el río Ovejas muestra más bien una curva plana, lo cual indica que una gran parte del flujo del río se origina por flujos del subsuelo. Esta observación se reafirma tomando como base un análisis hidrográfico. Con una separación gráfica del flujo base 2 • se obtuvo que el índice de flujo base es aproximadamente 0.77, o en otras palabras, 77% del flujo del río está determinado por el flujo base (i.e. flujo del subsuelo) y 23% proviene directamente de la escorrentia superficial, causando ocasionalmente crecidas en el río. La inclinación pendiente al final de la curva de duración del flujo indica que hay una baja capacidad de almacenamiento en la sub-cuenca del rio Ovejas durante el año. Según la literatura 29 , para estudios a más largo plazo en áreas de cuencas con flujo pequeño, para los flujos subterráneos, se sugiere como el método más exacto para estimar la evapotranspiración actual la deducción de la escorrentia de la precipitación. Usando este método para la cuenca del río Ovejas, la evapotranspiración actual promedio asciende a 1076  , I mm (esto es 2066 -990 mm) por ai'ío Figura 3.10. La eVI¡potranspiración potencial, de acuerdo con Penman, se calculo en 1106 -1306 mm, Tomando en cuenta que la evapotranspíración actual es menor que la potencial, debido a déficits durante el periodo seco (200 mm es el promedio al año), resulta ser una estimación razonable. En vista de las caracterlsticas montañosas y de las lomas pendientes en el área, parec:e razonable asumir que las pérdidas hacia el subsuelo profundo son limitadas (Figura 3.10).En resumen, de los 2066 mm de precipitación, 1076 mm (52%) se convierten en evapotranspiración, mientras que 990 mm En 1994 algunos habitantes locales de la sub-cuenca reflistraron datos de clima con el apoyo técnico del Programa de Laderas del CIAT. Se recolectó ;nformación diaria sobre precipitación, temperatura y horas de sol en 6 lugares estratégicos dentro del área. (Tabla 3.11). La evapotranspiración potencial, de acuerdo con Penman (ET o ) se calculó usando CROPWAT. (Tabla 3.12).El área es rica en recursos de agua natural. El río Cabuyal, el principal rlo que origina la subcuenca, tiene cerca de 20 kms de longitud, y tiene agua durante todo el año. El flujo mínimo, al final del rio, es estimado en 250 litros por segundo (ver Tabla 3.13).En la sub-cuenca, de acuerdo con la frontera hidrológica (3200 ha) hay cerca de 135 fuentes pequeñas que tienen agua todo el año, además que tienen poco caudal, sus cauces se reducen considerablemente durante los meses secos, de julio y ag!)sto. Estos pequeños arroyos forman quebradas que alimentan el río Cabuya!.En la cuenca, de acuerdo con fronteras administrativas (7400 ha) el número de fuentes pequeñas/arroyos es 295. Las fronteras están formadas por 3 ríos: el OVejas, al norle y al sur; los Quingos o río Pescador al oeste y el río Guaicoche al oriente (Figura 3.12).Hay 4 lagos naturales, de los cuales 2 están fuera de las fronteras hidrológicas. Estos lagos son más bien pequeños: el área que cubre cada lago no exced'3 más de 2 hectáreas y la profundidad máxima no es mayor que 10 metros.Este es el promedio para toda la cuenca, durante un periodo do 12 aftos. la precipitación directa para cultivos individuales y los eventos de tormenta individuales pueden ser mucho mayores.Antes que se construyeran los sistemas de agua para consumo humano, el agua del subsuelo era una fuente importante de agua. En casi toda casa hay un pozo para uso doméstico. Ahora, la mayoría de los habitantes tienen acceso al agua de acueducto, y la importancia del agua del subsuelo ha disminuido dramáticamente: cerca de 65 pozos, variando entre 15 y 25 metros de profundidad, permanecen todavía. La mayoría de estos pozos se usan para agua de con!i;umo humano en los casos en que el agua del acueducto escasea. Para detalles sobre aspectos hidrológicos ver Tabla 3.6.A continuación se describen en detalle los dos modelos mencionados y los respectivos resultados obtenidos con las simulaciones.El Programa AWBM (Catchment Water Balance) fue desarrollado por la CRC (Centro de Investigación Cooperativo) para Hidrología de Cuencas, en Australia. Su versión más reciente, disponible en intemet es la versión 2.0, enero 1996 3 '. El programa relaciona datos diarios de escorrentia con precipitación, en tal sentido, requiere datos diarios de precipitación, escorrentia y evaporación mensual. El modelo utiliza 3 bancos superficiales para simular áreas parciales de escorrentia 32 . El balance de agua en cada almacenamiento superficial se calcula independiente de los otros. En cada etapa, se añade la precipitación a cada uno de los tres lugares de almacenamiento de humedad superficiales, y se le resta la evaporación de cada lugar de almacenamiento. La ecuación del balance de agua es:Almacen n • Almacen n + lluvia -evaporación (con n = 1 a 3).Si el valor de la humedad en el almacén (sitio de almacenamiento) se vuelve negativo, se le asigna el valor cero. Si el valor de la humedad de el almacén excede su capacidad de almacenamiento, la humedad en exceso se convierte en escorrentia y al almacén se asigna el valor de su capacidad.Cuando la escorrentia ocurre desde cualquier lugar de almacenamiento, parte de la escorrentia se convierte en recarga del flujo base. La fracción de la escorrentia usada para recargar el flujo base se cuenta como escorrentia multiplicada por el indice del flujo base (BFI), Le. la relación del flujo base al flujo total en el flujo del arroyo. El remanente de la escorrentía es escorrentia superficial. El almacén del flujo base es vaciado a una tasa de: (1 -K) ,. SS, donde SS es la humedad permanente en el almacén del flujo base y K es la constante de recesión del flujo base.El índice del flujo base '1 la constante de recesión del flujo base son determinados gráficamente por el programa (Figuras 3.13 y 3.14). Las áreas parciales y las capacidades de almacenamiento correspondientes se estiman mediante el programa y un mayor refinamiento del proceso se da por ensayo y error. los mejores resultados para la cuenca del Ovejas se presentan en la Tabla 3.14 y para Cabuyal en la 3:15. El volumen de almacenamiento equivalente llega a 194 mm, por ejemplo si la condición inicial de humedad del suelo es igual a cero y tomando la cuenca como una unidad, solo después de 194 mm de lluvia el perfil del suelo se llenará e iniciará la escorrentía. Sin embargo, el almacl~namiento más pequeño suma 40 mm cubriendo un área del 5 %, en otras palabras, con el suelo completamente seco, después de una lluvia de 40 mm, 5 % del área comienza a contribuir directamente como escorrentía.Aplicación del modelo para computadora en la cuenca del Cabuyal los valores de los parámetros suministrados por el programa (índice del flujo base, constante de recesión del flujo base, capacidades de almacenamiento de las áreas parciales), fueron aplicadas para la cuenca del río Cabuyal, ver Tabla 3.16 .. Se utilizaron datos diarios de precipitación para 6 estaciones climatológicas en la cuenca del Cabuyal manejadas por agricultores I CIAT desde mayo 94 hasta 1996. Comparando resultados con mediciones de flujo en el río Cabuyal, es apreciable la coincidencia en los valares. El flujo mínimo en estos dos años fue de cerca de 260 lis ocurrido en Septiembre. En la partl~ alta del río Cabuyal, la bocatoma del acueducto está aforada en 10 l/s. Como resultado, un mínimo de 250 lis son disponibles, de los cuales 62.5 se originan en la parte alta, igual cantidad en la parte media y los 125 l/s restantes en la parte baja.Knapp et al 1995 33 simularon el impacto de proyectos de ir:rigación sobre el río. Sus conclusiones fueron que por cada 100 ha. Irrigadas, habría una reducción de 10% del caudal.Desafortunadamente, ni el caudal ni las necesidades de irrigación fueron cuantificadas.Tomando en cuenta el flujo mínimo de 250 l/s, la demanda de irrigación sería de 0.25 I/s/ha. Estos valores coinciden bien con la demanda pico de 0.28 l/s para tomates calculada con CROPWAT. los resultados se pueden observar en la Tabla 3.4. Esto conduce a concluir, que el método dá satisfactorios resultados en precedir el caudal mínimo.El modelo utilizado en WATBAl fué formulado originalmente por Slatyer\"'. El programa fue más tarde modificado por Fitzpatrick 35 • Un programa adicional fué luego preparado por el mismo autor para utilizar los resultados derivados del modelo y expresarlos en términos de periodicidad y probabilidad de periodos de sequía o de épocas de crecimiento. Keig y McAlpine 36 utilizaron el trabajo previo para desarrollar WATBAL. Jones 1986 37 retomó el código de Reddy y re-escribió el programa en una versión simplificada que es la utilizada en el presente caso. El modelo consiste de cuatro partes: programa de control, datos de entrada, modelo del balance hídrico y análisis de resultados. los datos requeridos por d modelo son la precipitación diaria en mm., las temperaturas máxima y mínima y la evapotranspiración potencial. la información básica para WATBAl se diferenció de la utilizada en AWBM en que los datos de temperaturas máximas y mínimas mensuales se extrajeron de una base de datos. Esta base de Jones Comunicación personal datos fue generada utiljzando un interpolador que utiliza una grilla de 10' (+/-15 Kmts) y el cual toma las cinco estaciones climáticas más cercanas y corrige los valores en función de la temperatura sobre el nivel del mar.Con la variación diurna se generó la evapotranspiración promedio mensual según método reducido de Pennman. 38  Con base en la información de suelos de CVC-IGAC, se determinaron las áreas con suelos cuya capa arable tiene diferentes profundidades. Se asignó un valor de capacidad de retención de humedad de 12mm/metro a cada una de las capas de los suelos de la zona y fueron desagregados según la zonas climáticas de CVC. A cada zona climática se asoció la estación climática con sus correspondientes datos de precipitación. Ver Figura 3.7 y Tabla 3.17. Luego de correr el modelo, para cada estación con sus grupos de suelos de diferente profundidad, se generan registros diarios de agua disponible en el suelo, escorrentia y la relación evapotranspiración actual/evapotranspiración potencial. Un resumen de los resultados se presenta en la Tabla 3.18.Comparación de resultados de los modelos WATBALy AWBM Como se presentó en la descripción de los modelos, ellos operan sobre principios distintos. AWBM sobre la base de la relación precipitación vs caudales genera una serie de parámetros aplicables en cuencas aledañas o similares. El modelo se ajusta automáticamente con los datos reales de los caudales de manera que con gran aproximación simula lo que puede ocurrir en una cuenca con similares caracterfsticas. De otro lado, WA TBAL opera sobre una función matemática. La mejor representación de lo que está sucediendo se obtuvo con AWBM, de alli que se escogiera para aplicarla a Cabuya!. WA TBAL, en razón de los resultados encontrados a nivel de Ovejas no fue considerado para aplicarlo en Cabuyal. Una comparaCión gráfica de los resultados obtenidos con cada uno de los modelos es posible hacerla observando las Figuras 3.15y3.16.Para aumentar el diseño de la capacidad actual de 15 lis en el acueducto de La laguna -Pescador, se requiere una inversión grande, pues los tubos principales tendrán que ser reemplazados por otros de mayor diámetro a la vez que se aumente el tamai'lo de la mayorla de los tanques de almacenamiento. La capacidad máxima de 25 lis (el flujo minimo de la fuente), seria suficiente para las necesidades domésticas de sus 2400 beneficiarios y la irrigación de 105 ha.La Tabla 3.19 muestra claramente que con el desempei'lo actual, la capacidad de los sistemas de agua para consumo humano es insuficiente para proveer agua para uso doméstico y agricola simultáneamente. Aún mejorando su eficiencia. el agua no será suficiente para uso doméstico y para irrigar las 64 ha que se irrigan actualmente. Se deben hacer esfuerzos para que la gente deje de usar el agua para propósitos agrícolas y para asegurar que haya suficiente provisión de agua para los usuarios de la parte baja. La demanda por irrigación durante los 2 meses de verano en el año es alta, ya que esta necesidad cambia de año en año, debido al patrón irregula.r de las lluvias. Durante los restantes 10 meses, por lo general no se necesita irrigación.En vista de la disponibilidad de agua y de la demanda por irrigación, hay un amplio rango para el desarrollo de la irrigación. Hay alrededor de 100 pequeñas fuentes/arroyos dentro de la cuenca hidrológica, de las cuales la mayoría no están explotad61s (todavía). Sin embargo, los flujos durante la época seca son bajos (del orden de unos pocos litros por segundo). Estos flujos son muy pequeños para proveer agua para un esquema de riego de varias hectáreas. donde no hay facilidades de almacenamiento. Esto se mostró claramente en el caso del proyecto de riego del Cidral. donde los beneficiarios están utilizando el agua exclusivamente para uso doméstico. El flujo durante el periodo seco (3 lis) es muy poco para regar el área y obviamente, los beneficiarios le dan prioridad al uso doméstico.Estas fuentes bien pueden ser explotadas para riego a pequeña escala, según lo han demostrado las iniciativas tomadas por algunos agricultonas. Un creciente número de ellos ha invertido en bombas de motor, tubos y reservorios para irrigar sus lotes. Un número de 40 bombas de motor se utilizan actualmente para riego, de las cuales algunas son alquiladas a otros agricultores. Dependiendo de la topografía y del flujo mínimo en la fuente, los agricultores desarrollaron diferentes métodos. En algunos casos la ':opografía permite llevar el agua por gravedad. desde la fuente al reservorio ubicado en el punt,~ más alto del lote a ser irrigado. Del reservaría el agua fluye por gravedad. Dependiendo del flujo, y del tipo de bomba de mOlar, se necesitan reservorios en el nivel del campo, mientras que en otros esquemas el agua se lleva directamente al lote.En este momento no se reportan casos de conflictos sobre el uso de los pequeños arroyos; aunque esto puede cambiar si más agricultores deciden explotar estos recursos en irrigación. 0, como lo expresó un agricultor: \"si 3 moto bombas extraen el agua al mismo tiempo, este arroyo se secará\". La ley colombiana sobre el agua, que afirma que una persona es dueña de una fuente cuando ésta nace y termina dentro de su propiedad, es de poca ayuda en este caso, pues ninguna de las fuentes de la cuenca del Cabuyal Cllen dentro de la definición. Es poco claro cómo se definen los asuntos sobre derechos del a'gua (o concesiones); la práctica que prevalece es que la persona que desea usar agua de una fuente, simplemente la toma, Esta práctica ofrece el potencial para futuros conflictos respecte al agua. Este asunto se debe tomar en cuenta en discusiones a nivel de cuenca (por ejemplo, en CIPASLA), antes que se desarrollen más proyectos sobre irrigación. De todas forrnas, se debe tener como prioridad el agua para uso doméstico, y evitar que se seque el agua de los nacimientos que existen en las partes altas.Los ríos de la cuenca 39 pueden ser conectados, para formar un esquema de riego comunal. El río Cabuyal tiene un flujo mínimo de 125 Vs en la parte media, y en teoría es suficiente para irrigar 320 hectáreas en la parte baja\"\". De acuerdo con la Figura 3.17 que indica los lotes 39.El rio Cabuyal, que cae dentro de las fronteras hidrológicas, y I\"s rlos Guaicoche y Pescador. fuera de las.hidrológicas, pero dentro de la administrací6n de la cuenca 40.CROPWAT estima una demanda pico de O.2611slha para tomate durante el mes de agosto, para una probabilidad del 80% de precipitación, o sea 0.39 ItIslha para una eficiencia del 70%.potenciales para riego (CIA n 41 en la parte baja 386 ha. pueden ser irrigados potencialmente.Sin embargo. se deben tener en cuenta varios puntos. Primero. debido a la topografía montañosa. los lotes con cultivos que necesitan riego están diseminados. lo cual requerirla bastante tuberia para llegar a cada lote. Segundo. en este punto el rlo es bajo. con respecto al área a ser irrigada, lo cual exigirla una larga tubería para conducir el agua desde la toma hasta el lote más alto (unos 4.5 km).Estos factores se aftadirán a los costos de la inversión inicial en un sistema que solamente servirá como irrigación (suplementaria) durante 2 o 3 meses al año.A pesar de estas dificultades, un esquema de irrigación parece posible.En términos de cantidades de agua, las actividades industriales juegan un papel menor en el uso del agua; únicamente el 5 % del agua utilizada se usa en la actualidad para este propósito. En el futuro cercano, no se cree posible que esta cantidad aumente dramáticamente.Aunque las cantidades de agua son mínimas, su impacto en la calidad del agua probablemente si será más importante. Como el objetivo de este estudio no buscaba profundizar en analizar la calidad de agua, se recomienda continuar la investigación iniciada para este tema.Impactos externos de un incremento en el uso del agua La CVC desarrolló planes para desviar agua del río Ovejas hacia el río Cauca, para beneficiar una inmensa planta hidroeléctrica. Puesto que el río Cabuyal es tributario del río Ovejas, el uso incrementado del agua en el área de estudio influirá directamente en la cantidad de agua que quede disponible para ser desviada (por cada 100 has. De riego el caudal disminuye 30 Its/s). Sin embargo, un análisis de los datos promedio del flujo del río para el Ovejas 10 km abajo del Cabuya,•2 demostraron que el flujo promedio durante los meses críticos üullo y agosto) totaliza unos 10.8 m 3 /s. Entonces, aún en el caso no probable de que los habitantes de la cuenca del Cabuyal utilicen toda el agua del río Cabuyal (250 lIs en la época seca), su efecto en la cantidad de agua que podría ser desviada para la hidroeléctrica, sería mínimo (2.5%). Con base en lo sugerido por asesores de la subdirección del INAT, se solicitó iniciar el proceso de evaluación y ajuste, realizando observaciones sobre i as diferentes zonificaciones utilizadas por eIIGAC, ellDEAM y eIINAT, utilizando sistemas de información geográfica, Los mapas de las zonificaciones manejadas por cada una de estas, Instituciones fueron digitalizados y comparados entre sí de manera visual. Las observ¡~ciones al respecto se presentan a continuación,Las regiones naturales (Figura 4,1 l, resultan de la form~1 como se organizan y localizan en el espacio los distintos elementos o factores del medio geográfico como el relieve, clima, estructura geológica, vegetación y otros• 3 , Es en sintesís una regi.,nalización de tipo bio-geográfico que explica la organización del paisaje, Para el caso de priorización de proyectos de Irrigación es más una herramienta de apoyo para complementar la información que una definición de áreas específicas para la selección de proyectos.(44) La zonificación hidrográfica actual del territorio nacional (Figura 4.2) se basa en la metodología aplicada en primera instancia para la cuenca del río Maudalena y desarrollada posteriormente para todo el país, con la cual se establece la codificación ele las estaciones que conforman la red bajo cinco áreas hidrográficas, constituidas por treint'l y nueve zonas y sus respectivas subzonas, Las cinco áreas hidrográficas se estructuraron considerslndo los aspectos fisicos del territorio que determinan la convergencia de las aguas y en la codificación ascendente corresponden a: Caribe, Magdalena, Orinoco, Amazonas y Pacífico. En cacla una de estas áreas se establecieron las principales cuencas aportantes, que en buena medida coinciden con los ríos que las recorren, dando origen a siete zonas en el área Caribe, nueve zonas para el río Magdalena, ocho zonas para los rios Orinoco y Amazonas respectivamente y siete zonas en el área Pacifico. La menor desagregación en la zonificación efectuada corresponde a las $ubzonas hidrográficas que representan cuencas más pequeñas. • Los números entre paréntesis corresponden al total de subzonas que conforman cada una de las zonas hidrológicas.'\" Red Hidrológica Nacional \"La red Hidrológica Nacional se compone de estaciones hidrológicas equipadas con dispositivos e instrumentos que permiten el registro continuo o periódico de diversos parámetros hidrológicos, entre los cuales el más importante es sin duda alguna el nivel de la corriente.La instalación, operación y mantenimiento de una estación hidrológica demanda grandes inversiones de capital y personal altamente capacitado. Por otro lado, instrumentar todas las cuencas del país no es financieramente posible y por tanto, se hace imprescindible optimizar la dislocación de las mismas para obtener la mejor cobertura posible sin incurrir en gastos innecesarios.La cobertura de la red hidrológica nacional en las diferentes cuencas y subcuencas está representada por 1452 estaciones limnimétricas (LM) y límnigráficas (LG), de las cuales 927 estaciones son controladas y operadas por IDEAM, entidad que asiste a los demás organismos, Por otro lado, en zonas como los Llanos Orientales se está expandiendo la red, de manera que se incremente la infonmación disponible para los diversos proyectos destinados al mejoramiento de la infraestructura, favoreciendo la integmción al resto del pals, aoarde con el acelerado desarrollo socio-económico que ha caracteriz~ldo la última década en esa región. Procesos similares se presentan en la parte alta de las cuencas de los ríos Caquetá y Putumayo, donde se realiza una oaoperación fronteriza ,~n el Perú por medio de convenios internacionales.A través de la operación de la red existente se obtiene la infonmación base de niveles, caudales y sedimentos; que permiten la evaluación global y regional en ténminos de cantidad, calidad y distribución espacial y temporal, mediante un continuo control de calidad:\"El documento que contiene la metodología delINAT, fue objeto de lectura y discusión por parte de los miembros del equipo de trabajo. En una primera lectura se llegó al consenso de que el documento estaba dirigido a realizar una zonificación a nivel Nacional de las diferentes cuencas que confonman el territorio y sugería la utilización de algunos parámetros físicos y socioeconómicos para establecer una ponderación y clasificación de áreas prioritarias. El mismo documento plantea que \"éste sólo oanstituye un paso intenmedio para el ordenamiento que finalmente se deba tener del pals' (11 parte pág. 5) Y que su \"ajuste deberá darse durante su desarrollo bajo la oaordinación de los técnicos que la elaboraron\". Es decir, que sólo bajo su aplicación es pllrtinente hacer sugerencias pues en términos teóricos para la escala de trabajo que aborda, el procedimiento parece ser consistente. (Figura 4.3) Basados en el ejercicio de identificación de áreas prioritarias para riego a la escala de la Subcuenca del Rio Cabuyal (3200 has), oansideramos pertinente remitirse a la clasificación actualmente manejada por el IDEAM ya que las divisiones de cuencas alll presentadas tienen estaciones climáticas asociadas. Sólo en la medida que se cuente con infonmación ciimatológica es posible determinar con mayor precisión en qué lugar .11 interior de una región es pertinente plantear proyectos de irrigación. Uno de los parámetros clalves para precisar la localización es la pendiente del suelo. En el presente caso nos servimos de Ima cobertura de áreas con pendiente menores del 7 % contenida en el estudio de Knapp 1995. Si la respuesta es afirmativa: Ha dejado de funcionar en arguna época del afio/en algún mes del al\"lo?Tienen derechos de agua? SiTienen concesión de agua?T afifa de aguaComo se surten de agua los que no tienen acueducto (Enumerar)1.2, 3. a. 1 .Nombre de fa Vered~ Cuantoo jornales gast6 en l. construcción del método _ _ _ _ _ .Como es el método 4u, utiliza:Manual (si no us%mo/Otes u airo lipo de máquina) Que nümero de riegos en promedio realíza durante todo el cuttivo _ _ _Que tiempo promedio en horas dura cada riego _ _ _ _ _ _ HorasQue cantidad de agua u~líza en total para nagar (en litros) _____ 11$Cómo hace para calcutar cuanta agua utiliza en cada riego Que rendimiento obtíene cuando solo hay riego en su cultivo prindpal _ _ _Que rendimiento obtiene cuando hay riego y también llueve en su cultivo pnnapa,l ______ _Que-rendirrtiento obtiene cuando no hay riego en su cultivo prineipa,l ______ _ 27.Cómo podria mejorarse este sistema de riego ? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 28.cual es el principal problema de este slstem. de riego? _ _ _ _ _ _ _Tiene algún otro método adídonal para almacenar agua (si es el mísmo no llenar las siguientes preguntas) 13. Que hacen en casos e danos menores?14. Que hacen en casos e danos mayores?15. Que propuestas tiene para mejorar el sistema?• mejoras tecnicas:(for example amplia tuberia, mejorar bocatoma, mantenimiento)• medidas en el man '0:(for example aumen ar tarifas, medidores de agua, prohibir uso para riego) Flam:os 1I2 de allíplant's dl;;l!'crod\\l:) d.: Pfl)f a nm;. pn\\r ,.. kdias a-¡in~ Gris ::¡ mlly astura a 5-5 :cs           ","tokenCount":"10636"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5b8696aed37b7b85c25576bb3a793342","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ae557440-171c-4470-abc2-3743617f716e/retrieve","id":"737282299"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c8eb964a-c11b-4b9d-bc3f-982f65a0ca14","pagecount":"3","content":"A necessary break from tradition Water management problems occur rapidly and involve a variety of stakeholders with different, often conflicting, interests and perceptions. Stakeholders' differing views of water management need to be incorporated into the decision-making process.In Lingmuteychu catchment in the Bhutanese highlands, competition over water for rice irrigation has caused conflicts between communities for generations. Year after year, during the rice transplanting season, fights over water flare up between the villages of Limbukha in the upper catchment and Dompola and five other villages in the lower catchment.Traditional rules allow upstream villages such as Limbukha to control the release of water to downstream villages -to the gross disadvantage of the latter.In order to find a solution to these recurrent conflicts, researchers from the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) decided to examine the existing water sharing agreement between the two communities. Using the innovative companion modeling approach, upstream and downstream user perspectives and needs were considered. When people genuinely understand the large role that they can play in exploring solutions to their problems, they claim bigger stake in making sure that their plans will be properly implemented and that they succeed. This sense of ownership bodes well for the judicious use and management of their common resources, and helps ensure harmony among the community members who benefit from them.Community representatives came up with agreements on how to share and manage their water, forest and land resources collectively, to the mutual benefit of upstream and downstream villages.To allow for timely transplanting in the downstream villages, they collectively decided that Limbukha would release irrigation water five days earlier than the date set by traditional custom, which falls on the 10th day of the fifth lunar month in the Bhutanese traditional calendar. Abiding by a decision, however, can be quite different from agreeing to it. At one point during the early stage of the project, Limbukha farmers were unwilling to release water according to the new date. They rationalized that a \"Companion modeling provides a key to mitigate conflicts between communities over their shared use of renewable resources.\" The The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food was launched in 2002, with the aim to increase the resilience of social and ecological systems through better water management for food production (crops, fisheries and livestock). We do this through an innovative research and development approach that brings together a broad range of scientists, development specialists, policy makers and communities, in six river basins, to address the challenges of food security, poverty and water scarcity.The CPWF is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems. WLE combines the resources of 11 CGIAR centers and numerous international, regional and national partners to provide an integrated approach to natural resource management research. The program goal is to reduce poverty and improve food security through the development of agriculture within nature. This program is led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).","tokenCount":"489"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dad7679cf6a505e030fe5acc1eb18cf4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6897378e-830e-470b-b179-eb77a05a4a8d/retrieve","id":"-1728887191"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"73f1fd09-b0bd-4569-95e2-c4bc5d484799","pagecount":"41","content":"Tél (44) (0) 1379 586787 Fax (44) (0) 1379 586755 CTA Programme de radio rurale -06/3 La grippe aviaire FICHE TECHNIQUEDepuis 2003, la souche pathogène H5N1 du virus de la grippe aviaire (HPAI), venue du Sud-Est Asiatique, s'est répandue à plus de 30 pays du Proche-Orient, d'Europe de l'Est, du souscontinent Indien et d'Afrique sub-saharienne. Cette crise a occasionné des pertes financières considérables qui s'élèvent à des millions de dollars et plus de 200 millions d'oiseaux ont été abattus ou sont morts de la maladie. 200 personnes ont été contaminées et plus de 100 sont mortes, principalement des enfants et de jeunes adultes. Les craintes de voir le virus se transmettre à l'homme ont également provoqué dans certains pays un effondrement des prix de la volaille et des produits dérivés.En Afrique, les principaux foyers de grippe aviaire ont été découverts au Nigeria (69), en Egypte (40) et au Soudan (15)* et quelques cas ont été signalés au Burkina Faso, en Côte d'Ivoire, au Niger, au Cameroun et à Djibouti. Certains experts affirment qu'une épidémie de grippe aviaire pourrait gravement nuire à la production de volaille en Afrique et réduire de 5% la consommation des produits dérivés comme les oeufs, ce qui pourrait avoir des conséquences néfastes sur le revenu des paysans et la sécurité alimentaire. En Afrique la consommation de volaille représente 30% de l'ensemble de la viande de consommation.Les basses-cours familiales ont une importance capitale en Afrique autant comme source de nourriture que comme forme d'épargne ou de revenus, objets de troc ou encore comme symbole de capital social puisque la volaille est le cadeau le plus courant dans les villages. Une épidémie à grande échelle n'affecterait donc pas seulement une importante source de nourriture pour les paysans mais aussi leurs revenus. Le contrôle de toute épidémie éventuelle est donc une priorité pour les gouvernements africains qui ont déjà déployé de gros efforts à cet effet, auxquels les organisations internationales et les bailleurs de fonds devraient apporter leur soutien.Pour contrôler la grippe aviaire, il est indispensable de détecter les foyers aussi tôt que possible et de les éliminer rapidement et effectivement afin d'éviter des pertes économiques et la contamination possible à l'homme. Les principales stratégies de contrôle sont donc :• Surveiller la maladie afin de détecter les foyers et y répondre très rapidement • Améliorer la biosécurité dans les élevages • Contrôler les déplacements des volailles et des produits dérivés dans les zones infectées • Fermer de façon temporaire les marchés et instaurer des contrôles aux frontières dans les zones infectées • Abattre les volailles contaminées • Communiquer les informations et sensibiliser le public ___________________ Concernant ce dernier point, il est primordial que le public soit bien informé pour que les foyers d'infection puissent être contrôlés. Les gens doivent connaître les risques que la maladie présente pour la volaille et les humains, pouvoir reconnaître les symptômes de la maladie chez la volaille et également être conscients du danger que présente le mélange de volailles domestiques avec les oiseaux sauvages qui peuvent être des porteurs sains.Cette série d'émissions peut vous aider à sensibiliser les auditeurs des stations rurales sur les risques de la grippe aviaire et les principaux facteurs qu'ils doivent connaître pour être capables de détecter la maladie de façon rapide et efficace.Reconnaître les symptômes de la grippe aviaire dans la volaille de basse-cour Les oiseaux sauvages et les oiseaux migrateurs peuvent être des porteurs sains du virus H5N1 et peuvent donc transmettre le virus aux volailles de basse-cour qui y sont sensibles. Les paysans doivent donc éviter tout contact entre leurs volailles et les oiseaux sauvages même si ceux-ci semblent être en bonne santé.Les symptômes de la grippe aviaire chez la volaille sont :• l'apathie • des troubles digestifs et respiratoires • un gonflement de la tête et de la crête• une réduction massive de la ponte chez les poules pondeuses.Mais le symptôme qui plus que tout autre doit alerter le paysan est la mortalité extrêmement rapide et massive des volailles, une mortalité qui peut atteindre 100% des animaux en 24 heures. L'éleveur ou le paysan risque ainsi de ne pas remarquer de symptômes mais simplement de retrouver tout son troupeau décimé un beau matin ! En effet, pratiquement tous les symptômes peuvent être le signe d'autres maladies de la volaille, comme la maladie de Newcastle, mais c'est la mortalité massive et extrêmement rapide de la volaille qui doit faire penser à la grippe aviaire. Tout ceci est décrit en détail dans la première interview de cette série « Comment reconnaître les symptômes et quelle réponse y donner ». L'interview explique également ce que doit faire le paysan ou l'éleveur en cas de symptômes patents de grippe aviaire : prendre un certain nombre de précautions indispensables et informer les services vétérinaires.De façon générale, en Afrique, les poulets se promènent et picorent en liberté dans la nature. Ils boivent dans les mares et les ruisseaux situés autour des villages : c'est une des raisons pour lesquelles le risque de contamination venant d'un contact possible avec les oiseaux sauvages et migrateurs est important. Les enclos ou basses-cours fermées sont donc un moyen efficace de protéger la volaille domestique.De façon idéale, si le paysan en a les moyens financiers, ces enclos devraient être construits en solide, avec des murs et le sol en ciment et des portes en métal, ce qui facilite et améliore grandement le nettoyage et la désinfection. Mais il est excessivement rare en milieu villageois qu'on puisse se permettre cela. Il faut donc prévoir des enclos en bois et en fils de fer barbelés qui empêchent les poulets de sortir et les oiseaux migrateurs de venir se mélanger aux poulets. De plus ces enclos devraient avoir un toit pour protéger la volaille de la chaleur excessive mais surtout aussi empêcher les déjections des oiseaux migrateurs de tomber dans les enclos ouverts et de contaminer la volaille puisque le virus se retrouve dans la fiente des animaux. L'interview « Les enclos ou basses-cours fermées » passe en revue les avantages des bassescours et enclos fermés, en matériau solide ou en matériau plus rustique et souligne l'importance capitale des mesures d'hygiène. Elle traite aussi de l'importance de restreindre l'accès à ces enclos en le réservant à quelques personnes autorisées. Or, en Afrique, c'est la coutume de montrer la basse-cour et le poulailler à tous les visiteurs et à toute la famille, une coutume qu'il faut s'efforcer de limiter en période de grippe aviaire.La qualité de la nourriture et de l'eau qui sont données aux animaux lorsqu'ils sont confinés dans un poulailler fermé ou dans un élevage est aussi très importante. Il incombe donc aux paysans de veiller à ce que les aliments et l'eau qu'ils donnent à boire et à manger à leur volaille ne soit pas entrés en contact avec une source de contamination, à savoir un oiseau sauvage, un oiseau migrateur ou de la fiente d'animal infecté. Pour cela il convient de veiller à la qualité des aliments achetés à l'extérieur mais aussi de nettoyer et désinfecter correctement les mangeoires et les abreuvoirs, que ceux-ci soient des équipements de fortune comme c'est souvent le cas en milieu villageois (morceau de calebasse, ancienne boîte de conserve, etc..) ou des équipements plus modernes et plus industriels. Il existe des mesures d'hygiène de base que les paysans doivent appliquer pour éviter la contamination : se laver les mains à l'eau et au savon après avoir touché la volaille, nettoyer leurs chaussures ou en changeant en quittant le poulailler au cas où des traces de fientes s'y trouveraient, utiliser des gants ou à défaut des sacs en plastique pour enlever les oiseaux trouvés morts. En cas de doute, les oiseaux morts doivent être conservés dans des sacs en plastique fermés hermétiquement en attendant que les services vétérinaires arrivent et que la maladie soit confirmée ou infirmée.Les enfants jouent souvent avec les poulets et c'est toujours à eux qu'on demande de nourrir les animaux ou de nettoyer la basse-cour. De plus un oiseau sauvage ou un poulet morts suscitent toujours un grand intérêt chez eux. Ils doivent donc être sensibilisés et connaître les règles élémentaires à respecter : prévenir un adulte s'ils trouvent un oiseau mort, ne pas le toucher et toujours se laver les mains après avoir nourri la volaille de basse-cour.Dans les zones exemptes de grippe aviaire, il faut encourager les gens à continuer de manger normalement de la viande de poulet et des oeufs. On sait que le virus est détruit à une température de plus de 70 degrés. Il est donc essentiel de faire cuire longtemps la viande et les oeufs : ne pas manger les oeufs mollets ou peu cuits ou de la viande de poulet encore rosée près des os. De toute façon, même en l'absence de grippe aviaire, il est fortement recommandé de ne pas manger de la viande de poulet qui n'est pas très cuite parce que les salmonelloses, de plus en plus courantes, s'attrapent en mangeant notamment de la viande de poulet mal cuite.Les interviews « Comment protéger la santé humaine » et « Une utilisation sans danger des oeufs et de la viande » traitent en détail de toutes ces questions. Il est extrêmement important, mais pas toujours facile, de diffuser des informations précises et exactes sur la grippe aviaire. Par exemple, dans certains pays, il est possible que seules une ou deux personnes soient vraiment au fait des derniers éléments concernant la maladie mais il se peut aussi que ces personnes soient trop occupées pour participer à votre émission. Mais une interview qui donne des informations erronées ou partielles peut en fait avoir des effets pires qu'une absence d'information ! Il incombe donc aux journalistes de s'assurer que leurs sources d'informations soient vraiment exactes.Toutes les informations contenues dans cette série ont été vérifiées par des experts et toutes les personnes interviewées sont elles-mêmes des spécialistes en matière de grippe aviaire.Ces interviews se concentrent sur les connaissances essentielles qui peuvent être utiles aux paysans et aux éleveurs pour faire face à la grippe aviaire sur le plan pratique. Contrairement à la plupart des sujets traités par le CTA dans les émissions pour les radios rurales, ces informations ne sont pas spécifiques à un pays particulier. Autrement dit toutes les informations ou presque contenues dans ces interviews seront utiles à vos auditeurs, quel que soit le pays où ils se trouvent.Une des questions importantes qu'on peut se poser à ce propos est de savoir si les paysans devraient s'attacher à reconnaître les symptômes pas seulement chez leur volaille mais aussi chez les oiseaux sauvages. Il est donc important de préciser que les oiseaux sauvages peuvent être des porteurs sains ne montrant donc aucun signe de la maladie tout en ayant la capacité d'infecter la volaille de basse-cour. Un expert en faune sauvage invité en studio pourrait donc par exemple informer les auditeurs des endroits que les oiseaux migrateurs survolent régulièrement, où ils se posent, où ils viennent boire, etc... Les paysans vivant dans ces zones pourraient donc être prévenus du danger présenté par la présence de ces oiseaux migrateurs et faire preuve de davantage de vigilance pour éviter que leurs poulets n'entrent en contact avec ces oiseaux, notamment avec les canards et oies sauvages qui passent une partie de l'année en Afrique avant de remonter vers le nord.L'un des aspects essentiels de la gestion de la volaille domestique (et aussi commerciale et industrielle) est la provenance de l'aliment. C'est un excellent sujet à traiter en studio si vous invitez un expert qui peut informer les auditeurs sur les sources d'aliments sains sans risques de contamination : il peut s'agir d'aliments produits de façon industrielle et importés ou d'aliments produits localement.Dans la plupart des villages africains, les familles paysannes ont quelques poulets qui picorent en liberté. Dans un contexte de grippe aviaire, ces poulets sont beaucoup plus vulnérables si la maladie atteint cette zone particulière. Une basse-cour fermée ou un enclos est donc vivement recommandé mais la construction d'une basse-cour et le changement radical dans les façons de procéder qui en résulte représentent non seulement un surcroît de travail pour les paysans mais également une modification importante de leurs habitudes sur de nombreux plans. Il serait donc intéressant d'inviter un paysan qui a franchi le pas et de lui demander quels sont les avantages qu'il en retire, quels aliments il donne à ses poulets, les contraintes auxquelles il doit faire face, etc. Un agent des services de vulgarisation peut également être invité pour donner quelques conseils mais s'ils émanent du paysan lui-même, ils auront davantage de poids. En dehors du fait que les volailles sont protégées de la maladie, les enclos ou basses-cours fermées présentent en effet d'autres avantages : protection contre les vols ou les prédateurs (si toutefois la basse-cour est fabriquée en matériaux solides), moins de risques que les poulets se fassent écraser par des véhicules (ceci est surtout valable pour les bassescours urbaines), un environnement plus calme qui permet aux poulets de grandir plus vite, un contrôle plus strict de leur alimentation et donc moins de risques de contamination de leurs aliments et de l'eau qu'ils boivent.Les élevages industriels et commerciaux sont déjà régis par des règles d'hygiène et de biosécurité très strictes. Mais cela n'écarte pas tout danger de contamination par le virus de la grippe aviaire. Les sources d'infection les plus courantes sont :• l'achat de poussins déjà contaminés par le virus • l'achat d'aliments contaminés • le fait de laisser des visiteurs entrer dans l'élevage sans avoir pris les précautions nécessaires de biosécurité, comme de ne pas changer de chaussures, de vêtements, d'équipement ou de véhicule, des éléments qui peuvent donc être porteurs du virus.Les éleveurs de poulets de chair seront donc très intéressés de connaître les mesures que les autorités ont prises pour tester les poussins importés ou ceux qui sont produits localement : plusieurs pays comme le Mali ou le Sénégal ont par exemple interdit toute importation de poussins pendant un certain temps. Il serait intéressant d'inviter un représentant des autorités et de lui demander les effets escomptés de cette mesure tout en demandant à un éleveur si cela lui a posé des problèmes particuliers et comment il y a fait face. L'éleveur invité en studio ou interviewé peut aussi être interrogé sur la façon dont il s'assure que les poussins qu'il achète sont sains, où il les achète etc. Un expert ou le représentant des autorités sanitaires peuvent aussi informer les auditeurs sur de possibles menaces spécifiques à votre pays, sur le déroulement éventuel des mesures de quarantaine et sur les méthodes permettant de s'assurer que les aliments industriels achetés sains à l'étranger le demeurent arrivés dans le pays etc.Il serait intéressant, pour orienter davantage ce sujet vers les préoccupations locales, d'inviter un responsable de la santé, un médecin peut-être, et de lui demander de comparer les symptômes de la grippe aviaire avec les autres maladies très courantes dont souffrent les populations, et de répéter les mesures à prendre si l'on soupçonne que quelqu'un pourrait souffrir de grippe aviaire.Une question sur laquelle il serait bon de revenir en studio avec cet invité est celle des enfants qui très souvent en Afrique s'occupent des poulets et sont le plus en contact avec la volaille. En Asie, la plupart des victimes de la grippe aviaire ont été précisément des enfants et des adolescents. Il serait intéressant de faire une petite enquête auprès des enfants des écoles ou des maîtres d'école pour évaluer leur degré de connaissances concernant la grippe aviaire et ses dangers.Il est aussi important d'aborder la question de la cuisson des aliments. En général les ménagères africaines font cuire la viande longtemps mais y a-t-il des produits dérivés comme les oeufs qui sont mangés un peu mollets ou peu cuits ? D'autre part beaucoup de gens mangent dans les débiteries et dans les petits étals de rues : quels sont là les garanties que le poulet et les oeufs utilisés sont sains et cuits à la bonne température ? Un professionnel de la santé peut donner des conseils utiles à cet effet.Les procédures d'abattage et les restrictions imposées sur les déplacements des volailles et des personnes, en cas de foyer d'infection reconnu, varient selon les pays. Il serait donc très utile de demander à un représentant des autorités sanitaires de donner des précisions locales, par exemple:• L'endroit où les paysans doivent signaler la mort suspecte d'un oiseau • Le détail de la procédure qui s'en suivra • Le niveau auquel cette procédure doit commencer : comités de surveillance villageois, commune, district ? • Quels sont les moyens dont disposent les autorités sanitaires ? Pourront-elles faire face ? • Qui sera chargé de faire l'abattage et où?• Qui se chargera d'enterrer les carcasses : cela demande de la main d'oeuvre donc qui sera-t-elle ? • Quelle est la politique des autorités concernant les différentes zones de restriction ?Il est évident que les auditeurs seront très intéressés par les procédures de compensation mises en place dans votre pays si l'abattage des volailles s'avère nécessaire. Un représentant du ministère de l'Agriculture sera probablement la personne la plus à même de donner les renseignements :• Y a-t-il une procédure de compensation mise en place ?• Quelle somme les éleveurs recevront-ils ?• Y a-t-il une différence s'il s'agit de poussins ou de poulets adultes ?• Si aucune procédure de compensation n'est prévue, comment le gouvernement peut-il être sûr que les éleveurs vont informer les autorités qu'il y a un risque de foyer de grippe aviaire ?Les émissions de cette série se concentrent sur les informations pratiques dont les paysans et les éleveurs ont besoin pour déceler, circonscrire et maîtriser tout foyer déclaré de grippe aviaire. Il y a toutefois un certain nombre d'aspects qui ne sont pas traités dans cette série mais qui sont susceptibles d'intéresser vos auditeurs :• La vaccination de la volaille : il s'agit d'une stratégie de contrôle possible mais est-elle réaliste à grande échelle dans le contexte africain ? D'autre part certains mettent en doute leur efficacité, pourquoi ? • Les efforts consentis au niveau international et sous-régional pour contrôler l'avancée de la grippe aviaire. Il existe certains accords à ce niveau pour empêcher les mouvements de volaille : sont-ils efficaces ou sont-ils destinés à rester lettre morte ? Comment reconnaître les symptômes de la grippe aviaire 6'53 La grippe aviaire présente un danger considérable pour les volailles car elle foudroie ses victimes en l'espace de 24 à 48 heures. Il est donc capital de pouvoir en reconnaître très vite les symptômes.6'30 Traditionnellement, en Afrique, la volaille court librement dans la nature. Il faut donc essayer de rationaliser la gestion de la volaille domestique6'49 Le fait que les poulets picorent en liberté est une des raisons pour lesquelles ils sont particulièrement vulnérables à la contamination. Les enclos ou basses-cours fermées sont donc un moyen efficace de les protéger.Les règles d'hygiène pour les élevages industriels ou commerciaux sont très rigoureuses et doivent faire l'objet de mesures de contrôle très strictes de la part des autorités.La grippe aviaire peut affecter l'homme, causer chez lui des symptômes graves et même provoquer la mort. Les cas déclarés chez l'homme sont rares et ont surtout affecté des professionnels.De graves inquiétudes ont été soulevées concernant la consommation des oeufs et de la viande. Pourtant il y a des moyens simples et sûrs de consommer sainement ces produits.Quand un paysan découvre que certains de ses poulets sont morts de façon inexpliquée, il y a des mesures à prendre immédiatement afin de circonscrire l'infection. Ces mesures sont très spécifiques. Nous conseillons toujours aux agriculteurs de protéger la volaille donc de réaliser des bâtiments et à défaut de faire des enclos qui permettent de protéger la volaille contre les prédateurs, les vols et qui, sur le plan de la lutte contre la maladie et particulièrement la grippe aviaire, permettent aussi de limiter les contaminations parce que dans un élevage qui est indemne la contamination généralement se fait par le contact avec des animaux infectés ou à travers du matériel ou des aliments souillés qui viennent de l'extérieur; donc les enclos sont assez importants pour permettre de réduire ces risques de contamination.Avec quels matériaux construit-on ces enclos?Tout dépend des possibilités financières de l'aviculteur, de l'exploitant. Chrisostome La première chose, c'est que quand vous manipulez l'animal et que vous vous frottez les yeux, vous avez la conjonctivite. Deuxième chose, lorsque vous faites une inhalation profonde des particules, ça peut développer une infection respiratoire et vous pouvez avoir, après une semaine, deux semaines … des symptômes qui se déclarent par la fièvre qui est élevée, des maux de tête, des douleurs musculaires, vous sentez la fatigue, et puis vous faites de la toux et votre respiration est gênée mais il faudrait faire très attention parce que cette maladie qu'on appelle grippe aviaire ressemble aussi à la « pseudo peste aviaire » qui est la maladie de Newcastle qui transmet aussi à l'homme la conjonctivite. Donc c'est pourquoi il faudrait …Alors comment être sûr que c'est la grippe aviaire ?Chrisostome D'abord en élevage, pour être sûr quand vous avez des animaux qui meurent, il vaut mieux appeler les services vétérinaires et par un test sérologique, on peut savoir si c'est de la Newcastle ou bien si c'est la grippe aviaire.Alors si on est convaincu que quelqu'un est véritablement atteint, quelles sont les dispositions qu'il faut prendre ?Chrisostome La première chose c'est d'éviter les contacts et d'appeler le médecin.Il n'y a pas de remède ?Chrisostome Il y a des remèdes mais c'est que les médicaments antiviraux coûtent très cher et je ne souhaiterais pas que des situations pareilles arrivent ; mais je ne crois pas que ça puisse arriver parce que l'Etat a pris des dispositions dans la surveillance de cette maladie dès que ça a été déclaré au Nigeria, à notre frontière ici et dès que ça a été déclaré au Niger et au Burkina Faso, je crois que les services vétérinaires sont à pied d'oeuvre avec le ministère de l'Agriculture.Il n'y a pas encore eu de cas déclarés ?Chrisostome Non, non …Je vous assure que jusqu'à l'heure actuelle les prélèvements qui sont effectués sont négatifs.Chrisostome Moi je suis un scientifique. Je pourrais vous dire qu'en matière de grippe aviaire, ça existe partout mais c'est la souche hautement pathogène qui fait ravage et je ne crois pas qu'à l'heure actuelle on a observé cette souche hautement pathogène au Bénin. La grippe aviaire existe sous plusieurs formes : il y a deux types d'antigènes, l'antigène H et l'antigène N et sur le H, il y en a 16 variables possibles, le N, il y a 9 variables et c'est le H5 et le H7 qui sont hautement pathogènes et on n'en a pas trouvé au Bénin.Par rapport à la transmission du virus à l'homme, vous avez parlé de la manipulation des volailles, tout ça, est-ce qu'il n'y a pas d'autres mécanismes, est-ce que le virus ne peut pas être transmis à l'homme autrement ?Chrisostome Oui, si par exemple je suis jardinier et que j'utilise les matières fécales venant d'un élevage, si mon compost n'est pas bien décomposé, je peux être contaminé, puisque le virus peut se retrouver sur les fientes. Aussi si par exemple je prends de l'eau de marigot où des canards sauvages ont barboté, puisque le virus vit dans l'eau aussi. Si je prends de la viande infectée qui a été congelée, le virus ne meurt pas, il peut rester et si je fais une cuisson qui n'est pas au-delà de 70 degrés, là je peux, en mangeant la viande, augmenter mes chances d'être malade.Chrisostome Il faut cuire, il faut cuire parce que ce virus se détruit à la chaleur. Il faut cuire, cuire, cuire …Chrisostome Moi je dirais que les enfants sont beaucoup plus exposés. Pourquoi ? Parce que ce sont eux qui jouent avec les animaux. Quand on tue des animaux à la maison, c'est aux enfants qu'on demande d'enlever les plumes. Quand, dans les villages, on veut balayer l'intérieur des poulaillers, c'est aux enfants qu'on demande de le faire. Donc ils sont beaucoup plus exposés et il faudrait les sensibiliser pour que en allant jouer, en trouvant un oiseau au plumage sauvage qui est mort, ils sachent qu'il ne faut pas le prendre.Est-ce que le fait de garder les poulets et autres volailles à l'intérieur des maisons, ça augmente le risque?Chrisostome Ce n'est pas bon de vivre dans la même chambre que des animaux parce qu'il se pourrait que certaines maladies de ces animaux puissent se transmettre à l'homme et le risque dans le cas de la maladie dont on parle, c'est qu'on craint que ce virus puisse passer à l'homme, puis muter de l'homme pour que ça puisse passer de l'homme à l'homme mais …Ça peut passer de l'homme à l'homme ? Ce que l'on peut constater c'est qu'au départ, il y avait une réticence quand même par rapport à la consommation du poulet et des oeufs, due à la forte médiatisation de cette maladie. Ensuite on a senti qu'il y a eu, un tout petit peu, une reprise de la consommation mais néanmoins il y a toujours des gens qui trainent derrière bien que la production se relance ; mais elle ne va pas arriver d'ici peu à avoisiner le flux qu'on avait connu avec les importations cumulées avec la production locale. Il faudra un peu de temps.Est-ce à dire que la consommation d'oeufs et de poulet a baissé ?Ah oui, elle a baissé hein, surtout la consommation de viande de volaille, elle a baissé. Si on compare un peu ce qui était disponible au niveau du marché pendant le flux des importations, oui… mais pour les oeufs je pense que l'essentiel du marché était déjà à la disposition des productions agricoles qui avaient délaissé un peu la filière viande blanche au profit de la production des oeufs ; maintenant il y a un rééquilibrage qui se fait parce que le marché des hôtels et autres s'est présenté avec l'arrêt des importations pour que les gens puissent trouver une motivation pour relancer les activités de production. Oui comment est-ce qu'on procède pour organiser, pour faire en sorte que l'abattage se passe de manière rapide s'il faut abattre ? .Comme je vous l'ai dit, tous les animaux-là on les abat. On a décidé par exemple, pour un cas précis, de creuser un grand trou, on a mis tous les animaux abattus, on a mis la chaux vive, on a enterré avec tout le matériel qu'on a utilisé, on a brûlé et on a désinfecté toute l'exploitation. C'est-à-dire pendant cette période, personne ne doit entrer dans la zone infectée.Quelle hygiène ou quelles précautions doivent donc prendre les agents sanitaires pendant l'abattage ?On a toujours dit à nos collaborateurs de prendre toutes les dispositions parce que ce sont eux qui sont en contact direct avec l'infection. Maintenant il y a des mesures à prendre, avant d'aller faire cela il faut se protéger, il faut d'abord prendre les gants, il y a par exemple des masques, il y a la blouse, les bottes ; mais de préférence maintenant on préconise tout ce que je viens de citer, les blouses, les combinaisons jetables, c'est-à-dire quand vous finissez l'opération vous prenez tout cela et vous jetez. C'est pour cela qu'on dit à nos collaborateurs que quel que soit le cas, même si on nous appelle on dit voilà un oiseau qui est mort quelque part, il ne faut pas se précipiter, il ,faut se protéger, faire ce que je viens de dire, c'est-àdire prendre toutes les mesures de protection avant d'aller prendre çà parce que c'est eux qui sont en contact direct avec l'infection.Comment organise-t-on le nettoyage des zones où vivaient les animaux contaminés ?Il faut désinfecter tout le local, là où il y a l'exploitation : après avoir tout détruit il faut tout désinfecter. On a du matériel spécifique pour la désinfection, donc à ce moment on désinfecte, on fait un vide sanitaire et rien n'entre pendant un certain temps avant de libérer le local. Comment s'assurer que les éleveurs ne fassent pas de fausse déclaration ?Oui, pour çà aussi, nous avons pris des dispositions c'est-à-dire dans tous les villages, on a partout un chef de centre sanitaire vétérinaire ; et il y a aussi un chef de poste sanitaire vétérinaire, maintenant, pendant cette période-là nos collaborateurs recensent ces élevages dans les fermes. Maintenant si on sait que monsieur X a 500 volailles, si lors de la déclaration il nous dit qu'il en a mille on sait que monsieur X dans notre fichier il en a 500, donc maintenant on a un fichier de tous les éleveurs avec le nombre d'animaux qu'ils possèdent dans leurs fermes. Fin de la bande.","tokenCount":"4781"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b55762435b864c1246e73aa98997d685","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/87063564-3792-4dfd-be7e-b36a55f437fe/retrieve","id":"572928397"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"61932e72-2d3e-477c-9b48-34c2fe1241cb","pagecount":"2","content":"This April 2013 issue of 'Livestock Matter(s)' gives a round-up of livestock development news, publications, presentations, images and upcoming events from ILRI and its partners.In April, ILRI's strategy covering the period 2013-2022 was published. Under the tagline 'better lives through livestock', ILRI will improve food and nutritional security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestock. ilri.org/missionZimbabwe: Crop and livestock researchers unite to improve smallholder agricultureIn 2012, ILRI, CIMMYT and ICRISAT launched a joint project called 'ZimCLIFS' to develop ways to increase agricultural production, improve household food security, alleviate poverty, and thereby reduce food-aid dependency in rural Zimbabwe through better integration of crop and livestock production and market participation.As a new round of bird flu hits China, livestock scientist advises to 'panic slowly'The initial news reports were slim on details but the reaction was swift. There were at least three people dead in China after apparently contracting influenza from birds. Within a few days the death count was up to seven, then nine. And people started to wonder about a connection to all those pig carcasses floating down Shanghai waterways.Researchers from Makerere University were excited as they surveyed pasture land that had been corralled off in the cattle corridor of Uganda. The team was looking at options to improve livestock water productivity in the Nile Basin. To their surprise, a carpet of solid vegetation covered the land, affirming their Ethiopian colleague's suggestion that corralling cattle would allow grasslands to recover from termites. To harness genetic diversity to improve goat productivity in Africa, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is testing the open data kit (ODK) in Ethiopia as a tool to collect baseline data on production systems and phenotypic characterization of goats. It will also be tested in Cameroon.Livestock: The good, the bad, and the facts ILRI recently wrote two blog posts about one of their papers called The Roles of Livestock in Developing Countries, in which their authors argue that the livestock sector needs to be studied and assessed in a much more disaggregated manner in order to acknowledge the roles and impacts of livestock around the world -for better or for worse. Now, the motto of ILRI is \"Better Lives through Livestock\", so I was originally hesitant whether they were really in a position to produce a reliably balanced account, but I was impressed both by the depth of their analysis and by their recommendations.This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence.April 2013Balancing conservation with access to landIn the great plains of northern Tanzania, close to the worldfamous Serengeti National Park, a bitter row has broken out over an attempt to designate 1,500sqkm of Loliondo District as a game-controlled area. The Maasai herdsmen in the area say their cattle cannot survive without access to traditional dry-season grazing in the area. Until recently, livestock husbandry in Vietnam's Central Highlands was not very productive. Animals were intermittently sold to free-up cash to put towards weddings or large purchases, and the rest of the time they were left free to graze on native pasture and crop residues. To help revitalize these livestock systems, researchers at CIAT have been testing different kinds of improved forages and developing improved management strategies with farmers. Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) is a highly contagious disease that affects cattle throughout most of sub Saharan Africa. This short film explores the development of a CBPP vaccine. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCKpahdcK9IThis month we feature amazing livestock portraits.Read this roundup online: clippings.ilri.org/tag/roundup/","tokenCount":"585"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bf7a6e1f1d86314fca7814539a7e7565","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/28c2e62b-df29-477b-a063-0a5e66e49be8/retrieve","id":"352657412"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ae8dcdef-8a16-4e9d-af8a-42e5abbcd309","pagecount":"15","content":"▪ Conceptualize a framework with plausible pathways for how social assistance (SA) can improve women and girls' responses to climate change, thereby improving their wellbeing ▪ Assess the evidence across the different pathways, to identify the dimensions in which SA is a promising or limited approach to gender-responsive climate action, as well as the design features that may increase the effectiveness of SA. ▪ Develop 5 key messages on how SA can improve women's and girls' responses to climate change  Women and girls tend to be more vulnerable to climate variability due to greater exposure and sensitivity, and less adaptive capacityWomen and girls' well-being ▪ Gender differences in adaptative capacities of men and women to respond to climate disturbances o By increasing social cohesion, trust, and civic engagement, SA may help enforce compliance of conservation laws through social reciprocity and may also improve natural resource management but there is limited evidence on this link from SA to natural resource management o While theoretically improved natural resource management could benefit women, it depends crucially on whether women's preferences are considered. ","tokenCount":"179"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0325794de26c4f0ab2d9f016c702a0a3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0918ff9b-fb60-4f0f-b01d-f9f4fbe1f558/retrieve","id":"1704102490"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f6f5384d-bfa4-48fb-94e8-86d898ae50ce","pagecount":"3","content":"This policy brief aims to give an overview of land degradation hotspots in Burkina Faso and the policy options for land restoration. In this assessment, land degradation is referred to as the persistent loss of ecosystem function and productivity caused by disturbances from which the land cannot recover without human intervention (unaided). Hotspots are defined as places that experience high land degradation and if left unattended, will negatively affect both human wellbeing and the environment. The spatial location of hotspots was identified through a methodology combining modelling and field validation. Understanding the spatial locations helps identify hotspot areas andThe methods conducted in this land degradation assessment were hierarchical (covering three different scales: national, department and watershed) and involved stakeholder consultations for field validation evidences (See Figure 1).Figure 1 illustrates the process and methodology that was followed in the degradation assessment:The degradation was conducted at multiple scales from the national, department and watershed level.Relevant data was collected for areas of interest, and this was subjected to modeling and analyses.Results from the modeling were shared with expert groups of stakeholders and feedback from this process was then incorporated back into the assessments. This was followed by field validation and verification exercises.Using the results from the field validation and verification, \"what if scenarios\" were then conducted to provide a suite of restoration options.target them as priority intervention sites with relevant management options. This national level policy brief is complemented by two other detailed policy briefs focusing on the departments of Houet and Tuy. In addition, this policy brief is supported by a detailed comprehensive assessment report which can be accessed at this link: https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/97165 This policy brief highlights key messages that are pertinent at the national level complemented with Departmental level policy briefs for Houet and Tuy departments. The results highlight key priorities that may be considered by policymakers to develop feasible restoration options that are scalable. This policy brief highlights 3 key messages: i) the multi-dimensional nature of land degradation highlighting the most vulnerable areas; ii) the added need for concerted effort because land degradation is further worsened by climate change and variability as well as land use changes; iii) the need to tailor intervention options from the grassroots and scale these further to wider areas. The 3 key messages are not independent of each other but have inter-related linkages. It is therefore envisaged that the knowledge co-produced in this assessment, as well as its policy recommendations, will contribute to the development and implementation of multi-dimensional strategies and plans towards relevant land restoration options. The land degradation hotspot map was derived based on time series analysis of satellite (AVHRR NPP) and climate (CHIRPS) data in order to map the spatial distribution of land degradation risk for prioritizing intervention areas at national level. The map was classified into three trend levels: negative, neutral and positive trends. On the overall, the degradation trend, areas of significant trends and the trend map correlated with rainfall for Burkina Faso. Figure 2(a) shows the long-term trends of annual NDVI estimated using the linear slope method to represent annual accumulated NDVI over time. In the Figure , GREEN indicates positive trend while ORANGE and RED show transition to neutral and negative trend, respectively. Figure 2b is the trend after significant test was done while Fig. 2c shows the correlation between NDVI trend and rainfall supply over time. Based on Figure 2, the majority of the western, southern and southeastern part of Burkina Faso experiences significant land degradation compared to other parts of the country. Our work denotes that about 30% of the areas supporting about 27% of the population experience declining land productivity possibly due to human-related causes, which can be in the form of deforestation, soil surface crusting overgrazing and/or poor land management and gullies infringing on cropland areas as exemplified by Plate 1.The major drivers of land degradation can be \"climate induced\" and/or \"human-caused\". The long-term response of green biomass to changes in annual rainfall was tested using Pearson's correlation coefficient for every pixel. The areas that are YELLOW indicated areas showing significant negative trend in NDVI and are not affected by annual changes in rainfall. This could be attributed to 'other' factors excluding climate or human. Regions in RED have negative correlation with rainfall and are decreasing in NDVI. This could be an indication of human impact. GREEN shows areas of improving trend and positive correlation with rainfall. Additional preventive measures need to be taken for non-degraded areas since the costs of restoration will outweigh the preventive measures and will never attain its original state.For the western, southern and south-eastern parts of Burkina Faso, there are higher levels of land degradation compared to the other parts with about 30% of the population residing in the areas characterized by land degradation). Despite this, attention needs to be focused on the non-degraded areas as well because this can generally be the case in many arid and semi-arid areas where climatic factors drive population to less risk and relatively high potential areas (Ouedraogo et al. 2009;Lenhardt et al., 2014;Etongo, 2016) but the population pressure in turn can then result to land degradation over time if specific measures such as land use change policies are not strongly enforced. KEY MESSAGE 3: Integration of proven practices and scaling up of best management practices tailored for Burkina Faso coupled with innovative farming options promises to transform and restore the vulnerable and degraded areas.We used a suite of models SWAT and SWAT-APEX to explore potential feasible interventions for the hotspot areas e.g. around Poni. For Burkina Faso, sub-watersheds that were \"hotspots\" with high sediment loads, surface runoff and low water yields were used to demonstrate remediation or restoration options while the green-spots were used to demonstrate the need for preventive measures to avoid degradation even in places that are seemingly unaffected. For example, for Houet department, sub-watershed 11 was selected as a hotspot then processed through APEX to yield 33 additional smaller sub-areas. Thereafter, the 4 interventions for restoration or remediation were deployed within the sub-areas to assess their impact on sediment yield, surface runoff and water yield. Mitigating the risk of land degradation will require a basket of options/solutions deployed to address specific issues in relation to erosion reduction, reduce surface runoff losses within different areas especially the hotspot areas that were affected by land degradation. In this work, we conducted modeling scenarios with the APEX-SWAT model to develop specific \"What if scenarios\" for restoration to the hotspot areas. For example, in the Houet Department, the scenarios demonstrated that the use of stone bunds, ridges, half-moon and Zai pits has promising options to reduce sediment yield, reduce surface runoff and increase water yield. ","tokenCount":"1112"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"67e5fe493105cd9599700ec024acc9e0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/625fa676-5a5f-4b6a-bf35-b52785e6483c/retrieve","id":"-1222268018"},"keywords":["Burkina Faso","gender","Kenya","land restoration","migration"],"sieverID":"34a6dc0a-1ed2-479f-969b-2a9485b40517","pagecount":"17","content":"Within the global literature on ecological restoration, a subset of literature examines the relationship between smallholder land restoration and rural outmigration. However, intrahousehold dynamics surrounding the outmigration of one or more household members and the capacity of the household to undertake land restoration activities are often overlooked. With analyses rooted in Burkina Faso and Kenya, we explore the relationships between restoration, household labor, and rural outmigration, which is a prominent livelihood strategy in the two contexts. Our case studies draw on data from interviews, focus group discussions, and small-n household surveys in Burkina Faso and Kenya. Our analysis substantiates the need to consider migration in understanding and promoting smallholder land restoration. Our multi-sited approach further reveals that the contextually-specific characteristics of the migration event (i.e., type of migration [permanent or temporary], position of the migrant within the household, timing and duration of migration) play an important role in shaping restoration and gender outcomes. As male heads of households or their sons outmigrate periodically in Kenya compared to young men leaving seasonally in Burkina Faso, the impacts of migration on intrahousehold gender relations are more transformative in the Kenyan case study, with women garnering greater decision-making power on the family farm and in land restoration activities, whereas entrenched gender norms in the Burkina Faso case remain unchallenged by migration.G iven severe environmental degradation worldwide, ecological restoration is an area of critical concern (Suding 2011, Chazdon and Guariguata 2016, Wolff et al. 2018). Land restoration, referring to activities that aim to avoid, reduce, or reverse degradation processes and increase ecosystem service provision, are considered essential for myriad social and ecological goals, from climate change mitigation and reducing the impacts of global environmental change to food security and poverty alleviation (Cowie et al. 2018, IPBES 2018). When restoration efforts• Rural outmigration is a widespread rural livelihood strategy that needs to be considered when promoting smallholder restoration. • A multi-sited approach to evaluating the relationship between migration and restoration in two settings with high rural outmigration (Burkina Faso and Kenya) demonstrates the importance of understanding local context in restoration projects. • The relationship between migration and smallholder restoration is contextually specific, and shaped by the type, timing, and duration of migration as well as the characteristics of specific restorative activities and their labor and seasonal requirements. • Restoration projects and programs must consider gendered migration and labor patterns and intrahousehold decision-making when targeting households and their members with technologies or skills development opportunities to avoid further entrenching gender inequities.• 221 are undertaken by rural households, understanding gendered livelihoods and intrahousehold division of labor is an essential but nascent area of concern (Broeckhoven and Cliquet 2015, Collantes et al. 2018, Crossland et al. 2021a). In many contexts, smallholder land restoration efforts are occurring amid rapid rural transformations. In particular, growing rates of rural outmigration, predominantly among young men, are leading to aging and 'feminized' farming populations (Huang 2012, Radel et al. 2012, Kaag et al. 2019, Rigg et al. 2020). Shifting demographics are redefining human-environment relationships, divisions of on-farm and off-farm labor, and the organization of smallholder production (Jokisch 2002, Pattnaik et al. 2018, Jokisch et al. 2019, Spangler and Christie 2020).The connections between migration and environmental degradation have garnered attention in the literature. Such research has explored the complementarity between migration and agrarian-based livelihoods, as well as the complex relationships between land degradation and rural outmigration, land use systems in migrant-sending and migrant-receiving destinations, and remittances and land use, among others (Warren et al. 2001, McLeman 2017, Radel et al. 2019). However, the link between migration and household capacities to restore land has received little attention.As such, in this article, we examine smallholder land restoration activities in two sub-Saharan African countries, Burkina Faso and Kenya, each of which has committed to restoring five million hectares of degraded land by 2030 (AFR100 2019). We explore the relationships between restoration, gendered household labor, and rural outmigration, which is a prominent livelihood strategy in the two study contexts.We hypothesize that smallholder restoration activities are strongly affected by rural outmigration due to the drop in household labor availability, and that additional labor burdens of restoration activities are placed on the household members who remain at the homestead, particularly women and elders. In testing our hypothesis, we explore themes relating to type of rural outmigration (permanent and temporary), intrahousehold dynamics surrounding migration and labor distribution, and contextual differences in how these trends play out in the Burkina Faso and Kenya cases. We focus on households with one or more migrating members to better tease apart the relationship between smallholder land restoration and migration.We first introduce the study sites in Burkina Faso and Kenya and the restoration activities of focus in each country, before presenting our study methodology. In our subsequent results section, we describe the study populations and their migration patterns in rural Burkina Faso and Kenya. We then explore the land restoration activities conducted in each study country, reported limitations to smallholder agriculture, connections between migration and household land restoration practices, and the gendered household labor patterns that characterize these tasks. In the discussion, we bring the country cases together and propose a framework for understanding the relationship between migration, gendered household dynamics, and a household's capacity to restore its lands. In conclusion, we highlight the contributions of our results to the field and practice of restoration.This article draws on data from Burkina Faso and Kenya (Figure 1). The Burkina Faso case focuses on Oubritenga Province, a semi-arid region in the country's Central Plateau (Figure 1). Among the area's predominantly ethnic Mossi households, polygamy and composite households are common (Skinner 1964, Guirkinger et al. 2021). Gendered power inequities are prevalent within and beyond the household, with men tending to occupy household headship and decision-making positions (Nanama andFrongillo 2012, Langill et al. 2023).Livelihoods in the Central Plateau are primarily focused on smallholder agriculture and livestock rearing (Wouterse 2008). However, environmental change is a growing obstacle to agrarian activities due to insufficient and unpredictable rainfall and land degradation, leading to declining agricultural yields (Reij et al. 2005, de Longueville et al. 2020, Ilboudo Nébié and West 2019). Hence, numerous soil and water conservation initiatives have been implemented across the region (Zampaligré et al. 2014, Schuler et al. 2016, Nyamekye et al. 2018, Vinceti et al. 2020).Amidst this backdrop, rural dwellers are pursuing new off-farm income-generating opportunities in neighboring locations, such as gold panning and dry season horticulture. Rural outmigration, particularly among young men, is an important trend in the region, driven by interwoven environmental, social, and economic factors (Wouterse 2008, Sanfo et al. 2017, Kazianga and Wahhaj 2020, Langill et al. 2023).The Kenya case study focuses on the Ukambani region of eastern Kenya (Figure 1). In this region, intrahousehold dynamics are largely shaped by patriarchal norms, with men typically being seen as the household head and women as the caretakers of the home and children (Muok et al. 1998, Ifejika Speranza 2006, Kiptot et al. 2014). Despite equal land ownership rights in Kenya's constitution, women's land rights are often restricted by local customs, and men tend to have greater access to and control over land, and authority over agricultural decisions (Musangi 2017).Livelihoods across this semi-arid region consist mainly of small-scale, rainfed mixed farming (Jaetzold et al. 2006). Maize is the most widely cultivated crop along with legumes such as cowpea, pigeon pea, and beans. Livestock keeping consists largely of raising goats and local cattle breeds.Agricultural productivity is limited by low and unreliable rainfall, declining soil fertility, extensive land degradation, and small farm sizes. Widespread drought and crop failures are frequent occurrences, and many rural households experience food insecurity and poverty (KFSSG 2019).Given the unreliable returns from farming and lack of local off-farm employment opportunities, households are increasingly diversifying their income streams through labor migration, where members, primarily young men, leave the household for extended periods of time to earn income in urban areas, such as Nairobi and Mombasa. These migrants typically pursue non-agricultural work, such as working as casual laborers in construction, taxi drivers, and security guards, and return to their rural homestead periodically for only short periods of time (Ifejika Speranza 2006, Crossland et al. 2021c).In Burkina Faso, the research was conducted in collaboration with Association tiipaalga, a local NGO working on land restoration. In the study site, Association tiipaalga was providing community awareness on land degradation, and training in five land restoration techniques (described below). Through this training, participating households were encouraged to undertake restoration activities, and in some cases, tools such as machetes or a daba (hoe) were provided, but no additional compensation was offered. Considering that restoration activities occurred on private land, incentives were related to improved yields and on-farm ecosystem services, rather than direct financial compensation for labor invested in the restoration activity. The impetus for this research stemmed from Association tiipaalga's observation that although men expressed interest in land restoration, they were often absent from training sessions due to migration. As such, Association tiipaalga wanted a better understanding of intrahousehold considerations surrounding gender and migration to better inform their restoration initiatives.In Kenya, the research was embedded in a dryland restoration project (running from 2015-2020) (World Agroforestry 2020) that worked with smallholder farmers to establish trials and monitor the performance of two promising on-farm land restoration practices: tree planting and zaï planting basins. The project selected these practices based on consultations with communities on the practices that they wished to try on their farms (Sola et al. 2017). The research program provided interested participants with training in these practices and tree seedlings at no financial cost for participants. Program staff noted that, despite land ownership and management being largely governed by patriarchal norms, 67% of program participants were women, many of whom reported increased freedoms over farm management decisions in the absence of their migrant husbands (Crossland et al. 2021a(Crossland et al. , 2021c)). The program In this article, we analyze five restoration activities that were being promoted by one or both of the restoration NGOs in the study countries: zaï planting basins, tree planting, composting, half-moons, and fenced plots where assisted natural regeneration was practiced. All five activities were adopted by at least some of the participating households in Burkina Faso, whereas only the first two were promoted among participating households in Kenya.Zaï planting basins are a soil and water conservation technique involving digging shallow pits that catch water runoff, reduce soil erosion, and improve crop yields. The basins are filled with manure or compost before crops are planted therein (Mazvimavi and Twomlow 2009, Schuler et al. 2016, Muli et al. 2017). Tree planting to increase tree cover on farms is a key approach to dryland restoration, with both ecological and socio-economic benefits. It helps to control erosion, enhance soil fertility, and support local livelihoods through the provision of goods and products such as food, fuel, and timber (Brancalion et al. 2019, Lohbeck et al. 2020, Vinceti et al. 2020). Composting refers to the preparation and use of organic fertilizer, whereas half-moons are semicircular basins for planting crops and trees that play similar ecological roles as zaï pits. Last, fenced plots in this study refer to creating a metal fence around a smallholder household's agricultural plot of approximately three hectares to prevent grazing and encroachment in order to protect planted or spontaneously regenerating species. In these plots and beyond, farmers practice assisted natural regeneration (or specifically, farmer-managed natural regeneration when the goal is to is to restore trees to agricultural land), which consists of selectively protecting and managing tree seedlings, and removing barriers to natural regeneration of trees on farms or in forests (Conservation International 2022). This more 'passive' restoration method is less resource-and laborintensive than the others described above, but still requires labor to prune and coppice resprouting stems.The proportion of households in each study context that undertakes these practices is shown in Figure 2 to contextualize the results. These data, however, are not necessarily representative of regional restoration patterns, since they reflect the selective targeting and involvement of participants in the activities of the restoration NGO in each study site. Some households in the study areas also practice these or other restoration activities (e.g., assisted natural regeneration, stone bunds, and terrace bunds) without the support of restoration NGOs.In Burkina Faso, data were collected in 12 study villages between September 2019 and August 2020 in Dapelogo Commune (five villages) and Zitenga Commune (seven villages) of Oubritenga Province. In Kenya, data collection occurred between January 2018 and November 2019 in 70 villages from Makueni, Kitui, and Machakos counties (Figure 1).Although we did not use exactly the same instruments across countries, we adopted similar methodologies to allow for cross-case analysis. Themes explored in each country focused on outmigration, household dynamics, and restoration practices. The two cases were brought together iteratively, sharing preliminary results and observations across research teams, which helped to identify key themes in our findings and further questions to consider. In both cases, we defined permanent migrants as those who have left the homestead over the preceding five years and who no longer eat or live in the household, excluding women who have left for marriage. In turn, we defined temporary migrants as those who leave the homestead for multiple weeks or months of the year, after which they return to the household. The data presented below stem from a larger research project exploring these themes (see Supplementary Materials A-I for data collection instruments; for further methodological information and datasets for Burkina Faso, see Elias et al. [2021], Langill et al. [2023]; for Kenya, see World Agroforestry [2020], Crossland et al. [2021b]). For the purpose of this article, we present only the subset of data from households with migrants from each dataset.The methodology comprised a mix of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. In Burkina Faso, key informant interviews (n=55) were held with local women and men resource persons to develop community profiles of the socio-economic and environmental contexts of the study communities. A household survey was then conducted in both countries (n=96 in Burkina Faso, n=425 in Kenya) to collect household-level data on migration and the family farm (mainly administered with heads of households or their spouse). The survey addressed household characteristics, existing farming practices, decisions over the restoration practices promoted by the projects, and labor contributions of household members. Participating households were randomly selected from those working with partner NGOs.We subsequently conducted a survey with migrants from a subset of the above-mentioned households in Burkina Faso (n=14) and Kenya (n=9) to capture the migrants' own experiences of migration, restoration, and the relationships they maintain with their household and family farm. To explore the effects of migration on the household and farm production from the perspectives of women who remain on the farm, namely the wives and mothers of migrants, we additionally conducted a survey with women from households with migrants (n=79 in Burkina Faso; n=47 in Kenya).Finally, in Burkina Faso, five focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with members of households with migrants, whereas in Kenya, seven FGDs were held with individuals from households with and without migrants. All focus groups were run with men or women separately, except for one in Burkina Faso that had both men and women present. FGDs took a deeper dive on all study themes, from land degradation and restoration to livelihoods, migration, and gender. Specific discussion topics included patterns of migration within the communities and impacts of migration on sending households and their agricultural systems.To understand the gendered processes and dynamics surrounding migration and restoration, we conducted an integrated, mixed-method analysis of the data for each country according to the same pre-determined themes across countries (i.e., deductive thematic analysis). We interpreted the quantitative patterns from the survey data with the help of qualitative data gleaned from the interviews and FGDs. We then brought our country cases together to garner insights from exploring these themes across different socio-cultural and migration contexts. Bringing the two cases together allowed us to better examine the strength of the patterns observed, and the role of different contextual factors in influencing migration processes and their outcomes. Based on this analysis, we propose a conceptual framework highlighting the key factors shaping household capacities for restoration in a context of outmigration, which we present in the discussion below.Based on survey data, we find that households in the Burkina Faso case study have on average more than twice as many household members as in the Kenya case, as well as larger cultivated land sizes (Table 1). Relatedly, polygyny is prevalent among surveyed Burkinabè households (observed in 61% of households) but was not reported among any household in Kenya. In both study contexts, the analysis of survey data reveals that temporary migration is more prevalent than permanent, and households with migrants tend to have either temporary or permanent migrants, rarely both. In both settings, migration is male-dominated (92% and 77% of migrants are men in the Burkina Faso and Kenya samples, respectively), but there are notable differences in migration patterns across these two contexts.In the Burkina Faso case, migration is a growing trend among male youth, with the average age of migrants from surveyed households being 28 and 26 years old for permanent and temporary migrants, respectively. Migrants are typically the son of the household head (62%), followed by the brother of the household head (19%), but rarely the household head himself (11%). Seasonal, temporary migration to domestic locations (whether urban or rural) is increasingly prevalent (55%) compared to the previously dominant international permanent migration (19%), with temporary migration offering more flexibility to return  home to contribute labor to the family farm during the peak of the agricultural period. Across our dataset, we found that rural outmigration in this context is driven by environmental degradation, poverty and a lack of local income-generating opportunities, as well as socio-cultural expectations (see Langill et al. [2023] for further discussion). According to our survey data, approximately 60% of migrants send remittances to household members at the homestead. Among surveyed households in the Kenya case, migrants are also most often the son of the household head (47%); however, in contrast to Burkina Faso, migrants are also commonly the male household head (30%), particularly for temporary migrants, or the daughter of the household head (18%). Migrants are on average slightly older (35 and 36 years old for permanent and temporary migrants, respectively) than in the Burkina Faso case. The majority of migration is to urban centers (78%), followed by rural domestic locations (22%), and international migration is rare (<1%). While temporary migration is also more common than permanent migration in our Kenya case, unlike in Burkina Faso, migrants rarely return to work on the family farm during the agricultural season.Outmigration in Kenya is similarly driven by multiple interrelated factors, such as irregular rainfall, the need to earn income to pay for food and tuition fees, and a strategy of household livelihood diversification (see Crossland et al. [2021c] for further discussion). Remittances were much more common in the Kenya case, with 78% and 96% of households with permanent and temporary migrants, respectively, receiving remittances from migrating members. Amid these trends, participants in both Burkina Faso and Kenya reported that migration has increased in recent years and that they anticipate it to continue to grow as a livelihood activity in future years.Restorative Activities in Burkina Faso All of the households surveyed reported that their family farm is limited in one or more ways. Lack of rain, inputs, and equipment were the most commonly reported limitations, each experienced by over 70% of surveyed households (Figure 3). FGD participants and interviewees across all study sites also repeatedly raised the concern of erratic and insufficient rainfall. Key informants additionally shared that local environmental changes, such as land degradation and reduced tree coverage, are of growing concern: \"If it continues like this, future generations will have serious problems. \" (Man key informant, Bagatenga).Rural outmigration is one key strategy that households in Oubritenga Province adopt to address these limitationswith implications for the family farm. As FGD participants explain, while migrants may be able to contribute to some activities, smallholder households lose some of their labor contributions for labor-intensive activities, including some of the restoration activities described above.We often wait for [migrants] to perform certain activities, especially activities or techniques that require more labor. However, these activities are often dropped and the cultivated area is simply reduced, taking into account the fact that [the migrants] are not there. In this case, we have to focus on subsistence crops and give up on cash crops. We sometimes have to abandon some of the assisted natural regeneration techniques (Men's FGD, Zitenga).Migrants have no influence over decisions about which agricultural activities will be performed because they usually leave before the start of activities. They often leave even before zaï activities begin. If they leave, you who stayed, you do your zaï according to your abilities and then you plough with the plough and donkey (Women's FGD, Zitenga).The absence of migrants thus has implications for the labor requirements of those who remain at the homestead:[Migration] makes some activities difficult, especially at harvest time when they [migrants] cultivate and then go away leaving the rest of the work to non-migrants. Also, as they are not there at the beginning of the work to build stone bunds, those who stay suffer a lot because it is very physically-demanding work and it is very tiring. We know that if those who left were here, it would reduce our fatigue (Men's FGD, Komnogo).As young men are the main migrants in our study context, these additional labor burdens are placed on the women and older men who less commonly migrate.Surveyed households with temporary migrants adopt significantly more of the restoration activities introduced above than households with permanent migrants (T-test, p<0.01). For example, of households with temporary migrants, 94% undertook composting and 90% adopted zaï planting basins, whereas 86% and 76% of households with permanent migrants adopted the same techniques, respectively.Most of the households that practice any of the five restorative activities of focus reported in the survey that despite the labor adjustments elucidated above, outmigration did not altogether interrupt their restoration practices. Impacts could still be felt among some, however. Twice as many respondents (25% versus 12%) considered that establishing zaï pits was negatively affected by outmigration of a household member compared to composting. This is consistent with our qualitative findings that zaï is a much more labor-intensive and seasonal restorative activity than composting.Figure 4 shows who within the households surveyed is involved in deciding to adopt a restorative practice (4A), who contributes to the implementation and maintenance of the practice (4B), who has skills related to the practice (4C), and who is involved in capacity strengthening activities related to the practice (4D). We focus on four categories of active household members: the household head (male in the Burkina Faso context, as defined by respondents), wife of the household head, other working-age men, and other working-age women. Participation by household elders, other community members, or hired labor was rarely reported in the household survey, and is therefore excluded from this figure.We find that the male household head tends to be involved in all aspects shown in Figure 4, regardless of the specific restoration practice. In turn, his spouse(s) tend(s) to provide a high labor contribution to restoration, but participate(s) less in decision-making, and is/are largely perceived to lack the skills needed to carry out restoration activities and to have low participation in capacity building activities. Similar patterns are observed for other workingage men and women in the household, though their levels of participation are considered much lower overall than for the spouse(s) of the household head, and lower still for other working-age women than for other workingage men. Overall, despite their labor contributions, these other household members are perceived as contributing little to decision-making, having few of the skills required, and participating little in capacity building opportunities related to restoration.While decision-making tends to remain in the hands of the male household head, some FGDs offered examples of how women who have received training on restoration have been able to convince their husbands to participate in restoration activities:Yes, there are women who listen to the advice of agricultural technical officers and who manage to convince their husbands to adopt [restoration practices] by putting them into practice in their own fields. Some women have adopted the methods by applying them in the small plots of land that their husbands have given them. When the husband sees that the method is right and his wife wins,• 227 he ends up accepting it in his field even if at first he was reluctant. (Men's FGD, Komnogo)We used to cut [all the trees] to clear because we thought that shading would harm our crops, but now we prune trees and let them regenerate. With the knowledge we have gained on assisted natural regeneration, we influence our husbands a lot and encourage them to do as we do. Before we made zaï pits without respecting the appropriate specifications; but with the different trainings we received, now when we dig the holes, we put dead leaves in them and this contributes to the enrichment of the soil. (Women's FGD, Zitenga)Most FGD participants expect greater participation in restoration activities in their villages in the future. Women's as well as men's focus group participants explained that these practices enable higher yields from smaller cultivated areas, and that local knowledge of land restoration activities is increasing with time. Some FGD and survey respondents intended to participate in training on restorative activities in the future.As in Burkina Faso, all of the Kenyan households surveyed reported one or more limitations to their family farm. Erratic rainfall was again the most commonly reported limitation; however, this was even starker for the Kenyan respondents (Figure 5). As one woman interviewee noted, an increase in land restoration activities has accompanied the growing unreliability of rainfall:Agriculture is not doing as well because rain sometimes fails us. Ten years ago, there was no training [on restoration] but there was rain. Now, there are more training opportunities, but there are no rains. (Woman interviewee, Kibwezi East, Makueni) Soil quality is a pressing concern in the Kenyan study (Table 2), with only 13% of surveyed households reporting high quality soils, 71% experiencing soil erosion, and 22% crusted soil surface. Of those who have erosion control measures (294 households), terraces were by far the most common, followed by terrace bunds (locally known as fanya juu). One woman interviewee explained how, even with less rain than before, maintaining soil moisture through these various measures has helped to increase yields. However, others explained how smallholders face constraints in their attempts to minimize erosion and maximize farm productivity, such as accessing farm inputs and tools.In contrast to the results from Burkina Faso, survey results from Kenya show that both decision-making and labor contributions in tree planting and zaï planting basins are most common among women, specifically the household head's wife or the female head of the household, 1 followed by the male head of the household or husband (Figure 6). Women interviewees explained their autonomy in deciding to participate in the restoration project: I am the one who decided to join [the project]. If I had asked [my husband], he would have said no . . . but I decided to do it on my own. (Woman interviewee, Mwingi East, Kitui) Moreover, unlike in the Burkina Faso case, FGDs revealed that women's participation in farming decision-making increases in the absence of their migrant husbands. Yet, migrants are often still consulted on certain larger decisions, such as selling livestock, hiring labor, and digging terraces and basins. Men migrant interviewees explained that this is because they are the ones providing the capital through their remittances to the household.Women interviewees also spoke of how their participation in the land restoration project had increased their involvement in farming decision-making given the knowledge they had gained, a shift not observed in the Burkina Faso case:There was a large increase in her involvement in farming decisions after joining the project and due to the new knowledge she had gained from the trainings. She was able to make decisions about the basins. She didn't discuss them with her husband, he came home and found them dug. She had gained new knowledge and skills and had to put them into practice. She couldn't wait for her husband to come back to discuss it. (Researcher notes from interview with woman with migrant husband, Mwingi East, Kitui)The primary woman (household head or his spouse) in the household also tends to contribute the most labor to restoration activities, followed by the primary man (household head or her spouse) in the household. This pattern is more pronounced for digging zaï planting basins than tree planting, and greater for watering trees specifically than for planting trees (Figure 6B). Like the situation in Burkina Faso, the decision-making and labor contributions of other household members tend to be much lower, and survey results show even more drastic differences between 1. Although only in a minority of surveyed households, in the Kenya case, there are instances where participants referred to female household heads even when these women were married with a male spouse (in the survey, household head was defined as the household member primarily responsible for decision making, both social and economic). We thus use the terms \"Male head / husband\" and \"Female head / wife\" to distinguish between male and female spouses. In contrast, in Burkina Faso, there were no cases reported of female household heads when a male spouse was present. In Kenya, migration is less seasonal, and husbands spend longer periods away from the household; thus, women may be more likely to report themselves as de facto heads in their husbands' absence. These observed differences are also occurring in different gendered socio-cultural contexts.• 229  decision-making and labor contributions in the Kenyan case (Figure 6). Importantly, our interviews with women identified that women's labor inputs in restoration activities result in increased overall workloads for women. As one woman interviewee explained: \"In the past the rains would carry away the topsoil but when I joined [the restoration project], I dug terraces to prevent that erosion. I also learned how to dig [zaï planting basins], so the work on the farm was a lot. \" (Mwingi East, Kitui) Another stated, \"There was an increase [in my workload] because digging the basins and maintaining them was additional work I did not have before. \" (Kibwezi East, Makueni) Nevertheless, despite the additional labor burden, digging basins was perceived to be worthwhile given the increased crop yields. Digging basins also occurs during the dry season when the labor demand for other farming activities is low. The interviews with women and FGDs indicate that women's workloads typically increase following the migration of their husband or a son or daughter, with women taking on additional responsibility, including for typically male-dominated farming activities, such as ploughing, grazing livestock, digging terraces and basins, fencing, and tree planting, which are all physically demanding.Men usually take care of cattle but if they're away women have to do it. Same with the ploughing and spraying. This is not good because it's a lot of work. Sometimes [women] have to plough even carrying a baby on their backs. (Women's FGD, Yatta, Machakos) While migrants were generally said to be very supportive of women's farming efforts and activities, four women interviewees spoke of having been discouraged from digging zaï planting basins by their husband or son out of concern that the activity is too strenuous. As one woman recounted, \"[my son] told me that [digging basins] was too much work and I would get tired . . . he was not happy at all, but I told him I will do it because I was trained. \" (Kibwezi East, Makueni) Indeed, the high labor input required for restoration activities was a commonly cited concern by our respondents. Some surveyed households have drawn on hired labor and cooperative labor to help with digging zaï pits. Between the two restoration practices, using hired labor or labor exchange groups is more common for digging zaï planting basins than for tree planting. However, a household's ability to hire labor was typically tied to the receipt of migrant remittances: \"[farm labor] is a problem when children leave and when a husband leaves, especially if he doesn't send money. If the husband sends money, it's not a problem that he's away. \" (Women's FGD, Yatta, Machakos). Interviewees also reported using migrant remittances to hire labor specifically for restoration activities: \"If I need a terrace or planting basins dug, I hire people using the money that my sons send me. \" (Woman interviewee, Mwingi East, Kitui) FGD participants generally concurred that learning opportunities related to farming in the region had increased due to trainings on land restoration, soil and water conservation, and knowledge in such practices. Similarly, women interviewees spoke of improved opportunities given increased training:[Opportunities] have increased as compared to before when there were no platforms where people could get educated or trained on better farming practices. Nowadays there are so many platforms where the people get educated about agriculture and how to improve their farming practices. Yes, I have learnt how to improve my farming and harvesting through the various practices such as digging zaï pits and applying pesticides to my crops and how to December 2023 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION 41:4• 231 conserve water on the farm. (Woman interviewee, Kibwezi East, Makueni)As with the restoration activities themselves, we find an important gendered component to these transitions. Women interviewees reported that due to gendered migration patterns, \"The opportunities are mainly for women as they are the ones who stay while their husbands go look for work. \" (Mwingi East, Kitui) However, there are tensions surrounding this gender distinction and overall farm participation:Most men don't have time for the farm as compared to women. Women spend a lot of time on the farm. Men don't like working on the farm unless it is the last option. (Woman interviewee, Yatta, Machakos) If men were interested in farming, we would work together and do larger-scale farming. We currently do only what we can; if men joined, we would do better. (Woman interviewee, Kibwezi East, Makueni)In our study of two different contexts with high rates of rural male outmigration, we hypothesized that migration affects smallholder restoration activities, particularly resulting in reduced household labor availability and additional labor burdens placed on non-migrating women. Indeed, our results demonstrate that the role of migration in shaping smallholder restoration practices is contextuallyspecific and cannot be overlooked in restoration policy and programming. In particular, our analyses uncover four key findings related to smallholder restoration amid (predominantly) male outmigration. Based on these findings, we propose a conceptual framework to support understanding of the capacity of households to practice restoration in a context of outmigration (Figure 7). First, our findings substantiate that smallholder restoration is affected by outmigration in rural Burkina Faso and Kenya. As we had anticipated, the absence of migrating household members shifts intrahousehold labor burdens. This strong pattern, noted by respondents in both countries who reported reduced labor availability as a direct result of outmigration, is shown in Figure 7 as one of four important migration-induced outcomes that affect household capacities to restore their lands. In the Burkina Faso case, while there were instances of increased labor burdens on women and non-migrating men, more commonly the household adjusted to reduced labor availability by limiting cultivation areas and restorative practices. In contrast, in the Kenya case, increased labor burdens placed on nonmigrating women were much more prevalent, with women also taking on more organizational labor and oftentimes hiring additional labor with remittances, which were more common from Kenyan migrants. While the migration literature highlights shifting labor burdens amid migration of one or more household members (e.g., Radel et al. 2012, Spangler andChristie 2020), the extension of these lines of inquiry to restoration activities specifically remains underexamined (Broeckhoven and Cliquet 2015, Collantes et al. 2018, Crossland et al. 2021a).Second, the particularities of migration in the local context and for the household are integral to understanding the relationship of migration with restoration. As shown in the 'Characteristics of migration' ring of Figure 7, land restoration projects must understand who migrates from the household, as well as the type, timing, and duration of migration. In terms of who migrates, we found that whether the household head leaves (more common in the Kenya case) or remains on the family farm (as in most Burkinabè households surveyed) critically influenced the extent to which migration affected the organization of smallholder agriculture. In the Burkina Faso case, the male household head remained on the farm and participated in all stages of land restoration despite the migrant's absence. The departure of other household members, such as sons, may have required labor adjustments, but did not undermine the household's capacity to undertake restoration activities. Alternatively, in Kenya, the outmigration of the male household head in one third of households implied a greater redistribution of labor with additional burdens, such as digging zaï pits or building terraces-strenuous activities previously seen as 'men's work'-typically falling on the women who remained on the farm. This redistribution of labor was accompanied by women's higher involvement in training programs and farm management and decision-making (Crossland et al. 2021a(Crossland et al. , 2021c)).As noted above and in Figure 7, the specific type, timing, and duration of migration are also important. For example, in Burkina Faso, households with temporary migrants reported greater participation in land restoration activities than households with permanent migrants. Most temporary migrants depart seasonally, returning to the family farm to contribute to certain agricultural and restoration tasks, which limits the impacts of their departure on restoration. However, key land restoration practices that are labor-intensive during the dry season, when most migrants are absent, such as zaï pits and stone bunds, are difficult to perform with outmigrating male household members. Alternatively, in Kenya, most migration does not involve a seasonal return to the farm. As such, migrants in the Kenyan study rarely contribute to the family farm. Remittances were therefore critical in determining whether the household could pay for hired labor to replace the lost labor contributions of the migrant, or if these additional labor burdens were predominantly placed on women (see 'Impacts of migration' ring in Figure 7). Remittances for hiring labor are particularly essential for restoration activities that are labor intensive, such as digging zaï planting basins and terraces. By bringing the Burkina Faso and Kenya cases together, we were able to observe the consistent influence of migration on household labor availability, as well as different strategies households adopt to address resultant labor concerns.Third, in addition to the particularities of migration, the characteristics of specific restoration activities further affect how migration affects smallholder restoration (see Figure 7, 'Characteristics of practices' ring). For example, in the Burkina Faso case, of the two most commonly adopted restoration activities, zaï was more negatively affected by outmigration than composting. This can be attributed to the greater labor input needed for zaï pits, and the seasonal requirements of this labor, which corresponds with the period when migrants are away. Similarly, in the Kenya case, we found that in the absence of migrating household members, zaï requires more hired or cooperative labor than tree planting. Therefore, attention is needed to the specificities of restoration activities, how they are implemented in different settings, and their labor and seasonal requirements in order to understand how they may be affected by outmigration. These specificities, illuminated through our cross-case analysis, shape how households adjust to the migration of their members, such as by abandoning the zaï technique more commonly in the Burkina Faso case study, or by hiring additional laborers as in the Kenya case, where remittances allow.Fourth, our results highlight the importance of examining not only the labor impacts of migration, but also how migration affects decision-making and other intrahousehold gender dynamics related to restoration (included on the 'Impacts of migration' ring in Figure 7). As discussed above, there were instances of women's increased labor burdens in both cases; however, migration has had different impacts on gender dynamics in each setting. In participating Mossi households in Burkina Faso, male outmigration has not influenced gendered decision-making power within the household. According to study participants, given the • 233 characteristics of migration (i.e., the dry-season departure of young men), the male household head remained the primary decision-maker and the main target of training on restoration despite women's important labor contributions to restoration activities. Other male and female household members are similarly excluded from decision-making and skills development in these areas despite their labor contributions. In this socio-cultural setting where older men act as household heads, often of large composite households, gendered and intergenerational intrahousehold power structures have endured through high rates of male outmigration.In contrast, in the Kenyan case, where the primary man (household head or her spouse) in the household commonly migrated, he was often still consulted about larger decisions. This is likely linked to the financial contribution of male migrants needed to operationalize such decisions and to deep-seated socio-cultural norms surrounding male headship and land ownership in the Ukambani region (Muok et al. 1998, Ifejika Speranza 2006, Kiptot et al. 2014). In his absence, however, the primary woman (household head or his spouse) in the household gained influence over the family farm and participated in land restoration training and projects. Crossland et al. (2021a) report a trade-off for women, whose increased autonomy in managing the farm comes with greater overall workloads, as noted above. Instances of women implementing restoration practices on their own land plots and encouraging their husbands to undertake these activities were much more common in Kenya than in Burkina Faso. In both settings, this was more likely to occur after women received technical training on restoration and capacity-building; an important consideration for future restoration programmes.In sum, as demonstrated through our cross-case analysis and depicted in Figure 7, a household's capacity to practice restoration in a context of outmigration is related to the (contextually specific) characteristics of migration, as well as those of restoration practices. Gender and intergenerational relations shape migration processes and their impacts, including on household labor, capital, knowledge and skills, and decision-making related to restoration. Restoration initiatives should be attentive to these processes to identify entry points for effectively supporting household restoration capacities in high migration contexts. For instance, attention to gendered labor patterns and intrahousehold decision-making is critical in the design of projects and programmes and when targeting households and their members with technologies or skills development opportunities, to avoid further entrenching gender inequities. Participants in both country contexts predict that rates of outmigration and restoration activities will continue to increase. Hence, understanding the synergies and tensions of households pursuing migration and restoration activities in tandem is of vital importance.Migration patterns, including who leaves and the type, timing, and duration of migration, influence gender and intrahousehold dynamics related to on-farm restoration, including labor patterns and decision-making. Restoration initiatives in regions experiencing high rates of male outmigration must be carefully developed to avoid placing the burden of restoration disproportionately on women and household members who remain on the family farm. When invested in hired labor, remittances can support smallholder restoration by overcoming some of the labor constraints associated with the outmigration of household members. Shifts in labor burdens may or may not be accompanied by an increase in women's decision-making power and by greater opportunities to strengthen women's capacities related to restoration.Our analysis uncovers broader processes underpinning these relationships, as well as the need to understand contextually specific gender and intrahousehold relations, and how these considerations shape differentiated outcomes of migration on land restoration practices. Restoration projects and programmes should consider these patterns when targeting households-and specific members within them-for trainings and participation. The impacts of (male youth) outmigration on the capacity of rural households to restore degraded lands is an important issue meriting further research.","tokenCount":"7326"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4c126bb6ed81767c3f9aa04b2e6aeb86","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9ef0808e-e531-4fce-9e3a-469350be7562/retrieve","id":"1212301380"},"keywords":["Global livestock sector","Livestock production systems","Market chains","Environmental effects","Climate change","Management","Sustainable use"],"sieverID":"781a55da-fc42-411f-80ff-702ffe5d3cd7","pagecount":"22","content":"This overview analyses the key drivers of change in the global livestock sector and assesses how they are influencing current trends and future prospects in the world's diverse livestock production systems and market chains; and what are their consequent impacts on the management of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture. The trends are occurring in both developing and industrialized countries, but the responses are different. In the developing world, the trends are affecting the ability of livestock to contribute to improving livelihoods and reducing poverty as well as the use of natural resources. In the industrialized world, the narrowing animal genetic resource base in industrial livestock production systems raises the need to maintain a broader range of animal genetic resources to be able to deal with future uncertainties, such as climate change and zoonotic diseases.This chapter discusses: • What are the global drivers of change for livestock systems? Economic development and globalization; changing market demands and the \"livestock revolution\"; environmental impacts including climate change; and science and technology trends. • How are the livestock production systems responding to the global drivers of change? Trends in the three main livestock production systems (industrial, crop-livestock and pastoral systems); the range and rate of changes occurring in different systems and how these affect animal genetic resources. The implications are that breeds cannot adapt in time to meet new circumstances. Hence new strategies and interventions are necessary to improve the management of animal genetic resources in situations where these genetic resources are most at risk.• What are the implications for animal genetic resources diversity and for future prospects of their use? -Industrial livestock production systems are expected to have a limited demand for biodiversity, while crop-livestock and pastoral systems will rely on biodiversity to produce genotypes of improved productivity under changing environmental and socioeconomic conditions. All systems will rely on biodiversity, albeit to varying degrees, to cope with expected climate change. • What immediate steps are possible to improve animal genetic resources characterization, use and conservation? Appropriate institutional and policy frameworks are required to improve animal genetic resources management and these issues are being addressed at national and intergovernmental levels, in a process led by FAO to promote greater international collaboration on animal genetic resources. Based on an analysis of the current situation, the continuing loss of indigenous breeds and new developments in science and technology, there are several complementary actions that can begin to improve the management of animal genetic resources and maintain future options in an uncertain world. These are summarized here as: a. \"Keep it on the hoof\" -Encouraging the continuing sustainable use of traditional breeds and in situ conservation by providing market-driven incentives, public policy and ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 4Dynamics of production, changes and prospects for AnGR other support to enable livestock keepers to maintain genetic diversity in their livestock populations. b. \"Move it or lose it\" -Enabling access to and the safe movement of animal genetic resources within and between countries, regions and continents is a key factor in use, development and conservation of animal genetic resources globally. c. \"Match breeds to environments\" -Understanding the match between livestock populations, breeds and genes with the physical, biological and economic landscape. This \"landscape livestock genomics\" approach offers the means to predict the genotypes most appropriate to a given environment and, in the longer term, to understand the genetic basis of adaptation of the genotype to the environment. d. \"Put some in the bank\" --New technologies make ex situ, in vitro conservation of animal genetic resources feasible for critical situations and are a way to provide long-term insurance against future shocks. The multiple values, functions and consequences of livestock production systems and their rapid rate of change lead to divergent interests within and between countries. Conversely, the uncertainty about the implications of rapid, multifaceted global change for each livestock production system and the resulting future changes in the required genetic make-up of animal genetic resources make collective action to tackle conservation of animal genetic resources a longterm, global public good. Conserving animal genetic resources will not by itself solve these problems, but it is an important first step towards maintaining future options.Advances in science and the technology, in areas such as reproductive technology, genomics and spatial analysis, as well as progress in conceptualization of global public good production for the future management of animal genetic resources, should enable the international community to address both the short-and long-term challenges in innovative ways.Ce résumé analyse les facteurs clés qui ont subi des changements dans le secteur élevage et propose une évaluation de l'influence qu'ils ont eu sur la situation actuelle et les prospectives futures dans les différents systèmes d'élevage et de marché au niveau mondial. On analyse également les impacts sur la gestion des ressources génétiques animales pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture. Cette tendance se retrouve aussi bien dans les pays industrialisés que dans ceux en développement, mais les réponses sont différentes. Dans les pays en développement ces tendances ont une influence directe sur la capacité que présente l'élevage à contribuer à l'amélioration de la qualité de vie et à la réduction de la pauvreté, ainsi qu'à l'utilisation des ressources naturelles. Dans le monde industrialisé la proximité de la base des ressources génétiques animales avec les systèmes de production d'élevage au niveau industriel ont porté au besoin de conserver une plus grande gamme des ressources génétiques animales pour faire face aux incertitudes futures telles que le changement climatique et les zoonoses.Dans l'article on discute de: • Quels sont les principaux facteurs de changement dans les systèmes d'élevage? • Comment répondent les systèmes de production d'élevage aux facteurs de changement au niveau mondial? • Quelles sont les implications sur la diversité des ressources génétiques animales et pour les prospectives d'utilisation futures? • Quels sont les démarches immédiates qui permettront une amélioration de la caractérisation des ressources génétiques animales, leur utilisation et conservation? D'après une récente analyse de la situation actuelle, de la perte continue de races indigènes et du nouveau développement de la science et de la technologie, il existe différentes actions complémentaires qui pourraient aider à améliorer la gestion des ressources génétiques animales et conserver des options pour le futur dans un monde plein d'incertitude.Ces actions peuvent se résumés comme il suit: • Encourager l'utilisation durable des races traditionnelles. • Permettre l'accès et la vente de ressources génétiques animales dans et entre pays. • Compréhension du rapport entre élevage, races et gènes avec le milieu physique, biologique et économique. • La formation de stock comme assurance future.L'incertitude sur les implications des changements rapides sur chacun des systèmes de production animale et les changements futurs que cela entraîne en terme de demande de ressources génétiques animales, requière d'une action collective pour faire face à la conservation des ressources génétiques animales en tant que bien Este resumen analiza los factores clave que han cambiado en el sector ganadero y hace una evaluación de cómo han influenciado la corriente actual y las prospectivas futuras en los distintos sistemas de producción ganadera y mercados en el mundo. También se analizan los consiguientes impactos sobre la gestión de los recursos zoogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura. La tendencia se da tanto en países industrializados como en vía de desarrollo pero las respuestas son distintas. En los países en vía de desarrollo estas tendencias están afectando la capacidad ganadera para contribuir a la mejora de la calidad de la vida y reducción de la pobreza, así como la utilización de los recursos naturales. En el mundo industrializado la proximidad de la base de recursos zoogenéticos con los sistemas de producción ganadera industrial plantean la necesidad de mantener un mayor rango de recursos zoogenéticos para hacer frente a las incertidumbres futuras, tales como el cambio climático y las zoonosis. En este capitulo se discute: • Cúales son los principales factores de cambio en los sistemas ganaderos? • Cómo responden los sistemas de producción ganadera a los factores de cambio a nivel mundial? • Cúales son las implicaciones para la diversidad de recursos zoogenéticos y para las prospectivas futuras de su utilización? • Cúales son los pasos inmediatos que puedan permitir la mejora de la caracterización de los recursos zoogenéticos, su utilización y conservación? Sobre la base de un reciente análisis de la situación actual, la pérdida de razas indígenas y el nuevo desarrollo de la ciencia y la tecnología, existen distintas acciones complementarias que pueden empezar a ayudar a mejorar la gestión de los recursos zoogenéticos y mantener opciones futuras en un mundo lleno de incertidumbres.Tales acciones se resumen así: • Fomentar la continua utilización sostenible de razas tradicionales. • Permitir el acceso y movimiento para venta de recursos zoogenéticos dentro y entre paises.• Conocer la relación entre poblaciones ganaderas, razas y genes con el entorno físico, biológico y económico. • Conservar stocks para hacer frente a incertidumbres futuras. La incertidumbre sobre las implicaciones de cambios rápidos, multifacéticos y globales para cada sistema de producción ganadera y los consiguientes cambios futuros en la demanda de recursos zoogenéticos requieren una acción colectiva para hacer frente a la conservación de recursos zoogenéticos a largo plazo como bien publico mundial. La conservación de losThis overview paper analyses the key drivers of change in the global livestock sector and assesses how they are influencing current trends and future prospects in the world's diverse livestock production systems and market chains; and what are their consequent impacts on the management of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture. The trends are occurring in both developing and industrialized countries, but the responses are different. In the developing world, the trends are affecting the ability of livestock to contribute to improving livelihoods and reducing poverty as well as the use of natural resources. In the industrialized world, the narrowing animal genetic resource base in industrial livestock production systems raises the need to maintain a broader range of animal genetic resources to be able to deal with future uncertainties, such as climate change and zoonotic diseases.The range of livestock covered here are domesticated species, particularly the five major economic species (cattle, sheep, goats, chickens and pigs). There are no detailed figures yet to link specific breeds with specific production systems. We are tackling the problems from a production system angle. Throughout the paper, and based on the findings of The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, we use the approximation that commercial breeds, as a subgroup of international transboundary breeds, are used in intensive, high-external input livestock ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 6 Dynamics of production, changes and prospects for AnGR production systems (termed \"industrial systems\"), and that local breeds are the basis in most extensive and low-external input systems. These are called here \"pastoral systems\" and \"crop-livestock systems\", respectively.This paper covers four main areas: Livestock production is a complex and heterogeneous part of global agriculture. It ranges from highly automated, intensive large-scale production of pigs and poultry and, to a lesser degree, cattle, to small-scale, largely scavenging production of backyard pigs and chicken. Domestication of livestock started several millennia ago and humans have shaped the genetic make-up of domesticated animals to respond to human needs in different production environments. This genetic make-up of livestock that resulted from this long-term process has been put under stress by fast-paced changes over the past few decades, across the entire range of biophysical, social and economic contexts in which humans keep animals. These changes can be subsumed under terms of economic development and globalization. These are themselves largely driven by technical progress, plus the global exchange of knowledge and products. These trends are also characterized by unequal access to natural resources, financing, markets, technology and personal mobility.Since 1945, the world has seen an unprecedented economic growth, starting in the industrialized economies (countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD]) and expanding into the rest of the world over the past two decades. The latter is epitomized by the economic growth path of China. A number of developing countries, mainly in Asia and Latin America, have undergone major transformations associated with significant growth in their economies and increases in per capita incomes.The socio-economic indicators for selected countries are given in table 1. The following inferences can be drawn from the data: • The contribution of livestock to agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) demonstrates the significance of the livestock sector in many economies (providing value addition); this occurs even in countries that are experiencing rapid economic growth (India and China) and/or have a growing share of industrial livestock systems (China, Brazil and Argentina). • The key demand drivers of GDP growth and urbanization point towards growing demand for livestock products across all regions in the developing world. This \"livestock revolution\" is discussed further below. • The trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) show that increases in FDI are concentrated in a few countries (China and India). These countries are ones in which the industrialization of livestock production has been rising sharply. Some other countries in Africa (e.g. Kenya and Botswana) have also recorded significant increases in FDI over the past decade, although from a lower base. Economic development has led to important changes in the spatial distribution of the world's population, leading to a rapid process of urbanization in the developing world. At the same time, breakthroughs in medical research and their applications have led to dramatic increases of the human population in developing countries. In the industrialized world, population growth rates have declined in the last decades as social security, female employment in labour-scarce economies and cultural/social changes have led to declining birth rates and gradually aging populations. In terms of consumer demand, there is more demand for \"fast food\" and processed animal products. Food safety requirements are becoming increasingly stringent, due to disease problems such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) associated with processed animal products. A similar trend is occurring in developing countries, although currently limited to the affluent urban class.   1990-1995 average 2000-2005 average 1990 1995 2000 2005 1990 2004 1990-2004 1997-1999 2000-2002 2003-2005 Sub Another key driver of change that is leading towards larger-scale, cereal-based animal production systems around the world has been the rise in labour costs in the industrialized economies and in some parts of the developing world, as a result of economic growth and rising incomes.Changing economic policy associated with rapid economic growth in parts of the developing world (e.g. Asian \"tiger\" economies) has changed the investment climate in emerging economies and led to massive inflows of FDI. Similarly, labour migration from developing to industrialized economies has generated capital flows back to developing countries, which are often larger than official development assistance. Capital investments from outside the farming community, for example in the feed industry and livestock production chains in Southeast Asia, are also influencing changes in livestock production systems.The effects of globalization and growing incomes have by no means been evenly distributed within or between countries. In the context of rapid population growth, many countries and social and ethnic groups within countries have not participated in the growth process. Large numbers of poor people, particularly in rural areas, have been left behind or adversely affected by the changes. For example, such communities may actually suffer from loss of access to natural resources, bear the brunt of environmental impacts and be characterized by the breakdown of traditional social and economic ties and values, without a better (or at least viable) alternative. Also, local breeds of animals are often not competitive in this changing world.These inequalities pose a major challenge for the global community, which has responded by setting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a UN-driven process to address several core problems facing the world. The MDGs include a commitment to halve the numbers of people living in poverty by 2015, as well as setting several other key development targets, including protecting the environment and conserving biodiversity. The sustainable use and conservation of the world's animal genetic resources for food and agriculture supports the Millennium Development Goals 1 and 7, and is also covered by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).Growing demand for animal products -as well as higher standards to improve the quality and safety of the products -and more processed animal products have substantial consequences for the evolution of livestock production systems. Overall, the processes of economic development, population growth, urbanization and changing patterns of consumption have led to a dramatic increase in the consumption of animal products in the developing world, a process that has been termed the \"livestock revolution\". FAO data suggest that this trend is expected to continue for several decades because of the strong direct correlation between rising income and increasing animal product consumption.Figure 1 shows the expected percentage changes in per capita consumption of selected food commodities in developing and industrialized countries between 2001 and 2030, providing evidence of the \"livestock revolution\" occurring in the developing world. There are large differences between the projected per capita growth rates in consumption of livestock products (meat and milk) between developing and industrialized countries. There are also marked differences in the per capita growth rates of the different products in developing countries, with meat and milk being the highest, followed by oil seeds. Growth rates for cereal consumption as human food are stagnating everywhere, but increasing for other uses, especially for animal feed and biofuels.The consumption of milk and meat per capita are shown in figures 2 and 3, respectively. These data illustrate substantial differences in current consumption of meat and milk between industrialized and developing countries; the rates of growth in consumption are higher in the developing world. This trend is part of the \"livestock revolution\" and is the result of increased demand and increased incomes, economic growth and urbanization in developing countries. Consumption per capita of milk and meat is currently between two and four times higher in industrialized countries than in the developing world but, in absolute terms, demand is higher in the developing world.The growing demand for animal products in the developing world is associated with the changes in production location, facilitated by the increasing ease of transporting feed and animal products around the world. Animal products were previously produced close to where the consumers live. Increasingly, livestock production now takes    Dynamics of production, changes and prospects for AnGR place close to the locations with good access to feed, either in feed production areas or ports. The animal products are then transported to markets. This trend is changing the competitiveness of diverse livestock production systems worldwide, with more animal products being produced in lower cost economies (mainly in industrial and crop-livestock systems) and traded in domestic, regional and international markets.At the same time, large numbers of poor people depend on livestock production for their livelihoods and, for some of them, livestock offer a pathway out of poverty. These smallholders and pastoralists frequently compete for markets with the commercial sector, which is producing animal products in industrial systems worldwide. Smallholders and pastoralists together with their traditional breeds are increasingly being pushed out by the industrial systems coming into the developing world. Hence there is pressure for smallholders and pastoralists to replace their traditional breeds with more productive but less resilient breeds in order to be able to compete in the expanding livestock markets in the developing world.Technological developments associated with international transport, partially related to the increased access to capital and the opening of many economies, have dramatically increased the role of international trade in animal products. The expansion of international trade in animal products has brought to the fore the need to establish more stringent animal health and food safety standards, in order to manage the risks to the domestic sector of individual countries and to protect consumers. These health and food safety requirements have been driven by the growing problems of animal diseases, including zoonoses. These disease risks are linked to a number of factors including increasing stock numbers, the intimate cohabitation of poor families with their animals and the increased global movement of animals and animal products.Domestic markets, including the informal livestock product markets, handle the largest share of the livestock products consumed in developing countries. However, in urban areas, the modern food retail sector is also growing rapidly, and imposing specific requirements in terms of quality assurance and homogeneity of the products (of national and international origin). The term \"supermarket revolution\" has been coined for these processes. These two marketing systems require markedly different food safety and biosecurity standards, affecting livestock production systems supplying these markets.  Table 2 shows that the share of supermarkets in food retailing has been increasing over the past two decades in much of the developing world. If current trends in expanding urban populations continue, the share of supermarkets in the urban food retail sector in the developing world will increase to levels that they are now in the industrialized economies (i.e. about 80 percent of the total food retail sector). The changing set of actors implied by the supermarket revolution and the growing importance of agribusiness in food retailing will have important implications for poor farmers.The coexistence of three markets for animal products in the developing world (the traditional, frequently informal markets, the growing formal (super)markets for the urban middle classes and the regional/international export markets) poses particularly daunting challenges for policy-makers in pursuing mutually compatible policies of: 1. protecting livelihoods among the smallholder livestock keepers and pastoralists; 2. upporting efficient markets for the urban population; and 3. encouraging active engagement of livestock producers and their traditional breeds in the regional and global livestock markets.The livestock product markets in industrialized countries are evolving along quite different paths. Besides consuming relatively inexpensive livestock products from large-scale industrial systems, there is increasing demand for niche products, frequently linked with certification of origin, often produced in traditional ways or with specific breeds, by \"organic agriculture\", and/or with particular concern for animal welfare.Animal welfare is an increasing area of concern, especially in markets in industrialized countries. These concerns include caring for animals in all types of production systems. There is particular criticism of intensive housing systems for animals (e.g. chickens, pigs, dairy cows). This is leading to more animal friendly housing systems such as group housing of sows; and free range hens as alternatives for the caging for laying hens. Some consumers in industrialized countries are prepared to pay a premium for animal products coming from Dynamics of production, changes and prospects for AnGR such production systems that take account of animal welfare concerns. Animal welfare concerns are highly culture-specific and, while important in some societies, others consider them to be non-tariff trade barriers. Some of these trends will dictate breeds and breeding practices -for example, performance under range conditions and \"broodiness\" of hens will be important attributes for the niche markets.In the industrialized countries, hobby farming has become a popular activity, using relatively small land areas for limited numbers of livestock such as sheep, goats, horses and cattle. For in situ conservation of species and breeds within species, these part-time farmers are important contributors.The rapid population growth and the growing consumption of goods and services by people whose incomes are growing puts pressure on natural resources and the environment. Livestock production, under certain conditions, is driving degradation processes and is at the same time affected by them. Increasing land use for food crops and crops for biofuels is increasing the pressure on rangelands and other open access or community managed resources. This affects the viability of the low-input production systems, the sustainable use of traditional breeds and thus the livelihoods of pastoralists and smallholders.At the same time, the rapid growth of large-scale, intensive animal production units puts a serious constraint on the capacity of the environment to deal with carbon dioxide and methane output, nutrient loading in certain areas, effluent into rivers and seas, loss of biodiversity because of land clearing to grow feeds (for example, soybeans in Latin America) and other environmental impacts.The recent FAO ( 2006) report Livestock's long shadow: environmental issues and options focused on the effects of livestock on the environment. The \"long shadow\" refers to the negative effects of the livestock food chain on almost all aspects of the environment; livestock production is associated with carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions, water depletion, soil erosion, soil fertility, damage to plants, loss of biodiversity and competition with wildlife.As population and living standards grow, natural resources become a limiting factor. Particularly in marginal zones for rangeland-based animal production (pastoral systems), alternative land uses such as provision of opportunities for carbon sequestration through trees or wildlife conservation may become increasingly competitive with livestock production. On the other hand, livestock production in pastoral systems can be complementary to other services -for example, livestock production provides a means to maintain shrub/rangeland systems, with grazing reducing the risk of fire in extensive rangelands and providing other ecological services.The relationship between livestock production and climate change works in both directions. On the one hand, livestock contributes significantly to climate change via carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide production (calculated in FAO (2006) at 18 percent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions from human sources). On the other hand, climate change will have important effects on farming systems and on the role of livestock, both directly and indirectly.For example, large parts of Africa and Central Asia are likely to experience reductions in the length of growing period as a result of increased temperatures and lower rainfall. This is likely to lead to lower crop yields and reduced rangeland productivity, thus affecting the provision of feeds for animals. Climate change is also likely to change the distribution of animal diseases and their vectors. Large parts of South and Southeast Asia are likely to experience increases in rainfall and in the number of extreme climatic events (e.g. cyclones). This could lead to increased exposure of livestock to diseases, such as those caused by helminths. Crop losses due to extremes in climate could result in less animal feed being available, especially in crop-livestock and pastoral systems.Science and technology have had a major influence on the transformation of animal production in industrialized economies and increasingly in developing countries. With increasing labour scarcity, larger, high-output and more productive animals were bred. From multipurpose breeds, highly specialized breeds were developed. Generally, disease resistance was sacrificed for higher output, taking into account that through capital investments it became possible to adapt the environment to the existing animals in ways that had not been possible in the past. Research into housing and mechanization allowed significant labour productivity increases. These advances occurred in many species but particularly in short-cycled monogastric species such as poultry and pigs.Animal nutrition research, linked with breeding, has made major contributions to improving feed efficiency and shortening production cycles and thereby reducing maintenance feed requirements and allowing a more efficient use of the capital investments and natural resources.In the developing world, the impact of modern livestock science and technology has been uneven. Industrial livestock production systems (mainly for chickens) with limited links to the local resource base have been developed in some locations close to urban demand and/or to ports, given their frequent dependence on imported feed. Smallholder crop-livestock systems are much more reliant on locally available feed and traditional breeds. These crop-livestock systems are highly complex, delivering multiple products and services. Progress in improving the sustainable productivity of these systems has been much more limited and is a significant research challenge. System-based research is required to help these systems change in line with the changing social, economic and environmental context in which they operate. Currently, the speed of change of animal production systems and market chains is very high in some locations/regions, and is accompanied by loss of animal genetic resources. (This is discussed further below.)The science related to the management of animal genetic resources has made significant progress, based mainly on advances in molecular biology and genetics as well as new developments in information and communications technology (ICT). The main advances are summarized in this paper and are discussed in more detail in the following papers. The advances include: In order to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by advances in ICT, it is necessary to develop common standards for characterizing animal genetic resources, in terms of their genetics, phenotype and production system, so that knowledge can be shared among different communities and countries. Given such systematic and standardized descriptions of livestock, the intersection between new ICTs and modern genetics, through genomics and bioinformatics, presents opportunities to examine genome function by integration of these rich data sets.In the light of the above drivers of change, this section discusses: • The relative importance of the three main livestock systems worldwide (industrial, crop-livestock and pastoral) and the breeds they harbour. • The implications of global drivers of change for the different livestock production systems. • The implications for livelihoods.• The implications of the scope and rate of changes in the main livestock production systems for current and future animal genetic resources management.The geographic distribution of the major livestock species worldwide is given in table 3. This table shows that for all species the majority of animals are in the developing world. It also shows the importance of different species by region. For example, ruminants are most important in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Latin America (LAC), both continents with vast areas of savannah and relatively low population densities. Poultry is most important in East Asia and the Pacific and LAC, regions of either high economic growth or with middle-income countries with high degrees of urbanization and adequate market infrastructure.Three major types of livestock production systems can be identified worldwide -industrial livestock systems (IS); crop/livestock systems, mainly in high potential areas (CLS); and pastoral systems, mainly in marginal areas (PS).The share of livestock in each of these systems in different geographic regions is shown in table 4. These data show that most livestock are located in crop-livestock systems. The proportion of livestock in industrial systems by region is mainly a function of economic status and rate of growth (e.g. higher proportions of industrial systems in the industrialized world and Asia).Each of the three main livestock production systems responds differently to the effects of the global drivers of change, and therefore has different development and investment needs. The overarching trends are increasing intensification in both industrial systems and in crop-livestock systems in order to meet increasing demand for animal products and consumer preferences for higher-quality products that meet stringent food safety standards.• Intensification and scaling up trends in industrial and crop-livestock production systems.The demand for livestock products has been met by intensification of livestock production systems in both developing and industrialized countries. Among other factors, this intensification has been based on using cereal grains as livestock feed. For example, in OECD countries, livestock feeding in intensive systems accounts for two-thirds of the average per capita grain consumption. In contrast, crop-livestock systems in sub-Saharan Africa and India use less than 10 percent of grains as feeds as they rely mostly on crop-residues (40-70 percent of feed), grazing and planted fodders. • Market characteristics and demand.The trend towards intensification of industrial systems and crop-livestock systems is largely driven by consumer demands for livestock products, both fresh and processed. The market characteristics are increasing demand for animal  products in developing countries, plus quality preferences and food safety requirements in all markets. Public-private partnerships that provide services and market opportunities also play a key role in intensifying industrial and crop-livestock systems.Intensive systems. Intensive systems are facing increasing restrictions, owing to their associated negative environmental effects, such as problems of waste disposal and water contamination. Demand Dynamics of production, changes and prospects for AnGR for cereals is also increasing for other purposes (e.g. biofuels) and this is driving up the price of cereals, and subsequently the price of livestock products coming from intensive systems. Crop-livestock systems. Crop-livestock systems in developing countries are constrained by farm size and lack of access to inputs and services. These constraints affect soil fertility, crop yields, income generation and ultimately livestock production through the limited provision of high-quality feeds. There is also increasing competition for land and associated opportunity costs.Pastoral systems. The remoteness and the limited agricultural potential of pastoral systems in marginal areas of the developing world create difficulties for these systems to integrate into the expanding markets for livestock products. This poses a set of different needs related to adaptation of systems to reduce the vulnerability of livestock keepers and their animals and expanding access to markets.A major driver of change in pastoral systems over the past decades has been the widespread policy to settle pastoralists and allocate them individual land rights. This approach and the increasing encroachment of crop production have seriously affected the viability of these systems by reducing the mobility of livestock and access to feed resources. Although the negative aspects of these policies are increasingly acknowledged, they will continue to shape political processes in many developing countries.In the industrial and mixed crop-livestock systems, rising demand for livestock products will continue to drive structural changes in these livestock production systems and markets. Market transformation, particularly in urban markets, will lead to the increasing importance of supermarkets, large livestock processors and transformation of wholesale livestock markets. Much of this transformation has taken place in the industrialized countries. This pattern is expected to increase in the developing world with a growing share of industrial livestock systems.Farmers in intensifying crop-livestock systems will diversify their production into dairy and other livestock products even more in response to market opportunities arising from rising demand for high-value foods. Similarly, income growth and urbanization will increase diversification of consumer diets and the share of livestock products in diets.The major changes in livestock markets are going to take place in domestic markets. The relative importance of domestic markets versus trade in the future will reflect past trends in which domestic market dynamics were far more important than trade. For example, in 1980 and 2001, meat exports and imports were approximately four percent of output and consumption in the developing world. In contrast, the share of domestic urban markets in total livestock consumption has been increasing over the past 25 years.The growing importance of domestic urban markets as opposed to international trade implies changes of actors in domestic livestock industries, particularly in agribusiness in wholesale markets, livestock processing and the retail industry, with more fresh and processed animal products being sold through supermarkets.These structural changes in markets, transformation in urban markets, and in retail and distribution sectors in the livestock industry will have profound impacts for the future of smallholders and poor livestock keepers in competing with intensifying industrial and crop-livestock systems in high potential areas. Empirical evidence from Asia shows that smallholder farmers provide up to half of the share of production in dairy and meat markets. Undercapitalized small producers are likely to be squeezed out of dynamic domestic livestock markets. Policy action that supports small producers who can be helped to become competitive will have substantial equity pay-offs. In the absence of such pro-poor policies in the livestock sector, market changes and the entry of new actors in livestock processing, distribution chains and the retail sector can marginalize poor people who depend on livestock for their livelihoods.High transaction costs and limited access to markets will lead to a dramatic decline of share of livestock production from pastoral systems in marginal areas. Without significant public investments in infrastructure and services, poor producers in these areas will become increasingly marginalized and many will have to leave livestock production as a source of income. Livestock will continue to be important in traditional pastoral systems as sources of food and fulfil multiple other uses, providing traction, transport, skins and hides for shelter. In terms of livelihood impacts, the above changes will lead to changes in the role of animal genetic resources for livelihoods in two divergent ways: in intensive systems livelihoods will have a weak link to genetic resources, which will play very specialized production roles. The major livelihood impacts will be through employment. Frequently this will be limited direct employment in large-scale operations but some increased employment will be expected along the value chain. Consumer livelihoods will be affected in terms of impact of prices and of changed attributes of the animal products coming from these intensive systems. Society-wide, there may be negative impacts on livelihoods of traditional smallholders displaced from markets by industrially produced animal products. The net effects will depend significantly on the policy environment and the extent of substitution between animal products produced by industrial systems and smallholder systems.In crop-livestock systems, livelihoods will be affected by the pressures to intensify and specialize production. Systems may change from grazing to zero-grazed systems, increasing milk production while reducing animal traction. This will imply changes in the labour patterns and possibly gender distribution of work and benefits from animal production. More intensively kept animals will require higher levels of management and external inputs. Increasing livelihood opportunities can be expected to develop in these forward and backward linkages associated with these commodity chains.Pastoral systems in developing countries tend to have very strong linkages to diverse species and breeds of animals, which allow them to adapt to the exploitation of natural resources with very unique attributes and generally very limited alternative uses. Livelihoods are intimately linked to the animal genetic resources under these conditions. Risk is a major issue and the management of multiple species and multiple outputs is a key way of coping. Increasing competition for the resources, as well as policy orientations towards settling pastoralists, significantly affect these peoples' livelihoods.In the industrialized world, highly specialized pastoral production systems rely heavily on their animal genetic resources -normally a narrow genetic base comprising one or two commercial breeds of one or two species or a defined crossbred animal population. In relation to pastoral and smallholder systems in developing countries, these systems do not involve much labour. Therefore, the livelihoods of fewer people are generally involved in these production systems.The drivers of change and the evolution of the farming systems that they induce will have important effects on livestock biodiversity and its use. This in turn implies that needs and opportunities for human intervention will vary.In industrial systems, where it is largely possible to adapt the environment to the needs of the animals, highly productive commercial breeds and hybrids are going to be the main genetic pillar. Genetic resources are handled by the specialized private sector firms and traded internationally. Their interest in hardiness or disease-resistance traits will be limited unless diseases emerge for which no alternative control strategies are available or policies require important changes in the management systems, e.g. free-ranging instead of caged laying hens.In crop-livestock systems, pressure to intensify will be a major force shaping the production system and the genetic resources underpinning it. Significant increases in productivity will be required to meet demand and these will be achieved by simultaneously improving the conditions (feed, health, etc) and adapting the genetic resources. Given the heterogeneous environments, many different breeds will be required. In higher potential areas with good market access this specialization will increasingly involve crossbreeding with exotic breeds. Given the relatively small numbers of animals of each breed required in these niches, these genetic materials will not be produced by private multinational companies but will require active engagement of farmers, public sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). These systems will continue to be an important source of genetic diversity and will also demand a range of solutions to fit their specific conditions. As science improves its capacity to understand the role of specific genes and their interaction with environmental factors triggering their expression, the value of local breeds in targeted breeding programmes for these systems will increase. These systems will naturally use a diverse genetic base and will be amenable to engage with in situ conservation. Supportive institutional arrangements will be key to driving such efforts.In pastoral systems in developing countries, high levels of diversity can be encountered and traits of disease-resistance and tolerance of harsh environments are widely present. These systems are frequently declining in livestock numbers and in particular small endemic populations are at risk. In these settings, conservation will require public action because of the limited resources of the generally poor pastoralists. This will be an area where NGOs can be expected to play a key role in assisting in in situ conservation.Given the fragility of institutional arrangements in many developing country contexts and their exposure to natural and human-induced crises, there is merit in designing ex situ, in vitro conservation strategies as a back up and long-term insurance against loss of diversity in the field. These conservation strategies will need to be coordinated at national and regional/international levels to be efficient and cost-effective.Climate change considerations add an important dimension to the discussion of livestock biodiversity. Different systems will be affected in different and highly uncertain ways, but access to genetic resources could be a critical ingredient for most adaptation responses in the medium to long term. Table 5 summarizes major trends in livestock system evolution and their implications for the management of animal genetic resources.What immediate steps are possible to improve animal genetic resources characterization, use and conservation?Appropriate institutional and policy frameworks are required to improve animal genetic resources management and these issues are being addressed at national and intergovernmental levels, in a process led by FAO to promote greater international collaboration. Based on an analysis of the current situation, the continuing loss of indigenous breeds of farm animals, new developments in science and technology, and the strategies suggested for the future management of animal genetic resources (as summarized in table 5), there are several complementary actions that can begin to improve the management of animal genetic resources and maintain future options in an uncertain world. The scientific basis that underpins these proposed actions is discussed in more detail in subsequent papers. Four areas for action to improve the sustainable use and in situ conservation, characterization and long-term ex situ conservation of animal genetic resources are summarized here, and are addressed in further detail in the companion papers:\"Keep it on the hoof\" -Encouraging the continuing sustainable use of traditional breeds and in situ conservation of animal genetic resources, by providing market-driven incentives, public policy and other support to enable livestock keepers to maintain genetic diversity in their livestock populations.In this context, sustainable use refers to the continuing use of traditional breeds by livestock keepers, as a result of market-driven incentives. In situ conservation refers to animal genetic resources conservation measures supported by public policy and, on occasion, public investments to support in situ conservation of traditional breeds by livestock keepers.In regard to encouraging the sustainable use of animal genetic resources, market-driven incentives applicable in developing countries include facilitating access to markets for livestock products coming from traditional breeds. This may include identifying niche markets for traditional products and providing infrastructure (such as transport) to help livestock keepers to get their products to market.Increasing the productivity of traditional breeds through breeding is also an incentive for livestock keepers to retain these breeds. (The companion paper discusses the role of breeding in more detail.) These breed improvement strategies could also make more use of the widespread crossing that has occurred in traditional populations over time, as livestock keepers seek to improve their breeds.In regard to encouraging in situ conservation of particular breeds, especially in the diversity-rich crop-livestock and pastoral systems in developing countries, the incentives include having public policies that support the conservation of traditional breeds and providing public services (e.g. human and livestock health services, schools, roads) to support communities in livestock producing areas. Such services may encourage people to stay with their animals in rural areas rather than migrate to urban areas where more services are available.In situ conservation makes use of local and indigenous knowledge, which can also be validated scientifically. For example, some farmers have realized that by crossbreeding part of their herd to an exotic breed, they can make more profit during the good times but avoid the risk of losing all their animals when conditions are bad. Exotic animals tend to be poorly adapted to harsh conditions and tend to die during droughts, for example. Thus genetic variability reduces vulnerability to sudden changes and shocks in the system.The concept of in situ conservation also extends to conserving livestock as part of the landscape, within an overall biodiversity conservation strategy, as a long-term global public good.\"Move it or lose it\" -Enabling access and safe movement of animal genetic resources within and between countries, regions and continents.Maintaining mobility of animal breeds, populations and genes within and between countries, regions and continents is one of the key actions for facilitating the sustainable use and thereby the conservation of animal genetic resources. Safe movement of animal genetic resources enables their access, use and conservation for mutual benefit by livestock keepers worldwide. Mobility here refers to facilitating informed access to genetic diversity, based on systematic breed evaluations and analysing the potential usefulness of various breeds in different environments.There are benefits and risks in increasing the mobility of animal genetic resources. The benefit is that, in a fast-changing, unpredictable world, mobility of animal genetic resources enables flexibility in response to changing climate, disasters, civil strife, etc. For example, when civil strife has occurred in some part of Africa, animals are moved across borders to avoid their unintended death in conflicts. One risk of increased mobility is that animals moving to different environments may not be adapted to their new environment, livestock system or social system. There are also animal health risks, in terms of the possible spread of disease, or by animals not being tolerant to the diseases prevalent in a new environment. For Table 5. Trends in livestock system evolution and their implications for the management of animal genetic resources.AnGR -current status in system AnGR management: future strategy for each livestock production system Industrial systems (IS) Industrial systems changing quickly, expanding globally. Dynamics of production, changes and prospects for AnGR transboundary movements, these risks as well as the benefit should be identified and shared with stakeholders prior to importation, and risk mitigation steps taken before importing semen, embryos or live animals into a country.\"Match breeds to environments\" -Understanding the match between livestock breeds, populations and genes and the physical, biological and economic landscape. This \"landscape livestock genomics\" approach offers the means to predict the genotypes most appropriate to a given environment and, in the longer term, to understand the genetic basis of adaptation of the genotype to the environment.In regard to the long-term prospects for this research, the advances in our ability to describe the genome of an animal in unprecedented detail, coupled with our ability (through spatial analysis) to describe the landscape in which it resides -a landscape description that includes biotic, abiotic, human and market influences -are beginning to provide an opportunity to probe genome function in a unique way. This is an approach already used to study the distribution of particular alleles in livestock and to probe the human genome for disease-causing genes. Its potential for understanding the fit between livestock genotype and landscape is significant, and it depends on sophisticated data-management tools. It also offers the opportunity not only to understand the function of the genome, but also to predict the genotype most appropriate to a given environment. This is a long-term research objective that can be linked with existing data-gathering exercises to add to their value. For example, building in systematic sampling of DNA of livestock breeds in combination with a careful description of the systems under which each population presently functions, and georeferencing the data, will add greatly to our ability to understand and utilize animal genetic resources. For example, we can begin to ask \"what combination of genotypes is appropriate for a milking cow under a given management regime, under a given range of disease pressures and under a given set of physical stresses?\" Knowing this will enhance the value of genotypes \"in the bank\" or \"on the hoof\" and will provide the tools we need to identify intelligently appropriate genotypes for specific agro-ecological niches. (Approaches to characterizing AnGR are discussed further in the companion paper.)\"Put some in the bank\" -New technologies make ex situ, in vitro conservation of animal genetic resources feasible for critical situations and a way to provide long-term insurance against future shocks in all livestock production systems.Improving technology (e.g. cryopreservation) is making long-term, ex situ, in vitro conservation of semen and embryos more feasible, affordable and applicable to a wider range of species. The challenge is to decide which animal genetic resources to conserve; how to collect them; where to store them; when and how to characterize them; and who can access, use and benefit from them in the future. It is particularly important to collect the rich diversity of traditional livestock breeds in croplivestock and pastoral systems in developing countries before it is lost forever.A risk is that ex situ, in vitro gene banks can become \"stamp collections\", put away in the deep freeze and never characterized. Another potential risk is that this approach may be a disincentive to in situ conservation through sustainable use, where the genetic resources are more accessible in the short to medium term and where not only the genetic resources but also the traditional knowledge associated with them are conserved. In fact, in situ and ex situ conservation approaches are complementary rather than competing approaches, serving short-and long-term needs. Ex situ, in vitro animal genetic resources conservation is a long-term insurance policy and an important first step in conserving animal genetic resources for future generations. (Further details on conservation approaches are given in the companion paper.)Several important drivers of change are leading to rapid changes in the livestock production sector that have implications for the future management of animal genetic resources. The multiple values, functions and consequences of livestock production systems and their rapid rate of change lead to divergent interests within and between countries. Conversely, the uncertainty about the implications of rapid, multifaceted global change for each livestock production system and the resulting future changes in the required genetic make-up of the animals makes collective action to tackle conservation of animal genetic resources a long-term, global public good. Developing and conserving animal genetic resources will not by themselves solve all these problems, but are important first steps towards maintaining future options.Advances in science and technology, in areas such as reproductive technology, genomics and spatial analysis, as well as progress in conceptualization of global public good production for the future management of animal genetic resources, should enable the international community to address both the short-and long-term challenges in innovative ways.","tokenCount":"8425"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2c88680851dc24041465a2cb954857a0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/29fdb0b9-9ead-4d4b-b74d-274ae96f43d9/retrieve","id":"-430036703"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b51140da-c585-48b3-a63d-61b4830a4e73","pagecount":"6","content":"Through a multi-actor engagement approach the ICRAF led SUCCESS project in Peru aimed to contribute to more informed policy, governance, and implementation of a new tenure mechanism called agroforestry concessions (AFCs). The project provided evidence-based knowledge that was previously unavailable and facilitated dialogue among key stakeholders. This contributed to building networks and raising awareness about the importance of land tenure security for improving community livelihoods and sustainability purposes.In the Peruvian Amazon, communities scattered along rivers in the Amazonian regions of Loreto and Madre de Dios receive titles to agricultural areas, but only long-term usufruct rights to the forests on their land because forests are considered a public good. Overlapping land rights and oil and gas exploration also create tension in the region. The project used a theory of change to identify specific goals and pathways, including historical and legal analysis, surveys with government implementers, and 22 community studies. Researchers engaged deeply with specific actors from central and regional government, non-governmental and indigenous organization, and local peoples through workshops, trainings, South-South country exchanges, and briefs, blogs, videos and tools -which many found useful. And they adapted their work to respond to emerging issues, such as the need for more emphasis on gender in reform processes. Government officials in charge of titling gained greater awareness of the challenges for indigenous peoples, and some Amazon indigenous communities also have new capacities and tools to address these issues. There is also evidence that CIFOR's Global Comparative Study (GCS) on Forest Tenure Reform has brought attention to new ideas about gender and land tenure insecurity, among others, at least to some key stakeholders. And working directly with professors and students at several universities led to the inclusion of social and cultural issues in the forest department curriculum and helped to develop critical mass in land tenure thinking in the country -something that should last beyond the end of the project.\"What CIFOR does is different; they are asking how we can reinforce communal land tenure rights following a logic framework that applies globally. A key question that comes from this framework and that has had an impact on me is about gender. That is something that we normally don't see.\" -Research partner from National Agrarian University (UNALM)Sub-IDOs:• Enhanced institutional capacity of partner research organizations and provided valuable and safe spaces for dialogue and ideas exchange. Through this process the project built actors' capacity in land tenure topics, raised awareness, and contributed to empowering stakeholders and creating a sense of knowledge ownership and co-production of knowledge. Additionally, the project has been successful in sharing knowledge with key actors from governments, NGOs, academia, and international agencies.The contribution of the GSC Land Tenure project to knowledge is significant, as noted by several informants. The project provided evidence-based knowledge that was previously unavailable and which is useful to inform guidelines for land titling, support current land tenure processes, and provide clarification regarding what needs to be done in order to improve land tenure reform implementation.Three key areas where the project provided evidence-based knowledge include:• The need of gender disaggregated data to understand how social differentiation dynamics affect the ability of vulnerable groups to benefit from reform processes in context of collective tenure regimes. This knowledge provides insight into best practices during reform implementation that could avoid further exclusion and marginalization.• Results point out to the varied perspectives on sources of tenure security and insecurity that communities recognize and the limitations of titling alone as the means to recognize and formalize collective tenure rights to ensure long-term livelihood benefits for local communities.The project also facilitated dialogue and idea exchanges among key stakeholders which contributed to building networks as well as raising awareness about the importance of land tenure security for improving community livelihoods and sustainability purposes. The project also contributed to bringing attention to gender aspects in land tenure reform implementation and building the country's capacity in topics related to land tenure. For instance, through the work with academic research partners, the project contributed to strengthening national researchers' literacy in land tenure which is expected to have a lasting influence on research and educational activities. Enhanced literacy and capacity in land tenure topics was also fostered with non-academic actors, such as civil society (NGOs), indigenous leaders, native communities, and national and sub-national government. The project has also made the knowledge available in the international sphere by sharing findings and bringing land tenure reform implementation and gender considerations to the fore of international discussions. ","tokenCount":"742"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8806969ede58cabfb3a4bf2cd7633583","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/108e96f9-189c-4996-a6ae-d1d8d06e2eb6/retrieve","id":"643258440"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"35229ed6-c04a-448a-8728-c5a2ce2a2e9e","pagecount":"4","content":"Alessandra Galie, Annet Mulema, Alejandra Mora Benard, Robert Ochago and Dorine Odongo.The gender strategy of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish highlights the key role of gender analysis in livestock value chain research and guides the integration and implementation of related research activities. One of the outputs of the strategy focuses on 'increase [ing] gender capacity within CGIAR centers, partner organizations and value chain actors to diagnose and overcome genderbased constraints within value chains'. The program also recognizes the important role that partners play in delivering outcomes jointly. Thus, it collaborates with both research and development partners to eliminate constraints to the participation of women and marginalized groups in value chain activities to increase the benefits they gain from enhanced livestock commercialisation.To this end, the Program's gender team, in collaboration with the Dutch consultancy Transition International (TI), has produced a gender capacity assessment tool. The tool is used to evaluate existing skills and gaps in partners' gender capacities and identify measures to address them. In 2015, the tool was implemented in four L&F value chain countries (Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Uganda). The existing and desired capacities are scored using a scale of 1 to 5, ranging from very low (little or no evidence of the gender capacity) to very high (gender capacity is fully developed and integrated into the organization). The sets of variables listed above can be visualized in this three-dimensional matrix:  Focus group discussions were conducted to assess the organizational gender capacities, including internal policies, arrangements, procedures and frameworks that allow organizations to operate and deliver on their mandates. A total of six partners (three woreda (district) agricultural offices in Doyogena, Horro and Yabello) and three agricultural research centres in Areka, Bako and Yabello. Individual assessments were also conducted, using questionnaires, to explore individual skills, knowledge and motivation. At the environmental level, a group discussion was conducted with key informants (gender experts) from various development and research organizations 3 .The findings indicate that the development partners have better capacities in all core gender capacities than the research partners. However, all of those assessed had low gender capacities. None were able to apply the tools and frameworks to undertake gender analyses, though they did take some affirmative actions during staff recruitment. They lacked the capacity to understand internal gender dynamics and develop remedial strategies, including making internal policies and procedures more gender responsive.The ability to apply gender transformative approaches (GTA) was the least developed capacity at both organizational and individual levels. It was also the most difficult to comprehend and assess. Most organizations prioritized the following capacities: developing and applying gender analytical frameworks and tools; providing access to gender analysis training for female and male staff; and applying gender transformative approaches. Scaling up of the tool has been initiated to foster wider methodically adoption or adaptation and to maximize impact.The tool was administered to national research and developmental partners through focus group discussions and individual questionnaires between April and June 2015. Six development partner organizations were assessed 4 . In addition, key informant interviews were held with gender experts 5 to assess the gender-enabling or disabling environment, including downstream and upstream policies, rules, regulations, power relations and social norms that influence the Ugandan pig value chain.Based on these assessments, all partners (with one exception) scored low in core capacities for gender analysis and strategic planning, and did not demonstrate capacity in gender transformative approaches. While most partners collected sex-disaggregated data about their stakeholders' participation in activities, they showed limited capacity to conduct gender analysis. They lacked the mechanisms to ensure that gender was taken into consideration in analysis, programming and leadership. A gender-responsive M&E system was also lacking in many assessed organizations. Only one organization had a gender policy and experts at both the board and management level. It also had the capacity to develop and implement joint gender advocacy activities with other organizations.In addition, it used research outputs and materials to advocate for gender equality, a core capacity for which it generally received the highest scores. The capacity assessment tool was implemented with key local partners at L&F sites. These partners included local government and non-governmental organizations, development agencies, universities and one women's group. Partners conducted seven focus group discussions and eight interviews with key informants from national and international organizations working in cattle value chains.Using the tool developed by TI, the partners adapted the questions to the local context and gathered information about informants' understanding of gender capacities, organizational levels of gender capacity development and existing gender-integration gaps in their organizations. The key informants interviewed included representatives from the United Nations (World Food Programme), the Swiss development agency (SDC), SNV, the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the National Farmer Union, as well as academic researchers in the fields of gender and agriculture. The interviews focused on an overall view of local gender capacities and how external factors influence their development.In general, the organizations scored highest in the areas of gender analysis and strategic planning, and gender and leadership. The latter, however, often indicated the organization's interest in supporting women in leadership positions rather than its capacity to do so. They scored lowest in the areas of innovations in gender-responsive approaches, and effective partnerships and advocacy on promoting gender equality. This assessment has given the Nicaraguan L&F team and the participant organizations a clearer idea of the starting points from which to elaborate future capacity development strategies.In the coming months, each VC country team will report their findings back to the partners, including a discussion ","tokenCount":"922"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d56c41c3aaf1720ee7511fd33cb00032","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3fbdf6ea-2f2f-4a9c-8830-34a521fb6a60/retrieve","id":"-1400008105"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"27d305a4-86a1-4bef-9336-475163a2cee8","pagecount":"31","content":"Eco Health -One Health • The One Health concept is a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans and animals. One Health Initiative (http://onehealthinitiative.com/)Broader thinking -OneHealthEco Health -One Health• Ecosystem approaches to public health issues acknowledge the complex, systemic nature of public health and environmental issues, and the inadequacy of conventional methodologies for dealing with them. David Walter-Toews, University of Guelph• The Ecohealth approach focuses above all on the place of human beings within their environment. It recognizes that there are inextricable links between humans and their biophysical, social, and economic environments, and that these links are reflected in a population's state of health. ","tokenCount":"113"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"35662ca9b803b0013829fe3cd1b3ec35","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8a699f0f-2354-4adb-9efa-03a88e20c1f4/retrieve","id":"1078190379"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"106dcdca-d6c1-4762-a53c-e5d52bcbe3c6","pagecount":"42","content":"The designations employed and the presentation of material on maps do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by IPCC in preference to others of a similar nature, which are not mentioned or advertised. The right of publication in print, electronic and any other form and in any language is reserved by the IPCC.This Synthesis Report (SYR) of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) summarises the state of knowledge of climate change, its widespread impacts and risks, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. It integrates the main findings of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) based on contributions from the three Working Groups 1 , and the three Special Reports 2 . The summary for Policymakers (SPM) is structured in three parts: SPM.A Current Status and Trends, SPM.B Future Climate Change, Risks, and Long-Term Responses, and SPM.C Responses in the Near Term 3 . This report recognizes the interdependence of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societies; the value of diverse forms of knowledge; and the close linkages between climate change adaptation, mitigation, ecosystem health, human well-being and sustainable development, and reflects the increasing diversity of actors involved in climate action.Based on scientific understanding, key findings can be formulated as statements of fact or associated with an assessed level of confidence using the IPCC calibrated language 4 . A.1.2 The likely range of total human-caused global surface temperature increase from 1850-1900 to 2010-2019 7 is 0.8°C to 1.3°C, with a best estimate of 1.07°C. Over this period, it is likely that well-mixed greenhouse gases (GHGs) contributed a warming of 1.0°C to 2.0°C 8 , and other human drivers (principally aerosols) contributed a cooling of 0.0°C to 0.8°C, natural (solar and volcanic) drivers changed global surface temperature by -0.1°C to +0.1°C, and internal variability changed it by -0.2°C to +0.2°C. {2.1.1, Figure 2.1}A.1.3 Observed increases in well-mixed GHG concentrations since around 1750 are unequivocally caused by GHG emissions from human activities over this period. Historical cumulative net CO 2 emissions from 1850 to 2019 were 2400 ± 240 GtCO 2 of which more than half (58%) occurred between 1850 and 1989, and about 42% occurred between 1990 and 2019 (high confidence). In 2019, atmospheric CO 2 concentrations (410 parts per million) were higher than at any time in at least 2 million years (high confidence), and concentrations of methane (1866 parts per billion) and nitrous oxide (332 parts per billion) were higher than at any time in at least 800,000 years (very high confidence). {2.1.1, Figure 2.1}A.1.4 Global net anthropogenic GHG emissions have been estimated to be 59 ± 6.6 GtCO 2 -eq 9 in 2019, about 12% (6.5 GtCO 2 -eq) higher than in 2010 and 54% (21 GtCO2-eq) higher than in 1990, with the largest share and growth in gross GHG emissions occurring in CO 2 from fossil fuels combustion and industrial processes (CO2-FFI) followed by methane, whereas the highest relative growth occurred in fluorinated gases (F-gases), starting from low levels in 1990. Average annual GHG emissions during 2010-2019 were higher than in any previous decade on record, while the rate of growth between 2010 and 2019 (1.3% yr -1 ) was lower than that between 2000 and 2009 (2.1% yr -1 ). In 2019, approximately 79% of global GHG 5 Ranges given throughout the SPM represent very likely ranges (5-95% range) unless otherwise stated.6The estimated increase in global surface temperature since AR5 is principally due to further warming since 2003-2012 (0.19 [0.16 to 0.22] °C). Additionally, methodological advances and new datasets have provided a more complete spatial representation of changes in surface temperature, including in the Arctic. These and other improvements have also increased the estimate of global surface temperature change by approximately 0.1°C, but this increase does not represent additional physical warming since AR5.7The period distinction with A.1.1 arises because the attribution studies consider this slightly earlier period. The observed warming to 2010-2019 is 1.06 [0.88 to 1.21]°C. GHG emission metrics are used to express emissions of different greenhouse gases in a common unit. Aggregated GHG emissions in this report are stated in CO 2equivalents (CO 2 -eq) using the Global Warming Potential with a time horizon of 100 years (GWP100) with values based on the contribution of Working Group I to the AR6. The AR6 WGI and WGIII reports contain updated emission metric values, evaluations of different metrics with regard to mitigation objectives, and assess new approaches to aggregating gases. The choice of metric depends on the purpose of the analysis and all GHG emission metrics have limitations and uncertainties, given that they simplify the complexity of the physical climate system and its response to past and future GHG emissions. {2.1.1}emissions came from the sectors of energy, industry, transport, and buildings together and 22% 10 from agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU). Emissions reductions in CO 2 -FFI due to improvements in energy intensity of GDP and carbon intensity of energy, have been less than emissions increases from rising global activity levels in industry, energy supply, transport, agriculture and buildings. (high confidence) {2.1.1}A.1.5 Historical contributions of CO 2 emissions vary substantially across regions in terms of total magnitude, but also in terms of contributions to CO 2 -FFI and net CO 2 emissions from land use, land-use change and forestry (CO 2 -LULUCF).In 2019, around 35% of the global population live in countries emitting more than 9 tCO 2 -eq per capita 11 (excluding CO 2 -LULUCF) while 41% live in countries emitting less than 3 tCO 2 -eq per capita; of the latter a substantial share lacks access to modern energy services. Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have much lower per capita emissions (1.7 tCO 2 -eq and 4.6 tCO 2 -eq, respectively) than the global average (6.9 tCO 2 -eq), excluding CO 2 -LULUCF. The 10% of households with the highest per capita emissions contribute 34-45% of global consumption-based household GHG emissions, while the bottom 50% contribute 13-15%. (high confidence) {2.1.1,  . Hundreds of local losses of species have been driven by increases in the magnitude of heat extremes (high confidence) with mass mortality events recorded on land and in the ocean (very high confidence). Impacts on some ecosystems are approaching irreversibility such as the impacts of hydrological changes resulting from the retreat of glaciers, or the changes in some mountain (medium confidence) and Arctic ecosystems driven by permafrost thaw (high confidence). {2.1.2, A.2.4 Climate change has reduced food security and affected water security, hindering efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goals (high confidence). Although overall agricultural productivity has increased, climate change has slowed this growth over the past 50 years globally (medium confidence), with related negative impacts mainly in midand low latitude regions but positive impacts in some high latitude regions (high confidence). Ocean warming and ocean acidification have adversely affected food production from fisheries and shellfish aquaculture in some oceanic regions (high confidence). Roughly half of the world's population currently experience severe water scarcity for at least part of the year due to a combination of climatic and non-climatic drivers (medium confidence). {2.1.2, A.2.5 In all regions increases in extreme heat events have resulted in human mortality and morbidity (very high confidence).The occurrence of climate-related food-borne and water-borne diseases (very high confidence) and the incidence of vector-borne diseases (high confidence) have increased. In assessed regions, some mental health challenges are associated with increasing temperatures (high confidence), trauma from extreme events (very high confidence), and loss of livelihoods and culture (high confidence). Climate and weather extremes are increasingly driving displacement in Africa, Asia, North America (high confidence), and Central and South America (medium confidence), with small island states in the Caribbean and South Pacific being disproportionately affected relative to their small population size (high confidence). {2.1. In this report, the term 'losses and damages' refers to adverse observed impacts and/or projected risks and can be economic and/or non-economic (see Annex I: Glossary).14 Slow-onset events are described among the climatic-impact drivers of the AR6 WGI and refer to the risks and impacts associated with e.g., increasing temperature means, desertification, decreasing precipitation, loss of biodiversity, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat and related impacts, ocean acidification, sea level rise and salinization. {2.1.2}   representative generations (born in 1950, 1980 and 2020). Future projections (2021-2100) of changes in global surface temperature are shown for very low (SSP1-1.9), low (SSP1-2.6), intermediate (SSP2-4.5), high (SSP3-7.0) and very high (SSP5-8.5) GHG emissions scenarios. Changes in annual global surface temperatures are presented as 'climate stripes', with future projections showing the human-caused long-term trends and continuing modulation by natural variability (represented here using observed levels of past natural variability). Colours on the generational icons correspond to the global surface temperature stripes for each year, with segments on future icons differentiating possible future experiences. {2.1, 2.1.2, Figure 2.1, Table 2 A.3.5 Soft limits to adaptation are currently being experienced by small-scale farmers and households along some lowlying coastal areas (medium confidence) resulting from financial, governance, institutional and policy constraints (high confidence). Some tropical, coastal, polar and mountain ecosystems have reached hard adaptation limits (high confidence). Adaptation does not prevent all losses and damages, even with effective adaptation and before reaching soft and hard limits (high confidence). {2. There are widening disparities between the estimated costs of adaptation and the finance allocated to adaptation (high confidence). Adaptation finance has come predominantly from public sources, and a small proportion of global tracked climate finance was targeted to adaptation and an overwhelming majority to mitigation (very high confidence). Although global tracked climate finance has shown an upward trend since AR5, current global financial flows for adaptation, including from public and private finance sources, are insufficient and constrain implementation of adaptation options, especially in developing countries (high confidence). Adverse climate impacts can reduce the availability of financial resources by incurring losses and damages and through impeding national economic growth, thereby further increasing financial constraints for adaptation, particularly for developing and least developed countries (medium confidence). {2.3.2, 2.3.3}Modelled scenarios and pathways 19 are used to explore future emissions, climate change, related impacts and risks, and possible mitigation and adaptation strategies and are based on a range of assumptions, including socio-economic variables and mitigation options. These are quantitative projections and are neither predictions nor forecasts. Global modelled emission pathways, including those based on cost effective approaches contain regionally differentiated assumptions and outcomes, and have to be assessed with the careful recognition of these assumptions. Most do not make explicit assumptions about global equity, environmental justice or intra-regional income distribution. IPCC is neutral with regard to the assumptions underlying the scenarios in the literature assessed in this report, which do not cover all possible futures. 20 {Cross-Section Box.2}WGI assessed the climate response to five illustrative scenarios based on Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) 21 that cover the range of possible future development of anthropogenic drivers of climate change found in the literature. High and very high GHG emissions scenarios (SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5 22 ) have CO 2 emissions that roughly double from current levels by 2100 and 2050, respectively. The intermediate GHG emissions scenario (SSP2-4.5) has CO 2 emissions remaining around current levels until the middle of the century. The very low and low GHG emissions scenarios (SSP1-1.9 and SSP1-2.6) have CO 2 emissions declining to net zero around 2050 and 2070, respectively, followed by varying levels of net negative CO 2 emissions. In addition, Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 23 were used by WGI and WGII to assess regional climate changes, impacts and risks. In WGIII, a large number of global modelled emissions pathways were assessed, of which 1202 pathways were categorised based on their assessed global warming over the 21st century; categories range from pathways that limit warming to 1.5°C with more than 50% likelihood (noted >50% in this report) with no or limited overshoot (C1) to pathways that exceed 4°C (C8). {Cross-Section Box.2} (Box SPM.1, Table 1)Global warming levels (GWLs) relative to 1850-1900 are used to integrate the assessment of climate change and related impacts and risks since patterns of changes for many variables at a given GWL are common to all scenarios considered and independent of timing when that level is reached. {Cross-Section Box.2}In the literature, the terms pathways and scenarios are used interchangeably, with the former more frequently used in relation to climate goals. WGI primarily used the term scenarios and WGIII mostly used the term modelled emission and mitigation pathways. The SYR primarily uses scenarios when referring to WGI and modelled emission and mitigation pathways when referring to WGIII.Around half of all modelled global emission pathways assume cost-effective approaches that rely on least-cost mitigation/abatement options globally. The other half looks at existing policies and regionally and sectorally differentiated actions.SSP-based scenarios are referred to as SSPx-y, where 'SSPx' refers to the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway describing the socioeconomic trends underlying the scenarios, and 'y' refers to the level of radiative forcing (in watts per square metre, or W m -2 ) resulting from the scenario in the year 2100. {Cross-Section Box.2}Very high emissions scenarios have become less likely but cannot be ruled out. Warming levels >4°C may result from very high emissions scenarios, but can also occur from lower emission scenarios if climate sensitivity or carbon cycle feedbacks are higher than the best estimate. {3.1.1}RCP-based scenarios are referred to as RCPy, where 'y' refers to the level of radiative forcing (in watts per square metre, or W m -2 ) resulting from the scenario in the year 2100. The SSP scenarios cover a broader range of greenhouse gas and air pollutant futures than the RCPs. They are similar but not identical, with differences in concentration trajectories. The overall effective radiative forcing tends to be higher for the SSPs compared to the RCPs with the same label (medium confidence). {Cross-Section Box.2}  A.4.1 The UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement are supporting rising levels of national ambition. The Paris Agreement, adopted under the UNFCCC, with near universal participation, has led to policy development and target-setting at national and sub-national levels, in particular in relation to mitigation, as well as enhanced transparency of climate action and support (medium confidence). Many regulatory and economic instruments have already been deployed successfully (high confidence). In many countries, policies have enhanced energy efficiency, reduced rates of deforestation and accelerated technology deployment, leading to avoided and in some cases reduced or removed emissions (high confidence). Multiple lines of evidence suggest that mitigation policies have led to several 24 Gt CO 2 -eq yr -1 of avoided global emissions (medium confidence). At least 18 countries have sustained absolute production-based GHG and consumption-based CO 2 reductions 25 for longer than 10 years. These reductions have only partly offset global emissions growth (high confidence). {2.2.1, 2.2.2}A.4.2 Several mitigation options, notably solar energy, wind energy, electrification of urban systems, urban green infrastructure, energy efficiency, demand-side management, improved forest and crop/grassland management, and reduced food waste and loss, are technically viable, are becoming increasingly cost effective and are generally supported by the 24 At least 1.8 GtCO 2 -eq yr -1 can be accounted for by aggregating separate estimates for the effects of economic and regulatory instruments. Growing numbers of laws and executive orders have impacted global emissions and were estimated to result in 5.9 GtCO 2 -eq yr -1 less emissions in 2016 than they otherwise would have been. (medium confidence) {2.2.2}Reductions were linked to energy supply decarbonisation, energy efficiency gains, and energy demand reduction, which resulted from both policies and changes in economic structure (high confidence). {2.2.2}public. From 2010 to 2019 there have been sustained decreases in the unit costs of solar energy (85%), wind energy (55%), and lithium-ion batteries (85%), and large increases in their deployment, e.g., >10× for solar and >100× for electric vehicles (EVs), varying widely across regions. The mix of policy instruments that reduced costs and stimulated adoption includes public R&D, funding for demonstration and pilot projects, and demand-pull instruments such as deployment subsidies to attain scale. Maintaining emission-intensive systems may, in some regions and sectors, be more expensive than transitioning to low emission systems. (high confidence) {2.2.A.4.3 A substantial 'emissions gap' exists between global GHG emissions in 2030 associated with the implementation of NDCs announced prior to COP26 26 and those associated with modelled mitigation pathways that limit warming to 1.5°C (>50%) with no or limited overshoot or limit warming to 2°C (>67%) assuming immediate action (high confidence). This would make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C during the 21st century (high confidence). Global modelled mitigation pathways that limit warming to 1.5°C (>50%) with no or limited overshoot or limit warming to 2°C B.1.2 Discernible differences in trends of global surface temperature between contrasting GHG emissions scenarios (SSP1-1.9 and SSP1-2.6 vs. SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5) would begin to emerge from natural variability 32 within around 20 years. Under these contrasting scenarios, discernible effects would emerge within years for GHG concentrations, and sooner for air quality improvements, due to the combined targeted air pollution controls and strong and sustained methane emissions reductions. Targeted reductions of air pollutant emissions lead to more rapid improvements in air quality within years compared to reductions in GHG emissions only, but in the long term, further improvements are projected in scenarios that combine efforts to reduce air pollutants as well as GHG emissions climate events and seasons (high confidence). In scenarios with increasing CO 2 emissions, natural land and ocean carbon sinks are projected to take up a decreasing proportion of these emissions (high confidence). Other projected changes include further reduced extents and/or volumes of almost all cryospheric elements 34 (high confidence), further global mean sea level rise (virtually certain), and increased ocean acidification (virtually certain) and deoxygenation (high confidence). {3.1.1, 3. B.1.4 With further warming, every region is projected to increasingly experience concurrent and multiple changes in climatic impact-drivers. Compound heatwaves and droughts are projected to become more frequent, including concurrent events across multiple locations (high confidence). Due to relative sea level rise, current 1-in-100 year extreme sea level events are projected to occur at least annually in more than half of all tide gauge locations by 2100 under all considered scenarios (high confidence). Other projected regional changes include intensification of tropical cyclones and/or extratropical storms (medium confidence), and increases in aridity and fire weather (medium to high confidence).{3.1.1, 3.1.3}B.1.5 Natural variability will continue to modulate human-caused climate changes, either attenuating or amplifying projected changes, with little effect on centennial-scale global warming (high confidence). These modulations are important to consider in adaptation planning, especially at the regional scale and in the near term. If a large explosive volcanic eruption were to occur 35 , it would temporarily and partially mask human-caused climate change by reducing global surface temperature and precipitation for one to three years (medium confidence). {4.3}34 Permafrost, seasonal snow cover, glaciers, the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, and Arctic sea ice.Based on 2500-year reconstructions, eruptions with a radiative forcing more negative than -1 W m -2 , related to the radiative effect of volcanic stratospheric aerosols in the literature assessed in this report, occur on average twice per century. {4.3}2011-2020 was around 1.1°C warmer than 1850-1900 the last time global surface temperature was sustained at or above 2.5°C was over 3 million years agoThe world atThe world atThe world atThe world at small absolute changes may appear large as % or σ changes in dry regions Annual hottest day temperature is projected to increase most (1.5-2 times the GWL) in some mid-latitude and semi-arid regions, and in the South American Monsoon region.Projections of annual mean soil moisture largely follow projections in annual mean precipitation but also show some differences due to the influence of evapotranspiration. With every increment of global warming, regional changes in mean climate and extremes become more widespread and pronounced B.2.1 In the near term, every region in the world is projected to face further increases in climate hazards (medium to high confidence, depending on region and hazard), increasing multiple risks to ecosystems and humans (very high confidence). Hazards and associated risks expected in the near term include an increase in heat-related human mortality and morbidity (high confidence), food-borne, water-borne, and vector-borne diseases (high confidence), and mental health challenges 36 (very high confidence), flooding in coastal and other low-lying cities and regions (high confidence), biodiversity loss in land, freshwater and ocean ecosystems (medium to very high confidence, depending on ecosystem), and a decrease in food production in some regions (high confidence). Cryosphere-related changes in floods, landslides, and water availability have the potential to lead to severe consequences for people, infrastructure and the economy in most mountain regions (high confidence). The projected increase in frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation (high confidence) will increase rain-generated local flooding (medium confidence). {Figure 3.2, Figure 3  Limited adaptation   low-likelihood, high impact storyline, including ice-sheet instability processes   Limited adaptation (failure to proactively adapt; low investment in health systems); incomplete adaptation (incomplete adaptation planning; moderate investment in health systems); proactive adaptation (proactive adaptation management; higher investment in health systems) The historical changes (black) are observed by tide gauges before 1992 and altimeters afterwards. The future changes to 2100 (coloured lines and shading) are assessed consistently with observational constraints based on emulation of CMIP, ice-sheet, and glacier models, and likely ranges are shown for SSP1-2.6 and SSP3-7.0. Right -Assessment of the combined risk of coastal flooding, erosion and salinization for four illustrative coastal geographies in 2100, due to changing mean and extreme sea levels, under two response scenarios, with respect to the SROCC baseline period (1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005). The assessment does not account for changes in extreme sea level beyond those directly induced by mean sea level rise; risk levels could increase if other changes in extreme sea levels were considered (e.g., due to changes in cyclone intensity). \"No-to-moderate response\" describes efforts as of today (i.e., no further significant action or new types of actions). \"Maximum potential response\" represent a combination of responses implemented to their full extent and thus significant additional efforts compared to today, assuming minimal financial, social and political barriers. (In this context, 'today' refers to 2019.) The assessment criteria include exposure and vulnerability, coastal hazards, in-situ responses and planned relocation. Planned relocation refers to managed retreat or resettlements. The term response is used here instead of adaptation because some responses, such as retreat, may or may not be considered to be adaptation. B.3.1 Limiting global surface temperature does not prevent continued changes in climate system components that have multi-decadal or longer timescales of response (high confidence). Sea level rise is unavoidable for centuries to millennia due to continuing deep ocean warming and ice sheet melt, and sea levels will remain elevated for thousands of years (high confidence). However, deep, rapid, and sustained GHG emissions reductions would limit further sea level rise acceleration and projected long-term sea level rise commitment. Relative to 1995-2014, the likely global mean sea level rise under the SSP1-1.9 GHG emissions scenario is 0.15-0.23 m by 2050 and 0.28-0.55 m by 2100; while for the SSP5-8.5 GHG emissions scenario it is 0.20-0.29 m by 2050 and 0.63-1.01 m by 2100 (medium confidence). Over the next 2000 years, global mean sea level will rise by about 2-3 m if warming is limited to 1.5°C and 2-6 m if limited to 2°C (low confidence). {3.1.3, Figure 3.4} (Box SPM.1)The likelihood and impacts of abrupt and/or irreversible changes in the climate system, including changes triggered when tipping points are reached, increase with further global warming (high confidence). As warming levels increase, so do the risks of species extinction or irreversible loss of biodiversity in ecosystems including forests (medium confidence), coral reefs (very high confidence) and in Arctic regions (high confidence). At sustained warming levels between 2°C and 3°C, the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets will be lost almost completely and irreversibly over multiple millennia, causing several metres of sea level rise (limited evidence). The probability and rate of ice mass loss increase with higher global surface temperatures (high confidence). {3.1.2, 3.1.3}The probability of low-likelihood outcomes associated with potentially very large impacts increases with higher global warming levels (high confidence). Due to deep uncertainty linked to ice-sheet processes, global mean sea level rise above the likely range -approaching 2 m by 2100 and in excess of 15 m by 2300 under the very high GHG emissions scenario (SSP5-8.5) (low confidence) -cannot be excluded. There is medium confidence that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation will not collapse abruptly before 2100, but if it were to occur, it would very likely cause abrupt shifts in regional weather patterns, and large impacts on ecosystems and human activities. {3.1.3} (Box SPM.1)Adaptation Options and their Limits in a Warmer World B.4.2 With additional global warming, limits to adaptation and losses and damages, strongly concentrated among vulnerable populations, will become increasingly difficult to avoid (high confidence). Above 1.5°C of global warming, limited freshwater resources pose potential hard adaptation limits for small islands and for regions dependent on glacier and snow melt (medium confidence). Above that level, ecosystems such as some warm-water coral reefs, coastal wetlands, rainforests, and polar and mountain ecosystems will have reached or surpassed hard adaptation limits and as a consequence, some Ecosystem-based Adaptation measures will also lose their effectiveness (high confidence). {2.3.2, 3.2, 4.3} B.4.3 Actions that focus on sectors and risks in isolation and on short-term gains often lead to maladaptation over the long term, creating lock-ins of vulnerability, exposure and risks that are difficult to change. For example, seawalls effectively reduce impacts to people and assets in the short term but can also result in lock-ins and increase exposure to climate risks in the long term unless they are integrated into a long-term adaptive plan. Maladaptive responses can worsen existing inequities especially for Indigenous Peoples and marginalised groups and decrease ecosystem and biodiversity resilience. Maladaptation can be avoided by flexible, multi-sectoral, inclusive, long-term planning and implementation of adaptation actions, with co-benefits to many sectors and systems. (high confidence) {2.3.2, 3.2} Global databases make different choices about which emissions and removals occurring on land are considered anthropogenic. Most countries report their anthropogenic land CO 2 fluxes including fluxes due to human-caused environmental change (e.g., CO 2 fertilisation) on 'managed' land in their national GHG inventories. Using emissions estimates based on these inventories, the remaining carbon budgets must be correspondingly reduced. {3.3.1}For example, remaining carbon budgets could be 300 or 600 GtCO 2 for 1.5°C (50%), respectively for high and low non-CO 2 emissions, compared to 500 GtCO 2 in the central case. {3.3.1} CCS is an option to reduce emissions from large-scale fossil-based energy and industry sources provided geological storage is available. When CO 2 is captured directly from the atmosphere (DACCS), or from biomass (BECCS), CCS provides the storage component of these CDR methods. CO 2 capture and subsurface injection is a mature technology for gas processing and enhanced oil recovery. In contrast to the oil and gas sector, CCS is less mature in the power sector, as well as in cement and chemicals production, where it is a critical mitigation option. The technical geological storage capacity is estimated to be on the order of 1000 GtCO 2 , which is more than the CO 2 storage requirements through 2100 to limit global warming to 1.5°C, although the regional availability of geological storage could be a limiting factor. If the geological storage site is appropriately selected and managed, it is estimated that the CO 2 can be permanently isolated from the atmosphere. Implementation of CCS currently faces technological, economic, institutional, ecological-environmental and socio-cultural barriers. Currently, global rates of CCS deployment are far below those in modelled pathways limiting global warming to 1.5°C to 2°C.Enabling conditions such as policy instruments, greater public support and technological innovation could reduce these barriers. (high confidence) {3.3.3}The impacts, risks, and co-benefits of CDR deployment for ecosystems, biodiversity and people will be highly variable depending on the method, site-specific context, implementation and scale (high confidence).   The red ranges depict emissions pathways assuming policies that were implemented by the end of 2020. Ranges of modelled pathways that limit warming to 1.5°C (>50%) with no or limited overshoot are shown in light blue (category C1) and pathways that limit warming to 2°C (>67%) are shown in green (category C3). Global emission pathways that would limit warming to 1.5°C (>50%) with no or limited overshoot and also reach net zero GHG in the second half of the century do so between 2070-2075. Panel (e) shows the sectoral contributions of CO 2 and non-CO 2 emissions sources and sinks at the time when net zero CO 2 emissions are reached in illustrative mitigation pathways (IMPs) consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C with a high reliance on net negative emissions (IMP-Neg) (\"high overshoot\"), high resource efficiency (IMP-LD), a focus on sustainable development (IMP-SP), renewables (IMP-Ren) and limiting warming to 2°C with less rapid mitigation initially followed by a gradual strengthening (IMP-GS). B.7.2 The higher the magnitude and the longer the duration of overshoot, the more ecosystems and societies are exposed to greater and more widespread changes in climatic impact-drivers, increasing risks for many natural and human systems. Compared to pathways without overshoot, societies would face higher risks to infrastructure, low-lying coastal settlements, and associated livelihoods. Overshooting 1.5°C will result in irreversible adverse impacts on certain ecosystems with low resilience, such as polar, mountain, and coastal ecosystems, impacted by ice-sheet melt, glacier melt, or by accelerating and higher committed sea level rise. (high confidence) {3.1.2, 3.3.4} B.7.3 The larger the overshoot, the more net negative CO 2 emissions would be needed to return to 1.5°C by 2100. Transitioning towards net zero CO 2 emissions faster and reducing non-CO 2 emissions such as methane more rapidly would limit peak warming levels and reduce the requirement for net negative CO 2 emissions, thereby reducing feasibility and sustainability concerns, and social and environmental risks associated with CDR deployment at large scales. (high confidence) {3.3.3,3.3.4,3.4.1,Table 3.1} and afforestation. WASH refers to water, sanitation and hygiene. Six feasibility dimensions (economic, technological, institutional, social, environmental and geophysical) were used to calculate the potential feasibility of climate responses and adaptation options, along with their synergies with mitigation. For potential feasibility and feasibility dimensions, the figure shows high, medium, or low feasibility. Synergies with mitigation are identified as high, medium, and low. The right-hand side of Panel a provides an overview of selected mitigation options and their estimated costs and potentials in 2030. Costs are net lifetime discounted monetary costs of avoided GHG emissions calculated relative to a reference technology. Relative potentials and costs will vary by place, context and time and in the longer term compared to 2030. The potential (horizontal axis) is the net GHG emission reduction (sum of reduced emissions and/or enhanced sinks) broken down into cost categories (coloured bar segments) relative to an emission baseline consisting of current policy (around 2019) reference scenarios from the AR6 scenarios database. The potentials are assessed independently for each option and are not additive. Health system mitigation options are included mostly in settlement and infrastructure (e.g., efficient healthcare buildings) and cannot be identified separately. Fuel switching in industry refers to switching to electricity, hydrogen, bioenergy and natural gas. C.3.2 Net zero CO 2 energy systems entail: a substantial reduction in overall fossil fuel use, minimal use of unabated fossil fuels 51 , and use of carbon capture and storage in the remaining fossil fuel systems; electricity systems that emit no net CO 2 ; widespread electrification; alternative energy carriers in applications less amenable to electrification; energy conservation and efficiency; and greater integration across the energy system (high confidence). Large contributions to emissions reductions with costs less than USD 20 tCO 2 -eq -1 come from solar and wind energy, energy efficiency improvements, and methane emissions reductions (coal mining, oil and gas, waste) (medium confidence). There are feasible adaptation options that support infrastructure resilience, reliable power systems and efficient water use for existing and new energy generation systems (very high confidence). Energy generation diversification (e.g., via wind, solar, small scale hydropower) and demand-side management (e.g., storage and energy efficiency improvements) can increase energy reliability and reduce vulnerabilities to climate change (high confidence). Climate responsive energy markets, updated design standards on energy assets according to current and projected climate change, smart-grid technologies, robust transmission systems and improved capacity to respond to supply deficits have high feasibility in the medium to long term, with mitigation co-benefits (very high confidence). {4.5.1} (Figure SPM.7) 51In this context, 'unabated fossil fuels' refers to fossil fuels produced and used without interventions that substantially reduce the amount of GHG emitted throughout the life cycle; for example, capturing 90% or more CO 2 from power plants, or 50-80% of fugitive methane emissions from energy supply.","tokenCount":"5482"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3ef0035d225cf51c103c037f8da447bc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e8967d41-8195-4351-92e2-dc1147c18a93/retrieve","id":"1067834802"},"keywords":["cassava","fruit water","abrasive peeling","cyanide","high quality cassava flour"],"sieverID":"e4ae3a12-d81c-40e7-9575-5c3d6a33a31a","pagecount":"16","content":"Peeling is an essential unit operation before further processing of cassava. This study presents functional and proximate composition of gari and HQCF as affected by peeling methods and cassava cultivars. An abrasive peeling machine with dual function of mechanical and mild chemical peeling of cassava roots by recycling of fruit water was developed. The peeling machine utilizes abrasive peeling surface inscribed with indented 0.12 cm stainless steel of 77 cm height with 245 cm diameter, a stainless steel based cavity, fruit water recovery tank, water pump and the transmission system. The fruit water was used to soak the cassava tubers before peeling with the machine for 60 minutes. Peeling of cassava by hands were used as control for this study. Improved cassava varieties: TMS 30572 and TME 419 were used. High quality cassava flour (HQCF) and gari produced from the varieties with three different peeling methods: manual, mechanical and mechanical/chemical (hybrid), were analyzed. The moisture content (MC), crude fat (CFT), crude protein (CP), ash, carbohydrate, cyanide content (CC), pH, packed bulk density (PBD), oil absorption capacity (OAC), least gelation concentration (LGC), water absorption capacity (WAC), swelling power (SP) and solubility from proximate composition and functional properties of HQCF for TME 419 were 11.00%, 0.00%, 0.35%, 0.than 100 countries and fulfils the daily caloric demands of millions of people living in tropical America, Africa, and Asia (Parma et al., 2017;Adegoke et al., 2020). Research works reckon the importance of cassava as a food security crop especially in Western, Central and Eastern Africa due to its ability to produce reasonable yields (~10 t ha -1 ) in poor soils and with minimal inputs (Adegoke et al., 2020). Parma et al. (2017) and Lebot (2009) also reported that cassava is a perennial shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (Dicotyledons) family that can grow for years and has lateral subterranean storage organs in the form of starchy roots. Cassava is important, not just as a food crop but even more so as a major source of cash income for producing households. As a cash crop, cassava generates cash income for the largest number of households, in comparison with other staples, contributing positively to poverty alleviation (Uthman, 2011;FAOSTAT, 2016). Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world with production level estimated at 57,134,478 million tons per year (FAOSTAT, 2016;Apeh et al., 2023) This is a third more than the production in Brazil (The world's second largest cassava producer) and almost double the production of Indonesia and Thailand (FAOSTAT, 2016). Adegoke et al. (2020) reported that, until recently, cassava was primarily produced for food as it is consumed on daily basis in different forms and often times more than once a day in Nigeria.According to Oriola and Raji (2013), cassava is presently the most important food crop in Nigeria from the point of view of both the area under cultivation and the tonnage produced due to the fact that it has transformed greatly into high yielding cash crop, a foreign exchange earner, as well as a crop for world food security and industrialization. In line with above-mentioned report, there has been an unprecedented rise in the demand for cassava and its numerous products worldwide for both domestic and industrial applications (Adetunji and Quadri, 2011;Parma et al., 2017. The cultivation of cassava as a major staple crop has expanded significantly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Asia in the twentiethcentury. Today, Cassava supports the livelihood of over 300 million Africans (Okoye, 2021). Above facts suggests that opportunities abound in the area of cassava processing, but, these opportunities cannot be fully utilized using the traditional processing methods currently in use in the country which is generally adjudged as arduous in nature, labour intensive, time consuming and unsuitable for large scale production (Adetan et al., 2003;Agbetoye, 2005;Quaye et al., 2009;Olayanju et al., 2019). According to Ndukwu et al. (2015), the major challenges confronting most developing countries, especially in Africa, is not what to produce but primarily how to process and preserve what is produced. Freshly harvested cassava roots start deteriorating almost immediately after harvest and can only last for few days due to its high moisture content of about 70% (Ngoddy, 1989;Egbeocha et al., 2016) and in the light of this, cassava should be processed after harvesting due to its short shelf life (Reilly, 2003;Latif and Müller, 2015). The best form of preservation and reduction of post-harvest losses is immediate processing into various shelf stable products such as gari, chips, pellets, etc. Processing cassava into different products involves peeling and other operations. Most of these operations are still being done manually, and they are generally labour intensive, arduous in nature, time consuming and unsuitable for large scale production (Adetan et al., 2003;Quaye et al., 2009). Olayanju et al. (2019) reported that a significant portion of Africa's food reserve is wasted due to the time-consuming manual (knife) method of peeling.Peeling, which is limiting the complete mechanization of cassava processing, is the first stage in the processing of all cassava products and is one of the bottlenecks in the process due to the tuber's various forms and sizes. The cassava peeling process must be mechanized because hand peeling is labour demanding (Olukunle and Jimoh, 2012). As a result, finding a means to improve the efficiency of mechanical peeling is both necessary and timely.Cassava processing procedures must be mechanized, which necessitates the design and development of equipment such as cassava peelers. Several attempts to solve these issues have resulted in the invention of numerous types of cassava peeling machines (Olukunle and Ademosun, 2006;Olayanju et al., 2019). Some of these machines, on the other hand, have been widely recognized as being of low performance in terms of efficiency (Egbeocha et al., 2016). Some of the issues with these devices include the removal of an unacceptable amount of useable flesh during mechanical peeling, as well as a decrease in peeling efficiency as the length of operation increases (Abdulkadir, 2012;Oriola and Raji, 2013;Egbeocha et al., 2016;Olayanju et al., 2019). Peeling is the most time-consuming stage in the cassava processing process. According to Jekayinfa and Olajide (2007), it takes 44.88 hours to transform one tonne of cassava tubers to gari, with the peeling process accounting for 25 hours, or over 55% of the time. A perfect mechanical cassava peeling machinedoes not yet exist (Egbeocha et al., 2016).Peeling which is limiting the complete mechanization of cassava processing is the first step for all cassava products processing such as flour, starch and gari. Because manual peeling is labour intensive (Olukunle and Jimoh, 2012), it is essential to mechanize the cassava peeling process. Therefore, finding a way to increase the efficiency of mechanical peeling is very important and expedient. In this light, Adegoke et al. (2020) designed, constructed and evaluated a cassava peeling machine that combines chemical and mechanical peeling. The machine resulted into careful removal of the cassava peels achieving 87.5% peeling efficiency at average speed of 1600 rpm < Nt < 2600 rpm depending on the variety.Therefore, the objective of this research is to determine some quality parameters of gari (traditional product) and high quality cassava flour (industrial product) produced from the manual peeling, mechanical peeling and combined effects of soaking in fruit water (chemical peeling) using the newly developed hybrid peeling machine that combines mechanical and chemical peeling methodsA locally developed hybrid cassava peeling machine with a variable speed (1600-2600 rpm) diesel engine of 7.331 kW maximum power rating developed in our previous study Adegoke et al. (2020) was used. Two improved cassava varieties (TME 419 and TMS 30572) were used for this study. The machine is as shown in Figures 1 and 2. The main features of the machine include peeling chamber, abrasive peeling surface or tool, supporting frame, hopper and the transmission system. High pressure water sprays from water sprinkler was sprayed on the roots during operation. After running for 20-25 minutes, the recycled water becomes 'fruit water'.The recycled water becomes hydrocyanic solution and this organic acid is referred to as 'fruit water' in this machine operation. Hydrogen cyanide is weakly acidic. It partially ionizes in water solution and the salts of the cyanide anion are known as hydrogen cyanide; a solution of hydrogen cyanide in water, this solution forms the cassava 'fruit water'.The combined action of the high pressure water jets and abrasion of the tubers against the walls of the perforated stainless sheet wounded round the inner chamber of the machine and the roots against each other, removed the cassava skin. Mechanical peeling was performed using the above-mentioned peeling machine at a rotational speeds of 1600, 2100 and 2600 rpm and a peeling time of 5 minutes. In addition to the mechanical peeling process, fresh cassava tubers were immersed and soaked in cassava fruit water solution for 60 minutes respectively. The pH of the fresh water in the water tank that was continuously been recycled during the peeling operation would be adjusted by the hydrocyanic acid present in cassava tubers that was dissolving in the fresh water during the peeling operation after 20-30 minutes operation of the peeling machine. Hydrogen cyanide is weakly acidic. It partially ionizes in water solution and the acid of the cyanide anion are known as hydrogen cyanide; a solution of hydrogen cyanide in water, this solution forms the cassava 'fruit water'.The hydrocyanic acid solution was used to soak the cassava roots for one hour. A pH of 4.5 and a temperature of 40 • C of the immersion solution were chosen and maintained for all trials. Checks were carried out with pH meters/pH strips and Infrared thermometers to maintain the temperature and hydrogen ion concentration.Freshly harvested cassava roots were weighed, peeled (manually, mechanically, soaked in fruit water and peeled manually, mechanically and with the hybrid peeling method). The method of Dziedzoave et al. (2006) was used. The peeled roots were washed with plenty of potable water to get rid of dirt and sand particles. The washed roots were then grated manually to obtain the mash. The wet mash was put in polyethylene sacks and the flaps were folded. The mash was dewatered using a hydraulic jack (32 ton capacity) to an approximate moisture of about 40% for about half an hour. Samples were then pulverized and spread on elevated stainless steel trays in a solar house with backup heating (using biomass wood) operational at a temperature of 50 o C to 60 o C for 6 h.The dried grits were then hammer milled and packaged in a low density zip-lock polyethylene bag.Freshly harvested cassava roots were weighed peeled (manually, mechanically, soaked in fruit water and peeled manually, mechanically and with the hybrid peeling method). The peeled roots were washed with plenty of potable water to get rid of dirt and sand particles. The washed roots were then grated mechanically to obtain the mash. The wet mash was put in polyethylene sacks and the flaps were folded. It was allowed to ferment for 3 days after which the fermented mash was dewatered. The dewatered mash from sacks were sieved and pulverized to remove large particles and spread out in trays before it was gari fried in a mechanical gari fryer (TOSMAT model, stainless steel frying pot, electrically operated on 3-phase, 1 Hp gear motor, heating source: (diesel fired), well-insulated body system with fiber and capacity of 500-750 kg/shift), cooled and packaged in zip lock bags (IITA, 2013).The moisture content of the samples was determined using the method described by AOAC (2010). Crucibles were cleaned and dried in an oven at 105 o C, cooled to room temperature in desiccators with dry silica gel for 40 min and weighed as (W1).Five gram (5 g) of each sample was weighed into the crucible and the weight was recorded as (W2), all the crucibles and their content were transferred into the Gallemkamp hot air oven at a temperature of 105 o C for 3 h. Thereafter the samples were cooled in the desiccators and weighed. The crucible sands the final weight were taken as (W3). The percentage moisture content was calculated using the formula:(1)The starch content was determined by the method described by International Starch Institute, Denmark.The method is applicable to potato and cassava where starch determination by the hydrostatic method / under-water method (ISI, 2014).The crude protein content determination was determined using micro Kjedhal method as described by AOAC (2010) which involved wet digestion, distillation, and titration. The crude protein content was determined by weighing 3 g of samples into a boiling tube that contained 25 ml concentrated sulfuric acid and one catalyst tablet containing 5 g K2SO4, 0.15 g CuSO4 and 0.15 g TiO2. Tubes were heated at about 400 o C temperature for digestion to occur. The digest was diluted with 100 ml distilled water, 10 ml of 40% NaOH, and 5 ml Na2SO3, antibumping agent was added, and then the sample was diluted with 10 ml of boric acid. The NH4 content in the distillate was determined by titrating with 0.1 M standards HCl using a 25 mL burette. A blank was prepared without the sample. The nitrogen value obtained was multiplied by a conversion factor, and the result was expressed as the amount of crude protein.The crude fibre content was determined using the The ash content was determined using the method described by AOAC (2010). About 5 g sample was weighed into a previously ignited, cooled and weighed silica dish. The dish and its content was ignited first gently and then at 500 o C for 4 h in a muffle furnace. The dish and its content was cooled in a desiccator and reweighed. It was returned into the muffle furnace for 30 min, desiccated and reweighed until constant weight. The remaining residue inside the silica dish being the ash. Percentage ash content was calculated as follows:Where: Y1 is the weight of empty crucible (in grams), Y2 is the weight of both crucible and ash (in grams), and W is weight of sample (in grams).Total carbohydrate was determined by difference.An approximation was made by subtracting the measured crude protein, crude fibre, total ash, and moisture content from the total weight (Egunlety and Aworh, 1990), that is, available carbohydrate = 100 -(Weight in grams [protein + fat + water + ash + alcohol + dietary fibre] in 100 g of food)About 5 g of samples was suspended in deionized water for 5 min at a ratio of 1:5 (w/w) and pH measured using a digital pH meter (Orion Research Inc., Model 720A, USA) as reported by Sanni (1992).2.11.1 Sample preparation for cyanogenic glucoside content About 20 g of macerated root samples were homogenized in 50 ml of 0.1M HCl for 3 min. The homogenate was filtered by vacuum and the resulting filtrate adjusted to pH 6.8 with base. This solution was then centrifuged at 500 rpm for 3 min. About 5 g of processed cassava products were made in the same way as from the cassava tuber except that 150 ml of 0.1M sodium phosphate buffer pH 6.8 was used in the extraction. Where Y = Final weight of sample and tube and X = Initial weight of sample and tube.The method of Adegoke (2021) was used for the determination. Test tubes containing suspensions of 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% up to 20% (w/v) flour in 5 ml distilled was heated for 1 h in boiling water, followed by cooling for 2 h at 4 o C. The least gelation concentration was the one at which the sample does not fall down or slip when the test tube was inverted.Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 21.0 (SPSS Inc. NY) statistical software. Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the general linear model (multivariate).The functional properties of high quality cassava flour (HQCF) are presented in Tables 1 -3 The packed bulk density for the high quality cassava flour was high having values of 0.55-0.68 g ml -1 for the manually, mechanically and mechanical plus soaking in fruit water respectively for TMS 30572 variety and 0.6 -0.64 g ml -1 for the manually, mechanically and mechanical plus soaking in fruit water respectively for TME 419. Bulk density is the physical property of materials in dry mixes and it is an important parameter in determining product packaging requirements (Muhamad et al., 2017)  The solubility of HQCF was 6.0% -6.37% for all the treatments (peeling methods and varieties) and similar to the values reported by Adegoke (2021).The difference in solubility could be attributed to the difference in structure and genetic mapping of the starch granules in the HQCF samples.  The proximate composition of the various gari from manually peeled, mechanically peeled and mechanical plus chemical peeling are presented in Tables 4, 5, and 6. The moisture contents ranged from 6.30% -7.00%. The gari from manual peeling had moisture content values 6.30% -6.80% for TMS 30572 and TME 419 respectively. The gari from the combination of mechanical and chemical peeling by soaking the cassava before peeling in cassava fruit water had the moisture content values of 6.51% -7.00%. The gari from the mechanical peeling of the cassava before processing the roots into gari had moisture content of 6.00 -6.86 for the two varieties of cassava used (TME 419 and TMS 30572). The highest level of moisture content was recorded in the gari from the combination of mechanical and chemical peeling by soaking the cassava before peeling in cassava fruit water while the lowest was observed in gari from the mechanical peeling of cassava. There was no significant difference (p<0.05) among the gari samples and an increase in the level of moisture content was not noticed the gari samples.This variation can be attributed to the difference in the production methods. The low moisture content recorded gari could be attributed to the effective peeling process which removed the sub cutaneous layer of the peels and less fibrous nature of the peeled roots which would make moisture removal during roasting more easier hence, shorter roasting time requirement to obtain the same level of dryness.Moisture content of 10% is recommended for storage of gari by Standard Organization of Nigeria (Sanni et al., 2005). All the gari samples processed have good moisture contents and meets the NIS standard and shows that the gari will be very crispy and would store longer.Gari produced from the three methods had good proximate compositions; the various gari products had protein, fat, carbohydrate and ash contents that compared favourably well with gari from that of manually peeled cassava. The study has also shown that through modifications of traditional method, the physical and technological properties of gari, such as swelling index, bulk density and water absorption capacity, could be well improved.The crude fibre contents of the gari samples ranged from 2.21% to 2.58% for all the processing methods and the two varieties. The gari from the mechanical peeling of the cassava before processing the roots into gari had crude fibre values of 2.40% -2.58% for the two varieties of cassava used (TME 419 and TMS 30572). The gari from mechanical peeling method had the highest crude fibre content while that of manual peeling had the lowest value.The samples, however, did not differ significantly (p>0.05). Though the expected increase in the level of crude fibre contents of the gari samples are close to those recorded by Kure et al. (2012). The deviation from the expected trend might be as a result of the difference in the production method. Crude fibre through its water absorption capacity has been foundto aid bowel movement and aid digestion (Abu et al. 2006) and therefore significant in diet. The protein contents of the gari samples differed significantly (p<0.05) and ranged from 1.32% to 1.59%. However, Ojo and Akande (2013) and Kure et al. (2012) reported protein contents of 1.27%-2.38% and 2.56%-3.07%, respectively for gari samples in their research work. These are fairly similar to the values obtained in this study. The crude fat contents of the various gari samples ranged from 0.30 to 0.42%, and differed significantly among the samples (p<0.05).Gari from mechanical peeling method only had the crude fat content 0.40% -0.52% for the two varieties of TME 419 and TMS 30572 respectively and had the highest fat contents respectively. These values were lower compared with the 1.08% -2.11% reported by (Ojo and Akande, 2013). The variation in the level of fat content could be attributed to the effect of the different production methods on the gari samples.The ash content of the gari samples ranged from 0.71% to 0.82% and differed significantly (p<0.05).The gari from TME 419 had the total ash content values of 0.71% to 0.79% across the different processing methods while the gari from TMS 30572 had total ash content values of 0.76% to 0.82%. The manually peeled cassava produced gari with ash content values of 0.79% to 0.82% being the highest across the two varieties while the mechanically peeled roots produced gari with lowest ash content values of 0.73% to 0.76% across the two varieties of TME 419 and TMS 30572. These values fall within the range of values (0.12%-0.48%) and (1.40%-1.82%) reported by Ojo and Akande (2013), Ajala et al. (2008) and Kure et al. (2008) respectively. Ash content is a representation of mineral content in food.Therefore, the gari will be a good source of minerals which are essential in many biochemical reactions of the body. There was no significant (p>0.05) difference among the gari samples in terms of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) content. Gari from the combined effect of mechanical and chemical peeling had the highest HCN content while that of manual peeling had the lowest.. The highest level of HCN obtained for gari from the combined effect of mechanical and chemical peeling could be attributed to the high content in the raw cassava root due to soaking in the cassava fruit water. Sweet cultivars of cassava can produce as little as 20 mg of HCN per kg of fresh roots, while bitter ones may produce more than 50 times as much (Ihekeoronye and Ngoddy, 1985). The value obtained would be far less than what was in the raw cassava root as a result of the detoxification brought about by fermentation (Odunfa, 1985), tissue disintegration, dewatering, roasting, etc., in the course of production.All the gari samples are within the HCN specification standard for gari samples of NIS standard of 10 mg kg -1 . The physical and technological properties of gari samples are shown in Tables 4, 5 and 6. The swelling index of the samples ranged from 827.00% to 864.38%, with gari from the mechanical peeling had the highest swelling power while that of manual peeling had the lowest. Tables 4.5 and 6t show the swelling power of the various gari samples. The highest level of swelling power obtained for gari from the combined effect of mechanical and chemical peeling could be attributed to the high content in the raw cassava root due to soaking in the cassava fruit water. These values agreed with those (301%-430%)reported by Ojo and Akande (2013) and Karim et al. (2016). The high values can be attributed to the dryness of the gari samples as indicated by the low moisture content (6.30% -6.80%). Swelling index indicates the ability of the gari to swell and this is influenced by the quantity and starch components (amylose and amylopectin) present in the gari.Swelling index has been reported and shown to give a greater volume and more feeling of satiety per unit weight of gari to a consumer and a swelling index of at least 3.0 (300%) was recommended to be preferred by consumers (Almazan, 1992;Karim et al., 2016;Akingbala, 2005).      The following conclusions were reached:The machine efficiency and machine capacity decrease accordingly from broiler, to layer and to cockerel.The poultry bird types had no significant effect at p≥0.05 on machine efficiency while had significant effect p < 0.05 on the machine capacity.Machine plucking time was highest in cockerel, followed by broiler and layer.The machine was easy to use and less time consuming.The machine was able to de-feather two smaller birds but performs better with one bird at a time.The de-feathered birds appeared undamaged thereby preserving its market value in terms of skin quality.","tokenCount":"4013"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a3721419eb21ca7253b1f0c7db57e9b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1abd326-266f-4cb9-8cd1-a022324cb83a/retrieve","id":"249743141"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"783ce5fa-8dee-4e72-bc27-2cbd9a37d3f4","pagecount":"4","content":"Since 2014, the Alliance has organized and facilitated three regional strategy development and review workshops (in 2014, 2017, and 2023) where member country National Coordinators identified and prioritized regional objectives and targets for joint research and capacity development [1]. These efforts resulted in three regional strategy documents (2014,2017,2023) that specify how APFORGEN activities, objectives, and targets explicitly link to and contribute to achieving the global conservation goals of the Global Plan of Action on Forest Genetic Resources and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in the Asia-Pacific Region.In 2017, the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission, FAO's highest forest decision-making body in the region, endorsed APFORGEN's regional research and capacity development strategies [2,3,4,5]. Since then, Chairpersons of APFORGEN, elected from among its member countries' National Coordinators, attend the biennial Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission meetings to update the Commission members on the network's activities and achievements [6]. The most recent Regional Strategy (2018-2022): Implementing the Global Plan of Action on Forest Genetic Resources in Asia and the Pacific [2] helped the network attract funding to implement its four strategic objectives. This included completing spatially explicit threat and conservation assessments for 63 socio-economically important species and strengthening capacities in three countries for native species' restoration [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. The Regional Training Centre on Forest Genetic Resources, established in 2016 and coordinated by the Chinese Academy of Forestry, has trained 218 professionals from 17 countries through its workshops [11]. APFORGEN has significantly bolstered collaborative efforts in forest genetic resources management between countries in the Asia-Pacific region, evidenced by joint multi-country research publications [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] and exchange visits.  Stay within planetary and regional environmental boundaries: consumptive water uses in food production of less than 2500 sq. km. per year (with a focus on the most stressed basins), zero net deforestation, nitrogen application of 90 Tg per year (with a redistribution towards low-input farming systems) and increased use efficiency, and phosphorous application of 10 Tg per year. Maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants, farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed genebanks at the national, regional, and international levels.","tokenCount":"343"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"306ceb6e59263d31c8f951abb12ce7b7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7bf771ff-6e0e-4023-a222-c9a66a43bc74/retrieve","id":"-156067890"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4b8ac6e5-2a54-45f2-ae74-d12f13c3fdf3","pagecount":"100","content":"The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). CTA operates under the framework of the Cotonou Agreement and is funded by the EU.For more information on CTA, visit www.cta.int Written by Ken Lohento and Motunrayo Sotannde Designed by Hero, South Africa Layout by Flame Design, South Africa DISCLAIMER This work has been made possible with the financial assistance of the European Union. However, the contents remain the sole responsibility of its author(s) and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of CTA, its co-publisher or the European Union, nor of any country or member State. The user should make his/her own evaluation as to the appropriateness of any statement, argument, experimental technique or method described in the work.ix Executive summaryThis interpretative phenomenological research focuses on youth-led companies offering digital services to the agrofood sector in West Africa. Youth is considered as per the African Union definition: individuals aged between 15 and 35 years old. Our research questions were to understand the business models adopted by these start-ups; how their business models and business model innovation lead to business success; other key drivers that can support the achievement of success. With this study, we aim to contribute to the limited existing body of knowledge on this nascent but growing business field in West Africa.Twelve start-ups (anonymised in the report) from seven countries were selected following a non-probability, purposive sampling technique, from finalists and winners of international competitions. We interacted with them via semistructured interviews. The qualitative data collected were transcribed, categorised and analysed. The start-ups offer services to agro-food customers and the value chain, using tools including mobile phones, drones, e-commerce platforms. They deploy different business models, serving business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customers (B2C) clients. Due to their nascent professional maturity, many of them face challenges (more than seasoned entrepreneurs) to achieve business success, in terms of effective services and sustainable profitability. Key findings include the observations that success depends intensely on offering diversified and bundled services, integrating digital and non-digital agricultural services. Revenues are effectively derived from businesses and supporting organisations rather than from individual farmers. The entrepreneurs should therefore target other value chain actors instead of focusing on the farmer only. Success drivers and constraints relate to funding, key partnerships, adequate team and team management, business management skills, business modelling, the policy and business environments and the social adoption of information and communication technology (ICT).We conclude by proposing recommendations such as promoting role models; facilitating access to funding, developing effective digital agribusiness management skills (within start-up teams, in university curricula and in incubators/accelerators); promoting an enabling business environment (including adopting tax holidays for startups); developing effective business models, leveraging data-driven services; improving national digital infrastructures and agricultural digitalisation. Regional collaboration is an important aspect in these strategies.West Africa is one of the five regions of Africa, integrating 16 countries (such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo) out of 54 on the continent. Its predominantly youthful population (44% below 15 years old) will reach 388 million in 2020 (AfDB and FAO, 2015). Agriculture is a key social-economic sector of the region, contributing on average 35% to its gross domestic product (GDP) (AfDB and FAO, 2015) and conditioning the livelihoods of about 65% of the labour force, particularly in rural areas (ECOWAS, 2017). It includes subsectors such as livestock, fisheries, crop production and forestry. Its value chain involves activities pertaining to the production of agro-food products, their processing, marketing, trade and consumption. West Africa is the main regional agricultural power of Africa: it contributes to 30% of the continental agricultural GDP (ECOWAS, 2015).The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) posits that agriculture is the first sector that will readily provide job opportunities to millions of African youth facing employment issues (OECD Development Centre, 2018). Agribusiness is considered as a strong avenue that fosters growth and wealth creation in Africa in general (Yumkella et al., 2011).It is acknowledged that one of the factors contributing to the modernisation and a better performance of the agrofood industry is the adoption of digital information technologies (World Bank, 2017; Walter et al., 2017). Digital technologies currently in use in the agro-food sector include primarily the mobile phone, digital radios, satellites, drones (CTA(c), 2016) and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. They have now penetrated all segments of the agricultural value chains in West Africa, from pre-production to commercialisation and consumption.Motivated by the promises of digital tools for the modernisation of the agro-food sector, despite their limitations (World Bank, 2017) and by the business opportunities that their use could generate (Baumüller, 2015), many young software developers and entrepreneurs have entered into it (CTA(a), 2016). However, most of them are facing serious challenges to grow their businesses and offer sustainable value to the agricultural sector (Kieti and Crandall, 2013;Baumüller, 2016; CTA(a), 2016). The entrepreneurs seem to be confronted not only to difficulties relating to the business environment in which their companies operate, but also to business model challenges.In general terms, a business model is an organisation's proposal on how to create values and achieve profit (Magretta, 2002;Afuah, 2003). The concept according to Fengyang and Ates (2017) was initially described in 1957 by Bellman et al. (1957) as a \"blueprint of business game\" based on a mathematical simulation method for business operations.Business models were initially restricted to the ICT sector where they were used as a means to map out business processes and offer new services (Doleski, 2015). An integrated business model covers and addresses many aspects of the business including different phases of production, socio-cultural, legal, technological and ecological issues needed for the consideration of a successful business venture.In the report, we use the term start-up as defined by Eric Ries (2011): \"A start-up is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty\". We recognise that this definition is not exclusive to digital companies but has been used mostly referring to them. In addition, though there is no age feature in the definition, the term is used mostly to refer to companies that are young with an ambition to achieve high growth.The purpose of our research project is to study key success drivers and the business models of young digital start-ups servicing the agro-food sector in West Africa. We would like to better understand how digital technology start-ups led by young entrepreneurs can offer more effective services. Considering the strategic importance of agriculture in this region, we would like to contribute to devising strategies relating to how it can better benefit from digital business services, for a higher performance and for increased food security and growth.Our focus on young entrepreneurs is motivated by our wish to contribute to strategies for job creation for youth, a critical issue in African countries (African Development Bank, 2016). We have selected West Africa due the fact that little university research has been carried out so far on digital agribusiness in that region, compared to East Africa for example. We will concentrate on start-ups led by entrepreneurs aged between 18 and 35 years old, which is the age range of youth as defined by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the main West African political bodies and the African Union, the main African governmental body (African Union, 2006).We have identified three main research questions:• What are the business models adopted by young digital start-ups servicing the agro-food sector in West Africa?• How do the business models and business model innovation lead to success for digital agricultural start-ups?• What are other key drivers that can support the achievement of success by these young digital start-ups?After this introductory and methodological chapter, Chapter 2 will present insights from the literature on issues to be investigated by the research, particularly business models, business success and issues relating to youth entrepreneurship in agriculture in West Africa. Chapter 3 will decipher the business models of the companies selected using an adapted version of the Business Model Canvas; analyses of the relationships between these business models and success achievement will follow. Chapter 4 will concentrate on understanding the motivation, the success drivers of the entrepreneurs as well as constraints they face to achieve success. We will conclude with Chapter 5 by summarising findings and providing recommendations to relevant stakeholders. References will close the report.For the purpose of this study, we have decided to use the purposive sampling technique. Founders of twelve young West African digital agro-food start-ups have been interviewed. They have been selected from best young entrepreneurs identified by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) through activities it has been implementing for more than six years. These activities were public technology competitions (called Pitch AgriHack) and a call for participation (Plug and Play) open to all young businesses offering digital technology agricultural services in the regions covered. These activities involved about 500 young businesses. The twelve participants interviewed are winners (5) or finalists (4) of the Pitch AgriHack competitions; one was a winner of another competition organised by CTA and the African Development Bank; another one was selected as participant in CTA's Plug and Play activities and also won other international awards; and the last start-up won an international competition organised by the multinational Rolex and was involved in CTA's activities as well.Twelve start-ups from seven West African countries were selected. Those interviewed are the main founders and CEOs of their companies and are aged between 23 and 36 years old (two founders informed later that they are 36 years old, just beyond the 35 years limit we set initially). Table 1 shows the company name (all names have been anonymised in line with research regulations of the Strathclyde University), age of the founder, country of operation, year the business was started, current number of staff and the type of business entity. All these entrepreneurs have started their businesses right from the beginning with the use of personal funds or grant money from local or international organisations and prize money awarded. Six start-ups (Sera, AcornTech, Agromarket, etc.) have their businesses registered legally as a limited liability company. At least one of them, Titan.tg from Togo, is a single person limited company; one is a sole proprietorship (Botanica) and others are like a cooperative (AgComm, etc.), Most of the companies pay around 25% corporate income tax (such as Connecticut and Sera). In contrast, two (out of four) of the Ghanaian companies interviewed declared they enjoy corporate tax holiday offered by governments to young start-ups though they pay social taxes (for staff notably). The turnover in 2018 for these start-ups varies from US$ 14,000 to beyond US$ 500,000.All the anglophone young entrepreneurs interviewed are educated with varying university/college degrees such as computer science (Hectare, FoodRecon), agricultural science (Agromarket, Connecticut), agricultural extension and management (AcornTech), accounting and finance (MobileTrac). Also, the francophone entrepreneurs (main founders) have formal education and training varying from management, information and communication (Titan.tg), computer and application design engineering (AgComm), communication and business management (Botanica) and agronomy (Franco Sarl).Two non-youth stakeholders were interviewed to understand their perspectives on the research issues.The two experts we selected are D.A., who launched early 2000 one of the first companies that has offered digital agriculture solutions in Africa (the company is still operational), and M.B., manager of a centre that supports young entrepreneurs. Fifteen invitations were sent; twelve start-ups were available in the timeframe of the research. The list of interview questions was prepared to address our research questions and to fulfil the purpose of carrying out this research.Mostly, the questions were generated building on findings of the literature review, also addressing aspects that cannot be answered by the existing literature and the available secondary data. Questions were split into three main categories:• Profile of the interviewee and background on the company• Business environment, success drivers and constraints.Each interview took around 90 minutes. The same questions were asked to all participants to enable comparison.Before and after the interviews, we were able to consult relevant secondary data obtained from CTA to gain additional understanding of the interviewees' business operations.A major limitation in interpretive analysis of semi-structured interviews is the precision in capturing responses (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008). This was overcome by using the Skype audio recorder with permission by the interviewee so as to minimise errors in the transcribed responses.We will first question the concepts of business success and success drivers (many authors refer to success factors, while talking about drivers); this will be followed by an exploration of what the business model concept embraces as well as its possible articulations. Thirdly, we will review the concept of entrepreneurship and some of its key forms relevant for this work: agripreneurship (agricultural entrepreneurship) and digital entrepreneurship in West Africa.From the point of view of economists and of managers, success for a business is defined exclusively, or primarily by financial indicators (Meskendahl, 2010). The most common financial indicators referred to are growth, profit and turnover (Maltz et al., 2003;Walker and Brown, 2004), while others cited include market share, market capitalisation, the number of employees and efficiency. Financial measures appear to be \"hard\" and consist of objective figures (Walker and Brown, 2004). Shenhar and his colleagues postulated that the prominent consideration of financial measures as success indicators was probably understandable during \"the industrial age during which single-products were generally produced…with high variable costs…[but this] does not fit well with today's dynamic markets, multiproduct firms, and high fixed cost environments\" (Shenhar et al., 2001).Financial indicators are generally short term based, produced often on a quarterly basis, mainly to serve the interest of short term investors. When considering technology businesses, Dvir and Shenhar argue that for technologybased businesses, appraising success by considering financial short term indicators such as profit is usually irrelevant, as for many of these types of companies, success is achieved in the long term (Dvir and Shenhar, 1992). A good example is the online retailer Amazon. In an article with a very expressing title (\"The Amazon era: no profit, no problem\") Markhan reminded us that after 20 years of existence and despite having a market capitalisation close to US$ 500 million, Amazon reported profits only for a couple of quarters up to November 2017 (Markhan, 2017).Therefore, profitability for technology companies is not necessarily a good success measure in the short term.The technology industry grows very quickly and experiences change very often. Constant investment is therefore needed (Dvir and Shenhar, 1992).The pre-eminence given to financial measures, especially to profitability, seems to stem from the assertion posited traditionally that the objective of business is profit making (Drucker, 2008). However, Drucker affirmed that claiming this is irrelevant and wrong. For him, the main objective of business is to create customers, and profit is only a \"requirement\" needed to support the business costs and keep it operational. He proposed that business objectives have to be set in key areas including financial and non-financial indicators such as human resources and social responsibility (Drucker, 2008). Shenhar and his colleagues concurred that non-financial indicators also define success (Shenhar et al., 2001). Non-financial measures may include job satisfaction, personal satisfaction, social impact, employee happiness, customer satisfaction (Maltz et al., 2003;Walker and Brown, 2004), caring about the environment and social responsibility (Drucker, 2008).  A conclusion from these findings is that there are many ways in which business success is defined. Walker and Brown posit that owners of lifestyle businesses consider successful business performance from non-financial perspectives (Walker and Brown, 2004), contrarily to growth-minded businesses. For the first ones, high businesses growth is not the main motive (Morrison, 2006). Several authors have developed multi-dimensional approaches of business success such as the Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan and Norton, 1996) and the Dynamic Multi-dimensional Performance Model (Maltz et al., 2003) which includes twelve potential baseline measures as illustrated by the graph below.  Shonesy and Gulbro specified that there is no generally accepted list of parameters that can help distinguish a successful from a failed business (Shonesy and Gulbro, 1998). In addition, success parameters differ per type of business (small or large, lifestyle or growth-minded, etc.).A synthetic view of success for small businesses is offered by Javed Jasra and his colleagues who studied small businesses in Pakistan (Jasra et al., 2011). They suggested seven categories of \"determinants\" of success for small businesses displayed in the graph below: Business plan relates to business model in this context. Another researcher identified nine critical success factors for small businesses in Pacific countries (Attahir, 1995). These factors are: good management, satisfactory government support, oversee exposure, level of education and training, personal quality and traits, prior experience in business, access to finance and initial level of investment, political affiliation, marketing factors.These two approaches have much relevance to the West African businesses targeted. Indeed, the businesses are small, created by young entrepreneurs and the majority of them have less than five years of longevity and are operating in the least developed countries. Some of the indicators these authors highlighted (government support, entrepreneurship skills, good management, political influences) have been mentioned in many youth entrepreneurship publications targeting developing countries (CTA(a), 2016; Kieti and Crandall, 2013;Kew et al., 2015).For the research, regarding financial indicators, we will be more concerned with the revenue generation and profitability. The companies targeted are young, not listed and many rarely capture other financial indicators. Doleski (2015) defined a business model as one that \"provides a simplified representation of value creation processes, functions and interactions for creating customer value, securing competitive advantage and generating revenue\". Business models have been substantially associated with the emergence of online business (Magretta, 2002). Indeed, the growth in the use of the internet has enabled companies to develop various means of implementing different models that affect the way they respond to the changing business environment.The concept of the business model is divided by Afuah (2003) into four main categories (Figure 3). Operations within these categories contribute to overall competitive advantage. According to Slávik and Bednár, this model lacks in the area of connecting intrinsic elements of the business as well as the external environment into a systematic flow (Slávik and Bednár, 2014). Johnson and his colleagues describe a profitable company as one which provides value for customers while making profit and using a business model comprising of four related elements: value for customer, profit formula, key resources and key activities (Johnson et al., 2008). A prominent principle for achieving success is the right alignment of resources, e.g. brand image, technologies with company activities, e.g. staff training and production.The most widely tested and used framework of analysis of business models appears to be the Business Model Canvas (BMC) developed by Osterwalder and Pigneur (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010). The visual representation of all components, their interconnectivity (Figure 4) and its presentation in a 1-page format are some of its key features. The BMC is described as having nine distinctive constituents as shown in the figure below (Slávik and Bednár, 2014). Other advantages of this model are the ease of use and adaptability within different industries such as Apple, Deloitte, Ericsson and government services (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010). We use an adaptation of this model in our study. A value proposition produces a unique benefit to the customer and allows for customer loyalty. It may be represented in a variety of ways: qualitative or quantitative but with distinctive features and attributes that cannot be easily copied by competitors. A \"Unique Value Proposition is a single, clear compelling message that states why you are different and worth buying\" (Blanke, 2013). It may be characterised in the form of performance, customisation, brand, price, bespoke design, accessibility, risk reduction and convenience or usability (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010).Value proposition addresses the needs of a particular customer segment. This component in the BMC framework may address as well the need or problem faced by the client and for which a company develops a solution.A company's channels describe the ways and manners in which it conveys and interconnects its value proposition to its customer segments. Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) propose five different phases in which an effective channel can be fulfilled. A business can choose any means depicted in the diagram below to reach its customers or a mixture of both partner or owned channels.This block represents the relationships the business has with the different customer segments which could be computerised (automated services), personal, self-service, through local or online communities or a blend of one or more of these components (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010).Revenue streams depict the income received from serving each customer segment (revenue minus cost equals earnings). A business must figure out to an extent what value of services or product a customer segment is willing to pay for. Knowing this would determine the pricing strategy which could be used for each segment. Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) provide different ways to produce revenue streams:• Asset sale This element of the BMC describes vital assets needed for the business to work. Every business needs key resources to generate value, reach the desired customer segment and maintain customer relationship while creating revenue.These resources may vary as a result of the sort of business, e.g. monetary (cash and credit), intellectual (brands and patents), physical assets (building, manufacturing facilities and machines) and human resources.Like with the key resources, key activities identify the vital things a business needs to do for the business to work.These are the actionable things a business must satisfy to remain viable. They are business specific and vary from business to business.Key partnership involves the web of suppliers and partners that the business needs to be successful. Alliances between businesses are becoming a norm in this age and time because it enables the organisation to gain more economic ground, creates better risk management by reducing uncertainty within the business and facilitates the acquirement of resources.The cost structure describes the overall cost of running a business model. Every segment of the business model acquires a cost. While some businesses are entirely cost-driven (e.g. low-cost airlines, like Ryanair), most businesses' cost structures are found in between the two extremes of cost-driven and value-driven (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010). There are other features of cost structure that need to be considered in every business such as fixed costs, variable costs, economies of scale and economies of scope (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010).Some authors point out that the BMC has the disadvantage of not allowing a detailed account of the business strategy or methods of emerging into a new market (Howell et al., 2018). However, considering that it has been developed as a tool that can readily describe the main aspects of the business growth engine of companies, it can be understood that it cannot cover everything.The BMC has also been adapted by many professionals to better fit different types of businesses. Ash Maurya argued for example that this model is more relevant for more mature businesses that have already identified their business models than for young businesses that are still testing their business model hypotheses (Maurya, 2012 (a)).He proposed another framework called the Lean Canvas Model, which builds on the BMC and is composed of the following nine components: problem, customer segments, solution, value proposition, unfair advantage, key metrics, channels, costs, revenue streams. He highlighted that the \"problem\" component is a key one for young (digital)businesses, as they need to clearly identify a specific problem for which they are developing a specific solution, in order to ensure \"problem/solution fit\" and eventually \"product/market fit\" and growth (Maurya, 2012 (b)).We will take into account Ash Maurya's arguments in the adaptation of the BMC that we will use later in this report.Business model innovation (BMI) has grown consistently within the past decade within management and practitioners. Current reviews of the terminology that was once known only as business models (BMs) has emphasised its importance in today's business world including such areas as strategy management and technology (Zott et al., 2011). Many of such few available reviews refer to BMI as a means of value delivery and \"capture mechanism\" within a firm (Foss and Saebi, 2017). It denotes a new terminology that offers an overall view of an organisation's innovation strategy thereby improving the performance of both pioneering and established firms.From the literature, there is a significant difference in BM and BMI as the latter has only become recognised in recent years and is less understood. The difference lies in the introduction of innovation within a business model which addresses issues such as factors that enable or limit its implementation and how the BM can be used to achieve a competitive advantage. BMI can be defined as \"designed, novel, nontrivial changes to the key elements of a firm's business model and/or the architecture linking these elements.\" (Foss and Saebi, 2017). Thus, the ability of an organisation to move quickly into innovative business models contributes to the overall success and sustainability of the firm.BMIs are alleged to bring about higher business revenues compared with BMs (Zott et al., 2011). BMIs can be categorised into four different patterns as shown in Figure 5.There It has become necessary for firms not to act autonomously but cooperatively with two or more firms and stakeholders.BM and BMI are being used as a planning tool that considers and analyses these concerted ventures in promoting value and business success (Bocken et al., 2014).The Oxford English dictionary defines an entrepreneur as a ''person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit'' (Jeffrey and Dyson, 2013). A major element in this definition is the ability to take risk associated with a degree of discernment. One could argue that whilst much of the literature in recent times in countries in the north (e.g., Europe, USA) focuses on elite business entrepreneurs, many people in West Africa engage in different categories of business enterprises; they take on risks with the view of providing a reasonable income to cater first of all for their immediate families and communities (Jeffrey and Dyson, 2013).Youth entrepreneurship in West Africa is usually a response to the difficult economic climate in the country and the inability to find skilled labour after completion of a formal degree in a higher institution (Chigunta, 2017). Young people in West Africa have been caught up in daunting unemployment and underemployment issues. While the total of unemployed and people in vulnerable jobs in West Africa is huge, youth aged between 15 and 24 years old have an employment rate 20% lower than adults' employment rate (AfDB, 2018).Youth are also caught up in the mismatch between job ambitions and reality, and therefore many have escaped into various forms of vulnerable micro-enterprises to survive in an unbalanced economy (World Bank, 2017).Entrepreneurship in West Africa is carried out in various business areas (Kew et al., 2015). A notable publication on women entrepreneurship in the region is a report by Langevang and Gough (2012) which highlights the hairdressing and dressmaking sectors in Ghana dominated by young entrepreneurs. Another form of entrepreneurship in Ghana that has gained support internationally (World Bank, USAID) is the Health Keepers. This form of venture encourages the youth to generate income by operating a door-to-door micro-enterprise and gaining some sort of entrepreneurial skills (Dolan and Rajak, 2016). Social relationships play a vital role in the understanding of new venture creation in Ghana and entrepreneurship is developed often in a family business perspective (Kuada, 2009).Entrepreneurship is also very vivid in Nigeria, the first economy of Africa in terms of GDP (World Bank, 2018), and one of West Africa's greatest countries in terms of huge potential for growth (Dolan and Rajak, 2016).Unemployment and under-employment are pervasive, with more than 64 million of youth unemployed and 1.6 million under-employed (Awogbenle and Iwuamadi, 2010). The World Bank suggests that young people should make a shift from the tightly and compactly packed white-collar work to creating a means of venturing into the huge capitalist economy through the development of micro-enterprises. (World Bank, 2007). On their side, Awogbenle and Iwuamadi have observed the limitations hindering Nigerian youth employment and proposed in their study a wake-up call to orientate people particularly in the need to develop a self-employment mentality and assume means of gaining entrepreneurial training. Similarly, the government of Nigeria has called for the engagement of entrepreneurs within the agricultural sector as a way of revitalising the economy which experienced negative growth rates recently. There is a huge opportunity for agricultural development in the country, being that 80% of the land is suitable for growing crops (Anon, 2018). Currently however, the main stigma is that agriculture is viewed by youth (and many parents) as being suitable only for illiterates or locals living within rural villages. Many believe that the integration of ICTs will make agriculture more appealing to young people (AGRA, 2015).Agripreneurship is a terminology which combines agriculture and entrepreneurship. An agri-entrepreneur (agripreneur) can be defined according to Ndedi and Feussi (2017) as a person who has discovered an underserved or unserved market within the agricultural sector and pursues it despite the risks involved. The paper proposes that effective traits of an agri-entrepreneur include market orientation, creativity and leadership skills. The term has been adopted by international institutions and governments in Africa, such as the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), one of its most active promoters, particularly through the IITA agripreneurship programme.The concept of agripreneurship is perceived as dynamic and youthful (Ndedi and Feussi, 2017). People engaged in agripreneurship are expected to be more \"entrepreneurial\" (than the regular farmer), very dynamic and to be fuelled by a desire to offer innovative business services and grow their offerings. We will often use the concept \"digital agripreneurs\" in this study to refer to digital entrepreneurs serving the agricultural sector.Agricultural entrepreneurs are faced with similar challenges as entrepreneurs in other sectors of the economy.They need to deal with areas of the business such as human resources, financial management and finding/using current and detailed information where necessary. Therefore, management skills required for a successful agripreneur must include risk management and be able to recognise new opportunities (McElwee, 2006).The increased democratisation of the internet, the mobile phone and social media (Solis, 2011), as well as developments in data processing techniques (such as big data or artificial intelligence) and the evolutions in  This research will in majority involve digital technology entrepreneurs (specialists of digital technology) servicing the agro-food sector but also agricultural entrepreneurs that are using digital technologies innovatively to service the sector. The latter are not technology specialists.Digital entrepreneurship in agriculture in Africa emerged in the early 2000s. In Senegal, for example, the company Manobi Senegal launched in September 2001 SMS-based market information services, targeting fishermen, in collaboration with the national telecom operator Sonatel (BBC, 2002). The services aimed at providing fishermen with current market information prices and trends before they sell their produce to the right buyers. Fishermen were not requested to pay for the services, but Manobi was paid commissions from Sonatel based on the communication traffic generated by the use of the service (Sylla, 2008). With the reduction of internet and mobile communication costs over the years coupled with the higher penetration of digital technologies in the agriculture sector, consumption of digital agricultural services is much more common (CTA, 2014). Therefore, entrepreneurial activities in this field have spurred, driven by young entrepreneurs encouraged by various institutions (Baumüller and Lohento, 2016).However, many of these youth-led technology start-ups are facing serious challenges to sustain their businesses and offer sustainable value to the agricultural sector. Referring to the case of East Africa, Kieti and Crandall affirmed that \"these start-ups face issues of marketing their products to farmers, finding funding to scale their products, and ensuring they are properly meeting the needs of their end users\" (Kieti and Crandall, 2013). The start-ups are particularly facing challenges relating to how to design effective business models, which will ensure repeat customer purchase, higher revenue generation, profitability and scalability (Elliott, 2015). A fundamental issue which is a constraint the entrepreneurs have to take into account, is that farmers in most cases in Africa are poor, digitally nearly illiterate (though they can use the mobile phone), and usually unwilling to pay for information services. The effectiveness at a larger scale (past the pilot experience) of digital information services targeting agriculture is also in many cases questionable (Baumüller, 2015) and may prevent sustainable business service offerings.In many cases, the usefulness of digital services for the farmer-customer depends on structural intrinsic challenges that the agricultural sector is facing that limit severely the effectiveness of applying digital technologies (Baumüller, 2015). Another fundamental issue undermining the development of start-up services is the weak management capacities of young entrepreneurs themselves (CTA, 2017; Roja and Nastase, 2014).In the past decade, youth entrepreneurship has been particularly drawn to lime light in the race for employment creation and economic growth in developing countries (AGRA, 2015; Kew et al., 2015). The increasing population of the youth has been seen as a huge reservoir of untapped potential and as a risk for social unrest in face of harsh economic conditions. A large variety of initiatives (such as programmes dubbed \"bottom of pyramid\" initiatives (Dolan and Rajak, 2016) are put in place by government parastatals, private bodies and international NGOs, at national and international levels to address youth development (AGRA, 2015; ITU, 2014; OECD, 1998).Many of these initiatives aim at preparing the youth to be aspiring business entrepreneurs in the fight against poverty and view themselves as a means of increasing the economic power within the society.Many youth innovations are emerging such as those produced by Safi Sarvi which deals with the production of organic fertiliser in Kenya and the innovative UMT (malaria testing device) developed by some Nigerians (Ekekwe, 2016). Other examples of such cases are noted in the report by Chimub and Nayamanhindi (Chimub and Nayamanhindi, 2012) which highlights mobile phone micro-ventures of youth in Zimbabwe and another report focusing on youths in Nairobi (Kenya) who have derived a means of livelihood from recycling waste (Thieme, 2010). Some studies have looked at the promotion of youth entrepreneurship in universities materialised by the development of \"student spin-off companies\" (Bezerra et al., 2017).The advent of digital technology has supported the growth of youth entrepreneurship possibilities (ITU, 2014).The use of internet, the cloud, social media and freely available software has increased the innovation process and the emergence of innovations by young entrepreneurs within the society (CTA(a), 2016).Amongst other difficulties in entrepreneurship, the young entrepreneurs possess further challenges due to their age. Business model analysisFor the analysis of the business models of the companies targeted, we will use an adaptation of the Business Model Canvas. We have included the \"problem\" component building on the observation by Ash Maurya that this element is very important for describing young businesses (Maurya, 2012 (b)), as we specified in the literature review section.The \"value proposition\" component has been kept, referring expressly to the unique value that infers competitive advantage to companies as per the definition of Blanke (Blanke, 2013). The \"customer relationships\" component will be addressed through the \"channels\" component, in line with the observation by Maurya that the path to customers (channels) gives insights on relationships a company establishes with them (Maurya, 2012 (b)). The components adapted are marked in yellow in Figure 7. We have not adopted the full Lean Canvas Model proposed by Maurya as an alternative canvas, as we believe that the \"key partnerships\" and \"key resources\" (that he removed mainly because he wanted to keep a 9-component model of the BMC) are very important for the agriculture technology start-ups we are studying.Value propositionCustomer relationshipsNote: A couple of companies are not primarily specialised in digital services. We will not put emphasis on agricultural services they offer that do not depend on digital technologies.The companies interviewed have designed their digital services to address several types of agricultural challenges (see Table 3). These problems are common, not only to the agricultural sector in West Africa, but also to Sub-Saharan countries (AGRA, 2018).The first three challenges addressed are the weak agricultural productivity, the lack of advisory services and the lack of access to profitable markets for farmers. These appear to be some of the most fundamental difficulties facing agriculture in West Africa (AfDB and FAO, 2015). Problems relating to weak productivity include the very limited access to mechanised services such as tractors, which MobileTrac from Ghana addresses using a digital platform.Five companies supply solutions to the issues of limited access to quality agro-food products. Examples include Botanica, from Benin, which has as vision to promote agro-ecological products to contribute to fighting climate change adverse impacts and to promoting nutrition security:Women farmers are confronted with daunting problems in their agricultural practices and AgComm from Senegal has decided to concentrate their business on women, as shared by the founder:Apart from supporting women producers, AgComm gives herself the vision to promote local food consumption; indeed reducing food imports, which cost Africa about 35 billion dollars annually, has been identified as a crucial continental concern (African Development Bank, 2016).We were three women who came together to develop the platform, initially for a competition. After the competition, we decided to refocus on the crucial challenges faced by women producers, especially women agro-food processors.A large share of rural women is involved in small-scale farming and in agricultural trade, but they are facing dramatic problems and weak revenues.\" 27Business model analysis Four companies, including Connecticut and Titan.tg (promoter of an e-commerce platform, among others), have identified the limited use of ICT for customer data and supply chain management as an entrepreneurial opportunity.Sera from Ghana addresses the weak access to animal vaccines for livestock farmers; this issue leads to animal diseases and deaths depriving farmers from important revenues. Its founder revealed:Reducing animal and post-harvest losses is thus an important concern for some of the companies. Apart from Sera that fights animal losses, FoodRecon in Nigeria facilitates the sale of food \"approaching end of shelf-life\" to charities and households with the objective to fight hunger, malnutrition and food losses.The last type of problem addressed is the weak access to inputs (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, agrochemicals, animal inputs, etc.). We have considered only start-ups that manage access to inputs with the support of digital tools.We realised that the animal mortality rate was really high in communities. A lot of these communities are far from towns, and getting animal health care means that they have to constantly look for the vet or the delivery provider who would be available; but most often when they call either the person lives at far distance or the person is not available.\"Sera founderAll start-ups studied offer (or are planning to offer in the near future) non-digital agricultural services, either as their original revenue stream or as an additional revenue stream. The non-digital services include farm management, agricultural production, inputs delivery, extension services, catering services and agricultural training, all offered without any, or any substantial ICT support.Apart from these non-digital services, various types of services are supplied by the young companies using digital platforms:• Market linkage services (By nine companies). We refer here only to outputs market (post-production). The services offered are generally of three types. First, the use of e-commerce platforms to sell agro-food products to households and individual customers. It is an activity of AgComm in Senegal; Agromarket in Ghana; Titan.tg in Togo; Botanica in Benin;FoodRecon in Nigeria. The second type of market linkage services involves connecting agro-food producers and agro-food buyers, using digital trade platforms in this process. Titan.tg (via their activity devoted to e-commerce) supplies those services; sometimes, they aggregate commodities purchased from farmers to supply buyers. The third type of services is the collection and dissemination of market prices for specific commodities. For example, Connecticut in Ghana collects and shares agricultural commodity prices to their subscribers through their mobile phone messaging services.Agricultural advisory services normally involve non-market and market-related services provided to farmers to help them successfully engage in agricultural production and achieve higher productivity. For the purpose of this research, we have not included market services in the advisory services category. Advisory services offered by start-ups include the provision of agronomic tips, weather information, etc. While these services may be delivered without the involvement of digital tools, three start-ups interviewed supply them through digital tools.Connecticut in Ghana provides weather information and agronomic tips to registered farmers in local languages through mobile phone and a vocal server. AcornTech from Nigeria has developed a mobile application used among others by a Nigerian agricultural research institution to share information to farmers. Titan.tg from Togo also disseminates weather information through vocal server or mobile phone.• Production machinery services (Many of these services are also considered as inputs market services, however, we prefer to single them out in the framework of this analysis). Companies identified in this category provide for example tractor services for ploughing or drone services for phytosanitary diagnosis, land surveillance, land mapping and agricultural product spraying. Examples of start-ups in this category include MobileTrac that supports the management of access to tractors using particularly a mobile phone service and a digital monitoring platform. AcornTech developed a web platform (currently in stand-by) to manage access to agricultural machinery. With the increased social penetration of digital technologies, the development of the internet of things (IoT)and of artificial intelligence, data analytics have become a high-value practice that businesses leverage upon to acquire, manage and capture value from customers (Loshin and Reifer, 2013). Connecticut is capturing value from its customers' data, using them to provide other services to partners in this area. They have also developed a data management platform to assist various institutions to better manage customer data. Titan.tg has also developed such a data management platform. Sera, on their side, informed that various organisations are interested in their customers' data; the company might then offer data services in the future. A question that remains weakly addressed is how to ensure that farmers' data are protected and that farmers keep ownership of their data (Maru et al., 2018).Only two start-ups offer financial services powered by digital tools. Farmers in Connecticut's client base benefit from credit inputs and reimburse the costs after harvest. Botanica, which has an agro e-commerce platform, has launched an innovative payment tool which integrates a QR code.These include ICT training, website, blog or social media account development for farmer groups and other agricultural entities. Several start-ups offer these services as additional revenue streams (AgComm, AcornTech, Agromarket, etc.). In many cases, this was not planned and does not constitute the core service the company offers.A final observation: all start-ups investigated offer at least two types of services (on average four services), whileConnecticut is the company offering the largest panel of services by \"bundling\" them.Farmers (young farmers, women producers, small-scale and large-scale farmers) and institutions supporting farming (government institutions, international (rural) development institutions, NGOs, etc.) are the customers mostly serviced by the companies. Hectare targets young farmers and other youth interested in engaging in farming and collaborates with them as employees for its agricultural productions. Small-scale farmers, who made up 70% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa and produce 80% of the food consumed (AfDB and FAO, 2015; ECOWAS, 2015) are the primary target clients of the start-ups. However, individual farmers usually struggle to pay or cannot afford services offered.Franco Sarl even asserted that for now, they do not have farmers or farmer organisations in their customer segments.They work directly with institutions that support farmers and farmers benefit via these organisations.Agro-food businesses may be restaurants, supermarkets or grocery stores; they purchase agro-food products that the start-ups sell via their e-commerce platforms for example, or purchase ICT services they offer. For now, e-commerce platforms target rather high-end or middle-class citizens who can purchase goods using ICT tools (Facebook Pages, WhatsApp, etc.).Another category of customers is the \"individuals and households\" category. It comprises clients of e-commerce and digital marketplaces (put in place by AgComm, Titan.tg, Botanica, etc.). \"Individuals\" also represent busy professionals and other individual \"investors\" who buy shares of agricultural production budget from Hectare when a production campaign is launched. The \"other businesses\" category involves firms that sub-contract Franco Sarl when they need aerial mapping services while offering services to governments, or international institutions, or businesses and supply chain partners that need farmer data (insurance companies, banks, input dealers, etc.) from Titan.tg, Sera or Connecticut.From another point of view, it is notable that almost all the start-ups offer services both to B2B and B2C clients.We did a small market research that allowed us to eventually target NGOs and associations who can pay for our services; therefore, we have decided no more to target the small-scale producers as initially planned.\"CEO of Amber, Burkina FasoWe target high-end customers and expatriates.\" As per the BMC model (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010), value proposition can be gained with \"performance\", \"brand\", \"newness\", \"bundled services\", \"price\", \"risk reduction\", \"accessibility\", \"convenience\" or \"usability\".All companies claimed to have a competitive advantage with the increased \"performance\" that their digital services provide and with the \"newness\" of their digital services.The entrepreneurs, especially e-commerce platform operators, also asserted that \"accessibility\" is a value proposition as customers can acquire their products or services from their fingertips (mobile or desktop device) from wherever they are. Botanica stated that their payment system confers them a \"brand\" competitive advantage, and like Agromarket, they claimed to provide \"risk reduction\" with the sale of agro-ecological products. With their \"bundles services\" (weather, advisory and market information obtained with the sale of inputs) Connecticut gains considerable competitive advantage.Agromarket selected in addition \"price\" as value proposition and explained that because they bypass middlemen, they can sell at cheaper prices. AgComm also declared that they provide a \"brand\" value proposition by promoting local processed foods produced by rural women cooperatives.All start-ups deliver services through their offices, their physical and web sales force. Many use social media (especially Facebook, Instagram and increasingly WhatsApp), especially operators of e-commerce platforms (Agromarket, Titan.tg, AgComm, Botanica, etc.). Agromarket, Connecticut and AgComm are the three start-ups that use the most social media with their official business accounts. Most start-ups deliver services via mobile applications and messaging services.Not only do we provide 1000 acres farmland for production, but we have a fully serviced farm, with access to mechanisation, mentorship, access to market and the possibility to apply the right ICT tools to maximise production.\"The value we render is in the quality of service (…) Farmers can purchase high quality and affordable inputs delivered with free messages of weather forecast, financial literacy and information on how to better utilise their crops and fertilisers.\"The CEO of FoodRecon noted that mobile apps' downloads are very low generally, because of the cost of bandwidth and the weak smartphone coverage in West Africa. Therefore, they do not use their app that much.One company (Botanica) declared that they have their own stores. Six start-ups use consistently partners as delivery channels:• FoodRecon: customers collect the products directly at supermarkets and food producer stores• AgComm, Agromarket, Botanica: external logistics services are used when required for delivery• MobileTrac: they collaborate with tractor owners, who have tractor operators to carry out the harrowing, harvesting, ploughing, etc., as required.We use the mobile messaging technology USSD instead of a mobile app so that the rural farmer who has just a feature phone and not a smartphone can benefit from services without hindrance.\" CEO MobileTracResources can be categorised in four categories: intellectual, human, monetary resources and physical assets.The two key resources that all the companies have are human resources (developers, agricultural specialists and other staff) and physical resources (mostly office equipment and other tools such as drones for Franco Sarl).Those who are primarily agribusinesses and who engage in agricultural production (such as Hectare and Amber) are owners of farmlands or rent them. Most of the companies declared not to have monetary resources: four out of twelve are not profitable and those who have already broken even have limited profits. Some have recently benefited from important financial resources (such as Sera that raised US$ 300,000 in 2018 or AgComm that recently obtained a US$ 100,000 grant). However, they hardly claim they have monetary resources, especially if they are not yet profitable. The intellectual resources that most start-ups have are their digital platforms, which have been copyrighted in some cases. None of them has been able to secure patents because the expensiveness of the process.As per the BMC model (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010), cost structure may be characterised through the lenses of the importance of fixed or variable costs for the companies; it may also be characterised by whether the company is value-based or cost-driven.Generally, the companies interviewed have high variable costs and low fixed costs. Fixed costs are usually related to their offices and some permanent salaries. Due to their weak turnover and profitability (eight out of twelve make profits), they operate with very tight salary costs (with several temporary staff, or undeclared staff) and low office renting costs. Physical resources to procure or maintain are limited because of the nature of the digital business.All the start-ups interviewed are value-driven and less cost-driven. For example, the CEO of MobileTrac mentioned during the interview:Revenues are generated through the sale of assets (agro-food products, animal vaccine, crop inputs, etc.) for most of the start-ups (nine out of twelve). This is followed by usage fees (use of tractors, software, drones) and licensing or renting fees (Connecticut and Titan.tg have licensed their data management platforms). Subscription models are used by three start-ups only: Hectare rents land to young farmers who then pay subscription fees; AgComm has some subscribed buyers and Botanica has a subscription model via their innovative payment card; this was a choice by the company to ensure regular and foreseeable revenues. No start-up (even the e-commerce platform operators) uses online advertising as a revenue stream. Some tried but could not find advertisers willing to pay.We have almost no competitor in Ghana. No other mechanisation company uses ICT like us. Traditional service providers want to collaborate with us in order to earn more services and revenues. Therefore, we don't really compete on costs.\" Regularly, some of the e-commerce platforms launch special discounts or organise special events to increase customer purchases. In December 2018, Agromarket launched a two-week event around Black Friday, offering interesting discounts, while AgComm regularly offers special discounts during national holidays and social events.The median of the turnover of start-ups is around US$ 73,000, the average US$ 149,000, the minimum US$ 14,000 and the maximum is above US$ 500,000.Revenues are generated more from the institutions, cooperatives and businesses rather than from individual small-scale farmers.In order to implement their operations, the youth companies work with various key stakeholders. These include government institutions; farmer associations and cooperatives; telecom operators; agro-food businesses; national associations and international organisations supporting agricultural development (FAO, CTA, IFAD, AfDB, IITA etc.) and logistics firms. Development organisations collaborate with all start-ups providing them with grants, consultancy services, facilitating their access to market, or offering them other support. Agro-food businesses are those they work the most with, apart from development organisations. Some start-ups have successfully engaged in partnerships with governments. For example, Titan.tg is currently supplying services to the government and financial institutions in the framework of an agricultural financial project:However, most entrepreneurs reported challenges with those stakeholders, particularly governments and telecom operators, but also sometimes international organisations and farmer organisations. These challenges will be discussed in more detail in the \"constraints\" section of the next chapter. Many collaborate with institutions supporting (youth) innovations such as incubators and business development services. The latter provide them with capacity building for example, but this usually happens before or in the early stage of the business launch.90% of our revenue comes from the food companies, exporters, the big buyers, the businesses that are working with smallholder farmers.\"Our data management platform is used to identify and register farmers, which helps them access finance. Banks and insurance companies are those who pay for the services farmers benefit from.\" As illustrated above, the companies studied are deploying different types of business models depending on variables such as services, infrastructure used, customers targeted and revenue models. A snapshot of the ontology of the business models adopted is illustrated below. Items highlighted in bold have been more cited by respondents.Presenting the business model typology of the companies interviewed can provide a practical channel to identify and analyse them. However, we have not been able to identify in the literature a business model taxonomy for digital agribusinesses.Paul Timmers proposed a typology of business models of companies active on the internet. It includes the following categories: e-shop; e-procurement; e-auction; e-mall; third-party marketplace; virtual communities; value chain service provider; value-chain integrators; collaboration platforms; information brokerage; trust and other services (Timmers, 1998).As per this classification, the business model types of the start-ups involved in this research could correspond to:• Information brokerage (Titan.tg, Connecticut)• Value chain service provider (Franco Sarl, AgComm, Hectare, Sera, MobileTrac)• Value chain integrator (Connecticut, Titan.tg, AcornTech)• E-shop (Agromarket, Amber, AgComm, Botanica, FoodRecon).Some start-ups may be included in multiple categories.Key partnerships • Merchant (Agromarket, Amber, AgComm, Botanica, FoodRecon, Connecticut, Sera)• Subscription model (Botanica, Agromarket)• Infomediary model (Connecticut, Titan.tg)• Manufacturer (direct) model (Hectare, MobileTrac, Franco Sarl).Though some of these categories may be relevant to the digital agribusinesses studied, the models do not help fully in defining adequately the companies and offer too much duplication, especially the Rappa model.We propose another framework of analysis of the business models of the companies in Table 8, leveraging three key components of the BMC (activities/services, customer segments, revenue streams).• Mass market 1 represents a clientele composed of the general public interested in agro-food products (that they can procure goods for example via e-commerce platforms).• Mass market 2 represents a customer segment including actors of the agro-food sector (farmers, extension agents, agro-businesses and other professionals). Mass market 2 is smaller than Mass market 1.• As suggested by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010), companies addressing a \"Multi-sided market\" supply two or more interdependent customer segments. For example, Connecticut supplies both farmers and agro-food businesses with different services. or able, to pay for digital services proposed to them. Though in many surveys, they may announce their willingness to pay, this does not translate into reality once the service is launched. Almost all start-ups proposing digital services (especially advisory services) faced that issue at the launch of their services and many changed their approaches subsequently.The two CEOs were referring to advisory services they offer (agronomic tips or weather information for Titan.tg, and a mobile learning tool on best agricultural practices for Amber). These are the services that suffer the most from this situation. As farmers may have alternative sources for advisory information (Lohento, 2003) and as they also receive free advisory services from many public institutions such as NGOs or governments (AGRA, 2016), they seem not to perceive the financial value of these start-up services. When stakeholders, especially those at the bottom of the pyramid, do not perceive this value, they will not be willing to pay (Howell et al., 2018). In many cases, farmers do not understand the value of the services due to the digital illiteracy they face in Africa in general (Kabbiria et al., 2018); many refrain from using these services because they perceive that the use of digital tools is costly. Many services are also intended to be consumed via smartphones that extremely few farmers own (Baumüller, 2015).It seems that farmers are more willing to pay for inputs and outputs market linkage services as these may lead to direct sales for them.At the beginning we wanted the producers to pay (…) but after processing data from a preliminary survey, it was realised that associations and NGOs could be a better channel for our service.\"People (farmers) wanted to have these services but they were not willing to pay for it (...) We understood that individual payments by farmers does not work. What seems to work best is when other institutions bear the costs of these services.\"There are four types of organisations that generally pay for these services for farmers:• Governments that are supporting farmers as part of their national food security strategy, and also as they have the duty to protect vulnerable citizens which many farmers are• Well-structured farmer cooperatives that have resources such as cash crop farmer cooperatives• National or international agricultural development organisations supporting farmers and promoting food security• National or international agribusiness off-takers that source commodities from farmer members of their supply chains and with whom they engage in contract farming (AGRA, 2016; World Bank, 2017).Value capture can thus better be enabled when start-ups target the value chain and supporting institutions (Howell It is worth mentioning that some start-ups have, right from the start, understood the right customer segment they have to address to generate consistently revenues. Franco Sarl from Côte d'Ivoire with their drone services have not targeted individual farmers, but rather consulting firms engaged in rural or farming projects funded by government or donors, large cash crop producer organisations that can pay, and individual landlords interested in mapping services. It is also worth mentioning that some digital services such as e-commerce platforms do not target farmers but rather the middle to high-income consumers, nationals or expatriates, restaurants, shops (see services offered by Agromarket, FoodRecon, AgComm, Botanica and Hectare). In these cases, revenues are generated more easily, though profitability may be constrained by other issues.In several publications such as CTA(a) (2016) most youth-led companies introduced were offering only one service.For the fact that the companies studied are youth-led and because the business sector is new, there could have been an expectation that most of them would offer only one service. However, in our study, we have found out that just two businesses out of twelve are offering only one service (Agromarket (e-commerce platform) and Sera (delivery of animal vaccines)). All the others have at least two different offerings. This observation might be an illustration that there is a growing maturity of digital agribusinesses in the region.In fact, our sample is composed of companies that have achieved some success, as they have been finalists or winners of international competitions. Apart from developing their initial products, they have understood that they still have the capacity to develop other product(s) or have identified other customer needs that they have decided to serve. This observation is fully in line with suggestions by David-Benz and her colleagues when they studied market information systems in Africa, and recommended that there was a need to \"strengthen the impacts of the information by supplying complementary services to market stakeholders\" (David-Benz et al., 2012) -citation translated from French.Bundling services that farmers are willing to pay with others that they would not readily purchase seems to be a good strategy. It is the strategy adopted by Connecticut when they offer free advisory information via mobile phone and a voice server to farmers who register and purchase inputs from them. Thus, by integrating non-digital service(s) that farmers can easily purchase with digital offering(s) of which value they may not be prepared to purchase, a company can capture value more easily from farmers. In addition, Connecticut provides additional services such as credit inputs, which can help them generate more value.One of the experts we interviewed confirmed the effectiveness of this approach of integrating digital and non-digital services, by becoming a value chain player, and recommended that young digital innovators serving the agricultural sector should open their minds:Many of the start-ups studied have understood this, such as Connecticut:AgComm has also decided to broaden their identity by referring to their business as \"a digital platform for agriculture\" and no more primarily as an e-commerce platform. A clear pattern that has emerged from this research is that business models of the majority of the start-ups are constantly changing, either because product market fit has failed leading to lack of adoption of the solution:or because new business opportunities have emerged.From our interactions with the start-ups, seven sources of opportunities framed their business model innovations:customers, business partners, employees, relatives, literature, R&D, and internal knowledge of the founders.Franco Sarl was the only start-up which indicated that they have a dedicated budget for R&D.It must be said that we tried many models that did not work.\"First, feedback from farmers themselves can make us change our business model. Number two is also internal evaluations of our performance (…) One thing that was helpful was also the internet; we learned the lean start-up methodology. We also changed part of our business model after interactions with other start-ups during the CTA AgriHack programme in 2016.\"We do a lot of research and development.\"We met a professional of the irrigation sector; he was the one who told us that there was a real interest for our technology in this sector; then we started going into this market.\"Many of the start-ups seem not to implement this change consciously, because they are young entrepreneurs with budding businesses or because their business management capabilities and resources are limited. Business model innovation is critical and could be a source of competitive advantage and higher revenue generation as is well apprehended (Foss and Saebi, 2017;Zott et al., 2011). As per the model suggested by Geissdoerfer and his colleagues (Geissdoerfer et al., 2018), the start-ups involved in our research have been engaged in the first three phases of business model innovation dubbed start-up, business model transformation and business model diversification. None of them has engaged in business model acquisition (certainly because they are youth businesses with limited financial means).We hypothesise that business models of most of the companies are also changing regularly because the ICT4Ag sector is still nascent in West Africa. New digital technology, or processes enabled by digitalisation emerge regularly (such as the use of drones in agriculture), and young entrepreneurs who are eagerly and constantly on the lookout of economic opportunities are tempted to shift perspectives and supply services around these new possibilities.We would like to mention that we were interested in identifying if there was a direct relationship between a specific business model and the financial success (in terms of assured revenue generation and eventually profit) of a young company. However, we could not conclude within this study. For example, the profitable start-ups are not necessarily offering the same services (using the same tools), or using the same revenue model, or targeting the same market segment (see Table 8). Multiplicities of factors seem to intervene and this would require further research.Another observation is that a couple of start-ups (Connecticut, Sera, Titan.tg) have identified data management (customer data and supply chain data) as a new revenue stream or a business model design element which can help them not only better know and serve their customers but also, as relevant, offer new services to other value chain players. Data analytics can help in undertaking credit scoring (based on registered farmers' data) and facilitate access to finance for farmers; facilitate index-based insurance for farmers; facilitate food traceability, etc. (Maru et al., 2018). Many companies may derive revenues from these services in the future.Before discussing the concept of success and success drivers as outlined by the entrepreneurs interviewed, we present their motivations to start to the business.Motivation is a complex notion that differs from one individual to another and determines the behavioural attributes of an entrepreneur (Carsrud and Brännback, 2011). Our findings show that the motivations for the participants of this study starting their businesses varied. It did not necessarily come from studying degree courses in school or from receiving formal training and education in computer science or agriculture. Most of them declared that they have been motivated by the need to help farmers find solutions for the difficulties and lack of revenues they are facing.For example, Agromarket, which started in 2016 and is currently operating in three cities in Ghana, mentioned that his motivation is: Some of these entrepreneurs have started their businesses based on challenges their parents faced as smallholder To help the farmers sell their produce and cut down on losses, and also to help consumers get fresh farm produce at their doorsteps.\"My parents are farmers so the initiative started as a result of problems they faced when I was growing up. I decided to pursue a career in agripreneurship with an insight into ICT as a solution.\"Economic theory (classical, neoclassical etc.), epitomised by the desire to make a living out of this engagement, appears to be at the basis of entrepreneurship for all the entrepreneurs interviewed, even though this may not be from the beginning of their businesses. As explained in the literature review, employment challenges faced by youth in Africa have forced many of them to engage in entrepreneurship; this has also led governments and international institutions to develop programmes to support them (Dolan and Rajak, 2016). An example of a start-up motivated by economic theories (Brice and Nelson, 2008) is FoodRecon:Similarly, Franco Sarl noted that their motivation for starting the business was the identification of a gap in the market. The CEO stated during the interview that:Sociological and anthropological theories also explain the motivations of almost all start-ups interviewed.Many of them wanted to help solve the acute problems faced by farmers who are sometimes their parents.For example, AgComm attested that:Psychological factors, such as the need for personal achievement, have also guided many start-ups.In general, the business founders showed motivations based on a combination of more than one theory.When facing challenges to transform their business idea into profitable ventures, some of them pointed to the inexistence or lack of successful role models in this business segment in Africa, which could have further motivated them and provided them with insights on profitability avenues. This lack might be due to the novelty of this business segment in West Africa and even at the international level.Initially, we just notified NGOs working around feeding programmes of where they could get nearly expired food supplies. This later morphed into a business with a revenue generating model called FoodRecon.\"what to do about it; hence the development of the business idea.\"(…) the motivation was derived from developing an application to meet the Millennium Development Goals, targeting poverty and hunger reduction, in the framework of a competition we took part in; although we didn't win the contest, the entrepreneurial idea was born.\"The definition of success varies amongst the young entrepreneurs despite some similarities. They defined it both in financial and non-financial terms, in line with the literature review. Usually, each of them named several variables as success elements.Three of the twelve start-ups indicated they define success in terms of their survival and viability after 3-5 years in operation. This approach could be seen as viewing success in terms of business longevity or survival, which is critical for young companies as they have a high failure rate (Fatoki, 2013; Cope, 2011). For Botanica from Benin, success will lie in the fact that they would still be in operation after some years. The founder indicated that:A third entrepreneur, Amber, declared:By viability, the start-ups meant profitability. However, the definition of profit was not clear. While some consider grants they receive as revenues, others do not, or do it on a case-by-case basis. This would require further research.Many start-ups defined success in terms of the effective services they can offer to customers. Agromarket for example declared:We are not yet successful, not yet; after five years if we are still there, then we will be successful.\"I think we can say we are successful if after five years we are viable. We are in our third year, and we think we will hold on.\"The ambition of the business is to help farmers. We are impacting these farmers by selling and cutting down their losses, thereby increasing their return on investment on their farming activities. This is success for us.\"Similarly, success in business for Connecticut is:This concept of success is shared by Sera form Ghana and others as well. Sera for example described success as being able to offer effective services and products to identified problems faced by farmers with resources available.Another definition of success not directly linked to finances is the achievement of planned key performance indicators (KPI). In this line of thought, MobileTrac stated the following:AcornTech, from Nigeria stated that:Another company, Hectare stated:The business is successful as it is now because of the yield we get from our farm; therefore, we will be able to deliver on our promise to investors. The measure of success is in our yield of production. Currently in Nigeria the yield of maize is between 2-3 tonnes of maize but we are getting between 5-7 tonnes/hectare with the use of a controlled environment.\"The ability to build a product that people want, delivering on a value that has been promised. This is a key instrument that drives the success of our company.\"I would say our business is successful when MobileTrac is being recognised as first brand in Ghana and is in contract with 2,455 tractors to help farmers in the next three years.\"Success for me is to be able to push our new input package of services, as a platform used by 60% of farmers, clear counterfeit goods off the markets and help smallholder farmers get access to free insurance.\"Other young entrepreneurs defined success in terms of their financial performance in relation with revenue generation and profit. For the founder of Franco Sarl from Côte d'Ivoire, success is thus based on profit, the turnover that is generated from the business, the growth in the size of the market and customer satisfaction. Simply put, he stipulated:Similarly, AgComm identified success as the growth in the number of customers acquired over the years. She noted during the interview that:It has to be noted that no company refers to more specific financial success indicators (for example specific percentage of profit, ROI, or pre-tax return). This might be illustrative of young profiles of the companies and of their level of maturity in financial management.In my opinion, success is all about financial performance and reputation for the company.\"I think we have achieved success because, at the beginning, we were not sure that working on the internet with agricultural processors would succeed. But it worked; in addition, the number of our customers is increasing every year.\"We have identified eight types of success drivers that we introduce and discuss in the sections below. Funding/finance was identified as a success driver and its lack as a constraint. While its availability was mentioned by six companies as success factor, eleven companies referred to its lack as constraint. We will discuss it in the constraints section below to avoid repetition.Having a capable and committed team is critical according to many start-ups. Amber noted that:A very positive experience is made by Connecticut to address this staff issue. They have launched a fellowship programme, accessible to young students (from Ghana and beyond) as interns, as well as for skilful international young professionals and volunteers interested in supporting a young impactful African company. They sometimes pay stipends to those interns or contribute to housing expenditures (not all businesses in Ghana pay stipends to interns). The cofounders of the companies who have developed that strategy are convinced that motivated and trained interns may become great staff or ambassadors, which will help them create a long lasting impactful \"generational business\".The founder interviewed declared:Our expert M.B. added other elements regarding the team:Other insights are provided in the constraints section below, highlighting staff-related challenges that the start-ups faced.(…) the team is a very good factor that drives the success of the business especially if it is dynamic and motivated (…)\"The team makes all the difference (...) That's my prayers every day, to keep attracting the best people and key empowering the best people (...) I want this to become a movement (…) It is beyond a one-man thing because no one person can build a generational business.\"Resilience, in order to face the many challenges of agtech business for young entrepreneurs and openness to the external world are success factors co-founders and their teams should develop.\"Establishing sound business processes is critical for business success. Connecticut from Ghana informed that:Creating sound business systems means as well putting in place effective corporate governance structures, particularly a formal management board that operates effectively. We noted that all companies interviewed do not have a functioning formal board.Other start-ups such as Agromarket have been implementing lean management processes (Ries, 2011) and they find it very effective. They highlight that young businesses should know how to innovate and identify effective solutions immediately as problems appear. According to the founder of Agromarket, using lean processes by cutting down operating costs helps their business achieve success.Most young companies do not put systems in place, like an HR system, financial system, culture system (...) If you don't do that you can't keep the best people or attract the best people (...) and you can't attract big capital (…) We don't talk about that often.\"The young entrepreneurs are conscious that developing effective solutions that the farmers and agricultural stakeholders are willing to pay for and adopting sound and sustainable business models are very important success drivers.AcornTech mentioned that having a structured business model will help for the success of the business:The importance of effective business models has been substantively discussed in the previous chapter.Key partnership was one of the most important drivers mentioned by the companies. This can be understood as they are young and need support. The importance of key partners was also discussed in the key partnership component of the business model section in the previous chapter.This issue has been raised both as a success driver and as a constraint (its lack), with more emphasis on its consideration as a constraint. We will therefore discuss it rather in the constraints section below.A couple of companies mentioned that adequate agricultural infrastructure and resources was an important success driver. These were companies that rely a lot on these resources to deliver their digital services such as Hectare (engaged in actual farming), MobileTrac (facilitating the renting of tractors) and Botanica (engaged in agricultural production).A final success driver mentioned by three start-ups was brand and reputation, as specified by founders of companies such as Franco Sarl and MobileTrac. The latter declared:Attending a business course has enlightened me with the need of developing a well-structured business model, the right systems and structures for the business as well as creating a board to assist in decision making processes.\"I would say our business is successful when MobileTrac is being recognised as first brand in Ghana.\"While funding was cited as a success driver, its lack was conversely referred to as a constraint common to eleven businesses out of twelve. Agromarket noted that funding has always been a difficult issue in expanding their business, although they have received grants from organisations such as CTA and the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Funding is needed not only to start the business but also to grow it. Connecticut stated:However, it has been difficult for the young entrepreneurs to secure loans from banks and other financial institutions as in their opinion banks ask for important collaterals or charge very high interest rates which, they argue, they cannot afford. According to start-ups, they would pay credit rates between 10 and 30%, the higher rates being practised by micro-finance institutions. Whilst some of the companies have received financial support from NGOs and international organisations, winning competitions and awards from reputable organisations such as Rolex, theyare not optimistic about how banks consider them in the current state of affairs. As highlighted by Hectare of Nigeria, referring to the ICT for agriculture business, there will always be a \"trust issue about their market\" when they attempt to secure resources from banks.From another point of view, many international investors interested in African ventures are able to provide huge level investments and try to find businesses that could deserve that level of amount. Some start-ups, such as the founder of AcornTech, warn that, while funding is necessary, many West African start-ups especially in this field do not need for now millions of dollars. In his words:It is worth specifying that another company, Connecticut, noted that companies at growth stage do need high investment that they are not benefiting from:We have been fortunate to be one of the first in this line of business in West Africa but to excel we need more funds and money.\" or do not understand the language of venture capitals, which prevents them from accessing funding.In fact, financial performance has always been a major subject surrounding African small and medium companies according to the literature. One of the hypotheses proposed by Hansen (2016) when studying African enterprise performance was that:The literature also helps to understand why start-ups have challenges to raise capital. A survey of 582 entrepreneurs in six Sub-Saharan countries (including Nigeria and Ghana) by the international non-profit organisation Omidyar Network revealed that most entrepreneurs fund their companies with personal savings or family loans (Omidyar Network, 2013). These observations are in line with some unpublished findings by CTA. In 2017, the organisation surveyed the 25 finalists of its Pitch AgriHack West Africa competition: while 86.96% responded that they fund their ventures via personal savings and 39.13% fund them through grants, only 8.7% got funding from banks and 13.04% from equity investments.Worth mentioning as well is that, according to a publication by the World Bank, many investors do not consider ICT as a high return investment sector in many African countries (The World Bank, 2014). At the same time, African banks usually shy away from funding the agricultural sector due to its uncertainties (Dalberg Global DevelopmentAdvisors, 2016). Digital agribusiness companies might therefore be facing challenges from those two angles to raise capital, the more so as this business sector is novel and seems hardly apprehended by financial institutions. The availability of trained and committed staff was identified as a success driver and discussed above. Its lack has been creating constraints for many start-ups.Indeed, the youth businesses were generally initiated by one or two enthusiast innovators, sometimes when they were still completing their university studies. In the first years of the entrepreneurial venture, they struggled to find committed and skilled teams as in most cases the companies do not yet have financial resources or sufficient resources. Convincing other young professionals, who at the same time are looking for immediate economic opportunities, that the business idea will be eventually fruitful, has therefore been challenging.admitted the founder of Titan.tg.Even after the first couple of years of revenues, most businesses do not have enough means to recruit highly relevant technical skills.I struggled a lot to convince people to join me (…) It has been impossible to recruit highly skilled people that we need because we can't pay them.\"At the beginning you can only pay the minimum for salaries. You do not have the means to pay an accountant. You need software engineers, but you cannot afford that and thus remain limited in the value you deliver.\"The CEO of Connecticut noted:The lack of ecosystem support has been identified as a four-fold issue in our study:• Lack of support from public agricultural players and governments who can facilitate the inclusion of the young entrepreneurs in the agribusiness supply chain (this was also discussed above)• Lack of support from competent incubators that can provide effective ICT4Ag mentorship and coaching• Lack of support from big agribusinesses players. Sera's founder, for example, informed about challenges he has been facing to collaborate with institutions involved in governing or managing animal health; he believed they do not trust them because they are a young business• Difficulty to collaborate with mobile network operators when start-ups wish to build on their platform to deliver services to customers.Regarding this last point, the founder of Titan.tg revealed:This view is seconded by Amber's CEO who stated that:The government usually gets grants from IMF, the World Bank, etc., to implement agriculture projects. They do all this often without the start-ups (...) Imagine if they collaborate with the start-ups, even in a small way (...) I don't want big money, just include me in the project, in the supply chain.\"(…) the first constraint for me is the mobile operators at home; they ignore your business model and impose high rates that we can barely afford (…) this greatly impacts negatively our prospects for growth.\"(…) there is the difficulty to negotiate and mobilise key partners including mobile networks (…) When we want to use their platform to disseminate information via USSD, they claim 80% of the profit, which is not fair.\"  The business climate factors (government policies/legislation, politics, etc.) may play a vital role in the continued existence or success of a new business (Simpeh, 2011). For example, although the Ghanaian government has introduced a holiday tax for start-ups within the first three years of operation (Entsie, 2018), some Ghanaian start-ups interviewed mentioned that there is lack of clarity on conditions of benefits of this opportunity and some are thus still paying these taxes.Regarding the second research question, some of our main findings are as follows. Revenues for digital services are not generated from the individual farmer but from supporting organisations, the value chain and donors. Farmers are either not willing or unable to pay for the services: sometimes they do not see its value, sometimes because of digital illiteracy or they claim that they do not have the resources to pay for them. Thus, many of the companies studied struggled in the first years of their operations to generate revenues when they mainly target individual farmers. They have eventually understood that targeting institutions was a better strategy to generate revenues and achieve profitability (which eight out of twelve start-ups have reached).Success also depends on offering multiple and bundled services; more particularly, it has appeared that start-ups have to integrate digital and non-digital agricultural services, in order to become a value chain player. Some of them have therefore understood that focusing on digital has been a bad strategy and they are increasingly offering a variety of services to address various needs of the farmers and agricultural stakeholders. This approach is yielding benefits and is recommended by D.A., one of our experts. Data-driven services are emerging and can also yield important values.Partly due to the immaturity of their model and a lack of experience in business management, unplanned business model innovation occurs. We also noted that owners with an agricultural background are increasingly getting involved in digital agribusiness services, which seems to lead to increased effectiveness in services offered.We have identified eight main drivers that help to achieve success, including: availability of funding, adequate team and team management, key partnerships, adequate ICT and agricultural infrastructure and resources, effective solutions and business models, effective business systems and processes and brand/reputation.The policy environment is generally not very enabling for the young entrepreneurs, high taxes being important constraints. However, the lack of access to funding is the major challenge they face. They also struggle to find or pay for committed and qualified staff and to interact with key institutional players including mobile network operators.This research was started in September 2018 with the interviews taking up roughly five weeks of the time due to postponements and the festive period. More time needs to be invested in this type of research to cover a large number of participants, at national or regional level, if generalisation of findings is an objective. Our sample is not representative; it covers only seven countries in West Africa out of sixteen. In each country, it was not possible to define or identify the most successful digital agripreneur to interview them. We have not covered two agricultural sub-sectors (forestry and fisheries). One entrepreneur serving the fisheries sector that we identified was not available to join the project. We acknowledge therefore that our findings cannot be generalised to all digital agripreneurs in West Africa.It will be useful to further investigate our finding that in most cases, individual farmers do not pay for the digital services and that institutions (including farmer cooperatives) actually pay for farmers. The configuration, functioning and effectiveness of these relationships could be studied. It would also be useful to further investigate the relationship between business models and profitability for the young start-ups. We could not conclude on this issue in this research. We however noticed for example that certain types of services have helped companies generate more easily revenues (which is important for young entrepreneurs).These include:• services that provide immediate and visible outputs for farmers and agricultural stakeholders (such as drone services offered by Franco Sarl and market linkages services offered by Agromarket, Agcomm and Connecticut), especially when there is little or no competition• traditional agricultural services that just leverage digital technologies to be supplied such as inputs delivery services offered by Connecticut.Conversely, services that deliver exclusively information (such as advisory information) face more challenges.The business environment, including the actual capabilities of the companies to offer those services also influence financial success as implied in the business success and constraints chapter. More research will be necessary on these hypotheses. This is a new area of study, therefore future work could be done using both qualitative and quantitative techniques across a wider range of participants for a more holistic view. Specific research could focus on precise services, such as drone operations, agro e-commerce trade, etc.© ProfishThe recommendations we propose are based on our understanding of issues confronted by these young entrepreneurs and their businesses, key insights from the literature review and our interviews with two experts.They are addressed to the young entrepreneurs themselves, governments, national ecosystem actors as well as to international organisations supporting digital agripreneurship.All the participants interviewed expressed their motivation for starting their businesses, showing generally a combination of reasons. Some have also pointed the lack of successful digital agribusiness role models in West Africa, which could have further inspired them. The impact of having role models, who could even act as mentors for young entrepreneurs, cannot be over-emphasised (Clutterbuck, 2004). This is particularly important in the agricultural sector in African countries. Indeed, the sector has a negative image and young people usually shy away from it (AGRA, 2015). Digitalisation, which has a better image than agriculture, provides a good opportunity to build on role models to encourage youth to innovate for the sector and capture economic opportunities (CTA(a), 2016). Cull proposed that having a role model in business or a mentor-client relationship has a positive impact in creating success for young entrepreneurs irrespective of the business sector (Cull, 2006). We therefore recommend promoting promising or successful digital agribusiness entrepreneurs who can inspire other young entrepreneurs.Almost all companies interviewed cited weak access to funding as a barrier to business launch and growth.To overcome this undermining challenge, there is a crucial need for substantial support from the government, investors and other institutions. While early-stage or pre-revenue start-ups need mostly start-up financing, many entrepreneurs such as those interviewed need rather growth financing. The lack of growth financing can maintain them in the \"death valley\" where they stagnate before eventually dying.Governments and relevant stakeholders can encourage banks to provide loans at better rates and if needed, develop de-risking schemes that can motivate these service providers to fund youth. Governments are in addition requested to either put in place innovation funds for digital agribusinesses or to plan relevant benefits for digital agribusiness when those funds exist. Moreover, improved governance should be at the foundation of the management of these funds, and adequate follow-up with winning entrepreneurs ensured.There is also need of more African investors and private businesses that can fund entrepreneurs.Agricultural and other development organisations often provide grants to young entrepreneurs. As recommended by many entrepreneurs, these organisations should not put too many constraints on conditions of access to these funds.Finally, it is capital to remember that, as revealed by the report by the Omidyar Network, while many entrepreneurs claim that they lack access to funding, many investors or supporting institutions consider that many young businesses are not sustainable (Omidyar Network, 2013) and that the entrepreneurs have a strong deficit in accounting and financial management. This implies that entrepreneurs need to improve their investment readiness capabilities.Governments as well as organisations that have interest in them should support them in this area.Digital agripreneurship requires acumen in at least three domains: agriculture, digital technology and business management. Gaps in at least one of these areas have effected most of the young entrepreneurs studied.Young software developers usually lack knowledge of the agricultural sector (Baumüller, 2016;Baumüller and Lohento, 2016), while young business owners with an agricultural background lack understanding of digital technologies. Business management capacity is limited at the level of many young entrepreneurs. One of the experts that we interviewed, D.A, stated that many young software developers investing digital agricultural service provision hardly know the agricultural sector and design ineffective solutions. Founders of digital agribusinesses need therefore to ensure that either they have good capacity in these areas and/or recruit team members with adequate capacity.They should also facilitate capacity development for their staff when needed in these areas. Gaps that need to be addressed include accounting and financial management literacy.Many products that are developed currently lack innovations and value add, which hindrances their success.For example, too many agro-e-commerce platforms are launched in the same market, using basic existing plug-ins with no customised algorithms, which could help generate a comparative advantage.Lean management and lean start-up technics (Ries, 2011) need to be better adopted by the businesses. Among others, young companies should adopt systematically the \"Build-Measure-Learn\" feedback loop principle in service design, avoid focusing on vanity metrics (Ries, 2011).One channel through which the needed capacities can be acquired is the educational system. But these institutions are criticised for not adequately preparing students for entry in the job market (Baumüller, 2016). University training curricula should then be updated to include industry hands-on knowledge. Agricultural faculties should include some digital agribusiness knowledge in their curricula, while computer schools and universities should create thematic specialities, such as digital agribusiness, which can be embraced by software developers.Another capacity building channel that should be developed is collaboration between agripreneurs, at national level (e.g. Yeesal Agrihub in Senegal) and regional level (e.g. the AfricaGoesDigital involving drone operators).Technology hubs, incubators or accelerators can facilitate capacity building of young entrepreneurs (Jiménez and Zheng, 2018; Littlewooda and Wilkister, 2018; Talbot, 2012). However, there is lack of specialised capacity in these institutions as well. As indicated by our second expert, M.B., responsible of an incubator, these institutions are getting better organised, under the leadership of their organisation AfriLab. It will be useful that governments and development stakeholders support these organisations to acquire digital agribusiness capacity and facilitate as well collaboration between digital and agricultural incubators.While many West African governments depend on fiscal revenues, young entrepreneurs recommend that they create a fiscal environment more supportive of youth entrepreneurs. The example of Ghana, which has instituted a tax holiday for young businesses, can serve as model. In some countries, even when incentives exist, there is lack of transparency and information on their conditions of access as noted by Sera. Public authorities should thus avoid leaving the impression that political acquaintance is a key criterion for benefiting from these incentives.Establishing public-private-partnerships involving effective young digital businesses is another avenue to enable their growth. Titan.tg and our expert D.A. encourage governments to involve the national private sector in their projects.Many entrepreneurs recommend that policies should be put in place to guarantee that no player unfairly exploits their dominant position. Sometimes, local businesses feel that they face unfair competition when competing with the foreign organisations operational in West African countries. Governments are encouraged to enable favourable frameworks for negotiation between mobile network operators (which can provide much value to entrepreneurs) and the young companies. There is also a fear that ownership of the most promising young digital companies might be captured eventually by international investors and businesses. Governments should consider these elements as well in their policy strategies.Easing the protection of digital innovations of young innovators is also crucially needed. Finally, young entrepreneurs should learn how to better collaborate with all ecosystem players, including by remaining conscious of the values and needs of these stakeholders.Weaknesses in business model innovations and the central importance of a business model as a success factor have been largely discussed in previous sections. Practices that have proven more successful include bundling services (for example advisory services and market linkages services), becoming a value chain player by bundling if appropriate, non-digital and digital agricultural services. Designing B2B or B2B2C services (business-to-business-tocustomer services) appears a good strategy to generate revenues, as individual farmers usually are not in a position or willing to pay for digital agro information services (Baumüller, 2016;AGRA, 2016). Data analytics and data-driven services have emerged as strong value capture channels (Loshin and Reifer, 2013;CTA, 2018) and entrepreneurs should learn to develop digital agribusiness services that leverage data while protecting customers' data. A revenue model that has proven its effectiveness for some start-ups is the subscription model, though customers adopt it only if the company offers reliable services.Services need to be designed taking into account customers' needs and environment. Thus, young innovators should not develop, for example, a solution based on smartphones for farmers they target if they do not own smartphones or cannot afford bandwidth costs.Institutions supporting youth development should also continuously assist digital agripreneurs to raise their capacities in business modelling.Many entrepreneurs mentioned to have faced uncommitted staff, leading sometimes to loss of capabilities.An option experimented successfully by Connecticut to enhance employee engagement is to create a strong sense of belonging and ownership of the firm. Means of achievement of this include providing public acknowledgement and effective visibility opportunities to the staff, while providing them with capacity building options and even equity when relevant. As the young start-ups are challenged by limited financial returns, leveraging non-monetary and intrinsic rewards can yield commitment.The most important constraint that digital entrepreneurship faces might be the weak digitalisation of the agricultural sector, especially farmers' digital illiteracy and the poor rural connectivity, despite progress achieved (Acker, 2011;Baumüller, 2015;Kabbiria et al., 2018). This weakness is a strong impediment for the development of the market that digital entrepreneurs want to serve. There is also a weak understanding of digitalisation opportunities at the level of other agricultural stakeholders, including public actors who can support youth.While connectivity is progressing in Africa in general, rural areas where most farmers reside are still lagging behind (Chick et al., 2010;GSMA, 2018).Therefore, governments and telecom operators should accelerate strategies aiming at boosting broadband connectivity, rural connectivity and affordability of digital tools. We also advise that e-agriculture strategies are developed or adequately implemented, at national and regional levels. Capacities of all agricultural stakeholders should finally be raised and effective use cases promoted.","tokenCount":"15746"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"34220b5b0c43e9a4ca89ad05d3cac05b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f821c51b-931b-4b79-955f-08b9f12388ed/retrieve","id":"-474060983"},"keywords":["Rhizobium inoculation","growth parameter","nodulation","yiled related trait","P uptake"],"sieverID":"5dccaf00-bc61-4c32-b9ac-9ae31410e3d1","pagecount":"111","content":"Following the successful completion of his secondary education, He joined Mertule Mariam Agrcultural, Technical, Vocational, Education Traning (ATVET) College in October 2002 and graduated with Diploma in Natural resource management in July 2004. After his graduation, he was employed as Natural resource expert in the Ministry of Agriculture at the District Development Office of Mortina Jiru Woreda since August 2004. After serving for one year and six months, he joined Debra Birhan Agricultural Research Center as a technical assistance in February 2006. After serving the center as technical assistance for two years and six month he joined Bahir Dar University in September 2008 and graduated with BSc degree in Natural Resource Management in 2011. From 2011 until he joined the Post Graduate Directorate Program of Haramaya University for his master degree in soil science in September 2015, he served as a soil fertility researcher and soil and water management research directorate coordinator in Debre Birhan Agricultural Research Center of Amhara Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI). v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My special thanks goes to my major advisor Mr. Anteneh Argaw, for his commitment and dedication in supervising me throughout my research work. His continuous awareness and encouragement over the whole period of my study was crucial to the completion of this thesis. I benefit tremendously from many of his wise suggestions on doing research, presenting papers, searching scientific publications. The example of excellence that his research work published in international journal and presented in Haramaya University always incentivized me to do my best work. Moreover, his nice treatment makes me always surprising. My appreciation also goes to my co-advisors Dr. Tesfaye Feyisa and Dr. Endalkachew W/Meskel. Their keen eye for details and their pointed questions have steered me in the right direction at every turn. In spite of their busy schedule and overwhelming responsibilities, they always extended full attention, patient hearing and complete support to me, without which the present work could not have come to light. I'd like to express my gratitude to Amhara Agricultural Research Institute and International Livestock Research Institute/Putting Nitrogen working to African Small holder farmers (ILRI/N2Africa) project for their financial support. My heart felt gratitude and appreciation is also extended to Abiy Legesse, Tsegaye Getachew, and Abiro Tigabiye for their kind and generous supports of finance, vehicle and other materials, without which this work would have not been materialized. This MSc. Thesis would have not been possible without the guidance and support of many exceptional scholars in Haramaya University, Amhara Agricultural Research Institute, International Livestock Research Institute and the great support of my friend, family and local farmers. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to them, though a few words cannot adequately capture the magnitude of my appreciation. I gratefully acknowledge the support from all the staff ofBy my signature below, I declare and affirm that this Thesis is the result of my own work. I have followed all ethical and technical principles of scholarship in the preparation, data collection, data analysis and compilation of this Thesis. Any scholarly matter that is included in the Thesis has been given recognition through citation. This Thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for an MSc. degree at Haramaya University. The Thesis is deposited in the Haramaya University Library and is made available to borrowers under the rules of the Library. I solemnly declare that this Thesis has not been submitted to any other institution anywhere for the award of any academic degree, diploma, or certificate.Brief quotations from this Thesis may be made without special permission, provided that accurate and complete acknowledgement of the sources is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this Thesis in whole or in part may be granted by the Head of the School or Department when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interest of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the of author of the Thesis.Signature:___________ Date: _________________ School: Natural Resource Management and Environmental Science 1. Physico-chemical properties of the soil before planting 2. Number of nodules per plant of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 3. Nodule volume of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 4. Nodule dry weight of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 5. Effectiveness of nodules of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 6. Nodulation rating of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 7. Effect of Rhizobium, S and Zn fertilizer rates on plant height of chickpea 8. Root length of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium, S and Zn fertilizer rates 9. Shoot dry weight of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 10. Root dry weight of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 11. Number of primary branches of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 12. Number of pods per plant of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 13. Number of seeds per pod of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 14. Hundred seed weight of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 15. Days to 50% flowering of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 16. Days to physiological maturity of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 17. Seed yield of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 18. Straw yield of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 19. Harvest Index of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 20. Total Nitrogen uptake of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 21. Total Phosphorus uptake of chickpea as affected by Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn fertilizer rates 22. Partial Budget Analysis 23. Marginal analysis of undominated treatmentIt is a plain fact that nitrogen (N) is the key component of protein for human and animal consumption and it required for all plants for growth and development (Adler, 2008). It is the structural component of protein and nucleic acid. Nitrogen is also essential for synthesis of chlorophyll which is essential for capturing energy from sun light during photosynthesis (Grham and Vance, 2000;Dordas and Sioulas, 2008;Waraich et al., 2011). Crop yield can be increased by maintaining soil fertility and use of sufficient and balanced plant nutrients. Therefore, adequate supply of N is necessary to achieve potential yield.Nitrogen deficiency is a major factor limiting crop production all over the world (Salvagiotti, et al., 2008;Aminifard et al., 2010). This constraint is also common in the tropics and subtropics (Endalkachew, 2011). However, Bagayoko et al. (2011) reported that the use of fertilizers by African farmers was limited due to poor accessibility, availability and high prices. According to Yifru et al. (2007), chemical fertilizer played role in agriculture but the current increasing price and application below the recommended rate are the main limiting factors for most Ethiopian farmers for better production of crops. Hence, interest towards environmentally friendly sustainable agriculture practice, organic farming system has been growing (Rigby and Caceres, 2001; Lee and Song, 2007). Therefore, there is an urgent need to realize a vital and cheaper source of fertilizer having eco-friendly approach.Pulse are leguminous crops which are rich in protein, vitamins and other nutrients are extensively cultivated for human consumption. These crops have the ability to reduce atmospheric N2 to usable form through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) in association with root nodule bacteria. Legumes have special bacteria in their root system and make use of N from the air (Adjei et al., 2001). This association contributes 50-70 million tons annually to the global agricultural N budjet (Unkovich et al, 2008), this account for 40 to 70% of total global nitrogen input (Kahindi and Karanja, 2009). The major root nodule bacteria associated with pulse crops are; Rhizobium, Bradyrhizobium, Mesorhizobium, and Azorhizobium, collectively called rhizobia, can infect plants, leading to symbiotic interaction resulting in root nodule formation.With these nodules, bacteria live in differentiated form, the bacteroid, and fix nitrogen by reducing atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia (Adjei et al., 2001).The formation of an effective symbiosis requires the existence of specific rhizobia in the soil that can nodulate host legume or inoculation of with effective rhizobia, and suitable environmental factors (Choudhry, 2012).The major the abiotic factors that affect effective symbiosis are; nutrient, pH, temperature, water holding capacity, water stress, salinity and nitrogen level are the major factors affecting BNF (Keerio, 2001;Panchali, 2011).For several years now, different studies have been undertaken on inoculation trial of several pulse crops in Ethiopia (Desta, 1988;Angaw and Asfaw, 2006). Accordingly, these field trial showed positive response of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) and chickpea (Cicer arientinum L.) to inoculation and NP fertilizer application. They also showed that inoculation increased the productivity of different pulse crops in some parts of Ethiopia. Several authors also indicated the positive effect of Rhizobium inoculation alone and in combination with NP fertilizer on different soil types (Asegilil, 2000;Amanuel et al., 2000;Ayneabeba et al., 2001). However, the productivity of chickpea in Ethiopia when compared to the potential yield is still very low.For instance, the national average productivity of chickpea (1.89 tone ha -1 ) (CSA, 2015) was still lower than 3.2 tone ha -1 which was recorded in Newzland (Verghis, 1996) and very lower than its potential yield (5.5 tone ha -1 ) obtained on experimental stations in Ethiopia (Belay, 2006). This wide yield gap clearly indicates that research on chickpea should look beyond breeding and selection of improved varieties for yield and disease resistance.According to O'hara et al. (1988) to ensure full benefit from nitrogen fixation by legume symbiosis, successful breeding and management strategies should consider the whole legume-Rhizobium system and selection of improved legume symbiosis. Around the world, different evidences revealed that inoculation of legumes with effective Rhizobium can increase the yield and the nitrogen fixing capacity (Beck and Duc, 1991;Ben Romdhane et al., 2008;KÖpke and Nemecek, 2010). On the other hand, due to environmental constraints and effectiveness of the native rhizobia, lack of response to inoculation in field experiments have been frequently reported worldwide and raising doubts about the usefulness of inoculation (Graham, 1981;Buttery et al., 1987;Hameed et al., 2004).Several works indicated that Rhizobium inoculation integrated with the application of S, Zn, and other plant nutrients improved pulse crops production compared to Rhizobium inoculation alone (Togay et al., 2008;Bahure et al., 2016, Valenciano et al., 2011). According to Ganeshamurthy and Reddy (2000), an adequate supply of mineral nutrients to legumes enhances nitrogen (N) fixation and yield. This is due to the role of those nutrients in both plant growth and the symbiosis between rhizobia and the host plant. S affects leguminous plant species growth through its effect on N2 fixation process and involvement in the process of nitrogen fixation.Because of the relatively high S content of nitrogenase (Mortensen and Thornley, 1979) and ferredoxin (Yoch, 1979), S deficiency may affect N2 fixation. Ferredoxin has a significant role in nitrogen dioxide and sulphate reduction, the assimilation of N by root nodule bacteria and free living N-fixing soil bacteria (Scherer et al., 2008). Moreover, legumnious plant reqire a large quantity of S because of their high protein content. Zinc is also involved in various host plant metabolic processes, nodule growth and N2 fixation process. Zinc has also important role in activating plant enzymatic system, synthesis of chlorophyll and carbohydrates.In Ethiopia, Habtegebrial and Singh (2006) found positive effect of P application in nodulation and N2 fixation of faba bean. Beside this, Rhizobium inoculation plus P application increased the nodulation and N2 fixation of faba bean (Amanuel and Tanner, 1991;Habtegebrial et al., 2007). Starter N application also increased the yield and nodulation of common bean in eastern part of Ethiopia (Anteneh and Daniel, 2016;Daba and Haile, 2000). In contrast to these findings, the effect of P application and Rhizobium inoculation on chickpea have been variable (unpulished data). There was non-significant effect of P application and Rhizobium inoculation on chickpea at Gondar Zuria Woreda (Dinzaz, Degolla and Tsion Kebeles) (Unpublished data). However, O'hara et al. (1988) found that correction of deficient nutrients (S and Zn) on top of P significantly improved the effectiveness of Rhizobial inoculation in terms of nodule development, nodule functioning and assimilation of nitrogen by the host plant.One way of improving the low productivity of chickpea is combined application of efficient, competitive and persistent strains of Rhizobium with deficient nutrients (P, S and Zn). To attain this, it is essential to generate information by studying the response of chickpea to combined application of Rhizobium inoculation and S and Zn nutrient application.Hence, we hypothesized that correcting deficient nutrients in the study site improves the effect of P application and Rhizobium inoculation on nodulation and productivity of chickpea. This experiment was therefore, initiated to evaluate the effect of correcting limiting plant nutrient in effectiveness of Rhizobium inoculation in chickpea in selected sites of north western Ethiopia.The specific objectives of the study were  To evaluate the effect of combined application of Rhizobium inoculant, S and Zn nutrients on nodulation and yield of chickpea (Cicer arientinum L.)  To evaluate the effect of inoculation, S and Zn nutrient application on P use efficiency (Uptake) of chickpea in the study sites.Though molecular nitrogen represents nearly 80% of the earth's atmosphere, it is chemically inert and cannot be directly assimilated by plants. Only limited numbers of prokaryotes are able to convert the N2 molecule into a usable form of N through a process known as biological nitrogen fixation (Allito et al., 2015). Biological nitrogen fixation is the process that changes inert N2 that is abundant in the atmosphere to biologically useful NH3 naturally by the help of prokaryotic organism such as eubacteria and cyanobacteria (Giller, 2001). Other plants benefit from nitrogen fixing bacteria when the bacteria die and release N to the environment, or when the bacteria live in close association with the plant. In legumes and a few other plants, the bacteria live in small growths on the roots called nodules.Biological nitrogen fixation is highly energy consuming process. Nitrogen molecules is reduced to NH3 under consumption of ATP and redox equivalents, and is associated with the formation of H2 as a byproduct (N2 + 8 H+1 + 8 e-+16 ATP→2NH3 + H2 + 16 ADP + 16 Pi) (Lodwig and Poole, 2003). The enzyme that catalyzes the reaction is called nitrogenase and consists of the dinitrogenase reductase protein (Fe protein) and dinitrogenase (MoFe protein) which actually catalyzes the reduction of N2.In terrestrial ecosystem, there are three major strategies to fix or reduce atmospheric nitrogen to plant usable form: symbiotic, non-symbiotic or associative, and free livings N2 fixation. The most important N2 fixing agents in agricultural systems are the symbiotic associations between legumes and the microsymbiont rhizobia bacteria (Giller, 2001) followed by non-symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Since free-living diazorophs are heterotrophic bacteria and are subjected to substrate limitation and their contribution in nitrogen fixation is very small (Marschner, 1995).The terrestrial input (natural origin and human activities) of N from BNF accounts for approximately 240-280 t N year -1 (Galloway, 1998), this amount is much higher compared to the 85 t N year -1 consumed as nitrogenous fertilizers all over the world in 2002 (FAO, 2008).The nitrogen-fixing symbiosis between legumes and prokaryotic microorganism (bacteria) is characterized by the formation of nodules, which are subsequently colonized by the specific microsymbionants. The prokaryotic partners include number of family Rhizobiaceae, collectively named rhizobia (genera Bradyrhizobium, Rhizobium, Mesorhizobium, Ensifer, or Sinorhizobium, Azorhizobium, Allorhizobium) as well as other taxa (Burkholderia (Moulin et al., 2001), Ralstonia (Chen et al., 2001), Methylobacterium (Sy et al., 2001), and Devosia (Rivas et al., 2002).The first step in symbiotic interaction is infection by the microsmbionant. Infection by the microsymbionant may occur on developing root hairs, at the junction of lateral root or the base of the stem. When nitrogen in the soil is insufficient, legumes release flavonoids which signal to rhizobia that the plant is seeking symbiotic bacteria (Ndakidemi and Dakora, 2003). In response, the rhizobia releases nodulation factor which stimulates the plant to create deformed root hairs (Banfalvi and Kondorosi, 1989). Rhizobia then form an infection thread for allowing them to enter the root cells through root hairs (Gage et al., 1996). When the rhizobia are inside the root cells, the cells divide rapidly to form nodule (Dudley et al., 1987). Then the rhizobia convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, a form that is directly used by the plant for synthesis of amino acids and nucleotides, the plant provides the bacteria with sugars, hence the symbiosis is established.The transformation of the bacteroids is accompanied by the synthesis of hemoglobin, nitrogenase and other enzymes required for N2 fixation (Rolfe and Gresshoff, 1988). The plant must contribute a significant amount of energy in the form of photosynthate (photosynthesis derived sugars) and other nutritional factors for the bacteria. The bacteria in turn supply the plant with ammonium or ammonia.Depending on the legume species and germination condition, small nodules are visible with naked eye within a week after infection. In the symbiotic nitrogen-fixing organisms such as Rhizobium, the root nodules can contain oxygen-scavenging molecules such as leghemoglobin, which shows as a pink color when the active nitrogen-fixing nodules of legume roots are cut open. Leghemoglobin may regulate the supply of oxygen to the nodule tissues in the same way hemoglobin regulates the supply of oxygen to mammalian tissues. When nodules are young and not yet fixing nitrogen, they are usually white or grey inside (Nair, 2007).According to Ladha et al. (1988), the use of mineral N fertilizer in production has increased but its agronomic use efficiency is less than 50%. But unfortunately a substantial amount of the urea-N is lost through different mechanisms causing environmental pollution problems (Chowdhury and Kennedy, 2004). Rigby and Caceres (2001) reported that the extensive use of chemical fertilizer in agriculture is resulted in environmental health problem and do have a negative impact on consumers' health. As a result interests have been increasing in environmentally friendly sustainable agriculture practice and organic farming system. Therefore biofertiliztion is of great importance in alleviating environmental pollution and deterioration of nature (Elkoca et al., 2008). Vessey (2003), indicated that biofertilizers are materials with beneficial inoculants, when applied to the soil, seed or plant surface colonizes the rhizosphere or the interior of the plant and promote growth by facilitating the supply or availability of nutrient through natural processes like nitrogen fixation and phosphate solubilizing. The different types of biofertilizers includes: nitrogen fixing biofertilizers, e.g. Rhizobium, Bradyrhizobium, Azospirillum and Azotobacter; phosphorus solubilising biofertilizers (PSB), e.g. Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Aspergillus; phosphate mobilizing biofertilizer, e.g.and plant growth promoting biofertilizers, e.g. Pseudomonas. Increasing and extending the role of Rhizobium biofertilizers can reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and decrease adverse environmental effects (Erman et al., 2011;Namvar et al., 2013).According to Namvar et al. (2013), legume is a major contributor to sustainable agriculture through its ability to fix N2 to usable form and as a rotation crop that is important for diversification of agricultural production systems. As a result the ability of legume to fix atmospheric N and their residual impact on soil N status makes its rotation in agricultural system important (Glasener et al., 2002). According to Giller et al. (1998) the quantity of N that the legume fixed and the N which is incorporated in to the soil and the time-span of the decomposition of the residue and the synchrony with nutrient need of the subsequent crops are factors that affect to what extent the legume crop can benefit a subsequent crop.According to KÖpke and Nemecek (2010), under broad spectrum condition faba bean can symbiotically fix atmospheric nitrogen and make available for the next crop. So inoculation of faba bean with effective rhizobia increases nodulation, N fixation, growth and yield of their host plant (Beck and Duc, 1991). Walley et al. (2007) also reported that effective inoculation of legume can fix sufficient quantities of N. Therefore, inoculation with efficient rhizobia is recommended in environments where compatible rhizobia are absent, soil rhizobial population density has been reduced, or where rhizobia are shown to be less effective (Chemining'wa and Vessey, 2006). But in some cases, resident soil rhizobia including native rhizobia and those naturalized through past inoculation, may have impacting inoculation success through its impact on competance for nodule occupancy with introduced rhizobial strains (Denton et al., 2002).Different researches indicated that amount of N fixed by faba bean vary greatly, Duc et al. (1988) reported that it can fix 40 Kg ha -1 . But according to Danso (1992) faba bean can fix about 120 Kg ha -1 . Between these values, Brunner and Zapata (1984) reported that faba bean can fix about 93 Kg ha -1 . Fassil (2010) reported that growing faba bean can improve the orginal soil N by 10.6 times than the orginal soil N.The effect of Rhizobium inoculation on chickpea yield depends on the native rhizobial status. If previously well nodulated chickpea was grown, Rhizobium inoculation is not required. Rhinhart et al. (2003) reported that chickpea fix 60-80% of its nitrogen requirement with symbiotic association with the nitrogen fixing bacteria, N application is not necessary for the crop. This can be achieved only if the bacteria is present in the soil. According to ICRISAT (1987), inoculation with Rhizobium is required where chickpea is being grown after paddy or chickpea is being introduced for the first time. According to Ben Romdhane et al. (2008) inoculating chickpea with competitive strain of rhizobia can improve the growth and yield of chickpea and hence this is one of the most important and economically feasible way of increasing productivity of the crop. Seed inoculation of chickpea can improve grain yield and quality up to 50 percent (Kyei-Boahen et al., 2002). Fatima et al. (2008) also reported that Rhizobium inoculation increase plant height, grain yield and nitrogen fixation in chickpea. Togay et al. (2008) found that inoculation with Rhizobium significantly increased the plant height, number of branches, pods and seeds per plant, grain and dry matter yield in chickpea.Researches conducted in Oromia, Amhara (Gondar) and South Nations, Nationalities and people region indicated chickpea respond strongly to inoculation (Ali et al., 2004). Studies in other countries also indicate that chickpea positively responds to Rhizobium inoculation. In Iran and Canada, the grain yield was found increased by 8 to 40%. In Pakistan, combined application of Rhizobium with 90 kg P 90 kg ha -1 increse grain and stover yield of chick pea from1600 to 3100 and from 4350 to 7500 kg ha -1 , respectively (Ali et al., 2004). Other finding also reported that inoculation with Rhizobium and mycorrhiza improved both grain and stover yields by about 60% in Turkey (Erman et al., 2011) Nitrogen fixation is one of the important soil microbial activities affected by all on-going processes in soil as well as other microorganisms. The many different environmental factors in soil affecting these processes are low or extremely high level of soil moisture, salinity, deficiency of nutrient, extreme temperature, water holding capacity, nitrogen level, unfavorable soil pH, mineral toxicity (Giller, 2001 andPanchali, 2011). Many of these factors affect many aspect of nitrogen fixation and assimilation, as well as factors such as respiratory activities, gaseous diffusion and the solubility of dissolved gasses, which ultimately affect host plant-Rhizobium association and hence plant growth (Keerio, 2001).The moisture stress can adversely affect the nodule functions. The drought conditions can reduce nodule weight and nitrogenase activity. According to Ramos et al. (2003) after exposure to the moisture stress for 10 days, the nodule cell wall starts to degrade resulting in senescence of bacteroids. Durrant (2001) also found the direct and indirect effect of moisture to nitrogen fixation. Low moisture condition in soil resulted in a hindrance to nodule respiration as a result nitrogen in nodule moves out slowly. Several studies conducted in Egypt and abroad have shown that nodulated plants of faba bean exhibit a high degree of correlation between N2 fixation and soil water content (Abdel-Ghaffar, 2009).High salt level can directly affect the early infection between the Rhizobium and legume in nodule formation (Singleton and Bohlool, 1984). According to Caesar and Rusitzka (1982) as cited by Abdel-Ghaffar (2009) this harmful effect is attributed to; direct toxicity of the salt, reduction in availability of soil water due to high osmotic pressure of soil solution, changes in availability of nutrients due to ion antagonism, and changes in physical properties of soil restricting water movement or reducing root penetration.Agricultural management factors can also influence BNF. Choice of variety, plant density and inoculation also affect BNF and hence plant growth and development (Ronner and Franke, 2012). According to Solomon et al. (2012) legume species and variety can have an effect on the amount of nitrogen fixed. Disease conditions which affect the plant growth and development can also affect the persistent Rhizobium strain to perform root infection and ultimately the ability of the legume to fix atmospheric N to its full capacity (Panchali, 2011). Higher plant population density shows either positive or negative for percentage of nitrogen fixed from the atmosphere.Higher density may increase the amount of fixed nitrogen due to increased competition for soil nitrogen. On the contrary higher density may have a negative impact on nitrogen fixation as a result of competition for other nutrient and moisture (Naab et al., 2009;Makoi et al., 2009). Tillage practice, selection of effective and responsive crops, appropriate cropping system, method and time of sowing, use of agrochemicals, use of Rhizobium culture and its frequency, the way of handling the inoculant and the method of inoculation also affect BNF by affecting both the crop and the microbial activity (Kantar et al., 2010).According to Abdel-Ghaffar (2009) failure of faba bean to respond to inoculation could be attributed to the presence of an abundant supply of effective R. leguminosarum strains in soil, inefficient inoculant caused by non-viable cell, contaminated with antagonistic organisms, unsuited for the host plant or low in density of Rhizobium cells, direct contact of inoculated seeds with fertilizers, toxic chemicals, lack of certain nutrient such as P, Mo, Zn, Co, B, and/or (g) excess P or N fertilization. O'hara et al. (1988) reported that multiplication of rhizobia, nodule initiation, nodule development, nodule functioning and assimilation of nitrogen by the host plant is negatively affected by Ca, Co, B/Fe, Mo and Zn deficiency.The essential mineral nutrients for symbiotic legume nitrogen fixation are those required for the normal establishment and functioning of the symbiosis. Based on Arnon and Stout (1939) the following chemical elements are known to be essential for the legume-Rhizobium symbiosis:C, H, O, N, P, S, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Mo, B, C1, Ni and Co. Each essential nutrient has specific physiological and biochemical roles and there are minimal nutrient concentrations required within both legumes and rhizobia to sustain metabolic function at rates which do not limit growth (O'hara et al., 1988;Weisany et al., 2013).Sulphur (S) is the fourth major element required for plant growth next to N, P, and K and most crops absorbs as much S as it absorb P. Sulphur deficiency has been reported in the last years even in many previously sulphur sufficient areas of the world. Scherer (2009) reported that S is becoming deficient due to cultivation of high yielding variety, use of high grade S free fertilizer, and absence of industrial activities. Eriksen et al. (2004) also indicated that less S is being added to soils due to the decreasing use of S-containing fungicides, pesticides, and due to the reduction of sulphur dioxide emission from industrial sources (Scherer, 2001;Eriksen et al., 2004). Tandon (1989) reported that when S is deficient in soil, full yield potential of the crop cannot be realized even in good crop husbandry practices.S plays a great role in plant metabolism. It constitutes the main element of amino acids (cysteine and methionine), which are of essential nutrient value and needed for protein synthesis (Jan et al., 2002). Ferro-sulphur proteins play an important role in nitrogen fixation and electron movement in photosynthesis (Kadıoğlu, 2004). Katyal et al. (1987) also reported that the nutrition value of cereals is determined by the proportion of S containing amino acids.Leguminous plant species require a large quantity of S, probably because of their high protein content. Average S removal for producing 1 tone of food grain is estimated to be 3-4 kg by cereals (wheat and rice), 5-8 kg by sorghum and millet, 8 kg by pulses and legumes and 12 kg by oilseeds (Kanwar and Mudahar, 1985). Therefore, S deficiency in legume crops affects yield formation, quality and the nutritional value of seeds (Sexton et al., 1998). This is mainly because methionine is usually the most limiting essential amino acid in legume seeds (Friedman, 1996).Moreover, S has important function in reduction of CO2, formation of chlorophyll and production of organic compounds (Scherer, 2008). Photosyntehtic product is the ultimate source of carbon for both N2 fixation and assimilation (Vance et al., 1998). Kacar (1984) reported that S has positive effects on root growth in plants and positively affects nodulation in legume crops in particular. S is also a vital part of the ferredoxin, an iron-sulphur protein occurring in the chloroplasts. Ferredoxin has a significant role in nitrogen dioxide and sulphate reduction, the assimilation of N by root nodule bacteria and frees living N-fixing soil bacteria (Scherer et al., 2008).Legume crops obtain N mainly from symbiotic N2 fixation, which may be affected by S deprivation. Scherer and Lange (1996) found a lower N accumulation and a yield reduction when S was limiting. S application and inoculation have immense potentional of increasing the amount of N fixed by legumes, thus improving fertility status of soil (Habtegebrial et al., 2007). Lange (1998) suggests that S affects growth of leguminous plant through its effect upon N2 fixation by Rhizobium microorganisms. Because of relatively high S content of the nitrogenase (Mortensen and Thornley, 1979) and of ferredoxin (Yoch, 1979), S deficiency may affect N2 fixation. Growth and nitrogen (N) fixation rates by legume could be increased by highly efficient, competitive and persistent strains of Rhizobium (Amanuel et al., 2000). In addition, supply of adequate amount of P and S increased this process (Olivera et al., 2004;Scherer et al., 2008). According to Muhammad et al. (2013). Application of both phosphorus and sulphur resulted in increase in nitrogen fixation up to 38% and 33% over control, respectively. Nutrient uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and S increased significantly with the application of P and S and positively correlated with nitrogen fixation. The same author also reported that, there is direct involvement of sulphur in the process of nitrogen fixation whereas effect of phosphorus on nitrogen fixation is indirect mainly through enhanced growth and dry matter production. Togay et al. (2008) also reported that chickpea variety applied with phosphorus, sulphur and inoculation resulted in higher grain yield. S application significantly increased the uptake of Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu in grain in the both years. Despite the importance of this element in crop production, it is still not included in fertilizer recommendations of Ethiopia especially for legume crops like chickpea.Zinc (Zn) has an important metabolic role in plant growth and development and therefore, called an essential trace element or micronutrient (El Habbsha et al., 2013). Zinc is involved in various host plant metabolic processes, nodule growth and N2 fixation processes. Zn uptaken and transfered in the form of Zn 2+ in plants and an essential nutrient that has particular physiological functions in all living systems, such as the maintenance of structural and functional integrity of biological membranes and facilitation of protein synthesis and gene expression, enzymes structure, energy production and Krebs cycle; also has a positive impact on crop yield (El Habbsha et al., 2013). In addition to having an important role in activating plants enzymatic systems. Zn is essential for the synthesis of chlorophyll and carbohydrates. This element plays an important role in the metabolism of nitrogen, synthesis of amino acid tryptophan, metabolism of starch, plants flowering and fruit set, increasing plant resistance to fungal disease and expanding plant roots (Bahure et al., 2016).Zn solubility decreases markedly above pH 6.0-6.5 (Sims, 2000) and thus, Zn, deficiencies can be encountered in neutral to alkaline soils (Roy et al., 2006). Zn deficiency in soil is one of the most important factors reducing production of such plants as corn, soybean, bean, rice and wheat. Not only Zn deficit reduces these crops yields and production, but also results in reduction of their nutritional value (Bahure et al., 2016). In Zn deficient plants, protein synthesis and protein levels are markedly reduced, but amino acids and amides are accumulated as Zn is the structural component of the protein synthesizing polymerase enzyme. Hence, in Zn deficient plants, the protein synthesis of Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is impaired (Fageria, 2009).In legume plant, deficiency of Zn is found to reduce the number and size of nodules as it is possibly involved in leghaemoglobin synthesis. Moreover, Zn deficiency resulted in delay in crop maturity, reduces water use and water use efficiency (Khan et al., 2004), nodulation and nitrogen fixation (Ahlawat et al., 2007), inturn reduced crop yield. Zn uptake is positively correlated with the amount of organic matter in the soil and negatively correlated with P concentration in the soil (Hamilton et al., 1993;Ahlawat et al., 2007).Zn is the main micronutrient limiting chickpea productivity (Fageria, 2009). Zn deficiency is common in the chickpea growing regions of the world and is perhaps the most widespread of micronutrient deficiencies (Roy et al., 2006;Ahlawat et al., 2007). Chickpea is generally considered sensitive to Zn deficiency (Khan, 1998). Many researches indicate that application of Zn has a positive role in the nodulation and grain yield of legumes . According to Bahure et al. (2016), application of Zn, Fe and Mn significantly affect yield parameters of soybean and they conclude that this is due to better uptake and translocation of plant nutrients to growing plants and more photosynthesis which in turn promoted more number of leaves, leaf area and dry matter production. Valenciano et al. (2011) also reported that plants fertilized with Zn and with Mo had a greater total dry matter production and seed yield of chickpea, mainly due to an increment in pod dry matter. The highest yield was obtained with 2 mg Zn per plant. Abdel-Salam (1986) as cited by Abdel-Ghaffar (2009) showed that foliar application of Zn to faba bean plants with and without nitrogen fertilization increased nodule number and dry weight, nitrogenase activity, dry weight of plants, and plant uptake of N and P. A research conducted in Tigray showed an increasing trend in nodule number and dry weight with increasing Zn fertilization (Weldu and Habtegriel, 2013). Similarly, the combined fertilization of P and Zn fertilizers showed significant effect on P, Zn and N concentration of plant leaves.An important aspect of P and Zn nutrition is the interaction effect between them, especially in soils marginally deficient in P and Zn. If P and Zn are fertilized together in such soils, crop yields would be increased with positive interaction of P and Zn (Havlin et al., 2005). However, high P availability or fertilization of P alone is found to induce Zn deficiency in plants, commonly known as P induced Zn deficiency (Cakmak and Marschner, 1987). At high P availability, the physiological availability of Zn is decreased, where its solubility and mobility both within the cell and in long distance transported to the shoot apex is also affected. Furthermore, with Zn deficient plant, cellular regulation of P uptake is impaired, causing absorption of toxic levels of P and transportation to plant tops, creating symptoms resembling Zn deficiency (Havlin et al., 2005). High soil P availability or fertilization also increases the shoot to root ratio of plants, resulting in short root length, thus, suppressing mycorrhizal uptake of Zn, which is the major Zn acquisition process by plants.Gondar Zuria is located 730 kms Northwest of Addis Ababa in Amhara National Regional State.It is one of the sixteen Woredas of North Gondar Zone of the Amhara National Regional state.It is bordered in the south by the Debub Gondar Zone, in the southwest by Lake Tana, to the west by Dembiya, to the north by Lay Armachiho, to the northeast by Wegera, and to the southeast by Belessa. Towns in Gondar Zuria district include Degoma, Emfraz, Maksegnit and Teda (CSA, 2005). The total area of this district is 114983 ha of which, 38830 ha -1 , 11073 ha -1 , 16851 ha -1 , 17016 ha -1 and 2065 ha -1 of the Woreda were covered by agricultural land, forest land, bush land, grazing land and un-cultivated land, respectively (GOZOARD, 2016).Agro ecologically, the altitude gradient of Gondar Zuria District is within the range of 1107-3022 m a.s.l, and have three agro ecological zones. The two agro ecology zones, Weynadega (1500 -2300 m a.s.l) and Dega (2300-3200 m a.s.l.) constitute the largest area coverage as compared to the Kolla (GOZOARD, 2016). According to GOZOARD (2016) in the district (Maksegnit) mean annual temperature ranges between 14-20°C with the mean of 17.9°C (From 11 year collected data from Maksegnit). The rainfall varies between 1030-1223 mm with the mean annual rainfall of 1100 mm (According to 18 year collected data from Maksegnit). The soils of the district are Litic Luvisols (49%), Humic Nitisols (10%), Haplic Luvisols (12%), Eutric Vertisols (16%) and Chromic Luvisols (13%) (GOZOARD, 2016) Specifically, this on farm exprirment was conducted at Tsion Kebele (37 0 33'33.9''E-37 0 33'34.1''E longitude and 12 0 25'00.9''N-12 0 25'00.93''N latitude with an elevation of 1924m) and Das Denzaz Kebele (37 0 36'24.9''E-37 0 36'25.01''E longitude and 12 0 25'08.1''N-12 0 25'08.13''N latitude with an elevation of 2037m).Tsion kebele is located at 1 km away from Woreda Town Maksegnit. Agro ecologically, it is categorized under Woynadega, with altitude range between 1800-2000 m.a.s.l. The total land area of the district is 1963.37 ha -1 and of which, agricultural land shares 1143 ha -1 . The dominant crops being cultivated in this district are sorghum, Tef, Chickpea, Maize, Wheat and, Barley (GOZOARD, 2016). According to GOZOARD (2016) the dominant soil type covering 80 % is Vertisols followed by 15% Nitisols and 5% Cambisols.   for identification of the limited plant nutrients. Soils were air dried, ground and mixed thoroughly and passed through a 2 mm sieve for most parameters except for OC and TN which passed through 0.5 mm sieve. The samples were then labeled and stored in sealed plastic bags for laboratory analysis of; texure, pH, TN, OC/OM, CEC, exchangeable cations (Ca, Mg, K, and Na) extractable P, extractable S, and micronutrients (Zn, Fe, Cu and Mn).At physiological maturity, five randomly selected plants were harvested at the ground level and partitioned in to grain and straw. The plant material was dried to a constant weight in a forceddraft oven at 70°C to a constant weight, grounded and passed through 1 mm sieve for determination of N and P concentration in grain and straw.Soil particle size distribution was determined by hydrometer method (Bouyoucos, 1951). Soil pH was measured with digital pH meter potentiometerically in supernatant suspension of 1:2.5 soil to distilled water ratio (Van Reeuwijk, 1992). Cation exchange capacity (CEC) was determined by 1M ammonium acetate method at pH 7 (Chapman, 1965) whereas organic carbon (OC) was determined by the dichromate oxidation method (Walkley and Black, 1934). Total N in the soil was measured by the micro kjeldhal method (Jackson, 1958). Available P was analyzed by Olsen method (Olsen et al., 1954) colorimetrically by the ascorbic acid-molybdate blue method (Watanabe and Olsen, 1965).Available S was analyzed by FAO-turbidimetric method (Ajwa and Tabatabai, 1993). From 1 M ammonium acetate leacheate, Exchangeable Ca ++ and Mg ++ were measured by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer while exchangeable Na + and K + were determined by flame photometer. Micronutrient (Zn, Mn, Fe and Cu) were measured using Dietylene Triamine Penta Acetic Acid (DTPA) extraction following the procedure developed by Lindsay and Norvell as outlined by Sahlemedhin and Taye (2000). Finally, the status of those nutrients which are essential for BNF were rated. The treatments were developed based on those nutrients rated as low in the study sites.For plant sample analysis, grounded material (only tops) was digested with a 2:1 mixture of nitric (HNO3) and perchloric acids (HC1O4) for P determination. Phosphorus concentration in the shoot was analyzed colorimetrically (Morais and Rabelo, 1986). Nitrogen content was determined using Modified micro-Kjeldahl Method (Jackson, 1958). About 0.25 g for grain samples, and 0.50 g for straw were taken for analysis. The total N and P in the grain and straw were finally expressed in percentage.The numbers of indigenous rhizobia nodulating chickpea (Cicer artenium L.) present in the soils of the study sites could nodulating chickpea was estimated by the most-probable-number (MPN), plant infection technique following Somasegaran and Hoben (1994). For this purpose, soils were collected two days ahead of planting from the top 20 cm from five locations and bulked to one composite sample per farm. The samples were brought to laboratory and stored in a refrigerator at 4°C until pot experiment started.This experiment was conducted under semi-controlled greenhouse at Haramaya University.Uniform size, high viability and healthy seed of chickpea var. Arerti was used. Seeds were surface sterilized with 95% of ethanol and in 3% (v/v) solution of sodium hypochlorite. The seeds were successively rinsed in sterilized distilled water several times. The sand was sterilized in dry oven at 160 O C for 1.5 hrs two times. The sterilized sand was added to plastic pot. Three sterilized seeds were planted to each plastic pot and allowed to germinate. After germination, two seedlings were removed and one health seedling was maintained for nodulation scoring.A tenfold serial dilution was prepared by adding 1 gram of soil in to 9 ml of distilled water and sequentially diluting 1 in 10 to give a dilution series to 10 -10 . The pots were inoculated with each of the ten serial dilutions from the soil by using 1 ml aliqutos. Each dilution was replicated four times. The plants were frequently inspected and water was provided periodically. After three weeks, they were carefully uprooted and the numbers of nodulated pots were recorded. The numbers of rhizobia were calculated using the following formula: The experiment comprised of three factors with two levels of Rhizobium inoculation (R1 = Rhizobium inoculated and R0 = Un-inoculated), three levels of sulphur (0, 15 and 30 kg S ha -1 ) (Muhammad et al., 2013) and two levels of Zn (0 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 ) (Valenciano et al., 2009).The factorial combinations of the three factors (2*3*2 = 12) were laid in randomized complete block design with three replications. In addition, the negative control (without fertilizer and Rhizobium inoculation) was included to determine the P use efficiency.Treatment combinations used in the experiment 1. Rhizobium inoculation alone 2. Rhizobium inoculation +15 kg ha -1 Sulphur 3. Rhizobium inoculation + 30 kg ha -1 Sulphur 4. Control check 5. 15 kg ha -1 Sulphur alone 6. 30 kg ha -1 Sulphur alone 7. Rhizobium inoculation + 1.5 kg ha -1 Zinc 8. Rhizobium inoculation + 15 kg ha -1 Sulphur + 1.5 kg ha -1 Zinc 9. Rhizobium inoculation + 30 kg ha -1 Sulphur + 1.5 kg ha -1 Zinc 10. 1.5 kg ha -1 Zinc alone 11. 15 kg ha -1 Sulphur +1.5 kg ha -1 Zinc 12. 30 kg ha -1 Sulphur + 1.5 kg ha -1 Zinc 13. Negative Control (without fertilizer (including starter N and P) and Rhizobium inoculation) 3.2.5.2. Land preparation Land preparation (ploughing, and leveling) was done based on the recommendation given to the crop.Rhizobium ciceri strain CPM41 that was selected based on its ability to enhance nodulation and grain yield under wide ecological condition was obtained from MBI (Menagesha Biotechnology Industry).The chickpea variety \"Arerti\" was used as test variety. The variety was selected based on the recommendation of Gondar Agricultural Research Center (GARC) for the area and the seeds were received from extension and economics department of GARC.Seed inoculation was performed before sowing using the procedure developed by Fatima et al. (2007). To ensure the sticking of the applied inoculant to the seeds, the required quantity of seed was suspended in 1:1 ratio in 10% sugar solution. The inoculant was gently mixed with dry seeds at the rate of 10 g per kg of seed. Inoculation was done just before sowing under shade to maintain the viability of cells and allow to air dry for a few minutes and then the inoculated seeds were sown at recommended rate and spacing to the respective plots. To avoid contamination, plots with un-inoculated seeds were planted first followed by the innoculated ones.The plot size used was 3 m x 3.4 m (10.2 m 2 ). Seeds were sown in rows by maintaining 30 cm and 10 cm between the rows and plants, respectively. There were 10 rows per plant and 34 plants in each row. A net plot size was 3.4 m x 1.8 m (6.12m 2 ) was for the final harvest. The spacing betweeb each plot and block were 1 m and 1.5 m, respectively.The planting was done on September 13 and 15/2016 at Denzaz and Tsion, respectively. To maintain the population in each treatment, two seeds per hill were planted and thinned to a single plant per hill after two weeks of germination. Ridges were made between each plot and block to reduce the movement of bacteria and fertilizer from one plot to the other by rain. Weeding and fungicide spray were done regularly to keep the experimental plants free of weed and disease.All treatments (except the negative control) received equal amount of starter inorganic 20 kg N ha -1 (Anteneh and Daniel, 2016), 20 kg P ha -1 (Ahlawat and Ali, 1993;Ramakers, 2001) in the form of Urea and Triple super phosphate, respectively. Different rates of calcium sulfate/gypsum and zinc sulfate were applied as indicated in the treatments. Zinc sulfate was applied on foliar parts ( El-Habbasha et al., 2013;Pathak et al., 2012). The remaining fertilizers were applied directly to the soil at the time of planting (Corp et al., 2004).Sampling for nodulation was performed by excavating the roots of plants randomly from two rows next to boarder rows of each plot at the mid flowering stage of the crop. Uprooting was done by spade and shovel and soil was removed from the root system by hand. The adhering soil was removed by washing the roots gently with water over a metal sieve. Nodules remaining in the soil were picked up by hand. The plants from each plot were used to record the following observations.Nodule rating: Nodulation rating was done by careful uprooting of five plants with intact nodule. The plants were examined for nodulation in the tap root, in the secondary root but close to the tap root, scattered all over the root and plants showing no root nodulation. The rating of the plant for nodulation was done in scale of 1-10. The nodule rating was done following the formula mentioned in NifTAL, (1985). Number of effective nodules: Ten representative nodules were taken from five up rooted plants from each plot and dissected with blade to observe their color in the center. The color score were made in 1-4 scale as: 1 = white, 2 = pink, 3 = slightly dark red and 4 = deep dark red as adopted by Tekalign and Asgelel (1994).Nodule dry weight: The collected nodules were labeled and placed in perforated paper bags.The nodule dry weight per plant was measured after drying the collected nodules in an oven with a temperature of 65 o C for 24-48 hrs until constant weight is attained. The average of five plants was taken as a nodule dry weight per plant.Shoot length: At late flowering stage, three plants were up rooted from each middle plots and the shoot length was measured. The mean from three plants was used as shoot length.Shoot dry weight: After measuring the shoot length, the plants were kept at 65 o C in oven until getting constant weight. The mean value from three plants was taken as shoot dry weight per plant.Days to 50% flowering: It was determined as the number of days after seedling emergence to the period when 50% of the plants in a plot developed first flower.Days to maturity: It was taken as the number of days after seedling emergence to the period when 90% of the plants in the plot were ready for harvesting as revealed by change in the foliage and pod color and seed hardening in the pod. Grain yield (Kg ha -1 ): It was determined after threshing and adjusting the grain yield at the appropriate moisture level of 10.5%. Finally, yield per plot was converted to per hectare basis.Hundred seeds weight (g): It was determined by weighing 25 randomly selected grains and weighing with sensitive balance and multiplying by four. It was reported as 100 grain-weight.Straw yield (Kg ha -1 ): It was calculated by subtracting grain yield from the corresponding total above ground biomass yield.Harvest index (HI): It was computed as the ratio of seed yield to biomass yield.3.2.6.6. Estemation of Total N and P uptake Phosphorus Uptake by seed and straw was determined from the P content of respective part after multiplying the seed yield and straw yield, respectively. Similarly the N uptake by seed and straw was determined from the N content of respective part after multiplying the seed and straw yield, respectively. Total N and P uptake were calculated by adding the N and P uptake of seed and straw. The collected data were subjected to three factors analyses of variance (ANOVA) to evaluate the main and interaction effect of the factors (fertilizers and inoculation) on the selected parameters using SAS 9.1 statistical software. Where ever the treatment effect were significant, mean separation were made using the least significance (LSD) test at 5% level of probability.Correlation between parameters were computed when applicable according to Gomez and Gomez (1984).Based on procedure described by CIMMYT (1988), economic analysis was done using partial budget analysis. For partial budget analysis, the variable cost of fertilizer and labor were taken at the time of planting and during other operations. Price of the grain and straw yield of chickpea were considered. The cost of Rhizobial inoculant was also considered. The average yield was adjusted down ward by 10 % to reflect the farmer's field yield as described by CIMMYT (1988).The return was calculated as total gross return minus total variable cost. Field seed price (22.5Birr kg -1 seed), field price of inoculant (240 Birr ha -1 ), field straw price (2.00 Birr kg -1 ) of the average of one month from the time of crop harvesting and farm-get prices of zinc sulfate fertilizer (15.00 Birr kg -1 ) and market price of calcium sulfate (2.4 Birr kg -1 ) during planting time and labor cost at (40 Birr per person per day) were used for variable cost determination.All input for economic analysis was based on mean value over location.Net benefits and costs that vary between treatments were used to calculate marginal rate of return to invested capital as we move from a less expensive to a more expensive treatment.Before conducting marginal analysis of all treatment, net benefit curve was established by putting variable cost at X axis and net benefit at Y axis. Regression line was added on the curve.Any points below the regression line were identified as dominated and hence dropped. Then marginal analysis of un-dominated treatment were performed to identify the one that will be economically attractive to farmers (CIMMYT, 1998) The results of the selected soil physical and chemical properties are presented in Table1.According to the rating by Tekalign (1991), the pH of the experimental soils ranged from neutral (pH 7.0) to moderately alkaline (pH 7.9) (Table 1). The correlation analysis also revealed that there was a positive and significant (R 2 = 0.89) relationship between soil pH and Ex.Ca. The correlations with the other soil properties were non-significant (Appendix Table 8). The result is in agreement with the findings of Fassil and Charles (2009) who reported positive and significant correlation between pH and total N, EC and Ex.Na and negative correlation with Cu.Soil OM arises from the debris of green plants, animal residues and excreta that are deposited on the surface and mixed to a variable extent with the mineral component (White, 1997).According to Tekalign (1991), the entire site had low OM content (Table 1). This is because of continuous cultivation without returning residue to the soil. Similarly, Fassil and Charles, (2009) reported that vertisols of Ethiopia had low soil OM content. Other authors also reported low soil OM in Vertisols (Kamara and Haque, 1987;Giday et al., 2015;Kiflu and Beyene, 2013).Nitrogen (N) is the fourth plant nutrient taken up by plants in greatest quantity next to C, O and H, but it is one of the most deficient elements in the tropics for crop production (Mesfin, 1998). It has been observed in Table 1, that total N in the study sites varied from 0.04% to 0.07% with a mean value of 0.052%. Based on Tekalign (1991), total nitrogen content of site two was very low while the remaining sites was low (Table 1). This result is in line with the previous findings of many scholars who reported that N is one of the most deficient elements in the tropics for crop production (Finck and Venkateswarlu, 1982;Mengel and Kirkby, 1987;Mesfin, 1998;Hillette et al., 2015).Phosphorus (P) is known as the master key to agriculture next to N because lack of available P in the soils limits the growth of both cultivated and uncultivated plants (Foth and Ellis, 1997). Olsen extractable P content of the soil in the experimental sites ranged from 0.8 to 17.1 mg kg -1 with a mean value of 7.42 mg kg -1 (Table 1). According to Landon (1991), the available P was rated as low for sites 1 and 3, medium for sites 4 and 5 and high for site 2.The source of variation across farms may be due to the different history of fertilizer usage (especially DAP) and the inherent soil variability across farms.Sulfur is an important secondary nutrient which is responsible for synthesis of cysteine, methionine, chlorophyll, vitamins, metabolism of carbohydrates, oil and protein contents (Sarkar et al., 2002;Singh et al., 2006). According to Lewis (1999) S content of all study sites ranged from very low to low (Table1). The low S was also expected because the experimental soil had low organic matter content (source of about 95% of S) indicating that its potential to supply S to plant growth through mineralization is low. EthioSIS soil fertility map showed that The cation exchange capacity (CEC) of soils is defined as the capacity of soils to adsorb and exchange cations (Brady and Weil, 2002). According to the rating developed by Hazelton and Murphy (2007), the soils of the investigated sites had very high CEC (Table 1). The result is within the range reported by Berhanu (1985), who found CEC of 35-70 meq 100 g -1 soil for nearly all the Vertisols of Ethiopia. The very high value of CEC is mainly due to the high clay content of all sites. CEC of soil is an important parameter of soil because it gives an indication of the type of clay minerals present in the soil, its capacity to retain nutrients against leaching and assessing their fertility and environmental behavior. Generally, the chemical activity of the soil depends on its CEC. Similarly, Hillette et al. (2015) found that 77% of the exchangeable site were occupied by Ca ++ followed by Mg ++ (19%) and K + (3.2%). Exchangeable K in the study area ranged from 0.6 cmol (+) K kg -1 in site 1 to 1.1 cmol (+) K kg -1 in site 2. According to Berhanu (1985) all sites had high exchangeable K. This result is also in agreement with different former findings (Beyene, 1982;Kamara et al., 1989;Lemma and Smit, 2008;Hillette et al., 2015).Exchangeable Ca varied between 39.2 cmol (+) Ca kg -1 in site 5 to 56.7 cmol (+) Ca kg -1 in site 3. According to Hazelton and Murphy (2007) all sites had very high exchangeable Ca. Similarly, research in different part of Ethiopia indicated that Vertisols have high Ca content in their exchange sites (Beyene, 1982;Kamara et al., 1989;Lemma and Smit, 2008;Fassil and Charles, 2009;Hillette et al., 2015).Exchangeable Mg in the study sites varied from 16.9 cmol (+) Mg kg -1 in site 3 to 27.1 cmol (+)Mg kg -1 in site 1. Based on the rating developed by Hazelton and Murphy (2007) all sites were very high in their exchangeable Mg content. Similarly, Hillette et al. (2015) reported that all samples collected from 10 locations having clayey texture and neutral to slightly alkaline pH (7.2-7.9) had high exchangeable Mg + which is above the critical level (1-3 cmol kg -1 ) according to Hazelton and Murphy (2007).Zinc plays important role in plant metabolism and influences hydrogenase and carbonic anhydrase activities, stabilize ribosomal fractions and help in the synthesis of cytochrome (Tisdale et al., 1985). Zn deficiency is widespread in many of the world's major chickpeagrowing areas (Cakmak et al., 1995). The authors reported that half of the samples collected from 25 countries found to be very low in Zn content. According to Ahlawat (2007) chickpea is more sensitive to Zn deficiency. Accordingly, the DTPA extractable Zn content in the soil ranged from 0.4 mg kg -1 (site 5) to 0.6 mg kg -1 (site 2) (Table 1). All the soil analysis resultswere lower than the mean value (0.9 mg kg -1 ) reported for Vertisols by Asgelil et al. (2007).But similar to the mean value of available Zn (0.5 mg kg -1 ) reported by Yifru and Mesfin (2013) for Vertisols of the central highlands of Ethiopia. According to Lindsay and Norvell (1978), all sites had below the critical value of 1.0 mg kg -1 . This could be due to the fact that Zn has a tendency of being adsorbed on clay sized particles (Alloway, 2008). Previous research also indicated that in neutral to alkaline soils where chickpea is usually grown, Zn deficiency can often be encountered (Roy et al., 2006). The result is also in agreement with Yifru and Mesfin (2013) The DTPA extractable Fe content in the soil varied from 8.3 mg kg -1 to 20.5 mg kg -1 (Table 1).Based on Lindsay and Norvell (1978), all study sites had adequate amount of available Fe above the critical value. In conformity with the present study Hillette et al. (2015) found that soil samples collected from Vertisols cropping systems of central high lands of Ethiopia have sufficient level of available Fe considering 5 mg kg -1 AB-DTPA extractable Fe as critical.4.1.2.10. ManganeseThe DTPA extractable Mn content varied from 11.3 mg kg -1 to 24.5 mg kg -1 (Table 1 and   Figure18). All sites were above the critical value of DTPA extractable Mn (1 mg kg -1 ) developed by Lindsay and Norvell (1978). Similarly, adequacy of Mn was reported by Hillette et al. (2015), Itanna (1992) and Ethosis, (2016) on vertisols of Ethiopia.The DTPA extractable Cu content varied from 1.5 mg kg -1 to 2.9 mg kg -1 (Table 1). All sites are above the critical value (0.2 mg kg -1 ) developed for DTPA extractable Cu (Lindsay and Norvell, 1978). Yifru and Mesfin (2013)  The MPN test revealed that population of the indigenous rhizobia in Tsion and Denzaz was found ranged between 17 x 10 -1 to low (<10 x 10 -1 rhizobia cells g −1 soil) though the districts (Woredas) have many years of experience in chickpea production (IFPRI, 2015). This indicates the population is not abundant enough to initiate optimum nodulation and provide sufficient amount of N through BNF (Slattery et al., 2004) especially in Tsion site. This is because of the low organic matter content of a soil since organic matter is reservoir of metabolizable energy for microbial and faunal activity and affects stabilization of enzymatic activity (Haynes, 2008). Slattery et al. (2004) reported that only 7% out of 50 samples collected had sufficient effective resident populations of Mesorhizobium ciceri nodulating chickpea. Rupela et al. (1987) also indicated that chickpea Rhizobial populations collected from soil samples from research stations and farmers' fields in different geographic regions of India had ranging from <10 to > 10 4 rhizobia g −1 soil and indicated that their population vary with season, depth and cropping pattern.The main effect of inoculation was found statistically significant (P ≤ 0.01) on nodule number at Tsion and Denzaz site. Similarly, the main effect of S and Zn was found significant at Denzaz and mean value combined over locations (Appendix Table 1). The analysis result also revealed that the two way interaction of S application with inoculation and Zn were found statistically significant both locations and mean value combined. Moreover, the two way interaction of inoculation and Zn was also significant (P ≤ 0.05) at Tsion site (Appendix Table 1).The three way interaction of Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn was found to be significant at both locations and their means (Table 2). At Tsion site, the highest nodule number (15.7) was obtained from the combined application of 15 kg S and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 while the lowest (10.9) was from Rhizobium inoculation and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 . At Denzaz site, the highest nodule number (15.8) was obtained from the combined application of Rhizobium inoculation, 15 kg S and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 whereas the lowest (9.3) was from the control check as well as 15 kg S alone. The highest (15.3) mean nodule number over locations was obtained from Rhizobium inoculation integrated with 15 kg S and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 which resulted in 37.8% increment over the control check. Even if there was no consistent increase, the increase of number of root nodules with increasing levels of Zn might be due to the fact that Zn helps to improve more nodulation and leghaemoglobin formation (Brady and Well, 2009). Proper nutrition of plants with S increases the amount of glucose flowering to the roots and ATP biosynthesis (Pacyna et al., 2006). In conformity with the present finding, Srivastava et al. (2006) reported that the combined application of Rhizobium inoculation with 30 kg S and 5 kg Zn ha -1 significantly increased number of nodules plant -1 by 18%, 14.15% and 13% respectively compared with the control. This is mainly due to creation of favorable soil ecological condition for the growth and development of nitrogen fixing bacteria in gummer green gram. In addition, similar result were also concluded by Naidu and Ram (1995)  Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variationNodule volume is one of the parameters in assessing the performance of nodules in accordance with their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. In Appendix Table 1, the nodule volume which were obtained from both locations and mean values were significantly influenced by the main effect of inoculation, S and Zn and the two way interaction of S and Zn at P≤ 0.05. At Tsion and mean value, the two way interaction of inoculation with S and Zn were found significant.Moreover, this trait at both locations and its mean value over locations were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) influenced by the three way interaction (Table 3). At both locations, the highest (0.97 and 1.6 ml plant -1 ) and lowest (0.38 and 0.6 ml plant -1 ) nodule volume was observed whenRhizobium inoculation integrated with 15 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 and combined application of Rhizobium inoculation and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , respectively. Indicating S application increase nodule volume (Table 3).The highest mean value of nodule volume (1.3 ml plant -1 ) over locations was obtained from combined application of Rhizobium inoculation with 15 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 which resulted in 116.7% increase over the control check (Table 13). This increment in nodule volume might have been because of synergistic effects between Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn.Similar to the present study, Habtegebrial et al. (2007), Alemu (2009) Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variationIn Appendix Table 1, nodule dry weight data which were obtained from both locations and its mean value was significantly affected by the main effects of inoculation and S and its two way interaction between them at P ≤ 0.01. Similarly, the main effect of Zn was found significant at Tsion and Denzaz site at P ≤ 0.01. The analysis of variance also showed that the two way interaction of S with Zn was significantly influenced this trait at both locations and mean value combined over locations at P ≤ 0.01 The interaction of the three factors also significantly (P ≤ 0.01) influenced the nodule dry weight at both sites as well as their mean value over locations (Table 4).At Tsion site, the highest (58.7 mg plant -1 ) and lowest (29.3 mg plant -1 ) nodule dry weight values were obtained in response to Rhizobium inoculation when integrated with 30 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 and Rhizobium inoculation alone, respectively. At Denzaz site, the highest (46.7 mg plant -1 ) and lowest (14.7 mg plant -1 ) nodule dry weight were obtained from Rhizobium inoculation when integrated 15 kg S ha -1 and application of 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 alone, respectively.The highest (48.5 mg plant -1 ) mean value of nodule dry weight combined over locations was found when Rhizobium inoculation was integrated with 15 kg S ha -1 which resulted in 22.2% increase over the control check (Table 4). This is probably due to the positive role of S in promoting nodulation and enhancement of photosynthesis in plants. Consistent with this idea, Scherer (2008) has noted that root and nodule development of legumes root is promoted by S fertilization. Scherer and Lange (1996) also reported that S deficiency decreased N demand, which in turn decreased the number and mass of nodules. In contrast, an increase in N demand resulted in higher number and mass of nodules. Similarly, different authors reported that the dry weight of nodules increased with Rhizobium inoculation (Kantar et al., 2003;Habtegebrial et al., 2007;Rokhzadi and Toashih, 2011;Abdalla et al., 2011;Birhanu and Pant, 2012;Workneh et al., 2012;Jay et al., 2012;Srinivasulu et al., 2015;Sharifi, 2016) and S application (Yadav, 2011;Rakesh et al., 2012;Sipai et al., 2016). Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variationMany authors have reported that legume nodules having dark pink or red colors due to presence of leghemoglobin are an indication for effectiveness of the rhizobial strains used, which is well correlated with nitrogen fixation (Adjei and Chambeiss, 2002;Butler and Evers, 2004). The effectiveness of nodules in its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in response to inoculation, S and Zn was assessed using nodule color. In Appendix Table 2, neither the main effect of all factors and nor the two way interaction between them was found significant. The result also indicated that all levels of inoculation, S and Zn were invariably slightly dark red.The three way interaction between inoculations, S and Zn was presented in Table 5. Nodule color was found to range from pink to slightly dark red. The color observed in the inoculated and un-inoculated plots was comparable to each other indicating the non-effectiveness of inoculated rhizobia over the native rhizobia. Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variationNodulation rating was significantly influenced by the main effect inoculation and S at both locations (Appendix Table 2). The two way interaction between inoculation and Zn was found significant at both locations and mean value combined over location. The two way interaction between inoculation and S also found significant (P ≤ 0.05) at Denzaz and mean value combined over locations at P ≤ 0.01 (Appendix Table 2). Appendix Table 2 also revealed that the two way interaction of S and Zn was found significant at Tsion and mean value combined over locations.Moreover, this trait and its mean value combined over locations were significantly influenced by the three way interaction of the three factors at P ≤ 0.05 (Table 6).At Tsion site, the highest (6.5) and lowest (3.5) nodulation rating were recorded with combined application of Rhizobium inoculation with 30 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 and 30 kg S ha -1 alone, respectively (Table 6). At Denzaz, the highest (7) and lowest (2.7) nodulation rating was recorded from Rhizobium inoculation when integrated with 30 kg S ha -1 and combined application of 15 kg S ha -1 with 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , respectively. The present study also found that, the highest (6.7) mean nodulation rating over locations was obtained with Rhizobium inoculation when integrated with 30 kg S ha -1 which resulted in 86.1% increase over the control check (Table 16). This is probably due to the availability of optimal level of nutrients for the production of effective and large nodules on the tap root system. In consistent with this suggestion, Jennings ( 2004) reported that effective nitrogen fixing are often found when the nodules are red and found in the primary root. In general, the result revealed that regardless of S and Zn application rates, the superior nodulation rating of chickpea was gained from Rhizobium inoculation over uninoculated treatment (Table 6). Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV Coefficient of variationThe plant height which was obtained from both locations and its mean values combined over location was significantly affected by the main effect of S application and its interaction with inoculation (at P≤ 0.01) (Appendix Table 2 and Table 7). Moreover, this trait and its mean values was significantly influenced by the two way interaction of S and Zn at Denzaz and mean value combined over location. The analysis of variance also showed that the main effect of Zn was found to be significant at Tsion and mean value combined over locations (Table 7). In general, the result revealed that plant height was increased with increasing S rate when the plant was inoculated (only at Denzaz) and fertilized with 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 both at Tsion site and mean value combined over locations (Table 7). The highest plant height at both locations and mean value combined over locations were observed with application of 30 kg S ha -1 . Sulfur is also a major component of ferreoxin in chloroplast which is relevant for the proper photosynthetic activity (Fukuyama, 2004). Hussain et al. (2011) reported that application of 30 kg S ha -1 on soybean plants increase plant height by 14% compared with the control. At Tsion and mean value combined over locations, the highest plant height was observed with application of 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 (Table 7). This might be attributed to the fact that Zn can activate certain enzymes which are responsible for cell division and elongation which could lead to increased plant height (Nadergoli et al., 2011). At Denzaz site rhizobium inoculation resulted in highest plant height while at Denzaz the highest plant height was obtained from un inoculated treatment. Similarly, previous research also confirmed that plant height was increased with S application (Nasreen and Farid, 2006;Ram and Katiyar, 2013;Sipai et al., 2016) and Zn application (Nadergoli et al., 2011;Dashadi et al., 2013;Usman et al., 2014;Kayan et al., 2015). Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated , S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variationThe main effect of inoculation and S were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) affected the root length at both location and mean value combined over location (Appendix Table 3). The two way interaction of inoculation and S was found to be significant at Denzaz and Mean value combined over location. At Tsion and mean value combined over location, the two way interaction between inoculation and Zn was significantly influenced this trait. The analysis of variance also showed that the two way interaction between S and Zn was significantly influenced this trait at Tsion and Denzaz. Moreover, this trait was significantly influenced by the three way interaction.At Tsion site, the highest (21.1 cm) and lowest (17 cm) root lengths were obtained from the combination of Rhizobium, 15 kg S and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 and from the combination of Rhizobium, 30 kg S and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 (Table 8). Previous finding also confirmed that Rhizobium inoculation (Bhuiyan et al., 2008;Ali et al., 2008;Nishita and Joshi, 2010), S (Varin et al., 2010;Khan and Mazid, 2011) and Zn application (Khan, 1998;Yohannes et al., 2015) significantly increased root length. Moreover, regardless of inoculation and Zn application, application of S up to 15 kg S ha -1 resulted in increased root length. Beyond this rate further increase in root length was not observed. This may be mainly because of the development of acidity environment in immediate vicinity of root zone due to high S rate application and this may retard root growth (Rengel, 2003). Similarly, Zhao et al. (2008) observed that basal application of 30 mg kg -1 elemental S increase root length compared with the control check on soybean but it decreases root length compared with 15 mg kg -1 S. Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, I R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, NS = Not significant at P ≤ 0.05, CV = Coefficient of variationThe main effect of S application and its interaction with inoculation and Zn significantly influenced shoot dry weight at Denzaz and mean value combined over locations but not at Tsion at P ≤ 0.05 (Appendix Table 3). The two way interaction between inoculation with S and Zn also found significant at Denzaz and mean value combined over locations. In general, regardless of the treatments applied, the data showed that shoot dry weight at Tsion was higher than those obtained at Denzaz (Table 9). Higher moisture availability at the time of sowing at Tsion site could result in better germination and ultimately good crop stand and higher shoot dry weight.In general, shoot dry weight exhibited an increasing trend with S application rates when the plant was inoculated and fertilized with 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 .At Denzaz site, significantly the highest (6.5 g plant -1 ) shoot dry weight was found when 30 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 was applied in combination. The highest mean value of shoot dry weight over locations (7 g plant -1 ) was obtained from combined application of 30 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 which resulted in 40% increase over the control check. This might be due to the fact that Zn activates several enzymes such as auxin which is relevant in plant cell division and elongation (Marschner, 1995;Cakmak et al., 1989) and thus, leads to enhance dry matter production of the plants. Hussain et al. (2011) reported that application of 30 kg S ha -1 on soybean plants increase dry matter yield by 26% compared with the control. Valencino et al.(2010) also reported that application of 8 mg Zn pot -1 increse shoot dry weight of chickpea by 11.4% over the control. In line with this finding, several authors also reported the positive effect of S and Zn applications in shoot dry weight (Hussain et al., 2011;Singh et al., 2012;Banik and Sengupta, 2012;Kesare, 2014). Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, NS = Not significant at P ≤ 0.05, CV = Coefficient of variationThe main effect of S application and its interaction with Zn was significantly influenced root dry weight at both sites at P ≤ 0.05. The result also found that at Tsion and on mean value of this trait over locations was significantly influenced by the main effect of inoculation and its interaction with Zn (Appendix Table 3). At Denzaz and mean value of this trait also influenced by the main effect Zn and its interaction with inoculation and S (Appendix Table 3). Moreover, the three way interaction were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) affected the root dry weight at both locations and their mean value over locations. At Tsion site, the highest root dry weight (0.71 g plant -1 ) was recorded with combined application of 15 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 under un inoculated condition while the highest value (0.54 g plant -1 ) at Denzaz site were found from 30 kg S ha -1 applied with 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 under un inoculated condition (Table 10). Combined application of Rhizobium inoculation and 30 kg S ha -1 resulted in the maximum mean root dry weight (0.59 g plant -1 ). Similarly, root dry weight increase due to Rhizobium inoculation (Abdalla et al., 2011;Workneh et al., 2012;Jay et al., 2012), and S application (Besharati and Rastin, 1999;Zhao et al., 2008;Varin et al., 2010) have been reported. Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variation 4.4. Yield Related TraitsNumber of primary branches was responded significantly to the main effect of S application and its interaction with inoculation and Zn at both locations and at Denzaz site respectively at P ≤ 0.05 (Appendix Table 4). The analysis of variance also showed that the main effect of Zn application (at Tsion site) and its interaction with inoculation was significantly influenced this trait at both locations and mean value combined over locations. Moreover, this trait by location and its mean value over locations were significantly influenced by the three way interactions at P ≤ 0.05 (Table 11).Even though it is not consistent, this observation suggests number of primary branches exhibited an increased with increasing the rate of S and Zn (Table 11). At Tsion site, the highest (4.5) and lowest (3.4) primary branches were obtained from sole application of 30 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , respectively. The highest (3.4) and lowest (2.1) number of primary branches at Denzaz site was obtained in response to combined application of Rhizobium inoculation and 30 kg S ha -1 as well as with sole application of S at 15 kg ha -1 and with the control treatment, respectively (Table 11).The highest mean value of primary branches over locations (3.8) was obtained from combined application of Rhizobium inoculation and 30 kg S ha -1 which resulted in 31.03% increase over the control check (Table 11). The increase in primary branches due to Rhizobial inoculation was explained by the increasing supply of N through BNF. Application of S has vital role in the primary and secondary metabolism as it is a constituent of various organic compounds (Hitsuda et al., 2004;Naeve and Shibles, 2005). Similarly, the number of primary branches increased due to Rhizobium inoculation and S application (Sharma and Room, 1997;Togay et al., 2008;Namvar et al., 2011;Ram and Katiyar, 2013;Kesare, 2014;Jadeja et al., 2016;Das et al., 2016) have been reported. Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variationNumber of pods per plant at both locations was significantly affected by the main effect of S and Zn at P ≤ 0.01 (Appendix Table 4). At Tsion and Denzaz site, the two way interaction between inoculation with S and Zn was found significant (P ≤ 0.05) respectively. More over at Denzaz and mean value combined over locations, the two way interaction S and Zn was found significant. The analysis of variance also revealed that this trait and its mean value over locations were significantly influenced by three way interactions (Table 12).At Tsion site, significantly the highest number of pod (51.3) was obtained from combined application of Rhizobium inoculation with 15 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 . But it is the same as combined application of 30 kg and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 . While at Denzaz site the highest value (47.7) was found from combined application of Rhizobium inoculation with 30 kg S ha -1 . Regardless of locations, the lowest number of pod was obtained from Rhizobium inoculation alone. The combined analysis over locations indicated that the highest (48.3) mean number of pod was obtained from combined application of Rhizobium inoculation and 30 kg S ha -1 . In general, the result demonstrated that number of pod per plant increased with S application rate under inoculated condition with 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 . But the trend is not consistent. The increase of number in pods per plant with applications of Zn might be due to the positive effect of Zn on formation of stamens and pollens which could increase number of pods produced in the plant (Usman et al., 2014). S plays many important roles in the growth and development of plants including chlorophyll and nitrogenize formation, promotes nodule formation and enzyme activation (Fageria, 2009). Similarly, El-Kadar and Mona (2013) reported that combined application of S and Zn increase pods number by 19.7% over the control. Other researchers (Nasreen and Farid, 2006;Kanase et al., 2006;Togay et al., 2008;Zhao et al., 2008;Hussain et al., 2011;Nasri et al., 2011;Najar et al., 2011;Namvar et al., 2011;Ram and Katiyar, 2013;Kesare, 2014;Kayan et al., 2015;Das et al., 2016;Jadeja et al., 2016) also reported that number of pod increased with Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn application. Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variationNumber of seeds per pod exhibited a significant response to the main effect of S application and its two way interaction with Zn at Denzaz (P ≤ 0.05) (Appendix Table 5). At Tsion site only the two way interaction between S and Zn was significantly influenced this trait (Appendix Table 5).The analysis of variance also revealed that the three way interaction significantly (P≤ 0.05) affected number of seed at Denzaz site and its mean value over locations (Table 13). In general, the non-significant and lower number of seeds per pod at Tsion than Denzaz was justified by the emergence of pod borer during pod setting period of the crop. At Denzaz site, highest number of seed (1.4) was recorded with combined application of 30 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 . The highest mean value of number of seeds per pod over locations (1.3) was recorded with combined application of rhizobium inoculation with 30 kg S and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 which resulted in 8.3% increase over the control check. This treatment combination was found statistically as par with combined applicationof 30 kg S and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 . This could be due to the fact that sulfur deficiency causes significant reduction of leaf size and photosynthetic materials and resulted in reduction seed number (Hitsuda et al., 2004). Rhizobium inoculation provides adequate supply of N for plant and resulted in increased chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthetic products. The  Zn1.5 Zn0 Zn1.5 Zn0 Zn1.5 Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, NS = Not significant at P ≤ 0.05, CV = Coefficient of variationThe main effect of S affected hundred seed weight at Tsion and Denzaz site (P≤ 0.05). At Tsion and mean value, the main effect of inoculation and Zn was found significant (P≤ 0.01). The result also indicated that the two way interaction between Zn with inoculation and S was significantly influenced this trait (P ≤ 0.05) (Appendix Table 5). Moreover, this trait was significantly (P≤ 0.05) affected by the three way interactions (Table 14).At Tsion site, the highest (29.9 g) and lowest (28.2 g) hundred seed weight were obtained from the combined application of rhizobium inoculation with 30 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 as well as sole applicationof 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 and Rhizobium inoculation alone, respectively. At Denzaz site, the highest (29.6 g) was found from combined application of Rhizobium inoculation and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 . At this location the lowest (28.1) was obtaine in response to sole application of Rhizobium inoculation and sole application of 30 kg S ha -1 . Mean hundred seed weight over locations varied from 28.2 g with Rhizobium inoculation alone to 29.41 g with combined application of rhizobium inoculation with 30 kg S ha -1 and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 application. This increase in 100 grains weight due to rhizobium inoculation may be due to the more delivery of nitrogen by biological N2 fixation (Aslam et al., 2010). Zn application also had a pivotal role on crop growth, involving in photosynthesis, respiration and nitrogen metabolism-protein synthesis. The assimilated photosynthates are translocated from vegetative plant parts to the seed, thus, considerably enhance seed weight (Kakiuchi and Kobata, 2008). Better growth and development of crop plants due to S supply and nitrogen uptake might have increased the supply of assimilates to seed, which ultimately gained more weight. Similarly, different authors observed that the importance of Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn in increasing hundred seed weight (Nasreen and Farid, 2006;Namvar et al., 2011;Nasri et al., 2011;Sipai et al., 2016;Jadeja et al., 2016;Das et al., 2016). Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variation 4.5. Crop Phenology 4.5.1. Days to 50% FloweringReproduction is one of the most important events during the life cycle of higher plants. Several environmental factors such as drought (Sharma and Ashok, 2009), salinity (Bram and Quinn, 2013) and micronutrient stress (Pandey, 2010) affect the normal process of reproduction.Among micronutrient stress that limits reproduction, Zn deficiency has predominant effect on flower initiation and development. Plants exposed to Zn deficiency show delayed flowering, premature bud abscission, reduced seed set and seed yield. Days to 50% flowering was affected significantly (P ≤ 0.05) by the main effect of inoculation and Zn at Denzaz and S at Tsion site respectively. The two way interaction of inoculation with S with Zn was also found significant at Tsion and Denzaz sites, respectively (Appendix Table 5).The three way interaction effect of rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn was found to be statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05) at Tsion and Denzaz sites (Table 15). At Tsion site, the longest (52 days)and shortest (47 days) days to 50% flowering were observed with rhizobium inoculation alone and sole application of 15 kg S ha -1 as well as with interaction between Rhizobium inoculation and Zn application at 1.5 kg ha -1 , respectively. At Denzaz site, the longest and shortest dates to 50% flowering was found to be 54 and 49 days due to sole application of 15 kg S ha -1 and rhizobium inoculation plus 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 as well, respectively. The highest and the lowest day to 50% flowering at Denzaz site was somewhat elongated than those found at Tsion site. This is probably due to supplementation of the crop with irrigation at Denzaz site and this might lead to elongated period of vegetative growth of chickpea (Rajin et al., 2003). Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, NS = Not significant at P ≤ 0.05, CV = Coefficient of variationDays to physiological maturity was affected by the main effect of S and its two way interaction with inoculation and Zn at both locations and their mean value over locations (Appendix table 5). Moreover, the main effect of Zn was found significant on the mean value of this trait over locations. The analysis of variance also showed that days to physiological maturity and its mean value over locations were significantly influenced by the three way interaction at P ≤ 0.05 (Table 16). At Tsion site, the longest days to physiological maturity (120.7) was observed with Rhizobium inoculation alone. At Denzaz site, the longest days to physiological maturity (108.7)was observed with the control check. The longest days to physiological maturity due to Rhizobium inoculation at Tsion site was justified by the fact that Rhizobium inoculation enhanced supplies of N through BNF promote vegetative growth. Moreover, the longest days to physiological maturity observed with control check at Denzaz site might be due low fertility status in the study site (Table 1). The present study also indicated that mean value of days to attain physiological maturity over locations were varied from 110 to 114.2 days in response to sole application of 15 kg S ha -1 and control check, respectively. This was due to the fact that application of S enhances crop growth and increase nutrient uptake by the crop (Motior et al., 2011) and this contributes to reduction of days to physiological maturity. Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variation 4.6. Yield and Yield Related Data 4.6.1. Seed YieldThe main effect of rhizobium inoculation and Zn application exhibited no significant effect on seed yield at both locations and on mean value combined over locations at P ≤ 0.05. But the main effect of S application was found significant at P≤ 0.01 (Appendix Table 6). In agreement with the present finding, Mondal et al. (2005), Islam et al. (2011), Banik and Sengupta (2012), Patel et al. (2013), Bohra (2014), Das et al. (2016), andJadeja et al. (2016) reported that S application increased seed yield of chickpea. It is known that S application enhances chlorophyll concentration, root nodules and dry matter production and this all contribute for yield increment (Erdal et al., 2006). Moreover, acidity produced on oxidation of reduced inorganic sulphur compounds in soil was known to increase the solubility of micronutrients, like iron, zinc and manganese (Vidyalakshmi et al., 2009). The analysis of variance also showed that seed yield responded to the two way interaction of S and Zn. Seed yield was also significantly influenced by the three way interaction of inoculation, S and Zn at both locations and its mean combined over locations (Table 17). In general, this result suggests seed was significantly increased with S rates when the plant was inoculated and fertilized with 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 . At Tsion site, the highest (2039.8 kg ha -1 ) seed yield was obtained from the rhizobium inoculation integrated with 30 kg S ha -1 while the lowest (1693.2 kg ha -1 ) was from the rhizobium inoculation alone.At Denzaz site, the highest (1515.2 kg ha -1 ) seed yield was also obtained from rhizobium inoculation integrated with 30 kg S ha -1 whereas the lowest (1020.5 kg ha -1 ) was from the control check. Combined over locations, the highest (1777.5 kg ha -1 ) mean seed yield was obtained from the integrated application of rhizobium and 30 kg S ha -1 which resulted in 28.02% (389 kg ha -1 ) yield advantage over the control check (Table 17). The highest yield is probably due to the highest number of pods per plant (Penaloza, 1984;Hardwick, 1988). The present study also revealed that, increasing S and Zn when integrated with rhizobium inoculation resulted in seed yield increment until 15 kg S ha -1 (Table 17). This was probably due to the impact of S application in increasing the availability of Zn at high pH. Plaster (2013) reported that deficiencies of Zn at higher pH can be corrected by the application of S. The increase in yield might be due to the fact that Zn has beneficial effect in chlorophyll content and helps in the formation of growth hormones and indirectly influence the photosynthesis and reproduction. It also helps in developing the enzyme and vitamins. Sulphur also performs many physiological functions in cystien, methionine and chlorophyll synthesis. This result was in agreement with some previous finding reported on the importance of combined application of S and Zn in increasing seed yield (Chauhan et al., 2013). Similarly, Pable et al. (2010) reported that application of 30 kg S and 2.5 kg Zn ha -1 in vertisols having deficency in Zn and S significantly increased seed yield of soybean. Moreover, Pable et al. (2010) and Pratibha et al. (2014) reported the significant interaction of S and Zn on seed yield. Other studies also justified the significant interaction of inoculation (Togay et al., 2008;Rokhzadi and Toashih, 2011;Ahmed et al., 2010;Namvar and Sharifi, 2011;Namvar et al., 2011), S (Zhao et al., 2008;Srinivasarao et al., 2008;Islam et al., 2011;Kesare, 2014;Zafar et al., 2014) and Zn application (Tiwari et al., 2006;Srinivasarao et al., 2008;Mohammad Reza Haj Seyed Hadi et al., 2013;Zafar et al., 2014;Sharifi, 2016) on seed yield of chickpea. Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variation.Straw yield which was obtained from Denzaz was significantly influenced by the main effect of S, Zn and two-way interaction of S with inoculations and Zn at P ≤ 0.05. At Tsion site, the main effect of rhizobium inoculation and Zn and the two-way interaction between S with rhizobium inoculation and Zn were significant. Moreover, the two-way interaction of S with rhizobium inoculation and Zn application were significant on the mean values over location at P ≤ 0.01 (Appendix Table 6). Straw yield was also significantly influenced by the three-way interaction of inoculation, S and Zn at both locations and its mean combined over locations (Table 18).At Tsion site, the highest (1398.4 kg ha -1 ) straw yield was obtained from rhizobium inoculation alone while the lowest (1051.2 kg ha -1 ) was from application of 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 . At Denzaz site, the highest straw yield (1491.2 kg ha -1 ) was obtained from combined application of rhizobium inoculation with 1.5 kg Zn ha-1. Combined over locations, the highest (1370.6 kg ha -1 ) mean straw yield was obtained from combined application of rhizobium inoculation and 1.5 kg Zn ha Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, I R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variationHarvest index determines the amount of photosynthates being translocated to the economic parts of plant. Harvest index was influenced significantly (P ≤ 0.05) due to the main effect of inoculation, Zn and the two way interaction with S at Tsion site. The two way interaction between S and inoculation was also significant (P ≤ 0.05) in mean value of this trait over locations (Appendix Table 6). Moreover, this trait and its mean value over locations were significantly influenced by three way interactions (Table 19).At Tsion site, the highest (0.62) and lowest (0.56) harvest Index was measured with control check and rhizobium inoculation plus 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , respectively. The highest harvest index observed with control check at Tsion site was justified by the fact that lowest biological yield coupled with lowest uptake of nutrient (N and P) observed with this treatment forced the plant to allocate higher photosynthetic product to the seed. Rhizobium inoculation plus 1.5 kg Zn ha -lowest (0.46) harvest Index was recorded with rhizobium Inoculation when integrated with 15 kg S and 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 and rhizobium Inoculation applied with 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , respectively.Previous research finding also indicated the positive role of rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn nutrient application in increasing harvest index (Roy et al., 1995;Khamparia, 1996;Malik et al., 2006;Khorgamy and Farina, 2009;Valenciano et al., 2009;Valenciano et al., 2011). Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variation 4.7. Nutrient (N and P) Uptake 4.7.1. Total N UptakeTotal N uptake of legume can serve as a good indicator of N2 fixation. Total N uptake which was obtained from both locations and its mean combined over locations was significantly affected by the main effect of S and its two way interaction with Zn at P ≤ 0.05 (Appendix Table 7). Moreover, the main effect of inoculation and Zn application was found to be significant at Denzaz and mean value combined over locations. The analysis of variance also showed that the two way interaction of inoculation with Zn and S was statistically significant at Denzaz and mean value respectively (P ≤ 0.05) (Appendix table 7).The result also found that total N uptake of chickpea was significantly influenced by the three way interaction at P ≤ 0.05 (Table 20). The highest total N uptake (67.4 kg ha -1 ) was generally observed in Tsion kebele. This was justified by the fact that highest biological yield also observed in this kebele. The total N uptake of this site varied from 67.4 to 49.8 kg ha -1 with Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, I+=Rhizobium inoculated, I-= un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variation 4.7.2. Total P UptakeThe main effect of S and Zn at both locations and mean value over location significantly influenced the total P uptake at P ≤ 0.01. Similarly, the main effect of inoculation was found to be statistically significant at Tsion site and mean value at P ≤ 0.01 (Appendix Table 7). The analysis of variance also showed that, the two way interaction of S with inoculation and Zn application were found to be significantly (P ≤ 0.05) influenced total P uptake at both location and mean value combined over locations. Moreover, total P uptake was affected by the three way interaction (Table 21). At Tsion site and mean value over locations, the highest and lowest total P uptakes were found due to combined application of 30 kg S with 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 and Rhizobium inoculation, respectively. But the highest mean value was Statistically as par with 30 kg S ha-1application. At Denzaz site, the highest (10.5 kg ha -1 ) total P uptake was obtained with sole application of 30 kg S ha -1 . The highest mean total P uptake increase by 65.7% over the control check. This could be due to the fact that S application increases P availability in the soil by which enhance the P uptake by plant (Fageria, 2009). This attributed to the fact that oxidation of S produce H2SO4 which could solubilize P. Similarly, Kapoor and Mishra (1989) found that the acidity generated on oxidation of pyrite can be coupled to solublization of rock phosphate. Gowda et al. (2001) also found that the increase in available P in soil solution is attributed to ion exchange with sulphate-S ion. Previously, seed P uptake increased in response to S application have been reported (Togay et al., 2008;Najar et al., 2011;Yadav, 2011;Muhammad et al., 2013;Kesare, 2014;Das et al., 2016;Srinivasulu et al., 2015;Zerihun et al., 2017). In contrary, Srivastava et al. (2006) reported that Rhizobium inoculation with 30 kg S and 5 kg Zn increase P total uptake of summer green gram. Means with the same letter are not significantly different at P>0.05 level of probability following LSD, I R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , LSD= Least significant difference, CV = Coefficient of variationIn figure 20 and 22 show that the highest P harvest index were recorded with rhizobium inoculation and application of 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 increase mean P harvest index by 13.3% and 11.7% over the negative control, respectively. Regardless of S application rate, it was increased P harvest index when compared with negative control (Figure 21). The result also demonstrated that at both locations, the highest P use efficiency (77.3% at Tsion site and 163.6% at Denzaz site) were obtained with Rhizobium inoculation which resulted in 31% and 45.3% increase over the un-inoculated treatment (Figure 23). Application of 15 kg S ha -1 also caused the highest P use efficiency at both locations and mean value over location. This treatment increased P use efficiency by 12.6% over S control.The increase in P use efficiency due to Rhizobium inoculation and S application could be due to the need of high P for ATP synthesis as result of high BNF activity and increase the P availability due to S application. Similarly, Khair et al. (2002)   It is quite evident from the data presented in Table 22, that the highest mean total gross benefit (38433.4 birr ha -1 ) and mean net benefit (37069.4 birr ha -1 ) was obtained when Rhizobium applied with 30 kg S ha -1 . The next better return was 35485.5 ha -1 birr which was obtained from 30 kg S applied together with 1.5 kg Zn ha -1 . The lowest mean total gross benefit and mean net benefit of 30050.3 birr ha -1 was obtained from the control check and found net benefit penalty of 23.4% (7019.1 birr ha -1 ).According to the dominance analysis on mean value over locations, control check, R1 (Rhizobium inoculation alone), R1S15 (Rhizobium inoculation + 15 kg ha -1 Sulphur) and R1S30Zn1.5(Rhizobium inoculation + 30 kg ha -1 Sulphur + 1.5 kg ha -1 Zinc) were dominated by other treatments, hence, eliminated from further economic analysis (Figure 26). The highest MRR (marginal rate of return) of 1941% was obtained from combined application of Rhizobium inoculation and 30 kg S ha -1 (Table 23). This implies that for 1.00 birr investment in chickpea production, the producer can get 19 birr.  R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 ,GY= Adjusted seed yield ((kg ha -1 ), ASY= Adjusted straw yield (kg ha -1 ), GBS=gross benefit from straw (ETB ha -1 ), GBG=gross benefit from straw (ETB ha -1 ), TGB=total gross benefit (ETB ha -1 ), TVC=total cost that vary (ETB ha -1 ), NB=net benefit (ETB ha -1 ), D=dominance, DM=dominated. R1=Rhizobium inoculated, R0=un-inoculated, S0= 0 kg S ha -1 , S15= 15 kg S ha -1 , S30= 30 kg S ha -1 , Zn0= 0 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn1.5=1.5 kg Zn ha -1 , TVC=total cost that vary (ETB ha -1 ), NB=net benefit (ETB ha -1 ), MRR=marginal rate of return. freedom, GY =seed yield (kg ha-1), SY=straw yield (kg ha -1 ), HI= Harvest Index, **, * and NS = significant at 1%, 5% and non-significant, respectively.","tokenCount":"17938"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"07acd973d50b2b0d10e9b770ec00aa3b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6bf3d8d8-4e0d-459a-a509-439ff37575a0/retrieve","id":"2005608531"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c2743477-3009-4033-987d-c7fc4ba87de3","pagecount":"2","content":"y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS) busca promover un mundo con mayor seguridad alimentaria a través de esfuerzos científicos que contribuyan tanto a una agricultura sostenible y a mejorar los medios de vida, como a la adaptación al cambio climático y la conservación de los recursos naturales y los servicios ambientales.El Reto de la Agricultura y la Seguridad Alimentaria El cambio climático es una amenaza sin precedentes para la seguridad alimentaria de cientos de millones de personas que dependen de la agricultura de pequeña escala para su sustento. El cambio climático afecta la agricultura y la seguridad alimentaria, y asimismo la agricultura y el manejo de los recursos naturales afectan al sistema climático. Estas relaciones complejas y dinámicas también se ven influenciadas por políticas económicas, conflictos políticos y otros factores como la propagación de enfermedades infecciosas.Actualmente las relaciones entre todos estos factores y la manera cómo interactúan no están bien entendidas, como tampoco lo están las ventajas y desventajas de las diferentes respuestas frente el cambio climático. Para desarrollar soluciones prácticas para la agricultura frente al cambio climático, necesitamos integrar conocimientos acerca del cambio climático, la agricultura y la seguridad alimentaria de una manera significativa e innovadora.Ninguna institución de investigación puede resolver por sí sola estos problemas tan cruciales. El Programa de Investigación de CGIAR sobre Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS, por sus siglas en inglés) aborda el creciente reto del calentamiento global y la disminución de la seguridad alimentaria en las prácticas agrícolas, mediante una colaboración estratégica entre CGIAR y la Asociación Científica del Sistema Tierra (ESSP, por sus siglas en inglés).Liderado por el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), CCAFS está colaborando con todos los 15 centros que integran el Consorcio CGIAR, los Programas de Investigación de CGIAR y una extensa gama de socios.CCAFS está estructurado en torno a cuatro temas globales estrechamente interrelacionados, con actividades en las regiones de África Occidental, África Oriental, América Latina, Asia Meridional y el Sureste Asiático:Tema 1: Adaptación al cambio climático progresivo Tema 2: Adaptación por medio del manejo del riesgo climático Tema 3: Mitigación del cambio climático en pro de la población de escasos recursos Tema 4: Integración para el proceso de toma de decisionesLos objetivos del programa CCAFS son: • Identificar y evaluar prácticas de mitigación y adaptación en pro de la población de escasos recursos, tecnologías y políticas para los sistemas alimentarios, la capacidad adaptativa y los medios de vida en las zonas rurales. • Proporcionar un diagnóstico y análisis que garanticen la inclusión de la agricultura en las políticas en materia de cambio climático, y la inclusión de los temas climáticos en las políticas agrícolas, desde el nivel subnacional hasta el nivel mundial de manera que genere beneficios para la población rural de escasos recursos.Una Nueva Forma de Trabajar CCAFS reúne a los mejores investigadores del mundo en el campo de las ciencias agrícolas, la investigación para el desarrollo, la ciencia climática y la ciencia del sistema Tierra para identificar y abordar las interacciones, sinergias y concesiones más importantes entre el cambio climático, la agricultura y la seguridad alimentaria. CCAFS también incluye la participación de agricultores, formuladores de políticas, donantes y otros actores directos, e integra sus conocimientos y necesidades en las herramientas y las iniciativas que se desarrollan.La investigación en CCAFS es llevada a cabo por grupos de trabajo de socios con habilidades y experticias complementarias, instituciones similares de norte y sur, incluidas colaboraciones sur-sur. Esta nueva forma de trabajar busca ampliar el diálogo entre la ciencia y la política.CCAFS pone en práctica los conocimientos reuniendo a actores directos de los mundos de la ciencia y la política. El Programa está comprometido en poner ampliamente disponibles y accesibles los resultados y los datos científicos para colegas investigadores, formuladores de políticas y público en general. ","tokenCount":"627"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f16378679267cf7dedcaa05e4c07a760","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ca7e2b54-4b07-42f6-ae0f-70d01221106b/retrieve","id":"-1884751499"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cea84152-08e3-4168-8372-bedaf9fad2e4","pagecount":"17","content":"Rotation of grass ley with periods of annual crop production can be a means to increased farming system productivity, sustainability, and profitability. This research review offers interpretations of rotation research results for future African agriculture. Some rotation studies were with naturally generated and severely over-grazed fallows consisting primarily of annual plant species but other studies were with planted and well-managed perennial grass ley. Generally, the rotations increased annual crop yields with soil improvement. System benefits were similar or greater for ley compared with fallow with generally higher fodder yields with ley. Surface crusting of sandy soil in the Sahel is a major concern that may be worsened by fallow due to the deposition of clay and silt particles. Ley and fallow were terminated in all studies with inversion plow tillage with more tillage for subsequent crops while the rotation benefits may be greater with less tillage. Most studies did not have fertilizer use but annual crop yield response to fertilizer was greatly increased following ley in one study and with no system by fertilizer interaction effect in three studies. The profitability of ley rotations will vary with fodder demand which is rapidly increasing, especially near urban areas. Strip cropping, for example, alternate ley with annual crop strips of 5-20 m width and rotation cycles of 6-10 yr, may often be optimal Abbreviations: SOC, soil organic carbon.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.for erosion control and sediment trapping, protection from uncontrolled grazing, and nearby supply of vegetative planting material for ley re-establishment. Rotation management can be improved through experiential learning and experimentation.The rotation of managed perennial grass or grass-legume mixtures (ley) with annual crops has been practiced and studied as a means to improve soil and farming system productivity, profitability, and sustainability. Recent research reviews have been written for temperate North America (Allen et al., 2007;Franzluebbers, 2007;Russelle et al., 2007;Sulc & Tracy, 2007), Australia (Hochman et al., 2013), subtropical South America (Carvalho et al., 2010;Franzluebbers et al., 2014), and Europe. Studies of rotations with leguminous woody and herbaceous fallows, and annual cover or fodder crops have been reviewed for tropical Africa (Eilitta et al., 2014). Information on ley or herbaceous fallow rotations with annual crops in the tropics has not been well reviewed and such rotations have been less studied in recent decades compared with studies in temperate and subtropical areas. This review focused on fallow and ley rotations for arable lands in Africa within 15 o latitude of the equator with areas of inference for research sites indicated (Figure 1). Numerous ecological and crop production benefits of ley rotations have been identified. Soil organic matter is likely to increase during the ley stage due to reduced erosion and increased root biomass production with benefits to soil chemical, physical, and biological properties with implications for cropping system productivity and resilience to climate extremes (Dupont et al., 2014;Franzluebbers, 2012;Franzluebbers et al., 2014;Monti & Zatta, 2009;Persson et al., 2008). Trapping of sediment from water and wind erosion can increase soil organic carbon (SOC) and clay content of the surface soil (Bielders et al., 2002). Old perennial roots remained 5 yr after the conversion of perennial grassland to annual wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production (DuPont et al., 2014). In Uruguay, following 50 yr of rotating 3 yr of perennial grass ley with 3 yr of annual crops, with fertilizer applied, there were increases of 40% for annual crop yield, 20% for SOC, and 34% for exchangeable K with little effect on soil pH (Grahmann et al., 2020).The effect of ley rotations on SOC has been simulated with the Cycles agroecosystem model (Kemanian et al., 2020;Pravia et al., 2019). The capacity for SOC accumulation during the ley stage may be affected by ley duration and the difference between the initial and saturation level for SOC. Hassink and Whitmore (1997) found the SOC saturation level to be related to soil clay content (%clay) and proposed the equation SOC saturation level = 0.021 + 0.038 × %clay. They found that clay type and percentage silt effects on the SOC saturation level to be small and inconsistent. The fractional stabilization of new organic material into stored SOC, or the humification rate, approaches zero as soil mineral surfaces become saturated with SOC and the SOC saturation level is approached (Kemanian et al., 2011;White et al., 2014). Ley rotations may have greater value on land where SOC is well below the SOC saturation level, such as due to past erosion, and where the profitability of annual crop production is low (Wortmann et al., 2019). Model simulation of ley rotation effects on SOC was improved by adding a subroutine to account for the effect of SOC saturation (Pravia et al., 2019).Major farming system changes are driven by sufficient profit potential with acceptable risk and manageable financial investment (Wortmann et al., 2020). The profit potential may be partly due to improved net returns on investment in annual crop production or improved fodder production. In much of tropical Africa, fodder demand has rapidly increased and market prices for high-quality fodder can be near those for grain in crop-livestock farming systems (Samireddypalle et al., 2017). The crop diversification with the addition of forage production can contribute to reduced financial risk associated with climate variation and price fluctuations. Soil improvement often allows for greater and more profitable response to fertilizer use (Garba et al., 2018;Nalivata et al., 2017;Stewart et al, 2020).Land productivity and gains in yield for tropical Africa have been disappointing. The mean maize (Zea mays L.) yield is about 2 Mg ha −1 compared and about one-third of the global average (FAOSTAT, 2020). Mean maize grain yield increases due to fertilizer application under good management appear to average about 1.1 Mg ha −1 for N, 0.4 for Mg ha −1 P, and 0.2 Mg ha −1 for K (Liben et al., 2020;Kaizzi et al., 2012;Serme et al., 2020;Wortmann et al., 2018) but these gains indicate low productivity potential. Similar results, although likely with less yield increase due to fertilizer, could be generated for other crops. Ley rotations may be a means to significantly improve land productivity and response to fertilizer use. Much ley rotation research has been done globally in recent decades but most research results for tropical Africa are decades old. Still, those results have value if interpreted for future agriculture.Rainfall amount and distribution are likely to affect the effectiveness and management of ley rotations. At the equator, rainfall distribution is bi-modal due to the inter-tropical convergence zone allowing for two cropping seasons per year and nearly continuous growth of ley where rainfall is adequate (NOAA, 2020). As the distance from the equator increases, the rainfall distribution gradually changes from bi-modal to mono-modal so that >70% of annual rainfall may occur in 8 wk, such as in parts of the Sahel, and ley needs to survive and recover from long dry seasons. The research information is therefore presented beginning near the equator and progressing to 15 o latitude. Soil texture and clay content may be important to the potential of ley rotations as clay content is important to water holding capacity, soil aggregation, and capacity to accumulate SOC. However, variation in SOC seldom accounted for within-field variation in yield such as at Samaru Nigeria (Heathcote, 1969), at Saria Burkina Faso (Ouattara, 1994), at Bondoukuy Burkina Faso (Bilgo et al., 2007;Ouattara, 2009), and Serere Uganda (McWalter & Wimble, 1976).Interpretation of information on ley rotations for future agriculture is challenged as many of the studies were conducted decades ago (Tables 1-3). Some were conducted as fallow rather than ley rotations. The fallow vegetation was typically naturally generated, often dominated by herbaceous annuals with a low density of perennial shrubs, and severely over-grazed for low aboveground and belowground plant growth. In contrast, ley may be established from sown seed or vegetatively and well managed for highly productive grazed or harvested fodder production. Both are expected to contribute to the restoration of land productivity while providing livestock feed but much more growth and soil improvement is expected with ley than with fallow. Another factor that reduces current relevance is that all studies involved much tillage for termination of the ley/fallow and to prepare land and control weeds for the annual crops while current management may occur with no or minimal tillage to prolong the benefits of ley to soil productivity. Studies in temperate and subtropical areas have found prolonged benefits of ley with no-till compared with tillage (Carvalho et al., 2010;DuPont et al., 2014;Ernst & Siri-Prieto, 2009;Garcia-Prechac et al., 2004). Many of the studies in Africa were conducted with no fertilizer use while an expected benefit of ley rotations may be a greater and more efficient response of the annual crops to applied nutrients. The results need to be interpreted in consideration of these weaknesses and that the potential benefits of ley rotations are likely underestimated.Demand for fodder will be key to the feasibility of ley rotations. Sagir and Santoro (2018) estimated that 11.3% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa resided in urban areas in• Soil productivity is low and often declining in parts of tropical Africa. • The demand for animal products and high quality fodder has increased with urban growth. • Ley rotation with annual crop production can improve soil productivity while producing fodder. • Past research has been reviewed and interpreted for smallholder farming system improvement.2010 with a 2050 projection of 20.2% while the total population continues to grow. Population and economic growth in urban areas are expected to drive demand for livestock products whether produced in urban, peri-urban, or rural areas.The resulting increased demand for fodder increases opportunities for profitable ley rotations in areas that can supply the fodder competitively. This paper reviews research results of ley or fallow rotations with annual crops in tropical Africa (Figure 1). Many of the studies were conducted decades ago and results are interpreted for current production systems. Recommendations and information needs are discussed.Stephens (1967) reported the results of an elephant grass/napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach.) ley rotation study conducted from 1957 to 1964 at Kawanda Uganda at 0.4 o N with bimodal rainfall on clay loam soil (Table 1). The elephant grass was propagated by planting stem segments. It was cut bi-annually with the biomass either burned in the field or removed. The ley was terminated by tillage. No fertilizer was applied to ley or annual crops. The mean gains in annual crop yield, compared with continuous annual cropping, for the nine crops following ley were 135% for the cut and burned ley and 38% for the harvested ley. The ley benefit to annual crop yield persisted for the cut and burn ley treatment but declined over time with the harvest of ley with a mean yield increase for crops 1-6 of 56% but with no yield gain for crops 7-9. The ley benefit to yield was greatest for maize, intermediate for cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and least for bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). The effect of the cut and burn ley was similar to the effect of applying 12.4 Mg ha −1 yr −1 of kraal manure. Following harvest of the fifth annual crop, soil improvements due to ley rotation for the cut and burned ley and the harvested ley, respectively, included 31 and 16% higher water infiltration rates, and 22 and 16% higher water percolation rates. Ley resulted in increased soil pH, SOC, available P, and exchangeable Ca and Mg. The yields with ley burning vs. harvest, and with annual manure application, imply that yields were affected by nutrient availability and that fertilizer application to annual crops following the harvested ley would have reduced the yield gap with the cut and burn treatment.In another study at Kawanda Uganda, 3 yr of perennial grass, 3 yr of annual cover crops, and 3 yr of cultivated annual crops were compared for effects on wet soil aggregate stability (Pereira et al., 1954) (Table 1). Compared with the continuous annual crops, the percent of soil in water-stable aggregates >0.5 mm following 3 yr of grass was 52% more at planting of the first crop and 18% more after harvest of the second crop. The 3 yr of annual cover crops improved soil aggregation for the crop 1 but the cover crop effect was gone by the harvest of the second crop.In a third study of elephant grass ley rotation at Kawanda Uganda, the average grain yield increase over six annual crops following ley with no N applied was 72% with either no harvest or hay harvest of but 94% with grazing of the ley (Foster, 1971). Grain yield response to fertilizer was 22% for grazed and 15% for hayed ley. The annual crop yield benefit decreased over time. Ley resulted in increased available soil N, but P and K availability were reduced by hay harvest of ley. The mean hay yield was about 10 Mg ha −1 yr −1 .At Ngetta and Serere Uganda, rotations of ley to annual crops of 3:2, 3:3, and 2:3 yr appeared optimal as ley longer than 3 yr did not add much to annual crop productivity and ley productivity tended to decline after 3 yr (Kerkham, 1947a; Table 1). Natural regeneration of ley with perennial Cyndon sp. was as effective as sown ley. Annual crop yield was 6.5% more following 3 yr of grazed than with non-grazed ley (Kerkham, 1947b). The leguminous cover crops were not more beneficial than fallow or perennial grass ley. Annual crop yields were increased with increased manure rate and with increased time in rest. Application of 12.5 Mg ha −1 of manure once in 5 yr was sufficient to maintain productivity. The increased yields with more rest years did not compensate for the lack of production during the rest years. Ley yields were not reported. Soil chemical properties were not much affected by treatments except for increased P availability with increased manure rate. Annual crop yields and soil properties E1. Yield results were not reported. Percentage of soil in water-stable aggregates >0.5 mm following 3-yr ley was 52% more at planting of first crop and 18% more after second crop. E2. Over nine crops, yield was 135% more with ley burning and 38% more (56% for crops 1-6 and 0% for crops 7-9) with ley harvest. Ley increased pH 4%, SOC 12%, pore space 4%, percolation 12%, & infiltration 22%. E3. P.p hay yield was ∼10 Mg ha −1 yr −1 . Over six crops, the average grain yield increase was 72% with no N applied and with either no or hay harvest of P.p but 94% with grazing. The yield benefit decreased over time. Grain yield response to fertilizer was 22% for grazed P.p and 15% for hayed P.p.E1. Pereira et al., 1954;E2. Stephens, 1967E3. Foster, 1971 Serere, UG, 1.  Kerkham, 1947aKerkham, , 1947b Kibarani, KE, 3.4 o S, 50 m, 1,050 mm, 5.5 moIncreased yield of three sorghum crops by 60% while the mean increase was 38% following 3 yr of pigeon pea and weedy fallow.Matuga, KE, 4.2 o S, 130 m, 1,020 mm, 4 moIncrease yield of three following sorghum crops by 61 and 8% with 0 and 25 Mg ha −1 manure applied for crop 1, respectively. The 3-yr ley effect was similar to cassava or pigeon pea followed by weedy fallow. were not affected by interactions of rest vegetation type, the rest/crop year and manure application rate. Jameson and Kerkham (1960) and McWalter and Wimble (1976) reported results of 28 yr of research at Serere Uganda which compared 5-yr rotations with sown grass ley that was grazed or harvested as hay with rotations with natural fallow and with a leguminous green manure crop that was incorporated by plowing at the end of the following dry season (Table 1). The rest/crop duration ratios were 1:4, 2:3 and 3:2 yr. There were three levels of manure application. The rest vegetation was terminated by plowing and land preparation for the annual crops involved tillage. No fertilizer was applied. The vegetation and management during the rest period did not affect annual crop yield implying that ley could be harvested for hay or by grazing with no decrease in benefits. Stephens (1970) summarized the results of other ley rotation research in Uganda. Including legumes in ley did not improve yields of ley or of the following annual crops at Serere Uganda. Ley of 2 yr was as effective as ley of 3 or 5 yr for improving annual crop yield if no manure or fertilizer was applied. The annual crop yield with 2-yr ley was similar to yield with continuous annual cropping with 25 Mg ha −1 manure applied once every 3 yr. Annual crop yields were higher with grazed compared with ungrazed ley.At two locations in coastal Kenya, 3 yr of bermudagrass [C. dactylon (L.) Pers.] ley compared with continuous annual crop production resulted in a 60% mean grain yield increase during the following 3 yr of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] production if no manure was applied (Clark, 1962) (Table 1). The mean yield increase due to ley was just 8% with 25 Mg ha −1 manure applied for the first crop. Grazing did not reduce the effectiveness of ley. However, 3 yr of ley was only marginally more beneficial to sorghum yield than 3 yr of either pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.) or cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) followed by weedy fallow.Latitude 5-12 o Valentin et al. (2004) reported fallow and ley effects on the physical properties of a clay loam soil in northwestern Ivory Coast (Table 2). Farmers often initiated fallow, which was not grazed or hayed, because of difficulty in perennial weed management. Soil aggregate stability peaked with about 10 yr of fallow or with 4 yr of managed perennial grass ley such as with elephant grass, Panicum maximum Jacq., or Andropogon gayanus Kunth (Andropogon). Soil aggregate stability declined by 40% during 10 yr of annual cropping. Termites and earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris) had a great effect on surface soil properties during the first 10 yr of fallow with a reduced rate of effect during subsequent fallow years. Erosion crusts were reduced from about 30% of the surface soil at the start of fallow to about 10% after 10 yr of fallow for red soil, and from 70% of the soil surface at the start of fallow with a linear decrease to about 10% during 40 yr of fallow for yellow soil. The water infiltration rate was increased from 60 mm h −1 at the start of fallow to about 90 mm h −1 after 10 yr of fallow. Measured runoff was reduced by about 80% with 10 yr of fallow.Stephens (1960) reported on perennial grass ley rotation experiments at Kwadaso, Ejura, and Nyankpala in Ghana (Table 2). Mean ley yields ranged from 9 to 32 Mg ha −1 yr −1 . In all trials, the ley was terminated with tillage and land was tilled and ridged for annual crops. No effects of ley on water infiltration were detected at all locations.The Kwadaso site near Kumasi was in the moist semideciduous forest zone with sandy loam soil and 1,450 mm mean annual rainfall. The land was in secondary forest before experimentation and the soil pH was 6.4 and the SOC was 14.5 g kg −1 . The elephant grass ley was cut and burned annually. The average grass yield was 32 Mg ha −1 yr −1 . No fertilizer was applied to the ley. The annual crop yields following 2 yr of ley compared with continuous annual crops were 65, 88, and 34% more respectively for maize (Zea mays L.) in Years 1 and 2 and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) in Year 1. Potassium availability was increased with ley but there was little other ley effect and no rotation x fertilizer interaction effect on soil properties.The Ejura Ghana site was 100 km North of Kumasi with sandy soil and 1,470 mm rainfall. The trial site was in grassbush fallow for 7 yr before the trial. The soil pH was 5.9 and SOC was 3.6 g kg −1 . The ley was of sown Andropogon and Pennisetum polystachyon (L.) Schult. with the invasion of P. pedicellatum Trin. No fertilizer was applied to the ley. The mean grass yield was 9.4 Mg ha −1 yr −1 . Annual crop yield with ley compared with continuous cropping was −14, 16, and 18% more respectively for the maize in Years 1 and 2 and groundnut in Year 1. On average, maize response to fertilizer N following ley was greater than three times that with continuous annual cropping. The maize of Year 2 after ley had more response to fertilizer P compared with continuous annual cropping. The SOC and available P and K were increased with ley.The Nyankpala Ghana site was 20 km west of Tamale in the Guinea savanna at 9.4 o N with 1,090 mm yr −1 mean rainfall. The soil was sandy and shallow with pH = 6.4 and SOC = 5.0 g kg −1 . The sown ley was of Andropogon and P. polystachyon (L.) Schult. but P. pedicellatum Trin. invaded. No fertilizer was applied to the ley. Mean grass yield was 15.8 Mg ha −1 yr −1 . Annual crop yield after ley compared with continuous cropping was not increased. Fertilizer N and P did not result in increased yields. Ley increased SOC.At Samaru-Zaria Nigeria, Andropogon ley treatments of varying duration were included in a long-term trial with sandy loam soil at 11.2 o N with a mean of 1,110 mm yr −1 rainfall (Table 2). Wilkinson (1975) reported greatly increased water infiltration at the end of fallow with 67, 66, 80, and 88% of the infiltration with a 6-yr ley, respectively, for the 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-yr ley. The gain in infiltration during ley was attributed primarily due to earthworm casts and less to termite holes. However, the improvement in the infiltration rate was very fragile with 50% of the gain lost with the first land preparation which consisted of two tillage operations for ridged cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) production and no effect detected after harvest of the first annual crop. The earthworm casts and termite channels remained intact in the subsoil that was not disturbed by tillage. The increase in SOC was 57% more with 6 yr compared with 3-yr ley and declined from 4.5 to 3.3 g kg −1 during the annual crop phase (Jones, 1971). The SOC was 36% more with the application of fertilizer N to ley compared to no N application. The ley rotation effect on annual crop yields was not reported.At Farako-Ba and Koure in Burkina Faso at 11-12 o N, fallow resulted in 66 and 75% more sorghum grain yield compared with sorghum following sorghum but fallow did not increase yield compared with having groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) or cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) as the crop preceding sorghum (Bado et al., 2006) (Table 2). Fertilizer including N, P, K, and S was applied to the annual crops. Fallow resulted in increased SOC and exchangeable Ca. Fallow increased soil pH and decreased Al saturation at Farako-Ba but these properties were not affected at Koure. The fallow was not described.At Bondoukuy Burkina Faso at 11.5 ˚N with a mean of 800-900 mm yr −1 rainfall, 5-7 yr of fallow and Andropogon ley resulted in an increase of SOC, N, microbial biomass, basal respiration, and β-glucosidase activity of 64, 35, 76, 141, and 86%, respectively (Bilgo et al., 2007; Table 2). There was no difference between the fallow and Andropogon. The rotation effect on annual crop yields was not reported. In a related study at this location, fallow resulted in 20-50% more maize yield compared with continuous annual cropping (Ouattara, 2009).Latitude 12-15 oThe average rainfall is 400-500 mm yr −1 with a CV of 25-30% for much of the Sahel with >70% falling in July and August (Le Barbé & Lebel, 1997). It appears that the frequency of dry periods during the cropping season has increased with a negative effect on pearl millet (P. glaucum L.) grain yield (Wildemeersch et al., 2015), especially soil water deficits that occur within 40 d of sowing and during grain formation. Average national sorghum and pearl millet yields in Niger from 2014 to 2018 were estimated to be < 0.5 Mg ha -1 while the mean yield gain since 1980 was estimated to be 5 kg ha −1 yr −1 (FAOSTAT, 2020). Application of fertilizer plus 2.5 Mg ha −1 yr −1 of manure may increase pearl millet and sorghum yields by an average of 60% (Garba et al., 2018) but productivity remains low.The traditional fallow of the Sahel Fallow durations have been reduced over time with the abandonment of shifting cultivation from up to 25 yr duration to 6-10 yr bush fallow to short fallows of 1-2 yr duration with about two-thirds of the arable land in continuous cropping. Gandah et al. (2003) found in southwestern Niger that 60-90% of pearl millet fields did not receive fallow, manure application, or fertilizer application, depending on landscape position and farmer's distance to the field. Hiernaux et al. (2009) reported a mean fallow duration of 4.8 yr in southwestern Niger. Fallow duration increased as the farmer's distance to the field increased. The fallows were naturally generated and 130 plant species were identified. The three most common fallow species accounted for an average of 38% of the ground cover. The species accounting for most ground cover were annual grasses Ctenium elegans Kunth and Schizachyrium exile (Hochst.) Pilg., and the leguminous herb Indigofera strobilifera Hochst. ex Baker. Annual grasses such as Cenchrus biflorus Roxb. and Aristada mutabilis Trin. & Rupr. that can germinate and produce seed within 5-6 wk are common for fallow land in the Sahel. Natural vegetative regeneration of fallow land occurred slowly (Kessler et al., 1998) and the annual grasses Andropogon pseudopricus Stapf. and P. pedicellatum Trin. gave 25% ground cover after 4 yr. There was an absence of perennial grass species and herbaceous legumes. Fallow land is typically severely over-grazed which may contribute to the dominance of short-lived annuals and little perennial grass survival.The mean biomass yield of fallow was just 1.3 Mg ha −1 , likely reflecting the role of short-lived annual species, the absence of perennial grasses, and the effect of over-grazing on productivity (Hiernaux et al., 2009). Turner et al. (2005) reported an average of 0.75 Mg ha −1 of palatable herbaceous biomass in October, at the end of the rains, including from fallow and rangeland. In Kolda Senegal at 13.3 ˚N with 1,016 mm yr −1 of rainfall, natural fallow fodder yield was 5.9 Mg ha −1 compared with ley yields of 10.9 Mg ha −1 yr −1 for Andropogon and 8.3 Mg ha −1 yr −1 for P. maximum Jacq. (Diatta et al., 1997).Shrubs are an important component of the fallow such as with about one Guiera senegalensis J.F. Gmel shrub per 100 m 2 (Bielders et al., 2002). Woody shrubs of 0-0.5 m height can spread quickly from 0.2 to 16 plants m −2 in 4 yr (Kessler et al., 1998). The shrubs are often preserved through the cropping period and into the next fallow as crop growth is often best in the near vicinity of shrubs (Dossa et al., 2012(Dossa et al., , 2013) ) including leguminous Philiostigma reticulatum (DC.) Hochst. and G. senegalensis with its hydraulic lifting properties (Bogie et al., 2018). The shrubs are often browsed and branches are periodically harvested for wood. The shrub compared with the herbaceous component of grazed natural fallow on sandy soils in the Sahel may contribute more to system productivity. However, Bowden (1963) reported that a 3yr Andropogon ley established from rooted-tillers was more effective in increasing annual crop yields than shrub fallow at Yandev Nigeria. Tree species such as Faidherbia albida (Delile) A.Chev. as a legume with reverse phenology are also important to these systems but are hard to establish with heavy grazing.A major challenge to cropping system improvement in the Sahel through the use of fallow or ley rotations is uncontrolled grazing including severe over-grazing during the rainy season and grazing any remaining palatable plant matter remaining during the dry season including the crowns of perennial grasses (Thëbaud & Batterbury, 2001). Local governments often have the power to protect land, such as land in ley rotation, from grazing. The benefits of ley rotations will need to be great enough to overcome the traditional practice of uncontrolled grazing of uncultivated lands.Fallow and land productivity Hiernaux et al. (2009) reported on the monitoring of 71 fields in the Fakara area of southwestern Niger for land use and productivity from 1994 to 2006 (Table 3). Annual crop yields were very low and were found to be declining by 5% yr −1 with continuous production. Rotation of several years of annual crops with several years of fallow declined over time Fallow was naturally generated with a high proportion of annual grasses and perennial shrubs while ley was sown or vegetatively propagated. No fertilizer or manure was applied and termination was by tillage.cNo fertilizer or manure was applied. Land preparation was always with plowing or ridging.with fallow area decreasing by about 1.5% yr −1 . The mean cropping period was 4.6 yr but 9.1 yr for more intensively managed fields. With no fertilizer applied, crop yield was about 33% higher for the 3 yr following fallow compared with the mean for 4-8 yr after fallow. No results were reported for fallow effects with fertilizer or manure applied or how the crop response to fertilizer was affected by fallow.In a survey of 40 fields in Niger, De Rouw and Rajot ( 2004) found that with fertilizer or manure applied, grain yields were highest with fields under continuous cultivation and no recent history of fallow and lower yield following 3-5 yr compared with >10 yr fallow (Table 3). However, the study did not account for factors affecting farmers' land-use decisions.Total dustfall in the Sahel could average 0.2 mm per year but much more for lands with vegetative cover (Herrmann, 1996;Orange & Gac, 1990). Sediment gain with fallow can be great with even a single windstorm (Table 3; Hiernaux et al., 2009). Samaké et al. (2006) reported a substantial gain in SOC which persisted over 4-7 yr of annual cropping. In Senegal, Masse et al. (2004) in a comparison of naturally regenerated, planted Andropogon or planted Acacia holosericea A.Cunn ex G.Don fallows, SOC, and nutrient availabilities during the annual crop phase were similar. The highest pearl millet yield was with treatments with the largest amount of biomass burned at the end of the fallow. Bielders et al. (2002) reported on wind erosion and sediment trapping by fallow strips in southwestern Niger with sandy soil (Table 3). The fallow was simply described as bush fallow with dense herbaceous vegetation and about one G. senegalensis shrub per 100 m 2 . No details of the height or density of the fallow vegetation, or if and how it was grazed, were provided. In a single windstorm, pearl millet [Pennisetum americanum (L.) Leeke] cropland lost 17.5 Mg ha −1 sediment with a linear increase in the erosion rate for up to 75 m of field width. The adjacent fallow land gained 10.5 Mg ha −1 with 89% of that trapped within the first 20 m and 55% within the first 10 m. In the fallow area, clay content was 120% more and SOC was 64% in the 0-to-2-cm soil depth for 10-40 m compared to 0-5 m into the downwind fallow strip. The authors suggest that grass fallow strips of 20 m width can be very effective in reducing the loss of sediment with <0.05 mm diam., including SOC and nutrients, if perpendicular to the prevailing wind during a windstorm. However, wind directions vary and strips of >20 m width may be desired.Soil crusting of the sandy soils and its effect on water infiltration and runoff is of great concern in the Sahel with maybe 13% of rainfall lost as runoff for crop production land of 2-2.5% slope in Niger (Rockström & Valentin, 1997). The infor-mation on crusting is, however, fragmented and incomplete (Valentin et al., 2004). Graef and Stahr (2000) reported that the percentage land area with crusting averaged 19% for continuous millet, 7% for the pearl millet-cowpea intercrop, and 9% for pearl millet-fallow rotation. They found the dominant crust type to be structured as depositional laminated crusts with coarse sand on top, a vescular fine sandy layer and a seal of fine particles at the bottom (Valentin, 1994). The next most common crust type was an erosion layer with a smooth sealed surface of fine cemented particles resulting from slaking and disintegration of dry soil aggregates when suddenly wetted. Both of these crust types increased with increased soil sand content and decreased with increased SOC. Valentin et al. (2004) reported on the examination of the sandy soil surface conditions of 34 plots in southwestern Niger. Fallowing did not consistently improve soil physical properties. Erosion crusts covered 2% of the cropland but this increased to 5% during the first 3 yr of fallowing and then to about 13% after 7 yr of fallow. The increase in crusting during fallow was attributed to increased clay and silt content in the surface soil.Water runoff and infiltration effects of fallow for sandy soil in the Sahel were reviewed by Valentin, Rajot and Mitja (2004). Runoff was 23% of precipitation for fallow compared to 5% from a cultivated pearl millet field at Banizoumbou, Niger, and 51% for fallow compared to 33% from a pearl millet field at Oursi, Niger. The fallow effects on the maximum runoff coefficient measured for a shallow sandy loam soil at Saria, Burkina Faso, however, were 60% for a sorghum field, 30% for fallows of 1-4 yr and 5% for a fallow of >30 yr. Water erosion loss was >1,000% more for the sorghum field than for fallow. The conflicting fallow effects on runoff were attributed to the clay+silt content at the surface of sandy soil which increased during fallow due to sediment accumulation. The crusting for sandy soil was great when the clay plus silt content was around 10% but much less with <5% or >15% clay plus silt content. When the soil clay plus silt content is well above 10% as with the sandy loam at Saria, runoff is much reduced by fallow. Blue-green algae can colonize soil crusts when the soil clay plus silt content is >5% which helps to consolidate the crusts. Such algae \"biocrusts\" can protect small particles from loss to water and wind erosion but also reduces the water infiltration rate (Malam-Issa, 1999). Algae crusts of sandy soil were of relatively low importance for cultivated land but greater importance with fallow (Valentin, 1994).Moderate, but not high, grazing and trampling decreased crusting of sandy soil in fallow compared to no grazing (Hiernaux et al., 1999). When compared to the non-grazed control, soil pH, organic C and N concentrations, and to a lesser extent P concentration, decreased after 4 yr of grazing. Soil P and pH further decreased after 9 yr of very high grazing pressure. If alternating ley and cropland strips are perpendicular to the slope, runoff due to reduced infiltration rate in fallow may be harvested in the crop strip to supplement the water received directly from rainfall (Valentin et al., 2004).Some annual crop yield gain is expected with ley rotations and often following naturally generated fallow as written above. This gain, however, did not occur consistently and maybe less with higher latitudes, less rainfall, and sandy soils. The yield gain generally was not enough to compensate for the loss of annual crop production when the land is in fallow. Therefore, fodder yields and fodder values will be important to the profitability of ley rotations. The soil productivity gains may be greater with well-managed perennial grass-based ley than with natural fallows, but information for ley rotations north of 12 o latitude such as in the Sahel is relatively scarce as most studies were with fallow rotations (Table 3).The ley rotation studies often did not report grass yields. Stephens (1960) reported yields as high as 32 Mg ha −1 yr −1 for elephant grass in humid Ghana and 16 Mg ha −1 yr −1 for Andropogon in semi-arid northern Ghana. Elephant grass yield during a 3-yr ley was about 10 Mg ha −1 yr −1 in Uganda (Table 1;  Foster, 1971). In Benin on sandy soil, P. maximum Jacq. and Andropogon were established at 50-cm spacing by planting four to five rooted-tillers hole −1 , and elephant grass was established by planting stem cuttings at 1 m spacing (Adjolohoun et al., 2008). No fertilizer was applied. The 3-yr average annual yield was 7.3 Mg ha −1 for P. maximum Jacq., 5.9 Mg ha −1 for Andropogon, and 4.2 Mg ha −1 for elephant grass. Hay yields on sandy soil of Andropogon at Katsina, Nigeria, were 3 Mg ha −1 yr −1 with no fertilizer and 11.4 Mg ha −1 yr −1 with fertilizer applied (Bowden, 1963).However, the fodder yield potential in the Sahel is expected to be relatively low and many perennial species may fail to survive the long dry season with sandy soil. Much of the fodder marketed in Niamey, other than crop residues, is from annual grass species (Gomma et al., 2017). Andropogon is a perennial grass exception that is common in the Niamey markets although it is marketed primarily as reeds for making mats. Andropogon does provide good quality fodder if cut regularly (Bowden, 1963). Important to the Sahel is that Andropogon propagated from rooted tillers planted at 0.5 by 1 m spacing resulted in the good establishment with rapidly expanding tussocks so that it soon provided good ground cover (Bowden, 1963). Andropogon survives long dry seasons, tolerates burning well, gives growth with the earliest rains, and forms a deep root system allowing much growth after cessation of the rains.There is ample evidence of high demand for fodder in urban and peri-urban areas and along the main roads to urban areas (Gomma et al., 2017;Samireddypalle et al., 2017). Improved availability of good quality fodder is needed. About 50% of the fodder marketed in Niamey was crop residues with the remaining mostly naturally occurring vegetation that was cut, dried, and transported from non-cropland including fallow and rangeland. The stalks of pearl millet and sorghum were of relatively low nutritional and market value and crop residue of cowpea and groundnut was of relatively high value with most other fodder types of intermediate value. The market price ranged from about 20-150 CFA kg −1 , depending on the fodder type and time of year, with an average price of 99 CFA kg −1 (the mean exchange rate in 2017 was about 560 CFA US$ −1 giving an average fodder value in urban areas of about $177 Mg −1 ). Increased ley area can contribute to meeting the growing demand for fodder while providing an alternative source of income for farming households and improving the sustainability of cropping systems.In Kenya where >80%f of the milk supply is from smallholders, confined smallholder dairy production in the Kenya highlands has continued to grow at about 6% per year demonstrating high demand for milk (Odero-Waitituh, 2017). These dairy systems typically integrate ley such as of elephant grass or Brachiaria spp. in the cropping systems as strips through fields or in fodder lots with manure applied to the ley or other cropland.The results conducted in the 0-5 o latitude zone found substantial yield increases following ley or fallow although generally not enough to fully compensate in terms of grain yield for the years with no annual crop production. However, returns to labor was increased. While ley yields were not reported, the ley was often grazed or hayed implying significant production. Results from other work indicate that grass yields may be >10 Mg ha −1 yr −1 if fertilized (Bowden, 1963;Foster, 1971;Stephens, 1960). Significant persistent soil improvements resulted from ley for clay loam soil (Foster, 1971;Stephens, 1967). Samaké et al. (2006) reported a persistent improvement in SOC due to fallow for sandy soil in the Sahel but others reported less benefit to soil properties for sandy soils in the 5-12 o and 12-15 o zones even though ley yields can be substantial with good response to fertilizer application (Adjolohoun et al., 2008;Bowden, 1963;Stephens, 1960). Observations were not made on erosion but the potential was likely reduced by good vegetative growth during ley and increased annual crop growth.The full ecological benefit of ley rotations probably was not achieved in past research in tropical Africa. Greater and longer-lasting benefit is expected with less or no tillage which leaves plant residues on the soil surface as mulch and protection against erosion and does not bury the surface soil with improved soil aggregation (Carvalho et al., 2010;DuPont et al., 2014;Ernst & Siri-Prieto, 2009;Garcia-Prechac et al., 2004). Annual crops following ley may be more responsive to fertilizer use (Stephens, 1960) as well as giving greater returns to land and labor but there was no cropping system x fertilizer interaction in other studies (Foster, 1971;Stephens, 1960).In Uganda, a 3:3 yr ley/annual crop rotation in strips across the field, of maybe 30-m width, was recommended (Stephens, 1970). Ley rotations were recommended for the Kenya highlands and 22% of the lands were found to be in ley in the Uasin Gishu area where 65% of arable land was planted to maize and dairy was important (Clayton, 1956). Planting perennial grasses such as elephant grass or a Brachiaria spp. in strips across arable land or in fodder lots, which may be rotated with annual crops, is common with smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya (Odero-Waitituh, 2017). Such strip farming may be a good option for other parts of tropical Africa. The strips can reduce water and wind erosion from cultivated lands with trapping of sediment, SOC, and nutrients (Rockström & Valentin, 1997;Valentin, Rajot & Mitja, 2004). Grass bands through annual crop fields increased rainwater capture and reduced soil erosion in Burkina Faso which reduced the negative effect of drought on crop yield and revenue (Traoré et al., 2020). The alternating strips of ley can provide easy access to rooted tillers and stem segments for vegetative propagation of new ley. Ley rotations conducted as strip cropping may be easier to protect from grazing livestock due to the tradition of respecting annual crop fields.Grazing control will be essential to successful ley rotations. In many places, fields are opened to uncontrolled grazing at some time during the dry season. The grazing of grasslands is often uncontrolled throughout the year. Such management or lack of management is incompatible with successful ley rotation. Local governments can often impose restrictions on grazing but opposition may be strong. The value of ley rotations needs to be demonstrated to overcome such opposition.Research and extension are first needed to demonstrate the value of ley rotations in areas with high demand for the fodder. Given that ley rotation experimentation can require years and much land, experiential learning may be the main approach to gaining information for fine-tuning ley rotations. This may involve establishing the rotations such as through strip cropping on farmer fields and at research centers which may not be experiments with replication and randomization but opportunities for systematically making and interpreting observations. Farmer participation in such research may be valuable, including for evaluation of socio-economics of the rotations.The research is needed to optimize ley rotations including species and varieties for the ley phase, ley management and harvesting, duration of the ley, the transition between phases, annual crop sequence, and use of fertilizer and other inputs throughout the rotation cycle. Vegetative propagation for ley establishment, such as with rooted-tillers or stem segments, is likely to be best for many situations, especially where soil crusting and unreliable soil water availability during seedling establishment is a great concern. However, sowing seed may be most appropriate in other situations, including the possibility of establishing the grass while producing a maize crop where rainfall amount and distribution is adequate (Edwards, 1941). The duration of ley may partly be subject to the current demand for fodder compared with the annual crop produced. Optimized ley duration may be longer in the Sahel than in more humid areas anticipating slower establishment and the need to avoid much investment of labor ha −1 for such low productivity lands. With strip ley rotations, strips may be gradually converted to annual crop production so that an 18-m wide strip in a 3-yr rotation may have 6 m yr −1 converted to cropland each year while providing planting material to add 6 m to the other side of the ley strip.Generally in past research, the crop that followed ley or fallow was a non-legume but planting of an N 2 -fixing legume may be a better choice to reduce problems associated with fertilizer-N immobilization (Wortmann et al., 2019). Differing with most past fallow and ley studies in tropical Africa, fertilizer use is likely to be a component of future ley rotation research and extension promotion. While crusting is a problem associated with grazed natural fallows on sandy soils of the Sahel, it is anticipated that this problem will be reduced and soil improvement enhanced with well-managed ley such as with the tussocks of Andropogon.Avoiding or minimizing tillage is likely to be important to ley rotation management for enhancing and preserving the soil benefits gained during the ley phase (Carvalho et al., 2010;DuPont et al., 2014;Ernst & Siri-Prieto, 2009;Garcia-Prechac et al., 2004). The low tillage management is likely to require some herbicide use to terminate ley although shallow sweep tillage may be feasible for sandy soil. Research is needed for better targeting of ley rotations in consideration of agronomic and economic factors. Ley rotations may be more valuable for lands that are marginal for annual crop production and where runoff and erosion potential are high (Wortmann et al., 2019). Soil that was much eroded is likely to have SOC well below the SOC saturation level with high potential to sequester SOC during the ley phase with likely benefits to soil physical, chemical, and biological properties. However, fodder market demand will be very important to the targeting of ley rotations.F I G U R E 2 Generalized systems assessment of continuous annual cropping compared to annual cropping rotated with ley perennial grass (Stewart et al., 2018) Using a farming systems approach, it is clear that ley perennial rotations offer numerous benefits over continuous annual cropping (Figure 2). In general, ley perennial rotations improve long-term (i.e., over 3-5 yr) annual grain yield, quality fodder yield, fertilizer use efficiency, soil fertility/SOC, erosion reduction, water infiltration, crop diversity, return to labor, resilience (i.e., ability to bounce-back from shocks such as climate extremes), and likely profitability and profit stability. These synergies can likely be further enhanced with perennial grass leys compared with traditional fallows, when fertilizer is applied to the ley crop or annual crops, and reduced or no tillage used for ley termination and annual crop production. However, there are two primary tradeoffs that need to be minimized before ley rotations would be readily adopted and begin to reverse declining productivity of African farming systems. First, short-term losses in annual grain production are hard to justify for many smallholder farmers. Substantial profit potential in fodder markets is needed to diminish this tradeoff. Second, loss of ley biomass to open grazing reduces the overall return to the farmer. Policies or agronomic practices that prevent this loss, such as local policies and with ley -annual crop strip cropping, will be needed to minimize this tradeoff. The magnitude of these tradeoffs and synergies across productivity, economic, environmental, human, and social dimensions will vary by location but in general, ley perennial rota-tions have many of the required traits required to sustainably intensify smallholder farming systems in many areas of tropical Africa.Opportunities for perennial grass ley rotated with annual crop phases as a means to improve farming systems are abundant in Africa. While land for annual crop production is often scarce, ley rotations are a means to reverse the common occurrence of soil degradation, sustainably improve soil, and increase annual crop yields and often yield response to fertilizer application. Perennial grasses develop extensive root systems that sequester C for increased SOC, cycle deep nutrients and water, and improve soil physical properties. The aboveground and belowground grass growth protects soil from wind and water erosion and traps sediment such as harmattan dust. Demand for fodder, which in many places is increasing, offers the opportunity for ley rotations to provide economic growth, diversification, and stability. Further research is needed to fine-tune the targeting and management of ley rotations for diverse cropping systems and environments, and to better understand the system edaphic, agronomic, social, and economic interactions. Barriers to adoption may be more social and political rather than bio-physical limitations. A major concern in many places is the practice of uncontrolled over-grazing of arable lands during the dry season which could be very damaging to ley but this can often be managed by local government policies. Agricultural productivity and sustainability in Africa can often be improved by the introduction of ley rotations with reduced erosion and runoff, sediment trapping, increased SOC and other soil improvement, higher crop yields and responsiveness to fertilizer, fodder supply, and enhanced economic growth, diversification, and stability. Information needed to fine-tune ley rotations may be most efficiently gained through experiential learning from the practice of ley -annual crop strip cropping with farmer participation in the research.","tokenCount":"8266"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"574b911d1ef997ee4c8e9bd55650ddec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a98c0f2a-d0f1-49a2-9ca5-dccc4182db1f/retrieve","id":"1117722989"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"59535dfd-b45a-46b0-8873-e3c4f383902a","pagecount":"12","content":"S equel to the success recorded in the first and second phases of the STEP-Oyo Project, the Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde has approved the sum of $1.7million to expand the project to six more secondary schools across the geopolitical zones in the state. To this end, the implementing team paid a familiarization visit to nine schools in the state, namely: Irepo Grammar I n February, STEP held an Orientation Program at the new schools; Mount Olivet Grammar School, Bodija, Wesley College of Science, Elekuro, and Christ High School, Oleyo, Ibadan. The program objectives included introducing the students to STEP, our origin and goal, the club engagement, and activities at the existing STEP Schools. At some schools, the students were shown videos to intimate them with the project, and they were fascinated by the success stories of STEP club members in other schools.After the orientation, the students were eager to ask questions and share what they learned from the visuals. To this, the STEP team thoroughly answered, and students who indicated interest to join the club were evaluated and selected. Subsequently, selected students were grouped into their specific STEP enterprises in the respective schools. The workshop was well attended, with an average of 120 -150 students at each school. Currently, the students and some teachers have been engaged in modern agriculture and agribusiness through course work in Crop production and Mechanization, Livestock production, and Value addition. The training has involved the use of digital tools, visuals, participation in enterprise practical like urban farming and pastry production.Also, there has been engagement in ICT and Science enterprises, and the students have been exposed to careers in the agricultural value chain, the different digital marketing tools, how they can be used, and the concept of digital agriculture. The students were receptive to the training(s), some of them even explained how they would use digital marketing to promote their products,ENGAGEMENT The Seeds I n Oluponna, STEP provided a 9-meter by 4-meter screenhouse, a 2000-litre water tank, and a drip irrigation system to ensure continuous cultivation and supply of agricultural produce in the community. Apart from serving as an innovation in the community and the surrounding communities, the project aims to make the students appreciate modern agriculture and introduce them to exciting ways of practicing agriculture.A screenhouse was constructed at OFFER Centre Agriculture Institute, which serves as a training centre for the younger people engaged by STEP.S TEP organized a Teachers' Workshop in February to orientate the teachers about STEP, the STEP-Oyo Project, and upcoming STEP Club activities at the respective schools, namely; Mount Olivet Grammar School, Bodija, Wesley College of Science, Elekuro, and Christ High School, Oleyo, Ibadan.The workshop featured presentations on the STEP Model, success stories and activities at the STEP Schools. Meanwhile, the participants were engaged through videos, STEP documentaries, and a breakdown of Agribusiness enterprises at the schools. Also, they were intrigued with components of our strategy and the flow of our activities at the existing schools.At the schools, the teachers gave feedback and asked questions relating to STEP activities to understand the intent for their schools thoroughly. Meanwhile, interactions during the workshop made it apparent that the teachers were eager for their students and themselves to benefit from the project. Afterwards, STEP and the schools made plans towards the upcoming students' and teachers' engagement, and there was selection of the days and timings for the STEP Club meetings and Enterprise Trainings. The workshop was well attended, with an average of 30 -60 teachers at each school. ","tokenCount":"587"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f0f701a88dee98158818cdfb13dcd5f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/67a245e4-d6c2-4032-9519-1919adbf5e69/retrieve","id":"2123416829"},"keywords":["Soil degradation","Sustainable land management","farmers' perception","soil quality","Stone bund","Tree Lucerne","Phalaris"],"sieverID":"d17a3ff7-a025-4ea3-bb3f-9ed1ea9bdfe4","pagecount":"96","content":"consistent and stimulating advice, valuable suggestions, unreserved support and insightful academic assistance in every bit of my work for the completion of the thesis. Without his encouragement, suggestion and support this paper would not have come to a successful end. Furthermore, I would also like to express my deepest and most heart-felt gratitude to my beloved families for their prayers, moral support, strength and encouragement to me in completing my study.Last but not least I would like to thank my friends and colleagues for always being there for me.To those who indirectly contributed in this research, your kindness means a lot to me. Thank you very much.  Table 1: Rating of organic matter and its categories .              Transects were used to collect soil samples and questionnaires to gather the necessary information from the sampled households and key informants. A total of 24 soil samples were taken from selected areas. Six soil samples were taken from each practice site. The samples were compared for selected nutrient. The results of soil chemical property analysis revealed that, the status of soil organic matter, total nitrogen and available phosphorous of the soil with each selected sustainable land management practice showed significant difference. Sustainable land management practices improved farm land soil fertility through maintaining organic matter and plant nutrients and improving soil structure increasing water infiltration and reducing run off. The reason for soil fertility differences may not only be the introduction of set of sustainable land management practices but also to the difference in land management history of the farm lands.The decline in fertility of the soil without the practices may be the removal of plant nutrient by erosion and depletion of soil. The farmers prioritize sustainable land management practices phalaris with stone bund first Tree Lucerne with stone bund second and finally the stone bund are very effective in improving farm land soil fertility. Finally, based on the findings of the study, it has been recommended that farmers has to be encouraged and need to be aware from planning phase to implementation in improving the quality of measures. They have to protect bunds from grazing, practice cut and carry for stall feeding and carry out the maintenance of the structures by themselves. They have to introduce combinations of land management practices with good land management for effective crop land improvement in order to achieve sustainability and food security.Ethiopia is the most populous country in Eastern Africa and second populous on the continent, currently numbering more than 96 million (IFAD- UNESCO, 2011).With presently more than 2%annual population growth, the number may reach 120 million by 2030 (GoE, 2012).Approximately 85% of people live in rural areas, with 84% of these residing in the highlands as smallholder farmers, and 16% living in the lowlands as pastoralists or agro-pastoralists; whose livelihood is almost entirely dependent on agriculture and agricultural products. Smallholder farmers operating under entirely rain-fed conditions of dominate the sector and it accounts to 95% of the total area under crop cultivation (ADF, 2002). However, Agriculture is not only the main means of livelihoods for both smallholders and pastoralists, but also the mainstay of the national economy, contributing 45% of gross domestic product GDP, 85% employment and 90% of national exports earning (EPA, 1997).Despite its role, the sector is characterized by low productivity and high exposure to risk due to adversely varying environmental conditions (Bekele and Holden, 1998). Annual agricultural production cannot keep pace with the growing number of the human population (World Bank, 1995), and this exposed the country\"s agricultural population to food insecurity. The interplay between the physical environment and population distribution in Ethiopia explains, to a great extent, the ever worsening problem of environmental degradation and the problem of land degradation in particular (Aklilu, 2001).Land degradation in the form of soil erosion and declining fertility is serious challenge to agricultural productivity and economic growth in Ethiopia (Mulugeta Lemenh, 2004). As such, the health of our soil resources is a primary indicator of the sustainability of our land management practices (Acton and Gregorich, 1995). Improper land management can lead to land degradation and a significant reduction in the productive and service functions of watersheds and landscapes. But not all areas of the country are equally suffering of land degradation. Both the extent and severity of the problem manifest spatial variations depending on difference in relief, ecology, rainfall, land use, land cover and soil types. In Ethiopia land degradation is especially severe and extensive in the highlands where the average soil loss from farmland is estimated to be 100 t/ha/y (FAO, 1986).According to FAO (1986), almost 75% of Ethiopian highlands are known to have been so degraded that their future use depends on the application of conservation measures.Environmental management in Ethiopia is therefore not only closely related to the improvement and conservation of ecological environment, but also to the sustainable development ofEthiopia\"s agricultural sector and its economy at large.In Ethiopia, efforts towards this conservation goal were started since the mid-1970s and 80s (Aklilu, 2006;Wogayehu and Drake, 2001;Bekele and Holden, 1998). However, some of the management approaches were successful and others not. The current practice is to promote the same technology in all agro-ecology types as assuming one size fits all. It is not clearly known, however, which technology works where.Therefore, in order to meet these problem, Sustainable Land Management knowledge-based procedures helps in integrating land, water, biodiversity, and environmental management to meet rising food and fiber demands while sustaining ecosystem services and livelihoods and also is necessary to meet the requirements of a growing population. SLM also includes ecological, economic and socio-cultural dimensions (Hurni, 1997). Ecologically, SLM technologies in all their diversity effectively combat land degradation. But a majority of agricultural land is still not sufficiently protected, and SLM needs to spread further. Socially, SLM helps secure sustainable livelihoods by maintaining or increasing soil productivity, thus improving food security and reducing poverty, both at household and national levels. Economically, SLM pays back investments made by land users, communities or governments. Agricultural production is safeguarded and enhanced for small-scale subsistence and large-scale commercial farmers alike, as well as for livestock keepers. Furthermore, the considerable off-site benefits from SLM can often be an economic justification in themselves.Therefore, to sustain the use and productivity of land and particularly farm land sustainable soil management technologies and practices, which have been supported by research finding, were transferred to the farming communities and introduced in the study area. In light of this, it is important to conduct a research, assess the performances of these different soils and water conservation practices undertaken and to prioritize them depending on different indicators for further up scaling.The well-being of present and future generations depends on the fertility status of soil in agriculture countries like Ethiopia. It is widely understood that land degradation is reducing the productive capacities of cropland, rangeland and woodland during a time of rising demand for food, fiber, fuel, freshwater, fodder, household energy and income. This is particularly alarming in Africa and Ethiopia, where land is the key asset of the rural poor (FAO, 2009).According to Teshome (2010), the performance of Ethiopian agriculture has been poor over the last three decades. One of the root causes of this problem is poor and unsustainable land management practices. What were once considered to be sustainable land management practices such as soil and water conservation, soil fertility management, controlled-grazing and other land management practices were introduced to halt the problem.Over the study area, secondary data showed that some biological and physical land management practices were undertaken in order to improve land productivity. In this case sustainable soil management technologies and practices, which have been supported by research findings, were transferred to the farming communities in the study area. Farmers are likely to select land management practices on their plots based on endowments and abilities of the farm household and the quality and attributes of their plots. It is important to develop and disseminate SLM practices or technologies that are appropriately tailored to agro-ecological zones instead of making blanket recommendations that promote similar practices or technologies to all farmers.Therefore, this study is so significant to investigate the impact of different sustainable land management practices on soil fertility and prioritize them based on their performance with a particular focus on selected practices. It helps in mapping and identifying suitable land management practices for further up scaling through sampled farmers interview.It was crucial to identify and prioritize a suitable and sustained land management practices to increase land productivity and sustainable use as well as to identify and validate solutions to the problems experienced by smallholder crop-livestock farmers in the study area. Thus, it is important to conduct a research to assess how land productivity has been improved through application of best land management practices intervened in the study area.The general purpose of the study is to assess, examine and evaluate the role and effectiveness of selected land management practices in improving and sustaining farm land soil fertility in the study area.1. To examine and compare Soil fertility status of selected SLM practices-based on macro nutrients.2. To compare the variability of Soil fertility within the Inter-structural Spaces of the soil conservation structures.3. To assess the effectiveness of selected Sustainable land management practices being practiced in the study area.4. To compare the role and investigate suitable SLM practices in improving farm land productivity for further up scaling.The study was conducted at Basona Werana Woreda: Gina Beret Watershed specifically by considering selected representative areas. Although land management can take many forms the research will mainly focus and considers on performance analysis of selected land management practices.The economy of Ethiopia in general and particularly the specific study woreda primarily depends on agriculture. Also land degradation in general and soil erosion in particular is the most serious environmental problems threatening the study area. Hence sustainable agricultural production and process of economic development depends on the appropriate and sustainable soil fertility management. Since the well-being of our population is highly dependent on land resource, particularly soils, soils have to be managed properly and economically.Over the study area, reconnaissance survey and some secondary data showed that some biological and physical land management practices were undertaking in order to improve cropland productivity. Therefore, this study is important that it helps in, Performance analysis of effective practices for further up scaling through sampled household. Also identifies opportunities to promote and scale up the successful best management practices and identifies challenges to put into practice different management practices which give preparation for environmental managers. Hence, it is essential to identify a suitable and relevant land management practices to increase production of food grain for economic growth and development.The study results will be useful for land management practitioners, agricultural development agents, environmental analysts and researchers to make best of the selected and prioritized land management practices for improving farmland productivity in the study area.Land degradation is a reduction in the capability of the land to support a particular use (Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987), is considered to be one of the major problems facing the world (UNEP, 1992). Land degradation is a major challenge in agricultural production in many parts of the world; especially in developing nations like Ethiopia despite number of SWC measures were introduced. Across the world, over 20% of cultivated areas, 30% of forests and 10% of grasslands are suffering from degradation, affecting about 1.5 billion people.Land degradation, resulting from unsustainable land management practices, is a threat to the environment as well as to livelihoods, where the majority of people directly depend on agricultural production. Agricultural land uses occupy 36.5% of the earth\"s land mass (FAOSTAT, 2008). This large area once considered for food production, is now viewed as increasingly for providing local and global environmental goods and services. The quality and volume of these services depend not only on the amount of land occupied but also on the land management strategies and practices used in production. There is a potentially devastating downward spiral of overexploitation and degradation, enhanced by the negative impacts of climate change leading in turn to the reduced availability of natural resources and declining productivity: while jeopardizes food security and increases poverty.The Ethiopian economy has its foundation in the agricultural sector. This sector continues to be a fundamental instrument for poverty reduction, food security, and fueling economic growth.Smallholder farmers (backbone of the agricultural sector) produce 90-95% of the country\"s cereals, pulses and oilseeds. In most parts of the densely populated highlands, cereal yields average less than one metric ton per hectare (Pender and Gebremedhin, 2007). Such low agricultural productivity, compounded by recurrent problems of famine, contributes to extreme poverty and food insecurity. On one hand, the African population is growing at over two percent a year (FAO, 2008), requiring a doubling of food production by 2030 to keep pace with demand;on the other hand, productivity of natural resources is in general in decline. However, the sector continues to be undermined by land degradation in the form of depletion of soil organic matter, soil erosion, and lack of adequate plant-nutrient supply (Pender et al., 2006).Over the last few decades, as a cumulative effect of land degradation, increasing population pressure, and low agricultural productivity, Ethiopia has become increasingly dependent on food aid and has been forced to importer food grains. Studies show that Ethiopia annually encores cost that worth 2-3% of its GDP due to land degradation. Even if all areas of the country are not equally suffering there is evidence that these problems are getting worse in many parts of the country. The problem of degradation is particularly escalating in the highlands, where 90% of its arable lands are occupied by 90 percent of the human population and 60 percent of all livestock and over 90% of all human food and livestock feed is produced on land, on soils of varying quality and extent (Hurni et al., 2010). According to the Ethiopian Highland Reclamation Study (EHRS, 1986), over 14 million hectares (ha) of the highlands are seriously eroded, and about 15 million ha were found to be susceptible to erosion. Almost 75% of Ethiopian highlands are known to have been so degraded that their future use depends on the application of conservation measures (FAO, 1986).According to Gete (2010), the Ethiopian highlands, once endowed with rich natural resources are agriculturally used since millennia and now heavily degraded. This degradation may be the result of numerous factors or a combination there of, including anthropogenic activities such as unsustainable land management practices and climatic variations. Land degradation in Ethiopia is especially severe in the highlands where the average soil loss from farmland is estimated to be 100t/ha/y (FAO, 1986). In 1986, it was estimated that as much as half of the highlands (270 000 km2) were significantly eroded (FAO, 1986). It is an alarming challenge in the Amhara region where erosion is the main cause of the loss of approximately 2 to 4 billion tons of soil annually leaving between 20,000 to 30,000 hectares of land unproductive (Taffa, 2009).The scale of the problem, is accelerated and dramatically increased due to human modification of the environment by deforestation, overgrazing, over cultivation, inappropriate farming practices, and increasing human population. Removing vegetative cover on steep slopes (slopes ranging between 15 and 50 percent) for agricultural expansion, firewood and other wood requirements as well as for grazing space has paved the way to massive soil erosion (Yihenew et al.,UD1).Although natural factors are to some extent the cause for environmental degradation, coupled with the effects of a long history of settlement, prevailing farming methods and increasing population pressure which forces people to cultivate even steeper slopes have exacerbated the devastating land and resource degradation in the region (Belay, 2010). The interplay between the physical environment and population distribution in Ethiopia explains, to a great extent, the ever worsening problem of environmental degradation (Aklilu, 2001).Hence, Environmental management in Ethiopia is therefore not only closely related to the improvement and conservation of ecological environment, but also to the sustainable development of Ethiopia\"s agricultural sector and its economy at large. Therefore there is an urgent need to reverse the current serious levels of land degradation through promoting and scaling up successful Sustainable Land Management (SLM) technologies and approaches.According to Enters (1998), soil degradation is a narrower term for declining soil quality, encompassing the deterioration in physical, chemical and biological attributes of the soil. The major evidence for soil fertility decline includes soil organic matter depletion, with associated decline in soil biological activity negative nutrient balances (imbalances between nutrient input and output flows), reduction in availability of major nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) and micronutrient deficiencies, soil degradation of physical properties such as structure, aeration, water holding capacity, etc as brought about by reduced organic matter (FAO, 1994).According to Young (1989), the principal adverse effect of erosion is lowering of fertility, through removal of organic matter and nutrients. Since changes in chemical parameters are largely a function of changes in physical composition it is better to look at chemical degradation.Therefore, the study of chemical property or chemical degradation of a given land use type requires selecting an appropriate and inclusive parameter because the presence of one attribute indicates the status of other. Among the chemical properties that indicate the level of degradation of a given site, organic matter content and cation exchange capacity are assumed to be fundamental (Brady, 1984).Soil organic matter is the fraction of the soil that consists of plant or animal tissue in various stages of breakdown (decomposition). It is the organic component of soil, consisting of three primary parts including small (fresh) plant residues and small living soil organisms, decomposing (active) organic matter, and stable organic matter (humus). With the expansion of agriculture and its intensification, natural processes, human activity and socio-economic factors soil organic matter levels have declined. The overall amount of organic matter stored in the world\"s soils is decreasing (Lal, 2004). The related decrease in topsoil depth also causes a loss of soil quality mainly due to the loss of organic matter and plant nutrients (Kangalawe and Lyimo, 2010). Land use and management, i.e., human activities, are likely to contribute most to these changes (Baldock & Nelson, 2000). Compared with natural ecosystems, the carbon content of cultivated soils is depleted by 30-40 tones/ha (Lal, 2015).Therefore, restoration of soil carbon stocks is essential to restoring soil performance and ecosystem services. This can be achieved through sustainable intensification of agro-ecosystems producing more from less land, water, fertilizer, energy, and other inputs (Lal, 2015). In general, soils with comparatively higher organic matter content are considered more fertile than soils with low organic matter content. Thus, assessment of soil organic matter is a necessary step towards identifying the overall quality of soil. The table below shows that the rating of soil organic matter according to (Tan, 1996). Nitrogen (N) is the most abundant element in the atmosphere and is usually the most limiting crop nutrient. Nitrogen is a dynamic nutrient and it is being continuously cycled between the atmosphere, the soil and living organisms. Besides nitrogen gas within soil pore space, nitrogen is found in both organic and inorganic forms in soil.According to Buruah and Barthakur (1997), of the total amount of nitrogen present in soils, nearly 95-99% is in the organic form and 1-5% in the inorganic form as ammonium and nitrates.Organic forms occur in soil organic matter which consists of three primary parts including small (fresh) plant residues and small living soil organisms, decomposing (active) organic matter, and stable organic matter. Some processes are necessary to convert N into forms which plants can use. Thus, predominate inorganic forms of N in soils are ammonium (NH4) and nitrate (NO3), which are both useable by plants.Even though, total nitrogen is not a measure of available nitrogen to plants, but it is an important indicator of the soil potential for the element. Also Nitrogen contents of soils are also needed for the evaluation of C-N ratios of soils, which give an indication of the processes of transformations of organic N to available N like ammonia nitrite and nitrate (Buruah and Barthakur, 1997). The amount of N fixed is dependent on yields as well as on the efficiency of fixing N. In soils with high nitrate levels the rate of N-fixation will also be suppressed (Herridge, 2011). According to (Buruah, 1998), soil total nitrogen can be classified from low to high in total nitrogen as indicated in (Table 2). Phosphorus is a complex nutrient that has wide influence on both natural and agricultural ecosystems than any other essential elements. Since it is macro nutrient it is frequent deficient for crop production and is required by crops in relatively large amounts. The total P concentration in agricultural crops generally varies from 0.1 to 0.5 percent. Its functions cannot be performed by any other nutrient, and an adequate supply of P is required for optimum growth and reproduction.Soil organic matter is only one source of the nutrient. Soil organic matter can be a source of P when it is mineralized. The estimate is that about 40% of P is in an organic form in the soil organic matter (Rice, 2002), although this can vary from 25 to 80% (Probert, 1993). Plants usually take P as the orthophosphate anions (H2PO4-and HPO42-) which are present in the soil solution (Stevenson, 1982). In most soils, the main source of orthophosphate is organic matter (Buruah and Barthakur, 1997).According to Barber (1984), Phosphorus deficient plants are often severely stunted, since this element takes part in the synthesis of several essential compounds upon which all plant and animal life depends. Table below illustrates the relationship between soil nutrient levels and soil chemical rating of available phosphorus in ppm according to (Barber, 1984). Sustainable land management (SLM) has emerged as an issue of major international concern.SLM is a knowledge-based procedure that helps integrate land, water, biodiversity, and environmental management (including input and output externalities) to meet rising food and fiber demands while sustaining ecosystem services and livelihoods (World Bank, 2006).According to UN Earth Summit (1992), SLM can be defined as \"the use of land resources, including soils, water, animals and plants, for the production of goods to meet changing human needs, while simultaneously ensuring the long-term productive potential of these resources and the maintenance of their environmental functions.\" Sustainable land management has also been defined as the utilization of the land and its resources to meet the present needs while maintaining its productive capacity for future use (Lawas, 1997).SLM is necessary to meet the requirements of a growing population. This is not only because of the increasing population pressure on limited land resources, demanding for increased food production, but also by the recognition of the fact that the degradation of land and water resources is accelerating rapidly. ((Mitiku Haile et al., 2006).) observed that land and water degradation may be unintentional and unperceived; it may result from carelessness or from the unavoidable struggle of vulnerable populations for the necessities of survival.In many countries in general and Ethiopia in particular it is also becoming clear that the limits to lands, which are suitable for agriculture, are now being reached. If the lands which are moderately or well suited for agriculture are currently in use then it follows that further increases in production to meet the food demands of rising populations must come about by the more intensive use of existing agricultural lands.To combat the often cited deleterious effects of intensification particularly with regard to environmental effects requires the development and implementation of technologies and policies which will result in sustainable land management (Gisladottir, and Stocking, 2005;Compbell and Hagmann, 2003). Sustainable land and natural resource management is fundamental to ensuring adequate food and fiber production. Because, sustainable productive agricultural base is essential for global food security. For this reasons sustainable land management is now receiving considerable attentions from different corners.Understanding the soil resource is central to sound soil and land management in this regard knowledge of the nature and properties of soils is vital in regions where soil productivity is often limited by poor soil fertility and where the need for food production is large (Lal, 2004;Sanchez, 2002).In addition to the low soil fertility soil degradation is an increasing threat in many parts of Ethiopia (Nyssen et.al., 2003a;Hurni, 2000). Improper land management can lead to land degradation and a significant reduction in the productive and service (biodiversity niches, hydrology, carbon sequestration) functions of watersheds and landscapes. There is an urgent need to understand the processes involved to that remedial action can be put in place with a view to achieving sustainable land management.One out of every three people on earth is in some way affected by land degradation. Latest Its application requires collaboration and partnership at all levels; land users, technical experts and policy-makers to ensure that the causes of the degradation and corrective measures are properly identified, and that the policy and regulatory environment enables the adoption of the most appropriate management measuresIn Ethiopia, since the 1970s, considerable efforts have been made to reverse the problem of land degradation recognizing that land degradation as a major environmental and socioeconomic problem. The government of Ethiopia and NGOs had intervened to alleviate the problem and vast public resources have been mobilized to develop physical SWC technologies (Shiferaw, et al., 2007). These projects were supported by development food aid, USAID and the World FoodProgram (WFP).The main activities under those projects were reforestation and soil and water conservation in the drought prone areas of the country. Several soil and water conservation measures were introduced to improve land management practices. What were once considered to be sustainable land management practices such as soil and water conservation, soil fertility management, controlled-grazing and other land management practices were introduced.In the 1980s, the WFP consolidated its support to include rehabilitation of forest, grazing and agricultural lands. On government\"s part, the watershed or catchment approach became its key strategy. The major elements of the soil conservation activities were a range of physical structures such as farmland and hillside terracing, cut-off drains and waterways, micro-basins, check dams, water harvesting structures like ponds and farm dams, spring development, reforestation, area closure and management and gully rehabilitation (Betru, 2003).Traditionally through time, farmers have developed different soil conservation practices of their own. With these practices, farmers have been able to sustain their production for centuries. Even up to now, it has been acknowledged that these technologies, which include ploughing of narrow ditches on sloping fields to control run-off, farmland terraces, traditional ditches and furrows, contour ploughing, fallowing, crop rotation, farmyard manure and agro forestry continue to play a significant role in the production of subsistence agriculture (Betru, 2003).However, the impact of those efforts did not curb the impact of land degradation in a meaningful and sustainable manner. Various reasons are often given for the lack of success. Among these the most commonly cited factors include failure to consider land management practices, high initial costs which are not affordable to poor farmers and also trying to apply uniform techniques in different agro-ecological regions (Aklilu, 2006). Similar Sustainable land management practices such as soil and water conservation technologies (e.g., stone bunds, soil bunds), reduced tillage, and chemical fertilizer and much more physical and Biological practices have been promoted in all agro-ecologies regardless of their performance under different environmental conditions and even in the same agro-ecology.In addition, efforts made up to the early 2000 were considered inadequate as they covered only 7% of the total land area that needed treatment, and at that rate, it was estimated that treating all the remaining land could take seven decades. Evaluations of efforts made concluded that the interventions were ineffective, insufficient and unsustainable (Woldeamlak, 2003).In general failure of past conservation efforts can be attributed to a range of factors that make the recommended strategies inappropriate to local conditions. In particular, these have tended to focus on arresting soil erosion without considering the underlying socioeconomic causes of low soil productivity, thus promoting technologies that are not profitable or are risky or ill suited to farmers\" food security needs and financial constraints (Pagiola, 1999).A significant land management paradigm change in recent years involves assessment of the impacts of management of land and water at field levels on the larger watershed (catchment) and even landscape. Because agro ecological landscapes are diverse, farmers and land users have developed a broad set of cropping and natural resource management strategies to cope with the diversity of production and ecological conditions.Soil and Water Conservation practice (SWC) is defined as the rational use of land resources, the application of erosion control measures and water conservation technologies, and the adoption of appropriate cropping patterns to improve soil productivity and prevent land degradation and thereby enhance the livelihood of the user communities (Hudson, 1987;Tiwari et al.,2008). They are first a response to the perceived land degradation problem. It includes all forms of human actions to prevent and treat soil degradation (Grohs, 1994, cited in Demeke, 1998). SWC is important to control the loss of nutrients from agricultural land. Therefore, SLM can be further accomplished by better implementing soil conservation measures which help prevent soil loss by hampering detachment and runoff and increasing infiltration and sedimentation (Roose and Barthès, 2001;Hammad et al., 2006;Guto, 2011).Soil and water conservation practices consist of two major categories; biological (Vegetative),and Physical (mechanical) measures. The first category refers to management practices that make use of agronomic skills and biological material rather than physical structures. Mechanical practices, on the other hand, refer to practices that involve physical structures, often with a barrier function.Physical or structural measures refer to practices that involve physical structures, often with a barrier function which include earthworks aimed at controlling and diverting the run off in the arable areas. There are various physical land management practices that are applied to control erosion in the Highland parts of the country. These measures include: stone bund, soil bund, check dam, cutoff drain, bench terrace Water harvesting pond, eyebrow basin, Micro basin etc.These measures are applied to maximize infiltration, to drain excess water from rainstorms and to retain moisture in the soil. Also these measures aim to control run off, improve soil fertility and harvest water. The improved type of soil and water technologies refers to the recommended type of structures, which have standard length, width, and height (Wegayehu, 2003). These structures have specific design requirements and need major investments of labour in construction, often during a single period (Scoones et al., 1996). Hence, this particular measure has been widely constructed within the food for work (FFW) programme areas (Wegayehu, 2003).Biological measures refers to particular management practices that make use of agronomic skills and biological material rather than physical structures and are farming practices, which help to minimize erosion, improve fertility and soil structures. These include; vegetative barriers, agronomic and soil fertility improvement practices, which help in controlling surface runoff, reduce soil losses, improve productivity and stabilize soil along the physical structures.Various vegetative measures are widely applied in the highlands of Ethiopia. These include:grass strip planting bamboo (Arundinaria alpina), planting Phalaris grass /Reed grass/ (Arundinaria donax), planting sisal, planting trees on stone bunds like Tree Lucerne (Chamaecytisus palmensis (Proliferus)), planting Eragorostis grass, and area closure. It is noted that most of the time the vegetative measures are applied on physical measures or alone (Lakew, 2000). According to Ministry of Agriculture ( 2001), Vegetative measures are practiced as the second line of defense in erosion control exercise while mechanical/physical measures are primary. Therefore, Soil and water conservation technologies and approaches are critical factors toward the sustainable use of the natural resource base for agriculture.Soil conservation must be an integral component of intensified agriculture the choice of effective and adequate conservation measures will need to be based on an assessment of the form and intensity of the degradation process, and the choice of management practices adapted to the environmental conditions, economic feasibility, and the social acceptability of the proposed control techniques. Avoidance of soil loose by improved Management and conservation of natural resources is therefore important to maintain the function of the soil and contribute to food security today and for the future generation (Ehui and Pender, 2005).In this study with respect to SWC, it is identified that, different types of physical and biological SWC measures practiced by farmers and introduced by SWC Program operating in the study area. However, this study is concerned with the performance of selected sustainable land management measures practiced by farmers in the study area.Therefore, to ensure sustainable adoption of practices and their beneficial impacts on productivity and other outcomes, rigorous empirical research is needed on where particular land management interventions are likely to be successful and effective. And this particular research will focus in identifying, Characterizing, mapping, comparing and prioritizing SLM practices introduced at the study area for further up scaling through sampled household at Basona Werana Woreda, Gina Beret Watershed. Hence, it was crucial to identify effective and sustained land management practices to increase production of food crops for economic growth and development and to ensure food security in the area.The study site is located in Basona Werana (\"Baso and Werana\") Woreda Semien Shewa Zone, Amhara National Regional State of Ethiopia. The Woreda is located at about 120 kms North East of Addis Ababa. Basona Werana is bordered on the south by Angolalla Tera, on the southwest by the Oromia Region, on the west by Siyadebrina Wayu, on the northwest by Moretna Jiru, on the north by Mojana Wadera, on the northeast by Termaber, and on the east by Ankober.The woreda is Located at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands in the Semien Shewa Zone at latitude and longitude 9 o 50\"N 39 o 20\"E and it covers a total area of 1,208.17 square kilometers, with a total population of 120,930 people. Gudo Beret is one of the towns in this woreda where the study site is located. It is 32km north of Debre Birhan. The rainfall and temperature data collected from the National Meteorological Service Agency (NMSA) was used to describe the climate of the study area.The rainfall has a mono-modal nature in which the months from June to September are the long rainy season marked by relatively higher rainfall records and during which crop cultivation takes  shows that the highest mean maximum monthly temperature was generally observed during the summer season. The mean maximum temperature was 19 o C, occurred during June; while the mean minimum temperature was 6.8 o C occurred during November (Fig. 3). According to FAO classification system, the most dominant soil in the area is Vertisols and cambisols covering the whole study area (UNDP/ FAO, 1984).The color of the study area soil is brown 83% and black 17%.The total area of the Woreda is estimated as it covers 1,208.17 square kilometers and area of Gudo Beret kebele is 5540 ha. This total land of Gudo beret is allocated to cultivated land, grazing land, forest land, bushes and shrubs, construction and unclassified land according the data obtained from ILRI,2014. The largest ethnic group reported in Basona Werana was the Amhara (99.46%), and Amharic was spoken as a first language by 99.33%. The majority of the inhabitants practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, with 99.96% reporting that as their religion.In the study area agriculture is the dominant economic activity, which includes crop farming and livestock production. Mixed crop-livestock system is the predominant farming system in the study area. Cropping patterns in the area mostly follow rainfall. and some sold the surplus for income. The following are the major food crops of the study area. Many local and introduced land management works were intervened in the study area. In addition to land management practices for improving soil fertility and crop land productivity, majority of the farmers except a few farmers are using Inorganic fertilizers and Organic fertilizers like manure for soil fertility amendment. DAP and UREA fertilizers are widely applied according to farmers\" recommendation rate. Oxen power is the main power source for ploughing and threshing activities. Crop weeding is mostly practiced by hand pulling but they have started to use herbicide for controlling weeds from farm. Rainfall is the main source of water for agriculture in the area. Besides supplementary irrigation water is also used for agriculture.In the study area soil erosion was a serious; not only did erosion lead to loss of soil nutrients, it also led to loss of cultivatable land/ soil, thereby reducing land under crop cultivation. However, the farmers understood how erosion control structures functioned, hence were adopting both physical structures and biological measures to prevent soil erosion and to help conserve soil. The main physical structures constructed were: stone bund, soil bund, cut off drains, Trenches, Stone faced soil bund, Micro basin, Eyebrow basin and Water harvesting pond.The main function of these physical structures, which are usually were constructed across the slope in the upper parts of the field/ landscape was to reduce the speed of surface runoff, and enhance soil interception and water infiltration, thereby reducing soil erosion. These physical structures were being reinforced using biological measures such as planting trees and grasses along the soil and water conservation structures. In order to strengthen and stabilize the physical structures, biological measures were employed namely: Tree Lucerne (Chamaecytisus proliferus)plant, Phalaris grass. Limitations are that they will not tolerate poor drainage or water logging. It was introduced by the cooperation of Gudo Beret agriculture office and NGO\"s like Africa Rising, SLM project and with the community participation. They are in combination with Physical structures like stone bunds to be more viable. At the time of study it is three years old and it was used for different purposes for conservation, fodder, bee forage, windbreak, fire wood and as Agro-forestry plant.The seeds are source of income for the farmers. have been reported by (Brown et al. 2007) and Jacob (2008). At the time of study it was five years old and it was mainly used as conservation structure to reduce the speed of surface runoff, and enhance soil interception and water infiltration, thereby reducing soil erosion. Stone bunds are effective when implemented along with supplementary activities (EthiOCAT, 2010). Therefore, in the future it is better to reinforce these physical structures with biological measures to be more viable. In total it covers about 1,389,928.5298m 2 or138.992853hec.of land within the study site.  Reconnaissance survey was conducted on first December, 2015 to have a mental picture and visual information on the area under study. Also identification of intervened Sustainable land management practices the research was focusing on was carried out in the study area.Biophysical environment existing within the study area was identified through field survey:Survey of soil, land management practices and also the general geography of the study area climate; rainfall, altitude and topographic features, land use and cropping history was identified.Mapping of the study area Gina Beret watershed and SLM practices with in this study area was undertaken by taking the coordinates of each practice with GPS. Also characterization of the identified SLM measures was carried out.The Gina Beret Watershed was purposively selected for the study because different SLM practices were undertaken with in this study area. Based on field observation relatively the very common three somewhat old aged intervened land management practices such as Tree Lucerne on Stone bund, Phalaris on stone bund and Only Stone bund were identified. Area without SLM practices was taken as control. Even if slope is important factor in order to compare this practices it is not taken in to consideration. Thirty (30) households of the watershed and 12 purposively selected farm lands were selected for the study.The design is allowed to explore wide range of data regarding land management practices which have been collected with the help of data gathering tools such as questionnaire, key informants discussion, observation .Soil samples were collected from the selected fields.The data were interpreted by quantitative and qualitative approaches. In quantitative approaches, structured data obtained by questionnaire and soil laboratory analysis results were categorized and computed making use of simple statistical measures (SPSS) like mean and percentages supported by brief discussions. In qualitative approaches data gathered through Key informants discussion and field observation were described and were incorporated in the analysis.The research was conducted within Basona Werana Woreda Gudo Beret Kebele. Gina Beret Watershed was selected purposively based on practical Land management works; i.e land management practices practiced on the farmers field and the focus area of the research. All 30 household farmers of the watershed and 12 farmlands were selected purposively through survey and data obtained from agriculture experts of the Kebele.Additionally, 5 key informants were selected by researcher\"s judgment from different sections of the community such as farmers who were models in land management, elderly farmers who had long experience of indigenous practices, manager of the kebele Agricultural and Rural Development Office and development agents .So, the total size of respondents was the sum of 30 household heads, 5 key informants all taken from the kebele. To conduct this research both relevant qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary data for qualitative study was collected from reconnaissance survey (Observation), and Interview with different key informants who have adequate knowledge and information about the past and present environmental conditions of the study area. The knowledge and information of these informants include available natural resources and its managements, agricultural production, land use, and land management practices, institutional support and so on. The primary data which were collected from sample household farmers for quantitative study include: household characteristics, farm characteristics, livestock information, different land management practices and their performance, labor availability, gender sensitivity, agricultural extension.Secondary data for quantitative study such as description of the study area; location, topography, climate, population, agricultural production, land management practice were collected from published and unpublished documents of different agricultural development agents and Governmental organizations. In addition review of related theoretical works that shows conceptual links with sustainable land management practices, and structured data obtained by questionnaire were used.In order to assess and investigate soil fertility status among selected SLM Practices through the analysis of some physical and chemical soil properties, soil samples were taken from four different practice sites. Three sample sites from area with SLM practice and one site from area without SLM practices, i.e.: from Tree Lucerne plus stone bund, from Phalaris plus stone bund, from Only Stone bund and One from area Without SLM practice as a control within the watershed at a depth of 0-20 cm.Six replicate soil samples were collected from each four sites by using auger at 20cm depth and taken to laboratory for soil physic-chemical properties analysis and analyzed in the laboratory for its Organic matter, Total Nitrogen and Available Phosphorus. Generally, a total of 24 soil samples were taken (Appendix I). All soil samples have been taken from farm land on the slope range of 3-15% at a distance of not more than 100 m 2 between the four sites.The soil physical and chemical analysis was carried out at the Horticoop Ethiopia (Horticultural) PLC Soil and water analysis Laboratory Bishoftu, Ethiopia.The soil samples were air dried, crushed with mortar and pestle, mixed well and passed through a 2 mm sieve for the following physic-chemical analysis; organic matter content, total nitrogen, and available phosphorous. The Walkly and Black method (1934) wet digestion method was used to determine soil carbon content and percent soil organic matter was obtained by multiplying percent soil organic carbon by a factor of 1.724 following the assumptions that organic matter is composed of 58% carbon. Organic carbon content was determined by wet oxidation method (Walkly, 1947). This method involves a wet oxidation of the organic carbon with a mixture of potassium dichromate, sulphuric acid and titrated by ferrous sulphate solution. Conversion of carbon to organic matter was done with the empirical factor of 1.724. Total nitrogen was analyzed using the Kejeldhal distillation method as described by Black (1965) by oxidizing the organic matter in concentrated sulfuric acid solution (0.1N H2SO4). Available phosphorous of soil samples was determined by measure absorbance on spectrophotometer (Olsen et al., 1954).Quantitative data were collected from household respondents using structural questionnaires (both open and closed ended questionnaires) which have been developed prior to interview schedule. Semistructured questionnaire were used to gather both quantitative and qualitative data from household interview and key informants by open-ended questions.Socioeconomic data were collected from the households through a semi-structured questionnaire.(Appendix III). Data and information about their perception on the selected SLM practices with in the watershed were collected from household respondents and key informant interview. Households are selected purposively based on the criteria those having farm land with SLM practice with in the watershed. The survey was conducted from 28 th March to 3 rd April. Interviews were conducted by the student and trained development agents from Gudo Beret Kebele.For qualitative data; reconnaissance survey (observation) and Key informant individual and group interview were the main methods used for data collection where semi-structured interview have been used primarily. Observations and identifications of all introduced land management practices practiced in the study area, and selection of specific Land Management Practices and transect survey where the research was focusing on were also done. To map SLM practices within the watershed coordinate points for the practices was also taken by rounding using GPS. The researcher and two enumerators have collected all data until the end of the fieldwork.After several preparatory activities were carried out the primary data required for the quantitative study were collected from sample households through formal survey using structured questionnaires. Two Development agents of Agricultural Development Office (enumerators) who have better knowledge and experience on the farming and land management system of the study area were participated in data collection both at household and field level.The qualitative and quantitative data that have been obtained through data collection methods were analyzed by using appropriate methods for each analysis.The quantitative data obtained from laboratory test and analysis for each soil chemical property of soil, were subjected to statistical sample analysis using SPSS computer software like; mean, standard deviation and standard error of mean for mean separation of each soil parameters between land management practices.To detect the presence of significant difference between the four Land management practices in soil physic-chemical properties conducted by using SPSS-16 software computer at 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 significance level and Excel spread sheet. The final output of the analysis was interpreted in words and figures depending on criteria stated for accepting or rejecting null hypothesis and the mean values of each variable were displayed on tables and figures.The household survey data which were collected from household respondents about state and effectiveness of introduced Land management practices on their farmland by using questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics to examine the difference and relationship between the variables.Map of the study area and SLM practices with in the watershed was done using collected coordinate points and Arc GIS. The qualitative data generated by the informal interview was used to substantiate results from the questionnaires. Finally mean and computed percentages of each variable was displayed on tables and charts and interpreted in words accordingly. One of the soil attributes selected for evaluating the nutrient status of soils under different SLM practices was organic matter content. The results of soil analysis of ANOVA soil organic matter content between the four practice areas showed that, there was statistically significant difference (P = 0.000466) (Annex V). According to average values of OM (%) shown in table1, Tan(1996) rates that percent of organic matter greater than 6 percent to be very high, 4.3-6.0 percent high, 2.1-4.2 percent medium, 1-2 percent low and less than 1 percent very low. Employing this rating, we found that the OM (%) content of the four practices to be medium for Phalaris with Stone bund and only Stone bund and low for Tree Lucerne with Stone bund and the area without SLM practice(for the control). Significance Codes: 0 \"***\" 0.001 \"**\" 0.01 \"*\" 0.05 \".\" 0.1 \" \" 1One of the soil attributes selected for evaluating the nutrient status of soils under different practices was total nitrogen content. The results of soil analysis of total nitrogen content between the four practice areas showed that, there was statistically significant difference (P =0.0005) (Annex V).Based on average values of TN (%) shown in table 2. Buruah (1998) rates that percent of Nitrogen greater than 0.06 percent to be high, 0.03-0.06 percent medium and less than 0.03 percent low.Employing this rating, we found that the TN (%) content of all the four practices to be high including the control area. Significance Codes: 0 \"***\" 0.001 \"**\" 0.01 \"*\" 0.05 \".\" 0.1 \" \" 1Phosphorus is an essential plant nutrient which is taken up by plants in the form of inorganic ions. The results of soil analysis of available phosphorus content between the four practice areas revealed that, there was statistically significant difference (P = 0.00324) (Annex V).According to average values of Av.P (%) shown in table 3. Barber(1984) rates that percent of phosphorus greater than 50 percent to be very high, 25-50 percent high, 10-25 percent medium, 5-10 percent low and less than 5 percent very low. Employing this rating, we found that Phosphorus (ppm) content of the four practices to be high for only Stone bund while low for Phalaris plus Stone bund, tree Lucerne plus stone bund and the area without SLM practice(for the control).  Erosion also causes significant redistribution of soil materials and fertility within the space between the structures. Soil materials eroded from upper inter-structural position are deposited at the lower interstructural position of conservation structures. Soils at the deposition sites experience a net gain of soil and fertility while those in the upper undergo net losses. Significant redistribution and subsequent fertility variation within the space between structures were also observed in the study areas. To compare variability in soil property within inter-structural space, mean values of selected soil properties of the conservation structures and treated plots were compared in the area.Because of the conservation measures, significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were observed among the inter-structural Positions in the soil physico-chemical properties. Considerable differences were also observed in the nutrient content at the two inter-structure positions (Table 10).Organic matter, Total Nitrogen and Available Phosphorus was significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) between the lower and the upper positions. The highest amount of organic carbon, total nitrogen and available phosphorus was found in the lower positions.      control area may be due to the residual effects of past years crops and land management. The amount of Plant Available Nitrogen released from soil organic matter is dependent on soil temperature, moisture, and many other soil management factors.The mean value of available Phosphorous for the only stone bund is higher than that of the other three i.e. Tree Lucerne with stone bund, Phalaris with stone bund, and the control area without any SLM practice. Hence, the relatively higher amount of organic carbon content in the stone bund might have contributed to the relatively higher amount of available Phosphorus. Surface soil had slightly higher amount of available P than the subsoil and a larger proportion of the P-fraction appeared to in organically bounded form (Berhane and Sahlemedhin, 2003). They also found a strong correlation between organic matter and organically bounded P content of the majority of the soils.The low amount of phosphorus in Tree Lucerne with stone bund is due to low organic matter and it is similar in agreement with the report that the presence of low organic matter decreases the amount of available phosphorous in soils (Haile Fesseha, 2007). The low amount of Phosphorus in Phalaris with stone bund could be due to the presence of Phosphorous in its unavailable forms.The highest amount of organic matter, total nitrogen and available phosphorus was found in the lower positions. The possible reason for this could be the removal of top soils by erosion from the upper than the lower position. (Kruger, 1994) found that the course of the erosion process that forms the terrace, the topsoil below the structure is gradually moves down the slope and accumulates above the next soil and water conservation structure. Also (Weigel, 1986) had observed such soil and fertility redistribution along transect in a six year old well established terraces in the conservation treated catchment of Gununo Soil Conservation Research Station. He reported that the soil immediately above the bund had more organic matter, total N and available P than the upslope. Bunds can reduce soil loss up to 68% (Gebrermichael et al., 2006).Moreover, much of the runoff from the upslope area is retained and halted as it approaches the bunds, and subsequently much of it is allowed to infiltrate in to the soil. Also at the lower slope position sediment eroded from the upslope positions are deposited and consequently soil fertility and topsoil depth are increased on the bunds stabilized by vegetative, soil bund and stone bund treated plots. In general erosion causes a decline in soil fertility and loss of productivity on soils with no conservation measures.In the study area all the respondents perceived soil erosion as a problem in their own farm. And set the severity of the problem as 37.2 %( severe), 57.6% (medium), 5.2% smaller. They ranked the main causes of soil erosion as overgrazing followed by poor agricultural practices in the study area. This finding is consistent with findings in the Debre Mewi watershed reported by Tigist (2009), in which gully erosion in the overgrazed area was the source of most of the soil loss. Perceived impacts due to soil degradation were increase in soil erosion, Soil fertility loss, decrease in crop land productivity, and decrease in crop yield and finally decrease in food and feed.Theoretically, those farmers who perceive soil erosion as a problem having negative impacts on productivity and who expect positive returns from conservation are likely to decide in favor of adopting available conservation technologies (Semgalawe and Folmer, 2000;Gebremedhin and Swinton, 2003).Thus, all the respondents believe that SLM works can reverse the problem. They enthusiastically expressed the belief that they could control erosion on their farm plots. Such a view agrees with the results of Belay (1992) in the southwestern highlands and Bewket and Sterk (2002) in the northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Almost all farmers perceived erosion problems while many of them also believed that SWC measures are profitable (Teshome et al., 2013). All the interviewed farmers told that they have seen change in soil quality, vegetation cover and get different benefits from the intervention of SLM measures particularly in their plots and generally from the watershed. Fodder is the major benefit for the households for maintaining their livestock. As 97.6% were engaged in mixed farming where by farmers practice both crop production and animal husbandry. Results of key informant interview indicated that mixed farming assisted land management practices in different ways. In one way, mixed farming availed animal manure, which is very important to improve soil fertility. Besides, it provided oxen which function as sources of labor for cultivation of land. They are also experiencing runoff reduction and gully rehabilitation in their locality of SLM measures.From key informants and household interview source of information regarding conservation strategies of land management for the farmers were government, non-governmental organization and other concerned bodies. They are participated in community Mobilization, on farm demonstration of technologies, farmer training, output marketing, input supplies, natural resource management. Effective management practices of land demand teamwork of stakeholders, which include land users, the government, non-governmental organizations and other concerned bodies. Access to information on new technologies is crucial to creating awareness and attitudes towards technology adoption.In this case, contact with extension services gives farmers access to information on innovations, advice on inputs and their use, and management of technologies. In most cases, extension workers establish demonstration plots where farmers get hands-on learning and can experiment with new farm technologies. Consequently, access to extension is often used as an indicator of access to information (Adesina et al., 2000;Honlonkou, 2004). Though, they perceived as it was beneficial to gain knowledge and skill to solve practical problems. In the study area regarding the use of fertilizer in order to improve and maintain the fertility and productivity of soil; out of the total house hold farmers 10(33.3%) use organic fertilizers manure and compost, 5(16.6%) use inorganic fertilizers, 10 (33.3%) use both organic and inorganic fertilizers and 5(16.66%) use neither organic nor inorganic fertilizers.The potential crops grown in the study area are barley, wheat, faba beans and field pea. The type and total number of livestock owned across all households is 52 Oxen, 48 Cows, 14 Horses, 226 Sheep, 25Goats, 47 Donkeys, 14 Horses and 75 Chickens. Sample farmers rear livestock for various purposes; farm, milk, meat, eggs, transport and other purposes. Livestock plays a very important role by serving as a store of value, source of traction (especially oxen) and provision of manure required for soil fertility maintenance (Yirga, 2007). Livestock is generally considered to be an asset that could be used either in the production process or be exchanged for cash or other productive assets (Wegayehu, 2003).It was, therefore hypothesized that the livestock holdings of the household to affect farmers\" land management decision positively. Concerning animal feed all the farmers use crop residue and grass, 23(76.6%) use Tree Lucerne and 24(80%) use phalaris. Regarding the status of feeding 87% of the respondents believe as it is sufficient and 13% deficit.Land management practices are the activities that land related stake holders perform making use of various technologies in order to improve the productive capacity of the land. Any land management practice, to be effective, needs to be economically feasible, socially acceptable and environmentally friendly. The researcher focused on selected measures Tree Lucerne with stone bund, Phalaris with stone bund, only Stone bund and area without any practice as a control. They ranked phalaris with stone bund first, Tree Lucerne and stone bund second and only stone bund as last. It is known that the cumulative application of both biological and physical land management practices is very effective in improving crop than constructing physical structures alone for that is why they gave priority to the combinations. Because planting narrow strips of plants on field contours can be very effective at helping trap crop residues and sediments from moving off field. The combination of land management practices can improve crop land productivity and crop production by providing vegetative cover, organic matter which improves physical structure of soil, reduce soil erosion and as result nutrients are more available to the plants.Phalaris develops shoots all along its rhizome axis. This allows to rapidly expand its local territory and a single rhizome or stem can infest an entire drainage. Grass strips control erosion effectively and also provide valuable biomass meant to increase animal feed because are palatable by live stocks. Are perennial and persistent, compete with suppress weeds, provide good ground cover, slow down the water flow and hence conserve the soil and moisture. Besides, they provide valuable fodder or other materials of use by the farmers (MOA, 2005). Cost of construction is much lower than physical structures may be that is why the farmers took Phalaris with stone bund in the first place.With the added advantages of improving the soils, reducing soil erosion and providing animals with an alternate high protein animal fodder Particular emphasis has been placed for Tree Lucerne which is an effective farm management tool for animal fodder, windbreaks and hedges because of its high productivity, excellent nutritional characteristics and good palatability, especially for small ruminants even if its use is not known well in the study area because of its early growth stage.Regarding gender sensitivity on the introduction of SLM practices out of the total 115 households number; including household family members in the study area 52 (45.2%) are women and 63(54.8%) are men. And out of the total number of women 19(36.5%) are age under fifteen (<15) and 3(5.8%), are above sixty four (>64) and only 30(57.7%) are within the productive age range between 15 and 64.It is known that women are also more involved in regular household activities than men. In the study area, a woman takes most of the household responsibilities (child care, food processing and harvesting, weeding and bringing water). Having all this responsibilities they participate in SWC practices with men in the study area.In addition implementation of SWC structure is labor intensive and therefore implementation is related to labor availability. In the study area out of the total 115 household\"s number; including household family members in the study area 35(30.43%) are age under fifteen (<15), 6(5.2%) are above sixty four (>64) and 74(64.3%) are within the productive age range between 15 and 64. The main source of labor for 27(90%) of household farmers is their family labour and 3(10%) used hired labour for construction of SWC practices. However, using family size as a proxy for available family labour, and taking into account that family labour is often complemented by hired labour and through labour exchange, the study found no indication that differences in terms of labour availability were linked to the decision to invest in SWC.Key informants were asked to supply their opinion on what factors were influencing their practices of land management. Their responses indicated that households with large family labor or who were organized in team were in a better position to implement labor intensive conservation practices as compared to those with low family labor or who act alone. This underscores the importance of labor availability to technology adoption, consistent with the findings of Shiferaw and Holden (1998).The problem encountered in implementing land management practices was Rodent abundance that is observed in the fields of these practices especially in vegetative barriers. Similar increases in rodent abundance in the course of crop development and increasing vegetation cover have been reported by (Brown et al. 2007). According to Meheretu et al., 2010 in Northern Ethiopia have ranked rodents as the number one pre and post-harvest crop pests. The stone bunds potentially provide extensive and continuous suitable refugia for rodents within cropping areas, and there are concerns that high stone bund densities in crop fields are associated with high rodent abundance, leading ultimately to more crop damage (Meheretu et al., 2010). Also during informal discussions with key informants including women, most of the new SWC structural measures that were constructed in the past years were not maintained.The finding of the study revealed that there is statistically significant difference between selected land management practices and have a significant role in improving soil fertility based on its impact on soil quality like; soil organic matter content, total nitrogen and available phosphorous. The reason for soil fertility differences are not only due to the introduction of set of SLM practices but due to the difference in land management history of the farm lands. To sustain the use and productivity of land and particularly farm land sustainable soil management technologies and practices, which have been supported by research finding, were transferred to the farming communities and introduced in the study area.From soil laboratory results and household survey, application of the combination of practices on farmland is highly a suitable practice in improving cropland productivity. Therefore, vegetatative barriers i.e., phalaris with stone bund followed by Tree Lucerne with stone bund play a significant role in improving farm land productivity by better matching land management to local crop and soil conditions.Accordingly, both biological and physical land management practices are different faces and one supports the other, and one without the other is not as much effective in improving farm land fertility unless the land has good management history.","tokenCount":"10584"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"688841fef9cc188f6e9402b6afd35e46","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/49b85e61-5fec-489f-8549-a32256947696/retrieve","id":"-565786417"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"39e68820-af08-4ddc-9476-af7602b5cfdf","pagecount":"11","content":"Competing pathways for equitable food systems transformation: trade-offs and synergies• FAO feasibility study:• Analysis of BAU vs. SPS scenarios • Small and medium livestock farms in buffer zones of the Bosawas and Indio Maíz reserves• Total agricultural area 1.8 M. ha, 53% for animal production; 1.2 M cattle, 25% of national herd• 24,000 farms, 68% possess cattle, poor market access • Inadequate land use and management practices: • Rapid ex-ante assessment tool \"CLEANED\".• Nitrogen balance • Land and water requirement • Greenhouse gas emissions • Carbon stock changes• Net income from livestock production and costs of silvopastoral systems Cut-and-carry grasses Production and Environmental Impacts (1)• Increased carrying capacity and productivity (by 30-50%)• Potentially free land by up to 25% (mainly pastures) for restoration and/or reforestation• Water use per kg of milk decreases by 50%","tokenCount":"134"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a3a14ad15c482996a0b5aa2e9e703aff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fa451611-514e-4f9f-8210-41d63911f8ab/retrieve","id":"20377277"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5c5137e4-b665-4b34-b0e9-276fba02a54c","pagecount":"40","content":"The Gender in Irrigation Learning and Improvement Tool (GILIT) identifies areas of policy and operations in formal irrigation schemes or project that have been successful or need adjustment to promote gender equity. The tool can facilitate learning and support equitable standards by collecting feedback and ideas for specific actions that scheme management can take to address gender inequities. The tool is a series of indicators clustered around three critical themes in gender and irrigation, with supporting discussion questions and an adaptable scoring system which can be found in the next section of this document.It is assumed that the country or project context supports gender-related goals and aims for equity in access, participation, and benefits. The GILIT can assist project or scheme management in ensuring that governance and service provisions do not discriminate against or discourage women as well as providing women with supplementary support to achieve equity. This tool captures field-level experience of women and men to provide the most relevant feedback on how to formally support equitable outcomes. Irrigation scheme managers, project managers and other stakeholders interested in enabling gender equity in irrigation projects and schemes can use this tool for collaborative learning. The GILIT provides to the basis to facilitate discussion, reflection and evaluation across actors and stakeholders to fix weaknesses, to share lessons and to realign a project toward gender goals. Donors can use this tool to support the design of irrigation schemes and to adjust management and operations in functioning schemes or projects. The GILIT statements and questions can be used for planning potential project components and activities to ensure better gender equitability and also as a baseline for new projects. The GILIT can be used for monitoring and improving existing projects, for example, by identifying equitable schemes to document and share lessons with other schemes. In less equitable projects, GILIT can suggest where and how to increase investment to become more equitable. Scheme stakeholders can use the GILIT to hold project organizations, associations and scheme management accountable to national legislation and policies related to gender equality. Project or scheme evaluators can use the GILIT to create a baseline and to periodically measure performance on gender equity. The tool enables cumulative learning within a project from the point of scheme development to implementation in the field. Researchers may also find the tool useful for comparing gender performance across types of irrigation schemes, varying governance configurations, and geographical areas and regions.The GILIT questionnaire is divided into five sections.The Gender Equality Context section of the GILIT collects information related to the broader national and sub-national institutional, regulatory and policy environment within which each irrigation scheme or project operates. The section is not scored because these conditions are outside of the control of the scheme management. The section enables assessment of scheme or project performance in relation to the overall national or regional context. The scheme project plans, implementation activities, and overall scores should reflect a positive national policy and equitable outcomes. The overall performance score of the scheme or project suggests the level of improvement needed to align with national policies or scheme/project development goals.The GILIT provides a series of statements that describe optimal conditions that would result from the implementation of gender-equitable policies and practices on a scheme. The framing of each statement acknowledges men's and women's different initial enabling conditions with respect to the assets needed to fully participate and/or benefit from the scheme. Statements are grouped into three sections:1. Access to scheme resources (including information, such as in the design phase; land, water, and other inputs); 2.Participation in scheme membership, leadership, and decision-making; and 3.Access to scheme benefits, including access to market information, packaging, and payments from product sales or processing.Users are provided with discussion questions to assist in gathering the necessary information to provide an accurate score for each statement. These discussion questions can be adapted to the local context to recognize that each context differs according to local practices and national policies and priorities. If the GILIT is used by NGOs or donors, the questions could also be adapted to reflect the requirements or expectations of that organization. For schemes (or investors) that seek more quantitative assessment and data, the supporting questions could be used to collect detailed data.Performance is measured through rating the project or scheme on each gender-equitable statement. The tool is not intended to penalize low scores, but to indicate specific areas where further support is needed to achieve improvement. The scores can help project managers or funding organizations evaluate how different groups and actors understand gender performance within a scheme. A google form is available for users of the tool to calculate scores and this is available at http://bit.ly/GLITTER_Answer.The GILIT also provide Action Questions for users to gather feedback on suggested actions for areas that need improvement towards gender equity. The feedback can be used to facilitate dialogue between and across national and sub-national institutions and key stakeholders to improve the overall enabling environment for gender equity in irrigation and agricultural water management.A scoring table is provided with the tool. The scoring scales reflect the different levels of investment, engagement and effort to achieve optimal gender outcomes. The scoring table is not intended to be fixed or universal across all contexts; instead, it can be adjusted to account for the degree of difficulty to achieve gender equitability in each local context. Generally, higher scores are required for \"Section A: Access to scheme resources\" because it is easier for scheme management to include both men and women in discussions about the scheme and its organization, plot locations, and benefits prior to construction, and to give both men and women an equal opportunity to become scheme members, including gaining supplementary services or considerations to make that possible. \"Section B: Access to scheme membership, leadership opportunities and decisionmaking\" and \"Section C: Access to scheme benefits\" represent more complex processes of establishing equitable governance of irrigation projects. This requires more investment, effort and engagement with committees or other bodies. Establishing equitable policies (i.e., by-laws and other regulations) is important at this level, yet not sufficient to ensure equitable implementation of those policies. Equitable access to scheme benefits, because it can be deeply embedded in household and community-level gender relations, is usually the most difficult to structure and to implement.Data for responding to and scoring sections on a scheme or project with this learning tool may come from various sources. The questions in the main sections of the tool should be answered directly by women and men participants in the irrigation scheme across different levels. In addition, it is important to score the scheme activities across the range of stakeholders related to the project or scheme to ensure all perspectives are considered, including: scheme planners, scheme/project managers, local implementing officers, local extension, service providers and related community organizations or businesses.The more specific project or scheme context may be understood through documents include project designs, monitoring and evaluation data and reports, and internal and external evaluations or impact assessments. Such documents and reports would contain project goals, objectives and expected outcomes, as well as processes and activities. These documents may be available from government ministries and agencies, donors, universities, NGOs and consultants.The national policy context and existing overall situation may be understood through policy documents on natural resources, water, gender and local government, as well as organizational structures and budgets that provide insight into human and financial resource allocation and investment into gender.Step 1. Review project documents and national context documents• Identify national policies, regulations and goals on gender equality, and gender and agriculture, water and irrigation. • Identify project goals, objectives and plans on gender mainstreaming and equality.• Interview stakeholders (national, donor, local and project management) on Gender Equality Context.Step 2. Identify interviewees• Identify women and men of different ethnic, religious, social and economic strata represented in the scheme. • Ensure women are included from lower economic groups and who are not members of scheme management or group executives.• Identify individuals or groups of stakeholders that provide services within or for the scheme.Step 3. Set up interviews and group discussions• Allow for approximately two hours meeting time for groups and one hour for individuals.• Ensure appropriate time and meeting place for women.• Separate men and women respondents, and other authorities that might hinder open discussion.Step 4. Apply tool in interviews and group discussions• Inform all participants in each group that the process is based on their consent and scores will not affect future funding or participation in the scheme.• Complete all sections and statements of the tool, including Actions Questions, with each stakeholder group.Step 5. Analyze scores on performance and recommendations• Compile scores for different groups across Statements and Sections. Use the online tool available at http://bit.ly/GLITTER_Answer for calculating scores, as needed. • Compare scores across groups, tool sections and in relation to project and national goals.• Compile recommendations and actions and/or budget needed to implement actions.Step 6. Meet with scheme participants and stakeholders • Present and discuss results with scheme participants and local stakeholders.• Create a plan and schedule to implement actions for improvement; identify roles of scheme management, participants and related stakeholder institutions/organizations. • Agree on timeline to reassess gender equity performance.Step 7. Share lessons with stakeholders and national institutions as appropriate• Compile results of tool implementation, suggested changes for improvement, lessons and key outcomes of the meeting with scheme participants and stakeholders.• Share as report or presentation with local and national institutions or platforms to contribute to national enabling environment for gender equity in irrigation.• Repeat scheme interviews and group discussions.• Follow timeline agreed with scheme participants and stakeholders for next implementation of GILIT.The goal of this tool is to assess an irrigation scheme's current conditions for enabling men and women's participation. This tool can help identify areas of change that are within the scope of control of the scheme management and suggest specific actions that scheme management can take to address gender inequities. There are three categories of indicators that evaluate the following:1. Access to scheme resources. This includes information, land, water, and other inputs; 2. Participation in scheme membership, leadership, and decision-making; 3. Access to scheme benefits. This includes access to market information, packaging, and payments from sales or processing.The tool also includes a section on local and national gender equality to compare the scheme's current conditions to national policies, institutions, and goals in regards to gender equality.Responses are scored on a point basis. A higher score suggests a greater level of gender equality and a lower score indicates areas of improvement for scheme managers and director to target.The women and men participants in the irrigation scheme across different levels should respond to and score the statements in the main sections of the tool. In addition, it is important to score the scheme activities across the range of stakeholders related to the project or scheme to ensure all perspectives are considered, including: scheme planners, scheme/project managers, local implementing officers, local extension, service providers and related community organizations or businesses.The statements describe an optimal condition, state or outcome for women involved in the irrigation scheme. Read each statement to the individual or group respondents. Rank each statement on a scale of 1 to 3 based on feedback from the respondents.To assist in scoring the statements, each statement is followed by a series of discussion questions. These questions provide a guide for users to rank the situation in relation to the optimal outcome statement. The supporting questions are not scored individually, but instead are intended to help respondents provide contextual answers and assist the interviewer in making a score determination. The supporting questions act as a guide to inform those using the tool about men's and women's different needs, preferences, and capabilities.If all the answers to the questions are positive, then the scheme receives the highest possible score of 3. If most of the answers are negative, it receives a score of 1. If it is not possible to answer the questions because no information is available, the response is marked as N/A. To assist with calculating scores, responses can be entered into a google form, which will then calculate scores and compile recommended actions for each application of the tool. The google form is available at http://bit.ly/GLITTER_Answer.Date of interview:Conducted by: Type of group interviewed (farmer/WUA, or scheme management, etc.)Interviewees names, position in scheme (member and/or leadership) and contact information:Name of Irrigation Scheme:Irrigation Scheme Location (Geographic location; GPS coordinates if available)Irrigation Scheme Description (size of area, water source, water lifting and distribution method, major crop in the scheme):Irrigation Scheme Contact Information:Name of Project:Project Implementers (Government agency, NGO and/or donor agency):Project Donor or funding agency:Lead Project Implementer Contact Information:Start and end dates of Project activities in this Irrigation Scheme: This section of the tool is intended to provide an understanding of the broader national and sub-national regulatory context within which each irrigation scheme or project operates.  Responses to these questions are not scored because the policy and regulatory environment is outside of the control of the scheme management.  The purpose of questions is to provide the basis for assessing the performance of the scheme in relation to the overall national or regional context and in relation to the goals of the scheme.  This section should be compared to the overall score of the scheme or project to identify if the scheme's mission or goals and its operations align with national policies and development goals. A positive national policy context that prioritizes and promotes gender equitable outcomes from irrigation investments should be reflected in the scheme/project plans and implementation activities and therefore in the overall scores.Statement Women and men are aware of and knowledgeable about national policies, acts, regulations and goals that prioritize equitable access to resources, participation and benefits between men and women. Are national policies or regulatory frameworks already in place that clearly state that women and men should have equal access to natural resources? Do national policy documents state that women should have increasing and/or equal benefits as men? Are local institutions mandated to provide opportunities to both men and women to access and benefit equally from water and land resources? Are local institutions resourced financially and with adequate staff to support both men and women to access and benefit equally from water and land resources? Are women represented as appointed or elected officials at local level in the scheme area? In the local history, did both women and men historically have equal access to land and water resources? If not, is there a clear trend of that changing to become more equitable? Are there national laws that prohibit sex discrimination in association membership? Does the national law or regulation on WUAs address gender equitability and/or participation of women in decision-making of WUAs?Statement The scheme/project aims to ensure equal benefits for both men and women from access to water. Does the project design state goals and/or objectives related to gender equitability with regard to access and shared benefits between women and men? Does the project design include specific activities targeting women? Does the project monitoring and evaluation framework include any indicators related to increased access to water and access to scheme/project benefits for women? Was the scheme or project intended for irrigation only? Were non-irrigation uses of water considered at any point during the feasibility or planning stages? Were plans put in place outside of the project to ensure water sources for non-irrigation purposes? Did the scheme design change the sources of water for non-irrigation uses? Did the scheme change the amount of effort, time and/or expense for women to access the water?Section A: Access to Scheme Resources  This section reviews whether association and scheme by-laws and other regulations give men and women equal access to resources such as land, water, labor, and technology.  Men and women often have different initial levels of attributes, resources, and capacity and are not always equally able to meet association or scheme membership criteria, but the process of establishing the water users association and the irrigation scheme should be inclusive and not discriminate on the basis of sex.Scheme planners met with various stakeholders, including women's groups and potential women participants and clearly explained scheme goals, objectives, and eligibility and potential costs and benefits. Did project planners or scheme implementers meet with existing women's groups or meet with groups of women farmers in the area? Did women understand the costs and benefits of the scheme to their satisfaction?□ Scheme planners met with no women stakeholders (1 point) □ Scheme planners met with men and a few women in the community (2 points) □ Scheme planners met with a sufficient number of women (including poorer and less poor women) and women and men were well informed about costs and benefits (3 points)□ Not ApplicableIf scheme planners met with few or no women, did that negatively affect women? If women were not well-informed of the scheme costs and/or benefits, did that lack of information negatively affect them? If this lack of information negatively affect women, do they have suggestions for addressing this issue now?Both men and women were included in discussions of options for site location, design and proposed technologies. Did scheme planners or implementers meet with women's groups to discuss site location, design and proposed technologies? Were a fair number of women's groups contacted compared to the total number that exist?□ Only leaders were involved in discussions; all or nearly all were men. (1 point) □ Most men in the community were involved in discussions; some women were included. (2 points)□ Most men and women ((including poorer and less poor women) in the community were actively involved in discussions. (3 points)Action QuestionsIf women were not actively involved in discussions of scheme options, did their lack of input negatively affect women? If the lack of women's input negatively affected women, do they have suggestions for addressing this issue now?A3 Statement Both men and women were given opportunities to comment and provide alternative suggestions relating to site location, design and proposed technologies. Were women specifically asked to share their views in meetings composed of both men and women? Were women's suggestions and/or objections discussed and noted, for further consideration?□ No suggestions from women were sought in site location, design or technologies. (1 point) □ Some women's and men's suggestions were considered in site location, design and technologies.( □ Not ApplicableDo women believe that they were negatively impacted by not being included in discussions of land availability and/or land allocation? If women were negatively impacted because their concerns were not address, do they have suggestions for addressing this issue now?A5 Statement During the scheme or system design process, or during later interaction with members, information was collected and considered on men's and women's different water needs for domestic/household use. Can water from the scheme or system be used for both domestic and agricultural uses? If no, are there dedicated sources for domestic uses nearby? Are women satisfied with access for both domestic and agricultural water sources in the area and the scheme? Are there tensions over using the scheme's resources for different purposes? If yes, are these tensions related to different uses by men and women?□ Information was gathered only from men or from no community members regarding domestic water needs. (1 point)□ Information was gathered from a few men and a few women regarding domestic water needs, but was not considered in scheme planning or management. (2 points)□ Information was gathered from both women and men regarding domestic water needs. Genderbased preferences are considered in scheme water management for domestic or household uses and production activities. (3 points)If information was not gathered from women regarding their different uses of water (including domestic or household water use), how were women affected? If women were negatively impacted because their household and domestic water needs were not addressed, do women have suggestions for addressing this issue now?Notes A6 Statement During the scheme or system design process, or in the current scheme operations, men's and women's choices on crops and the different water needs for agricultural production were/are considered. Were/are the different crop and production activities and needs by both men and women considered in the project design and management? Do both men and women contribute to decisions on the crops grown on the scheme? Are women satisfied that their suggestions on crops in the scheme are considered? Are there tensions over using the scheme's resources for different crops? If yes, are these tensions related to different crop preferences of men and women?□ Information was gathered only from men regarding water needs for agricultural production. (1 point)□ Information was gathered from a few men and a few women regarding water needs for agricultural production. Little or no consideration was/is given to gendered preferences or needs. (2 points)□ Information was gathered from both women and men regarding water needs for agricultural production. Gender-based preferences are considered in scheme water management for crops and production activities. (3 points)If information was not gathered from women regarding their water needs for agricultural production, how were women affected? If women were negatively impacted because their water needs for agriculture production were not considered, do women have suggestions for addressing this issue now?A7 Statement Both men and women were included in discussions of proposed obligations for site operation and maintenance and comments and alternative suggestions were/are incorporated into maintenance and operations plans. Were women's groups and prospective women members met with to discuss proposed operation and maintenance obligations specific for women? Did women make suggestions and/or objections? Were specific actions taken based on the suggestions made? Are women satisfied with their roles in operation and maintenance?□ Women community members were not involved in discussions regarding site operation and maintenance. (1 point)□ Some men and women community members were consulted regarding site operation and maintenance and some suggestions considered. (2 points)□ Both women (including poorer) and men were consulted regarding site maintenance and suggestions informed site operation and maintenance. (3 points)If women were not involved in discussions regarding site operation and maintenance, how were women affected?If women were negatively affected because they were not involved in decision making on site operation or maintenance, do they have suggestions for addressing this issue now?If this lack of information negatively affects women, do they have suggestions for addressing this issue now?A8 Statement Scheme management provides supplementary support to men and women to overcome agricultural production and marketing constraints.If scheme provides no such support or services, then the response to the statement is N/A. Does the scheme offer inputs on credit to both men and women? If yes, does the scheme offer credit based on non-land assets for women to access, such as purchase contracts? Does the scheme offer risk insurance to both men and women plot managers? Does the scheme offer equal access to both men and women for land leveling, plowing, and other services that use large equipment? Are women and men satisfied with the level of support to women to access scheme inputs and services?□ Scheme management does not provide any supplementary support to women to overcome production and/or marketing constraints.□ Scheme management provides some supplementary support to overcome production and/or marketing constraints, but women find it challenging to access or effectively use these support services.□ Scheme management provides both women and men adequate support to overcome production and/or marketing constraints. (3 points)If scheme management does not provide support to women to overcome production and/or marketing constraints, how has that affected women? If women are negatively affected by lack of support to overcome production/marketing constraints, do women have suggestions for addressing this issue now?This section addresses men's and women's opportunities to participate meaningfully in scheme governance, e.g., to join a scheme, to become members of a scheme's user association, and to hold positions of leadership within those associations. What proportion of the scheme members are men? What proportion of the scheme members are women? How do new members join the scheme, e.g., through inheritance, purchase, etc.? □ Scheme or association by-laws explicitly note that both men and women are eligible for membership and women form at least a significant minority of members in their own right. (3 points)□ Not ApplicableIf scheme membership rules has limited women's membership, do women want to become members? Do women have suggestions for addressing this issue now?B2 Statement Women and men contributed to writing the scheme by-laws.Note: If by-laws are written by a government authority and applied uniformly to all schemes with no opportunity for input by men or women to adapt to the local context or scheme, the response on this statement is N/A. This should be noted in the context information on the project and national level regulatory/policy environment. Are women satisfied that their concerns and preferences are reflected in the by-laws?□ Women did not contribute to writing the scheme by-laws. (1 point) □ Some women contributed and their opinions were addressed in some scheme by-laws. (2 points) □ A significant proportion of women contributed ideas and those ideas were incorporated in most scheme by-laws. (3 points)If women did not contribute to writing the scheme by-laws, were they negatively affected by that? Can the bylaws be amended or changed now to address those issues?B3 Statement Association and/or scheme by-laws are available to and known by all members. Do both men and women have access to, awareness of, and understanding of the by-laws?□ There are no by-laws (or other group regulations). (1 point) □ By-laws are written and posted. (2 points) □ By-laws are written, posted, and known by leaders and both women and men members. (3 points) □ Not ApplicableIf there are no by-laws or if scheme members do not know the by-laws, has this affected women involved in the scheme? What actions can be taken now to address this issue?B4 Statement Scheme by-laws permit both plot owners and plot managers to be association members. What proportion of plot owners are men? Are women? What proportion of plot managers are men? Are women? Are there local regulations, including customary rules, that restrict women from being plot owners or managers? Are these regulations consistent with national legislation on land and on gender?□ Local customs and/or scheme by-laws restrict membership to plot owners. Most women manage a plot but do not own a plot, so most scheme members are not women. (1 point)□ Scheme by-laws do not restrict membership to plot owners, but customs tend to favor plot owners. Some women own a plot, so some women are scheme members. (2 points)□ Both scheme by-laws and customs support participation of plot owners and plot managers. Most women who manage but do not own a plot are scheme members. (3 points)If most scheme members are men, how has that affected women plot managers? What actions can be taken now to address this issue?B5 Statement Scheme by-laws allow equal voting rights for men and women and ensure that scheme elections are organized to allow for both men and women to participate. Are men and women members aware of their eligibility to vote on scheme issues and leadership? Did both men and women vote in the most recent elections? Do any factors limit voting for women? For example, scheduling of elections, literacy, familiarity with the process or the candidates, other?□ Scheme by-laws do not have equal voting rights and elections are organized in ways that create challenges for women or men to participate. (1 point)□ Scheme by-laws state that women and men have equal voting rights but elections are organized in ways that create challenges for women or men to participate. (2 points)□ Scheme by-laws state that women and men have equal voting rights and elections are organized in ways support participation of women and men. (3 points)If it is challenging for women to vote in elections, have women been negatively affected? How can this issue be addressed now?B6 Statement Scheme by-laws and/or scheme organization and management support women and men to hold positions as association leaders. Did both men and women stand for leadership positions in the most recent election? Do both men and women hold leadership positions: President; Vice President; Treasurer; Secretary? Are women primarily in secretarial roles or do they have decision-making roles? Does the scheme have requirements for leadership positions that women find challenging to meet? For example, payment of fees or transport costs. Have women taken an increasing role in scheme leadership over the duration of the scheme? Are women satisfied with their roles? Would women stand for leadership positions if given equitable opportunity?□ Scheme by-laws permit both women and men to hold leadership positions but women face numerous challenges to stand for election.□ Scheme by-laws permit both women and men to hold leadership positions but women face some challenges to stand for election.□ Scheme by-laws permit both women and men to hold leadership positions and women are supported in multiple ways to stand for election.If women want to stand for elections but face challenges, what actions can be taken to address this issue?Notes B7 Statement The scheme (or supporting institutions/organizations) provides training that enables women and men members to serve effectively in scheme management. Does the scheme provide instruction on scheme management (responsibility, roles) to both men and women? Does the scheme provide or explain where it is possible to receive training in association leadership? Have women/men received gender-awareness training to better understand and represent their constituents' needs?□ The scheme does not provide any training or information to women scheme members. (1 point) □ The scheme provides some training, but the training is provided primarily to men and/or the training is not seen as useful for women to serve effectively in scheme management. (2 points)□ The scheme provides training that supports both women and men to serve in scheme management and to effectively represent constituents' needs. (3 points)□ Not ApplicableWhat training do women need to serve effectively in scheme management? How can this best be provided by the scheme?B8 Statement Both women and men report feeling that their opinions are respected in scheme association or similar meetings. Do women and men both state their opinions in group meetings? Do women prefer to have ways to meet and provide opinions outside of public scheme meetings? For example, women's groups, smaller group or individual meetings with scheme leaders, in writing.□ Women do not feel comfortable stating their opinions at meetings. (1 point) □ Women and men feel comfortable stating their opinions at meetings, but women feel that their opinions are not respected or acted upon. (2 points)□ Women and men feel comfortable stating their opinions at meetings and their opinions are acted upon. (3 points)What actions can be taken to ensure that women are comfortable stating their opinions and to ensure that their opinions are heard in decisions?Section C: Access to Scheme BenefitsThis section contains statements and associated questions to address how well (or poorly) irrigation scheme management and/or an associated farmer/producer association offers to both men and women equally: payments, marketing support, extension services, and other forms of assistance.C1 Statement Both women and men are able to receive the amount of water they need. Are decisions about water allocations made based on women's uses of water? If water delivery is inadequate throughout the year (or during some months of the year), are men and women affected equally or are women disproportionately affected by the decrease in water? Are women-owned or managed plots placed to receive water as easily and regularly as those of men?□ Women do not receive adequate water on the scheme. (1 point) □ Men receive adequate water but women do not receive adequate water in some months of the year.(  Do fewer women compared to men have regular face to face exchanges with agents/community knowledge workers that meet their information needs? Do fewer women participate in farmer field days and demonstration days than men in the scheme? Are there social restrictions on women's interactions with other men and women related to agricultural activities? Are women satisfied with their ability to access information?□ Important information needed to understand markets, crop and water management, etc. is not available to women via their preferred communication channels. (1 point)□ Important information needed to understand markets, crop and water management, etc. is available to men but not women (including poorer women) via their preferred communication channels. (2 points)□ Important information needed to understand markets, crop and water management, etc. is available to both women and men (even poorest and poorer farmers) via their preferred communication channels. (3 points)What is the best way to communicate important information to women and men when they need it?C5 Statement Trainings related to scheme services and agricultural productions are held at convenient times and in convenient locations to enable both men and women to participate easily. Are trainings publicly announced to all members so that all are aware of both regularly scheduled and unscheduled (or emergency) sessions? Are training held at times when both men and women are able to attend? Does scheme management provide services to enable women to fully participate in trainings and meetings? For example, help to arrange for child care, transport, and food when trainings are held.□ Women are not provided with information on trainings and/or trainings are not held at convenient times and/or not held at convenient locations for women to participate. (1 point)□ Men and only a few women are provided with information on trainings and/or trainings are not held at convenient times and/or not held at convenient locations for women to participate. (2 points)□ Trainings are announced and held at convenient times and are held at convenient locations for both men and women (including poorer and poorest) to participate fully. (3 points)If it is challenging for women to vote in elections, have women been negatively affected? How can this issue be addressed now?C6 Statement Product marketing support (including collection points for bulking, sorting, grading, and cooperative selling) organized and/or supported by the scheme is open to women and men.Note: If no support services are provided through the scheme related to product collection, sorting or marketing, then the response is N/A. Does the scheme have criteria to access marketing benefits (product collection, bulking, sorting and grading) related to plot size, volume of produce, produced type or produce value? Are there social restrictions on women's participation in marketing activities? Are women satisfied with their role in marketing and ability to access markets for produce from the scheme?□ Access to marketing support services and/or infrastructure is restricted in some way that creates challenges for women scheme members to access markets. (1 point)□ Marketing support services and/or infrastructure presents a few restrictions that may create challenges for some women scheme members to access markets (particularly smaller producers and poorer or poorest women). (2 points)□ Marketing support services and/or infrastructure have no restrictions that negatively affect women and men scheme members. (3 points)Action QuestionsIf product collection rules limit women's access to markets, what solutions can improve women's access to markets? Notes C7 Statement The scheme management contracts services for the scheme, and seeks out women-owned businesses, women's groups, and other women entrepreneurs to provide services, such as input suppliers, processors, packagers, transporters, and exporters.Note: If the scheme does not contract out any services, then the response to the statement is N/A.Are there women-owned businesses that could provide services to the scheme? Does the scheme seek to work with and support women in the scheme area who are not producers? For example, to participate as actors in agricultural value chains for irrigated crops as marketers, processors, or transporters.□ Scheme management does not seek to work with women-owned businesses in the value chain. (1 point) □ Scheme management wants to work with women-owned businesses in the value chain but there are few or the efforts have not been successful. (2 points)□ Scheme management works successfully with women-owned businesses in the value chain. (3 points) □ Not ApplicableAre there women-owned businesses that the scheme can work more closely with? What can the scheme do to facilitate that cooperation? Notes","tokenCount":"5994"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"95af5acadb05338e5687c7b96978d9c9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ffb35dd3-0c9e-462a-9db7-f5ff8aeb6141/retrieve","id":"-1156497615"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3807e443-a6fa-4b13-948b-ada62fc7e2a9","pagecount":"18","content":"• Discovery stage (yield gap decomposition)• Proof-of-concept stage (testing of improved agronomic practices in on-station and/or on-farm trials)• Pilot stage (on-farm participatory trials, randomized control trials)Required equipment To describe soil quality, soil health or soil fertility, soil properties such as carbon content, pH, texture (sand, silt and clay content) and others, including biological variables, are required. Changes in soil properties need to be monitored as they may indicate changes in the soil's ability to support crop growth and the provision of environmental services. Soil is a heterogeneous medium, which is exposed to natural processes (rainfall, wind, flooding, drying) and human interference through agronomic management. Some soil properties may change rapidly in response to tillage, fertilizer application, irrigation and other practices, while others are relatively resilient and change slowly, depending on the type of intervention. In turn, these properties affect crops' responses to any agronomic management (e.g. fertilizer application, tillage, irrigation, planting density and weed control) and crops' responses to natural phenomena such as rainfall, storm, drought and extreme temperatures. Thus, correct sampling of soil is a key requirement for monitoring changes in soil properties, enabling assessment of the impact of agronomic practices on the environment, on crop responses and on the soil quality and health.The soil sampling approach and methodology, the sample handling and the following analyses depend on the objectives of the research.There are two major types of soil samples: disturbed and undisturbed. Certain analyses, such as bulk density (BD), aggregate stability and moisture retention at specified water tensions (pF characteristics), require undisturbed samples. Undisturbed soil samples are usually taken with sampling cylinders or metal rings. These can be of different diameters and lengths to obtain the required soil volume and the required soil layer depth. For example, standard bulk density rings are 5 cm in diameter and 5 cm long with a volume of 100 cm 3 . Such samples are usually transported in special suitcases so the natural layering and soil particle arrangement are not altered before the sample reaches the laboratory.Disturbed samples are all those that are taken by an auger and scooped from the auger. Due to the forces working on the soil while hammering the auger into the soil and when scooping the soil from the auger we cannot assume the soil remains in its natural arrangement. Samples taken with augers are suitable for determining chemical properties and some physical properties, such as particle size distribution (texture) or physical separation of organic matter (OM) fractions. They may also be suitable to determine certain biological properties, mainly the microbial biomass or composition or potential microbial activities (e.g. potential carbon [C] and nitrogen [N] mineralization rates).The determination of nutrient and C stocks is based on the simple calculation of concentration multiplied by the bulk density and the depth of the sampled soil layer. It is important to consider the best time to sample the soil to avoid artificial and erroneous results due to changes in the bulk density of the soil caused by tillage or compaction. See Module 10: Considerations when comparing soil properties over time.Depending on the objectives of the trial, especially in long-term experiments in which the soil properties are to be monitored over time, it is important to define the best time to take the samples. In long-term trials, especially when different tillage options are being compared or carbon stocks in tilled soil are being compared over time, it is best to sample the soil shortly before the tillage operations, because tillage will temporarily reduce the bulk density and increase the heterogeneity of the bulk density, especially in clay-rich soils, and this has a strong impact on the soil mass sampled for a specific depth.If the short-term effects of tillage operations on specific soil physical properties are an objective then pre-and posttillage sampling are required. Soil sampling after ridging or mounding operations will produce highly unreliable data as the origin of the soil in the sample is no longer related to the natural layering of the soil. In ridged or mounded soil, there is no position that would reflect the previous soil layering.An exception (but not recommended) is sampling soil on regularly plowed and harrowed soils on which the topsoil has been 'homogenized'. In such situations, soil sampling post-tillage can be accepted, as long as the data are not used to compare soil properties over time. Results of the chemical analysis would only be reliable for the concentrations of carbon and nutrients; however, due to changes in the bulk density, even the calculation of nutrient and carbon stocks will be prone to error (see Module 10).Soil can be sampled with a wide range of tools, yet to ensure that the sample taken relates correctly to the natural layering and depth of the soil segment that the sample must represent, it is recommended to use professional equipment such as soil augers and soil core samplers.Although recommended for large-scale sampling exercises, we do not recommend using spades or shovels to sample soil because with these tools it is difficult, if not impossible, to recover equivalent soil masses throughout the intended sampling depth.For disturbed samples (mainly for soil chemistry) it is recommended to use straight soil augers of the Pürckhauer type (Fig. 1). To sample soil from shallow layers (to about 50 cm depth), simple small-diameter augers can be used. They are usually single-piece steel pipes with either exchangeable closed tips or fixed closed or open tips. These usually have a fixed handlebar (Fig. 2). They are not suitable for hammering into the soil (with a mallet or hammer), but should be pushed into the soil by the weight of the person sampling. There are two types of tips: one is open from the tip to the upper end of the auger; the other is closed at the tip but opens a few centimeters above it. Augers with a closed tip may have exchangeable tips, and thus are recommended for use in abrasive soils, where tips will wear and need to be replaced. In soils with a high clay content and with gravel layers or a high stone content or to sample to layers to 90 cm depth, the standard 20 mm inner diameter Pürckhauer soil auger should be used. This auger has a sampling opening of up to 90 cm length and an auger head of a greater diameter with a perpendicular hole to insert a handlebar. This auger needs to be hammered into the soil with a mallet or nylon hammer (Fig. 3). Avoid using metal hammers as these will deform the auger head and potentially deform the hole for the handlebar (making it difficult or impossible to recover the auger from the soil). This type of auger is available with different diameters of the sampling tool: some are relatively wide open (close to 50% of the circumference) others are more closed (Fig. 4).To sample beyond 90 cm depth, it is necessary to use augers with detachable heads and threaded bolts connecting the auger with an extension rod. This approach is risky in soils with stone layers and hard pans because the auger may get stuck or break. An additional problem is the risk of contaminating the sample with soil from upper layers when pulling the auger to the surface. It is advisable to create a wider hole from the surface to the start of the deeper layer with an Edelmann or bucket auger (Fig. 5) and to insert the Pürckhauer type auger through this larger hole to, for example, 90 cm depth and then take a sample from 90 cm to a maximum of 180 cm by inserting an extension rod. If professional augers are not available, augers can be fabricated from steel pipes. However, the insertion depth will be limited due to the material not being strong enough to withstand the hammering to deeper layers and twisting to remove the auger. Nevertheless, to sample shallow layers to about 50 cm depth (depending on the soil's hardness and obstacles such as stone layers or hard pans), it is often less time consuming and less cost intensive to fabricate augers locally from available steel pipes.If none of the straight Pürckhauer or self-made pipe-type augers is available, the Edelmann auger type can be used (Fig. 5). Note, however, that the tip displaces material when entering the soil and that the auger is limited in sampling depth to the straight length of the borer (length of the red arrow in Fig. 5). If you prefer to sample the entire required soil depth with one insertion, the Pürckhauer type is best suited.The effective sampling depth is the distance between the end of the merged tip and the beginning of the semicircle top (red arrow).Only if no soil augers are available is the use of a spade permitted.To collect undisturbed soil samples, you need either soil sampling cylinders (soil cores or rings; Fig. 6) or special, usually large-diameter, augers with internal linings. Undisturbed soil samples are usually kept in the sampling tool such as the cylinders and they are carried in special suitcases (Fig. 6) to the laboratory, so they are not disturbed during transport. However, for certain parameters the soil can be removed into other containers, depending on the type of analysis to be conducted. Soil samples being analyzed for any property are usually composed of a number of samples from the same unit and depth layer and mixed to reflect the unit from where the sample is originating. Thus, a sample consists of 'subsamples' from different spots in the sampled unit. These spots will be called sampling spots or insertion points (the place where an auger is inserted to take a subsample). Generally, soil samples submitted for analysis should not be from a single insertion but should be composite samples obtained by carefully mixing multiple subsamples or insertions (Table 1). This is to ensure representativeness of the sample to cover spatial variation within a plot. However, there may be exceptions where small-scale high-resolution data are required, and single insertion samples are appropriate. The number of separate subsamples to be taken in a plot, a replicate (block) or across an entire field, thus depends on the type of research and the objectives of the trial. Although it is impossible to exclude an impact of the soil properties on crop responses, some research objectives might not require high-resolution data on the soil properties. In such cases it is sufficient to sample the entire trial area and combine all individual samples into one composite sample for analysis. However, this should be regarded as an exception and still requires taking several subsamples (insertions) across the field. It is recommended to at least sample soil by block or by repetition. This would enable relating differences in crop responses between blocks to soil properties. For trials dealing with nutrient supply, such as fertilizer application, mulching, addition of manure, compost or biochar, or when any other form of amendment is applied that should or could alter nutrient supply or nutrient use efficiency, then it is advisable to take several subsamples and combine them by treatment plot. The number of subsamples (insertions with the auger) to be taken, whether it is per field, per block or per plot, depends on the area of these units and on any available information on soil spatial heterogeneity. Plots should of course be placed such that soil spatial heterogeneity is negligible, for example by appropriate blocking. If heterogeneity is observed within replicates, then the sampling unit should be the plot. Ideally, blocks or replicates should be placed such that soil spatial heterogeneity is small. If it is not possible to avoid a gradient of soil properties within the sampling unit, then we propose to sample the areas of different properties separately and label the samples accordingly, yet to use a subsample distribution that does not bias toward any of the areas. An example is in Figure 9: the upper line of samples should be labeled to distinguish them from the samples of the two lines in the middle, and the lower-line samples should be labeled to distinguish them from all others. If soil properties are deemed important then the soil may need to be analyzed according to the gradient in the field, i.e. the samples from the upper versus the samples from the two middle lines and the samples from the lower line.We recommend that the minimum number of subsamples (insertions) to be taken for one composite sample be determined by the plot, block or field size as shown in Table 1. However, these numbers can be increased according to the objectives of the sampling and when it is known there is high spatial variability in soil properties that could affect the reliability of the results of any analyses.The distribution of the sampling spots or the insertion points of the augers follows the approach of the Soils4Africa project. For small plots, Huising et al. (2021) recommend distributing the insertion points in the centres of four subsquares of half the side length of the entire plot (Fig. 7C). In smaller plots of up to 6.25 m 2 (Table 1) only two or three insertions are required. If two insertions are taken, they are in the centre of the diagonally opposite sub-squares of the plot (Fig. 7A). If three insertions are considered required (Fig. 7B), it is proposed to create a circle that has a radius which is about 75% of half the length of the side length of the square or:where r is the radius and a the side length of the square.The sampling spots would then form an equilateral triangle. In plots of 6.25 to 49 m 2 , or side length of 2.5 to 7 m, if square-shaped, soil is collected at four insertion points. The four soil samples are taken in the centre of the four subsquares (Fig. 7C). In other words, the sampling points are configured like the four eyes on a die. For plots with a surface area of 49 to 144 m 2 , requiring five insertions, it is proposed to add one insertion in the centre of the plot (Fig. 7D). In plots with side length of > 12 m or surface areas > 144 m 2 , six to nine insertions should be made, and these are distributed by creating the appropriate number of sub-squares and sampling in the centre of each subsquare (Fig. 7E). This sampling spot distribution system shows the principal rule for the minimum number of insertion points. If the research objectives require a greater number of subsamples to be taken, then the resolution is simply increased by creating more sub-squares. If, for example, a 1 ha field is to be sampled, this can be done with 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, etc. sub-squares.In plots, blocks or fields that are rectangular, the same principle can be applied by dividing each side length by the same divisor to create sub-rectangles (Fig. 8A). However, this approach should only be used up to a side length ratio of 3:2 to avoid heterogeneous insertion point distribution. If the side length ratio is wider than 3:2 and plots are narrow and long, it is advisable to use sub-squares to retain a uniform distribution of sampling spots (Fig. 8B). Note that the example in Fig. 8B is a plot of 144 m 2 , and thus should have between six and nine sampling spots. Here the sub-square approach produced 16 sub-squares. Therefore, the sampling spot number was reduced by sampling every other sub-square in each row with a one-position offset distribution, i.e. a zigzag pattern.When sampling soil in oddly shaped fields (Fig. 9), of which the approximate size and the rough dimensions in two directions are known, it is advised to create a set of parallel lines across the field that would dissect the field into slices of about same 'thickness'. The length of each line would be measured as indicated in Fig. 9 and the total length of the lines calculated: here 110 + 120 + 110 + 80 = 420 m. The total length of all lines is divided by the number of samples you need to take, here 16. The resulting figure here is 26. For instance, along the 110 m line there are four insertions; thus, 110 / 4 = 27.5 m and half the distance is 13.75 m. The first sample along the 110 m line is taken at 13.75 m (or 14 m) from the edge of the field, the second at 41.5 m, the third at 69 m and the fourth at 96.5 m. Small deviations (< 2 m) from the calculated distances between insertion points are permissible. If an insertion point falls in an area with unusual features not regularly found in the field (e.g. termite mound, old tree root stock, ash or charcoal patch from earlier burning of biomass), the insertion should be shifted away from such areas. However, if such features are frequent in a field then they should be sampled if a sampling spot falls within their area.All samples are to be labeled with the depth from which they originate. Soil depth is measured from the soil surface, which is defined as the surface of the mineral soil. The litter layer, and any vegetation and vegetation residues are not included, and should be carefully removed before soil samples are taken. In case a crop or natural vegetation is present, the sampling spot should be cleared by cutting the plants at the soil surface without disturbing the soil -do not uproot plants as this will disturb the soil by mixing upper-and lower-layer material and removing soil attached to roots.This section describes the sampling procedure with three different tools. The sampled depth layers are not specified and should be chosen as required for the trial being sampled.Soil sample collection using a Pürckhauer type soil auger (Fig. 1 to 4)1. Clear the soil surface insertion point of litter and vegetation.2. If the auger has no depth markings, mark out your required depth layers or use the standard 20 cm and 50 cm marks on the outside of the auger. 3. Insert the auger straight into the soil to the required depth by first pressing the auger manually into the soil.Keep the auger vertically straight while pushing to ensure the opening of the auger is filled with soil. 4. Should the soil be too hard to reach the required depth, use a mallet or nylon hammer to reach the required depth. Note: if the auger does not at all penetrate deeper into the soil when hammering it, remove the auger and choose another spot to insert it. Large stones or tree roots will prevent the auger from reaching the required depths and using more force may break or bend the auger. 5. Pass the handlebar through the auger head and turn the auger once around (360 degrees). 6. Pull the auger from the soil -try not to touch the walls of the hole to prevent contamination of lower-layer soil with upper-layer soil. 7. Place the auger on a horizontal or slanted surface. Do not let the tip touch the ground! 8. Remove any excess soil along the length of the auger from the open side of the auger and discard (as this is likely contaminated with soil from different layers). 9. Mark on the soil in the auger the depth layers into which the sample is to be separated. 10. Scoop the soil at the tip of the auger into a container (e.g. bucket or bowl) labeled with the respective depth. 11. Scoop the next layer into a container labeled with the respective depth and continue until the auger is empty. 12. Clean the auger and proceed to the next insertion.Once all insertions are done and all soil is in the containers for the respective depth layers, the soil in each container is crumbled and thoroughly mixed to be able to take a representative subsample, and a portion of the soil is transferred into a properly labeled sample bag. Ensure the labels cannot be rubbed or wiped off (use masking tape or other porous material to write on). Keep the sample bags in a closed container where they are not exposed to sunlight or heat. The best choice is a simple cooler (cool bag or cool box). It is important to collect enough soil for all analyses to be carried out and remember that a large part of the mass of the sample is water, therefore if the lab requests 500 grams of soil it is safe to carry 800 grams of moist soil.If the soil is very hard and the auger needs to be hammered even into the upper layers, it is least risky and most labor efficient to sample each depth layer separately by first inserting the auger to the top layer's depth and removing the sample. Then re-insert the auger into the same hole and hammer it to the depth of the next layer, remove and empty the auger. Continue until all layers are sampled. In this situation, soil from the upper layers will fall into the hole and form the top of the sample of the next layer. You need to control the sample from the subtending layer, i.e. the sample from the next lower soil layer, for such contamination and remove soil that has fallen into the hole from the preceding sample. This should be easy if the topsoil has a different color from the deeper layers. To minimize the risk of sample contamination, it is recommended to take the sample across all layers in a single insertion, if the hardness of the soil allows.Sample collection using an Edelmann type bucket auger (Fig. 5) 1. Clear the soil surface of litter and vegetation at the insertion point. 2. Put the auger straight down and auger vertically downward by turning the handlebar; prevent the auger from slanting sideways as this will scoop more soil into the inner portion of the auger than it should hold. 3. When the auger has reached the depth that fills it to the top where the semicircle iron starts, remove the auger from the soil and empty the soil into the container labeled with the appropriate soil depth. 4. Re-insert the auger into the same hole and auger the next soil layer. 5. Remove the auger from the hole and empty the soil into the appropriately labeled container. 6. Repeat the procedure until all soil depths have been sampled. Note: When inserting the Edelmann auger for the second layer and thereafter, it is highly likely that soil from the top will fall into the hole and be on top of the next sampled layer. Before removing the soil sample from the auger, remove any soil from the surface (topsoil) that fell into the auger hole. This is usually possible if the topsoil has a different color from soil from deeper layers. Alternatively, remove the upper one third part of the soil in the auger and discard it. This procedure is required for every layer below the topsoil.The usual sampling depth of an Edelmann type auger is 10 cm; thus you need to insert and auger in 10 cm steps: 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, 20-30 cm, 30-40 cm, 40-50 cm and so on.Once all insertions are done and all soil is in the containers for the respective depth layers, the soil in each container is crumbled, thoroughly mixed and poured into a properly labeled sample bag. Keep the samples away from sunlight and heat.Clean the soil auger before moving to the next sampling location.To sample soil with a spade, you need to use a spade that has a straight cutting edge and is relatively flat (Fig. 10A). Spades with a curved edge and strongly bent are not suitable for sampling (Fig. 10B). 1. Clear the soil surface of litter and vegetation at the insertion area. Remove all vegetation by cutting it at the soil surface, best done with a sharp knife or cutlass. However, do not ram the cutlass into the soil as this may disturb the surface and lead to soil loss. 2. Dig a V-shaped hole with the spade to the required first sampling depth (Fig. 11A). 3. Remove any soil that fell into the V-shaped hole. 4. Cut a 3 cm thick slice of soil from one side of the V-shaped hole by inserting the spade parallel to the side of the hole (Fig. 11B). 5. Lift the slice of soil from the hole and keep it on the spade. 6. Cut the sides of this slice on the left and the right side of the spade retaining a strip of soil of about 5 cm width in the middle of the spade (Fig. 11C). 7. Check that the thickness of this slice of soil is constant from the top to the bottom of the slice. 8. If the thickness is constant drop the soil into the container with the respective soil depth label. 9. Clean the spade and repeat the procedure in the next sampling spot in the same plot. To sample depth layers beyond the length of the spade blade you need to remove the soil from an area large enough to make a V-shaped hole with the spade into the next depth layer. The procedure for the next layer is as above. However, sampling to 50 cm depth is difficult, labor intensive and rather destructive to the plot.Undisturbed soil samples are taken with soil cylinders (Fig. 6). The cylinders need to be inserted exactly vertically into the soil if taken from the soil surface. To ensure vertical movement it is recommended that you place a short piece of wood across the top of the cylinder and carefully hammer the cylinder into the soil. To avoid compacting the soil by hammering the cylinder too deep into the soil, the wooden piece should be placed with the narrow side on the cylinder so the depth to which the cylinder is hammered into the soil is visible. Alternatively, a gadget holding the cylinder can be used (Fig. 12, upper right). Such a gadget enables vertical control of insertion due to the long handle and it prevents compaction. However, it is less exact in controlling the insertion depth as the upper edge of the cylinder is not visible. As with the Pürckhauer type augers, it is advised to use a mallet (Fig. 12, lower left). Once the cylinder is flush with the soil surface (be careful not to compact the soil in the ring by hammering more than needed), a hole needs to be dug next to the cylinder, which is best done in a semi-circle around the cylinder to a few centimeters deeper than the insertion depth of the cylinder. To cut the cylinder from the subtending soil push a broad spatula or knife under the cylinder and lift the cylinder from the soil. Cover the top of the cylinder with a lid and turn it over to cut all excess soil exactly along the edge of the cylinder (Fig. 12, lower right) -it may be necessary to cut roots with scissors (do not pull them out!) -then cover with a lid and place it in the transport suitcase (Fig. 6). If soil cylinder samples are taken for bulk density or for volumetric water content determination, you may choose to take several subsamples and merge them into one larger sample. In this case, the sample may be disturbed but needs to be volumetrically exact. In case the variability of bulk density or water content are the objective of your research, you will need to keep all cylinder samples separately and determine the required variable for each cylinder.If the number of soil cylinders is limited, you can take the soil cylinder sample and remove the soil into a paper bag for drying to determine bulk density. Similarly, soil samples taken for the volumetric water content can be moved from the cylinder into an airtight container that prevents moisture loss until the sample is weighed and placed in the oven.To sample soil cylinders from layers below the length of the cylinder you need to dig out the soil of the top layer until you have created a plane surface from which you can insert the cylinder to the next layer. This approach usually works for the first 15-20 cm, but destroys a large surface area of the plot. If you need to take cylinder samples of deeper layers (beyond 20 cm depth), it is advised that you first dig a hole to the depth you want to sample and smooth one wall vertically. Insert the cylinders vertically at the required depths (Fig. 13 A to D). To recover the cylinders, remove the soil surrounding them on the upper side and then cut with a wide spatula along the end of the cylinder vertically down to detach it from the soil. Repeat this procedure throughout the layers you want to sample (Fig. 14 A and B).Horizontal insertion of the cylinders (Fig. 15 A to C) should only be done if bulk density or water content are to be determined. For the determination of hydraulic properties, the cylinders need to be inserted vertically to not upset the normal movement of water in the soil. In soils with a high proportion of stones and especially if the stones are large, such as in excess of the sampling cylinder's diameter, larger cylinders need to be used. A sample taken with a cylinder in which a stone was displaced by being moved or broken by the cylinder edge is no longer an undisturbed sample. To decide whether sampling withcylinders is appropriate, the stone content and the size of the stones needs to be determined prior to sampling. In soils with highly heterogeneous stone sizes, using cylinders may be inappropriate and another method to recover undisturbed soil may need to be used such as breaking larger fragments from the soil and bedding them in wax or resin to measure hydraulic properties. This SOP does not present the detail of such specific sampling procedures.Disturbed soil samples can be placed in a plastic container (bucket, flat bowl) until all subsamples that are to be merged into a composite sample are collected. When all subsamples are in the container, any larger lumps should be crushed to get a more homogeneous mix of the subsamples. Crude materials such as roots, biomass pieces from the soil surface and (accidentally) included meso-and macrofauna (insects, mites, earthworms) or parts thereof need to be removed from the sample. Soil samples should not be kept in plastic bags if they need to be dried and they should not be exposed to sunlight and heat as this may cause rapid changes in some chemical forms of some elements.For samples that need to be dried without determining soil moisture content, we recommend use of paper bags for the collection and transport to the drying facility. The samples may remain in the paper bags for air-and oven-drying.Soil samples taken with an auger to determine soil moisture content need to be transferred immediately after collection into an airtight container (ziplock bags or moisture cans with tight lids). They must not be kept in the open while collecting further subsamples. Any airtight containers of metal, glass and specific heat-resistant plastic containers can be used if they can be closed with tight lids. The advantage of collecting into such containers is that they can be weighed fresh, dried and the empty container weighed to get the tare after the drying process is concluded, without the need to transfer the sample. It is, however, important to avoid moisture losses during the field sampling, i.e. the containers need to be shaded and closed, most appropriately in a cool box.Undisturbed samples taken with soil cores need to be handled with great care. The upper and lower ends of the core need to be covered as soon as the sample is taken from the soil and the excess soil has been removed from the upper and lower openings. Most cores are delivered with lids for both ends (Fig. 6) and these should be used after sampling. If lids are not available, the openings can be covered with aluminum or plastic foil. However, foil will not prevent particles or aggregates moving or detaching from the sample and thus is not suitable if the samples are used for pF characteristics or any soil water dynamics-related determinations. Placing several layers of tape over the plastic foil will reduce the displacement of particles.Ideally, soil samples should not be stored for any longer than necessary. This is especially important for samples collected to determine biological properties. This recommendation also applies to undisturbed samples for the determination of soil physical properties. Remember that the conditions for microbes will change as soon as a cylinder or sample is removed from the soil. Such changes may affect the composition of the microbial community and any related physical properties such as aggregate stability and even the pF characteristics.Samples taken to determine the volumetric or gravimetric water content should be weighed and dried to constant mass at an appropriate temperature: up to 65°C if chemical analysis is to follow and up to 105°C if only the water content is required. Soil samples to be analyzed for chemical properties should be dried to constant mass at temperatures no higher than 65°C and then stored in airtight containers until processing for analysis. The best option is storage in vacuum containers or bags to minimize the risk of chemical alterations (e.g. oxidation). Generally, soil samples should be kept at low temperature, low humidity and in darkness. It is further advised to store samples in containers that prevent access of insects and rodents.The preparation of soil samples for analysis of biological and physical properties depends strongly on the type of analysis to be performed. Sample preparation should follow specific protocols for the required analyses -for example, Anderson and Ingram (1993). Sample preparation for individual analyses cannot be treated here.Dry soil samples for chemical analysis should be inspected for organic materials such as living roots, charcoal and dead soil fauna (earthworms, insects). These materials should be removed before passing the sample through a 2 mm sieve. Because such materials are rich in carbon, cations and/or nitrogen compared with the mineral soil and because they can break easily and (at least partially) pass through the sieve, their presence in the < 2 mm sample would result in strong bias of the analysis. The remaining soil is gently passed through a 2 mm mesh sieve. Aggregates must be crushed, yet without breaking small stones > 2 mm to pass through the sieve. We therefore do not recommended grinding the soil sample in a mortar with a pestle or using a mechanical grinder. Depending on the objectives of the trial, the mass of material retained on the sieve and the < 2 mm fine soil may be weighed to obtain the stone content (i.e. particles > 2 mm).The proportion of > 2 mm material may be important as these materials usually do not allow root penetration and are not part of the fine soil from which water and nutrients are absorbed. The higher the proportion of > 2 mm material in soils the stronger the effect on the actual water and nutrient availability. Chemical analysis of the fine soil (< 2 mm) should always be corrected for the stone content (> 2 mm) when calculating C or nutrient stocks in a soil layer. The stone content is calculated as The usual method to calculate nutrient and carbon stocks in soils is the multiplication of the nutrient or carbon concentration by the bulk density and the sampling depth of the analyzed layer. The resulting data are thus volume based because the bulk density is mass per unit volume. For a single measurement, this is acceptable and valid. However, if the same site is sampled over time, it is necessary to consider changes in bulk density over time and the fact that the sampling depth may not be the same at a later sampling date as at the initial sampling. As an example: imagine a soil to be sampled to 30 cm depth with a homogeneous bulk density of 1.25 g/cm 3 throughout the 30 cm layer. This soil layer has a volume of 3000 m 3 and a mass of 3750 tonnes. If this soil is now tilled in the upper 20 cm with a consequent reduction in bulk density to 1.00 g/cm 3 in the top 20 cm and 1.25 in the sub-layer at 20-30 cm, the volume of the soil will have increased. The pre-tillage upper 20 cm now has a thickness of 25 cm because the bulk density decreased and the mass of the pre-tillage 2500 tonnes of the 20 cm layer now fills a volume of 2500 m 3 . If a new sample was to be taken from 0-30 cm depth, the samples would be recovered from a layer that does not reach the same depth as the initial sample but rather 5 cm short of the previous soil depth. Although the concentrations of the nutrients and carbon have not changed, the new calculation would result in lower nutrient and carbon stocks in the 0-30 cm layer simply because the bulk density was reduced. Following through with this example over a cropping season, during which the soil may be compacted by rain impact and operations on the field, the bulk density may have increased to 1.40 g/cm 3 throughout the 0-30 cm layer. At this bulk density, the 30 cm soil layer has a mass of 4200 tonnes. The initial soil mass of 3750 tonnes at a bulk density of 1.25 g/cm 3 , with a volume of 3000 m 3 now has a bulk density of 1.4 g/cm 3 and a volume of 2678.6 m 3 . This means the auger going to 30 cm depth will sample the previously sampled 26.8 cm and an additional 3.2 cm from the subtending layer. Consequently, additional soil is in the sample that was not part of the sample analyzed initially and the calculation with a higher bulk density will result in higher nutrient and carbon stocks at this later stage although this was only caused by the higher bulk density and not by actual gains.","tokenCount":"6388"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"39736c3ee1a76d7b42093d82000dd882","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6856190e-1638-4cb6-b9ec-bb9852d4ee64/retrieve","id":"61658193"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4e3baa01-15ab-40f4-914a-035abddfc0d5","pagecount":"5","content":"The overall objective of the cluster is to scale socially inclusive climate smart agricultural (CSA) technologies and climate information services (CIS) in drylands with an especial focus on women and youth, which is defined in Kenya as those between the ages of 18-34.An intersectional approach is used as much as possible to understand power relations and social factors that shape scaling of CSA and CIS practices, which may be gender and/or age-based, but may also include other factors, such as ethnicity or wealth, etc. Approaches are primarily gender responsive. Efforts are made to work with women and youth where they have demonstrated agency and to strengthen existing platforms, such as working with and supporting the networks in which women lead or participate or where they have control in value chains. Certain activities, however, require a transformative approach, such as Participatory Rangeland Management interventions, that engage women in rangeland management committees, whereas traditionalrangelands institutions have, by and large, excluded women. Strategic engagement can generate changes beyond management institutions, into communities and households.Advancing progress towards greater gender equality at scale is a desirable outcome of AICCRA. This is achieved through two main types of activities in the Cluster. First, we are developing an evidence-base, that includes conducting literature reviews, identifying knowledge gaps, and conducting relevant research activities on topics that include: • Gender-based differences in access to, and benefits from, agriculture and livestock systems • Gender and age-related norms and practices in agricultural and livestock systems, e.g., labor, income distribution Financial business models and incentives to scale CSA We are developing a financial investment plan that will create positive opportunities and outcomes for women and youth. Sorghum is an important drought tolerant crop and is a source of income, nutrition, and animal feed.Current efforts are to characterize the sorghum value chain in terms of social inclusivity. A tool for assessing gender in the value chain was developed to better understand access to improved seeds, training, and marketing, for example. Next steps will be to review the data and make informed decisions about how to increase the potential for women to benefit from the business model through access to finance and improved production• Sixteen demonstration plots of sorghum and pearl millet were established in lower eastern counties. Seven, or 44%, of the plots were managed by women. Efforts to scale these activities will include increasing the number of women participants benefitting to 60%. \"My opinion is always respected and implemented and gender balance is considered too (Woman, Koitegan).\"However, women continue to face constraints.\"Mostly in leadership, there are activities that are to be done such as representing the CFA, maybe in a seminar.When the seminars take long like a week, it brings issues within the family because men always require women to be at home. Women cannot take up some roles like providing security to the forest. These challenges affect the participation of women.\" (Man, Koitegan).The creation of equitable opportunities in rangeland governance will be central to the sustainability of climate adaptation and livelihood resilience. Tackling gender inequities remains a key challenge.Pre-season weather advisory messages were sent to approximately 20,200 farmers. Information about weather, crops, and advice on what to plant was shared to alleviate risks from climate shocks. County specific information was shared in Kitui, Makueni and Taita Taveta. Overall, 41% of the recipients were women across the counties. Per county 28-48% of the recipients were women.Training materials on gender sensitive technologies and value chains for NGOs and county governments have been developed.Training materials on gender sensitive technologies and value chains for NGOs and county governments have been developed. A training manual, entitled \"Building the capacity of sub-national stakeholders in climate-smart agriculture and climate information services\" includes a module that provides guidance on how to develop youth and gender sensitive agricultural value chains. This module includes a gender activity profile and illustrates ways to better understand the characteristics and agricultural aspirations of the youth. County specific CSA packages will be developed based on evaluations of existing resources, e.g., County Climate Risk Profiles, that detail gender differences and disparities, where relevant. In addition, multistakeholder workshops are planned to discuss viable gender and climate smart options.Shamba Shape-Up, with guidance and support from ILRI and RECONCILE, aired a series of PRM episodes. Estimates of viewership in drylands regions for the series was ~ 1 million. One episode featured women's participation in a key step in Participatory Rangeland Management (PRM), mapping the resources. Women's knowledge often includes gender specific understanding of resources, e.g., medicines. Women's engagement in mapping activities and governance committees increases the potential for negotiating access to and sharing resources equitably.AICCRA is supported by AICCRA is supported by a grant from the International Development Association of the World Bank.This brief is an output for AICCRA Kenya Cluster. Author: Renee Bullock (r.bullock@cgiar.org) is a Senior Scientist in Sustainable Livestock Systems at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).Additional Photos: ILRI/Fiona Flintan and CTA/Fredrecick Omondi,","tokenCount":"817"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9788206877f47083b09ed2b9db848192","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e8e7b9ac-5bd9-4d45-b82e-9e4d144f31a2/retrieve","id":"1788092347"},"keywords":["food system","sustainability","barriers","framework","transdisciplinary"],"sieverID":"c8b116a7-f5d2-4f27-aafc-b43625c5408c","pagecount":"17","content":"The transformation of food systems emerges as a critical challenge necessitating a deep, holistic comprehension of the complex and multifaceted barriers that hinder progress towards sustainability. The existing literature is not consistent in identifying these barriers. Building upon existing work, this paper introduces a comprehensive, integrated, and interdisciplinary framework to dissect the nature and origins of the barriers to food system sustainability. Our framework categorizes these impediments into five domains: political economy, socio-technical, socio-cultural, biophysical, and socio-economic barriers, and highlights their intricate interplay and interconnected nature. We pinpoint the foundational role of political economy barriers as the cornerstone of a \"system of barriers\" that create or perpetuate unsustainability. This framework not only advances academic knowledge by providing a structured basis for analysing sustainability barriers but also serves as a practical tool for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, to foster transdisciplinarity and develop targeted interventions. We call for further empirical research, emphasizing the need for comparative analyses, longitudinal studies, and the exploration of feedback loops and non-linear dynamics between barriers, to inform effective and sustainable food system transformation strategies.The existing debate among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers on pathways to achieve food system sustainability (Luederitz et al., 2017;Béné et al., 2019a;Béné, 2022) reflects a wider discord regarding foundational assumptions about the causes and obstacles to food system (un)sustainability. These divergences underscore the importance of not sidelining these crucial discussions in scientific discourse. Instead, there is a need to bring these underlying framing assumptions to the forefront, rather than \"blackboxing\" them (Scoones, 2009), as a critical step in achieving sustainability precisely lies in identifying, characterizing, and hierarchizing these barriers, to enable the design and implementation of suitable and effective measures. The multiplicity of barriers, along with their complex, evolving, and highly intertwined nature, also suggests the need for an overarching framework that transcends ideological divides, reconciles fragmented disciplinary knowledge, and allows for the comprehensive consideration of all barriers simultaneously to design effective strategies towards sustainability.Against this background, our paper introduces a comprehensive, integrated, and interdisciplinary framework that offers a robust foundation for analysing and gaining a more nuanced understanding of the barriers obstructing food systems sustainability, while simultaneously ensuring clarity and usability. Our approach builds upon an existing framework developed by Conti et al. (2021), which identifies six \"sources of resistance\" to sustainable changes. While this framework provides valuable insights, we argue it does not fully capture the complexity and interconnected nature of barriers to food system sustainability. Expanding on Contis' model, our framework aims to fill this gap by offering a more comprehensive foundation for analysing these barriers in an integrated manner. Our approach aims to advance academic discourse and provides actionable insights for transdisciplinary work, aiding researchers, decision-makers, and practitioners in structuring and framing a nuanced analysis of sustainability barriers and identifying effective strategies for overcoming sustainability challenges.In the subsequent sections, we introduce pivotal concepts and mechanisms related to food system sustainability barriers. We then present the details of our proposed framework, delineating each barrier and explaining the rationale behind the inclusion of novel elements and the organization into distinct categories. Finally, we discuss the combined effects and interconnectedness of barriers, emphasizing on the paramount importance of political economy barriers.This section presents key concepts foundational to our analysis, focusing on sustainability and its barriers. We further elucidate the mechanisms underlying these barriers, notably the increasingly recognized phenomena of path-dependency and lock-in.There is no consensus on the definition of sustainability. The concept initially emerged in the early 1970s as a response to environmental concerns, notably linked with industrialization and the green revolution (Carson, 1962;Meadows et al., 1972). Over time, it expanded to encompass economic and social dimensions, as reflected in initiatives like the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. However, an intense scholar debate still surrounds the concept, sparked by the historical association between the terms \"sustainable development\" and \"economic growth\" (Mitlin, 1992); some arguing that \"developmentunderstood as economic growth-is incompatible with sustainability because an infinite growth process on a finite planet is impossible\" (Ruggerio, 2021, p. 3). Building on the work of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food, 2015) Ruggerio (2021), and many others, this paper adopts a broad definition of sustainability, considering food systems sustainable when they (i) avoid doing harm to the natural environment and contributing to climate change, while engaging in regenerative, restorative, and mitigating activities, (ii) ensure universal access to healthy and nutritious food, and (iii) support an inclusive and equitable economy that foster decent livelihoods for all.A wealth of literature exists that proposes a diverse range of actions for achieving food system sustainability, but very few studies specifically focus on barriers to sustainability (Garnett, 2013;Hinrichs, 2014;Béné et al., 2019a;Weber et al., 2020). We refer to barriers to sustainability as multifaceted constraints, impediments, and resisting factors that hinder deep changes towards more sustainable behaviors, practices, and policies, or perpetuate unsustainable patterns within food systems. These barriers span across multiple dimensions, encompassing social, economic, technical, environmental, and institutional domains. Such barriers notably include institutional inefficiencies, governance dysfunctions, power asymmetries, economic disincentives, technological limitations, entrenched societal norms, and bio-physical constraints. Throughout this paper, we discuss both \"barriers\" and \"sources of resistance\" as factors affecting food system sustainability. While \"sources of resistance\" mostly refer to the inertia or pushback within systems resisting change, we use \"barriers\" for its broader application, encompassing any impediments that prevent sustainable practices from emerging. This distinction is essential for understanding our framework, and further considerations are detailed in the discussion section.Contemporary academic discourse increasingly employs terminologies such as path-dependency, lock-in, traps, and inertia (see Table 1) to characterize the underlying mechanisms by which barriers manifest (Oliver et al., 2018;Conti et al., 2021;Goldstein et al., 2023). The succinct definitions provided in Table 1 serve as a reference for the mechanisms discussed in this paper, yet they are not meant to be exhaustive nor systematic. Several papers are entirely dedicated to clarifying the meaning of these concepts, with some contradicting others, thereby highlighting the interpretative nature of such an exercise. Goldstein et al. 's (2023) review paper, for example, provides useful insights on how different disciplines define and use these terms, highlighting the similarities, intricate interconnections, and thin boundaries between these conceptual mechanisms. The use of different terms across disciplines to describe analogous mechanisms contributes to the confusion and ambiguity surrounding these mechanisms (Conti et al., 2021;Goldstein et al., 2023). While recognizing the crucial importance of these mechanisms, and their (potential) utility in delineating cause-consequence relationships among and within barriers, we refrain from extensive utilization or systematization due to disciplinary variations and the interpretative nature of their application.Our research methodology is distinctive in its combination of inductive and deductive approaches (Fereday and Muir-Cochrane, 2006;Proudfoot, 2023). Initially motivated by the need to analyse a dataset (see below), we undertook a non-systematic thematic literature review on barriers to sustainability within food systems, particularly looking for existing frameworks. Amongst the nine identified papers which present or discuss frameworks, one was deemed particularly relevant for our analysis. This framework, elaborated by Conti et al. (2021), delineates six \"sources of resistance\" impeding the transformation of agri-food systems towards desirable outcomes. These six sources of resistance are: the persistence of inappropriate technologies; misaligned institutional settings; actors' aversion to change; political economy dynamics; infrastructural rigidities; and misaligned research and innovation priorities (Table 2).Using Conti et al. (2021) framework, we first employed a structured deductive approach to investigate local stakeholders' perceptions, perspectives, and discourses, on a range of issues affecting food systems in Vietnam-with findings to be detailed in a forthcoming manuscript (unpublished). Specifically, we intended to analyse interview transcripts with food system stakeholders using Conti's six \"sources of resistance. \" This phase involved an immersive exploration of real-world scenarios and perceptions, allowing us to test the applicability of the theoretical constructs proposed by Conti within a practical context. Using an iterative approach, we engaged in a back-and-forth dialogue between theory and practice. Initial deductions from applying Conti's framework were scrutinized against the actual narratives revealed by our primary data. This unveiled limitations in Conti's framework. We realized that strictly applying Conti's framework to our data would overlook certain issues raised by local stakeholders. This prompted us to revisit Conti's framework in the light of this empirical dataset, thus inducing a shift from a deductive to an inductive approach. As patterns and emergent themes surfaced from the empirical data, we used these insights to shape and inform the creation of a new, more comprehensive framework. This paper presents this framework, incorporating interpretive analysis of academic literature and leveraging the authors' practical experiences to discuss the refined framework critically. While we aimed to cover a broad spectrum of the literature on food system sustainability, we acknowledge potential oversights. Additionally, certain assertions in this paper may face inevitable contestations due to diverse interpretations in the appropriate pathways to sustainable changes in food systems.This framework is not intended to be an extensive and longwinded list of barriers and concepts. While our goal is to achieve comprehensiveness, our objective is also to maintain clarity and ensure practicality and applicability to real-world food systems. Our key additions to Conti's framework involve the inclusion of previously overlooked barriers, and the clustering of these barriers into five distinct groups. Figure 1 visually outlines our framework, highlighting the connections with Conti's original work. Our proposition suggests a hierarchical relationship among barriers, where certain barriers are deemed to \"precede\" others, indicating their deeper-rooted nature. These core barriers may catalyse the emergence of subsequent barriers. Consequently, we posit that these foundational barriers play a more pivotal role in hindering sustainability.One of the primary shortfalls of Conti's framework stems from its definition of political economy, which we consider somewhat restrictive, failing to encapsulate the intricate dynamics between incumbent economic actors' , policies, and institutions. While insightful, Conti's framework is limited in addressing the multifaceted interplay among influential actors, their agendas, and the broader political and institutional landscape. Specifically, their framework posits two distinct sources of resistance, namely \"political economy factors\" related to \"powerful actors, power imbalances and corporate power, \" impeding food system trajectories towards sustainability, and an \"institutional setting\" comprising \"policies, regulations, and norms\" hindering transformative changes within the food system. Given the intricacy of these factors (IPES, 2015;De Schutter, 2017;Béné, 2022), we advocate for the adoption of a broader definition of political economy that considers both power dynamics and institutional \"Path-dependency\" expresses the enduring influence of historical choices on contemporary decisions and institutional arrangements, emphasizing that initial movements in one direction tend to prompt subsequent movements along the same trajectory (Mahoney, 2000;Kay, 2003). It is often used to explain sub-optimal decisions, of both public and private actors, regarding technologies, infrastructures, regulatory systems, etc. (Arthur, 1988;Goldstein et al., 2023).\"Lock-in\" refers to a situation where a particular state or set of conditions becomes difficult to change (David, 1985;Arthur, 1989). It is extensively used to describe any kind of blockages leading to sub-optimal outcomes (Goldstein et al., 2023). It is often seen as a result of path-dependency mechanisms, and sometimes used in lieu of path-dependence. Lock-ins result in maintaining inferior and sub-optimal technologies, practices, regulations, etc. (David, 1985;Mahoney, 2000;Barnes et al., 2004) and excluding competing perspectives and practices. They render systems impervious to alternative pathways, maintaining their established trajectory (Conti et al., 2021). The perpetuation of these lock-ins is reinforced by mutually supportive components within systems (Kuokkanen et al., 2017).\"Trap\", similar to lock-ins, is commonly referred as a self-reinforcing situation leading to negative outcomes. Specifically, the term \"poverty traps\" has been extensively used to describe the persistence of poverty and inequalities (Haider et al., 2018). The concept of \"productivity trap, \" or \"intensification trap, \" has also been used to describe scenarios where endeavours to boost agricultural or economic productivity, ultimately lead to diminishing returns, or adverse social and environmental consequences (Ferguson, 2016;Lade et al., 2017). \"Maladaptive rigidity trap\" refers to situations where an organization becomes excessively rigid in its structures, processes, or practices, leading to negative consequences (Holling and Gunderson, 2002). For instance, in an institutional context, \"political-economic interests, and prevailing discourses and power, \" can create a maladaptive rigidity trap, limiting innovation and responsiveness to emerging (un)sustainability issues (Méndez et al., 2019).\"Inertia\" is often employed in relation to institutions, to denote a reluctance to implement necessary changes (Stål, 2015). At the system level, inertia is frequently used interchangeably with path-dependency, illustrating how entrenched routines, social habits, infrastructure, and organizational logics can impede or delay shifts in direction within agri-food systems (Leach et al., 2020;Conti et al., 2021). Stål (2015, p. 362), warns that \"inertia cannot only be understood as non-change, but also as the pursuit of change in an unfruitful direction. \" Even et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1453999 Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 04 frontiersin.org aspects, and how market power translates into political power. We therefore propose to conceive political economy as the interrelation between political and economic structures, encompassing how institutions, policies, and power dynamics shape food systems and influence the trajectories taken by these systems. At the core of this political economy lens lies the reciprocal impact of the economic sphere on political processes, resulting in convoluted interactions that deeply shape the production, distribution, and consumption of foods.We suggest introducing a group of barriers called \"political economy barriers, \" under which we identify two specific barriers: one related to the economic dominance of powerful incumbent actors over decisions, actions, and processes governing food systems, and another linked to the deficiencies of existing institutions and policies. These are numbered #1 and #2, respectively, in Figure 1 and are discussed further below.We designate incumbent actors within food systems as multinational corporations with substantial economic and financial resources, accumulated essentially through increased financialization, market concentration, and integration of agri-food chains (Murphy, 2006;Clapp, 2022), commonly referred to as Big Ag and Big Food (Stuckler and Nestle, 2012;Ashwood et al., 2022). They are active across all segments of the chains, particularly in agro-inputs supply, trade, processing, and distribution (IPES, 2017;Gura and Meienberg, 2013). The dominance of these incumbent actors originates from, and is reinforced by, economic power asymmetry, allowing them to exert substantial influence over the entire food system (Murphy, 2006;Clapp and Scrinis, 2017). Leveraging their structural power, they use both instrumental power (such as lobbying and financing of political campaigns (IPES, 2015;Clapp and Scrinis, 2017), intellectual property strategies, etc.), and discursive power (such as knowledge production and dissemination (Loughnane, 2022), marketing, etc.) to shape and influence policies, regulations, resource distribution, and consumers' perceptions and choices (Stigler, 1971;Hajer and Versteeg, 2005;Wiist, 2011).This influence serves to advance their own agenda, typically reflecting economic interests and financial motives, such as \"generating shareholder value and adhering to short term financial targets\" (Keenan et al., 2023, p. 3). Because the rational economic choice for incumbent actors often leans towards maintaining existing practices, regardless of their sustainability (Wackernage and Rees, 1997), one can easily comprehend the potential detrimental impact of such mechanisms. An extensive body of research demonstrates the pervasive contribution of these incumbent actors to unsustainability, spanning socioeconomic, environmental and health dimensions (Stuckler and Nestle, 2012;Lang and Heasman, 2015;IPES, 2017;Clapp, 2021) even if a large number of political institutions and international development partners still fail to recognize the problem (Clapp et al., 2021).The second component of these political economy barriers relates to the deficiency of institutions and policies, reflecting the growing dominance of corporate entities and the concurrent erosion of political institutions (Canfield et al., 2021). This shift of power and decision-making in food systems from governments to corporations is well-documented (Strange, 1996;Murphy, 2006;IPES, 2015). The deficiency of institutions and policies emerges in several forms, which we have identified as \"inaction\", \"ineffectiveness\", \"fragmentation\", and \"dilution\".Inaction refers to a situation where policymakers, public organizations, governments, or policy networks fail to intervene on issues within their realm, despite having viable policy options (McConnell and 't Hart, 2019). Inaction can be (i) deliberate, to serve  Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 05 frontiersin.org political strategies and/or ideologies and values, (ii) imposed by power dynamics, election cycles, and/or the lack of available tools and resources, or (iii) inadvertent, due to cognitive biases and/or \"generational priorities\" leading to some issues being neglected (Pierson, 2004;Vries, 2010;McConnell and 't Hart, 2019). Overall, it indicates a systemic inability to adapt and respond to emerging challenges or changing conditions within the food system. A case in point is a recent study by Mackay et al. (2022) from New Zealand, which reveals a persistent \"nine years of inaction\" over three electoral terms concerning the adoption of policies for a healthier food environment. Despite the availability of prioritized, actionable recommendations from a panel of experts, including academics, practitioners, and government officials, institutional inertia prevailed. Ineffectiveness refers to the failure of institutions and policies to achieve their intended goals and outcomes within the food system (Bali et al., 2019). It often relates to the inappropriateness of policy tools, not well-suited to address the specific challenges that they were designed for (Peters et al., 2018). This can be due to outdated frameworks (Abdulai et al., 2024), mismatched regulations, or a lack of understanding and anticipation of the complex and dynamic interactions within the food system (DeLeo, 2015). Multiple studies revealed the ineffectiveness of existing policies to tackle issues such as food security, or equitable access to resources (Edwards et al., 2006;Klümper et al., 2018). Roberto et al. (2015), for example, showed that policies that emphasize individual responsibility as the primary approach to behavior change often overlook the structural and systemic factors that shape food systems. While individual behavior does play a role, framing solutions predominantly around personal choice ignores the collective and structural dimensions of sustainability challenges. Without structural reforms and coordinated actions to shift the system at a higher level, policies focusing solely on individual agency will continue falling short of creating meaningful, sustainable change. The role of incumbent actors in maintaining or promoting ineffective policies is also pointed out by scholars and civil society. For example, Capewell and Lloyd-Williams (2018, p. 131) showed how \"food industries continue to promote weak or ineffective policies such as voluntary reformulation, and resist regulation and taxation. \" This concept of ineffectiveness is closely linked with fragmentation and dilution of policies. Several studies (Torres and Muchnik, 2012;Giles et al., 2021;Elkharouf et al., 2021) point at policy fragmentation as the presence of disconnected elements within the food system's institutional and policy framework. They suggest a lack of coordination and integration among different components, related to maladaptive rigidity traps, leading to inefficiencies, gaps, and difficulties in implementing cohesive and comprehensive strategies.Dilution occurs when the excessive addition of new policies, through processes known as \"policy stretching\" or \"policy layering, \" paradoxically undermines or even dismantles existing policies and regulations (Barnett et al., 2020). This may occur due to shifts in goals, compromises, conflicting interests, or the influence of powerful stakeholders, resulting in measures that can be less robust or effective in addressing the underlying issues. For example, Feindt and Flynn (2009, p. 411) showed how policy stretching and layering in the UK explain why \"despite apparently sweeping institutional reform, food policy and the closely related agriculture policies have not undergone radical but rather incremental change at best. \" Policy reforms were diluted over time, not due to the direct intention of policymakers but as a consequence of policy layering. They also claim that new layers of  policy can, rather than radically transforming a policy landscape, reinforce or even revert to older paradigms, in that case to a productivist approach. Another instance of policy dilution can be seen in the implementation of food labeling standards. As governments and international bodies introduce various labeling requirements to promote healthy eating and inform consumers (e.g., nutritional information, organic certification, GMO labeling), the proliferation of (sometimes misleading) labels can overwhelm consumers. This overabundance of information might weaken the effectiveness of each label's intended message, leading to confusion rather than informed decision-making. Such a scenario illustrates how the well-intended addition of policies to enhance consumer knowledge and support sustainable eating habits can paradoxically dilute the overall impact of these measures, complicating consumers' ability to make healthconscious choices.We conceive socio-technical barriers as the sum of technical choices, practices, and routines made by food system actors that impede sustainability of food systems. The preference for the term \"socio-technical barriers\" over \"technical barriers\" stems from the imperative to recognize the interdependencies between technical and technological elements and the tethered social and human underlying determinants impeding the adoption of more sustainable choices and practices. It is indeed the nuanced interplay of social and technical factors that underpins the enduring prevalence of unsustainable technical choices. In contrast to still prevailing \"productivist discourses constantly circulated through the disciplinary power-knowledge network of science, technology and economics\" (Anderson, 2008, p. 122), we posit that the current main focus of science and research on technological innovation-resulting from the simultaneous manifestations of lock-in, path-dependency, and inertia mechanisms-actually contributes to maintaining food systems on unsustainable trajectories. The development of technologies and infrastructure for production, storage, processing, and distribution has indeed primarily served the production of major commodities, meant as inputs for the food manufacturing industry and large domestic or export markets (De Schutter, 2017). Concurrently, agricultural research has predominantly concentrated on the varietal development of a restricted subset of crops, including wheat, maize, soybean, and rice, while the optimization of farming methods has been largely directed towards monocropping and input-intensive systems (Haddad, 2020). This focus has resulted in the relative neglect of numerous other crops, particularly those grown for local consumption, as well as of more integrated farming systems, such as agroecology (Frison and IPES, 2016;Kumar et al., 2024). We identify three sources of resistance from Conti's framework that fall under what we call socio-technical barriers to sustainability, namely \"infrastructure rigidities, \" \"dominant and persistent technology, \" and \"misaligned research and innovation priorities\" (see Figure 1).Despite operating at different scales, sources of resistance related to infrastructures and technologies have analogous impact pathways that contribute to create rigidity and persistence and share common mechanisms-cognitive routines reinforcing lock-ins, sunk costs reinforcing path dependency, and institutional support. Although their manifestations differ within the varying scales of food systems, we propose to merge them together under a single barrier called \"persistence of inadequate technologies and infrastructures\" [#3 in Figure 1].Infrastructure rigidities, exemplified by entrenched infrastructural arrangements around specific crops or by the extensive infrastructure supporting and optimized for the production, distribution, and marketing of ultra-processed foods, manifest as lock-ins hindering agricultural practice diversification or the development of healthier food options (Thompson and Scoones, 2009;Meynard et al., 2017;Magrini et al., 2019). Sunk costs, both financial and resource-related, associated with these longstanding infrastructure choices, give rise to a path dependency phenomenon. Past decisions embedded in the existing infrastructure persistently influence current practices, rendering deviations from the established path challenging and impeding the emergence of alternatives with distinct production and distribution requirements. As actors within food systems align their practices with this existing infrastructure, the system remains entrenched on a particular trajectory.Technology persistence operates at a more granular scale, focusing on individual, farm-level, or business-level technology choices influencing daily practices, but follows the same logic as infrastructure rigidities. Once a technology is adopted, users (farmers, processing factories, retailers, etc.) invest not only in the technology itself but also in the skills and knowledge required for its effective utilization, creating cognitive lock-ins that reinforce the use of that particular technology over potentially more sustainable alternatives (David, 1985;Arthur, 1989). The persistence of unsustainable technology is thus emphasized by diverse sunk costs as well as some form of individual \"aversion to change\" (see below), making it difficult to deviate from the initial technology choices and fostering a pathdependency phenomenon.The commonalities between these two types of socio-technical barriers extend to the institutional (and corporate) support that maintain the status quo. Institutions, encompassing public policies, regulations, and organizational structures play a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of technological adoption and infrastructural arrangements (Bijker et al., 2012). In most cases, these institutional frameworks first guide, support and later align themselves with established infrastructures or technologies, creating mutually reinforcing lock-ins that sustains prevailing practices. This alignment not only reinforces the current state but also introduces inertia into the system, complicating the emergence of alternative options, as regulatory frameworks favor the continuity of existing practices (Kim et al., 2006).In line with Conti et al. (2021) and others, we contend that suboptimal research and innovation practices [#4 in Figure 1] are a prominent barrier to sustainability, revealing a complex interplay of individual, institutional, historical, and economic factors that constrict the emergence of alternative and sustainable solutions. A large part of food systems incumbent actors, such as corporations but also governments, donors, and international organizations still consider technological innovation, enhanced productivity, and economic  Commission, 2023;Grow Asia, 2022;Schroeder et al., 2021;World Bank, 2021). This perspective is mirrored not only by major publicly funded international research organizations and philanthropic foundations dedicated to food and agriculture research (Beintema et al., 2020;Stads et al., 2022), but also by private-led research endeavours, which channel substantial efforts towards crop-centric and technology-oriented approaches (Baranski and Ollenburger, 2020). In contrast, fewer resources are allocated to comprehensive, transdisciplinary, and socio-political approaches (ASTI, 2020). The alignment of public research strategies with the productivist and technology-driven narrative of incumbent actors' is notably guided by a funding imperative (Thelwall et al., 2023), creating an institutional lock-in (Abdulai et al., 2024). However, it also stems from deeper impediments such as researchers' reluctance and inability to explore novel topics (Vanloqueren and Baret, 2009), disciplinary fragmentation (van Bers et al., 2019), the disconnection of researchers with societal stakeholders, real-world realities, and transformational challenges (FEC, 2018; Baranski and Ollenburger, 2020), or their connections to and dependence on private corporations' fundings, which can introduce biases in research outcomes (Massougbodji et al., 2014;Mandrioli et al., 2016). Such factors, mutually reinforcing one another, contribute to a research-endogenous lock-in that combines with a more exogenous institutional lock-in.The enduring influence of the green revolution, and its associated mechanization, chemicalization, and plant breeding programs, also exemplifies the power of path dependency mechanisms. Despite the well-documented adverse effects on sustainability (Evenson and Gollin, 2003;Horlings and Marsden, 2011;Erick et al., 2013), these historical pathways persist in shaping contemporary research agendas and discourses (Baranski and Ollenburger, 2020). Furthermore, the increasing importance of private sector research (Fuglie, 2016), prioritizing economic returns over environmental and socioeconomic outcomes (Beintema and Stads, 2017), suggests limited prospects for a significant shift of the agri-food research landscape toward more sustainable trajectories.Sustainability efforts face barriers rooted in societal norms, cultural values, individual behaviors, and societal patterns shaping production and consumption (Kates et al., 2001). Socio-cultural barriers tend to be collective and revolve around social norms and cultural values (Stern, 2000;Rhodes et al., 2020). Meanwhile, behavioral barriers rather manifest in individual choices and practices, shaped by knowledge, habits, perception and cognitive factors (Sawitri et al., 2015;Gumber et al., 2023).The concept of aversion to change [#5 in Figure 1], described by Conti et al. (2021), features prominently among these socio-cultural and behavior barriers towards sustainability. Individuals often resist changes that disrupt their established habitus, routines, and lifestyles, with factors such as fear of the unknown and preference for the familiar playing significant roles (Bourdieu, 1990;Coghlan, 1993). Societal norms and cultural values can also create resistance to change when stakeholders' practices are deeply rooted in culture and traditions.There is, however, a flip side to aversion to change towards sustainability that Conti and her colleagues did not explicitly address: the propensity to change towards unsustainability [#6 in Figure 1]. This refers to the tendency of individuals and society to engage in practices and behaviors that may not be sustainable. There is indeed a tendency for individuals or society to prioritize short-term interests over long-term ones (Carrington et al., 2010;Miniero et al., 2014). This unsustainable propensity to change is crucial to consider when exploring dynamic and transient food systems (i.e., constantly moving), where challenges reside not only in the resistance to change towards more sustainability but also in the current trajectories towards less environmentally-friendly, equity and healthy outcomes that are at play in many countries. This is particularly acute in cases such as the intensification of chemical inputs use, or the increased consumption of ultra-processed food. For instance, the prevailing paradigm of unlimited economic growth has historically promoted a continuous shift towards production practices that yield immediate profits but have adverse effects on the environment over time (Meadows et al., 1972). Another dimension of this unsustainable propensity to change is reflected in modern lifestyles, which are often characterized by a quest for convenience, with a preference for products and services that offer immediate reward (e.g., ready-to-eat ultra-processed food) but are detrimental to long-term sustainability (Hawkes et al., 2024). Socio-economic and institutional factors, such as poverty, inequity, or insecure land tenure, reinforce these behaviors (Brundtland, 1987), whether they manifest as aversion or propensity to change.Another aspect missing in Conti's framework is the lack of awareness and knowledge [#7 in Figure 1], often mentioned as a cause of food systems unsustainability (Ingram, 2008;Oliver et al., 2018). Certain stakeholders do not fully grasp the environmental impact as well as social or health implications of their actions and behaviors (Kronrod et al., 2012). When the negative consequences of unsustainable behaviors are not immediately visible or directly affecting individuals, there might be less motivation to change (Sanchez-Sabate and Sabaté, 2019). Some stakeholders interested in sustainability also simply lack the necessary knowledge and skills to switch towards more sustainable practices (de Paiva Duarte, 2015). Uncertainty about the costs and benefits of more sustainable practices, due to unreliable and/or unavailable information, further reinforce the aversion to change towards more sustainability.Finally, while some stakeholders possess knowledge and awareness, they may still face barriers rooted in psychosocial factors and in particular in self-efficacy (i.e., the belief in one's ability to act effectively). As highlighted by Plechatá et al. (2022) low self-efficacy can prevent individuals from translating their knowledge into action, as they may doubt their capacity to make a meaningful impact or feel overwhelmed by the complexity of navigating sustainable choices. This psychological barrier underscores that knowledge alone is not enough; confidence to act is equally critical. As Foucault's (1969, pp. 44-45) aptly stated: \"it is not enough for us to open our eyes, to pay attention, or to be aware, for new objects suddenly to light up and emerge out of the ground.\"Biophysical barriers are often less controllable and primarily arise as long-term unintentional consequences of various choices made by individuals and societies. They manifest as global phenomena widely acknowledged and documented in academic literature and the media, often as drivers (HLPE, 2017;Béné et al., 2019b), but are not acknowledged as sources of resistance to change in Conti's framework. Among those bio-physical barriers, one of the most prominent is certainly climate change and its detrimental effects [#8 in Figure 1]. Human activities (e.g., fossil fuel, deforestation) contribute to the alteration of the climate (e.g., increased temperatures, increased frequency, intensity, and severity of extreme weather events), posing severe challenges to ecosystems, agriculture, and overall environmental stability, and making sustainability efforts more complex and difficult to achieve (Lobell et al., 2011;IPCC, 2012;HLPE, 2017). The depletion of natural resources [#9 in Figure 1], such as water, minerals, and arable land, is another significant bio-physical constraint. As populations grow and consumption patterns intensify, the depletion of these resources accelerates and hampers sustainable development efforts (Rockström et al., 2009;Kuokkanen et al., 2017). The loss of biodiversity, consequence of climate change and resource degradation, has also profound implications for sustainability. Habitat destruction and pollution of ecosystems contribute to the decline of various species, disrupting ecosystems balance and diminishing the resilience of natural systems (Cardinale et al., 2012), which are crucial for food production.Importantly, while climate change, depletion of natural resources and loss of biodiversity may initially result from unsustainable practices, they also become reinforcing constraints to adopting more sustainable practices due to feedback loops within the system. Thus, even if individuals or communities seek to adopt more sustainable practices, they may be limited by the pre-existing unsustainable state of the system. For example, if climate change and/or overuse of water resources leads to reduced surface water availability for agriculture, farmers may be forced to resort to unsustainable irrigation practices, such as excessive pumping and surpassing aquifer renewal limits, to avoid decreased crop yields. Similarly, the loss of biodiversity can lead to increased vulnerability to pests and diseases, further diminishing agricultural productivity and forcing farmers to rely on chemical inputs, exacerbating the cycle of resource depletion and environmental degradation.Similarly to biophysical barriers, socio-economic barriers are often considered as drivers (HLPE, 2017;FAO et al., 2023). They materialize in several ways, including rapid urbanization, population growth, globalization, and socio-economic inequality.We propose integrating rapid urbanization and population growth together under a single barrier named demographic shift [#10 in Figure 1]. The rapid urbanization currently at play, is a trend that cannot be ignored (FAO et al., 2023). From a food system perspective, it involves changes from food production, through food processing and food distribution to consumer behavior, and inadvertently lead to the rise of unsustainable practices. The increase in consumers' income, often associated with urbanization and change in lifestyle, has also been recognized as a driver of major shifts in dietary patterns, particularly increasing demand for animal-sourced protein and ultraprocessed food, with significant environmental and health consequences (Popkin, 2006;Kearney, 2010). Additionally, the increased participation of women in the labour force has contributed to reshape food consumption patterns, shifting to more \"convenient\" and ready-to-eat foods, to manage time constraints, and potentially leading to unsustainable practices (Devine et al., 2009;Hawkes et al., 2024). In some countries with limited resources and territory, population growth can also be an issue (e.g., increased demand for food, pressure on natural resources, access to land, etc.); it can damage ecosystems and exacerbate socio-economic inequalities (Tilman and Clark, 2014;UNEP, 2016). Balancing the needs of a growing population with sustainable resource management becomes increasingly complex.Globalization [#11 in Figure 1], as a combined effect of liberalization, technological progress, and cheap fossil-based energy, and characterized by the interconnectedness of economies and the global movement of goods (e.g., inputs) and food products, also promotes unsustainable practices. While it contributes to economic growth, it also leads to environmental, social and health externalities, posing challenges to food system sustainability (Hawkes, 2006;Stuckler et al., 2012;Sabir and Gorus, 2019;Heimberger, 2020).Finally, an essential socio-economic barrier influencing sustainability across the economic spectrum is inequality [#12 in Figure 1]. On one end of the inequality spectrum, low-income households face significant constraints that hinder their capacity to adopt sustainable practices. Limited financial resources and cognitive bandwidth often force these groups to prioritize short-term survival over long-term sustainability (Mullainathan and Shafir, 2013;Fielding-Singh, 2017). For instance, smallholder farmers may struggle to invest in sustainable methods due to immediate economic pressures and the need for quick returns. Similarly, individuals with low incomes often find their food choices constrained by their limited financial resources, which can prevent them from adopting sustainable purchasing behavior. Conversely, wealthier individuals and communities contribute disproportionately to unsustainability through higher consumption levels and larger carbon footprints (Wiedmann et al., 2020;Chancel et al., 2022). Greater purchasing power drives unsustainable dietary patterns, including higher meat consumption for example (Godfray et al., 2018), and supports the use of resourceintensive technologies (e.g., chemical fertilizers and pesticides) that can degrade the environment (Tilman et al., 2011). Addressing socioeconomic inequality as a barrier to sustainability requires a balanced approach that recognizes how both poverty and affluence can impact food systems sustainability, thus ensuring that the proposed solutions do not unfairly focus on and stigmatize vulnerable populations while addressing the underlying, structural issues perpetuating these inequalities.Barriers to sustainability of food systems are multiple and complex. Expanding on Conti et al. (2021), our study proposes a comprehensive framework that incorporates additional elements, resulting in the identification of 12 distinct barriers clustered into five overarching domains (see Figure 1). Such a framework is useful in providing clarity while translating theory into practice. If we consider for example the rising rates of obesity, extensively documented in the media and literature, it becomes evident that the inability to halt the Even et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1453999 Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 09 frontiersin.org obesity epidemic results not just from one but from a combination of several barriers. These include, but are not limited to, the increased availability and promotion of ultra-processed foods, sedentary lifestyles exacerbated by urbanization, and consumption patterns that prioritize convenience over nutritious choices (Kennedy et al., 2004;Stuckler and Nestle, 2012;Monteiro et al., 2013;FAO et al., 2023). This highlights the interconnected and mutually reinforcing nature of these barriers, leading to negative and unsustainable outcomes. In the absence of a structured framework to acknowledge, unpack, and address these interconnected barriers, the formulation of effective strategies to tackle specific issues, such as obesity in this case, becomes significantly more complex.Several additional points emerge from the construction of the framework.It appears unwise to solely focus on sources of resistance when looking at evolving and dynamic objects such as food systems. While we understand that Conti refers to sources of resistance \"towards new directions of change,\" we find the term \"sources of resistance\" potentially confusing and prefer the term \"barriers\". Some would argue that it is \"the resistance of agri-food systems to detach themselves from the past and change in new directions that is the concern\" (De Schutter, 2017, as cited in Conti et al., 2021); we posit that the current changes at play, especially in the global South, are as concerning as the absence of change in industrialized countries. Furthermore, we favor the expression \"barriers to sustainability\" over \"new direction of changes\" as it is more explicit and avoids misinterpretations.One major improvement offered by our framework is the incorporation of socio-economic and biophysical factors-often categorized as \"drivers\" (HLPE, 2017)-within the analysis, as barriers to sustainability. In existing theories, barriers and drivers are often considered separately, though in practice, they sometimes correspond to the same influencing factors. Barriers are considered as forces opposing change, maintaining a hypothetical status quo, whereas drivers are seen as catalysts propelling change forward. However, because both barriers and drivers may prevent us from reaching the ultimate outcome of interest (that is, sustainability of the system), drivers may become barriers especially when they move us away from sustainability, thus justifying that the two terms may be used interchangeably when referring to the same factor. For example, the socio-cultural and behavioral dynamics underlying the overconsumption of meat can be considered either as barriers or drivers, depending on the context or perspective. Hansen (2018, p. 57) points out that in Vietnam, the \"positive social connotations attached to meat as a symbol of development and progress\" act as a \"driver\", boosting meat consumption. Conversely, recent research in Northern Europe (Hielkema and Lund, 2021;Collier et al., 2021) underscores how \"social norms\" and \"habits\" serve as \"barriers\", impeding efforts to reduce meat consumption. Although drivers and barriers are intuitively perceived as fundamentally distinct, our analysis demonstrates that in the context of sustainability, drivers can paradoxically manifest as barriers-a notion that challenges conventional understanding.Crises, including local and global events such as wars, civil unrest, and pandemics, pose significant challenges to food system sustainability. These external shocks disrupt food production and supply chains, exacerbate market volatility, affect food security, and ultimately destabilize food systems (Martin-Shields and Stojetz, 2019;Clapp, 2023). Armed conflicts, such as the ongoing war in Gaza, have devastating impacts on food systems by disrupting food production, distribution, and access, leading to acute food insecurity (Hassoun et al., 2024). Such disruptions also extend beyond conflict zones, as displaced populations place additional pressure on neighbouring regions, further destabilizing food systems in these areas (Béné et al., 2024). Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed critical vulnerabilities within global food systems, with widespread supply chain interruptions, labour shortages, and economic downturns exacerbating existing food system flaws (Love et al., 2021;Kubatko et al., 2023). However, while their detrimental effect on food system sustainability in unquestionable, we consider them as separate from the structural barriers constituting our framework.The main reason is that our 12 barriers are primarily structural, meaning they are deeply embedded in politico-institutional, economic, socio-cultural, and biophysical settings characterizing human societies. While dynamic, they arise from foundational characteristics of the system and persist over time. Conflicts and crises, however, are conjunctural, meaning they are temporary disruptive events that impact food systems but do not form an inherent or permanent part of the system's structure. In other words, structural barriers persist over long periods, often requiring foundational shifts to address them. In contrast, crises -around the terms: are time-bounded (even if protracted), meaning their impacts might be severe but are not permanent features of the system.Distinguishing between structural barriers and external shocks allows for more accurate analysis and targeted interventions, addressing root causes for structural sustainability issues and building response capacities for crises. Béné et al. (2021) notably highlighted that the threats posed to food systems by crises, such as COVID-19, stem not solely from the shocks themselves but from political and institutional status and responses (such as lockdowns and business closures) which produced secondary effects, including reduced food availability, affordability and accessibility. By acknowledging and treating conflicts and crises as situational stressors, we want to underscore the importance of adaptive capacity and resilience, and subtly bridge the concepts of sustainability and resilience, highlighting that while sustainability focuses on long-term stability and resource management, resilience addresses a system's ability to endure, adapt to, and recover from disruptions. A sustainable food system, therefore, is one that is not only able to tackle its structural barriers but also builds robust resilience to withstand and adapt to both anticipated and unforeseen crises.We contend that barriers do not function in isolation but are rather interconnected and interact to produce combined effects on Even et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1453999 Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 10 frontiersin.org food systems and their actors. This suggests that rather than focusing on food systems interventions targeting a single barrier, it is crucial to design comprehensive approaches and strategies that transcend disciplinary divides and address simultaneously multiple barriers.When addressing food system sustainability, McInnes and Mount (2017, p. 133) astutely delineate existing approaches ranging from \"Amend\" strategies that leverage technological innovation, through \"Transition\" strategies emphasizing alternative market structures, to \"Transform\" strategies that call for radical systemic changes. Each strategy, however, primarily targets specific barriers-technological, behavioral, or political economy respectively-without fully embracing the complex interplay and compounded effects of barriers. The examination of the rationale behind these distinct strategies is particularly insightful as it reveals their limitations, often resting on incomplete assumptions and overlooking the combined and interconnected nature of those barriers. These distinct strategies, though logically grounded, fall short of comprehensively embracing the multiple barriers that challenge food systems sustainability. While we are inclined to endorse the \"Transform\" strategy, and the need for radical transformations of the political economy of food systems, we argue that other barriers, such as socio-technical and socio-cultural factors, cannot be ignored. On the contrary, we posit (and develop in the example below) that this is the combined effect of barriers that generate the complexity around unsustainability.In addition to the combined effects of barriers, we postulate that the intricate interactions and interdependencies between these barriers also reinforce their detrimental effect on food system (un) sustainability. Food systems components are indeed characterized by multi-level interconnections and interdependencies, with multiple non-linear feedback loops effects (Ericksen, 2008;Ingram, 2011;Baker and Demaio, 2019). The same applies for barriers to sustainability (Liu et al., 2021;Sanga et al., 2021), as interactions between barriers give rise to non-linear feedback loops, amplifying the impact of individual barriers, and intensifying their combined effect on food system sustainability. For example, bio-physical barriers like climate change can exacerbate the impact of socio-technical barriers, such as the persistence of unsustainable technologies, which in return further intensify climate change, leading to compromised agricultural productivity and food insecurity. We highlight this interdependency not solely as a matter of being conceptually right, but also for practical reasons in relation to the design and implementation of policies, and interventions. There is a critical need to identify and characterize all barriers at play, and to understand how these barriers interact with one another to accurately characterize the root causes of the problems. This understanding is paramount for devising appropriate, integrated, and holistic solutions rather than concentrating more narrowly on specific technical remedies (e.g., front-of-pack labeling) or on sectoral policies.Multiple instances from the literature help illustrate the combined effects and interdependencies of barriers. For example, the examination of contemporary food environments reveals the complex interplay of political economy, socio-economic, sociocultural, and socio-technical barriers and drivers contributing to dietary-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Corporate dominance of Big Food wields substantial control over production, distribution, and marketing of food, prioritizing the mass production and promotion of ultraprocessed and nutritionally poor food products (Monteiro et al., 2013;Clapp, 2021). This dominance fosters the widespread availability of such products, thereby contributing to suboptimal dietary behaviors and augmenting susceptibility to diet-related diseases (Monteiro et al., 2018;Lee et al., 2019). Concurrently, globalization exacerbates this phenomenon by facilitating the importation and consumption of processed and ultra-processed foods, undermining local food systems, and eroding cultural dietary norms (Kennedy et al., 2004;Pingali, 2007). Rapid urbanization-as a result of poverty and socio-economic inequalities fuelling rural-urban migrations (Nef, 1995;Sachs et al., 2004)-further compounds dietary shifts (Kennedy et al., 2004). Insufficient awareness and nutritional knowledge among consumers worsen the issue, as individuals may lack the understanding of the health implications associated with these dietary choices (Shimokawa, 2013), which is also reinforced by the failure of public institutions to engage in nutrition education, alongside misleading advertising and communications from Big Food corporations (Clapp and Scrinis, 2017). Additionally, in some contexts, inadequate food-related infrastructure development-deriving from public institutions deficienciesnotably in urban areas, limit access to fresh and nutritious food options (Figuié and Moustier, 2009;Wertheim-Heck et al., 2015). Income disparities further impede consumers' ability to procure and afford healthy food alternatives (Drewnowski and Eichelsdoerfer, 2009;Penne and Goedemé, 2021), resulting in increase in the demand for cheap and ready-to-eat food products which further encourages food corporations to produce and market such products. We could enumerate numerous other interdependencies and feedback loops among barriers that exacerbate diet-related health issues, but it goes beyond the scope of this paper. The aforementioned example serves to elucidate the intricate interplay of multiple barriers in perpetuating issues of unsustainability. Consistent with Glanville's (2007) analysis, it shows that addressing any single barrier in isolation is most likely to be ineffective and inefficient, leading to resource fragmentation and overlooking of potential synergies.It is the interaction, interdependence, and combined effects of the barriers-notably through path-dependency, inertia, and lock-in mechanisms-rather than one or two specific barriers, that maintain (and foster) unhealthy outcomes of food systems. While it would be extremely useful to feed the debate on food systems sustainability pathways, achieving a comprehensive, global, and quantitative assessment of the relative importance of each barrier presents evident challenges. Furthermore, the diversity of the food systems adds some additional layer of complexity, as the interdependency of barriers mentioned above might manifest differently from one system to Even et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1453999 Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 11 frontiersin.organother. The global food system is actually composed by a constellation of interconnected systems, spanning global, regional, national, and sub-national levels, and ranging from industrialized modern (e.g., the United States) through transitioning (e.g., Vietnam, Brazil) to more traditional and rural (e.g., Madagascar, Cambodia) food systems (HLPE, 2017). The exact role and contributions of specific barriers in shaping food systems is therefore highly contextspecific and can hardly be generalized. While the interconnectedness of barriers applies across all food systems, the nature, direction, and intensity of the interactions and feedback loops differ among themcalling for context-specific research, as priority interventions might differ according to the considered food system. However, complexity and knowledge gaps should not serve as excuses for inaction. We argue that some barriers consistently \"precede\" others in all systems, and therefore constitute key entry points for advancing food system sustainability. Expanding on our understanding of food systems, we consider that the limitations inherent in Conti's framework extend beyond the nature and quantity of identified barriers and encompass the hierarchical arrangement of these barriers. Indeed, Conti's framework places all \"sources of resistances\" on the same level, yet our research suggests that some of these resistances have more foundational implications, affecting other barriers through spill-over and cascading effects. We also posit that political economy barriers, which we characterize as deeply rooted in the system, often serve as the cornerstone of an intricate \"system of barriers\". Specifically, we suggest that corporate power and agency, along with politic and institutional deficiencies,-grouped under political economy barriers-serve as the foundational underpinnings of sociotechnical, socio-cultural, behavioral, and biophysical barriers. While a comprehensive analysis of all causal relationships between barriers goes beyond the scope of this paper, our focus in the following paragraphs is to expose the significant influence exerted by political economy dynamics on socio-technical, socio-cultural, and behavioral barriers.Multiple studies underscore how corporate agribusiness strategies, often supported by national policies, international organizations and philanthropic foundations, shape food systems to align with their narratives and vested interests, thereby promoting innovations and capital-intensive technologies tailored to large-scale, industrial, and specialized farming practices (Murphy et al., 2012;IPES, 2015;Clapp, 2021). For instance, the intensification and ultraspecialization of smallholder farming systems, facilitated by agricultural biotechnology and synthetic inputs, exemplify how farmers and farming systems can become entrenched in sociotechnical models built around and for corporate agribusiness (Holt-Giménez and Shattuck, 2011;IPES, 2017). The development of genetically modified seeds, sometimes engineered to function exclusively with specific chemical herbicides, and its support by governmental policies (Lapegna and Perelmuter, 2020), is a clear manifestation of this phenomenon. It illustrates how the adoption and persistence of inadequate technological innovations can be closely linked to corporate interests, as well as to rural and industrial development policies.The current trend towards digitalization of agriculture, championed by corporate agribusiness as a panacea to solve climate change and food insecurity, further reveals the sway of political economy dynamics on socio-technical choices and practices. Corporate agribusinesses leverage their discursive power to propagate the narrative that digital technologies are the solution to sustainability issues. Despite the contested potential impacts of widescale digitalization on sustainability (Leroux, 2021;Beste, 2021;Forney and Epiney, 2022), these narratives are adopted by influential international organizations such as UN agencies and the European Union. Notably, precision farming, sometimes described as \"pseudo-sustainable techniques which help to maintain the (…) model of intensive industrial agriculture\" (Beste, 2021, p. 8), has now been embraced as an \"eco-scheme\" by the EU Commission, rendering it eligible for funding alongside agroforestry and agroecology initiatives (Hackfort, 2023). This illustrates how incumbent's discursive agency leads to narrative co-optation by other food system stakeholders (Simoens et al., 2022), reflecting the interplay of power and knowledge, and how this shape what is deemed conceivable, actionable, and achievable (Foucault, 1969).Instrumental power of incumbent actors is also at play to create a wide range of technology-related lock-ins associated with digitalization, as highlighted in a recent study by Hackfort (2023). Innovations are tailored for large-scale monocultural farming practices, rendering them less suitable for small-scale or agroecological approaches, and discouraging the adoption of such practices. Additionally, the \"interoperability and incompatibility\" features inherent in digital innovations may create new dependencies and increased bureaucracy, exacerbating the disempowerment of smallscale producers with regards to technology (Forney and Epiney, 2022;Hackfort, 2023). The fragmentation of data policy regulations, allowing companies to dictate the rules, further contributes to reinforce corporate structural power and influence over technological choices. Hackfort (2023, p. 2) reminds the importance of rejecting any form of \"technological determinism\"; despite appearances, technological lock-ins are in fact deeply rooted in political and societal choices, which \"recall the power of progressive political action\" to foster alternative pathways.The technological-related lock-ins emerging from incumbents' discursive agency extend to behavioral lock-in (Barnes et al., 2004), creating systemic interlock-in effects (Simoens et al., 2022) that foster aversion to change among food system actors, and hinder the adoption of more sustainable practices. Similarly, political economy dynamics exert a strong influence on food environments, shaping consumers behaviors and, often, driving behavioral changes towards unsustainable and unhealthy diets. Indeed, cultural norms and preferences, though deeply rooted in historical contexts and social interactions, undergo dynamic shifts in response to alterations in food environments. As most dimensions of these food environments-such as availability, price, marketing and labelling, and intrinsic properties of food products-are in fact largely under the control of corporate food companies (Clapp and Scrinis, 2017), partly because of the ineffectiveness and fragmented nature of food environment regulations, it becomes evident that incumbent actors play a pivotal role in (re)shaping cultural norms and individual behaviors. Marketing and advertising strategies, in particular, influence individual behaviors, impacting how people perceive and choose their food and shaping dietary preferences (Larson and Story, 2009). Unregulated advertising of processed and convenience foods, especially towards children (Wilks, 2009), is of great concern as it contributes to dietary shifts, often at the expense of healthier dietary habits (Stuckler et al., 2012). In Mexico for instance, aggressive marketing tactics employed by food corporates have contributed to the escalation of consumption of ultraprocessed foods, thereby exacerbating public health concerns associated with diet-related non-communicable diseases (Barquera et al., 2018).In response to mounting health concerns, Big Food corporations have engaged in \"nutritionism\" strategies (Clapp and Scrinis, 2017)defined as strategies employed to capitalize on the growing consumer interest in nutrition and health. Positioning themselves as providers of solutions to nutritional issues, corporations gain consumer trust and loyalty, ultimately contributing to the adoption and perpetuation of unhealthy dietary habits. These strategies involve various tactics aimed at enhancing the nutritional profile of processed and ultraprocessed food products, such as \"the reformulation of foods to reduce levels of harmful food components, the micronutrient fortification of products to address micronutrient deficiencies, and the functionalization of products that claim to provide optimal nutrition and health benefits\" (Scrinis, 2016, p. 1). As rightfully highlighted by Clapp and Scrinis (2017), by focusing on isolated nutrients or health claims, these tactics serve to divert attention from the broader health implications of processed ultra-processed foods.Furthermore, corporate food processors employ discursive tactics such as product differentiation, portion sizing, and the promotion of physical activity (rather than dietary shift) to shape public perceptions regarding the causes of obesity (Frye and Bruner, 2012;Scrinis, 2016). Communication from these firms often emphasizes the responsibility of consumers to moderate their consumption of unhealthy foods, while downplaying their own responsibility, or the failure of governments, to limit the production, distribution, advertising, and accessibility of such products (Simon, 2006). Large food retailers and distributors employ analogous discursive strategies to position themselves as advocates for consumers' interests, to gain their trust and in-fine influence consumer behaviors. Such discursive tactics, contribute to ingrain incumbent actors' narratives that later become normalized through behaviors and practices, accepted as common sense and new norms, and remain largely unquestioned by the public.Achieving food system sustainability is therefore inherently political (Swinburn, 2019;Leach et al., 2020;Béné, 2022). Due to the complex interplay of power dynamics, interests, and values that shape food production, distribution, and consumption, the identification of root causes is not always straightforward. While we recognize the importance of socio-technical, socio-cultural, and behavioral barriers, these are deeply rooted in the political economy configuration set by corporations and institutions. Technological and behavioral lock-ins are not unavoidable outcomes but rather the consequences of strategies and interests of incumbent actors. As government policies, international trade agreements, and corporate interests often align to prioritize economic growth and profit over environmental sustainability and social justice in food systems (Baudish et al., 2024), there is a pressing need for more inclusive governance structures to ensure that the interests and needs of all are taken into account.Addressing food system sustainability requires a holistic approach that transcends disciplinary and ideological divides. In this paper, we have presented a comprehensive framework identifying the multifaceted barriers to food system transformation towards sustainability. Building upon existing literature and empirical knowledge, we identified a series of barriers, which we categorized into five overarching domains: Political economy, Socio-technical, Socio-cultural and behavioral, Biophysical, and Socio-economic barriers. Our framework highlights the complex interplay and interconnectedness of these barriers, leading to food system unsustainability. We suggest that only by recognizing and better understanding the combined and interdependent nature of these barriers, decision-makers and other stakeholders can develop more effective strategies to promote sustainability. Moreover, we stress the inherent political nature of food system (un) sustainability, with corporate power and institutional deficiencies creating foundational barriers. While other barriers play crucial roles, we suggest these are deeply rooted in, and derived from, inherent political economy dynamics.We envision our framework as a valuable tool for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners striving to engage in transdisciplinary approaches to advance food system sustainability. We invite scholars to refine this framework and to include and account for additional nuances and complexities that might have been overlooked in this first iteration. We believe the framework can stimulate further research and discussion among scholars, contributing to improving narratives about the fundamental causes of unsustainability in food systems and the associated sustainability pathways. Ultimately, we hope this integrated framework can be a catalyst for enhancing communication among stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, fostering collaboration, and facilitating the development of consensus to inform and guide effective decision-making processes toward more sustainability.Moving forward, we call for further research to deepen common understanding of food system barriers. While discussing the framework we underscored the critical importance of investigating the feedback loops and non-linear dynamics that occur between barriers. Further empirical investigation would be necessary, however, to assess the relative importance and significance of these different barriers, and to better characterize the interconnections and feedback loops between them. Future studies should delve deeper into these mechanisms to help confirm the fundamental root causes of food system unsustainability in the political economy spheres. Additionally, these analyses should explore how specific interventions addressing one barrier may impact (positively or negatively) other barriers and the broader system. Conducting cross-contextual comparative analyses would also help to understand how barriers' manifestations vary and impact differently food systems in different contexts. Such comparative approaches could provide valuable insights to discern universal from context-specific patterns and inform the design of more effective and tailored interventions. Finally, conducting longitudinal studies to track changes in food systems over time and assess the effectiveness of interventions aimed at addressing barriers would also be extremely useful. It would enable food system stakeholders to monitor temporal trends, potentially creating learning ","tokenCount":"9704"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"76162722c3a308ab0e01b36a545087d4","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://ciat-library.ciat.cgiar.org/Articulos_Ciat/Digital/SB208.T7_R4_V.2_C.2_Referencias_y_ayudas_utilizadas_en_el_programa_de_capacitaci%C3%B3n_cient%C3%ADfica_de_.pdf","id":"1255302315"},"keywords":["bJÚza.n.:tJta ma.E.t\".oE_a.l:\"p um 5065 '\" ' \" '\" '0 C) ,. -., CONsm:o : y","DIGECTIBILIDAD DE CInCO GRAnlffiAS TROPIC.'..LES, SEP:.r\",\\DAS E:","Tf'''':::: liOJAS y TALLOS C. gayana .63.0 66.3 3.3 ns D. decu!:lbcns 61.3 GeoCLlfl:l <lc 1, nr","1dc r.'l t:spccic Apeti.co F.:-c ,crl':!ncl.:!.~rc\\'!.,\" ¡",",¡'Ir'",",•, ' /.:JI/! ,,' :./' / ,j,! ., \"{1 \\ .. ¡ ..","\"1. ¡ , . '/' . \"\" J.....J ., ' . . ' 1 \\', .! ' \\. I . ' \" a\" . •i'-•• 1\\' IV \\J:0\":' ': \"l {l-' ~ ..,...,. ..• , \" ' _ , \\ •. ~\" I ' ___ r,.-..,._"],"sieverID":"6fc4524d-1923-4bb8-83d4-58af940a2f2a","pagecount":"490","content":"Pastos en Carimagua\". Después de un año, fue necesario actualizar y' ampliar las recomendáciones. DeSp1.lé~, de cuatro años se ha realizado la segun<l\" revisión. La mayorla de las modificaciones y cambios se basan en conversaciones y reuniones realizadas entre los técnicos de Carimagua y comunicaciones de investigadores no residentes. Se seguirán actualizando las recomendaciones a medida que la experiencia dicte los cambios.Se puede utilizar el arado para una preparación más profunda, pero d~ acuerdo a la experiencia en Carimagua, no parece necesaria, debido a las condiciones físicas de los suelos. En caso de arar, es importante pasar primero con el rastrillo (californiano) para romper el césped; de otra manera el arado bota cespedones demasiado grandes que hacen extremadamente difícil el siguiente pase con el rastrillo. Generalmente es necesario otro pase de rastrillo después de la arada. Cuando la siembra se realiza sobre <un potrero viejO. el arado es a veces conveniente para acabar con especies que son más difíciles de controlar que las de sabana nativa.En el caso de siembras a escala comercial, una manera eficiente de preparar el terreno es la de trabajar lotes grandes en rectángulos comenzando en una diagonal (de esquina a esquina) y terminando en la otra, habiendo realizado en el curso dos pases con el rastrillo californiano ,como se muestra en la Fig'lra 1. Si fuera necesario se podrl'a hacer otro pase (sencillo) después de 15-JO dlas. según el tiempo, para un mejor control de la vegetación.La preparación del terreno en los bajos y esteros tiene que realizarse durante el verano. Los sistemas son similares a los que se utilizan en la sabana alta. La fecha óptima depende del grado de inundación y el nivel freático.Cuando la investigación es a base de parcelas pequeñas en que la presencia de hormigueros u otro relieve en el terreno interfieren, conviene el siguiente proceso: rastrillar, luego arar seguido por una nivelación con un equipo similar a la Eversman que se tiene en Carimagua. Después de la nivelación se ara y rastrilla de nuevo para tener la tierra preparada pero tratando de dejar la superficie algo rugosa. Todo este trabajo resulta en una sobre-preparación del terreno con el peligro de erosión al haber alguna pendiente y se recomienda solamente para parcelas pequeñas.Si los tratamientos incluyen la incorporación de cal ó fertilizantes se (eC 0mienda lo siguiente: después de nivelar el terreno, hacer la aplicación del 50% de la dosis de cal ó fertilizante a ser incorporado. Luego pasar con el rils l dl10 californiano a una profundidad de 10-12 cm seguido por una arada de 20-25 cm para luego hacer la aplicación del otro 50% de la cal ó fertilizante seguido por una última rastrillada de 12-15 cm con el californiano. Así se logra una incorporación muy uniforme hasta la profundidad de la arada. Al parecer, la aplicación superficial de fertilizantes, tanto en banda como al voleo es satisfactoria, y más aún si se deja la superficie rugosa como se recomienda. En Carimagua se trabaja casi exclusivamente con especies que son tolerantes a la acidez. Por lo tanto, normalmente no se recomienda aplicaciones de cal. El calcio necesario como nutrimento se suministra normalmente a través del fertilizante fosfatado. En el Cuadro 1, se presentan los contenidos de PaOs, CaC03 y otros elementos en las fuentes más comunes de P. Con fuentes más concentradas de P como superfosfato triple, se recomienda la aplicación de Ca para compensar su bajo contenido. (Cuadro 3). Fertilización de Establecimiento Las recomendaciones para la fertil ización no se han hecho buscando )'endimientos máximos, sino un buen establecimiento de plantas vigorosas, persistentes y prOductivas durante varios años; teniendo en cuenta la filosofía de insumos mínimos que se ajuste de acuerdo a las especies a sembrar.Se han encontrado algunas diferencias entre especies en cuanto a requerimientos para fósforo, potasio, magnesio y azufre y por 10 tanto es difícil hacer una recomendación que sirva para todas. De las gramíneas que se han sembrado, las menos exigentes son ¡~el inís minutíflora_, ~~i!~hiaria humidicola, Andropogon .!:@1anus y ª-. de<:.~mbens. Las más exigentes son Panicum maximum, Hyparrhenia rufa.ª-~achlaria radicans (Tanner), Brachiaria mutica (pará).Entre las leguminosas también existen diferencias en su requerilniento de fertilizantes. Las menos exigentes parecen ser: Stylosanthes capj!ata, i. J1uianensis y lornia latífolia. Qesmodíum ovalifolium y Pueraria Ehaseoloides, (kudzú) son más exigentes, especialmente en Mg. Ambas han respondido en condiciones 'de campo en Carimagua a aplicaciones de este elemento en forma muy dramática.En el Cuadro 2 se presenta una clasificación tentativa de gramíneas y leguminosas con respecto a sus requerimientos nutricionales. Para el establecimiento de las especies menos exigentes se recomendaría la aplicación de 25 kg de PzOs ,12 de kg de K 2 0 y 6 kg de Mg y S; en el otro extremo de exigencia, 100 kg de P2 0s , 50 kg de K20 y 25 k9 de Mg y S. El Cuadro 3 incluye recomendaciones tentativas para las especies de mayor interés en Carimagua.de ln próximas o por debajo del nivel de deficiencia (20 ppm Zn) y cercanas al límite inferior del requerimiento de vacunos (15 ppm Zn). En legbminosas, sin aplicaciones de Zn, las concentraciones en tejido llenan suficientemente el requerimiento del animal y de la planta. ... se sembraron exitosamente ocho especies (~. gayanus, !. decumbens,.E. maximum, ~. minutiflora, i. capitata, ~. latifolia, Q. ovalifolium, f. phaseoloides) cada mes desde Abril hasta Octubre.Después de la preparación del suelo: Es indispensable dejar caer 2-3 lluvias fuertes antes •de sembrar especies de semillas muy pequeñas (~. gayanus, ~. minutiflora, li. rufa) para que el suelo se asiente y así evitar la tapada excesiva de la semilla con la tierra suelta que resulta de la labranza. Además, parece conveniente dejar pasar 1-2 meses para que la población de hormigas disminuya después que se destruya la vegetación que habla.De las especies en asociación: Es conveniente sembrar simultáneamente la leguminosa y la gramínea en asociación. En caso de un crecimiento excesivo de la gramínea, se le puede controlar mediante un pastoreo. En cambio, ha sido difícil controlar el exceso de leguminosa con el pastoreo porque las gramíneas SO\" casi sip.mpre m.1s perseguidos que lns leguminosas durante la época lluviosa.Debido a la escaséz de semilla, es a veces necesario sembrar especies por estacas, estolones ó cepas. En épocas de abundancia de lluvia, es factible sembrar directamente en el campo Q.. !l.vaJifpli_uE!. ~. ,,-ajJitat!! (y otras especies de Stylosanthes) y ~. latifolia por estacas sembradas verticalmente con 5-8 cm del tallo enterrado, afirmando bien el suelo alrededor de la estaca. A escala comercial, convendría la siembra de algunas especies (p.e. I. latifo1ia, Q.~yalifolium) en surcos con tallos (estacas) horizontales como se hace con ª-. decunbens. El comportamiento durante el primer año de algunas especies es muy distinto entre plantas provenientes de semilla y las de estacas. El sistema radicular puede ser muy distinto, careciendo de la raíz principal (pivotante).Para la siembra de especies estoloníferas, como B~_ decul1J.bens> ª--'humidicola. etc. se recomienda tapar parcialmente el material de propagación siempre dejando por lo menos un nudo eXplIesto, afirmando el suelo alrededor de éste. lilj¡ La siembra se debe realizar sólo durante épocas de abundancia de lluvia. Mientras más probabilidad de sequía haya, más importante será la tapada y compactación sobre las cepas ó estolones.Durante el invi.erno se puede sembrar la mayoría de las especies forrajeras superficialmente. En Carimagua existen tres tipos de máquinas sembradoras. La voleadora Apolo sirve para la siembra al voleo, mezclando la semi-l1a con algún material inerte ó con Escorias Thomas (ver \"~'étodos y costos de siembra del pasto gordura (Me1inis minutiflora) en los llanos Orientales\", p 6, CIAT boletín (sin número, por Forero y Spain, 1971). Es peligroso mezclar la semilla con abonos que contienen N ó K y aún P cuando es en forma de superfosfato.La máquina \"Connor-Shea\" cubre una franja de 1.65 m, tiene dos tolvas, una para el fertilizante y la otra para la semilla y está provista de discos para enterrar el fertilizante y/o la semilla, colocándolos en bandas a 15 cm. La máquina John Oeere es básicamente una abonadora de tolva con salidas cada 15 cm, de 3.60 m de ancho. La máquina tiene como accesorios, tolvas para semilla pequeña que se colocan detrás de la tolva grande. El mecanismo de siembra funciona mediante una cadena conectada a un piñón en el eje de las ruedas. La máquina no tiene discos, por 10 tanto la siembra es superficial. Se le puede adaptar cadenas ó ramas para lograr una ligera tapada de la semilla.Se ha utilizado la John Deere exitosamente para la siembra de B. decumbens, P. plicatulum, ~. capitata, ~. ~anensis. ~. phaseoloides y Q. ovalífo1ium.También se puede mezclar semilla de difícil manejo (A~ gayanus, ~. minutiflora, H. rufa) con Escorias Thomas y sembrar directamente de la tolva de fertilizantes.Pafa reducir el problema de malezas en lotes recién sembrados es conveniente aplicar el P en la banda junto con la semilla, haciendo la aplicación del resto del fertilizante al voleo después que estén bien establecidas las plantas.Así se logran concentraciones más altas de P en la zona de la plántula y se favorece menos el crecimiento de malezas entre hileras. Es necesaria ~na separación entre semilla y fertil i zantes nitrogenados ó potásicos cuando se siembra en hilera; de otra manera hay mucho riesgo de quemar la plántula recién germinada por la alta concentración de sales en la solución del suelo. La aplicación de P, K, Mg. S de mantenimiento. se recomienda hacerla al voleo.En épocas co~ alta probabilidad de períodos secos, conviene compactar la superficie después de sembrar. Existe un equipo compactador que consiste de varias llantas viejas acopladas sobre un eje. Lo ideal es compactar únicamente sobre las hileras para no favorecer la germinación de malezas en la zona intermedia y dejar una superficie más rugosa.Para mayor seguridad en el establecimiento de dos especies en asociación, se recomienda la siembra en hileras y por separado (leguminosa y gramínea). Se ha trabajado con hileras separadas 45-50 cm, sembrando una hilera de leguminosa, una de gramínea ó dos y dos. El patrón de dos y dos parece dejar entrar más luz a la leguminosa en caso de asociaciones con gramíneas de crecimiento vigoroso y vertical. Para darle mayor ventaja a la leguminosa, se puede sembrar dos hileras de leguminosas y una de gramínea. En el caso de leguminosas que son lentas en su establecimiento ó gramíneas excesivamente vigorosas, se puede controlar -la gramínea y favorecer la leguminosa mediante el pas toreo.Siembras Ralas la siembra de poblaciones ralas se puede hacer hasta finales de Agosto, época propicia para las especies que prodt'cen semilla a finales de la época lluviosa ó durante la época de sequía (ej. ~. ~~~). La preparación del terreno se hace con rastrillo californiano, dejando la superficie terronuda. la preparación (:e la tierra puede hacerse en dos etapas; preparando franjas para la siembra de las matas madres y dejandO el resto para preparar entrando en verano, antes de cae'-la semilla. Así se logra un mejor control de malezas y el hecho de comenzar el verano con una superficie floja y rugosa, ayuda a mantener ésta libre de malezas hasta las lluvias de Abril.' 520 Se recomienda aproximadamente 1500 matas/ha para ~. decumbens, Q.. oval Hol ium, \"f.. latifolia y entre 500y 1000 matas/ha para il. gayanus, 1:. maximum, !l. radicans, ~. humidicola y f. phaseoloides, sembrando con material vegetativo ó semilla. Cuando se establece por estolones, se recomienda sembrar las matas equidistantes. Cuando sea por semilla, conviene sembrar en hileras perpendiculares a la dirección del viento de verano con matas más cercanas en las hileras, p.e. 2 m entre matas en la hilera y 5 m entre hileras para una población de IOOO/ha.Se recomienda la aplicación de 3 gr PzOs.l gr K 2 0. 0.5 gr S y 0.5 gr Mg por planta en el momento de la siembra. evitando siempre el contacto directo de la semilla con el potasio.Se puede hacer un control de plagas en el momento de la siembra aplicando en corona 2 grs de Aldrín ó Furadán por planta madre.Rhizobium tolerantes a la acidez del suelo que ofrecen mayor persistencia y la posibilidad de infectar plántulas en el segundo año. No es recomendable tratar la semilla de leguminosas con fungicidas si se inoculan.En el Cuadro 7 se presentan las cepas recomendadas para las leguminosas de mayor interés'al Programa. Se recomienda la peletizaci6n de todas las semillas de leguminosas con roca fosf6rica 6 cal agrfcola (CIAT, 1977 pp A-46) junto con el inoculante y pegante. Se revuelve primero la seolilla con pegante (cola), leche o agua de azucar para mojarla. luego se agrega el inoculante seguido por la roca para 'secar la mezcla y proteger 10 bacteria. (Ver t1l<'mo R;;Jl-n<J-Il~)'Además de las hormigas arrieras (por lo menos dos especies de Atta), se presentan otras plagas como Naupactus spp. y Naupactini sp ~ (Coleopteral Curculionidae) que son especialmente dañinas durante los primeros meses de la época lluviosa. Son hospederas en plantas de hoja ancha en la sabana nativa; por lo tanto, es posible que una quema de la sabana en los alrededoL'es de una siembra al ,;iniciarse la epoca de lluvias disminuya el problema. Asimislllo, es posible que en siembras grandes, el problema de plagas sea principalmente en la periferia de la siembra.La destrucción de la vegetación por quema y labranza influye en la población de hormigas, especialmente las quemas de verano y la '\" destruccion total de la sabana por labranza. Algunos ganaderos en la zona recomiendan varios meses de descanso entre la preparación del terreno y la siembra del pasto, sin especificar las razones para tal práctica. Es probable que tenga algo que ver con una ~ ~ reduccion en la poblaeion de hormigas, por falta de alimento.Las plaGas mas dañinas en pa,~.tos establecidos son el mion(Aeneolamia spp, Zulía spp)en la gramínea~. decumbens y ~as hormigas arrieras. Andropogon gayanus parece ser especialmente susceptible al ataque de la hormiga cuando se presentan rebrotes tiernos después de una quema o bajo pastoreo muy fuerte en epoca de sequía cuando la' taza de crecimiento de la planta es muy baja. Las hormigas se vuelven nocturnas y son capaces de cosechar todo el rebrote , . .cada noche y agotar rap~damente las researvas de la planta. Es obvio que se debe evitar el manejo que conducirá a esta situacion.El control del mion mediante el manejo no ha sido tan efectivo como se habla pensado cuando se comenzo la siembra de ~. decumbens en la zona. ~=!l±~±\":.!'! hUll1J_d)&ola parece ser muy resistente al efecto del insecto.Este trabajo tiene como fín principal el de servir como guía gen8ral para el investigador que trabaja en Carimagua o en ecosistemas similares. Es de esperar que el usuario vaya mejorando las recomendaciones dadas, adaptándolas a sus condiciones específicas.Ojalá hagan llegar sus sugerencias para aprovechas sus experiencias y adicionarlas en nuevas versiones del trabajo.Además de servir como guia de campo, el presente trabajo señala las (,eficiencias en los conocimientos sobre el establecimiento y mantenimiento de pastosl así indica las áreas donde se deben enfocar los esfuerzos en el futuro.Figura 1Un m~todo de preparar un lote rectangular ó cuadrado en forma diagonal para facilitar el trabajo, las vueltas en los extremos y lograr mayor eficiencia. Cuando se termina el lote en la diagonal opuesta a '\" la del comienzo, se habra completado dos pases sobre todo el lote. Recomehdado para el rastrillo californiano (off-set-disc)  -------------% -------------- 'se aplica algo de fertilizante, por lo menos en la etapa de establecimiento, Los investigadores han tenido mucho más exito en la selección de especies y ecotipos de alto rendimiento que toleran la acidéz que en la selección de especies tolerantes a bajos niveles de P y K en el suelo.,Trabajando con las especies y eco tipos más promisorios para Carimagua, 'con base en conocimientos previos y en un programa de pruebas a nivel de campo, se está procediendo al desarrollo de siste!l'As de establecimiento. La mayoria del trabajo se hace, comenzando con sabana nativa. Los pastos tropicales pueden establecerse en cualquiera de las siguientes situaciones en el área de interés para el programa de Ganado de C'arne del CIAT. 1.-Después de destruir la sabana nativa 2.'-Con las especies nativas 3.-En praderas ya establecidas 4.-Después de un ciclo de cultivos 5.-Sembrando conjuntamente con cultivos 6.-Después de tumbar y quemar el bosque 6 vegetaci6n arbustiva Las primeras éinco situaciones se están estudiando actualmente en Carimaglla. Hasta el presente no se tienen trabajos en establc<;imiento de pastos después de la tumba y q~~ de bosque ó vegetación de cerrado.La calidad de la semilla es talvéz el eslabón más débil en el proceso de establecimiento de pastos tropicales. Se quisiera siempre tener una semilla de alto procentaje de viabilidad pero frecuentemente es necesario compensar la mala calidad de la semilla comercial por cantidadeS exageradas al sembrar. Adc~s de la baja viabilidad de semilla de pastos tropicales se presentan dos problemas adicionales: Latencia de la semilla y, en el caso de leguminosas, semillas duras. La latencia se puede romper mediante el almacenamiento 6 por tratamientos con calor ó frio y por 'el uso de estimulantes de crecimiento (Grof, 1968;Ram~s 1975). La escarificaci6n es frecuentemente necesaria para solucionar el proble~ de sarrillas duras de leguminosas <lunque 11 menudo se recomienda un cierto porcentaje mínimo de estas para ser incluidas en la siembra en áreas en donde el patrón de clima es poco predecible y son frecuentes las sequias largas (Cook y Lowe. 1977).La mayoría de los pastos tropicales son de semillas pcqueftas, por 10 tanto se deben sembrar muy superficialmente. En Carimagua, se han ¡lufrido pérdidas en gramíneas co:no Nelinis minutif10ra (15 x 10 6 semillas kg_l) , debido a una siembra demasiado inmediata a la preparación de la tierra. Las lluvias que han caido después de la siembra han alcanzado a tapar d2masiado la semilla no pudiendo esta emerger. Se recomienda la siembra con gramíneas de se~llas muy pequeñas tan sólo después de varias lluvías siguiendo a la preparación de la tierra para que la superficie se compacte y se llenen algunos de las microdcpresiones de la superficie del suelo•, Humphreys (1974), recomienda la siembra hasta profundidades de 1 c~. para la mayoría de las leguminosas y gramíneas forrajeras de semilla pequefia. En el caso de \"TOW,lsvi11e\" stylo, la siembra se hace• siempre sobre la superficie. Las reservas de nutrimentos en la semilla son insuficientes para su emergencia de mayores profundidades.Comanzando con se~illa de buena calidad, los factores ambientales más importantes que influyen en la germinación y establecimiento son: La presencia sie~?re de humedad• adecuada, aireaci6n suficiente, condiciones fisicas del suelo que permitan la pe.\"letraci6n de las raíces y la salida de la plántula, nutri.mantos suficientes, pU adecuado, temperaturas óptimas para el crecimiento rápido de la planta y la ausencia (6 control) de pat6genos ó predatores y de vegetación que compita con la nueva siembra.Algunas seLdllas requieren luz para su germinación (Leach et al, 1976).\"\" ... la etapa de establecimiento; Humphreys (1974) recomienda la sie~ra antes de las primeras lluvias, asegurando una humadad adecuada, pero admite 10 ~ificil que es predecir la fecha en que van a caer.Aireación: La mayoría de los U1tisoles y Oxisoles son suficientemente bien drenados con una aireación adecuada a no ser que hayan sido cultivadas ó sobre preparados (un caso demasiado frecuente en parcelas eh-perimentales).QQ.ndiciones Fi,!icas del Suelo: Las raices de la planta recién germinada tienen que penetrar el suelo para darle anclaje, obtener la humedad y los nutrimentos requeridos. Semillas sembradas sobre tierras no preparadas son a veces incapaces de penetrar la superficie compactada, en parte por la alta resistencia del suelo, la carencia de poros y además por la falta de anclaje de la semilla que puede ser empujada sobre la superficie del suelo por las raices en crecimiento (Barley, et al 1965, Campbel1 andSwain, 1973a). Este problena se ha presentado en pruebas que se han sembrado sobre sabana nativa sin ninguna, preparación en Carimagua. Sin embargo, es poco frecuente el problema en tierra preparada. I,a formación de costra es rara:nente un problema a no ser que la semilla so siembre de,nasiado profunda ó sea sepultada por la erosió'n causada por la lluvia. Proble~as de condiciones fisicas en el suelo son más comunes en áreas que se han cultivado ó que están siendo renovadas después de varios ados de pastoreo. Las ,propiedades fisicas de los Oxisoles recién cultivados son excelentes.Rugosidad de la Sl1p~rficie (lnicrorelieve~: Es un aspecto mC!y importante en la preparación del suelo para la sie:nbra y a veces se pasa por alto, Una sobrepreparación (de:nr\\siada pulverización) es frecuente..'l\\ente la causa del sellamiento de la superficie y la formación de una costra endurecida que puede resultar en una erosión severa (pérdida de semilla, fertilizante y suelo) y una escasa protección para las plántula.s que alcanzan a sobrevivir. Una superficie rugosa con bastante microrelieve, que contenga terrones, restos de tallos y raices y abundantes depresiones, da protección al suelo contra la erosión, suministra pequeñas dep~esiones donde se acum'llan los granos finos para una buena germinación de la semilla creando un micro-ambiente mucho n~s favorable para la pequeda planta.Nutrimantos, Un suministro adecuado de nutrimentos se requiere para el crecimiento óptimo de la planta. Algunos elementos son especiaL~ente critico s para la germinación de la semilla y su desarrollo inicial, y rara vez se encuentran en cantidades adecuadas en los Oxisoles y Ultisoles del trópico. La pl~nta recién germinadá acaba con las reservas de la semilla en re:.!)' p:>co tiempo pero aún ant\"l.s de que se acaben, algunas especies responden a los nutrimantos en el medio de crecimiento (NcHilliam et al 197C El f6sforo es especialmente importante en Oxisoles de Carlma$ua (erAT. 1976).El nitrógeno 10 es para las gramíneas y para las leguminosas que n~ tienen nódulbs efectivos. El potasio, magnesio, calcio y el azufre son muy a menudo deficientes en suelos álicos.Es factible log::-ar concentraciones adecuadas de nutrimentos en la zona de la plántula mediante aplicaciones en banda de un fertilizante apropiado. Dosis bajas son más efectivas aplicad~s en esta forma. Una vez' establecida, la planta, generalm.mte tiene requerimientos más bajos que recién nacida.1111 dql Suelo: Las especies tropicales varian mucho en su tolerancia a la acidéz del suelo (Andrew, et al. 1973, Spain et al, 1975, Spain anO. Andreli, datos no pablicados). En base a que la cal es escasa y costosa en la mayoría de las zonas tropicales en vía de desarrollo la politica del CUT ha sido buscar especies que sea':1 tolerantes a condiciones de acidéz fuerte. Suelos extremgdamente ácidos son casi siampre bajos en calcio y magnesio. Por 10 tanto~ generalmente se incluyen estos elemantos en la siembra de pastos (todas las fuentes comerciales de fósforo contienen calcio) •Tc~?c!~~: Las altas temperaturas del trópico tienen c~ efecto la disecación r¿pida de la superficie del suelo y de las s~millas y plantas recién germinadas, sembradas superficial~2nte. El problema es especialmente grave en lotes en donde el suelo es demasiado fino y plano ofreciendo así muy poca profección a la planta. El uso de rastrojo como una posible soluci6n del proble:na se ha mencionado. Bajas te'1tperaturas pueden ser limitantes estacionalmantc en el crecimiento de las plantas en zonas subtropicales ,\"pat~[~:Las semillas de pastos son tratadas a veces con fungicldas y/o bactericidas. para el control de patógenos. Sin emhargo, e~ el programa se depende de la resistencia ó tolerancia genética a las enfermedades que afectan la semilla o la plánt 1 11a.pr\"\"dat:.9.!.~: Las se:¡lillas de pastos son especialm:ntc susceptibles a la rC::loción de hormigas cosechadol:'as. El tratamiento de semillas con insecticidas ó repelentes puede reducir las pérdidas (Russell el: al. 1967). La fumiCución co~leta del área podría ser económica en algunas situaciones. Sei:\\ún un trabajo hecho por C\"Hnpbell y Swain (1973b). la re:nocion no continúa después de su germinación.Un gran nu.rnero de i,nscctos junto con horllligas arrieras (CUT, 1974) causan daflos re'jy serIos en lotes recién se:nbrados de gramineas y leguminosas en Carim,:¡gua.' Es sin duda, uno de los problemas m~s graves a enfrentar en el e~tableci::ii~nto de pastos en sabanas.• ,--, ~taci6n g~ co~~ita con los pastos: La eliminación de especies nativas y malezas que cOi4piten. con el pasto durante el periodo de estab1ec:Lniento y,crecimiento es tal véz uno de 109 factores más importantes en todo el proceso en suelos de sabana.' El control en.si, no es dificil y se logra en for.l!!I co:npleta con una labranza adecllada. 1 Si no se aplican abonos ni cal, la tierra puede mantenerse hasta más de un afto sin que aparezcan malezas, factor que representa una gran ventaja en el establecimiento de pastos, comenzando con la sabana nativa. Pero el costo de la labranza tradicional es alto en términos de maquinaria, co~ustible y tie~po y el riesgo de erosión en pendientes aún m~y suaves bajo las condiciones climáticas en la zona de Ca4imsgua es grande. Por lo tanto, y a pesar dé q~e existen siste~s para el establecL~iento de pastos que son bien eonocidos y probados, se requieren sistemas nuevos, adaptados a estas condieio:les, que sean más eficientes, eeonómcos y accesibles para los agriculturas en el medio en que se trabaja y que resulten de menor riesgo en cuanto a la erosión del suelo, En zonas selváticas ó de cerrado, el proeeso de tumbar y qúemar los arboles y arbustos alca~za a m~ver el suelo y deja condiciones favorables para el establecimiento de m\".1chas especies forrajeras, Las mismas condiciones naturales q~e existen en el bosque son mucho más favora~les para el establecimiento de pastos que las que se presentan en sabanas. En la quema de la sabana no hay mayor acumulación de cenizas ni movimiento del suelo y la _superficie muchas veces se !!l3.ntiene compacta, •poco porosa y ID'_Iy inhóspita para las siem'->ras superficiales de pastos. Se tiene dos aUOS de experiencia trabajando con un siste~ de labranza basado en el uso de palas de cultivadora que alc~nzan a cortar las especies de la sabana a una profundidod de cuatro a cinco cms. que efectúan un control adecuad~ de la vegetaci6n (eL\\T, 1976). Las palas dejan to~o el rastrojo en la suparficie, alcanzan a separar la planta de su sistema radicular dando un control m'lY adecuado si las condiciones climáticas después de la labranza son Rpropiadas. La ~ejor época parece ser hacia finales de la estaéión lluviosa cuando se presenten dias de sol, viento y calor en que la'planta se seca riípid'l'll=ntn y no vuelve a reLr\"tar como ocurL'e en épocas más lluviosas; El sistc:na tiene varias ventajas: Por un lado el costo es m-Jcllo más bajo que para una labranza tradLcional. En segundo lugar, el rastrojo en la su?erficie da buena protacción a la semilla y , la planta recién germinada y alcanza a mo:lerar las te:n;>eraturas y las fluctuaciones en el contel1id'J da hunlcdad en la superficie del sucIo. Otra ventaja es la protección que da al suelo contra la erosión.Nétod~ de S iem'> I\"l.: La sie:n':>ra en banda tiene varias ventajas cO:li¡>arada co'\" 1;\\ sic.'lI!>ra nl vol ¡!D. En suelos de baja fertilidad se per¡nlte la aplicación en banda de pequeñas cantidades de fertilizantes para favorecer la germinación y crecimiento inicial de la planta sin estimllar demasiado arca en oc 10 meses. Después de un pastoreo los tallos quedaron bien anclados al suelo, formando así nuevas plantas. ~. ovalifo1ium sufrió lli' fuerte ataque de hormigas arrieras y su desarrollo inicial fué más lento, pero alcanzó a cubrir todo el área en menos de un ai\\o. La semilla de 3,. capitata Germinación y no produjo resultados confiables. Para ~~yo 1978 lnueve meses después de la siembra), solamente 3,. capitata, ~. ~ecumbens, ~. o\\-alifolium y !. latifolia no habían cubierto el área entre matas (figura 3). En un año, todas las especies COIl excepción de 3,. capitata, cubrían el terreno en su totalidad sin presentar problemas de ma1ezas~ • -.-Los Oxisoles de las sabanas del trópico húmedo son de tan baja fertilidad que se mantienen libres de malezas durante varios meses, después de una preparación•tradicional. Fertilizando solamente una pequeña área alrededor de la planta madre se crean condiciones óptimas para su superdesarrollo sin estimular el crecimiento de malezas. Desde el momento de la siembra hasta que los estolones cubran la mayoria del área, no se hace la fertilización int~noodia. En el caso de~. gayanus y r.. maximum, que producen semilla a finales del año y se disemina por medio del viento durante el verano, la . fertilización intermedia se hace antes de las primeras lluvias para que las plántulas tengan también condiciones favorables para su desarrollo y compitan ampliamente con las malezas que puedan al11 prosperar. Los tratamientos para el área intermedia se presentan en el Cuadro 3.Cabe anotar la importancia de no sobrepreparar el terreno intermedio, el cuul debe presentar una superficie rugosa para evitar la erosión y retener la semilla depositada por el viento. Esto se observa claramente en la Figura 4. Los surcos de ~. gayanus que parecen sembrados asi, corresponden a un pase con escardillos para dar rugosidad al terreno. La figura S presenta el aspecto de estas j,15ntulas dos meses después de las primeras lluvias.Como la población inicial es de sólo 1000 matas/ha, la mano de obra para sembrar con material vegetativo es del orden de un jornal/ha y menor cuando se hace con semilla. Así como la inversión inicial es baja en términos de mano de obra, semilla y fertilizante en la mata, los riesgos son menores.Es de an~tar que aunque la cantidad de fertilizante total aplicado es la misma, la inversi6n es más segura, ya que s610 se fertiliza el área intermedia cuando el establecimiento esta asegurado.Comparado el sistema de siembras ralas con métodos tradicionales, eStaría en desventaja por el tiempo transcurrido hasta el establecimiento. Sin embargo, su diferencia no es muy acentuada, especialmente en el caso de especies agresivas como son B. humidico1a B. radicans;y de ~. gayanus donde la excesiva producci6n de semilla en el verano permite un rápido desarrollo una vez entran las lluvias..En Carimagua se adelantan trabajos que permiten el establecimiento mediante poblaciones ralas de leguminosas y/o gramíneas, con otros métodos de control de sabana como el control químico, la quema, el uso de varios implementos agrícolas de labranza mínima para reducir costos aún más y darle la posibilídad al pequeño agricultor, de aumentar su capacidad de establecer pastos en términos de tiempo e inversión requerida. También se estudia la posibilidad de densidades menores para~. gayanus y de otros patrones de distribución de las plantas madres para mayor eficiencia. Parece conveniente sembrar por hileras de aproximadamente seisrnetros entre sí, cru:ando la dirección del viento de verano y con una dosis de semilla para asegurar una planta cada 1-2 metros en la hilera.Algunas especies son suficientemente agresivas para in\\~dir sobre sabana nativa fertilizada después de ser establecidas en una franja angosta de , -.. suelo removido en que hay control de la vegetación nativa. B. humidicoia, D. ovalifolium y P. phaseoloides son las más agresivas de las especies consido~das como promisorias en la zona de Carimagua.Es importante advertir que los métodos discutidos son nuevos y la experiencia muy linútada. La literatura acerca de este tipo de siembras es nula aunque sistemas algo similares existen y se usan, por ejemplo, en el Cerrado de Brasil en donde dcspu!s de dos 6 tres ciclos de cultivos anuales para pasar a pastos,e! ganadero siembra hileras de ~. maxin~ distantes entre sí, dCjl\\';l1diendo dé una producción abundante de semilla para poblar el area.~CIAS CIAT. 1978. Infanne Anual de 1977. ppA-67-68. CIAT. 1979. Informe Anual de 1978. pp Bl0Z-l04. lCA- CIAT. 1979. Informe Anual de Carimagua 1978. pp 47-48. Sl'tUN, J. fl. 1979. Establecimiento)' manejo de pastos en los Llanos Orientales de  En: Producción de Pastos en suelos Acidos de los Tropicas, Eds. L.E. Tergas, P. A. Sanchel'., CIAT, Cali, Colombia.  -Efecto de P y K en la longitud de estolones después de 90 días do sembrado por material vej:!ctativo de tres especies de granúneas. In promedio' de longitud (en cm) de los cuatro estolones más largos/mata, en el mejor trat:uniento, se muestra en paréntesis. carÍll1llgua 1977.  -Efecto de P y K en el número de estolones de más de 1y Z metros de largo después de 90 días de sembrado por material vogetativo de tres especies de gramíneas.  La cantidad y cal idad nutritiva de un forraje son factores que interactfian y que influyen significativamente en 1~ prod~cción de ganado de carne bajo condiciones de pastoreo, Si la cantidad de forraje disponible no es limitante y no se presentan problemas de aprehensi6n entonces las ganan¿ias de peso estarán en ~ran parte.determinadas por el consumo voluntario de materia seca digerible, sin6nimo de calidad nutritiva (El1iot !! al 1961, Holmes et ~Se desprende de lo anterior qu~ la baja producción por animal observada, por ejemplo, en los Llanos de Colombia con pastos na turales bien manejados y aún con gramíneas mejoradas y adaptadas (Paladines y Leal, 1979) se puede deber principalmente a un consumo bajo de nutrientes digeribles.Si aceptamos que el bajo consumo de forrajes es un factor 1imitante en la producción de ganado en los trópicos, entonces, pare ,pensar en soluciones es necesario conocer como atributos del forraje, y del animal interactúan con los mecanimos digestivos de regulación de consumo, en los rumiantes •. Se tratará entonces en este trabajo de discutir en forma general algunos conceptos sobre regula ción de consumo de ~orrajes y las implicaciones a que ellos conlle van. efectos que puede tener en consumo de forrajes la temperatura a,',-bienta1. la, salud animal, la raza, la morfología y \"gustosidad\" r~ lativa de las plantas, deficiencias nutricionales. etc., únicame~ Se pensó entonces que la producción constante de heces .reflejaba una capacidad limitada de procesamiento en el tracto digestivo de materia seca no digerida. Se observó además'(figura 1) que con au-• mentos en digestibilidad de la raéión se obtenían aumentos en consumo hasta el punto en que la digestibilidad de la materia orgánica fuese de 65%. Por encima de este punto aumentos en digestibIlidad no resultaron en aumentos de consumo voluntario en vacas con producción de 13 Kg de leche. En base a este estudio se generalizó' la idea de que la regulación de consumo de la mayoría de los forrajes con digestibi1idades de la materia'orgánica hasta de un 65% era de naturaleza física, es decir la consecuencia de una capaéidad limitada de procesamiento del tracto digestivo. En contraste, el consumo de alimentos con digestibilidades mayores de 65% estába regulado por el requerimiento energético del animal, es decir un control metabólico.La cuantificación de consumo voluntario en base a los resultados ge Conrad et al (1964) se hace posible con la siguiente relación:. ..94 Kg Heces MOlIDO Kg PV/dla 100 -digestibilidad HO (S)Con esta relación es fácil ver que la única forma de varia'r consumo es cambiando los valores de la digestibilidad del forraje.Los cambios en digestibilidad asociados con madurez de los pastos están bien documentados en la literatura. A manera de ejemplo se citan en los resultado~ obtenidos por Raid f! il ( 1973 } los cuales ilustran cambios en digestibilidad cen madurez de algunas gramlneas y leguminosas. Es interesante indicar que los. 'cambicis ~n digestibilidad asociados con madurez son mis drásticos• en las. gramíneas estudiadas que en las leguminosas. Además es conocido que existen diferencias en digestibilidad entre géneros de gramfneas o leguminosas cuando se comparan a una misma madurez, los cambios'en con~enldo de nutrientes con madurez no 5610 se reflejan en la energfa (digestibilidad de MS) sino también en el. contenido de proteina tal como lo indican trabajos de ~Ilford yMinson (1966) para algunas gramfneas y uha leguminosa. Estos estudios y otros similares han permitido establecer que en general los forrajes tropicales tienen 9igestibilidades relativamente bajas aOn en estado Inmaduro. Vale la pena mencionar que los. ca m-. bias de digestibilidad por unidad de tiem~o son mayores en pastos templados que tropicales debido a que tienen una digestibilidad inicial más alta.Es Importante ahora analizar el efecto que podrían tener los cambios en digestibilidad en el consumo de materia seca y ganancia de peso. Para tal efecto se ha uti1izado la relación consumo-digestibilidad de Conrad para predecir consumo de un animal de 3'OOKg de peso vivo y las tablas del NRC (1976) para predecir ganrncia de peso bajo condiciones hipotéticas' (Cuadro 1). En el mejor de los casos,(dig 60%) el consumo de materia seca calculada ,'permitiría ganancias de peso del orden 700-800 g/dla que probablemente están por debajO del potencial genético de un animal de 300 Kg • Digestibilidades de 40-45% probablemente resulten en cons~mo men~res de los calculados y por 10 tanto mayor pérdida de peso, ya que bajo estas condiciones el forraje (gramínea) probablemente será deficiente en proteina 10 cual se sabe tiene un efecto depresivo en digestibilidad y consumo'vo1untario. los efectos de cambio~ en digestibilidad en consumo de materia seca han sido ve-rificadQs baja condiciones de pastoreo por Lascano (1979). En estos estudios (Cuadro 2) los cambios en partes seleccionables para el animal obtenidos a través de una secuencia de pastoreadorcs A!B y C, resultoron en producción de heces relativamente constante (1.2 Kg'MS/100 Kg PV/día) pero endigestibilióades ~ VIVO diferente. Esto quiso decir que el factor que determinó consumo en este estudio fué digestibilidad del material consumido.No hay duda que la relación consumo-digestibilidad de Conrad ~irve para ilustrar y explicar en parte el problema de consumo asociado con gramfneas tropicales en general. las implicaciones de l~ relación se podrán reflejar a manera de ejemplo. en todos aquellos sistemas de pastoreo que utilizan una presión que permita maximizar ganancia de peso/animal al dar la oportunidad de selección de partes de la pl~nta más digestibles. Esto desde luego se basa en la gran habilidid de selección que tiene un animal en pastoreo tal como 10 demuestra el estudio de Engdahl (1976) en el Cuadro 3. los datos de este trabajo muestran, por ejemplo, cómo animales pastoreando Cyoodon dactylon en estado seco con un 66% de tallo en el material disponible fueran capaces de seleccionar una dieta con s610 18r, de este componente. Así mismo los animales en este estudio seleccionaron partes más digestibles de la planta en este caso hojas y, tanto en el pasto.seco como en cre-~imjento.Si la relación consumo-digestibilidad se mantuviera constan te. para animales de diferentes condiciones fisiológicas y para difcrehtcs especies de forraje entonces podrfa ser de granutilidad para evaluar valor nutritivo (consumo polencial de nutrientes • digeribles) .de nuevo germoplasma en programas de selección sobre . , todo teniendo en cuenta la alta correlación que se ha encontrado entr~ digestibilidad ~ VITRO e ~ VIVO. Desafortunadamente esta relacl6ri estl lejos de ser perfecta ya que se sabe existen otros factores relacionados con la condición fisiológica o productiva del animal y con la condición dinámica del proceso digestivo que pueden actuar independientemente de la digestibilidad para regular consumo de forrajes.En la figura 2 se presenta.un resúmen de trabajos publicados en la literatura y recopilados por Ell,s (1978). Se observa que a una misma digestibilidad el consumo corregido por peso vivo es mayor en vacas lactantes que en toros adultos y en animales de menor peso en comparación con animales más pesados. Estas variacio nes de consumo en relación a digestibilidad debido a estado productivo del animal podrían ser debidas a diférencias en potencial de crecimiento, en requerimientos y/o capacidad del retículo-rumen para alojar residuos de forraje. Factores como preñéz (For- bes. 1969)  Estos resultados llevaron a Thorton y Minson {1972) a postular y luego probar que el consumo de forrajes era inversa~ente ~ropor cional 'al tiempo de retención de la materia seca en el rumen. Este concepto fué verificado por Laredo y Minson (1973) quienes ademis encontraron que ovejas estabuladas consumfan significativamente más hoja que tallo de gramíneas debido a que tenían un tiempo de retdnci6n menor.el rumen. Este trabajo también mostró que aunque el consumo de hoja había sido mayor que el tallo la digestibilidad del tallo había sido mayor que la de hojas.Tal vez de los aspectos más interesantes de la relación 559 568 consumo-tiempo de retención en el rumeosea el de la diferencia en consumo que se ha encontrado entre algunas gramíneas y leguminosas (Thornton y Minson , 1973). En este trabajo Australiano el consumo a una misma digestibilidad fué mayor en leguminosas que-en gramíneas y.aparentemente asociado con un menor tiempo de retención en el rumen de la leguminosa.la anterior evidencia experimental sugiere que el tiempo de retención en el rumen y por 10 tanto el consumo voluntario están Influenciados por diferencias en la estructura morfológica de componentes de una misma planta (hoja y tallo) y de especies (gramíneas y leguminosas). Sinembargo, para entender mejor los factores asociados con el forraje que pueden influenciar tiempo de retención o condición del proceso digestivo en el rumen es necesario sab¿r cuiles son las fuerzas que intervienen enel proceso.Ellis (1978) llamó la atenció~ al hecho de que la medida de tiempo de retención en el rumen de los trabajos Australianos era aparente, es decir, que el recíproco no representaba una verdadera velocidad de-pasaje sino la suma de velocidad de pasaje y digestión ~omo se ilustra en el Cuadro. 4. Para separar los efectos de velocidad de pasajes y digestión del tiempo de retención en el rumen es necesario estimar en forma independiente cada componente. las mediciones de velocidad de pasaje requieren el uso de un marcador externo que se le aplique en \"dósis finica\" y que permita marcar los residuos de forrajes en el retículo~rumen. Trabajos de Huston y Ellis (J965 demostraron las ventajas de utilizar lantánidos o metales raros (LA. Ce, Yb) como marcadores en estudios de velocidad de pasaje ya que cstos permanecen tenazmente adheridos al residuo de forraje marcado y son fácilmente detectados en las heces por aBsorción atómica. tas determinaciones de velocidad de digestión se han realizado util izando sistemas Itl VITRD en lE. SITU (Troll sen y Bell, 1969).Utilizando los lantlnidos como marcadores externos se ha podido establecer que las hojas de Cynadon dactylon varo Coastal tienen una velp~idad de pasaje mis rápida que los tallos pero velocidades de digestión de fibra potencialmente digerible IN VITRD similar, t,al como se indica en el Cuadro 5 (Lascano, 1979). Estos resultados sugieren que tal vez el proceso de digestión química (acción bacterial) contribuya poco a la reducción de tamaño de partículas constituidas principalmente por fibra indigerible, proceso que se considera necesario para pasaje a través del orificio retículo-omaso de residuos de forraje tal como 10 sugieren trabajos en la literatura (Pearee y ) 'loir, 1967;Trollsen y Campbell, 1968). En este sentido Van Soest (1965) propuso la \"Teoria del Hotel\" en la cual la. célula se visualiza como el hotel siendo la pared celular el sostén del mismo. Los procesos de digestión bacterial pueden desocupar el ~nterior del hotel (contenido celular y pared celular digestible) pero dejar la estructura intacta (fibra indigerible) y por lo tanto no disminuir el espacio que ocupa dicha estructura' en el rumen. (s probable entonces que la degradación de tamaño de particulas residuales de forraje en el rumen sea consecuencia de proceas físicos como n¡asticación inicial. ruminación y acción abrasiva del rumen por intermedio de su motilidad.• Estudios diseHados para evaluar:los efectos de ciertos atri butos del forraje en relaci6n a la regulación fisica de consumo en rumiantes sugieren que tanto madurez como partes seleccionables de las plahtas pueden afectar significativamente los procesos de degradación física de partículas de forraje en el rumen (Lascano, 1979). Un resOmen de estos estudios muestran que tanto hojas como tallo de forraje inmaduro se degradaron m~s ripido que' las correspondientes partes madur¿s (Cuadro 6). Así mismo,las hojas y tallos consumidos por al1ima1es con mayor posibilidad de selección (Pasto- pueden resultar en cambios en consumo voluntario de forrajes.Más especfficamente el modelo permite ver (Cuadro a) c6mo manteniendo el volGnicn y la velocidad de digesti6n constantes, in~ crementfts en velocidad de pasaje pueden resultar e~ disminución en digestibilidad pero en aumentos en consumo tal como se ha observado experimentalmente. Aumentos en volOmen del tracto. sin cambios en las dos fuerzas dinámicas que intervienen en el pro-Ceso digestivo resultan de acuerdo al modelo en aumentos en consumo, que podría ser el caso de las vacas lactantes en comparación con vacas gestantes.Existen datos en la literatura que podrían interpretarse en base al modelo dinámico de Ellls; A manera de ejemplo, en un estudio de Minson (1971) con diferentes ecotipos de Panlcum el consumo vQluntario de los forrajes no estuvo relacionado con la digestibilidad sino con la proporción de hoja en relación a tallo en el material ofrecido y aparentemente una característica de cada ecotipo. Experimentos realizados en CIAT con Andropogon gayanus suministrado a ovejas en confinamiento el incremento en cantidad de forraje ofrecido de 50 a 100 g/p.75/día resultó en aumentos significativos en consumo pero no en digestibilidad (López 1978).Es probable que en ambos estudios la mayor cantidad de hoja material ofrecido result6 en mayor ingestión de este componente que como se ha discutido tiene un tiempo menor de retención en el rumen.Como punto de referencia es importante indicar que en la literatura se han presentad9 muchas propuestas de métodos qufmicos Se reconoce que los pastos tropicales tienen gran potencial de producción. Sinembargo, esta producción es estacional y acampanados con disminuciones en el valor nutritivo del forraje debido a proce-SOS ligados a la maduración. En buse a la evidencia que se ha pre-visad~ es aparente que disminuciones en digestibilidad por madurez tienen un efecto depresivo en el consumo voluntario de forrajes dadas las limitaciones fisicas que impone el tracto digestivo para procesar residuos no digeridos. Generalmente asociados con incrementos en madurez se pueden esperar disminuciones en la 'cantidad de hojas en el forraje disponible que como se ha dicho pueden ser consumidas en mayor cantidad que los tallos debido a su menor tiempo de , retención en el rumen. Esto hace que los efectos de madurez en con--sumo, particularmente en gramíneas, sea más drástico de lo que podría indicar un coeficiente de digestibilidad.El conocimiento de cómo ciertos atributos de gramfneas y leguminosas promlsorias para d~terminada región ínteractGan con los me-• canismos de regulación de consumo en rumiantes podría ser un paso importante en la basqueda de alternativas para la mejor utilizaci6~ del recurso forrajero para la producción de carne. Entre otras cosas podr.ía pensarse en dar cierta prioridad a la selección de especies con álta proporción de hoja en relación a tallo. y desde luego al muy justificado empeno de introducción de leguloinosas en Thorton, R.F. and D.J. Minson. 1972. The re1ationship betwecn volu~tary intake and mean apparent retention in the rumen. Aust. J Agrie. Res. 23:87. Thorton, .R.F. and D.J. Minson. 1973. The relationship beh/een apparent retention time in the rumen voluntary intake and apparent dígestibility of legume and grass dlets in slleep. Aust. J. Agrie.24:B89~ ,,'~Troe1sen, \"J.E. and J. B. Campbe11. 1968. Voluntary consumption of forages by sheep and its re1atlon to the size and shape of partiele In the digestive traet. Anim. Prod. 10:289. Troelsen, J.E. and J.M. Bell. 1969. Relationsllip between IN VI1RO digestibi1ityand finess of substrate grind as an indieatTOnof-.voluntary intakc of hay by slleep Can. J. Anim. Sei. 49:119. Van Soest, P. J. 1965. Symposum of f,etors infl~encing voluntary intake of hcrbagc by ruminants: Vo1untary intake in relation to ehemieal eomposítion and digestibility J. Anim. Sei. 24:834.     .75..75Producción        '\"'\" e e '-''\" c: >-< '\"..    . Proteín3 (f! x 6,25))Forraje Di~cstión ácida (Kjeldahl) <: \"Digestión alca.1ina----< .• ubst<tncias no protéicallDigestión lÍciúa           '---¡U1WJUtzl,jdill!!\\Vd t .« fj 1.11/ , \" ~~MleROBIOS                     Efecto de l~ loc~liz~ci6n de la hoja sobre el contenido de N en.!. rnl:<tn'l!~ (ad;tptndo de HUson. AUlle. J. ).    f..--\" --' -.. I Ton HS/ha             . 20 .11 K (% ) .89.52Ca (%).Mg (%). 20 .26 S (%).17.09Proteína (X) 16.4 10.2 DIVt~S (X) 51.6 45.4 ~I Promedi o de dos muestreos rea 1 i zades 3 y 5 meses des¡Jués de iniciado el pastoreo (Feb¡-ero, 1980) P./ Catequinas equivalentes -.          .       dc.c.wlIbeM,B. hWll.úUc.o.i'a y V. ovat.i.6oLwm 350 ofrecido a ovinos en jau1a en prueba de consumo y digestibilidad (Quil ichao).Hoja Tallo de.ewnbcM B. hwn.i.<Ü.c.oe.a V. ovaH~oUwll 350    Existen varios factores relacionados con atributos del forraje y el animal que pueden influenciar tanto digestibilidad como consumo voluntario (ElUS, 1978). Entre estos factores está el nivel de protefna en el forraje. que en el caso de estar por debajo de 6-7% puede limitar consumo y por 14 ende producción animal (tUlFORD y MINSON. 1965;GRJI.HAM. 1967;t-lINSON y 15 MIlFORD. 1967; SIEBERT y KENNEDY. 1972; HUNTER el al. 1976). -------------------% DIVMS--------------------- -------------% DI V~lS------------------  Cuadro 3.  Efecto de edad de rebrote al corte en el contenido de prote!~a cruda de 4 especies de ~C~d durante ~poca lluvinsa en dos localidades.Parte de Frecuencia de Corte (d1asl 105 reducci6n Estación CNIA-CarimaQua, Llanos 0rientales de Colombia. Promedio de los valores obtenirlos en\"3 pasturas bajo pastoreo continuo y 3 cargas animales.   Diferencia (%) a '\" W N .., ¡:¡ .  Mediciones realizadas con 9 animales en el mes de a90sto, 1981 en tres potreros con 2.4, 3.4 Y 4.4 anjha b rl\"!diciones rcalizadils con 8 animales en el mes de julio, 1981 en dos potreros con 3.5 (ln/h:! 1 2 CONCLUSIONES Se ha podido definir que bajo condiciones de la altillanura de Colom-3 bia. represent~da por Carimagua uno de los factores que limitan la calidad 4 forrajera de 8.h~~ota sin fertilización nitrogenada es una deficiencia 5 marcada de proteína en la materia seca. Esta deficiencia de nitrógeno cau-6 sa una significativa reducción en consumo y no así de digestibilidad, lo 1 cual se refleja en bajas ganancias de peso. En caso de no existir una de-S ficiencia de proteína la digestibilidad y consumo de B.humidicola. está 9 dentro de los niveles encontrados con otras gramíneas tropicales.   La cantidad y calidad nutritiva de un forraje son factores que interactQan y que influyen significativamente en la producti6n animal bajo condiciones de pastoreo. Si la cantidad de forraje disponible q.2.~ es Umi tan te y Dl) •. .!itLpresentan problemas ce cosecha del forraje por parte del animal, entonces las ganancias de peso .. 'estarán en gran parte determinados por el consumo voluntario de materia seca digerible, sinónimo de calidad nutritiva (Elllot e..t al. 1961).Si se acepta que la calidad de un forraje en gran parte determina nivel de producción animal y que los componentes básicos de calidad son digestibilidad y consumo, entonces es necesario tener algan estimado de estos ~aráme~ros en el pro~cso de evaluaci6n de especies forrajeras.El obtener medidas indirectas de calidad de un forraje ha si,do un gran l'eto para nutricionistas.\" :¡'Iucho se ha~ avanzado en la estimaci6n de digestibilidad por m€t~dos r5pidos. Uno de estos métodos és el de Uir,estibilidad 1.;t \"V'1..tllO, que de, acuerdo a gran n(lIqero de trabajos predice digestibilidad 1.n v.(,vo con nito gnfdo de precisi6n (Clark y ~lott, 1960; Tilley y Terry, 1963). Por otrolado variaciones en consumo de una serie de forrajes tropicales no han sido explicados satisfactoriam~~te p6r difer~ncias en composidoSn química (Van Soest,19(5). tasa de éligestioSn .in vallo (mnson, 1971)  (1978) como una indicación de que la ,relación digestibilidad consumo varían con atributos del fO,rraje y del animal. Tanto Ellis (1978) como Minson (1982) indican que el consumo de forrajes tropicales está regulado por: a) volumen del retículo-rumen, b) espacio ocupado en ese volumen por partículas.del forraje en proceso de deBrad~ci6n y c) por t~sa de reducci6n y remoci6n de esas partículas del tracto digestivo. Adem&s Minson (ll82) y Weston (1982) indican que el consumo p\\lede es tal' infl uenciado por deficienci~s de minerales en el' forraje y por condici6n fisiol6gica del anim?l, respectivamente. A todo 10 anterior hay que agregar el efecto que tiene en consumo de un forraje la estructura del pastizal y 10 cual ha sido ampll31ncnte discutido por Hodgson (1982).En base a•los m61tiples factores que afect,n consumo bajo • pastoreo no es de extraftarse que su predicción poi simples mltodos de laboratorio sea inconsistente. Ante esta realidad ~uchos investigadores han optado por medir el consumo de forrajes cOI) animales es tabulados, utili.zando principalmente carneros (Ninson, 1971;Zemme link, 1980). Desafortunadamente, la extra-polaci6n.de estos resultados al bovino en pastoreo no es del todo Ilosible', principalmente debido a diferencias en oportunidad , , de selección en condiciones de confinamiento V.ó 'pastoreo y a diferencias en h5bitos de selecci6n en¡re carn?ros y bo~inos (llogdson, 1982). Un buen ejemplo tic diferencias entre especies animales es el alto consumo de V.o~all,Dllum 35Q por carneros eti jauJ a y su bajo consumo' por bovInos en pas tOl'eo (CIAT, 1980).No quiere decir todo lo allterior que la.evaluaci6n de forrajes con carneros en jaub no tenga cabida en la investigaci6n con forrajes, pues sería desconocer toda la evidencia qU? se ha' podido obtener con esta técnica en relación a algunos factores que afectan consumo en rumiantes (Minson, 1982). Dada la importancia de consumo como medida de calidad de un forraje para bovinos y las dificultades asociadas con su predicci6n por métodos de labo,ratorio o con cárneros estabulados, se plantea la necesidad de realizar mediciones de cons~~, directamente con animales en pastoreo. Estas mediciones,serv:rlan para cuantificar variaciones en calidad de plantas fo~r¡ jeras en pasturas de sufici~nte magnitud que se reflejen eh respuestas en producción animal.Se preteRde en este trabajo revisar y discutir: 1) Técn~:as indirectas uti1:l.zadas para la medidón de consumo bajo pasto::-eo, 2) vHriabHidad animal en consumo, 3) algunos resultados de . , consumo bajo pastoreo en el Programa de Pastos Tropicales de: CIAT, 4) medición de consumo dentro del contexto de evaluacié~ . \"de germoplaspm en pasturas en el Programa de Pastos Tropicales del CL\"\" Técnjcas illdil:cctas para medir consumo en pastoreo Existen varios trabajos en la literatura en donde se bar. revisado métodos para medir consumo bajo pastoreo utilizando técnicas indirectas y entre ellas se recomienda las d¿ Tbeuror (1!170) y Córdova el \"o. ! (1978).El método usual para estimar consumo de forraje bajo pastoreó ha consistido en medir producci6n de heces y digestibilidad del forraje (Reid;1952), aplicando la f6rmula:Ln produ'cción de heces ha sido as timada .en~l¡:¡ l!!3)'oría de cst\\ldios de consumo mcdiallte la administraci6n 2 veces/dra de un marcador externo como el 6x~do _de \"cromio (Cr 2 03) en cápsu}::s (Rarmond y ~linson,. 1955) o con p¡¡pel óxido de cromio que minimila la variaci6n dillrna de excreci6n del \"marcador '(Corbrtt et al 1!1S0). Con este método es nccesn~io dosificar el cronia durnn te un mín imo de 14 ,días, que lnc 1 U)'C 7 dí as de aj us te y ,• 7 días de colecci6n de heces. ],a reláci6n entre dosis diari¡¡. de cromio y concentración del marcador en heces (Cr dosificado por día t concentración de Cr en heces) da un estilnado de producci6n fecal diaria.Otra alternativa para estimar producci6n de heces por métodos indirectos es la de utilizar un marcador de partículas (Iterbio de la seire de Lantanidos) dosificado una sola vez. La excreción del marcador en las heces se ajusta a un modelo bi-exponencial con dependencia de tiempo ( MaÍis. 1972) y que de acuerdo a Ellls et al (1979) permite estimar: a) concentración inicial del marcador en el tracto (el) y b) tasa de pasaje de residuos no digeridos (kp). La relaci6n entre dosis del marcador (d) y concentración inicial del marcador (CI) (d t CI) da un estimado de cantidad de residuos no digeridos en el tracto (V), lo cual multiplicado por Kp (V•x Kp) representa excreción de heces por unidad de tiempo. La comparación de este método con el de dosis continua de marcador ha dado resultados compa-Para estimar digestibilidad que es el otro componente de la f6rmula para estimar consumo, existen va~ios m&todos en la literatura. Entre ellos se destaca el m6todo de proporciones utilizando marcadores internos, tales como cromógeno (Kennedy et: al 1959) y lienina (Wallace y Van Dyne, 197.0). Problemas de recuperación en las heces de estos marcadores han limitado su uso. Otros Marcadores internos como la fibra neutral indigerible han dado mejores resultados en cuanto a su. recuperación en las heces (Jacobs, 1975). Otro procedimiento para estimar digestibilidad es el' del uso de indices fecales ~obre todo N (V¡1ll Dyne y ~lcyer, 1964;Langlands, 1969). Con este método se estima en unu prueba• de consumo en e'stabulación relaciones cnlre digestihilidad y concentración del índicé fecal para establecer regTesiones. Posteriormente, se mide la'concentra-c16n 'del índice en heces de anim•al.es en pastoreo y se calcula con la regresi6n respectiva la digestihilidad. Las ~uDntes de error en la t6cnica de illdicDS fecales han sido discutidas pnr Arnold y Dudzinski (1963) yen. gcneroliu aplicación parece 1 ¡lid tada n cnsos donde existen diferencias muy grandes en digestibilidad. Por último, un m6to?o ?astante'utili~ado para medir di¡:Íestibilidad en pruebas d~ pastoreo' es el de ,utilizar muestras de forraje seleccionado por fistuladoi del es6fago y someterlo a una prueba de digestibilidad ~n vit~o incluyendo , A en cada corrida un forraje de digestibilidad in vivo conocidÓ.En el Programa de Pastos del CIAT para estimar consumo bajo pastoreo se viene ut~lizando papel 6x~do'de cromio e Iterbio para estimar producci6n fecal y fibra neutral ipdigerible (FNJ) en heces y forraje seleccionado para estimar digestibilidad ( 1 • , FNI forraje selecci~nado)\\ FNI heces Variahilidad animal en consumo Uno de los factores que afectan la precisi6n en las mediciones de consumo es la alta variabilidad entre animales ('Van Dyne y ~Ieyer, 1964). Como consecuencia de esta variabilidad en consumo es n:Jccsario utilizar un relativo alto número de animales para detectar diferencias significativas entre trafamientos.En'su revisión de literatura C6rdova et at (1978) indica que los coeficientes de variación asociados con consumo en . Dado que el consumo en pastoreo puede estimarse de la proporci6n de peso de heces/indigestibi1idad, variaciones en cO,nsumo pueden resultar de dif~rencias en composición de dieta y tasa de excreción de heces. En períodos cortos la composición de la dieta es bastante uniforme y se ~a calculado que para estimar digbstibilidad dentro del ~O\\ de la media y una probabilidad de 95,\\ se re'quieren entre \" y 3 animales dependiendo de , la disponibilidad de forraje. Por otrb lado, para estimar producción de heces con la misma'p.recisión se'requieren entre Resultados de medj c i 6nde cO'nsumo en' \"el PPT-CIAT , .En trabajos cO'labO'rativO's con la Secci6n de Productivi¿ad y Manejo de Praderas, la Secci6n de Calidad de Past~ras y Nutrici6n ha venido realizando mediciones de conSU;:lO en diferentes pasturas en QuilichaO' y Carimagua. El objetivO' inicia! de estos trabajos ha sido 1) estandarizar una metodología y 2) tratar de explicar algunos resultados de ganancia de pese obtenidos en pasturas en Carimagua.,Con el fin de ilustrar el tipo de informaci6n 'que se pt;;;de generar mediante la medici6nde consumo en pastoreo se citar. resultados obtenidos con B.hum-i.d.i.t  Con la medición de consumo bajo pastoreo se ha podido definí r que en ,las condiciones de Carimagua uno de' los factores que limitan la calidad de 8.hum~d~eota sin ap1icaci6n de nitrógeno es una deficiencia marcada de proteína, 10 cual a su vez afecta negativamente el consumo y por ende ganancia de peso. de los 'animales.Evaluaci6n de calidad de germoplasma en pasturas en el PPT-CIAT En la parte introductoria de este trabajo se hab16 de la importancia del consumo como medida de calidad de un forraje y de las dificultades actuales de predecir consumo en base a medidas de laboratorio o de extrapolar datos de consumo obtenidos con carneros en jaula al animal en pastoreo, Se indic6 por 10 tanto, la necesidad. de realizar medicione~ de consumo bajo pastoreo. Sin embargo, para que estas mediciones sean de utilidad deberán expl~car ganancias de peso dentro del contexto de factores de manejo (especie, fertilizaci6n, sistema de pastoreo, carga animal y ipoca del afto) y ~l efecto de estas en atributos del forraje en oferta (cantidad y calidad) y del forraje consumido (valor nutritivo y cantidad).En base a 10 anterior y utilizando un enfoque multidisciplinario se propone que se incluya medidas de consumo como parte de la evaluación de germoplasma ensamblo¿o en pasturas. La informaci6n que se pueda derivar con estas Medicionés, servirá para entender un poco mejor la intcracci6nsuelo x planta x ,lOimal y muy importante pe-rmitirá la construcci6n de m.odelos mater.láticos para predecir producci6n animal en funci6n de factores de manejo. \" Cali, Colombia.,\".'Las, especies de pastos tropicales, especialmente las gramíneas tienen upa gran capacidad de aprovechar la energía radiante. el anhídrido carb6nico del aire, el agua y los nutrimentol' del suelo para producci6n de grandes cantidades de materia seca que podrían utilizarse para producci6n bovina como parte de alimento de alto valor biológico al hombre. No obstante, Whyte 09(2) sef\\al6 que en términos de producción animal este potencial era mayormente un mito y que por largo tiempo la mayor contribuci6n en términos de productos pecuarios procedería de zonas templadas.A pesar de que se han logrado progresos en la investigación en pastos tropicales, especialmente en el uso de leguminosas (Hutton, 1970) y que resultados experimentales demuestran un gran potencial para aumentar la productividad animal en el trópico (Cuadro 1 ;Stobbs, 1974), la producci6n de Carne de estas r('giones sigue siendo baja. considerando que cuenta con la mayor proporción de la población ganadera en el mundo (Jasiorowski. 1973). La principal razón es que aún cuando los factores ambientales como falta de humedad y temperatura no son limitantes y la fertilidad de suelo sea adecuada y se produzcan grandes cantidades de materia seca de valor nutritivo adecuado. la utilización del forraje por el animal no llega siquiera al 50% y varia con especies gramíneas (Cuadro 2; Vicente-Chandler et al, 1960). o con asociaciones de' gramineas y leguminosas (Okorie et al, 1965;Olubajo y Oyenuga, 1971) .El objetivo de este trabajo es discutir algunos conceptos básicos que están relacionados con la utilización de praderas tropicales desde el punto de vista del manejo del pastoreo. El énfasis está en asociaciones '. \" de gram[neas y leguminosas considerando la importancia que tienen estas últimas para mejorar la productividad animal en América tropical.<La utilización de pasto es la eficiencia con que la producción de materia seca de la pradera es usada para producción animal (Noy-'Meir, 1978). Dentro de este contexto se reconoce la necesidad de evaluar el verdadero valor de una pastura en relación a su transferencia a producci6n animal como una medida indirecta de la utilización del forraje.El consumo de forraje o utilización y la producción animal están relacionados, con la cantidad de pasto presente. Si los demás factores que están relacionados con consumo de forrajes en pastoreo (Figura 1, Johnson, 1970) permanecieran más o menos constantes, la producci6n animal por unidad de área deberla estar directamente relacionada con disponibilidad del pasto. Esta relación se podr!a describir de acuerdo a una curva asintótica (Figura 2; Paladines. 1972), en la cual el consumo de materia seca aumentarla en relación a la disponibilidad del pasto hasta un punto de cambio sobre el cual una mayor disponibilidad no produce aumento en la productivididad. Sin embargo, existe una fuerte interacción entre la pradera y el animal en pastoreo, de modo que esta re'ación no es del todo simple (Stobbs, 1975). Además los factores de manejo de la pradera tienen una gran influencia en determinar su utilizació,n ( Mannetje. 1972).\"El principal objetivo del manejo de la pradera es asegurar una productividad animal a largo plazo, manteniendo la estabilidad de la pradera, principa.lmente de leguminosas que se considera el componente más valioso e inestable del sistema. Entre los factores de manejo de praderas que tienen mayor influencia en utilización se consideran:, carga animal, sistema de pastoreo, la duración del periodo de descanso y de ocupación en la rotación y prácticas de conservación de forraje.La carga animal es el factor más importante que influye en la utilización de pastos, estableciendo una fuerte interacción entre la disponibilidad de forraje resultado del crecimiento de las plantas y la defoliación y consumo de forraje de los animales. La persistencia de las especies en la pradera especialmente leguminosas es afectada fuertemente por la carga animal y varía de acuerdo con las características ~ morfológicas y fisiológicas de las plantas.Varios investigadores han establecido relaciones entre carga animal y productividad de las praderas representadas por diferentes tipos de curvas que parecen diferir de acuerdo al tipo de pradera y ecosistema donde han sido evaluadas.Mott (l9óO) propuso una relación en la cual la ganancia por animal es máxima con carga baja y se mantiene asi a medida que la carga aumenta gradualmente, hasta un punto en que comienza a disminuir rápidamente con aumentos sucesivos de carga (Figura 3  podrlan tener una gran influencia en reducir las tasas de utilización del pasto y estarlan relacionadas con el manejo del pastoreo especialmente la carga animal.La carga animal tiene un efecto muy marcado sobre la persistencia de las leguminosas en asociaciones con gramlneas tropicales (Figura 9 ;Jones 1974;Figura lO, Walker, 1975). Este efecto varía de acuel;\"do con las características de las especies ( Robcrts. 1979) de modo que las leguminosas rastreras son más tolerantes a cargas altas que las leguminosas volubles y arbustivas. 8isset y Marlowe (1974) encontraron una relación entre la carga animal, las ganancias por animal y el número de coronas de plantas de Siratro por hecfárea que fue diferente en dos sitios de evaluación en Queensland durante el quinto año de evaluación con 3 cargas (Figura 11). Cuando el número aproximado de coronas de plantas de siratro en un sitio se mantuvo alrededor de 100,OOO/ha la productividad animal no varió significativamente en relación a un aumento en la carga animal y fue mayor que en los primeros años de pastoreo.Sin embargo, en otro sitio, al disminuir el número de coronas de 39,000 a 12,OOO/ha, por efecto de un aumento en la carga animal, la• productividad animal disminuyó significativamente. La explicación de estas diferencias fue atribuida a una mejor adaptación y establecimiento de la leguminosa en un sitio que resultó en un desarrollo más vigorosos de estolones y coronas secundarias que en el otro.Has.ta el momento en Carimagua no se tiene información acerca de la relación entre carga, productividad animal 'y persistencia con asociaciones de gramlneas y leguminosas. En ciertas condiciones donde la producción de forraje de gramlneas ha disminuido por selectividad animal en aSQciaciones co., leguminosas menos palatables, tales como Pueraria phaseoloides y Desmodium ovalifolium, la productividad animal se ha visto ..afectada en forma diferente sobre todo durante la estación lluviosa.Estas relaciones están siendo estudiadas en el presente con !::. OoValifolium debido a su gran diferencia en palatabilidad relativa a las gramíneas que mejor se adaptan al ecosistema en la altillanura plana de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, y se considera hacer lo mismo con ~ capitata asociado con A. gayanus en vista de la competencia que establece la gramlnea por nutrientes en el suelo, lo cual afecta la persistencia de la leguminosa.La mayorla de los trabajos de investigación en utilización de praderas asociadas de gramíneas y leguminosas se han realizado en condiciones de pastoreo continuo y se considera que las ventajas del pastoreo rotacional se presentan únicamente con cargas altas. Grof y Harding (1970) encontraron una mayor productividad animal en un sistema de pastoreo alterno con dos potreros con cargas altas en le maximum asociado con C. pubescen::; en el trópico húmedo Australia.mientras que Stobbs (1969) no encontró diferencias significativa,s entre pastoreo continuo y pastoreo rotacional con 3 y 6 potreros, respectivamente. con cargas altas en una sociación de !::. maximum y Siratro en una región con un período SeCO muy definido. Riewc (1976) serlaló que en los estudios en que se comparan sistemas de pastoreo continuo y rotacional en asociaciones de gramíneas y leguminosas templadas. llsandú diferentes cargas. invaria.blemente se presenta una interacción, de tal modo que cargas bajas favorece el pastoreo continuo mientras que cargas altas favorecen pastoreo rotacional (Figura 12).Si bien es cierto que no ha habido trabajos que muestren ventajasdel sistema de pastoreo ro!~cional sobre el pastoreo continuo en praderas asociadas de gramíneas y leguminosas, se considera que es posible que a largo plazo sea necesario algún sistema de pastoreo intermitente para favorecer la persistencia de las especies leguminosas (Stobbs. 19(9). Jones (1979) encontró que una disminución en los rendimientos de Siratro como consecuencia de un aumento en carga animal fue menos marcado en una frecuencia de pastoreo de nueve comparado con 3 semanas al mismo tiempo que la invasión de malezas fue menor, pero esto fue asociado principalmente con cargas altas. Es evidente la necesidad de realh:ar trabajos de investigación a largo plazo sobre todo con especies leguminosas agresivas cuya palatabilidad relativa a las gramineas acompañantes pudiera estar afectada por la distribución de las lluvias sobre todo en ecosistemas de trópico húmedo. Evans (1982) considera que el beneficio del pastoreo rotacional podda estar más relacionado con una técnica para controlar la composición botánica en vez de una forma de aumentar el valor nutritivo del forraje y la productividad animal. Sin embargo, en condiciones ambientales donde se presente una gran variación estacional en el consumo de leguminosas (CIAT, 1981) o con especies de baja palatabilidad relativa a las gramfneas acompañantes en la asociación, la productividad animal podrla estar limitada por la dominancia de las leguminosas en la asociación. Este fue aparentemente el caso de ~ ovalifolium en Carimagua en asociación con gramíneas de buena palatabilidad relativa como Brachiaria decumbcns y Andropogon gayanus en las cuales la productividad animal di5mjn~yó significativamente cuando la leguminosa se volvió dominante en pastoreo continuo (CIAT,1979).,\"Períodos de Descanso La duración del período de descanso está directamente relacionado con el sistema de pastoreo rotacional. Existe una interacción entre la defoliación del pasto para los animales, el área foliar después del pastoreo y el periodo de descanso de la pradera entre pastoreo q~e determina la producción del pasto (Campbell, 1967). De acuerdo con esto. la velocidad de l\"ebl\"ote dc la pl\"adera depende índice del ftrea foliar (lAF) del pasto después del pastoreo y se define como la superficie de ¡as hojas activas presentes por unidad de superficie del suelo. Paladines (1972) explica quc de acuerdo con este concepto I~ mejor utilización de la pradera se producida cuando la defoliación se realice en condiciones en que el lAF haya pasado apenas el punto óptimo y no exceda el punto mínimo que afecte la síntesis de carbohidratos del pasto residual. Sin embargo, ese punto óptimo no es fácil de determinar desde el punto de vista práctico y estaría relacinn,do con las características de las especies en cuanto a acumulación de reservas de carbohidratos en las raíces, formas y puntos de crecimientos activos. balance entre la capacidad fotosintética y transpiración etc las cuales son muy relevantes al tipo de manejo apropiado para una mejor persistencia. La aplicación de este concepto al mancj\" de praderas significaría periodos cortos de pastoreo y largos de descanso. pero en condicionl?s tropicales tendría que ser modificado de acuerdo con las características de las especies. y el regimen y distribución dfO lluvias ya que normalmente períodos largos de des<:anso producen una disminución en la calidad del forraje que podda afectar la productividad animal.Las, prácticas de conservaci6n del forraje forman parte integral del manejo de praderas en regiones templadas para aumentar la utilización del pasto pero debido a la baja calidad' del forraje conservado (Miller et al 1963) Y por lo poco práctico y económico de estas prácticas (Catchpoole y Henzell. 1971). su uso es muy limitado en el trópico (Tergas, 1(79).Se considera en general que el germoplasma seleccionado para ser utilizado como componente de praderas, además de ser caracterizado por su adaptación al ecosistema y los factores limitan tes de producci6n de pasto, debería evaluarse en relación a su capacidad de tolerar defoliaciones frecuentes con diferentes intensidades de pastoreo. Sin embargo, Blazer .!!!. En vista de que las condiciones socio-económicas de los sistemas de producción ganadera en el trApico americano casi que requieren especies de pasto tolerantes a condiciones de stress en pastoreo continuo y de manejo simple o poco manejo, la selección del germoplasma deber.la estar basado en estas características. No obstante, otras especies de gran valor forrajero podrlan considerarse para un uso alterno en condiciones específicas donde manejos más intensivos podrlan tener aplicación. Toledo, J. M. Y V. A. Moraks. 1979. Establecimiento y manejo de praderas mejoradas en la Amazonia Peruana. In (L.E. Tergas y P.   , .Cuadro 3.Ll uvi as (rrm)   720 905 Factores relacionados con consuw~ de forrajes en pastoreo. 'Johnson, 1970. PuntQ de cambio sobre el cual una mayor disponibilidad no produce aumento en la productividad.. .-, Disponibilidad de Forraje   '\".J:::---.V)x:c:: {:.    Las praderas naturales compuestas de pastb bahía o grama'lPa~patum notatum, son de muy baja productividad animal sobre todo durante las estaciones secas, alcanzando ganancias de pe so de apenas 180 g/anidia con una carga de 3.13 novillas/ba er.pastoreo continuo, lo cual aumentó a 330 g/anidia con pastare rotacional debido a'. la presencia de leguminosas nativas del l género Desmodium (Fscobar y colaboradores, 1971). En la misma regi6n pero ~n condiciones de suelos inundables en praderas establecidas con pasto parlo 8~achia~ia mutica, la productivi cad animal de novillos ccbú-9ruzados alcanz6 ~97 g/anidia con cargas de 2. S an/ha con pastoreo continuo (Hichielin y coL,bo ) en suelos bien renados y de Hemaltthllia alt'¿ll.óima CIAT 663 establecida en forma similar en un área inundable, fueron comparadas con praderas de Estrella, Cynodon nlem6uen.ói.ó, y de Braquiarl.a, Bltac.ltiaft.ia decumben6, establecidas en la Hacienda El Limonar el año anterior con igual fertilización.Se utilizaron novillos criollos-Cebú de 1-2 años con pesos promedios de 150-200 kg en pastoreo continuo con ajustes de carga estacional de época de lluvias y secas de acuerdo con la cantidad de pasto ofrecido y el comportamiento de los animales en pastoreo. Todos los a~imale~ recibieron suplementación de sales mineralizadas con f6sforo, y fueron pesados en'\"ayunas a intervalos de 30-50 días. La cantidad de pasto ofrecido y la composicil'in' botánica de l,as praderas fueron determi , nadas en forma estacional y se usaron para hacer los ajustes de cargas correspondientes.Las ganancias de peso vivo obtenidas durante el primer 1.25 ~n1ha fue muy baja l product~vidad animal del H,attió6ima fue excelente cuando se uso con cargas altas en pastoreo continuo durante la estación lluvios~ y parte de la estación seca; sin embargo, el pastoreo debió suspenderse du-20 rante la segunda estaci6n seca, debido a que este pasto no se 21 adapta muy bien a condiciones de se'1u!a ':l dejó de crecer rc-22 quiriendo un período de descanso para su recuperación.Durante el segundo año las ganancias de peso en las gra-24 míneas(Cuadro 4) fueron mayores que en el orimero, debido a -, 25 que hubo una mejor distribuci6n de las lluvj.as y no se prese!!, ZG té una estación seca tan marcada como el año anterior, demos-.:'] :.ri'lndü la importancia que til:men las lluvias en determinar la 1 productividad del animal en gramíneas aún en aquellas que se 2 adaptan a suelos ácidos de b<lja fertilidad natural. (Figura 1)3 El efecto de las leguminosas en mejorar la productividad 4 animal también se muestra en los Cuadros 3 y 4 con cargas pro-5 medio relativamente altas de alrededor de 3 ~n/ha las ganan -6 cias,de peso por animal fueron mayores que en el caso de las 7 gramíneas debido principalmente al efecto de las leguminosas 8 en mejorar la calieac del pasto durante la estación seca, \"tal 9 como se muestra en el Cuadro 5. Durante el segundo año con una:mejor distribución de lluvias los efectos no fueron tan marca-11 dos como en el primero.La carga animal fue el factor de manejo más importante en 13 determinar la productividad animal de las especies de pastos estudiadas. En el caso de A.gayanuJ se encontró una relaci6n animal 1 por hectárea entre carga animal y productividad por similar a la propuesta por ~ott, 1960, y se det,ermin6 óptima de alrededor de 3.3 an/ha, Fig. 21 ganancias de peso po:r animal en contraste con A. gayanu<I (Fig. 3)22 debido posiblemQnte a qUQ al manejar este pasto con cargas ba-23 jas, madura muy rápido y esto posiblemente afecLa su consumo, 24 tal como se ha encontrado en Carimagua en los Llanos Orientalc. 2~iEl efecto de las cargas se explica mucho mejor cuando se las gramíneas solas las ganancias de peso ~~r animal aumentaron,inicialmente a medida que se aumentó el pasto ofrecido co una tendencia a disminuir cuando la cantidad de pasto ofrecido era excesiva en relación a la demanda por par'te de los ani males debido principalmente a que este estado la calidad de 1 . gramínea sola podría disminuir por efectos de madurez. En caM bio en el caso de la asociación de Á. gayanué con legu~inosas la relación fue casi linear posiblemente por el efecto de la leguminosa en mantener la calidad del forraje aún a altos niveles de oferta de pasto. Otros investigadores han encontra l do en el tr6pico relaciones similarqs con pastos mejorarlos      . .        A --4 Do 6.A.gayanuó + mezcla g/an/dfa kg/animal Efectos de la carqa animal en las Qa'1ancias de oeso diario .Y por animal en B.humlcUco!a. y A.g(tt{(tnu.~ en ~Iacienda El Limonar.Santander de Quilichao.1979Quilichao. -1980. . ,.,'\" .r; . .', : .. . ;\" ..  Las evaluaciones agronómicas son 3 moplasma de plantas forrajeras que se importantes para seleccionar el oer .adapten a las condiciones ecológicas 4 del área donde son introducidas, así como para caracterizar la producción 5 de materia seca en condiciones de defoliaciones frecuentes. Al mismo ti~ 6 po, las evaluaciones de calidad del forraje pueden ser muy útiles para 7 identificar materiales con limitaciones de valor nutritivo. o'para seleca cionar aquellos que sobresalgan de acuerdo con este tipo de caracteriza -9 ción. Sin embargo, la evaluación final de germoplasma deberla ser a través 10 de pruebas de ganancias de peso para medir la utilización del pasto por el 11 animal y para determinar el manejo apropiado para lograr su persistencia 12 en condiciones de pastoreo que resulten en praderas productivas y estables 13 A pesar de que BltaefúaJúa humúJ.i.eota. es una especie de gramínea pro-14 misoria que ha entusiasmado a muchos investigadores y productores sobre 15 todo en las regiones de suelos ácidos e inférti1es, tanto en las sabanas corno en regiones de bosque, existe muy poca información acerca de su pro-1? ductividad animal. El objetivo de este trabajo es mostrar las liMitaciQnes de B. humúUc.ofA. en cultivo puro en cuanto a ~anancias de peso animal en 19 condiciones de sabanas bien drenadas en la altillanura de los 'Llanos Orien tales de Colombia (Salinas y Gualdron, 1982).En un experimento que ,se estableció en Carimagua. llanos Orientales de Colombia en 1978 con Pruuewn tmWnullI. AttdltopogOtt gayllnuh. BIt\"c.fúaJúa de.C.Ulllbe.,u., y BltaehúvUa hWllÜUC.Ota. con una fertilización similar de 50 k9 25 P20S' 50 kg KZO. lB k9 r~gO y 22 kg S. por bectárea, respectivamente, excep• 1 promedio de 150 kg en pastoreo continuo con cargas variables de 1 y 2 no-2 villos por hectárea para las estaciones seca y lluviosa, respectivamente.3 Los promedios de ganancias de peso diario (Cuadro 1) muestran que el com-4 portamiento animal en B.hurnidieota fue ihferior al de las demás gramineas, 5 sobre todo durante la estación lluviosa. La cantidad de materia seca de 6 hoja y tallo disponible en B.hurnidieola durante la estación lluviosa de 1979 (Cuadro 2) fue más alto que el de las otras gramíneas, lo cual no explica el comportamiento tan pobre de los novillos en pastoreo durante la mejor época de crecimiento del pasto; así mismo, la baja producción animal en esta gramínea es inconsistente con los valores de digestibilidad encon-11 trados en comparación con las otras especies. En vista de que en praderas , recién formadas en Carimagua no se anticipa una deficiencia de proteína cruda que pudiera limitar el consumo de materia seca durante la estación lluviosa se consideró que el hecho de que B.hwnidicola cuando se pastorea con cargas bajas tiende a madurar muy rápidamente afectando posiblemente 16 el consumo, pudiera explicar los resultados presentados en el Cuadro  promedios de peso diario de novillos en pastoreo continuo en diferentes oramíneas en Carimagua. Promedio de 2 años (1979-1980)   ~------------------------------------~ .. .s::.---.     22 Brasil, (SALIMOS et al, 1980) alcanzaron una productividad promedio de 328 23 g/an/día con cargas fijas de 1 a 2.0 novillos por hectárea en pastoreo 24 continuo, mientras que en Quilichao, Colombia, con un regimen de lluvias 25 bimodal, TERGAS ct at, 1982b reportaron ganancias de peso diario promedios 26 de 516 g/an/día con carga de 2 :45 an/ha durante el primer año de pastoreo, 27 lo cual'fue similar a lo obtenido con otras gramíneas com B,de.cwnbe'l. del orden de 450 g/an/dfa con cargas de 6.2-7.4 an/ha durante el primer año, lo cual se redujo a apenas 150 g/anidia durante el segundo,' a' pesar de una fertilización con 250 kg N/ha en dos aplicaciones en el año j pastoreo rotacional de 4 y 24 días de ocupación y descanso, respectivamente.Los resultados de pruebas de pastoreo en la altillanura plana de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia muestran que la productividad aniral de B.   La introducción de pastos forrajeros mejorados y la adición de una o varias leguminosas para suministrar el nitrógeno (proteína) tan necesario, son los medios más eficaces para producir mayor cantidad de carne y leche por unidad de superficie a un costo más bajo. El requisito principal para lograr una mayor utilización de las praderas cultivadas, es mejorar el sistema de introducción de p1antas•forrajeras y reducir el períOdO de tiempo necesario en los ensayos de selección en parcelas pequeñas .. La investigación sobre pastos en el CIAT ha estado dirigida en la última década a identificar las especies y cultivares de leguminosas n,ás apropiadas y más resistentes en condiciones de pastoreo, y a determinar la mejor forma de establecerlas y mantenerlas cuando se siembran en , as(\\ci, ( . '11 con las :Jramíneas que compiten con,ellas.La investigación llevada a cabo hasta ahora ha sido vaga en,el sentido que abarca numerosos géneros y especies, especialmente en las primeras etapas de evaluación de germoplasma. En nuestro caso, la mayoría de las especies que eventualmente alcanzan una etapa avanzada de evaluación en experimentos de productividad en pastoreo son introducciones recientes y entradas domesticadas de especies casi totalmente desconocidas, sobre las que no se tiene información en cuanto a su comportamiento como pastos cultivados.Para tener éxito en la introducción y evaluación de especies forrajeras, se debe disponer, para fines de investigación, de una colección numerosa de especies forrajeras con una amplia base genética, Una vez que se ha llenado este primer requisito, el investigador se encuentra ante un dilema colosal: cómo reducir este gran volumen de material a unas cuantas especies manejables que estén bien adaptadas al medio ambiente y que tengan, al mismo tiempo, ciertas características especificas que ameriten su producción.Este trabajo presenta las estragegias de evaluación de especies forrajeras que emplean en Carimagua. la principal estación de investigación en sabana del CIAT, Dicha estación se encuentra localizada en la latitud 4°34' N, longitud 71 0 20'(), a 160 m. En la primera etapa de evaluación de especies, se debe emplear el principio de \"pirámide invertida\", el cual comprende la selección ' rápida a partir de un banco de genes de base amplia utilizando parámetros bien definidos con el objetivo primordial de identificar unas cuantas especies forrajeras superiores para la evaluación en pastoreo.Las mediciones de altura de la planta, cobertura y rendimiento que demandan considerable tiempo, deberían evitarse en esta etapa, Las accesiones de pastos para la evaluación preliminar general.mente se escogen por medio de métodos convencionales de selección:primero se realizan observaciones preliminares de las características agromorfológicas en surcos como por ejemplo, la presencia y ausencia de estolones, rizomas, y la capacidad de las especies para producir semilla viable; en segundo lugar, se llevan a cabo experimentos de corte en pequeñas parcelas mixtas y en poblaciones puras.Evaluación Ad~cional en Pequeñas Parcelas Después de la caracterización y selección inicial por su grado de resistencia a plagas y enfermedades. hay varios pasos adicionales de la técnica de evaluación, que generalmente se efectúan antes de probar las especies en experimentos de productividad en 'pastoreo.Los experin::ntos de corte en pequeñas parcelas son útiles para fines comparJtivos en las accesiones establecidas i f:¡s nuevas accesiones. Las,\"pruebas de frecuencia de corte se pueden emplear para simular los efectos del pastoreo frecuente o continuo. En el caso de las asociaciones de gramineas y leguminosas, los índices de crecimiento relativo de las especies componentes serán un buen indicio de su compatibilidad bajo varias tasas de defoliación. Por ejemplo, encontrar una leguminosa con la que se pueda sembrar la vigorosa gramínea estolonífera Brachiaria humidicola es un problema bastante difícil pero de una importancia económica considerable.Arachis pintoi ( Krap. et Greg.), una especie silvestre de maní proveniente del estado de Bahía, Brasil, introducida por el CSIRO, de Australia, resultó promisoria para sembrarla con esta gramínea bajo diversas frecuenci as de corte (CIAT, Informe Anual, 1981). Las cantidades apreciables de la leguminosa que se mantienen en asociación con~. humidicola, aparentemente se deben a la alta tasa inicial de crecimiento de la leguminosa después de la defoliación (Cuadro 1). Sin embargo, una observación de este tipo, debe ser aún confirmada en condiciones reales de pastoreo.Después de haber sido sometida a los experimentos en parcelas pequeñas. la especie de pasto se introduce en un terreno más grande para su evaluación en pastoreo.La evaluación de accesiones o mezclas de pastos es un problema particularmente complejO. La mayor parte de la información comparativa sobrp , !Jroducción que se encuentra disponible está dada en términos de rendimiento , .lteria seca, Jones et al. (1980) encontraron una buena correlación \" entre el rendimiento de materia seca de las lineas de Macroptilium sometidas a corte y su rendimiento de materia seca cuando se emp'learon animales como agente defoliador. No obstante, dichos investigadores concluyeron, con base en sus experimentos sobre producción animal vs. el rendimiento de materia seca, que la información allegada en parcelas cqrtadas para simular el pastoreo debe ser extrapolada con gran precaución a las condiciones reales de pastoreo. Los resultados de otros experimentos respaldan estas conclusiones.Mucho ha sido escrito sobre la presencia del animal en pastoreo como factor importante para la evaluación de accesiones y especies forrajeras.Es una creencia común que algunas especies se comportarían mejor si se las pastoreara en lugar de cortarlas, pero son muy contados los experimentos en los que se ha probado esta hipótesis. Además también existe información que prueba lo contrario; por ejemplo, en nuestros ensayos, el Andropogon gayanus cortado a intervalos de 6 semanas produjo un rendimiento igualo superior que el de la especie esto1onífera de Brachiaria (Grof, 1982l. Por otra parte, las cantidades de forraje en oferta de ~. humidico1a y !l.. decumbens sometidos a pastoreo fueron significativamente mejores que la de !l. gayanus (Graf, 1982, presentado para pUblicaCión}.La ejecución de experimentos de producción animal es una forma COln~ plicada y costosa de medir la productivida'd relativa de accesiones y esr~cies seleccionadas.En las etapas iniciales de evaluación de especies de pastos. a menudo es deseable probar una amplia gama de especies o un rango• de ecotipos de la misma especie, pero es poco práctico pensar en medir producción animal con todas ellas. En razón de las• limitaciones que tienen datos de rendimiento de materia seca obtenida bajo un sistema de corte, es conveniente que sólo se comparen algunas cuantas especies cuidadosamente seleccionadas empleando producción animal como patrón de productividad.El efecto del animal en los pastos se puede determinar utilizando un gran número de bovinos en una pradera compuesta de varias parcelas repetidas de diferentes especies. El objetivo es pastorear intensamente todas las parcelas por un período corto a fin de defoliar1as y reducir los efectos de diferencia de palatabilidad.Esta técnica se empleó en la evaluación del primer grupo de ecotipos de Sty10santhes capitata, Stylosanthes macrocephala y Desmodium ova1ifolium resistentes a la antracnosis. Cada una de estas leguminosas, un total de 32 accesiones, se estab1.eció en parcelas repetidas, y cada parcela se sobresembró con ~. decumbens y ~. gayanus formando un diseño de \"ajedrez\" con subdivisiones de una hectárea. Durante la estación seca se pastorearon 30 cabezas de ganadO en el área total del ensayo de 12 hectáreas, yel número de cabezas se aumentó a 60 dura:lte la estación húmeda. Los intervalos de descanso entre pastoreos fueron de 4 semanas en promedio durante la estación húmeda y de 6 semanas en la seca. El número de cabezas de ganado y el período de pastoreo se calcularían de'tal forma que la mayoría del forraje disponible pudiera ser consumido en dos días.Las cantidades de forraje disponible, o materia seca en oferta, se registraron al comienzo de cada período de pastoreo.Actualmente se está empleando una técnica de pastoreo en franjas en un ensayo compuesto por tres especies de gramíneas y seis de leguminosas.La preferencia inevitable en el pastoreo se ha minimizado mediante el uso de cercas eléctricas. Las 18 combinaciones se establecieron en parcelas duplicadas y el área total de 1 ha se dividió en 4 con líneas eléctricas transportables. El movimiento de los animales dentro de las subdivisiones se controla diariamente. La carga es de 2 unidades animales por ha, y el ensayo se pastorea durante 8 días y se deja descansar durante 32 días.durante los ocho meses de la estación húmeda. El período de descanso es de 40 días en la estación seca. El diseño experimental se puede observar en la Figura l. Este método permite comparar un gran número de entradas en un área pequeña.Evaluación bajo pastoreo de líneas avanzadas'Se seleccionaron varias especies de Centrosema y ecotipos de El precursor de las pruebas de pastoreo fue un experimento de corte en el que se compararon 30 accesiones de 8 especies de Centrosema bajo un régimen de corte estacional. Los rendimientos en promedio de materia seca de las especies indicaron que f. macrocarpum, f. brasi1ianum, f. acutifo-1ium y f. pubescens contienen accesiones potencialmente valiosas como cultivares forrajeros para el ecosistema de los Llanos Orientales (Cuadro 2).La especie anual f. pascuorum produjo cantidades apreciables de materia seca al comienzo de la estación húmeda pero completó su ciclo de vida antes del final de las lluvias. f. virginianum evidentemente no se adapta a los suelos de sabana ácidos y altamente saturados de aluminio, y las accesiones de C. Schiedeanum probadas se vieron gravemente afectadas por enfermedades foliares. Estas especies no deseables se eliminaron y no fueron sometidas a evaluación posterior.En la prueba de seguimiento del pastoreo, se compararon 16 accesiones de espeCies promisorias de Centrosema en asociación con A. gayanus.Todas las especies de este ensayo fueron bien aceptadas por los animales en pastoreo y no se observó preferencia por ninguna de ellas en ninguna de las etapas. Los parámetros utilizados en el proceso de evaluación 793 y selección fueron el forraje disponible o materia seca en oferta, y la composición de la pradera sembrada. Los índices de carga fueron 2,5 animales/ha durante los 8 meses de la estación húmeda, y 1,6animales/ha en la estación seca.Las cantidades de materia seca en oferta determinadas en 15 fechas de muestreo durante la época de pastoreo entre octubre de de gramíneas y leguminosas y la población de plantas de los ecotiros dp floración media disminuyó rápidamente en el segundo año después del establecimiento. La información sobre el forraje disponible y la composición de la pradera indicó que 4 ecotipos de floración temprana y de hábito de autopropagación por semilla persistieron y dieron un mejor rendimiento en pastoreo que las lfneas de S. capitata de floración media (Cuadro 3).Esta leguminosa forrajera nIDstr6 su habilidad para competir con gramfneas esto1oniferas vigorosas como B. humidico1a. Se incluyeron 9 accesiones de D. ova1ifolium en la prueba estándar de pastoreo con los tratamientos distribuidos en 4 bloques completos al azar.La materia seca en oferta, registrada en 15 fechas de muestreo, mostrÓ diferencias significativas de rendimiento Se obtuvo información adicional sobre la capacidad de prodUCCión de semilla de las 9 accesiones. Nuevamente, se observó una variabilidad ecotípica significativa en la producción de semillas y en la regeneración de p1ántulas con el sistema de pastoreo cons.istente en una semana de pastoreo por dos semanas de descanso.     'M----------------------------------------------------------- Con el escaso conocimiento que hoy se tiene sobre la Amazonia, no ay duda de que la decisión más sabia será la de conservar y no disturbar 1 Debido a la confusión creada por conservacionistas y expansionistas, 2 ambos actuando seguramente de buena fé, pero sólo con una visipn parcial 3 y fuertemente sesgada de la problemática amazónica, la financiación de la 4 investigación en esta región hasta la fecha ha sido discreta. la reali-5 dad es que los organismos de financiación internacional han preferido ce-6 rrar los ojos ante la confusión. perdiéndose muchos años en el avance se-7 río del conocimiento de este retador territorio.• ,En este documento se presentan algunos de 10$ resultados obtenidos 9 in óitu sobre producción de pastos y ganado en la Amazonia. brasilero y hacia el Norte en el territorio de Roraima. Cochrane (1980) determinó que existe una alta correlaciórr entre la evapotranspiración potencial total durante la época de lluvia (WSPE) y la vegetación predominante en los tr6picos. Igualmente, que la temperatura media durante la época lluviosa (WSMT) y la longitud de la sequía eran parámetros significativos para subdividir la Amazonia en diferentes ecosistemas (Fig. 1). Es importante entender que la gran extensión de variadas condicio-~' ncs de clima, topografía y suelo de la Amazonia presenta condiciones .,,' \" to Pil ra 1 a exp 1 otaci ón fores ta 1, como para 1 a agrí ca 1 a i ntens i va, agrí é1l1'l de plantaciones y ganadera sobre pasturas. Las áreas más aparentes '---\", --, ------'.1 para cada una de estas explotaciones, deberian ser determinadas con ante-2 rioridad a los programas de ocupación y colonización, con el fin de reser- Esta estabilidad de fertilidad es interrumpida por la apertura y quema de 1 bosque, que pone a manera de fertil i zantes y enmi endas. 1 a mayoría de los nutrimentos del ecosistema sobre el suelo, 10 cual, tal como dijéramos en el párrafo sobre \"Reciclaje\", levanta la fertilidad a niveles 18 inclusive aparentes para la producción agrícola intensiva (Fig. 4).Esta alta fertilidad inicial, normalmente es aprovechada por el colono para obtener una o dos cosechas cortas que ayudan a pagar el costo de la apertura del área y proporcionan la cobertura l'ápida que protege el 22 suelo de erosión. La siembra del pasto deberá hacerse con los cultivos de manera que cuando ocurra la cosecha de éstos, la pastura haya cubierto 2.11 suficientemente el terreno ..Si ia pastura tiene un establecimiento defectuoso y un manejo paste- El Cuadro 4 compara las necesidades de mano de obra y velocidad, y costos de operación de los diferentes métodos de apertura de bosque (hacha y machete, buldózer y triturador de árboles).El Cuadro 5 compara los rangos de presión sobre el suelo, producidos por diferentes agentes de compactación, incluyendo el hombre y las máquinas usadas en los tres métodos eva 1 uad03.~ertura manual S El método de apertura con i'o,~ha y machete es el que mayor mano de obra requiere, siendo el costo de operación dependiente en gran medida del nivel de salarios y la disponibilidad de personal en la región y país en cuestión (Cuadro 4).12 Este es un método relativamente lento aparente para aperturas en ex-13 tensiones limitadas en área. Es también el método que introduce mínimos 14 niveles de disturbio sobre el SUelo, como se ve en el Cuadro 5, el hombre 15 es quien produce la menor compactación sobre el suelo.16Por otro lado, es un método que deja los \"tocones\" (ralces de árbo-17 les cortados en el suelo), muchos de los cuales rebrotan con el bosque 18 secundario si la quema no es efectiva, como muchas veces ocurre. 1'l1izilndo el área inmediatilmellte des'lués de la dO., e¡\"tlll'a.L' ____________________ ~~~ ______ ~~'~~~~~~~~~ __________ ~ ~-----------------------------------------------------------.Este sistema de apertura del bos0,ue requiere, 10 mismo que el anterior, personal capaCitado, pero debido a su rapidez de operación, (Cuadro' 4) el número de personas por hectárea, es fuertemente reducido.El costo de operaCión es también reducido dada su alta eficiencia en la operación. Esta es una máquina que pesa 45 toneladas, tiene tres rodillos con cuchillas, a manera de triciclo; funciona mediante tran,,, , sión eléctrica, con un generador Diesel en el centro de la máquina. El desmonte es efectuado empujando los árboles más altos con un puntal y los más pequenos con urla burra horizontal a manera de \"T\". La máquina derriba y monta los árboles ya caidos, caminando sobre ellos y derribando los siguientes. De esta forma, su peso es distribuido sobre una superficie mayor (Cuadro 5) que la de contacto de sus rodillos con el suelo, reduciéndose el nivpl de compactación total sobre el suelo.las experiencias en Pucal1pa, PPI'\\j \\:lOstl'Jron que la QUCIi'.1 de l'esiduo, del bosque derribados con triturador de árboles, era bJsta'ltr más efectiva que la derribada con hacha y machete, ésto, debido a UII secado mis uniforme del material abierto muy l'ápidalnente (8-10 ha/día). Además, el apilamiento más estrecho y unifol'ln8 de la biomasa del bosque l'csultante del paso de esta máquina montando los árboles, pemite una mejor contí-Este es un método que distllrba el suelo, pues levanta las superficiales ~a¡ces de los irboles. ctej~ndolas expuestas sobre el suelo: produ-Ct' \"'c\"erada Ct~npac taci ón, ya que sólo p'asa una vez di s tri buyendo su peso 'el' 'Ji ii dm;'lia superficie de liIüterial Jd •Jerribado. Pero, por su rapid~z, ' 7L Vi •ciencia en la quema y bajo costo de operación, debeser tOlllado en cuen 1 ta para operaciones de apertura de bosque mayores, puesto que no es un 2 sistema económicamente operable en extensiones menores de 1000 ha.No existen cifras actualizadas sobre la población ganadera de la 5 Amazonia, pero se estima una población de bovinos de 7 millones y 500 6 mil de búfalos.El inventario de la cantidad de áreAS de bosque hoy en pásturas, es S aún más incierto; sin embargo, puede un~ vez más estimarse, considerando 9 un 70% de la población de bovinos y bubalinos en áreas de bosque y una 10 figura de capacidad de carga [lromedio de 1,0 animales/ha. El estimado re 11 sultante es de 5,3 millones de ha de pastos ganados al bosque.12 Los reportes extraoficiales recogidos personalmente de funcionarios y ganaderos de los diferentes países amazónicos, indican que de estas áreas, por 10 menos un millón de ha de pasturas, se encuentran hoy en proceso de degradación.En el proceso de colonización, COnlO se dijo anteriormente, muy acti-17 va en los diferentes países del área, el establecimiento de pastos y gan~ 18 do es el más barato y estable sistema de explotación para remplazar el 19 bosque.Sin embargo, el colono no cuenta coro las especies forrajeras de gra-21 mineas y leguminosas, ni con la tecnología de manejo para establecer y 22 mantener las pasturas en niveles de prod~ctividad que las justifiquen eco-23 lógica y económicamente. , La selección de especies y ecotipos de gralníneas y leguminosas forrajeras adaptadas a la gama de conéiciones de la /l.mazonia (climas, suelos, 20 plagas y enfermedades) debe dar excelentes resultados que permitan ; ncre-2! mentar la productividad y garantizar la estabilidad de las pasturas.En los últimos 40 años. en varias localidades (estaciones experimen-23 tales y granjas estatales), se ha introducido en la región un buen número 24 de gramíneas y leguminosas, pero su presencia no ha sido significativa, 25 ya que estas introducciones nunca pasaron de ser meras colecciones o jardi 2G nes, donde las accesiones jamás :ueron adecuada y sistemáticamente evalua- a meses} pesaron más que los de Cebú y las ganancias de peso/animal/día 9 fueron también superiores en el caso de los búfalos. No obstante, 10 la capacidad de carga de los potreros fue mayor en el caso de los Cebú.11 10 cual compensó la ganancia de peso/ha.12: la producción de leche del búfalo es reportada por Nacimento (l979)13 como superior a la de bovinos (Cuadro 14}.  :' ' 11bi1se a pastoreo en la Amazonia peruana. r' ::rl 2,18 p.1 r,orale:., V. y K. Santhirasegaram. 1977 . : i14 Pineda, L. y K. Santhirasegaram. 1973.  varietal and species differences in tolerance to low available soil phosphorus. Ciencia e Cultura. Vol. 28(2):156-168.271L-__________________________________________________ ~ 1 Sállchez, P. A. 1973. Un resumen de las investigaciones edafológicas en  El ciclo de nutrimentos en una pradera de gramínea -leguminosa.   A\"05 Fisura 6. Alteraciones en los valores de HO en suelos bajo bosque y bajo praderas de P. mawnUJn de di ferentes edades.  Figura 8. Alteraciones en los contenidos de K+ intercambiable en suelos bajo bosque y bajo praderas de P. mauinum de diferentes edades.    de.cwnbe.lu en Pucal1pa, Perú (Fuente: Toledo, 1979). Cuadro 1. Area total y proporción de los diferen~ tes órdenes del suelo de la Amazonia Capacidad de cationes cambiables (meq/100g): media (>4,0) baja (0,4-4,0) ~luy baja «0,4) % r~ateria orgánica: alta (>4,5) media 0, 5) baja «l,S) Fósforo (ppm):alto (>7,0) medío (3,(0)(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)0) bajo «3,0)Profundidad del suelo* 0-20 cm 21-50 cm   A pesar de que el ganado era extraño a las tierras d~l tr6pico americano antes de su ocupaci6n por las civilizaciones europeas, en un plazo relativamente corto se convirtl6 en un acompañante inevitable de la nueva civilizaci6n que se fue creando. Actualmente es un componente importante en toda actividad agrrcola, sin distinci6n de área geográfica o tamaño de explotación y contribuye en forma signiñcativa, en la mayoría de ellas, al ingreso neto de la explotaci6n.Por el hecho de que el ganado está siempre presente en las explotaciones agrrcolas y por la diversidad de condiciones ecológicas y culturales en que se desarrolla esta actividad, hay gran diversidad de sistemas de producción pecuaria.La fertilidad del suelo y el clima son las caracterrsticas f(sicas que tienen mayor influencia sobre el tipo de explotación pecuaria que predomina en un área y ésta no es modificada fácilmente al menos que primen condiciones estructurales y sociales de gran influencia como la cercan(a a las ciudades y el desarrollo relativo de estructuras que faciliten el acceso y el Intercambio. . En el Cuadro 1 se resumen algunas cifras que demuestran la situaci6n de la ganaderra en América Latina Tropical. En p'rimer lugar se observa que el stock de ;,jé,n<ldo por habitante es alto y al nivel de los Estados Unido~', La I~m(ric\" Lal;(b ternplada tiene, desde ~ el B\"do se mira la produc-..cl6n pOI\" habitante o pot' ¿mimal, la situaci6n es mucho menos favorable, comparando el trópico con América L«tina templada o con los Estados Unidos. Las canales que se producen con el ganado en el trópico son mucho más livianas que en otras áreas de América. Las primeras cuatro columnas del Cuadro 1 nos ind iean que la población ganadera en el trópico de América Latina, globalmente considerada, es alta, superior a la de los Estados Unidos, por ejemplo, pero que la productividad por animal es muy baja, resultando en una disponibilidad de carne por habitante de solamente 18 kgjaño, comparado con 76 para la América Latina templada y 51 para los Estados Unidos.La (¡Hima columna del Cuadro 1 contiene cifras muy preocupan tes , porque lnd lean que el crecimiento de la producción de carne en el perrodo 1960-1974 ha sido muy inferior al crecimiento en la demanda. La América Central es una ex,::epciÓn. Las razones pueden ser muchas, pero podda imaginarse que la principal razón está en la estabil idad del mercado de los Estados Unidos para carne dE' esta zona libre de aftosa, 10 cual actúa como un factor de equilibrio y estrmulo para la inversión en la industria ganadera. También podría tornarse esto como indicación de las razones por las cuales la producción de carne en el resto de • América Latina tropical no ha crecido al ritmo de la demanda.De la exposici6n que procede se podrán extraer algu:,os de los problemas que afectan los sistemas ganaderos de América Latina tro-.f I pIca.Grandes :zonas ecol6gicas para la producci6n de ganado en el trópico americano.En base a las cond iciones de fer-t.iI idad del suelo y de la fitopoblación predominan te que resulta del suelo y el cUma, se puéden reconocer las siguientes zonas de producción ganadera en el trópico americano: sabanas netivas, campos cerrados, bosque húmedo y semihúmedo tropical en el cual se reconocen dos tipos, el primero el bosque que desarrolla sobre suelos infértiles y el segundO el bosque sobre suelos med ios y fértiles.La Figura 1 presenta una generalización pUblicada por Sánchez e Isbel (1978) sobre los suelos del trópico americano en que resaltan la predominancia de suelos Oxisol y Ultisol (suelos infértiles) encontrándose áreas esparcidas y pequeñas de los suelos más fértiles como Alfisoles, Inseptisoles, Vertisoles y Molisoles. En el Cuadro 2 se detalla el área que cada pa(s tiene de suelos infértiles. Ocho parses, incluyendo los de mayor superficie (Brasil, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela) tienen más del 50% del área en este tipo de suelos y la América Tropical en total tiene 51%. América del Sur tiene algo más, 69% y América Central y el Caribe s610 el 23%. La gran importancia de la ganaderfa en América Tropical, sobre todo en América del Sur, está explicada en la elevada proporci6n de sus suelos que por ser muy infértiles no permiten el desarrollo de cultivos sin el uso de elevadas cantidades de cal y fertilizante.• La Figura 2 presenta una generalizaci6n de las zonas eco16gicas descr'itas ya las cuales nos r'efer'¡remos en adelante.Sabanas nativas, las cuales cOr'responden con las ár'eas de praderas naturales, caracterrstica de los Llanos de COlombia y Venezuela, los \"Campos Limpos\" de Br'asil, las sabanas de Guyana y como una modificación fisiográfica de éstas, las zonas de sabanas inundables de los Llanos de Apure, Arauca y Casanare de Venezuela y Colombia, yel Beni de Bolivia. El Pantanal del Brasil es fisiográficamente similar, pero los suelos son más fértiles. Las caracterizan los suelos ácidos, bajos en niveles de todos los elementos mayores y de un buen número de elementos menores y que sufren además frecuentemente de niveles excesivamente altos de aluminio o manganeso, lo cual hace más cl'\"'(ticas las deficiencias de nutl'\"'ientes, partlculal'\"'mente de fósforo.Los pastos nativos en estas áreas tienen baja productividad y muy bajo valor nutritivo, con problemas graves de carencia energética y protéica en una parte del año. El largo del perrodo de sequra, inevitable en áreas de sabana tropical, determina hasta qué punto la párdida de valor nutritivo limita la producción ganadera. Como es de esperar en un área tan extensa, los perfodos de lluvia y seqUra varran ampliamente desde condiciones de lluvia intensa por 8 o más meses en el año, hasta áreas de 5 a 6 meses de sequra. La sequra se convierte en estas cond icibnes en un modificador preponderante de los sistemas de pr'Oducción .•• La producci6n ganadera es pl\"'incipalmente extensiva, altamente extl\"'activa pero muy estable porque la remoci6n de pl\"'oductos pl\"'imarios está bien balanceada poI'\" la reposici6n de elementos al suelo por las lluvias y la lenta descomposici6n orgánica. La baja carga animal que se emplea es, desde luego, lo que permite el mantenimiento del equilibrio biol6gico. Los intentos de intensificaci6n de la producción, con el solo aumento de la carga animal, tienen como consecuencia final la perturbaci6n del balance ecol6gico y la disminucl6n de la productividad, ya inicialmente baj a (Vitela 1977, Paladines y Leal 1978). La correcci6n de los problemas minerales del suelo permite alcanzar un nivel superior de productividad, por lo menos inicialmente, a base del cambio de la vegetaci6n original por especies forrajeras más productivas yde mayor valor nutritivo. Sin embargo, es evidente que para lograr estabiHzaf\" el sistema bio16gico, es necesario el influjo continuo de fertilizantes, lo cual limita grandemente la factibilidad de la intensi ficaci6n. A pesar de eso, en áreas de mayor desarrollo urbano y en las cuales la estructura de precios aumenta la demanda por productos del ganado, se desarrollan explotaciones intensivas. Cualquier sistema que intensifique la producci6n ganadera por medio de la fertilización únicamente, intensifica inevitablemente las defic lencias alimenticias de la época seca, porque la sola corrección de las deficiencias minef\"ales del suelo no puede contrarrestar los efectos 1 imitadores de la fal ta de lluvia, en tal forma que el desnivel de efectividad bio16gica y económica del sistema se agranda en la medida que la capacidad de producción aumenta en la ~oca de lluvia únicamente. Para reducir la distancia entre la producción de las dos (¡pocas se requiere la Implementación de técnicas ele producción aún no desarrolladas y menos aÓn solventadas económicamente.En las áreas de sabana inundable, el problema tiene caracterrsticas similares en su efecto sobre la productividad, con la diferencia de que la .€opoca de baja receptividad de los campos es durante las lluvias, porque la lámina de agua presente impide el pastoreo y los animales se 1 imitan a las áreas al tas, no inundadas. Tecnológicamente hablando, las soluciones para estas áreas son más costosas y pueden envolver obras de ingenierra más elaboradas.La acción mod ificadora que tiene el prec io de la tierra sobre el desarrollo e intensificación de la industria pecuaria, debe ser mencionada aqu(, no porque sea peculiar de las áreas de sabana nativa y por ende de los sistemas extensivos, sino porque en estos se puede evidenciar más claramente su efecto. El precio de la tierra es en este caso usado solamente como un reflejo del efecto de la infraestructura y el desarrollo relativo del área con relación a las zonas urbanas.La productividad de estos campos es baja y es fuertemente influenciada por la carga animal y la época del año. En el Cuadro 3 se reune la información de dos experime'ntos, de los pocos registrados, yen los dos se observan esas tendencias. La vegetación presente fue diferente en cada caso. En el \"campo limpo\" predominaron En este tipo de praderas la quema juega un papel importante, siendo costumbre quemar las praderas durante la ¡¡'poca seca para conseguir un rebrote tierno, en esta forma se consigue aumentar el crecimiento de los animales hasta en 250% (Paladines y Leal 1978).La llanura inundable constituye un caso importante en algunas áreas. Sus caracterfsticas varran notoriamente de acuerdo al grado dé inundac ión que sufran anualmente. Corrales y González (1973) reconocen tres unidades fislográficas para las llanuras de Apure y BaMnas en Venezuela: \"banco bajo\", \"bajro\" y \"estero\", representando una situación de inundaci6n creciente del \"banco\" al \"estero\".A cada uno de eltos corresponden especies y sistemas de utilización diversos. En el \"banco\" predominan especies de los g¡¡'neros Paspalum, Hyparrhenia, Andropogon, Sporobolu'S, Trachypogon y otros, en el \"bajlo\" se encuentran los g~neros Leersia (Leersia hexandra), H)'drolea, Panicum, Cassia y otras y'en el \"estero\" Hymenachne amplexicaulis, Panicum. Thalia, lpomoea, etc.Es caracter(stico de las sabanas la presencia de un bosque de galerra formado a partir del material de arrastre hacia las vras de desagUe de la sabana. Estas formaciones son de gran importancia para el desarrollo de las explotaciones ganaderas porque sirven de asiento para los nÚcleos humanos que aprovechan el agua de los caños y la mejor fertilidad del suelo para la producción de los alimentos básicos de la familia campesina, la yuca y el plátano. Tambi€m los cafíos son el abrevadero natural para el ganado y de la permanencia del agua en ellos, durante la época seca, depende en gran parte el éxito de la ganader(a. El dificil acceso al agua de los caños causa muchas pérd idas de animales que mueren enterrados en las tierras fangosas en su afán por llegar al agua.La carga animal empleada en las llanuras es baja y varra de aduerdo a la cercanra hacia las ciudades yal tamaño de la explotaci6n.La tendencia comÚn es a disminu(r la carga a medida que aumenta el tamaño. En Monagas, Venezuela, Martinez (1975) encontr6 que la carga animal baj6 de 1.09 unidades animal/ha. en fincas de 31-100 has. a 0.36 unidades animal;t.a. en fincas de más de 2000 ha.El producto animal que se obtiene está relacionado con la carga animal e indirectamente con el tamaño de la explotaci6n. En Barinas (Corrales y González 1963a) las explotaciones con 0--300 ha. tienen una carga animal de O: 45 animales;t.a. y una productividad de 120 kg.de ganancia de peso/ha/año en tanto que en el estrato 300-901 ha. la carga es de 0.20 animales jha y la ganancia de peso de 47 kgfhajaño.B. Campos cerrados, constituyen una modificaci6n ecológica de'la sabana nativa o \"campo limpo\", caracterizados por la presencia de una vegetación herbácea-arbustiva-arb6rea en diferentes grados de degradaci.ón. Los campos cerrados sqn caracterrsticos de áreas grande's del Brasil Central, principalmente en los estados de Goias, Minas Gerais y Mato Grosso.Desde el punto de vista del uso que se da al Cerrado, Saturnino y colaboradores (1976) presentan un esquema (Figura 3) que describe las transforma,ciones más comunes que sufre el Cerrado Brasileño, en una secuencia de intensificaci6n que a la vez implica un paulatino aumento del empleo de insumos. El método más sencillo y a la vez más común, es el uso directo del cerrado. Este sistema requiere el empleo del fuego en la llpoca seca para conseguir el rebrote de mate-Mal tierno. Asr mismo, en la época seca las hojas de los arbustos son importantes, pasando a formar parte proporcionalmente elevada de la dieta consumida por el ganado bovino (Simao Neto 1976, Medina 1976).El sistema que emplea el paso intermedio de fabricaci6n de carbón es más común en ciertas áreas de los estados de Golas y Minas Gerais de Brasil y relativamente desconocido en otras áreas del tr6pico.Particularmente en áreas de suelos más privilegiados es bastante común la combinación cultivo-pradera o cultivo-cultlvo-pradera.El romero de cultivos depende de la riqueza del suelo. El cultivo más frecuente es el arroz, en cuyo caso las semiUas se siembran juntas qu'edando una pradera formada después de la cosecha del cultivo. En general se estima que la produccl6n agrfcola cubre los costos de esta--JI> blecimiento de la pradera. Cosa similar ocurre en áreas selváticas como se verá más adelante.El tipo de explotaci6n ganadera y la productividad por unidad de área cambian de acuerdo al sistema de util izaci6n del Cerrado. En los casos de uso directo, las explotaciones son principalmente de crra extensiva, aumentando su productividad a medida que se elimine la ve-getaci6n natural. También de sistema de crCa pasan las explotaciones a crra y engorde ya la producci6n de carne y leche a medida que se incorporan las praderas cultivadas.El Cuadro 4 presenta un resumen de los parámetros de produc-ciÓn segGn la intensidad de la producciÓn encontrados por Saturnino y colaboradores (1976) en el Cerrado de Golas, Brasil. . En los casos 1 y 2 del Cuadro 4, predomina la pradera natural, con presencia de Melinis minutiflora en tanto que en el caso 3 por condiciones de suelo se siembran cultivos seguidos por praderas. La in-troducci6n del pasto Brachlaria decumbens es importante en estas áreas, en asociaciÓn con arroz al momento de la siembra. Las especles predominantes son Panicum maximum e Hyparrhenia rufa. El pasto M. mlnutiflora, no es nativo de la América, pero se encuentra Las ganancias de peso registradas en el Cerrado en estado natural son del orden de 41 kg/ha/año en el mejor de los casos, la productividad aumenta a 100 kg/ha/año cuando se realiza una limpieza manual de los arbustos, se aplican 76 kg P 2 0 5 /ha y se siembra con Stylosanthes guianensis y M. minutiflora. En condiciones de pradera cultivada con 2 toneladas de cal, 100 kg P205' 70 kg K 2 0 Y 25 kg de FTE-Br-10/ha al establecimiento y dosis de mantenimiento de O, 20 Y 40 kg P 2 0 5 /ha/año se produjo en el segundo año 170, 340 Y 449 kg de aumento de peso/ha/año en praderas de P. rnaximum con S.Este ejemplo Ilustra bien la dependencia que se crea sobre el uso de fertilizantes cuando se intensifica el uso del suelo y se emplean especies más productivas como son las leguminosas tropicales yel P. maximum. También nos irdica que una vez corregidas las limitaciones del suelo las especies tropicales empleadas en praderas cultivadas son capaces de niveles altos de producci6n animal. Algo más, muy importante para la producci6n animal, es el aumento en la ganancia de peso de la época seca que se obtiene con la transformación de La ganaderfa en el bosque tropical comienza con la tumba de los ár\"boles y depende de la siembr\"a de especies forr\"ajeras para su subsistencia. En general los métodos y sistemas de tratamiento de esta vegetaci6n son muy parecidos en todas las áreas y varfan solamente las especies que se plantan. Las especies están asociadas a su capacidad para sobrevivir a las condiciones de fer\"tiUdad del suelo. En general, la selva mantiene un nivel aceptable de fertil idad mientras está de pie, por el intercambio de nutrientes a través de la descomposici6n de las hojas estimándose principalmente que en un bosque húmedo del Africa reciclán 268 kg de N, 15 kg de P, 303 kg de K, 332 kg de Ca y 75 kg de Mg por hectárea y por año (Nye andGreenland 1960, Nye 1961). Cuando se corta el bosque el suelo deja de recibir una fertilidad apreciable que tendrfa que ser aplicada en forma de fertil izan te para mantener la misma capacidad de produccl6n. En la práctica, esto no sucede y las praderas implantadas. sobre la selva tumbada aprovechan la fertilidad inicial para desarrollar especies de buen crecimiento y valor nutl\"itivo. En este punto se diferencian dos tipos de bosque tropical: bosque asentado sobre suelos de baja fertilidad natural (principalmente UI tisoles) y bosques asentados sobre suelos de mayor fertilidad. Los suelos pobres se caracterizan por niveles deficitarlos de todos los elementos mayores N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S Y varios mlcronutrientes entre ellos Zn, B. Mo y Cu. As! mismo, con frecuencia presentan niveles t6xicos para las plantas de Al y M1 (Sánchez 1977).La selva Amazónica cae globalmente dentro de los Ultisoles asf como otras áreas de bosque húmedo tropical de Centroamérica, Norte de Venezuela, del Pacffico de Colombia y Ecuador, Bolivia y Brasil.Para el desarrollo de praderas y como asiento para la industria ganadera, la gran diferencia entre los dos tipos de suelos están en que las gramfneas plantadas sobre Ultisoles, que no reciben fertilizacl6n adicional, son solamente capaces de mantener un cierto nivel de producción por pocos años para declinar paulatinamente, debiendo las especies sembradas más productivas, ceder el paso a las gramfneas nativas de muy baja producci6n y si no hay control de m3.lezas finalmente termina dominando el bosque secundario que elimina totalmente la pastura (Toledo y Morales 1978).El establecimiento de praderas en el bosque tropical sigue dos métodos princ ¡pales: a) corte a mano de los árboles y la vegetaci6n accesoria y quema de los troncos y ramas. En la gran mayorra de los casos, se siembra inmediatamente un cultivo de grano al voleo, que puede ser arroz. marz y en menor escala soya. La pradera se siembra al mismo tiempo por semilla o por material vegetativo. Este m'todo requiere de una cantidad elevada de mano de obra disponible y transhumante, pero se entiende que es la forma más barata de transformar la montaña en pradera (Toledo y Morales 1978, Moore 1976).Con este método, en efecto el único usado extensamente desd,e hace varios siglos, se ha formado la ganaderra de los tr6picos. b) Tumba de los árboles por medio de tractor de oruga, alineamiento de la vege-taci6n en hiteras las cuales pueden o no ser quemadas. Este sistema permite trabajar el suelo con máquina para la siembra de cultivos <;1 pastos desde el primer año. El mlitodo envuelve el grave peligro de remover la capa vegetal del suelo por arrastre con la máquina y de compactar el suelo por el peso de la máquina. Sin embargo, con respecto a esto último, Toledo y Morales (1978) indican que la presi6n ejercida por una máquina de oruga entre 180 y 385 HP es de 0.51 a 0.95 kg/cm 2 en tanto que la presi6n de un equino es de 1.00 a 4.00 kg/cm 2 y un vacuno de 0.88 a 3.50 kg. Incluso un hombre tiene valores tan altos de presi6n como 0.23 a 0.47 kg/cm 2 . La máquina gigante demoledora de la selva (tree-crusher) con un peso de 45 toneladas, ejerce una presión sobre el suelo calculada en 1.37 kg/cm 2 o menos.Los efectos negativos de tumbar la montaña con tractor parecen estar más bien asociados con 'la pérdida de la fertilidad agregada al s~elo por la ceniza del bosque quemado ya que este efecto negativo se compensa, por lo menos parcialmente, con la adición de fertllizante N-P-K. Los sl\"ntomas de compactaci6n agregada por el uso del tractor pueden ser también culpables de una parte de la reducci6n en pro-ducci6n de los cultivos y pastos (Sánchez, 1977). En cualquier caso la reducción es importante.Toledo y Morales (1978) consideran que el uso del tree-<::rusher debe ser estudiado con mayor cuidado porque éste deja la vegetaci6n tendida en el suelo pero puede ser quemada y de acuerdo a sus cálculos la presi6n ejercida sobre el suelo es poco mayor que con un tractor.En su análisis de costos el tree-crusher result6 aún más econ6mico que el trabajo con hacha y machete y los dos mucho más baratos que el trabajo con tractor de oruga.Hasta aqur hay poca diferencia entre la explotación del bosque tropical de suelos infértiles y suelos fértiles. En adelante, las especies utilizadas, los sistem•as de produ=i6n prevalentes y la producci6n an ¡mal obtenida cambian de acuerdo a la fertil idad original del suelo y serán por tanto discutidos por separado. 1. Bosque tropical sobre suelos infértiles.Está representado por la gran cuenca del Amazonas y corresponde por esa raz6n a unos 550 millones de hectáreas, de las cuales una pequeña parte está localizada en las costas de Suramérica.El desarrollo ganadero es apenas Incipiente habiendo prevalecido el sistema de cultivo migratorio, en el cual el ganado no forma tradicIonalmente parte. Sin embargo, con el aumento de la pOblaci6n humana, en unos casos, el desarrollo de otros' recursos en el área o el interés • • . . de tos gobiernos por desarrollar esa fuente potencial de riqueza, aumentan cada dra los asentamientos en la selva Amazónica. En algunos ca~os, se han registrado grandes proyectos comerciales que han tenido poco €lxi.to. Los fracasos han tenido su razón de ser precisamente por desconocer la fragilidad de la fertilidad del suelo una vez que ha desaparecido la foresta yel efecto residual de su quema.Se estima que hay 2 millones de hectáreas de pastos en la Selva Amazónica (Sánchez 1977) muchos de los cuales disminuyen su productividad en el lapso de 4-6 años por p€lrdlda de la ferti1idad del suelo (Toledo y Morales 1978).Las especies que predominan son.!:::l. rufa, como la menos exigente en fertilidad y P. maximum en suelos de mayor fertilidad.En una prueba de pastoreo de varios años de duración en Pucallpa, Perú (Morales y Santhirasegaram 1977) se ha demostrado la posibilidad de mantener una asociación de leguminosa-gram(nea (S. guianensis -H. rufa) con la aplicación de 200 kg de superfosfato/ha/año con carga animal de 2.4-3. O novLUos,lha y una producciÓn superior a los 300 kg de ganancia de peso/ha/año. Con el mismo nivel de fertn Ización las praderas de la gram(nea sola producen menos de la mitad. Este rendimiento de la gramrnea sola es consistente con la tasa de reproduc-ciÓn de 59\"/c encontrada por Vaccaro y colaboradores (1977) en la misma área sobre praderas de H. rufa y'especies natives y con la conclusión de que con esa tasa de reproducción no se pagan los costos de tumbar la selva y establecer una pradera. Es de esperar que con la inclusión de una leguminosa el balance resulte más positivo.Finalmente, se debe recalcar el hecho de que la ganaderra en el áréa amaz6nica no es tradicional y que en ella están todavra por decantar los sistemas de producción ganadera que perdurarán.Bosque tropical sobre suelos de fertiHdad media a alta.En este grupo de condiciones ecológicas se agrupan áreas de una gran diversidad geográfica y de cHmas. Por facilidad de descripción ecológica conviene separar é>ste en dos grupos grandes de acuerdo a la lluvia en regiones húmedas y regiones secas. La división entre unas y otras está en los 1 .000 mm de lluvia anual aproximadamente.En las regiones húmedas se incluyen áreas del Sureste de También el fuego ha sido empleado co n éxito para mantener la maleza controlada en praderas de !:. max imum , quemando la pradera cada tres años, al final de la época seca luego de que ha sem iUado y permitiéndole luego su recuperaci6n por 3-5 meses de la época de lluvia. En un sistema de pastoreo de 4 potreros, se puede establecer este sistema muy efectivamente (Betancourt 1976).Il. Descripci6n de los sistemas de producci6n más comunes.Una descripción como la que se intentará a continuación envuelve inevitables generalizaciones que pueden ser combatidas en casos especfficos pero que en forma global representan los sistemas en' uso más com(m en el trópico de América.Cualquiera que sea el sistema, la caracter(stica general es su aparente ineficiencia y sus niveles bajos de pl\"Oducci6n con relaci6n a las ganaderfas de las zonas templadas y de acuerdo a los niveles de producción que se obtienen en las Estaciones Experimentales. Con frecuencia se menciona que el nivel de extracci6n de carne global en el trópico es de solamente el 13'1< seg6n Raun (1976), 12-15'1< seg6nPlasse (1974), 10-11'1< seg6n Stonaker (1975) y cuando en pa(ses de cl imas templados alcanza niveles superiores al 24'1<. Es necesario recordar, antes de pasar juiCio sobre estos valores, que en el trópico americano la ganaderfa está a6n activamente en un proceso de \"expansión horizontal\" (Moore 1976) porque no se han ocupado a6n todas las tierras susceptibles de ser ocupadas por el ganado y que por tanto en forma global la demanda por la tierra ocupada por el ganado es muy baja, corno 10 es la necesidad de eliminar las hemb-as improductivas. Del análisis de las explotaci-ones ganaderas del tr6pico americano se puede conclurr que en ellas se hace uso rac lonal del capital humano, monetario y de conocimientos si se consideran las condiciones de medio ambiente, sociales y econ6micas y que el ganadero está, en la mayorra de los casos, empleando la tecnolog(a que resulta en ingreso estable y seguro.Para cambiar esos sistemas de producci6n se precisa la introducci6n de incentivos econ6micos duraderos y de suficiente alcance (Paladines 1974).Todos los sistemas de producci6n descritos se pueden encontrar en cada una de las áreas eCOlógicas del tr6pico. Sin embargo, los sistemas más extensivos están generalmente asociados con las áreas de sabana y con los suelos de baja fertilidad, en tanto que en suelos de mayor fertilidad se encuentra la lecherra especial izada y las explotaciones de engorde. La distancia a los centros urbanos es un factor modificador que, al aumentar el precio de la tierra, impulsa la intensificación yel desarrollo de lecherras especializadas. Finalmente, la finca pequeña yel minifundio que contribuyen numéricamente en forma significativa, se distribuyen aparentemente en forma poco 16gica, en todas las regiones ecológicas, desde luego con tendencia a aumentar en las áreas cercanas a la ciudad, pero sin relaci6n con la fertilidad del suelo.A. Sistem'Sls extensivos.Se incluyen en los sistemas extensivos aquellOS dedicados casi exclusivamente a la crra de ganado de carne ya las explotaciones 824-• que erran y recrean. La crea sola implica la venta de terneros al destete y la recrra la venta de novillos o toretes entre los 2 y 3 años de edad o cuando han alcanzado 250-:300 kg de peso.Estos sistemas son los más difundidos en las áreas de sabana nativa y se encuentran también muy frecuentemente en suelos de fertilidad media yen algunos casos de fertilidad alta. Las características de producción son muy comunes a pesar de compararse pafses diferentes o áreas diferentes.En un estudio realizado en los Llanos de Colombia (sabana nativa)Stonaker y colaboradores (1976) examinaron la producción de hatos ganaderos localizados en dos áreas diferentes, la una en la sabana abierta, de suelos más pobres y menos lluvia (1500 a 3000 mm/año) y la otra adyacente pero adherida a la CordiHera Oriental de los Andes, con suelos de fertilidad algo superior y mayor lluvia (3000 a 4.500 mm/año).Tanto por las diferencias en fertilidad del suelo y régimen de lluvias, como por el hecho de que las explotaciones del \"pie de monte\" están cercanas a los mayores sitios poblados del área¡ en ésta se encuentra una proporci6n elevada de praderas cultivadas que se emplean fundamentalmente para engorde. La sabana del \"pie de monte\" se considera como de mejor calidad y por ende de receptividad más elevada (1-:3 ha/ cabeza contra 3-8 ha/cabeza en la sabana abierta). Sin embargo, las explotaciones de crra tuvieron en las dos zonas caracterrsticas de pro-ducci6n muy similares (Cuadro 6). Las diferencias principales parecen ser las que obedecen a la cercanra a la ciudad.Casos similares se presentan en muchos lugares del tr6pico.Otro ejemplo importante es el presentado por Saturnino y colaboradores (1976) cuando estudian las caracterrstlcas de producción del Cerrado en sus tres Estados principales: Goias, Minas Gerais y Mato Grosso. En este caso, se reconoce qu.e en el estado de Minas Gerats, la producción ganadera es bastante más intensiva que en los otros dos Estados y sin embargo la productividad es muy parecida. Las diferencias son realmente mayores dentro de un mismo estado que entre estados (Cuadro 1) y estas diferencias responden al grado de intensificación de los hatos.Lo que resulta interesante es el hecho de que en todos los parses del trópico americano, independientemente del suelo o del clima, predominan las explotaciones extensivas y que todas ellas presenten aproximadamente las mismas caracterrsticas de baja productividad.La baja fertilidad del suelo, que está asoc iada con las explotaciones más extensivas, ocasiona en los pastos niveles deficitarios de los minerales esenciales para el ganado, principalmente de P y Ca, pero muy posiblemente de otros elementos. La carencia mineral es, entonces, un comón denominador de las explotaciones extensivas. Los resultados de la suplementaci6n sobre el crec imiento y sobre la reproducción en América Tropical está documentándose rápidamente (Fick et al. 1976), encontrándose efectos muy positivos. Asr, en los Llanos de Colombia, la natalidad'aumentó del 59% al 76% con la provisi6n de una mezcla mineral completa yen el crectmiento de terneras se consiguió a la distancia de los centros poblados para la compra del suplemento y las veas de comunicación poco efectivas pero en algunos casos esto no pareda ser un factor (Stonaker ~ al. 1976). Además parece haber gran variación entre áreas en el uso del suplemento. En el Cerrado de Brasil, donde las deficiencias de P y Ca son marcadas, se enccntró que la suplementaci6n con minerales variaba entre O\"/e a 80% de las éxplotaciones de Golas, entre 10% y 30% en Minas Gerais, 5 a 95% en Mato Grosso (Saturnino et!:.L. 1976). Pero es en cambio curioso observar que la mayorfa de las explotaciones de los tres estados empleaban sal común (70-100% en Golas, 80-90\"¡\" en Minas Gerais, 5-100% en Mato Grosso) a pesar de que serra muy dificil demostrar una deficiencia por Na o CI.Los sistemas intermedios.se refieren a las explotaciones ganaderas que \"extraen\" leche de las vacas de crra en los hatos de ganado de came y a los hatos de doble prop6sito.La importancia de los sistemas de \"extracci6n de leche a vacas de crra\" es evidente y ha conseguido finalmente interesar a los técnicos en producci6n animal que por décadas\"y Cr\"eo yo que debido a influencias extemas, se negaban a admitir\" no s610 la 16gica de esta, pr\"áctica sino aÓn su existencia. Finalmente se ha llegado al punto de montar\" proyectos de investigaci6n basados en esta práctica (lNIAP, 1977).Como su nombre indica el sistema consiste simplemente en or\"deñar algunas, nunca todas, las vacas del hato y extraer una parte (generalmente 2 cuartos) de la leche en un ordeño. La cantidad de leche extrarda varra mucho, pero desde luego es siempre en pequeña cantidad (Rivas 1973, Muñoz et al. 1977, Garcra ~ ~ 1977), a pesar de que la cantidad es pequeña, el ingreso monetario que r\"epresenta la venta de esta leche es muy importante y sirve como dinero de caja para la operaci6n diaria del hato.En el Cerrado de Minas Gerais, la venta de leche contribuy6 al ingreso total de las empresas, en las cuales se producran cultivos y se rnantenran hatos ganaderos, en los siguientes pOr\"centajes segón tamaño pr\"omedio de la finca: 49.5%-12.6 ha; 39.6% -57.4 ha; 31.2% -237.8 ha; 21.9% -1.550 ha (Butteri ~al. 1972). En la zona ganadera de la Costa del Caribe de Colombia, en la cual se' encuentra el 51% de la poblaci6n ganadera del pafs y por eso mismo es el área ganader-a más impor\"tante, R ¡vas (1973) encontr6 que la venta de leche \"extrafda\" al ganado de came aport6 al ingreso bruto en 33.4% en fincas de 0-200 ha. 29.6% en 201-500 ha Y 13.0\"/0 en fincas de más de 500 ha. Estas cifras concuerdan con las presentadas por Butteri y colaboradores (1972) para Brasil. Los dos grupos de datos dem~estran claramente la importancia de la \"extracci6n\" sobre la economfa de la finca y nos indica la raz6n eéon6mica para esta práctica considerada irracional por la técnica.Pero no solamente la rac ionalldad económica de los ganaderos ha mantenido esta práctica, sino que está claro que los mecanismos biológicos de compensaci6n del crecimiento la favorecen C. Sistemas intensivos.Son por mucho, los menos frecuentes en el trópiCO americano y cuando los hay se presentan en áreas muy especrficas. Dividiremos a estos en dos: lecherra y engorde.La actividad especializada de lecherra se realiza En las explotaciones especializadas de leche en el tr6pico ha sido costumore deperder en alto grado de los suplementos c;oncentrados, sobre todo en la época seca. La suplementación tiene siempre un , efecto positivo sobre la producción de leche. CombeBas (1977) estima que en pcraderas tropicales de buena calidad y con buen manejo se obtienen 0.33 kg de leche por cada kg decconcentrado suministrado. Es de esperar que en las explotaciones comerciales esta conver.sión mejore.La economía en el uso de concentrado dependerá entonces de la relaci6n de precio de los dos productos. En años recientes la relaci6n ha sido muy desfavorable por el aumento en el prec io de los concentrados.Es de esperar que con la introducci6n de leguminosas en las praderas tropicales la lecherfa especializada reciba un gran estímulo porque se lograría mejorar la calidad del forraje y se reduciría en alguna medida la carencia de forraje en la época seca (Pérez Infante y Carnejo 1977). Con todo, es dificil visualizar una industria especiallzada de leche en el verdadero tr6pico húmedo, en el que la carga de enfermedades y plagas, el clima, la humedad excesiva del suelo y los Forrajes de calidad baja y variable a través del año, actúan en contra del organismo en delicado equilibrio de la vaca lechera de alta produc-ci6n.Los sistemas de producción de doble prop6sito, aún con los métodos más sofisticados de allmentaci6n actualmente en investigaci6n (Preston 1977), parecen ofrecer la vía intermedia en la provlsió n de leche en los países tropicales que sin excepci6n son importadorces de leche. en la misma finca, los novinos usan las praderas cultivadas yen la época seca las pal\"tes bajas. Hay tendencia a incorporar el engorde en las explotaciones de crra porque el productor sabe que es la actividad más rentable y porque provee una forma de rápido movimiento de caja.Como en el caso de la producción intensiva de leche, en el engorde se ha estudiado la posibll idad de emplear la fertilizaci6n para elevar la receptividad de las praderas y aumentar la producci6n. Con el empleo de niveles superiores a los 200 kg de N/ha y los otros elementos segón sea el caso espec(fico se puede producir más de una tonelada de pesol halaPlo (Paladines y Forero 1977, Vicente-Chandler 1977). Estos sistemas intensivos han sido estudiados últimamente negándose a la pronto han terminado en fracaso, lo mismo cuando la alimentaci6n ha sido a base de granos o forraje fresco. Experimentalmente se ha demostrado que se puaden producir dos toneladas de ganancia de peso o más con el forraje de una hectárea de Penisetum purpureum o caña de azúcar (Moore, C. P. 1976, Preston 1975) pero estos s istemas requieren de la provisi6n de aproximadamente 1 kg de proterna suplementaria, que puede ser una torta de oleaginosa o forraje de yuca o de una leguminosa (Moore, C.P. 1976), por cada kg de proterna animal prodUCida.Es posible que estos sistemas de engorde intensivo con forrajes de caña de azucar y yuca sean util izados en el futuro en algunas áreas del tr6pico, pero la difusi6n de estos sistemas estará limitada por la jus-tificaci6n econ6mica, en condiciones en las cuales no hay \"verdadera necesidad para complicarse la vida\" con sistemas delicados y de mucho mayor riesgo.No es posible dar cifras del número de cabezas de ganado que están en manos de los pequeños productores agr(colas, no ganaderos, aquellos que son prácticamente de autoconsumo. Las estadrsticas ganaderas normalmente ignoran productores de menos de 10-20 hectáreas.Sin embargo, una vez sobrepasado el lrmite de área que una familia campesina puede manejar en cultivos tropicales con sus machetes y su fuerza frsica, estimada en 2-3 hectáreas, el resto del área es inevitablemente sembrada con pasto, o los pastos naturales entran en las áreas de cultivos abandonados.Dos ejemplos, muy distantes el uno del otro, ilustran este punto. En el Cerrado Minero de Minas Gerais, Brasil (Butteri et <: !. 1972) se encontr6 qLe el 24% de las explotaciones tenran un área de menos de 20 hectáreas (promedio 12 ha). En estas fincas, 3.0 hectáreas se emplearon para cultivos y 6.9 para praderas (66.3% del área), habiendo 13.5 cabezas de ganado bovino por explotaci6n y una carga animal de 1.54 unidades bovinas/ha. La ganaderfa contribuy6 con 28% al ingreso bruto de la empresa estando distribufdo igualmente entre la venta de leche y de animales. En una encuesta real izada en cinco regiones de Colombia (Cardozo et al. 1977)  Los dos ejemplos presentados dan una clara idea de la abt.ndante cantidad de ganado vacuno que se produce, aCn si en forma ineficiente, en las pequeñas explotaciones familiares del tr6pico.Para el pequeño productor, la ~naderra y en este concepto se incluyen los cerdos, cors tituye su caja de ahorro y fondo de, emergencia que reemplaza a los Bancos, entidades que no conocen o en las que no confran. Socialmente es un factor de estabilidad famn lar y la base de confianza en el futuro econ6mico. También socialmente, dentro de la comunidad, es un factor de prestigio.El aumento en el número de cabezas ocasiona con frecuencia carencia de forraje y rastrojos de cultivos que sirven para la alimenta-ci6n del ganado, debiendo el pequeño productor recurrir a las orillas de los caminos para pastar su ganado. Esta \"ganaderra de la carretera\" es en el tr6pico una escena com6n y por la frecuencia con que ocurre impresiona como una fuente importante de forraje para el ganado. o más, también en razas cebuinas cuando se ejerce un debido nivel de selecci6n de hembras fértiles (Plasse 1973, lNlAP 1977, IICA 1969).En el ganado destinado a la producci6n lechera se ha introducido con más persistencia sangre europea especial izada entre ellas Holstein y Pardo Suizo, como las más frecuentes. Parecerra, como se dijo antes, que los animales 1/2 sangre y 3/4 europeo pueden ser animales productivos y bien adaptados. Sin emoargo, la gran masa ganadera de la cual se obtiene leche en el tr6pico de América es mezclada de crioUo con Cebú. Algunos intentos de seleccionar ganado criollo puro para producci6n de leche han tenido éxito modesto (Deaton 1975, Abreu et al. 1977) pero han sido igualmente efectivos los cruzamientos     2\"'---,f.-. ---J l $ ..k:-::t I J \\'V j lJ r' I ~:r \\..  .), ,-\"   Establecimiento: .. Epocas de siembra en A. gayanus\".Valor Nutritivo:\"'Consumo de D. ovalifolium por animales en-pastoreo., Todos los experimentos mencionados son \"Aleatorios\". Vamos a definir lo que es un \"Experimento Aleatorio\" en contraste con un \"Experimento Determinísti co.\\\" . tEs aquel cuyo resultado está sujeto a variacionesno controlables por el experimentador. EJ.: Experi mentos biológicos.Experimento Determinístico: Es aquel cuyo resultado no está sujeto a variaciones no controlables por el experimentador. EJ.:\"Experimentos físicos.La Estadística y la Probabilidad ponen a nuestro alcance métodos que nos permi Ti Eoa de Error Error de Tipo r:Error de Tipo 1 7• ten sacar conclusiones, con cierto margen de error, sobre los resul tedos de experimento\"s aleatorios.Dos tipos de error se pueden cometer al sacar co~ ~lusiones sobre un experimento aleatorio, a saber:Rechazar una hipótesis cuando es cierta.No Rechazar una hipótesis cuando es falsa.Definamos aderró.s a y (l como sigue:Probabilicad de cometer error de Tipo r.= Probabilidad de cometer error de Tipo 11.tDebido a que los métodos estadísticos existentes nos permiten Rechazar una hipótesis planteada, pero nunca Aceptarla, el deseo del experimentador es minimizar la probabilidad de cometer error de Tipo I, es decir, trabajar con un a (probabilidad de Rechazar una hipótesis cierta) muy pequefio.Por esta razón, al iniciar un experimento, el valor de a se fija de a~ temano. Este valor es lo que se conoce como el \"Nivel de Significación\" deuna prueba estadística. Así, podemos definir:Nivel de Significación de una Prueba Estadística =. a = Probabilidad de cometer error de Tipo 1 = Probabilidad de rechazar una hipótesis cierta Entonces: Si el nivel de significación de una prueba es a = 5%, tenemos una probabilidad de equivocarnos (rechazando una hipótesis cierta), de solo 5~; es decir, nuestro margen de seguridad (de estar en lo cierto) es de 95%. En este caso, decimos que el nivel de confian7.s será de 95%.Igualmente, si el nivel de significación es de 1%, el nivel de confi~ za será de 99%.Los niveles de significndón mñs llandos son de ti = 5% ya'\" 1%. Aveces se utiliza un a = 10%.---_o~----Biometrfa en CIAT es un departamento de servicio, cuya misión es hacer el Disefio y Análisis de los experimentos que realizan los distintos programas.El Disel'io de un Exnerimento indica la forma CO!110 se deben aplicar los tratemi!mtos a lrs \\lnidade:, experimentales 'y el número de unidades que se de ben er\\plenr., Todo disefio está expresado en forma teórica mediante un Modelo Matematico correspondiente.Análisis de los Datos. Cada diseño tiene una forma específica de ser ana liZado. El análisis de los datos nos permite sacar conclusiones válidas sobreciertas hipótesis planteadas por el experimentador dado un cierto nivel de siK nifica.ción. La producción de carne en los Llanos Orientales es susceptible de mejora.Có¡:¡o resolver este problema? Cómo lograr mejor producción de carne enlos Lenos?~chas son las hipótesis que el experiment~dor se puede plantear. Sigu~n \" l.\" <.; do nuestro e.lemplo, eat.a~ pueden sel': El tipo de pasto influye en el aumento de peso Una suplementnci6n alimenticia contribuye al aumento de peso Hay diferencia en el aumento de peso de acuerdo al tipo de suple-I'lentsción La en). rr.i'1eralizada produce ¡nsyor aumento de peso que la sal nomin,'?'rnl izada Ln.!l condicicn~~ de manejo afec't¡an el aumento de peso del animal. Si se desean probar más de dos hipótesis simultaneamente se utilizarán \"Diseños Factoriales\".El experimento debe realizarse siguiendo exactamente el diseño planeado.Cada diseño se analiza en una forma específica. La técnica usada para datos continuos, es el Análisis de Varia.nza {ANOVA). Para analizar datos discretos (no continuos l, existen otras técnicas; Una de ellas es la prueba CIII-CUADRAOO para tablas de continGencia.Ilos concentraremos en la técnica de análisis para datos continuos, es decir en el AllOVA. La f'orma de realizar los cálculos para el ANOVA depende de c.i el diseflo CG \"balanceado\" o es \"no-balanceado\".Un Diseño es Balanceado cuando cada tratamiento se aplica a igual número de unidades experimentales. Es decir, cuando el número de observaciones es igual para cada tratamiento.Un Diseflo es !lo B,üanccndo cuando por lo menos un tratamiento se aplica.  experimentales\" del diseño y las variedades son los \"tratamientos\". Estamos probando un solo \"factor\":el factor \"variedad\" a 3 \"niveles\": Variedad 1, Va riedad 2 Y Variedad 3.Si nos preguntamos: Cuál es el m{nimo número de uni dades experimentales que necesitamos para ensayarlos 3 tratamientos? La respuesta será 3.Entonces, si dividimos el terreno en 3 parcelas o -\"unidades experimentales\" y aplicamos cada tratamie!!.to una Con'2 Replicaciones Con 1 Replicaci6nResumamos:Un diseño de Bloques al Azar se aplica:Cuando se de~~a ver el efecto de un solo factor con cualquier número de niveles (E:n el ejemplo 110. 3. \"Variedad\" con 3 niveles), pero el terreno no es \" .. Entonces se nos presenta un experimento con 3 clasifícaci~ nes: \"Variedad\" con 3 niveles ;\"Tiempo de Siembra\" con 3 niveles j y .• I\"loque I! con 3 ni veles .Una forma de aplicar los tratamientos a las unidades experirnentales es la siguiente, {para 1 Replicación}:Siembra en Julio 4~ DISEllo CUADRADO GRECO-LATII10 (de 4 Clasificaciones)Este disefto ~igue los miónos patrones que el Diseño Cuadrado Latino, con la diferencia de que~utiliza para medir el efecto de 4 factores con igual número de niveles, en vez de 3. Tampooo sirve para medir interacciones.  La productivid~d del pRstO se medirá según la producción de materia seca por matero.Se cree iniciall'lente que puede existir interacci6n entre \"Especie\" y \"tratamiento mineral del suelo\", es decir que las dos especies reaccionan en ro!\"\",n distinta ante los 4 tratrunientos minerales.Sl prOpÓsito del experimento es entonces ver si cad$ uno de los factorps. \" •~l¡:,., de 8\",,10\", \"Espt>cie\" y \"Tra.tamiento Mineral\") ejerce o nÓ una influencia fis~éiv~ ~obre la. prOductividad del pasto'y además ver si la interacci6n \"Especie X Tratrudento I~in!\"re.l\" cs significativa. ((4)   Se desea ver el efecto que ejerce la plaga Thrips en la producción de 4 variedades de yuca, con y sin aplicación de insecticida , con y sin riego. lIay 3 factores que afectan la producción de yuca, a saber: \"VA.riedad\" ____ a 4 niveles • con \"Insecticida\"---a 2 niveles< .s~n \"Fic(\\o\" con ----a 2 niveles< ' s~n Si quisi~ramos utilizar un Diseño Factorial de ( 4 x 2 x 2) el mínimo número de unidades experimentales para una repiicaci6n sería 16. Es decir, deberíamos dividir el terreno en 16 unidades 1 aplicar a cada unidad, uno de los 16 tratamientos.Desafortunfida~ente, Se disponía para este experimento de dos terrenos ~ .. parados y ninguno de ellos ern lo sufidcntcrnentc r:randc corno para dividirse en 16 unidades.Entonces se hizo lo siguiente, Se dividi6 cada terreno en 8 unidades; se scrnbraron en cada terreno la\" 1, vo.rie<1ades en dos grupos: el primero recioió insecticida y el segundo no. 111 pri;¡¡er terreno se le aplic6 riego; al otro terreno no, y para lograr lns 4 replicaciones, se tomaron 4 observaciones de cada unidad.La dis~osicj6n se ve en el gráfico siguiente:--(~ obs.)(1; oos. ) El efecto del fac~or qU€ se aplica a las parcelas principales queda co!!.fundido con el efecto de blcques.c. el ejemplo anterior, el efeet\" del fact;or \",'iego\" está confundido con el efecto de \"Bloque\" _ P\",r cr,U, rnz.6n, al utilizar UJ1 diseño de PO.J,.,clall Sub-Div:f..dídas o sub-sub-divididdG, se aconseja aplicar a laz parcelas p~incipales el factor menos Importnnt,\" de codos_ r;OTA.:En las dos conferencias siguientes veremos c6mo se analiza cada uno delos tipos de diseño que han sido presentados hastn el momento.-----0-----8ao Otros ejemplos de datos continuos son: altura de un grupo de personas,medida en metros; area folear medida en cm 2 ; cantidad total de materia seca en kg: etc.  ---------------------------Haria Cristina Amézquita Unidad de Biometría CIAT !',ayo 27. 1975 Otros eje~plos de datos discretos son: el número de ramificaciones en plantas de yuca; el número de nUlas en fnmilias de 5 hijos; el número \" .de recuperaciones entre pacientes tratados con distintas drogas; etc.Nos vamos a concentrar en el análisis de datos continuos. Si se desea co~parar --2!!. me las utl. lza la \"Prueba T\". Si se desean comparar varias medias 5imultaneamente, se utiliza el Análisis de Varianza (ANOVA).•Asi, la técnica de análisis utilizada para los distintos diseños es el AllOVA.El AllOVA esencialmente separa la varianza total en componentes de varianza debidos a los distintos factores. Luego analiza cuán importantes son estos com~ nentes de varianza y con base en eso concluye sobre si un determinado factor produjo, o no, un efecto si.enificativo en los resultados; es decir, establece si exi!.te o no una diferencia sienificativa entre las medias de los distintos niveles del factor.Cada diseño obedece a un modelo matemático determinado y por lo tanto su -AllOVA se reali~a en una forma específica. Si el diseño es balanceado, los computos necesarios para hacer el Análisis de Varianza se efectúan de acuerdo a patrones convencionales.A continuaci6n presentamos la forma como se lleva a cabo el An~lisis de Va rianza para algunos diseños balanceados básicos.Utilizaremos ejemplos.1. E;iseño CO!')r.letamente al Azar)\",1, ::0, 1 De desea compa.rer el efecto de 2 tipos de pesto -Drachiaria y Nati vosobre el aumento de peso en novillos Zebú de 2 años, durante un períodO de 6 meses.Se dispone de un grupo homogéneo de 10 novillos (grupo homogéneo en el sentido de que son del mismo sexo y no difieren significativame~ te en edad, peso, condiciones de manejo, ete.).Tenenos lo siguiente: i . Se desea ver el efecto de un factor ,\"Tipo de Pasto\", a 2 nive-<: raehiaria les Ilativo ii) Le.S unidades experimentales (novillos) son homogéneas.Por estas 2 razones el disefio apropiado es el Completamente al Azar.Se separaron al azar los 10 novillos en 2 grupos de 5 d~dole a cada grupo un tipo de pasto. Los resultados fueron los siguient'es:Obc,ervaciones: Aumento de peso por animal, en kg.  V~ly este\" T calculado\" sigue la. distribuci6n T de studcnt con (nl + n 2 -2) grados de libertad.Reemplazando los valores de Xl' X '\" 6.97 El valor del T ca.1culado es m~r en cuanto ma.yor sea la diferencia entre las dos medias.T de la Tabla:(Tabla de la distribuci6n T de student) rt'l1;la de Decisi6n:Te al 5% .. 2.306 Te al 1% .. 3.355 Si T calculado ? T tabla a un nivel de sienificaci6n n, entonces la diferencia entre las dos medias es sir,nifice.tiva a nivel Q.Si T calculado, < T tabla. a un nivel de significe.ci6na, entonces la diferencia entre las dos medias no es significativa a nivel a.  Lt:Rip6tesis a probar -RO: a i = O aumento de peso del novillo J-esimo sometido a pacto tipo i efecto medio efecto del pasto tipo j error experimental en la observaci6n del novillo j-esimo sometido a pasto tipo i parai=1,2Esta hip6tesis nos dice que el efecto del tipo de pasto sobre el aumento ce peso es nulo.El l'.J:lO'lA tiene por objeto probar si esahip6tesis es falsa o n6. Prese!l. Total (corree:ido para el efecto medio) 9Por \"c:lusas de v<triación\" se entienden los distintos factores l¡ue inflcleyen sobre el aumento de pese del novillo. El \"Error\" es una causa de variación debido a que encierra una serie de factores no controlables por el experimentador, que al teran el aUlnento de N'SO dp 10B novillos, (p.e. clima, metabolismo del animal, pr~ ferencias, competencia entre animA~es, etc.).Por \"grades de-libertan\" (e.l.) se entiende la libertad que se tiene para es timar los distintos efectos. Por ejemplo, para estimar los efectos del tipo de pa~ t.o, CL l Y Cl 2 ' solo poseemos 1 grado de libertad puesto que al + CL 2 , = O. Es decir, [oderr.os estrnar libremente uno de los efectos; el otro queda. automáticamente dete!:. minado pues su suma debe ser cero. En general, si deseamos estimar el efecto deun factor con n niveles y existe la restricción de que la suma de los efectos sea cero,el númer~ de erados de libertad será n-l.Por \",u,\"\" de C\",vlr'idos\" (S.C.) debida a un cierto factor, se entiende la -\"\"el! ue los cuadrados de las Jesviaciones de las medias de ese factor con respecto a lú media eeneral. Asi, la S.C. debida al tipo de pasto es:   Daremos en ser,uida la tabla del ANOVA correspondiente a nuestro ejemplo , .No. 1, con valores numerlCOS.  F Tabla 5% 1% , 5.32 11.26 Como F cale. ~ F tnbla tanto a nivel del 5% como del 1%, er.tcnces se rechaza la hipótesis Ro ( ai = O i : 1,2) con una probabilidad de error de solo 1%.Es decir el efecto de tipo de pasto es significativo n un nivel del 1% (por eso aparecen ~asteriscos en la tabla en frente del factor tipo de pasto).Esto implica que el aumento promedio de peso debido a pasto Brachiaria es significativamente mayor que el debido a pasto Nativo.Ej. 1;0. 2: Se desea comparar el efecto de 3 dietas alimenticias sobre la ganancia por peso de un grupo de 24 novillos, en un año. 12 de los novillos estarán en una finca con condiciones mínimas de manejo; los otros 12 en otra finca con mejores condiciones de manejo.Tenemos lo siguiente: Se desean ver los efeetos de:Factor \"Dieta\" a 3 niveles L Dieta 2 \"'-Dieta 3 \"Bloques\" a 2/Finca 1 niveles\"\" • \" 1 .Ir'HiEótesis e. Propar: 0.)Ganancia de peso de K-ésimo novillo que recibe la dieta i en In finen J ~ Efecto menio ::;> Efecto de la nieto. i ::¡;. Efecto de 1 n finca j ;:> F:rror experÜ1ental en la observación u('l novillo K-e8Ímo que recibe la dieta i en la finca j Ct. \" O para i = 1, e) 3 l... ,La. hipótesis Hl nos dice que el efecto dc la Dicta sobre la canancia de peso es nulo. Es decir, no existe diferencia entre las dietaS con respecto a la ganancia de peso obtenida en novillos. La hipótesis HE nos dice que el efecto de la Fincaes nulo, o sea que la canana in de peso es sensiblemente igual en cualquiera de las --------No se dará, en este caso,la tabla del MUÑA con valores nume'ricos.La. interpretación de \"Causas de Variaci6n\" • \"GradOS de Libertad\" , \"Suma de Cuadrados\" , \"F calculada\" y \"F tabla\" es la misma. que se di6 para el IJ.lOVA correspondiente al Diseño Completamente al Azar.Dietas Bloques (Fincas ) g.l.   = número total de unidades experimentales (novillos)= número de unidades experimentales por Dieta = número de unidades experimentales por Finca = sume. total de cuadrados = valores encontrados en le. tabla de la distribución F con 2 grados de libertad para el numerador y 20 para el denominador, para niveles del 5% y del 1% respectivamente.= Valores encontrados en la tabla de la distribución F con 1 grado de libertad para el. numerador y 20 para el denominador, para niveles del 5% y del 1% respectivamente. T.'S decir, si existen diferencias entre los bloques (finca.s).:'i r c:Üc.'::\" 1'1,20 a nivelo., no ce puede recÍlnzm' lh a ese Dado que tenemos 6 soluciones y 6 \"6rdenes de aplicaci6n\", el di seDO que nos permite medir estos efectos con el menor número posible de embriones es Un Diseño Cuadrado Latino de (6 x 6).¡¡\"cesitamos entonces 6 embrionep,.Una forma de aplicar las soluciones a 10$ embriones para un Cuadrado Latino de (6 x 6) es la siguiente:   • donde i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 j \" 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6k \" 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6   HiEótesis a Erobar:      A partir de ente Aniíli~is de V'lrian7.0. podeMos concluir que:La di!' .. rencin entre la\" Soluciones no es sie:nificntivn.Le. diferencia e>ntre los 'órdenes de Aplicación' no en si¡;nificativa.Existen diferencias entre. los embriones, a un nivel del 5~ de significancia.  ,.1:0 3C dese\" medir el efecto de interacciones.Para medir el rendimiento, se toma el peso seco del grano a la cosecha en cada parcela. Se harán 2 mediciones por parcela.La disposición de los tratamientos a las unidades experimentales es como se ve en la figura:Siembra en Abril f.5.embro. en Julio Cada casilla representa una unidad experimental (parcela}en este ejemplo).Por consiguiente, nuestro diseño consta de 9 unidades experimentales. Se tomará.\"l 2 mediciones del peso !:lCCO del grano a la cor.ech:l por parcela; es decir, tendre~os un total de 15 observaciones.Como el número m{nimo de unidades para una Feplicución es 9, el número rnInimo de mediciones necesariaz es ?; hemos tomado 18 mediciones lo cual nos permite hacer 2 replicaciones del experimento. .C El efecto debido a \"Replicación\" no tiene sen-: 'ln $I\"r medido).Entonces tene~os cuatro clasificaciones,.cada ~1a con igual número de niveles: ,-----------------------------------Peso seco del prano de la parcela correspondiente a la Variedad i sembrada en el tiempo K con el fertilizante j yen el bloque r.Efecto de la variedad ~.Efecto del fertilizll.Ilte j.~ __ ~ __ -4 ________ Efecto del tiempo de siembra~.----r-------Efecto del bloque r.'-_____ Error experimental.Ct. El NIOVA tiene por objeto rechazar o no estas\" hip6tesis. onde VI , V2 ' V, \" Totales para las variedades 1, 2 Y 3 respectivamente FI , Fa' F, \" Tota.1es para los fertilizantes tipos 1, 2 Y 3 TI' T 2 , T, lO Totales para Enero, Abril y Julio respectiv!lXlente BI , B 2 , Ba \" Totales para los bloques 1, 2 Y 3 egla de Decisión ._Prueba para Variedades: Si F cale. ~ F tabla a nivel a, el efecto debido e.las variedades es significativo a ese nivel. Es decir, existe diferencia en el rendimiento de las 3 variedades.Rechazamos la hip6tesis H¡.Si F cale.\"::' F TAbla. a nivel (l, el efecto debido a las varieda.des no es significativo. Es decir, no existen diferencias entre los rendimientos de las 3 variedades.No podemos rechazar la. hiJ?6tesis Hl.'• Prueba para Fertilizantes: (aicuc la nisma regla de decisión)Prueba nara Tiemro de Siembra: (sigue la misma reela de decisión) (sigue la misma re~la de decisión)---o ---5. DISEflOS FACTORIALES .E,'. No. 5: En un experimento que dura 6 meses, se desea comparar el aumento de peso de terneros de 4 meses de edad en 3 tipos distintos de pradera (Parú, Parú con Ctylosante y Gtylosnnte) que recibcn,o nada de concentrado o 1 kg. de concentrado diario por animal.Se desea además medir el efecto de la interacción Pradera x Co~ centrado; es decir, ver cual es el resultado de dar o nó concen trndo con cada tipo de pasto.La situ'lción en la siguiente: reseamOli ver el efect.o de 2 factoree:Factor \"Pra.dera\" -------con 3 Pará niveles/\"\" Pará con Stylosante ,\"\"'-. Stylosante < o kg.Factor \"nivel de Conc<=ntrado\"-con 2 niveles Ganancia de peso del ternero K-ésimo que recibe nivel de concentrado j en la pradera. i .:Rfeeto medio.Efecto del tipo de pradera i .Efecto del nivel de concentrado J .Efecto de la pradera i con el nivel de concentrado J .Error experimental .Hipótesis a Probar ,.a.) H¡ Ct.el H3 (aBl. ij '\" O para. i :: 1, 2, 3 y J = 1, 2 (Le. hipÓtesis H 3 nos dice que el efecto d,e interacci6n es nulo)A continuación presentaremos le. tabla del Análisis de Varianza correspondiente a nuestro ejemplo rle. 5, inrlicnndo' cómo efectuar los cálculos.C\"U5as de  i. ,j ,1, l.r totAleh par~ las praderasx, , F 2; 3< F 2,30 I \" totales pa.ra O kg. de concentrado y para 1 ke. respectiva..\"Iler.tc PI el ' l'¡C 2 , .. P3 C 2= totale:; J1Prn lon ternerqs qu~ e.r.t6n ('r; FrRdern 1 con O k¡: de concentrado, en F:r1\"Crr; 1 con 1 ke de concentra do 't ~n :>:r-::..c!:re. 2 con O kg de concentrado, en Prt\\:. ~rl1 2 con 1 kr il\", concentrado, en Pr~dcra 3 con O kg de concentrado, y en PradJ?ra. 3 con 1 k8 de conl'entrado respectiva.mente El número de rrados ile libertad para \"Pradera\" y \"Concentrado\" es 2 y l ~ respectivamente, debido a que las restriccil5nes del modelo. alnos dejan solo con 2 estimaciones libres para 10$ a's, y una para los B's.Este punto de los r,rados de libertad ya lo habíamos tratado al principio de la 2a. Conferencia., con el análisis del Diseí'!o \"Completamente al Azar\".El n ero de grados de libertad para le interaccion Pradera x concentrado Regla de Decisión:-Es la misma de los diseños eXpliC1l,'10S anteriormente. Es decir:Si F cale.> F tabla a nivel a p\"ra cierto factor, entonces el efecto de ese factor es significativo a nivel a, es decir, exis ten diferencias estadísticamente Ri~nificativas entre las medias de los distintos niveles del factor.Si F ce~c.L F tabla a. nivel ('l para ci<:rto factor, el efecto de 1>010..., ese factor no es significativo > la variable ob~ervada..~~OTA:Observese que si hubiera1!'os utilizado 2 ~ernerof; por tratruniento, el anál.!.sis sí sería factible ,le realizar pero dejaría muy pocos erados de libertnd para el error.   Se desea comparn.r el E'fecto de 4 tipos de p.bono sobre la. pro<1ucci61C de ,'Hca.de 1!l :~\"?sE'f},do, ::1(\"1 es \"-.conGe,jnble, T'l.ra efecto de exactitud C11 lps :r-cf:ult:-dos de un e:xpcriroento, utiliz~r dos terrencs contieuos'J uno para ser rer,~\"¡')y el otro no.   --'-------, •d\" lClt,c se considera como un bloque incompleto pues ninguno conticne !:.2:!.o~.1\"\" tratamientos. !:ótesc que en esta forma el efecto de Riego queda confundido con el efecto de Bloque.1:, ' o '1\". un; J\"(\\<os exr,erir..entales utilizadas en el experimento es 16. y \"Sub-parcelas\" las subdivisiones de las Parcelas Principalp.s.En nuestro experi~ento tenemos lo siguiente:2 Replicaciones2 Parcelas Prindpafies: las correspondientes a las 2 niveles de \"Riego\"4 \"ub-parcelas en cnda parcela principal: las correspondientes a los 2 niveles de \"Abono\"Observaciones:~\"Qc¡'''lurl ~,./(J. 1 3, h   Producción en la sub-parcela k dentro de la parcela j en la replicación i ':;';'0 de Abono\" y a Jrr ll',teraceión \"Riego )( Tipo de Abono\" son nulos.El AllOVA tiene por obJ<>to reellazar o no estas hipótesis.   \" totales para las Sub-parcelas 1, 2, 3 y 4 respectivame e totales para: Parcela Principal 1 en la la. Replicaci6Parcela Principal 2 en la 2a. Replicació etc.PIS¡, P 1 S 2 , P¡S3,••• P2S 3 = totales para: Suh-parcela 1 dentro de lpo Parcela Principal 1 Sub-parcela 2 dentro de la Parcela I'rincipal 1 etc.\" Gran total E3 iMportante not9.r que la F ca1culmln p~,ra \"Replicación\" y lo. F calculada para \"Parcelo. Principal\" tienen como denominador el Cuadrado ~!edio del Error A (C.f.l.Error AlAsi como la F calculada para \"Sub-parcela\" y 10. F calculada para ia interacción \"Parcelo.Principo.l x !\"':ub-rarcela\" tienen como denominador el Cuadrado ~ledio del Error B (C.l.!. Error Bl.Esto se debe a que las variaciones dcbioas n \"Replicación\" y a \"Parcelas Principales\" deben ser comparadas con la variaci6n experimental entre Parcelas Principales y las vttriaciones debidas a \"Sub-parcela\" y \" \"Sub-parcela x Parcela Principal\" deben ser ccmparadas con la variación er.perimentnl entre Gub-pnrcelas.Es la misma. que se ho. explicado en todos los disenos anteriores.----I ----   ----.\"\"' \" -\"-----=,;;;;::.\"-=----------~-----1.1:: T : \" ,', ;' e e ION La cade\"la de producc16n ganaJer a ,ue omlenza con la disponibilidad dil~mer:. be., ') tos nutritivos para las plantas ~ .. el suelo, el agua de llu.via o riego o €G1 ,:\"mina beneflcamente para el hombr~ ha\" a cuando ese potencial de elema os quT \" micos y en(:rgetlcos son finalme¡.t' c< echad,os en forma de productos de consu: mo para el hombre. McDonald (1), inc ca que la producci6n de 101 rumiantes implica esencialmente la transfo, ,aci \"'n de elemental nitrogenados de las plan tss en protelnaa anlmal. Se pueue ag'egar que halta cuando e.a protelnl ani: mal ha sido producida, el proceso de <ransformaci6n luelo-planta-anilllal carece de valor y de hecho de lmporta~cia para el hombre., La evaluci6n de las praderas de~epor tanto llegar al uso del transformador l' final y sujeto de cosecha, el a,lhal. MAs aGn. no solo debe emple;lrse al enl mal como elemento de trans formac1'::~ s '.no que dabe hacerse en al marco mismo de • su explotaci6n habitual con las co,ldldones que prevaleceriín en el Siltema prf:1 ducción del cual formarA parte.Otras formas de información obtenldas en medios aislados, foriíneos y bajo co!!, dictor.es eco16gicas o de manejo e~trallas al medio aerAn te6ricas y cuando mejor llustratlvós, perrverdsderallv\"te demostrativas.Vale dicirlo en la 1rttroducci6n de hte capttulo¡ el investigador debe decidir 51 busca infol\"maci6n utilizable, ,,¡,HeabIe directa y suatancialmente a la ex- En ¡os experimentos de pastoreo es, \"1 se d\"5\":', m~s 1\",portflnte pilmt.arse cl¡¡-SIr.ente los obletivos del expet1Ir.r,,':', cnu's. mucho r.ntc>s, de proceder con la selecci6n del diseno, m~lodo expcrhlC'ntnl y locolharlo en el campo. 1.a• ra,(,n adicional, quP \"rr~~ent~ su imoortancia, es pi costo elevado y la magnitud Iísica de los experimentos dr pastoreo. 11 investigador, gener~l~ente, no puede epetir un experimento de pastoreo, si las conclusiones son dudosas o confusas. l costo es demasiado Dlto y la paciencis institucional demasiado corta para permit lrselo.~articularizando en los experimentos de pastoreo debemos definir el o los objetivos en los siguientes t~rminos:1) Que informaci6n se desea obtener;2) A que medio eco16gico deben .aplicarse los resultados.3) Dentro de que Sistema de Producción se emplearán los resultatados obtenidos.e reconoce sin embargo que hay tres categorlas de objetivos en los cuales se uede plantear un experimento de•pastoreo: nvestiGación de capacidad óptima de producción, investig~ci6n de ls capacidad e la producción adecuada a las condiciones de la explotaci6n e investigaci6n e la capacidad de produccHm de las praderas como parte de un sistema interal de producción.a primera dpcisl~n del investigador será localizar su proyecto de investigntér, dentro de un:! de Est,.S ciltPRortas, )' e~ su concppto elaborar los objeti-Tes esp€cUicos del eXpCr1.mél\\to. Hncerlo, ayudart! a esclarecer lo que a vecet ~uedc parecer confusión de o~jetivos.--~---\"---\",. Se ha c;~idc ~ecelari0 incluir una seccitn corta ~n la cual se pres.,te,• c' •• n•le <I.e ideas 5úbrE le•g fur.damentoe t~cniC09 dIO lar. ¡:..rllctic&a de 1I\\\".,\"j, \", las ¡:ra:leraS, per ce•r.e ldu su e q:.:e as1 el .     Evidentemente la Prl'sibn de Pastoreo define mejor que la carga animal l\"s relaciones pEro se tropía?:. con el pr\"ulena en la práctica, que la Presión dI' Pastoreo, en un potrelCo que soporta un cierto número de animales por un oer{odo de tiempo, cambia de d1a a dia y podr1a decirse que de minuto a mi nuto. y es en esa menera incomprensible para el productor e inaplicable, Es cierto. sin embargo, ~ue el productor hace un juicio sobre presi6n depastoreo, cuando decide el numelCO de anil..ales que ha de poner en un potr~ r~ en un momento dado, aun m~s, ejerce el mismo tipo de juicio cuando deci de sobre el número de animales que puede mantener en su finca a través del año, pues mentalmente balancea lo que él estime que la pradera eS capaz de rf'ndir coqtra 10 que en su experiencia ese tipo de pradera es capaz de sop!\":\"'. tar en número de animales.2,• El efecto de la carga animal scbre la produce iOn por unidad de llrea se define ,or un r,un.cnto linear en el rEndimiento a medida ~ue aumenta la carga hasta un Vl.nto en que la disponibilidad de forraje por ln~ividuo impucatC' p\"r el número de éHoS es tal que la ganancia obtenida .. r\"r \"\"da animal eS demas iado peque!!a para 6er compensada por el mlmero de nnimales. La forma prreipitada en que la curva de rendimiento baja de.pues de el punto m~ximo se puede deber en parte a que según lo sugieren algun,•s trabajos experimentales (Lambourne and Reardon, 1963, Arnold ll!!l., 1965, Paladines ~ al •• 1971) el requisito de mantenimiento aumenta cuarr do los \"nilllales estan sometidos a carga elevadas.  Ib/d1as. La decis16n prActica sobra el ndmero de animales que se deberln colocar por unidad de ~rea as ~na ffiuY dificil Feto q~e deberA tomar en cuenta la rela -cÁtn discutida. Del trabajo de Hulí .!ll. al. (1961) se ha preparado la fugu. ra lII-1 qUé repte.enta en práctica la relaci6n propuesta por Mott, (l960).Este ejemplo se emplearé para discutir la linea de decisi6n que este tipo de 1nfcrmacÁbn ofrece:1.-De los resultado9 vbtenido6 no se puede decidir si es que en la car ga dé 1. 3::'/ aCIe se habta ll¿g\"d\" ya al punto en que la dis • ponibi11dad de forraje no limitaba el creCImiento por individuo. Por la forma de la curva se puede dedUCIr que tal vez estaba 61n6 en ese punto, por lo men~s ffi\"'Y c\"roa, La t~~I',,~st.a a en\" 1nt\"rrogante no .tlene ningu • na importan~la Fráctica porque a Ese niv¿l de carga e9 de esperar que a6n si la ganancia p\"r anlmal autnent&ba. de tildaa maneras la producc16n por aer!, seria demasiado bl>ja para que tenga valor pr:'ctico. Si reilulta interesante hacer la observa~i6n de que en términos de engorde práctico de novillos, la carga a emplearr.e debe estar por scbre. El ~'-nto de ganancia mlixima que, entre otras cesas es el cunte en que la dlsponibll idad del forraje no limita ln PRnancia por individuo.  de cada slc;:tema~ el aumente de 1 J Ca.q~d ~ca&l (.r.6 u:;\", dl:i'minución impcrtd\\¡te .en el refidimicnto ror anlm~li y ntre sistcm~5. la rotJcitn en la Larga bn~2 La interacci6n entre ~i9te~a de pastoreo ~or c6rga animal ha sido reconf1! mado en un buen nGmero de trabajes posteriores y ,onstituye ahora ya un hecho completamente a,eptado. Debe anotarse que todoS ~llcs se realizaron sobre praderas de clima templado. las cuale3, por BU h&bito general de C~t cimiento poco erecto, macollante-., ~ Im,u:hoa caso. imoortantf.8 .:atolonifero o rizamatoso, son cataces de resistir el pastoreo intenso mucho mejor que las erectas tropicales.~l aspecto lignificativo de esto radica en la aplicaciÓn prActica que se puede dar a los sistemas de pastoreo en el conjunto de la empresa ganadera. Veamos los puntos que deben entrar en el anlli.il.l.-Carga animal; por lo dicho antes, es el factor mis importante. El ganadero comunmente tiene tendencia (particularmente en g~ nado lechero) a mantener una carga baja en su explotación; lo hace porqu~ sabe bien que la capacidad de carga de sus prad6ras var(a mucho dentro del ano y a6n cuan~o tengamuchs agua de riego a su disposición, no aerA capaz de mantener una perfecta uniformidad de crecimiento del forraje. En esas condiciones prefiere desperdiciar algo de pasto en las épocas de mayor cr~ cimiento para defender la sobrevivencia de la pradera. , para obtener un beneficio significativo debemos aumentar la carta a niveles sobre 108 acostumbrados, para los cuales se conocen la mecAnica segura de n.a\"ejo, el factor riesgo aumenta notablemente. El productor, justificadamente, tiene muy en cuenta este f~c tor :uando conaidllra •PéllUn:eIF$ambios en el manejo de sus animales.  Se dijo en el punto antt ríor que generalmente el manejo de animales en carga de pastoreo baja, envo! via sistemas conocidos y tradicionea, .e requiere una Capacidad Administratjva un poco méB desarrollada para manejar un hato en carga superiore. en la~ cuales las emergencias no est~n aseguradas por la abundancia de forraje.4. -Inversi6n e lJlterh del Capital invertido .. El aume!l to en la carga animal implica aumento del n6mero de animales en la explotacihn. Se puede aumentar le cat~a dismlnuve~dn el Atea de la exrloraci6n y mantenimiento el miSmo nGmero de animales, reroEeenci&hre!>~er se tendrla lo mismo, puéa, para el t~rn8no de 18 nueva exploraci~n el número de animales aurnent6. El 8umenlC' en el nl.m~ro de animales illl?líca aumento de capi -t~l.La rotaciÓn requiete construcción adicional de cerca! y bebederOB p~ r~ el ganado, eato ai~nifica un aumento en la inversión. A.ociados con el aumento en el n6mero de animalee estA también en la ampli~ión de la. inatalaciones de ordeno, almacenamiento de suplementoB y ,orrale.. Se dece fi nal-ente conaiderar los au.entol de personal ad.inistrativo y de caMpO. p~ ra cli .. 1 te.pladol. de lo que le ha obtenido ep la literatura, .e puede ~I perar no .aa de un Jot de aumento total de~ido a la carga mi. elevada que soporta la rotaci6n. Contca estas cifras deben balancear.e 101 aumentos en las ln\"\"rai_ y cOltOI de producción.    LA.F, ha ya p<lsado líg'!!t¡,m<nte .... q•t!lIo(, Y 1, r\"IlIOÚc.r, de hejas no exceda el punto de l. A.F. m1ni,.,En 'l~\" la Unt<.ii   ~~~-::--~-~. ~ -;;';.~-\":\" -~._---'---~e acuerdo\" éste conc<'pto, se obrJene may,,' crecimie nto de la pradl\"ta, si los intérvalos entre cortes son mav~res (hasta antes de un punto máximo en que el l.A,F, haya Bobrepa~\\do s\" 6ptimo), Asl mismo, ide~lmente los past2 reos deben sar rApidos y suficientes para reducir el l. A.F. al punto dese! do y ler seguidos de periodo de descanso largo. Estos sistemas han sido co~ probados en parcélas peque~as para corte y pastoreo en que se han empleado ovejas como defoliadores.Este elegante concept, de mantener un l,A,F. adecuado en las praderas, tro-pl~za en prActica con el problema de que el productor cu\"nta con un 'r'ea definida de campo y un número definido de animales que debe alimentar, de eSe campo, Si la carga animal que mantiene el productor e\" demasiado baja, aparte del hecho de que la productividad por hectáreas ser~,baja. permitit~ la acumulaci6n de material vegetal viejo o muerto sin utilidad para el anirnql,compitiendo por luz con el material verde, Si la carga animal aumenta el productor tiene la alternativa de mantener un periodo de descanso menor c~rrespondiente con un perlodo de ocupaci6n menor de la pradera.; Sl quie~ alsrgar el perlo~~ de descanso para dar oportunidad de crecer m~s s lS'ptadera antes de recibir 108 animales se producir' un alargamiento de periodo de ocupaci6n de la pradera (Figura 111-4) y el aobrepastoreo del Area ocupada, lo cual ocasiona un l,A,F, del rastrojo demasiado bajo. En la prActi ca con cargas comunes para el tipo de pasto y regi6n, se ha encontrado en ocasiones que el perlado de descanso més largo no favorece la producci6n an! mal (Creek snd Nestle, 1965), La dilcusi6n que antecede rone de manifiesto la importancia de manejar la carga animal con mucho cuidado.Conocidos y clatamente deter!dnados los otjecivos, es necesario ahora definir como y con que SI\" procl\"d<,r~ a I\"stucia~, al nivel experimental, las preguntas ¡:lantEacas.Por la magnitud r!slra de los experulentos -de p6storeo, es tendencia comón tratar de reducir, un n-~ni:r.o la jH .. perficle de pastos y el n(lmero de anima-11\"$ del eleperür,cr:to. Esta t .. ,;ó .. ncB pu~de llevarse dem&siado lejos, confundií.\"ndo el \"f~c. d~ rc,lli:ear un (,l!~r;:,m<f.to COII el conocimiento objetivo de las magnitudes (tierra y antmalt:s) con las cu_les -se debe trabajar, para ob-[er.er resultados (Jue te~gar. vólor !!! predIcciÓn. Por ejem¡:.lo, si estamos localizadas dentro de un valle de diez mil heet~reas de pasto Pangola y con una poblaci6n de diez mIl cabezas de gafiádo, no parecerla razonable montar un experimento factorial de 2 x J con dos niveles de fert111zaci6n y tres cargas animales, contando con doce ar.imaies y nueve hect~re8S de pasto, si se pretende que los resultados obtt~1dos r~oresenten a las diez mil hect~r~as de pasto Fanr,ola del valle y a las dlez mil cabez6s -le ganado. El l.nvestigador debe contener su impulso de montar pequenas pruEbas de pastoreo \"aan cuando se sepa que Son insuficle~tes \", porque muy al contrario de lo que se espera, ahorrar dinero y es (uerzo. sol amente A<rar-L. desperdiciando dinero y es fuerzo y algo que es muy grave pon1~ndos( en peligro de suto-engano sobre la validez de sus resultados. Las expresiones son duras, pero me atrevo a asegurar que son ciertas. La separaci6n en bloques tler.~ como objeto eliminar las variaciones de calidad del suelo, de to>,ografia o ambas que se enCL~nttan casi invariablemente cuan-Jo ~e trata de superficies grandes de terreno. A.-  -tM'f»tlENT-G F='-=-f.:AU\"tt f , ! lil.AlJ,Ji'U..t<:.: ;.' . La F '.gura 1 demuestra la Forma en que iria distribuido un experimento de acuerdo a la pendiente..ULos bloques ... n1 las parcelas tienen necesari;¡ll'lp.nte que ser •rect Hinear, ea! \"~\"'''--'4~''_ acomodarlas de acuerdo a bloques de lados ir~e~ulares que aigan el contor-. no de fertilidad, de humedad, de accidentes del suelo.'odavla existe la situac16n en que la falta de uniformidad del suelo y/o de los pastos sea tal que nO permita formar bloques con parcelas contiguas de iguales condiciones de sueio y pastos. En este caso aún es deseable 'i posible formar bloques a posar de que las parcelas del bloque estt!n distanciadas unas d( otras. Si seri necesario emplear 108 mejores medios objetivos para detnminar que Aren v hasta donde estas son .uficlentemente untrormes para formar un bloque. Esta labor frecuentemp.nte es larga y tediosa, pero imprescindible. En estos casos, los siguientes son los elemen-t08 de juicio empleados en Su orden: composici6n botAniea de las pradera, crecimiento de forraje (rendimiento a trav~s del afta), fertilidad, textura y extructura del auelo.La Figura;2 presenta ejemplo de esta altusci6n .. A pesar de que el bloque estA constituido por parcelas en las trea localizaciones, continua aiendo un bloque porque 108 determinantes de la productividad, o .es los factores que afectan la producci6n, se mantienen uniFormes en las parcelas del bloque. Que esten en una u otra localizaci6n. (en distancias razonables•. no influit' en su productividad.  ,'un RH'f.'\" Este mismo ejemplo se puede \",nplesr para describir la disrribucibn d~ un ,1; seno de Parcelas sub-divididas, en que las parcelas mayores serian los niveles de riego, las sub-parcelas las <:!$pecies de forrajes y las sub-sub-p\", celas~ las cargas. Se podr1a ~\"coger este ,Iisef\\o cuando se debe sembt8r un Irea grande con cada espeCie y no lea roctlb'e la siemtra en parcelas ppq,,~nas.La Fip,ura 4 present~ fsaticamente el diseno de campo pata una de las tres repetic1cnes del experimento.  Este disefto tiene estad1stic:smente el inconveniente de que la sensibilidad con que se prueba cada factor no es igual. Ast, la sensibilidad eemayor para los factores que se dlstribuyi?n en las sub-subparcelas, menor para 108 de las 8ub-parcelas y menor aGn para los factores de las parcelas mayores. En el ejemplo de las Flpuras IV.  .En ~ac¡¡s,I~a:t':U-,;:~\",\"~jrh,t~~if;;:j,; ,~'c'!lit':¡h,,• \"=t;~'~\\<:'~al~~Nit-o cambii\" ce st:\"t\",,:,rc(' aí ('sta~J .:!.' :,;.;.tiHll1\\1 (!f'Jttt'\\n;:l . i:-').).I,a~ut11brio el evidrntcmente ~~s lento en R~gulllr6e. Por lo lar\" r\"r!\",!n\\ cottoSrlO pueden indIcar la capacidad de I'rodllccí6n verdadeTB de un' rr'?,\" 'b., \". Estos argumentos y otTOS que no serin discutidos en este mO¡I'I,,,nto, llevan' , la (:.orclus1lm de que para una justa evaluacHIIl de la productividad de las \"rade-O' ras sert.n'ec-esario manten€'r el exper imento por Val' los an~s y n:anten~r a 1 as vacas durante todo el periodo (allos) del experimento. aliffienrándcse a b2 ~ d~ la !,radéra que se estudia. I.os cOIl'\"ntarios hechos con relacl6\" a la longitud del petlodo expet Lment 31 de pastore~ en vacas lecheras, se aplica igual~Qte8eualqu-¡er otro tipo d, a~'• !: 'al. Lá objecci6n, como se d:ljo al'lteriormoante tie~e que ver en el ti€''1l-c r.<!t,' uno para que 'el sistema bl016gico altamente dlnfimlco •auelo•plauta•anlm,:,1 a<!qu,~ re U!I es't:.ado•'•eBtable y tal vez perman '.'nte. -Uf' exp>;l~imento de p28toreo con capo;~es sohre pradera de falaris IFh\"i\"Í\"i tutbé'''''' y ~r<>1:-ot bl\"nco (¡¡'rUoH'J\", recéns) en el U~uguay (¡rachele¡. c:>\",,:;i,¡;ci:,r, ,-eH~-;::~;'j\" dClI' Los e!rores p\\.JdiS\"\"':\"0n tf'0('-r un:] ID,1gritud tal qu€' cic;'t:rf.('''\",t~ f ' \":'2!'\" d~ escosrT y recome\"dar el f~rlco de 2~ a~trnal~sl hu~te:a S¡dC rrff€~l~ -.h.!-cO~~~llado el expe~imrnro. Otro error frecuente 8e encuentra en experimentos que pretenden comparar sistemas de pastoreo. El error consiste en emplear cargas diferentes para cada sistema de manejo. McMeekan (1956) subrayO este error en a1g~ nas de las primeras comparaciones que se hicieron entre sistemas de pastoreo continuo y pastoreo rotativo. (Brundage and Peter.en, 1952, Davia andPtatt, 1956).La carga animal, repetimos una vez mla, es uno de los factores de mayór influencia en la productividad de la pradera. Ciertamente la carga animal\", tiene un efecto que puede tener mucha Mayor magnitud que el .tatema'de pa,toreo. Por tanto al ae adjudica una carga aayor a un aiatema de pa.toreo se medlr5 una mayor productividad que equivocadamente le adjudique al afecto del sistema de pastoreo. La 6nica forma verdaderamente efectiva de .. dír el efecto de un sistema es emplear varias cargas para cada 8iatema dando oportunidad a cada uno de ellos de encontrar el nivel de pastoreo que aanteu¡. el equilibrio ante. anotado. Si el empleo de varia. cargas no e. factible, por lo menos le deberla mantener la mislll8 carga en too\". 108 • 1st .     (19:4). pero ha ¡ido Mott (1964,1957,1952) quien la ha descrito y popularIzado.El p~incipio del m(;todo implica el ajuste periodico en el ndmero de animales que pastorean la pradera para igualar la disponibilidad de forraje con el n6mero de animales disponibles para consumirlo. El investigador selecciona un grupo de animales uniformes, los cuales deberln permanecer en la pradera constantemente por el periodo _total de la prueba; a estos animales s/' denomina \"testigos\".El ndmero-4é'aRte,les testigos que se coloca en cada parcela es determinado calculando el n6mero que ~sta estará en capacidad de mantener permanentemente por la duraci6n:de la'prueba o la etapa determinada de la prueba. Por ejemplo, seleccionando el nGmero de novillos que la pradera serS capaz de mantener hasta cuando estos alcancen los 450 Kgs. de peso, o se1ecciona~dc el n1mero de vacas l~cheras que podrá la pradera mantener en producci6n durant~ la estaci6n de cr~ cimiento cel ferraje.la forma mAs efectiva y s~gura de determinar el n6mero de testigos es calcula~ d0 ,,1 número de ar,imales que la pradera serll capaz, de ma\\~tener adecuadamell~e óurante la ~poca de menor crecimiento de forraje en el ano. La produeci6n d. los animales testigos se ~ceptll como una rr.edida de 1 .. calidad dpl forraje disponible para los animales,ya que se asume que estos 'ha~ ter ido opo~tunidad di! consumir forraje de la mejor calidad y en cantidad suficiente.Para consumir el exceso de ferraje que se p~esentará e~ tpocas de mayor cr~,i miento debido principalmente al cllma, serl f.Eccesarlo aJustar l. caIga, aumen.ta!). do, sobre el n6mero de testigos, a~irngles lo m~s pllrEctdos 11 les tesr1gos; a estos animales Se les llama \"Vol antes\" y son ellos 1:>5 q'l'il dal'! el nombre de m~\" todo de \"quitar y po~~et\"\" pues los \"Volantes\" serlln quitado. y ruestos en la pradera, extrictamente de acuerdo a la dlsponibl1id~ de forraje., ¡ , .\\ El Cuadro v.l ex?lica el procediITiE~to b~slco de com?uco Y contiene toda la informac16n requerida para calculór la productividad de la pradera en cada uno de los tres p\"rtodos y en los 311 dlas utilizados . Es indudable que en estos casos no medimos verdaderos cambios de peso asociados con aumentos u, la masa o!oea y muscular. lIiM c.ondiciones momentlneas del contenido del sisten.a digestivo. Observese as! mismo la notable difere~ cia entre el promedio de gan6ncia diaria de peso de los animales testigos, 0.463 kg, Y del total, testigos mls volantes, de 0.570 kgs.Es dificil aconsejar el uso de este m~todo, al menos que se trate de situaciones .en las cuales todos lOS animales permanezcan ininterrumpidamente en la pra dara por periodos mayores de tiempo, digamos no menOS de 90 8 120 dtas. METODO 2.-En este caso el primel dato y de mayor import&ncia es de la ganancia di\"ria pcr animal \"testigo\" En el ejemplo del Cuadro V.l, SEo dividieron ID5 311 d~a~ en tres periodos solafficnte con el ~n1mo de mostrar el mhodo, y se calculó per tanto u~ proll'\"dic. de ganancia diaria de testigos para cada pertcdo_ De la misma manera se calcularon los novillos-citas por hect~rea para cada per!odo. Para calcular la productividad por Ha.,  (Ganancia dE' p\"so)2 )( \\1 0,75. estas f6rmulas F.NIII sigrlfica fnerb!.a lleta para ma\"t~t,i!T'!~nto, E. N,g [',er¡,t\" eta para ~ananci5 de peso, wQ.75 es el I'e~o metab61icc {¡:eso ('r, kilos ele, .do ¿; a potencia 0.75 .\"lltiplicado por el logaritmo del pE'50 \"lIT') en kilogra!l'os) La eq;!a Neta estA expresada en megacalorhs (1 Meal .. , 1.000 kU\"calor1as; 1 Kc\"l 000 calor las) y el peso vivo yo la gar anda de peso '!,(\\ kil cgr an:,,:s.ay \"Tablu' de Requisitos Nutritivo. simllsres a las de ga!'\\ado de car'na par,: Gsr, •• c. Lecher<:: y Ovinos pUblicadOS pOI la Acaéemia l<aclonal de Ci'.!,das de los Estad:. idos de ~orteam~rica (1964,1971).    • -.-950Cen:;: dijimos .!i~te¿:, es ntcHa':\"io !'\"cé::roa:: qJ(, 1,,; taHas de Requisitos han sid\" obtenidas ceo dates de a,::~O\".sles €stab\\Jlado\" y que I'U a corJdic1ones de postoreo ~s necesario a~mentar en un porLe~taJe cuyas esti~~cioneE varian entre' 10% y 100% el requisito de mante~lmiento.En todo caso parece que en pastoreo de baja intensidad el requisito de mantenimiento debe aumentar entre 40 y 60% (Pala1ines y Giergoff. 1967). En el Cuadro V.2 se 1:Cm!E'T,Za por <: .. )('\\1181:\" ec. ¡lesc pC:>in<d!o d\" !:.~ a\"lmdes, te! tigos y volante:;, pEora cada I'et{o;lo, ya que el re:.¡u~~it:: C~ \",,,-,t,,,,!.mhnto y de ga:>and.a de p'Sso, so:'! f1J!lc!?n~.s del peso IM,t)lbdico de! \"'-.¡\",.  la prorors1ci6n de energta para mantenimiento aumenta en la misma forma que aumenta cuando el peso de los animales aumenta. 2) Eficiencia de transformación de la energía de la pradera en ganancia de peso. Este dato constituye el ver~adero fenomeno de transformación 4e energía delfouaje a producto potencialmente de utilidad para el hombre. En el ejemplo se calcula que los testigos necesitaron IS. Según se indica anteriormente, un punto muy importar.te para discusi6n es la cantidad en que debe ser eJ.ev~ da la energía utilizada para mantenimiento. AceptaremoS apriori que esta debe subir en un 50%. sobre los requisitos de animales en confinamiento.Siendo este el caso, la relaci6n entre energía utilizada para mantenimientos y ganancia de peso en los tres perlodos seria 4.6: 1; 3.2: 1; y 6.9: 1; Tomando el ejemplo ant¿rior sobre la cantidad de forraje aproximada que debio ingerir el animal en el primer per!odo tenernos que de los 23 Kg. de M. S. del forraje 17 fueron utilizados para mantenimiento (76%) y 6.0 Kg. para ganancia de peso. Agregando 50% para mantenimiento bajo pastoreo tendremos que 25 Kg. 6 el 83% fue requerido para mantenimiento y 31 de consumo tota~ pOT Kg, de peso ganado.Este ejercicio demuestra la dificultad que implica no conocer con seguridad los requisitos de los animales para ser empleados en el cllculo de elementos nutr! tivos extraldos por los animales que pas~ore8n libremente una pradera.  ando se emplea este m~to10 generalmente se usa la carga como una de las vario les del e~perimento; es decir, que cada uno de los tratamientos, se pruebanon dos 6 mAs cargas. El ~xito de este tipo de lnvestigaci6n depende en mucho e que el investlaador sea capaz de escoger cargas ,que describan efectivBmente n rango que pase por el grado de mayor productividad. n el esquema de Mott (1960) (Figura V.l) que relaciona Presi6n de Pastoreo 6 carga anLmal) ton la producci6n por individuo y por h2ct~rea. las cargas escogerse deberlan ser tales qUI permitan determinar el punto rn6ximo con os cargas, una inferior (B) otra superior (e) al punto de m.5xima producción cr h~ct'rea (A). En realidad el investigador experimentado escoge 8US car• \"\" extremas 10 mis separadas posible de la carga de producción mlxima en tal orma que pueda deseribir la relaciÓn claramente; sin emba~go, al hacerlo tiene ufdado de que la carga m~s alta no sea loatfidentemente elevada para destruir \"-prad~ra por pastoreo excesivo en cuyo caso pierde la posibilidad de deecriir adecuadamente la relaci6n. Como se ve en la F,gura V.l, aumentos de carga ---_. __ .sucesivos a partir de ru~to de máxima producci6n por hect'rea producen una di~ mittuciOn precipitada del re-::d::'rr.iill'to el cual se refleja en un r&pido deterioro de la pudera c¡u~ pUEde llegar a la destrucd.6n de la \\/eg\"taci6n lltil.En el eatudio de C~aa (1967) lobre la relaci6D entre carga animal y la ptoducct/ln de lana y gana::,c1a d~ Faso ere espartes, la carga mle .,lev¡;<:Ia (25 animales) por hect'te~ resultS exces1\\a paré la Fradera y debi6 ser suspendida en el se-   :~~:í~-: --=~55\"\"'===':':-:~~_-\"-~~~~~-: ~:Atm\\:H'l~'V!~.     de regres16n en esta carga indic6 que la carga de mayor rendimiento ~staba en 18 capones/Ha. En el Bloque 1 la forma de la relac16n es igual siempre' en las tres primeras cargas, pero no en la de 25.Las figuras V.4. V.5 presenten las mismas relacienes pero referidas a la p~o ducei6n de lana limpia, En el caso de la lana el grado de sensibilidad quetiene su crecimiento con relaci6n al nivel de alimentaciOn no es tan alta co me en la ~anancia de peso o producci6n de 'leche; por 'estaraz6n, la producc16~ por individuo fue muy limilar en cada carga en los dos bloques y la disminu -c16n de producciÓn por indivIduo a medida que aument6 la carga no fue Buficien te para causar una disminuc16n en la producci6n por hectlrea.-Con los cuadros y las figurs5 presentadas y con la ayuda de los anllisis esta d1sticos realizados, el investigador estA en posici6n de sacar conclusi6nes , v'11das tanto EstadIsticas como practicas.Claro estA que de ninguna manera Be deberla esperar obtener la respuesta cter ta en los 167 d!as de informaci6n presentados comQ ejemplo. Como se dijo an 7tes. en los anos posteriores de este experimento, la carga de 25 capones cau 56 una completa destrucci6n de la pradera y los mayores rendimientos poi hec-,á rea se obtienen con la carga de 15 capones.ara los an&1161s estadísticos se emple6 el diseno de Bloque Completo al Azar, con dos rey et1ciones en la forma que se describi6 en la secci6n de Diseno. Se s6 tambi~n análisis de regresi6n y se calcu~ar~t&s'relaciones matemáticas e mejor ajuste entre carga animal y los par5metros de ganancia de peso y pro-ucci6n de lana.'as conclusiones prActicas que obtenga el investigador est~n siempre asociaas a las condiciones econ~mica5 de la región y a las costumbres de mercadeo peculiares de e11 a. Como ejemplo podemo. citar la producc1ór. d~ lana que fue uperior por hect~rea en la carga 25 capones, con menos producci~n ror indiiduo y una concomitante disminuci6n en el largo y grosor de la m~cha. Esta isminuci6n de largo y grosor ps casticada suficientemente en el precio de lgunos mercados interr.ac!ol1ales para <ju!?' Hon6:uic\"mcntr' sea perJudictd el mpleo de una carga tan altJ, Fn otros mercados menos exigentes, pri~cipal ,cnte domésticos, el castigo, si 10 hay, es pequeño y 110 alcanza a p€fjudl:' ar el valor producido por bectArea. on los resultados ohtenidos se pueden calcular tambi~n, si se desea, laEI1~tg1a utilizada por lo~ animales, siguiendo la mis\",,, mctcdologla aplicada al método de la Unid 3d Ffectiva de Alimento, y la informaci6n obttnida puede er utilizada en la misma forma. Se debe llamar la atend6n nuevamente al heho de que no se dispone de suficiente informaci6n respecto a los requisitos e los animales bajo pastoreo y el efecto cuantitivatlvo que las prActicas e manejo o los cambios cl1m~ticos tiene sobre estos requisitos, para que puedan ser aceptados con confianza.   !   n la dltima parte del capltulo anterior se hizo r~pida refere~ci8 a la neceided de que les experimentos de pastoreo est~n referidos a algún sistema de producc16n. En este eapltulo !le pretende hacer 'dos 'cosa,: enl¡¡tir:ar la nece ldad de esta ir.:egraci6n y presentar algunas condicione. de conocimientos cEGn én las cuales la i~tegraci6n ea fundamental.~orley y Speedb.g (1968) discuten habilmente el teCla enfath:ando el hech•) de ~ue un animal en pastoreo es un co\"\"onente de un sistema cOlIlpleto de pro1ucci6n l cual incluye al suelo, las plantas, el clima y otros elementos del medio mbiente i~cluyendo tembien otros animales, y que el cacbio en uno de los com ~onente8 del sistema en cualidad o magnitud COll -úcuellGla oe .. iOlla un cambioje otro de los componentes.~i u~a pradera es considerada COIDO un simple elemento botSnico, puede ser eSe :~dhda debidamente y conodda en toda su magnitud baJo el m!c:::o~copio. la .aceta y el inv~rnadero, sin que sea para nada necesaria la expcslci6n a nin.~dn elemento ~erturb8nte del medio ambiente. la p~adera ccncetida en Esta f('~ma 'liC represénta una unidad de producci~n sb,6 un elem\"f,to de la b,t~;r:ic.l jescllptiva. Fara que el elemento botinico adquiera caract.ertst!cas d~ p~e• ucci6n debe necesariamente ser integrado a un 8istelll8c~J.'OOucc16n definido. ara que el estudio d~ una pradera, como un compúne4te .!alado del sistema de ,rcducc!6~ tenga significado y aplicaci6n a ese 3istE~, i~ n~ces~ric que el orn¡>or,ente (praóp.ra) sea lr.dependiente de los otros cO\"'Fc~ ¡~<tes df: eisn'T.a e producci~n cempleto. Por ejel!1plo en la evaluad~e,. de 12 c;;;>ac~,d\",d de pro-tucci~n de leche áe Uf,4 pradera. dos factcres .;fe.ttc:'. é'Sr. i!,,)c~•.J~1v~ t%•.:! el Estuo si se Guiere Evita\" el desccnocirr,iento sé:c!e sus l,,~~~acc:()c,es. Cuga i\",al y consel:\\laci6n ha::1 demostrado 1nterBctu:, Cf> ~a í'\",:tb(c:.Sn (':l'utchinaon, 966). Si la pradera es parte de un sistema de pt'o<i\"lcci(\", l~chP.t a fl'l el cual tla parte del tarea se reserve por un tieMpO para CO!'lSCcr\\far ,,¡ ferra;\" c,,\",c t\":'s!la_\"\"e O he:\"!'.)} la c.a¡:g~ ü;'\\!!l);ll ter.drl Url efecto fru3.\" J~o':\"ta•,\"\"~.'?'# j:'Jt':¡..!': en d ~¡;c',a en qu!' Se est~ C''',\",servando el forraje, la ¡:\"¡;<O\"~5 ... i\".~r~ ec~o!:ta:.!lo a'lm~nto ele ca:.-ga que en muchos caSOS puede re<hnda:' ero for\".\"l p~,rm.¡¡,~\",ntl'• ~~nte deeventajcsa. 51 no se ha 'considerado la c(\";,f'r\"ac1~\" '! It,h ,,':ida:,ro, ~e preter.de intrcc!ucir pata prlctica en el dstema se 1l'JtfC!lf ~l irNtFti.¡¡;acior proveer 1nformacil\\n err6nea y hasca perjudicial.as e\"l'-=rirr.er.tos de pastoreo son cestosos y sumarr.e .... te <'-\"\"Plica':cs e:'\\ Su dbe o y con~ucc{.(>r.. Por esta l1'{sl1'a rs'!6n el! receisrio pensar cu~,:Ia~\"3a,.,~t te S2 re el stgniUcado y trascendencia dE' los resultados que obtcF ... gao ,otre el erdi,',1el'to econ5mi~0 de la E'mpresa agd:cola a la cual se pH\"tt!1d~ apli{ar.. : '¡';mE;ro de tratamientos y la variedad de faccol'es a tm:\\'.,Iitst\\ el'l el exp\". . ~,\"\"t\" de.ender~ de las rosibilióades de lntt'raccl~:!I f:<:\",'.'!\\ dl<>~ Y su sfg::-!  El concepto de la Unidad de Ptoducc16n c~o unidad experimental, implica eBe~ cialmente ~l reconocimiento de la imposibilidad de estudiar separadamente cada uno de los componentes del sistema, cuantificarlos, determinar cuantitativarr.e~ te sus 1r.teraccior.es, y teerganizarlo en una unidad sitem6tica y de everitos secuenciales C¡,,,, j06tmltan la descripcH-n_<:le la eficiencia ec.on!lmlca del sist,,\"'a . usan hem•or as ré:produc ter as. Con 1: atos Ó e l• Epro:lu~ci6r. el ir.\"tOse igador es t& \"'1 diendo les efec:Ds de sus tratao:l.e.uos en loma s~gl!.nda ger,erac:!6':l y en un sistE; ma que b1.016g1carr.e~.te es mucho mE.:cs efi-::ie\"t~ y m.Kloo ~~~,'S sens1¡,le. Unapradera que er. ,,1 af':o €S capaz de ptoducir 500 kg. de ganar.ela de peso de novl 11os, no podr~ producir m.!:.s de::;l60 a m Kgs. de P~$O de ten,eros al de.tete 70 el mismo pe~1odo ce t{ .. -\",¡oo. De. la misma !llanera los camb-!cs en el medio amb!,,!! te <El \"1 mallejo ca~a.e~ de. producl..r un autr..:c,to en la p::oducci6n de carne con .! nimales de er.gorde, dél ord¿\\l da 100 kgs. no !'odrl,. <!'<sp\"ra:.;e que produzcan a,\\!. mentos superiores a los 40 K~s.AGn lo dicho an.teriormente tiE.lle en muCh&6 casos limitscione~ impuestas pOl' la interacci~T. entrE> el re.~dio am't.iente, el sistema de producd~•!i y los factorH que el investigador-1\"'Fcng6. 5iguiE.l.do el l1lislT'D ejemplo ant\"rlcr, el case po-dr1a ser dif.~r\"nte si el estudio se hace €tI un ¡¡;edio arr.bi6nte en el cual Una deficiencia mar~ada de F6sforo En el suelo sea responsable de una tasa de re-producc16n muy baja en el ganado. Aqu1 la adic16n de un fertilizante fosfGri co al s\",,,10, podría preducir aumentos muy super1cres al 40'1 indicado En el ha to de er1a, cemp&rado con el e~ garde, r,o por el alimento en la cantidad de alI menta disponttle p~ra ics anima'es, pero p'or el efecto directo del f6sfara le br•e la reproducci6n d~ las Va<'d9. Es decir, hatrfa una lr.tera\"ei6n entr= f\"i \"., tUizacit'.n fcsf6r~ y reproducci6n. \"• ¡ , .. .. ;¡. , ay finalmente otro aspecto de la investigaci6n en pastoreo, relacionada a Sistemas de Producci6n y en los cuales también se emplea la Unidad de Pro-ucci6n como unidad experlmental¡ se refiere a la poslbillded de realizar l an61bh del efecto que la apl1cacl6n\"de los factores de investigac16n tiene sobre el resultado econ6mico de la explotaci6n. Para este pro~65ito ada mejor que usar la Unidad de Producci6n como unidad experimental. adn uando por ruenade tnlimitacIones fhicas de que dispone el investigaor, las unidades deban ser mAs pequeftas que las mismas al nivel comercial. a lnterpretaci6n econ6mica es en definldVa el lenguaje del productor agrlola y el dnlco medio de posible comunicaci6n con él.e hace mucho énfasis en estos dlas sobre la necesidad de establecer experientos capaces de lnterpretaci6n econ6mlca, en la lnvestigaci6n agrlcola, ~ero creo que en las pruebas de pastoreo mejor que en muchos tipos de iuves-igaci6n el anUbll econ6mico es indispensable y factible. Digo que es pa!, icularmente indispensable porque al realizar un experimento de paatoreo, e! amos midiendo, salvo pocas excepciones, el efecto de tratamientos sobre el roducto comercial final y referido a algGn Sistema de Producci6n, en q~e el fecto de los tratamientos Be siente tan claramente en los resultados econ6icos como en los biol6gicos.   Para reducir el error de muestreo el sistema más obvio es el aumento en el número de muestras que se toman en cada parcela. Como el error es tnvereamente proporcional a la ra1z cuadrada del número de ~uestras, p~ ra reducir a un tercio el error será necesario aumentar nueve veces el número de muestras (Jolly, 1954) Aumentando el tamano de la muestra también se reduce el error de muestre~ pero en la mayor parte de los casos el simple aumento del tamano reduce poco el error .~.,!!!! .. pe al .tu t:. sin embargo en praderas muy poco unifor mes la dismlnuci6n puede ser importante. También esto es posible cierto en praderas sometidas a pastoreo en cargas relativamente bajas y en praderas tropicales de especies de crecim:fe nto alto.El otro tipo de error de muestreo es a:¡uel debido al observador: y corre,! ponde al de las observaciones viciadas. Cuando el observador está tomando una muestra de una pradera \"tiende\" involuntariamente a evitar .!! quellas partes de la pradera que segón él no son repreeentativas de la ve g etaci6n Jominante. Este error es muy serio, con el agravante de que no ea posible descubrido ni hay forma matemática capaz de corregir este error la p.'stlea\" B} Estimaci6n del Forraje Presente o Dis~cnible. La cantidad del forraje disponible por hect&tea y la cantidad disponible por animal, es la información recolectada mis frecuentemente en los experime~ tos de pastoreo. Si bien es cierto que en muchos caaos la cantidad de f2 rraje disponible no está relacionada con el rendimiento de prod~cto animal obtenido, sobre todo en aquellos en})s cuales algún fa~tor de manejo cambia el balance entre forraje y animal. ' -:i\\l es verdad tambien que si todo lo demÁs permanece constante. a mayor ren dímiento de forraje ~e obtendrá mayor rendimiento an1mal.El investigador, al obtener el rendimiento de forraje d1s?onible. espera establecer alguna cor\",iac10n vÁlida entre rendimiento animal y forraje disponible, y &ubs~cuentemente ut11i~ar esta correlación con objeto de predecir el rendimiento de una pradera en la cual se conozca solamente su rendimiento de {otraje.Otra forma en que algunos investigadores utilizan la informaci6n sobre forraje disponible, es para calcular el número \\le animales \"volantes\" que se deben cclocar er, las pruebas de p1Itoreo que'•usan el método de quitar y poner.Las muestras del forraje disfonible se obtienen de la pradera cortando un área deteT1111\",ada, pesando 1 a muestra y determinando en ella el co.!! tenido de materia seca, para expresar luego la disponibilidad como el número de kilogtMlos de materia seca por hectárea El número de muestras necesarias varía de acuerdo ton el tamano de la variancia del potrero y la preclsi6n con la cual se quiera realizar la medida. Para explicarlo lusaremos el siguiente ejemplo de ocho muestras  El número de muestras a cortar Be calculan de acuerdo al procedimiento de Stein dedos etapas (Steel and Torde, 1960) con la siguiente ecu,! c16n. En que n es el número de muestras que se deben tomar, t el valor de tabu  en cuyo caso el intérvalo de confianza sería de 2.216 y 3.324 Kg. M. S./Ha.El investigador debe decir, de acuerdo a los objetivos del experimento c2 81 aerfi el error que va a aceptar.2) Un método que faci11ta mucho el trabajo es emplear una m'quina gU8d~fta dora pequena (tamano jardln) con barra cortadora frontal y cuchillo de m~ vimiento recíproco. Los pril.•:i¡ii09 de muestreo se aplican igualmente a esta máquina, la única y con.,iderable ventaja está en la rapidez para ob 972 tl'net las rnLlcstras.3) Una mejora bastante importante en las técnicas de ~uestreo por cortes del forraje constituye el Doble Muestreo (Gardner, 1967) con la cual se logra reducir el corto en la operaei6n de muestreo y se reduce el tiempo necesario para la operaci6n.El met6do se basa en Ía-eatimac16nvisui del rendimiento del forraje en un n6mero elevado de lugares de la pr~dera. seleccionPdos al,azar. / L11~ /~\"?Itt/ ~~rd't\"\"i:(i .. ,,/Ii'**,,'C;; ~'r-,? ¿'I ~, .... -{ ) De estos lugares se corta y mide el rendimiento' verdade~con una de las dos técnicas anteriores y se usa luego las correlaci6n entre las medidas por corte y las estimaciones visuales para corregir el resto de las observaciones visuales. As!, con solo 5 muestras que se cortaron y un total de 20 observaciones visuales (5 de las cuales coincidieron con los 5 cortes). Gardner (1967) consigui6 reducir el Coeficiente de Vari~ ci6n en el rendimiento de una pradera de 51% a 27%. Las jaulas son cerramientos de malla metálica que incluyen un área (generalmente 1 m 2 ó más) de la pradera. Estas jaulas varían según el investigador en superficie y altura asi como en el material del cual están construidas. El objetivo es evitar que lo~ animales consuman el forraje interior, causando al mimno tiempo la menor perturbaci6n a la'5 condiciones normales de la pradera. Es inevitable crear cambios en el microclima de la Fradera encerradl~~~álla metálica disminuye el viento y caüsa s~bra a cierta. horas del día.   rraje (:or.r\",n1:1;, e,. las dos ¡a\"las y SE peaa el de la pI'imera ja\"la, el forraje contenido en la J>I \"\"e~EI consti tuye el ere.:' imie nto de ese ped,2 do, la primEn ja .. la !e Caló: la de lugar y el crecimlento para el rrrOl\\.l mo peTíodo .se1'~H,\"ln\",,, 19 segd\\C'a jaula y a,f s\\jc\"sh\"an,enH  Uu al hablar de la metolog!a en 108 e.xpertmentos de pastoreo, porque con frecuencia se encuentra que los lnvestigador~s asisan gran importancia a las dos cosas.En secciones anteriores se dijo que lo que cuenta en la evaluaci6n de'las praderas con animales es el producto animal que Be obtiene 4e ellas y que es más, mucho mas importante obtener la información que permita el balance econ6mico antes del balance biológico.Lo mis mo se puede repetir aquí, excepto que tal vez con mucho más enfa-----.. ia. Con más enfasis porque si resulta complejo y costoso estimar el volumen de forraje disponible, resulta mucho más complejo y costoso re~ lizar estimiciones de consumo y lo q~elhasta el momento es más grave, que si'las estimaciones de forraje disponible tiene un alto grado de error, los errores inherentes a las técnicas de medir el consumo son mucho ~ yores.Finalmente en la experiencia de muchos investigadores, las observaciones de composic16n qulmicas y consumo una vez obtenidos, n? les han servidv realmente para una mejor explicaci6n de les resulta10s obtenidos y menos para derivar relaciones que permitan en alguna forma la predicción del rendimiento animal que se puede e5perar de una pradera • Me~cl.r ra~a', edades y aexou de animslés en un mismo experiménto pue de resultar en luteI¡¡,;';:{vt\\¿5 imposIbles de iden',if1.car y cuantificat, 1 .. cua les carez.:an tota.lmenté de e1!nt1do p .. ra el ti~,o d ... sistema de produc.citn dI!referrer.da. Est<) es pat't1cu larmente cierto si Se considera que el CQnllUlllO de forraje por 108 animal~ó está r~laclonado con el tipo y nivel de produecl6n y el estado tle1ólógi~o de lo~ animales.El número de animales a emplearse en un ex~erlmento de pastoreo para evaluación de praderas puede dlacutirse desdé dos punt03 de vista, cada uno de loa cuales tiene un b~~n número de a~~J>toa.!)eade el pU':Ito d .. vista de lnterpt>etad6n estadística de los resulta dos, ea preferIble r.one. el lJIayor n,haero de r\"1'tor¡éiohe\". con el meno\" nÚIlIe ro de animalea en cadd grupo.Algunos inveatig.adol-es aseguran que se pm•de u .. \"r un .... mero tan bajo como d08 an1n.llüe& p.;r t•.e~.t;:ki6n. Sin em~;¡¡:;'eo r,:~;d\"'¡\",do h slla v,,,,:l1l.c1ón entre ani ..... le~, plnll. las •:ar'a.cterístles. prc.L;t;,VE,a, ,,1 l.;i\" •• \", d\"b\"t-{a no lIer menor d\", 5~8 8,,~ma:e .. {l01 repeti ~l.ó,., El nJmero da rap~tlcionea depend~ e~ gr,u paree da la c9~eidad fíat ca y econ&nic.a <le ,,. InHituclón q\"\" ruUu la 1~.\\'''llti&.,,1(k ...Se dbcut e M'.lchu la pos! b1 UdaJ de res U:n.:experim.ento$ d'e eva lua ción de fortajes lin re~etlclonell, pretirleudc a~ntar el n~ro de antmalea en cada trat_Lente. y eltm!r,ando la8 r~petiti()nes. El mátodo es de\"d-e luego muy critic.able estadísticamente, pero por otro lado sobre todo cuando le tra ta de estudiar las p.~aaerall como cOIIIp,mentes de Shumaa de Producción y coiño parte de U'n1dades de Pi'odu<,ci6n, es caai imposible, paH la _yor!a-de los investigadores, con<d'C con suficientes el\"-.:Iencos pR,n. la magnitud de experi mentos que ~stos con~tttuyen que le permitan usar repeticiones. La ticnieaparece totalmente valida ai le conduce la investigación por un nu~ro sufi ciente de anos como para oh tener un promedio representattvo del clima de la región.Para la se~ecci<¡n d~ 108 animales que entr'a:ran en los expErimentos se deben ~e(.ordar los sigUientes p~nto¿: 2) El grupo de animales debe ser uniforme; 'a) SI se tiene posibilidad es ideal someter al grupo total a un período de pastoreo común de unos hes meses en caso de ganado de carne o a un período de 30 días en ganado leche ro, para agruparlos por su capa~1d,d de producción. b) Se agrupa a los novillos de acu~rdo al pa80 y a la edad.e) A las vacas de carne '1' agrupa de acuerdo a la edad, núm! ro de partos, pe80 del ternero al destete, pelo vivo y el tado de prel\\ez. d) A las vacas lecheras se agrupa de acuerdo al número de par tos, estado de la lactancia presente, edsd y pelO vivo. En vacas lecheras muchas veces se dispcne de registros ,de pr~ ducci6n previa (partos y rendimiento de leche) que dán.m~ yor certeza a la formación de grUp08 uniforme. y p,ermite reducir el número de vaca. por tratamiento.3) Si no se consigue un sólo grupo uniforme en todas sus earacte risticas (el caso más frecuente), 8e debe distribuir a los ani malea de cada 8ubgrupo entre todos 108 tralamientos en números iguales.B) Observaciones que se realizan en los animales: a) Producción de leche. La producci6n dé h~;ie se mide en la. v.,!. . cas todos los días y es común tomar ~~estras parg ana lisia de graaa, prote! na, s6lid08 totales, etc •• una ve2 a la seman;!., E:' o paHoreo es ¡lI'e!:!!>o recor dar que la producci6n de 1a3 vacas varía de \",,:.;, -do a 1 día de pastoreo de una parcela, sobre todo cuando las 'vacas perml~e~~en E~ una parcela de la rotaci6n por cuatro o más días. \"r 11. : b) Ganancia de peso. La medidaApeso d~ los animales constituye uno de los factores que contribuye en forma más significativa sI error exper! mental en pruebas de pastoreo. Se sabe muy bien qUE baJo determinadas cond! ctones un novillo puede vaciar en el contenido del ~istema digestivo, de un día a otro, hasta 20 y 25 kilogramos. En muehos caEOS en que la ganancia diaria de peso es baja, esta cifra representa tacilmente la' ganancia verda dera de dos o más meses. Esta es, entre muchas otras, una de las razonespor las cuales los experimentos de pastoreo no deben ser de corta duraci6n.Se han sugerido dos métodos para reducir el error de pesada: 1) tomar el peso durante tres días consecutivos y usar el peso promedio. Ea te método aumenta mucho el costo de la operación y aumenta el maltrato de los animales. Patterson (Mott, 1964) compar6 en un número grande de anima les el error que se producía con una y tres pesadas y llegó a la conclusI6n de que la reducción con tres pesadas es tan pequefta que no vale la pena el trabajo adicional; 2) ayunar los animsles por'16 á 24 horas antes de tomar el peso. Esta técnica ef~ctivamente reduce las variaciones debido al peso del material conteni.l~~ ,~l! .. ~J sistema digestivo, peto tiene como d1!sventaja que los animales tic\"' ... ' que ~er ay\"aados perlod1~\"mente y esto puede ser desventaj 090 para Su rendLtToiento; 3) un tercer mé! oda, emp leado por el au tor, es combinar el ayuno con el peso a hora determinada del dla. En este m! todo, al comenzar un experimento o cuando se va a colocar un animal por prim! ra vez en la pradera, se hace_~ dos pesadas. la primara sin ayuno E<n una hora determinada de la mansns, lo más temprano posible después del amanecer, los animales permanecen en 108 corrales por 24 horas sin comida ni agua y son pe sados nuevamente; en el futuro, cada 28 días se pesan los anime lea .1n ayuno cuidando de que sean pesados siempre a la misma hora. Para el peso final, cuando 108 animales dejan el experimento, se pesan nuevamente des veces, en forma similar al comienzo. En esta forma se dispone del-peso inictal y finsl con ayuno de 24 horas para los cálculos finales del experimento y ae dispone además de pesoa iniciales, final e intermed10s sin ayuno para seguir la pr2 gre.ión del peso en los animales. Si el investigador cree necesario puede t2 mar pesos intermedios con ayuno.Le regla genera 1, creada por la costumbr. y la conveniencia, es de pesar los enlmales cada cuatro semanas, 28 días. No h~y ninguna raz6n podero sa por l~ cual no se pueda hacer cada 14 6 35 dias. P.rece conveni~nte porsimple mecánica y acostumbramiento de 108 trabajadores, hacerlo en múltiplos de 7, porque así se realiza el pesaje en el mismo día de la semana, cuidando que no coincida con días de descanso para el personal. e) Crecimiento de lana. En experimentos con ovinos, la producción de lana es el 6 uno de los productos econ6micos que buscamos.El crecimiento anual de lana se mide equilando el animal compl! tamente al entrar al experimento y otra vez al salir del ~xperimento. Si se quiere determinar rendimientos periódicos, se puede-marcar, con tinta de ta tuar, cuadrados de lOdO centímetros en los lados del animsl_y hacer cortes periódicos de estos cuadrados y calcular de allí el rendimiento total. SI se necesita determinar el largo de la mecha que ct~ce en un período deter minado, se usa una tinta-especial que marca el baIlón en el sitio en que-la lana entra en contacto con la piel, la operac1c;, se replte, al finalizar el periodo, con una parte del ball6n adyacente al anterior y se mide entre las dos marcas. d) Cuidados sanitarios. La mejor regla ea sujetarse a las norma. de profilaxis establecidas para la zona.En especial se debe cuidar de lo áiguiente: 1) control peri6dl co de parásitos internos, siguiendo el progreso de posibles infestacionespor medio de contages de huevos en las heces fecales; 2) control periódico de parásitos externos; 3) podredumbre de los cascos, sobre todo en luga res húmedos; 4) en vacas, es fundamental el control de todas las enferme dades que afectan la reproducción; se debe llevar controles minuciosos de la situación de estas enfermedades; 5) en vacas lecheras se debe cuidar la mestitis, con control semanal por medio de alguna prueba rápida y por lo menos tres veces al ano por cultivo.Con ocasIón de un día de campo Juan vIsita la Estación Experimental de Carlmagua. Le muestran los resultados de un experimento de hatos. Usando'pastos mejorados (asociación gramínea-leguminosa) a razón de 1.25 vacas por hectárea durante 3 meses en monta continua se logró elevar la natalidad de 50% (valor medio de toda la reglón) a 70% en un lapso de 6 aftoso AsI mismo, según le Indican los técnicos a Juan, se logró reducir algp la mortandad de terneros. Debido a la observación cuidadosa de los hatos se identificaron vacas que no se preftaron en dos aftos sucesivos y se descartaron. De esta forma se elevó ligeramente la tasa de descarte.Juan Hartinez ha quedado impresionado por este resultado y piensa en la posibilIdad de establecer pastos en su finca •. Acude a Ud. como t'cnico de su confianza para que lo asesore. Que le recomienda Ud. a Juan? -. La F inca de Juan Ud. visita a Juan y deciden hacer un rodeo para determinar el Inventario de la fInca .• Cuadro 1 presenta los resultados. En base a otros negocios de ganado realizados en la reglón tasan el ganado de Juana los valores Indlcacbs en el Cuadro 1. Para los próximos años no se preveen cambió, en las relaciones de precios según informó a Juan un amigo economista.En base a la experiencia de Juan y a los resultados obtenidos en Carlmagua, Ud. estimó los coeficientes técnicos que Juan logra actualmente (año O) y los que lograria si se estableciesen pastos para un uso estraté-gIco con vacas (Cuadro 2).Un contratista de la región ofrece establecer pastos con cercas y grantizando un establec/miendo apropiado a $IO.OOO/ha. Por $2.000/ha propone realizar en los años 2 y 4 una refertilización al nivel recomendado por'los técnicos en Carimagua.Los costos variables por cabeza en inventario de la finca de Juan son de $700.oo/cabeza/a~0 (básicamente sales y productos veterinarios).Juan planea vender su finca a fin del año 6. Est/ma que por cada 1«1 hectárea de pasto mejorada en buen estado un comprador le pagará $5.000. Asimismo piensa que sus vacas por estar en mejor estado valdrán•S800.oo mis cada una.Un hennano de Juan piensa abrir una panadería en VI 1 lavicencio y le ofrece la posibilidad de invertir dinero en ella. asegurándole un Interés del 10% durante el mismo plazo de 6 anos. Utilizando los Cuadros 3 a 6. complete la infonnación omitida para el afta Z y sugiera a Juan Kartínez que acción tomar.Al final de la sesión Ud. recibirá     En la evaluación de las distintas alternativas se consideran los niveles de fertilización inicial y refertilización cada segundo año acordes a 1 as re,comendaci ones de CIAT (Cuadro 6). Dado que los ensayos no ti enen más de 3 años de antiguedad, no existe información empírica sobre la persistencia de las pasturas. Ello llevó a evaluar las pasturas con 6 y 12 años de persistencia asumiendo niveles de productividad constantes hasta el último año al mismo nivel del promedio de los tres primeros años. Supuestos adicionales de precios y costos son reportados en el Cuadro 7.Resultados y Conclusiones la producción media de todos los ensayos de pastoreo evaluados fue de 160 kg/animal/año y de 220 kg/ha/año. Con estos niveles de productividad física se obtienen atractivas tasas de retorno (entre 10% y 30%) que presentan una baja sensibilidad a la persistencia de la pastura por encima de los 6 años (Cuadro 8).Debe tenerse presente en la interpretación de las diferencias entre estrategias, los limitantes de orden estadístico de los resultados. Dado el tamaño de la muestra y la variabilidad de los resultados de año a año, no es posible hacer inferencias sobre la significancia estadística de las diferencias observadas.Como base para la comparación entre alternativas se toma el nivel de rentabilidad obtenido con BJtac.lu.a/ua deCLlll1belló pura (Alternativa 6). Cabe destacar que el utilizar ésta como referencia puede estar sesgando en cierta medida los resultados debido a las características de la época seca de los últimos años. La caida de ciertas precipitaciones durante el período seco ha favorecido el crecimiento de las gramíneas en esta época, reduciendo el consumo de leguminosas. Mayores períodos de stress de sequía probablemente hubiesen resultado en mayores ventajas para las estrategias con leguminosas. las asoei aci ones A. gltijOJtUó + S •. capUa.ta., B. deeumbeJl-l> con P. lD pha6eolo.¿du en franja y el uso de sabana con 2000 i/cabeza de P. plla6eo.lo.¿du como banco y una carga de 0.17 cabezas/ha pre5erltaron tasas internas de retorno consistentemente superiores a las de B. decumb~ puro. Cabe destacar que los costos reales de la sabana con banco de Kudzú pueden estar algo subestimados debido a que:[n la práctica se fertilizó más de 10 recomendado por CIAT para P. pha6eo.lo.¿du. En el análiSls se incluyó solo la refertilización recomendada.-No se incluyó la inversión en cercas e infraestructura por hectárea considerada para las alternativas de carga alta por considerar que una solución de mejoramiento extensivo de este tipo se realizaría en áreas más grandes con un mínimo de inversión de esta categoría por hectárea.La superioridad de ciertas estrategias con leguminosas lleva a la pregunta de sí el incremento de rentabilidad será suficiente para hacer atractiva la opción al ganadero.Asumiendo un costo de oportunidad real del dinero del 10%, la máxima diferencia en valor presente neto, entre B. decumb~ y A. gayanU6 + S. capitata en Puerto López llega a un valor de $10450/ha asumiendo 12 años de vida útil de ambas pasturas. Si la persistencia de la leguminosa baja a 6 años y debe ser resembrada el valor presente neto baja a $2362/ha. Si la persistencia baja 3 años, el valor presente neto se torna negativo ($-6.018/hal.A este beneficio marginal de la leguminosa hay que contraponer:Mayor riesgo de establecimiento por el mayor monto de la inversión en semilla y la probabilidad de perder ésta. Riesgo de pérdida de la leguminosa por quema accidental, el cual tambi én impl i ca mayores cos tos como operaci ones de rondas, etc. Dificultades de manejo, en especial para mantener proporciones apropiadas de cada especie, necesidad de más subdivisiones para el manejo apropiado con costos adicionales de aguadas, necesidad de prescindir de la quema como instl'umento de manejo y frecuente------1'*í mente del uso de herbicidas para control de malezas, probable costo de un mejor manejo de la finca.La ausencia de leguminosas adaptadas a nivel comercial no permite al presente estimar cómo percibe el productor de los Llanos Orientales el balance de ventajas e inconvenientes del uso de leguminosas en ceba.Actualmente el 90% de los novillos cebados en el Piedemonte provienen del Casanare, donde, debido al mal drenaje de las sabanas es recesaría descargarlas de ganado a inicio de la época lluviosa. Estos novillos flacos llegan al Piedemonte a inicios de las lluvias a cebarse en Brachiaria en época lluviosa. Esta ceba frecuentemente se hace pagando pastoreo o el mismo dueño de la finca en el Casanare, es tambi€n propietario de cebaderos en el Piedemonte. Este tipo de ceba de época lluviosa pagando pastoreo o con 9anado en compañía produce al propietario del ganado una tasa interna de retorno del 19.15% anual si se logran ganancias de 500 g/día y de 27.5% si éstas llegan a bOO g/día. En estas condiciones, para un propietario de ganado flaco del Llano, la ceba en el Piedemonte resulta una opción bastante atractiva.La ceba en fincas en la altillanura será particularmente atractiva para pequeños y medianos productores debido a las economías de escala del transporte por arreo del ganado flaco (cuesta casi lo mismo llevar por arreo un lote pequeño que uno grande) y de la ceba en compañia en Piedemonte, contra las mucho menores economías de escala en la ceba en finca y el transporte en camión al mercado.Existe una diferencia marcada entre la rentabilidad estimada de B. de.cuil1bCtLl> puro en fincas y su performance experimental. Esta diferencia se explica principalmente por:-Mejores ganancias obtenidas experimentalmente (528 g/animal/d'a contra 430 g/animal/día).Mayor duración de la ceba en Carimagua, donde las ganancias se estiman pOI' año, contra la ceba exclusivamente en la época lluviosa en las fincas.... las pasturas mejoradas para ceba en fincas de ciclo completo\" podrán tener una serie de usos alternativos durante la época seca' como reducción de mortalidad en animales muy flacos, reconcepción de vacas lactantes, etc.Hay indicios que particularmente para la reconcepción de vacas lactantes\"el consumo de forraje de leguminosas puede ser muy importante. De comprobarse ésto, habrían mayores ventajas para las alternativas de praderas con leguminosas que las cuantificadas en el presente análisis. Estos beneficios serían sin embargo muy variables entre fincas, según sistema de producción, existencia de bajos en las fincas, etc. los costos de semilla y preparación de tierras constituyen una elevada proporción del costo total de establecimiento. Una vez hechas las inversiones iniciales en maquinaria y establecidos los primeros lotes, de los cuales se pueda cosechar semilla, el costo marginal de ampliar el área de pastos bajará sustancialmente. la comparación de las tasas de retorno a la inversión (sin tierra) en regiones de los llanos a distancia creciente, del principal mercado, Bogotá muestra taSas decrecientes causadas por costos de transporte de insumos y productos. Dado el fuerte gradiente de precios de tierras actuales, las tasas de retorno al capital total son mayores en las zonas más lejanas. Este análisis estático indica una renta debida al cambio tecnológico, la cual desaparecería sin embargo a corto plazo debido al aumento de precio de la tierra manteniéndose el esquema básico de ceba en la proximidad del mercado y cría en áreas más distantes. Sin embargo en el transcurso de este proceso aumentaría sustancialmente la intensidad de producción de toda la región.Cuadro 1.Gananci a de peso de novi 11 os pas toreando BM.cAÚlfLÚt decumbclló + Pu~a pha6eotoideó como banco de proteína en bloques y franjas en Carimagua. Promedio de tres años. 1979-1981 Carga ***  * Carga utilizada en experimentación con base en un novillo de 170 kg de peso inicial ** Carga en base a un novillo de 250 kg de peso inicial ajustando por igual peso vivo inicial por hectárea ~ l;;Cuadro 5. Número de novillos cebados y evolución de su peso vivo por alternativa, \"finca de 300 hectáreasInicio ceba época seca IniCio ceba época lluviosa Peso Peso '\"'\" '\" \"\"'\" \"-.'<11  ","tokenCount":"36626"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"da910e0e1355b5cc99931ab153a5c21a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4fac4c1d-8ba9-4b0d-bc3c-1da7a33da835/retrieve","id":"-1416563179"},"keywords":["LDNTAl¿O,ER","MSTUB NEST"],"sieverID":"7e7f439d-d958-4300-9a1e-ffd6f2d956a1","pagecount":"145","content":"El presente trabajo es producto de la colaboración de un gran número de personas a qmenes expreso mi más profundo agradecimiento, sin embargo no puedo dejar de mencionar a:La papa desempeña un papel importante en la dieta y economía de muchos pueblos y, aunque su uso en estado fresco es la modalidad de consumo más frecuente, en la actualidad existe una marcada tendencia a su procesamiento con el propósito de satisfacer la creciente demanda de comida rápida, precocida y bocadillos por lo que el procesamiento es el sector de la economía de la papa a nivel mundial que está experimentando el crecimiento más acelerado. Sin embargo la producción orientada en ese sentido se encuentra en estado incipiente, sobre todo en nuestro país donde la heterogeneidad ambiental no sólo dificulta producir la cantidad y calidad de tubérculos en el momento y lugar que la industria lo requiera, sino también dificulta la creación de cultivares con aptitud industrial ampliamente adaptados a causa de la incidencia de la interacción genotipo por ambiente (GxE), por lo cual el relativo comportamiento de los genotipos cámbia a través de los ambientes, complicando la selección de los mejores genotipos. El ambiente actúa sobre la planta imponiéndole un ritmo de crecimiento y desarrollo que afecta su nutrición mineral, su metabolismo y su producción , por eso un mismo cultivar no sólo produce distintos rendimientos sino también productos de distinta calidad, dependiendo del ambiente donde se desarrolla. En un país como el Perú, con condiciones edáficas y climáticas muy diferentes aún dentro de límites muy estrechos, la interacción GxE es un serio problema para el mejoramiento genético en la búsqueda de genotipos superiores. El principal factor en la utilización de GxE es la habilidad o capacidad para cuantificar los principales factores ambientales responsables de las diferencias del rendimiento a través de los ambientes. Con el conocimiento de estos factores puede la naturaleza y las causas de GxE ser entendida y, con el entendimiento de la naturaleza de GxE puede un programa de mejoramiento identificar genotipos específicos para los diferentes patrones de variación en los factores ambientales dentro del ambiente considerado. Explotar GxE requiere que los factores causales de la GxE tengan algún• grado de constancia o repetibilidad dentro de la población de ambientes, vital a esto es la caracterizacion ambiental y determinar la envergadura a la cual puede alcanzar la selección para adaptación especifica asociada a GxE. El conocimiento del patrón de comportamiento de los genotipos en respuesta a los principales factores ambientales responsables de su discriminación a través de los ambientes permitirá predecir el comportamiento de los genotipos en un ambiente no probado dentro de la población de ambientes. Siendo el interés en desarrollar cultivares precoces con altos rendimientos y calidad industrial adaptados a condiciones de la costa del Perú se planteó el presente trabajo de tesis con los objetivos siguientes:1. Determinar los principales caracteres morfogenéticos que determinan el rendimiento de tubérculos de papa en cinco genotipos promisorios durante tres estadías de desarrollo.2. Determinar los principales factores climáticos y edáficos que afectan el rendimiento y otros caracteres morfogenéticos de cinco cultivares de papa en diferentes estadíos de crecimiento.3. Determinar los principales factores climáticos y edáficos que afe~tan la calidad del tubérculo de papa para procesamiento de hojuelas y otros derivados. 4. Estimar la adaptabilidad y predecir el comportamiento de cinco cultivares de papa para la Costa del Perú.Il.REVISION DE LITERA TURA 2.1. Distribución y ecología.Según Huaman (1983) las especies silvestres de papa se encuentran confinadas al continente americano, cuya distribución abarca desde el sur de los Estados Unidos, pasando por México, América central y en los países andinos hasta Chile en el Sur y su rango de crecimiento abarca desde el nivel del mar hasta más de 4,000 m de altitud.Hawkes (1994) considera que la papa cultivada posee más especies silvestres relacionadas que probablemente cualquier otro cultivo y, que un importante aspecto a tener en cuenta cuando se consideran las especies silvestres para propósitos de mejoramiento es su amplia distribución geográfica y un rango muy grande de adaptación ecológica. Así algunas especies crecen en zonas frías de la región andina entre los 3,000 y 4,500 m, donde las heladas son muy comunes• (S. acaule y S. megistacrolobum ), mientras otras crecen en condiciones semidesérticas (S. berthaultii, S. tarijense y S. neocardenasii ). En México y los Estados Unidos se les encuentra tanto en las zonas bajas y desérticas como en las regiones de los pinos. Hay así un ámplio rango de hábitats en los cuales las especies silvestres son encontradas, esto denota la manera en el cual se han adaptado a factores ambientales específicos y desarrollado una fuerte resistencia a un ámplio rango de plagas y enfermedades. Por otro lado las especies cultivadas han evolucionado bajo un rango muy limitado de condiciones ambientales en regiones de temperatura fría y son así incapaces de resistir el ataque de plagas y enfermedades que ocurren en el rango mucho más ámplio de condiciones ambientales en los cuales son ahora cultivados. Así un conocimiento del gran rango ecogeográfico de las especies silvestres contrastado con el originalmente • rango muy estrecho de las especies cultivadas, puede ayudar a un entendimiento de la necesidad de el uso de las especies silvestres en un moderno programa de mejoramiento.-4 -2.2. Tendencias recientes y situación actual.Según FAO (1995) la papa es el cuarto cultivo alimenticio en orden de importancia a nivel mundial después del trigo, el arroz y el maíz. La producción anual de papa representa aproximadamente la mitad de la producción mundial de todas las raíces y tubérculos. Actualmente el sector dedicado al cultivo de la papa a nivel mundial está en transición, la mayor parte de la producción proviene de Europa y el área ocupada por la ex-Union Soviética pero esta situación se esta modificando rápidamente; ya que a principios de la década del sesenta el 89 .1 % de la producción mundial de papa correspondió a los países desarrollados y a principios de la década del noventa sólo el 69.2%. Así mismo experimentaron una reducción del área dedicada al cultivo de la papa de 83. 9% en el periodo 1961-1963 a 63. 1 % en el periodo de 1991-1993; aunque la productividad se incrementó de 13 t/ha a 17 t/ha mientras que en los países en vías de desarrollo la producción se ha incrementado de 1O.9% de la producción mundial para el periodo 1961-1963 a un nivel de.30.8% en el periodo 1991-1993, así como también se incrementó el área cultivada de 16.1 % a 36.8% y la productividad de 8 t/ha a 13 t/ha en el mismo periodo.En términos generales entre 1961-1963 y 1991 -1993 el área cultivada a nivel mundial se ha reducido de 22 millones a 18 millones, pero el ligero incremento de la productividad promedio mundial de 12 t/ha a 15 t/ha ha permitido mantener relativamente estable la producción de 260 a 270 millones de toneladas desde inicios de la década de los sesenta.La papa fresca destinada al consumo humano es la modalidad de uso más importante en la gran . mayoría de los países desarrollados y también en los países en vías de desarrollo, no obstante existe una marcada tendencia a derivar un volumen cada vez mayor de papa a las plantas de procesamiento con el propósito de satisfacer la creciente demanda de comida rápida, precocida y bocadillos por lo que el procesamiento es el sector de la economía de la papa a nivel mundial que está experimentando el . crecimiento más acelerado. Los ejemplos más notables en este sentido los proporcionan los países bajos y los Estados Unidos, en los que la industria de procesamiento absorbe entre el 55% y 60% respectivamente de la cosecha anual de papa. El procesamiento también esta creciendo rápidamente en muchos países en vías de desarrollo particularmente China donde se usa el 12% del total; la República democrática popular de Corea con 6%, México 8% y Perú 2%.En el Perú el área dedicada al cultivo de la papa representa aproximadamente el 15% del total, superado en ocasiones por el arroz y el maíz; en 1997 se cosechó 248,546 has con una producción de 2'398,061 toneladas con una productividad de 9.6 t/ha; y para la campaña 97-98 se sembró 24~,489 ha que representa 15.5% de la superficie total sembrada ( INEI,(97)(98) .Gómez y Wong (1987) en un estudio exploratorio al conocimiento de las características y la dinámica del mercado de productos procesados de papa en Lima Metropolitana realizado en 1987 concluyen que: existe un desconocimiento de las variedades de papa fresca óptimas para el procesamiento y de los procesos de producción que permitan abaratar los costos y mejorar la calidad del producto y, una estru.;tural estacionalidad de la oferta de papa fresca en el mercado obliga a los industriales a diversificar su producción con procesados de otros productos. Dado que los procesadores utilizan los cultivares de papa en función a su disponibilidad en el mercado, recomiendan realizar investigaciones para encontrar cultivares técnicamente óptimos así como de bajo costo para la industria de procesados de papa en el Peni.A medida que se incrementa la población; la producción de alimentos debe aumentarse, ampliando la frontera agrícola hacia \"ambientes marginales\" y aumentando la productividad. Sugun Christiansen (1991) la ampliación de la superficie de cultivos en zonas de tierras adicionales presentará muchos problemas por condiciones desfavorables como: deficiencia o toxicidad de iones minerales, sequía, viento, salinidad y temperaturas extremas; factores que más que la disponibilidad de tierras, limitarán y delimitarán la productividad de los cultivos en estos ambientes y sugiere que debe lograrse la tolerancia y resistencia de los cultivares a estas condiciones • desfavorables si las tierras adicionales contribuyen notablemente al abastecimiento de alimentos. Por su parte Ryan (1996) pone en tela de juicio la producción de cultivares mejorados ampliamente adaptados a expensas de la reducción de la biodiversidad y una consecuente susceptibilidad de los cultivares mejorados debido a algún factor inesperado; al respecto Hartan mencionado por Allard (1980) pone de manifiesto que existe el peligro de que se extingan los centros geográficos de dispersión de los que tanto se ha dependido en el pasado como fuente de obtención de plasma germinal, dado que la agricultura y tecnología moderna se extienden rápidamente en todo el mundo las nuevas variedades uniformes que salen de las estaciones experimentales están reemplazando a las antiguas mezclas existentes en Jas poblaciones que se venían cultivando desde el neolítico en .algunos casos. Por otro lado Brush (1986) sostiene que nuestra deuda a esta herencia es inmensurable y la agricultura moderna está contribuyendo a su desaparición, un puñado de variedades mejoradas científicamente están reemplazando a miles de tipos ancestrales en los últimos 20 años como parte del esfuerzo mundial para el desarrollo de la agricultura~ asi mismo si bien no se conoce con certeza cual es el 01igen de la papa Venegas y Negron (1994) destacan la progresiva desaparición de las variedades autóctonas, sustituídas por la introducción de nuevas variedades y por la incidencia de enfermedades. Sin embargo Brush et al (1992) en un análisis econométrico usando datos de Perú indican que la adopción de variedades de papa de alto rendimiento resulta en una reducción pero no en una pérdida completa de la diversidad biológica en agricultores individuales y una posible pérdida en diversidad en general.2.4. Efecto ambiental sobre el rendimiento y calidad de tubérculos de papa para la industria 2.4.1 Crecimiento y desarrollo del cultivo De acuerdo con (Wellensiek, 1967) el desarrollo y crecimiento de las plantas depende, primero, de su constitución genética y, segundo, del ambiente; y que el ambiente en su más amplio sentido incluye tanto los factores del suelo como los factores climáticos. Mor•eno (1974) estudió el efecto tanto del clima como del suelo sobre la producción y composición química de tubérculos de papa~ en cuanto a la producción de tubérculos no encontró diferencias significativas por efecto de los climaslocales ni por efecto de los suelos, en cambio químicamente los tubérculos desarrollados en los distintos ambientes locales y edáficos sí mostraron diferencias. Según Ewing (1997) la papa es considerada un vegetal de estación fría pero posee solamente moderada tolerancia a las heladas, obteniéndose los mejores rendimientos en estaciones con temperaturas medias de 15 a 20ºC, mientras que las altas temperaturas según l\\1idmore ( 1992) retardan el proceso de tuberización, pero si van acompañadas de días cortos la tuberización puede tener lugar en clones de días largos debido a que los clones adaptados a días largos son más fuertemente inducidos a tuberizar bajo días cortos que los clone5 adapLados a días cortos. Midmore (1988) menciona que la temperatura alta en la noche por si sola inhibe la tuberización, pero que son pocos los procesos de desarrollo controlados solament~ por la temperatura y las respuestas a éstas pueden ser modificadas por otros factores, particularmente la luz ambiental (duración y cantidad); así mismo señala que la temperatura alta del suelo y del aire tienen efectos diferentes en la tuberización, la temperatura alta del aire puede influir en el potencial de inducción para la tuberización, mientras que la expresión de síntomas de tuberización pueden ser bloqueados por la temperatura alta del suelo aun en el caso de que las condiciones del aire favorezcan la tuberización, en tal sentido el mejoramiento para tolerancia al calor según Vayda (1994) ha sido dificil porque los efectos del estrés por calor afectan al menos tres procesos fisiológicos distintos de la planta de papa: eficiencia fotosintética, iniciación de tuberización y la distribución de fotosintatos.El Rendimiento comercial según Ewing (1997) es función •de la producéión de biomasa total, el porcentaje de la biomasa que es traslocada a los tubérculos, el contenido de humedad de los tubérculos y la proporción de tubérculos que son aceptables para el mercado en términos de tamaño y libre de defectos. Estos cuatro factores no son independientes uno del otro, p.e. una alta producción de biomasa es posible sólo cuando la proporción destinada a los tubérculos es moderadamente alta, pero no excesivamente alta; si es demasiado bajo, la tasa fotosintética será limitada, pero s1 es demasiado alta entonces el crecimiento foliar será limitado y la madurez temprana.Trebejo y Midmore mencionados por Caldiz (1994) encontraron importantes diferencias en el índice de cosecha de tres clones tolerantes al calor DT033, L T-1 y el cultivar Revolución, sembrados en la Malina (Perú) siendo mayor en • mv1erno y significativamente menor en verano en que p.e. el cultivar Revolución presentó un índice de cosecha nulo.Además de los efectos adversos por las temperaturas extremas, otro factor ambiental que afecta seriamente el normal crecimiento y desarrollo de la planta es la sequía, en la que juega un papel importante el sistema radicular de la planta. Trout et al -8 -(1994) consideran que la papa es sensitiva a la deficiencia de agua y tiene un sistema radicular poco profundo, no vigoroso y que rara vez penetra capas duras del suelo. Aun sin capas duras que afecten la penetración de las raíces, ellas absorben la mayor parte del agua de los 30 primeros centímetros del suelo (Wright y Stark, 1990). Sin embargo Mackerron (1993) reporta que la profundidad de las raíces depende de la variedad y de una serie de factores incluyend<? el tipo de suelo, disponibilidad de humedad, estación, etc. pudiendo llegar hasta 1. 5 m. Así mismo Kramer y Boyer (1995) sostienen que la eficiencia de un sistema radicular en la absorción de agua y minerales depende de su profundidad y extensión, su densidad y su permeabilidad.Al igual que Trout et al (1994), Ewing (1997) considera que el sistema radicular de la papa no es extensivo, por lo que es necesario un abundante suministro de agua, requiriendo además suelos bien drenados y textura ligera. Tratándose de cultivares de porte pequeño y sobre todo precoces, cultivados bajo altas temperaturas, son necesarios riegos muy frecuentes, dado que presentan un sistema radicular superficial y según Kincaid et al (1993) la frecuencia de riego tiene mayor influencia sobre la calidad de la papa que la cantidad aplicada, riegos más frecuentes dan lugar a tubérculos de calidad ligeramente superior y una menor incidencia de tubérculos oscuros cuando se les fríe~ en ese sentido Trout et al (1994) con métodos de irrigación por aspersión obtuvieron tubérculos de mejor calidad que con el de gravedad.Considerando que la mayor parte de la producción, por no decir la totalidad de los tubérculos, son vendidos en estado fresco, los productores apuntarían a producir tubérculos con bajos porcentajes de materia seca. Sin embargo Ewing (1997) considera que hay algunas consideraciones importantes para no hacerlo, en la industria del procesamiento, dado que a mayor porcentaje de materia seca se obtiene mayor cantidad• de producto procesado, por lo que los industriales establecen ün porcentaje mínimo debajo del cual rechazan el producto. Asimismo manifiesta que el porcentaje de materia seca varía con la variedad y las condiciones ambientales~ así altos contenidos de materia seca están asociados con altos niveles de radiación y temperaturas bajas. Según Hegney (1991) las condiciones climáticas, las cuales favorecen el rendimiento de tubérculos, también resultan en una mejor calidad de procesamiento, medido por el porcentaje de materia seca y contenido de azúcares reductores~ •siendo las condiciones ambientales promedio más adecuadas las temperaturas intermedias (15-20ºC), fotoperiodos cortos a intermedios (12-15 h), alta radiación ( 400-450 Wm-2 ) y, humedad del suelo sobre el 50%. Considera además que períodos cortos de estrés, particularmente durante el llenado del tubérculo pueden re~ucir en forma significativa la calidad del tubérculo; un período corto de sequía o temperaturas mayores a 3 5ºC pueden disminuir el porcentaje de materia seca del tubérculo e incrementar el contenido de azúcares reductores, mientras que por otro lado temperaturas inferiores a 1 OºC cercanos al momento de cosecha pueden causar un incremento significativo en el contenido de azúcares reductores. Al respecto Wright y Stark (1990) mencionan que el estrés por sequía durante la iniciación y desarrollo temprano del tubérculo tiene los más grandes efectos detrimentes sobre la calidad del tubérculo y, el estrés durante el llenado del tubérculo afecta el rendimiento total más que la calidad; dado que el porcentaje de materia seca y la gravedad específica dependen de la disponibilidad de agua del suelo.La gravedad específica según Storey y Davies (1992) proporciona una estima del contenido de almidón en el tubérculo, dado que el almidón es el principal componente de la materia seca, usualmente el 65-75% de los sólidos totales. Asimismo manifiestan que la relación entre el contenido de almidón y la materia seca total es razonablemente constante y poco afectada por las condiciones ambientales, consecuentemente la determinación de la gravedad específica, como un indicador general de la materia seca tiene mucho mérito a causa de su fácil medición; por eso es ampliamente usada para determinar la calidad del producto final. Vásquez (1988) menciona que el contenido de materia seca de los tubérculos es muy variable entre, 13.7% y 27%, y que en el Perú hay variedades nativas que alcanzan hasta 34.8%, existiendo además una serie de factores ambientales que afectan dicho contenido. Al respecto Rastovski et al (1981) señalan que el contenido de • materia seca varía, no solamente entre tubérculos de diferentes variedades ó entre tubérculos de una misma variedad que han sido sembrados en ambientes diferentes, sino también entre tubérculos de una misma planta según la edad de los tubérculos, así como también dentro de un tubérculo y según Carlsson (1970) de acuerdo a su ubicación en el camellón. Se ha encontrado que los factores ambientales de clima y suelo influyen en el contenido de materia seca de los tubérculos (Carlsson,1970;Rastovski et al, 1981;Lisinska, 1989;Perrenoud, 1993). Dean (1999) considera que la temperatura y el suministro lento o tardío de nitrógeno afectan el contenido de almidón y por ende la gravedad específica; al respecto Struik y Ewing (1995) en base a los trabajos de Krauss y Marschner sostienen que tubérculos producidos bajo alta~ temperaturas tendrán bajos contenidos de almidón y un contenido incrementado de azúcar, así mismo mencionan a Haynes et al quienes en 1988 encontraron que la gravedad específica (y así el contenido de materia seca) fue más bajo a más altas temperaturas.Según Moorby y Milthorpe (1975) el crecimiento normal del tubérculo y la síntesis de almidón no se reanuda cuando desaparece el estrés. Consideran que la tasa de conversión de compuestos que ingresan al tubérculo primario es mucho menor que en los secundarios que están creciendo, aunque tengan que pasar por los primarios, y a veces el almidón que ya esta presente en el tubérculo primario es degradado y transferido a los secundarios, quedando una masa de células que contienen una solución diluida de azúcares dando lugar al llamado tubérculo vítreo.Sigh et al (1995) encontraron que una fertilización balanceada de NPK en un suelo aluvial de fertilidad baja incrementó el porcentaje de materia seca y la proteína soluble en el tubérculo, mientras que disminuyó los fenoles totales, aminoácidos libres y azúcares reductores, comparada a una fertilización desbalanceada; la aplicación de azufre generalmente incrementó el porcentaje de materia seca, proteína soluble, aminoácidos libres y fenoles totales mientras que disminuyó los azúcares reductores.El color de los chips es considerado como el índice de calidad más importante y depende de la composición química del tubérculo; la mayoría de autores afirman que el color de los chips está estrechamente correlacionado con el contenido de. azúcares reductores en los tubérculos. A mayor contenido de azúcares reductores en los tubérculos, mayor es el grado de oscurecimiento de los chips. Según Lisinska (1989) los azúcares participan en la reacción de oscurecimiento pero otros constituyentes de la papa qeben estar presentes tales como: aminoácidos, ácido ascórbico y otros compuestos orgánicos. Los principales azúcares presentes en los tubérculos de acuerdo a Rastovski et al (1981) son los azúcares reductores como la glucosa y la fructosa y el azúcar no reductor sacarosa.La temperatura a la cual son fritos los chips varía de 140-185ºC, a estas temperaturas Besen (1976) menciona que los aminoácidos reaccionan con los azúcares reductores por lo que los chips adquieren un color acaramelado y un sabor amargo, por lo que recomienda un máxi~o contenido de azúcares reductores de 0.3% y un almacenamiento a 8-1 OºC para reducir al mínimo el contenido de azúcares reductores.Asimismo Dale y Mackay (1994) consideran que un contenido de 0.1 % de azúcares reductores del peso fresco es ideal para la manufactura de chips y un contenido superior a O. 3 3 % es inaceptable; consideran además que el contenido de azúcares varía considerablemente de estación a estación, de lugar a lugar y entre variedades. Lisinska (1989) reporta haber obtenido una correlación positiva entre el color de los chips y el contenido de azúcares reductores, azúcares totales y ácido ascórbico, pero una correlación negativa entre el color de los chips y el contenido de materia seca y almidón. Asimismo menciona que Hoover y Xander encontraron también una correlación negativa entre el color de los chips y la materia• seca.• Rodríguez y Wrolstad (1997) estudiaron la composición química del tubérculo para evaluar su efecto en el color de las hojuelas fritas. Encontraron variabilidad en la composición y el color de los chips entre las diferentes variedades de papa. La concentración de azúcares reductores no fue suficiente para explicar o predecir el color final de los chips cuando estuvieron presentes en bajas concentraciones ( aprox. <60mg/l OOg). mientras que otros compuestos presentes jugaron un papel importante en el color final de los chips, los cuales mostraron correlación negativa con el color como: ácido ascórbico y un isómero del ácido clorogénico, además de la glucosa y fructosa. El contenido de sacarosa , ácido clorogénico y asparagina no fueron buenos estimadores de la calidad del color de los chips.La determinación del contenido de azúcares reductores en los tubérculosconstituye un aspecto importante en el procesamiento industrial debido a que son afectados según (Carlsson, 1970;Rastovski et al, 1981;Lisinska, 1989 y Sowokinos y Preston, 1988) por una serie de factores ambientales controlables y no controlables en el. campo, transporte y almacenamiento: como la variedad, clima, suelo, labores culturales, madurez, etc. Love et al (1998) estudió el efecto de la temperatura en 44 cultivares de papa para la industria de chips, almacenándolos por 3.5 meses a 4.4ºC, lOºC y 4.4ºC   seguido por reacondicionamiento a 15-18ºC antes de la evaluación; los más bajos niveles de azúcares se obtuvieron a IOºC seguido por 4 .4 ºC con reacondicionamiento, mientras que con la temperatura constante de 4.4ºC se obtuvo los más altos contenidos de azúcar, sin embargo se obtuvo chips de calidad, dado que los cultivares eran genéticamente mejorados para chips.A causa de la variación de la temperatura a diferentes profundidades del suelo, Carlsson (1970) considera que los tubérculos de un mismo surco o planta pueden variar en la cantidad de azúcar y el color de los chips será diferente. Sostiene además que cada cultivar tiene una temperatura óptima para la presecia de bajos contenidos de azúcares reductores y valores inferiores o superiores al óptimo producen un incremento de azúcares reductores; reporta haber encontrado además diferencias debido a la madurez, variedad y localidad. Manrique (1973) en dos experimentos realizados en Cañete y Huancavelica no encontró efecto de los diferentes niveles de abonamiento y población de plantas en los cultivares Mariva, Chata Blanca y Sipeña, respecto al color y gravedad específica~ sin embargo hubo diferencias entre cultivares y entre localidades. Manvaha (1998) considera que un mínimo contenido de azúcares reductores, un óptimo rendimiento de tubérculos y gravedad específica o materia seca de los tubérculos debería tomarse como base en la determinación de la madurez óptima de los tubérculos para chips.Davis (1977) sostiene que una serie de factores están involucrados en la producción de chips a partir de una cantidad dada de tubérculos, siendo la gravedad específica o materia seca de los tubérculos el factor más importante, dado que existe una. estrecha relación positiva entre la gravedad específica y el rendimiento de chips; por lo que un alto contenido de materia seca o gravedad específica de los tubérculos conlleva un alto rendimiento en el producto final, así como una mejor conservación del producto, dado que los chips producidos de tubérculos con altos contenidos de materia seca absorben menos aceite. Al respecto Storey y Davies (1992) señalan que el contenido de aceite de los chips disminuye con el incremento del contenido de materia seca de los tubérculos. Según Hesen (1976) durante la fritura el contenido de humedad de 75-80% es reducido a menos de 2% en el producto final. Por lo que a mayor materia seca o gravedad específica hay un mayor rendimiento de chips (Lisinska, 1989).La textura de los chips esta relacionada con la materia seca de los tubérculos. Según Lisinska (19~9) chips obtenidos de tubérculos con alto contenido de materia seca (sobre 25%) presentan textura dura, mientras que chips de baja gravedad específica (bajos en materia seca) contienen mucho aceite, son además grasosos y pegajosos; el contenido de aceite no debe exceder de 32-40%. Lisinska (1989) examinó la relación entre el contenido de aceite en chips y varios componentes del tubérculo y encontró que hay una correlación negativa y significativa entre el aceite de los chips y la materia seca y contenido de almidón, por lo que menciona por un lado a Gould quien estableció que los chips deben ser producidos de papas con un nivel de gravedad específica sobre 1. 080 y por otro a Bergthaler quien determinó que el rango de materia seca de los tubérculos destinados para la producción de chips estaría entre 21-24%.Rubatzky y Yamaguchi (1997) reportan que los glicoalcaloides presentes en los tubérculos de papa son compuestos tóxicos que al ser ingeridos en altas concentraciones producen trastornos fisiológicos e incluso la muerte. Al respecto Friedman y Me Donald (1997) exponen una serie de casos en donde su consumo produjo serios trastornos y muerte tanto en animales como en el hombre. Por ello es importante su determinación no solamente en los nuevos cultivares producidos sino también cada vez que se produzcan en nuevos ambientes, dado que los factores ambientales, principalmente la luz y daños mecánicos, alteran su contenido en los tubérculos ( Rastovski et al, 1981 ).El sabor amargo de los tubérculos ha sido atribuido según Rastovski et al .(1981) a la presencia de glicoalcaloides, estos no se distribuyen uniformemente por todo el tubérculo, concentrándose en la cáscara, por lo que cerca del 60% es eliminado durante el pelado, pero un nivel superior a 20 mg/l OOg de peso fresco constituye un riesgo para la salud. Sin embargo Ross mencionado por Váquez (1988) sugiere que el límite aceptable de glicoalcaloides podría ser mucho más bajo, esto es 6 a 7 mg/l OOg.El contenido de glicoalcaloides es afectado por la variedad y localidad (Kobayashi et al, 1995), daños mecánicos (Zrust, 1997) por efecto de la temperatura ( Griffiths et al, 1997) quienes encontraron que a baj_as temperaturas se incrementa el contenido de glicoalcaloides. Debido a una serie de reportes con datos conflictivos respecto al efecto de la temperatura sobre el contenid~ de glicoalcaloides, Friedman y Me Donald (1997) considera que los tubérculos de papa producirán glicoalcaloides, no en respuesta a ciertas temperaturas, sino más bien en respuesta a cualquier tipo de estrés, como temperaturas extremas, contenidos extremos de humedad, sol, luz, etc. Así, la condición de estrés durante la producción de tubérculos que incremente la síntesis de glicoalcaloides puede incluir no solamente altas temperaturas (> 15ºC) sino también bajas temperaturas ( <5ºC) por lo que parece estar correlacionado con los azúcares reductores.Cuando se prueba el comportamiento de una serie de genotipos en más de un ambiente comúnmente se observan cambios en el comportamiento de los genotipos a través de los ambientes, esto es lo que se denomina interacción genotipo-ambiente ( GxE ) y, constituye según Cubero et al (1997) uno de los grandes problemas en el estudio de los caracteres cuantitativos como el rendimiento, ya que complica la interpretación de los experimentos realizados y dificulta la posibilidad de hacer inferencias, agrava la selección al reducir la heredabilidad y por ende la asociación entre valores fenotípicos y genotípicos, pudiéndose hacer selecciones óptimas en unos ambientes y muy pobres en otros, forzando a los investigadores a un adecuado estudio de la adaptación de los nuevos cultivares a los ambientes en estudio.Baker citado por Cooper y Fox (1996 ) argumentó que GxE solamente será posible • explotarla donde haya un grado de repetibilidad dentro de la población de ambientes de los factores ambientales responsables de la discriminación entre los genotipos; siendo necesario obtener una-clara definición de los factores ambientales para los cuales la adaptación es buscada. Sin embargo para determinar si es posible definir claramente los factores ambientales importantes en la población de ambientes es primero necesario caracterizar los ambientes en el cual los genotipos son evaluados. Como se puede ver, GxE tiene grandes implicancias siendo su determinación de crucial importancia.Existe una serie de metodologías para encarar el problema de la interacción GxE; el procedimiento más comúnmente usado es la regresión de los genotipos con un índice ambiental para analizar la estabilidad de los genotipos a través de los ambientes, como los propuestos por Finlay y ':\"ilkinson (1963), Eberhart y Russell (1966). Estos modelos, aparte de su concentración sobre la estabilidad, asumen una fuerte relación lineal entre la interacción GxE y el efecto ambiental. Además hacen uso de un índice ambiental no mdependiente de los genotipos; en este sentido Westcott (1986), quien hace además una revisión de otros métodos, llegó a afirmar que no deben recomendarse ni el método de regresión ni los parámetros de estabilidad deducidos de él, ni se pueden superar sus defectos con la utilización conjunta del análisis •de grupos o el análisis de componentes principales. Por otro lado Cubero y Flores (1994), quienes también hacen una revisión pero mucho más exhaustiva con un ejemplo práctico de una serie de metodologías• univariadas y multivariadas para el estudio de la estabilidad, recomiendan que cuando la heterogeneidad de las regresiones resulte altamente significativa el método de regresión puede ser utilizado y, aconsejan su utilización cuando en el ensayo experimental intervienen un gran número de genotipos y se desea realizar una pre selección de los mismos.Una nueva alternativa ha sido propuesta para el estudio de la interacción GxE, el denominado modelo AMMI (Additive Main Effects and l\\rlultiplicative Interaction)., Gauch (1992) en su libro \"Statistical Analysis oj Regional Yield Trials: AMMI analysis of factorial designs\", hace una explicación de dicha metodología y lo define como una combinación del análisis de variancia ordinario (ANOVA) con el análisis de componentes principales (APC), donde APC es utilizado en la descomposición de la interacción GxE en componentes multiplicativos, usando para ello los datos doblemente centrados, es decir la matriz de interacciones. El refiere además que fueron Williams, Pike y Silverberg quienes inventaron el modelo ANIMI en 1952.Varios autores compararon la efectividad del análisis AMMI con el análisis de regresión simple entre ellos Annicchiarico ( 1997), N achit et al ( 1992) y particularmente Yau (1995) quien encontró que el análisis AMMI fue mucho más efectivo que el análisis de regresión conjunta en explicar la interacción GxE aun cuando datos transformados se usaron en el análisis de regresión. El recomienda el uso del análisis AMMI. para estudios detallados de la interacción GxE, especialmente cuando se tiene una gran cantidad de datos como en los ensayos regionales o internacionales de rendimiento. Aconseja no obstante que se debe tener en mente que el análisis de regresión conjunta es una técnica efectiva solamente cuando la heterogeneidad de las regresión~s son significativas y explican una parte razonable de la interacción GxE. Asi mismo Cubero y Flores (1994) corroboran al recomendar el análisis AMMI y como señala Crossa et al (1998) da mayor oportunidad para modelar . e interpretar la interacción GxE que la regresión simple sobre un índice ambiental porque permite modelar a GxE en más de una dimensión. Sin embargo estima parámetros de GxE mediante estadísticos derivados de los mismos datos fenotípicos observados~ no obstante cuando información sobre variables ambientales estén disponibles éstas pueden ser correlacionadas o regresionadas con los componentes principales y así puede ser obtenida alguna interpretación de las causas de GxE. Sin embargo la información ambiental no puede ser usada directamente en el modelo AMMI.Gauch (1992) fundamentó que los parámetros AMM1 significativos (tanto para efectos principales como de interacción) ordinariamente reflejan factores causales identificables genéticos y/o ambientales, cuya interpretación se facilita mediante la construcción de los \"biplots\" (representaciones gráficas de los efectos principales y sus interacciones).Gauch y Zobel (1996) recomiendan que una estrategia para interpretar los resultados AMMI es analizar los resultado~ de rendimiento separadamente, luego correlacionar los componentes principales con los factores ambientales. Así mismo enumera varios ejemplos de autores quienes correlacionaron los componentes principales con los factores ambientales concluyendo que sus resultados muestran la utilidad del análisis AMMI como herramienta estadística para interpretar las asociaciones entre variables ambientales y los componentes de GxE.Chaudhary y Ahn (1996) estudiaron el comportamiento de 29 genotipos de arroz evaluados en 29 condiciones ambientales, encontrando una alta significación entre genotipos, entre ambientes y para la interacción GxE. El análisis AMMI fue realizado y los componentes principales fueron correlacionados con las variables ambientales medidas en cada ambiente. El primer componente principal estuvo altamente correlacionado con la temperatura mínima durante el periodo de crecimiento; indicando una tolerancia a temperaturas frías; el segundo componente se correlacionó con pH, nitrógeno, temperatura máxima y temperatura mínima y el tercer componente se correlacionó con la latitud al que lo interpretó como un eje de sensitividad al fotoperiodo, aunque los genotipos se suponían como insensibles al fotoperiodo.2.6. Los coeficientes de sendero en la determinación de el grado de influencia de una variable sobre otra.Según Márquez (1991) cualquier característica morfoagronómica puede considerarse como un componente del rendimiento y, su grado de influencia o contribución al rendimiento puede ser cuantificado a través de los coeficientes de sendero propuesto por Wright en 1921.Li (1956) aclara que el uso de la técnica de los coeficientes de sendero no es un esfuerzo en inferir relaciones causales a partir de las correlaciones observadas entre un grupo de variables interrelacionadas. Muy por el contrario el empleo del método debe ser precedido por la formulación de un esquema causal, basado ya sea sobre un conocimiento a priori de las relaciones causales o basado sobre una hipótesis el cual el investigador elige aceptar o probar; sin embargo Wright (1960) quien creó el método de los coeficientes de sendero en 1921 considera que en el caso en donde las relaciones causales son inciertas el método puede ser usado para encontrar las consecuencias lógicas de alguna hipótesis particular y es de primera importancia en el análisis de senderos hacer uso de todos los datos disponibles.Ortiz y Pino (1988) en un trabajo realizado en el Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Agrícolas ( Cuba) con el objetivo de determinar las relaciones que existen entre el rendimiento, uno de sus componentes y algunas variables de crecimiento en varias etapas del desarrollo del cultivo de papa, concluyen que para el estimado del rendimiento en los primeros periodos del desarrollo debe considerarse la superficie• foliar y, el número de tubérculos a partir de los 60 días.Estevez y González (1988) utilizaron los datos de 12 experimentos con 8 variedades de papa, sembrados en 4 localidades durante tres años. Se estimaron para cada localidad, los coeficientes de correlación y sendero para los . caracteres: rendimiento, peso promedio del tubérculo, número de tubérculos por planta, altura de la planta y número de tallos por_. planta. Encontrando en todas las localidades correlaciones altamente significativas del rendimiento con el número de tubérculos y el peso promedio. En base a sus resultados obtenidos reportaron que el número de tubérculos por planta y el peso promedio del tubérculo son componentes importantes del rendimiento, pues presentaron los mayores efectos directos.Nooruddin et al (1995) estudiaron el efecto de los factores ambientales sobre el rendimiento mediante los coeficientes de sendero y encontraron como los más importantes, a la temperatura mínima en el estadía vegetativo y fase de iniciación del tubérculo y la radiación fotosintéticamente activa acumulada en la fase del desarrollo del tubérculo, los cuales fueron usados eficientemente en predecir el rendimiento de tubérculos.Ponce (1992) comparó tres técnicas de selección indirecta: índices de selección, coeficientes de sendero y regresión lineal múltiple en la determinación de los principales componentes del reridimiento de tubérculos de papa; encontrándo que de los trece componentes considerados en doce clones, el método de los coeficientes de sendero coincidió con la regresión lineal múltiple en identificar al número de tubérculos y el peso promedio de tubérculos como las variables que más influyeron sobre el rendimiento de tubérculos. Mientras que los índices de selección identificaron cuatro caracteres distintos a los anteriores.Los experimentos de campo fueron realizados entre mayo de 1997 a febrero de 1998 en nueve ambientes de la costa peruana , resultantes de la combinación de tres lugares y tres épocas de siembra cuya identificación y ubicación es como sigue: Las características edafoclimáticas para cada uno de los ambientes se muestran en los cuadros 1 y 2 del apéndice y las figuras 4 y 5. e: e:(íj -24 -Los trabajos de campo se realizaron de manera similar en todos los ambientes y correspondieron al manejo y labores culturales de un campo comercial; el calendario de siembras y cosechas en cada ambiente se muestra en el cuadro 2.Cuadro 2. Fechas de siembra y cosecha de los experimentos en nueve ambientes Las siembras al igual que las cosechas se realizaron en forma manual (lampa); los tubérculos semilla de aproximadamente 80g de peso fueron sembrados a una profundidad de 1 O cm en la costilla del surco y desinfectados con Benlate.El suministro de agua al cultivo fue a través del riego por gravedad según las exigencias de cada ambiente; así tenemos las siguientes frecuencias de riego para cada ambiente:Ambiente Al A2 A3 A4 AS A6 A7 A8 A9 Nº de Riego 7 9 9 8 8 9 11 12 13A excepción de los 6 primeros ambientes; en los ambientes 7, 8 y 9 (Nazca) el riego a pesar de su mayor frecuencia fue algo restringido debido por un lado a su menor volumen, y por otro a una mayor temperatura máxima que caracterizó a dichos ambientes.El rápido crecimiento de los genotipos obligó a realizar un aporque a los 15-20 días des pues de la siembra y otro a los 3 5-40 días y con ello las malezas fueron erradicadas eficientemente.-25 -La fertilización se realizó en todos los ambientes con la fórmula 200-180-120 , utilizándose como fuentes: Urea, Superfosfato triple y Cloruro de potasio~ incorporándose en forma manual y entre golpes la mitad del Nitrógeno, todo el Fósforo y el Potasio a la siembra, el resto del Nitrógeno al segundo aporque. En los ambientes Al, A2 y A3 se incorporó además 5 t/ha de guano a la siembra.Las principales plagas y enfermedades que se presentaron en cada ambiente así como su control se muestra en el cuadro 3; siendo la localidad de Trujillo la de mayores problemas fitosanitarios donde se realizó aplicaciones quincenales para la \"mosquilla de los brotes\" (Prodiplosis spp.), mientras que esta plaga no estuvo presente en Nazca, asimismo la polilla de la papa sólo se presentó en La Malina.La cosecha se realizó a los 45, 90 y 135 después de Ja siembra, cosechándose en cada caso la tercera parte de la unidad experimental tal como se muestra en la figura 1. El follaje se mantuvo hasta el momento de la cosecha para su respectiva evaluación.Ambientes Al-A6 Todos Todos Al-A3 Todos Todos Todos A4-A6Plagas y Enfermedades \"Mosquilla de los brotes\" ( Prodiplosis spp.) \"Mosca minadora\" ( Liriomiza spp.) \"Pulgones\" ( lvíyzus persicae) \"Acaro hialino\" ( Po(vphagotarsonemus /a tus) \"Caballada\" ( Anticarsia gemmatilis) \"Gusano cortador\" ( Agrotis spp.) \"Gusano de tierra\" (}e/tia experta) \"Polilla de la papa\" ( Phthorimaea operculella y ( Symmetrischema plaesiosema ) \"Nemátodo del nódulo de la raíz\" ( Aie/oidogyne spp.) Antracol 70% PM 0.5 kg /200 L \"Rizoctoniasis\" ( Rhizoctonia so/ani ) Benlate PM 50% 200 g 1200 L \"Marchitez por fusariurn\" ( Fusarium spp.)Homai WP 1 kg /200 L \"Pierna negra\" ( Envinia spp.) 3.4.2. Fase de procesamiento: Los tubérculos cosechados en campo y empacados en bolsas de papel fueron llevados al laboratorio de procesamiento del CIP, para evaluar algunos componentes de calidad, como el porcentaje de materia seca de los tubérculos, gravedad específica y el color de hojuelas fritas, así como preparar las muestras para los análisis químicos de azúcares reductores .Y glicoalcaloides.Los tubérculos fueron procesados aproximadamente una semana después de ser cosechados y de permanecer a temperatura ambiente; una muestra aleatoria de cada genotipo se utilizó para la determinación del porcentaje de materia seca y el resto del material fue utilizado para determinar el peso específico y elaboración de hojuelas.En la elaboración de hojuelas se siguió el procedimiento estándar utilizado en el CIP, el cual consiste en lavar y pelar de 1 a 2 kg de tubérculos utilizando una peladora abrasiva Hobart, modelo 6115-T, durante 1 min para tubérculos de ojos superficiales y por 1.5 mm para tubérculos de ojos profundos y deformes. Los tubérculos pelados son mantenidos en agua y debidamente etiquetados mientras se realiza un retoque manual para eliminar restos de cascara; luego los tubérculos son pasados por una cortadora de hojuelas Hobart modelo PD 70 de calibración manual obteniéndose hojuelas de 0.5mm de espesor~ 200-250 g de estas hojuelas fueron separadas para los análisis químicos, el resto fue lavado y luego fritos con aceite vegetal primor a 180 ºC por tres min en una freidora tambi.én de marca Hobart, modelo DK 50 y control automático de temperatura.Las hojuelas fritas (chips) fueron embolsadas, etiquetadas y evaluadas por su color.3.4.3. Fase de laboratorio.De las hojuelas procesadas para fritura y previamente homogeneizadas se obtuvo una muestra de 200-250 g de hojuelas por genotipo las que fueron secadas al vacío por siete días en un liofilizador de marca Labconco, luego . molidos y pasados por un tamiz de 40 mesh. El material liofilizado y en forma de harina fue guardado en bolsas de polietileno para su posterior determinación de azúcares reductores y glicoalcaloides en el laboratorio de fisiología del CIP. El contenido de azúcares reductores se determinó por el método colorimétrico Dinitrofenol (Ross ,1975); consiste en preparar primero el reactivo Dinitrofenol mezclando en una fiola dos soluciones A y B 1 , luego completada a 1 OOOml con agua bidestilada. Después de preparar el stock del reactivo Dinitrofenol, el análisis consistió en agitar 1 g de muest~a en 40 mi de Etanol 80% por 30 min para luego filtrar en una fiola que en algunos casos fue completada a 50 mi con agua bidestilada y en otros se concentró a 1 O mi debido al bajo contenido de azúcares reductores en las muestras. 2 mi de dicho extracto y 6 ml del reactivo Dinitrofenol fueron colocados en un tubo de prueba y puesto en baño María a 100 ºC por exactamente 6 min (en este periodo por acción del calor el reactivo Dinitrofenol reacciona con los azúcares reductores, siendo reducido a un compuesto aminado de color marrón rojizo) y luego se enfrió en agua de caño por espacio de 3 min y su absorbancia leída a 600 nm en un espectrofotómetro Shimadzu modelo UV-l 60A. En base a una curva estándar preparada con concentraciones conocidas de glucosa anhidra se determinó la concentraeión de azúcares reductores en mg por 1 OOg de muestra; para efecto de los cálculos se consideró el porcentaje de humedad de las muestras así como la dilución del extracto.El contenido de glicoalcaloides se determinó por el método de Hellenas (1986). Es un método colorimétrico el cual viene siendo utilizado por el CIP en sus análisis de rutina, y al igual que la mayoría de los métodos analíticos presenta tres partes: Extracción, Purificación y Cuantificación .Este método presenta una modificación (García,l 996 tesis sin publicar) que incluye la hidratación como paso previo a la extracción. Así 5g de muestra fue hidratada en 20 mi de agua destilada por una hora.La extracción se realizó preparando 21 O mi de una mezcla metanol-cloroformo (2: 1 v/v); la muestra hidratada se agitó con 100 mi de la mezcla por 1 O min luego se filtró y enjuagó con la mezcla restante.Extraídos los glicoalcaloides se procedió a evaporar toda la mezcla metanol-cloroformo con un rotavapor en baño María a 60 ºC, obteniéndose un concentrado de 20 ml y en unas peras de sedimentación se le agregó 20 mi de ácido acético 2 % y 15 ml de éter de petróleo para solubilizar los glicoalcaloides y separar compuestos grasos respectivamente. Para ello se agitó vigorosamente y dejó •en reposo a temperatura ambiente hasta el día siguiente, . en que se observó dos fases claramente diferenciables, una superior correspondiente al éter de petróleo y otros compuestos y una fase inferior acuosa correspondiente al ácido acético y los glicoalcaloides; esta fase acuosa fue filtrada y completada a 50 mi con ácido acético 2 %. En 5 mi de este extracto los glicoalcaloides fueron floculados con 1.5 mi de hidróxido de amonio en baño María a 85 ºC por 1 O min, enfriados a 15 ºC por 30 min y centrifugados a 25000 rpm por 30 min. Los glicoalcaloides sedimentados o pélet fue disuelto con 5 ml de ácido ortofosfórico 85 % .Los azúcares de los glicoalcaloides a-solanina y a-chaconina fueron removidos y la aglicona solanidina reacciona con el ácido ortofosfórico formando un compuesto de color amarillo• oscuro registrándose su absorbancia en un espectrofotómetro modelo UV-160 a 408 nm hasta alcanzar su punto máximo, y en base a una curva estándar previamente preparada con concentraciones conocidas de solanina pura se calculó la concentración de glicoalcaloides en mg por 100 g de muestra en base seca.  A partir de los registros diarios de las variables y considerando las fechas de siembra y cosecha (cuadro 2) se obtuvo los valores promedio para los periodos en que el cultivo estuvo en campo, los mismos que se muestran en el cuadro 1 del apéndice. La información sobre la naturaleza fisico-química del material experimental en que se realizó los ensayos se obtuvo tomando muestras de suelo a una profundidad de 0-30 cm y llevadas al laboratorio de suelos de la UNALM para el Los resultados de la evaluación de las características morfoagronómicas y de calidad para cada uno de los genotipos se muestran en los cuadros 3, 4, 5, 6 y 7 del apéndice para los genotipos Tomasa, Reiche, UNICA, María Bonita y Costanera respectivamente, dados en promedio de los tres bloques del experimento para cada uno de los ambientes. G Yg1er = valor fenotipico del genotipo g en la repetición r de la localidad I y en la época e J-L = media general. <PrrleJ = efecto de la repetición r. ag = efecto del genotipo g. Yt = efecto de la localidad l. be = efecto de la época e.(ay)gt =efecto de la interacción entre el genotipo g y la localidad/.(ab)ge =efecto de la interacción entre el genotipo g y la época e.(yb)1e = efecto de la interacción entre la localidad I y la época e.( ayb)g1e = efecto de la interacción entre el genotipo g, la localidad I y la época e.ea/er = efecto aleatorio del error asociado a la observación Ygter . Cl\\l(LEp)íCI\\'l(RLEp)G \"Ll:l:(Yier-Yze t l e r Clvl(RLEp )íCM(Er)En-or (Er) ygn = autovector del genotipo g asociado a An .Óm = autovector del ambiente e asociado a An .pge =residual de la interacción (ap)ge si K < N.Eger = error correspondiente a la observación Yger.Los componentes aditivos del modelo-(u , <p , a y P ) son estimados por el ANOVA y los componentes multiplicativos ( /L , r y rS ) son estimados a partir de la matriz de covariancias L de la interacción ( ap)ge mediante el ACP. El procedimiento de estimación de A., r y t5 mediante el ACP es como sigue:Con los valores correspondientes a Ja interacción ( ap )ge se forma una matriz X con G filas y E columnas y a partir de XX' se obtienen /L y r , y de X'X se obtienen /L y t5 ( 5\"nn)  El esquema del A.NOVA para el análisis AMMI se muestra en el cuadro 7. Los grados de libertad para cada componente del ACP se han calculado por el método de Gollob (1968) sugerido por Gauch (1992), y esta dada por: G+E-l-2(n)El porcentaje de la suma de cuadrados de la interacción (GxE) explicada por los n primeros componentes esta dada por la siguiente expresión :La asociación de los componentes o ejes con las variables ambientales fue medida con el coeficiente de correlación de Pearson (r).Donde: r = correlación entre la variable ambiental i (Xe;) y los escores ambientales del componente n correspondiente a la variable morfoagronómica j (Ye 1 n).l -38 -En la determinación de la influencia relativa de los factores ambientales sobre el rendimiento y otras características morfoagronómicas y de calidad a través del análisis de los coeficientes de sendero se ha considerado cuatro esquemas causales:1. El Rendimiento como función de sus componentes.2. Variables morfoagronómicas y de calidad en función de factores climáticos.3. Variables morfo agronómicas y de calidad en función de factores edáficos.4. Variables morfoagronómicas y de calidad en función tanto de factores climáticos y edáficos.Los cuatro esquemas causales considerados se resumen en el siguiente esquema general:.    4) y como variables endógenas en las ecuaciones ( 5), ( 6) y ( 7 ). z 1 representa una variable ambiental (siempre exógena); cabe recordar que las variables en las ecuaciones ( 3 ), ( 4), ( 5), ( 6) y ( 7 ) están estandarizadas.La ecuación ( 4 ) es la expresión matemática de las relaciones causales del rendimiento y sus componentes evaluados a 45 días, e incluye las variables del 6 al 1 7.La expresión matemática de las relaciones causales del rendimiento y sus componentes evaluados a 90 y 135 días esta dada por la ecuación ( 3 ).La j-ésima variable considerada como función únicamente del clima (segundo esquema causal) esta dada por la ecuación ( 5 ); como función únicamente del suelo (tercer esquema causal) dada por la ecuación ( 6 ) y como función tanto del clima como del suelo (cuarto esquema causal) por la ecuación ( 7 ).Dado que no todas las variables ( l'.t) fueron evaluados en los tres estadías fenológicos, en las ecuaciones ( 5), ( 6) y ( 7) se tiene:Para 45 días j = 5, 6 , 7 ...... 17Para 90 días j = 1, 2 , 3 ...... 13Para 135 díasj = 3, 4, 5 ...... 13 Donde:En el análisis de senderos la determinación de los coeficientes Pu se realiza mediante la resolución de un sistema de ecuaciones teniendo a los coeficientes de correlación ru como variables; esto se fundamenta en la igualdad existente entre la covariancia y el coeficiente de correlación cuando se trata de variables estandarizadas. La información contenida en el sistema de ecuac10nes y la que se deriva de su resolución es la siguiente: r¡s = coeficiente de correlación ó efecto total de la i-ésima variable sobre el rendimiento (v 5 ), este coeficiente es descompuesto en componentes según la ecuación ( 8 ).p¡s = coeficiente de sendero ó efecto directo de la i-ésima variable sobre el rendimiento (v 5 ) y refleja su influencia en la variación de la variable dependiente ( 1~¡= 5 ) cuando las restantes variables del modelo se mantienen constantes.p¡•sr¡•¡ = efecto indirecto de la i-ésima variable sobre la variable dependiente ( v 5 ) a través de la i'-ésima variable.Considerando además al sistema en que la variable endógena ( 1~1 ) esta completamente determinada por las variables explícitas consideradas en el modelo más un término ( e ) que representa a los factores no considerados en el modelo así como a los posibles errores cometidos al medir las variables del modelo y que supuestamente no están correlacionadas con el resto de las variables, tendremos:p :; = coeficiente de alienación que expresa la proporción de la variabilidad de la variable dependiente (j ) no explicada por las variables consideradas en el modelo y que es atribuible a las variables implícitas o errores .L: Puru = coeficiente de determinación y expresa la proporción•de la variabilidad de la 1 variable dependiente (} ) que es explicada por las variables consideradas en el modelo.Trabajando de manera similar las ecuaciones ( 4 ), ( 5), ( 6) y ( 7 ) se obtuvo.información bajo los esquemas causales que dichas ecuaciones representan para las variables endógenas (j) evaluadas a 45, 90 y 135 días para cada uno de los genotipos en función de las variables exógenas ( i ) incluídas en su respectiva ecuación. En Nazca se presentó la mayor RAD, pero la TMED fue ligeramente inferior a Trujillo (fig. 4), aunque en primavera (A9) fue superior, sin embargo la temperatura experimentó las más grandes fluctuaciones entre las mínimas y máximas, mientras que la HR fue poco fluctuante con tendencia a la bajá. (fig. 4), de suelos franco arenosos algo más ligeros que los de _La Malina, con el mayor contenido de Na+ y K+ especialmente en AS el que presenta además el mayor contenido B (fig. 5a). Nazca presentó por otro lado el más bajo contenido de MO y Zn. respecto al Cu el mayor contenido lo encontramos en A9 y el menor en A8 (fig. 5e).Siendo las variables climáticas de mayor variabilidad la RAD seguido por la HRMIN, TMIN, TMAX y TMED; entre las variables edáficas se tiene al Mn seguido por CaC0 3 , microelementos, Mg ++, MO, MgO y el menos variable el pH; sin embargo hay que considerar que grandes variaciones en un factor ambiental no siempre tienen grandes efectos en un determinado carácter de un determinado genotipo, por el contrario pequeñas variaciones pueden tener grandes efectos.Como señala Wellensiek (1967) el estudio del medio ambiente es muy amplio no porque existan muchísimos factores sino porque cada factor por separado está sujeto a un número infinito de variaciones cuantitativas y porque existe una acción recíproca constante entre todos los factores; un cambio en un factor influye en la acción de muchos otros y en muchos casos es casi imposible atribuir ciertos efectos definidos a un factor aislado sin considerar los otros; esto hace dificil decir que cierto factor es mas o menos importante que otro.   •5•-300 ~1.07~ 1.06 s..      ------'----------~ -0.  -- Según Gauch (1992) los biplots tienen una clara interpretación agrícola, donde los efectos principales para genotipos reflejan los mejores o avances en mejoramiento considerando por e1Io a G 1 y G5 como los peores genotipos respecto al RDTO, carácter que estamos describiendo, mientras que G2, G3 y G4 tienen \"similar\" comportamiento, así mismo los efectos principales para ambientes reflejan la calidad Los componentes principales fueron asociados a los factores ambientales mediante el coeficiente de correlación de Pearson ( r ) y GxE interpretada en función de los factores ambientales con mayor grado de asociación a dichos componentes. Los coeficientes de correlación son mostrados en el cuadro 11 del apéndice de donde se puede ver que lPC esta mayormente asociado en forma directa a TMIN y S04= e inversamente con Na+; 2PC estuvo asociado positiva y significativamente con ARENA y negativamente con CaC03 y CaO; 3PC estuvo asociado directamente con Cu y Mn e inversamente con K10, K+ y B pudiendo por tanto concluir que: G5 se adaptó en los ambientes con altas TMIN, y suelos arenosos provistos de buen contenido de S0 4 = pero bajos en Na+, CaC0 3 y CaO.G4 se adaptó en ambientes con altas TMIN, en suelos no arenosos con altos contenidos de S04=, CaC0 3 , CaO, Cu y Mn pero bajos en K10, K+ y B.G 1 se adaptó en ambientes con bajas TMIN y suelos con altos contenidos de Na+, con regular contenido de Cu y Mn pero bajos en S04 =, K10, K+ y B.G2 se adaptó a suelos con bajos contenidos de Cu y Mn, medios en K 2 0, K+ y B. G2 y G3 tuvieron similar comportamiento a excepción de G2 en que se adaptó además a suelos fértiles. En general podemos considerar a estos factores ambientales como •los causales de GxE respecto a RDTO.Al igual que a RDTO del cuadro 11 del apéndice podemos determinar los factores ambientales con mayor grado de asociación a los PC que fueron causales de GxE para el resto de caracteres morfogenéticos evaluados en diferentes ambientes de prueba, identificándose así el patrón de comportamiento de los genotipos en función de dichos factores respecto al carácter morfogenético evaluado. l -65 -4. 7 Influencia de los Factores Ambientales en : 4.7.1 El Rendimiento y sus componentes.Tomasa presentó los más bajos rendimientos en promedio de todos los genotipos especialmente en A3, A6 y A9 ambientes en los que no produjo tubérculo alguno (época de primavera C<;lracterizada por mayores temperaturas) a excepción de A2 en que superó a G5, ambiente en que alcanzó su mayor rendimiento.Según los coeficientes de sendero (Cuadro 14 del apéndice) G 1 tuvo los mayores • sFe e e HRMD HRMN , ~~~X e A:CILLA ezn e Cu e ARENARl~ICII E -Jer. esqnemn  MgO p~ e Mg\".0.8 RF.ICllF:-2do. rsquema•TMDe HRMO e HRMN eHRMX•TMN TMXe dado que la influencia depende de la naturaleza del carácter morfogenético. En general para el RDTO de Tomasa (G 1) y sus componentes se identificó a los siguientes factores como los más determinantes ARENA, Mn, K+, Na+, K20, B, TMED y HRMED.Es el tercer genotipo en importancia con un ROTO promedio de 378.68 g/p_ en promedio de todos los ambientes, siendo A2 y AS sus mejores ambientes .donde produjo 544. 6 g/p y 482. 9 g/p respectivamente, mientras que sus peores rendimientos lo obtuvo en Al y A9 con 167. 7 g/p y l 92.2g/p respectivamente. UNICA es el segundo genotipo en importancia después de M. Bonita con un RDTO de 382.97 g/p en promedio de los nueve ambientes. G3 obtuvo sus mayores rendimientos en A2 y A5 con 597.5 g/p y 489.9 g/p respectivamente, sus mayores interacciones negativas se presentó con los ambientes Al (-74.9 g/p) y A7 (-52.92 g/p), y sus mayores interacciones positivas con A2 (56.71 g/p) y A8 (49.01)~ mientras que sus más bajas interacciones se presentó con A3, A6 y A9 de 11.9 g/p, 9.98 g/p y 10.59 g/p respectivamente.Del análisis de senderos considerando el pnmer esquema causal (cuadro 14 del María Bonita fue el genotipo de mayor RDTO con 384.44 g/p en promedio de todos los ambientes, alcanzado sus mayores rendimientos promedio de tres bloques en A2 y A5 con 597.5 g/p y 489.9 g/p respectivamente, siendo sus peores ambientes A7 y A8 con 183.8 g/p y 241.3 g/p respectivamente.Del análisis de senderos considerando el primer esquema causal cuadro 14 del El RDTO de G5 312.17 g/p en promedio de todos los ambientes esta muy cercano a la media general 317. 1 g/p no fue significativamente diferente de G2, G3 y G4 aunque estos últimos son ligeramente superiores.De los resultados AMMI (fig. 9) se puede ver que G2, G3 y G4 son genotipos que no difieren mucho en efectos principales. G5 obtuvo sus mayores rendimientos en A4 y A6 con 433. 7 g/p y 442. . a++  de GxE y, a TMAX y pH asociados a 4PC no significativo que explicó sólo el 1. 7% de GxE. A partir de los análisis de senderos podemos ver la influencia de los factores ambientales sobre MSTUB para cada uno de los genotipos.Los resultados bajo el esquema ( 4) para G 1, G2, G3, G4 y G5 se muestran en los Coeficientes de correlación y de sendero bajo el 4to. esquema causal, entre los factores ambie:ntales y algunos caracteres morfoagronómicos en cinco cultivares de papa evaluados a 90 dias. ~.: •º\" Considerando al esquema ( 4) el factor que se presentó con mayor consistencia es P 2 0 5 pero en el esquema (3) este factor no tuvo mayor influencia sobre los genotipos destacando más bien K+ como el factor de mayor influencia; además si se considera el promedio de los genotipos los factores difieren grandemente de aquellos que afectan a un genotipo especifico, por ello cuando se tiene un carácter con una gran interacción es mejor analizar o ver los efectos sobre cada uno de ellos más no en promedio de los genotipos, sin embargo podemos considerar a P20s, K+ , K10, CIC, Ca++ y T11ED como los factores que tuvieron mayor incidencia en MSTUB.En promedio de todos los ambientes G2 presentó la más alta GRAVES de 1.0811 con una fluctuación entre 1.088 en A2 y 1.064 en Al; mientras que G3 fue el genotipo con menor GRAVES que en promedio de todos los ambientes fue de 1.0656 con una fluctuación entre 1. 080 en A2 y 1. 046 en A9.Genotipos, ambientes y GxE presentaron alta significación estadística y más que determinar el orden de mérito analicemos los resultados AMMI donde a partir del cuadro 11 del apéndice podemos ver que los factores ambientales que explicaron la GxE fueron : P20s por su mayor asociación al IPC que explicó el 56.22% de GxE~ K10 , K+ y B asociados al 2PC que explicó 22.18% de GxE; CE, CIC, Mg++, Fe y MgO asociados a 3PC que explicó 16.31% de GxE, el 4PC que contiene el 5.29% de GxE no resultó significativo así como también no se correlacionó con ningún factor ambiental. A partir de los análisis de senderos se puede ver la influencia de los factores ambientales sobre GRAVES para cada genotipo.Los resultados bajo el esquema (4) para Gl, G2, G3, G4 y G5 se muestran en los cuadros ~2, 23, 24, 25 y 26 del apéndice respectivamente, de donde podemos observar que los mayores efectos directos sobre cada genotipo fueron dados por los siguientes factores en orden de importancia: Gl: ARENA, CIC, CaC0 3 , ARCILLA, Na+, Mg++, P20s, LIMO, Mn G2: pH, K+, P 2 0 5 , Mg++, MO, Zn, Fe, LIMO, HRMED, MgO, ARCILLA G3: ARENA, Mn, Fe, CIC, ARCILLA, Zn, TMED, B, TMAX, Mg++ G4: Zn, P20s, TMJN, S04=, pH, B, Na+, K20 G5: TMED, Mn, RAD, P20s, HRMED, LIMO, ARCILLA, Fe X : Zn, CaC0 3 , pH, K\\ P20s, ARCILLA, Na+ Los resultados bajo el esquema (3) para Gl, ü2, G3, G4 y G5 se muestran en los cuadros 40, 41, 42, 43 y 44 del apéndice respectivamente de donde podemos observar que los mayores efectos directos sobre cada genotipo fueron dados por los siguientes factores en orden de importancia: Gl: ARENA, CIC, Mn, ARCILLA, Fe, CaC03, K+, K20 G2: K+, K 2 0, Fe, ARENA, Mn, LIMO, S04 =, Zn, CIC G3: Fe, Mn, Zn, LIMO, ARENA, Ca++, B, K+ 1 -81 -G4: B, Mg'+, CIC, MgO, SOt, Na+, Ca++, Cu, Fe G5: K+, K10, Fe, ARENA, LIMO, CIC, Na', S0 4 =, Mn X: K10, CaC03, K+, Zn, ARENA, Fe, Mgü, SQ4=, B, LIMO Los resultados bajo el esquema (2) para G 1, G2, G3, G4 y G5 se muestran en los cuadros 57, 58, 59, 60 y 61 del apéndice respectivamente de donde podemos observar que los mayores efectos directos sobre cada genotipo fueron dados por los siguientes factores en orden de importancia: Gl: HRMIN, HRMAX, TMED, TMAX G2:TMAX, TJ\\1ED, TMJN,rIRMED G3: TMAX, TMED, TMIN, HRMED G4: TMED, TMAX, TMIN, RAD G5: TMAX, TMED, TMIN, HRMED X : TMAX, TMED, TMIN,HRMED De lo anterior podemos ver que la textura del suelo jugó un rol importante ya que sus elementos estuvieron presentes en los dos esquemas acupando lugares importantes a excepción de G4, además de la textura, K1-fue el factor más consistente; respecto al clima lo fue TMAX.El contenido de AZURED fluctuó entre 1.59% para G3 en Al y 0.12% para G4 en A2. AZURED se correlacionó significativamente y en forma positiva con el color de las hojuelas, considerándose como hojuelas aceptables hasta un valor de 4 en la escala del presente trabajo, esto equivale a un contenido aproximado de 0.25 % de AZURED en base seca y de 0.05% en base a peso fresco determinados por el método dinitrofenol descrito en el acápite 3.4.3.2. En• los ambientes Al, A3 y A9 ningúD genotipo produjo hojuelas de calidad debido al alto contenido de AZURED que presentaron en dichos ambientes , sin embargo los genotipos G2, G4 y G5 produjeron hojuelas de aceptable calidad en el resto de ambientes con AZURED < 0.2%.En promedio de todos los ambientes G4 fue el genotipo con hojuelas de mejor calidad y un contenido de AZURED de 0.26% seguido por G5 con 0.332% y G2 con 0.333% siendo estos tres genotipos estadísticamente iguales y diferenciándose estadísticamente l -82de Gl y G3 que presentaron las peores frituras con un contenido de AZURED de ü.67 % y 0.65% respectivamente.Del cuadro 12 la significación encontrada para las fuentes de variación en el ANOV A puede ser cuestionable sobre todo GxE que es significativa al 0.05, dada la falta de homocedasticidad y por otro lado el elevado CV, los cuales pueden deberse a que AZURED es un componente bioquímico muy dinámico, con una considerable variación en los tubérculos según su grado de madurez en la planta madre así como a los factores ambientales (Carlsson , 1970), además de haber considerado solamente 2 repeticiones; así también solamente 1 PC fue significativo,. pero 2PC explicó un porcentaje importante de GxE.Del cuadro 11 del apéndice podemos considerar a CIC, Mg ++ y Ca++ como los factores ambientales que causaron la GxE al asociarse a 1 PC, así como también a TMED asociado a 2PC.Los efectos de los factores ambientales sobre el contenido de AZURED en cada uno de los genotipos se describen a continuación.Los resul~ados bajo el esquema (4) para Gl, G2, G3, G4 y G5 se muestran en los cuadros 22, 23, 24, 25 y 26 del apéndice respectivamente y graficadas en la Fig. 14 de donde podemos observar que los mayores efectos directos sobre cada genotipo fueron dados por los siguientes factores en orden de importancia: Gl: ARENA, CaC03, CIC, ARCILLA, Mg++, LIMO, Mn, P20s, TMAX G2: K20, P 2 0s, Mn, TMED, HRMED, Zn, S04=, pH, K+ G3: P20s, TMED, TMIN, K10, HRMED, Zn, S04= G4: ARENA, Mn, pH, KiO, CIC, MO, P20s, TMIN, Zn G5: ARENA, pH, K 2 0, CIC, Mn, HRMED, RAD, MO, TMED, TMAX X: ARENA, CIC, CaC03, Na+, B, LIMO, K10, Zn, HRMED, pH Los resultados bajo el esquema (3) para Gl, G2, G3, G4 y G5 se muestran en los cuadros 40, 41, 42, 43 y 44 del apéndice respectivamente de donde podemos observar que los mayores efectos directos sobre cada genotipo fueron dados por los siguientes factores en orden de importancia:  --------.--------------   - El caso de glicoalcaloides es semejante al de los azúcares reductores con una interacción significativa al O. 05, así como un elevado coeficiente de variabilidad debido a las mismas causas acentuado mucho más por efectos del pelado en que se eliminó de 30-80% del contenido total de glicoalcaloides del tubérculo (Storey y Davies , 1992). Por eso el contenido de GLICOAL determinado corresponde al producto procesado dado que los GLICOAL no son mayonnente afectados por efecto de la fritura (Friedman y McDonald , 1997). El contenido de GLICOAL en el producto procesado en promedio de todos los ambientes fluctuó entre 13. 74 mg /IOOg en base seca para G4 y 3.06 mg/1 OOg en base seca para G3. Los genotipos G 1 y G5 presentaron en A 1 un contenido considerable de GLICOAL respecto a sus contenidos presentados en los otros ambientes, pero sin considerar estas observaciones G 1, G5 y G3 fueron los genotipos con más bajos contenidos mientras que G2 y G4 fueron los genotipos con mayores contenidos en forma consistente en todos los ambientes. En general el contenido estuvo por debajo del máximo permitido 1 O -20 mg/l OOg de peso fresco, que asumiendo un porcentaje de materia seca de 20 % sería 50 -1 OOmg/l OOg de peso seco.Del cuadro 12 se puede ver que los tres primeros PC fueron altamente significativos, sin embargo de estos solamente 3 PC tuvo el mayor grado de asociación con los l. Los principales componentes morfogenéticos que determinaron el rendimiento de tubérculos de papa en diferentes estadías fueron el peso seco de tubérculo y el peso seco total de la planta dado que presentaron los mayores efectos directos. El número de tubérculos y el peso fresco del tubérculos no mostraron ser componentes importantes del rendimiento a excepción de Tomasa, pero sólo en el último estadio de su desarrollo. Los resultados obtenidos revelaron diferencias significativas entre genotipos y entre ambientes para la mayoría de los caracteres, la interacción fue altamente significativa en todos los caracteres en sus tres estadías; sin embargo el rendimiento evaluado a 90 días no mostró diferencias significativas entre localidades y entre épocas, no obstante los genotipos y sus interacciones fueron significativas.La interacción GxE fue analizada mediante el análisis AÑTh'Il e interpretada en función de los factores ambientales asociados a los componentes principales y el patrón de comportamiento de los genotipos determinada.Se analizaron los coeficientes de sendero para determinar los principales caracteres morfogenéticos que determinan el rendimiento de tubérculos y, considerando que la importancia de un factor causal depende de la importancia de los otros factores considerados. en el esquema causal, en la determinación de la influencia de los factores .ambientales sobre el rendimiento, sus principales componentes y de calidad, tres esquemas causales fueron considerados; es decir, las variables climáticas y edáficas fueron tratadas en conjunto primero y después por separado.Los caracteres peso seco de tubérculo (PSTUB) y peso seco total de planta (PSPL TA) presentaron los mayores efectos directos positivos sobre el rendimiento en todos los genotipos a los 45, 90 y 135 días despues de la siembra, a excepción de Tomasa (Gl) . Los máximos rendimientos alcanzados a los 90 días se mantuvieron ó disminuyeron hacia los 13 5 días, poniedose por ello énfasis en la descripción de las evaluaciones realizadas a los 90 días.Respecto al rendimiento evaluado a los 90 días entre los factores ambientales causales de la interacción se identificaron a Temperatura mínima (T~flN), SO/, Na+, ARENA, CaC03, CaO, Cu, Mn, K10, K+, B y MO por su mayor grado de asociación a los componentes principales del análisis AMrvll, y se describió a:To masa ( G 1) como adaptable en ambientes con bajas TlVllN y en suelos provistos de Considerando el esquema que incluyó solamente variables climáticas, se encontró para:Gl: TN1ED, HRMED y TMIN; G2: TMA..-\"X, Tl\\IIED y TuIIN; G3: TMAX, Tl\\IIED y TNIIN; G4: TN1ED, TMIN y TMAX; G5: HRN1ED, TNIA..-\"X y.RAD.El porcentaje de materia seca de los tubérculos (MSTUB) se incrementó de los 45 a 90 días y luego se mantuvo constante en algunos casos y en otros experimentó una ligera disminución a los 135 días. Respecto al porcentaje de MSTUB evaluado a los 90 días entre los factores causales de su interacción con los ambientes se identificó a: P 2 0 5 asociado al primer componente principal (IPC) que explicó el 57.5 % de la suma de cuadrados (SC) de la interacción genotipo-ambiente (GxE); HRMED asociado a 2PC que explicó el 24.12 % de la SC de GxE; a los factores K10, K+y B asociados a 3PC que• explicó el 16.61 % de la SC de GxE y a TMA-X y pH asociados a 4PC que explicó solo un 1. 7 % de la SC de GxE y además no resultó ser significativo.Los tres primeros factores ambientales que influyeron ya sea en forma positiva ó negativa en el_ porcentaje de materia seca de los tubérculos evaluados a los 90 días determinado mediante el análisis de los coeficientes de sendero considerando el esquema causal que incluyó tanto variables edáficas como climáticas fueron para: G 1 : La gravedad específica de los tubérculos disminuyó ligeramente de los 90 a los 135 días en la mayoria de las evaluaciones. Referente a la gravedad específica de los tubérculos evaluados a los 90 días, entre los factores ambientales causales de GxE se identificó a: P 2 0 5 por su mayor asociación a 1 PC y explicó 56.22 % de la SC de GxE; a K 2 0, K+ y B asociados a 2PC que explicó el 22.18 % de la SC de GxE; a los factores CE, CIC, Mg++, Fe y MgO asociados a 3PC y explicaron el 16.31 % de la SC de GxE.Los tres primeros factores ambientales que influyeron ya sea en forma positiva ó negativa en la gravedad específica de los tubérculos evaluados a los 90 días determinado mediante el análisis de los coeficientes de sendero considerando el El contenido de azúcares reductores fue determinado solamente en tubérculos evaluados a 90 días después de la siembra, y se correlacionó en forma significativa y positiva con el color de los chips, se consideró chips como de aceptable calidad a un valor máximo de 4 en la escala de 1 a 1 O, siendo equivalente a un contenido de azúcares reductores de aproximadamente 0.25 % en base seca.Entre los factores ambientales causales de GxE se identificó a: CIC, Nig ++ y Ca++ asociados a _lPC que explicó el 72.44 % de la SC de GxE; Ti\\IIED asociado a 2PC que explicó el 18.52 % de la SC de GxE; a los factores CE, pH y CaC0 3 asociados a 3PC que explicó 7.14 % de la SC de GxE y a MO, P20s y Na+ asociados a 4PC que explicó solamente 1. 90 % de la SC de GxE.Los tres primeros factores ambientales que influyeron ya sea en forma positiva ó negativa en el contenido de azúcares reductores considerando el esquema causal que incluyó tanto variables edáficas como climáticas fueron para: G 1: ARENA, CaC0 3 y CIC; G2: K 2 0, P 2 0s y Mn; G3: P20s, Tl\\1ED, TMIN; G4: ARENA, Mn y pH,; G5: l                                                        ","tokenCount":"12586"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"46048b009677f596bc7f3d8aa128ba13","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1adf41e6-0f85-437e-89db-560c7aa47c6b/retrieve","id":"892312315"},"keywords":["africa","agriculture","smallholder irrigation","policy barriers","governance mechanisms","market access"],"sieverID":"d5b32204-5dcf-4709-b53c-895c6d52d7fe","pagecount":"16","content":"African governments have ambitious plans to expand irrigated agriculture, though existing smallholder schemes have largely failed to use land and water sustainably or become profitable. Six government-owned irrigation schemes in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe were assessed to identify common policy barriers and opportunities for higher productivity among smallholder farmers. Issues like insecure land tenure systems, unclear institutional arrangements and poor access to markets have contributed to limited profitability. Reform of currently insecure land tenure, strengthening farmer organizations and reforming policies are recommended so that governments step back from scheme management and foster market linkages to enable more profitable irrigated agriculture.Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is facing a daunting challenge of feeding over 2 billion people by 2050 (Canning, Jobanputra, & Yazbeck, 2015;United Nations Development Programme, 2012). The World Bank estimated in 2008 that 85% of the people in SSA lived in rural areas and depended primarily on rainfed agricultural production with generally low yield levels for their livelihoods. Only 4% of arable land in SSA is irrigated, compared to about 20% globally and 38% in Asia (Food & Agriculture Organisation, 2009;Shah, van Koppen, Merrey, de Lange, & Samad, 2002). There is an urgent need in Africa to increase productivity and improve the resilience of agricultural production systems under a changing climate (Rockström & Karlberg, 2009). Only 7.3 million ha are irrigated out of an estimated suitable area of 40 million ha in SSA (You et al., 2011). There are diverse irrigated agricultural systems in Africa. This article focuses on government-owned irrigation schemes for smallholder farmers, which account for 47% of all irrigated land in Africa (Makombe, Meinzen-Dick, Davies, & Sampath, 2001). The high proportion of people living in poverty in rural areas in Africa is an important driver for government programs to improve the socio-economic returns from agriculture (Jayne et al., 2003;Masters et al., 2013). This has underpinned government decisions to establish communal irrigation schemes, but these public schemes have often entrenched rather than reduced poverty by allocating irrigation plots that are simply too small for farmers to make a decent living, as at Mokoba in Zimbabwe (Moyo, van Rooyen, & Bjornlund, 2017, Table 1). Further, through government regulations or institutions like water scheduling, farmers are directed to grow staple food crops that are not profitable enough to sustain irrigation scheme operations and farmers' livelihoods (van Rooyen, Ramshaw, Moyo, Stirzaker, & Bjornlund, 2017).While some areas of Africa experience physical water scarcity, economic water scarcity limits greater development of available water resources for irrigated agriculture. The capital to develop irrigation infrastructure and the institutions to fund ongoing operations and maintenance do not warrant the production of 'cheap staples' without government support (Stirzaker & Pittock, 2014;You et al., 2011). The irrigation opportunity is for intensification and diversification of agricultural production with two or more high-value crops per year to draw in labour from less profitable dryland agriculture, increase employment during the lean season and reduce poverty (Carswell, 1997). Often the most profitable irrigated crops will not be staple foodstuffs, so enhancing the productivity of smallholder irrigation often requires exporting non-staples from the locality in exchange for irrigators purchasing staple foods.Irrigation in SSA has had major difficulties providing an adequate return on investment, due to weak water governance institutions, weak market integration, and significant degradation and abandonment of irrigated land (Stirzaker & Pittock, 2014). The question is, what policy and investment environment can support productive smallholder irrigation, given an understanding of past and current failures? Because many smallholder irrigators are growing low-value staple crops with poor support, and have inadequate or expensive access to farm inputs and to markets, their returns are insufficient to maintain and revitalize irrigation schemes (Shah et al., 2002). Two million of the seven million hectares of irrigation-equipped land in SSA are not in production. Rehabilitation of this land has an estimated average internal rate of return of 28%, in contrast to new large dam-based projects, where a potential 1.3 million ha of profitable expansion had an internal rate of return of 12% (Burney, Naylor, & Postel, 2013). Historically, governments have managed irrigation development in the region, and this has been identified as a factor in their failure (Mutiro & Lautze, 2015). In the last 10 years, policies on SSA irrigation have emphasized a dramatic scaling-up of irrigated area to promote food security and ameliorate rural poverty. This however has not been translated into development on the ground, with the average rate of growth of irrigated area in SSA of just 1.1% in 2000-03 (Svendsen, Ewing, & Msangi, 2009). Incomplete FAO statistical data limits a more current analysis, but to contribute to feeding the world's growing population, the area equipped for irrigation in SSA is projected to increase by only 0.67% per year between 2005 and 2050 (Bruinsma, 2009). In 2002, the African Ministers' Council on Water was established to provide political leadership, policy direction and advocacy in the provision, use and management of water resources for sustainable social and economic development and maintenance of ecosystems (AMCOW, 2002). In the same year, the Maputo Declaration was established, adopting the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework for investment in agriculture in Africa, with special emphasis on water control (NEPAD, 2003). In 2004, the Sirte Declaration focused on ways to implement integrated and sustainable development of agriculture and water in Africa (African Union, 2004). The 2005 report of the Commission for Africa, titled Our Common Interest, highlighted the need for investment in water and energy infrastructure, but progress remains limited.In terms of regional policy instruments, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) instruments for water cooperation include the Regional Water Policy, adopted in 2005; the Regional Water Strategy, adopted in 2006; and the Regional Strategic Action Plan on Integrated Water Resources andDevelopment Management, approved in 1998 (SADC, 2012). The Regional Water Policy calls for joint planning and construction of water storages to better support irrigated agriculture and poor communities (SADC, 2005). SADC's Regional Indicative Strategic Development Action Plan of 2001 prioritizes poverty reduction and clearly recognizes the developmental role of water.However, the challenge remains how to turn concept and strategy into practical action on the ground. At national levels, a number of countries in Africa have been active in developing appropriate policies and implementing initiatives to promote better irrigation practices (Sullivan & Pittock, 2014). Of the 14 SADC nations, 10 had adapted CAADP plans or road maps by 2015, but the extent to which they focus on enhancing irrigated agriculture is not clear (NEPAD, 2015).We consider that governance of natural resources, in this case irrigation schemes, comprises a web of government and non-governmental institutions at different scales, from local to national (Durant, Chun, Kim, & Lee, 2004). Among these, the key role of water user associations and local farmers in the governance of irrigation schemes has been the subject of extensive analyses, including the issues around the reluctance of government agencies to share power with non-state actors (McCornick & Merrey, 2005). Given the limited capacity of government agencies to make optimal day-to-day governance decisions on local use of resources like land and water for agriculture, we argue that a key role of governments is to enable effective non-governmental governance institutions. For these reasons this research focusses on government institutions for regulating and enabling smallholder irrigation.In this article, assessments of six smallholder irrigation schemes in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe are drawn on to identify common barriers and opportunities for sustainable irrigation (Figure 1).These six irrigation schemes are the subject of the research project Increasing Irrigation Water Productivity in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe through On-Farm Monitoring, Adaptive Management and Agricultural Innovation Platforms. These countries were chosen as the locations for this research following a scoping study in 2012 that considered nine nations in eastern and southern Africa. The selection was based on a combination of interest from national government authorities, in-country research capacity, contrasting stages of irrigation development, and relevance to regional African institutions like CAADP and SADC (Pittock, Stirzaker, Sibanda, Sullivan, & Grafton, 2013).In-country research partners chose two irrigation schemes in each of the countries that were operated by smallholder farmers; produced a range of different crops; were accessible to in-country researchers; and were supported by local authorities (Table 1; Figure 1). None of the irrigation schemes were self-sustaining, that is, they relied on external funders for infrastructure maintenance, and the current farming systems were barely profitable (de Sousa et al., 2017;Mdemu, Mziray, Bjornlund, & Kashaigili, 2017;Moyo et al., 2017). The issues of profitability of small-scale irrigation schemes in the SSA region are covered in more detail by Bjornlund, van Rooyen, and Stirzaker (2017).Baseline situation reports were prepared after at least two meetings had been held with farmers and other local stakeholders at each irrigation scheme. A common template was used, and the reports were prepared by staff of the National Institute for Irrigation (INIR) in Mozambique, Ardhi University in Tanzania, and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in Zimbabwe (Moyo, Moyo, & van Rooyen, 2015;Mziray & Mdemu, 2015;de Sousa, Cheveia, Machava, & Faduco, 2015). The situation reports were assessed for this study, supplemented with data from the articles in this issue, notably three country case studies (Mdemu et al., 2017;Moyo et al., 2017;de Sousa et al., 2017). Qualitative analysis was undertaken to identify barriers and opportunities of national government policies with respect to land tenure, irrigation farmer organizations (also known as water user associations), water use, and enabling profitable irrigation. The identified policy issues are summarized in the results and discussion section, where results are tabulated and discussed issue by issue. Two key policy issues are not included in this analysis. Agricultural extension services are assessed by Wheeler, Zuo, Bjornlund, Mdemu, and van Rooyen (2017) in this issue, and gender equity is the subject of forthcoming work. This analysis is supplemented by a review of national policy documents from Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, as well as those related to CAADP (NEPAD, 2003).This review of the six irrigation schemes found key policy challenges in land tenure, irrigation farmer organizations, water use, and enabling profitable irrigation.In all six schemes there were issues with insecure land tenure. The status of land tenure in the six schemes is summarized in Table 2.In Africa, how land is used, possessed, leveraged, sold, or in other ways disposed of within societies may be established by the state or by custom, and rights may accrue to individuals, families, communities, or organizations (Garvelink, 2012). Although customary rules of land tenure are dominant in Africa, they may or may not be recognized by the state (ECA, 2004). As a result, land tenure remains a major issue of concern among smallholder farming communities. African governments are at varying stages of revising their land tenure legislation and experimenting with ways to register individual and collective rights to land and natural resources (Bruce & Migot-Adholia, 2016;Garvelink, 2012).Without tenure rights it is difficult for farmers to secure loans, because land tends to be an important source of collateral. Farmers in the six schemes assessed have very limited access to finance; for example, only 20% of farmers in Tanzania and only 13% of farmers at Mkoba in Zimbabwe had obtained a loan (Mdemu et al., 2017;Moyo et al., 2017). This limits the ability of farmers to buy large quantities of good-quality seeds and farm chemicals at lower prices per unit. While Tanzanian farmers can apply for formal land titles, the cost is usually prohibitive, although through our project Ardhi University is helping farmers obtain a Customary Certificate Registration of Occupancy (Mdemu et al., 2017). Land tenure reform is difficult and can often take a long time. Further research is needed to ascertain whether this quicker, formal acknowledgement of land occupancy through certificates (as in this Tanzanian example) is sufficient for farmers to access the scale of finance required, given that they still do not have a realizable asset in the land, which may be required as collateral for a larger loan. Another alternative to land ownership by farmers as a precondition for access to finance is illustrated by Mozambique, where project partner INIR is helping farmers obtain identity cards cheaply, to make them eligible to apply for loans from microfinance organizations (de Sousa et al., 2017).Farmers at the research sites in Mozambique and Zimbabwe are treating irrigation as a secondary source of livelihood, with a large portion of irrigable plots being unused or underused. In Zimbabwe, only 20% of the land at Silalatshani and 70% at Mkoba was being used (Moyo et al., 2017). Many households receive income from remittances, other jobs or dryland farming; for instance, at 25 de Setembro in Mozambique, 32% of farmers have off-farm income (de Sousa et al., 2017). This poses the question as to why farmers would choose dryland farming over irrigated plots -do they prefer the uncertainty of weather over the uncertainty of institutional arrangements? If water is the most limiting factor in dryland farming, then why abandon irrigated land when it is almost freely available? We argue that the answer is that irrigated farming is currently not profitable in these publicly owned smallholder schemes. Further, unused or underused plots increase the costs for the remaining farmers, including costs for additional weeding, and for a greater share of water and infrastructure maintenance (Moyo et al., 2017). In Mozambique the national government has codified the opportunity and the responsibility of irrigation associations to allocate irrigation plots to active farmers. In Zimbabwe, many farmers are unsure who owns the irrigated land, compounded by the overlapping mandates of the national government agencies, traditional rural leaders and irrigation associations (Moyo et al., 2017).The plots in these irrigation schemes average only 0.55 ha per farmer (Table 1). The small areas cultivated by single irrigator families make it harder to access mechanization to increase labour productivity, reduce production costs and increase profits. While many of the irrigation farmers have other lands or income sources, profitable farming could be enhanced by property build-up or expansion, which depends on land tenure systems that facilitate such transactions. There is a need for long-term tenure for farmers to make long-term commitments and for financiers to provide credit against the land as collateral. Enhanced land tenure empowers farmers to invest more in production if they are assured of tenure security (Jacobs, 2013).All of the schemes assessed here have irrigation (or water user) associations (Table 3), but often they have been ineffective, lacking the most basic institutions, such as business plans. The associations were hampered by incomplete membership from scheme farmers, as at Magozi in Tanzania, where only 28% of the 1850 famers were members of the Mkilma irrigator organization (Mdemu et al., 2017).Over more than 30 years, a substantial body of knowledge and community of practice has been generated in understanding how communities at the local level organize and implement systems for managing water for agriculture (Peacock, Ward, & Gambarelli, 2007;Rosegrant & Perez, 1997;Woodhouse & Ganho, 2011). According to McCornick and Merrey (2005), governments throughout SSA are in the process of transferring responsibility for irrigation management to farmer-based organizations, largely due to financial pressures.Government agencies remain intimately involved in the management of the six irrigation schemes that are the subject of this research, with many of the same issues reported by Mutiro and Lautze (2015). For example, governments have transferred responsibility, but not authority, to collect fees and maintain infrastructure. Irrigator associations often have responsibility for collecting user fees but no easy way to enforce payment, for example authority to expel irrigators from a scheme if they don't pay. Consequently, many irrigators pay no fees at all (Mdemu et al., 2017;Moyo et al., 2017;de Sousa et al., 2017).In all three countries the irrigator associations have not had annual business plans, which could incorporate such essential measures as clarity on roles and responsibilities; a crop budget; infrastructure maintenance schedule; cooperative buying of inputs and transport services; and production schedules to better meet market demands. Such business plans will now be required in Mozambique following the adoption of new, national regulations for water user associations, approved in 2015. At the Magozi scheme in Tanzania, the voluntary preparation by the irrigator association of a business plan has supported the development of a machinery hire service, and further rice processing and storage facilities, aimed at increasing the financial returns to the local farmers (Mkombilenga & Magozi, 2016).Further, there are few government mechanisms for building the capacities of these local farmer organizations. In Tanzania with village governments and in Zimbabwe with traditional governments, there are overlapping governance mechanisms that limit the autonomy of the farmer organizations (Moyo et al., 2015;Mziray & Mdemu, 2015). In all countries there is a need for extension services to build the autonomous capacity of irrigator organizations, as opposed to aiding only individual farmers. Building the capacities and self-reliance of farmer organizations should be a key policy objective to improve farm profitability and maintain irrigation infrastructure.Overlapping or ambiguous mandates with other governmental institutions were rife in the schemes. In the case of water distribution infrastructure it was unclear to the farmers where government ownership of headworks stopped and where farmer ownership and responsibility for tanks, canals and pipes began. For instance, the ownership of the 12-km-long canal from the dam to the Silalatshani irrigation scheme is disputed, leading to lack of maintenance, extensive leaks, water theft, and argument over who pays for water transmission losses (Moyo et al., 2017). The question, is how can an irrigation association be responsible for managing and maintaining an infrastructural component of the system if they do not have ownership of it? We argue that responsibility without authority and authority without responsibility will never have functional outcomes. Consequently, all schemes were stuck in a cycle of government or donor infrastructure investment, running down of hardware, and demands for publicly funded renewal. Clarifying ownership and responsibility for maintenance of each piece of hardware is an essential reform for sustaining irrigation schemes. All of the schemes had problems with adequately maintaining infrastructure. For example, at the Khanimambo scheme in Mozambique, the flooding and breakdown of the pump meant that the irrigation scheme ceased operating until the INIR replaced it. None of the schemes had saved sufficient funds for rapid repair of damage or replacement of equipment (de Sousa et al., 2015).While there is a lot of rhetoric at the global and national scales about using water more efficiently to produce crops, in practice there are many reasons to over-apply water in these irrigation schemes and insufficient knowledge to use water more efficiently. Water use by individual farmers is not measured at any scheme. Farmers in Tanzania and Zimbabwe pay only a set fee per hectare, which provides no incentive for conservation. At Silalatshani in Zimbabwe this means that the few farmers actively using their plots are disadvantaged by many who are not actively farming and not paying their share of the collectively levied water fees (Moyo et al., 2017). At 25 de Setembro and Kanimambo in Mozambique, there is a modest incentive to reduce the cost of energy needed to pump water from the rivers (de Sousa et al., 2015).In terms of better crop yield from more effective application of water and less loss of nutrients, prior to this project, farmers had little knowledge of how to determine and practice more efficient water scheduling. The farmers using the FullStop wetting front detector and Chameleon soil moisture sensor in this project report using less than half the water they used to now that they can measure soil moisture, saving significant labour (Stirzaker, Mbakwe, & Mziray, 2017). Further, water is now regularly reaching the tail end of canals, enabling farmers who were reduced to labouring on others' plots to farm (Manero, 2017). These results are similar to findings for use of wetting front detectors in Ethiopia (Schmitter et al., 2016). At Kiwere and Magozi in Tanzania, and Mkoba in Zimbabwe, the limited water supply means that better water management could raise the productivity of the area under irrigation (Mdemu et al., 2017;Moyo et al., 2017). At Kiwere and Magozi, water saved by more efficient practices near the head of the supply canal is benefitting farmers at the tail end of the canals (Mziray & Mdemu, 2015).In Zimbabwe, water distribution in both schemes (Mkoba and Silalatshani) is guided by a duty roster. Water distribution in Mkoba is fixed compared to Silalatshani, where irrigators claim they can request water at any time without restrictions (Moyo et al., 2017). At both schemes, the irrigation management committee makes all the decisions about when to supply to individual irrigators.Policy reform is needed to achieve greater water-use efficiency in irrigation, to extend irrigated cropping and to benefit other water users. National governments can act to promote uptake of basic soil nutrient and water monitoring by farmers, support flexible water scheduling, and ensure that energy and water costs encourage conservative use of these resources.Across the three project countries, there is generally limited access to input and output markets. Prominent among the input market challenges are high cost of fertilizers, lowquality inputs such as seeds, and inability to get reduced input costs based on bulk purchases. At each of the schemes farmers mentioned that they buy small quantities of supplies individually at higher prices from a limited number of local suppliers (Mdemu et al., 2017;Moyo et al., 2017;de Sousa et al., 2017). Three key issues arise from our assessment: access to high-quality seeds; market access; and importation of agricultural equipment.The farmers in the three countries report buying and planting seeds that are labelled incorrectly and with low germination rates, compromising productivity (Table 4). The lack of a well-developed and regulated seed sector impedes smallholder farmers' ability to plan for and achieve higher productivity because they are working with compromised inputs (Sperling & McGuire, 2010;Tripp & Rohrbach, 2001). Irrigated crop output would be enhanced by government policies that further aid access to improved seeds and enforced seed quality standards, information on prices, and financial services.The Food and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network has been working to enforce and promote the SADC Harmonized Seed Regulatory System, an ensemble of rules needed to facilitate enhanced seed trade in the region (FANRPAN, 2012). These can increase the availability of high-quality seed to farmers through rationalizing and removing national regulatory barriers for the movement of seed across borders.In the six irrigation schemes, access to output markets was identified as a major challenge, with much produce being sold at the farm gate at low prices and with high post-harvest losses. The schemes assessed in Tanzania and Zimbabwe are a long way from cities; hence, transport costs are high, and the farmers are unaware of prices in major urban markets (Mdemu et al., 2017;Moyo et al., 2017). In Mozambique, farmers are disadvantaged by cheap South African imports (de Sousa et al., 2017). While many of the irrigation associations were recording the planting and expected harvest times of crops, planting was not being scheduled so as to bring produce to market at times when better prices might be expected. Further, no cooperative marketing was being undertaken, raising the costs for individual farmers. Lack of information on prices of irrigated crops in markets in major urban areas was a barrier to farmers' realizing better returns on their produce in all three countries (Table 5). This information would enable farmers to make more informed decisions on the most profitable crops to grow and where best to sell them. The work of the National Institute for Irrigation at the 25 de Setembro scheme in Mozambique illustrates how information on market prices could be used to plan for more profitable irrigation (de Sousa et al., 2017). Governments could establish institutions in key cities to record prices of produce at agricultural markets and then make this information available to producers on a daily or weekly basis via radio, internet, or SMS.A major barrier to agricultural development in Africa is the legal and bureaucratic barriers to the importation of inputs. This project involved the production of simple tools, including the FullStop wetting front detector and the Chameleon sensor, that enable farmers to monitor soil moisture and nutrition in their fields to enhance their agronomic practices (Stirzaker et al., 2017). These tools have been manufactured in or transported via South Africa to Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. While the project has not been selling them, commercial production and supply have been requested by many farmers and would be a desirable outcome to enhance agricultural productivity in these countries.This project has continued to incur very high transport costs and considerable time delays in transporting this equipment to the irrigators, exacerbated by excessive customs processes, regulations and fees. The freight costs of transporting wetting front detectors for this project in 2015 illustrate the problem. Equipment that cost USD 2233 was transported from Cape Town to Sydney for USD 381, so freight represents 17% of the capital cost. By contrast, equipment that cost USD 712 was sent from Pretoria to Bulawayo for USD 696, or 98% of the capital cost. Even worse, equipment worth USD 712 cost USD 1570 to send from Pretoria to Dar es Salaam, 221% of the capital cost. And there were additional taxes to be paid for import into Tanzania and Zimbabwe.This case is consistent with observations of the broader influence of politics and economics on the bureaucratic and financial hurdles on imports of agricultural inputs in many African states (Angelucci, Balié, Gourichon, Mas Aparisi, & Witwer, 2013;Jayne, Govereh, Mwanaumo, Nyoro, & Chapoto, 2002). It is perverse that African governments that have adopted ambitious targets for expanding irrigated agricultural production place so many bureaucratic and financial hurdles in the way of importing the equipment and other imports that would aid their farmers in this endeavour.Irrigating Africa is a core policy objective of a great many multilateral organizations, donors and national governments, in the expectation that this will reduce poverty, increase food Table 5. extent of farmer access to market information for crops.Access to market information mozambique market price data are collected but are not readily accessible to rural farmers tanzania aggregated average market prices of major staples in major regional markets are reported in the daily english government newspaper, which is not accessible to farmers in rural areas. project tailored market information for agricultural commodities, which is accessible through mobile short messages, has been trialled in specific project areas (see e.g. mobile Kilimo, http://mkilimo.esrf.or. tz/) Zimbabwe market price data are collected but are not readily accessible to rural farmers, even though mobile phone technologies are available in the irrigation areas security and promote economic growth and development. This research shows that the governments' objective of securing domestic supplies of staple foods from irrigation schemes conflicts with poverty reduction. While commercial and private types of irrigation schemes may be profitable in Africa, this review of six publicly owned smallholder irrigation schemes in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe found that these schemes are currently unproductive and are not improving the livelihoods of poor farmers.Four key reforms were identified for national and regional policies on smallholder irrigation that may enable these farming systems to improve links to markets and become vibrant and profitable:(1) Reform land tenure systems to enable farmers to use irrigation plots as collateral for loans, invest in farming with security, and acquire additional plots to build up farming operations to more viable scales.(2) Enhance irrigator associations by ensuring that ownership of infrastructure is clear and that they have the responsibility for collection of fees and maintenance of infrastructure; develop their business management (such as to access affordable, high-quality fertilizers and seeds) and crop marketing skills.(3) Enable more efficient water use by (a) developing local capacity and access to appropriate tools to understand the value of accurate soil moisture monitoring and measurement to reduce leaching of nutrients and salinization and increase the overall water-use efficiency of production systems, and (b) developing the skills of agricultural extension officers to backstop the learning process of farmers. (4) Support irrigation businesses through national government policies for: (a) adoption and enforcement of the SADC Harmonized Seed Regulatory System rules to facilitate access to high-quality seed; (b) mechanisms to record and make available to farmers via radio, internet and SMS the market prices of produce in key cities; and (c) remove tariffs and bureaucratic barriers to the import of agricultural equipment and other imports.If smallholder irrigators are to thrive, governments need to support farmer organizations to have better defined and larger roles in management, and foster stronger links to input and output markets, to enable these systems to become profitable.","tokenCount":"4731"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c07ef6972b52ed4c31a3e6762246f42c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/cac91e50-e54e-4817-a251-d161c26525b3/content","id":"1824217482"},"keywords":["durum grains","phenolic compounds","genetic variability","heritability","climate constraints","yield performance"],"sieverID":"305d08f6-af5a-4c2f-a7c7-f0f6a6d049bd","pagecount":"11","content":"Droughts and high temperatures are the main abiotic constraints hampering durum wheat production. This study investigated the accumulation of phenolic acids (PAs) in the wholemeal flour of six durum wheat cultivars under drought and heat stress. Phenolic acids were extracted from wholemeals and analysed through HPLC-DAD analysis. Ferulic acid was the most represented PA, varying from 390.1 to 785.6 µg/g dry matter across all cultivars and growth conditions, followed by sinapic acids, p-coumaric, vanillic, syringic, and p-hydroxybenzoic acids. Among the cultivars, Cirno had the highest PAs content, especially under severe drought conditions. Heat stress enhanced the accumulation of minor individual PAs, whereas severe drought increased ferulic acid and total PAs. Broad-sense heritability was low (0.23) for p-coumaric acid but ≥0.69 for all other components. Positive correlations occurred between PA content and grain morphology and between test weight and grain yield. Durum wheat genotypes with good yields and high accumulation of PAs across different growing conditions could be significant for durum wheat resilience and health-promoting value.Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum (Desf.) Husnot) is one of the most common cereal crops in Mediterranean climates and the tenth most cultivated species in the world. Despite accounting for only 5% of global wheat production, this wheat species is a key commodity for many areas worldwide, especially for the countries surrounding the Mediterranean basin, North America, the desert area of the southwestern United States, North Mexico, and sub-Saharan Africa [1].Traditionally, durum-based foods have a large diversification across the producing countries. While pasta is the most popular product worldwide and a symbol of the Italian cousin, couscous is the most common durum-based food in North Africa, and durum wheat breads are traditionally important in Southern Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Mid-East Mediterranean regions. Locally in the Mid-East, durum wheat is also used to make bulgur (made from the cracked parboiled grains) and freekeh (a dish made with green, roasted, and rubbed grains); in Turkey and Cyprus, tarhana is a fermented soup made with durum grains and yogurt or milk. Overall, the above products provide a significant slice of calories and proteins to human diets; additionally, they are an important source of bioactive components contributing to a healthy diet [2,3].Durum wheat is mainly grown under rainfed conditions, often encountering drought and heat stresses that hamper yield potential and influence the qualitative characteristics of the grains [4,5]. Therefore, it is of great importance to investigate the effects of these environmental constraints that have become more and more frequent due to climate change that is also posing a serious challenge for durum wheat growth [6]. Among the drawbacks of water scarcity in durum cultivation is the reduction of plant height, grain size, transpiration rate, and hormonal imbalance [7,8]. Durum wheat is also very sensitive to elevated temperatures, especially when they occur at grain filling and flowering times [9]. High temperatures can affect its physiological traits and reduce seed germination, grain filling, grain number, photosynthetic capacity, chlorophyll content, and typically induce early leaf senescence [10]. An excess of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in response to drought and heat stresses can cause damages to proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids [11]. To counteract the injuries of oxidative stress, the wheat plant has developed a complex defense system based on the production of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants [12]. Among the latter, phenolic acids are the major subclass of polyphenols participating in the scavenging of ROS in cereals [13]. The antioxidant capacity of these compounds depends on both the number and position of the hydroxyl groups in the benzene ring and on ortho-substitution with the methoxy group [14]. In addition to contributing to biotic and abiotic resistance in plants, in humans, phenolic acids contribute to the prevention of a number of non-communicable diseases due to their anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties [3,15].Typically, phenolic acids are classified as hydroxy derivatives of either cinnamic or benzoic acid, the former including ferulic acid that alone accounts for about 90% of total phenolic acids in the wheat grain [16]. In mature durum kernels, the majority of phenolic acids (up to 75-80%) are insolubly bound to cell wall polymers, while the rest (20-25%) are esterified to sugars and other low molecular mass compounds, and only 0.5-2% are soluble and free [15]. The content and composition of phenolic acids may vary in the wheat germplasm as documented by a large body of literature [17]. The extent of variation for PAs is up to 3.6-fold [18,19], and it is influenced by both the genotype and environmental factors [18,19]. To unravel the genetic base of the trait, investigations were carried out to identify and characterize the enzymatic genes and QTLs involved in phenolic acids pathways [20,21]. To date, only a few reports describe the effect of abiotic and biotic factors on individual phenolic acids accumulation in mature wheat kernels and more studies need to be carried out to support the first evidence [11]. Only a few works have investigated the effects of genotype, environment, and their interaction on the content and composition of phenolic acids in durum wheat grains under drought and heat stress [22][23][24]. Moreover, elite durum wheat cultivars developed from the large gene pool available at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) grown under abiotic stresses were assessed for yield performances and nutritional and qualitative traits but not for phenolic acids accumulation [25,26]. Some of the above cultivars have been used largely in several durum producing areas and are of great interest due to their high yield performances, disease resistance, grain quality, and tolerance to drought and heat stresses [25].The objective of this study was to test the impact of drought and heat stresses on phenolic acids content and composition in the mature grains of a set of durum cultivars representative of CIMMYT durum germplasm. In addition to the variability for individual and total phenolic acids, the study was aimed at assessing the effects of genotypes, growth conditions, and their interactions to assess the possibility of breeding for phenolic compounds.Six elite durum wheat varieties, which are some of the most important in 50 years of breeding at CIMMYT, were considered in this study: Mexicali (released in 1975), Yavaros (released in 1979), Altar (released in 1984), Atil (released in 2000), Jupare (released in 2001), and Cirno (released in 2008) (Table S1). The cultivars were sown in 2015-16 and in 2016-2017 crop seasons in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, in northwestern Mexico. The experimental trials were planted with two replicates in a randomized complete block design under six different growth conditions: (1) drip irrigation in beds; (2) full irrigation in flat beds; (3) full irrigation in beds; (4) mild drought stress; (5) severe drought stress; and (6) severe heat stress. All the trials were planted in November, except for severe heat stress (planted in February). All the plots (6.5 m 2 ) had full irrigation (>500 mm) except medium drought stress (300 mm) and severe drought stress (180 mm). Weed, diseases, and insects were all well controlled. In all the trials, N was applied (pre-planting) at a rate of 50 kg of N/ha, and at tillering, 150 additional units of N were applied in all the plots except in severe drought stress (50 N units). At maturity, whole plots were harvested, grain yield was calculated, and 1 kg of grain from each durum line was used for analyzing the quality traits. The meteorology data of the experimental station in Ciudad Obregon was characterized by almost no precipitation during the wheat growing season. Average temperatures were between 12 and 24 • C in March and April, the grain filling time for all treatments, except for plants under heat stress at temperatures between 19 and 28 • C during grain filling in May. Flowering time and physiological maturity in most of the examined cultivars occur at similar times because these genotypes were bred for the same growing area. According to the general growing stages of durum wheat in Ciudad Obregon, drought stress was continuous from stem elongation to grain ripening in moderate and severe drought stress trials. In severe heat stress trial, higher temperatures than in the normal planting time started from shoot elongation and remained in the grain filling stage until ripening.The digital image system SeedCount SC5000 (Next Instruments, Australia) was used to calculate 1000 kernel weight (g) and test weight (kg/hL). With the same device other grain morphological traits such as grain length, width, and thickness were obtained. Grain protein content (%) and moisture content were determined by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR Systems 6500, Foss Denmark) calibrated based on official AACC methods 39-10 and 46-11A, respectively (AACC, 2010). Protein content was adjusted to a 12.5% moisture basis.Wholegrain samples were milled at particle size ≤1 mm using a 1093 Cyclotec™ Sample mill (FOSS, Hilleroed, Denmark) to produce wholemeal flour. Milled samples were stored at −20 • C until analysis to protect phenolic acids from degradation. Total phenolic acids (sum of soluble and insoluble fractions) were extracted from wholemeal flour samples according to details previously described [19]. In brief, samples were delipidated twice with hexane, hydrolysed with 2 M NaOH, and acidified with HCl 12 M to pH 2 prior to undergoing ethyl acetate extraction. Extracts were dried under nitrogen flux and dissolved in 200 µL of 80:20 methanol/water and quali-quantitatively analyzed using an Agilent 1100 Series HPLC-DAD system (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) equipped with a reversed phase C18 (2) Luna column (Phenomenex, Torrance, CA, USA) (5 µm, 250 × 4.6 mm) at a column temperature of 30 • C. A mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile (A) and 10 mL/L water solution of H 3 PO 4 (B) was used for the following elution program: isocratic elution, 100% B, 0-30 min; linear gradient from 100% B to 85% B, 30-55 min; linear gradient from 85% B to 50% B, 55-80 min; linear gradient from 50% B to 30% B, 80-82 min; and post time, 10 min before the next injection. The flow rate of the mobile phase was 1 mL/min, and the injection volume was 20 µL. The column temperature was kept at 30 • C. Peaks were identified by comparing their retention times and UV-Vis spectra to those of authentic phenolic standards: p-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, syringic acid, p-coumaric acid, sinapic acid, and ferulic acid (Sigma-Aldrich, Gillingham, U.K.). All phenolic acids were quantified via a ratio to the internal standard (3,5-dichloro-4hydroxybenzoic acid, Sigma-Aldrich, Gillingham, U.K.) added to every sample and using calibration curves of phenolic acid standards. The wavelengths used for quantification of phenolic acids were 280, 295, and 320 nm. All samples were extracted and analyzed in duplicate, and concentrations of individual phenolic acids were expressed in micrograms per gram of dry matter.We obtained the Best Linear Unbiased Estimated (BLUE) of the durum wheat lines for each of the response traits using a linear mixed model with the fixed effect containing the growth conditions (established by the field management), year (which reflects the different environmental conditions in the two years of the trial that are independent of the field management), durum wheat lines, and their interactions. We also computed the broad-sense heritability (repeatability) and the genetic correlation matrices for the various traits through a combined analysis of the evaluated durum wheat lines across growth conditions and years.For BLUEs estimation, the following linear mixed model was used:where µ is the general mean, E i is the fixed effects of the growth conditions (I = 1, . . . , s), Y k represents the fixed effects of the years (k = 1.2, ..., y), EY ik is the inetraction between growth condition and year, R j (EY ik ) is the effects of the replicates (j = 1, 2) within growth condition and year assumed to be identically and independently normally distributed with mean zero and variance σ 2 j(i k) , the fixed effects of the durum wheat lines are G l (l = 1,2, ..., m), EG il is the line by growth condition interaction, the term YG kl is the line by year interaction, and the triple interaction between the growth conditions, year, and durum wheat lines is denoted by EYG ikl . The term ε ijkl is a random residual associated to the lth wheat line in the jth replicate within the ith growth condition and kth year combination and assumed to be identically and independently normally distributed with mean zero and variance σ 2 ε . The code used for fitting the linear mixed model of Equation (1) was generated using SAS software, Version 9.The broad-sense heritability was calculated as:where σ 2 g , σ 2 ge , σ 2 gy , σ 2 gey , and σ 2 ε are the genotype, genotype by growth condition interaction, genotype by year interaction, genotype by growth condition and by year interaction, and the error variance components, respectively; nloc, nyear, and nrep are the number of growth conditions; and rg is the number of years and number of replicates, respectively.The genetic correlation matrices among sites were calculated using equations from Cooper and Delacy [27]:where ρ p ij is the phenotypic correlation among growth condition-year combination i and i / , and h i and h i are the square roots of the growth condition-year combination i and i / , respectively.Six durum cultivars out the foremost durum varieties developed at CIMMYT were evaluated for grain yield, general grain traits and the content and composition of phenolic acids in wholemeal flour under six growth conditions across two years. The growth conditions varied from optimal to critical due to the effect of moderate to severe drought and severe heat stresses. A summary of the data of grain yield and other grain traits recorded is showed in Table S2. In full irrigation environments, the cultivars produced more than seven tons per hectare, which was reduced to 4 and 3 tons per hectare under severe drought and heat, respectively. Test weight and 1000 kernel weight showed a similar pattern compared to grain yield, while grain protein content was higher in the stressed growth conditions. In overall, the genotype with best performance was Cirno, showing the highest grain yield and size values and the third highest test weight and grain protein content values. A first picture of results of the phenolic acids composition is provided in Table 1 which summarizes the variation of individual phenolic acids of the cultivars grown across all tested conditions and years. Ferulic acid was the most represented phenolic acid with a grand mean of 563.07 µg/g dry matter and a variation range from 390.1 to 785.6 µg/g dry matter across all cultivars and growth conditions. Sinapic acid was the second phenolic acid for abundancy, followed by four minor components (i.e., p-coumaric, vanillic, syringic and p-hydroxybenzoic acids). Overall, each variety had a typical phenolic acid profile, differing significantly (p < 0.05) for almost all individual components (Table 1). Cirno was the cultivar with the highest content of major phenolic acids (i.e., ferulic and sinapic acids) and, so far it had the highest content of total phenolic acids (TPAs). As a second insight into phenolic variation of the cultivars, we looked at the average values of individual phenolic acids as influenced by the six tested growth conditions tested across two years (Table S3). The outcome data revealed an impact of growth conditions that was different on individual phenolic acids (Figure 1, Table S4). While severe heat stress enhanced the accumulation of some minor individual phenolic acids (i.e., p-coumaric, syringic and vanillic acids), severe drought had a higher impact on the most abundant phenolic acid, namely ferulic, and consequently on TPAs. By comparing the three main growing conditions used in Mexico for durum wheat (i.e., drip irrigation in beds, full irrigation in flat beds, and full irrigation in beds) with the stress conditions, an increase of individual phenolic acids was found under severe drought (Table S3). Moreover, the results showed that sinapic acid was not enhanced neither by water scarcity nor by elevated temperatures, but it increased under the drip irrigation in beds, full irrigation in flat beds, and full irrigation in beds conditions (p < 0.05). The outcome results also remarked a rise of the two major phenolic acids (i.e., ferulic and sinapic acids), and of the least abundant p-hydroxybenzoic acid under the full irrigation in flat beds condition. Moreover, the results showed that sinapic acid was not enhanced neither by water scarcity nor by elevated temperatures, but it increased under the drip irrigation in beds, full irrigation in flat beds, and full irrigation in beds conditions (p < 0.05). The outcome results also remarked a rise of the two major phenolic acids (i.e., ferulic and sinapic acids), and of the least abundant p-hydroxybenzoic acid under the full irrigation in flat beds condition.An ANOVA analysis was carried out to determine the effects of the genotype, growth conditions, year, and their interactions on the grain phenolic acid contents. The analysis showed that almost all the factors involved in the experimental trial had a highly significant effect on phenolic acids (p < 0.0001) (Table 2). The year and growth conditions were the most impactful sources of variation, followed by genotype and the E × Y, G × E, E × Y and G × E × Y interactions. The Rep (E × Y) interaction was not significant for all the traits. The variance ascribed to the year, due to the effect of the different climatic conditions occurring across the two years of the experimental trials, was particularly high for almost all individual phenolic acids, with the exception of two minor components (i.e., p-hydroxybenzoic acid and p-coumaric acid). Conversely, genotype variance was consistent An ANOVA analysis was carried out to determine the effects of the genotype, growth conditions, year, and their interactions on the grain phenolic acid contents. The analysis showed that almost all the factors involved in the experimental trial had a highly significant effect on phenolic acids (p < 0.0001) (Table 2). The year and growth conditions were the most impactful sources of variation, followed by genotype and the E × Y, G × E, E × Y and G × E × Y interactions. The Rep (E × Y) interaction was not significant for all the traits. The variance ascribed to the year, due to the effect of the different climatic conditions occurring across the two years of the experimental trials, was particularly high for almost all individual phenolic acids, with the exception of two minor components (i.e., p-hydroxybenzoic acid and p-coumaric acid). Conversely, genotype variance was consistent for p-hydroxybenzoic acid, while the first source of variation for p-coumaric acid was the growth conditions (Table 2). Broad-sense heritability, based on the variance component estimates with combined analysis, varied largely among individual phenolic acids, being low (0.23) for p-coumaric acid, above 0.69 for all other components, and 0.65 for TPAs (Table 1). The phenotypic correlation coefficients were calculated among individual phenolic acids, TPAs, and other traits, as shown in Table 3. In particular, we considered the correlations between phenolic acids and grain yield, 1000 kernel weight, test weight, grain length, grain width, and protein content across years and growth conditions. Four of the individual phenolic acids and TPAs were correlated in a positive manner (p < 0.05) with grain yield. In addition to this, all individual phenolic acids except vanillic acid showed a positive or neutral correlation with 1000 kernel weight. In the case of test weight, only syringic and sinapic acid showed positive associations with it. TPAs were positively correlated with grain yield and all other kernel morphological traits, except for test weight (Table 3), although, in this case, the correlation was significant but weak (r = −0.14). Similarly, the protein content was negatively correlated (p < 0.05) with the minor PAs (syringic, vanillic, and p-coumaric acids) and positively correlated with the major PAs and TPAs. Moreover, looking at the correlations among individual PAs, p-hydroxybenzoic acid had negative correlations with syringic, vanillic, and p-coumaric acids and positive correlations with sinapic and ferulic acids and TPAs. Table 3. Correlation coefficients (r) among individual phenolic acids (PAs) contents and other phenotypic traits including yield components protein content and kernel morphology and across year and growth conditions. TPAs: total sum of individual phenolic acids. All correlations are significant (p < 0.05) except for NS: not significant.Durum wheat-based foods are major components of the human diet in many areas worldwide, and the content of grain functional compounds, such as phenolic acids that are beneficial to human health, has become an important subject of research. While there is a wide knowledge on the genetic variability of phenolic acids in wheat germplasm collections [17], in view of durum breeding programs, the assessment of the genetic stability of phenolic acids under different growth conditions has been reported only in a few investigations [22][23][24]28]. A recent report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization [29] showed that the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather constraints, such as water scarcity and elevated temperatures as a result of climate changes, are having a devastating effect on food security and livelihoods, also posing a challenge to durum wheat cultivation. Our study is the first one affording the effect of drought and heat stress on the phenolic acids profile of a set of durum cultivars developed at CIMMYT over the last 50 years. The examined cultivars have been introduced in many wheat producing areas due to their high yield potential, disease resistance, grain quality, and tolerance to drought and heat stresses, and they have been used by durum breeding programs carried out by different research institutions in several countries [25]. Based on the overall data, we identified six main individual phenolic acids (i.e., ferulic acid, vanillic acid, p-coumaric acid, sinapic acid, syringic acid, and p-hydroxibenzoic acid), in line with results arisen from durum wheat genetic diversity screen [19] and validating previous findings on the effects of abiotic stress on the accumulation of phenolic acids [23]. The range of variation across the cultivars, years, and growth conditions for phenolic acids was comprised between 444.9 and 902.2 µg/g dry matter. So far, a twofold range of variation was found in this study, which was slightly lower with that observed in the genetic diversity assessment considering a higher number of genotypes [18,19]. This is probably due to the fact that, in our study, we only used modern durum varieties developed by the same breeding program while the cited studies analyzed the variability for phenolic compounds in heterogenous collections with materials of different wheat species and origins.Compared to previous works which assessed the effects only of elevated temperatures [23,28] or drought [24], this study considered the effects of both drought and heat stress on a set of durum wheat genotypes. Another element of novelty of the present work is that we did not consider the variation for soluble free, soluble bound, and insoluble bound phenolic acids separately, but we considered the variation for all fractions as a whole, as previously shown [19]. This choice was supported by evidence that the amount of total soluble free, soluble bound, and insoluble bound phenolic acids extracted separately is equal to the amount of the three fractions recovered together [15,19]. Moreover, it was shown that the relative proportion of the three fractions in wheat grains (0.5-2% soluble free; 18-22% soluble bound; 77-80% insoluble bound) is common to all wheat genotypes independently of growing conditions and environments [4,19,30]. All phenolic fractions have important biological properties to protect human health. While soluble free phenolic acids are rapidly absorbed by the small intestine and protect against cardiovascular disease and colon cancer due to their antioxidant properties [31], soluble and insoluble bound phenolic acids protect against colon inflammation and cancer [3,32,33]. The occurrence of ester or ether linkages to cell wall polymers or to other low molecular mass components is not a hindrance for phenolic acids to exert their biological activity as they are metabolized locally by the colon microflora [34,35].Previous works investigating on the effect of water stress on eight durum genotypes found that phenolic acids accumulated differently in the mature grains independently of whether they were resistant, tolerant, or sensitive to stress [24]. Some genotypes did not exhibit any significant change in phenolic acids under water scarcity, while some others had higher concentrations compared to those grown under non-stress conditions [24]. In the current study, the highest TPAs values were found under severe drought conditions, while moderate drought and severe heat stress did not lead in all cases to higher concentrations of PAs compared to the full irrigation growth conditions. This is interesting, particularly in the case of heat stress, because in this growth condition the lowest values of 1000 kernel weight and test weight were registered. One would expect that the smallest and most shrivelled grain would have the highest PAs content because PAs are concentrated in the bran layers.The absence of this effect under heat stress condition indicates the probable negative effects of heat on the metabolic pathway leading to the production of PAs. A three-way ANOVA was used to evaluate the portion of genetic variation for the individual phenolic acids ascribed to each source of variation. Based on the results, the year and growth conditions had the largest effect on individual and total PAs contents, followed by the genotype and the G × E, G × Y, E × Y and G × E × Y interactions. The results agree with some previous reports and disagree with others. Shamloo et al. [23] found a predominant genotypic effect on the accumulation of total phenolic acids content in mature wheat grains under elevated temperatures. A general increase of phenolic acids was observed, though the different wheat cultivars showed different grades of increase [23]. Other works investigated the impact of terminal heat stress, finding a negative influence on several secondary metabolites of wheat grains, including phenolic acids [28]  (Shahid et al., 2017), which agree with our results commented above. Nevertheless, these studies also confirmed a higher effect of the genotype over environmental factors on the observed variation [28]. Conversely, when the effects of several climate parameters were considered, prevalent effects from the environment and the genotype-environment interactions on the total soluble phenolic contents of mature grains were detected [22], similar to what we found. Discrepancies among the different research could be due to the diverse experimental plan of the studies, considering different genetic materials and the highly different climate and agronomical conditions. In addition to this, the heritability values were calculated for all PAs. The heritability estimated for TPAs was 0.65, which confirmed previous reports by studies carried out on durum wheat [19] and higher compared to those observed in bread wheat [30,36]. For ferulic acid, the most abundant PA in the durum grain, heritability was 0.69, indicating that the proportion of the total phenotypic variance that is attributable to the average effects of genes is quite high for these grain compounds, which could make feasible breeding approaches to increase the PA content. Related to this, it was interesting to identify in the correlation analysis that when TPAs increase, the grain length, grain width, and grain thickness also increase and are positively correlated with test weight and grain yield. Indeed, Cirno was the cultivar showing the highest grain yield and TPAs in our trial, indicating that productivity is not at odds with high PA concentration. In previous studies [23,24], it was not clear if PA variation in mature grains caused by heat or drought was an indirect effect of bran to endosperm ratios or grain filling entity or grain size. Our data suggests that, in general, when climate constraints affect grain morphological traits, a concomitant reduction of phenolic accumulation occurs in mature grains.In this study, the effect of water scarcity and elevated temperatures on phenolic acids profile of the wholemeal flour of a set of CIMMYT elite durum wheat cultivars was evaluated. The varieties had a typical phenolic acid profile under different growth conditions, differing significantly for almost all individual PA components. Cirno was the cultivar showing the highest content of phenolic acids across years and growth conditions, especially under severe drought conditions. Overall, severe heat stress enhanced the accumulation of minor phenolic acids (i.e., p-coumaric, syringic and vanillic acids) and reduced the main ones (i.e., ferulic acid), whereas severe drought had a higher impact on ferulic acid and the total sum of PAs.The broad-sense heritability varied largely among the individual phenolic acids, being low for p-coumaric acid and ≥ 0.69 for all other components, and significant genotype effects were found for all PAs. In addition, positive correlations were found between total PAs and grain morphology parameters, test weight, and grain yield, suggesting that breeding for high-yielding varieties with high PAs concentration is feasible.","tokenCount":"4773"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a59109856b7a44c7469d820e432d7aa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c416d933-00e2-4185-ac34-03398ef1a23c/retrieve","id":"-916710136"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1e375a61-1e84-45cf-9193-d35a8f40f76a","pagecount":"67","content":"The Basin Focal Project for the Volta (BFP-Volta) is a research project funded by the Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF) 1 . Its aim is to provide an in-depth analysis of issues related to water in the Volta Basin through three main thematic issues: water-poverty, water availability/use and water productivity. The overall objective of the BFP-Volta is to contribute to the main goal of the CPWF, that is, to alleviate poverty through better management of water in order to enhance agricultural productivity and environment conservation 2 .In this context, the WorldFish Center has been commissioned by the BFP-Volta to produce a report focusing more specifically on the fisheries resources and the link that may exist between poverty and those fisheries in the Volta basin. The present document is the second part of this report 3 . Its main objective is to conduct a socioeconomic and poverty analysis of the fishing communities living in the Volta Basin, based on an assessment of the current situation and potential future changes.More specifically the report will be articulated around the following two questions: Amongst the poor (and poorest) living in the Volta Basin, are there households that are engaged in the fishery sector, and if so what is, or are, the reason(s) of their 'poverty'? Which solutions in relation to the water management and watery resources can be proposed to improve the livelihoods and living conditions of these poor fishing households in a durable way (horizon 2050)? What are the main research questions needed to go further.To provide element of answer to these questions, the report will address the following specific objectives:• Characterize the current activity of fishing in the basin, its socio-economic importance and the degree of poverty of the actors, • Identify among the fisheries stakeholders, the poor or vulnerable social categories, and to analyze the reasons of this poverty, • Analyze the trends and risks at the time horizon 2025-2050, notably with respect to climate change, 1 www.waterandfood.org/ 2 A more detailed description of the general approach, methodology and specific objectives of the BFP-Volta can be found in the document \"Challenge Programme on Water and Food Basin -Focal Project for the Volta Proposal\" downloadable at http://www.waterforfood.org/fileadmin/CPWF_Documents/ Documents/Basin_ Focal_Projects/BFP_Proposals/VoltaPropApril2006vf.pdf 3 The first part of the report was an overview of the fisheries resources in the Volta Basin. Béné C., 2007. Diagnostic study of the Volta Basin fisheries Part 1 -Overview of the Volta Basin fisheries resources. Report commissioned by the Focal Basin Project -Volta, WorldFish Center Regional Offices for Africa and West Asia, Cairo Egypt, 30 p,• Propose solutions to improve the living conditions of the categories of disadvantaged fisher-folk, under the current situation as well as under the climatic change scenarios or changes related of water management at the basin scale.Commensurate with the relatively high densities of fisherfolk around Volta Lake itself, much of the published data on fishing livelihoods comes from this area. However, where possible, the analysis will include the situations of the other waterbodies of the basin, i.e. hydropower reservoirs, rivers, floodplains, and the numerous small-scale seasonal ponds that are scattered throughout the basin. Through its analysis, the report will essentially concentrate on two countries within the basin: Ghana and Burkina Faso 4 , but it is thought that the main conclusions can also apply to 4 Together these two countries cover more than 83% of the total basin surface.Source map: Abe et al. 2004 a large degree to the other inland fishing communities living in the other part of the basin in Togo, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire and Mali (Map 1).Before moving to the rest of this document, a series of caveats are worth mentioning. First it is notorious that small-scale fisheries are generally marginalized in national statistics, especially in developing countries, and largely overlooked by scientific literature (as compared for instance to farming systems, water management and even climate change). Consequently, very little socio-economic data is generally available on fisheries, and the Volta basin is no exception to this situation. This data-poor environment has restricted the level of our analysis and -perhaps more problematically-has forced us to rely on the conclusions of a relatively small number of documents, with very little opportunity to cross-check these sources. Furthermore, some of these critical documents are essentially participatory assessments -thus reflecting the perceptions that specific informants have about issues at a certain point in time. As with all social data collection, selection of, and responses by, informants may be biased in a variety of ways (see Cooke and Kothari, 2001) and therefore, any conclusions even from participatory assessments (which frequently claim greater validity, though not generalizeability, than survey methods) must be accepted as a reality, and not necessarily the reality. While is it acknowledged that people act based on perceptions, the paucity of data sources (such as conventional quantitative socioeconomic surveys, or indeed other participatory assessments) makes it difficult to either test these studies' claims or to achieve validity through a triangulation of data sources.Second, there is a tendency in a large part of the fishery literature to assume that fisheries, and in particular small-scale fisheries in developing countries, are characterized by a Malthusian dynamics (\"too many fishers chasing too few fish\") leading to the systematic scenario of over-exploitation of the resource and economic impoverishment for the fishers. This view is usually reflected in the two famous adages \"fishers are the poorest of the poor\" and \"fishery is the last resort activity\" (see e.g. Smith 1979, Panayotou 1982, Bailey et al. 1986, Bailey and Jentoft 1990). While there is little doubt that small-scale fishers are rarely amongst the richest parts of society (although there are clearly exception to this -see e.g. Kremer 1994or Neiland et al. 1997), this systematic association between fisheries and poverty has contributed to create and maintain a 'paradigmatic trap' where poverty in fishing community is taken for granted and no real analytical effort is made to go beyond the simplistic Malthusian explanation. As a consequence very little literature provides real analysis of the causes and nature of poverty -when it does indeed occur-in fisheries.The overall organization of the report closely follows the articulation of the specific objectives identified above. In the first section we will conduct a livelihood analysis of the Volta Lake fishing communities by documenting and assessing the socioeconomic importance and contribution of the fishery sector to the livelihoods of the local population. A particular effort will be paid to adopt a multi-sectoral view when analyzing the data, recognizing that for a large part of the population, fishing is only one economic alternative within the diversified matrix of activities that constitute these local populations' livelihoods.The second section will be a poverty analysis. The objective of this part of the report will be to identify and describe in greater detail the causal factors and underlying mechanisms that push or maintain certain groups of fishing households in poverty. The section will start by discussing briefly the advantages and drawbacks of some of the conventional approaches to poverty alleviation proposed in the agricultural literature. We will show why these concepts are not entirely satisfactory to analyze fishing communities' poverty. We will then revisit the data presented in the livelihood analysis, drawing upon the recent works proposed in the poverty literature that stress the importance of several key 'dimensions' of poverty, namely: chronic poverty, marginalization, and vulnerability.The third section of the report will review and discuss the projected trends and risks that will affect the Volta basin through the 2025 year horizon. The starting point of this section will be an assessment of trends in population and economic growth, and will then review of the potential impacts of climate change on water availability, fish stocks, and livelihood security in the Volta basin. Overall, the analysis suggests that these various processes will interact with the pre-existing poverty levels among fisherfolk to further reduce their resilience and limit their abilities to achieve livelihood security.Drawing upon these different analyses, the last part of the document will propose a series of recommendations to address and reduce these main issues. In particular, options at different scales (local, national and basin-wide) to improve the living conditions of the groups of most disadvantaged fisher-folk will be identified and their implementation discussed.In this first section, the objective is to document and assess the socio-economic importance of the fishery sector and analyze its contributions in the livelihoods of the local population.To start with, we first recognize that livelihood options adopted by households usually result from a combination of deliberate (ex-ante) choices and unplanned (ex-post) reactions and adaptations to unpredicted shocks or changes. As such, livelihood strategies are household, time and locality dependent, and a large set of different livelihood alternatives are usually observed even within the same (fishing) community.A commonly used framework for analyses of fisherfolk sub-populations is to differentiate fisher households according to their degree of labour-involvement in fishing activities, and based on the conventional FAO classification: professional, part-time and occasional fishers. However, such a division merges households that may have completely different livelihood strategies, and for whom fishing activities may play a completely different role within the overall range of activities undertaken by different household members. This loss of socio-economic differentiation among fishing households can be analytically disabling, particularly when poverty is the primary concern.Using a livelihood analysis (LA) approach could help to show how the contribution of fishing to household livelihoods is not simply a function of the time (labour) investment shared between the different members of the household but rather a function of the combination of fishing assets they have at their disposal (including the status of the local ecosystem and its fish stocks), and the rules and other socioinstitutional mechanisms that govern the access and use of those assets. Through this LA perspective, it is, therefore, necessary to 'widen' the approach through which the place of fishing activities in households' livelihood is analysed. This can be done by combining the index of human involvement (investment of labour and/or human assets, e.g. skills) adopted in the conventional approach with an index of 'capital' investment (physical and financial assets).Using this approach, a new two-dimensional framework can be built up, which captures the very wide spectrum of contributions that fishing may offer as part of household livelihood strategies (Fig. 1). These strategies may range from low human (labour) involvement combined with low capital investment, to a highly intensive labour activity and/or highly capital-based activity. Between those two extremes, a continuum of combinations better reflect the diversity of ways in which thousands of people include fishing activity as part of the overall range of activities they undertake to sustain their livelihoods.To ensure that our livelihood analysis accounts for, and reflects, this variety of livelihood strategies in the Volta Basin, we considered three different types of communities living along the shores of three different types of water-bodies and a priori characterized by different degrees of dependence on fisheries.The fisherfolk of Lake Volta. Volta Lake in Ghana is the water-body with the largest concentration of part-time and full-time fishing communities in the basin. These fisherfolk are essentially individuals and households who mainly (but not exclusively) rely on fishing and fishing-related activities (such as fish processing and fish-trading) to support their livelihoods. The farmer-fisher communities of other (medium-to-large) irrigation reservoirs. In addition to Volta Lake, a few medium to large scale reservoirs have been created over the last three to four decades in the Volta Basin -essentially for irrigation purposes. These reservoirs represent potentially important fishing opportunities, and fishing and fish-related activities are now part of the local farming communities' livelihoods. Lake Bagré in Burkina Faso is one of these irrigation reservoirs and data from this area will be used to illustrate this second type of 'fish-dependent' rural communities. The Volta basin also includes several hundreds of small-scale reservoirs, seasonal ponds, streams and tributaries of the Volta River. Many of these water-bodies dry up during the dry season (October-May), with the exception of the Mouhoun (Black Volta). They primarily offer subsistence fishing potential for the farming communities living in their vicinities, as well as full-time 'professional' fishing livelihoods for a small number of migrant fishers.There are no precise estimates of the number of households who depend on fishing along the shores of Volta Lake, but several figures have been proposed. In the mid-90s, the Integrated Development of Artisanal Fisheries (IDAF) programme estimated that some \"300,000 fisherfolk depend[ed on the Volta Lake fishery] for their livelihood, of whom about 80,000 [were] fishermen and some 20,000 fish processors/traders\" (IDAF-Yeji Terminal Report, 1993). While it is not clear how the first figure (300,000) was estimated or how the category of 'fisherfolk' was defined, it is probable that the 80,000 (full-time?) 'fishermen' and a large part of the 20,000 fish processors/traders come from the same households, making the total number of fishery-depend households less than 100,000, probably around 85 to 90 thousands.In the late 1990s, the IDAF completed a more comprehensive survey (Braimah, 2000). This time it was estimated that 1,232 villages along the lake's shores were 'fishing villages' and the figure of 71,861 fishers was extrapolated from the subsample of villages surveyed. Here again the document is not clear on what a 'fisherman' is, and whether this number includes: only full-time fishers? farming households that are temporary involved in fishing? In any case the figure of 71,000 fishers then became the reference for many subsequent documents.It is only in 2003 that a more in-depth analysis of the 'fishing communities' of the Volta Lake was implemented through the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihood Programme (SFLP) and in particular a poverty profiling exercise (Pittaluga et al. 2003.a) was conducted in two out of the eight strata of the Lake: strata II and III which are located in the southern part of the lake -see Map 2. Given the general paucity of socio-economic data on fisheries (see comment above), the information presented in the rest of this section mainly relies on this poverty profiling report, except where indicated otherwise.Source map: Encarta® A complete description of the resource-base and its potential and actual production levels has been presented and discussed in Report No.1 (WorldFish 2007). Estimates of Volta Lake's fishery potential range from 40,000 to 271,000 tonnes, while actual production varies between 29,000 tonnes in 1991 (Braimah 2000) to 251,000 tonnes (unpublished data) in 2000. In other words, a high level of uncertainty characterizes the estimates regarding the actual and potential productivity of Volta Lake which effects our ability to estimate the economic value of the fishery.Quoting Braimah's 2001report, Pittaluga et al. stated (2003.a, p.20) that the total first sale value of the fishery in 2000 was 352 billion Ghanaian cedis 5 . This would represent a value of US$ 160 million (US$1 = 2.200 cedis (¢) for that year). A few years earlier, de Graaf and Ofori-Danson (1997, p.28) estimated the total potential value of the fishery to be around US$ 30 million for a potential production of 150,000-200,000 t. In another document Braimah (2003, p.12) mentioned an actual value of ¢85 billion for the 28000 t of the 1998 catch. Note that these three estimates were all made in the same time period. By dividing these respective estimates by the reference figure of 71.000 fishers, we arrive at: a first sale value of US$ 2250 per fisher per year based on Pittaluga et al.'s estimate, a potential value of US$420 per fisher per year according to de Graaf and Ofori-Danson, and a sale value of US$ 540 per fisher per year according to Braimah (2003) (Table 1). These estimates, in so much as they vary greatly, are also quite inconsistent. Compare for instance Pittaluga's and Braimah estimates for an almost similar landing volume.Finally it is important to notice that those figures are estimates of first sale values (that is revenue derived from sale, not including costs). Braimah (2003, p.12), using the number of boats in 1998, estimated that the cost of operating during that specific year was ¢99.5 billion, thus generating overall a loss of ¢14.5 billion for 1998, that is US$-93 per fishers.Fishing is a year-round activity on the Lake however, individual fishing methods and targeted species vary greatly during the year. The major fishing season is from June to September (the rainy season) when fishers set gillnets in the off-shore areas. The lean season occurs between November and April/May (the dry season) when the lake is receding and fishers set gillnets in the inshore areas. These gillnets, along with cast nests, lines and traps were the principal fishing gears used in the early periods (Bazigos 1970, Coppola andAgadzi 1975). More recently, other gears have been introduced including drive-in gear (wangara), bamboo-pipe fishing, nifa nifa (surrounding nets combined with pot traps), acadja (fish aggregating devices made of tree branches and bushes) and beach seines (adranyi) (Braimah 1989(Braimah , 1991)). Fishers set and operate these different gears using canoes. Of the 24,000 canoes enumerated in 2000 on Volta Lake, the large majority (95%) are non-motorized plank canoes operated on average by three men (Braimah 2000).The introduction of purse seines (also called winch nets) on the lake since the mid-1980s was concomitant with the deployment of a new type of boat, called a winch boat. This boat has an operational desk that allows 10 to 15 crew members to stand together while manually working with a net that can be as long as 500 to 800 m and 20 to 30 m deep (Ofori-Danson 2005). Although it is difficult to estimate the exact landing share that this type of boat represents (due to the high uncertainty concerning the total landing figure), it is usually admitted that these boats are quite efficient and probably and have been estimated to represent a significant part (65-70%) of the total catch (IDAF 1990). These boats on the other hand represent only 1.8% of the total fleet, employ about 5% of the fishers (Braimah 2000), and are described as being largely owned by migrant fishers who originally come from the Atlantic coast (pers.comm. Ofori-Danson).Most fishing villages do not have their own markets and depend on a few larger lakeside towns for the commercialization of their catch. As a consequence a large number of fishing communities channel their products through market towns outside their administrative boundaries. While a few markets are accessible by paved roads (Asuogyaman, Jasikan and Kpando) most roads in rural areas are unpaved and in the wet season their conditions make fish trading very difficult.Fresh fish is landed on a daily basis and is either sold for cash or given on credit to wives at a lower price than normal (10-20% lower). Another portion of the daily fish catch is sold to other women fish processors and traders (cf. Photos 1). In some areas, however, there are no discounted prices for relatives, and fishers' wives purchase fresh fish at the same prices as other women. In other cases, especially on market days, fishers may sell of their own fresh catch.The principal processing methods are smoking, salting, sun-drying, fermentation and drying. Processing is done predominantly by fishers' wives and relatives, who sell the processed fish on a weekly basis at a local market, and give the revenues from sales to their husbands.Photos 1 : Women fish traders buying fish landed on the shore of Volta Lake.Overall, it is estimated that 30% of fish caught is sold by local fish traders (middlewomen): 15% by the young and small scale fish traders at the beach, and another 15% sold by the wives of fishers directly to distant fish traders at the fish markets. About 40% is purchased by wholesale fish traders (Pittaluga et al. 2003a).The large proportion of the fish landed is sold on a wholesale basis. Wholesale traders travel to fishing villages to purchase processed fish and return to the lakeside market within 2-3 days with the fish already prepared for the journey to the urban centre. At times, fish is handled by multiple intermediaries before arriving to urban markets.The volume of fish bought by the distant fish traders (not the local middle women who can grant credit and other services) is a function of two dominant variables: financial and social assets. Successful older traders can count on confidence and trust among providers of fish. This facilitates their purchase on credit which is then paid on subsequent visits. Additionally, there are some wholesale fish traders who own a number of fishing winch-net and gillnet fishing boats and who hire fishers to work for them and who take the complete fish catch.Fishing is not the only activity in which households engage. Agriculture, livestock and non-farm activities (e.g. petty trade) are all part of a multi-activity livelihood. Fisheries related activities, however, provide a substantial contribution to the households' livelihoods, and are the primary income generating activity for most families in the area, contributing over 70% of revenue on average (Fig. 2) 6 . This figure, of course, reflects the fact that fishing is a major activity for the community along the shore of the lake. What the figure does not show however is the 'dynamic' role of fishing income, and in particular the fact that, as shown in other parts of West Africa (e.g. Neiland et al. 1997), capital from fishing may be a crucial input for success and resilience in other activities (e.g. farming, pretty trade).Farming, jointly with fishing, constitutes the most important occupation in fishing communities of Volta Lake. It is carried out by men, women and children alike, and it is predominantly subsistence-oriented although some surplus may be sold. In addition to simple ownership (purchased) or usufruct rights (granted by the traditional chiefs), land can also be rented or obtained under share-cropping agreements. An increasingly common arrangement, the produce from share-cropping (locally called Abosa), is divided up on the basis of a 2 to 1, or 3 to 1, ratio between farmers and landlords. The most common farming technique is slash and burn, usually implemented using rudimentary technology such as hoe and cutlass. The low level of technology intrinsically limits the total possible area to be cultivated. Some crops are grown by both men and women. These include cassava, maize, groundnuts, cowpea and rice, and they are mostly rain fed or grown in inland valleys.Yams and sugar cane are normally grown by men, while sweet potatoes and rain fed vegetables are usually grown by women'. Cassava and maize are the most widespread staple food crops in the area, although cassava is the more important and is cultivated in almost all communities since it constitutes the main staple of the people around Lake Volta.Irrigated agriculture is undertaken on a limited scale only in some districts and only by well-off families. It is usually done by men who cultivate vegetables on a large scale (okra, pepper, and tomatoes) for commerce.Based on participatory assessments, Pittaluga et al. (2003.a) reported that 53% of the communities interviewed mentioned a \"slight decrease\" in crop yields over the last five years, and 28% reported a \"substantial decrease\". Only two communities (6%) perceived a \"slight increase\" in crop yields. Finally, irrigation is not commonly practiced with 87% of the communities responding that there is no access to irrigation pumps. As a result, only few families (in about 13% of the communities) manage to do irrigated farming.Interestingly, the same survey indicated that employment opportunities in the agricultural sector had shown a slight decrease over the past five years, while Animal rearing is another important activity found throughout the lake area in fishing communities. Chickens, turkeys, ducks and guinea fowl of local breed, are found in most compounds. Small livestock (sheep and goats) are also grown, whereas pigs and large livestock are found only in a few villages and are usually the property of the wealthiest members of communities. Among cattle holders, one also finds Fulani tribesmen who are traditionally pastoralists and gain grazing rights from local landowners. These are not however engaged in fishing but leave in these fishing communities.Fishing communities along Volta Lake are conscious that they cannot live of fishing alone. Diversification of income-generating activities was recognized by many as an important way to improve livelihoods. In addition to agriculture, the primary form of livelihood diversification practiced was petty trade (selling drinks, cooked food (gari -processed cassava), cigarettes, sugar and other essential supplies). Cash can be used for these trades, although most of the items are exchanged for fish. Artisans are not very common in the lake communities.Located in the South of Burkina Faso (250 km from Ouagadougou), the reservoir of Bagré was filled in 1992. The main purpose of this 25000 ha reservoir is the production of hydro-electricity and irrigation, and increased fish production has been an added benefit for local communities since 1994. Planners originally expected nearly 30,000 hectares to be cultivated for rice production after the construction of the dam, but to date only 6,000 ha are under cultivation (Anon 2005). Since 1994, the average fish catch has been 975 tonnes, mainly of small tilapia (Fig. 3), while the potential is estimated to be around 1500 t.Bagré region is one of the most populated areas in Burkina Faso and had a local population estimated to be around 160,000 people in 2000. Part of the high population density is due to migration by people from other parts of the country since the creation of the reservoir (about 10,000 people settled there since 1994). The primary activity around the lake is subsistence farming, mainly rain-fed agriculture carried out by both men and women, using rudimentary tools and animal traction. Women also engage in gardening during the dry season. Millet, sorghum, maize, rice, groundnuts, are the main crops cultivated during the rainy season while onions, tomatoes, carrots, aubergines and cabbages are grown in the dry season in women garden (Anon 2005). Yield is usually low. Tractors and chemical fertilizer are rare and can be afforded only by wealthiest households.Animal rearing is another important activity for the population around the lake. Seventy-eight percent of the households raise small livestock (chickens, turkeys, ducks) and 58% own cattle (Pittaluga et al. 2003.b). Oxen are essential for animal traction, however there are high mortality rates amongst livestock as access to veterinary extension is inexistent.In addition to farming and livestock, non-farm activities are widely adopted. In particular petty trade involves a large number of women in the community (either full-time or part-time) and concerns a large variety of products (restoration and selling of cooked food, home-made drinks/alcoholic beverages derived from agricultural products or wild fruits, retailing of gardening products). It is estimated that 63% of the women in Bagré area are involved in some form of petty trade.Fishing around Bagré is year-round activity, using primarily gill nets, cast nets, and hooks from pirogues (cf. photo 2). Pittaluga et al. (2003.b) estimated that approximately 500 full-time fishers (mostly young males) were still operating in 2003 (against 724 when the fishery opened in 1994) located in 16 villages and/or fishing camps around the reservoir. In addition, 300 female fish processors and about 20 fish traders (also women) operate from these fishing communities. Altogether, this corresponds approximately to only 3.8% of the total population living around the reservoir. These authors note, however, that about 70% of the people interviewed declare that at least one member of their household is involved in occasional fishing. It seems, therefore, that although a relatively small number of young males are engaged in full-time fishing, a much larger number of households are diversifying their farming activities through seasonal fishing activities (although this may primarily be for household consumption rather than sale). Field evidence tends to corroborate this hypothesis as Pittaluga and his co-authors note that many fishing gears are observable in every village. Source: Anon. 2005 The largest part of the landed fish is processed by frying, sun-drying or smoking and is sold locally or in the nearest urban markets. Fish trade can be a remunerative business. The most successful fish traders sell their products as far away as Ouagadougou or even to markets at the Togo border (50 km away from Bagré). Fish processing is primarily conducted by women in both villages and fishing camps where fish is landed, and involves around 40% of local women. However, not every woman has regular access to fish, which remains essentially under the control of the fishers' wife/partners and the most successful fish traders. Cases of fish-for-sex are allegedly occurring in some places. Pittaluga et al. (2003.b) further report that faced with increasing competition amongst fish processors and decreasing profits, a growing number of women are now turning away from this activity and are instead investing in gardening (tomatoes, onions, maize).In the rest of the Volta basin, it is estimated that a few thousands professional fulltime fishers operate along the major rivers (Mouhoun ex-Black Volta, Nakambé ex-White Volta) and the other small water bodies (seasonal ponds and small floodplains).The majority of them are migrant fishers from other countries (Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana). They own their own fishing gears and pirogues and migrate on rivers and other water-bodies to follow the resources. There are also a few autochthonous (i.e. local resident) professional fishers but they are less mobile and may in fact be also involved in farming activities.Apart from these professional fishers, there is no real 'fishing tradition' amongst the population of the basin 7 , in the sense that no ethnic group has specialised in aquatic resource use, unlike in other inland regions of West Africa such as the central delta of Niger (Kassibo 2000). One of the reasons for this is probably the diffuse nature of the resource (i.e. the absence of any stable and constant high concentration of the 7 Except of course on the shores of the permanent large reservoirs such as Volta Lake, as discussed above.Photo 2 : Fishing on Bagré reservoir is operated using mainly gill nets, cast nets, and hooks from pirogues resource in particular water-bodies), and the economic context (subsistence economy). Instead, aquatic resources have always been one component of an integrated (multi-activity) livelihood strategy (Seidel 1997, Morand et al. 2005).As part of this diversified livelihood, fishing is frequently operated on an occasional and collective basis by the whole community (men and women) during fishing festivals, once crop harvesting and other agricultural tasks have been completed or just before the rain season or flood, when fish is the most concentrated in the ponds. These collective fishing -frequently associated with migrations to and/or from spawning migrations by potomadromous fish-usually take place in the receding part of the floodplains and seasonal ponds (Photo 3). Traditional authorities play a central role in their organization and implementation, and fishing methods may include the construction of fish barriers and/or the use of plant-based fish poisons. In addition to these community fishing festivals, fishing is also practiced by individuals, small groups or households (mainly for subsistence) on a more constant or at least seasonal basis by those households living near isolated part of rivers and/or floodplains. The fishing gear in both cases is quite rudimentary, essentially basket-traps, spears and sometimes hooks. Women are generally highly involved in this type of fishing activities where house-consumption is often the main objective. As such, the contribution of these 'traditional' fishing activities to the household and community food and nutritional security is often crucial in areas where access to market is not always easy, but unfortunately very poorly documented.We may summarise the results of the livelihood analysis presented in this section by revisiting Fig. 1 and highlighting fishing livelihoods described for the Volta Basin (Fig. 4). It appears immediately that the livelihoods encountered in the Volta basin cover a wide range of potential alternatives, suggesting that fishing plays an important role in many different rural communities of the basin and not simply for those living on the shores of Volta Lake. Note however that the framework does not capture the Photo 3 : Collective fishing undertaken by groups of women in seasonal ponds fish-related activities such as fish trading and fish processing which are particularly important for women.The actual importance of fishing in the livelihood of the local population of the Volta Basin is poorly documented and rarely appropriately quantified. For those who live close to a water-body in the basin, it is likely that a more in-depth socio-economic analysis would reveal the many components of household life (economy, food and nutritional security, maternal and child health, education) that depend on fish (Heck et al. 2007).To conclude this first section, the following points should be stressed.For the part of the basin where full-time fishers operate such as the Volta Lake, but also the medium-size reservoirs (e.g. Bagré, Kompienga, Douna, Mogtedo, Donsé, etc.), and along some parts of the Mouhoun and Nakambé rivers), there is no question that fishing is a critical component of the livelihoods of the local populations.What our analysis shows, however, is that this contribution is not limited to those communities that are described as being inhabited by full-time fishers. In fact, where precise quantitative analyses have been conducted, research shows the central role that fishing usually plays in the economy and livelihoods of the entire community, even though these may be erroneously described not as full-time fishers but 'simply' farmers-fishers (e.g. Lae and Weigel 1994, Neiland et al. 1997, Sarch 1997, Béné et al. 2003, Meush et al. 2003, Neiland et al. 2004, Garaway 2005, Morand et al. 2005).In particular, recent research (Allison andMvula 2002, Russell 2007, Béné et al. unpublished data) shows that even for farmers, fishing can be the primary source of (cash) income and may act as a 'bank in the water' to finance a large part of the household economic activities (purchase of farming input such as seeds, fertilizers, agricultural tools or even farming labour), or to pay for health expenses and child education fees.This finding is not really surprising as fishing along rivers or other water-bodies is subject to seasonality but can be conducted all year round, thus generating cash (and food) on an almost daily basis. This represents a major advantage over a large number of agricultural activities that generate cash only at widely spaced intervals, essentially once crops have been harvested. In other terms, the contribution of fish and fishing activity to the livelihood of rural population is not correctly represented by counting the number of full-time fishers that operate in the area. As is the case in many parts of the Volta basin where fishing is not the primary activity for a large number of households, the presence of rivers and hundreds of small-scale water-bodies (including the numerous irrigation reservoirs) allows several thousands of households to complement their farming activity with seasonal fishing (both financially and nutritionally).Having advocated for the recognition of the central role played by fishing in household livelihood does not mean, however, that fishers are systematically better off than non-fishing households. Fishers are a highly heterogeneous assemblage of actors. In many cases, they are indeed 'poorer' than some part of the community. But they are not necessarily the 'poorest of the poor' and when they are 'poor', analysis shows that their poverty may have different attributes, causes and solutions than that of poor farmers. Some dimensions of this 'poverty' are related to their own specific way of living (mobility means lack of access to land, and poor enrolment in governmental/NGO development programs; the health effects from living in close proximity to water-borne diseases), while others simply reflect the overall destitution that affect rural communities, in particular in Africa where several decades of structural adjustments have left rural areas with only very few, if any, infrastructures, roads and public services. In some other occasions, fishers may be those who have lost their previous jobs or their assets. This question of 'poverty' in fishing community is the subject of the next section of this document.The purpose of this second section is to identify and describe in greater detail the causal factors and underlying mechanisms that drive certain groups of fishing households into poverty -or certain poor households into fishing. Our overall objective is to explore and better understand the links that exist between poverty and fisheries in the Volta basin.Several concepts have been proposed recently in the CPWF literature in relation to poverty and its links to water uses. The BFP-central secretariat, for instance, defines water poverty \"as the poverty that can be modified by improved agricultural water management\" (cited in BFP-Volta 2006). This definition, clearly, is inappropriate for our purpose, -but perhaps even more generally-as it tends to focus exclusively on the part of water that is used for agriculture. The BFP-Volta proposes a more inclusive definition in which water poverty is redefined as that \"part of lack of well-being which is attributable to water within the poor communities\" (BFP-Volta 2006). This definition is closer to the multi-sectoral approach adopted by the MDGs agenda as it includes not only water uses related to food production but also those related to sanitation and other domestic uses. It also allows include negative effects of water such as water-borne disease issues. As such, it is comprehensive but possibly not specific enough for the purpose of this report.QuickTime™ et un décompresseur TIFF (PackBits) sont requis pour visionner cette image.Another framework proposed recently in the CPWF literature is the water productivity poverty framework (Fig. 5) which aims at investigating the potential effects that link poverty to (1) the ways water is used and managed, and (2), more importantly, to the concept of water productivity. The underlying hypothesis is that improving crop-water productivity can reduce poverty.In fisheries, conventional development strategies have adopted a relatively similar approach. For several decades, poverty was essentially perceived as the consequence of the inability of artisanal fishers to extract the rent of the fisheries in a cost-effective way due to inappropriate or unproductive fishing techniques and open-access management systems (Platteau 1989, Chauveau andJul-Larsen 2000). Fisheries development interventions, therefore, were mainly conceived as a sectoral approach aimed at strengthening fishing rights and management institutions and at providing fishing communities with the means to improve their fishing productivity (e.g. through the provision of 'modern' fishing gears) (Neiland 2004).Recent research on poverty in fisheries has shown, however, that poverty in smallscale fisheries is only loosely related to productivity per se and that many other 'dimensions' of poverty need to be considered. In particular, we know now that fisherfolks are not necessarily the poorest of the poor in monetary terms, but may, instead, be amongst the most vulnerable socio-economic groups in societies due to their particularly high exposure to certain natural, health-related or economics shocks and disasters (Allison et al. 2006).Based on their experiences in sub-Saharan Africa, Allison and Béné have recently proposed a new framework that combines poverty with two other concepts which, they believe, are central in understanding the impoverishment process of fishing communities. These are vulnerability and marginalisation (Fig. 6).Vulnerability is a function of the risks to which people may be exposed, the sensitivity of their particular livelihood system to those risks, and their ability to adapt to, cope with or recover from the impacts of an external 'shock' to their livelihood system (e.g. Adger et al., 2004). In the case of fisheries, people may be exposed to physical risks (waves and high winds, accidents while hauling nets etc), climateinduced risks (rising sea levels, impacts of global warming on fish stock productivity), health risks (bilharzias, malaria), market risks (currency devaluations, increase in fuel prices) political and security risks (theft, conflict) among many others. Their sensitivity to fishing-associated risks will be related to their dependency on fisheries, and their adaptive capacity may depend on their ability to adjust to, or avoid risks (e.g. by drawing on assets such as savings or education and other livelihood activities).Marginalization or social exclusion describes a process by which certain groups are systematically disadvantaged because they are discriminated against on the basis of their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, caste, gender, age, disability, HIV status, migrant status or where they live (DFID 2005, p.3). Discrimination occurs in public institutions, such as the legal system or education and health services, as well as social institutions like the household but also very often in the private sector, e.g. Vulnerability Framework the labour market. Small-scale fisherfolk are often excluded from processes of development planning, either because they are mobile (including unregistered international migrants), living in marginal and remote areas, or simply because their role and contribution to the economy is poorly known and underappreciated.The PEV (Poverty -Exclusion -Vulnerability) framework as defined above will be used in the rest of this section to identify the potential causes and origins of 'poverty' in the fishing communities of the Volta Basin. Prior to this, we also propose to review the conclusions already achieved by the BFP-Volta regarding poverty in the basin as they provide a useful background for our analysis.It is often stressed that poverty in Africa and the rest of the developing world is a matter of institutions, governance and infrastructures (e.g. NEPAD 2005). Some argue however that, in the specific case of West Africa, the biophysical environment and water availability also play critical roles in shaping poverty. It has been evidenced for instance that there is a strong correlation between several welfare variables and climate in West African countries (Fig. 7). Such a relationship, which also applies within the Volta basin, involves underlying causal links between water and poverty.In relation to, and reinforcing this particular conclusion, is the important fact that at the basin scale, the main activity of the population is rain fed agriculture, with rain being a major limiting factor for a large part of the basin -see third part of this document. As a consequence the time and space distribution of rain governs the distribution of cultivated crops as well as crop yields variability.In Burkina Faso and in Ghana, the national plans for poverty alleviation (CSLP 2004, GPRS 2003) give an overview of poverty in the two main countries and present their plans for poverty alleviation. In both documents, poor communities are characterized by growing and deepening poverty, with low income, malnutrition, ill health, illiteracy and insecurity. The observation is that most the poverty is found within the rural communities that practice food crop farming.Based on the general information generated by these analyses and additional information gathered from the literature and local stakeholders Lemoalle and his colleagues, in their background research to develop their approach for the BFP-Volta identified a set of direct (first level) and indirect (second level) variables describing and contributing to water poverty (as defined as above) in the rural populations of the Volta basin (BFP-Volta 2006). They presented these direct and indirect variables in a table (which we reproduce in Table 2) under five main headings, with the state variables that describe the situation, and the correspondent first and second level variables that explain it. According to Lemoalle's analysis, the main cause of poverty is insufficient access to food, with a number of variables to describe it, including the temporary emigration by some (male) member of the household, as well as (often female) pluri-activity that helps in collecting needed currency. The main explanatory variable associated to this situation is a low productivity related with environmental factors (as highlighted above in Fig. 7) but also some institutional factors as land tenure insecurity issued from traditional arrangements that do not favour long-term investment (by fertilizer or irrigation).Poor health is also identified by these authors as a key issue, being a direct result of poverty (lack of access to sufficient food or to sufficient health care), but also as a result of poor knowledge of good practices in sanitary behaviour and risk understanding, leading for instance to extended schistosomiasis (bilharzia) prevalence.Variables such as the origin and accessibility of safe drinking water (number and density of wells or of pumps) are also presented as important issues. Available wells and boreholes are largely insufficient for the population needs and in the casecommon to several parts of the basin-where groundwater resource distribution is restricted, some alternative solutions will have to be found. Accessibility and reliability of water is therefore a pre-requisite for poverty alleviation, as well as for human health. Water quality is also thought to be a central factor, although this has been questioned by some recent participatory research (Hope 2006) 9 . Finally, where small reservoirs are too distant, the development of kitchen gardens is critical.Interestingly, the concept of vulnerability is also mentioned in Lemoalle's BFP-Volta analysis. In the present case these authors refer specifically to the vulnerability of people engaged in rain fed cultivation. They argue that this vulnerability comes from the variability of rainfall, either between years or within a season, and leads to severe food shortage as a consequence of drought. In these circumstances, household cattle are usually used as an insurance (safety nets) against food shortage and drought. Livestock safety-net role, however, can be rapidly limited as drought also affects animal fodder.Finally, Lemoalle's poverty analysis recalls that aquatic environments in the basin provide a number of valuable services to the local population (essentially as a base for common pool resources). The extension of wetlands and their variation is usually a good indicator of the status of these aquatic resources. In the present state of development, the establishment of the conditions for sustainable use of these resources is critical. Pollution and the extension of aquatic floating weeds such as water hyacinth are possible dangers for their conservation as in the Oti River and the Oti branch of Volta Lake. But changes in their hydraulic regime are the most widespread threat.A couple of comments ensue from this comprehensive analysis. First the poverty factors and the associated explanatory variables identified by the BFP-Volta team 9 Based on participatory assessment, Hope (2006) shows for instance that increasing water quantity is more strongly associated with increasing welfare than water quality improvements and that ''Convenience'' strongly influences household choice of water source with the highest welfare improvement associated with access to a ''house tap''.reflect the multi-sectoral approach underlying the definition of water-poverty adopted by these authors. Factors such as water-borne diseases or accessibility to boreholes for domestic needs are highlighted, in agreement with what one would expect from this MDGs-related definition. Water productivity is however also central to their analysis. As a consequence the analysis strongly emphasizes the issue of water availability and subsequently the low productivity issue, in line with the conventional waterproductivity-poverty framework as represented in Fig. 5 above 10 . It is interesting to note for instance that vulnerability is mainly related to climate and water availability.One could argue however that high exposure to water-borne disease is another 'dimension' of that vulnerability.From the perspective of this present document, the question is now: \"where do fisheries stand in this framework and how to make the analysis more 'pro-fish' to reflect fisheries specific poverty issues?\"Through the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihood Programme, Pittaluga and his colleagues conducted two participatory Poverty Profiling analyses in the basin, one for the fishing communities of the Southern part of Volta Lake (2003.a) already mentioned and one for the farmer-fishers of the Bagré reservoir (2003.b) 11 . These are the only two documents available 12 which provide adequate information on the 'poverty' status of fishing communities in the basin. No similar document was available unfortunately for the third type of fisheries described earlier in this document -the small water-bodies and river-floodplain fisheries.From the two poverty profile documents, three wealth groups were distinguished.Using the informants own terminology, those are the \"very poor\", the \"poor\", and the \"better off\" for the Volta Lake case and the \"poor\", the \"less poor\" and the \"betteroff\" in the Bagré case 13 . These wealth categories offer a good first insight into the 10 For instance as explained elsewhere in the BFP-Volta document, the objective is to \"find and compute reliable indicators of poverty at the appropriate scale that will be relevant in locating poverty hot spots, and explanatory variables that will help us to understand the causes of poverty (among them water availability and water productivity variables)\" (BFP-Volta, p.12-emphasis is ours).11 This second document also included a poverty profiling of the Kompienga farmer-fisher community. 12 Morand et al (2006) provide an enlightening overview of small-scale fisheries in West Africa where they also address the question of poverty dynamics in fishing communities. But the nature of their analysis (a regional review) makes it too general and thus difficult to apply specifically to the Volta Basin fisheries. 13 A fourth group, \"the poorest\", has also been identified, but the persons interviewed pointed out that no household around Bagré belong to this group. Households in this group are those who have no access to means of production (land, farming utensil, fishing gear, or finance), have no savings, and don't access formal or informal credit. When they are active, these persons hire their labour for agriculture tasks. They have no livestock or poultry and usually very low diversification in their activities. They are usually excluded (or exclude themselves) from local community's decision making communities and help identifying some of the key elements determining wealth differentiation.The Very Poor People in the poorest group on Volta Lake are usually individuals who sell their labour force in the fisheries or agricultural sectors. They may be peasant fishers or farmers and have no or little ownership of means of production. This group includes single parents or widows, the unemployed, the disabled and sick. The very poor often have large families and have access to inadequate quantities and quality of food. They possess no livestock, and usually have neither savings nor access to financial resources. In certain areas, access to land exacerbates the poverty status of this group.In various cases, the analysis showed that these poorest people are highly indebted, and are forced to hire children out as labourers for money. According to the perceptions of the informants interviewed during the fieldwork, the very poor account for roughly 50% of the population living in fishing communities on Volta Lake (Pittaluga et al. 2003.a).This group can be further broken down into:Families who have no means of production and productive capital. The main source of livelihood is hiring of their labour for fishing, farming and processing of fish on a day to day basis. Others rent boat and nets on daily or weekly basis, but are just able to pay rent either in cash or in kind.Families who possess only very poor fishing equipment. This category depends solely on fishing for livelihood as the income generated is not adequate to capitalize other income generating activities. Triangulating these data with figures from Braimah's 2001 report, one can infer that this group includes approximately 70% of the very poor fishing households. Peasant farmers. They are only able to cultivate very small landholdings (0.4 to 0.6 ha) and lack the necessary inputs (fertilizers, equipment, etc.). Farming activities remain at subsistence level and rarely enable these families to cover all primary necessities. From time to time they would work as temporary labour force on other people's farms.These poor are individuals or families who have some fishing and farming equipment. They may possess or have access to a non-motorized fishing boat with about five gillnets -just enough for a fishing crew of two. Such fishing activities usually yield a limited income. Nevertheless, they can manage to save some small capital to hire labourers for the cultivation of moderate size farm lands (0.8-1.2 ha). Those households are also often involved in petty trading, for example shops, although they often operate on borrowed capital. They are able to invest some capital in small livestock and poultry, which in these areas function as a form of savings. In hard times, livestock and poultry are sold and constitute a mechanism to cope with crises. These families usually have decent/adequate food, cassava meal with adequate corn dough and some fish. People belonging to this group can afford some health services processes. These households do not always have more than one meal per day, can't afford having access to health system and sending their children to school.and can often cater for larger family sizes; finally some are members of small scale irrigation co-operatives. Overall this category includes 35% of the whole community.People belonging to this category are usually farmers or fishers who possess an array of means of production, including canoes with outboard engines, large landholdings as well as hired manpower. They used hired fishing labour and land subsequent amount of fish every day. They can maintain large polygamous families and can often send their children outside the community to Senior Secondary School or even higher level of education. They can generate substantial amounts of revenue, and hardly ever need to borrow money. People belonging to this group are proprietors of cattle, normally do manage to save money, and can afford decent health care. To this group belong also those families who operate road vehicular transport, lake transport, and have fuel depots. This group represents only 15% of the local population and -based on Braimah's data-probably 1.2% of the fishing communities.The poor Around Bagré reservoir, the poor have access to few livelihood options, with poor or rudimentary means of production, they are involved in subsistence agriculture but they are highly food insecure as their production rarely covers their food needs. They cultivate limited land surfaces (<1 ha), which usually do not belong to them. They have to sell their own production or livestock when facing unexpected/high expenses (illness, funeral, weddings, etc.) as they don't have any cash-savings. They own some poultry and manage to have also few livestock. Their activities are slightly more diversified than those of the poorest group 14 , in particular in terms of agriculture, fishing and petty trade. Overall, this group usually constitutes the labour force for the two more healthy categories. It is also the group where the large majority of the fishers are, along with the (female) fish processors. They represent about 10% of the population around Bagré 15 (Pittaluga et al. 2003.b).Households in this group have generally access to more land (1 to 10 ha) which they own for the large part. They have plough and use fertilizers. Farming is still mainly for subsistence but they also grow few cash crops (cashew nuts, onion, tomatoes).Fishing also constitutes another important source of revenue as most of the households in this group own their own fishing gears (cast-nets, gill-nets, hooks and even pirogues). They usually manage to cover their own food needs, although they remain vulnerable to major shocks (e.g. drought). They have bicycles and even sometimes small motorbikes. They have small livestock, poultry and few bovines.According to Pittaluga et al, this is the largest group around Bagré as it is estimated that 85% of the population are \"less poor\".14 See footnote 13.In this group, households have relatively productive means of production. The farms are usually more than 10 ha. Animal traction, even sometimes tractors and chemical fertilizers are common. Productions entirely cover the household food requirements. This group can pay for health expenses and children education up to university level as they manage to have decent savings. The activities are remarkably varied: rain fed and dry season cultures, livestock, fishing, trade, etc. They have motorbikes and sometimes cars. They are amongst the influencing people in the villages. Very few fishers or fish processors are amongst this category, with perhaps one or two exceptions amongst the most successful fish-traders. Overall, this group represents only 5% of the community.Still some unanswered questions Not too surprisingly, we observe that the largest part of the population of the Volta Lake is in the poorest group (the \"very poor\") and that a 'pyramidal' shape characterizes the overall community of the lake (the \"poorest\" representing 50%, the \"poor\" 35% and the better off 15% of the total community). More surprising is the shape of the socio-economic 'pyramid' in Bagré. In particular while the fact that the better-off are only 5% is not totally unexpected, the fact that the \"poor\" are fewer (10%) than the \"less poor\" (85%) is more unconventional forrural society in developing country. It is worth noticing however that the \"poor\" is the group in which one finds the large majority of the full-time fishers operating around the Bagré reservoir, together with the fish processors. In contrast, the \"less poor\" is the groups of the indigenous farmers-fishers. Let's recall that in this area the full-time fishers and their family (including the majority of the fish processors) are a minority -less than 5% 16 -, with a large proportion of them being new comers. It may therefore be that the social structure presented by the informants (mainly indigenous households) reflects their own perception of what their community 'should' look like: who would easily admit that a new comer is 'doing well' or better than a local family? This distorted view of the 'reality' may explain why the group of the \"less poor\" are farmers-fishers and is larger than the group of the \"poor\" full-time fishers.It may however be also the case that, indeed, these full-time fishers are not doing so well, a hypothesis that is substantiated by the fact that the current number of full-time fishers (approximately 500) is lower that it was in 1994 when the fishery first opened after the creation of the Bagré reservoir.It is difficult to confirm or refute any of these two hypotheses, as no quantitative analysis had been carried out as part of the Bagré poverty profiling exercise. Whether the full-time fishers are actually poorer (in income terms) than the farmers-fishers is thus difficult to verify. Note however that this claim is in opposition with the view generally found in the specialized literature where it is assumed that full-time or migrant fishers are in general better-off (income-wise) than farmers-fishers (see e.g. Morand et al. 2005, p. 76).This last comment brings up another important conclusion highlighted by the poverty profilings, that is, the fact that the poorest households are not systematically, or not necessarily, fishers. Along the shores of Volta Lake for instance, of the 3 sub-groups that were identified as \"the poorest\", one sub-group is indeed full-time fishers, but another sub-group is peasant farmers while the third includes 'share croppers' hiring their labour to fishing and/or farming. In Bagré, a similar conclusion holds. Amongst the group of the poor 17 are found both farmers and full-time fishers. Therefore the adage that \"fishers are the poorest of the poor\" does not seem to hold. In fact such a simple generalization cannot realistically reflect the complexity of the situation -in particular the specificity of the geographical locations and the huge variety of livelihood strategies adopted by households that depend partially or totally on fishrelated activities.The ability to diversify sources of income and the volume or type of activity seems to be a key factor in determining fisherfolk poverty status. In the Volta Lake for instance those who depend on fishing only are to be found predominantly in the very poor group. This group however includes two very different sub-groups of fishers, which may be important to distinguish: those who do not own boats and/or fishing gear and thus depend on others to access the resource under a share-cropping arrangement; and those who own fishing gears and boat, operating on a full-time basis. In contrast, households that are able to undertake other income generating activities on a small scale are in the \"intermediate\" group. Boats and fishing gears owners are also part of these intermediate group but those are then the fishers who have managed to diversified their livelihoods, partially relying on the income generated by their fishing activities to invest in farming (purchasing inputs and labour) or non-farming activities (e.g. trade). Finally the better off are people who have income generating activities of considerable volume, capital intensive, and high yielding such as cattle and grinding mills. Few of them are also involved in fishing. Those are the owners of the motorized winch boats (only 1.2% of the total fishers) who are able to operate into distant rich fishing grounds, using fishing labourers, thus making fishing a very lucrative source of livelihood. The owners of the very productive acadjas are also amongst these successful fishers. In addition, these families can also be involved in boat transport, grinding/corn mills and large livestock rearing, suggesting indeed that diversification is indeed a wealth determinant in these communities.The role played by diversification seems also to be central in the case for Bagré where it was reported that the better-off households could be involved in a wide range of on and off farms activities. In other part of the Sahelian region (North Cameroon), studies have shown that the richest part of farmer-fisher communities is characterized by significantly more diversified portfolios than the other groups (Béné et al. 2003).Unfortunately, the absence of quantitative data does not permit to test further this hypothesis in the case of Volta Lake or Bagré reservoir.As mentioned earlier in this document, a significant part of the literature associates poverty in fisheries with depletion of the resource. When fish stocks are over-exploited by too many fishers (due to the open access nature of the fishery), catch per unit of effort decreases while fishing cost increases, reducing profit and irremediably driving fishers into income poverty. This is the Malthusian poverty scenario. With this in mind, it seems justified to raise the question of whether the resources of the Volta Lake and Bagré reservoir are, or not, depleted and whether this overexploitation situation can be part of the factors explaining poverty in the communities of these two fisheries.Braimah 2003 recalls that the average yield of the Volta Lake decreased from 46.8 kg ha -1 in 1976 to 32.6 kg ha -1 in 1998 18 . This decline seems to be in agreement with the perception / discourse of the end-users. Pittaluga et al. (2003.a) for instance stressed that 45% of people interviewed agreed that over the past five years fish catches have substantially decreased, while 49% reported a more moderate reduction. Only people from one community (6%) reported that fish catches have increased.At the same time, however, the catch composition of the fishery did not appear to have changed over the period 1991-1998(Braimah 2003, Figure 1 p.10). In fact 34% of the communities responded that fish sizes have remained stable over the past five years, 42% reported that fish size has on average somewhat decreased, and 24% said they have increased. Similarly, in 45% of communities people interviewed reported that the diversity of fish species caught over the past five years has being stable, while 34% reported a mild decrease. Only 6 communities (21%) reported a substantial decrease in the diversity of species caught.Despite these rather inconclusive findings, the hypothesis of an overexploitation of the Volta Lake resource(s) has been systematically brought forward in the past literature (e.g. Agyenin Boateng 1989, Braimah 1995, de Graaf and Ofori-Danson 1997, Braimah 2000, 2003). It is interesting to note that this overexploitation had already been suggested more than 30 years ago by Cappolla and Agadzi (1976). This claim, if exact, means that the stock should have been diminishing for more than 3 decades, a conclusion that is not substantiated by the few landing time-series available.We already discussed the issues related to this hypothesis of overexploitation of the Volta Lake in the first part of this report (WorldFish 2007), pointing out that, if indeed overexploitation occurs, it is largely disserved by a rhetorical 'overexploitation narrative' adopted by a large number of scientists and policy makers, which eventually casts doubt on any estimates, including the more rigorous ones.Beyond this unsettled debate, a more fundamental issue emerges, which is that this whole discussion has been (again) essentially driven by a rather productivist interpretation of what \"poverty\" in fishing communities is, assuming in particular that yield is the main driver of well-being in fishing communities. In the next section, we revisit some of these conclusions using the PEV framework. We will in particular explore some of the other social, institutional and economic mechanisms that may 18 These figures of 46.8 kg ha -1 and 32.6 kg ha -1 are comparable to those of the two other largest reservoirs in Africa, Lake Kainji and Lake Nasser. Crul and Roest (1995) estimated the productivity of these reservoirs to range from 24 to 55 kg/ha/yr. Bagré reservoir's average productivity over the period 1994-2003 has been of 39 kg/ha/yr.exist in the fishing communities of the Volta and Bagré lakes and affect the wellbeing of these households.Let us first recall that the PEV framework stresses the importance of the mechanisms of exclusion and vulnerability as being some of the main drivers of poverty for fishing communities.Vulnerability of households (or group of households) can be defined as the combined effect of high exposure of these households to specific events, their sensitivity to those events 19 , and their inability to cope with or recover from the impacts of these 'shocks' (Adger et al. 2004). Allison et al. (2006) argue that fishing households may appear to be more vulnerable than some other socio-economic groups in the same community or other communities. We propose to use this concept of vulnerability and the data generated by the existing literature to see to what extent this concept helps us 'unfold' further some of the mechanisms and processes that may drive part of (or the whole?) fishing community into poverty.Table 3 presents the different diseases observed in the Volta Basin over the period 1980-1996. These include bilharzias, onchocersiasis, guinea worm, malaria filariasis and diarrhoea (GEF-UNEP, 2002).All these figures seem to indicate that the populations of the whole basin (and not simply the fishing households) are highly exposed to diseases. We note however that a large part of those infections are water-borne diseases (as was already pointed out by Lemoalle in 2006), reinforcing on one hand the relevance of water-poverty as defined by the BFP-Volta team, but also -in direct relation to the point made abovestressing the fact that populations living in close proximities with water-bodies are likely to be more exposed to these water-borne diseases. In that respect, fishing households and/or communities are expected to be amongst these more exposed groups. 19 Households can be sensitive with very different degrees to the same event even if they are all exposed with the same probability. For instance a whole village population is exposed to the same risks of drought, but some households may be more sensitive than others due for instance to the nature of their main activities. A schoolteacher is for instance expected to be less affected by the drought than farmers of the village.In those circumstances it may not been surprising to read that on the shore of the Volta Lake, a high incidence of bilharzias and malaria was observed throughout the year (diarrhoea was reported to be prevalent in 95% of the communities surveyed, equally affecting adults and children) and that around Bagré, diseases were identified as the first source of 'crisis' by the communities (Pittaluga et al. 2003.a and b). The most prevalent diseases there were malaria, bronco-pulmonary infections and gastroenteritis. In some specific location, intestinal parasitoses were also observed due to the consumption of unclean water from the ponds.Two additional elements may further exacerbate the degree of vulnerability of fishing households to acute health problems. First, the overall situation in terms of access to health services of a large number of fishing villages around Volta Lake strongly reflects their geographical isolation. The absence of hospitals in these areas means that sick people have to be sent to the nearest clinic or hospital in transport boats. Medicines, furthermore, are available only from drug peddlers going from village to village. In Bagré, the situation may not necessarily be better (even if the area is not as isolated as some part of the Volta Lake shores) as the preservation of medications becomes rapidly a problem without electricity and cold storage.In these conditions, fishers are especially vulnerable to this lack of provision to health services and medications as their access to these facilities is even more problematic than the rest of the local population. Seeley and Allison (2005) note for instance that this issue of lack of regular access to medication is probably one of the reasons why AIDS prevalence is so high in fishing communities. Beyond the specific case of antiretroviral therapy, it is clear that the migrant nature associated to frequent geographical isolation that characterizes fishing activity in a large number of situations is definitely a factor that affects the ability of these populations to access quality health services and thus makes them more vulnerable than other part of the population to health risks.Another element may add to this sensibility of fishers to health problems. It is the fact that fishing is a relatively intense physical activity, in the sense that fishers often have to operate manually (non-mechanical) fishing gears or the (non-motorized) boat for hours on the lake under rough weather conditions. Sickness and/or the physical weakness associated to illness usually severely reduce the capacity of fishers to operate effectively onboard when they are sick 20 , thus increasing further their vulnerability to disease.Possibly, one 'positive' effect of being engaged in fishing is that fishers may have access to more regular source of cash (through the selling of their daily catch) than some other socio-economic groups in the same communities (e.g. farmers). This is the 'bank in the water' function as discussed earlier in this report, and field data confirm that households engaged in fishing activities use fish income to cover their health expenses (Russell et al 2007). Recent research suggests, however, that access to cash does not always reduce the sensibility of fisherfolk to health risks. It can in fact in some cases increase it through a high exposure to risks attached to a fisher 'life-style' characterized by alcohol and/or drug consumption and reliance on casual sex or prostitution (Allison andSeeley 2004, Kissling et al. 2006).Information from the Volta Lake tends to suggest that the local populations are not necessarily highly vulnerable to food insecurity. Cassava and maize are the main staple foods in the fishing communities. In 94% of the communities, cassava is consumed daily, while maize is eaten daily by most people in 71% of the villages (Pittaluga et al. 2003.a). On the other hand, meat and eggs are rarely consumed, although protein intake seems to be compensated by daily fish consumption, even if consumed in small quantities. Malnutrition among children is not common in the fishing communities of southern Volta Lake. In 83% of the community surveyed by Pittaluga and his colleagues, respondents reported very few cases of malnourished children.In contrast, information collected by the SFLP team around Bagré reservoir indicates that only few households grow enough food to ensure their daily food/caloric needs, creating seasonal food insecurity and individual energetic deficiency (undernourishment) during these hard periods. Fear about food insecurity is therefore vividly entrenched in people's mind around Bagré as illustrated by the fact that 3 out of 4 of the main 'crisis' in this areas are related to food production failure 21 : more than 50% of the household declare that they have suffered from \"food shortage\", \"drought\" or \"poor agriculture production\" in the recent past. \"Low fish catch\" comes next with 45% of the households reporting suffering from low level of fish catch (affecting both fishers and fish processors/traders). Pittaluga and his colleagues (2003.b) note, however, that as far as protein and micro-nutriment requirements are concerned, the supply of the latter may be broadly satisfied by fish catch in the villages around Bagré. Similar conclusion seems to apply for vitamins A and C intake rates as vegetables and fruits can be found relatively easily in the area.A third source of vulnerability -which, this time, does not impact communities' livelihood in the form of unexpected shocks, but rather as long-run effect-is the land degradation and associated loss of soil fertility which seems to affect all villages along the shores of Volta Lake. Sixty three percent of the communities surveyed claims for instance that land fertility has worsened over the past five years (Pittaluga et al. 2003.a). As a consequence 53% of the communities estimate that their crop yields have slightly decreased and 28% that they have experienced a substantial decrease. Absence of crop rotation has been advanced to explain this degradation: due to the scarcity of land and other problems associated with migrant farmers, the land is not left to fallow as it used to be. Data shows that even where fallow is practiced the proportion of land left resting tends to decrease. As a result of those changes, farmers become less resilient to other external shocks -such as drought spells. This tendency has also been observed around Bagré.In the longer run, this process of land degradation will eventually affect fisheries and fish-dependent households, as more and more water will be pumped through irrigation to compensate for the lower natural soil fertility.Data indicate that forests along Volta Lake are being heavily impacted by an everincreasing wood extraction. The rate of deforestation is estimated at 0.25 to 0.2 km 2 per annum on average. Major causes of deforestation are reported to be related to household wood consumption and fish processing but other factors such as charcoal burning, farming practices, cutting of wood for fishing (acadja and bamboo pipe fishing), bush fires, and grazing by large herds of cattle from neighbouring Burkina Faso have also been reported (Donkor and Vlosky 2003). These different impacts have resulted in the elimination of nearly all Forestry Commission unprotected trees from the lake area. Overall 20 of the 35 communities surveyed reported that the situation of nearby forests worsened over the past 10 years.As far as wildlife is concerned, the traditional hunting system consisting in selective burning of areas cordoned off by hunters and their dogs is thought to increase pressure on the wildlife 22 . A significant number of key-informants reported that the number of wild animals has decreased and that wild life has not been available in their communities in the past five years.Natural resources and common pool resources such as forest resources or wildlife are critical to the poor who usually rely on them and use them as safety nets during crisis periods (Johda 1992, Williams 1998, Beck and Nesmith 2001). The degradation of those main CPRs around Volta Lake means the disappearance of these safety nets and a subsequent increase in vulnerability for these households. While not affecting specifically or exclusively fishing households, the erosion of these CPRs may have indirect consequences for these fishing households by leading more of the poor of the same local community and/or other parts of the country/basin to turn to the lake's resources to compensate for the loss of forest and wildlife resources. In fact, recent information suggests that due to the general decline in the coastal fishery resources over the last decade, part of the Ghanaian coastal artisanal fishers are now migrating with their family to Volta Lake region (E. Abban pers. comm. April 2006), contributing to increase the pressure on the Lake's CPRs, thus certainly increasing further the vulnerability of the local fishing communities.Diversification of activities has long been recognized as one of the most widely adopted risk management strategy amongst farmers. Just as investors in financial markets diversify their asset portfolio to reduce risks, farmers traditionally grow a variety of crops and/or engage in several farm and off-farm activities in order to decrease the adverse impact of uncertain environmental and market conditions (Reardon et al. 1992, Dercon and Kryshman 1996, Moser 1998, Ellis 1998). This rule also applies to fishers. Fisherfolk that do not have the opportunities -or the skills and/or capacities-to diversify their livelihoods and depend exclusively on fishing to generate their income are very likely to be extremely vulnerable 23 .In this context it is important to notice that in the case of both Volta Lake and Bagré reservoir, the poorest are the households who do not have the capacities to diversify their activities. In Volta Lake those households included either individuals who sell their labor force in the fisheries or agricultural sectors as peasant fishers or farmers, or families who possess only very poor fishing equipment and have not enough income to capitalize and invest in other activities. The other sub-group in this very poor category includes farmers who are also unable to diversify their activities. Likewise, around Bagré, the poor are also those families who have very few livelihood options.A large number of them are involved in subsistence agriculture but the majority of the full-time fishers are also reported to be amongst those poor households, along with the fish processors.The second dimension of poverty highlighted in the PEV framework is the degree of marginalization that it generally observed in fishing communities in developing countries. This social and economic marginalization is often the consequence of their geographic and political isolation and results frequently in poor access to many public services (transport, health, education) and to other basic infrastructures and institutions such as markets or financial credits. The data from Volta Basin confirm this general diagnosis.Large parts of the lake remain inaccessible throughout the year and lack marketing facilities. This is the case in particular of the Eastern region, as well as the numerous islands dotting the entire coastline (about 50) of the lake. In these places, getting to a major urban centre for market supplies or health treatments is indeed problematic.Other regions are only accessible during the dry season and become completely inaccessible during the rainy season. Paved roads are rare. For instance, none of the 34 villages included in Pittaluga survey are accessible by paved roads. All but one of the communities are accessible by water, although journeys on the lake are often difficult due to the presence of numerous tree stomps emerging from the water surface or submerged but dangerous to navigation.The remoteness of most fishing communities denies them access to basic services. In 49% of the villages visited, for example, the local population has never received any support visit from the agricultural extension agents and no services of the Fisheries and Veterinary Departments are available.The consequences of the geographical isolation are also acute in terms of lack of access to adequate education or to credit facilities. Approximately 45% of the communities indicated that primary school units are malfunctioning. Even in the few schools available, inadequate staffing, lack of textbooks and equipment is lamented.As far as financial credit is concerned, the lack of formal credit facilities forces fishers to turn to informal credit providers, facing often an exploitive situation. Fish traders provide fishing inputs to fishers who in turn extinguish their credit by ensuring a constant fish supply to the creditor. Fishers are, in fact, under obligation to sell their catch to that particular fish trader until the credit has been extinguished. Fish is sold with a rebate that ranges between 10% and 25%. According to fishers' own estimates, the cost of credit obtained through this system can be up to 50% a month.Fishers can also obtain credit from nets sellers. In that case, credits are granted for periods of time ranging from two to four weeks, and interest rates vary from 25% to 40% for the two-week credits, and approximately 47% for the whole month. Very few fishers use money-lenders to borrow capital. Those who do so have usually no other choices, considering that interest rates are very high (from 30% to 100% per month; 40% biweekly, or 10% daily in some places). These high interest rates make it too risky for individuals to invest in new activities or even to expand their own current activities, thus reducing drastically the overall productivity of the households. These high interest rates also make households more vulnerable to economic (or crop) failures.Most of the fishing communities around the Volta Lake are composed of different ethnic groups. Segregation along tribal lines, and separate leadership for each ethnic group is the rule. This often constitutes a problem when village-wide activities (such as fishing) involving more than one group need to be organized and/or coordinated.The presence of a village chief, furthermore, is often a source of additional problem.Local people attribute it to the fact that the village chief stems from the autochthonous tribe that usually owns the land, and is accused of not accommodating the customs and traditions of the other ethnic groups who settled in the village. Thus, any attempt to enforce rules and customs proper of the autochthonous groups is met with resistance and suspicion by other groups. In addition, the village chief depends on royalties and taxes which are collected in an arbitrary and sometimes exploitative manner. This often complicates the interethnic interactions on the ground, and weaknesses in social capital are at the roots of many failed attempts to set up organized groups at the village level. In some cases, however, the lack of social cohesion stems from the other end, as village chiefs undermine the formation of groups that are believed potential threats to their authorities.In sum, although traditional authority exists in all fishing communities around the Lake, growing mistrust between indigenous agro-pastoralists and migrant fishing populations have undermined the social cohesion of the community, reducing the capacity of the whole local community to build upon social capital and increase organizational and institutional capacities.Finally, lack of access to land is one of the major exclusion mechanisms usually greatly affecting fisher communities and increasing their vulnerability. This issue is widely encountered in the Volta Basin.In Bagré for instance, land is traditionally controlled and distributed by chiefs according to systems of derived rights, such that all households receive at least a minimum of land. With greater demographic pressure, however, certain villages ended up with little to no surplus land. The most affected households were reported to be the migrant and in particular the migrant fisherfolk, which were then 'trapped' into a mono-activity-based livelihood.Around the Volta Lake, land tenure has also been identified as one of the major bottlenecks against increased agricultural production (GEF 2002). In these regions, like in most part of Ghana, land ownership system is based on ethnicity. The land owners are the indigenous tribes and all others settlers have to request these indigenous populations to access land for farming or simply for their abode. Land is released for farming based on terms which hold only in a particular chieftaincy. Since the terms are not the same throughout the chieftaincies, the effect of land tenure is not uniformly experienced. Overall however, as far as fisherfolk are concerned, the land tenure system seems to be unfavourable as land owners prefer to lease land for cattle grazing rather than to fishers for farming. Combined to other factors reviewed previously (e.g., lack of access to capital and/or credit facilities), fisher households have great difficulties to diversify their activities, and remain largely dependent on fishing activities, thus aggravating their overall vulnerability.While the preceding analysis has dealt primarily with historical and current data trends, the following section provides an overview of how predicted climate, social, and population trends may impact fisherfolk livelihoods in the future.Several studies have assessed the current demand on Lake Volta basin water resources, and though their projections of water supply and demand for water based purely on past rainfall and population trends (excluding the variables introduced by predictions of climate change models, discussed below), many of their overall observations remain valid (GEF 2002). Across the Volta basin, population densities range widely (between 8 and 104 persons/km 2 ) and population growth rate estimates range between 2.27% in Benin, to 2.8% in Togo (Table 4). By 2025 these growth rates will translate into an estimated overall 81.7% growth in basin populations over year 2000 levels (Fig. 8), with significant implications for these nations' respective demands on water resources. Needless to say, based purely on an extrapolative calculation, any basin population growth on the order of 300% by 2050 will impose large-scale changes to the demand and use of water resources that may force these countries to significant revise their water planning altogether.BFP-Volta Lake livelihood and poverty assessment 41/67 Note: Population growth projections for the countries differ in the different sources and should be used with caution. Their application to small fractions of the states that belong to the basin are only used to estimate orders of magnitude in the major trends.As discussed in the first report, while Burkina Faso and Ghana have jurisdiction over the largest part of the Volta Basin surface area (42%, and 40%, respectively), recall that almost half of neighbouring Togo and 15% of Benin fall within the watershed as well. As might be predicted, Ghana and Burkina Faso (which are also the most populous nations) consume the largest amounts of water in the basin at 729 x10 6 m 3 , and 335 x10 6 m 3 , respectively (Table 4). However, when water consumption is analyzed on the basis of per capita consumption, Burkina Faso's year 2000 consumption of water is the lowest in the basin (37.8 m 3 ), while the top per capital consumers are Benin (522.3 m 3 ) and Mali (356.8 m 3 ) (Table 4). Due to inadequacy of national water supply and treatment infrastructures, demands on water supplies (primarily for domestic/industrial, irrigation, and livestock use) are not fulfilled at present in most countries and demand for water is projected to grow by 389% by 2025 for the basin over 2000 demand levels according to Barry et al. (2005), and GEF (2002) (Fig. 9) .Ghana, which in 2000 consumed roughly 42% of the total water resources of the basin, is projected to remain the single largest consumer of water (especially for irrigation and industrial/domestic consumption) with per capita growth in demand of 576% over 25 years (Table 4). However, the greatest relative increases in demand for water by 2025 are projected to occur in Cote d'Ivoire (an increase of 1120% over year 2000 per capita consumption) and Benin (an increase of 792% over year 2000 per capita consumption). While Cote d'Ivoire's overall consumption will nevertheless remain of negligible importance in absolute value terms, the forecasted growth in Benin (primarily for increased irrigation and domestic/industrial use) will result in it surpassing Burkina Faso as second-largest consumer of Volta River water resources (at 26.7% of the total water consumption) (Table 4, Fig. 9). None of the countries predict any absolute or per capital declines in water consumption, however the arid Sahelian nations of Mali and Burkina Faso, and the coastal nation of Togo claim the most modest increases of 4.8%, 45.1%, and 20.7% increase over population growth. In all Volta River basin nations, the single largest planned source of growth in water consumption is for irrigation (GEF 2002). Secondarily, the coastal nations of Ghana, Benin and Togo anticipate modest growth in industrial/domestic uses, and Mali and Benin anticipate the modest amounts of growth in livestock production (GEF 2002).Obviously, any growth in consumptive uses of water among these countries may represent significant threats to the fish stock productivity that depend on these rivers, lakes and wetlands, and to the sustainability of the water resource-dependent livelihoods (such as fishing and farming).In addition to consumptive uses of water, \"non-consumptive\" uses of water for generation of hydropower is pivotal for the economic development of many of these nations. While not strictly \"consumptive\" (as in removing water that cannot then be used for other productive purposes), any proposed construction of new dam in one country will have significant effects on both consumptive and non-consumptive uses of water in areas and countries that lie downstream (Rodgers et al. 2007, Barry et al. 2005, GEF 2002, Andah et al., no date). Even within countries, governments are struggling to balance the needs between different consumptive uses (industry/domestic use vs. irrigation) and that of hydropower generation which is essential for electricity production and are presently unable to fulfill any of these demands sufficiently or sustainably (Rodgers et al. 2007, Barry et al. 2005, GEF 2002, Andah et al. no date, Phillips 2007, Lemoalle 2007).Numerous studies have documented widespread changes in landscape use in the Volta basin as native vegetation and forests are cleared for farming (GEF 2002, Gyau-Boakye 2000, Barry et al. 2005, Asante 2006). These changes may result in a number of significant ecological changes that can have profound impacts: land-degradation (erosion of the productive topsoil, increased evapo-transpiration of soil moisture, decreased infiltration of rain water); resulting in threats to some fish stocks (through siltation of river spawning beds, increased water temperatures), and threats to nearby communities (flash-floods in the rainy season and drying of riverbeds in the dry season, and drying up of the groundwater aquifers).Although the same cannot be said for all countries in the Volta basin, there are some indications of positive overall economic growth in Ghana, and predictions are that poverty levels will continue to decline in the decades to come (Claydord 2005). However even within Ghana, economic growth is highly uneven and extreme poverty remains the rule among the rural, agricultural and Northern populations who live primarily from the production of a single agricultural growing season (Andah et al. no date, Claydord 2005). Similarly, the last decade of overall economic growth in Burkina Faso, due primarily to expansion of cotton exports, has benefited a small proportion of the nation's population while by-passing a majority of the rural and urban poor (Grimm and Gunther 2004). Overall, food production is expected to become increasingly critical as rural food production struggles to supply sufficient staples to compensate for the difference in rural to urban population growth (170% vs. 390%, respectively, between 2000-2025) (Lemoalle 2007).Much of sub-Saharan West Africa is located in what is known as the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ, also known as the Inter Tropical Discontinuity, or ITD), an area where humid monsoon air masses from the Gulf of Guinea meet with the hot, dry Harmattan winds originating in the Sahara desert. The north/southward movement of the ITCZ is determined by the position of the sun, and modulated by the African Easterly Jet (AEJ) and the Tropical Easterly Jet (TEJ), and results in characteristic seasonal rainfall patterns across West Africa (Jung 2006). As the ITCZ moves north from the Equator, the first rains start to fall along the coastline of Ghana in March, and reach the Sahel region of Burkina Faso by April-May, with rains reaching a peak in June-July and August, respectively. From a maximum latitude of around 23N, the ITCZ then once again moves southwards, and creates a second peak of rainfall across many parts of Ghana (but more so in the South) in August-September (Rodgers et al. 2007, Andah et al no date, Jung 2006). At the northern (Burkina Faso's Sahel) and southern (the Ghanaian coastline) extremes of the Volta Basin, average estimated rainfall are 500 mm/yr and 1500 mm/yr, respectively (Barry et al. 2005, Oguntunde et al. 2006).In addition to being prone to inter-annual and inter-seasonal variability, historical rainfall records in sub-Saharan West African showed strong inter-decadal variability during the last century (Jung 2006, Nicholson et al. 2000), and analyses of historical phenomena associated with climate variability (such as droughts, floods, harvests, and hydrological indicators) indicate that such variability has been present across Africa for at least 2 centuries (Nicholson 2001). Analysis of the last century's pattern of rainfall indicates that differences in rainfall between \"dry\" and \"wet\" years may reach as much as 50% (Jung 2006). Within this variability, Nicholson et al. (2000) identified three distinguishable climatic periods between 1896 and 1990 (since when reliable meteorological records were first kept in West Africa):1896-1949 -an apparently random succession of dry periods, \"normal\" periods and wet periods; 1950-1969 -a series ofwet years, except for 1968; 1970-1990 -a series of overall dry or very dry years, except for three years. Since 1990, dry but less than 1970-90The current regional drought that has lasted over three decades has been analyzed by a variety of scientists (Lebarbe et al. 2002, Servant et al. 1998, Amani 2001, Nicholson 1993, 2001, Hulme et al. 2001, see also refs in Lemoalle 2007), and the 1980s were identified as the driest decade of the past century (Nicholson 1993). Though pointed to as a sign of local land-use change impacts on climates ever since the 1970's (Charney et al. 1977, Lamprey 1975, Opuku-Ankomah and Amisigo 1998), Nicholson (2000) and Brooks (2004), argue that this drought is not necessarily a sign of anthropogenic activities causing climate change (see also Lebel et al. 2000), noting that similar periods of drought are known to have taken place in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. Indeed, sea surface temperature is well-accepted as the primary determinant of the monsoon rains in West Africa (Nicholson 2000, Brooks 2004, Lamb 1978a, b, Druyan 1991, Vizy and Cook 2001, 2002), and a review of recent research by Brooks (2004) suggests that rather than land-use changing rainfall patterns, changes in landuse are primarily determined by shifts in the ITCZ. At lower scales, however, there is extensive evidence that local changes in land-use (by their impacts on vegetation cover, soil moisture, and albedo) may play significant roles in determining the persistence of rainfall regimes (Brooks 2004, Wang and Eltahir 2000, Walker and Rowntree 1977, Zheng and Eltahir 1997, Jung 2001, Nicholson 2000, Oguntunde et al. 2006). The removal of natural vegetative cover through intensified traditional agricultural practices such as slash-and-burn are also known to decrease the capacity of water to infiltrate the soil, promoting runoff, erosion, river siltation, and flash floods (GEF 2002, Gyau-Boakye 2000, Barry et al. 2005, Asante 2006).The complex interactions between different climatic influences means that predictions of climate change are necessarily to be taken with caution, and most climate change models are poor predictors of unpredictable non-linear climatic shifts (Brooks 2004). However, two studies (Jung 2006, Andah et al. no date) used simulations of global climate change trends to forecast their impacts on weather in the Volta basin over the course of the next half century (using disaggregated global climate change models). Primarily due to a 0.5-1C predicted rise in sea surface temperature, a small increase in rainfall is anticipated for four out of five simulations modelled (collectively, between the two studies), conclusions that are also supported by Maynard et al. (2002). Both studies also forecasted an increased inter-annual variability in rainfall. Jung's (2006) predictions also include:an increase in average temperature between 1°C (along the coast) and 1.5 °C (in the Sahel), particularly in Apr-May and Nov-Dec. although Hulme et al. (2001) predict that overall temperature change in Africa may be as high as 2-6 °C) a delay in onset and ending of rainy seasons between 3.5, and 9.6 days along the coast and in the Sahel, respectively a shift in the peak of the rainy season from July-Aug to Aug-Sept, producing a peak runoff shift from August to Aug-Sept an overall southward shift in the rainfall dipole pattern, making more of the Volta Basin dependent on a single rainy season (see also Thornton et al. 2002).Overall, the above studies indicate the probability of some increase in rainfall in the Volta basin, though the associated increased air temperatures will cause a significant proportion of increased rainfall to be lost to surface evaporation and plant transpiration. Based on analyses of historical river discharge and precipitation data, Andreini et al. (2000), Obeng-Aseidu (2004), and Andah et al. (no date) have shown a non-linear relationship between precipitation and river discharges in the Volta basin. This non-linear relationship suggests that even small increases in runoff should translate into disproportionately large positive changes on river discharges. Such models would predict a reversal of the declining runoff trends seen during the last half century (presented in the first report, also see Abe et al. 2004)..Of course, all predictions based on climate change and population growth models must be taken with extreme caution, and erring on the conservative side is recommended. Additionally, these predictions represent average outcomes across the Volta River basin and may therefore inform large-scale regional interventions, but should be used with extreme caution for any planning of interventions at local levels.As discussed in the first part of the report, the influence of water levels on biological productivity in lakes and reservoirs remains a subject of ongoing debate. Most authors, however, support the growing evidence in African reservoirs and lakes for the applicability of the \"flood-pulse\" concept where seasonal flooding is regarded as being a major driver of biotic productivity (Junk et al. 1989). Combined with predicted overall increased rainfall levels, an increase in the variability of rainfall in the early rainy season in less human-altered landscapes might therefore have a positive effect on the maintenance of highly heterogeneous landscapes and rich biodiversity (Allan 2005a). However, given the wide range of landscape types and uses in the Volta River basin, impacts are likely to differ based on local patterns of land-use, and where ecosystem and ecological community resilience is diminished by intensified land-use, increased variability in flow dynamics may instead be harmful to biodiversity.Such impacts are also likely to affect different fish species in different ways due to trophic interactions and habitat-requirements. For instance, the pressure on top piscivore predators from over fishing makes them particularly vulnerable to extinction due to habitat degradation and/or increased environmental fluctuations. At the same time, their demise may be a boon to (generally) smaller piscivorous fish or herbivores that consequently face less predation, and the overall catches of fishers may actually appear to increase in both species diversity and in biomass. Additionally, while some potamodromous species (fish that migrate to the headwaters of rivers to spawn) are likely to be some of the early losers in the face of large scale land-use change due to reproductive habitat constraints, some catfish that migrate horizontally (from the river course into nearby flooded forests and swamps) might benefit from conditions of increased water flow fluctuation. Regardless, any decrease in the complexity of aquatic food webs should be regarded as a loss to ecosystem resilience. As such an ecosystem becomes less able to adapt to new climatic or human-induced changes or to recover from sudden shocks (Welcomme et al. 2006, Allen 2005b).A similar line of reasoning is likely to be applicable in relation to the impact of the projected shift in peak rainy season on fish stocks; i.e., where aquatic ecosystems remain resilient, individual species should be able to adapt to a delayed rainy season. However, where a particular species faces pre-existing pressures (for example by water diversions for agriculture) and where repopulation by nearby populations is limited by the presence of dams, the potential for negative synergies between increased variability in the early season rains and a delay in the rainy season start may result in local extinctions of species.In terms of biological productivity, however, the likely increases in river flows combined with increasing intensification of land-use (for agriculture) is likely to result in increased nutrient-loading of streams, lakes and reservoirs. When combined with even small increases in water temperature (due to increased air temperature), a growth in primary production becomes highly likely. It remains highly unpredictable how existing fish species assemblages will react to such changes. This predictive limitation is reinforced due to an overall lack of scientific consensus regarding whether Volta Lake is meso-eutrophic or oligotrophic in terms of its nutrient richness (discussed in the first part of this report).Finally, the benefits from increased rainfall would also extend to inland communities through the creation of more wetlands throughout the landscape. Although they fall well-below the analytic gaze of national economic production statistics, fish catches from these smaller wetlands are frequently of particular nutritional importance for poorer agricultural households that are less able to purchase fish or other sources of protein (Sarpong et al. 2005, Savy et al. 2006, Gordon 1987). The increased variability of rainfall, however, is also likely to simultaneously increase interest in land-conversion of existing wetlands into farmland (see below).While future predictions of rainfall may possibly result in increased future fish harvests (at least in the short term), the success of fisherfolk to emerge from extreme poverty (as discussed above) depends greatly on their abilities to invest their profits in diversified livelihood activities and the affordability of dietary staples that many of the poorest fisherfolk are required to purchase. Jung (2006) expresses particular concern over the likely impacts on farming activities of the predicted delay in the onset of the rains combined with an increased inter-annual variability of rain during the early rainy season.For the small proportion of fisher-farmers who can afford to irrigate their (primarily cash) crops in times of water shortage, the decreased reliability of early rains may (further) improve their comparative livelihood advantage over those farmers who may be forced to delay planting. In addition to impacts on cash crops, however, similar risk-averse farming strategies are likely to decrease the production (and raise the prices) of staples during the time of the year when the more vulnerable fishing households will already have exhausted their food/cash reserves (Sarpong et al. 2005, Grimm and Gunther 2004, Gyau-Boakye 2000). The poorest fishers tend to have less staple reserves and experience their greatest shortages between February-May, after which the early rains bring some respite through the reproduction of fish stocks (Pittaluga et al. 2003a). Regardless, the cost of staples remains elevated until the first harvests in July-August, and any negative synergies between delayed rainfall and increased variability in rainfall may have catastrophic results for this segment of the population that lacks both access to farmland and ownership of fishing gears. It is during these months that increasing numbers of fisherfolk may be forced to make difficult choices between expenditures on food, health care, education, etc.Overall, one may expect increased uncertainty in rainfall during the early rainy season and the predicted southward shift of the rainfall bipole to result in overall negative long-term impacts on the productivity of the land through the effective shortening of the growing season. Due to the increased variability of rainfall, as they have done in past times of climate variability, fisher-farmer livelihoods are likely to become less diversified as they increasingly turn to activities such as fishing, both to cover year-toyear short-falls in order to purchase staples or pay for medical/educational expenses, and in order to earn capital for the increasingly necessary fertilizer and/or irrigation of agricultural plots (see above and GEF 2002, Gyau-Boakye, 2000).Finally, competition over access to land, which is typically defined by overlapping and competing claims whose legitimacy are mediated by traditional institutions (discussed above), has increasingly become a source of intra-and inter-sectoral conflict. While such conflicts between farmers and livestock owners have always been an issue, fisherfolk have also increasingly come into conflict with farmers seeking to cultivate seasonally-flooded portions of lakeshore and wetlands (Barry et al, 2005). Though poorly documented, conflicts between fishers and farmers over wetland use, as well as conflicts between fisher groups over the desirability of particular fishing methods and (to a lesser degree) access to fishing grounds, have close associations with allochthonous-autochthonous identities (SFLP 2001, Ofori-Danson 2005). Given any increased polarization of livelihood strategies amidst an overall increased livelihood vulnerability, it is likely that these various sources of conflicts will continue to grow. Though of lesser concern at present, the growing interest among the local population in the nascent cage-culture fish farming methods should be planned and monitored carefully in order to avoid the creation of additional conflicts following the introduction of restrictions to access of fishing grounds, and friction due to these new 'entrepreneurs' necessary protections of the product of their cages from being poached.Overall, climate trends, and their associated ecological and social impacts can be expected to have mostly negative impacts on the livelihoods of the poorest of the fisherfolk. While increased rainfall is likely to have a positive impact on the overall biological productivity of fish stocks (though not necessarily of the most \"desirable\"), and while human population growth will increase demand for fish, the increased rural vulnerability to climatic shocks and rising prices for staples may result in an overall higher threat for fisherfolk livelihoods. At the same time, population growth combined with increased climatic uncertainty is likely to lead to continued increasing pressure on arable land, and may hamper fisherfolk attempts to diversify livelihood strategies. Conflicts over access to fishery resources and the use of specific fishing methods can be expected to increase as well (particularly where allochtonous and autochtonous methods differ significantly). Overall, unless external agencies proactively target the socio-economic development of the lakeshore through the extension of services (particularly in extension, health, education, transportation and credit services) to these (largely neglected and isolated) populations, the limited data available appears to indicate that the resilience of the poorest fisherfolk subpopulations' (who also form the majority of fisherfolk) livelihoods to recover from normal climatic and economic variability and shocks will continue to be eroded.The original objective of this report was to address the following two questions:Are there any households amongst the poor and poorest living in the Volta Basin that are engaged in the fishery sector, and if so what is/are the reason(s) for their 'poverty'? Which solutions in relation to the water management and watery resources can be proposed to improve the livelihoods and living conditions of these poor fishing households in a durable way (horizon 2050)?The information available through the literature on the Volta basin allows a certain number of conclusions regarding the first of these two questions.The first and probably more important conclusion is that there is no systematic, nor clear relationship between fishery and poverty in the Volta Basin. The data shows that 'fishing households', regardless of whether the term includes simply full-time fisher families, or more broadly, households with one or several members partially or totally involved in some fish-related activities (fishing, fish processing or fish trading), are not necessarily the \"poorest of the poor\" in the basin. What the data also shows, however, is that fishing does not seem to be the way out of poverty either, at least for the largest part of the basin fishers. With perhaps the exception of one or two households who do have some fish-related activities -amongst a larger portfolio of diversified activities-and do remarkably well, fishers in general, are not within the top fraction of the well-off population.The second major conclusion that should be highlighted is that fish-dependent communities extend far beyond the boundaries of the small fishing camps from which a few dozen of full-time professional fishers operate. The general perception (unfortunately widespread amongst policy-makers and researchers in agricultural and/or water management sciences) that fishers are simply those 'over there' spending their entire life on a boat denotes a very poor understanding of the economy of households and communities living close to these water-bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers, seasonal ponds). Indeed, as was clearly illustrated by the case of Bagré reservoir where only a minority of households (mainly migrants) are engaged in full-time fishing, more than 70% of the entire local population around the reservoir and its vicinity are involved in fishing to some degree. Usually for those households, fishing -like dry season cultivation, small-scale irrigation of vegetables, or seasonal migration-is an extra opportunity that allows people to generate some marginal additional cash, making them less 'worth-off' than households only engaged in rainfed agriculture.What the analysis failed to show, though -due to the lack of quantitative data in the literature-, is that the contribution of this fishing as a complement to the main farming activity is worth much more than the market value of the few fish that these farmersfishers catch. Where household quantitative data are available, analysis shows the many different contributions that small-scale fisheries can play in terms of household nutritional security, maternal and young baby health, women's economic empowerment, and household income or livelihood security (see e.g. Béné 2004 andHeck et al. 2006 for reviews). In particular, by generating cash at critical periods of the farming calendar, the few fish sold on the local market allow farmers to reduce the seasonal effect of the 'soudure' 24 or even to purchase the input (fertilizer, labour, tools) that will be crucial for the success of next year entire crop.Another important element highlighted by the Volta Basin poverty analysis is the recognition of the mobility that characterize the life style of a large number of fisherfolk, and the co-existence in many of these fishing communities of local and migrant (or autochtonous versus allochtonous) 'fishers'. While this distinction autochtonous-allochtonous largely overlaps the full-time versus seasonal nature of the activity, this overlap is not complete, as some local fishers may also be full-time engaged in the sector. The distinction however is important as it plays a critical role in highlighting the exclusion or marginalization that often characterises the day-to-day life of a large number of migrant/allochtonous communities, thus potentially greatly impacting their overall well-being. Indeed, what the Volta Basin data confirmed is that a large part of the 'poverty' that affects fishing communities is not related to their level of income but rather to their social and/or political marginalization. This is true around the Volta Lake where it was observed that very few of the fishing villages have decent access to sanitation facilities, tap-water, school or formal credit facilities. This was also observed around Bagré reservoir, where even if access to these facilities is better (as Bagré reservoir is not as isolated as some part of the Volta Lake shoreline), the full-time migrant fishers are clearly marginalized by the rest of the local community.In line with the point above, the question of whether professional -and often, but not always-migrant fishers are better-off than fisher-farmers is another possible entry point to tackle the question of poverty in small-scale fishery communities. While some element in the Volta basin analysis suggests that full-time fishers can be 'richer' than fisher-farmers -as seems to be the case for the successful winch-net boat ownersthus confirming the widely accepted view that full-time 'professional' fishers are more efficient and thus likely to be better-off than seasonal farmers-fishers (see e.g. Morand et al. 2005), it seems that in many other occasions full-time fishers are just barely able to maintain themselves above the poverty line. Hence, on the same water body where some very successful full-time fishers operate, other subgroups of fulltime fishers appear to belong to the poorest of the poor in the communities, just earning enough to feed their family with great difficulty. Trying to classify, or to explain, success (or failure) of fishers based on their 'full-time' or 'seasonal' status does not, therefore, provide a satisfactory framework to improve our understanding of the cause or origin of poverty in small-scale fisheries. It does however highlight a factor that seems to be at the center of the process of poverty prevention 25 in rural communities. This factor is diversification.A growing literature in fishery sciences highlights the importance of 'alternative livelihoods' and diversification as key elements in the general equation on poverty in small-scale fishing communities. Both theoretical and empirical foundations for livelihood diversification as a major strategy for risk management and poverty prevention have also been largely documented in agriculture and farming system literature (Reardon et al. 1992, Ellis 1998, 2000, FAO 2002). Data from the Volta basin confirms this. The ability to diversify their sources of income and types of economic activity seems to be a key factor in determining local communities' poverty status. On the shore of Volta Lake for instance, those who depend solely on fishing are to be found predominantly in the very poor group. Similarly, as mentioned earlier, the full-time fishers of the Bagré reservoir seem also to be amongst the poor of their community. This 'destitution', however, is not specific to fishers, as 'full-time' sharecropping farmers are also amongst the most destitute households of the Volta Lake communities. In other words, these fishers are not poor because they are fishers, but because (like those share-croppers) they lack the opportunity to diversify their activity -thus making them highly vulnerable to any shock that may affect their unique activity: bad weather, loss or destruction of fishing gear, fluctuation of the stock, etc. This finding highlights the importance of the other dimension of poverty pointed out by the PEV framework, that is, vulnerability, and raises the interesting question of whether small-scale full-time fishers are mainly chronically poor due their low productivity or mainly vulnerable to poverty due to their dependence on one single economic activity. Much more research will have to be conducted before a clearer understanding of this issue is achieved.Identifying the potential factors that contribute to the economic success of small-scale fishers also raises the question of the role of productivity in small-scale fisheries and the potential links that exist between fisheries productivity and poverty. While there is no doubt that in the long run, households who are able to acquire more efficient fishing gear are more likely to increase their catch, it would be misleading to assume a direct, causal, relationship between the use of efficient fishing gear or techniques (e.g. winch-net and boats, or acadja) and the success of specific groups or individual households. Indeed, ownership of those more efficient fishing gear is probably more the consequence, or the symptom of success, than it is its cause. Explaining economic success of fishers merely by their acquisition of more efficient fishing gear misses the original step that had made these fishers able to purchase these more efficient fishing gears in the first place. This critical first step is essentially related to the levels of financial capital of the family/household to which the fishers belongs, that in turn results from a combination of different but correlated factors such as social network, overall family endowment, savings, and education. All of these factors, however, are closely linked to a certain level of trans-generational wealth -if your family is wealthy you are more likely to be able to become a 'rich' fisher-highlighting the relevance of the definition of chronic poverty as recently proposed by some scholars (Green and Hulme 2005).On the other hand, within the time-scale of a generation, access to financial credit is probably one of the most limiting factors that determine whether or not poor people will be able to lift themselves out of poverty. If one can access credit, one is more likely to be able to seize the opportunity to invest, for instance in the case of fisher, in adequate fishing equipment. Unfortunately, as illustrated by the Volta basin data, a large number of rural fishing communities along the shores of the Volta Lake or in many other rural areas have still very poor or no access to formal credit facilities, exposing these fishers to potentially exploitive 'deals' with informal local creditors, or simply making them unable to reach the minimal investment level that would pull them out of the low productivity level in which they stagnate. To some extent the poverty trap as understood and described in conventional agricultural economics (e.g. Devereux 2001, Sachs 2003) is therefore applicable to small-scale fisheries. But the root cause is not the low productivity of these fishers, the root cause is an acute economic and institutional marginalization of the fishing communities that does not allow them to access economic institutions (credit markets) or makes this access too costly transactionally or economically for the poorest, thus excluding them from the productive part of the fishery. Here again the examples of Bagré and Volta Lake where only a minority (the better-off) are able to engage with formal credit institutions (rural banks) is a good illustration of a situation which, in fact, affects the majority of small-scale fishers in the Volta Basin and certainly in a large number of countries across the developing world.The last few lines of the above paragraph suggests that enabling fishers to increase their productivity is indeed an important factor for poverty reduction, as it is in agriculture in general. And the example -once again-of the winch-net boat owners of Volta Lake does confirm this point. But the fact that those winch-boats owners represent only 1.2% of the total estimated fishing population reminds us that fisheries share with other common pool resources some characteristics that differentiate them fundamentally from agriculture: they are based on finite resource-bases (Bailey and Jentoft 1990). As such, they sit very uncomfortably in the new 'water-productivity' discourse that drives a large part of the current agricultural research. One cannot simply advocate for a new 'blue revolution' in small-scale fisheries similar to the 'green revolution' that lifted millions of Asian small-scale farmers out of poverty 26 . In fact as pointed out earlier in this discussion, poverty reduction in small-scale fishing community is only very loosely related to direct increase in fisheries (or water) productivity per se 27 . In reality, most of the potential for major progress in poverty reduction in fishing communities is related to other factors, outside the conventional productivist domain. In particular, it was extremely illustrative to observe that in both Volta Lake and Bagré reservoir's fishing communities, the first source of crisis that was identified by the respondents was not the lack of fish (as conventional fishery managers would have predicted) but… health issues.To pre-empt the recommendation section below, this last result suggests some fundamental shift in the way fisheries managers, donors and researchers conceive poverty interventions in small-scale fisheries. For fisheries managers and donors it means that there is a need to recognize that interventions aimed at improving access to health facilities, and more generally, access to public services and institutions (transport, education, water, electricity, financial credit) may have deeper impacts on the livelihoods of fishing communities than interventions aiming at improving fishery productivity. For fisheries researchers, it means that there is an urgent need to document and analyze the current policy processes with the ambition to improve our understanding of how policy and governance mechanisms could support and trigger these institutional changes. This research would, however, have also to integrate the new, increasingly challenging, context in which fisheries operate -an environment where central governments are disengaging from their role of provider of public goods; extension and national research agencies are facing drastic reduction in their budgets, thus becoming more and more limited in their capacities to assume effectively their share in monitoring and managing the fisheries; and targeted communities (the fisherfolk) are largely marginalized in the water and agricultural/rural planning processes.Finally, our last concluding comment concerns the main outcomes of the trend analysis and the ways these outcomes are expected to impact fishing communities in the next three to four decades. Currently, fishing communities are facing some increasing challenges. Water availability (through rainfall) has been globally decreasing over the whole Volta basin, reflecting the drought that has affected West Africa and the Sahelian Belt in general since the 1970s. At the same time population is growing, leading to increasing pressure on, and growing demand for, natural resources. In particular, common pool resources are being eroded in most parts of the basin, with direct and indirect implications for fisheries. Direct implications, as the local and urban demand for fish is likely to increase further and the number of unskilled young men who turn to the fishery as a source of income will continue to increase, due to the difficulty for this labour force to find employment in other sectors; and indirect implications, as the continuous erosion of other CPRs (forest, rangeland) will lead a greater number of poor households to turn to on the fisheries to compensate for the loss of these other CPRs.Paradoxically, the analysis of the climate change scenarios suggests that some of these trends may reverse in the future. In particular, rainfall may possibly increase in the region, which could overturn the negative trend that has been affecting water availability in the recent decades. This increase in overall rainfall is however predicted to be accompanied by an increase in the variability / unreliability of the rainfall pattern. The overall effects of these changes for fisheries are difficult to predict especially at the local level. While water-bodies across the basin may see their natural productivity increase due to greater amplitude in intra and inter-annual water level fluctuations, the higher unpredictability in the rainfall pattern will certainly also increase the vulnerability of the poorest portion of the farmer communities, in particular those who do not have access to irrigation, leading them to turn to fisheries as a safety net.Based on the above conclusions, a series of suggestions can be made on what to do (or not to do to do) to improve the livelihoods and living conditions of the poor fisherfolk of the Volta Basin.The data has shown that the general level of poverty of the population within the Volta basin is very high and the geographical and economic isolation acute (in particular for some part of the Volta Lake). For most of the households, both farming and fishing activities are characterised by extremely low productivity levels. In addition, institutional and financial constraints (e.g. lack of access to credit, high transaction costs due to frictional distance 28 to markets) have eroded further the potential margin of profit of the producers, hindering investment and adoption of more efficient techniques. This creates a vicious cycle of low productivity ⇒ low profit ⇒ low investment ⇒ lower productivity, eventually forcing the less successful households to fall into a classic poverty trap. At present, these extremely low-income groups have very little, if any, flexibility, to reduce their fishing effort. In this context, trying to impose fishing regulations in an attempt to address the reported overexploitation of the resources would in reality affect only negatively the already very fragile economic activity of these households and potentially run against the initial poverty reduction objective of the intervention 29 .28 Frictional distance = time × distance 29 Not withstanding the fact that such intervention would have very little chance of success as the local population would show very low level of compliance.BFP-Volta Lake livelihood and poverty assessment 55/67Is 'increase in water productivity' a viable option to improve the livelihoods of the poorest amongst fishing communities in the Volta Basin? The answer is Yes but only if \"water productivity\" is not interpreted in its agricultural, conventional (productivist) dimension and does not in particular promote technological and/or capital intensification of the fisheries. Instead, the ways to increase water (or fisheries) productivity in a pro-poor manner in the Volta Basin lies essentially with four types of interventions:community-based stock enhancement in small and medium reservoirs improved post-harvest management, diversification and marketing improved access to financial credit for the poorest non-farm livelihood diversificationExperts agree that the largest potential for increasing inland capture fisheries in Africa lies in the enhancement and culture-based techniques (stocking) of reservoirs and natural lakes (Brummett 2006, Kolding and van Zwieten 2006, Sugunan et al. 2007).In effect, when compared to Asia, most of the reservoirs in Africa seem to be 'underfished' and well below their maximum productivity potential (Duncan 1999)  30 . This suggests untapped possibilities of increased production through more effective management, stock enhancement, or even species introduction. In that respect, empirical experience shows that small and medium reservoirs are potentially the most promising water-bodies for enhancement techniques. The Volta basin, due to the presence of several hundreds of these small and medium reservoirs (essentially irrigation reservoirs in the northern part of the basin), can largely contribute to this development option. Recognizing this initial potential, a German Cooperation (GTZ) project had been implemented from 1988 until 2002 in Burkina Faso. Similar experiences have then been reiterated more recently in Burkina Faso and Niger through the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihood Programme (SFLP 2005). All these different projects generated some success and many lessons to draw upon.A series of caveats of course applies. To fully unleash this apparent potential and make it socially beneficial, any interventions of this type would have to be rooted in community-based approaches where the socio-economic and institutional context of the communities in which these enhancement activities take place is taken into account. Experience has shown that the changes induced by the introduction of new species or the productivity increase following the adoption of enhancement techniques may not only affect the ecological dynamics of the water-bodies, but also alter the socio-institutional arrangements that link the different actors involved in the enhanced fishery activities (Ahmad et al. 1998, Apu andMiddendrop 1998). Mechanisms such as enclosure (i.e. privatization of the common property resources), social exclusion of one part of the community -usually the poorest-, re-appropriation by the more powerful, local, elite may annul partially or even totally the potential benefits generated by an adopted enhancement program (Ali andIslam 1998 Capistrano et al. 1994). The socio-institutional changes induced by these improved productivity activities need therefore to be anticipated, assessed and carefully managed.The few estimates available in sub-Sahara Africa suggest that the post-harvest losses in small-scale inland fisheries is on average 30%, (probably amongst the highest rate in the world), due essentially to the general lack of infrastructure that affects the fishery sector and also, more broadly, the remote areas where those fisheries are operating. As the data in this report showed, there is no reason to believe that the situation is any better in the Volta Basin 31 . In other words, it is probably correct to claim that the overall economic value (and therefore the economic water productivity) of the Volta basin fisheries could be increased by 30% through adequate, targeted investments aiming at reducing the institutional, technical and financial constraints that affect fish processing and marketing. These could target different stages of the marketing chain (including e.g., processing, transport, storage, micro-finance for wholesale and retail trade -see next point) thus \"spreading\" the benefits to a wide group of stakeholders. Indeed, the market system (value chain) is a critical determinant of how value added -and thus revenues and benefits-can be created and distributed along the chain.Of particular importance for our pro-poor consideration is the fact that a large majority of the actors involved in fish processing and fish trading in the Basin are women -often, but not systematically-wife or relative of fishers. Any intervention in the post-harvest sector would therefore have instantaneous effects on the economic empowerment of these women but also important indirect trickle-down effects on the fishing community as a whole through their roles of wives, mothers, or credit providers.Note finally that the caloric and nutritional benefit would be even higher than the economic gain as investments in post-harvest activities would not only reduce the losses but also improve the overall nutritional quality of the existing production to the benefit of the direct producers but also the urban consumers.The third leg of this \"water productivity\" approach lies with the critical issue of access to (micro) credit. We recall that the issue -the lack of access to formal credit facilities and loans-affects more severely the poorest fishers or fish processors/traders who usually lack the social, economic and financial 'backing' to satisfy the guarantee requirements (collateral) imposed by the formal institutions. Adding to these institutional and economic constraints is the geographical isolation (frictional distance) that separates a large number of fishing communities from the -mainly urban-based-financial institutions, making the actual contact between these two parties extremely difficult. Faced with no possibility to invest in a new fishing gear to replace the old ones, or to purchase larger amount of fish to reach the minimum 31 Although field observations indicate that some efforts have been devoted to avoid losses in some of the villages along the Lake's shores (smoking, drying, salting workshops).economically viable threshold, these individuals (fishers, fish processors, fish traders) are condemned to stagnate in low productivity activities.To reverse this situation, interventions are needed that improve the access to microcredit and loan facilities for these categories of small-scale entrepreneurs. The most appropriate solution for each community is likely to reflect the local-specificities of the existing constraints, but it is expected that those interventions should focus primarily on the formal financial system (banks, micro-credit institutions) and also systematically explore the many various possibilities offered by the informal system (self-help organizations, women tontine, local NGO program, existing fish-trader fisher arrangements, etc.).Farm or non-farm options?Based on the analysis presented earlier it seems natural to propose livelihood diversification as an important opportunity for improving the well-being and economic situation of the fishing communities in the Volta Basin. One or two caveats however are worth noting. First, livelihood diversification has been the object of important research in agricultural economics for many years (see Ellis 1998 for a review) and it is interesting to notice that fishing is recurrently proposed as a potential diversification option for farmers. 'Symmetrically', farming is often presented as a way to diversify livelihoods for fishers! Clearly the long-term solution (for both farmers and fishers who wish to diversify their livelihood-basis) is outside these two sectors, in what is conventionally called the non-farm activities.Promoting diversification through non-farm activities is the appropriate strategy and the importance of these non-farming activities has been re-emphasized recently in the agricultural literature (Reardon et al. 1992, Hazell and Haggblade 1993, Davis et al. 2002, Ellis 2006). The question however is: how does one promote non-farm activities in remote areas where few other economic activities other than subsistence farming or fishing currently exist? Not an easy question. Developing successfully proactive strategies that favour viable livelihood diversification in remote rural areas is in fact a major challenge which very few developing countries or regions have managed to tackle. It requires in-depth changes at various 'layers' of the economic and institutional matrix of the whole region/country and is likely to take place over a longer-term horizon.On a shorter, and perhaps more 'accessible' scale, aquaculture, and in particular small-scale aquaculture, has also been more and more frequently presented as a potential avenue for fishers' (and farmers'!) livelihood diversification. Integrated Agriculture Aquaculture (IAA) for instance that relies on the potential synergies between small-scale aquaculture activities and farming systems is often presented as one promising avenue for rural development (SCS-CGIAR 2006). However, IAA, and more generally, land-based aquaculture, requires land ownership -a constraint which is likely to exclude the poorest and/or the fishers who rarely own their own plot of land-and access to water -a condition that may become Cage-culture (water-based aquaculture) could be a potential solution to overcoming this land ownership constraint around large water bodies, and experiments of small-scale cage culture are currently (2007) being implemented on the Volta Lake as part of the CPWF programme (CP-PN 34). Preliminary results suggest however that, despite the huge fascination that cage-cultures generate in the local community where these experiments are being conducted, the initial investment necessary to start up this activity is often out of reach for the poorest households. Experience from South and South-East Asia also teach us that the development of these small-scale cages -where successful-becomes rapidly anarchic (in particular in absence of a management agency able to monitor and regulate their development) and can generate over the period of only a few years tremendous negative impacts on the environment but also on the local community's social and economic cohesion (e.g. Pattanaik 2007).In short, more research on these issues is needed to determine more precisely the economic and institutional conditions under which this potentially very powerful engine of rural development can become a real and sustainable solution for livelihood diversification in inland fishing communities.The first part of this report (WorldFish 2007), but also the third section of the current document, have shown that river and reservoir fisheries of the Volta Basin are highly vulnerable as they are now facing growing competition for water from other sectors, especially irrigated agriculture and hydropower. As demand grows for the basin's water resources, those who depend on these fisheries need a voice in decisions on water allocation and river basin management. At present, these fisheries -and more generally small-scale inland fisheries in developing countries-are remarkably absent from the water productivity debate (Dugan 2005, Sugunan et al. 2007). In particular very little is known about how decisions dealing with changes in water allocation and management affect the socioeconomic and livelihood value of these fisheries. This situation partly arises from an absence of appropriate policy mechanisms, which results in the institutional and political marginalization of local fishing populations. More fundamentally, this reflects the frequent lack of quality information on the full value of inland fisheries and their contribution to national and regional economies.There is therefore an urgent need for those supporting small-scale fisheries in the Volta basin to engage in policy process in other sectors such as environment, agriculture or in more cross-sectoral initiatives such as National Poverty Reduction Planning. For this, better communication strategies to improve the ways the information related to small-scale fisheries and their contribution to poverty alleviation, rural development and food security will be essential.","tokenCount":"22069"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cb06a73955a43f94cc7debfe48e1e268","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/579a1b10-cccc-4c65-85d2-3a6c441aea79/content","id":"1860532199"},"keywords":["fuelwood","homegarden","landscape mosaic","livestock","nontimber forest products","nutrition","nutrition-sensitive agriculture"],"sieverID":"4e88979e-03c0-43f1-b589-55d86acea2eb","pagecount":"23","content":"We assess whether forests contribute indirectly to the dietary diversity of rural households by supporting diverse agricultural production systems. We applied our study in a landscape mosaic in Southern Ethiopia that was divided into three zones of increasing distance to Munesa Forest-\"near,\" \"intermediate,\" and \"distant.\" A variety of research tools and methods, including remote sensing, participatory methods, farm survey, and yield assessment, were employed. Diets of households were more diverse in the near zone than in the other two zones (6.58 ± 1.21, 5.38 ± 1.02, and 4.41 ± 0.77 food groups consumed daily in the near, intermediate, and distant zones, respectively). This difference was not explained by food items collected from Munesa Forest but by biomass flows from the forest to farmlands. Munesa Forest contributed an average of 6.13 ± 2.90 tons of biomass per farm and per year to the farms in the near zone, in the form of feed and fuelwood. Feed from the forest allowed for larger livestock herds in the near zone compared with the other two zones, and fuelwood from the forest reduced the need to use cattle dung as fuel in the near zone compared with the two other zones. These two biomass flows contributed to the availability of more manure to farmers closer to the forest (908 ± 853 kg farm -1 , 771 ± 717 kg farm -1 , and 261 ± 487 kg farm -1 in the near, intermediate, and distant zones, respectively). In turn, increased manure enabled a larger percentage of farms to cultivate a diversified homegarden (87, 64, and 39% of farms in the near, intermediate, and distant zones, respectively). Homegardens and livestock products provided the greater contribution to household dietary diversity closer to the forest.Since the Green Revolution, the global number of undernourished people-i.e., those not consuming sufficient calories-has declined (Gómez et al. 2013). Although there are still an estimated 800 million people suffering from caloric undernutrition, many more people today suffer from \"hidden hunger\" or a lack of vitamins and minerals (IFPRI 2014). As such, an estimated two billion people are currently affected by micronutrient deficiencies (Muthayya et al. 2013, IFPRI 2014). Micronutrient adequacy is strongly associated with dietary diversity (Foote et al. 2004, Steyn et al. 2006). The contribution of agriculture to the dietary diversity of rural people, through food production pathways (Jones et al. 2014) and income pathways (Sibhatu et al. 2015), is relatively well understood. Several recent case studies from around the world have also found a positive association between proximity to forests and dietary diversity (Dounias and Froment 2006, Powell et al. 2011, Johnson et al. 2013, Ickowitz et al. 2014). For example, using data from 21 African countries on children's diets (from USAID's Demographic Health Surveys) and tree cover (from MODIS data), Ickowitz et al. (2014) found that children in Africa who lived in areas with more tree cover had more diverse and nutritious diets.With forests disappearing at an alarming rate in the tropics (Gibbs et al. 2010), better understanding of their overall contribution to the dietary diversity of rural people living in their vicinity is increasingly important. However, research on the relationship between forest cover and dietary diversity remains somewhat limited. Forests contribute directly to diets of people through the provisioning of a diversity of wild forest-sourced foods, such as mushrooms, berries, bushmeat, and fruits-Pathway 1 (Hladik et al. 1990, Fa et al. 2003, Vinceti et al. 2008, Nasi et al. 2011, Termote et al. 2011). In addition, access to fuelwood can facilitate the cooking process of a range of food items, such as legumes, which, on average, require a long cooking time-Pathway 2 (Remans et al. 2011). The collection and sale of nontimber forest products (i.e., any wild biological resource-animal or plant-harvested from forested lands by rural households for domestic consumption or small-scale trade, with no, or limited, capital investment) (Shackleton et al. 2007) also contribute to people's income-Pathway 3 (Williams 1998, Beck and Nesmith 2001, Kaschula et al. 2005, Pfund et al. 2011)-which, in turn, may contribute to better economic access to a diversity of food items that are available in markets. Access to nontimber forest products is critical for poverty alleviation and mitigation because it allows the poorest and most vulnerable rural households to use these free resources to meet their daily needs for energy, shelter, food, and medicine, and to save their scarce cash resources to meet other needs or accumulate assets for more secure livelihoods (Shackleton andShackleton 2004, Shackleton et al. 2007). Nontimber forest products also provide rural households with a safety net-Pathway 4-in times of crises; e.g., drought, illness, or other external shocks (Shackleton and Shackleton 2004, Shackleton et al. 2007, Arnold et al. 2011). Forest may be the most profitable land use for degraded land, complementing income from crop and livestock production on more favorable parts of the landscape (Jagger and Pender 2003).Forests may also contribute to dietary diversity of rural people through a fifth pathway, by supporting diverse agricultural production. In African smallholder farming systems characterized by low fertilizer use, trees are important to maintain soil fertility, which supports the productivity of food crops (Sanchez et al. 1997, Foli et al. 2014). Biodiversity-rich forests also supply numerous ecosystem services, including pollination and pest control (Pimentel et al. 1997, Reed et al. 2017). Using the case study of a landscape of Southern Ethiopia that is characterized by a gradient of increasing distance from a natural forest (Munesa Forest) and decreasing distance from a main road and market (town of Arsi Negele), we tested the existence of this fifth pathway. This area was selected because forest food was seldom consumed, and the sale of nontimber forest products is rare (the sale of forest fuelwood, for example, is prohibited); i.e., forests did not make a significant contribution to dietary diversity through the four other pathways described.The study was conducted in the Woreda (district) of Arsi-Negele, located in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. The study area (Fig. 1) covers approximately 100 km 2 between 38°42.14 ' and 38°49.92' East and 7°15.05' and 7°22.57' North; it also borders the state forest of Munesa, and encompasses parts of three kebeles (subdistricts): Ashooka, Bombaso Regi, and Gambelto, in which a total of six villages were studied (Duriaux and Baudron 2016). The study area is located between 2050 and 2214 m above sea level. Its climate is subhumid and is characterized by a mean annual rainfall of 1075 mm per year (18 years average) and a mean annual temperature of 15°C (16 years average). Three seasons are clearly defined: a short rainy season from March to May, a long rainy season from July to September, and a dry season from October to February (winter). The natural vegetation is classified as dry Afromontane forest (Tesfaye 2007). Inhabitants belong to the Oromo ethnic group and are almost exclusively of Islamic faith. Until the land reform that took place during the first years of the Marxist-Leninist regime (from 1974 to 1991), the landscape was largely forested and people were mainly pastoralists. The land was owned by nonresident landlords who seldom used the land itself. Resident tenants were only allowed to cultivate very small fields. Today, the study area outside Munesa Forest has been largely deforested. Mixed crop-livestock farming is the main economic activity. Wheat (Triticum sp. L.), maize (Zea mays L.), and potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) are the main crops, followed by enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) and faba bean (Vicia faba L.). Most farmers keep livestock, such as cattle, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, and chickens.The Sida Malkatuka village and Dikitu Shirke village (in Ashooka kebele) border the state forest of Munesa (Fig. 1), and their residents have access to it for grazing and collection of fuelwood (Duriaux and Baudron 2016). These villages form a zone that we refer to as \"near.\" Gogorri Lako Toko village (in Ashooka kebele) and Kararu Lakobsa Lama village (in Bombaso Regi kebele) are located about 3 km away from Munesa Forest (Fig. 1) and do not have access to it. They do have access to a large communal grazing area for livestock grazing and fuelwood collection (Duriaux and Baudron 2016). These villages form a zone that we refer to as \"intermediate.\" Shodna village and Belamu village (in Gambelto kebele) are located about 7 km away from Munesa Forest (Fig.  c) scores (number of days during a week a household consumes a particular food group) for 11 food groups in the three zones of the study area (near, intermediate, and distant to Munesa Forest). Bars represent standard deviations. χ 2 and P values are given for Kruskal-Wallis tests (comparison of medians). For a given food group, the presence of a star indicates statistically significant differences in the medians of the three zones. (HDDS: household diet diversity score; Cereals: cereals, grains, and cereal products; Roots: roots and tubers; Animal prod: meat and animal products; Milk prod: milk and milk products; Sugar prod: sugar, sugar products, and honey; Spices: spices and condiments; Snack: snack and processed foods). 1). They do not have access to the forest or to any other common land for livestock grazing and fuelwood collection (Duriaux and Baudron 2016). These villages form a zone that we refer to as \"distant.\" The near, intermediate, and distant zones are located about 16, 11.5, and 6.5 km away from the main market of Arsi Negele town, respectively (Fig. 1).Between December 2014 and February 2015, the head of each household in the study area-266 households in total (88 in the near zone, 97 in the intermediate zone, and 81 in the distant zone) -was interviewed using a standardized questionnaire that addressed household composition, dietary diversity, food security, crop and livestock management, and forest use. Questionnaires were administered only when consent was granted verbally. To asses dietary diversity, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' household diet diversity tool (Kennedy et al. 2010) was adapted to capture the frequency of consumption of 11 food groups (Fig. 2c) in the household during the seven days that preceded the survey. Food security was determined based on the number of months for which households reported to have adequate food provisioning (Bilinsky and Swindale 2007). The location (including elevation) of each interviewed household was recorded using a handheld global positioning system (GPS) Garmin Etrek 10.Between May and September 2015, tree cover in the three zones was estimated by counting and measuring the diameter at breast height ([DBH] 135 cm from ground level) of all trees with a DBH > 10 cm that were located within a radius of 50 m from 24 sampling points per zone. Sampling points were selected by overlaying 150m grids on the map of the zone and randomly selecting 24 points.To describe farm heterogeneity, a self-categorization exercise was conducted in each zone, each with a group of 50-60 community members who were representative of the diversity of community members in the kebele (in terms of gender, age, and wealth). Based on the criteria from these self-categorization exercises, three farm types were identified: crop-oriented farms (more than 1 ha of farmland and less than four adult cattle per hectare of farmland), livestock-oriented farms (at least four adult cattle per hectare of farmland), and resource-poor farms (1 ha of farmland or less, Table 1. Summary of the main variables assessed, their units, the methods of assessment, and the size of the samples (N). and less than four adult cattle per hectare of farmland). A stratified subsample of nine farms was selected in each zone (27 farms in total) for detailed characterization. For each selected farm, the detailed characterization produced three main outputs: a resource flow map, resource use calendars, and a timeline (Geifus 2008, Giller et al. 2011). In addition, the area of each field was measured using a handheld GPS Garmin Etrek 10.Empirical measurements were collected in nine of the 27 farms (one farm per type and per zone, selected randomly): daily fuel consumption (once in March 2015 and once in August 2015), and milk production over a period of seven days (once in March 2015 and once in September 2015).Current land use was calculated from classified RapidEye imagery. Four tiles of RapidEye 3A imagery (5-m resolution) taken in January 2015 were used to classify the landscape into croplands and bare soil, enset homegardens, grassland, natural forest and tree cover, tree plantations, and woodlots. A combination of object-based and maximum likelihood supervised classification was performed to distinguish between these classes. Training sites were verified using a combination of high-resolution imagery from Google Earth and ground verification via onsite fieldwork. Furthermore, enset homegarden patches were digitized using high-resolution imagery from Google Earth. The minimum mapping unit was set at the size of the smallest spatial resolution (5 m x 5 m). Distances between each farming household and Munesa Forest, the nearest forest patch of at least 0.5 ha, the nearest forest patch of at least 0.25 ha, the nearest grassland patch of at least 0.5 ha, the nearest grassland patch of at least 0.25 ha, and the nearest road were then calculated. For this, the nearest Euclidean distance to these features-selected via query-was calculated and extracted for each farming household point. Table 1 summarizes the main variables assessed and the methods of assessment.Ecology and Society 22(2): 28 https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss2/art28/For each household, the household diet diversity score was calculated as the mean number of food groups [0-11] consumed daily during a week of recall (Kennedy et al. 2010). Food security was calculated as the number of months for which households reported to have adequate food provisioning (Bilinsky and Swindale 2007). Tree cover was estimated for each tree count point by the basal area, calculated by dividing the sum of the section area of all trees (at breast height) by the total surface area. Yields were calculated by dividing the quantity of grain, tuber, or fresh product harvested (as recalled by farmers during the household interview) by the area of the corresponding field (as measured using a GPS) and multiplying it by the estimated dry matter content of the product harvested, using standard values from Feedipedia and USDA web databases (http://www.feedipedia. org/; https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search). To compare livestock density in the different zones and farms, the livestock numbers reported in the survey were converted into tropical livestock units (TLU), using a value of 250 kg live weight for one TLU (Houérou and Hoste 1977). Following the method of Gryseels (1988), oxen and bulls were assumed to be equivalent to 1.1 TLU, cows to 0.8 TLU, steers and heifers to 0.5 TLU, calves to 0.2 TLU, sheep and goats to 0.09 TLU, horses to 0.7 TLU, and donkeys to 0.36 TLU. Milk production was estimated from farmer recall, and was compared with empirical measurements. Meat production was estimated from recalled annual animal sales and animal slaughtering (for self-consumption). For crop and livestock products, conversion to energy content was undertaken using standard values from Feedipedia and USDA web databases (http://www.feedipedia.org/; https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search).Quantitative data were tested for normal distribution using Shapiro-Wilk normality tests. When testing for differences between zones, Fisher tests were used to compare means of quantitative data, and Kruskal-Wallis (nonparametric) tests were used for medians. For the qualitative data, proportions were compared using Chi-square tests. Correlations between quantitative variables were tested using Kendall's tau coefficient, and logit models were used to test correlations between quantitative and qualitative variables.Generalized linear models were used to assess the source of variability in food security, dietary diversity, frequency of consumption of the 11 food groups, presence of a homegarden in the farm, and crop diversity in homegardens (for the subset of farms that owned a homegarden). A logit distribution was used when presence of a homegarden in the farm was used as a response variable, and a Gamma distribution was used when all other variables were used as response variables. Model 1 aimed at testing the effect of farm location (e.g., zone), when controlling for demographic variables (e.g., family size) and structural variables (e.g., farm area). Model 2 aimed at testing the effect of functional variables (e.g., livestock ownership) when controlling for demographic variables and structural variables. Models were constructed as follows: where Y ijklmn represents food security, dietary diversity, frequency of consumption of food groups, presence or absence of homegarden, or crop diversity of homegarden; ZN i is the i th zone (near, intermediate, or distant); EL is the elevation; DF0.5 is the distance to the nearest patch of forest of at least 0.5 ha; DF0.25 is the distance to the nearest patch of forest of at least 0.25 ha; DG0.5 is the distance to the nearest patch of grassland of at least 0.5 ha; DG0.25 is the distance to the nearest patch of grassland of at least 0.25 ha; DR is the distance to the nearest road; SX j is the j th sex of the head of the household, AG is the age of the head of the household; FS is the family size of the household; ED k is the k th level of education of the head of the household (presence or absence); TE l is the l th level of tertiary education of the head of the household (presence or absence); RE m is the m th level of remittances received by the household (presence or absence); PW n is the n th level of paid work of the head of the household (presence or absence); YC is the year the land was cleared; YS is the year farming started; FA is the farm area; HG i is the i th level of homegarden presence on the farm (presence or absence); CA is cattle ownership (in TLU); SG is sheep and goats ownership (in TLU); EQ is equine ownership (in TLU); BH is the number of beehives owned; CH is the number of chicken owned; and R is the residual; α, β, γ, θ, ι, λ, μ, ξ, ο, π, ρ, and ς represent fixed effects values. A probability of 0.05 was used to test the significance of each factor. In each model, factors that had a t value less than 0.1 were removed. Two-way interactions between the factor \"zone\" and other factors on which \"zone\" had a significant influence were added in Model 1. Similarly, two-way interactions between the factor \"homegarden\" and other factors on which \"homegarden\" had a significant influence were added in Model 2. All analyses were conducted using R software (version 2.14.1, Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2011).Tree cover-as assessed by the mean basal area-decreased with increasing distance from Munesa Forest: 5.11 ± 4.21, 2.13 ± 1.69, and 0.63 ± 0.87 m 2 ha -1 in the near, intermediate, and distant zones, respectively (χ 2 = 34.535, P < 0.0001). Farm elevation-as measured by handheld GPS-decreased with increasing distance from Munesa Forest (Table 2). From the remote sensing analysis, distance to a patch of forest (excluding Munesa Forest), whether small (minimum area of 0.25 ha) or large (minimum size of 0.5 ha), increased with increasing distance from Munesa Forest (Table 2). Farms in the intermediary zone were closer to small (minimum area of 0.25 ha) and large (minimum size of 0.5 ha) patches of grassland compared with farms in the two other zones (Table 2). Conversely, farms in the near zone were closer to a road than farms in the two other zones (Table 2).The analysis of the demographic data collected through household survey revealed that the age of the head of the household, the year the household started farming, the percentage of female-headed households, the percentage of households with a metal roof (proxy of wealth), and the proportion of households involved in paid work did not differ significantly between the three zones (Table 2). Conversely, family size tended to decrease with increasing distance from Munesa Forest, while the percentage of household heads having received education (any form of education, or tertiary education) and the percentage of households receiving remittances were lower in the distant zone compared with the two other zones (Table 2).Characteristics of farms and farming systems that were collected through the household survey revealed that farms in the distant zone tended to have been cleared a few years earlier than farms in the other two zones (Table 2). Farm area and livestock ownership tended to decrease significantly with increasing distance from Munesa Forest (Table 2). The same trend was observed for all livestock types except chicken: i.e., cattle, sheep and goats, equines, and beehives. Chicken ownership in the intermediate zone was significantly higher than in the two other zones. The percentage of farms with a homegarden decreased significantly with increasing distance from Munesa Forest, as did the crop diversity in these homegardens and the percentage of these homegardens that contained enset (Table 2).Food security, in terms of months of adequate household food provisioning, was lower in the intermediate zone compared with the two other zones, although the difference was less than 1 month (10.6 ± 1.5, 9.9 ± 1.8, and 11.2 ± 2.1 months year -1 in the near, intermediate, and distant zones, respectively) (Fig. 2a). Households in the near zone had more diverse diets than households in the distant zone (Fig. 2b). Households in the intermediate zone ranked between households in the two other zones (Fig. 2b). Differences in household dietary diversity scores between the three zones were much larger than differences in food security. The difference in household diet diversity scores was explained by the more frequent consumption in the near zone of every food group except \"vegetables\"; the frequency of consumption of \"spices and condiments\" did not differ between the three zones (Fig. 2c). Follow-up interviews revealed that these food groups were predominantly sourced from the market, while households sourced the other food groups predominantly from their own agricultural production. Consumption of wild foods from the forest was seldom reported in the dietary recall, and follow-up interviews confirmed that this happened only very rarely in this setting, and involved mainly young herders guarding livestock in the forest and occasionally picking wild fruits. When testing for the effect of farm location in Model 1 (while controlling for demographic and structural variables), the zone in which a particular farm was located had no effect on food security but had a statistically significant effect on dietary diversity (Table 3). The effects of zone on dietary diversity appeared to be nonlinear because the two-way interactions between zone and elevation and between zone and education of the head of the household were significant in Model 1. None of the variables that described the farm location and which were tested in Model 1 had a significant effect on food security. The factor zone and/or the interaction between zone and elevation were also significant when using frequency of consumption as a response variable in Model 1 for the following food groups: roots and tubers; pulses; meat and animal products; fruits; milk and milk products; sugar, sugar products, and honey; and snack and processed foods (Appendixes 1 and 3). The effect of proximity to the forest was positive for all these food groups except sugar, sugar products, and honey, and snack and processed foods, for which it was negative.When testing for the effect of functional variables in Model 2 (while controlling for demographic and structural variables), the presence/absence of a homegarden and livestock ownership (in particular, ownership of sheep and goats and beehives) had a significant effect on dietary diversity but no effect on food security (Table 4). The two-way interaction between the presence/absence of a homegarden and the number of beehives was also significant in Model 2. None of the variables tested in Model 2 had a significant effect on food security. The factor homegarden and/ or the interaction between homegarden and any livestock category except chicken (cattle, sheep and goats, or equines) were also significant and positive in Model 2 when using frequency of consumption as a response variable for the following food groups: roots and tubers; pulses; vegetables; meat and animal products; fruits; milk and milk products; sugar, sugar products, and honey; and snack and processed foods (Appendices 2 and 4).When testing for the effect of farm location (Model 1), the interaction between zone and family size had a significant effect on the presence/absence of a homegarden in the farm (Annexe 5, Fig. 3a). Other significant variables were family size and farm area. When using the crop diversity in the homegarden as a response variable, the interaction between zone and distance to the nearest grassland patch of at least 0.25 ha was significant in Model 1 (Appendix 5). Other significant variables were distance to the nearest grassland patch of at least 0.5 ha, farm area, and the interaction between zone and farm area. When testing for the effect of functional variables (Model 2), livestock ownership (in particular, ownership of sheep and goats) had a significant effect on the presence/absence of a homegarden in the farm (Appendix  6, Fig. 3b). Other significant variables were family size and year that farming started. When using the crop diversity in the homegarden as a response variable, the presence/absence of enset was found to be overruling in Model 2. No other variable was significant. Livestock ownership had a statistically significant effect on the presence or absence of enset in the homegarden (Z = 3.548, P < 0.0005).The quantity of biomass used as household fuel tended to decrease with increasing distance from Munesa Forest, but the differences were not statistically significant (Table 5). In addition, group interviews revealed that these differences had no effect on the food items households were or were not able to cook and consume. However, the composition of the household fuel changed with increasing distance from the forest. Closer to the forest, households used significantly more fuelwood from the forest (and other commons), while farther away from the forest, households used significantly more cattle dung as fuel (Table 5). Farmers in the distant zone also purchased fuelwood, while farmers closer to the forest were able to access free fuelwood, mostly from the farms in the intermediate zone, and mostly from Munesa Forest in the near zone (Fig. 4a). Similarly, the quantity of biomass used as livestock feed tended to be lower in the distant zone compared with the two other zones, but the differences were not statistically significant (Table 6).Ecology and Society 22(2): 28 https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss2/art28/ Table 5. Comparison of the mean quantity of biomass in kg household -1 year -1 from different sources used as household fuel in the three zones of the study area (near, intermediate, and distant to Munesa Forest). Standard errors are given after the \"±\" signs. χ 2 and P values are given for Kruskal-Wallis tests that compared medians between the three zones. However, the sources of feed for livestock differed significantly across the three zones. The quantity of biomass from the forest (and other commons) that was used as feed decreased significantly with increasing distance from Munesa Forest (Table 6), which is intensively used as a grazing area by farmers from the near zone (Fig. 4b). The quantity of biomass from the farm that was used as feed followed a similar trend, but the statistical significance of the differences was weak. The overall quantity of feed purchased in the three zones did not differ significantly. Total livestock ownership was significantly correlated to the quantity of biomass from the forest and other commons that was used as feed (Z = 4.3191, P < 0.0001).Summing the biomass flows from fuelwood and feed, Munesa Forest contributed an average of 6.13 ± 2.90 tons of biomass per farm and per year to farms in the near zone. The input of biomass from commons to farms in the other two zones was less than half that value (2.72 ± 1.05 and 2.20 ± 2.47 tons per year in the intermediate and distant zones, respectively).There was no difference between the three zones in the application rate of the two types of mineral fertilizer used in the area: diammonium phosphate (F = 0.454, n.s.) and urea (F = 0.761, n. s.). However, farmers in the distant zone applied significantly less manure on their farms than did farmers in the two other zones (908 ± 853 kg farm -1 , 771 ± 717 kg farm -1 , and 261 ± 487 kg farm -1 in the near, intermediate, and distant zone, respectively; χ 2 = 55.31, P < 0.0001). Farms that did not use dung as fuel tended to apply more manure than did farms that used dung as fuel, although the statistical significance of the difference was moderate (χ 2 = 3.2056, P < 0.1). The total crop productivity (calculated as the sum of all calories produced from crops within a year and divided by the total farm area) did not differ in the three zones (34.2 ± 9.7 GJ ha -1 , 31.8 ± 19.2 GJ ha -1 , and 37.7 ± 14.5 GJ ha -1 in the near, intermediate, and distant zones, respectively) (Fig. 5a). However, the total livestock productivity (calculated as the sum of calories produced from livestock within a year and divided by the total farm area) was significantly higher in the near zone compared with the two other zones (2.62 ± 1.60 GJ ha -1 , 0.97 ± 0.73 GJ ha -1 , and 0.95 ± 0.97 GJ ha -1 in the near, intermediate, and distant zones, respectively) (Fig. 5b).This study illustrates indirect contributions, through flows of biomass, from Munesa Forest to the dietary diversity of surrounding farming households, and plays a pioneering role in unraveling such pathways (Fig. 6).   The proximity to Munesa Forest had no effect on household food security per se (Table 3, Fig. 2a), probably because of a lack of difference in the production of staples, but it had a significantly positive effect on dietary diversity (Table 3, Fig. 2b). Higher dietary diversity closer to the forest was explained by a higher prevalence of homegardens and higher livestock ownership (Table 4). More farms closer to the forest had homegardens because they tended to have larger livestock herds (Fig. 3), which produced more manure that was preferentially applied on homegardens, as revealed by group interviews and observations. The availability of manure for farms closer to the forest was also higher because they tended to use forest wood instead of livestock dung as fuel.Thus, higher livestock ownership in farms closer to the forest compared with farms farther away was central in explaining the increase in dietary diversity with increasing proximity to the forest. Larger livestock herds of all species (except chicken) in farms that were closer to the forest compared with farms that were farther away was permitted by the use of a larger quantity of biomass from the forest (and other commons) as feed (Table 6).Larger livestock herds also contributed to the higher dietary diversity of households that were closer to the forest, directly through the production of milk and milk products and meat and animal products (as demonstrated by the much higher livestock productivity in the near zone compared with the two other zones) (Fig. 5b), and more indirectly through the production of manure, which facilitated the existence of homegardens-true hot spots of nutrient-dense food items. The proximity to the forest may also explain the higher number of beehives (Table 2) and the higher consumption of the food group sugar, sugar products, and honey (Fig. 2c) in the near and intermediate zones compared with the distant zone, due to the greater availability of pollen and nectar provided by trees.Homegardens were key in explaining the higher consumption of almost all food groups, including roots and tubers (through enset and potato), pulses (through faba bean), meat and animal products (through eggs), fruits, milk and milk products (through fodder produced in homegardens; e.g., enset leaves) and sugar, sugar products, and honey (through honey). In addition, crop diversity in homegardens increased with increasing proximity to Munesa Forest (Table 2). This appears to be due to the higher prevalence of enset, which is known to modify local biophysical conditions in ways that may be favorable to other crops by capturing rainwater with its fan-shaped leaves and fibrous pseudostem and by modifying the microclimate under its canopy (i.e., they are described as \"spacemakers\") (Kanshie 2002). The presence of enset may be conditioned by the amount of manure applied (higher closer to the forest), as this crop is known to require high soil fertility (Kanshie 2002).Although farmers in the distant zone were closer to the main market of Arsi Negele and had transformed their landscape for crop production more than had farmers in the two other zones, their crop productivity was not notably higher (Fig. 5a). This questions the validity of the paradigm of the modern conventional approach to agricultural intensification based on landscape simplification and high dependence on external inputs. Conversely, although farmers in the near zone applied equal rates of mineral fertilizers and more manure than did farmers in the two other zones, it had no influence on overall crop productivity (Fig. 5a). This is likely because manure was not spread evenly in the farmland but instead was concentrated in homegardens, which influenced the quality of crop production but not its quantity.These findings support more integrated landscape approaches to agriculture and food production, which represent a paradigm shift from the modern conventional approach to agricultural productivity (Tscharntke et al. 2005, Sayer et al. 2013). Landscape approaches are based on the interconnections between land uses, including transfer of nutrients from natural and seminatural areas to farmland, as found in this study. Although not investigated here, natural and seminatural areas may also subsidize farmland with beneficial organisms that provide several regulating services, including pollination and pest control (Bianchi et al. 2006, Garibaldi et al. 2013). Through these multiple interactions, landscape approaches may be used to design farming systems that are more sustainable, self-organized (i.e., maintained through energy cycling instead of regular input of energy in the form of mechanical operations and agrochemicals), and often more productive (Tittonell 2014). As illustrated by the findings of this study, landscape approaches could also be one of the foundations of nutrition-sensitive agriculture.Forest sustaining agriculture: flows of biomass from forest to farms Munesa Forest subsidized farms in the near zone with an annual flow of biomass that is estimated to be greater than 6 tons per farm, which provided positive effects on the diversity of crop and livestock products in these farms. Livestock played a key role in the transfer of nutrients from Munesa Forest (and other commons) to farms by providing manure. In addition, fuelwood from Munesa Forest (and other commons) allowed for more manure to be available as organic amendment instead of being burned as fuel in the absence of wood energy (Table 5). https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss2/art28/The fact that farms from the near zone relied mostly on Munesa Forest for fuel and feed, and not from the zone itself, may explain greater tree cover in this zone compared with the other zones. Similarly, farms from the intermediate zone used a large communal grazing area-located outside the zone-for fuel and feed, which may explain the greater tree cover in this zone compared with the distant zone. Group and individual interviews revealed that most deforestation in the area occurred between 1974 and 1982, when the imperial regime was replaced by a Marxist-Leninist regime that gave \"land to the tillers\" in Ethiopia.The area was said to be largely forested before that. It appears that deforestation was less intense in the most remote part of the study area (away from the main market of Arsi Negele) where more common resources (e.g., Munesa Forest, large communal grazing areas) were found in the vicinity. The retention of more trees closer to Munesa Forest may also contribute to the productivity and sustainability of farming, through erosion control (Young 1989), nutrient cycling (Chikowo et al. 2003), and regulation of the local climate (Ong et al. 2000). Trees may also provide habitats for beneficiary species, such as natural enemies that prey on yield-reducing pests (Dix et al. 1995). Finally, some tree species may fix atmospheric nitrogen (Danso et al. 1992), or mobilize phosphorus through root exudation or mycorrhiza (Watt andEvans 1999, Smith andRead 2008).Are the observed transfers of nutrients from Munesa Forest to neighboring farmlands sustainable, or is the forest being mined at an unsustainable rate, thus threatening current farming systems and local diets? Based on the estimated mean quantity of biomass used as fuel and feed by the different farm types in the near zone, the number of farms from each farm type, and the estimated area of forest accessible to farms from the near zone (102 ha), the quantity of biomass harvested from the forest was estimated to be 2.89 tons fuelwood ha -1 forest and 1.34 tons feed ha -1 forest.Based on the study of Tesfaye (2007), conducted in a dry tropical Afromontane forest near the study area, this could represent a sustainable harvest: he estimated the stem diameter increment to be 6.3-11.6 t ha -1 (i.e., more than double the quantity of fuelwood harvested from Munesa Forest estimated in this study) and the herbaceous biomass to be 5.5-6.6 t ha -1 (i.e., more than four times the quantity of biomass grazed from Munesa Forest estimated in this study). However, large sections of Munesa Forest showed signs of degradation (Fig. 4c). Thus, the sustainability of the current use of Munesa Forest should be rigorously assessed.In common with the findings of Ickowitz et al. (2014), but contrary to the thesis of Sibhatu et al. (2015), dietary diversity decreased when market access increased in this study. In remote settings such as the study area, encouraging production diversity will remain a major strategy to increase dietary diversity (Remans et al. 2015).This study demonstrates that-under certain circumstanceslandscape approaches that consider the transfer of nutrients from forests to farmlands may be used as a basis for the design of nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Forests and pastures tend to be areas of accretion of nutrients because they are dominated by perennial plants-trees and perennial grasses-which are characterized by long residence time and deep and dense root systems, and thus by the ability to capture and recycle more carbon and nutrients than can annual crops (Sanchez et al. 1997). In this study, as in many others conducted in other farming systems around the world (Powell et al. 2004), livestock played the role of vector of nutrients from forests and pastures to croplands where food crops were produced. Thus, although livestock is increasingly portrayed as a growing global environmental threat (see e.g., Steinfeld et al. 2006), it plays an important role in the sustainability of many food production systems, and it contributes to the nutrition of millions of rural people directly, for example, through milk and milk products that are rich in highquality proteins and micronutrients such as zinc (Young andPellett 1994, Murphy andAllen 2003), and indirectly through the nutrients they vector to fields and gardens (as demonstrated in this study). However, the use of livestock dung as organic amendment may be prevented if it is used as fuel instead. This study, similar to other studies conducted in Ethiopia (e.g., Duguma et al. 2014, Baudron et al. 2015), demonstrates the link between fuelwood availability and the quantity of manure applied annually.In this study, the forest did not serve as a direct source of food products for rural people (aside from the anecdotic wild fruits occasionally eaten by young herders). Nevertheless, the forest was crucial in ensuring a high dietary diversity of rural households living near it by contributing large quantities of feed and fuelwood, which sustained agriculture and in particular ensured regular flows of nutrients to homegardens that locally served as production hot spots of nutrient-dense food items. Forests may also sustain agriculture in other ways, including through pollination, pest control, water regulation, and climate regulation (Foli et al. 2014, Reed et al. 2017).These interactions have been largely ignored by the land-sparing and land-sharing approaches, which-since the seminal paper of Green et al. (2005)-constitute the main conceptual framework used by policy-makers when looking at the relations between agriculture and nature (Bennett 2017). It may be that positive interactions between forest and agriculture are not taken into account by the framework (which focuses largely on trade-offs) because it has been developed (and is being used) chiefly by conservation ecologists but not by agronomists. The contribution of agronomists to the framework is urgently needed for synergies not to be missed in the design of landscape mosaics that contribute to both biodiversity conservation and human well-being (Reed et al. 2016). In particular, agronomists may contribute to a better selection of proxies of \"agricultural yield\" when plotting yielddensity functions classically used to identify-in a particular context-species that are better suited to land sparing or land sharing. To the best of our knowledge, all the studies using such yield-density functions (e.g., Green et al. 2005, Kleijn et al. 2009, Clough et al. 2011, Phalan et al. 2011, Gabriel et al. 2013) have used crop productivity as the proxy of farming intensity/human well-being and have found strong trade-offs between maintaining biodiversity and increasing agricultural production/human wellbeing. From the results of this study, very different results would probably be obtained if livestock productivity, fuel availability, or dietary diversity were used as proxies of farming intensity/human well-being instead of crop productivity (synergies instead of trade-offs). https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss2/art28/The case of rural households living at the periphery of Munesa Forest is probably not isolated, and forests no doubt contribute in a similar way to the diet of millions of rural households living at the periphery of forests in developing countries. For these forests, which are often managed as common pool resources, to continue to play their key role of supporting rural livelihoods in areas that are often sustaining rapid land use changes, policy and institutions will have to be crafted to ensure they are managed sustainably (e.g., through self-governance) (Ostrom et al. 1992) and do not fall victims to the \"tragedy of the commons\" (Hardin 1968).We conclude that nutrition-sensitive agriculture in remote rural settings that are dominated by mixed crop-livestock systems may be achieved through a combination of landscape management (and in particular the retention of patches of forest and pastures), livestock management (to transfer nutrients from forest and pastures to farmlands), and household energy management (i.e., guaranteeing alternative fuel sources to livestock dung).Responses to this article can be read online at: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/issues/responses. php/9267 APPENDIX 1. Summary of the results of Model 1 (see text) for explaining the variability in the frequency of consumption (number of days per week) of cereals, grains and grain products, roots and tubers, pulses, vegetables, meat and animal products, and fruits. Significant effects (P < 0.05) are shown in bold. ","tokenCount":"7088"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7938e0f3729780a5e54e8fc4e923e359","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/e216823d-aba2-4801-b85e-5230fc353221/content","id":"445744418"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"18a3cc48-650e-4f79-823d-7ddf929bc224","pagecount":"8","content":"Yr78 es un gen de planta adulta que confiere resistencia a la roya amarilla del trigo y que fue recientemente identificado en la línea de trigo harinero PI520108 (HORK/KALYANSONA). El gen se encuentra localizado en el cromosoma 6BS y hasta antes de este estudio se desconocía su frecuencia. Dentro de la colección de trigo del banco de germoplasma del CIMMYT se identificaron 917 líneas que llevan a HORK como progenitor en el pedigrí. Aproximadamente el 12 % de las muestras (117 líneas) se probaron con el marcador molecular IWA7257-Yr78, ligado al gen de resistencia Yr78, y con las razas fisiológicas de roya amarilla MEX14.191 y MEX17.83. Se determinó que 76 % de las líneas fueron positivas para el marcador IWA7257-Yr78. Las líneas susceptibles en etapa de plántula mostraron una severidad final a la enfermedad que osciló entre 0 y 80 % en el campo, y una respuesta similar en las líneas resistentes en plántula de 1MR a 60M. El 24 % restante de líneas negativas para el marcador Yr78, susceptibles y resistentes en etapa de plántula, mostraron respuestas que oscilaban entre 5M y 50MR, indicando la presencia de otros genes de resistencia; además, el 64 % de 621 líneas de tres viveros de selección de trigo de primavera del CIMMYT analizadas molecularmente fueron positivas al marcador Yr78, lo que indica que este gen es más común de lo esperado en el germoplasma mexicano. Las evaluaciones de invernadero y de campo en planta adulta indicaron que Yr78 induce una fuerte clorosis y necrosis, pero no reduce el porcentaje de infección; por lo tanto, Yr78 debe utilizarse en combinación con otros genes de resistencia.Palabras clave: Triticum aestivum, líneas, marcadores, planta adulta.Yr78 is an adult-plant gene that confers resistance to yellow wheat rust that was recently identified in the bread wheat line PI520108 (HORK/ KALYANSONA). The gene is located on chromosome 6BS and until before this study its frequency was unknown. Within the CIMMYT gene bank wheat collection, 917 lines carrying HORK as a parent in the pedigree were identified. Approximately 12 % of the samples (117 lines) were tested with the molecular marker IWA7257-Yr78, linked to the resistance gene Yr78, and with the physiological yellow rust races MEX14.191 and MEX17.83. It was determined that 76 % of the lines tested positive for the IWA7257-Yr78 marker. Lines susceptible at seedling stage showed final disease severity ranging from 0 to 80 % in the field, and a similar response in resistant lines at seedlings of 1MR to 60M. The remaining 24 % of negative lines for the Yr78 marker, susceptible and resistant at seedling stage showed responses that ranged between 5M and 50MR, indicating the presence of other resistance genes; in addition, 64 % of 621 lines from three CIMMYT spring wheat selection nurseries, analyzed molecularly, tested positive for the Yr78 marker, indicating that this gene is more common than expected in Mexican germplasm. Greenhouse and field evaluations in adult plants indicated that Yr78 induces strong chlorosis and necrosis, but does not reduce the percentage of infection; therefore, Yr78 should be used in combination with other resistance genes.Index words: Triticum aestivum, adult plant, lines, marker.La roya amarilla, causada por el hongo Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici W. (Pst), es actualmente una de las enfermedades más importantes del trigo en México y en el mundo (Beddow et al., 2015). La resistencia genética a la enfermedad sigue siendo el enfoque más sostenible y ecológico; sin embargo, debido a la constante evolución del hongo hacia nuevas combinaciones de virulencia, el reto de encontrar las mejores combinaciones de genes que confieran resistencia a la roya amarilla existentes o la búsqueda de nuevas fuentes de resistencia sigue siendo una de las actividades más importantes tanto para los fitopatólogos como para los mejoradores (Juliana et al., 2020).A la fecha, se han catalogado más de 78 genes que confieren resistencia a la roya amarilla (Wang et al., 2017). La mayoría de estos genes son de raza específica que pueden conferir casi inmunidad, una respuesta de hipersensibilidad alta, o bien, niveles intermedios en su tipo de infección (Wang et al., 2017), tanto en el estado de plántula o en la hoja bandera en la etapa de planta adulta. Los genes del grupo que confiere resistencia de raza especifica, por su modo de actuar, se clasifican en dos tipos principalmente: 1) aquellos que, en ausencia de virulencia del patógeno, actúan en todas las etapas de crecimiento de las plantas, y 2) los que no son funcionales en estado de plántula, pero efectivos en el estado adulto de la planta, también conocidos como genes que confieren resistencia de planta adulta (RPA) (Singh et al., 2003). Existen también otros genes de raza no especifica y más efectivos en la hoja bandera; es decir, en planta adulta como Yr18, Yr29, Yr30 y Yr46, que confieren resistencia de desarrollo lento de la enfermedad (Huerta-Espino et al., 2020).Yr78 es un gen de resistencia típico de planta adulta (RPA) que confiere resistencia específica a distintas razas del hongo causante de la roya amarilla y recientemente identificado por Dong et al. (2017) en la línea de trigo harinero del Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) PI52108 (HORK/KALYANSONA), entre otras. Las plantas que sólo poseen el gen Yr78 son susceptibles en etapa de plántula, pero en el estado de desarrollo de planta adulta la hoja bandera muestra una clorosis y necrosis muy pronunciada, típica respuesta de alta hipersensibilidad (Sanzón y Zavaleta, 2011). El gen asociado a esta respuesta se encuentra localizado en el cromosoma 6BL ligado al marcador molecular IWA7257-Yr78 (Dong et al., 2017). HORK, unos los progenitores de PI520108, es una línea derivada de la cruza HOPPS/ROBIN-México// KALYANSONA, identificada con el número de cruza CM8874, realizada en México y enviada a otras partes del mundo para su evaluación desde 1973 (Skovmand et al., 1997). La línea HORK se liberó como variedad con el nombre de Huasteco M81 en 1981 para su cultivo en el Noreste de México (Cervantes, 1981). Dado que no se ha notificado ningún gen específico de resistencia en las plantas adultas de Kalyansona (Siete Cerros T66), aparte de Yr29 que es de raza no especifica, y dada la importancia de la roya amarilla y la necesidad de identificar nuevas fuentes de resistencia, se plantea el siguiente estudio cuyo objetivo fue probar la respuesta a la roya amarilla de HORK (Huasteco M81) y determinar la presencia de Yr78 en líneas que presenten HORK en su pedigrí, así como en líneas derivadas; además, determinar la frecuencia de Yr78 en líneas avanzadas de reciente creación por el programa de trigos harineros del CIMMYT.Se identificaron 1023 accesiones en el banco de germoplasma del CIMMYT que llevan a HORK como progenitor en su pedigrí; de éstas, 106 son de triticale (× Triticosecale spp.) y 917 líneas de trigo harinero (Triricum aestivum L.) desarrolladas durante las décadas de los 1970s y 1980s, mismas que fueron incluidas en los diferentes viveros internacionales distribuidos por el CIMMYT, como el IBWSN, SAWSN y HRWSN. De las accesiones identificadas, se tomó un subconjunto representativo de las diferentes cruzas, tomando el menor número de líneas hermanas. Los genotipos seleccionados para su evaluación representan el 12 % de la muestra (117 líneas) aproximadamente. Se utilizaron como testigos de referencia de los genotipos el diferencial que posee Yr78, GID 8249784 y Huasteco M81 (GID 422381).El análisis molecular se llevó a cabo en el laboratorio de Biotecnología del Programa de Mejoramiento Molecular de Trigo en el CIMMYT. Las 117 líneas y los testigos Yr78 [GID 8249784 y Huasteco M81 (GID 422381)] fueron sembradas en charolas de plástico que contenían suelo estéril. Se marcaron pequeños orificios y se colocaron de ocho a 10 semillas por línea, para acomodar 24 líneas por charola.Para la extracción de ADN se colectaron porciones del tejido foliar en plántulas de 16 días de edad y se colocaron en tubos de 1.1 mL en placas de 96 tubos; posteriormente, se almacenaron en un ultracongelador a -80° C por 3 h y se transfirieron a un liofilizador manteniendo la temperatura a -50° C y un nivel de vacío de 0.0 a 0.120 mbar por 48 h; posteriormente, usando un molino (GenoGrinder 2010, Metuchen, New Jersey, EUA) se molió el tejido colocando balines de acero de 4 mm por 2 o 3 min hasta obtener el tejido. La extracción, cuantificación y valoración de la calidad del ADN se realizó de acuerdo con los protocolos de laboratorio y aplicaciones para trigo descritos por Dreisigacker et al. (2016).Se utilizó el marcador co-dominante IWA7257-Yr78 con la tecnología de genotipificación Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR Genotyping System. La mezcla de reacción fue de 12 µL de 100 µM iniciador FAM, 12 µL de 100 µM iniciador VIC, 30 µL de 100 µM iniciador común (reversa), éstos a una concentración de 100 µM cada uno agregando 46 µL de H 2 O dd, 30 µL de 100 µM iniciador común (reversa). El volumen total de la reacción de PCR fue de 4 µL: 2 µL de mix de reacción PACE TM genotyping master mix 1X (3CR Bioscience, Harlow, UK), 0.07 µL de la mezcla de los iniciadores de ensayo y 2 µL de H 2 O dd; previamente, se adicionaron en la placa de PCR 3 µL de ADN (~50 ng µL -1 ), que fueron secados a 65 °C durante 50 min. Las condiciones de amplificación consistieron de una desnaturalización inicial a 94 °C por 15 min, seguido por 11 ciclos de 'touch down' [94 °C por 30 s, 65 °C por 1 min (disminuyendo 0.8 °C por ciclo), 72 °C por 30 s], 26 ciclos de 94 °C por 30 s, 57 °C por 1 min, 30 °C por 30 s), 1 ciclo de 72 °C por 2 min, y finalmente, incubación a 20 °C por 5 min.Se incluyeron muestras control VIC y FAM, correspondientes a los alelos positivo y negativo, HET (heterocigotos) y muestra en blanco (agua), además de los testigos positivos para Yr78 Blanca Grande Summit 515 y Tepoca M86; los negativos Jagger y Chinese Spring. La lectura de las placas del producto de PCR se realizó en un lector de placas fluorescentes (BMG Pherastar Plus, BMG Labtech, Ortenberg, Alemania) y para la visualización gráfica de datos genotípicos se utilizó el software KlusterCaller TM (Biosearch Technologies, Hoddesdon, UK). Se consideraron como positivos los datos genotípicos que presentaron el alelo favorable para resistencia a roya y como negativos a los datos genotípicos que no portaban el alelo.Las líneas se sembraron en charolas de plástico de 20 × 30 × 6 cm, mismas que se llenaron con suelo estéril, se marcaron pequeños orificios y se colocaron ocho semillas por línea, cada charola con 24 líneas; posteriormente, 14 días después de la siembra, las plántulas se inocularon con una suspensión de urediniosporas de las razas de roya amarilla MEX14.191, cuya fórmula de avirulencia/virulencia es Yr1, 5a, 5b (Sp) 10, 15,24,26,Poll/Yr2,3,6,7,8,9,17,27,31,32, y MEX17.83, con fórmula de avirulencia/virulencia Yr1, 5a, 5b (Sp) 10, 15, 24, 26, 27, 31, Poll/Yr2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 17, 32 (Huerta-Espino et al., 2015). Las urediniosporas fueron suspendidas en aceite mineral (Soltrol ® , Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, The Woodlands, Texas, EUA) a una concentración de 5 mg de urediniosporas por mL de aceite (Huerta-Espino et al., 2020;Randhawa et al., 2018) y asperjadas con un atomizador conectado a un compresor eléctrico (Valdez-Rodríguez et al., 2020). Las plántulas inoculadas se colocaron en una cámara de incubación a temperatura de 7 ºC por 24 h y rocío (humedad relativa) al 100 %; posteriormente, se trasladaron al invernadero con una temperatura máxima de 18 o C y después de 15 d de inoculación se registró su reacción a la roya amarilla mediante la escala de 1-9 propuesta por McNeal et al. (1971), donde las lecturas del 1 al 6 se consideran resistentes y del 7 al 9 susceptibles.Cada uno de los 117 genotipos derivados de HORK y los testigos correspondientes fueron sembrados en macetas de plástico que contenían suelo esterilizado para realizar la evaluación en planta adulta. A los 65 días después de la siembra los genotipos fueron inoculados con la raza de roya MEX 14.191, asperjando las urediniosporas suspendidas en aceite mineral con un atomizador conectado a un compresor de aire eléctrico, únicamente en la hoja bandera; posteriormente, las plantas se mantuvieron en una cámara de incubación en las mismas condiciones descritas para las plántulas. La evaluación de la severidad de la enfermedad se realizó 15 días después de la inoculación, adaptando las escalas propuestas por McNeal et al. (1971) y Kishii et al. (2019).Los 117 genotipos y los respectivos testigos se sembraron en un ensayo de campo siguiendo un diseño completamente al azar con dos repeticiones en surcos dobles de 1.0 m de longitud y espaciados a 0.3 m. Se sembraron aproximadamente 100 semillas por parcela. Los surcos del esparcidor de inóculo constituido en partes iguales por las variedades susceptibles Morocco, Nana F2007 y PBW343, genotipos con genes de resistencia específicos como Borlaug 100 (Yr17), Murga (YrMga) y las diferenciales de Avocet YR17/6*AOC (Yr17), AOC-YrA*3/ PASTOR (Yr31) y seis líneas de la cruza AOC-YrA/ATTILA (Yr9 + Yr27) se inocularon con urediniosporas frescas de la raza MEX14.191. Las esporas del hongo activadas se utilizaron para hacer una suspensión de 5mg mL -1 de aceite mineral Soltrol 170 y se inocularon alrededor de la etapa de encañe. La enfermedad se evaluó 2-3 veces; la severidad se midió por el porcentaje de área de la hoja cubierta por las colonias o pústulas del patógeno (Kishii et al., 2019); al mismo tiempo, la reacción de la planta se evaluó por el método de Roelfs et al. (1992). Cuando las hojas no presentaron lesiones o sólo mostraron clorosis, se registraron como resistentes (R); cuando las hojas mostraron uredíneas rodeadas de necrosis o clorosis se registraron como moderadamente resistentes (MR); una reacción de susceptibilidad moderada (MS) se registró cuando las hojas presentaron uredíneas con ausencia de necrosis y clorosis; cuando las hojas mostraron respuestas de MRMS o la combinación de MR y MS y presentaron uredíneas rodeadas de necrosis y un nivel de infección moderada o clorosis, se registraron como M; y S se registró cuando las hojas mostraron grandes áreas cubiertas de uredíneas o lesiones sin tejido necrótico o clorosis (Kishii et al., 2019).Relación entre el marcador y la resistencia a roya Del grupo de las 117 líneas derivadas de HORK, el 76 % fueron positivas para el marcador molecular IWA7257-Yr78 (Figura 1). De los genotipos positivos, el 73 % fueron susceptibles en etapa de plántula a la raza de roya amarilla MEX14.191, con un comportamiento similar al de los testigos Yr78 y Huasteco M81, mientras que el 27 % restante fueron resistentes a la misma raza en estado de plántula (Figura 2A). De las líneas que resultaron negativas para el marcador Yr78, 68 % fueron susceptibles y 32 % resistentes en estado de plántula (Figura 2B). Los genotipos susceptibles en estado de plántula indicaron la ausencia de otros genes no identificados de raza específica efectivos contra la raza MEX14.191, mientras que en los genotipos resistentes existe por lo menos un gen de resistencia efectivo contra la misma raza, independientemente de si fueron positivos o negativos para el marcador Yr78.Cuando estos mismos genotipos fueron evaluados con la raza MEX17.83 en estado de plántula también se observó la presencia de genotipos susceptibles y resistentes; en este caso, los testigos Yr78 y Huasteco M81 (HORK) permanecieron susceptibles en plántula; sin embargo, con esta raza, cuya fórmula de avirulencia/ virulencia difiere de la de MEX14.191. Se observó que de los 64 genotipos susceptibles a la raza MEX14.191 en plántula y positivos al marcador Yr78, 50 % permanecieron susceptibles y 50 % resistentes cuando se inocularon con la raza MEX17.83 (Figura 3A); el cambio puede explicarse en este caso por la presencia de Yr27, que es común en el germoplasma mexicano, presente en las variedades Opata M85 y Bacanora T88 incluidas en el juego de diferenciales como Yr27, o bien por el gen Yr31, que es muy común en variedades relacionadas con Rebeca F2000 y Pastor incluidos en el grupo de diferenciales, u otros genes de resistencia para los cuales MEX17.83 es avirulenta.De los 24 genotipos que fueron resistentes en plántula y positivos al marcador Yr78, 21 permanecieron resistentes y sólo tres fueron susceptibles, lo que indica que MEX17.83 posee virulencia adicional para otros genes no identificados en estado de plántula y que no se reflejan en la fórmula de avirulencia/virulencia. Figura 1. Visualización gráfica de datos genotípicos de líneas de trigo derivadas de HORK con el marcador IWA7257-Yr78.Yr78-Heterocigotos Malo (amplificó sin definir) No amplificó Muestra en blanco (agua)Figura 2. Porcentajes de infección de roya amarilla en planta adulta en el campo y número de líneas derivadas de HORK. A) positivas para el marcador IWA7257-Yr78, B) negativas para el marcador IWA7257-Yr78. SP M+: susceptible en plántula y positivas para el marcador, RP M+: resistente en plántula y positivas para el marcador, SP M-: susceptible en plántula y negativas para el marcador, RP M-: resistente en plántula y negativas para el marcador. De las 20 líneas negativas al marcador Yr78, también susceptibles en plántula a la raza MEX14.191, ocho permanecieron susceptibles y 12 presentaron resistencia a la raza MEX17.83 (Figura 3B), lo que se explicaría por la presencia de Yr27 y Yr31, solos o combinados.De las nueve líneas restantes resistentes a MEX14.191 y negativas para el marcador Yr78, ocho permanecieron resistentes y sólo una cambió de resistente a la raza MEX14.191 a susceptible a la raza MEX17.83.Los datos de planta adulta en invernadero se usaron para confirmar la efectividad del gen Yr78 y el tipo de infección para los casos de niveles altos de hipersensibilidad con clorosis y necrosis pronunciada, incluyendo el testigo Yr78, pero más atenuada en el caso de Huasteco M81 (no se muestran datos).En el campo, las líneas susceptibles en plántula y positivas para el marcador mostraron un nivel de infección que osciló entre 0 (cero) y 80M, mientras que en las líneas que fueron resistentes en etapa de plántula los porcentajes de infección en la hoja bandera fueron de 5 a 60M. Resultados similares se observaron entre las líneas negativas para el marcador, donde los genotipos susceptibles en plántula se clasificaron en campo entre 10 y 50M, en tanto que, los materiales resistentes oscilaron entre 5 y 40M, denotando la presencia de otros genes de resistencia efectivos en todas las etapas, así como también, la presencia de otros genes de resistencia de planta adulta.De acuerdo con los resultados de Dong et al. (2017), Yr78 no fue eficaz contra Pst en plántula, definiéndolo como un gen que confiere resistencia en planta adulta (RPA), lo que fue confirmado en el presente estudio; además, Huasteco M81 y Náhuatl F2000 han sido probadas y su resistencia permanece efectiva (Yr78) contra las razas Pst presentes en experimentos de campo realizados en el oeste de USA entre 2011 y 2016 (Chen, Com. Pers.) 1 . Se prevé que este gen esté presente en baja frecuencia en el germoplasma de trigo sembrado en esa zona de los Estados Unidos, y que pueda proporcionar una herramienta útil para diversificar las fuentes de resistencia contra este patógeno, a diferencia de México, donde HORK ha sido expuesta a las poblaciones del patógeno desde 1974, y posteriormente con las variedades Harrier, Corrydon, Husteco M81, Náhuatl F2000 y Rebeca F2000, entre otras.Yr78 se identificó como QYr.ucw-6B asociado con el marcador IWA7257 (alelo de resistencia relacionado al Una vez validado el marcador en las líneas derivadas de HORK, éste se usó para determinar la frecuencia del gen en viveros del CIMMYT de reciente creación, incluyendo el vivero de selección internacional de trigo harinero (IBWSN), el vivero de selección de trigo para zonas áridas (SAWSN) y el vivero de selección de trigo para precipitación alta (HRWSN). Los resultados indicaron que 396 de 621 genotipos probados (64 %) fueron positivos para el marcador (61 % en el vivero 52IBWSN, 65 % en el vivero 37SAWYT y 70 % en el vivero 30HRWSN (Figura 4). En todas las líneas que componen estos viveros los niveles de infección en planta adulta son muy bajos en las condiciones de prueba en México y con las razas antes mencionadas, debido a la presencia de otros genes de resistencia efectivos en plántula y planta adulta.A pesar de que Yr78 parece ser parcialmente eficaz en Norteamérica a la población Pst actual de roya amarilla, la eficacia global en otras áreas epidemiológicas sigue siendo desconocida. Aun cuando el gen de resistencia Yr78 ha sido descubierto y catalogado recientemente, su frecuencia en el germoplasma mexicano y en los viveros internacionales de reciente creación indica que Yr78 es más común de lo inicialmente esperado y por lo menos ha sido expuesto a las poblaciones del patógeno por más de 50 años.Es necesario desarrollar un probador con Yr78 para medir la efectividad de dicho gen en ausencia de otros genes de resistencia; entre tanto, Yr78 debe formar parte del complejo genético en las variedades resistentes a roya amarilla; por ejemplo, el genotipo identificado como GID685306 alcanzó un nivel de 80 % de infección, lo que indica que Yr78 protege en un 20 % cuando se encuentra solo, pero contribuye significativamente en reducir la enfermedad en presencia de otros genes, como en el caso de Huasteco M81 que posee los genes Yr18, Yr29 y Yr30 (Huerta-Espino et al., 2020), el cual presentó un 50 % de infección y un comportamiento similar a Pfau, Warbler y Tomas Catedral, todas positivas para el marcador Yr78. Otros genotipos susceptibles en etapa de plántula y positivos para el marcador Yr78 fueron Anáhuac F2000, Yukón y Xequijel 88 con 20 % de infección y Dayma 96 con 15 %, denotando que, además de Yr78, existen otros genes de resistencia en estos genotipos.Se confirma que el gen Yr78 que confiere resistencia roya amarilla en trigo es efectivo sólo en planta adulta. El marcador molecular IWA7257-Yr78 puede usarse para verificar su presencia en cualquier etapa de desarrollo de la planta en un programa de selección asistida por marcadores en trigo. El gen Yr78 existe en más del 60 % del germoplasma de trigo harinero disponible en México. Las evaluaciones de invernadero y de campo en etapa adulta indicaron que Yr78 induce una fuerte clorosis y necrosis, pero no reduce la severidad de la enfermedad suficientemente. Yr78 debe utilizarse en combinación con otros genes de raza específica o genes de desarrollo lento de la roya amarilla, incluyendo Yr18, Yr29, Yr30 y Yr46. ","tokenCount":"3733"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"55f649d66fbe794e4d17fe37b37f20ac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7baa65dd-1015-44bc-8e38-6dd1650f887a/retrieve","id":"-1990827601"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f278440a-f705-4102-8c58-fa36cdf7615b","pagecount":"28","content":"This paper offers insights on the analysis of sheep and feed value chains, assesses the determinants of supply, identifies major constraints and opportunities for the sheep and feed value chains, tests tools prepared for the analysis of sheep value chains and provides feedback for further improvement. The result shows that there is a remarkable pattern of seasonal variation of sheep and feed supply, demand and price. The variability in sales is related to the seasonal holiday markets, crop planting and harvesting and drought seasons. Optimum utilization of seasonally available feeds through preservation of crop residues and grasses and strategic supplementation with low cost alternatives such as development of improved forage is vital to balance seasonal feed supply and animal requirements. It is not only the utilization of these feed resources that needs expertise, but also the quantification of these feed resources itself. At each stage in the chain, the value of the product goes up as the product becomes more suitable for the end users. However, at the lower end of the value chain, especially with the brokers, the price of the product increases without adding value to the product. Generally, the analysis of value chains has improved our knowledge on the complexities, inter-linkages, distributional benefits, and institutional arrangements of production and marketing channels. Despite the fact that the tool used was not specific to commodities and difficult to trend questions, it is a holistic, inclusive, flexible and a quick means of problem and solution identification and enabled us to connect demand and supply and see the nature of the marketing system.Ethiopia's vast sheep population, estimated at 24 million heads (CSA, 2004) is widely distributed across the different agro-ecological zones of the country (EARO, 2000;Kassahun, 2004). Sheep are owned by smallholder farmers as an integral part of the livestock sub-sector and contribute to both household consumption and cash income generation (Shapiro, 1991;EARO, 2000;Ehui et al., 2000).Though farmers supply animals of varying sex, age and weight, yearlings are the dominant class of animals to be sold to cover immediate cash needs prior to their attaining mature body weight. In most instances the farmers do not benefit much from the sale of these sheep. This is mainly because conditioning of yearling sheep using supplementary feed is not often practiced. On top this, lack of market information and low market price further lowers the benefit to the farmers. Farmers sell sheep at the 'farm gate' and on market days at nearby markets. Indigenous sheep breeds have specific adaptations to survive and produce under adverse local environmental conditions (climatic stress, poor quality feed, seasonal feed and water shortage, endemic disease and parasite challenge) that make them suitable for use in the traditional, low-external-input production system (IBC, 2004) that dominate Ethiopian sheep production.Crop residues serve as supplementary feeds during the dry season. It is not uncommon to see a stack of crop residues on farm lands as the farmer is aware of the monetary and feed value of crop residues. To exploit this opportunity traders who buy and sell hay, crop residues and concentrate are emerging even in small towns of North Shewa. Indeed nowadays the feed sector is providing yearround business for a number of actors. Use of alternative feed resources and improved marketing channels are the key to increasing per capita animal output. However, there is limited information on sheep and feed value chain and how the markets are functioning.The objectives of this study were: To analyze sheep and feed value chains and assess the determinants of sheep and feed market supply in the study areas.  To identify major constraints and opportunities for the sheep and feed value chains in the study areas.  To test tools prepared for analysis of sheep value chains and provide feedback for further improvement.The study areasThe study was conducted at Angolelana Tera district which is located 107 km NE of Addis Ababa on the road to Dessie.Angolelana Tera district covers 98,900 ha of land of which approximately 44% is cultivated land, 42% grazing land, 9% bushy and forest land and 2% allocated for settlement and other land uses. The high, mid and low land parts of the district constitute 87%, 13% and 2%, respectively with a temperature range of 12 o C to 26 o C. The annual rainfall, which is distributed bimodally, ranges from 930 -1100 mm per year. The altitude ranges from 2500 -2780 m.a.s.l. The major crops cultivated are barley, wheat, faba bean, lentil, and oats. The topography of the district is 49.5% plain, 48.5% hilly land and 2% terraced land.Both primary and secondary data were used in this study. A combination of techniques was applied to collect the data required to analyze the sheep value chains in Angolelana Tera district. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools, focused group discussions (FGD), key informant interviews (KII) and visual observation were used to collect primary data. Secondary data were collected from different district offices, Central Statistical Authority (CSA) and Debre Berhan Research Center.Relevant literature and documents were also reviewed to provide theoretical background. Each of the tools used for data collection are described below:Focus Group discussion (FGD): For the PRA study two Kebeles were selected with the recommendation of Angolelana Tera agriculture office. A focused group discussion was carried out with a group of 12 representative sheep farmers and feed producers in each of the kebeles. In forming groups, age, sex and educational level were considered. In the group discussion, each question was thoroughly discussed and the consensus reached by the group was taken as the best information.The informants identified for this study were experts of livestock extension, livestock marketing, cooperative promotion, abattoir managers, traders, meat supermarket managers, butchers, livestock researchers, transporters, veterinarians and NGO representatives. Key informant interviews were carried out with feed and sheep traders in the primary and secondary/intermediate markets of the district with district officers and extension agents. Discussions were also held with the management of Luna Export Abattoir representing the terminal/export market.The data collected from the field through FGD, KII and personal observations were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis techniques to calculate the distribution of costs and margins along sheep and feed value chains.A value chain encompasses the full range of activities and services required to bring a product or service from its conception to sale in its final markets whether local, national, regional or global (Campbell, 2008). Value chains include process actors such as input suppliers, producers, processors, traders and consumers. At one end are the producers -the farmers who grow the crops and raise the animals. At the other end are consumers who eat, drink and wear the final products. In the middle may be many individuals and firms, each performing one small step in the chain: transporting, processing, storing, selling, buying, packaging, checking, monitoring and making decisions. A value chain also includes a range of services needed including technical support (extension), business enabling and financial services, innovation and communication, and information brokering. The value chain actors and service providers interact in different ways starting from the local to national and international levels.The multitudes of functions that are performed to produce goods and make them available for the consumers are also expressed in the concept of the market chain. The market chain refers to the system of actors and organizations, relations, functions, and product, cash and value flows that make possible the transfer of goods or services from the producer to the final consumer. Figure 1 shows the key value chain functions. The value chain includes direct actors who are commercially involved in the chain (producers, traders, retailers, consumers) and indirect actors who provide services or support the functioning of value chain. These include financial or non-financial service providers such as bankers and credit agencies, business service providers, government, researchers and extension agents. Figure 2 illustrates the general framework for value chain actors and support system. The chains can be simple, e.g. when producers directly sell to the consumers, or long and complex when other actors play roles in buying, processing, transporting and selling to the end user, the consumer. The complex chain offers a multitude of choice to farmers. They may choose to supply a specific market segment, and produce the crop or animal that is tailored to that segment. They mayNational RetailersCross-cutting providersFinancial providers also try to process their produce to add value to it: they may dry chillies rather than selling them fresh, or they may make cheese rather than selling the unprocessed milk or cook grain for sale rather than selling raw grain. Farmers need to understand the players in the chain and the requirements of the different branches so they can supply the product which that branch requires. That will increase their bargaining power in the chain, and improve the price they get for their product. This in turn increases farmers' comparative advantage by increasing the volume of supply, quality of the product and consistency of supply, which is often possible when farmers act as a group (DFID, 2003).The core functions in sheep value chain are input supply, production, trade (marketing), processing and consumption.Activities Supply of: Input supply for sheep production includes supply of breeding rams, veterinary drugs and services, feed and credit.The major breed available in the study area is the local breed known as the Menz breed which is characterized by its ability to withstand the dry season, to survive and produce under adverse local environmental conditions (climatic stress, poor quality feed, seasonal feed and water shortage, endemic disease and parasite challenge). These animals often show poor body condition and hence command low market prices. Generally the source of rams is the producer's own flock and breeding is through natural mating. All farmers use local rams for mating and fattening purposes. There is no role of cooperatives or other agencies in the supply of improved or proven rams in the study area.Health service provision is one of the most important inputs to improve sheep production. In the study area, the most important diseases affecting sheep are foot rot (chok), fasciola, pasteurellosis and sheep pox. Major problems for sheep production are the shortage of drugs and veterinarian expertise and inadequate transportation for vet technicians.Animal feed: Sources of animal feed in the area are natural grazing, hay, crop residues and oats. Some improved forage planting materials such as phalaris grass and tree lucerne have been supplied by the District Agricultural Office. A fuller account of feed resources is given in the accompanying FEAST report (Solomon et al, 2012) Some farmers buy noug cake feed (residue from crushing of Guizotia abyssinica) from Debre Birhan and Chacha for their dairy cows and fattening sheep. Farmers feed crop residues for cattle and equines whereas hay is provided only to cattle. The seasons for feed purchases and sales are indicated in Table 1. Crop residues are purchased at crop harvesting season (December-March) and sold during the seasons where there is feed scarcity (April-August). The transaction of hay is mainly The selling price of crop residues and hay for one donkey load (which is about 70kg) was 50 and 70 birr in September/October respectively at the time of asking.Sheep are the main source of income to meet the household's immediate cash needs and they protect other household assets. Farmers produce sheep primarily for sale and occasional slaughter at home for household consumption. The average flock size that is usually maintained by households in the study area is about 20 and the trend is for increasing flock size due to increasing demand for sheep meat. The proportions of sheep used for household consumption and for market are about 15% and 50% respectively. The balance (35%) is the breeding stock.Farmers sell their sheep to anyone who pays an acceptable price and the buyers are mainly other farmers, traders and final consumers. Yearlings of both sexes are sold to market when farmers are in need of cash. The demand and supply of sheep varies with seasons (Table 2). Farmers have to travel (on foot) 2-3 hours to reach the market. They collect market information one week before (for price, type of product required and quantity demanded) from neighbors, friends, traders and/or by inspecting the situation in the market on market day.Farmers sell their sheep at the 'farm gate' or the nearest local/primary markets. Farmers and other market actors use all markets found in their localities regardless of political boundaries and ethnic and cultural differences. In the market routes we can recognize three types of markets namely primary, secondary/ intermediary and tertiary/ terminal markets. The number of market actors participating depends on the level/type of markets. Figure 1 shows the major market place and routes for highland sheep marketing in North Shewa.Sheep pass successively through a number of market actors, implying a series of links in the value chains before the product reaches the end-users. The main actors in sheep markets in the study areas include farmers/producers, brokers, collectors, small traders, large traders, butchers, supermarkets, individual consumers and exporters of meat. Figure 4 shows sheep market routes in North Shewa connected to Addis Ababa market. Producers: These are the first link in the sheep market chain. Their average flock size is 20 sheep per household. Farmers sell their animals mostly when they come across cash constraints for different reasons. They sell sheep to meet their cash demand to pay school fees, procurement of farm inputs, to pay taxes, buy food for their family during summer seasons, etc.Collectors collect sheep from producers and sometimes from brokers and supply to other higher actors including consumers. Collectors have long experience in the market and can easily identify animals that are required by different users. They estimate weight by lifting animals. They fix prices in the market and participate in a cartel with other collectors and traders so that no one gives higher prices. As a result, the seller stands in the market without selling the animals unless individual consumers or farmers come in and buy them.Brokers: Brokers are involved in sheep transactions and obtain commission of unfixed amount from sellers and buyers. They are not legalized and their roles are controversial for the different market participants. Farmers complain about the high commission charges, misbehavior and misinformation by the brokers. Brokers try to hinder the transaction if they are not involved. However, traders who come from distant locations require guarantee of local brokers for any disagreement arising after purchase of the animals (when sold by thieves/robbers and family or share holders disagree to sale). Brokers often identify personal and residential details of sellers and buyers and easily manage disputes.Small traders: Traders buy sheep from producers, collectors and brokers at different markets. Small traders operate mostly using their own capital and supply sheep to large traders, butchers, hotels and restaurants and consumers.Large traders: as the name indicates large traders are in a better position than other traders in terms of capital, information and facilities such as waiting grounds, etc. They usually buy sheep from small traders at the terminal markets and supply to export abattoirs and butchers. The feed cost is covered by the small traders at the market place (a bale of straw for 15-20 sheep) but the facility rent and labor costs are covered by the large traders.Hotels and restaurants: Hotels and restaurants usually buy sheep either from producers, brokers, small traders in the market or they have suppliers (small traders) that supply 10-15 animals a week. Hotels and restaurants usually buy mature female sheep since they believe that females have better meat yield than male animals and because of the relatively lower price of such animals. Hotels and restaurants also buy sheep meat from supermarkets in large towns such as Addis Ababa.Consumers: Consumers are the last link in the sheep market chain. Households often purchase sheep during cultural and religious holidays/festivals. They buy sheep from producers, collectors, small traders and brokers at their nearest markets with their own preference (color, tail, horn etc).Sheep butchers and meat supermarkets are not available in the study area, Debre Birhan, but are found in large towns such as Addis Ababa. The butchers available in large towns focus mainly on fattened, castrated small ruminants of 40-45kg body weight. The retail price offered by sheep butchers was around 135 birr/kg at the time of asking. They buy animals from large/small traders and the number bought at a time varies according to their market size.Supermarkets also slaughter animals of different live weights depending on their customers' needs. They slaughter animals in municipal slaughterhouses and do the cutting and packing at their premises. They mainly slaughter male sheep of 40-45 kg. In addition to sale of packed meat to individuals in their retail outlets, supermarkets supply carcasses to restaurants and hotels on contractual basis.The export abattoirs buying animals from the study areas are located at Modjo, 155km far from the study area (e.g. Luna export abattoir). They buy at the factory gate from traders and slaughter up to 1000-2000 sheep and goats a day on average based on the availability of animals. They buy from large and small traders who can supply a minimum of 100 animals at a time. Export abattoirs encourage large traders in order to deal with a few suppliers rather than several small suppliers. Due to competition among abattoirs, the price of one kg of live weight of sheep has increased to 32 Ethiopian birr in May 2012. Export abattoirs buy male (un-castrated) yearlings weighing 22 to 30 kg. They do not slaughter female animals.The distribution of marketing costs and margins can be shown by tracking some major marketing channels linking producers with the end users. These identified channels represent the full range of available outlets through which sheep move from the different collection points in production areas to the terminal markets to meet end-users' needs. There are four major market channels for sheep produced in the study districts and moving to different markets (Figure 5) Sheep producers buy replacement breeding stock and fattening sheep from the markets. Mostly they buy such animals from known sources such as a neighbours and/or known traders on an appointment basis during the good season for feed. Farmers sell/buy animals of known origin, good physical appearance and good health condition for this purpose. The important sellers for this channel are farmers. However, collectors also collect animals of the required quality during the seasons when such a demand is expected in the market.Hotels in Debre Birhan, Chacha and Sheno and other district towns usually buy mature female sheep. They prefer female sheep to male because they perceive that female sheep have better meat yield and fat cover than male sheep. Hotels slaughter male sheep only rarely. They buy either from their immediate markets or from surrounding markets through collectors that hand over up to 10 -15 sheep on weekly basis. Collectors can get a profit margin of 20 -30 birr per animal from such transactions. Individual consumers (residents) buy slaughter animals mainly during the religious festivals such as New Year, Meskel 3 , Christmas, Easter and Muslim festival day (Arefa). They go for fattened mature sheep. Since such consumers pay better prices compared to buyers for export abattoirs and hotels, producers prefer selling to such buyers. Fattened male sheep that weigh about 35 -50 kg can be sold for as much as 2200 Ethiopian birr (around 44 birr per kg liveweight) during the holidays and 1600 Ethiopian birr (around 32 birr per kg liveweight) during the normal times. Individual consumers buy mostly from producers, brokers, collectors or small traders.Small traders collect fattened mature male (Mukit) and fattened sterile female sheep (Mesina) from the study districts and transport them to the Addis Ababa market especially for the religious holidays.In addition to individual consumers, these animals are sold to sheep butchers and meat supermarkets. The butchers and supermarkets have permanent suppliers for live sheep supply.Traders transporting sheep to the final consumer markets have agents at Karra and Sholla (at the entry to Addis Ababa from the Dessie road) that retail animals in the market. They feed these animals only for maintenance purposes until they are sold.This channel is the largest consumer of young, un-castrated male sheep and goats with in a weight range of 22-30 kg. The export abattoirs buying sheep from the study area are located in Modjo town 70 km South of Addis Ababa. They slaughter up to 1000-2000 sheep and goats every day and export chilled carcasses to the Gulf States, mainly the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Sheep from the study districts are purchased by small traders and handed over to the export abattoirs mainly through the large traders. Thus, sheep from the highland market of North Shewa are also channeled to export abattoirs though it is very hard to get the required number of animals, as the abattoirs purchase on a weight basis unlike individual consumers and give lower prices.The core functions, activities and actors in the feed value chain of the study areas are shown in Figure 6 and each of these functions and actors is described in more detail.Activities Input supply includes supply of land, forage seed and other forage planting materials as well as credit. Land is available for forage production and is not, as such, a constraint for forage production in the study area. However other inputs such as forage seed, and other forage planting materials are not readily available. Credit is also not readily available for forage production.Farmers generally use crop residue and natural pasture for their animals. Farmers produce oats primarily for grain and use the residue for animal feed. More details on feed production are given in the accompanying FEAST report (Solomon et al, 2012).Farmers sell excess feed (usually crop residue) to anybody willing to pay an acceptable price. They sell mainly to urban dairy producers, traders and other farmers. The demand and supply of feed varies with seasons.The most commonly used feed conservation technique in the study area is hay making which is expected to mitigate problems of livestock feeding during the dry season. Farmers also collect, pile and preserve crop residues such as barley, wheat and other legume straws to use during seasons of scarce feed supply.The proportions of feed used for own consumption and for market are about 85% and 15%, respectively. The consumers of marketed feed are urban dairy producers, cart drivers, and cattle fatteners in the nearby urban centers.Feed resources are classified as natural pasture, crop residue, improved pasture and forage, agroindustrial byproducts and other by-products such as food and vegetable refusal, of which the first two represent the dominant feed types (Alemayehu and Sissay, 2003).In the study districts, grazing land and its herbage production are declining due to the loss of grazing lands to cultivation for cropping and also due to poor grazing land management. Hence, alternative livestock feed resources are needed in order to cope with this problem.Crop production is an integral component of mixed farming systems in the Ethiopian Highlands along with livestock production. The availability of crop residues is closely related to the farming systems, the crop produced and the intensity of cultivation (Kossila, 1988).The livestock feeding calendar is an essential livestock management practice to use the available feed resources efficiently, to supply the livestock with feed and to overcome feed shortage. The livestock feeding calendar varies depending on availability of the feed resources in the different months of the year (Alemayehu and Sissay, 2003).The major channels (Figure 7) through which feed passes to reach the final consumers were identified in order to understand the costs and margins of each actor along the channels so as to understand how efficient the different channels are. These identified channels represent the full range of available outlets through which the feed moves from where it is produced to the end-users. Traders and cooperatives have their own shop to sell the concentrate which is mainly wheat bran. The price of concentrate at the cooperative and local traders' shops at the time of asking was 315 birr/quintal and 320 birr/quintal respectively. The main task of the cooperative in the study area is facilitation of input provision to farmers.The majority of producers sell their animals based on visual estimation. Animals are marketed on an individual basis and agreement on prices is reached after a long one-to-one bargaining process between buyers and sellers and sometimes brokers. Local and terminal traders and export agents are better informed of the demands and prices of animals and are decisive in the fixing of prices.Major marketing costs of sheep and feed starting from the producers and the different end-users have been identified. At each stage in the chain, the value of the product goes up as the product becomes more suitable for the end users. However, at the lower end of the value chain, especially with the brokers, the price of the product increases without adding value to the product.Marketing Margins: As Mendoza (1995) argued, when there are several participants in the marketing chain, the margin is calculated by finding the price variations at different segments and then comparing them with the final price to the buyer/ consumer. The buyer/ consumer price is then the base or the common denominator for all marketing margins. Computing the Total Gross Marketing Margin (TGMM) is always related to the final price or the price paid by the end consumer and expressed as a percentage.In marketing chain the net marketing margin of a particular marketing agent, as an indicator of the efficiency of the channel, is defined as the percentage over the final price earned by the intermediary as his net income once his marketing costs are deducted. Gross Margin is a profit divided by sales revenue or gross profit divided by net sales revenue, expressed as percentage (Encarta, 2006).The analysis of marketing costs was based on secondary data and the data collected from the surveyed markets to update some of the costs that have changed.The data for export abattoirs was presented as an aggregate value as compared to other market actors. Since their major cost is that of processing and packing, the total costs given by export abattoirs were put under this category. Transportation cost followed by feed cost and tax (to the municipality) are the major marketing costs for small traders supplying shoats both to the export abattoirs, butchers and supermarkets. Personal costs of travel, taxes and transportation costs are the major costs for collectors. The major costs of large traders are barn and search costs. Search costs are costs of communication (mainly telephone) that are incurred in the process of coordinating the procurement of animals by different agents and financial arrangements for this purpose. However, these costs relative to the overall costs of the animal are negligible. Large traders simply collect commission on the number of animals submitted to the export abattoirs in their name. However, in cases where the small traders hand over animals to large traders at secondary markets, the major cost of large traders becomes costs of transportation and feeding animals. The significance of transportation cost in the shoat value chain shows the role it plays on the competitiveness of the firms. Thus, it calls the attention of policy makers in facilitating the development of a cost-effective standard livestock transportation system although a more regulated system would probably be more costly. While the maximum Freight on Board (FOB) export price at Bole airport is 5.5 USD per kg (1USD equivalent= 17.4 birr), which is equivalent to 98 birr/kg, the domestic sheep meat price is 135 birr/kg. This means export abattoirs are selling at a lower price than the domestic market. However, they are also exporting offals such as kidney, heart, intestines, testicles, penis and brain to different countries. Thus, in order to be competitive in the export market, they try to beat their competitors in the supply market. One of the strategies is to slow down their procurement in the highland areas during holidays when most of the people buy highland sheep. The analysis of costs and margins along the different sheep market channels also shows that the proportion of final sheep price that reaches producers from export abattoirs, butchers and supper market were 58%, 66% and 68%, respectively (Table 4, 5 and 6). This means the proportion of the final sheep price that reaches producers is the least when sheep are sold to export abattoirs relative to the other two alternative outlets. Since there are only two channels in the feed value chain of the study area with very minor participation of a small number of actors, costs and margin were calculated for these channels. The major marketed roughage is crop residues. The proportion of crop residue price that reaches producers was 34.29% of the final price of the product when it is sold to urban users.There is no complex channel in concentrate marketing. Traders bring concentrate from Addis Ababa and sell to users/farmers (Table 5). Due to the shortage of time and difficulty of access to agro-processing plants, the initial price of the concentrate feeds was not obtained. Thus, we calculated only the margin of feed traders in this case. On market day, whether the animals are sold or not, the chance of getting feed and water during the day is minimal. During the rainy season mud is a problem and there is no drainage structure. There is no regular feed market place in the study area. Local feed traders buy crop residues and oat millings from farmers and sell to the local town.The extension system is expected to be the major source of agricultural information and knowledge for the farmers. However, there is poor access to knowledge on how to improve production and delivery service as to where and when to sell sheep and feed products.Lack of feed storage is the major problem especially during the rainy season. Farmers lose significant amounts of the crop residues due to its exposure to rain. Traders buy a crop residue stack from the farmers and they fill it into sacks and transport it immediately to the town. Crop residue traders consider this trading as part-time work and do not realize the importance of storage.Amhara Credit and Saving Institution (ACSI) gives credit with collateral and individuals can get credit. However, the credit provision is based on group collateral but farmers are not much interested this approach in order not to pay for defaulters in their group.Taxes are collected per head of animals in the market yard regardless of whether the animal is sold or not. There is double taxation of the same animal as it crosses checkpoints to reach terminal markets. For example, sheep traders buy sheep from Hamus Market paying tax at the market gate and also pay 100 birr per one truck when they cross Legetafo.We found no cooperatives or other form of association for sheep and feed marketing. Agricultural cooperatives in the area provide only fertilizers and crop seed to their member farmers. This means there is no horizontal linkage of farmers in the area that can help to boost their bargaining power.Farmers are selling their animals on an individual basis and face the marketing challenges on their own. Since they do not have any long standing relation with traders, they also do not have any vertical linkage with other actors in the value chain.Sheep supply in the study areas is higher during the holidays and when the households need money for purchasing seed, fertilizer and other crop inputs. This is mainly because households use sheep as sources of income to cover their immediate cash expenditure. Thus in the study area farmers mostly sell their animals during holidays, and following some seasonal patterns, depending on their financial problems. Seasonality also affects feed demand and there is high feed demand during the dry season.The combination of seasonality and storage problems creates an annual cycle of short peaks in crop residue availability followed by long periods of scarcity.Sheep production in the study area uses traditional practices. During PRA group discussion, farmers revealed that they still do not practice improved sheep production. Extension on marketing of their animal was not given. Stronger extension services, training on sheep and feed production, feed processing and marketing are vital for the development of the value chain.In its five year Growth and Transformation Plan, the Government of Ethiopia aims to increase meat export to 110,000 tones in 2015 (MoFED, 2010). The government envisages earning 1 billion USD from the export of meat and live animals by this time. Thus, it is committed to supporting the private sector involved in the export of these commodities. This could create better market opportunities for sheep producers.High human population and urbanization has considerable impact on patterns of food consumption in general and on demand for livestock products in particular. There is high demand for sheep meat in local markets because of the expansion of restaurants, hotels and butchers. The attitude of the consumer is leading to a change towards a more meat focused diet especially in large towns and cities. Consumers have also realized that highland Menz sheep meat have certain unique taste characteristics.There is also high demand for animal feed. The expansion of peri-urban dairy production around Chacha and Debre Birhan town has created good market opportunities for feed production.The area is becoming well known for dairy cow production and investors have shown interest to engage in dairy farming. The projected increase in the demand for livestock products has important implications for the livestock feed industry, and the demand for energy and protein raw materialsIn recent years the demand in export meat is growing in Middle East countries. Sheep meat is preferred in those countries. The Government of Ethiopia is also encouraging meat export. This creates good market opportunities for sheep producers.Considering the livestock resource potential, the Amhara Regional State has given due emphasis to the development of the sector. Amhara region has established a livestock agency under the Bureau of Agriculture in order to provide all the necessary support to the development of the sector. This could help in increasing input supply such as improved breeds and forage seed. Thus, sheep and feed producers could benefit from the government support and maximize their production.The area is known for livestock production and it is delineated as part of a livestock growth corridor by the regional government. The major livestock opportunities in the corridor include beef, sheep production and dairy operations. Although the area is characterized by mixed crop livestock production, crop farming is becoming difficult due to soil infertility, water logging, frost and land degradation. This creates great opportunity for sheep and feed production.Sheep fattening is becoming one of the most important livestock production activities in the highlands of North Shewa by individuals. The practice also needs more feeds including both concentrates and crop residues. This creates feed demand as well increases feed market.In the past awareness about animal and animal feed production was limited. Currently, emphasis is being given to livestock and feed production by the government and farmers are taking training on how to manage their animals, even though it is not adequate.Transport access is one of the important constraints for sheep and feed trading. Traders transport their sheep directly to the terminal markets (using Isuzu trucks). Feed traders also at Chacha rent an Isuzu trucks and load collected feed packed with sacks to Debre Birhan. The improving road network therefore represents an opportunity.In addition to the existing export abattoirs, the construction of new export abattoirs in the region and around Addis Ababa creates great opportunities for sheep traders as well as farmers by stimulating to produce more sheep and feed to get more moneyNearly all of the respondents rear sheep for occasional household consumption and to generate income. Smallholder farmers are the main suppliers of the animals which are sold at any time when immediate income is required. Farmers reported that they sell their sheep to purchase food items, inputs. The district is known to be drought prone and the sale rate is highest during crop failures and before harvest of staple food crops. Sheep is considered as the major farm buffering asset for these households.Rural collectors buy sheep from farm gates and local markets to sell to other surrounding markets. They are usually farmers who run their business during off-farm seasons to generate income from trade of sheep and other animals.Individual consumers or those who provide catering services purchase animals from nearby markets. Household consumers often purchase during cultural and religious holidays/festivals. Agents for export abattoirs (Luna) purchase sheep from Shola market in Addis Ababa and other surrounding markets. They usually purchase young male sheep and goats on live weight basis within body weight range of 22-30 kg.Large traders aiming at terminal markets purchase sheep from Shola (Addis Ababa) and other surrounding markets for major cultural and religious holidays/festival. They purchase large numbers of fattened male animals with high body weight, good body condition and attractive physical characteristics (colour, tail, horn). There is a remarkable pattern of seasonal variation of animal supply, demand and price. The variability in sales is related to the seasonal holiday markets, crop planting and harvesting seasons and drought seasons. Due to lack of marketing systems with transparent and standardized price/price information, the price is fixed through protracted one-to-one bargaining with traders and brokers. Hence, information on quantitative aspects of markets (supply, demand, prices, producer and consumer behavior) is not adequately known.Major sheep feeds come from grazing on crop stubbles, private pasture, road side vegetation, communal pasture, weeds and tillers. Feed availability largely depends on the season of the year when lands are covered with either Meher or Belg season crops. Quality and quantity of the seasonally available feeds are usually inadequate. Optimum utilization of seasonally available feeds through preservation of crop residues and grasses and strategic supplementation with low cost alternatives such as development of improved forage is vital to balance seasonal feed supply and animal requirements.It is not only the utilization of these feed resources that needs expertise, but also the quantification of these feed resources itself. In this regard, the value of crop residues as animal feed becomes important because of the long dry season. Use of a livestock feeding calendar is an essential livestock management practice to use the available feed resources efficiently and to supply the livestock with high quantity and quality feed and to overcome feed shortage.One of the methods used to improve the utilization efficiency of feed resources is storage. Proper storage of the feed for use during the dry period, especially crop residues which are produced in large quantities, is not currently common practice and could be an area for intervention.The major constraints of forages were lack of knowledge and seed, these may be overcome by extension.The foregoing raises a number of issues which could be addressed moving forward: A considerable number of farmers sell their best animals to meet household expenses, to settle social obligations and to purchase food items during severe drought. Coping strategies to alleviate the food shortage during severe drought season through food-for-work, cash-for-work or credit need to be devised to ease pressure on the sheep enterprise. This would provide scope for more retention of good quality animals for breeding purposes and this could reap long-term dividends in terms of animal performance  Grazing land and feed are in increasingly short supply. Therefore, interventions need to be matched to the household flock holdings and be aimed at improving breed quality within small household flocks. Household level sheep fattening management is common and involves an extended period using generous inputs. Research needs to provide information on the efficient and economic utilization of the available resources. The strong seasonality of demand for sheep represents an opportunity to focus short-term fattening to produce animals in the appropriate condition to coincide with periods of peak prices. This would require some form of farmer organization to allow training and mentoring as well as some technical expertise on suitable fattening regimes. This would seem a promising avenue for intervention. The private sector needs to be encouraged in areas of sheep development by generating and availing appropriate information for investment on the potential benefits to be gained from the growing domestic and export markets. In the smallholder systems farmers have to be equipped with new knowledge that can enable them improve the management and storage of crop residues and proper supplementation with forage legumes, interventions in the improvement of pastures and fodders, over-sowing pastures with forage legumes, using multi-purpose trees and establishing fodder banks. This would all need to be linked to bullet 3 above to ensure targeted least cost feeding to yield animals at marketable weight at market price peaks.","tokenCount":"6775"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"37a32a86e9b20678337db5cf7fbea0e0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3987fcf1-c6a0-47ba-9659-f6db129445cf/retrieve","id":"655861701"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"68b05f36-11ce-40fc-aefc-8cde8c757875","pagecount":"35","content":"IWMI encourages the use of its material provided that the organization is acknowledged and kept informed in all such instances.Front cover photograph shows individual pumps in action, with the rule that only one should be operating at the same time (photo: Wafa Ghazouani).The publications in this series cover a wide range of subjects-from computer modeling to experience with water user associations-and vary in content from directly applicable research to more basic studies, on which applied work ultimately depends. Some research reports are narrowly focused, analytical and detailed empirical studies; others are wide-ranging and synthetic overviews of generic problems.Although most of the reports are published by IWMI staff and their collaborators, we welcome contributions from others. Each report is reviewed internally by IWMI staff, and by external reviewers. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically (www.iwmi.org) and where possible all data and analyses will be available as separate downloadable files. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgment.IWMI's mission is to provide evidence-based solutions to sustainably manage water and land resources for food security, people's livelihoods and the environment. IWMI works in partnership with governments, civil society and the private sector to develop scalable agricultural water management solutions that have a tangible impact on poverty reduction, food security and ecosystem health.This research study analyzes how farmers adapt to water scarcity in the command area of a secondary canal in the Nile Delta of Egypt (al-Bayda Canal). The results of the study show that farmers use several methods to adapt to water scarcity: changing cropping patterns, crafting collective irrigation rules, reusing agricultural drainage water, practicing deficit and night irrigation, and over-irrigating whenever water is available. The analysis then focuses on the changes in cropping patterns, seeking to demonstrate how crop choice is shaped and constrained by a set of factors, including water availability and economic profitability. Interestingly, the lowest water-intensive, but most cost-effective in terms of return per cubic meter, crop (watermelon) was mainly cultivated in the locations with the best water supply, while waterintensive crops, such as luffah (sponge gourd plant) or grapes, were mostly cultivated in the unfavorable lower reaches of the canal.Understanding how farmers adapt to water scarcity reveals that there are other factors besides water scarcity and profit maximization that affect the responses of farmers. These additional factors include food security of the family, agronomic risk management, social capital and history of farmers, and most unexpectedly the collective dimension of crop choice. This illustrates the variegated rationales and constraints as well as the collective dimensions of individual crop choice, and cautions against the oversimplified view of profit maximization as the basis of farming system dynamics.It has often been highlighted that irrigated agriculture receives the lion's share of water diversions, and that there is a need to improve resource-use efficiency (Kijne et al. 2003;Rijsberman 2006;FAO 2012). New investments in the improvement and management of irrigation infrastructure (e.g., rehabilitation of irrigation schemes, technical modernization, community development, capacity building and institutional reforms) are seen as being necessary for increasing water and soil productivity of irrigated cropping systems in the context of water scarcity coupled with the intense competition for water among different sectors (Rosegrant and Cline 2003;Rijsberman 2006; Khan and Hanjra 2008;FAO 2012). However, the management of irrigation systems under conditions of shortages and uncertainty in water supplies is a critical challenge to the productivity of irrigated agriculture. Water-use efficiency at the field level is often said to be low (Hamdy et al. 2003;Rajput and Patel 2005;El-Agha et al. 2011), and farmers are blamed for this inefficiency (Howell 2001;Bouman et al. 2007;FAO 2012). However, this view is often both incorrect and unfair (Perry 2007;Molle et al. 2010), as farmers operating under conditions of water scarcity are unlikely to waste water. The constrained environment in which farmers operate and make choices is frequently not well understood and documented.Managing irrigation under conditions of water scarcity has been extensively documented. On the one hand, engineering approaches have provided a coarse view of how temporary and/ or chronic shortages are distributed over the cropped command areas and over time. The changes in cropping patterns associated with growing uncertainty in irrigation supply have been addressed by a number of studies (e.g., Hussain et al. 2007;Gaur et al. 2008;Bekchanov et al. 2010;Venot et al. 2010;Carr 2013), which have developed a set of useful indicators from a water management perspective, but remained vague about the impact of water scarcity on farmers' practices and livelihoods. On the other hand, social and economic sciences have addressed the equity issues of top-down projects and policies (e.g., El-Shinnawi et al. 1980;Skold et al. 1984;Wichelns 1998;Wichelns 2000;Wichelns 2002;Hussain et al. 2003). For example, El-Shinnawi et al. (1980), Skold et al. (1984), Bhattarai et al. (2002), Brugere and Lingard (2003), Latif (2007), andAruna Shantha andAli (2013) identified an income gap between the upper and lower reaches of the canal, which is due to the large share of water used by farmers at the head end of the canal to the detriment of those at the tail end. The differences in water availability, inequity in water distribution, and the impacts of inadequate irrigation on yields and farmers' income have been well documented in Egypt and in many other arid and semiarid regions (e.g., El-Shinnawi et al. 1980;Skold et al. 1984;Brugere and Lingard 2003;Tyagi et al. 2005;Bekchanov et al. 2010;El-Agha et al. 2011). In other words, the past assessments have often viewed the individual responses of farmers to water scarcity through the lens of a single technical or economic factor.A few analyses, however, have considered multiple factors that shape farmers' adaptation to imposed water scarcity and uncertainty in water supplies. For instance, Liwenga (2008) emphasized the importance of local knowledge and farmers' cumulative experiences, while Pereira et al. (2002) highlighted the importance of human capital, cultural skills and traditional know-how. This study seeks to understand how farmers respond to water shortages by considering water scarcity along with physical, environmental, agronomic, social, cultural and economic factors. This research study shows that the responses of farmers to cope with reduced water availability are driven by multiple factors and not only by water availability or average income alone, as usually perceived.The focus of this study is on the multiplicity of factors that shaped farmers' adaptation in an environment of decreasing water availability and uncertainty in water supplies in the western part of the Nile Delta in Egypt. The report starts by describing the physical context and shows that there is a decrease in water availability along the al-Bayda branch (secondary) canal. It then continues to identify and analyze how farmers adapt to such decreases according to different locations, while an economic evaluation of the cropping patterns adopted is presented. Finally, we discuss the rationale for crop choice in more detail, which reveals its complexity. While the discussion is largely based on findings from the al-Bayda branch canal, it uses other studies on arid and semiarid areas to add relevant elements.This case study is conducted in the al-Bayda branch canal, which is located at the tail end of the Mahmoudiya main canal in the northwestern part of the Nile Delta close to Alexandria (Figure 1). The study identifies farmers' responses to water scarcity as a result of the (i) priority given to drinking water supplies for Alexandria, which increasingly poses restrictions on water use for agriculture. Municipal water consumption represents 70% of the total water supply from the Mahmoudiya Canal, after the off-take of the Kafr el-Dawar regulator which is located before the off-take to al-Bayda Canal (WMRI 2010); and (ii) expansion of rice cultivation in the delta, which exceeded more than twice the area that is officially allowed (Arafat et al. 2010). Due to the continuous increase in demand, the capacity of the Mahmoudiya Canal is insufficient to provide water for both urban and agricultural uses during periods of peak demand in the summer.The Mahmoudiya Canal (primary level) has a total length of 78 km and gets its water from the Rosetta branch of the Nile River. The average electrical conductivity (EC) of canal water is 0.59 dS/m (FAO 2005), which makes this water suitable for both drinking purposes and agricultural use. The Mahmoudiya Canal is operated on a continuous flow basis. Although there is sufficient water to meet the requirements during the winter season, there is barely enough water to meet the requirements of summer crops (WMRI 2009(WMRI , 2010)). In addition, rainfall near the coast is significant during the winter season, and is 200 mm/year, on average.Water is distributed among 90 branch canals (secondary level) through sluice gates, where main inflows are controlled according to upstream and downstream water levels rather than actual discharge. The branch canal intakes are operated according to an 'on-day' and 'off-day' fixed rotational schedule. The gate operator (or bahhar) is responsible for opening and closing the gates, and adjusting the water level according to the schedule provided by the district engineer. At the tertiary level, open earthen tertiary canals (mesqas) provide water to individual pumps that feed quaternary field ditches known as marwas (ditches). The al-Bayda branch canal (Figure 1) serves a total command area of about 1,764 ha (or 4,201 feddans, where 1 feddan = 0.42 ha) of reclaimed land. Because of its relative tail-end position, the al-Bayda branch canal is disadvantaged and receives a relatively low amount of irrigation water supply per unit area (23.6 m 3 /feddan/day) in the summer. In comparison, the Nekla branch canal, which is located at the head end of the main canal, receives more than double this amount of water (WMRI 2010).The command area includes 52 mesqas, perpendicular to the al-Bayda Canal, and serves areas between 15 and 49 ha (with a mean of 34 ha), which are irrigated through 4 to 11 marwas. Mesqas receive irrigation water through gravity from the Al-Bayda branch canal via sliding gates, which were initially designed to be opened and closed according to a rotational schedule. Marwas receive water from the mesqas through mobile and individual diesel pumps, owned by farmers, and is carried out according to a specific rotational schedule among farmers belonging to the same marwa. At the time of settlement in the early 1960s, young farmers received five feddans divided into three equal plots which were situated in different locations of the same mesqa (head, middle and tail end), in order to apply the obligatory agricultural rotation: rice/cotton/farmers' own choice. A majority of the young settlers came from the Governorate of ad-Daqahliyah in the eastern Nile Delta (Meet Ghamr and Beshla). Currently, the second and third generations of farmers own fragmented plots situated in different marwas of the same mesqa, and they use one to two pumps that need to be moved between their plots. The command area includes two main central administrative villages (Abis 3 and Abis 4), located on the secondary al-Gamea drain, and 18 satellite settler villages, located along the al-Bayda branch canal (see Figure 1).As in the rest of the Nile Delta, the prevailing methods of irrigation at the plot level are basin irrigation for crops such as rice, wheat and berseem (Egyptian clover), and furrow irrigation (broad and narrow) for crops such as maize and vegetables as well as trees.The drainage network is composed of both open drains and subsurface pipes. Each marwa has a parallel small field drain that transfers excess water to a tertiary drain (parallel to the mesqa), which itself discharges into the northern or southern secondary drains (parallel to the branch canal). The main collector, the Muhit Maryout al-Sharqi drain, then discharges drainage water to Lake Maryout (see Figure 1). The average EC of drainage water is 2.74 mS/cm (Elshorbagy 2000). There is no spill of canal water into drains. Operation and maintenance (O&M) of the main canal, branch canals, main drain collectors and secondary drains are the responsibility of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI), while farmers are responsible for the O&M of mesqas, marwas, and tertiary and field drains.Cropping patterns include two crops per year, as in the rest of the Nile Delta, where rice and maize are the main summer (May -October) crops, and wheat and berseem are the main winter (November -May) crops. Summer vegetables (e.g., fine green beans, sweet potato, tomato, eggplant, pepper, cabbage, cucumber, watermelon [for seeds] and melon) can be found in addition to sponge gourd plants (luffah) and perennial crops, especially grapes. Maize can be planted in rows to produce sweetcorn (green or dry seeds) or broadcasted to serve as fodder crops in the summer. Rice nurseries are planted in May, and the seedlings are transplanted between the end of May and the mid-end of June. Rice harvesting usually takes place in October. Berseem is an important leguminous forage crop, since it has a nitrogen-fixing ability, with a fast winter growth rate and relatively long growing season (allowing from 5 to 10 successive cuts). Cattle, especially buffalo, cows, donkeys and more rarely sheep and goats, are always associated with farming activities.The al-Bayda branch command area is part of the wet and salty lands that were reclaimed from the coastal lake as part of the Abis project, which was a land reclamation and community development project launched after the 1952 revolution and farmed since 1961 (Voll 1980). It consists of old alluvial plains with a very flat topography (FAO 2005), and heavy clay and mildly saline soils (Kotb et al. 2000). Groundwater is saline and found at shallow depths as the groundwater table fluctuates between 1 and 1.6 m below the surface in the Mahmoudiya command area. Towards the North, the freshwater layer overlaying saline water becomes thinner and more saline (FAO 2005).The case study is based on individual and semi-structured on-farm interviews focusing on farmers' crop choice and irrigation constraints associated with water scarcity, which is defined by FAO (2012) as a situation where \"demand for freshwater exceeds supply in a specified domain.\" This provided a means of exploring perceptions and gaining a deeper insight into the different practices and strategies that farmers follow. Farmers were asked to describe the pattern of water distribution at several levels, irrigation and drainage constraints, the historical evolution of cropping systems, and their farm and livelihood strategies.The fieldwork was conducted during the summer months of 2011 and 2012. Seven locations along the branch canal were selected and coded as L1 through to L7, from the head end to the tail end of the branch canal (see Figure 1). In each location, the mesqas situated on both the left and right banks of the al-Bayda branch canal were surveyed (14). In each mesqa, we selected three marwas located, respectively, at the head, middle and tail ends (42). In each marwa, one to two farmers were randomly selected for an on-farm interview, which resulted in a total of 60 interviews with farmers in the local Arabic dialect.Through those farmer interviews, we collected information on the actual cropping pattern in the summer season of 2012 for all the 42 surveyed marwas, which represents 26% of the total surface area. An economic survey was also conducted with a restricted number of farmers (one to two farmers for each major crop), in order to (i) quantify the current costs, and gross and net margins under optimal conditions of irrigation (i.e., number of rounds of irrigation identified as being sufficient to reach potential yields); and (ii) perform an analysis of the water productivity of the main summer crops. The gross value of production was defined as the yield multiplied by (i) the local crop price (rice, maize, grapes, core melon); (ii) an average between the lowest price and the highest price during the season when the harvest is staggered (tomato); or (iii) an average price when there are different grades or categories of the same crop (luffah, cabbage, sweet potato). Costs include (i) inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and diesel; and (ii) hired labor mainly for (trans) planting, weeding, irrigation and harvesting. Maize for forage, eggplant, pepper, okra, green beans and cucumber were not included in the economic survey due to their minimal contribution to household income.Chi-square statistical tests were conducted to assess the probability of association or independence of two qualitative factors, which were applied here to test the spatial distribution of the adopted practices and strategies according to the proximity of an irrigation water resource. To show the spatial distribution of farmers' adaptation practices to varying water supply conditions, we analyzed the proportion of farmers, marwas or fields according to the proximity of an irrigation water resource.Farmers were unanimous in reporting that there were abundant water resources before the 1990s, which allowed a flexible irrigation system and consequently the ability to cultivate a large quantity of vegetables during the peak summer season, even at the tail end of the branch canal and mesqas. Water delivery was predictable, with a rotation of 4 days on and 4 days off in the al-Bayda Canal command area. It was initially reported that gravity irrigation could be practiced in some areas, but pumps were then progressively introduced to eventually cover the command area. The number of offdays was later increased to 6 days until 2000, and then to 8 days until 2005. Recently, the off-period was fixed by the MWRI at 10 days. In addition to increasing the off-period, the current on/off schedule was said to be increasingly unpredictable, especially during the peak summer season (June, July and August). Farmers usually expect a delay of 1 to 5 days and the off-period would frequently exceed 10 days.Analysis of the current irrigation scheduling showed a dramatic decrease in water availability in the downstream reaches of the branch canal. Water reached the tail end marwas of the head location (L1) a few hours after the opening of the al-Bayda branch canal. During the peak summer season, water took a day to reach the tail end marwas in locations L2, L3 and L4. Marwas in the head end and middle end locations of L5, and those in the head end location of L6 received water 2 days later, whereas farmers belonging to the marwas in the tail end had just one day per turn to irrigate their crops. Freshwater seldom reached the extremity of the branch canal (L7) and was only used once in each of the three rotations, so farmers increasingly pumped water from the main drain. Drainage water reuse is a common strategy among farmers to increase supply to their fields.The field survey also showed that most of the fields in the head end of the canal had more on-days than the four official days fixed by the MWRI. This means that even during the stated official off-period, the main gate feeding the branch canal could be 'un-officially' opened (farmers reported instances of bribing the Bahhar, who would allow the main sliding gate to be opened slightly). In addition, the control weir located at the head end of the branch canal allows for the storage of water in the upstream reaches, especially for the two mesqas represented by L1. Furthermore, due to the slope of the land towards the northern lateral drain, some mesqas benefited from stored water in the terminal reaches until the next rotation, even during the peak summer season.All the farmers interviewed highlighted the current inequitable distribution of water across the head and tail end reaches of the branch canal. Inequity along the mesqas was also mentioned, but to a lesser extent. While farmers in the head end reaches spoke about luck and recognized being in a favorable situation, those in the tail end reaches referred to the injustice of water sharing arrangements. Land prices are also reported to vary as a function of the position of the branch canal (but also due to the asphalt main road along the branch canal).Farmers reported three main options for adapting to a long period of water shortages: (i) seeking other sources of water such as drainage water; (ii) influencing the Bahhar to gain access to more water (bribing and in-kind 'gifts') 1 ; and (iii) social mobilization, especially since farmers have become more aware of their rights after the revolution of January 2011 and feel less constrained to mobilize 2 .When asked about the reasons behind the gradual lengthening of the off-period and the current unpredictability of water supply, 35% of the farmers pointed to Alexandria, which is given priority to water supply from the Mahmoudiya main canal, particularly during the tourist summer period 3 . Some farmers (28%) blamed the continuous expansion of irrigated areas in the desert. Others (17% of the farmers) reported that the reason behind the current unpredictability of water supply was to push farmers to accept the planned improvement of the irrigation network (Integrated Irrigation Improvement and Management Project [IIIMP]), which was presented by the government as the best option for farmers to reduce water shortages.of the fields against 9% for L6 and L7 together; similarly, while melon represented 18% of the plots in L1 and L2, it is almost absent in the tail end locations.The cultivation of grapes is linked to water quality (salinity) rather than water availability, whereas the cultivation of luffah is more dependent on water availability. Grapes are mostly cultivated in the lower reaches of the al-Bayda branch canal. Indeed, locations L6 and L7 alone totalized 91% of the grape fields (which made up 28% and 19% of the total plots, respectively). Luffah is also dominant in tail end locations, with L6 and L7 concentrating 55% of luffah fields (which made up 12% and 8% of the plots, respectively). In addition, 90% of the grape fields were concentrated near the branch canal, while 64% of luffah fields are found close to the secondary drains.Vegetable cultivation is driven or constrained by water availability more than by water quality (pollution). As a result, the water-demanding vegetables are concentrated at the head end of the branch canal (for instance, location L1 alone included 56% of tomatoes and 30% of pepper). On the contrary, eggplant, cabbage and potato are mostly found in middle locations, with L3, L4 and L5 totalizing up to 63%, 74% and 74%, respectively. In addition, the proximity of the secondary drains concentrated 67% of vegetables. Maize cultivation is equally distributed between the al-Bayda Canal and the secondary drains, indicating that it was not constrained by water availability or water quality.There is no rotation between the mesqas of the al-Bayda Canal. The sliding gates at each mesqa inlet are permanently open and farmers divert water from the al-Bayda Canal whenever it is available. No specific rule allowing an equitable distribution of water between mesqas in the head end and tail end can be found, and any particular Farmers observe the increasing water shortage and its effects on yields. They reported many combined practices and strategies to mitigate the effects of water scarcity on yields and, consequently, on their incomes. In what follows, we explain the relationships between water scarcity (approximated here as the relative distance to a water source) and i) actual cropping pattern, ii) water sharing rules (in marwas), iii) reuse of drainage water, iv) night irrigation, v) number of individual diesel pumps owned by farmers, and vi) frequency of conflicts. The spatial distribution of any of these adopted practices is statistically related to the proximity to a water source when the p-value (p v ) is less than or equal to 0.05.The spatial distribution of irrigated summer crops reflects the distance to a water source, either the branch canal or the secondary drains. Figure 2 shows that rice was the slightly dominant crop at the head end and middle end of the al-Bayda Canal. Further, 76% of rice was concentrated on the marwas in the proximity of the secondary drains rather than near the branch canal, which shows the benefit of a perennial water source for rice cultivation. Field observations also showed that two to three marwas of each of the head and middle end mesqas were exclusively devoted to rice cultivation, according to a two-to three-year crop rotation. Rice occupies 33% of the cultivated area of L1, between 24% and 29% in L2, L3, L4 and L5, and is down to 6% in L6 and 8% in L7. In the tail end of the branch canal, rice cultivation only appears in the head marwas (near the al-Bayda Canal) and/or tail marwas (near the main drain), or not at all.As explained later in this report, the cultivation of watermelon and melon is not correlated with conditions of water scarcity. Their cultivation is concentrated in the upper reaches of the branch canal (Figure 2), with L1 and L2 totalizing 65% mesqa is fed according to the level of water in the al-Bayda Canal. The same situation is observed within each mesqa, except that only one pump (or exceptionally, two, when water is abundant) can be operated at the head of a given marwa at any given time. An occasional additional rule applies to mesqas that supply rice, which puts a limit in terms of pumping duration.More collective rules were identified at the marwa level, where farmers organized rotations between themselves. The Chi-square analysis shows the adoption of irrigation rules at the marwa level to be highly related to the position on the branch canal, with most rigorous rules observed at both the head and tail end reaches of the al-Bayda Canal. The rigidity of rules in the head end reaches of the canal is related to rice and vegetables, which require frequent rounds of irrigation, whereas the rules in the tail end reaches are related to increasing water shortages, as one goes downstream.Results show that the dominant rule is 'first come first served' in 33% of the marwas surveyed.To avoid conflicts and instill some discipline, 19% of the marwas agreed to have 'order rules', whereby upstream fields are served first and in succession, with or without a sanction for upstream latecomers (i.e., if a farmer misses his turn then he has to wait until all the other fields are served). Alternatively, the turn from upstream to downstream is followed by a round that starts from the last field. Two more rigorous rules are justified by priorities linked with the value or the nature of the crop: vegetables are given priority in 26% of the marwas, and rice in 7%. Finally, an order rule (sometimes together with a fixed duration for each hectare) is agreed for the marwas (14.3%) that are exclusively under rice (Figure 3).The three head locations (L1, L2 and L3) are characterized by the predominance of the rule 'priority to vegetables' in 61% of the 18 marwas surveyed. Once vegetables are irrigated, the 'first come first served' rule applied in 64% of the marwas. Rice is found in the entire cultivated area served by 14.3% of the marwas surveyed, and the irrigation duration of a feddan is agreed to be fixed at 2.25 to 3 hours in 67% of the cases. The tail end locations were characterized by the complete absence of the priority given to vegetables, the presence of order rules in 33.3% of the 24 marwas surveyed, while the irrigation of rice received priority in 12.5% of the marwas surveyed.The frequency of drainage water reuse was expected to increase towards the downstream areas, as water availability decreased. However, the Chi-square analysis indicated that there was no significant difference in the frequency of drainage water reuse between the seven locations. Mainly, the frequency of reuse depended on both the actual needs and farmers' access to the secondary drains, while farmers did not have the option to consider the quality of the drainage water (mostly mixed with sewage water from 20 villages). In other words, the availability of drainage water mattered more than its quality in any location of the branch canal (although 4% of farmers stopped using drainage water because of its poor quality).Data shows that during the off-days, 48% of the farmers interviewed did not use drainage water, 38% stressed its frequent reuse, 13% had the drains as their only water source and only 1% had stopped reuse because of \"the bad quality of drainage water\". The farmers who did not use drainage water were divided between those who did not want to use it (23%) and those who wished to use it but could not access it (25%) (Figure 4). The former did not need drainage water for the irrigation of maize, fruit trees and watermelon; a dominant proportion of this category of farmers was located in the head end reaches of the canal. The farmers who could not access drains -either because they are located far away or because neighbors did not grant them access -are scattered.Farmers who were only using drainage water were, of course, generally located in the tail end of marwas, with direct access to secondary drains. Even those farmers in the tail of head-end mesqas opted for using drainage water to i) be independent from canal water supply, ii) avoid purchasing another pump, and iii) reduce labor and the burden of moving one pump from the mesqa to the secondary drain. For these farmers, the quality of drainage water was good due to the abundance of freshwater in the upstream fields. In contrast, farmers in tail end mesqas stressed that drainage water was their main source of water during the peak summer season, when only one-third of irrigation events are ensured by the al-Bayda branch canal. Farmers situated away from the secondary drains and located in tail end reaches of mesqas agreed to organize amongst themselves to pool several pumps and tap drainage water back to the mesqa.The category of 'frequent reuse of drainage water' is high in tail end locations as well as in head end locations, but corresponds to different strategies. While farmers in head end locations (L1, L2 and L3) spoke about the need for a complementary water source mainly to irrigate rice when the duration of off-days exceeded 3 days (and 5 days for vegetables), those in tail end locations referred to the drains as the main available source of irrigation water during the peak summer season.Farmers are aware of the consequences that the frequent reuse of drainage water would have on the soil as well as on people's health.All farmers described drainage water as a mixture of (saline) agricultural drainage water and wastewater, where the water quality decreases as one moves downstream. Most farmers referred to the health risks associated with the direct contact with this mixed drainage/wastewater. However, farmers in head end locations (especially in L1 and L2) state that the quality of the drainage water was good even for irrigating vegetables, which was due to the abundance of (still a little polluted) water coming from upstream fields. The majority of farmers further reported that the use of drainage water increases labor to move the diesel pump from the mesqa to the secondary or the main drain.The limited supply of water resulted in the necessity to have additional irrigations at night. The assumption is that the frequency of night irrigation increases as water availability decreased in the downstream areas. However, results showed that farmers in both head and tail end locations practiced night irrigation. Busy farmers with alternative activities besides agriculture or farmers with sensitive plants such as luffah or vegetables prefer to irrigate at night, and to also enjoy a higher flow which allows continuous irrigation without the fear of the canal drying up. However, farmers in tail end locations were more dependent on night irrigation, because irrigation water is mainly available at night. For instance, whereas none of the farmers in location L1 were forced to irrigate at night, all farmers at the other extreme (L7) mainly depended on night irrigation (Figure 5).The increased water shortage also drove farmers to owning more than one diesel pump, in order to be able to conduct synchronized independent irrigations of plots located in different marwas of the same mesqa (remember farmers were initially given three plots). Results confirmed the expectation that the proportion of farmers owning more than one pump would increase going towards downstream areas, as water availability decreased, with most of the 23% of farmers in the tail end reaches of the branch canal purchasing an additional pump. For instance, whereas only 16% of farmers in locations L1, L2 and L3 owned two pumps, this proportion was 33% in locations L5, L6 and L7. Of the farmers surveyed, only 8% did not use a pump for irrigation, because the high slope of the mesqa allowed gravity irrigation (in locations L1 and L5). Nevertheless, some of the farmers purchased one or two pumps to withdraw water from the secondary drain or from the mesqa during the off-days, since it served as a storage basin. they comply with local norms, for example, as illustrated by local sayings (\"water does not pass the thirsty\" and \"water turns, it never remains with the same person\") and the absence of a restriction on the number of marwas that are 'on' at the same time.The frequency of conflicts at the marwa level was expected to increase when going towards downstream areas, as water availability decreased. Results confirmed these expectations, but to a lesser extent at the end of the branch canal. Figure 6 shows that the middle and tail end of the branch canal concentrated most of the marwas that were experiencing conflict, e.g., 50% and 67% in locations L5 and L6, respectively, compared to no reported marwa conflicts in location L1. Frequently, water did not reach the end of the branch canal (location L7) and farmers mainly depended on drainage water for irrigation. Thus, only 33% of the marwas located close to this branch canal are declared as being prone to conflicts. Farmers in the head end reaches of the al-Bayda canal related the low frequency of conflicts to the spread of vegetable fields under furrow irrigation, short irrigation durations, and also to the strict priority given to rice irrigation.Although all the farmers of the lower reaches referred to the problem of water availability, they tried to de-emphasize the seriousness of the conflicts: \"why lose a relative, a friend or a neighbor because of a problem that is not under our control … a problem that all of us are subjected to\"4 .The reasons behind conflicts are varied. Some conflicts are due to \"excessive pumping duration\", especially in the tail end reaches of the branch canal. Other conflicts occurred at the beginning of the on-period, especially for farmers cultivating vegetables in the middle of the al-Bayda canal. Some farmers declared that the most important reason behind irrigation rules, such as the fixed irrigation duration for each rice farmer or the priority for vegetables, is to avoid conflicts. Another kind of conflict is related to FIGURE 6. Distribution of the frequency of conflicts along marwas according to the location along the branch canal (χ² = 13.07, df = 6, p v = 0.042, n= 42 marwas).access to the main drain, when farmers located alongside the drain refused to let upstream farmers access or lay some pipe through their land to access the drain. All these conflicts are generally mediated by elderly farmers and the conflicting parties usually accept their decision.Farmers in both the head and tail ends of the branch canal are unable to provide sufficient freshwater to cover the water requirements during the long intervals between two successive irrigations (more than 10 days). However, headend farmers may over-irrigate during the onperiod as a means of storing water in the soil profile. Considering one irrigation turn and the same crop (in this case, rice) data showed that farmers irrigated from one to four times as long as water was available in the mesqa, particularly during the peak summer season. Some farmers reported that rice needs to be irrigated every day during the summer. In addition, a disparity between head and tail end reaches was observed. For instance, during the on-period, farmers in the head end locations (L1, L2, L3 and L4) irrigated their plots from 2.25 to 3 hours/feddan at least three to four times, while those in the middle and tail end locations (L4, L5 and L6) irrigated twice at most and farmers reported having to wait all day to complete an irrigation event due to the low inflow in the mesqa (which also compelled them to interrupt pumping water several times). In addition, during off-days, rice is irrigated at least twice from secondary or tertiary drains. In other words, as the highest water consumer, rice is irrigated at least 16 times between June and September, and the number of irrigation rounds could be more than twice this number for farmers in the upper reaches.Other crops such as luffah, maize, trees and vegetables are less time (and water) consuming than rice (0.75 to 1.5 hours/feddan) since they are under furrow irrigation. However, luffah is also relatively water-consuming in terms of irrigation frequency, because it needs an irrigation per rotation from April to mid-November and then no irrigation until January (end of harvest) (16 to 18 irrigation rounds). With one to three irrigation applications per season, cantaloupe, watermelon for seeds and sweet potato are by far the lowest water consumers. Grapes need six to eight irrigation applications per year, with four applications (at most) in the summer season and no irrigation from November to January. Farmers irrigated tomato around six times and maize around five times.T h e e c o n o m i c p e r f o r m a n c e o f t h e m o s t commercialized crops, when grown under optimal conditions of irrigation in the al-Bayda Canal command area, are presented in figures 7, 8 and 9 in 2012 prices.Results showed that, in line with farmers' accounts, luffah and watermelon (for seeds) have the highest returns. Indeed, the net revenue from luffah represented 1.5 times that of watermelon, 2.0 times that of tomato, 2.8 times that of grapes, 3.7 times that of rice, 4.8 times that of cabbage, 9.4 times that of green or dry maize and 10.8 times that of potato (Figure 7). However, luffah is also considered as the crop with the highest production costs (between 1.4 to 6.2 times that of other crops), bringing high production risks to farmers in the event of crop failure due to pests/diseases or low market prices. Indeed, growing luffah requires a sturdy wooden structure, because it is a climbing plant. The cost of such a structure is estimated at 73% of the total costs of the first production year (Figure 8). Consequently, after a 10-year amortization, the ratio of the net revenue of luffah to that of other crops varies between 2.3 to 17.1.Watermelon ranked second in terms of net revenue, but with the highest ratio of net revenue to the production costs (2) compared with a ratio varying from 1.1 to 0.3 for the other crops. The second highest crop in terms of production costs after luffah, and third in terms of net revenue, is tomato. Tomato production costs are mainly related to harvesting (43%), fertilizers (26%) and pesticides (15%). However, its final revenue is still higher than the common crops, e.g., 1.4 times that of rice and 3.6 times that of maize.Grapes is also considered as a high-cost crop 5 (1.7 times the production costs of rice or 3.1 times that of maize); and pruning, training, canopy management and weeding took the lion's share of production costs (49%). Sweet potato and cabbage are also high-cost crops, but cabbage has 2.3 times the net revenue of potato. The high production costs of potato are related to harvesting and washing the finished product (28%), and then to fertilizers (25%). For cabbage, pesticides are the main reason for the high production costs (30%) and then organic manure (15%).Maize and rice are low-risk and low-profit crops that are, however, important for farmers' food security. Maize has the lowest production cost, but also the lowest net revenue; green maize (corn) has 1.4 times the net revenue of dry maize (grain). The highest cost was for fertilizers (31%) and then weeding (17%). Rice production costs and net revenue represented 1.8 and 2.6 times, respectively, that of maize (dry), with irrigation (33%), and transplanting and puddling (24%) comprising half of the costs.Figure 9 shows the water needs-profitability relationship of the most commercialized crops in the al-Bayda branch canal: the lowest water consumer in terms of irrigation frequency (watermelon) has the highest water productivity (USD 2,312/ha/irrigation round) followed by tomato (USD 509/ha/irrigation round), luffah (USD 422/ha/ irrigation round) and grapes (USD 405/ha/irrigation round). However, the most water-intensive crop (rice) is ranked last (only USD 54/ha/irrigation round), just after the other most common crop:[dry] maize (USD 102/ha/irrigation round). enjoyed the best water supply since 2007 in the location L1. This introduction can be explained by the specialization of cash crops in the area, and by the proximity to Alexandria via the agricultural road. However, the very low frequency of irrigation that is necessary for watermelon initially discouraged more traditional farmers in location L2 and beyond, who feared the degradation of the quality of their soil because of reduced leaching but gradually came to adopt it because of its high income and the ease of cultivation.In contrast, farmers in downstream locations (L4, L5, L6 and L7) admitted facing more restrictions on crop choice. For instance, in location L5, 58% of the farmers reported that cultivating rice became very difficult and 50% reported giving up vegetable cultivation. Farmers in locations L5, L6 and L7, who shifted to the cultivations of trees, stressed that grapes are tolerant to water shortages (only four to six rounds of irrigation are needed during a production cycle).The decision to shift from the common crop rotation based on rice to cash crops, such as grapes, took place in the early 1980s before the current water shortage. The widespread cultivation of grapes in the tail end of the branch canal is related to specific family know-how and also to farmer-to-farmer extension. Indeed, farmers in location L7 -where grapes were the dominant crop -reported that their parents were used to cultivating such trees in their village of origin (Beshla in Ad-Daqahliyah Governorate). After their settlement in the al-Bayda command area, they opted for grapes since the mid-1980s (after the dismantling of the obligatory crop rotation). Some farmers in location L6 acknowledged the know-how of farmers located in the tail end of the canal, who assisted them in grape cultivation. Interestingly, clustered grape plots were said to prevent fruit thefts and bird attacks, as farmers said \"trees protect trees.\"The cropping patterns of the farmers that originally settled in the area are different -to a varying degree -from the current cropping patterns of the second or third generations. These patterns evolved with time and space, and are not only related to water availability and farm profitability. An important factor that shaped cropping patterns in reclamation projects was the state policy of obligatory crop rotations. This national policy was implemented by agricultural cooperatives under the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation. After the mid-1980s, political and economic liberalization policies partially dismantled these obligatory crop rotations. Many other factors contributed to the evolution of land use and most of these are associated with trends that unfolded over the last 30 years. It is noteworthy that in spite of several individualizing trends, farmers also responded collectively in terms of their crop choice.All the farmers in the head end locations (L1, L2 and L3) reported that they were still following the original crop rotation -cultivating rice and vegetables. In location L1, up to twothirds of the cultivated area of the mesqa were still devoted to the cultivation of vegetables (mainly tomato and potato) and watermelon, while the remaining one-third was devoted to rice cultivation, according to the agreed crop rotation. The proximity to Alexandria via the agricultural road facilitated access to markets, while rice is said to be mandatory for both household consumption and soil leaching purposes. Farmers described watermelon as being highly profitable and \"not a tiring cultivation,\" since it needs one to three rounds of irrigation, one light weeding, and a low quantity of fertilizers and pesticides. However, they highlighted the strict necessity for the rotation of cultivating rice after watermelon to allow for better leaching, thus \"washing the soil.\" Surprisingly, watermelon was initially introduced by farmers who In addition, the decision to plant a perennial crop -and sacrificing one plot among the three original plots -was said to be easier with the first generation of farmers (who each had three plots of 1.33 feddans). Despite land fragmentation, the heirs of this first generation of farmers followed the practices of their parents on a smaller plot, because of the acquired skill and economic benefits of its cultivation; as a result, they also gave up raising cattle. Luffah developed in the same area as another cash crop. The proximity to Alexandria via the coastal road facilitated access to markets. A similar path dependency applies to vegetable cultivation in the upstream mesqas. Remarkably, the second and third generation of farmers find it harder to diversify to cash crops due to the importance of land for family food security (rice and wheat) and animal farming (berseem and fodder maize), especially when their plot is smaller (split at inheritance).The collective cultivation of rice -and the resulting rise of the water table -is an additional factor behind the complete absence of grapes and the very limited spread of luffah in the head end locations. Luffah is reported to be both highly sensitive to diseases and vector-borne diseases (due to the intense shading of the contiguous canopy on the ground during at least half a year). It is also an exhausting plant for the soil, which limits its cultivation on the same field to a maximum of four consecutive years. Despite its well-known high return, capital investment needs and the risk of diseases limited the spread of luffah cultivation. The risk of disease and the high fluctuation of prices were reported to be the main limiting factors of tomato cultivation.The end of cotton cultivation in all the areas is mainly related to insect proliferation, labor costs for harvesting, difficulty of marketing the product after the abolishment of the obligatory crop rotation, and cooperatives no longer being responsible for collecting the product.The effect of the gradual lengthening of the off-period on yields is more difficult to assess. In the upper reaches of the branch canal, it did not change the cropping pattern, but 18% of the farmers in locations L1 and L2 admitted that increased water scarcity negatively affected yields. However, quantifying such an effect on rice was difficult for 36% of the farmers because of shifts from traditional to drought-tolerant crop varieties, mainly of shorter duration. The effect of water scarcity on yields is more explicit for farmers downstream of L2. For instance, farmers in location L3 reported a decrease of about 25% in rice and maize yields (which used to be 4 and 3.2 tonnes (t)/feddan for rice and maize, respectively), while farmers in locations L4, L5 and L6 admitted that there was an effect of water scarcity on yields, with a drop of 30 to 50% in rice yields (which used to reach 3.5 t/feddan) 7 .The majority of farmers in locations L6 and L7 reported that water shortages induced a decline in rice and maize yields (from 3 or 3.5 to 1 or 1.5 t/feddan of rice). However, such reductions in yield were not only related to water scarcity; indeed, they were also related to decreasing soil fertility 8 , increasing use of pesticides, increasing use of low-quality water (drainage water), aging trees (in the case of grapes), low quality of seeds and inputs (pesticides, fertilizers), fake products, etc. In addition, most farmers recognized that crop rotation practices, especially berseem and rice, benefitted the soils in relation to nutrition and recovery of essential elements, as well as for salt leaching.When asked about which crop they would grow in the absence of any constraint on irrigation supply, almost all the farmers stated that they would cultivate the staple food rice and vegetables, and forage maize as fodder. Vegetables were produced mainly for family consumption and the remainder would be sold.Urban expansion and increased rice cultivation have been the causes for water scarcity in the al-Bayda command area. This growing water scarcity was epitomized by the gradual lengthening of the off-period during the past 15 years, from 4 to 10 days. Furthermore, the current on/off schedule is not predictable, especially during the peak summer season (June, July and August). The current spatial distribution of water showed an inequity along the branch canal; while some farmers in the head end reaches had water in their mesqas for at least 4 days in each turn, most of the farmers in the tail end reaches would only have one day.Farmers' crop choice and irrigation practices responded to this context of decreasing water availability coupled with the uncertainty of water supply:• Adaptation of farming systems: (i) while we could not identify any effect of the gradual increase in the off-period on farmers in the upstream areas (who continued to cultivate rice and vegetables), most of those in the downstream areas found it difficult to cultivate rice and vegetables and showed more explicit declines in yields; and (ii) farmers adapted their cropping pattern in case of the proximity to an irrigation water source: water-consuming crops in terms of quantity and/or frequency of irrigation (rice and vegetables) were concentrated in the head end reaches and/ or next to the secondary drains, whereas less water-consuming crops (grapes) were mostly located in the tail end reaches of the branch canal.• Cash crop diversification: This is more common in the head end reaches, where it signaled both a better certainty in irrigation water supply and also a risk-minimizing strategy in relation to pest attacks and marketing risks embodied in the growing of multiple cash crops.• Differences in irrigation practices: (i) farmers in the head end and middle of the branch canal increased the number of rounds of irrigation as a means of storing water in the soil profile (whenever water is available), which led to over-irrigation (at least, as long as water is available), and also contributed to compounding water shortages for farmers located in the downstream reaches of the branch canal and/or mesqas; (ii) A significant number of farmers in the lower reaches of the branch canal owned more pumps, showed a higher frequency of night irrigation, and also depended more on drainage water as a secure water source, if they were able to access secondary drains; and (iii) while farmers acknowledged the inequity of water distribution along both the branch canal and its mesqas, no collective action to redress this state of affairs was observed at the mesqa level, except for the limitation of one pump for each marwa to access water. At the marwa level, however, farmers established collective irrigation rules to secure irrigation water for rice and vegetables to reduce conflicts.The literature usually understands the responses of farmers practicing irrigation as spatially differentiated, according to the headtail gradient in water scarcity along distributary canals (El-Shinnawi et al. 1980;Skold et al. 1984;Brugere and Lingard 2003;Tyagi et al. 2005;Bekchanov et al. 2010;El-Agha et al. 2011). However, a detailed analysis revealed a more subtle and intricate pattern of responses:• Reuse of drainage water: This is not practiced only in the tail end reaches, as even farmers in the head end of the branch canal resorted to it. While drainage water is a necessary, complementary water source for farmers (growing rice and vegetables) in the head end reaches, those in the tail end reaches use it as their main available irrigation water source in the peak summer season. This shows the overall degradation of the quality of water supply. As the most water-consuming crop, rice was concentrated near the secondary drains rather than the branch canal, demonstrating the importance of a perennial water source.• Night irrigation: This is also not limited only to the tail end reaches; even farmers in the head end reaches practiced frequent night irrigation. However, while night irrigation was an imposed option for farmers in the tail end reaches (for whom irrigation water was only available at night), it was optional for those in the head end reaches (and often a question of convenience for farmers with other activities during the day, who were willing to irrigate sensitive plants such as luffah or vegetables, or to also enjoy a flow that was large enough to be able to irrigate without interruption).• Adaptation of marwa-level irrigation rules: It was expected that these rules would be stricter in the downstream areas, as water availability decreased. However, the cultivation of more water-intensive crops in the head end reaches also made it necessary to impose strict rules that had to be followed by farmers of the same marwa, such as a fixed duration for rice fields or the priority to irrigate vegetables.Further, some of the farmers' crop choice strategies revealed unexpected responses, at least when seen through the lens of a single ecological, technical or economic factor:• Low water-consuming crops in the head end reaches of the branch canal: Surprisingly, watermelon and melon (low water consumers in terms of irrigation frequency) were initially introduced by farmers who enjoyed the best water supply in upstream locations. One of the reasons for this is that the high nutrient uptake and degradation of the soil quality due to reduced leaching might be more critical in downstream areas, where water is not available for frequent leaching through rice cultivation. Another reason might be that market-oriented farmers in upstream areas introduced watermelon first, but the crop is now also being picked up in downstream areas.• Water-consuming crops in the tail end reaches of the branch canal: (i) Luffah -a waterconsuming and high-value crop -was mostly found in the tail end reaches. This possibly reflects how it spread from the farms which introduced it in the area, but also that the higher water table in the upstream parts makes the area unfit for semi-perennial crops; and (ii) grapes, a relatively water-consuming and high-value crop, would be expected to be more prominent in the upper reaches of the branch canal. However, the shift to grapes took place much earlier than the declared degradation in the quality of water supply, which shows that the water factor is not decisive. Key determinants were: i) farmers having the know-how in dealing with grape cultivation that was acquired by their family in their region of origin; ii) the lower water table induced by the lack of water and rice cultivation (in contrast, the higher water table found upstream is not favorable); and iii) the land fragmentation into smaller farms, which now makes it difficult for farmers in upstream areas to adopt such a crop (which cannot be cultivated in very small plots as done with vegetables).• The collective dimension of crop choice is another very interesting finding of the study. Just as rice is often cultivated in clusters in order to limit the impacts on dry crops through seepage and a high water table, we found that grapes had to be clustered to spread bird damage and theft, and to also control the latter by the permanent presence of people in the field after maturation. This is reminiscent of the situation observed in many parts of Asia, where dry-season rice cultivation is often predicated upon a collective move to reduce overall seepage and the pressure from pests (notably rats) (see, for example, Luat 2001).• However, it is also the impact of two different 'collective water regimes' that came out. Indeed, farmers in upstream areas are bound to a regime that prioritizes salinity control based on frequent rice cultivation, resulting in a higher water table that is not favorable to grapes or semi-perennial crops such as luffah. In contrast, farmers in downstream areas are bound to a regime where rice and fodder crops are rare, the water table is lower and crops such as grapes could be established.• Path dependency: Interestingly, the early adoption of grapes/luffah in downstream areas and vegetables in upstream areas has generated some path dependency, whereby farmers have partly opted out of pure subsistence strategies revolving around grain and fodder at a time when per capita land endowment was higher. It is now more difficult for farmers to diversify to cash crops because plots are smaller or under multiple holders (sons or grandchildren of farmers that originally settled).• Tail end reaches are not necessarily in a poorer economic situation: Expectedly, farmer incomes decreased as one moves downstream when considering the same crop (rice or vegetables, for instance), which was mainly due to the additional costs related to pumping, purchasing a second pump, increased input intensity, and also because farmers in downstream areas cannot achieve the same yields as those in upstream areas. However, the survey showed that (at least some of) the farmers in the tail end reaches still had the opportunity to gain high profits -sometimes even higher than those in the head end reaches -by shifting to high-value cash crops, mainly luffah and grapes. Such findings contrast with numerous studies (e.g., El-Shinnawi et al. 1980;Skold et al. 1984;Perry and Narayanamurthy 1998;Brugere and Lingard 2003;Latif 2007;Sharma et al. 2008;Molle et al. 2010;Venot et al. 2010) that showed a decrease in high-value crops, cultivated areas and incomes as one moves downstream.The case study changes our view of the traditional head-tail problem. The commonly observed head-tail opposition in terms of water availability and average income has become mediated by several other factors such as the reuse of drainage water, collective action around crop choice, and social and historical factors. These multiple factors mediate the head-tail dichotomy and determine how farmers cope with water scarcity.The increasing water needs of Alexandria, as well as the growth of the rice area, have induced shortages in the tail end reaches of the Mahmoudiya Canal. At the time of concluding this study, new pumping stations were under construction to augment diversions to the city, as increased water scarcity was looming over the area. This study analyzed how farmers were coping with this situation in the al-Bayda secondary canal. A certain number of typical adaptation strategies and practices commonly found in the literature were first confirmed, including changing cropping systems, crafting collective irrigation rules, reusing drainage water, practicing deficit and night irrigation, and over-irrigating whenever water is available. While some responses and practices were expected to increase with water scarcity (when moving from upstream to downstream areas), several counter-examples appeared and were explained by bringing in other considerations (e.g., conjunctive water use, quality of drainage water, risk associated with cultivating vegetables, etc.).This study also identified a number of more unexpected responses: low water-consuming crops (e.g., watermelon) were largely grown in the head end reaches of the branch canal, while high water-consuming crops were grown in the tail end reaches of the branch canal. Analysis of these anomalies revealed that farmers' adaptation to water scarcity was driven by several factors beyond water scarcity or profit maximization, which are generally considered as the overriding determinants: farm fragmentation, risk aversion, history and social capital of farmers, and, more unexpectedly, collectively established water regimes were shown to shape and constrain crop choice.Of special interest was this collective dimension of farming, where the (upstream) possibility to grow rice associated with the need to do so in order to control soil salinity resulted in higher (average) groundwater levels, which were unsuitable for crops such as luffah, grapes or trees. In contrast, downstream areas could hardly grow rice, but could grow semi-perennial crops because of lower water tables (but not the otherwise desirable and adapted low waterconsuming watermelon which requires soil leaching). Tree crops also came with a clustering collective logic, in order to reduce the occurrence of theft and bird damage.The findings of this study help challenge the commonly accepted discourse that farmers are to be blamed for insufficient irrigation management and efficiency; they also expose the limitations of projects, modeling exercises or policy recommendations that are too often based on crop choice rationalities limited to income maximization.","tokenCount":"10022"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/2578962741.json b/data/part_3/2578962741.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8a632ead243218bc7d45b7d811b44c3e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2df2695a-b401-4fff-b2c8-c5f621a6193f/retrieve","id":"429664135"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"62421469-908c-4974-9933-2c13e527e546","pagecount":"1","content":"In the 16th century, tomatoes were brought back to Europe from Peru. Originally thought to be poisonous, they eventually became part of the cuisine in Naples, Italy. The working poor there needed an inexpensive meal, so they put tomatoes on their dough and created the first simple pizza.The not so Italian Pizza Pepperoni is commonly made with both beef (taurine beef cattle shown) and pork (shown), as well as spices (chile pepper shown).Cheese used on pizza is most often made from cow milk (taurine cattle shown).The crust is made from wheat flour (shown), with sugar (shown), yeast, salt, and olive oil (shown).Tomatoes are combined with spices such as oregano, garlic, and paprika (all ingredients shown).Each map shows the origins of common ingredients found in the dish.","tokenCount":"126"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/2592639530.json b/data/part_3/2592639530.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..cdfab2dd5dea5156e42542d9127aef7ce6fd4e98
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"001a84db9ca07a6edce89993a8fa7bcf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f9d98822-e81c-4857-b0a7-50bc782ef2e5/retrieve","id":"-1177216082"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f7d829c2-feae-48c4-8308-a837e7207d42","pagecount":"8","content":"Exotic vegetables, like lettuce, are not part of the traditional Ghanaian diet. However, more than 200,000 urban dwellers eat them daily on Accra's streets, and in canteens and restaurants. About 90% of the perishable vegetables are produced in closest market proximity due to their fragile nature and the common lack of cold transport and storage. These vegetables are a preferred cash crop, which can lift poor farmers out of poverty. On the other hand, farmers have huge problems finding in and around the cities unpolluted water sources for irrigation. This dilemma is directly linked to uncontrolled urbanization and poor sanitation. Ghana is in this regard a representative example for sub-Saharan Africa.Over the last five years, IWMI's research in Ghana has had a major thrust in urban and periurban agriculture in general and irrigated (open-space) vegetable farming in particular. This book summarizes results from a large number of students' theses and research reports. It gives a comprehensive overview of urban and peri-urban vegetable farming in Ghana's major cities, and highlights besides economic impacts, consequences and perceptions related to the use of wastewater. The book ends with recommendations on how in a low-income country like Ghana health risks for consumers could be effectively reduced, while simultaneously supporting the important contribution of open-space urban and peri-urban agriculture. The book will certainly serve students, the academia and policy makers as an invaluable resource.Director for Africa IWMI","tokenCount":"232"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/2602781023.json b/data/part_3/2602781023.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f3d93d16c2fac2320b8aa7d7fd2c62fbd9457612
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4f536475363d2c22395f96eaedd93113","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2c26a3d4-e5b5-4b5c-a3ee-b972f06af7e5/retrieve","id":"1890462457"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"91446620-8cff-4bb5-844d-e9d978ce26c1","pagecount":"11","content":"Definitions of \"capacity building\" or \"capacity development\" vary with local contexts and development agendas. Some scholars define capacity building as \"a locally driven process of transformational learning that leads to actions, which support changes in institutional capacity areas to advance development goals\".Under this umbrella the Africa RISING project in the Ethiopian Highlands promotes capacity building for human resources development and strengthening local partner organizations in a range of ways, all of which are designed to respond to demand from all of our partners.The project also focuses on knowledge sharing and cross learning through field days, workshops, experience sharing visits, regular meetings and training programs that include all project stakeholders. Institutional and organizational support has been achieved through individual needs assessments. Provision of critical and affordable facilities and equipment is a key gap-filling area for the project.The Africa RISING project in the Ethiopian Highlands has applied ten tools and approaches in order to understand its target farming systems more clearly and to identify appropriate R4D opportunities at its research sites. These include: Rapid telephone survey with key informants;  Household livelihoods characterization and community stratification using the SLATE (Sustainable Livelihoods Asset Evaluation) tool;  Participatory Community Analysis (PCA);  Detailed quantitative household characterization using the IMPACTlite survey instrument;  Elaboration and interpretation of indigenous agro-ecological knowledge using the AKT5 tool;  Assessment of year-round livestock feed availability and options for strengthening feed supplies using the FEAST and TECHfit tools;  Detailed market and value chain studies for six key value chains (wheat, potato, beans, dairy, cattle fattening and small ruminants);  A study of farmers' perceptions of what constitutes sustainability and the implications of this for future evolution of their systems;  Quantitative baseline data collections related to specific action-oriented interventions;  A historical study of technology adoption by farmers at the Africa RISING research sites.These studies required significant interaction and knowledge exchange amongst farmers and the experts conducting the surveys. These surveys have been useful to both experts in familiarizing themselves with local knowledge and experiences, and to the farmers who were able to recognize more explicitly the resources and knowledge available in their surroundings. The number of farmers and experts participating in these different activities was more than 2500 over the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. A breakdown of the farmers and other partners participating in surveys and other diagnostic activities during 2014 is given in Table 1.The project had organized several field days for a range of participants at the Africa RISING sites and research kebeles. The project had organized mid-season, end season and larger field days to demonstrate its on-farm research interventions, get feedback from participating and nonparticipating farmers and other local and CG partners. The field days also served to identify technologies and management practices that suit farmers' needs under local environmental conditions. Field days have proved to be a strong mechanism for cross-project learning as they have engaged farmers, extension, NGOs, Universities, market dealers, industries and other value chain actors (Table 1 and 2) across the whole project stakeholder spectrum.Experience sharing visits have also been important knowledge sharing mechanisms exposing farmers, extension workers and researchers to success stories and challenges associated with technologies and local practices. Most farmers prefer to see first-hand the workability and applicability of technologies and practices that are new to their areas so that they can assess compatibility with their own farming systems. The Africa RISING project in the Ethiopian Highlands has been organizing various exchange visits for farmers, extension workers, researchers and other local partners for cross learning and knowledge and information sharing. These visits have been organized both within and outside Africa RISING project sites on a range of priority issues (Table 1  and 2).Training is one of the important capacity building components in Africa RISINGG project. So far, the project has organized several trainings within and outside the research sites to familiarize project partners with the use of survey tools, research approaches, establishment and functioning of innovation platforms, familiarization with improved technologies and management practices and simulation modeling. These trainings have had both theoretical and practical aspects. Farmers, extension experts, researchers, NGOs and other partners associated with the project have had the opportunity to participate in most of these trainings (Table 1 and 2).Africa RISING has organized many workshops to review and plan its research plans, develop research ideas on some crosscutting and site specific research issues and to share project research results and information. These have been a key part of sustaining the collaborative spirit of the project but have also contributed to capacity development for many of our partners. A significant number (almost 2000) of participants from research organizations, higher learning and other institutions have attended and contributed in the workshops and meetings organized by Africa RISING project in the year 2014 alone (Table 1 and 2).The Africa RISING project coordinator for the Ethiopian highlands with his team members regularly (at least once every 3 months) travel to the Africa RISING sites and update the progress of the project to local partners. This approach has helped to increase the awareness and participation of our site level partners in Africa RISING research activities. In some cases it also helped to clarify misunderstandings.A monthly meeting is held every month at the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa. Project partners, mainly CGIAR centres (ILRI, IWMI, CIAT, CIP, CIMMYT, ICRAF, ICARDA, ICRISAT and sometimes IFPRI), core team members and site coordinators virtually or physically conduct the meeting to a pre-structured agendas. Participants update on project activities, progress, challenges, upcoming events and other emerging issues. Brief PowerPoint presentations on the emerging findings of one to two of our research protocols are also included during these meetings. Reports on these meeting may be accessed at: http://africa-rising.wikispaces.com/ethiopia_highlands Africa RISING is planning to strengthen its capacity building activities through various short and long term trainings, visits, workshops and field days. In 2015, the project plans to have research attachments for 10 MSc and 5 PhD students from local partner institutions. In addition, the project will organize a training program on data management, data analysis and scientific paper writing for instructors and researchers from our local universities and regional and federal research institutions. Further field days and workshops will be organized at different levels within and outside Africa RISING sites to share information and enhance cross learning.","tokenCount":"1051"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/2622579552.json b/data/part_3/2622579552.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e1f61286a85ff4202402e9fa4b8b12fb8044465f
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"892da05c19fad724c6a5c1cece41c30f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/42710bb8-10fe-47a4-9e46-9050f85e3d16/content","id":"-1072909323"},"keywords":["Home garden","Multi-objective optimisation","Crop diversification","Farm-household model","Human nutrition metrics"],"sieverID":"5b53128d-30e9-4a79-b58b-abc0f13d7449","pagecount":"23","content":"Assessing progress towards healthier people, farms and landscapes through nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) requires transdisciplinary methods with robust models and metrics. Farm-household models could facilitate disentangling the complex agriculture-nutrition nexus, by jointly assessing performance indicators on different farm system components such as farm productivity, farm environmental performance, household nutrition, and livelihoods. We, therefore, applied a farm-household model, FarmDESIGN, expanded to more comprehensively capture household nutrition and production diversity, diet diversity, and nutrient adequacy metrics. We estimated the potential contribution of an NSA intervention targeting the diversification of home gardens, aimed at reducing nutritional gaps and improving livelihoods in rural Vietnam. We addressed three central questions: (1) Do 'Selected Crops' (i.e. crops identified in a participatory process) in the intervention contribute to satisfying household dietary requirements?; (2) Does the adoption of Selected Crops contribute to improving household livelihoods (i.e. does it increase leisure time for non-earning activities as well as the dispensable budget)?; and (3) Do the proposed nutritionrelated metrics estimate the contribution of home-garden diversification towards satisfying household dietary requirements? Results indicate trade-offs between nutrition and dispensable budget, with limited farm-household configurations leading to jointly improved nutrition and livelihoods. FarmDESIGN facilitated testing the robustness and limitations of commonly used metrics to monitor progress towards NSA. Results indicate that most of the production diversity metrics performed poorly at predicting desirable nutritional outcomes in this modelling study. This study demonstrates that farm-household models can facilitate anticipating the effect (positive or negative) of agricultural interventions on nutrition and the environment, identifying complementary interventions for significant and positive results and helping to foresee the trade-offs that farm-households could face. Furthermore, FarmDESIGN could contribute to identifying agreed-upon and robust metrics for measuring nutritional outcomes at the farm-household level, to allow comparability between contexts and NSA interventions.Worldwide commitment and interest in supporting nutritionsensitive agriculture (NSA) is growing across multiple sectors (Ruel et al. 2018). Programmes, research and investment policy can be defined as nutrition-sensitive if they incorporate an aim to improve the overall nutritional status by addressing the underlying causes of nutrition (Herforth and Ballard 2016). Addressing the underlying causes include improving access to safe and nutritious food, reducing health risks through responsible agricultural practices that protect natural resources and human health, improving nutrition knowledge and norms, improving income and empowering Women (Herforth and Ballard 2016). The role of agriculture in enhancing nutrition is highly recognized although the evidence of its contribution remains weak and mixed (Herforth and Ballard 2016;Turner et al. 2014;Webb and Kennedy 2014). For example, increasing on-farm production diversity is perceived as an effective approach towards improving smallholders' diet diversity and nutrition. Nonetheless, this perception was contested by Sibhatu and Qaim (2018) after analysing 45 original studies that indicated a positive but small average marginal effect of production diversity on dietary diversity. Ruel et al. (2018), on the other hand, found evidence from 44 carefully designed nutrition-sensitive studies where production diversity was promoted and subsequently led to improved access to nutritious food, which increased the quality of the diet for the most vulnerable (i.e. women and children) (Ruel et al. 2018). The mixed evidence is due to methodological limitations (e.g. sample sizes, time frame), contextual and seasonal constraints, lack of comparability of the agricultural interventions, nonhomogeneity of units of observation (e.g. households, women and children) and variability of metrics (Ruel et al. 2018;Verger et al. 2019;Herforth and Ballard 2016;Turner et al. 2014;Webb and Kennedy 2014).Assessing the agriculture-nutrition nexus is challenging since it is affected by complex, dynamic and scaledependent interlinkages among farms, markets, wild foods, diets, intra-household and gender dynamics (Bellon et al. 2016;Remans et al. 2015). For example, contextual factors such as competing labour uses (on-farm vs. off-farm), food availability from on-and off-farm sources (e.g. markets), environmental constraints (e.g. poor soils), and socio-economic status and gender dynamics (e.g. income; and equity) all shape household decisions around on-farm production (Ditzler et al. 2018). These factors also shape the performance of the farm, farm-household resources, crop/varietal preferences, and objectives (Ditzler et al. 2019;Groot et al. 2012). Thus, accounting for contextual factors at the farm-household level could aid in identifying constraints in the adoption of NSA interventions and support the achievement of positive nutritional outcomes (Ruel et al. 2018;Herforth and Ballard 2016).In general, the most commonly listed and documented knowledge gaps that limit the guidance and planning of NSA interventions include: (1) hypothesizing ex-ante NSA intervention impact pathways; (2) anticipating the effect (positive or negative) of the interventions on nutrition and the environment; (3) identifying complementary interventions for significant and positive impacts; and (4) anticipating the trade-offs that a farm-household could face (Ruel et al. 2018;Herforth and Ballard 2016). There is also a lack of emphasis on guaranteeing access to and consumption of high-quality diets by all household members (rather than just one target group, e.g. women or children); a logical and achievable approach for NSA and important for global development (Ruel et al. 2018).For an integrated analysis, system-based models could play a larger role in guiding and planning NSA interventions. Whole farm-household models, capture the diverse household and production system components and their complex interactions, and so properly reflect the various outcomes linked to production, income, environmental impacts, well-being, gender, health and quality of life (e.g. Jones et al. 2017;Van Ittersum et al. 1998). These models can improve the understanding, and contribute to the analysis of, the 'farm-household' defined as a family-run enterprise, the household managing it and the off-farm income-generating activities by household members (Ditzler et al. 2018(Ditzler et al. , 2019)). FarmDESIGN is a farm-household model developed to represent the farm-household and the flow of resources among the farm components (crops, soil, animals, and manure) within and outside the farm (e.g. soil nutrient losses) (Fig. 1) (Groot et al. 2012). We expanded the FarmDESIGN model to calculate various farm-household performance indicators in order to capture more accurately farm-household budget, labour and nutrition (farm-household budget and labour modules explained in detail in Ditzler et al. 2019; Fig. 1 and Table 1). The 'Human nutrition' module integrates various performance indicators that have been proposed to monitor progress towards NSA interventions (e.g. Gustafson et al. 2015;Herforth et al. 2016;Melesse et al. 2019) and to measure different aspects related to nutrition such as food consumption patterns, diet diversity, nutrient supply and nutrient adequacy. For instance, FarmDESIGN facilitates conducting farmhousehold scenario analysis through optimization routines (Ditzler et al. 2019;Groot et al. 2012). Consequently, the model has the potential to contribute valuable information to the design and guide of NSA interventions by jointly quantifying performance indicators across socio-economic, productive, environmental and nutrition farm-household domains.Our study tested the expanded FarmDESIGN farmhousehold model to provide guidance and planning on NSA interventions, and tested the performance of the incorporated metrics in the 'Human nutrition' module. We used a case study in Vietnam, where diversifying home gardens with nutritious crops selected through a participatory approach was undertaken as an NSA intervention. Our overall aim was to test the impact of a specific nutrition-sensitive intervention, which, in our study's case, is crop diversification targeted to home gardens for improving diets and livelihoods. Hence, we addressed three central questions: (1) Do 'Selected Crops' (i.e. crops identified in a participatory process) in the intervention contribute to satisfying household dietary requirements?; (2) Does the adoption of Selected Crops contribute to improving household livelihoods (i.e. does it increase leisure time for non-earning activities as well as the dispensable budget)?; and (3) Do the proposed nutrition-related metrics estimate the contribution of home-garden diversification towards satisfying household dietary requirements?2 Materials and methodsThe previous version of the FarmDESIGN model was unable to capture off-farm data for the household's employment, leisure activities and food use (Ditzler et al. 2019). The model therefore could not capture the different livelihood strategies or the food availability of the farm-household. We overcame this limitation by adding the household and its members to the model as entities and placing the family enterprise (i.e. the farm) within the farm-household. This change facilitated calculating diverse farm-household performance indicators for the productive, socio-economic, environmental, and nutritional domains. Therefore, the addition of three new farmhousehold modules 'Household budget,' 'Household labour' and 'Household nutrition' widens the applicability of FarmDESIGN for modelling farming systems (Ditzler et al. 2019). Ditzler et al. (2019) detailed the changes in the 'Household budget,' and 'Household labour' modules in particular (Fig. 1).Overall, the model represents the farm-household on an annual basis and integrates a Pareto-based multi-objective optimization algorithm with a bio-economical model to generate alternative farm configurations (Groot et al. 2016;2012). The alternative farm configurations are feasible farm-household configurations that deviate from the initially represented farm-household. The alternative farm configurations allocate available resources depending on the objectives optimized for, the decision variables and the constraints (see Table 1 for a detailed description of the selected objectives, decision variables, and constraints). The objectives in the optimization can be any indicator assessing farm-household performance across domains (Groot et al. 2012;Ditzler et al. 2019). Decision variables determine the manoeuvring space and indicate which aspects of the farm-household configuration,  1). OM = organic matter; GHG = greenhouse gases; Product use = allocation of crop and animal products produced on-farm or sourced off farm. Source: From Ditzler et al. ( 2019)  Plant-based food groups: ± 3*regional consumption averages; Cereals and animal-based food groups: ± 0.5*regional consumption averages (NIN 2012) resource allocation and input levels can vary in the optimization (Groot et al. 2012,); whereas constraints limit the exploration space so that the model yields realistic and desirable farm configurations (Groot et al. 2012). Therefore, alternative farm configurations are useful for exploring trade-offs and synergies when optimizing farm-household objectives across selected domains.The new 'Human nutrition' module assesses the potential contribution of a household's on-farm annual production (i.e. plants, livestock and fish) or off-farm food acquisition (e.g. purchased from the market) to meet the dietary requirements of the household. The new module calculates several metrics that capture production diversity, diet diversity and nutrient adequacy (see Fig. 2, Appendix 1 for detailed metrics description, equations, assumptions, input data and limitations).The 'Human nutrition' module calculates diet diversity metrics from household diet assessments, whereas production diversity is calculated using farming systems characterization (Diet -D ; Production -P ). Nutrient adequacy metrics assess the sufficiency of nutrient intake from a given diet and consumption pattern. The nutrient adequacy metric in FarmDESIGN considers dietary requirements of all household members by using dietary reference intakes, either as recommended dietary allowances or as estimated average requirements depending on data availability; whereas food composition tables are used to estimate the nutrient intakes (see Table 2). The new module also accounts for food consumption patterns, or food patterns at the food group level, and nutrient loss due to processing and cooking procedures through nutrient retention factors.Diet diversity, production diversity and nutrient adequacy metrics are divided into two groups of count-based and abundance-based metrics (Fig. 2). Count-based metrics are estimated using the presence of unique food items or species. For example, the species richness of a diet is measured as the number of species consumed in the diet from on-and off-farm sources (SR D ; e.g. Lachat et al. 2017), whereas the species richness in the production system is measured as the number of harvested crops for consumption (SR P ; e.g. Herrero et al. 2017) (Fig. 2, Appendix 1). The household dietary diversity score (HDDS) measures the number of food groups in the diet by any household member in the past 24 h (includes 12 food groups in the score) and is a proxy indicator mainly for household food security access (Kennedy et al. 2011;Verger et al. 2019). The nutritional functional diversity metric considers both the species diversity and the specific characteristics of each species, in this case the nutrient profiles (Petchey and Gaston 2007). The nutrient profiles for each species or food item (i.e. from food composition tables) were standardized by a reference adult, in this case, the dietary reference intakes for an adult male in the age group of 19-50 years. Then, the nutrient contribution of each food item was used to create a tree diagram (functional dendrogram) where each branch represents one species or food item. Therefore, the nutritional functional diversity metric is the Euclidian distance among food items in the tree diagram, where lower values indicate food items that are closer together and have similar nutrient profiles, whereas larger values suggest dissimilar food items contributing to a wider range of nutrients. The tree diagram was created using 'vegan' and 'hclust' packages in R (Oksanen et al. 2016;R Core Team 2016) and as recommended by Petchey and Gaston (2007). FarmDESIGN uses the tree diagram to calculate the nutritional functional diversity of the diet (NFD D ) and the harvested crops for consumption (NFD P ) (see Fig. 2, Appendix 1).FarmDESIGN also incorporates other commonly used metrics for assessing food items' abundance in diets and Fig. 2 Metrics included in this modelling study calculated with the new 'Human Nutrition' module within the FarmDESIGN model (see Appendix 1 for a detailed description of each metric). The metrics capture the different components of species diversity (i.e. species richness and abundance) and their nutritional contribution. Green and blue areas indicate count-and abundance-based metrics, respectively. The metrics are calculated for on-farm production set aside for household consumption (superscript P ) and for the diet (superscript D ) by accounting for the on-and off-farm food set aside for household consumption. The nutrient adequacy metric is calculated by considering the combined nutritional demand based on the age and gender of each household member. The nutritional functional diversity considers 13 different nutrients (i) whereas the nutrient deviation and nutrient yield metrics focus on the household nutrient requirements and food contributions for likely deficient nutrients such as Vitamin A, Zn, Ca, Fe production for consumption. The Shannon-Weaver (H) or Simpson (D) diversity indexes jointly assess species richness and distribution evenness. Therefore, both indexes indicate if diets (H D , D D ) or the food production for consumption (H P , D P ) are dominated by one food item or crop species respectively (see Appendix 1 for a detailed description of these metrics). The Shannon-Weaver (H) index is also often calculated to assess the overall diversity of the production areas and not only those set aside for household consumption, for instance we also calculated this index to calculate all the crops planted in the home garden (H HG ). The farm nutritional yield for nutrient i (Y i ) is a novel metric proposed by DeFries et al. (2015). This metric estimates for each nutrient the number of reference adults whose dietary reference intakes are entirely covered per year given an area and production. We used the same reference adult as in the nutritional functional diversity metric, although, any other age group, life stage, and sex could equally be used. The Y i values, calculated for the whole farm production, are divided by the farm area to facilitate comparability across contexts (i.e. number of reference adults ha −1 ). Finally, the nutrient deviation metric (ND i ) assesses nutrient adequacy by comparing the availability of nutrient i from consumed food from on-and off-farm sources against the household dietary requirement calculated from the dietary reference intakes given a household's demography and size (Ditzler et al. 2019). Negative deviations indicate a nutritional contribution that is lower than the household dietary requirements, whereas positive deviations indicate a surplus (see Appendix 1 for a detailed description of each metric).The Son La province in the Northwest of Vietnam has emerged as an important agricultural region due to the intensified production of maize, rice and cassava (ILRI 2014). Despite poverty reductions and productivity increases, malnutrition continues to be a problem in the region. The percentage of children under five experiencing iron (Fe), vitamin A (Vit A), calcium (Ca), zinc (Zn) and vitamin C (VitC) deficiencies continues to be relatively high (NIN 2012), with iron and vitamin A deficiencies above national averages (national values for deficiencies of Fe = 29% and Vit A = 14%; NIN 2012).The eco-region, characterized by the Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests biome type (Olson et al. 2001), experiences a monsoonal climate where 92% of the yearly rainfall is concentrated between April and October (long-term average: 1309 mm season −1 ; Hijmans et al. 2005), with limited precipitation from November to March (long-term average: 109 mm season −1 ; Hijmans et al. 2005). The monsoonal rainy period is characterized by a warm climate (long-term average: 22-26 °C; Hijmans et al. 2005), whereas temperatures around 15 °C are typical in the dry period, mainly from December to January.The Doan Ket village, in Muong Bon commune (Mai Son district), is located in a mountainous region, 500 m above sea level, dominated by lowlands. The Doan Ket village is mainly composed of individuals from the Khinh ethnic group and was established in the 1960s as part of the resettlement from the Hoa Binh dam. The small village is relatively close to Hat Lot and Son La city, itis well connected with paved roads, and it reports extremely low population densities (1 person per 100 m in 2015; WorldPop 2013).The research took place in the context of the CGIAR Research Program -(CRP) 'Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics', a global programme aimed at supporting the intensification of integrated agricultural systems to improve the livelihoods of poor farming families, while guaranteeing ecosystems integrity in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The Program was grounded in research for development through collaborative and participatory approaches (Hiwasaki et al. 2016). One of the interventions of the Humidtropics program in Vietnam focused on diversifying home gardens for income and nutrition security (Hiwasaki et al. 2016). In particular, homegarden diversification promoted nutritious crops with a potential for reducing nutritional gaps, while increasing the consumption of underrepresented foods in the local diet, A set of nutrient-based reference values that indicate the average daily nutrient intake that is recommended to ensure the absence of signs of the nutrients' deficiency, as well as a reduction in the risk of chronic degenerative disease Estimated average requirements (EAR)Recommended dietary allowance (RDA): EAR is the average daily nutrient intake level estimated to meet the requirement of half the healthy individuals in a particular life stage and gender group RDA is the average daily nutrient intake level that is sufficient to meet the nutrient requirement of nearly all (97 to 98%) healthy individuals in a particular stage of life and gender group.Source: IOM ( 2003) and Devaney and Barr (2002) including vitamin A-rich fruit and vegetables, dark green leafy vegetables, pulses, nuts and seeds (Van Hoi et al. 2015).The selection of nutritious crops was conducted through a participatory process including stakeholders from different sectors (Van Hoi et al. 2015). The intervention focused on 15 out of the 30 nutritious crops selected (hereafter: 'Selected Crops') based on local consumer preferences and knowledge of agronomic potential (Van Hoi et al. 2015). Our modelling efforts considered ten Selected Crops with sufficient data including pulses (soybean [Glycine max (L.)  3 for the plant parts consumed).We surveyed eight farms (including 34 people above the age of six, and three babies under 12 months) in Doan Ket between November 2014 and September 2015. The farming systems and the dietary patterns in the village were characterised through a comprehensive survey. We used the IMPACTLite survey, a standardized tool used worldwide that facilitates collecting household information on key farmhousehold performance and livelihoods indicators (Rufino et al. 2013). The comprehensive and data-intensive survey collects information about the household structure, fields, cropping activities (yield, inputs and labour), livestock activities (production and labour), household expenditure and household-level food consumption (Rufino et al. 2013). As part of the survey, we only used one dietary recall to assess food consumption, therefore excluding seasonality of the foods consumed. The dietary recall recorded the foods consumed from on-and off-farm sources during the week prior to the interview (7-day dietary recall) with the approximate quantity (weight-kg or volume-lt) based on the memory of the interviewee. One focus group discussion with eight participants held in September 2015 complemented survey information on four topics: land-use mapping, crops cultivation (rotation and crop yields), dietary patterns and knowledge on nutritious crops.We built a 'Baseline farm' in FarmDESIGN based on the eight farms surveyed in Doan Ket (Table 4). The Baseline farm includes the most common (i.e. representing ≥4 farms) household size and demographics, farm components (fish pond, home garden, grassland areas, perennial fruit plants), cultivated crop species and the average self-reported values for farm size, crop species cultivation costs, household expenses and crop yields (Tables 3 and 4). The food consumption pattern for the household in the Baseline farm was generated using the most commonly consumed food items among farmers from on-and off-farm sources. We then calculated the mean and standard errors of the self-reported quantities for the most commonly consumed food items along with their selling and purchasing prices (Table 3; see Appendix 2 for a visual representation of the farm-household).We calculated the dietary reference intakes through the revised recommended dietary allowances for the Vietnamese population (Khan and Hoan 2008). We chose the revised recommended dietary allowances, since they were estimated for the Vietnamese population, whereas the available estimated average requirements were available for humans in general. The household nutrient requirement is the sum of each household member's requirement given their age group, gender and reproductive status (i.e., pregnant, lactating). The nutrients included in the modelling study were the dietary energy for moderate work category, vitamins (A retinol activity equivalent, C, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, Folate, B12) and minerals (calcium, magnesium, iron [5% bioavailability] and zinc [poor zinc absorption]). We used the 13 nutrients to calculate the functional diversity metrics (NFD P and NDF D ), and Vit A, Ca, Zn and Fe to calculate nutrient deviations (ND i ) and farm nutritional yield (Y i ) metrics. The nutrient profiles for every food item commonly consumed among farmers (Table 3) mainly originate from the Vietnamese food composition table which provides nutrient contents per 100 g edible portion of raw ingredients (SMILING D.5-a 2013). We also used the USDA and the West African food composition tables in a few cases (USDA 2007;Stadlmayr et al. 2012). We considered potential nutrient losses due to cooking methods by using the USDA average retention factors values per food group (USDA 2016). We excluded condiments from the modelling effort. Foods in the Baseline farm and modelgenerated alternative farm configurations with quantities below 5 g person −1 day −1 were excluded from the count-and abundance-based metrics. The selected cut off value is roughly double than the one used in the region to identify foodb a s e d r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s f o r C h i l d r e n ( 2 . 2 2 g children −1 day −1 ) (Ngoc Chau 2016).We used the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm in FarmDESIGN to explore options to improve the performance of the Baseline farm for six objectives (Tables 1, 3 and 4). The algorithm generates a set of alternative farm configurations    Crop rotations evaluated on the Baseline farm: Pak choy-orange sweet potato-mustard greens-mung bean; tomato-pumpkin-soybean; peanut-cabbage-cowpeas; taro-radish; spring onion six seasons; French bean three seasons; carrot three seasons (solutions) that are iteratively improved using Pareto-based ranking (Groot et al. 2007(Groot et al. , 2010(Groot et al. , 2012;;Groot and Rossing 2011). The objectives were to maximize the food supply (onand off-farm) necessary to satisfy the household dietary requirement, focusing on the four potentially deficient nutrients (Vit A, Ca, Fe and Zn; the nutrient deviation ND i for each nutrient is an objective), while simultaneously improving household dispensable budget and household leisure time.Table 1 lists the objectives, decision variables, and constraints set in this modelling study. We configured FarmDESIGN optimization to yield 500 solutions after 1000 iterations to ensure stable outcomes.We analysed the FarmDESIGN outputs at three levels. Firstly, we assessed the general trends of the 500-alternative farmhousehold configurations to identify trade-offs and synergies between the objectives. At this level, we looked at the food consumption patterns from on-and off-farm sources (diet) and from the Selected Crops only (intervention). Secondly, we identified the indicators (see the list in Table 1) associated to alternative farm configurations with desirable (or undesirable) livelihood or nutritional outcomes. Alternative farm configurations with desirable livelihoods were those with a household dispensable budget and leisure time equal to or larger than in the Baseline farm (hereafter L+). For instance, L+ farm configurations would potentially lead to a larger dispensable budget and leisure time for non-earning activities. Alternative farm configurations with desirable nutritional outcomes were those with positive nutrient deviations for Ca, Fe, Vit A and Zn (hereafter N+). Thus, N+ farm configurations potentially set aside enough and more nutritious on-and off-farm food to satisfy household dietary requirements. Undesirable livelihood (L-) and nutrition (N-) values indicate farm allocations yielding suboptimal configurations and resource allocations. We tested median statistical differences (at p value <0.05) among groups of alternative farm configurations (i.e. N + L+ , N-L+ , N + L-, N-L-) through the Kruskal-Wallis test and the post-hoc Dunn's analysis (dunn.test package; Dinno 2017) in R (R Core Team 2016). Both tests are appropriate for unbalanced sample sizes.Thirdly, we selected two contrasting farms from among the 500 alternative farm configurations to compare farm configurations and production for consumption in extreme situations. The 'Surplus farm' had the maximum positive nutrient deviations for the Ca, Fe, Vit A and Zn, and had a larger household dispensable budget and leisure time than the Baseline farm. On the contrary, the 'Deficit farm' had the lowest nutrient deviations across the four optimized nutrients and a lower household dispensable budget or leisure time than the Baseline farm.Finally, we compared production diversity and diet diversity metrics across groups of alternative farm configurations using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the post-hoc Dunn's analysis. We identified the count-and abundance-based metrics measuring diversity in the diet or on the farm with significantly higher or lower values in the N + L+ and N + L-groups of farms; farms theoretically satisfying household dietary requirements and leading to desirable nutritional outcomes.Twelve food groups and 22 species from on-and off-farm sources were consumed in quantities above 5 g person −1 day −1 by the household in the Baseline farm (Table 2).The Baseline farm set aside 12% of the whole on-farm production for household consumption, representing 47% of the total (on-and off-farm sources) foods consumed. The total household food cost was USD 2597 year −1 , which is 63% of the total income.Large crop margins (USD 4864 year −1 ) contributed to a positive household dispensable budget in the Baseline farm. French beans, maize and rice sales contributed to 84% of the crop margin (51%, 24%, and 9%, respectively) with other contributions from vegetables (spring onion, tomato, Pak choi and cabbage) and fruits (longan, mango, banana, pomelo, papaya and guava). The on-farm production allowed only 77 days free from agriculture-related activities to each one of the four households' members working on the farm across the whole year (Figs. 3 and 4).We found a trade-off between dispensable budget and household diet, and between dispensable budget and leisure time. Hence, increasing household dispensable budget would be associated with a decline in nutrient adequacy for satisfying household dietary requirements (lower ND i for all four nutrients; Fig. 3b, c, d, and e) as well as leisure time (Fig. 3a). In particular, nutrient deviations were drastically reduced where household dispensable budgets exceeded USD 6000 year −1 , i.e. three times more than in the Baseline farm (Fig. 3b, c, d,  and e). Household leisure time was uncorrelated with the optimized nutrient deviations (Fig. 3f, g, h, and i). We found a synergetic increase in nutrient deviations with positive and significant correlations among all four nutrients. Nonetheless, the degree of increase in ND i varied among the nutrients, with increases in Vit A and Zn more easily attained than in Ca and Fe (Fig. 3j, k, l, m, n, and o). This is likely linked to the fact that food items in the local diet (including Selected Crops) more commonly contribute to the nutritional requirements for Vit A (ten food items) and Zn (six food items) than Fe (three food items) and Ca (one food item) (Table 3).Only a few alternative farm configurations (8% of configurations, 46 farms) achieved simultaneous improvements in both nutrition and livelihoods (N + L+), farm configurations potentially representing win-win situations. An additional 7% of the configurations (31 farms) yielded desirable nutritional improvement although they reduced household dispensable budget or leisure time (N + L-). The remaining 85% of the configurations (423 farms), yielded undesirable nutritional outcomes where Ca and Fe requirements were unmet, resulting in negative ND Ca and ND Fe (Fig. 3l).The quantity of Selected Crops produced and set aside for consumption is a better indicator for measuring nutritional contribution than the area allocated to Selected Crops. Our modelling study suggests that the farm-household configurations where a quantity of the Selected Crops produced are set aside for home consumption (e.g. Surplus farm) allowed the household to attain its nutritional needs, whereas farmers planting larger areas with the Selected Crops (e.g. Deficit farm) and not setting aside produce for consumption (selling it instead) failed to attain their nutritional needs (Fig. 4a and d). We found that the deviations for ND VitA and ND Zn drastically increased from slightly larger than zero in the Baseline farm to a surplus of 100% to 200% in the alternative farms. This suggests a twofold or larger increase in the supply of those nutrients than what the household requires. Fe, however, would remain insufficient (20% below the household requirements) regardless of the food consumed from onand off-farm sources (Fig. 3j, k, and l) or the quantity of the Selected Crops' production set aside for consumption (Fig. 4d); and despite the current consumption of fish and seafood, and meat and poultry (Table 3, Appendix 3). If the farm-household set aside >700 g person −1 day −1 of the production of Selected Crops for consumption it could theoretically satisfy their calcium needs (positive deviations), given the modelling assumptions (Fig. 4b; Table 3). Although the Selected Crops represent five different food groups, including dark green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds, other vegetables, pulses, vitamin A fruits, and vitamin  3), it remains uncertain if it would be to consume >700 g −1 day −1 of the Selected Crops. Besides, a large quantity of Selected Crops' production for consumption (>700 g person −1 day −1 ) would lead to household dispensable budget reductions from ~USD9,000 year −1 to USD3,500 year −1 (Fig. 4e). Overall, the trade-off between nutrient deviation and household dispensable budget was less pronounced for alternative farms with household dispensable budget values like or slightly larger than the Baseline farm (Fig. 4e). The trade-off between Selected Crops production for household consumption or income generation suggests high profitability for the Selected Crops if they are not consumed by the household and are instead sold at the market.Home-garden areas on the alternative farms occupied around 4% (Standard Error -SE = 0.03) of the whole farm area, whereas the Selected Crop areas only occupied between 10 and 40% of the home-garden area, despite their potential economic and nutritional contribution (Fig. 4b, and e). Alternative farms with Selected Crop areas occupying more than 30% of the home-garden area tended to have a larger household dispensable budget and more leisure time, because some of the Selected Crops are less labour-intensive and generate larger income than others (Fig. 4b and c).Farm configurations with desirable nutritional outcomes (i.e. N + L+ and N + L-) originated from increasing food consumption mainly from on-farm production rather than from off-farm sources such as the market (Fig. 5a, d and g). This was reflected in significantly larger contributions from on-farm (including larger proportion of Selected Crops production set aside for household consumption) and significantly smaller crop gross margins from selling on-farm production in N + L+ and N + L-farm configurations (Figs. 5b-d). In the latter farms, the household food cost represented around 67% of the total income, suggesting that satisfying household dietary requirements demands incurring substantial costs (Fig. 5e).However, the total food costs in N + L+ and N + L-alternative farms was only 1.1 times larger than in the Baseline farm due to the increased crop gross margin, whereas the total food consumption from on-and off-farm sources was 1.7 times more in N + L+ and N + L-alternative farms compared to the Baseline farm (Fig. 5a and e). This suggests that the income generated from selling some of the production of the Selected Crops with high market value could potentially contribute to covering the cost of achieving desirable nutritional outcomes (Fig. 5b).Although the optimization excluded environmental objectives, our results suggest that organic matter from crop residues was significantly larger in N + L+ and N + L-alternative farms, yet lower than the Baseline farm (Fig. 5i), indicating a likely negative effect on soil quality after home garden diversification with the crops selected using a participatory approach.Alternative farm configurations significantly increased the onfarm production diversity for consumption in relation to the Baseline farm (Fig. 6). Farms with desirable nutritional outcomes (N + L+ and N + L-farms), meaning the farms that Fig. 4 Values for the seven maximized objectives across alternative farm configurations given the area allocated to planting the Selected Crops in the home garden and the quantity of Selected Crops production set aside for household consumption. Nutrient deviations for vitamin A (Vit A), zinc (Zn), calcium (Ca) and iron (Fe) (a, b), household (HH) dispensable budget (c, d) and household leisure time (e, f). Each point represents an alternative farm configuration could satisfy the household dietary requirements for at least three nutrients (Vit A, Ca and Zn), scored larger median values the metrics NFD D , NFD P , H D , D D (Fig. 6b,  g, h and i). The abundance metrics, H P and D P , were not significantly different among farm groups when measuring on-farm production diversity for household consumption, although most of the N + L+ farms tended to have larger H P values (Fig. 6c and d). This suggested that in this context, the functional diversity metrics (a more recently proposed metric) tend to capture the contribution to household dietary requirements better than richness and abundance metrics when measuring on-farm production diversity.Measuring the nutrient yield for the whole production could lead to misguiding results. The Y i metric, which captures the contribution of the whole farm production (e.g. food produced for animal feed), indicated that increasing the number of reference adults with covered yearly dietary reference intakes for Y Zn reduced the number of reference adults with covered yearly dietary reference intakes for Y Ca , Y Fe and Y VitA (Fig. 6j, k, l,  and m). The large contributions on Zinc were linked to maize, which contributes >15% of the daily values for this nutrient. Yet maize production is mainly used to feed the livestock and is not consumed by household members as part of their daily diets (Table 1). Likewise, the nutrient yield results indicate that the whole farm production could satisfy the Fe dietary reference intakes for ~25 reference adults (Y Fe ) on average in N + L+ and N + L-farms although the nutrient deviation indicated (ND Fe ) household Fe requirements remained unmet (ND Fe ) (Figs. 6l and 3d). The large Y Fe values were linked to unfeasible consumption levels for Fe (e.g. 1057 g of maize in a day to satisfy Fe daily requirements). For instance, we found that using Y i on only one nutrient can also lead to misguiding conclusions, since farms with desirable nutritional outcomes (N + L+ and N + L-) included farm configurations where the trade-off among nutrients was minimized with significantly smaller median values for Ca and Fe, and significantly larger median values for Zn in particular (Fig. 6j, k, and l).The surplus and deficit alternative farms: Sell it or eat it? selected extreme farm configurations of Surplus and Deficit showed potentially contrasting pathways for home garden diversification in the Doan Ket context. The Surplus farm exemplified a farm configuration leading to a win-win situation where both nutrition and livelihoods would be improved (hence an N + L+ farm). There was an improvement in both dimensions despite the large contribution of on-farm production for household consumption and the large food cost (Fig. 5a, d, g, and e). Home garden area and crop area evenness (H HG ) were similar in both Surplus and Deficit farms. (Fig. 5f). Nonetheless, the larger crop labour required in the Deficit farm is likely linked to the larger areas planted with carrots and French beans (Figs. 5h and 7).The farm is the extreme example of a configuration maximizing income over nutritional contribution and even choosing a cheaper diet than in the Baseline farm (hence an N-L-farm) (Fig. 5a, d, and g). For example, the food cost in the Deficit farm represents 59% of the total farm-household expenditures, whereas the Baseline Farm and Surplus farm had larger values (62% and 68% respectively) (Fig. 5e). Despite the lowest food cost in the Deficit farm, it set aside a larger quantity of food for consumption from on-and offfarm sources of 1683 g person −1 day −1 compared to the Baseline farm (1393 g person −1 day −1 ), yet less than the Surplus farm (2454 g person −1 day −1 ). The Surplus farm consumed an extra food group (HDDS) and one additional species (SR D ) with more even distributions among food items (H D , D D ) and larger functional diversity (NFD D ) than in the Deficit farm (Fig. 6e, f, g, h, and i). The differences in production diversity were smaller, where the Surplus farm had the same number of species for consumption (SR P ), slightly larger functional diversity (NFD P ) and larger evenness crop production for consumption (H P , D P ) than the Deficit farm (Fig. 6a, b,  c, and d). This modelling study shows how measuring diversity only on the production side (SR P , NFD P , H P , D P ) is therefore limited and not suitable for measuring the nutritional contribution of NSA interventions. The production diversity metrics are particularly limited in the cases where farmhouseholds opt for selling their diversified production rather than consuming it.The larger crop gross margins in the Deficit farm originated from the sale of mostly the Selected Crops such as water spinach (dark green leafy vegetables), soybeans (pulses), cowpeas and spring onions (other vegetables) (Fig. 7). The areas under cultivation for those crops were similar in both farms. Nonetheless, the quantity of Selected Crops' production set aside for household consumption was at least four times smaller in the Deficit farm than in the Surplus farm (Fig. 7). Other sold crops had larger planted areas in the Deficit farm than in the Baseline and the Surplus farms, yet consumption remained similar or lower (i.e. Selected Crops: carrot, French and guava). The Deficit farm reduced meat and poultry consumption from the on-farm (chicken) and off-farm (pork) sources (Fig. 7). The Deficit farm also reduced the consumpof other fruits (banana and guava) from production, while it increased the consumption of other vegetables (mainly tomato) from off-farm sources. The reduced tomato area planted and the increment in the quantity of tomato purchased reflected that buying tomato was cheaper than producing it in the Doan Ket and modelling context (Fig. 7).The Surplus farm increased its production for household consumption of most of the Selected Crops, except for peanuts and pumpkin, which remained aligned with the number of Selected Crops set aside in the Baseline farm (Fig. 7). The Surplus farm increased its consumption of other fruits (guava and banana) and other vegetables (mostly cowpea and spring onion), while it reduced consumption of tomato from on-farm production. Contrary to the Deficit farm, the Surplus farm increased its consumption of pork (Fig. 7).The area planted to Papaya (vitamin A-rich fruits) expanded greatly in both Deficit and Surplus farms, occupying almost the whole fruit area in the Deficit farm (0.54 ha) albeit with quantities set aside for household consumption that were nonetheless three times smaller than in the Surplus farm (Fig. 7). Ripe papaya has the highest values for the optimized nutrients (Ca, Fe and Vit A) among the farm perennial fruit plants, hence the preference to plant such large papaya areas across all alternative farm configurations. Papaya, banana and guava cultivation areas expanded at the expense of mango, longan and pomelo areas. In both farm configurations (Deficit and Surplus) compared to the Baseline farm, tofu (a refined soybean product sourced off-farm) consumption reduced whereas soybean consumption from on-farm production increased due to soybeans larger content of the optimized nutrients and lower cost.The global commitment to end malnutrition through nutritionsensitive agriculture (NSA) requires the use of robust methods, models, and metrics that disentangle the complex relationship between agriculture-and nutrition (Herforth and Ballard 2016). The use of whole farm-household models enables ex-ante assessments of the potential trade-offs and challenges that NSA interventions could pose to a farm-household. Farm-household models also enabled us to estimate the potential contribution of agricultural interventions towards satisfying household dietary requirements and improving household livelihoods. In this study we showed the applicability of the new 'Household Nutrition' module included in the expanded FarmDESIGN model for estimating several metrics linked to diet and nutrition. We discuss how the exante analysis could facilitate designing NSA interventions while exploring potential intervention (i.e. home garden diversification) pathways. Lastly, we discuss how FarmDESIGN facilitates testing the robustness of the different metrics linking on-farm production and household dietary requirements in agriculture-nutrition projects.Interventions such as home-garden diversification are common in Vietnam. Starting in 1986, the Vietnamese government actively promoted these interventions under the Doi Moi policy; the Garden-Pond-Livestock system (VAC: Vuon-Ao-Chuong in Vietnamese) (Luu 2001). The VAC system contributes between 30 and 60% of the total household income (Trinh et al. 2003). In North Vietnam, home-garden production contributes on average 13% of the household total income (Trinh et al. 2003), which is in line with the 16% estimated for the Baseline farm in this modelling study. Nonetheless, food production for household consumption from the diversified farming system is insufficiently contributing to the nutrient deficiencies identified in the Baseline farm and reported in the general nutrition survey 2009-2010(NIN 2012)). Likewise, maximizing income generation over nutrition is a trend reported in the study region where home gardens are transitioning from subsistence-oriented towards more profitable and commercial oriented home gardens, reducing species diversity and limiting the contribution to household nutrition (Mohri et al. 2013). Implementing an NSA intervention in this region thus demands careful planning to maximize the likelihood of adoption, and to avoid the likely negative consequences of such interventions (e.g. reductions in organic matter from crop residues), as indicated by this modelling study.Crop diversification in the home gardens in tandem with other activities such as promoting other naturally occurring vegetables and educational and promotional interventions could increase the successful adoption of the Selected Crops for desirable nutritional outcomes and better livelihoods. The participatory selection and promotion of nutritious crops is novel in the area and responds to the expectation and interest of the community. Although, promoting other naturally occurring vegetables in the region with larger nutritional contributions (Ogle et al. 2001) could help to fill the nutritional gaps of the Selected Crops (e.g. low iron or calcium contributions). Empirical evidence in Bangladesh indicates the feasibility of tripling home garden production and vegetable consumption (Ferdous et al. 2016). In this modelling study we estimated that improving household nutrient adequacy could be reached by almost doubling on-farm contributions to household consumption, although the large consumption of the Selected Crops for nutritional outcomes (i.e. calcium -Ca) remains to be tested. For instance, increasing the consumption will require changes in both crop production and consumption behaviour and preferences to make the most of the nutrient potential of the new or underutilized Selected Crops (e.g. pumpkin sweet potato leaves, orange flesh sweet potato).there appears to be a key role to be played by educational and promotional interventions (Berti et al. 2004;Ruel and Levin 2000).Working with the communities on food preferences and nutrition awareness could help farmers to soften the trade-off between nutrition and income. For example, this modelling study confirms that the market opportunity of the Selected Crops (e.g. large crop gross margin) could help to cover the larger food costs linked to desirable nutritional outcomes. This is in line with Greiner (2017) who found that a food-based approach 1 is a cost-efficient strategy to improve nutritional status, particularly in areas where multiple nutrients are deficient. Nonetheless, our results also suggest that home-garden diversification could also lead to maximize income generation rather than nutritional outcomes, as is already the case in the area. Maximizing income does not necessarily result in more and nutritious food available from the market. For example, despite the diversity of food items outsourced from the market (18 food items) in the Baseline farm, the alternative farm configurations seldom reduced the on-farm production for household consumption to replace these with food from the market. On the contrary, few food items outsourced from the market were replaced by on-farm production due to larger nutrient content and lower cost in the modelling study. This suggests that only improving market access for subsistence farms as a promising livelihood and development strategy as suggested by Sibhatu and Qaim (2018) could be limited and context-dependent.A wide range of metrics is commonly used to assess dietary diversity and on-farm production diversity (Herforth and Ballard 2016;Sibhatu and Qaim 2018). The linkages or associations between dietary and on-farm production diversity are analysed using different metrics and at different scales (e.g. Berti 2015;Sibhatu et al. 2015). Therefore, the need for systematic assessment of the robustness and applicability of the different metrics under different contexts, scales and socioecological settings is increasingly recognized (Powell et al. 2015;Herforth and Ballard 2016). Identifying agreed-upon and robust metrics to measure nutritional outcomes at the farm-household level will allow comparability across NSA interventions and contexts.In this modelling exercise, we compared diverse and commonly used metrics in NSA interventions across farm configurations and food allocations for household consumption from on-and off-farm sources. We compared the metrics values against the nutrient deviation; a theoretical assessment of the contribution to household dietary requirements. We found that the usefulness of SR D was limited in the context of Doan Ket even though it was proposed as an appropriate metric for measuring food diversity in individual diets and nutritional adequacy of diets (Lachat et al. 2017). The SR D and the HDDS performed poorly given the non-significant differences between farms that could and could not satisfy the household dietary requirements for vitamin A, calcium and zinc. It is important to note that household-level metrics of diet are often associated with household food access, rather than dietary quality, and hence nutrition of individualswhich might explain the poor performance of SR D which was validated as an individual, rather than a household-level indicator. We found that other metrics such as functional diversity and Shannon's and Simpson's diversity indexes for the household diet (on-and off-farm sources) (NFD D , H D , D D ) performed better at predicting desirable nutritional outcomes in Doan Ket. All those metrics scored significantly higher median values among farm configurations with desirable nutritional outcomes (N+).On the contrary, only one metric measuring on-farm production diversity for consumption, the nutritional functional diversity (NFD P ), was significantly larger in farms with desirable nutritional outcomes. Functional diversity metrics have been proposed recently to measure production diversity (e.g. Remans et al. 2011;DeClerck et al. 2014), whereas richness and abundance metrics to measure production diversity are used more commonly (See Appendix 1). Hence, the NFD P seems a promising metric that needs to be tested in a wider range of farm-household contexts. Our results also support that H tends to be more sensitive to rare species than D (Peet 1974). For instance, H could be more appropriate in cases where diets and on-farm production are dominated by \"rare\" species and food items.The farm nutritional yield (Y i ) metric is a novel metric able to capture the balanced production of nutrients. It does, however, require careful interpretation if the destination of the produced food is unknown or if analysed only for one nutrient. The Y i metric considers the whole farm production, which could bias the real contribution to human and household nutrition. Similarly, greater Y i values for a certain nutrient could be misleading, since we found that farm configurations with desirable nutritional outcomes had greater Y Zn values and lower Y Ca , Y Fe, and Y VitA values than farm configurations with sub-optimal nutritional outcomes.This modelling study is supported by an intense data collection aiming to capture farming systems and food consumption across eight households in Doan Ket. Data collection was part of the pilot phase of the project in order to test the effectiveof the intervention and guide it rather to inform policy recommendations. Therefore, the Baseline farm properly represents a considerable portion of farm-households in the village, yet the results from this modelling study ignore other farm-household types that are less common in the area with production systems dominated by the excluded crops (e.g. coffee or cassava; Table 1). A larger sampling effort is therefore suggested for a more comprehensive characterization of the impact of the intervention across the diverse farmhousehold types that characterise the region. Similarly, the available food consumption data for Doan Ket was particularly limited since it is based on one weekly dietary recall, which is more subjective to recall error (Kennedy et al. 2011). Nonetheless, our comparison with the regional averages indicates similar consumption levels at the food group level (See Appendix 3). The 'Human Nutrition' module is potentially overestimating consumption or nutrient intake since food waste is currently not being captured by FarmDESIGN. Another inherent limitation of the model is the yearly analysis, which underestimates issues related to seasonal food availability, food price seasonality and intra-household food distributions.Despite the considerable efforts in collecting accurate data, the modelling effort is potentially underestimating the species richness in on-farm production and household diets. For example, ethnobotanical studies identified 38.6 species on average per home harden in Northern Vietnam (Vlkova et al. 2011). Identifying home garden species through food or crop recalls may ignore other important crop and varietal species used for household consumption, as well as species used for other purposes such as medicine, firewood, fodder, materials for construction or crafts (Sêdami et al. 2017;Vlkova et al. 2011). Despite these limitations, here we show how the expanded FarmDESIGN model facilitates measuring the impact of interventions by easily looking at the whole system (e.g. diets), a subset of the system (e.g. Selected Crops) and at alternative farm-household configurations with contrasting strategies for predicting likely farm-household trajectories. Besides the wide range of performance indicators across farm-household domains, which facilitates measuring unexpected impacts (e.g. reduction on leisure time) and the calculation of different metrics commonly used in NSA.We applied a farm-household model to evaluate the effects of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) intervention (i.e. home-garden diversification) on representative farming households from Doan Ket, Vietnam. FarmDESIGN facilitates estimating the potential contribution of an intervention towards attaining household nutritional needs. Capturing performance indicators (and their interactions) across the diverse farm-household domains helps to foresee trade-offs, synergies and unintended consequences of an intervention. For example, the potential adverse environmental effect from the reduction of organic matter and the trade-off between household nutrition and dispensable budget due to the high market value of the Selected Crops in Doan Ket. This information can contribute to designing and identifying complementary interventions that will improve the positive effect of the NSA intervention. Moreover, the easy and simultaneous calculation of several metrics estimating production diversity, diet diversity, nutrient supply, and nutrition adequacy will facilitate identifying the most robust metrics to infer an intervention's contribution to household dietary requirements across contexts. Among the metrics tested here, the most robust metrics included the count-based nutritional functional diversity (production for consumption and diet) as well as the abundance-based Shannon-Weaver and Simpson's diversity indexes (diet). Similarly, we found the farm system yield to be a novel metric that requires careful interpretation.The global commitment to ending malnutrition through NSA requires the use of multiple transdisciplinary, holistic and system-oriented approaches. Models such as the farmhousehold model presented here facilitate and foster communication among the multiple disciplines involved in NSA by presenting a set of clearly articulated and tested metrics that can be used to measure both production and nutritional outcomes, two sides of the food system that for so long have been operating in parallel without harnessing their joint potential.","tokenCount":"8783"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"49ca41939ebf279328bd88fd41834a65","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/04c61337-813e-43fb-9281-86260e028632/retrieve","id":"778392942"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3ea5206a-3434-472f-8bcf-74a6f00b0b62","pagecount":"5","content":"Ibrahim Nouhou et 1,13 ha. La production annuelle de sésame dans la commune de Gothèye était estimée à 300 t en 2012. Une étude récente conduite par la FCMN Niya (mars 2015) a démontré que le sésame grain ou transformé en huile constitue une source fiable de revenus pour les ménages, et particulièrement pour les femmes qui sont les principales productrices et transformatrices. Le sésame grain permet aussi une amélioration qualitative de l'alimentation des populations grâce à sa teneur importante en protéines (25 %) et sa richesse en vitamines et micronutriments (vitamines A, E…), ainsi que la qualité nutritionnelle et les vertus médicinales de son huile. Sa valorisation par la transformation est donc susceptible d'apporter des revenus plus élevés aux femmes, tout en créant des emplois dans de petites unités de transformation. De telles unités existent déjà de façon embryonnaire, mais sont confrontées à de I l y a à peine deux décennies, la culture du sésame se pratiquait autour des cases et ne servait qu'à générer quelques maigres revenus aux ménages vulnérables. Pour l'essentiel, les productions étaient destinées à la consommation domestique, principalement sous forme de condiments pour assaisonner les sauces. La superficie moyenne par producteur (0,1 ha) était extrêmement faible et ne permettait guère de couvrir que les besoins de la famille. Actuellement, cette production mobilise 82 % de femmes contre seulement 18 % d'hommes, qui exploitent respectivement une moyenne de 0,63 ha L'appui aux femmes membres de l'Union Sirba Bonkaney, mené par la Fédération des coopératives maraîchères du Niger et ses partenaires, leur a permis d'être mieux structurées et de renforcer leurs capacités organisationnelles et techniques en matière de transformation du sésame. L'initiative a apporté une augmentation significative des rendements du sésame et des revenus des transformatrices.Ci-contre Grâce à la production et la commercialisation de l'huile de sésame, le revenu des transformatrices a augmenté de façon substantielle nombreuses difficultés, notamment la faible organisation des transformatrices, le manque de connaissances quant aux normes d'hygiène et aux exigences de qualité des consommateurs urbains et les sous-équipements.L'un des principaux piliers du développement du monde rural est l'organisation des producteurs en entreprises privées selon leur domaine d'activité. Cela ne peut se faire sans la mobilisation de ces derniers et une réelle volonté de se structurer en organisations paysannes. C'est pourquoi la Fédération des coopératives maraîchères du Niger, avec le soutien de ses partenaires financiers CRS-Niger et Oxfam Novib, a appuyé les femmes membres de l'Union Sirba Bonkaney afin de les aider à mieux se structurer et renforcer leurs capacités organisationnelles et techniques pour parvenir à alimenter des unités de transformation du sésame en quantité et en qualité suffisantes.1. La professionnalisation des productrices et transformatrices. Cet appui a tout d'abord consisté à renforcer la structuration des productrices et transformatrices membres de l'Union Sirba Bonkaney. À cet effet, des missions d'information et de sensibilisation ont été effectuées par la Fédération au niveau du bassin de production du sésame de la commune rurale de Gothèye en vue d'amener les femmes à mieux s'imprégner non seulement des avantages de la vie associative mais surtout de l'importance de se structurer en coopératives puis en unions des coopératives. Ensuite, une série de formation sur la vie associative, l'itinéraire technique de production de sésame avec un focus sur les méthodes biologiques, la gestion et le marketing ou les techniques de production d'huile selon les règles d'hygiène ont été organisées, ainsi que des voyages d'échanges d'expériences pour renforcer les capacités organisationnelles et techniques des productrices et transformatrices.Pour approvisionner les machines d'extraction de sésame de façon régulière, il faut produire plus et mieux. C'est pourquoi un fonds de préfinancement d'intrants a été mis en place pour servir des intrants agricoles de qualité. Ces intrants sont mis en place en début de campagne et remboursés à la récolte sur la base d'un contrat formel entre les membres et l'Union. Les femmes ont également été dotées d'un kit de matériel agricole composé de 10 unités de cultures attelées (UCA) et 10 motopompes servant d'irrigation d'appoint pour faciliter les activités de production. La gestion du matériel est assurée par un comité mis en place à cet effet. Il est principalement utilisé dans les champs collectifs et champs écoles par les experts paysans sous la responsabilité du comité de gestion. Une convention de collaboration avec la Direction départementale de l'Agriculture de la commune de Gothèye est élaborée dans le cadre de l'encadrement des producteurs. Elle comprend des activités de suivi, des formations pratiques et la conduite des champs écoles paysans. La planification des activités et le budget nécessaire pour leur mise en oeuvre ont été clairement définis dans la convention de collaboration.3. Le renforcement de capacités de mise en marché. Après la structuration et le renforcement des capacités de production, les femmes membres de l'Union Sirba Bonkaney ont été dotées de deux magasins de stockage de sésame d'une capacité de 40 t chacun et de deux unités de transformation du sésame composées de quatre machines performantes d'une capacité de quatre t par jour. Il est important de souligner qu'un comité de gestion des machines a été mis en place et est chargé de gérer de façon durable l'investissement réalisé. À cet effet, le comité s'est doté d'un règlement intérieur de gestion et a instauré un mécanisme de pérennisation avec l'application de prix différenciés (selon que l'on soit membre ou non) à payer pour chaque usage de la machine. Les fonds collectés permettent de rémunérer les meuniers et assurent la prise en charge par les bénéficiaires des frais de réparation et de maintenance des extracteurs et à terme l'acquisition de nouvelles machines. Par ailleurs, la vente de l'huile de sésame est facilitée par la mise en place d'un point de vente au niveau du siège de la FCMN-Niya. Le design de l'emballage constitue un aspect important du marketing, qui permet de donner plus de valeur au produit. C'est pour cela qu'une attention particulière a été portée sur ce point. Aussi, la production d'huile et ses dérivés a été régulièrement soumise au contrôle de vérification des normes. Enfin, la production de l'huile de sésame et ses dérivés nécessite la disponibilité de la matière première. Ainsi, pour faciliter la constitution d'un stock et l'approvisionnement régulier desMalgré les difficultés rencontrées lors de la mise en oeuvre de l'initiative (faible réceptivité des femmes à l'innovation, sècheresses, attaques de parasites, problème de commercialisation de l'huile du sésame), le processus de structuration des femmes autour de la transformation du sésame a induit plusieurs résultats et impacts positifs.En premier lieu, l'Union Sirba Bonkaney s'est bien structurée avec cinq coopératives dotées d'un fort esprit d'entreprenariat. L'expérience a stimulé les initiatives d'autopromotion et les différentes activités d'information et de sensibilisation, d'appui-conseil et de formation. Par ailleurs, la formalisation de contrats d'affaires entre l'Union et ses membres d'une part, l'union et SIDI d'autre part, sont porteuses d'une nouvelle ère de transformation des coopératives vers des entreprises agricoles. Ce développement de l'esprit entrepreneurial dans toutes les activités des femmes a été maintenu sur toute la durée de l'initiative et au-delà en conformité avec les orientations économiques de la FCMN insufflées au niveau de toutes les coopératives membres.La dynamisation des actions collectives (regroupement des femmes sur les sites collectifs de production, commandes groupées d'intrants, commercialisation collective, transformation du sésame au niveau des unités de transformation) fait aussi partie de la culture de construction de la dynamique paysanne portée par la FCMN. Toutes les actions initiées par les femmes dans le cadre de l'initiative se sont donc inscrites dans cette logique. transformatrices, celles-ci se sont orientées vers la SIDI (Solidarité internationale pour le développement et l'investissement) qui leur a facilité l'octroi d'un crédit d'un montant de six millions FCFA pour l'achat de 30 t de sésame grain dans le cadre de cette activité.Il est important de rappeler que la mise en oeuvre efficace de l'initiative a été facilitée par les acteurs suivants : i) l'Union Sirba Bonkaney, bénéficiaire et porteuse de l'initiative ; ii) la Fédération des coopératives maraîchères du Niger, facilitatrice et assistante technique de l'initiative ; iii) SIDI, pour l'octroi de crédit via la FCMN-Niya ; iv) la direction départementale de l'Agriculture de Gothèye, pour assurer l'encadrement et le suivi des producteurs ; v) la faculté d'Agronomie de l'université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey, par la mise en place d'un stagiaire nutritionniste et technologue dans le cadre d'une recherche sur un produit à base de sésame ; vi) Oxfam Novib, pour le soutien financier et l'assistance technique à la mise en oeuvre de l'initiative.« Je m'appelle Ramatou Adamou, je suis mariée et mère de trois enfants. Je suis transformatrice et membre de la coopérative Soudji de Garbey Kourou qui est membre de l'Union Sirba Bonkaney, bénéficiaire et porteuse de l'initiative. J'avoue que ma vie a changé grâce à la coopérative qui m'a permis d'acquérir une expertise technique en matière de production et de transformation du sésame. Grâce à mon activité de transformation, j'ai pu augmenter et diversifier mes revenus, ce qui m'a permis d'avoir trois boeufs alors que je n'avais même pas une poule auparavant. » Madame Ramatou Adamou, transformatrice de sésame à Garbey Kourou.D'une culture de case, le sésame est passé à une culture de rente, qui contribue aujourd'hui à l'économie et à la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle de la communauté bénéficiaire.La combinaison des différents appuis et renforcements des capacités des femmes a permis l'augmentation du rendement du sésame, qui est passé de 380 kg à 600 kg/ha durant la période d'intervention, soit une augmentation de 58 %. Ces appuis et renforcements de capacités ont été la mise à disposition des intrants de qualité (semences, engrais…), l'organisation de formations sur les techniques de production et post-récolte et surtout à la mise en place des champs écoles paysans (CEP), véritables lieux d'apprentissage des innovations agricoles.Le processus a également permis de dynamiser l'activité de transformation, l'acquisition de machines performantes ayant entraîné une amélioration des conditions de travail des femmes. En effet, une des machines permet de transformer le sésame brut en huile en un temps record (1000 l/jour). En outre, les transformatrices ont été amplement formées sur les techniques de transformation, de respect des règles d'hygiène et de conditionnement. La combinaison de ces appuis a ainsi permis de valoriser l'huile de sésame.Grâce à la production et la commercialisation de l'huile de sésame et de ses dérivés, le revenu des transformatrices a augmenté de façon substantielle ; il est passé de 1,5 million FCFA en 2015 (situation de référence) à 2,5 millions FCFA en 2016, soit un accroissement de 67 %.Enfin, l'initiative a conduit au développement de partenariats. Elle a facilité la mise en relation de la FCMN avec les institutions académiques, sanitaires et les industries agroalimentaires. Par exemple, la FCMN a accueilli une étudiante de l'université de Niamey dans le cadre d'un mémoire de recherche sur la nutrition. Les premiers résultats de ses travaux, qui portaient sur la détermination de la valeur nutritive de la pâte de sésame enrichie, sont déjà disponibles.","tokenCount":"1814"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d9b1405d46bba7bcd264b19078c05f4f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/17d6a887-aea3-4b89-863e-7bf23c150027/retrieve","id":"1784521080"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"460a206e-3d36-4371-be13-86ebcdb5b348","pagecount":"29","content":"Consumption of fallen stock could be an important route for zoonotic infections to enter human populations. Qualitative and Quantitative risk assessments were performed in order to determine the risk to human health via consumption of fallen stock and identify potential methods for mitigating risk. After initial hazard identification (disease selection) three pathogens were chosen for assessment; two for qualitative and one for quantitative. Influenza A (H5N1) and the prion causing Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) were chosen for qualitative assessment. Bacillus anthracis was chosen for quantitative assessment. The qualitative assessments were designed to answer the question: \"In the scenario of a disease outbreak amongst livestock, what is the risk of one or more human cases (and deaths) occurring due to the preparation and consumption of fallen stock\". The quantitative model was designed to provide probability of infection and subsequent death with Gastro-Intestinal (GI) Anthrax occurring in individuals consuming meat from fallen cattle, whilst also predicting the number of cases and deaths occurring in Western Province (WP), Zambia. The Risk from H5N1 was determined to be \"low\" to \"medium\", and the risk from the prion causing BSE was \"very low\". Results from the quantitative assessment suggest that mean individual risk of infection with GI Anthrax is less than 1 in 10,000,00 but that the probability of infection given consumption of an infected carcass was 1 in 4695. The mean probability of at least one case of GI Anthrax occurring in WP was 1 in 9. Sensitivity analysis of the quantitative model suggested that the ingested dose of B. anthracis was the most important determinant of disease, and that the ingested dose was most affected by spore reduction during cooking. Qualitative assessment also suggested that risk could be reduced by taking precautions when preparing and consuming meat from infected animals including careful butchery and ensuring meat is properly cooked. This brief assessment has begun to describe the risk to human health from consumption of fallen stock, and has provided insights which could be taken forward in to future work.The consumption of dead or dying animals is a common practice worldwide, especially in developing countries (Turnbull 2008, Islam, Hossain et al. 2013) where fallen stock represent a valuable source of protein. Zoonotic infections from these animals may represent an important risk to those preparing and consuming meat. This assessment aims to describe the risk from three important zoonotic pathogens in order to illustrate the dangers inherent in the practice and also to identify potential ways to reduce risk.Populations in developed countries were consuming meat from diseased or dead animals as recently as the 20 th century; \"Braxy mutton\" refers to the meat of a sheep that has died from \"braxy\" (a Clostridial disease of sheep) or another disease (Wood 1907) and was a term used in the UK. This practice continues in developing countries today, due to the scarcity of protein and an un-willingness to waste valuable meat. However, the importance of this practice with regards to zoonotic disease is poorly understood. This is due in part to legal issues; the consumption of meat from dead animals is illegal in most countries. This route of infection might be also be important for those living in developing countries. Consuming meat from dead/dying animals could represent an important route for the emergence of diseases of global significance.According to Taylor et al. (2001) 60% of all infectious diseases are zoonotic and emerging infectious diseases are twice as likely to be zoonotic as non-zoonotic. These diseases can become pandemics if allowed to spread unchecked; Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) (H5N1) is a well-known example (WHO 2005). It is important that we examine and understand the potential routes for zoonoses to spread in to human populations. It has been suggested that humans first became infected with diseases such as Human Immuno-deficiency Virus and Ebola after direct contact with tissue from infected animals (Kalish, Wolfe et al. 2005, Chowell andNishiura 2014). This contact may have been in the form of meat consumption or meat preparation.To gain a better understanding of the zoonotic disease risks associated with this practice, and how we might attempt to control them, we performed a series of three risk assessments (qualitative and quantitative).A list of 1415 species of pathogens causing human disease was retrieved from Taylor (2001).The list categorises pathogens into bacterial, fungal, protozoal, helminth and viral and other.Pathogens were removed from the list if:  They were not zoonotic  They were not known to cause mortality in infected animals  They could not infect humans from an animal carcass. They were fungi. Fungi were excluded due to their lesser potential to cause zoonoses of serious public health concern.The Pathogens identified were grouped into one of three categories. These categories broadly represented groups of pathogens that may behave differently within this context. The three categories were: long established pathogens of concern, emerging viruses, and emerging novel pathogens e.g. prions. This approach was taken to assess the importance of this practice for a range of zoonotic threats.One pathogen from each group was chosen based on the strength of the available literature necessary to perform a risk assessment. Part I: QualitativeThe two pathogens chosen for qualitative risk assessment were Influenza A virus (H5N1) and the prion causing Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). These pathogens fit all the criteria described above and both are well known as the causative agents of zoonotic disease (Brown 2001, Peiris, de Jong et al. 2007).Influenza A strain H5N1 causing HPAI has caused many outbreaks of disease amongst domestic poultry (Sonnberg, Webby et al. 2013) and to date has caused 844 cases and 449 deaths amongst humans worldwide (WHO 2015). There have been major concerns about the emergence of HPAI H5N1 as a virulent pandemic strain.The outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in the UK during the 1980-90's has been well documented and much research carried out on the infectious agent, the prion known as PrP \uD835\uDC46\uD835\uDC50 . The prion is the cause of vCJD in humans (Brown 2001), and a vCJD outbreak in the UK was associated with the outbreak of BSE amongst cattle. The discovery of this novel pathogen, potentially fatal to humans and which appeared to be very widely distributed amongst UK cattle, caused mass hysteria, not just in the UK but worldwide.In order to assess the importance of consumption of deadstock in the transmission and emergence of these pathogens the following risk question was investigated: \"In the scenario of a disease outbreak amongst livestock, what is the risk of one or more human cases (and deaths) occurring due to the preparation and consumption of fallen stock\"1. The disease causes animal deaths, or animals are culled due to morbidity.2. Animal carcasses are salvaged for consumption 3a. Individual is exposed to pathogen via the consumption of meat from an infected carcass 3b. Individual is exposed to pathogen via preparation of carcass before consumption.4. The pathogen establishes an infection 5. The infection causes the death of the individual.Once the risk question was decided upon, a risk pathway was drawn. The pathway had to describe all of the necessary steps that would allow the pathogen to cause cases in people after cases had occurred in livestock. The final draft of the pathway can be seen in Figure 1 and this pathway was used for both pathogens.  For each pathogen in turn, a qualitative risk was assigned to each step in the pathway, from \"negligible\" to \"very high\", reflecting the probability of the event described occurring given that all previous steps had occurred. Definitions of risk are the same as those used by the European Food Standards Agency, discussed in EFSA's own journal (2012). A Summary of the definitions can be found in Table 1. Individual step risks were decided upon after literature review.Once all steps had been assigned a risk, a final risk for the pathogen based on the judgement of the author and following standard risk assessment methodology (Thiemann 2015) was produced to answer the risk question.  Individual risks for steps in the pathway described can be seen in Table 2 (H5N1) and Table 3 (BSE & vCJD)For H5N1 the overall risk was considered to be low-medium. We can expect there to be human cases of infection with H5N1 via the preparation of infected carcasses, and infected individuals are at significant risk of death.For BSE and vCJD, the overall risk was considered to be very low. We might expect people to become exposed to the infectious prion through consumption of meat from fallen stock in some contexts. But, these individuals are unlikely to develop disease.   The pathogen establishes an infection Low -Medium  In some outbreaks amongst poultry there have been fewer human cases than expected (Vong, Coghlan et al. 2006). The overall infectiousness of H5N1 is unclear. (Peiris, de Jong et al. 2007).The infection causes the death of the individual. At present, with 449 deaths from 844 documented cases, the case-fatality rate of H5N1 is over 50% (WHO 2015). However, with mild case ascertainment being poor, it is very possible that the majority of cases have gone unreported and so mortality could be much lower (Peiris, de Jong et al. 2007).   Individuals consuming un-processed meat from infected carcasses are probably at low risk of exposing themselves to the infective prion, as muscle tissue appears to be free of the infectious agent in affected animals (Brown 2001).Those individuals consuming meat that contains tissue deemed \"Specified Risk Material\" will almost certainly expose themselves to the prion. The prion does not lose infectivity at temperatures normally achieved in cooking (Matsuura, Ishikawa et al. 2013).3bIndividual is exposed to pathogen via preparation of carcass before consumption.The literature suggests that infection requires exposure to the pathogen via ingestion (Hilton 2006).The pathogen establishes an infectionThe outbreak of BSE amongst cattle in the UK totalled over 100,000 cases with 1000's of people potentially exposed to the infectious agent (Chen and Wang 2014). However, there have only been 176 cases of vCJD in the UK. There is some suggestion that this is due to inherent genetic susceptibility in some individuals (Saba and Booth 2013), however there may also be other factors, such as age, at play (Brown 2001).The infection causes the death of the individual.Very High  There is no known cure for the disease, and infection appears to unanimously result in death. (de Villemeur 2013)The risk of human infections with H5N1 as a result of preparing and consuming infected birds was considered to be low-medium; we can expect cases to occur as a result of this practice following an outbreak. This represents an important step in disease emergence, especially considering that infections may be sub-clinical and therefore difficult to recognise and control.The risk of human cases of vCJD as a result of preparing and consuming cattle that have died or been slaughtered as a result of BSE was considered to be very low.The method used is fairly brief and simplistic, and may fail to take into account some nuances of these diseases and there is uncertainty associated with these assessments. For example, disease outbreaks amongst animals and their risk to humans are likely to vary. Some regions may have seen cases before, and people may be more or less likely to consume meat from deadstock. Previous outbreaks may lead to a change in risk perception and behaviour following control measures such as public health education programmes (Chotpitayasunondh, Ungchusak et al. 2005).The cultural differences between countries means that practices surrounding food vary hugely, in some South East Asian countries, consumption of poultry blood is common. This is likely to increase an individual's risk of disease (Peiris, de Jong et al. 2007).BSE and vCJD are unusual diseases. BSE has a very long incubation period (Kimberlin 1993), and so many cattle are likely to die as a result of other causes before BSE can cause obvious symptoms or death. As a result, there may be a higher risk from consuming animals that die of other causes, but are also infected with BSE.The assessment has given clues to interventions that may reduce the risk of human illness through relatively simple methods. The absence of the infectious prion from the meat and milk of infected animals (Brown 2001) means that with the removal of the central nervous system and other specified risk materials, meat from diseased carcasses could be treated as safe.From this risk assessment, it certainly seems possible that human cases of these diseases may arise through the preparation and consumption of fallen stock. The findings may help guide future work into the ways in which zoonotic diseases emerge into human populations.Part II: QuantitativeThe pathogen chosen for the quantitative part of the assessment was the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, the cause of Anthrax in both humans and animals. This pathogen was chosen because of its prevalence in many developing countries where the practice of consuming fallen stock is most common (Turnbull 2008), and also because of the quantitative data available in the literature.B. anthracis is well-known as a zoonosis that can be spread to others after an individual has died, often through direct physical contact or via contamination of the environment and subsequent infection, sometimes years later (Turnbull 2008). The bacterium can be found in two forms: the vegetative form which is found within infected hosts, and the spore form. The spore is formed to allow the bacteria to survive in harsher environmental conditions, such as soil.Anthrax has proven historically difficult to control, with cases occurring in developed countries after supposedly long periods without the disease. Anthrax is still endemic or \"hyper-endemic\" in many developing countries (Doganay and Demiraslan 2015). Zambia in is one of these \"hyper-endemic\" countries and both human and animal cases are seen year on year (Turnbull 2008).Anthrax seems particularly relevant to this investigation. Specifically, the gastro-intestinal forms of the disease seemed worth investigating. In order to focus the quantitative risk assessment, it was decided that the project should investigate Anthrax in the Western Province (WP) of Zambia.Western Province is a relatively poor part of Zambia. With a population of approximately 900,000 people with 60% living in rural areas (CSO 2011), most inhabitants purchase food from local markets and/or produce their own with little formal food safety regulation. The province is broadly representative of other rural communities in the developing world and was considered to be a suitable site for this study. Further to this, knowledge of Anthrax is good and there have been several studies into the epidemiology of the disease within the region (Siamudaala, Bwalya et al. 2006, Munang'andu, Banda et al. 2012, Munang'andu, Banda et al. In order to investigate the importance of consuming deadstock in the epidemiology of Anthrax we conducted a quantitative risk assessment to estimate the number of GI cases (and deaths)of Anthrax we might expect each year in the Western province of Zambia. In addition to this, we also wished to estimate any given individual's probability of exposure to Anthrax via ingestion, and the probability that an individual will become infected with Anthrax given that they consume meat from an animal that has died of Anthrax.The model used for the quantitative assessment was based on the same pathway mentioned in the qualitative part of the assessment, and can be seen in Figure 1.Data used to construct the model was taken from the available literature and also from interviews and meetings with government veterinary services and researchers conducted on a field trip to Western Province, Zambia. These Meetings included a participatory workshop to find out more about food preparation practices in Nalitoya, Senanga District, WP.The model was constructed in Excel 2013 (Microsoft corporation) using @RISK6 (Palisade corporation). The software uses monte-carlo simulation to produce a model from input distributions and data. A full description of the model can be found in Table 5. Outputs from the model were meant to address the aims described in the introduction, which were:1. To estimate the average number of cases and deaths in humans from GI Anthrax in WP, Zambia, as a result preparing and eating fallen stock (cattle) 2. To estimate an individual's probability of death following exposure to a minimal infectious dose of B. anthracis sufficient to cause GI Anthrax, in WP, Zambia.a. And probability of exposure without death.3. To estimate an individual's probability of becoming infected with GI Anthrax, given that they consumed meat from cattle that has died of Anthrax.4. To estimate the probability that at least one human death due to GI Anthrax will occur in a single year in WP due to consumption of deadstock.a. And the probability of at least one case occurring in a single year.The mean, median, 5 th and 95 th percentile for each output were taken from the model for results.Sensitivity analysis was then performed for three of the outputs to determine which input parameters were most influential and to identify potential targets for interventions. The software varies the input parameters within their permitted numerical ranges for each output and then ranks the inputs according to which had the largest effect on the output's mean. The software also calculates regression coefficients between the outputs and the input parameters. The outputs chosen were:1. An individual's probability of death following exposure to Minimum Infectious Dose (MID) of B. anthracis sufficient to cause GI Anthrax.2. An individual's probability of death given that they have consumed meat from cattle that have died of Anthrax.3. The probability that at least one death due to GI Anthrax will occur in a single year in WP.Additional sensitivity analysis was performed on the \"number of spores consumed by an individual\".Table 5: Quantitative model, outputs, inputs and distributions/formulae used. Data taken from annual livestock reports dating from 1999 to 2014 (Nyekele 2011, Munang'andu, Banda et al. 2012, Syatwinda 2012, Syatwinda 2013, Syatwinda 2014, Syatwinda 2015), combined with an estimate of under-reporting. For each year the reported cases of anthrax in cattle were added to an estimate of the un-reported cases. The estimate of un-reported cases was made using a negative binomial distribution, which combined the reported cases with the under-reporting estimate to give a number of un-reported cases. Annual case estimates were then combined to produce a mean annual number of cases. Probability of cattle dying from anthrax (Beta distribution)A beta distribution was used to estimate the probability of any given cattle dying from Anthrax, based on the average number of cases and a total cattle population size of 475000 (taken from livestock reports) of WP.Probability that a carcass is salvaged (Uniform distribution) Uniform(0.9-1.0)The probability of cattle carcasses being salvaged for consumption (90-100%) was plotted in a uniform distribution, based on personal communication from (Kamboyi 2015).Probability  (Turnbull 2008), a mean of 55 ml of blood /Kg Body Weight (Reynolds 1953) and a mean Body Weight of 150Kg. Proportion of CFU's sporulating (Uniform distribution) Uniform (0.2-1.0)A uniform distribution used to estimate the proportion of CFU's that sporulate. Based on data from Turnbull (2008). Proportion of all spores remaining after cooking (Betapert distribution) Betapert (0,0.001,1)An estimate of the proportion of spores that will survive cooking, based on cooking temperature of <100 degrees Celsius and cooking time of 1-2 hours (from community workshop), and data from studies on Spore survival under heat (Murray 1931) (Rice, Rose et al. 2004).Betapert (1,3,10) An estimate of the number of portions an individual will eat, based on answers given in the community workshop. Mean portion size = 100g. Spores consumed by an individual. The Minimal infectious Dose (MID) required for infection with GI anthrax is uncertain in humans. A uniform distribution was used to account for this. The lowest oral MID was believed to be 10 8 spores, based on (Turnbull 2008) reported MID's for other resistant species. The highest was 10 11 spores, based on available human data in (Turnbull 2008) Probability that an individual consumes an oral MID of b. anthracis sufficient to cause GI Anthrax. (Fitted)(IF Average spores consumed ≥ human MID, then 1 else 0)Using Monte-carlo simulation, the probability that the number of spores consumed was greater than the estimated oral MID in humans was determined. In each separate iteration of the model, if the dose consumed by an individual was larger than the MID, +1 was added to a counter, at the end of the simulation, we are able to see how likely the ingested dose is to exceed the human MID. A continuous distribution was fitted to this result. The probability of an individual not being infected with GI Anthrax via consumption of deadstock is (1-Individual probability of infection), therefore the probability of at least one case occurring is 1-(1-individual p of infection) to the power of the rural population of WP (528974 inhabitants) (CSO 2011).Output results from quantitative analysis can be seen in Table 6. From the model, the mean annual deaths we can expect from GI Anthrax in Western Province is 4.1 (median 0.0, min 5%: 0.0, max 95%: 49.0). The mean annual number of cases of GI Anthrax is 10.52 (median 0.0, min 5%: 0.0, max 95%: 126.0). A given individual's mean annual probability of becoming infected with GI Anthrax and dying was 6.23 x 10 -8 or 1 in 15873016 and mean annual probability of becoming infected was 1.46 x 10 -7 or 1 in 6849315. The probability of an individual becoming infected with GI Anthrax, given that they had consumed meat from an infected carcass was 0.000213 or 1 in 4695. The mean probability of at least one human case occurring was 0.114 (median 0.0842, min 5% 0.00657, max 95% 0.325)Results of sensitivity analysis can be seen in Table 7. For all three outputs, the most influential input was the probability that the ingested dose of Anthrax spores was greater than the oral MID for GI Anthrax. The other inputs in rank order were, probability of death given infection with GI Anthrax, probability of death occurring in cattle due to Anthrax and finally, the probability that a carcass will be salvaged for consumption. The most influential parameter affecting the number of spores an individual receives when consuming meat from an infected carcass was the proportion of spores remaining after cooking. The other parameters in rank order were: portions of meat eaten, proportion of CFU's sporulating and the total CFU's in an infected carcass.   The risk to any individuals consuming meat from a carcass infected with Anthrax is very low, with a probability of becoming infected with GI Anthrax of less than 1 in 1000. The risk of any individual coming into contact with an infected carcass and then becoming infected is negligible. The probability of at least one case occurring in a year is 0.114, and from this we might conclude that while individual probability is very low, we certainly can't rule out cases occurring via this route in this region, let alone on a global or national scale. This risk could also vary between groups of people. Those with weaker immune responses such as the very young and old may experience a higher risk than described here.Results from the sensitivity analysis suggest that the most important factors in determining whether someone becomes infected and dies as a result of infection with Anthrax through consumption of deadstock is the dose they receive. The parameter with the greatest influence over the dose received is the proportion of spores that survive cooking.The results produced are coherent with the reported experience of Anthrax within Western Province. At the turn of the 21 st century, people in Western Province experienced a few deaths each year and the number has been steadily declining and in some years no cases were reported. This is similar to the pattern of disease amongst cattle and several studies undertaken in Zambia have linked human cases to the preparation and consumption of infected meat (Siamudaala, Bwalya et al. 2006, Munang'andu, Banda et al. 2012).There are several features of the model that need to be considered when interpreting the results. The estimate of the total CFU's within a carcass is based on the author's own Public health officials in Zambia have focused on persuading people not to eat meat from fallen stock as a method of controlling the diseases in humans (Munang'andu, Banda et al. 2012), but the practice continues. From the sensitivity analysis, it is possible to make suggestions about other methods to reduce risk. The proportion of spores surviving cooking can be easily influenced. Whilst carcass rejection and destruction is best practice, this is unlikely to occur in a setting where diets are deficient in protein. Ensuring the temperature of a cooking medium is high enough to sterilise B. anthracis spores should significantly reduce the risk to individuals consuming the meat. Another parameter that could be artificially controlled is the probability that cattle become infected. Zambian officials have continued to issue vaccine against Anthrax in order to control the disease in cattle, but have been frustrated by inadequate coverage, which has allowed outbreaks to continue (Siamudaala, Bwalya et al. 2006). Promoting protocols for reducing soil contamination are also recommended; in our community workshop there was a lack of awareness of the dangers of environmental contamination.Preparing and consuming meat from fallen stock can pose a risk to human health. Influenza A strain H5N1 has infected humans after direct contact with infected carcasses during meat preparation and could pose a threat to those consuming undercooked poultry products. The prion causing BSE in cattle is unlikely to cause cases of vCJD in humans through this route, but the possibility cannot be ruled out. Whilst the risk to individuals from GI Anthrax appears low, human cases are likely where fallen cattle are consumed in Anthrax endemic regions.Preparing and cooking meat from infected carcasses could affect the risk from eating meat from dead animals. Continual public education about risk from zoonoses and the importance of safe cooking practices can help to reduce individual risk and also reduce the chance of epidemics occurring.The assessments were meant to consider several different types of pathogen and as a result, the findings of this study could apply to other pathogens that can infect humans via this route (see Table 1). However, the differences between pathogen epidemiology and ecology mean that we should expect pathogens to behave differently and therefore further investigation is recommended.Very little work has focused on this practice. This brief study has looked into the potential hazards people face from consumption of fallen stock and can inform future work.Consumption of fallen stock poses a real threat to human health, and could exist as a route through which diseases emerge into human populations. Simply telling people not to engage in the practice is unlikely to work and greater focus should be placed on allowing people to prepare food safely. However, further work is required before the risks and solutions can be fully understood.","tokenCount":"4452"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"815fbdb9ce13683b11ff081f716eb8e4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dbdbfd47-71c0-4944-8026-b006606156be/retrieve","id":"600995795"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9af2b56d-bda1-444e-be79-9ce8beaef34a","pagecount":"36","content":"The project operates in 12 focus sites (table 1), which had been originally developed in an earlier project funded by AusAID.At the end of 2001, the achievements of the Forages for Smallholders Project (FSP) were evaluated and compared with the targets set at the beginning of the year. Most targets were exceeded with a big margin, some by more than 200 %. More than 1500 new farmers planted forages in 2001, almost double the number the previous year. The total number of farmers who have planted forages in S.E. Asia, in association with this and the earlier project, is now around 4000. More than 1.5 million cuttings and splits were produced and distributed as planting material to new farmers. In some countries farmer groups are the main producers of planting material, in other countries it is done by individual farmers. The amount of seed produced in all countries was more than 7 tonnes. A total of 77 training events and field days were organised for farmers; and 20 training courses for technicians, officers and researchers.An economist was hired to carry out a socio-economic study in three villages in East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia, with our partners from Dinas Peternakan. The objectives were to assess the impacts of the new forage technologies on livestock productivity, labour, and income. Factors considered were gender, poverty levels and market opportunities. Communities were involved in the assessment using participatory methods, and methods for improving self-monitoring impacts were identified. The study was concluded with appropriate training sessions for the communities who participated. Additionally, formal questionnaires were used to assess economic productivity. About 85 farmers participated in the study. Livestock systems varied from stall feeding improved goats, grazing under coconuts on improved pasture by Bali cattle, to grazing and stall feeding improved forages to Ongole cattle. The average availability of improved forage area was 0.4 ha per farm. Ruminant productivity in the study area increased an average 62 % in terms of cash income from sales of livestock and manure. In addition to increased animal productivity, on average, 20 % labour input was saved in the new forage systems in terms of days worked per year. The saving of labour amounts to an extra 31 % increased income from the livestock system, when time is valued in money. The adoption of forages resulted in an average 19 % increase in gross margin of the livestock systems, and a 78 % increase in household income per days spent working in the livestock systems.A journalist was hired to appraise and write up the results of the FSP in Mindanao, Philippines, and in Tuyen Quang, Vietnam. After travelling to the sites and interviewing farmers, field workers, and government officials, he wrote three articles for the popular press. In Cagayan de Oro he highlighted the synergy of the FSP and the Government dairy programme, which has resulted in increased and more regular farmers' income. In Malitbog, the environmental benefits of forages were analysed and farmers perception of the participatory methods evaluated. In Vietnam, unconventional ways of utilising forages have improved productivity of fish, pigs, chickens and ducks. Growth rates of pigs increased from 330 g/day without forages, to 450g/day with improved forages. At the same sites, grass carp fed on improved forages achieved 25 % higher weight compared to systems not using improved forages over a 6 months feeding cycle.A course was developed on monitoring and evaluation, based on experiences in Vietnam and the Philippines. The modules address the need for both participatory methods, involving farmers focus groups, and regular surveys. Analysis of data is carried out at the local level. The FSP produced a publication methods publication, 'How to monitor and evaluate impacts of participatory research projects', which is a guideline containing concepts and methods for monitoring and evaluation by development workers. The booklet 'Developing forage technologies with smallholder farmers' was completed in 6 languages (English, Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Lao and Vietnamese) and distributed to field staff in 6 countries.Three project staff from the Philippines and one from Vietnam attended a 3 week course on participatory research and development, organised by CIP-UPWARD and CIAT. Action plans were developed. One field officer from Vietnam, one from Indonesia and one from Thailand attended an intensive 6 week English language course in Laos.The project \"RETA 5866: Fourth Agriculture and Natural Resources Research at CGAIR Centers: Developing Sustainable Forage Technologies for Resource -Poor Upland Farmers in Asia\", in short called the \"Forages for Smallholders Project\" (FSP), started in January 2000. It is funded by the Asian Development Bank for a period of three years. The goal of the project is: \"to improve the livelihood of upland farmers by enhancing available feed sources to increase livestock production and strategic use of grasses and legumes to conserve soil and to enhance nutrient management (ADB 1 , 1999). The participating countries are China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.The objectives of the project are to:Develop sustainable forage technologies for resource-poor farmers in upland farming systems in Asia. During the Annual Regional Programme Meeting, held in Samarinda, Indonesia, January 2001, participating countries began developing workplans for 2001, for each focus site within the country. These workplans were completed during February and March and were published in the proceedings of the workshop. Many of the workplans had stated target numbers related to dissemination, forage multiplication and training activities. In Tables 2, 3 and 4, both targets and achievements are summarised for each country. The percentage value in the last row is based on the achievements against target numbers set at the beginning of the year. In all cases where targets were set, our partners provided achievement numbers. However, the data is not complete. In some instances target numbers were not set by some countries even though acheivements were reported. Together with the 1700 farmers who planted during the previous phase of the FSP (1995FSP ( -1999)), the total number of farmers planting forages associated with the project are now approx. 4000. Many of the new farmers in 2001 participated in cross visits to the focus sites. Cross visits, in their various forms, prove to be an effective way of dissemination. Vegetative planting materials and seeds were produced both by farmer groups and individual farmers. Seed production is usually an individual farmer activity. Although a total of 128 farmers were producing seeds, these were mostly farmers who had been producing seeds for more than one year. Seed production is a specialised skill, which takes some time to master and to become economically viable. The amounts of forage seeds produced in 2001 in Vietnam, Thailand, China and Lao were 52, 500, 5,380 and 1,500 kg, respectively. A large part of the seed in Lao PDR was produced at the Livestock Research Centre. One and half million cuttings and splits were produced, providing an average of 100 pieces of planting material to every new farmer. A meeting was organised with the senior officers of Dinas Peternakan at Samarinda. On the agenda were the progress of FSP in East Kalimantan and the proposal for an economic study of cattle and goat fattening. It was agreed that FSP was on the right track. Several suggestions were made for the economic study: One or two staff of Dinas should be involved in the study to facilitate learning from the consultant.There is existing economic information about livestock production in East Kalimantan which should be reviewed before the start of the study (e.g. GTZ, 1986). Follow-up: Ibrahim Non-ruminant livestock should get some attention in the study.The team would like to know whether farmers with more than one cow or bull have higher economic returns per animal than farmers who only fatten one animal.The proposed study was also discussed with two farmer groups in Makroman, and two farmer groups in Sepaku. Farmers in all groups stressed that we should not ignore breeding, as all farmers are currently involved in breeding as well as fattening. Fattening is more profitable, but it is difficult to obtain young or lean cattle for fattening. Farmers breed their own fattening stock. I suggest that part of the study should assess which animals improved forages are fed to (Follow-up: consultant). We decided to drop Loa Kulu from the sites for the study, because framers had only 1 or 2 years experience with forages. In stead Samboja would be included. The proposed studies site are now: In Samboja, a farmer sold a one-year-old Bali heifer for I.Rp. 1.5 mil and a one-yearold bull for 1.7 mil.In Loa Kulu, a farmer sold a big bull for I.Rp. 2.5 mil (US$ 227).Cattle are sold at any age between 0 and 3 years.On Mr. Tajib's farm in Samboja, Brachiaria humidicola var. Yanero grew very well under coconuts and with intensive grazing. The grass was particularly appreciated for its low management attributes, and cattle even eat old leaves. We suggested to him to try some portions with Arachis pintoi as it withstands grazing well, adds nitrogen to the system and improves animal productivity. They had covered about 2 ha of communally used land, within and area of 20 ha that they had fenced. The grass showed signs of heavy grazing but persisted. B. humidicola had formed stolons. The total percentage cover was still very low though, less than 1 %. Considering that it had not rained for one month, the establishment of the grass looked promising. Stylo 184 had been over sown but had disappeared after burning. Farmers believe that stylo will regenerate from seeds after the rains start again. Problems of farmers were discussed and we diagnosed that cows were suffering from milk fever. Farmers need to buy calcium supplements to mix with feed, and would need some help from outside to identify the product in the veterinary drug store (Follow-up: Herianto). In Makroman and Sepaku there was a large difference between total-and cash income from livestock (table 1). This can be largely attributed to the manure applied on own crops, which was accounted for its market value, amounting to approximately 10 times its estimated mineral value. Manure applied on food and cash crops contributed to about 40% of the total farm household income from livestock. This reflects the importance of manure for soil fertility maintenance. Farmers also derived cash income from sales of manure. They estimated that they applied less then 15% of all manure to forage crops. Cash income per head of cattle was much higher in Samboja than in Sepaku, which was due to differences of available forage per animal and difference of cattle breeds. In Samboja more forage was available, resulting in better condition of the animals, better growth and reproduction. In addition, the Bali breed is known to have better reproductive performance than the Ongole breed. Both better feed supply and sturdiness of the breed resulted in lower veterinary cost in Samboja.Before the introduction of new forages, farmers already used King grass for cut and carry. New forages reduced time needed for fodder collection as well as for forage crop maintenance (table 2). Less time was needed for maintenance, as the new forages were more vigorous in suppressing weeds. Spare time was put to good use, either for feeding more animals or by engaging in more off-farm work. Farmers in Makroman doubled the number of goats they kept. Increases in cattle numbers were not so big. New forages increased off-take of animals due to shorter inter-parturition periods in all species and breeds. Twinning rate of goats increased at some farms. Better body condition of animals was also perceived as an improvement, resulting in better carcass quality and higher prices paid for cattle by butchers. Farm household income from livestock almost doubled since the introduction of new forages, due to time saved and higher off-take rates. ","tokenCount":"1952"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d4686bb0c6a28f09108a81490ea016b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5f022a97-0f60-44ee-9274-f2e8577f50a8/retrieve","id":"1315807619"},"keywords":["Climate-smart agriculture","climate smartness","indicators","prioritization"],"sieverID":"334bd2e7-e603-4096-8db9-cea7e768260b","pagecount":"32","content":"This report on Prioritizing Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Practices in Western Kenya has been prepared as an output for the CIAT-led, GIZ-funded project 'Climate-smart soil protection and rehabilitation in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India, and Kenya,' and has not been peer reviewed. Any opinions stated herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of CIAT, donor agencies, or partners.All images remain the sole property of their source and may not be used for any purpose without written permission of the source.Tables Table 1: CSA A climate-smart agriculture (CSA) prioritization exercise in Western Kenya was carried out as part of the activities in the CIAT-led research project on 'Climatesmart soil protection and rehabilitation in Western Kenya', funded by GIZ. This project aims to encourage sustainable approaches to promote soil protection and rehabilitation of degraded soil in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India and Kenya. It also supports policy development for soil rehabilitation, soil information, and extension systems.A two-day regional workshop with 45 participants was held in Western Kenya; participants were local agricultural experts, representatives of agriculture related local NGOs and farmers from Bungoma, Kakamega and Siaya counties. Six farmers were invited from each of the five farm typologies (that had previously been identified by this project): i) smallscale mixed subsistence; ii) medium-scale mixed with commercial horticulture; iii) medium-scale mixed with commercial dairy; iv) medium-scale mixed with commercial cereal; and v) large-scale commercial farming. Separate focus group discussions were held with farmers and local experts, respectively to explore the differences between stakeholders.The workshop modules included: validation of the typologies in the three counties; CSA indicator selection; development of a short list of agricultural practices appropriate for each farm type; and climatesmartness assessment based on the three CSA pillars (i.e. production, adaptation and mitigation). Practices were prioritized using pairwise ranking and information on the potential benefits of practices by stakeholder was also documented.This study highlights the value of evaluating which practices were preferred in a local context and highlights the climate smartness of these practices based on desired objectives by local experts and farmers. Efforts to increase soil restoration and rehabilitation in Western Kenya should target the prioritized practices in each farm type to achieve high adoption rates and attain CSA goals. In addition, barriers highlighted by the stakeholders should be considered. Assessing practices against the CSA pillars helps to ensure that prioritized practices can also provide win-win or co-benefits to climate change adaptation and mitigation.In developing countries, agriculture's role in ensuring food security and in supporting development is a challenge in a changing climate. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) aims to tackle three main objectives: sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and income; adapting and building resilience to climate change; and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, where possible.Usually, soil rehabilitation is evaluated for productivity and food security benefits, and little attention is paid to climate 'smartness'. CSA initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa have previously focused less on soil protection and rehabilitation, despite their strong potential to influence climate smartness.CIAT developed the CSA prioritization framework, which aims to guide stakeholders in optimizing national and subnational agricultural planning. The framework was implemented in Western Kenya with the aim of testing the methodology and refining it for wider use.The specific objectives were to:• Identify existing and promising CSA practices in relation to key farm types• Develop a prioritized list of CSA practices and evaluate their climate smartness• Understand the context-specific outcomes of these practices by different stakeholders• Understand the costs and benefits of implementation and the opportunities and barriers in adopting prioritized practices.Once developed, a portfolio of CSA practices can be used to channel agricultural investment funds in the face of climate change. The decision-making process by end users on what practice to implement or not is usually determined by their perceptions and desired outcomes, which vary across contexts. The prioritization of CSA technologies is a fundamental first step towards optimizing agricultural planning, minimizing trade-offs, and maximizing synergies.Photo: CIATThis study was conducted in three counties in Western Kenya (Siaya, Kakamega, and Bungoma). Siaya county is situated in the highlands of Western Kenya and covers an area of 2,496.1 km². The altitude of Siaya district ranges from 1,140 to 1,500 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.). The county receives average rainfall of between 1,800 and 2,000 mm annually. The fertility of the soils in the county ranges from moderate to low, and levels of nitrogen and phosphorus are particularly low. The five farm typologies developed by CIAT for Western Kenya were presented; participants were asked if they agreed with the farm typologies, and if they would like to add any more characteristics or changes. The main output of this exercise was to agree with the stakeholders on the scope of the project in relation to the main production systems.Participants reviewed, discussed, and briefly described a long list of agricultural practices (e.g. soil, crop, livestock, and water management) that apply to the area of interest and that are linked to the production systems and sociological contexts, including those practices relevant for the site that are being promoted by partners in the region (e.g. government, NGOs, and development partners). They also discussed indicators for assessing the CSA practices. The main output was a long list of 20 to 30 practices.This stage involved stakeholders reviewing and prioritizing the long list of agricultural practices.Participants were divided according to the five farm typologies, with the farmers group kept separate from the local experts group. Each group was provided with the long list of practices generated and was asked to select only those practices that were relevant/useful to their farm type.The discussion included the following questions: i. To which production system/crop or livestock does this practice apply?ii. What opportunities and benefits (i.e. economic, social and environmental) would you get if the practice was implemented?iii. What are the barriers and challenges to implementation?iv. What do you usually consider when you are deciding if you can use each practice? (for each practice). Identify the indicators for adoption/use.i.For the selected practices, construct a pairwise matrix (i.e. each box in the matrix represents the intersection [or pairing] of two practices).ii. Rank each pair. For each pair, the group (using a consensus-oriented discussion) should determine which of the two practices it prefers. Then, for each pair, it should write the name of the preferable practice in the appropriate box. Repeat this process until the matrix is complete.iii. Note the reasons for the preference for each pair of practices.iv. Count the number of times each practice appears in the matrix. Rank all practices. Rank the practices by the total number of times they appear in the matrix. To break a tie (i.e. where two practices appear the same number of times), look at the box in which those two practices are compared. The practice appearing in that box receives the higher ranking.v.Present results from the pairwise ranking matrix exercise to each group.vi. Ask the group to list the reasons for prioritizing the top five ranked practices.• Each participant was asked to select three practices that they prefer or consider to be the most important in their farm or region.• On the matrix provided (Appendix 1), assess the smartness of this practice for each of the indicators (and do not score for indicators you are unfamiliar with).Five farm typologies and characteristics listed under each had been generated from a previous CIAT-led workshop. During this workshop, participants included additional characteristics that they wish included for the typologies.• Famers in this category own 0.4 to 0.8 hectares of land and practice both dairy and crop production.• Maize and beans are the main crops cultivated.• Farmers in this category are resource poor.• This system is characterized by low yields and low soil fertility.• Livestock kept in this system is mainly local breeds.• It is a low risk strategy as farmers grow a high variety of crops.Additional characteristics suggested:• Tree planting is practiced on a small scale.• Aquaculture and rabbit keeping also on a small scale.• Horticulture on a small scale mainly for domestic consumption.• 1-3 hectares of land with both dairy and crop production but specializing in horticulture production mostly for sale.The farms in this category are intensive and youths are most attracted.• This is a high-risk investment since horticultural crops are vulnerable to pests, diseases and bad weather.• Farmers in this category have embraced innovation technologies such as irrigation and green houses.• Farmers keep records and have access to credit facilities.Additional characteristics suggested:• Tree planting and rabbit keeping is also practiced.Photo: Georgina Smith (CIAT)• 1-3 hectares with both livestock and crop production but specializing in dairy production mostly for sale.• Their dairy cows consist of both local and exotic breeds.• This system is characterized by high-quality feeds, zero grazing, artificial insemination, and potential for milk value chain.• Farmers in this system have embraced new technologies such as biogas, hay, and silage production.Additional characteristics suggested:• Tree planting and rabbit keeping is also practiced.• 1-3 hectares of land with livestock and crop production but specializes in cereal production mostly for sale.• Maize is the main crop, though other crops grown include beans, bananas and pumpkins.• Animals kept are mainly local zebu, goat, and local poultry.• This system requires large amounts of labor for cropping activities.Additional characteristics suggested:• Grow fodder crops such as Mulato and Brachiaria.• Keeping rabbits and pigs.• More than 4 hectares of land, highly commercialized growing mostly sugarcane, maize, coffee, and rice.• Crop production is mostly mechanized.• More productive assets and adoption of innovative technologies.• Reliance on hired or permanent labor.Additional characteristics suggested:• Participants believed this typology should include activities such as dog farming, pig farming, rabbit keeping.The following 20 practices were listed as being implemented in Western Kenya. Several important messages can be derived. During the workshop, the stakeholders discussed the weighting to be assigned to each of the three different CSA pillars (productivity, adaptation, and mitigation) according to the estimated changes or objectives they would like to see in the future. Figure 1 reveals the current and long-term interest that the stakeholders had with regard to CSA investment. Stakeholders noted that climate change is still a new phenomenon and the communities were largely unaware of adaptation and mitigation options. For Western Kenya, stakeholders were more interested in investing in practices related to increases in agricultural productivity. However, with the threat of climate change, the long-term interest was towards enhancing adaptation (from 20% to 40%) and mitigation (from 5% to 10%). For every CSA pillar, the experts selected a list of potential indicators, which were then used for assessing the practices' impacts on CSA pillars. Table 1 shows a list of indicators proposed, based on relevance to the context, information availability, and quality.  Farmers were grouped separately by each farm type and each selected the most important practices from the long list of agricultural practices arrived at in the previous exercise. Then they ranked the selected practices in order of importance using a pairwise matrix comparison. The selection of these practices involved indicating the farm types in which they were practiced, the main benefits, barriers/challenges of implementation, and the important things they considered while selecting the practice for their farm types.The short list of practices (Table 2) represents practices adapted to a specific context (in this case farm type) and could be game changers for the agricultural sector in the face of climate change.Selecting the indicators helps to guide the assessment of practices' impacts on the three CSA pillars and allowed for later ranking of the practices according to their aggregate impact on the CSA pillars. The indicator analysis also provides the base of discussions on the trade-offs between achievement of the three goals of CSA, desired outcomes of stakeholders, and barriers to adoption. We asked for the reasons why some practices were not being practiced although many farmers were aware of the practices. Some of the reasons stated were: small herd sizes (resulting in inadequate quantities of manure); lack of knowledge/skills to implement the practices; unavailability/high cost of inputs such as seed and lime; the perception that some practices do not show immediate benefit e.g. manure releases nutrients slowly compared to inorganic fertilizer. Farmers also mentioned small land size as a barrier to implementation of agroforestry, crop rotation and fallowing, especially in the small-scale mixed subsistence farm type. There are different practices short listed across the farm types, which indicates consideration of both biophysical and socioeconomic contexts in prioritizing practices.In   and 5 show results from the assessment of the selected practices potential, for each farm type, against indicators related to the CSA pillars (productivity, adaptation, and mitigation). Figure 4 presents the average scores obtained from assessment of each practice potential impact on the CSA indicator. In Figure 5, scores (in Figure 4) weighted based on the current percentage value of each CSA pillar (in Figure 1). Inorganic fertilizer, certified seed, and crop rotation had the highest productivity potential. Farmyard manure (FYM), conservation agriculture, and agroforestry had the greatest positive impact on adaptation. For mitigation potential, agroforestry, composting, and conservation agriculture had the greatest potential for positive contribution, whereas inorganic fertilizer and use of herbicides had negative impacts.The agroforestry system considered in this evaluation was use of dual-purpose tree species that provide timber, fodder, and fruits. Conservation agriculture (CA) contributes to mitigation through avoiding soil compaction, reducing water run-off, increasing aeration of the soils, and increasing the soil carbon.For mitigation potential, the ability to increase the carbon input (below and above ground biomass), as well as reduce the quantity of greenhouse gases (GHG) released per season was considered. GHG refers to carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 eq). Compost, crop residue (as part of conservation agriculture), and FYM could contribute to soil carbon sequestration, and thus to mitigation. Compost and FYM also have an indirect contribution to mitigation by substituting for the use of on-farm inorganic fertilizers. Fertilizers generate GHGemissions in their manufacturing and Biomass accumulation can be enhanced using crop rotation and intercropping systems. Biomass return to the soil can be improved by maintaining a dense vegetation cover on the soil surface, which can also prevent soil from erosion for soil organic carbon (SOC) loss such as through agroforestry and fallowing.Intercropping has many benefits. It suppresses weeds and insects, controls plant disease, resists climate extremes, and increases overall productivity with limited resources. The classic example of mixed cropping in Western Kenya is maize, bean, and soybean.Small-scale mixed subsistence farming.Improves yields.Increase soil fertility and productivity.Promotes soil conservation, reduces soil salinity and improves water retention.Reduces methane emissions and can lead to a reduction in the inorganic fertilizers required.Use of FYM Improves yields and income.Increase soil fertility and productivity.Promotes soil conservation, reduces soil salinity and improves water retention.Reduces methane emissions and can lead to a reduction in the inorganic fertilizers required.Improves yields and income.Maintains soil structure and increases soil fertility.Facilitates carbon sink in soils. Reduces nitrogen loss.Medium-scale mixed with commercial horticultureActs as a security against total crop failure and increases yields.Add fertility to soil and helps in soil water retention.Nitrogen fixation from leguminous crops reduces reliance on nitrogenous fertilizers.Soil and water harvesting Improves yields and income.Promotes soil conservation, improves water retention and reduces water use.Use of certified seed Improves yields and income.Increase productivity of land per unit area. -Improves yields and income.Increase productivity of land per unit area.Recommended rates do not emit GHGs above dangerous levels.Improves yields and income.Controls pests and diseases.Maintains soil carbon stocks and soil organic matter content.(continues) Crop rotation can improve biomass production and soil carbon sequestration, especially rotations with nitrogen-fixing legumes that can substantially reduce the nitrogen input by chemical fertilizers.Increasing cropping intensity or cropping more frequently by reducing the frequency of bare land in the crop rotation and intercrop is another effective approach to improving biomass production and soil C sequestration, as well as returning more crop residues to the soil compared to a monoculture.Medium-scale mixed with commercial dairyIncreased and diversification of sources of income.Increase soil fertility, acts as a windbreaker and controls soil erosion.Carbon sequestration by trees and preserving and expanding carbon stocks.Improves yields and income.Increase soil fertility and productivity.Promotes soil conservation, reduces soil salinity and improves water retention.Reduces methane emissions and can lead to a reduction in the inorganic fertilizers required.Improves yields and income.Increase productivity of land per unit area.Recommended rates do not emit GHGs above dangerous levels.Improves yields and income.Increase soil fertility and productivity. Promotes soil conservation, reduces soil salinity and improves water retention.Reduces methane emissions and can lead to a reduction in the inorganic fertilizers required.Medium-scale mixed with commercial cereal Herbicide Improves yields and income.Increases productivity per unit area of land.Recommended rates do not emit GHGs above dangerous levels.Improves yields and income.Increase productivity of land per unit area.Recommended rates do not emit GHGs above dangerous levels.Post-harvest handling Improves quality of products and income.Reduces post-harvest losses thus increasing food security.Reduces GHG emissions.Large-scale commercial farming system CA Improved yields and income.Maintains soil structure and increases soil fertility.Facilitates carbon sink in soils. Reduces nitrogen loss.Increased and diversification of sources of income.Increase soil fertility, acts as a windbreaker and controls soil erosion.Carbon sequestration by trees and preserving and expanding carbon stocks.Improved yields and income.Regulates soil PH and improves soil fertility.Stops or reverses the accumulation of CO 2 in the atmosphere.Use of certified seeds Improves yields and income.Increase productivity of land per unit area and uniform germination.-Crop rotation Improves yields and income.Controls pests and diseases. Replenish soil nitrogen.Maintains soil carbon stocks and soil organic matter content.(continued)After listing the top three technologies per farm type, both from experts and farmers, we narrowed the list down to five practices (agroforestry, inorganic fertilizer, intercropping, improved seeds and liming) that were listed as the best across all farm typologies by both farmers and experts. • It is easier to transport than organic fertilizers.• It leads to an increase in animal and crop production.The exact amounts of a given element can be calculated and given to plants.• Agroforestry helps in the production of timber and fuel, thus providing an alternative means of renewable energy.• It leads to the production of animal feeds i.e. some of the trees can act as livestock feeds.• It helps in conserving soil and improving soil quality.• It results in diversification of income through simultaneous cultivation of valuable trees and crops.• It provides a suitable microclimate that increases crop yields which in turn increases farm income. It also provides shelter for livestock.• It sequesters atmospheric carbon thus providing mitigation benefits.• Animals and intercrops are protected by the trees that shield them from the wind, offer shelter from the rain, wind and sun, keep the soil in place and stimulate soil microflora and fauna (i.e. encourage biodiversity)The deep tree roots recover drained or leached nutrients; the soil is enriched with tree litter and the dead roots of the trees.• Difficulty in accessing the seeds.• A culture that hinders agroforestry practice.• Negative attitude to agroforestry.• Lack of knowledge about the type of trees to use. Agroforestry requires knowledge of technology (e.g. methods of combining different plants, their compatibility and effects on each other). Agroforestry technologies can fail when applied to the wrong situation.• Land tenure system that discourages tree planting.• Produces canopy reducing crop productivity.• De-stamping is laborious and expensive.• Trees and shrubs may take a long time to mature thus delaying income.• They cost more than organic fertilizers.• Their continuous use can alter soil pH.• Commercial fertilizer, especially nitrogen, is easily washed below the level of the plant's root system through the leaching of rain or irrigation.• An application which is too heavy or too close to the roots of the plants may cause \"burning\" i.e. a process of desiccation by the chemical salts in the fertilizer.• They contain certain compounds and salts which may alter soil chemistry in the long run.• It enables efficient utilization of available resources (nutrients and water).• It leads to increased and diversified farm production and income.• When leguminous crops are involved, intercropping enhances atmospheric nitrogen transfer and transfer of nitrogen to the main crop.• It reduces soil erosion.• It promotes ecological diversity e.g. increasing population of soil microorganisms that would be not available in a single crop system.• It helps to control weeds by having crops cover most of the available land.• It minimizes the incidence of pests and diseases.• It acts as an insurance against total crop failure and reduces reliance on one crop with the normal challenge of agricultural products price fluctuations.• It can modify the microclimate by reducing light intensity, air temperature, desiccating wind, and other climatic components which may increase the yield of the main crop.• A higher volume of fertilizer or irrigation water cannot be utilized as the component crops vary in their response to these resources.• Yields for the main crop may reduce if the other crop has a higher competitive ability for taking up nutrients and water or if poor crop combinations are used.• Management of intercrops using different cultural practices can be a difficult task e.g. weeding which may be done by hand.Harvesting is difficult especially when some crops mature faster than others.• Where labor is scarce and expensive, intercropping can increase the cost of production.• It leads to increased production of yields making farmers climate resilient.• It promotes a higher germination percentage.• It enhances uniform germination.• In some crops, improved seeds aid improved nutrition.• It helps to ensure the maximum use of available inputs.• Some improved seeds are disease and climate tolerant.• Purchasing the seeds is expensive.• There is lack of technical know-how.• Accessibility to and availability of the right seeds can be difficult.• Yield increase is associated with fertilizer type and nutrient levelsThere can be heavy post-harvest loss of some varieties if it is not properly handled.• It leads to an increase in the production of yields.• It buffers soil acidity.The cost of labor is reduced. Farmers were not aware of CSA and, therefore, had a different set of indicators, which they used to select agricultural practices. In Western Kenya, the most important indicators were: yield, reduced yield variability, income, soil erosion, soil organic matter (SOM) and amount of water available for production. Such indicators were important because they helpedIn the small-scale subsistence farm type, farmers considered yield and income as the most desired benefits. Results in Figure 4 show that FYM was preferred most followed by crop rotation, intercropping, and residue management and mulching. Farms in this category are characterized by low soil fertility and low resource endowment, therefore the consideration of resources available within the farm such as manure andA. Small-scale mixed subsistence crop residue is valuable. There could be a challenge in obtaining adequate amounts of manure due to the small number of livestock and poultry that are kept in most farms. A major portion of the crop residues harvested on a farm is used as feed for livestock, presenting a tradeoff in recycling back to crop fields as manure.to identify not only the barriers to the uptake of the prioritized practices but also the trade-offs that adoption might bring.Farmers in each farm type then ranked how each prioritized practice was expected to contribute to these indicators. In the medium-scale mixed with commercial horticulture farm type, intercropping and the use of certified seeds were reported by farmers as the greatest contributors to yield and income. Intercropping reduced yield variability in a season and improved the SOM content. Agroforestry and intercropping were seen as useful for increasing amount of water available in the soil. For soil erosion, both agroforestry and intercropping were rated as having medium benefits (Figure 5).In the medium-scale mixed with commercial dairy farm type, the use of FYM and certified seeds were rated as the best options for increasing yield and income and reducing yield variability in one season. FYM was preferred for improving SOM, terracing was preferred for controlling erosion, while the use of FYM, terracing and crop rotation had some benefits in terms of increasing water availability in the soil (Figure 6).  In the medium-scale mixed with commercial cereal farm type, among the prioritized practices, the use of certified seeds is most beneficial for improving yield and income and reducing yield variability. Composting and agroforestry are rated as high for improving SOM while terracing is beneficial for controlling erosion (Figure 7). In a large-scale commercial farming system, early planting is preferred for increasing yield, income, and reducing yield variability. Terracing is better for controlling soil erosion and soil liming will produce small benefits in terms of yield and SOM (Figure 8). This study highlights the value of evaluating the practices that are preferred in a local context and highlights any differences in preference according to farm types as well as desired objectives between local experts (such as contribution to climate smartness) and farmers (farmer preferred indicators). This highlights the importance of local context prioritization based on both biophysical and socioeconomic criteria. CSA is context specific and the degree of focus on a specific strategy and the CSA pillar stakeholders were interested in investing in would depend on the levels of economic development, agroecological conditions, and social setting.Efforts to increase soil restoration and rehabilitation in Western Kenya could target the prioritized practices in each farm type as a way of ensuring high adoption rates. In addition, assessing the practices against the CSA pillars will ensure that prioritized practices can provide win-win or co-benefits, and existing trade-offs can be identified. This will promote practices that will have a positive impact on climate change (i.e. adapt and reduce or minimize GHG emissions). In addition, it is important to consider practices that contribute to a wide range of desired outcomes for the communities as this also ensures ownership and sustainability. Barriers highlighted by the stakeholders to implementing the practices must also be addressed. The study also highlighted gaps in awareness among farmers on a wide range of practices including livestock and energy saving technologies which could also play an indirect beneficial role in improving soils in Western Kenya. For example, energy-saving technologies have the potential of reducing the dependence on trees for firewood, aiding in promoting agroforestry. Practices that have been proved to be successful elsewhere, in similar contexts should be explored and evaluated with stakeholders for possible implementation.This study aimed to further test the CSA prioritization process developed by CIAT and to refine it for wider implementation. The CSA prioritization framework was developed to help stakeholders generate a portfolio of CSA practices that could be used for channeling agricultural investment funds in the face of climate change. The process is flexible and can be adapted to the needs of various stakeholder groups including national governments, NGOs, regional decision-making bodies, development organizations, communitybased organizations and donors. The structure of the framework focuses on the farm level as a first step in achieving CSA food systems in the long term.The Western Kenya project led to the refinement and development of a revised prioritization process (presented as a separate output of the project, and not shown here). The new process integrates worldwide sourcing of a wide range of potential practices from databases such as the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) and a detailed evaluation of barriers and benefits of management options (e.g. using the Evaluation of Land Management Options (ELMO) tool developed by CIAT).","tokenCount":"4514"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"caa076358a1f8fa0f832cb269490f090","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7138c34e-802e-4267-ac82-d170a7607721/retrieve","id":"-686406318"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"16824d94-c5c2-4055-8e59-02078b313a6e","pagecount":"12","content":"A MAJOR con s tra int to the expansion of plantain cultivation is the scarcity of healthy planting materials. Farmers u sually depend on natural regeneration of plants for the supply of planting materials. This is a very slow process that often produces small numbers of planting materials that are usu ally contaminated by various soilborne pathogens such as nematodes. Transplanting of the contaminated materia ls often spreads nematodes and shorten s the lifetim e of plantations to only one or two cycles of cultivation, beyond which lodging occurs. IITA has developed techniques for the rapid multiplication of healthy planting materials.These are methods that use whole suckers or relatively large pieces of the parent plants to produce planting materials. Macropropagation techniques include: (A) decapitation (fa lse and complete decapitation) and (B) corm techniques (whole corm, split conn , and excised buds) .The two decap itation methods involve stimulating lateral bud production by destroying the ac tive growing point (meristem) in the pseudostem. Both methods increase sprouting and sucker multiplication in the field. The rate of suckering ranges from 9 to 14 suckers per annum. In false decapitation, a window or small hole is made on the pseudostem through w hich the meristem is destroyed. The foliage remains photosynthetically active for about 3 months. In complete decapitation, the pseudostem is cut down and the meris tem is destroyed.A well-developed banana or plantain consists of a clump of meristems of different ages and stages of development. A meristem produces both a stern and a root and the structure is generally referred to as a corm or bulb. Corms from preflowering and harvested plants can be used for corm multiplication. Up to 1000 suckers can be produced within 8 months. Remove roots and peel outer leaf sheaths to expose buds.Plant whole corm in black polyethylene bag and allow sometime for sprouting.Detach plan tlets and transfer to polyethylene bags. Cut out buds in minisets (about 100 g each) .. .For further infonnatioll, please conlact: IITA's mission is to enhance the food security, income, and well-being of resource-poor people primarily in the humid and subhumid zones of sub-Saharan Africa, by conducting research and related activities to increase agricultural production, improve food systems, and sustainably manage natural resources, in partnership with national and international stakeholders.To this end, IITAconducts research, germplasm conservation, training, and information exchange activities in partnership with regional bodies and national programs including universities, NGOs, and the private sector. The research agenda addresses crop improvement, plant health, and resource and crop management within a food systems framework and targetted at the identified needs of three major agroecological zones: the savannas, the humid forests, and the midaltitudes. Research focuses on smallholder cropping and postharvest systems and on the following food crops: cassava, cowpea, maize, plantain and banana, soybean, and yam.","tokenCount":"465"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3df97c394359c3cc28674ddab7a06ab1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/003d69b2-384c-4bf1-8452-52b646ec23f8/retrieve","id":"-1525964885"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cecc90af-051b-4e9f-96d6-4d8468e62704","pagecount":"5","content":"A two-day workshop, 20-21 April 2022, kicked off the One CGIAR initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender Inclusion (SAPLING) in Son La Province, Northwest Vietnam. The workshop brought together 80 key stakeholders from the province including local authorities, farmers, researchers, private sector actors and the SAPLING team to discuss ways to make the livestock sector in Northwest Vietnam more productive, resilient, equitable and sustainable.A child herding and caring for cattle in Son La Province, Northwest Vietnam (photo credit: Luong Van Dung).In Son La Province, ethnic minority people, who account for 83% of the population, experience the highest levels of poverty, malnutrition and gender inequality. Their livelihoods are critically dependent on agriculture, especially the livestock sector which is dominated by small-scale production. As of 2021, out of the total livestock population in Son La, cattle, pigs and poultry account for 350,000, 700,000 and seven million, respectively. But this sector faces several key challenges including low productivity and efficiency; poor animal husbandry; inefficient food safety management; nutrition insecurity; low decision-making power for ethnic minorities, women and youth; limited market access and low market competitiveness.SAPLING offers several solutions to address these challenges and will contribute to the recently approved national livestock strategy for 2021-2030 that emphasizes sustainable development, competitiveness enhancement, diseases and environment protection, and food safety and quality improvement. The SAPLING initiative aims to enable farmers of pigs, beef cattle chickens to participate in inclusive value chains to achieve sustainable productivity gains and by these contributing to better livelihoods.While opening the workshop, Cam Thi Phong, deputy director, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Son La Province said the government is 'committed to continue supporting the project design and co-implementation while considering the local context, ethnic minorities and livestock production characteristics in order to achieve the objectives of the initiative.' SAPLING emphasizes a co-design approach and seeks to engage with both public and private sector partners, throughout the initiative cycle, to co-create and co-deliver demand-driven innovation packages for inclusive and sustainable livestock value chains in the Northwest Highlands of Vietnam, according to Mary Otieno, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (ABC) scientist and SAPLING Vietnam country lead. As such, this meeting was convened to enhance implementation of the SAPLING initiative. On the first day of the workshop, the SAPLING research team introduced the initiative and its targeted value chains of pigs, beef cattle and chickens. The country team then worked with partners in three groups, one for each target value chain, to co-develop the Theory of Change (TOC) (aims, outcomes and priority innovation packages) for the coming three years.Farmers in the cattle value chain group discuss the Theory of Change of SAPLING (photo credit: ILRI/Duy Vu).On the second day of the workshop, participants reviewed and finalized the TOC (identified gaps, actors and assumptions), discussed priority innovations using trade-off analysis and scaling readiness assessment, agreed on the roles and responsibilities, and came up with a calendar of key activities. The project team and partners also reviewed potential project sites. Participants agreed on criteria for site selection including availability of feed resources, livestock population, infrastructure, land resources, poverty rate, awareness of local people, livestock waste treatment, support from local authorities, and alignment with the provincial livestock development strategy.Previous Li-chan -a livestock-based development project-sites (Chieng Chung and Chieng Luong communes of Mai Son District) were included as key project sites for SAPLING activities. Participants also explored the opportunities to expand the SAPLING initiative to other communes in Mai Son and other districts of Son La Province by scoring them based on the agreed criteria. 'The outputs of today's discussion offer many ideas to inform the design of the SAPLING initiative in Vietnam, said Nguyen Ngoc Toan, director, Sub-DAH Son La, at the end of the workshop. 'The Sub-department of Livestock Production, Animal Health and Fisheries of Son La (Sub-DAH) will continue collaborating with SAPLING as a trusted and responsible partner to ensure successful implementation of the initiative's activities,' he added.The SAPLING team will use the recommendations and outputs from the workshop to finalize the initiative's design, workplan and project sites.Fred Unger, regional representative for the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in East and Southeast Asia, said the CGIAR initiative 'will improve livelihoods, farmers ability to adapt to a changing climate and inclusiveness through livestock in Son La and the northwest of Vietnam.' He noted that the project is unique in that it tackles interlinked challenges in a systems approach looking at animal health, animal genetics, feed and forages, nutrition and value chains. 'SAPLING builds upon the work of the Li-chan project and will continue supporting the local authorities and communities in transforming the livestock sector for better lives of people. ILRI and ABC look forward to enhancing collaboration with national and international partners through SAPLING,' he added.SAPLING is one of 32 One CGIAR initiatives designed to achieve a world with sustainable and resilient food, land and water systems to deliver more diverse, healthy, safe, sufficient and affordable diets; and ensure improved livelihoods and greater social equality, within planetary and regional environmental boundaries. In Vietnam, one of its seven focus countries, (others are Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda), the initiative is coordinated by ILRI and ABC.We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund. ","tokenCount":"884"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9bf625df8bae2fd9f746b2a19274566f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d5537bef-3e2e-4315-9552-72b610e6cde1/retrieve","id":"356495763"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9ee88d60-f9d9-458a-a274-86ee226a48a5","pagecount":"11","content":"The revised proposal CRP 1.2 \"Humidtropics: Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics\" seeks to transform the lives of rural poor in humid lowlands, moist savannas and tropical highlands of three major Impact Zones in sub-Saharan Africa, tropical America and Asia, containing a population of 2.9 billion, including many poor smallholder farmers. Humidtropics research is guided by a global hypothesis \"A stepwise series of preferred livelihood strategies exist within the humid tropics where poverty reduction, balanced household nutrition, system productivity and natural resource integrity are most effectively achieved and contribute best to human welfare\", which addresses the development challenges of reducing poverty and improving ecosystem integrity in the humid and subhumid tropics.The humid tropics are distinguished from other ecoregions by their natural resource endowments in terms of water, biodiversity and soils, which provide unique opportunities for systems-level improvement. The proposal provides convincing justification for investing effort in the humid tropics consistent with the mission of the overall CGIAR system and the SRF. However, the proponents have re-written much of the proposal over the course of several weeks, a much shorter time than the ISPC recommended. As a result a common concern throughout the revised proposal is that it is generically written and the text is not well targeted at priority needs of the humid tropics.The strategic direction, goal and objectives of the CRP are aligned with SLOs. The overall framework for the program is relatively coherent with the main change from the original proposal being a greater emphasis on value chains and markets in SRT 2.1 (proposal Figure 2). It proposes five strategic research themes (SRTs). SRT1 on Systems Analysis and Synthesis provides an analytical framework for identifying trajectories, bottlenecks and opportunities to address SLO targets. The core of the proposal are three SRTs on Integrated System Improvement, which will provide new opportunities derived from systems integration research: SRT 2.1 on Integrating Markets through System Intensification; SRT 2.2 on Increasing Systems Productivity; and SRT 2.3 on Natural Resources Improvement. These are complemented by SRT3 on Scaling and Institutional Innovation, focusing on achieving development outcomes and generating international public goods (most of which, initially, are methodological).Within the SRTs, a substantial portfolio of activities is proposed for the initial three years. These activities target eleven major developing country regions with varying intensity and subjects for research. As the original proposal targeted only seven major developing country regions, the revised proposal is geographically broader than the original proposal although the regional definitions vary between the two proposals. Desspite these major changes and many other changes in activities in the revised proposal which must result in changes in staff time, travel and operating expenses, the 3-year total budget request is the same -USD 144 million with just under half (USD69 million) requested from CGIAR Fund windows 1 and 2.The revised CRP 1.2 also fails to reflect serious consideration of the issues and concerns raised by the ISPC in its original review document. The response describes how the drafting team addressed the broader ISPC and FC \"must haves\", but in some cases the meaning behind these (explained in our detailed discussion) was misunderstood. The key issue of focus is one example 1 .That said, the revised document is indeed an improvement on the original version. For instance, the humid tropics have been more clearly delineated in terms of their levels of development and potential, the criteria for selection of Action Sites are more appropriate than previously, Action Areas are better characterised, and the relationship among Impact Zones, Action Areas and Action Sites is more clearly defined -at least in terms of their relationships (no specific choices have yet been made on where the Action Sites will be located). Key elements for a fully developed proposal, however, remain largely undefined and this is a task awaiting implementation of the proposed SRT1.There is a frustrating and unnecessary lack of precision in the document. Several terms that are foundational to the proposal are used without any clear definition. For example, the term \"livelihood clusters\" is used eight times on p13 alone, featuring in the global hypothesis and many of the specific hypotheses for the research program, despite its meaning not being at all intuitive, and without being defined. The term is then not referred to again anywhere in the rest of the proposal. \"Sustainable intensification\" is used multiple times throughout the document without being defined, despite being open to a wide range of possible interpretations.Thus the ISPC finds that the revised version of CRP 1.2, although improved in structure, is still too ambitious, too broad in coverage, is dominated by innovations systems and complexity theories, and lacking in the requested details highlighted in the earlier ISPC commentary (in particular, there remains very little effort on tree crops, and the geographic scope has expanded). The revised proposal has thus insufficiently addressed most of the must-haves from the ISPC and the FC.A pproval for SR T1 activities for 18 months only, with resubmission to the ISP C after 12 monthsThe revised CRP 1.2 still requires substantial revision before it is considered adequate as a proposal for a long-term research program. More attention should be paid to the comments made in the original commentary as well as those in this review. The proposal is still very ambitious and should certainly not be rolled out across all the proposed countries/regions/Action Areas during the first three years. A prudent approach would be to do pilots in selected Action Areas, certainly no more than three initially, with priority to those Action Areas where good basic partnerships already exist, which can be developed and new partners welcomed. Additional Action Areas may be added over time. Phasing the implementation of an approach to systems intensification which is still to be proven would be more sensible and would be potentially more cost-effective.Approval is suggested for one year, only for those research activities in this CRP which are indispensable for a better definition of the location of Action Sites in the selected Action Areas and the activities to be carried out therein. This mainly falls under SRT 1. Currently-funded research should be continued, assuming this can be shown to be relevant to the hypotheses presented and the research questions proposed.Discussion of the response to the ISP C \"Must-haves\" ISP C Must have 1: Narrow down the geographical scope of the proposal to regions where a new C GIAR systems approach will have the greatest benefit in terms of poverty alleviation and ecosystem integrity.This must-have has not been addressed by the proponents directly, nor has it been addressed indirectly through the response to the other must-haves. The program aims to contribute towards all 4 SLOs of the CGIAR; will work across all three eco-regions (humid tropics, tropical highlands, and savannas), and will work in all three of the agricultural worlds described by the World Bank Development Report 2008 (agriculture-based countries; transforming countries; and urbanized countries). While there is some geographic prioritization by continent, there is little by way of clear priority-setting. The ISPC suggested that emphasis on the lowland humid tropics and its systems may be an important aspect of focussing the proposal. This has been ignored in the revised proposal -the revised version still includes the moist savannas and highlands in Africa, and highlands in both Asia and the Americas. Although the regional descriptions have improved, there are more Action Areas -an increase to eleven from seven in the original proposal. The proposal is thus broader and less focussed without a justification being given.The description of the Action Areas is much improved from the first version. Eleven Action Areas across three continents are proposed, but these areas are vast and the Action Sites (varying from 9-24 per Action Area, classified in three tiers 1-3 according to how well-established they are) where research is to be conducted, or R4D platforms, are yet to be identified, with the exception of the plan to work in some of the sites currently being used by the SSA-CP. The rationale for selecting 9 to 24 Action Sites per Action Area (giving rise to between 99 and 216 Action Sites in total) is weak and hard to defend. The definition of the \"focus\" for the proposal (p5) is that in the bulk of agricultural lands in humid and sub-humid tropics, where production systems are mainly rainfed, intensification faces a number of constraints. This is too large a geographical area to be effective as a coherent program and there is no quantitative framework given that justifies it, or for prioritizing among regions and subregions. Equally of concern it the large potential overlap with focus areas of other CRPs.The revised CRP recognises (p115) the need to shift the bias away from Africa noting that the CRP expects a shift as it fully implements the program. SRT 3 in particular is expected to benefit all regions. If the issue of focus is addressed, it may be possible to subsequently make adjustments in the resource allocation before the CRP commences.ISP C Must have 2: Prioritize research questions and approaches to be carried out at the most important Action Sites, paying due attention to the selection of sites and identifying jointly with other CRPs the research to be provided by other programs and partners active in humid zones. The prioritization will take account of the scientific and socio-developmental lessons learned from prior research and relate this to hypotheses to alleviate the actual situation of poverty and resource degradation at the target sites. Means to evaluate the effectiveness of the hypothesised approaches needed to be included in the program.The CRP hypothesizes that a combination of biophysical, institutional, policy strategies will lead to solutions, identify positive development trajectories and result in robust outcomes that are consistent with the SLOs of the CGIAR. Currently, a similar approach is being tested in the SSA-CP which was recently reviewed by Lynam et al. (2010). Because the feasibility and success of the approach is still not yet proven, that report recommended that another few years will be needed to see if the approach works and whether it is cost-effective. Yet, this CRP suggests adopting an even more complex version of the SSA-CP approach, which is clearly a high risk strategy. As stated in the ISPC review and even more strongly recommended here, this approach must be explicitly tested and monitored for efficacy against robust controls such as linear uptake pathways.A global hypothesis is offered that is untestable and too general:\"A stepwise series of preferred livelihood strategies exist within the humid tropics where poverty reduction, balanced household nutrition, system productivity and natural resource integrity are most effectively achieved and contribute best to human welfare\" Some of the nine specific hypotheses (p13) showed distinct progress in decomposing this high-order hypothesis into research-relevant components, but there was no justification for selection of these hypotheses and they seem to have been developed independent from the rest of the proposal.A closer alignment with the major farming systems in selected Action Areas as outlined in Table 2, would have made the specific hypotheses more convincing. Instead, some of the Research Questions remain very generic 'systems' questions rather than clearly justified in relation to specific constraints within agricultural systems prevalent in the humid tropics. Overall, when one compares the original proposal to the revised one, there is substantially less information about the targeted main crops.Lack of coordination and potential for overlap with commodity or natural resource CRPs has now been partly addressed in Section 9 of the revised proposal. There is now greater recognition of potential synergies with other CRPs, in particular the other 'systems' CRPs, although the lack of an explicit awareness of what was proposed in those CRPs does not give confidence as to what would be implemented. The Advisory Committee, with its role in relation to 'priority setting, partnerships and the strategic allocation of resources', will have to help ensure that this coordination occurs, in consultation with governance bodies from the other CRPs. Two DGs (one of whom is from IITA) will act as observers to the Advisory Committee, increasing the chances of avoiding duplication and establishing priorities drawn from past research experiences in the humid tropics.The revised proposal provides more detail as to how Humidtropics plans to operationalize the framework and deliver the proposed research and development outcomes and contribute to the SLOs. More information is provided as to how Action Sites will be selected, research questions for each SRT are posed, more information is given about methodology, and division of the responsibilities for activities among CGIAR Centers is clearer. The International Public Goods that could be generated during the first three years are mainly methodological, and the section on analysis of trade offs and synergies is very useful. However, there is still need to make stronger links between the overarching theory and the specific research opportunities in the selected Action Sites. Initial selection of Action Sites remains determined by current activities (e.g. SSA-CP) and no prioritization of research questions and intervention opportunities defining specific priority program activities and Action Areas have yet been made. The proposal suggests that SRT1 activities will allow the necessary prioritization and specification of Action Areas and their activities.In the revised CRP there is much more information about process but not enough about the agricultural activities that will be implemented apart from the information about CIALCA and the STCP. Considering that for the first three years of the CRP, more than 50% of the budget will be supported by existing funded CGIAR activities, the proponents of the CRP must have a good idea of the kind of agricultural technologies that will be tested and promoted in most of the Action Areas and the proposal should include such details.Overall, the revised CRP is very frustrating in its lack of scientific information. Even in SRT 2.2 and 2.3 where one would imagine CGIAR Center partners would wish to highlight their main scientific contributions to the proposal, the text emphasises approaches and generic inputs. It might help future evaluation of the program if examples of existing and planned scientific activities and inputs from already funded components could be included. Section 3 has a rather unclear discussion of the potential for intensification, and makes no use of data or evidence to support the arguments put forward. The yield gap concept is not mentioned at all, let alone used as a basis for priority-setting, and \"sustainable intensification\" is not defined.The proposal states (p44): \"Markets as an area for research and institutional innovation are relatively recent and largely developed as a response to policy adjustment and market liberalization\". There is a huge and growing body of literature on markets and marketing systems in the context of smallholders in developing countries which has been generated from 1970s onwards. In particular, for Africa, there are some excellent studies from the past 20 years for both perishable commodities (e.g. vegetables) and less perishable (e.g. grains). There are also some good examples where institutional innovation was a key to successful solution for smallholders (e.g. Hall's work in India). CRP 2 on policies, markets and institutions is mentioned in the list of collaborating CRPs, but their input seems to be absent from the broad-brush descriptions of markets in the text. Better joint planning and thinking about division of responsibilities is required if, as with the SSA-CP, market access issues become central to the proposal. Some of the contested assertions in the original proposal do not appear to have been addressed (e.g. the issue of rural-urban migration). It would be very useful through the course of the CRP to monitor population movements. Presumably the proponents hope that through successful system intensification and improved livelihoods, smallholder families will wish to remain in rural areas. This cannot be a foregone conclusion if rural-urban migration is driven by non-agricultural forces. As noted in the ISPC review of the original proposal, if migration is inevitable, then can this CRP help to provide good exits from agriculture for those wishing to get out? This revised proposal fails to synthesize and build on opportunities from past and current work as the basis for underpinning work at the new Action Sites. More rigorous analysis of past and on-going commodity-based system work in the humid tropics is urgently needed in a further revised CRP.The idea of a panel survey to be carried out within Action Sites is an appealing one, and could take on International Public Good characteristics if done carefully and in a comparable manner across the Action Sites. The value of these data would be enhanced tremendously if data on other comparable sites that are not Action Sites, were also collected in the same survey rounds. Randomized control trials are not embraced, despite being applicable to a downstream development-oriented proposal such as this. An intermediate option, that would certainly have research benefits with an international public goods nature, as well as providing convincing evidence on the efficacy of the approach, is for the program to collect data from inside and outside Action Sites in a comparable way (but not necessarily with randomization across these pairs of sites). However, as stated, it is hard to see how the proposed Action Research approach, even when combined with the proposed standardized M&E approach across sites, would deliver convincing evidence of the effectiveness of the R4D activities carried out.ISP C Must have 3: Identify impact pathways for the new research that map directly, through aggregated research outcomes where necessary, to the SLOs.The revised proposal addressed this must have through defining longer-term targets contributing directly to SLOs and devoting the entire SRT3 as an integral research mechanism for achieving impact. SRT3 now contains specific scaling-up activities defined for understanding system complexities, testing methods to assess impact and evaluate performance in attaining development outcomes. A stepwise impact pathways approach is adopted where scaling to impact becomes a design feature with research activities evaluating alternative pathways to impact under a range of market, policy, institutional and resource endowment circumstances.Nowhere in the document is there any explanation of where the list of high-level targets (increasing staple food yields by 60%; increasing average farm income by 50%; lifting 25% of poor households above the poverty line; reduced the number of malnourished children by 30%; restoring 40% of these farms to sustainable resource management) introduced in Section 1 has come from, which completely undermines confidence in the proponents' ability to meet them through the proposed research. There is no analysis of previous efforts to achieve such ambitious milestones, beyond the failed efforts described in pp90-91. It is not clear whether the impacts sought by the program are relative to a baseline of the situation in 2011, or relative to a counterfactual of the situation in comparable areas outside Humidtropics Action Sites 2 . Despite the fact that the basis for setting program long-term targets is not clear, there are specific plans outlined for evaluating performance of the scaling to impact. The experiences of the SSA-CP innovation platforms appear to be the guiding example for the scaling-up and impact assessment approach of Humidtropics. Impact pathways have been set out more clearly than the previous version but there is still a preponderance of space and thought devoted to the networks, frameworks and approaches, rather than the outcomes required to achieve change for people living in poverty in the target Action Sites. The proposal provides the R4D Humid Tropics Conceptual Model and the R4D Impact model to describe the outcome pathways. The revised proposal has strengthened the approaches to delivery and impact by detailed research questions, rationales and methodologies in each of the SRTs. However, only SRT1 has a timeframe with quantifiable targets which perhaps could be translated into milestones. The key output SRTs -2.1, 2.2 & 2.3 -do not appear to have any milestones, although some of this work will be done through already approved projects that make up more than 50% of the budget. While it may be too difficult at this stage to draft specific milestones for SRT3, some attempt could be made. The reluctance of this CRP to at least identify the priority Action Sites, where milestones should be possible to identify, is likely to delay its approval. It is still not possible to assess plausibility of impact of the first three years of this CRP.CRP1.2 authors often state that not much is understood about poverty dynamics, interventions and their impact pathways (see p9, for example). Certainly, the ways in which different of the CRP 1.2 proposed program relate to the wider economy remain poorly defined, and this in turn raises questions about the proposal's theory of change. Perhaps in an effort to focus down the proposal in response to comments on an earlier version, the theory of change in the current proposal is based almost entirely on changes to the productivity of agriculture/natural resource-based systems, with technology (in its broadest definition) driving such changes, against differing backgrounds of natural resource productivity, population density etc. There are occasional references to how the proposed work may help in the design of rural development programs (p3) and in \"rural poverty reduction\" (p6). There is also acknowledgement that \"farming systems are conditioned by the relative prices of land and labour and by the access and distance to markets\" (p6). However, there is no attempt to draw out the implications of these important observations for humid tropics research. Strategies to convince farmers to invest in the natural resource base -especially if the returns are long-term -will not be easy and the need for innovative thinking on how to achieve such a change cries out for better articulation.Ellis, Freeman and others have argued for Africa, for instance, that single-source livelihoods are becoming the exception rather than the rule, and that livelihoods are becoming not only multi-source but multi-locational, with some family members living more or less permanently in urban (or other rural) areas. What does this imply for future population projections in humid areas, and, in turn, for the type of research agenda proposed here? Temporary migration may be a precursor to multi-locational livelihoods, but is mentioned only once in the proposal. For populations \"left behind\", what are the implications in terms of remittances? Will more capital be available to invest in agriculture/natural resource systems? And what then are the implications for a technological change agenda? Similarly, if the major breadwinner is the one to migrate, what decision-taking authority remains with those left behind? Can we expect it to be sufficient to allow innovation based on the outcomes of research? Consideration of these social issues would greatly strengthen the proposal's plausibility and help describe how it will meet the targets it has set for itself.ISP C Must have 4: Similarly, the different elements of gender to be included in a gender strategy need to be drawn together coherently and linked to the processes of technological innovation and research.This 'must have' has been satisfactorily addressed with gender equity and welfare aspects and objectives adequately mainstreamed, although it is still not clear at what depth gender relations and gender roles will be reviewed in the different proposed Action Areas. The absence of proposals under the Strategic Gender Research Program makes it impossible to assess whether this would represent value for money. Even the inclusion of a few outline ideas here would be useful. The tenor of the gender component is also at times highly aspirational. To promote \"equal access to assets\" as a key objective, for instance, would require resources far greater and more diverse than are likely to be available within the CRP 1.2, and a large part of the objectives such as these are more the stuff of advocacy campaigns than of research. ISP C Must have 5: Consider the best means to address high priority research to enhance the contribution of tree crops to livelihoods in the humid tropics.The ISPC recommended that a focus on the humid tropics would also allow an improved focus on systems in which tree crops are important. This remains a gap in the CGIAR portfolio with potentially important links with the CRP6 on forests. Tree crops are the major farming system noted in two of the 11 Action Areas (Table 2 -West African humid lowlands and Indonesian humid lowlands). The revised CRP emphasises that it will incorporate the Sustainable Tree Crops Program, mainly focused on cocoa in West Africa, as an R4D model platform but further details are lacking. There do not appear to be any plans in the revised CRP to include other tree crops e.g. coffee, rubber, oil palm, spices, tropical fruits etc. based on partnerships listed in Tables 5, 7 & 9 although ICRAF is listed as a link to CRP 6 in forest margins. Apart from the West African humid lowlands, the range of agencies mandated in areas such as forestry is still lacking. How will the CRP incorporate a greater level of activities on tree crops and forestry in general? There are no apparent links with CIFOR although policy could be an important issue with these crops. It is not yet clear, therefore, as to how the needs of these two Action Areas where tree crops are important will be addressed. The section on three tiers of Action Areas is welcome, but the reader doesn't get a real sense of how the hypotheses (p13) link to the interventions proposed for each of the tiers. The expanded section on 'Time-frame' (pp105-7) is helpful, though some (p105) is a repeat of the earlier section and the logic (p106) makes little reference back to the Research Questions, instead moving to a rather rapid focus on generic outcomes expected. This gives the impression of being very theoretical rather than having been clearly thought through with respect to the challenges and constraints in the humid tropics and where these could benefit from the collaboration between the different Centers.The original ISPC commentary highlighted that intellectual leadership for such a new innovation systems paradigm largely lies outside the CGIAR system. It is still not clear how leadership will be accommodated into the CRP. Expertise is based in Wageningen University which is listed as a primary partner but it is not clear if it will provide the program leadership. In addition, there are many other ARIs with diverse approaches to systems research which may have relevant findings and it is hoped that this CRP will tap into a broader range of such expertise. Aside from the SSA-CP, whose success is still unknown, all other innovations systems approach successes have been local (i.e. comparable in scale to the Action Site level). There must be serious questions as to the potential for an R4D approach to deliver international public goods consistent with the mandate of the CGIAR.The budget for partners and collaborators has still not been qualified (i.e. no further details have been provided). In spite of the major rewriting of the proposal, the budget components and the total budget for the project over three years have not been modified. No strategy has been put forward to reduce the institutional overhead which is about 20 percent of direct costs. This is being requested by the Fund Council via Centers costing more items traditionally under overhead to the work plan budget. For example, there is still no separate line item for communications or for monitoring and evaluation.While the time frame section describes explicit plans for progression of work over the first three years, it only describes a process of extending work at current Action Sites to other sites, while adding new components to ongoing research to include other elements of integrated systems and also broadening partnerships beyond current ones. The planned time frame reveals no clear strategy for transforming existing programs to the envisaged R4D innovative integrated systems approach.The proposal also expects very rapid and unrealistic progression; from achieving results from SRT1 situation analysis (identification of intervention packages) to dissemination and scaling up within one year, without sufficient evaluation and testing time. The revised proposal actually does not list specific activities for SRTs (except for SRT1) and activities are only briefly and broadly mentioned under Introduction and Outcomes subsections (compared to the long list of activities annexed to the previous version of the proposal).ISP C Must have 7: Present new governance arrangements that will enable growth of a new CRP1.2 for humid zones as a genuinely cross-Center program working effectively with external partners.The main governance changes from the original CRP are: a) the Steering Committee has been eliminated (as recommended); b) the office of the Executive Director has been enhanced with an M&E Unit and Communications support (as recommended); the Program Management Team has been downsized; and the Advisory Committee has been modified. As for other CRPs, it critical that the IITA DG actively consults with the DGs of other primary partner Centers in fulfilling his/her oversight responsibilities with regard to CRP1.2. The proposed role of the IITA DG as 'champion for Humidtropics' could still lead to potential conflict between her/his responsibilities for the Center and for a CRP which encompasses the work of many Centers and partners. Hence, the revised structure still gives the impression of a Center which wishes 'to retain the existing authority.'The Executive Director appears to now have more authority and empowerment as this position will Chair the Program Management Team. The Executive Director functions have been enhanced and support in the office has been improved with inclusion of the M&E Unit and Communications support directly under this position.In the original proposal, the Program Management Team included both the leaders of the SRTs and the Action Area coordinators. Now it only includes the SRT leaders, although reference to the Action Area coordinators remaining on the Management Team persists in 10.7.1. Previously the PMT was too large and geographically diverse. Also the roles of the SRTs and the Action Area coordinators are quite different (responsible for strategy vs. coordination). The new structure is probably an improvement, provided that the communications between the groups are well-maintained.The planned independent oversight of the R4D Advisory Committee is acknowledged but it risks not being sufficiently informed of CGIAR governance norms. Other CRPs have decided on a mix of Center Board members and independent members with several DGs as ex-officios. This arrangement is more likely to provide the needed CGIAR context than a totally independent committee and can still reflect the regional focus of the program, maintain a strong gender balance and incorporate relevant partnership, communications, gender and systems experience. The Chair should be from among the independent members.The CRP proposes a complex partnership strategy of 10 primary partners, including seven CGIAR Centers, FARA on behalf of the SSA Challenge Program, AVRDC and WUR that will align resources and research staff within the overall framework of the program. It is noted that ICIPE is no longer a primary partner but is still listed as a major budget recipient (USD 5.5 million over 3 years). Apart from this core group, partnerships function at many levels and in a number of dimensions-at the levels of Action Sites, Action Areas and finally, regional/global relationships (see Tables 5,7,9,11,& 12). Many are the \"usual\" and existing partners and there are still a lot of gaps in columns on NGOs and private sector collaborators in all eco-geographical zones. Although most primary partners have a good history of collaboration, one must question whether Action Areas, where partners are currently very deficient, should be included at this stage. Partnership development takes time and effort. In the short-to medium term, another way to focus this CRP would be to give priority to those Action Areas where good basic partnerships already exist, which can be developed and enhanced and new partners welcomed.The revised CRP still lacks a detailed strategy to engage with new partners or types of partners (e.g. health, education or ICT partners), or to leverage existing relationships in new ways. It also fails to demonstrate an appetite to increase the engagement of strategically significant partners by providing them with visible or substantive roles in governing or advising the program.AVRDC is presumably included at a budget of USD 6.2 million (most of which is from Window 1 & 2) for activities on vegetables. However their activities in Africa are largely restricted to Tanzania and their expertise in humid tropics systems must be questioned. Their involvement in the major undertaking for SE Asia appears to be an add-on to the general thrust of the program, which suggests it could be omitted to allow improved focus of the CRP..1. Need to demonstrate genuine cross-Center collaboration and with development results as the key objectives, a key objective of the reformed C GIAR system.Partially met -see comments under ISPC must-haves 6 and 2 above.2. Make a convincing case that the proposal will make a difference for the people of the humid tropics and will have an impact on the 4 System Level Outcomes of the C GIAR Partially met -see comments under ISPC must-haves 2 and 3 above. ","tokenCount":"5467"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"177cef47efeefbed2b2f8ef5ce6283bc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/62cc6c09-a217-4325-adfb-25abfe584f6d/retrieve","id":"1918859099"},"keywords":["Soil fertility","Agro-advisories","Food security","Site-specific fertilizer recommendations 2.2.2 Secondary data"],"sieverID":"ce01e870-47e5-4b32-97ed-bd87b99e3f4f","pagecount":"18","content":"Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is crucial for global food security and a staple crop in Ethiopia, yet farmer yields remain low, averaging 2.7 t ha⁻ 1 compared to over 5 t ha⁻ 1 at research stations. This study investigates the impact of socio-economic factors, local agronomic practices, and site-specific fertilizer management on wheat production in Goba, Lemu, Siyadebr, and Basona districts of Ethiopia. A survey of 228 households analyzed the influence of these factors on wheat productivity and fertilizer use, employing descriptive statistics, t-tests, and regression models. Results indicated that crop residue retention, improved wheat varieties, and organic fertilizers significantly increased yields, while row fertilizer application at planting had a negative effect. Fertilizer application rates varied significantly among farmers and were influenced by practices like top-dressing, monocropping, and participation in agricultural training. District-level differences in yield and fertilizer response highlighted the need for site-specific management. Multiple regression analysis revealed that key predictors of fertilizer use included cultivated land area, household income, education, small ruminant ownership, and extension contact, with larger land ownership, higher income, organic fertilizer use, and extension access being the most significant. Average yield increases due to site-specific fertilizer applications varied across districts. Overall, significant yield gains were achieved through site-specific fertilizer application across the four districts, with an average yield of 5.3 Mg ha⁻ 1 , compared to approximately 4 Mg ha⁻ 1 using the local farmers' fertilizer application rates. This study underscores the importance of considering local agroecological conditions in fertilizer management to boost wheat productivity and support food security and economic development in Ethiopia.Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) plays a pivotal role in global food security, serving as a staple crop for human consumption and a vital component of livestock feed [42,48]. In Ethiopia, wheat production is a cornerstone of the nation's agricultural landscape, contributing significantly to domestic consumption needs and the livelihoods of smallholder farming communities [30]. Wheat is cultivated in various agroecosystems in Ethiopia, including highland and lowland areas, resulting in complex landscapes with varying wheat production practices at different geographical sites [45].In Ethiopia, wheat productivity remains low in farmer fields, with a wheat grain yield of approximately 2.7 t ha −1 relative to > 5 t ha −1 at research stations [45]. Several factors contribute to this low productivity, including the low use of improved varieties and inputs. Despite its significance, wheat production in Ethiopia faces multiple challenges that span biophysical 2 MethodologyThe study was conducted in four districts across three regions in Ethiopia: Basona and Siyadebr in Amhara, Goba in Oromia, and Lemu in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR) (Fig. 1). It focused on farmers who participated in 2021 validation trials assessing site-specific fertilizer recommendations for wheat production, developed using a machine learning algorithm. The validation involved multi-site trials conducted on farmers' fields in these districts. The households for the interviews were randomly selected from those involved in the trials. In tGoba district, 87 of the 93 households hosting the trials were selected. In Basona, 28 out of 29 participating households were included, while in Siyadebr, 67 out of 74 households were sampled. In Lemu, due to logistical constraints, 46 out of 81 households were included, resulting in less proportional sampling.These districts were chosen for the validation trials based on their potential for wheat production, featuring diverse soil types and landscapes suitable for wheat cultivation. Barley, tef, faba bean, and field pea are the other major crops grown in the districts in rotation with wheat. Cattle, sheep, poultry, equines, and goats are the most common livestock in these highland areas. The rainfall distribution in the four study districts was sufficient for wheat production, especially when wheat planting is performed at approximately the end of June to mid-July. The annual rainfall in Basona and Siyadebr ranges from 735 to 1200 mm with a minimum temperature of 10 °C and a maximum temperature of 22 °C. The Goba district has a relatively lower temperature (8-18 °C) and greater rainfall (2000-2300 mm), whereas the Lemu district has a higher temperature (15-20 °C) and lower annual rainfall of 700-1226 mm [2].Household interviews were the main source of data. The data were collected in 2022 using a structured questionnaire developed using an online data collection tool (ODK). The survey was conducted during the off-season when farmers had sufficient time for interviews and discussion. Experienced enumerators from local research centers and universities who better understood the local system were recruited and trained to gain a common understanding of the questions and ethical issues that were raised during the interviews. The questionnaire was pretested before use in the actual survey. The interviewers interviewed the farmers under the supervision of the researchers. The farmers self-reported all data presented here at the end of the 2022 growing season. Actual yields were calculated based on the farmers' reports of wheat production after threshing and the corresponding plot areas. It was assumed that the wheat grain after threshing had a dry-matter content exceeding 86.5%. Means, frequencies, percentages, and standard deviations were used to analyze demographic and socioeconomic characteristics related to wheat production and fertilizer application.A t-test was also conducted to compare differences in mean wheat grain yield and fertilizer rates among agronomic variables. Because the data were not distributed normally, they were log-transformed using the natural logarithm function. The mathematical model is specified as follows:where t is the t-statistic, x1 is the mean of sample 1, x2 is the mean of sample 2, s1 is the standard deviation of sample 1, s2 is the standard deviation of sample 2, n1 is the size of sample 1, and n2 is the size of sample 2.Multiple regression analysis was performed to investigate the relationships between independent and dependent variables. The dependent variables were wheat grain yield and fertilizer rate per hectare. The independent variables that fit the multiple regression model included household characteristics, farm resources, and agronomic management practices. The multiple regression model for grain yield was specified as follows:where Y G is the dependent variable; wheat grain yield per hectare of land; B 0 is the intercept; B is the coefficient indicating the amount by which grain yield changes when each independent variable is increased by 1 unit; and X are the independent variables, such as household size, age, education, land size, ownership of backyard plots, years since conversion to cropland, fertilizer amount and time since the second fertilizer application, pulse crop rotation, experience using crop residue retention in the field, amount of fertilizer application, seed type, seed rate, number of cattle, number of small ruminants, and annual income.where Y F denotes the dependent variable, which is the fertilizer rate per hectare of land; B 0 is the intercept; B is the coefficient indicating the amount by which the fertilizer rate changes when each independent variable is increased by 1 unit; and X represents the independent variables, such as annual income, use of pulses in crop sequencing, number of cattle, number of small ruminants, application of organic fertilizer, inorganic fertilizer application methods, seed rate, type of seed used, years since the plot was converted to cropland, total age of cultivated land, literacy, practice of crop residue retention, fertilizer application rates, walking distance of the farm plots from home, participation in agricultural training, and frequency of extension contact.(1)(2) 3 Results and discussionThe survey included 228 respondents, with a predominant proportion of 91.7% being male household heads and only 7.9% being female. The marital status data revealed that 84.7% of the respondents were married, whereas the remaining 14.8% were single (Table 2). Regarding educational attainment, 55.7% of respondents completed secondary education, constituting the largest group. Primary education was the highest for 19.3% of respondents, while 3.9% had attained a college education. Notably, 19.3% of the respondents were illiterate (Table 2). This distribution of literacy levels highlights the importance of tailoring agro-advisory channels and extension services to cater to the diverse educational backgrounds of target farming communities.The study examined key demographic and agricultural characteristics of the sampled households (Table 3). The average age of heads of household was approximately 44 years, indicating that most were in their prime working years. The mean household size was 3.3, with a dependency ratio of approximately 1.0, showing an equal number of working and non-working members. On average, households reported contacting extension workers for agricultural advice more than four times annually. The mean walking distance from respondents' homes to the local agricultural office was approximately 21 min. On average, households cultivated a total land area of 1.6 ha, and approximately 1 ha was allocated for wheat cultivation. The plots were under cultivation for an average of 60 years. The mean walking distance from the farmers' homes to their wheat plots was 14 min. At the study sites, on average, households owned 4.76 cattle and 3.38 sheep. On average, the sampled households owned 5.5 poultry and two equines. The households also own very few goats; approximately 0.39 per household.This study examined the influence of various agronomic practices on wheat grain yield by comparing mean yields between farmers who adopted specific practices and those who did not. The results are presented in Table 4.Crop residue retention had a significant positive effect on wheat grain yield. Farmers who practiced crop residue retention achieved a mean yield of 4260.49 kg ha −1 , which was substantially higher than the mean yield of 3503.95 kg ha −1 for farmers who completely removed crop residues from the field. The difference in mean yields was highly significant (t = 2.8041, p < 0.001). Retaining crop residues likely improves soil health and nutrient cycling, and contributes to increased wheat productivity.The use of improved wheat varieties significantly increased grain yields. Farmers who adopted improved varieties achieved a mean yield of 3988.75 kg ha −1 , which was markedly greater than the mean yield of 2565.00 kg ha −1 for farmers using local varieties (t = 3.2543, p < 0.001). This finding highlights the importance of promoting the adoption of improved, high-yielding wheat varieties by smallholder farmers.The application of fertilizer at planting had a significant impact on wheat grain yield. Farmers who applied fertilizer in rows had a lower mean yield of 2783.03 kg ha −1 than those who broadcast fertilizer, with a mean yield of 4147.41 kg ha −1 (t = − 4.4638, p < 0.001). This difference could be attributed to factors such as improper fertilizer placement or lower fertilizer rates used in row application [28].The application of organic fertilizers, such as manure, had a positive but statistically insignificant effect on wheat grain yield. Farmers who applied organic fertilizers achieved a mean yield of 4861.30 kg ha −1 , whereas those who did not use organic fertilizers had a mean yield of 3791.96 kg ha −1 (t = 1.9043, p < 0.1). The rotation of wheat with pulse crops did not significantly affect wheat grain yield. The mean yields were similar between farmers who practiced pulse rotation (3820.44 kg ha −1 ) and those who did not (3883.47 kg ha −1 ), but the difference was not significant (t = − 0.2021, p > 0.1). It is also possible that other factors, such as soil fertility management practices, fertilizer application rates, and varietal differences, may have had a more significant impact on wheat yields in the study area [27], potentially masking the effects of pulse-wheat rotation.Participation in agricultural training and hosting research trials on farmers' fields had a positive but statistically insignificant effect on wheat grain yield. Farmers who participated in agricultural training had a mean yield of 4049.99 kg ha −1 , whereas nonparticipants had a mean yield of 3673.48 kg ha −1 (t = 1.3797, p > 0.1). On the contrary, farmers who hosted research trials achieved a mean yield of 4308.01 kg ha −1 , which was greater than the mean yield of 3717.50 kg ha −1 for those who did not host trials (t = 1.8544, p < 0.1).Overall, these findings underscore the importance of implementing effective agronomic practices, such as crop residue retention and the adoption of improved varieties, to enhance wheat productivity among smallholder farmers.Table 5 shows that crop residue retention significantly reduces the amount of inorganic fertilizer applied. The results showed that farmers who practiced crop residue retention on their plots used a lower fertilizer rate (338.5 kg ha −1 ) than those who completely removed crop residue from their plots (563 kg ha −1 ). According to [4,21], crop residue retention improves soil fertility and nutrient availability and reduces the need for inorganic fertilization [13,22].Over 78% of the households applied top dressing fertilizer. Farmers who applied top dressings used a greater mean fertilizer rate (500 kg ha −1 ) than farmers who applied fertilizer only at planting once (269.6 kg ha −1 ). Top-dressing with higher rates of fertilizer led to increased crop yields and better economic returns for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia Among the total sample of respondents, approximately 18% of households applied fertilizer in rows. The row fertilizer application rate (332.5 kg ha −1 ) was lower than the broadcast application rate (465 kg ha −1 ), and the result was significant at the 1% level. Ref. [5] reported that a lower fertilizer rate is required for row-drilled applications than for broadcast applications, resulting in a 15% reduction in fertilizer use.Approximately 30% of the 220 farming households applied urea top dressing 30 to 45 days after planting. The remaining 70% applied urea only at planting or within 30 days.Approximately 23% of households had planted wheat, followed by wheat, in the last three years. Wheat monocultures increased the mean fertilizer rate by 105 kg ha −1 ; this difference was significant at the 1% level. For example [31], reported that wheat monoculture reduces soil carbon and nitrogen content and intensifies soil erosion and nutrient leaching problems. These problems can lead to increased fertilizer use as farmers attempt to compensate for lost nutrients.Approximately 60% of the households had backyard plots, which received relatively better organic matter than outfield plots. Farmers who had backyard plots applied less fertilizer (387 kg ha −1 ) than those who had only an outfield plot (5534 kg ha −1 ). The difference in mean fertilizer rate between the two groups was highly significant. A similar study by [23,35] found that backyard gardens can improve soil fertility and reduce the need for pesticides and fertilizers, and [52], in their study of the relationship between residential proximity to farms, also found that new dwellers who live closer to their farms are more likely to use organic inputs, such as compost and manure.Farmers who participated in the training applied more fertilizer (487 kg ha −1 ) than those who did not (386 kg ha −1 ). The difference in the mean rate of inorganic fertilizer application between the two groups was highly significant. This finding is consistent with the results of [36], who found that participation in farmer field schools led to increased agricultural knowledge, practices, and productivity. In summary, the results suggest that practices such as crop residue retention, the use of improved wheat varieties, organic fertilizer application, and hosting research trials were associated with significantly greater wheat grain yields in the study area.Over 73% of farmers practice annual crop rotation to preserve soil fertility. Similarly, 29.4% and 35% of households implemented crop rotation for diversification and pest and disease management, respectively. Conversely, 27.4% of households cultivated wheat successively (Table 6), driven by the area's potential for wheat production, land scarcity, and the crop's significance as a food source.Tef, barley, and faba bean were the main cereals grown in rotation with wheat (Table 7). In the Goba district, 26.4% and 21.8% of households planted barley and faba bean before wheat. In the Siyadebr district, 56.7% of the wheat growers planted faba bean before the wheat plants. Fababean is also the second most important crop in the district, accounting for 17.9% of all crops planted before wheat. In the Lemu district, tef was the first major crop rotated with wheat. Tef, barley, and faba beans are the three most common crops grown before wheat, accounting for 39.1%, 30.4%, and 19.6% of the total area of cultivation, respectively. Similarly, of the crops grown in the Basona district, faba bean and barley are the most common, followed by wheat. Fababean accounted for 60.7% of the total area, whereas barley accounted for 25%.Farmers applied, on average, 197.1 kg of urea and other compound fertilizers containing 300.64 kg of nitrogen-phosphorus-sulfur (NPS) or nitrogen-phosphorus-sulfur-boron (NPSB) per hectare of land (Table 8). The maximum amounts of urea and NPSB/NPS applied per hectare were 800 and 12,800 kg, respectively. The average wheat productivity per hectare across all sites was approximately 4394 kg. This average wheat yield reflects a lower crop yield than that in the 2020 report [41], which reported an average yield of 4200 kg ha -1 . This current yield is expected to remain below the projected average Ethiopian wheat yield potential of 5,600 kg ha -1 in 2050 [29,41].Among the sampled households, the majority (71.9%) applied 300 kg or more of fertilizer and harvested an average grain yield of 4668.5 kg ha −1 . Approximately 16.7% of the households used a total amount of fertilizer between 201 and 300 kg ha −1 and harvested an average grain yield of 3846 kg ha −1 . Approximately 7.5% of the households applied between 100 and 200 kg ha −1 of fertilizer. Only a few (3.9%) farmers produced close to 4796 kg ha −1 of wheat without applying any inorganic fertilizers While the higher yield harvested without inorganic fertilizer may be attributed to better soil fertility status of the specific farm fields and the application of other organic fertilizers (Table 9), so caution is warranted because the small sample size may not represent the broader population. The study examined grain yield patterns between and within districts using box plots to determine the variability in grain yield associated with wheat production (Fig. 2a and b). The results revealed significant differences in grain yield distributions between districts, highlighting the influence of various factors, such as soil quality, climatic conditions, and farming practices, on crop productivity. A comparison of the four districts, significant differences in the median and range of grain yield, indicating different degrees of productivity. For instance, in Basona and Goba, the interquartile range of grain yields is notably wider, indicating greater variability than in Lemu and Sydebr. Soil quality, for instance, is a well-documented determinant of crop yield [14,15]. Soils rich in organic matter and nutrients support better crop growth, while poor soil quality can limit yield potential, as is likely observed in the lower median yields of Basona and Lemu. Similarly, climatic conditions, including rainfall patterns and temperature, are known to influence wheat yields [9,11]. Areas with favorable climates, such as Goba and Syadebr, where median yields are high, typically benefit from optimal growing conditions that support higher productivity [45].In the relatively high-yielding areas of Goba and Syadebr, the median yields ranged from 4600 to 5100 kg ha −1. In contrast, in the low-yielding areas of the Basona and Lemu districts, the median yields ranged from 2300 to 2500 kg ha −1 . There was considerable variation across different villages and farmer fields, highlighting the importance of site-specific considerations in crop management and decisions within a district. The substantial variability in yields within districts, as indicated by the wide interquartile ranges in Basona and Goba, suggests that micro-environmental factors, such as localized soil conditions, water availability, and specific farming practices, play a significant role in determining crop productivity [33]. This claim is supported by studies showing that even within relatively small geographic areas, variations in soil texture, water retention, and nutrient availability can lead to significant differences in crop yields [12,49,51,53]. The variability also points to the need for precision agriculture techniques that account for these micro-environmental differences to optimize productivity at the field level. The results also underscore the need for targeted interventions that consider district-and site-specific factors when developing crop management plans to optimize wheat grain yield. This approach is supported by the concept of site-specific management, which increases crop yield and resource use efficiency [40,43]. Ultimately, this knowledge will improve decision-making in the pursuit of sustainable and productive wheat production systems in the target areas. This agrees with the principles of sustainable agriculture, which emphasize  the need for practices that are not only productive but also environmentally sound and economically viable [39]. The findings of this study could inform policy and practical guidelines for wheat production in the target areas, leading to more resilient and sustainable farming systems. Figure 3a illustrates the relationship between fertilizer rates and wheat grain yields averaged across the four sites. The results of this study indicated a positive correlation between the inorganic fertilizer application rate and wheat grain yield, with a yield increase of approximately 2400 kg ha −1 for every 100 kg ha −1 increase in fertilizer application. This observation is consistent with previous studies reporting the positive effects of inorganic fertilizers on wheat productivity in Ethiopia [36]. As shown in Fig. 3a, the data points exhibit significant scatter around the line, particularly at low to medium fertilizer rates, resulting in an overall high variability in smallholder grain yields in response to fertilizer rates.The differences in crop yields between high-yield areas, such as Goba and Siyadeber, and low-yield areas, such as Basona and Lemu (Fig. 3b), indicate the influence of environmental factors, such as soil fertility, water availability, and climatic conditions, on crop productivity. These results are consistent with previous research highlighting the effects of environmental variables on wheat yield in Ethiopia [24,47]. The observed variation in yields, even between villages and farmers' fields, within each district underscores the importance of considering local factors that affect crop performance. These results are consistent with previous research highlighting the importance of local variability in wheat [1,47].The insightful visualization presented in Fig. 3a and b highlights the differences in yield responses among the sites, suggesting that local environmental conditions, soil properties, and crop management practices significantly influence the effectiveness of fertilizer application. The observed decline in fertilizer use efficiency with increasing fertilizer rates is a well-documented phenomenon attributed to factors such as nutrient leaching, volatilization, and reduced nutrient uptake due to potential imbalances or antagonistic interactions [16,18]. Further research and targeted interventions in Basona and Lemu are warranted to address the specific challenges influencing fertilizer efficiency in these districts and enhance overall agricultural productivity.These results highlight the need for a more nuanced approach to fertilizer recommendations that considers districtspecific agroecological conditions and crop management practices. Further research is warranted to elucidate the mechanisms governing the observed variation in fertilizer responses, paving the way for more targeted and effective fertilizer use in diverse agricultural settings. The response of grain yield to fertilizer application can be elucidated by the formation of two tightly grouped clusters on the regression curve. In particular, these clusters represent sites with remarkably similar overall responses to fertilizer application. Equally notable is the observation that the remaining two sites had different response patterns to the first group and formed separate clusters on the regression curve, highlighting the complexity of the relationship between fertilizer application and grain yield. These results provide valuable insights into the different pathways through which fertilizer-driven crop improvement can occur.Figure 4 illustrates the fertilizer partial Factor Productivity (PFP NP ) at four locations: Basona, Syadebr, Lemu, and Goba. At Basona, PFP NP levels noticeably declined as fertilizer rates increased, indicating reduced efficiency in converting fertilizer to grain yield at higher application rates. This trend aligns with the general understanding that PFP NP levels are highest at lower fertilizer rates and decline as rates increase, reflecting decreased efficiency in input use [19,31]. Similarly, Fig. 3 Relationship between fertilizer application rates and wheat grain yield: A regression line for all data points (a) and multilocation regression lines across diverse on-farm fields in the four districts (b) https://doi.org/10.1007/s44274-024-00162-x Syadebr exhibits a declining trend in PFP NP with increasing fertilizer rates, although the decline is more gradual than that in Basona. This shows that the wheat crop at Syadebr maintained slightly better efficiency at higher fertilizer rates, despite the overall decrease in efficiency. At Lemu, PFP NP levels decrease with increasing fertilizer rates, starting from a lower base compared to Basona and Syadebr. This indicates a lower overall efficiency of fertilizer conversion into yield, which continues to decline with increasing fertilizer application. In Goba, PFP NP is lower than in the other three locations across all fertilizer rates, with a clear decline as rates increased. This indicates that crops in Goba are less responsive to fertilizer and exhibit lower efficiency even at lower application rates. The lower PFP NP levels in Goba could be due to factors such as soil type, climate, and crop variety, which affect nutrient uptake and utilization [17].Overall, all four locations-Basona, Syadebr, Lemu, and Goba-demonstrate a common trend of decreasing PFP NP levels with increasing fertilizer rates, highlighting diminishing returns on fertilizer application as rates rise. However, there are notable differences in the extent of this decline among the locations. Basona had the highest initial PFP NP value but experienced a sharp decline as the rates increased. Syadebr experienced a more gradual decline, indicating better efficiency at higher fertilizer rates compared to Basona. Lemu begins with lower PFP NP values and follows a consistent decline, indicating lower overall efficiency. Goba had the lowest PFP NP among all rates, showing that this location might require different management practices to improve fertilizer use efficiency. These results underscore the importance of tailoring fertilizer application strategies to specific locations to maximize efficiency and crop yield.The regression analysis of various factors influencing the amount of fertilizer applied by farmers (n = 228) across the four districts yielded several significant findings (Table 10). The amount of fertilizer applied was positively associated with the total cultivated land area, with a coefficient (β) of 34.14 and borderline significance (P = 0.09), indicating that an increase in the cultivated land area tended to result in greater fertilizer application. The results also align with the claim that farmers intensify their use of inputs, such as fertilizers, as they expand their cultivated land. This intensification is often driven by the need to maintain or enhance productivity on a large scale [50]. As farmers manage more extensive land areas, the risk of yield variability increases, prompting them to apply more fertilizers to ensure consistent crop performance. A significant negative relationship was observed between the education level of the household head and fertilizer application (β = -150.6, P < 0.005), showing that higher education levels were associated with lower fertilizer use. Higher education levels are often associated with greater financial literacy and risk aversion. Educated farmers may be more cautious about the financial risks associated with excessive fertilizer use, such as the potential for diminishing returns and increased costs without increasing yield [34]. Household income had a positive effect on fertilizer application (β = 0.0003, P < 0.05), indicating that wealthier households tended to use more fertilizer. This finding is consistent with previous studies that documented a positive relationship between income and fertilizer use in agricultural settings [29,52]. The frequency of extension services provided to farmers was positively associated with fertilizer use (β = 8.33, P < 0.05), indicating that more frequent extension services led to increased fertilizer application. More frequent extension services can improve the understanding and awareness of the benefits of fertilizer use, particularly in optimizing crop yields and improving soil fertility [7]. As extension agents provide more regular and detailed information, farmers are more likely to adopt recommended practices, including correct types, amounts, and timing of fertilizer applications. Therefore, agronomic advice and extension services should be customized to target low-income households and those with limited access to extension services, with the aim of optimizing fertilizer use efficiency and improving yields. However, the high frequency of training on agricultural practices did not result in increased fertilizer use. The study also revealed a highly significant positive relationship between seed rate and fertilizer use (β = 0.616, P < 0.0001), with higher seed rates corresponding to greater fertilizer application. To ensure that a larger number of plants can develop fully and avoid stunted growth, farmers may apply more fertilizers, particularly nitrogen, to enhance early plant vigor and reduce the risk of yield loss [44]. The findings of this study support this idea, showing that farmers may be using fertilizer to mitigate the risks associated with higher seed rates. Conversely, row planting of seeds was associated with a significant reduction in fertilizer use (β = -107.36, P = 0.035). Row planting facilitates a more precise seed placement, which improves the efficiency of fertilizer use. In row planting, seeds are placed in an organized pattern that allows for better root development and more targeted fertilizer application [10]. The negative relationship between row sowing of wheat and the rate of fertilizer application implying that these practices may be linked to more efficient fertilizer use, thereby reducing the total amount of fertilizer needed. Furthermore, a significant negative relationship was found between the number of small ruminants and fertilizer application (β = − 8.712, P = 0.03), indicating that households with more small ruminants tended to use less fertilizer. This can be explained by the role of small ruminants as a source of organic manure, which serves as a natural alternative to chemical fertilizers. Farmers with more livestock can produce sufficient quantities of manure, which provides essential nutrients to crops and improves soil health (Powell et al., 1998). As a result, these farmers may reduce their dependency on expensive inorganic fertilizers, opting instead to use the organic manure generated by their livestock. The application of organic fertilizers was strongly associated with the increased use of inorganic fertilizers (β = 211.8, P < 0.005), indicating that organic fertilizers, such as manure from small ruminants, contribute to long-term soil fertility by enhancing soil structure, increasing microbial activity, and improving moisture retention [37]. The positive association between the application of organic fertilizers and the increased use of inorganic fertilizers showing that these inputs are often used together in a complementary manner. This complementary use can be understood in the context of integrated nutrient management, whereby farmers combine organic and inorganic fertilizers to optimize crop yields [3,8]. The findings indicate a complex interaction between livestock ownership, organic fertilizer application, and the use of inorganic fertilizers in agricultural systems. Specifically, the study revealed two significant relationships: a negative association between the number of small ruminants and fertilizer use and a strong positive correlation between the application of organic fertilizers and increased use of inorganic fertilizers. These findings can be understood and supported through several claims based on agricultural practices, nutrient management, and the economics of farming systems. Retaining crop residues in the field had a significant negative effect on fertilizer use (β = − 290.2, P < 0.0001), suggesting that residue retention can significantly offset the need for additional fertilizer inputs due to the natural recycling process in which soils with retained residues often have higher nutrient availability [38]. Consecutive yearly fertilizer applications were associated with reduced overall fertilizer use (β = − 99.07, P < 0.05). The significant negative coefficient in this study supports the idea that more regular applications lead to greater fertilizer use efficiency. highlighting an important relationship between fertilizer management practices and input efficiency. Farmers who apply fertilizers more frequently year after year tend to use less overall fertilizer. This approach may reduce the risk of nutrient loss, such as nitrogen loss, leading to more efficient fertilizer use. As a result, the total amount of fertilizer needed decreases while maintaining or even improving crop yields [20].Overall, these results highlight the complex interplay between agronomic practices, socioeconomic factors, and fertilizer use among smallholder farmers. Education, income, extension services, and specific agricultural practices, such as organic fertilizer and residue management, significantly influence the amount of fertilizer applied in wheat production. These findings underscore the multifaceted nature of fertilizer decision-making among farmers, demonstrating that both agronomic and socioeconomic factors play critical roles in determining fertilizer use patterns.Figure 5 illustrates the cumulative percentage of yield outcomes, comparing the yields achieved using site-specific fertilizer rates with those obtained using traditional fertilizer rates used by local farmers in the districts of Syadebr, Lemu, Goba, and Basona. The vertical line on the x-axis represents the baseline yield associated with average local farmers' fertilizer rates. Cumulative probability curves clearly illustrate the likelihood of achieving different yield outcomes under site-specific fertilizer application scenarios compared to the average local application rate. This evaluation, based on data collected from 208 farm fields across three wheat-growing districts in 2021, contrasts wheat yield responses to local farmers' fertilizer application practices with those recommended through site-specific analysis.In the Basona district, approximately 85% of the yields achieved with site-specific fertilizer rates exceed those achieved with local farmers' rates, as indicated by the cumulative percentage curve lying predominantly to the right of the vertical baseline. This shows that site-specific fertilizer recommendations are highly effective in this district. The average yield gain in Basona was over 60% higher than the local farmers' fertilizer rates, with only about 15% of the cases showing slight yield losses, generally less than 5%. The median yield increase due to the site-specific fertilizer recommendation was around 2 Mg ha⁻ 1 compared to the average local fertilizer rates, indicating that at least half of the observations resulted in a yield increase of this magnitude or more.In the Lemu district, there is a noticeable positive trend although the increase in yield is gradual. This shows that although site-specific recommendations are advantageous, they may require further refinement to achieve significant improvements. Approximately 70% of yields using site-specific rates exceed those using local farmers' rates, indicating yield improvements of over 45%. However, approximately 30% of the outcomes fall below the yields of local farmers' rates, with most decreases ranging from 5 to 10%. The median yield increase was approximately 1.5 Mg ha⁻ 1 , indicating a moderate benefit of site-specific fertilizer recommendations compared to traditional farmers' practices.In the Goba District, results are mixed, with some yields exceeding those of local farmers and others not, reflecting the inconsistent effects of site-specific recommendations in this region. Approximately 50% of the yields with site-specific rates outperform the local farmers' rates, with an average increase of over 20%. On the other hand, approximately 50% of the yields are lower, with decreases ranging from 2 to 8%. The median yield increase was > 0.75 Mg ha −1 , showing a moderate yet positive effect of site-specific recommendations. In the Syadebr district, the advantages of site-specific recommendations seem limited, as many yield results did not exceed those achieved with local farmer rates. Only approximately 35% of the yields with site-specific rates exceed those with local farmer rates. Yield gains in Syadebr are modest, ranging from 2 to 8%, while 65% of the results are lower, with losses ranging from 3 to 12%. This indicates that either farmers' current practices are well adapted to local conditions, or further research is needed.The estimated average yield increase varied across districts, ranging from 20 to 62%, with notable contributions from Basona and Lemu. In contrast, Goba and Syadebr showed more variable or modest improvements. Across the four districts, significant yield gains were achieved through site-specific fertilizer recommendations, with the average yield reaching 5.3 Mg ha −1 compared to approximately 4 Mg ha −1 obtained using the local farmers' fertilizer application rates.These results indicate that compared with local practices, site-specific fertilizer rates generally enhance yields in most districts, although the effectiveness varies across regions. This variation underscores the importance of carefully considering local conditions that consider the variety of crops, landscapes, and soil types when implementing site-specific recommendations [6,32].The preliminary findings highlight the potential of data-driven machine learning algorithms to improve wheat yield by recommending customized fertilizers. The success observed in several districts demonstrates the importance of tailoring fertilizer rates to individual sites. However, yield decreases at certain validation sites show that inaccuracies in the machine learning-generated recommendations may occur. These inaccuracies may stem from error propagation due to the precision of the geospatial data and limitations in the training dataset, which may not fully capture critical variable interactions. This emphasizes the need to improve the algorithm's accuracy by expanding the database to include more comprehensive soil and water variables, thereby ensuring a better reflection of the diverse conditions under which wheat is cultivated [32].This study provides valuable insights into the complex factors influencing wheat productivity and fertilizer use among smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. The findings highlight the significant impact of crop residue retention, improved wheat varieties, and organic fertilizer application on enhanced wheat yields while revealing district-level variations that emphasize the need for site-specific management approaches. Socioeconomic factors such as household income, education level, and access to extension services were identified as key predictors of fertilizer use. This study underscores the importance of integrated soil fertility management practices and tailored agronomic recommendations to optimize fertilizer use efficiency and wheat productivity. Adoption of site-specific fertilizer recommendations supported by datadriven approaches has the potential to significantly boost wheat yields and contribute to food security and economic development in Ethiopia. Future efforts should focus on refining these recommendations by incorporating more comprehensive data. The recommendations should be economically advantageous, pose minimal risk amidst climate variability and change, and support environmental sustainability in wheat production in Ethiopia. These findings have important implications for agricultural policy and extension programs in Ethiopia, suggesting the need for targeted interventions to improve access to resources, knowledge dissemination, and site-specific fertilizer recommendations and to support the expansion of access to extension services to ensure that all farmers can benefit from improved fertilizer management practices. Addressing these issues holds considerable promise for bolstering food security, fostering sustainable intensification, and enhancing the well-being of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia's principal wheat-producing areas.","tokenCount":"6294"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d648ede1131f8a8b433bf44c5cfc84b0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a02c8733-6025-4018-9325-bac5e8cfc521/retrieve","id":"1244768671"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"11624bd7-bb57-4755-9d5a-12e0c0f2d7be","pagecount":"59","content":"We are grateful to the research assistants, Anteneh Girma, Dessalegn Molla, Kebede Manjur and Rahmeto Negash, for their hard work and inputs. We thank Dr Seife Ayele for reading the manuscript and providing invaluable comments. Last, but not least, we are grateful to key informants from the farming communities, and managers and staff of GOs and NGOs who patiently responded to our questions and openly shared their thoughts with us.v List of Tables Table 1 Milk production and yields for Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan Table 2 Essential features of rural and urban dairy systems in Ethiopia (based on opinions of experts, dairy cooperative leaders and members)Table 3 Perceptions of demand, supply and price trends for milk and milk products in urban and peri-urban systems  At least two sets of factors underlie the need for understanding the Ethiopian dairy and fodder innovation systems (DFIS) and its role in improving productivity and market orientation of smallholder dairy production. First, empirical evidence shows that Ethiopian dairy subsector has not been able to take-off despite decades of research and development (R&D) efforts (Ahmed et al. 2004;Staal et al. 2008). Secondly, the national agenda and aspirations for agriculture and rural development (economic growth, poverty alleviation and ecological sustainability), resource-base (land, water and feed), market demand (reliability of supply, quality and safety) and the number and diversity of actors (public, private and civil societies) involved in the dairy subsector are changing.Innovation, i.e. the productive use of knowledge for positive economic and social outcomes, is crucial in Ethiopian dairy subsector to circumvent the increasing natural resource scarcity, to increase productivity to generate marketable surplus, to improve market competitiveness of smallholder producers, and to adapt and respond to dynamic opportunities and challenges. Innovation emerges where market incentive exists and economic agents are willing and able to take risk; where appropriate institutional arrangements exist to reduce transaction costs of exchanges-knowledge or otherwise;and where adaptive innovation policies and enforcement mechanisms are in place (Hidalgo and Albors 2008). Innovation capacity depends on the ability of producers, entrepreneurs and support services to interact with each other and with other actors to access and creatively use knowledge of different kinds for practical problem-solving (Altenburg et al. 2008). And well-functioning innovation systems depend on the strength of collective capacity for mutual learning, which, in turn, calls for effective mechanisms for mobilizing inputs and coordinating efforts in the sector (Engel 1997).This paper reports on analysis of Ethiopian dairy and forage innovation systems The paper is organized in six sections. The next section provides the background and highlights the challenges faced by Ethiopian smallholder dairy subsector. Section Three presents a brief discussion of the innovation systems perspective, followed by the methodology employed in this study. Section Four elucidates the context within whichEthiopian DFIS is embedded. The findings of the study are presented and discussed in Section Five. Section Six draws conclusions and recommends organizational, institutional and policy options for enhancing commercialization and innovation in the smallholder dairy systems.Market-oriented development of smallholder dairy in developing economies is an important pathway out of rural poverty and it could be a powerful tool for sustainable rural livelihood improvement (Bennett et al. 2006). Ethiopia has a huge untapped potential for market-oriented development of smallholder dairy production. The population of genetically diverse milking cows in the country is estimated at 9.9 million heads (CSA 2008). The agro-ecology, particularly of the Ethiopian highland mixed crop-livestock systems, is considered conducive and relatively disease-free to support crossbred dairy cattle (Ahmed et al. 2004). The following subsections provide an overview of dairy development efforts in Ethiopia, paying special attention to the focus of the interventions, achievements, lessons, and emerging challenges.Formal R&D efforts for dairy development began in the late 1940s (Feleke 2003) and continued, mainly through donor-financed dairy and livestock development projects.A close scrutiny of different project, policy and research documents revealed that they were mainly supply-driven initiatives, emphasizing the transfer of technology and public provision of inputs and services. The focus was on breed, feed, and animal health service improvement; promotion of milk processing and formal marketing (large-and smallscale); infrastructure development; and capacity building for technology generation and transfer. However, the dairy subsector has not been able to take-off despite over six decades of R&D efforts.The total milk production from about 10 million milking cows is estimated at about 3.2 billion litres, an average of 1.54 litres per cow per day over a lactation period of about 6 months (CSA 2008). The performance of Ethiopian dairy subsector has been lagging far behind that of the neighbouring countries with comparable agro-ecological conditions (Table 1). The national milk production had increased by 1.6% and per capita production declined by about 0.8% annually during 1966-2001 (Staal et al. 2008). The authors conclude that 'the development efforts had little impact on the growth of the sector as a whole, even in the areas where they were implemented.' Only 0.15% of rural livestock holders reported on-farm production of improved forages like alfalfa and Napier grass; the use of industrial by-products like oil cake, bran, and brewery residue was negligible (0.8%); the population of exotic and crossbred dairy cows in rural areas of the country accounted for less than 1% of the total dairy cattle population; and the blood levels of the limited crossbred population were unknown, due to the lack of appropriate breed registration system (CSA 2008). Other empirical evidences (Ahmed et al. 2004;Azage et al. 2006;CSA 2008;Staal et al. 2008) showed that the generic supply-side constraints (feed, breed, animal health etc.) have not yet been resolved; the coverage and quality of support services need significant improvement;private provision of services is underdeveloped, and pluralistic service provision is in 'disarray' due to limited or no coordination.Overcoming the supply-side constraints related to feeding, breeding and animal health was, and still is, crucial to achieving productivity growth in Ethiopian dairy subsector.Nevertheless, it has long been recognized that technological change should go hand in hand with institutional change to be successful (Leeuwis 2004;Pérez 1989cited in Altenburg et al. 2008). Although knowledge about technology and production are necessary, they are not sufficient to improve productivity and enhance market-orientation of smallholder dairy. Market-driven innovations to succeed often require commensurate organizational/managerial and institutional changes, and changes in policy. For instance, a study by Ahmed et al. (2004) showed that the rate of adoption of fodder and pasture land management technologies in Ethiopia was extremely low for several reasons, which include factors relating to institution, economic incentives, support service delivery and policy. These complementarities between technical and non-technical changes had not been understood or well appreciated in the previous interventions for dairy development in the country.Market-orientation of the production systems and the possibility of exporting Ethiopian dairy products were limited by high transaction costs despite low costs of production (Ahmed et al. 2004). Development of vertically integrated and coordinated milk value chain is an important option to reduce operational and transaction costs, to meet consumers demand and to encourage partnerships along the chain (Costales et al. 2006).There is a serious concern, however, that smallholder agricultural producers are often excluded from participation in value chain since they usually lack access to credit, make limited investment in their human capital (including skills and entrepreneurship training), and are isolated by physical distance from the market (Mendoza and Thelen 2008).On the other hand, the development of sustainable milk value chain equally depends on the existence of a vibrant private sector capable of providing the essential input and support services, which include manufacturing of small-scale processing equipment, processing and distribution of milk and products. This implies, in addition to the creation of enabling policies, laws and regulatory environment for private service delivery, public support for private service development is vital. This is because often market alone fails to allocate resources such as capital, skills and technological development to private sector and to ensure effective coordination within a sector (Kurokawa et al. 2008).Hence, ensuring effective coordination and tailoring investment and intervention strategies for location specificity are challenging, but critical.Research framework and methodsThe research design, data collection and analysis for the current study have been informed by the innovation systems framework. This section provides a working definition of innovation and briefly explains pertinent issues and concepts underpinning the innovation systems perspective.The literature provides several definitions of innovation (Engle 1997;Biggs 1989;Spielman 2006;World Bank 2006;Hidalgo and Albors 2008). The operational definition used in this paper is 'innovation is the process of successful use of knowledge, originating from various sources and acquired by various mechanisms for practical problem-solving'.Innovation can result from the application of not only new knowledge, but also from creative use of accumulated knowledge. Hall (2006) contended that it would be possible to significantly improve productivity and efficiency of smallholder livestock sector in developing countries through creative use of the already existing low-cost technology, established tools, and through new ways of thinking about problems and doing business.The networks of public and non-public actors engaged in the social processes of generation, acquisition, exchange, adaptation, and use of agricultural knowledge;together with the institutions and policies that affect their behaviour and performance constitute agricultural innovation systems (Hall et al. 2006). In other words, an innovation system could be seen as a set of knowledge intensive interactive relationships among the actors to turn an idea into a process, product or service for the market. 1Several factors can trigger innovation. Deliberate effort to innovate can stem from a wish to seize opportunities and/or it can represent a response to challenges relating to changing market, natural resource base, technology, policy and institutions. Unlike the Green Revolution in crop production, which was primarily supply-driven, the expected 'Livestock Revolution' in developing economies would be demand-driven (Delgado et al. 1999(Delgado et al. , 2002)).Innovation is an interactive learning process, which often requires the integration of ideas, knowledge, experience and creativity from multiple actors through networking, linkage creation and partnerships (Leeuwis 2004). It is a social process involving learning-byusing, learning-by-doing or learning-by-sharing, both internally and externally (Hidalgo and Albors 2008). Innovative capacity within a sector thus depends on the quality and density of interactive relationships between producers, enterprise (market) and support 1. http://www.idrc.ca/gender_and_innovation/.services. The latter include public and private organizations which carry out research, train, advice, finance, coordinate and regulate (Altenburg et al. 2008). The existence, intensity and nature of interactions between actors are conditioned by institutions, 2 which can either encourage or discourage learning, interacting and knowledge sharing, both within and between organizations (Hall 2006).In a multi-stakeholder context, the process of experiential social learning often requires piloted joint innovation activities, participatory process and impact monitoring, documentation and learning. In particular, a strategy should be developed in such a way that the social and organizational process that has brought out desirable economic, social and environmental impacts would be replicated-scaled out and up. 3   Whilst acknowledging the importance of the creation of knowledge and technology, the innovation systems concept extends to encompass the factors affecting demand for knowledge, access to knowledge and the use of knowledge in economically and socially useful ways (Rajalahti et al. 2008). The significance of enhancing skills and developing appropriate support systems for institutional coordination, management and organization, marketing, financing, technology and smallholder farmers collective action and networking support cannot be discounted. Innovation systems thinking acknowledge explicitly the importance of institutions and the wider policy environment.In addition, coordinating the inputs (knowledge, financial resources, social capital and political capital) of various actors and their expectations in a way that enables, rather than impairs, innovation is critical. Yet, there is no one best way of achieving effective coordination; and they are highly context specific. Literature recommends a processdriven approach (Engel 1997) where actors make mutual adjustments to coordination mechanisms as they go through experiential social learning. Hence, innovation process entails creating and managing linkages for alignment of actors and this might require brokering agents: a 'lead operator'-who organizes and manages networks; and a 'caretaker'-who maintains the integrity of the network (Klerkx and Leeuwis 2007). This becomes particularly challenging when we are dealing with the rather unstructured and informal smallholder dairy subsector.The wider policy environment matters. National policies can promote creativity and innovation by providing incentives, resources and support structures (Hall et al. 2006).Ensuring effective coordination of policies, including crop-livestock interaction, and 2. Institutions are formal and informal routines, procedures and behaviours (OECD 2005) and, are not synonymous with organizations.3. 'Scaling out' is the spread of innovations-technological or otherwise-within the same stakeholders group, whereas 'scaling-up' is a vertical institutional expansion of innovations-from grassroots to policymakers, donors, other stakeholders (Douthwaite et al. 2003).context specific and adaptive process of policymaking, informed by impact and process monitoring, are equally important to optimize impacts (Mytelka 2007). This has important behavioural implications. It means, firstly, that policymakers and administrators ought to be engaged in debate, vision development and decision-making as partners, along with other actors (Alsop and Farrington 1998). Secondly, policy capacity for effective facilitation of participatory and adaptive policymaking needs to be strengthened. The research has been undertaken in three phases: survey of DFIS actors, communitylevel qualitative study, and stakeholders' workshop. The current paper presents interim findings from the first phase, focusing on fluid milk system of urban, peri-urban and some pastoral areas. The community level qualitative research will look into both fluid milk and butter systems.The first phase included interviews with key actors, and an extensive review of project and policy documents and relevant empirical research. The review provided important insights, particularly historical perspectives on dairy and forage development in Ethiopia.A review of successful smallholder dairy development experiences in selected Asian and African countries was undertaken to learn how other countries had dealt with similar challenges.The fieldwork was conducted during October-November 2007 both at regional and woreda (district) levels, with a focus on the latter. It covered eight PLWs, viz, Fogera and Bure (Amhara Region), Ada'a Liben and Miesso (Oromia Region), Alaba and Dale (SNNPR) and Alamata and Atsbi-Wemberta (Tigray Region).The key actors (individuals, groups and organizations) in the PLWs and corresponding regions had been identified on the basis of information available from various sources and literature. In addition, additional actors were identified during the fieldwork through 'snowballing'. Diverse actors 4 from public, private and civil societies were interviewed in all PLWs, and these included: livestock, marketing, inputs, cooperative main departments/agencies of Regional The primary method employed for collecting the needed data was a series of semistructured interviews with relevant actors using pre-tested checklists. The checklists were designed to perceptions of context and trends; actors and their roles; patterns of interactions between actors; incentives, habits and practices conditioning interactions; coordination status and mechanisms; and actors' perceptions of the influence of the wider policy. Interviews were conducted with management teams and expert groups separately in large public organizations; and dairy cooperative leaders and members were interviewed separately. Group interviews (management and staff together) and individual interviews were conducted, respectively, with smaller organizations and individual actors.Context and trend analysis, linkage analysis, and partnership and coordination analysis were carried out. Particularly, participatory linkage mapping and analysis was instrumental for understanding pattern of interactions; and the roles of incentive, habits and practices. Eliciting views of actors on alternative courses of action to enhancing innovation system performance was the integral part of the participatory exercise.Qualitative information was systematically categorized, tabulated and summarized for each PLW. PLW-level observations were analysed and synthesised by identifying patterns and ascertaining the extent to which the identified patterns were featured across PLWs.Relevant findings from previous qualitative research by IPMS and others were used to fill some gaps in the dataset. Data from various sources coupled with plausible theoretical 5. Woreda office of pastoralist development in Miesso.arguments helped in identifying organizational, institutional and policy options for enhanced innovation capacity in the Ethiopian dairy systems.Context for smallholder dairy developmentThis section provides an overview of the context within which Ethiopian DFIS is embedded, and trends in the contextual factors such as market, feed resource-base, and the wider policy environment. These contextual factors determine opportunities and necessities for innovations and commercialization of smallholder dairy systems.A description of changing context would also reveal possible mismatches between changing demand for innovation, innovation systems and practices (Rajalahti et al. 2008).Dairy production systems in the country are usually categorized based on location (Staal et al. 2008) into four, viz, urban, peri-urban, rural and pastoral systems. The urban dairy system could be classified further into at least two subsystems, viz, large-scale private commercial farms and small-scale family farms. Another way of classifying the dairy production systems is on the basis of the main product supplied to the market, viz, fluid milk system and butter system. Dairy production in urban, peri-urban and some pastoral areas (e.g. Miesso) are fluid milk systems, whereas rural dairy production in the Ethiopian highlands is mostly a butter system.Discussion was held with expert groups, particularly livestock researchers and experts at WoARD, to learn about diversity of the dairy production systems and their implications (Table 2). The peri-urban dairy system, like that of urban, has a comparative advantage in fluid milk supply due to its proximity to market in comparison to the rural dairy system, which mainly supplies butter to the market. The number and heterogeneity of actors engaged in smallholder dairy development is also different across PLWs.Location-specific factors determine disease incidence and outbreak (Gerber et   (Ouma et al. 2007;Gerber et al. 2008). Markets, not production, increasingly drive agricultural development (Rajalahti et al. 2008), particularly livestock development (Delgado et al. 1999). Recent empirical evidence confirms Ethiopian dairy subsector development has primarily been conditioned by demand-side factors, more than the availability of technological options to overcome the supply-side constraints such as feeding, breeding and animal health (Staal et al. 2008).In Ethiopia, the national per capita consumption of milk and milk products is about 17 kg, which is one of the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, due to economic and cultural 6. The results presented in this paper are based on data collected from the survey, unless otherwise indicated.reasons (Ahmed et al. 2004). The average expenditure on milk and products by Ethiopian households accounts for only 4% of the total household food budget (Staal et al. 2008).The habit of consuming milk and milk products is yet to be developed, even among middle income urban households with a better purchasing power. The small quantity of milk produced coupled with high transaction cost results in lower prices for smallholder unorganized producers, and high product price for poor urban consumers leading to low effective demand.The demand for milk and products appears to be rising, though, in the recent years. It was consistently reported across regions and PLWs that the demand, supply and price trends for milk and products (butter) have been increasing over the last five years (Table 2).While the perceived contributing factors such as increased urbanization and population growth are similar across PLWs, others like the establishment of new processing plants (Amhara region) and increased number of dairy enterprises (Hawassa in SNNP, and Adigrat and Mekele in Tigray regions) are region or PLW specific. A limited number of respondents (producers, researchers, experts etc.) had mentioned increasing productivity as factor leading to increased milk and butter supply. Urban and peri-urban producers held different views on whether increasing demand or increasing cost of production was more responsible for higher product prices (Table 3). The highly seasonal demand for and supply of dairy products is widely perceived as an important problem. The Orthodox Christians refrain from consuming dairy products during fasting periods, which amount to about 200 days per annum. Consumers complained about product shortfall during the dry season, whereas producers and dairy cooperatives are concerned about the low product prices and demand during Christian fasting periods. Figure 1 juxtaposes intra-annual average rainfall with the fasting periods.In Ada'a Liben which could be categorized as an urban system, the fasting periods coincide with the high rainfall seasons where the feed availability and therefore, the milk production are high. Similar is the case with Atsbi-Wemberta which is a remote rural system. Butter, therefore, becomes the obvious product choice for the market. The demand and supply balance is expected to be relatively more stable in Dale with an even spread of annual rainfall, which is a peri-urban system close to a rapidly growing city. However, it has to be noted that this trend depends on the numbers and proportion of Orthodox Christians and population from other religions. Dairy cooperatives, including Ada'a Dairy Cooperative, experience product loss during fasting periods. It was confirmed that half of the interviewed dairy cooperatives reduce the quantity of milk they collect during fasting seasons and also pay as low as 50% of the normal market price. In particular, the seasonal fluctuation in demand for dairy products was perceived to have more influence on urban and peri-urban fluid milk producers, who keep exotic and crossbred cattle. This is because processing milk from improved cattle into butter was perceived to be less profitable.  The survey results show poor dairy products quality and unhygienic handling are widespread, particularly when the products are sold through informal channel. The reasons identified include producers' and traders' low safety and quality consciousness, poor packaging and transportation, and problems relating to feeding (such as milking cows grazing on pasture infested with invasive weeds, as reported in Tigray). Yet, no functional dairy products quality and safety regulation mechanism exists and market incentive is insufficient to encourage producers to adopt practices to ensure safe milk.Earlier dairy development interventions have focused entirely on improving the formal market, with little or no attention accorded to improving informal market and/or creating linkages between the two. Although informal channels are useful and seem to work better for poor producers and consumers (Ouma et al. 2007), it also raises serious public health concern.Natural pasture from communal grazing lands and crop residues have been the main sources of feed for dairy cattle, particularly in peri-urban and rural areas including pastoral/agropastoral systems. Land, water and feed resource-base are dwindling; and the competition for accessing whatever is available is fiercer today than ever before. Limited availability, seasonal variability and poor quality of feed are widely perceived as the most limiting factor in smallholder dairy production. The size and quality (species composition, vigour and palatability) of communal grazing lands have reportedly been substantially reduced over the past five years across all areas studied. The identified causes for 'the grazing land crisis' are many. While some causes are location specific, others such as urbanization and population growth are common (Table 4).According to the interviewed experts and producers, deterioration in the feed resourcebase has resulted in a very high seasonal variability in milk yield, biodiversity loss (indigenous breeds, tree and grass species), declining cattle population, and expansion of fodder market with rising fodder prices. On the other hand, the increasing fodder scarcity is stimulating producers' interest in on-farm fodder production and efficient crop residue utilization. Interviewed actors felt that while technological options are available for feed improvement, there are obvious strategic gaps relating to forage planting material multiplication and distribution systems, quality assurance and the coordination of feed development activities, and linking it to the dairy value chain.   8. Figure 2 shows generic dairy and forage innovation systems. The innovation systems can be different for different PLWs and for fluid milk system and butter system. 20There are many and diverse public, private and civil society actors engaged in forage and dairy development; with a huge diversity across PLWs. Public actors are dominant, playing a wide range of roles. Following Hall (2006) The enterprise domain (Annex 2) encompasses small and large urban and rural dairy producers, individuals and groups who are engaged in milk collection, processing and marketing, and private input supply and animal health services.Service provision by private actors is rather limited in scope and space, except for veterinary drug retailing across the PLWs. The only exception is Ada'a Liben, the PLW with a relatively commercialized dairy systems, due to its proximity to Addis Ababa, the national capital and the biggest market in the country. In Ada'a Liben, private nurseries, breeding and animal health services exist; and urban and peri-urban dairy producers could purchase dairy feed from factories and licensed concentrate feed suppliers. In the remaining PLWs, grass and crop residues are purchased from local market; and concentrate dairy feeds are available only in regional towns. IPMS, NGOs, WoARD have been promoting private provision of AI (Ada'a Liben and Bure) and bull service (Ada'a Liben, Alamata and Fogera), animal health service through paravets (Miesso), and in Alaba through Community Animal Health Workers (CAHW), private rural veterinary drug shop (Miesso), nursery (Alaba) and urea molasses block supply (Alaba and Miesso).But these initiatives are at an experimental stage. According to private service providers, increasing demand for private input and animal health service provision is evident due to improved dairy management, increasing income from dairying, and the recent introduction of improved or crossbred dairy cattle to some areas (e.g. Alaba). 9. Tacit knowledge (as opposed to formal or explicit knowledge) is knowledge that cannot be transferred to another person as a result of it being written down or verbalized. Tacit knowledge is not easily shared. Effective transfer of tacit knowledge generally requires extensive personal contact and trust. Tacit knowledge consists often of habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves.Nonetheless, it is widely perceived that the development of private service provision has been constrained by lack of knowledge, resource and bureaucratic hurdles. Private providers frequently mentioned the difficulties in obtaining land/building, credit, and license. The interviewed veterinary drug retailers mentioned that they started their business with own saving, through joint venture, and with financial support/loan mobilized from families and close relatives. A professional license from RBARD and a trade license from Bureau of Trade and Industry are needed to enter private animal health service provision. Further, the seasonal nature of demand for inputs and animal health service, illegal trade and ineffective control mechanism, and capital limitations were identified as important challenges for the viability and expansion of private service provision.On the other hand, smallholder dairy producers who used private service had expressed concerns regarding the quality of private input (planting material, concentrate dairy feed, veterinary drug etc.) and animal health services; the problem attributed partly to weak public regulation and/or enforcement mechanisms and partly to profit-orientation of private service.  It is perceived by respondents that lack of actionable strategy, appropriate approaches, adequate ability, and limited connectivity to relevant sources of knowledge constrain the WoARD/RBARD from effectively performing the expected roles and implementing the wider policy agenda (poverty, gender, market-orientation, participation and partnership).Dairy cooperatives are important intermediaries in the PLWs. The survey indicates that in most of the cases they have stimulated the culture of milk selling and have created access to markets for the producers though not necessarily increased their bargaining power.Cooperative members reported increased income and saving as a result of collective marketing. The cooperatives have also helped the members to access external assistance, and acquire improved technical and business skills related to commercial smallholder dairying.The cooperatives appear to have focused more on processing and marketing activities (Table 7). Ada'a Liben is the only cooperative providing inputs and livestock health service to its members; and milk collection service to non-members through its satellite collection centres. Generally speaking, the contribution of dairy cooperatives has been limited by excessive focus on immediate benefits and high reliance on supply-driven external support and less business orientation; often member-focused in service delivery and limited non-market services; and poor organizational quality. Dairy cooperatives are not federated and therefore lack channels to effectively articulate members' demand for research and service, and influence policy and policymaking process.  NGOs tend to focus more on forage development and small ruminants fattening, rather than smallholder dairying owing to relatively long gestation period of dairy enterprise.The perceived limitations of NGOs were limited staff and technical capabilities for effective implementation of integrated development activities; overlap with development activities and services of the public agencies; and limited efforts and/or ability for scaling out and up successful experiences.MoARD provides policy and strategy support to RBARD. Regional council formulates regional policy (like cooperative legislation in Amhara Region); allocates budget for research and development activities; and provides political leadership to ensure effective implementation of activities in line with national and regional priorities. Like NGOs, rural financial organizations focus more on small and large ruminants fattening. While livestock development accounts for about 20% of agricultural loan portfolio of ACSI, fattening and small ruminants production take the lion's share.However, DCSI provides up to Ethiopian birr (ETB) 11 5000 for smallholder dairying as medium term loan (4 years). Limited integration of rural financial services with dairy development and extension is the rule, than exception, in almost all PLWs. On the other hand, almost all dairy cooperatives had received credit and grants in cash or in kind mainly for processing equipment; 12 and credit for livestock purchase was given by Food Security Offices to producers engaged in productive safety net.Public nurseries and ranches are crucial for multiplication and distribution of planting material and improved heifers. However, public nurseries are uncoordinated and lack adequate capacity to produce the type and quality of forage planting materials 10. Food Security is an office accountable to RBARD in some regions and a department under RBARD in others; and it is organized as a department in some PLWs and as a desk/team in other PLWs.11. On 25 February 2010, USD 1 = ETB 13.3458.12. From regional/woreda administration, Food Security/Cooperative Offices/Departments.demanded. Ethiopian Seed Enterprise and the private sector did not show interest in forage seeds/cutting production and distribution owing to widespread perception of financial non-viability of the activity due to the market distortions resulting from distribution of forage seed/planting material for free or at a highly subsidized price by some GOs and NGOs. Similarly, despite preference of producers for improved heifer to AI, improved heifer multiplication and distribution activities are constrained by lack of enabling policy and adequate capacity.All innovation systems actors have important roles, valid competencies, capacities and contributions. The actors and their roles are dynamic and could change based on how situations evolve. For example, the public sector role in input supply and service delivery is expected to be gradually taken up by the private sector. At the same time the role of the public sector may increase for regulatory and knowledge management functions.Understanding comparative advantages of actors, with respect to competencies they currently possess to perform their roles and to contribute to collective learning and innovation is useful (Hall et al. 2006). The actors could play complementary roles, and could benefit from each others' knowledge-base, resources and social capital.Such information could also highlight crucial areas of focus for innovation capacity strengthening activities. The current analysis confirms that there are indeed opportunities for the actors to complement each other and benefit provided conscious and effective interaction and knowledge sharing practices exist (Annex 5).Bureaus  Except for Ada'a Dairy Cooperative, no meaningful linkages for knowledge sharing have been observed or reported with research in the remaining PLWs. It also happens to be the only cooperative with formal market contract with a private processor (Shola), and formal contract with private service providers for vaccination service to its members. Rural finance organizations, public extension, dairy development projects and NGOs have reasonably good interactions with dairy cooperatives.Private service providers have limited interaction with research, mainly for acquiring inputs (improved forage planting material, heifers etc.). But generally the research system does not have adequate capacity to provide the quantities of improved inputs required.Private service providers initiated by regional bureaus or woreda offices in collaboration with projects or NGOs such as paravets and CAHW have strong knowledge linkage with extension, or are seen as part of the public service, but reported no meaningful knowledge linkages with research. The linkage of autonomously emerging private services (private veterinary drug retailers and fodder/feed suppliers) with regional bureaus or woreda offices is often limited to administrative (licensing) and regulatory (policing) issues. For example, veterinary drug importers in Addis Ababa were mentioned by drug retailers as their only sources of knowledge and information; and RBARD/WoARD was mentioned only once as an important source of knowledge and information.Private service providers are rarely seen as important clients by rural financial service providers. However, reasonable knowledge and resource linkages exist between projects and private services; and recognizing the gap, IPMS has been providing credit support and also conducting research on ways of strengthening the private sector role in services provision.Limited and ad hoc knowledge linkages were reported between NGOs and the public research (e.g. researchers as resource persons for training, participation in workshops, requests for improved inputs). While NGOs are proactive and often interact with public extension, the intensity and quality of interaction varies across PLWs, and more often is not trust-based. The interaction of NGOs with private service providers is usually absent.One exception is the partnership between an Italian NGO (LVIA), IPMS and Alaba woreda offices for promoting CAHW in Alaba PLW; and similarly ORDA is working in partnership with Amhara Region BoARD to promote private forage seeds and AI service provision.The development projects implement their activities mostly through the existing public organizations, and to a certain extent, in collaboration with NGOs. Whilst these intermediaries interact with each other occasionally, the extent to which they are engaged in collective experiential learning and the facilitation of scaling out/up successful experiences is debatable.More often than not, various actors have different and even conflicting motives that drive the interactions (Table 8). Whilst one partner initiates an interactive relationship for facilitating joint experiential learning and innovation, the other views the interaction as a means of accessing additional resources for routine organizational activities. This difference in motives coupled with lack of shared vision and limited communication has in many instances weakened interaction. This, in turn, can gradually lead to erosion of trust-based relationships. Hence, there is need for attitudinal change both in GOs and NGOs and building trust among the partners. Established attitudes, habits and reward system could make taking on new roles, and responding to the needs of new clients as well as changing needs of traditional clients by public and non-public actors a daunting task. This section highlights few examples, though not generalizeable, captured during the fieldwork regarding the roles of incentives, habits and practices in influencing pattern of intra-and inter-organizational interactions.Evidence provided in Table 9 shows the role of organizational structure, culture, processes, and the prevailing performance appraisal and reward systems in reinforcing independence, rather than interdependence within WoARD.Some university faculties of agriculture with livestock sciences stream have retained the tradition of undertaking scientific research. According to a group of respondents, 'our role is generating knowledge to be communicated to scientific communities through publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals. ' This is done with the presumption that 'someone else' has to take the responsibility for communication of the knowledge generated to the end users/clients. Knowledge generated by faculties of Institutes of Higher Education (IHE) and research centres are often not communicated in useful and accessible manner to livestock keepers (Azage et al. 2006). Besides, personal academic interest often takes precedence while selecting topics over the relevance of research projects to solving priority needs of farming communities (Belay 2007). This has been reinforced by incentive system; which until recently has been solely based on the number of peer-reviewed publications. In recent years, IHE are under immense pressure to make tangible contributions to national development agenda for rural development. The head of a regional cooperative agency and division head of an NGO in response to a question about their interaction with dairy research said, 'interaction for what purpose?' Further discussion revealed that it is felt that dairy research has little to offer, except for some limited improved inputs, to the public and non-public actors who more often grapple with non-technical impediments to achieving market-oriented dairy development. The fact that technical/technological innovation more often than not requires concomitant socio-organizational innovations received little or no attention by dairy research.However, there are encouraging developments in the form of moving away from the conventional disciplinary, supply-driven research and technology demonstration approach to commodity-based (ARARI and TARI), interdisciplinary (SARI) and farmer research group (ORARI) approaches. IHE have also recognized the need for re-orienting their research to address pressing societal needs. 'AU 13 took a bold measure to recognize and thus use locally oriented research results for promotion to the next higher academic rank. Currently, this criterion is incorporated in the promotion guidelines of all IHE in the country. ' (Belay 2007, 15).Smallholder dairy producers are just one, among many key clients for commercial dairy development. Small-scale processors and distributors of dairy products need to acquire the needed technological, entrepreneurial and institutional capacities to succeed in a competitive market. Private support services need knowledge of different kind to provide efficient support for the commercialization of dairy systems. Yet, research may not seriously consider these actors as its key clients. Even where it does, it usually has neither the required organizational structure nor the necessary skills and experience mix to facilitate the articulation of private actors' knowledge needs and cater for the needs of these non-traditional clients.Public extension has a long tradition of working with subsistence dairy producers;and it has been aggressively promoting productivity-enhancing dairy technology in a top-down fashion; with no or little attention to marketing, institutional and policy constraints. A group of experts, during the interviews, underlined that there was low level of understanding of market and market orientation concepts among experts due to traditional bias of public extension system.13. AU, Alemaya University (the current Haramaya University).Further, public extension system has not yet reconfigured itself in line with the emergence of new actors and increasing need for innovations of different nature, both by its conventional and new clients. A group of experts at RBARD confirmed during interviews that 'neither the experts nor the bureau seriously consider the private actors as stakeholders, who deserve as much attention as smallholder dairy producers. 'On the other hand, private actors do not appreciate the significance of being part of knowledge networks to improve their response capacity. They did not mention knowledge links among the new links they would like to establish. Rather they would like to establish linkages with other professionals for joint ventures, financial institutions to access credit, NGOs to work on animal health awareness creation and veterinary drug importing companies.A public input agency, accountable to RBARD, has been established recently in a region to take over the responsibility from livestock development department for multiplying/ purchasing, distributing and monitoring the use of inputs like crossbred heifers, bulls, semen and liquid nitrogen. The arrangement was intended to free the latter from input provision so that it would focus on extension and other core activities. Yet, the livestock development department had been reluctant to give up its traditional role of input supply, leading to unwarranted competition and duplication of efforts. Similar problem was reported between the recently established agricultural marketing agency, supposed to takeover the facilitation of credit and market for cooperatives, and cooperative agency of a RBARD. Further examination indicated that the prevailing incentive and reward system which is output rather than outcome-oriented might have been the reason behind such a behaviour. Linkage facilitation and knowledge brokerage activities apparently have no tangible or easily measurable outputs that might be rewarded.As the preceding section clearly indicates, actors engaged in dairy and forage development are many and heterogeneous. There has been a continuous 'pouring in' of resources by multilateral and bilateral donors, directly through projects and NGOs, and indirectly, through food security and productive safety net programs. Increasing public investment is being made for infrastructural development, human capacity development, dairy research and extension.Both public and non-public research and development actors rated the coordination as being poor. Factors such as unfavourable organizational culture and structure; inadequate incentives for inter-organization collaboration; the lack of dairy interest groups/lobbies with enough clout to demand services and command accountability; lack of effective structural coordination mechanisms; and other procedural issues relating to adapting through systematic collective experiential learning were identified as causes for poor coordination. Important observations were made by the researchers with regard to causes and effects of coordination failure in the dairy and forage innovation systems.In response to cattle feed shortage, public and NGO actors are promoting on-farm fodder production. The efforts are, however, diffused and uncoordinated due to the lack of coordination strategy and corresponding organizational and institutional arrangements.There is no well established national system for evaluating and releasing improved forage crops developed by research centres.Several innovative activities are being experimented with at grassroots level by multiple actors across the regions. Innovations relating to input and animal health service delivery in the PLWs are summarized in Table 10. SNV to strengthen regional/national dairy platform and there is an on-going attempt at forming a dairy union.To enhance coordination, creating an independent entity (e.g. dairy development corporation); bringing about attitudinal change to enhance inter-organizational collaboration; creating joint accountability mechanisms; and recognizing the importance of coordinating the innovation systems and allocating resources for coordination activities were suggested by respondents.Given the challenges facing the dairy subsector in Ethiopia, government policy has a critical role in facilitating transformation of the prevailing smallholder dairy production systems to productive, sustainable, market-oriented dynamic systems. The roles of national and regional governments transcend beyond promulgating economic liberalization and increasing public investment in human capital, rural infrastructure and dairy research and extension which have laid the foundation for the subsector to take-off. Nonetheless, carefully thought-out, evidence-based, participatory and adaptive policymaking supported by systematic learning is indispensable if the multiple objectives of dairy development have to be effectively addressed.The study looked at the actor landscape, the efforts directed at dairy development and their outcomes through an innovation systems lens. The study concludes that unprecedented opportunities exist or are emerging for achieving productivity improvement and market-orientation in smallholder dairy systems. These are derived from: i) favourable national policy framework and increasing public investment in food security and safety net programs, agricultural R&D, rural roads, and in ICT infrastructural development; ii) the signs of improvement in demand for and prices of milk and milk products as well as the stimulation of milk selling culture with the increasing number of dairy cooperatives; iii) engagement of various actors along with public sector in smallholder dairy development through various pilot innovative initiatives; iv) emerging pluralist service delivery with gradual increase of the private sector involvement; and v) availability of technological options to address constraints relating to cattle feed, breeding, animal health and milk handling and processing.However, there are daunting challenges especially on the demand side. These include such factors as high marketing costs, highly seasonal and low milk consumption habit, and safety and quality concerns. Limited marketable surplus, high seasonal variability of milk production, and unhygienic handling and poor quality are supply-side constraints.The other constraints are related to gaps in public capacity for regulation and quality assurance of input supply both by private and public sector; limited coordination among actors in addressing the development challenge; and limitations in policy, huge gap between policy and it's implementation, and providing an enabling environment for an effective functioning of the system.In the following section, some institutional, organizational and policy options for moving smallholder dairy systems along a sustainable commercialization path are presented, along with possible entry points to enhance capabilities within the innovation systems to adapt and respond to dynamic context. Technological options are not addressed here as most previous research has done this exhaustively and this study shows that technology availability might not be the most limiting factor for smallholder dairy development in Ethiopia. It is recognized that access to technologies is a constraint and some of the options presented here address the same. Whilst some of the options have emerged from the current analysis and observations, other applicable options have been identified from successful experience with smallholder dairy development in Asia and Africa.Possible options for creating sustainable demand and economic incentives for smallholder dairy producers are as follows:Strengthening dairy producer groups/cooperatives, with special attention to enhancing • business-orientation; and, where appropriate, linking them vertically to processors and input suppliers to reduce transaction costs, improve product safety and to encourage value addition along the entire supply chain.Strategically linking market-oriented smallholder dairy development intervention to • informal markets through food security/food transfer programs and institutionalized school feeding programs incorporating locally produced milk and products. This has dual advantages: it creates sustainable demand for smallholder dairy producers and small-scale processor groups, whilst simultaneously addressing malnutrition among school children.Market led smallholder dairy development was strategically linked to food transfer/ aid programs (India) and school feeding programs (the Philippines, Thailand, and Mongolia) in Asia. In India, food aid/milk powder monetization program was found to be effective in encouraging local production and stimulating consumption. In the Philippines, government and community-sponsored institutionalized school milk programs supported smallholder dairy development (buying 40% of local milk production in certain areas) as well as generating long-term demand for locally produced milk and dairy products, while simultaneously addressing children malnutrition.The implementation of the option, however, calls for collaboration within RBARD (Food Security Office/Department, Agricultural Marketing and Cooperative Agencies/ Departments) and forging medium to long-term partnership between RBARD and development partners financing such programs (e.g. World Food Program in Miesso).Creating innovative linkages between urban-based cooperatives and peri-urban fluid • milk producer groups, and, where feasible, to remote rural butter producer groups.In this regard, it is worth considering the possibility of scaling-out the concept of 'satellite collection centres' currently being promoted by Ada'a Dairy Cooperative and introduced a while ago in Selale area. Processing needs a boost in supply from milk producers in remote rural areas and helps to protect the latter from the seasonal demand fluctuations.Ensuring local milk quality and safety, developing properly packed and ready-to-• drink milk and other culturally preferred products like yoghurt as well as promotional campaign by dairy cooperatives and processors to raise wider awareness of the health and nutritional benefits of regular consumption of milk. However, this would be applicable only to urban and peri-urban systems.Ensuring local milk quality and safety, generic milk branding, and promotion of local milk as 'green milk' through campaign by processors' association in Mongolia had helped to re-build the confidence of urban consumers and to stimulate domestic milk consumption. Further, ready-to-drink processed and cultured products such as yoghurt, sweetened condensed milk (the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam) had led to faster growth of demand for local products and had encouraged smallholders close to remunerative markets to go into value addition. With regard to product quality and safety, training and certifying traders in informal market and linking them with the formal market in Kenya and introduction of milk payments based on quality in some zones in the Philippines had boosted quality assurance. Of critical importance is the strengthening of WoARD-project/NGO (e.g. Land • O'Lakes) partnership for building the capacity of experts and dairy cooperatives in milk safety and quality standards; and, where appropriate, for the training and certification of traders in the informal channel.To be competent, smallholder dairy producers need appropriate, affordable and easily • accessible package of production technology, locally manufactured milk processing equipment and support services (FAO 2007). Most of these products and services can be provided in a cost-effective manner through small and medium private enterprises. The emergence of private sector as a strong player in service provision is constrained by bureaucratic hurdles and a perception that they are competitors. Even though the policy explicitly pledges support to private sector development, measures are not in place to ease or facilitate their entry. Public-private partnerships are very nascent in some cases or non-existent. Public sector needs to find mechanisms and strategies to encourage private sector involvement and provide them with a level playing field. It could support them by identifying and developing market for goods and services produced by private actors through, among others, contracting-out improved input multiplication, manufacturing of simple processing equipment and provision of public services like vaccination. Emergence of an effective pluralistic service delivery system can ensure access of smallholder dairy producers to appropriate and affordable production technologies and support services from the private sector, whilst allowing the public sector to gradually withdraw from service delivery and focus on regulatory function and quality assurance.However, private sector capacity needs (entrepreneurship, leadership and forming groups), market linkage, business development service, and access to knowledge, resources and infrastructure (Kurokawa et al. 2008) also have to be addressed. The capacity of public sector for taking on regulatory and quality assurance functions effectively needs to be strengthened alongside private sector development.It is possible in Ethiopia to launch selective privatization of dairy production input supply and animal health service delivery in certain areas where private actors are available and where there is effective demand for the service (e.g. in Ada'a milkshed).In Kenya, for instance, livestock-dependent producers in arid and semi-arid areas receive public support for all clinical services. Producers in marginal localities in the fringes of the highland receive a mix of public and private service, whereas all clinical services are stipulated to be provided by private sector in intensive high potential areas where livestock keepers have effective demand for the service (Staal et al. 2008).Despite their limitations, dairy cooperatives still have a potential role to play to • ensure cost-effectiveness in service delivery and insurance by providing/coordinating them and to facilitate linkages between producers, enterprises, R&D services and policymakers. In addition, there is a need to support the emerging dairy cooperatives and encouraging their federation, so that their capacity can be built and they can provide a strong voice in platforms and policy dialogues. In this regard, the initiative underway to establish Regional Dairy Cooperative Union with the support of SNV-BOAM is pertinent. Appropriate loan and other rural financial products need to be designed for supporting • smallholder dairy and private service provision. This requires that the Agricultural Bureaus, woreda offices, and cooperatives have to proactively engage with the rural financial organizations to support the design and delivery of such products. Knowledge and information are critical inputs for improving productivity and market • success. However, the research and extension agencies fall short of providing relevant knowledge at the relevant time. This is mainly attributed to limitations in their capacity, operational resources and incentives; and weak linkages with each other and other actors. The Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) is an opportunity to revisit and revise the target-based reward systems, with no accountability for outcomes of the efforts. This is important to encourage focus on innovation and socio-economic outcomes, rather than technology generation and transfer alone. The research and extension systems should also widen their network to include private sector as their clients who require knowledge support. Another important complementary measure is creating incentive systems through leverage funds and competitive grants to encourage intervention-based public-private partnership for organizational and institutional innovations. Rural Capacity Building Project of MoARD may be a candidate to take the lead in implementing such schemes. The Dutch government is also encouraging private investment in dairy through a special program. Agricultural Marketing Agency at RBARD may forge partnership with actors like SNV-BOAM to develop the required competence and attitude within RBARD.The line departments are facing a formidable challenge in translating the general • policy objectives into operational elements due to the lack of actionable strategy. Although the national DDMP was crucial for highlighting input and output targets, it had been inadequate in clarifying the road map and providing guidance for appropriate and coordinated policy implementation on the ground. Moreover, there is no functional strategy for addressing the critical problem of cattle feed and breed improvement in a coordinated and market-oriented fashion. This analysis suggests that it might be essential to have a national smallholder dairy development policy and strategy.Development of such a policy should be based on evidence and in consultation with key stakeholders, along with a carefully thought-out complementary strategy or action plan. 14 This is required, among other things, to setting priorities and striking balance between multiple objectives such as: increasing income, reducing poverty and enhancing competitiveness of the subsector; and harmonizing policies and regulations influencing the development of dairy subsector such as rural finance, live animal export, land use, licensing private provision of breeding and animal health service. Furthermore, national policy and strategy should provide guidelines and principles with respect to: systematic spatial and social targeting of investment and development • interventions through, among others, observations from household survey and GIS; stimulating the development of milk value chain and ensuring successful • participation by smallholder producers and others; ensuring sustainable demand for milk and products, and enhancing return • to smallholder dairying as an incentive to stimulate commercialization and innovation; clarifying changing/new mandates and roles of public and non-public actors as • well as collective responsibilities; addressing market failure, facilitating private sector development and building the • public sector capacity for regulatory functions and quality assurance; in the light of changing priorities, context and needs-re-orienting the roles of • innovation systems actors, organizational culture and processes; and developing incentive and accountability system to reinforce the culture of inter-organizational collaboration, innovation and impact-orientation; and developing functional institutional arrangements for facilitating collective • experiential learning and for scaling out and up successful experiences to achieve wider socio-economic impact and inform higher level policy. Experience shows that organized stakeholders are more likely to actively participate • 14. One entry point is initiating facilitated platform to reflect on the existing DDMP and to discuss the need for developing policy or revising the DDMP. With respect to this, IPMS, BOAM and ESSDP-Land O'Lakes have overlapping interests, complementary expertise, and can thus forge strategic partnership. in defining research challenges and in identifying and prioritizing innovation needs (Rajalahti et al. 2008). At present, the dairy cooperatives do not have enough clout to influence policy and the development actors. Similarly the private actors are often unorganized, and constrained by policy and limited access to knowledge and resources. It is important to provide platforms to give emerging producer organizations a voice to enable them influence policy, demand services and command accountability. Appropriately targeted investment and custom-made interventions, approaches and • methods are required as the dairy production system in the country is highly diverse and complex. Institutionalizing decentralized planning and implementation of dairy development intervention, within national dairy development policy and strategy framework could be a way forward.6.4 Options for enhanced knowledge and information sharing and learning Knowledge flows and learning form the bedrock of innovation. Productivity • improvement can be achieved primarily through creative use of existing appropriate and profitable technological options, which should include local knowledge as well as knowledge from formal research and development actors in the country and beyond. What is crucial here is enhancing the ability of actors to access, adapt, creatively integrate and productively use knowledge of different types from different sources for practical problem solving. A strategy is required that could enable innovative exploitation of the opportunity created with the development of ICT infrastructure to enhance interaction, knowledge management and information provision. An important opportunity to be exploited is the Ethiopian Agricultural Portal, Woreda Knowledge Centres established by IPMS, and multiple initiatives to provide market information through mobile phones, billboards etc. A sticky challenge is the lack of knowledge sharing culture within and between • organizations and actors. There is little evidence that practice, competencies, and incentive and accountability systems in the public organizations have been sufficiently reconfigured to the policy shift, the emergence of new actors and need for innovations of different nature. Conscious efforts need to be made to promote this, while acknowledging that this needs a mindset and behavioural change both at individual and organizational levels, the latter being more challenging and slow. The RALCs and WALCs established by IPMS provide an example of such initiatives which provide a platform for learning, inform planning based on lessons learnt, and mobilize joint action. This experience needs to be critically analysed and good principles drawn to scale out and up.Last, perhaps most important, requirement is ensuring articulated and coordinated effort by the dairy and forage innovation systems actors. There are important but weak linkages;and coordination failure is apparent. The options proposed in this paper need pilot testing and adaptation; and process driven approach to learning is needed for achieving incremental improvement. We suggest the following institutional options to improve system coordination and knowledge management.Creating/strengthening dairy platforms at w • oreda and/or milkshed level, with representation of private actors and dairy groups/cooperatives: for encouraging reflection and learning around shared interests, actions and • experiences in diary value chain, and for pilot testing and adaptation of organizational and institutional options. • Platforms at this level keep the expectations and plans realistic by making them relevant to the local context, make the process manageable, and to demonstrate impact, and thereby influence higher level policy. Collective processing and marketing service, and facilitation of access to external supports by dairy cooperatives","tokenCount":"9441"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a850ac86758e3fd97f04083813b3a9b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/24fb4dba-0cf3-4609-89cf-b2ad1a35e03f/retrieve","id":"-3347640"},"keywords":["Amino acids","dietary fi ber","functional properties","nutrition","protein","Yam fl our"],"sieverID":"642496b3-46cd-4027-8214-e89f1f053637","pagecount":"10","content":"It was envisaged that the inclusion of treated distiller ' s spent grain ( DSG ) to yam fl our might increase its nutritional value, with the aim of reducing nutritional diseases in communities consuming yam as a staple. Hence, yam fl our was fortifi ed with DSG at 5-35%. The effects of this fortifi cation on the nutritional, chemical, and functional properties of yam fl our were investigated. The result showed a signifi cant increase ( P  0.001) in fat, ash, protein, total amino acids, total dietary fi ber, and insoluble dietary fi ber contents of the blends as DSG increased except for starch and soluble dietary fi ber contents, which decreased. The functional properties showed a signifi cant ( P  0.001) reduction with DSG inclusion. The inclusion of DSG increased both the tryptophan and methionine contents of the blends. Therefore, the DSG fortifi ed yam fl our could contribute to quality protein intake in populations consuming yam as a staple, due to its indispensible amino acid content.Yam is a staple crop in growing areas (Asiedu et al. 1992 ) with over 90% of the global production coming from West Africa with Nigeria as the leading producer (FAO, 2003 ). Yam is consumed in different ways, such as boiled, fried, or baked. Tubers are often dried and milled into fl our for reconstituting into a stiff paste ( amala ), which is eaten with preferred vegetable soup (Awoyale et al. 2010 ). It is an elite crop and preferred over other crops in growing regions. It can be stored longer than other root and tuber crops, ensuring a food supply even at times of general scarcity. Yam is of major importance in the diet and economic life of people in West Africa, the Caribbean islands, Asia, and Oceania (Ravindran and Wanasundera 1992 ;Girardin et al. 1998 ). Information on the nutritive value of yam has been highlighted (Bradbury and Holloway 1988 ;Opara 1999 ;Alves 2000 ;Afoakwa and Sefa-Dedeh 2001 ).Yam tubers consist of about 21% dietary fi ber and are rich in carbohydrates, vitamin C, and essential minerals. Worldwide annual consumption of yam is 18 million tons, with 15 million in West Africa. Annual consumption in West Africa is 61 kg per capita. Because of its perishability and bulkiness, it is processed into yam fl our (Onwuka and Ihuma 2007 ). Yam fl our is either in the fermented or unfermented form produced from white yam ( Dioscorea rotundata ) or water yam ( Dioscorea alata). However, because of the low protein content of Dioscorea spp. (Onayemi and Potter 1974 ), protein-energy malnutrition is prevalent in rural populations where yam is a staple especially among women and children (Adamson 1989 ). Therefore, improving the nutritional quality of yam fl our through fortifi cation using a protein rich source will contribute in improving the nutrition status of women and children.Fortifi cation refers to the practice of deliberately increasing the content of essential nutrients in a food irrespective of whether the nutrients were originally in the food before processing or not, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and to provide a public health benefi t with minimal risk to health and enrichment; which is defi ned as \"synonymous with fortifi cation refers to the addition of nutrients which are lost during processing to a food (FAO/ WHO, 1994 ) . The levels of food fortifi cation depend on the nutritional needs of the population, amount consumed, and regulations in the country (Awoyale et al. 2010 ). Some research has been reported on the fortifi cation of yam fl our with different fortifi cants (Akingbala et al. 1996 ;Babajide et al. 2004 ;Abulude and Ojediran 2006 ). At present, there islimited information on the use of distillers' spent grain (DSG) to fortify yam fl our.Distiller ' s spent grain is a by-product of cereal fermentation in the production of alcoholic beverages. It contains a high amount of proteins ranging from 23 to 35% and dietary fi ber ranging from 27 to 55% (Rasco and McBurney 1989 ). It also contains yeast cell, vitamin B-complexes, and other nutrients formed during the fermentation-distillation process (Kaiser 2006 ). The potential to utilize DSG products from wheat and other cereal grains as a high protein and fi ber ingredient in formulated foods has received increasing attention (Morad et al. 1984 ;Wu et al. 1985 ;Rasco et al. 1987a , b ). For instance, DSG has been added up to 35% by mass in brownies, chocolate chip, and spice and lemon molasses cookies, about 30 to 50% of yeast bread, 30% of quick breads to produce highly acceptable products (Rasco and McBurney 1989 ). In addition, Tsen et al. ( 1982 ) reported that chocolate chip cookies containing 15% dried distillers' grain residues were as acceptable as chocolate chip cookies containing no distillers' grain. However, no work has been reported on the effect of using DSG as a fortifi cant on staples such as yam fl our commonly consumed in developing countries.Therefore, this study was aimed at evaluating the effect of DSG fortifi cation on the nutritional composition and functional properties of yam fl our produced from water yam ( Dioscorea alata).The water yam variety TDd98/01166 was grown at the Research Farm of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria and its tubers were used for the investigation. The DSG was obtained from United State Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), North Dakota, USA.A suspension was made from 100 g of DSG containing alcohol and residual sugar in 400 mL of water and fermented with yeast (0.8 g) for 1 h to convert residual sugar to alcohol, which was then removed by distillation. The pH of the suspension was then adjusted to about 6.0 to 7.0 by adding sodium hydroxide (7 mL). The resulting suspension was dried to about 5-10% moisture content as reported by Awoyale et al. ( 2010 ).The yam tubers were peeled, washed, sliced into cubes, and dried in a hot air oven at 65°C for 48 h. The dried yam chips were milled into fl our using an attrition mill, packaged in polyethylene bags, and stored until needed (Udensi et al. 2008 ).Yam fl our and DSG were weighed and mixed in ratios 100:0, 95:5, 90:10, 85:15, 80:20, 75:25, 70:30 and 65:35. Each mixture was thoroughly blended with a laboratory blender, packed and sealed in a low-density polythene bag until required (Adelakun et al. 2004 ).The moisture, ash, and fat contents were determined using standard laboratory procedures (AOAC, 1990 ). The protein content was determined by Kjeldahl method using KjeltecTM model 2300 protein analyzer (Foss Analytical Manual, 2003 ). A conversion factor of 6.25 was used to convert total nitrogen to percent crude protein. The total sugar and starch contents were analyzed in duplicate, according to the method described by Dubois et al. ( 1956 ).Samples were analyzed for soluble (SDF) and insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) fractions using the enzymaticgravimetric procedure (Prosky et al. 1988 ). Total dietary fiber (TDF) was calculated as the sum of SDF and IDF.Amino acids were determined by reverse phase liquid chromatography (Waters 1500 Series HPLC; Milford, MA) with UV detection at 254 nm as reported by Cohen et al. ( 1988 ) at the South African Grain Laboratory, Pretoria, South Africa.Bulk density was determined using a standard laboratory method (AOAC, 1990 ). Flour samples were weighed (7 g) into a 50-mL graduated measuring cylinder. The cylinder was tapped gently against the palm of the hand until a constant volume was obtained. Bulk density was calculated as weight of sample ⁄ volume of sample after tapping. All analyses were carried out in duplicates.Water absorption capacity (WAC) and oil absorption capacity (OAC) were determined using the method as described by Beuchat ( 1977 ). Flour sample (1 g) was mixed with 10 mL of distilled water for WAC and 10 mL of oil for OAC and blended for 30 sec. Each sample was allowed to stand for 30 min after which it was centrifuged at 1303 g for 30 min at room temperature. The supernatant was decanted. The weight of water or oil absorbed by the fl our was calculated and expressed as percentage WAC or OAC.The method described by Ukpabi and Ndimele ( 1990 ) was used. Flour samples (10 g) were placed in a washed, dried, and weighed graduated measuring cylinder and 100 mL of distilled water was added. The suspension was stirred and allowed to stand for 1 h. The supernatant was discarded and the cylinder with its content weighed to obtain the weight of the net sample. Swelling capacity on volume basis was calculated as difference in fi nal to initial volume of the sample.The least gelation concentration was determined by the method described by Coffman and Garcia ( 1977 ). Ten suspensions (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20% w/v) of the samples in 5-mL distilled water were prepared in test tubes. The test tubes containing the suspensions were heated in a boiling water bath ( Thelco, model 83, Missouri City, Texas, United States) for 1 h. The tubes and contents were cooled rapidly under running water and then cooled further for 2 h at 4°C. The tubes were then inverted to see if the contents would fall or slip off. The least gelation concentration is that concentration when the sample from the inverted test tube does not fall or slip off.Pasting characteristics was determined using a Rapid Visco Analyzer (Model RVA-4C, Newport Scientifi c, Warriewood, Australia) interfaced with a personal computer equipped with the Thermocline software supplied by the same manufacturer (Deffenbaugh and Walker 1989 ). A sample of 3 g (moisture content less than 12%) was weighed into a canister and made into slurry by adding 25 mL of distilled water. The canister (covered with a stirrer) was inserted into the RVA. The slurry was held at 50°C for 1 min, heated to 95°C within 3 min, and then held at 95°C for 2 min., cooled to 50°C within 3 min and then held at 50°C for 2 min, while maintaining a rotation speed of 160 rpm. The viscosity is expressed as Rapid Viscosity Units (RVU). Records of peak viscosity (the maximum viscosity during pasting), breakdown viscosity (the difference between the peak viscosity and the minimum viscosity during pasting), setback viscosity (the difference between the maximum viscosity during cooling and the minimum viscosity during pasting), fi nal viscosity (the viscosity at the end of the RVA run), pasting temperature ( ° C) (the temperature at which there is a sharp increase in the viscosity of the fl our suspension after the commencement of heating), and peak time (min) (time taken for the paste to reach the peak viscosity) were taken.Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using Statistical Analysis System (SAS) package (version 9.1, SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC) (SAS, 2003 ). Means were separated using Fischer ' s protected Least Signifi cant Difference (LSD) test.Presented in Table 1 is the chemical composition of the yam fl our: DSG blends. Mean total ash content was 3.2% and ranged from 2.4% for 100% yam fl our to 3.5% for the 90% yam: 10% DSG blends. There was a signifi cant difference ( P  0.001) in the ash content of the fortifi ed yam fl our. The fortifi ed yam fl our moisture content was also signifi cantly ( P  0.001) higher in 65% yam fl our: 35% DSG blend (4.6%) and lower in 100% yam fl our (3.6%) (Table 1 ). Furthermore, there was a signifi cant ( P  0.001) decrease in the starch content of the blends from 62% for 100% yam fl our to 48% for 65% yam fl our: 35% DSG blend (Table 1 ), showing that as the quantity of DSG increased, the starch content of the blends decreased. Additionally, there was a signifi cant ( P  0.001) increase in the fat content from 0.43% (100% yam fl our) to 4.30% (65% yam fl our: 35% DSG blend) (Table 1 ). Similarly, the protein content increased signifi cantly ( P  0.001) from 7.2% for 100% yam fl our to 15.10% for 65% yam fl our: 35% DSG blend (Table 1 ), revealing that for every increase in the quantity of DSG, there is a corresponding increase in the protein content of the blends.The total amino acid composition of the fortifi ed yam fl our increased from 5.48 g/100 g for 100% yam fl our to 13.91 g/100 g for the 65% yam fl our: 35% DSG blend, with glutamic and aspartic acids contributing the highest percentage while tryptophan and methionine contributes the least (Table 2 ). It was observed that the amount of each amino acid in the blends increased as the quantity of DSG increased. Additionally, the inclusion of DSG increased both the quantity and quality of the protein in the yam fl our (Table 2 ) . The result also revealed that methionine and tryptophan were the limiting amino acids in the 100% yam fl our. These amino acids were compensated for with the inclusion of DSG to the yam fl our (Table 2 ).The total dietary fi ber (TDF) content of the fortifi ed yam fl our increased from 6.02% for 100% yam fl our to 11.7% for 65% yam fl our: 35% DSG blend, out of which the insoluble dietary fi ber (IDF) had the highest value (23.50%) and the soluble dietary fi ber (SDF) the least (0.90%) (Table 3 ).The functional properties of yam fl our and DSG blend are presented in Table 4 . It was observed that blending yam fl our with DSG signifi cantly ( P  0.001) decreased oil absorption capacity (OAC) of 100% yam fl our from 213 to 183% for 90% yam fl our: 10% DSG blend (Table 4 ).There was a decrease in the water absorption capacity (WAC) from 260% for 100% yam fl our to 241% for the 75% yam fl our: 25% DSG blend (Table 4 ). Swelling capacity of the fortifi ed yam fl our similarly decreased from 3.40 for 100% yam fl our to 2.40 for 65% yam fl our: 35% DSG blend (Table 4 ). Signifi cant differences ( P  0.001) were observed for bulk density of the fortifi ed yam fl our; which decreased as the amount of added DSG increased. It ranged from 57% for 80% yam fl our: 20% DSG blend to 70% for 100% yam fl our (Table 4 ).Table 5 showed the pasting properties of the yam fl our and DSG blends. The peak viscosity, which is the highest viscosity of the range from 44RVU for 65% yam fl our: 35% DSG blend to 198RVU for 100% yam fl our. The values of the fortifi ed yam fl our fi nal viscosity ranged between 63RVU for 65% yam fl our: 35% DSG blend and 235RVU for 100% yam fl our (Table 5 ). The setback viscosity also ranged from 26RVU for 65% yam fl our: 35% DSG blend to 41RVU for 100% yam fl our (Table 5 ).The result also revealed that the peak time ranged between 6 and 7 min and the pasting temperature ranged from 61.90°C for the 80% yam fl our: 20% DSG blend to 62.30°C for the 75% yam fl our: 25% DSG blend, respectively (Table 5 ).Yam fl our is a fermented or unfermented fl our produced from either white yam ( Dioscorea rotundata) or water yam ( Dioscorea alata ). However, because of its low protein content (Onayemi and Potter 1974 ), protein-energy malnutrition is prevalent in rural populations where yam is consumed as a staple, especially among women and children (Adamson 1989 ). Hence, the reason for the fortifi cation of yam fl our with DSG. The result of this investigation showed that the protein content of the fl our blends increased as the quantity of DSG increased. This could be attributed to the high protein content of DSG (29.80%) compared to that of the 100% yam fl our (7.15%). Similar results for the protein content of the 100% yam fl our had been reported for the fl our produced from different yam varieties (Bokanga 2000 ;Udensi et al. 2008 ;Alozie et al. 2009 ;Baah et al. 2009 ). Furthermore, Abulude and Ojediran ( 2006 ) reported comparable results with some of yam blends, for the protein contents of yam-cassava and yamplantain blends.The increase in fat content of the fl our blends with DSG inclusion could be attributed to the high fat content of DSG. Comparable value (0.42%) with the fat content of the 100% yam fl our was reported by Bradbury and Holloway ( 1988 ) and Souci et al. ( 1994 ) . Additionally, the fat contents (0.04-2.00%) reported by Osagie ( 1992 ) for yam tubers were also comparable with that of the present study.Ash content is a refl ection of the mineral status, even though contamination can indicate a high concentration in a sample (Baah et al. 2009 ). The ash content of different varieties of Dioscorea alata fl our reported by Lebot et al. ( 2005 ) and Baah et al. ( 2009 ) was in range with that of the 100% yam fl our , while that of Osagie ( 1992 ) and Udensi et al. ( 2008 ) were lower compared to the results of this investigation.The decrease in the starch content of the fl our blends with corresponding increase in DSG inclusion may be attributed to the low starch content of DSG. This might have a negative effect on the acceptability of the reconstituted paste ( amala ), as starch is a very important factor for gel formation. However, similar observations with the starch content of the 100% water yam fl our were made by other researchers (Maziya-Dixon and Asiedu 2003 ; Lebot et al. 2005 ;Baah et al. 2009 ).The moisture content of all the yam fl our blends is still below the recommended safe level (12-13%) for storage of fl our (FAO, 1992 ). This implied that all the blends might be stored for a long period before being used for the preparation of amala , without microbial contamination (Pierre 1989 ), if properly packaged in an airtight packaging material.Amino acid assay of foods is an important quality index, from which useful information on the nutritional quality and authenticity of food products and sources of raw materials used in food manufacture could be revealed (Alozie et al. 2009 ). The results obtained for the amino acids composition of the 100% yam fl our was comparable with the observation made by Ekpeyong ( 1984 ) on yam tuber. However, it was observed that the inclusion of DSG to yam fl our improves the amount of its limiting amino acids (methionine and tryptophan). This could be due to the level of these amino acids in DSG. In addition, FAO/WHO/UNN ( 1985 ) reported that the total indispensable amino acid requirements (g/100 g protein) are between 24.10 and 12.70 (with histidine) and between 22.20 and 11.10 (without histidine) for school children (10-12 years) and adults, respectively. Consequently, the consumption of the reconstituted paste ( amala ) produced from all the yam blends with total indispensable amino acid content (g/100 g protein) range of 28.09-34.34 (with histidine) and 25.89-31.72 (without histidine) by the target group (children and adults) might increase their total indispensible amino acids level required for growth and repair of worn-out tissue.Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that the body cannot digest. Though most carbohydrates are broken down into sugar molecules, fi ber cannot be broken down into sugar molecules, and instead it passes through the body undigested. Fiber helps regulate the body ' s use of sugars, helping to keep hunger and blood sugar in check. Children and adults need at least 20 to 30 grams of fi ber per day for good health. Great sources are whole fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and beans (Bauer and Turler-Inderbitzin 2008 ). The values for the TDF content of the 100% yam fl our in this study was similar to those reported by Baah et al. ( 2009 ) for different varieties of Dioscorea alata . Furthermore, Bauer and Türler-Inderbitzin ( 2008 ), reported that decreased risk of coronary heart disease is correlated with increase in consumption of SDF and that, high water-binding capacity of IDF results in the formation of softer stools which reduces the pressure necessary for the elimination of stools through the system faster, thus, less constipation and low incidence of maladies. Hence, amala produced from all the yam blends of this investigation might be able to suite this purpose when consumed by the target groups.As the functional properties of foods is known to affect the end use of any food and how such a food behaves during preparation for consumption, the functional properties of the fortifi ed yam fl our such as oil absorption capacity (OAC), water absorption capacity (WAC), swelling capacity (SWC), bulk density (BD), amylose content, and pasting properties would be of importance to the end users.The OAC is important as oil acts as a fl avor retainer and improves the mouth feel of foods (Kinsella 1976 ). The corresponding decrease in the OAC of the fl our blends with DSG inclusion may be attributed to the low OAC of DSG. However, the OAC of this study was higher compared with that reported by Abulude and Ojediran ( 2006 ) on yam fl our fortifi ed with cassava and plantain fl our. The WAC on the other hand, is the amount of water that an insoluble starch is able to hold in relation to its weight. High WAC is attributed to lose association of amylose-amylopectin ratio in the native starch granule (Ayermor 1976 ). Similarly, the reduction in WAC of the fl our blends may be due to the low WAC of the DSG, and reduction in amylose content of the blends as the proportion of DSG increased (Ayermor 1976 ). This result was comparable to the values (240-301%) reported by Abulude and Ojediran ( 2006 ) for the WAC of yam fl our fortifi ed with cassava and plantain fl our.Furthermore, the decrease in the SWC of the fl our blends with increase in DSG may be due to the low starch content of DSG (Houssou and Ayernor 2002 ). Contrary to the observations made by Tester and Morrison ( 1990 ), the SWC of the fl our blends increased as the amylose content increased. Brennan et al. ( 1976 ) observed that high BD increases the rate of dispersion and as a result it is important in the reconstitution of yam fufu dough. This implied that 100% yam fl our reconstituted into amala might be fi ner in texture compared to that of 80% yam fl our: 20% DSG blend. In addition, 80% yam fl our: 20% DSG blend might be easily packed for storage compared to that of 100% yam fl our due to its low BD (Ikujenlola 2008 ).The amylose content of the 100% yam fl our of the present investigation was comparable to the work on Dioscorea alata and Dioscorea rotundata found in literature (Rasper and Coursey 1976 ;Bokanga 2000 ). The low starch content of DSG may be attributed to the low amylose content of the fl our blends.As the fl our blends would be reconstituted to a thick paste ( amala ) before consumption, the pasting properties become important in predicting its behavior during and after cooking. Final viscosity is the most commonly used parameter to determine a particular starch-based samples quality as it indicates the ability of the material to form gel after cooking (Sanni et al. 2006 ). The results showed that, the higher the proportion of DSG in the fl our blend, the lower the fi nal viscosity. This implied that, the 100% yam fl our might quickly form a paste ( amala ) compared to the others due to its high fi nal viscosity. Additionally, the higher the setback viscosity, the higher the rate of syneresis or weeping, and the easier it is for the food to be digested (Shittu et al. 2001 ). This means that a mala produced from 65% yam fl our: 35% DSG might keep longer before \"weeping\" and as well digest fast when consumed due to its low setback value compared with that of 100% yam fl our (Shittu et al. 2001 ). However, all the fl our blends might be cooked to amala at a temperature of <63°C and time of <8 min., this implied low energy cost (Fasasi et al. 2007 ).The fat, ash, protein, sugar, total amino acids composition, total dietary fi ber, and insoluble dietary fi ber contents of the fortifi ed yam fl our increased while the starch and the soluble dietary fi ber contents decreased as the DSG increased. In addition, aspertic and glutamic acids contributed the highest percentage of amino acids while tryptophan and methionine contributed the least in the fl our blends. However, the inclusion of DSG to the yam fl our increased both the tryptophan and methionine contents. There was also a decrease in the peak, fi nal, and setback viscosities of the fortifi ed yam fl our. The WAC, OAC, swelling capacity, bulk density, and amylose content of the fl our blends decreased with DSG inclusion. However, the DSG fortifi ed yam fl our could serve as a quality protein source when prepared to amala and consumed with preferred soup due to its high indispensible amino acid content.","tokenCount":"4277"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/2750262291.json b/data/part_3/2750262291.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..35c2e7c3245e3eb39abfb26c6498e2a51a5766a7
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+++ b/data/part_3/2750262291.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"879bc63d1dafb7b3505673b86f6970fc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6f0392ca-3722-4213-94ff-b1167c92c6d9/retrieve","id":"639124819"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2ede3ccb-f8fe-4fb1-8c84-5be203e7f4ef","pagecount":"8","content":"• 800,000 registered users in six states.• One third of the user base (28%) are repeat users of the IVR channel • Out of the total subscribers 9% were women farmers MEL report shows behavior change among users.• Acceptance of mobile for accessing knowledge.• Livestock knowledge is in high demand among farmers after crops and market prices. • Good response observed from the video links (pilot) Insights Gained• Quality content on livestock was difficult to source.• Adapting and prioritizing the content to suit the mobile platform is critical • Still outreach to women farmer is very low.• Special initiatives for providing training on use mobile phones for such services • Quantitative impacts on yields and income are difficult to measure.• Each consortium partners had their own interest (difficult to meet the common goal)","tokenCount":"133"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/2757222604.json b/data/part_3/2757222604.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5c9780f7ad58c81ae112b30093ca2da6e50ffd5a
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+++ b/data/part_3/2757222604.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b4a176913cf1350d60f84441aa346bb1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/da887ee2-7217-48ea-85e9-9861bb14376c/retrieve","id":"1435457899"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dbbda23d-9d0b-4d50-b291-6da941d31bbf","pagecount":"1","content":"Results from this study, illustrated in figure 2, show that: • Extensive beef requires the most water per kg of beef •The more intensive systems relying on seeded pasture, rather than natural, and finishing on feedlot require less water than the natural pasture system •All systems depend almost enBrely on green water, only 1,5 percent of total CWU originates as blue water •The green water on croplands is a substanBal part of the feedlot systems finishing on seeded and natural pasture; 31 and 48 percent respecBvely •The two more intensive systems would contribute more to HDP by culBvaBon of crops for human consumpBon instead of feed crops for beef caPleTackling compeBBon for freshwater use between crop and animal producBon Y. Ran 1,2 M. Lannerstad 3 M. Herrero 4 C. E. M Van Middelaar 1 I. J. M De Boer 1• The demand for livestock products is expected to double by 2050 resulBng from populaBon growth, urbanizaBon and rising incomes (1,2)• The major part of the increase will take place in developing countries (3) • About one third of global water evapotranspired over agricultural lands can be aPributed to livestock (4) A new approach to water assessments for livestock The aim of this study, is to develop a new approach to livestock water use that determines the environmental impact associated with resource ouPake, while accounBng for the compeBBon for freshwater use between producBon of food and feed crops. The conceptual approach is illustrated in figure 1. Five Uruguayan beef producBon systems were studied for esBmaBon of consumpBve water use and potenBality of land and water resources to contribute to human digesBble protein, HDP. HDP is produced either by livestock producBon directly, or culBvaBon of suitable food crops for human consumpBon directly. The water resources consumed for each system was then compared to the raBo of potenBal to contribute to HDP from food or livestock producBon on the current spaBal occupaBon of that livestock system (6). ConsumpBve water use, CWU, for different feed crops in the Uruguayan caPle meat producBon was computed with the global dynamic model LPJmL (4), ","tokenCount":"347"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/2760227528.json b/data/part_3/2760227528.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4c9782dfeb9e3e50b7b66f3a7581a8c404ecc6df
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+++ b/data/part_3/2760227528.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aa338c79f12292d692dbe8f62d89e51a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7274b478-0f95-4b51-938e-610f6eb301e5/retrieve","id":"-1288360575"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4e5699e9-271e-491a-8e45-1e2e7b6f9516","pagecount":"1","content":"La hamburguesa es uno de los platos americanos favoritos, pero los orígenes de sus ingredientes más comunes son tan diversos como la misma población americana. Fueron servidas por primera vez en Hamburgo, Alemania y aparecieron por primera vez en los menús de Nueva York en torno a 1870 gracias a los inmigrantes alemanes. Las papas fritas están hechas de patatas (mostradas), aceite vegetal (aceite de maíz mostrado) y sal.El queso usado en hamburguesas es frecuentemente hecho de leche de vaca (en el mapa se muestra la leche de vacuno). El bollo es principalmente harina de trigo (origen mostrado) combinado con aceite vegetal (soja mostrado), azúcar (mostrado), huevos, sal, agua y levadura.La carne es principalmente carne picada de res (se muestra carne de vacuno) con cebolla, migas de pan, huevo, ajo, sal, pimienta y salsas como aditivos.Cada mapa muestra los orígenes de los ingredientes comunes empleados para preparar una hamburguesa","tokenCount":"149"}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/data/part_3/2773320981.json b/data/part_3/2773320981.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..27b4de16b52aebfca30f08081f902466b894d61e
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+++ b/data/part_3/2773320981.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"344189214f1f5ad42f0eb386cb9bac04","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/31e6ba1d-353b-4ce3-aaaa-7901f6b5a21d/retrieve","id":"-1297779192"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0f412890-bf2f-428e-b84c-014676f6122a","pagecount":"23","content":"Diego Agudelo 1 , Andrés Mendez 1 , Lizeth Llanos 1 , Camilo Barrios-Perez 1 , Carlo Montes 2 , Irma Ayes 3 , Julian Ramirez-Villegas 4,51 Alianza Bioversity -CIAT, Cali, Colombia La relevancia del pronóstico estacional en Honduras se manifiesta de manera acentuada en el sector agrícola, donde las temporadas de primera, canícula y postrera son de especial interés y desempeñan un papel determinante en la planificación y ejecución de actividades agrícolas. En Honduras, el Servicio Meteorológico de la Comisión Permanente de Contingencias (COPECO-CENAOS) es la entidad responsable de proporcionar diversos tipos de información relacionada con meteorología, incluyendo la predicción estacional. Sin embargo, existe poca evidencia sobre el desempeño del pronóstico estacional, y en consecuencia sobre su potencial beneficio para el sector agropecuario Hondureño. Este documento presenta un análisis retrospectivo del pronóstico estacional en Honduras, con especial énfasis en las temporadas de cultivo, a saber, primera, canícula y postrera. Mediante la herramienta CPT, (1) analizamos el desempeño de estas predicciones, considerando una variedad de variables predictoras y diferentes horizontes predictivos, y (2) se desarrolló y aplicó una metodología para optimizar el área predictora que busca mejorar el desempeño de la predicción. Los resultados indican que la optimización del área predictora incrementa el desempeño general de los modelos. La optimización actúa como un filtro al eliminar áreas que generan ruido, y al mismo tiempo destaca regiones de relevancia en la predicción climática. Esta estrategia no solo aumenta la precisión de los pronósticos, sino que también facilita una mejor comprensión de los factores que afectan la variabilidad climática. Concluimos, por lo tanto, que los pronósticos estacionales tienen un potencial importante para informar la toma de decisiones en la agricultura en Honduras. La búsqueda de metodologías y abordajes para traducir pronósticos en información accionable por productores y técnicos en campo, debería ser una prioridad.En Honduras, el Servicio Meteorológico de la Comisión Permanente de Contingencias (COPECO-CENAOS) es la entidad responsable de proporcionar diversos tipos de información relacionada con meteorología. COPECO-CENAOS, como parte integral del sistema nacional de gestión de riesgos y contingencias, tiene la responsabilidad de monitorear y analizar las condiciones meteorológicas en el país. Este organismo desempeña un papel crucial al brindar pronósticos del tiempo, alertas tempranas ante eventos climáticos extremos, y otros informes especializados que son esenciales para la toma de decisiones a nivel gubernamental, comunitario y en sectores clave como la agricultura, la gestión del agua y la planificación de emergencias.COPECO-CENAOS utiliza una variedad de herramientas y tecnologías avanzadas para recopilar datos meteorológicos, analizar patrones climáticos y emitir pronósticos precisos. Su labor contribuye significativamente a la preparación y mitigación de riesgos asociados a condiciones climáticas adversas, permitiendo a diversos sectores anticipar y responder de manera efectiva a posibles eventos meteorológicos. En el marco del proyecto AgriLAC, se ha venido trabajando de manera colaborativa en el fortalecimiento de capacidades del Servicio Meteorológico COPECO-CENAOS para la generación de información agroclimática. Este proyecto ha impulsado iniciativas destinadas a mejorar las herramientas y metodologías utilizadas para la recopilación, análisis y presentación de datos relacionados con el clima y su impacto en la agricultura. La sinergia que se ha generado con el Servicio Meteorológico COPECO-CANAOS ha permitido avanzar en la implementación de prácticas más avanzadas y eficientes en la generación de pronósticos climáticos estacionales, particularmente dirigidos a las necesidades específicas del sector agrícola en Honduras. Este fortalecimiento de capacidades contribuye a una mejor toma de decisiones en el ámbito agrícola al proporcionar información más precisa y adaptada a las condiciones climáticas locales.La relevancia del pronóstico estacional en Honduras se manifiesta de manera acentuada en el sector agrícola, donde las temporadas de primera, canícula y postrera son de especial interés y desempeñan un papel determinante en la planificación y ejecución de actividades agrícolas. La temporada de primera, marcada por la siembra de granos básicos, inicia con las primeras lluvias y es crucial para el establecimiento de cultivos esenciales. La canícula, periodo caracterizado por condiciones secas y elevadas temperaturas, representa un desafío para la agricultura, ya que puede afectar el desarrollo de los cultivos en crecimiento. Por último, la temporada de postrera, asociada con las lluvias tardías, es fundamental para la maduración y cosecha de cultivos, cerrando así el ciclo agrícola anual.Adicionalmente, es fundamental destacar que Honduras alberga una porción significativa del Corredor Seco de Centroamérica. Esta región, caracterizada por condiciones climáticas adversas, experimenta sequías recurrentes y escasez de lluvias, lo que la convierte en un área crítica y de alta vulnerabilidad en el sector agrícola. La importancia del Corredor Seco radica en su contribución significativa a la producción de granos básicos y otros cultivos, y su capacidad para abastecer alimentos esenciales. Sin embargo, la variabilidad climática en esta zona presenta desafíos considerables, haciendo que el pronóstico estacional sea esencial para mitigar riesgos, planificar eficientemente y fortalecer la resiliencia agrícola.En este informe, nos sumergimos no solo en el análisis retrospectivo del pronóstico estacional en Honduras en general, sino también en su impacto específico en las temporadas agrícolas clave. Comprender cómo las predicciones pasadas han influido en las decisiones agrícolas en estas temporadas específicas y en una región tan vital para la seguridad alimentaria constituye una perspectiva esencial para mejorar la toma de decisiones y promover la sostenibilidad en el sector agrícola hondureño.El núcleo de esta investigación radica en comprender el comportamiento histórico de las predicciones estacionales, centrándose específicamente en los periodos clave para la agricultura en Honduras: primera, canícula y postrera. El objetivo es realizar un análisis retrospectivo detallado de las predicciones climáticas para estos periodos durante los últimos 10 años. Se optó por la herramienta de Predicción Climática (CPT, por sus siglas en inglés) (Mason S. J., 2019), ampliamente utilizada por la mayoría de los servicios meteorológicos en todo el mundo. Su elección se fundamenta en su reconocida eficacia para generar predicciones precisas y contextualizadas. Al emplear la herramienta CPT, se recrearán condiciones similares a las operacionales de CENAOS-COPECO. De esta manera, se busca no solo evaluar la precisión de las predicciones pasadas, sino también generar predicciones que reflejen el escenario más parecido al de la operacionalización del pronóstico. Este enfoque permitirá identificar patrones, tendencias y posibles desafíos en la predicción estacional, ofreciendo así una base robusta para mejorar el desempeño dichas predicciones.La relevancia de este análisis se amplifica al considerar el papel crucial que juega la agricultura en la economía hondureña. La seguridad alimentaria, los patrones de siembra y cosecha, y la gestión de recursos hídricos dependen intrínsecamente de predicciones climáticas precisas. Este informe se posiciona como un recurso esencial para los agricultores, planificadores agrícolas y responsables de políticas, ofreciendo una comprensión crítica de cómo el pronóstico estacional ha impactado históricamente en la toma de decisiones agrícolas y proveyendo recomendaciones para mejorar la utilidad de las predicciones futuras.Al delinear las metodologías utilizadas, los resultados obtenidos y las implicaciones específicas para el sector agrícola, este análisis no solo contribuirá a la base de conocimientos existente, sino que también orientará estrategias más efectivas y adaptativas para el desarrollo agrícola sostenible en Honduras.A la hora de ajustar modelos, es común trabajar con dos conjuntos fundamentales de variables: las predictoras y los predictandos o variables objetivo. Las variables predictoras, también conocidas como variables independientes, son aquellas que se utilizan para predecir o explicar la variable objetivo. Por otro lado, los predictandos o variables objetivo, también llamadas variables dependientes, son aquellas que se intentan predecir o explicar mediante el modelo ajustado. A continuación, detallamos la variable objetivo y las variables predictoras utilizadas en este estudio.La variable objetivo utilizada es la precipitación total acumulada trimestral, derivada a partir del conjunto de datos de Climate Hazards Infra-Red Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS, Funk et al., 2015). La elección de utilizar la precipitación de CHIRPS como variable objetivo en nuestro estudio técnico responde a la necesidad de superar las limitaciones inherentes a los datos provenientes de estaciones meteorológicas tradicionales. En la Figura 1 se presenta el área geográfica de interés y adicionalmente se detallan los nombres de los 15 departamentos seleccionados en Honduras para la evaluación de las predicciones climáticas. Estos departamentos han sido identificados estratégicamente debido a su importancia en la producción agrícola del país.La decisión de emplear CHIRPS se justifica por su capacidad para proporcionar estimaciones precisas y coherentes de precipitación a nivel global, superando las limitaciones asociadas con la cobertura espacial y temporal de las estaciones meteorológicas. CHIRPS combina datos satelitales infrarrojos con información proveniente de estaciones meteorológicas, ofreciendo una visión completa de los patrones de precipitación. Además, CHIRPS se caracteriza por su acceso gratuito y la disponibilidad de datos a largo plazo, lo que facilita la consistencia en nuestras evaluaciones a lo largo de un extenso período, desde 1982 hasta 2022, con una resolución de 0.05°.Figura 1 Mapa del área geográfica de Honduras seleccionada para el análisis.La temperatura superficial del mar (TSM) emerge como una variable predictora fundamental en la modelación y predicción climática estacional. La TSM incide directamente en los patrones climáticos a nivel regional y global, y en consecuencia impacta significativamente las condiciones meteorológicas locales. Las variaciones de la TSM afectan la transferencia de calor y humedad entre el océano y la atmósfera, generando cambios en la temperatura y presión atmosférica, que a su vez afectan los vientos y otras variables climáticas. Esta interacción dinámica establece un ciclo continuo de retroalimentación, donde las variaciones en la TSM influyen en la formación de sistemas climáticos, y viceversa. Además, la TSM influencia una variedad de eventos y sistemas climáticos en diferentes escalas temporales, y por tanto es un predictor importante en los modelos de predicción estacional. En consecuencia, en el presente estudio se incluyó la TSM como variable predictora.Existen dos enfoques fundamentales para llevar a cabo pronósticos climáticos: el diagnóstico y el predictivo. En el primero, el predictor (X) y el predictando (Y) corresponden al mismo momento en el tiempo, por ejemplo, utilizando datos de enero para predecir condiciones enero. Por otro lado, el enfoque predictivo implica que el predictor y el predictando pertenecen a momentos temporales distintos, como utilizar datos de enero para predecir condiciones en marzo. La situación predictiva es común cuando se dispone únicamente de datos observados para la elaboración de pronósticos, ya que estos pronósticos suelen llevarse a cabo al inicio del mes en cuestión.Los modelos dinámicos de clima globales ofrecen una oportunidad significativa para implementar pronósticos diagnósticos y predictivos mediante el uso de modelos estadísticos, como se ha señalado en investigaciones anteriores (Recalde-Coronel, 2014). Esta integración de modelos dinámicos y estadísticos permite aprovechar la información de modelos climáticos globales dinámicos y mejorar el desempeño y precisión de las predicciones climáticas. A continuación, se presentan los datos observados de la Temperatura Superficial del Mar (TSM) correspondientes al ERSST, junto con los datos modelados de la TSM del modelo CFSv2.•Los datos observados de TSM utilizados en los pronósticos diagnósticos se obtuvieron del conjunto de datos Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST) versión-4 del National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), como se describe en (Huang, 2017). Estos datos se encuentran accesibles de manera gratuita a través de la International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) data library (http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/SOURCES/.NOAA/.NCDC/.ERSST/.version5/.sst/).La resolución espacial de los datos mensuales de ERSST es de 1° y abarca un extenso periodo desde 1854 hasta la actualidad. En nuestra metodología, nos enfocamos en considerar diferentes meses como predictores para las temporadas de precipitación de interés. Además, hemos incorporado la ERSST promedio sobre los trimestres de interés como predictores simultáneos para enriquecer la capacidad predictiva en nuestras evaluaciones. Los detalles específicos sobre la integración de estos predictores se encuentran detallados en la Tabla 1.Para el escenario de los pronósticos predictivos se utiliza la predicción de la TSM del National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Climate Forecast System version 2 (NCEP-CFSv2), según lo descrito por (Saha Suranjana, 2014). Este modelo proporciona pronósticos retrospectivos desde enero de 1982 hasta marzo de 2011, así como pronósticos en tiempo real disponibles desde abril de 2011 hasta la actualidad.El NCEP-CFSv2 presenta la capacidad de generar pronósticos de hasta nueve meses hacia adelante, ofreciendo cuatro condiciones iniciales (iniciando a las 0000, 0600, 1200, 1800 horas TUC) cada cinco días. Esto resulta en un conjunto robusto de 24 miembros ensamblados por cada mes, excepto para noviembre, para el cual se disponen 28 miembros. En nuestra metodología, hemos empleado tanto los pronósticos retrospectivos como los pronósticos en tiempo real, aprovechando la disponibilidad de ambas fuentes, las cuales están accesibles de manera gratuita en la librería de datos de IRI (http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/SOURCES/.NOAA/.NCEP/.EMC/.CFSv2/.ENSEMBLE/).El abordaje empleado busca ajustar y evaluar modelos estadísticos de predicción climática y explorar en qué medida la optimización del dominio geográfico del predictando puede mejorar el desempeño de la predicción. Esta sección describe en detalle los modelos estadísticos, la estrategia de optimización del dominio geográfico del predictor, y finalmente los experimentos (trimestres objetivo, años de análisis retrospectivo, y horizonte de predicción).El proceso de generación de predicciones climáticas se lleva a cabo mediante un flujo integrado por tres metodologías estadísticas fundamentales (Figura 2). En primer lugar, se emplea el análisis de funciones empíricas ortogonales (FEO) para reducir la dimensionalidad de los datos y abordar posibles problemas de multicolinealidad.A continuación, se implementa el Análisis de Correlación Canónica (ACC) para identificar los modos de variabilidad que maximizan la correlación entre las funciones empíricas ortogonales del predictor y del predictando. Finalmente, se utiliza la regresión lineal para ajustar el modelo final con el objetivo de realizar las predicciones climáticas.Se aplicó un análisis FEO a los conjuntos de datos de ERSST y CFSv2, que actuaron como predictores, así como a los datos de precipitación acumulada durante los períodos de interés, según se detalla en la Tabla 1. El número máximo de modos en el ACC es determinado por el mínimo número de FEO seleccionado en ambos conjuntos de datos, predictor y predictando. En esta investigación, se optó por un máximo de 10 FEO para ambos conjuntos de datos durante el pre-filtrado inicial.Los modos resultantes en el ACC, después de aplicar el pre-filtrado, fueron seleccionados de manera que maximizaran la correlación entre las FEO del predictor y las FEO del predictando. Posteriormente, se eligió un máximo de 5 modos en el ACC para ajustar el modelo de regresión lineal final. Para generar predicciones retrospectivas, se consideró el período comprendido entre 2013 y 2022, realizando un total de 10 predicciones para cada período de interés. Esto resultó en el ajuste de un total de 2,700 modelos. En cada caso, se calculó el promedio espacial de la correlación de Kendall y esto se conoce como Goodness Index (Wilks, 2006) entre la precipitación observada y la pronosticada, utilizando una validación cruzada con una ventana de 5 años. La identificación del modelo óptimo se basó en la maximización del Goodness Index (i.e., correlación de Kendall).La correlación de Kendall, también conocida como coeficiente de concordancia de Kendall o tau de Kendall, es una medida de correlación no paramétrica que evalúa la fuerza y la dirección de la relación entre dos variables. Se utiliza para medir la asociación entre dos conjuntos de datos.La fórmula para calcular la correlación de Kendall (τ) entre dos variables X e Y con n pares de datos es la siguiente:Valores resultantes: τ = 1: Correlación perfecta positiva τ = -1: Correlación perfecta negativa τ = 0: Ausencia de correlación La implementación de estos modelos se llevó a cabo utilizando la CPT versión 15.07 en modo batch para Windows. CPT es una herramienta de software desarrollada y mantenida por el International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). La ejecución en modo batch para Windows permitió la automatización eficiente y organizada de la ejecución de la herramienta mediante el software estadístico R para todos los análisis realizados, asegurando así un proceso rápido y sistemático.Figura 2 Diagrama de flujo de la metodología estadística para generar predicciones climáticas estacionales.Uno de los factores más importantes en el desempeño de los modelos de predicción climática es la identificación del área predictora (o dominio geográfico del predictor) que mejor captura los efectos de la variable predictora en la variable objetivo, esta selección usualmente se lleva a cabo con la definición de un modelo físico que soporte las relaciones océano-atmosfericas que presentan las variables de gran escala como lo es la TSM y la precipitación en un área de interés. Teniendo en cuenta lo anterior, se plantea la siguiente la metodología de optimización del área predictora que se estructura en cinco pasos fundamentales, como se detalla en la Figura 3. En el primer paso, se incorporan los datos de entrada, considerando la temperatura superficial del mar del modelo CFSv2 y los datos observados de ERSST como la variable X (predictora), como variable Y se considera el acumulado de precipitación proveniente de la precipitación Satelital de CHIRPS. Una vez definidas las variables de entrada, en el segundo paso se procede a realizar una predicción climática convencional utilizando la CPT en su versión batch para Windows.El tercer paso del algoritmo implica el cálculo del promedio ponderado de las cargas absolutas asociadas a cada píxel de la temperatura superficial del mar con respecto a los modos canónicos. La ponderación se realiza mediante la correlación canónica presente en cada modo canónico. El número de modos considerados en el promedio está directamente vinculado al resultado obtenido en la ejecución del segundo paso del algoritmo. Posteriormente, en el cuarto paso, se procede a calcular los deciles del promedio ponderado de las cargas, generando así nuevos conjuntos de datos de entrada X al seleccionar los píxeles que superan cada decil. Para cada predicción, se generan 9 conjuntos de nuevos archivos X.Finalmente, en el último paso del algoritmo, se realiza la predicción con cada nuevo conjunto de archivos X, y se selecciona el archivo que arroje el máximo goodness index. Este enfoque sistemático y estructurado en pasos permite una optimización efectiva del área predictora, asegurando la identificación de los conjuntos de datos más relevantes y contribuyendo a la mejora del desempeño en las predicciones climáticas.Figura 3 Diagrama de flujo de la metodología de optimización de área predictora.Se enfatiza la importancia de comprender previamente qué patrones físicos deberían incluirse en la zona de estudio, lo que informa los pasos (1) y (2) del algoritmo (Figura 3). A través de la metodología de optimización del área predictora, se busca identificar de manera precisa cuáles de estos patrones están aportando más al modelo, contribuyendo por tanto a la generación de mejores pronósticos climáticos.El propósito de estos experimentos es identificar áreas predictoras con mayor habilidad, determinar meses de mayor predictibilidad, encontrar el lead time más efectivo y analizar años con buena habilidad predictora en la predicción climática estacional. La Figura 4 presenta la precipitación acumulada de manera trimestral, agregada espacialmente con el promedio, para las zonas de interés en Honduras. A lo largo de este documento, nuestro enfoque se centrará exclusivamente en los periodos de mayor precipitación, como se indica claramente en el recuadro rojo (ver Fig. 4). Al realizar una observación detallada de los datos de precipitación CHIRPS para Honduras, se evidencia que los periodos EFM, FMA, MAM, NDE y DEF se perfilan como los trimestres caracterizados por una menor precipitación.Este análisis adquiere una significativa relevancia, ya que los periodos pluviosos no solo constituyen una característica climática, sino que también desempeñan un papel cardinal en el contexto del ciclo agrícola hondureño. Estos lapsos, marcados por una mayor humedad atmosférica, albergan las fases críticas de siembra y cosecha de diversos cultivos, otorgándoles un valor estratégico en la comprensión y optimización de las prácticas agrícolas en la región. Así, la conexión entre la información visualizada en la Figura y la importancia de los periodos pluviosos se convierte en un punto clave para nuestra exploración detallada de las condiciones climáticas y su impacto directo en la agricultura hondureña.Figura 4 Climograma de la precipitación acumulada promedio trimestral para Honduras, los periodos que contiene el recuadro rojo son los que se consideraron en el análisis.Para los periodos de interés seleccionados anteriormente, se realizó un análisis retrospectivo en el cual se evalúa y perfeccionará la destreza de los modelos predictivos. Este tipo de análisis implica generar predicciones para un período pasado utilizando el mismo modelo que se utilizaría en tiempo real. En este caso (ver Figura 5), el análisis retrospectivo comienza generando predicciones para el año 2013 y evaluando su rendimiento hasta el año 2022, utilizando ambas variables predictoras.Figura 5 Evaluación retrospectiva para la predicción climática estacional.Se procedió al cálculo de la precipitación acumulada (predictando) para los trimestres AMJ (Abril-Mayo-Junio), JJA (Junio-Julio-Agosto), JAS (Julio-Agosto-Septiembre), ASO (Agosto-Septiembre-Octubre), SON (Septiembre-Octubre-Noviembre) y OND (Octubre-Noviembre-Diciembre). Además, se diseñaron y ejecutaron diversos experimentos, con variaciones en la temporada del predictor para capturar diferentes horizontes predictivos (lead times), como se detalla en la Tabla 1. Durante estos experimentos, se seleccionó un área predictora que abarca el trópico reducido, delimitada por [Xmin=0, Xmax=359; Ymin=-30, Ymax=30] (Figura 6). Esta área fue estratégicamente definida para comprender la región tropical clave. En todos los experimentos, tanto para la descarga de los datos de la temperatura superficial del mar (TSM) del modelo CFSv2 como para los datos observados de ERSST, se consideró esta área predictora.Figura 6 Área predictora usada en la temperatura superficial del mar.Cabe destacar que se incorporará un componente adicional llamado horizonte predictivo o \"lead time\", que se refiere al intervalo de tiempo entre la fecha de inicio de la predicción y el momento en el que se evalúan los resultados. En este contexto, el \"lead time\" en el modelo indica la anticipación con la que se realiza la predicción climática en relación con el momento de interés. La consideración del \"lead time\" permite analizar el desempeño de las predicciones en función de la anticipación temporal (situación predictiva), lo que permite entender su potencial para uso en la toma de decisiones. Análisis integral de los pronósticos: Evaluación a través del área predictora, temporadas de interés y lead times.En la Figura 7 (izquierda), se presenta el Goodness Index para cada variable predictora, teniendo en cuenta la optimización del área predictora. Al analizar los datos observados de la ERSST, se evidencian mejoras sustanciales al aplicar esta técnica. En cuanto a la CFSv2, se observa un desplazamiento en la distribución del índice de bondad hacia valores superiores, aunque sin cambios significativos en su mediana, y se registran reducciones generales en los índices de bondad con resultados negativos o inferiores a 0.1. Por tanto, la metodología de optimización de área predictora demuestra consistentemente su capacidad para mejorar los resultados convencionales en la predicción climática. Además, ayuda a generar de un modelo más parsimonioso (i.e., con menos complejidad), centrado en los patrones espaciales más importantes de la TSM.La Figura 7 (derecha) proporciona una visión integral del Goodness Index a lo largo de los diferentes trimestres de interés en Honduras, teniendo en cuenta ambas variables predictoras. Para esta comparación, se han considerado únicamente los lead times 0 y 3 en la gráfica (ver Tabla 1). En general, el desempeño de los modelos es bueno, y la mayoría de los trimestres analizados tiene GI > 0.1. En relación con la CFSv2, se observa un rendimiento global ligeramente superior en comparación con la ERSST. Sin embargo, resulta notable que los periodos JAS y ASO se destacan como los más exitosos en términos de resultados. Contrariamente, los periodos secos considerados y el periodo de transición AMJ exhiben resultados menos favorables, marcando así los momentos de menor habilidad predictiva.Figura 7 (Izquierda) Goodness Index para cada variable predictora considerando la optimización del área predictora. La línea roja punteada indica el límite de predictibilidad (GI>0.1) y la línea negra continua indica cuando el GI es igual a cero. (Derecha) Goodness Index promedio para cada variable predictora en las diferentes temporadas de interés, para el modelo de área predictora optimizada. Para el calculo del promedio se consideraron los LT-0 y LT-3 en ambas variables, la línea roja punteada indica el límite de predictibilidad (GI>0.1) y la línea negra continua indica cuando el GI es igual a cero.La Figura 8 presenta el índice de calidad (Goodness Index, GI) para cada variable predictora en distintos horizontes de predicción (lead times). Se destaca claramente que a medida que se anticipa la generación de pronósticos, la habilidad predictora tiende a disminuir. Los resultados más notables se evidencian en los lead times más próximos a la temporada de interés. Específicamente, para la CFSv2, el lead time 0 demuestra un rendimiento óptimo, mientras que para la ERSST se presenta en el lead time simultáneo, a pesar de que este último no sea práctico para su implementación en producción.Figura 8 Goodness Index para cada variable predictora en los diferentes lead times considerados, para el área optimizada. Notar que la ausencia de barra en LT-SIM para CFSv2, y en LT-5 para ERRST se debe a que no se realizaron estos experimentos (ver Tabla 1).En la Figura 9, se evidencia la capacidad predictiva de los periodos de interés al considerar diferentes \"lead times\" y al realizar la optimización del área predictora para la temperatura superficial del mar (CFSv2). En los periodos de AMJ y NDE, se observa que, a pesar de optimizar el área predictora, se obtienen pocos modelos con habilidades superiores a 0.1, considerado crítico en términos de utilidad para la toma de decisiones en predicciones climáticas. Este comportamiento persiste en los diferentes \"lead times\". En el caso de MJJ, un periodo vital la preparación agrícola, la optimización del área predictora demuestra habilidades notables únicamente en el lead time 0 . Al avanzar al lead time 3, aproximadamente la mitad de los modelos en la evaluación retrospectiva logran exhibir habilidades superiores a 0.1. Sin embargo, en el lead time 5, aunque la optimización del área predictora contribuye a mejorar la habilidad, no se consigue superar el umbral de 0.1.Figura 9 Goodness Index del análisis retrospectivo para el periodo 2013-2022 considerando la TSM del CFSv2 como variable predictora, la línea roja punteada indica el límite de predictibilidad (GI>0.1) y la línea negra continua indica cuando el GI es igual a cero.Las regiones que exhiben una frecuencia significativa al aplicar la metodología de optimización del área predictora en el análisis retrospectivo para los periodos de MJJ y ASO considerando un LT-0 se representan en la Figura 10. El enfoque de este análisis se centró en estos dos periodos específicos debido a que albergan las etapas más críticas de siembra y cosecha en Honduras. En términos generales, en ambos periodos no se identifica un patrón definido en la TSM que resulte en mejoras al ser seleccionado en la optimización del área predictora. Este comportamiento puede deberse a que ambos periodos exhiben ya una habilidad destacada y, en términos generales, el patrón controlador en la TSM no está claramente definido en un área específica.Figura 10 Frecuencia del área predictora seleccionada en el análisis retrospectivo para el periodo 2013-2022 considerando la TSM del CFSv2 como variable predictora, A) es el periodo Mayo-Junio-Julio con condiciones iniciales de April, B) es el periodo Agosto-Septiembre-Octubre con condiciones iniciales de Julio.La Figura 11 presenta tres métricas promedio que evalúan la destreza de los modelos: el tau de Kendall y el área bajo la curva ROC para las categorías \"por encima de lo normal\" y \"por debajo de lo normal\". La información se presenta para los períodos MJJ y ASO. Este promedio se calcula para los años en los que se llevó a cabo el análisis retrospectivo. En el periodo MJJ, según el tau de Kendall, las predicciones estacionales en la zona occidental de Honduras exhiben los resultados más destacados, con valores promedio cercanos a 0.65. En contraste, en el oriente de Honduras, se evidencian habilidades notablemente bajas, alrededor de 0.50 o menos. Esto indica que en estas áreas, la predicción estacional no tendría mucho potencial para informar la toma de decisiones en el sector agrícola. De manera similar, en el área bajo la curva para las categorías \"por debajo\" y \"encima de lo normal\", se observan los mejores resultados en la zona occidental del país, con valores cercanos al 80%. Aunque la métrica ROC para la categoría \"por encima de lo normal\" muestra un rendimiento ligeramente inferior en comparación con la otra categoría, se percibe que estas áreas de alta destreza buscan extenderse hacia el centro y noroccidente del país. En cuanto al periodo ASO, se observa un patrón completamente diferente, donde las zonas con mejor destreza en los pronósticos estacionales parecen centrarse más hacia el oriente y sur del país. Es crucial destacar estas habilidades espaciales en los pronósticos estacionales al tomar decisiones con esta información, ya que la destreza del pronóstico varía tanto espacial como temporalmente.La Figura 12 presenta la capacidad predictiva de los periodos de interés al contemplar diversos \"lead times\" y llevar a cabo la optimización del área predictora para la temperatura superficial del mar (ERSST). Cabe destacar que, al emplear el Lead time simultáneo, este se utiliza únicamente de manera informativa (situación diagnóstica), y se conoce como el límite de predictibilidad. En un escenario realista de generación de pronósticos, la predicción diagnóstica no representa ninguna utilidad. En términos generales, al utilizar la ERSST como variable predictora, se observan incrementos notables en casi todos los periodos al aplicar la metodología de optimización de área predictora.Se evidencian los mejores resultados en los periodos JJA, JAS, ASO y SON para los \"lead times\" 0 y 3. En el periodo de MJJ, mediante la optimización, se logra superar el umbral de 0.1 para el \"lead time\" 0. Sin embargo, para los demás periodos considerados, se percibe una habilidad predictiva muy limitada en la generación de predicciones climáticas. Ante un rendimiento tan reducido, lo más aconsejable sería o bien emplear otra variable, como la TSM de CFSv2, o utilizar otro tipo de información para la toma de decisiones. Las regiones que exhiben una mayor recurrencia al aplicar la metodología de optimización del área predictora en el análisis retrospectivo para los periodos de MJJ y ASO, considerando un \"lead time\" simultáneo y utilizando la ERSST como variable predictora, quedan representadas en detalle en la Figura 13. En el periodo MJJ, se destaca un filtrado exhaustivo de diversos patrones de la TSM.Figura 13 Frecuencia del área predictora seleccionada en el análisis retrospectivo para el periodo 2013-2022 considerando la TSM del ERSST como variable predictora, A) es el periodo Mayo-Junio-Julio para el lead time simultaneo, B) es el periodo Agosto-Septiembre-Octubre con el lead time simultaneo.Este proceso busca conservar patrones localizados en la TSM del Atlántico cercana a la costa de Venezuela y patrones del Pacífico, al tiempo que se excluye la zona que genera el fenómeno ENOS. Por otro lado, para el periodo ASO, se consideran algunas zonas del Pacífico, pero en este caso, no se otorga importancia a la TSM del Atlántico. Ambos resultados revelan que la aplicación de un filtrado específico de los patrones de la TSM conduce a mejoras significativas, eliminando el ruido potencial que podría hacer que el modelo sea menos parsimonioso.En relación con las métricas de habilidad promedio derivadas del análisis retrospectivo, considerando la ERSST como variable predictora (Figura 14). Los resultados en cuanto a patrones geográficos son bastante consistentes con los de TSM de CFSv2. Se aprecian, en cuanto al tau de Kendall, los resultados más destacados para el periodo MJJ en la región occidental del país, alcanzando valores cercanos a 0.65. Además, se identifica una zona que atraviesa el país de sur a norte, exhibiendo habilidades cercanas a 0.60. No obstante, en otras áreas, se evidencia una destreza notablemente baja para el pronóstico estacional. En este contexto, sería altamente recomendable no utilizar las predicciones de estas zonas en el periodo MJJ para tomar decisiones en el sector agrícola en esas regiones. En lo que respecta al área bajo la curva ROC para la categoría \"por encima de lo normal\", se registran los resultados de clasificación más sobresalientes en la zona noroccidental del país. En contraste, para la clasificación de la categoría \"por debajo de lo normal\", los mejores resultados se observan en la zona occidental y central del país. En el periodo ASO, se destacan los resultados óptimos para la predicción estacional en la región sur del país, abarcando áreas que se extienden desde el sur hasta el noroeste y capturando una pequeña zona en el occidente del país. Estos hallazgos resaltan la variabilidad espacial de la habilidad predictiva, subrayando la importancia de considerar las particularidades geográficas al utilizar la ERSST como predictor en los pronósticos climáticos estacionales.Figura 14 Métricas de habilidad promedio en el análisis retrospectivo para el periodo 2013-2022 considerando la TSM del ERSST como variable predictora.Este documento presenta un análisis retrospectivo del pronóstico estacional en Honduras, con especial énfasis en las temporadas de cultivo, a saber, primera, canícula y postrera. Mediante la herramienta CPT, (1) analizamos el desempeño de estas predicciones, considerando una variedad de variables predictoras y diferentes horizontes predictivos, y (2) se desarrolló y aplicó una metodología para optimizar el área predictora que busca mejorar el desempeño de la predicción. El análisis reveló una gran variabilidad en el desempeño de los pronósticos. Dicha variabilidad se debe a la geografía de honduras, los diferentes horizontes predictivos, y fuentes de datos para la Temperatura Superficial del Mar (TSM). Los resultados muestran un desempeño consistente entre la TSM observada (ERSST) y la TSM del modelo CFSv2. El 'buen' desempeño de los pronósticos se concentra en ciertas áreas de Honduras (occidente, centro, y centro-sur), y en el período entre mayo y septiembre. Los periodos JAS y ASO se destacan como los de mayor desempeño, mientras que los periodos secos y el periodo de transición muestran menor habilidad predictiva. Los resultados también indican que la optimización del área predictora sí mejora habilidad de los modelos de pronóstico climático estacional, y este impacto positivo es consistente a través de diferentes fuentes de TSM (CFSv2, ERSST) y temporadas de interés.Los resultados de esta investigación, por lo tanto, nos permite concluir que los pronósticos estacionales, especialmente cuando se optimiza el dominio geográfico del predictor, tienen el suficiente desempeño como para que se promueva su uso en la toma de decisiones en agricultura. Para tal fin, se requiere insertar dichos pronósticos en procesos participativos como las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTAs), y crear herramientas que permitan traducir la predicción en información accionable para los diferentes actores en agricultura. ","tokenCount":"5653"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6024c8636a0c4e5331fd3fb9cfa8be22","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H027120.pdf","id":"-803947950"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ec56163c-8edf-48ba-b1cc-8a0b7564bd51","pagecount":"4","content":"Th e B({reji DislribUlar\\' II f(lr () {Ialc('s /ro m .Ial71rao Canol C0111 1'.1' ullda th e eOllll1wl1ci area ofL(jt B I I//.... Our/all Dralll (LnOn), The di~rril)LllG/y is comman ding an area oj 13,0-19 acrcs cu/rivatcd lalld The 10ro/ cOlIl/n ({nd (/rea is beillg dmilled th rouoll rlliul'cl/ tile dm il/ {/gc units , t;acll unit llUs (II 'em ,!.:,\" c!i5c!wrg(> of abow 2,25 cusees. Tlu: obsen.'allol'ls of water wble derlh rilroug fl pieZUIIWlers (sixty fiv e piezometers) have beell made evelY m Ol/ lh an d at the sa m e lime running hours oj sump hOllses and energy cOl/ sllllled by each sump ho use ha\\'i:.' also been recorded. Th e average I'llnning ofsump hOllse is ca lcu la lcd as 3.3 hours/daypCl ~ump house. Th e waleI' lahle dept h ill rhe cOIT('spol1ding 1710l1l h is lIleaslll'f'd 1I1Ot has indic{/(cd vel)' sIna/! j lL/ Clllolirm il1 wa terlab!1' deplh in {fi r period belween /ll/!;U SI ]999 al1d July :!()()(), I( mt'IIIIS (11(11 till' ill}low due 10 wOler lossc>s and (Jil t/lOll ' due In rul1 nil1g of sump hOllses is (llmosr balancl:J. 011 rhe basis oj aC lu (l1 rUl7ll1llg 11/ n/,' rira inage ull irl' Ihe cost uf operatlOl/ aild IIwil1 ll:l1w/ ce flUS beel1 ea/ell1(lIed. The I li/II/'e ill('l'emfllfai draillage cess jar 15 yeO/'s is recomll7 ended j al/o ll'lug Ihe vase lill c ojRs, 84 per acre as beillg chw ged Fan?the beneficiaries lOday perat ion and m a int e llan cc is t he reg ul a r proc esses of maintaininglrepairing th e infrastructure and day-to-day oh. clvatio n of e system performance . T hus irr inagc sys te m require:for their proper fun c t io ning . Drai nage infrast ructure is cons id e re d as an imp ort ant integral part of th e irriga tion system . To a grea t the life and durahility of the syste m de pe nds upon proper ma in tena nce of the syst '111 . The neo lec t o f of th e major ity of irriga tion syste m s in BJC:VeIOD,im> countries is incapab le o f meeting future food 111\"'.1 l.I,UI lLS . T he best ope rated irrigatio n syste ms in th e by farm ers, not by gove rnm e nt~st req uired fo r the maintena nce & operation of system is co nsidered th e base s for its lo ng r un avai lability. T he idea of inst itutional rdo rms in i rigatio n ys tcm impart s sh ifting of ' M rcs p on sihil ity of secon da ry irri ga ti o n cha nn e l an d s ub dra i n ~ h \" vi ng discha rge less than 15 cusecs fro m Irrigation a nd Power D epartment (lPD) to Fa rm ers O rga niza tions. T he FO~ are for ese n as t he fu nd am e ntal oj t1 is s ste m . T he FO~ have to carry out Operat io n a ncl Ma in te nan ce r the inft ast ru cture by pre par in g \"Co. t E ffe ct ive Pl an s of 0 & 1\" . thus eco no miz ing the over head cost ul the syste m . lnternational l rrioation Man ag 'me n t Institu te (lIMT).   2) .e O&M cost has bet: n ca lcul a ted fo r fUlt ht:r fi ftc e n years startin g fro m 2000-2001 by -nsidnin g avnagc running hours o f each s ump house 4 ho ur.,/d ay he cos t 8S come to R: .l .26 m for t he yea! 2000 -200 1.Consida ing the $ca lat ion of two perce nt p e r ye ar a llu . e fifh:e n perce nt a ltcr eve ry three Y<':,HS (FOP 1999), he cost has be e n C(lleu bte d up to 2014 -20I 5 (Ta ble 2 d Fig. 2).  ) t is co nclud ed th a I t h~ ru nni ng of cCleh s ump house for ahou t 4 ho urs pe r d ay, the infl ow due to wat e r 10 sc~ and o utfl ow due to ru nnin g of til e d ra inage will be bal anced Th e Wa leI' losses. which are about 25-30 pe rce n t, when ro will be give n respons ibi lity the n ca n be min im ized elu' t o pr op e r wa ter m a n ag e me nt . linin g : he wa te rcou rses and applying crop wa t ~ 1 rcq uire mc nt. T he runnin g h ou rs of lil e un its cCln also be decrea s<.:(L Th e rd o re energy will be saved a nd cost can be re d uced.he inc re me nt in dr ain age cess as pr o p osed e ig ht perce n t per ye ar the expe ndit ure and drCli na ge cess alter seven years will be balanced. T he n benctit will s tart from e ight h yea r. If the in cre m e nt in the dra in age cess is consid ere d fifteen perce n t then benefits will sta rt fro m the th ird year.  ","tokenCount":"932"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"23b3fbf89417ad835bd56d5d2a4414e4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4e4f7fcc-bc88-4c77-9f1d-cd713dd7e5a0/retrieve","id":"-1202885887"},"keywords":["AU, FARA, ASARECA, CORAF, SADC, FEWSNET, ACTS, COMESA, ECOWAS, CONDESAN, International organisations FAO, World Bank, OIE, UNEP, IFAD, UNDP. Major collaborators CGIAR Centres IFPRI","IRRI","CIAT","CIP","ICRAF","ICRISAT. SWPs PRGA","Urban Harvest","SLP. ERPs AHI","CONDESAN NARS/CSOs Aga Khan Foundation, Afghanistan","Belgian Survival Fund, Veterinaires sans Frontieres, Belgium"],"sieverID":"5571d162-c89f-433f-9814-b4d262c8b69b","pagecount":"127","content":"Africa and agriculture, including agricultural research, continue to feature on the international agenda as evidenced by the declarations of the Blair Commission for Africa, NEPAD and the ongoing discussions related to the G8 meetings. Of significant interest is the cancellation of debt for the poorest nations as well as the pledge by several OECD countries to double the aid to Africa.The reform of the CGIAR system has also picked up significant momentum. The Science Council system-wide priority setting, the new performance indicators, new guidelines for Medium-Term Plans (MTP), and the report of the Sub-Saharan Africa task forces are all elements shaping the future of the CGIAR. Some elements of this evolving CGIAR are clearer than others, but there definitely is a significant momentum for change.ILRI's management and board are actively engaged in this change process. ILRI has been requested to spearhead the development of a regional MTP that will co-ordinate the work of the CGIAR with that of national and sub-regional institutions within Eastern and Southern Africa.This MTP covers ILRI's activities during a period in which we expect to consolidate a number of changes put in place by the institute in the recent past. We expect to undertake a major refurbishment of the laboratory infrastructure as we implement the NEPAD ILRI Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA). This initiative will create a shared platform for African researchers to undertake cutting edge bioscience research alongside ILRI staff. We have led a research consortium which has made significant progress in developing a prototype subunit vaccine against a protozoan disease to the stage of proof of concept. If successful, it will be developed into a commercial product with the private sector. Building on the lessons of this work we are expanding the scope of our vaccine work to other challenges. We have embarked in research on innovation systems in the livestock sector. Early results of this endeavour should help us and our partners become more effective in ensuring our research is clearly leading to development outputs. This year, we concluded a long-standing research programme into smallholder dairy policies for effective policy awareness and deliberation in both Kenya and Tanzania. The approach used highlights the productive way in which national institutions and ILRI can work together to produce national and international public goods through effective partnerships. We expect that this work will significantly shape future policies of these countries, to make them more propoor. We will work at sharing the lessons with other countries.The ILRI-IFPRI programme on market access is expected to make significant progress in helping developing countries tackle the challenging issue of dealing with animal health and sanitary measures, which are increasingly affecting these countries' capacity to engage in regional and international trade in livestock and its products. In our effort to do business differently we have also established a joint ILRI-CAAS Animal Genetic and Forages laboratory in Beijing, China. First research activities were launched early this year and should significantly expand in the period 2006-08.As part of the overall strategy for managing science quality, the Science Advisory Panel, which was established last year, officially began work in January 2005, and for the first time, this MTP benefited significantly from their professional input, for which we are grateful. ILRI's core competence is its capacity to bring a broad range of disciplines, from social sciences to biological sciences, to effectively address complex livestock-poverty related issues.We seek to produce globally useful knowledge on the basis of concrete studies in specific contexts, using our capacity to extrapolate broadly useful lessons from these. Through our work on learning and innovation, we expect to foster the more effective use of ILRI's and partners' research-to influence actions and functions of development institutions, the R&D activity of NARS and the investment decisions of development agencies. Overall, our major aim is to help the poor to compete in markets, and ease the transition towards new systems and new ways of utilising livestock development to create wealth for the poor.We consider ourselves a small organisation seeking a global impact on poverty through livestock research and knowledge management. Working effectively through partnerships to leverage our knowledge and resources is and will continue to be key to our success.ILRI MEDIUM-TERM PLAN 2006-2008 1 Overview ILRI's stated mandate is to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development through livestock-related research. ILRI is determined to ensure that its research effectively contributes towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), particularly for poverty and hunger alleviation. Along with our research and development partners, ILRI is keenly aware of the need to enhance the relevance and impact of its research in a rapidly changing global context. ILRI's strategy is grounded on two premises: the Livestock Revolution and the multiple roles of livestock in the livelihood strategies of poor people. The Livestock Revolution encapsulates the fact that as developing country populations grow, become more urban and experience economic growth, their food consumption patterns increasingly shift to high-value and processed foods such as animal products, oils, fruits and vegetables. This demand growth creates a unique opportunity for the growth of the livestock sector. ILRI's goal is to maximise the value of this development opportunity as a tool to reduce poverty by enhancing the participation of poor people in dynamic livestock value chains, thereby providing them with increased incomes. While global change and market forces present many opportunities, they also pose threats for poor livestock producers. Increasing length of food chains, growing concerns about food safety and economies of scale in intensive production systems are threatening the participation of poor livestock keepers in these increasingly complex markets. Public research on technologies, institutions and policies can create more pro-poor options. Vertical integration of smallholder livestock keepers, for example, may allow small-scale producers to remain in high-value market chains, but it also raises issues of empowerment for the poor that research on pro-poor cases can learn from to improve results elsewhere.Structural change related to rapidly growing demand for livestock products is leading to the development of large-scale production units, which can better address food safety concerns of urban markets. If developed with the appropriate policies to eliminate negative food safety impacts, these developments can have pro-poor impacts under certain conditions, particularly when related to employment of poor people in activities along the value chain. The magnitude of these poverty alleviation impacts is dependent on the forward and backward linkages of such livestock enterprises, as well as the propensity of those employed in these enterprises to spend their new livestock incomes on consumer items and services typically produced by the poor.The opportunities for using livestock as a tool for poverty reduction particularly hinge on rapid growth in demand for livestock products. In many parts of the developing world, poor livestock keepers do not have these opportunities. Nevertheless livestock frequently are a key component of poor peoples' livelihood strategies, with livestock assets providing services such as transport, traction for land preparation and a source of manure for soils depleted of organic material. ILRI's strategy recognises that quite distinct tools are required to reduce poverty under such circumstances. Careful analysis is required to understand the constraints and opportunities under these conditions. Frequently, very marginal environments put a ceiling on potential productivity increases. Here, public livestock research and development can reduce vulnerability in a number of ways, such as provision of vaccines, early warning systems and livestock management strategies to mitigate the effects of natural and man-made disasters. In many marginal settings livestock will be only one of diverse options needed to escape poverty.In better-endowed regions with poor access to markets, mixed farming systems are predominant. Productivity increases, for example, through better utilisation of crop residues in ruminant production, introduction of fodder species and adapted livestock genotypes are potential entry points. The success of such productivity-increasing interventions is generally linked to reducing market constraints.Livestock play an increasing role in periurban systems. These systems are driven by growth of urban demand and inefficiency of market chains linking more remote producers to these markets. These systems frequently also provide income opportunities for landless poor, who provide fodder, collect waste to feed to animals and engage in distribution and marketing of outputs of such informal systems. The externalities associated with these systems, however, present formidable public health issues and environmental challenges.ILRI research recognises the importance of animal products for poor consumers, for whom targeted research that raises productivity, improves food safety and lowers marketing costs in the sectors serving poor consumers can increase their access to lower cost and more reliable supplies of safe animal-source foods. In many cases these consumers spend a significant share of their disposable income on animal products, which provide an important source of minerals and micronutrients to their diets. Access to small amounts of these nutrients has been shown to benefit the physical and cognitive development of children, as well as mitigating the effects of diseases such as HIV/AIDS.Given the above context for livestock as a tool to address poverty, ILRI has adopted a 'pathways out of poverty' framework, based on the sustainable livelihoods approach. In this approach, it is recognised that poor households face a range of external threats that influence their livelihoods. The challenge for these households is to manage their limited asset base through a set of livelihood strategies conditioned by processes and structures, both internal to the households and in the external environment, to generate desired outcomes that usually include higher income and reduced vulnerability. The three pathways through which ILRI seeks to improve the contribution of livestock in poor households are:• securing the assets of the poor • improving the productivity of their livestock systems • improving their market opportunities Through these pathways, ILRI seeks to take advantage of the potentials for livestock and livestock-related research to ensure uptake of improved technologies, policies and institutions that will contribute to improving the well-being of the poor.ILRI sees its role evolving as an institution engaged in livestock knowledge production and management for poverty alleviation and sustainable development in developing countries. Many other institutions are also addressing these issues: they include national agricultural research systems (NARS) and sub-regional organisations (SROs), research and analysis units within government departments, ARIs and universities, NGOs and private firms and consultants. ILRI is developing productive partnerships with all of these types of institutions and other key actors. In these partnerships, ILRI's unique niche is at the crossroads of global livestock research and social objectives such as poverty alleviation.As a CGIAR centre, ILRI has a comparative advantage in focusing on those issues of widespread and critical relevance where insights can be transferred and synergies achieved across countries, regions and different kinds of organisations. While ARIs, universities, NGOs and private consultants may also be engaged in the production of international public goods, the reality of their modes of operation and funding rarely permits maintaining scientific commitment on an institutional basis to solve specific long-term problems in developing countries, and then ensuring uptake of innovations. Furthermore, few institutions in developing countries are as well-placed to achieve effective long-term coordination between the rigorous hypothesis-testing of hard livestockrelated science and the pragmatic experimentation of action-research in the field.ILRI achieves its comparative advantage through a form of organisation and governance that overcomes many of the constraints imposed on other types of institutions in the livestock knowledge generation and management area. With offices in East and West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, China and Central America, and projects in North Africa and the Near East, ILRI has a truly global footprint. Yet its internal form of organisation is not regional but thematic. ILRI's agenda and way of operating is heavily influenced through longterm host country, regional and global agreements with NARS and SROs, and with specialised livestock-relevant institutions in the development sphere such as the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) and the Animal Production and Health Division of FAO. It also partners to a great extent with sister CGIAR centres, both directly and through the System-wide Livestock Programme. Coherence across needs and opportunities is achieved not only by ILRI's staff and management, but also by an internationally appointed and cross-disciplinary Board of Trustees representing stakeholders with both research and development perspectives. At the same time, science quality has been addressed strategically through the constitution of a Science Advisory Panel, made up of a team of specialised scientists of high repute.The resulting institutional form allows ILRI to provide:• A flexible framework that can address evolving needs and concerns through new partnerships, including with publicand private-sector entities; • A long-term clearing-house for livestock knowledge and research in its relation to technical, social and economic objectives.• An institutional memory and accessible database on livestock issues and answers in developing countries.• A diagnostic capacity with respect to livestock knowledge that draws on insights from around the world and across disciplines.• A means to integrate in a problemsolving format insights across disciplines as diverse as upstream microbiology, genetics, veterinary epidemiology, economics, nutrition and innovation systems science.• An approach to associating in the same activities both the rigor of scientific hypothesis-testing and the impactoriented approaches of action-research in the field.• An international research character which allows ILRI to tackle research on key global livestock issues such as market access and emerging diseases.• A commitment to foster knowledge uptake, diffusion and capacity-building in developing countries.• A mode of governance that facilitates openness, accessibility and accountability to developing countries.ILRI's operational strategy is derived through recognising its unique and crucial niche and its mission for poverty alleviation. It provides an understanding of global livestock research issues into the broader research and development agenda.ILRI recognises that there are many key actors that must be influenced if the demandled growth of the livestock sector is to benefit the poor. This influence relies on producing research outputs demanded by and relevant to clients and on partnerships with key actors in the system. To do this, ILRI's research must anticipate future changes, be demand-driven and accessible to livestock research and development actors and be delivered in a timely fashion, given the dynamic changes in many livestock systems.ILRI has developed a range of innovative institutional partnership arrangements. These partnerships are demand-driven and outcome-oriented. They include traditional collaborations with NARES, CGIAR centres, advanced research institutes and international organisations (e.g. OIE, FAO) as well as novel arrangements with civil societies, producer organisations, NGOs and private sector partners. In all its collaboration efforts, ILRI seeks to influence and add value to the agenda of others to increase its impact. This may be by influencing the agendas of key livestock research and development actors or by including livestock issues in the agendas of other sectors, such as health and water. In the livestock sector, private companies are playing an increasing role in dairy and poultry markets in developing countries. ILRI is seeking to expand its collaborations with private agribusinesses and progressive NGOs to add value to its already strong traditional links with NARS, ARI and CG research partners. Innovation systems approaches are used in guiding the identification of appropriate partnerships and in supporting analyses of new ways of doing business that are responsive to changing opportunities and favour pro-poor outcomes. Some examples that highlight the collaborations that ILRI is engaged in include:• Establishment of a joint programme with IFPRI to merge insights from broad economic policy thinking with specialised knowledge of livestock science and to achieve synergies through better inclusion of ILRI's livestock work into a broader CGIAR emphasis on improving smallholder livelihoods through diversification into high-value agriculture more generally.• Emphasis on application of advanced biosciences to 'orphan' problems, expanding the scope of the work by establishing with others a shared Biosciences facility for eastern and central Africa. This will enlarge the capacity of African partners to address their biosciences research needs and will allow ILRI to share its expertise more widely than in the past.• Establishment of a range of strategic partnerships to address the challenges. This includes partnerships with other CGIAR centres on the Addis Ababa campus to provide a platform for integrated natural resource management (INRM), innovation systems and capacity building. Centres involved presently include CIAT, ICRAF, IFPRI (including its ISNAR program), IWMI, CIMMYT, and ICIPE. Similar partnerships in other parts of the world include ICRISAT and IITA, among others.• A special relationship with the Animal Production and Health (AGA) division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).• A private-public partnership involving a large pharmaceutical company and several advanced research institutes to develop a new East Coast fever vaccine.• The establishment of a joint laboratory for animal and forage genetic resources characterisation with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Beijing.To underpin its collaborations and increase their responsiveness and effectiveness, ILRI is changing and adapting its collaboration strategy, culture and process. Given our strong conviction that pro-poor impacts can only be maximised by influencing others, ILRI is supporting innovations at all levels, from individual livestock keepers to national and international decision makers. Within ILRI's mandate, the key principle it applies to partnerships is that partners and their roles should be determined by what best maximises pro-poor outcomes and impacts.In 2004, ILRI began the implementation of two novel partnership innovations. The first was the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA), implemented with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). BecA is a joint venture of national, regional and international organisations that will conduct cutting-edge bioscience research for priority agricultural problems in eastern and central Africa. ILRI hosts the BecA research hub and secretariat. In 2004, the BecA secretariat was established and agreements for the establishment of BecA and its operations were developed and approved by the regional steering committee. The design of research facilities and the development of the research programme also began in 2004 and are progressing in 2005.The second research partnership launched in 2004 was the Improving productivity and market success (IPMS) of Ethiopian farmers project. As noted in the last MTP, ILRI is coordinating this research for development project on behalf of the Ethiopian government with many CGIAR, international and Ethiopian research partners. The research focuses on technological and institutional innovations to improve access to markets for the poor along the agri-food chain and to new strategies for the generation and sharing agricultural knowledge among a variety of actors. The project design was completed in 2004 and project activities commenced in 2005.The management and flow of agricultural knowledge is crucial to the CGIAR and ILRI is playing its role in fostering mechanisms for the better sharing of knowledge and joint learning between key stakeholders. In sub-Saharan Africa, IFPRI is coordinating a Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (SAKSS) on behalf of USAID. ILRI is coordinating the development of the East and Central Africa SAKSS node for Association for the Strengthening of Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA). The regional node is part of a continent-wide initiative identified as a cross-cutting pillar in the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) of NEPAD. A regional planning workshop was held in October 2004 in Entebbe, Uganda and the development of the node is being initiated in 2005.ILRI also supports the secretariat of the ASARECA Animal Agriculture Research Network (A-AARNET). In 2004, A-AARNET conducted a priority setting and five-year implementation planning process as part of the overall ASARECA priority setting agenda. Implementation will occur over the next four years through EU financial support.Beyond ASARECA, ILRI supports the activities of regional and sub-regional agricultural research organisations including the Conseil Ouest et Centrale Africain pour la Recherche et le Développement Agricole (CORAF), the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), and the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institution (APAARI).Linkages with the private sector and NGOs are becoming increasingly important to ILRI's strategy of influencing key livestock actors and in the delivery of products from ILRI's research. As seen earlier, NGOs have become important partners in ILRI's dairy research in East Africa and in the delivery of fodder innovations in India and Nigeria. Regarding the private sector, ILRI has assisted DFID-UK, as endorsed by the inter-agency livestock donor group, to establish the Global Alliance for Livestock Vaccines (GALV), a public-private partnership for the development of livestock vaccines and diagnostics. GALV will be similar to a number of public-private ventures for human drug and vaccine development. GALV was registered as a company and an interim Board meeting was held in early 2005. It is expected that GALV will commence full operations in 2007, funding the development and commercialisation of livestock vaccines for diseases of priority to the poor where both public and private sector investment and expertise are required. ILRI expects to participate in selected GALV projects with other public and private sector partners.The organisation of ILRI's research programme (see Fig 1) into 5 Themes (referred to as Projects in the CGIAR Medium-Term Plan terminology)1 reflects its focus on livestock research for poverty alleviation. At its heart are three research Projects that have been developed with clear poverty alleviation objectives. The Market Opportunities Project focuses on research to find opportunities for the poor to benefitthrough increased competitiveness, better 1 In this MTP the following hierarchy of 'projects' is adopted; Project (with a capital P) is one of the 5 ILRI research Themes (the Systemwide Livestock Programme is presented as ILRI Project 6); an operating project is a group of related research activities within a Theme leading to common outputs in a defined time frame; a project (with a small p) is a defined donor-funded or partnerbased research activity. institutional arrangements and policies and improved quality and safety performancefrom the increased consumer demand for livestock and livestock products. The Biotechnology Project conducts research using new bioscience tools to develop technologies for enhancing the health and performance of livestock. Target technologies and approaches, particularly vaccines, disease resistance and genetics, all focus on securing livestock assets and improving their productivity. The People, Livestock and the Environment Project, takes a more systemic approach to securing livestock assets and improving their productivity by assessing how livestock production can be improved to both improve livelihoods of the poor and enhance broader environmental sustainability, biodiversity and human health goals. technologies, policies and institutions influence these changes and specifically at the implications of these interventions within the changing livestock context for the poor. The second cross-cutting project is Enabling Innovation. This programme was developed in recognition of the fact that livestock research and develop are integral parts of complex systems, linked to crop production, having long market chains and multiple actors of different types. An innovation systems approach is taken to more effectively address the complexity of such systems in supporting better research design and to enhance output-outcome-impact linkages.Beyond these 5 research Projects, ILRI has designed its other research activities to actively engage and influence other actors in the broader agricultural research for development web. Our objective is to get livestock issues integrated into broader research for development areas to maximise benefits for the poor. The System-wide livestock programme (ILRI Project 6) focuses on influencing the crop breeding and seed systems programs of crop centres to improve both the human food and animal feed value of staple crops. With a relatively modest input into identifying genetic traits for improving livestock nutrition and their tradeoffs with other traits, ILRI is able to strategically influence a huge and successful component of the overall CGIAR research portfolio. ILRI's involvement in other systemwide programs and challenge programs is based on a similar strategy. Through its involvement in the Water for Food Challenge Program, ILRI has been able to influence broader thinking on the importance of livestock in landscape and local level water use and efficiency and has effectively integrated these considerations into the methods, tools and actions of the other partners. Likewise our involvement in sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program and CAPRi allows us to bring a livestock for poverty perspective into broader integrated agricultural research for development and collective action and property rights agendas.For the five research projects funding ranges from USD 3-11 million per annum, with Biotechnology and its associated laboratory support being the most costly. Within each Project, research is arranged in 3-5 operating projects. Operating projects encompass a group of time-bound research activities targeted at a specific output. In total, there are 17 operating projects, each focusing on one specific output, within the 5 ILRI Projects. Budgets for operating projects range from approximately USD 500,000 to USD 4 million.Over the past two years, the structure and function of the research programme have continued to evolve. More detailed research plans for Projects and their constituent operating projects have been developed. A summary of these is presented below.This Project investigates how livestock systems evolve to anticipate where, when and how livestock-related policy and technological interventions can best be targeted to alleviate poverty, sustain rural livelihoods and protect the environment. Research outputs for the operating projects in this Project are:• Livestock system evolution: Activities include identification of drivers of change and their impact on livestock systems in the future; assessment of scenarios of alternative livestock system futures from different livestock development pathways and drivers of change; and analyses of these changes on households and communities across different regions.• Poverty, livelihoods and livestock: ILRI is developing databases and analyses of where significant groups of poor livestock keepers are located. It is also seeking to better understand the relationships between poverty, livelihoods and development strategies, the role of livestock in poverty processes and dynamics, and vulnerability, risk management and livelihood options.• Pro-poor options for livestock keepers:Major activities focus on targeting livestock interventions and identifying their niches and contribution to the livelihoods of poor livestock keepers; targeting systems in which ILRI and partners have the greatest potential for maximising the opportunities for poverty reduction; ex-ante and ex-post impact assessment of interventions promoted by ILRI and its partners; and development of priority-setting frameworks for ILRI and/or its partners.Under ILRI's new strategy, priority is being given to efforts to gain a clear understanding of the mechanisms that make research more effective and efficient, knowledge more contagious, processes more inclusive and outcomes more in favour of livestockdependent poor people. Research and capacity strengthening activities are organised in three operating projects:• Innovation systems: Ideas need to travel from the provider or the innovator to potential users and vice versa. Study of past, present and emerging innovation systems will disclose innovation processes and mechanisms that facilitate suitable knowledge exchange, the influence of research approaches on innovation and impact, the measurement and determinants of innovation (indicators and inducers), and how information within livestock knowledge systems is generated, acquired, used and circulated.• Research delivery pathways: This 'action research' operating project consists of a variety of studies in which clients and other actors are directly involved in the identification of constraints and opportunities and the development and testing of methodological, technical and institutional solutions. The case studies focus on the comparison of particular technologies, management strategies and delivery systems in different policy, institutional, socio-economic and biophysical settings.• Innovative partnerships: Activities conducted under this operating project evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different types of partnerships in the identification of research needs, research implementation, dissemination and iteration, and the acquisition of funds. In addition, they provide an increased understanding of the institutional and organisational changes that empower different research and development partnerships. Such lessons drive and facilitate institutional change and capacity building and are a conduit for the promotion of innovative processes that transform the way in which ILRI and its partners go about their business.Livestock products have long been a pathway for income generation by the poor. Rapidly growing and changing livestock markets in the developing world provide real opportunities-but also significant threatsto participation of the poor, due to the increasing integration of national and world markets, the changing nature of food demand in cities, and a changing regulatory environment. In view of the importance of these trends, ILRI and IFPRI have joined forces through Project 3 to address three principal knowledge gaps for reinforcing the opportunities for sustainable poverty alleviation through livestock while mitigating the threats. The three pillars are also the main output and operating sub-units of the Project.• Smallholder competitiveness in changing markets: Although research has shown that many smallholder livestock products remain competitive with output from largescale farms and with imports, it has also demonstrated major differences across small farms. There is considerable scope for helping the poor who might otherwise be left behind to join a market-driven pathway to improving their livelihoods through livestock, hence a focus on smallholder competitiveness.A mix of technical, institutional, and policy options are evaluated with respect to their contribution to making smallholder livestock producers more competitive as markets integrate. The initial focus has been on smallholder dairy systems of Africa and Asia. Increasing emphasis will be given to poultry and pig systems in Asia and Africa, and to the role of private-sector solutions for incorporation of smallholders, such as contract farming.However even the most competitive small farms may not be viable if wholesalers will not buy from them. In response to changing demand for food safety, quality, and uniformity, market chains in many parts of the developing world are becoming more concentrated and demanding. Study of these processes can be targeted to the design of better marketing institutions to allow smallholders to meet new requirements, hence a focus on changing demand.This focuses on the driving forces of change in the market channels traditionally supplied by the poor, including changes in demand for increased safety, uniformity, and higher levels of processing. It considers private sector responses to the new market opportunities, the impact of changes in industrial organisation back through the supply chain to procurement from smallscale producers, and means for helping the latter respond.Beyond primarily national issues, major global procedures for control of animal disease set up in the 1950s are under challenge from changes in the global distribution of livestock production and consumption and from significant changes in technological options for disease control. The costs of compliance with standards developed for the industrial world are often hard for small-scale operators in developing countries to meet. Through case studies, research can demonstrate the high costs of compliance with traditionally accepted norms and evaluate options for equivalent ways of reducing risk of disease transmission that are more appropriate to the resource endowments of developing countries, hence a focus on animal health for trade.In addition to assessing costs of compliance with standards in a developing country context, this research will examine issues of equivalence of standards and options for assisting small-scale producers in meeting standards. Risk analysis from veterinary epidemiology will be combined with analysis of the costs and benefits of different options, including the implications for both direct and indirect impacts on the incomes of the poor.diseases of the poor to help secure their livestock assets by reducing the impact of disease. ILRI focuses on immunological evaluation of antigens and laboratory and field testing of prototype vaccines. It links with public-sector partners who conduct large-scale genomic screening, with private-sector partners in the development and delivery of vaccine products and diagnostic kits and with NARS for field testing, regulatory approval, quality control and product delivery. Urban consumers in many places of the developing world now pay more for (safe) bottled water per litre than they do for milk.It is becoming increasingly apparent that the demand for safe animal source foods is high concern that people will pay for in the growing cities of the developing world. One conclusion is that even the most efficient smallholder producer may not be able to sell his or her products if buyers do not trust the safety of the output, and that trust is hard for anonymous small-scale sellers to achieve.ILRI research in 2004 continued to focus on three aspects of these issues. First, an overview survey showed that much of the smallholder dairy cooperative development seen in recent years in East Africa involved selling raw milk, and pasteurisation brings in scale issues in processing that will put many existing coops and their suppliers out of business. Second, surveys of raw milk marketing channels in various parts of East Africa showed that traditional practices of boiling and using the milk the same day as produced are both universally followed and relatively safe, although problems of contamination of milk begin to arise as traditional market channels become longer and larger. In 2004, broad-scale mapping of genes controlling helminthosis resistance in sheep was nearly completed with 80% of the genome covered and the chromosomal region with the gene controlling helminthosis resistance was identified. Progress was also made towards identification of genes responsible for trypanotolerance. A total of 36,000 expressed sequence tags generated from trypanosome-infected N'Dama and Boran cattle were submitted to the global Ensembl/NCBI trace repository, clustered and annotated and are now being used to prepare a next generation bovine expression analysis microarray.In 2005, the genome wide scanning of the sheep genome will be completed leading to the identification of QTL chromosomal regions for helminth resistance. On the cattle side, the gene content of bovine trypanotolerance QTL will be fully identified and the process of examining these as candidate genes for trypanosomosis resistance or susceptibility will begin through the analysis of gene expression data. Already preliminary cluster analyses have shown differential gene expression responses related to resistance or susceptibility and infection status. This information, together with sophisticated data mining in collaboration with Liverpool and Manchester Universities, is generating new insights into the disease process and is facilitating prioritisation of candidate genes. Work on the understanding of indigenous selection criteria and genetic diversity in the African Longhorn Ankole cattle has been started in Uganda and will be expanded to Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania in collaboration with Austrian collaborators (BOKU University), and NARS in the respective countries.Animal genetic resources work continues to focus principally on characterisation, including inventory/documentation; activities to support in situ conservation are only just being initiated. In 2004, the functionality and scope of DAGRIS (Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System) database was expanded with the development of descriptors and data entry structure for poultry and subsequent entry of 127 breeds/ecotypes /strains indigenous to Africa and Asia. A second version of DAGRIS was released on CD-ROM and placed on the web (http://dagris.ilri.cgiar.org/dagris).In 2004, two molecular genetic diversity studies were completed. A survey of the genetic diversity of the Yak populations of Central Asia and the Himalayan region led to the first comprehensive analysis of the distribution of the genetic diversity of this unique livestock species over nearly its entire geographic distribution. At the country level, a detailed survey of the genetic diversity of Ethiopian goat populations was finalised and showed that most of the genetic variation is found within rather than between these goat breeds with four out of 11 breeds representing the complete set of national goat types studied carrying 75 % of the goat diversity found in the country.In 2005, data from livestock breeds / populations of Africa and Asia will continue to be collected/collated, validated and entered into DAGRIS. Development of breed descriptors for pigs will be undertaken and protocols will be included in geo-referenced data. Links between DAGRIS and FAO's DAD-IS will be established.• ongoing assessment of diversity in mitochondrial DNA sequences in chicken will continue leading to a better understanding of the origin of chicken diversity in Africa and Asia, with possible inclusion of indigenous South American chicken samples; • a new initiative will be started on the characterisation of polymorphism at the level of candidate genes for disease resistance in chickens, the starting point of which will be the screening of indigenous populations from different centres of origin;• laboratory analysis of autosomal microsatellite markers of West and East African goat populations will be finalised to better understand the distribution of genetic diversity within and between African goat populations.The development of a GEF-UNEP project ''Development and application of decision support tools to conserve and sustainably use genetic diversity in indigenous livestock and wild relatives'', started at the end of 2003 with the initiation of the design (PDF-B) phase. The full project proposal of this 5-year project is expected to be submitted to GEF at the end of 2005 or in early 2006. This activity will address, for the first time, the issue of priority breeds for conservation and utilisation in diversity hotspot countries (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam).New policy-related initiatives on AnGR conservation and sustainable use are being developed. These include:• research on exchange, access and benefit Project 5: People, livestock and the environment In 2004, there was considerable realignment in strategies for livestock-environment and feeding systems research. Livestock-water issues were given more importance. In 2005, there are plans to extend lessons learned from successful research in pastoral systems of East Africa to West Africa and to expand the application of feed values into the breeding of dual purpose crops beyond sorghum, millet and cowpea to pigeon pea, maize and rice. Research into the importance of livestock practices on human health and nutrition began in 2004 and a number of key partnerships are being further developed in 2005. ILRI's role in this research will be to provide the livestock and developing country perspectives in collaboration with health and nutrition experts.A major output from ILRI's research on livestock-water productivity in 2004 was the development of a conceptual framework for assessing livestock-water productivity. As well as submitting the description of this framework and related hypotheses to a peerreviewed journal, the tool is, in 2005 being developed to enable its practical application in relation to integrating livestock in agricultural water research and management.The research led by ILRI in the context of the Comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture, has included significant engagement with national institutions in Ethiopia. In 2004, five master's theses were completed, contributing to improved understanding of how investments in community-based irrigation systems could be better designed and managed to increase the efficiency of water utilisation and accommodate the livestock keepers who are and will be users of the systems. ILRI's role in this assessment has resulted in the scientists being invited to contribute the livestock perspective to a major synthesis on the impacts of investments in agricultural water which is being developed in 2005. ILRI's contribution (Projects 1 and 5) to the livestock component of an IWMI-led report on Agricultural and water investment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa was completed in 2004. This study was presented to investment agencies in 2005 and this has led to new recognition of the importance of livestock in water productivity and opportunities to contribute in this respect to policy issues emanating from the report.ILRI produced several synthesis of its research at global, regional and local levels. At global level, a number of chapters in books and reports on livestock-environment issues were produced in 2004 and 2005. These included contributions on ecology, livestock and land-use policy issues globally, a synthesis of East African pastoral and grasslands issues for FAO, and a chapter on food and ecosystems (livestock and the environment) for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2004 and 2005.ILRI has been documenting lessons learned from its several years of research into the links between livestock, land degradation, livelihoods, and use of biodiversity for East Africa. In 2004 and 2005, a total of 40 working papers, journal articles and book chapters were produced and disseminated. Highlights of these reports include information on ways that the poor can benefit from direct ecosystem service payment programmes, synergies and competition between livestock and wildlife, and detailed analysis of the forces driving changes in pastoral livelihoods. This information is now being discussed and disseminated to communities and policy makers to strengthen their decision making capacity.A synthesis of ILRI research activities in the Fakara region of Niger was produced in 2004, providing for the first time, details of characterisation methodologies that can be widely applicable to other Sahelian zones in West Africa. These methodologies are being further applied in 2005 in the context of the new phase of the Desert Margins Program, for which ILRI is a collaborator.In the context of new research to study the interactions of livestock and human health, two reports were published in 2004, documenting the human health impacts associated with peri-urban livestock production. Research results about livestock related health risks fed into the Urban Harvest-led efforts in Kampala, Uganda and led to revision of municipal by-laws to better support urban agriculture, including livestock.In order to better understand the context, and identify key roles for ILRI, and other stakeholders, a review of the literature, on the linkages between livestock keeping and nutritional well-being, conducted in collaboration with IFPRI and Cornell University, US is being developed in 2005 for a formal publication and as a platform leading to new initiatives to investigate this research area;A number of zoonotic diseases that are well controlled in richer populations have considerable impact on poor populations. ILRI is focusing on cysticercosis/Taeniosis, a disease of pigs and people associated with poor hygiene. Evidence from previous research was synthesised as part of an international workshop at the Rockefeller Foundation's Conference Centre in Bellagio, Italy held in 2004. A consensus was reached and an international action plan for implementing a Global Campaign for Combating Cysticercosis was formulated by key international stakeholders including ILRI, WHO and FAO. A more specific action in 2005, was the widespread dissemination of a poster by South African collaborators to improve awareness of Cysticercosis transmission and prevention.In order to support crop breeders in their food-feed crop breeding programmes, ILRI is developing and validating the use of Near-Infra Red Spectroscopy (NIRS) equations, as an indicator of nutritional value for specific crops. In 2004, NIRS equations were developed and validated for screening the stover quality of sorghum and pearl millet cultivars. The National Research Centre for Sorghum in India, immediately applied to the approach developed by ILRI to screen sorghum cultivars for stover and to include this parameter in release criteria. Similar approaches are being pursued for other key crops in 2005.The project agenda in 2005 is moving towards looking at feeding as part of a broader crop-livestock systems approach. In 2005, an innovative joint appointment between ILRI and KVL-Denmark has facilitated the initiation of research and proposal development in the context of intensifying crop-livestock systems with national partners in Ghana and Burkina Faso. In another region, systems research, focusing on feeding strategies for pigs is being developed in collaboration with key partners in NE India, and with the addition of new skills in pig nutrition through a visiting scientist.In the context of global public goods funding for CG centres, during 2004, operations in ILRI's forage genebank were upgraded in line with international standards. Practical implementation of these measures with genebank material will continue in 2005.A new forage image collection and database with user search facility was developed with partners in 2004 and is under evaluation for launching in mid 2005.During 2004, development of approaches to enhance the use and impact of forages in crop-livestock systems in Nigeria and India has included an increased focus on diversifying and strengthening partnerships and use of tools such as actor linkage matrices to promote these. This has benefited from close interaction with Project 2 in bringing innovation systems perspectives to this project. This aspect was further strengthened in 2005, when a review of the project on fodder innovations resulted in key recommendations to enable partners to scale up and out feed innovation strategies. From mid-2005, this project will be coordinated by Project 2 with inputs from Project 5.The SLP was established to build upon the expertise and investments of the CGIAR centres on food crops, natural resource management and policy/institutional analysis. It levers existing CGIAR system resources to address the global research needs of small-scale crop-livestock in a coherent and integrated manner. The members of the SLP include CIAT, CIP, CIMMYT, ICARDA, ICRAF, ICRISAT, IITA, IFPRI, ILRI, IRRI, IWMI and their partners.Over the years, the SLP has worked in the broad area of crop-livestock integration, bringing together expertise from the partner Centres. A number of results from this work were completed in 2004:• A typology of crop-livestock systems was developed for South Asia (India Sri Lanka, Nepal) and West Africa. Rice-livestock systems in the rain fed lowlands of southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) were characterised. The contribution of livestock and the drivers of evolution in these systems and opportunities for system improvements were identified;• The drivers of intensification and adoption of productivity enhancing technologies were identified in a trans-regional analysis of crop-livestock systems in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America;• Models to represent the key interactions in mixed farming systems were validated and made available to researchers in countries of Asia and Latin America;• A synthesis of the scale factors that affect the competitiveness of smallholders was performed.In 2004, the SLP almost exclusively focused its research on feed resources, particularly on identifying and breeding for feed traits that can be integrated into existing crop breeding and seed systems, both public and private. A keenly anticipated highlight expected in 2006 is major works on the construction and refurbishment of bioscience laboratory facilities at the ILRI Nairobi campus as part of the BecA hub development. This will be a major milestone in the joint plans of NEPAD, ILRI their partners to enhance bioscience research for agriculture and livestock in Africa. Another major highlight in 2006 will be the 2 nd EPMR of ILRI. It is anticipated that an initial visit will happen in the first half of the year and the main review in the second half.In line with the development of the BecA hub, ILRI anticipates increasing its emphasis on strategic livestock biotechnology research for vaccine and diagnostic test development and genetic improvement. For Projects 1, 2 and 3 we anticipate greater collaboration with partners on cross-cutting and crosssector poverty alleviation research. In these collaborations, ILRI will contribute livestock specific expertise and support research methodologies important for analysis of poverty alleviation and cross-sectoral lesson learning. For all projects and particularly Projects 1 and 5, we see continued expansion and cross-regional analysis of livestock system evolution. This will be in line with the continued gradual expansion of ILRI's geographic focus from East Africa to Asia and other regions of sub-Saharan Africa.Following the recommendations of the sub-Saharan Africa task force, ILRI is coordinating the development of the regional east and southern Africa MTP, which is due for submission in 2006.Livestock systems evolution: Changing demand patterns, urbanisation, and globalisation are major drivers of structural change in the livestock sector in developing countries. Understanding how livestock systems may evolve in response to these drivers of change is crucial for effective priority setting, targeting of interventions, and strategy formulation. A study will be conducted in collaboration with FAO to examine the key trends in livestock systems and opportunities for using livestock in reducing hunger and poverty, improving rural livelihoods, and facilitating sustainable management of natural resources. This study will use data and information from SSA, South Asia, and South East Asia to examine alternative scenarios of livestock sector development to 2030 and develop policy relevant options. The analysis will involve literature reviews, trend analysis, narratives, and quantitative modelling. The output from the study will include insights into plausible futures of livestock sector development in these regions, drivers associated with alternative trajectories, priorities for updating quantitative and modelling work. This study will enhance understanding of how livestock systems are changing now and in the future in various sub-regions where livestock production and demand is predicted to increase. The information will help ILRI and its development partners formulate more effective strategies and identify technology, policy, and institutional options to address predicted increases in demand for livestock products in ways that benefit poor people and the environment. The results from this study will be discussed extensively with policy advisers, major development partners, and donors.Future work in land use change and its implications for livestock keepers and others living in livestock based systems focuses on the interaction between climate change and land use. The Climate-Land Interaction Project (CLIP) is conducting research to determine the impact of land use change on the regional climate of East Africa, and the impact of current and projected climate change on land use and livelihoods of households in different crop-livestock and rangeland systems. It will involve a suite of modelling and other activities, including developing a regional climate model for East Africa, conducting land use and land cover change projections for the region, and cropand rangeland climate modelling. Michigan State University is the lead institution, while ILRI is leading the East African activities of the research. Other aspects of the research are being conducted by research institutions in the USA and UK. Results and feedback from simulation modelling of impacts on net primary productivity in crop and livestock based systems will be used to identify hotspots where current land use systems are most vulnerable to climate change. This will help identify how households in different areas may respond by adjusting livelihood strategies and land use. The study is expected to generate information, methods, and analysis that would enhance understanding and contribute to scientific knowledge on interactions and feedbacks between climate and land use and land cover, and modelling complex system. The results will also be used to inform policy processes in climate change by indicating possible impacts of climate variability upon livelihood systems and land use. These will have critical implications for agricultural research and policy, conservation and land use planning in the region. The lessons drawn from the regional analysis and country case studies will be used to inform a similar project in China.In 2006 there will be increased emphasis of livestock-poverty understanding to generate policy relevant information that can be used by key livestock sector decision makers in policy dialogue. A study will examine the spatial determinants of the prevalence of poverty for smallspatially defined populations in livestock based systems in Kenya. It builds on ILRI's past work on poverty maps, attempting to establish an analytical link between people and their local environments, i.e. between the tabular economic data (poverty incidence at the location level) and GIS based environmental data. Key livestock decision makers, policy advisers and government policy analysts, key users of this information, will be engaged throughout the study to get feedback from the study results. The research findings will be presented and discussed at a policy workshop involving key clients and stakeholders. It is expected that the results from this study can be used to improve targeting of anti-poverty programs by identifying more location specific policy options, including livestock based options that can be incorporated into poverty reduction strategies.The effort to demonstrate the use of poverty tools for other sector applications will be increased. Using the livestock sector as a case study, Project 1 will demonstrate the use of poverty tools such as poverty maps for informing poverty interventions. It will share data and information as well as experiences with applications of tools and analytical approaches in design of specific pro-poor livestock interventions with policy analysts from the health sector in selected countries East Africa so that they can enhance pro-poor policy making and project design in their own sectors. The lessons learnt from this experience will be shared and applied in other countries to foster cross-sectoral interventions in national poverty strategy processes in other developing countries.A study on poverty and environmental links will extend Project 1's past work on poverty maps to examine the links between poverty and ecosystems services. Research questions addressed in this study include where are the poor? Which areas provide which amount of ecosystem services? How does the location of poverty compare to the distribution of ecosystem services? Who has access to resources, who benefits, who bears the cost? Ecosystems services considered in the study include the benefits poor people derive from provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services in crop, livestock and wildlife systems. The data and information from the study will be used to identify propoor options from ecosystems services. It is expected that these results will contribute to mainstreaming environmental issues in poverty reduction strategies. The methodology linking spatial analysis of poverty and ecosystem services will enhance the capacity of national collaborators to better address poverty-environment links in policy, project, and programme interventions in other developing countries.A desk study will be conducted to develop methods, tools, and techniques that can be used to assess the socio-economic and environmental impacts of Tsetse & Trypanosomiasis interventions. The methodological guidelines will support decision making processes for monitoring and assessing environmental and social economic impacts as well as mitigating negative impacts of Tsetse & Trypanosomiasis interventions. A literature review will be conducted to synthesise information on methodologies for assessing environmental and socio-economic impacts and indicators that are used to measure impact. A methods manual will introduce concepts of impact analysis, present a conceptual framework for assessing socioeconomic and environmental impacts, and identify data requirements and appropriate tools and techniques for different types of impact analysis. The methods manual is targeted at practitioners implementing tsetse & trypanosomiasis control activities under the Pan-African TseTse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC). Programme participants provided inputs into the study design at a stakeholders' workshop. The guideline will be presented and discussed at a number of meetings involving key stakeholders working on tsetse & trypanosomiasis control, policy advisers, and donors in sub-Saharan Africa.To support decision making on priorities and resource allocation decisions on animal health constraints facing poor people, a study utilising spatial analysis and country case studies from East, West and Southern Africa, will be conducted to provide better information about the relative importance of individual livestock diseases and syndromes in terms of their impact on the poor in sub-Saharan Africa. This will be achieved by refining the methodology reported in an earlier Perry et al. (2002) and using a similar consultative approach, but with enhanced quantitative detail, to assemble the necessary data for its implementation. The study will involve macro level analysis of livestock production systems characterisation using GIS techniques. This spatially based livestock system characterisation will provide the basis for selection of case study sites where meso and micro level analyses will be undertaken. The analysis will generate an updated ranking of disease priorities, awareness about how disease affect the poor differentially and how it can be measured and streamlined, rapid methods for relevant data collection at different levels using different information sources. The results from the analyses will be documented and disseminated through papers, research briefs, and policy workshops involving policy advisers, researchers, and donors. The outputs from the study are expected to influence research priorities on poverty-animal health links as well as donor funding to support research on the priority animal diseases affecting livestock assets of poor people.Innovation systems: In 2006 full staff complement will be in place, the hub will be fully operational and activities of the joint programmes will be consolidated with active programmes involving numerous other partners. A learning-based monitoring and evaluation (action research, action learning, process monitoring) methodology will be under going testing in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia with the objective of enhancing the capacity within organisations, projects and communities for interactive learning and the sharing of livestock-related knowledge.Activities in a number of different projects across themes will be experimenting with a variety of best practice mechanisms and processes for the promotion of livestock innovation and propoor innovation capacity to mainstream innovation systems and participatory approaches within ILRI and among partners. Cross-cutting analysis of research results in countries including Ethiopia, India and Nigeria, will allow generic lessons to be drawn.In 2006, research activities to understand mechanisms that enhance participation of public-private sector will build on results in earlier work to produce a set of guiding partnership principles for livestock-related policy research in collaboration with the activities mentioned under innovation systems for 2006 above, thus ensuring that knowledge generated through livestock-related policy research leads to pro-poor policy change.The planned portfolio for 2006 has not changed significantly from that given in last year's MTP, although a clearer funding picture has enabled greater precision with respect to the location of the country cases to be studied, and a more proactive stance towards output 2. The main targets by planned output follow.• Benefits from and barriers to smallholder participation in contract farming of poultry and pigs or dairy in South Asia and Southeast Asia documented, and compared (targeted cases: India, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam); Work in mid 2005 is starting in India and Vietnam, and will form a corpus of case studies along with prior work in the Philippines and Thailand to produce the output target listed in 2006. • T. congolense-specific gene expression studies in the mouse and cattle: For the first time, we will have detailed description of the host processes that follow infection. These will be used to identify the processes by which the already-identified QTL exert their effect. The opportunities to compare mouse, cow, resistant and susceptible, make this a uniquely powerful approach; • Pilot field study of trypanotolerance QTL completed: N'Dama x Boran backcross animals under field challenge provide information on the effect of the QTL in this particular production system. The experimental herd could also provide the nucleus for future expansion of the cross for deployment or further studies. Data on farmers' perceptions of these animals and their possible value will be collected during this study• Centres of origin and genetic diversity for African and Asian chicken will be identified and distribution of diversity in African goats will be mapped: On the basis of mitochondrial DNA sequences in chicken and analysis of autosomal microsatellite loci in goats, it is expected that the centres or regions of high diversity for these two species in Africa and Asia (chicken) or in East and West Africa (goat) will be identified. This information will guide decisions on conservation and utilisation of these indigenous genetic resources at national and/or regional levels; • Scope of DAGRIS will be expanded in Asia with inclusion of chicken population information: The inclusion of chicken information into DAGRIS is a particularly challenging exercise as chicken populations of the developing world remain poorly described and information provided often refers to ecotypes rather than well defined breeds.Project 5: People, livestock and the environment In 2006, the SLP plans to refine its feeding strategy agenda in two ways. The first is to assess the tradeoffs between feeding crop residues and conserving them to enhance soil fertility through methods such as conservation agriculture. This is a major sustainability issue in different crop-livestock system contexts and the SLP partners plan to initiate research into the tradeoffs between these options in two contrasting systems. Another major feeding issue, given the rapid expansion in demand for poultry and pigs, is to assess options for the use of grains as feeds. The SLP plans to initiate a desk study to look at trends of grain feeding in croplivestock production systems in developing countries and their impacts on poor livestock producers and feed suppliers.The CGIAR has established a number of system-wide and eco-regional projects to improve the effectiveness of Centres in tackling key cross-cutting issues. ILRI coordinates one system-wide programme, the System-wide Livestock Programme (SLP) and participates in 7 others (see Box 1 below). ILRI's participation in these programmes is determined by the opportunities for livestock research to add value to the objectives of the programme. Livestock research could add value to some of the system-wide and ecoregional programmes that ILRI does not participate in, but in those cases the capacity, particularly of human resources, to respond to all such requests is limited. The links between poverty and livestock are varied and context specific. Research managers, scientists and their partners therefore need to enhance their understanding of the role of livestock in emerging trends, alternative futures, and poverty processes in rapidly changing situations to formulate effective policies, priorities and strategies for using livestock as an instrument for reducing poverty whilst mitigating negative environmental impacts.Project 1 provides an analytical basis for addressing present and future livestock development challenges, particularly as they relate to using livestock as an effective instrument for sustainably reducing poverty.Although the multiple roles of livestock in rural livelihoods and pathways out of poverty have long been recognised, the dynamic implications of these roles in reducing poverty have not been fully appreciated. This Project examines the broader roles livestock can play in building and sustaining economically viable livelihoods. Understanding trends and assessing alternative futures of livestock sector development provides a basis for setting priorities and guiding current and future decision making, including building capacity to respond to these changing environments and managing transitions in dynamic systems. Work on understanding poverty process and livelihood strategies serves as a basis for improving the pro-poor focus of policy and project design as they relate to livestock. An important thrust is to identify and integrate livestockissues into national development strategy processes that comprehensively address poverty such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). The development and application of decision-support tools provides analytical approaches that inform the choice, design, and implementation of targeted livestock-based technology, policy, and institutional interventions. The focus is on ex-ante analysis but builds on lessons learnt from ex-post analysis to inform future choices.• Analyze drivers of livestock systems evolution to formulate more effective technology, policy, and institutional interventions addressing present and future livestock development challenges, and improving the prospects for using livestock as an instrument for reducing poverty and sustainably managing the environment. • Understand poverty processes and livelihood strategies of livestock keepers and poor people dependent on the livestock sector, with a view to identifying targeted options that promote livestock in the design and formulation of poverty reduction interventions and strategies • Develop and apply decision-support tools to identify options and opportunities for livestock-based research and assess potential impacts and trade-offs of policy, technology, and institutional options on the livelihoods of smallholder livestock keepers, other poor people dependent on the livestock sector, and the environment.The project will strengthen its core competence in policy research, particularly in the development and application of scientific tools and analytical approaches to make its outputs more policy relevant for poverty reduction efforts. It will enhance its involvement in current policy dialogue and forge broader alliances with key stakeholders in governments, non-governmental agencies, development agencies, and private sector to ensure that the information and knowledge generated from its analytical work feeds into action research, policy analysis, and advocacy that raise the profile of livestock issues in national and international development agenda, .The outputs from Project 1 are linked to several GGIAR System Priorities. The outputs on trends and future scenarios of livestock systems development contributes to science and technology policies and institutions under SP5. The enhanced understanding of poverty processes and pathways into and out of poverty as they relate to livestock keepers contributes to the development of interventions concerned with rural poverty dynamics in SP5. The enhanced understanding of poverty and its application to identification and evaluation of livestock-based technology, policy, and institutional options is linked to income diversification and growth strategies under SP3. The outputs identifying pro-poor outcomes from utilisation of AnGR will contribute to sharpening the poverty focus of animal genetic conservation and utilisation under SP1.The strategy for implementing Project outputs emphasises three related strands. First, analysis to enhance understanding of dynamic livestock systems in specific policy environments; second, using this understanding to identify pro-poor options for livestock keepers and other poor people dependent on livestock systems; and third, drawing lessons to influence decision making on priorities, policies, and strategies for using livestock as an instrument for reducing poverty. Output 1 provides insights into how we can understand and characterise trends and future scenarios of livestock systems to help identify opportunities for poor people. The focus is therefore on responding to changing environments and managing transitions in different policy and institutional contexts. It develops conceptual and analytical framework of how livestock systems are evolving and uses tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and overlay of spatially referenced data and applies spatial models to enhance understanding of key drivers of change at sub-national, national, regional and global levels. This information is used to define context and develop country typologies based on their underlying characteristics. Scenarios of alternative futures are developed using qualitative narratives and quantitative modelling work to identify interventions and development strategies that provide alternative pathways under different policy and institutional situations. These pathways are explored in country case studies to develop, test, and validate hypotheses, conceptual frameworks, and decision support tools to identify and assess the best mix of technical, policy, and institutional options for achieving poverty and environmental objectives in different situations. These case studies generate lessons that are widely disseminated to policy makers and other key decision makers, who can influence the livestock development agenda, Output 2 focuses on generating empirical evidence to enhance understanding of poverty processes including poverty dynamics as it relates to livestock keepers. It develops and applies conceptual and analytical framework to understand the multiple role of livestock in livelihood strategies and pathways out of poverty and applies tools such as poverty maps to identify poor people, including poor livestock keepers and where they live. These tools help in the identification of case study sites and definition of household typologies. Case studies are carried out to test hypotheses on poverty determinants, pathways into and out of poverty and examine the role livestock can play in growth, diversification, and vulnerability strategies. Information from country case studies is synthesised to draw lessons on livestock-poverty links that can be applied in other country situations. The information and lessons from this output are used to inform and help sharpen the poverty focus in other ILRI Themes as well as feed into policy dialogue with national, regional and international partners. Delivery of outputs emphasises collaborative work with other ILRI Themes, national partners from client countries such as National Bureaus of Statistics; Planning Ministries, and Departments of Livestock, other development partners including international organisations such as World Resources Institute (WRI), FAO and World Bank Output 3 focuses on the development and application of tools and analytical approaches for identifying, targeting, and assessing livestock based interventions to enhance their impact on poverty reduction whilst mitigating negative environmental impacts. This output provides insights into questions such as where should we work, on what interventions, and how do we scale up promising interventions to maximise their poverty impacts. It uses GIS tools and databases to identify and characterise development domains, defined as geographic areas exhibiting similar underlying conditions or resource endowments. Development domains provide an analytical approach to assess development constraints and opportunities, investment and livelihood options, potential for technology adoption, and extrapolation of research results to other sites with similar characteristics. Development domains also provide a basis for identification of hotspots and pilot sites that represent specific policy contexts for more detailed analyses. Case studies are carried out in context specific situations to develop and test analytical tools and decision support systems that help screen policy and technical options, assess impacts, and facilitate discussions between different stakeholder groups. Outputs focus on opportunities and livelihoods enterprises in specific development domains. Intervention options are tested using field data in other ILRI Themes as well as with development partners in the NARS and NGO community. Output 3 also focus on assessment of socio-economic and environmental impacts and trade-offs involving economic, environment, equity and social objectives. Such assessments provide an analytical basis for identifying technical, policy and institutional options that are used to inform choices, policy and project design, and sequencing of livestock based interventions. Together with key stakeholders and development partners, outputs focus on what works and what does not work as the basis for identifying promising options that can be scaled up in development interventions to maximise poverty impactsThe strategy from output to outcome focuses on the clients and stakeholders the Project is aiming to influence and the mechanism that are used to influence their agenda. Project outputs are therefore targeted at other ILRI themes, researchers in national, regional and international research organisations, policy advisers, policy makers, development agencies, and donors. An important thrust is engagement in early dialogue with key stakeholders to help guide research outputs towards generating policy relevant information in a timely manner. In delivering output 1, key stakeholders at the national level are involved in problem diagnosis and development of baseline and alternative future scenarios for livestock sector development. Continuous dialogue with key regional and international partners such as sub-regional organisations and multi-lateral development organisations such as FAO, World Bank, OIE, and IFAD increases the likelihood that the objectives of the analyses are consistent with regional and global priorities. Early dialogue helps to ensure that research efforts are aligned with national, regional, and international development strategy process, providing buy in and inputs from key stakeholders who need the results to influence investment priorities and resource allocation decisions. At the institute level, the analysis and information is shared with other ILRI Themes and used in cross-thematic interactions and planning processes.Output 2 aims to target policy makers, development agencies and researchers to influence policy and project design as well as to share methods, data, and information with researchers to strengthen national policy research capacity in poverty analysis in relation to livestock issues. At the national level the focus is to identify and work with key livestock decision makers at high levels in the government structure. Focused analytical work that will be carried out to provide policy inputs that can be used to design pro-poor livestock initiatives, increase advocacy, and inform resource allocation decisions. A major thrust of this effort is to support national policy analysts through technical assistance and training to develop expertise in the application of poverty tools and techniques that focus on livestock-poverty issues. By engaging with a broad range of stakeholders we will facilitate dialogue between livestock decision makers and other decision makers in Ministries of Planning, Finance, and National Bureaus of Statistics to help raise the profile of livestock in national poverty strategies. Lessons from cross-country syntheses will be disseminated to key stakeholders through a wide range of publication products, workshops, seminars, conferences targeting major development partners such as FAO, World Bank, African Livestock (Alive) Platform, IFAD and African Union.Targeted livestock based interventions and synthesis of cross-country case study experiences will be used to provide documented examples of how decision support tools can be used to identify pro-poor livestock interventions. Promising options will be tested out in pilot interventions through direct engagement with NARS, NGOs, and other development partners. National analysts will be trained in the application of decision-support tools to strengthen their capacity to identify and evaluate pro-poor livestock interventions. Information and lessons learned will be shared with national researchers to help facilitate scaling up of promising interventions.The context in which the Project needs to provide policy relevant analysis and foresight is changing rapidly. The international development agenda already has the Inter-Academy report on science and technology, the UN Millennium Project Report, the International Assessment on Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, G8, UN MDG summit, and WTO trade talks. Progress in meeting MDG goals in Eastern, South Eastern and Southern Asia and the bleak prospects of reaching these goals in much of sub-Saharan Africa are posing additional opportunities and challenges for using livestock as an instrument for reducing poverty. Additional challenges arise from climate change and emerging livestock diseases such as BSE and avian flu. Thus, the livestock development agenda is changing rapidly in very dynamic contexts. Although there is a general recognition that ex-ante analyses and foresight is important, it is becoming increasingly difficult to anticipate change and contribute effectively with policy relevant research in an uncertain and unpredictable environment.Project 1 is forging new partnerships to deal with these complex policy processes and emerging developments in order to align its agenda with broader discussion on poverty and sustainable development. This project is based on the growing realisation that traditional research and technology-led development approaches have not had the expected social and economic impacts, and may no longer be appropriate in a world of rapidly changing technological perspectives and development contexts. Such analysis not only suggests that research is just one input to a dynamic system of knowledge production and use, but also has significance for the type of institutional and organisational capabilities that need to be in place to effectively support such systems. In seeking to respond to these issues, the project takes a fresh look at the question of how livestock research and development leads to poverty reduction. It does this through the identification and synthesis of lessons from on-going and new projects about the type of institutional settings and partner groupings necessary to drive pro-poor livestock innovation. It uses the contemporary concept of the innovation systems framework. This framework, while recognising that the scientific and technical knowledge bases in ILRI's project 3, 4 and 5 are fundamental within effective livestock innovation systems, reveals that the capacity to innovate is determined by the way different research and development actors link and interact. Furthermore, that a large element of this capacity relates to the nature of institutional settings (rules, norms, standards and routines) and how this influences knowledge sharing and learning within both research and development communities. A key capability of an effective innovation system is its ability to evolve and adapt in concert with changing circumstances. These circumstances maybe the opportunities presented by new livestock technologies; changing development imperatives and agendas of stakeholders; the challenges of evolving pest and disease problems; or competitive pressures particularly in international commodity markets. This project thus seeks to gain a clear understanding of the mechanisms that make research more effective and efficient, knowledge more contagious, processes more inclusive and outcomes more in favour of livestock-dependent poor people.In many developing countries the rate of social, technological, institutional and environmental change is accelerating with major impacts on the poor and their development prospects. Besides the opportunities that arise from the associated demands for livestock products in such dynamic livestock systems, poor people are also facing threats from the resulting transformation of the livestock sector. Unfortunately, neither traditional knowledge nor traditional research systems have kept pace with these needs and changes. Although systematic approaches for generating and disseminating livestock technologies from research through extension have worked well for certain clients and in certain settings, this linear paradigm has failed to respond effectively to the complex, diverse and dynamic needs of livestock-dependent poor people.The Project thus bases itself on three fundamental premises: i) that demand growth in the livestock sector offers a unique opportunity for the rural poor to escape poverty, ii) that to be relevant and responsive to these needs, livestock research and research organisation need to become less isolated, more interconnected and embedded within the innovation systems of livestock-dependent poor people, and iii) that learning-orientated monitoring and evaluation of research impacts on poor rural communities will identify more effective ways of employing livestock research for development, thus enabling significant value addition to broad development coalitions. If poverty reduction potential of dynamic livestock markets is to be exploited, livestock producers in the poorest countries need to constantly innovate to compete, cope and prosper. Response capacity needs to be enhanced in ways that both allow producers to innovate and at the same time safe guards the livelihoods of poor people linked with the sector. This is not simply a question of ensuring that production and processing technology is made available through adequate livestock research, extension and other support services. Response capacity includes the social and institutional arrangements to mobilise different sorts of knowledge in ways that create novelty on a continuous basis, thus ensuring that livestock science and technology are use more effectively for development.The specific objectives of project 2 are:• to understand the innovation system approach in different institutional and policy contexts that improve livestock knowledge production and use processes; • to elucidate the generic principles, using a learning-by-doing approach, that enhance livestock-related innovation and innovation capacity in ways that promote equitable wealth creation and sustainable development, and;• to identify and experiment with new patterns of livestock R&D partnership, within the evolving roles of public, private and civil society sectors, to enhance the use of different types of pro-poor livestock knowledge. These objectives will aid ILRI and its partners to ensure that livestock research can be more responsive and adaptive to new options and insights.The activities under this project should be seen as a natural progression, building on and strengthening past approaches through the application and scientific underpinning of learning and action research, science and policy studies, management science and institutional economics to systems analysis. This project is also not about ILRI trying to occupy institutional space beyond its mandate and comparative advantage, but rather about the types of organisational mechanisms and institutional arrangements that strengthen the capacity of other actors in the development process to use livestock science, technology and other types of livestock information for equitable wealth creation and sustainable development.The Enabling Innovation project falls under priority area 5, Improving policies and facilitating institutional innovation and capacity to support sustainable reduction of poverty and hunger, but has cross-cutting linkages to all other priority areas as it deals with questions related to how to enhance the impact of knowledge interventions, including those associated with scientific research, on poor farming communities in the developing world. Specifically, livestock knowledge generation, acquisition and use, and the policies and institutions that control such processes links to systems priorities 5b Science and technology policies and institutions and 5c, Enhancing innovations and governance in institutions for effective market chains and agricultural systems that benefit the poor. The promotion of livestock related innovation and pro-poor innovation capacity is clearly related to system priorities 5a, Global change, world food situation and the role of agricultural research and development in achieving the MDGs and 5c. Lastly, research in project 2 on the evolution of institutional and organisational arrangements to empower research and development partnerships is most clearly related to system priorities 5a and 5c.Since this type of work and capacity remains largely a new departure for ILRI, the project has also been focusing attention on the building of capacity within the organisation through the links with the CGIAR ILAC and PR&GA initiatives and the organisation of a number of training courses on the application of the innovation systems approach to livestock research. Similarly, project 2 is complimenting its own capacity through the initiation of a joint programme with IFPRI/ISNAR and the establishment of an Innovation Systems Research Hub in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Hyderabad, India with the UNU-INTECH to address critical research issues related to the strengthening of the capacity of agricultural innovation systems in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, in the context of poverty reduction, globalisation and rapid structural changes in the livestock sector.Output 1: This output area focuses on analysis of livestock innovation systems which address the needs of the poor in developing countries in Africa and Asia. The objective is to understand livestock innovation processes including the institutional and policy contexts that shape these processes. This would lead to an increased understanding of the knowledge bases and institutional contexts involved with new livestock-related (bio)technology and how changing social and economic environments affect the way in which such knowledge is applied for development. At the same time it will develop and implement a series of workshops and mentoring activities to introduce innovation systems approaches and their applications to ILRI and its partners with a view to internalising these new perspectives in the organisations involved. A common understanding is essential if ILRI and partners are to design projects from a broader perspective and to interact with a wide range of actors to experiment with new mechanisms and processes. Development of learning based monitoring and evaluation tools that can be used to develop process lessons and to characterise innovation capacity will also contribute to activities in output areas 2 and 3.Output 2: Although the innovation systems approach has been applied extensively in industry and more recently in agriculture, there has been less attention paid to its application in the livestock sector. Staff in this output area will take a 'learning-by-doing' case study approach to experimenting with ways to build innovation capacity in a variety of contexts. The first step will be to build a conceptual framework which will be used across case studies. This framework will facilitate analysis and enable establishment of generic principles for enhancing livestock related innovation and innovation capacity with potential to promote equitable wealth creation and sustainable development. In 2006 case studies addressing feeding strategies will be initiated and in 2007-8 strategies and mechanisms to institutionalise these principles at National level will be developed and tested. At the same time activities experimenting with innovative research and development approaches that lead to policy change in the dairy sector will continue, in close collaboration with Project 3 staff and partners. These activities will build on a retrospective analysis of earlier activities by ILRI and its partners as well as other partner groupings to identify principles and processes.Output 3: This output area is focused on the linkages and interactivity that are at the heart of innovation processes. A set of guidelines will be developed based on a series of studies including a) analysis of existing partnerships with ILRI and other organisations, including an evaluation of views of ILRI as a partner, using formal questionnaires combined with workshop activities and b) a set of case studies to evaluate partnerships and processes leading to pro-poor policy change, which will also contribute to output area 2. These partnership guidelines will lead to learning-by-doing case studies exploring innovative partnerships and funding mechanisms with development organisations and the role of the research partner in supporting development activities. Case studies will also evaluate the evolving roles and responsibilities of public, private and civil society sectors in the delivery of livestock services including extension in Africa and S Asia. The staff working in output area 3 include the team managing the ASARECA A-AARNET (Animal Agriculture Research NETwork) providing a laboratory for learning lessons about factors leading to successful partnerships. A review of the partnerships in AARNET in E Africa will complement a review of networks in SE Asia. The review in SE Asia will lead to an activity experimenting with novel learning networks involving consortia of researchers and development actors from the public and private sector. Funding is also being sought for a study to analyse attitudes and behaviours of innovation system actors that contribute to an enabling environment for effective farmer focused, pro-poor research and development.Output 1: Increased understanding of how and with whom best to implement pro-poor livestockrelated research including policy research could significantly enhance the use of the outputs generated through such research by decision-makers. Increased capacity within organisations, projects and communities to use M&E to enhance learning and livestock knowledge sharing would promote insights on how best to deploy available resources in livestock R&D. Such sharing of successes and failures in livestock innovation systems research and development would increase the awareness among the research, including other ILRI projects, development and donor communities of the guiding principles for doing 'business unusual' that could enhance the contribution of livestock R&D projects to poverty reduction. This in turn would provide increased understanding of the nature of livestock related innovation capacity, the policy and institutional developments required to build such capacity and the pathways and linkages that facilitate stakeholders' access to knowledge and enhance its impact on the poor.Output 2: Understanding livestock innovation systems is a first step towards a new paradigm in the design of livestock R&D. Activities in output area 2 will lead to sets of guiding principles allowing researchers to develop new ways of interacting with a broader range of actors and to work with partners to insitutionalise these approaches. Mainstreaming of these approaches will lead to changes in behaviour of R&D partners that result in improved social and economic impact, since new ways of working are key to using livestock science, technology and other types of knowledge more effectively for development. The use of qualitative and quantitative indicators to evaluate innovation in livestock R&D on its poverty reduction potential will result in the more efficient allocation of available resources and contribute to the pathways, linkages and processes that enhance innovation capacity within livestock R&D organisations. Livestock R&D services that are flexible, relevant and responsive to the needs of poor people in dynamic agricultural systems are more likely to contribute to a wider capability to innovate, and will offer new options and insights to broad development coalitions to using livestock science and technology for pro-poor outcomes.Output 3: An improved understanding of the types of services and partners groupings that enhance the capacity of livestock-dependent poor people to respond to changing circumstances would stimulate the continued experimentation by diverse livestock R&D actors to deliver an evolving range of services to livestock-dependent poor people. The broad dissemination of such lessons would contribute to the awareness among the research, development and donor communities about the types of institutional settings and partner groupings that drive pro-poor innovation. Lasting relationships between diverse groups of livestock R&D actors would facilitate the demand for, and supply of new knowledge and technology. Insights into the nature of livestock-related innovation capacity and the policy and institutional developments required to build this capacity will be gained through, for example: the evaluation of farmer field school activities and their specific role in the application of new knowledge and practices and; the mainstreaming of lessons learned from public/private sector-community partnerships for the delivery of livestock services. Such insights create an institutional environment that is conducive to the flow of knowledge, learning, collaboration, experimentation and implementation of innovations.In many developing countries the rate of social, technological, institutional and environmental change is accelerating with major impacts on the poor and their development prospects. Besides the opportunities that arise from the associated demands for livestock products, poor people are also facing threats from the resulting transformation of the livestock sector. To respond effectively to these changing circumstances local communities need to innovate at historically unprecedented rates. Unfortunately, traditional knowledge systems have not kept pace with these rapid changes, and although systematic approaches for generating and disseminating technologies from research through extension have worked well for certain clients and in certain settings, this linear paradigm has failed to respond effectively to the complex, diverse and dynamic needs of livestock-dependent poor people. Many donors now feel that although much CGIAR activities generate good scientific knowledge, the conversion of this knowledge into poverty reduction is weak. In addition, donors do no longer accept the traditional excuse that technology transfer is the responsibility of other organisations outside the CGIAR system. These criticisms have been accompanied by a concomitant reduction in core contribution, forcing scientist to seek ever more 'restricted' funding sources with resultant pressure on management to handle an increasingly complex set of scenarios. The Innovation Systems concept has been suggested as one approach to consider in this context. Project description ILRI and IFPRI have developed a joint programme to improve market opportunities within supply chains involving poor livestock keepers, the market intermediaries that serve them, and poor urban consumers of livestock products. ILRI's Project 3 is the main expression of the joint programme and the implementation of research on Pathway 3 out of poverty from ILRI's Strategy to 2010: 'Encouraging participation of the poor in livestock-related markets'. Following extensive consultation with stakeholders on several continents in 2003 and 2004, the Project was organised to have 3 areas of focus, spanning the range from production, procurement, processing and distribution, to final sale in local, national, regional and world export markets:• Smallholder competitiveness in changing markets: A mix of technical, institutional, and policy options are evaluated with respect to their contribution to making smallholder livestock producers and those market agents that serve them more competitive as markets integrate. The initial focus has been on smallholder dairy systems of Africa and Asia. Increasing emphasis will be given to poultry and pig systems in Asia and Africa, and to the role of private-sector solutions for incorporation of smallholders, such as contract farming.• Changing demand and market institutions: This focuses on the driving forces of change in the market channels traditionally supplied by the poor, including changes in demand for increased safety, uniformity, and higher levels of processing. It considers private sector responses to the new market opportunities, the impact of changes in industrial organisation back through the supply chain to procurement from small-scale producers, and means for helping the latter and small-scale market agents respond. It also assesses the impact of these changes on the price of livestock products to poor urban consumers and options for improving their access to low cost livestock-source foods that are safe.• Animal health and food safety for trade: This seeks to identify animal disease control, health and standards certification methods, and commodity-based strategies to improve access to markets by poor producers, their organisations, and countries. In addition to assessing costs of compliance with sanitary and technical standards in a developing country context, this research will examine innovative options for assisting small-scale producers in meeting standards. Risk analysis from veterinary epidemiology will be combined with analysis of the costs and benefits of different options, including the implications for both direct and indirect impacts on the incomes of the poor.Livestock products have long been a pathway for income generation by the poor. Rapidly growing and changing livestock markets in the developing world provide real opportunities-but also significant threatsto participation of the poor, due to the increasing integration of national and world markets, the changing nature of food demand in cities, and a changing regulatory environment.Increasing demand for livestock products in developing countries will be met by a variety of different agents through various processes. There is a need to assist these actors and processes to provide opportunities for the poor to become more involved as producers, market agents, employees, and consumers of cheaper and safer products. This will take active development efforts informed by relevant research.Although research has shown that many smallholder livestock products remain competitive with output from large-scale farms and with imports, it has also demonstrated major differences across small farms. There is considerable scope for helping the poor who might otherwise be left behind to join a market-driven pathway to improving their livelihoods through livestock, hence a focus on smallholder competitiveness.However even the most competitive small farms may not be viable if wholesalers will not buy from them. In response to changing demand for food safety, quality, and uniformity, market chains in many parts of the developing world are becoming more concentrated and demanding. Study of these processes can be targeted to the design of better marketing institutions to allow smallholders to meet new requirements, hence a focus on changing demand structures that motivate the need for new institutions.Beyond primarily national issues, major global procedures for control of animal disease set up in the 1950s are under challenge from changes in the global distribution of livestock production and consumption and from significant changes in technological options for disease control. The costs of compliance with standards developed for the industrial world are often hard for small-scale operators in developing countries to meet. Through case studies, research can demonstrate the high costs of compliance with traditionally accepted norms and evaluate the costs and benefits of alternative options for reducing risk of disease transmission, some of which may be more appropriate to particular developing country situations, hence a focus on animal health for trade.• Technical, institutional and policy options identified for increasing the ability of poor livestock producers to take better advantage of the changing demand opportunities and the structural context that they face.The competitiveness of poor producers is targeted through improved technologies, institutions and policies that address changing agro-ecological and economic contexts. The focus is farm-level, action-oriented, and recognises the complex, multi-objective nature of poor farm households. The work typically involves smallholders and small-scale market agents in mixed crop-livestock systems and intensifying peri-urban systems.• Technical, organisational, and policy options identified for more effective market access of poor producers and consumers of livestock products, given rising demand for uniformity, quality, increased convenience, and food safety.The primary targets are institutional options for smallholder livestock producers and the supply chains that serve them to meet new requirements for market trust and reputation in the context of changing demand. A secondary target is to assess options for reducing the costs of safe livestock products for poor urban consumers harmed by higher prices of more formally marketed products. Work is at the level of market agents within supply chains.• Impact on market access for countries, and for small-scale and poor producers of changing methods of animal disease control, and of health and standards certification methods assessed and options identified for them to comply with these changing standards and procedures. This work draws attention to the high costs of compliance with existing SPS and other standards facing producers in developing countries who wish to sell into rapidly rising export markets. It also evaluates in selected cases the costs and benefits of alternative procedures for equivalent levels of animal disease control proposed for developing countries. While the proposals of others may be evaluated with respect to costs and benefits for a given level of risk, the work does not involve lab-based work on standards-setting, nor widespread comprehensive risk assessments of the type used for standard-setting. Work is at the level of supply chains, typically export-oriented, including within regional markets. The focus of partnership with lab-based organisations (such as ARIs) and standard-setting organisations (such as OIE and CODEX) will be to attempt to demonstrate interactions between the context and practical requirements of developing countries with the technical options available in different parts of the world.Project 3 specifically targets CGIAR System Priority 3b (CGSP 3b) 'Income Increases from Livestock'. The project directly addresses the main concern of CGSP 3b that the rapid demand-led growth in livestock product consumption in developing countries presents opportunities, but that current policies, institutions, and structures unfairly favour large-scale livestock farming, and that poor livestock keepers may be driven out (CGIAR SP Sept. 2005, p. 46).The three outputs of Project 3 address the six bullet items in CGSP 3b under the 'research on markets' component of Specific Goal 1 (CGIAR SP Sept. 2005 pp. 49-50) : (a) understanding how changing demand (including for food safety) can displace smallholders (Project Output 2), (b) assessing the relative competitive position of smallholders (Project Output 1), (c) evaluation of different forms of collective action to overcome transaction costs (Project Outputs 1 and 2), (d) linking livestock development to changes in trade (in this case SPS) agreements (Project Output 3), (e) coping with the impact of concentration of supply chains (such as supermarkets) on procurement from smallholders (project Output 2), and (f) better linking rural production with expanding urban markets (Project Outputs 1 and 2).In addition, the Project contributes to Specific Goal 2 to analyze the social impact of livestock development through research on how to minimise the exclusion of smallholders and how to increase income sources of women.Finally, the Project directly addresses Specific Goals 1 and 2 of CGSP 5B, 'Making International and Domestic Markets Work for the Poor' (CGIAR SP Sept. 2005 pp. 74-75): (a) understanding the impact of changing consumer preferences on poor producers (Project Output 2); (b) understanding risk sources for improved SPS standards (Project Output 3); and (c) options to help smallholders to adjust to new demands for food safety and quality (Project Outputs 1 and 2).The strategy for implementing Output 1 (options identified for increasing the ability of poor livestock producers to expand viable livestock enterprises, or 'smallholder competitiveness') is based on three premises. First, the best chance for improved livelihoods of smallholders through livestock lies in those areas where demand is expanding and diversifying, which is implemented through work on promoting increased output and sales by small-scale dairy producers and smallholder producers of monogastric livestock products selling into urban markets or other growing markets. Second, promoting successful changes in smallholder farming requires a systems approach that considers the inter-relatedness of all farm-household activities and income sources, and the changing agro-ecological and economic context affecting incentives for smallholder producers. Third, success will require finding ways to mobilise the technical abilities and deep pockets of large private sector integrators and processors for the benefit of smallholder producers. Practically, this will be through forms of collective action such as coops or contract farming that allow smallholders to overcome imperfections in markets for information, credit, and other inputs and services, and become more attractive commercial partners, while also increasing their collective bargaining power. Success is likely to require increased use by smallholders of technologies that increase productivity through use of improved inputs and procedures, while making better use of undervalued family labour, a resource that often gives smallholders a competitive edge.In view of these premises, work under Output 1 is at the farm-level, focuses on areas serving growing urban demand, focuses on the promotion of change in farming systems, and is built around the role of private sector or cooperative market institutions and service providers. Examples would be private sector or NGO contract farming schemes, public-private partnerships for livestock service provision, and cooperative livestock development. Strong and growing demand for specific traditional livestock products that are typically not well suited to industrial conditions, such as native chicken, may also produce opportunities in markets for which small-scale production systems may be uniquely suited. Partnerships are used to ensure adequate technological input, particularly with other research Themes within ILRI and with the livestockrelated work of CIAT and ICARDA.The strategy for implementing Output 2 (options identified for more effective market access of poor producers and consumers of livestock products, given rising demand for uniformity, quality, increased convenience, and food safety) also starts from the premise that the Livestock Revolution is propelled by demand. However, it also focuses on the changing nature of demand for livestock products in end markets, how that influences market channels, and how that filters back to smallholder farmers. Thus it starts from the opposite end of the chain from farm-level work, the final consumer, and works backwards. Emerging market price premia in urban outlets for food safety and convenience are key indicators of these demand changes; thus in part this work will need to assess these trends and what the requirements are for product attributes to be remunerated in the market-place by these premia. Since many of the sought after attributes are hard to observe at the time of sale (such as safety, tenderness, etc.), market success is related to consumer confidence in the product and its specific supply chain. Thus the work also focuses on institutional options for product certification and grading in specific supply chains serving poor producers and consumers. Research will also need to assess the degree to which retail and processing operations for livestock products are becoming more concentrated, as in the case of widely observed supermarket chain development, and the implications of this for market access by smallholders and poor consumers, and what can be done to improve pro-poor outcomes. This work is highly complementary to work at other CGIAR centres with programs on improving market access for high-value food items, such as IFPRI and the World Fish Centre, and associated centres such as AVRDC, and also with work at ARIs such as Michigan State University; collaborative links are being forged in this area with these centres in order to capture synergies and achieve increased attention to livestock issues in non-livestock-specific fora. Outreach will also be extended to private sector retailers and processor groups.The strategy for implementing Output 3 (options identified for countries, small-scale and poor producers to comply with changing animal disease control measures) is based on four premises. First, animal disease control measures constrain livestock exports from developing countries to levels far below what they would be otherwise (less than 10% of world production by value is traded, compared to 40% for fish). Second, the current set of global export standards, developed for the industrialised countries, is not particularly well adapted to developing country trade with respect to product definitions, types of risks considered and realistic methods of reducing risks. Third, the current world system of regulation of animal disease control is likely to change radically over the next 20 years with changes in technology and a shift in the large majority of livestock production consumption to the developing countries from the opposite situation 20 years ago. Fourth, while there are many legitimate actors in these debates with competences far beyond those of the CGIAR, there is a lack of hard empirical facts on the cost of compliance with current standards in developing countries and on the balance between risks one the one hand, and costs and benefits of different strategies for risk reduction under developing country conditions on the other. Work under Output 3 thus focuses on assessing the costs of compliance with norms in selected cases and where possible for alternative (proposed by others such as ARIs as equivalent) procedures for reducing risks to comparable levels, to generate evidence for the contentious debates sure to come in the near future. The work associates approaches of veterinary epidemiology and economics, and is particularly in need of strong partnerships with lab-based ARIs and standard-setting agencies.All work under Project 3 is market-oriented, meaning that it starts from emerging needs of producers in responding to changing market opportunities, and seeks institutional ways to leverage the resources of a wide variety of public and private actors in providing options for increased but more sustainable production and sales by the mass of small-scale producers, especially the poor and disadvantaged. The focus is on building national ownership for results, and engaging key decision-makers at policy and private investment levels early in the research, through national collaborators. The strategy for achieving facilitating policy changes is premised on the belief that successful policy outreach is best pursued by achieving buy-in from trusted national policy analysts who will remain engaged in the countries concerned long after the Project staff has moved on. Work is thus highly collaborative and is expected to lead to a number of graduate theses and extended research visits to ILRI by senior research collaborators under Project 3 over the 2006-2008 period. Almost all written output is co-authored with national collaborators and virtually all sub-projects lead to restitution workshops.The primary strategy for promoting outcomes from Output 1 (smallholder competitiveness) is to work in areas where demand for the end product is increasing, in systems and commodities (including traditional products) where smallholder systems are competitive, and where viable options for overcoming supply response constraints are much sought after by producers. The action-oriented and inter-Thematic systems approach of work under Output 1 allows a more realistic assessment of what those constraints are. The focus on institutional solutions in farm-market linkages though producer associations, coops and contract farming to overcome identified constraints recognises both the reality that increasingly integrated market players are likely to find it less risky and cheaper to transact with collectivities as opposed to individual small-scale farmers. It also recognises that access on a broad scale by poor producers to extension, credit, and the certified inputs necessary for quality outputs will in many places require mobilisation of private sector resources from integrators. The focus on technologies particularly suited to smallholder resources and the crop-livestock synergies of mixed farms, recognises the fact that sustainable commercialisation of livestock keeping by the rural poor in many areas both requires and promotes changes in prevailing farming systems. Finally, a key strategy for promoting outcomes from Output 1 is to integrate research into larger development projects, to allow direct opportunities for scaling up and impact through the efforts of development-oriented partners associated from the beginning of the research.The primary strategy for promoting outcomes from Output 2 is again to focus work on areas where market needs are changing, but to assess the implications of this for poor producers and consumers through the impacts of these changes in demand on retailing and processing. The rise of supermarkets in developing countries has tended to be associated with increased consumer demand for food safety and convenience; both private and public sector decision-makers are responding to these rising demands. Yet formal sector solutions to the demand for food safety, such as pasteurisation or UHT processing, are not always the most pro-poor solutions, at least not in the immediate future, especially in relatively poorer and lower income countries such as in most of Africa. In the case of raw milk marketing in East Africa, for example, research has revealed that traditional systems are quite efficient and quite safe; traditionally consumers boil the milk before consumption the same day. However, as market chains become longer, more anonymous, and the amounts handled by each trader larger, food safety issues become more of a barrier. The solution advocated by some of enforcing pasteurisation of all milk sold in towns has been shown to eliminate poor consumers from the market because of much higher prices. There is some evidence that enforcing such regulations will make the small-scale raw milk cooperatives and NGO schemes currently serving poor producers unable to compete with large-scale private and public processors in urban areas. However, research shows that improved systems for handling raw milk at low cost, which is of great concern in the region to producer associations and NGO groups involved in rural development through dairy promotion, for example, can be developed that meet the demand of both poor consumers and provide an acceptable degree of food safety.Building on ILRI's experience with milk safety issues, the strategy for producing outcomes from outputs for other commodities under Output 2 will be also be to assess changes in consumer demand for product attributes and associated consumer willingness-to-pay for these attributes (such as food safety). This permits an assessment of viable commercial strategies to tap into new market opportunities, and thus can be expected to be of interest to retailers and processors. This also directly responds to the expressed concerns of regulators who are acutely conscious of trade-offs between improved safety and raising politically-sensitive urban consumer prices of livestock products.The primary strategy for promoting outcomes from Output 3 is to generate solid empirical evidence from a limited number of carefully selected case studies that serve as 'inconvenient, but indisputable facts' in highly contentious international debates about the appropriateness of current standards and their impacts. Such facts established by rigorous inter-disciplinary work (veterinary epidemiology for risk assessment and economics for cost/benefit analysis, for example) are in truth few and far between in a domain where opposing and congruent commercial interests are ever-shifting. Advocacy claims in this area are often based on analysis that associates solid work in one discipline with back-of-the-envelope calculations in another that are nonetheless necessary for interpretation of the significance of the combined result. Consequently, these arguments are often easily discounted by opposing viewpoints. Inconvenient facts that are both hard to dispute and well-publicised, however, are taken up by the side they are favourable to, and then used by them in policy debates.Since ILRI does not have the widespread resources to engage in work that sets standards and that mandate is fully occupied by others, the strategy is to focus on selected multi-disciplinary case studies that illustrate the sorts of problems that standard setters need to turn their attention to in developing countries, without impinging on their work. The strategy is to use ILRI's understanding of the developing country context in these areas and pro-poor bias to influence key technical and regulatory groups. Every effort is being made to develop and maintain partnerships with competent agencies in the SPS area, and in fact such agencies are an important target for the results of this work.Monogastric livestock product consumption in developing countries increased at about 5% per capita per annum for the last 30 years in developing countries; milk, fruits and vegetables, and beef grew at about 2 to 3 % and cereals by less than 1 %. These changes are driven by growth in population, income, and urbanisation. Longer, larger and more anonymous supply chains between farmers and consumers for perishables necessarily lead to increased demand for food safety. The rise in the share monogastrics means that purchased input supplies become more prominent in the total costs of production.Two features of the response to this demand growth are the scaling-up of farm size in fast growing areas and the concentration of supply chains as they strive to meet changes in consumer demand. Such concentration is often manifested by the consolidation of specialised meat and dairy outlets, and by the rise of supermarkets in terms of urban market share handled. On the other hand, pro-poor NGOs are also noting the opportunities for poverty alleviation inherent in livestock production. Pro-poor interventions, whether public, NGO-led or private, need to focus on market-oriented institutional development and collective action, partnerships with the private sector such as contract farming, and the policy frameworks necessary to support these items.Issues in animal health that affect trade are becoming increasingly prominent; major changes in the way the developed world accomplishes these functions are likely to occur as technological options develop and the core constituencies for livestock product trade in the industrialised world shift from producer interests to processors and retailers, as has already happened for fish, fruits and vegetables. Ensuing debates will undoubtedly be contentious, and mandate a solid core of hard facts to inform those concerned about the interests of the poor in developing countries. Increasing participation in target countries of smallholder livestock farmers in vertically coordinated schemes for livestock production and sales and evidence of uptake by contract farming schemes of options identified by the research to make vertical coordination more pro-poor Increased attention and resources devoted to investment in dairy best practices in target countries.Improved incomes from livestock production of vertically coordinated small-scale livestock producers in targeted schemesIntended User Outcome Impact Markets for indigenous small ruminants and poultry in selected SSA countries assessed and options for improving the marketparticipation, competitiveness and livelihoods of farmers of these commodities evaluated. Benefits from and barriers to smallholder participation in contract farming of poultry and pigs or dairy in selected countries of South Asia and Southeast Asia comprehensively documented and promoted.Strategies to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of smallholder producers in selected countries of W Africa and South Asia through increased production and sale of indigenous cattle, small ruminants and poultry comprehensively evaluated in the context of market incentives.Policymakers, development investors, small scale market agents, private sector dairy processors and retailers; producer associations Policymakers, development practitioners and investors, and producer associations working in marginal areas Growth of market-oriented smallholder livestock production in targeted regions of South Asia using practices and strategies advocated Renewed interest by researchers and private sector for use of indigenous breeds within small farm production contexts Decline in the rate of decrease in smallholder livestock producer market share in targeted countries Higher and more reliable incomes to smallholder engaged in indigenous livestock productionTechnical, organisational, and policy options identified for more effective market institutions and servicing of small-scale, poor and disadvantaged producers and consumers, in the context of rising urban demand for reliable quality, increased convenience, and food safety of livestock products (3-5 years)Policymakers and analysts, regulatory authorities, Development investors, public and private sector traders (wholesalers, processors and retailers) of livestock products, consumers, producer associations, researchers for the technical and organisational options. Policymakers and analysts, and regulatory authorities for the policy options to facilitate the uptake of the technical and organisational options by the actors above.Increased sales by smallholders and disadvantaged producers (poor and women) to urban formal sector outlets; awareness increased of technical, institutional, and policy options for increasing the amount of smallholder livestock product sales to urban outlets among policymakers, producer associations and development investors Increased recognition among market actors about options available beyond traditional formal sector responses from the Improved livelihoods of small-scale producers and market-agents through greater participation than would otherwise be the case in supply chains serving high-end urban markets for livestock products Improved producer responsiveness to consumer demand for better food quality and safety reflected in premium prices received for better quality and safety, and lower prices for safe food to the urban poorIntended User Outcome Impact developed world to meet public and private sector food safety and quality requirements and regulationsDevelop improved framework for applying quantitative risk analysis of milk safety in selected African cases by 2006 Dairy marketing and processing agencies/enterprises, dairy cooperatives, dairy Boards and policy agencies in East Africa Improved framework for milk market regulations in selected East African countries based on the application of quantitative risk analysis Improved livelihoods of small-scale producers through greater participation than would otherwise be the case in high-end urban markets for dairy productsKey trends in changing demand attributes for milk in a sample of developing countries in East Africa and South Asia identified and documented Extent and significance of trends in emerging price premia in urban outlets for livestock product attributes such as safety and convenience decomposed and assessed in selected Asian and African cases.Policymakers and analysts, development investors, public and private sector wholesalers, processors and retailers of livestock products, consumers, producer associations, researchers Increased awareness among small-scale producers and market operators in project areas about potential for price premia for selected products with different attributes Increase in the share of smallholder production going to higher priced markets in targeted countries leading to higher incomesPolicy and institutional options identified for improving food safety in raw milk marketing channels in a sample of countries in East Africa and South Asia Options identified in selected Asian cases for self-sustaining supply chain certification schemes that allow small-scale producers and marketing agents to benefit from emerging price differentials for credibly certified livestock products Policymakers and analysts, regulatory authorities, development investors, public and private sector traders, wholesalers, processors and retailers of milk products, consumers, producer associations, researchers in East Africa and Southern Asia Increased awareness among small-scale producers and market operators about quality and safety requirements in the market chain in target countries Increased producer and market agent compliance with quality and safety requirements in stable urban highvalue supply chains for raw milk products leading to higher incomes Animal diseases represent a major threat to the livestock assets of the poor in low-input systems and also limit the productivity and income generation potential of these assets. The need to increase food production is putting pressure on governments and individual farmers to introduce-through substitution or crossbreeding-supposedly more productive but less adapted exotic livestock genotypes into stressful, low-input, production environments. Such introductions usually expose poor farmers to increased risks. These environments are invariably dependent on indigenous livestock genetic resources, which have evolved in diverse local environments and which carry unique genes that define productive and adaptive capabilities.Securing and building these assets for the poor is a cornerstone of poverty alleviation. The overall goal of the Project is to mitigate threats to livestock assets so as to reduce risks of worsening poverty. This is achieved by applying biotechnological tools to reduce mortality and morbidity through enhanced animal health and improved animal genotypes generated through better understanding and use of inherent genetic diversity. Use of locally adapted and disease resistant livestock and the development of appropriate interventions such as diagnostics for disease surveillance and vaccines and therapeutics for disease prevention and treatment, are considered effective ways through which the livestock assets of the poor can be secured and multiplied. In marginal areas, a combination of animal health (vaccines and diagnostics) interventions and use of well characterised and improved indigenous genotypes will underpin the strategy. In rapidly changing systems, for example in higher potential areas where smallholder dairying is increasingly important, animal health interventions to reduce disease risks are most critical. In addition, while the focus will be on technologies to secure assets, the project will also generate impacts through increased productivity and improved market access, especially in intensifying systems. In the genetics area, interventions will include those targeted at improving income generation potential. Thus, in addition to work on characterisation and mapping of the diversity of livestock genetic resources in developing countries, the development of appropriate breeding strategies to improve productivity in low-input systems will be an important activity of the Project. This will include an analysis of options that might combine the use of both marker-based breeding technologies and conventional breeding approaches, taking into account traits most relevant in these production systems. Current vaccine and diagnostics research focuses on priority killer endemic livestock and zoonotic diseases of Africa some of which are important in other regions as well. Potential value of work on emerging livestock diseases as well as on issues of health regulations associated with market access will be assessed on the basis of poverty impact potential, alternative suppliers and ILRI's comparative advantage. The approach being taken in both vaccine development and genetic improvement work is one in which ILRI works closely with consortia of strategic international collaborators (including ARIs & private sector) and national partners to ensure that the best practices (both technical and institutional arrangements) can be applied in other diseases, animal genetic resources and in other regions of the world under different settings.The thrust of this Project is securing of livestock assets in environments where disease is recognised as a major constraint. To this end, development of vaccines and diagnostics for the major killer livestock diseases as well as characterisation of, and breeding for, disease resistance are the pillars of the Project. There is great demand for safe, effective and thermostable vaccines which can be delivered and used in systems characterised by infrastructural constraints. In addition, diagnostics remain a major constraint to the development of livestock disease control and eradication programs for many important diseases in developing countries. In Africa, emergence of sub-regional economic communities is creating opportunities for regional trade, the exploitation of which will be greatly enhanced by creation of disease-free zones through availability of simple cost-effective diagnostics, including 'point-of-transaction tests' for important diseases. The Project focus is on those livestock diseases which affect the poor but are not covered by other actors in the livestock health domain (i.e., 'orphan diseases'). Broad genetic characterisation to map diversity in livestock resources is seen as a critical step towards the development of strategies for both improved utilisation and conservation strategies. This is because there is very little known about the genetic diversity in indigenous livestock breeds and potential for genetic improvement in developing countries. Questions include: how much diversity exists in specific populations; uniqueness of populations; what breeds/populations to conserve; what conservation methods to apply; and how the genetic diversity in indigenous breeds can be utilised to generate greater benefits for the poor livestock keepers, without compromising the diversity. Although there are similarities between crop and livestock conservation and use issues, there are also non-trivial differences, and hence possible approaches. These arise from a combination of differences in the biology and, importantly, in the state of scientific knowledge. For example, there are no working models for livestock genetic improvement in low input systems in developing countries, nor true equivalents of the seed systems that are critical for the success in crop production. Furthermore, given the time required to effect genetic change in livestock, it is even more critical that development of breeding objectives take into account on-going evolution in the production systems, hence there is need to understand the system changes and the key drivers.Progress being made in genome sequences of livestock species is opening new ways for the identification and improved understanding of economically important traits and genes. These developments are catalysing the emergence of new tools, e.g., bioinformatics and gene expression units-such as microarrays, the application of which represent new opportunities with significant potential for gene discovery research. These are common platforms/technologies for both vaccine research (i.e. antigen identification) and genetic improvement. The current genetics research focuses on the identification and characterisation of genomic regions implicated in trypanotolerance in cattle and resistance to helminth parasites in small ruminants. With its limited capacity, ILRI cannot do all that is required in all these spheres. ILRI, thus, through strategic alliances, seeks to build capacities and strategies that allow NARS partners to scale out outcomes. A new mechanism for supporting partners is through the Biosciences east and central Africa (BecA) which is an innovative joint venture involving NEPAD, ILRI and stakeholders of countries in the sub-region and is providing a platform of state-of-the-art research facilities and capacity for application of biosciences in agriculture. These partnerships and institutional arrangements are allowing ILRI to expand the impact of its expertise-in such areas as immunology, molecular epidemiology and animal genetics-and research outputsfocusing on what gets done rather than just what ILRI does. While the research is organised into three teams (which correspond to the Project objectives)-characterisation of genetic resources, animal disease control and, genetic improvement-animal health/adaptive attributes remain a unifying element. This, plus use of common technology platforms ensures that complementarities and synergies are fully exploited and duplication avoided.The specific objectives of the Project (which also correspond to the key outputs of the Project) are, therefore:• Output 1: Vaccines and diagnostics to help reduce animal mortality and morbidity;• Output 2: Adaptive traits and genes identified and characterised, their potential role in breeding programs assessed, and breeding strategies appropriate for low-input smallholder systems developed • Output 3: Genetic diversity in indigenous AnGR quantified, its distribution mapped and strategies for conservation and enhanced use developedThe implementation of the Project will involve close collaboration with international and national scientists, private sector partners, extension personnel and, in some cases, farmers and policy makers. In addition, graduate training is embedded in many of the project activities. Thus, the Project will enhance, through participation in research and in application of specific biotechnologies and training, the expertise and capacity of NARES and other strategic partners to undertake research and development utilising both traditional and advanced biotechnologies in animal health and genetics. To better target the activities, priority diseases for which vaccines and diagnostic work will focus will be determined in collaboration with Project 1. Work on characterisation and improved utilisation of animal genetic resources will also focus on populations that are especially relevant to developing countries, particularly those native to these regions.The CGIAR System priority setting process identified research on sustainable management of natural resources as a means to achieve both sustainability and poverty alleviation. Work on characterisation and improved utilisation of AnGR will contribute to System Priority 1 which aims at sustaining biodiversity for current and future generations and specifically to 1c which focuses on conservation of indigenous livestock. Gene discovery aspects of this Project are linked to System Priority 2d on 'Genetic enhancement of selected species to increase income generation by the poor' and more specifically to goal 3 on 'smallholder livestock improvement for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses'. Research in this Project is also linked to Priority 3, ' … opportunities for high-value commodities and products', specifically to 3d, 'income increases from livestock' goal 1 of which includes research to reduce production risks through development of low cost vaccines and diagnostic tools and development of breeding strategies which include breeding for adaptive attributes such as disease resistance.An important element of the strategy of this Project is the establishment of a network of collaborators considered essential for its success, both through facilitating access to essential technologies and ensuring that research products are relevant and are eventually applied in the local contexts. A key strategy is to stay alert to technological advances to ensure that the best of relevant science is accessed, assessed and, where appropriate, brought to bear on this research. For the ECF vaccine-a key expected output in this medium-term-the strategy to deliver target outputs (proof of concept and field trials to facilitate licensing) revolve around strategic partnerships: collaboration with The Institute for Genomics Research (TIGR) and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) formed the foundation for the sequencing of the parasite and subsequent identification of candidate antigens. In this MTP period, trials to demonstrate proof of concept (that the antigens in combination with appropriate delivery systems can confer protection), the output target for 2005, will be conducted in the ILRI animal facilities. Following proof of concept, the private sector partner, in collaboration with ILRI, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the Department of Veterinary Services of the Kenyan Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development (MOLFD) will conduct closely monitored field trials (initially using purchased experimental cattle and subsequently in farmers' herds) (output target for 2006), to facilitate registration/licensing of the vaccine (2007/2008).As in the vaccine research, the diagnostics work will also involve laboratory and field components: Activities in the laboratory involve evaluation of the diagnostic test using sera from experimentally inoculated cattle. This will be followed by evaluation in multiple laboratories using sera from animals naturally infected under field conditions to validate data obtained with experimental sera. This will facilitate registration/licensing and development of production modalities with the involvement of a private sector partner to enable roll out for wider use.A significant part of the gene discovery research (development of resource families and associated genotyping and phenotyping) has, because of the nature of the work, been done within ILRI, but has been driven by graduate students and postdoctoral scientists, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa. Continuing over the next three years, relevance of the identified QTLs/genes (output target for 2005-06) will be tested on-farm and will involve close collaboration with NARS scientists, extensions service personnel and farmers. In parallel, gene expression studies (2005-06) will be undertaken within ILRI labs. On-farm assessments of the QTLs will provide a basis for pilot studies in West Africa to develop/refine strategies for incorporating QTL information in breeding programs . With regard to mapping of the diversity of AnGR, the strategy is one in which country or region-focused studies are driven by local scientist(s), some of whom are graduate fellows undertaking the research as part of their student projects. Continent level analysis is achieved through strategic selection of samples (from the national/sub-regional subsets) that are representative of unique sub-populations that constitute the populations of interest, e.g. African cattle. Laboratory analyses have been and will continue to be undertaken both in ILRI and in national institutions, where feasible. Thus, the NARES are essentially involved at all stages: formulating hypotheses (NARS scientists), sampling (policy makers in approving Material Transfer Agreements and scientists and farmers in field sample collection), DNA extraction, genotyping and/or sequencing, data analysis and write-up (scientists, principally graduate/research fellows). The same strategy and partnership approach is applied in other aspects of the AnGR work, including on-farm phenotypic characterisation. Substantial progress has been made on broad diversity mapping in African cattle and evolutionary links to populations of other regions established. A comprehensive mapping of the Yak diversity in Asia has been completed. Mapping of the genetic diversity in African sheep and goat populations are well underway as is similar work on African and Asian chicken diversity. The current MTP will see expansion of diversity assessment into Asia, principally focusing on chickens and small ruminant, and development of the Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System (DAGRIS). The recently opened (2005) joint laboratory between ILRI and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science in Bejing (P. R. of China) as well as ILRI office in New Delhi (India) are pivotal to such expansion into the Asian continent.The output delivery strategies described above for both vaccine and diagnostics research have in-built mechanisms to effect desired outcomes (that is, reduced mortality and improved productivity through application of these technologies). The outputs themselves are tailored to address identified needs-high priority killer livestock diseases-and then special consideration is given to known delivery issues that constrain application of such technologies in the target production systems. Thus, safety, thermostability and cost-effectiveness are considered important requirements for all 'new generation' vaccines deployed in tropical environmental contexts of developing countries. In addition, the research involves consortia designed to ensure that the product development to consumption chain is complete. Encapsulating a public-private partnership domain, this continuum, consists of Advanced Research Institutes (ARIs) (sources of technology), the private sector (for technology sourcing as well as expertise in product development, licensing and marketing) and NARS (field trials of products, facilitating local licensing/registration and links to local policy makers and product consumers). In this process, business planning is key. The process includes analysis of prospects, demand, and likely benefits; proactively engaging the private sector in the research process, with clear understanding-informed by business planning-that they have responsibility for delivery of these products to farmers; engagement of farmers in field testing and policy makers in the research process as soon as proof of concept is demonstrated. On-farm trials, closely involving farmers, will ensure that technology uptake is based on farmers' understanding of its relevance and effectiveness (hence potential impact) and will facilitate rapid adoption. While recognising the role of government departments of veterinary services in policy/regulation, the research strategy places the responsibility for technology commercialisation on the private sector and ensures that engagement of these stakeholders happens early enough in the research process. The overall research strategy will ensure that, by the time the technology is taken to the field, adoption and impact issues will have been thoroughly analysed. This is an approach which can be generally applied to the development of vaccines against orphan diseases in different production systems.The two adaptive traits currently being addressed under output 2, trypanotolerance and resistance to helminth parasites, have been identified as high priority constraints to livestock production and improved tolerance/resistance is considered a potentially powerful means of improving productivity without compromising adaptability and environmental health. To translate the target outputs into desired outcome-i.e., improved animal genotypes with better performance (reduced mortality, increased productivity) and/or generation of new, novel, gene intervention strategies, the gene discovery component of the research will be followed by two key parallel activities: on-farm trials to evaluate relevance of identified quantitative trait loci; and additional lab-based research to understand the gene function and associated host-parasite interactions that underlie tolerance or resistance. The former will involve on-farm performance evaluations working with NARS and farmers, thus allowing farmers to assess relevance of the technology while also getting the skills required to apply it.The expected outcome from output 3 is enhanced use of promising, indigenous AnGR in breeding programs and establishment of conservation programs. To translate the target outputs, principally generation of diversity assessment data, into this outcome, will require active dissemination of the generated data/information to stakeholders. The Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System (DAGRIS) is one avenue to achieve this. Other avenues include awareness creation through collaborators involved in the project, tailor-made training/awareness workshops and courses, publication of results through appropriate outlets accessible to key stakeholders and links of diversity assessment outcomes to utilisation activities within ILRI's own research and those being undertaken by NARS (where advise on choice of breeds for breeding programs is required).For all the outputs, the research process involves engagement of key relevant partners both in the planning and implementation, ensuring that outputs are tailored to capacities and needs of partners, including farmers.It is assumed that facilities, transporters and legal and policy environments continue to allow movement, storage and manipulation of biological material, including germplasm (especially DNA), disease organisms and their vectors and the conduct of appropriate animal trials. Collection and movement of DNA for genetic diversity studies, it is assumed, will continue to take place without major sovereignty and technical barriers so long as CBD provisions and related undertakings are met. For products of animal health research to reach the farming community, there is need for effective systems of delivery at national and community levels, not dependent on the public sector. In addition, it is assumed that, despite the continued absence of requisite infrastructure, policy environments will allow NARS and extension services to work closely with partners such as NGOs, the private sector and farmer organisations to facilitate delivery of products at low enough costs that can be accessible to poor farmers.Government, parastatal and private breeding programmes, NARS, extension services, including veterinary services/laboratories, and individual livestock producers and producer groupsIntended User Outcome Impact in breeding programs assessed, and breeding strategies appropriate for low input smallholder systems developed (Africa and Asia) (3-4 years) strategies.Gene This project seeks to respond to the increasing pressure on the natural resources that sustain the livelihoods of poor people and to provide livestock-based options to increase agricultural productivity. It also aims to promote integrated natural resource management strategies suitable to the resource endowment for a range of stakeholders that will ultimately contribute to reducing poverty. By using and developing holistic, integrated approaches, project activities focus on enhancing the role of livestock in contributing to the sustainable livelihoods of poor households, in particular the natural resource and human health assets. The research explores five areas of opportunity, and within these includes strategies to learn generic lessons from past and ongoing research in specific hotspots in terms of agricultural systems and geographic regions. These five areas can be summarised as follows: options to address and to better understand the opportunities and challenges emanating from livestock and water interactions, where livestock may help to improve the overall productivity of water if appropriately managed; the multiple roles of livestock in systems undergoing dynamic changes; feeding strategies and the related potential for increased livestock contribution (e.g. through manure) to intensifying crop-livestock systems; forage diversity; and, largely through a facilitative and catalytic role, understanding the positive contributions (e.g. in child nutrition and in mitigating HIV/AIDS) and negative impacts (particularly through zoonoses and other issues in urban areas) of livestock to human health. For all these areas, approaches designed to address the needs of a range of end users in existing and emerging systems are used and the project works with a diversity of partners, often playing a facilitative and brokering role for new partnerships.In many parts of the World, burgeoning populations, trends towards urbanisation and changing market economies are placing new demands on small scale farmers, their livestock, and the environments in which they subsist. Such changes also present opportunities which include providing options that can help farmers to respond to such dynamism in ways that enable them not only to benefit from the new demands for livestock and their products, but to do so in sustainable ways that contribute to their livelihoods. This project addresses research at the interface of people, their livestock and their environment where systems are undergoing transition in order to provide enhanced understanding and new solutions to the challenges presented. When there are such dynamic changes, stakeholders are more likely to respond positively to new options. Demands for agricultural water are increasing. Our research seeks to develop tools to enhance understanding of the potential of livestock to contribute to water productivity, and to provide new options to enhance such benefits. In systems facing transitions because of diverse pressures on land resources, especially pastoral and agro-pastoral systems, there are opportunities to develop new ways of sharing information and approaches with the diverse groups of stakeholders often involved in such transitions, where livestock may have a role to play in facilitating smooth transitions and providing ecosystem services. Feeding livestock and balancing their needs with increasing demands for agricultural land has resulted in research directed at improving the fodder quantity and quality from food crops. This needs also to consider feeding strategies and balancing livestock feed options with other demands for crop biomass, as well as other roles of livestock such as the provision of manure. Forage resources may fulfil specific niches that enable farmers to respond to new market demands for livestock products and having databases and information on forage species is designed to enhance the access of different partners to such materials. Opportunities for livestock to contribute to human well being are being studied through literature review and a pilot study, and such aspects also need to be balanced with improved understanding of potential detrimental human health effects, especially in relation to urban agriculture.To better understand livestock-water interactions and develop livestock-related options for improved management, use and conservation of water in SSA and Asia.To define strategies and processes for better management of livestock in agro-pastoral and pastoral systems to improve and sustain livelihoods of the poor in SSA and Asia • To identify strategies to reduce health risks and improve nutritional benefits associated with livestock keeping • To develop approaches for improved feeding options and natural resource management in intensifying crop-livestock systems in SSA and Asia• To save, study and use forage diversity to contribute to agricultural sustainability of smallholder farming systems Studies on livestock and nutrient cycling and the role of livestock in intensive production systems, are not included in the current research portfolio because there are other players engaged in these areas. ILRI will continue to liaise with such players to ensure that appropriate opportunities, should they arise can be developed in the future. It is also important to note that the objectives focus on the livestock aspect, but frequently involve partnerships with others who have capacities in, for example, water management, integrated natural resource management, human health and nutrition, crop breeding.Research on water-livestock interactions, and on livestock roles in land use change relate in particular to system priority 4, Poverty alleviation and sustainable management of land, water and forest resources, and also have potential linkages to system priority 2 Producing more and better food at lower cost through genetic improvements, with respect to the potential of, for example improved food-feed crop varieties as well as to system priority 5, Improving policies and facilitating institutional innovation to support sustainable reduction of poverty and hunger. Human health and livestock nutrition research is cross cutting in terms of the system priorities and relates to system priorities 3b Income increases from livestock and system priorities 4 and 5. Forage diversity work is at the core of system priority 1, Sustaining biodiversity for current and future generations, especially sub-priority 1b Promoting conservation and characterisation of under-utilised plant genetic resources to increase the incomes of the poor. Research on feeding options and mitigating feed scarcity links to system priority 2, especially the research undertaken on food-feed crops, and increasingly, with the agenda moving towards a more holistic systems approach, to resource management issues as elucidated in system priority 4.Development of livestock-related options for improved management, use and conservation of water necessitates an improved understanding of the role of livestock in relation to agricultural water productivity. The project aims to do this both by developing a framework for water productivity in relation to livestock, and by using this together with information on livestock-water investment options, to bring livestock to the fore in the agricultural water agenda. Sharing such approaches with local, national, regional and international partners, especially in the context of the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) will allow for validation of the framework, which is first being undertaken in the Nile Basin,. Alongside the increased understanding of such technically focused issues, related policy issues will also be explored. Bringing this information together for SSA will generate preliminary approaches and lessons that may also be used in other regions.For livestock systems undergoing dynamic changes especially in land use, there are new opportunities for improved natural resource management. This research aims to understand how such changes impact on ecosystem services and especially the role of livestock within these, together with potential trade-offs that need to be considered if such systems are to be improved. Beginning in east and west Africa where there are established partnerships and projects, such understanding will be, through working with stakeholders and communities, translated into policies and strategies that can be evaluated for improved livestock husbandry and integrated natural resource management. Such evaluations will lead to options that may be tested in wider areas of east and west Africa, and taken up by other stakeholders. Likewise, the generic lessons and approaches can be considered in contributing to similar studies in Asia and in bringing together globally relevant lessons.Strategies to reduce health risks and improve nutritional benefits associated with livestock keeping require a dual approach to investigate the positive and negative aspects. For the former, a combination of literature reviews and case studies will be implemented to identify generic issues in terms of the role of livestock and animal source foods in human nutrition, and specific options for Ethiopia, which, combined with broader understanding will then be translated into strategies for, initially, other locations in east Africa. A particular positive aspect of livestock products to be considered will be the role in mitigating directly or indirectly the effects of HIV/AIDS. ILRI's role here is mostly facilitative and catalytic, aiming to provide research partners with information to orient research. The negative aspects of livestock and human health will focus on urban areas in terms of developing appropriate participatory risk analysis frameworks and methodologies. Cysticercosis is a particular zoonosis that is inherently selftargeting to poor people and efforts to develop a global campaign for this disease will not only lead to specific products that address this issue, but also to an increased understanding of the strategies, institutional partnerships and roles needed to address other zoonoses.Intensifying crop-livestock systems, especially in South Asia and SSA present new challenges in terms of feed requirements for livestock and opportunities for the livestock to contribute to integrated natural resource management. Research already underway to develop approaches to identify improved foodfeed crops, and increase the availability of such genotypes will be built upon through collaboration with Project 1 to target such research in the future in relation to potential impact. The implementation and partnerships here are closely linked to the SLP. Identification of systems and regions together with appropriate strategies (together with Project 2) for partnerships will further contribute to improved options for both feeding and natural resource management.In order to ensure that the forage diversity for which ILRI has a global responsibility is saved, studied and used to contribute to agricultural sustainability of smallholder farming systems, our strategy includes ensuring that the material is managed to international genebank standards, that clean planting material is available for distribution and that an appropriate duplicate collection is established for safekeeping. With this basis, information on the material will be increasingly made available to diverse end users and will work together with Project 2 to develop innovations to facilitate access to fodder resources by partners. Information on the forage resources will also contribute to a global catalogue of such material.In order to be effective in delivering outputs, it is important to choose carefully with whom, how and where the research is implemented. The choice of where is based on changing livestock systems where there are good opportunities for new livestock-based interventions to make a difference, and often a need to better understand the role of livestock in such systems. This in turn provides generic lessons, approaches and at times technologies that may be subsequently adapted and applied in other regions where similar systems begin to undergo change. In relation to rapidly changing environments, opportunities and challenges, innovation systems approaches are essential to ensure that diverse groups of stakeholders are able to respond as the systems change. For many of the research topics included within Project 5, this necessitates close collaboration with Project 2.Research on livestock water interactions focuses on the Nile Basin in the first instance, and includes at least three different systems within this region. Collaboration with Project 1 is important in domain delineation. The project contributes to the CPWF which provides a vehicle for interactions with partners both within the Nile Basin, and subsequently to other water basins and beyond. At the local level, the research engages with NARS and NGOs, enabling players here to include appropriate livestock based strategies in their water productivity agendas.ILRI's research in East and West Africa is providing opportunities to learn lessons from different approaches used in the two regions, to identify commonalities that may then be applied elsewhere. Understanding spatial dimensions of land use change links to Project 1 skills. Research on sustaining lands and livelihoods implemented with NARS, ARI and CG partners, involves local engagement with policy makers and working with communities on aspects of ecosystem services. Livestock focused research on land and biodiversity management and on conflict, within the broader agenda of the Desert Margins Programme facilitates other local and international partners to better integrate livestock aspects into development strategies.Human health and livestock interactions necessitates new partnerships with medical and nutrition agents as well as veterinary partners (and thus links to Project 4) with ILRI playing a facilitating role in most instances. In urban areas, working together with, for example the Urban Harvest initiative, to engage municipal authorities is also important. Discovering new institutional relationships and mechanisms is important in bringing the livestock perspective to the human health agenda. Linking this research to policy and food safety issues, as well as risk analysis, entails collaboration with Project 3.Research on mitigating feed scarcity and increasingly on the natural resource management issues that emerge from a systems approach in this area focuses on crop-livestock systems, especially in South Asia and West Africa where the systems are intensifying rapidly. In this context, important strategies include influencing private and public suppliers of germplasm to make dual purpose varieties available and provide rapid screening tools for selecting feed traits, working together with grass-roots organisations to understand how knowledge can be shared and ensure that farmers' perspectives influence our research (with Project 2). Working together with Project 1, will help to better target regions and systems for such research. Many of the collaborative ventures in this research area are also closely integrated with the System-wide Livestock Programme.Ensuring that forage genetic resources are available and accessible to end users involves working together with other CG and ARI partners in the context of global public goods, sharing of knowledge and ensuring appropriate genebank standards. Working with local partners to better understand the needs of end users-be they national genebanks, or development partners seeking forage solutions-is also important here. Again, links with the System-wide Livestock Programme are important.Addressing research so that major changes taking place in livestock systems are translated into positive benefits for the poor means working with both conventional, but also new groups of partners who may contribute to the driving forces in these changing systems. Research on livestock and water engages a new range of partners, including NARS, CG centres and advanced institutions who had not previously worked together. Working together with community groups and local policy makers becomes more important for livestock-environment issues. New ways of engaging with those involved in the private sector and in seed production and input supply services as well as NARS, extension services and NGOs features strongly in research addressing aspects of feed resources. New strategies involving health agents and municipal authorities at local levels are needed for the research on livestock and human health.Because of the strong interactions with NARS and other national partners for much of the research implemented in Project 5, their continued (and perhaps increased) interest and ability to participate are key ingredients in ensuring the aims of the research are achieved -working together in new and innovative partnerships and finding different ways of working that are needed to respond to dynamic systems is a new challenge to be addressed. It is anticipated that such will be further strengthened through participation in initiatives at regional and sub regional levels, for example, the development of sub-regional MTPs in SSA. Availability of funding for staff and for specific projects is in many cases a key component, and clearly will increasingly relate to the system priorities, and the links to these have been explained above. The CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme (SLP) is a multi-centre initiative that supports the CGIAR and Millennium Development Goals of alleviating poverty, achieving sustainable food security and protecting natural resources in the developing world. It provides a mechanism for the CGIAR system to gain efficiency in the use of its resources. The Programme seeks to add value to the outputs of individual CGIAR centres and their partners by creating and exploiting synergies on crop-livestock research to ameliorate feed scarcity in small scale crop-livestock farms.Eleven centres (CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRAF, ICRISAT, IFPRI, IITA, ILRI, IRRI and IWMI) and their local and international partners constitute consortia to devise research-based solutions to ameliorate feed scarcity in crop-livestock systems through: a) better targeting opportunities for feed interventions, b) developing superior dual purpose (food and feed) crops, c) developing livestock feeding strategies based on the efficient use of land, water, soil nutrients, food-feed crops, forages and agro-forestry options, and d) identifying institutional innovations to build the capacity of networks of providers of feed-related services and technologies to poor crop-livestock producers.Beyond its research program, the SLP serves as a system-wide focus for information and knowledge exchange on crop-livestock systems. Approximately 20% of the SLP budget is allocated to information and knowledge exchange through its website http://www.vslp.org and through joint publications.As agriculture in the developing world intensifies in response to the increasing demand for food, small scale farmers integrate crop and livestock production as a way to use their resources efficiently. In mixed crop-livestock systems livestock are a means for improving farm productivity, income and market opportunities and overall household livelihoods. Lack of feed in sufficient quantities and of adequate nutritional quality is a broadly distributed factor that limits the ability of crop-livestock producers to reap fully the benefits of their livestock assets. Without appropriate feed innovations, producing the feed required to meet the increasing demand for meat, milk and eggs will result in further degradation of the natural resources that sustain the livelihoods of the rural poor.Feed resources is an area in which Centres can collectively add value to their individual research. Although the eleven Centres are involved in the development of an integrated and coherent CGIAR-wide research program, their individual contribution to specific objectives and outputs depends on their main areas of expertise. Crop and forestry Centres provide the basic building blocks through their germplasm improvement and distribution programs. ILRI provides expertise on feed traits required for superior dual purpose crops as well as an overall livestock innovations perspective. Non-crop Centres such as ICRAF, IWMI and IFPRI add expertise in natural resource management and policy/institutional analysis to improve the sustainability and impact of feed resource improvement. In 2006 and beyond, the SLP will extend its focus on feed systems to look at the tradeoffs between the removal of crop residues for use as livestock feeds and their recycling for soil improvement in conservation agriculture strategies. This will allow the SLP to provide additional value to existing Centres activities in crop-livestock systems for both poverty alleviation and sustainable production.Through consortia involving CGIAR Centres and their partners, the SLP seeks to ameliorate feed scarcity in small scale crop-livestock systems by:• Developing and applying approaches to identify systems and areas with large feed deficits and to assess ex-ante the potential impact of alternative feed interventions.• Selecting superior cultivars of food-feed crops and exploiting sources of genetic variability for further improvement. • Developing feeding strategies based on the efficient use of land, water, soil nutrients, food-feed crops, agro-forestry options and forages.• Devising generic approaches to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of networks of institutions involved in feed innovations.By developing novel approaches to screen crop germplasm for the nutritional value of their residues and applying these approaches in current crop genetic enhancement programs, the SLP contributes to the CGIAR System Priority 2, 'producing more and better food at lower costs through genetic improvements', and more specifically priority 2a (maintaining and enhancing yields and yield potential of food staples).Introduction of agro-forestry options and forages in combination with food-feed crops to nourish livestock are common ways to diversify the use of land and sources of income for small scale farmers. By developing feed technologies to improve the productivity and competitiveness of poor livestock producers, the SLP contributes to the CGIAR System Priority 3, 'reducing rural poverty through diversification and emerging opportunities for high value commodities and products', specifically priority 3b (income increases from livestock).The SLP develops ways to increase feed availability while maintaining or enhancing the productive capacity of the resources available to small-scale livestock-producers. The Programme aims at developing approaches to increase feed availability through the sustainable use of land, water and soil nutrients. In doing so it contributes to the CGIAR System Priority 4, 'poverty alleviation and sustainable management of water, land and forest resources', specifically priorities 4c (improving water productivity) and 4d (sustainable agro-ecological intensification in low-and high-potential areas).The use of feed technologies to support social and economic change in developing countries is hampered by the lack of effective networks of institutions that make these technologies and other related inputs respond to the needs of small scale farmers. By studying the processes involved in feed innovation systems and identifying options to enhance the capacity of relevant actors to meet these needs, the SLP supports the CGIAR System Priority 5, 'improving policies and facilitating institutional innovation to support sustainable reduction of poverty and hunger', specifically priority 5d (improving research and development options to reduce rural poverty and vulnerability).The SLP targets key crop-livestock systems in areas with high numbers and densities of poor crop-livestock producers, across the range of regions where its participating Centres work. These include west and central Sub-Saharan Africa (WCSSA), east and southern Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSSA), south Asia (SA), south-east Asia (SEA), west Asia and north Africa (WANA) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In SEA the Programme targets sweet potato-pig and rice-ruminant systems, in SA it focuses on sorghum/millet-legume-dairy, in WCSSA on sorghum/millet-cowpea small ruminants, in ESSSA on maize-agro-forestry-dairy/small ruminants, in WANA on barley-legumes-range-small ruminants and in LAC on dual purpose cattle and crop-small ruminant systems in the Andes. Across these systems, the SLP conducts research in four areas related to feed development.Targeting priorities for research on feed resources Within crop-livestock systems numerous research alternatives exist that can be applied to improve access to and supply of feed resources. Objective and quantitative approaches are required to identify the opportunities that offer the greatest returns to investment in scientific development-oriented research. With a leading role of ILRI and with the involvement of CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICRAF, IFPRI, IITA and their partners, this research uses spatial analysis and geographical information systems that integrate demographic, agro-ecological and agricultural systems data, to identify hot spots with high feed deficits. Options for developing research-based solutions of international relevance are assessed ex-ante using a framework and model of croplivestock systems. This research aims at identifying the research opportunities that offer the greatest potential for impact on poverty alleviation and sustainability. Once the framework and models developed in this research are validated, the Programme intends to use them to evaluate the research proposals for its new initiatives.Staple crops are the primary source of livestock feed in small scale crop-livestock farms. They constitute a key entry-point for the improvement of mixed farming systems and also provide a unique opportunity to create and exploit system synergies. The SLP brings together crop breeding and animal nutrition scientists from partner institutions within specific social, economic and agro-ecological conditions to develop superior dual-purpose (food and feed) cultivars of the most important crops that sustain crop-livestock systems. The work conducted by CIMMYT, ICARDA, ICRISAT, IITA, ILRI, IRRI and their partners has focused on cereals (millet, sorghum, maize, rice) and legumes (cowpea, pigeon pea, groundnut, grass pea). It is envisioned that with leading roles of CIAT, CIP and IITA this work will expand to root and tuber crops (sweet potato, cassava). The research involves evaluating germplasm and crop breeding materials for feed quality traits using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy. This methodology allows for the rapid and low-cost screening of large number of entries. Criteria for selection are developed and used to identify superior cultivars in the existing genetic base and sources of genetic variation are identified for further improvement through conventional and market assisted selection. Assessment of tradeoffs between food output and quality and quantity of feed guide the identification of options to maximise farm productivity. Intermediate users of research outputs will be the national and international research crop breeding programs and seed releasing agencies. Functional seed systems (both private and public) will play a key role in the delivery of research outputs to end users and beneficiaries (poor, small scale farmers). These systems exist already in some countries and are evolving in many others in response to intensification and market orientation of agriculture.In developing countries food-feed crops provide grain, tubers and roots for human consumption as well as fodder/crop residues for feeding ruminant livestock and, in some cases, monogastrics. In these countries the use of cereals as livestock feed, mostly for monogastric animals, increased from 128 million tons in 1982 to 194 million tons in 1994. Projected trends estimate that by 2020 the use of cereal grains as feed in the developing world will amount 519 M tons without significantly increasing cereal prices. With a leading role of IFPRI and ILRI and involving CIMMYT, ICRISAT and their partners, the SLP envisions to conduct a study on the global trade of grain for use as livestock feed and its implications for small scale farmers and, in general, for developing countries.Meeting the increasing demand for meat and milk in developing countries in ways that poor livestock keepers benefit from their animal assets requires sustainable options to produce the feed required. Without proper technologies, feed production (and disposal of animal wastes) will impose a greater and severe stress on the already degraded natural resources of the poor. In the longer term, this process can result in lesser opportunities for enhancing the livelihoods of small scale farmers. The SLP conducts research to develop the strategies and technologies required to reverse this down-spiral cycle of poverty and resource degradation. The Programme pursues three lines of work. First, in systems characterised by low soil fertility soil and animals compete for the nutrients contained in crop residues. In these systems CIMMYT, ICRISAT, IITA, ILRI and their partners conduct research to assess the tradeoffs and synergies among animals, crops and soil in order to maximise the efficiency of nutrient use. Second, in systems where water is the main constraint, the Programme is developing an initiative led by IWMI and with inputs of ILRI to minimise the competition for water between livestock and other uses and to maximise, at the watershed level, the productivity of water in relation to feed and drinking needs of animals. Third, in most small scale mixed farms, the diverse patterns of land use result in dynamic and complex forms of feed budgets at the farm level. CIAT, ICRAF, ILRI and crop oriented Centres investigate options to optimise the use of land through the integration of agroforestry options, forages and crops in order to develop feeding strategies that meet the nutrient needs of animals in a sustainable manner. These three lines of work aim at developing strategies and generic models of broad relevance and applicability to increase the productivity and sustainability of crop-livestock systems.The development and successful adoption and use of feed technologies by smallholders require the synergies from a wide range of existing and new partnerships and delivery systems. Within the SLP, ILRI, ICRISAT, IITA, CIAT, ICARDA, ICRAF and their partners conduct research aimed at enhancing the capacity of networks of organisations involved in rural development to respond to the needs for feed of small scale, poor farmers. With initial focus on India and Nigeria, they seek to understand how actors in these networks can interact better to address the needs of the poor. They design experiments to introduce changes in these interactions and draw generic lessons on how institutional capacity can be enhanced. These lessons are shared internationally and options are sought for their application in other countries, thus bringing an international dimension to this novel research domain.In the four areas of research the Centres work in consortia that involve national and regional partner institutions, including research institutes, universities, non-governmental organisations, private enterprises and policy-making bodies. They involve local communities and other stakeholders to ensure that the research is led by the needs of its beneficiaries and that the solutions developed match their culture and resource endowment. They link with other initiatives to disseminate globally the knowledge generated.The frameworks and models developed by the Programme and applied to set priorities for feed interventions result in better targeted research and development investments and thus enhance the likelihood of these efforts to have positive impacts on poverty alleviation and sustainability.Working in a multi-disciplinary mode involving agro-forestry, crop, livestock, social and systems analysis scientists, the SLP partners develop approaches to assess the role and value of crops, fodder trees and forages as feed resources. These approaches are applied in current crop breeding programs in international and national research organisations to select cultivars with superior value in traits of economic importance as feed. At later stages in the researchdevelopment continuum, seed systems provide the mechanism to make the superior dualpurpose cultivars available to end users and beneficiaries.Potential tradeoffs among feed traits, food yields and the need for soil conservation in sustainable agricultural strategies are analyzed and used to develop tools to aid decision making. Strategies are developed to produce food and feed through the sustainable use of land, water and soil nutrients. These strategies are translated into tools usable by national research and development partners as well as by policy/decision makers.The principles that underlie the functioning of successful feed innovation systems are understood by analyzing the ways in which networks of institutions involved in the use of feed technologies operate. These networks include associations of farmers and local communities, extension services, official and private enterprises involved in production and dissemination of seed, feed and related inputs, non-governmental organisations and policy/decision makers. As the principles that govern feed innovation systems are understood, opportunities to enhance the capacity of these networks are identified. It is hypothesised that the enhanced institutional capacity results in the provision of high quality feed-related services to poor crop-livestock producers.The overall outcome of the SLP is therefore international and national research systems, networks of service providers, development actors and policy makers that are more able and interact better to address the needs for feed of small scale, poor crop-livestock producers. This enhanced capacity of research systems and development oriented institutions is the mediating mechanism to achieve impact on poverty alleviation, food security and sustainable development.Lessons learned and knowledge generated are shared in a number of formats, both web and print based. The Programme website serves as both a mechanism to share research results and a system-wide source of information and knowledge on crop-livestock systems.In the developing world, population growth, urbanisation and higher incomes of urban settlers are leading to an increasing consumption of meat, milk and eggs. By participating in livestock related markets, poor farmers can generate income and enhance their livelihoods. Integrating crop and livestock production is a common farming strategy practiced by small scale farmers around the world in response to the increasing demand for livestock products. By 2010 more than 90% of the milk and 75% of the meat will be produced in crop-livestock systems with a concomitant increase in importance of food-feed crops. The increasing demand for animal products is imposing a greater pressure on the natural resources. Although non-food functions of animals tend to decrease in importance, livestock continue to play a key role as source of draft for cultivation and transport and nutrient cycling, and have both positive and negative environmental effects. These trends call for innovations that, while improving the livelihood of small scale farmers, also increase the efficiency of production and maintain the natural resource base. Liberalisation of international trade and demand for higher quality products are influencing how animal source foods are produced. Animal care, feeding practices and disease control are changing in response to higher standards of food safety. Regulatory mechanisms on these aspects of livestock husbandry are expected to increase in developing countries. In order to support rural development within this context and to make small scale farmers more competitive for them to participate in local and international markets, national governments will strengthen the capacity of institutions (government and non-government, public and private, formal and informal) to provide services and inputs and to facilitate the linkage of small scale farmers with markets. Such interventions, with funding support from agencies that promote international development, are required to achieve the Millennium Development Goals set by the international community.CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRAF, ICRISAT, IFPRI, IITA, ILRI, IRRI and IWMI.NARS of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Syria, Thailand, Vietnam, South Africa and Zimbabwe.Cornell University (USA), Hohenheim University (Germany), Oxford University (UK), Texas A and M University (USA), The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (Denmark), University of California (USA), University of Durham (UK), University of Edinburgh (UK) and University of Reading (UK)The CGIAR Centres are permanent members of the SLP. Their function is to collectively develop a global strategy, identify priorities for the Programme in a coherent manner and provide scientific inputs in their core areas of expertise in the development and implementation of specific research activities. The role of non-CGIAR organisations in both developing and developed countries is project-specific and consists in participating actively in the preparation of proposals and implementation of research activities. ","tokenCount":"27458"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4f6c26cd81634494d2a60a1ea5eb4d04","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/30482b6d-1ac8-434f-bfe6-2df1697cf953/retrieve","id":"399328396"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4f526f5b-997d-4b6b-bb1d-c863bbc4bb36","pagecount":"5","content":"Lablab (Lablab purpureus L.) is a fast-growing selfpollinated annual legume extensively grown in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa (1). It has bushy and twining growth habits and is grown by smallholders for young leaves, pods, seeds, and is an excellent pasture legume for cut-and-carry dairy cattle production and for fattening sheep (2). Lablab is one of the most palatable legumes for cattle and its hay or silage improves the overall quality of high fibre roughages such as grass hay and cereal stover, mainly during the dry season (3).Lablab can grow in a variety of soils, from sand to heavy clay, in a pH range of 4.5-7.5 (4). The crop is known to do better than other warm-season legumes across a range of soils and can also withstand drought/heat stresses utilizing strategies such as early plant vigour, fast ground cover, a long and deep root system, high root biomass, small leaflets, and maintaining a high leaf water potential (5,6). It grows best at lower elevations 600-2000 m above sea level, in tropical regions with 500-600 mm of annual rainfall on average (7).ILRI forage factsheet-March 2024Lablab often grows quickly and can cover ground in a single growing season (6). Furthermore, it competes well with weeds once established in the field (7). It can tolerate light frost and cold (8) and is less susceptible than other warm-season legumes to root pests and diseases, except for the root knot nematode (9).Lablab exhibits poor growth in saline and waterlogged soils and invasive tendencies of climbing varieties in the fields due to its vine growth (10). It causes bloating in livestock, through accumulation of excessive gas, if fed in large quantities as green fodder (11).Field preparation and establishment: Before planting lablab, the seedbed should be firm, which allows for best seed-to-soil contact (12). Furthermore, the soil surface should be clear of large stones or grass clumps and even enough to enable field operations (13). Tillage should be done using a combination of ploughing and discing, discing alone results in a pulverized, compacted seedbed (14).Intercropping: Lablab improves soil nitrogen concentrations through immobilization or incorporation of nitrogen into the soil as green manure and in crop rotation programs (15). It is suitable for intercropping systems when grown with, for example, maize, pearl millet or sorghum (16,17). During intercropping, lablab seeds should be sown at a proper row spacing and can be sown at the same time or two weeks after maize planting, when the maize seedling is 15 cm high, depending on the growing environment and season (7). When intercropping lablab with maize, a spacing of 25-30 cm was reported best for maximum yield (18). During intercropping of lablab, the seed rate should be 3-5 kg per hectare (11).Seed rate and sowing time: Lablab is grown during the main rainy season and its suitable planting time depends on growing agroecology (18). In Ethiopia, sowing of lablab takes place from the end of June in lowland agroecologies to the beginning of July in mid-altitudes (19). Lablab seeds are slow to emerge therefore planting in a well-prepared seedbed promotes emergence. Lablab can be drilled (depth of 5-7 cm) or broadcast at a rate of 30 kg/ha (18,20).Temperature: The crop grows best where the average daily temperature is between 18 and 30°C, but it can survive lower temperatures, down to 2.8°C, for short periods and it can tolerate light frosts (8). At lower temperatures, lablab is known to perform better than other warm-season forage legumes such as velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) or cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) (21,22).Seed treatment: Treating seeds with a fungicide before sowing is recommended as this improves establishment and seedling vigour (23).Fertilizer application: Lablab can grow without the application of fertilizer but in sandy soil conditions, phosphorous and sulphur are recommended for best performance (24). Furthermore, for enhanced biomass yield and feed quality composition, application of 100-150 kg/ha of nitrogen, phosphorous and sulphur (NPS) fertiliser annually, or farmyard manure, has been reported to be best (25).Weeding: At early seedling stage, weeding is highly recommended for better growth performance but once established, lablab can compete well with weeds (26, 27). Generally, the first weeding should be carried out within 15 days and the second at 45 days after emergence (17).Major pests and diseases: Pod borer (field) and bruchids (pod eating at storage) are two major pests that regularly damage lablab (28), and the roots are often eaten by nematodes (29). Ootheca mutabilis, Podagrica uniforma, Nematocerus acerbus, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Helicoverpa armigera, aphids, Colletotrichum spp., and Curvularia spp. have all been found to impact lablab production (30).Grazing: Lablab is a fast-growing legume that can provide fodder within three months of sowing. However, it should not be heavily grazed before 10 weeks after planting (31). Heavy grazing hampers leaf regrowth and forage yield (11).Forage can be harvested from the flowering stage or at the early green fruit stage 6-18 weeks after planting (32). Lablab is known to yield 6-9 t/ha green forage (33). It is mainly an annual forage crop but if harvested with a 20 cm stubble, it is possible to harvest several ratoons although with a lower yield (34), and seasonal yields of 2 t/ha leaf or 4 t/ha stem and leaf are common in sub-humid subtropics (21). Lablab pods begin to dry around the fruit's base rather than the top, and seed should be collected before the upper pod matures to protect from weather and insect damage (35).Lablab (Lablab purpureus L.) for human food and livestock feed 3Lablab can set seed in the first year of planting (11). When planted as an intercrop, seed yields of forage types are 0.5 t/ha, and 1-2.5t/ha when grown as a sole crop (11,21). Hand-picking is used to gather immature pods every 3 or 4 days. Mature seed harvesting begins 12-15 weeks after sowing in early cultivars and continues until 45 weeks in late cultivars (11).In early maturity stages lablab is a rich source of dietary crude protein (CP) (24-28 %) and is low in fat (1.02%) but high in fibre (3.6-4.7 %) at the early growth stage (13). Lablab forage's amino acid profile supplies 110-115% of the necessary amounts of lysine and threonine when fed solely (36). It does, however, fall short in sulphur-containing amino acids and only covers roughly half of the requirements for cystine and methionine (36). Its leaves have a CP content of 21-38% in early growth stage although this is much lower for the stems (7-20%); grains contain 20-28% CP. In general, the CP content of lablab decreases with increasing maturity (20). Lablab feeding should constitute up to 30% of the daily basal diet, and its digestibility ranges from 55-76%, commonly >60% (for leaves) (37). Lablab can be used alone or in combination with maize or sorghum to make silage (38). Generally, its nutritional profile is reported as low in neutral fibre detergent (360-538 g/kg) dry matter (DM), acid detergent lignin (46-107 g/kg DM), tannins (7.8-21.0 g/ kg DM) and high in calcium (7.4-21.8 g/kg DM), phosphorus (1.9-5.5 g/kg DM) and metabolizable energy (9.2 MJ/kg DM) (37). For selecting best-performing accessions in biomass yield and feed quality traits, a simple lattice design replicated twice and with spacing between blocks and replications 1 m and 1.5 m respectively, can be employed (Figure 1). Spacing between plants and rows should be 50 cm and 75 cm, respectively (39). Phenological data: Days to 50% flowering and 95% maturity are collected.Qualitative, quantitative, and nutritional traits: Qualitative traits like seed shape (SS), seed colour (SeC), stem colour (StC), growth habit (GH), standard petal colour (SPC), and flower colour (FC) and quantitative traits like 10-seed weight (SW), plant height (PH), days to first flowering (DFF) and biomass yield related traits can be collected (35,37).Feed nutrition: Feed quality analysis such as fibre component analysis (neutral detergent fibre-NDF, acid detergent fibre-ADF and acid detergent lignin-ADL), crude protein (CP), digestibility (IVOMD), metabolizable energy (ME), dry matter (DM), and ash (38) can be conducted. ","tokenCount":"1319"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"af00312ed7fa1755004f04cb98f00b1d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9f088796-f6d3-471b-8062-ba1bd4a3af9b/retrieve","id":"-1933848179"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"900ae1e9-a855-42af-bfcc-0431de3e012f","pagecount":"2","content":"Despite the fact that agriculture both is a driver and victim of climate change, the sector was sidelined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in 2009 and 2010. A breakthrough occurred in 2011, at COP17 in Durban, when agriculture was referred to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) agenda for more detailed discussion. CCAFS, in collaboration with many other agencies, helped achieve this groundbreaking outcome. Notably, the Meridian Institute convened a group of independent experts and negotiators to develop an objective report on key issues and policy options in relation to agriculture and climate change. • Despite being sidelined in 2009 and 2010, negotiators agreed to include agriculture within future negotiations and referred agriculture to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) at COP17.• CCAFS contributed to the report on key issues and policy options in relation to agriculture and climate change.• The CCAFS-facilitated Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change released its recommendations prior to COP17, with one focused on COP17.• A series of high-level engagement activities were organized for ministers, negotiators, scientific community, and farmer organisations.• Multi-pronged engagement via background reports, meetings and facilitated discussions provided a common viewpoint for diverse actors.FURTHER READING ","tokenCount":"205"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"54acee2d0cbde116fdedcc77443c91f6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/44036968-009c-4e0b-8dbc-37d5455fd82e/retrieve","id":"-1541400067"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bb2befce-8035-444e-8145-8b5c321341c7","pagecount":"16","content":"This publication has been prepared as an output of the CGIAR Research Initiative on Aquatic Foods. Any views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily representative of or endorsed by the CGIAR System Organization.Section 1: Fact sheet and budget 2Section 2: Progress on science and towards End of Initiative outcomes 4Section 3: Work Package progress 9Section 4: Key results 15Section 5: Partnerships 19Section 6: CGIAR Portfolio linkages 21Section 7: Adaptive management 22Section 8: Key result story 24The Initiative 1) produced and disseminated research innovations for the sustainable development of aquatic food systems; 2) made substantial contributions to policy influence and change across the aquatic agrifood system at national and global levels in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific; and 3) provided improved knowledge and capabilities to Aquatic Foods research users, through a growing network of collaborators and development partners. The emerging evidence and innovations from the Initiative are laying a strong foundation to support the transformation of global food systems toward healthier, more inclusive, and sustainable diets and societies, where aquatic foods have a considerable role to play.Notably, eight journal articles achieved significant attention in 2023, based on the number of citations, downloads, and Altmetric scores (>50). These explored the value of \"blue\" foods for sustainable food systems; the decolonization of ocean research for more equitable and effective ocean governance; the nexus between human rights and marine conservation; and the hidden economic, social, and food and nutrition security values of smallscale fisheries at global and national scales.Aquatic Foods reported multiple innovations during 2023. Genetic research led to the production of Generation 17 of the faster-growing Abbassa tilapia strain in Egypt; Generation 0 of faster-growing genetically improved farmed tilapia (GIFT) in Nigeria; Generation 2 of silver carp and a further batch of Generation 1 catla carp in Bangladesh; and Generation 19 of Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV)-resistant GIFT in Malaysia. In Bangladesh, WorldFish officially handed over the genetically improved third generation (G3) rohu to the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute. G3 rohu carp grow up to 30 percent faster than conventional rohu strains and could greatly benefit aquaculture in the country.On-trackOn-track Off-trackScaling partners and stakeholders in two countries use improved knowledge systems and data to inform at least five evidence-based investments suppor�ng aqua�c food systems transforma�on.Resilient Agrifood Systems AA NARES and Regional Agricultural Research Ins�tutes develop farming system innova�ons with the poten�al to increase the food security of smallholders in targeted areas.CGIAR partners develop and scale innova�ons that contribute to the empowerment of women, youth, and other social groups in food, land and water systems.Global funding agencies and na�onal governments use research evidence in the development of strategies, policies, and investments to drive sustainable transforma�on of food, land, and water systems to meet mul�ple CGIAR impact area targets.Na�onal and sub-na�onal government agencies use system transforma�on research to implement policies and programs that reduce emissions and enhance climate resilience and environmental sustainably of food, land, and water systems. NGO, extension, and other implementa�on partners ac�vely engage with farmers and other actors in implemen�ng transforma�ve innova�ons in food, land, and water systems.Interna�onal NGOs and na�onal farmers/trade associa�ons scale agrifood system innova�ons with the poten�al to increase the net farm income of smallholders and pastoralists in targeted areas.Improved management and co-produc�on of sustainable development pathways secure rights and livelihood benefits for 50,000 small-scale actors in aqua�c food systems in Asia-Pacific and bring more nutri�ous diets to 300,000.Improved food, livelihood, water and environmental performance in mul�-func�onal land and water systems in Myanmar, Cambodia, Ghana and Zambia.At least one of �lapia and carp strains demonstrate increased produc�vity (+30%) and environmental performance (-25%) GHG emission reduc�on) in one African & two Asian countries.Aqua�c food system labs in Solomon Islands and Zambia increase no�onal innova�on systems' ability to iden�fy, evaluate and scale socio-technical innova�ons.End hunger for all and enable affordable healthy diets for the three billion people who do not currently have access to safe and nutri�ous food.Li� at least 500 million people living in rural areas above the extreme poverty line of US $1.90 per day (2011 PPP).Close the gender gap in rights to economic resources, access to ownership and control over land and natural resources, for over 500 million women who work in food, land, and water systems.Turn agriculture and forest systems into a net sink for carbon by 2050, with emissions from agriculture decreasing by 1 Gt per year by 2030 and reaching a floor of 5 Gt per year by 2050. Equip 500 million small-scale producers to be more resilient to climate shocks, with climate adapta�on solu�ons available through na�onal innova�on systems.Stay within planetary and regional environmental boundaries: consump�ve water use in food produc�on of less than 2500 km3 per year (with a focus on the most stressed basins), zero net deforesta�on, nitrogen applica�on of 90 Tg per year (with redistribu�on towards low-input farming systems) and increased use efficiency, and phosphorus applica�on of 10 Tg per year.Aqua+ Partners: partnering to realize the benefits of aqua�c foods in sustainable development.AquaPlans: Integrated Aqua�c Food Systems in Water and Land Foodscapes.AquaGene�cs: Delivering gains from gene�c improvements in farmed fish through public-private partnerships.Section 2: Progress on science and towardsThis is a simple, linear, and static representation of a complex, nonlinear, and dynamic reality. Feedback loops and connections between this Initiative and other Initiatives' theories of change are excluded for clarity.End of Initiative outcome AA Action AreaImpact AreaNote: A summary of Work Package progress ratings is provided in Section 3.The Aquatic Foods Initiative impacts nutrition, health, poverty reduction, gender equality, environmental health, and climate efforts through four WPs: AquaData (WP1), Aqua+Partners (WP2), AquaPlans (WP3), and AquaGenetics (WP4). The Initiative focuses on generating benefits in developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific by improving scientific and practical knowledge on aquatic food systems that contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 2, 5, 13, and 14. In 2023, the Initiative progressed in research, partnerships, and policy actions across multiple countries, with two WPs on track and two facing delays. Funding cuts of 53 percent led to activity reductions and plan adjustments.The Initiative published 80 research items (79 percent open access). Our research continues to reveal a new and critical understanding of aquatic food systems, how to manage them, their relevance to climate change, public health issues related to malnutrition, and the increasing need to meet growing global aquatic food demand within planetary boundaries. Eight of these publications achieved significant attention from the research community and stakeholders based on the number of citations, downloads and Altmetric scores (>50). The highest Altmetric score (334) was associated with a paper in PLOS Climate exploring different scenarios under which food systems transformation can achieve net negative emissions. The other seven papers published advances in knowledge on the value of blue foods for sustainable food systems; decolonizing ocean research for more equitable end effective ocean governance; the nexus between human rights and marine conservation; the contributions of smallscale fisheries to sustainable development (Illuminating Hidden Harvests); the contribution of aquaculture to SDGs on improved human and planetary health; fishery co-management research; and principles for transformative ocean governance.More than 50 policy and technical briefs, videos, and guidelines were disseminated in multiple languages to a wide and diverse audience. This includes researchers and academic institutions, local and international private sectors (including small-and medium-sized enterprises, and farmers' and related associations), governments and local departments of fisheries, and other policymakers and investors. Such products are key to simplifying complex research questions to inform or influence policies and decisions, and to support scaling, adoption, and investment in innovations.Key studies in Bangladesh, Egypt, Myanmar, and Pakistan explored the impact of adopting aquatic food innovations on the productivity, livelihoods, and food security of small-scale aquaculture producers, and benchmarked the sustainability performance of aquatic food production systems. The studies found that 1) diversification in small-scale fish farming can make a positive contribution to the sustainable intensification of aquaculture in some geographies; and 2) the adoption and proper implementation of small-scale aquaculture BMPs, combined with nutrition training, has enormous potential to boost rural livelihoods. They also identified the sustainability characteristics of tilapia production systems, unveiling their economic and environmental impacts and implications for food security.In 2023, 1,784 people received formal training from Aquatic Foods, of whom one-third were women. In Africa, capacity-sharing activities focused on establishing multistakeholder platforms and participatory consultation processes in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zambia. These brought together governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, farmers' associations, smallscale fishers, farmers, processors, and others.In Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Solomon Islands, there is close cooperation with national partners for the training of stakeholders in areas related to sustainable aquatic food systems such as rice-fish systems, data systems and data collection, and cage farming. In Bangladesh, WorldFish handed over G3 Rohu to BFRI. The event brought together international and national participants from WorldFish, the Department of Fisheries (DoF), the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI), the United States Agency for International Development, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish, NGOs, carp hatchery associations, universities, fish hatchery owners, and farmers. In the Solomon Islands, WP2 promoted a multipurpose innovation hub at the WorldFish Nusatupe Research Station to respond to the demand for a facility to convene research, training, and services with national and provincial partners.Aquatic Foods reported 44 innovations during 2023, either new (39) or working to ensure that 6 existing innovations are in use and applied at scale in three countries (Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Timor-Leste). These innovations contribute to improvements in aquatic food systems, from the production of more sustainable supplies of fish from aquaculture and small-scale fisheries to more inclusive governance systems and new digital solutions.In terms of data and digital research, WP1 (AquaData) reported on the performance of two CGIAR data innovation platforms: 1) FishBase, which receives 700,000 unique monthly users and has reached a total of 10,685 citations; and 2) PeskAAS, the national fisheries monitoring platform used in Timor-Leste, which is publicly available, and received 3,800 visits from 882 unique visitors from 65 countries in 2023. PeskAAS is being adapted for use in Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania, where it is funded by a large investment from the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Other digital solutions, such as the Macher Gari app in Bangladesh, helped 1,723 fish farmers and 25 nursery owners organize the transport of their fish. The app generated 302 trips and delivered 172 metric tons of fish worth USD 225,240. In Myanmar, the Shwe Ngar app provides fish farming families with timely information on fish management, fish feed, fish health, and aquaculture technologies, as well as on basic human nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene practices. It was used in 2023 by 11,646 people (524 women) including farmers, extension agents, and other private sector operators. Aquatic Foods researchers and partners also finalized the development of the AQFO to enable easy aggregation and analysis of data generated by the Initiative. It is available on AgroPortal, and is based on the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)'s AGROVOC terminology.In WP2, a social platform for indigenous foods was created in the Solomon Islands with novel partnerships spanning several sectors of society and island food system actors. In Timor-Leste, the WP team convened partners from several sectors of society involved in the national school meal program, which was identified as a significant lever for national aquatic food integration for nutritional outcomes. The WP team assessed pathways for securing a sustainable supply of fish and the extent to which partners have adopted aquatic foods. One partner served more than six tons of fish powder to 35,000 school students in 2023. In India, there was strong emphasis on fish and fish-based products through the Mission Shakti system and with women's self-help groups. Here, the team led the development and completion of the first national assessment of aquatic food consumption to provide our policy partners with options. The findings were published in a journal article about research legitimacy as a precursor to effectiveness. WP3 (AquaPlans) continued its work on innovative geospatial tools to identify aquaculture suitability in small reservoirs in Ghana, and on the new generation of fish-friendly irrigation innovations in Asia and Africa. WP4 (AquaGenetics) continued the dissemination of its valuable fish strains. In Bangladesh, 24 private hatcheries, 12 DOF hatcheries, one hatchery at BFRI, and one educational institution hatchery were supplied with G3 multiplier broodstock spawned in 2023. In addition, the BFRI hatchery was provided with 52 mature G3 multiplier fish from the 2020 spawning. By the end of 2023, 38 geographically disparate private hatcheries, 18 DoFs, one BFRI, and two educational institution hatcheries were known to maintain G3 rohu broodstock.Over the year, Aquatic Foods contributed to the development of 13 policy changes at various scales in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Nigeria, Timor-Leste, and Zambia. Policy contributions include the review and update of Nigeria's National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy, the inclusion of fish and fish-based products in Timor-Leste's school meals program, and the Integrated Child Development Scheme Supplementary Nutrition Program to tackle malnutrition in Assam, India. In Ghana, Aquatic Foods and partners contributed to the integration of aquaculture in the design of the government's \"One Village, One Dam\" program. Finally, the government of Odisha (India) committed to working with WorldFish scientists to support the livelihoods and nutrition of 5,000 women in self-help groups.Gender research focused on capturing promising learning areas from previous CGIAR programs, and co-producing key knowledge products. It also undertook research to integrate the importance of sex-and gender-disaggregated data into aquatic food systems; explore gender dynamics in aquatic food systems; lead gender integration and research activities within the different WPs; conduct gender capacity development among research teams; and scale up the Women's Empowerment in Fisheries and Aquaculture Index. In addition, the team worked on a gender equality and social inclusion strategy to guide aquatic food research-for-development. Finally, new research identified the influencers and drivers of gendertransformative approaches (GTAs) in the agricultural research-fordevelopment ecosystem of organizations, while also raising concerns about the rush to embrace GTAs.Md. Hafizur Rahman, a rice fish farming is giving feed to the pond beside his rice field. He said, by this way the profit is high, paddy cultivation growth is high because insects are eaten by the fish. Also, I have to provide less feed for fish. I am happy provide training on rice fish farming if any of our fish farmer wants from me at Kursha, Kaunia, Rangpur, Bangladesh on 13 October 2022. Credit: WorldFish River fisheries, Africa.Progress by End of Initiative Outcome EOIO 1: Scaling partners and stakeholders in two countries use improved knowledge systems and data to inform at least five evidence-based investments supporting aquatic food systems transformation.Significant progress in delivering research outputs and outcomes in 2023 along the TOC. The government of Timor-Leste continued its investment in PeskAAS. Over 15,000 km2 of the country's coastline was under improved management thanks to this investment. PeskAAS, a real-time monitoring system for fisheries, became part of a major investment by the FCDO to support fishery management in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania. Additionally, two public-private platforms, FishBase and AquaData, facilitated data and knowledge exchange in 2023, with FishBase attracting 700,000 monthly users and AquaData being refined for wider use. Research informed policy updates in Bangladesh and India, while a collaborative effort supported the revision of Nigeria's National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy.EOIO 2: Improved management and co-production of sustainable development pathways secure rights and livelihood benefits for 50,000 small-scale actors in aquatic food systems in Asia-Pacific and bring more nutritious diets to 300,000 people.In the Solomon Islands, the Nusatupe innovation hub, established by Aquatic Foods, offers training and knowledge-sharing, featuring a food garden, environmental restoration, seaweed farming, and aquaponics, and completed its first youth internship for six rural youth. In Timor-Leste, Aquatic Foods contributed to the national school meal program, incorporating more than 6 tons of fish powder into 35,000 students' meals in 2023. Meanwhile, in India, the focus was on promoting fish and fish-based products via the Mission Shakti system and women's self-help groups.EOIO 3: Improved food, livelihood, water, and environmental performance in multifunctional land and water systems in Myanmar, Cambodia, Ghana, and Zambia.Research aligned with the TOC yielded five key innovations, including three decision support tools for sustainable aquaculture in Cambodia, Ghana, and Myanmar, and two tools supporting inclusive governance in Ghana and Zambia. These innovations were backed by knowledge products and a robust capacity-building component, directly benefiting more than 400 stakeholders (fishers, farmers, private sector representatives, extension agents, policymakers) in Cambodia, Ghana, Myanmar, and Zambia.The transfer of the GIFT tilapia strain to Nigeria marks the beginning of a GIFT-based aquaculture industry there, with the development of best management practices (BMPs) and the production of a high-performing G0 generation. In Bangladesh, Generation 3 rohu carp, growing more than 30 percent faster than traditional strains, was introduced to enhance aquaculture production, supporting a significant market. Additionally, new generations of selected tilapia and carp strains were produced in 2023, including Generation 19 of TiLV-resistant GIFT in Malaysia, Generation 17 of Abbassa tilapia in Egypt, and Generation 2 silver carp along with more Generation 1 catla carp in Bangladesh.EOIO 5: Aquatic food system labs in Solomon Islands and Zambia increase national innovation systems' ability to identify, evaluate, and scale sociotechnical innovations.In Solomon Islands, the Nusatupe innovation hub established by Aquatic Foods responds to the national demand for a training and knowledge-sharing facility. Several demonstration sites were established, including a 100 m2 food garden, an environmental restoration site (coral replanting), a seaweed farm, and an aquaponic system.The Nusatupe hub hosted an international forum on scaling community-based resource management with regional partners such as The Pacific Community, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and the Locally-Managed Marine Area Network (LMMA) International. Synthesized informa�on, educa�on and communica�on materials (IEC) on data needs and gaps in AFS that iden�fy priori�es and principles for design and implementa�on of data ecosystems available in four countries.Socio-economic and environmental characteriza�on of aqua�c food systems developed and implemented in five different countries and/or key geographies.A standard/protocol to guide data genera�on for AFS defined and applied at least to Work Packages 2-4.Synthesized IEC materials and review of real-�me digital tools, data systems and ar�ficial intelligence in tracking AFS performance.Adop�on and impact studies co-defined and implemented to fill data gaps and to measure the performance of innova�ons related to AFS and applied across Work Packages 2 and 4. Integrated, publicly available aqua�c food systems databases, assembled from exis�ng socioeconomic, climate and environmental datasets.A tes�ng lab is developed to evaluate ar�ficial intelligence data, tools, approaches, and partnerships to support policy development and implementa�on for AGFS transforma�on.New knowledge and case studies of the impact of digital decision support on climate resilience, socio-economic benefits and environmental sustainability in aqua�c ecosystems produced in two case studies.At least two data use cases co-developed by researchers, public and private sectors, and local communi�es to affect policy, investments and decision-making at local, sub-na�onal and na�onal levels.Partnerships, capacity building, and dissemina�on approaches are developed and implemented in two countries to increase demand and uptake of FAIR and inclusive AFS data for decision-making.Partners, governments and stakeholders in two countries adopt new or improved knowledge about data ecosystems and/or gathering tools and analysis methods.Stakeholders in two countries co-produce strategic ac�ons and allocate funding to meet data needs and overcome gaps in evidence.Methodological innova�ons and tools, including digital solu�ons, are available for uptake by partners and stakeholders in four countries, to capture and analyze data in aqua�c food systems.At least one public-private data and knowledge sharing pla�orm available and integrated with other exis�ng resources to share data and tools related to aqua�c foods.Open-access integrated aqua�c food systems databases, knowledge, and profiles produced in at least one key geography.At least three na�onal profiles on the status of aqua�c food systems co-developed and co-produced with partners and stakeholders.At least one policy or investment suppor�ng the transforma�on of aqua�c food systems are implemented at the na�onal and/or local levels by respec�vely public and/or private sector, and/or local community.Governments, donors, private sector and local communi�es in two countries use data and knowledge to implement evidence-based decisions and changes.Partners and stakeholders co-develop near-real-�me data system to enable a �mely and transparent decision-making process.Scaling partners and stakeholders in two countries use improved knowledge systems and data to inform at least five evidence-based investments suppor�ng aqua�c food systems transforma�on.Work Package 1 progress against the theory of change WP1 (AquaData) made substantial progress in delivering research outputs and outcomes in line with its TOC. Twenty-seven knowledge products were produced, including 14 peer-reviewed articles. Key publications focused on closing the knowledge gap about the contribution of small-scale fisheries to 1) sustainable development, and 2) the sustainability of production systems and practices in Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Myanmar, and Pakistan. These provide the foundation for understanding the sustainability performance and trade-offs between sustainability outcomes for aquatic food systems across different contexts.Thirteen new innovations were under development in 2023, while four were already in use in Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, and globally. These focused on addressing data gaps and needs in aquatic food systems and/or developing key digital ecosystems and solutions to support data gathering and sharing. The innovations have been key in delivering research outputs and outcomes in line with the AquaData research plan. Key innovations were related to the definition of the monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework for sustainable small-scale fisheries produced with FAO and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas. This is now promoted as a key tool for the implementation of the voluntary guidelines for sustainable small-scale fisheries worldwide. In addition, AquaData has been promoting the adoption of the new AQFO in the fisheries and aquaculture space.AquaData and partners continued the development of the firstever Data for Action Portal on aquatic food systems, with an improved framework of indicators for sustainable aquatic foods (AquaIndicators).AquaData worked on six policy changes in 2023. These related to key recommendations and actions required to close data gaps relating to aquatic foods in Bangladesh and India, and the review and update of Nigeria's National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy.Twenty capacity-sharing activities were implemented in countries including Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Zambia.Communi�es collaborate and share knowledge and experiences for management and locally-led development.New knowledge on how tensions between local demand and compe�ng ocean economy aspira�ons can be reconciled, synthesizing the learning of how indigenous, tradi�onal and small-scale food system actors can thrive in the blue economy.Communica�on materials (e.g., blogs, briefs, interac�ve media) and ac�vi�es (e.g., events, panels) that elevate a voice of small-scale actors in interna�onal change agendas.Na�onal informa�on, educa�on and communica�on (IEC) materials on community-led management and development that enable uptake at greater scale and strengthens collec�ve ac�on.Sustainable development pathways shaped from forums, with scien�fic outputs informing policymakers and academia. Including tribal or local language products for small-scale aqua�c food system actors suppor�ng their place in development planning.Harmonized na�onal databases for monitoring reach and uptake of sustainable prac�ces as well as resource u�liza�on/Community access rights and management systems supported for improved and equitable governance of aqua�c resources.Inclusive governance and be�er management realizing secure rights and livelihood benefits for 50,000 small-scale actors in Asia Pacific Island food systems and in the Bay of Bengal.Livelihoods of coastal communi�es made more resilient from community-led management and development.Na�onal programs operate more effec�ve MELIA systems in support of tradi�onal access rights and management systems.Na�onal policies and programs be�er aligned to support autonomous efforts to govern aqua�c food systems in ways that are advantageous to its small-scale actors.Co-produc�on of sustainable development pathways through novel partnerships bringing healthier and more nutri�ous diets through accessible aqua�c foods for 300,000 women, men and children.Innova�ve research and partnerships that create spaces for equitable dialogue, iden�fica�on of new impact pathways as well as redressing and challenging power imbalances leading to strong upward and downward accountability mechanism.New research-for-development connec�ons (spanning private sector, research, NGO, human rights-groups, government sectors) enabling coordina�on, informa�on and awareness for tradi�onal, Indigenous and small-scale aqua�c food system actors.Novel Partners with diverse agendas adopt priori�es of small-scale food system actors with new or improved knowledge about how meaningfully engage through this approach.Aqua�c food system labs in Solomon Islands and Zambia increase no�onal innova�on systems' ability to iden�fy, evaluate and scale socio-technical innova�ons.Improved management and co-produc�on of sustainable development pathways secure rights and livelihood benefits for 50,000 small-scale actors in aqua�c food systems in Asia-Pacific and bring more nutri�ous diets to 300,000.Work Package 2 progress against the theory of change WP2 (Aqua+Partners) delivered on key activities in the TOC and was able to make progress in all areas, despite significant budget cuts. In Solomon Islands, Aqua+Partners created a social platform for Indigenous foods and novel partnerships spanning several sectors of society and island food system actors. The team convened a national forum to imagine island food system futures and established the Nusatupe innovation hub for island food systems. The hub responds to national demand for a training and knowledge sharing facility. Several demonstration sites were set up including a 100 m2 food garden, an environmental restoration site (coral replanting), a seaweed farm, and an aquaponic system. The hub completed the first round of youth internships with six rural youth (three men and three women). The hub hosted an international forum on scaling community-based resource management with regional partners such as The Pacific Community, WWF, WCS, and LMMA International.In Timor-Leste, Aqua+Partners convened partners from several sectors of society involved in the national school meal program. This program was identified as a significant lever for national aquatic food integration for nutrition outcomes. The team also assessed pathways for securing a sustainable supply of aquatic foods and the extent of adoption by partners, with one serving more than 6 tons of fish powder to 35,000 school students during 2023. In India, a similar focus was retained with a strong emphasis on fish and fish-based products through the Mission Shakti system and with women's self-help groups. Here, the team also led the development and completion of the first national assessment of aquatic food consumption to provide our policy partners with options. Learnings from these experiences and approaches were published in a journal article about research legitimacy as a precursor to effectiveness. In total, the WP reported 10 journal articles, six knowledge briefs, and six reports.Rice and fish decision support tool deployed by at lease two partners/ organiza�ons.Ter�ary educa�on module on fish-friendly irriga�on and integrated produc�on systems developed and delivered in water planners and engineers' degrees.Scien�fic knowledge documen�ng the achievements of fish-friendly irriga�on programs or pilots.Vibrant partnerships on aqua�cs food produc�on in small dams with scaling partners using learning to adapt their programs.Water availability studies and suitability mapping for integrated produc�on systems and mul�func�onal land and water systems.Built capacity of inter-sectoral and mul�-stakeholder actors for governing water and land foodscapes.Ins�tu�onal, GESI and poli�cal economy studies iden�fying leveraging drivers for water and land foodscapes governance.Policy support design and implementa�on principles of rice and fish decision support tool.Vibrant partnerships with scaling partners using learning on rice and fish integrated produc�on systems to adapt their programs.Policy support for the design and implementa�on of principles of aqua�c food produc�on in small dams.Vibrant mul�-stakeholder pla�orms at the na�onal and sub-na�onal levels mobilizing evidence to include aqua�c food produc�on and fish-friendly irriga�on principles into project design and policies.Aqua�c food produc�on in small dams piloted in at lease four sites.Scien�fic knowledge documen�ng the upscaling of the rice and fish decision support tool.Smallholder farmer's livelihoods are sustained and incomes are increased through integrated produc�on systems.Water and land management are integrated to lesson environmental impacts, enhance agroecosystem func�ons and restore capture-fisheries at basin level and improve resilience of mul�func�onal produc�on systems to cri�cal drivers of change.Food security and nutri�on are improved for local households through increased micronutrientrich fish consump�on, especially for women and young children.Enhanced capacity of local ins�tu�ons and mul�ple stakeholders to improve rights and access to fishery and mul�func�onal systems for smallholders, as well as landless.Improved food, livelihood, water and environmental performance in mul�func�onal land and water systems in Myanmar, Cambodia, Ghana and Zambia.In 2023, WP3 (AquaPlans) focused on finalizing designs and upscaling innovations. It delivered 19 knowledge products, including openaccess journal articles, reports, manuals, and briefs. Duncan and colleagues assessed fish-friendly irrigation guidelines previously published for the Lower Mekong, while Foudi and colleagues and Ramamurthy and colleagues considered the impact of multipurpose dams with NEXUS and One Health approaches. The role of multistakeholder platforms in facilitating integrated water and landscape management across different scales of governance in Zambia was documented (Siangulube and colleagues), as well as knowledge production, collective action, and social learning processes for managing aquatic food systems in Cambodia (Gleich and colleagues). Integrated production systems continued to be a focus with Ignowski and colleagues showing evidence of the impact of integrating terrestrial aquatic foods on nutrient and economic productivity.Five innovations were under development: the decision support tool for sustainable aquaculture development, the suitability tool for scaling aquaculture in small reservoirs, rice-fish suitability decision support system modeling, fish cage production in small reservoirs, and a multistakeholder platform for managing complex and multifunctional landscapes.Development and scaling of innovations were supported by knowledge products capacity building of more than 400 stakeholders (including fishers, farmers, private sector representatives, extension agents, and policymakers) in Cambodia, Ghana, Myanmar, and Zambia.AquaPlans' research also contributed to policy formulation for sustainable aquatic food systems. Pilots of cage fish cultivation in four reservoirs in northeastern Ghana and suitability mapping to upscale the pilots to additional locations were taken up by the One Village, One Dam program (phase 2), with the potential to integrate aquaculture into the design (or rehabilitation) of other reservoirs. In Cambodia and Zambia, MSP processes are supported by local government institutions as a way of enhancing the governance of multifunctional landscapes.Faster growing �lapia strains released to farmers from 2022.Assessment of the effec�veness (adop�on and profitability to supplier and farmer) of the tested fish seed supply systems.Benchmarking data of produc�vity, profitability, resource use efficiency and GHG emissions: technical and social effects.Informa�on on actual health feed and husbandry prac�ces affec�ng fish performance.Impact assessments of increased access to improved strains.Faster growing (+30%) rohu carp strains released to farmers from 2022 and faster growing silver carp piloted in 2024-25.Gender-responsive �lapia customer and product profiles that consider prac�cal tradeoffs including environmental and other tradeoffs.Decision support tools for priori�za�on of traits.More efficient methods and/or tools have been incorporated into fish breeding programs to speed improvements in growth and other traits.Improved fish strains with superior growth performance and addi�onal resilience traits that meet user needs are available for at least one major aquaculture species for use in Nigeria, Bangladesh and India.Measurable progress in the improvement of traits in three carp core gene�c improvement programs.User trait preferences have been assessed, priori�zed and incorporated where feasible, and gene�c improvement programs are selec�ng traits of value to users.Improved strains with faster growth have been delivered to key dissemina�on notes and are available to fish seed suppliers and farmers in target countries.Economically sustainable seed supply systems in the target countries are delivering improved fish strains with superior growth performance to small-scale farmers in Nigeria and Bangladesh.Improved fish strains with superior performance in farming systems increase produc�vity and profitability of farmers, with reduced environmental impact in Nigeria, Bangladesh, India.Shortcomings in performance (yield gap) have been iden�fied and solu�ons to these formulated enabling pathways to op�mizing benefits for users.Baseline assessments of key parameters have been completed enabling the future effects of adop�on to be assessed.At least one of �lapia and carp strains demonstrate increased produc�vity (+30%) and environmental performance (-25%) GHG emission reduc�on) in one African & two Asian countries.Work Package 4 progress against the theory of change WP4 (AquaGenetics) made good progress in delivering research outputs and outcomes in line with its three-year research plan. New generations of several selected strains of tilapia and carp were produced as scheduled: Generation 19 of TiLV-resistant GIFT, Generation 17 of the faster-growing Abbassa tilapia strain, Generation 2 of silver carp, and a further batch of Generation 1 of catla carp. Production of Generation 19 of the GIFT fast-growth line scheduled for Q4 of 2023 was delayed. A journal article was published demonstrating that joint rearing of improved catla and rohu carp strains did not affect the improved growth performance of either strain and provided key information for management within farming systems.Together with its partners, AquaGenetics generated 12 knowledge products and implemented key capacity-sharing activities in Bangladesh to support the uptake of G3 rohu carp, which is a major achievement.Work continued in improving the productivity of tilapia and carp strains through faster growth and in selecting for increased disease resistance for TiLV in GIFT tilapia strains. This included development of further genomic tools (such as the Abbassa strain genome) aimed at increasing efficiency of selection in both tilapia and carps. Baseline studies into the dissemination of these genetic innovations have been completed in Bangladesh and Nigeria. Work to investigate onfarm performance and impact of Rohu carp in Bangladesh and the GIFT growth line in Nigeria were successfully implemented. Also in Nigeria, Aquatic Foods facilitated the legal agreement of WorldFish with the private sector to open the path to investments and future growth of GIFT.Delays and reductions in budgets led to the cancellation of a number of activities. Most deliverables planned for 2023 were met and all key deliverables critical to achieving the outcomes planned in the 2023 TOC were completed. Therefore, the WP is going in the right and expected direction.However, budget cuts in 2023 required significant changes to plans and will affect the overall achievements of the WP going forward. Prioritization of research and scaling activities will be necessary to ensure the successful delivery of key innovations.As a whole, the WP is making progress in the intended direction and with the right focus on levers of change identified with partners. However, the much-reduced funding and associated uncertainty in planning is continuing to influence the pace and scale of implementation. This affects our assumptions of being impactful by building capacity, forming change coalitions, and influencing system-level change. These assumptions require the original scale of intent for the budget.Annual progress made in 2023 in WP3 aligns with the plan of results and the TOC defined at the design stage of the Initiative. Outputs have been delivered as per the results framework under the three pathways and are now being translated into intermediary outcomes. Actual spending, which fell behind the initial plan in 2022, has satisfactorily caught up in 2023.Annual progress was delayed in the delivery of a few activities due to both technical and logistical issues, and budget uncertainty, which seems to characterize the implementation of the CGIAR Research Initiatives.Revision of the TOC and prioritization of activities will be continued in 2024, in order to cope with changes in the implementation of genetics activities and scaling of key genetic innovations.  Percentage of reported results tagged to CGIAR Impact Areas Not targeted: The result did not target any of the Impact Area objec�ves.The result has made a significant contribu�on to any of the Impact Area objec�ves, even though the objec�ve(s) is not the principal focus of the result.The result is principally about mee�ng any of the Impact Area objec�ves, and this is fundamental in its design and expected results. The result would not have been undertaken without this objec�ve. In 2023, Aquatic Foods was engaged in 305 active external partnerships, 214 of which were established during the year. Academic and research organizations made up 52 percent of partners, but there was significant growth in partnerships with national agriculture research systems (14 percent) and governments (19 percent). This reflects greater attention to delivering innovations and outcomes with partners at scale through policy contributions, commercialization, and capacity-building partners. Most of the partnerships remained focused on innovation development (45 percent), while those relating to scaling accounted for 18 percent.The Initiative supported WorldFish to build key partnerships in Nigeria and Bangladesh, in relation to the adoption of faster-growing strains of tilapia and/or carp respectively.In Solomon Islands, the Initiative successfully integrated aquatic foods into the traditional agricultural movement under the headline of Indigenous foods. The in-country partner, Kastom Gaden Association, which manages a network of 10,000 farmers, has now gained access to training and information about safe aquatic food handling and processing (farmers are also fishers). This work has created a new social platform for the Indigenous foods movement.In Timor-Leste, Aquatic Foods successfully integrated research and diverse partners under the program on school feeding. Here, aquatic foods have taken a central role in the planning and procurement of meals for young school children.In Data here represents an overview of reported results in 2022 and 2023. One result can impact multiple countries and can therefore be represented multiple times. Less resultsConnections are sized by the number of reported results. Collaborations where only one result was reported with a linkage between two Initiatives are excluded.Cross-CGIAR collaborations and portfolio linkages have been very important for the Aquatic Foods Initiative and were pursued in various ways during 2023. The Initiative cooperated closely with the Gender Impact Platform and two regional Initiatives-Asian Mega-Deltas and Diversification in East and Southern Africa (Ukama Utskawi). Together, the Gender Impact Platform and Aquatic Foods co-produced nine knowledge products including 1) a journal article aiming to explore the status of women's empowerment in the aquaculture sector in Kenya, 2) a report exploring gender-equal access and control over resources, technology, and information among smallholder farmers in climate change hotspots in Africa, and 3) a technical workshop report about climate change, gender, and livelihoods among fisher communities in Kenya's Lake Victoria region.Aquatic Foods actively contributed to the CGIAR Gender Conference in New Delhi, India. This event was an important opportunity for Initiative researchers to share their experiences and current strategy for aquatic foods, learn from existing gender research, and enhance capacities for quality and impactful gender research that will advance CGIAR's 2030 development targets.Linkages with the Asian Mega-Deltas and Diversification in East and Southern Africa Initiatives support the delivery of the TOC and End of Initiative outcomes in Asia and Africa. In Cambodia, close collaboration between WP3 of Aquatic Foods and WP4 of Asian Mega-Deltas allows the work on water and land foodscapes governance to be delivered more effectively and at a larger scale. Finally, in Zambia, Aquatic Foods works with Diversification in East and Southern Africa to govern and enable sustainable diversification and intensification of aquatic food systems and applied the scaling readiness approach for promising innovations in Africa.The collaboration with Asian Mega-Deltas produced several knowledge-sharing products, including an article about the impacts of climate change on aquaculture and the potential of climate information services to support sustainable aquaculture development and capacity-sharing activities, with the organization of a consultation workshop for stakeholders and partners on water governance and food production systems in Cambodia.Finally, work with Nigeria's National Policies and Strategies (NPS) Initiative resulted in the production of flagship reports on policy coherence in food, land, and water systems. Based on work undertaken in Ghana and Zambia, these provide a framework for policy and institution landscape analysis, which can be applied to other countries. Aquatic Foods also collaborated closely with NPS to support the review and update of Nigeria's National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy.in co-designing and deploying innovative approaches to rice and fish integrated production systems.In Ghana, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Fisheries Commission, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, co-lead the implementation of a pilot project on fish cage production in small reservoirs, and are key in influencing the scaling of the innovation beyond the pilot.In Zambia, the multistakeholder platform was launched under the auspices of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.In Cambodia, Aquatic Foods formally partnered with the Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute, whose role is to jointly contribute to research and policy uptake. Building partnerships with national agricultural research and extension systems, particularly the DoF or their equivalent in target countries,was key in 2023. In several cases, such as in India, Ghana, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, and Zambia, this involved supporting the department and/or other key traditional partners to work together on common investments and development plans for the fisheries and aquaculture sectors.The cooperation with FAO and Duke University on the Illuminating Hidden Harvests initiative contributed to global policymaking and produced key knowledge around the role of small-scale fisheries in food security in various contexts. FAO is an important partner for the Initiative and more than 10 outputs were produced in collaboration with them. Aquatic Foods and FAO also co-developed a novel participatory monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework to support the transparent implementation of the voluntary guidelines for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries in the context of food security and poverty.Protecting and enforcing inshore exclusive zones for small-scale fisheries: Leveraging communication strategies and tools to organise advocacy and mobilisation. Credit: Afeez Olumide GarubaSection 7: Adaptive managementIn 2023, the Initiative team conducted a \"pause and reflect\" process to better understand some of the major green lights and roadblocks in the second year of implementation. It focused on a series of discussion points such as operationalization and implementation processes, science delivery, gender integration, results and roadmap to impact, budgeting, TOC, partnerships, and engagement, risks, and next cycle. Many of the challenges identified in the first year remained relevant in 2023. Among these, the limited Initiative cycle duration, budget allocation uncertainty, and continuous budget cuts were seen as major roadblocks affecting the success of the Initiative in many aspects. In the short term, these limit opportunities for engagement and collaboration across WPs and, across CGIAR, they limit the depth and breadth of research activities and compromise trust and relationship building with partners.The differences between the expected/promised and actual allocated budget created the need to continuously replan and review activities and partner engagement. As a consequence, in 2023, significant revisions were made to the TOC, including the complete withdrawal of WP5, whose aim was to build synergies among all WPs and support the scaling of innovations. Other WPs were also forced to reduce the scale of their activities, thus affecting the reach of the outcomes (now reduced by 50-60 percent). Over the long term, time and budget limitations affect the Initiative's capacity to align with scaling and generate impact. With regard to future portfolio developments, it is recommended that such considerations are taken into account. Stronger financing and longer cycles would ensure sustainability and continuity of innovation and scaling efforts, which otherwise risk being fragmented and lost.On the operational side, CGIAR-led administrative and financial procedures are still perceived as quite demanding, adding further layers to existing Center policies and structures. The processes and guidelines are not always easy to follow, and the number of focal and contact points is too high and difficult to keep track of. In addition, the management information systems (MIS) do not function well: there are too many platforms serving different purposes (such as the TOC tool, performance and results management, risk tool). These have limited functionalities and there is no linking/synchronicity with existing Center systems.Internally, we appraised Initiative-specific management procedures and meetings established to facilitate communication and knowledge sharing within the Aquatic Foods teams, and to ease the administrative load. Better efforts are encouraged on knowledge exchange platforms and communication across Initiatives, Centers, and stakeholders to create stronger synergies, engender better adaptive processes, and take advantage of opportunities for lessonlearning. On this note, it is strongly recommended that the new investment cycle builds up the work that has been done under the Aquatic Foods Initiative to support a science continuum and scaling.Strengthen communication and increase synergies across WPs and with other CGIAR Initiatives and non-pooled fundingThe withdrawal of WP5 was the result of significant budget cuts. WP5 was supposed to serve as a connector between WPs and support more collaboration and linkages. Its withdrawal affected communication exchange and collaboration opportunities internally and externally. Knowledge exchange platforms conveyed at the country level could create better synergies and links with other Initiatives and projects.Improve country-level infrastructure and financial resource allocation to better support InitiativesIn-country support for Initiative implementation and engagement is seen as a constraint and not efficient enough. This is particularly relevant in those cases where contributing CG Centers do not have country offices in the geographies of interest and need to rely on other CG Centers or partners' local offices, and often there is no staff time or budget allocated. In the first two years of implementation, this has made it hard to coordinate, disrupting the ability to implement in-country activities. Coordinated efforts between Centers and greater financial resources could support better operational activities in countries.Increase funding allocation and reduce uncertainties from CGIAR, including better synergies with non-pooled funding With regard to the investment cycle for new Initiatives, it is necessary to consider adequate financial resources and better budget allocation processes that can support the delivery of quality science and scaling for impact in a more robust way.Continue focusing on priorities on key science delivery and quality In the final year of implementation, considering budget constraints, the Initiative will continue to build the publication pipeline with a focus on key priorities, science quality, and sustainability.Ensure Aquatic Foods' science sustainability and continuum in the next portfolio Aquatic Foods has been delivering great results and the science behind these should be integrated into the next investment cycle.It is important to ensure the continuity of existing innovations and scaling work to ensure greater impact is generated as a result. Longer duration of Initiative cycles would also contribute toward this.CGIAR and Centers to coordinate efforts in improving the MIS and administrative procedures to better facilitate Initiatives in the implementation process and sharing of resultsThe lack of integration of CGIAR systems and procedures with those of the Centers has resulted in an increased burden on the Initiative, especially in planning and reporting processes. Better coordinated efforts are needed to streamline processes and tools that can support Initiatives more efficiently and effectively.Increase resource allocation to better support gender research and integration and capacity sharing for development Reduction in actual funding has influenced the capacity for great gender research and integration, and capacity building and sharing opportunities. The PhD programs have been particularly affected. This is also due to the short duration of the Initiative cycle.Continuing to invest in multistakeholder engagement and consultation appears to have a positive effect on improving policy development and innovation adoption across geographies in support of more sustainable aquatic food systems.Protecting and enforcing inshore exclusive zones for small-scale fisheries: Leveraging communication strategies and tools to organise advocacy and mobilisation. Credit: Hong Chern Wern In 2023, scientists from the CGIAR Research Initiative on Aquatic Foods in Nigeria reached important milestones in supporting the establishment of an industry for GIFT in the country.Fish are already critical to diets and the economy in Nigeria, but around 45 percent of demand is met through imports. With abundant inland water resources, there is significant scope to expand homegrown aquaculture and respond to the demands of a population expected to leap from 196 million to 260 million by 2030.While catfish accounts for more than 80 percent of aquaculture in the country, dependence on a single species is risky: disease could sweep through hatcheries and farms, wiping out stocks. In addition, signs of inbreeding in the country's catfish populations have resulted in reduced growth and survival rates of the fish.As part of the government's five-year Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy, launched in 2022, scientists from Aquatic Foods have been working on pioneering approaches to boost aquaculture. These aim to meet local protein needs, reduce imports, improve climate change resilience, empower the country's smallholders, and create 500,000 new jobs in the aquaculture value chain.Initiative scientists identified GIFT as being a good option for supporting these aims. GIFT is a strain of Nile tilapia that has benefited from multiple generations of selective breeding. It is fast growing, adaptable to a wide range of conditions, and-as an herbivore-its feed requirements are cheaper than other farmed fish, making it attractive to smallholders. GIFT also provides many of the same nutritional benefits as other fish, namely zinc, iron, Vitamin A, calcium, and protein.In 2022, WorldFish teamed up with PAL, a hatchery and fish farm in Ogun State. As part of the partnership, 60,000 GIFT \"swim-up fry\"(very young fish) were packed into polythene bags with oxygenated water and flown from WorldFish headquarters in Malaysia to PAL, where they entered a mandatory month-long quarantine period.In 2023, the now-adult fish were used to produce a GIFT breeding population. The resulting progeny were supplied to farmers and hatcheries to establish their own production.During 2023, onsite trials at the PAL hatchery involving local fish feed producer Premier Feed Mills showed that GIFT were performing well. Under different feeding regimes, they showed faster rates of growth and more efficient feed conversion than nonimproved fish already used by PAL. These should mean higher production, lower costs, and potentially more earnings for farmers.The Initiative also supported the establishment of a breeding population at a PAL site in Ogun State and two small-scale hatcheries in Delta State, including pilot \"grow-out\" ponds for raising fish to market size. In November, PAL started supplying the second generation of GIFT fry to farmers.\"This is the best possible start for the introduction of GIFT in Nigeria,\" said Sunil Siriwardena, of WorldFish, who leads the work of Aquatic Foods in the country. \"At hatcheries, we're seeing GIFT doing what they do best: resisting disease and quickly reaching a harvestable size, while the response from farmers has been overwhelmingly positive. We expect GIFT will be a huge asset in strengthening and expanding fish farming in Nigeria and supporting the government in achieving its aquaculture goals.\"In 2023, the Initiative produced a range of learning materials for hatcheries and farmers, including a handbook on BMPs for raising Nile tilapia. It also produced a curriculum on tilapia breeding, nursing, and grow-out farming, which was used to train around 200 farmers, approximately two-thirds of whom were women.The work has a broader goal of decentralizing the production of GIFT seed to improve farmers' access to it. A special focus is needed on boosting aquaculture in the northern region of the country, where fish farming and fish consumption is lower than in the south.This is the best possible start for the introduction of GIFT in Nigeria. We expect GIFT will be a huge asset in strengthening and expanding fish farming in Nigeria and supporting the government in achieving its aquaculture goals.Sunil Siriwardena, Officer-in-charge, WorldFish Nigeria","tokenCount":"8357"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"25e32e83d05ad3456ee188b36cda17b8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9fed790c-5b20-4b3c-ac94-926f0aa02671/retrieve","id":"87183585"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b8de0021-5572-489a-80f9-e97cd917e391","pagecount":"140","content":"The High Level Panel of Experts for Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) is the science-policy interface of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), which is, at the global level, the foremost inclusive and evidence-based international and intergovernmental platform for food security and nutrition.HLPE reports serve as a common, comprehensive, evidence-based starting point for intergovernmental and international multistakeholder policy debates in CFS. The HLPE draws its studies based on existing research and knowledge. The HLPE thrives to clarify contradictory information and knowledge, elicit the backgrounds and rationales of controversies, and identify emerging issues. The HLPE organizes a scientific dialogue, built upon the diversity of disciplines, backgrounds, knowledge systems, diversity of its Steering Committee and Project Teams, and upon open electronic consultations.HLPE reports are widely used as reference documents within and beyond CFS and the UN system, by the scientific community as well as by political decision-makers and stakeholders, at international, regional and national levels.In October 2014, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), requested the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) to prepare a report on sustainable agricultural development (SAD) for food security and nutrition (FSN), including the role of livestock. This topic is highly relevant to the 2030 Agenda agreed by the international community in 2015. The objective of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 is specifically to \"end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture\". Yet all of the SDGs have strong implications for the achievement of SAD for FSN. In return, we should expect SAD to contribute to the fulfilment of all these goals. SAD is also relevant to the role of agriculture and agricultural development in the implementation of the 2014 Rome Declaration on Nutrition, and is central to the fulfilment of the UN commitment to the Right to Food.SAD has been touched on in other HLPE reports, either with a sectoral focus or from a crosscutting perspective. The HLPE Note on Critical and emerging issues for food security and nutrition (2014) stressed the importance of a food systems' approach for the realization of FSN, and provided analysis of livestock issues. The present report draws on these previous HLPE publications as contributions to its narrative, and the reports are cross-referenced as appropriate. This process aims to ensure consistency, as well as adding value by providing SAD with a central role in the overall HLPE analysis.In this report, agriculture is interpreted in the narrower sense of crops and livestock. Fisheries and aquaculture were treated in a dedicated HLPE report in 2014, while forestry will be covered in a report to be released in 2017. Livestock is used to designate domesticated terrestrial animals raised for food production. Bees, insects and wild foods are not covered.Agricultural development plays a major role in improving FSN: by increasing the quantity and diversity of food; as a driver of economic transformation; and, because agriculture is the main source of income for a majority of the people who live in the most extreme poverty. Earning sufficient income from agriculture is key for the 1.3 billion people who work in the sector, and directly determines their food security. Extensive experience across many countries over many years shows that both agricultural development and economy-wide growth are needed to improve FSN, and that the former can reinforce the latter.Given the breadth of the topic, and as reflected in its title, this report focuses on the livestock sector because it is a powerful engine for the development of the agriculture and food sector, a driver of major economic, social and environmental changes in food systems worldwide, and a uniquely powerful entry point for understanding the issues around sustainable agricultural development as a whole.Livestock production is central to food systems' development and is a particularly dynamic and complex agricultural subsector, with implications for animal-feed demand, for market concentration in agricultural supply chains, for the intensification of production at the farm level, for farm income, land use, and for nutrition and health. Livestock has often set the speed of change in agriculture in recent decades.Livestock is strongly linked to the feed crop sector, generates co-products including manure and draught power, and in many countries acts as a store of wealth and a safety net. It is integral to the traditional practices, values and landscapes of many communities across the world. Livestock has significant effects on the environment, both positive and negative, particularly when indirect land-use changes and feed crop production effects are taken into account.As highlighted by numerous contributions to the electronic consultation on the V0 Draft of the report, the focus on livestock, while legitimate as a way to illustrate the complexity of SAD, should not hide the critical importance of the crop sectors. The common approach proposed in this report, to define pathways to SAD in different livestock systems, and the attention paid to crop-livestock interactions can also be used for the wider agriculture sector.Changes in consumption and dietary patterns will be critical in shaping SAD for FSN. Those subjects will be looked at in a specific HLPE report on Nutrition and food systems to be published in 2017. Taken together, these two reports will provide a significant contribution to informing debates on sustainable food systems along the food chain from production to consumption.The report offers policy-makers and other stakeholders a framework to design and implement feasible options of sustainability pathways for agricultural development. It will hopefully contribute to sustainable food systems and to FSN for all, and more broadly to the 2030 Agenda, now and in the future.On behalf of the Steering Committee, I would like to acknowledge the engagement and commitment of all the experts who worked for the elaboration of this report, and especially the Project Team Leader, Wilfrid Legg (from United Kingdom) and Project Team Members: Khaled Abbas (from Algeria), Daniela Alfaro (from Uruguay), Botir Dosov (from Uzbekistan), Neil Fraser (from New Zealand), Delia Grace (from Ireland), Robert Habib (from France), Claudia Job Schmitt (from Brazil), Langelihle Simela (from Zimbabwe) and Funing Zhong (from China). They invested much time and effort in this report and should be commended.This report also benefited greatly from the suggestions of the external peer reviewers and from the comments provided by a large number of experts and institutions, both on the scope and on the first draft of the report. I would also like to thank the HLPE Secretariat for its permanent support to our work.Last but not least, I would like to thank the resource partners who support, in a totally independent way, the work of the HLPE.Chairperson, Steering Committee of the HLPE, 15 June 2016In October 2014, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested its High Level Panel of Experts for Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) to prepare a report on sustainable agricultural development for food security and nutrition, including the role of livestock, to be presented in its 43 rd Plenary Session in October 2016. This topic is highly relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as to the implementation of the 2014 Rome Declaration on Nutrition and to the fulfilment of the universal Human Right to Food.Agricultural 1 development is critically important to improving food security and nutrition. Its roles include: increasing the quantity and diversity of food; driving economic transformation; and providing the primary source of income for many of the world's poorest people. Numerous empirical studies across many countries over many years show that both agricultural development and economy-wide growth are needed to improve food security and nutrition, and that the former can reinforce the latter.The livestock 2 sector is a powerful engine for the development of agriculture and food systems. It drives major economic, social and environmental changes in food systems worldwide, and provides an entry point for understanding the issues around sustainable agricultural development as a whole.As reflected in its title, this report is focused on livestock because of the importance and complexity of its roles and contribution to sustainable agricultural development for food security and nutrition.The report is structured as follows. Chapter 1 elaborates a conceptual framework and a typology of livestock farming systems, which are used to structure the report. Chapter 2 describes the main drivers and trends of agricultural development. Chapter 3 identifies the main sustainability challenges for agricultural development, with a focus on livestock. Chapter 4 proposes pathways and responses to address those challenges, both globally and in specific farming systems. The report concludes by providing a set of action-oriented recommendations addressed to states and other stakeholders.1. The report defines sustainable agricultural development (SAD) for food security and nutrition (FSN) as follows: \"Sustainable agricultural development is agricultural development that contributes to improving resource efficiency, strengthening resilience and securing social equity/responsibility of agriculture and food systems in order to ensure food security and nutrition for all, now and in the future.\"2. Importantly, FSN and the progressive realization of the right to adequate food do not depend only on global availability of food but also on access, utilization and stability. Indeed, access to food, but also to productive assets, markets and services are all critical for FSN. Utilization of food, and particularly of animal-sourced foods (ASF), from evolving and increasingly complex food supply chains, is having profound effects on human health and well-being, in some cases supplying much needed nutrients but in others giving rise to dietary concerns, for example over excessive meat intake. Finally, conflicts and extreme climate events increasingly threaten the stability of FSN for all now and in the future.3. The report acknowledges the wide diversity of farming and food systems, each of which can and should improve its contribution to SAD for FSN. To sustainably supply nutritious food to a world population that is expected to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050, the report proposes the adoption of context-specific pathways to enable the transition towards more sustainable agricultural and food systems for FSN. Despite wide acceptance of the imperative of achieving food security and better nutrition for all, the multiplicity of possible entry points, perspectives and objectives has led to a coexistence of many narratives and conflicting evaluations about the state of agricultural 1 Agriculture is interpreted in this report in the narrower sense of crops and livestock. Fisheries and aquaculture were treated in a dedicated HLPE report in 2014, while forestry will be covered in a report to be released in 2017.development and, most importantly, on the directions and policy instruments required to improve sustainability.4. The livestock sector is central to food systems' development. It is a particularly dynamic and complex agriculture sector, accounting for around one-third of global agricultural GDP, with implications for animal-feed demand, for market concentration in agricultural supply chains, for the intensification of production at the farm level, for farm income, for land use and for human and animal nutrition and health. Livestock has often set the speed of change in agriculture in recent decades. Livestock is the largest user of land resources; permanent meadows and pastures represent 26 percent of global land area and feed crops account for one-third of global arable land. Livestock is strongly linked to the feed crop sector, generates co-products including manure and draught power, and in many economies acts as a store of wealth and a safety net. It is integral to the cultural identity, traditional practices, values and landscapes of many communities across the world. Livestock has profound effects on the environment, particularly when indirect land-use changes and feed crop production effects are taken into account.5. Livestock production takes place in a wide range of farming systems: extensive (e.g. grazing in the case of ruminant livestock or foraging in the case of poultry and pigs); intensive (in which thousands of animals are fed with concentrated feed rations in confined facilities); and in the many intermediate systems that exist between the two.6. Critical issues to be addressed by SAD for FSN are global in nature but the ways by which they manifest themselves or can be dealt with are very diverse in different livestock systems and across countries. In order to value and address this diversity of farming systems and their distinct challenges, the report considers four broad classes of livestock rearing: smallholder mixed farming; pastoral; commercial grazing; and intensive livestock systems.7. According to FAO (2012a) projections, growth trends in global population and incomes will require global agricultural production in 2050 to be 60 percent higher in volume than in 2005-2007. This increase would come mainly from an increase in crop yield (80 percent of the world production increase), in cropping intensity (10 percent) and the rest from a limited expansion of land use. Consumption of ASF is expected to rise till 2050, faster in developing countries.8. Yet, such a need for increase will be subject to variation. Over the next several decades, population increase and income growth (both of which trends are more pronounced in emerging and developing countries) are expected to drive increased demand for ASF. Population growth has been the main demand driver in agriculture and food systems in the past but its weight is declining relative to other drivers such as increasing per capita incomes, urbanization and changing dietary preferences and patterns. Much of the increased crop demand in the period to 2050 will be for feedstuffs for livestock.9. The increasing consumption of ASF in emerging and developing countries has the potential to significantly improve FSN in many cases. However, the consensus of expert medical advice is that, in developed and some emerging countries, people should reduce their consumption of a number of ASF, in particular of red and processed meats. If there were to be a significant reduction in overall consumption of ASF in richer areas, it would have important implications on production levels and practices, on land use, and on the geographical distribution of livestock production. In general, consumption levels of some ASF needs to contract in some places and/or among some populations, while increasing in others. Such a shift would allow greater convergence of consumption at the global level.10. International trade volumes of most agricultural commodities are projected to expand over the next several decades. While a very high proportion of ASF is produced and consumed locally, the importance of international trade in the distribution of ASF is increasing. Staple dairy products (in particular milk powder) are the most traded livestock products; more than 50 percent of total production is exported. According to OECD-FAO projections, beef will continue to be the most traded meat in the next decade. At the same time, dairy and beef products are among the commodities most affected by government policies across the worldthe volume and direction of trade flows, as well as the products traded. Sanitary standards, environmental regulations, animal welfare rules and certification measures, as well as geographical indications, are all increasingly important in influencing international trade of agricultural products.11. The food supply chain has experienced fundamental changes during the last two decades. It has become more globalized, and the scale of production and economic concentration have both increased. A shrinking number of firms dominate both the distribution and the input side of the agri-food chain. For example, four agri-business firms are estimated to control 75-90 percent of the global grain trade, raising concerns about barriers to entry, information flows and the potential for oligopolistic companies to abuse their dominant market position. Concentration among multinational companies is increasingly evident in a number of agriculture sectors, including inputs (e.g. seeds, plant and animal protection products), marketing, food processing and food retail.12. According to OECD-FAO Outlook, real world prices of agricultural commodities and food have followed a long-term declining trend, albeit coupled with significant levels of short-term price volatility. The latter has been especially marked since the 2007-2008 food price spikes when compared with the previous two decades. Nonetheless, the underlying downward price trend is widely projected to continue for the short and medium terms.13. Some of the challenges impeding the realization of SAD for FSN for all now and in the future concern all livestock systems. Others are specific to one or more of the four broad categories of livestock systems described in the report.14. The overarching goal for sustainable agricultural development is to ensure FSN for all now and in the future, in the context of climate change and increasing scarcity of natural resources, given the rapidly evolving and changing food demand, the growing and more urbanized human population and the need to \"leave no one behind\".15. While food security concerns historically focused on total calorie intake, today they encompass the so-called \"triple burden\" of malnutrition: hunger (deficiencies in dietary energy intake), estimated by FAO to affect some 792 million people worldwide; micronutrient deficiencies (such as iron, vitamin A, iodine and zinc), which, according WHO, affect some two billion people; and increasing overnutrition that now affects more people than hunger does. In 2014, WHO estimated more than 1.9 billion (39 percent) adults, aged 18 years and over, were overweight, of which over 600 million (13 percent) were obese. The relationships between food systems and nutrition will be explored in depth in a forthcoming HLPE report (2017).16. In a context of increasing resource scarcity, and with the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to climate change, numerous studies have identified livestock as a key area for action. 17. Resource efficiency in livestock production will have to be improved in order to: maintain production systems within critical planetary limits; preserve the ecosystem services on which agricultural production relies; and reduce land degradation, biodiversity loss and pressure on water use and quality. As a driver of deforestation, demand for feed, and transportation and processing infrastructure, the livestock sector is directly and indirectly responsible for 14.5 percent of GHG emissions. At the same time, some livestock systems are among the most vulnerable to climate change (particularly those in dry areas) and to new environment-related emerging diseases. These challenges are huge but the livestock sector also has huge potential for improvement, if the best existing practices in a given system and region can be shared and learned from more widely.18. Livestock plays a crucial economic role in many food systems: providing income, wealth and employment; buffering price shocks; adding value to feedstuffs; providing a source of fertilizer and draught power. Agricultural markets face three challenges: (i) imperfect competition, due to lack of information, barriers to market entry, infrastructure constraints; (ii) externalities that create significant costs not borne by producers; and (iii) market distortions arising from poor public policies, including subsidies and taxes that reward unsustainable practices. More specifically, agricultural markets are subject to unpredictable forces, such as the weather, and to time lags between investments in production and readiness to sell that encourage producers to be risk averse unless they are supported by safety nets. International trade has introduced opportunities but also new challenges, including an increased potential for diseases to spread. International trade has also been accompanied by a growing role for multinational private actors in making investment decisions in agricultural systems. Concentrated corporate control of agriculture has also increased in the face of uneven access to market information and technologies, undermining competition.19. Different livestock systems face different economic risks and opportunities in this more general context. Determining factors include: the degree of integration into international markets and urban distribution systems; the level of dependence on external inputs (such as feed); and the degree of concentration in the markets upstream and downstream from livestock producers.20. According to the World Development Report (IBRD/World Bank, 2007), agriculture provides employment to 1.3 billion people worldwide, 97 percent of them in developing countries. Agriculture and food systems are among the sectors where informal jobs are the most common, without adequate work safety, in unhealthy working conditions and for low wages. Children are also disproportionately employed in agriculture, including in ways that violate their rights. Many agricultural systems face a serious demographic challenge in failing to attract and maintain the interest of young people. Conflicts and protracted crises, such as droughts and epidemic outbreaks, strongly impinge on agriculture and livestock production, affecting feed crop production, the productivity of rangelands and access to pastures, rangelands, feed and forage.21. Women play a vital role in the management of many livestock systems, especially poultry and pigs. Women's roles within livestock production systems differ from region to region, and the distribution of ownership of livestock between men and women is strongly related to social, cultural and economic norms. Too often, however, women face multiple forms of discrimination, from lack of access to education and productive resources to discriminatory political and legal systems that together limit their ability to benefit from the livestock sector. Not enough genderdisaggregated data are available to fully understand the specific challenges faced by women in this sector.22. Animal diseases are a major cause of productivity and economic losses in developing countries.The rapid expansion of the sector as well as increased movements of animals and products within countries and across borders make it all the more urgent to address infectious diseases. Even more since the majority of emerging and re-emerging human diseases are zoonoticthey come from animals and are transmitted to humans. The critical linkages between human health, animal health and ecosystems are encompassed in the concept of One Health, which highlights the need for collaboration across sectors.23. Animal welfare is an increasing public concern, raised by consumers and often by retailers who are responding to consumer demand. In many countries, legislation provides for a minimum standard of animal welfare. Where this legislation does not yet exist, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) provides guidelines.24. These global challenges concern the different livestock systems to various degrees. Each system is also confronted with specific challenges.a. Smallholder mixed farming systems face limited access to resources, markets and services, variable resource efficiency and big yield gaps, and have little capacity to adapt to deep and rapid structural transformation in the agriculture sector and in the wider economy. b. Pastoral systems: in addition to the challenges they share with smallholders, pastoral systems must cope with conflicts for land and water, economic and political exclusion, social (including gender) inequity, poor animal health and high risks of zoonotic diseases. c. Commercial grazing systems face the degradation of the natural grasslands they depend upon, conflicts with other sectors over land and resource use, poor conditions for workers and, in some cases, technical inefficiencies.d. Intensive livestock systems face environmental challenges resulting from intensification (land and water use; water, soil and air pollution); the harm to human and animal health created by antimicrobial resistance, the emergence of new diseases; the social consequences of intensification (rural abandonment, poor working conditions, low wages, vulnerability of migrant labour, occupational hazards); and economic risks in the form of dependence on external inputs, including feed and energy, market concentration, price volatility, inequitable distribution of value added, as well as the difficulty of internalizing externalities in price signals.25. The report proposes a common approach to elaborate pathways for SAD comprised of eight steps. These steps de facto outline a process around which to design national SAD strategies:i. Describe the current situation in a specific context.ii. Agree on the long-term FSN goals and targets at the national level, in line with the SDGs.iii. Identify the challenges to be addressed to move towards SAD for FSN.iv. Define a set of operational priorities among these challenges.v. Identify available solutions that can be mobilized by stakeholders at different levels.vi. Define the context specific responses and technical solutions.vii. Set in place an appropriate political and institutional environment at the national level to enable the choice of priority actions at the farm level and along the food chain.viii. Set in place methods to monitor and evaluate progress, to continue to identify constraints, and to allow for a dynamic and iterative process of learning by doing.They involve a variety of actors, operating at different scales, all working towards SAD for FSN.The pathways need to be specific to national and local contexts, and to particular scales and time periods. They can be grounded on very different narratives, each of which drives a selection of options. Amid this specificity, three interlinked principles help shape those pathways towards SAD for FSN: Improve resource efficiency. Considerable potential exists to improve resource efficiency through the transfer and adoption of best available practices and technologies in a given context and through the adoption of diverse approaches (including \"sustainable intensification\", \"save and grow\", \"ecological intensification\", and \"agro-ecology\"), all with a growing emphasis on ecosystem services. This would make it possible to simultaneously increase productivity, to preserve and make better use of limited resources, and to reduce GHG emissions. Resource efficiency can be improved through different technical means including: improving livestock management, careful breeding, health and feed efficiency; closing the nutrient cycle; and reducing food losses and waste. Strengthen resilience. To address changing risks and shocks, whether environmental, economic, financial, or related to human and animal health, requires building resilience in livestock systems. The diversification of production and integration of crops and livestock at all levelsfrom farm to landscape, community, territory and regionwill contribute to strengthen resilience and improve resource efficiency. Improve social equity/responsibility outcomes. The failure to protect social equity and cultural integrity raises some of the most wide-ranging and politically sensitive challenges for sustainability. The norms, practices and priorities of social equity/responsibility, the property rights and land tenure laws and customs, all differ across countries and communities and change over time. Working conditions need to be improved at all levels of food value chains.In line with the SDGs, national SAD strategies will have to prioritize the needs and interests of the most vulnerable populations (which typically include women, children, migrants, and indigenous peoples).27. The report notes the need for appropriate, and where relevant gender disaggregated, data to enable stakeholders to identify priorities and monitor progress.28. The report highlights the need for coherence and integration among agriculture, economic, nutrition, education and health policies at the national level, and to improve the international coordination across these sectors as well, so as to address sustainability and FSN challenges.29. The twin problems of under-and overnutrition require local and national governments to coordinate policies pertaining to nutrition, health and SAD goals, taking into account the level of socio-economic development and their cultural and religious contexts. The regulation of agrifood industries and their cooperation are also necessary.30. While recognizing that farm level is at the heart of decision-making processes, enabling environments, including good governance and effective institutions, will be critical for an effective implementation of pathways and for the success of SAD strategies. The framework for developing strategies needs to ensure that actions taken at a particular level of organization (local government, territory, value chain, country, region, international) are consistent with actions taken at other levels and with other non-agriculture sectors, in order to allocate needed resources for facilitating pathways, to strengthen synergies and to address trade-offs to best achieve SAD for FSN. In addition, pathways are needed for all farming systems and one of the critical challenges is to consistently manage the co-existence of systems and their pathways at supra levels.31. Agriculture merits increased public and private investment and R&D for SAD: this should be a political and economic priority. This had also been shown by the World Development Report, which emphasized the specific role of agriculture as a powerful driver of growth and poverty reduction. SAD strategies must take into consideration: the role and limits of markets; the universal human right to food; and the challenge presented by the principle of \"food sovereignty\", which emphasizes the importance of subsidiarity and democratic voice in making decisions that affect food systems.32. Appropriate technologies for sustainable agriculture need to be made available for all farming systems and be tailored to particular circumstances and contexts. In all cases, technological choices must be informed by solid risk assessment and impact evaluations. The application of information and communications technology (ICT) in agriculture is increasingly important, especially in the development of new innovations that can empower farmersincluding smallholdersand the value chains that support them. The rapidly declining costs of ICT can make it an attractive tool for poorer farmers, extending its reach.33. Genetic resources are a key asset for SAD. They need to be sustainably managed and appropriately conserved, in situ and ex situ, together with the knowledge associated with them, including traditional and indigenous knowledge. The means and mechanisms to facilitate access of smallholders to genetic resources as well as benefit sharing are particularly important. Such mechanisms are much more developed for plants than for animals.In addition to these more general principles, orientations and actions, each category of livestock system has some priority areas of intervention that better take into account its specificities.34. For smallholder mixed farming systems, the priorities include: ensure better access to markets and more choice of markets; secure tenure rights and equitable access to land; design feasible growth pathways taking into consideration available resources; recognize, empower and enable the role of women; improve animal health management; encourage the use of local, more resistant, breeds; implement appropriate, tailored and participatory programmes that respond to farmers' needs; facilitate smallholders' participation in political processes; provide good quality training programmes and information; and redirect development policies and tax incentives towards the design of diversified and resilient farming and food systems.35. For pastoral systems, the priorities include: improve governance and security by involving pastoral societies in participatory governance mechanisms; improve connections to markets and market choices; provide and protect access to public services, including for animal and human health, and access to pastoral resources (water and land); implement a fairer taxation system to enhance value-added activities through the processing and marketing of pastoral products; better target emergency assistance; and devise development strategies that take into account the specific needs of pastoral systems, including mobility.For commercial grazing systems, the priorities include: the maintenance and improvement of grassland management practices to improve resource efficiency and contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation; the development of integrated crop-livestock-forestry systems that enable several kinds of production on the same land and allow synergies between those productions; and the protection of native forests from deforestation.For intensive livestock systems, the priorities include: investment in R&D along the complete food chain to strike a balance between increasing production and reducing environmental harm, including food losses and waste; the expansion of precision livestock farming; action to reduce the prophylactic use of antibiotics in animal care and to improve animal welfare; policies to reduce the environmental impact of intensive systems including systems that promote more recycling of animal waste to promote efficiency and reduce the harm caused by unbalanced nutrient cycles (too much depletion where the feed crops are grown and too much addition where livestock are raised and fed); and increase the sustainable production of feed while improving the ratio of feed to animal conversion.These means can be mobilized, as appropriate, to answer the priorities determined according to each specific situation, in the pursuit of a common objective of SAD.The following recommendations have been elaborated building upon the main findings of the report on Sustainable agricultural development for food security and nutrition: what roles for livestock? They aim to strengthen the contributions of the livestock sector to sustainable agricultural development (SAD) for food security and nutrition (FSN). They are directed at different categories of stakeholders as appropriate: states, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), the private sector and civil society organizations, and other stakeholders. They should:States and other stakeholders should: a) use the common approach presented in this report to elaborate, at all appropriate levels, context-specific pathways towards SAD. Such pathways should aim to strengthen synergies and limit trade-offs between the different dimensions of sustainability through improving resource efficiency, strengthening resilience and securing social equity/responsibility. They could draw on initiatives such as the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock and the Global Research Alliance on agricultural greenhouse gases. In that respect, in line with SDGs, all stakeholders should support initiatives that involve multi-stakeholders dialogue, consultation and collaboration.States should:a) ensure that their SAD strategies and plans incorporate the integrated approach to FSN advocated by the CFS and are in line with the SDGs. States should better integrate into their SAD strategies the contributions that livestock systems make to the achievement of FSN.Policies, strategies and programmes need to take into account the interlinkages between different farming systems and their dynamic nature. They should in particular promote croplivestock integration at a scale and through means that are adapted to the diversity of systems.States and IGOs should: a) foster greater coherence between sustainable agricultural development, food systems, health, social protection, education and nutrition policies and programmes, as well as between their respective institutions, agencies and ministries.States, IGOs and other stakeholders should:a) collect gender-disaggregated data on women's roles in livestock production to understand where gender asymmetries persist in the livestock sector; b) adopt and ensure implementation of legislation to provide women equal access to and control of land and resources at the community and household levels; c) ensure that women, in particular smallholders, have access to credit and develop specific financial products for women, in order to facilitate the diversification of their economic activities; d) improve women's labour conditions in the livestock sector, including at the processing stage; e) take measures at the local level to ensure the inclusion of women at every stage of the livestock value chain, taking account of their productive and reproductive roles; f) take measures to enhance women's skill and knowledge by providing inclusive training and capacity building activities including when introducing new technologies.States and IGOs in relation to stakeholders should: a) better integrate agriculture, including livestock, feed and related technical issues, into national, regional and multilateral trade rules and policies in order to improve SAD for FSN; b) establish appropriate national and international food safety and quality standards and ensure their implementation through capacity building and appropriate resources for compliance.Governments, producer organizations, the private sector and civil society should:c) consider all dimensions of SAD in the development and implementation of standards for animal-sourced foods and livestock feed.States, producer organizations and other stakeholders should: a) develop tools to limit and manage excessive price volatility, including through the use of grain storage facilities, insurance programmes and other public policy instruments and private initiatives. In particular, these tools should address the risks posed by import surges and volatility in feed markets, and the specific vulnerabilities of smallholders.States, IGOs, food producers, the private sector and research organizations should: a) in order to support SAD, increase cooperation and ensure dissemination, distribution and creation of knowledge and transfer of appropriate technologies to characterize, conserve and manage livestock genetic resources both in situ and in germplasm stores and related facilities;b) act to minimize genetic erosion of the remaining biodiversity both in situ and in gene banks, as well as to recognize and protect traditional and indigenous knowledge linked to livestock genetic resources; c) create conditions to facilitate access to livestock genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their use; d) consider the establishment of dedicated international mechanisms to realize these objectives; e) promote the recognition and protection of smallholders and indigenous peoples' livestock genetic resources as well as the associated knowledge of those resources; f) recognize and protect the rights of smallholders and indigenous peoples to determine access to their livestock genetic resources including their right to determine who should have access to them and to a fair and equitable share of the benefits that arise from their use. a) integrate a participatory approach when designing an agenda and allocating resources for R&D, and focus on technologies, practices, metrics and institutions needed to improve resource efficiency, strengthen resilience and secure social equity/responsibility in diverse livestock farming systems; b) enable participatory research in order to promote the integration of diverse knowledge systems about livestock keeping, including animal breeding; c) promote the collaboration of researchers in livestock keepers' and other stakeholders' innovation processes and platforms to ensure dissemination of research findings and sharing of good practices.d) leverage the potential of information and communication technologies (ICT) in order to gather, share and use information in different livestock systems, ensuring broad access, in particular by women, vulnerable and marginalized communities.FAO, in coordination with relevant international and national agencies and other relevant stakeholders, should: a) review the data sets, indicators and methodologies that are needed to monitor and evaluate SAD for FSN, using such tools as the World Agricultural Census and the preparation of indicators for the SDGs, and identify data gaps; b) consider ways to improve the monitoring of changes in grasslands and their biodiversity, and to report on their global state; c) make available online an inventory of evidence-based policy measures as well as producer organizations, the private sector and other stakeholders actions that contribute to SAD for FSN. a) strengthening the role of local pastoralist organizations in adaptive land management and governance in order to increase the resilience of pastoral systems and households, in particular with respect to climate change, conflicts and protracted crises, as well as price volatility;b) considering the use of innovative financing mechanisms to invest in the provision of basic services adapted to the needs and ways of life of pastoralists, including culturally appropriate education, health, communications, drinking water and sanitation services, and renewable energy systems; c) exploring ways to improve the connection of pastoralists to local, national and international markets; d) strengthening security, tenure and title of customary lands, property rights and governance of grazing resources building on CFS Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests, and other relevant instruments in the international legal framework; e) enabling the mobility of pastoralists, including transboundary passage, through appropriate infrastructures, institutions, agreements and rules.a) supporting sustainable management of livestock, pastures and feed in order to minimize harmful environmental externalities, including by promoting models of production that preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services and reduce GHG emissions; b) exploring context specific technical possibilities and policy initiatives for integration of plants and animals at diverse scales, such as, for instance, agro-sylvopastoral systems; c) promoting practices that enhance resource efficiency and resilience of commercial grazing systems.a) ensuring that the working and living conditions of workers, especially women and other vulnerable workers, including temporary and migrant workers, at all stages of production, transformation and distribution, meet international standards and are protected by domestic laws;b) undertaking lifecycle assessment along the complete food chain to identify options for increasing production while minimizing negative environmental impacts and excessive use of energy, water, nitrogen and other natural resources; c) improving technical efficiency by monitoring the individual performance of herds and animals; d) supporting and improving animal health and welfare by promoting good practices and by establishing and enforcing robust standards for different species in intensive systems, building upon the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) guidelines and private sector initiatives; e) exploring and implementing approaches for the reduction of antimicrobial use in livestock production;f) developing innovative approaches, with farmers' organizations, at diverse scales, in order to facilitate the use of manure as organic fertilizerand to promote the use of crop co-products or residues and waste as feed including through technical innovations.Agricultural development plays a major role in improving food security and nutrition (FSN): 3 by increasing the quantity and diversity of food; as a driver of economic transformation; and because agriculture is the main source of income for a majority of the people who live in the most extreme poverty. Earning sufficient income from agriculture is key for the 1.3 billion people who work in the sector, and directly determines their food security. Extensive experience across many countries over many years shows that both agricultural development and economy-wide growth are needed to improve FSN, and that the former can reinforce the latter.Agricultural development, since the Second World War, has enabled impressive progress in food production. This was mostly due to a combination of economic growth, advances in technology and knowledge, and improved management along supply chains. This increased production has mostly occurred through intensification, specialization, and economies of scale that depend increasingly on inputs including animal feed and non-renewable sources of energy. Nevertheless, extensive grassbased livestock systems, pastoral and smallholder crop-livestock mixed systems that do not rely on external inputs have also contributed significantly to increased supplies of food.This indisputable progress has not come about without giving rise to a persistent range of concerns. Critics question whether the present and future directions of agricultural development are sustainable.To list just some of the concerns: there is currently a renewed debate about the world's agriculture and food systems' capacity to sustainably supply nutritious food to a growing population given the socalled \"triple burden\" of malnutritionthe persistence of substantial food insecurity, undernutrition and overnutrition; there are concerns about the social performance of food systems; about the degradation of land, freshwater and ecosystems at both local and global levels; about the impact of agriculture on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; and, in turn, the effects of climate change on agriculture.Over the long run, world food prices in real terms have tended to fallalthough masking much price volatility in the short runas a consequence of food supplies increasing faster than demand. This has given rise to the concern that these past trends may dampen incentives for investing in future agricultural development, and in particular in hindering its long-term sustainability.There are contrasting perspectives on whether supporting labour-intensive agriculture or fostering productivity (and profitability) improvements in agriculture, even at the expense of labour-intensive practices, is the best pathway for sustainable agricultural development to achieve FSN overall. Agriculture can trigger economic growth, which in turns facilitates off-farm rural and urban employment opportunities. However, in many countries, the rural population is increasing, generating concerns about their livelihoods and FSN, especially for those that are landless and vulnerable. While urbanization has continued apace (with urban citizens being generally better nourished than rural people), 4 rural people who have moved to citiesespecially in the transitional phase of urbanizationare still food-insecure.In this context, in October 2014, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), in its 41 st Plenary Session, requested the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) to prepare a report on sustainable agricultural development for FSN, including the role of livestock, for its 43 rd Plenary Session in 2016. This topic is highly relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as to the implementation of the 2014 Rome Declaration on Nutrition and to the fulfilment of the universal Human Right to Food.This wide-ranging and comprehensive request implies addressing a number of key questions, including: What is the role and what directions for agricultural development are needed to fully 3 \"Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life\" (World Food Summit, 1996). In 2009, the World Summit on Food Security stated that the \"four pillars of food security are availability, access, utilization and stability\". Availability is the supply of food through production, distribution and exchange; access is the affordability and allocation of food, as well as the preferences of individuals and households requirements of each member of the household; utilization is the metabolism of food by individuals, resulting from the diversity and quality of food, good care and feeding practices, food preparation, determining the nutritional status of the individual; and stability refers to the stability of the three other dimensions over time.contribute to sustainably supply nutritious food? What can be done to improve the way our food and agricultural systems perform economically, socially and environmentally? Can agricultural development restore the already stressed natural systems that underpin food production now and in the future? What role can sustainable agricultural development pathways play in underpinning decent livelihoods to achieve the overarching objective of food security and nutrition?In this report, agriculture is interpreted in the narrower sense of crops and livestock. Fisheries and aquaculture were treated in a dedicated HLPE report in 2014, while forestry will be covered in a report to be released in 2017. Livestock is used to designate domesticated terrestrial animals raised for food production. Bees, insects and wild foods are not covered.The questions of sustainability and agricultural development are particularly complex ones because, as most of the topics addressed until now by the HLPE, they require a long-term integrated perspective. This means looking at the dynamics of the agriculture sector. It also means that a very broad vision of the sector itself is needed, including its links to economic development as a whole, to natural resources, demographic, social and cultural issues, and to the trends affecting these aspects in the long term. Finally, it means to take account of interactions between the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic and social) that need to be secured and enhanced for future generations, and to do so at very different scales and in a wide range of specific contexts.Within the broad issue of agricultural development, as reflected in its title, this report focuses on the livestock components of agricultural systems, given their role as an engine for the development of the agriculture and food sector, as a driver of major economic, social and environmental changes in food systems worldwide, and as an entry point for understanding the issues around sustainable agricultural development as a whole.The livestock sector is central to food systems' development. It is a particularly dynamic and complex agriculture sector, accounting for around one-third of global agricultural GDP, with implications for animal-feed demand, for market concentration in agricultural supply chains, for the intensification of production at the farm level, for farm income, for land use, and for human and animal nutrition and health. Livestock has often set the speed of change in agriculture in recent decades. Livestock is the largest user of land resources; permanent meadows and pastures represent 26 percent of global land area and feed crops account for one-third of global arable land. Livestock is strongly linked to the feed-crop sector, generates co-products including manure and draught power, and in many economies acts as a store of wealth and a safety net. It is integral to the cultural identity, traditional practices, values and landscapes of many communities across the world. Livestock has also profound effects on the environment, particularly when indirect land-use changes and feed-crop production effects are taken into account.There is increasing evidence that some of the major challenges to which agriculture is confronted depend upon the evolution of the livestock sector. This is the case for human health through both the burdens of under-and overnutrition. This is also the case for the environment. The pressure on the agriculture sector, and the consequences for changes in land-use patterns, will strongly depend on the evolution of animal-sourced food (ASF) demand.Livestock production takes place in a wide range of farming systems: extensive (e.g. grazing in the case of ruminant livestock or foraging in the case of poultry and pigs); intensive (in which thousands of animals are fed with concentrated feed rations in confined facilities); and in the many intermediate systems that exist between the two.Defining pathways for minimizing the harmful and enhancing beneficial environmental, economic and social impacts of livestock is therefore essential. Based upon this assumption, the livestock sector can also serve as an illustration for the wider agriculture sector to explore possible pathways of sustainable agricultural development for FSN, with a view to recommending appropriate actions by policy-makers and stakeholders in different contexts.Consumption is critical in shaping the feasibility of sustainable agricultural development pathways, locally and globally. Consumption is considered, in this report on sustainable agricultural development, as a key driver of agricultural production and agricultural development. Assumptions about future food consumption patterns are crucial and nutrition and consumption issues will be more specifically considered in an HLPE report on Nutrition and food systems to be published in 2017. Taken together, these two reports aim to provide a significant contribution to informing debates on sustainable food systems, along the food chain from production to consumption.The debate around sustainability, and on future directions for agricultural development, is not exempt from areas of controversy and different views on possible trajectories. One important objective of this report is to try to clarify the debates for policy-makers and all stakeholders by presenting the current controversies in a comprehensive and balanced way.The report is structured as follows. The first chapter outlines an approach to sustainable agricultural development in the perspective of FSN, including proposing a conceptual framework for agricultural development for FSN, and a typology of livestock farming systems, which will be used to structure and analyse the issues addressed throughout the report. This is followed in Chapter 2 by a discussion of the main trends and drivers affecting the agriculture, including livestock sector, according to various projection scenarios through to 2050.Chapter 3 identifies the main sustainability challenges for the development of livestock systems (including the associated feed crops) and their contribution to FSN goals, pointing to hotspots, stresses, risks and tipping points that need to be addressed.Chapter 4 outlines a framework and possible pathways and responses to address those challenges, both globally and in different farming systems, including constraints to their implementation. It includes consideration of different perspectives, visions and narratives on the pathways that have the potential to achieve sustainable agricultural development for FSN. Short case studies illustrate the wide variety of practical experiences in different contexts.This chapter aims to build a common understanding of the notion of sustainable agricultural development (SAD) for FSN. It outlines the approach and concepts used in this report.Section 1.1 briefly explains the role of agricultural development as a driver of economic and social development to improve FSN. In doing so it examines the notion of sustainability, in line with conceptual frameworks established by the HLPE that link food security and nutrition to sustainable food systems (HLPE, 2014). The section provides a conceptual framework articulating the different elements of SAD and at the same time establishes the logic of this report.Section 1.2 explains the key role of the livestock sector in SAD for FSN, giving the reasons for focusing on livestock in this report. Section 1.3 proposes a typology of farming systems used in this report.Understanding \"sustainable agricultural development for food security and nutrition\" requires considering the dynamics of agricultural development: what it does, the outcomes, and how it performs vis-à-vis the two key objectives of sustainability and FSN.Agricultural development has a key role to play in relation to poverty reduction, in the context of economic development and growth as a whole. Also, given the economic and social importance of agriculture, which provides a livelihood to 38.3 percent of the world total labour force (FAO, 2015a), and the importance of food as a basic human need, agricultural development is a key domain for the universally agreed human rights framework, including the progressive realization of the Right to Food.Considering the crucial importance of agricultural development to ensure FSN, to reduce poverty, and to ensure sustainable management of natural resources, SAD is central for the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agreed in 2015.What are the relationships between food security, sustainable food systems and sustainable agricultural development? In line with HLPE (2014), \"Sustainable food systems are food systems that ensure food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition of future generations are not compromised\".In this report, sustainable agricultural development is envisaged in its contribution to achieving food security and nutrition, and is defined as follows:Sustainable agricultural development is agricultural development that contributes to improving resource efficiency, strengthening resilience and securing social equity/responsibility of agriculture and food systems in order to ensure food security and nutrition for all, now and in the future.Agricultural development is key to food security in several ways, contributing to food availability, access and stability andthrough the diversity of foods producedfood utilization. It has accompanied population growth providing a threefold increase in global agricultural production in 50 years, with an increase in the area of land farmed of only 12 percent (FAO, 2014a), thanks notably to the \"Green Revolution\", although with significant variations across countries and regions. The Green Revolution built on the work of crop scientists and, targeting specific crops, involved the use of highyielding varieties, expanded irrigation and application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, as well as improved management techniques. But the specialization of agricultural systems has resulted in significant levels of biodiversity loss, with potential effects on the environmental sustainability of farming systems and on the possibility for a diversity of food supplies in the future. 5   Today, people are hungry not because there is not enough food overall in the world, but because they cannot afford food or do not have the means to produce it. It is access to food, the effective demand for food (meaning demand by people who can pay for it) and how food is distributed across and within countries, as well as within households and across genders, that ultimately matter (Grafton et al., 2015). A significant part of the world population produces food for self-consumption.Population growth, income growth, urbanization and changing diets are seen as the main drivers of increased demand for agricultural production over the coming decades. Chapter 2 provides an elaboration of these drivers. Suffice it to note here that, based on 2008 UN projections of a global population of 9.15 billion in 2050 and continuing trends in consumption, FAO estimates that global agricultural production in 2050 will need to be 60 percent higher in volume than in 2005/07 (FAO, 2012a). Some livestock productsin particular poultrycould show much greater growth than this aggregate average figure. Which production systems and market access arrangements will provide for rising food demand in different regions of the world is a central issue for the future of agriculture and the global food system. Absolute increases in production of the magnitude projected by FAO will not be achieved without difficulty as land, water and other resources come under greater pressure. A shift in diets, as a contribution to healthier diets, and a reduction of food loss and waste could also dampen the projected rate of demand increase. According FAO, the evidence cautiously suggests that, globally, there are sufficient resources to satisfy the additional demand projected to 2050, but that resource availability, income and population growth are unequally distributed and local resource scarcities are likely to remain a significant constraint in pursuing food security for all (FAO, 2012a).The relationship between agricultural development and access to food is a central issue, due to the paradox that most of the 792 million hungry people worldwide 6 are found among farmers and rural people. As recognized by the 2008 World Development Report (WDR), Agriculture for development, (IBRD/World Bank, 2007) three out of four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture directly or indirectly for their livelihoods.The WDR report showed how, in the \"agriculture-based\" countries particularly, agriculture and associated industries are essential to reduce mass poverty and food insecurity and will require a productivity revolution in smallholder farming, a sector that in these countries tends to be dominated by women. In \"transforming\" countries, the WDR suggests extreme rural poverty must be addressed by providing multiple pathways out of poverty, including through a shift to higher-value agriculture, more rural-based non-farm economic activity and assistance to people transitioning out of agriculture.In \"urbanized\" countries too, agriculture can help reduce the remaining rural poverty if smallholders can be connected to modern food market chains and if jobs can be created in agriculture and agroindustry along with the creation and application of markets for environmental services. The WDR proposes a revitalization of the agriculture sector by tackling underinvestment and mis-investment in agriculture, reducing poverty, ensuring economic growth, improving livelihoods and strengthening food security across the developing world (Box 1).Concerns about the capacity of agriculture and food systems to enable improved nutritional outcomes have grown with the progressive recognition of \"hidden hunger\" or micronutrient deficiency, which affects those undernourished as well as those who can meet their energy but not their nutritional needs essential for human health and development. Poor nutritional outcomes are the result of unbalanced diets, a lack of access to potable water and sanitation (HLPE, 2015), as well as health conditions. Much of sub-Saharan Africa and the South Asian subcontinent are subject to a high prevalence of hidden hunger.Agriculture provides employment to 1.3 billion people worldwide, 97 percent of them in developing countries. Between 60 and 99 percent of rural households derive income from agriculture in 14 countries with comparable data.Agriculture-based countries -Agriculture is a major source of growth, accounting for 32 percent of GDP growth on averagemainly because of its large share in GDPand most of the poor are in rural areas (70 percent). This group of countries has 417 million inhabitants, mainly in sub-Saharan African countries; 82 percent of the rural sub-Saharan population lives in agriculture-based countriesTransforming countries -Agriculture is no longer a major source of economic growth, contributing on average only 7 percent to GDP growth, but poverty remains overwhelmingly rural (82 percent of all poor). This group, typified by China, India, Indonesia, Morocco and Romania, has more than 2.2 billion rural inhabitants. (Ninety-eight percent of the rural population in South Asia, 96 percent in East Asia and the Pacific, and 92 percent in the Middle East and North Africa are in transforming countries.)Urbanized countries -Agriculture contributes directly even less to economic growth -5 percent on averageand poverty is mostly urban. Even so, rural areas still have 45 percent of the poor, and agribusiness and the food industry and services account for as much as one-third of GDP. Included in this group of 255 million rural inhabitants are most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and many in Europe and Central Asia. Eighty-eight percent of the rural populations in both regions live in urbanized countries.Source: IBRD/World Bank (2007).The undernutrition concern has been enlarged to a so-called \"triple burden\" of malnutrition (undernourishment, micro deficiencies and obesity). The unprecedentedly large and rapid transition across countries during the last decades towards the so-called \"Western diet\" (Popkin et al., 2012) has meant higher average intakes of refined sugars and carbohydrates, refined fats, oils, and red and processed meats. The human health concerns associated with the diet include overweight and obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and autoimmune diseases, and some cancers (Murray et al., 2013). The transition to more Western diets is linked to rising incomes and urbanization in the developing world as well as to social, technological and economic changes in food systems. Overconsumption (particularly of some food groups) and associated obesity has mainly been a problem of the rich in low-income countries and the poor in high-income countries; the situation is evolving, however, and in middle-income and increasingly even in low-income countries there is a mixed picture, with a tendency for overconsumption and obesity to shift from the rich to the poor, especially in women (Dinsa et al., 2012). The forthcoming HLPE report on Nutrition and Food Systems (2017) will deal in depth with these issues.Today's debates on agricultural development differ in nature and complexity from those of the 1970s when global efforts to tackle hunger ushered in the Green Revolution. A subsequent wave of sustainability concerns focused on the environmental dimension, as evidence mounted on the consequences of inadequate attention being paid to ecosystems and natural resource use linked to food production, processing and distribution systems. Critical concerns focused on the impact of agricultural development on water availability and quality, soil degradation, air quality, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change, and on ecosystems and biodiversity. Social inequalities generated by the Green Revolution were also subject to strong criticism, as the incorporation of the new practices and technologies was closely associated with processes of social differentiation and rising land prices, strongly affecting the socio-economic situation of the rural poor.The persistence of hunger and malnutrition, the fact that malnutrition is taking on new forms and the food price rises of 2007-2008 have led to a resurgence of anxiety about the \"grand challenge\" (Hertel, 2015) of sustainably feeding the planet, with an increased attention to the role of all the dimensionseconomic, environmental and socialof the development pathways that should lead to reaching those overarching FSN goals.In this report, SAD encompasses the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development, including ecosystem conditions and human well-being, in so far as they all ultimately affect FSN. The importance of a multidimensional approach giving full recognition to social, cultural and human implications (including human health issues) of agricultural development is reinforced by the following considerations:First, there is an increased concern that food insecurity and the constraints to the realization of the right to food are quite often the result of social inequalities, at different levels, such as unequal access to production assets, imbalances of power across social groups and discrimination related to ethnicity, gender, generation, religious beliefs or place of living. For a significant part of the world population, including smallholders, pastoralists, agricultural workers, artisanal fisherfolk and indigenous peoples, access to land and security of tenure stand as crucial elements in the achievement of the right to food. In urban settings, social and economic inequalities affect FSN for low-income households and minority populations, also with gender and generation gaps, leading to differential access to livestock products, fresh fruits and vegetables.Second, there is an increased recognition of the risks and benefits to human health and well-being associated with the industrialization, intensification and concentration of agricultural production and expanded international trade with longer, more complex food supply chains. Food-borne diseases resulting either from biological contamination (pathogens, microbes) or chemicals are still a significant cause of human health problems related mainly to fresh food products such as animal-sourced foods (ASF) as well as fruits and vegetables. Surveillance and reporting systems have been improved in developed countries but remain problematic in many developing countries where capacity is limited and safety protocols are less well established, especially in informal markets. New and resurgent zoonotic diseases (those transferred from animals to humans, often in systems where there is close proximity of humans to animals, including in urban livestock farms) are also a big concern as reflected in outbreaks of avian and swine influenza, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), resulting in deaths, serious illness and very significant costs for containment and eradication. A related risk to human health of growing concern is anti-microbial resistance linked to the use of antibiotics for farmed animals, mainly in intensive systems.Third, there is an increased preoccupation that the way in which food is now produced and consumed comes with far-reaching human development and social implications. Food is increasingly produced in larger, more formal and more intensive systems. Food is frequently sold in global markets for distribution after elaborate transformation and packaging, through supermarkets. The intensification and industrialization of agriculture and food chains have resulted in a wider range of food at lower prices becoming reliably available throughout the year to more people, with supply chain management controls having reduced the risk of food-borne diseases. But there are also concerns: about the care and welfare of farmed animals and the human and animal disease risk associated with intensive production; about the consequences of distancing consumers from agricultural production, making them unaware of the processes that produce their food; and, about the loss of \"protective factors\" in the shift from more traditional diets to a modern \"Western diet\", with associated risks of losing nutrient and dietary diversity, including microbial diversity (Miller, 2014).Fourth, a range of economic and social concerns relate to the growth in market concentration over recent decades among the companies that sell both food products and agricultural inputs. Many of these firms are transnational, selling in international markets, with significantly more market power than the agricultural producers from whom they buy farm products and to whom they sell seeds, fertilizers and other inputs (Lang, 2004;James et al., 2012). This can further marginalize the most vulnerable populations. There are also issues for consumers through the extension of what is sometimes called the \"supermarket revolution\", including in developing countries. The largest companies influence product development and processing technologies, while the relatively few dominant but competitive retail gateways exert an influence over consumer tastes and choices. While larger-scale production and distribution put downward pressure on food prices, these trends are also thought by some to undermine healthy nutrition through the ready availability of cheap processed food products, often exacerbated by advertising targeted at particular groups of consumers, including children (Lang, 2004;Nestlé, 2012).The central objective of this report is to identify the challenges that agriculture has to address and to propose possible pathways towards SAD for FSN to policy-makers and other stakeholders. The conceptual framework used in this report (Figure 1) illustrates the elements and relationships that guide SAD pathways for FSN. It is based on an understanding of the potential contributions of SAD to FSN in different contexts, on the identification of the challenges from global level to farm level that agricultural development must address to improve its sustainability, and of ways forward in terms of \"SAD pathways\" to contribute to FSN.This framework is compatible with the definition of FSN, the definition of sustainable food systems provided by the HLPE (HLPE, 2014), and the definition of SAD elaborated earlier in this report.The framework acknowledges that food systems encompass multiple components, levels, scales and sectors, affecting and being affected by other systems. It can be applied in several contexts, from local and national to international levels, and within and across farming systems.The lower level captures the trends that shape the context of agricultural development, including on the demand-side, population and income growth, technology, urbanization and changing diets, within a context of economic and social development, and diverse cultural norms and practices. Trends and their interactions shape the challenges that SAD has to address. The second level identifies the challenges faced by farming systems. These challenges can be either cross-cutting or more relevant to certain systems and situations. The challenges impinge on food production, and are shaped by natural resource endowments, technology and farm structures, scale and management practices, land use and tenure arrangements and the organization of labour in agriculture.On the third level, Figure 1 identifies three interlinked principles for SAD: resource efficiency, resilience, and social equity/responsibility. Resource efficiency denotes the efficiency of resource use: it includes both the conventional relationship between factor inputs and output, as well as the relationship between the use of natural resources and environmental impacts, which are not factored into conventional productivity calculations. Resilience includes the ability of farming systems to respond and adapt to shocks due to external factors such as climate change and weather events, diseases and economic events such as price volatility. Social equity/responsibility includes distributional, gender, tenure and property rights issues, as well as social or corporate responsibility with respect to ethical business practices and animal welfare. These principles are further elaborated in Chapter 4.These principles enable the identification of possible areas for policy intervention. Solutions and actions can be considered as falling into three overarching categories: linkages within and across farming and food systems through diversification and integration; economic organization through markets, trade and food chains; and an enabling framework of governance through collective and institutional actions. Actions to implement sustainable development pathways can be implemented at all levels, from the farming system to the national and international levels.At the top of the diagram appears the overarching objective, FSN in its four dimensions, to which all SAD pathways will hopefully lead.Figure 1 does not aim to capture all the complex interrelationships. The conceptual framework is intended rather as a tool for exploring key decision areas within the food systems relevant for thinking at the global level as well as for particular regional or local food and agricultural settings across production systems.A central aspect of the report is the acknowledgement that food systems are dynamic and evolve over time. Thus the report recognizes that the transition to more sustainable food systems is made possible by adopting SAD pathways, which impact on the three interlinked principles for SAD, and, as a consequence, on FSN. This framework, and the report more broadly, acknowledge the complexities of the food, environment and social interface as well as the contextual specificities across and within countries and the differentiated effects of change on different food system stakeholders along the supply chain, as well as on different social actors. The challenges and priorities for SAD vary across time and countries and depend on whether the focus is on the farm, or at the national or global levels. Different perspectives and disciplines, including economics, agronomy, social sciences and anthropology, all offer insights. There are also many stakeholders operating in and affecting the system, some of them critically dependent on specific farming systems for their cultural integrity, livelihoods and food security. Agricultural development is affected both by changes at the farm level and by those outside agriculture, as well as by a whole range of policies and regulations either targeted to agriculture or applicable to other sectors of the economy and society.Despite wide acceptance of the imperative of achieving food security and better nutrition for all, the multiplicity of possible entry points, perspectives and objectives has led to a coexistence of many narratives and conflicting evaluations about the state of agricultural development and, most importantly, disagreement on the directions and policy instruments that could best improve sustainability. Particularly important among these are the market orientation and food sovereignty narratives, which are considered in Chapter 4.This report focuses on the livestock sector, acknowledging the diversity of livestock systems, because of its critical roles, negative and positive for the FSN status of billions of people; as an engine for the development of the agriculture sector as a whole; because of its dynamic nature in the face of rapidly growing ASF demand; and, because of its significance with respect to the sustainability challenges that agriculture is facing overall. In 2013, the livestock sector accounted for one-third of global agricultural gross production value (FAOSTAT). It makes a huge positive contribution to livelihoods and nutrition including for poor and vulnerable people in the developing world. It is often said that 1.3 billion people depend on livestock for their livelihoods, among which 600 million poor farmers. 8 A study conducted by FAO in seven African countries, based on the latest National Panel Surveys, shows that between 44 and 79 percent of rural households keep livestock (see Figure 2).For these rural households, livestock is integral to their cultural identity, traditional practices, values and landscapes. Livestock also generates co-products including manure and draught power, and in many economies acts as a store of wealth and a safety net.The livestock sector has been one of the fastest growing sectors in global agriculture, due to rapid demand growth in low-income and emerging economies. Delgado et al. (1999) stressed the importance of livestock in agricultural development, which led to coining the expression \"livestock revolution\". Livestock keeping is also strongly influenced by values and ethics and plays a key role in shaping many landscapes and communities.In 2013, the world's livestock headcount was estimated to be 23 billion poultry birds, 1.6 billion cattle, 2 billion sheep and goats, and 1 billion pigs (FAOSTAT). 9 Among milk-producing livestock, cows have an important significance, and sheep, goats, horses, buffaloes and camels produce milk of particularly high nutritional value. Livestock also has an important role in providing manure, power, hides, fibres and medicines, as well as being important capital assets for livestock owners.In 2010, animal products such as meat, milk and eggs (excluding fish and seafood) globally provided 16 percent of total calories and 31 percent of dietary protein (FAOSTAT). They are sources of essential micronutrients such as iron, vitamin A, iodine and zinc, thus contributing to optimal nutrition. All the key micronutrients present in ASF except vitamin B12 can also be found in plant foods but their density and bioavailability is greater in ASF making them an important nutritional source, especially for groups with high needs such as young children, pregnant and lactating women and people suffering from malnutrition (Gibson, 2011). Milk consumption is especially associated with increased height (preventing stunting) and meat consumption with increased cognitive development.However, the livestock sector is heavily implicated in negative effects on the state of the earth's natural resources, including high GHG emissions, deforestation and land conversion in particular for 8 See http://www.livestockglobalalliance.org/ 9Note that this estimated \"head count\" is on a \"point-in-time\" basis, and is used as one indication of the size of the livestock sector. Because of the short production cycle of some species (e.g. chickens, pigs), the number of animals used by the global commercial meat industry over one year will be considerably higher.  In broad terms, at the global level, livestock accounts for an estimated 14.5 percent of GHG emissions, when accounting for all direct and indirect emissions along the production chain, including land-use change, feed production and transport (FAO, 2013a). Livestock is a major user of water resources, including irrigation water for animal feed production, but this varies considerably across countries and production systems and estimates of the level of water use and its impact are still subject to some dispute, often related to whether the livestock system depends on rainfed or irrigated water systems.Various authors (Altieri, 1999;Gliessman, 1997;Thrupp, 2000;Perfecto et al., 2009) have noted that biodiversity in agro-ecosystems, including the animal component, performs important ecological services beyond food production. These services include recycling of nutrients, pollination, pest control, regulation of microclimate and local hydrological processes, detoxification of noxious chemicals, control of GHG emissions, risk reduction under unpredictable environmental conditions and the conservation of surrounding natural ecosystems. Agricultural production itself depends on healthy eco-systems. As suggested by FAO/PAR (2011), agricultural systems cannot be reduced to simplified input-output systems: they function best when the interconnectedness of the different ecosystems' components and functions is preserved and optimized through the promotion of positive synergies between crops, breeds and natural ecosystem diversity. Animals are often an essential part of these cycles. However, the wide diversity of livestock systems worldwide means that livestock has varying impacts on the socio-economic viability of communities, and on natural resources and the environment, including climate change.Livestock production and products may also carry important health risks, especially in terms of foodborne diseases, emerging diseases and occupational hazards. There are in addition significant social and ethical concerns such as human health, animal care and corporate social responsibility associated with many livestock systems, with attendant social and economic costs, as well as issues related to lack of tenure and access to credit (especially for women), and the marginalization of vulnerable, indigenous, migrant and landless peoples.Some of these concerns are relevant to particular countries and systems, while the diversity of social, cultural, and political norms and preferences require taking a disaggregated and context specific approach to SAD for FSN.Drawing together disparate trends, drivers and opportunities for harnessing SAD for FSN, a recent paper by the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock notes there is a \"much needed unifying, evidence-based 'all-in-one' narrative on the role of livestock in sustainable development\" (GASL, 2014). The present report aims to addressthat need.Diversity in agriculture is the result of the co-evolution, in time and space, of human societies and ecosystems, through the practice of farming, unfolding in different patterns of resource use and development trajectories (Ploeg and Ventura, 2014). The heterogeneity of farming systems reflects, in many senses, the diversity of social, economic and ecological responses to changing adaptive conditions in different settings (Ploeg, 2010).The analysis and recommendations presented in this report are built upon the recognition of the diversity of farming systems worldwide, using a simplified classification of farming systems. The aim of this classification is not to encompass all the empirical variability of farming systems around the world, but to help policy-makers and other stakeholders address the various challenges and elaborate context-specific pathways and strategies at different scales. The pathways towards SAD and responses to deal with the challenges facing agriculture vary considerably across countries, among different farming systems and through time.The diversity of livestock production systems, at the global level, has been captured through different classification schemes (FAO, 1996;Herrero et al., 2009;Robinson et al., 2011). In most cases, livestock systems are treated as a subset of farming systems. The livestock classification system proposed by FAO (1996) encompasses all the cases in which livestock contributes \"more than 10 percent to total farm output in value terms or where intermediate contributions such as animal traction or manure represent more than 10 percent of the total value of purchased inputs\". It divides livestock production systems in two broad categories: \"solely livestock production systems\" (either \"landless\" or \"grassland-based\") and \"mixed farming systems\" (either \"rainfed\" or \"irrigated\"). These broad categories are further divided to take into account the agro-ecological zones, and to distinguish monogastric from ruminants.Subsequent studies, such as Robinson et al. (2011), called attention to the fact that this general classification includes features that cannot be measured using available spatial datasets, particularly at a global scale. It is important to highlight, as well, that applying the concept of the farm unita spatial referenceto some livestock systems may be challenging, considering the mobile character of many livestock systems, as pastoralism, and the fact that, for many of these systems, collective land use is a central feature.In general terms, as suggested by Robinson et al. (2011) and Notenbaert et al. (2009), the classification proposed by FAO (1996) can be used as a starting point as it \"provides a relevant stratification through which to describe, visualize and explore livestock and livestock-related issues, and constitutes a useful baseline that can be refined, improved upon, and adapted through time\" (Robinson et al., 2011).For the purpose of this report, a simplified classification in four broad livestock production systems is used: smallholder mixed, pastoralist, commercial grazing and intensive. Plant-based systems are gathered in a fifth category to consider their potential links with livestock systems. In distinguishing these categories, five guiding principles were considered:(i) The characteristics of the livestock system;(ii) The interaction between livestock systems and whole farming systems, (iii) Consistency with the body of scientific evidence, acknowledging that the precise definition of boundaries can vary considerably according to different countries' contexts and conditions; (iv) As suggested by Robinson et al. (2011), room for investigation of future developments in response to global drivers; and (v) Relevance to exploring FSN issues such as access to food, markets and means of production.The Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM), developed by FAO, provides estimates of the relative weight of those different livestock systems (see Table 1).This category covers the following GLEAM systems: \"Mixed\", \"Backyard\" and \"Intermediate\". Smallholder mixed farming systems combine livestock and crops on farm. They are found in all countries throughout the world, but are most heavily concentrated in Asia and Africa. In developing countries, most farms are mixed crop-livestock, often managed by smallholders. These small farms, often keeping only a few animals, produce up to 80 percent of the food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. 13 . The diversity inside these systems enables positive synergies between crops and livestock (such as recycling of animal waste and crop residues) and a multifunctional use of livestock. Rainfed mixed farming systems occur in the temperate zones of Europe and America and in the subhumid regions of Africa and Latin America ( de Haan et al., 2001).Smallholder mixed farms are the most internally diverse of all farm types, usually employ family labour and include urban and peri-urban holdings, especially in pigs and poultry and some dairy production. 14  Pigs and poultry are often produced under mixed farming systems, where crops provide feed and the livestock provide manure for crop fertilizers, often in a largely closed system.They are important in providing food at the local level in short market chains. These livestock systems provide multiple non-marketed benefits such as food for household consumption, manure, draught power and fuel. They generate local employment and highly valued social cohesion in many rural areas.Access to land can limit the growth of these farm enterprises and thus the ability to reap economies of scale and improve productive efficiency, which often results in an exodus of young family labour, particularly men, leaving a population that is often disproportionately female and ageing with less capacity to adopt new skills.They often depend on external inputs and are thus sensitive to the variability of the prices of inputs and outputs. The farms that are less well integrated into financial and commodity markets in long market chains have some resilience to price volatility but they can be vulnerable to weather shocks and climate change. Their small scale is often associated with weak financial viability, and smallholders cannot always meet the sanitary measures and regulations demanded in long chain markets.They often rely on ecological processes such as nutrient recycling (in a circular economy), and the impact of smallholder poultry and pig production, for example, on environmental degradation may be less important than it is for large-scale livestock systems (FAO, 2008).Smallholder mixed farming systems are associated with a great variety of livelihood strategies with different levels of integration into markets (HLPE, 2013a). The diversified agricultural systems developed by these smallholders are often characterized by the presence of different species of animals and multipurpose breeds. Under certain circumstances, in response to pressures and opportunities, mixed farming systems in both developed and developing countries have converted into specialized farming systems that are highly dependent on the use of external inputs.This category is included in the GLEAM \"Grazing\" system. Pastoral systems are the result of a coevolutionary process between populations and the environment. They have developed a variety of modes of land tenure and management that are strongly associated with mobility, the use of common pool resources and the ability of animals to convert local vegetation into food and energy. Pastoralism is globally important for the human populations it supports, the food and ecological services it provides, the economic contributions it makes to some of the world's poorest regions, and the longstanding civilizations it helps to maintain (Nori and Davies, 2007;WISP, 2008).Pastoralism occurs mostly in the developing world, in areas where intensive crop cultivation is limited or physically not possible (FAO, 2001). IFAD estimates the number of pastoralists to reach nearly 200 million (IFAD, 2009a). In different contexts, extensive livestock rearing can be combined with crop production, mainly for household consumption.Pastoral systems are found from the drylands of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to the highlands of Asia and Latin America, in the Sahel, Sahara, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and China, in some parts of Latin America, and in mountainous areas worldwide. They are widespread in the arid zones with low and irregular rainfall, water and natural forage resources. In these areas, they are one of the main economic activities on which the poorest populations are dependent as a source of food and cash income. Pastoral livestock is also the main insurance for millions of poor people whose livelihoods depend on rainfed agriculture.Pastoral systems have low levels of productivity in physical terms due to dependence on often poor quality and scarce local resources and limited access to purchased inputs, resulting in both low levels of overall inputs used and output produced.They have relatively high levels of biodiversity in the form of livestock species and locally adapted animal breeds.They are often traditional, using common land that is enshrined in legal and customary property rights. This implies that the collateral and assets available to pastoralists are embedded in the ownership of animals and not in private land rights. Pastoralists' access to land is under threat from the often considerable pressure on the environment, competition for land from other economic activities and the frequency of droughts.Pastoralists have developed different strategies over time to keep a balance between pastures, livestock and people, such as: raising a variety of species and breeds in order to make an optimum use of different ecological conditions; controlling access to water in order to manage the use of pastures; and investing in animals, particularly in fertile females, as an insurance against drought, diseases and other extreme events (Hesse and MacGregor, 2006;ODI, 2009). The distribution of assets according to social arrangements based on systems of reciprocity is also an important strategy in the social and economic continuation of pastoralist forms of livelihood.This category is also included in the GLEAM \"Grazing\" system. Commercial grazing systems can be found both in developed and developing countries in areas covered by grasslands, but also in forest frontiers where pastures expand into forests and woodlands such as in the Amazon Forest in Brazil.Latin American countries can be characterized as having a small number of commercial farmers, which produce the bulk of agricultural production and co-exist with a much larger number of small farms.Commercial grazing (and ranching) systems in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the western United States of America are much larger enterprises than in Europe, or in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.Commercial grazing is important in beef, dairy and sheep production in the agro-ecological zones concerned.These systems are predominant where there is abundant pasture and a pool of rural labour for hire. As grazing and ranching systems intensify, producers can increase production by sowing improved pasture species. The use of high-yielding animal breeds can also be an important feature of these systems with different levels of dependency upon external inputs. An important distinction between pastoral and commercial grazing systems is that the latter has more secure access to land and stronger land property rights, as well as more fully developed links to global value chains.In different agro-ecological zones commercial grazing is important for beef and sheep production. In Europe, it is often the principal way by which grasslands are valued. Commercial grazing can also result from the conversion of forests and woodlands, as has happened in Brazil. The intensification and the environmental impact of these systems can vary significantly across different biomes.This category covers the following GLEAM systems: \"Industrial\" and \"Feedlots\". Intensive livestock farming systems are most typical in pig and poultry production and are to be found in all regions of the world, especially in high-income countries and emerging economies. Intensive landless systems can be found around urban conglomerates of East and Southeast Asia, Latin America or near the main feed-producing or feed-importing areas of Europe and North America ( de Haan et al., 2001).Intensive livestock systems have a high level of productivity (number of animal units per worker, animal productivity per worker), which manifests itself in an intensive substitution of labour and land by capital, high dependence on external inputs, including feed and fossil fuels, and the application of forms of organization based on a division of labour. Intensive systems seek opportunities to expand the farm and increase size, exploiting economies of scale to enhance competitiveness. They are relatively significant employers of hired labour.Their main objective is to maximize profitability based on: (i) technical and managerial efficiency in the use of resources (in particular feed resources) by animals with a high yield potential; (ii) finding cheaper feed resources wherever they are sourced; and (iii) intensifying animal density per unit of area (per ha, per square metre of buildings), as these operations have high investment and operating costs.They are very well integrated into commodity supply chains (input and output, including through international trade), which favour the lowest possible production costs, standardization of products and high levels of sanitary rigour. The technologies and practices used tend to be relatively uniform across the world. As a result, upstream and downstream players exert decisive influence on the standardization of the technical processes at the farm level and along their supply chains (foodstuffs, equipment, animal genetics and veterinary products). This also has implications for the regional concentration of farms and food processing.Although mainly focused on livestock systems, this report also acknowledges the complementarity between crop and livestock systems.In plant-based systems, where animals represent less than 10 percent of the total farm output in value terms, livestock is still very important as an outlet for feed crop production and as a potential source of diversification and value added, in particular where access to land is limited. Chapter 2 describes more precisely those crop-livestock linkages and Chapter 4 highlights the potential contribution of integration and diversification to SAD pathways.This category comprises large areas of land cultivated with a small number of crops using, quite often, methods that require the intensive use of external inputs. In the case of grain monocultures, particularly maize and soybeans, the connection with intensive livestock systems is mostly established through global (traded) commodity chains.The specialization of smallholder systems in plant production can be a result of agro-ecological conditions more suitable to farm strategies based on a combination of different crops or the result of market specialization. The intensive production of fresh vegetables for the market by specialized smallholders depends on the use of animal manurewhich is common in peri-urban settingsand is a good example of a farming system where the contribution of animal production is negligible but nevertheless useful and where there is room to increase livestock products (especially poultry).Sustainable agricultural development is agricultural development that contributes to improving resource efficiency, strengthening resilience and securing social equity/responsibility of agriculture and food systems in order to ensure food security and nutrition for all, now and in the future.Livestock is arguably the most dynamic agriculture sector, with socio-economic implications for animal-feed demand, for concentration and intensification, and for increased income creation and nutritional status and health. Livestock systems are also strongly linked to crop sectors, both largescale and small-scale. Livestock raising directly contributes to livelihood and nutrition through the production and sale of ASF and generates by-products including manure and power, acting as a store of wealth, and is integral to the traditional practices, cultures, values and landscapes of many communities across the world. Livestock also has significant implications for the environment, both positive and negative, particularly when impacts on land-use change and water quality are taken into account.Critical issues in SAD for FSN include both cross-cutting issues and issues that vary across different livestock systems and situations within and between countries. The biological and cultural diversity embedded in farming systems and the knowledge associated with the practice of agriculture in different agro-ecosystems must be kept in mind when designing adapted sustainable pathways. This diversity is an important asset for SAD pathways that support FSN at different levels, as well as for the capacity to adapt agricultural production to climate change and to diversify diets. Pathways towards SAD must take into account the important linkages between livestock and crop sectors. This diversity is captured in this report by four broad types: smallholder mixed farming, pastoral, commercial grazing and intensive livestock systems.Chapter 2 looks at the trends and drivers affecting livestock systems.As mentioned in Chapter 1, the last 50 years have been marked by dramatic demographic and economic changes (including population growth, urbanization, economic and income growth, changing diets), which have driven a considerable increase in agricultural production and will continue to shape agricultural development. Agricultural development also interacts with the evolution of agricultural markets.In this context, over the same period, farming and food systems have experienced a radical transformation characterized by: specialization at the farm and territorial levels, which entailed an important modification of the linkages between crop and livestock production; by the complexification of food supply chains; and, by growing market concentration in the agro-food industry.This chapter describes these changes and concludes with an outline of various projections of demand and supply of agricultural products, which prepares the way for an analysis of the challenges facing SAD for FSN in Chapter 3.The world population has increased dramatically from 3 billion in 1960 to 7.3 billion in 2015 (UNDESA, 2015). Most of this increase occurred in developing countries.Between 1961 and 2010, global GDP multiplied more than five times, from 9 300 to 52 700 billion in constant 2005 USD (World development indicators). During the same time, the value of global agriculture gross production increased faster than population, from 0.7 to 2.1 billion in constant 2004-2006 USD (FAOSTAT).While food security concerns have long focused on total calorie intake, today they have expanded to the so-called \"triple burden\" of malnutrition: hunger (deficiencies in dietary energy intake), estimated by FAO to affect some 792 million people worldwide (FAOSTAT); micro-nutrient deficiencies (such as iron, vitamin A, iodine and zinc), which affect some two billion people, the majority living in developing countries; 15 and over nutrition, which affects a growing number of people. In 2014, more than 1.9 billion (39 percent) of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight, of which over 600 million (13 percent) were obese (WHO, 2015a). These categories overlap: both calorie deficiencies and obesity can co-exist with nutrient deficiencies, while nutrient deficiencies can occur in people who consume enough calories. Under nutrition is mainly a problem in low-and middle-income countries. On the other hand, over nutrition is an increasingly entrenched problem in high-income countries and also an emerging problem in low-and middle-income countries, with a worldwide shift to \"Western-style\" diets (that are characterized in part by a higher intake of animal sourced foods).The growth in income and in agricultural production at the global level allowed important progress towards food security and nutrition. In fact, FAO (2012a) estimates that between 1969/1971 and 2005/2007 the average per capita food consumption at the world level increased from 2 373 to 2 772 kcal/person/day (in developed countries, average per capita consumption exceeds 3 300 kcal/person/day). According to WHO (2015a), the proportion of underweight children under five years declined globally from 25 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2013. Over the same period, the number of children affected by stunting declined globally from 257 million to 161 million, representing a decrease of 37 percent (WHO, 2015a). However, meanwhile, the burden of over-nutrition and obesity has grown in importance: at the global level, obesity has more than doubled since 1980. In 2013, 42 million children under five years old were overweight or obese (WHO, 2015b), and the problem exists not only in developed countries but also in developing countries.During the next decades, the world population will continue to grow, although more slowly. This growth at the global level should not hide the differences between regions. Most of the increase in population will take place in Africa, where agricultural productivity gains have been limited, where people are already more food insecure and more vulnerable to climate change. Between 2015 and 2050, the population is expected to double in Africa, to increase by 20 percent in Asia and by 12 percent in the rest of the world (UNDESA, 2015).The share of the world population living in urban areas increased from 30 percent in 1950 to 54 percent in 2014. By 2050, 66 percent of the world's population is expected to be urban (UNDESA, 2014). In Africa and Asia, the urban population rates are projected to grow faster, from 40 and 48 percent in 2014 to respectively 56 and 64 percent by 2050. However, the rural population will continue to grow in Africa, in Oceania, and in the least developed countries. 16 In Africa, around 122 million young people will enter the workforce between 2010 and 2020, and even under optimistic off-farm wage growth scenarios, one-third to one-half will need to find jobs in agriculture (Jayne et al., 2014).Compared with the less diversified diets of rural communities, city dwellers are more likely to enjoy a varied diet rich in animal proteins and fats, characterized by higher consumption of meat, eggs, milk and dairy products. But, according to Ruel et al. (1999), there is a steady shift in the locus of poverty in developing countries, where food insecurity and malnutrition are moving from rural to urban areas. Urbanization in developing countries is posing new questions regarding economic and social policies in general, particularly in the case of food security, as it is proceeding quickly while policies, and agrifood and institutional structures, are adjusting more slowly (Díaz-Bonilla, 2015).Urbanization and income growth create new opportunities for food products. It also stimulates improvements in infrastructure, including cold chains, food safety and quality standards, which facilitate trade and transportation of perishable foods. Smallholders and family farmers can benefit from these opportunities as long as there is an enabling environment to facilitate access to markets. Urbanization also results from rural-urban migration that can entail an ageing and feminization of the agricultural workforce that stays behind.Urban agriculture does not escape from such a deep transformation. Recent studies suggest 450 million people keep livestock in urban areas. Poultry is the most common type of livestock kept in urban areas, followed by dairy cattle. Pig keeping is common in Southeast Asia, and sheep and goat fattening in West Africa and the Middle East (Grace et al., 2015). Most of the 2.5 billion people who live in developing country cities buy their food from urban live animal markets, wet markets and slaughterhouses (Grace et al., 2015). Urban livestock keeping can make important contributions to FSN and livelihoods but requires careful management to mitigate pollution, diseases, accidents and social tensions (Correa and Grace, 2014).With economic growth and urbanization, there is a long-term tendency for average farm size to increase, as young workers seek employment outside farming, and farms amalgamate and modernize. However, in some developing countries, particularly in Africa, the lack of off-farm employment opportunities, and the increase in rural population, is associated with land fragmentation and smaller farm units. This phenomenon undermines traditional farming cultures and social cohesion in rural areas. Some of the most dramatic changes, over a relatively short period of time, have been seen in China and some countries in Southeast Asia.The case of China presented in Box 2 illustrates some of the links between economic growth, demographic change, transformation of the agriculture sector and food security and nutrition.China's economy has experienced strong GDP growth, at 9.8 percent per year, on average, from 1978 to 2013, with the demographic dividend acknowledged as one of the major contributors to the fast growth. In particular, the massive migration from rural/agriculture to urban/non-farm sectors has improved labour productivity to a great extent.The rural-urban migration of more than 300 million people since 1978 is the largest of its kind in peacetime in human history. It has contributed greatly not only to the national economy, but also to the welfare of the immigrants themselves and their families. Income from agriculture sources accounted for about 75 percent of rural households' net income during the mid-1980s; however, it declined to about one-third in recent years, while the share of wages increased to about one-half of household net income in rural areas. Partly due to the increase of income from non-farm sources, per capita income in rural households has grown at an annual rate of 7.5 percent from 1978 to 2012.This rural urban migration is expected to continue in the next decades and, between 2014 and 2050, the rural population in China should fall drastically from 635 to 335 million (UNDESA, 2014).The joint effect of income growth and labour out-migration is a dramatic shift of the supply curve in the rural labour market. As a result, rural wage rates increased by more than four times in 13 years, from 20.8 yuans/day in 2000 to 109.8 yuans/day in 2013. As the recorded wage rate is an annual average, the actual wage during peak season would be much higher, due to the seasonality of labour demand in agriculture.Farmers have two options when facing continuous increases in labour costs: they may shift to high value products, or substitute machinery for labour if they wish and are able to continue grain production. Due to strong demand resulting from income growth in the urban areas, the areas sown to vegetables have increased from 2 percent to 12 percent in total, at the cost of grain production, despite labour inputs required in vegetable production being about 5-6 times greater than for grain production, and rapidly rising labour costs. The relatively high price of vegetables covers the high labour costs involved.Grain production has been the least profitable option due to relatively low prices, which could not go up with labour costs. Therefore, one major option for continued growing of grain crops is to substitute machinery for labour, if technical and economic conditions permit. One of the major technical constraints is topography, which determines feasibility of machinery services.Reflecting these factors, in the four southeastern coastal provinces, over the last 20 years grain production has reduced by 45 percent in Zhejiang, between 25-30 percent in Fujian and Guangdong, and has kept at the same level in Jiangsu. The four provinces have experienced the same dynamics: relatively faster economic growth and demographic change, and higher income and labour costs, compared with other provinces. However, while crop sown area accounts for about half of the total land surface in Jiangsu, the share of sown area in the other three provinces is less than 20 percent, implying a large portion of the arable land is likely to be located in hilly regions, not easily accessible for machinery.Between 1961 and 2010, to meet the growing demand, global meat production has quadrupled from 71 million tonnes to 292 million tonnes; milk production (excluding butter) more than doubled from 342 to 720 million tonnes; and eggs production rose from 15 to 69 million tonnes (FAOSTAT).FAO (2012a) draws attention to the rapid increase in consumption of ASF and vegetable oils. ASF and vegetable oils together provide 22 percent of total calories in developing countries, up from 13 percent in the early 1970s. This share is projected to rise to 26 percent in 2030 and 28 percent in 2050 (in the developed countries the share has been flat at around 35 percent for several decades now).According to FAO (2012a), global average meat consumption in 2005/2007 amounted to 39 kilograms/capita/year (28 kg/capita/year in developing countries and 80 kg/capita/year in developed countries). Figure 3 shows the relationship between meat consumption and GDP in different countries. While milk and dairy consumption (excluding butter) was 83 kg/capita/year globally, with a greater difference between developing and developed countries than in meat (52 and 202 kg/capita/year respectively).Source: Adapted from FAO (2009a). Based on data from FAOSTAT (FAO, 2015a) for per capita meat consumption and the World Bank for per capita GDP. Note: GDP per capita (horizontal axis) is measured at purchasing power parity (PPP) in constant 2011 US dollar. Per capita meat consumption (vertical axis) is measured in kg/capita/year.In recent years, the growth in the demand for ASF has come mainly from the rapidly expanding economies among developing countries. Much of this growth has been concentrated in East Asia, and in poultry and pigs. In developed countries, production and consumption of livestock products are now growing either slowly or are stagnating, although they have reached high levels. Red meats (in particular beef and sheep meat) have experienced a lower rate of demand growth. In developed countries, and to some extent in developing countries and transition economies, changes in diet have exerted a growing influence on food demandin particular livestock.Dietary advice from governments and nutritional scientific communitiesadvice that is remarkably similar across countrieshave played a more significant role in food demand choices, but to some extent the advice has evolved and changed over time while often in conflict with the marketing and promotion efforts of the post-farm sectors of the agri-food supply chain. The trend towards a larger role for nutrition advice in consumer food choices is most noticeable in developed countries but is also starting to have an impact in developing countries and transition economies. Yet the evolving advice (together with sometimes misleading media reporting) has led to some confusion among consumers.There is also considerable controversy over the role of the agri-food industries. Some commentary emphasizes their role in feeding more people at lower cost over time, while others draw parallels between the food and tobacco industries and conceptualize overconsumption as a \"profit driven\" disease (Buse and Kent, 2015). Despite isolated areas of improvement, there has been little overall progress in shifting \"Western-style\" diets to healthier alternatives or decisively reversing overweight trends (Roberto et al., 2015). Poor diet and non-communicable disease are increasingly associated with poverty in both developed and developing countries, but it is not clear to what extent this is driven by food availability and price, by retail marketing, or by consumer preferences for heavily flavoured, convenient and cheap food. The evolution of the consumption of ASF is projected to vary considerably by region. It is estimated that demand for livestock products will nearly double in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, from some 200 kcal/capita/day in 2000 to around 400 kcal/capita/day in 2050. In member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (currently at 1000 kcal/capita/day or more), consumption levels will barely change, while in South America and countries of the former Soviet Union it is expected to increase to OECD levels (Van Vuuren et al., 2009).Price levels affect both the production and consumption of food. There is often tension between producers' preference for higher prices and that of consumers for lower prices; much of the debate regarding different policy approaches to agricultural production and food security has revolved around the policy dilemma of whether governments should support profitable prices for producers with important associated benefits for the wages of farm workers (Wiggins and Keats, 2014) or affordable prices for consumers (Díaz-Bonilla, 2015).Despite the sharp price spikes in recent years, in the light of the evolution of real prices over the last century, prices are projected to continue on a trend of long-term decline. Prices during the early 2000s were below the trend, while current and projected prices are closer to trend.   In real terms, world prices for all agricultural products are expected to decrease over the next decade, consistent with the long-term secular decline trend. They are projected to decline from their 2014 levels but remain above their pre-2007 levels. When considering only the last 15 years, projected prices appear to be on a higher trend (Figure 4). The period of low prices in the early 2000s was followed by a period of high and volatile prices starting in 2007. Prices started to moderate in 2013, but are not expected to drop to the levels witnessed in the early 2000s.Rising demand for animal feed remains the core driver of cereal consumption growth. Poultry, widely considered to be affordable meat, with low fat content and few religious and cultural barriers, dominates meat consumption with an average annual growth rate of 2 percent. It is expected to account for half of the additional meat consumed in 2024. Although the emergence of biofuel and other industrial uses was an important driver of rising demand for cereals throughout the past decade (coarse grains use for biofuels almost tripled from 2004 to 2014), current stagnation in biofuel demand implies feed-use will become the more significant driver of cereal demand (see Box 4 on Biofuels).Favourable meat-to-feed price ratios over the coming period will favour production growth, particularly in poultry and pork, which rely on intensive use of feed grains. A short production cycle allows the poultry sector in particular to respond quickly to improved profitability and, underpinned by robust demand, production is projected to expand by 24 percent over the outlook period to 2024. In 2024, developing countries (but excluding the least developed among them) will account for 58 percent and 77 percent of the additional global poultry and pigmeat production, respectively. However, in many developed countries, production growth is projected to be slower.Consumption of dairy products has expanded rapidly over the past decade and constitutes an important source of dietary protein. At a global level, the demand for dairy products is expected to expand by 23 percent over the ten-year projection period. Growth remains strongest in the developing world and, in light of the preference for fresh dairy products within these regions, almost 70 percent of additional dairy production will be consumed fresh.Rising milk production throughout the past decade was a result of dairy herd expansion, as average yields declined by an annual average of 0.2 percent, due to fast increasing dairy herds in low-yield regions. Over the outlook period, milk production is projected to increase by an annual average of 1.8 percent, with the bulk of the additional milk produced in developing countries, notably India, which is expected to overtake the EU to become the largest milk producer in the world. Within developing countries, growth in milk production will result from both herd expansion and productivity gains. In contrast, dairy cow numbers are projected to decline in most developed countries, reflecting productivity gains as well as constraints in water and land availability.There is a consensus that price volatility has been higher in recent years than in the previous two decades but is much lower than it was in the 1970s (see Figure 4 and HLPE, 2011a). Higher price volatility is associated with price spikes. This has been the case in the four commodity booms associated with food crisis since the First World War: 1915-17, 1950-57, 1973-74, and, most recently, in 2007-08 (World Bank, 2009). Price volatility thus interacts with the price level to affect FSN and increases risks to producers with implications for resource allocation and for investment decisions. Price volatility is argued by some economists to be readily absorbed by poor consumers because their time horizons are very short (Barrett and Bellemare, 2011) but poor consumers have to make difficult choices when food prices rise sharply, which are likely to compromise longer-term investments in such things as children's education and productive resources (Heltberg et al., 2012).Huchet-Bourdon (2011) found more price volatility in staple products such as wheat and rice compared with beef, dairy and sugar during a study period of 50 years. To some extent, livestock is \"opportunistic\", absorbing surplus calories when food is plentiful and yielding value (e.g. through slaughter) when crops fail. This is an important dimension of livestock for FSN, in particular for pastoral and smallholder mixed livestock systems.Price volatility in developing countries can be imported from world markets or result from domestic changes in supply and demand. In countries whose staple foods are not traded internationally, domestic sources of price volatility are clearly dominant. The main local factors that exacerbate price volatility in developing countries include weather (especially in regions that are dependent on rain-fed agriculture), high internal transport costs, failures in the functioning of domestic agriculture markets and policies, including macro-economic instability (HLPE, 2011a). Over time, however, as markets have been opened, imported volatility has become increasingly important in many countries (Konandreas, 2012).Even though real prices are projected to decline over the long-term (see above), this does not preclude the likelihood that prices will experience bouts of volatility, including upward price spikes, in the coming period. Such price spikes have a demonstrable effect on production and investment decisions.The liberalization of agricultural markets and increasing role of international trade has had significant effects on food security and nutrition. Some of the trends have been positive for FSN, while others have undermined desired outcomes (FAO, 2015b).The pattern of food trade has changed in the last twenty years. The large cereal exporters are largely the same but the US share of the growing global total has declined, as South American countries (in particular Brazil) have expanded their production significantly. Despite the growth in exports, especially from Latin America and from some parts of Asia, developing countries as a whole went from net food exporters to net food importers in 1990. Since then, the level of food imports to the global South has increased steadily, driven by two quite distinct sources of demand. The first is rising incomes, primarily in Asia, that have changed diets and increased demand for processed foods, and for ASF in particular. The second, predominantly in Africa and the Near East, is driven by a rising gap between the demands of a growing population and too slow growth in agricultural production.According to the OECD-FAO Outlook 2015-2024, international trade volumes of most agricultural commodities are projected to expand over the next ten years. While a very high proportion of ASF is produced and consumed locally, the importance of international trade is increasing.Skim milk powder is the most traded ASF, with more than 50 percent of total production currently exported. According to the OECD-FAO projections, beef will continue to be the most traded meat in the next decade (with less than 20 percent of total production currently exported).The growth in livestock production impacts on the demand for feed grains and oilseeds, with trade of coarse grains for feed having risen faster than the trade in some ASF products. For some producers, such as in the European Union (EU) and China, availability of imported feed is vital for their livestock sectors.Exports of livestock products are concentrated in fewer than ten countries and regions, in particular Australia and New Zealand (dairy and sheep), the EU (dairy and pork), United States of America (beef, poultry, pork and dairy products) and Brazil (beef and poultry). India is currently the country that exports the largest volumes of beef.National trade-related policies such as some subsidies and domestic support measures, that are provided mainly by developed countries, but increasingly also in some developing countries including India and China, and tariffs have a major impact not only on national agriculture and food systems, but also on the agricultural performance of other countries. It is worth noting that dairy and beef products are among the most protected commodities across the world. Moreover, sanitary, environmental and animal welfare certification measures are of increasing importance for international trade.The relationship between trade reform and food security has been a topic of long-standing debate among governments, stakeholders and in the academic literature, which has resulted in different prescriptions and policies, ranging from those prioritizing national self-sufficiency to those that rely heavily on open markets and freer international trade. Many analysts argue that environmental and social concerns resulting from freer trade need to be addressed with well-targeted complementary domestic policies. Others do not think such complementary measures enough, in particular for lowincome countries that lack the revenue to invest significantly in social protection. The controversy over trade has deepened in the wake of the commodity price spikes of 2007/2008, which pushed a number of net food importing developing countries to change their food security strategies to increase either domestic production or production overseas on leased plantations. The recent FAO State of Agricultural Commodities Markets (FAO, 2015b) is focused on international trade and reviews the debates in some detail. The implications for SAD and FSN of price volatility and the impacts of trade reform policies are examined in the discussion of pathways in Chapter 4.Over the last two decades, the global food and agriculture system has undergone rapid restructuring and transformation, with important differences among regions, nations and in local contexts (McMichael, 1993;Goss et al., 2000;Busch and Bain, 2004;Konefal et al., 2005;Thompson andScoones, 2009, Sumberg andThompson, 2012).Structural transformation in agriculture describes a broad development trend in which agricultural productivity grows while agriculture's share in GDP and employment declines. Structural transformation has historically been accompanied by rural-to-urban migration, the development of an industrial and service economy, and a demographic transition from higher to lower birth and death rates (Timmer, 2007). However, other paths of structural transformation have also been observed (Dorin et al., 2013). In a number of lower-income countries (especially in Africa), the demographic transition is delayed, offfarm opportunities are limited and substantial agricultural productivity gains remain elusive (HLPE, 2013a). Unlike other regions of the world, sub-Saharan Africa has seen urbanization without industrialization (Losch, 2014) and a recent review found evidence of \"premature de-industrialization\", with de-industrialization starting at low levels of GDP (Rodrik, 2015).The HLPE (2013a) has shown that the agricultural sectors in some countries are facing economic divergence; in other words, per capita agricultural incomes are declining relative to other sectors while the population working in agriculture is increasing. This divergence creates social and economic tensions, as the value added from agriculture has to be shared among more, relatively poorer, people. Within such a context, the \"livestock revolution\" (Delgado et al., 1999) accounts for the accelerated growth in demand for livestock products, particularly in the developing world, tied to human population growth, rising incomes, continuing urbanization and changing food preferences. The notion of the livestock revolutionwith its promise of dietary diversity, improved nutrition and health; economic opportunities for small-scale producers; and growing, often negative, effects on natural resourcesis considered to be one of the most powerful ideas to emerge in the areas of food, nutrition and agricultural development in recent decades (Sumberg and Thompson, 2012).Analysis by Delgado et al. (1999) identified seven characteristics of the livestock revolution: \"rapid worldwide increases in consumption and production of livestock products;  a major increase in the share of developing countries in total livestock production and consumption;  ongoing change in the status of livestock production from a multipurpose activity with mostly non-tradable output to food and feed production in the context of globally integrated markets;  increased substitution of meat and milk for grain in the human diet;  rapid rise in the use of cereal-based feeds;  greater stress put on grazing resources along with more land-intensive production closer to cities; and  the emergence of rapid technological change in livestock production and processing in industrial systems\".Such substantial increases in global demand and supply for food, and ASF in particular, if it continued at the same pace, would have profound implications for livestock production systems and for land-use changes over the coming decades. FAO (2012a) estimates that between 2005/2007 and 2050 the global cattle and buffaloes population would increase from 1.5 billion to 2 billion, and the global goat and sheep population from 1.9 billion to 2.9 billion. Crop production growth in the future would come mostly from yield increases rather than from area expansion (see Section 2.4 on projections). The increase in livestock production would be mainly the result of expansion in the number of animals, although increased animal productivity is also essential if natural resources are to be used wisely.And the expansion of herds will occur largely in developing countries (Thornton, 2010). These livestock changes would impact on land-use patterns, both locally where the livestock is raised and at a distance, through the production and trade of animal feedstuffs.As noted by Erb et al. (2012), production of meat, milk and eggs requires large amounts of animal feed. The shift towards more intensive livestock production systems has had a profound effect on the composition of agricultural land-use (Taheripour et al., 2013).At the global level, grass, which is mostly grown on land unsuitable for crops, represents 48 percent of the biomass eaten by livestock, followed by grains (28 percent of biomass consumed), and by occasional feeds and stovers (fibrous crop residues). However, in most developing countries, stovers are a key feed resource, comprising sometimes up to 50 percent of the diet of ruminants (Herrero et al., 2013). Many smallholder mixed-systems in developing countries rely on local crop residues to provide the basic diet for livestock, resulting in a very low-cost feed although these feeds, especially cereal straws, have low nutrient values. In these systems, improving the nutrient content and digestibility of feed in a cost-effective manner is a priority (Wright et al., 2011). Attempts have been made to upgrade the fodder quality of crop residues by chemical, biological and physical treatments, but few of these interventions have been widely adopted.Between 1961 and 2013, arable, permanent meadows and pastures increased by 9 percent (FAOSTAT), mainly to provide crops for livestock feed and grasslands for cattle-raising. The demand for protein sources for animal feed has led to a considerable increase of cropland planted with feed. In Latin America, for example, soybean area has risen from 0.3 to 53 million ha between 1961 and 2013 (FAOSTAT). Between 1990 and 2013, South America's agricultural land increased by 66 million hectares (12 percent) while forest area decreased by 85 million hectares, an area that included 29 million hectares of primary forest (FAOSTAT).Globally, the area devoted to maize and soybeanthe dominant feed used in concentrated livestock diets − has risen by 56 million hectares over the first decade of the twenty-first century (FAOSTAT).Meanwhile, the area devoted to permanent meadows and pasturestypical of extensive livestock production − fell by 57 million hectares (FAOSTAT), with the use of animal feed crops such as hay and fodder falling as well (Taheripour et al., 2013). In turn, ruminant grazing intensity on rangelands is projected to increase, resulting in more intensification of livestock production in the humid and sub humid grazing systems of the world, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean.Over the last 20 years, increasing demand for livestock products has been met primarily through a shift from extensive, small-scale, subsistence, mixed crop and livestock production systems towards more intensive, large-scale, geographically-concentrated, commercially oriented and specialized production units (Robinson et al., 2011).The intensification of animal production, however, is not necessarily associated with the industrialization process. For example, small-scale livestock keepers may intensify their production by increasing labour productivity; using improved management practices such as feeding with crop residues or using manure as fertilizer; by procuring services off-farm; or, by adopting improved breeds. Diversification generates opportunities to increase land productivity and to improve the resilience of the system. The dairy sector in India is a good example, where large numbers of smallholders contribute to the provision of milk for the surrounding urban markets. Milk production in India increased from 78 million tonnes in 1999 to 116 million tonnes in 2009, an increase of 49 percent (FAOSTAT), with an average herd size (cows and buffaloes) of only 3.3 head (Wright et al., 2011).Intensification may lead to a degree of mechanization of operations on the farm, at which point production may become industrial. This enables farmers to invest in more targeted technologies and enables greater market integration, offering the possibility of improved economies of scale. Monogastric species (pigs and poultry), in particular, due to their high feed conversion ratios and short reproductive intervals, are well suited to the rapid intensification of production.Developed countriesand increasingly developing countries -have experienced considerable specialization, intensification, and economies in agricultural production, driven by economic growth, policies directed at increasing production, careful use of new and existing technologies and a substitution of capital for labour. This has led to a decrease in mixed farming systems: most cereals are produced on specialist arable farms, and large-scale industrial units dominate the monogastric livestock sector. The dairy sector, especially in North America and to some extent in Europe, is also rapidly moving towards industrial-style production systems. This trend has been accompanied in some countries, such as The Netherlands, with the release of land for green spaces to enhance biodiversity.In developing countries, on the other hand, mixed crop-livestock systems produce 65 percent of beef, 75 percent of milk and 55 percent of lamb, the vast majority from smallholder systems. Mixed croplivestock farming systems are crucial to contributing to the livelihood of almost 2 billion people in developing countries, half of whom are poor, and to global food security (Wright et al., 2011).With limited land and water resources and environmental concerns relating to the impact of agricultural practices, more production in developing countries will come from increasing the productivity of existing resources (intensification). A key question is whether this intensification in developing countries will result in more specialization and industrialization, as is the case in developed countries, or in the intensification of smallholder mixed systems. The answer will depend very much on country situations and trajectories, economic drivers, and public policies (see HLPE, 2013a).As production systems become more efficient, less feed is needed to produce a given unit of livestock product, with positive effects on the environment. Consequential changes in stover production are expected to occur, but vary widely from region to region. It is foreseen that large increases will occur in Africa mostly as a result of productivity increases in maize, sorghum and millet. Yet it is expected that stover production will stagnate in areas such as the ruminant-dense mixed systems of South Asia (Herrero et al., 2009).Livestock can feed on a wide range of crop products, by-products, residues and roughage. Trends towards industrial specialized livestock systems have increased the demand for crop product feed and changed the interlinkages between crop and livestock production at farm and territorial levels.Ruminants can graze on land that is generally unsuitable for growing arable crops but have a larger overall area requirement, whereas monogastrics have a smaller overall area requirement but indirectly require more cropland. This can potentially lead to land-use competition (food versus feed production). The corollary to the expansion of cropland for providing increased quantities of affordable food and feed are the associated harmful ecological, social and cultural consequences, such as deforestation, reduced biodiversity, forced displacement of indigenous people and pastoralists from their customary lands, loss of livelihoods, cultural decimation and related trans-generational trauma.Other elements that form part of the localized crop-livestock nexus, particularly in developing countries, include the contribution of livestock as draught animals, and as providers of manure, which is an important source of plant nutrients in developing countries and in organic farming worldwide.According to FAO, the term \"agricultural mechanization\" generally refers to the application of tools, implements and powered machinery as inputs to achieve agricultural production. In general, three sources of power are used in agriculture: manual, animal and motorized (FAO, 2013b). If engine power (electric or fossil fuel) tends to be more appropriate for large-scale farming and long-distance transport, animal power is a renewable and affordable source of energy particularly suited for smallholders, family farming and local transport. 17 Animal power is accessible and sustainable in rural areas with little dependence on external inputs. Many different species are employed, particularly cattle, buffaloes, horses, mules, donkeys and camels (FAO, 2010).The use of animal power in mixed farming systems can improve crop-livestock integration and encourage sustainable farming practices. Draught animals can assist directly with crop production (ploughing, planting and weeding), but also for transport of water, fuelwood, agricultural inputs or products. Draught animals contribute directly to food production through milk, meat, manure and offspring. They contribute to improved livelihood and strengthened resilience of smallholders mixed farming systems through time saving, 18 increased productivity, income growth and diversification. 19  Women in many countries can particularly benefit from transport animals (FAO, 2010).Farm power systels are a major determinant of smallholders livelihoods (FAO, 2005). Although there is unfortunately no updated global database on the relative importance of human, animal and engine power, it is often said that a huge majority of farmers, particularly smallholders, still use only human power. In the first years of this century, the number of tractors worldwide was estimated to be 28 million, and 450 million of agricultural workers had no access to engine or animal power (Mazoyer, 2002). In sub-Saharan Africa, human power is estimated to account for 65 percent of the power for land preparation (FAO, 2006a) and between 50 and 80 percent of cropland is still cultivated manually (FAO, 2013b).In 1997/99, according to FAO, 25 percent of cropland was cultivated using animal power in sub-Saharan Africa, 35 percent in South Asia and 40 percent in East Asia (without China). By 2030, the shares of human and animal power are expected to decrease in all regions, except in sub-Saharan Africa, as they will be replaced by tractors. However, the sustainability of such tractor-based systems will be highly dependent on farm size, profitability of agriculture and infrastructure allowing access to fuel and maintenance. Where those conditions are not fulfilled, farmers could revert to human and animal power (FAO, 2014b).Prior to the 1950s, organic manures were almost the only sources of soil and plant nutrients in most countries. Manure is not captured in FAO statistics but remains undoubtedly a major source of soil fertility in many countries (FAO, 2014b). Potter et al. (2010) estimated that, in 2000, manure accounted for about 60 percent of global nutrients. The proportion of manure used as fertilizer depends on the dung collection efficiency and is difficult to estimate, but is probably less than 50 percent in most regions (FAO, 2003;Harsdorff, 2012). In some countries, manure can also be used as a source of energy, through methanization.In 2010, about 34 percent of world production of cereals (2.2 billion tonnes) went to feed (FAOSTAT).According to FAO (2012a), this proportion could reach nearly 50 percent by 2050. At the global level, maize is the principal feed cereal, while wheat and especially rice are used only to a small degree as animal feed. Oilseed cakes, a co-product in the production of vegetable oils, form a crucial protein feed input for livestock. A large share of this market feed is traded internationally (Erb et al., 2012).Most crop production is used to feed humans and animals (Figure 5), but in highly variable proportions, depending on the region.  In sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, over 70 percent of available plant food in 2003 was used to directly feed humans, whereas this rate was only 35 percent in OECD countries, which for a long time have devoted over 55 percent of available plant food to feeding animals. This share of plant calories used for feed has been increasing since the early 1960s in Latin America (LAM), the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Asia, where it now ranges between 20 percent and 40 percent. The share of plant calories used neither for food nor feed (a category that includes biofuels), has increased in most regions, especially since the 1990s. The growth is primarily in LAM and OECD countries, where nonfood or feed use of crops now accounts for over 5 percent of production (Paillard et al., 2011). Herrero et al. (2015) place the livestock sector at the heart of agricultural development, showing the importance and the multiplicity of crop-livestock linkages (Figure 6). Their analysis suggests, inter alia, that livestock consume about 45 percent of global cropland products (on a dry matter basis), and occupy about 80 percent of agricultural land.Among the drivers and trends leading to the projected feed/food requirements in 2050, a number of alternative scenarios, as to changes in human diets have been examined. Le Cotty and Dorin (2012) have developed an empirical analysis on feed crop needs for livestock in 2050, based on three very distinct diet scenarios (from no animal sourced foods in the human diet to a uniform extension of the Western diet to all regions of the world). These scenarios are not meant to be plausible but to generate values that can be used for foresight purposes. In one extreme scenario, if the world adopts the average consumption of developed countries, the daily total use of food plant calories to feed animals would need to increase by 50 percent at present and by 117 percent (i.e. more than double) in 2050.Within developing regions, almost 60 percent of total cereal use was consumed as food between 2012 and 2014, in contrast with the developed world, where food use accounted for only 10 percent of total cereal use (OECD/FAO, 2015). Developing countries now account for 42 percent of the global feed use of coarse grains, up from 30 percent ten years ago. They are expected to continue to increase their share of consumption of coarse grains for feed, up to 56 percent by 2050, as their livestock sector grows. In contrast, feed consumption in developed countries is not projected to increase much (FAO, 2012a)Over the last 50 years, the proportion of food use in soybean world domestic supply decreased from 17 percent in 1961 to 4 percent in 2010. In 2010, 6 percent of soybean global domestic supply is directly used for feed and 85 percent is processed. Worldwide, the soybean cake is predominantly (98 percent) used for livestock feed (FAOSTAT).A point of interest is the increased trade flows of livestock feeds, particularly soybeans (Box 3).Given China's focus on becoming self-sufficient in food grains, it is foreseen that feed grain imports will increase further, with China becoming the second largest importer of coarse grains with barley and sorghum imports becoming larger than maize. China is the world's largest import market for soybeans, having seen a phenomenal expansion from just over 2 million tonnes of soy imports in 1990 to 65.5 million tonnes in 2013. 20 Brazil is China's largest supplier of soybeans, having overtaken the United States of America in 2013 (OECD/FAO 2015). The majority of the soy imported by China is in the form of whole soybeans, which are then processed by domestic soy crushers to produce meal, oil and other soy products. China's soybean tariffs encourage this trend and protect the domestic value-added crushing process by applying a 3 percent tariff on whole soybean imports, 9 percent on soybean oil, 5 percent on soybean meal and 9 percent on soybean flour. As a consequence, China is now a net exporter of soy meal. Agro-food industries produce, sell and promote products responding to market incentives (in particular relative prices), consumer behaviour, policy signals (such as taxes and subsidies) and regulations. Currently, incentives in general tend to favour: selection of varieties for high and consistent yield rather than nutrition or health properties; production of poultry and pig meat and milk from intensive farms relying on purchased feed; processing that increases shelf-life, reduces food preparation time and still tastes palatable, which often entails increased fat, sugar and salt content, although in some regions the industry has responded to criticism by marketing foods with lower fat, lower sugar, and, more recently, lower salt content as well; and vigorous marketing especially to children, which can contribute to overconsumption and increased consumption of less healthy foods. The food supply chain, which encompasses all those activities that lie between on-farm production and the point of consumption, has experienced fundamental changes during the last two decades. It has become more globalized and marked by upward trends in scale of production and economic concentration. Farmers are increasingly confronted with substantial concentration, as a small number of large, often multinational, firms have come to dominate the retail, distribution and the input side of the agri-food chain. This concentration has raised concerns about the risk of abuse of dominant market positions and unfair trading practices.Concentration in virtually all sectors of the food and agriculture industry has been documented (Hendrickson, 2014;Wise and Trist, 2010;GIPSA, 2011;James et al., 2012). Four agribusiness firms undertake 75-90 percent of the global grain trade (Murphy et al., 2012). For example, in the United States of America, in 1967 the four largest firms controlled one-quarter of the non-poultry animal slaughtering industry. By 2007 the top four controlled more than 50 percent of the market. In 1990, the top four firms in the pork packing industry controlled 40 percent of the market; by 2010 the four firm concentration ratio had increased to 67 percent (James et al., 2012;GIPSA, 2011;Wise and Trist, 2010). For steers and heifers, the corresponding figure in 2010 was 85 percent (marginally up from 81 percent in 1996, but considerably up from 36 percent in 1982). The level of concentration in the EU food processing sectors has also been an on-going concern (Fischer and Hartmann, 2010). In meat production, however, concentration levels are significantly lower than in North America (the top 15 companies account for 28 percent of EU meat production [Brown, 2012]) and the firms are not present outside the EU, unlike the major firms in North America (and increasingly in China and Brazil as well). Concentration is nonetheless growing rapidly (Brown, 2012).Three-quarters of food sales in most industrialized countries are now channelled through supermarkets. The role of supermarkets is rapidly increasing in developing countries. FAO (2015b) notes that the proliferation of supermarkets in developing countries is driven by multiple factors, including: trade, urbanization, increases in incomes, changes in lifestyles and women's participation in the labour force, liberalization of foreign direct investment, increasing use of refrigerators and other domestic appliances, and changes in information technology that facilitate better organization of supply chains.Despite rapid growth, supermarket expansion in most developing regions is still lower than the development in richer countries. In Latin America, grocery sales through supermarkets are still less than 50 percent of total grocery sales, in comparison with figures above 70-80 percent in Western Europe and the USA. Only in Chile, are more than half of the grocery sales made through supermarkets (65 percent), while the average of the Latin American countries is 43 percent (OECD, 2015). Modern retail, essentially supermarket chains, hold on average about a 10 percent market share of overall food in Eastern and Southern Africa (Tschirley et al., 2013). In India, supermarkets shares are currently very low (around 2 percent) and supermarkets food sales would have to grow at an annual rate of 20 percent for 20 years to reach just 20 percent of market share (Tschirley, 2007;Tschirley et al., 2010). This suggests traditional retail outlets are likely to dominate in some developing countries for the near future.Consumers in developed and developing countries have benefited from the lower prices and the larger variety of products on offer at which supermarkets excel. These are benefits of the economies of scale that supermarkets with a large market share can offer consumers. Moreover, the increased competition that supermarkets bring has increased the pressure on producers to supply higher-quality goods at lower prices.Changes in the retail sector may therefore have mixed or negative effects on farmers. Although the supermarkets offer new and possibly larger markets for their production, the investments and organizational adjustments to meet volume, cost, timeliness, quality and consistency standards may be challenging for many farmers and processing firms, particularly small ones.From the governance perspective, according to Lang and Barling (2012), the locus of power and decision-making has moved steadily away from farmers to retailers and traders, and from the state to the private sector, whose power within the food supply chain and intergovernmental policy regime is growing.This introduces a shift in the control of food systems. The state, or government, is no longer as dominant. Corporations now have an overarching influence in the industry. The governance of food supply chains has consequently become more complex and multiscalar, involving many public, private and civil society actors (Lang et al., 2009).At the same time, advances in improved infrastructure and integration of markets in many developing countries (Rashid et al., 2008) have increased with urbanization. Important structural modifications in the processing and marketing of food products linked to the expansion of supermarkets, even in poor urban and rural areas (Reardon and Timmer, 2012), have contributed to the diversification of consumption and a decline in the percentage of calories and proteins associated with traditional staple crops, although these are still dominant in country's food security stocks.Although there are few certainties when forecasting, informed analysis provides a valuable assessment of likely levels of consumption and production. A broadly accepted expectation of future requirements can provide for an informed debate and help determine the challenges and potential pathways/responses for SAD. The best known, and most widely quoted, of the various agricultural projections are those of Alexandratos and Bruinsma in World agriculture towards 2030/2050: the 2012 revision (FAO, 2012a), which is used as a baseline for this section. They are supplemented with analysis from other sources.As mentioned in Chapter 1, FAO (2012a) projects that, in response to the growth in global population and incomes, a continuation of recent trends implies global agricultural production in 2050 will need to be 60 percent higher than in 2005-2007 in volume. Upon disaggregation, FAO's broad projection reveals some interesting regional, country or commodity particularities.This 60 percent increase in world production volume would come mainly from an increase in crop yields (80 percent of the production increase at the world level), some increase in cropping intensity (the number of cropping seasons per year) (10 percent of the total increase) and limited land expansion (the remaining 10 percent). It is worth noting that within the overall 60 percent increase in agricultural production, livestock's contribution to the total will rise slightly from its current 36 percent of gross agricultural value to 39 percent in 2050. This reflects a projected increase in meat production by 76 percent, from 258 million tonnes in 2005-2007 to 455 million tonnes in 2050, most of which will occur in developing countries.FAO projections foresee global milk production rising between 2005-2007 and 2050 at an annual growth rate of 1.1 percent. This rate will be greater in developing countries (1.8 percent per annum) than in developed countries (0.3 percent per annum). Given the still low consumption levels in developing countries, this provides scope for nutritional gains.Alexandratos and Bruinsma's analysis (FAO, 2012a) includes population growth, income growth, urbanization and changing diets as drivers of the projected production requirement in 2050. Their analysis cautiously suggests that there are sufficient global resources available to satisfy the resulting anticipated additional demand. This result suggested at the global level is, obviously, not equivalent to saying that food insecurity will be eliminated, which also depends on the distribution of incomes. Moreover, this conclusion assumes that the necessary investments are undertaken, and appropriate incentives and policies are put in place but does not examine the environmental or social impacts of the implied production increase. Their findings might also be questioned by:  the possibility of greater than expected population growth: the latest UN (UNDESA, 2015) estimation of the world population in 2050 (9.7 billion people) is greater than the 2008 estimation (9.15 billion people) used by FAO (2012a); the effects of climate change on production (particularly in developing countries), which were not explicitly modelled in the projections; and the possibility of greater than assumed use of crops in biofuel production and novel biomaterials.Concerning biofuels, there are uncertainties both in energy markets and in biofuel policies (mandates and subsidies) and Alexandratos and Bruinsma opt for the OECD-FAO Outlook figures up to 2020 (see Box 4) after which they assume no change in quantities.In the period from 2001 to 2014, world biofuel production increased six times to nearly 130 billion litres (HLPE, 2013b).A pertinent question is whether such high growth (from a small base) will continue, and under what circumstances. Particularly within the developed world, the emergence of biofuel and other industrial uses was an important driver of rising demand for cereals over the past decade. The use of coarse grains (predominantly maize) for biofuels almost tripled from 2004 to 2014, with almost 40 percent of additional coarse grains consumed over the past decade processed for biofuels. Over the OECD-FAO 2015-2024 Outlook period, however, the significantly lower crude oil prices projected result in biofuel demand staying closely tied to the policies mandating their use because the market conditions do not favour their use (OECD/FAO, 2015). The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts global biofuel production of 139 billion litres in 2020 (OECD/IEA, 2014). Although the first commercial advanced biofuel plants (using ligno-cellulose as feedstock) opened in 2014 in the United States of America, food-crop based feedstocks are expected to continue to dominate ethanol and biodiesel production over the coming decade, with the inherent competition for land, water and crops that have alternative uses directly as food and as feedstuffs for livestock production.However, biofuel production creates valuable by-products, such as distillers' dried grains (DDGs) and oilseed meals that can be used as animal feed and can substitute for grain in animal rations. Dairy and beef producers traditionally use DDGs in their feed rations, as it is well digested.FAO's definition of food and nutrition security covering its four dimensions (availability, access, utilization and stability) was agreed at the 1996 World Food Summit. However, there is no global scenario study dealing with these four dimensions of food security. Most studies deal with availability, sometimes with access and stability analysed as co-products of availability (e.g. increased availability contributing to decreased food prices and thus improved economic access to food and contributing to less volatile prices). The utilization dimension is rarely dealt with in the global scenarios except through the consideration of dietary adjustments that could contribute to reducing the prevalence of non-communicable diseases associated with overconsumption (obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, for instance).Several recent scenario studies (e.g. Reilly and Willenbockel, 2010;van Dijk, 2012;Wise, 2013;von Lampe et al., 2014;van Dijk and Meijerink, 2014;Foresight, 2011) focus, at least partially, on global food security. Reilly and Willenbockel (2010) propose a typology of scenarios, which is a useful way to classify studies.They distinguish three types of scenarios:1. \"Projections\", which are usually used either to estimate the future of a system under \"business as usual\" assumptions (baseline projections) or to assess the reaction of a given system to a set of \"what if\" assumptions (what if projections).2. \"Exploratory scenarios\", which are designed to explore possible futures, allowing for changes in the structure of the system and boundary conditions.3. \"Normative scenarios\", which are designed to support vision building and develop narratives for the agri-food system to meet specific targets. 22   Of the exploratory scenario studies, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) is probably the most well known (Carpenter et al., 2005). The MEA was undertaken by an international network of scientists and other experts, under the auspices of the United Nations, with a procedure modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The objective was to \"assess the consequences of ecosystem changes for human well-being and the scientific basis for action needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems and their contributions to human well-being\". The MEA proposes four exploratory scenarios developed along two axes: one describing global governance for international cooperation and trade (globalized versus regionalized), the other covering attitudes towards ecosystem management (pro-active versus reactive). Among the four scenarios, global orchestration (globalized, reactive ecosystem management) was the reference scenario in the Agrimonde study.The Agrimonde foresight study is a normative scenario exercise that was undertaken by two French agricultural research institutes, INRA and CIRAD (Paillard et al., 2011). It focuses on feeding the world in 2050. It considers two scenarios: a baseline scenario (\"business as usual\"), which relies closely on the \"global orchestration\" scenario from the MEA foresight study, and a normative scenario involving less food consumption inequalities and more sustainable agricultural production across the world, implying breaks in both diets and agricultural yield trends. The assumption of uniform diet worldwide up to 2050, resulted in projections of reduced consumption of animal products in developed countries and increased consumption in developing countries, and stagnant or only slowly increasing agricultural yields in most regions in the world.From the \"what if\" projection scenarios, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) study, Agriculture at a crossroads (IAASTD, 2009), is probably one of the most well known. The IAASTD study was the result of an international effort initiated by the World Bank and FAO with the objective of assessing the impacts of agricultural knowledge, science and technology (AKST) on food security and sustainable development. The IAASTD was relatively close to the MEA regarding the process and method used. But both exercises differed as regards the type of scenarios they proposed: the IAASTD did not propose global exploratory scenarios as in the MEA study, but a baseline projection and a set of \"what if\" projection scenarios. In the baseline projection, current trends were projected to 2050. The baseline and the variant scenarios were simulated with a wide set of quantitative models, in particular using the IMPACT model designed by IFPRI.Another \"what if\" study, Eating the planet (Erb et al., 2009) is of special interest for the present report since it explores the consequences of combinations of various assumptions on four aspects of agricultural and food systems. First, land-use change: massive change, or business as usual; second, yields: intensive, intermediate, or relying on organic production; third, on diets: \"Western high meat\", current trends, less meat, or far less meat (which reduces the assumed share of protein from animal sources to 20 percent instead of 30 percent); and, fourth, on different livestock systems: intensive, humane or organic. It analyses the interrelationships and possible trade-offs among the resulting 72 possible scenarios, the feasibility of which is tested through a biomass balance model.The \"Western high meat\" scenario is defined in Eating the planet as: high calorie intake (3 171 kcal/cap/day), rich in animal protein (44 percent of protein intake) assuming economic growth beyond the current trends, and a globalization of the Western trend towards high consumption of animal products. The feasibility analysis reveals that the \"Western high meat\" would require a combination of massive land-use change, intensive livestock production systems and more intensive use of existing arable land (reaching intensive crop yields as defined by FAO as crop yields forecasted to grow by 54 percent on average and cropland area by 9 percent by 2050).It is interesting to note that, more generally, the feasibility analysis in this study indicates that the additional costs of humane and organic livestock rearing systems, in terms of feeding efficiency and demand for additional area, seem to be relatively low. Differences in the livestock systems assumed in the scenarios play only a minor role in determining whether a scenario was feasible or not.However, the study also shows that the data uncertainties and the current limited scientific understanding of the feeding efficiency of humane farming systems demonstrate the need for better data to enable more robust conclusions to be drawn on that issue.Population growth has been the main driver in agriculture and food systems during the twentieth century, but its relative weight is declining, relative to other drivers such as increasing per capita incomes, urbanization and changing dietary preferences. If the current trends towards westernization of diets continue, the demand for animal-source foods will increase strongly in the coming decades with significant implications for more resource use worldwide, unless moderated by advances in and adoption of resource efficiency raising technologies.Livestock production is currently and will be central to developments in food systems. Much of the increased crop output required over the period to 2050 will be in the form of feedstuffs for livestock as consumers seek to enrich their diets based on increased purchasing power, mainly in developing countries.This increase in ASF demand can affect FSN positively in many ways: first, by providing opportunities for increasing the incomes of smallholders; and second, by facilitating the correction of nutrient deficiencies and addressing under nutrition. However, it also raises considerable challenges.Sustainability challenges and the possible contributions to FSN are quite different for each livestock production system. This makes it more difficult but also opens important possibilities to identify pathways to achieve sustainable livestock systems in contributing to FSN.The overarching goal for sustainable agricultural development (SAD) is to ensure food security and nutrition (FSN) for all now and in the future, in the context of climate change and increasing scarcity of natural resources. The growing and rapidly evolving demand for food, and particularly ASF, creates huge opportunities for agricultural development, including livestock. However, the expected growth in production to meet this demand will also raise challenges if agricultural development is to become more sustainable.This chapter focuses on the challenges for SAD and looks at both the cross-cutting challenges that affect all livestock production, and the more specific challenges faced by different livestock systems, using the typology outlined in Chapter 1: smallholder mixed farming, pastoral, commercial grazing, and intensive livestock systems. The challenges are further disaggregated according to whether they are mainly environmental, economic or social. In order to facilitate the design of system specific pathways to SAD, addressing all the challenges faced by each farming system, challenges that have more importance or are more visible in a specific system are considered within this system, which does not mean that they are irrelevant in other systems.Many studies have identified livestock as a key area for action in efforts to reduce stresses on natural resources (in particular land and freshwater), as well as to reduce GHG emissions and adapt to climate change (Foresight, 2011;FAO, 2006b).There are numerous claims that in terms of calories harvested per hectare the resource efficiency of ASF is much lower than that of edible plants. In a forthcoming paper, Mottet et al. (in press) analyse global feed rations and feed conversion efficiencies. One of their salient findings that challenges the assumption that ASF rely on an inefficient use of plants is that 75 percent of global livestock's dry matter feed intake consists of products such as leaves, grass, fodder crops, crop residues and swill that are non-edible to humans. Grains represent just 12 percent of global animal feed, with an additional 9 percent derived from by-products that can be considered edible to some extent.The Mottet et al. (in press) analysis reports that to produce 1 kg of animal-source protein requires an average of 8.8 kg of protein feed (17.3 kg for ruminants and 7.4 kg for monogastrics). However, when accounting for the source of animal feed (whether human-edible or non-human-edible feed), the requirement for human-edible protein feed in animal rations is lower for ruminants than for monogastrics, as the typical ruminant eats plants that humans cannot.Reflected within these figures are considerable variations by production system and by level of productivity, which permit scope for overall efficiency improvements if appropriate technical and management improvements are implemented.Likewise, the carbon footprint of ASF per gram is higher than in crop-based foods and the reduction in ASF consumption is often recommended as a measure to mitigate climate change. However, this recommendation does not take into account the higher micronutrient levels and better protein quality found in ASF (linked to ASF's higher nutrient density), or the fact that livestock, in particular ruminants, consume feed that is non-edible by humans (in particular, grass) and recycled waste. It is true that improvements in the feed conversion efficiency component of livestock production will be important to meet global environmental challenges (Revell, 2015).Improving the efficiency of livestock production systems would, in turn, require addressing a range of associated challenges and, for instance, to reduce animal mortality rates, which are still very high in some developing countries (see Figure 7 and Section 3.1.4). The most obvious and important way to do this will be to improve farmers' access to veterinary and extension services. Keeping production systems within critical planetary limits: Agricultural ecosystems provide humans with food, animal feed, fuel and other material and non-material goods and services essential to collective and individual well-being. Production relies on ecosystem services including pollination, biological pest control, the maintenance of soil structure and fertility, and nutrient and water cycling (Power, 2010). One major assessment identified 24 such ecosystem services, approximately 60 percent of which are being degraded at an unsustainable rate (MEA, 2005). This degradation is putting the resource base of future agricultural production at risk (Steffen et al., 2015). Livestock production, particularly when concentrated in a small geographical area, can have significant negative effects on the associated ecosystems, ranging from pressure on water availability and quality, to eutrophication and acidification, to land degradation, reduced air quality, increased GHG emissions, biodiversity loss, and a reduction of genetic diversity. Agricultural production is the largest cause of human alteration of the global nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon cycles, and in some regions livestock is the major agricultural contributor to this disruption. (Leip et al., 2015).Pressure on land-use: Livestock is the world's largest user of land resources (see Chapter 2). As such, the livestock sector is a major driver of deforestation and other changes in land use. In particular, livestock expansion is the main reason that previously uncultivated land is brought into production, which some analysts believe is a process that has reached critical limits (Steffen et al., 2015). According to several authors, extensive cattle raising in the Amazon region accounts for 65-80 percent of the deforestation in the region (this represents a rate of forest loss of 18-24 million ha/year) (Herrero et al., 2009). Up to 600 000 ha/year are reported to be cleared for feed crop production for pigs, poultry and dairy (UNEP, 2007;Thornton and Herrero, 2010). Deforestation has also occurred in Southeast Asia and Central and West Africa, some of which has directly or indirectly been driven by livestock production (Thornton, 2010).The water footprint of livestock products (per calorie produced) is much higher than for crops. When the nutritional value of protein is considered, however, no plant protein is significantly more efficient at using water than the protein produced from eggs, and only soybean is more water-efficient than milk, or goat and chicken meat (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2012;Schlink et al., 2010). Water quality is an issue mainly linked with intensive livestock systems: animal products from industrial, feed-based systems are generally more water-intensive and generally consume and pollute more ground-and surface water resources than animal products from grazing or mixed systems (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2012).On average, almost one-third of the total water used in agriculture is used by the livestock sector: feed from cropland uses 37 percent of the water used for crop production; biomass grazed by livestock represents 32 percent of the evapotranspiration from grazed lands; while direct consumption for livestock drinking represents less than 10 percent of total water use (Herrero et al., 2012). There are, however, considerable regional differences in livestock's share of water use (HLPE, 2015); for example, in the United States of America, livestock uses less than 1 percent of total freshwater use, whereas in Botswana livestock accounts for 23 percent (FAO, 2006c). In any case, water scarcity is not an issue in many temperate countries, which leaves space for the sector to develop. However, increasing livestock production in the future will add to the overall demand for water, particularly in the production of livestock feed.Significant land degradation is a major challenge for SAD. Livestock production drives the transformation of natural ecosystems into pastureland, and from pastureland to other agricultural uses, such as feed crop production. Livestock production is also too often accompanied by significant land degradation, by soil erosion, drought, salinization, waterlogging and desertification (UNEMG, 2011). Land degradation affects more than 20 percent of all cultivated land and touches all types of farming systems. Globally, some 20 000-50 000 km 2 of potentially productive lands are lost annually through soil erosion and degradation, and 2.9 million km 2 are considered at very high risk of desertification, most of those areas being in developing countries (UNEP, 2007). 23 An estimated 20 percent of the world's pastures and rangeland have been degraded to some extent, and the proportion may be as high as 73 percent in dry areas (FAO, 2006b). Projections indicate that less water may be available and more droughts and other extreme weather events may occur in coming decades, exacerbating the loss of agricultural land. If current trends in increasing population density continue, then by 2030 urban land cover will increase by 1.2 million km 2 , nearly triple the global urban land area in 2000. Most of this urban growth is concentrated in a few areas of Asia and Africa (Seto et al., 2012). This expansion will increase pressure on productive agricultural land and on a number of biodiversity hotspots.Many of the natural grassland ecosystems around the world suffer from overgrazing and degraded vegetation (Carvalho et al., 2011). Dryland ecosystems, in particular, are extremely vulnerable to overexploitation and inappropriate land use. Grassland degradation, often accompanied by soil degradation and erosion, reduces the productive and ecological contribution of grasslands (Zhang, 1995). Such degradation leads to a decline in biological diversity (Wu, 2008), reduced grass and animal production from pasture, a deterioration of human living environments, soil erosion (Zhang, 1995), and the displacement of biodiversity-rich mixed farming systems. Land degradation contributes to reduced FSN over the long term. Biodiversity loss: Biodiversity underpins the ecosystem services that supply benefits to agriculture and people. The principal causes of biodiversity loss are habitat degradation, overexploitation, alien invasive species and climate change. Agriculture is the single most important threat to vertebrate diversity (MEA, 2005). While biodiversity loss and land degradation are global phenomena, they are now most pronounced in the tropics and subtropics. Africa, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean, has experienced the highest biodiversity losses as a result of major land-use changes (especially in increases in pastureland and biofuel production) combined with increasing land degradation (UNEP, 2007).Climate change is a major challenge for agriculture and for food security (FAO, 2016b). Its impacts can differ widely among latitudes, regions, countries and agro-ecological zones. Most poor livestock keepers live in Africa and South Asiaregions especially vulnerable to climate change. Drylands in Africa and the Middle East may be severely affected by climate change, with significant impacts on the availability of water and forage resources (IPCC, 2014) and on the evolution of transhumance routes. Therefore, pastoralists and smallholders in these areas will be highly vulnerable to climate change and to the conflicts it is likely to trigger. Commercial grazing is also vulnerable to climate change. There is evidence that development of agriculture combined with climatic warming patterns have pushed the grassland agro-ecosystem in the Great Plains of North America and Queensland, Australia, into a more fragile status (Dong et al., 2011).In their assessment, Havlík et al. (2015) not only account for changes in crop yields but also for changes in grass productivity and feed rations. They also consider different systems and environments: grass-based (arid, humid, temperate/highlands), mixed crop-livestock (arid, humid, temperate/highlands), urban and other, for ruminants; and, smallholder and industrial production for monogastrics. Feed rations are defined as consisting of grass, stover, feed crops aggregates and other feedstuff. Outputs include products, as well as environmental factors (manure production, nitrogen excretion and GHG emissions).From an initial distribution of livestock across the different systems, the projections that have been modelled show that: Climate change impacts on crop and grass yields are projected to have only a small effect on global milk and meat production by 2050, which remains under any climate scenario within +/-2 percent of the projected production without climate change. Effects can be more pronounced at regional level. In sub-Saharan Africa, effects are both the most uncertain and potentially the most severe; for example, ruminant meat production could increase by 20 percent or it could decrease by 17 percent. Effects on regional consumption are less pronounced because the impacts are buffered through international trade. Virtually all the negative effects are smaller than 10 percent. Adjustment in the structure of production systems will be key to adaptation. Grass yields benefit more (or are hurt less) from climate change than crop yields. Climate change would hence favour grazing systems, leading potentially to a change in the current trend towards more intensive systems. Optimal adaptation strategies (such as switching among production systems, feedstuff substitution, intensification or extensification) can be very diverse and heavily depend on the underlying climate change scenario, complexifying the search for robust strategies that are effective under many different future climate scenarios.Climate change affects livestock systems in many ways, through: adversely affecting the quality and quantity of feed; exposing livestock to heat stress and extreme events (such as, severe winters in Mongolia, El Niño-associated flooding in east Africa, and droughts in southern Africa); reducing water available for livestock; and modifying the distribution of livestock pests and diseases (Thornton et al., 2009). These include many diseases that are transmitted by insects or that have a life stage outside the animal host (Grace et al., 2015). Among the livestock diseases that most affect poor communities, more than half could be spread farther and faster by climate changes (Grace et al., 2015).Climate-associated changes are complex and difficult to predict. Some changes may be beneficial to livestock production (for example, growth in carbon dioxide concentration will increase pasture productivity; reduce some heat-sensitive diseases; and, produce indirect effects on livestock from changes in feed-crop productivity). However, the consensus is that the likely negative effects of climate change may outweigh the positive and create an increasingly difficult environment for livestock production in most systems (Thornton et al., 2015), and livestock systems will all need to adapt to climate change. A recent study by Havlík et al. (2015) provides a detailed global assessment of climate change impacts on the livestock sector (see Box 5).With emissions estimated at 7.1 gigatonnes CO2-equivalent per annum, when including all direct and indirect emissions through a life cycle analysis, representing 14.5 percent of human-induced GHG emissions (FAO, 2013a), the livestock sector plays an important role in climate change. Livestock, in particular grass-fed ruminants, account for significant emissions of methane, a particularly potent GHG. Emission intensity varies among species, by product and according to the system of production. In general, the higher the level of productivity (output per unit of input) the lower the emissions per unit of product (FAO, 2010). Numerous studies have shown that, in general, ASF from animals reared in more intensive and specialized systems have a relatively lower carbon footprint per animal than those in extensive systems, and dairy products, eggs and meat from monogastrics have a lower footprint than meat from ruminants (Garnett et al., 2015). Ruminant systems operating at low productivity in Africa, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean are major contributors to GHG emissions (FAO, 2013a). In developing countries, industrial systems are less GHG intensive, and these are followed by mixed crop-livestock systems and by grazing systems (Herrero et al., 2012). However, extensive pigmeat and poultry systems have generally low GHG emissions per unit of output (FAO, 2013a).Feed production and processing, and enteric fermentation from ruminants, are the two main sources of emissions, representing 45 and 39 percent of sector emissions, respectively. Manure storage and processing represent 10 percent, with the remaining 6 percent attributed to the processing and transportation of animal products. These emissions could be reduced by between 18 and 30 percent if producers in a given system, region and climate adopted the practices currently applied by the 10 to 25 percent of producers with the lowest emissions intensity in the system considered (FAO, 2013a).The challenges are to develop breeding (genetics) and feeding regimes to achieve a lower level of GHGs per animal, and reduce deforestation (to increase soil carbon and biomass) while maintaining livestock production, and increasing resource efficiency and resilience, thus addressing at the same time the need for adaptation and contributing to mitigation.Markets: Well-functioning markets are important for SAD and FSN. Price signals are crucial though they play out in sometimes complicated ways. For example, the recent period of higher crop prices benefited many producers and triggered an increase in agricultural investment in most regions. But higher and more volatile prices were hard on livestock producers that depend on purchased feed, in particular the pig and poultry sectors. Higher food prices for consumers can be negative for FSN in the short run, in particular for low-income rural people, many of whom are net food buyers, and the urban poor. In the longer run, however, higher prices can bring important benefits to rural economies, including higher average levels of purchasing power.Markets do not always give the price signals that lead to SAD and improved FSN status. There are three main reasons for this. First, markets are imperfect and sometimes non-competitive as a result of information gaps, poorly defined or enforced property rights and regulations, and because some livestock farmers, particularly smallholders, are not connected to supply chains or lack bargaining power in the markets they do access. Second, the social and environmental externalities (both positive and negative) of agricultural production and food consumption, as well as the natural resources used in production, are either not priced or under priced and therefore marginalized or ignored in farmers' decision-making. Third, some government policies distort price signals through poorly designed subsidies, and trade, investment and tax policies (OECD, 2005;2012).The time lag in agricultureand in particular in the livestock sectorbetween prices, investment and production responses is a factor that makes many farmers risk-averse, sometimes leading to resource use that is suboptimal from a long-term sustainable development and FSN perspective. Together with the unpredictability of weather, the time-lag is also a cause of the price volatility commonly observed in agriculture.While large or rich farms can often hedge against volatile prices, using financial resources to cushion a downturn in prices or entering into long-term contracts with food processors to reduce risk, smallscale farmers do not have the means to hedge their risks, unless they are part of a larger collective, whether voluntary or organized by the state. The vulnerability of poor farmers and consumers to price levels and price volatility has been extensively discussed with respect to agricultural development and FSN objectives (HLPE, 2011a;2013b).As shown in Chapter 2, international trade in feed and livestock products is growing, which brings new opportunities and challenges. The challenges include competition from subsidized imports, the failure of states to equitably redistribute the gains from trade in the economy (Rodrik, 2015), the risk of spreading emerging or reviving diseases (Thow, 2009;Grace et al., 2012), and the difficulty of conforming to a range of sanitary and phytosanitary standards, both private and governmental.Lack of agreement over deepening international trade integration: Rules governing international trade of agricultural products have evolved considerably over the last four decades, in particular with the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of negotiations under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1994. The Uruguay Round launched the World Trade Organization (WTO) and created, for the first time, dedicated international trade rules for agriculture. Trade rules and policies can affect FSN positively or negatively and there is little consensus on how trade rules should be adapted to support FSN objectives (FAO, 2015b).Constraints due to small-scale farm size: Average farm size has fallen in most low-and middleincome countries, where the majority of smallholders live (FAO, 2014c). This can be a significant constraint on providing sustainable livelihoods for smallholders and their families. Although it does not necessarily demonstrate that small-scale farms have low productive efficiency, smallholders do face significant challenges when competing with heavily capitalized farms, which in many countries access public subsidies and many of whose costs are externalized through poor regulation of labour conditions and the environment (Quan, 2011).Low levels of investment in agriculture research and development (R&D): Public investment in agriculture had been stagnant for some time, with subsidies claiming the larger share of public expenditures on agriculture in many countries (IBRD/World Bank, 2007). Private investment remains concentrated in a handful of developed and emerging countries. Overall investment in R&D of new technologies and their adaptation to smallholder farmers remains inadequate.Corporate concentration in the livestock sector: Nearly all the predicted growth in livestock production is expected to occur in developing countries, where food systems tend to be heterogeneous and fragmented, with large numbers of actors, many of them small-scale and with little by way of formal organization. In China, for example, food production is said to be dominated by \"elephants and mice\"; in other words, there are a few large companies with incentives to evade or exercise influence over regulation while the great majority of the rest are in the informal sector and thus are difficult to monitor and are poorly regulated (Alcorn and Ouyang, 2012). As discussed in Chapter 2, there are concerns related to growing concentration all along the agri-food supply chain, from artificial insemination and the provision of young chicks to contract farmers, of phytosanitary and veterinary products, to food processing, distribution and retail networks. Livestock farmers are often dependent on a few suppliers for their inputs and a few buyers for their production. The challenge is primarily that the gains from production are increasingly concentrated in the hands of the dominant economic actors, reducing farmer and farm worker income. Other problems arise linked to the narrow profit margins on farm, from neglect of investment in future production and inability to address externalities, for example with strong environmental management. To some extent farmer cooperatives can rebalance the relatively weaker bargaining position of farmerssuch cooperatives have been especially successful in the dairy sector, whereas in some livestock sectors the effects appear to be mixed. 24 However, concentrated corporate control over different links of the livestock value chains raises challenges for sustainability in particular in the more intensive production systems.Providing security and satisfactory working conditions.Agriculture and food processing are among the sectors that employ the largest share of low-income people. Forty percent of the agricultural workforce is waged, working on someone else's land or with someone else's animals (ILO/FAO/IUF, 2007). The work is physically demanding and repetitive.Although new technologies have reduced the physical strength required for the work, new risks have been introduced and safety measures, information and training are too often lacking. The number of fatal and serious accidents and illness among agricultural workers is high, yet they often have access to inadequate or no social safety nets, even in developed countries (ILO/FAO/IUF, 2007).According to the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) 25 , occupational health and safety issues are by no means confined to the Global South. For instance, in the United States of America, there are detailed studies showing that agricultural and food industry workers are among the most disadvantaged groups in the country, with lower than average educational status, greater than average likelihood of being migrants, and more likely than average to speak English as a second language 26 (Maloney and Grusenmeyer, 2005). Some studies focus on the situation of workers in meat and poultry industry, which is considered particularly difficult (see Box 6).According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), although the majority of workers in the US meat and poultry industry are citizens, an estimated 26 percent of them are foreign-born non-citizens. They work in hazardous conditions involving loud noise, sharp tools and dangerous machinery. Many workers must stand for long periods of time wielding knives and hooks to slaughter or process meat on a production line that moves very quickly. Workers responsible for cleaning the plant must use strong chemicals and hot pressurized water. While, according to BLS, injuries and illnesses have declined over the past decade, the meat and poultry industry still has one of the highest rates of injury and illness of any industry in the country (US GAO, 2005). An estimated 71 percent of US poultry growers have annual incomes below the US federal poverty limit (NCFH, 2014).In the framework of the Health Hazard Evaluation Programme, a study conducted in a poultry processing plant of South Carolina by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health showed that 42 percent of the workers had evidence of carpal tunnel syndrome, 41 percent performed daily tasks above the thresholds recommended by industry experts and 57 percent reported at least one musculoskeletal symptom, not including hand or wrist symptoms (Musolin et al., 2014) Alabama produces more than 1 billion broilers per yearranking it third among states behind Georgia and Arkansas. It is an industry with an USD8.5 billion impact on the stategenerating about 75 000 jobs and 10 percent of Alabama's economyand one that plays a vital economic role in numerous small towns. However, for the poorly paid workers who face the relentless pressure of the mechanized processing line, the jobs come at a high price. Nearly three-quarters of the poultry workers interviewed by the Southern Poverty Law Centre for a recent report described suffering some type of significant work-related injury or illness. In spite of many factors that lead to undercounting of injuries in poultry plants, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reported an injury rate of 5.9 percent for poultry processing workers in 2010, a rate that is more than 50 percent higher than the 3.8 percent injury rate for all US workers. (SPLC and Alabama Appleseed, 2013).Agriculture is the largest sector where child labour is found: of the 215 million child labourers worldwide in 2008, about 60 percent (129 million) were engaged in the agriculture sector, including farming, livestock, forestry, fishing and aquaculture (FAO, 2013c). Agriculture is also one of the most dangerous sector in terms of accidents and occupational diseases: almost 60 percent of girls and boys (aged 5-17 years) in hazardous work are found in agriculture (FAO, 2013c). Children can be gainfully employed in agriculture but all too often the work is at the expense of education and in unsafe working conditions. By endangering the health and education of the young, child labour in agriculture is an obstacle to SAD and food security.In many societies, social and cultural norms tend to determine distinct and complementary roles for women and men in livestock production and processing. For example, in the majority of traditional societies, women manage poultry and small animals while men work with the larger animals, such as cattle and camels (FAO, 2012b). Although women's typical roles within livestock production systems vary from region to region, economic, legal, social and cultural factors tend to marginalize women's place in the livestock value chain (IFAD, 2010).Women account for a significant and growing share of the workforce in agriculture worldwide, as men are much more likely than women to move to non-farm jobs (Agarwal, 2012). In developing countries women comprise approximately 43 percent of the agricultural labour force, ranging from 20 percent in Latin America to 50 percent in South Eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa (FAO, 2011a). Despite a determined push to generate disaggregated researchrevealing, for example, that female-headed households are as successful as male-headed households in generating income from their animalsthe available data remain uneven and inadequate. For example, while the role of women in smallscale livestock production is well recognized, there is much less documentation of their engagement in intensive production and in the market chains associated with large commercial enterprises.Women face a number of forms of exclusion: they have less access to technologies, extension services, markets, financial services and productive resources, especially land. This discrimination is a result of restrictions imposed through local customs and national laws (FAO, 2011a;Herrero et al., 2012;IFPRI, 2012;Njuki and Sanginga, 2013). The modernization of agriculture and the integration of agricultural systems into international markets have sometimes deepened women's exclusion. For example, new crops may rely on the use of technologies that require capital inputs and some level of education, both of which women have less access to than men. As livestock enterprises scale up, and cash plays a greater role in the farm operation, the control of decisions and income and sometimes of the entire enterprise often shifts to men. There are however some exceptions, for instance in Viet Nam, where women manage many medium-sized duck breeding enterprises (FAO, 2011a). In fact, ownership of livestock is particularly attractive to women in societies where access to land is restricted to men; livestock can provide a relatively simple source of income for resource-poor producers (Bravo-Baumann, 2000).Male and female livestock producers do not necessarily face the same risks, nor do they experience shared risks the same way. In a recent study, IFAD underlines some of these differences (IFAD, 2010). For example, if women are denied access to externally purchased productive inputs, they may not be able to take advantage of markets for new crops. In many cultures women are not encouraged to participate in collective organizations that can bring economies of scale and a stronger political voice. Women also face specific risks because of their greater vulnerability to sexual harassment and even violent attack, which in many places curtails their freedom of movement in public. The discrimination girls face in education reduces their ability as women to take advantage of new opportunities, and to use support services or adopt new farm technologies. Women and men are likely to be differently affected by household shocks, such as an illness in the family, which may be reflected in their productive activities (for example if a woman gives up paid work to care for a relative).In some regions, farmer populations are ageing as rural communities see little future in agriculture (Vos, 2014). This might be the opposite in other regions, like Africa, as a result of demography. In all cases, changing demographics affects agricultural production. Older farmers are for example less likely to introduce new, transformative production techniques (Vos, 2015). In the United States of America, the average age of farmers is now 58 years, while in Japan it is 67 (Jöhr, 2015). Feeding a growing population with an ageing workforce will require radical changes in production technology and/or the need to make farming more attractive to young people. As shown in Chapter 2, rural-urban migration is one of the main drivers of an ageing workforce in some developing countries.Protracted crises are one of the greatest challenges facing the realization of FSN for all (FAO/IFAD/WFP, 2015). Hunger has always accompanied war. Nor are natural disasters new. However, they have grown more frequent as a result of human activity that has destroyed ecological resilience, including through deforestation, soil and freshwater depletion, and biological diversity loss. 27 Though absolute numbers of hungry people continue to decrease, the number of countries facing food crises has doubled since 1990 (from 12 to 24), while the number facing hunger as a result of protracted crisis has grown from 4 to 19 of that totalan almost five-fold increase. Approximately 19 percent of the food insecure worldwide live in regions affected by protracted crisis (FAO/IFAD/WFP, 2015).Many studies of livestock farmers living in protracted crisis situations focus on pastoralists. Their vulnerability to drought and forced migration is not new but the evidence suggests that the early warning systems in place are too rarely used to trigger policy responses. Drought is a slow-onset crisis and affects specific regions consistently: it is not unpredictable. And yet government responses continue to be late and inadequate, while urgently needed cross-border strategies for pastoralists remain a critical gap (Levine et al., 2011).During armed conflicts (see Box 7), farmers' access to fields is greatly reduced, interrupting the production cycle. This has been a feature of the Syrian war (Jaafar et al., 2015). The vicious circle between conflict and drought has also been documented among smallholder livestock producers in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, where low livestock numbers and poverty are associated with farmers' vulnerability in violent conflict and their low resilience in the face of a protracted dry season (Maass et al., 2012).Conflicts and wars cause the displacement of millions of people, who live in refugee camps. Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan are examples of recent conflicts in which displaced peoples have used wood from forests as fuel and for building shelters. About 2.4 million people migrated to the Darfur area and more than 3 million people migrated from Afghanistan to bordering Pakistan. These displacements have led to deforestation and degradation of rangelands around and beyond camps. More specifically, Pakistan has paid an environmental price for accommodating people, along with their animals over the last 15 years. These are environmentally significant displacements occurring under fragile dry land conditions. The national responses to such environmental disasters affecting local pastoral systems were either slow or very limited due to limited capacity. The role of international organizations such as the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is significant in assessing the environmental risks, loss of livelihoods, and social stresses in mobilizing resources for post-conflict rehabilitation.Health is a global public good and must be addressed at the global level, from a comprehensive and cross-cutting perspective, including the links between animal and human health. In September 2004, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) proposed a holistic approach initially called One World-One Health, which aimed to better prevent epidemic/epizootic diseases by strengthening the links between human health, animal health and management of the environment, particularly biodiversity and ecosystem services.In October 2008, six international organizations elaborated a Strategic Framework for Reducing Risks of Infectious Diseases at the Animal-Human-Ecosystems Interface, based on the One World-One Health concept (FAO et al., 2008). Now known simply as One Health, the initiative promotes coordination between the different health systems, most of which are run separately, to facilitate economies of scale and to foster synergies. This approach has been also endorsed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (through its decisions XII/18 and XII/21), as well as by a number of countries, universities, NGOs and many other stakeholders.Animal diseases reduce productivity and are important causes of shocks that can disrupt food production and markets. Better management of diseases and pests is thus integral to sustainable production. Animal diseases are expensive and threaten human health. The cost of specific disease outbreaks can often run into billions of dollars. Just a few major diseases are responsible for most of the harm.Animal diseases appear to be decreasing in wealthy countries but are static or increasing in poorer countries (Perry et al., 2011). There have been many studies on the economic costs of disease linked to losses from animal mortality, reduced productivity and control costs. However, only a few studies have attempted to systematically assess the impacts of livestock disease across species or countries. The cost of 32 important diseases in the United Kingdom livestock sector valued in 2001 was estimated at USD1 178 million, or 8 percent of the value of the sector (Bennett and IJpelaar, 2005). In Australia, the top 21 beef and sheep diseases cost the livestock sector AUD 979 million, or 16 percent of the value of the sector (Sackett and Holmes, 2006). Studies on disease incidence and mortality in developing countries are complicated by the lack of good information: Fadiga et al. (2013) estimated the annual financial cost of five important animal diseases in Nigeria to be up to 29.2 billion Nigerian Naira (USD185 million in 2013). 28 All five diseases were transboundary in nature. A recent survey from the World Organisation for Animal Health (known as OIE) estimated that, in Africa, the 35 highest priority diseases cost nearly USD9 billion a year, equivalent to 6 percent of the total value of the livestock sector in Africa (Grace et al., 2015).Although the levels of animal disease are highest in pastoral systems, the overall burden is greatest in smallholder systems, as these systems hold more animals. These include zoonotic diseases (such as salmonella, highly pathogenic avian influenza), and are linked to concerns over animal welfare. Improved conditions for animals are associated with a reduced incidence of zoonotic disease. A metaanalysis by FAO in Africa showed small ruminants have higher mortality than cattle, young animals are more vulnerable than adults, pastoral systems have more disease than mixed systems, and traditional systems more disease than modern livestock systems (FAO, 2002).Food security, good nutrition and human health can be compromised by a range of food-borne diseases, animal diseases or through antimicrobial resistance. Moving towards sustainability also includes taking care of the health-related aspects of agricultural development.The relationships between ASF, nutrition and health are complex: if small amounts of meat, dairy and eggs added to grain-based diets have beneficial nutrition effects, excessive amounts of processed meat have been linked to an increased risk of chronic disease. While studies in high-income countries generally support a link between higher ASF consumption, overnutrition and chronic disease, the exact role of specific foods is highly contested and prone to revision. The challenge of the weak evidence base for nutritional guidelines combined with overconfidence in studies that confound correlation with causation is illustrated by major reversals in nutrition advice in some countries. In 2015, for example, the American Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee abandoned its recommended restrictions on cholesterol and fat intake and recommended against the promotion of artificial sweeteners for weight loss. However, some studies show an association between meat consumption (especially red and processed meat) and cardiovascular diseases (including strokes), some cancers, and diabetesall of which cause mortality (Micha et al., 2012;Larsson and Orsini, 2014). In 2015, WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that there is sufficient evidence to support the carcinogenic effect of red meat and processed meat but noted at the same time the nutritional value of red meat and encouraged governments and international regulatory agencies to conduct risk assessments in order to balance the risks and benefits of eating red meat and processed meat and to provide the best possible dietary recommendations (IARC, 2015).Food-borne diseases (FBD) impact human health globally in ways comparable in scale to that of malaria, HIV/AIDS or tuberculosis (Havelaar et al., 2015), with an estimated 420 000 deaths per year. FBD are primarily the result of microbes (79 percent) and macro-parasites (18 percent). Although public attention, even in developing countries, is much more focused on the relatively much less important causes: chemicals and plant toxins, which account for an estimated 3 percent of FBD 29 (Havelaar et al., 2015). Most of the global burden of food-borne disease (98 percent) 30 is borne by developing countries (Havelaar et al., 2015), where the most risky fresh foods are supplied largely by the informal sector and produced by smallholders (Grace, 2015). Livestock products are the food category most implicated in FBD (Painter et al., 2013;Sudershan et al., 2014;Bouwknegt et al., 2014;Tam et al., 2014;Sang et al., 2014).Emerging diseases are defined as diseases that have newly appeared in populations, or that are rapidly increasing in frequency or range, while re-emerging diseases are those that were previously under control but have started to reappear. They are mostly zoonotic diseases. Drivers of zoonotic disease emergence include land-use change, encroachment of agriculture on natural ecosystems, urbanization, conflict, travel, migration, global trade, trade in wildlife and changing dietary preferences (IOM & NRC, 2009).One new human disease emerges every four months. Around 60 percent of all human diseases and 75 percent of all emerging diseases are zoonotic (Woolhouse et al., 2005;Taylor et al., 2001). Historically, most zoonotic diseases emerged in the intensive animal industries of the United States of America and Europe but more recently there has been a shift to developing countries (Grace et al., 2012). Most emerging zoonoses have a wildlife component, and the study of disease emergence has a strong focus on wildlife. However, the most important emerging diseases often involve livestock. Between 1997 and 2009, the economic losses from six major outbreaks of highly fatal zoonoses, 31 involving livestock as a reservoir or a bridge to carry disease to people, amounted to at least USD80 billion (World Bank, 2012). If these outbreaks had been avoided, the benefits would have averaged USD6.7 billion per year (World Bank, 2012). The high density of animals in intensive systems, along 29 This is an example of where lay perception differs from expert judgment and is probably due to psychological factors that make chemical hazards more frightening for many (Slovic, 2010). 30 A recent global assessment estimated that the health burden was distributed as follows: 35 percent in South Asia, 35 percent in Africa and 9 percent in Southeast Asia (Havelaar et al., 2015). 31 Nipah virus (pigs, Malaysia), West Nile fever (horses, United States of America), severe acute respiratory syndrome (farmed civet, Asia, Canada, other), avian influenza (poultry, Asia, Europe), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (cattle, United States of America, United Kingdom), Rift Valley fever (ruminants, United Republic of Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia).with their genetic homogeneity, exposure to stress and the use of antimicrobials to mask poor husbandry foster disease emergence in these systems (Jones et al., 2013). But although the drivers of disease emergence have been identified (Jones et al., 2013), there is little evidence as to which practical strategies could be best employed to reduce disease emergence from or through a livestock system.Antimicrobial resistance is considered one of the major public health challenges facing humanity this century in both developed and developing countries (O'Neill, 2015;2016). Standards and guidelines to address this concern have been recently published by international organizations (WHO, 2015c; OIE, 2015; see also section 3.5.2).There are divergent perspectives with respect to animal welfare: as citizens, people tend to support the notion of animals being entitled to a good life, but as consumers they tend to be less careful (Schröder and McEachern, 2004).Animal welfare conditions currently vary across countries and production systems. Conditions depend on socio-economic and regulatory settings, as well as on religious and cultural traditions, consumer pressure, retailers and civil society organizations. The OIE defines animal welfare with \"five freedoms\" (Box 8).In 2016, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published general requirements and guidance for organizations in the food supply chain on animal welfare management (ISO/DTS 34700). 32   Finding an acceptable balance between increasing production, improving efficiency and the welfare of livestock is a challenge for the sector, particularly in the situation of poorly regulated, intensive industrial systems (McInerney, 2004). Maintaining and improving animal welfare can incur higher costs to livestock producers; but these can result in higher returns to producers from more productive animals, as well as price premiums where livestock producers are integrated into supply chains in which animal welfare is differentiated.In many countries, legislation provides for a minimum standard of animal welfare (Mitchell, 2001;WAP, 2014a;CWF, 2014) and, where these do not yet exist, the OIE provides guidelines. In many low-and middle-income countries, however, even where animal welfare legislation exists, there are insufficient resources and capacity for its implementation.Especially in high-income countries, consumers may be willing to pay more for livestock products that go beyond minimum standards of welfare, exerting increasing pressure on livestock producers, transporters and slaughterhouses to raise animal welfare standards. Governments, livestock supply industries and consumers can play an important role in triggering or enforcing animal welfare policies and practices (see Chapter 4). Retailers are increasingly demanding production systems that take into consideration animal welfare.OIE's Terrestrial Animal Health Code defines animal welfare as \"how an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives. An animal is in a good state of welfare if (as indicated by scientific evidence) it is healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behaviour, and if it is not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear, and distress\" (OIE, 2004). The basis is the 'five freedoms' (FAWC, 2011), the principle that animals should have:1. freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition; 2. freedom from discomfort; 3. freedom from pain, injury and disease; 4. freedom to express normal behaviour; 5. freedom from fear and distress.The OIE develops animal welfare standards, which can guide members and facilitate trade.32 See: http://www.iso.org/The disparities among countries in relation to their interest in animal welfare, their regulation of animal welfare, and their ability to enforce regulations create specific difficulties for trade. ASF poses a range of challenges for sanitary and food safety standards and recent trade negotiations, for example in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), are at least as concerned with harmonizing regulations as with more traditional trade barriers such as tariffs. 33In addition to the cross-cutting challenges identified above, smallholder mixed farming systems face specific challenges that include: limited access to resources, market and services; low resource efficiency and resilience; and structural transformations in agriculture and in the economy that leave them at a competitive disadvantage.Smallholder farmers face a major challenge in their inadequate access to resources and services, including land, water, breeding stock, housing, machinery and equipment, extension and veterinary services, markets, financial services and new technologies. This undermines their ability to improve their production efficiency and resilience, leaving them vulnerable to persistent poverty (HLPE, 2013a).Lack of tenure and access to land and water: Lack of tenure and property rights is a major disincentive for smallholder investment (Shepherd, 2007;HLPE 2011b;HLPE 2013a)  and (e) the lack of \"champions\" whether from the private sector, NGOs or government to overcome the diseconomies of scale that smallholders face.Exclusion from higher value markets: Farmers who supply modern retail chains can benefit from higher value markets but most farmers find it difficult to enter (and stay in) these demanding value chains (Andersson et al., 2015). Those who do benefit tend to be better capitalized, better educated and geographically advantaged (for example, within range of an urban centre). The dissolution of publicly run agricultural extension services in many countries and the proliferation and tightening of private standards have also squeezed smallholders out of a number of export markets. For example, in the 2000s, Kenya and Uganda saw, respectively, a 60 and 40 percent decline in the number of smallholders participating in the export of fruit and vegetables to Europe under Global G.A.P. (Good Agricultural Practices), a privately operated certification programme (Graffham et al., 2007).Reducing yield gaps: Most regions have reached their land frontier limits. This implies that, absent radical technological change, almost all increased production must come from yield increases (Vos, 2015) and not expansion. In turn, this gives critical importance to increasing the efficiency of production to close yield gaps (Garnett et al., 2015). There are large livestock yield differences between countries; yields are especially low in sub-Saharan Africa (Tittonell and Giller, 2013). Globally, the gaps are largest for dairy cattle and poultry. Milk yield in sub-Saharan Africa is only 6 percent of that in developed countries (Staal et al., 2009). The yield gap has been attributed to suboptimal use of genetic resources, inadequate feed and high animal disease burdens. However, efficiency assessments are often based on narrow metrics, which may not include non-food outputs (such as manure and draught power), animal welfare, or non-tangible social assets that are often generated at higher levels in systems with lower economic efficiency (Weiler et al., 2014).Lack of capacity to increase productivity: Some smallholders only engage to a limited extent in commercial agricultural activities (Perry and Grace, 2009;Okali, 2012). One review estimates that 60 percent of smallholders are non-commercial: instead, they are net food buyers who sell small amounts of surplus production (when they have any) in local informal markets (Christen and Andersen, 2013). Livestock keeping is more prevalent among the rural rich and the urban poor. This suggests rural families would use an increase in income to expand their livestock holdings, but that urbanization makes keeping livestock less viable (Pica-Ciamarra et al., 2011).Smallholders are exposed to many risks (including climatic events, animal diseases, pests and plant diseases, price volatility). Some aspects of modernizing production can increase smallholders' vulnerability. For instance, where increased agricultural productivity is the result of increased reliance on external inputs, smallholders' economic resilience may be undermined.For example, studies in Viet Nam found that small-scale pig farms, which made use of household labour and feed resources grown on farm, were less vulnerable to changes in market prices than larger farms that relied on purchased inputs (Tisdell, 2010). Increases in productivity in smallholder systems using modern technologies and techniques have also been associated with de-linking livestock from local ecosystems and with genetic resource loss. Lack of adaptation to local conditions can be a source of vulnerability.As well as the cross-cutting challenges identified above, pastoralists face many of the same challenges as smallholders. Pastoralists are confronted with low resource efficiency and limited access to services, credit and markets. Market access is limited by high transportation costs, poor infrastructure and the lack of quality standards, leading to high transaction costs for goods and services (IFAD, 2009b). Private sector investments in these areas are minimal because pastoralism is perceived to have high risks and low returns.But in addition, pastoralists in most countries are a vulnerable minority population. They also face conflicts with other users over access to their traditional land and resources; economic and political marginalization, including in their treatment by government; and, social inequity, related to the clash between pastoralists' nomadic lifestyle and the settled nature of most social institutions, such as schools and health centres.Pastoralism requires widespread land and water resources to operate efficiently. It has historically developed in areas with low human population and harsh natural resources conditions that require careful use to make the most of limited ecosystem services. Some of the most fragile pastoral ecosystems, however, have seen rapid population growth recently: in pastoral districts in the Horn of Africa, for example, the population has doubled in the past 20 years (Little, 2013), while in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, high population growth has been compounded by a new railway that has encouraged in-migration (Dong et al., 2011).As noted by de Haan et al., (2010), \"population pressure, arable farming encroachment and government policies to settle mobile pastoral groups are also major sources of soil degradation\". The conversion of pastures and grasslands to croplands or urban settlement infringes on peoples' acquired and inherent rights and access to traditional lands and natural resources. In west and central Africa, traditional herd movements have led to conflicts over access to farmland, grazing areas, water points and stock routes (McDougal et al., 2015). According to ICG (2014), these conflicts are exacerbated by a worsening climate, increasing populations competing for scarce resources, outdated legal frameworks, and weak governance.Water is a critical resource that determines the success of pastoralism as a way of life in arid and semi-arid lands. As populations have increased, pastoralists often rely on boreholes during the dry season, leading to overuse and sometimes transboundary conflicts (Omosa, 2005). Population growth also leads to the encroachment of crops onto pasturelands. Erratic rainfall creates periodic declines in availability of feed for livestock, which leads to excess mortality and undermines the basis of pastoralist livelihoods.Conflicts over resources are expected to be exacerbated by climate change. In the Sahel, the predicted increase of average temperatures and more frequent droughts, storms and floods will have negative effects on animals and the availability of vegetation, accelerating vulnerabilities and weakening the resilience of agricultural systems (Pastoral Platform of Chad, 2015). The effects will also challenge social equity as the available resources are diminished. Some conservation initiatives and policies that favour recreational uses of land have also violated pastoralists' land rights and access to natural resources.In east Africa, recent decades have seen conflicts in a broad geographical band that stretches from the Kenya-Somalia border to the Central African Republic (Bevan, 2007;Reda, 2015). Violent conflicts result in ineffective resource utilization, reduced mobility for pastoralists, food insecurity and the closure of markets and schools (Schilling et al., 2012).In most countries, pastoralists are a minority. They inhabit remote, marginal lands where political borders may not correspond with traditional territory (Nori et al., 2005). Failure to understand pastoralism has led to policies with negative effects. For example, in regions of China and the Andes, policies to promote the settling of nomadic populations and the introduction of modern farming led to the deterioration of environmental, economic and social conditions in pastoral communities (Hesse and MacGregor, 2006;Dong et al., 2011). In central Asia, the transformation of the traditional pastureuse system, driven by population growth and policy reform, has resulted in massive rangeland degradation and increased carbon emissions (Chuluun and Ojima, 2002). In east Africa, pastoralists are settling and diversifying their livelihoods but service provision and infrastructure development remain inadequate (ODI, 2010) or unhelpful. For example, the development of large-scale irrigation along rivers in drylands has reduced pastoralist's access to grazing and water (Galaty, 2014). While communal land rights ensured women's access to land, transition to private land holding often puts the land title in the hands of men, disadvantaging women pastoralists.Market distortions: Meat produced by pastoralists in a number of countries has been subject to strong competition from products imported from Europe or the United States of America, many of which benefit from substantial direct and indirect subsidies (Moll and Heerink, 1998;Stoll-Kleeman and O'Riordan, 2015). During the 1970s and 1980s, international food aid was the main response to the Sahelian food crisis. Many of the food aid interventions were poorly planned and implemented, leading to the destabilization of markets and increased dependency among some of the recipient populations (Barrett and Maxwell, 2005). Massive shipments of wheat and rice also stimulated a shift in consumer demand from indigenous millet or sorghum to imported grains (FAO, 2006b).The specificities of pastoral systems are still not adequately accounted for in early warning systems and in the plans to prevent and mitigate food crises. Policy-makers need to better understand what makes pastoralists resilient and what makes them vulnerable, whether with regard to technical aspects (health of livestock, social management of water resources and pasture), social aspects (access of pastoralists and agro-pastoral households to basic social services, including health, education, clean water, sanitation, etc.) or economic aspects (linkages between livestock and feed, choice of markets, competition with settled agriculture and with imports, etc.).Negative impact of some infrastructure developments: Major hydro-agricultural development projects undertaken in the Sahel (for the irrigation of rice cultivation) have excluded pastoralists from valuable land and in particular from areas used during the dry season. This has weakened pastoral societies (Cisse, 2008). The challenge is to enhance social equity and responsibility by integrating transhumance, forestry and agriculture in the development of the territory, and respecting indigenous peoples' rights to commonly-owned land and natural resources.Pastoral societies are often patrilineal kinship groups with a marked gender division of labour and entitlements that generally favours men. These inequalities are then typically accepted by women and the community at large (Eneyew and Mengistu, 2013). Child labour is common in pastoral areas and herding can start between five and seven years of age. Boys are generally more involved than girls. International experts are concerned that pastoral labour can be harmful to children's health and educational opportunities (FAO, 2013). Social change is also creating new forms of inequity. For example, rural out-migration leads to more households headed by elderly people, who tend to be more vulnerable (Opiyo et al., 2014). Social differentiation is increasing in many pastoral societies. For example, in the Bolivian and Peruvian highlands agrarian reform supporting individual ownership has led to greater inequities between hired herders and herd owners (Dong et al., 2011), and in the Horn of Africa a more capital-intensive pastoral system aimed at production for the market has had similar impacts (Little, 2013). Often these inequities intersect with each other to compound the disadvantages.Indigenous peoples (see Box 9) face additional challenges. There is a strong link between the presence of pastoralists, the prevalence of indigenous livestock breeds and the provision of supporting, regulating and cultural ecosystem services. These links are found especially in the extensive livestock systems in drylands and mountainous regions. The large areas covered by these production systems, the importance of grasslands to biological diversity and the link between livestock grazing and nature conservation affirm the role of small-scale livestock keepers and pastoralists as guardians of biodiversity beyond the management of their breeds (FAO, 2009a).Chronic marginalization, non-recognition of rights, poor infrastructure and limited or inappropriate services have resulted in many indigenous peoples having poor socio-economic, education and health (including mental health) status.Viable FSN approaches need to enable and support community-based traditional knowledge systems and innovations of indigenous peoples and others who are marginalized or negatively affected by the predominant food system. Indigenous peoples' agro-ecological knowledge and practices are valuable in supporting resilience to change, including climate change, and in monitoring livestock diseases or invasive pests that can damage biodiversity and fragile ecosystems.Poor animal health: A meta-analysis by FAO in Africa found pastoralist systems had the highest levels of livestock mortality (Otte and Chilonda, 2002). Livestock are also vulnerable to extreme and recurring weather events characteristic of drylands, such as droughts, winter storms and floods. For example, in Mongolia, the 2010 dzud (severe winter) was one of the worst ever, resulting in the death of approximately 8.5 million livestock or 20 percent of the 2009 national herd (Rao et al., 2015).Because of their close contact with livestock and poor access to health services, pastoralists are at high risk of some zoonotic diseases. For almost all nomadic populations, three zoonoses present a persistent problem: echinococcosis, brucellosis and rabies (Zinsstag et al., 2006).The UN-system has no formal definition of indigenous peoples but instead works with a series of typical characteristics that include: self-identification as indigenous peoples; historical continuity with precolonial and/or pre-settler societies; a strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources; distinct social, economic or political systems; distinct language, culture and beliefs; form non-dominant groups of society; and, are resolved to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities (UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues). 34   There are around 400 million indigenous peoples in 70 countries, mostly in Asia. Many, though not all, pastoralists consider themselves to be indigenous peoples. Although indigenous peoples account for less than 5 percent of the global population, they comprise about 15 percent of all the poor people in the world and one-third of the rural extreme poor. Beyond the cross-cutting challenges identified above, commercial grazing systems are also vulnerable to some of the same challenges as pastoral systems, including conflicts over resources (particularly land and water).The extent of rangelands has changed over time due to the conversion of forested land into grasslands, the conversion of rangeland into cropland, and the replacement of abandoned rangeland with forests (Box 10). Rangeland biodiversity has been reduced by too intensive use for livestock production and the conversion of rangeland into cropland, a situation that is predicted to continue for the foreseeable future (Alkemade et al., 2013). Recent assessments predict little future increase in pastureland (Bruinsma, 2003;MEA, 2005). Most land-use models show a minor increase (10 percent or less) in grazing land needed by 2050 (Smith et al., 2010). Deforestation as a result of ranching is a common occurrence in Central and South America (Wassenaar et al., 2006). However, assessing and managing grasslands are complicated by the absence of an international mechanism or organization in charge of their assessment and of reporting on their state, unlike some other biomes (e.g. forests by FAO, wetlands by the Ramsar Convention).Conflict over land and resources: Conflicts over land and forest resources between large capital enterprises and cattle ranchers have threatened the viability of smallholder agriculture (Guedes et al., 2012) and the livelihoods and cultures of indigenous peoples. This can lead to rural households and rural or indigenous community members being displaced and migrating to cities or to more marginal lands. Inadequate access to land by the poor and insecure land tenure are factors behind rural poverty, violence, human rights abuses and exploitation of rural workers in conditions of servitude (USAID, 2013).In some countries, particularly in Latin America and southern Africa, workers have lost security as a result of the expansion, encroachment and concentration of large farms, sometimes violating land rights and deepening inequalities. Moreover, employment opportunities and working conditions for landless labourers, including indigenous people in some countries, are often poor and insecure.In tropical areas the current methods of livestock production are often inefficient due to poor management, soil quality and high temperatures with limited shade for animals.Historically, natural pastures have been considered as low productive extensive systems.Natural grasslands are under pressure by demand driven by commercial seed enterprises for land to use for sown pastures (sometimes with foreign species). The dominant research interests of national research institutions also tend to focus on replacing natural grassland systems with what are considered to be more productive crops. The cerrado vegetation in Brazil and the Pampa (Argentina) are two examples of natural grasslands that are being converted.In Brazil, from the 14.1 million ha with natural grasslands in 1970, only 10.5 million ha survived in 1996 (IBGE, 1996). Current estimates place the remaining natural vegetation cover at around 34 percent of the original cover, so natural grasslands now comprise less than 6 million ha (Hasenack et al., 2007). Bilenca and Miñarro (2004) indicated that natural grasslands are also decreasing in Rio Grande do Sul (Brasil), in Pampas (Argentina) and in Uruguay, at rates of 11.9, 3.6 and 7.7 percent, respectively. Considering the census data from 1996 to 2006, the average reduction has reached 440 000 ha per year (Nabinger et al., 2009).Source: adapted from Carvalho et al., 2008;2011 Intensive livestock systems face many sustainability challenges. These challenges are often related to the fact that farmers and other actors in the agri-food chain do not fully take into account environmental and social externalities (costs or benefits). Nor are the externalities reflected in consumer prices. The extent of the negative externalities has sometimes pushed production and consumption into unsustainable patterns.Water, soil and air pollution: The concentration of farming and intensive livestock production results in high levels of air pollution around the farms, high water use, extensive water pollution and the emergence of green algae in watercourses and beaches (e.g. Matson et al., 1997). These negative impacts on the environment threaten future food and nutrition security (Tilman et al., 2002) and the long-term resilience of intensive systems. The problem is especially significant in areas where intensive farms are concentrated. Some of the major problems associated with water pollution include: eutrophication of surface water; leaching of nitrates and pathogens; release of pharmaceuticals including antimicrobials and anabolic steroids; build-ups of excess nutrients and heavy metals; and the degradation of rivers, lakes, coral reefs and coastal areas (FAO, 2006b).In developing countries, while the majority of livestock farms is comprised of small-scale integrated farms and low-input extensive systems that do not pollute very much, intensive farms clustered around major urban centres have experienced rapid growth in the recent decades. Many of these are located near lakes, rivers or coasts. Large concentrations of animals and animal waste close to densely populated areas and far from crop fields (where slurry could be used) create considerable environmental problems. Waste is also a problem elsewhere in the livestock production chain, in livestock feed processing plants, agri-chemical plants, tanneries, slaughterhouses, livestock processing plants and wet markets.Water pollution is also associated with the cultivation of feed for livestock (including crop residues and different by-products used as animal feeds), particularly in mono-cropping systems. Effects may be distant from the source of the pollution, as is the case with nitrogen leaching to surface waters from soy and maize farms in the Mississippi River Basin, which is the primary cause of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico surface water some 1500 miles down river (Blesh and Drinkwater, 2013). Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) create concentrated (point source) pollution. 36  These are often located in rural areas and they typically have relatively strong systems for managing and storing waste, but they still experience problems. For example, in August 2005 a lagoon collapsed at a western New York dairy, sending 3 million gallons of waste into the Black River. As many as 250 000 fish were killed, and residents of Watertown had to suspend their use of the river as a water supply and recreation area (Food and Water Watch, 2007). Land-use changes: FAO (2012a) estimates that between 2005/2007 and 2050, arable land could increase by 4 percent (net increase of about 70 million ha, comprised of an increase of almost 110 million ha in the developing countries and adecrease of nearly 40 million ha in the developed countries). But this projection does not take into account the need for new arable land to compensate for land degradation. According to other projections, cropland could expand by 5-20 percent till 2050, mainly in Africa and Latin America (Byerlee et al., 2014). Much of the increased crop output over that period will be for livestock feed (Chapter 2). Lal et al. (2012) estimate that 20 percent of the world's native grasslands have been converted to cultivated crops and almost 80 percent of the South America cerrado has been converted to cropland or urbanized (White et al., 2000).Intensive livestock production systems reduce the available genetic diversity of livestock. FAO (2007) highlights the relationship between the rapid spread of intensive livestock production and the decline of genetic diversity in livestock production systems. In the face of climate change and unpredictable changes in agricultural conditions, the loss of diversity curtails the opportunities for adaptation.Antibiotic use in agriculture, mainly in intensive systems, is a major contributor to the problem of antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial use in agriculture exceeds use in human medicine and is growing rapidly, raising concerns on the possible impacts of agricultural antimicrobial use on human and animal health (Grace, 2015;Landers et al., 2012). Demand for antibiotics for livestock is growing especially rapidly in the emerging economies of Brazil, India and China. China's livestock industry alone could soon find itself consuming almost one-third of the world's available antibiotics (van Boeckel et al., 2015). Most antimicrobials are often used in intensive livestock production for growth promotion rather than the treatment of disease, while aquaculture is also an important user in some places (especially in Southeast Asia and Chile). There is very little information on the use of antimicrobials in livestock in developing countries and there are important differences among developed countries: some have markedly high amounts of antimicrobial used per animal (for instance Italy, Cyprus, United States of America) while others use very little (for instance Norway, Iceland, Sweden) (Grace, 2015).Antibiotics, whether for human or animal use, end up in the environment and in the food system. Resistant pathogens can be found in animals, animal food products and the environment. Developing countries in particular lack the surveillance systems that would generate reliable national data on the level of antimicrobial residues or resistant pathogens in animals and their products. While it has been shown that agricultural use of antimicrobials has led to antimicrobial resistant infections in humans, the evidence from the literature is insufficient to draw firm conclusions on the extent of the contribution (Grace, 2015).CAFOs: Adverse health effects related to exposure to contaminants among CAFO workers have been well-documented; the impact on the health of residents in nearby communities is less well documented but neighbouring residents appear to be at increased risk of developing neurobehavioural symptoms and respiratory illnesses, including asthma (Greger and Koneswaran, 2010).Rural abandonment: The social benefits of agriculture can be eroded as production becomes more concentrated and intensive. Intensive agricultural systems are associated with negative effects on employment, wealth distribution, ancillary economic activity in rural areas, service provision in rural areas (such as schools and health facilities), and the maintenance of landscapes and recreational spaces. In the United States of America, a review of studies over the past 50 years found industrialized agriculture resulted in lower relative incomes for farm workers who live in the local community and greater income inequality and poverty. Rural town \"Main Street\" also suffers as retail trade diminishes and stores close down (Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, 2008). Faced with the trends of rural abandonment, the EU Common Agricultural Policy has made the maintenance of viable rural communities one of its three strategic aims.Unsatisfactory working conditions: Concentration and the intensification of agricultural production change the nature of work. Fewer people are employed in modernized farming systems (such as for milking). Working conditions do not necessarily improve with the industrialization of agriculture, however, and they are often unsatisfactory. The social, political and economic status of workers and their relative autonomy is often less than it is in traditional farming systems. This challenge can be partially offset by stronger enforcement of workers' rights and protections, as well as the creation of opportunities for displaced agricultural workers to find decent work outside agriculture. There are also concerns around contract farming, which, when poorly regulated, can increase the risks and reduce the revenues for the contract farmers (Kirsten, 2009).Low wages: Around half a billion women and men are employed as agricultural workers. The share of women waged agricultural workers has been rising in all regions, accounting for 20-30 percent of total agricultural wage employment (Hurst, 2007). Especially in developing countries, a large part of wageworkers are employed on a seasonal or casual basis: they do not receive any employment benefits and have long periods (often one-third of a year) of joblessness. Wages are often relatively low and working conditions are unsafe.Migrant labour (temporary workers who are not settled permanently in a population): In many countries, both developed and developing, migrant workers are common among agricultural workers, including migrants who lack legal status. This makes the sector especially vulnerable to abuse, including poor working conditions, unfair wages, and limited access to social services. In some regions such as California, the proportion of migrant agricultural workers is close to 90 percent. In the Republic of Korea, the number of migrant workers in the livestock agro-industry is higher than the numbers found in construction or the fisheries sector. Migrant agricultural labour has for long been associated with poor working conditions (Svensson et al., 2013).In the United States, the share of hired crop farmworkers who were born in the United States of America or Puerto Rico fell from about 40 percent in 1989-91 to a low of about 18 percent in 1998-2000, while the share born in Mexico rose from 54 percent to 79 percent over the same period. Since 2000, the United States of America and Puerto Rican share has climbed again to about 29 percent while the Mexican share has fallen to about 68 percent. The share from Central America and other regions has never exceeded 6 percent. 37Occupational hazards: Participation in livestock value chains is associated with a relatively high level of occupational health hazards, especially traumatic injuries and infections. Farm machinery, livestock-related injuries and falls are reported to be the main causes of occupational injuries on farms (Douphrate et al., 2009). For example, during a five-year period, 20 percent of Finnish farmers suffered injuries and 2 percent infections severe enough to report to a doctor (Karttunen and Rautiainen, 2013). Slaughterhouse and packing plant workers are exposed to high levels of occupational risk, suffering elevated rates of injury, with a high prevalence of mental disorders (Hutz et al., 2013). In the United Kingdom in 2014, food manufacture had a rate of reported injury more than twice that of manufacturing as a whole (HSE, 2014).Market concentration: Competition and downward pressure on producer prices can lead to a reduction in farm-sourced incomes and an increase in debt, a situation often encountered in the industrial livestock sector (Zijlstra et al., 2012). As a consequence, in the absence of support or diversification, larger farms tend to survive, while smaller farms cannot structurally compete in domestic or international markets, leading to further concentration in the sector. This tendency is similar to that experienced in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, with implications that highlight the potential conflict between increasing productive efficiency, low prices for consumers, the difficulty to provide decent income, employment and livelihood, and the devitalization and depopulation in rural areas, as well as the externalization of significant environmental costs.Price signals do not always guide optimal production and investment decisions in intensive livestock systems, and thus do not lead to positive FSN outcomes. Price support policies, which are common for many livestock commodities across both developed and developing countries, distort price signals to producers and consumers. Farmers compete for remunerative farm-gate prices while consumers seek low prices and access to quality food. Food processors, traders and retailers hope to balance those opposing interests with the objective of maximizing profit, which can translate either in low or high pricing strategies, depending on the context and the relative market power of the actors. In the food supply chain, processors and retailers often have sufficient market power to drive prices down, which can have positive effects on access to food but at the same time can undermine the profitability of livestock enterprises, and set up vicious circles of competition among livestock farmers, who have relatively little bargaining power in the supply chain.The concentration of excessive power by large corporations in the agri-food chain over livestock suppliers and consumers gives rise to the concern that the distribution of value added within the food supply chain is unfair (HLPE, 2013a). There is considerable debate on what mechanisms might address these concerns in the organization of food systems and food chains. Proposals include establishing regulatory and anti-trust frameworks, encouraging collective organization of livestock producers, and promoting greater transparency and information, so that the value added generated along the food chain can fairly remunerate labour, farmers and rural areas (HLPE, 2013a).Feed and energy dependence: Specialized, intensive livestock farming, in particular intensive pig, poultry and dairy production, are dependent on feedstuffs purchased from specialized crop farms, often via imports. This can trigger remote environmental impacts where feed is produced, such as deforestation, soil and water degradation, and loss of biodiversity. It also exposes livestock operations to international grain trade and energy price risks and volatility. The volatility of prices of feed and energy can affect the profitability of livestock operations, hindering optimal investment decisions.There is a broad consensus that while the livestock sector generates very many health, livelihood, economic and environmental benefits, it also contributes to many nutrition, health, social and environmental challenges.This chapter has presented some of the challenges that the livestock sector has to address. These challenges can be either global or specific to farming systems, and can cover different dimensions of sustainability (see Table 2).Progress towards SAD for FSN will require the elaboration of comprehensive pathways at different levels to address these challenges simultaneously, while recognizing the important differences among farming systems so as to reduce unintended consequences. Chapter 4 proposes a common approach to elaborate those pathways, and then suggests possible pathways for each of the four livestock systems in turn.Around 600 million persons mainly in south and south east Asia, and AfricaAround 30 million small farmers in developed countriesFood-borne diseasesAgeing workforce and exodus of young peopleClimate change;Land degradation;Nearly 200 million pastoralistsWater scarcityHundreds of thousands of farmers in Latin America, parts of United States of America, Australia, and southern AfricaContribution to NCDDeforestation;Exposure to world price volatilityAround 2 million intensive dairy farmers in United States of America, Brazil, Europe, New Zealand Several million intensive pig, poultry and beef/sheep feedlot farms, mainly in BRICs and high-income countriesBold italics indicates highest priority; NCD = Non Communicable Diseases; BRIC = Brazil, Russian Federation, India, ChinaDrawing on the trends in agriculture and the challenges for SAD identified in the previous chapters, with regard to livestock systems, reviewed above, this final chapter is focused on action: what should states, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), the private sector, civil society organizations and other stakeholders in the food systems do to improve the sustainability of agricultural production to ensure food security and nutrition for all?The chapter suggests a common, three-tier approach to elaborate pathways towards SAD for FSN: first, looking at the operational principles for pathways and the tools for solutions on the ground; second, looking at the enabling environment; and third looking at farm practices of the different livestock farming systems already identified, namely: smallholder mixed farming, pastoral, commercial grazing and intensive livestock systems.Pathways to SAD need to address multiple challenges simultaneously, taking the benefits that ASF has to offer, respecting the diverse cultures in which livestock systems play a central role, and yet acknowledging the unsustainability of important aspects of modern livestock systems and thus the need for change. The pathways are illustrated throughout the chapter with selected case studies.Pathways combine technical actions, investments and enabling policy instruments. They are context, scale-and time-period specific. They are pursued and supported by various actors at different scales, all undertaken with the aim of advancing the goal of SAD for FSN.However, the common approach in eight steps described below (and illustrated in Figure 8) can frame processes to identify these pathways and design national SAD strategies:Common approach to elaborate pathways towards SAD for FSN 1. Describe the current situation of the specific farming system in a specific context (for example at country level).Agree on the set of long-term FSN goals and measurable targets at national level, in line with the SDGs.Identify the challenges to be addressed to move towards SAD for FSN.Define a set of operational priorities among these challenges.Identify the possible set of solutions available that can be mobilized by stakeholders, both in specific farming systems and those that are cross-cutting.Define the specific responses/solutions and technical packages that are best suited to address the priorities of the given context. Acknowledging the scope for both synergies and trade-offs, these responses should address three criteria: improve resource efficiency, strengthen resilience, and secure social equity and responsibility.Set in place an appropriate environment for implementation, including policies, laws and international-level arrangements for agriculture, food security and trade, to complement and enable the choice of priority actions at the farm level and along the food chain. This environment comprises choices to be made in three main domains: (i) governance options including the institutional architecture at the appropriate level; 38 (ii) degree of diversification and integration of systems from the farm to the global level in terms of co-existence of different farm types within the overall food system; and (iii) the role and orientation of markets and trade, including preferences for where investment should be directed.Set in place methods to monitor and evaluate progress to reinforce positive reactions and responses, to allow the identification of constraints that emerge over time, and to allow for dynamic and iterative adjustments if progress falls short of moving towards the desired goal. The imperative of achieving food security and better nutrition is widely accepted and reinforced by the adoption of the SDGs in 2015. Nonetheless, the multiplicity of entry points, perspectives and objectives for the realization of these complex goals has led to the coexistence of differing narratives and evaluations of the state of existing food systems and, most importantly, different recommendations on the directions required to improve sustainability and the policy instruments needed to achieve FSN.One of the most contested debates over pathways to SAD is that between the \"market orientation\" versus the \"food sovereignty\" narratives.The market-oriented narrative focuses strongly on economic growth and income generation as the basis for food security, relying on economic access to food through purchasing power and on open and deregulated domestic and international agricultural markets to ensure efficiency and competition. In this narrative, market incentives drive the development of productivity-enhancing technologies. Over time, the narrative has progressively adapted methodologies to account for the environmental impacts of agricultural production (\"internalizing the externalities\") with the objective of \"sustainable intensification\". From a market-oriented perspective, it includes the promotion of market-based instruments such as pollution charges, remuneration for ecosystem provision, better pricing of scarce natural resources, legal frameworks to protect private ownership and tenure of natural resources (especially land and water), environmental legislation, and targeted interventions to address social concerns associated with agricultural development.Overarching objectiveCollective and institutional actions In contrast, the \"food sovereignty\" narrative focuses on the \"right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems\" (Nyéléni Declaration, 2007). This narrative emphasizes the need for a \"practical method for building food sovereignty at farm scale\" (Shattuck et al., 2015). Pathways to food sovereignty argue for more transformative changes in the structure, production methods and power relationships embedded in industrialized food systems, and promote \"localized\", just and responsible food production, distribution and consumption in rural and urban contexts (Desmarais et al., 2010;Pimbert, 2009;Desmarais et al., 2010).The debate between market-oriented and food sovereignty advocates reveals starkly different perspectives on pathways to sustainable development (and is just one illustration of the differences that exist). This report acknowledges the importance of these differences, and the many \"shades of grey\" that exist among the narratives as well. It seeks to describe pathways for actors in food systems that acknowledge that decisions about public policies, technologies, private investment and regulation are embedded in assumptions about how food systems work and how they are evolving in the face of different pressures, including ecological, cultural and economic developments. There are rarely perfect solutions but actors in the food systems should make decisions based on an enhanced understanding of the demands of SAD and the obligation to realize FSN for all.Solution-oriented pathways towards SAD can be defined according to their compatibility with three broad principles: improve resource efficiency, strengthen resilience and secure social equity/responsibility. The reasons for choosing these criteria is that they seem better suited to concretely outline development options than using the conventional three dimensions of sustainability. They have the potential to better identify win-wins (and trade-offs) in terms of those solutions contributing to positive economic, social and environmental outcomes. This section lists the main sets of responses with regard to the three criteria of resource efficiency, resilience and social equity/responsibility. In some cases, a solution pertaining to one criterion, such as resource efficiency, can also improve resilience and social equity/responsibility. For instance, there is some evidence that efficiency and resilience to climate change can go together, according to case studies reported in a FAO-OECD workshop (FAO/OECD, 2012).A particular focus in recent years has been an examination of the various approaches to improve agricultural resource efficiency and to strengthen resilience to climate change, animal diseases and price volatility that, in turn, can facilitate investment and productive efficiency. This synergy is further developed in the next section. This reinforces the importance of acknowledging the interlinkages among the three criteria and the need to adopt an integrated approach.Many of the challenges identified in Chapter 3economic, environmental and socialcall for a better use of resources, to increase economic returns, reduce negative environmental impacts and improve the social situation of smallholders, pastoralists and family farmers who have a limited resource base or who face exclusion for social, cultural or political reasons.With respect to resource efficiency, the potential exists to narrow the yield gap between the highest and lowest agricultural performers in a region and thus increase agricultural production, including livestock and the production of animal feed. This can be achieved through the transfer and adoption of existing practices and technologies as well as the development of new technologies and increasing the participation of stakeholders. Narrowing the yield gap has the potential to improve diets, nutritional status and the health of poor and vulnerable people, as well as to enhance their economic well-being.Three questions then arise: first, which ways and means are available for farmers to adopt appropriate technologies and approaches to improving yields and ensuring decent livelihoods within their specific contexts; second, how do the ways and means affect (positively or negatively) livestock's environmental footprint (Revell, 2015); and third, which policy measures and actions can most effectively reduce those environmental externalities? A recent OECD report (2016) examined the role of policy in improving resource efficiency.Sumberg (2012) notes that several major analytical studies, including the InterAcademy Council's 2004 report, have drawn on yield-gap analysis as a framing device for agricultural policy prescriptions. Focusing on yield gaps is seen as a way to make lasting agricultural productivity improvements in parts of the world where it could make the biggest difference to livelihoods and FSN (Sumberg, 2012;InterAcademy Council, 2004;IAASTD, 2009;Foresight, 2011). Sumberg outlines a range of methodologies used by analysts to estimate the gap between potential and actual crop yield and explores the relative importance of factors and inputs that explain the potential and actual differences.In Colombia, arable lands are estimated to cover 54 060 km 2 , and cattle occupy 80 percent of the agricultural area. Extensive grazing has caused soil degradation and deforestation and, in dry areas, has hastened desertification. Moreover, with an equivalent 0.62 livestock unit per hectare (Vera, 2006), cattle ranching has traditionally relied on extensive systems, with few animals per hectare raised on grass. While it has a range of benefits, this type of cattle ranching provides limited feed quality. It also often suffers from challenges during seasonal extremes of temperature and drought, due to limited shade, poor soil quality and access to water. Silvo-pastoral systems (SPS) have been proposed to increase the efficiency of cattle ranching while reducing its environmental burdens. Intensive silvo-pastoral systems (iSPS) are a type of SPS that combine high-density cultivation of fodder shrubs (4 000 to 40 000 plants per ha) with: (i) improved tropical grasses; and (ii) trees species or palms at densities of 100-600 trees per ha. These systems are managed under rotational grazing with occupation periods of 12 to 24 hours and 40 to 50 day resting periods, including ad libitum provision of water in each paddock (Calle et al., 2012). iSPS have the potential to deliver much more feed of higher quality from the land. The additional plant matter, plus root density, and biodegradable material can increase soil quality and water retention, as well as increasing carbon content in the soil (Chará et al., 2015). By using animal breeds well adapted to tropical environments, the iSPS have the potential to achieve high levels of production from local feed sources in pasture-based environments. This maintains good health, natural behaviour and ease of animal management (WAP, Agri-benchmark, CIPAV FEDEGAN, 2014). Several studies in Latin America have demonstrated scientifically evidenced benefits of iSPS for productivity, soil quality, GHG mitigation and animal welfare, while boosting rural economies and livelihoods. A study carried out in three pioneer farms in establishing iSPS showed that both feed production and profit increased when the systems were established: La Luisa, a beef finishing farm in the Cesar valley with four groups of beef animals and a total of 500 cattle on the farm; Petequí, a dairy farm in the Cauca valley with around 70 crossbred dairy animals; and El Hatico, a dairy farm in the Cauca valley, rearing Lucerna breed animals. The herd is divided into five groups ranging from pre-parturition cows, high-, medium-and low-lactation cows. The results of implemented measures showed that iSPS are:i. More productive and profitable than extensive cattle ranching systems. Their success is based on good management, extension and access to capital that builds farmers' long-term capacity to deliver efficient and increasingly productive beef and dairy production. ii. Productivity that goes hand-in-hand with animal welfare. iii. Responsible investment in sustainable environmental management, with potential climate mitigation benefits. The study provided evidence for the ability of iSPS to create \"triple-win\" solutions for sustainable livestock production: productivity and profitability gains; environmental improvements; and animal welfare benefits. The knowledge developed in these farms is used by the project Colombia Mainstreaming Biodiversity into Sustainable Cattle Ranching led by FEDEGAN-FNG in partnership with CIPAV research institute, The Nature Conservancy and Fondo Acción. The project is administered by the World Bank with funding from the Global Environment Facility and the United Kingdom's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and aims at establishing 10 000 ha of iSPS and 40 000 more of other SPS in the country. As iSPS are management-intensive, capacity building via extension and advisory services is a key component of successful delivery. Targeted investment early in establishment of the silvo-pastoral system, and an effective capacity building programme, tailoring knowledge development to individual farmers' needs, can provide increased potential for success. The benefits for productivity and profitability from such investment are clear and this is an area where international and local policy mechanisms, donors and governments can play a crucial role.In Meru district, Kenya, Farm Africa developed a model to improve smallholder goat enterprises (mostly managed by women) and assist them to develop local and regional goat milk markets. The model is suitable for mixed-farming smallholders with up to 2 ha, at least 500 mm/annum rainfall and that grow a variety of crops (Farm Africa, 2007). It includes the establishment of intensive dairy goat enterprises with housed goats, on-farm fodder development and conservation, crossbreeding of local goats with an improver dairy breed, and mapping out market opportunities and developing linkages to viable ones. In the model, farmer groups, community-based private providers and local NGOs manage all the necessary support services and inputs. For example, replacement bucks are bred locally at groupmanaged breeding units. In the scaled up intervention, 120 000 goat milk enterprises were targeted for assistance over ten years. The intervention has increased mean lactation length from 70 days in local goats to 193 days in crossbred goats, and milk yields from an average of 14 litres to 536 litres per annum. The intervention would increase net annual income from USD55 to USD424 per family, improve child, maternal and invalid persons' milk intake and hence address the widespread vitamin A deficiency among the poorest families.Building on the notion of yield gaps and the scope for sustainable productivity growth, the concept of \"sustainable intensification\" has gained traction as an approach to tackling the conflicting challenges of producing more food to meet expected demand, while protecting the environment from the consequences of greater agricultural production in the face of increasing competition for natural resources. The broad logic of the approach is that if more food is to be produced to meet burgeoning demand in the face of evident stresses and constraints in the natural asset base, productivity has to be lifted while improving environmental performance. Boxes 11 and 12 show examples of intensification in silvo-pastoral systems in Colombia and in goat production in Kenya. \"Sustainable intensification\" has been criticized. One major area of concern is the extent to which this approach fails to adequately address the need to reverse biodiversity loss. This concern is an aspect of the debate often referred to as \"land sharing or land sparing\". Briefly, land sharing and land sparing sit at either end of a continuum. According to Acton (2014), \"a land sparing system involves large, separate areas of sustainably intensified agriculture and wilderness, whereas land sharing involves a patchwork of low-intensity agriculture incorporating natural features such as ponds and hedgerows, rather than keeping agriculture and wilderness separate\". According to some experts, \"sustainable intensification\" is defined too weakly and narrowly, and lacks engagement with the core principle of sustainability, including equitable distribution and individual empowerment (Loos et al., 2014). It is also criticized for its ambiguity over the role of technologies that rely on genetic modification, its lack of focus on social and community cohesion and equity objectives, including the importance of a just allocation of resources, and the extent to which it supports improved animal care. Petersen and Snapp (2015) consider that differences have arisen over the merits of the sustainable intensification concept in part because of differences about the extent to which a profound shift is needed in agricultural production practices. For some, the concept proposes only marginal changes to a system that continues to increase food production without looking at other aspects of the FSN challenge. For others, \"sustainable intensification\" calls for a more dramatic change to agricultural systems that are responsible for causing significant environmental damage and that leave billions of people mal-or undernourished.Box 13 Embracing sustainable intensification Petersen and Snapp (2015) note this concept has been embraced especially in international agricultural development by the work of FAO, the CGIAR system, the United Kingdom's Royal Society, government agencies such as USAID and non-government actors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. \"Sustainable intensification\" is also being mainstreamed into thinking in the EU in the context of agricultural policy reform (European Commission, 2015). A recent RISE report provided one definition of sustainable intensificationonly focusing on land -as a \"means simultaneously improving the productivity and environmental management of agricultural land\" (RISE Foundation, 2014). In a practical sense, therefore, the concept is guiding a significant body of research on agricultural development and food security and has been adopted in the design of programme interventions in many countries, including in the developed world. Godfray (2015) argues that sustainable intensification is essentially \"sustainable increases in productivity from existing agricultural land in response to price signals\". He observes that the word \"intensification\" is off-putting for some who associate it intrinsically with high-input industrial farming.Box 13 provides examples of organizations that have embraced sustainable intensification. Their support is based on their understanding that encouraging higher productivity is a powerful way to achieve and sustain higher living standards in the long run. Income transfers (such as social payments or production subsidies) do not build the economic foundation to support broadly-based increases in welfare over time; improved productivity does. Sustainable intensification was in fact initially inspired by the collaboration of academic researchers and smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s, who together sought to increase agricultural yields while improving social and environmental outcomes (Pretty, 2007).Improving efficiency of resource use will be essential to reduce environmental impacts, including GHG emissions. The overall global environmental footprint of the livestock sector is set to increase with the expected increase in production to meet expected demand; this growth will increase the global footprint even if the intensity of resource use per unit of output decreases (Revell, 2015). Mitigation of the livestock sector's GHG emissions could be achieved by any one or more of the following: a reduction in production and consumption, an increase in productivity, a shift in the structure of production towards less emission-intensive livestock species, or technological innovation. Many technical options to reduce emissions exist, including: better management of feed (see below), energy conservation, careful use of grazing land and recycling of manure; no or minimum till cropping; better animal health; and improvements in genetics and animal husbandry practices. These emissions could be reduced by between 18 and 30 percent if all producers in a given system, region and climate, adopted appropriate versions of the practices now applied by the 10 to 25 percent of producers with the lowest emissions intensity in the same system (FAO, 2013a). Carbon sequestration in soil and biomass (by restoring degraded soils, better adjusting stocking density and using legumes) also has an important potential for mitigating net emissions from the livestock sector (Henderson et al., 2015;IPCC, 2014).Feed is a key limiting factor and often the most expensive input in livestock production. In preindustrial times, livestock keeping was mainly opportunistic, making use of resources unfit for direct human use, using grazing, crop residues and waste products. With growing affluence and the ability to produce crop surpluses, livestock production has become demand-driven, a process that is still evolving. In the context of growing resource scarcities, it can be argued that livestock need to revert to more resource-driven use, in particular as a converter of by-products and agro-industrial and food waste. With more standardization of these waste products, their use can be combined with modern additives, such as enzymes and synthetic amino acids.In grassland systems, better management of rangeland and increased cut-and-carry and pasture resources, together with improved feed utilization of crop residues and other agricultural by-products, all have considerable underexploited potential to improve animal productivity, while also contributing to the resilience of agro-ecosystems and environmental sustainability (Smith et al., 2013). Plant breeding technologies can be used to develop faster growing feed varieties as well as dual-purpose varieties with traits such as drought tolerance, pest resistance or tolerance, higher yields and increased nutritional value. A useful development, for example, would be in dual-purpose crops that produce both high grain yields and nutritionally rich residues for livestock.Technologies to improve management of genetic resources include artificial insemination (AI), which is widely used worldwide to introduce genetically superior male germplasm. Complementary technologies such as heat synchronization and semen sexing can improve the efficiency of AI but are mainly used in developed countries. Multiple ovulation and embryo transfer allow the production of multiple offspring from superior cows and is now a technique in commercial use. In addition, genetic markers can be used to breed livestock for important traits such as disease resistance, product quality and improved productivity. Whole genome sequencing allows the rapid identification and management of genetic defects that compromise health and welfare. It is possible to obtain targeted modifications of genes, using specific enzymes 39 in order to turn it off, turn it on and/or edit it, which paves the road for cost-effective options.Genomic selection is revolutionary. It allows scientists to predict the genetic value of an animal at birth using DNA array analysis that contains several tens of thousands of genetic markers. It then allows increasing genetic progress by using bulls that are very young but that have undergone testing. The technology bypasses the need for progeny testing on offspring before selection and the renewal of females is improved since their genetic values are better known than having to rely on performance and pedigree.According to Peyraud et al. (2014), \"the closing of nutrient cycles can be envisaged on various scales, from an individual farm or small agricultural region to the regional or national level. These possibilities need to be explored from an economic, technical and social point of view\".Animal manure is an important source of plant nutrients in developing countries and in organic farming worldwide. Many smallholders in Africa and Asia rely on manure as their only source of fertilizer. The total amounts of nutrients (nitrogen [N], phosphorus [P] and potassium [K]) in livestock excreta are at least as large as the total amounts of N, P and K in chemical fertilizers used annually (Menzi et al., 2010).When suitably managed, the manure from intensive agricultural production can be a significant source of nutrients for crop and forage production. In Switzerland, for example, the contribution of livestock manure to total agricultural fertilizer use is about 60 percent for N, 70 percent for P and over 90 percent for K (Menzi et al., 2010). However, poor manure management is a common problem and has serious negative effects on the environment. In many parts of the world, environmentally sound manure management is hindered by the treatment of manure as a waste rather than a nutrient and energy source and by the lack of environmental legislation and its enforcement. Improved environmental performance of intensive livestock production systems requires an integrated wholefarming systems approach, together with enforceable environmental legislation. Menzi et al. (2010), drawing from current trends, suggested that without a change in current practices, the projected increases in intensive livestock production would double the current environmental burden and contribute to large-scale ecosystem degradation.In intensive livestock systems that rely heavily on concentrates, technological advances have the potential to improve the use of by-products, make available novel food sources (including insects, see Box 14), remove contaminants from feed (such as mycotoxins) and increase the nutritional values of feeds.It is estimated that nearly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, representing 1.3 billion tonnes per year, with a lower proportion for meat and dairy products (FAO, 2011b). Governments, retailers and other actors in the food system are paying increased attention to reducing FLW to cut costs and improve the sustainability of food systems. A number of education campaigns aimed at consumers to reduce FLW in the household have also been launched.Insect rearing could be one of the ways to enhance food and feed security (FAO, 2013d). They grow and reproduce easily, have high feed conversion efficiency (since they are cold-blooded) and can be reared on bio-waste streams. One kg of insect biomass can be produced from on average 2 kg of feed biomass (Collavo et al., 2005). Although some studies have been conducted on evaluation of insects, insect larvae or insect meals as an ingredient in the diets of some animal species, this field is in infancy. The protein content of insects could range from 40 percent to 60 percent on a dry matter basis, with protein quality as good as muscle protein. These have been found to be good feed ingredients for poultry and pig diets. The studies have confirmed that palatability of these alternate feeds to animals is good and they can replace 25-100 percent of soymeal or fishmeal depending on the animal species.Source: Makkar et al. (2014). 39 Such as Cas9 (CRISPR associated protein 9), an endonuclease associated with Clustered Regularly Interspaced Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR).It has been estimated that reducing the food waste rate by half by 2050 would provide one-quarter of the gap between anticipated food demand and projected supply (Lipinski et al., 2013). The HLPE report on FLW in the context of sustainable food systems (HLPE, 2014a) analyses the impacts of FLW across different dimensions of sustainability and the main causes of FLW.Attention to losses and waste in the livestock sector can make a useful contribution to sustainable development, including by ensuring a more efficient use of natural resources, mitigation of GHG emissions and reducing other environmental damages. It can improve outcomes for FSN. There is also the potential to capture FLW for feed (most smallholder mixed farms rely heavily on reusing as much of the nutrition and energy produced on-farm as possible, using animal manure for fertilizer and household and crop residues for feed).However, it is important to avoid being too simplistic and promote an understanding of the likely effects of harnessing FLW for FSN: reducing FLW will have ripple effects in the food system, including reducing the demand for purchased food, which could put downward pressure on prices and incentives to produce and invest (Koester, 2015;Revell, 2015).Strengthening resilience to environmental, economic, financial and animal disease shocks can also improve resource efficiency.Agro-ecological practices can contribute to strengthened resilience. Though variously defined, agroecological approaches are gaining traction among parts of the scientific community, as well as in some developing and developed countries, and in some international agencies, including FAO and UNEP. FAO hosted a series of regional conferences on agro-ecology following a two-day international symposium in Rome in September 2014. A recent report produced by IPES-Food ( 2016) calls for a necessary shift from \"industrial agriculture\" to \"diversified agro-ecological systems\". The worldwide association of peasant organizations, La Via Campesina (LVC), has made agro-ecology a cornerstone of its advocacy and educational work.Agro-ecology has been articulated as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge involving a set of concepts and principles oriented towards the design and management of sustainable ecosystems (Altieri, 1995). It takes a holistic approach and has become closely, though not systematically, linked to the food sovereignty and rights frameworks, emphasizing the fundamental role of ecosystems in maintaining sustainable agriculture in the long run as well as the importance of connecting rural communities to local food chains.Agro-ecology starts from a strong critique of the negative consequences of industrial agriculture for the environment and human health, including the degradation of land, the loss of plant and animal species diversity, the increasing susceptibility of crops and animals to diseases, the damage caused by pesticides on soil, water and human health, the strong dependency of industrial food systems on fossil fuels and the loss of livelihoods associated with industrial agricultural systems (Wibbelman et al., 2013). Agro-ecology is oriented towards the social and ecological management of agro-ecosystems based on the principles of sustainability, integrity, productivity, equity and stability (Conway, 1987;Marten, 1988). According to Gliessman (1997), the term agro-ecology arose in the 1930s, coined by researchers who sought to apply ecology to crop production methods. Subsequently, various researchers who sought to establish connections between ecology and agronomy picked up the term (Wezel and Soldat, 2009;Wezel et al., 2009;Gliessman, 1997). Since the 1970s, a conceptual framework and methodological tools for agro-ecology have been developed, drawing on knowledge from farmers, pastoralists, and indigenous people in different environmental contexts (Altieri, 1987;Gliessman, 1997;Hetch, 2002).Drawing on Altieri (1995) and Gliessman (2014), de Schutter (2010) describes agro-ecology as both a science and a set of practices. \"Core principles of agro-ecology include recycling nutrients and energy on the farm, rather than introducing external inputs; integrating crops and livestock; diversifying species and genetic resources in agro-ecosystems over time and space; and focusing on interactions and productivity across the agricultural system rather than individual species. Agro-ecology is highly knowledge intensive, based on techniques that are not delivered top down but developed on the basis of farmers' knowledge and experimentation.\" According to Francis et al. (2003), agro-ecology encompasses \"the integrated study of the ecology of the agro-food system as a whole, including their ecological, economic and social dimensions\". The social and economic sustainability of agro-ecosystems also depends on the integration of concerns such as population density, gender dynamics, labour availability, human health, social organization, prices and markets, knowledge and technology.Agro-ecology does not just introduce new substance to the practice of agriculture; it introduces new methodologies and a broad definition of knowledge as well. Agro-ecological research emphasizes the importance of the interfaces between disciplines and the integration of rapidly changing knowledge in many fields (Caron et al., 2014). It is rooted in participatory approaches, and many agro-ecologists see the strengthening of local organizations and of farmer and local community control over the means and processes of production and the organization and dynamics of food systems at different scales as a core component of the science (Anderson et al., 2015).From a scientific and technical perspective, agro-ecology applies ecological concepts and principles to farming systems (Tittonell, 2014), focusing on the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment, to foster SAD in order to ensure FSN for all, now and in the future. Today's more transformative visions of agro-ecology integrate transdisciplinary knowledge, farmers' practices and social movements while recognizing their mutual dependence (Anderson et al., 2015;Nyéleni, 2015).Developments of agro-ecology in selected countries are shown in Box 15.The concept of agro-ecology invites an interaction among various forms of knowledge, through a transdisciplinary, participatory and action-oriented approach (Mendez et al., 2015), that engages both scientists and practitioners, with special attention to traditional and local knowledge.An important line of innovation in agricultural research concerns the application of systemic approaches to farming systems evaluation and management at different levels, in an effort to link agriculture, conservation and FSN. This broad category of research includes efforts related to: the conservation and management of biodiversity in agro-ecosystems; participatory plant and animal breeding applied to the development of agro-ecological systems; the ecological intensification of livestock systems; development and application of sustainability indicators and the development of approaches linking biodiversity and nutrition in the construction of local food systems.Animal health is a clear area where resilience and efficiency are linked. Technical interventions to improve animal health contribute to increasing productivity. A number of promising innovations exist. For example, technologies that make vaccines heat-stable eliminate the need for a cold storage chain, which improves delivery and increases the uptake of existing vaccines in countries where cold storage chains are expensive or non-existent. Multiple-dose vaccines are another innovation that reduces the cost and increases the protection offered by vaccines.Intensive systems rely on vaccines to keep animals healthy when they are raised in high-density facilities such as CAFOs, where proximity and genetic similarity create a constant risk for widespread disease outbreaks. However, infectious diseases are still responsible for substantial losses as well as the contamination of livestock products with disease-bearing bacteria such as salmonella. New vaccines could further limit these costs and risks. Recombinant vaccines offer advantages over traditional vaccines in specificity, stability and safety.In France, in the bill for the future of agriculture, food and forestry (law No. 2014-1170 of 13 October 2014), agro-ecology is considered as a way to implement the transition towards agricultural practices that ensures both a better environmental and a better economic performance of the agriculture sector. The bill includes an action plan to implement this transformation of agriculture.In Brazil, the National Policy of Agroecology and Organic Production has been implemented since 2012, with the participation of producers, government and civil society organizations. The promotion of food sovereignty and FSN, the sustainable use of natural resources, the structuring of sustainable and equitable consumption and distribution systems, the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, gender equity and the involvement of rural youth in agro-ecology and organic production are all incorporated as policy goals under the policy. Goals, strategies and investments in different policy areas (including production, knowledge and markets) are monitored through the National Plans of Agroecology and Organic Production, which are renewed every four years.Vaccination can be more widely employed in disease control if it is possible to distinguish vaccinated from infected animals. New Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals (DIVA) vaccines allow this, which means movement restrictions, necessary for infected animals, can be loosened for vaccinated animals. Disease control is also facilitated by diagnostics. Molecular diagnostics are already widely used in some countries, and further innovations can increase their coverage and decrease their cost. The development of farm-level diagnostics, such as in-line milk testers, can also lead to more timely diagnosis of diseases and more effective treatments for sick animals. Currently, animal therapeutics, especially antimicrobials, are often used prophylactically and with inadequate regulation, and are widely blamed for an increase in resistance.Adapt to climate change Livestock in itself can be a way to build resilience and adapt to changing conditions. It can be used as a diversification and a risk management strategy in case of crop failure.In some regions, changing systems from crop to mixed crop-livestock or to livestock systems will be a key adaptation strategy (Jones and Thornton, 2009).The adaptive capacity of livestock systems depend on multiple parameters, including choice of species and breeds, housing, especially for intensive systems, availability of alternative feed resources, the accessibility of animals (health/extension services), the type/efficiency of response to outbreaks (surveillance, compensation schemes, etc.) and the household wealth status (ICEM, 2013).Selection of livestock but also of feed crops and forages is a major component of building resilience to climate change. Many livestock breeds are already well adapted to high temperatures and harsh environments (FAO, 2016b). They need to be characterized and improved in structured breeding programmes (Madalena, 2008), targeting adaptive traits in high output and performance traits in locally adapted breeds.Systemic adaptation measures include grassland restoration or diversification in composition, agroforestry with fodder trees and legume shrubs to provide alternate feed resources, shade and retain water, or animal and feed mobility (FAO, 2016b).Breeding strategies and programmes for plants and animals need to be strengthened (FAO, 2015c). They will have to address multiple objectives: not only improve productivity, but also adapt to climate change and to a wide diversity of feeding resources and, more generally, of environmental, economic and social conditions. Especially for animal genetic resources, which are often more difficult to conserve ex-situ, there is a need to expand and diversify conservation programmes both in-situ and in gene banks; to recognize and protect traditional and indigenous knowledge; to facilitate creation and transfer of knowledge and technologies relative to the management of livestock genetic resources. Access to genetic resources, and to the related knowledge, should be facilitated, in particular for smallholders, marginalized populations and indigenous people. The development of institutional frameworks at different levels could help to reach those objectives.The term \"social equity-responsibility\" as understood in this report includes a wide range of social and ethical issues with varying priority across countries and contexts: income distribution, social protection, human rights, gender, tenure and property rights, social discrimination and marginalization. It includes the responsibility of all actors (individual, corporate, collective) to safeguard the environment, to protect human health and well-being, and improve animal welfare.Social equity/responsibility, including issues of cultural integrity, is one of the most wide-ranging, challenging and politically sensitive areas of sustainability, although often overlooked. These social and cultural issues are embedded in historical, legal and cultural traditions, and in the overarching notion of universal human rights.The norms and practices of social equity/responsibility, and the priorities for intervention, differ across countries and communities and over time. They form possibly the most diverse and context-specific of the categories of sustainability attributes. They include norms and practices that relate to issues as sensitive and as wide-ranging as access to land, seeds and other productive resources; the use of child labour; the division of labour by gender or social groups; and attitudes concerning the adoption of new technologies. These norms and practices can be enforcedand also undermined or changedby regulation and law, by community practice, by informal relationships, by religious institutions, and by political and economic power.In recent years, international organizations have worked to better define the notion of social responsibility through political guidelines. The CFS has elaborated Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (RAI), and the CFS Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT). 40 OECD and FAO, building on those CFS products and other existing international standards and principles, have just released this year a Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains (OECD/FAO, 2016) to help enterprises observe existing standards for responsible business conduct along agricultural supply chains.While it is important, it is also often difficult to evaluate progress towards social equity/responsibility in contributing to SAD in a measurable and comparative way. All actors in the food system must direct themselves to social equity/responsibility issues and to understanding the implications of agricultural development policies and programmes on social outcomes.The HLPE report, Social Protection for Food Security (2012), grounded in a human rights based approach, shows the powerful synergies between social protection and food security, especially for vulnerable people. It reviews a wide range of social protection instruments and calls for comprehensive social protection strategies at household, national and international levels.The HLPE report, Investing in Smallholder Agriculture for Food Security (2013a), also showed the particular importance of social protection programmes for smallholders farmers, which act as a safety net and are a key component in the Right to Food entitlement. They are part of the means of intervention to improve health and nutrition and also allow smallholders to invest more in productive activities with potentially better outcomes. These supports, properly designed and implemented, provide essential services to family farmers and reduce the de-capitalization process, from which it is often difficult to recover. Social protection programmes can contribute to appropriate risk management strategies that will also strengthen the resilience of smallholders and family farms.Agriculture is a sector in which a significant proportion of jobs remain informal. Even in the formal sector, progress is still needed to define working conditions and protect workers' rights through formal written contracts. In South Africa for instance, in 2014, while over 92 percent of workers with employment of a permanent nature and 80.8 percent of workers with employment of a limited duration have written employment contracts, only 46.4 of workers were entitled to paid vacation leave, and 35 percent to paid sick leave (Visser and Ferrer, 2015).Agriculture is one of the most hazardous sectors in both developing and developed countries.Increasing attention is being given to applying practical actions in agricultural and rural settings to reduce work-related accidents and diseases, improve living conditions and increase productivity.Reports from many countries have shown the feasibility and effectiveness of ergonomic innovations that have improved working and living conditions in agricultural and rural settings. Building on these good examples, the International Labour Organization published a manual presenting practical and concrete solutions for improvements in agricultural work and rural life from an ergonomics point of view (ILO, 2014).Agriculture, in many countries, is historically and traditionally, an under-regulated sector and one in which regulation enforcement is also difficult (FAO, 2013a). In South Africa, it was only after the adoption of the Labour Relation Act (LRA) in 1995 and of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) in 1997 that farmworkers became eligible for the same rights as other workers (Visser and Ferrer, 2015). Nonetheless legislation and law enforcement are major tools to improve the working conditions in the agriculture sector and Box 16 shows that some progress has been made in recent decades in some countries.On 19 April 2013, an Ordinance of the Brazilian Ministry of Labour created the Regulatory Standard NR36. 41 The regulatory standard was the result of a long negotiation with Brazilian workers' organizations. This new standard aims to improve workers' safety in slaughterhouses and the processing meat industry. It seeks to prevent and reduce occupational illnesses and accidents through detailed regulation covering workplace infrastructure, ergonomic and temporal organization of the work, environmental conditions in the workplace, risk management and prevention, and occupational health medical control.In Argentina, ILO conventions No. 155 and 187 (concerning Occupational Safety and Health) have been incorporated in national legislation in 2011 (by laws No. 26693 and 26694). More recently, the government has adopted the \"Occupational Safety and Health Argentine Strategy 2011-2015\".Concerning more specifically the poultry, cold meat and meat industry, Argentina established a special retirement regime adapted to the hard working conditions in this sector and, for the same reason, a specific Collective Agreement (No. 607/2010) covers the meat and poultry industry workers.Animal welfare is linked to economic development and the education, cultural practices, religious beliefs and knowledge of farmers. Improving animal welfare can contribute to both resilience and resource efficiency, as illustrated in Box 17.Innovations around improved housing and care of animals can improve productivity as well as human and animal welfare. For example, robotic milking is in use in thousands of farms and is thought to improve welfare by allowing the cow to choose when to be milked. Financial mechanisms for agricultural funding have begun to endorse the importance of animal welfare: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development included animal welfare (defined in relation to EU animal welfare legislation) in its lending standards in 2014, while the UN Committee on Food Security's Responsible Agricultural Investment Principles also highlight the importance of animal welfare. The World Bank/International Finance Corporation's Good Practice Note on Animal Welfare provides detailed recommendations (IFC, 2014).NGOs including World Animal Protection (WAP, 2014b) work closely with the industry to integrate animal welfare into livestock practices, lending their animal welfare expertise and working pragmatically to develop good welfare solutions and promote them within the wider international community.WAP has worked with major multinational producers to introduce humane slaughter methods in Brazil and China, training over 5 000 professionals to date. Partnerships between WAP and the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) have been recognized by the European Commission as enabling capacity building to meet European import standards. The reduction of production losses following humane slaughter has delivered benefits for the industry. In one Brazilian slaughter plant, a multinational processor was able to significantly reduce risk of injury and damage and to exceed its targets. In China, one of the largest-scale producers reduced production losses from 12 percent to 8 percent and fractures from 1.7 percent to 1.0 percent of animals, and reduced carcass loss from 0.5 kg to 0.2 kg per carcass. Improving animal welfare throughout production and slaughter has made good economic sense. In Uruguay, research showed that 48 percent of carcasses ended up with at least one lesion, with bruising leading to losses of 2 kg of meat per carcass. If extrapolated across the country, this equated to USD100 million annually, or 3 000 tonnes of meat. In a similar Brazilian study, better handling reduced carcass bruising from 20 percent to 1 percent (Appleby and Huertas, 2011). The biggest welfare wins can be achieved on farm, where animals spend most of their time. For example, moving from close confinement systems such as sow stalls (gestation crates) to group housing systems, and cage-free rather than battery cage layer hen production. Alongside legislative requirements in the EU, many large food companies now require commitments to phase in improved animal welfare in their supply chains, including major food service multinationals and producers.Choice of solutions from a wide range of competing concepts Solutions to contribute to SAD have been variously encapsulated in a range of approaches, some of which are reviewed above, including sustainable intensification, save and grow, climate-smart agriculture, biotechnologies, conservation agriculture, ecological intensification, agro-ecology and organic farming. They differ in their degree of prescription as to the technical orientation they entail (some of them are more focused on practical solutions). They all derive from the need for a shift towards more resource efficiency and care for natural resource use, and a greater reliance on natural processes for farming, such as plant, field and landscape level ecosystem processes. However, while some approaches take a narrow, farm-centred approach, others look at farming systems within a wider socio-economic-environmental context. This multiplicity of seemingly competing concepts can entail confusion and debate, for instance between sustainable intensification and agro-ecology. But in terms of practical action at the farm level, there might be considerable overlap among these approaches.The issue of the farm scale that is best suited to sustainable solutions is a recurring debate (HLPE, 2013a). Some argue that small-scale, mixed-farming systems using traditional practices and knowledge, strongly integrated with rural communities and respecting natural resource cycles (such as for nitrogen and carbon), are more sustainable in the long run. Others argue that sustainability is enhanced on large-scale farms, which benefit from economies of scale in their use of resources and are better able to harness the latest knowledge and technologies and to address environmental problems. For them, the viability of livelihoods on small-scale farms is precarious, especially in competition with larger farms in an open market system while efforts to cut costs on large-scale farms often target labour costs to the detriment of available employment (for example, with the adoption of fully automated milking or meat packing).This report argues that technologies for sustainable agriculture need to cover the whole spectrum of farming systems and be tailored to particular circumstances and contexts. According to an OECD study, \"All farming systems, from intensive conventional farming to organic farming, have the potential to be locally sustainable. Whether they are in practice depends on farmers adopting the appropriate technology and management practices in the specific agro-ecological environment within the right policy framework. There is no unique system that can be identified as sustainable, and no single path to sustainability…However, it is important to recognise that most sustainable farming systemseven extensive systemsrequire a high level of farmer skills and management to operate\" (OECD, 2001).Many of the actions require knowledge and financial resources by farmers, and infrastructure to protect against collective shocks (such as drought and flooding). However, the \"tipping points\" beyond which the ecosystems on which agriculture depends cannot recover, are not always clearly known.Nor are the long-term impacts of new technologies easy to predict. There are trade-offs, encapsulated in the debate on the application of the precautionary principle, in finding a balance between riskaverse caution and risk-taking, as well as striking a balance between maintaining farmers and rural communities and facilitating adjustment over time to contribute to FSN. But, in all cases, risk assessment and impact evaluation are necessary to better inform possible technological choices.Risks and benefits associated with technological developments presented in this section are controversial issues. Arguments in defense of a strong interpretation of the precautionary principle to technological innovations in agriculture and food processing relate to potential uncertainties and knowledge gaps with regard to the impacts of technological innovations, including genetic engineering, on ecosystems and human health. In this perspective, the possible hazardous effects of discrete technologies should be evaluated through the application of systemic approaches to risk assessment (weighing benefits and harm) in the context of the wide variability of ecosystems and social settings.Recent decades have seen a growth in ethical consumerism, especially in developed countries, whereby consumers are encouraged to use their purchasing habits to express their beliefs, values and preferences. In response to this, various initiatives have arisen to provide, advertise and sometimes certify ASF that meet given criteria. Such criteria include for instance: fair trade; locally produced; animal welfare friendly; organic; GMO-free; antibiotic free; bird friendly; or respectful of the deforestation moratorium. Most people would argue that the public should make informed choices about issues that are of concern to them. A challenge is that the proliferation of labels, many of them managed by the private sector, can confuse consumers and can have unwanted negative effects, including excluding smallholders from markets because they are unable to afford certification.As shown in Chapter 2, while there is still a long way to go to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, the world has substantially reduced the incidence of hunger over the last decades. That progress can largely be attributed to scientific and technological advances applied to agricultural and food production, including irrigation, hybrid seeds and the application of inorganic fertilizers, together with advances in medicine and sanitation. Proponents of biotechnology foods argue they are similarly placed to increase agricultural productivity, improve the nutritional quality of food, reduce environmental harm, rehabilitate degraded lands and reduce waste. A number of impact assessment studies of these technologies have been largely positive (Klümper and Qaim, 2014). At the same time, however, critics of biotechnologies cite concerns about currently unknown cumulative or long-term harmful effects, including the implications of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) \"escaping\" into the environment through cross-pollination and the unintentional transfer of allergens into new foods (Buiatti et al., 2013).The IAASTD ( 2009) concludedcontroversially in the view of some governmentsthat the biotechnologies now in commercial distribution are not designed to solve the problems faced by the majority of the world's farmers. The technologies are expensive, and linked to specific inputs that have to be purchased off-farm. The extensive use of private patents -and the companies' rigid enforcement of those patentsprecludes the possibility of collective learning and adaptation, unlike the experience with the green revolution technologies, which were developed in the public domain.Consumers may have a greater fear of novel technologies used in food value chains than most experts consider warranted by the actual health risk. These technologies include: the addition of chemicals in food, for example as preservatives; the use of GMOs; and the use of irradiation for food preservation. Risk perception is complex and driven only partly by factual evidence. Food technologies often involve \"fear factors\" that make them seem more worrisome than other much greater risksfor example, travelling by car (Slovic, 2010). The factors include distrust of large companies, dislike of \"unnatural\" processes and uncertainty over unfamiliar dangers. The tension between consumer and expert opinions and between food access, quality and preferred production methods are also areas where risk assessment and impact evaluation can help to inform the debate on sustainable agriculture. 42An enabling environment for SAD is crucial. This environment includes formal and informal governance and institutions, legal arrangements, infrastructure, research and development, and the respective roles assigned to markets, public policies and regulations. This complex environment varies hugely across countries, reflecting different histories, cultural norms and expectations for the future. The solutions and responses to move towards SAD involve not only policies and actions that are targeted to the agriculture sector, but also those that are cross-sectoral and economy-wide.Many studies have shown agricultural growth to be more effective than growth in other sectors for reducing extreme poverty (Christiaensen et al., 2011;Fan et al., 2007, Anderson et al., 2011).The WDR 2008 (IBRD/World Bank, 2007) observed the past neglect of the agriculture sector as a driver of growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. The WDR focused strongly on investing in agriculture to sustain economic growth and generate employment, including outside of agriculture, as a key driver to benefit the poor and ensure their access to adequate food. Given that most of the poor people live in rural areas, in particular in low-income countries, integrating agriculture and the food sector into rural development strategies is seen as an essential pre-condition for food security. The last food price crisis (2007)(2008) raised awareness of the importance of private and public investments in agriculture and in rural infrastructures to foster agricultural development.The HLPE (2013a), focusing on the specific roles of smallholder agriculture in achieving food security and sustainable development, explains why investment in agriculture should not neglect smallholder farming systems, which produce a significant part of the food consumed in developing countries and provide jobs to many rural poor.Two contrasting and overarching approaches to improve SAD for FSN are market orientation and food sovereignty.Orienting agricultural development and food policy towards markets is the approach reflected in much of the mainstream economic and scientific literature, in the policies and investments of international governmental organizations, and in the agricultural policies and development programmes of many governments.The WDR (IBRD/World Bank, 2007) recommended stimulating growth in poor rural communities by harnessing markets to lift productivity on farms and in associated rural enterprises. At the same time, the WDR report proposed a major role for governments as providers of support for public infrastructure, investors in human capital and environmental improvements, and providers of targeted social protection for the most vulnerable people. Anderson et al. (2011) undertook exhaustive research that showed a strong positive relationship at the national level between trade liberalization and income growth. The same research showed an even stronger relationship between trade liberalization and poverty reduction in developing countries. The research suggested that the benefits for developing countries in global trade liberalization would come from reducing domestic subsidies and border protection measures (such as tariffs), especially in developed countries. Such findings support the argument that access to food would be strengthened by reforms of export and import measures to further open markets. A study by several IGOs (FAO/OECD, 2014)which included contributions from the Asian Development Bank, IFAD, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and WTOfocused specifically on the links between growth and food security. That study found that \"food security is causally linked to economic growth and employment and the two-way linkages are mutually reinforcing\".Nonetheless, there is strong evidence that a good outcome for poverty and FSN requires policy measures to deal with externalities, market failures and to compensate the losers from liberalization, especially in the short term and for groups directly hurt by relative price changes (Ravallion and Datt, 1996;HLPE, 2011aHLPE, , 2012;;Fan, 2010). Trade liberalization does not necessarily result in national welfare increases, especially in very-low-income countries. It can have mixed impacts on poor households even when it leads over time to higher incomes and poverty reduction on average (World Bank, 2005). Other research points to the importance of taking account of the specific circumstances of countries in designing growth strategies and policy reforms (Hausmann et al., 2005). Most economic schools of thought that are favourable to market orientation nevertheless favour phased liberalization in agriculture to boost growth, employment and incomes. They suggest governments invest in complementary policy measures that are targeted closely to those who are most vulnerable to the changes. They also recommend public investment in research and extension, transport and market infrastructure, and access to credit at reasonable rates of interest. Social protection, education and health services targeted directly to the poor are all also important to support equitable distribution of any gains from trade.The contested policy arena that surrounds trade and FSN is not short of studies. Researchers have explored how various degrees of trade openness perform against various indicators of well-being, including FSN. Reviews of studies (e.g. FAO, 2006d;McCorriston et al., 2013) have shown mixed results as to the linkages among trade liberalization, economic growth and FSN. Out of 34 studies reviewed, 13 reported that trade liberalization and economic growth would improve food security, 10 that it would lead to FSN decline, and the remaining 11 reported mixed outcomes. The results depend very much on the nature and extent of trade liberalization, the socio-economic context, and the assumptions made by the researchers in the modelling exercises.Díaz-Bonilla (2015) points to the variety and complexity of the links between trade and FSN. His work shows the importance of the contextual and structural characteristics of national economies as well as the need to understand the global economy. A number of factors need to be understood to develop good policy, including land use, gender differences, concentration levels in product and input markets, and trade patterns. Promising policy responses include attention to opportunities for smallholders and family farms, and interventions to promote social equity, to protect rights to land and water, and to support the proper functioning of land, credit, input and product markets.While there is wide agreement that market liberalization alone will not suffice and that governments should also implement carefully designed, context-specific supporting measures for FSN, there are also different views about which policies will have the best results. Among the most controversial interventions are those that have a significant effect on prices, such as public procurement at administered (rather than market) prices. The difficulty of reaching agreement in the WTO negotiations is a reflection of the different positions among countries on whether and how trade rules should be adapted to allow for various support and protection measures that governments consider to be important for their national FSN strategies.Food sovereignty is a term first widely used by LVC, which defines itself as a movement of peasant and farmers organizations that rejects the orientation towards agricultural trade liberalization taken by government negotiators in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Uruguay Round (Wittman et al., 2010). Food sovereignty asserts the right of nations to control their food systems, including whether and how to engage in international markets (though very few food sovereignty advocates reject trade per se). LVC first attracted international attention to the term \"food sovereignty\" at the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996.An extensive academic literature on food sovereignty has developed since 1996, building on the ideas pioneered by LVC. The food sovereignty movement anchors its vision for the sustainable development of agriculture in an agro-ecological interdisciplinary approach; agro-ecology is \"now considered a twin pillar of food sovereignty … a practical method for building food sovereignty at farm scale\" (Shattuck et al., 2015). The food sovereignty movement has come to include a broad network of civil society organizations around the world, as well as local governments and some national governments that have enacted legislation embracing the principles of food sovereignty (Bernstein et al., 2009;Lambek et al., 2014).There are diverse views and continuing debates within the food sovereignty movement, which spans political activists, academics and practitioners who seek to apply a food sovereignty approach to sustainable agriculture in rural communities across the world. At its centre, food sovereignty is committed to radical change in the structures and power relationships embedded in current agri-food systems, including industrial methods of production. Food sovereignty favours localized food production and markets with short distribution chains, supports an ethics of responsible production and consumption, and promotes agro-ecological agricultural practices that draw from traditional knowledge and practices while not rejecting modern science. This vision for agro-ecology prefers to limit the use of externally purchased inputs and is critical of biotechnology-driven innovations, in particular the use of genetic modification.In contrast with the market-oriented framework, proponents of food sovereignty tend to be sceptical about the role of markets in driving SAD, especially international markets (Burnett and Murphy, 2014). They put less emphasis on the \"productivity revolution\" and the structural transformation described in Chapter 2 and envisage the retention or recovery of traditional farming structures. They also favour technologies that enhance ecologically-based productivity growth that evolve through participatory engagement between farmer networks and external experts, with the possibility of scaling up of results (Lee, 2013;Shattuck et al., 2015;Edelman et al., 2014;Bernstein, 2014;Wittman et al., 2010). While food sovereignty advocates see opportunities to increase production sustainably using agro-ecological practices, they favour techniques that make use of the abundant labour in many developing countries. They tend not to measure productivity on a per hectare output of a single crop basis but rather to look at the overall diverse productivity of a given area of land. Food sovereignty discourse emphasizes the need for policies and programmes that distribute food more fairly within and between countries and communities, as well as a transition to healthier diets with a lower environmental footprint and less food losses and waste. There is also a strong emphasis in food sovereignty writing on the social and cultural dimensions of sustainable development, including the rights of women and disadvantaged groups, the role of community organizations and more \"direct democracy and greater citizen participation in framing policies\" (Pimbert, 2009).Beyond those core concepts, there is a proliferation of definitions of food sovereignty. A founding member of LVC, Paul Nicholson, describes food sovereignty as the \"principal alternative presented against capitalism\" (Shattuck et al., 2015). Bernstein (2014) describes the movement's framing as a \"comprehensive attack on corporatized agriculture and its ecological consequences\". There are also challenges to food sovereignty. Recent food sovereignty thinking focuses on local or community rights to self-determination about what food is produced and how, potentially creating tensions with national authorities about which level of government should have the primary role and raising the challenge of how to settle differences among communities in a movement with no formal organizational structure (Agarwal, 2014;Patel, 2009). Others have raised questions about the practicality of achieving desired increases in food production through small-scale, labour-intensive and low-input agriculture and the claimed merits of \"the peasant way\" in the context of globalization and incorporation of agriculture into more industrial systems (Bernstein, 2014;Collier, 2008). Some note the need for food sovereignty to engage in debates on international trade regulation given the importance of trade for most small states, whether agricultural exporters, food importers, oras is the case of many LDCsboth at the same time (Burnett and Murphy, 2014).Diversity in agriculture is the result of the co-evolution, in time and space, of human societies and ecosystems (Ploeg and Ventura, 2014). The heterogeneity of farming systems reflects the diversity of social, economic and ecological responses to changing conditions in different geographical and political settings over time (Ploeg, 2010). In the past 50 years or so, however, there has been a strong trend towards the specialization of agricultural production systems. Since the 1900s, some 75 percent of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers worldwide have discarded their multiple local varieties and landraces for genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties. Seventy-five percent of the world's food is generated from only 12 plants and five animal species (FAO, 1999). Despite greater awareness of the risk that biodiversity loss poses today, the trend has not stopped. The proportion of the world's livestock breeds classified as being at risk of extinction increased from 15 percent to 17 percent between 2005 and 2014 (FAO, 2015c).The loss of biological diversity and the knowledge systems linked to agriculture based on multiple crops puts farming systems at increased risk of failure in a context of global environmental and economic changes, including climate change. It also undermines the potential to achieve diverse, nutritious diets worldwide. Diversification strategies are necessary to rebuild resilience in the face of this uncertainty and to ensure SAD for FSN for all.Diversifying production from farm-to system-levelIn 2013, at the global level, maize, wheat and rice, the three major crops, represented 40 percent of the total arable land (FAOSTAT). Yet the world has at least 12 650 edible plant species, about 7 000 of which having been used to a significant extent by humans at some point in time (Kahane et al., 2013). Several crops of great nutritional and economic importance, especially for smallholders, are on the decline and receive little attention from commercial plant breeders, including: cereals such as sorghum and millets; roots and tubers including cassava, yam and sweet potato; and pulses including cowpea, common bean, chickpea, pigeon pea, and groundnut. These are often referred to as \"orphan crops\". Breeding for orphan crops is lagging behind major crops although they are staple food crops in many low-income countries.Crop diversification can improve resilience and resource efficiency, yield stability and productivity. Diversified production, including with local varieties or multiple cropping at farm level, can also provide ecological and economic resilience. It constitutes a hedging strategy in the face of multiple risks, including the risk of crop failure and of uncertain prices. The instability created by climate change increases the importance of such resilience. Crop rotations and diversity on farm can be used to control weeds, pathogens and insect pests. Pulses in particular bring several benefits when introduced in crop rotations or in intercropping, such as increased soil fertility and nutrient cycling, due to their ability to fix nitrogen and free phosphorus in the soil. Optimum diversity may be obtained by integrating both crops and livestock in the same farming operation. Evidence from smallholder farm households in Indonesia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Malawi shows that diversifying production on smallholder farms significantly contributes to dietary quality and diversity, complementing the core strategy of improving small farmers' access to markets (Sibathu et al., 2015). Agricultural policies, and public support for farm investments and market development, should take these findings on the importance of production diversity into account.Integration of crop and livestock was the common practice for centuries until the mid-1900s when technology, government policy and economics pushed farms to become more specialized. Mixed crop and livestock operations have several advantages. First, growing row crops only on more level land, with pasture or forages on steeper slopes, will reduce soil erosion. Second, pasture and forage crops in rotation enhance soil quality and reduce erosion; livestock manure, in turn, contributes to soil fertility. Third, livestock can valorize crop residues and buffer the negative impacts of low rainfall periods by consuming crops that in \"plant only\" systems would have been considered crop failures. Finally, opportunistic systems can benefit from flexible sources of feed and, to a certain extent, buffer volatility. This can help cushion farmers against trade and price fluctuations and, in conjunction with cropping operations, can help make more efficient use of farm labour. 43 As it can be difficult for specialized crop farms to revert to more integrated, mixed systems, given the daily work constraints related to livestock, crop-livestock integration can also, in some regions, be considered and implemented at a broader landscape or territorial level.The practices actually adopted on farm will be primarily driven by the farm household's need for financial viability, as well as long-term survival and the need to comply with regulations and with behavioural norms. Farmers, however, often fail to take into account the effects of their farm practices for which there is no financial remuneration. This is true for many public goods, such as carbon sequestration in soils, or preserving habitats for wildlife, as well as for public bads, such as polluting watercourses or harming biodiversity, for which there is no penalty. These market failures compromise SAD.Many on-farm practices implicitly acknowledge the need to protect and conserve natural resources and ecosystems. Market-oriented approaches have proposed methodologies to create market-based instruments such as pollution charges, remuneration for ecosystem services provision, and better pricing of scarce natural resources to better internalize negative environmental externalities in agriculture. Other policy options to internalize externalities associated directly or indirectly (through land-use change and feed production) with livestock production include: implementing the \"polluter pays\" principle through taxes, charges and regulations; water pricing to encourage efficient water use (HLPE, 2015); payments to encourage biodiversity and carbon sequestration; and fines and controls to prevent deforestation. Current schemes, however, rarely account for all the environmental damage or benefits of livestock farming. Moreover, many of the natural resources targeted with these policies can be common pool resources, such as land and water, in particular for smallholders, indigenous peoples and pastoralists. Many of the policy options most widely considered assume private ownership; communal ownership also needs to be considered in policy design and implementation.Governments and experts are increasingly paying attention to the need for consistency among agriculture, nutrition and health policies. (FAO/WHO, 2014). This entails a reorientation of policy objectives in all three areas, as well as multidisciplinary research, institutional change and collaborative initiatives. Ultimately, the objective is to ensure compatibility between SAD on the production side and FSN on the demand side.There is almost universal agreementas shown by national dietary guidelines across many countries that the basis of a healthy diet is fruits, vegetables, grains (particularly whole grains) and legumes, in addition to some ASF. The livestock sector can contribute to these optimal dietary patterns by increasing the accessibility of nutrient-dense foods rich in high-quality proteins and a range of micronutrients such as iron, zinc and vitamins. Indeed, an accumulating body of research has shown that the addition of small amounts of dairy and meat, in particular, to the diets of preschool-aged children and pregnant women has improved the nutritional status of these vulnerable groups. But, as discussed in Chapter 3, ASF, and in particular processed meat, may also in some cases have some negative impacts on nutrition and health.These positive as well as negative health implications of dietary patterns highlight the challenge of promoting healthy diets both in the composition of food groups and the quantities of individual foods. Despite isolated areas of improvement, and in part probably because the advice given to consumers can be contradictory, there has been little overall progress in shifting \"Western-style\" diets to healthier alternatives or decisively reversing overweight trends (Roberto et al., 2015).In recent years much of the advice given by nutritionists has centred on adopting the so-called \"Mediterranean diet\" (Box 18), which is arguably better for health and for the environment. According to Willett et al. (1995), who proposed the first \"Mediterranean diet pyramid\" (MDP), the highly publicized MDP defines a model for healthy eating. Based on epidemiological evidence, the MDP is related to high life expectancy, low rates of coronary heart disease (Estruch et al., 2013) and of certain forms of cancers, as well as of other diet-related chronic diseases. It reflected the food habits of habitants of Crete and Southern Italy in the early 1960s described by Keys (1970). This diet is characterized by a basis of food from plant sources (fruits, vegetables, cereals, potatoes, beans, nuts, seeds), olive oil as the principal source of fat, some dairy products, low to moderate amounts of fish and poultry (including eggs), low and infrequent amounts of red meat, and wine consumed in low to moderate amounts, principally with meals. Soon after, and although different regions in the Mediterranean basin have their own specific diets, Trichopoulou and Lagiou (1997) proposed that these be considered as variants of a single entity, namely, the \"Mediterranean diet\". Much of the data gathered for this retrospective study described the evolution of food availability (kcal/capita) of countries around the southern (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt) and eastern (Israel, Lebanon, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey) edges of the Mediterranean. These \"food availability\" data serve as popular proxies for actual consumption at the national level 44 . The aggregated data provided in the synthesis report (Marty et al., 2015) of the INRA-PluriAgri study for the period 1961-2012 provide an approximate picture of the evolution of the diet in the region for that period.The two main trends noted over time in the diet are a radical change in the types of consumed oil, and a strong growth in the consumption of sugar products. Marty et al. (2015) noted that: \"These two developments in the average diet are largely responsible for the significant increase in noncommunicable chronic diseases and obesity in the region (Popkin et al., 2012), increase which is all the more worrying as nutritional deficiencies persist in the region (Fahed et al., 2012).\"In the early years of the study period, the highest consumption of oils was traditional and local: olive and cottonseed oils. These were replaced, in the 1970s, by palm oil, soya oil and sunflower oil, which are increasingly imported. Concerning sugar products, consumption almost doubled over the period 1961-2012, from 160 to 300 kcal/capita/day. The share of sugar products in plant food availability amounted, by the end of the period studied, to around 10 percent in all sub-regions of North Africa and the Middle East region.These various trends in dietary change are consistent with a \"Westernization\" of diets. However, the region still seems to follow, at least to date, a particular pathway of nutritional transition, by maintaining the strong characteristics of the Mediterranean diet: the share of plant products remains high (circa 90 percent on average), and cereals continue to play a leading role (wheat accounts for 40 to 50 percent of total food availability in kcal/capita/day). Another characteristic of the Mediterranean diet that has been important over the period is the high level of fruits and vegetables consumed. The share of animal products in food availability has remained almost constant, at around 10 percent on average (measured in kcal/capita/day). The main feature is the substantial increase in poultry meat consumption: its share in the animal food availability increased from 4 to nearly 20 percent on average in the region over the period. Overall, food availability has increased from 2 000 to 3 000 kcal/capita/day between 1961 and 2012.In summary, the North Africa-Middle East region has undergone a nutrition transition (increase of daily calories and increase in the share of oil and sugar in food availability), but the changing diet differs from the \"Western\" model by the very low growth of the share of animal products and the persistence of high levels of plant products, including cereals, fruits and vegetables.Since then the MDP has been adapted to the different nutritional and socio-economic contexts of the Mediterranean region, with updated recommendations considering the lifestyle, dietary, socio-cultural, environmental and health challenges that the current Mediterranean populations are facing (Bach-Faig et al., 2011). The Mediterranean diet has also been recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO (2010).In many rich and some emerging economies, as well as among some classes of poorer countries, food consumption is in excess of recommended levels. This focus on changing diets is driven by interests outside the farming system and is primarily focused on improving health. But changing diets, as well as efforts to reduce food losses and waste, has consequences throughout the agri-food chain.A number of organizations and experts have made the link between reduced consumption of ASF and smaller environmental footprints, and reduced natural resource use and GHG emissions (Revell, 2015;The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2015).Dutch researchers presented the public with their USD330 000 burger grown from in-vitro cattle stem cells in 2013. Since then production costs of the so-called schmeat have been cut to USD11 (Dorsey, 2015). A shift to inexpensive, acceptable meat substitutes would have profound implications for the livestock industry. However, given that the main driver in the increased demand for meat is projected to occur among the still very large populations who consume relatively little meat per person, the impact of reduced meat consumption among richer consumers, where demand is stagnant, is likely to be muted.Not all of the policy responses necessary to address the livestock sector challenges lie within the agrifood sector. Other important challenges include the need for better (and more equitable) economic outcomes, equitable access to resources, less income inequality, a well-functioning trade system, broad-based and effective social safety nets, investment in public infrastructure, improved educational outcomes and R&D. SAD also depends on effective environmental regulation, throughout the whole economy (not just in agriculture). There is also a difficult balance to be struck between attracting young people into viable and sustainable jobs and livelihoods in agriculture and providing young people with choices that allow those who want to move out of agriculture to take advantage of employment and income opportunities in other sectors.The feminization of agriculture (defined as a rise in the proportion of women in the total agricultural workforce) is an observed feature of the agrarian transition that moves workers from agriculture into industry and services, and from rural to urban areas.UN SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) includes the objective to \"End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere …and ensure women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life …and to undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources\". Besides the benefits for SAD, addressing women's empowerment also has nutrition benefits for young children. Smith and Haddad (2015) show that investments in women's education, increasing gender equality and increasing national food availabilities can be expected to have an impact on national child stunting rates even in the short run (over roughly five years), while investments in health environments and improving the dietary diversity of food available in countries have their impacts only over longer periods.Within pastoral and smallholder mixed farming systems, livestock play an important role in supporting women and in improving their financial situation, and women are heavily engaged in the sector. Particular species and types of livestock activity are more associated with women than men. For example, women often have a prominent role in managing poultry (FAO, 1998;Guèye, 2000;Tung, 2005) and dairy animals (Okali and Mims, 1998;Tangka et al., 2000) and in caring for animals that are housed and fed within the homestead. When tasks are divided, men are more likely to be involved in constructing housing for and herding grazing animals. Where women's mobility is constrained by social norms or the risk of violence, men will undertake the marketing of products. The influence of women is strong in the use of eggs, milk and poultry meat for home consumption and they often have control over marketing and the income from these products. Perhaps for this reason, poultry and small-scale dairy are popular investments for development projects aiming to improve the lot of rural women. In some countries women also dominate small-scale pig production.Successful realization of SAD depends on the processes by which knowledge is exchanged, policy priorities and approaches are decided, and the level at which decisions within the food system are taken, as well as how decisions are made and to whom actions are targeted. This section gathers the main approaches to improve institutions, including capacity-building initiatives and knowledge and research-oriented institutions, to strengthen governance for SAD.Food systems are shaped by the collective effects of thousands of decisions taken by many actors, some of whom are outside the food chain, and many of whom are not operating in the same geographical space. Engaging stakeholders in the process of developing policies and actions for SAD, learning from experience, communicating best practices, drawing on traditional knowledge and adapting policies and programmes to specific local contexts can all help support positive environmental and social outcomes. Reporting progress and relevant research findings in a transparent manner can encourage debate on further actions and appropriate fine-tuning of policies.As underlined by HLPE (2013a), cooperation in buying, processing and selling, exchange of new knowledge, skills, services and seeds, shared investment for equipment and machinery, are only a few of the many examples of the role that collective action can play to build capacities, promote the participation of smallholders in political decision-making processes, facilitate their access to market, enhance productivity and resilience of farming systems (in particular, pastoral and smallholder mixed farming systems).Significant investment in R&D and technology to improve sustainable productivity in different farming systems is essential. R&D investments in the past played an essential role in developing innovations, changing farm practices and raising productivity; they will be even more crucial in the future to address a more complex and wider set of sustainability objectives, and to ensure SAD for FSN. Investment in R&D for SAD will need to be accompanied by mechanisms to disseminate the knowledge and to provide capacity building for all.There is now a considerable shift in power between private and public actors as far as agricultural R&D investments are concerned (FAO, 2012a). The private sector now plays a leading role in technological development in food and agriculture, and large corporations are increasing their investment in R&D. A study conducted by the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), focusing on the 1994-2010 period, estimated that in the year 2000 the private sector already accounted for 45 percent of the total food and agriculture research spending worldwide (Fuglie et al., 2011). Since the R&D undertaken by private companies is protected by patents, this trend raises challenges related to the dissemination, access and uptake of new technologies.Intellectual property rights frameworks can adversely affect smallholders' access to agricultural knowledge (Gura, 2008). The IAASTD (2009) recommended that farmers be able to manage their seeds and germplasm resources according to their needs. Risks and opportunities associated with technological developments and applications need careful assessment, including the social, economic, cultural, health and environmental implications of different technologies in different contexts. This assessment should be accompanied by regular monitoring and evaluation. Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration calls for enhanced public participation and awareness on environmental issues, while Principle 15 states that \"where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost effective measures to prevent environmental degradation\" (UNCED, 1992; UNDESA, 2011).In 2010, the FAO Committee on Agriculture recommended that FAO actively engage in consultations on how to accommodate livestock sector growth in a socio-economic and environmentally sustainable manner. Subsequently, a number of countries and international organizations, called the Dialogue group, initiated the process. They recommended the development of a Global Agenda to shape the sector's role in future global food production systems.The Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL), facilitated by FAO, brings together small-and large-scale producers. It is a partnership composed of seven cluster groups: governments, civil society organizations, the private sector, donors, research/academia, NGOs, intergovernmental and multilateral organizations. Around 200 participants gather once a year in a multistakeholder partnership meeting to address existing and new challenges. Partnerships at regional, national and local levels respond to specific development priorities. A Guiding Group composed of five representatives from each cluster is responsible for the appointment of the Chair and the guidance of the partnership.The Global Agenda supports continuous practice and policy change by:-facilitating policy dialogue between different stakeholders of the sector and building consensus;-conducting and supporting joint analysis to inform stakeholders, identify entry points for practice change and develop harmonized metrics and methods; and-promoting innovation and supporting investments.Its approach to sustainable livestock systems integrates consideration of livelihoods, social impacts, public health, animal health and welfare, environmental impacts, land use and tenure and biodiversity. It does this in three priority areasfood security and health, equity and growth, and natural resources and climate. The GASL consensus includes recognition of the many factors that underpin sustainability (GASL, 2015).The Global Agenda builds and shares knowledge through thematic and regional action networks, formed by experts from the different clusters. During the last decade, some private initiatives have been developed to improve sustainability along the livestock supply chain: to reduce harmful environmental impacts while improving animal welfare and nutritional attributes from increasing production. The International Meat Secretariat representing the global meat and livestock sector, the International Dairy Federation, the International Poultry Council, the International Egg Commission, and the International Feed Industry Federation are the main umbrella organizations that bring together national organizations undertaking sustainability initiatives, mainly in intensive and commercial grazing systems.Initiatives generally involve reporting and sharing information on best practices drawn from evidence-based scientific studies, pilot schemes on representative farms and enterprises, benchmarking and developing indicators to assess progress. In some cases, livestock farmers are offered certification by independent organizations concerning their sustainability and animal welfare practices. Supermarkets, food outlets and livestock processors often require livestock farmers to enter into contracts whereby they adhere to codes and standards of practice in order to sell their livestock products. Two examples of private sector actions are given below:The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) is the largest global, multistakeholder initiative to advance continuous improvement in sustainability of the global beef value chain. GRSB consists of producers and producer associations, the trading and processing sector, retail companies, civil societies and national or regional roundtables.The major beef producing countries -Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of Americaare represented. The GRSB has developed a Strategic Plan for 2016-2021 to provide a framework for prioritizing goals and objectives in meeting the ongoing challenges and opportunities. GRSB does not set standards or create a certification programme, but provides a common baseline understanding of sustainable beef that national roundtables and other initiatives can use, recognizing that there is a diversity of beef production systems around the world.Through the Global Dairy Agenda for Action (GDAA), launched in 2009, the international dairy sector has developed an international platform to develop a common vision of sustainability for the dairy sector and to proactively collaborate to solve the challenges, recognizing the diversity of production systems and of priorities at a local level. The global Dairy Sustainability Framework (DSF), a programme of the GDAA, was launched in November 2013 as a tool to shape, assess and monitor the continuous efforts of the international dairy industry to progress towards sustainability. This DSF defines eleven key sustainability criteria unique to the whole dairy value chain and covering environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability. 45It is in farming systems that practices are implemented making it particularly important to explore the pathways to SAD for FSN at this level. The following section looks in detail at the possible pathways in the four broad farming systems defined in Chapter 1.Smallholder mixed farming systems tend to score well in terms of social equity and responsibility in employment creation, particularly of women, as well as with regard to maintaining the social cohesion of rural communities and links to local markets. They are, however, vulnerable where land rights are poorly protected. Resource efficiency in terms of yields can be very low, especially where the scale of enterprise is too small to be economically efficient. In that regard, livestock can play an important role, where land is a constraint, to increase income, such as with poultry and pig farming. The environmental performance of smallholder mixed farms also varies considerably, linked to the level of farmer knowledge, the availability of financial resources, the scale of the farm enterprise, and the extent to which the farm is a mixed enterprise and thus able to recycle waste and produce biomass on-farm. In terms of resilience, their relatively low dependence on purchased inputs means that smallholder mixed farms can be less vulnerable to some external economic shocks. However, low levels of assets can threaten their resilience. They tend to be vulnerable to competition for land from pastoralists and human settlements, however, as well as liable to lose their market share to intensive livestock systems, and to have difficulty accessing credit because they lack collateral. They also bear a high burden of agriculture-associated human and animal disease.Viet Nam is a southeast Asian country, with a population of 91 million, of which two-thirds live in rural areas. Population is predicted to increase to 105 million by 2100. As incomes have increased, so has consumption of ASF and vegetables. Pork comprises nearly three-quarters of total meat consumption and one-third of the household expenditure on food and drink. Most pork is sold in traditional wet markets because of consumer preference for fresh meat, lower price and greater convenience. More than 99 percent of pig farms are small-scale and produce 83 percent of total pork production. Smallholders remain competitive in Viet Nam because they are more efficient users of farm resources such as using their own produced feed and household labour, thus giving them a market advantage over large producers. Women contribute a substantial amount of labour in pig raising, so that technology interventions need to consider this aspect in the technology development and dissemination process.Although smallholder pig production is successful in Viet Nam, it faces several challenges:  Environmental. The demand for livestock has led to dramatic increases in maize production in the uplands of North Viet Nam. This generates rural income but maize cultivation on steep slopes has led to massive erosion and declining soil fertility. Livestock production contributes about 45 percent of GHG emissions, and most comes from pig production.Health: There have been several major pig epidemics in recent years including foot and mouth disease and blue ear. There is little control of veterinary drugs, including antibiotics and growth promoters. Pork meat often contains food safety hazards such as salmonella and there is increasing concern over food safety. Economic: Smallholders face difficulties in obtaining state-owned loans. Most producers do not use extension services and around one-third do not use veterinary services. The high dependence of the domestic feed industry on imported feed ingredients such as maize, soybean meal and premixes creates volatility in feed markets. Social: Viet Nam is experiencing rural to urban migration as opportunities increase in cities; this can reduce the smallholder advantage resulting from on-farm labour.Currently, there are opportunities for efficiency gains for sustaining smallholder competitiveness. Effective provision of services (credit, veterinary, extension) to improve capacity to deal with production and market risks can help smallholder pig producers remain competitive. Policies that enhance productivity across all producer types will be preferable to policies focusing on developing large, industrial farms. Effective control of animal disease, traceability and credible assurance of food safety are needed to improve consumer confidence in the quality and safety of pork.Since 2009, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) with support from IFAD has launched a four-year project aiming specifically to improve the livelihoods and income of rural women artisans processing wool and mohair and small livestock breeders of goats and sheep in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan where productivity of local breeds is extremely low and access to market limited. The initiative established innovative community-based breeding programmes, involving over 2 500 farmers from eight villages, using selective crossbreeding (with Altai cashmere bucks known for their higher quality fibre) and artificial insemination techniques with imported frozen semen from highly productive rams to improve the flock productivity and quality. The improved cashgora goats produced 15 percent more fibre compared with local goats, while the percentage of animals producing white fibre (easier to dye) increased by 20 percent. In Kyrgyzstan, the project improved sheep breeds using high quality Tian-Shan rams, which led to improved wool, along with increased yields of fibre and meat.The project worked with livestock producers to develop a model for processing mohair and cashmere into high-quality yarn suitable for export, and with spinners and weavers to develop new technologies for processing the yarn into finished products, designed for replication and scaling up. The project helped to increase processing efficiency and produced higher-quality products that are generating additional income, incentivizing all stakeholders along the value chain, many of whom are women, and acted as a catalyst for the reorganization of the angora goat sector in the region.With the help of the project, more than 250 women processors and about 150 goat and sheep farmers, owning a total of nearly 10 000 animals, benefited from the community-based innovation project (as of September 2013); on average, the annual income of the Kyrgyz women increased by 2.3 times; and the monthly income of Tajik women increased by 1.3 times. 46In moving towards SAD for FSN, the priority responses for smallholder mixed farming systems are to improve access to resources and services that will enable them to improve productivity, prevent and control diseases, improve access to markets, address poverty alleviation, and reduce environmental damages, as well as build resilience to environmental and climatic impacts. In this perspective, stakeholders at different levels should recognize and leverage the huge potential of livestock, in its different roles (as an asset and a safety net, as draught power, as a provider of ASF and other products, including skin, wool or manure), as a means for improved livelihoods in smallholder mixed farming systems.At the household level, five major strategies to improve livelihoods, all of them closely related to food security, can be identified: intensification of existing production patterns; diversification of production and processing; expanded farm or herd size; increased farm income (agricultural and non-agriculture) and increased choices to allow a complete exit from the agriculture sector.Agriculture's role in national development is reflected in a much-described and widely accepted evolution, from agriculture-based societies through a transition phase to urbanized status (see Box 1 in Chapter 1). Population and income growth and increasing urbanization provide opportunities for smallholders to join this evolutionary path and increase their engagement with markets, to access inputs and increase production and sales, and hence enhance their livelihoods. This structural transformation can alleviate rural poverty and food insecurity, as smallholders improve their economic position. It can also contribute to the emergence and development of rural economic activity through wage labour, food processing and marketing initiatives, as well as the provision of non-agricultural services for rural communities. Although there is limited empirical data on the benefits of such market engagement (Wiggins and Keats, 2013), there is sufficient evidence to support the contention that the multiplier effects of growth in smallholdings will create on-farm and downstream jobs in processing, trading, transport and storage, and will increase economic activity through consumption effects related to increased farm income, consumption which is likely to be on local goods and services.In the past, government agriculture policies, particularly in OECD and emerging economies, tended to provide public support based on a farm's output level, which favoured large-scale farms over smallholders. More recently governments have increased the emphasis on the role of smallholder agriculture in their policies, recognizing the importance of small-scale producers in food production and employment generation. The dramatic reduction of poverty in Asia in recent decades was largely the result of providing smallholders with access to improved seeds and fertilizer. In addition, in the case of China and parts of Southeast Asia, government policy decollectivized farmers, allowing the establishment of smaller farm sizes and stronger individual land rights. MERCOSUR countries have focused on family farming from the early 2000s, providing targeted services such as extension, access to credit and rural insurance. In Brazil, 30 percent of the budget of the National School Feeding Programme must be invested in the direct purchase of family farm products. The programme feeds around 45 million pupils each day in Brazilian public schools and has an annual budget of approximately USD1.75 billion; as such it is a significant market for family farms and contributes directly to FSN through improved child nutrition. The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programmes (CAADP) developed since the African Union summit in Maputo, Mozambique, in 2003 also emphasize the role of small-scale producers (CAADP, 2015).Public policy has also begun to put more emphasis on policies and institutional reforms to enable the coordination and integration of policies so that they support (rather than hinder) each other (HLPE, 2013a) and support SAD in all three dimensions of sustainability.The priorities for action are: Better access to markets and more diversified market opportunities: Smallholder producers often have good access to local markets but less so to longer market chains, so small-scale and largescale pig and poultry farming will continue to co-exist in \"multi-track\" development pathways (FAO, 2008. Smallholders need to be supported to gain improved market access, supplychain integration and marketing. Diversification of markets can also enhance the diversification and sustainability of farming systems. Secure tenure rights and equitable access to land for smallholders and indigenous peoples should be promoted and upheld, reducing land concentration trends. Land redistribution to enhance the social space of sustainable smallholder agriculture is needed (policies are crucial to guide this process of change). Design feasible growth pathways: a number of development pathways are possible for smallscale poultry and pig producers (FAO, 2008 depending on factors such as available resources, choice of markets, and the capacity of farmers to invest in their enterprises. Where industrial commercial operations have encroached on local markets, small-scale intensive livestock producers could work with them as contract suppliers (FAO, 2014d). Contract farming has had mixed outcomes; the experiences of poultry farmers in the United States of America (Domina and Taylor, 2010) and in South Africa (Bolton, 2015;Visser and Ferrer, 2015) show that small profit margins, exclusive dependence of the farmer on the supplier, highly variable feed prices and low economies of scale for small-scale intensive poultry producers are all significant barriers to SAD. HLPE (2013a) provides insight on the economic and institutional conditions to make contract farming benefit smallholders. Recognize, empower and enable the role of women: Gender-sensitive participatory development processes are essential. These should enhance women's self-determination (Njuki and Sanginga, 2013;Njuki et al., 2014). In efforts to quantify and overcome obstacles to women's' empowerment, useful new tools have been developed to measure women's empowerment through indices, such as the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) 47 and the Gender Parity Index (GPI) 48 (IFPRI, 2012). Improve animal health management: Animal disease is a major cause of reduced productivity in smallholder systems. For example, chick mortality may be as high as 80 percent in family poultry systems (de Bruyn et al., 2015). The losses have been reduced through simple interventions such as vaccination of the flock (Pym and Alders, 2012). Such interventions could use locally available resources, such as training local women to be vaccinators, encouraging the use and improving the quality of locally produced feed, and using local materials and service providers for the construction of appropriate animal housing. Encourage the use of local, more resistant, breeds: Use and improve local breeds, which are hardy, disease-resistant and are able to cope with harsh environmental conditions in low-cost (Ahuja and Sen, 2008) extensive scavenging systems (de Bruyn et al., 2015). Use locally available feeds for extensive scavenging systems. Use the manure from small-scale intensive systems as fertilizer in neighbouring farms, which will dispense with the need for on-farm manure disposal systems and contribute to environmental sustainability. Feed shortages may need to be addressed by increasing the use of fodder and crop by-products and adding appropriate supplements. In intensive small-scale production systems with good management and nutrition, access to breeds with high feed conversion ratio and a regular supply of suitable feed and pharmaceuticals is essential. The conservation of local breeds can improve resilience to climate change and safeguard genetic resources (Mtileni et al., 2012;Pym, 2010).  Implement appropriate, tailored and participatory programmes that respond to specific farmers' needs, perceptions, constraints, priorities and local conditions (FAO, 2014a). Policies and programmes should be developed with full and direct participation of the people who will be affected. Policies that promote productivity growth and investment need to go hand-in-hand with social protection interventions that target nutrition, health and education.  Facilitate smallholder participation in the political process of identifying, prioritizing and implementing responses. Smallholders' organizations need to be recognized and supported to increase their voice in policy-making platforms and processes. An example of this approach is the use of innovation platforms (IPs) by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). In IPs, multiple stakeholders (including farmers) collaborate in the identification, design and implementation of actions towards the realization of agricultural development outcomes. IPs have proven effective in redressing unequal gender dynamics (Mulema et al., 2015) and solving natural resource management problems in smallholder agricultural development (Misiko et al., 2013).  Provide good quality training programmes and information, which are relevant to smallholders' level of education and circumstances, including \"hands-on/learning by-doing\" with follow-up by technical agents (FAO, 2014a). This entails R&D of new technologies and production models that are appropriate for the small-scale systems, as well as having in place appropriate extension and advisory systems that can facilitate the adoption of the new technologies.  Redirect development policies and tax incentives towards the design of diversified and resilient farming and food systems.Pastoral systems score well in terms of social/responsibility in so far as they conserve traditional practices and cultures, and employment; however, women suffer from structural inequity and access to health, education and other services is low. Moreover, pastoralists are vulnerable to insecurity, marginalization and inadequate access to land and resources in many countries. They often have little access to social services, health and education. Resource efficiency tends to be low in terms of yields, although they use land that has low value in alternative uses. They tend to be adaptive to often-harsh natural conditions and so are often very resilient, but face challenges of pressure from other economic activities on land and water resources in many countries. Their relatively low dependence on purchased inputs means that these systems can be more resilient in adjusting to some external shocks, but are vulnerable to climate change and scarce water availability and bear relatively high burdens of human and animal disease.While pastoralism and agro-pastoralism might exhibit apparent low levels of production, they can be economically efficient in so far as they use resources that have low value in alternative uses (low input-low output). Moreover, they embody cultural and traditional knowledge and values, and after centuries of experience they are skilled at adapting to harsh conditions. However, to be sustainable going forward, pastoral systems need to better integrate all of the dimensions of sustainable development: pastoralists' rights need to be strengthened, animal health and welfare conditions need to be improved, and the value-added of pastoralist activities needs to be improved by better connections to markets. In this perspective, the dialogue between applied research and pastoral organizations should be strengthened; on the one hand, to improve pastoralists' knowledge of how to improve productivity and profitability and, on the other, to encourage exchanges of experience and to ensure pastoralists' expertise is not lost or ignored. Most regions need to work much harder on making their policies and actions coherent, requiring cross-border cooperation.The pressure on water, land resources and on the corridors for transhumance is very strong. This generates significant conflicts for access to pasture and water between crop farmers and pastoralists. Climate change will exacerbate these tensions and make access to resources more difficult. In the Sahel, an increase of average temperatures and more frequent droughts, storms and floods will have negative effects on animals and the availability of vegetation, weakening the resilience of agricultural systems (Pastoral Platform of Chad, 2015), and challenging social equity/responsibility. Policies to support silvo-pastoral systems where appropriate is a promising way to restore soil and pasture quality, to improve resource efficiency, to strengthen the resilience of animals and agro-ecosystems in the face of climate change, harsh weather and poor soil conditions.Pastoral systems in the Sahel and the Sahara are widespread in the arid zones with low and irregular rainfall, water and natural forage resources. They cover several types of animals and shape the mode of life of pastoral societies. They are often mobile where men and herds follow water and pastures on very broad availability spaces. Livestock plays a central role in the economy of Sahelian countries with a contribution to the agricultural GDP sometimes ranging up to 44 percent (SWAC-OECD/ECOWAS, 2008).Livestock is also one of the main economic activities, on which the poorest populations are dependent as a source of food and cash income.According to most studies (Pastoral Platform of Chad, 2015; FAO/CIRAD, 2012) on the issues of the development of pastoralism, there are a set of related challenges especially in: mitigating conflicts between pastoralists and other farmers; improving penetration in urban markets; facilitation of access to water and land; and better targeting of emergency programmes to better adapt to the sustainable development of pastoralism. Development programmes should target vulnerable pastoral societies by integrating sustainable principles, including strengthening the resilience of pastoralism to climate change.These challenges require greater participation of nomadic pastoral societies in particular in decisionmaking in local governance while revitalizing inclusive decentralization policies. This implies fully integrating, establishing and implementing transparent mechanisms throughout the marketing chain, enhancing the role of specific crafts and skills to local societies, especially of women and young people, and promoting the establishment and involvement of representative non-governmental organizations in governance to defend the rights and interests of pastoralists (Cisse, 2008).The resilience of pastoral societies can also be improved through secure transboundary movements, the development of insurance systems incorporating specificities of pastoralists and nomads, strengthening dialogue between applied research centres and pastoral organizations in order to establish a dynamic transfer of knowledge, and increasing the productivity and profitability of pastoral systems while promoting the exchange of experiences in this field between countries.This improvement in trade can take the form of encouraging the development of pastoral products and improving coordination, developing secure marketing systems related to transhumance, strengthening the capacity of local organizations to master trade processes and establishing a common pricing system favouring the development of regional clusters of local products, to help them compete with imports.Social sustainability is one of the major components on which to build the sustainable development of pastoralism. Improving the access of pastoralists to public human and animal health services, education and training can enhance the socio-cultural ties from sharing common resources.The implementation priorities start by defining strategic objectives for all policies to reduce the vulnerability of pastoralists and ensure sustainability. Prioritizing policy interventions and planning are then needed in order to protect the livelihoods of the most vulnerable segments of society while seeking to improve the productivity of pastoral production systems and access to food. Finally, strengthening the governance of food and nutritional security policies will contribute to making the whole policy process more efficient.The priorities for action are: Improve governance and security by involving pastoral societies in local, national and international participatory governance mechanisms, including: improving land-tenure rights and decentralization to fully integrate nomadic societies in the governance of land; giving a greater role to livestock in development plans; disseminating information on the sustainable management of resources and pastoral land rights. Improve connections to markets and create diversified market opportunities to better value animal production; promote the development and marketing of domestic production to supply urban markets; improve sanitary, food safety and quality standards; better target investment in market infrastructures; encourage private investment in the production and distribution of livestock feed; improve the transformation of animal products (dairy in particular); and increase the supply and availability of zootechnical and veterinary products and services. Provide and protect the access of pastoralists to public services. This includes: improved human and animal health services and pursuing innovations in the twinning of the two; intensify research for innovations in public policies for basic education and vocational training of young people in pastoral regions; strengthen the links between policies, culture and management of shared resources; and strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations to participate in the development, implementation and monitoring of policies. The central challenge is to provide social protection programmes and public services (health and education) adapted to the specific needs of pastoral systems and communities. Provide and protect access to pastoral resources (notably water and land) and ensure that pastoralists' customary land and water rights are protected. Ensure that land management, investments and hydro-agricultural development projects take pastoral concerns into account to build sustainable pastoralism and to enhance social equity/responsibility by integrating transhumance, forestry and agriculture in territorial development, while respecting the rights of indigenous peoples to commonly-owned land and natural resources. Implement a fairer taxation system on the marketing channels for livestock products, to enhance value-added through the processing and marketing of pastoral products. Better target emergency assistance, giving consideration to the specificities of pastoralist systems in terms of their resilience and vulnerabilities, with regard to technical needs (health of livestock, social management of water resources and pasture), social aspects (access of families of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists to basic social services: health, education, hygiene-watersanitation) and economic (linkages between livestock and cereals), all at different scales. Devise development strategies that take into account the specific mobility-related needs of pastoral systems. Priorities include the need to better secure cross-border trade, to remove illicit levies and more generally reduce the risk of theft in crossing national borders. Governments must also strengthen interstate cooperation to facilitate cross-border movement of pastoralists to promote regional exchanges.Commercial grazing systems score well in terms of resource efficiency when they use land that has low value for alternative uses. Some systems are able to enhance carbon sequestration, biodiversity and landscape benefits. Other commercial grazing systems, however, are associated with deforestation, polluted watercourses and soil erosion that is a result of overstocking. Their relatively low dependence on purchased inputs means that these systems are relatively resilient to external shocks but they remain vulnerable to climate change. In addition, ruminant animals are significant contributors to GHG emissions. Moreover, where the expansion of such systems displaces smallholders and where hired farm worker conditions are not protected, social equity/ responsibility outcomes are compromised.In moving towards SAD for FSN the priorities for commercial grazing systems are: to achieve a better balance between the natural resource base, maintenance of ecosystems and the stocking rate of livestock; to improve genetic diversity and feeding practices; to protect and promote the land rights and natural resource rights of indigenous peoples; and to improve working conditions and security of employment (social equity and responsibility), while raising overall productivity (resource efficiency).The priorities for action are: Maintain and improve grassland management practices. Recent experiences have shown that different levels of intensification can hugely enhance livestock production on natural grasslands.As illustrated with some beef production systems, livestock production can, in some cases, quadruple without any recourse to external inputs, relying instead on controlling stocking and managing natural vegetation (Carvalho et al., 2008(Carvalho et al., , 2011)). Additional benefits include improved soil health. Contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation through pasture management. Enhancing cattle diets can reduce GHG emissions from enteric fermentation and increase carbon stocks in soils. Better pasture management can increase grazing efficiency, which ensures more forage is available during periods of climate variability (Herrero et al., 2016). Improve the stocking and management of grassland-ruminant ecosystems (see Box 24) as an efficient, sustainable method of producing high-quality protein with minimal (or even positive) environmental impacts. As argued by Tilman et al. (2002), ruminant production on grasslands can take advantage of the high efficiency of ruminant guts to convert low-quality forage into highprotein human foods, including dairy products and beef. Develop a crop-livestock-forestry integration system (CLFIS) (see Box 11) that involves the integration of three production activities on the same land: agriculture, livestock and forestry. Cattle benefit by the availability of shade from trees, losing less fat in hot weather. They also benefit from better quality pastures, which improves farming capacity and reduces slaughter age. Furthermore, crop rotation applied with direct tillage reduces soil degradation, generating positive effects on the environment. Annual crops provide quick returns to producers that redeem the cost of adapting degraded areas into a CLFIS. In the medium term, the producer makes a profit from livestock, while forestry provides longer-term yields in addition to being an important source of energy, which can be extracted from the associated biomass. The system also generates employment for skilled and qualified employees, improving socio-economic conditions for rural workers (Ortiz and Alfaro, 2014). Protect native forests from deforestation. Grasslands, other native ecosystems and high conservation value areas are protected from land conversion and degradation (see Box 25).The principal merits of commercial grazing systems are in the use of pastures that can have relatively low value for alternative activities, the maintenance of soil quality, and the relatively light environmental footprint of extensive systems. Nonetheless, the contribution to GHG emissions per ruminant animal is relatively high, there are risks of too-high stocking rates on fragile land, and deforestation and displacement of indigenous peoples from their lands (particularly their customary use areas) is too common, as are poor conditions for hired workers. In many countries, the livestock sector itself has voluntarily started to take action to improve environmental sustainability, albeit still most often at the pilot project level. Policies have varied considerably across different countries. In the case of the New Zealand sheep meat sector, the policy was to reduce support and protection to the sector, which resulted in farmers being exposed to market forces, thereby requiring farmers to make changes in their farm practices and marketing, but complemented by environmental legislation. In many countries the focus has been on improving resource efficiency, including the reduction of GHG emissions, through the dissemination of information on the adoption of best management practices (optimal stocking, improved pastures, grazing management, genetic improvements) and on improving resilience by adapting to droughts and floods (adaptation and preparedness), as well as some limited progress in addressing rights of workers in some countries.Sheep numbers in New Zealand reached a high point of 70.2 million in 1982, bolstered by a range of subsidies and support to farming at that time. From 1984, in a widespread economic reform process, these assistance measures were fully removed, so that by 1990 the effects of support had essentially dissipated. At this point the national sheep flock had adjusted to 57.9 million. Over the following 25 years sheep numbers have halved (to 29.8 million in 2014), but the total production levels of lamb meat have reduced only marginally (minus 7 percent).From 1984, with low world prices for sheep meat and high budgetary costs to the government, a reforming government removed financial support measures, including to other agricultural commodities and implemented other economy-wide reform measures. Farmers were thus faced with exposure to market forces, without support measures. This market-orientation forced farmers to make changes in their farm practices and marketing.Farmers adjusted their management systems to improve productivity of their sheep flock and the profitability of their operations. The new market-oriented regime revealed that many sheep were being farmed on land that was too marginal to be economic. Also, in many areas the stocking rate (sheep per hectare) was too high to provide optimum performance: this overstocking led to lower lambing percentages, lower growth rates in lambs, lower carcass weights at slaughter, soil erosion on fragile land and contributed to pollution of watercourses. Experience revealed that improved grazing management could have positive effects on these performance measures.The industry used various approaches, such as: reducing sheep numbers, at the unprofitable margin; ceasing farming on marginal lands (too steep, too remote, too dry or low fertility soils); improving performance of the flock (fertility, growth rate, slaughter weight), by enhanced pasture content and production; improved grazing management (fencing, rotational grazing); genetic improvement; and reducing stocking rates (to an optimal level).Production performance improved and results showed a return to profitability for most farmers in most years, after the initial and, in some cases, difficult transition period.A life cycle assessment study (LCA) that estimated the emissions of GHGs from sheep production showed that methane (a major GHG from ruminant animals) emissions per kilogram of lamb meat processed reduced over a 16-year period (see figure), due to the productivity improvements outlined above.New Zealand sheep farmers are also implementing practices directed at environmental improvement and hence enhanced sustainability of production. Beef and Lamb New Zealand, an industry organization, has developed an environmental strategy to enable sheep and beef sector efficiency and profitability, while sustainably managing air, soil and water, and natural resources. Mechanisms include provision of tools and services that assist sheep and beef producers, and development of an on-farm measurement tool to track the effectiveness of initiatives directed at achieving environmental goals.Source: Beef + Lamb New Zealand Economic Service, Ministry for Environment. China's livestock was dominated by pig production in agricultural regions, with a small contribution from non-pig production in pastoral areas. In 1980, the total meat production was 12.05 million tonnes (mt), among which pork accounted for 94 percent at 11.34 mt. However, the relative importance of pork production gradually decreased while the total meat production showed strong growth for more than three decades. By 1990, total meat production had increased to 28.6 mt, or more than doubled in 10 years, while the share of pork declined to 80 percent (22.8 mt). During the last ten years of the twentieth century, the total meat production increased to 60.1 mt, more than double in ten years again, with the share of pork declined further to 66 percent (39.7 mt). The growth of total meat production slowed down a little during the first 13 years of the twenty-first century, standing at 85.4 mt by 2014, while the share of pork production maintained at about the same level of 65.1 percent (State Bureau of Statistics, 2015).Pork production was dominated by backyard pig raising; almost every farmer household raised one pig or two in a year. Backyard pig production was essential to the survival of small farm holders, as it was not only the main source of badly needed cash income, but also the main source of manure necessary to grow crops. Backyard pig production was cost efficient, not only because opportunity cost for labour was low or even negligible, but also as the use of commercial feed was very limited due to wide use of domestic wastes. More importantly, manure generated from backyard production was crucial to growing crops on the farm as in the past. In many cases, the value of manure from backyard pig production was as much as the value of the pig itself.The situation has changed dramatically in the last three decades. More than 300 million rural workers have found off-farm jobs, often far away from their homes, and the level of chemical fertilizer use per hectare of sown areas has increased from 86 kg in 1980 to 359 kg in 2013. The backyard pig production has lost its importance to small farm holders: they have found better opportunities to use their labour, and they no longer depend on manure. Following huge rural-urban migration, opportunity costs in raising pigs, in collecting plant materials for manure, and in application of manure, have all increased dramatically. According to the Department of Prices of the State Development and Reform Commission ( 2015), the wage rate in agricultural production in 2014 was four times as high as that in 2004. And as household size has reduced with some members working at least partially away from home, the quantity of domestic wastes has also reduced and become uneven, so the feed availability for backyard pig production has also declined.As a result, pig production has experienced a shift from backyard-based to large-scale commercial production. According to the Animal Husbandry Yearbook, the number of households/firms with annual production of more than 50 000 pigs has increased from 16 in 2001 to 187 in 2012, those with annual production between 10 000 to 50 000, between 3 000 to 9 999 and between 500 to 2 999 have increased from 747 to 4,363, from 2 798 to 19 735, and from 22 956 to 231 271, respectively, during the same time period. As a comparison, the number of households who raise less than 50 pigs in a year was only 51.9 million, less than 20 percent of the total rural households. The statistics indicate that about 30 million farm households abandoned pig production in the five years during 2007 to 2012 (Editing Committee of Animal Husbandry Yearbook, 2014). It could reasonably be assumed that those households that abandoned pig production were originally engaged in traditional backyard pig production, i.e. raising one or two pigs a year with spare time and domestic waste.The changing structure of the livestock sector in China may have led to serious problems in non-point pollution, as manure is no longer used as a fertilizer, and as the large and intensive pig farms may not necessarily be located in major agricultural regions. The proper treatment of manure is very costly if the intensive farms cannot use up all the manure generated by themselves, and their scale is not big enough to process the manure for commercial use. Following strengthened environmental regulation in the worst polluted regions, many intensive pig farms in Zhejiang province closed down in early 2015, which led to a significant increase in pork price. It is hoped that tightening environmental regulations may lead to further restructuring of the sector: further expansion and concentration of pig production may lead to the processing of manure as a commercial fertilizer and be profitable due to economy of scale, and relocation of large-scale pig production may reduce the costs of collecting manure and distribution of fertilizer produced from manure.If this turns out to be the case, further restructuring of the pig sector may reduce the level of non-point pollution due to better utilization of manure and possible reduction in chemical fertilizer application.Intensive systems are typical of the majority of pig, poultry and, to a much lesser extent, dairy cows in Europe. These systems show an increasing concentration in size and location, high productivity, maximizing financial margins, integration into supply chains, and a development model driven by mainstream research and multinational food-processing groups. For example, in 2010, 43 percent of all pigs in France were reared in farms with over 1 000 fattening pigs, against 81 percent in Denmark, 63 percent in the Netherlands, 75 percent in Spain and 44 percent in Dairy farming is slowly moving towards greater intensity, with some resistance, particularly in France.The average herd size remains low in Europe: 60 dairy cows in France, very similar to Ireland and slightly lower than the Netherlands (80 cows). The largest herds are found in Denmark (150 cows on average) and in the northern and eastern states of Germany where several farms have more than 2 000-3 000 cows. The number of dairy farms has fallen annually despite the introduction of milk quotas in 1984: by 13 percent in Spain, 8 percent in Denmark, 7 percent in Italy and in the United Kingdom, 6 percent in the Netherlands, and, 5 percent in France (Institut de l'élevage, 2007, 2013). The removal of milk quotas in 2015 is likely to increase concentration in both dairy farm size and location.Nevertheless, three important characteristics of European livestock systems should be noted. First, there is great diversity, in particular in dairy systems, ranging from the largely confined operations in the Netherlands and Denmark, to mainly grazing systems in France and Ireland. Second, there is an increasing emphasis on quality labelling of production in both poultry and pig meat production. For example, in France, 30 percent of chicken sold is certified with a quality label, concerning the method of production. Third, there is growing attention to global and local environmental issues, animal welfare and concerns that technical progress is generating \"animal producing machines\" and \"factory farms\" (Porcher, 2011). These issues are also fuelled by pressure from NGOs appealing for a reduction in meat consumption on the grounds of animal welfare, production methods or environmental impacts as well as on the grounds of the impacts on health. One result has been the reduction in the use of antibiotics in the Danish and Dutch pig farming sectors (see in the text below).Even though intensive systems lead to low consumer prices, and consistent supplies and quality, the European Union, national governments and supermarkets have imposed or require strict standards and regulations concerning production methods, which has given rise to concerns that the European production is less competitive due to higher costs.In addressing the challenges of intensive livestock systems the Animal Task Force (ATF), a European think tank bringing together most of the large animal husbandry research organizations, has proposed ways to meet the challenges of competitiveness, the reduction of environmental impacts, and improving animal welfare through the development of alternative eco-efficient technical models with multicriteria appraisal variables. Others propose the development of precision livestock farming (Lokhorst and Groot Koerkamp, 2009), which can generate gains in terms of work productivity (robotics) with the ability to track the vital parameters and technical efficiency and health of individual animals (decision support software and sensors).Three principles underlie these challenges: exploring alternative hybrid production models with broader objectives than competitiveness and price; developing participative research, involving farmers, other stakeholders and NGOs, local and regional authorities, to define scenarios for livestock farming regionally and nationwide (Darnhofer et al., 2012); and developing methodologies to design innovative systems at the farm and regional levels (Bos et al., 2012) and identify resources to help transition pathways (Elzen et al., 2012;Coquil et al., 2014).In moving towards SAD for FSN, intensive livestock systems will have to internalize the externalities so as to improve their environmental impact. The priorities for intensive livestock systems are: to reduce environmental damages, especially water pollution and GHG emissions, including through improving feeding and breeding practices; to raise animal health status and to improve animal welfare; to reduce the risks of antimicrobial resistance; to encourage international agreements to facilitate less risky trading conditions; to address market concentration; and to improve working conditions. Raising productivity remains important. Addressing these priorities implies a degree of transformation of intensive farming systems, which will not be easy to achieve at an individual farm level, although there is generally some margin of adjustment for change. Most of these priority areas will require systemwide interventions.The priorities for action are: Invest in R&D along the complete food chain that strikes a balance between increasing production and reducing environmental harms, including the need to reduce food losses and waste. Expand precision livestock farming (Lokhorst and Groot Koerkamp, 2009), with the ability to track the technical efficiency of individual animals.  Improve animal welfare in intensive livestock systems, in line with OIE guidelines and best practices and national standards, drawing on the latest scientific research. Reduce the environmental impact of intensive livestock systems by: -Encouraging the recycling of nutrients and animal waste, for example to fertilize pastures, and using forage and grain legumes to increase the nitrogen in soils (Peyraud et al., 2014) in order to reduce the need for mineral nitrogen; explore possibilities to export animal waste as fertilizer to other farms or other agricultural regions; take advantage of the possible coupling of carbon and nitrogen cycles in grasslands and crop-livestock systems (Soussana and Lemaire, 2014). -Encouraging the transformation of intensive systems through: the integration of livestock and crop production (e.g. Smith et al., 1997;Devendra and Thomas, 2002;Lemaire et al., 2014;Peyraud et al., 2014); the adoption of agronomic practices used in those mixed-farming systems that are the most efficient in the use of nutrients. -Increasing the sustainability of feed production. For example, soybean production has expanded significantly due to the growing demand for livestock feed. Soybean production is associated with high levels of pesticide use and large GHG emissions, linked in part to landuse change with the expansion of production. No-tillage systems reduce GHG emissions, and together with diversified farming systems, careful use of fertilizers and a rotation of low-stubble crops (soybean) with high-stubble crops (wheat, maize), there are opportunities to limit the environmental harm from soybean production (World Bank/CIAT/CATIE, 2014).The principal merits of intensive systems are that they are associated with lower real prices over time for consumers, consistent quality, year-round reliability and thus they make a notable contribution to FSN. This is due to their high productivity, linked to their reliance on innovative technologies and mechanization but also their systematic externalization of costs. Given that there are concerns as to the sustainability of the resources on which the livestock sector depends, the environmental footprint of intensive systems and their impacts on zoonoses, animal health and welfare, governments have increasingly imposed standards, regulations and financial penalties on the production, confinement methods, location and environmental impacts of intensive livestock operations. The livestock sector itself has also voluntarily started to take action to improve environmental sustainability and animal welfare. However, the sustainability of production is especially compromised in countries where producers are not held accountable for negative environmental externalities, including where production-linked subsidies are not conditional upon environmental performance.This chapter demonstrates that there are potential pathways towards SAD, with proven solutions, in all the farming systems. Even if SAD pathways must be adapted to each context, a solution used in a given region or system can also inspire stakeholders when elaborating SAD pathways in another context.The diversity of farm types across the world cautions against making generalizations with respect to the pathways and responses towards SAD, even when they may be faced with similar challenges. There are also differences within particular farming systems, so the context is a key consideration. No pathway offers the \"silver bullet\" for all countries and farming systems. But it is crucial that pathways chosen are based on scientific evidence and experience-based knowledge.Countries are not starting from a \"clean sheet\", having the luxury of choosing pathways that would be optimal in terms of SAD for FSN. They must work from where they are now and in the political and institutional landscape through which decisions will be taken and implemented for the foreseeable future. All stakeholders will need to improve situations progressively, using the instruments and approaches likely to lead to high-impact outcomes for FSN, and remembering the importance of longterm change and dynamic effects.Responses, in a given context, region or system, will need to simultaneously address multiple challenges, both at the global and farming system levels. In an ideal world, the aim would be to find and deliver win-win solutions across all the dimensions of SAD. But in practice trade-offs have to be made, implying difficult choices. For example, the pursuit of economic efficiency may be at the expense of preserving a way of life for smallholders across the three dimensions of economic, environmental and social sustainability.Agricultural development is a particularly complex issue because it requires a long-term, integrated and broad perspective. It means that a very wide vision of the sector itself is needed, including dynamic links to overall economic development, natural resources, demographic and social issues, and the trends affecting these aspects in the long term. This report has addressed the issues of agricultural development from the perspective of FSN in all its dimensions (availability, access, utilization and stability). It aims at proposing pathways for sustainable agricultural development to confront the many challenges in order to enhance its contribution to food security and nutrition.Livestock plays a critical role as an engine for the development of the agriculture and food sector, as a driver of major economic, social and environmental changes in food systems worldwide, and is central to understanding the issues around SAD.The relationships between ASF, nutrition, and health are complex. While small amounts of meat, dairy and eggs added to grain-based diets have beneficial nutrition effects, excessive amounts of red and processed meat have been linked to an increased risk of chronic disease. In general, consumption levels of some ASF needs to contract in some places and among some populations, while increasing in others. Such a shift would allow for greater convergence of consumption at the global level.The report recognizes that all the farming systems are under stress and face cross-cutting or specific challenges that need to be urgently addressedbut that they all have the potential, in different ways, to progress towards SAD and better contribute to the ultimate goal of FSN for all, now and in the future.For some of the challenges identified in this report, there is a considerable body of scientific knowledge and practical experience available as to what could be done. But there is much less agreement on how to actually realize the shifts in practices and behaviour needed to address global and local challenges simultaneously, when actions should be taken, over which period of time, in what sequence, and by whom. Crucially, many require more knowledge and data, implementation of bettertargeted policies, international cooperation and an institutional architecture to engage stakeholders in identifying priorities for collective action, addressing trade-offs, while avoiding \"free riders\" who can benefit from others' actions but do not bear the costs of contributing to the solution.Pathways and operational priorities for actions will, of course, differ across regions, countries and across farming systems: smallholder mixed, pastoral, commercial grazing, intensive livestock systems, as well as plant-based systems. Nevertheless, this report suggests a common approach to elaborate those pathways drawing on three operational principles (improve resource efficiency, strengthen resilience and secure social equity/responsibility) that both show the direction towards sustainability and propose concrete ways forward. SAD strategies and policies for FSN have to organise transitions, starting from the current situation in a given country or farming system, proposing pragmatic and implementable solutions and ways forward, resulting from political consensus that can be reached among the different stakeholders involved. Pathways are needed for all farming systems and one of the critical challenges is to consistently manage the co-existence of systems and their pathways at supra levels.In considering innovative pathways to SAD, there are many hurdles to overcome, not least the inertia of existing food systems and institutional frameworks that can favour the status quo. Alternatives and transitions may also be constrained by production and consumption path-dependency and technological lock-in. To change direction is costly, with uncertain results, and takes time. Moreover, the direction of change can be controversial, in part because it will impact the patterns of distribution of power, costs, benefits, and risks along the food chains. Different pathways also imply different requirements of knowledge and resource needs, and challenge the resilience of systems (Thompson and Millstone, 2011).This report highlights operational priorities for action, taking into account the constraints and perspectives of different policy makers and stakeholders. It acknowledges that there could be two kinds of priority areas of intervention: the most critical which are often also the more difficult to implement, and those that could show quick progress. In some cases, the most pragmatic way to move forward to SAD is to begin by actions that are easy to implement, backed not only by strong scientific evidence but also by sufficient political support and interest from stakeholders. Success in this first step could be catalytic in the sense that it will not only change the orientation of agricultural development but also the perspectives of different stakeholders. This could help to build a political consensus allowing the implementation, in a second step, of more ambitious actions.Within this perspective, building on the main findings of this report, the HLPE has proposed a short set of recommendations for policy-makers and stakeholders with the view to inform political debates in the CFS and at the national level.","tokenCount":"59912"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"995ba6b2d287f8a547e5eb1cbbb1f5f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/abfb59b2-baa5-484d-b3eb-b4f628f47cae/retrieve","id":"1956085173"},"keywords":["average semivariance","linear mixed model","variance component estimation","polygenic inheritance","oligogenic inheritance","Mendelian inheritance"],"sieverID":"fa072356-1f47-4604-8e1d-ce3cb65a9e7d","pagecount":"13","content":"Large-effect loci-those statistically significant loci discovered by genome-wide association studies or linkage mapping-associated with key traits segregate amidst a background of minor, often undetectable, genetic effects in wild and domesticated plants and animals. Accurately attributing mean differences and variance explained to the correct components in the linear mixed model analysis is vital for selecting superior progeny and parents in plant and animal breeding, gene therapy, and medical genetics in humans. Marker-assisted prediction and its successor, genomic prediction, have many advantages for selecting superior individuals and understanding disease risk. However, these two approaches are less often integrated to study complex traits with different genetic architectures. This simulation study demonstrates that the average semivariance can be applied to models incorporating Mendelian, oligogenic, and polygenic terms simultaneously and yields accurate estimates of the variance explained for all relevant variables. Our previous research focused on largeeffect loci and polygenic variance separately. This work aims to synthesize and expand the average semivariance framework to various genetic architectures and the corresponding mixed models. This framework independently accounts for the effects of large-effect loci and the polygenic genetic background and is universally applicable to genetics studies in humans, plants, animals, and microbes.Today, linear mixed models (LMMs) are routinely applied in plant breeding and quantitative genetics research. They are used for the prediction of genetic values in plants and animals (VanRaden 2008;Heffner et al. 2010;Meuwissen et al. 2016), or polygenic risk scores (PRSs) in humans (de Los Campos et al. 2013;Wray et al. 2019), to estimate the heritability of traits in target populations (Visscher et al. 2008;Legarra 2016), and to estimate ecological and evolutionary genetic parameters of behavioral traits (Ariyomo et al. 2013;Walsh and Lynch 2018). Genetic values are constructed from a combination of genetic effects; including Mendelian factors; which may have both additive and dominant sources of variance (Pincot et al. 2022), oligogenic factors consisting of few genetic factors and their epistatic interactions appropriate for marker-assisted prediction (MAP) (Tang et al. 2006), a polygenic term consisting of a dense genome-wide framework of markers assumed to have minor effects suitable for genomic prediction (GP); which may also account of additive and dominance sources of variance (Brandariz and Bernardo 2019), and a residual genetic term consisting of all genetic effects not accounted for by the previous genetic factors (Rutkoski et al. 2014;Rice and Lipka 2019;DeWitt et al. 2021). The ultimate objective in breeding applications is, typically, predicting the genotypic value, e.g. breeding value or genetic merit of a candidate individual (VanRaden 2008). For loci to provide actionable gains or diagnoses, they must explain a significant proportion of phenotypic and genetic variation in a population with alleles in segregation at target loci.Candidate gene discovery through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping is prolific in plant and animal populations (Lander and Schork 1994;Visscher et al. 2012Visscher et al. , 2017)). Despite decades of directional selection in many plant populations, loci impacting traits of interest still segregate, even in advanced breeding materials. These genome-wide analyses have implicated numerous genes and genomic regions in controlling a wide variety of simple and complex traits (Anderson et al. 2007;Septiningsih et al. 2009;Han et al. 2018;Demmings et al. 2019;Xin et al. 2020). However, the utility of such marker-trait associations may not be fully realized (Bernardo 2004(Bernardo , 2016)). Large-effect and statistically significant loci typically only explain a fraction of the genetic and phenotypic variance in a population (Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. 2021), along with the polygenic fraction (Feldmann, Piepho, et al. 2022), except in extreme scenarios when Mendelian factors wholly control a trait.Discovered loci rarely, if ever, explain 100% of the genetic variance, and understanding the multiple sources of variation and how they relate can help breeders and research prioritize targets and mitigate risk (Bernardo 2004(Bernardo , 2014)). Genes with significant effects often dominate the \"nonmissing heritability,\" but they can mask or obscure the effects of other quantitatively acting genes and pleiotropically affect multiple quantitative phenotypes (Mackay 2001;Mackay et al. 2009;Eichler et al. 2010;De Villemereuil et al. 2018). For example, mutations in the BRCA2 gene can have large effects but be incompletely penetrant, interact with other genes, and may be necessary but insufficient for predicting breast, ovarian, and other cancer risks in women (Gaudet et al. 2010). Accurately partitioning the Mendelian, oligogenic, and polygenic sources of variance allows researchers to assess the value conferred by specific loci.Here, we use simulations to show that the average semivariance (ASV) provides accurate variance component estimates (VCEs) and variance component ratios for all relevant genetic terms regardless of study design or population type, e.g. outbred or inbred. We sought to provide a synthesis and extension of the previously published works on the ASV (Piepho 2019;Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. 2021;Feldmann, Piepho, et al. 2022) and to present a fully realized and efficient ASV approach for typical LMM analyses in human, plant, animal, and microbial genetics. We demonstrate how these models can be extended to handle more complex genetic structures, including adding multiple explanatory loci and marker-marker interactions, incorporating nonadditive dominance and epistasis variance, partitioning marker variance into additive and dominance components, and performing fully efficient stagewise analysis. To accommodate the models proposed in this research, we enabled the flexibility to provide the weights into the mixed model machinery in the form of a matrix (diagonal or nondiagonal) instead of a vector, which is now available in R/sommer >= v4.2.0. We provide examples of expressing the different models and extensions in the freely available R/sommer package (Covarrubias-Pazaran 2016). The ASV is a powerful tool for answering these questions regardless of the organism, population, or trait.Computer simulations model statements in R/sommer v4.2.0We use computer simulations that follow the same style as in Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. (2021) andFeldmann, Piepho, et al. (2022) to demonstrate under fairly general conditions that ASV yields accurate estimates of variance components when (1) including main-effect loci alongside polygenic background, (2) partitioning additive and dominance sources of variance for single markers and polygene, and (3) performing fully efficient stagewise analyses.LMM (1) is expressed aswhere data is an n × 4 matrix containing the phenotypic observations Y, levels of the marker genotypes, entries, and levels of the residual genetic term, i.e. entries. The variable units is inferred by R/sommer::mmer() and can be considered as a column with as many levels as rows in the data (Covarrubias-Pazaran 2016).The version of this model with k M embedded is expressed asAll other variables are the same as previously defined.We generated 18 experiment designs with different population sizes of n = 500, 1,000, and 1,814, and number of clonal replicates per entry r = 1, 2, and 4 for outbred H = 0.38 and inbred H = 0.0 populations. Clonal replicates are a particular case in plant genetics of hybrid (e.g. maize, rice, and sorghum) cropping systems and in clonally propagated species (e.g. strawberry, potato, and apple). In all examples, 100 populations are genotyped at m = 5, 000 loci. These 5,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) generated the purely additive polygenic background and one locus for the simple genetic effect. Marker genotypes, e.g. alleles, were drawn from a multivariate normal distribution to replicate the population structure of the 1,814 mice from Valdar et al. (2006) using R/MASS::mvrnorm() and transformed such that the population was heterozygosity H = 0.38. We then estimated K ASV and excluded the targeted locus from the calculation of K ASV . We also simulated residual genetic and residual effects each from a normal distribution with μ = 0 and θ ASV gR = , and each locus contributes equally. When multiplied by the centered marker genotypes and summed, the score is taken as each individual's true additive genetic value g. For each simulated population we expressed LMM (1) using R/sommer::mmer() (Covarrubias-Pazaran 2016). In the second set of simulations, we used the same approach and the same mean and variance parameters. However, in this example, we simulated inbred lines in the background polygenic markers (H = 0.0) and the foreground markers, e.g. 1 : 0 : 1 for AA:Aa:aa.LMM (8) is expressed aswhere data is an n × 10 matrix containing the phenotypic observations Y, seven columns corresponding to the marker effects and interactions, a factor-coding entries G, and a factor-coding levels of g R .Due to the similarities between our first set of experiments and this extension, we do not provide any additional simulations demonstrating the successes of this model extension. Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. (2021) demonstrated that multiple loci could be fit simultaneously with their interactions, and variance components can be estimated accurately. The same is true for models incorporating a polygenic genomic relationship matrix (GRM) as well. However, the user is encouraged to check that the higher order locus-locus interactions do not saturate the model and are not correlated with K ASV .LMM ( 9) is expressed aswhere data is an n × 5 matrix containing the phenotypic observations Y, a factor-coding levels of m A , a factor-coding levels of m D , a factor-coding entries G, and a factor-coding levels of g R . The factor coding of m A has three levels corresponding to AA : Aa : aa, and a factor coding of m D has two groups corresponding to the genetic state-either homozygous or heterozygous.We performed one set of simulations for this model extension that follows the exact parameters as the first simulation set (m = 5, 000, n = 500, H = 0.38). In this simulation, we estimate which portion of the variance explained by a marker is from additive variance and which is from dominance variance. ). In our simulations, 50% of the variance explained by the focal marker is from additive variation and 50% is dominance variation. The other parameters of the simulation are equal to the first set. We examined the accuracy of estimating each term as well as the accuracy of estimating the total variance explained by the focal marker.LMM (13) is expressed as mmer(fixed = Y ∼ 1, random = ∼ M + vsr(Ga, Gu = Kasv) + vsr(Gd, Gu = Kasv˙D) + GR, rcov = ∼ units, data = data) where data is an n × 5 matrix containing the phenotypic observations Y, a factor-coding levels of the marker genotypes, and three equivalent factor-coding entries, to be used for the additive, dominance, and residual genetic terms.We performed one set of simulations for this model extension that follows the exact parameters as the first simulation set (m = 5, 000, n = 500, H = 0.38). In this simulation, we estimate which portion of the polygenic variance is from additive). In this simulation, the dominance polygenic variance is the same magnitude as the additive polygenic variance, and the other simulation parameters are equal to the first set. We also controlled the residual genetic variance (θ ASV gR = ��� 50 √) and the residual variance (on an entry-mean basis), as in all simulations. We examined the accuracy of estimating each term.LMM (15) for stage 1 is expressed aswhere data is an n × 3 matrix containing the phenotypic observations Y, one factor coding for the entry ID and one-factor coding for Blocks within the n e environment. Blocks and other withinlocation design elements can be incorporated as random effects using the random = syntax. In R/sommer, Σ e is obtained from each location as the 'VarBeta' matrix in the R/sommer::mmer() output. \"VarBeta\" is the name of the model estimated variancecovariance matrix among entry means in R/sommer. The Σ e s are then bound corner-to-corner, which is accomplished using R/ sommer::adiag1() to obtain Ω. We then take the inverse of Ω using R/base::solve().The LMM for stage 2 ( 17) is expressed aswhere data is an n × 5 matrix containing the adjusted entry means, or BLUEs, from stage 1 (Y2) a factor-coding levels of M, two equivalent factor-coding entries, e.g. G and g R , and factor-coding environments Env. In this approach, we must fix the residual variance component equal to 1 so that all the scaling of the invOmega = Ω −1 is unaffected by the model estimation process. Within the vsr() argument, the Gti() and Gtc() arguments are used to set the initial value of the variance component equal to the inverse of the variance among adjusted entry means (invSigma2 = σ−2 ) and to constrain the variance component estimation to a fixed value by setting the first argument equal to 3 (Covarrubias-Pazaran 2023). In this example, we use 25 iterations of the 100% expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm; however, the EM and Newton-Raphson (NR) methods can be exchanged or averaged, i.e. average information, by changing the emWeight argument. This is not a general rule or recommendation. The large number of iterations we used caused this analysis to be computationally expensive and inefficient.We performed one set of simulations for this model extension following the exact parameters of the first simulation set (m = 5, 000, n = 500, H = 0.38). In this simulation, we estimate which portion of the additive genetic variance (θ ASV ). In this simulation, the dominance polygenic variance is the same magnitude as the additive polygenic variance, and the other simulation parameters are equal to the first set. We examined the accuracy of estimating each term.Candidate genes and complex traits Bernardo (2014) was the first to propose an integration of MAP and GP. Since then, empirical studies have validated the methodology (Rutkoski et al. 2014;Spindel et al. 2016;Rice and Lipka 2019). In contrast, others have shown little-to-no improvement over GP (Li et al. 2015;Galli et al. 2020), suggesting that modeling significant markers can improve prediction accuracy only when markers explain a substantial portion of both genetic and phenotypic variance (Galli et al. 2020). With the high densities of genome-wide markers commonly assayed in gene finding studies, investigators often identify DNA markers tightly linked to a candidate or known causal genes as exemplified by diverse real-world examples (Hayes and Goddard 2001;Hayes et al. 2010;Jensen et al. 2012;Visscher et al. 2012Visscher et al. , 2017;;Li et al. 2021). The candidate marker loci are nearly always initially identified by genome-wide searches using sequential (marker-by-marker) approaches such as GWAS and QTL analysis. Following the discovery of statistically significant marker-trait associations from a marker-by-marker genome-wide scan, the natural progression would be to analyze single locus or multilocus genetic models where the effects of the discovered loci are simultaneously corrected for the effects of other discovered loci, e.g. polygenic variation (Stroup et al. 2018;Gbur et al. 2020).A marker will not explain a large portion of variance if that marker does not have a large, detectable effect. Thus, markers that explain a large part of the genetic variance will be the most useful for MAP and other diagnostic techniques. For example, consider Fusarium race one wilt resistance in strawberry, which is conferred by a single dominant acting locus Fw1 (Pincot et al. 2022). This locus explains nearly 100% of the phenotypic and genetic variance, and the mean differences delineate resistant vs. susceptible genotypes. Thus there is almost no added benefit of a genome-wide sample of markers over the single-marker assay (m) for product delivery and germplasm improvement. While the variance explained is directly linked to the effect size, it is not a direct substitute. However, the random effect machinery allows researchers to obtain variance component estimates, and effect sizes (e.g. best linear unbiased predictors, BLUPs) simultaneously (Searle et al. 1992), eliminating the need for multiple statistical models to assess the variance explained and the effect size of a target locus. The BLUP procedure is directly applied in this model, so it is natural to use the same statistical machinery to estimate genome-estimated breeding values (GEBVs) by genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) and the genetic effect of a locus.As a point of contrast, yield in maize (Zea mays) is heritable, but no single locus explains any appreciable amount of phenotypic or genotypic variance (Heffner et al. 2009(Heffner et al. , 2010)). To improve yield in maize, GP is potentially a more valuable approach because the researcher, or breeder, can predict the polygenic value (g) without relying on any particular locus but instead capturing variation of a genome-wide sample of markers. The more challenging scenario is the intermediate case in which a trait is controlled by both loci that are discernible from the polygenic background and a quantitative polygenic effect.The ratio between the variance explained by the oligogenic and polygenic terms with the total genetic or phenotypic variance is likely a significant factor determining the cost-benefit of incorporating MAP, GP, or both into a breeding or diagnostic program. Modeling an individual locus can be advantageous when the proportion of the phenotypic and genetic variance explained by the locus is reasonably large and not partially captured by other markers in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with the target (Bernardo 2014;Rutkoski et al. 2014;Pincot et al. 2022). In this case, one could factor code a pseudomarker from multiple markers bracketing a QTL to capture the variance explained by that locus, assuming that SNPs used to define a QTL region are highly correlated and will not saturate a model's effective degrees of freedom. Also, the targeted markers should not fit the marker effect size distribution assumptions used for the marker background, e.g. that all marker effects contribute equally to the genomic variance and are drawn from the same distribution (Habier et al. 2007;Endelman 2011;Morota and Gianola 2014) and should not be in high LD with a large number of other markers.We believe the \"phenotype\" is the entry mean for a given subdivision of environments, not the individual observations that constitute that entry mean. Our discussion here is primarily predicated on plants, but does not necessarily exclude other organisms, where replicate observations may be available per entry. In the words of Dr. Rex Bernardo, \"…the main focus of quantitative genetics is on identifying candidates with the best genotypic value for a target population of environments\" (Bernardo 2020). However, fine-or broad-scaled any subdivision is of a target population of environments or market segment, we argue that several environments must be sampled from each subdivision. Ultimately, an average across those environments will be used to communicate the value of an entry to a specific subdivision of target environments or to all target environments, if appropriate. These subdivisions may be defined by market segments, maturity zones, patterns of G × E, management strategies, geopolitics, and other elements of interest to a breeding or research program. The granularity of the entry mean is important since not all environments, micro or macro, or market segments can be considered equal, and severe genotype-by-environment interactions (G × E) may limit the information contained in the entry mean (Heslot et al. 2013;González-Barrios et al. 2019). Conceptualizing the phenotype as the entry mean should pose little practical consequence as stagewise analyses, common in GWAS and GP, explicitly express this idea (Dias et al. 2020;Pincot et al. 2020;Endelman 2022) and variance component ratios, such as the broad sense heritability (H 2 ), are often reported on an entry-mean basis (Bernardo 2020). This concept is also concordant with single-stage analyses incorporating all entries and subdivisions as main effects and the interaction, such as in product placement and other late-stage trials (Buntaran et al. 2020). Below, we show that ASV can be accurately applied in single-stage and stagewise analyses.The ASV estimator of total variance (Piepho 2019) and the variance of single markers and marker-marker interactions (Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. 2021) is half the average total pairwise variance of a difference between entries and can be decomposed into independent sources of variance, e.g. genetic and residual. In this article, we assume that researchers can replicate entries independently-as in clonally propagated or inbred crop species-or can collect repeated measures on entries (e.g. individuals, families, or strains)-as in humans and animals-and then estimate the least square means (LSMs), best linear unbiased estimators (BLUEs), or other adjusted entry means in the first stage of a stagewise analysis (Piepho et al. 2012;Damesa et al. 2017Damesa et al. , 2019)). For simplicity, we assume that the residual variance-covariance matrix, which can take many forms (Piepho 2019), is R = I n σ 2 ϵ , where n is the number of entries (e.g. individuals, accessions, genotypes, lines, or animals). In stagewise analysis, R is estimated in the first stage and therefore does not need to be reestimated in the second stage. Instead, it is forwarded to the second stage by proper weighting.The form of the LMM for this analysis assuming only one explanatory marker iswhere ̅ y is the vector of LSMs with y ∼ N (1μ, V), μ is the population mean and the only fixed effect, Z m is the design matrix linking entry means to marker genotypes, m is the vector of random effects of the main-effects locus with m ∼ N (0, Iσ 2 m ), g is the vector of random additive genetic effects associated with the genome-wide framework of marker excluding m with g ∼ N (0, K ASV σ 2 g ), g R is the vector of random residual genetic term-the portion of the total genetic effect not accounted for by m or g-with g R ∼ N (0, Iσ 2 gR ), and ̅ ϵ is the random residual term with ̅ ϵ ∼ N (0, R). We use a pooled estimate of σ 2 ̅ ϵ obtained from the first stage, so this term is known. We then calculated K ASV aswhere ̅ X = PX is the mean-centered marker matrix, X is the mark-is the idempotent mean-centering matrix, and tr(•) is the trace.The ASV definition of total variance from LMM (1) isis the total phenotypic variance, V is the variance-covariance among LSMs, θ ASV m is the average semivariance of the simple genetic term, θ ASV g is the average semivariance of the polygenic term, θ ASV gR is the average semivariance of the residual genetic term, and θ ASV ̅ ϵ is the average semivariance of the residuals. The ASV definition of genomic variance isIn general, we replace the unknown parameter values (σ 2 g ) with their REML estimates (σ 2 g ) to obtain the ASV estimates ( θASV g ).Following this form, it is possible to extend LMM (1) to include dominance and epistatic sources of variance (see below).The ASV definition of marker-associated genetic variance iswhere P m = I − n m −1 1 nm 1 T nm is the idempotent mean-centering marker genotype design matrix, n m is the number of marker genotypes, and n g : m h is the number of entries nested in the hth marker genotype. We are factor-coding marker genotypes in these analyses and the marker genotypes are treated as discrete categorical values instead of continuous values (dosage). It is possible to extend this using the approach for multilocus models as in Equation ( 8), with and without marker-marker interactions, described in Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. (2021). Specifically, θ ASV m is the total variance explained by a marker and is analogous to the total genetic variance used to calculate broad sense heritability, not the additive genetic variance.It is important to consider the relationship between the main effect of markers and marker-marker interactions and K ASV . When markers are highly correlated-due to linkage disequilibrium (LD) or selection bias-the LMM framework will fail to accurately partition variance between two main effects, even if an estimator is \"unbiased.\" One possible strategy here is to create multilocus genotypes, e.g. AA.AA, AA.AB,…, BB.AB, BB.BB, from several SNPs defining a target QTL region. If LD is high in the region, there should be far fewer levels of the multilocus genotype than possible combinations. The same is true if the marker genotypes are highly correlated with the geometry of the K ASV -the LMM framework will fail to accurately partition the variance between the oligogenic foreground and the polygenic background. One way to assess this is to examine the correlation between the first few eigenvectors of K ASV and the main-effect marker genotypes. If the correlation is large in magnitude, regardless of direction, the LMM will likely struggle to partition the variance components between the two terms accurately.The ASV definition of the residual genetic variance isImportantly, all terms are estimated on the same scale as the residual variance θ ASV ϵ on an entry-mean basis. As with the marker variance, the residual genetic variance will not be accurately partitioned from the polygenic background as K ASV → I. While K ASV needs to have similar global features-n −1 tr(K) = 1 andThe ASV definition of the residual variance isThe residual variance σ 2 ̅ ϵ is estimated in the first stage and the estimate is carried forward to the second stage.Two crucial results from Piepho (2019) and Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. (2021) are that (1) the ASV variance component estimates for the total genetic variance from a simple model are equivalent to the REML variance components and (2) for REML estimates that are not ASV equivalent there are simple constants that can be applied post hoc to obtain ASV variance component estimates. Feldmann, Piepho, et al. (2022), and this article shows that some ASV variance components (e.g. additive genetic variance, a single marker variance) can conveniently be obtained by scaling the variance-covariance matrices for the specific random effects in the model directly.As shown in previous studies (Piepho 2019;Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. 2021;Feldmann, Piepho, et al. 2022), ASV is ideal for estimating the variance explained by both single loci and GRMs. In our simulations, we included variation in population size, e.g. n = 500, 1,000, and 1,814, and replication of entries, e.g. r = 1, 2, and 4 for both outbred (Fig. 1) and inbred populations (Fig. 2). We can see that the same pattern has emerged as in previous studies; the ASV approach yields accurate and consistent estimates of variance components and variance component ratios from LMM analyses regardless of the constitution of the population or the study design. Even when there is only one replicate per entry (r = 1), all explanatory genetic terms are accurately partitioned from the total variance. As n increased from 500 to 1,814, the precision of estimates increased dramatically (the sampling variance decreased). Increasing r from 1 to 4 did not affect the precision or accuracy of genomic and marker-associated variances. However, increased numbers of replicates did improve the precision of residual variance components. This is because entries are replicated among plots (n • r), but markers and other genetic components are replicated among entries (n). Our simulations, in conjunction with our previous results (Piepho 2019;Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. 2021;Feldmann, Piepho, et al. 2022), demonstrate that in most populations-human, animal, plant, or microbe-the ASV will yield accurate and easily interpreted estimates of different variance components.While an important model, LMM (1), only covers a narrow scope of the possible genetic models and experiments, we want to provide researchers with a clear strategy for expanding this approach to more complex systems. This section demonstrates how to partition the additive and dominance variance from a single marker, incorporate multiple explanatory loci, their interactions into the model, and nonadditive polygenic terms, and achieve fully efficient stagewise analysis. Depending on the population, trait, environment, etc., the unique components of the models demonstrated here can be combined to accurately and holistically decompose the multitude of potential sources of genetic variation. The code to execute these models using the R/sommer > = v4.2.0 (Covarrubias-Pazaran 2016) is provided in the Methods & Materials section.It is common for multiple QTL to be implicated from genetic studies (Rutkoski et al. 2014;Lopdell et al. 2019;Rice and Lipka 2019), the utility of which is not always certain (Bernardo 2001(Bernardo , 2004)). While the simulations in this paper rely exclusively on LMM (1), this model can be easily expanded to include multiple explanatory loci and their interactions or statistical epistasis (Álvarez-Castro and Carlborg 2007), as demonstrated by Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. (2021). For example, the LMM with three main-effect loci iswhere m i is the random effect of the ith main-effect marker, m ij is the random effect of the two-way interaction between the ith and jth markers, and m 123 is the random effect of the three-way interaction between the three main-effect loci. Z m i , Z m ij , and Z m123 are design matrices that link levels of the explanatory marker and interactions to LSMs in y. The rest of the terms have the same definitions. LMM (8) follows directly from Equation (1) and the results from Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. (2021), specifically the two and three loci examples.Since we are factor-coding marker genotypes in these models, that is we are thinking of the marker genotypes as discrete categorical values instead of continuous values (dosage), it is possible to fully saturate the multilocus interaction with more levels than are observed in a given data set. Hence, it is important to consider the number of interaction terms evaluated. In this situation, packages such as lme4::lmer() will report an error that the \"number of levels of each grouping factor must be < number of [LSMs]\" (Bates et al. 2015). Further, these models assume that random effects are independent, so we do not advise incorporating main effects from the SNPs used to define a target QTL region. Instead, it is possible to factor code a pseudohaplotype from the best markers bracketing a QTL to capture the variance explained by that locus, which can be more informative than a single SNP. This approach assumes that SNPs used to define a QTL region are not independent and do not fully saturate the model.The factor-coding of the Mendelian and oligogenic markers is a different approach than is standard in GWAS. In GWAS, markers are typically treated as fixed and coded as continuous values, e.g. the dosage model. Assuming that a researcher is working with an outbred species and the heterozygosity (H) ≠ 0, the dominance variance can be significant, and partitioning the additive and dominance sources of variance from significant markers can be useful in hybrid crop breeding and disease risk prognoses. Our goal is to partition θ ASV m , the variance explained by a focal locus, into its additive (θ ASV mA ) and dominance (θ ASV mD ) components. Here, we demonstrate an LMM that can partition the maineffect marker's additive and dominance sources of variance by transforming the marker genotypes into two factors. The form of the linear mixed model (LMM) for this analysis assuming only one explanatory marker iswhere m A is the random additive effect of the main-effect locus with m A ∼ N (0, Iσ 2 mA ) and m D is the random dominance effect of the main-effect locus with m D ∼ N (0, Iσ 2 mD ). Z mA is an n × 3 design matrix linking marker genotypes to LSMs and Z mD is an n × 2 design matrix linking genotypic state, either homozygous (AA and aa) or heterozygous (Aa), to LSMs. For example, the Z mA and Z mD design matrices for five individuals (rows) with marker genotypes at a focal locus of [AA, Aa, Aa, aa, aa] Other terms are defined in LMM (1). This extension is a partition of Equation ( 1). So we expect that Equations ( 1) and ( 9) are equivalent, except that Equation (9) will yield a variance component for each of the additive and dominance terms, while Equation (1) only yield the total genetic variance.The ASV estimate of the additive variance explained by a locus is obtained as in Equation ( 5) bywhere, n mA are the number of levels coding the marker additive effects, n g : mA h is the number of entries nested in the hth marker genotype (Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. 2021). The average semivariance estimate of the dominance variance explained by a locus is obtained bywhere, n mD are the number of levels coding the genetic status, e.g. homozygous or heterozygous, n g : mD i is the number of entries nested in the jth genetic state. The sum ofis an accurate and consistent estimate of the variance explained by a marker (Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. 2021). The likelihood ratio (LR) between LMM (1) and ( 9) was LR ≈ 0. It was not significant in any simulated populations (P LR > 0.2), suggesting that there is no appreciable difference between the model likelihood of Equations ( 1) and ( 9). For each term, θASV mA and θASV mD , the average bias' across the 100 simulated populations was 1.06% and −1.24%, respectively.LMM (1) can also be extended to include both additive (g A ) and dominance (g D ) sources of genomic variance (Vitezica et al. 2013(Vitezica et al. , 2017;;Zhang et al. 2021). The form of the LMM for analysis with both g A and g D assuming only one explanatory marker M iswhere g A and g D are random effect vectors for the additive and dominance polygenic effects, respectively, with g A ∼ N (0, K ASV σ 2 gA ) andThe ASV dominance kernel iswhere W = 1 − |X|, assuming X is coded [ − 1, 0, 1], and ̅ W = PW. This is a feasible approach to improve genetic performance in crossbred populations with large dominance genetic variation (Nishio and Satoh 2014;Vitezica et al. 2017;Xiang et al. 2018). Both K ASV and K D ASV have the matrix properties proposed by Speed and Balding (2015); i.e. n −1 tr(K) = 1 and n −2 \uDBFF\uDF50 i \uDBFF\uDF50 j K ij = 0. The dominance variance estimated with K D ASV was accurate, and the relative bias from 100 simulated populations was −3.32%. Interestingly, K D ASV is substantively different than both of the matrices proposed by Nishio and Satoh (2014) and Su et al. (2012). Feldmann, Piepho, et al. (2022) showed that, regardless of population quality, a GRM with an average diagonal value of 1 and an average element value of 0 will produce consistent variance component estimates of the genomic variance. A matrix with the same properties calculated from a dominance coding will produce similarly unbiased parameter estimates. The dominance GRM proposed by Su et al. (2012) has an average diagonal value of 1, but the average element value is >0, leading to a systematic underestimating since the covariances are overestimated. The dominance GRM proposed by Nishio and Satoh (2014) has an average element value of 0, but the average element value is <1, leading to a systematic overestimating since the variances (diagonals) are underestimated. This is true for a wide range of population heterozygosities.Stagewise analyses are common in plant breeding trials in academic studies and the seed industry (Damesa et al. 2017(Damesa et al. , 2019)). One reason for this is that plant breeders are often not interested in the performance per se of a line or hybrid within a specific location unless the presence of cross-over (e.g. rank change)Variance ComponentStage−wise Analysis The relative bias of genomic variance (σ 2 g ), marker variance (σ 2 m ), residual genetic variance (σ 2 gR ), genotype-by-environment interaction variance (σ 2 G×E ), and residual variance (σ 2 R ) analyzed in a single stage (upper panel) or stagewise stages (lower panel). Each box's upper and lower halves correspond to the first and third quartiles (the 25th and 75th percentiles). The notch corresponds to the median (the 50th percentile). The upper whisker extends from the box to the highest value within 1.5 × IQR of the third quartile, where IQR is the inter-quartile range or distance between the first and third quartiles. The lower whisker extends from the first quartile to the lowest value within 1.5 × IQR of the quartile. The dashed line in each plot is the true value from simulations. large enough to make data from one target environment uninformative in another set of target environments. Instead, plant breeders are often more interested in the performance of entries across environments (Bernardo 2020). It is common then to fit a first model that accounts for the variation of random design elements, e.g. locations, years, blocks, and fixed genotype effects, to obtain the phenotype-estimated marginal means (EMMs) or best linear unbiased estimators (BLUEs)-for use in subsequent analyses. In subsequent stages, these entry-means within environments in a subdivision are used as the response variable.In general, the single-stage analysis, when performed correctly, should be considered the \"gold standard.\" However, there are experimental conditions where the stagewise analysis may be simpler to execute and functionally equivalent to the single-stage analysis when performed correctly (Fig. 3), and, given the frequency of naive stagewise analyses-those that fail to incorporate the variance-covariance matrix of entry means, or even appropriate weights, from stage 1 into the second stage-we felt it prudent to highlight the simplicity of these approaches to a general audience. The purpose here is not to convince the reader that multistage analyses are superior (they are not), nor to provide a one-size-fits-all solution for every experiment (that is impossible), but to provide a path for users to accomplish fully efficient, multistage analyses using free, open-source software. Generally, the stagewise analysis should be considered a possible backup to the single-stage analysis, not the standard (Schulz-Streeck et al. 2013;Gogel et al. 2018;Damesa et al. 2019;Buntaran et al. 2020).The LMM for stage one iswhere X e is the fixed effect design matrix linking observations to entries, and g * e are the fixed effects (e.g. BLUEs) for the entries in the eth environment, Z e is the random effect design matrix for design (e.g. blocks) elements within each environment (e.g. years and locations), and ϵ e are the residuals and ϵ e ∼ N (0, R e ), where R e is the residual variance-covariance matrix estimated in the eth environment. This model is fit within each environment independently.From these models, we obtain the adjusted entry means ̅ y and the variance-covariance matrices of the entry means Σ e from each of n e environments, where n e are the number of environments. We can then construct the n ge × n ge block-diagonal stage one Ω matrix as in Equation ( 16).where n ge is the number of entries nested in environments; for example, if there are 500 entries in four environments, n ge = 2, 000. This method allows us to carry the full Ω nge over from stage one to stage two of the analysis.The second stage can take several forms with varying complexities, more complete approximations of Ω nge or Ω −1 nge , and software accessibility. Briefly: 1) In a naive stagewise analysis, the residual matrix is given as the identity matrix multiplied by a scalar( Ω = I nge ω −1 = I nge σ 2 ), where ω is a scalar (σ −2 ) estimated by the second stage LMM, assuming that the variances for entry means are identical with 0 covariances (independent); IID.This approach is very common in plant sciences because it is simple but problematic outside a specific set of unrealistic conditions, i.e. IID entry means. It is simple because it does not require any information on precision from stage 1. It is problematic because the residual and genotype-byenvironment variances are confounded. The naive approach does not require additional arguments for LMM software and can be executed in any LMM software.2) In a weighted stagewise analysis, the Ω = D(ω)−1 nge matrix is diagonal, but each diagonal element may differ based on datadriven weight (D(ω) nge ), where D(ω) nge is an n ge -dimension diagonal matrix, estimated in the first stage of the analysis. Importantly, these weights are derived as one of many possible diagonal approximations of Ω nge (Móhring and Piepho 2009) or its inverse, e.g. Ω −1 nge , from the first stage of the analysis (Smith et al. 2001). The weighted approach may take multiple forms that may or may not neglect the covariances among entry mean, leading to discrepancies between the single-stage and stagewise analyses (Smith et al. 2001(Smith et al. , 2005;;Móhring and Piepho 2009). This approach requires an additional argument in LMM software, typically \"weights,\" which is input as a vector corresponding to entry means and internally transformed into a diagonal matrix, and can be executed in several free or paid software (Inc. 2013;Covarrubias-Pazaran 2016;Butler 2021).3) In a fully efficient stagewise analysis, entry means are allowed to have nondiagonal covariance structures with Ω = Ω nge , where Ω nge is the full variance-covariance matrix of entry means from the different environments [defined in Equation ( 16)]. This approach is the most general solution for implementing stagewise meta-analyses, maintaining all variances and covariances without approximation, but it is the most limited in terms of software implementations. The full variance-covariance matrix of the entry means will be nondiagonal in most cases, and a diagonal matrix (weighted or unweighted) is almost invariably an approximation as the random main effects of the environment, or block, will induce a positive covariance among all entry means. Incorporating the full variance-covariance matrix requires a lot of additional data and significantly reduces the computational efficiency of the LMM, which may outweigh potential practice benefits. This approach requires the inverse of the full variance-covariance matrix, Ω −1 nge , as an input argument and can now be executed in R/sommer > = v4.2.0 (Covarrubias-Pazaran 2016).The LMM for stage two is then:where ̅ y are the adjusted entry means from stage one, μ is the population mean, X is the fixed effect design matrix linking environments to adjusted entry means, e are the fixed environmental main effects, g is the random additive genetic effect associated with the genome-wide framework of marker excluding m with g ∼ N (0, K ASV σ 2 g ), g R is the random residual genetic term-the portion of the total genetic effect not accounted for by m or g-with g R ∼ N (0, I n σ 2 gR ), g GE is the genotype-by-environment interaction term with g GE ∼ N (0, I nge σ 2 gGE ), and ̅ ϵ is the structured residual term from stage one with ̅ ϵ ∼ N (0, Ω) With this model, we can estimate the breeding values across environments with marker information (K) as in GBLUP and can perform GWAS by adding an iterative term for single marker regression, such as \uDBFF\uDF50 j i=1 β i x i where j is the number of markers, β i is the linear regression coefficient of the ith marker, and x i is the numeric coding of the ith markers genotypes, e.g. [ − 1, 0, 1].We created 1,000 simulated populations with 1,000 entries and 5,000 markers using a similar approach to the other simulations in this experiment. However, we included Environmental and Block within Environment effects in this experiment. We estimate the variance explained by the polygenic background, a large-effect locus, the residual genetic variance, the genotype-by-environment interaction variance, and the nongenetic residual. The single stage analysis yielded relative biases of −1.55%, −3.04%, −0.45%, −0.12%, and 0.03% for the marker variance (σ 2 m ), genomic variance (σ 2 g ), residual genetic variance (σ 2 gR ), genotype-by-environment interaction variance (σ 2 gGE ), and residual variance (σ 2 ̅ ϵ ), respectively (Fig. 3). The two stage analysis yielded relative biases of −1.39%, −3.09%, 0.48%, −0.21%, and 0.03% for the marker variance (σ 2 m ), genomic variance (σ 2 g ), residual genetic variance (σ 2 gR ), genotype-by-environment interaction variance (σ 2 gGE ), and residual variance (σ 2 ̅ ϵ ), respectively (Fig. 3). where K M is n M × n M and n M is the number of marker genotypes at a given locus, we can essentially think of K M as a genomic relationship matrix, e.g. K ASV , except that we apply K M to the levels of the marker genotype instead of entries. The form of the LMM for this analysis assuming only one explanatory marker is the same as Equation ( 1), but where m is the random effect of the main-effect locus with m ∼ N (0, K M σ 2 m ). With this approach, we maintain the levels of the factor come from the same variance and zero covariance, but our scaling factor is embedded directly in the model eliminating the need for adjustment. Embedding k M in the LMM analysis using K M is equivalent to the post hoc adjustment that was proposed in Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. (2021), and so it is up to the user to determine which approach they prefer.ASV is a strategy that can be used for estimating and partitioning the total variance into components (Piepho 2019), such as the variance explained by loci and locus-locus (Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. 2021) and the genomic variance (Feldmann, al. 2022). The approach we are suggesting shares some common threads with the current thinking in quantitative genetics, particularly as it relates to genomic relatedness, genomic heritability, and GP (VanRaden 2008;Kang et al. 2010;Yang et al. 2010;Habier et al. 2013) but it also deviates from the classic quantitative genetic model conceptually in that it assumes that marker effects are random variables (Falconer and Mackay 1996;Lynch and Walsh 1998). Despite the conceptual deviation, this approach has been demonstrated to have statistically valid assumptions and applied in several studies (Verbyla et al. 2012;Schreck et al. 2019;Taylor et al. 2023).ASV has several beneficial elements, making it a viable option for quantitative genetics. More importantly, it is appropriate for any quantitative discipline where variance components are of interest, from plant and microbial biology to psychology and infant research. Namely:1) The definitions of the variance components using ASV are additive and sum to the phenotypic variance. Consequently, the LMM can be extended to incorporate many explanatory components, e.g. dominance, epistasis, and transcriptomic, and will yield accurate VCEs for all terms. They will sum to the total variance. This is not necessarily true for all definitions of variance components, such as the Average Marginal Variance (Piepho 2019;Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. 2021). 2) ASV is well suited for stagewise analyses. At the center of ASV is the idea that the \"entry mean\" is the phenotype per se, and not the observations directly. One interpretation is that individuals, not observations, are the primary source of variation or at least the primary source of interest. This concept can be easily extracted from single-stage analyses but seems at the heart of stagewise analyses (Piepho et al. 2012). Specifically, a single-stage analysis based on plot data can be shown to be equivalent to a stagewise analysis in which entry means and their associated variance-covariance matrix is carried forward to the second stage, in which BLUPs are computed for the genetic effects (Piepho et al. 2012). ASV yields accurate estimates of the genetic and genomic variance components in unreplicated or partially replicated designs common in humans, plants, and animals. ASV also yields accurate VCEs in fully efficient multistage approaches. 3) ASV does not impact the BLUPs or breeding value predictions in Genomic (G)-BLUP. ASV is only used to obtain accurate VCEs. It has been demonstrated that marker coding and different strategies for scaling and centering Z and K do not impact BLUPs or prediction accuracy (Strandén and Christensen 2011;Legarra 2016;Feldmann, Piepho, et al. 2022) and because ASV essentially works through a set of scalar coefficients determined by the experiment and population to obtain the expected features for the genomic relationship matrix. Practically, ASV does not change the information embedded in the LMM or data, only the scaling of the VCEs. 4) ASV works under many model assumptions in GLMM analyses.Beyond the often-assumed variance-covariance structure in this study, e.g. R = Iσ 2 ϵ , many structures will lead to nonzero covariance between entry means. ASV can be applied to designs accounting for spatial structures with autoregressive correlations or spline-models (Rodríguez-Álvarez et al. 2018;Selle et al. 2019). ASV can also be applied to data sets where the observational units lead to nonnormality of residuals, i.e. ordinal disease scores and proportion scores (Piepho 2019). As substantiated by our simulations in this study and the context of our previous studies, ASV with REML estimation of the underlying variance components yields accurate estimates for oligo-and polygenic effect, both individually and collectively, and BLUPs of the additive and dominance effects of marker loci (Piepho 2019;Feldmann, Piepho, Bridges, et al. 2021;Feldmann, Piepho, et al. 2022). ASV directly yields accurate estimates of genomic heritability in the observed population and can be used to adjust deviations that arise from other commonly used methods for calculating genomic relationships regardless of the population constitution, such as inbred lines and F 1 hybrids, unstructured GWAS populations, or animal herds and flocks. We believe that K ASV provides a powerful approach for directly estimating genomic heritability for the observed population regardless of study organism or experiment design (Visscher et al. 2006(Visscher et al. , 2008(Visscher et al. , 2010)). In conclusion, we recommend that genetics researchers studying humans, microbes, or (un)domesticated plants and animals consider the ASV approach.","tokenCount":"8179"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"38101535d8075780966148dd2b552d74","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/157f6ce4-c77b-4291-bff8-b160307ed668/content","id":"-378529863"},"keywords":["Wheats","research institutions","pilot farms","management","planning","project management AGRIS category codes: A50 Dewey decimal classification: 633.11726"],"sieverID":"7cab080c-c693-46a0-9c5f-fea1d103fb3a","pagecount":"21","content":"The agricultural research station plays a vital role in the generation of both new knowledge and appropriate technologies for farmers. However, despite the importance and complexity of running research stations, there is very little information available on how to develop new stations or improve existing ones. This special report is divided into two parts. The first deals with a procedure that can be used to evaluate the physical needs of and for a station. The procedure involves four steps: 1) establishing the needs \"for\" and \"of\" an experiment station based on the present and projected requirements of the research programs; 2) reviewing requirements with administrators and scientists; 3) preparing a detailed conceptual plan, and 4) preparing a detailed working plan;The second part deals with some of the management and personnel needs of a station.Management of a station is generally far more complex than most people realize, simply because they do not see the range of activities that a station manager has to handle.The agricultural research station continues to playa critical role in improving the scientific understanding of soil-plant-animal systems and developing appropriate affordable technologies for farmers. In recent years, on-farm research (OFR) activities have increased to complement research conducted on the experiment station (IRRI 1987). In some cases, research stations have actually been closed to pursue other research options (e.g., renting farmers' fields). However, despite such occurrences, the success of research depends upon the integration of commodity and disciplinary research conducted both in farmers fields and on experiment stations (Merrill-Sands and McAllister 1988). Therefore, despite changes in research strategies, the experiment station is expected to continue as a key to successful research.Quality on-station research requires research stations with a high level of management (Hariri 1987). As such, effective station management requires professionally trained and highly motivated staff, properly laid out fields with adequate facilities and good research support services. Despite the importance of these issues, however, and the breadth of activities undertaken on a station there is little in the literature which describes the procedures for developing or maintaining research stations. This special report focuses on 1) one approach for establishing needs in developing a new station or assessing an existing research station, and 2) identifying personnel needs of a station. The approach to station evaluation has been implemented, either in part or in its entirety, by CIMMYT staff for evaluating, improving, and/or developing the physical facilities of CIMMYT's research stations and research stations in a number of developing countries.There are two ways of achieving better physical facilities for an experiment station, namely:• Develop a new station, or• Improve an existing one.Both are facilitated by working through the following steps: 1 • Establishing the needs \"for\" and \"of' an experiment station (based on present and future requirements of the research programs);• Reviewing requirements with administrators and scientists of the research programs;• Preparing a detailed conceptual plan;• Preparing a detailed working plan.The plans should be drawn up by experienced station development specialist(s) working in conjunction with a committee especially appointed for this purpose. The members of the development committee should represent all research and administration programs that will use the facilities.For brevity, the following discussion is presented in terms of developing a new station.However, it should be apparent which steps are to be pursued when evaluating how to improve an existing station.Step 1: Establishing the needs \"for\" and \"of\" an experiment stationThe need \"for\" a station--To ensure obtaining the maximum benefit from investments in station development, the first step is to establish the need \"for\" a research station (i.e., clearly state why a station is needed). The following points should therefore be addressed:• Why is a station needed?• Could needs be met through some other mechanism (e.g., property rental, onfarm research)?• How important are the commodities or agricultural system to be studied? An estimate should be made of the area (ha) and number of farmers who would be affected.• What is the potential for increasing the productivity of the system (i.e., what are the expected returns from the investment? What are the estimates of present and projected productivity?)• Who will benefit?The needs \"of\" the station--Once the need \"for\" a station has been clearly established, the needs \"of' the station can be developed (Le., what does the station need to function). It is imperative that a master plan be developed before commencing work to establish the station. All decisions made at this juncture will playa critical role in the future management of the station.The master plan should include both immediate and future (e.g., next 5 to 10 years) needs.Three areas need to be covered by the plan, namely: 1) environment (Table 1); 2) human resources (Table 2), and 3) physical resources, including architectural and civil engineering needs (Table 3). In developing the plan, the points listed in Tables 1-3  Topography Develop:• Map (scale: 1:2000; Le., 1 cm =20 m) of stations with an area of 100 ha or less and a map (scale: 1:5000; Le., 1 cm =50 m) of stations having areas greater than 100 ha.• Map (scale: 1:200) of areas where buildings and residential houses will be.• Map with 1 m contour intervals for contours more than 200 m apart (Le., slope < 0.5%) or half this if contours less than 200 m apart (Le., 0.5 m contours for land with a slope> 0.5%).Estimate:• Total number of hectares required to meet program needs (crop, forage, pasture, animals).• Crop cycles per year and planting dates.• Area under irrigation and rainfed conditions, for each cycle and each crop.List:• Crop rotations and what cover crops, if any, are used.Table 1. Continued.List:• Planting practices for each program, giving plot size and row spacing required for each.Designate:• Introduction blocks for quarantine purposes.• Areas for specific research activities having residual effects (e.g., herbicide and fertilizer trials).• Develop map showing water sources.• Estimate peak water consumption (field, offices, and residential areas)Evaluate:• Water quality and remedial action required.• Depth of water table.Natural pests• Identify disease, weed and insect pressures, and potential interactions with research.Expected land use in the surrounding area• Estimate predicted urban development around the station. The use of chemicals and water can influence the long-tenn viability of a station, particularly when a station becomes surrounded by housing. Chemicals associated with potential health risks may be a concern, and urban development may compete for water.   Develop a station map showing:• Field layout: plot location, size, and orientation, headlands, irrigation hydrants or canals, plot and road drainage systems (both above and below ground), threshing areas outside of plots (critical to avoid threshing in the fields, which gives rise to volunteers in the following cycle).• Building layout: facilities, residential areas, waste disposal, sewage .and water treatment, recycling (good access among work areas and from them to the field; they should be well separated from residential areas. Layout should ensure that movement between buildings is as efficient as possible.)• Areas to be left without land forming.• Roads, paths, bridges, types of fencing, power lines, wells, and telephone lines.Site identification--The crop(s) and/or animals of interest, along with the desired characteristics of the production environment (e.g., rainfall, temperature, and disease pressure), give a first approximation to the agroclimatic zones that are potentially suitable for a research site. Next, desired soil characteristics further define potential sites. When available, both soil and agricultural productivity maps should be consulted and analyzed.Several potential locations should be examined before the final selection is made. Historical weather information should be collected and analyzed to check for desired or adverse climatic conditions. Background information on other natural phenomena and crops should also be collected from long-standing records and local residents. Criteria for rejecting a site or selecting it for further analysis are outlined in Tables 4 and 5. Geographical infotmation systems (GIS) now present powerful tools for developing regional maps based on climatic, soil, and even socio-economic conditions. Such maps greatly facilitate identification of appropriate sites and the extent to which they represent key parameters of the region.Table 4. Factors to consider when establishing a new station or evaluating an existinR station.Ensure that:• Sufficient area for present and future programs and building needs.• There is a \"buffer\" zone between the station and population centers. The probability of urban development around a station needs to be considered, as well as the likelihood of such development leading to problems of station viability • No limiting factors exist for land improvement or for irrigation (were it required)• There is water of acceptable quality and quantity for both domestic and field requirementsEnsure:• Proximity to electrical supply, with sufficient capacity for all foreseen future requirements.• Good communications (telephone, radio, telex, Internet, etc.)Ensure:• Sufficient local labor.• Access to adequate medical facilities, schools, etc., for staff and labor.• Area is free from diseases and other natural hazards.• Access to suitable transport (roads, bus service, airport, etc.).Table 5. Points to check before purchasing land for a new station.• Make sure that all land titles are in order.• Check for any \"right of ways\" that may exist on the property; if they do, how to re-route them.• Agree with neighbors on exact location of common boundaries.• Evaluate growth potential.• Obtain as much historical data as possible on previous crops and agricultural practices.Potential sites should be listed in order of desirability. The soil of the top three sites should be extensively sampled (e.g., 50 x 50-m grid) in order to evaluate chemical (especially pH), physical (drainage), and depth characteristics. This step need not be prohibitively expensive, as field pH test kits and field observations by experienced scientists will often provide sufficient detail. If feasible, both the crops of interest and indicator crops (Table 6) should be planted at the three sites before proceeding with development. If planting the site is not feasible, soil' samples can be taken across the area and greenhouse pot trials conducted to assess potential soil problems. Because of their sensitivity, indicator crops will aid in identifying soil deficiencies and potential problems--otherwise the main crops to  4 and 5 should again be considered prior to starting any rehabilitation or development work.Mter a site is selected, ecological concerns need to be addressed as station cropping areas and plots are being developed and formed. A common procedure is to set aside a fenced plot, 1-2 ha in area, in an isolated part of the station, in order to preserve, as a reference point, the original flora of that particular region. Other environmental concerns, such as future housing development around a station, should also be considered. Such urban development may threaten the long-term viability of a station, particularly if certain practices (e.g., chemical applications and dust from tillage) are of potential concern to surrounding inhabitants.Defining needs--It is essential that all necessary data (Tables 1-3) be collected. The station development specialist(s) and the special committee should identify constraints and the research programs' specific needs. The meetings will help establish a dialogue that is essential for station development. A series of alternate drafts and scenarios should be prepared and weighed against the needs of research programs and natural constraints. The developer(s) should attempt to clearly meet the needs of the programs while respecting, to the extent possible, fmanciallimitations and environmental and ecological requirements.Step 2: Review of requirements by administrators and scientistsOnce a draft of the master plan is ready, it is discussed with and approved by administrators or their designates. It is then presented in an open meeting to all concerned scientists, their directors, the development specialist(s), and the development committee.Although the draft plan will likely need modification, it is useful because it focuses the discussion and planning. Without such a plan, discussion sessions often lead to indeterminate and inappropriate conclusions. All pertinent suggestions from the meeting are considered and incorporated.The next step is for the developer(s) and the committee to discuss with the research programs any detailed requirements (e.g., for particular field practices, specific building and laboratory needs, and special plot and research equipment). The meeting with the programs should be preceded by \"departmental\" meetings to discuss and clarify those special requirements.Again, it is important to emphasize that these meetings and open participation give people the opportunity to report their specific needs and get involved in the planning process.Step 3: Detailed conceptual planOnce data on specific needs have been obtained from all concerned research programs and administration, the development specialist(s) should begin drawing up detailed plans and estimating costs of individual activities. The detailed conceptual plan should cover:• The field layout (Table 3).• Buildings and layout (Table 3).• Machinery and equipment (Table 3). The plan is then thoroughly discussed with the development committee, administrators, and others involved to ensure that: 1) all requirements have been covered; 2) if it did not already exist, an efficient station management system is in place, and 3) necessary training at all levels is built into the plan.Step 4: Detailed working planMer the scientists have approved the draft plan, funds will be released in order to start drawing up the detailed working plan for development (plot layout and development, building plans, specifications, etc.). This step often takes time (six months to a year), but can be very effectively used for planning field activities, preparing timetables for development events, training station managers and other key personnel staff, both on site and, if necessary, overseas.Due to the typically large investment that will be made in developing a station, the planning stages should not be rushed. A little extra time and thought invested during the planning can prevent future difficulties and unnecessary costs.Managing a research station is generally much more complex than most people realize. Few people have appreciation for the wide range of skills required. For example, generally scientists are only concerned about having a plot or field ready to plant--they are not interested in or often even aware of the myriad of other activities required to perform that simple operation (e.g., how one maintains the machinery to get the land ready, how one contracts the labor or pays the insurance for the workers, where the fertilizer was bought from, etc., etc.). Thus, few people have the experience to clearly state what personnel are required and/or how they should be organized. The following discussion outlines a simple procedure that will help in establishing such needs.In establishing the personnel needs of station, frrstly, the activities involved in running a station need to be defined. Table 7 presents a summary of the activities typically carried out on a station. Very generally, the activities can be divided into five categories:• Administration,• Field operations,• Maintenance,• Stores,• Control. Typically, depending on the size of the research station, a single person can not handle all these activities. Thus, to establish the personnel required to run a station, an organogram fully or in part, by hiring from outside, and thus the number of permanent staff and costs may be reduced.Once the staffing requirements and structure are decided, some operational guidelines need to be established. One of the key features of managing a station efficiently is to have a person with both the responsibility and the power to make decisions and take action. Often times, however, a station manager has the responsibility, but not the power, and thus they find themselves constantly faced with demands that they are unable to make, or decisions they are unwilling to make due to the inefficiencies associated with the request. Generally, these problems arise due to insufficient resources to-cover demands, or a lack of uriderstanding by the scientist as to the inefficiencies involved in their request. These problems can be illustrated by the following example.Imagine any station:• Fact: For any given scientist, his or her work is the most important.• Fact: For any given scientist, his/her work has priority.• Sometimes fact: When limitations are explained to scientists, they are willing to cooperate to help make a system more efficient.If the scientists have the limitations or problems clearly explained to them, then simple communication of needs, problems, and solutions often suffice to avoid friction and help improve the efficiency of running station. However, if a scientist fails to see the logic, then the station manager either needs support from someone with authority or must have the authority themselves to be able to decree the course of action. At times, due to research demands, a certain amount of inefficiency may need to be tolerated. Under such circumstances, the scientists should have sufficient budget allocations to cover the costs associated with such nonstandard practices.The steps spelled out in this special report can be used equally for assessing a station in existence and its relevance for further development. The methodology can alternately be used to determine if a station should closed down.","tokenCount":"2759"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a3b0abb1f6a6b285a544146492ab9a2a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a3344f4b-8781-4854-8f88-002b794c646c/retrieve","id":"2028432771"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9a90c06c-149e-4e79-8307-845ddf62e206","pagecount":"10","content":"This technical report presents a comprehensive overview of the pilot initiative for site-specific and season-smart fertilizer recommendations (SSFR) implemented during the 2022/2023 wheat farming season in Ethiopia. The initiative, led by key demand partners such as Digital Green in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), utilized the advisoryintegrated with the Ethiopian Digital Agro-Climate Advisory Platform (EDACaP), targeting smallholder farmers through various dissemination channels. The collaborative effort, involving MoA,the Ethiopian Institute of Agrocultural Research (EIAR), GIZ-Ethiopia (Supporting Soil Health Inistitives, SSHI), CGIAR EiA (Excellence in Agronomy) Initiative, the Accelerating CGIAR Climate Research in Africa (AICCRA) project, and Digital Green aimed at co-creating tailored agro-advisory content and employing agile dissemination channels. A customized decision support tool (DST) was developed to guide planners, extension workers, and farmers in making optimal planting decisions and fertilizer use. The report details the training of extension agents, using different dissemination channels, primarily using a Telegram bot for communicating the advisory services, and the challenges faced during the pilot, such as fertilizer shortages and limited internet coverage. The findings in August 2023 highlight the effectiveness of the advisory, reaching 50,200 farmers, out of which 8,316 farmers adopting the recommendations. Notably, 20% of adopters were women. The achievement is notable considering the fact that the season was characterized with severe shortage or fertilizer and very high cost. The report also highlights key lessons learned, emphasizing the importance of contextual understanding, collaboration between organizations, and engagement at both the local and ministry levels. The pilot's success underscores the demand for customized advisories and sets the stage for broader adoption and impact within the agricultural extension system.This technical report encompasses several key areas in piloting site-specific and season-smart fertilizer recommendations (SSFRs). NextGen agroadvisory DST integrated with EDACaP, tailored to the specific site, seasonal climate, and household conditions, is the key initiative for piloting. The advice from this tool is being extensively piloted across wheat farming systems in Ethiopia during the 2022/2023 season. Digital Green is pivotal as the principal partner leading the piloting exercise. Primarily, a Telegram bot approach has been used to disseminate NextGen advisory to smallholder farmers and gather feedback from farmers. This is also integrated with other channels (maps and videos) to test which combinations of options are preferable by different groups of farmers. A dashboard developed by Digital Green is used to get near real-time feedback on the number of wheat growers targeted, reached, and adopted the advisory during the 2023 crop season.An innovative collaboration has been established, bringing together governmental organizations, non-profit developmental institutions, and private sector entities, including Digital Green and MoA. This partnership is dedicated to fostering co-creation, generating agro-advisory content, and employing agile dissemination channels to effectively reach extension workers and farmers while actively collecting valuable feedback. The tangible result of this concerted effort is the codevelopment of a customized, SSFRs Decision Support Tool (DST). This DST guides planners, extension workers, and farmers on optimal planting decisions and the required types and amounts of fertilizers.Validation results of the NextGen agroadvisory during the 2021/2022 cropping season have demonstrated significant positive impacts on wheat production. That is, the average grain yield increased by 24%, nutrient use efficiency improved by 40%, water use efficiency increased by 15%, and overall profitability exceeded $1100 per hectare per season compared to blanket recommendations (Report; Manuscript under review). Building on these accomplishments, Digital Green, the primary scaling partner of the Use Case, is currently engaged in an extensive pilot of the advisory across 16 wheat-growing districts and 201 Kebeles in Ethiopia for the 2022/2023 season. The selection of piloting sites was based on the wheat growing potential, with Digital Green operating in partnership with local agricultural bureaus and development agents (DAs). The criteria for selection included accessibility for implementation, monitoring capabilities, and farmers' willingness to attend training and implement recommendations. Specific Kebeles were identified, considering the availability of DAs to support the piloting.Agricultural extension services in Ethiopia have relied on blanket fertilizer recommendations. However, with evolving scientific insights and a deeper understanding of localized needs, there is a growing acknowledgment that a one-size-fits-all approach may not be optimal. The Ethiopian Extension Service recognizes this paradigm shift. It is committed to adopting SSFR, a more nuanced and customized strategy in providing fertilizer recommendations tailored to the local context of smallholder farmers.After identifying sites, extension agents received training on the advisory information service, including the purpose and utilization of the main dissemination channels. Digital Green developed the telegram bot (this link). A variety of approaches, such as combinations of video, maps, and face-to-face dissemination, were employed to pilot the advisory during the 2022/2023 cropping season (Fig. 1). The telegram bot was utilized to monitor and track the progress of DAs, recording the number of smallholder farmers targeted, reached, and willing to adopt the NextGen advisory in near real-time throughout the 2023 rainy season. A total of 746 extension agents (535 male and 211 female) received training across the 201 Kebeles (Fig. 1). After the training, the Digital Green team, alongside extension agents who were equipped with knowledge about the advisory content and dissemination channels, conducted awareness creation and training sessions on fertilizer recommendations and other agronomic practices for farmers within the selected Kebeles. The advisory was disseminated through a multi-faceted approach and channel media (i.e., telegram bot only, video-based extension, or a combination of telegram bot and video). According to the Digital Green Dashboard feedback report in September 2023, Aaround 108,955 smallholder wheat growers across 16 woredas are expected to receive the advisory with the telegram bot, along with other dissemination channels, such as video and digital maps. Among the total wheat growers, over 28,400 farmers expressed their willingness to implement the advisory in Ethiopia across 170 Kebeles in three regions (Table 1). The data gathered from telegram bot usage highlights the extensive use of this channel by development agents to connect with numerous smallholder wheat growers.After the implementation efforts in August 2023, the advisory reached 50,200 farmers have received the advisory successfully through the various media mentioned earlier, of which 6,800 farmers implemented the SSFR and 25% were women (Fig. 2). The relatively lower number of farmers adopting the advisory during the 2022/2023 season was attributed to the critical fertilizer shortage and soaring prices in the country (e.g., see this link and this link). Because of those challenges, many farmers in Ethiopia could not apply fertilizer at all or did not apply the required amount of fertilizer. At the same time, security issues in some parts of the country also undermined fertilizer access and utilization by some farmers, which also affected the project.  Facilitated by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the Alliance, and GIZ, a pilot project for SSFR for wheat was initiated in Doyogena District, Gomora Kebele. This initiative brought together 185 farmers, forming a cluster covering 35 hectares of land. The district office of agriculture played a crucial role in establishing the Agricultural Commercialization Cluster (ACC) and implementing the LSFRs. They identified sites, delineated the cluster, collected GPS points for each farmer's field, and shared this information with the Alliance to generate personalized LSFRs for each farmer's plot.A field day was organized in September 2023 to provide farmers, agricultural experts, extension workers, and zonal administrators with the opportunity to observe and learn from practitioners about successful practices and experiences related to SSFRs and wheat clustering at Gomora Keble in the Doyogena and Shumu kebele in the Lemo district. Figure 4 showcases the performance of SSFRs beneficiary farmers in the Doyogena district, demonstrated to participants during the field day.A total of 140 participants attended, including 120 men, 20 women, 56 extension workers, and 7 individuals from the media and other sectors. The significance of LSFR, tailored to the specific needs of each field, was highlighted during the field day held in Doyogena (Gomora kebele) and Lemo district (Shurmu kebele), aimed at enhancing wheat productivity. The event in the Kenbata and Hadiya zones was broadcasted on regional channels. • Shortage of Chemical Fertilizer: One notable challenge surfaced during the second and third phases of the LSFR pilot program, where a lack of chemical fertilizer hindered the intended outreach to many farmers. This issue was particularly evident during the 2022 and 2023 cropping seasons. • Weak Adoption of Organic Fertilizer: Despite being presented as an alternative recommendation in the advisory, the adoption of organic fertilizer faced several hurdles, including labor-intensive production and transportation to the field, Requirement of substantial materials (dry materials, wet materials, and water) for preparation, and negative perception among farmers due to the unpleasant odor during preparation, a common issue in the conventional composting process if not managed properly. • Limited Internet Coverage: In the pilot woredas, there is a challenge related to limited internet coverage. As the telegram bot serves as one of the channels for delivering the advisory during this cropping season, the restricted internet access poses difficulties for Development Agents (DAs) to retrieve the advisory on their phones.• Government Adoption and Demand: From the validation process up to now, the government has demonstrated a strong willingness to accept and adopt the advisory. This underscores an apparent demand for customized advisories. Addressing farmers' needs in this context requires additional efforts to ensure the effectiveness of our advisory services.Green and ABC, as organizations with distinct areas of expertise, have the potential to generate significant and impactful results by coordinating with each other. Such collaboration can play a transformative role in influencing the extension and research systems within the country. • Lesson on Contextual Understanding: The pilot has highlighted the importance of understanding the context on the ground and pinpointing areas for integration and collaboration. This lesson underscores the need for tailored approaches that resonate with the local environment.• Government Engagement at Woreda and Zonal Levels: Close collaboration with government offices at the Woreda and Zonal levels has been a crucial factor contributing to the successful outcomes of the pilot. This emphasizes the significance of engaging with local decision-makers to ensure the relevance and effectiveness of interventions. • Influence at the Ministry Level: Another key lesson learned is the importance of working closely with decision-making offices at the Ministry level. This engagement can potentially wield significant influence over the broader extension system, thereby amplifying the impact of the initiative.","tokenCount":"1701"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"99d371edafe909d5765fee9ba0cc86a6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/715137f5-37d0-40ed-9c36-5ce316981816/content","id":"-1059771884"},"keywords":["Varieties","organic and inorganic fertilizers","intercropping. "],"sieverID":"f9457146-ac37-4544-8135-a3d5c4bd63b2","pagecount":"9","content":"The experiment was conducted to determine the best compatible soybean varieties in intercropping systems and the most economically optimum integrated fertilizer rate. The factorial experiment consisted of two soybean varieties (Didessa and Boshe) treated with eight levels of combined organic and inorganic fertilizer applications in three replications. Both sole soybeans and maize under recommended fertilizer recommendation were also included for comparison purposes. The result indicated that there were significant differences in leaf area index, plant height and grain yield of maize due to integrated fertilizer application, but not in harvest index. However, statistically significant variations were observed on nodule number per plant, leaf area per plant and yield of intercropped soybeans as a result of soybean varieties and the interaction of varieties with fertilizer application. Higher nodules and leaf areas per plant were recorded in Didesa variety than Boshe. This could be due to varietal difference, integrated fertilizer application and cropping systems as well. Yield advantage obtained due to various combinations of fertilizer rates ranged from 6 to 28% over the yield of sole maize. Monetary advantage (MA) obtained due to intercropping systems ranged from the lowest Birr 1927 ha -1 to Birr 8446 ha -1 under various proportions of fertilizer applications. Application of both recommended NP and farmyard manure (FYM) resulted in the highest (Birr 8446 ha -1 ) MA followed by recommended NP (Birr 4583 ha -1). However, an integrated use of 12 t ha -1 FYM with 28/12N/P 2 O 5 saved up to 75% cost of commercial fertilizer for both years and cost for application in the next year.Sustainable agriculture is successful management of resources to satisfy changing human needs while conserving natural resources. However, area of cultivable land per unit household is dwindling from time to time due to population pressure. This leads to intensive crop production per unit area of land. Intercropping is one of the intensive cropping systems which ensure sustainable utilization of limited land resources (Tesfa et al., 2001). The extent and importance of intercropping increases as farm size decreases and the smaller the farm size the more complex the combinations. In tropics, cereal/legume intercropping is commonly practiced because of yield advantages, greater yield stability and lower risks of crop failure, which are often associated with monoculture *Corresponding author. E-mail: baatiree@gmail.com. (Nielsen et al., 2001;Tusbio et al., 2005). In intercropping systems, legumes can provide N for intercropped cereals through N transfer (Rochester et al., 2001). The same author indicated that soybean crop is capable of supplying nitrogen for its growth and intercropped cereals through symbiotic nitrogen fixation, and hence reduces the need for expensive and environment polluting nitrogen fertilizer. Maize is a staple food crop for smallholder farmers in western Ethiopia which is suitable for intercropping with legume crops. (Aschalew et al., 1999). The same author indicated that maize is believed to be the most dependable crop to bring about food selfreliance and self-sufficiency, being the highest yielding compared to all cereal crops grown in the country.Declining soil fertility is fundamental impediment to agricultural growth and a major reason for slow growth in food production in sub-Saharan Africa. Low soil fertility due to monoculture cereal production systems is recognized as one of the major causes for declining per capita food production. Therefore, soil fertility replenishment is increasingly viewed as one of the critical to the process of poverty alleviation (Asfaw et al., 1998). This is generally true for Ethiopian agro-ecologies, particularly for a dominant maize based mono cropping system of western Oromiya. Sustainable crop production, therefore, requires a careful management of all nutrient sources available in a farm, particularly in maize based cropping systems. These include inorganic fertilizers, organic manures and integration of legume crops in cereal based mono cropping (Wakene et al., 2007). The objective of this study was therefore; to investigate the effect of intercropping maize and soybean on nodulation and yield traits of the companion crops under combined application of FYM and NP fertilizer.The experiment was conducted for two consecutive years (2010)(2011) at Bako Agricultural Research center (BARC). The centre is located in the Western part of Ethiopia which lies at a latitude of 9° 6 ' N; longitude of 37° 9 ' E and at an altitude of 1650 m above sea level. It has a warm humid climate with annual mean minimum and maximum air temperatures of 13.5 and 29.7°C, respectively. The area receives average annual rainfall of 1237 mm with maximum precipitation being received in the months of May to August. The soil of the experimental site was reddish-brown, Nitosol, which is acidic with a pH of 5.2-5.6. The experimental site was low in available nitrogen and phosphorus contents which could be because of mono-cropping history of the experimental site. Soybean varieties and integrated organic and inorganic fertilizers were the two main factors. Two soybean varieties (Didessa, and Boshe) were used. Didessa is a medium maturity type (135-145 days to maturity) whereas Boshe is early maturity type. Both crops are highly adaptable to areas of mid and low altitudes. Two soybean varieties (Didessa and Boshe) were combined with eight levels of combined inorganic and organic fertilizers (110/46+0, 0+16, 110/46+16, 110/46+ 4, 83/35+4, 55/23 + 8, 28/12+12 and control, in kg ha -1 N/P2O5 + t ha -1 FYM, respectively) in intercropping. In addition, sole maize with recommended N/P2O5 and FYM and sole soybean varieties with recommended N and P2O5 were included in the experiment. The levels of manure and inorganic fertilizers (N and P2O5) were based on recommendation for sole maize in the area, which are 110/46 N/ P2O5 kg ha -1 and 16 t ha -1 FYM for hybrid maize varieties. The experiment was a randomized complete block design (RCBD) and replicated three times.In year one (2010), decomposed and dried FYM (20% moisture content) was applied per treatments and incorporated in to the soil manually, three weeks before maize planting. The plot was retained permanently to repeat the experiment in 2011 to evaluate the residual nutrient availability of applied manure.Both in 2010 and 2011 years, at planting of maize, half of the N and full dose of phosphorus was uniformly drilled into the maize rows and mixed with the soil to avoid contact of the seed with the fertilizer. The remaining half of N was applied per treatment at knee height growth stage of maize. For sole soybeans, 100 DAP kg ha -1 was drilled into the furrows at the time of sowing.A maize variety \"BH-543\" was sown on May 26, 2010 and June 3, 2011, respectively. The hybrid variety was released by BARC which requires 1000-1200 mm annual rainfall having 148 days to physiological maturity. The potential yield of the variety is 8.5 to 11 t ha -1 at research station and 4.7 to 6 t ha -1 at on farm. The size of each plot was 3.75 × 3.00 m. intercropped soybean and maize that consisted of five maize rows of 75 cm inter row spacing 30 cm intra row spacing. Three weeks after sowing of maize (in 2010), the two soybean varieties were intercropped on 15 June, 2010 in between two rows of maize. However, in second year, soybean was planted on 28 June, 2011 after maize planting. Intercropped soybeans were spaced at 75 cm with intra row spacing of 10 cm. For sole soybean varieties, however, inter and intra row spacing was 40 × 10 cm, respectively.Leaf area (LA) was measured at 50% days to tasseling (90 days after planting). LA was taken from ten plants and three representative active leaves per plant. Leaf length and maximum width were measured. Area of each leaf was determined by multiplying length by maximum width and constant factor as described by Burren et al. (1974).All maize stocks from each harvestable plot were cut just at the ground level and the aboveground biomass including the cobs was measured. Grain yield from each net plot was also measured and finally standard moisture contents, 12.5%. Similarly, yield of soybean from each plot was measured and the moisture content of the grain was determined using a moisture tester and adjusted to standard moisture content (10%).It was determined as a ratio of economic yield to biological yield. Leaf area (LA) of soybeans was measured at the time of flower initiation by using leaf area meter. Nodules were collected at the time of 50% flower initiation by digging from five plants in each plot.Effective nodules from sampled plants were counted based on their colour (pink colour) and the mean value of five plants was recorded.There was significant (P<0.01) differences across the years in LAI due to the effect of integrated fertilizer applications of the maize intercrop at time of tasseling, but there was no significant difference due to interaction effect of varieties by fertilizer application (Table 1). The result of pooled means indicated that the highest LAI was recorded when consecutive recommended 110/46 kg ha -1 and 16 t ha -1 FYM (in 2010) was applied to the system.This result with the support of other findings indicated that there was positive effect of residual nutrients on growth parameters of the following crops (Ayoola and Makinde, 2008). However, there was a decreasing trend from year one to year two, which might be due to decreasing nitrogen availability from applied FYM. The lowest LAI was recorded at zero fertilizer application in each year, which is in agreement with findings of Faisalabad et al. (2010). A significant variation was observed in year one due to varieties and integrated fertilizer application while it was significantly unaffected in year two. But the pooled mean result indicated that the highest plant height was recorded when successive application of 83/35 N/P 2 O 5 kg ha -1 with 4 t ha -1 in year 2010 were applied to the permanent plot while the lowest was obtained from unfertilized plot (Table 1). Associated soybean varieties did not significantly affect leaf area index and plant height of the maize in contrast with its sole crops both under recommended organic and inorganic fertilizer rates. However, higher leaf area index was attained in intercropped maize than the soles, indicating that the soybean varieties might have contributed available nitrogen through biological nitrogen fixation (Tamado and Eshetu , 2000). Similar to leaf area index, plant height of intercropped maize was not significantly affected by cropping system.The result also revealed that both biomass and grain yield of maize were significantly varied in 2010 as the result of integrated fertilizer application. In year 2011, however, it showed no significant different was observed across fertilizer treatments (Table 2). This similarly confirmed with other authors that the residual nutrient availability from the preceding FYM application which ranged from 4-16 t ha -1 of the recommended manure might significantly increase both biomass and grain yield (Getachew, 2009). The residual nutrient definitely save up to 100% cost of inorganic fertilizer in both years and cost of manure application in second year (2011), as observed from sole application of FYM. The pooled mean also indicated that both biological and economic yield obtained from permanent plots, which were applied by 4-16 t ha -1 FYM in 2010 with consecutive application of 28/12-110/46 kg ha -1 in each year, were not statistically different except in unfertilized plot (Table 2). This response indicated that repeated application rates of organic manure in every year did not significantly increase yield and yield components of the main crops though there is a gradual increase in nutrient availability from organic manure that would ensure supply of the crop requirements (Achieng et al., 2010). The lowest grain yield, however, was recorded from untreated plot. Moreover associated soybeans did not significantly increase yield of maize.The result also indicated that harvest indices (HI) did not considerably vary across the treatments in each year (Table 2). However, there was an increasing trend across fertilizer treatment from year one to year two. This indicated that there is lower translocation of the nutrient to economic yield under sufficient nutrient availability than biological yield. In other words, higher nutrient availability might enhance the vegetative growth of the crops that may reduce the economic yield. Associated soybean varieties did not considerably affect the harvest index of the main crop.Means of two year data revealed that the effect of cropping systems due to associated soybean varieties did not significantly vary on yield and yield traits (biomass yield, grain yield and harvest index) of the intercropped maize as compared with soles, which was treated under recommended organic and inorganic fertilizer application (Table 2). This result may indicate that maize is the main dominant crops that significantly compete with the associated soybean varieties. However, significant reduction in harvest index for intercropped maize was recorded as compared to the sole crops.The result of analysis of variance revealed that significant variations were observed across the years due to the effect of varieties and integrated fertilizer application (Figure 1). The two ways interaction of varieties by fertilizer application was also significantly affected in leaf area per plant of the companion crops. A significant higher leaf area per plant was recorded in 2010 year as compared to the second year. This variation was probably caused by variation imposed by time of planting of the companion crops after maize planting. Didessa variety generally produced higher leaf area than Boshe one across various fertilizer rates. This result is in agreement with other finding (Maheshbabu et al., 2008) that the higher leaf area was observed when higher proportions of inorganic fertilizer rates were applied to the treatment, which might be because of higher availability of nitrogen. Untreated plots showed the lowest leaf area for both Didessa and Boshe varieties. The effect of cropping systems due to associated main crops was significantly reduced in leaf area per plant of the companion crops (Figure 2). The significant variations across the years were also observed, which might be the result of variation in cropping season. The mean of two years indicated that about 83 and 68% reduction in leaf area per plant of Didessa and Boshe varieties were recorded when compared with their respective sole crops (Figure 2). This reduction might be due to the maize shading effect which adversely affected light interception that result in reduced growth and expansion of associated soybean in intercropping and the same result was also reported by Demisew (2002). A part from this, sole Didessa variety had significantly higher leaf area per plant as compared to the sole Boshe (Figure 2).Nodule number per plant was significantly affected by both varieties and integrated fertilizer application across the years (Figure 3). Higher number of nodules was recorded in 2011 than in the first year. This higher number of nodules might be because of improved soil chemical properties caused by the residual effects of applied organic manure (Marschner, 1995). Didessa variety had significantly higher number of nodules when compared with Boshe. The difference in nodulation might be probably due to differential compatibility with effective indigenous rhizobium in the soil of the experimental field.  The highest nodule number 52 and 49 were recorded in 2010 from unfertilized plot and recommended application of FYM (2010), respectively (Figure 3).Cropping systems caused a significant (P<0.05) reduction of nodule number when compared with the respective sole crops (Figure 4). A reduction in 39% for intercropped Didessa vareity and 22% for Boshe vareity were attained as compared with their respective sole crops (Figure 4). This result in agreement with other finding might possibly be the shading effects of maize that significantly reduced light interception potential of the associated soybeans and reduced the photosynthetic assimilate (Ghosh et al., 2006). Reduced assimilate might be resulted in limited food supply for associated rhizobium bacteria, and consequently their atmospheric fixation capacity were diminished (Tisdale et al., 1999). Moreover, Sole Didessa variety produced significantly higher number of nodules per plant as compared to sole Boshe variety (Figure 4).The result of analysis revealed that significant higher grain yield per hectare was obtained from each variety in year one as compared to year two for both associated companion crops (Figure 5). This might be caused by the variation in time of planting after maize planting, 20 days and 25 days after maize planting in 2010 and 2011, respectively (Addo-Quaye et al., 2011). Associated Didessa variety significantly produced higher grain yield than Boshe variety (Figure 5). This result with other finding might indicate that medium or late maturity types of soybeans considerably compete on common resources or it might have escaped the period of more competition exerted, as the maize crop was approaching to maturity than the early types (Otieno et al., 2009). The highest grain yield was recorded for both associated crops when recommended NP 2 O 5 (110/46 kg ha -1) and FYM (16 t ha -1 ) were applied while the lowest was obtained from untreated plot (Figure 5). However, a significant more grain yield of Didessa variety was obtained from unfertilized plot as compared to Boshe. Similar results with this finding indicated that the fixation capacity of the associated soybean under limited nutrient might be enhanced and utilized by the legumes so that the competitive ability of intercropped Didessa variety is very high than Boshe even though maize is also competing for the same common resources (Muoneke et al., 2007).The effect of cropping systems considerably influenced grain yield of intercropped soybean varieties when compared with their respective sole crops (Figure 6). A significant reduction in grain yield was observed as compared with the sole ones although population variations are another factor. The reduction of LAI, nodule number and other parameters caused by shading effect might contribute to reduction in grain yield (Figures 2 and 4). The study indicated that shading effect of the maize drastically reduced the light transmission that may significantly reduce photosynthetic assimilates (Ghosh et   , 2004).The result of pooled means evidently signified that yield advantage obtained due to various combinations of fertilizer rates ranged from 6 to 28% over the yield of sole maize obtained under recommended inorganic fertilizer. Mean of two years indicated that the highest LER (1.28) followed by 1.15 were recorded when 16 t ha -1 FYM in 2010 and consecutive application of 110/46 N/P 2 O 5 kg ha -1 in both years were applied to the systems, respectively meaning that 28 and 15% greater area would be required under sole maize to produce the same yield as that of combined yield under intercropping system. The result with support of other finding (Demisew, 2002;Tolera et al., 2005), however, revealed the lowest LER (0.86) was without fertilizer uses to intercrops, validating that limited soil fertility significantly reduces the productivity of intercropping systems (Table 3). This result indicates that about 14% more area of land was required to produce the same amount of yield obtained from maize monoculture sown with the recommended NP rate. The result of pooled means also indicated MA of intercropping ranged from the lowest Birr 1927 ha -1 to Birr 8446 ha -1 under various proportions of fertilizer applications. Application of both recommended 110/46 N/P 2 O 5 kg ha -1 and 16 t ha -1 FYM resulted in the highest (Birr 8446 ha -1 ) MA followed by recommended NP (Birr 4583 ha -1). This attribute indicates that integrated fertilizer application with various proportions of NP with FYM significantly increased MA over the control. However, there was no gain in monetary advantage without fertilizer application. It was noted that due to total LER was less than one, negative value of MA was obtained in case of unfertilized intercrops. The negative value indicates a loss of Birr 4272 ha -1 from unfertilized intercrops as compared to the gross benefit obtained from maize monoculture sown with recommended NP.Higher plant height and leaf area index was recorded under different rate of integrated fertilizer application when compared with the control. The result also revealed that higher leaf area index was attained in intercropped maize than the soles though not significant from each other. Similar to leaf area index, plant height of intercropped maize was not significantly affected by cropping system. Significant variation was also observed on yield of maize due to fertilizer rates. Application of recommended manure resulted in maximum number of effective nodules which did not significantly vary with the control. The effect of cropping system was significantly reduced in leaf area per plant of the companion crops (Figure 2). Significant variations across the years were also observed. The mean of two years indicated that about 83 and 68% reduction in leaf area per plant of Didessa and Boshe varieties were recorded when compared with their respective sole crops. From economic point of view, intercropping of maize with Didessa variety under application of 16 tha -1 organic manure resulted in the highest monetary advantage. However, an integrated use of 12 t ha -1 FYM with 28/12 NP 2 O 5 kg ha -1 saved up to 75% cost of commercial fertilizer and even cost of manure application for following years. Alternatively, integrated use of 55/23 N/P 2 O 5 kg ha -1 with 8 t ha -1 FYM also revealed better economic advantage with some additional yield from soybean (Didessa variety) without affecting yield of the maize.","tokenCount":"3519"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1caf58557d2960cda9552884ab681946","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/03f5f399-9827-4a45-b6e6-5880bc537083/retrieve","id":"700494381"},"keywords":["policy analysis","policy framing","food systems","Vietnam","policy agenda","evidence-based"],"sieverID":"f276b180-6bb2-45cc-ad75-36d0d710947a","pagecount":"38","content":"The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.The concept of food system has gained prominence in recent years to become an integrated tool to analyze interconnected food issues and a subject of interest for national and international policymakers. Food system can be conceptualized as \"all the elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food, and the outputs of these activities, including socioeconomic and environmental outcomes\" (HLPE 2017, p.23).While important progress in understanding the nature of food systems has been made (e.g. Ericksen 2008;Herforth & Ahmed, 2015), much less is known about the dynamics of policies around food systems. Several decades of research have generated a very rich body of literature on food, trade and agriculture policies (see e.g. Anderson, 2010;Pingali, 2015), but less attention has been paid on food system policies and their agenda setting. As a consequence, many dimensions of this policy agenda are still poorly understood. For instance, what factors influence food system policies, who or what are the drivers or 'shapers' behind these policies, how are the agendas defined, advocated, contested, and by whom, are questions that remain unanswered.The present paper aims to address those questions, with the objective to improve our understanding of policy dynamics -defined as the way policy agendas are identified, justified, and framed by decisionmakers, and how they interact (reinforce, annul, or contradict each other)-in the case of food systems. The overarching question which underpins this research is: \"What drives the policy agenda around food systems?\" Underlying this main question were a series of related questions regarding (i) the extent to which the agenda as we observed it, is (or is not) \"in sync\" with the reality on the ground; (ii) the role of scientific and robust evidence in shaping this agenda, versus the influence of lobbying and advocacy groups/actors; and (iii) the winners-and-losers dimensions of such current agenda.In this paper, we follows Jenkins's definition of policy. Policy is \"a set of interrelated decisions (…) concerning the selection of goals and the means of achieving them within a specified situation\" (1978, p.15). As such policies are not the exclusivity of official policy-and law-makers and are not restricted to the public spheres. They also include private sector's and other non-governmental actors' decisions in relation to strategic objectives.To conduct this research, we used Vietnam as a case study i . Over the past two decades, Vietnam experienced remarkable economic development (Anwar & Nguyen, 2010) and became a rapidly urbanizing middle-income country (World Bank, 2004). Combined with increasing income, urbanization led to important changes in people's life style (Thang & Popkin, 2004), and more structurally in the food systems (Mergenthaler et al., 2009). Over the period 2001-2009 for instance, the sale values of modern retailers increased 20-fold (Reardon et al., 2012). At the same time Vietnam became a major exporter of agricultural products. While the production of rice (the traditional staple food in Vietnam) had been exclusively oriented toward the domestic market until the late 1990s, Vietnam is now the second-largest rice exporter in the world, after Thailand (Bui & Chen, 2017). All those different changes (increase in income, rapid urbanization, shift in diet ii and trade policies) are known to be critical drivers of food system transformation. As such they make Vietnam a particularly interesting case study when it comes to food system policy.In line with the general literature on policy agenda and policy narrative (Roe, 1994;Dearing & Rogers, 1996), a series of postulates guided our research. We first acknowledge that decision-makers (as individual agent and as staff of specific institutions) usually pay more attention to particular issues than to others. This selective pattern, which is shaped by a multitude of factors, including institutional incentives (Baumgartner & Jones, 2010), advocacy/influence by groups or network of actors (Smith, 2000, Jones, 2011), and personal beliefs and values, is usually reflected in the way these actors identify and prioritize issues. This means that the deliberative processes of individual actors involved in policy agenda are rarely based only on the rational consideration of all available information and in particular of (scientific) evidence (see below) and instead that receptiveness to information is often based on alignment with personal ideologies, values or vested interests (agency), mitigated by other influences, such as institutional inertia and official positions (structure) (Weiss, 1977;Clay & Schaffer, 1984).The existing literature on policy also indicates that these same policy-makers are likely to be more sensitive to crisis-type (negative) headlines than to positive ones (Soroka, 2006;Grimmer, 2013), essentially due to the ways media frame issues and seek to impact public opinion (McCombs 2002;Graber & Dunaway, 2014). We would therefore expect that the policy agenda on food systems (like many other agendas) would appear in some cases driven by short-term reactive decisions -what Iyengar (1991) identifies as \"episodic frames\" focused on specific incidents or cases-as opposed to longer-term, strategic drivers -or \"thematic frames\" in Iyengar's definition-focused on larger trends or context.A subsequent consideration deriving from these observations is the questioning of the role of science in the policy agenda setting. In particular empirical evidence challenges the long-lasting model (so often advocated by researchers themselves) that science-based argument is effective at shaping and influencing policy agenda. Instead, it seems that research-based and other forms of evidence are just one amongst many factors influencing the policy framing and are more likely to contribute to it when they fit within the political and institutional limits of policymakers, and resonate with their current narratives (Power, 2006).In parallel, one would expect to see some common narratives emerging across a large number of policymaker groups under certain circumstances, especially when the context is such that a particular issue is perceived as of high priority. For example, one usually observes a pervasive adoption of a more economic agenda during periods of recession and high unemployment (Neuman et al., 1992) or an increase in political narratives across the board during election periods (e.g., Iyengar et al., 2004). The emergence of immigration as a central element in general policy debates -from food security to economic growth or terrorism and national security-is another case in point (Boswell et al. 2011). The last postulate that guided our research was therefore the recognition that certain issues which may have initially been exclusively dealt with by a particular group of actors or experts, can \"percolate\" or diffuse amongst the other groups or networks of policy-makers, especially when these issues are presented as a major national-level event or crisis.Beyond the occurrence of policy diffusion, the possibility of policy incoherence also needs to be considered. Recognizing ambiguity in policies is not a novelty in the interpretive tradition of policy analysis (Yanow, 1996). However, when they are observed, those ambiguities are not generally connected to the construct of policy itself but instead are presented as a property of linguistic expressions (Hajer & Wagenaar, 2003). As a consequence, a key assumption in that literature is that policies are by nature coherent in terms of problem definition and proposed policy actions (Hajer and Laws, 2006). As will be shown below, the analysis of the situation in Vietnam reveals that this assumption of coherence is not always satisfied.To account for these different postulates and to structure our analysis we adopted an analytical framework derived from policy framing (Van Hulst & Yanow, 2016). In the policy analysis literature, policy framing is largely situated in the post-positivist literature that uses interpretive and critical approaches to analyze policy agenda and policy-making as a contested meaning-making enterprise (Fischer, 2003). Generally, policy frame is used in policy analysis to offer insight into the nature of policy debates (Schön & Rein, 1994;van Hulst & Yanow, 2016). Policy framing, as both a theory and a method, provides a slightly different insight as it seeks to understand the factors that influence the process of policy-making. In doing so, it recognizes that policy is a social construct that usually imply and involve different legitimate value considerations (Hajer & Wagenaar, 2003;Koon et al., 2016). In that sense, the literature makes a useful distinction between frame and framing. Frames highlight certain aspects of a situation and obscure others, in order to define problems, diagnose causes, make moral judgments and suggest remedies (Entman 1993). As such, frames determine what the actors in the policy community will consider relevant or important and how the definition of competing problems lead to normative prescriptions for action (Rochefort & Cobb, 1994). Policy frame is therefore relevant as a framework to understand how different and sometimes diverging policy interpretations may emerge from the same initial situation.But frames are also conceived as static objects. In contrast, the idea of policy framing, as developed by van Hulst & Yanow (2016), acknowledges the fact that policy process is dynamically built and altered in and through the actors' interactions. In van Hulst & Yanow's view, framing refers, therefore, to the interactive, intersubjective processes through which frames are constructed, in ways that put emphasis on the more process-oriented, politically nuanced and power-sensitive understanding of the policy agenda setting. Framing appears therefore particularly appropriate as a framework to explore policy dynamics as defined in the introduction.Adopting an interpretive analytic approach (Yanow, 1996), we first identified the narratives and storylines (Roe, 1994) adopted by the different actors we interviewed in relation to food systems. The term 'narrative' is used here in a relatively generic manner, to emphasize the constructed nature of the framings of the 'stories' around food systems. 'Story-lines' are characterized by a beginning, middle and end (Kaplan, 1993;Roe, 1994). In the context of our analysis, this means we looked specifically at these different experts' story-lines around \"what the main problem(s) is/are in relation to Hanoi/Vietnam's food system\" (the policy problem = the beginning), \"what the process/policy proposed to solve/fix the problem is?\" (the policy discourse = the middle), and finally \"what (technical or political) tool is proposed to implement the approach\" (the way to fix the problem = the end).As part of the framing analysis we were also interested to investigate the power/political dimension of the policy problem (Keeley & Scoones 1999;Buse et al., 2009). Two dimensions of power were specifically investigated. First, the level of influence in society and social structures, that is, the respondents' interpretations about who benefits from a particular policy and who are excluded or marginalized because of it, and whether those aspects of (in)equity were implicitly or explicitly part of the policy framing process. The second aspect of power we explored was the influence in decisionmaking processes: whose ideas are taken up and what are the underlying motivations. For example, land-use policy is believed to be closely associated with private sector actors who may approach government officials with money. In those cases, those policies may end up being formulated not based on social and economic considerations by different stakeholders but by policymakers with the power to pursue their own interests. Series of questions were therefore incorporated in the questionnaires that explored the winner/loser component of the policy problem, and the degree to which this winner/loser component was itself part of -or acknowledged in-the policy discourse.The choice of the case study-based approach (Gillham, 2000;Bennet & Elman, 2006) adopted in this research reflects the need to account for the highly context-specificity of both policy agenda setting and food systems. The context-specificity of the policy agenda has already been highlighted in the previous section (Dearing and Rogers, 1996, see also Grindle & Thomas, 1991) and will not be reasserted here. As for food systems, although some basic typologies distinguishing several steps along a broad food system 'modernization' gradient have been proposed (see, e.g. IFPRI 2015; HLPE, 2017) suggesting the possibility of some generic food system development path, empirical analysis reveals that the food systems and food system environments of a given country are characterized by specific features and dynamics that usually distinguish them from these found in neighboring countries or even in countries with the same level of GDP, and as such make both these food systems and their outcomes unique (see e.g. Vellema et al. 2013;Herforth & Ahmed, 2015).The research was based on primary data collected in Vietnam from Aug. to Sept. 2017, complemented by secondary information from peer-reviewed articles and gray literature. The primary data was obtained through two sources: (i) a series of face-to-face open-ended interviews conducted with 37 keyinformants; and (ii) an on-line semi-quantitative survey administered to a larger group of 91 key informants (including the 37 who had been included in the initial face-to-face interviews). The participants to those two surveys were purposively sampled amongst the pool of national/international decision-makers and actors who are thought to shape and contribute to the current policy agenda setting around food system in Vietnam. More specifically those stakeholders were part of one of the four following groups: (a) government officials from relevant ministries; (b) key actors from the private sectors (e.g. owners of local supermarkets established in Hanoi); (c) representatives of civil society or local / international non-governmental organizations, and (d) technical experts from national or international research or development institutions.For the face-to-face interviews, the questionnaire was structured around an 'Actors -Discourses -Interest' (ADI) framework (Keeley & Scoones 1999) with the aim to unpack and reveal the main stakeholders, narratives and power-relationships existing around the current legislations, practices, regulations and policies related to food systems. The ADI framework was chosen because the type of information it helps to collect is particularly relevant for the framing policy analysis to be implemented as part of the analysis.For the on-line survey, a semi-quantitative questionnaire focusing on the beliefs, attitude, skills, and knowledge (BASK) of the key-actors was administrated in relation to the main issues characterizing the food systems in Vietnam. The questions, structured around the four components (beliefs, attitudes, skills, and knowledge), were based on psychometric techniques (self-evaluation) and a 'semi-quantified' coding system using a closed 1-7 score Likert scale iii to assess the level of agreement (\"strongly disagree\" … \"strongly agree\"), awareness (\"fully aware\" … \"not aware at all\") or knowledge (\"very low\" ... \"very high\"), etc. of the respondents in relation to the questions under consideration. The BASK questionnaire was used to complete and triangulate the qualitative information collected through the face-to-face survey and provides an insight into the views of these key-actors.A preliminary workshop had been organized at the start of the research with a group of 9 technical experts, with the objective to identify the issues that are thought to be important with regard to Hanoi/Vietnam's food-systems. Relying on a two-step selection process (production of an initial comprehensive list of issues, followed by a prioritization process) the experts identified five key issues (in no particular order): (i) Food safety and its implications on human health; (ii) Trade policies and their impacts on food security and food systems; (iii) Climate change and its impacts on food systems activities; (iv) Change in agrobiodiversity and its links with diets; (v) Urbanization and its implications on food systems' actors iv .A first step in the analysis was to check the (self-assessed) level of current engagement and knowledge of the different decision-makers/actors in relation to the food system agenda. The assumption was that these levels would vary, depending on the domains of expertise of these respondents. The analysis of the data confirmed this general assumption, but with some nuances -see Fig. 1.a and b. While overall the respondents considered their own knowledge and the knowledge of their colleagues to be acceptable (that is, above the mid-range value of 4.0) v , two groups of experts admitted that their level of engagement with the food system debate have so far been relatively weak: the experts on urbanization and those on climate change. In contrast, the experts on trade, food safety and to a lower extent agro-biodiversity considered that they have already engaged with the food system debate(s) in Vietnam. The data also indicates that there is no clear correlation between the level of knowledge and the intensity of engagement (compare Fig. 1a with 1b).[insert Fig. 1 here]An important interrogation around policy agenda setting relates to the prevalence of science and evidence versus advocacy and lobbying, and their respective influence on this agenda. A series of questions had been therefore included in the online survey to assess the perceptions of the decisionmakers on this aspect. Here again, we expected to observe differences in the responses reflecting the background of the respondents and also, possibly, the nature of the issues (assuming that certain issues may be more subject to lobbying group pressure than others, but also that certain groups of actors may be more sensitive to evidence than to lobbying). The results only partially confirm this expected pattern. While private sector actors display the highest score for lobbying/advocacy influence (Fig. 2.a) and the lower score for evidence-based decision (Fig. 2.b) -a result which was somewhat expected-, the respondents from research/development agencies did not display a higher score for evidence-based decision than their fellows from the private sector did, suggesting that, in their view, the policy setting in Vietnam is not necessarily based on evidence. Officers from government agencies or civil society/NGOs activists, in contrary, seemed to consider that the policy agenda is still based on evidence. They however also gave a relatively high score to advocacy and lobbying (Fig. 2.a) vi . Overall the average scores obtained across the four groups is higher for lobbying than for evidence (evidence aver=4.51; lobbying aver=4.78). In this context, it is also interesting to notice that all respondents, irrespective of their backgrounds, consider that the current food system policy agenda reflects only poorly the reality on the ground (Fig. 3). For all five groups of actors, their average scores were below the mid-range 4.0.[insert Fig. 2 here] [insert Fig. 3 here]We then explored the key-informants' respective opinion on the main policy problems related to food systems policy in Vietnam. In line with the literature (Baumgartner & Jones, 2010), our initial assumption was that their responses would be reflecting the agenda of their own institution and/or their own professional interest.The data depicts a completely different situation. For the vast majority (65%) of the respondents across the four groups, the main issue is related to food safety (Fig. 4) vii . When disaggregated by institutional affiliation, the overall picture remains the same (Table 1). Most actors considered food safety as the key problem, irrespective of their affiliations. This is the case for three quarter of the respondents from research/development agencies, and for 46% of the actors from civil society/NGOs. For another 33% of those, however, the main problem is environmental health. Finally it is worth noticing that there is no apparent denial from the governmental agencies about the food safety issue. Fifty two percent of them also identified this as the problem No.1, even if the government is often presented as partially responsible for the situation (see below).[insert Fig. 4 here] [insert Table 1 here] Food system policy framing This section presents the key-findings of the framing analysis, starting with the results for one of the five key issues -urbanization-as an illustration and then summarizing the results obtained for the other four issues viii .Framing narratives Several policy problems were identified by the key-informants in relation to urbanization and food systems. Although those problems varied in their nature and scope, they can be broadly grouped into two main framing narratives: (i) Technical problems related to the process of urbanization per se and the impacts that this (physical) process has on various dimensions and actors of the food systems, and (ii) Problems related to the governance and decision-making process around urbanization and the implications that this (social and/or political) process ('political' used in its etymological sense, that is, \"the art or science of government\") has on the local food systems and their actors.In parallel to this technical-versus-political dimension of the narrative, another element that emerged as a structuring component in the framing of those key-actors is the scope of the problem. While some policy problems remain confined to the initial domain/sector where they originated (in this case urbanization), others are presented as having spillover implications on one, or sometimes, two other sectors. In the case of urbanization the two sectors that were most frequently mentioned as being affected (in the context of food systems) were the environment and consumer food/diets. Some urbanization problems would affect one sector -for instance the concentration of business and residential areas resulting from a poor urban planning was mentioned by Informant UR4 as having negative externalities on the environment -while the traditional silo effect that generally leads to poor collaboration between ministries was reported to affect not only the process of urbanization itself, but also the policies related to environment or agriculture, as well as those related to diet and food (informant UR7). Likewise, the change in life-style induced by urbanization -\"people now are busy, they have no time for cooking, no time for eco-friendly life\"-was presented in some of the narratives as \"contributing to the current (negative) urban food systems which are not sustainable, not eco-friendly, not healthy, [and] supporting the big corporations rather than small-scale farmers\" (Informant UR2). Fig. 5 offers a graphical representation of the main urbanization-food system policy problems and the way they were framed by the decision-makers. The vertical axis captures the technical versus political dimension of the policy narratives, while the arrows along the horizontal axis reflect the scope, that is, the extent to which the problems as they were framed by the respondents spill over other domains.In addition, several other major unwanted consequences of urbanization on food systems were identified. Those include the declining capacity of the urban centers to maintain food security due to the imbalance of agriculture and non-agricultural land; the creation of \"ghost towns\" (resulting from urban development implemented without necessarily responding to demand) which exacerbates the low food production capacity of the areas by utilizing some of the most fertile land suitable for agriculture; and the lack of infrastructure whereby basic physical systems have not been developed, including waste management or transport, which has severe consequences on the functioning of the local food systems. Addressing those different problems would require strong collaboration among the different ministries and a cross-sectoral planning approach. This is a major challenge in the current government structures, which -like in many other low and middle income countries-are characterized by a severe silo syndrome.[insert Fig. 5 here] Finally, in red in Fig. 5, are policy problems which were mentioned by experts in the context of urbanization but which eventually appear to be linked to food safety. In the present case, two problems were mentioned: one was the difficulties of the authorities to control hygiene in urban wet markets (due to low human capacities in the relevant ministries). The second was the growing lack of trust of the consumers in food that is produced in urban or peri-urban areas (due to the high level of pollution affecting the quality of the water).To complete this first component of the policy framing analysis, the political economy (winners/losers) dimensions of each of the narratives told by the respondents were explored. Fig. SI1 in supplementary material shows the map that was constructed in the case of the urbanization policy framing. The state government appears to be very influential in setting policies at national level. Interviewees frequently mentioned the Ministries of Construction (MoC), Industry and Trade (MoIT), and Planning and Investment (MoPI) as well as the communist party. Although the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) shares its information with other ministries, it is the MoC that decides whether to consider other ministries' views. In this respect, the MoC appears as the dominant actor in urban planning at national level.On the other end of the influence gradient, Hanoi residents are perceived to have only limited influence over the priority-setting. Interestingly this limited influence was said to come through a nonconventional channel: media, and in particular, social media. As one junior government officer admitted, \"The government cannot ignore people's voices in the social media and the traditional media\" (Informant UR6). This influence differs from the official process of people's participation in policy planning ix and seems to be more effective. Some respondents pointed out, however, that the traditional media are not paying attention to everyone in the same way. In particular it seems that the voice of the public opinion is more likely to be heard if it is perceived to contribute to the agenda of (food system) modernization.The policy framings around the four other key issues (agrobiodiversity; climate change; food safety; and trade) were analyzed using the same approach as the one presented above for urbanization. Due to space limitations, the finding of the framing analyses for those four issues are not detailed here x . Instead only the salient points that emerge from the four framing analyses is presented here.Influencing actors in the food system policy arena As far as key actors and influence mapping are concerned (cf. Maps SI2, SI3, SI4 and SI5 in supplementary Material), the data shows that like for urbanization, the most influential actors in the policy agenda are found amongst central ministries and members of the communist party. Those include MARD for agro-biodiversity; the MoIT and the Political Bureau of the Party for trade; the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) for climate change; and the Ministry of Health (MoH) and MoIT for food safety. The lower-level actors (provincial or municipal level authorities) on the other hand were generally presented as weak, lacking resources, competence or even awareness. A particular case is climate change. Even if local authorities were acknowledged to be (in theory) the key actor in implementing policies, they were systematically presented as the weak link in the policy cycle: \"Many policies have been issued but implementation is poor because of lack of resources and guidance at local level\" (Informant CC1) xi .The private sector appears as the second main actor in this landscape, but usually far behind the central authorities. In fact, with the exception of urbanization, the contribution of private actors to the policy agenda setting remains limited to some large-scale private companies, either national or internationalfor instance the poultry raising industry in Vietnam is controlled by foreign large enterprises. These companies, which usually have a large share of the market in urban areas, were said to have some say in the current debates on food safety and food distribution.The strongest influence of the private sector is in relation to the urbanization issue, however. In that domain, the relative lack of financial resources of the government in comparison with the scale of the investments required, means that the central and municipal authorities -who want quick solutions and visible (physical) outcomes to show progress in urban development -have no choice but to rely on the private sector to implement urban projects. The scale of the investments also means that collusion and corruption are high in this sector.Smaller-scale enterprises on the other hand were generally presented amongst the less influential groups, along with small-scale farmers and members of ethnic minorities. The situation of the civil society and NGOs is more contrasted. While they were recognized to have some degrees of influence in relation to agro-biodiversity and climate change, they were not mentioned in relation to urbanization and trade, and only to a limited degree in relation to the food safety debate.Overall, what seems to emerge from the analysis is a common pattern across all key sectors related to food system policy, in which the government remains the major player while other actors influence the agenda only marginally. This observation should not come as a complete surprise for a country characterized by a socialist-oriented market economy, where the central government is still resolutely decided to try to keep control of the development process and plays a powerful interventionist role in many of the key sectors of the economy (Thayer, 2009). In that sense, the analysis demonstrates that this locked situation is also observed in the case of the food system policy agenda.Framing analysis of the food system policy agenda Fig. 6 shows the results of the framing analysis which was conducted for agrobiodiversity; climate change; food safety; and trade, following an approach similar to the analysis completed for urbanization (Fig. 5). Only key-findings are presented here xii .[insert Fig. 6 here] Cross-sectoral issues and framing diffusion -The first key-finding relates to the scope (cross-sectoral nature) and systematic interlinkages of the policy problems. Like for urbanization, the policy problems identified by the key-informants under each of the four other issues were not limited to the initial domain/sector where they originated, but appeared to have spillover implications for one, or sometimes two other sectors. In the case of trade policy, the two domains affected by spillover were agriculture and food safety; for agro-biodiversity: consumers' food/diet diversity and agriculture; for climate change: agriculture and the food sector; and finally for food safety: agriculture. Those different domains appears on the horizontal axis of their respective graphs in Fig. 6. Framing incoherence -we recall that framing incoherence refers to cases where the construct of the policy framing appear illogical or potentially incorrect. In our case, a possible occurrence of framing incoherence concerns the modernization of the food retail distribution sector (the supermarketization of the Vietnamese food system) as an attempt to address the current food safety issue -see details below. Supermarket expansion, along with the reorganization and reduction of traditional markets, is being persistently advocated by the authorities as a critical step toward the improvement of food safety in Vietnam (e.g. Informants FS2; -see also Table 3 in Wertheim-Heck et al., 2015 for a selection of statements made by officials in the media). This policy narrative, however, does not simply claim to reorganize and modernize the food system. It also expects to induce a shift in shopping practices on the consumer side, assuming that aspirations for modern lifestyles and concerns about food safety will be the major driver for the adoption of supermarket as the main food supply source by individual consumers.However, this part of the authorities' narrative seems to ignore important elements of the ground reality and what the literature tells us about Vietnamese consumers. In Vietnam (like in many other countries in South East Asia), wet markets retails and informal street vending are still the primary access point of fresh vegetables, fruits, fish and meat for city residents, with over 95% of vegetables for instance distributed through those (Wertheim-Heck et al., 2014a). This has been sustained through residents' strong demands and preferences (Geertman, 2010) including for street vending (Kawarazuka et al., 2018). In this context, the typical modern retail model remains a small niche, with supermarkets in Hanoi contributing just over 2% of total vegetable consumption (Wertheim-Heck et al., 2014a). This situation is not specific to Vietnam though. The literature suggests that shoppers in low and middle income countries (LMICs) still do not automatically integrate supermarkets into their daily practice, especially for fresh foods (Humphrey, 2007). Minot et al. (2013) for instance found that virtually all (99%) urban consumers in large and medium size towns in Indonesia still use traditional food outlets as their main source of food supply.Beyond this consumer behavior, the supermarketization narrative also seems to ignore evidence according to which the assumption that supermarkets are safer and could help addressing the food safety issues does not always hold true -see e.g. Roesel, et al. (2014) in the case of milk in Kenya, and Tanzania, and meat in Vietnam and Kenya. In the wider context of LMICs, a recent global review on food safety concluded that \"so far agro-industrial production and modern retail have not demonstrated clear advantages in food safety and disease control\" (Grace, 2015, p.10490). In Vietnam, the report published by the World Bank on food safety management concluded that there is \"little evidence that workers and stakeholders in these larger scale infrastructure adopted better practices to ensure safer food, or that real enforcement of these practices was conducted by the government's inspectors\" (World Bank 2017, p.42). Part of the challenge is that in Southeast Asia, fresh foods sold in supermarkets often do not have traceability as they are sourced from wholesale markets and not from farms.Finally, evidence also challenge the 'universality' -or the social equity-of the benefits derived from this supermarketization. Based on a recent survey conducted in Hanoi, it appears that only around 40% of Hanoi's urban population is currently reached by the retail modernization process (Wertheim-Heck et al., 2015). Several reasons explain this, including the fact that lower income households cannot afford to purchase large amounts of food due to these budget constraints and therefore rely more on the informal outlets. Supermarkets are also generally located outside the action radius of lower income groups. Those elements mean that, even if the development of supermarkets and the reorganization/modernization of the retail sector was an effective measure to address food safety xv , the majority of the urban population (essentially the lower income groups) would still not necessarily benefit from this 'transformation'.Those different findings raise questions about the coherence of the construct of the narrative around food safety and retail modernization. Although policy-makers must have been aware of these different pieces of evidence, they still promote supermarketization as the way to address food safety. Their insistence on using this particular policy narrative suggests a deliberate choice of ignoring those evidence and information. This brings us back to the earlier result regarding the degree to which the decision-makers interviewed in this research consider the current agenda to be influenced by advocacy and lobbying -as opposed to being informed by evidence (Fig. 2)-, and the extent to which the food system policy agenda itself does (or does not) reflect the reality on the ground (Fig. 3). We propose to revisit those different points in the discussion section below.To conduct this research, we first started by investigating the level of current engagement and knowledge of the different groups of experts and decision-makers in relation to the food system agenda (Fig. 1). Results indicated that the different groups are characterized by variable levels of engagement. While most consider their knowledge and that of their colleagues to be acceptable, two groups of experts disclosed that their engagement with the food system debates have so far been relatively weak: the experts on urbanization and those on climate change. In contrast, the experts on trade, food safety and agro-biodiversity stated that they have already been engaging substantially with the food system debate(s). To some extent, these results are in line with what could be expected. Urbanization and climate change are broader in scope and more indirectly related to food issues while the links between food safety and food systems are inherent to the system (Grace, 2015). So are the links between trade and food systems (Brown et al. 2017), even if the outcomes that are considered are distinct: while food safety relates directly to health and possibly to nutrition (HLPE 2017), trade is generally related to food security -at least on the current debates found in the literature (Brown et al., 2017). In both cases however it was not surprising to see that the decision-makers feel that they are already engaging in the food system discussion. It was also informative to observe that the decision-makers involved in urbanization were the group with the lowest self-perceived engagement in food system debate. The policy framing analysis (Fig. 5) nuances this finding however, by identifying at least two narratives where food safety (a key dimension of food systems) was linked to urbanization.Our analysis also shows how food safety has emerged in the last few years as the most visible issue amongst the policy agenda on food system in Vietnam (Fig. 4 and Table 1). To summarize the current discourse widely promoted amongst the decision-makers, we borrowed a quote from the latest World Bank report on Food Safety in Vietnam: \"Media reports, scientific literature, official communications and consumer complaints demonstrate that food safety is perceived as a major problem by consumers, industry and the government in Vietnam and there is emerging evidence that a relatively large share of food in Vietnam may be considered unsafe according to widely accepted food safety norms and standards.\" (World Bank 2017, p.15).While the first half of the quote stating that \"food safety is perceived as a major problem by consumers, industry and the government in Vietnam\" (our emphasis) is certainly correct, the second half (\"[there is] emerging evidence that a relatively large share of food in Vietnam may be considered unsafe\") needs some moderation. In the rest of this section, we provide element of evidence about the potential distortion of the policy framing around the food safety 'crisis' narrative in Vietnam. To do this, we drew on information and data provided independently by two international indexes: the UL Safety Index (UL, 2018) xvi and the food safety score of the Global Food Security Index (EIU, 2017) xvii , and used them as counterfactuals. The fact that those two indexes provide comparative data with other countries allows us to weigh the current narrative that prevails in Vietnam with measurable and independent information, thus establishing whether some degree of distortion is observed.To establish this possible policy framing distortion, we compared Vietnam with a counterfactual made of two groups of countries -the group of neighboring countries (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia) and the group of countries with a similar GDP per capita (Nicaragua, Nigeria, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Laos xviii ) -using the poisoning score of the UL Safety Index and (ii) the food safety score of the Global Food Security Index.The analysis shows that for both indicators Vietnam is actually doing quite well. With the exception of Nicaragua, Vietnam displays a higher score than all the other countries with a similar GDP per capita in term of poisoning; and is doing also better than any of these same countries in terms of food safety score (Table 2 top part). A similar conclusion emerges from comparing Vietnam with countries of the same region: with the exception of Thailand in term of poisoning score, the data shows that Vietnam is doing better than all the countries in the same region (including Thailand) in term of food safety index (Table 2 bottom part). [insert Table 2 here] Yet food safety remains firmly at the top of the list of issues related to food systems in Vietnam and very little dissidence is heard amongst the main stakeholders. The only exception is Wertheim-Heck and her colleagues (2015), not so much because they challenge the predominance of food safety in this general policy discourse, but because they enrich the analysis by looking at how the food safety crisis narrative is being instrumentalized by the government as part of their push for the modernization and supermarketization of Vietnamese food systems: \"the government plays a powerful interventionist role in the modernization of food markets by promoting 'supermarketization' as a generic path and replicable model suitable for all consumers. In various policy documents and media statements, the Vietnamese government presents supermarkets as important instruments and drivers for the transformation of the country into a modern society (MoIT, 2004(MoIT, , 2009)\" (Wertheim-Heck et al. 2015, p.96). What our research reveals is that this supermarketization narrative and possible instrumentalization of the food safety crisis may not be the exclusivity of the government. In fact, the private sector and possibly a large number of the research and development agencies appear to contribute actively to the continuation of this narrative (cf. Table 1). This focus on food safety has several implications. First, it has diffused into other policy domains of the food systems. The policy framing exercise (Figs. 5 and 6) illustrates this dynamic of diffusion from the food safety domain into a large number of other policy framings related to urbanization, trade, and agro-biodiversity. Overall this observation is in line with the literature which predicts the possibility for certain issues to \"percolate\" into other groups or networks of policy makers in the case of particular circumstances, such as when they are perceived to be a major national-level crisis (Pacheco, 2012;Boydstun et al., 2014). This high profile given to food safety further means that the overall agenda on food systems is currently driven essentially by a short-term crisis narrative -what Iyengar defines an \"episodic frame\" -as opposed to longer-term, strategic drivers -or \"thematic frames\" (Iyengar, 1991). The prevalence of this episodic frame is consistent with the established literature on policy setting which indicates that, when they occur, policy-makers are more likely to be sensitive to crisis-type headlines than to positive narratives (Soroka, 2006), essentially due to the use of sensational frames in news coverage (e.g., McCombs 2002;Graber and Dunaway, 2014). In the case of Vietnam it is correct that food scares have been all over the national news (Wertheim-Heck et al. 2015;Nguyen-Viet et al., 2017) and are a constant topic of discontent and resentment in social media.The implication is that with the diffusion of this episodic frame on food safety into the other policy domains and its de facto selection as the driver of the entire food system policy agenda, the majority of the policy-makers are now affected by a \"tunnel vision\" and appear unable to identify and engage in longer-term thematic frames. The fact that nutrition for instance was mentioned by only 2% of the policy makers as a priority (Fig. 4) even if at the same time the prevalence of overweight amongst children under 5 year of age in urban areas increased by more than 160% between 2000 and 2014 (and represents now more than 8%), and the rate of obesity amongst the urban adult population has also increased by 126% in 20 years -passing from 5% in 1993 to 22% in 2015 (Nguyen and Hoang 2018), is a perfect illustration of this tunnel vision. This raises some serious concern about the ability of the policymakers to move away from the current reactive dynamic in which they seem to be looked, and to reorientate the discussion toward the longer-term structuring issues of the food systems and their underlying drivers.Another other important aspect of the policy agenda dynamics that was investigated in this research was the role of science and evidence -as opposed to advocacy and lobbying-in the food system policy agenda. Although we were initially expecting to observe contrasted high/low scores combinations (i.e. high score on evidence-based decisions associated with low scores on lobbying, or vice versa), the data indicate otherwise, with for instance the officials from governmental institutions showing high scores for both evidence-based and advocacy-based agenda setting (Fig. 2). Those initially-counterintuitive results provide in fact important information about the policy agenda setting. First, the fact that the average scores obtained across the four groups of actors were higher for lobbying than for evidence suggests that the food system policy agenda in Vietnam may be predominantly influenced by lobbying and advocacy. In that context, the high score obtained by evidence-based agenda amongst the staff of ministries may simply reflect the need for this group of key-actors to also reassert officially that the agenda is -or should be-also based on evidence. In contrast, researchers and experts from development agencies seem to have a more pessimistic (or realistic?) view when they scored evidence the lowest values after the private sector (Fig. 2b).Interestingly, this latter view may be supported by some recent analyses carried out in other domains than food system, which suggest that presenting evidence-based policy process as a leading element of the policy agenda may be somewhat misleading (Liverani et al., 2013). du Toit (2012) for instance shows how the assumption of evidence-based policy agenda relies on an oversimplistic understanding of the policy process as being rational and linear -see also Broadbent (2012) and Igwe (2011). Apart from the social and cultural aspects of how the understanding of evidence affects the relationship between research and policy, du Toit's research also demonstrates how political considerations weigh heavily upon policymakers in their use of research when making decisions. In that regard, the alignment of evidence with predominant values or existing political agendas seems to be one of the key factors explaining the uptake of research findings by policy makers (Béné, 2005;GDN, 2013). Despite the fact that these other cited analyses were not implemented in the context of food system policy, there is no particular reason to imagine that the situation regarding the way evidence is used (or ignored) in the food system agenda is different from that in those other domains.Although some of us, scholars and researchers, may be tempted to believe that a situation where evidence does not appear to be the main driver of policy agenda is not desirable, Liverani and his colleagues (2013) offer some element for a more nuanced discussion. Based on a systematic review of policy in public health, they conclude that our own tendency to evaluate the 'quality' of the policy process simply by determining whether, how much, or how quickly pieces of evidence are taken up by policy makers, is too simplistic and could be dangerous. For these authors, simply calling for the policy agenda setting to be 'evidence-based' encourages decision-makers to prioritize those issues where a large or more coherent body of evidence is available -as opposed to more complex social and structural interventions for which it is not always easy to identify direct causal mechanisms or gather evidence of immediate effect. They conclude \"unreflective acceptance of over-simplified concepts of 'evidence based policy' is not conducive to good governance practices (….), [P]olitical pressures may encourage a selective use of evidence as a rhetorical device to support predetermined policy choices or ideological positions, or may delay decision-making on contentious issues while less contentious topics with clearer, uncontested evidence bases are followed\" (Liverani et al., 2013, p.6 -our emphasis). The growing (gray and peer-reviewed) literature on food safety issues in Vietnam is probably a good example of this phenomenon.On the other hand we could argue that the absence of evidence-based process in an agenda setting leaves room for pure political, arbitrary, or even ideological decision-making process, with some serious risk of poor governance as well. In this context, the responses provided by the key-actors regarding the extent to which they consider that the current agenda on food system reflects or not the reality on the ground in Vietnam raises some serious concern. Fig. 3 reveals indeed that for none of the five main issues identified in relation to food system (urbanization, food safety, agro-biodiversity, climate change, and trade) the respondents consider that the present policy agenda is in tune with the current situation. This issue resonates also quite well with the case of framing incoherence discussed earlier in this paper. We saw there that policy-makers (in particular from the central and municipal authorities) tend to present the modernization/formalization of the food supply chains and retail distribution as the solution to the food safety issues -despite the existence of several sources of evidence which challenge this narrative on different fronts (consumer behavior, effectiveness, and social equity). This incoherence confirms our findings that lobbying and advocacy predominate over evidence-based approach in shaping the agenda on food system policy in Vietnam (cf. Fig. 2), and in that sense illustrates perfectly some of Janet Weiss' early work on problem definition, when she remarked that frames can also play the role of 'weapons of advocacy' (Weiss, 1989, p.117).The underlying rational of this research was the recognition that we need to improve our understanding not only of food systems per se but also of policy and policy dynamics around food systems if we want to contribute more effectively to the transformation of those food systems toward the delivery of more sustainable and equitable outcomes for all. This paper therefore sets out to explore and analyze this policy dynamics using Vietnam as a case study. Although there is no \"typical\" emergent country food system, Vietnam displays some characteristics that are common to a large number of middle-income countries: rapidly growing middle class with higher income, subsequent change in life style and fast nutritional transition, rapid urbanization, drop in undernutrition paralleled with an explosion in overweight and obesity prevalence, especially in urbanized populations. The food system in Vietnam is also characterized by several important commonalities shared with other emergent countries: agriculture intensification, concern about food safety, food supply chains modernization and rapid supermarketization, etc. While we insisted in the introduction about the \"highly context-specificity of both policy agenda setting and food system\" in Vietnam (partially due to its still highly centralized economy planning), these commonalities with other countries and their food systems also mean that the methodology and the results presented here offer some possible points of reference for researchers interested in similar questions in other middle (and possibly low) income countries.Our analysis, structured around a policy framing approach, revealed a series of key findings. First was the recognition by many actors that the policy agenda on food system in Vietnam is informed only partially by evidence and that the state government remains the most powerful actor in the setting of that policy agenda. The research also revealed the diffusion of the food safety crisis narrative beyond its original technical domain into a larger number of policy framings related to other issues of food systems, thus making de facto food safety the \"center of gravity\" of the current policy agenda on food systems in Vietnam. The implication of this framing is the risk for the decision-makers to 'overfocus' their attention on this short-term crisis and lose sight of some other longer-term structural trend such as the emergence of obesity in the urban population. Exploring the question of whether those findings are also observed in other middle-income countries would be an important contribution to food system policy analysis at a global level.At a more analytical level, the paper demonstrated the relevance of 'policy framing' (Van Hulst & Yanow, 2016) as a robust and potent approach within the wider interpretive literature (Roe, 1994;Rein & Schön, 1996;Hajer & Wagenaar, 2003), which helps deconstruct the policy-making process and explore its nature as social construct. In so doing, the analysis revealed the highly contested but also cross-sectoral and interdependent nature of the policy process. Food system policy analysis will need to recognize and embrace this socially-constructed, integrated and dynamic process and be based on a more appropriate conceptualization of the process, one that not only acknowledges food systems themselves as complex and heterogeneous entities replete with linear and non-linear feedbacks (Ericksen, 2008;Béné et al., 2019aBéné et al., , 2020)), but one that is also capable of accounting for, and integrating, this multi-causality of food systems agendas resulting from the interplay of influences and politics amongst different groups of actors and decision-makers (Béné et al. 2019b).Table 1. Main issues related to food system in Vietnam, as identified by key-actors (N = 91) grouped according to their institutional affiliations.  Notes: (1) country with 2016 GDP per capita comparable to Vietnam; (2) country from the same region;(3) the higher the score, the better.   Advocacy-based Fig. 3. Extent to which respondents consider that the current agenda of food system matches the reality on the ground in the case of the issues listed on the left-hand side. The vertical dotted line represents the mid-range value (4.0) amongst the combination of possible coded answers (from 1 to 7). Responses below that mid-range value are indicated in red, (N=91). i See Methodology section for the justification of the adoption of a case-study approach.ii In particular the structure of diet shifted to less starchy staples while proteins and lipids (meat, fish, other protein-rich higher fat foods) increased significantly. iii The 7-point score was designed in line with Krosnick and Fabrigar's (1997) which suggests that 5-7 point-scales are optimal in terms of reliability and validity for measurement surveys. iv The term \"key (or structuring) issues\" is used here in a relatively loose manner since the actual impacts of those key issues on the Vietnamese food systems have not yet been formally demonstrated in the literature. v We recall that the Likert-scale system used for the semi-quantitative analysis was a 7-level scale (from 1 to 7), meaning that 4 is the mid-range value. vi Additional analysis (not shown here) indicates that the nature of the issue does not seem to affect the perception that key-actors have about the influence of evidence or advocacy on the debate. In all cases, the score were between 4 and 5 along the Likert-scale. vii Those were chosen by the respondents amongst a list of nine pre-coded answers (no multiple responses allowed). viii Due to space limitation, the details of the four key issues are presented in the supplementary material. ix Officially, Hanoi residents can participate to the policy planning: first they would have to raise the issue to the ward government of their residential areas, the ward government would next inform the district government.The issue is then passed on to the municipal government and finally to the national government. x For the full details of the analysis see [reference removed for anonymity reason]. xi This finding resonates well with other studies that analyze on the decentralization process in Vietnam. Fritzen's (2006, p.1) for instance reports: \"Incentives for bureaucratic actors (…) to transfer meaningful control downwards are weak or non-existent within the current governance structure, which centralizes political power and emphasizes hierarchical, sectoral controls over decision-making and resources\". xii See endnote 8. xiii For illustration one of those links concerns the series of food safety standards and regulations that have been progressively developed in the course of the last 10 years for export purposes as part of Vietnam joining the WTO in 2007. At the present time, the implementation of these standards and regulations is a key challenge, leaving space for bribery and corruption, but also leading to increased risks of food safety incidents. xiv One of these links derives from the low capacity of the authorities to monitor and reinforce regulations about the use of pesticides in agriculture, which leads to recurrent incidents of pesticide residues found in food products but also released in the environment, with detrimental consequences for agro-biodiversity. xv Some even argue that the reorganization and reduction of traditional wet markets which is part of this 'modernization' could in effect worsen the food safety situation by forcing an increasing number of consumers to start shopping at uncontrolled and unhygienic street markets (Wertheim-Heck et al., 2014b). xvi The UL Safety Index is an algorithm-based data science initiative that provides information to make decisions for improved safety and wellbeing. The index results from the normalization and aggregation of 17 datasets reflecting national-level social, economic and safety data. These indicators are combined into three drivers, each measuring a specific aspect of safety: Institutions and Resources, Safety Frameworks, and Safety Outcomes. We focused on the Safety Outcomes, which itself included 7 different indicators: within those we extracted and used the Poisoning indicator: Poisoning Indicator classifies injuries due to ingesting drugs, food, or toxic chemicals. Drugs can include medicines (prescription and over the counter), illegal substances, and alcohol. However, suicide and intentional poisoning incidents are excluded from the Poisoning Indicator -see details at https://ulsafetyindex.org/theme/poisonings xvii The Global Food Security Index was elaborated by the Intelligence Unit of the Economist (EIU, 2017). It is made of three global dimensions: (i) affordability, (ii) availability, and (iii) quality and safety. In our analysis we focused on the quality and safety index -which is defined as the measure of the variety and nutritional quality of average diets, as well as the safety of food, and measured through five indicators: Diet diversification, Nutritional standards, Micronutrient availability, Protein quality, Food safety. We extracted and used the food safety indicator, which itself is made of three sub-indicators: number of agency to ensure the safety and health of food, the Percentage of population with access to potable water, and the Presence of formal grocery sector -see details at https://foodsecurityindex.eiu.com/ xviii Laos is therefore Vietnam's neighbour both economically and geographically.","tokenCount":"9360"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5d1e4cb26c8c244ba2528a5062f0181","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dda51f1c-be58-4f44-bffb-fb7be477b939/retrieve","id":"-1093104603"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ee1261f5-1224-44c1-bf49-1d9620468752","pagecount":"40","content":"El programa es llevado a cabo con soporte técnico del Fondo Internacional para el Desarrollo Agrícola (IFAD).El presente documento es el resultado preliminar de la encuesta intra-hogar que se recopiló en 198 hogares del Territorio Sostenible Adaptado al Clima (TeSAC) del programa CCAFS en Popayán, departamento del Cauca, Colombia, entre octubre y noviembre de 2014. El cuestionario estuvo compuesto por 15 módulos y fue dirigido a hombres y mujeres tomadores de decisiones en los hogares. Las preguntas abarcan temas relacionados sobre actividades agrícolas, propiedad de la tierra y activos, toma de decisiones, información sobre el clima, percepciones de riesgo y roles de los miembros del hogar.Del total de hogares se obtuvieron respuestas de 160 hombres y 168 mujeres. Este reporte presenta las estadísticas descriptivas, a nivel del hogar y a nivel individual. Las estadísticas descriptivas a nivel individual, muestran diferencias y similitudes entre las respuestas de hombres y mujeres.En general, se notan diferencias sobre el conocimiento de prácticas sostenibles adaptadas al clima (CSA), las mujeres tienden a tener menos conocimiento sobre éstas que los hombres y existe una brecha clara en el acceso a las diferentes fuentes de información agrícola. Sin embargo, son las mujeres quienes tienen mayor tendencia a adoptar las prácticas CSA y a usar la información climática para planificar sus actividades agrícolas y domésticas.Un alto porcentaje de los encuestados, tanto mujeres como hombres, reportó haber notado cambios en el clima, asociados principalmente con aumentos en la temperatura. Las principales preocupaciones sobre cambios en el clima a futuro, tanto para hombres como para mujeres, están relacionadas con las sequías y el calor. Pero pese a esas preocupaciones, pocos respondieron haber hecho alguna acción para protegerse a sí mismos, a sus familias o a la comunidad, en respuesta a esos cambios.Género; Agricultura; Cambio climático; Colombia.Las autoras quieren agradecer a las comunidades rurales y en especial los encuestados del municipio de Popayán, departamento del Cauca, Colombia por su participación en este estudio.Al equipo de coordinación CCAFS-LAM por su apoyo en la realización de la encuesta y a la Fundación EcoHabitats quien no solamente hizo posible la entrada a las comunidades sino que también se encargó de socializar el proyecto y coordinar el trabajo de campo. Y especialmente a la Dr. Carmen Diana Deere por su apoyo y valiosa orientación en el diseño del instrumento de recolección de información.Este reporte contiene los principales resultados del análisis de la encuesta intra-hogar realizada entre los meses de octubre y diciembre de 2014 en 198 hogares del municipio de Popayán, departamento del Cauca, Colombia. El área de estudio corresponde a uno de los sitios de investigación de CCAFS en América Latina \"Territorios Sostenibles Adaptados al Clima (TeSAC)\" y se encuentra ubicado al suroccidente colombiano a los 2°27' norte y 76°37'18\" de longitud oeste del meridiano de Greenwich, con una extensión de 29.308 km 2 .El objetivo de la encuesta fue recolectar datos desagregados por género que permitieran responder las siguientes preguntas: 1) ¿Cómo pueden hombres y mujeres (diferencialmente) ser afectados por eventos de cambio climático en el corto y largo plazo; 2) ¿Hombres y mujeres usan diferentes mecanismos de adaptación al cambio climático? 3) ¿Cuáles son las características y las causas de las diferencias de género en la vulnerabilidad / resiliencia a riesgos relacionados con el clima?; 4) ¿Cuáles son las opciones de adaptación, estrategias y enfoques (individuales, familiares o colectivos) que están disponibles y son preferidos por los hombres y las mujeres? Y 5) ¿Los hombres y las mujeres tienen diferentes percepciones de cambio climático y los riesgos climáticos?El cuestionario estuvo compuesto por 15 módulos y fue dirigido a hombres y mujeres tomadores de decisiones. Las preguntas abarcan temas relacionados sobre actividades agrícolas, propiedad de la tierra y activos, toma de decisiones, información sobre el clima, percepciones de riesgo y roles de los miembros del hogar. Este documento está dividido en tres partes. En la primera hay una caracterización general de la zona de estudio, abordando temas de ubicación geográfica, situación socioeconómica y ambiental. La segunda parte describe la metodología empleada e incluye una breve exposición del diseño muestral. La tercera contiene los principales hallazgos, organizados de acuerdo a los módulos de la encuesta.Este Territorio Sostenible Adaptado al Clima (TeSAC) está ubicado al occidente del municipio de Popayán, con un área de 10.295 Ha. Está conformado por 15 veredas que hacen parte de siete corregimientos (ver Figura 1) Con aproximadamente 2.400 predios. La población del municipio según el Departamento Nacional de Planeación (DNP) es de 277.540 habitantes, distribuidos en: cabeceras 247.512 y zona rural 30.028 habitantes (DNP, 2016). El Producto Interno Bruto (PIB) Departamental Anual a 2013 fue de 11,4 billones de pesos, equivalentes al 1,6% del PIB nacional. En Popayán el 18,1% de las personas tienen Necesidades Básicas Insatisfechas, en la cabecera el porcentaje corresponde al 15,5% y en zonas rurales al 37,3% (DANE, 2005). Para estimar el marco muestral, se consideró apropiado realizar un muestreo aleatorio simple.Primero, se construyó el listado de hogares de manera participativa con los líderes de cada vereda para estimar nuestra población de estudio. Se incluyeron todos los hogares que tenían vivienda con predio productivo y familiar, es decir que no se tuvieron en cuenta hogares sin predios destinados a la agricultura o fincas dedicadas a la recreación. Resultando en total 1491 hogares distribuidos entre las 15 veredas. Después, se calculó el tamaño de la muestra para la zona, el cual fue de 198 hogares. En tercer lugar se distribuyó la muestra entre cada vereda, proporcionalmente al número de hogares en cada una y finalmente, se seleccionó de manera aleatoria del listado de hogares, aquellas familias a las que se realizó las encuestas. El siguiente cuadro (Tabla 1) muestra el número de hogares por vereda y el número de encuestas en cada una.  Al inicio de cada entrevista se solicitó que las personas encuestadas fueran efectivamente quienes tomaran la mayoría de decisiones en el hogar, lo cual no siempre era evidente cuando se trataba de hogares que no estaban encabezados por la pareja. Pero para efectos prácticos en la interpretación de los resultados, se utilizaron los siguientes conceptos: Jefe de hogar: en el módulo 1 se pidió a los entrevistados que nombraran a uno de los dos como jefe de hogar para determinar el parentesco de cada miembro de la familia con él/ella. Este concepto no tiene más usos a lo largo de la entrevista. Mujer principal: la mujer entrevistada, quien se reconoce como jefe de hogar/esposa/cónyuge/compañera. Hombre principal: el hombre entrevistado, quien se reconoció como jefe de hogar/esposo/cónyuge/compañero. Pareja principal: la pareja entrevistada, cuyos descriptores eran el/la jefe y esposo(a)/cónyuge/compañero(a).Los módulos de la encuesta son 15 y se estructuraron en dos partes: en la primera se entrevistó a la pareja principal del hogar de forma conjunta y en la segunda, se encuestó a cada miembro de la pareja por separado, exactamente con las mismas preguntas (ver Tabla 3). En la siguiente sección se presentan los resultados principales de cada uno de los módulos con la intención de resaltar aquellos aspectos más relevantes desde la visión de género en torno a la división del trabajo, el acceso y control de recursos, el acceso a la información y especialmente en torno a las percepciones sobre cambio climático y estrategias de adaptación.En cuanto a la ocupación de los miembros del hogar, se encontró que en el 96% de los hogares encuestados hay al menos una persona trabajando, de los cuales en el 46% solo es uno de los miembros. Además, se encontró que en el 73,7% de los hogares, los jefes de hogar se dedican a la agricultura, el 17,7% se declaran amas de casa y el resto está ocupado en otras actividades.La siguiente gráfica muestra las horas dedicadas en una semana por mujeres y hombres principales en actividades de agricultura. Se evidencia que dedican entre 6 y 105 horas con un promedio de 48,4 horas semanales.Figura 3 Horas dedicadas a la agricultura semanalmente por mujeres y hombres principales Como se observa en la Figura 4, mientras que 12% de las parejas entrevistadas reportaron no tener ingresos agrícolas, el 30% de los hogares tiene ingresos de máximo 1 millón de pesos anuales por esta actividad y menos del 10% indica tener ingresos de más de 6 millones de pesos. Frecuencia Horas dedicadas habitualmente a la semanaLa pobreza es un flagelo que se hace evidente entre la mayoría de los hogares encuestados. El instrumento utilizado para medir la pobreza con la información disponible de esta encuesta es el Índice de Progreso de la Pobreza (Progress of Poverty Index -PPI), el cual se basa en 10 preguntas sobre las características del hogar y la posesión de activos, asignando un puntaje mediante el cual se estima la probabilidad de que el hogar esté viviendo por debajo de la línea de pobreza. Este índice, tiene una escala de 1 a 100, cuanto más alto es, disminuye la probabilidad de vivir por debajo de la línea de pobreza, mientras que al acercarse a cero revela un deterioro de las condiciones del hogar.El cálculo de este índice arroja un puntaje promedio de 35,7, lo que quiere decir que el 17,9%de los hogares están viviendo por debajo de la línea nacional de pobreza de 2,50 dólares por día (ajustados por paridad de poder de compra -PPP). Sin embargo, como se observa en la Figura 5 hay una proporción significativa, cerca del 40%, que tiene una calificación PPI por debajo del promedio y por tanto la probabilidad de estar por debajo de la línea de pobreza es aún mayor, mientras que solo el 5% de los hogares tiene una probabilidad menor (10%) de estar bajo esta línea de pobreza.Figura 5 Porcentaje de hogares según puntaje de PPI Los datos evidencian que los hogares se caracterizan por tener viviendas sin una adecuada infraestructura y por la ausencia de un sistema de acueducto y alcantarillado en la mayoría de ellos. El 96,5% de los hogares viven en una casa con 57,4 metros cuadrados en promedio y sólo el 0,5% cuenta con inodoro con alcantarillado. Esto es consecuente con el hecho de que el 42,4% de los hogares reportan un rio o quebrada como fuente principal de agua, el 29,3% usan principalmente el sistema de acueducto veredal, 13,1% el acueducto público y el resto usan otro tipo de fuente. Como se observa en la Figura 6, entre los hogares que deben recolectar el agua se encontró que las mujeres tienen una participación en esta actividad del 44% (20% hacen la tarea individualmente y 24% con su pareja), mientras que los hombres tienen una participación de 64% (40% individualmente y 24% con su pareja).Por otra parte, los hogares en su gran mayoría cuentan con red eléctrica pública como principal fuente de alumbrado tanto en la temporada de lluvias como en la seca. En el caso de la energía para cocinar, aunque casi todos los hogares tienen gas en cilindro o pipeta, más del 80% de los hogares encuestados usan leña como principal fuente y no hay diferencias significativas entre temporadas. Además, aunque la recolección de la leña es principalmente una tarea de los hombres de cada hogar, la mujer tiene una participación significativa ya que en el 32% de los hogares ella participa en esta actividad ya sea individualmente o con su pareja.La siguiente gráfica muestra el porcentaje de hogares que reportaron tener casas, lotes no agrícolas o negocios. Así como también el tipo de tenencia que tienen sobre cada uno de estos bienes. Se encontró que el 90,4% de los hogares reportaron tener casa propia mientras que en los otros bienes el porcentaje de hogares que dicen tenerlos no alcanza el 10%, siendo de tan solo 4,5% en el caso de un negocio (correspondiente a 9 hogares). Cabe resaltar que de aquellos que reportaron tener casa de residencia propia, el 81,6% ya posee o tiene en trámite un documento de propiedad y sólo el 18,4% carece de documentos que certifiquen la posesión.En cuanto a la forma de adquisición, se encontró que en el caso de la casa de residencia, el 44,5% de los hogares la construyeron, el 24% la compraron, el 15% la heredó y el porcentaje restante la obtuvieron mediante una donación. Esta distribución de adquisición se mantiene en general para los otros bienes.Por otra parte, los datos sugieren que en el 50% de los hogares, es el hombre principal quien se considera dueño de la casa de residencia, mientras que en el 40% figuraron las mujeres, ya fuera solas o en pareja. Para los hogares que reportaron tener otra casa, la proporción de mujeres propietarias, solas o en pareja, permaneció constante (40%). En el caso del lote no agrícola es el hombre principal quien en el 63% de los hogares reportó tener uno, frente al 10,5% en que figuran las mujeres (solas o en pareja). En cambio, de los 9 hogares que mencionaron tener un negocio, 6 son de propiedad de la mujer principal o la pareja (ver Figura 8).Finalmente, la siguiente gráfica ilustra la propiedad de otros activos. El principal hallazgo es que las mujeres son consideradas las principales dueñas de activos relacionados con el hogar y los hombres son los principales dueños de activos agrícolas. En más del 50% de los hogares las mujeres son las dueñas de los electrodomésticos mientras que en los activos agrícolas su propiedad no supera el 30%. Sin embargo, es importante resaltar, que menos del 2% de los hogares tienen grandes activos agrícolas como lo son el tractor, la rastra, la cosechadora o la trilladora y menos del 20% tienen una bomba de agua, una carreta o un trapiche. Entre los 198 hogares de la zona de estudio hay un total de 327 parcelas distribuidas de la siguiente manera: el 58,6% de los hogares tienen una sola parcela, el 25,8% tienen dos parcelas, el 8,6% tienen tres y sólo el 7% tienen cuatro o más. Se encontró que si bien las parcelas tienen en promedio 1.3 hectáreas, el 45% de ellas tienen menos de 1 hectárea y menos del 2% tienen más de 7 hectáreas, teniendo la parcela más grande 11 hectáreas 1 .Los datos evidencian que la principal tenencia sobre la tierra es la propiedad con un 93,3% de las parcelas (305 parcelas), el 4,9% son prestadas y el 1,8% tienen otro tipo de tenencia -es decir, son alquiladas o recibidas para trabajar a cambio de producto-. De las parcelas propias, el 45,2% pertenecen al hombre principal, el 29,2% son propiedad de las mujeres principales, 10,8% de la pareja principal y en el 8,8% los dueños son todos los miembros del hogar. La Figura 11 muestra los dueños según la forma de adquisición de las parcelas.1 Cabe resaltar que había dos hogares que reportaron parcelas con áreas de 36 y 40 hectáreas, sin embargo estas parcelas corresponden a potreros no cultivados y por tanto fueron omitidos de los cálculos para evitar ruidos.  Además, se encontró que en el 43,6% de las parcelas propias tanto el dueño como quien decide sobre el uso de recursos y control de la producción es un hombre y el 20,3% son de propiedad y manejo femenino. Similar cuando las parcelas son propiedad de los dos: típicamente los hombres se identifican como los principales tomadores de decisiones. Sin embargo, la literatura muestra que en general los hombres son reconocidos como los principales tomadores de decisiones debido a razones culturales (y/o normas de género). Por eso, más adelante se explora cómo las mujeres están involucradas en las decisiones de varias actividades agropecuarias.En cuanto a créditos, los datos evidencian que el 42,9% de los hogares han pedido un préstamo en los últimos 12 meses. De estas solicitudes, casi todos han sido otorgados (97,6%). Por otra parte, de los hogares que reportaron no haber solicitado un préstamo se tiene que las principales razones por lo que no lo han hecho están asociados al hecho de que ya poseen un crédito -el 96,4% de los hogares reportaron están pagando un préstamo -o no les gusta endeudarse. La Tabla 5 caracteriza los créditos de acuerdo al destino que tuvo el préstamo y al tipo de la institución que lo otorgó. De los 328 encuestados, 160 hombres y 168 mujeres, se encontró que su participación en grupos es muy poca. Sólo se encontró una participación superior al 50% de los hombres encuestados en el grupo de gestión cafetera. Otro hallazgo, como se observa en la Figura 12, es que en grupos religiosos, de la tercera edad, de educación o del programa de familias en acción, las mujeres tienen mayor participación que los hombres. Además, se encontró que las personas son miembro de cada grupo generalmente asisten a las reuniones. Como se mencionó previamente, cuando se pidió a los encuestados mencionar quién es la persona que toma las decisiones principales sobre el uso de recursos y ejerce el control de la producción en cada parcela, se encontró que en el 65,1% de las parcelas es el hombre, mientras que en un 23,8% de las parcelas es la mujer, en el 6,4% son los hijos(as) y el resto corresponde a otros parientes o personas que no son miembros del hogar.Ahora, se presentarán los resultados sobre la percepción de hombres y mujeres con respecto a la toma de decisiones en diferentes actividades al interior de cada subparcelas 2 , con respecto a la tenencia de animales y con respecto a actividades administrativas (inversiones, ingresos, gastos del hogar).Como se observa en la Figura 13, la percepción de los hombres y de mujeres respecto a la toma de decisiones en la mayoría de actividades relacionadas con los cultivos en subparcelas, difieren sustancialmente. Según los hombres encuestados, son ellos mismos quienes en un promedio del 60% de las subparcelas deciden qué cultivar, el uso de fertilizantes (y tipo de fertilizante), la compra de insumos, la contratación de mano de obra y el método para controlar malezas. Las mujeres encuestadas, por su parte, percibieron una mayor participación de ellas mismas en las decisiones asociadas a esas actividades (alrededor de un 10% más del porcentaje reportado por los hombres). La proporción de casos en los que decide la pareja fueron similares para hombres y para mujeres (20% en promedio).En las actividades que tienen que ver con la cosecha (cuándo comenzarla, cuánto vender y cómo usar el ingreso de la venta), se observa que tanto hombres como mujeres asignaron una mayor participación a formas de decisión conjuntas, asignándole mayor peso a la pareja y otras formas, ya sea con los hijos u otros miembros del hogar.Por su parte, tanto hombres como mujeres 3 expresaron que la tenencia de animales es muy baja.Se encontró que de los 328 encuestados, 160 hombres y 168 mujeres, el 6% tiene ganado para carne y para leche y sólo el 3,7% tiene cerdos. La tenencia de caballos/burros/mulas se encuentra en el 33% de los encuestados, mientras que más del 88% de ellos reportó tener gallinas y/u otras aves de corral.La percepción de hombres y mujeres sobre diferentes aspectos asociados a la tenencia de animales se resume en la Figura 14. En primer lugar, es evidente que hombres y mujeres reconocen que el hombre principal es el dueño de animales como caballos/burros/mulas, los cuales son empleados principalmente como medio de transporte y de carga. En cambio, para animales cuyo uso más frecuente es el alimento para el hogar como las aves o los cerdos, hombres y mujeres respondieron en más del 75% de los casos que eran en primer lugar mujeres, la pareja o demás miembros de la familia los dueños. En cuanto al ganado de carne y de leche, los hombres respondieron en mayor proporción (con respecto a lo reportado por las mujeres) 3 Por ser un módulo de respuesta separada para hombres y mujeres, se revisó primero el resumen de estadísticas consignadas en la Tabla 6 por sexo del respondiente, no encontrando diferencia estadística significativa (p>0.05) para las cantidades reportadas por cada grupo. De esta manera, se presentan los promedios consolidados para cada tipo de animal y el número de observaciones que corresponde al número de personas que manifestaron tener cada tipo de animal.No que son ellos mismos los dueños, mientras que las mujeres se percibieron dueñas en mayor medida y también otros miembros de la familia.En la toma de decisiones asociadas al cuidado de los animales (qué alimento darles y cuidado de la salud), se observa que es el hombre principal quien en mayor medida se encarga del ganado (carne o leche) y de los caballos/burros/mulas, hecho que perciben tanto hombres como mujeres. Por su parte, la mujer principal toma este tipo de decisiones para gallinas y otras aves de corral y para los cerdos. Nuevamente son las mujeres encuestadas quienes perciben en mayor medida la toma de decisiones en conjunto con otros miembros del hogar: sus hijos principalmente, u otros hombres y mujeres miembros o no miembros del hogar (hermanos, padres).El subproducto de los animales es más una labor de la que se encargan las mujeres, especialmente de los cerdos, aves y otros animales. Los hombres reportan encargarse en más del 45% de los casos de ganado para carne y ganado para leche y para los demás tipos de animales perciben (en mayor medida que las mujeres) que es una labor conjunta de la pareja principal, mientras que las mujeres la asocian a otros miembros del hogar, ya sea los hijos u otros parientes.Menos del 20% de los hogares que tenían algún tipo de animal expresaron haber vendido el subproducto (leche, queso, carne, huevos, etc.), excepto en el caso de leche de vaca, para la cual el 42% de las mujeres y el 31% de los hombres encuestados reportaron haber hecho alguna venta. En los casos en que sí se vendió subproducto de los animales, hombres y mujeres percibieron que fue la mujer principal quien decidió vender el subproducto de cerdos y aves en más del 60% de los casos, y en menor medida la pareja o con otros miembros del hogar. Sobre el ingreso por la venta de subproducto de cerdos y aves, nuevamente fue la mujer principal quien decidió en más del 60% de los casos cómo usarlo, de acuerdo con la percepción de hombres y mujeres.De manera similar, la venta de animales fue muy baja según la percepción de hombres y mujeres. Fueron menos de 5 personas, respectivamente, quienes respondieron haber vendido ganado (para carne o leche), cerdos u otros animales. Con respecto a las aves, 16 hombres y 23 mujeres manifestaron haber vendido animales de este tipo y fue la mujer principal quien decidió hacer dicha venta (53% percepción de los hombres y 70% percepción de las mujeres), seguida de la pareja principal y en consulta con otros miembros del hogar. Sobre el ingreso percibido por dicha venta, un 70% de las mujeres expresó que fueron ellas quienes decidieron cómo usarlo, mientras los hombres en más del 60% reportaron que había sido la pareja o con otros miembros del hogar. Actividades económicas como realizar inversiones agropecuarias y comprar artículos costosos para el hogar fueron frecuentes entre los encuestados: 46% de los hombres y 50% de las mujeres reportaron haber hecho inversiones agropecuarias importantes, mientras que el 24% de los hombres y el 33% de las mujeres manifestaron haber comprado artículos costosos para el hogar.Menos del 7% de los encuestados expresó haber comprado/vendido terrenos o alquilado la tierra.En cuanto a las inversiones agropecuarias importantes, fue el hombre principal quien en mayor medida decidió realizarlas de acuerdo con ambas percepciones (52% de los hombres y 43% de las mujeres). La compra de artículos costosos fue decidida mayoritariamente por el hombre principal, por la pareja o conjuntamente con otros miembros del hogar (ver Tabla 7).De acuerdo con la Figura 15 sobre los gastos principales del hogar, los encuestados respondieron en su mayoría que es el hombre principal (41% de los hombres y 40% de las mujeres), o la pareja (46% de los hombres y 30% de las mujeres) quien decide sobre los gastos de alimentación. Para los gastos de los hijos, los encuestados manifestaron que es la pareja principal o con otros miembros del hogar (76% de los hombres y 64% de las mujeres) quienes deciden en la mayoría de los casos.Figura 15 Toma de decisiones sobre gastos del hogar Del total de 328 respondientes, 160 hombres y 168 mujeres, más del 61% de los hombres trabajó fuera del hogar en el último año, mientras que solo el 30% de las mujeres lo hizo. De quienes trabajaron, casi un 40% de los hombres trabajó en actividades agrícolas, 18% en actividades no agrícolas y un 3% en ambas actividades. El 23% de las mujeres trabajó en actividades agrícolas y el 8% en actividades no agrícolas.Hombres y mujeres que trabajaron fuera del hogar tomaron la decisión en su mayoría por ellos mismos: 45% de los hombres y 65% de las mujeres. Por otra parte, casi el 55% de los hombres respondieron haber tomado la decisión conjuntamente con otra persona, siendo la mujer principal en el 92% de los casos. De las mujeres que tomaron esta decisión conjuntamente, el 100% respondió haberla tomado con el hombre principal. Sólo un 8% de las mujeres tomó la decisión con el permiso del hombre principal (Figura 16).Con respecto al ingreso generado en las actividades fuera del hogar, la Figura 17 muestra que el 68% de las mujeres y el 25% de los hombres decidieron sobre su uso por ellos mismos. Entre quienes discutieron parte del ingreso con otra persona, 50% de los hombres y 22% de las mujeres, fue discutido con su pareja respectiva en más del 95% de los casos. El 24% de los hombres y el 10% de las mujeres respondieron haber decidido totalmente con la pareja. Tanto hombres como mujeres percibieron en más del 85% de los casos que son los ingresos por trabajo fuera de la finca del hombre principal o de otros miembros del hogar, los más importantes del hogar. Además, ambos respondientes expresaron en más del 85% de los casos que fueron los ingresos -por trabajo fuera del hogar-del hombre principal o de otros miembros del hogar los más altos. De manera similar, es el hombre principal u otros miembros quienes más contribuyen a los gastos del hogar (89% de los hombres y 83% de las mujeres).No obstante, fue mayoritaria la opinión de hombres y mujeres sobre el predominio de la agricultura en la propia finca como la actividad más importante para el sostenimiento del hogar (82% hombres y 72% mujeres). El 11% de los hombres respondió que el más importante es el trabajo asalariado frente a un 22% de las mujeres.Figura 18 Proporción de alimentos que es comprada fuera del hogarPor su parte, en la Figura 18 se puede ver que para más del 60% de hombres y 56% de mujeres, respectivamente, más de la mitad o incluso la mayoría de alimentos es comprada afuera del hogar, en contraste con la baja proporción de hombres y de mujeres que manifestaron que muy pocos alimentos se compran fuera del hogar.Las prácticas sostenibles adaptadas al clima (CSA por sus siglas en inglés) son prácticas que ayudan a los agricultores a adaptarse al cambio climático al mismo tiempo que reducen las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero e incrementan la productividad (FAO, 2013). Datos sobre conocimiento y adopción de varias prácticas son presentadas en las Tablas 8 y 9. En general, se encontró que las mujeres tienden a tener menos conocimientos de las prácticas que los hombres (como se observa en Tabla 8 por las pocas filas rojas). Sin embargo, en prácticas como zanjas de drenaje, labranza mínima, almacenamiento de agua para riego y uso eficiente de fogones de leña, las mujeres tienden a reportar uso más que los hombres, aun cuando ellos tienen más o igual conocimiento de estas prácticas que ellas. No hay diferencias estadísticas Más mujeres que hombres conocen la práctica Más hombres que mujeres conocen la práctica Tabla 9 Porcentaje de hombres y mujeres reportando uso de las prácticas sostenibles 4 10.El acceso a diferentes fuentes de información agrícola o climática según el género evidencia que en la mayoría de los casos el mayor acceso lo tienen los hombres. Como se observa en la Tabla 11, las brechas más significativas entre hombres y mujeres se dan cuando la información proviene de técnicos, ONGs, almacenes o de las señales que brinda la naturaleza misma.Adicionalmente, en ningún tipo de fuente se encontró que las mujeres hubieran recibido más información que los hombres y sólo en muy pocos casos el acceso es igual (filas verdes de la Tabla 10).4 Los valores corresponden a los porcentajes de aquellos hombres y mujeres que reportaron conocer la práctica. La Tabla 11 muestra los datos sobre el acceso y uso de información climática que tienen hombres y mujeres en la zona de estudio. Se encontró que aunque los hombres en general reciben más información que las mujeres, son ellas quienes más la usan para planificar sus actividades agrícolas y domésticas. Por ejemplo, en el caso de pronósticos de lluvias a corto plazo el 63% de los hombres recibieron la información pero sólo 27,7% la usaron. Mientras que en el caso de las mujeres, aunque solo 54% la recibieron, el 56% de ellas planearon sus actividades con base en esa información. No hay diferencias estadísticas Más hombres que mujeres acceden a la informaciónLa mayoría de los encuestados reportaron haber observado cambios en patrones climáticos a lo largo de su vida. Los cambios en temperatura fueron los más observados, el 78% de los hombres y el 76% de las mujeres dijeron haber notado esta variación; mientras que sólo el 1% de hombres y ninguna de las mujeres encuestadas reportaron haber notado cambios por inundaciones. Similar ocurre con cambios en tormentas, los cuales fueron percibidos por muy pocos respondientes.Ante las preguntas a los encuestados sobre los eventos climáticos que ellos experimentaron en los últimos cinco años y sobre los cambios en patrones climáticos que observaron durante toda la vida, se encontraron diferencias de género en algunas de las percepciones. Por ejemplo, en el caso de eventos climáticos, más mujeres que hombres reportaron haber experimentado granizadas y tormentas, mientras que más hombres que mujeres dijeron haber experimentado olas de calor y lluvias irregulares (ver Tabla 12). Tanto hombres como mujeres en la zona de estudio, el 98% de ellos y el 89% de ellas, reportaron haber notado cambios en el clima a lo largo de su vida (ver Tabla 12). Como se observa en la Figura 19, los cambios que los encuestados han observado están relacionados con aumentos en la temperatura -60,4% de las mujeres y 52,6% de los hombres, notaron que hay días más calientes-y sólo en un pequeño porcentaje los cambios tienen que ver con lluvias, por ejemplo, el 6% de los hombres y el 7% de las mujeres reportaron que las lluvias eran menos predecibles actualmente.Figura 19 Porcentaje de hombres y mujeres que han notado cambios en el climaCuando se preguntó específicamente a cada respondiente si había hecho algunos cambios para protegerse a sí mismo, a la familia o comunidad en respuesta al cambio climático, pocos respondieron haberlo hecho (ver Tabla 12). Esto evidencia que aun cuando casi la totalidad de los respondientes reportaron haber notado cambios climáticos, ellos generalmente no tomaron acciones para enfrentarlos. No obstante, los cambios hechos más frecuentemente entre hombres y mujeres, como se observa en la Tabla 13, están relacionados con la implementación de prácticas de conservación de agua y suelos, la plantación de árboles en la finca, el cambio de variedades y/o cultivos y el cambio en la aplicación de fertilizantes.Adicionalmente, se encontró que la mayor dificultad que tuvieron hombres y mujeres para realizar algunos cambios que ellos desean implementar en el futuro cercano es la falta de dinero y/o recursos. En el caso de los hombres, además de este gran limitante, el 11,1% dijo que los cambios no son posibles por la falta de cultura (sensibilización/educación) de las personas en la zona. En esta sección de la encuesta se capturó información que revela ciertos estereotipos y roles de género prevalecientes en las diferentes comunidades encuestadas. Se indagó la opinión de mujeres y hombres sobre roles, libertad personal, la participación en decisiones y la dinámica de la relación de pareja. Dicha información permite hacer una primera aproximación al estado actual de las comunidades en cuanto a los valores personales, la apropiación de los derechos individuales y el sentido de pertenencia con las actividades agrícolas, la receptividad hacia nuevos métodos para mejorar la productividad y asegurar el alimento de sus hogares en condiciones de cambio climático.Figura 20 Percepción de hombres y mujeres sobre roles de género y valores personalesEn la Figura 20 se puede observar que la percepción de mujeres y hombres es, en términos generales, favorable ante los derechos que tienen y sus libertades en la toma de decisiones.Ambos sexos reportaron que tareas como el cuidado de los niños deben ser compartidas por ambos sexos, que las mujeres tienen derecho a defenderse y a denunciar maltrato, que las mujeres tienen derecho a vivir sin violencia, y que ambos tienen los mismos derechos para tomar sus decisiones. En contraste, prevalecen algunas opiniones que confirman cierta subordinación femenina o refuerzo de la tradicional construcción social de género y las expectativas sobre el comportamiento de hombres y mujeres: sólo el 63% de las mujeres manifestó estar en total desacuerdo con tener relaciones sexuales con el esposo aunque ellas no quieran, mientras así lo expresó el 77% de los hombres; por su parte, el que el hombre tenga derecho a más tiempo de descanso que la mujer fue totalmente desaprobado por el 49% de los hombres y sólo por el 27% de las mujeres. Además, el 61% de los hombres y el 45% de las mujeres estuvieron totalmente de acuerdo con que es el hombre quien debe responsabilizarse por todos los gastos de la familia. Finalmente, el 68% de mujeres y el 61% de los hombres estuvieron un poco o totalmente de acuerdo con que una buena esposa debe obedecer a su marido aunque no esté de acuerdo con él.Figura 21 Percepción de hombres y mujeres sobre dinámicas de parejaCon respecto a las dinámicas de pareja, más del 84% de los hombres expresó total desacuerdo con golpear a la esposa en 6 de las 7 situaciones planteadas, mientras que para las mujeres hubo ciertos matices en algunas de ellas. Por ejemplo, fue el 77% de mujeres quienes desaprobaron totalmente el maltrato en caso de desobedecer al marido, y el 78% si se descuida o desatiende a los niños. Tanto hombres como mujeres fueron susceptibles a no desaprobar maltrato en caso de que la mujer tenga relaciones con otro: solo el 53% de los hombres y el 63% de las mujeres expresaron total desacuerdo (ver Figura 21).Sobre la percepción de hombres y mujeres acerca de la toma de decisiones agrícolas, la interacción con su comunidad, su sentido de pertenencia hacia la tierra y su ocupación, la Figura 22 exhibe los resultados. En cuanto a la búsqueda de prácticas agrícolas que mejoren las condiciones de su finca, fueron los hombres quienes se mostraron más receptivos a buscar consejo, a valorar la información agrícola, la tecnología y la información meteorológica, a ser los primeros en probar nuevas prácticas en su finca, a decidir sin preocuparse por lo que digan los demás, a tomar esas decisiones considerando no solo la generación de ingresos sino la seguridad alimentaria del hogar, al tiempo que una mayor proporción de ellos que de ellas expresaron que ambos, hombres y mujeres, deben tener roles iguales en la toma de decisiones agrícolas.Por otra parte, la percepción de los encuestados sobre el trabajo en comunidad fue poco favorable. Si bien la mayoría (78% hombres y 73% mujeres) manifestaron estar totalmente de acuerdo en que los miembros de la comunidad deben trabajar juntos para mejorarla, solo el 46% de los hombres y el 52% de las mujeres estuvieron totalmente de acuerdo con que la cooperación con los demás por lo general funciona. Además, el 51% de los hombres y solo el 38% de las mujeres manifestaron total confianza en que en tiempos de crisis los miembros de su comunidad les ayudarían, En contraste, fueron más receptivos a la unidad con la familia, el 91% de los hombres y el 82% de las mujeres expresaron total acuerdo con que los esposos tomen juntos las decisiones agrícolas en el hogar puesto que sus medios de vida pueden mejorar, y que en tiempos de necesidad es la familia en quien confían para ayudarles.Este reporte es, en general, una versión preliminar de los resultados de la encuesta que se llevó a cabo, y de cara a los proyectos que está realizando CCAFS junto a EcoHabitats en las diferentes comunidades de Popayán, es un complemento para entender las brechas de género que existen en estas poblaciones para dar respuesta a las preguntas planteadas al inicio del documento, de manera que los planes de trabajo con las comunidades se reorienten para una mayor efectividad.","tokenCount":"6150"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ba6c45687a0655495b8ef78213add51f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0d91e835-af72-4f39-bbdc-9c416ae82e51/retrieve","id":"1387841105"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b67c802f-fb78-4208-a380-a32009a30d2b","pagecount":"1","content":"Two bacterial isolates in Aspergillus inhibition test Two bacterial isolates in Aspergillus inhibition test www mtt fi/foodafrica www.mtt.fi/foodafrica 16 June 2014 Helsinki Finland FoodAfrica midterm seminar www.mtt.fi/foodafricaAflatoxins produced by Aspergillus fungi are Aflatoxins, produced by Aspergillus fungi, are Aflatoxins, produced by Aspergillus fungi, are ubiquitous toxins and they can present a severe health ubiquitous toxins and they can present a severe health q y p risk to humans and animals if contaminated food and risk to humans and animals if contaminated food and f d i d F i li i th il d th feed is consumed Fungi live in the soil and on the feed is consumed. Fungi live in the soil and on the f f d i i lti ti surface of crops and are common in maize cultivation surface of crops and are common in maize cultivation areas A novel biological method could reduce the areas. A novel biological method could reduce the areas. A novel biological method could reduce the health risks of aflatoxins through inhibiting fungal health risks of aflatoxins through inhibiting fungal g g g th d th fl t i d ti growth and thus aflatoxin production growth and thus aflatoxin production. f f strains may be the result of competition for living strains may be the result of competition for living y p g conditions between bacterial cells and fungi and/or conditions between bacterial cells and fungi and/or g production of antifungal compounds such as organic production of antifungal compounds such as organic S li l ti production of antifungal compounds such as organic id  ","tokenCount":"265"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"950fdaa957a5f0553e807b36ce39e0c5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b83eadec-9e6d-41e3-b1d3-b3b956889ec5/retrieve","id":"1280171516"},"keywords":["dietary diversity","disparity","ecology","evenness","food biodiversity","functional diversity","nutrition","richness"],"sieverID":"0aa46ef6-c4a1-40a6-95b0-7a40cfc8eb27","pagecount":"16","content":"Dietary diversity is an established public health principle, and its measurement is essential for studies of diet quality and food security. However, conventional between food group scores fail to capture the nutritional variability and ecosystem services delivered by dietary richness and dissimilarity within food groups, or the relative distribution (i.e., evenness or moderation) of e.g., species or varieties across whole diets. Summarizing food biodiversity in an all-encompassing index is problematic. Therefore, various diversity indices have been proposed in ecology, yet these require methodological adaption for integration in dietary assessments. in this narrative review, we summarize the key conceptual issues underlying the measurement of food biodiversity at an edible species level, assess the ecological diversity indices previously applied to food consumption and food supply data, discuss their relative suitability, and potential amendments for use in (quantitative) dietary intake studies. ecological diversity indices are often used without justification through the lens of nutrition. To illustrate: (i) dietary species richness fails to account for the distribution of foods across the diet or their functional traits; (ii) evenness indices, such as the Gini-Simpson index, require widely accepted relative abundance units (e.g., kcal, g, cups) and evidence-based moderation weighting factors; and (iii) functional dissimilarity indices are constructed based on an arbitrary selection of distance measures, cutoff criteria, and number of phylogenetic, nutritional, and morphological traits. Disregard for these limitations can lead to counterintuitive results and ambiguous or incorrect conclusions about the food biodiversity within diets or food systems. To ensure comparability and robustness of future research, we advocate food biodiversity indices that: (i) satisfy key axioms; (ii) can be extended to account for disparity between edible species; and (iii) are used in combination, rather than in isolation.If humanity is concerned about global food security and nutrition, then it should also be concerned about protecting and restoring the biosphere we inhabit (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2019). \"Eat a variety of foods\" or dietary diversity is a longstanding public health recommendation to achieve a nutritionally adequate diet (Herforth et al. 2019). More recently, sustainable healthy diets have been defined as \"dietary patterns that promote all dimensions of individuals' health and wellbeing; have low environmental pressure and impact; are accessible, affordable, safe and equitable; and are culturally acceptable\" (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization 2020). Biodiversity loss of both wild and agricultural species can have detrimental effects for both diet quality and the environment, by reducing the availability of and access to a diversity of nutritious, seasonal foods, and by contributing to the loss of ecosystem functions (e.g., nitrogen fixation by legume-rhizobia symbiosis) (Myers et al. 2013;Heilpern et al. 2021).Biodiversity is broadly defined as \"the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems\" (United Nations 1992). At present, approximately 21% of plant (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2010) and 17% of animal species are at risk of extinction (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2015). Distinct edible species and varieties, between and within food groups, offer a large spectrum of nutritional benefits (Barabási, Menichetti, and Loscalzo 2020), as these foods contain diverse compositions, quantities, and densities of essential macro-and micronutrients (e.g., protein, iron), bioactive non-nutrients (e.g., phytochemicals), and anti-nutrients (e.g., tannins) (Burlingame, Charrondiere, et al. 2009;Burlingame, Mouillé, et al. 2009). Nutrient content differences within crop varieties (Kennedy and Burlingame 2003) and animal breeds (Medhammar et al. 2012; Barnes et al. 2012) of the same species can be even greater than the differences between species (Lutaladio, Burlingame, and Crews 2010). Yet, from the approximately 7,000 crops and several thousand animals used by humans for food, only 12 crops together with 5 animal species currently provide ∼75% of the world's food energy supply (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2010). In Europe, beef, wheat, pork and potato alone account for ∼45% of self-reported dietary kcal intake (Hanley-Cook, Huybrechts, et al. 2021).Biodiversity loss is the boundary where current rates of extinction (100 to 1,000 times the natural \"background\" rate) put planet Earth furthest outside the \"safe operating space for humanity\" (Rockström et al. 2009;Steffen et al. 2015). Land conversion, in particular for industrial mono-crop and animal agriculture, is a major driver of habitat loss, degradation, and encroachment, which, along with direct killing (e.g., overharvesting), continue to be leading threats to biodiversity (Maxwell et al. 2016). Food species biodiversity delivers a multitude of ecosystem services (e.g., human health and culture) (DeClerck et al. 2011), reduces pressures on single species (e.g., the Panama disease threatens the Cavendish banana, which alone is responsible for 40% of global banana production) (Dale et al. 2017), and helps to maintain food and nutrition security in the face of (anthropogenic) stressors and recovery from and adaptation to these disturbances (Díaz et al. 2019).Notwithstanding the best intentions of global and local implementation of food diversification and conservation strategies (e.g., land sparing and sharing, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Swedish food-based dietary guidelines, Chefs' Manifesto, Slow Food's Ark of Taste) (Hanley-Cook, Kennedy, and Lachat 2019) escalating human stressors continue to drive extinctions, wild species population declines, and habitat destruction continues at large scales (Maxwell et al. 2016;Tittensor et al. 2014;Dirzo et al. 2014;Pimm et al. 2014). Moreover, over the past decades, agricultural policies have often focused on improving the yield of key staple cereal crops; mainly rice, wheat, and maize (Pingali 2015). Subsequently, the composition of global food supplies and diets have become more homogeneous, comprising an ever smaller number of edible species (i.e., variation between countries' food supplies has declined by ∼70% over the last 50 years) (Khoury et al. 2014).The increased recognition of inter-relationships between human and planetary health effects of food has resulted in a proliferation of interest in integrated conceptual frameworks (High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition 2020; World Health Organization 2020) and joint analyses of environmental and nutrition outcomes (Johnston, Fanzo, and Cogill 2014;Clark et al. 2019;Springmann et al. 2018). However, although hunger, food security, and sustainability are addressed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the current indicators used for SDG 2, 12, and 15 consider nutritional status (e.g., under-five stunting or anemia in women, rather than upstream food intake), sustainable management of terrestrial ecosystems, and agricultural sustainability separately (United Nations 2020). Furthermore, while food biodiversity is inextricably linked to human nutrition (Golden et al. 2011;Penafiel et al. 2011), it is not systematically assessed from dietary intake (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Bioversity International 2017) or national food production or supply data collection efforts (Remans et al. 2014). At present, questionnaires including validated food group diversity scores for women (Hanley-Cook, Tung, et al. 2020) and children (Choudhury, Headey, and Masters 2019) are being enumerated around the globe (e.g., Demographic and Health Surveys, Gallup World Poll) to feasibly monitor and evaluate dietary patterns, yet their linkages with biodiversity are not explicit.Cross-cutting studies attempting to assess the reciprocal links between landscape biodiversity, food production diversity, and dietary intake have used various diversity indices without validation through the lens of nutrition or ecology (Jones 2017;Berti 2015). The level of taxonomic detail collected during dietary intake assessments is potentially a key bottle-neck (i.e., often lacking data on species, varieties, or cultivars) for evaluations of biodiversity cascades across scales (e.g., from landscapes to microbiomes) (Remans et al. 2015). To clarify, consider conventional dietary diversity scores (Supplementary material, Table S1) and food variety scores; the latter do not separate mixed dishes into all their ingredients, but do distinguish between e.g., low vs high fat products (Drewnowski et al. 1997), which are used as proxies for diet quality and measure the diversity of (a limited number of) food groups or food items consumed (Miller et al. 2020). Neither of these groups of diet indices specifically captures the (complementary) nutritional variability and ecosystem services (e.g., finite genetic resources) provided by dietary species richness and dissimilarity within food groups (explicitly recommended in e.g., Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020), and moderation between or within food groups (Hanley-Cook, Kennedy, and Lachat 2019). To conceptualize this link, the notion of food biodiversity was coined by researchers and defined as \"the diversity of plants, animals, and other organisms (e.g., fungi, insects) used for food, both cultivated and from the wild\" (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Bioversity International 2017; Lachat et al. 2018).Any (semi-)quantitative study of food biodiversity, no matter which aspect or scale is of interest (e.g., food system, farm, diet), will involve its measurement. In dietary assessment, this is a complex task both conceptually and practically: food classification is dependent on the level of a priori defined detail in food frequency questionnaires (Hanley-Cook, Huybrechts, et al. 2021) or respondents' ability to recall short-term consumption (Lachat et al. 2018), while food composition data is limited for many underutilized, neglected, and even common species (Charrondière et al. 2013). Hence, biodiversity is usually quantified by constructing mathematical functions known as ecological diversity indices. The computation of such indices from dietary intake (or food supply) data permits comparisons between e.g., population groups, geographic regions, seasons, functional food groups, or taxa (species) (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2021).However, in ecology, there is a lack of user guidance on which (combination) of the numerous biodiversity indices are more suitable and informative than others (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). This challenge is just as acute in nutrition, where construction of e.g., simple, population-group specific food group diversity scores often diverge in number and aggregation of subcomponents and minimum intake cutoffs (Martin-Prevel et al. 2017;Hatløy, Torheim, and Oshaug 1998;Vandevijvere et al. 2010;Kant et al. 1993;Ponce, Ramirez, and Delisle 2006). The available diversity indices are so numerous and varied in their nutritional (and ecological) interpretation and mathematical behavior that we must start by asking ourselves the most fundamental question: what is actually meant by food biodiversity? This narrative review aims to provide guidance to researchers seeking to use established ecological diversity indices in (quantitative) food intake studies. Therefore, our study focuses on the fundamental characteristics of (food) biodiversity indices, which have consequences for their use and, perhaps more importantly, their misuse in nutritional epidemiology.The mechanisms driving relationships between food biodiversity and human or planetary health are considered to be mainly due to three processes (Hanley-Cook, Huybrechts, et al. 2021;DeClerck et al. 2011). The first is known as the sampling effect and assumes that as diversity increases there is a greater probability, simply by chance, of including a highly nutritious or productive species. The second mechanism is the complementary effect, in which (chemical or physical) interactions between food species (e.g., black bean and maize) result in a function or yield greater than expected by chance (i.e., over-yielding) (Liu 2003(Liu , 2004)). The third mechanism can be described as minimizing tradeoffs, which can occur by producing (e.g., quinoa mono-cropping) (Jacobsen 2011) and consuming (e.g., toxic effects of cruciferous vegetables) too much of one single species (Lavecchia et al. 2013). Here we outline four broad factors underlying the profusion of (bio)diversity indices used in the scientific literature to test such hypotheses.First and foremost, (dietary) diversity lacks a formal and unambiguous definition. It can and has been defined in many different ways, depending on which specific aspect (see Supplementary material, Figure S1) of this expansive and complex concept is of interest to the researchers involved (Verger et al. 2021;Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). Consequently, candidate food biodiversity indices measure demonstrably different \"units\" of diversity [e.g., species, food groups, or traits (e.g., nutrient density); see \"Components of food biodiversity\"] and no single index can serve as an all-encompassing summary statistic.Second, the concept of diversity is often confounded with the indices that measure it. Verger, Dop, and Martin-Prével (2017) illustrate this issue within nutrition with the example of food group diversity: the 12-point Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) is a proxy for a household's economic access to food (Swindale and Bilinsky 2006), but HDDS is often, invalidly, used as a proxy for an individual's dietary diversity. HDDS includes three food groups (oil and fats, sugar and honey, and miscellaneous) that are not included in other dietary diversity scores, because they do not provide essential micronutrients. Furthermore, food subgroups with distinct micronutrient profiles, such as dark green leafy vegetables, other vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, other vegetables, and other fruits are aggregated to the generic vegetables and fruits food groups (Supplementary material, Table S1). Moreover, dietary diversity is not merely a consequence of higher caloric or protein adequacy or household income, but also of the intra-household distribution of the food basket. Likewise, the most commonly used ecological diversity index in food supply studies, the Shannon index (Remans et al. 2014;Baye et al. 2019), is actually a measure of entropy. Entropy refers to the disorder or uncertainty in a system: it is more difficult to predict the identity of a randomly selected food commodity (in terms of e.g., species, zinc content) in a very diverse national food supply, whereas this prediction is less uncertain in a homogenous supply with only a few food types. Hence, the former food supply has a higher entropy than the latter. Entropy therefore shares important conceptual similarities with diversity. Although entropy measures are rational and frequently used indices of food system or dietary (bio)diversity, this of course does not imply that entropy is equivalent to diversity.Third, dietary indices typically aim to condense all relevant information about an individual's or group's [e.g., Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W)] (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2021) dietary pattern into a single real number (Miller et al. 2020). Hence, there are immeasurably many ways of calculating a food diversity index and achieving a specific value of the derived score (e.g., intake of two animal vs plant source food groups) from the often extensive and complex food intake data (Hanley-Cook, Argaw et al. 2021). Dietary diversity indices can weigh different components of these data more heavily than others (e.g., relatively more vegetal food groups), and can even entirely overlook some (e.g., spices, edible insects, snails do not count toward MDD-W) (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2021). Therefore, analogous to the various conceptual definitions of diversity mentioned above, the myriad possibilities for mathematically formulating a diversity index have led to a huge number of indices, each providing a different estimate of ostensibly the same quantity (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018).Lastly, there is considerable discrepancy regarding the concept of diversity across scientific disciplines (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). Transfer of indices from one field to another, although often tantalizingly similar, often overlooks their fundamental, discipline-specific nuances (Drescher, Thiele, and Mensink 2007;Katanoda, Kim, and Matsumura 2006). To illustrate, a key conceptual difference often underlies (at-scale) assessments of ecological diversity and dietary diversity. The former take into account the actual abundances (e.g., frequency, biomass) of the different species present in an ecosystem (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018), while the latter are instead more concerned with an abstract allocation of e.g., food and drink commodities to broad functional food groups (e.g., nuts and seeds) (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2021). Conventional dietary diversity indices often apply minimum quantity thresholds (e.g., one tablespoon) for food groups or food items to \"count\" toward the total score (Hanley-Cook, Argaw, et al. 2020), rather than assessing the distribution (e.g., % kcal contribution) of individual species across a whole diet (Hanley-Cook, Kennedy, and Lachat 2019).The purpose of an index's use and its nutritional (or biological) interpretation depends strongly on the context of the dietary intake study. Examples might include: classifying shifts in food biodiversity after a nutrition-sensitive policy change or intervention (e.g., participatory home-garden diversification) (Boedecker et al. 2019); ranking diets in terms of their (relative) biodiversity (Remans et al. 2011); detecting the effects of external (typically anthropogenic) factors on dietary diversity (Martin-Prevel et al. 2012); or understanding interactions or substitutions between diversity at different levels (e.g., how changes in between food group diversity might affect within food group diversity) (Schulze et al. 2018;Vandevijvere et al. 2010). For each of these goals and many others, some indices will be more suitable than others, and a misguided choice may lead to misleading or even false conclusions (see \"Food biodiversity indices\").In this narrative review, we focus predominantly on edible species diversity since it is often the lowest level of taxonomic detail available from (quantitative) dietary assessments (Lachat et al. 2018) and national food supply data (Remans et al. 2014). Moreover, we aim to leverage the extensive body of relevant theoretical and practical knowledge that has already been established in ecology (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). Nonetheless, we acknowledge that at lower taxonomic levels there is also important nutritional heterogeneity (e.g., 10,000-fold differences in vitamin A levels between banana varieties and 23-fold differences in iron content between sweet potato varieties) (Burlingame, Charrondiere, et al. 2009;Berti and Jones 2013).(Bio)diversity is generally divided into three synergistic components: richness, evenness, and disparity. In this section, we provide definitions of these three key dimensions, as illustrated in Figure 1, as well as a brief summary of their nutritional (and biological) significance.The absolute number of species present in a diet or food supply is referred to as its richness or count (Lachat et al. 2018;Jones et al. 2018;Penafiel et al. 2019;Wertheim-Heck and Raneri 2019). The conceptual definition of richness is based on two assumptions.First, that a classification of \"units\" exists and is known. Short of such a classification, it might be unclear to which taxon or food group any particular food item belongs, thereby complicating or precluding any richness calculation. The challenges of species taxonomy are well-known, e.g., previous ethnographic studies have misidentified between 2-10% of specimens (Łuczaj 2010). However, a unique nutritional challenge is that food and drink commodities often belong to diverse functional food groups (e.g., chicken meat and eggs), but are taxonomically (i.e., through the lens of ecology) regarded as identical species (i.e., Gallus gallus) (Hanley-Cook, Huybrechts, et al. 2021).The second assumption is that each \"unit\" is equally distinct, so that no two species are more or less similar than any two other ones. However, this almost never holds in either nutrition or ecology; to illustrate, amaranth, quinoa, and spinach converge on the phylogenetic tree, but spinach has a diverging micronutrient profile. Hence, simple count measures [e.g., food item variety scores (Drewnowski et al. 1997)] often fail to distinguish whether the observed ). Richness (y-axis) is the absolute number of unique species: in e.g., the top left diet, it is equal to three, whereas in e.g., the bottom left diet, it is equal to five. Evenness (x-axis) is the equitability of the species abundance distribution (e.g., frequency, weight) in the diet: in e.g., the top right diet all species are present in an equal abundance and so it is perfectly even, while e.g., the bottom left diet is very uneven since it is dominated by maize. Disparity (z-axis) is the level of similarity between species in a diet: cow and apple (bottom right) are less similar to each other, e.g., nutritionally and taxonomically, than apples, maize, and aubergine. adapted from Hanley-Cook et al. (2021).diversity/richness is the result of healthy or unhealthy foods (e.g., fruits, red meat, refined grains) (Hanley-Cook, Huybrechts, et al. 2021) and assume simple linear additive effects of increasing total consumption (Schulze et al. 2018). Although food group diversity scores often circumvent this limitation by only counting certain foods (World Health Organization and UNICEF 2021; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2021), such methods are normative (i.e., how to objectively categorize micronutrient fortified, sugar-sweetened wholegrain cereals?) (Drescher, Thiele, and Mensink 2007). Moreover, food group aggregation inherently leads to a substantial loss of data granularity i.e., within food group diversity is completely obscured for descriptive or association analysis (Hanley-Cook, Kennedy, and Lachat 2019).From a statistical and quantitative perspective, richness is the most straightforward component of (food) biodiversity, being an enumeration of the different food species present in a diet or food supply. Of course, in practice researchers can only \"count\" those species collected in their data: no dietary pattern can be fully enumerated, due to the practical limitations of dietary assessment methods, such as recall or observer biases (Shim, Oh, and Kim 2014). Thus, species richness must be estimated from e.g., 24-hour recalls (Lachat et al. 2018) or (s elf-rep or te d) fo o d f re quenc y quest ionnaires (Hanley-Cook, Huybrechts, et al. 2021) and hence estimates of absolute richness are likely to be strongly correlated with a study's population group, sample size, and enumeration time-frame and duration (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018;Drewnowski et al. 1997;Jones 2017).Besides the total number of species in a diet, the relative distribution of their abundances, referred to as the diet's evenness, is also an important component of diversity (Vadiveloo et al. 2014). In ecology, a community is perfectly even if every species is present in equal proportions (e.g., frequency or biomass), and uneven if a small number of species dominate the abundance distribution (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). From a nutritional perspective, the latter assumption is not often desired, and might potentially be addressed by evidence-based weighting factors for food groups or individual species (Drescher, Thiele, and Mensink 2007). Indeed, according to food-based moderation recommendations, which combines aspects of evenness and functional disparity (see below), healthy foods should be consumed in higher proportions (e.g., g/day, kcal/day) than unhealthy ones (e.g., fruit and vegetables vs refined starchy staples) (Fischer and Garnett 2016;Herforth et al. 2019).Unlike for species richness, there currently is no accord on how to measure evenness in ecology (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). In nutrition, an additional complicating factor is that neither a widely accepted global reference diet (e.g., to define the optimal (food group) abundance distribution, based on % kcal contributions) (Hanley-Cook, Argaw, et al. 2021;Vaidyanathan 2021), nor efforts to quantify the optimal within food group species richness currently exist (Hanley-Cook, Huybrechts, et al. 2021;Bhupathiraju et al. 2013). The important role of species evenness (let alone moderation) in whole dietary patterns, has thus received less attention than that of edible species richness (Lachat et al. 2018).In general, reviews on ecological diversity recommend that researchers choose an index most suited to their particular needs, given the lack of a universal way to measure evenness (Tuomisto 2012). However, attention should be paid to motivating the choice of food biodiversity indices by considering their mathematical behaviors and nutritional interpretations (see \"Food biodiversity indices\").Most ecological diversity indices account for two components of diversity -richness and evenness -and thus implicitly assume that distinct (food) species have nothing in common. In other words, they ignore any functional similarity (e.g., protein quality, cumulative energy demand) between species. This conception of diversity is referred to as species-neutral diversity. It implies, for instance, that a diet of five dramatically different species (e.g., maize, beans, squash, sweet potato, and tilapia) is considered to be no more diverse than a diet composed of five cereal species. In contrast, in nutritional epidemiology, functional disparity is the basis of between food group indices (Jones 2017;Remans et al. 2011), which aggregate individual food items based on their nutrient profiles (e.g., vitamin A content as a \"trait\") (Arimond et al. 2010; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2021).There are relatively few biodiversity indices capable of reflecting the more realistic and nuanced situation of dissimilarities between distinct edible species (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). These indices are termed similarity-sensitive. Classical indices, such as Dietary Species Richness (DSR) or Gini-Simpson index (see \"Food biodiversity indices\"), depend entirely on the notion of species as the functional \"unit\" (Hey 2001;Lachat et al. 2018), and are thus seriously affected by taxonomic reclassification (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). Likewise, a dietary diversity scores maximum and predictive ability for micronutrient adequacy is entirely dependent on the degree of food (sub)group aggregation (Martin-Prevel et al. 2017).In ecology, various distance measures have been developed to (objectively) measure disparity between pairs of species (see \"Food biodiversity indices\"; Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). When adopted in nutrition or food systems research, they generally associate with each focal food species some data concerning the characteristics deemed to be important, such as a list of functional \"traits\" (e.g., vitamin C, iron content) (Remans et al. 2011), morphology (e.g., liquid, solid), or location on a phylogenetic tree (e.g., plant, animal) (de Otto et al. 2015).Food (bio)diversity indices must synthesize and summarize high-dimensional dietary intake data, typically by mapping it to a scalar (e.g., food group scores, DSR, Gini-Simpson index). The formulation of a diversity index (e.g., the \"unit\" of aggregation, and inclusion or exclusion of actual quantities consumed) will affect how food biodiversity can be connected to its composition within and between food groups and its functionality (Hanley-Cook, Kennedy, and Lachat 2019). Therefore, to draw any nutritional or (biological) conclusion, it is essential for researchers to understand the fundamental assumptions underlying the mathematical formulation, known as axioms, of a particular diversity index.For ecological indices an axiomatic basis was identified decades ago (Renyi 1961;Davydov and Weber 2016), allowing users to identify an index's most important properties and consequently to differentiate between diversity indices based on which axioms they do or do not satisfy. An extended mathematical description and discussion of these axioms can be found in a review by Daly, Baetens, and De Baets (2018). In general, the (non-exhaustive) axioms recapitulated in Table 1 are agreed upon to be desirable for ecological diversity indices (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018), but are to our knowledge have neither been considered, nor integrated into seminal research on food biodiversity indices.As briefly touched upon in \"Conceptualizing food biodiversity,\" through a nutritional lens Axioms 3 and 4 are not warranted, as evidence-based distributions (e.g., kcal/d) across food groups diverge considerably. To illustrate, the EAT-Lancet Commission recommends fish intakes of ∼40 kcal/day vs legume intakes of ∼436 kcal/ day (Willett et al. 2019). Nevertheless, if an index fails one of these axioms, this should be considered as a cautionary sign rather than a reason for dismissal, since the diversity index may still be useful in contexts where that axiom is less important. For example, Axiom 4 permits a (partial) ordering of diets based on their diversity. Hence, if an index fails to satisfy this axiom it should not be used to make a quantitative comparison of diets by their relative diversities, which is frequently (Hanley-Cook, Huybrechts, et al. 2021;Fung et al. 2018), but not always (Kuczmarski et al. 2019;Rawal et al. 2020), the goal of (observational) food intake studies.In the remainder of \"Food biodiversity indices\" we provide an overview of the biodiversity indices that are most widely used in ecology and which have been applied more recently to dietary intake and food supply data. Following Daly, Baetens, and De Baets (2018), we classify these in two main groups: classical indices and similarity-sensitive indices.Throughout, we consider a diet of S species, where p i represents the proportional abundance of species i, so thatIf the abundances are measured by e.g., counting non-composite or decomposed food items, then the relative abundance p i represents the probability of randomly selecting a food item of species i from amongst all food items in the diet. If the abundances are measured in terms of e.g., kcal, then the relative abundance p i represents the relative share of the whole diet's total energy that was stored in food items of species i.Definitions. The input for the most widely used biodiversity indices is the vector of relative abundances p = (p 1 , …, p S ), where S is the total number of unique species in the diet (Katanoda, Kim, and Matsumura 2006). These indices measure species-neutral diversity (i.e., do no account for disparity; see \"Components of food biodiversity\") and are known as classical diversity indices.Conceptually, the simplest biodiversity index of all, richness itself, has only recently been applied in food consumption studies with species level detail (Lachat et al. 2018;Hanley-Cook, Huybrechts, et al. 2021;Bernhardt and O'Connor 2021;Vogliano et al. 2021):DSR, or a count of the unique number of edible species in a diet, has been associated with higher micronutrient adequacy among groups of women and children in seven low-and middle income countries (Lachat et al. 2018;Penafiel et al. 2019). Lachat et al. (2018) also reported that the highest micronutrient adequacies were obtained when both DSR and food group diversity (∼nutritional dissimilarity) were high. Furthermore, DSR was inversely correlated with body fat percentage and positively related to the use of wild and cultivated foods among women in the Solomon In nutritional epidemiology, the concept of dietary richness has been widely applied beyond the species level. To illustrate, de Otto et al. (2015) defined richness as the number of distinct food and beverage items consumed more than once per week. Likewise, Chegere and Stage (2020) constructed a household richness score, which was simply an absolute count of the number of food items (∼food variety) consumed by anyone in a household over a seven-day period. Salomé et al. (2020) characterized count as the number of unique food subgroups consumed (∼food group diversity). Rawal et al. (2020) and Kuczmarski et al. (2019) calculated richness based on the habitual consumption of at least half a cup or ounce equivalent from 21 (healthful) food groups. In Bangladesh, Kennedy et al. (2005) enumerated the number and frequency of distinct cultivars or varieties within a given species (e.g., rice, potato, banana) consumed by a household over a 24-hour period. Vandevijvere et al. (2010) expressed within-food group diversity as a simple count of the number of different food items consumed during the preceding day within each pre-defined food group. Khoury et al. (2014) quantified the species richness of national per capita food supplies in a given year as a count of present crop commodities on FAOSTAT.However, richness is a poor estimate of diversity, because it takes no account of the food abundance distribution (i.e., evenness, or preferably moderation; see \"Components of food biodiversity\"). By omitting a key component of diversity, e.g., DSR takes the rudimentary and nutritionally unintuitive approach of assigning exceptionally rare/trivial edible species (e.g., kcal/day from saffron or ginger) equal weight as exceptionally common species (e.g., kcal/day from rice or potato).The Berger-Parker diversity index considers the opposite extreme, and ignores all species, save the most dominant. It is defined as the reciprocal of the relative abundance of the most common species:and thus estimates the relative dominance of this species as a proxy for the biodiversity of an entire diet or food system. In this spirit, Khoury et al. (2014) quantified species dominance as the proportion of a country's per capita food supply comprised of the most abundant (e.g., kcal/capita/ day) crop commodity.The Shannon diversity index, also known as the Shannon-Wiener index, and the Shannon entropy, provides a more balanced estimate of diversity by including all species in its calculation. It measures the uncertainty in the outcome of a sampling process (Shannon 1948), and is given by:(3) Remans et al. (2014) and Nelson et al. (2018) used the Shannon index to assess how many different types of food items were available in a country's food supply, and how evenly these different types were distributed/consumed by gram per capita per day. Furthermore, Béné et al. (2020) assessed food systems' biodiversity at country level by quantifying crops' calorie diversity using the Shannon index. Baye et al. (2019) converted national agricultural production data to seven food groups and used the Shannon index to assess changes in production diversity in Ethiopia (i.e., p i is the proportion of the total production coming from food group i). Gustafson et al. (2016) and Chaudhary, Gustafson, and Mathys (2018) used the Shannon index to assess the diversity of food items in a given country as a proxy of nutrient adequacy of food supplies, where p i is the share (by weight) of food item i in the food system. Food production diversity was also estimated with p i representing the shares of agricultural production for the country, again by weight of each food produced (Gustafson et al. 2016;Chaudhary, Gustafson, and Mathys 2018). Of note is that the Shannon index is more biased toward evenness than richness (i.e., gives more significance to common species). Tian et al. (2017) aimed to assess the distribution of usual food intakes (i.e., from 3 consecutive 24 hour recalls) across six food groups. Entropy was represented as a function of the consumption share w i , with:Here, entropy is maximized when consumption shares are equally distributed among different food groups (i.e.¸ for all i) and food groups consumed in a greater quantity have a larger weight in the index. The Shannon index is also the basis of Pielou's evenness index, which is given by:where H Sh * is the maximum value of H Sh (a function of S). It is the most widely used evenness index in the ecological literature, despite being an exceptionally poor estimate of evenness given its strong dependence on species richness (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). Khoury et al. (2014) assessed the evenness of calories, protein, fat, and weight in contributing crop commodities to national food supplies using Pielou's evenness index, but acknowledged the aforementioned limitation and consequently also assessed species dominance (see above).The Simpson diversity index represents the probability that two ingredients taken at random from a diet (with replacement) represent the same species (Keylock 2005). As originally proposed by Simpson, it is given by:Note that this formulation implies that lower values of the index indicate higher diversity. To avoid this counterintuitive behavior, two other formulations of this index are more commonly used. The Gini-Simpson diversity index, also called the Berry index represents the probability that the two (non-composite) food items represent different species, and is thus the complement of Simpson's original formulation:To illustrate, Borkotoky, Unisa, and Gupta (2018) applied both the Simpson index to quantify the diversity of household level food group consumption and the Gini-Simpson diversity index to quantify the state level diversity of expenditure on different food groups over a one-month period. Furthermore, Katanoda, Kim, and Matsumura (2006) and Otsuka et al. (2016Otsuka et al. ( , 2017) ) applied a modified Gini-Simpson diversity index; coined as the Quantitative Index for Dietary Diversity (QUANTIDD), to national dietary survey data in Japan:with p i defined as the proportion of total energy or nutrient intake originating from food group i and n being the total number of food groups. Thus, a maximum value is obtained when all food intake sources are equally distributed over the food groups. Similarly, de Otto et al. (2015) calculated the Berry index for participants in a multi-ethnic American cohort, based on the relative intake distribution of calories across individual food and drink items. Lachat et al. (2018) used the Gini-Simpson diversity index to quantify the number of different species in a diet and how evenly the consumed quantities (g/day) were distributed. Salomé et al.(2020) used the Berry index to assess the evenness of energy or protein intake among food groups, where p i was the share of food group i in the total amount of energy, protein, or plant-protein intake, and n was the total number of food groups. In addition, the authors applied the Simpson index to assess the contributions of plant-based and animal-based food families to overall plant and animal protein intakes, respectively (Salomé et al. 2021). However, Drescher, Thiele, and Mensink (2007) argue that the maximum value of a dietary diversity index should be assigned to individuals who consume recommended food (sub)group shares. Therefore, the authors modified the Gini-Simpson diversity index by incorporating a health value based on the share of food weight and a subjective understanding of the food guidelines of the German Nutrition Society. Likewise, Vadiveloo et al. (2015Vadiveloo et al. ( , 2014) ) evaluated dietary evenness by adjusting the Gini-Simpson diversity index by a health value based on the share of food volume (i.e., cups) and the authors' interpretation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010-2015. Furthermore, Rawal et al. (2020) and Kuczmarski et al. (2019) followed a similar approach, where p i is the share of food item i in the total energy intake and n is the total number of food items consumed, but they corrected for a health value based on the more recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020. Wang et al. (2021) recently used the Gini-Simpson index to represent the probability that two randomly chosen commodities of an individual's food profile (with replacement) belonged to two different food items. At present, guidance on the optimal composition of intra-food group species richness and the recommended consumption shares (e.g. % energy or volume) of individual food species are absent.The Simpson dominance index gives more weight to common species than to rare species. It is the reciprocal of Simpson's original formulation and is given by:In the literature, 'Simpson index' has been used interchangeably for all three of the formulations described above (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). This confusion could be avoided by researchers clarifying specifically which form of the index they employ.The Simpson index is also occasionally (mis)used as a measure of evenness, which is not appropriate since it also varies with richness. Instead, the richness effect should first be eliminated by dividing the index by its maximum value, which depends on S or n (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018).At present, the most widely applied measures of food biodiversity are DSR, the Shannon index, and the (weighted) Gini-Simpson index. They are excellent examples of the key limitations associated with classical indices (see \"Conceptualizing food biodiversity\" and \"Components of food biodiversity\"). These issues fall into two categories: i. direct comparisons between diets (or food supplies) using different indices, and ii. comparisons between diets using the same index.In the first case, we are faced with the reality that each of these diversity indices measures fundamentally different features of a diet, and therefore has a different unit. DSR is the number of distinct edible species in a diet, the Simpson index represents the probability that two randomly selected (non-composite) food items belong to the same species, and the Shannon index is a measure of the entropy or disorder of the diet. Richness is measured in units of taxa (i.e., species), the Simpson index is a probability, and the Shannon index is an entropy measure, with the unit of bits of information. Thus, to avoid misinterpretation of their absolute values, biodiversity measurements obtained using different classical indices should not be blindly compared across (or within) studies (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018).To illustrate the second case, let us consider the simplest possible example: a diet composed of S equally-common species. Disregarding dietary moderation recommendations for ease, it seems reasonable to say that a diet D 1 with ten equally-common species is twice as diverse as a diet D 2 with five equally-common species. But calculating, for example, the Shannon entropy, we find H Sh (p 1 ) = 2.30 for the first diet and H Sh (p 2 ) = 1.61 for the second. It is not clear how we should understand the difference in biodiversity between these two diets. The diversity of the first diet is not twice that of the second, although our intuition tells us otherwise. It is additionally unclear what these values might mean in absolute terms: should we consider a diversity of 2.3 to be high or low? Without an intuitive unit, we hesitate to draw clear conclusions.Non-linearity is another issue affecting classical indices, which can in some cases significantly affect their suitability for food biodiversity analysis. For example, if an individual's perfectly even (e.g., kcal/species/d) dietary pattern consisting of 100 species is confronted with some nutrition disaster (e.g. humanitarian crisis) that renders all but 10 usually consumed species available, the Gini-Simpson index of this community will drop from 0.99 to 0.90. So despite the fact that more than 90% of the species of the pre-catastrophe diet have been removed, the Gini-Simpson diversity index only drops by 9%. Monitoring and evaluation of e.g., drought, crop failure, and famine using this index would probably conclude that this individual's food biodiversity was not greatly affected, while the opposite is true. The same issue affects the Shannon index, but to a lesser degree (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). Clearly, the selection and interpretation of (bio)diversity indices should be guided by the research question at hand.Many scientists have ignored the consequences of these issues. In their view, the absolute values of the indices are unimportant, as long as they can be used to calculate the statistical significance of the change in biodiversity following a disturbance (Jost 2009) or associations across levels with a diet-related outcome (Remans et al. 2014;Hanley-Cook, Huybrechts, et al. 2021). Yet, in many cases this is not a reasonable basis for study conclusions, since the statistical significance of a change in a food biodiversity index often has little to do with the actual magnitude or physiological/ clinical significance (Martin-Prevel et al. 2012). For the same reason, one index may indicate a statistically significant change in diversity while another (complementary) index does not (de Otto et al. 2015).The third component of diversity, disparity (see \"Components of food biodiversity\"), is absent from classical biodiversity indices. This omission can be remedied by reformulating these indices to include a similarity measure.Similarity-sensitive indices incorporate a similarity matrix encoding pairwise species similarities, which becomes an additional input of the index along with the species abundance vector. For e.g., a country's food supply of S species, an S × S matrix Z = (Z ij ) is constructed, where Z ij is a measure of the similarity between species i and j. Bernhardt and O'Connor (2021) indicated positive relationships in functional nutritional traits of seafood species (i.e., concentrations of micronutrients and fatty acids relative to Recommended Daily Allowances) by ecological functional diversity, such as their habitat, trophic position, body size, diet source, and feeding mode. DeClerck et al. (2011) illustrated nutritional functional diversity (NFD) of edible plants in Kenya by classifying species according to the content of seven key nutrients. The identified species (e.g., high in protein, carbohydrates, or micronutrients) were then represented as a branch length from a dendrogram. NFD thus reflects the similarity in nutrient compositions within a cropping system (Bogard et al. 2018). To estimate disparity between food items, de Otto et al. (2015) used the Jaccard distance (Real and Vargas 1996), a measure of the diversity of the attributes of foods consumed, based on 12 food traits related to cardio-metabolic health (e.g., trans-fat content, glycemic load). In the same way, Salomé et al. (2020) assessed the extent to which food items differed nutritionally, based on nutrient composition (i.e., cutoff was above or below the median composition of a nutrient for all food items consumed among study participants). The Jaccard distance between two food items i and j is defined as:where A ij is the number of attributes shared by food items i and j, B i the number of attributes unique to i, and C j the number of attributes unique to j. Wang et al. (2021) used the weighted Jaccard index to quantify the nutritional similarity between food items i and j:where G ia represents the weight of nutrient a in food item i; J ij = 0 indicates that food item i and food item j share exactly the same nutrient constituents, while J ij = 1 means they have totally different constituents.Similarly, Rawal et al. (2020) and Kuczmarski et al. (2019) constructed a pairwise similarity score based on the presence or absence of 10 nutritional traits relevant to cardiovascular health (e.g., whole grain, fiber, alcohol). To estimate disparity, the Mahalanobis distance, which accounts for correlations between traits, thus eliminating double-counting, was used to derive the diversity of attributes of individual food consumption. It is given by:where x i is the vector of trait values for food i, y i is the vector of trait values for food j, and ∑ is the variance-covariance matrix among the attributes. The authors acknowledge that varying distance measures, along with the number of and arbitrary cutoff criteria for attributes, hamper the comparability of dissimilarity indices across available food intake studies (Rawal et al. 2020). Remans et al. (2014Remans et al. ( , 2011)), Gustafson et al. (2016) and Chaudhary, Gustafson, and Mathys (2018) measured modified functional attributable diversity (MFAD) of national food supplies, which is defined as \"the sum of the pairwise functional dissimilarities of a collection of species measuring the dispersion of species within a functional trait space\" (i.e., the diversity of nutrients provided by different food items based on the nutritional composition and the amount of each food item present). The modified approach to NFD meets two essential criteria: that functional diversity should not increase with functionally identical species, but should increase with functionally dissimilar species. It is represented as:where n is the number of edible species (or food items) and d ij is the dissimilarity between species i and j as defined by nutritional components or traits measured using a distance function, such as the Euclidean distance measure:where d ij is the distance between food i and food j, i 1 is e.g., mg of iron in food i and j 1 is mg of iron in food j (Luckett et al. 2015), and n is the number of functional units, such that different foods that are identical in their trait composition are considered the same functional unit (i.e., redundant species not counted twice). Hence, it is possible that e.g., the Shannon entropy is high, but MFAD low when a large number of nutritionally similar staple crops (e.g., maize, rice, teff) are produced or consumed thereby adding species richness and/or evenness, but no functional diversity through a nutrition lens (Remans et al. 2014). As briefly discussed above, potential limitations (or strengths depending on the research objective) of trait-based approaches are the arbitrary number and varying selection criteria of traits themselves (i.e., health-related, agro-ecological traits, or both). Moreover, if variations in nutrient contents of food species are used as similarity criteria, we must acknowledge that only a fraction of edible species have (detailed) food composition data available (Charrondière et al. 2013). Remans et al. (2011) reported that MFAD, computed from plant's macronutrient, mineral, and vitamin contents, was able to summarize nutritional diversity (i.e., variability) across farms and villages, but did not find a relationship between farm level MFAD and household dietary diversity. Luckett et al. (2015) were the first to apply MFAD, based on energy and 17 nutrient contents, to food consumption data, within the framework of measuring the contribution of market purchases or home production to a household's dietary diversity. More recently, Lachat et al. (2018) computed MFAD based on 6 micronutrients for 234 species in whole dietary patterns of individuals, with the total branch length of the dendrogram reflecting the diversity in nutrient composition of the species consumed. At the population group level, dietary MFAD was linked to higher dietary micronutrient adequacy (Lachat et al. 2018), whereas at the national scale, food supply MFAD was associated with lower incidence of under-five child malnutrition (Remans et al. 2014). Khoury et al. (2014) quantified between country similarity (i.e., β diversity; see Supplementary material, Figure S1 for a dietary intake analogy) in energy supply (kcal) from crop commodity composition over time as the Bray-Curtis (BC) distance to the global mean commodity composition, inclusive of abundance:where C ij is the sum of the lesser energy values for only those commodities in common between countries and S i and S j are the total number of crops counted in both countries, separately. Likewise, Wang et al. (2021). quantified the variations of food intake or nutritional profiles across different time points and individuals using Bray-Curtis distance.A classic example of an ecological similarity-sensitive diversity index is Rao's quadratic diversity index, which is often called Rao's quadratic entropy although it is in fact not an entropy measure. It is defined as the expected similarity between two food items selected at random from the diet (with replacement) (Rao 1982), and is given by:where d ij is the similarity between species i and j. Note that H R reduces to the Gini-Simpson diversity index in the case where d ij = 1 for all i ≠ j, and d ii = 0 for all i. Green et al. (2021) and Nelson et al. (2018) used Rao's quadratic index, based on a similarity matrix of nutrients weighted by the relative quantity of each food item, to calculate the nutrient diversity of food supplies. S is thus the total food item richness, p i and p j are the relative abundances of food items i and j; respectively, and d ij the dissimilarity between foods i and j measured by differences in nutritional composition via the Euclidean distance measure [see Eq. ( 14)]. Likewise, Wang et al. (2021) computed the mean nutritional similarity between any two randomly selected food items in the diet recall using Rao's quadratic entropy.Food biodiversity has been defined as \"the diversity of plants, animals and other organisms used for food, covering the genetic resources within species, between species and provided by ecosystems\" (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Bioversity International 2017). However, there is a need for standardized and reliable indices to help define how to best measure and monitor food biodiversity and help quantify which aspects of diversity may maximize benefits to human nutrition and environmental sustainability. The lack of unified principles [e.g., species abundance unit (kcal, weight, volume), between and within food group weighting factors, functional traits] makes objective comparisons across different studies, population groups, or time points challenging. In this narrative review, we have provided an overview of the key conceptual issues researchers are confronted with when they seek to appraise food biodiversity, and we have surveyed and compared the most common ecological diversity indices used in dietary intake and food supply studies. In general, we recommend that food biodiversity indices are selected that: i. satisfy the key axioms in \"Food biodiversity indices, \" to ensure appropriate performance; ii. can be extended to account for dissimilarity between edible species; and iii. are used in combination, rather than interpreted in isolation, to exploit their complementarity (see e.g., country level (sub-)indices applied in the Agrobiodiversity Index) (Jones et al. 2021).In the present paper, we have elaborated on each recommendation by motivating its importance for reasonable and realistic biodiversity measurement in diets (and foods systems). However, depending on the objectives (or the theory of change hypothesis) of a nutrition-related study, other dietary diversity indices may be more appropriate (e.g., MDD-W to monitor national food group consumption trends) or feasible (e.g., capturing neglected, underutilized, or wild species consumption often requires ethnobotanical or zoological expertise). As discussed in \"Conceptualizing food biodiversity,\" the vast number and variety of available diversity indices allows researchers to be flexible in their choice of indices, with the key stipulation that the underlying definition of the index should first be considered carefully to ensure that it is appropriate for the particular application, and will not lead to misinterpretations. Food (bio)diversity/variety indices provide a summary of an inherently complex and multidimensional concept: a diet's or food supplies' (correlated) structure. Indices achieve this summarization in different ways by emphasizing different aspects of diversity, often in subjective manners. To avoid confusion and misinterpretation, users should first define their objectives and then choose the appropriate measure for the specific problem. Using a combination of ecological (and dietary) diversity indices is often warranted as they can capture unique aspects of nutritional quality (Bogard et al. 2018).To avoid some of the limitations (e.g., non-linearity) and subsequent misinterpretation of classical indices, conversion of food intake data to effective numbers might be explored in nutritional epidemiology. In brief, to translate a diet to its effective number equivalent means to find an equivalent diet (i.e., same value of the index as the initial diet in question) that is perfectly even (Jost 2006). The use of effective number indices, which are always measured in units of number of effective species to assess changes in food biodiversity might allow for well-founded comparisons between different studies and even different indices (Daly, Baetens, and De Baets 2018). Even so, without evidence-based moderation weighting factors for food groups, or preferably individual edible species, effective numbers would remain nutritionally challenging to interpret (see \"Components of food biodiversity\" and \"Food biodiversity indices\").To conclude, researchers and policy makers must give careful consideration to the selection of (valid) food biodiversity indices to assess the effectiveness of nutrition-sensitive programs, food trade and conservation policies, transportation infrastructure, and commodity market regulation on edible species diversity in food systems and subsequent human diets. Commitments such as the United Nations' Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025) and Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) provide global and national stimuli for cross-cutting and holistic initiatives on nutrition and biodiversity conservation.Funding for grant number IIG_FULL_2020_034 was obtained from Wereld Kanker Onderzoek Fonds (WKOF), as part of the World Cancer Research Fund International grant programme (PI: IH, Co-I: GH-C, CL). Researchers were independent from the funders. Funders had no role in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, the writing of the report, and the decision to submit the article for publication.","tokenCount":"8869"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fb924007856a800fb77bd4d6ccf479c0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b6197d62-fa60-4646-8f24-739f390dfd12/retrieve","id":"-367895623"},"keywords":["Menkir, A.","Dieng, I.","Mengesha, W.","Meseka, S.","Maziya-Dixon, B.","Alamu, O.E.","Bossey, B.","Muhyideen, O.","Ewool, M.","Coulibaly, M.M. Unravelling the provitamin A carotenoids","agronomic performance","stability","adaptability","trade-off"],"sieverID":"f185e111-0bce-4971-9d39-f559a023a367","pagecount":"19","content":"Maize is consumed in different traditional diets as a source of macro-and micro-nutrients across Africa. Significant investment has thus been made to develop maize with high provitamin A content to complement other interventions for alleviating vitamin A deficiencies. The current breeding focus on increasing β-carotene levels to develop biofortified maize may affect the synthesis of other beneficial carotenoids. The changes in carotenoid profiles, which are commonly affected by environmental factors, may also lead to a trade-off with agronomic performance. The present study was therefore conducted to evaluate provitamin A biofortified maize hybrids across diverse field environments. The results showed that the difference in accumulating provitamin A and other beneficial carotenoids across variable growing environments was mainly regulated by the genetic backgrounds of the hybrids. Many hybrids, accumulating more than 10 µg/g of provitamin A, produced higher grain yields (>3600 kg/ha) than the orange commercial maize hybrid (3051 kg/ha). These hybrids were also competitive, compared to the orange commercial maize hybrid, in accumulating lutein and zeaxanthins. Our study showed that breeding for enhanced provitamin A content had no adverse effect on grain yield in the biofortified hybrids evaluated in the regional trials. Furthermore, the results highlighted the possibility of developing broadly adapted hybrids containing high levels of beneficial carotenoids for commercialization in areas with variable maize growing conditions in Africa.Maize (Zea mays L.) accounts for 40% of the total cultivated cereal production area in Sub-Saharan Africa with more than 66% of the harvested grain used for human consumption [1,2]. In the last 10 years, the total harvested maize area in SSA has increased by nearly 60% [3]. Maize is consumed in a variety of local food products across regions in Africa, supplying 38% of the food calories to consumers [4]. The demand for maize in SSA is increasing because of the rapid population growth, urbanization, and the growing need for poultry feed [5]. Maize intake across Africa varies from 30 to more than 330 g/person/day [6], providing starch, protein, fat, micronutrients, including minerals and vitamins, fiber, and many phytochemicals with known health benefits [7]. However, the over dependence of millions of Africans on white maize-based diets that do not supply adequate amounts of these nutrients, including vitamin A, can adversely affect the health and well-being of individuals throughout their life span [8]. Yellow maize naturally accumulates some levels of provitamin A carotenoids in grains [9], but the concentrations of these carotenoids in widely grown tropical maize cultivars is too low to meet the daily requirements of consumers. Enhancing the native nutrient levels of food crops, including yellow maize, has therefore been advocated as a complementary approach together with the conventional interventions of supplementation, fortification, and dietary diversity to alleviate vitamin A deficiencies in developing countries [10].Significant investments have been made to enrich maize with provitamin A through conventional breeding to reduce the incidence of vitamin A deficiency [10][11][12][13]. Provitamin A biofortified maize could also increase competitiveness through increased use in diverse food products, targeting niche markets, and the branding of products. The current breeding strategies to develop maize varieties and hybrids with high provitamin A content has primarily focused on exploitation of favorable alleles derived from diverse sources to promote the accumulation of higher levels of β-carotene at the expense of the synthesis of other carotenoids [11,13]. Using this approach, breeders have generated many tropical and sub-tropical maize inbred lines that meet or surpass the current breeding target of 15 µg g −1 and used them for developing hybrids with high concentrations of provitamin A [14,15]. However, the changes in accumulating other beneficial carotenoids to human health, including lutein and zeaxanthins, that occurred in provitamin A biofortified hybrids are rarely reported.Carotenoids are not only the main sources of provitamin A in the diet, but also play a prime functional role as accessory pigments in photosynthesis, increasing light capture and correcting the assembly of photosystems [16]. The xanthophyll cycle mediates increased tolerance to high light intensity and heat stress and protects the plant from photooxidative damage [17,18]. In addition, carotenoids control the synthesis of phytohormones to respond to biotic and abiotic stresses and regulate plant growth, development, and physiological processes [19,20]. Consequently, the alleles assembled to modify flux in the biosynthetic pathway during the development of the maize inbred line with high provitamin A content may affect the production of carotenoids with unknown physiological functions that connect growth phases of plants with other complex metabolic processes [17]. The resulting changes in carotenoid profiles may then compete with other processes, leading to trade-offs between increased provitamin A content and agronomic performance in hybrids [20]. Studies conducted in maize reported that improvements in provitamin A content could affect grain yield of hybrid maize in a positive [21], negative [22,23], or neutral manner [24,25]. Khamkoh et al. [26] found simultaneous increases in lutein, zeaxanthin, and β-carotene as well as grain yield and its components in an orange waxy maize population improved through two cycles of recurrent selection. In another study examining the effect of genetic modification of provitamin A carotenoids on agronomic performance [20], a high-carotenoid transgenic corn line was similar to its near isogenic white corn line in terms of biomass, grain yield, and other agronomic traits under both controlled and field growing conditions. In contrast, Dhiliwayoa et al. [14] found that improvements in provitamin A, β-cryptoxanthin, and zeaxanthin concentrations through S1 recurrent selection were associated with grain yield reductions in two of the three target populations. These conflicting reports highlight the importance of testing provitamin A biofortified hybrids with diverse genetic backgrounds across a broad range of field environments to determine whether the assembly of favorable alleles to boost β-carotene content has any deleterious effect on agronomic performance of maize hybrids. This is an important step not only in identifying broadly adapted and commercially viable provitamin A biofortified hybrids, but also in adopting a breeding strategy that allows for more precise selection of new hybrids with high yield potential and enhanced concentrations of beneficial carotenoids for sustainable food and nutritional security.The biosynthesis and accumulation of carotenoids in crops are modulated both by the crop genotype and environmental factors [27,28]. Studies have demonstrated that many factors, including soil type, temperature, moisture, light intensity, occurrence of biotic and abiotic stresses, altitude, maturity cycle, and cropping practices significantly affect the syn- thesis and accumulation of individual carotenoids in maize and other crops [23,27,[29][30][31][32][33]. Consequently, evaluating provitamin A biofortified maize hybrids involving diverse parents with medium to high provitamin A content, across variable climatic and other field growing conditions, is critical to elucidate the nature of the relationship between provitamin A accumulation and agronomic performance. Rigorous field testing of such biofortified hybrids, encapsulating the impacts of the current breeding scheme, is rarely done, but is necessary to assure the long-term success of delivering provitamin A biofortified maize hybrids for registration, release, and cultivation [13,20]. This is particularly important for smallholder farmers who frequently encounter food and nutritional insecurity and grow maize in the tropics under diverse rainfed conditions that can give rise to varying hybrid responses. The present study was therefore conducted across diverse growing environments to: (i) examine the relationship between the accumulation of provitamin A carotenoids and agronomic performance in hybrids, (ii) understand the changes in non-provitamin A carotenoids that occurred in biofortified hybrids, and (iii) determine the stability of the elevated levels of provitamin A and high grain yields in individual hybrids.In the covariance analyses, environment, hybrids, and hybrid by environment interactions had significant effects on all measured carotenoids, including provitamin A (Table 1). The heritability estimates for individual carotenoids varied from 0.88 to 0.95, indicating that the hybrid effect was stronger than the environmental and hybrid/environment interaction effects. On average, the proportion of each carotenoid found in hybrid grains was 24% for lutein, 41% for zeaxanthin, 14% for β-cryptoxanthin, 4% for α-carotene, and 17% for β-carotene. The hybrids exhibited a broad range of variation in concentrations of both provitamin A and non-provitamin A carotenoids (Supplementary Table S2). On average, the provitamin A biofortified elite (PVA) and commercial (COM-PVA) hybrids displayed increases of 20% in lutein, 1% in zeaxanthin, 22% in β-cryptoxanthin, 24% in α-carotene, and 76% in β-carotene in comparison with the orange commercial benchmark hybrid (OR-COM). Amongst all hybrids, 52 PVA and two COM-PVA hybrids had provitamin A concentrations varying from 10.0 to 14.0 µg/g (Supplementary Table S2), whereas the OR-COM hybrid had provitamin A content of 8.8 µg/g. The remaining hybrids exhibited provitamin A concentrations ranging from 7.6 to 9.9 µg/g. Many PVA hybrids with provitamin A content exceeding 10 µg/g were found to be comparable to the OR-COM in accumulating lutein and zeaxanthin (Supplementary Table S2).All pair-wise genetic correlations among β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene, and β-carotene were positive and strong (r g = 0.98 to 0.99), whereas the correlations of lutein with zeaxanthin were weak (r g = −0.07). Zeaxanthin had a strong and positive genetic correlation with β-cryptoxanthin (r g =0.77) and α-carotene (r g = 0.80) but had a strong negative correlation with β-carotene (r g = −0.99). In contrast, lutein had a negative genetic correlation with β-cryptoxanthin (r g = −0.33) and α-carotene (r g = −0.23) but had a strong positive genetic correlation with β-carotene (r g = 0.99). As the correlations among carotenoids in the present study did not always follow the expected relationships between carotenoids synthesized in the αor β-branch of the biosynthetic pathway, we used canonical discriminant analysis to explore the formation of hybrid groups with similar carotenoid composition and content. The resulting first (CAN1) and second (CAN2) discriminant functions explained 73% and 27% of the total variations among hybrids, respectively (Table 2). CAN1 represented genetic changes favoring significant increases in accumulating zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene, and β-carotene. In contrast, CAN2 was associated with genetic changes that encouraged a significant increase in accumulating lutein and zeaxanthin, but with significant decreases in accumulating β-cryptoxanthin and β-carotene. The dissimilarity in the composition of carotenoids that contributed the most to the two discriminant functions resulted in a significant (p < 0.0001) positive correlation of CAN1 with provitamin A (r = 0.86), but a negative correlation of CAN2 with provitamin A (r = −0.31). On the other hand, the correlations of total carotenoids with CAN1 (r = 0.86) and CAN2 (r = 0.40) were significant (p < 0.01) and positive. A scatter plot of CAN1 and CAN2 scores showed a clear separation of the 64 hybrids into three major groups with minimal overlaps (Figure 1). The first group (G-I) consisted of eight hybrids, all having negative CAN1 scores and most having positive CAN2 scores, which accumulated the lowest levels of zeaxanthin, provitamin A carotenoids, and total carotenoids, but moderate levels of lutein (Table 3). The second group (G-II) comprised of 36 hybrids, having a mixture of positive and negative CAN1 scores and mostly negative CAN2 scores (Figure 1), showing intermediate levels of zeaxanthin, provitamin A carotenoids, total carotenoids, and the lowest level of lutein relative to those in G-I. The third group (G-III) included 18 hybrids, having mainly positive CAN1 and CAN2 scores (Figure 1), and was characterized by the highest concentrations of both provitamin A and non-provitamin A carotenoids, as well as total carotenoids, in comparison to hybrids included in G-I and G-II (Table 3).    A factor analytic (FA) model of order two (FA(2)), fitted for all carotenoids, and an order three (FA(3)), fitted for provitamin A, explained 87% to 95% of the hybrid by environment variation, showing an adequate fit of the model to our data sets. The FA model generated the latent regression line slopes for assessing the stability of the biofortified hybrids in accumulating provitamin A across varying growing conditions [34]. These slopes represented the responses of hybrids to varying field environments for each factor loading in the FA model, and the hybrids with larger slopes were considered stable. In the FA(3) model fitted for provitamin A, the estimated environment loadings for the first factor (FA1) were all positive, whereas those for the second (FA2) and third (FA3) factors had a mixture of positive and negative loadings. The latent regression line slopes for the first factor (FA1) was negatively correlated (r = −0.86, p < 0.0001) with those for the second factor (FA2), but was positively correlated (r = 0.61, p < 0.0001) with those for the third factor (FA3). Moreover, provitamin A content was positively correlated (p < 0.0001) with regression line slopes for FA1 (r = 0.67) and FA3 (r = 0.48), but was negatively correlated (p < 0.0001) with slopes for FA2 (r = −0.33). Since FA1 and FA2 represented 92% of the hybrid by environment variation, the latent regression line slopes for these factors provided a visual representation of the response patterns of the hybrids across environments (Figure 2). The slopes of these factors displayed a negative linear relationship accounting for 74% of the total variation in the response of hybrids to diverse growing environments. Amongst the biofortified hybrids, 15 in G-II and 11 in G-III combined positive slopes for FA1 with negative slopes for FA2, indicating that they accumulated increased provitamin A in environments characterized by both positive and negative estimated loadings (Supplementary Table S3). Sixteen hybrids among these also had positive slopes for FA3 varying from 0.3 to 2.5. As a result, these hybrids responded positively to all environments and accumulated consistently high levels of provitamin A. In contrast, seven of the eight hybrids in G-I combined negative slopes for FA1 and FA3 with positive slopes for FA2 and were thus accumulating less provitamin A in this set of environments. Several hybrids in G-II and G-III had slopes close to zero for FA1 and FA2, showing minimal or no responses to the test environments (Supplementary Table S3). The agronomic traits used for combined analyses were recorded in 84 environments for ear height and 99 environments for grain yield. As shown in Table 4, environment, hybrid, and hybrid by environment interaction had significant effects on grain yield and other traits. The heritability estimates were strikingly high, ranging from 0.87 for ear height to 0.96 for anthesis and silking days. The best linear unbiased estimates (BLUPs) for yield varied from 2000 to 5111 kg/ha for PVA hybrids, from 3610 to 4567 for COM-PVA (H61 and H62) hybrids, 3051 kg/ha for OR-COM (H63) hybrids, and 3791 kg/ha for the farmer-preferred (H64) variety (Supplementary Table S3). Forty-two PVA hybrids, The agronomic traits used for combined analyses were recorded in 84 environments for ear height and 99 environments for grain yield. As shown in Table 4, environment, hybrid, and hybrid by environment interaction had significant effects on grain yield and other traits. The heritability estimates were strikingly high, ranging from 0.87 for ear height to 0.96 for anthesis and silking days. The best linear unbiased estimates (BLUPs) for yield varied from 2000 to 5111 kg/ha for PVA hybrids, from 3610 to 4567 for COM-PVA (H61 and H62) hybrids, 3051 kg/ha for OR-COM (H63) hybrids, and 3791 kg/ha for the farmer-preferred (H64) variety (Supplementary Table S3). Forty-two PVA hybrids, with provitamin A content exceeding 10 µg/g, produced 18 to 68% more grain yields than the OR-COM (H63) benchmark hybrid (Supplementary Table S3). Moreover, nearly 80% of these hybrids were found to be competitive with or better than the two COM-PVA (H61 and H62) hybrids in their yield potential. The genetic correlations between anthesis and silking days (r g = 0.99), and between ear height and plant height (r g = 0.98), were strong. On the other hand, the genetic correlation of anthesis and silking days with ear height and plant height were negative and weak (r g < −0.25). Grain yield had negative genetic correlations with anthesis (r g = −0.44) and silking days (r g = −0.464), but had positive genetic correlations with ear height (r g = 0.60) and plant height (r g = 0.64). These results indicate that high yielding hybrids flowered and produced silks earlier, but tended to grow taller. The hybrid groups defined based on carotenoid profiles exhibited considerable differences in ear height, plant height, and grain yield (Table 5). On average, anthesis and silking days, as well as ear placement of hybrids, in G-I were comparable to those in G-II and G-III. On the other hand, hybrids in G-I were shorter and had lower average grain yield than those in G-II and G-III (Table 5). A factor analytic model of order two (FA(2)) was fitted for anthesis and silking days, whereas that of order three (FA(3)) was fitted for grain yield, ear height, and plant height. These models accounted for 86% to 94% of the hybrid by environment variation. In the FA(3) model for grain yield, the first and second (FA1 and FA2) factor loadings jointly contributed to 84% of the genetic variation among hybrids, with the third factor (FA3) contributing an additional 10% of the variance. The latent regression line slopes for FA1 were positively correlated (p < 0.0001) with slopes for FA2 (r = 0.83), but negatively correlated (p < 0.0001) with slopes for FA3 (r = −0.52). Yield was weakly correlated (p = 0.0116) only with the latent regression lines slopes for FA3 (r = 0.31). As shown in Figure 3, the slopes for FA1 and FA2 exhibited a positive linear relationship, explaining 69% of the observed variation in the responses of hybrids to variable field environments. Four hybrids in G-I, 18 in G-II, and 9 in G-III had positive slopes for both FA1 and FA2 (Supplementary Table S3), indicating that they were more responsive to high yielding environments. Fourteen hybrids amongst these also had negative slopes for FA3, demonstrating that they responded positively to all favorable growing environments and produced consistently high grain yields. The remaining hybrids in the three groups had mainly negative regression line slopes for both FA1 and FA2 and were thus poorly adapted to the high yielding test environments (Figure 3). Very few hybrids had near zero regression slopes to be considered as nonresponsive hybrids to high yielding environments.Plants 2021, 10, 1580 9 of 19 slopes for FA1 and FA2 exhibited a positive linear relationship, explaining 69% of the observed variation in the responses of hybrids to variable field environments. Four hybrids in G-I, 18 in G-II, and 9 in G-III had positive slopes for both FA1 and FA2 (Supplementary Table S3), indicating that they were more responsive to high yielding environments. Fourteen hybrids amongst these also had negative slopes for FA3, demonstrating that they responded positively to all favorable growing environments and produced consistently high grain yields. The remaining hybrids in the three groups had mainly negative regression line slopes for both FA1 and FA2 and were thus poorly adapted to the high yielding test environments (Figure 3). Very few hybrids had near zero regression slopes to be considered as nonresponsive hybrids to high yielding environments. Simple correlation analysis did not find significant relationships of individual provitamin A or non-provitamin A carotenoids with grain yield, ear height, and plant height (r = −0.14 to 0.20). Zeaxanthin was positively correlated (p < 0.0001) only with anthesis (r = 0.54) and silking days (r = 0.58). Simple correlation analysis did not find significant relationships of individual provitamin A or non-provitamin A carotenoids with grain yield, ear height, and plant height (r = −0.14 to 0.20). Zeaxanthin was positively correlated (p < 0.0001) only with anthesis (r = 0.54) and silking days (r = 0.58). β-cryptoxanthin was weakly correlated (p < 0.05) only with silking days (r = 0.27), whereas α-carotene, β -carotene, and provitamin A were not significantly correlated with any of the agronomic traits. The latent regression line slopes for the first two factors of provitamin A were not significantly correlated with those for grain yield (r = −0.06 to 0.10), indicating that the response patterns of hybrids in accumulating provitamin A were not associated with their responses in producing grain yield. In fact, 14 biofortified hybrids had FA1 and FA2 latent regression line slopes showing favorable responses to environments that promoted accumulation of more than 10 µg/g of provitamin A and production of more than 3600 kg/ha grain yields (Supplementary Table S3). Seven hybrids amongst these (H08, H17, H23, H24, H41, H53, and H55) had latent regression line slopes for all three factor loadings in the FA(3) model showing favorable responses to all environments that encouraged accumulation of high provitamin A levels and production of high grain yields. Further comparisons of the best five high yielding PVA (TOP5PVA) hybrids with the orange endosperm commercial (OR-COM) benchmark hybrid showed that the former accumulated 47% more provitamin A and produced 35% more grain yield than the OR-COM hybrid (Figure 4). Moreover, the TOP5PVA hybrids were superior to the remaining PVA (OTHERPVA) and commercial PVA (COMPVA) hybrids in their yield potential as well as provitamin A content.responses to all environments that encouraged accumulation of high provitamin A levels and production of high grain yields. Further comparisons of the best five high yielding PVA (TOP5PVA) hybrids with the orange endosperm commercial (OR-COM) benchmark hybrid showed that the former accumulated 47% more provitamin A and produced 35% more grain yield than the OR-COM hybrid (Figure 4). Moreover, the TOP5PVA hybrids were superior to the remaining PVA (OTHERPVA) and commercial PVA (COMPVA) hybrids in their yield potential as well as provitamin A content.  Enriching maize with provitamin A carotenoids through conventional breeding was advocated as a viable approach for adding vitamin A directly to the diets of consumers who rely on predominantly starchy foods with limited access to fruits and vegetables [10]. The biosynthesis and accumulation of provitamin A carotenoids in plants, including maize, is controlled by the genetic makeup of the variety and its response to environmental stimuli to meet crop development requirements [30,35]. Consequently, changes in the composition and content of provitamin A carotenoids under the influence of varying environmental factors may lead to a trade-off with grain yield and other traits due to the potential competition for precursors and energy [20]. We therefore conducted the present study to determine the relationship between accumulating varying levels of provitamin A and agronomic performance of biofortified maize hybrids across variable environmental conditions in West Africa. Environment, hybrid, and hybrid by environment interaction had significant effects on individual carotenoid accumulation in our study, possibly due to changes in enzymatic activity in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway triggered by the variable temperature, light intensity, humidity, precipitation, physical and chemical soil properties, and the occurrence of biotic and abiotic stresses encountered in the field during the testing of the hybrids over a period of four years [27,[36][37][38][39]. Nonetheless, the high heritability estimates found for individual carotenoids suggested that the variations in carotenoid synthesis and accu-mulation were largely regulated by the genetic component rather than by environmental effects [30]. Similar results were also reported in studies that explored the extent of variation in carotenoid composition and content in diverse maize germplasm [22,32,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. Our study demonstrated that biofortified maize hybrids accumulating high levels of individual carotenoids could be developed for cultivation under a broad range of crop management practices [47] and growing conditions, notwithstanding the importance of environmental and interaction effects on carotenoid biosynthesis.The biofortified maize hybrids included in our study displayed considerable variation in accumulating different amounts and types of carotenoids in their grains, likely due to the diversity of alleles, derived from their parents, which regulate the differential expression of structural genes in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway [12]. Nearly 80% of these hybrids accumulated 20 to 66% more provitamin A in their grains in comparison to the orange endosperm commercial hybrid. Lutein and zeaxanthin remained the major carotenoid fractions in the kernels of the biofortified hybrids despite increases in β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene, and β-carotene content. Similar results of the predominance of lutein and zeaxanthin associated with increases in concentrations of β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene, and βcarotene were reported earlier in biofortified maize inbred lines [13,48] and hybrids [43,49]. Many studies involving diverse maize inbred lines and hybrids [22,[42][43][44]46,50,51] also documented lutein and zeaxanthin as constituting more than 75% of the total carotenoids in their grains. In contrast, inbred lines and hybrids containing the favorable crtRB1 allele had provitamin A carotenoids constituting 49 to 86% of the total carotenoids, mainly due to the associated increase in the flux of precursors to β-carotene [33,52]. The current study highlighted the significant progress made in provitamin A enrichment of hybrids without compromising the levels of other carotenoids with beneficial properties. Consumption of diets rich in these carotenoids can provide multiple health benefits, including improved vision, boosted immune responses, reduced risks for the onset of age-related macular eye disease and cataracts, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer, particularly in populations that depend on maize as a major food source [53][54][55][56][57][58].The variation in the carotenoid profiles in maize genotypes grown in diverse locations and seasons is regulated by many loci distributed across three metabolic pathways that display additive as well as pleiotropic effects [59]. In the present study, the provitamin A biofortified maize hybrids were separated into three major groups with distinct carotenoid composition and content. The hybrids in the second and third groups accumulated elevated levels of provitamin A carotenoids as well as zeaxanthin, as opposed to those in the first group that displayed the lowest levels of provitamin A carotenoids and zeaxanthin. Studies in Arabidopsis and tobacco found that over-expression of the β-carotene hybroxylase gene significantly increased zeaxanthin, which markedly increased the flux of the xanthophyll cycle [60,61]. Although accumulation of lutein did not follow any specific trend in the three hybrid groups, its content did not differ markedly among the hybrid groups. In addition, increases in provitamin A content was significantly correlated with increases in the total carotenoids in hybrids. It is thus likely that parental lines contributed allelic variants at the PSY and ZDS loci, inducing increases in the synthesis of metabolites upstream in the biosynthetic pathway that enhanced substrate flux to both the αand ß-branches downstream in the pathway, leading to higher concentrations of carotenoids with provitamin A activity, while at the same time maintaining appreciable levels of other carotenoids with health benefits. These results suggest that simultaneous increases in concentrations of both provitamin A and non-provitamin A carotenoids could be attained in maize grains by maximizing the total carotenoid synthesis and accumulation, consistent with the results reported in sweet and waxy corn [26,32]. This may be achieved through visual selection for darker orange kernel color, which is associated with higher total carotenoids [45,62], followed by the selection for favorable alleles of crtRB1-3T' and crtRB1-5 TE to enhance substrate flux for more synthesis of carotenes [48,63,64].The stability of provitamin A levels in hybrids across locations and seasons is critical for the commercial release of biofortified hybrids in areas where smallholder farmers cultivate maize under varying soil and climatic conditions and employ different crop management practices. In the present study, the factor analytics model was effective in capturing the stability of accumulating provitamin A across variable growing environments. We found some hybrids displaying elevated accumulation of provitamin A in response to both the first factor and second factor environment loadings. It thus appears that these hybrids had minimal cross-over type of interaction with diverse environments that allowed consistently high levels of expression of provitamin A in their grains [65]. In contrast, other hybrids exhibited either negative or neutral responses to the two environment factor loadings. Although Cullis et al. [66] considered hybrids with close to zero latent regression line slopes as stable products because of their insensitivity to changes in environment loadings, some hybrids with favorable responses to both factor loadings in our study can be considered stable for high provitamin A content across all environments, as recommended by Zhang et al. [67]. Such stable and broadly adapted biofortified maize hybrids can be successfully commercialized to farmers to provide guaranteed nutrient content in areas where vitamin A deficiency is severe.The acceptability of biofortified hybrids by farmers depends on combining high levels of provitamin A with high yield potential and other desirable agronomic features, which are complex traits with polygenic inheritance that are significantly affected by environmental factors [8,27,28]. In the current study, many elite provitamin A biofortified hybrids produced grain yields exceeding the yield of the orange endosperm commercial benchmark hybrid by as high as 68%. Some of these hybrids were also found to be as high yielding as or higher yielding than the two commercial provitamin A biofortified hybrids, demonstrating the potential to achieve concurrent improvements in provitamin A content and grain yield in maize hybrids. The observed weak correlations of both provitamin A and non-provitamin A carotenoids with grain yield and other agronomic traits further support the feasibility of selecting elite parental lines with high provitamin A content for developing productive biofortified hybrids that farmers require to profitably produce maize.Apart from high yield potential, farmers are also interested in hybrid yield stability across seasons to minimize the risks of crop failure, when the growing seasons are unfavorable, and benefit from harvesting more grain, when the growing seasons are favorable. In the factor analytic model (FA(3)), the hybrids displayed positive, neutral, and negative latent regression line slopes for grain yield, indicating the diversity of responses of the PVA hybrids to prevalent changes in field growing conditions. Some PVA hybrids, showing positive slopes for the first two factors, responded favorably to the diversity of growing environments and produced consistently high grain yields. These hybrids may take full advantage of suitable growing seasons with adequate rainfall and sunlight as well as favorable temperature and humidity that enhance photosynthesis [68]. Such adapted hybrids may have more plastids, including chloroplasts and chromoplasts, when they are grown under favorable growing seasons for carotenoid biosynthesis [69]. Dannehl et al. [70] demonstrated that tomatoes grown under optimum climatic conditions had increased photosynthesis and ß-carotene concentration in their fruits, suggesting that enhanced photosynthesis provided the precursors for biosynthesis of ß-carotene. It is therefore reasonable to assume that conventional breeding can successfully combine the benefits of high yield potential with stable expressions of provitamin A levels in maize hybrids.Considerable heterogeneity in genetic variances were found for provitamin A content and grain yield, indicating the diversity of the environments encountered during the evaluation of the hybrids in the present study. Despite these growing conditions, the correlations of provitamin A and other carotenoids with grain yield were desirable with no apparent deleterious effects on the agronomic performance of the tested PVA hybrids. We found superior hybrids with stable expression of high provitamin A and high grain yields across diverse growing conditions, consistent with the results of another study that reported no relationship between carotenoid components and grain yields [52]. Muthusamy et al. [71] developed many hybrids, combining high provitamin A content with high grain yields that were competitive to their original versions as well as normal hybrid checks. Our study demonstrated the effectiveness of rigorous selection of hybrids for agronomic performance and adaptive traits through successive testing stages in developing provitamin A biofortified maize hybrids with high yield potential and broad adaptation across diverse growing environments. In this regard, a breeding strategy, involving vigorous selection of maize inbred lines for desirable agronomic and adaptive traits, followed by selection for elevated levels of beneficial carotenoids, can facilitate the development of maize hybrids with superior agronomic performance and much higher levels of provitamin A and other beneficial carotenoids that are broadly adapted to the diverse tropical production environments in Africa.Maize inbred lines of diverse origin with intermediate to high levels of provitamin A were evaluated, in hybrid combinations in multiple locations through successive stages, until provitamin A biofortified hybrids with desirable agronomic performance were identified for dissemination to partners for regional testing. A set of regional trials, consisting of 30, 30, 36, and 36 hybrids were evaluated in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively, under rainfed conditions across many locations in five countries (Supplementary Figure S1). New hybrids were added every year, whereas inferior ones were removed from these trials, leading to year-to-year variation in the number of tested hybrids. In total, 60 provitamin A biofortified (PVA) single-cross and three-way cross hybrids (H01-H60), two commercial provitamin A biofortified (COM-PVA) single cross hybrids (H61-H62) in Nigeria, and an orange endosperm commercial (OR-COM) single-cross hybrid (H63) marketed extensively in Nigeria for many years, as well as a local maize (LV) variety (H64) were included in the regional trials (Supplementary Table S1). The 60 PVA hybrids were formed from maize inbred lines derived from backcrosses containing temperate germplasm as donors of high β-carotene, as well as bi-parental crosses of elite high provitamin A lines. The genetic backgrounds of the temperate donor lines and the development of lines with intermediate to high levels of provitamin A from backcrosses were extensively described by Menkir et al. [13]. The two COM-PVA hybrids in Nigeria and the OR-COM hybrid that was not bred specifically for high provitamin A content, obtained from Premier Seeds Nigeria Ltd., were included as benchmarks. Farmer-preferred recycled hybrids or improved openpollinated maize varieties commonly grown around the testing sites where the regional trials were conducted were added to the regional trials by partners as a local maize variety check (LV). In the IITA testing sites where the regional trials were conducted in Nigeria, the OR-COM hybrid was once again used as the farmers-preferred hybrid to obtain a more reliable measurements of carotenoids in this benchmark hybrid for subsequent comparisons with the PVA hybrids. Amongst the 64 hybrids included in the regional trials, 10 were tested for four years, 9 were tested for three years, 12 were tested for two years, and the remaining 33 were tested for one year only.The 30, 30, 36, and 36 hybrids included in the regional trials were arranged in 5 × 6, 5 × 6, 6 × 6, and 9 × 4 alpha lattice designs, respectively, and were evaluated with three replications during the main rainy seasons in collaboration with partners in the national agricultural research systems (NARS) and private seed companies in 23 locations in 2015, 28 locations in 2016, 32 locations in 2017, and 20 locations in 2018 in Benin Republic, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria. These test locations represent the diverse maize growing environments and agro-ecological zones stretching throughout West and Central Africa (Supplementary Figure S1). Each hybrid was planted in a single 5 m long row with spacing of 0.75 m between rows and 0.5 m between plants within a row. At the IITA experiment stations in Nigeria, two seeds were planted in each hill and were later thinned to one plant after emergence to attain a population density of 53,000 plants per ha. At the time of sowing, we applied 60 kg N, 60 kg P, and 60 kg K ha −1 fertilizer with an additional 60 kg N ha −1 fertilizer applied four weeks later. The trial fields were sprayed with gramazone and atrazine as pre-emergence herbicides at the rate of 5 L ha −1 and were followed by manual weeding to keep the trials weed-free. The collaborators in the national agricultural research systems (NARS) and private seed companies used crop management practices, rates of fertilizer application, and weed control methods recommended for each of their testing location when they conducted these trials.Days to anthesis and silking were recorded in each plot as the number of days from planting to when 50% of the plants were shedding pollen and showed emerged silks, respectively. Plant and ear heights were measured in cm as the distance from the base of the plant to the height of the first tassel branch and the node bearing upper ear, respectively. All ears harvested from each plot were shelled to determine percent moisture, which was used to determine grain yield, adjusted to 15% moisture. Grain yield was calculated from ear weight and grain moisture, assuming a shelling percentage of 80% and final adjusted moisture content of 15% in each testing site.To avoid contamination from pollen originating from other maize hybrids, four representative plants were self-pollinated from each hybrid and cobs were harvested with the husk in the first two replications at Ibadan, Ikenne, Kadawa, Mokwa, Saminaka, and Zaris in Nigeria from 2015 to 2018. These locations represent the humid forest, moist savanna, and dry savanna agro-ecological zones across West and Central Africa [72]. Cobs were not harvested at Mokwa in 2016 due to severe drought that adversely affected seed setting in hybrids. The cobs were carefully threshed to form composite samples for carotenoid analysis at the Crop Utilization Laboratory of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture using HPLC. The extraction protocol from grain samples and subsequent carotenoid analyses were carried out using the procedure described by Howe and Tanumihardjo [73]. Provitamin A was calculated for each sample as the sum of β-carotene (all-trans plus 13-cis and 9-cis isomers) plus 50% each of α-carotene and β-cryptoxanthin.The yearly addition of new hybrids and the removal of inferior ones in the four regional trials created unbalanced data sets for carotenoids and agronomic traits recorded in these trials. Year-location combinations are hereafter referred to as environments. The combined data across location x year (environment) for carotenoids and agronomic traits were analyzed using the mixed model approach [74,75], with a factor analytic (FA) structure, to model the effects of hybrids and hybrid by environment interactions effectively and increase the precision of predicting breeding values [34]. The first step in the analysis involved separate estimation of genetic variances from the data recorded in each environment. All environments with zero genetic variance estimates were excluded from the analysis. A combined analysis across all environments was then computed for each carotenoid or agronomic trait using a liner mixed model following this formula:where τ is a p-vector of fixed effects and of environment means, with the associated design matrix X. The vector u g is the (m × p)-vector of random genetic effects, ordered as genotypes within environments, with the associated design matrix Z g . The vector u η is of the random non-genetic effects (related to the experimental designs of individuals environments) with the associated design matrix Z η . The vector of residuals is given by e. We assume that u g , u η , and e are mutually independent and distributed as Gaussian, with zero means, such that: u g N 0, G g , u η N 0, G η , and e N(0, R).In the combined analysis, all effects (replicate nested within environments, hybrids, environment and the interaction between genotype and environment) were considered random and the residual variances were assumed to be heterogeneous. The hybrids were considered as random because they represent the diversity of elite provitamin A biofortified hybrids developed in our breeding program and disseminated to the partners for extensive testing. The variance components estimated from the data, combined across environments, were computed using the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedure, and the significance of the variances was determined with a residual maximum likelihood ratio test. We ran a full model with all random effects and a reduced model without that specific random effect. The difference between the log-likelihoods of the full and reduced models followed a chi-square distribution with one degree of freedom. Heritability estimates were calculated for each trait using the method of Cullis et al. [65] that accommodate unbalanced datasets.Factor analysis, which has become a standard model for analyzing data recorded in multi-environment trials, was employed to analyze carotenoid content and agronomic traits using the genetic variance-covariance matrix so that:where L g is the p × 2 matrix of loadings (environment effects); f g is the (m × 2)-vector of scores (genotype effects), and δ g is the (m × p)-vector of lack of fit effects. It is assumed that: f g N(0, 1) and δ g N 0, ψ g .An FA model was then a (multiple) regression of genotype by environment effects on environment covariates (loadings) with separate slopes (scores) for each genotype. The REML estimates of the factor loadings were rotated through a principal component solution to determine the percent variance accounted for by the factors and estimate the hybrid scores following the procedures of Smith and Cullis [76]. The algorithm used in ASReml-R set the elements of the upper triangle of L g to zero [77]. More details on the model fitting, estimation, and prediction can be found in Gogel et al. [75] and Smith and Cullis [76].As provitamin A and grain yield were targeted as primary traits in the present study, we fitted the factor analytic model of order three to determine hybrid stability across varying growing conditions, through the latent regression analysis of predicted breeding values on rotated environmental loadings of each of the three factors [34]. This provided graphical representation of the hybrid by environment effects from an FA model. All analyses were carried out in R [77] using ASReml-R (v4.1) for fitting the mixed models [78]. Simple correlation analysis was then computed between the latent regression line slopes for each of the three factors for provitamin A and those of grain yield to assess the relationship of the two primary traits measured across diverse environments.As the variances were heterogeneous for these traits in each environment, multivariate analysis was conducted using ASReml-R to estimate the genotypic correlations among carotenoids or agronomic traits. Moreover, simple correlation analysis of provitamin A content with grain yield and other agronomic traits of hybrids was conducted using PROC CORR in SAS [79]. To determine the carotenoid profiles of the hybrids, the best linear unbiased estimates (BLUPs) of the five carotenoids, excluding that of provitamin A, were subjected to principal component analysis using the correlation matrix. The resulting five principal component axes (PC1-PC5) scores were then used to stratify the hybrids into groups using Ward's [80] clustering method. The hybrid groups, plus the PC1 to PC5, axes scores were then used to run canonical discriminant analyses, following the CANDISC procedure in SAS [79]. This analysis was run because it was effective in providing a clear separation of hybrids into groups based on the first two factors. Simple correlation analysis between hybrid BLUPs for carotenoids, and the corresponding hybrid scores for the two canonical discriminant functions (CAN1 and CAN2), were conducted to identify carotenoids significantly contributing to each function. Descriptive statistics were computed for individual carotenoids and agronomic traits of hybrid groups using the univariate procedure in SAS [79].Using many biofortified maize hybrids with diverse genetic backgrounds, we demonstrated that the variation in accumulating provitamin A, as well as other carotenoids, with additional health benefits was primarily regulated by the genetic makeup of the hybrids when measured across diverse field growing environments. Many hybrids accumulating more than 10 µg/g of provitamin A and producing more than 3600 kg/ha grain yields, relative to the orange commercial maize hybrid (3051 kg/ha), were found to be as high yielding as, or higher yielding, than the commercial biofortified hybrids. Most of these hybrids were competitive to the orange commercial maize hybrid in accumulating lutein and zeaxanthins with additional health benefits. Our study demonstrated that breeding for enhanced provitamin A content had no adverse effect on production potential and agronomic performance of hybrids evaluated in the regional trials. Considering the importance of carotenoids to human nutrition and health, and the increasing demand from consumers for healthy foods, the development and delivery of maize hybrids with much higher levels of provitamin A and other important carotenoids can maximize their health benefits [12,75,[81][82][83] by offsetting the potential nutrient losses resulting from the diversity of storage practices, methods of milling grains, and preparations of traditional foods. Some outstanding biofortified hybrids identified in the present study (H08, H17, H23, H24, H41, H53, and H55) with stable expressions of high provitamin A and high yield potential are suitable candidates for commercialization in tropical lowland agroecological zones to enhance productivity and yield stability for smallholder farmers. Furthermore, our study highlighted the possibility of developing broadly adapted hybrids that are attractive to private seed companies for commercialization across a wide range of maize production conditions.The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10 .3390/plants10081580/s1, Table S1. The list of hybrids included in the regional trials evaluated across diverse environments from 2015 to 2018, Table S2: BLUPs for individual carotenoids and provitamin A recorded in diverse locations from 2015 to 2018, Table S3: BLUPs for provitamin A content and grain yield as well as their latent regression lines slopes obtained from FA(3) model fitted to the data sets recorded in diverse locations from 2015 to 2018, and Figure S1: Testing sites used for running the regional trials in 2015 to 2018. ","tokenCount":"7391"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fc0fe6c67b500947aa48ca9ff7ca1e8d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b6a29d85-9212-42eb-8c44-18e8ebf31300/retrieve","id":"878219958"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e67caf68-d730-4b91-9db8-0988b0d63f97","pagecount":"187","content":"The Government of Ethiopia has been implementing a resettlement program in Metema woreda in Amhara region since 2003. Previously in the Derge Regime, another resettlement program has been implemented in 1985 and voluntary settlers were in-migrating even before that. Extension service is mandated to assist them in order to improve the production and productivity of the farmers, enabling them to achieve food security and income generation. This study is aimed at assessing the new and previous settler farmers' access to and utilization of agricultural information from the extension service and as well as to identify the influencing factors. A two stage random sampling technique was employed and in the first stage of sampling, three PAs were selected purposively and the respondents were stratified into new and previous settler categories. In the second stage, probability proportional to size sampling technique was applied to each stratum. Finally, 160 sample respondents were selected using simple random sampling technique and interviewed using pre-tested structured interview schedule. Fifteen percent of respondents were female headed households. Both primary and secondary data were collected and analyzed to understand various aspects of access and utilization of agricultural information of farmers. Qualitative data were used to supplement quantitative data. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and Tobit model. Except from seasonal extension orientation and mass media, in all cases there was significant difference between new and previous settlers' access to and utilization of agricultural information. In all extension methods, there were highly significant differences between male and female headed households in obtaining agricultural information, in the favor of males. The female headed respondents utilized the obtained information with comparable to male headed households. The agricultural information and support for utilization provided by the extension service were biased towards the previous settlers and males, and consequently the new settler farmers' and female headed households agricultural information access and utilization was very limited. The survey finding reveals that the current extension service has limited responsiveness, gender sensitivity and poor potential of addressing farmers' need. In the absence of responsive extension service that understands and addresses interests of various groups of farmers, the purpose of resettlement program would not be fulfilled. Result of the econometric model indicated that, settlement category, education level, settlement orientation, innovation proneness, production motivation, age of household head, frequency of market visiting and credit access had influence on the access to and utilization of agricultural information. The overall finding of the study underlined the importance of well organized agricultural information provision and supporting utilization of information through the delivery of credit and technologies based on the farmers' problem and need. Institutionalized and genuine resettlement program information provision in the highland also required. Therefore, policy and development interventions should give emphasis to improvement of such institutional support system so as to enhance the production and productivity of agriculture and to achieve the desired poverty reduction strategy in the resettlement program.First, I declare that this thesis is the result of my own work and that all sources or materials used for this thesis have been duly acknowledged. This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced M.Sc. degree at Haramaya University and to be made available at the University's Library under the rules of the Library. I confidently declare that this thesis has not been submitted to any other institutions anywhere for the award of any academic degree, diploma, or certificate.Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by Dean of the School of Graduate Studies when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author.In most developing countries agriculture is the most important economic activity providing food, employment, foreign exchange and raw material for industries. In Ethiopia agriculture plays a major role in the country's economy. Agriculture accounts for about 45.5% of GDP, 85% of the employment and 94% of Ethiopia's exports (NBE, 2002as cited in Endrias, 2003) and in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, for instance, agriculture accounts for 63% of the regional GDP, and nearly 90% of the population derives its livelihoods from agriculture and related activities (BFED, 2004). The agricultural production system in Ethiopia is highly dominated by traditional farming and the application of modern inputs has been extremely limited. As a result, yields of various crops are very low. In the absence of an efficient agricultural sector, countries like Ethiopia severely suffer from the inability to feed themselves and to depend on food imports and food aid (Tsegaye, 2003). A significant proportion of the population, particularly in the developing world has been suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Especially in Ethiopia, according to Samuel (2006), the number of people needing food aid has been increasing. Over a period of two and half decades, the proportion of the population deemed food insecure rose from 5% in the 1970s to over 20% in 2003. Workneh (2004) ) also explained that, about 22 % of Ethiopians were in need of food aid in 2003.Rapid growth of population, environmental degradation and low agricultural production and productivity are major problems faced by the country. The Government of Ethiopia is currently giving attention to strategies of achieving food security and poverty reduction.According to EIPRTP (2000), regional Governments have identified various projects to tackle the problem of food insecurity which arise either from extremely small size of landholdings or drought proneness in dry-land agriculture. Beside these activities, the Government of Ethiopia planned resettlement program as one means of poverty reduction strategy.Different political regimes in Ethiopia implemented resettlement program as a strategy of responding to the problems of highland vulnerable areas. Under this program, farmers living in marginal highland areas of the country are being moved to more fertile and low population density lowland areas. Agriculture in Ethiopia had not been open to outside information due to many factors and consequently, its technological progress has been restrained for a long time. It is a fact beyond dispute that technology can play an important role in increasing production, income and efficient use of resources for the economic development of the country (Tsegaye, 2003). As Habtemariam, ( 2004) stated a thriving agricultural economy is critical for reducing poverty, ensuring food security and managing natural resources, and to this effect, agricultural extension is expected to play an acceleratory role.With the aim of increasing production efficiency and improving the livelihoods of the rural population, in 1995 the Federal Government of Ethiopia proposed the Participatory Demonstration and Training Extension System (PADETES) as a national extension intervention program. The aim of the Government was to reach as many smallholder farmers as possible in a relatively short time. PADETES, promotes diffusion and adoption of extension packages, which consist of four elements namely, technological package, credit, appropriate communication methods and provision of technologies with the aim of increasing productivity of resources, income and improving the life of rural people (Tsegaye, 2003). The Government considers that agricultural information will be provided through PADETES.In most cases, farmers differ in their access to and utilization of agricultural information from extension service and other sources. Such diversity among farmers could be related to various personal, social, economical, or institutional factors. Understanding reasons behind such diversity and farmers current level of access and utilization of agricultural information is of paramount importance. To enhance the production and productivity of agriculture, farmers should have access to well organized and relevant information and proper and sufficient utilization of agricultural information requires good facilitation.This study is designed to analyze in-depth the farmers' access and utilization of agricultural information in Metema woreda as well as to identify influencing factors to make useful policy recommendations, to facilitate meaningful interventions in the areas of agricultural extension so that relevant information is provided in a timely manner.Starting from 2003, the Government of Ethiopia has been implementing a resettlement program in different parts of the country by mobilizing people from the drought-prone areas to the relatively unpopulated fertile low land areas.In Amhara region, Metema woreda is one of the selected settlement areas and the settlement activity was taken up during 2003-2005. Previously in the Derge Regime, in the year 1985 another resettlement program has been implemented and voluntary settlers were in-migrating even before that. Consequently, the previous settlers and new settlers are living and practicing different agricultural activities such as crop production, livestock production and natural resource production and management in the settlement area to improve their livelihood. For all settlers, particularly for new settlers having poor agricultural experience in the new agro ecology, the Woreda Agricultural and Rural Development office (WARDO), particularly the extension team, is expected to assist and provide agricultural information in order to improve the production and productivity of the farmers, enabling them to achieve food security and income generation.The new settlers, previously living in high lands, are now living in low land areas. From the farming system point of view, these two areas are quite different, and especially the type of crop, type of livestock production and management, type of vegetation and management practices are not similar to those in highland.The new settlers do not have enough know-how of the new farming system to produce agricultural products efficiently to be food secure. Their natural resource management and utilization, for generating income have always been criticized by previously settled farmers, due to the importance of vegetation cover in existing agro ecology. Moreover, the new settlers have no access to credit from cooperatives for the purpose of agricultural technology utilization due to their instability and lack of collateral.To alleviate these problems, the extension service is expected to play a significant role by providing adequate and relevant agricultural information. But, the woreda extension staff has not been able to adequately support them due to the limited number of extension staff during the resettlement program implementation and the new settlers have been highly unsatisfied with and critical of the extension team.This study while understanding the access and utilization of agricultural information services in the settlement areas of the woreda. Also attempts to identify the constraints and factors that influence provision of agricultural information to make useful policy recommendations, to facilitate meaningful interventions.To assess the settler farmers' access to and utilization of relevant agricultural information, and to identify the demographic, socio-economic, psychological and institutional factors that affect access and utilization of agricultural information by settler farmers.The specific objectives of the study are:1. to assess the previous and new settler farmers' access to relevant agricultural information, 2. to assess the previous and new settler farmers' utilization of relevant agricultural information, 3. to assess the responsiveness and potential of extension service in addressing new and previous settler farmers needs 4. to identify the factors influencing access and utilization of agricultural information by previous and new settler farming households in the study area.1. What is the level of access to agricultural information of new and previous settler farmers?2. What is the level of utilization of agricultural information of new and previous settler farmers?3. How the extension service quickly responds and addressing farmers need.4. What are the factors that influence access and utilization of agricultural information for both categories of settler farmers?The scope of the study was to examine the level of access to and utilization of agricultural information by previous and new resettler farming households, in three PAs of one woreda, namely Metema in North Gondar and focused on the contribution and constraints of existing information flows in the on-going resettlement program.Even though 50% of the new settlement PAs were included in the sample, it may have a limitation of representing all the previous settlers' PAs relative to the total woreda coverage.One concern of the research was to know whether the new settler farmers are in a position to manage the new farming system efficiently or not. The mobility of new settler farm households to serve as hired labor in agricultural investment areas, off farm activities and to visit their family in their native area were the other limitations. These situations have contributed to reducing the probability of getting good representative sample households.To bring about agricultural development, the provision of agricultural information plays a decisive role. Agricultural information can flow to different farm households from different sources. Currently beside the indigenous farm experience, Government designed programs contribute to provide agricultural information in order to improve the life of rural people.Empirical studies on the settlers' access to and utilization of agricultural information have not been conducted in Metema Woreda so far, though successive settlers have come to inhabit the woreda.The previously settled farmers who have been living in the area for more than 15 years, have enough know-how of their farming system. But the new settlers who came from the highland to lowland agro-ecology require tailored and intense provision of agricultural information compared to the previous settlers. However, both settlers have been provided with similar agricultural information while following the same extension approach.All development actors like extension services, NGOs and other development agencies involved in agricultural development, especially in resettlement program, must be aware of the need to understand the constraints and factors influencing the level of the access to and utilization of agricultural information and understand the gaps to take remedial action. It is important for policy makers to understand whether the existing agricultural information services, beside the local knowledge flows, assures the desired resettlement based food security strategy and to make useful policy changes to facilitate meaningful interventions in the settlement areas during the transition period.This thesis is organized into five chapters. Chapter one introduces the back ground and problem under the study area, and the research objectives. Chapter two deals with a review of the literature that includes conceptual explanation of agricultural knowledge and information, Role of agricultural extension service, empirical studies on factors affecting access and utilization of agricultural information, and Conceptual Framework of the study.In chapter three, research methodology including description of the study area, sample size and method of sampling, data types and sources and methods of data collection, methods of data analysis and definition of variables and hypothesis are presented. The research findings are presented and discussed in chapter four. Finally chapter five presents the summary, conclusions and recommendations of the study.'Access': is defined as receiving messages related to agricultural production activity from different sources and extension methods such as mass media, extension service (advisory service, orientation about seasonal activities information, training, field days, demonstration, visits), on-farm research, etc including its frequency.'Utilization': relates to the use or converting into action the accessed agricultural messages by the settler farm households to perform the agricultural production activity. The frequency of converting received messages into action is also considered.'Agricultural information' : is operationally defined as the various sets of information and messages that are relevant to agricultural production activities of farmers such as crop production and protection, animal production and management, and natural resource production and conservation. In the context of this study, agricultural information does not include market information. 'Seasonal extension orientation about seasonal activities': is one method of extension service where the DAs disseminate various seasonal agricultural information to the mass of the farmers through different meetings and other social gatherings. The information mainly focuses on awareness of pest assessment, introducing different agricultural technologies appropriate to the season, occurrence of unseasonal rain during harvest time etc.Some people use the words Information and Knowledge interchangeably. However, these are two different but linked concepts. Different people define the word knowledge in different ways. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia dictionary:• Knowledge is \"information combined with experience, context, interpretation, and reflection. It is a high-value form of information that is ready to apply to decisions and actions.\" (Davenport et al., 1998).• \"Knowledge is the human expertise stored in a person's mind, gained through experience, and interaction with the person's environment.\" (Sunasee and Sewery, 2002).Some other authors defined it as:• Knowledge is a range of information gained from experience about technology, environment and farming related conditions (Hedja, 1999) • Knowledge is information in the context to produce an actionable understanding (Ermias, 2004).Regarding the definition of information:• Samuel (2001) defined agricultural information as the data for decision-making and as a resource that must be acquired and used in order to make an informed decision.Umali, (1994) classified agricultural information into two broad groups: pure agricultural information and agricultural information inherently tied to new physical inventions. Pure agricultural information refers to any information which can be used without the acquisition of a specific physical technology. On the other hand, agricultural inventions or technologies are those that come in the form of agricultural inputs, management technologies facilitating farm management, and marketing and processing equipment.Drawing on the various definitions, the researcher conceptualized agricultural information as both agricultural messages via extension and embodied in agricultural technologies and shared between the actors in the agricultural extension system. Also knowledge is a range of information gained from interaction and information combined with experience, and it is organized and interpreted by the human mind with confident understanding for the purpose of decisions and actions.There are various types of knowledge depending on its functions and its carrier systems, for example, agricultural knowledge, management knowledge, manager knowledge etc.Knowledge varies depending on cultural, social, and economical factors. The type of knowledge people have depends on their age, sex, occupation, labor division within the family, enterprise or community, socio-economic status, experience, environment, history, etc.Knowledge can also be seen from the view point of coverage and degree of understanding of certain things such as: common knowledge is held by most people in a community; e.g. almost everyone knows how to cook rice (or the local staple food); shared knowledge is held by many, but not all community members; e.g. villagers who raise livestock will know more about basic animal husbandry than those without livestock; specialized knowledge is held by a few people who might have had special training or an apprenticeship; e.g. only few villagers will become healers, midwives, or blacksmiths (FAO, 2004). Therefore knowledge can be categorized depending on our interest using various criteria.In this dynamic world, the rural people's information requirement is increasing constantly.Agricultural knowledge is changing rapidly; it is obvious that the development of agriculture is highly dependant on the new knowledge and information. According to FAO (2002), rural communes need a wide variety of information such as availability of agricultural support services, Government regulations, crop production and managements, disease outbreaks, adaptation of technologies by other farmers, wages rates, and so on. The content of the information services needs to reflect their diverse circumstances and livelihoods. Therefore, information can be seen as the basic element in any development activity and it must be available and accessible to all farmers in order to bring the desired development.Literature reveals that investment in people is an attractive development option. Peasants' responses to price and profit incentives, the abilities of producers to cope with risk and manage new technology were enhanced by human resource investments in schooling.Relatively few studies have examined the payoff from primary education for persons engaged in agriculture. A review (World Bank 1980, as cited in Tweeten, 1997 ) found that four years of primary education raised farm output by 13 percent on average if complementary inputs (improved seed, irrigation, transport to market etc) were available and by 8 percent if complementary inputs were not available. Either directly or indirectly, knowledge and information has a significant role in agricultural development.The contribution of agricultural information is not limited to surplus food production areas.Small scale farmers in marginal areas also require knowledge and information for better achievement of household food security and consequently national food security. Moreover, according to FAO (2002), improved household food security requires good decision making by rural women and men, for which better grassroots information availability is imperative.It is important to realize that knowledge and information is dynamic and continuously changing to respond to the changing environment. According to Samuel (2001), there are three major organizations, which generate agricultural information in Ethiopia. These are Government agricultural extension systems both at federal and regional levels, Central Statistical Authority (CSA) and research institutions. The CSA is responsible mainly for macro-level data and statistics, whereas the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) andRegional Agricultural Bureaus are also mandated by law to collect process and disseminate data with respect to the performance of agricultural projects and programs. Agricultural research centers generate and disseminate technical data on new findings and other recommendations. Therefore, knowledge is produced in agricultural research either in conceptual form or embedded in material and disseminated through different channels.According to Fekadu (1997), though knowledge is produced through agricultural research, it is not the only avenue for knowledge generation. Learning from experience, interaction and farmers' experimentation are other sources. Salomon and Engel (1997) indicated that farmers have been innovators for centuries, based on their own on-farm experimentation.Acknowledging farmers' expertise, involving them in setting the research agenda and/or as partners in research can lead to additional forms of learning and innovation.Farming families, agricultural cooperatives, agri-businesses, agricultural press, and extension service can serve as source of AKI for the farmers. Especially extension services can be seen as a good source, because extension services can tap a wide variety of information and have several partners. Generally, there is a multitude of actors who can be considered as the sources of agricultural knowledge and information.Communication can be defined \"the exchange of messages\" between two or more partners, or establishing \"commonness\" between two or more parties through a particular medium, or an active, dynamic process in which ideas and information are exchanged leading to modification of people's knowledge, attitudes and practices (Burnett, 2003). The knowledge sharing and communication network of AKI is highly variable, very complex and dynamic. The presence of high diversity in the nature, attitudes and experience, leads to the existence of different communication networks.To boost the economy, producers should have the right kind of knowledge and information.any society, even in a homogenous society such as farmers. The consequences of these gaps can often be serious, amid poverty. Not everyone in an economy could have the right kind of knowledge and information to produce output efficiently. People are poor not because of lazy, they may be hard working people but lack of proper knowledge and information (Suhermanto, 2002).To close this gap Suhermanto (2002), suggested that two ways of distribution of knowledge households it has a direct link with, whether through associations or private networks. Thus, information from other households, indirectly linked to the household, is only accessed from direct contacts through the other established links (Katungi, 2006).Social institutions and the underlying social norms within a village influence the extent to which rural households interact and hence the rate at which information is exchanged. Six social institutions were identified in the context of rural Uganda, where households meet and interact: places of worship, market place, weddings or other related celebrations, school open days, village meetings. Places of worship are the most common social institutions in rural areas for both men and women. As a forum for the exchange of goods, markets are organized weekly, biweekly or monthly and constitute an important place where agricultural information is exchanged (ibid)To strengthen these information exchanges, extension can serve as information source and information exchange facilitator. The learning opportunities in local market areas are the main (informal) means for information dissemination across a community. Therefore, agricultural extension service is expected to contribute the well functioning of the existing local information exchange, taking into account the diverse sources of information.The scope and definition of extension service have changed over time. Moris (1991) defined extension as the mechanism for information and technology delivery to farmers. Purcell and Anderson (1997) define extension as a 'process that helps farmers become aware of improved technologies and adopt them in order to improve their efficiency, income and welfare'.Gradually the role and definition of extension became more and wider than the former view.According to Vanclay and Lawrence (1996), today extension has become a discipline in search of a paradigm, yet we continue to see changes in extension ideology away from the \"linear model\" of technology transfer (e.g. from one-to-one patronizing extension to groupbased co-learning activities). Extension is evolving to be a co-learning process. It has recognized that multiple sources of knowledge and innovation exist, and that farmers should have more control over the information they need and over the way it is delivered. As a result, extension is becoming \"demand-pull\" rather than \"science-push\".According to Berhanu et al., (2006), extension service is a service of information, knowledge and skill development to enhance adoption of improved agricultural technologies and facilitation of linkages with other institutional support services (input supply, output marketing and credit). Therefore, the role of extension service has been changed from technology transferring service to information and knowledge brokering and facilitator role.Agricultural advisory services in developing countries today have assumed a much more holistic and facilitators role, and the field staff of an agricultural advisory service is not just a conduit of information, but an advisor, facilitator, and knowledge broker (Alex et al., 2002cited in Birner et al., 2006). Today's understanding of advisory services goes beyond training and sending messages, and includes assisting farmers to organize and act collectively, addressing processing and marketing issues, and partnering with a broad range of service providers and rural institutions. Farmers are seen as partners in the technology generation process, rather than as simply recipients of technology (Birner et al., 2006).  (Salomon and Engle 1997). Kalaitzandonakes (1999) said that historically there have been strong arguments for public investment in knowledge generation and transfer activities. The basic argument is that knowledge is by nature a \"public good\" and, therefore, the private sector would be unwilling to invest in fundamental research. But in recent years, the traditional agricultural knowledge system has been undergoing significant change.  Birner et al., 2006). In the case of Ethiopia, even if different NGOs partially engage in the provision of AKI to the rural people, it is highly dependent on the public extension service.Information seeking behavior is a broad term encompassing the ways individuals articulate their information needs, seek, evaluate, select, and use information. In other words, information-seeking behavior is purposive in nature and is a consequence of a need to satisfy some goal. In the course of information seeking, the individual may interact with people, manual information systems, or with computer-oriented information systems. According to Pettigrew (1996), information-seeking behavior involves personal reasons for seeking information, the kinds of information which are being sought, and the ways and sources with which needed information is being sought. Barriers that prevent individuals from seeking and getting information are also of great importance in understanding the information-seeking behavior of individuals and organizations. Information use is a behavior that leads an individual to the use of information in order to meet his or her information needs. Information use is an indicator of information needs, but they are not identical.A major task in agricultural development is the transfer of improved technologies to farmers (Pipy, 2006). Farmer's access to different information sources helps them to get information about improved technologies and enhance the adoption of new innovations. Conducting various extension events plays an important role in the provision of different agricultural information and consequently enhances the utilization of the accessed information. Such events include contact with DAs, training, demonstration, and field days or visits etc.Different findings reveal that participation in different extension events positively influences the utilization of different agricultural technologies. For instance, Tesfaye et al. (2001) reported that participation in on-farm demonstration and attendance of training contributed positively to farmers' adoption decision. In the same line, Yishak (2005), in his study of determinants of adoption of improved maize technology in Damote Gale wereda found that farmers' participation in demonstration had positive and significant relationship with adoption.Similarly, the relationship between farmers' access to extension services and adoption has been repeatedly reported as positive and significant by many authors. Nkonya et al. (1997) reported that visit by extension agents had positive influence on improved maize and fertilizer in Northern Tanzania. Many other authors such as Kansana et al. (1996) indicated that participation in training, access to communication sources and number of information sources had significant association with level of knowledge and adoption of improved wheat varieties.The implication is that emphasis has to be given to advising farmers, training, participation in demonstration, and field days to provide relevant agricultural information and to enhance the utilization of improved agricultural technologies.Other sources of information such as mass media and neighbor farmers in the area are also important in diffusion of agricultural innovations. Particularly, interpersonal communication networks among farmers are important and reported in many studies to have significant influence on farmers' adoption decision. Mass media also play a great role in provision of information in shortest possible time over a large area. Yahaya (2002) explained that, trends in Nigeria's agricultural development scenario show that mass media have tremendous potentials for agricultural information dissemination. Many studies reported the positive and significant relationship of mass media with adoption of agricultural technologies. In line with this, Yishak (2005), in his study on determinants of adoption of improved maize technology in Damote-Galewereda, Wolaita, Ethiopia indicated that ownership of radio and participation in demonstration had positive influence on adoption of improved maize technologies. Household's personal and demographic variables are among the most common household characteristics which are mostly associated with farmers' access and utilization behavior. From this category of variables age, sex and education were reviewed in this study but there is a limitation of empirical study on other variables.Age is also one of demographic character important to describe households and can provide a clue as to age structure of the sample and the population too. Young farmers are keen to get knowledge and information than older farmers. It may be also older farmers are more risk averse and less likely to be flexible than younger farmers and thus have a lesser likelihood of information utilization and new technologies.With regard to age, different studies report different results. Haba (2004), he assessed that the willingness to pay for agricultural information delivery technologies such as print, radio, farmer-to-farmer, expert visit, and television. He revealed that, as age increased, the willingness to pay for these agricultural information delivery technologies decreased, meaning that older farmers were less willing to get information than younger ones. On the other hand, study condacted by Katungi (2006), on social capital and information exchange in rural Uganda reveal that older men are less likely to engage in simultaneous receiving and providing of information, perhaps due to the low ability to communicate associated with old age. All this points assure that, as age increase the getting of agricultural information also decrease.Regarding the utilization of agricultural information, a study conducted by Teklewold et al., (2006)  Gender is another factor that limits access to and utilization of AKI. Due to the prevailing socio-cultural values and norms males have freedom of mobility, participate in different meetings and trainings consequently have greater access to information. A study conducted by Katungi (2006), reveal that male-headed households tend to build and maintain larger network ties with relatives and friends than female-headed households.Male-headed households are said to have better access to agricultural information than femaleheaded households, which is attributed to negative influence of cultural norms and traditions (Habtemariam, 2004). A study conducted by Pipy (2006) reveals that, their were significant difference between male and female in poultry production information source and utilization of information. Yahaya (2001) reported similar results in previous studies that sourcing of agricultural information and utilization is along gender lines. They had posited that women are less likely to participate because they have limited time to access or utilize available information due to pressure of household responsibilities. Married women in particular are bypassed in the transfer of improved agricultural technologies assuming that they will get the information through their husbands (EARO, 2000). But, Saito and Weidemann, (1990) reported that for most of the women, relatives and friends were the source of information;nearly one-third had acquired their knowledge from the extension service, and only 1% had heard of the technologies from their husbands.Studies conducted by Ellis (1992) and Green and Ng'ong'Ola, (1993) indicated that femaleheaded households had less access to improved technologies, credit, and land and extension service. According to EARO (2000), female farmers are not considered and their agricultural activities and/or issues concerning them have been the last priorities in the country's agricultural research agenda, and so lacked improved extension packages and services that assist them to improve their productivity. This report explains that often it is observed that major emphasis in agriculture is given to men's activities while the role of women and children in the Ethiopian farming systems has been ignored (EARO, 2000).Women play a critical role in agriculture and it is recognized that the Ethiopian agricultural extension system suffers from a number of weaknesses in its services for rural women.According to Habtemariam (1996), Policy makers and administrators typically still assume that men are the farmers and women play only \"supportive role\" as farmers' wives. This attitude by both planners and implementers has significant adverse effects on women's access to agricultural extension services On the other hand, Dagnachew (2002), states that extension efforts and technological packages usually address men farmers. Extension agents are most likely to visit male farmers than female farmers. The low level of women's education and cultural barriers prevent them from the exposure to extension channels by their initiative. The male-dominated extension system also often restrains from contacting and working with women due to the strong taboos and value systems in the rural areas.Habtemariam's (1996) study shows that, there is a gender bias against women and among extension workers. Extension services in Ethiopia are male-dominated and working mainly with male farmers, partly for cultural reasons and partly because the extension system itself has traditionally relied on the use of contact farmers, whose criteria for selection tended to exclude female farmers. The author stated that, the extension services were managed in a topdown fashion, which was reflected in extension program planning. This gives a very little opportunity for grass root extension staff to take the initiative and respond to local demands in any significant way. Similarly, the management and organization of the extension service did not allow for great deal of teamwork and there was little emphasis on multidisciplinary approaches to problem solving.Generally, extension services frequently fail to provide adequate information to women farmers through failing to recognize their specific needs. In addition to their productive tasks they are frequently over burdened with household responsibilities which they cannot delegate, they are often less educated than men and have a more limited access to resources such as credit. If an extension program deals effectively with those constraints, it will be easier for women farmers to get involved in activities (FAO, 1996), and women have not benefited as much as men have from publicly provided extension services (World Bank, 1995).According to FAO (2002), \"Rural women and girls usually have less access than men to information and new technologies. Without equal access to information, they are at a disadvantage in making informed choices about what to produce and when to sell their products\".Finally the researcher concluded that, agricultural extension as an educational and communication tool makes a vital contribution to agricultural production and rural development. It is thus important to provide women farmers in both male and female-headed households with efficient, effective and appropriate technology, training and information.However, it is a mistake to view \"rural women\" as a homogeneous social classification or to drive policies and services for women in agriculture that are not based on empirical research which capture their diversity. The consequence is that extension service needs to be adapted to circumstances as there is no one-package extension model, which can work for all women in all places.With regard to education, there is a general agreement that education is associated with receiving, absorbing, agricultural information and utilization of information. Because education is believed to increase farmers' ability to obtain, process and analyze information disseminated by different sources and helps him to make appropriate decision to utilize agricultural information through reading and analyzing in a better way.A study conducted by Katungi (2006), on social capital and information exchange in rural Uganda reveal that, among women's; more educated women are more likely to engage in twoway information sharing, so that more educated farmers have more information access. Pipy, (2006), found that, significant difference between different educational level in poultry production sources of information and utilization of information.Several studies conducted by Itana (1985); Chilot et al (1996); Kansana (1996); Mwanga et al (1998) and Tesfaye et al (2001) have reported that education had positive and significant relationship with adoption. Similarly, Nkonya et al (1997) reported positive relationship of education with adoption and intensity of adoption improved maize seed indicating that each additional year of education increases probability and intensity of adoption by 5%. In the same line several authors reported significant and positive relationships that exist between formal education and literacy level and adoption (Freeman et al, 1996;Haji, 2003;Habtemariam, 2004). Also Legesse, 1992;Teressa, 1997;Walday, 1999;Mulugeta, 2000 have reported that education has positive relation with adoption behavior.On the other hand, study conducted by Tesfaye (2003), on soil and water conservation practices in Wello, Wolaita and Konso areas of Ethiopia revealed that there is no variation between literacy and illiteracy rates in terms of soil and water conservation practices.Farming experience is another important household related variable that has relationship with the production process.  Gockowski and Ndoumbe (2004) reported negative relationship of farming experience with adoption of intensive mono-crop, horticulture in southern Cameroon.Knowledge systems are dynamic, people adapt to changes in their environment and absorb and assimilate ideas from a variety of sources. However, knowledge and access to knowledge are not spread evenly throughout a community or between communities. People may have different objectives, interests, perceptions, beliefs and access to information and resources.Knowledge is generated and transmitted through interactions within specific social and agroecological contexts. It is linked to access and control over power. Differences in social status can affect perceptions, access to knowledge and, crucially, the importance and credibility attached to what someone knows. Often, the knowledge possessed by the rural poor, in particular women, is overlooked and ignored (FAO, 2004). Therefore, the access to information highly depends on the individual social and economic status.Among different factors, annual farm income obtained from sale of crop and/or livestock are important income sources in the rural households. Off-farm activities are the other important activities through which rural households get additional income. The households' income position is one of the important factors determining access to and utilization of agricultural information and different improved technologies.Regarding annual farm income, almost all empirical studies reviewed show the effect of farm income on household's adoption decision to be positive and significant. For example, Kidane (2001); Degnet et al (2001) and Getahun (2004) reported positive influence of household's farm income on adoption of improved technologies. In the same line, Gockowski and Ndoumbe, 2004 found positive effect of cocoa revenue on intensive mono-crop horticulture.The income obtained from off-farm activities helps farmers to purchase farm outputs. Review of some of the past empirical studies shows that, the influence of off-farm income on adoption varies from one study to the other. However, majority of the studies reported positive contribution of off-farm income to household's adoption of improved agricultural technologies. For instance, Birhanu(2002); Getahun (2004); Kidane (2001) and Mesfin (2005) have found positive significant relationship of off-farm income with adoption.In the context of this study, institutional factors include various formal and informal institutions, and organizations. These factors facilitating and enhancing the access and utilization of agricultural information such as credit, social participation, enhancing farmers' participation and joint planning, development agents' support, visiting market place and different formal and informal social organizations.Credit has strong and significant influence in determining use of combined packages depending on the production type. It helps in alleviating current financial constraints enhancing the use of technology packages correspondingly. Survey results by Saito et al. (1994) in Nigeria showed that a major reason for smallholders not using fertilizer was lack of cash, highlighting the importance of short-term credit. Different studies have shown that access to credit plays a significant role in enhancing the use of improved varieties (Legesse, 1992;Chilot et al., 1996;Teressa, 1997;Lelissa, 1998;Bezabih, 2000;Tesfaye et al., 2001).All of them reported that access to credit, had a significant and positive influence on the adoption behavior of farmers regarding improved technologies. However, Jabbar and Alam (1993) found that access to credit was not significantly related with adoption.Regarding the relationship between sex and credit, provision of credit is almost exclusively made to men, thereby ignoring the independent roles of women in dual (husband-wife) households, and the high proportion of female-headed farm steadies (Doyle et al, 1985). The major reasons why credit is less available to women are (a) they have no land-title as collateral (land-titles are generally held in the men's name) and (b) the credit is frequently made available through cooperatives of which membership is mostly for male. Lack of credit prevents women from investing in equipment and inputs that could alleviate the drudgery of their daily tasks, improve their productivity, and/or provide additional sources of income with which to improve the welfare of the family (Carr, 1985).In agricultural development, the importance of social capital (multidirectional social network) is perceived as a willingness and ability to work together. The very likely assumption on which the relationship between social capital and adoption is anchored is that neighboring agricultural households are, de facto, members of a social structure who exchange information about improved agricultural practices. Rogers (1995) concludes that: \"The heart of the diffusion process consists of interpersonal network exchanges … between those individuals who have already adopted an innovation and those who are then influenced to do so\".Similarly, the findings of Habtemariam ( 2004) also detected a positive relationship between social participation and adoption of all dairy practices.Therefore, social participation has a role in information exchange. Other reports indicate that, membership and leadership in community organization assumes that farmers who have some position in PA and different cooperatives are more likely to be aware of new practices as they are easily exposed to information (Freeman et al, 1996;Chilot et al, 1996;Van den Ban and Hawkins, 1996;Asfew et al, 1997;Habtemariam, 2004). Asres (2005) reported that social participation was statistically insignificant in access to and utilization of reproductive, productive and community role information of women.Regarding the planning approach of extension service, a study in Tigray reveals, extension package program has been implemented in a top-down manner based on a quota system.Despite much resistance, DAs forced farmers to join the extension program because they are evaluated based on the number of farmers adopting new technologies (amount of fertilizer, seed etc distribution) (Mamusha, 2005). Within this situation the information provision of extension agent will bias towards the achievement of annual quota plan rather than addressing the farmers' problem and information needs. The consequences of this situation will affect the better functioning of extension system for farmer's agricultural development. To assure the need of farmers' agricultural information provision, the planning process should be bottomtop, based on the farmers' problem, aspirations, needs, resource, and environment.Market distance and frequency of market visiting is also another factor in the dissemination of agricultural information and utilization. A study conducted in Uganda explained that, market serve as forum for the exchange of goods, and organized weekly, biweekly or monthly and constitute an important place where agricultural information is exchanged and men go to markets more often than women (Katungi E, 2006). Moreover farmers located near to a market will have a chance to get information from other farmers and input suppliers. The closer they are to the nearest market, the more likely it is that the farmer will receive valuable information (Abadi, 1999;Roy, 1999). Therefore, the frequency of market and distance from residence play important role in the access and utilization of agricultural information.Psychological factors also plays influential role in the access of agricultural information and technology utilization. In this study attitude towards improved farming, innovation proneness, production motivation and information seeking behavior were considered as important variable having influence on access and utilization of agricultural information.Attitudes are usually defined as a disposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain thing (idea, object, person, and situation). They encompass, or are closely related to, our opinions and beliefs and are based upon our experiences. Since attitudes often relate in some way to interaction with others, they represent an important link between cognitive and social psychology (Kearsley, 2008) Information seeking behavior was also one of the hypothesized variables that influence access and utilization of agricultural information. This variable is reflecting the degree at which the respondent was eager to get information from various sources on different agricultural activities. Information seeking behavior was assumed to have positive relationship with the access and utilization of agricultural information. From the previous study Deribe Kaske (2007), found that there was significant and positive relationship between information seeking behavior and knowledge of dairy farming. Also Asres (2005), found that similar finding between information seeking behavior and productive role of women, and utilization of development information. This indicated that as respondents' information seeking behavior increases, their utilization of accessible information also increases.To enhance the agricultural production and productivity in developing countries, access to and effective utilization of agricultural information by farmers play crucial roles. Due to different external and internal factors (such as high illiteracy level of farmers, limited application of modern inputs, poor provision of agricultural information, etc) Ethiopian agricultural sector remains under low production and productivity. To enhance the production and productivity, one of the options would be to increase farmers' access to and effective utilization of agricultural information through identifying and working on the problem that affects the extent of access and utilization of agricultural information. This can be done through analyzing the personal, socio-economical, institutional and psychological factors that might significantly influence information access and utilization.This study assumes that the farmers in Ethiopia are embedded with a lot of complex roles and constraints in the agricultural production sector. But the existing traditional system persists from generations to generations. This is mainly due to the fact that the exposure to modern and scientific information on agricultural activities and utilization of agricultural information and technologies remain limited. Consequently, the development of agricultural sector constrained from progress though it is the backbone of the country economy.In this study, efforts were made to identify factors affecting access and utilization of agricultural information from literature, practical experiences and field observations of the research.The conceptual framework of this study is based on the assumption that the access and utilization of agricultural information are influenced by a number of personal, socioeconomical, institutional and psychological factors of the farmers. The conceptual framework presented in Figure 1 presents the most important variables hypothesized to influence the access to and utilization of agricultural information by farmers in the study area. The first section of this chapter describes some features of the study area. In section two sampling method and in section three data types, sources and collection methods are discussed. Methods of data analysis are discussed in section four. Finally, definition of variables and the hypothesized relations are presented in section five.Metema woreda is located in the North West part of Ethiopia and western part of Amhara The original residents of the area are Gumuz. Until recently, they practiced slash and burn and hunting wild animals. They produce sorghum as the staple which is the major food crop in the area. Since the settlement programmes of the last and current Governments, the population of natives became smaller.According to IPMS ( 2005 According to the available data, the mean annual rainfall for the area ranges from about 850 to around 1100 mm to 90% of the woreda. Metema has a unimodal rainfall. The rainy months extend from June until the end of September. However, most of the rainfall is received during the months of July and August (IPMS, 2005).The soils in the area are predominantly black and some are soils with vertic properties, having excessive cracks as deep as 0.75 m in some places during the dry seasons. According to the woreda Office of Agriculture, the total area of the woreda is about 440,000 ha. Much of the woreda is under Acacia dominated forest with grass under growth. Metema is one of the woredas where gum and incense are collected.According to the woreda Agricultural and Rural Development office 2005/2006 annual crop production plan, sesame, sorghum and cotton cover around 95% of the woreda cultivated area and other crops cover the remaining 5%. The yield of sorghum is between 18 and 20 qt/ha, while that of sesame is between 4 and 6 qt/ha and cotton yield about 8 qt/ha.Livestock is an integral part of the farming system. The cattle population in the Woreda is quite high (average livestock holding per household is 6.7). Production of cattle (milk, meat), goat (meat) and poultry is a common practice. Cattle are exported to Sudan while goats are mainly produced for the local market.Commercial farmers use tractors for ploughing. Oxen are used to plough fields for all crops and to thresh sorghum, while donkeys are used for transporting produce and water by the smallholder farmers. Despite the large population of livestock, especially cattle and goats, productivity is low as in many other parts of Ethiopia (IPMS, 2005).Woreda office of agriculture experts believe that livestock feed is not a limiting resource in the woreda. However, the farmers in the woreda do not make hay and dry season feed remains a problem. This is especially because farmers burn grasses for eliminating ticks and initiating new grass growth during the rainy season.  Sampling is a technique, which helps us in understanding the parameters or characteristics of the universe or population by examining only a small part of it. Therefore it is necessary that sampling technique be reliable (Chandan, 1998). Appropriate sample size depends on various factors relating to the subject under investigation like the time, cost, degree of accuracy desired etc. (Rangaswamy, 1995). But the sample size and the sample selection process procedure should assure the representative-ness of the population.Sample size determination has its own scientific approach. But in this study to determine sample size, different factors such as research cost, time, human resource, environmental condition, accessibility and availability of transport facilities were taken into consideration. By taking these factors into account, 170 household heads were selected and out of these 10 of them were reserve from 3 PAs.Two stage sampling was applied to select the sample households. The woreda has a total of 18 Peasant Association (PAs) and 2 town kebeles. Among these 18 PAs, resettlement program has been implemented only in six PAs during the past three years.In the first stage of sampling from these six PAs (Kumer afitit, Kokit, Village 6 7 8, Dasgundo, Awassa and Tumet-mendoka), three PAs (Village 6 7 8, Das-gundo and Tumetmendoka) were purposively selected on the basis of accessibility and high intensity of new settler population.Due to the high mobility of new settlers as hired labor and to visit native area had affected the proportional balance of the two groups within the PA, and therefore it was impossible to apply probability proportional to size in each PA directly.In the second stage of sampling, the settlers were stratified into new and previous settlers within the three sample PAs, including female headed households. 80 sample respondent for new settler category and 80 for previous settler category were allocated equally. These sample respondents allocated for three PAs with their respective category using probability proportional to size sampling technique. Finally, the sample household farmers have been selected randomly from the two categories based on their proportions. A total of 160 sample households were selected from new and previous settler farmer's categories (80 new and 80 previous settlers). The woreda Rural and Agricultural Development office strives to address needs of at least 15% of female farmers, and therefore, 15% of the sample in each PA under each of the settlement categories were chosen to be Female Headed Households.All the Development Agents in the sample PAs and all the woreda Extension staff members were included in the data collection to generate qualitative supplemental data.Figure 3. Sampling procedureThe details of final household sample selected is presented in Table 1.  To elicit the necessary information for a given study, first we should determine the type of data that needs to be gathered and the source from which the data is to be collected. Both qualitative and quantitative, and primary and secondary data had been collected to answer the research questions, and objectives of the study. It includes; demographic, environmental, socio-economic, institutional, behavioral, as well as access and utilization of agricultural information services that had been provided to both categories of farmers. It had been gatheredthrough formal survey, interview and through discussions and observations. The primary data sources were both new and previous settler farmers, as well as DAs and subject matter specialists (as supplemental data) on various aspects of access and utilization of agricultural information by farmers. The primary quantitative data were collected from the respondents using a pre-tested, structured interview schedule by four bachelor degree holding and two diplomas holding well trained enumerators, closely supervised by the researcher. Qualitative data were collected through discussion with focus groups and key-informants, field visits, and observations, this served as a supplementary to quantitative data. Focus group discussion was held on in specific topics with small groups of people that consist of 8 farmers (4 new and 4 previous settler farmers) who have intimate knowledge about the topic under consideration. Checklist with key questions had been used to spark out the discussion to obtain qualitative data from focused-group members, Key-informants, the officials and other functionaries.The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools including mean, percentage, ranking, standard deviation, T-test, χ2-test, Cramer's V, Gamma, SpearmanCorrelation Coefficient (rho), and Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) (Sarantakos, 1988) based on the level of measurement of the variables involved, i.e. the nominal, ordinal, and interval/ratio levels. Descriptive statistical tools were employed to see difference, strength, and direction of relationships in level of access and utilization of agricultural information by previous and new settlers in the study area.The chi-square test was used to examine whether the obtained data and their differences were significant, or whether the variables in question were related to each other, However, Chisquire values depend very much on the size of the sample, making it difficult for the researcher to determine whether differences in the results were due to the nature of the relationship between the variables or due to sample size. To determine the strength of the relationship as well as to see whether differences were due to sample size, two measures were commonly employed for nominal level of measurement the φ (read Phi) coefficient or Cramer's V, and Gamma and Spearman Correlation Coefficient indicate the significance, strength, and direction of the relationship between the row and column variables of a crosstabulation, and appropriate when the variables are ordinal and categorical variables; whereas Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) for interval/ratio level variables (Sarantakos, 1988). The ranges of the values of Phi coefficient and Cramer's V are between 0 (no association) and 1(Perfect association). In general, if the value is close to 0 the strength of the relationship is fairly weak, if it is about 0.4 to 0.7 it is moderate; and if it is above 0.8 it is strong or very strong. Where as the value of the test statistics of Gamma, SpearmanCorrelation Coefficient, and Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient range from -1 to 1. Phi (φ) coefficient is used for 2 x 2 tables of nominal variables. When it relates to tables larger than 2 x 2 tables, Cramer's V was used to nominal level variables.Discrete regression models are models in which the dependent variable assumes discrete values. The three most commonly used approaches to estimating such models are the linear probability models (LPM), the logit Model and the probit models (Amemiya, 1981;Gujarati, 1988). The linear probability model has an obvious defect in that the estimated probability values can lie out side the normal 0-1 range. The fundamental problem with the LPM is that it is not logically a very attractive model because it assumes that the marginal or incremental effect of explanatory variables remains constant, that is Pi= E (Y=1/X) increases linearly with X (Gujarati, 1988). Due to the defects of the linear probability model, Logit and probit Models are the convenient functional forms for models with binary endogenous variable (Amemiya 1981;Gujarati, 1988). The choice between the two is one of mathematical convenience and ready availability of computer programs (Gujarati, 1988).There is also a broad class of models that have both discrete and continuous parts. One important model in this category is the Tobit. Tobit is an extension of the Probit Model and it is really one approach to dealing with the problem of censored data (Johnston and Dinardo, 1997). Some authors call such models Limited Dependent Variable Models because of the restriction put on the values taken by the regressand (Gujarati, 1995).The use of Tobit models to study censored and limited dependent variables has become increasingly common in applied social science research for the past two decades (Smith and Brame, 2003).The dependent variable of Tobit model has continuous value, which should be the intensity, the use and application of the technology. As observed in different empirical studies this variable can be expressed in terms of ratio, actual figure and log form depending on the purpose of the study. For example in their study of factors influencing adoption of fertilizer, Nkonya et.al, (1997) considered fertilizer applied per hectare as the dependent variable of the tobit model.The study of farmers agricultural information access and utilization based up on dichotomous regression models have attempted to explain only the probability of gating and utilizing the agricultural information, but not the extent and intensity of accessing and utilizing, so that it may not provide much information about the farmers level of access and utilization. A strictly dichotomous variable often is not sufficient for examining the intensity of usage for such problems.Consequently, in this study the ratio of actual gained farmers' agricultural information access from different sources to potential information access score was taken as a dependent variable of the tobit model. The same is true for utilization dependent variable.The econometric model applied for analyzing factors influencing access and utilization of agricultural information is the Tobit model shown in equation ( 1). This model was chosenbecause it has an advantage over other discrete models (LPM, Logistic, and Probit) in that; it reveals both the probability of access and utilization, and the intensity of access and utilization. Following Maddala (1992), Johnston and Dinardo (1997) and Green (2000), theTobit model for the continuous variable (in this study access and utilization) can be defined as: Where:AI i = is ratio of access (utilization) index for i th farmer AI i * = is the latent variable and the solution to utility maximization problem of intensity of access (utilization) subjected to a set of constraints per household and conditional on being above certain limit, X i = Vector of factors affecting access (utilization) and intensity of access (utilization), B i = Vector of unknown parameters, and U i = is the error term which is normally distributed with mean 0 and variance σ 2 .The model parameters are estimated by maximizing the Tobit likelihood function of the following from (Maddala, 1997 andAmemiya, 1985).Where ƒ and F are respectively, the density function and cumulative distribution function of An econometric software known as \"Limdep\" was employed to run the Tobit model. It may not be sensible to interpret the coefficients of a Tobit in the same way as one interprets coefficients in an uncensored linear model (Johnston and Dinardo, 1997). Hence, one has to compute the derivatives of the estimated Tobit model to predict the effects of changes in the explanatory variables.According to Johnston and Dinardo (1997) and Nkonya et al. (1997), McDonald and Moffit (1980) proposed the following techniques to decompose the effects of explanatory variables into access (utilization) and intensity effects. Thus; change in X i (explanatory variables) has two effects. It affects the conditional mean of AI i * in the positive part of the distribution, and it affects the probability that the observation will fall in that part of the distribution. Similarly, in this study, the marginal effect of explanatory variables was estimated as follows.1. The marginal effect of an explanatory variable on the expected value of the dependent variable is:Where, σ β i i X is denoted by z, following Maddala, (1997) 2. The Change in the probability of information access (utilization) of a technology as independent variable Xi changes is:3. The change in the intensity of information access (utilization) with respect to a change in an explanatory variable among accessed (utilized) is:Where, F (z) is the cumulative normal distribution of Z, ƒ(z) is the value of the derivative of the normal curve at a given point (i.e., unit normal density), Z is the z-score for the area under normal curve, β is a vector of Tobit maximum likelihood estimates and σ is the standard error of the error term.Before running the Tobit model all the hypothesized explanatory variables were checked for the existence of multi-collinearity problem. There are two measures that are often suggested to test the existence of mulit-collineality. These are: Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) for association among the continuous explanatory variables and contingency coefficients for dummy variables. In this study, variance inflation factor (VIF) and contingency coefficients were used to test multicollinearity problem for continuous and dummy variables respectively.According to Maddala (1992), VIF can be defined as: VIF (,Where 2 i R is the squared multiple correlation coefficient between X i and the other explanatory variables. The larger the value of VIF, the more troublesome. As a rule of thumb, if the VIF of a variable exceeds 10 (this will happen if R i 2 exceeds 0.95), that variable is said to be highly collinear (Gujarati, 1995).Similarly, contingency coefficients were computed for dummy variables using the following formula.Where, C is contingency coefficient, χ2 is chi-square value and n = total sample size.For dummy variables if the value of contingency coefficient is greater than 0.75, the variable is said to be collinear (Healy, 1984as cited in Mesfin, 2005).The dependent variables in this study are access to agricultural information and utilization of agricultural information by the settler farmers from different agricultural information sources.Both dependent variables were designed to measure the agricultural information access and utilization of new and previous settler farmers. In order to measure the farmers' access to agricultural information, 26 information requiring activities and seven agricultural information sources and methods were identified initially in collaboration with woreda extension staff.Then, the information access of respondents from each source was rated using properly designed frequencies. This gave a possible maximum score of 82 for access to agricultural information.The same procedure was applied to agricultural information utilization from the accessed agricultural information. But the difference is that the information utilization of the 26 agricultural activities identified were rated using another set of utilization frequencies. This gave a possible maximum utilization score of 88.The following independent variables were hypothesized to influence the access and utilization of agricultural information in the study area. The 17 hypothesized explanatory variables are defined and explained here.It is measured in terms of the respondent's number of years of age at the time of data collection. Even though previous studies provide differential result, that young farmers are keen to get knowledge and information than older ones. Increase in age might lead to less utilization due to the elder farmers might be more or less risk averse to new technologies. However, it was expected that, increase in age would have an influence on level of access and utilization of agricultural information either negatively or positively.Sex refers to biological differentiation of human being. It is nominal variable used as dummy (1 if male, 0 otherwise). Due to many socio-cultural values and norms males have freedom of mobility and participation in different meetings. Evidence in the literature indicates that female-headed households have less access to and utilization of agricultural information and improved technologies, credit, land, and extension service.Gender difference is found to be one of the factors influencing access to and utilization of agricultural information. So it is hypothesized that male household farmers would have more access to agricultural information and utilize it more effectively.3. Education levelmeasured in terms of 1=illiterate, 2=functionally literate, 3=primary school, 4=secondary school and others. The educational level of the individual is one of the important factors capacitating the individual to receive, absorb and utilize new ideas to be more productive. Therefore it was assumed that the level of education attained by the household head would enhance the access to and utilization of agricultural information.-measured in number of days per year that the household head is sick (out of farming work in [2005][2006]. To acquire and utilize agricultural information, physical wellbeing of the farmer is important. Sick household farmer will face the problem of getting information or a restricted access to and utilization of agricultural information than a healthy household head. Therefore, good health of a household head is expected to influence positively access to and utilization of agricultural information.indicates whether respondents plan to live in the new settlement area permanently or not. This variable is measured based on the feeling of stay in the new settlement area. 1= I don't want to stay here, 2= I am not sure how for how long to stay, 3= Permanently as a farmer. When a settler farmer plans to live in the new settlement area permanently or for a prolonged time he/she will more likely devote to get and utilize agricultural information to enhance production and income, than farmers planning to stay for a short period of time to earn and save money to maintain their native area/ highland living. So it is hypothesized that farmers having an objective to live for longer period of time in the settlement area would have more access to and utilization of agricultural information. 8. Off-farm income: is a continuous variable and measured in birr. This refers to annual income obtained from different agricultural activities as hired labor. To earn this income, settler farmers may move out of village for prolonged time and/or may spent more time out of their farm, and hence may not be able to access agricultural information being provided at PA level and consequently lack information and knowledge for utilization.Therefore, off-farm income is expected to influence negatively access to and utilization of agricultural information. 9. Mobility of respondents: measured in number of days spent per year out of village to visit their native area and out of village to be hired. Settler farmers moving to visit family in their homeland and to generate income as hired labour in off-farm activities and in agricultural investment areas might not participate in agricultural training at the kebele level. So it is hypothesized that more mobile farmers will have limited access to and utilization of agricultural information and than those who remain in their home.10. Access to credit: is measured in amount of birr that respondents received in the form of credit over the last two years (2005)(2006) from Governmental or non-governmental organizations. Credit provision from formal institutions mostly supported by agricultural production and protection training and awareness creation in order to achieve the desired purpose of credit. It is expected that those who have better access to credit will be more inclined to seek agricultural information and utilize agricultural technology packages.Therefore, this variable is expected to influence the dependent variables positively.11. Frequency of market visits: is the number of times the farmers visit local markets in a certain period (1= Some times, 2= Once per week, 3= More than once in a week). Farmers who visit markets more often have opportunity to obtain information from other farmers and agricultural input suppliers and this variable was expected to influence positively the access to and utilization of agricultural information.12. Market distance: will be measured based on distance of market in Km from the residence of respondent. Farmers residing near the market will have a chance to get information from other farmers. This variable is expected to positively influence the access to and utilization of agricultural information.13. Social Participation: is measured in terms of degree (1= member, 2= committee member, 3= leader) and frequency of participation (0= never, 1= sometimes, 2= whenever conducted) in different social organizations. The sum of both frequencies was used to arrive at a social participation score. Affiliation and involvement in social activities or in any formal (such as market cooperative, School council etc) or non formal organization (Iqub, Religious club etc) will give higher exposure to new information and consequently encourage utilization. Therefore this variable is expected to influence access to and utilization of agricultural information positively. 15. Innovation proneness: will be measured based on rapidity of accepting new idea relative to others (3 = whenever I come across a new idea, 2 = after consulting others who are more knowledgeable, 1= after most of the people accept it, 0= never) and is based on the receptivity of the individual to new ideas. Farmers having quickly accepting behaviour will have higher probability of utilizing agricultural information. So this variable is expected to influence positively access to and utilization of agricultural information.16. Production motivation: will be measured based on the number of agricultural technologies that farmers' plan to use in next year's cropping season to increase production. Farmers having such behaviour will search for information and technology to produce more. Therefore, this variable is expected to influence access to and utilization of agricultural information positively. 17. Information seeking behaviour: will be measured based on the farmer's effort to get a range of information; and frequency and range of sources considered. When the person is eager to get information from various sources, he/she will have be motivated to access and consequently utilize the agricultural information. So this variable would have positive influence on access to and utilization of agricultural information.The first section of this chapter discusses the findings of the study including access to and utilization of agricultural information from different sources and methods. The second and third sections discuss the level of access to and utilization of agricultural information, and responsiveness and potential of extension service in addressing farmers' problems. The forth section includes household characteristics, socioeconomic, psychological and institutional variables related to access and utilization agricultural information. The fifth section summarizes the relationship between dependent and independent variables. All the above sections analyzed and presented using descriptive statistical tools to compare and contrast different characteristics of the sample households, and to measure the difference, strength, direction and relationships between mean of compared groups. Sixth section of this research presents the influence of independent variable on dependent variable using Tobit model.Finally, the constraints of access to and utilization of agricultural information are presented in section seven.In the study area, agricultural extension services serve as the major source of agricultural knowledge and information, and few others such as non-governmental organizations and onfarm research activities are partly involved in the process of agricultural knowledge and information provision. Generally, the provision of agricultural information to the rural people in the study area highly depends on the public extension service.To analyze the agricultural information access of the respondent farmers, discussion was held with the experts and DAs to identify the major information provision methods in the study area. Other information sources from literature review such as mass media were added. The major information provision methods considered included advisory service, extension orientation about seasonal activities, training, visits, demonstration, field days and mass media access. In addition to the information dissemination methods, it is important to investigate what relevant agricultural information was provided by the WARDO. The most important and relevant 26 agricultural activities in crop, animal and natural resource production and protection were identified (Appendix Table 1).Obtaining agricultural information from these methods by itself is not enough to ensure agricultural development, unless it is utilized effectively. Therefore, the information utilization of those earlier identified 26 activities were rated with properly designed frequencies from the above seven methods (Appendix Table 1 and 2). Finally, information was gathered through interview to assess the level of information accessed and utilized. The survey results are presented under three main extension methods (Group Extension Methods, Individual Extension Methods and Mass Media) and local information exchange.Development Agents at the Woreda and PA levels strive to bring agricultural development through change in knowledge, skills and attitude among the farmers. To achieve these, they have been following different extension methods, group extension method being the predominant. These group extension methods include training, extension orientation about seasonal activities, farmers' field day, demonstrations and visits out of the woreda. The survey findings with regard to settler farmers access to and utilization of agricultural information through these methods are presented here.Data was collected on the training conducted in crop, livestock and natural resource conservation and management in the last two years (2005)(2006) and utilization of the information obtained. In this survey, the composition (different agricultural technologies and improved practices) and frequency of training and information utilization were taken into account.The study area has low crop diversification compared to other woredas in Amhara region due to the nature of agro ecology. According to IPMS (2005), three crops (cotton, sesame and sorghum) cover around 90% of the woreda's cultivated area. This research focuses on the newly expanded fruit and vegetable crops in addition to the three major crops produced in the woreda.In this survey, the access and utilization of agricultural information from trainings on crop production such as cotton, sesame, sorghum, fruit and vegetable were addressed separately and different activities in each crop were considered. In the case of cotton, sesame and sorghum production, trained farmers were asked about the utilization level of high yielding variety, seed rate and line sowing, fertilizer application, time and frequency of weeding, herbicide and pesticide application, and time of picking /shattering/threshing based on the information they obtained and depending on the crop type.In the case of fruit and vegetable production; irrigation management and production practices were considered. Finally, the average information access and utilization frequencies of that crop were taken to be the access and utilization levels for the respondent. Tables 2 and 3 present access to and utilization of agricultural information in crop production training for cotton, sesame, sorghum, fruit and vegetable based on settlement and sex categories respectively.As indicated in Table 2, more number of previous settlers had a higher opportunity to participate in trainings related to cotton, fruit and vegetable production, while only previous settlers participated in sesame and sorghum trainings. Generally the training activities were very limited and the limited participation of new settlers' participation was very pronounced.  Only one and two of the female headed households (FHHs) participated in cotton and sorghum trainings respectively, while none of them participated in sesame, fruit and vegetable training (Table 3). This clearly demonstrates that extension training provision is biased towards male headed household heads (MHHs). Such situations restrict the role of women in agricultural development.Almost all the settler farmers who attended cotton and sorghum training utilized the information, though with different degrees of utilization. Only two previous settler farmers who participated in sesame, fruit and vegetable production training did not utilize the information (Table 2), but all the women farmers who were trained utilized the information obtained (Table 3). Lack of input supply and labour were cited as the major reasons for not utilizating the information.Livestock production is one of the major farming activities in the study area, especially goat production, cattle fattening and honey production. In addition to these activities, this survey tried to assess the access to and utilization of information on other related issues such as animal feed collection and preservation methods. The survey results are presented in Tables 4   and 5. Only 2.5% (2) of the new settlers and 11.3% (9) of the previous settlers participated in training related to goat production focusing on the extension package components and management.Among them, 50% of new settlers and 33.3% of previous settlers were not utilizing the obtained information. Lack of labour and theft of goats were the major reasons cited for nonutilization.7.5% (12) of the respondents have been trained in modern honey production, and of these 3.7% (3) were new settlers and 11.3% (9) were previous settlers. 66.7% and 66.7% of new and previous settlers respectively utilized the information with different degrees. The remaining did not and cited unsuitability of the technology to the existing agro ecology as the main reason.3.1% (5) of respondents were trained in cattle fattening, and all of them were previous settlers.Mainly resource rich farmers are invited to trainings as it is assumed that they will have the resources to build and sustain an enterprise. The new settlers are generally resource poor and have a high mobility and are assumed not to be able to manage such enterprises. Among the trained farmers, 20% respondents did not utilize the information due to labour scarcity, while the remaining utilized the information as and when needed.In the study area, there is surplus animal feed during wet season and there is serious scarcity in dry season; so that animal feed collection and preservation method training were provided for the farmers for own cattle feed utilization and marketing purpose. Based on this idea, training was delivered for a total of 5% (8) respondent farmers and among them, 2.5% (2) and 7.5%(6) were among the new settlers and previous settlers respectively. Among the trained farmers, 75% of respondent farmers have utilized the accessible information but not 25% of respondent. As the respondents farmers explained, animal feed scarcity is not their major problem, so they do not have interest to carry out this activity. This result indicates that, invitation of farmers for training had its own limitation.Regarding the distribution of trained farmers based on sex (Table 5), two FHHs were obtained information in various livestock production and management aspect. The proportions of women participation in goat production and handling, modern honey production, cattle fattening, Animal feed collection and preservation training were higher than male headed, but their proportion is lower from the total female respondents', due to repeated participation of two females. Among them, 50% of FHHs utilized the accessible information. In the study area women are more responsible for animal production and management aspects, so that the participation of women in training has great role in the agricultural development.Overall, 4 new settlers and 10 previous settlers were trained in different livestock production and management aspects. This survey result reveals that the training opportunities for both settlers were very limited, and relatively the new settlers access to training was limited than the previous settlers.In the study area, the majority of the land is covered by natural forest and the coverage of planted forest is very low or almost none. The previous and new settler farmers' demands of wood depend for this resource. According to WARDO, the rate of depletion of this natural resource is accelerating at an arming rate, especially due to the current resettlement program.The new settlers are utilizing trees for house constriction, fencing, cooking and to earn income by selling for small town peoples for house constriction. Demand of cultivable land also the other factor that enhances forest clearing. Based on this, currently the WARDO is providing agricultural information related to natural resource production and conservation. Therefore, this information was considered as relevant information.Under natural resource production and conservation such as importance of tree plantation, forest firebreak line establishment, community forest utilization and management, soil fertility maintenance, and utilization of fuel saving stoves were addressed separately. Tables 6 and 7 present access to and utilization of agricultural information in natural resource production and management activities based on settlement and sex categories respectively.From the total respondents, 11.9% (19) farmers were trained in natural resource management (NRM) and conservation in the last two years (2005 -2006). Among them, 3.8% (3) were within new settlers and 20% ( 16) within previous settlers (Table 6). The proportion of participant women in this training is nearly equal to males. This survey result indicates that, like other trainings the participation of both categories of settlers was limited, and especially that of the new settlers.Except one previous settler farmer almost all of the settler farmers who attended natural resource management and conservation training utilized the information, though with different degrees of utilization (Table 6). Similarly, all the women farmers who were trained utilized the information obtained (Table 7). To examine the over all information utilization level of NRM, average utilization level of obtained information (average utilization of various activities such as importance of tree plantation, forest firebreak line establishment, community forest utilization and management, soil fertility maintenance, and utilization of fuel saving stoves) were analyzed and the result presented in Table 8. In this group extension method, only 53.1% (85) of respondents received current and seasonal agricultural information from DAs. Among them 55% (44) of the new settlers and 51.3% (41)of the previous settlers were received agricultural information through this extension method.Mostly the new settlers are invited for meeting by kebele and woreda administrators to solve different conflicts within them; for relief distribution; to discuss social institution support problems; such as maintenance of drinking water pump, health treatments etc. The new settlers also having a habit of participation in any meeting which is developed in highland before came to new settlement area. So the occurrence of these situations contributes for dissemination of agricultural information. Chi-square test (X 2 -0.226, p-0.635) indicates that there was no significant difference in agricultural information access from this method between settlement categories.Concerning female and male respondents 33.3 % and 56.6% of respondents respectively obtain information from this extension method. Chi-square test indicates that there was significant difference in agricultural information access from this method between MHHs and FHHs. This due to the frequent participation of males in various meeting and social gathering than females. DAs use different meetings and social gathering of farmers to disseminate information. Table 10 shows that, 6.4%, 1.2%, 68.2% and 21.2% of respondents were getting seasonal agricultural information in the church/ mosque, in the market; meeting held for other purpose and meeting held for extension purpose respectively. Among farmers who access information on this method, more than half stated that the information provision was during a meeting held for other purpose (such as meeting held for security issue, committee election, to discuss and resolve different social conflict etc). As the result the time allocated for agricultural information sharing is usually not more than half an hour, so it is difficult to obtain enough and detailed information about different agricultural issues within this short period of time.However, this extension method plays the major role in disseminating agricultural information for most of the respondents in the study area. As indicated in Table 11, among respondents who obtain information from this method, all of them utilized the information in different degree of utilization. From this extension method, both new and previous settlers accessed and utilized with nearly equal proportion. Regarding male and female, slightly more utilization level of information resembled to female headed respondents. In this extension method some of the messages may not be difficult for implementation. Chi-square test indicates that, there was no significant difference in extension orientation about different seasonal activities information utilization between settlement categories.A field day is one of the important group extension methods, because it allows individuals to reinforce their interest by viewing tangible evidence. Within this group extension method, exchange of farmers' idea has an important role in the transmission of information and knowledge sharing. Also farmers easily understand the information provided in such a method. The respondent farmers were asked their participation in field days and utilization of information over the last two years (2005)(2006) and the results is presented in as follows. indicate that, there was significant difference in field day participation between settlement categories at 10% probability level, with the previous settlers having higher participation than the new settlers. The reason of this issue is that, the previous settlers are resource rich and having capacity to utilize agricultural technology, so that the invitation of field day biased towards the previous settlers. Regarding the frequency of participation, all of the participants were involved once per year.In female and MHHs, 4.2% and 10.3% have participated in field day respectively. In this extension method the participation of FHHs is lower than males. In the study area mostly the majority of males are involved in various agricultural activities in the field than females. In addition to this, due to the usual social system the development agents biased towards males. From the new settlers, 75% farmers have utilized the accessed information sometimes, and from the new settlers and previous settlers 25% and 100% utilized the accessible information always respectively. From this extension method, the new settlers' utilization level was lower than the previous settlers' utilization level. The reason is probably most of the previous settlers spending more time in their agricultural activities and has resource, but the new settler partly spent their time in other income generating activities out of their farm in order to survive and lack resource for technology implementation. As shown in Table 13, the FHHs more utilized the obtained information from this method, than MHHs. But only one female respondent examined due to limited number of women's participation in field day.Among group extension methods, demonstrations can play an important role to illustrate and explain a new production method, a new tool or to show results. This method is very important like field days. The participation and utilization of obtained information from demonstration is presented in Table 14 and 15.  probability level, and that the previous settlers' participation was higher than the new settlers.The reason of this issue is similar to like that of field day. All of the participants were involved once per year.Among the total respondent, 4.2% and 13.2% of female and male households have participated in demonstration respectively. The participation of MHHs is higher than females.The reason of this difference is similar to like that of field day Regarding the utilization of information obtained from demonstration, 100% and 6.7% of new and previous settlers' respondent respectively have utilized the information sometimes, and from the previous settlers 93.3% utilized the accessible information always. In this extension method, the new settlers' utilization level also lower than the previous settlers. The low utilization of demonstration information of new settlers is like that of field day reason. The information utilization of FHHs from this method is higher than MHHs. As mentioned in field day, examining only one respondent for comparison is difficult due to limited women's participation in field day.Visiting successful agricultural production activities outside the woreda is also an important group extension method, because it allows individuals to see what they have been hearing about, thus providing the opportunity for building the desired attitude towards the innovation.This has great contribution in information and knowledge sharing. In the study woreda, some farmers were invited to visit areas where successful agricultural activities are practiced such as modern apiculture production, application of broad bed maker (BBM), irrigation management etc. These situations give opportunity to the farmers to see how a new technology has been tried, tested, adopted or adapted by other farmers and to see technologies developed by other farmers. Table 16 shows that out of the total respondents 5.6% (9) have participated in different visits and among these 1.3% (1) and 10% (8) were new and previous settlers respectively. In the case of visits out of the woreda, like field day and demonstration the participation of the respondent farmers was very low, especially that of the new settlers'. All the participants have participated once per year. In this extension method all of participants are male headed household. The reason of this difference is similar to like that of field day. The utilization level of information obtained from visits presented in Table 17. From this method, one new settler and eight previous settlers have accessed different agricultural information and utilized at different levels. From the new settlers one farmer utilized the information sometimes, and from the previous settlers all of them utilized always the accessible information. Similar to other information utilization, the previous settlers' agricultural information utilization was better than the new settlers' utilization level like that of field day and demonstration..In addition to group extension method, the DAs provide formal extension advisory service to the farmers. Under this service, development agent and individual farmers will communicate about different agricultural issues. This individual communication method helps to identify and analyze the main problems facing an individual farmer or household and to provide advice on the best actions to overcome them. Besides this, it serves as one means of introducing new agricultural information to the farmers. Table 18 and 19 presents the information provision and utilization of formal extension advisory service. Out of the total respondents, 48.8%, 27.5%, 12.5% and 5% of farmers obtained information from radio, television, leaflet and news letter, and posters respectively. As the result reveals, most of respondents obtain information from radio, due to the high number of radio owner ship. Regarding the information obtain from leaflet and posters were lower proportion, due to the poor availability and high illiteracy level. Statistically there was no significant difference in mass media access between settlement categories. The same was true for frequency of mass media access. Among radio program information accessed respondents, 61.6% and 34.6% of respondents have utilized in the frequency of sometimes and always when there is need, respectively. But the remaining 3.8% did not utilize the accessible information. Unsuitability of information to the prevailing agro-ecological condition and inability to consider the farmers experience were the major reasons explained by respondents.Regarding the utilization of agricultural information from television program, 47.7% and 11.4% of respondents utilized in the frequency of sometimes and always when there is need respectively. The remaining 40.9% did not utilize the accessible information. The major reasons for not utilizing the accessible television program are it is not timely provided, it is ideal (difficult to implement), information unsuitability of information to the prevailing agroecological condition, unsuitability to the farmers economic status and inability to consider the farmers experience.From the accessible reading material information, 20% did not utilize the accessible information but the remaining 70% and 10% of respondents utilized in the frequency of sometimes and always when there is need respectively. Reasons for utilization are the information is ideal and unsuitability of information to the prevailing agro-ecological condition. Even though the farmers explain these issues, their reading and understanding level also determine the information utilization.Among picture message (poster) information accessed respondents, 12.5% did not utilize the accessible information but the remaining 87.5% respondents utilized the information in sometimes frequency. Farmers explained that, information from posters are difficult for implementation.In the preceding section of the survey result reveals that, all respondents particularly the new settlers have limited agricultural information access from different methods of agricultural extension methods and other sources. But these settlers are more or less practicing and producing different agricultural products. Therefore, in this section the respondents' agricultural information access from the local information exchange were addressed with regard to three major crops and the result presented as follow. As indicated in Table 22, the new settler respondents were asked to evaluate their major agricultural information sources in the production process after arriving in the study area.Among the new settlers, 87.5% and 12.5% of respondents explained that the previous settler and the development agents were their agricultural information sources, respectively.Therefore, this result assures that, the new settlers are highly depending on the local information exchange system than the information provision of extension service. To examine the participation of individuals in information communication among the community, all respondents were asked to explain their involvement in the dissemination of the obtained information to other farmer, neighbors, friends etc (Table 23). The result shown that, 87.5% of respondents were participated in local information exchange during different meeting, social gathering time and religious issues such as in market places, edir, senbete, committee meetings, public meetings etc. Therefore, these results assure that, the local information exchange network plays important role in the dissemination of agricultural information.The survey result of access to agricultural information indicate that, among different extension methods/sources, relatively more number of respondents have obtained information from mass media, seasonal extension orientation and extension advisory service in rank order. Even if these methods play a great role in the disseminating agricultural information and contributing to awareness creation to the majority of respondents in shortest period of time, but the information shared through this channel may not have in-depth content to build the farmers implementation skill. In both settlement categories the rank to these methods is similar, but their proportion of participation is different. The proportion of respondent's participation in training, field day, demonstration and visits out of the woreda were very low. But these methods are very important in the exchange of farmers' idea, knowledge sharing and illustration, and to explain new production methods. The knowledge gained from these methods also improves the farmers' skill and encourage the utilization of information.Moreover, the new settlers agricultural information access from local information were more dominant than the support of extension service.Regarding the utilization of the obtained information, the more accessible information dissemination methods are found as low utilizable and the less accessible one are more utilizable information. More utilization of agricultural information were observed from visit, training, field day and demonstration. But the utilization level of advisory service, seasonal extension orientation and mass media were very low compared to others. This true to the overall information accessed respondents and previous settler category view. But, from the new settlers' side the information obtained from seasonal extension orientation, advisory service, training and field day methods were more utilized than others.All these results tell us the previous settlers need more tangible and observable extension methods such as visit, demonstration, field day and training. But the new settlers utilize the information obtained from any sources. The probable reason of this issue is that, the previous settlers are lack trust the benefits of the extension service support due to the previous quota and forced extension participation.In 1995 the Federal Government of Ethiopia proposed the PADETES as a national extension intervention program. PADETES combines technology transfer and human resource development, and promotes the participation of farmers in the research process (Percy, 1997cited in Ejigu et al., 1999). Therefore, the Government considers agricultural information will be provided through this channel for the purpose of human resource development and in Ethiopian condition the provision of agricultural information to the rural people highly depends on the public extension service.Based on this fact, the respondents' overall level of agricultural information access from extension service was addressed in detail. As discussed in section 4.1 and 3. No Access Low Access Medium Access High AccessPrevious settlersNearly equal proportion of new and previous settlers found without agricultural information access from extension service. The remaining new settlers were found at low information access level. But the previous settlers were found towards the low and medium information access level. However, both of the settler categories did not have 'High accesses' to agricultural information. Generally the agricultural information access of both settlers were limited, and especially the new settlers agricultural information access was extremely limited than the previous settlers. This finding reveals that, for all farmers particularly for new settlers the contribution of agricultural extension in information provision and human resource development is not attractive.The same procedure was applied to utilization of agricultural information. No Utilization Low Utilization Medium Utilization High UtilizationTo analyze the extension service and farmers' attachment in depth, the respondent farmers were asked to evaluate the responsiveness and potential of extension service in addressing their problems and the survey findings are presented in the next section.Responsiveness of the extension service is operationally defined as the ability of the extension service to respond as fast as possible based on the farmers needs regarding technical support and request of different agricultural technologies related to crop production (cotton, sesame, sorghum, fruit and vegetable), livestock production and management (goat production and handling, modern honey production, fattening and other related issues such as animal feed collection and preservation), and natural resource production and conservation. More responsive extension service will solve the farmers' problems, by seeking solution from wherever it is available, even if they do not have information on their hand. Such situations enhance the farmers to utilize the delivered agricultural information. In this study, respondents were interviewed to get their opinion about the responsiveness of extension service and the survey result is presented as follows in Table 24. As indicated in Table 24, among the total respondents, 26.3% ( 42 In the case of sorghum crop technical support and awareness creation of different technologies 32.5% (52) and 34.4% (55) of the respondents said the current extension service is 'yes it is responsive' and 'not responsive' respectively. But, 33.1% (53) of the respondent farmers didn't ask for support related to sorghum crop production. This crop serves as staple food in the study area. Currently the production of this crop follows traditional production system.Except the application of 2-4D herbicide from black market, there is no specially intervention of extension service in this crop.In fruit and vegetable production 8.8% ( 14) and 14.4% (23) of the respondent farmers said the current extension service provides technical support and awareness creation related agricultural technology issues based on their questions and not responsive respectively. But 76.8% (123) of the respondent farmers didn't ask support related to this activity. Among the respondent farmers only 11.25% (18) of them are participated in fruit and vegetable production using irrigation, but part of the remaining farmers also producing vegetables using rain during summer time. As the group discussion participants raised \"repeatedly we were asked support to protect pest occurrence in fruits and vegetables, particularly in pepper crop, but no one did not solve our problem\"In the case of livestock production and management, among the total respondents 15% ( 24)and 17.5% (28) of the respondent farmers said the current extension service is 'yes it is responsive' and 'not responsive' respectively in technical support and awareness creation in different livestock related agricultural technology issues based on their question. But the majority 67.5% (108) of the respondent farmers didn't ask for support related to livestock production and management. High population of cattle, goat and poultry is found in the study area and livestock can be taken as one of the major production activity. The occurrence of repeated animal disease caused large losses in production, so that repeatedly the farmers needed support. But the farmers reveal that, \"during the occurrence of different disease repeatedly the woreda agricultural office can not able to respond timely, so that we are losing large number of goats every year.Concerning natural resource production and conservation issues 44.4% (71) and 23.1% (37) of the respondent farmers indicated that the current extension service is 'responsive' and 'not responsive' respectively, and 32.5% (52) of the respondent farmers didn't ask for support related to natural resource production and conservation issues.This survey result indicates that the majority of respondents indicated 'no responsive' and 'I didn't ask support' responses. This tells that the current extension system has poor, responsiveness and linkage with the farmers and the farmers didn't have interest to work with the service provider. As raised in farmers' group discussion, before developing this attitude, the farmers were asking support repeatedly. As result most of the farmers are using the This survey result indicates that, the majority of respondents (except sorghum production and natural resource technologies) explained 'not addressing our interest' and 'no opinion to evaluate this issue'. This tells us the current extension system didn't work based on the farmers' problems and the farmers did not build confidence on the extension service as agricultural solution provider. In the group discussions, participant farmers clarified that \"they are not involved in the problem identification and planning process. The DAs and PA administrator will force us to receive the agricultural technology through quota system. As well, we are not benefited from the new technologies. Because of these reasons we are not interested to establish close contact with the DAs\".As discussion held with the woreda experts and DAs revealed that, \"The regional Government prepares annual plan and sends to the woredas. The woreda offices are expected to implement the plan accordingly. This shows that, the current planning approach is top down. The success of such approach is negligible and mostly leads to failure. Now the farmers think of the extension service as the enemy of the farmer, instead of a supporter\". Therefore, in the absence of addressing farmers' interests and demand driven extension service, the farmers may not be interested to search and receive agricultural information from the extension service and consequently utilization agricultural information and technology can not be expected.In this section, descriptions of personal, socio-economic, institutional and psychological characteristics are presented and discussed in detail. These are the hypothesized variables that may influence the dependent variables, access and utilization of agricultural information.Personal characteristics include the variables such as age, sex, education level, health status of the household head, settlement category and settlement orientation. The survey results are presented in detail as follows:The mean age of total sample households was 37.47 years with standard deviation of 9.35. The maximum age for the sample farmers was 70 years while the minimum was 20 years. The mean age of respondents based on settlement category is shown below in Table 26. The average ages of the new settlers and previous settlers were 34.90 and 40.04 with standard deviation of 8.53 and 9.47 respectively. There is significant mean difference between both categories (t= -3.604) at 1% probability level. Therefore, it can be concluded that the new settlers are younger than the previous settlers.The survey result reveals that the education status of farmers in the study area is considerably low. The majority of the respondent farmers, 73.8% (118), did not have formal education, and out of this 27 settlers are functionally literate. The education status of sample respondents is presented in Table 27. The illiteracy level of previous settlers was higher than the new settlers, and functionally literate and elementary school level of the respondents were higher in the new settlement category. But at secondary school level the previous settlers' category was higher. Result of Chi-Square test (χ2=12.298) indicated that there was a significant education level difference between new and previous settlement categories at less than 1% probability level. The value of Gamma and its sign (-.194) indicates that the relationship between educational level and settlement category is weak and better educational level towards the new settler side.Table 27 shows that, functionally literate, elementary school and secondary school level of females' proportion were lower than that of the male respondents. Moreover, the illiteracy level of female is higher than that of the male farmers.In Table 28, with regard to sex category, mean agricultural information access score of female and male respondents were 3.25 and 7.88 score respectively. Based on the survey result, agricultural information access of females were very low. Result of independent sample t-test indicated that there was significant mean agricultural information access score difference (t= -3.539, P= 0.001) among different sex categories at 1% significance level. Generally, MHHs had more agricultural information access than FHHs.Mean agricultural information utilization score of female and male respondents were 6.71 and 9.56 score respectively. Even though the mean score of agricultural information utilization shows difference between male and female respondents, the result of mean test using independent t-test indicated that there was no significant mean agricultural information utilization score difference (t= -0.681, P= 0.497) between male and female categories at 10% significance level. To accomplish the agricultural activities as required, the farmers need to be healthy. As well to get and utilize agricultural information, physical well being of the farmer is needed. A sick household farmer will face problem in getting information about the management aspect of the farm or will have a restricted access and utilization of agricultural information than a healthy household head. Hence, this study has tried to assess the household heads' health situation and the survey results are presented in Table 29. During 2005-2006, among the new settlers 61.3% and among previous settlers 37.5% farmers were sick and their farm activities were affected. To check the relationship of the health problem of the respondents and settlement category, a chi-square test was conducted and the result showed that there was significant difference in health problems between settlement categories, and it was significant (χ2-9.026), at 1% probability level. This indicates that, the new settlers are facing health problem than the previous settlers. However, between male and female, there was no statistically significant difference in health problem.Regarding the type of disease (Appendix Table 5), 77.6% and 53.3% of new and previous settler respondents, respectively, were affected by malaria. Even though both new and previous settlers live around similar village, as indicated in Table 35, the majority of the new settlers were involved in out of village hired labor in agricultural investment areas and the malaria protection facilities were poorer than farmers living in their home. Moreover, as the results of the group discussion participants indicated, relatively new settlers had poorer economical and nutritional status.To examine the influence of this issue on farming activity, the number of days the farmers were sick was considered. Finally, the number of average days per year was analyzed using ttests to see the mean difference between the two settlement groups. The findings of the survey of the two are presented in Table 30. The range of days the farmers sick was between 0-130 days per year. The mean sickness days of the new settlers per year were higher (19.43 days) than that of previous settlers (9.68 days) per year. There was significant mean difference between both settlers categories (t= 2.815) at 1% probability level. These days were exactly the critical land plowing, weeding and crop harvesting periods. The numbers of sickness day's female and male-headed respondents were 13.29 and 14.77, respectively. There was not significant difference between male and female headed sample respondents in mean sickness days.Previously the population density of Metema woreda was very low, but it is gradually increasing due to the high rate of in-migration. The survey result indicates that among respondent farmers 3.8%, 50%, 42.4% and 3.8% were settled during Derge Government settlement program, current Government settlement program, voluntary settlers and those returned from Sudan /Lagin/, respectively.In the study area, resettlement program have been done for the last three years (2003)(2004)(2005).But as indicated in Appendix Table 7, majority of new settlers went back to their homeland.From the original number of 19,420 H.Hs and 32,016 total populations of new settlers, only 4,907 households and 11,672 total populations remain in the area, i.e. 25% and 36% of the new settlers H.H and family, respectively remain in the area. Based on this issue, the researcher has tried to assess from the remaining settlers whether they have plan to live in the new settlement area permanently or not.Based on the survey result, 92.5% of new and 95%previous settler farmers were having information about the new settlement area. However, 7.5% and 5% of new and previous settler respondents, respectively, did not have clear information about the new area. Statistically there was no significant difference between new and previous settlers. But the realness of the information varies between them.During group discussion the new settlers explained that, \"We expect benefited from the participation of resettlement program such as land, one year relief, constructed house, bones of 4,000 E.T birr, gift of oxen for traction etc. However, we did not get the benefits as they have promised earlier. The propaganda provided by the current local Government responsible bodies in highland areas regarding resettlement program was very much exaggerated. It was wrong and it was simply done to fulfill their settlement quota\". The participants stated the main reason for going back to 74.73% of the new settlers H.H and 63.54% of population to be this reason (Appendix Table 7).Therefore, farmers having such type of feeling can not be expected to have a plan to live in the new settlement area permanently or for a prolonged time and consequently they will not search to get and utilize agricultural information to get more production and income, to have food security than farmers having comfortable psychological feeling. Regarding the interest of staying in settlement program, the survey result is presented as follows in Table 31. As indicated in Table 31, from the remaining settlers, 33.7% and 20% of the new and previous settlers, respectively (the first two group of farmers) did not have interest or they are not confident in feeling to stay in the settlement area, but the remaining 66.3% of new settlers and 80% of previous settlers had feeling to stay permanently in the settlement area. Statistical test (χ2-5.953, p= 0.51) indicates that there was significant difference in their feeling to stay in the new area between settlement categories at 10% probability level.To analyze the mean agricultural information access scores difference between new and previous settler categories, t-test was conducted and the following result was obtained. For the total sample the maximum score was 55 and the lowest was zero with mean 7.19 and standard deviation of 11.13 out of 82 total score. As indicated in Table 32, mean agricultural information access score of new and previous settlers were 3.76 and 10.61 score respectively.Based on the survey result, mean agricultural information access scores of new settlers were lower than the previous settlers. Result of t-test indicated that there was significant mean agricultural information access score difference (t= -4.080, P= 0.000) between new and previous settlement categories at 1% significance level. From this survey result, we can understand that both settlement categories, especially most of the new settlers have limited access to agricultural information. Regarding the utilization of accessed agricultural information for the total sample, the maximum score was 61 and the lowest was zero with mean 9.26, and standard deviation of 14.78 out of 88 total score. The score distributions of the respondent farmers were highly dispersed. As indicated in Table 32, mean agricultural information utilization score of new and previous respondents were 3.78 and 14.65 with standard deviation of 3.02 and 19.19 score, respectively. Based on the survey result, mean agricultural information utilization score of new settlers were very lower than the previous settlers. Result of t-test indicated that there was significant mean agricultural information utilization score difference (t= -4.544, P= 0.000) between the settlement categories at 1% significance level. From this survey result we can understand that both settlement categories, especially most of the new settlers had limited utilization of agricultural information.Socio-economic factors are related to the position of the respondent farmers in society, which is determined by various social and economic variables such as on farm income, off farm income and mobility of respondents. The survey results are presented in detail as follows.On-farm income refers to annual farm income obtained from sale of crop, livestock and livestock products. The amount of income left from consumption could be used to purchase new agricultural inputs and machineries, and increase the probability of owning radio, television etc.The survey result reveals that the on-farm income of total sampled households from crop and livestock were 4560.99 and 1335.26 ETB, respectively. From this data, we can observe that cash crop production was the highest income source of the respondent farmers. Generally, the maximum total annual on-farm income was 39300.00 ET birr while the minimum was zero, and mean annual on-farm income of total sample respondents was 5896.26 with standard deviation of 6731.11 ETB and the relative on-farm income distributions of the sample household were highly dispersed. The mean on-farm income based on settlement and sex category is presented as follows in Table 33. The new and previous settlers' on-farm mean annual income was 3215.50 and 8577.00 respectively. The previous settlers mean annual on-farm income was greater and there was highly significant income difference between both settlers categories (t= -5.478) at less than 1% probability level. Regarding female and male sample household respondents, the mean annual on-farm income were 3685.63 ETB. Males mean annual on-farm income was greater and there was significant mean difference between both sex categories (t= -1.757) at 10% probability level (Table 33).The maximum total annual off-farm income was 7200.00 ET birr while the minimum was zero and mean annual off-farm income of total sample respondents were 425.44 with standard deviation of 1036.79 ET birr and the relative off-farm income distributions of the sample household were highly dispersed. The mean off-farm income based on settlement and sex category is presented as follows. Mean annual off-farm incomes of the new and previous settler were 484.46 and 366.43 ET birr respectively. Regarding female and male sample households respondents, mean annual off-farm incomes were 281.25 and 450.88 ET birr respectively. As shown in Table 34, statistically there was no significant difference between new and previous settlers' categories.Similarly, there was no significant difference in mean annual off-farm income between female and male respondents.There is a mobility of new settler farmers out side their village to visit their native area and to generate income as hired labour in different off-farm activities. Regarding this issue the agricultural development agents mostly criticize the mobility of the new settlers for prolonged time out their village, as they miss participating in different agricultural trainings and capacity building activities at kebele and woreda level. So, this variable was hypothesized as more mobile farmers would have limited access and utilization of agricultural information than others remaining in their home. Based on this idea the survey result is presented in Table 35 as follows. were not available around their home.Out of the total respondents, 52.5% of new and 35% previous settlers have moved out of village to visit their native area in the year 2005/2006. The proportions of new settlers were higher than that of the previous settlers. As the survey result reveals, reasons of visiting were to visit relatives, for recreation, to bring family, to mobilize other people for settlement and to get cultural medicines. Moreover, during group discussion, the participant farmers indicated that some of the new settler farmers had a fear of loosing land ownership in their native area based on Government resettlement strategy. At the same time these farmers are involved in crop production simultaneously in their native area and settlement area. This tells us mobility of new settler farmers occur during the production season. Therefore, the farmers will lack important agricultural information provided by extension service and technical support during critical time of production. This makes them generally unstable and inefficient in accessing and utilizing agricultural information. Chi-square test (χ2= 4.978) and Cramer's V (0.176) indicated that there is significant difference in movement of farmers to visit native area between settlement categories at 1% probability level. The number of days spent out of village is presented as follows in Table 36. As indicated in Table 36, the average days spent out of village to generate income of the new settlers and previous settlers were 8.93 and 2.86, respectively. Range of days spent for new and previous settlers were 0 -78 and 0 -62 days, respectively. There is significant mean difference between both categories (t= 2.388) at 5% probability level. The new settlers spent more time out of village than the previous settlers. The average number of days spent to visit native area by the new settlers and previous settlers were 21.96 and 7.63, respectively. Range of days spent for new and previous settlers were 0-150 and 0-60 days, respectively. There is significant mean difference between both categories (t= 3.824) at 1% probability level.Generally the total average days spent out of village to generate income and to visit native area of the new settlers and previous settlers were 30.84 and 10.49 with standard deviation of 34.03 and 18.84 respectively. There is significant mean difference between both categories (t= 4.680) at 1% probability level. Therefore, the new settlers spent more time out of village than the previous settlers. This implies that the new settlers were not stable in the new settlement area. Within this instability it was difficult to access recent agricultural information and utilizes technologies in the settlement area.Institutional characteristics include the variables that may influence respondent farmers' access to and utilization of agricultural information, such as access to credit, frequency of market visiting, distance of market, and social participation.In the selected all sample PAs credit institutions such as Amhara credit and saving institution and rural farmers' cooperatives provide credit service for farmers. In this study getting credit for utilization of different agricultural production issues is considered as a proxy of 'credit accesses'.The availability of financial resource has a decisive role in the agricultural production process.Access to credit can address the financial constraints of farmers. Mostly the provision of agricultural credit from formal institution is supported by awareness creation and training in order to achieve the credit desired goals. Farmers having credit access, also have good communication with DAs. Moreover, those farmers having access to credit will have a tendency to search agricultural information and utilize agricultural technologies than farmers who do not have an access. Based on this the variable was hypothesized as influencing positively the access and utilization of agricultural information.In addition to the information from WARDO, during group discussion, farmers were asked to identify the credit source institutions. Accordingly, most of the respondents use Amhara Credit and Saving Institution (ACSI), cooperatives, and local moneylenders as sources of credit in the study area. Based on the source of credit, ACSI and Cooperatives are categorized as formal institutions and local moneylenders as informal one. For deeper analysis of the respondent farmers' access to credit from formal and informal credit institutions, data was separately presented in Table 37. Among the total of 160 respondents, 69.4% of the respondents had neither cash nor kind form (credit in the form of technology) of credit access from formal institutions in 2005-2006 production year, but 30.6% had access to credit (Table 38). Among those (n =49) who have access to credit, 7.5% were among new and 53.75% were among previous settlers. Statistically chi-square test (χ2= 40.272) indicate that there is significant difference between new and previous settlement categories in access to cash and kind form of credit from formal institution at 1% probability level. Therefore, the credit access of new settlers in the form of financial and kind form credit, from formal institution were very limited.Not being accessed to credit from formal and informal institutions in the study area had various reasons. From the respondents, view the major three reasons of new settlers for not getting credit from formal institution in cash form were credit providers lack trust on stability, credit not allowed for settlers, and lack of credit provision in their rank order respectively.Formal institutions particularly cooperative leaders explain that they were trying to provide credit for new settlers before, but some of the new settlers went back to their homeland without repaying the loan, and therefore, they restrict to provide credit for such settlers. From this result we can observe that the financial limitation of the new settlers in rural areas was one of the common problems facing, but credit providers still did not strive to alleviate the new settlers' problem. Within this situation, the new settlers will be affected to obtain agricultural information and to utilize different modern agricultural technologies.From respondents view, the major reasons for not getting credit from informal lender in cash form were credit rate is high, lack of interest to take credit from informal lender, interest and religion conflict, lack of interest to borrow, credit providers not thrusting them, and collateral problem in their rank order respectively. The major two reasons of both settlers' categories were similar i.e credit rate is high and lack of interest to take credit from informal lenders.During group discussion, the farmers explained that the interest rate to informal loans was 50% for 3-4 months. Even if informal lending was the only credit option of the new settlers, but within this credit rate it is difficult to take risk and invest in agricultural technologies, so that the new settlers were restricted in utilizing different modern agricultural technologies and also discouraged to search agricultural information.In the group discussion and responses of respondents reveal that the major activities utilizing credit are labor cost for weeding, oxen rent or purchase /traction purpose/, goat production package, labor cost for crop harvest, home consumptions, H.Y.V and Herbicides (in Appendix The average amount of new and previous settlers' loan from formal institutions was 59.96 and 2091.50 ETB, and loan from informal lender were 436.25 and 593.50, respectively. As indicated in Table 39, in both cases the previous settlers' access to credit was greater than the new settlers. From formal institutions, the new settlers did not have cash credit access, but they had limited credit access in the kind form. There was highly significant mean difference between both settlers' categories (t= -6.284) at less than 1% probability level. Regarding the amount of money borrowed from informal lender there was no significant difference between both categories of settlers.In general, the average annual total credit access of new and previous settler categories were 496.21 and 2685.00 with standard deviation of 840.50 and 3526.49 ETB respectively and there was highly significant difference in mean annual total credit access between both settlers' categories (t= -5.400) at less than 1% probability level. Therefore, the average annual credit access of the previous settlers was higher than the new settler farmers. But the new settler's credit access from the informal lender was comparatively and statistically similar to the previous settlers. There was no significant mean difference between male and female respondents in the case of credit access from formal institutions. This is because of formal credit institutions have gender disaggregated annual plan in their credit system. From informal lenders, the females credit access was limited than males. This is because the informal lenders usually give special attention regarding the efficiency of the farmers in the farming activities to repay the loan, and such evaluation will be taken as guarantee of the loan in addition to the collateral. Therefore, in such cases the FHHs will not be the best options for lenders. From informal institutions there was highly significant credit access mean difference between both sex categories (t= -3.591) at less than 1% probability level. In general, the annual total mean credit access of females and males were 1158.33 and 1666.90 ETB, respectively, and there was no significant difference in mean annual total credit access between males and females.Access to market was measured based on the frequency of market visiting. Farmers having more frequency of visiting market will have a chance to get information from other farmers, agricultural input suppliers etc. This variable was expected to influence the access and utilization of agricultural information positively. The survey results are presented in Table 41. Among the new settlers, 15.0 8% and 78.8% of respondents were visiting the market once in a week and some times, respectively, but among the previous settlers 6.2%, 23.8%, and 58.8%were visiting more than once in a week, once per week and ,some times, respectively. However 6.2% of the new and 11.2% of the previous settlers were not visiting market through out the year. Therefore, regarding the absence of visiting and more frequent visiting, the proportion of previous settlers were higher than the new settlers, but the new settlers had slightly lower visiting frequency. Chi-Square test indicates that there was a difference in frequency of market visiting between settlement categories (χ2= 10.051, p= 0.018) at 5% probability level.Farmers having nearness to market will have a chance to get information from other farmers and input suppliers in the market place. Moreover, the nearness of market increase access to and utilization of agricultural inputs due to advantage of minimum transportation cost. The survey result is presented in Table 42. Therefore, the new settlers are not benefited from the market distance to exchange of agricultural information, utilization of agricultural information and technologies.The person's affiliation and involvement in social activities or the involvement of a person in any formal (such as market cooperative, School council etc) or non formal organization (Iqub, Religious club etc) will provide opportunities for higher exposure to various kinds of information exchange, and consequently enhance utilization of information. The survey result for this is presented in Table 43. Regarding the new and previous settlers' participation in different formal and informal social organizations, as presented in Table 43, among 160 respondent farmers, more than half (59.4%) were having involvement in different formal and informal organizations. Among this, the participation of previous settler in formal and informal institutions is higher than the new settlers' participation. Chi-square test (χ2= 3.135) indicates that there is significant difference between settlement categories in social participation at 10% probability level. Therefore, more number of previous settlers were participating in different formal and informal organizations.Even if the number of previous settlers' involvement in different social organizations was higher, the survey detailed result shows that there was no significant difference in mean degree of social participation, frequency of social participation and mean total participation score between them.Regarding the females and males participation in different formal and informal social institutions, as presented in As indicated in Table 44, the mean degree of social participation, frequency of social participation, and total social participation score of female household is lower than the males.In all cases the results assure that the participation of male settlers in formal and informal organization was higher than the female settlers. An independent sample t-test indicated that there was significant mean degree, frequency, and total social participation score differences between female and male categories (t= -3.139, P= 0.003) (t= -2.511, P= 0.013) (t= -2.433, P= 0.016) at 1%, 5% and 5% significance level respectively. This implies, MHHs had more affiliation and involvement in social activities and their involvement in any formal or informal organization will have a higher exposure for different information.Psychological characteristics include the variables of psychological dimension of individual respondent such as attitude towards improved farming, innovation proneness, production motivation and information seeking behavior are addressed in this study. Reliability analysis was undertaken for all statements to see the degree of scale reliability of each attitude statement and to determine potential items which influences respondents' attitude towards improved farming. The alpha ( α ) level of all statements is 0.616. In all items there was no value of greater than 0.616, so that all sentences are reliable to estimate respondents' attitude.According to the result of the study, respondents were categorized into three categories 6.3%, 30.6% and 63.1%, distributed in negative attitude, neutral ,and positive attitude, respectively based on their score (Table 45). Therefore, the majority of interviewed farmers in the study area show neutral and positive attitude towards improved farming. The proportions of female respondents were higher in negative attitude and neutral attitude towards improved farming. But more proportion of male farmers have positive attitudes towards improved farming. Chi-Square tests (χ2=9.972, p= 0.007) indicated a significant difference between male and female categories at less than 1% probability level, and Gamma (= 0.537, p= 0.008) indicates there was significant, strong and positive relation towards male at less than 1% probability level. Therefore, males have more positive attitude towards improved farming than females. The possible reason of this difference is mostly the farming activity and information provision was biased to the male side, so females may not have awareness about the relative advantage of agricultural technologies and improved farming to develop positive attitude.In the first stage, the respondent farmers were asked about the type of agricultural technologies utilized and measured how quickly accepting these technologies based on prespecified measurements. The more frequent of accepting level were taken as the behavior of the farmers. The survey result reveals the following finding in Table 46. According to the result, 12.5% of the respondents were accepting and utilizing new ideas immediately after getting information or training, and others 53.8% of respondents were accepting after consulting others who are more knowledgeable and having some experience in using the information. The remaining 33.8% of the respondents accept and utilize new idea after most of the people have accepted or adopted it. Therefore, it can be concluded that the majority of the interviewed farmers in the study area needed certain type of demonstration before accepting new agricultural technologies.Almost equal number and proportion of previous and new settlers show the behavior of accepting new idea slowly and more proportion of previous settlers resemble towards the behavior of quickly accepting new idea than the new settlers. Chi-Square tests (χ2= 8.437, p= 0.015) indicated that there was significant difference between new and previous settler categories in innovation proneness at 5% probability level. Therefore, the previous settlers have slightly faster behavior of accepting new ideas than the new settlers.Regarding the females and males, equal proportions of both sex accept new ideas quickly and larger proportion of females were accepting new information very slowly than males. But the proportion of males accepting new idea in medium speed was greater than that of females.Chi-Square tests (χ2=5.677) indicate that there is a significant difference in quickly accepting new agricultural technologies between sex categories at 1% probability level. Therefore, behavior of males was quicker than females in accepting new agricultural technologies. The possible reason of this difference is that mostly the male farmers are focusing in different farming activities and considering the farm activities as their major duty, but most of the female farmers rent their land for other farmers; as a result not involved directly like male farmers in the farming activities. The other possible reason might be females are not fully addressed in the process of new agricultural information provision, and that the absence of newly repeated information and training may not fully express the innovation proneness of females.Production motivation was operationally defined as the desire of the farmer to produce more and more in the production process. Hence, the respondent farmers were asked about his/her wish or plan at what level he/she needs to increase the production (4 point scale), methods followed to improve the production (4 point scale), and number of agricultural technologies that farmers' plan to use in next year annual cropping season (maximum six number of technologies taken from the survey result). A total of 14 points score were considered to determine this variable. Finally, by assumption of normal distribution the scores were (minimum = 0, maximum=14, mean =6.5 and Std. deviation = 4.7) divided into low, medium, and high production motivation. Finally, the survey result reveals the following finding in Table 47. Based on normal distribution result, respondents were categorized into three, and 27.5%, 55.6% and 16.9% were low, medium, and high production motivation, respectively based on their scores. The majority of the respondents were found in medium production motivation.The production motivation of previous settlers was 22.4%, 48.8% and 28.8% in low, medium and high production motivation, respectively. Relatively the majority of the new settlers (95%)proportion was found in low and medium production motivation, but the majority of the previous settlers (77.6%) were found in medium and high level of production motivation. Chi-Square tests (χ2= 16.184) indicate that there was significant difference between new and previous settlers in production motivation behavior at 1% probability level. Therefore, the previous settlers have more motives to produce more than the new settlers.Relatively the majority of females (91.8%) were found in low and medium production motivation, but the majority of males (75.7%) were found in medium and high level of production motivation. Chi-Square tests (χ2= 5.158) indicate that there was significant difference between sex categories in production motivation at 10% probability level.Therefore, the male respondents have more production motivation behavior than female respondents. The possible reason for this difference is that mostly the majority of male-headed farmers have a full time involvement in different farming activities than FHHs; as a result the male farmers may think and plan for more agricultural production, but most of the time female headed farmers rent their land instead of actively involving themselves and planning to use different agricultural technologies.In this section, first six major agricultural information sources (office of agriculture, radio/television, input dealers, market place, friends/neighbors and other farmers) and 13 major agricultural activities in the study area were identified in consultation with woreda experts. The information needs of these agricultural activities were rated in 3 level frequency (0 = Never, 1 = Some times, 2 =Always), and depending on the need to get new information, each respondent was evaluated out of 26 scores. Totally this variable have 32 scores value.Hence, the respondent farmers were asked the number of their agricultural information source (out of six) and frequency of need to get new information to increases the production (out of 26). Finally, by assumption of normal distribution the scores were (minimum = 0, maximum= 31, mean = 16.9 and Std. deviation = 7.4) divide to low, medium and high information seeking behavior. The survey result reveals the following finding in Table 48. Based on normal distribution result (Table 48), the respondents were categorized into three categories with 15.5%, 68.7% and 16.3% in low, medium and high information seeking behavior, respectively. The majority of the respondents were found in medium information seeking behavior.The majority of new settlers were found in low and medium level of information seeking behavior, but the majority of previous settlers are found in medium and high level of information seeking behavior. Chi-Square tests (χ2= 11.795) indicate that there was significant difference between new and previous settler in level of information seeking behavior at 1% probability level. Therefore, the previous settlers had more information seeking behavior than the new settlers. Regarding the information seeking behavior of male and female respondents, chi-Square test (χ2= 4.468) indicates that there was no significant difference between them.Before passing to the Tobit econometric model analysis part, it is probably important to summarize the degree of association between dependent and independent variables, so that this section covers the findings on relationship between dependent and independent variables (11 continuous and 6 dummy/discrete). To analysis the relationship between dependent and independent variables Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation and Spearman's rho were employed for continuous and for discrete/dummy variables respectively. The summarized results are presented in Table 49 and 50.In the preceding parts of this thesis, the descriptive analysis and bivariate analysis of important independent variables, which are expected to have influence on access to and utilization of agricultural information have been presented. Identification of these factors alone is however not enough to stimulate policy actions unless the relative influence of each factor is known for priority based intervention.In this section, the econometric model known as Tobit model was used to see the relative According to Maddala (1992), VIF can be defined as: VIF (, Where 2 i R is the squared multiple correlation coefficient between X i and the other explanatory variables. A statistical package known as SPSS was employed to compute the VIF values. Once VIF values were obtained the R 2 values can be computed using the formula. To this end, the variance inflation factor (VIF) and contingency coefficient test was computed for separately for the two dependent variables (Table 51 and 52).  Estimates of the parameters of the variables expected to determine the access and intensity of agricultural information access of respondents are presented in Table 53. A total of 17 explanatory variables were considered to be included into the econometric model out of which eight variables were found to be significantly influence access and intensity of agricultural information access. These include settlement category, education level, settlement orientation, innovation proneness and production motivation at 1% significance level; and age of household head, frequency of market visiting and credit access at 5% significance level.A total of 16 explanatory variables were considered to be included into the econometric model out of which eight variables were found to significantly influence agricultural information utilization and intensity of agricultural information utilization. These include, education level, settlement category, innovation proneness and production motivation at 1% significance level; age of household head and settlement orientation at 5% significance level; and frequency of market visiting and credit utilization at 10% significance level (Table 53).The result of the study has shown that age of household head was negatively influenced access and intensity of agricultural information access at 5% significance level. The probable reason of this result is that the young farmers are eager and need information, but the older farmers are not. The study conducted by Haba (2004) in Rwanda reveals that, older farmers were less willing to get information than younger ones. Similarly, Katungi (2006) Education level: It has a positive influence on agricultural information access and intensity of access at 1% significance level and accounted for about 5.5% of the variation (Table 53). This result indicates that, encouraging the rural people's education will enhance the interest of getting, understanding of scientific agricultural information. As indicted in Table 54, an increase in household's education level by one unit results in an increase in the probability of agricultural information access and intensity of access by 0.47% and 0.12% respectively.This variable has also a positive influence on utilization of agricultural information and intensity of utilization at 1% significance level and accounted about 4.7% of the variation (Table 53). This result shows that improvement in the rural people's education program will enhance the utilization of agricultural information and technology. As indicted in Table 54, an increase in household's education level by one unit results in an increase in the probability of agricultural information utilization and intensity of utilization by 0.92% and 0.67% respectively.One of the possible reasons for this relation is, as the farmers' education level increase the ability to obtain information, process, understand and consequently utilization of agricultural information also increase. Also such farmers had good communication with the DAS and served as model farmers, so that they will have more exposure for agricultural information, information utilization and technology utilization.The finding of this study is in agreement with many of the previously conducted studies. A study conducted by Katungi (2006), reveal that, educated farmers have more information access. Pipy, (2006), also found that, significant difference between different educational level in poultry production sources of information and utilization of information. Others like (World Bank 1980, 48 as cited in Tweeten, 1997) found that, as the level of education increase, the utilization of agricultural input also increase. Similarly, Itana (1985); Chilot et al. (1996); Kansana (1996); and Tesfaye (2001) have reported positive and significant relationship of education with adoption. Therefore either directly or indirectly understanding levels of farmers have role in agricultural development.feeling of staying in the new settlement area would increase in the probability of agricultural information access and intensity of access by 0.52% and 0.15% respectively.Those farmers having good interest of staying in the new settlement area, also shown progressive utilization of agricultural information than having poor feeling of staying in the settlement area. This variable positively and significantly influenced agricultural information utilization and intensity of utilization of respondents at 5% significant level and accounted for 4.7% of the variation. As indicted in Table 54, a unit increase in household's feeling of staying in the new settlement area would increase in the probability of agricultural information utilization and intensity of utilization by 0.99% and 0.69% respectively. Therefore, to achieve successful resettlement program, attention should be given during the provision of resettlement program information in the highland areas, with clear idea about the new settlement area, activities and resettlement program.Access to credit: it has positive and significant influence on agricultural information access and intensity of access at 5% significance level and accounted for 0.01% of the variation. The provision of agricultural credit access from formal institution is usually supported by agricultural information from DAs and cooperatives, depending on the purpose of credit addressing agricultural technologies. Probably also those farmers having access to credit will be enhanced to search agricultural information in order to utilize different agricultural technologies. Farmers having credit access also will have good communication with DAs.These entire situations lead them to obtain and utilize agricultural information than those who have no access to formal credit. As indicated in the descriptive statistics part, the credit accesses of new settlers especially from the formal institutions were extremely limited.Therefore, the new settlers were not benefited from this advantage. A unit increase in household's credit would increase in the probability of agricultural information access and intensity of access by 0.001% and 0.001% respectively.Access to credit had positive and significant influence on the likelihood of agricultural information utilization and intensity of utilization at 10% significance level and accounted for 0.01% of the variation. From this result it can be stated that those farmers who have access to formal credit for production packages are more probable to utilize agricultural information and technologies than those who have no access to formal credit. As indicted in Table 54, a unit increase in household's credit would increase in the probability of agricultural information utilization and intensity of utilization by 0.001% and 0.001% respectively. As indicated in the descriptive statistics part, the credit accesses of new settlers especially from the formal institution were extremely limited. Therefore the new settlers were not benefited from the utilization of cash requiring agricultural information and technology utilization.As indicated in Appendix Table 6, the major purpose utilizing the credit service was related to agricultural activities. Therefore, those farmers having more credit access invested on different agricultural technologies. That implies the accessible information was changed into practice.Especially those farmers having credit access from formal institution would be closely supported and supervised by DAs, so that they will be directly engaged to utilize the accessible agricultural information. Similar to this research finding, different studies had shown that access to credit plays a significant role in enhancing the use of improved varieties. (Legesse, 1992;Chilot et al., 1996;Teressa, 1997;Lelissa, 1998;Bezabih, 2000;Tesfaye et al., 2001) they reported that access to credit had a significant and positive influence on the adoption behavior of farmers regarding improved technologies. Therefore, the access of credit had important role in the utilization of agricultural information.Frequency of visiting nearby market: It is one of the important events that play a role by serving as the source of agricultural information for farmers. The result of the study has shown it has a positive influence on access and intensity of access at 5% significance level and accounted for about 6.1% of the variation. During group discussion, the participants explained that the market area and the office of DAs were found around the same site at the center of PA; hence, the farmers were using that market day to visit DA's concerning different issue of agricultural problems. Farmers also indicated the presence of agricultural information exchange with the neighbor PA farmers during that day through their social communication network. Moreover, almost all interviewed DA's explained that market day is the best day to communicate with the farmers and incorporate in their plan to use that day as one way of disseminating current agricultural issues. As indicted in Therefore, more frequent visiting of market have important role in the sharing and utilization of agricultural information. In line with this research, study conducted by Katungi (2006) in Uganda reveals that, meetings in market places play important role for the exchange of agricultural information.Innovation proneness: has positively influenced access and intensity of agricultural information access at 1% significance level. This variable accounted about 16% of the variation in access and intensity of agricultural information access. As indicted in Table 54, an increase in household's level of innovation proneness by one unit results in an increase in the probability of agricultural information access and intensity of access by 1.51% and 0.53% respectivelyThe model result shown that, utilization and intensity of utilization of agricultural information positively influenced by this variable at 1% significance level. Those farmers having the behavior of quickly accept or adopt new idea will be utilizing different agricultural information than those slowly accept. This variable accounted for about 1.5% of the variation in agricultural information utilization and intensity of agricultural information utilization. As indicted in Table 54, an increase in household's level of innovation proneness by one unit results in an increase in the probability of agricultural information utilization and intensity of utilization by 3.46% and 1.10% respectively.The presence of such behavior enhances the farmers to get agricultural information due to their behavior of quickly accept or adopt new idea and consequently utilize the accessible agricultural information than other farmers. Farmers having such type of behavior will be seen  54, a unit increase in household's level of production motivation would increase in the probability of agricultural information access and intensity of access by 0.15% and 0.02% respectively.Production motivation has a positive influence on agricultural information utilization and intensity of utilization at 1% significance level and accounted about 1.6% of variation (Table 53). The probable reason of this is, farmer having strong desire to produce more and more in the production process, will seek and utilize more information and agricultural technologies.As indicted in Table 54, a unit increase in household's level of production motivation would increase in the probability of agricultural information utilization and intensity of utilization by 0.33% and 0.12% respectively.farmers will be developing extreme dislike for agricultural institutions. But, the DAs also justify that those farmers they contacted were the model farmers and plays important role in the dissemination of new agricultural informationThe fifth constraint revealed by the respondents was long distance of institutions (development agents' and PA administration office). This problem was the fifth rank for both settlers category. The detail concept of this problem was partly related to the first problem. The DAs' office found at the center of peasant association. Some of the farmers' residence found far from the PA center (18 km) and the DAs did not visit those farmers frequently. These farmers are expected to travel long distance to get agricultural assistance from the DAs. Especially, the newly established new settlers' villages are far away from the DAs office which exposes them for this problem.The sixth constraint revealed by the respondents was cultural influence and it has similar rank for both settlers' category. As the respondent farmers explained that, cultural/religious issues influence on their contact with the development agents. For example, \"Our religion (Muslim)does not allow taking credit with annual interest rate but creating good communication withDAs has an influence to take input with credit,\". Therefore, in order to alleviate this problem, they were limiting communication with the DAs.The seventh constraint revealed by the respondents was information not required to me (not addressing my interest). This problem was the seventh rank for both settlers. As the group discussion participant farmers clarify that, \"the development agent efforts do not address our immediate problems while they will force us to take different agricultural inputs without our interest through quota system. And also we are not benefited from the new technologies. In order to alleviate this problem, we were limiting communication with the DAs\". Therefore, they are not interested to create close contact with the development agents.of the information provided by the DAs not suitable to the existing situation. For example the DAs always telling them the importance of artificial fertilizer, but lack of soil fertility is not a major problem and it has toxic effect to plants in that locality due to high temperature.Similarly, the information of broad bed maker is not fitting to the area due to high sticky nature of the soil and unavailability of oxen for repeated plowing.The third constraint described by respondents was unsuitability of the information to the farmers' economic status. These groups of respondents have different agricultural information.But, they don't want to take risk by investing on these technologies, due to their low risk bearing capacity. It is the third and sixth rank of problem for new and previous settlers respectively.Lack of agricultural information provision in the appropriate time is the forth problem reveal by respondent. Some of agricultural information not provided in the appropriate season and The last constraint revealed by all the respondents was the information are ideal and difficult to implement. Some of the information provided by DAs are difficult to convert into practice, specially agricultural information obtained from different mass media. Therefore farmers need certain type of demonstration.informant interviews and personal observations. The qualitative data have served as a supplementary to quantitative data.Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as mean, percentage, ranking, standard deviation, T-test, χ2-test, Cramer's V, Gamma, Spearman Correlation Coefficient (rho), and Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) (Sarantakos, 1988) based on the level of measurement of the variables involved. Tobit model was used to analyze the influence of several independent variables on access to and utilization of agricultural information.In the study area agricultural extension service is the major source of agricultural information.Seven agricultural information sources and methods, and 26 information requiring relevant agricultural activates were identified with the collaboration of woreda experts and DAs. The respondents' information accesses to those 26 activities from the seven information sources and methods were rated with properly designed access frequencies. The same procedure was applied for utilization of agricultural information from the accessed information.The settler farmers' agricultural information access from training related to cotton; sesame, sorghum, vegetable and fruit production, from livestock production training; goat production, cattle fattening and modern honey production, from natural resource production and conservation aspects; importance of tree plantation, forest firebreak line establishment, community forest utilization and management, soil fertility maintenance, and utilization of fuel saving stove information were assessed separately. Statistically there were significant difference between new and previous settlement categories and the new settlers training access was limited than the previous settlers.From the total respondent, 16.67% (4) of FHHs and 22.79% (31) MHHs obtain information from training in different agricultural activities. The proportion of FHHs participation in different crop production, livestock and natural resource conservation and management training were lower than MHHs. Moreover, their proportion seems more or less good participation of females, but their number is small due to low sampling size. Generally, the training provision from extension service biased towards male headed household heads. Such situations restrict the role of women in agricultural development.Among group extension methods, the participation of both settler categories in field days, demonstration and visit out of the study area were also very low in number; especially the new settlers' participation and agricultural information access from these methods were limited and statistically there was significant difference between new and previous settlement categories.Similarly the FHHs' agricultural information accesses from these methods were lower than MHHs, especially the participation in visiting program all of them were males. Therefore, the new settlers and FHHs' agricultural information access were poorer than the previous settlers' and males headed households respectively.In addition to group extension method, the DAs also provide formal extension advisory service to the farmers. From this important extension method, the information access of the respondent farmers was very low in number, especially the new settlers' and FHHs' access was very limited and there was highly significant formal extension advice service difference between the two settlement categories and sex categories. Also less frequent contact between DAs and respondent farmers prevailed to the new settlement and female category.Generally, except from seasonal extension orientation and mass media information access, in all cases the extension service, the support of DAs and provision of agricultural information biased towards the previous settler side, so that the new settler farmers' agricultural information access was very limited. Within this limited agricultural information provision, especially the new settlers will not be efficiently familiarized and productive in the new agro ecology. From the survey result, frequency of information access reveals that, only few farmers were invited repeatedly for training program.In the case of female respondents, the over all participation in training, field day, demonstration, visits, seasonal extension orientation and individual advisory service were biased towards the MHHs, so that the female farmers' agricultural information access was very limited. To improve the rural women's economic status and to bring agriculturalThe result of the analyses shown that, among different factors influencing access to agricultural information a total of seventeen (17) explanatory variables were included into the model and out of these eight (8) of them had shown significant relationship with access to agricultural information. Accordingly, settlement category, education level, settlement orientation, innovation proneness and production motivation influenced at 1% significance level; and age of household head, frequency of market visiting and credit access at 5% significance level. Except age of household head, all of shown positive relationship with access to agricultural information.On the other hand, to identify factors influencing utilization of agricultural information a total of sixteen ( 16) explanatory variables were included into the model and out of these nine (8) of them had shown significant influence on utilization of agricultural information. Accordingly, education level, settlement category, innovation proneness and production motivation influenced at 1% significance level; age of household head and settlement orientation at 5% significance level; and frequency of market visiting and credit utilization at 10% significance level. Except age of household head, all of shown positive relationship with utilization of agricultural information.On the basis of this study, the following recommendations are suggested for practical action.1. This research result in the settlement category variable clearly indicated that agricultural information provision and utilization were generally biased towards the previous settler side.During data collection time, enough number of diploma holder DAs were deployed at PA level. But the woreda SMS team could not able to support, supervise, evaluate and monitor different physical activities and human resources at PA level due to lack of finical resource and lack of management and field experience. Therefore, before implementing new resettlement program the Government should strengthen the extension staff in the above limitations and strategic extension service plan including monitoring and evaluation should be prepared ahead, for all settlers particularly for new settlers. But the remaining 74.73% have returned to their original place. The new settlers were having higher expectation of different things from the participation of resettlement program, so the majority of the new settlers had dissatisfaction to remain in the new settlement area.The finding also revealed that farmers from the remaining settlers, those having poor feeling of staying in the settlement area were found to have poor agricultural information access and utilization. Therefore, it is recommended that the provision of resettlement program information in the highland areas should be institutional (avoiding massive campaign and non professional involvement) and genuine in order to achieve the desired poverty reduction strategy.4. In this research, the credit provision finding shows that, there was significant difference between new and previous settlers farmers, in the favor of previous settler. In the study area, the provision of credit usually supported by agricultural information in order to achieve the intended credit goals, so that getting of credit have role in the agricultural information access. The availability of current financial resource has a decisive role in the agricultural production process. Especially the new settlers can be seen as resource poor farmers and at early stage provision of credit should be mandatory. Therefore it is recommended that by designing integrated plan and follow-up system between agricultural office, cooperatives and other local micro-finance institutions credit provision should be deviced to the new settler farmers, especially at early stage of their agricultural development in order to achieve the desired resettlement strategic plan. Beside such credit approach, organizing and promotion of saving and loan associations might be another possible option particularly among new settler, since they are being marginalized by the formal credit institutions in the study are. The experience of village saving and loan associations have found to be successful in different parts of the country.5. Result of descriptive statistics indicated that, the current extension system in not responsive for farmers' need of support and technology requirements. In addition to this problem, technical supports and provision of agricultural technologies of extension service did not address the farmers' agricultural problems. On the other hand, the DAs and non agricultural professionals forced the farmers to take agricultural input through campaign approach. The major reason of this issue is that planning approach is top to bottom and it is a supply driven system. Also extension professionals spending more time in non agricultural activities through campaign approach such as loan repayment, land tax collection, land distribution in the agricultural investment area, minimization of student dropout in the rural elementary school, mobilizing the rural people for latrine preparation etc. So that in the absence of joint planning and participation of farmers, appropriate professionals support, it can not be expected to address the farmers' problems in order to solve the production constraints. Also farmers may not build confident in the current extension provision. Therefore, it is recommended that planning system should be participatory, bottom to top approach based on the farmers' problems and demands, and agricultural extension support should be institutional (avoiding non-agricultural professionals support) in order to solve all the above complex problems. To make this in reality, the regional government responsible bodies and planners should be convinced.6. The descriptive statistics result indicates that, there were statistically significant different agricultural information accesses between MHHs and FHHs, so that male respondents were more benefited form different extension service. The survey result shows that; once appropriate agricultural information is accessible for females, they can utilize it as male farmers, so that the participation of women farmers in various areas of extension programmes can play a role in the agricultural development. Therefore, it is recommended that DAs, professional experts, administrative bodies, planners, and related organizations first, should be build positive attitude towards the importance and role of women in the agricultural development. Secondly they should have to identify relevant agricultural activities in consultation with women in order to address their own needs. Finally well organized agricultural information should be provided in order to enhance their productivity in the agricultural development, in a gender sensitive manner.7. From this survey results, we can observe that education level had significant and positive relationship with access and utilization of agricultural information. This result shows that education level of farmers has a role to increase the ability to obtain, process and use of agriculture related information and use technologies in a better way. Therefore, due emphasis has to be given towards strengthening rural education at different levels for youth and adults.","tokenCount":"26492"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"78816782d8e484ae5177c4beac16b074","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/34f6d295-7c51-4d8f-b749-35398ba5b538/retrieve","id":"376469738"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"24c79b62-0a8f-45ba-8f7a-d62cfacb7fef","pagecount":"27","content":"Field (South Johnstone) and in vitro (Maroochy) collection, containing 204 accessions in the field (only one plant per accession) and 350-550 in vitro, supplying farmers, breeders and researchers nationally and internationally. Also provides quarantine services for the country and Pacific region. Important role in breeding and entirely supported through government by Australian banana industry.In the development of this report, the following steps were followed in 2005: a. Jan-Mar: A survey was designed and sent out to collection curators to gather information on the accessions and eligibility of collections; 29 curators responded from a total of 40 sent and a further 16 full or partial responses were obtained from subsequent meetings (see Annex).b. Jan: A background document on Musa diversity, origins and conservation needs was prepared by Prof. Edmond De Langhe.c. Feb: Visits were made by two taxonomic experts (Jeff Daniells and Deborah Karamura) to four collections in Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda and Vietnam.d. Feb-Mar: A brainstorming meeting was held with Edmond De Langhe and INIBAP staff (including discussions at 'Commodities for Livelihoods' annual programme planning meeting) to analyse survey results, discuss criteria for selection of collections and define major elements of the strategy.e. Mar-Oct: The broad conservation needs at different levels (international, regional, national, local) were discussed with major stakeholders, such as banana breeders at IITA (Abdou Tenkouano and Michael Pillay) and CARBAP (Kodjo Tomekpe), and other holders of major collections, and some consensus for the priority activities obtained.f. Aug: The draft strategy document was submitted to the GCDT Secretariat and their feedback was received and incorporated.g. Sep-Oct: One day discussions were held at regional network meetings representing national agricultural research institutes in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific to discuss further the major constraints and priorities of collections, their potential roles and criteria for selecting the priority collections for support.h. Oct: The draft strategy was launched with the \"No end to the banana\" exhibition in Leuven, Belgium, in the presence of Cary Fowler, GCDT Director, and several hundred participants from Leuven and the Musa research community.i. Nov: Elizabeth Arnaud attended the Regional Strategy meeting for the Americas in Montevideo, Uruguay, and presented the Musa strategy. j. Nov-Jan 2006: Through email communications, BAPNET (Asia and Pacific network) members evaluated their collections according to agreed criteria and an evaluation committee analysed the results and suggested which collections should be prioritized.Wild and cultivated diversity of Musa (banana and plantain) is at its richest in the Asia and Pacific region. The genus Musa represents a group of approximately 25 forestdwelling species, divided into four sections, distributed between India and the Pacific, as far north as Nepal and extending to the northern tip of Australia (figure 1). The genus belongs to the family Musaceae, which also comprises some seven species of Ensete and possibly a third, monospecific, genus Musella, which is closely related to Musa. Taxonomists estimate that there are at least 1000 recognizable Musa cultivars distributed pantropically -though molecular studies are needed to investigate possible synonymies among, and variation within, these cultivars. Edible forms have been selected by farmers from the progeny of either one or two wild parent species: Musa acuminata ssp. banksii is believed to be the ancestral parent of the majority of edible banana cultivars, contributing what is called the 'A' genome while Musa balbisiana contributed the 'B' genome to several banana cultivar groups and all plantain. The domesticated banana spread widely within the Asia and Pacific region and a large proportion (70-85%) of the gene pool rests there in the form of 12 cultivar types or genome groups (table 1).At least three thousand years ago the crop was introduced to the African continent, where it diversified (through farmer selection of somatic mutants) into more than 60 cooking banana types in the East African Highlands and more than 120 plantain types in West and Central Africa. Both types have become substantial sources of staple food. The banana is believed to have been introduced into Latin America and the Caribbean after the arrival of Colombus, allowing little time for the development of indigenous cultivars. There is an additional group of edible bananas, known as Fe'i bananas, confined to the Pacific. Its genetic origin is obscure, but taxonomic studies suggest ancestral links either with the wild species Musa maclayi or Musa lododensis.Collecting missions to the Asia and Pacific region in recent decades give reason for confidence that no or few new major cultivar groups remain to be discovered. However, new wild species and varieties continue to be described are inadequately represented in collections. Threats posed by habitat destruction and the replacement or loss of traditional cultivars intensify the urgency for collection and conservation efforts.Genetic improvement presents a potentially cost-effective mechanism to address current constraints in smallholder production by providing high-performing varieties adaptable to diverse environments. The products of existing improvement programmes, drawing on sources of resistance from wild and edible genotypes, are not meeting several important criteria, such as widely-acceptable fruit-pulp quality, and only a fraction of the genetic diversity in diploid Musa is being used. Yet variation among wild and edible Musa species offers a wide spectrum of fruit and bunch qualities. For instance, the ecology of various wild species suggest that sources of resistance to abiotic stresses exist in Eumusa along the northern periphery of its distribution (see figure 1), including mechanisms for tolerance to cold (M. sikkimensis, M.basjoo, M.thomsonii), water-logging (M. itinerans), and drought (M.balbisiana, M. nagensium). Recent collecting expeditions in northern India and Malaysia suggest that other poorly known or unexplored areas of diversity are likely to harbour other agronomically-interesting characteristics. In addition, the development of powerful molecular tools by initiatives such as the Global Musa Genomics Consortium provides an unprecedented opportunity to use more effectively the diversity available in wild and cultivated Musa. Productivity and sustainability may be enhanced by integrating inter-and/or intracrop diversity within production systems. Experiences with rice and other cereals, currently being extended to banana, suggest that losses from epidemic diseases can be mitigated by planting mixed genotypes in place of extensive monocrops of a single variety.Recent INIBAP projects and other initiatives also demonstrate that a demand for increased diversity of cultivars, as well as improved varieties, exists among smallholder farmers and formal market systems, as well as within the research and breeding community. Supplying producers with a wider range of diversity can potentially enable more livelihood options to be adopted and family nutrition to be similarly diversified. The in vitro collections are used for safety duplication of the field collections and for rapid multiplication and dissemination of disease-free planting material. The field collections are important for taxonomic characterization, evaluation, training and demonstration. Both means of conservation demand regular replanting or subculturing. The field collections are also highly vulnerable to pests and disease. In vitro collections require monitoring of genetic integrity every ten years to ensure that accessions are not undergoing somaclonal variation.According to published studies on comparable crops, management costs for both types of collection are relatively high compared to cryopreservation (Koo, B et al. 2004). The in-perpetuity costs of conserving and distributing a cassava accession, for example, are estimated to be US$268.73 for in vitro medium-term storage and US$186.69 for field genebanks, while cryopreservation costs US$69.11 per accession. Costs for banana are higher but the one-off cost of cryopreservation is expected to pay off against the recurrent costs of in vitro or in field maintenance over an approximately five-year period. Two cryopreservation protocols are available for a range of banana cultivar groups and the ITC is implementing a programme of cryopreserving its entire collection (see 2.4.1). Nearly 1200 accessions are held under slow growth conditions in tissue culture. A third of the collection is now cryopreserved to acceptable standards of security (minimum of three batches prepared for each accession, each batch with regeneration rates that exceed 95%). The complete collection is expected to be cryopreserved by 2008.The collection is made up largely of landraces and cultivars, some obtained through recent collecting expeditions but mostly donated by national collections and international research centres, particularly the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Institut de recherches agronomique et zootechnique de la Communauté économique des pays des grands lacs (IRAZ), Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola, (FHIA) and Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD). Wild species account for 15% of the accessions and improved varieties for 10%.The collection is not complete. There are estimated to be between 300 and 400 cultivars known to be missing from the collection (20 plantains from Africa, about 50 Callimusa from Borneo, 20-30 balbisiana and 20 other types from India, an undetermined number of balbisiana from China, 10 accessions from Myanmar, 40 wild types from Thailand, Indonesia, and possibly up to 100 from the Pacific; Rony Swennen, pers. comm.). In several cases the acquisition of germplasm by the ITC has been constrained by legal and property rights issues, but these are expected to be resolved as the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is fully implemented by the relevant countries.The entire collection is currently undergoing a major programme of rejuvenation, involving the growing out and characterization of accessions in field collections in Cameroon, Guadeloupe, Honduras, Philippines and Uganda. Accessions have been characterized using flow cytometry and are being analysed using a variety of genetic markers (STMS, RFLP and RAPD * ). Accession passport and characterization data are fed into the Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS) and day-to-day management of accessions is achieved through a newly-developed Musa Gene Bank Management System. The management system is linked to MGIS and tracks orders, distribution and use of germplasm, as well as the detailed management of current holdings.The ITC's location in a non-producing country has benefits in facilitating the receipt of germplasm from, and its distribution to, all parts of the globe without restrictive quarantine procedures. Furthermore, the collection has been completely virusindexed and is widely recognized as the safest source of Musa germplasm. The survey of collections provides endorsement of this: 22 of 27 surveyed collections indicated that they regularly or occasionally exchange germplasm with the ITC and since its establishment the ITC has distributed more than 60 000 germplasm samples of 450 accessions to 88 countries. Accessions are supplied without fee, but a maximum of only five plants is made available per accession. Finally, the ITC is active in training and developing 'best practice' in various areas, including germplasm acquisition, health status certification, medium-and long-term conservation, data management, monitoring genetic integrity, distributing germplasm and cryopreservation for long-term storage.There is no recognised network of regional or international collections, but a number of collections have international recognition owing to the richness of their collection or to the research, expertise, services or capacity building that they provide (table 2). Around thirteen collections each hold more than 200 accessions, nine collections * acronyms and abbreviations are listed on page 25.distribute germplasm internationally and several collections provide essential support roles to the long term conservation of the global collection. Approximately 60 collections exist, functioning to varying levels of activity in terms of developing their collections and distributing accessions. Some are more or less inactive through lack of financial support or through infection of the collection with disease, while others actively provide germplasm to farmers (e.g. 23 out of 27 surveyed collections), breeding programmes or commercial industry. At least 15 collections, including all the best-resourced and maintained collections (except ITC), are directly associated with breeding initiatives.Those collections located in centres of diversity are strategically placed to collect diversity in farmers' fields or in the wild. In this regard, active collections in South, East and Southeast Asia represent the zones of primary diversity, and in Eastern, Central and Western Africa secondary diversity. Some of these areas are still uncovering new, potentially valuable diversity: for instance, missions in north-east India have collected a female-fertile clone with capacity to tolerate black Sigatoka and in the Solomon Islands 80 cultivars of potentially high micronutrient content have been recently collected.National Repository Multiplication and Dissemination Centres, housed in the same institutions as national collections, have been installed in 14 Asian countries. These serve to conserve and distribute the most popular or promising planting materials to farmers at a national level.The Musa research community is served by a relatively well developed framework for collaboration and information exchange supported through the networking approach of INIBAP.The Musa Germplasm Information System is a global exchange system and the most extensive source of data on Musa genetic resources. It contains information on 5188 accessions managed in 18 banana collections, including passport data, botanical classification, morpho-taxonomic descriptions and characteristics such as agronomic traits, disease resistance, stress tolerance, biochemical or molecular data, photographs and GIS information. Molecular characterization data are being incorporated and additional modules are planned for nutritional and evaluation data.Each participating collection enters and manages their respective accession data, and provides updates to the centralized database managed by INIBAP. MGIS training courses have stimulated various efforts to harmonize nomenclature and to improve the use of the IPGRI descriptors. The database has been subject to two upgrades; links have been created to external data sources and data made available within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) System-wide Information Network for Genetic Resources (SINGER). MGIS has been recognised by the Generation Challenge Programme as a model system for storing accession-level data. However, it represents an incomplete dataset owing to either the lack of capacity or lack of motivation in several collections to contribute to it.There are other forms of research collaboration between institutes holding collections: The International Musa Testing Programme (IMTP) is a collaborative effort coordinated by INIBAP to evaluate elite Musa varieties in multiple sites worldwide (currently 23 sites in 21 countries), using agreed evaluation protocols. Trial sites, mainly geared to assessing resistance to the major diseases of Fusarium wilt and black Sigatoka, are increasingly being used for other evaluations (e.g. fruit micronutrient content) or to answer key questions about pathogen, disease and host interactions.Four regional banana research networks (BARNESA for Southern and Eastern Africa, MUSACO for West and Central Africa, BAPNET for Asia and the Pacific and MUSALAC for Latin America and the Caribbean) are made up of national research organizations from all major banana-producing countries (see figure 2) and provide coordination and support for regional research and development initiatives, including conservation efforts. They function under the auspices of regional agricultural research fora and are coordinated by a regionally-posted INIBAP scientist. Each network has a steering committee made up of a representative from every country member. The steering committees have annual meetings hosted by invitation of participating countries. The network members collaborate through a suite of ongoing projects, workshops and training courses in the conservation, research and  Cuba Peru development of banana genetic resources in each region (including an in situ conservation project in East Africa).ProMusa is a global programme that represents some 100 or more researchers who are collaborating to address problems of crop improvement, protection and production. The initiative is currently undergoing a process of restructuring and revision of its programme. ProMusa Working Group convenors were brought together in June 2005 at INIBAP headquarters to discuss the development of a future strategy. The priorities identified included the conservation and characterization of Musa genetic resources. Clearly the outputs of the conservation strategy will have a direct relevance to the projects undertaken by breeders and researchers in ProMusa and, likewise, applied research on pest and disease management will facilitate the functioning of germplasm field collections.At a global level, the ITC functions effectively in assuring cost-effective medium-and long-term conservation and providing limited samples to researchers, breeders and national programmes of a large range of germplasm that are guaranteed clean of pests and diseases. However, the maintenance of the collection depends on timebound grants, mainly from the technical cooperation agency of the host country (Belgium). Running costs (approximately $250,000 per year) are currently covered by a three-year, competitive grant that is due to expire in 2008. A more secure funding mechanism (such as a trust fund) is needed to assure the survival of this vital foundation of the international germplasm conservation and exchange system. At a regional or national level germplasm needs are largely not being met. Numerous national collections, particularly those which are hosted by poorly-resourced organizations in Africa and in Asia and the Pacific, are functioning sub-optimally: in several cases accessions are diseased and being lost from the collections, germplasm exchange mechanisms are inadequate and the user community is not as well served as it might be. Some accessions in the ITC collection have been lost from the field collections from where they originated, and are now represented only by in vitro cultures.Of the collections surveyed, 62% said that part of their collection (10-25% or more) was deteriorating because of management limitations; 69% declared that existing skilled staff capacity was insufficient for long-term conservation needs. When asked what their additional human resource requirements were, more than half of the collections specified the need for technical support in characterization; approximately a third asked for support in the general management of the collections in the field and/or in vitro. It is possible that for those who did not answer the survey, the situation is worse. Answers from 17 of the collections indicate that an average of US$ 172 is spent annually per accession in the field or in vitro (excluding capital inputs); but there is wide variation in annual costs, from US$ 33/accession to US$ 625/accession.A related challenge is exemplified by the fact that 70% of accessions in the ITC have not so far been requested and remains unused. Diversity is demanded by researchers and growers and yet many national collections and large parts of major collections are under-utilized. As long as diversity remains under-used the management of, and investment in, the collections is likely to be compromised. Taxonomic experts, breeders and researchers attribute a large part of the problem of under-utilization to inadequate information. Many Musa collections have not been systematically documented; only limited characterization and evaluation data are available, and information may be scattered between several institutes. The IPGRI descriptors for Musa are often ineffectively applied where curators are working in isolation with little training. According to the survey, an average collection is 45% described using either the full or a partial set of IPGRI descriptors for Musa and the quality of data provided both in response to the survey and to MGIS illustrates that some characterization efforts do not meet appropriate standards.Evidently there is no single way of tackling these issues and a global conservation strategy can only function effectively within a context of complementary initiatives that are further addressing the needs of in situ or on-farm conservation, national and local seed systems, breeding programmes and molecular research. It is also recognised that the success of the strategy depends on the genuine collaboration of a wide range of national collections; on these collections gaining clear benefits from being involved; and on a parallel investment being provided at a national level. Rather than providing support to the individual needs of each collection, a global initiative provides the opportunity to use centralized or regionalized resources to resolve shared problems and specific bottlenecks in the system.The proposed Global Conservation Strategy for Musa aims to build upon existing strengths in the global collection at the ITC, several 'internationally-recognised' collections and national collections and the existing culture of collaboration to rationalize the global effort to conserve the Musa gene pool and promote the safe use and distribution of a wide range of diversity (figure 3). The ultimate aims are to increase and expand the use of genetic diversity from high-technology research to use in farmers' fields. The following four major outputs are proposed:• genetic diversity is comprehensively characterized and documented, taxonomy is harmonised, and collections are rationalized; • the global system for the safe exchange of germplasm is strengthened;• the entire gene pool is conserved in perpetuity;• the use of genetic diversity is maximized. Each output will be achieved through a range of complementary activities that are expected to take place in parallel and will be carried out by a network of collections. This network will not be strictly defined but will be open to collections from member countries of the regional networks that are actively contributing and benefiting from shared standards, technical capacity, germplasm and information exchange (figure 2, page 10). Through intensive characterization and analysis by taxonomists, a core collection of accessions, which represents Musa diversity without significant redundancy, will be identified and long-term support will be focused on maintaining duplicate sets of these: one set ex situ in the ITC, the other set in the field shared between collections. Within the network, therefore, only selected collections will be the focus of initiatives for upgrading and long-term support according to their defined roles and prioritization in the strategy. Some effort has already been made by regional networks to prioritize national collections according to agreed criteria (see section 3.5). However, the detailed elements or roles to be supported at national and regional levels are not yet established.The coordination and implementation of the strategy will be influenced by three bodies providing oversight:a Taxonomic Advisory Group (TAG) of Musa taxonomists, breeders, collection managers and molecular experts will be formed to provide technical backstopping and advice for the implementation of the strategy; -the regional banana and plantain research networks will provide the coordination of activities at a regional level and play an essential role in integrating the proposed activities with ongoing initiatives influencing seed systems and germplasm conservation and exchange; and -INIBAP will provide overall coordination and linkages to ProMusa, IMTP and other relevant research programmes and projects.A global initiative will be launched to characterize and harmonize the taxonomy of collections. The first aim will be to derive an agreed taxonomy for use by the Musa community. This will in turn provide information to allow collection curators to make decisions on the rationalization of their own accessions. Then, at the regional and global level, this effort will provide the rationale and tools which will allow the MusaServices Musa diversitycommunity to select a core set of accessions, for long-term conservation, which will embody the entirety of Musa diversity.The field verification and molecular characterisation of ITC accessions is already under way as part of a rejuvenation programme funded by the World Bank and The Gatsby Charitable Foundation (see section 2.4.1 on the ITC). The data from this effort will provide morphological and molecular references, which collections worldwide will be able to apply to their own accessions and studies. In addition, the following steps are envisaged: a) A meeting of taxonomists and molecular biologists will be held to form the TAG and to agree mechanisms and standards for the characterization of collections, for the harmonization of taxonomy and nomenclature at regional and global levels and for the rationalization of collections (in particular the ITC).b) Where necessary, national collections will be provided with support to characterize and document their collections. This support may include providing data, training in characterization and/or data management (MGIS), taxonomic expertise on troublesome accessions (provided by TAG) or updated software (MGIS) or hardware. In due course, molecular tools may be recommended for distinguishing between hard-to-separate phenotypes.c) Information resulting from characterization efforts will be entered by collection data managers into MGIS and provided for incorporation into the centralized database managed by INIBAP. The centralized dataset will be rationalized; synonyms and duplicates recognised and accession data linked to characterization and evaluation data from the global collection at the ITC and other collections. Other datasets relating to evaluation, including postharvest and processing characteristics, will also be compiled and updated versions of the global dataset will be regularly provided by INIBAP to all MGIS participants. d) TAG will agree a strategy for harmonizing nomenclature of cultivar groups, most likely necessitating regional workshops. A global taxonomy will be agreed and published.e) MGIS will be upgraded and a comprehensive catalogue (Musalogue) of cultivar and species diversity and taxonomy will be published in hard copy and on the Internet.f) TAG will provide recommendations for rationalization of internationallyrecognised collections and those national collections who seek guidance.All national collections will be encouraged to take part in the characterization and documentation initiative. Training courses will be targeted at a regional or subregional level so that multiple national collections may benefit; although all participating collections should provide assurance that:1. once financed or provided with training, they have the capacity and willingness to document the results and provide them to MGIS;2. there is evidence of support for the collection and its use at a national level.In addition, priority collections may receive additional support to complete the comprehensive documentation and rationalization of accessions. It is also foreseen that some characterization and documentation activities will be undertaken through regional conservation strategies. In this case, regional conservation activities should be coordinated, where relevant, with those of the Musa strategy so that appropriate standards are maintained and mutual benefit is assured. This is particularly important for the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, where banana is a priority crop for several countries according to the regional conservation strategy, but which is less prominent in the crop strategy primarily on account of the indigenous diversity being negligible .The virus-indexing system through which all existing ITC accessions have passed (and new accessions will continue to be passed) is the only comprehensive mechanism available to ensure that germplasm is, as far as possible, free of all viruses. The sustainability of the service should be assured as part of the strategy. For cost-effectiveness, a pre-indexing facility that will function in concert with the formal virus-indexing centres will also be developed at the University of Gembloux. Newly-received material may be rapidly tested for viruses at the pre-indexing facility.If the germplasm is positive then action may be taken to obtain fresh material from source and comprehensive virus-indexing, if started, may be halted. Germplasm that tests negative will continue to be virus-indexed following the normal routine. In addition, research into viruses and virus therapy are components of ProMusa and INIBAP's research programme and will require support as part of the conservation strategy.There is a need for larger quantities of virus-indexed material within regions. However, it is recognised that the level of service provided through the ITC cannot be achieved cost-effectively at national or even regional levels. Instead, the regional networks will work to identify specific bottlenecks in the exchange of clean germplasm and propose areas for action, which may involve either building up in vitro collections, optimizing plant conservation and multiplication strategies or equipping collections with virus-indexing kits customised to detect predominant diseases within the region (e.g. banana bunchy top virus). Such mechanisms should be developed in consultation with national authorities, regional agricultural research-and-development fora, and relevant organizations and statutory bodies, such as FAO and the Inter-African Phytosanitary Council.The conservation of the gene pool will be achieved through long-term support to prioritized collections with the aim of securing, permanently, the conservation of a core set of accessions, embodying the entire range of Musa diversity. The core set will be conserved both at the ITC (with the most-used accessions in medium-term storage, in vitro, and all accessions cryopreserved, with safety duplication at a separate site) and in the field, with accessions shared among priority collections.It should be noted that the context in which collections in banana-producing region function is very different: Latin America and the Caribbean is remarkable for its large historical collections predominantly used for breeding and the absence of significant indigenous diversity; Sub-Saharan Africa represents a secondary centre of diversity with very few adequately-resourced national collections but four important regional collections: NARO and IRAZ in East Africa and CARBAP and IITA in West Africa; whereas there are numerous national collections in Asia and the Pacific which represent unique indigenous diversity. While no single model of national and international collections can be superimposed on all of the regions, the broad roles of collections at a national, international and global level can be broadly described (table 3, figure 4).Conservation responsibilities may, therefore, be shared among more than one collection within a region. The strategy will aim to give long-term support to specific activities of 'internationally-recognised' collections (e.g. field verification of ITC accessions) and to support or upgrade priority collections or subsets of collections that are responsible for conserving specific parts of the Musa gene pool. Support activities may involve training and assistance in characterization and taxonomic studies (linking with output 1), or in germplasm management, particularly pest and disease management. As primary Musa diversity is found in Asia and the Pacificand several collections in this region are in a fragile state-the strategy will provide some focus on upgrading collections here. The Pacific, in particular, represents a poorly-researched region containing unique genetic diversity of importance in various respects-perhaps most notably nutritionally given the existence of cultivars with extremely high carotene content (Englberger et al. 2003, Englberger 2003)-which is not well represented in ex situ collections. A proposal is under development to coordinate conservation efforts using complementary in situ and ex situ mechanisms.The use of diversity and the services of collections will be promoted worldwide by upgrading collections to serve users' needs and providing easy access to key information about the use of accessions. The partnership of germplasm collections with multiplication, demonstration and dissemination facilities will be a high priority.Where relevant accessions may be kept in different forms according to expressed needs (e.g. lyophilized leaves). Support for awareness-raising efforts to promote germplasm exchange and conservation may also be appropriate.One major output, to which other initiatives (e.g. IMTP, the HarvestPlus and Generation Challenge Programmes) are adding value, will be a web-based portal that provides a comprehensive one-stop reference system on Musa taxonomy, accession availability, characterization, evaluation, and practical experiences in using diversity for improving livelihoods. MGIS and its continued revision will form the foundation of this portal.  A subset of collections in Asia and the Pacific have been evaluated to be of high priority on account of a combination of criteria (see box) relating to germplasm accessibility, genetic diversity, status of threat, use and willingness to collaborate (table 4). Prioritized collections in Sub-Saharan Africa are those which are already recognised to have regionally representative collections and expertise. No prioritization has yet taken place in Latin America and the Caribbean or in the Pacific. In a rationalized system, collections will receive support according to the roles and activities for which they assume responsibility within the region or sub-regionincluding the maintenance of any accessions they may hold as part of the decentralized international field collection, but by no means limited to this role. Therefore, it is not expected that all listed collections will receive support but that a selection process would take place according to quality and appropriateness of submitted proposals. In the evaluation carried out for the strategy development, no single collection fulfilled all criteria. Where shortfalls exist (e.g. commitment to longterm conservation, strategy to improve coverage of indigenous genetic diversity, etc.) detailed statements of intent or strategies should accompany proposals.-Collection is in the public domain and accessions are available to all users through the use of a material transfer agreement or similar mechanism -Accessions can be exchanged (i.e. they are healthy and virus indexed) Genetic diversity -Collection holds distinct germplasm that is unavailable elsewhere except in duplication (land races and wild relatives) -Collection is located in a country of high indigenous Musa diversity -The size of the rationalized collection (not including duplicates, synonyms) available in the public domain is at least 200 accessions -Collection has ecogeographical representation Status of threat -Collection is under threat or has no safety duplication -Collection holds accessions from isolated or threatened areas, where collecting is logistically difficult or expensive (e.g. several days' travel, need for armed guards etc) Use -Collection holds accessions with specific sought-after traits -Collection is documented with at minimum passport data Willingness to collaborate -Collection from institution where regional/international collaboration is active (e.g. contributes to MGIS, IMTP, BAPNET activities)-Government gives high priority to the crop. To be defined","tokenCount":"5315"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a86b9322b0cfba52e043222af638d656","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/0JZ8U7/K59YQ1","id":"-1031064692"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f84b767c-6a63-4719-a83a-3a9b42581f1d","pagecount":"27","content":"In this article, we examine the economy-wide effects of three alternative growth paths for Indonesia's industrial sector using SAM (social accounting matrix) multiplier analysis and CGE (computable general equilibrium) modeling. The context of the analysis is the immediate post-crisis period -most likely to be in the next millenniumrepresented in our study by a modified benchmark data set for 1995. Special attention is given to the overall income and equity effects, considering that egalitarian growth has become a particularly important development objective in Indonesia. The results of SAM multiplier analysis indicate relatively strong macro-linkages from agricultural demand-led (ADL) industrialization, yielding a significantly larger increase in real GDP compared to that arising from industrial development oriented to either food processing or light manufacturing. The simulation results based on CGE modeling, which take account of nonlinearities and supply constraints that are ignored in SAM analysis, bear out the dominant influence of demand linkages in showing that ADL industrialization is associated with a larger GDP increase than the two industrial-led development paths.However, to preserve the income gains for farm households and improve equity, it would be necessary to prevent the agricultural terms of trade from deteriorating -for example, through improvement of the country's ability to export farm products. Otherwise, foodprocessing-based industrial growth raises farm household income by more than the two industrial development scenarios. While industrialization based on light manufacturing shows the most significant increase in the ratio of manufacturing value added to GDP, it is also associated with the smallest GDP increase and the worst equity effect.Indonesia is currently in a deep political and economic crisis. One wonders, however, whether the situation was not any worse in the mid-1960s (just before the New Order government assumed power), given the country's economic stagnation, rapid inflation, and neglect of infrastructure since the early 1950s. Subsequently, the Indonesian economy grew impressively for most of the past three decades. Real GDP increased at an estimated average annual rate of well over 7 percent between 1970 and1996 (based on World Bank data). Nevertheless, among Southeast Asian market economies, Indonesia still ranked lowest in 1996 -before the recent (and ongoing) crisis -in income per capita and level of industrialization. There is a continuing need to address longer term issues of economic development and industrialization in Indonesia even as the country faces difficult problems of crisis management and structural adjustment.In this paper, we examine the economy-wide effects of three alternative growth paths for Indonesia's industrial sector using SAM (social accounting matrix) multiplier analysis and CGE (computable general equilibrium) modeling. The context is the immediate post-crisis periodmost likely to be in the next millennium -represented in our study by a modified benchmark data set for 1995 (see below). Special attention is given to the overall income and equity effects, considering that egalitarian growth has become a particularly important development objective in Indonesia. The model simulations involve the promotion of productivity growth and capital formation focused on two industrial sub-sectors --labor-intensive (or light) manufactures and processed food --and the agricultural sector (i.e., crops and livestock). Since the early 1980s when oil exports, Indonesia's principal foreign exchange earner, began to suffer from sharply declining real prices, the government has encouraged export diversification into light manufactured goodswith significant results on export earnings, industrial production, and labor employment. Food processing, which has traditionally been the largest component of Indonesia's manufacturing sector, serves to enhance national food security and is characterized by relatively strong production linkages that can provide the basis for large output increases in the entire economy. On the other hand, what Adelman (1984) has termed \"agricultural demand-led (ADL) industrialization\" is promoted by income growth among farm households, which if broadly based, has substantial consumption linkages that can create a mass market for domestically produced goods, including in particular labor-intensive manufactures, and provide the impetus to a rapid and equitable growth of the national economy (Mellor 1995).Economy-wide modeling to analyze the growth and distributional effects of alternative development paths is preferable to a partial-equilibrium approach. The latter abstracts from many important factors that operate simultaneously and interactively, many of which are difficult to anticipate. Quantitative studies on the macro and distributional effects of development policies, such as the early work on South Korea by Adelman and Robinson (1978), typically find that there are strong interactions among various sectors of the economy that influence the direction and magnitude of policy effects.The SAM (social accounting matrix) framework is a useful starting point for economy-wide analysis, which we employ to focus on the demand side. In the next section, we briefly describe the benchmark Indonesian SAM and calculate the multiplier (direct and indirect) effects of an exogenous income injection to each of the sectors being promoted by the alternative industrial development strategies. These income multipliers give indication of the relative strength of economy-wide linkage effects for different production sectors, assuming no supply constraint. We also calculate the income multipliers associated with different household groups, which have implications for the relationship between growth and equity.Next, we present the structure of our CGE model of the Indonesian economy, which incorporates nonlinearities and endogenous prices that are ignored in SAM analysis. The CGE model is used subsequently to generate the comparative results of simulation experiments involving three stylized industrial development strategies. A benchmark social accounting matrix (SAM) for 1995 is modified to represent initial conditions for the model simulations after an assumed recovery of the Indonesian economy from the crisis. The paper ends with some concluding remarks.A simplified framework for economy-wide analysis is shown in Figure 1. It traces the circular flow of incomes from product markets through factor payments to households and back to product markets through expenditures on final goods. Additionally, income flows involving producers, government, rest-of-the-world, and the capital account are included in the diagram. <<Figure 1 >> A social accounting matrix describes quantitatively, in a square table, the income flows taking place in an economy -such as those represented in Figure 1 -during a specified period of time. 1 Each account in the SAM is represented by a row and a column of the table; expenditures are shown in the columns and receipts in the rows. The SAM can be expressed either algebraically as accounting identities (stating that receipts must equal expenditures for each account), or as numbers that represent the data base for a given benchmark period (typically a year). The numerical SAM integrates national income, input-output, flow-of-funds, and foreign trade statistics into a comprehensive and consistent data set, as exemplified in Table 1 by an aggregate version of the official Indonesian SAM for 1995.In the present study, we make use of a benchmark Indonesian SAM which has been adjusted from the official 1995 SAM to conform to our desired aggregation level and to reflect equilibrium conditions after Indonesia has achieved economic recovery. It distinguishes 17 production sectors (activities/commodities), 6 factors, and 7 household groups (see Table 2), with three accounts for government, one account each for enterprises, capital, and rest-of-the-world (ROW). 2 For present purposes, we identify the three crop and livestock sectors as the direct beneficiary of an agricultural demand-led industrial development strategy; similarly, the food processing and light manufacturing 1 See Pyatt and Round (1985) for an early discussion of the SAM structure, and Robinson and Roland-Holst (1988) for perspectives on SAM-based modeling.sectors are assumed to benefit directly from the policy regimes promoting the two other industrialization paths. The equity effect arising from each strategy will be evaluated in terms of the comparative income changes for the various household groups, with special attention to farmworker, small-farm, nonfarm low-income, and urban low-income households.Assuming exogeneity in some accounts (usually the government, capital, and ROW accounts), the algebraic SAM can be transformed into a multi-sectoral, demand-driven model of the economy in which the linkages among sectoral production, household incomes and expenditures, foreign trade, and macroeconomic balances are systematically taken into account. The SAM is partitioned so that the total income (row sum) in each endogenous account is equal to the sum of products of the expenditure coefficient and corresponding income plus the total exogenous income from the government, capital, and ROW accounts; that is,where Y is a column vector of total incomes in the endogenous accounts, X is a column vector of total exogenous incomes (the exogenous accounts in the partition), and A n is the expenditure coefficient matrix pertaining to the endogenous accounts which is assumed fixed in conventional SAM modeling.Equation (1) can be solved for Y in terms of X as follows:(2) where M a is the SAM multiplier matrix. Equation (2) can be used to calculate the endogenous incomes associated with any constellation of total exogenous incomes, given M a . Also, the effects on Y arising from any given changes in X (e.g., an exogenous income injection in any production sector or in any household group) can be derived from equation (2). Each cell in the multiplier matrix indicates the total (direct and indirect) income change in the endogenous row account induced by an exogenous unit-income injection in the column account. It captures both the Leontief 2 The disaggregate SAM is too large to be reproduced here, but is available from the authors on request.(input-output) production linkages and the consumption expenditure linkages induced by changes in production activities through their effect on household incomes.Based on our benchmark Indonesian SAM for 1995, the calculated income multipliers, representing the induced effects on GDP at factor cost, are as follows: 2.45 for food crops, 2.30 for nonfood crops, and 2.28 for livestock; 1.93 for processed food; and 1.71 for light manufactures.They correspond to the sum of the six factor-payment entries along each production-sector column in the multiplier matrix. Thus, SAM-based analysis allows us to infer that an increase in income of crop and livestock producers by one million Rupiahs will lead to a rise in GDP (at 1995 prices) by about 2.3 million Rupiahs, while the same income increase in the food processing and light manufacturing sectors will lead to GDP increases that are smaller by 16 and 26 percent, respectively. Evidently, the demand stimulus generated by agricultural growth significantly exceeds that by growth in either of the two industrial sectors. This finding lends support to the hypothesis that there are strong macro-linkages from rising agricultural incomes; a hypothesis favored by advocates of agriculture-based development.The SAM model can also be applied to the analysis -again, focusing on the demand side -of the direct and indirect effects of exogenous income injections to different household groups.It is often noted that household expenditures of less affluent households are heavily oriented to locally produced, labor-intensive goods and services. By contrast, the consumption patterns of higher income households favor capital-intensive products of urban industry and imported goods.The latter implies relatively weaker and less labor-intensive linkages in the domestic economy. On this basis, it has been argued, with ample empirical evidence in developing countries, 3 that proequity growth measures do not necessarily hinder a favorable impact on overall income growth.The calculated GDP multipliers for the seven household groups distinguished in the Indonesian SAM are shown in the first column of Table 3. It is notable that the three most affluent household groups -large-farm, nonfarm high-income rural, and high-income urban -are associated with GDP multipliers that are smaller than those for the lower income households. This result indicates that greater income benefits accruing to the latter households from any source (agricultural or nonagricultural) of economic growth would have a larger impact on overall income growth. Similarly, the comparative values of manufacturing output multipliers, shown in the second column of Table 3, suggest that income increases for less affluent household groups represent a more potent demand stimulus to industrial growth.The CGE model of the Indonesian economy that we use in this study is adapted from a more disaggregated, agriculture-focused model developed earlier in Robinson et al. (1998) to analyze the economy-wide effects of trade liberalization and exchange rate changes under alternative rice policy regimes in Indonesia. Our model consists of five blocks of equations which are given in the Appendix below. It follows roughly the standard neoclassical specification of general equilibrium models (Dervis et al. 1982, Robinson 1989).Markets for goods (or products), factors, and foreign exchange respond to changing demand and supply conditions which are influenced by government policies and the external environment.The model is Walrasian in that it determines only relative prices and other variables in the real sphere of the economy. Sectoral product prices, factor prices, and the foreign exchange rate are defined relative to an aggregate consumer price index, which serves to define the numeraire. Profit-maximizing behavior of producers determines factor demand. Factor market distortions are included, with the average return for a factor differing from the marginal revenue product of that factor in specific sectors. Each sector is assumed to produce differentiated goods for the domestic and export markets, sectoral output being a CET (constant-elasticity-oftransformation) function of the amounts sold in the two markets. Subject to this transformation function, producers maximize revenue from sales. Similarly, imported and domestic products are differentiated at the sectoral level. The composite (consumption) good is a CES aggregate, and consumers minimize the cost of obtaining a given amount of composite good. Such product differentiation permits two-way trade and gives some realistic autonomy to the domestic price system (de Melo and Robinson 1981). The associated price links are portrayed in the price transmission mechanism shown in Figure 2.<< Figure 2 >> Based on the small-country assumption, the domestic price of sectoral imports is represented in terms of the foreign price, exchange rate, and tariff rate. The country is also assumed to be small on the export side; the domestic price of sectoral exports is determined by the world price, exchange rate, and any applicable export tax (or subsidy).The four components of sectoral demand are intermediate, consumption, investment, and government. Fixed input-output coefficients determine intermediate demand. Household consumption demand is based on the linear expenditure system. Inventory investment in volume terms is exogenous, while fixed investment is the difference between total investment and inventory demand in nominal terms. Government consumption of sectoral products is in fixed shares of total government consumption in volume terms.Aside from the supply-demand balances in the product and factor markets, three macroeconomic balances are specified in the model: (i) the fiscal balance, showing that government savings is the difference between government revenue and spending; (ii) the external balance, equating the supply and demand for foreign exchange; and (iii) the equality between total investment and total savings. For purposes of simulating alternative industrial development paths, we specify a simple, neutral, macro closure whereby the ratios of investment and government consumption expenditures in nominal terms to total absorption are assumed to remain the same as in the base model.Our stylized representation of the Indonesian economy in the immediate post-crisis period is one in which net capital inflow and remittances to enterprises are reduced to zero which, based on the CGE model, is associated with a depreciation of the real exchange rate by about 30 percent from the 1995 benchmark. We modify the base model to reflect the changed economic structure after the crisis, which then represents the initial conditions that are perturbed by exogenous shocks corresponding to the alternative industrial development paths assumed in the model simulations.The simulation results should be interpreted therefore in reference to this post-shock base.Implementation of the three industrialization strategies can be expected to have differential effects on two basic determinants of sectoral production: (1) the capital stock (land for agricultural sectors), as a result of domestic investments being made more attractive for the favored sectors; and (2) total factor productivity (TFP), related to the likely improvement in sectoral infrastructure and support services. Specifically, capital and land investments of Rp 30 trillion (in 1995 prices) are postulated for the relevant sectors in the three simulations; also, an exogenous direct increase in real value added of Rp 30 trillion from sectoral TFP growth is assumed in each simulation experiment. Under the ADL industrialization scenario, output gains from land improvement and TFP growth will accrue to three production sectors (food crops, nonfood crops, and livestock), which are allocated in accordance with their land and value added shares, respectively. In a dynamic model, changes in sectoral capital stock and (perhaps) total factor productivity would be endogenously determined. Introducing \"by hand\" these assumed (direct) sectoral effects in our static CGE model allows us to examine, in an exploratory manner, the economy-wide income and equity effects of the three alternative industrialization paths for Indonesia.The results of the three simulation experiments are shown in Table 4. They indicate deviations from the modified base values, given the simulated changes in the relevant sectors. The comparative effects on real GDP bear out the strong macro-linkages of agricultural growth. ADL industrialization is seen to generate a larger GDP increase than either the food processing-based (FPB) or light manufacturing-based (LMB) industrial growth path. The ADL advantage is even greater if it is assumed, as in the classical \"vent-for-surplus\" growth model, that output in the food and nonfood crop sectors (dominated by rice and rubber, respectively) are fully tradable. 4 As can be discerned from the last row of the table, however, the share of manufacturing in GDP declines with ADL development and rises under FPB and (even more so) LMB industrialization.The equity impact is not clear-cut. It is somewhat surprising that, except for the large increase in farm-worker household income, the ADL scenario is associated with lower real incomes of farm households. 5 The explanation is that the increases in agricultural output from the postulated total productivity growth and land improvement lead to a substantial terms of trade decline (by 21 percent from the modified base value). Preventing the latter from happening by the assumption of full tradability of crop output is seen to generate the expected favorable income effects for the three farm household groups relative to the rural nonfarm and urban households.Without the latter assumption, food processing-based industrial growth improves farm household incomes better than both the ADL and LMB scenarios; however, the equity impacts on rural nonfarm and urban households are unfavorable. A final observation is that LMB industrial growth leads not only to the lowest increase in real GDP among the three scenarios but also the most inequitable distribution of income gains -large-farm, rural nonfarm, high-income, and urban high-income households being the chief beneficiaries. This result is attributable to the relatively high proportion of factor payments in the light manufacturing sector in Indonesia accruing to higher-income households in the benchmark period.This paper has explored the economy-wide income and equity effects of three alternative industrial development paths for Indonesia, in a post-shock environment. The results of SAM multiplier analysis indicate relatively strong macro-linkages of agricultural demand-led industrialization, yielding a significantly larger increase in real GDP compared to that arising from industrial development oriented to either food processing or light manufacturing. Another important finding is that the three higher-income rural and urban household groups have smaller GDP and manufacturing output multipliers, suggesting that the distribution of income benefits is a potentially significant influence on growth of the national economy and the manufacturing sector.The simulation results based on CGE modeling, which takes account of nonlinearities and supply constraints that are ignored in SAM analysis, bear out the dominant influence of demand linkages in showing that ADL industrialization is associated with a larger GDP increase than the two other industrial development paths.However, to preserve the income gains for farm households and improve equity, it would be necessary to prevent the agricultural terms of trade from deteriorating -for example, through improvement of the country's ability to export farm products.Otherwise, food processing-based industrial growth raises farm household income by more than the two other development scenarios. Finally, while industrialization based on light manufacturing shows the most significant increase in the ratio of manufacturing value added to GDP, it is also associated with the smallest GDP increase and the worst equity effect.    Install Equation Editor and doubleclick here to view equation.Install Equation Editor and doubleclick here to view equation.Install Equation Editor and doubleclick here to view equation.Install Equation Editor and doubleclick here to view equation.Install Equation Editor and doubleclick here to view equation.Install Equation Editor and doubleclick here to view equation.Install Equation Editor and doubleclick here to view equation.Install Equation Editor and doubleclick here to view equation. 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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"55c478aa038c177335aa461cd4924704","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5564ed7f-bb9c-4687-8530-7923c45801f6/content","id":"-1327896398"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"043bc42a-3701-49a7-8953-1297847189d3","pagecount":"2","content":"Su aplicación implica riesgos cuando la planta de maíz ya es grande.El frailecillo es una plaga secundaria del maíz que en algunas regiones se comporta como plaga primaria.Existen distintas especies y para el Centro de México se han mencionado al menos 27, entre las cuales una de las más comunes es Macrodactylus nigripes. Este insecto causa daños en las raíces de maíz en etapa larvaria y en follaje, espigas o jilote en etapa adulta.Colecta manual directa para sitios donde las parcelas no son muy grandes. Se recomienda hacerlo por las mañanas (hasta antes de las 9:00 am). Colectar adultos y sumergirlos en una cubeta con agua para que mueran ahogados. Elaborados en forma artesanal o productos comerciales.Quilla es un producto eficiente que funciona contra chapulines y que también puede tener un buen efecto sobre frailecillo.Aplicaciones de:Las hembras ponen los huevecillos en el suelo. Esta plaga puede causar fuertes defoliaciones. Al alimentarse de los estigmas y de la espiga antes de la polinización puede afectar directamente a la producción del grano.Los ataques después de la polinización no resultan de importancia. En los tres estadios larvales se alimenta de raíces, pero sus daños no se consideran relevantes.Nim Higuerilla (semillas) Chicalote Chile Ajo Conservar plantas atrayentes.Algunas plantas nativas también atraen al frailecillo. Conviene dejarlas, incluso reproducirlas y sembrarlas en los bordos para que se concentren los adultos.Una planta que se ha identificado como muy preferida por el frailecillo es la jara o jarilla del género Sinecio salignus y la mostacilla.a. Colecta manual directa. b. Aplicación de insecticida de muy baja residualidad sobre las plantas silvestres para matar a los adultos (puede ser un piretroide).Tratamientos para el suelo: a. Metarhizium anisopliae, un hongo que puede tener buen efecto de control. b. Algunos insecticidas de bajo impacto como Force (teflutrina, dosis: 15 kg/ha) o Regen (fipronil, dosis: 100 ml/ha para inoculación de semilla), donde sea costeable y también se tengan otras plagas de suelo.A mediano plazo, en suelos con AC y control biológico de plagas de suelo:  ","tokenCount":"332"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/2968736860.json b/data/part_3/2968736860.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a54526de4d9c1fd02da06d0d41a87aa3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3b33e9f3-4da0-4153-bced-3f769491eba7/retrieve","id":"613137915"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fc0f948e-1c84-4a44-916d-1eb598df309f","pagecount":"12","content":"The African Union's Agenda 2063 and the Malabo Declaration recognize agricultural development as one of the most effective means of combating extreme poverty. Conservation Agriculture Practices (CAP) have been asserted to have the potential to boost agricultural output, improve livelihood and contribute to the conservation of natural resources. This study thus seeks to advance knowledge about Conversation Agriculture by assessing the factors determining the adoption and intensity of CAP among Cameroon's smallholder farmers. Data collected from 351 farmers in the South and East regions of Cameroon were used to study the social, economic, ecological and biophysical factors that determine the adoption of CAP. The study considered agroforestry, intercropping, crop rotation, cover crop, mulching, and zero-tillage as the CAP under investigation. According to the multivariate probit analysis employed, the results showed that gender, age, family size, extension services, use of modern farm technology, distance from house to farm, livestock owned, and infertile soil all significantly influenced CAP adoption. Results on adoption intensity revealed that gender, distance from house to farm, and the number of livestock owned were critical drivers of CAP adoption intensity. Promoting the adoption of CAP, policymakers and concerned stakeholders should consider farmer, institutional, socio-economic, ecological, biophysical aspects as well as relational values. However, already existing extension services need to be improved upon.Agriculture has remained the bedrock of survival in the rural landscape in the developing world [13] . The World Bank reported that the agricultural sector provides jobs for over 1.3 billion farmers in rural settings and most of these farmers are smallholders [38] . Ironically, most hungry people globally, are found in rural areas in growing economies, with Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) being among the most represented populations (Tsige et al., 2020; [18] ). Smallholder farmers in SSA are known to be resource-poor with the use of rudimentary technologies. In addition, most of these farmers rely mainly on rain-fed agriculture which is vulnerable to climate change [5] . Curbing the climate change challenge has been the discourse of many global effort s including the Paris Agreement which seeks to limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5 °or 2 °C above preindustrial levels by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Masson-Delmotte et al., 2018). Anthropogenic GHG emissions from the agricultural sector are the second largest contributor to global warming. This means the need for Conservation Agriculture (CA) that limits GHG emissions.On the heels of geometric population growth, it is imperative for SSA farmers to adopt innovative methods to improve productivity which does not compromise the environment. The current intensification through conventional (tillage-based) agriculture may compound poverty and food insecurity by degrading the ecosystem and reducing soil productivity (Mupangwa et al., 2016). Environmental challenges brought about by conventional agriculture have been attributed to changes in climate change due to an increase in greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions [4] . Climate change has manifested in SSA through mid-season droughts, where SSA is experiencing low and inconsistent rainfall patterns, causing crop failure (IPCC, 2022). Based on the detrimental effects of conventional agriculture on the environment, conservation agriculture which is a resource-efficient production system is being heralded as a possible solution. Conservation agriculture is a set of plotlevel practices bounded by the following three principles [12] ; which are (a) reducing soil loss (minimal/zero tillage), (b) preserving everlasting soil cover (cover crops, intercrops, and mulching), and (c) diversifying crop rotations.CA is recognized as a climate-smart agricultural practice because it can improve environmental sustainability by improving crops' resilience to climate change, mitigating greenhouse gases, conserving biodiversity, and improving crop productivity and consequently improving food insecurity and alleviating poverty [34] . Primarily it is geared towards improving yields and soil fertility. In addition, it has the potential to boost carbon-based soil. However, for a farming system to be CA, all three principles must be practiced simultaneously [19] . According to Giller et al. [16] farmers do not adopt all principles in practice due to limited resources and is therefore necessary to investigate the individual principles of the CA system. In addition, they indicate that the adoption of CA is an interaction of bio-physical, socio-economic, and cultural factors which makes adoption different from one place to another.Africa now sees an increase in the promotion of CA as a sustainable farming practice to increase food production [9] . Although CA is widely practiced in other regions of the world, its adoption in SSA has been mediocre. The views on the adoption of new CA technologies in SSA vary including differences among farmers, context, riskiness, conflict with farmers' resources, and the perceived benefits (Mupangwa et al., 2016). As one of the SSA countries, Cameroon has agriculture as one of its primary sources of national income, which provides jobs to 70% of its population force [26] . Akamin et al. [1] further reaffirm that agriculture has remained the mainstay of Cameroon's economy though classified as Sub-Sahara Africa's fifthbiggest oil producer. Like most of the SSA countries, Cameroon is plagued by declining soil fertility and climate disruption, low productivity, and population growth, resulting to poverty and food insecurity [3] . Agriculture's sustainability in many regions of Sub-Saharan Africa is endangered by a loss of species diversity, a reduction in land, forest, and water resources, soil erosion, salinization, acidification, desertification, and environmental pollution [26] . This is because of continuous use of traditional farming techniques (slash and burn, shifting agriculture, and traditional mixed farming) that evolved over generations in constant interaction with local culture and ecology and have helped in increasing deterioration of land and poor yields. Therefore, it is imperative for CA to be the means for the nation to intensify its agricultural sector.Adopting CA is expected to bring economic benefits to farmers by improving yields, enhancing food security and economic growth, and improving farmer welfare [ 21 , 27 , 37 ]. Furthermore, consumers will also enjoy the benefits CA adoption by consuming organic food free of chemical contamination. However, there is a paradox amid this appealing narrative: while proponents describe CA as being indisputably good for farmers, adoption has remained shockingly low in many poor countries, despite ongoing effort s to encourage CA adoption [24] .A substantial literature has arisen on the agronomic and economic implications of CA for smallholder farmers, as well as trends of CA adoption [9] . The benefits of CA, according to both critics and unbiased proponents, are very context-specific, dependent on elements such as location and seasonal variations, among others (Erenstein et al., 2012). Weeds, for example, are referred to as the \"Achilles heel\" of CA by Giller et al. [16] , because CA (especially reduced tillage) increases weed pressure during the early years of CA adoption, and manually eradicating weeds is exceedingly labor demanding. He further cites competing uses for crop residues, limited labor availability, and access to physical inputs as significant barriers to CA adoption.While some academics have studied smallholder systems and conservation agriculture in Africa and Cameroon [22] , very few have investigated the extensive nature of its adoption [ 3 , 10 ]. Some studies have focused either on socio-economic aspects or a combination of socio-economic and biophysical aspects [ 3 , 10 , 22 ]. We move further to include ecological aspects in our analysis. This study thus supplements the sparse empirical evidence on technology diffusion by focusing on the nature of adoption and intensities of adoption in Cameroon's agriculture. In fact, some studies have called for a clearer understanding of the adoption and diffusion patterns of technologies in smallholder farming, and this study satisfies that need (Muthoni, 2017). Cameroon is selected for this study because of the representative nature of its ecology and biodiversity within the Central African subregion. However, most CA studies [ 3 , 7 , 27 ] have relied solely on primary quantitative data, so the evidence they provide may be limited to patterns among large populations. Since qualitative data often gathers more in-depth insights on participant attitudes, thoughts, and actions, this study used triangulation in its sampling method by incorporating both quantitative and qualitative interviews. In terms of methodology, most previous studies on adoption have relied on inefficient and biased versions of the simple probit model, negative binomial model, and multinomial logit (e.g. Oduniyi and Chagwiza, 2022; [25] ).Thus, this research assesses the scope of CAP implementation and the intensity of CAP adoption. The hypothesis is that the socioeconomic status of farmers and their households may correlate positively with the adoption of conservation agriculture. The rationale for such a study currently is essentially to generate information to guide policy making towards resilient and productive agricultural systems. The primary data from farms and households in the South and East regions of Cameroon showed significant number of farmers engaged in conservation tillage, agroforestry, intercropping, crop rotation, cover crop and organic mulching. From the multivariate econometric analysis we observed that gender, experience proxied by age, family size, extension services availability, the use of modern farm technology and livestock ownership influenced CAP adoption. The adoption intensity is attributed to gender, distance from house to farm, and the number of livestock owned as critical drivers of CAP.The observations of this study indict the extension services on its role in achieving national and continental visions such as the African Union's Agenda 2063 for the agricultural sector to become more financially viable and attractive to young people and women. The Malabo Declaration of 2014 further identified sustainable climate smart agriculture for its resilience and capacity to boost agricultural growth and transformation for greater economic and social well-being in the African continent. The current research effort also adds to the wealth of knowledge on the expected outcomes of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), particularly SDG1, SDG2 and SDG8 by illuminating the niche area of CSA on which to focus investments. Steering farmer adoption of CA will have the triple win of improving food security, promote adaptation and mitigation to climate change as well as poverty eradication for the majority of rural dwellers who are gainfully employed in the agricultural sector.This study was carried out in some selected villages from the South and East regions of Cameroon ( Fig. 1 ), based on the concentration of forests and active agricultural activities in this area. The South region is in the southwestern and southcentral portion of the Republic of Cameroon. It shares borders with a portion of the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Centre Region to the north, the Littoral Region to the northwest, the East region to the east, and Gabon, Congo, and Equatorial Guinea to the south. The South is the fourth largest region in the country, with a total area of 47,720km 2 [32] . The many Beti-Pahuin peoples, including the Ewondo, Fang, and Bulu, make up the principal ethnic groups. In addition, the South Region has a respectable amount of industry, with forestry, mining, and offshore oil drilling making up the bulk of its trade. In the South, commercial agriculture is also significant, with cocoa and rubber as the two main cash crops. Additionally, fishing and raising cattle are important economic activities. Subsistence farmers make up a large portion of the population. The South region has a Guinea-type climate. In the interior, there is a lot of humidity, and the coastal area has 20 0 0-30 0 0mm of precipitation annually compared to 150 0-20 0 0mm in the interior. Rainfall along the coast from north of Kribi to south of Ebodjé can reach 40 0 0 mm annually [32] . Moreover, temperatures are high, averaging between 24 and 26 °C from Kribi north along the coast. The Guinea-type climate offers alternating dry and wet periods in place of regular seasons. A protracted dry season that lasts from December to May ushers in the New Year. A brief dry season from July to October is followed by a modest wet season from May to June. Around October, a prolonged wet season starts and lasts through November.On the other hand, Cameroon's southeast corner is occupied by the East Region. It shares borders with the Central African Republic to the east, the Congo to the south, Adamawa to the north, and the Centre and South Regions to the west. It is the most sparsely inhabited and largest region in the country, covering 109,002km 2 . The Baka (or Babinga) pygmies were the original settlers, and the peoples of the East have been in Cameroon longer than any other ethnic group in the country's history. Also, the East region has virtually little industry; logging, wood, and mining make up much of its trade. Subsistence farmers make up most of the population. As a result, the region has minimal political significance and is frequently disregarded by Cameroonian politicians. This, together with the region's lack of growth, have earned it the nickname \" the forgotten region.\" The South Cameroon Plateau, which makes up the country's southeast, contains almost the whole land of the East region. Except for the lower-lying plains of 200 to 500m in the extreme southeast centred on the Dja, Boumba, Sangha, and Ngoko rivers, the elevation thus fluctuates between 500 and 10 0 0m above sea level [ 14 , 32 ]. The topography is mostly composed of monotonous, slightly sloping hills, labelled as \"half-oranges\" after the fruit they resemble. Furthermore, the East has a wet equatorial climate, commonly referred to as a climate of Guinea type, which is characterised by high temperatures (24 °C on average) and the absence of traditional seasons. Instead, there are four distinct seasons: a lengthy dry season (December to May), a light rainy season (May to June), a brief dry season (July to October), and a heavy wet season (October to November). Except for the extreme eastern and northern sections, where precipitation is slightly less, there is a fair amount of humidity, cloud cover, and precipitation, averaging 150 0-20 0 0mm annually [ 14 , 32 ].Principally, this study makes use of primary data. Data was gathered through face-to-face interviews with peasant household heads in Cameroon's South and East regions in the period of February and March. Additionally, field observations were conducted to capture the socioeconomic factors and daily activities, particularly farm techniques. The participants in this study were chosen using the two-stage sampling procedure. Since farmers are dispersed across a large geographic area, the population of farmers was divided into 4 clusters in the first stage (Dja et Lobo, Mvilla in the South region, and Nyong & Lom et Djerem in the East region). In addition, 20 farmers were chosen at random from each cluster in the second stage to create the study sample size (400). Data collection took place during the wet season, which presented certain field antics and made it difficult for researchers to access some isolated places. In the end, the researchers received 351 questionnaires with complete answers, although some incomplete questionnaires were eliminated to prevent erroneous findings. The sizes of main sampling units were reduced by using this technique.Furthermore, descriptive statistics, and the multivariate probit econometric model were used in analyzing the primary data collected from the study area. The descriptive statistics was used in outlining the socio-demographic characteristics of smallholder farmers, as well as the adoption intensities of farming practices. In adoption studies on African farming systems, since most farmers adopt multiple technologies at once, Multinomial logit and probit models are typically used to estimate the equations separately. However, there are mathematical limitations with the negative binomial model, where the sum of the predicted values is not equal to the sum of the input values, indicating that the model does not preserve the constancy of sums. As a consequence, we rather employ for this study the ordered probit model and the multivariate probit (MVP) model to be able to correct for this bias and to be able to capture both the adoption process and the intensity of adoption of conservation agricultural technologies. Statisticians and econometricians view the multivariate probit model as an efficient generalization of the probit model used to estimate several correlated binary outcomes simultaneously (Greene, 2002). It is frequently believed that multivariate probit model is more accurate than multivariate logit model (MVL) since it does not presume the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA). In actuality, the error correlations should also be estimated by an MVP model in addition to the coefficients. Thus, it could seem that MVP is a more efficient statistical model than MVL.We employ the MVP to assess the determinants of CAP adoption since it is attractive for analyzing choice behaviour as it permits a flexible correlation structure for the unobservable covariates [17] . Furthermore, Teklewold et al. [36] revealed that estimates from the MVP vastly contrasted across all equations estimated. However, indicating the appropriateness of differentiating between practices as heterogeneity in adopting agricultural practices and analysis of each separate practice is supported rather than grouping the practices into a single variable (Teklewold et al., 2017).In a single-equation statistical model, information on a farmer's adoption of one CAP does not alter the likelihood of adopting another CAP. However, the MVP approach simultaneously models the influence of the set of explanatory variables on each of the different practices while allowing for the potential correlation between unobserved disturbances and the relationship between the adoption of different practices. A source of correlation, in this case, is either complementarity or substitutability between different methods. The interrelationship between adopters' decisions with unobserved factors must be captured to avoid bias and inefficient estimates (Greene, 20 0 0).The observed outcome of CAP adoption is modelled following a random utility formulation. Consider the i th farm household ( i = 1, ……, N) facing a decision on whether or not to adopt the available CAP on plot p ( p = 1,.., P). the benefits farmers get from traditional farm methods is represented by U 0 , while the benefits they get from adopting the k th CAP is denoted as Uk: where k denotes choice of agroforestry (A), intercropping (I), cover crop (C), crop rotation (R), mulching(M), minimum/zero tillage (T). The farmer adopts the k th CAP on plotThe net benefit ( Y * ipk ) that the farmer derives from the adoption of k th CAP is a latent variable determined by observed household, plot, and location characteristics ( X i f ) and the error term ( ε ip ):When we used the indicator function, the unobserved preferences in Eq. (1) were translated to the observed binary equation for each choice as follows:In the multivariate model, where the adoption of several CAP is probable, the error terms mutually follow a multivariate normal distribution with zero mean and variance normalized to unity [20] .Where: μA, μI, μC, μR, μM, μZ ∼: MVN (0, ) and the symmetric covariance matrix X is given by: The off-diagonal elements in the covariance matrix are of particular interest, representing the unobserved correlation between the stochastic components of the different types of CAP. This assumption means that Eq. ( 2) generates an MVP model that jointly represents decisions to adopt a particular farming practice. The use of non-zero off-diagonal elements in this specification allows for cross-correlation. The error terms of several latent equations, which represent unobserved characteristics that affect the choice of alternative CAP. When analyzing the determinants of adoption, we consider the influence of non-observable household characteristics on adoption decisions. For instance, there may be a correlation between plot-invariant characteristics (managerial ability) and the decision to adopt a particular CA technology. A pooled MVP model is consistent because unobserved heterogeneity is uncorrelated with observed explanatory variables. We exploited the multiple plot observations nature of our data and estimated Eq. ( 2) with and without Mundlak's [28] approach. However, this was to control for unobserved heterogeneity, including the means of plot-varying explanatory variables (e.g. average of plot characteristics, plot distance to the home of a farmer) as additional covariates in the regression model.From our MVP model above, we conceptualized that before adopting one or more CAP, a farm household compares the net benefit of adopting and not adopting and only chooses to adopt the new CAP if the net benefit is more significant than non-adoption. Farm households tend to adopt more CAP if the household derives higher utility from the previous adoption. However, the MVP model is limited to estimating the intensity of the adoption of CAP. We, therefore, adopted the ordered probit model to evaluate the intensity of adoption. In addition, we considered assessing the extent of adoption by the numbers of CAP adopted at the household levels. This concept is related to a Poisson count distribution model; however, a Poisson distribution contradicts our assumption of the interdependence of CAP which renders it inappropriate. Usually, a standard analytical process of assessing the intensity of adoption considers the proportion of land area stipulated by some adoption studies [6] . As a result of data limitation on variables related to this, we treated our dependent variable as an ordinal variable that follows categories of ordered outcomes, for example, households that adopt one, two, or more CAP. Following Cameron and Trivedi [8] , our ordered outcomes are modelled sequentially as a latent variable y * , where y * is an underlying unobserved measure of households' adoption of CAP in numbers, and it is specified as follows:For a j th farm household where normalization is that the regressors x do not include an intercept, for a low y * , adoption of CAP is low, for y * > 1, the number of CAP increases, for y * > 2, adoption increases further, and this continues further. For m categories following a standard ordered probability model, the probability of observing outcome i corresponds to the following:Where μ i is assumed to be normally distributed with a standard normal cumulative distribution function. The coefficients β 1 . . . . . . . . . β k is jointly estimated with the cutpoints α 1 , α 2 , . . . . . . α k −1 , where k is the number of possible outcomes. The description of the outcome and control variables in the model are presented in Table 1 .Average age of agricultural household heads is estimated at 44 years, with 18 years of farming experience ( Table 1 ), thus indicating that heads of these households are still in their productive agriculture years. Age plays a vital role in driving household decisions to embrace agricultural novelties in many adoption studies since it might represent experience in farming methods and use. However, age is said to have a diverse outcome on CAP acceptance (Nigussie et al., 2017). Furthermore, many homes (about 45%) are headed by a woman. While this suggests that females play an important role in farming, it does not diminish the significance of male-heads, who may be land administrators impacting adoption preferences.The average home size in the study area is seven, which implies a typical large family environment. Most agricultural settings in developing nations have large family sizes, signifying the potential for family labor use. The average farm size cultivated by many farmers is 2.42 hectares, demonstrating that the mainstream of farmers in this area are typical rural farmers. The size of a farm influences technological adoption. Larger farms size holders are more inclined to accept new methods because they can devote a section of their land to testing emerging innovations, whereas farmers with smaller farmlands are far less willing to do so (Gebremariam and Tesfaye, 2018).Also, household size is a determining factor of CAP adoption especially at the household level for family farmlands [33] . The size of the household for example is very necessary in adopting soil and water-saving technologies, because they demand for additional labor requirements (Gebremariam andTesfaye, 2018). Household statistics revealed that 80 percent of household heads had at least one year of formal training, implying that most household heads are uninformed and unable to understand best farming techniques and technical knowledge uptake.The survey also reveals that about half of household heads are tenure secured, which is ascribed to difficulties in transferring tenure rights, as in most Central African countries [27] . While the role of extension service remains paramount to promote modern agriculture, only approximately 36% and 18% of farmers had a contact with an extension worker and farm financing, respectively. Contacts with extension advisers are critical for raising awareness, showcasing farm practical trials and techniques, while prompting sustained adoption. Paradoxically, access to extension services remains low, indicating a significant alleged risk of CAP adoption among farmers. Nevertheless, research has proven that farmer contacts with extension advisers have a favorable stimulus on uptake of innovative agricultural practices (Wekesa et al., 2017).According to Wekesa et al. ( 2017) agricultural finance is a major driver of technological adoption. This study affirms this for only very few farmers had access to agricultural loans, a possible explanation to low adoption rates in this area. The average years of farming expertise in this area is 18 years. This knowledge allows them to compare the performance of new and old farming technologies and gain confidence in taking farming risks which is a critical aspect to agricultural success.According to the findings, farmers in both regions adopt the following conservation agriculture practices: agroforestry (planting fruit trees in crops land), intercropping, cover crops, crop rotation, mulching, and zero/minimum tillage. Interestingly, Table 3 shows that agroforestry (fruit trees in cropland) was implemented by most smallholder farmers (61.82%), this is because of the economic benefits they get from fruits harvested from these trees. While mulching was the least popular conservation agriculture method (17.38%).Table 4 displays the multivariate probit model's coefficient estimations. The correlation of CAP error terms suggests our six CAPs under consideration are interdependent. The findings showed that the model's log-likelihood ratio (LR) of -1058.61 and the Wald2 (114) = 252.23 is significant at (P0.00), indicating that the model is well-fitting. The significance of LR also implies that the decision to use several conservation farming strategies is interconnected. This relevance level is derived from the fact that identical unobserved home factors can influence the adoption of various CAP (Oyetunde-Usman et al., 2020).Gender of household head has a beneficial consequence on agroforestry uptake. According to findings from this research, men were more likely than women to use agroforestry. This prediction backs up prior research that males control farming resources and, as a result, easily embrace practices that require more resources [ 31 , 33 ]. However, it contradicts Musafiri et al. [29] , who showed that females are more likely to pursue agroforestry.The findings show that old farmers use agroforestry, cover crops, and zero tillage more, whereas young farmers use more of intercropping, crop rotation, and mulching. The disparities in these practices could be attributed to young farmers' capacity to recognize the value of sustainable farming practices such as intercropping and mulching. These results conformed with those of Negera et al. [31] who explained that older farmers prefer to stick to the practices they already know than indulging in new exploits.Farm size is significant (p = 0.01) only for driving cover cropping adoption, meaning that increase in farm size enhances the household chances of adopting cover crops as a conservation farming approach. As a result, a farmer with a larger farm size has more financial resources and greater area to devote to enhancing technology adoption. They can also purchase more advanced and sophisticated technologies, as well as the ability to bear risk if the equipment fails to function properly. Deininger et al. (2008) found that farm size was substantially connected to the likelihood of investing in conserving soil and water. However, Soutamenou and Parrot [35] contrast with such findings and further explained landsize as a relative measure that is specific to context and thus cannot be generalized. Correspondingly, Menale (2010) found that farm size was associated with the adoption of numerous CAP methods since it mirrors capital, which alleviates liquidity limitations in applying the practices. They discovered that farmhouses with large farms have greater chances to use current technology than farmers with smaller farm sizes.Contact with extension agents had a considerable beneficial influence on cover crop uptake, whereas mulching had a negative influence. Extension agents are critical in raising knowledge of and showcasing new CAP technology. Fundamentally, the more contacts made, the more knowledge gained, because sustainable farming necessitates new abilities such as observation, monitoring, and risk assessment. The results relate to the necessity of knowledge on applying cover crop strategies rather than mulching. These results are in support with those of Gido et al. [15] , who postulates that extension advice is important for developing institutional frameworks that facilitate the propagation and transfer of information. However, our findings, agree with Anang et al. [2] , who emphasized the vitality of extension service in increasing new farm method acceptance.Availability of loans for farming has a negative impact on zero tillage adoption and this is contradictory to the results of Lee and Gambiza [23] . Farmers with access to agricultural financing no longer see the need to use zero-tillage since they have more money to spend on inputs for other techniques. Furthermore, the distance between home and farm encourages the use of agroforestry, intercropping, and zero tillage. Shorter distances encourage farmers to adopt these strategies. The number of farmlands a farmer owns has a favorable influence on zero tillage adoption, and a farmer with more cultivable farms has the comfort of experimenting with various farming techniques on one of the farms. In contrast, marital status had a strong negative relationship on zero tillage adoption. Marriage generates family labor, and because women and children can assist in crop production, processing, and marketing, the household can engage in more labor demanding agricultural practices such as intercropping.Land ownership also facilitates household decision to implement innovative farm methods. According to findings from this study, land security played a substantial role in increasing the use of cover crops. Sotamenou and Parrot [35] reported land ownership to be a major factor in the adoption of compost in the West regions of Cameroon. As a result, farmers who own their farms may employ intricate and resource demanding conservation methods. This consequence could be because land security permits farmers to explore complicated technologies, impacting cover crop use. Also, soil fertility had a considerable impact on zero-tillage adoption but had a negative impact on mulching adoption. This can be clarified further by stating that soil fertility is said to impact the uptake of recovery methods, and zero-tillage is a soil fertility recovery practice. As a result, a farmer with infertile soils will prefer zero-tillage to mulching. The discovery could boost soil fertility by utilizing minimal tillage, hence increasing livelihood and food security.Furthermore, farmers may expect reduced output from infertile soils, resulting in a refusal to apply more costly strategies. This finding supports that of Musafiri et al. [29] . Furthermore, the coefficient for a farmer using modern farm technologies such as improved seeds is a significant promoter of adoption of intercropping and mulching as conservation farming methods. However, modern farm technology is a facilitator of farmer's uptake of cover crop and zero-tillage. Results from this research postulates modern agricultural techniques to be a predicting factor for the likelihood of farmers in Cameroon's South and East Forests using conservation farming strategies such as intercropping and mulching.The number of animals owned has a favorable influence on intercropping, cover crop, and crop rotation adoption but has a negative influence on agroforestry adoption. The findings revealed that as animal ownership increased, so did the proclivity for intercropping, cover crops, and crop rotation. The larger requirement for animal manure for crop farms may explain the influence of livestock ownership on intercropping, cover cropping, and crop rotation. However, animal dung might potentially be used to boost soil fertility by being applied to agricultural land. Nonetheless, these outcomes align with Ndeke et al. [30] , who indicates keeping livestock as a strong predictor of improved technology adoption.Smallholder farmers must enhance their adoption intensity in order to improve agricultural yields and revenue while also reducing the effects of climate change [33] . From our findings the model used is significant, as indicated by the LR Chi 2 (18) = 41.36 and Prob > chi 2 = 0.0014. This degree of significance shows that the ordered probit model is trustworthy. Gender of household head indicated severity of CAP adoption ( Table 5 ).According to the findings, male-headed households improve their agricultural methods more than female house heads. This can be ascribed to the fact that men in this area have an edge over land and labor [20] . However, these results are contrary to those of Oyetunde-Usman et al. [33] , which postulate female-headed families to boost sustainable farming methods, attributing this to a shortage of complementary inputs. They are, nevertheless, identical to Musafiri et al. [29] . Short distance from home to farmland affects CA adoption intensity positively and significantly, which is consistent with other findings [35] . Given that valuable equipment and materials are typically owned by households for security reasons, the closer the land is to the house, the greater the likelihood of storing and, as a result, adopting CAP.Our results reject the claim that smallholder farmer adoption of more than one CAP increased with distance from the farm. This is attributed to the fact that, households that reside far from the farm, nevertheless, are more likely to use CAP. This conclusion explains why farmers will want to optimize the amount of time they spend on the farm and thus implement many farm technologies to ensure a satisfactory harvest if one way fails. Contrary to popular belief, access to farms that drive adoption may not be limited by distance and may rely on locally available information networks. The strong forecast of our results of government subsidies on multiple CAP adoption meant that smallholder farmers who got subsidies were more inclined to intensify agricultural methods. Receiving subsidies encourages the smallholder farmer to try a new farm practice, thus boosting their use of CAP.Furthermore, livestock ownership has a considerable impact on CAP intensification, as shown in Table 5 . This finding emphasizes the significance of animals in agricultural intensification, with the possibility that animal droppings are employed as manure. However, these outcomes align with results of Ehiakpor et al. [11] , who ascribed cattle ownership to have a considerable impact on intensity of sustainable farming methods uptake. This fervor is ascribed to the likelihood of selling animals to buy farm need like agricultural chemicals, manures, and improved seeds.This paper addresses the adoption of conservation agricultural methods in Cameroon by evaluating the scope of CAP implementation and the intensity of CAP adoption. Previous studies show that factors associated with the adoption of CAP are interwoven with social, demographic, and Institutional aspects. For our case study, the multivariate probit model (MVP) regression was used to estimate the factors that influenced the adoption of CA practices. The ordered probit model was then employed to analyze the intensity of adoption. From the MVP estimation, our study finds that gender, age of house head, family size, extension advise, usage of contemporary farm technology, distance from house to farm, animals owned, and infertile soil enhanced farmers' potential to adopt CA. Results of the ordered probit analysis on intensity of adoption attributes the respondent's gender, distance from home to farm, and animal ownership as important determinants of CAP adoption intensity.This study has important policy implications that traverse through the African Union's Agenda 2063 to the Malabo Declaration. A better performing farm sector not only guarantees food security but also good nutrition, health, farm value, and protection of the continent's natural endowments. A resilient climate-smart agricultural sector would imply economic and socially resilient communities in the face of climate change. There are therefore gains for agricultural policy and investments that prioritize the adoption and applicability CSA. This research contributes to better understanding of gender, government subsidy, and livestock ownership as central factors in promoting adoption of climate smart agriculture. Policy that alleviates the challenges faced by women farmers, ensure properly tailored subsidy programmes and facilitates mixed farming whereby the livestock component would contribute to the promotion and development of sustainable agriculture which is climate smart. Therefore, not only does this study shed new light on the area or country under study, but also on the central African countries that share similar ecological zones. Moreover, this study adds to the body of knowledge that intercropping, cover crops, and crop rotation are more likely to be adopted by farmers in areas where integrated crop-livestock farms are present than in areas where these practices are not.Considering the foregoing, we recommend that policymakers develop pro-farmer policies that incorporate rural farmers own indigenous ideas of conserving land and their environment not only focusing on the obvious rational proven approaches. Given that a multitude of factors influence CAP adoption, planners should look outside the box when optimizing CAP adoption to address smallholder views on soil fertility, erosion, and climate variability. More importantly, attention should be directed to farmers who are able to timely perceive issues on fertility and erosion of soils, and climate variability to increase CAP implementation.","tokenCount":"6169"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4e3a4aa02563b12a26e2e2123a0a9d21","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fc8bda2f-46c5-4a19-9113-bcb045eb7eb9/retrieve","id":"2079818030"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"01ebbeb9-15a7-4722-86ea-c10ebe11c4be","pagecount":"12","content":"Colombia, como país megadiverso, vulnerable a los impactos del cambio climático y actor activo en las convenciones ambientales de las Naciones Unidas, muestra su compromiso global a través de metas ambiciosas para su contexto nacional en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CDB). Sin embargo, la dependencia nacional de la agricultura plantea desafíos críticos, especialmente en la intersección de políticas asociadas con el cambio climático y la biodiversidad.Los sistemas alimentarios colombianos, fundamentales para la economía nacional, enfrentan retos considerables, incluyendo la emisión significativa de gases de efecto invernadero y la pérdida de biodiversidad por cambios del uso del suelo. Según el Informe del Inventario Nacional de Gases Efecto Invernadero [2], las emisiones derivadas de la producción agrícola en 2018 alcanzaron los 179.065,89 Gg de CO 2 , aportando el 91,11% del total del sector AFOLU (Agricultura, Silvicultura y Otros Usos de la Tierra, por sus siglas en inglés). Al mismo tiempo, la ganadería extensivaLos sistemas alimentarios abarcan una amplia gama de actores involucrados en actividades que van desde la producción hasta el consumo y disposición de alimentos, trascendiendo los límites tradicionales de la agricultura y la industria alimentaria para abordar aspectos ambientales, sociales y económicos [3]. Los esfuerzos para alcanzar sistemas alimentarios sostenibles buscan garantizar la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición para todas las personas, preservando fundamentos económicos, sociales, culturales y ecológicos esenciales para las generaciones futuras [3,5].La transformación hacia sistemas alimentarios sostenibles resulta crucial en la conexión entre las políticas de biodiversidad y clima [6]. Por ejemplo, la deforestación, impulsada en gran medida por la creciente demanda de alimentos, afecta negativamente los ecosistemas, exacerbando los efectos del cambio climático y la pérdida de biodiversidad. Esto, a su vez, puede conducir a la inseguridad hídrica, y afectar la disponibilidad y el acceso a una dieta diversa y nutritiva, principalmente en zonas rurales [7,8]. Sin embargo, los esfuerzos que buscan reducir los impactos de la agricultura en los ecosistemas no necesariamente integran aspectos de seguridad alimentaria y nutricional.rompecabezas alimentario], identifica palancas de transformación para orientar los esfuerzos hacia sistemas alimentarios más sostenibles [5]. El mismo estudio prioriza seis áreas de intervención en Colombia, las cuales incluyen el manejo de los recursos naturales, la gobernanza y las instituciones, la educación y el conocimiento, la tecnología, el comercio y las finanzas.Priorizar estas áreas de intervención en las políticas y acciones nacionales es fundamental para lograr una transformación efectiva de los sistemas alimentarios en el país, generando beneficios ambientales y sociales significativos.El análisis de coherencia de políticas públicas comienza con el mapeo de leyes, documentos CONPES, decretos, resoluciones y planes nacionales relacionados con biodiversidad, clima y desarrollo. Posteriormente, se establecen criterios de priorización que incluyen la definición del orden territorial, el alcance de instrumentos de política y la definición de objetivos en la documentación oficial. Consecutivamente, se examina la alineación de las políticas seleccionadas con las seis áreas de intervención de los sistemas alimentarios propuestas por WWF.Para realizar el análisis, se emplean técnicas de minería de texto y procesamiento del lenguaje, con el fin de identificar objetivos de políticas y su relación con las palancas de transformación de sistemas alimentarios, presentando los resultados en matrices y diagramas de flujo [9,10].El Plan Nacional de Desarrollo para el período 2022-2026 sobresale por su sólida alineación con todas las áreas de intervención analizadas (1. manejo de los recursos naturales, 2. gobernanza e instituciones, 3. educación y conocimiento, 4. tecnología, 5. comercio y 6. finanzas). Sin embargo, los planes orientados al desarrollo forestal y a la promoción de la economía campesina muestran una menor coherencia con estas áreas, ya que se centran en la restauración de la biodiversidad y en la optimización del uso de recursos terrestres, respectivamente. Además, tanto el Plan Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático como el Plan de Acción de Biodiversidad presentan una falta de conexión con áreas de intervención vinculadas con educación y conocimiento, así como un nexo débil con el área de intervención relacionada con la tecnología.En términos generales, las áreas de intervención de finanzas y gobernanza reciben las calificaciones más bajas en comparación con los planes nacionales y las acciones políticas. Los planes nacionales menos alineados se centran en cadenas de valor específicas, como el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo Forestal y el Plan para la Promoción de la Economía Campesina, los cuales se enfocan principalmente en la conexión con los mercados y el comercio. Es fundamental mejorar la coherencia entre estas políticas para garantizar una transformación efectiva hacia sistemas alimentarios más sostenibles y equitativos en Colombia (ver Figura 1).Solo dos de los seis planes (el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo y el Plan Nacional de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional) consideran aspectos conectados con la nutrición, mientras que otros, como el Plan de Acción de Biodiversidad, el Plan de Adaptación al Cambio Climático y el Plan para la Promoción de la Economía Campesina, no abordan la dimensión nutricional o lo hacen de forma insuficiente. Adicionalmente, las políticas enfocadas en el sistema alimentario, como la promoción de la economía Orinoquía ( WWF/J.García) campesina, se centran exclusivamente en aspectos de conexión de mercados, descuidando elementos cruciales asociados con la mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático, así como la protección de la biodiversidad.Con respecto a la acción climática, la mayoría de los planes coinciden en la reducción de la deforestación, y la restauración y protección de ecosistemas degradados. Aunque el Plan de Desarrollo Forestal muestra una integración relativamente débil en comparación con otros planes, al enfocarse principalmente en cadenas forestales productivas.  Las políticas nacionales clave en Colombia, como las Contribuciones Determinadas a Nivel Nacional (NDC, por sus siglas en inglés), el documento CONPES 4021 sobre la Política Nacional para el Control de la Deforestación y la Gestión Sostenible de los Bosques, y las Guías Alimentarias Basadas en Alimentos para la Población Colombiana Mayor de 2 Años (GABAS), muestran una sólida alineación con las áreas de intervención de los sistemas alimentarios. Las NDC de Colombia establecen un compromiso ambicioso de reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, enfocándose en el manejo sostenible de los recursos naturales, con estrategias clave como el aumento del almacenamiento de carbono y la restauración de la biodiversidad. El CONPES 4021 se compromete a reducir la deforestación en un 50% para 2030, lo que coincide con las áreas de intervención de los sistemas alimentarios, especialmente en el manejo de los recursos naturales, crucial para la seguridad alimentaria y la sostenibilidad. Las GABAS recomiendan una dieta sostenible y nutritiva, subrayando la necesidad de una mayor conexión entre objetivos de política y aspectos como gobernanza, educación, comercio y finanzas para fortalecer la cadena de valor alimentaria (ver Figura 2). El Plan Nacional de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional 2012-2019 (PNSAN) y el Plan para la Promoción de la Economía Campesina podrían enriquecerse al integrar temas vinculados con la restauración de la biodiversidad y acciones de mitigación. Se reconoce la estrecha conexión entre la biodiversidad, el cambio climático y los impactos nutricionales, particularmente en poblaciones vulnerables [4].Para optimizar el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo Forestal (PNDF) y su contribución a la transición hacia sistemas alimentarios más sostenibles, es crucial fortalecer aspectos de gobernanza. Esto implica mejorar los derechos de propiedad de la tierra y brindar un sólido respaldo a los pequeños agricultores. Estas medidas fomentarán un entorno propicio para la implementación eficaz de prácticas forestales y agrícolas sostenibles, promoviendo así la conservación de los recursos naturales y la seguridad nutricional y alimentaria a largo plazo.Basadas en Alimentos para la Población Colombiana Mayor de 2 Años (GABAS) consideren la integración de aspectos relacionados con la gobernanza. Esto implicaría no solo ofrecer pautas sobre una alimentación saludable, sino también abordar cómo se gestionan y regulan los sistemas alimentarios en el país. La inclusión de este enfoque podría contribuir a promover no solo la nutrición adecuada, sino también la sostenibilidad y la equidad en el acceso a alimentos saludables.Con relación a esta área de transformación, tanto el Plan de Acción de Biodiversidad como el Plan de Desarrollo Forestal podrían beneficiarse considerablemente de una mayor sensibilización pública. Asimismo, el Plan para la Promoción de la Economía Campesina podría potenciarse mediante una integración más amplia que promueva tanto la producción como el consumo de alimentos tradicionales. De manera similar, tanto las Guías Alimentarias Basadas en Alimentos para la Población Colombiana Mayor de 2 Años (GABAS) como la Política Nacional para el Control de la Deforestación y la Gestión Sostenible de los Bosques (CONPES 4021) podrían enriquecerse con programas de educación y sensibilización. Estos programas podrían abarcar desde la promoción de dietas saludables y sostenibles hasta la concientización sobre la importancia de la conservación de los bosques y la biodiversidad.En el ámbito de la tecnología, el Plan de Acción de Biodiversidad, el Plan Nacional de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional, y las Guías Basadas en Alimentos podrían incrementar su potencial con una mayor inversión, la cual sería fundamental para impulsar el desarrollo y la implementación de soluciones tecnológicas innovadoras que mejoren la conservación de la biodiversidad, y promuevan dietas y sistemas alimentarios sostenibles. De igual manera, el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo Forestal podría beneficiarse significativamente de inversiones en infraestructura adecuada para la promoción de la gestión forestal sostenible, el manejo de recursos naturales y el desarrollo económico.En relación con el área de intervención de comercio, una oportunidad clave para potenciar el Plan Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático es integrar aspectos relacionados con el desarrollo de cadenas de suministro que sean beneficiosas para la naturaleza. Este enfoque no solo fortalecería la resiliencia ante el cambio climático, sino que también promovería prácticas comerciales sostenibles y responsables con el medio ambiente, incluyendo iniciativas como la promoción de productos y servicios ecológicos, la adopción de prácticas de producción sostenibles y la conservación de ecosistemas clave a lo largo de la cadena de valor.En el campo financiero para la transformación hacia sistemas alimentarios sostenibles, se presenta una oportunidad significativa para mejorar y ampliar la efectividad de varios planes y estrategias claves. Por ejemplo, el Plan de Acción de Biodiversidad y las NDC podrían beneficiarse enormemente al enfocarse en mejorar el acceso a financiamiento y subsidios destinados a optimizar la producción agrícola. Este enfoque ayudaría a incentivar prácticas agrícolas sostenibles, la mitigación del cambio climático y la conservación de la biodiversidad.Del mismo modo, otros planes importantes como el Plan para la Promoción de la Economía Campesina, el Plan de Adaptación al Cambio Climático, el Plan de Acción Nacional de Lucha contra la Desertificación y la Sequía en Colombia y el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo Forestal podrían fortalecerse mediante una mayor atención a los aspectos que involucran los subsidios para mejorar la producción agrícola sostenible. Al proporcionar un apoyo financiero adecuado y orientado a estas áreas, se podría fomentar la adopción de prácticas agrícolas amigables con el medio ambiente, la resiliencia ante el cambio climático y la protección de los recursos naturales. Los avances en la creación de marcos normativos y regulaciones para la implementación de las NDC, como la Ley de Acción Climática, son notables [11]. Sin embargo, para abordar de manera integral los sistemas alimentarios, es fundamental considerar aspectos como la nutrición, la gestión del desperdicio de alimentos y la promoción de dietas saludables [4,5]. Aunque la relación entre las NDC y la nutrición no se expresa explícitamente, estas abordan otros aspectos relevantes para los sistemas alimentarios, como la promoción de la ganadería sostenible, la implementación de mesas agroclimáticas para mejorar la resiliencia de los cultivos y el impulso a mejoras tecnológicas en la agricultura.A continuación, se presentan las oportunidades y desafíos de los compromisos multilaterales de clima y biodiversidad en Colombia.Actualización del Plan de Acción de Biodiversidad como una oportunidad para fortalecer la gestión de la biodiversidad en el país, considerando los sistemas alimentarios.Integración de un enfoque de sistemas alimentarios en la actualización del Plan de Acción de Biodiversidad.Desarrollo de indicadores más precisos para evaluar el impacto de las acciones en la protección de la biodiversidad y su contribución a los sistemas alimentarios.Impulsar la integración de las áreas de intervención en las políticas relacionadas con el cambio climático y la biodiversidad, con el fin de facilitar una transición fluida hacia sistemas alimentarios más sostenibles.Implementar efectivamente los marcos normativos y regulaciones para las NDC, abordando aspectos como la nutrición, la gestión del desperdicio de alimentos y la promoción de dietas saludables.Abordar la persistencia de la deforestación como una amenaza para la biodiversidad en Colombia, mediante acciones coordinadas y efectivas.Cultivo de cacao en Santander ( CIAT/E.Ramírez)Al consultar sobre los resultados del análisis con diversos actores interesados en fortalecer las políticas públicas relacionadas con biodiversidad, clima y alimentación en Colombia, como el Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Agrosavia y los Ministerios de Salud y Protección Social y de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible, se destacaron varios puntos clave. En primer lugar, se enfatizó la necesidad de adoptar un enfoque integral que aborde la complejidad e interconexión de los sistemas alimentarios, lo que permitiría alcanzar un impacto significativo. Estos actores también resaltaron actividades clave enmarcadas en las áreas de intervención priorizadas por WWF, áreas cruciales para mejorar la implementación de la agenda de sistemas alimentarios sostenibles.En relación con el área de gobernanza e instituciones, los actores subrayaron la importancia de la participación de actores gubernamentales y de la sociedad civil en el diseño e implementación de políticas y acciones para promover sistemas alimentarios sostenibles. Además, resaltaron la necesidad de una colaboración más estrecha entre diferentes sectores y la articulación de diversas agendas, tanto a nivel nacional como territorial, para abordar de manera conjunta los desafíos alimentarios y nutricionales.Con respeto al área de educación y conocimiento, destacaron la importancia de fortalecer las capacidades y la coordinación entre los diferentes actores. Esto incluye la capacitación en enfoques sistémicos y la sensibilización sobre la importancia de la sostenibilidad alimentaria.En general, los actores coinciden en la importancia de integrar un enfoque sistémico en las políticas nacionales y los compromisos multilaterales para abordar los desafíos conectados a los sistemas alimentarios. La producción de alimentos desempeña un papel crucial en la pérdida de bosques, la biodiversidad y las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero a nivel mundial, así como en la nutrición de una creciente población. Para enfrentar estos desafíos, es fundamental alinear las políticas nacionales con los acuerdos internacionales y palancas de transformación hacia sistemas alimentarios sostenibles.Se concluye que es necesario integrar un enfoque de sistemas alimentarios en las políticas nacionales relacionadas con el cambio climático, la biodiversidad y el desarrollo sostenible. Tanto a nivel nacional como internacional, se reconoce la importancia de adaptar y transformar estos sistemas para hacer frente a los desafíos del cambio climático y la pérdida de biodiversidad.Con relación a los conceptos emergentes en torno a los sistemas alimentarios sostenibles, se enfatiza la importancia de garantizar la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición para todas las personas, preservando simultáneamente aspectos económicos, sociales, culturales y ecológicos. Asimismo, se destaca la necesidad de abordar la interconexión entre las políticas de biodiversidad y clima para lograr una transformación efectiva. Lo cual, a su vez, subraya la importancia de mejorar la integración entre los diferentes planes y políticas nacionales con las áreas de transformación propuestas. Esto es fundamental para garantizar una transición efectiva hacia sistemas alimentarios más sostenibles.En lo que respecta a los compromisos multilaterales de clima y biodiversidad, se identifican oportunidades para fortalecer la gestión de la biodiversidad en Colombia. Sin embargo, se observan retos en la implementación efectiva de marcos normativos y regulaciones.Finalmente, las recomendaciones de los actores enfatizan la importancia de adoptar un enfoque integral que aborde la complejidad e interconexión de los sistemas alimentarios. Se destaca la necesidad de mejorar la colaboración entre diferentes sectores y la articulación de diversas agendas para abordar los desafíos de manera efectiva.Galería El Porvenir, Cali ( F. Villa)Julio 2024alliancebioversityciat.org cgiar.org/initiative wwf.orgLa Alianza es parte de CGIAR, un consorcio mundial de investigación para un futuro sin hambre, dedicado a transformar los sistemas alimentarios, terrestres y acuáticos en medio de una crisis climática.","tokenCount":"2638"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fb8a0de5874552e4e7da7df05568df8e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/93e99e44-36a8-44af-961f-8b688feeaef5/retrieve","id":"-1795463617"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"29300b8d-2b5b-480a-b3cc-4d160a37c8be","pagecount":"23","content":"Aggregated comments on the second draft of the OA Policy FUNDER / INTERESTED OBSERVER COMMENTS Author Comment Comment / Action taken GFAR In general, a clear policy promoting open access for the products of the CGIAR is widely welcomed. Handled well, this should open up many new opportunities for information use in agriculture & rural development, in particular in support of the needs of smallholder farmers and for small and medium enterprises & service providers working directly with farmers.GFAR stakeholders also considered that the CGIAR Open Access policy draft thus far addresses only a part of the challenge of opening access through into use of such data/information by and for the poor. Strong concerns were raised by farmers and NGOs as to whether enough processes were included to ensure that newly-accessible data could be made available, be made applicable and be appropriated to the needs of the resource-poor farmers in particular and reflect the CGIAR's wider responsibilities in specifically benefiting the poor. These areas clearly require further augmentation in the policy.This includes consideration of who will be best able to benefit from the open access data/information and proactive measures to ensure that the poor do directly and indirectly benefit, not just those who have greatest financial power for adoption and appropriation of the data/information concerned. There are real issues as to how the poorest farmers and local enterprises can be assured of benefit from being able to themselves make use of the CGIAR's information and data. There are concerns on whether the measures proposed here can, in themselves, enable access and use by and for the poor smallholder farmers. The NGO community summarized these further needs well:Full endorsement in practice will be subject to the as yet unavailable implementation guidelines. One of the issues to address in the implementation guidelines is whether the Consortium will exercise oversight in the future, beyond actions supported through the Fund itself, on decisions made by individual Centers on the contracts with the private sector which could limit data and information access. The current Consortium constitution seems to leave this question rather unresolved. For the Fund Council to make a clear decision on the Policy, it would be very helpful to have a clear understanding of the restrictions already in place on open access through existing contracts between the Centers and third parties.The draft so far does not take into consideration several issues vital for its stated purpose. From the IA principles: \"CGIAR regards the results of its research and development activities as international public goods and is committed to their widespread dissemination and use to achieve the maximum impact to advantage the poor, especially smallholder farmers in developing countries.\"Noted, the specific processes will be outlined and explained in the implementation guidelines. Specific reference will be given to farmers' rights and traditional knowledge in the arena of open access.The issue of oversight will be finalized in the implementation phase. Initial oversight will be by the CO, in keeping with the Intellectual Assets Policy.The statement: \"The Consortium and the Centers shall promptly and broadly disseminate their research results, subject to confidentiality as may be associated with [certain] permitted restrictions, or subject to limited delays to seek IP Rights [(patents, etc.)]\" seems rather vague. The issue of what is available and who benefits from making that information (e.g. a genome sequence of a traditional variety) available seems rather unfocused at present, yet availability is a key first step to access. It is not clear who and how will determine what is available for access. There must be an \"open\" process to determine availability. The policy should include reference to this mechanism to be set up as a part of the process for open access. Similarly, some in the NGO community have questioned why the CGIAR's decision-making and prioritization processes are not also included in the policy.While the broad consideration of germplasm falls under the wider IA principles, rather than this policy, it is observed that there is no mention in sections 4.1.1 or 4.1.3 of farmers' rights (which are collective rights) alongside those made of intellectual property rights, yet the CGIAR Intellectual Assets Principles & their Implementation guidelines now directly recognize the importance of both forms of rights , as has been set out in the GFAR 2013 Review paper \"Mechanisms by which centers of the CGIAR Consortium can support the development of appropriate policies and procedures for the recognition and promotion of farmers' rights\". Farmers' rights should be directly referred to alongside Intellectual Property Rights.\"Open access\" without making data and information \"applicable\" or organized, structured and useable, leaves the applicability policy hanging. There should be clear linkages to internationally accepted standards for information and, more importantly, agricultural information management (see more detailed comments below from the Open Access movement).There cannot be widespread use without \"Appropriation\" -Open access and even applicability of data and information does not ensure that it can be and will be used by the user communities and that there will be development impact. There must be a process within/linked with the open accessThe process for determination should be hardwired into the data management process of any research group. The process of collecting, storing, granting (or restricting) access should be made by reference to this policy and the upcoming guidelines.The updated version of the OA policy includes specific reference to farmers' rights and the upcoming implementation guidelines will addressed this issue in detail.Absolutely, and the implementation guidelines will include specific standards and guides to facilitate this process.Agreed, this level of detail will be set out in the upcoming implementation guidelines.1. Most documentation and data is of a standard and complexity which cannot be directly understood and used by smallholder farmers, their representatives or community-based organizations.2. To reach resource poor smallholder farmers (fishermen, pastoralists etc.) information and data useful to them will be required to be extracted and translated into a simpler form (even local languages) which can be understood by them.3. Open access will not automatically benefit the smallholders and more is required to enable them to access the information. Development NGOs have been performing the work of reaching out to smallholders -educating, creating awareness, facilitating adoption/adaptation of improved practices. This must be recognized and they should be enabled with resources-information (explanation and clarification) and finances as required to perform this important role. 4. Active support to NGOs to understand and apply the knowledge created -initially validate it more broadly with wider smallholder experimentation/ application and results is required for it to be of use and lead to empowerment and development. This is a vitally important part of this process. However, first the information needs to be accessible, which is not always the case. The methods of assisting access by all will flow from the availability of platforms and tools to download and interrogate the information that is made available.1. The CGIAR members should establish repositories at the earliest and start populating it with already published Open Access peer reviewed journal articles. And when the policy is implemented, all the future scholarly articles may be deposited either as publisher versions or author's post-print versions formats.2. Under 4.2.6., GNU Public License may be mentioned in the examples and it is suggested that CGIAR adopt CC-BY http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ and software produced by the CGIAR and its partners. for all the works and the GNU General Public License.3. Though CC-BY is suggested for the data and information for commercial purpose, we should ensure that the Multi National Corporations should not use the data and information for their company's benefits and profits. With the suitable IPR laws, we need to safeguard the data and information.4, We should have a proper capacity building of the resource poor farmers and others who can effectively use the opened up Data and Information and can create an impact. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html 5. In section 2, 'Monographs' is missing in the scope and the brochures, flyers for events or promotional material for books mentioned under the section 2 can be made available under Creative Commons open license. 6. Under the section 4.1.4., Open Archives Initiative protocol or OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) should be specifically used and similarly under the section 4.1.6., Absolutely, the updated draft includes a preference for the use of repositories and self-archiving in general.Noted, this will be referenced in the implementation guidelines.Noted, relevant examples will be set out in the implementation guidelines.Noted, the list is non-exhaustive and could be included in reference to books.Agreed, this is the intention -more detailed guidance will be included in Comment Comment / Action taken 'Creative Commons' should be used. 7. 'Open Formats' can be used when speaking about 'Alternate Versions' of Data and Information.8. Even if the articles are published in Open Access journals, all the articles should be self-archived in the repositories so that all the articles are made available at the repository'. the implementation guidelines.Noted and this should be the recommended practice. GFAR NGOs (CSO-GARD)The intention and effort of the CGIAR for Open Access Policy on information and data generated by CGIAR institutions, projects and partners is appreciated by NGOs. We hope this extends to planting material/genetic material developed or accessed from various sources by CGIAR which could be used or adapted for use by farmers. A clear deadline, earlier the better, for open access of information and data is also desirable.In addition, there are concerns on whether this measure alone can enable access and use by the poor smallholder farmers:1. Most documentation and data is of a standard and complexity which cannot be directly understood and used by smallholder farmers, their representatives or community based organisations.2. To reach resource poor smallholder farmers (fishermen, pastoralists etc.) information and data useful to them will be required to be extracted and translated into a simpler form (even local languages) which can be understood by them.3. Open access will not automatically benefit the smallholders and more is required to enable them to access the information. Development NGOs have been performing the work of reaching out to smallholders -educating, creating awareness, facilitating adoption/adaptation of improved practices. This must be recognized and they should be enabled with resources-information (explanation and clarification) and finances as required to perform this important role.Noted.Noted, this is included in the policy and the guidelines will discuss this in more detail.Noted. Comment Comment / Action taken 4. Active support to NGOs to understand and apply the knowledge created -initially validate it more broadly with wider smallholder experimentation/ application and results is required for it to be of use and lead to empowerment and development.5. When referring to books and book chapters, the rubbery expression \"as soon as possible\" should be replaced by a defined time period, say 6, 9 or at most 12 months. ( See 4.2.3. Books and book chapters. Making the full digital version of books Open Access as soon as possible after publication is encouraged.) 6. Germplasm should also be brought under the open access policy.7. In the absence of enabling factors for appropriate use of the open access information by NGOs and resource poor farmers there is danger of commercialization and appropriation of knowledge resources of CGIAR for private profit. This would defeat the purpose of adding value and bridging the information gap of development practitioner NGOs and smallholders the NGOs work with.Noted, this will be addressed in the implementation guidelines.That is a separate field dealt with under the ITPGR and IA Policy.Noted.Regarding your queries please note that from a farmers' perspective, having the statement below as the opening sentence is very important, and we welcome it as a positive signal of the orientation of CGIAR's work and approach:CGIAR regards the results of its research and development activities as international public goods and is committed to their widespread dissemination and use to achieve the maximum impact to advantage the poor, especially smallholder farmers in developing countries. The openness and free access to data on behalf of farmers is of utmost importance as they often lack the resources (financial as well as others) to access information effectively and in a timely manner.At the same time, it is important to keep in mind the context in which farmers operate and their Noted Comment Comment / Action taken locations, which are often remote areas in which internet connection is not constant, nor reliable or fast. Efforts should be made to explore alternative ways of sharing information to enable farmers to take informed decisions.WFO welcomes the opportunity of being consulted in the development of this policy and in future consultations and dialogue in this regard. WFO also guarantees to consult its membership as much as possible for the above mentioned initiatives in order to best represent the views of the farmers' global community.As a general principle, we welcome CGIAR's commitment to subject its various information products to Open Access. I would say that the guidelines do not though provide sufficient guarantee that the open access will enable access and use by the poor. Many farmers still lack or have inadequate computer skills , or worse, do not have access to internet , do not have the facility of the English language, do not have the rigor nor the patience to read long and technical reports, if ever they are literate. Also, many farmer organizations at present lack the human resources needed (e.g. a professional staff) who will be devoted to surfing the internet for information, for abstracting the information, then translating, then disseminating the information to their members.The best ways still to disseminate useful information for farmers are through mass media (radio, TV, popular literature for example), and through farmer-to-farmer or farmer-extension agent relationships.Thus, while resources can be put into making Open Access a reality, more resources should be put in methods that works best in disseminating knowledge to farmers (as those things mentioned above), in translating useful information in farmers' native languages, and in beefing up farmer organization's human resources so that they can translate the useful information products from the CGIAR centers into more farmer-friendly materials. In COMMENT to the pending new CGIAR Open Access Policy, it would be helpful to better understand the nature and profile of the stakeholders and other third parties, particularly as it relates to Intellectual Property (IP) and other Licensed Technology, and well as the mechanism for collecting, housing and validating technology in some sort of depository.For example:There are currently and will continue to be certain agricultural technologies and Sustainable Agricultural Biotechnologies (potentially breakthrough/game-changing) that CGIAR and GFAR desire to disseminate worldwide and promote and extend access to the poor and small grower-farmers. The efficacy of research associated with these technologies and regional, crop and soil-type relevancy is vital to get into the hands of key influencers and key early adopters. This calls for some sort of Sustainable Agricultural Biotechnology CLEARINGHOUSE, a DEPOSITORY of known, proven and licensed product technology and Intellectual Property that serves as the SOURCE for data, technology usage, best cultural practices, application and production protocols. This New Policy should speak to and define a Technology Clearinghouse.It is my opinion that private companies, universities and other credible source of IP and product technology will gladly contribute IP either freely or under extremely favorable licensing terms to the Clearinghouse. Technology providers could also be incentivized (not necessarily monetarily) to contribute to, to allocate IP Licensing Rights or other means to build a High Quality Technology Clearinghouse.Interesting point -to be discussed in the implementation phase of this project.I reviewed the Draft of the CGIAR open Access policy and I found that it is an excellent idea to promote such open access. I think the draft is good start and if during the process there is any difficulty it can be taken care of.This is not adequate. I am a policy analyst for genetic resources and have major problems in accessing information generated by CGIAR sources and then published commercially. For example, Bioversity International habitually adopts book formats for important policy-related information that require purchase of the book to obtain access.outlets for CGIAR-funded work or the products of CGIAR institutes or CRPs should, as a matter of course, be free-access to digital versions from the date of publication. Encouragement' is not sufficient. Noted, to be amended and also discussed in the guidelines.Worth inserting a scene-setting sentence or two about why you feel open access is important and how it can enhance impact of research? E.g increasing visibility, removal of price barriers etc and evidence of how/why open access has made a difference so far.Are 'limited delays' defined more specifically in terms of time in the IA Principles? If not, has the potential to dilute the efficacy of the OA Policy if unhappy individuals always claim the preeminence of the former and delay publication because of an intention to seek IP rights etc.Releasing the OA Policy without the practical implementation guide may cause some confusion and probably result I the OA team being deluged with queries/requests for support. If at all possible to bring forward publishing of 2 and 3 before June 2014, would certainly recommend doing so. Noted.Agreed, we are working out a better way to adopt the policy together with an informed implementation consultation.Agreed, this will be discussed in the Comment Comment / Action taken 100% perfect should be released in any case with appropriate caveats in the metadata as these may still have a value and will often then be cleaned/corrected by crowdsourcing. Whilst it seems sensible to have some basic level of internal quality assurance, holding up release of datasets in the longer-term to ensure 100% validity of data may be a false economy. The important thing is to add the caveat about the data not being 100% clean in the metadata description.Again, may not need massive data processing capacity in-house so long as state whether data is raw, derived etc in the metadata.There may also be some other valid exemptions, which need to be thought through.Open Access -And irrevocable? This is a pretty big caveat, which goes against many of the principles of open access/open data!). Indeed, most licences explicitly aim to encourage innovation through development of commercial products which re-use data. Within DFID, we explicitly discourages use of the 'Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs' (CC BY-NC-ND) licence because this prevents innovation to create new products. Maybe look at incorporation of a 'Sharealike' element (CC-BY-SA so that licensees may distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs the original work 4.1.2 -In the implementation guidelines, it might be worth recommending some specific suitable repositories (e.g. from Directory of Open Access Repositories?) as well as worth considering how this information is also captured centrally so that you also have a record.4.1.6 -Again-recommendation of a specific licence e.g CC-BY-SA? This will depend on whether to incorporate re-use for commercial purposes. implementation guidelines.Noted.Agreed, this has been updated. Agreed, however sometimes such licences may be justified by references to the Intellectual Assets Principles. Agreed.4.2.1 -Where 'green' is chosen, will probably need to provide support on methods and standards etc e.g ontology, provenance etc.-May need to be more specific on expected timings 4.2.4 -Any distinction made between raw or derived data? Are researchers required to retain raw datasets for x years after the end of the project and make them available on request for free 9whether published or not)? 4.2.7 -I would expand this section-define what metadata is and why it's important. Possible link to Dublin Core principles to include need for description of provenance, ontology, methodology, licence sort, context etc. The Open Data Institute has recently launched a new Open Data Certificate to build upon the 5* principles of W3C-useful crib-sheet for common metadata descriptors and standards.Policy document should also include a relevant contact email for further information or support.Noted -this is the intention.Agreed, this section of 4.2 may need to be lifted into the guidelines and discussed in more detail.To be discussed in the implementation guidelines.Noted, this will be discussed in the implementation guidelines.EIARD supports the draft CGIAR Open Access Policy in principle. The rationale has been well presented by Norway (see below). Additional comments have also been made by UK.Noted.The principle of making information an international public good available as \"open access\" is in line with donor intentions and general purposes of the CGIAR. The practical arrangements and limitations described in the draft do not go against the intentions and should be accepted.The literature produced by the CGIAR researchers today constitutes the main source of information from the very frontline of development on many issues that are key to food security and sustainable development and other highly prioritized areas. This is important for researchers, students, development workers, journalists, and other professionals all over the world. It is, however, Noted. Comment Comment / Action taken particularly important in developing countries where lack of library facilities limits access to updated literature. The explicit demands of making the information easily accessible on-line is particularly good news for students, researchers and other users in developing countries.The draft mentions databases and other types of information that shall also be made available. It does not explicitly mention passport data on the more than 700 000 accessions in the genebanks. Much of this is already available and even searchable, but does that deserve special mention in the policy?We support this initiative. This is discussed in the Intellectual Assets Principles.Knowledge and its associated products are amongst the major international public goods (IPGs) developed through CGIAR research and partnerships. The CGIAR has traditionally been a leader in placing its knowledge products in the public domain and has, where necessary, resorted to establishing intellectual property protection on its products specifically to prevent others doing so and thus restricting access. Today the majority of public funding for research carries the requirement that products be open access. Many research institutions are developing or refining their policies on public access to their products and this includes many institutions that work in partnership with the CGIAR. Hence the field of open access is evolving rapidly and it is appropriate that the CGIAR keep its policies under review and that it aims to achieve best practice in this domain.Although Noted and agreed. The policy includes the requirement for researchers to exercise discretion is assessing which information products are made openly accessible -a data dump is not the aim, but a targeted and strategic useThe ISPC confirms the need for the CGIAR to move to the publication of its data and knowledgebased products according to the principles espoused in the first, introductory, paragraph of the Draft Open Access Policy (OAP). However, the draft policy paper sets forward some but not all considerations required in such a policy. Thus, currently, the draft may be viewed more as a statement of encouragement towards certain principles, but without describing means, limitations, penalties or the potential costs to the CGIAR of embracing Open Access more thoroughly. It has been developed in the absence of two supporting documents (on Open Access Implementation Guidelines, and Data Management Implementation Guidelines, promised for mid-2014). The absence of the analysis and operational prescriptions expected in these two documents limit the present draft to making encouraging statements in a vacuum, so that the paper is rather openended and weak as a consequence.Section 4 in the draft OAP, which contains the substance of the draft policy, presents a very limited or qualified view of open access at the outset, saying \"Best efforts shall be used to make information products Open Access, subject to the legal rights and legitimate interests of stakeholders and third parties, including intellectual property rights, confidentiality, sensitivity (including price and politically sensitive information) and privacy.\" A more positive construct could be to assert that, wherever possible, the CGIAR should seek out arrangements in which it maximizes the access of those who could benefit. The CGIAR is a powerful entity and can insist forcefully on open access with many of its collaborators. Some donors manage to insist that data collected with their funding must be made publicly available; and the CGIAR could do something similar. There will always be exceptions (and we realise that change will be progressive with some partner institutions as they operate under constraining policies), but the presumption should be that collaboration with the CGIAR implies open access; anything else needs to be negotiated and there needs to be a convincing case made that the alternatives have valid justifications.of the most useful data.Noted, we have brought forward the release of the draft implementation guidelines to October 2013 (from June 2014) so that the terms of the policy can be more thoroughly expressed and consulted upon. Much of the consultation on the Policy was concerned with how it would be implemented (as opposed to a principled objection to the principles contained within the policy).Noted. There are a number of issues with defining OA too widely and we need to ensure that, where appropriate, exemptions to open access are made to, for example protect additional knowledge, or prevent commercially sensitive information from entering the public domain.The formulation of prioritizing 'those who could benefit' presupposes that those targets are always known 9and knowable), which is not always the Some of the language of the draft document actually undermines or weakens the policy. For example, data is supposed to be made publicly available \"as soon as possible and in any event within 12 months of completion of the data collection or appropriate project milestone.\" What an appropriate project milestone might be is not clear and arbitrary factors could extend the time period well beyond 12 months. For books and book chapters, the policy says that \"Making the full digital version of books Open Access as soon as possible after publication is encouraged.\" This remains vague and should be capable of greater specificity in a document on guidelines than in a policy document.There is no discussion of enforcement, incentives or sanctions. Having a \"CGIAR policy\" that does not propose incentives for compliance is not useful. There is no description of which body will monitor the implementation of policy, and how it will be adjudicated or interpreted. There needs to be some review body, probably external to the CGIAR, that can play a role here and the document should describe how this will be done.Most importantly, the policy makes statements in the absence of a discussion of the budgets needed to implement the approach, and the readiness of the CGIAR to meet the costs. If researchers are meant to make their published papers openly accessible, ideally under the gold case. Our formulation of \"best efforts\" represents the highest possible burden for Open Access. The caveats are necessary to cater for the multitude of relationships are methods of data collection that are present in the system.Noted, this type of problem will be discussed in the implementation guidelines. Completion or project milestones will have to be defined and reported on at the project level by reference to examples to be worked through in the implementation phase.Agreed, this will be detailed in the guidelines and potentially updated overtime to reflect baseline data to be collected over the implementation phase. The updated policy references the CO as the interim body for oversight of the implementation of the Policy.Noted. The policy actually prefers the green route due to the additional infrastructural benefits that would Comment Comment / Action taken standard, this typically requires substantial payments to buy out copyright from publishers. If the CGIAR is serious about this, funds will need to be set aside precisely for this purpose -e.g. sponsoring copy rights' transfers for books and book chapters. Other costs will include the development of databases, appropriate common nomenclatures, data cleaning, processing and quality control, management-maintenance, curation and translation, in order to get data ready for public distribution. There will be system-level as well as CRP charges -and even the latter will mount -e.g. assuming a CRP could publish 30-50 publications a year at a hypothetical cost of USD3,000 per publication. Not all of these charges are new; page charges and other contributions to publication costs were common practice for scientific publishing more than 30 years ago. At that time, this was managed by including adequate budget in all grants to cover these publishing costs. In today's electronic information age we should similarly cost and budget the costs of the open access policy into program budgets. The CGIAR should discuss these issues and costs so that the implications of different approaches can be estimated.A separate consideration, and one with which the ISPC has a particular concern, is the possibility of instituting incentive systems that might conflict with goals for science quality such as \"encouraging publishing in free or reduced cost access journals/publishers\" that can become a potential disincentive to publishing in \"high impact\" avenues.The policy is essentially reactive, considering a modest evolution of current products. It does not take the more aggressive view that the CGIAR could lead international efforts on Open Access data for agriculture. As an example of such a stance we could imagine the need for 2 additional data products, such as weather, soil and agricultural systems data which may be collected, but not always published. In earlier feedback on the CRPs, the ISPC highlighted the potential benefit of provide (repositories; interoperability; standardized metadata; streamlined CRP reporting formats etc.).The preference is for self-publication via the green route as opposed to a preference for OA journals per se (Gold). This may, in part, circumvent the risk of seeking out lower quality OA journals just for the sake of OA publishing. To be discussed in detail throughout the implementation consultation.The policy is broader in its content and aims than any other existing OA policy because it not only deals with traditional forms of publishing but is also dealing with data. We feel this is In the following, our comments relate to specific sections of the policy draft: Preamble and following; Although the document, as presented, has components of what a policy should be, in many parts it includes components more appropriately suited to the Implementation Guidelines and the Data Management Implementation Guidelines. For example, the policy should strive to provide clear definitions on the \"indicative types\" or distinct categories of information products but the Implementation Guidelines should specify what falls under the scope of the CGIAR OAP. This would allow for a more efficient updating process, avoiding having to change the policy document frequently, and it can be made clear that, for example, \".. the policy is not intended to deal with X and Y or that all X or all Y are covered by the dispositions of this policy.\" The fifth paragraph of p1, the first line \"All CGIAR research programs will implement...\" is more of a finale and could be placed at the end of the OAP. The intent of the policy may be very costly (as discussed above). However, the relationship between a definite start date, a gradual transition (to what end point?) and a \"demonstrable implementation\" (how demonstrated or measured?) are either in conflict with the fourth paragraph or not very well described. 4.1.2. It would be useful to expand on the nature of \"a repository\" for this purpose. The meaning of \"other sites\" is not clear and could be removed. Secondly, sections 4.1.2. and 4.1.5. could easily be merged; a novel and exiting take on the OA movement and enables us to take a leading role in the broader movement.Noted -it has been difficult to satisfy the balance between brevity and the need to clarify the potential ambiguities contained in previous drafts. We acknowledge that it is not as clean as some other existing policies but this is seeking to do more than just open access to published information. The Guidelines will go some way to complementing the policy statement.Perhaps for the implementation guidelines.4.2.6. The CGIAR should perhaps argue in the forthcoming Guidelines document the implications associated with \"all software produced after the entering into force of the Policy will be treated as open source\". summary, the overall intent of the policy draft is valid but the true ambition and difficulties in implementing it are but briefly mentioned and remain undescribed. As well as the ethical intent, this is an important opportunity for the CGIAR to improve Center and CRP capacity and capability in archiving and making project data publically available. This capacity was demonstrated only unevenly in the past, as commented on in the ISPC reviews of social science and NRM in the CGIAR.The policy does not say much about the fact that the CRPs will be collecting data and publishing in collaborative arrangements with other organisations that have open access policies -as the CGIAR cannot automatically impose its policies on others -it may sway them by example (see the fourth paragraph, above) but there needs to be room for negotiation. As the policy states, judgements will need to be exercised and this will all take time -but the policy and lack of background documents Noted -due to the number of comments on this section, this has been removed.See updated draft and upcoming implementation guidelines.Noted -although the issue of metadata is going to be dealt with in the guidelines. Noted and agreed.Noted and agreed -this policy would not seek to impose retrospective conditions on existing contracts or to restrict the ability of centers to enter into collaborations that seek to impose some restrictions, provided such restirctions are consistent with the Intellectual Assets Principles. For the guidelines document.Noted, see upcoming communications on this matter.Comment Comment / Action taken IITA Changes to the policy were already made based on IITA's earlier comments on the draft version, which is appreciated. Please find below the remaining comments:• The policy mentions under 4.1.1 that we have to use our 'best efforts…'. It would be Noted with thanks.As previously mentioned, it is • Scientists will want to publish in the most reputable journals. Some of these are not open access. Although in your feedback you challenge this, and answer that the Consortium aims for financial and negotiation support to be provided to assist in this process and that you envisage that, in future, publishing costs for the Gold / green route would be included in the grant application stage, we suggest to have a more firm statement on real funds availability in the policy, otherwise we will run the risk that we are forced to either not be able to publish in such journals or to spend funds we do not have on this. envisaged that best efforts will be used to implement this policy.Noted, the issue of exceptions for reasons of commercial sensitivity are noted in the policy. Further, such withholding would also be an agreement that would need to be reported under the Intellectual Assets policy.Funds for article processing fees, or technical support for using existing or new repositories (green route) will ne detailed in the implementation guidelines.We have a number of concerns, not with the proposed policy itself, but with its implications. Some of these have already been raised by other colleagues, but we think bear repeating: 1. Implementation of and compliance with this Policy by the CGIAR Consortium, its members and their partners within the scope of the SRF and the CRPs will be phased over a transition period, which starts on the effective date. All CRPs will implement this Policy from the effective date.We understand that the CO is aiming to have this policy approved by the CB before the end of this year. However, the Implementation Guidelines are not expected until June 2014. Thus, the policy will become effective, and compliance required, before the adequate resources and guidelines are available to enable Centers to comply with those policies.It is acknowledged that the implementation of this Policy will require significant time, resources and infrastructure. The CGIAR Consortium is therefore committed to mobilizing appropriate resources and incentives to support the immediate implementation of this Policy. This is what happened with the IA Principles. The IA Principles noted that the Centers are expected to have the capacity required for the proper implementation of these CGIAR IA Principles, and that the CGIAR funders are expected to provide adequate resources to support such capacity, including through both budget resources for the Consortium Board and Consortium Office and full cost recovery arrangements under the CRPs and other research proposals to implement the SRF. However, as far as we are aware, no additional resources have come available.The requirement of implementation of and compliance with this policy by the Centers'/CRPs' partners, also adds additional requirements of the Centers and CRPs to ensure compliance by their partners. Building this requirement into future contractual arrangements is only one aspect. Will Centers/CRPs be held accountable for compliance by their partners? Will Centers/CRPs now need to set up monitoring systems to ensure that partners are complying with Consortium policies?The aim is to start consultation on the guidelines as soon as possible in 2013, ideally from September, with adoption in early 2014.For open access, a transitional period is planned so that resources can be budgeted in upcoming CRP budgets and for other funds and infrastructure to be made available within that period wherever possible.The aim is for reporting and monitoring to be streamlined into the CRP reporting process so that there is minimal additional work for centers to carrying out alongside existing CRP reporting templates.The CGIAR Consortium Office will carry out an evidence-based review of the implementation of this Policy on an annual basis. The reviews will be used to devise appropriate institutional tools and guidelines for the implementation of this Policy. If the Policy is adopted and becomes effective at the end of this year, when will these annual reviews commence? When will the \"appropriate institutional tools and guidelines\" be devised that will aid CRPs in implementing the policies? Or are Centers expected to provide the evidence for these reviews before receiving the guidelines and tools to implement the policy?Earlier comments by others have already highlighted the need to distinguish between different types of information. All parties will have information that is not ready for release through open access. Exemptions for sensitive, confidential or protected information are needed. Although this is recognized in the policy, it is not yet clear how this will work in practice. Guidelines are not yet available.We are not arguing against a policy of open access. The Centers should have their own systems in place to manage open access. Our concern is that polices are being developed, and will become effective, before adequate implementation guidelines are developed, and that the development of such policies is adding greater requirements on the Centers in terms of compliance with and reporting against those policies. The policy explicitly recognizes that its implementation will require significant time, resources and infrastructure.Center staff are already fully loaded. There is no spare capacity. Adding additional requirements means additional staff and resources are required. Will additional resources come available? Or will this also have to be creamed off the resources for CRPs?The reviews will run from the data of the implementation guidelines and the first will be a baseline study to establish onward monitoring throughout the rest of the implementation window.Agreed, these exemptions are made in the draft policy. In part, restrictions due to commercial confidentiality would be caught by the Intellectual Assets Policy and associated guidelines.Noted, the aim is to share draft implementation guidelines in 2013 and ready for adoption in early 2014 so that compliance can start as soon as possible, and be developed throughout the implementation phase.Noted, this will need to be considered in future budget preparation.We appreciate the two documents provided to better understand how the Consortium Office has addressed the Center's concerns, as it has helped in the review of the draft, and the opportunity to provide our comments.Noted with thanks.","tokenCount":"6602"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d02a781d44fd9ee7ac8e5f7edc60c792","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6ea0ff08-1e4c-46f9-894a-7249e6dc4e36/retrieve","id":"638118033"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0043d220-ddf5-4b88-8b44-2de7c94d70ca","pagecount":"3","content":"To ensure improved operations of a smallholder tea company in Uganda, and boost yields for farmers, an innovative garden geo-referencing project is working to gather local data.n south-western Uganda, where tea cultivation is the mainstay of the local economy, Igara Growers Tea Factory Ltd (IGTF) is providing a guaranteed, year-round market to 7,000 smallholder farmers, 20% of whom are women. The factory receives up to 250 t of fresh leaves on a daily basis, which it transforms into 50 t of tea. In the process, the factory has created 700 local jobs at its two facilities.To achieve high yields and incomes from tea leaf production, farmers require the timely access of inputs -like fertilisers and agrochemicals -and regular payment from the local factories they supply. In the absence of reliable income, tens of thousands of smallholder farmers often peddle their produce to the highest bidder -a move that is not only against the contract they have with the factory, but also renders farmers vulnerable to insufficient income and unable to afford inputs for the next planting season.However, since 1995 when the company was established, IGTF shareholder farmers have been entitled to receive inputs, which they receive on credit and repay at a later date. But as the number of IGTF farmers grew, so too did the challenges. Poor record keeping by IGTF, for instance, meant they did not know the exact number of farmers they were working with and, thus, could not account for all the inputs being distributed to their members. In some cases, family members would often register the same land under different names and claim ownership in order to also receive the inputs. \"Record keeping was a serious problem. We didn't have accurate records about the ownership and location of the tea gardens. We weren't sure who was with us and who wasn't, and we realised we needed to strengthen our database,\" says Onesimus Matsiko, IGTF general manager.In addition, as demand for fresh tea leaves among processors skyrocketed, farmers would sometimes sell their leaves to competitors after receiving inputs from IGTF, lured by higher prices, which led to them abandoning outstanding IGTF loan repayments. The loan defaulting problem was so severe that, at one point, the company's accumulated debt rose to €214,000; an amount equivalent to how much the company would spend in purchasing all of the inputs to supply their farmers for one season.In 2017, with funding from CTA, IGTF implemented an innovative and elaborate geo-referencing and farm mapping initiative to profile all of the farmers supplying IGTF's two factories, as well as those who held shares in the company but were supplying leaves elsewhere. Data on farm location, size and productivity of members' farms were collected.Profiling started with the training of IGTF staff on data gathering using GPS-enabled tablets and a tailored data gathering application. Gathered data were later analysed at IGTF and spatially analysed using an open source geographic information system. In 5 months, 10 enumerators moved across farms collecting vital data armed with GPS devices and tablets, and each could cover up to eight farmers a day. At the end of the exercise, in addition to information on farm sizes and locations, the enumerators had gathered comprehensive details including alternative sources of farmer income besides tea cultivation, the age of tea bushes, harvesting methods, and causes of crop failures. \"It was one of the most elaborate exercises we have ever conducted and part of the success was due to the fact that the enumerators were able to finish their work a month ahead of schedule. To date, we have managed to profile about 4,500 farmers and mapped approximately 5,200 farms,\" says Hamlus Owoyesiga, IGTF network and systems administrator.The work of the initiative was complemented by the use of drones under CTA's Eyes in the Sky project, which were used to pilot remote data acquisition over approximately 40 farms. Data were used to diagnose crop health and quantify unutilised areas or count tea bushes within the single gardens. In addition, aerial views of the farms enriched with crop diagnostic maps were used to develop enhanced dossiers farmers could submit to lending institutions for obtaining credit.The data collected via the profiling exercise has informed IGTF of the exact number of farmers it works with, as well as their farm sizes and locations, which has enabled the company to ensure that the adequate amount of fertiliser is supplied to each farmer. The information gathered has also assisted the company in identifying problems farmers are having in terms of increasing their productivity, and as such, has enabled them to implement useful interventions, such as farmer training.Farmer profiling means the company can now reach a bigger number of farmers with inputs, advice on improved farming practices and accessing credit facilities, within a short period of time due to data accuracy. It has also reduced input wastage -which occurred through supplying members with too much -and the occurrence of farmers taking advantage of the system because the details for each farmer are saved on the company's data system. Since distributing fertilisers to farmers in September 2017 -immediately after the introduction of the profiling system -IGTF was able to recover 90% of the cost in credit to farmers by January 2018. The number of farmers supplying the company also considerably increased at the beginning of the initiative -from 2,900 in August to 3,400 by the end of November 2017, and today, there are 7,000 members.Farmers have welcomed the project, saying they are now increasing yields as timely distribution of inputs in the right quantities has allowed them to enhance their cultivation. \"The profiling has done a great job in reviving confidence in the company among farmers, and it has strengthened their identity as shareholders. Many of the farmers who had been supplying other companies with tea during recent years decided to return to our company,\" says Owoyesiga. \"I have 3.5 ha and I now know exactly how much fertiliser I need to use -something I didn't in the past. I used to waste a lot of vital fertiliser,\" adds local farmer Shem Babushereka who has doubled his yields from 2,000 to 4,000 kg of leaves each month following more precise application of fertiliser.As a result of the farmer profiling and availability of data on their farm size and produce quantity, the Igara-Buhweju Tea Farmers' Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO) was created in October 2017 to offer registered members credit and financial services. The SACCO monitors farmers' amount of produce and extends credit facilities to them based on quantity and consistency in delivery, and charges lower interest rates compared to commercial banks with reduced credit application time and procedures, which has attracted more farmers. In the first week of its operations in October 2017, more than 200 farmers opened accounts with the SACCO. Farmers are also able to get advance payment in case of an emergency by providing a receipt of their latest delivery to the factory.\"We know that we can trust the data gathered during the profiling exercise, for example, about the size and location of tea gardens, and this helps us to assess the creditworthiness of farmers who come to us for loans,\" says Lillian Nuwagaba, the SACCO general manager. \"Now it is easier for farmers to receive fertiliser and credit, not just from us but also from banks because the information that is recorded can act as collateral,\" Matsiko adds.Going forward, the project is looking to increase its use of drones by partnering with data analysis institutions like French-based Airinov. Through such partnerships, IGTF aims to introduce applications that would allow for the precise application of nitrogen and fertiliser to crops, and the identification of tea bushes that need to be replaced in order to increase yields. IGTF also hopes to collaborate with other tea factories in Uganda to roll out the profiling and geo-mapping technology as one way of boosting smallholder productivity for tea -a crop that the government has identified as strategic for export promotion. ■Behind the growing interest in Ugandan coffee among export markets are the spirited efforts of the Ugandan National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises Limited (NUCAFE), which is also working with CTA to strengthen the commodity's value chain. NUCAFE encourages the uptake of technology among farmers and farmer cooperatives to improve yields and boost the country's coffee export earnings. NUCAFE has approximately 1.5 million farmer members organised into 210 cooperatives who own, on average, 0.2 ha of land. However, the organisation has been struggling with coffee marketing to key export destinations, such as the EU and the Middle East, as buyers demands increasingly require data on traceability and growing conditions. In 2017, in response to this demand, and with assistance provided by CTA, NUCAFE started running a coffee traceability system, which seeks to map its members' coffee bushes and farms. \"Through the use of technology, NUCAFE has created a digital 'passport' to prove the authenticity and origin of the coffee we export, creating an auditable record of the journey behind what we are selling,\" says Joseph Nkandu, NUCAFE executive director. The traceability system is a database where farmer details are uploaded, such as the type of coffee they are growing, the inputs they are using and how much they earn from the sale of their coffee, to provide a profile for each member. Such innovations have facilitated certification for farmers, such as geographical indication, and have seen farmers exporting to new markets, including Japan and South Korea. The profiling has attracted new members to NUCAFE, who would also like to boost their yields and increase their chances of certification to access new markets. Bufumbo Organic Coffee Farmers association, for example, decided to join NUCAFE and use the profiling database while applying for organic and UTZ certification -a programme and label for sustainable farming. The association received both certificates and has, since the beginning of 2018, entered a deal with Caffe River in Italy to supply 19.8 t of coffee annually.Farmer profiling means the company can now reach a bigger number of farmers with inputs, advice on improved farming practices and accessing credit facilities","tokenCount":"1684"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8e38a70bae311cc0c5613fdc1b735cd2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/809a9fb7-2970-4482-acb4-d4a1e1a49022/retrieve","id":"698060385"},"keywords":["Tezira Lore","Communication Specialist","ILRI Citation"],"sieverID":"009a3025-63ee-4d10-8050-02788bcf5e0f","pagecount":"12","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.On 18-20 April 2022, Work Package 6 (capacity building) of the Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) Ethiopia case study conducted a second round of training on animal health economics to build the capacity of government stakeholders. The training was given to the same cohort that participated in the first training course held on 28-30 June 2021 which provided a basic introduction to animal health economics to relevant staff in Ethiopia's central veterinary and livestock production services. The training was also aimed at improving awareness and competence in the use of animal health economics and familiarizing the participants and their organizations with future GBADs tools and approaches.The second training course was held at the Addis Ababa campus of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The aim was to convey the basics of economics and its use in animal health decisionmaking to veterinarians, animal production experts, animal health decision-makers and epidemiologists.Livestock are extremely important in Ethiopia for economic development and poverty reduction. Ethiopia has one of the largest livestock inventories in Africa, supporting the livelihoods of an estimated 80% of rural poor. However, the economic benefit derived from the livestock sector is not commensurate with the economic potential, and the sub-sector remains untapped. One of the major constraints is the wide range of livestock diseases prevalent in the country. Ethiopia is endemic to a number of livestock diseases, causing a high degree of mortality and morbidity and posing significant economic, food security, livelihood and public health impacts.During the GBADs inception workshop held on 18 March 2021, key stakeholders noted that the country lacks a system to determine the economic burden of these diseases in the various sectors and farming systems (pastoral, mixed systems, specialized smallholder and commercial farms). As a result, policymakers lack the required data to make informed decisions on investment in the livestock sector. Moreover, animal health practitioners and researchers often have difficulty in appropriately communicating evidence from their work to policymakers on safeguarding livelihoods, food security, economic growth and public health.The key to successful resource mobilization would be the incorporation of substantive economic evidence and the rationale for such investment. Government or private sector managers in the financial and planning realm need these to better understand the threats and make the case for further and adequate investment in protecting animal health.Therefore, it has become increasingly important to provide sound economic justification for any proposed action to improve or safeguard animal health to those expected to finance these interventions. Such economic evaluations assist in setting priorities and deciding where to allocate resources when there are competing interventions and limited resources. Each session included a tutorial/lecture (1.5 hours) and a practical (1.5 hours). The training focused on basics with demonstrations of approaches to develop initial understanding.Economic assessment of short-term changes: Gross margin analysis and partial budget analysis ▪ Yes, I recommend. Because it is most relevant and applicable in every sector specifically in agriculture. ▪ Yes, I recommend this course to be given to colleagues. We professionals from veterinary and animal health background lack the economic aspects of health for decision-making. ▪ Yes, it is particularly useful in my field of speciality. I know they will benefit a lot as I have benefited. ▪ Yes, it is very important for professionals working in the livestock sector especially at the national level. ▪ Yes, it is very essential to others.▪ We appreciate ILRI GBADs for organizing this important training which is very applicable and helpful for our daily activity. ▪ The trainers were all well-organized, aside from the time issue. I would thank all the presenters for their nice presentations. ▪ It would have been better if the training time were extended for some weeks and the training material sent prior to the training. ▪ Please give more training days (at least five days).","tokenCount":"674"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"34f153b72655cf6d5e7bf9e254d3f35f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/843e5713-fc27-4a28-93d8-190a429dd953/retrieve","id":"-1565062411"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7a5e0737-10e2-4a73-b8bc-5e1540cd08f5","pagecount":"2","content":"Bảo vệ sức khỏe con người thông qua cách tiếp cận Một Sức khỏe Thách thức Ở Đông Nam Á, Việt Nam được biết đến như một điểm nóng về dịch bệnh truyền từ động vật sang người, không chỉ gây thiệt hại nghiêm trọng cho sức khỏe con người, sinh kế và môi trường mà còn được dự báo sẽ xảy ra thường xuyên hơn trong những năm tới do hoạt động chăn nuôi tăng cường và quá trình đô thị hóa diễn ra nhanh chóng.Cũng như các quốc gia khác, Việt Nam phải hứng chịu hậu quả nặng nề của đại dịch COVID-19 trong hai năm qua. Tần suất và mức độ nghiêm trọng của những đại dịch được dự báo sẽ gia tăng khi con người tiếp tục xâm phạm môi trường sống của động vật hoang dã, và tăng cường các hệ thống chăn nuôi và đánh bắt thủy sản. Thói quen tiêu dùng các sản phẩm từ động vật hoang dã thường thấy ở Việt Nam và nhiều nước châu Á cũng được xem là căn nguyên của việc lây lan các loại virus có khả năng gây ra đại dịch như virus corona.Hệ thống chăn nuôi là ổ chứa mầm bệnh truyền từ động vật sang người, là nguyên nhân của 60% các trường hợp bệnh truyền nhiễm ở người. Hơn nữa, 2/3 việc sử dụng kháng sinh trên toàn cầu là phục vụ ngành chăn nuôi, là động lực chính của hiện tượng kháng kháng sinh (KKS). KKS là một mối đe dọa nghiêm trọng đối với Việt Nam khi kháng sinh đang được sử dụng quá mức và lạm dụng trong nước, đặc biệt trong ngành chăn nuôi và thủy sản. Việc buôn bán động vật và thực phẩm có nguồn gốc từ động vật với quy mô ngày càng gia tăng đe dọa nền kinh tế và sức khỏe. Bệnh do thực phẩm gây ra có mức độ tương đương với bệnh lao, sốt rét và HIV/AIDS, nhưng chưa nhận được sự quan tâm thích đáng từ phía cộng đồng các nhà tài trợ.Giải quyết những thách thức nêu trên đòi hỏi việc khắc phục các rào cản về mặt thể chế hướng tới tăng cường hợp tác liên ngành và đưa ra các bằng chứng mạnh mẽ hơn về tầm quan trọng và hiệu quả chi phí của việc lồng ghép các nguyên tắc Một sức khỏe vào công tác quản lý hệ thống thực phẩm.Chương trình 'Bảo vệ sức khỏe con người thông qua cách tiếp cận Một sức khỏe' tại Việt Nam sẽ chứng minh cách thức các nguyên tắc và công cụ Một sức khỏe được tích hợp vào hệ thống thực phẩm có thể giúp giảm thiểu và ngăn chặn sự bùng phát dịch bệnh lây từ động vật sang người, cải thiện an toàn thực phẩm và nước, giảm tình trạng KKS và mang lại lợi ích cho con người, động vật, và môi trường. Dự án kéo dài trong 3 năm (2022-2024) và thuộc sáng kiến Một sức khỏe của CGIAR toàn cầu, được triển khai tại 7 quốc gia bao gồm Việt Nam, Bangladesh, Ấn Độ, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda và Côte d'Ivoire.Địa bàn dự án Dự án dự kiến sẽ được triển khai tại Hà Nội, Lào Cai, Thái Nguyên, Thừa Thiên Huế, Đồng Nai và Cần Thơ. Các địa bàn đã được lựa chọn dựa trên hoạt động của các dự án trước đó (ví dụ như Trung tâm thực địa Một Sức khỏe tại tỉnh Thái Nguyên) và các chuyến thăm và làm việc tham vấn các bên liên quan.Một số hoạt động chính của chương trình bao gồm:  ","tokenCount":"618"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3104848784.json b/data/part_3/3104848784.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b7b51ecc6447f390dcdb600b6dfb0cd325efb63a
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a44a510a1a35b8541859bc492eeb5631","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d5319ef7-d344-4bf2-abca-53e559535b7b/retrieve","id":"1454110591"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f9bf2763-3767-4509-9e28-47eb18b9a5b4","pagecount":"7","content":"Groundwater resources and irrigation systems are a fundamental consideration for sustainable and inclusive food system transitions in South Asia. Over the course of the latter part of the 20 th century and the early 21 st century, groundwater has become the primary source of irrigation water across South Asia and globally. The aquifers in Western and Peninsula regions in South Asia have faced water scarcity and groundwater depletion. But in in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, aquifers are still considered underutilized by most planners and policymakers. This has resulted in increased investments in groundwater irrigation for water security and climate adaptation. However, the aquifer response to increasing irrigation water withdrawals remains poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, TAFSSA is developing watershed assessment on sustainable groundwater use. Starting with Nalanda district in Bihar, India, a relatively water scarce district within the Eastern Gangetic Plains. This research note reports on the initial findings from existing groundwater data and outlines key steps towards building a groundwater model to support sustainable groundwater management and planning.The Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) in South Asia hosts predominantly cereal-based farming systems (Aravindakshan et al., 2015, Jat et al. 2020). Considered the food basked of South Asia, the IGP's cereal production is crucial to food security as well as political and economic stability. However, parts of the IGP are threatened by unsustainable groundwater withdrawal -the region extracts one third of global groundwater withdrawalsspurred by existing irrigation incentives anchored in a number of key food and energy policies (Arshad et al., 2018, Dorosh et al. 2009). Farmers in this region are vulnerable and exposed to climate change and extreme weather (Lal et al. 2010, Kishore et al. 2021, McDonald et al. 2020), contributing to high risks for farmers that can lead to low incomes and rural out-migration away from agriculture (Aryal et al 2020).As a result, governments are investing in expanding groundwater irrigation to support intensified cropping and climate adaptation in agriculture. Interest across the region in these efforts collectively target nearly 22 million hectares that are currently fallowed during the dry season (Rasul et al. 2016, Krupnik et al. 2017, Urfels et al. 2020, Gumma et al. 2016).In alignment with these efforts, TAFSSA supports coordinated efforts to transform the agrifood system in ways that ensure that people can equitably access and consume healthy diets produced within the environmental boundaries (cf. IFAD, 2021)   Metasediments include highly folded and fractured quartzite, phyllite and schist. These are combined with intrusive granite and pegmatites. The study district is located within the Mid-Ganga basin, in the southern margin of the Gangetic plains. Flat alluvium terrain is common, with the exception of Rajgir Hill (~443 masl) in the south (CGWB 2022). About 90% of the area is used for agricultural purposes with cereal-based farmland far exceeding any other land uses. Built-up area is the second largest land use category. Nalanda district is part of the Harohar Basin, and generally slopes towards the northeast. Major rivers include the Mohana, Panchane and Sakri rivers. These all flow towards the north east and empty into into the Ganges. The whole district is covered by alluvium, except the crystalline rock areas in Rajgir. In the alluvial areas, several aquifer layers exist and have been explored to the depth of 250 m below ground in the northern part of the district. In the crystalline hard rock areas, water well discharges are highly variable. The conceptual hydrogeological map of Nalanda district is presented in Fig 2 . Lithologically, Nalanda known for clay beds, inter-bedded with sands (Saha, 2007). In the northern part of the study area, aquifers are more fully developed, and, four alluvial fills, starting with coarse sand and gravel at base and clay at the top, have been reported within 100-120 m bgl. Observed ground water behavior data across the district's total 39 National Hydrograph Monitoring Stations were chosen for calibration and validation of the model. Out of 39 stations only eight Dug water wells contain water level data since 1998. Al remaining wells provide data from 2013 to the present. The two decades of water level observations in dug wells is shows a significant decline in water levels (Fig. 3). Considering the the current expansion of electrically powered groundwater for irrigation, this declining trends signals some concern for the district's efforts to both develop and sustainably manage groundwater.The overall mean water level is 3.5 m bgl with a standard deviation of 1.2. As described above, most surface water flows towards the north-east following the predominant topography, but several local flows are also present in different directions based on the hydraulic gradient (Fig. 4). The Biharsharif block (a sub-urban area of the district) has a deeper water level following the Rajgir area. These represent the crystalline hard rock aquifers.Despite being considered part of the groundwater abundant Eastern Gangetic Plains, Nalanda district is already showing signs of groundwater depletion. TAFSSA is testing the hypothesis that ongoing investments in irrigation infrastructure could amplify this trend. Careful management of groundwater resources is likely to be required to ensure that food systems transitions do not endanger groundwater related ecosystem service provisioning or create inequitable groundwater access across for users.To assist these efforts, conceptual model shown in Figure 1    ","tokenCount":"864"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3108889870.json b/data/part_3/3108889870.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1eb3ef8d984dfc58a0c425ac6261fc77ad74bd67
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"59768c6ed40997ba85a3ee58228a2d30","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c3904d10-4054-47df-bcae-35ab2d7184ad/retrieve","id":"1312733750"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"13777555-5cfe-4e3c-ae98-615f4b07ca94","pagecount":"5","content":"The proposed framework consists of the following steps:• Automatically create training samples of rainfed and irrigated area classes from an irrigation layer derived from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Green Index (GI) of a composite image of Sentinel-2. • Use generated training samples to build a machine-learning model that classifies rainfed and irrigated areas from a composite image of Sentinel-2 made of spectral bands and some derived spectral indices. • Use time-lagged regression and slope percentage to remove false negatives output by the model. The time-lagged regression analysis was implemented to establish the relationship between plant growth and precipitation. Plant growth and precipitation were estimated from NDVI derived from Landsat 8 and Rainfall Estimates from Rain Gauge and Satellite Observations (CHIRPS), respectively. • A threshold on the relationship between plant growth and precipitation was set to differentiate rain-fed from irrigated areas. Generally, areas with weak correlations between plant growth and precipitation corresponded to irrigated areas. With regards to slope, predicted areas by the model with a slope higher than 5% (Ragettli et al., 2018) were not considered as irrigated areas. • Finally, the irrigated area class was extracted from the binary map.The proposed framework is implemented monthly during the main irrigation season, and the final output has a spatial resolution of 10m.In July 2024, the Limpopo River Basin (LRB) area under irrigated agriculture was mapped using a machine learning approach within Google Earth Engine (GEE).The total area actively irrigated in July 2024 was about 172,028 ha.The average, maximum, and minimum crop water consumption (Actual Evapotranspiration) water used by irrigated agriculture within the basin was 57.3, 141, and 30 mm/month, respectively.The irrigated crop water consumption of the LRB for July 2024 was 136.4 million m 3 .The Crocodile sub-basin in the LRB showed the largest irrigated extent of 37,223 ha (with corresponding crop water consumption of 30.3 million m 3 ) in July 2024.July 2024Limpopo River Basin at a glance• A transboundary river basin shared by Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe (Figure 1). • Covers an area of about 412,000 km 2 .• Climate is semi-arid, with wet summers and dry winters. • Mean annual rainfall ranges from 200 mm in the west to 1500 mm in the east. The basin average is less than 500 mm/year. Most of the rainfall occurs from October to April. • Flood and drought events are frequent during wet and dry seasons. • Agriculture is primarily rainfed with significant irrigation, particularly in South Africa. • Irrigation is the largest consumer of water within the LRB.  Results show that the total area actively irrigated in July was about 172,028 ha, representing approximately 6 % of the basin's cropped area. The largest area under irrigation was found in the South Africa part of the LRB. It is worth noting that the current estimate of irrigated areas is lower than the one (200,000 ha) from the previous year for the same month (Figure 2). Irrigated area extents for July months from 2019 to 2024 showed that there was a sharp decrease of irrigated areas in 2020, explained by the strict lockdown that the four countries of the LRB entered to combat COVID-19 (Figure 3). The global pandemic impeded agriculture activities by reducing food production and increased farm abandonment (Paganini et al., 2020). The area under active irrigation has subsequently not increased much even though the lockdown's restrictions have been lifted.According to Botai et al. (2020), dry conditions, which can be translated to drought, is expected to continue in the near and distant future. Therefore, this decrease in irrigated areas may be caused by drought as it is known to increase water restrictions and water supply cut (Jarmain et al., 2017). Mathivha et al. (2024) found that drought decreases reservoir water levels, hence negatively affecting water supply to water users, such as farmers.    Compared to June, the area under irrigation in July is generally lower due to a significant decrease in crop cultivation, resulting in a smaller coverage of irrigated agricultural fields, except in July 2019 (Figure 4 and Figure 5). In 2020, the difference between the two months was the greatest. As mentioned above, this might have been caused by strict Covid lockdowns observed during the month of June.At the sub-basin level, Crocodile is the sub-basin with the largest irrigated land area (37,223 ha), followed by Letaba (26,777 ha) and Luvuvhu (21,092 ha). All these sub-basins are located within the portion of the LRB that covers South Africa (Figure 6). It is worth noting that, in June 2024, the Letaba subbasin showed the largest irrigated areas (32,397 ha), which were significantly reduced to 26,777 ha in July, probably due to cultivation of fields.The estimation of the quantity of water used by crops is paramount for managing water resources in the basin. To estimate the volume of water used by irrigated agriculture, the FAO Water Productivity Open-access Portal version 3 (WaPOR v3), Actual evapotranspiration and interception product (100 m) data was resampled to 10 m to match the spatial resolution of the irrigated area map.The results show that the average, maximum and minimum crop water consumption by irrigated agriculture within the LRB was 71.97, 165.8 and 36.29 mm/month, respectively (Figure 7). The volumetric water used by irrigated crops within the basin in July was about 136.4 million m 3 , which is 12.4 million m 3 higher than the previous month. Much of the water use is concentrated in areas where there is a conglomeration of irrigated fields (e.g., the central part of the basin).At the sub-basin level (Figure 8), Crocodile had the highest water consumption (30.3 million m 3 ), followed by Letaba (21.9 million m 3 ), Luvuvhu (16.8 million m 3 ) and Middle Olifants (15.2 million m 3 ).  Water used in irrigated agriculture (July 2024)Research-based evidence and solutions for digital innovations to accelerate transformation of agrifood systems, with an emphasis on inclusivity and sustainability.More information: on.cgiar.org/digitalThis publication has been prepared as an output of the CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation, which researches pathways to accelerate the transformation towards sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems by generating research-based evidence and innovative digital solutions. This publication has not been independently peer reviewed. Responsibility for editing, proofreading, and layout, opinions expressed, and any possible errors lies with the authors and not the institutions involved. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on maps do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), CGIAR, our partner institutions, or donors. In line with principles defined in the CGIAR Open and FAIR Data Assets Policy, this publication is available under a CC BY 4.0 license. © The copyright of this publication is held by IWMI. We thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.In July, the Crocodile subbasin toppled Letaba as the subbasin with the highest water consumption. Overall, water consumption was expectedly higher than the previous month. The biggest difference in water consumption was found in the Crocodile subbasin (Figure 9), explained by the significant increase in irrigated areas that took place between June and July 2024 (25,037 ha and 37,223 ha respectively) within this subbasin.  ","tokenCount":"1193"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3111702606.json b/data/part_3/3111702606.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..919b3333fefe84915956b665608012ae2ac2e30d
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fdb3cc44f3b3e5e9a167c5e401faef7f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7af62e90-67c0-4e76-a229-b294b55b7a05/retrieve","id":"1377782135"},"keywords":["AD, anthesis day","BLP, best linear predictor","EH, ear height","FIRA, Fideicomiso Instituido en Relación con la Agricultura","GY, grain yield","HD, heading","LPSI, linear phenotypic selection index","MLE, maximum likelihood estimator","MOI, moisture content","PH, plant height","QT, quantitative trait","QTL, quantitative trait locus"],"sieverID":"4435b213-6151-4d0a-8183-ab8abdcee56a","pagecount":"13","content":"The profit function (net returns minus costs) allows breeders to derive trait economic weights to predict the net genetic merit (H) using the linear phenotypic selection index (LPSI). Economic weight is the increase in profit achieved by improving a particular trait by one unit and should reflect the market situation and not only preferences or arbitrary values. In maize (Zea mays L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) breeding programs, only grain yield has a specific market price, which makes application of a profit function difficult. Assuming the traits' phenotypic values have multivariate normal distribution, we used the market price of grain yield and its conditional expectation given all the traits of interest to construct a profit function and derive trait economic weights in maize and wheat breeding. Using simulated and real maize and wheat datasets, we validated the profit function by comparing its results with the results obtained from a set of economic weights from the literature. The criteria to validate the function were the estimated values of the LPSI selection response and the correlation between LPSI and H. For our approach, the maize and wheat selection responses were 1,567.13 and 1,291.5, whereas the correlations were .87 and .85, respectively. For the other economic weights, the selection responses were 0.79 and 2.67, whereas the correlations were .58 and .82, respectively. The simulated dataset results were similar. Thus, the profit function is a good option to assign economic weights in plant breeding.The linear phenotypic selection index (LPSI) is a linear combination of observable random trait phenotypic values (y, i.e., \uD835\uDC3C = \uD835\uDEC3 ′ \uD835\uDC66). According to Hazel et al. (1994), the LPSI allowsThe main LPSI objectives are to predict H, maximize the LPSI selection response, and the correlation between H and LPSI.When the population means of H and y are zero, the selection response is the conditional expectation of H given LPSI (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2022;Cochran, 1951). The size of the estimated LPSI selection response and the estimated correlation between H and LPSI are the main criteria to validate and compare the efficiency of any LPSI in plant and animal breeding.The main assumptions of the LPSI theory are: (a) vector g is composed entirely of the additive effects of genes; (b) H is the total individual genotypic economic value; and (c), the y and H values have a joint multivariate normal distribution. Based on these assumptions, the LPSI is the conditional expectation of H given y (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2022;Cochran, 1951), and to predict H we need to estimate the LPSI vector of coefficients (β) so that the estimated LPSI values may discriminate those individuals with the highest H values (Smith, 1936). Currently, a linear selection index can be a linear combination of marker scores and phenotypic values (Cerón-Rojas et al., 2008;Lande & Thompson, 1990), genomic estimated breeding values (Cerón-Rojas et al., 2015;Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2019), and phenotypic and genomic estimated breeding values jointly (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2018, 2020a, 2022;Dekkers, 2007).The trait economic weight is the increase in profit (net returns minus costs) achieved by improving a particular trait by one unit while the others remain fixed (Charffeddine & Alenda, 1998;Blasco, 2021). It should reflect the market situation and the marginal benefit from one unit of improvement, as opposed to just preferences or simply arbitrarily fixed values (Magnussen, 1990). Strain and Nordskog (1962) proposed using a profit function to integrate the costs and benefits of a breeding program and compare the profitability of lines and crosses. Later, Moav and Moav (1966), and Moav and Hill (1966), used the partial derivatives of the profit function (evaluated in the trait's mean) as economic weights for within-line selection.The profit function depends on the traits of interest, the market prices of the traits, the production technology, and market conditions (Charffeddine & Alenda, 1998). An additional feature of profit functions is they may be linear or non-linear. Although a non-linear profit function can be a function of phenotypic values of individual plants or a function of population means, the linear profit function is one of the phenotypic trait values of individual plants or animals (Itoh & Yamada, 1988). Nevertheless, an LPSI can still be used for a non-linear profit function, although the optimum index depends on the selection intensity and the number of generations over which the selection response is to be maximized. According to Goddard (1983), an LPSI achieves the greatest increase in profit when the profit function and economic weights are not linear. Thus, an LPSI will always• LPSI is the best linear predictor of the net genetic merit . • The main LPSI objective is to predict the net genetic merit and maximize the selection response. • The profit function allows breeders to derive trait economic weights to predict H. • Economic weight is the increase in profit achieved by improving a particular trait by one unit.give the optimum selection response for linear and non-linear profit functions.Conditions for applying the profit function theory are: (a) changes in profit function should be due to changes in H and not to environmental conditions or changes in technology; (b) prices and costs are constants; and (c) because the genetic gains in each cycle are low, a linear approach to the profit function is recommended (Charffeddine & Alenda, 1998). In this context, the net genetic merit, the estimated LPSI selection response, and the estimated LPSI values should be interpreted in terms of economic gains and costs (Blasco, 2021).In this research, we describe a profit function to obtain economic weights in the maize (Zea mays L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) breeding context. Contrary to animal breeding, where the traits of economic interest have a specific price on the market, in maize and wheat breeding only grain yield has a specific market price, which makes it difficult to apply a profit function and obtain economic weights. For this reason, the proposed profit function is based on grain yield market price and on the regression coefficients of grain yield on all the associated traits. In this manner, the grain yield market price is distributed over the other traits as a product of price and the regression coefficient of each trait associated with grain yield. Using seven simulated maize datasets and one real maize and wheat dataset, we validated the profit function by comparing its results with the results obtained from a set of economic weights taken from published literature (Cerón-Rojas et al., 2015;Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2019, 2020a, 2020b). The criteria to validate the proposed profit function were the size of the estimated LPSI selection response and the estimated correlation coefficient between LPSI and H. For the simulated and real datasets, we found the profit function described in this work is a good option to assign economic weights in maize and wheat breeding.As we shall see later, the approach to the profit function theory described in this study is a mathematical formalization of Smith's (1936) idea to assign economic weights to the traits of interest in the wheat breeding context. Finally, the results obtained in this study are the first to use a profit function to derive economic weights in maize and wheat breeding. A short review of the LPSI theory is provided in the Appendix.Consider in a wheat selection program we consider the vector y' = [Y 1 . . . Y t ] of t traits, where Y 1 denotes grain yield, Y 2 baking quality, Y 3 resistance to flag smut, and so forth. We can evaluate Y 2 and Y 3 in terms of Y 1 as follows. Supposing an advance of 10 in the baking score is equal in value to an advance of one bushel per acre in yield, and that a decrease of 20% infection is worth one bushel of yield, then, taking \uD835\uDC4C 1 as a standard and units as indicated,w 1 = 1.0, w 2 = 0.1, and w 3 = −0.05 will be the economic values of each trait. This is the Smith's (1936) idea for deriving economic weight in wheat breeding programs. Now, let y' −1 = [Y 2 . . . Y t ] be a vector of t−1 traits that does not include Y 1 and assume that Y 1 is the dependent random variable, whereas y′ −1 is the vector of random explanatory variables. To derive economic weights for maize and wheat breeding, we will adapt the above-mentioned Smith's idea to the multiple regression context, that is, Y 1 = b 0 + b'y −1 + e (where e has normal distribution, null expectation, and variance, σ 2 \uD835\uDC52 ), using the profit function and the regression theory.Let a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a N be the N input prices or costs of the N input variables X 1 , X 2 , . . . , X N such as fertilizers, number of cultivated hectares, number of workers per hectare, worker wages per hectare, etc.; then, the cost function is:where C 0 is the fixed cost in the plant breeding program.The main objective for maize and wheat breeding programs is to increase grain yield (Y 1 ) and to decrease traits such as plant height, days to maturity, and plant diseases, and others. In these programs, only Y 1 has a market price, so we will define the profit function as follows: let π be the price of Y 1 in tons per hectare, and let N H be the number of hectares cultivated by the breeder; then, the profit function associated with Y 1 is:where N H πY 1 is the net economic return and N H C is the selection cycle cost of the breeding program. Equation 2 only includes Y 1 .The profit function for all traits under selection Suppose each random vector of t traits y' = [Y 1 . . . Y t ] (which include the grain yield, Y 1 , and all traits associated with Y 1 ) is independent and identically distributed as a multivariate normal distribution with vector of means μ' = [μ 1 . . . μ t ] and covariance matrix P, where matrix P indicates that the elements of y may be correlated and have different variance. We will include vector y' −1 = [Y 2 . . . Y t ] (which does not include Y 1 ) in Equation 2 through the conditional expectation of Y 1 given y −1 . Thus, let:be the multiple linear regression model where e has a normal distribution, null expectation and varianceis the covariance between Y 1 and y −1 , and S −1 is the inverse of the covariance matrix of y −1 (S) (Rencher & Schaalje, 2008). In addition, we assumed that the covariance between any pairs of e is 0. Therefore, with Equation 3, the conditional expectation of Y 1 given y −1 is:where μ 1 is the mean of Y 1 , m' = [μ 2 . . . μ t ] is the vector of means of y −1 , and b' = cov'(Y 1 , y -1 )S -1 = [b 2 . . . b t ] is the vector of regression coefficients. In Equations 3 and 4, the values of y −1 are not under the control of the experimenter and occur randomly along with Y 1 (Rencher, 2002). Thus, on each plant, we observe Y 1 and y −1 jointly.The maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of Equations 3 and 4 iswhere Ŷ1 is the estimated BLP of Y 1 , whereas μ1and m, respectively (Rencher & Schaalje, 2008). Equation 5 is a function of y −1 alone and not a function of Y 1 (Christensen, 2011), allowing us to write an approximated profit function for t traits as:Crop ScienceIn Equation 6, the symbol \"≈\" indicates an approximation.Suppose C is fixed (Equation 1), the partial derivatives of Equation 6with respect to Y 1 and each trait associated with Ŷ1 (Equation 5) are, respectively, ∂ ∂\uD835\uDC4C 12 b\uD835\uDC57 , j = 2,3,. . . ,t, from where the estimated economic weights for Y 1 and Y j are:respectively (Goddard, 1983;Moav & Hill, 1966;Moav & Moav, 1966). Therefore, according to Equation 7, an MLE of the vector of economic weights and A2) is:where all the components of Equation 8 were defined earlier.According to Pawitan (2013, p. 45), the invariance property of the MLE says: \"If ŵ is the MLE of w and g(w) is a function of w, then g( ŵ) is the MLE of g(w).\" Thus, by this property and by Equation 8, we can assume that an MLE estimator of the LPSI vector of coefficients (Equation A3) is:where Ĝ and Pˆ− 1 are restricted MLE (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2018) of the genotypic covariance matrix G (Equation A1) and the inverse phenotypic covariance matrix of P (Equation A3), respectively. Equation 9 implies the estimated LPSI (Equation A3) is:which should be interpreted in terms of monetary units when breeders predict H (Equations A1 and A2). The estimated LPSI selection response (Equation A4) is:where k denotes the selection intensity. Furthermore, becauseπ\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 appears on the numerator and denominator of the correlation (Equation A5) between LPSI and H, this last parameter is not affected by π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 and can be estimated as:All the terms of Equation 12were defined earlier.For the set of economic weights taken from published literature (Cerón-Rojas et al., 2015) we estimated the LPSI parameter and we made selection with the simulated and real datasets using \"RIndSel,\" an R software for Index Selection (Alvarado et al., 2018;Pacheco et al., 2017;Perez-Elizalde et al., 2014). In addition, to apply the profit function described in this work, we made an R-code to estimate the economic weights and to make LPSI selection. RIndSel is an R software completely automated, thus, users only need to learn how to introduce their data into the program and how to interpret the results. This software, and a complete user manual, can be downloaded from https://data.cimmyt.org/dataset.xhtml? persistentId=hdl:11529/10854These datasets were simulated by Cerón-Rojas et al. (2015) with QU-GENE software using 2,500 molecular markers and 315 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for eight phenotypic selection cycles (C0 to C7), each with four traits (Y 1 , Y 2 , Y 3 , and Y 4 ), 500 genotypes, and four replicates for each genotype. The authors distributed the markers uniformly across 10 chromosomes and the QTLs randomly across the 10 chromosomes to simulate maize (Zea mays L.) populations. A different number of QTLs affected each of the four traits: 300, 100, 60, and 40, respectively. The common QTLs affecting the traits generated genotypic correlations of −0.5, 0.4, 0. We used one maize and one wheat dataset from CIMMYT breeders' experimental research. The maize traits (grain yield, GY in t ha −1 ; anthesis day, AD, in days; moisture content, MOI, %; plant height, PH, in cm; and ear height, EH, in cm) were evaluated in five sites. The number of maize genotypes was 68, each with two repetitions, whereas the environment was optimal. The economic weight for each trait was 5, −0.3, −0.3, −0.3 and −0.3, respectively. Likewise, the wheat traits (GY; heading, HD, days; and PH) were evaluated in one environment. The number of wheat genotypes was 100, each with two repetitions, whereas the economic weight for each trait was 5, −0.3, and −0.3, respectively. We compared the maize and wheat results using the selected top 10% (k = 1.755) of the estimated LPSI values. The real datasets are available by request at j.crossa@cgiar .org.  2015) simulated maize datasets described earlier, if the harvest corresponded to 1% of a hectare, that is, a plot or cultivated area of 10 by 10 = 100 m 2 . Note that 1 ha is equal to 100 by 100 = 10,000 m 2 ; therefore, to obtain the cost for the simulated datasets, we divided MX$38,392.75 by 100, where the cost for each simulated selection cycle was MX$383.93. In addition, the average of simulated grain yield for Cycle 1 was 161.88 kg; thus, because for 1,000 kg the price is MX$3,182.00, by using the rule of three, we found that for 161.88 kg the grain yield price is MX$515.101. We used a similar approach to obtain prices and costs for the other selection cycles.According to FIRA data, we used MX$3,182.00 for each ton of maize. Nevertheless, for each ton of wheat, the average price estimated by FIRA was MX$5,265.00. To estimate the vector of economic weights (Equation 9) for both real datasets, N H = 1.0 (1 ha).Note that Equation 6 can be written asThis means that when n = 1 we shall have Equation 2, and for n = 2 we shall have Equation 6. However, when n = 3 or n = 4, we shall have a profit function that assigns more weight to Ŷ1 than to Y 1 . Thus, by the above equation, breeders are free to assign weights to Ŷ1 and Y 1 according to their interest. can assume that the estimated LPSI vector of coefficients ( β = P−1 Ĝ ŵ, Equation 9) is MLE. The same is true for the estimated correlation between the estimated LPSI ( ρ\uD835\uDC3B\uD835\uDC3C ) and the net genetic merit (Equation 12; Table 1), as well as the estimated LPSI selection response ( R, Equation 11; Table 3).Cerón-Rojas and Crossa (2020b) have shown ρ\uD835\uDC3B\uD835\uDC3C and R are asymptotically unbiased estimators with minimum variance, and they gave methods to obtain confidence intervals for the expectations of R and ρ\uD835\uDC3B\uD835\uDC3C ; however, until now, the statistical properties of β = P−1 Ĝ ŵ have not been shown completely.By the above results, all the estimated parameters associated with the LPSI are maximum likelihood estimators with minimum variance, and they are asymptotic unbiased estimators for R and ρ \uD835\uDC3B\uD835\uDC3C .In the Introduction, we indicated some statistical properties of the LPSI when the phenotypic (P) and genotypic (G) covariance matrices are known. Let ϵ = \uD835\uDC3B − Î be the error of prediction of Î (Equation 10); then: (a) ϵ and Î are independent; (b) by the central limit theorem (Kollo, 2005), Î converges in distribution with the normal distribution(c) Î is an asymptotically efficient predictor. This last result allows us to construct a confidence interval for the conditional expectation of H [E(H|I)] as:where Î denotes the estimated LPSI values, Z α/2 is the upper 100 α 2 percentage point of the standard normal distribution, and 0 ≤ α ≤ 1 is the level of confidence. Thus, to establish a 100(1 − α) = 95% confidence interval for E(H/I), the value of \uD835\uDC4D α∕2 is equal to 1.96. To construct the above confidence interval, it should be convenient to omit the π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 from the estimated LPSI parameters because π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 increases the length of the interval. The same is true for the variance of the error of prediction. That is, the π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 values increase the estimate of the prediction error variance. According to these results, the LPSI theory gives breeders a viable statistical method to make multi-trait selection.Numerical resultsTable 1 presents cost (Equation 1), grain yield price (π), and π times the number of hectares cultivated (N H = 0.01 or 1% of a cultivated hectare) and divided by 2 ( π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 ; e.g., [(515.101)(0.01)]/2 = 2.576). Although the cost for each selection cycle was the same, the price changed, as this depends on the harvested grain yield in each selection cycle. Similar results were obtained for the π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 values because this depends on π.According to Equations 7-9, the estimated economic weights presented in Table 2 ( ŵ1 to ŵ4 ) were the product of π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 times the coefficient of grain yield Y 1 (1.0 or b1 ) and the estimated coefficients of regression of Y 1 on Y 2 , Y 3 , and Y 4 ( b2 to b4 ). For this reason, whereas the economic weight of Y 1 was equal to π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 (Table 2), the economic weights for traits Y 2 to Y 4 were ŵ2 = π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 b2 , ŵ3 = π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 b3 , and ŵ4 = π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 b4 , respectively. In addition, because the estimated regression coefficients b2 to b4 are MLE, by the MLE invariance property (Pawitan, 2013), the estimators ŵ2 , ŵ2 , and ŵ4 were MLE. This means we can assume the estimator of the vector of economic weights (Equation 8) was a minimum variance and asymptotic unbiased estimator.For k = 1.755 (top 10% of the estimated LPSI values), Table 3 presets the estimated selection response obtained when using the profit function ( R) and the estimated selection response ( R * ) when the economic weight were obtained from the published literature. In a similar manner, Table 3 presents   means that the estimated vector of economic weights (Equation 8) affected mainly the estimated LPSI selection ( R), as we would expect. By Equations 8 and 9, the estimated selection response (Equation 11) can be written as2 , k, and toNote that when π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 andtend to zero, R tends to zero. Therefore, the higher value of R will be when 2 should be high. For breeding and economic objectives jointly, both parts should be high.The total average of the ρHI values was 0.820 (Table 3), meaning that the estimated LPSI values predict the H values with high accuracy. However, the total average of the ρ * HI values was 0.863 (Table 3), that is, the values of ρ * HI were higher than the ρHI values. In addition, because π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 appears in the numerator and denominator of the correlation between the estimated LPSI and H values (Equation 12), the values of ρHI and ρ * For this dataset, the ton grain yield price was MX$3182.00, thus, for \uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B = 1.0, only affected R, this was higher than R * . Nevertheless, in this case ρHI was higher than ρ * HI .For this dataset, the ton grain yield price was MX$5265.00, then, for \uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B = 1.0, 2 affected only R, this was higher than R * , whereas the correlation coefficients were similar.The real maize and wheat genotypes selected with LPSI Table 4 presents the selected maize genotype (with k = 1.755), and the means of five selected traits (GY, AD, MOI, PH, and EH) using the economic weights obtained with the profit function and the economic weights 5, −0.3, −0.3, −0.3, and −0.3, respectively. In addition, Table 4 presents the total means of the selected traits, the population mean of the traits, and the selection differential (mean of the selected traits minus the population mean of the traits) for each trait. Table 5 presents the selected wheat genotype (with k = 1.755), the means of three selected traits (GY, HD, and PH) using the economic weights obtained with the profit function and the economic weights 5, −0.3 and −0.3, respectively, the total mean of the selected traits, the population mean of the traits, and the selection differential for each trait.The maize genotypes selected by our approach are different to the maize genotypes selected by the other approach (Table 4). However, six wheat genotypes (6,10,12,39,45,71) selected with our approach were the same as those selected by the other approach (Table 5). This means that when the number of traits increases in the LPSI, both approaches tend to select different genotypes, which does not occur when the number of LPSI traits is low, as in the wheat dataset. Likewise, although the maize and wheat estimated LPSI values obtained using the profit function economic weights were all positive (Tables 4 and 5), the estimated maize and wheat LPSI values obtained using the other economic weights described above were all negative. Thus, both sets of economic weights affect the estimated LPSI values in a different way, as we would expect. In addition, note that the traits mean selected with the LPSI using our approach were all higher than the traits mean selected by the LPSI using the other approach. This explains why, in general, the selection differential values for each trait obtained with our approach were mainly positive, whereas for the other approach they were mostly negative.Using a stochastics linear regression model and a profit function, we developed a methodology to enable plant breeders define economic weights for selection indices. Our aim was to obtain economic weights for selection indices that can improve selection decisions in plant breeding when several traits (GY, maturity, HD, PH, etc.) are simultaneously selected. The problem to construct a profit function in maize and wheat breeding is evident: only GY has a market price, as we have indicated in the Introduction of this study. Therefore, our approach is based on GY market price and on the regression coefficients of GY on all the other associated traits.Our results show that the profit function and the regression theory allow us to estimate the trait economic weights in the maize and wheat breeding context and select genotypes using the LPSI theory. For seven simulated datasets and two real datasets, the estimated LPSI selection responses were higher in all cases when we used the method described in this study to obtain the economic weights. This was not generally true for the estimated correlation between the LPSI and H, thus further research is necessary on this topic.When we compared the R values obtained in this study with the R * values (Table 3) obtained by Cerón-Rojas et al. (2015) and Cerón-Rojas and Crossa (2020b), who used the simulated datasets described in this paper and the LPSI to make selections, we found that in all cases the R values were higher than the R * values. The same was true for the maize and wheat real datasets. In addition, the estimated selection responses of this research have an economic interpretation, but this type of interpretation it is not possible for the R * values of the above authors. Thus, the profit function described in this study to obtain economic weights is effective for evaluating the profitability of plant breeding programs.T A B L E 4 Selected maize genotype and selected traits (grain yield, GY; anthesis day, AD; moisture content, MOI; plant height, PH; and ear height, EH) for k = 1.755 using the economic weights obtained with the profit function and the economic weights 5, −0.3, −0.3, −0.3 and −0.3, respectively, and estimated linear phenotypic selection index (LPSI) valuesResults As we would expect, the profit function (Equations 7 and 8) assigned more weight to Y 1 than to the other traits. In addition, because the economic weight of Y 1 is equal to π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 , all the seven selection cycles coefficients of Y 1 ( b1 ) in Table 2 are equal to 1.0, whereas the values of the other traits' regression coefficients ( b2 to b4 ) differ from 1.0. This shows the method described in this study is an adaptation of the Smith (1936) idea to the multiple regression context using the profit function and regression theory.Note that Equations 7 and 8 are linked to the market situation and therefore the trait economic values are neither simply arbitrarily fixed values nor preference values. In addition,the regression coefficients, which are multiplied by π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 to obtain the economic weights, are associated with grain yield effects. Thus, the proposed profit function is a good option for obtaining economic weights to make LPSI selection in plant breeding.Why use a linear approach to derive the economic weights?In the study of maize and wheat quantitative trait (QTs), it is assumed traits such as GY, PH, EH, etc., are the result of an undetermined number of unobservable gene effects distributed across the plant genome that interact among themselves and with the environment to produce the observable characteristic plant phenotypes (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2018). This implies the QTs have continuously distributed phenotypes that do show a complex Mendelian inheritance (Hill, 2010). The QTs are difficult to analyze because heritable variations of these traits are masked by larger nonheritable variations that make it difficult to determine the genotypic values of individual plants (Smith, 1936).To analyze QTs, we assumed the traits of interest and the net genetic merit have joint multivariate normal distribution. Under this distribution, the means, variances, and covariances completely describe the index and trait values. Moreover, if the trait values are not correlated, they are independent; linear combinations of traits are normal; and even when the trait phenotypic values do not have normal distribution, by the central limit this distribution serves as a useful approximation (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2020b;Rencher, 2002). In addition, under the multivariate normality assumption, the regression of the net genetic merit on any linear function of the phenotypic values is linear (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2022;Kempthorne & Nordskog, 1959).Using histograms, quantile-quantile plots, and the Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality tests, Cerón-Rojas andCrossa (2018, 2020b) showed that the estimated LPSI values, and the average values of traits such as GY, PH, EH, etc., in maize and wheat breeding, approached the normal distribution. One additional criterion to assume the QTs have multivariate normal distribution is based on the infinitesimal model theory (Barton et al., 2017;Fisher, 1918;Turelli, 2017;Walsh & Lynch, 2018). Under this model, (a) in the plant genome there is a very large number of loci, each with very small effects; (b) in a randomly mating population, under no selection, the genotypic distribution is normal, and (c) the genotypic distributions stay at least close to normal after selection (Walsh & Lynch, 2018).Under the foregoing assumptions, Equations 3-5 are linear. Moreover, any function that is expressible as Equation 4is linear even if the vector b depends on the joint distribution of H and the traits phenotypes (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2022). Based on these reasons, using a linear approach to obtain economic weights in the maize and wheat breeding context seems correct. Finally, note in Equation 3, the independent and dependent variables are random variables, and the same is true for the residuals; then Equation 3 and 4 are stochastics linear model, no determinist model.Alternatively, Goddard (1983) has analyzed the profit function in the linear and nonlinear context and concluded the better approach to maximize the LPSI selection response is to use a linear profit function. In his research, Goddard (1983) presents examples of why breeders should use a linear profit function in the LPSI context to derive economic weights. Based on that, we believe our approach to obtain economic weights is optimal in the context of maize and wheat.The invariance property of the MLE is associated with the invariance principle of the likelihood ratio, which indicates \"in the likelihood function the information should be invariant to the choice of parameterization\" (Pawitan, 2013, p. 45). This means if we do not know where the parameter of interest is, then we should not know where its log is, or where its squared is, or its inverse value. That is, we should be equally ignorant regardless of how we model our problem. Pawitan (2013, p. 44) indicates \"the invariant property of the likelihood ratio should be seen only as a convenient axiom, rather than a self-evident truth.\"Economic weights are difficult to assign in plant and animal breeding programs, and some authors have described alternatives to the LPSI. For example, Elston (1963) described a free-economic weights selection index that does not require estimates of the phenotypic and genotypic covariance matrices. Likewise, other authors (Brascamp, 1984;Itoh & Yamada, 1986, 1987;Pesek & Baker, 1969;Yamada et al., 1975) described the desired gains index, which does not use economic weights because it does not predict H, rather it only estimates the expectation of g. In turn, Cerón-Rojas et al. (2008b, 2016) described the eigen selection index method, where w (the vector of \"economic weights\") is a linear combination of the first eigen-vector of the matrix of multi-trait heritability. Thus, these last three indices do not use a profit function (net returns minus costs) to obtain economic weights to evaluate breeding programs. However, in this study, we have showed it is possible to assign economic weights to maize and wheat breeding traits using a profit function.Finally, it is evident that there is the possibility to development non-linear profit functions to obtain economic weights, however, Goddard (1983) have showed that a LPSI will always give the highest selection response including when breeder uses non-linear profit function. Our research represents the first formal attempt to incorporate economic weights for selection indices that can improve selection decisions.Farmers and consumers are now placing strong emphasis on sourcing and sustainability, thus other criteria such as carbon footprints, water use, nitrogen emissions, and ecosystem services should be considered in addition to profitability. However, these issues are hard to capture in a simple selection index that attempts to improve few traits. Farms are more complex than simple profit and the need for cultivars that do not maximize profitability of the crop but of the system is an important factor that is not easily incorporated in a selection index.In addition, not all farmers are risk takers, and often plant high yielding hybrids at low density to avoid failure risks. This gradient in plant population densities used by farmers indicates there is a gradient in risk attitudes. The question is: what is the target group to make selections for? Simple models to account for risk attitude suggest the selection of different crops and cultivars within crops account for the risk aversion differences. The method proposed here for estimating economic weights to be used in a selection index to bring an economic dimension to selection indices is a step towards allowing the breeder to use economic information correctly. Further studies are needed to formalize and bring socioeconomic dimensions to selection decisions by using a framework that considers the many uncertainties and sources of variability among farms and the mixture of farms in the target population of farms.Assuming the traits and the net genetic merit have joint multivariate normal distribution, we have described a profit function for obtaining economic weights in maize and wheat breeding programs. Using the profit function and the linear regression theory, we obtained a profit function that extends the Smith's idea to assign economic weights in wheat breeding. In animal breeding programs, all economic traits of interest have specific market prices; however, in the maize and wheat breeding context, only GY has a specific price on the market. For this reason, the proposed profit function is com-posed of two parts: one associated with the GY and the other linked to the expectation of GY given the values of the other traits. Using the proposed approach, the average of the estimated correlation between the LPSI and the net genetic merit for the seven simulated selection cycles was 0.820, and for the maize and wheat real datasets were 0.87 and 0.85, respectively. Therefore, we concluded the profit function proposed in this study is a strong option for obtaining economic weights in plant breeding.","tokenCount":"5819"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d79687721382db554675355ba194b3e0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1e37cbe3-63b9-455a-ab9a-78b15bcbe210/retrieve","id":"1512559714"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"af50746b-8d73-463a-95d6-53d7b7517b71","pagecount":"4","content":"The main stages of SRI This guide outlines the basic ideas and practices in order to obtain good yields: Pregerminating can save time during sowing. For a good pregermination, I put the rice is a well-ventilated sack (cloth or hessian, for example) and place it in a stream or a bucket filled with lukewarm water (30°C) for 24 hours.Then I take the sack out of the water and put it in a pre-warmed hole (it must be warm) for another 24 hours.Demand for rice on the global market is on a constant rise. Yet despite the Green Revolution, production levels are unable to keep up with demand. Irrigated rice production is practised by millions of farmers around the world. The technique is based on an almost permanent flooding of the paddy-fields, which is an enormous source of methane production. Replanting is done at a late stage and the density of plants is too high.As a result of population pressure and frequent shortages of land and water, other methods of cultivation should be used in order to improve rice yields.The system of intensive rice cultivation (or SRI -Système de Riziculture Intensive in French), developed in Madagascar in 1983 by Fr. Henri de Laulanié, is an innovative cultivation method that can increase yields considerably without the need for inputs that are often costly and hard to access for smallscale farmers.The great discovery was that rice is not an aquatic plant; rather it develops with an alternating system of watering. A further discovery was that the earlier the rice is replanted, the greater the production of tillers (presence of stalks or tillers from a seedling). A single seedling can produce up to 80 stalks, or even more.In the course of a single year, depending on soil and climate conditions, it is possible to produce three harvests of rice, as well as vegetables during the off-season. Compost used for vegetable production also benefits rice.For a paddy of 1,000 square metres, I will need a seedbed of 9 square metres (three 1 x 3m plots) with about 125g of pregerminated seed per plot (that is 375g for all three plots).I sow the seed sparsely in order to produce stronger plants.On days it does not rain, I give my seedbeds plenty of water in the morning and/or the evening.I can begin replanting in the paddy when I have seedlings with two leaves, that is, about 5 to 10 days after sowing, depending on the soil and climate conditions. It is important to replant seedlings with not more than two leaves because the more the seedling grows before replanting, the less it tillers and the lower the yield.I replant the seedlings on a grid using knotted string, with a minimum space of 25 x 25cm between plants (more if the paddy is fertile) to produce good tillering and easy hoeing.Intensive rice cultivation requires a good control of water (irrigation and drainage). I dig irrigation channels (about 30 x 30cm) around each plot. It is normal to leave a shallow puddle of water in the paddies (muddying).The evening before hoeing, I flood the fields slightly so I can use a hoe more easily. After hoeing, I drain the paddies completely for a day or so. Draining improves tillering during this phase of their growth.As the rice grains develop, I leave a thin layer of water on the paddies for 15 to 20 days, before completely draining them 8 to 10 days before the harvest.It is important to eliminate weeds and to aerate the soil by hoeing 3 to 4 times per season. As already mentioned, I flood the paddies slightly before hoeing so I can use hoeing tools more easily. I first hoe (in both directions) 8 to 10 days after replanting, and then 2 to 3 times every 8 to 10 days.To avoid losing any grains through accidental shedding, I harvest the rice even if some grains are not yet completely ripe. During harvesting, I make sure to select the most beautiful stalks and keep them carefully for next year's seed.I spread compost when preparing my paddy field, and I grow off-season vegetables (especially leguminous plants such as peas and beans) because they enrich the soil. Alternating dry cultivation with rice growing is very important to maintain good aeration and soil fertility.","tokenCount":"715"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"64ff239e96d2e088b4a43cd1c6bdd468","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/bf789501-7602-4382-90f4-cb28e5605b61/content","id":"-541033651"},"keywords":["Gender","social inclusion","food and nutrition security"],"sieverID":"5569aa19-018b-4035-b7bc-9e4aeae52ede","pagecount":"29","content":"The Zimbabwean economy depends on agriculture, which is at a crossroads with the environment, particularly under conventional agriculture practices. Transitioning to agroecology approaches has been identified as a means to transform food systems and address the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, social inequities, and rising demand for food. While policies can support or hinder agroecological transitions, it appears that there is a dearth of knowledge on the extent to which the national policies contribute in Zimbabwe. We carried out an academic review and a desk review of policies in Zimbabwe and report on the outcomes in this report. We found that the literature on agroecology is consistent on the definitions of agroecology, but there is need for translating this into practice, and evaluating the practice which is characterized by transitions. There are many policies along the themes of agriculture, environment, natural resources and climate change that support agroecology, however, they are not well coordinated and thereby miss opportunities for synergies. There is a need to integrate the tools and design institutional arrangements that facilitate the implementation of the policies.Sustainable agriculture practices and land use management must support productivity while preserving and or enhancing the natural landscape and environment, to sustain agricultural and ecological functions into the future. Agriculture has traditionally been the mainstay of the Zimbabwean economy, with the majority of livelihoods directly dependent on it. Therefore, the agriculture policy environment directly affects the fate of the Zimbabwean economy.Globally, agriculture and the environment are at a crossroads. As weather pattern changes and droughts become more frequent, agricultural productivity is on the decline. Household and national food and nutrition security are at risk today and in the future. Conventional practices in agriculture have been oriented towards industrial agriculture, based on heavy turning of soils, and high use of external inputs. Such practices exert negative pressures on the environment and require agroecological modifications to repair the environment, improve resilience to climate change and begin to reverse it. It is imperative to pivot towards agroecology, to maximize productivity while maintaining the integrity of the environment and preserve it for future generations, not least to ensure intergenerational justice and equity.The government in Zimbabwe has taken steps to promote food systems that are more ecologically compatible with Zimbabwe's semi-arid areas by developing appropriate policies and programmes. Agricultural policy is key for the development of favourable and sustainable guidelines for the promotion of efficient agricultural practices that will improve food, promote nutrition security, provide employment for the citizens, raw material for agro-based industries as well as to earn foreign exchange. Policies are instituted to identify priorities and to guide processes in their specific sector. Therefore, policies can predict and/ or explain sector performance and the subsequent effect on livelihoods.Macro and sectoral policies that focus or touch on agriculture, natural resources, climate change and environment themes have a bearing on the agroecological transition as their implementation has direct impacts on productivity, economic, environmental, human and social domains of communities. Primary outcome areas for Zimbabwean policies in agriculture, focusing on food, feed, fibre security, seek the attainment of food and nutrition security and the reduction of poverty, in resonance with international blueprints such as the sustainable development goals. Agroecology can be defined in several different ways, and we elect to define it in this report within an integration of agriculture, climate change, environment, natural resources, to serve productivity, economic, environmental, human and social needs.Agriculture is practiced in the environment, and as such, the two are interdependent. Natural resources, such as land, soils and water, forests, can also be defined as subsets of the environment. Climate change has significant effects on these and is threatening agricultural productivity and hence livelihoods. To be effective and to achieve the intended result, agroecology interventions require integrated, collective action. The role of policies in the spheres of agriculture, environment, natural resources, and climate change in influencing an agroecological transition cannot be understated.Policy can play a significant role in scaling innovations. There are different policy tools that governments can use to influence the behaviour of citizens. Policy tools have been described to take on the alternatives of carrots, sticks and sermons. Carrots are based on incentives that citizens get in return for following policy, such as the inputs farmers access if they prepare planting basins. Sticks depend on penalizing individuals who do not comply with policy while sermons depend on convincing people to follow policy but providing them with a moral or other motivating factor. Communities react in different ways to this, depending on their own environment and context. Government policy must align across different sectors and be congruent with the capacities of citizens to participate. For example, the gap between a government policy that promotes soil testing on one hand and a tax or fiscal regime that makes soil testing laboratories and equipment unaffordable will have the net effect of cancelling each other out. It may also not be enough to have several policies that promote different aspects of agroecology without one dedicated policy to guide an agroecology as this would then effectively guide the process. A combined review of academic literature in agroecology policy with a desk study of actual policies can contribute to characterizing a policy environment with respect to whether it promotes or hinders agroecology transition.Agroecology has gained momentum as a science, a set of field, farm or landscape practices and a social movement that can help transform food systems and address the concomitant challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, social inequities and rising demand for food (Wezel et al. 2020, Bezner Kerr et al. 2021, Barrios et al. 2020, Dumont, Wartenberg, and Baret 2021). Although defined differently, at minimum, there is consensus that it should encompasses: recycling; input reduction; soil health; animal health; biodiversity; synergy; economic diversification; co-creation of knowledge; social values and diets; fairness; connectivity; land and natural resource governance and participation (Wezel et al. 2020, Barrios et al. 2020). In essence, agroecology as a science is the study of the ecological, economic and social dimensions of food systems (Francis et al. 2003). In the context of field, farm and landscape practices, agroecology is concerned with harnessing natural/ecological processes to improve environmental, social and public health outcomes and build synergies and biological interactions that benefit agroecosystems while minimising social ecological externalities such as erosion, degradation, greenhouse gas emissions and social inequities (Wezel et al. 2020, Bezner Kerr et al. 2021).Because agroecology embraces several principles and elements, qualifying a system as agroecological is not trivial. Does a system qualify to be agroecological only when it applies all the 13 principles or half, four, five or 10? This difficulty has led to 'agroecological transitions' where the gist is to understand the extent to which a system is (i) oriented towards agroecology and (ii) the extent to which extant practices are aligned to agroecology principles (Dumont, Wartenberg, and Baret 2021). Others have proposed that this transition should be stepwise and start from the adoption of agroecology practices to complete transformation of food systems (Bezner Kerr et al. 2021). Agroecological transition measures the degree to which a system is oriented towards agroecology. This suggests there is no one agroecology but a spectrum of agroecology as suggested by Dumont et al (2021). More benefits are realised the more a system is oriented towards agroecology. For example, (Bezner Kerr et al. 2021) found that implementing several agroecology principles was associated with stronger food security and nutrition outcomes. Several practices used by farmers meet some aspects of agroecology. Part of the needs for future research will be help identify where systems that apply given practices are in the transition to agroecology.Despite several studies documenting the genesis, evolution and partly, impacts of agroecology on the environment, welfare, and livelihoods (Barrios et al. 2020, Dumont, Wartenberg, and Baret 2021, Francis et al. 2003, Wezel et al. 2020, Bezner Kerr et al. 2021), not much has been done on agroecology policy. A search of peer reviewed publications indicates a dearth of work (i) on the extent to which current national policies facilitate or hinder agroecology transitions in the global south and (ii) on policy options or instruments to facilitate agroecological transitions. It is neither well understood how best agroecology can be translated or mainstreamed into policy nor how well policy makers understand, appreciate, and prefer agroecology. This review is an attempt to contribute towards improving our understanding of the status of agroecology policy in Zimbabwe and the global south. It also identifies research gaps and proposes important areas for future research.This study was synthesized out of two approaches, viz an academic review based on publicly available peer reviewed and grey literature, as well as a desk study of the policy documents available in Zimbabwe.The academic literature review is based on grey, and peer reviewed publications drawn from searching for key words in common data bases such as Web of science, Scopus, and Google scholar. Search words used include \"agroecology policy in Zimbabwe\", \"agroecology policy in Africa\", \"agroecology policy\", \"agroecology and policy in Zimbabwe\", \"agroecology and policy in Africa\", \"impacts of agroecology\" and \"principles of agroecology\". This yielded several papers that were reduced to 34 based on their focus on some aspects of agroecology in Zimbabwe, Africa or in general. These are grey and peer reviewed publications. The 34 papers were further screened by title; abstract and keywords and 20 papers were deemed suitable and reviewed in detail.The policy literature desk review sought to understand the focus and thrust of the policy environment with respect to transitioning towards agroecology, giving specific actions points. The study was designed to review and summarize key policies relevant to agroecology transition. This report details the overall thrust, agroecological focus as well as specific actions points in the policy instruments. Documents related to agriculture, climate change, environment and natural resources were identified in a desk study. Policies, strategies and plans were obtained in the public space, online and from the ministries responsible for agriculture and for environment. Using a snowball approach, relevant additional documents discovered were added. Each document was reviewed with respect to relevance to agroecology. A shortlist of documents with high relevance to agroecology was selected. This report is based on the shortlist, unless stated otherwise.As agroecology gains prominence in academia and development circles, most extant studies on the subject are skewed towards documenting its evolution, describing its 10 or 13 principles and offering perspectives on how agroecology can be implemented in practice (Barrios et al. 2020, Dumont, Wartenberg, and Baret 2021, Francis et al. 2003, Wezel et al. 2020). Others have surveyed the literature and synthesize the impacts of agroecology on food security and nutrition outcomes (Bezner Kerr et al. 2021) and yet others suggest tools and frameworks for analysis (Mottet et al. 2020). Not much work has been done on understanding the policy context of agroecology. Exceptions are Ajates Gonzalez, Thomas, and Chang (2018) who study how agroecology was translated into policy in France and the UK and Valdivia-Díaz and Le Coq (2022) who document a roadmap for scaling agroecology in Peru. Several themes emerge from this literature. Here are four.First, there is consensus on what agroecology encompasses as espoused in the 13 principles of agroecology and there is no debate on the importance of agroecology as a means to transform food systems. The 13 principles of agroecology give a broad framework that can guide any future work on agroecology in any part of the world. There will be differences in the specific practices that fit the agroecology principles depending on the local context. Identifying what fits where and the extent to which such practices align with agroecology principles should be an important part of future research.Second, there is no global agreement on when a system qualifies to be agroecological, but higher benefits seem to accrue in systems that apply several agroecological principles. This highlights the importance of bundling agroecology principles for their multiple synergistic benefits. Given the weight of the available evidence, there is need for more rigorous impact assessments to evaluate the benefits of bundled agroecology across different scales and levels. It is understood that systems will be at various levels on the spectrum to agroecology. Untangling this 'definition' of agroecology is key to facilitate evaluation.Third, evaluation of agroecology will benefit from the application of consistent tools and approaches across scales and levels. Existing tools such as the Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE) -which can be used to assess the extent of agroecology transition, monitor and evaluate agroecology projects and evaluate drivers of changes in agriculture systems (Mottet et al. 2020) hold promise. These, however, need to be further vetted, validated, and accepted by the global community of practice. Because agroecology encompasses several aspects spanning ecology, social, economic, welfare, governance and environment make developing comprehensive, adaptable, and flexible evaluation tools a daunting task.Fourth, the dearth of evidence on policy aspects of agroecology is glaring. Except for a few countries in Europe and South America, not much is known on (i) the extent to which current national policies facilitate or hinder agroecology transitions in the global south and (ii) on policy options or instruments to facilitate agroecological transitions. It is neither well understood how best agroecology can be translated or mainstreamed into policy nor how well policy makers understand, appreciate, and prefer agroecology. If unaddressed, this policy knowledge gap can hinder efforts to scale agroecology and to mainstream it into national policies. It also makes it difficult for policy makers to distinguish agroecology from common alternatives such as conservation agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, and sustainable intensification. And its use might be conflated in common parlance with other vogue terms and risk diminishing agroecology.A total of 49 documents that fall under the broad banner of policy instruments, including 14 policies, 6 strategies, 12 plans, 5 acts, 5 multilateral environmental agreements and 6 other policy related documents were found on the desk study. A shortlist of 20 documents was prioritized taken for deeper analysis, and classified according to themes, viz agriculture, natural resources, environment, natural resources and social inclusion.In this study, the agriculture sector is supported by a family of instruments consisting of National agriculture policy framework covering a range of themes such as broad policy frames, food systems transformation, traditional grains, gender, etc., see table 1 for more details on the documents covering (among others) the regional agriculture policy framework, the Agriculture and food systems transformation strategy, the draft traditional grains commercialization strategy, the agriculture gender strategy, four plans and one programme. Analysis under the environment theme was informed by two instruments, namely the Zimbabwe national environmental policy and strategies as well as the Zimbabwe wetlands policy. These are closely related to the natural resources theme which was informed by the National water policy and the National biodiversity strategy and action plan. These four documents are related and support those informing the climate change theme, which are the Zimbabwe national climate policy, the National climate change learning strategy, the Zimbabwe national climate change response strategy and the Revised national determined contributions. These are all hosted by the same Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry. The National gender policy is a cross cutting policy hosted by the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community development while the Food and nutrition security policy is hosted by the Office of the President and Cabinet.The documents were published between the year 2005 and 2022. Fourteen of the documents were developed for a specific lifetime, from 4 to 12 years. Most of the documents were designed for four to five-year lifetimes. However, four of these are past their end date, without a replacement yet. Summary by sector Agriculture This section summarises the findings from reviewing agriculture policies shaping the sector in Zimbabwe. It starts of with a presentation of the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy a then looks at the key agriculture policies and programmes in the country. All instruments reviewed as part of this section, except the tobacco value chain transformation plan were concerned with the production of food.This section summarises the findings from reviewing agriculture policies shaping the sector in Zimbabwe. It starts of with a presentation of the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy a then looks at the key agriculture policies and programmes in the country.All instruments reviewed as part of this section, except the tobacco value chain transformation plan were concerned with the production of food. The main policy thrust of RAP is to define common agreed objectives and measures to guide, promote and support regional and national activities in the agriculture sector, crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries, towards the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) common agenda, that is, sustainable and equitable economic growth and socioeconomic development. This includes the enhancement of agricultural production, productivity, competitiveness, market environment, public private sector engagement, and food and nutrition security with resilience to economic and climate changes.It is guided by 12 principles including subsidiarity, additionality, complementarity, proportionality, regionality and coherence. It promotes the additionality of the regional body without replacing the national policies. Each objective policy statement is supported by a number of strategies and policy implementation mechanisms. The policy describes the establishment of an agricultural investment plan at regional level and additional ones at national level. The policy would be reviewed every five years, and accountability is to the region and member states. The RAP promotes agroecological approaches using agriculture, environment, climate change and natural resources entry points.Some of the actions promoted by the RAP includes enhancing the sustainable utilization of plant and animal genetic resources through ex-situ and in-situ conservation of plant and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture; promoting crop variety and livestock breed development efforts for adaptation to climate change and variability; promoting access and benefit sharing; promoting collection and dissemination of information on genetic resources. Efforts towards both climate change adaptation and mitigation are supported. The policy provides for national interventions in effective soil fertility management systems, taking soil diversity into account, carbon sequestration and biodiversity preservation. Furthermore, the RAP also seeks to harmonize and standardize the proper use and disposal of agrochemicals, and to complement efforts to manage transboundary threats including pests and diseases; and support efforts to improve the management of water resources (including water conservation and efficient irrigation systems), smart (renewable) energy options, and forests. It is indicated that SADC shall support capacity building in carbon stock monitoring (including developing capacity for carbon trading and participating in this), promote sound environmental impact mitigation measures and support member states in achieving their climate policies. This would be part of regional research to develop context specific adaptation strategies for climate change and variability. Across all activities, gender issues that are relevant to food and nutrition security are to be mainstreamed.The NAPF was designed to support recovery and growth of the agriculture sector, two decades after the fast-track land reform program. It is composed of several pillars to guide agriculture sector recovery and growth: (i) food and nutrition security, (ii) agriculture knowledge, technology and innovation system, (iii) production and supply of agriculture inputs, (iv) development of agriculture infrastructure, (v) agricultural marketing and trade development, (vi) agricultural finance and credit, (vii) access, tenure security and land administration, and (viii) sustainable (green agriculture).The supporting strategies and plans of these nine pillars follow nine principles which are (i) evidence based, (ii) productivity and growth oriented, (iii) nutrition sensitive, (iv) market-based, (v) private sector led and public sector facilitated, (vi) collaborative and multisectoral, (vii) participatory and responsive to agroecological potential, (viii) sustainability, and (ix) gender, youth and other vulnerable groups mainstreamed. The NAPF is supported by a broad strategy, the Agriculture Food Systems Transformation Strategy (AFSTS), and five specific anchor plans:1. agriculture recovery plan, 2. accelerated irrigation and rural development plan, 3. horticulture recovery and growth plan, 4. agriculture information management system plan and 5. livestock recovery and growth plan. While this draft has been in circulation, specified for 2018 to 2030, it has never been ratified.The agroecological theme of agriculture, environment, natural resources, and climate change appear throughout the policy framework and most notably in the pillars on food and nutrition security (pillar 1) and sustainable agriculture production (pillar 8). The social dimensions of employment and income generation are also addressed. The principles of the document include sustainability, participatory, responsive to agroecological potential as well as gender, youth and vulnerable groups mainstreamed.There is a clear focus on intensification of production and diversification of the food production basket. The NAPF seeks to build resilience in the agriculture sector using sustainable agriculture intensification and sustainable natural resources management, and specifically calls for the adoption of climate smart agriculture, conservation agriculture with mechanization, water harvesting and irrigation development. Low cost technology investments such as irrigation (supply and services) and post-harvest management are promoted as modern approaches to raising productivity and adapting to climate change under smallholder conditions. Renewable energy is also cited as a strategic resource. The framework promotes grassroots nutrition education and utilization of biofortified seed or vines for improved access to nutrient dense food. There is a desire for development of early warning systems, coupled with rapid response. Concerns for sustainable natural resources management and environmentally friendly approaches in the wake of climate change are noted in the document, including biodiversity conservation and wetland management. Yet conventional input promotion remains a core tactic in these strategies as well.This strategy was developed to operationalize the NAPF. As detailed in the strategy document, its goals are to; raise agricultural productivity and improve contribution of the agriculture sector to the GDP; ensure household and national food security; secure agricultural industrial inputs; generate surplus foreign currency savings and earnings; improve the agriculture market access and competitiveness; and raise per capita income generation. The strategy document states that all the goals should be achieved using the agriculture resource base sustainably. The themes detected in this document are agriculture, climate change and natural resources.Actions highlighted in the AFSTS include the presidential inputs scheme, whose details are not specified in the document. The presidential inputs scheme has evolved since it was introduced from a simple programme that provided inputs to farmers to one based on conservation agriculture, the pfupfudza programme. The pfupfudza program involves a conditional input program implemented through local extension staff and administrators who verify compliance with minimum tillage as a condition for receiving subsidized seed and fertilizer. There are plans to include subsidized machinery services in future rounds. In addition, there is a target is to mechanize 1 million hectares by 2023. Digital and labour-saving technologies are promoted to improve efficiency and reduce costs of production. Government is prioritizing investments in dam construction, borehole drilling and irrigation infrastructure development across the country to conserve and sustainably utilize water for higher productivity and to respond to challenges from climate change and variability. Concerns for the environment are not specifically mentioned.The policy promotes traditional grains, recognizing them as typically underutilized crops with resilience under various biotic and abiotic stresses, including climate change. They are to be promoted as a resilience strategy, against crop failure, for diversification of diets and integration of highly nutritious diet options. The mission of the traditional grains (TG) strategy is \"to prevent and alleviate food and nutrition insecurity in the face of climate change by mobilizing the power of plant genetic resources and reversing non-communicable disease pandemics through increased consumption of TG products\". The strategy aims to stimulate research to support a robust TG seed system; support higher production and productivity while reducing the drudgery currently associated with the production; and tap into strategic partnership and improve the value chain coordination and profitability. The strategy also seeks to stimulate consumption of the TG through differentiation of products.The strategy promotes wider production of traditional grains, and research for the development of high yielding varieties and the reduction of drudgery associated with production and processing. This is promoted in part as a coping mechanism against maize monocropping (diversification) and climate change and variability. Training of farmers is one of the strategies proposed to achieve this. There is also a need to stimulate higher consumption.The agriculture sector gender strategy aims to direct gender mainstreaming in programming in the ministry, its departments, agencies and stakeholder institutions in line with regional and international policies and strategies, such as the Millennium development goals which were the United nations blue print at the time the strategy was formulated. The target is to institutionalize gender responsive systems that serve the strategic gender interests of both women and men farmers to achieve increased agricultural productivity and production. Some of this is done through the gender coordinating unit to facilitate reviews of policies and institutional frameworks with respect to gender mainstreaming, to train senior officials in the ministry and its parastatals, and to integrate gender, through a quota system into succession, promotion, appointment and staff development to improve the contribution of women in decision making at all levels. The document has no mention of technical innovations in agroecological themes, it is however included because of importance of gender dynamics to rural agriculture and associated livelihoods. Gender disparities stand in the way of full participation of some members of society, while agroecology principles of social values and of participation call for social inclusion. The strategy document advocates for the reduction of gender disparities currently experienced in all components of the sector. A key action of the policy was the identification of gender focal persons at all nodes to facilitate mainstreaming in implementation of all agriculture policies and programmes.The agriculture recovery plan (ARP) is the first and main plan of the AFSTS. It provides detailed guidance to implement the AFSTS. It focuses on the major crop value chains, maize, wheat and soybean to improve domestic food and nutrition security and to improve their contribution to GDP. The plan also integrates diverse alternatives of other value chains such as potatoes, cassava and sweet potatoes to facilitate adaptation to climate change and diversification of diets. Furthermore, the ARP provides various financing models, with an emphasis on private sector financing. Capacitation of extension services by improving mobility and access to information is identified as critical to improve productivity. The hub and spoke model is used to support increased productivity and support consolidation of value chains in localities, with specialization of production in respect of the agroecological suitability. The plan mentions a model where institutions of higher learning lead innovation, digitalization and modernization of agriculture.A key action point addressed by the ARP involves increasing access to finance for Agriculture. It details loan support for irrigation of wheat, the development of a green belt in the lowveld to achieve two maize cycles per annum, under irrigation, adoption of sorghum, millets and sunflower instead of dryland maize and soybean. Conservation tillage is encouraged, while irrigation rehabilitation and development are promoted along with mechanization. Relevant to agroecology, the ARP incorporates a presidential input grant scheme, which is based on climate proofed conservation agriculture and good agriculture practice in general. Soil conditioning, soil testing and subsequent liming for soil health and improved production efficiency is encouraged.The livestock growth plan (LGP) provides details to the AFSTS, with respect to livestock value chains 1 , for food and nutrition security and income. The plan seeks to pivot smallholder farmers towards commercial livestock production orientation and to accelerate growth for the re-settled large scale commercial farmers 2 (A2 farmers). It targets improvements in livestock feed, genetics and health of the national herds, and seeks to be responsive to climate change. Like the AFSTS, it has a Presidential input grant scheme component and has private sector involvement. The plan leans significantly on coordinated multi-stakeholder responses, including private sector and the donor community for financial support.LGP actions include the establishment of irrigated pasture belts close to water bodies in public/private/community partnerships to supplement livestock feed in drier areas; adoption of climate smart crops such as cassava and cowpea, forage sorghum and prickle pear for silage; self-generating grasses such as catambora, kikuyu and star grass to contribute to resilience building against climate change; training of farmers in various animal husbandry practices that include feed formulations to contribute to improved nutrition and climate change adaptation; and breed improvement and adoption of appropriate breeds including native breeds; and adoption of small livestock for adaptation to Zimbabwean conditions and to climate change. Furthermore, the LGP promotes climate proofed dairy production and climate proofed animal husbandry. To protect smallholder farmers and promote sustainable agriculture in areas where there is conflict wildlife, erection of electric fences is planned around national parks such as Gonarezhou. This is expected to contribute to the reduction of disease transmission from wildlife to livestock and promote the one health approach. Together with electric fences the LGP will seek to increase the number of veterinary services, including dip tanks and associated boreholes, to contribute to maintenance of animal health. The LGP presents opportunities for additionality with other government policies and programmes. Examples include the mainstreaming of climate resilience and inclusion of women and youth. However, while water is required for drinking, dipping, irrigation, and fish farming, there was no explicit focus on its management in the document. The LGP is also noticeably hush on management of other natural resources.The horticulture recovery and growth plan (HRGP) targets the transformation of the horticulture sector in a two-pronged approach. Firstly, the revival of the conventional horticulture industry and secondly establishing a rural horticulture industry. This is to accelerate domestic and export horticulture production, productivity and profitability, to earn forex and substitute imports, contribute to food and nutrition security, employment creation and raising household incomes. With respect to financing, conventional horticulture is designed to lean on partners and private sector financing while rural horticulture is to be supported under the special the Presidential scheme grant support. The plan aims to use commodity specific strategies, projects and programs. The plan touches on agriculture, climate change, environment and natural resources.The HRGP promotes the establishment of orchards, plantations and nutrition gardens by households, schools, villages, and youth groups is promoted and supported for food and nutrition security and income generation through production of exotic and indigenous vegetables and fruits, as well as improved sweet potato varieties. The nutrition density of these additional foods promote improved family nutrition. These interventions are supported by sinking of boreholes for watering crops with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) integrated for the benefit of the communities. Under the HRGP, rural aggregation centres are to be established for value addition and beneficiation of produce. Furthermore, the plan also promotes the improvement and conservation of indigenous vegetables and fruits, along with annual tree planting, research and development, market development and improved coordination. The plan promotes environmentally sustainable practices, however, not much detail is provided. This provides AEI with the opportunity to design interventions that provide clarity. The HRGP details the participation of women and youth.The plan focuses on the tobacco value chain, a major foreign currency earner (12.5% of export earnings) for the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe. However, it is dependent mainly on offshore financing, thereby reducing the net export benefits. The TVCTP aims to enhance tobacco contribution to GDP, forex earnings (raise to 70% of export earnings), employment creation and to raise household incomes by growing the tobacco value chain through localization of tobacco financing, sustainable intensification, increased production and productivity, value addition, beneficiation and export of cigarettes, including exploring new markets. This document focuses on the agricultural sector.The TVCTP intends to promote sustainable environmental management as tobacco production is traditionally notorious for being harmful to the environment because of its reliance of wood or coal for curing and high use of chemicals. The strategy promotes afforestation, to replace and plant trees for future use, and supply of coal, for tobacco curing. This is a lesser evil to simply getting firewood from the forest one did not plant, but still agroecologically insensitive. If this sector is to continue, clean energy options should be explored. Tobacco production is generally not agroecological, with deforestation being one of the main offenses.There is also poor adherence to tobacco production regulations by farmers and poor policing by government departments. Consequently, the TVCTP include farmers awareness and education programmes to mitigate and move away from harmful practices. The plan promotes diversification of the cash crop portfolio, supported by farmer training in good agronomic practices. This will facilitate increased revenues for farmers, and enhance traceability of produce, while responding to climate change and the anti-tobacco campaign. There is a single mention in the document of the use of irrigation for tobacco production as adaptation to climate change.The ZAIP is designed to support the recovery of production, productivity and competitiveness of an agriculture sector that has been significantly reoriented by the 2000s land reform programme 3 with respect to farm size, resulting in a larger number of smaller farms operating well below their potential. It was conceived in support of the draft agriculture policy framework of 2012, called for attainment of food and nutrition security, sustainable use of the natural resource base, income generation, employment creation, and economic growth. It identifies four result areas namely production and productivity through improved management and sustainable use of land, water, forestry and wildlife resources; increased farmer participation in fair trade in local, regional and international markets; food and nutrition security and agricultural innovation and scaling of improved technologies. The programme seeks to promote and facilitate investment in the agriculture sector, stimulated by initial financing from government, benefiting farmers and the agriculture sector, public and private. Some of this would be achieved through capacity building, partnerships, policy alignment and institutional arrangements. The programme promotes good agriculture practices, sustainable utilization of natural resources, environmentally friendly approaches, and responsiveness to climate change. Specific interventions include tax incentives for investors and agriculture sector stakeholders. This program expresses support for agroecological transitions through agriculture, climate change, environment and natural resources.The ZAIP document calls for increasing area under conservation farming, mechanization for labour savings, water harvesting, sustainable irrigation technology 4 and water efficiency in irrigation. This includes rehabilitation of existing irrigation infrastructure that was damaged during and after the land reform programme, dams, and boreholes, and raising the capacity of human resources to carry out the activities. The ZAIP encourages strengthening climate change adaption in the implementation of agriculture practices and allocates a budget to this. There is also a call for increasing the area under sustainable forestry, wildlife and environmental management. The programme promotes wholesome food for all by adoption of the farm to fork approach.The programme expressed a desire to advocate and facilitate the review of the land policy to influence the tenure farm tenure system towards more bankability.The summary findings from environmentally heavy policies are included in this section. Two environment sector policies were reviewed, the Zimbabwe national environmental policy and strategies and the Zimbabwe wetland policy. The policies reviewed in this section were concerned with the natural environment and how they interact with food systems.The goal of the national environment policy and strategies is to preserve and utilize the environment sustainably for improvement of livelihoods for current and future generations, with concerns for environmental integrity, productivity, social and economic issues. The policy recognizes the variable potential land use portfolios and also addresses marginal areas. The need for inclusivity in access to environment benefits and development, as well as responsibility through public participation for preservation and sustainable utilization is highlighted. It promotes conservation agriculture and environmentally friendly agriculture management practices. Under environmental integrity, it singles out air (pollution), water, land and biodiversity. Other natural resources are covered under protected areas and transboundary and natural resources management. Under strategic directions on each entity, it specifies possible actions, but is not very explicit, such as \"provide and improve the research and extension services needed to support optimal land-use by landholders\". It is unclear who is going to do this and under what arrangements as it sounds like a ministry of agriculture mandate. The policy refers to the Environmental Management Act, enforced by the parent ministry, for some guidelines e.g. the identification, measurement and conservation of biological diversity, in line with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Financial and legal implications are considered under a separate section, also supported by guiding principles. the policy calls for the establishment of an effective institutional framework, committed to sustainable development and able to collate and manage environmental information. Research, environmental education and awareness are cited as useful towards attaining the ideal. There is a need to promote national interests by cooperating in drawing up and implementing international environmental agreements, and collaborating with neighbouring countries on transboundary environmental issues.Along with the main sector environment policy, the ZNEPS also addresses natural resources and agriculture albeit to a lesser extent. The policy has no stand-alone section on climate change and it is not mentioned in the vision, objectives or principles.Specified action points, with respect to the agriculture, environment and natural resources, include the safeguards to water quality by setting and enforcing guidelines for water quality and effluent discharge. The ZNEPS supports the expansion of irrigation and water harvesting and provides training and capacity building in irrigation management so as to minimize the risk of both soil and water degradation. The policy promotes public awareness of natural resources issues, promotes conservation and encourages sustainable use of land, in line with the agroecological potential and other natural resources. The policy calls for the identification of endangered species for protection, including by use of protected areas. Degraded natural resources must be rehabilitated. The policy promotes the ecosystem approach to biodiversity utilization and conservation. The policy calls for improved research and extension to support sustainable land utilization.The Zimbabwe wetland policy defines several different types of wetlands, lists eight wetlands of international significance in Zimbabwe, including two lakes, two vleis, two underground pools (Chinhoyi caves and mana pools), a dam and a national park, and emphasizes the vulnerability of wetlands to degradation and the need to arrest further decline, and restore degraded ones.The policy has more than 30 policy statements, broken down by area of concern, including crop and livestock production, habitat services, research and education, tourism and recreation as well as religious and cultural significance. The policy seeks to establish effective frameworks for sustainable, participatory, and integrated management of wetlands; to enhance and maintain the value derived from wetlands for the conservation of biological diversity and improvement of livelihoods as well as to build the capacity of practitioners in wetland management, in line with Ramsar convention.Actions points include the establishment of wetland education centres countrywide and the integration of indigenous knowledge in wetland management. Community participation in wetland management is encouraged through establishment of local management institutions, extraction and sustainable utilization of wetlands products is encouraged, while measures to respond to climate change are encouraged to be put in place. It is also suggested that there should be legislation put in place to protect wetland habitats. Some wetlands would be declared as ecologically sensitive ecosystems, thereby gazetting them for protection and preservation. Agriculture can only be practiced on wetlands under permit from the environmental management agency, and where practiced, must be environmentally friendly, supporting conservation measures for ecosystem health. Some agricultural production, such as rice production, is traditionally only carried out on wetlands. This is due to the perennial availability of water, which is what makes wetlands sensitive. The policy states that discharge of waste into wetlands would be forbidden and would attract a penalty, but it is unclear if this in response to rampant practice of waste disposal into wetlands. It also promotes enforcement of relevant regulations and laws related to environmental pollution. There is need for development of climate change response strategies to safeguard wetlands and their functions. The policy document does not specifically mention gender, youth or other vulnerable groups.The third set of policy documents reviewed related to management of natural resources policy. Two policies, the national water policy and the national biodiversity strategy and action plan II (NBSAP2), were reviewed. Natural resources include water, flora and fauna.The national water policy (NWP) was developed and hosted by the now abolished Ministry of water resources development, whose departments have been integrated into the Ministry of lands, agriculture, fisheries, water and rural development. The policy is a response to challenges in water supply, food insecurity (agricultural production), the underperforming economy and climate change which promotes increased evaporation, evapotranspiration, water shortages, floods and runoff. It shows significant concerns for equitable water distribution, but also a need to integrate principles of integrated water resources management as guided by regional and international agreements and blueprints concerning water resources management.Issues of water services pricing appear consistently. In the section on agriculture, there is concern for reduced revenue due to decline in agriculture water usage. The need for water for irrigation in agriculture and for water in other sectors such as mining is recognized and recycling of water is encouraged. The policy recognizes the need for climate change to be integrated into all water resources planning and design of activities.The NWP interventions are not very specific. The policy states that water allocation between agriculture, industry and domestic among other uses would be reviewed and adjusted accordingly. It also specifies that climate change would be integrated into all water resources planning and designing of activities. There is an indication for investments into hydropower generation. The policy calls for efficient use of water, to reduce wastage, to recycle and reuse water as a principle of sustainability and multi stakeholder catchment management to safeguard water against siltation and other degradation pathways. Whilst the NWP alludes to zero tolerance to pollution of water bodies, enforcement, supposedly the prosecution of offenders, isn't apparent in practice. Polluters are required by the NWP to rehabilitate the affected area if they are found to have polluted. The requirements of water for irrigation and for environmental purposes, specified as riverine and aquatic eco systems, wildlife, wetlands, bird life etc. are noted, but there are no specific guidelines relating to this. Gender mainstreaming is called for, through the representation of women in council positions and boards and representatives as well as in gender sensitive programming.The NBSAP is the domestication of the United Nations convention on biological diversity (CBD), seeking to conserve and sustainably utilize biodiversity and ecosystems for current and future generations. It seeks to curb biodiversity loss, to safeguard ecosystems, species and genetic diversity by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society, and this through enhanced participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building, as well as gender mainstreaming. The strategy and action plan leans on research, innovations, technology as well as indigenous knowledge, and best practices for social, political, and economic development. Zimbabwe developed its first national biodiversity strategy and action plan (NBSAP) in 1998, covering the period 2000-2010. The NBSAP2 aligns with the UNCBD Strategic Plan 2011-2020.Agricultural crops and livestock species are considered forms of biodiversity which requires conservation and sustainable use.The NBSAP proposes to mainstream biodiversity into all sectors, and incorporating it into national accounting and reporting systems. The first two targets of the NBSAP 2 to be achieved by 2020 were; having at least 75% of the population of Zimbabwe aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably; and having biodiversity mainstreamed into all seven sectors (mining, agriculture, health, manufacturing, transport, and education) and incorporated into national accounting and reporting systems. It speaks of broad-based research and technological innovations, community empowerment, participation and sharing of benefits. It promotes communication, education, public awareness, research, capacity building and development concerning biodiversity and includes water and wetlands. The document promotes and supports community based natural resources management. It promotes and lobbies for the development of renewable energy and energy saving alternatives. It advocates for pollution prevention in ecosystems, disaster risk reduction, conservation and protection of threatened species and enhancement of ecosystem resilience. The document targets adaptation and mitigation strategies to reduce the impact of climate change on vulnerable ecosystems and communities.The fourth group of policies and programmes reviewed was classified under climate change. A total of four policies and programmes are reviewed including; Zimbabwe National Climate policy; National climate change learning strategy; Zimbabwe's national climate change response strategy; and Zimbabwe revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). There are a lot of statements in the climate change policy instruments that need to be implemented in agriculture but it is not clear what the coordination mechanisms to achieve this are.The Zimbabwe national climate policy seeks to create a pathway towards a climate resilient and low carbon economy in which people have enough adaptive capacity and continue to develop in harmony with the environment. The policy recognizes that there are several sectors with a stake in climate change. There is a thrust to improve adaptation and mitigation efforts as funds permit -from national/ domestic, bilateral and multilateral funding mechanisms. It also seeks to harmonize national climate responses with regional and international efforts. Policy statements include efforts to develop capacity in weather and climate research and modelling, technology transfer, capacity building and information sharing; strengthen adaptive capacity and accelerate mitigation measures by adopting and developing low carbon development pathways towards attainment of the nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The national climate policy is the main guide to climate change pathways, and also gives some insights for agriculture, environment and natural resources.The ZNCP raises the need for a periodic review and update of the agroecological map of Zimbabwe in line with the changing climate, and the need for research on possible climate related shifts in viability of farming systems, including positive effects, such as carbon fertilization. It promotes adaptation and mitigation efforts such as irrigation and water use efficiency, the utilization of varieties with tolerance to climate change and variability and in the livestock sector, good grazing and feeding practices are to be encouraged to minimize greenhouse house emissions, and sustainable land-use systems in line with climate smart agriculture. To further reduce greenhouse gas emission, forest burning should be controlled and land use changes managed. It calls for strengthening of early warning systems for crops, rangeland, droughts, floods, diseases, pests and wildlife movement to enhance preparedness. Forestry resources are recognized as sinks and reservoirs of GHGs, which should be maintained and monitored for carbon stocks. Capacity for research to track and report emissions will be built. Afforestation is encouraged. There are also concerns for maintenance and sustainable use of biodiversity. Water is a climate sensitive resource and management is required, including water harvesting for domestic, animal, agriculture and industrial use. The policy shows concern for public awareness and participation concerning climate challenge and calls for the integration of knowledge into primary, secondary, and tertiary education curricula. The need for gender responsive programming is recognized. It is also indicated that indigenous knowledge should be used to complement scientific knowledge. The form of plans used to implement these statements and the coordination mechanisms in place actions stated that fall under other ministries are still under review.The national climate change learning strategy (NCLS) was developed under the United Nations' Climate Change: Learn Southern Africa Initiative, and meant to guide capacity development, that is, learning and skills development for individuals, institutions and systems to improve capacity to cope with and to mitigate climate change. The strategy highlights the need for environmentally friendly approaches, and sustainable use of natural resources. The strategy promotes mainstreaming of climate change learning at all education levels, and across all sectors and support decision-making guided by science, research, education and communication, and the effective implementation of other climate related instruments such as the Nationally determined contributions and the National Adaptation Plans. The strategy promotes innovations for adaptation and mitigation of climate change, taking into consideration gender and the need for partnerships. Continuous learning and the implementation of climate smart agriculture for resilience building are promoted. The contribution of indigenous knowledge to climate change learning is promoted.The policy mentions the need for research into climate smart agriculture, to strengthen the academic and colleges curricula on climate change, to promote proven climate smart agriculture and to improve access of farmers to information by increasing the extension to farmer ratio, assuming that increasing the supply will meet a demand. This would also contribute to increasing community awareness of climate smart practices, including crop choices. The policy calls for the development of communication and documentation protocols for climate change learning, creation of protocols for cataloguing and documentation of best practices for indigenous knowledge practices by communities, NGO's and CSO's. Gender and youth are mainstreamed in activities.This strategy was designed to mainstream climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies along with disaster risk management in economic and social development at national and sectoral levels through multi-stakeholder engagement. It provides a framework for a comprehensive and strategic approach on aspects of adaptation, mitigation, technology, financing, public education, and awareness, assisting government to strengthen the climate and disaster risk management policies. The revised national NDC for Zimbabwe is the second Zimbabwe's NDC, and first to include targets from more than just the energy sector. This NDC is economy wide, and therefore includes agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors. Among the targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it articulates strategies to build resilience to climate change in agriculture and in general, sustainable use of natural resources. Early warning and disaster risk reduction are some of the ambitions. The document enshrines ambitions for climate change mitigation and adaptation balanced with economic development. There is a desire to reduce the amount of GHG emissions from all sectors and to achieve net zero GHG emissions by the second half of the century.The five-yearly updates of countries' NDCs should increase ambition, expand sectoral scope and accelerate implementation of climate actions Some of the strategies include for the environment and natural resources, to increase area of forest land, to increase area of forest plantation. There is also a plan to develop and promote resilient and sustainable water resources management. Under agriculture, the plan is to build resilience. This includes to reduce area burned in agricultural production landscapes, to develop, implement and scale-up climate smart agriculture solutions and strengthen agricultural value chains and markets. There is also a plan to enhance early warning and climate-related disaster risk reduction systems. With respect to climate change, the plan is to ensure climate resilient infrastructure designs and development and to enhance adaptation and mitigation efforts in all sectors.Gender, social inclusion, food and nutrition securityThe last group of instruments reviewed were classified cross cutting and include gender, social inclusion and food and nutrition security. These are included because they impact AEI outcomes. For example, gender inequity is a common challenge in rural communities in the global south. Women and other vulnerable groups have disproportionately less access to productive resources compared to men. At the same time, women are responsible for disproportionately higher responsibilities at the farm and for other duties such as caring nutrition for the family. Bringing women to the drawing board for agroecology transition will reflect on the real issues and contribute to the discourse leading to true transformation. Two instruments were reviewed, the national gender policy and the food and nutrition security policy.This is the country's second national gender policy, replacing that of 2004, which led to the establishment of a standalone Ministry of women affairs, and significant efforts towards institutionalization of gender issues country-wide. The national gender policy seeks to end gender discrimination and achieve equality between men and women in society, and allow their contributions to development as well as their benefiting thereof, in line with national, regional and international policy frameworks. It recognizes women as 86% of people involved in agriculture production, situating them as vulnerable to the pressures of climate change and environmental degradation. The policy includes a situational analysis of the gender dimension in specific areas such as governance, education and training, productive resources and employment, and environment and climate change among others. It lists eight policy statements with detailed strategies.With regards to AEI, the NGP speaks to agroecology elements of social values and participation. Social values are embraced when AEI build food systems based on the culture, identity, tradition, social and gender equity of local communities that provide healthy, diversified, seasonally and culturally appropriate diets (FAO, 2018). Whilst on the other hand, participation is about encouraging social organisation and greater involvement of disadvantaged or vulnerable groups in decision-making to support decentralised governance and local adaptive management of agricultural and food systems (FAO, 2018). Although rural women play a central role in food systems, they are often at the periphery of decision making.The document lists strategies that include policy review and gender considerations audits in current policies in environment and natural resources management to identify gaps, recommend advocate for the incorporation of gender perspectives. It further details plans to conduct research and collect gender disaggregated data to highlight inequalities. It identifies a need to build capacity for gender mainstreaming in environment and climate change policies, programmes and national environmental action plans. Agriculture is mentioned within the environment and climate change section, and there are no additional specific points mentioned.The food and nutrition security policy seeks to promote and ensure food and nutrition security for all people at all times in Zimbabwe, particularly the most vulnerable, and in line with cultural norms and values and the concept of rebuilding and maintaining family dignity, to align with national, regional and international agreements such as the millennium development goals (MDGs), as it was developed before the era of the SDGs. A national task force chaired by the country's vice president (VP) is responsible for oversight, supported by an advisory group comprised of representatives from government, the United Nations (UN), donors, NGOs and academia. The policy lists eight principles for guidance and seven commitments to be implemented.Under commitment one-of the FNSP, focusing on a conducive policy environment, there is a need to direct funds to agriculture and sustainability to \"avoid unplanned negative environmental changes\". While the second commitment is designed to ensure food security for all, including access to adequate, diverse and nutritious food by all people at all times, with strategies that mention the need for sustainable production practices that are responsive to climate change. Conservation agriculture is encouraged, along with other approaches that mitigate the effects of unreliable rainfall. Commitment three includes the need for input programs to be immediately impactful on production (effective). The need for drought tolerant agriculture production options, in particular traditional grains, are recognized as a strategic resource in this policy. However, there is limited mention of production methods. The policy promotes increased agriculture production and diversification responsive to agroecological zone suitability and potential. There is an emphasis on diversity for nutrition security, and advocacy for technologies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change and variability. Concern for the vulnerable runs through the document, with concerns for gender, women of child-bearing age, children under 5, and people living with HIV/AIDS specifically mentioned. Women are recognized as significant contributors to agriculture sector and requiring that their participation in agriculture not impact negatively on their other roles, such as that of being care givers. The inclusion of the vulnerable groups and sensitivity to nutrition are tenets of agroecology as it is built on inclusivity.Discussion: Implications for agroecological transitionIn this section, we attempt to weave the whole picture, after reviewing instrument by instrument under each theme. We attempt to discuss the implications for the agroecological transition. This section will also provide the background to questions on what innovations can be put together to start or sustain an agroecology transition in Zimbabwe. AgricultureThe agriculture sector can be argued as the backbone for the Zimbabwean economy and is supported by a large family of instruments to guide stakeholders in their performance and interactions. These documents also serve the interests of a majority of the population, who reside in the rural areas and therefore directly depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The documents suggest a variegated focus on agroecology, with many documents having the rhetoric but not all. We detect that in future a more concerted effort to coordinate and revise policies will be needed. Within agriculture, there is some within sector coordination, in pursuit for support from development partners and private sector to carry the financial burden to produce the agricultural raw materials for their businesses and for research and higher learning institutions to support innovation development. The policies spell out concerns for the social integrity of all through food and nutrition security as a primary basic requirement. With respect to agriculture practices, climate smart, sustainable intensification options are promoted. The pfumvudza program is a bold statement from government on the support for climate smart agriculture. More needs to be done to ensure all instruments are implemented and implemented well in a timely manner. The primary conduit for guidance for the grassroots is through a dense network of agriculture extension personnel, whose performance can directly affect outcomes in productivity. However, farmers are not always in a position to implement, due to financial and social constraints. The requisite budgets for implementation of the policies are usually insufficient, putting the performance of farmers who depend on public support in jeopardy.The natural resources (land, soil, water, and biodiversity) theme is supported by policy guidelines from the ministries responsible for agriculture and for environment. The policies recognise the vulnerability of the resources and call for different strategies for their protection. The concern for protection is balanced with the realization of the potential for the natural resources to support human and social needs and therefore there is promotion of sustainable utilization. Support for these messages in the communities is delivered by officers from the departments in the ministry responsible for environment but these are very thin on the ground, compromising performance. They require and receive significant support from the agriculture extension network due to the interdependence of their focus areas. However, it may be taken as a secondary, less mandatory duty. There is poor regulation and policing in this sector.Environmental policies support agroecological transition by calling for humans to live in harmony with nature through environmental conservation and sustainable utilization. Awareness raising and policing in communities is carried out by officers from the ministry of environment. There needs to be a wide range of policy tools used and not to depend on policing or sticks in the environment sector. Effective transitioning will arise out of self-policing and ownership of the process by farmers. Officers from the ministry of environment need to be increased and mobility addressed to improve geographical reach. There is a wide gap in awareness and compliance, calling for new arrangements to address these.The country has taken a stance to mainstream climate change into all sectors across the economy. This is in support of an agroecological transition. There are several documents with strategies for improving learning and for guiding adaptation and mitigation. There is need for awareness raising and for progressively increasing the content of messages to improve adaptation and mitigation results. There is a need for clear plans to implement these policies and monitoring and evaluation plans to verify the capacity development. There is need to implement closely the monitoring of resilience building and performance.The cross-cutting instruments on gender, social inclusion and food and nutrition security impact AEI outcomes. There are relationships, some causal, between the results of AEI and food and nutrition security. As an example, the reduction of the dependency on expensive external inputs, can contribute to reduced food insecurity especially for smallholder farmers when less money is spent on buying inputs and used to buy more nutritious food. A second example, agroecological practices can adversely household nutritional status, especially for children, when more labour is required and it is mainly provided by women and girls who typically have the role of preparing meals. In this scenario, gender instruments can contribute to ensuring AEI can achieve intended outcomes. The relationships are indeed complex and include many trade-offs in practice. Understanding these relationships how instruments in this group can impact AEI and vice versa under specific contexts is critical to achieve intended outcomes. Most documents include the need for inclusivity. However, there remains a gap in acceptance and therefore implementation of these values in the communities. There is need for strategies to change perceptions and improve power dynamics.More research is needed to improve our understanding of how agroecology policy intentions be translated into food system changes delivering food and nutrition within planetary boundaries. . A good place to start is through desk review to understand the extent to which current national policies facilitate or hinder agroecology transition. There is also need for more research to assess awareness and understanding of, and preferences for agroecology among different actors in the food systems. Farmers, unlike processors or policy makers might prefer different elements of agroecology. Finding common ground requires rigorous ex-ante assessments using various tools and methods. One such tool is Best-Worst Scaling (BWS), which is a discrete choice experiment method that gives respondents an opportunity to choose the worst and best among items in a choice set. BWS enables respondents to consider trade-offs among policy options (e.g., money spent on translating agroecology into policy will not be available for other uses). It could also be used to identify the most locally relevant agroecology principles. By choosing the extremes -best and worst -from several short lists of options, BWS is not much of a cognitive burden. And the data from BWS allows computation of cardinal rankings, which indicate by how much a given policy option is preferred. Another important aspect for future research is identification of most policy instruments that can be leveraged to facilitate transition to agroecology.The policy environment in Zimbabwe, taking into consideration policies, strategies, plans and other policy documents generally support an agroecological transition. The problem statements in the different documents illustrate consciousness of the current challenges threatening the planetary boundaries because of unsustainable production practices and interactions with the environment. Most documents have specific actions that can facilitate the agroecological transition. However, translating policies to communities and capacitating the communities to implement often present hurdles.There is a realization that messages are fragmented and there is need to integrate the different sector focuses and provide integrated guidelines, and for this there is an agroecological policy currently being developed. There is scope for The Agroecological Initiative to contribute to the development of the national agroecology policy.There is a need for some cross sectoral coordination so that the messages from the different themes can be coherently translated to the communities. The communities need to be capacitated to engage with the subject matter and contribute to co-creation.. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Its research is carried out by 13 CGIAR Centers/Alliances in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.orgWe would like to thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders.To learn more about this initiative, please visit this webpage. ","tokenCount":"10470"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2b5e83254ef35314eccfd8557f0ca2f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3f8ea043-f4b2-4384-9cf1-154670bd67af/retrieve","id":"-1164035198"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dab2f9fd-4967-4794-b3c7-4b3f2ab400f6","pagecount":"12","content":"Biodiversity -or biological diversity -is the variety within and between all species of plants, animals and micro-organisms and the ecosystems within which they live and interact. Agricultural biodiversity, a subset of biodiversity, is the result of natural evolution, and selection and breeding by farmers over millennia.Many farmers, especially in areas unsuited to high-yielding crop varieties, rely on a wide range of NUS 1 for their livelihoods. Species such as Bambara groundnut and quinoa have evolved over time and are adapted to the particular conditions where they grow, often in low-input, rainfed agricultural systems. Hundreds of plants, trees, fungi and animals in wild ecosystems also provide food and income. But the importance of NUS -also known as minor or orphan crops -is often overlooked. Agricultural policies and markets favour genetically uniform varieties of a few high-yielding staple and commodity crops such as wheat, rice, tea, coffee and cacao.NUS such as Andean grains, minor millets and leafy vegetables have attracted scientists' and donors' attention for at least 20 years. Only recently, however, has their strategic contribution to addressing poverty, and food and nutrition insecurity, become more broadly recognized. The 2012 Cordoba Declaration on Promising Crops for the XXI Century, the 2013 International Year of Quinoa celebrations and the African Orphan Crops Consortium's recent launch of the African Plant Breeding Academy are but a few examples of the heightened interest in such species. A range of organizations are backing efforts to enhance the conservation and use of NUS, 2 but further investments are needed to mainstream these species in food and agricultural systems.Recently, agricultural organizations and policymakers have recognized the current role and the untapped potential of NUS for food and nutrition security, generating income in rural areas, building resilience, adapting to climate change, and mitigating climatic, agronomic and economic risks. In 2008, the first international symposium on this theme was held in Arusha, Tanzania, followed by a similar event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2011. In September 2013, Ghana hosted the 3 rd International Conference on Neglected and Underutilized Species: For a Food-Secure Africa. 3 Drawing on the lessons learned from the initiatives mentioned above, this policy brief highlights key roles of NUS in addressing five critical development challenges: conservation of agricultural biodiversity; agricultural and rural development; climate change; food and 3 NUS: key roles nutrition security; and gender, culture and empowerment of women. The need for capacity development in NUS is also stressed. Recommendations and key actions indicate ways forward to mainstream NUS into policies and programmes at national, regional and international levels.Humankind depends on sound agroecosystems, and sound agroecosystems depend on biodiversity at ecosystem, species and genetic level. Globally, more than 4,000 food-plant species are commonly eaten (Proche et  al., 2008). The genetic diversity of NUS, landraces of major crops, and their wild relatives constitutes a very important part of agricultural biodiversity but is in rapid decline. Worldwide, farmers are abandoning NUS as globalization, population growth and urbanization lead to changes in agricultural and food systems. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), since the 1900s around 75% of crop diversity has been lost. This loss of agricultural biodiversity is caused by a complex array of economic, social and demographic drivers, including agricultural and food systems that focus on intensive production of a very limited number of crops.The alarming decline of NUS genetic resources and the traditional knowledge associated with them has far-reaching implications for agriculture. This decline inhibits natural evolution and adaptation in crop species, reduces future options for breeding improved varieties and developing value chains, and lessens the resilience of agroecosystems and their ability to adapt to change, including climate change.The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), its Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, including the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity 2011-2020 clearly recognize the importance of agricultural biodiversity. But much remains to be done to increase policy makers' awareness of the importance of conserving this diversity, including conserving the diversity of hundreds of NUS threatened by severe genetic and cultural erosion. Currently, Annex I of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture excludes most NUS. This omission hinders international exchange of germplasm for research and farming, and makes NUS ineligible for funding via the Treaty's benefit-sharing fund. The global genebank system for conserving agricultural biodiversity ex situ comprises more than 1,740 genebanks and over 7.4 million crop samples (FAO, 2010). These collections focus primarily on staple and commodity crops, and their wild relatives. Many NUS are poorly represented; their conservation and continued evolution largely depends both on their use on farms and their preservation in healthy wild ecosystems.Since the advent of the Green Revolution, the model for agricultural growth has been to increase the productivity of a limited number of staple and commodity crops. According to FAO, between 1970 and 2010, plant breeding, agricultural technology, irrigation, fertilizers and agro-chemicals, coupled with expansion of the cultivated area, more than doubled global cereal production. The increase in cereal production has been instrumental in fighting hunger and feeding the growing global population, but the gain has been uneven between and within countries and regions. In most of sub-Saharan Africa, production of cereals in the last three decades has not kept pace with population growth, and the continent is a net importer of these crops.In many rural communities, NUS, including 'forest foods', complement major staples in diets and are a fall-back option if staple crops fail. They are often a significant source of income, especially for women. In marginal environments, where poverty and food insecurity is most prevalent, NUS are often central to farmers' strategies for reducing climatic and economic risks. NUS can play a key role in advancing agricultural and rural development.Internationally, the rising interest in natural ingredients for food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, nutritional and health products present great opportunities for NUS. Poor communities which produce NUS can also potentially take advantage of eco-labelling, denomination of origin branding, fair trade and slow food initiatives. What is needed is simultaneous, integrated support along value chains from farm to market. right support, there can be rapid progress. Policy support for research and development, coupled with recent investment, has led to the development of value chains for African leafy vegetables in Kenya, quinoa in Peru and Bolivia, baobab in Southern Africa, chilli peppers in Latin America and minor millets in India.Partnerships and collective action along value chains are central to developing domestic and international markets for NUS. A multi-stakeholder approachinvolving, for example, scientists, producers, traders and policymakersworks particularly well in analysing constraints and opportunities, developing capacity and introducing new skills in producing, processing and marketing both vertically and Removing a trade barrier for baobab fruit powder PhytoTrade Africa, a non-profit, membership-based trade association in Southern Africa, supports the development of value chains and markets in the natural products industry in the region. One of its achievements has been securing approval to export powdered baobab fruit to the European Union as a food ingredient. Baobab, growing in hot, dry lowland areas, produces fruits which are dried and ground to make a nutritious powder. This can now be exported for use in the European food industry.The production and consumption of quinoa, an Andean grain, is enjoying a revival. Multi-stakeholder platforms involving poor communities across Bolivia, researchers, university professors, non-governmental organizations, marketing experts and policymakers have successfully brought quinoa to domestic and international markets.What lies behind the quinoa success story is persistent work on many fronts to improve cultivation, post-harvest and processing practices, conserve quinoa diversity, link farmers to markets and build capacity. This work was fundamental in developing domestic and international value chains for this underutilized crop. Many donors, development agencies and local actors have contributed considerably as well, and deserve credit for these achievements.Although the food industry prefers white or cream quinoa, demand for coloured quinoa is increasing due to the gastronomic potential of such varieties. Product diversification -a well-known phenomenon which has been observed for many other commodities -has therefore occurred, with consumers now willing to purchase different quinoa varieties (black, red, those with special functional ingredients, etc.). The trend towards healthy foods also provides an opportunity to promote quinoa varieties currently not attractive to the quinoa export market. Hence promotion and research to further develop quinoa value chains is continuing.Minor millets are genetically widely diverse. Within this diversity are strains adapted to different soils, marginal, arid and mountain environments, and areas where the major cereals usually fail. Because minor millets have a short life cycle and an efficient root system, they have a comparative advantage where water is scarce and rainfall is low. This makes them good candidates for replacing wheat and rice in countries such as India where these staple crops may gradually become less productive due to climate change.Adapting to and mitigating climate change Climate change and variability have farreaching impacts on agricultural systems and associated agricultural biodiversity, such as pollinators and soil microorganisms. To ensure food and nutrition security, in the short term farmers will need to manage droughts, changing growing periods, more frequent extreme weather events and the spread of pests and diseases. In the longer term, farmers may experience a mismatch between local climatic conditions and the crop varieties they currently have access to. They might therefore need to shift to new varieties or species, and countries will have to adapt their seed systems accordingly.NUS grown as complements to major crops help farmers spread risks. Typically adapted to local conditions, farmers often perceive them to be stress-tolerant, and to better resist drought and other climaterelated hazards. NUS thus have an important role in strengthening the resilience of agricultural production systems as climate changes. horizontally along value chains. Partners in the private sector are important for developing processing technologies and for marketing, while partners in the nongovernment sector can help farmers gain recognition of their rights.The proportion of undernourished people in developing countries has decreased significantly since the 1990s. But FAO  (2013) estimated that between 2011 and 2013, 842 million people -one eighth of the world population -were suffering from chronic hunger. In sub-Saharan Africa, 38% of children under five are stunted as a result of chronic malnutrition. 'Hidden hunger', a deficiency of micronutrients -vitamins and minerals -affects as many as 3 billion people globally. Micronutrient deficiency and obesity frequently exist side by side, causing a 'double burden'. According to the World Health Organization (2013), in 2008, 1.4 billion adults in both developed and developing countries were overweight or obese, and faced increased risks for noncommunicable diseases including, among others, cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes and some cancers. In part, obesity is linked to rapid changes in food systems towards more processed food, supermarkets, convenient fast foods and rejection of traditional foods.In addressing food security, agricultural policies have, by and large, focused on increasing productivity, but have paid less attention to the nutritional value of food systems. Policies often overlook the health benefits of a diverse diet based on a variety of nutritious foods. NUS have much to offer in this respect. Many compare favourably with staple crops in terms of vitamin and micronutrient content and could be used more widely to diversify diets. Fruit and vegetables are particularly important. A new focus on nutrition-sensitive agriculture strengthens the links between the agriculture sector and the health and nutrition sectors, and includes nutritional objectives in agricultural programmes.Since 1997, the Peruvian government has required the inclusion of quinoa and other native grains in its school breakfast programme. The state has become one of the main buyers of native crops in Peru, leading to an increase in the area under cultivation. In the 1980s, the area sown to quinoa annually was about 15,000 hectares. By 2000, the area had risen to around 30,000 hectares.Nutrition policies in Nepal, Zambia and Papua New Guinea, while not specifically aimed at boosting production of NUS, stress growing a diversity of nutritious food crops and using nutritious foods that are available locally. The Indian National Food Security Bill, approved in September 2013, includes minor millets in the Public Distribution System along with rice and wheat. The bill will stimulate wider use of millets across India, creating demand and providing an incentive for farmers. The bill is a major step in strengthening nutritional security in the country.Most agricultural research, development and education organizations are set up to support agricultural policies whose primary focus is on staple and commodity crops. The human and institutional capacity to support research, conservation and use of NUS is fragmented, uneven and poorly financed.Problems constraining realization of the agronomic and income potential of NUS need to be addressed from a systems perspective rather than in isolation. Constraints such as the poor availability and quality of seed, variability in agronomic traits, laborious post-harvest processing, lack of standards for packaging and distribution, and a perception of NUS as 'poor man's crops' can be addressed by research and development systems, but a holistic view is of essence. Strengthening capacity -for participatory, multidisciplinary research, for facilitating stakeholder platforms to upgrade value chains and for gender-differentiated research and interventions -is essential.\"We want to see value chains develop for these crops for the maximum benefit of farmers and local communities.\"Final remarks, 3 rd International Conference on Neglected and Underutilized Species, Accra, Ghana, September 2013Valuing gender and culture, and empowering womenThe cultural, social and gender context of most NUS is fundamentally different from that of major crops. Recognizing the cultural traditions, religious beliefs, and social and economic motivations of the 'custodians' of these crops is important. In many cases it is mainly women who care for, cultivate and market NUS, including 'forest foods'. This means that in developing value chains for these crops, a gender perspective is critical.Processing NUS can be laborious and is usually part of women's workload. In Bolivia and Peru, improved processing technology has helped to increase local consumption and sales of Andean grains. Upgrading value chains by improving grading, packaging and product development are also ways to raise women's income. Helping rural communities -and especially womento realize the potential of crops that have been overlooked is a powerful way of strengthening their identity, raising their visibility and empowering them. 2. Establish national and regional lists of priority NUS on which to focus  Conduct national studies and inventories of cultivated and wild NUS, using a range of both scientific and traditional information sources.  Organize national priority-setting processes that allow key stakeholders, including farmers' organizations and the private sector, to participate fully in deciding species on which to focus.  Strengthen sub-regional and regional collaboration and align priorities.3. Support research on NUS and their agronomic, environmental, nutritional and socio-economic contributions to resilient production systems  ","tokenCount":"2436"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2f26ee92914ef1fecdc33d7ec270ff10","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/07f05513-2854-4805-ab67-65247d16de5c/retrieve","id":"213896264"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"09f24105-3c9c-416e-95c8-ec7eba5c3ab8","pagecount":"132","content":"AFD, the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement) is a public development finance institution that has worked to fight poverty and support economic growth in developing countries and the French Overseas Provinces for 70 years. AFD executes the French government's development aid policies. Through offices in more than fifty countries and nine French Overseas Provinces, AFD provides financing and support for projects that improve people's living conditions, promote economic growth and protect the planet: schooling, maternal healthcare, help for farmers and small business owners, clean water supply, tropical forest preservation, and fighting climate change, among other concerns. In 2010, AFD approved more than €6.8 billion for financing aid activities in developing countries and the French Overseas Provinces. The funds will help 13 million children go to school, improve drinking water access for 33 million people and provide €428 million in microloans benefiting more than 700,000 people. Energy efficiency projects financed by AFD in 2010 will save nearly 5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.CIRAD, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development Development (Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement) is a French scientific organization specialized in agricultural research in developing countries and overseas departments of France. It works throughout the tropics and subtropics. Its mission is to contribute to the sustainable development of these regions through research, experiments, training, communication, innovation, and the provision of expertise. Its skills in life, social and engineering sciences are applied to food and agriculture, the management of natural resources, and social issues. Operating under the Languedoc-Roussillon regional office, the mission of SAVOIRS (Service d'appui à la valorisation opérationnelle de l'information sur la recherche scientifique) is to bring educational value to scientific, technical, and practical knowledge through innovative means.Géraldine LAVEISSIERE.Grace DELOBEL.The opinions expressed in this educational handbook are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of partner institutions.Based on an original idea of: Service d'Appui à la Valorisation Opérationnelle de l'Information sur la Recherche Scientifique (SAVOIRS)of Published with the financial support of several institutional partners, this educational handbook on foot-and-mouth disease is not meant for sale. It is meant to be distributed among diverse audiences with the aim of contributing to the dissemination of scientific knowledge and to supporting teaching projects reaching the greatest number of people possible.Partnership-oriented agricultural, pastoral, silvicultural, and veterinarian research aiming to support developing countries, which is the heart of Cirad's work, is constantly confronted with diverse ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural environments.When research outputs need to be converted into development actions, our researchers and their counterparts in developed and developing countries rely on multifactorial approaches to collect field study data and take into account local conditions.Aware of the need to transfer scientific culture to diverse audiences, we have chosen to develop knowledge vectors using innovative scientific mediation processes that aim to be appreciated by both thematic experts and readers from very different backgrounds.The focus of this handbook is foot-and-mouth disease, an extremely contagious viral animal disease affecting cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, which continues to be a health priority.Although a number of European countries consider it to be a relic of the past, foot-and-mouth disease is endemic in some one hundred countries around the world. Countries recognized as being disease-free consequently face a constant threat, and their sanitary status could be called into question at any moment, with catastrophic consequences for international trade in animals and animal products.The topic is addressed through a \"multi-actor\" or \"points of view\" narrative method. The central idea of the SAVOIRS team (Service d'appui à la valorisation opérationnelle de l'information sur la recherche scientifique) at CIRAD is to have each actor express his or her own perception of the scourge, which naturally varies depending on their position: livestock farmers and veterinarians in developing and developed countries, domestic and wild animal hosts, the virus, the vaccine, a journalist, and an economist.Following a well-received French edition, this educational handbook now is being proposed in English to transmit knowledge about this re-emerging disease on an international scale. Over the course of 2011, designated as the World Veterinary Year, there have been numerous outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in North and South Korea, China, Vietnam, Japan, eastern Russia, Mongolia, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Israel, Bulgaria and most recently in Paraguay, Tibet, and Malawi.Confronted with this situation, the publication of the handbook is particularly significant because in 2012 initiatives will be taken to control this disease at a global level. The SEAFMD (South East Asia Foot-and-Mouth Disease) regional programme, which aims to eradicate foot-and-mouth disease from South East Asia by 2020, bases its activities on awareness building and communication campaigns for local populations.The English version of this pedagogic contribution, supported by sixteen partner institutions, offers an innovative approach, one that I hope is convincing, to learning about the sciences and opens new pedagogical ways to understanding and making understood emerging and re-emerging diseases involved in contemporary global health scourges.FESASS also keeps watch on the expectations of the sector and consumers. It contributes to the discussion on the health quality of products and is active in creating guidelines for food safety, the use of veterinary medicines and for animal welfare. FESASS acts in conjunction with the EU Institutions and other European professional organizations. It contributes in partnership with other stakeholders in the animal health sector, to the devising and implementing of European animal health policy. At the international level, it participates in the discussions of the OIE, the World Organization for Animal Health.(Fédération Nationale des Groupements de Défense Sanitaire) aims to ensure the overall national and international representation of Health Defense Groups (HDG), which are farmer organizations focused on health issues recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture. Its role is to promote the sanitary actions of HDG member farmers; defend and represent their collective interests and, in collaboration with the HDG involved, their individual interests with regard to quality, security and safety of food for and derived from animals; facilitate and coordinate efforts and actions of HDG members; serve as a permanent liasion for HDG members and promote their development; organize, coordinate, and implement all kinds of actions allowing these objectives to be achieved and notably to organize, coordinate, and implement all forms of professional solidarity mechanisms through the HDGs and for their members. IFAH, the International Federation for Animal Health (Fédération Internationale pour la Santé Animale) is the global representative body of companies engaged in research, development, manufacturing and commercialisation of veterinary medicines, vaccines and other animal health products in both developed and developing countries across the five continents.IRESA, the Institute of Agricultural Research and Higher Education (Institution de la Recherche et de l'Enseignement Supérieur Agricole) is a public administrative body endowed with civil personality and financial autonomy operating under the Ministry of Agriculture, Hydraulic Resources and Fishing. IRESA aims to develop and find funding for national research programmes, monitor and evaluate activities, facilitate coordination and complementarity between research and higher education institutions in the field of agriculture, and to ensure that these institutions contribute to agriculture production and development.MAAPRAT, the French Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Fishing, Rural Affairs and Spatial Planning (Ministère de l'agriculture, de l'alimentation, de la pèche, de la ruralité et de l'aménagement du territoire) prepares and implements government policy on agriculture, rural affairs, maritime fishing and maritime crops, forests and wood. Responsible for agriculture education and professional training policy, it helps define agronomic, biotechnical, and veterinary research policy; plant and animal health policy and the promotion of quality agricultural and food products; social policy concerning farm heads and salaried workers; agrofood industry policy; policies regulating monitoring quality and safety of agricultural and food products and policies promoting the countryside, as well as participating in European and international negotiations involving its fields of competence.MERIAL SAS is an innovative world leader in animal health, offering a complete range of medicines and vaccines to improve the health, welfare, and performance of a large number of animal species. With a long history of working with governments to control infectious animal diseases, MERIAL provides vaccines, services and solutions for numerous serious diseases, on the top of the list being foot-and-mouth disease, for which MERIAL is the world leader in manufacturing vaccines. Recognized by governments, international organizations (OIE, FAO), and other sector partners for its expertise, experience in vaccine production development, and the assistance it gives to countries faced with the disease, MERIAL is considered to be a major actor in the fight against foot-and-mouth disease.OIE, the World Organization for Animal Health (Organisation mondiale de la santé animale), established in 1924, is the oldest intergovernmental organisation and, with 178 member countries, the most representative. In addition to its historic tasks of guaranteeing transparency with regard to the animal health situation around the world (managing an animal health surveillance and early-warning system), and of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating new scientific information concerning the fight against animal disease (through a network of 190 reference laboratories of excellence and 37 collaborating centers), OIE also is, under the terms of the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, the reference organization charged with developing international standards for the sanitary safety of international trade in animals and animal products and helps determine the sanitary status of member countries with regard to certain diseases.OIE is a major actor in political and financial mechanisms of international cooperation assisting developing countries and those in transition. OIE actively seeks to reinforce the capacity of national veterinarian services and contributes to the development of animal health, veterinary public health, and animal welfare policies and to the structure of governance by investing significantly in new fields such as veterinarian education, relations between animal husbandry methods and climate and environmental change, research, and new technologies. OIE also is actively engaged in promoting initiatives at the global, regional, and national level for the development of laboratories to improve diagnostic and health data analysis capacities around the world, particularly in developing countries, through twinning programs with reference laboratories that have scientific expertise in the required field.SIMV, the Veterinary Medicines and Reagents Industry Syndicate (Syndicat de l'industrie du médicament vétérinaire et réactif) is the French union representing pharmaceutical enterprises manufacturing medicines and reagents for pets and livestock. Veterinarian medicine exports are the equivalent of twice the French market, or 1.4 billion euros. SIMV is a member of France Vétérinaire International (FVI). SIMV aims to contribute to the ethical development of veterinarian medicines in France and for export to better meet demand for products satisfying international quality, effectiveness and safety standards.SNGTV, the National Society of Veterinary Technical Associations (Société Nationale des Groupements Techniques Vétérinaires) is a technical veterinarian organisation regrouping nearly 80% of animal production practitioners. It contributes to the development and promotion of their skills. Its main tasks, carried out by its 15 specialized technical commissions are: -professional training (organization of conventions and training sessions; publishing a journal : the Bulletin des GTV); -creation and deployment of services, tools, and intervention methodologies on livestock farms (computer software, veterinarian medicine good practices guides, farm visit protocols); -involvement of practitioners in collective actions regarding animal health and veterinary public health; -technical representation of its members before the government, scientific organizations, and professional organizations.Foot-and-mouth disease was the first animal disease shown to be transmitted by a filtrable infectious agent, before this same property had even been demonstrated for the agent of poliomyelitis in humans.This infection thus has played an exceptional role in the history of biomedical sciences in general, and in veterinarian medicine in particular, for a very long time.Since the establishment of the World Organization for Animal Health, previously named the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), foot-and-mouth disease has been the focus of much attention, particularly due to its exceptional transmission capacity, by direct and indirect routes, which makes it one of the most formidable crossborder diseases. In addition, the virus responsible occurs as numerous serotypes/topotypes and certain wild species, such as the African buffalo, are a reservoir for many of them, for example the SAT (South African Territories) strains. Some countries, through considerable efforts combining animal health measures and vaccination, have succeeded in eliminating the disease from their territory and try to block it from reintroducing itself because this livestock disease is economically devastating and can dramatically upset international trade, which our organization seeks to safeguard through internationally recognized standards (Terrestrial Animal Health Code).Unfortunately, foot-and-mouth disease still presents a mosaic of infection/disease situations at the international level.Since May 1994, the OIE has put into place an official procedure to recognize the status of member states that are free of foot-and-mouth disease. Among the 178 OIE member states, only sixty can be officially recognized as being free of foot-and-mouth disease with or without vaccination.Perceptions of foot-and-mouth disease vary according to whether a country is developed, developing, or in transition, whether it is disease-free or contaminated, and to the field actors: livestock farmers and veterinarians.This handbook is a perfect illustration. It takes an original approach by presenting different points of view, from those of livestock farmers and veterinarians in developed and developing countries, to a journalist and an economist, while including with a light touch of humour those of cows, the virus, and the vaccine. This timely work is intended for a very broad audience and will allow a wider understanding of the most important concepts regarding this disease.One of the roles of our Organization is to guarantee the health safety of the international trade in foods of animal origin between countries with different sanitary status while trying to avoid unjustified trade barriers by importing countries. We do so through the scientific contributions of a network of collaborating centers and reference laboratories and the unflagging support of all 178 member countries.I hope this handbook is distributed widely.   The point of view of the livestock farmer in a developing countryAs usual, I wait until the cows of the large herd owners have left the well before I lead our small herd of sheep and goats over to drink. It is the end of the dry season and there is little water left, so we can go to the well only once a day. My father entrusted this job to me because I do not go to the village school in the afternoon.After filling the watering trough dug into a tree trunk, I notice that some of the animals are not drinking the way they usually do. I bring the herd back to an enclosure surrounded by walls woven out of thorny branches where the animals will be safe for the night. Along the way, I study the animals very carefully in order to report back to my father. I find him sitting outside our hut waiting for dinner. I tell him that a sheep has trouble walking, seems subdued and feverish, and has little white spots in his mouth that seem to bother him when he tries to chew cud.I also tell him that a goat does not want to nurse her kid and that she pushes him away as soon as he tries to suckle. My father listens to my story attentively.My brothers and sisters quickly sense that something important has happened. They approach, worried. One wife stops pounding the millet, another stops tending the fire where the evening porridge is cooking. Everyone waits for the head of the family to speak.After a long moment of silence, he glances around to make sure that the neighbours are busy, and then he says he knows this disease, his father and grandfather knew it too.It is not a serious disease for sheep and goats, most of the affected animals will get better on their own after a few days, but some of the females might lose their babies and some newborns might die because of it.It was very likely that all of the animals in the village and the surrounding area would become infected. It was almost certain that they would have to go to a neighbouring province to find a healthy animal for the feast next month.What is slightly reassuring is that although survivors do not recover completely and remain thinner than they once were, they will resist another attack of the disease. We therefore should be left in peace for a few months! And then if there is plentiful rainfall, green pastures will allow them to regain their health.All of this reminded a visiting cousin of problems that rice farmers encountered in the plains two months before when the same disease affected draught cattle just when their labour was needed. Since all of the animals fell ill at the same time, they had to go very far away to find other animals that were very expensive to rent, which took a large chunk out of the income they had hoped to earn from the harvest.For this disease, my father says the tradition is to isolate infected animals to avoid contaminating other animals in the herd and other herds. For the time being, he decides to sort the animals and send those which are visibly infected to a distant nephew who lives deeper in the bush. They must avoid having the rest of the herd, which look healthy, to be forbidden access to pastures and the well.My older brother who is studying in the city then speaks.He heard that livestock animals should not be sent into the bush because the disease could be transmitted to wild animals. His opinion is not heeded. The protection of wild animals is not a priority when it is hard to fill our own bowls with food.When his first wife asks my father to sacrifice one of the infected sheep so that we all may eat a little better, he answers that it is not possible because the neighbours would invite themselves over and the more curious ones would quickly notice the grey-red and yellow spots on the muscles and heart. The clan's reputation had to be protected.When the last fire went out in the village, I gather together the sick animals and lead them by the light of the moon to the place where they could convalesce. On the way, I had time to think and the memory of a meeting came back to me which had been organized by the district veterinarian three months before. He had spoken about a government programme to protect animals. My father had not wanted to participate in this vaccination campaign. I also wonder if the buffaloes in the photographs that the teacher had showed us, and which work in rice fields in Asia, could catch this disease.When I returned home early the next morning, I had earned the right to a café au lait in the place of my usual bowl of millet gruel.The veterinarian in a developing country I 6The point of view of the veterinarian in a developing countryTo become a veterinarian, I left my home country to attend the Interstate School of Veterinarian Science and Medicine located in the capital of a country in the Sahel sub-region. Over the years I was there, the inter-African and international character of the school, where students and teachers of many different nationalities rubbed shoulders, led me to realize that many animal health problems are shared across borders and that to fight them, cross-border cooperation often is crucial. Internships and specialization courses at laboratories in several developed countries familiarized me with the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment methods for different health situations. A regional training course conducted by an international organization helped me understand how national epidemio-surveillance networks functioned and their importance in controlling animal diseases.I observed that when veterinarian services, both public and private, are distributed correctly over a territory, and are well organized and competent, it is possible to control and even eradicate contagious diseases with major socioeconomic consequences for livestock in Africa. And now here I am, ready to test this approach --which for me is still theoretical --with the reality of the field. I could have gone to work in an international, bilateral, non-governmental or private organization like many of my classmates, but my deepest wish was to work with the livestock farmers of my own country.Alumni from classes of veterinarians who graduated before me helped develop the national animal health system. I went to meet these older veterinarians who, since graduating, have occupied high positions.I explained to them my desire to enter into public service and become a mobile veterinarian. They received me with warmth and listened carefully to my story. They did not try to hide from me the fact that there were very few mobile veterinarians in the country, but they reassured me that they would be available to provide advice whenever I needed.Nevertheless, I knew that sending myself out into the countryside would be a kind of initiation ordeal, and an inexhaustible source of questions.My first assignment is to open a Regional Veterinarian Services office (RVS) in a medium size town in the heart of an extensive livestock region. I go to meet the chief veterinarian officer as soon as I am assigned and he reminds me that the creation of these regional units, one dozen throughout the country, is essential for the animal disease epidemiological surveillance network to function correctly. These units were part of an overall strategy for public health, notably to fight zoonoses, or diseases shared between animals and people, and to achieve food security, that was orchestrated under the auspices of the OIE (World Animal Health Organization), and with the help of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations).Within this mechanism, the regional office acts as an intermediary level to disseminate health information to the field and, inversely, for the centralization and validation of information coming from the field that is sent to the Head Veterinarian Services office at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Sustainable Rural Development in the capital. The effectiveness of the regional office is judged by the speed by which data are transmitted and the quality of the data collected.As an example, he refers to the epidemio-surveillance network for foot-and-mouth disease.The veterinarian in a developing country I 8This highly contagious disease is feared by large farmers who raise improved cattle breeds because the disease heavily impacts the zootechnical performance of animals, in terms of milk and meat, and closes the door to exports.The economic consequences of this disease are real, although certainly under-estimated, for small livestock farmers, who remain numerous in our country, but it is not fatal for hardy breeds even if \"every animal in the herd is infected\".He mentions the first world conference on foot-and-mouth disease held in Paraguay in 2009, which deemed that the long term control of the disease was a realistic objective.To persuade me, he cites the example of bovine rinderpest whose global eradication, announced in 2011, is a source of inspiration for the fight against other diseases.I hardly had moved into the office provided by local authorities when a telephone call from the prefecture informs me that a veterinary nurse at a distant post has noted worrying clinical signs in a zebu herd owned by a local notable.Some of the animals are no longer eating and are drooling, are having trouble moving about, and are making odd noises with their tongues. The number affected is increasing every day. The herdsmen are worried and the owner is alarmed by the economic consequences of the disease: weight loss, drop in milk production, and abortions. The nurse asks for help.Not yet one day on the job and already I must jump into action! I have strong suspicions: foot-and-mouth disease? I remember what the government service veterinarians whom I had met over the course of my studies told me: \"The sooner you intervene, the sooner you will check the disease.\"I ask the prefecture to inform the veterinary nurse that I will be visiting so that he can take the following steps: inform local officials and livestock farmers, and gather the animals together in such a way that sick animals do not mingle with healthy ones. For my part, I take care of the administrative formalities required for my departure: obtaining a mission order, booking a car and driver, packing veterinarian equipment, and arranging logistics.To facilitate similar emergency departures in the future, I will need to have crates ready to go and a preauthorization system in place! Two days later, I take my seat in a van that has official license plates but no spare tire, and set out with a driver familiar with the potholes and undulating lines of red dirt roads.After an entire day of dust, a night spent under the light of the moon, a plate of rice and chicken and two cafés au lait on the roadside, we arrive in the hamlet and are greeted with the cheerful cries of children who have taken up posts on the outskirts of the village.The veterinary nurse welcomes me and leads me over to a group of village notables gathered under the palaver tree. I explain who I am, where I come from, and what I came to do and the types of help that I need. The head of the village extends his welcome, presents the people surrounding us, and offers me his hospitality for the length of my stay. Being able to speak the local dialect without the need of an interpreter facilitates our conversation and mutual understanding. After sealing our relationship with a glass of millet beer, I put on my white coat and a pair of purple gloves, and accompany the veterinary nurse to see the sick animals.Herdsmen had just isolated a zebu who seems to be infected by the disease and were stopping it from running away with a rope tied around its head.The veterinarian in a developing country I 10One herdsman grabs the animal's sensitive nostrils so that it is immobilized by the pain while two others rapidly tie the feet and a fourth grips the tail and roughly pulls it towards him. The animal is drooling profusely and serous discharge soils his nostrils.Once the animal has calmed down, I take hold of its tongue, which is very protractile, and pull it out of its mouth in a lateral direction. There are numerous, large lesions on the tongue. That confirmed the diagnosis that I mentally made when the telephone call first came through. This definitely was foot-and-mouth disease, known in the local dialect as \"saffa\", or tongue burns. The livestock farmer nods his head when I pronounce this name.I turn towards the veterinary nurse. He is wearing a green lab coat with several pens stuck in his chest pocket and has a stethoscope that is missing an earpiece hung around his neck. To boost his status in the eyes of the people watching, I let him examine the animal with his stethoscope, which must hurt one of his ears. He listens for a moment, then stands up and says: \"The pulse is pounding.\" Everyone approves with a nod of their heads. On my request, he gives me a vacuum tube so that I can take a blood sample from the jugular vein. Once the vacutainer is full, he puts it into the cooler that I brought with me, but which has no ice because there is no way of making it in this village. When I get back, I will send these samples to the animal disease diagnostic laboratory located in the capital for analysis. If the samples still can be used despite the way they were stored and transported, they probably will confirm the diagnosis and provide information on the virus serotype.After waving back the children who had gathered close to observe the scene, I tell the herdsmen to set the zebu free. The animal snorts, spaying the ground with the drool flowing from his mouth, and limps over to rejoin his fellows. I decide to extend the blood sampling to other prostrate cattle and to complement this with the collection of samples from lesions in their mouths.Over the course of two hours, I inspect the sick animals. I note fever, weight loss, sialorrhea, limps, mouth and podal ulcers, congested udders, and the presence of vesicles. I listen to livestock farmers talking about the drying up of milk in nursing females, bad smelling mouths, violent reactions of cows when their calves suckle and when they are milked, abortions in pregnant females, and the death of a young, unweaned calf. I wonder how the disease could have arrived in the village. My driver, who had negotiated our evening meal and lodging, assured me that there were no pigs in the village. This reassured me because pigs are a virus reservoir.However, there are goats, some gathered in herds, others wandering about. I send the veterinary nurse to interview their owners in order to find out if they had noticed limping, abnormal mortality among kids or other characteristic signs of the disease, even if they were very slight. I watch him stride off, conscious of the importance of his mission and followed closely by a group of on-lookers of all ages. I see him adjust his cap, which has a long visor and must be envied by many people.I continue my own investigation: when did the problems appear? Have there been movements of animals? Some murmur that the troubles started when the animals came back from a large cattle market. Others suspect a herd migrating south that stopped at the watering hole.I know that it sometimes is difficult to determine the origin of the disease. I do not insist on this point to avoid creating tension. At present, the most urgent task is to establish control measures to limit the spread of the disease. I must be very persuasive to convince livestock farmers to accept isolating their animals and limiting their movements. However, I learn that small livestock farmers in a neighbouring village, fearing contagion, already sent their herds to family members in a far off area.The veterinarian in a developing country I 12 I will try to find the right words to cover all of this during the closing meeting. Women join into the conversation, mentioning that milk is lacking and the gossip of other villages that had heard the news. The men discuss whether the animals' market value would drop and whether the animals would be able to work in the fields. Vultures perched in the palaver tree cock their heads, following our meeting with interest. Some already have feasted on the corpse of a young calf abandoned in the bush.Regarding the goats, nothing of note is reported. The veterinary nurse even was offered a gourd of fresh milk. I decide it is unnecessary to tell him that the foot-and-mouth disease virus is happy to infect humans, and although this is rare, he might find some sores in his mouth if the milk was contaminated. These lesions are not serious.Rereading my notes in the hut loaned for the night by a boubous tailor, I note that a mild form of foot-and-mouth disease is involved, one which infects sturdy breeds. The animals probably will be able to deal with the virus and defend themselves.According to people in the village, the disease emerges from time to time but disappears without their even having to call upon the services of the witch doctor. It often appears at the end of the rainy season or at the end of the harvest when the herds are put together to graze the fields. The infected animals recover in one or two weeks, remaining a little tired and thinner than the others, but they resist the disease better the next time it comes around. They become self-immunized or self-vaccinated.In preparation for my departure the next day, I ask the veterinary nurse to reassure the large livestock owner, who had sent a message with a bush-bus driver that he had been retained at the border over a customs issue which he thought would be resolved rapidly.Beneath a glowing evening sky, my driver sits outside the hut and breathes in the scents of village life while cleaning his teeth with a stick.Foot-and-mouth disease is a very contagious animal disease that is on the list of diseases that must be reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).The information that I will send in a well documented report to my hierarchical superior, the national director of veterinary services, must be sufficient to fill in the OIE's zoosanitary information system known as WAHIS (World Animal Health Information System).As the disease has become enzootic in this region, it is not urgent to declare a new outbreak unless lab results or the evolution of the disease in the field demonstrate a major epidemiological change, such as, for example, the emergence of a new serotype or a sharp increase in the percentage of animals that die after contracting the disease.I will keep a copy of the complete file in the regional office and indicate on a map the sanitary situation encountered with the observation date. The data from \"my\" outbreak should be on the internet within six months, available to everyone with authorized access, in the form of a report that can be downloaded. This epidemiological monitoring is necessary to keep track of the spread of the disease.I remember that during my training, an experienced veterinarian told us that in the past, traditional sedentary and nomadic livestock farmers overlooked this disease in their local breeds of cattle because they said: \"This is not a disease that kills.\"The veterinarian in a developing country I 14Mortality, particularly among young animals, is nothing compared to that of the other contagious animal diseases, such as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, rinderpest, trypanosomiasis, and even anthrax, which they had faced and which could decimate their entire herd. They defined it as \"the only disease that can infect a herd without causing the owner sleepless nights.\"Today, although contagious bovine pleuropneumonia remains a preoccupying health problem in numerous countries of Africa, rinderpest has been eradicated, the impact of trypanosomiasis has diminished and cases of anthrax are spaced further and further apart. Consequently, it has become possible to focus efforts and resources on diseases that, due to their less visible economic impact, have appeared to be less important to both cross-border traders and small livestock farmers.This holds especially true since the status of foot-and-mouth disease has changed. Once not a priority for cattle farming in Sahelian Africa, it has become a health constraint that absolutely must be taken into account in zootechnical cattle farming milk and meat production improvement programmes which rely on selected foreign breeds. I also remind myself that one must resist a false sense of security when major animal diseases seem to have disappeared, and that one must always remain wary of their latent threat.In Southern Africa, where the cattle industry represents important economic stakes through intercontinental meat exports, I read that the regional epidemiological surveillance system for foot-and-mouth disease is based on sanitary zones: infected zones, vaccinated zones, and disease-free zones from which exports are possible. These measures match the commercial impact and financial losses that an epizootic of foot-and-mouth disease generates in countries of this region. Prevention is better than a cure! I tell myself that I should review my course materials to learn more about diseases, animals infected in the bush, and the legislation underway to know how to obtain agreements from owners, whether provisions have been made for compensations and in what form, how infected animals should be slaughtered, what should be done with the meat and carcasses, and above all, how to get rid of the bodies in the bush. Could vultures be a possibility?I know that foot-and-mouth disease vaccines exist but they are thousands of kilometres away from the sick animals that I am taking care of. Furthermore, we would have to wait for the results of the antigenic characterisation of the virus to know which serotype and subtype are involved to choose the right vaccine. Ideally, one should wait for the lab results before taking any kind of decision, have a budget to order the correct vaccine if it exists, have the vaccines delivered by air, get them through customs while ensuring that they are stored at the correct temperature, and keep them cool when bringing them into the bush.Furthermore, how can one identify the animals that need to be vaccinated from those that already have been since none wear an identification tag? The notches in the ears are not enough to recognize individual animals, particularly since some zebus have been passed between several owners who each added their marks to those made by their predecessors.The vaccine also cannot help the animals that are sick even if it is meant to protect those at risk, at least for a few months. Considering that about fifteen days are needed for the antibody count to become high enough to ensure sustainable protection, most of the animals involved will have had the time to recover on their own if they have been infected.The veterinarian in a developing country I 16The handful of deaths that could occur might have taken place for other reasons in the context of extensive livestock farming in an arid tropical region. And it is not impossible for antibodies discovered in the blood of vaccinated animals to be confused with antibodies resulting from a natural infection, which would suffice to stop cross-border trade.After considering every angle, I decide this time to renounce the idea of vaccinating the herd I had inspected or those around it. This seemed like the wisest choice in the absence of a national or regional strategy such as the SEACFMD (South-East Asia and China Foot and Mouth Disease) programme underway in Southeast Asia that I heard about during my studies and which aims to eradicate foot-and-mouth disease in that region by 2020, including on small livestock farms.Faced with the realities of the field, I realize that a sporadic intervention such as mine was not likely to vanquish the disease. To have some hope of success, questions of identifying animals, selecting vaccines, their availability, and many others, such as political will and communication tools, had to be addressed.While the driver checks the water, oil, fuel, and condition of the chickens he was offered, and two kids pump the tires with a foot pump in the hope of a small recompense, we all sit in a circle, village leaders, livestock farmers, children, and curious on-lookers, and I give an on-the-spot report of the visit. I know very well that I cannot forbid the movement of the animals, so I provide recommendations that I know are feasible and which can slow the spread of the disease: go fetch water for the animals that have not yet been infected instead of bringing them to the watering trough, do not let sick animals graze alongside the rest of the herd, do not go the market in the neighbouring village before the clinical signs have disappeared.I also recommend that they give the sick animals some relief by making them more comfortable with better bedding until they stop dancing on their painful hooves. I speak especially to the children and make sure that they understand what I say because they will be shouldering most of responsibility of caring for the animals. And they are the future! Of course, I know that traditional remedies are used by some herdsmen communities to speed the development of the sores such as rubbing them with honey, salt or sugar, or to relieve the pain and speed up the healing of wounds by applying a paste of cattle urine, dried bark, and carefully chosen plant leaves. As I do not know whether this knowledge is known to the elders of the village, I leave the veterinary nurse one bottle of tincture of iodine and one of methylene blue, as well as a large brush to daub the tongues and feet of the sick animals to speed the closure of wounds and to prevent secondary infections. When he notices that the first is yellow and the second blue, he asks if he may mix the two for certain cases. I do not encourage this but I guess he would like to have a green potion that might be more impressive in the eyes of the livestock farmers.The veterinary nurse listens to these last instructions with a serious air, taking notes in a small, worn notebook, until I compliment him for having called me in and thank him for all of his help. His face suddenly lights up with a childlike smile. He then follows me when I get up to bid farewell to all of the village notables, punctuating each of my remarks with a sound of audible approval. I shake everyone's hands, brush everyone's fingers, caress some palms and wish everyone the best. When our car kicks up the orange dust of the road, I extend my hand to give one more wave through the open window.I feel like I am leaving friends.The veterinarian in a developing country I 18 The livestock farmer in a developed country I 20The point of view of the livestock farmer in a developed countryThat morning, as I let the cows out of the stable, I had a bad feeling. They usually walk briskly over to the pasture. But today, many cows are slow to get moving and appear uncomfortable on their feet. Usually feisty, they seem reluctant to walk.Once inside the enclosure, some chew grass, but others stand still, as if they already were exhausted. When I run my hands over them, I have the impression their bodies are feverish. I return at midday with my father and my paternal grandfather who help me run the family farm. Silently, we observe the animals. Two of the cows are chewing with empty mouths, making a kind of smacking sound. Threads of saliva hang from their mouths.After a moment, my grandfather clicks his tongue too and announces: \"It's la cocotte\". In response to my interrogative silence, he adds: \"In the old days, we use to call it that because the pain in their hooves made cows totter about like callgirls in high heels.\" My father adds: \"Yes, it's the hoof disease.\" That was easier for me to understand: foot-and-mouth disease! I am stunned. Memories of animal production lessons at my agriculture highschool come back to me. It is a highly contagious, notifiable disease.If confirmed, I was going to have to deal with a health problem with serious consequences for the first time since I took over the farm. And I recall the trauma that farms faced during the mad cow crisis, the memory of which was still fresh.We gather around the long kitchen table in front of cups of coffee that slowly turn cold, swinging between discouragement and anger. Before calling the veterinarian, I question the old folk to better understand what to expect.Grandfather remembers that his own father tried to treat the animals infected. He used vinegar, lemon juice when he could find it, or trypaflavine to clean tongues covered with blisters. For the feet, some farmers tried disinfectant solutions and wood tar. Owners of cows cut off the diseased parts of the hooves and forced their cows to ingest cod liver oil. Others used salts of arsenic, copper, bismuth, or even gold that were sold by peddlers, as well as other oddly named products: resorcine, emetine, gaiacol. Bonesetters also were involved. Nothing had much success.During the 1937 panzootic, he read in a newspaper that Germany had over 700 different drugs to diminish the clinical signs of foot-and-mouth disease. Meaning that none did much except to make the venders rich. He added that even sulfa drugs and antibiotics were tried without having any effect on the virus.He had lived back in the time when, in the absence of vaccines, farmers made sure that sick cows infected the rest of the herd because tradition held that the disease would run out of steam on its own if it was helped to spread. Some veterinarians even recommended artificially transmitting the virus from a sick animal to a healthy one through aphtisation, or using swabs dipped in lesions to accelerate its spread and the contamination of animals.He also remembered 1952. That year, the epizootic caused thousands of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease.Preventive disease control measures did not exist. Not all of the outbreaks were declared. Some farmers tried to discretely manage the problem by hiding sick animals.The livestock farmer in a developed country I 22My father then spoke up, and explained that vaccination gradually was imposed on farmers. First recommended but optional, annual vaccination became obligatory for cattle in 1961. The result was that over time, the disease became increasingly rare. And then in 1991, everyone suddenly had to stop vaccinations without anyone really understanding why.The only thing that remained unchanged was the requirement to declare this health problem the moment it emerged.He remembers farmers who were obliged to pay heavy fines or who were sent to prison for having delayed contacting a veterinarian because they knew that when there was a suspicion of foot-and-mouth disease, all of their animals would be slaughtered. At that thought, I got knots in my stomach. I remember the media images of huge piles of cadavers being incinerated during the last epizootic of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001.Without waiting a moment longer, I call my public health veterinarian. As soon as I describe the situation, he says he will arrive as quickly as possible.Questions circle around in my mind: \"How could this have happened? How much compensation will there be? How much time will it take me to select a new herd with the same level of breeding?\"The veterinarian in a developed country I 24The point of view of the veterinarian in a developed countryA strange atmosphere I am uneasy approaching the farm. Despite my experience as a public health veterinarian, I always dread what I am going to discover and the farmer's reaction when his preliminary diagnosis is confirmed. Like all of my \"country\" colleagues, I am on the frontline when an epidemic outbreak occurs. I hope it will be a false alarm, but as a precaution, I park my car at the farm entrance, change into a pair of boots, put on disposable overalls and gloves, and take the black \"foot-and-mouth disease\" kit holding the materials needed to take samples and authorized disinfectants.After questioning the farmer and examining the cattle, I confirm his suspicion. Several cows show typical signs of the disease. I had thought, indeed hoped, I would find other pathologies such as the bovine viral diarrhea, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, actinobacillosis, or various other disorders of the tongue and mouth mucosa. But it probably is foot-and-mouth disease.This highly contagious disease is a listed World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) disease because it falls in the category of \"transmissible diseases that have the potential for very serious and rapid spread, irrespective of national borders, that are of serious socio-economic or public health consequence and that are of major importance in the international trade of animals and animal products.\"I immediately notify the director of veterinarian services (DDSV) who informs the Directorate General for Food (DGAL).I am delegated to sign an administrative act to put the farm under surveillance (named in France the Arrêté Préfectoral de Mise sous Surveillance, or APMS) while waiting for the diagnosis to be either confirmed or invalidated.It is a rude shock for these three generations of farmers.The farm is quarantined. All animals, susceptible or not, must be kept inside the buildings. No unauthorized persons or vehicles may enter or leave the farm. Disinfection facilities are put in place at all entry and exit points (wheel dips for tires, foot baths for shoes). Without saying a word, the grandfather withdraws to read the list of safety rules that must be followed. The father calls the dairy to cancel the milk collection. This herd is the legacy of many years of work involving the entire family. It is a source of pride. Agriculture competition prizes nailed to a beam are evidence.The young farmer copes. To identify the source of the problem and evaluate the risk of virus spread, I inventory with him all of the animals on the farm whether or not they are susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease. I note the animals' movements and where they graze, the movements of people, the entries and exits of vehicles (cattle trucks, collection and delivery trucks), material and products (hay, cattle feed...). In sum, there is an impressive number of ways by which the virus can spread!To complete the epidemiological survey questionnaire as precisely as possible, one must look at records, ask questions about everything that has happened recently, particularly during the 14 days before the probable contamination date, because 95% of the time the incubation period is no longer than two weeks. Before leaving, I take samples from several animals: a swab of the lesions and a blood sample. I put them into airtight containers to be sent to the national reference laboratory at ANSES (Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire) which is specialized in the detection of foot-and-mouth disease and viral vesicular diseases.The veterinarian in a developed country I 26 I disinfect the material that is not disposable and put everything that is disposable in a plastic bag that I leave on-site along with my overalls and gloves. I disinfect my boots, cancel my other visits, and go straight home to take a shower and wash my workclothes. Starting tomorrow, I will install a foot bath at the entrance of my veterinarian clinic to avoid contamination.I know that the news will spread quickly. Doubts will be voiced: is this veterinarian really sure of his diagnosis? Hypotheses will be formulated to identify the suspects responsible. Rumors will circulate. Old arguments will resurface. I prepare answers to the coming bombardment of questions.After a 48 hour wait, the DGAL receives the lab results and confirms the clinical diagnosis. The test results of samples taken from the sick cattle are positive. The laboratory formally identifies the viral type responsible: it is serotype O.\"While foot-and-mouth disease can ruin a small farmer, it also can ruin the economy of a country.\" This phrase crosses my mind as the fight against the virus begins.From this time on, I become part of a network of diverse actors, all involved at the departmental level in the application of a control campaign under the authority of the prefect: public services (prefecture, veterinarian services, DGAL, mayor's office), regional authorities (general council), professional representatives (health protection group, Chamber of Agriculture), private stakeholders (renderers, disinfectant companies), etc.The DDSV signs by delegation a declaration of infection known in France as an Arrêté Préfectoral de Déclaration d'Infection (APDI), resulting in the definition of a restricted zone around the outbreak: a protection zone with a minimum radius of 3 km around the infected farm and a 10 km surveillance zone around the protected zone.This is communicated to all of the services and actors involved and to the local media which will quickly leap to cover the event.Several dozen farms located within the perimeter now also are under quarantine as a precautionary measure. Access roads are sealed off and signs are put up to signal that the area is restricted. Animals and people are in quarantine.The public health machine is in operation. Other regulatory measures will be applied to avoid a spread of the outbreak:-on-site euthanasia of all susceptible animals on the contaminated farm to avoid all risk of the virus being spread during the transport and disposal of the cadavers;-collection of samples from condemned animals for a pre and post-mortem epidemiological survey;-destruction of infected animal products and the litter, straw and hay stocks suspected of being contaminated;-disinfection of buildings and livestock-related equipment;-census, visit, and screening by public health veteriniarians of all farms holding susceptible species in the protection zone.The simulation exercise conducted last year is still fresh in my mind, but the actual reality of this alert makes the situation dramatic. While re-reading the latest updates of the DGAL memorandum of 10 March 2003 concerning the foot-and-mouth emergency plan, I prepare myself for the most difficult task: telling the farmer as gently as possible that the diagnosis was confirmed and his herd must be slaughtered.Since the information came out, my telephone has not stopped ringing. Cattle farmers as well as sheep and pig farmers worried by the occurence of an outbreak fear seeing their animals drooling or limping.The veterinarian in a developed country I 28They know that despite all of the precautions taken, they remain at the mercy of the spread of the virus simply if the wind blows in the wrong direction. They ask: \"Why were preventive vaccinations stopped? Why must perfectly healthy animals be slaughtered?\"I must explain the situation to each one, describe the sanitary measures, confirm that in adherence with the Ministerial Order of 22 May 2006, automatic ring vaccinations will not be conducted because for economic and trade reasons, this emergency vaccination is only planned if the disease spreads and cannot be controlled by sanitary measures and slaughter alone.Like my colleagues, I also find myself on the frontline facing questions posed by journalists seeking juicy information: \"How many farms are involved? Can people be contaminated? Are you going to slaughter all of the animals? What will happen to the dead bodies? What about pollution? Is contaminated meat already in circulation? How did the disease enter the country? Are livestock farmers compensated for their losses? Do you really believe that the compensation level is sufficient?\"Based on my past experience with avian influenza and bluetongue, I also expect that the Mayor's office will ask me to conduct a public information meeting with other representatives of the crisis cell. That is an invitation that must be accepted despite my busy schedule.All this because of a viral entity 100 million times smaller than me!When I arrive on the farm, accompanied by the director of the veterinarian services department, a veterinarian inspector and a farmer representing the health safety group, I have the impression that I am entering a fortified camp. A warning sign, \"Restricted Access\" is displayed prominently at the head of the road.At the wheel dip, police check entry and exit authorizations.Sitting in the family kitchen in front of a cold cup of coffee, I review the situation. The epidemiological survey carried out by the DDSV is looking at imported lambs that were shipped the week before by a sheep trading company situated several kilometers away. The weather conditions could have helped spread the virus through the air.I realize how cruel this information must be, and hard for the farmers to accept. I then force myself to explain in simple terms what would happen next: the slaughter of their dairy cow herd and the disinfection of the farm.I tried to minimize the psychological impact of these measures by insisting on the fact that the animals' welfare would be respected throughout. I will use a curare-based injection (T61). Everything would be over by the end of the afternoon. The bodies will be transported in a covered, decontaminated truck to the rendering plant where they will be incinerated.The GDS representative (Health Protection Group) explained the compensation provisions designed to offset the economic losses and their implementation schedule.I also answer other practical questions that reflect how this virus will turn the daily life of this family upside down: \"And how will the farm get supplies? How will the children get to school? What about our plans to attend the next agricultural show? What about meetings with hunters? And contracts with the cooperative? And the postman? And the bills? When will everything return to normal?\"When we leave, I tell myself that in times of crisis, one must pay attention to the human factor.The veterinarian in a developed country I 30Upper gum lesion of an adult water buffaloe (Bubalis bubalis) infected with foot-and-mouth disease. -Cambodia, Svay Rieng province, July 2010. -© Timothée Vergne, Cirad.The cow before 1961 I 32The point of view of the cow before 1961My life as a dairy cow is well organized: milking, delicately if possible, in the morning, leaving the stable for the pasture, without stress, following the herd's pace, pursuing my favorite pastimes (grazing grass, chewing the cud standing up or lying down, sunning myself or staying in the shade, depending on the weather, drinking alot, licking a salt rock), then heading back to the stable at sunset for more milking and a night divided between chewing cud and sleeping in the company of my fellow cows.But this evening, I feel feverish. Shivers going down my spine are causing the hair in my coat to bristle. I must have a temperature of 40°C or more. Added to my general discomfort are aching joints and a real migraine just like humans feel, and for the same reasons: congested sinuses, abnormally high blood pressure, engorged ventricles, diffuse inflammation. I shake my head from time to time but it doesn't help. Although I usually have a reputation of being a delicate cow to milk, tonight I let the job be done without saying a word. I realize that I am not the only one feeling strange and some other cows seem even worse off. Head lowered, they drool profusely over the hay they are given, which they ignore. I hope to be spared the deformations of the hooves that sometimes appear and persist after recovery.Obviously, since I am no longer eating, my milk production has dropped considerably. But the main reason I refuse to give milk is the lesions on my teats. It is no different whether it is to suckle a calf or to be milked. I am no more cooperative with my calf than with the farmer. I know that I might develop mastitis, but milking is too painful. I will wait until my teats have healed. By the end of ten days or so, I am skinny, probably anaemic, and my tongue is pealing due to the burst aphthous vesicules, but I feel a bit better. My appetite slowly is coming back and I start to eat. I do not chew cud with my usual efficiency, and it does not makes me feel good the way it use to, but my milk production has started again, to the satisfaction of the farmer.My sturdy character allows me to survive, but at a certain price: a slight limp, a lesser quantity and quality of milk, scars on the teats. Everyone did not have the same luck.Even if the disease is not itself mortal, its consequences can be. Some cows died because they could not eat, others aborted dead calves. Young calves were struck down by a heart condition called myocarditis or \"tigerheart\" syndrome. At the autopsy, their hearts were a pale colour with grey, red or yellow streaks.I know that I also escaped the lesions on the inside of my thighs and on the vulva and anus that required others to furiously shake their tails to try to relieve the pain. I also could have developed lesions on the liver, the marrow, and some nerve and respiratory forms of the disease.The bull was not spared. His stride, walking with stiff hind feet, suggest his testicles are engorged and painful.I now am immune for a few months against a new attack from the same strain of the virus. The farmer probably will keep me to reproduce because he knows I will transmit to my calf the antibodies I produced to fight the virus.During my convalescence, I hear the farmer mention that the sow had shown clinical signs of foot-and-mouth disease. They are similar to ours with the distinguishing feature of developing enormous lesions on the groin. The farmer cared for her like us with a thick pile of straw and attentive care until the disease passed.The cow between 1961 and 1991 I 38The point of view of the cow between 1961 and 1991 A tranquil life I am the senior cow in a herd of 60 selectively bred dairy cows. I wear a plastic tag on each of my ears that identifies me because since 1978 we no longer are allowed to remain anonymous or travel incognito. With my fellow cows, I live outside in summer, savouring the best grass, and stay cosy inside during the winter. It would seem that intensive livestock husbandry conditions suit me well because I will soon be 10 years old and I am still producing plenty of milk.At the beginning of every year, we must bow to our health obligations and the ritual of a routine vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease. It has been obligatory in France for cattle of all ages since 1961, at first starting from 6 months of age, then from 4 months of age after 1980. We receive a dose of trivalent inactivated vaccine against the three most common serotypes (AOC) of the virus. In Europe, with the exception of cross-border and transhumant sheep, we are the only species susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease that must respect this prevention measure. Thanks to the vaccine, the annual number of outbreaks in France, which numbered over 7000 in 1960, fell close to zero in the 1970s, save for two mini-accidents in 1974 and 1981 that were controlled rapidly by slaughtering measures.Without undue modesty, I thus do not hesitate to say that it is thanks to us, cattle, that foot-and-mouth disease no longer is epizootic in Western European countries, to the great relief of farmers. But everyone knows that if a new epizootic occurs, all susceptible species in the infected outbreak --sick and healthy --will be slaughtered. We also paid a heavy price for the production of the vaccine in the 1950s and many of my ancestors died for science.I remember my first vaccination in 1970. I was a young heifer and the injection provoked an allergic rash. A lump formed on my dewlap where the injection had been given. The amount of liquid injected interdermally at the time was much greater than the doses that are used today.Tomorrow, I might have a bit of a fever and some aches and pains, but in a few days, my immune system will be reinforced with a higher antibody count against foot-and-mouth disease. I can lead the herd into the summer pastures with confidence.Inoculation of cattle with the foot-and-mouth disease virus to produce a vaccine against the disease. France, 1952. -© Marc-Henri Cassagne, FNGDS.The cow between 1961 and 1991 I 40 The cow after 1991 I 42The point of view of the cow after 1991The sanitary authorities have made their decision: my life must end in the name of safety.A few days ago, foot-and-mouth disease invited itself into a pig farm a few kilometres from the pasture. All of the pigs were slaughtered and our farm was declared at risk because we are in a high density livestock region. And yet none of us show any clinical signs of the disease or demonstrate the slightest danger for humans or other susceptible animals.Another option could have been a ring vaccination around the infected outbreak, but cost-benefit analyses and decision support scenarios have ruled that the most cost-effective control strategy is pre-emptive collective slaughter, a concept developed in April 2001 during the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain. This evening, the farmer lingers next to each of us, stroking our backs, remembering the years we've shared together, calling some of us by our nicknames.Up until 1991, we received a preventive injection meant to protect us. Tomorrow, we will receive a lethal injection that will erase us as hypothetical hosts of the foot-and-mouth disease virus. Silence will take the place of our mooing. After the statutory time period, another herd will take our place and a new story will begin.One of my last thoughts is to wonder whether indicators of the farmer's feelings and emotions figure in the socio-economic simulation models.The wild animal I 44The point of view of the wild animalI am a handsome African buffalo, Syncerus caffer, admired by ecotourists who visit this nature reserve in a Southern African country. For many years, I have lived in an area marked out by humans to keep us away from cattle herds because they have know since the 1970s that we are host-reservoirs of the foot-and-mouth disease virus.Veterinarians actually believe we play an active role in the persistence of foot-and-mouth disease in Africa. They say we are natural carriers of one or several of the three exotic SAT virus types, SAT1, SAT2 and SAT3, with a preference for the first.In this season, which is cool and dry, many watering holes dry up. Like every evening, we head over to drink from a muddy pool that attracts all of the animals in the area like a magnet. This is the period when young buffaloes born a few months earlier lose the protection of maternal antibodies and take turns falling ill with foot-and-mouth disease. The disease circulates within the herd somewhat like a childhood disease. During the acute phase of the infection, which lasts from 5 to 15 days, the buffalo calves are contagious and excrete the virus in all of their secretions without showing any visible clinical signs. They transmit the virus by touching their muzzles to the muzzles of the impalas and greater kudus which crowd in with us to quench their thirst. Even the trained eye of an experienced veterinarian would not be able to detect the infected animal among them! If there is a fever, it passes unnoticed. And who would have the courage to check for the presence of lesions in their mouths?At the end of two weeks, the young buffaloes become, like us, silent carriers of the virus which persists in the area of their esophagus. When they are one year old, they develop antibodies against the 3 circulating SAT virus types.Veterinarians counted nearly 70 mammal species belonging to over 20 different families as being ones likely to harbour the foot-and-mouth disease virus with varying degrees of susceptibility. Like me, the gnu (Connochaetes taurinus) rarely shows clinical signs of the disease, but the greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), impala (Aepyceros melampus), and two wild suids, wart hogs (Phacochoerus aethiopicus) and bushpigs (Potamochoerus porcus), contract the severe clinical form of the disease, comparable to that of susceptible and infected domestic animals.The virus persists for a very long time in the pharynx of my Asian cousin, the water buffalo (Bubalis bubalis), the greater kudu and domestic cattle. But I hold the record, being able to carry and transmit the virus for up to five years during which I do not show any clinical signs of disease, although in reality, it is mostly young buffalo which take care of transmission. This long carrier period enables the virus to maintain itself within the herd for over 20 years. The occassional sexual transmission of the virus within the herd could be possible but has not been proven; the same is true of mating between infected male buffaloes and female domestic cattle.Livestock farmers fear us in particular because we infect the herds of impala that mingle with their cattle. These African antilopes are very susceptible to the foot-and-mouth virus and are telling indicators of the presence of foot-and-mouth disease. When they contract the disease, their coats bristle, which is a sign of fever, and they suffer from locomotive disorders.The wild animal I 46Although they only carry the disease for a short period, their high population density makes them formidable virus transmitters among us and the domestic ruminants with whom they share pasture lands.Although foot-and-mouth disease is endemic in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, it is not always due to our presence. It is true that in Southern Africa, we are the main reason that the disease has not been eradicated. This does not hold true for West Africa, where our population is scattered and has little impact on the disease which maintains itself among domestic cattle without any intervention on our part. In East Africa, two transmission cycles, wild and domestic, probably co-exist.The economic stakes of controlling the disease are less important in West African countries, where livestock systems mostly are extensive and supply domestic markets. In contrast, the stakes are high in Southern African countries which have developed intensive, exportoriented cattle livestock systems. For them, the challenge is to conciliate our presence with the maintenance of disease-free zones.To contain the threat we represent --which is exaggerated in my view --these countries have erected electrified fences over thousands of kilometres to keep us safely inside reserves, thereby preventing us from having any contact with cattle. These fences consist of a either a single barrier or a double barrier separated by a dozen meter gap. They are at least 2.4 meters high, which prevents antilopes, greater kudus, and impalas, all quite impressive jumpers, to leap over them.These artificial barriers impede our traditional seasonal migrations, and that of other large herbivores, towards pasture lands that have become livestock areas, causing important ecological and sociological disruptions.When the fences block our access to water, they leave us --and all other wild hoofed species --no chance of survival.This is how in the past herds of several thousand gnus have died of thirst and exhaustion after running hundreds of miles down the fence without finding an opening to reach the water and pasture lands on the Okavango delta.Despite a foot-and-mouth disease control policy based on regionalisation measures that keep us away from zones recognized as being disease-free, health officials still consider us to be a potential threat to domestic ruminants that live on the periphery of the nature reserves.And yet those animals are given preventive vaccinations twice a year in this frontier area referred to by specialists as the \"buffer zone\".The country-level application of measures to manage cross-border diseases that circulate from wildlife to cattle is a complex task. A balance needs to be found between the traditional livestock practices of local communities and the commercial interests of farmers, the protection of wildlife and, in certain cases, ecotourism activities.Closely supervised attempts to reintroduce farm-bred buffaloes that are not infected by foot-and-mouth disease into zones recognized as being disease-free could offer us some hope in the future.In Europe, cases of foot-and-mouth disease found among wildlife such as deer, wild boar, roe deer, chamois, and ibex probably were caused by the transmission of the virus by cattle during an epizootic outbreak. At last an example where wild ungulates have more reason to fear from cattle than the reverse!The wild animal I 48 The point of view of the sick personFor the past two days, I have felt feverish, with a slight headache and a sore throat. But this is not a good time to be sick. During this foot-and-mouth disease crisis, my working days are long. The rendering company where I work was requisitioned to destroy and bury the bodies of cattle that had been slaughtered on two contaminated farms in the canton.But when I woke up this morning, my hands and feet were tingling, and I felt like my skin was burning, especially on the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet. During the night, sores several millimeters wide appeared in my mouth on the inside of my cheeks, my palate, and even on my tongue. I have lost my appetite and I threw up the spoonful of soup that I managed to swallow last night. I will have to call the doctor.The doctor arrives quickly. Luckily for me, I live outside the restricted perimeter set up around the infected outbreaks.After listening to me, he scrutinizes my hands and feet, particularly the base of my nails and between my toes. The presence of vesicles makes him suspicious. He listens carefully to my heartbeat and is concerned about possible symptoms of tachycardia, which I luckily do not have.Then he firmly announces his diagnosis: \"You have caught foot-and-mouth disease.\" I am speechless! But he rapidly reassures me: \"You are not contagious.\" He predicts that the symptoms will clear up on their own and I would return to normal in a week or two, unless there are digestive or respiratory complications, but these are extremely rare.For the required treatment, he prescribes rest, antibiotics to avoid the risk of secondary bacterial infections, and an antiseptic mouth wash.To be completely certain, he takes a sample of the epithelial tissue from the sores on my tongue and a blood sample for serological testing.After a 48 hour wait, as the infection subsides, the laboratory test results confirm that foot-and-mouth disease indeed was involved. The tests identified serotype O of the virus, the same that was behind the epizootic outbreak on the neighbouring cattle farms.On the telephone, the doctor explains to me that foot-andmouth disease is rare in humans and that clinically it can be confused with other vesicular disease such as vesicular stomatitis caused by the Coxsackie A16 virus or Enterovirus 71, or even a vesicular rash such as Herpes simplex.Some time later, my neighbour, a retired epidemiologist, explains to me that foot-and-mouth disease is known as a zoonosis and, more precisely, as an anthropozoonosis.Seeing that I have not understood, he explains: \"This is a disease, like avian influenza and West Nile fever, that is transmitted from animals to humans. However, human cases of foot-and-mouth disease are rare. Only 37 cases have been documented in the world. That does not mean that there have not been more because the human infection can pass unnoticed or may not be diagnosed, particularly in developing countries.\"Encouraged by my rapt attention, he continues: \"The first known human case dates back to 1695, and in 1834, veterinarians succeeded in infecting themselves by voluntarily drinking contaminated milk four times a day over the course of four days!\" Seeing a worried expression cross my face, he adds that there is no risk of contamination when milk has been boiled. The same is true of infected meat that has been cooked and consumed because the virus is inactivated by the heat.The sick person I 52And he adds: \"It was at the beginning of the 20 th century that the risk of foot-and-mouth disease was especially high for veterinarians who handled the tongues of infected cattle in order to prepare vaccines. Today, with the strict security measures that now are in place, it is extremely rare for anyone to be a victim of an accident like yours, and get splashed in the face by infected liquid while handling the carcasses. Your case definitely will be remembered.\"I am not particularly delighted. The virus I 54The point of view of the virusThe only known representative of the family Picornaviridae, genus Aphthovirus, I am a very small virus, never any bigger than 20 to 28 nm (nanometers), while some of my fellow viruses attain over 100 nm. If you consider that a nanometer is one billion times smaller than a meter, you realize that I am one of the smallest inhabitants of the planet. I am biological entity that is an obligate parasite of certain animal cells.I am the same size as the polio virus, a cousin from the genus Enterovirus. Humans fear us both in equal measure, but for different reasons.A multi-faceted structure I am a non-enveloped virus, or a \"naked\" virus. This does not mean, however, that my architecture is not carefully designed. Although humans using state-of-the-art electronic microscopes only can see me as a berry-like, more or less spherical form, my protective shell, or capsid, is structured like an icosahedral. It has 60 faces, 30 edges and 12 vertices.My heart is a single strand of ribonucleic acid, the famous RNA. According to scientists, who are one hundred million times bigger than I am, this single strand of RNA is composed of approximately 8 500 bases, or nucleotides. This macromolecule, which represents about 30% of my weight, is the central command unit of my pathogenic power. Thanks to it, I can infect the cells of cloven-hoofed mammals, otherwise known as even-toed ungulates or Artiodactyla.After infiltrating my RNA into their cytoplasm, I modify the cellular instructions in order to orient their metabolism towards producing numerous copies of me and to organize the release of my \"clones\" into their blood and lymph.The remaining 70% of my weight is made up of proteins. I therefore am immune to products that attack sugars and fats.My capsid is formed by the assembly of 60 identical sub-units called capsomers or protomers that are about 7nm large, each constituted by a sample of my four structural proteins named VP1, VP2, VP3 and VP4 (VP standing for \"Viral Protein\"). My protomers associate themselves into groups of five to form a pentamer.The first three proteins are exposed on the surface of my capsid. They have a remarkably identical three-part structure that is found in all picornaviruses. As for the fourth protein, it is buried inside, attached to the vertex of each of my 12 pentamers and in contact with my genetic material.While thousands of copies of my RNA are being replicated, I also synthesize 7 non-structural, enzymatic action proteins.Virologists have established a nomenclature of numbers and letters to identify my different proteins: 1A to 1D for my capsid proteins, 2A to 2C and 3A to 3D for my enzymatic proteins. Among the latter, protein 3B, otherwise known as protein VPg, and protein 3D, also known as RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, play a major role in expressing my genome and/or its replication.My VP1 structural protein, five copies of which are bound around each vertex of my capsid, form a loop that protrudes from the surface. This carries a triplet of amino acids that serves as a key to bind me to transmembrane protein receptors named integrins located on the surface of the cells that I infect.Its structure and composition give me a double antigenic and immunogenic power. The major antigenic determinant that it carries, and which is the favorite target of neutralizing antibodies, is endowed with a wide antigenic variability that allows me to escape the acquired immunity of my host and renders me particularly fearsome. I thus can contaminate an animal several times, either successively or simultaneously, by appearing in different molecular forms.I consequently am unique in my structure and diverse from an antigenic and immunogenic perspective. This poses real problems for people in laboratories trying to develop vaccines. In 2010, I was recognized in the form of 7 serotypes, 64 subtypes, and some thousand variants.Like all viruses, I ensure my reproduction at the expense of a cell.When I am in the company of ruminants and suids whose tissue cells and pharyngeal mucuous membranes are susceptible to my presence, I attach myself to one of their membrane receptors thanks to the well researched molecular complementarity of my VP1 protein. I then trigger an invagination reaction in the cytoplasmic membrane, a little as if the cell would like to swallow me. This form of endocytosis is followed by an uncoating and injection of my RNA into the interior of the cell. The capsid/genome separation is critical. My genome must be free to express itself.Like nearly all RNA viruses, I replicate myself in the cytoplasm of the host cell by taking control of its metabolism and diverting it to my own advantage to synthesize my own proteins. Starting from this moment, I become undetectable. Scientists call this step the eclipse phase.My RNA is of positive polarity because it behaves like a RNA messenger. The message that it carries is recognized and translated directly into viral amino acids by the ribosomes of the cell that I infect without a preliminary transcription. This is why it also is called infectious RNA.I am a genetically thrifty virus. I synthesize my different functional proteins using the sole gene carried by my RNA molecule, in other words, with a minimal genetic configuration of regulatory elements.The coding region of my gene is flanked by two non-coding regulatory regions that control my replication.The one situated on my 5'-end, with about 1 300 nucleotides, contains a secondary structure named the Internal Ribosomal Entry Site (IRES) which ends in a VPg (Viral genome linked Protein), a small viral protein of 24 amino acids.In a first step, I requisition a cellular protease in order to have it separate the VPg protein from the 5'-end of my molecule. This condition allows the cellular ribosomes to bind onto the site dedicated to them (IRES) and start the translation of my genetic message into amino acids.The decoding gives birth to a non-functional polyprotein, said to be immature, of 2 332 amino acids. Unstable, it rapidly fragments into 3 primary polypeptides, P1, P2 and P3, each of which will undergo cascading divisions that ultimately generate the 4 structural proteins of my capsid (derived from P1) and the 7 enzymatic proteins (derived from P2 and P3) which I need to reproduce myself.In a second step, I orchestrate in parallel the replication of my genome and the construction of a capsid, the two elements of my future clones. To replicate my positive polarity RNA molecule, I first synthesize a negative polarity mirror molecule.The virus I 58To do so, I call upon the regulatory region of about 90 nucleotides located on its 3'-end. I use it as a matrix to produce several thousand more or less perfect copies of the positive RNA molecules of my future clones.Unlike the translation process, this duplication requires the presence of the VPg protein at the 5'-end of my molecule because it serves as a primer to the polymerase-replicase RNA.The positive RNA that I produce has three roles to play:-to serve as a matrix for the synthesis of negative polarity RNA strands that will become in turn matrixes for the synthesis of positive polarity RNA strands;-to act like a RNA messenger for the production of new polyproteins and the initiation of a new replication cycle;-to be encapsidated and to constitute the genome of future viruses.The capsid proteins of my future clones are synthesized using the polypeptide P1. It first is divided into 3 proteins VP0, VP3 and VP1. They self-assemble into sub-units, gather together into pentamers, form an instable procapsid around one of the numerous strands of newly synthesized prositive RNA, and give birth to a provirion. This assembly marks the end of the eclipse phase. The VP0 protein divides itself into VP2 and VP4. The procapsid becomes a stable capsid and the provirion becomes a mature virion. My offspring accumulate in the cytoplasm of the infected cell, ready to emerge as soon as the cell dies, probably by apoptosis, a kind of cellular suicide induced by complex mechanisms to which I contribute.After the cells burst, my liberated virions circulate in the blood and lymph of my host and go on to contaminate receptive organs such as the animal's heart. This is how I reproduce myself, piece by piece and at the expense of metabolic machinery outside my body without which I cannot continue.But the process is not perfect. I admit that errors take place with each intracellular replication. Evidence of these errors may be found when the walls of my host cells burst. Alongside complete viruses that are correctly shaped and infectious, one finds viral particules that appear complete but have no RNA in the center, immature virions, free capsomers, and unused viral proteins.In practice, only 5% of the virions produced become infectious viruses matching my expectations. The rest are abandoned like production waste. As I play the high numbers card, enough offspring usually remain to ensure my continued existence. However, I must seize every possible opportunity to reproduce myself in very large numbers.In the end, I am satisfied when I succeed in compelling a mammal's cell to provide 200 to 300 reproductions of myself. Like all viruses, I of course depend on foreign organisms to survive, but my power to take them over and divert their metabolic commands to serve my own interests is excellent revenge.I probably have been present on Earth since the emergence of Artiodactyla, the branch of mammals with two toes on each foot, between 5 and 25 million years ago. I lived at the expense of wild animals well before the invention of livestock husbandry by humans some 6 000 to 8 000 years ago.The description of the clinical signs of my presence goes back to 1546 but it took another 300 years for me to be identified. In 1897, I was the first animal virus isolated in cattle by two German researchers, Friedrich Löffler and Paul Frosch, but for many years, I intrigued scientists by the inconstancy of the immunity acquired by animals that had hosted me. Some seemed to definitively resist my presence, others relapsed. At the dawn of the third millennium, I thus am known based on serological tests under 7 different types. The first three are found nearly everywhere in the world, the last four seem to limit themselves to tropical countries. Researchers now are comparing the exotic types with the ubiquitous types. All of my 7 serotypes display a relative antigenic stability despite my particularly high mutation rate.After nearly 50 years of study, scientists have dismissed the idea that I could give birth to an eighth serotype. Their conviction rests on the fact that changes in the tertiary configuration of my structural proteins are restrained by the maintenance of their functions. In their view, I have reached the physical limits of deformations compatible with my molecular integrity. Any new major protein modifications would endanger the physical architecture of my capsid and that of my antigenic site located on VP1. But perhaps surprises await the scientists?Schematic representation of the exterior and interior of the capsid of the foot-and-mouth disease virus: the three external structural proteins \" VP1, \" VP2 and \" VP3 and the sole internal structural protein \" VP4.-2011. -© Michel Launois, Cirad.Nevertheless, they know that I can accommodate minor genetic reshuffling, which obliges them to invent the idea of subtypes to capture my antigenic diversity, even if they remain unaware of the interactions between my different strains within the same host population.By 2010, over a century after we first met, scientists had inventoried 32 subtypes for type A, 11 subtypes for type O, 5 subtypes for type C, 6 subtypes for type SAT1, 3 subtypes for type SAT2, 4 subtypes for type SAT3 and 3 subtypes for type Asia1.My tremendous genetic flexibility separates me into over 1 000 distinct variants, each with a unique immunogenic power and infectious character.Who said that a small virus like me would be easy to describe?The virus I 62I like a neutral environment, one that is not too acidic, too alkaline, too dry, too hot or too exposed to ultraviolet light.In addition, I have the curious ability to stick to diverse inert elements such as aluminium hydroxide. This characteristic is used by humans who manufacture vaccines, the weapons they use against me.…a diverse virus. I am fine with relatively cold environments even though I really only am active when inside the feverish body of my animal hosts.However, when the surrounding temperature goes past 56°C, my chemical and physical integrity do not survive more than 30 minutes. I remain active 10 days at 37°C, 70 days at 22°C, and over a year at 4°C, especially if I am placed in a glycerol medium that stops the formation of ice crystals.Fat and sugar solvents leave me indifferent for the simple reason that my capsid basically is made exclusively of protein.In contrast, I do not like household bleach, N-acetylethylene-imine, azaridine, glycidaldehyde, caustic soda, even when highly diluted with water, and formaldehyde. Scientists have used this last weakness to procure an inactivated vaccine from me.I can withstand relative humidity above 55%, indirect daylight, darkeness and time passing. In this way, I remain potentially active for 3 days in the ground during the summer, 14 days in dry cattle manure, 28 days in the ground during the winter, 39 days in urine, and 180 days in slurry.I am not interested in anything that falls outside a pH (hydrogen point) range of 7.2 to 7.6. The simple and natural acidification of muscles in an infected, deceased animal is enough to displease me, which is one way of saying that the meat no longer is a refuge for me, unless it is put somewhere cool for longer conservation.The fact that I easily accommodate neutral environments, resist both dry and humid heat, and both the cold and heat tolerated by my hosts, means that overall, my requirements present more advantages than disadvantages.Livestock animals like cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs ensure my spread. Today, there are more opportunities for me to multiply and create epizootics than in centuries past. There are more animals, they travel extensively around the world, people selectively have bred livestock to perform well in terms of meat and milk production and growth, but the animals are more susceptible from a health perspective. This facilitates my activities, particularly because these new livestock breeds are raised intensively, and crowded conditions are ideal for me to spread from neighbour to neighbour.Animal markets, fairs, rural competitions and even family reunions in the countryside are other opportunities that I exploit to spread.Even if numerous countries have taken radical measures to make my life difficult, especially beginning in the second half of the 20th century, I persist in an enzootic form in more than half of the countries in the world. When people believe I have been eradicated, I can manifest myself in sometimes unexpected outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease. It helps that numerous wild Artiodactyla species, such as the African buffalo, sometimes host me very discretely.To boost my chances of coming into contact with a host, I follow a two-pronged strategy, direct transmission and indirect transmission.By direct transmission, I mean passing from one animal to another through simple contact, which is not difficult in intensive livestock systems. I make the most of licking, skin contact with a fellow beast, and suckling offspring, to pass from one individual to another, particularly when viral excretion is abundant.I also use a silent carriage technique of taking refuge in the sanctuary of the tonsils and pharynx of animals that appear absolutely healthy to both farmers and veterinarians. Not a single clinical sign betrays my presence. This silent spread often is overlooked.My indirect transmission is ensured first by humans themselves. Veterinarians, inseminators, rural technicians, policemen, postmen, itinerant traders, and agricultural product suppliers all involuntarily have enabled my spread in the past. With only very rare exceptions, I have no effect on this five-toed mammal. To me, humans are merely mobile supports that harbor me in their nasal cavities, on their hands --with or without gloves --shoes, work and leisure clothes, and transmit me to all of the tools and equipment that they use. Animals such as cats, dogs, and horses also can serve as passive transmission vectors. Contaminated milk collection trucks once were excellent vectors for my dispersion between dairy farms because the overpressure in the tanks created very powerful aerosols. Sadly for me, humans now have equipped the trucks with special filters. A lost opportunity! Luckily, I still have many others. I can survive in meat and in animal by-products such as offal, endocrine glands, bones and marrow. I sometimes can be found in uncooked cured products and in hams, even six months after they were made. This is how in 2001 I found myself in catering waste (swill) meant for pig feed and, as it had not undergone the officially required heat treatment that could have killed me, I contaminated the pigs.Wind also contributes to my long-distance spread, especially with the right weather conditions: a relatively low speed, without gusts, in a constant direction, relative humidity over 60% but without heavy rain, and moderate sunlight.In 1981, scientists established that I passively travelled 250 km over the Channel from contaminated pig farms in the French department of Côtes-d'Armor in Brittany to cattle farms on the Island of Wight.I understand the fear inspired by my ability to create secondary and even tertiary outbreaks from a first outbreak that people thought had been contained, without anyone really understanding how! Experts have spoken about aberrant saltatory outbreaks. I savour the salt of the expression. However, my air travels are five times less efficient above land and less effective in tropical regions than in temperate areas. It is up to biometeorologists to confirm my other modes of circulation! They have not yet proven my capacity to cover several thousand kilometres, at several thousand feet in altitude, either alone as a viral particle mixed with sand or ionized clay, or by using carrier birds or migratory insects.Sick animals exhale me in veritable aerosols. Cattle can excrete 10 000 viral particles per day. By breathing, pigs can eject me into the environment in amounts that are 1 000 to 10 000 times higher than cattle. When one knows that only 10 of my particles are enough to infect a susceptible bovine, it is easy to imagine my infectious potential. Some have calculated that in one minute, a sick pig is able to disseminate a sufficient quantity of me to contaminate 60 000 cattle. I am happy in saliva, tears, urine and all leaking bodily fluids, as well as blood and lymph.Lesions are a kind of incubator for me. After the vesicles burst, some of my fellow viral particles find themselves in the circulatory systems within the body and then in the excrement of mammals while conserving their infectious potential.Slurry and manure therefore are major sources of contamination. In male hosts, I am present in the sperm, and in females, in milk and embryonic envelopes. I can even infiltrate the wool of sheep. In other words, I am everywhere.I do not only infect healthy animals. Some already are carrying other pathogenic agents. Scientists still do not understand how we cohabitate.The expression of my pathogenic power depends on numerous factors: my serotype and topotype, the environment in which I find myself, the receptivity of hosts that I encounter, their general condition before contamination, and the tissues that I infect, my preference being mouth epithelium and heart muscle. Some of my strains cause gastrointestinal, respiratory, and eye lesions. Cattle and sheep are more susceptible than pigs to respiratory infections linked to my presence.I often use sheep and goats, which are very good reservoirs, to discretely introduce myself into new areas. Pigs are marvellous hosts in terms of helping me to multiply and spread. And cattle on livestock farms are good at revealing my presence.For a virus, living with others is not a weakness, it is a metabolic requirement.Am I living or dead? Virologists and philosophers are hotly debating this question. Some classify me as a structured biological entity, reactive but not alive, under the pretext that I am incapable of metabolic autonomy. It is true that I do not breathe, eat, excrete any waste, or have a personal energy system, and I can only reproduce myself by hijacking a receptive host cell. I therefore am not a cell according to the definition of biologists but an obligate parasite.The virus I 68 However, my virus status has been evolving ever since some of my cousins drew attention to themselves due to their huge size, with a genome two times larger than that of a bacterium, and their capacity to infect other members of our family. To be the virus of a virus is something even those who consider us to be merely primitive and harmful have to admire! My evolution follows the law of natural selection discovered by Darwin. I adapt myself to new environments through mechanisms that are identical to those of other living beings. Furthermore, I only am active when my physical-chemical integrity is scrupulously respected.When I consider my place and role in the history of evolution, my answer to the question, \"living or dead?\" leans towards \"living\". I am made up of the same base protein molecules and I use the same genetic alphabet as living organisms. This probably allowed some of my ancestors to sustainably introduce themselves into the genome of other single and multi-celled organisms. A hypothesis that they were the origin of the nucleus of eukaryotic cells even has been advanced.In addition, although I compensate for the absence of metabolic machinery by borrowing the enzymatic know-how of my hosts, some scientists think that I was an essential actor in the organization of the living world and its evolution by bringing about crucial gene transfers between ancestral animal and plant hosts. Up until recently, humans were interested in us in a limited manner, focussing only on how to fight us. In the future, they will have to accept us as key actors in the maintenance of the planet's biological equilibrium.The point of view of the vaccine Before there was science, there were local customsIn the past, farmers understood the contagious character of the disease and knew by observing clinical signs that naturally infected animals could recover spontaneously and develop resistance to new infection. Some were inspired to hasten the natural contamination of their cattle herds. They would introduce an animal infected with foot-and-mouth disease into a group of healthy animals gathered together in a stable and practice aphtisation by rubbing the muzzles or lips of healthy animals with virulent saliva taken from the lesions of the sick animal. A maximum number of animals consequently fell ill at the same time and the quarantine of the farm could be lifted more quickly. Farmers also knew that when triggered in this way, the disease was similar to spontaneous infection but it was expressed in a less severe form, leading to fewer losses. Doctors recommended similar empirical processes to prevent certain highly contagious childhood diseases such as smallpox.Around 1900, before I was invented, numerous researchers, including F. Löffler, the co-discoverer of the foot-and-mouth disease virus, tested different methods to immunize herds against foot-and-mouth disease by using the immunogenic power of viruses.These methods were based on the principle that every host organism reacts to the presence of a pathogenic agent, which plays the role of an antigen, with the production of antibodies, large defensive proteins called immunoglobulins, which confer protection or immunity that lasts for a certain period of time depending on the quantity produced.In theory, transferring antibodies produced by an animal that recovered naturally from a disease to a healthy animal renders the healthy animal more resistant to the disease. Serotherapy, otherwise know as seroprevention, confers a passive immunisation to the recipient. Practitioners took blood from convalescent animals that had contracted the disease some twenty days earlier. The blood then was treated and subcutaneous injections of the serum obtained were given to animals that were still disease free.The immune serum was used widely in numerous European countries between 1920 and 1930 despite erratic results, a high cost price, and often imperfect and short-lived effectiveness.In Denmark, 112 000 litres of immune serum from convalescent animals were used between 1925 and 1933. During the same period in France, up to 13 000 cattle were treated by serotherapy in one year. A combination of immune serum and virulent lymph even was marketed by a pharmaceutical laboratory under the name \"seraphtine\".In 1926, I appear as a vaccine in the form of a formalin decoction developed by three French researchers, H. Vallée, H. Carré and P. Rinjard. The task of the formalin, also known as formaldehyde, is to inactivate the virus by chemically destroying its RNA molecule.Stripped of its steering unit, the virus loses its infectious power and its capacity to reproduce. However, the virus retains its antigenic and immunogenic power, which is held by its capsid's VP1 protein. The animal that receives me thus can produce antibodies specific to the viral type that I contain without the risk that the disease will be triggered. I was authorized by international authorities with this form of an inactivated virus.The vaccine I 72 However, until only recently, countries always manufactured me with attenuated viruses. These are living viruses whose virulence has been reduced by successive passages in hosts that are not very susceptible, such as rabbits. My immunogenic efficiency with an inactivated virus is less than what I can express with an attenuated virus; however, there is no risk of a reverse mutation that could return the infectious and pathogenic power to the virus. It would not be appropriate if I triggered or revived this disease instead of fighting it! To compensate for the lesser immunogenic power of my viral component and to stimulate the production of specific antibodies in the animal to be protected, researchers added adjuvants.Beginning in 1932, a Danish scientist, S. Schmidt, experimented with aluminium hydroxide and discovered that the foot-and-mouth disease virus fixes itself easily to this material through adsorption. This would be my only immunity adjuvant for over twenty years. In 1937 in Germany, Professor D. Waldmann's team demonstrated the determining role of certain physical-chemical parameters (pH, temperature, concentration of formaldehyde) in the inactivation of the foot-and-mouth disease virus. Their method was adopted and used with almost no modification until the 1970s.These successive developments made me the first foot-and-mouth disease vaccine to be made with a formalin-treated virus, known in France as the VSW vaccine, short for \"Vallée-Schmidt-Waldmann\".In order to be used to control foot-and-mouth disease, I had to be produced on an industrial scale. In the 1930s, the main difficulty was obtaining an abundant source of the virus. D. Waldmann developed a first method that was inspired by the aphtisation technique.It consisted of inoculating the virus in the lingual epithelium of live cattle free of the disease to obtain lesions and then to harvest the infected epithelium and lymph to manufacture me.After the animals were slaughtered, 40 to 50 doses containing about 60 ml of vaccine could be fabricated from each tongue. Of course, I was only monovalent because I was prepared from a single viral type, the one encountered most often in the field.In parallel, during the 1930s a Dutch researcher named H.S. Frenckel developed a method to grow the virus on fragments of cattle tongue epithelia, the cells of which were kept alive in a nutrient medium. This technique, which was presented in 1947, was revolutionary at the time. By 1950 it had replaced other methods thanks to: its independence from the immune status of the animal, regular production of the virus, and high yield that was 100 times greater than with Waldmann's method.The manufacturing and bottling of the first foot-and-mouth disease vaccines -France, 1952 -© Marc-Henri Cassagne, FNGDS.Begining in 1970, the multiplication of the virus on cell culture lines in suspension, such as the BHK 21 line, an acronym for Baby Hamster Kidney (meaning the kidney cells of a newborn hamster, clone 21), was carried out in contained environments inside veritable biological reactors.This technique allows every step of my production process, from the growth of cells for my multiplication to my inactivation, formulation and packaging in ready-to-use doses, to be carried out under maximum biosecurity conditions. This has made undesirable virus escapes, which occurred up to the 1980s, to become extremely rare.My formulation and design evolved with scientific and technological advances. In keeping with European safety rules regarding the manufacture of veterinary medecines, great care now is taken to ensure that I am harmless.Formalin, the first generation inactivant which was known since the 1950s to have an incomplete neutralizing effect on targeted viruses, has been replaced by second generation inactivants such as Binary-Ethylene-Imine (BEI), whose chemical activity and manner of application guarantees a complete inactivation of the infectivity of my viral particles.To avoid all risk, a large pharmaceutical laboratory even is going to double the dose of the inactivant and double its application time. In ten years, it has produced over 3.5 billion doses from inactivated viruses using this method without a single vaccine accident! I have come a long way since my first semi-industrial production in 1937 as a monovalent vaccine, meaning a vaccine directed against only one virus serotype.New adjuvants have been introduced into my preparation. They allow a concentration of my active material, in this instance my viral antigens, to stimulate a more powerful and precocious immunity in the recipient in order to reduce the volume of my dose.Around 1955, thanks to saponin, a molecule of plant origin, the dose of my trivalent version, which allows cattle to be vaccinated against three viral serotypes with a single injection, was reduced from 45 to 15 ml. This helped to reduce nodules, edema, and difficult to absorb indurations at the site of the injection of the animal being vaccinated! The use of oil adjuvants, first in a simple emulsion like oil-in-water or water-in-oil in the 1970s, then a double emulsion, such as water-in-oil-in-water, in the 1990s, brought my dose down to 10 ml, then 5 ml, and finally to 2 ml, much to the satisfaction of the vaccinated and the vaccinators, furthermore offering the advantage of a unique vaccine formula tolerated by both pigs and ruminants equally well.When all is going well, I am injected in cattle at the age of 2 months and then at 6 months. The production of antibodies starts 4 days after I am injected and increases over 2 to 3 weeks to reach a plateau where it is maintained before gradually decreasing. A simple annual booster shot prolongs the protection for one year. However, I admit that I have been the cause of several vaccine-related accidents.In the old days, when I contained attenuated viruses or viral particles that were not completely inactivated, my injection actually provoked infectious outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease.My adjuvants, such as aluminium hydroxide or saponin, and my imperfect purification also could trigger allergic reactions that could at times be as bad as mortal anaphylactic shocks. Some cattle expressed an immediate hypersensitivity with fever, respiratory and cardiac problems and a drop in milk production. Others reacted many days later with eczema rashes and gestational disorders that could lead to abortion.Allergic reactions linked to my preparation on cell cultures were reported in 1984-1985. This must have had a negative impact on farmers who had been encouraged to vaccinate their herds.At the beginning of the 21st century, my industrial production is accompanied by very strict safety controls.The careful purification of my antigens using ultrafiltration and chromatography methods enable all undesirable proteins to be eliminated with the exception of those of the virus' capsid in charge of immunity. The undesirable proteins in question are the allergenic cellular proteins produced by my culture medium and non-structural viral proteins (NSP) that are synthesized when the virus reproduces both in vivo during an infection and in vitro on cell cultures.When these are removed from my composition, vaccinated animals no longer develop antibodies against the virus' NSPs. Consequently, one now can serologically distinguish a vaccinated animal that does not develop anti-NSP antibodies from an infected animal that does develop them.My goal is to allow animals susceptible to the foot-and-mouth disease virus, starting with the most valuable cattle, to safely acquire strong and lasting immunity by powerfully stimulating their immune systems to increase the production of neutralizing anti-bodies circulating in their blood.My first monovalent preparations were targeted against serotype O of the foot-and-mouth disease virus. I then became bivalent against the two most common virus types, O and A, before becoming trivalent against O, A and C. Today, type C is no longer included in my preparation because it is on its way to being eradicated in the world. Each country can obtain a personalized vaccine cocktail depending on the strains circulating. When I am used in Turkey, Iran, and the Caucases, I am multivalent with at least 4 valences (type O, 2 sub-types A, and type Asia1). In Africa and the Middle East, type SAT2 often is introduced into my composition. Since 1966, my foot-andmouth disease antigens have been associated with a rabies vaccine to produce a combined vaccine able to protect cattle from these two diseases with just one injection.I realized early on that there were limits to my impact and I fascinated scientists by my drops in efficacy, which they refer to as \"immunity breaks\", where an animal that is vaccinated nonetheless manifests signs of the disease. They discovered that the genetic instability of the foot-and-mouth disease virus and the antigenic variability of its VP1 protein produced within the same serotype numerous variants (subtypes and topotypes) with different immunogenic and antigenic powers.No viral strain therefore is exactly identical to another. This plurality complicates both their job and mine. In addition, a new variant can appear from one year to the next. The problem is that I only am effective when my antigens are closely related to the infectious strain that is circulating.If my index of similarity with the field strain is less than 0.6, scientists consider that I offer imperfect protection. Like all human influenza vaccines, I must be updated periodically through the preparation of a new vaccine cocktail that is adjusted to the viral strains circulating.The history of my adoption in the fight to control foot-andmouth disease is linked closely to the evolution of biological and virological technologies and the creation in many countries of industrial vaccine production laboratories.After the important foot-and-mouth disease panzootics of 1937 in Germany and 1952 in France, where over 350 000 outbreaks were declared, health officials made stopping the spread and the eradiction of the disease a priority, with plans to implement preventive medical measures.In Lyon, the work of the Institut Français de la Fièvre Aphteuse (IFFA), created in 1947 by Dr. Charles Mérieux, enabled the mass production of vaccines. The voluntary vaccination approach, which had been necessary when I was not available in large quantities, was replaced by a collective vaccination strategy.In most continental European countries, I became the key actor in the fight against foot-and-mouth disease starting in 1961 with obligatory mass vaccinations of all cattle over 4 months old on a yearly basis. In France, my preparation and inspections of my safety and effectiveness were regulated by a ministerial decree in 1965.This was the beginning of a 30 years fight against the foot-and-mouth disease virus that coincided with a period known in France as the \"trente glorieuses\", or \"thirty glorious years\" because it was a period of economic prosperity which no doubt had little to do with my prophylactic contribution.I am quite proud of my work because this strategy, associated with the systematic slaughter of susceptible cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs in contaminated outbreaks, allowed the number of foot-and-mouth disease cases to drop from several hundred thousand at the beginning of the 1950s to several thousand in the 1970s, and then to the disappearance of the disease from Europe at the end of the 1980s.Thrilled with my vaccinal success, I was amazed to learn that a European directive ordered me to the sidelines on January 1, 1992. In preparation for the single market of 1993, it became illegal to use my services throughout the European community.Before presenting the argument that led from my being required to my being forbidden, I should acknowledge that occasional episodes of foot-and-mouth disease in France in 1981 and in Italy in 1984, as well as a few post-vaccination accidents and virus leaks between 1977 and 1987, had weakened my credibility in favour of some countries such as Great Britain, Ireland, and Denmark, which had never adopted vaccination. The vaccine I 80After five years of discussions between representatives of European member countries, the decision to end the preventive vaccination policy was confirmed by the Commission and the Council on the basis of sanitary, commercial, and economic considerations. All the same, I doubt the good faith of certain arguments put forth by my opponents.The special characteristics of the foot-and-mouth disease virus were played to my disadvantage. Its antigenic plurality, its absence of crossed immunity, the regular emergence of new strains and the possible introduction of the exotic SAT and Asia1 serotypes, associated with the fact that I was used in most countries only on cattle, called into question the point of pursuing my prophylactic use in Europe. When I do not correspond to the antigenic profile of an invading strain, I face a high risk of underachievement as a vaccine.I also worried veterinarians when they discovered that vaccinated cattle carrying the virus could, without showing any revealing signs, replicate the virus deep in their throats with the risk of excreting the virus and contaminating susceptible species. Yet to date no case of foot-and-mouth disease has been reported that could be traced to vaccinated virus carriers.However, in the 1990s, the decisive factor was the economic interests related to the establishment of the free circulation and trade of animals and animal products within the European Community. Three member countries did not vaccinate and nine others did. It was out of the question to engage in commercial trade while this difference remained. At the time, serological tests were unable to differentiate between antibodies caused by a vaccination and those caused by an infection in an animal. Only the cessation of vaccination could resolve this issue, and vaccination also was hindering exports and the conquest of new international markets.To further complicate the situation, vaccinating European countries applied different vaccination strategies for susceptible animals other than cattle (pigs only were vaccinated in Spain and Portugal, sheep only in Spain, border areas of France and Italy) and some virus strains had shown a preference for unusual hosts (pigs rather than cattle).The continuation of preventive vaccination therefore would have required choices to be made regarding the animals to vaccinate: cattle --like prior to 1991 --due to their market value? Pigs for their virus reproduction potential? Sheep and goats because they discretely introduce the virus without suffering much? Today, the situation has evolved and laboratories produce me in a highly purified form that does not contain non-structural proteins (NSP). I no longer induce the production of anti-NSP antibodies in vaccinated animals. The presence of these antibodies in an animal therefore is evidence of a viral infection. In endemic areas, serological tests can be used to identify infected herds and verify the absence of virus circulation in a vaccinated herd.In the future, these tests may enable some countries to pursue a foot-and-mouth disease control policy using vaccination without penalizing their commercial transactions and provide proof of the absence of infection, thereby justifying their status as countries \"free of foot-and-mouth disease with vaccination\".The non-vaccination policy allowed European countries to constitute livestock free of foot-and-mouth disease but vulnerable if the virus is reintroduced because the animals are not immunized. Heightened vigilance must be maintained. This is made possible by the coordinated implementation of epidemiological surveillance networks and the development of antigen and vaccine banks.The vaccine I 82Foot-and-mouth disease free countries manage antigen banks that are strategic reserves for emergency vaccination situations. My antigens are stored most often in a form concentrated 80 to 1 000 times and frozen in nitrogen at very low temperatures, usually -130°C to guarantee a shelf-life of at least five years.Upon demand of client countries, millions of monovalent or multivalent doses of vaccine are manufactured within a few days under strict quality controls, with a potency and range adapted to the situation on the ground. A 50 litre volume of concentrated antigen can produce 15 million doses of cattle vaccine. I also am stored in the form of ready-to-use vaccines but my shelf-life at 4°C is only 12 to 24 months. I also am held in national banks in numerous other countries.To keep these antigen and vaccine banks up to date, field surveillance is carried out by regular sampling campaigns around the world. Samples are sent to national or international reference laboratories for characterization.Molecular biology techniques enable scientists to establish the degree of their immunological relationship with vaccine strains already listed in order to detect the emergence of a new variant. Using this data, it is possible to construct a phylogenetic tree (a dendrogram) of strains of a same type and to monitor their evolution over time and space.Since I was abandoned by European countries, the fight to prevent foot-and-mouth disease has become one of disease control.It relies on an epidemiological surveillance system that allows a rapid response to the introduction of the virus to limit the spread of the disease. It is based on:-training and informing all actors involved (farmers, veterinarians, livestock professionals), development and establishment of a national emergency plan and carrying out simulation exercises; -very strict surveillance of the movement of susceptible animal species within Europe and with countries outside of Europe thanks to individual identification marks (tatoos or ear tags) combined with identity documents that accompany animals over their entire lives (per animal for cattle, per animal batch for pigs, sheep and goats). Their movements are recorded in a data bank that allows them and their derived products to be traced; -reinforced health controls on borders and good knowledge of trade flows to limit the risk of cross-border virus transmission linked to the importation of animals and animal products.An under-estimation and misunderstanding of risks, and poorly applied surveillance measures are weaknesses which benefit the virus.The most striking example is the 2001 epizootic in Great Britain, which experts had considered to be a country facing a very low risk of foot-and-mouth disease due to the protection provided by being an island. However, an inadequate supervision of farms and the feeding of pigs with insufficiently heated swill imported from Asia opened the door to the virus. The result was the massive slaughter of animals (over 6 million heads, including 4.9 million sheep, 0.7 million cattle, and 0.4 million pigs) and economic losses estimated at nearly 13 billion euros.In 1994, OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) set up a procedure to recognize the foot-and-mouth disease sanitary status of its members (178 countries and territories in 2010).In 2010, 65 member countries were recognized as being \"free of foot-and-mouth disease, without vaccination\". Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, USA, Canada, Chili, and countries of Central America and the European Union are on the list.To avoid any introduction of the virus and retain their status, these countries must respect very strict sanitary standards covering their trade in animals and animal products. They therefore cannot import vaccinated animals. If an infection occurs, a country loses its status and consequently its export markets. These only may be retrieved after a period of between 3 months to 2 years when the country has demonstrated, through clinical surveillance and serological tests, the absence of viral circulation.In countries where foot-and-mouth disease is endemic, the priorities are different and I still provide highly appreciated services to rectify the sanitary situation in livestock areas and keep the disease under control, particularly when socio-economic and cultural factors exclude stamping out options.Only one South American country, Uruguay, is recognized as being \"free of foot-and-mouth disease, with vaccination\". In countries where the disease is endemic, OIE authorizes the application of zoning measures and the maintenance of disease-free zones from which animal products may be exported towards disease-free countries of Europe and the USA. This is the case for the majority of South American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru), and some African (South Africa, Botswana, Namibia) and Asian countries (Malaysia, Philippines).But for some one hundred other developing and emerging countries, the disease is a real scourge and is a major preoccupation for veterinarian authorities and farmers who are increasingly well informed, but uncontrolled animal movements and porous borders remain a reality.Today, the elimination of viral infection markers (NSP) in my highly purified vaccine composition renders it possible to rule out the circulation of the virus in animals that have received an emergency vaccination. This means there is now an alternative to slaughtering healthy animals simply because they have received a vaccine injection.When slaughter must be carried out, the ordeal for farmers and veterinarians thus should be less traumatic than in the past and the practice better accepted by public opinion.Although molecular biology experts envision me as a synthetic peptide-based vaccine or as a recombinant vaccine, I continue to be obtained through biological methods. Research --already dated --into producing me through genetic engineering has not yet found practical applications. I do not know what the virus thinks of that!The journalist I 88The point of view of the journalistI am completing the last year of journalism school and I am about to have a two-month taste of work at a regional daily paper whose director I know, which helped in getting me this placement. First step: Research the topic.My first objective is to understand the basics of foot-andmouth disease. Like many journalists, I use the Internet to better understand the topic. I rapidly identify a publication in French and a vade mecum illustrated with striking photos of the clinical signs of the disease. Jumping from link to link, I gather together scientific articles, a Senate report, and presentations made for livestock farmers by health protection groups. I am impressed by the number of works that have been written following the 2001 epizootic in Great Britain: first person accounts and on-the-spot interviews, press releases, contradictory debates over the non-vaccination and stamping out policy, and even articles for the general public intended to be reassuring but whose titles alone were enough to make one nervous.I become aware of the global character of this contagious animal disease by consulting the epizootic outbreak mapping system put in place by the OIE, and by discovering that the FAO devotes a large section of its EMPRES (Emerging Prevention System) bulletin, which focuses on monitoring transboundary animal diseases, to foot-and-mouth disease.After spending two days navigating the web, I know enough about foot-and-mouth disease to outline a draft paper organized around five questions: what? (the virus and the disease), who? (the susceptible animals), where? (worldwide), how? (the spread), why? (deficient health controls, illegal movements, non-vaccination).Before proceding to the second step of my work, I set up a web tracking system to follow foot-and-mouth disease news on the Internet and I subscribe to the ProMED system for monitoring emerging infectious diseases managed by ISID (International Society for Infectious Diseases). It would not make a good impression to be caught by surprise by a news release from a fellow journalist.Second step: Identify resource persons and conduct interviews.Through my reading, I discovered the magnitude of the economic consequences of an epizootic of foot-and-mouth disease for an entire range of actors who often are quite removed from the world of agriculture and the agro-food industry. I also know that when there is a sanitary crisis, the media do not play a neutral role and can have a strong impact on consumers with negative repercussions on the meat sector.To limit this risk, I put together a regional directory of organisations and people to contact if needed. It includes representatives of the livestock, animal health, and meat industry sectors: Chamber of Agriculture, health protection groups, veterinarian technical groups, public health veterinarians, departmental veterinarian services, renderers, slaughterhouses, cattle trading companies, and cattle, sheep, and pig farmers.I then prepare scenarios for a few mini-documentaries to film in the field to capture the daily reality of farmers and public health veterinarians. I will propose to the chief-editor to post these videos on the newspaper's website accompanied by my Q&A presentation on foot-and-mouth disease. Internet readers will be able to respond directly with their opinions.At the end of two months working on foot-and-mouth disease, I sincerely wish to pursue a career in scientific journalism writing for the general public. I would like to be a mediator who provides information in a form that can be understood by a broad audience, allowing people to form their own opinions about current scientific issues, particular emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases coming from developing countries that regularly feature on the front page of the news.The economist I 92The point of view of the economistAs a senior researcher, a position which reflects my long professional career in sociology and rural economics in the service of animal production, I am a consultant advising working groups on health risks related to emerging and re-emerging animal diseases and their economic and social consequences for developed and developing countries.In 2001, while the mad cow crisis was still making headlines, foot-and-mouth disease re-emerged in the United Kingdom, with two secondary outbreaks in France.The event threw me several decades back to when, as a child in the Vendée countryside, I heard people discussing the disease, which featured regularly in the local newspapers.After the last epizootic in 1957 and the implementation of the obligatory cattle vaccination program in Europe in 1961, the disease was largely forgotten even though it was endemic in many developing countries.However, in 1967-1968, when I was a young student finishing my studies, it re-emerged in the United Kingdom, a country which never had accepted vaccination. To contain the epizootic and save the cattle sector, 430 000 cattle were slaughtered in the space of six months. That was when I really became aware of the economic stakes involved in a sanitary situation and decided to pursue research in the economics of epizootic animal diseases.My reason was that the gravity of an illness like foot-andmouth disease is not assessed in terms of animal health alone, but also in terms of economic and social impacts and barriers to international trade in animals and their products.Today, in European countries where foot-and-mouth disease control strategies favour the stamping-out of herds, the direct economic and social consequences of an epizootic for livestock farmers are dramatic despite legal compensations: loss of income, farms on the brink of failure, cessation of activities, change of professional occupation, psychological shock.For farms untouched by the disease but placed under quarantine, restrictions on animal movements incur extra costs and shortfalls.When infectious outbreaks are detected and rapidly controlled, the economic impact is limited in time and space. In contrast, a lack of vigilance and late disease detection in a country without vaccination can lead to a major epizootic such as that which took place in 2001 in Great Britain, where the effects were devastating.Every single component of agricultural, economic, social, industrial and political systems were affected, farmers and animal production sector stakeholders first, some to the point of bankruptcy: suppliers of cattle feed and medicine, butchering and meat processing companies down to retail butchers, cattle trading companies whose trucks remained in the parking lots.The domino effect did not spare other sectors: tourism, leisure, sports, labor, distribution, food, security. Daily life was disrupted at local, regional, and national levels: closing of roads, restrictions on movement, prohibition of large gatherings and sports and cultural events. Companies were closed. Thousands of jobs were lost. Considerable technical and human resources were diverted from their usual tasks to be mobilized by the control plan: police, soldiers, veterinarians, government employees, logistic personnel.The economist I 94And on top of all that you must add: the nation-wide trade embargo on all susceptible species --cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, whether live animals or animal products (meat, milk, sperm, embryos, hides) --which destabilized international cattle markets and the meat sector; loss of confidence on the part of importing countries and consumers, even in the absence of documented risk for their health; and the negative media images of mounds of sheep and cattle burning all over the English countryside that were projected around the world.The epizootic lasted 221 days between the first and last confirmed case. According to the World Bank, the financial repercussions amounted to 100 billion US dollars, half of which was in the tourism and leisure industries.It is an excellent case study for university research students working in laboratories because this British episode had not been predicted by any simulation exercise. Experts considered the risk factor to be close to zero. And yet!Like people, animals, their products and their viruses are travelling around the world more and more. Producing countries often are geographically quite distant from consuming countries. For economic reasons, livestock animals may be transported from the country where they are born to a country where they are fattened and finally to a country where they are slaughtered.All of these animal movements, legal and illegal, are increasing in volume and intensity in response to the growing global demand for meat. They also are drastically increasing the probability of an accidental introduction of the foot-and-mouth disease virus despite very strict sanitary controls in countries recognized by the OIE as being \"free of foot-and-mouth disease, without vaccination.\"The path of the virus is charted by their movements, which are pointed in the direction of increasing beef prices, from countries where foot-and-mouth disease is endemic such as India and Pakistan, towards Iran, Turkey, and the borders of Europe. This explains how new viral strains from the East emerge in the West.In Turkish Thrace, bordering Greece and Bulgaria, European authorities have designated a buffer zone under strict surveillance, with prophylactic vaccination. Another sanitary cordon was established on the borders of Turkey and Iran by the Transcaucasian countries.However, conflicts and political instability in countries are likely to modify the traditional direction of trade and requires constant vigilance.Other risk factors also render foot-and-mouth disease a threat that is difficult to control with regard to European livestock. For example, economic difficulties in a country may lead to inexpensive meat being imported from an infected country, or to cross-border exchanges within a single ethnic group.Certain events, such as the Eid-el-Kebir Islamic religious festival, during which large groups of sheep from different areas are gathered together, render it difficult to trace the origins of animals, and favour the introduction of the virus.The most unusual entry point for foot-and-mouth disease may be the one discovered by a study commissioned by AESA (European Food Safety Authority based in Parme, Italy). In 2006, 2 000 tons of meat arrived on the ground at international airports of 25 European Union member countries in carry-on luggage. This is food for thought regarding the opportunities available to the virus to introduce itself in completely unexpected ways!When giving a public speech, I often am asked about the non-vaccination policy adopted by European countries.The economist I 96When there is an epizootic, how do authorities decide whether or not to accompany stamping out (also refered to as slaughter) --with emergency vaccination? I must explain that the sanitary status, \"free of foot-and-mouth disease, without vaccination\", gives a country access to top notch international markets where animals and animal products fetch the highest prices.An epizootic outbreak in such a country would lead to the immediate closure of its borders to exports for several months and the loss of markets. Given the complex game of economic actors, this could result in:-a disturbance in the global balance of supply and demand with instability in prices that can rise sharply or collapse;-a risk of oversupply on the domestic market of the country under embargo resulting in a drop in prices, which is negative for producers but positive for consumers;-a collapse in demand if consumer confidence is lost and consumers turn to another animal sector.Some countries may be able to take advantage of the sanitary embargo of the infected country if they have export capacities. Other importing countries, having become wary of the country affected, may continue to maintain an embargo even when the required waiting period for a return to normal has ended.Following two epizootic outbreaks in 2001, it took France two years to recover markets in a number of countries in the Pacific region even though France was recognized as being free of foot-and-mouth disease three months after the end of the second outbreak.In such a globalized trade environment, all economic simulations demonstrate that for an exporting country, eradication by stamping out, without the use of vaccination, remains the least expensive policy option. If a decision is taken to vaccinate, the embargo on exports is prolonged and the resumption of commercial activities consequently is delayed.From my perspective as an economist, my analysis of the situation is that for a European country, production losses have less economic and social consequences than the loss of certain export markets and it is this point which is the decisive factor. This is why European countries will not use vaccination except when confronted with an extreme situation such as the need to defend against a biological attack. Due to its highly contagious nature and economic impact, the foot-and-mouth disease virus effectively could be used as a biological weapon by terrorists or armies in order to weaken a country by ruining its livestock. This is not just a hypothesis! Recently, an individual claimed he would spread the foot-and-mouth disease virus over the British countryside if the British government did not give him a ransom of several million US dollars. The case was taken very seriously by the South African police, the British secret service, and the American FBI. A suspect was arrested after several months of investigations.Foot-and-mouth disease is a disease that might have been described by Aristotle in the 3 rd century BC. However, it was in 1546 that a trustworthy description was made by an Italian doctor, Girolamo Frascatoro. In France, the disease is first mentioned in archived documents starting in 1776, but it probably was present well before. Since that time, foot-and-mouth disease epizootics, some devastating, such as those of 1812,1920,1938,1952,1957, have alternated with periods of respite that lull people into believing that the disease has disappeared.The economist I 98From 1961, the required preventive vaccination of cattle in Europe interrupted this cycle. In my view, it allowed at least three major crises to be avoided.Some countries and regions continue to be deemed free of foot-and-mouth disease: Canada, USA, Central America, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Ocean islands. Outside Europe, foot-and-mouth disease is endemic in numerous countries of Africa, Asia, and South America.Since the start of 2010, the type O foot-and-mouth disease virus has been spreading in numerous Asian countries.Outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have been recorded for the first time in eastern regions of Russia and Mongolia.Others have been reported in China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and in 2011 in Vietnam, with at times unexpected impacts.In Japan, the presence of the virus is threatening the existence of the Miyazaki cattle breed raised on the island of Kyushu in the south of the country. These cattle, a source of pride in Japan, are well known for the gastronomic quality of their meat, which is the most expensive in the world. The animals are pampered by their farmers, who massage them with sake, give them beer to drink, and provide a relaxing environment with classical music.In South Korea, the virus led to the resignation of the Minister of Agriculture following the magnitude of the epizootic and its impacts.Foot-and-mouth disease is endemic in Africa and six of seven serotypes circulate on the continent either permantly or periodically.The types circulating in each region varies: East Africa (A, C, O, SAT1, SAT2, SAT3), Southern Africa (SAT2, SAT1, SAT3), Central Africa (O, A, SAT1, SAT2), West Africa (SAT2, O, A, SAT1), North Africa (A, O, SAT2).On the level of the continent, my economics approach to analysing and understanding the disease takes into account three situations on the ground.In North Africa, three countries of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, successfully carried out a campaign to prevent and control foot-and-mouth disease, which led to its eradication. The last epizootic outbreaks date back to 1999. In 2011, they were recognized by the OIE as \"countries free of foot-and-mouth disease with or without vaccination\". This status opens the door to international markets, notably for sheep exports to European Union countries.In West and Central Africa, pastoralism, transhumance, and markets facilitate the circulation of the foot-andmouth disease virus in livestock. This is true of large seasonal gatherings, such as the salt cure festival held in Ingall in Niger, a meeting point of goat, sheep, cattle, and camel herds of Fulani and Touareg livestock farmers, who travel through the Sahelian countries in the direction of countries on the coast or towards the outskirts of Mopti in Mali.Epidemiological data on the disease remains difficult to obtain in the countries of West and Central Africa and generally are underestimated. When the livestock affected are rustic breeds, foot-and-mouth disease often is perceived as being a disease with limited impacts, one that returns regularly and that can be lived with. Reporting it risks penalties: being barred from pasture lands, water points, access to markets.Nonetheless, there is an economic impact for these small livestock farmers. In pastoral systems, it can affect the mobility of animals. On dairy farms, abortions in females result in reductions of up to 50% in milk production during the year following the epizootic. There also are negative impacts when animals are used for draught power.The economist I 100In this context, there are numerous obstacles to implementing epidemiological surveillance and a control strategy despite the support of international agencies:-insufficient funding for organizing public and private veterinarian services, which results in a lack of veterinarians, who often have little or poor training and limited resources to visit herds in the field;-lack of schooling for most livestock farmers, which complicates their perception of the purpose of fighting the disease, although this situation has been improving over the past few years;-absence of a compensation policy for farmers when their animals must be slaughtered;-weak diagnostic capacity in national laboratories, a multiplicity of serotypes circulating, communication difficulties between countries, unavailability of vaccines when they exist and difficulty keeping them at correct temperatures while transporting them to where they need to be used;-sometimes it is impossible to slaughter herds during an epidemic due to religious or cultural taboos.In Southern Africa and East Africa, the situation is a little different. It is wildlife, which are a reservoir for the foot-and-mouth disease virus, particularly African buffalo, which have a major impact on cattle farming. Despite considerable investments:-construction of sanitary cordons allowing wildlife to be maintained in conservation areas far from livestock;-vaccination of herds and sanitary controls;-implementation of an animal tracability system and a meat production chain that respects international standards and requirements regarding food safety;international export markets remain closed to small farmers in Southern African countries (Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa) who live in areas where foot-and-mouth disease is rife.I read that sustainable development associations would like to change the current international standards and establish new standards that take into account the product itself, in other words, the meat production and processing sector rather than a product's region of provenance. This product approach could offer livestock farmers access to new markets and better prices for their products than those currently available on local markets.I often cite Brazil as an example to my students when discussing the fight to control foot-and-mouth disease. This immense country has the largest commercial cattle herd in the world with 190 million animals raised on over 2 million farms.Thanks to a half century spent fighting the disease, Brazil has become the leading beef exporting country for 170 countries in the world with over 2.2 million tons exported annually. The country alone accounts for 30% of the international trade in meat.The first cases of foot-and-mouth disease appeared in the country in 1870 and originated from Europe. Over 500 million doses of vaccine are manufactured each year and the Ministry of Agriculture requires the maintenance of a strategic reserve of 50 million doses for emergency situations.The cattle sector was reorganized completely through considerable technological and financial investments. In 2002, in order to meet the requirements of the international market, a traceability system known as SISBOV was implemented to cover the entire production chain, from the farmer up to the shipper. It certifies the origins and quality of animal products.Since 1999, Brazil has applied the concept of zoning with recognition from the OIE of zones \"free of foot-and-mouth disease, without vaccination\" and zones \"free of foot-andmouth disease, with vaccination\". Today, the latter cover half of the country and hold 75% of the cattle population.Brazil owes the excellent health status of its cattle herds to foot-and-mouth disease, which allowed it to increase its beef exports. However, the maintenance of export levels and access to new markets remain an on-going challenge.Epizootic outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease occur regularly in border areas. There was an epizootic outbreak in 2005 in Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná states that spread to other states. They lost their \"free of foot-and-mouth disease, with vaccination\" zone status and their license to export. It was not until 2008 that Mato Grosso do Sul regained its sanitary status.To help control these high surveillance border areas, a European research programme is underway. It will allow the risks of foot-and-mouth disease spread to be analysed by using the data of geographic information systems.Foot-and-mouth disease emerged in an endemic manner in Southeast Asia in 1976. However, for many years the political situation and armed conflict did not permit disease prevention and control programmes to be implemented.Three virus serotypes circulate in the region: type O, the most common, and which includes the Pan-Asia topotype that was at the origin of the 2001 epizootic in the United Kingdom, type A, and type Asia1.Indonesia succeeded in eradicating the foot-and-mouth disease virus by 1986. In 1997, a coordinated prevention and control campaign against the disease was implemented in seven countries: Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, with the participation of Indonesia under the regional SEAFMD (South-East Asia Foot and Mouth Disease) programme.In 2010, this allowed parts of Malaysia and the Philippines to achieve the OIE status of zones \"free of foot-and-mouth disease, without vaccination\".The economist I 104With this same progressive zoning approach, epidemiological surveillance, control of animal movements, awareness raising campaigns and strategic vaccination, governments of other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries aim to move from an endemic situation to the eradication of foot-and-mouth disease by 2020 with the objective of gaining access to high value-added Asian markets and international markets.In 2007, during surveys on the Mekong river basin in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam on cross-border livestock trade involving mainly cattle, buffalo and pigs, I assessed how much work remains to be done.The spread of the foot-and-mouth disease virus over long distances is linked to the illegal movement of animals which is done to avoid complex border controls and dissuasively high taxes.The majority of imports and exports of cattle and buffalo follow underground routes, often in several stages, with collection points where the animals remain while in transit, sometimes serving as sorting stations for future buyers from destination countries. Herds also are confided to villagers who take them across the border on foot. Every month, approximately 15 000 buffalo and cattle cross the border in this way from Thailand into Cambodia.These cross-border exchanges are dictated by rising prices and contribute to the upsurge of foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in areas where prices are high. This is how serotype A of the foot-and-mouth disease virus was introduced into Vietnam from Cambodia for the first time in 2004.Foot-and-mouth disease does not only have an economic impact at the level of the country; it also has a direct impact on village communities. The consequences can be dramatic for impoverished families if the disease occurs in buffalo during peak agricultural periods, or if cows and pigs, raised as a source of income, lose their market value.A villager told me that one year, following an attack of foot-and-mouth disease, he could not pay his children's school fees. In addition, he was forced into debt to buy medecines. And yet he had followed the advice of the village veterinary nurse to clean the sores on the tongues and feet of his two infected cattle with a concoction of boiled tamarind leaves to hasten healing and he had made offerings to Buddha. But after having been sick with foot-and-mouth disease, his animals were thin and lacked the strength to pull a cart. No one wanted to buy from him. It was a bad year!In some regions of the world, notably Asia, epizootics of foot-and-mouth disease co-exist with outbreaks of avian influenza. In these countries, it often is financially impossible for the veterinarian services to combat the combination of these two contagious animal diseases. Inevitably, choices are made based not on market values, but the zoonotic character of the two diseases, meaning their capacity to be transmitted to people. This is why avian influenza is the sanitary priority.Despite its small size and discretion, the very aggressive foot-and-mouth disease regulates international trade in animals and animal products on a global scale through the constraints that it imposes. This is yet another example of how we are ruled by an infinitely small, invisible world.","tokenCount":"23996"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"32d69cd9b8a6dd4e879d647caefa791c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d5b07a58-46cd-4860-9cb3-d77ca41d1e8c/retrieve","id":"-1160276049"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3d1fabd6-31c1-4752-ba34-eabcdf5e008c","pagecount":"2","content":"Sign marking one of the experimental plots where shrimp and rice production under different water conditions was tested, Gia Rai District, Bac Lieu Province.In 2001, shrimp farmers in the Bac Lieu Province of Vietnam's Mekong River Delta broke a major dam after they were denied access to the saltwater they needed for their livelihoods. This was a strong reaction by local farmers to the system of sluices and dams built by the government to supply freshwater for rice production. The infrastructure had been installed in line with a national policy to encourage farmers to grow two or three crops of rice a year, rather than the single crop that was possible under natural conditions. However, aquaculture was becoming more lucrative than growing rice. Shrimp farming now dominated western areas of the province, which had acidic soils that were not suitable for growing rice in the dry season.In 2001, scientists from IWMI, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and WorldFish Center were alerted to the dispute and decided to try to resolve the issue. The first task was to review policies for land and water use. The researchers talked with rice growers, shrimp farmers and water managers, and revised the land-use plan with provincial and national authorities. Taking into account farmers' preferences, soil characteristics and the 'anticipated' water quality, the team delineated six zones with corresponding land uses, cropping calendars and salinity requirements. The zones provided for three rice or upland crops in the east to two shrimp crops in the west. In between were transitional zones with two rice crops or one shrimp crop in the dry season followed by one rice crop in the rainy season. \"The government had originally seen saline or brackish water required for shrimp farming as a problem, hence their decision to try and contain it,\" says Chu Thai Hoanh, Principal Researcher -Water Resources, at the Southeast Asia office of IWMI in Vientiane, Lao PDR. \"Now they changed their opinion and viewed it as a resource.\"Once the land-use zones were established, the researchers used a mathematical model that simulated hydraulic conditions to work out and test the optimal operation of sluice gates needed to maintain the correct water quality as required in each zone throughout the year. The team helped set up a Regional Water Management Alliance with members from Bac Lieu and surrounding provinces to coordinate the sluice gate operation. In 2003, they began testing different operational procedures. \"During 2003 and 2004, a few conflicts still arose when saline water occasionally flowed into rice paddies or freshwater affected shrimp farming, but from 2005 onwards the control was much better,\" says Hoanh.Surveys undertaken during 2000 to 2005 showed that the more structured approach to managing water in the area improved fishery production significantly. The annual per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of approximately 800,000 people in the Bac Lieu Province increased from USD 248 to USD 648. In 2011, IWMI and IRRI researchers returned to the area and found that the Regional Water Management Alliance had been replaced by a new River Basin Organization led by the ministries of central government; this was not yet fully operational. As a result, there had been a few unwanted freshwater or saline water inundations, but generally the plan was still being followed. \"We will try to find a way to improve this management situation while working on the new project,\" explains Hoanh. \"However, in recent years, there have not been any major problems, like before. Most farmers are satisfied with their land-use systems and the current water management.\"","tokenCount":"590"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b8ef389d05f9c375624e7f484a48eb06","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d78b37d8-def7-425f-82c4-c8e055ee008f/content","id":"-802571210"},"keywords":["CLEM","conservation agriculture","intensification and diversification","farming systems","simulation modelling"],"sieverID":"1b5255a4-f50f-41a3-aa17-4cb2c046251b","pagecount":"7","content":"Cropping practices such as diversification, intensification and conservation agriculture-based management, which provide productivity and economic benefits to farmers, have been tested across northern India; however, farmers' adoption rate of these technologies remains low. A key reason for poor adoption rates of improved practices is the difficulty in enabling farmers, extension officers and policymakers to understand the likely farm-level trade-offs and benefits of these practices. Simulation models which integrate resources and activities (i.e. crop and livestock production, economics, and labour availability) across the whole farm can be used to examine the trade-offs and benefits of alternative farming systems. This study examined changes in farm-level productivity and profitability over a 20-year simulation window under a range of cropping system interventions for four farm typologies found in smallholder farming systems across the northern Indian cereal-growing belt. The farm typologies studies are: well-resourced, moderately-well resourced, moderately-poorly resourced and poorly-resourced farming systems. The baseline management for each farm typology was a rice-wheat cropping system under conventional crop management practice combined with dairy production. Alternative cropping system scenarios were (1) intensification (inclusion of a third crop, mungbean); ( 2) diversification (replacing wheat with maize); (3) intensification and diversification combined (intercropping spinach with maize); and (4) introducing conservation agriculture (CA) management practices in all cropping systems. The same livestock management was maintained in all scenarios, with mating of cows staggered throughout the year to try to maintain continuous milk supply. The effects of intensification and CA were examined for all four typologies; diversification and intensificationand-diversification combined were examined for the two more marginal typologies only. For all scenarios, farming system economic productivity, gender-disaggregated labour requirements, and the farm cash balance were simulated monthly and then reported annually. Intensifying the cropping system increased farm economic productivity by 16-19%, diversification increased productivity by 21-40%, intensification combined with diversification increased farm economic productivity by 19-39%, and CA practices improved economic productivity in all combinations of cropping system scenario and farm typology. CA practices reduced overall farm labour requirements, with savings greater for men than for women. Diversification did not affect labour demand, while intensification increased labour requirements, especially for men. Annual farm cash balances increased when cropping systems were intensified by introducing a third consecutive (mungbean) or concurrent (intercropped spinach) crop and in cropping systems under CA practices. This study demonstrates the ability of biophysical whole-farm models to quantify the likely medium-term effects of a range of cropping system management options in terms of farm economics and labour requirements. This simulation modelling approach has the potential to enable farmers, extension officers, policymakers and others to examine the benefits, risks and trade-offs of different management options within smallholder farming systems.In northern India, approximately 20 m ha is cropped, and farmers typically grow two crops a year. A common rotation is a wet season rice crop followed by a dry season irrigated cereal crop, which has conventionally been wheat (Gathala et al., 2020). Smallholder farmers depend on integrated crop-livestock farming systems for their livelihoods, with large ruminants kept predominantly for milk production. Although widespread, the ricewheat rotation has been shown to be inefficient (Gathala et al., 2020). A number of improved crop management practices (e.g. crop intensification or conservation agriculture practices such as no tillage, increased stubble retention, crop diversification; Gathala et al., 2020) offer potential to improve cropping system productivity and profitability (Gathala et al., 2020), but adoption remains very low in smallholder farming systems. A key reason for poor rates of adoption of improved practices is the difficulty in enabling farmers, extension officers and policymakers to understand the likely farm-level trade-offs and benefits, e.g., cost and labour savings, of the practices (Ward et al. 2018).One way to demonstrate the potential farm scale value of alternative crop management is by using simulation models to dynamically integrate crop, livestock, labour, and economics under different cropping scenarios. The purpose of this study was to examine whole-farm productivity, profitability, and labour demand of four farm typologies from the northern India grain cropping belt. We used a farming systems model, the Crop Livestock Enterprise Model (CLEM), to compare baseline and alternative crop management scenarios over 20 year simulation runs.Four typologies, covering a wide diversity of smallholder farms across the north Indian cereal-growing belt, were developed based on those identified by Lopez-Ridaura et al. (2018). These typologies illustrate some of the heterogeneity observed in north Indian farming systems in terms of cropping system practices, livestock ownership, and socio-economic conditions (Table 1). Each farm typology was described in terms of its farm resources (e.g. land area, savings, household labour, ruminants (age, sex, milking status), the animal food store; the crop, fodder and livestock management required to manage these resources; and the farm cash flow. In no typology was labour a constraining resource. For each farm typology women spent more person-days on tasks than men, as they had primary responsibility for livestock husbandry and contributed to crop cultivation. Men were primarily responsible for crop cultivation. We examined the effects of imposing alternative cropping system practices on each typology, in terms of farm productivity, labour requirements, and profitability. These alternative crop management practices included intensifying the baseline cropping system; introducing CA crop management; and, for some typologies only, diversifying the cropping system. We used the Crop Livestock Enterprise Model (CLEM), a biophysical model which facilitates examination of the crop, livestock, labour and economic components of farm enterprises. In each typology the baseline (B) cropping system was a rice-wheat cropping system with dairy ruminants (Table 2). Other cropping systems explored intensifying the baseline to a rice-wheat-mungbean system (I), diversifying to a rice-maize (D) system, combining intensification and diversification (D+I) in a rice-maize+spinach system where maize was intercropped with spinach. These cropping systems were simulated under the conventional crop management practices widespread across north India; additional simulations explored the effects of conservation agriculture (CA) practices on the B, I and D cropping systems. The B, I, B+CA, and I+CA simulations under conventional and CA management were applied across all typologies, while the D, D+I and D+CA simulations were applied to the MPR and PR typologies only. Livestock management was consistent across all simulations and had the primary aim of maintaining year-round milk Beletse, Laing et al., Farm-level effects of changing crop management using the Crop Livestock Enterprise Model (CLEM) in India production where possible, using on-farm resources as the primary source of animal feed. When these were depleted additional feed was purchased as needed.  (2019) and Sterman (2000). Simulations were run for 20 continuous years, covering a time period from 1997 to 2016.For all scenarios the farming system economic productivity, labour necessary to conduct all management tasks and the farm cash balance were simulated monthly. Farming system economic productivity was the value of farm output minus the value of farm system inputs. Farm system output was the sum of the economic value of the grain and milk yields. While in reality only the farm surplus after feeding the household would be sold, the economic value of the entire grain and milk yields was used here to facilitate analysis. Farm system inputs were the cost of producing both crop and milk yields and the economic value of the labour required on the farm to tend crops and livestock and to produce grain and milk. The simulations do not include post-farm gate labour, e.g. to take produce to market. Availability of on-farm labour was disaggregated by gender but there was no difference in the cost of men's and women's labour. The farm cash balance was the cash remaining once annual expenses were subtracted from annual income. The farm cash balance did not account for machinery depreciation or maintenance costs, non-agricultural household expenditure such as transport, education, or health, or for debt payments.To simplify comparison among different alternative management scenarios, economic productivity, labour requirements and farm cash balance of each scenario were calculated relative to the baseline simulation of each typology. Analysis and graphical analysis were performed with R version 3.3.0 (R Core Team, 2021).The economic productivity, defined here as the ratio of the value of farm outputs to the value of production inputs, of the six alternative scenarios relative to the baseline are presented in Figure 1. Inputs and outputs were considered seasonally for crops and annually for livestock; no capital assets were included in financial calculations, thus enabling a comparison of the effects of management practices without confounding variables.Beletse, Laing et al., Farm-level effects of changing crop management using the Crop Livestock Enterprise Model (CLEM) in India Farm profitability followed a similar trend to economic productivity (data not shown) and overall both economic farm productivity and profitability were higher under improved crop management.Intensifying the cropping system increased farm productivity above the baseline by 17% in the WR typology, by 19% in both the MWR and MPR typologies, and by 16% in the PR typology. In these triple-cropped systems, the productivity again increased under CA management (I+CA) by 71% in the WR typology, by 45% in the MWR typology, by 36% in the MPR typology, and by 30% in the PR typology, relative to the intensified cropping system without CA. The higher economic productivity in the WR and MRW typologies was a result of greater resource (fertiliser, irrigation, weed control) availability in these farming systems.Diversifying the cropping system from the baseline to the rice-maize system increased farm economic productivity by 21% in the MPR and by 40% in the PR typologies. Diversification was more productive than intensification, as maize is a more productive crop than wheat, and the additional (grain or economic) productivity from maize alone was often greater than the (grain or economic) productivity from wheat and mungbean combined.Combining intensification and diversification in the D+I (rice-maize+spinach) cropping system to did not increase average economic productivity in the MPR and PR typologies relative to the diversified rice-maize system. Compared to the conventional baseline farming system, however, the farm-level productivity of the D+I cropping system was 19.4% higher in the MPR and 39% higher in the PR typologies. Combining a highly productive cereal crop with a vegetable crop such as spinach provides additional sources of human nutrition for the farm household as well as extra cash income, in particular for female farmers who conventionally cultivate vegetable crops.Introducing CA management to the rice-maize cropping system increased farm economic productivity by 158% in the MPR and by 76% in the PR typologies. CA practices increase the plant-available soil water relative to conventional management practices and improve yields, particularly in irrigated dry-season crops such as wheat, maize and mungbean (Gathala et al., 2020). In all farming systems the introduction of CA management increased cropping system grain productivity and hence farming system economic productivity. The change in men's and women's labour required for each farm typology under different crop management practices, relative to the rice-wheat baseline is shown in Figure 2.Beletse, Laing et al., Farm-level effects of changing crop management using the Crop Livestock Enterprise Model (CLEM) in India Intensifying the cropping system increased men's and women's labour requirements in all farm typologies. This increase in labour was greater for men (ranging from +8.3% in the MWR typology to +31.2% in the PR typology) as most of the extra crop management tasks arising from an additional crop (e.g. land preparation, fertiliser, irrigation) were undertaken by men. The third crop increased women's required labour by between +2.6% (WR) and +7.9% (PR) because women made smaller contributions to crop production than men.Diversifying the baseline rice-wheat system into rice-maize had variable effects on men's and women's labour. The diversified system required +27.4% more male labour and +7.4% more female labour in the MPR typology, while in the PR typology both male and female labour requirements were unchanged. This was a result of the different amounts of land cultivated under wheat and maize in each farm typology.Further intensifying the rice-maize system into rice-maize+spinach did not change the labour requirements for men but increased women's labour by +55.2% in the MPR typology and by +10.5% in the PR typology. The cultivation of vegetables, e.g., spinach, is primarily undertaken by women.The introduction of CA practices (in any cropping system) had the greatest savings in labour, for both men and women. Under CA land preparation is eliminated as there is no ploughing or tilling prior to crop establishment, and mechanised crop establishment significantly reduces the labour required at sowing or transplanting. As well, weeds are usually chemically managed. Reductions in farming system labour requirements for cropping systems under CA were higher for men (e.g. for the WR typology labour savings of 35% in the baseline ricewheat system under CA compared to the traditionally-managed rice-wheat baseline; or of 32% in the intensified rice-wheat-mungbean under CA system, relative intensified system under traditional management) than for women (e.g. in the WR typology savings of 15% in both the baseline under CA and the intensified rice-wheatmungbean system under CA, relative to the traditionally-managed tice-wheat baseline and the traditionally managed intensified systems, respectively). This was because women's labour included livestock husbandry which was negatively affected by CA management as more time was required obtaining animal feed once crop residues were retained in the field. The annual average farm cash balance was highest in the WR typology and lowest in the PR typology, regardless of the cropping system simulated (Figure 3). Comparing results under the baseline (which had the lowest cash balances across all scenarios and typologies), for the WR typology, the annual average farm cash balance was 400,000 INR ha -1 y -1 (7,330 AUD ha -1 y -1 ), with a coefficient of variation (CV) between 3-4%, and for the PR typology the annual average farm cash balance was 35,000 INR ha -1 y -1 (640 AUD ha -1 y -1 ), with a CV between 17-24%.Intensification, diversification, and the combination of intensification and diversification together all increased annual average farm cash balances relative to farm cash balances achieved in the baseline cropping system (Figure 4).Intensifying from the baseline to the rice-wheat-mungbean system improved farm cash balances by 12% in the WR typology, by 7% in the MWR typology, by 8% in the MPR typology, and by 18% in the PR typology.Beletse, Laing et al., Farm-level effects of changing crop management using the Crop Livestock Enterprise Model (CLEM) in India Despite the additional crop inputs and labour required to produce a third crop, this cropping system contributed to a more profitable farming system for all farm types. As well, intensifying the baseline cropping system reduced the cash balance variability by 3% (CV=3%) in the WR typology, by 5% in the MPR typology and by 20% in the PR typology.Diversifying from the baseline to the rice-maize system increased farm cash balances by 11% in the MPR typology and by 34% in the PR typology, reflecting the greater yields achieved from maize rather than wheat, and the higher cash price of maize. Diversifying increased the cash balance variability by 24% in the PR typology, whereas in the MPR typology, where farmers have relatively larger land sizes, variability was 5%.Intensifying and diversifying from the baseline to the rice-maize+spinach system increased the farm cash balances by 22% in the MPR typology and by 66% in the PR typology. Compared to the intensified rice-wheatmungbean cropping system, growing the maize and spinach crops concurrently through intercropping enabled farmers to generate additional revenue from a third crop with fewer input costs (labour, fertiliser, irrigation) than were required incurred when the third crop was grown consecutively. Farm cash balance variability was 19% for the PR typology, showing that intensification and diversification are relatively high risk for this typology where land size and resources are limited.Conservation agriculture practices also contributed to increased farm cash balances. Relative to the baseline, the rice-wheat system under CA achieved a 4% higher cash balance in the WR typology, a 3% higher balance in the MWR and MPR typologies, and a 12% higher balance in the PR typology. Combining CA with intensification increased cash balances above the baseline by 12% in the WR typology, by 7% in the MWR typology, by 8% in the MPR typology and by 18% in the PR typology. These increases in farm cash balances reflect the lower labour requirements and higher cropping system productivity achieved under CA practices. CA increased farm cash balance variability by 17% in the PR typology, and by 3-5% in the MPR, MWR and WR typologies, indicating that the potential for high economic benefits of CA in the PR typology comes with risks in terms of relatively high farm cash balance variability.While the average annual farm cash balances were lowest for the PR typology, the effect of the improved crop management options was greatest, with increases ranging from 10% (in the intensified cropping system) to 66% (in the intensified and diversified system) above the baseline. Smaller increases were observed for the MPR typology (ranging between 3% for the rice-wheat system under CA to 22% for the diversified and intensified system) and again for the MWR and WR typologies, which did not differ greatly in the size of the increase in farm system cash balance from the baseline (ranging between 3-4% in the baseline under CA to 7-12% in the intensified rice-wheat-mungbean system under CA). The potential farm-level benefits of improved crop management practices are much greater for less well-resourced farms for whom the yield gap is greater. We used simulation modelling to demonstrate the value of integrating different crop management practices on farm-level economic productivity, cash balance and labour requirements for four farm typologies across northern India. In particular, we have demonstrated the potential for cropping system intensification, diversification or a combination of the two to increase productivity and profitability, at the same time noting that cropping system intensification in particular increases household labour requirements. These increases can be offset by the introduction of conservation agriculture practices, however doing so reduces men's but not women's labour requirements. Relative to the baseline system all the alternative cropping system management scenarios increased farm cash balances, by between 3 and 66%. The CLEM model enabled us to integrate crop, livestock, labour and economics, and assess the economic benefits of cropping system interventions for different farm typologies. These long-term (20 year) analyses have the potential to inform researchers, extension agents, farmers and other stakeholder about the benefits and potential risks of improved crop management practices. Additional research activities could investigate a broader suite of farming typologies across the north-Indian cereal growing belt, and also examine additional potential changes to crop management practices, for example by examining practical ways for policymakers to support farmers to reduce their reliance on heavily-irrigated production systems while still producing staple cereal and high-value crops for consumption within India.","tokenCount":"3095"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bcacd057f0a22b5434dcdf8bf364c2e1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d33ba8bf-9ff8-4e33-9f83-cbd14e0ff06d/retrieve","id":"1751829681"},"keywords":["Sostenibílidad","Suelo sostenible","Capa arable","Recurso natural","Indicadores","Niveles criticos Arable layer","criticallevel","indicators","natural reSOUfces","sustainability. sustainable soil"],"sieverID":"51a650f1-cf00-4759-81aa-ff74ab97e14f","pagecount":"20","content":"El gran desafio actual de la humanidad es el de asegurar su propia supervivencia. mediante un uso racional y productivo de los Recursos Naturales. Es daro que donde quiera que el hombre ha intervenido los recursos naturales, ha causado su deterioro. Esto es especialmente cierto. en el caso de la ÍDtervención de suelos en la faja tropical. Este hecho es de especial importancia para los investigadores en ciencias agrfoolas, en quienes recae la misión de dotar permanentemente a la humanidad de alimentos de buena calidad r en la cantidad adecuada para que todos los seres humanos puedan alcanzar sus requerimientos nutritivos diarios. Para los investigadores en la ciencia del suelo. este desafio se traduce en la necesidad que tienen. de desarrollar tecnologias que además de ser altamente productiv~ conduzcan a mejorar tos suelos y a su sosteni1:iiJidad, ya que solo es posible desarrollar agricultum sostenible sobre suelos sostenibles_ El desarrollo de suelos sostenibles aunque parezca una utopla, se debe llevar a una realidad. Se puede desarrollar un suelo sostenible mediante la utilización de prácticas que conduzcan a SU m'?,)oramiento fisioo, quimico y biológico y a la conservación de estas nuevas caracteristicas, El con~ de la sostenibilidad agncola deja as~ de ser inmaterial para oonvertírse en atgo material, cuando se tiene el conocinuento de tecnologias que aplicadas en .1 sitio y en el momento oportuno pueden evitar la degradación de los suelos. Esto erea la necesidad de que los investigederes en el área edafológíca desarrollen parámetros y niveles critico. que puedan ser usados como indicadores de mejoramiento o de degradación. en función del tiempo de uso del suelo. El uso de estos conceptos aplicados al m'lÍorarnienro experimental de algunos suelos de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia es tratado en el presente articulo. Son bien conocidas: las limitaciones que para la producción agropecuaria tienen 105 suelos de los Llanos. Sin embargo, el conocimiento del comportamiento de sus características fundamentales y de las más cambiantt.\"$ con las acciones de uso 'i de manejo y de sus niveles criticos puede conducir a tomar decisiones tajes como continuar con el mismo uso y manejo o cambtarlos de acuerdo a su nuevo comportamiento. Se presentan datos sobre cómo evolucionan algunas camcteristicas flsícas de los suelos en función de tiempo de uso y de cómo es posible controlarlas medíante la aplicación de prácticas que cooduzcan a la f~íón de una capa arilble productiva y sostenible, si se quiere a<;egurar el bienestar alimentario y eoonómic.o de generaciones futuras.Uno de los grandes problemas que aquejan a la humanidad es la destrucción acelerada de los recursos naturales. Dentro de los recursos naturales el suelo es quizás el que ha sufrido el mayor daño por intervención humana, aunque él es el que suministra los requerimientos diarios de nutrición para la misma humanidad.La degradación o desgaste de los suelos es la causa fundamental por la cual no es posible llegar a programar una agricultura sostenible. La sostenibilidad del suelo debe preceder a cualquier forma de desarrollo económico sostenible. El hombre puede vivir sin industria pero no subsistir sin suelo. Los sistemas actuales de manejo de los suelos para agricultura, han demostrado ser degradativos, por ello, es necesario desarrollar sistemas de manejo de suelos que dentro de un sistema economícamente productivo contribuyan a desarrollar suelos sostenibles.La sostenibilidad de la agricultura y todas las actividades sociales y económicas que en un país o región estén relacionadas con el agro, dependen fundamentalmente del manejo adecuado, racional y productivo que se dé a las tierras agrícolas, ganaderas y forestales sobre las cuales se realizan estas actividades (Amé7\",!uita y Escobar, 1996).En países como el nuestro, donde el aumento de la poblacion ha sido progresivo, la demanda por la producción de alimentos cada vez es mayor, esto ha creado la necesidad de extender más la frontera agrícola, muchas veceS sin tomar las más mínimas precauciones de conservación del recurso suelo. Esto ha ocasionado que este baya ido perdiendo en forma acelerada parte de sus propiedades flsicas, químicas y biológicas, lo cual a través del tiempo se ha reflejado en la disminución de su capacidad productiva.El proceso degradativo es continuo y muchas veces pasa desapercibido al agricultor, pero en determinado momento manifieste sus efectos negativos en los cultivos, causando preocupación en técnicos y productores. Por ello, en estudios tendientes a evitar la degradación, es necesario determinar que propiedades de suelos son los más sensibles a cambios negativos y cuales son fáciles de medir para tomar las medidas de manejo de suelos y de cultivos que eviten el deterioro del recurso.Siendo la degradación el proceso de deterioro de la capacidad productiva del suelo, en ella están involucradas muchas de sus características y propiedades flsicas, químicas y biológicas que son dificiles de separar una de otra, porque actúan simultáneamente obedeciendo a las interrelaciones e interdependencias que existe entre ellas.La degradación de suelos en Colombia se ve reflejada en los diferentes grados de erosión que afectan nuestros suelos y que actualmente alcanzan niveles exageradamente altos en algunas zonas (BsT, BMsT, BhT.) con marcadas tendencias a seguir en aumento. Es necesario entonces que urgentemente se tomen medidas correctivas para controlar este fenómeno, en caso contrario, pasaremos de ser un país productor a un pais importador con todas las repercusiones económicas y sociales negativas que ello implica. La tabla 1 presenta en forma resumida las propiedades físicas, químicas y biológicas del suelo más estrechamente relacionadas con los cambios del suelo por efecto del uso, así como los procesos constructivos y/o degradativos que ellas afectan.Tabla 1. Propiedades edafolágicas más cambiantes con la intensidad y tiempo de uso Propiedades ... A nivel mundial la degradación de los recursos suelo yagua y la polución ambiental, se perciben como los mayores problemas para el uso de las tierras en el trópico (Lal, 1994). Vastas áreas de tierra han sido degradadas, algunas en forma irreversible, por un amplio rango de procesos degradativos: erosión acelerada, desertificación, compactación, endurecimiento de los suelos, acidificación, disminución en el contenido de materia orgánica y en la biodiversidad y caída de la fertilidad del suelo. Se estima que en el trópico se han degradado 915 millones de hectáreas por erosión hídrica, 474 millones de hectáreas por erosión eólica, 50 millones por degradación flsica y 213 millones por degradación química (Amézquita y Escobar, 1996), La principal causa asociada con la degradación de tierras en Latinoamérica es la deforestación. Para 1985, la velocídad de deforestación anual del trópico húmedo en América Latina era de 2.5-2,8 míJlones de hectáreas por año (Melillo, et al 1985), en la Amazonia de 1.2 millones de hectáreas por año, y estaba asociada con agricultura de subsistencia y establecimiento de pastos y ganadería (Hecht, 1982). Ultimamente ha disminuido gracias a la falta de los incentivos que en décadas pasadas tenían quienes deforestaban (Fujisaka, et al, 1996).El principal desafío que actualmente demanda la atención de los especialistas en suelos a nivel mundial y tropical y de otros especialistas en ciencias biológicas, es el de cómo asegurar la sostenibilidad agropecuaria en áreas que son intervenidas por el hombre, debido a la incapacidad de éste para mantener el equilibrio entre las resistencias del suelo y las fuerzas degradativas actuantes una vez se tala el bosque. Bajo condiciones naturales tanto la vegetación como las características del suelo se manteuían en equilibrio dinámico con las condiciones climáticas, intervenido el bosque, se pierde ese equilibrio y los suelos quedan sujetos a degradación.La degradación es la reducción o pérdida de una o más características productivas de suelo causadas por intervención humana (Amézquita, 1994). Riquier (1982), la define como el proceso reducidor de la capacidad de producción actual o potencial del suelo. Para la FAO (1983) es el proceso complejo que ocasiona la calda de la capacidad productiva del suelo. Lal y Stewart (1990) distinguen tres tipos de degradación del suelo: fisica, química y biológica y afirman que ella es inducida por factores y procesos tales como: uso inapropiado de la tierra, deforestación y simplificación de ecosistemas.Con el fin de ilustrar los conceptos de productividad, sostenibilidad, mejoramiento e insostenibílidad agropecuaria (Amézquita y Escobar, 1996), e1aboraon la Fig 1, la cual se explica a continuación: la productividad natural del suelo es usualmente baja, pero es susceptible de mejorarse por labranza, aplicación de enmiendas y fertilizantes hasta alcanzar un tope máximo de producción, el cual generalmente no puede mantenerse (sostenerse) através del tiempo (abeisas) por producirse cambios negativos en las propiedades del suelo (degradación) que conducen a insostenibílidad.Los suelos difieren enormemente en su susceptibilidad a mejoramiento o degradación. En algunos suelos como en el caso del (\\), es posible subir rápidamente los niveles de productividad, pero tambien aceleradamente disminuye su capacidad productiva; en otros, como en el (2) la sostenibilidad dura por más tiempo, pero posteriormente se llega a insostenibilidad; en otros, como en el suelo (3) se alcanza el mejoramiento através del tiempo, permaneciando esa sostenibilidad por largo tiempo si se maneja adecuadamente el suelo. La clave de \"manejo adecuado\" en los tres casos hipoteticos, radica en la comprensión y detección de las propiedades más sensibles a la acciones de uso y en el desarrollo de prácticas para controlarlas. La condición (1) representa el comportamiento de los suelos de las regiones Naturales Amazonia y Orinoquia, la condición (2) el de los valles Interandinos y la (3) el de las sabanas altas de la región Andina.Para cada nivel de productividad y de insostenibilidad hay un nivel de manejo de suelos (parte derecha de la gráfica). Entre mayor sea la capacidad productiva del suelo por mejoramiento, el nivel de manejo es menor, pero a medida que se tiende hacia insostenibilidad el costo y los requerimientos de manejo son mayores y muchísimo mayores si es necesario rehabilitarlos o recuperaralos.La tabla 2, presenta los principales procesos degradativos de las tierras en el Trópico, junto con las propiedades que más afectan los procesos, las cuales sugiere Lal (1994) que se usen como indicadores. Sin embargo, el principal factor de degradación de los suelos en las regiones tropicales húmedas, es la deforestación, la cual causa la erosión de la biodiversidad vegetal y animal y la erosión de los suelos. El IGAC (1993), hace una buena revisión de los procesos degradativos que ocurren en parte de la Amazonia Colombiana.Tabla 2. Procesos degradativos de suelos y características asociadas. Este concepto aunque es vagamente definido, pero aceptado como atributo del suelo, se refiere a la capacidad que tiene el suelo de resistir los estreses o de recuperar su condición inicial una vez ha sido intervenido por el hombre (Szabolcs, 1994;Lal, 1993). En ingeniería el término \"resilience\"es el limite de elasticidad de un cuerpo. El limite al que puede llegar siu destruirse. La elasticidad del suelo involucra conceptos tan importantes como la capacidad \"buffer\"del suelo para resistir y soportar impactos fisicos, químicos y biológicos. El concepto tambien incluye la capacidad del suelo de renovabilídad y está relacionado Con sostenibilidad al uso. Szabolcs (1994)  Los principales problemas de orden tisico asociados con labranza que restringen o causan disminución en los rendimientos de los cultivos en los suelos tropicales son los siguientes:Decaimiento de la fertilidad Impedimento mecánico a la penetración de raices Estrés de agua (déficit) Estrés de aireación (exceso de agua) Escorrentía y erosión 4.1. Decaimiento de la fertilidad del suelo.El fraccionamiento de terrones y de agregados del suelo a microagregados por efecto acumulativo de la labranza, expone la materia orgánica del suelo a una descomposición más acelerada, disminuyendo para el futuro la posibilidad de que ella aporte nutrientes a los proxirnos cultivos. La caida de la fertilidad del suelo está íntimamente asociada con la caida en los contenidos de materia orgánica (Tisdall y Oades, 1982;Chaney y Swift, 1984;Feller et al 1996). A nivel tropical el TSBF y SWNN desarrollan un programa co!Úunto denominado: Combating Nument Depletion.El impedimento mecánico a la penetración de raíces se refiere a la incapacidad que presenta una raíz cuando su presión de turgor no es capaz de vencer la resistencia que opone el suelo a su deformación (Taylor, 1980). La máxima presión axial (longitudinal) ejercida por un buen número de cultivos varia para varios investigadores (Stolzy y Barley, 1968; Eavis el al., 1969; Taylor y Ratliff, 1969), entre 9-15 bares (0.9-1.5 MPa). Russell y Goss (1974) demostraron que la aplicación de una presión de 02 bares a un sistema de camas de vidrio, redujo la tasa de elongación de las raíces de cebada en un 50\"/0 y si se aplicaban 0.5 bares en un 80%. El tamaño de los poros afecta el desarrollo de las raíces. Si el diámetro del poro es mayor al de la cofia, la raíz penetra, si es menor y el suelo no es deformable y la raíz no puede penetrar (Taylor y Gadner, 1960;Aubertin y Kardos, 1965).El impedimento mecánico debido a la compactación y a la presencia de capas endurecidas (adensadas), es la principal causa de disminución de los rendimientos y de insostenibilidad en suelos tropicales, debido a los efectos negativos que causan en el crecimiento de las raíces. El impedimento mecánico se corrige mediante la utilización adecuada y oportuna de implementos de labranza que produzcan aflojamieuto del suelo y disminución de la densidad aparente fundamentalmente subsoIadores y cinceles (Castro y Amézquita, 1991;Arking Y Taylor, 1981).Varios implementos y metodologías se han ideado para evaluar el estado de impedancia mecánica del suelo, entre ellos están: los penetrómetros, los aparatos para medir la resistencia tangencial al corte, aparatos para toma de muestras de densidad aparente y aparatos para la reali7~ción de pruebas de aplicación de presión bajo presiones confinadas y no confinadas en laboratorio. Cualquier metodología que se use para diagnóstico o predicción debe correlacionarse con el crecimiento actual de las raíces y con los rendimientos de los cultivos que se van a producir para poder disponer de niveles críticos (Amézquita, 1998).La figura 2, muestra los cambios sucedidos en resistencia a la ruptura como respuesta a diferentes tipos de uso del suelo. Claramente ellos muestran que los tratamientos que han recibido más labranza (arroz y maíz) presentan menores valores que los de sabana o que aquellos tratamientos sembrados con pastos y utilizados para pastoreo. El grado de limitación para desarrollo de raices fue interpretado como bajo para los cultivos de arroz y maiz y medio a alto para pastos. La penetrabilidad (fig. 3.) presentó un comportamiento similar. Los menores valores correspondieron a cultivos y los mayores a sabana y pastos.El estrés de agua de las plantas resulta de la interacción entre el estado de humedad de agua en el suelo, la demanda evaporativa y los factores fisiológicos. Dentro del concepto del sistema suelo-plantaatmósrera-continuum el suelo debe considerarse como un reservorio que suministra agua al sistema (Reichardt, 1985). Por lo tanto, cualquier déficit que ocurra en el reservaría afecta negativamente el comportamiento del sistema. El agua útil o agua aprovechable, aquella que teóricamente se calcula como la diferencia entre capacidad de campo y punto de marchitez temporal, se mueve dentro del sistema suelo-planta-atmósfera obedeciendo a gradientes de potencial hidrico. Desde sitios donde el potencial es alto (más húmedo) a sitios donde el potencial es más bajo (más seco). Desde el suelo hacia la atmósfera a través del proceso de transpiración. Desde el suelo donde la humedad relativa es cercana al 100\"/0, hacia la atmósfera donde la humedad relativa al mediodía puede variar entre 50% y 30%, valores que producen potenciales hídricos en el aire entre 8-y 150 MPa y que se convierten en la bomba que succiona el agua del suelo a través de las plantas (Amézquita, 1981). Para las condiciones de sabana en la fig. 4, se muestran los valores de capacidad de campo, punto de marchitez yagua aprovechable determinados bajo condiciones de campo en Matazul.Para que un suelo cumpla con su función de reservorio de agua es necesario que se cumplan tres condiciones: (a) que buena parte del agua lluvia penetre al suelo, (b) que el suelo tenga buena capacidad de almacenamiento de agua en la zona de crecimiento de raíces y ( e) que el suelo posea suficiente capacidad de conducción de agua cuando la demanda evaporativa sea alta. Estas condiciones son afectadas directamente por la labranza (Amézquita, 1981;Amézquita el al, 1997;Orozco, 1991).La aceptación (aceptancia) de aguas lluvias depende de la presencia de agregados superficiales estables (que no se rompan cuando reciban el impacto de las gotas de agua lluvia) y de la rugosidad superficial del terreno. Ambas caracteristicas propician el ingreso del agua al suelo mediante el proceso de la infiltración y son afectados negativamente, por la destrucción de la estructura superficial del terreno por exceso de labranza, la cual conduce a sellamiento y encostramiento superficial, fenómenos que impiden o disminuyen drásticamente el ingreso del agua al suelo, haciendo que la escorrentía supere ampliamente a la infiltración, originando suelos secos. Los datos de la tabla 3, muestran la cantidad de agua que pasa por diferentes profundidades de suelo bajo condiciones de arroz y pastos. Claramente se observa que bajo pastos pasa mayor cantidad de agua (480 mL) que bajo cultivo. Estos resultados demuestran la importancia que tienen los pastos en la construcción y estabilización de la estructura de los suelos del Llano y llevan a la conclusión de que solo a través de sistemas agropastoriles es posible manejar bien estos suelos. \"'~\"\"'--': ~\"\" ' F--'-Á \\ .i \"\"\"-\"'-...., /\"---1.----./ / ~ i'  -----------------  El almacenamiento del agua en el suelo, también depende de la labranza que se dé al suelo en profundidad. Entre más profunda sea la preparación del suelo, mayor es su capacidad de almacenamiento de agua. Un suelo preparado a 10 cm de profundidad con rastra, dispondrá solo de la porosidad disponible en esos 10 cm para almacenar agua. Un suelo preparado a 25 cm tendrá igualmente la porosidad disponible a 25 cm de profundidad para almacenamiento de agua. Por lo tanto, la capacidad de almacenamiento de agua por el suelo puede ser manejada con la labranza (Rcichardt, 1985;Amézquita, 1998).El déficit de agua en un suelo, se manifiesta cuando ésta se convierte en factor limitante para la evapotranspiración. Cuando la demanda atmosférica está exigiendo que la evapotranspiración sea alta. Dos fenómenos se asocian con el déficit de agua en el suelo: (a) cuando su capacidad de almacenamiento se ha visto disminuida por agotamiento y (b) cuando la velocidad de movimiento del agua en el suelo, es mucho más baja que la velocidad de movimiento que exige el sistema evapotranspirativo. Bajo ambas condiciones el agua se convierte en factor Iimitante, por ello, es necesario que las acciones de labranza corrijan estas situaciones donde quiera que ellas ocurran al aumentar la capacidad de almacenamiento de agua y la conductividad hidraúlica no saturada del suelo (Amézquita, 1994). La influencia del tiempo de uso en la disminución de macro y mesoporos (Preciado, 1997) en suelos de Casanare, se muestra en la fig. 5 Y 6. Siendo que el agua se mueve por macroporos (agua gravitacional) y por mesoporos (agua capilar) cualquier disminución en el contenido de ellos afecta el almacenamiento de agua en el suelo y la condición hídrica de las planta.El déficit de aire en el Suelo se manifiesta donde quiera que en un lote se produzca inundación. También, cuando los valores de aireación a capacidad de campo sean inferiores a 10% en la profundidad de desarrollo de las raíces. Bajo condiciones de baja aireación o de inundación, las raíces de los cultivos de secano no pueden absorber ni agua ni nutrientes, por lo tanto hay una disminución drástica de los rendimientos.Condiciones de baja aireación, pueden crearse por uso excesivo de la maquinaria agrícola. el cual puede conducir a una disminución gradual de macroporos, cuya presencia es indispensable para el movimiento del aire en el suelo. La figura 7, muestra las tendencias de cfisminución de la permeabilidad del suelo al aire a medida que se incrementa el tiempo de uso en arroz en suelos de Casanare. (Preciado, 1997).El uso apropiado de la maquinaria agrícola en suelos con problemas de drenaje restringido, puede conducir al mejoramiento temporal o permanente de esta condición, si se aplican las técnicas razonables que conduzcan a mejorar la evacuación de aguas sobrantes y a promocionar la aireación. Flg. 5. Comportamiento del volumen de maeroparo. (%). en función del U.mpo d. uso• diferente. profundidades antea de la labranza.. . . . . =l\"\".  Grandes problemas de escorrentía y de erosión se producen en el trópico por el uso inadecuado de la maquinaria agrícola en las labores de preparación de suelos (Amézquita y Londoño, 1997), No es realmente el impacto de la gota lo que causa la erosión, es el aflojamiento del suelo por labranza lo que hace susceptible a la acción del impacto, De esta manera el hombre propicia la erosión. La mayor cantidad de erosión que actualmente se produce es propiciada por el aflojamiento del suelo al inicio de la temporada lluviosa. Suelos recién preparados, por presentar terrones y agregados prácticamente sueltos, son muy susceptibles a dejarse desmoronar por el impacto de las gotas y a dejarse acarrear por las aguas de escorrentia, Suelos que no son tocados por implementos de labranza presentan alta resistencia a la erosión, aunque propician la escorrentia. Es necesario por 10 tanto buscar una condición de equilibrio entra infiltración y escorrentia en suelos susceptibles a erosión, la cual se puede lograr con el uso apropiado de implementos de labranza.El origen de los llamados sistemas conservacionistas, en los cuales el uso de residuos superficiales y la poca manipulación del suelo son condiciones necesarias, es una respuesta del hombre a la lucha contra la erosión y a la pérdida de agua en forma de escorrentía 5. CONDICIONES FISICAS DE LOS SUELOS DE LA ALTILLANURA EN RELACION CON LABRANZA.El principal problema a enfrentar en los suelos de la Altillanura de los Llanos (fypic haplustox isohypertherrnic, kaolinitic) para su utilización en agricultura y en la producción de pastos, es su susceptibilidad a degradación, Se entiende como degradación a la pérdida de algunas cualidades fisicas, químicas y biológicas del suelo por inadecuada intervención humana, los cuales se convierten en factores negativos de producción y en el futuro afectarán la sostenibilidad agrícola.Las principales propiedades fisicas de los suelos que son afectadas por sistemas inapropiadas de labranza (intervención humana) son aquellas que tienen que ver con el comportamiento volumétrico del suelo, tales como porosidad total y distribución de tamaño de poros, propiedades íntimamente ligadas a la estructora del suelo, Por lo tanto, cualquier cambio en la distribución de tamaño de agregados, en la estabilidad estructoral como consecuencia de la labranza, afecta la infiltración, la capacidad de almacenaje de agua por el suelo, la penetración y crecimiento de \\as raíces, por afectar la distribución de tamaño de los poros, El sellamiento superficial producto del desmoronamiento de los agregados y del desprendimiento y salpicadura de partículas (Le Bissonnais, 1996), es otro gran problema en los Llanos que está asociado con labranza, Los principales problemas de orden fisico que el autor ha observado y evaluado en el campo en suelos de los Llanos, son los siguientes (Amézquita, 1998):Sellamiento superficial Encostramiento superficial Alta densidad aparente Adensamiento y endurecimiento del suelo en la época seca Compactación Baja velocidad de infiltración Baja estabilidad estructural Pobre distribución de tamaño de poroso Pobre continuidad en el espacio poroso Poco espesor del horizonte\" A\" Alta susceptibilidad a erosión (suelos recién preparados) Alta producción de escorrentía 14Ante esta situación y para el desarrollo de sistemas de labranza que tiendan a la sostenibilidad se requiere: (a) entender los procesos de degradación que actua1rnente se presentan en función de tiempo de uso, tipo de suelo y sistemas de manejo; (b) determinar las propiedades (fisicas, químicas y biológicas) del suelo que son más afectadas por las prácticas de manejo y determinar sus valores críticos para diferenres cultivos; (e) desarrollar metodologías de campo y laboratorio que permitan evaluar en una forma realista las condiciones que limitan el buen desarrollo de los cultivos; y (d) desarrollar prácticas de manejo de suelos que conduzcan a su sostenibilidad para anular los procesos degradativos.El uso perrnanenre e intensivo de implementos agrícolas en los suelos causa deterioros en su estructura (Mulla et al., 1992; Quirk y Murray, 1991) y ésto puede afectar negativamente los rendimientos.A manera de ejemplo cabe citar, que los productores de arroz de secano en Casanare abandonan sus lores después de cinco a ocho años de uso continuo, porque después de este tiempo los rendimientos, a causa de procesos degradativos, disminuyen notablemenre (preciado, 1997). En estos suelos la labranza se hace casi que exclusivamente con rastras de diferentes tamaños.La Figura 8, muestra los datos obtenidos por Preciado, 1997). En ellos se observan los cambios que se han producido en la porosidad total y en la distribución del tamaño de los poros por efecto del tiempo de uso. Cuando el suelo no se había cultivado la porosidad total en los primeros 10 cm era de 60\"10, después de 20 años de uso se había reducido a 38%, una disminución del 22% que manifiesta que el suelo se ha adensado. Entre 10 Y 20 cm los valores pasaron de 47% a 33% y entre 20 y 30 cm de 43% a 32% observándose que hasta la profundidad de muestreo el suelo había reducido fuertemente su volumen. Analizando la distribución de tamaño de poros, se observa que los macroporos pasaron de 20% a aproximadamenre 3% en la primera profundidad, de 10\"10 a 2% en la segunda y de 10% a 1.5% en la tercera (fig. 5). Menores cambios se observaron en meso (fig, 6) Y microporos. El hecho de que el volumen de macroporos haya disminuido es un indicativo de degradación de suelos por efecto del uso y del manejo y puede ser la causa del abandono de los lotes, porque ya el agua no puede penetrar y los suelos pierden su capacidad de aireación y de permitir el desarrollo de las raíces.La disminuciÓII en el volumen de macroporos, por efecto de un uso no apropiado a las condiciones del suelo, disminuye todos los flujos que tienen que ver con agua y aire en el suelo, afectando negativamente la conductividad hidráulica, la infiltración y la permeabilidad del aire. También se afectan otras propiedades como resistencia tangencial alcorte y penetrabilidad, las cuales aumentan sus valores.7. HACIA LA CREACIÓN DE UNA CAPA ARABLE PARA OBTENER SUELOS SOSTENffiLES EN EL LLANO (Amézquita, 1998).La actual condición fisica de los suelos del Llano, especialmente la de Altillanura, muestra que las labores de preparación de suelos deberá enrocarse hacia la creación de una \"capa arable\". Se entiende en el contexto de este artículo como capa arable a aquella capa superficial de suelo planificada y obtenida por el hombre con el fin de obtener un suelo que no presente límitantes flsicas, químicas ni biológicas para el desarrollo normal de las raices de los cultivos y que sea estable a través del tiempo.La profundidad de ésta puede variar entre 0-15 cm para pastos, 0-25 cm para cereales y leguminosas y 0-40 cm para cultivos permanentes.Si en el Llano no se maneja el concepto de desarrollo de una capa arable los suelos se seguirán degradando y se harán cada vez más improductivos. La Figura 9 presenta los conceptos involucrados en el desarrollo o creación de esa capa arable. Mediante la combinación de una labranza que tienda a corregir los limitantes fisicos del suelo, de un buen uso y manejo de enmiendas y de fertilizantes que corrijan la condición química hasta la profundidad deseada y del uso de prácticas de manejo de abonos orgánicos, abcnos verdes y residuos vegetales que propicien la formación de bioestructura es posible formar una capa arable y sobre ella una agricultura sostenible.En un suelo que presenta diferentes Iimitantes, que han sido corregidos, ya se pueden hacer labranzas de tipo conservacíonista, para mantener la condición de alta productividad alcanzada. Si en los suelos de los Llanos no se hacen las correcciones que requieren, cualquier sistema de labranza conservacionista que se use, será un fracaso porque ellos actualmente no poseen las coodiciones requeridas para un buen crecimiento de las raíces de los cultivos que se establezcan. Si se presentan fracasos en la respuesta a la utilización de sistemas de labran7.a conservacionista en suelos que no han sido corregidos, se corre el riesgo de que la práctica, sea rechazada por los productores por ineficiente cuando en el futuro sería la única que conducirla el suelo a sostenibilidad.El concepto de transformación de suelos sin capa arable a suelos con capa arable, se esquematiza en la Figura lO. En ella se muestra cómo a través del tiempo, es posible ir haciendo correcciones al suelo mediante prácticas de mejoramiento flsico, químico y biológico para conseguir un suelo superficial (sin limitaciones). Dentro de los conceptos de mejoramiento del suelo deben considerarse todas aquellas prácticas que conduzcan a aumentar el contenido de materia lignificada (fonnadora de estructura) dentro y sobre la superficie del suelo, aprovechando que ya se han seleccionado materiales genéticos capaces de crecer en las condiciones adversas de acidez que presentan los suelos del Llano. Como sistemas de producción útiles para la obtención de capas arables, cabe mencionar el uso de abcnos verdes, para llevar la fertilidad del suelo; el uso de programas de rotación de cultivos y el uso obligatorio de sistemas agropastoriles para utilizar los beneficios que los pastos brindan a los suelos como formadores o propiciadores de bioestructura Para el caso de los Llanos se definirán a continuación los objetivos que deben perseguirse desde los puntos flsíco, químico y biológico para desarrollar suelos sostenibles.. .   Mejoramiento tísico: se debe mejorar la condición de alta densidad aparente y de alta resistencia a la penetración de los suelos mediante el uso de implementos de labranza vertical (cinceles y subsolado superficial hasta 35 o 40 cm) que permitan el rompimiento del suelo en profundidad. Los cinceles ideales para este propósito son los rígidos que son capaces de romper suelos que ofrecen alta resistencia al fraccionamiento. Quien usa cinceles debe considerar que suelos muy adensados o compactados se deben empezar a trabajar primero superficiahnente y luego sí a mayor profundidad hasta lograr la profundidad requerida. Si ésto no se hace se rompe el tractor o el implemento. Una vez que se ha aflojado el suelo, es necesario \"ftiar\" o \"mantener\" ese aflojamiento mediante la siembra de pastos o de cultivos de buen sistema radical o mediante la adición de tamos fragmentados, que mantengan la condición lograda con la labranza. Labranzas verticales \"fijadas\" por un periodo de tres a cinco años arrojarán Wl suelo diferente, sobre el cual se pueden realizar sistemas de labranza conservacionista.Mejoramiento químico: el mejoramiento químico debe incluir el uso de enmiendas hasta la profundidad a la cual se laboree el suelo y no sólo hasta 10 cm como actualmente se hace, en la cantidad que 10 determine el análisis del suelo y con los correctivos que sean necesarios.Se debe también adicionar al suelo los nutrientes necesarios para obtener buenos rendimientos, ya que ésto garantiza la formación de una buena cantidad de biomasa externa e interna (raíces) que a la vez actuará como correctivo del suelo.para el mejoramiento biológico del suelo se sugiere: (a) elevar el contenido de materia orgánica, mediante la promoción de raíces y la incorporación de residuos; (b) incrementan la estabilidad de los agregados mediante la incorporación de materiales orgánicos lignificados y fragmentados (2-3 cm); (e) propiciar el incremento del reciclaje superficial de nutrientes a través del uso del rnulch; y (d) propiciar el uso de plantas de raíces profundas para mejorar la condición estructural del suelo en profundidad. Rao el al. (1996) ha estudiado la distribución de rafees de pasto en suelos de la Altillanura.Actuahnente se llevan a cabo ensayos de campo encaminados a la formación de \"capas arables\" o de \"perfil cultural\". La Tabla 4 muestra a1gWlOS de los resultados que hasta ahora se han obtenido. En ella se muestran los cambios de porosidad total obtenidos cuando se pretende conseguir una capa arable por medios biológicos (leguminosa, pasto y pasto-leguminosa) y fisicos (cincel 1, cincel 2, cincel 3 -los números representan la cantidad de pases paralelos que se dan).Tabla 4. Las siguientes observaciones merecen destacarse: (a) bajo sabana nativa la porosidad total es baja, no apta para producción agrícola; (b) el uso de agentes biológicos ha mejorado la condición de porosidad total basta 30 cm de profundidad, pero especialmente lo ha hecho la combinación pasto-Ieguminosa, y (e) el mejoramiento fisieo con cincel ha mejorado la porosidad total hasta llevarla a valores muy hnenos para producción agrícola. Ese mejoramiento ha sido función del número de pases y es mejor cuando se hacen tres pases.","tokenCount":"5388"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"936e1565a5d67f8f08fa7e53259d96a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9ff5ce46-c447-497c-bc34-bd131b506b99/retrieve","id":"1625796456"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c64ef182-6147-441e-ac5b-0be647746f3d","pagecount":"59","content":"Planting density and spatia1 arrangement of groundnut, Experiment 4/79 6.Cassava -Cowpea yield experiment 7.Monocu1ture -Assoeiation -Rotation 8.Phosphorus fertilization 9.Cowpea growth and yield depending on soi1 eonditions 10.Cassava growth and yield depending on soi1 eonditions 11. Conclusions1.3.6.8.• .. /3 ••. /7Nevertheless it can be expected that for the combination of cassava with tropical grain legumes other than cornmon beans the same principIes should be valid as for the combination of cassava with cornmon beans.A relatively non-aggressive, erect growing legume with a rapidly growing root system should be found that matures in less than 100 days so that the legumes can reach pod filling stage before cassava starts to close rows and shading gets serious. A rapid top-growth of legumes to cover the ground is desirable in order to give protection against eros ion and water los ses throughrun off. Vigorous root growth is al so very important in order to give protection against water erosion and enhance cassava growth through N fixation and Ca + P unlocking. Besides the search for a suitable high yielding legume with the above mentioned desirable characterístics, investigations were also started to determine optimum agronomíc practices, such as legume planting density, spatial arrangements and fertilization.The field experiments reported her.e were planted at CIAT-Quilichao on an Ultisol (Palehumult, high in manganese, and aluminium and with low water holding capacity).• .• /8 The climatic conditions can be surnmarized as follows:Altitude 99Om, Yearly mean temperature, 23.1 Q C (mean-max 29.5, mean minimum 18.3) yearly rainfall with two not very intense dry seasollS1850 mm., average relative humidity 77,1%~Fig.l). All experiments were irrigated when needed, especially after planting. Cassava and legumes were always planted simultaneously and cassava in all experiments was harvested after ten months.  10). Most species showed little tolerance of the soil conditions, best adaptation being shown by cowpeas (Table 1). The plants were mostly growing well, the germination was high and flowering and pod set were good. Average yield of the 61 cowpea cultivars was 1178 kg/ha (14% moisture). Three cultivars were yielding more than 2000 kg/ha (Table 2), 15 lines produced more than 1500 kg/ha and 19were yielding more than 1000 kg/ha. In conclusion, the yielding ability of 37 lines of this collection was acceptable considering the prevailing soil conditions. Good yields were also obtained froro Velvet beans, one species was yielding 1440 kg/ha and the other 490 kg/ha. Pigeon peas and the two Canavalia species were growing and flower-1ng well without showing reaction to soil conditions but there was no pod-or seed setoThe winged beans' were growing poorly with the typical symptom of Al-toxicity, but they were flowering (24 flowers Iplot or 0.28 per plant) over a period of two months. A small yield of both fresh pods and grain was recorded. The yield of roots was very low.Mungbeans had a mean germination of 47% after 7 days, but the young plants showed very low vigor and many of them died so that after 14 days live plants were only 31%      3). On the other hand, P concentration in the grain showed a positive correlation to yield (Fig. 2), indicating that a cultivar's avoidance of high Al-Ievels and raaching high P-Ievels in plant tissue particularly in the grain, was related to its yielding ability. Similar Tendencies were not observed with ~1n, Ca and Mg concentrations.In this experiment the same grain legume collection l which was tested in monoculture, was planted in as sociation with cassava, cv. CHC 84. Nine plants of cassava were planted in two replications with one row of legumeThe climbers winged bean and velvet bean were not tested in association while soybean and non-climbing limabeans were added.    Insecticides were not applied so that root yield was low in all cases, both due to insect damage and low soil fertility (Fig. 3).As this figure shows the relatively high cowpea yield was associated with a strong reductíon in cassava yield.Mungbeans grew poorly (similar to monoculture) without affecting the cassava yield. The very poorly growing soybeans, limebeans and Lathyrus had a positive influence on cassava yield (x 106.8% of monoculture yield) as well as on the starch yield (107-114 % of monoculture), but since the nurnher of cultivars in these species was low (12 data for soybean, 2 for canavalia, 2 for Lathyrus) these differences could not be secured statistically.2 o...J ¡:: However, cowpea cultivars which showed less vegetative deve10pment due to an early and intense flowering habit left more \"free space\" between the associated crops and were therefore less aggressively competing with cassava.Besides the screening for tolerance against the soil conditions it was also important to examine how observations made with legumes in monoculture would corre late ... /18with those made with legumes and cassava in association.A significant correlation between traits in monoculture and association would allow to screen collections in monoculture only and avoid the more complicated and timekaking screening in association. General yieId correlations were high between the cowpeas in both experiments (Table 4) but would nevertheless not allow to say which high yielding cultivar (in monoculture) would be high yielding and least competitive when planted in association.There was a relatively high correlation (see Table 4)between the cowpea yield in monoculture and in association.This would indicate that high yielding cowpeas planted in monoculture would also be high yielders in association, and viceversa. There was also a lower, but constant correlation between number of flowers per hectare in monoculture and yield in association, but not between the number of flowers per plant and the yield in monoculture.No correlation was found between cowpea yield in monoculture and the cassava yield in association. AIso, the yield of tops (withoút grain) or roots of cowpea was without influence on the cassava root yield. However, a general negative relationship between number of flowers, number of pods per unit are a and cassava root yield appeared to eXist, pointing to the fact that cowpeas with a higher level of development at flowering and pod formation would impose stronger competition on cassava then cowpea cultivars with less development at this stage. (Fig. 4). Cassava density was kept constant at 9.259 pl/ha in a 1.8 x 0.6 m arrangement. Yield results of intercropped cowpeas (Fig. 5) showed that greatest yields were obtained with 110.000 pl/ha, a density which is currently also used for cowpea monoculture plantings (Erskine & Khan 1976). Cassava yield data from this trial showed that 110.000 pI/ha of cowpea imposed the least competition on cassava which produced the greatest fresh root yield at this cowpea density (Fig. 6). However, both eowpea and cassava yields were less influeneed by eowpea density than by spatial arrangement. Cowpea yields were lowest in the 70/2 system, possibly due to an increased intraspecific competition in this arrangement, whereas the 60/3 system produced greatest cowpea yields. On the other hand, cassava yields were greatest with the 70/2 arrangement sinee this system minimizes interspecific competition, and O \"-'---'-~ .,---,,--,--~---,--.   10).Among the spatial arrangements tested, the 60/3 system again proved to be superior to any other arrangement, the second best being the 45/2 system. No particular advantage was noted from either of the newly introdueed systems, 60/2 and 45/3 (Fig. l1).Cassava yields were rather variable due to soi1 variability masking to some extent the effect of cowpea planting density on root yield, but root number showed a clear response being most depressed by high cowpea planting density. The 60/3 spatial arrangement was in this trial the system which caused the least yield reduction to cassava, Possibly through minirnizing interference of one crop with the other allowing ample space between cassava and cowpea and providing the most even plant distribution of cowpea in the space available between cassava rows (Table 5).   reducing cassava yield 3 t/ha more than the 60/3 system.(Table 5).In terms of plant height and plant width, the cassava mono culture was always the best growing treatment. This result, being obtained in practically all experiments reported here is in contrast to Gonzales (1976) who found a positive influence of cowpea on cassava plant heigh and a negative influence of leaf area. Although cowpea and cassava yield results are not statistically different in this trial due to large soil differences within the plot are a cassava shows the same trends as in the previous experiment. A density around 100.000 pl/ha of cowpea is optimal for both cowpea and cassava and a greater distance between cowpea and cassava rows gives rise to less interspecific competition. The arrangement of two or three legume rows between two cassava rows shows no clear advantage for either of these options in terms of cassava yield, but legume yield is always greater when a 3-row distribution is chosen.A planting density-spatial arrangement experiment similar to trial 3/78 was carried out with groundnuts in 1979. In this experirnent the spatial arrangernent of 60/3 was the best for legue yield with no difference between the 45/2 and the 70/2 systems (Fig. 12). In contrast to cowpea, the groundnut yield responded  .'\"• •• /36 positively to higher pIanting densities up to 220.000 pI/ha. Ca ssaya yieId was following the same tendency as with cowpea, higher planting densities causing greater yieId reductions in cassava than the low densities, and the 70/2 arrangement being less aggressive on cassava than the other arrangements (Fig. 13).In this experiment the Iow groundnut yields are the resuIt of the good conditions for cassava which was growing well and building up its canopy quickIy so that shading became serious for the groundnuts before maturity.In consequence the number of flowers (mean of 859.000/ha) and the number of pods (mean of 830.000/ha) were very low.In contrast groundnuts in experiment 1/79 sown at a standard density of 220.000 pI/ha had 3'900.000 flovlers/ha and 1'700.000 pods /ha resulting in a yield twice as high as that observed in this experiment.After testing the cowpea collection both in monoculture .. These lines were planted in association with cassava, CMC 84 at a density of 110.000 pI/ha, using the 60/3 arrangement. Cassava was planted using the standard pattern of 1.8 x 0.6 m (9259 pI /ha). One line, TVN-1977-0D was selected both in monoculture and • •• /37 association, therefore, data of only nine lines are represented in Table 6. On the better soil of this field and with 1 t/ha of dolomitic lime instead of only 0.5 t/ha yields were higher than those measured before. The cowpea lines selected in the association with cassava were on the average higher yielding than the lines selected in monoculture, the former having higher number of plants/ha and more pods per plant and the latter a higher hundred-seed-weight. The best yielding line was P.18 with more than 1.500 kg/ha in association with cassava but the plants hada tendency to climb under the somewhat more favourable soil conditions of this experiment so that yield reduction of cassava was very high. The cassava yield shows no difference between planting with cowpea selected in monoculture (mean cassava yield 15.7 t/ha) and with cowpea selected in association (mean cassava yield 15.8 t/ha).In this experiment the cassava yields in association showed a depression of only  7).As a consequence of putting formerly virgin grassland under cultivation, and as a result of the diverse cropping systems, large differences in soil parameters were observed already after completing the first crop cycle. Major changes were the decrease of organic matter, P, Ca and K. On the other hand, Al which fell markedly during the first part of the vegetation period, rose to almost its initial level at the end of the first growth whilst Mn steadily declined and pH increased aboye its initial value(Table 8). At the end of the first cycle the plots with fertilizer had higher P and ~ID, a higher pH and a lower Al but al so lower Mg and K concentration. The organic matter and Ca were not different from the unfertilized plots. Comparing the three production systems, cassava monoculture, cassava cowpea association, and cowpea-groundnut-cassava rotation, cassava monoculture plots showed the highest O.M. and Al and the lowest Ca and K concentrations. The association was most effective in raising the pH whilst cassava monoculture consistently had the 10west(Table 9). The somewhat higher pR in association went along with lower Al and ~, but also a lower P concentration was observed indicating a strong demand of the system for this elemento The rotatiod had the highest P, Ca, K and Mn and the lowest O.M., Mg concentration in the soil.In conclusion it can be said that the rotation (so far cowpea monoculture ) did not provide the expected positive influence 1 at this stage equivalent to cowpea monoculture on soil conditions (pH, M.O., Al, Mn) but it was efficiently using the nutrients. The association (cassava-with cowpea) seemed to have a positive influence on soil conditions and was using nutrients in a moderate way. Cassava monoculture also seems to drain the nutrient reserves agressively while at the same time worsening soil conditions by lowering the pH. All together the association proved to be most advantageous for the soil and it also gave a good total yield. However, further crop cycles must be completed before a definite evaluation of these cropping systems is possible.This experiment was designed to throw light on the plant nutrition aspect of cassava intercropping. While individually nutrient requirements for both cassava and legumes in monoculture are relatively well established, there is little knowledge about how this requirement should be assessed for a crop association. One way is to grow the crops both in monoculture and association together in one trial where nutrients are increased stepwise from ° to a high level, and compare the yield response curves obtained in each system in order' to establish the optimum level for the intercrop and monocultures alike. Since at CIAT-Quil1chao, the most limiting plant nutrient 1s P, we conducted such an experiment with cassava and cowpea, using P20Slevels of O, 50, 100, 150 and 300 kg/ha. Basal dressing was 500 kg/ha dolomitic lime and 100 N, 75 K 2 0, 10 Zn and 1 kg/ha of Boron. Cassava was planted at a 1.8 x 0.6 m arrangement (9.259 pl/ha) with cowpea in monocutlure at 0.6 x 0.15 and as intercrop in a 60/3 arrangement, preserving 110.000 pI/ha in a11 treatments. Fertilizer was banded at planting. In cassava/cowpea association, an a11-ferti1izer-broadcast-treatment was added.Cowpea grain yield response to increased P-levels showed two peaks, one at 50, the other at 300 kg/ha (Fig. 14). Besides uield, this doub peak was also observed ,.¡ith other parameters such as percent plant survival, No.of pods/m 2 , No. of pods/plant and plant height.In association, broadcasting fertilizer gave consistently higher yields at all P-levels than banding. The pronounced sigmoidal yield response curve was not expected on this highly P-deficient soil where a more linear response would have been more likely. While different levels of mycorrhizal activities at different soil P levels might have given at least a partial explanation (Yost & Fox, 1979) we are not able to report on this sinee no myeorrhizal observations were made.Another explanation of the non-linear response of eowpea to a?plied P may l1e in the var1ab111~y of so11 P levcl~ whieh was rather high and mostly not in accar,dance with applied P levels (Fig . 15). Furthermore I the better performance af co\\\"pea in broadeast than in banded fertilizer plots was although observed by other workers (Foud, Zaki, Amerhorn and Abdallah, 1979).not very likely to occur on a low P soil with high P-fixing capacity. We have no ready exp1anation for this extraordinary behavior but it can be hypothesized than on a droughty soi1 like that of  CIAT-Quilichao root expansion was enhanced by the broadcast application and thus plants growing under these conditions were better able to absorb water and withstand the drought spells ocurring during the growth cycle. In the second cycle of this experiment which was replanted on the same plots, the advantage of broadcast fertilization is not going to be repeated. Cowpea in this second planting showed consistently better growth with band application of fertilizer as eompared to the broadcast treatment. A sigmoidal response of growth parameters to inerease P-levels was also observed with cassava which, however, did not exhibit this eharaeteristic behavior in root yield. In monoeulture, maximum root yield was reached with only 50 P205 whereas in the cassava cowpea association with banded fertilizer, maximum root yield was achieved with 100 P 2 0 5 , and in the broadcast application, 150 P 2 0 S were needed to produce maximum root yield (Fig. l4).It appears logical that with greater demand for nutrients, in particular P, in association, the peak yield should ha ve been produeed at a higher P level than in monoculture. Also, with strong competitíon for P in the association, banding proved to be more efficient, producíng 0.7 t/ha more roots with 50 P 2 0 5 less. In no case was highest root yield obtained with the highest P level confirming that although cassava has a high external requirement of P for maximum growth in culture solution, maximum root production is achieved at much lower P levels in the field.under the soíl conditíons prevailíng in this trial and other experiments condueted at CIAT-Quilichao, both cassava a minimum fertilization and a minimum of lime (0.5 -1 t/hal, soil conditions often remained on the borderline for cowpea growth and planting on land with even lower fertility brought about a yield depression of several hundred percent (Table 11)or a total loss of one replication. Often soil quality was also influenced by the topography of the field, when going down to the valley the soil qua lit y and in consequence the cowpea yield was depressed.Since the reaction of cowpea to the soil was not expressed only in a yie1d depression but also in poor growth there was not only loss of data but also no competition for cassava, so that the cassava data from these plots or replications had to be excluded either.Cassava suffered less from adverse soi1 conditions, but response to ferti1ization was limited, particularly when cassava was grown in monoculture. In experiment 3/78 for instance, where the maximum yie1d of cowpea was 75 times whe minimum yield, the difference between minimum and maximum yield of cassava was only five times. By planting in assocxation, unfavourable soil conditions were frequently nearly coropensated by lower competition troro poorly growing cowpea.In terros of vegetative growth, the most depreseed growth was never below 70% of the best growing cassava. The difference between plant height in the p10ts with best and worst soil conditions become important only after 120 days (Fig. 16).This same observation was reported comparing monoculture and intercropped cassava, and when transition from dry to wet periods was observed. The experiments reported here were eondueted in order to start the development of an intereropping teehnology for eassaya with grain legumes on aeid, infertile soils, where eassava eannot be sueeessfully intereropped with dry beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), Investigation was foeussed on three aspeets:1. Identification of sUitable genetie materials 2.Clarification of agronomic management of these materials in assoeiation with eassavaEstablishment of nutritional requirements of the erop assoeiation Among the 10 grain legume species sereened for adaptation to 10w soil fertility, acidity, growth habit and yield, two speeies -eowpea and groundnut -showed the greatest potential as an intererop with eassava in simultaneous planting. A third species, velvet beans, also showed good adaptation to acid, infertile soi1 conditions. However, its climbing habit makes it unsuitable for simultaneous planting with cassava. We suggest that further investigation elabora tes the management practices for intercropping this specie at the end of the cassava growth cycle using grown-up eassava as support. Cowpea, although its toleranee to low pH and P is not unlimited and somewhat less than eassava, was definitely the most promising legume, producing an average yield in assoeiation with eassav of more than one ton of dry grain (mean of 6 experiments, see Table 10). It also proved to be a rustie erop in phytosanitary terms, usually conditions. Without applying a minimal basal dressing of 0.5 t/ha of lime (normal limes tone or better dolomitic lime), growth of all crops was poor and yields low. While organic matter and potassium were sufficiently high at least in newly cultivated soil which had been under pasture before, to provide N and K to the first crop, these elements and particularly P showed extremely low levels on land which had been cultivated for several erop eyeles. We therefore tried to establish a. the long-term effect of different eultivation systems on soil fertility and yield of eassava/legumes. b. the P requirement of intereropped cassava with legumes as opposed to the respective monoeulture requirements.While with repeet to a) we arrived only at very preliminary conclusions -intercropping generally having a more beneficial influence on the soil than either eassava or legume monocultures -we are able to make a more conclusive statement on P requiremnnts of cassava/cowpea assoeiations. Our data led us to conelude that in order to produce acceptable yields, both cassava and cowpea require a minimal application of 50 (to 100) kg/ha P 2 0 S in monoculture and this quantity has to be increased to 100 (to 150) kg/ha if the two are grown in association. Cowpea does respond to higher P levels, but it may be uneconomical to apply them. Band applications produced lower cowpea yields than broadcast applied P, but for cassava,banded P was more efficient in terms of kg root yield produced per kg of applied P. The banding-broadeasting issue needs further clarification..requiring no or at most one insecticide spray while no fungicidal or other applications were necessary. Groundnuts, a food grain and highly valued specially crop at a time, proved to have great potential with low input levels, as well. However,we are more at the beginning with this erop sinee at time of planting these trails, no varietal collection was available, confining our work to one single cultivar, ICA-Tatui 76. We suggest that future efforts should be directed at obtaining and screening a greater variety of genotypes of this crop, identifying even superior rnaterials.With suitable genetie rnaterials available, our next concern was agronomic management. We focussed on determining planting densities and spatial arrangernents for the legumes in association with cassava, expecting that these should be different to those optimal for cassava/bush bean associations due to the largely different growth habit of cowpeas and groundnuts. From our data it can be concluded that under the acid, infertile soil conditions of Quilichao, cowpeas gave rnaximum yields at around 100.000 pl/ha whereas groundnuts had an optimurn density of above 200.000 pI/ha. The spatial arrangement influenced both inter-and intraspecific competition, both being minimal in a 60-30-30-60 cm triple row arrange~ent of the legumes between cassava,a planting pattern which appears particularly suitable when planting is done on the flato For cassava, we used the standard planting density and arrangement which had been tested already with cassava-dry bean associations.Plant nutrition proved to be critical under the given soíl","tokenCount":"3810"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f78ed7d79a9f5f61fbc481bc81a017be","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4db12f9a-abf0-4e40-8a34-b4bf7eaac1f5/content","id":"-1240199723"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"349ff418-6f40-4d57-8bcf-f2f2df32ab48","pagecount":"59","content":"In case of maize (as per CIMMYT), \"drought tolerance\" is the ability of a genotype to show a substantive and statistically significant yield advantage over the widely grown commercial checks (tested in several drought stress locations), and often under severe drought conditions, including flowering and grain filling period.Breeding for drought tolerance -The challenges -Genotype differences are often smaller under stress and heritability for GY decreases -G x E interactions become more pronounced under stress conditions -Complex, polygenic inheritance -Stress enhances/magnifies field variability -Every effort must be made to keep experimental error as low as possible -How to make progress? Adapted from Bernardo 2010Breeding strategy: Tandem selection  Flowering HarvestExperiments are conducted during a rain-free period and irrigation regime is designed so that …. • Speed-FAST and FURIOUS! -Greatly reduces the length of a breeding cycle to create genetically pure lines -100% homozygosity without genetic segregation or -Reduces the frequency of unfavorable recessive alleles (i.e. genetic load) -Helped us to combine different traits into a single lines within 2-3 generation compared to traditional pedigree breeding which request 7-8 generation of selfing• Increased response to early selection Genetic gain from conventional breeding in Africa 18 kg ha -1 yr -1 (Edmeades, 2013) 32 kg ha -1 yr -1 (Masuka et al , 2017) Genetic gain from GS is 2-4 times higher than the gains from conventional breeding reported in sub-Saharan Africa.Overall gain in GY : 70.5 kg ha -1 year -1","tokenCount":"238"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c458b722cd184500d538a32fc7bd079e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cac53172-f930-4c0c-9352-165f6e555ce0/retrieve","id":"335451325"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0c3c6e07-d953-4a52-8770-a03c083d9db1","pagecount":"28","content":"The gradual increase in temperature can trigger several agroecosystem effects including accelerated decomposition of soil organic matter and increased evapotranspiration rate, which reduces soil moisture and negatively affects soil health if precipitation does not increase at the same rate. Additionally the cocoa tree development rate (organ lifespan, fruit ripening) is accelerated. Periods of heat and water stress generate physiological problems in plants such as stomatal closure thus causing wilting of leaves, reduced photosynthesis and pollination rate linked to pollen sterility, causing fruit losses or reduced pod size, and a generalized reduction in productivity and the plant life cycle. Compromised plant health can be exacerbated by pest and disease outbreaks.A shift in rainfall patterns may lead to periods of drought or water logging, both conditions which cause water stress and negatively affect plant photosynthesis as well as nutrient uptake, transport, and distribution. This depresses plant growth, overall productivity and bean size. Shifting rainfall patterns can compromise flowering and subsequent pod setting, either due to flower abortion, or reduced effectiveness of pollination. Susceptibility to pests (e.g. pod borer, Helopeltis spp.) and diseases (e.g. black pod, Phytophthora spp.) may also increase. Finally, bean quality could be affected during the fermentation and drying processes.Strong winds increase evapotranspiration rates and can inflict mechanical damage leading to premature leaf fall, plant drying, and defoliation. Damage and fall of branches can also result, and in the worst cases trees are uprooted when the root system is not robust. Full-sun or monocropping systems are susceptible to wind erosion and gradual land degradation.Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Global temperatures have risen by about 0.85°C in the last century. Climate change scenarios predict further increases of 1.4-3.1°C by 2100, accompanied by changes in seasonality and spatial distribution of rainfall, as well as rising sea levels. These climatic changes are expected to have a significant impact on cocoa origins, and in some regions the effects are already being felt. Less suitable weather can exacerbate the usual challenges of soil fertility, aging trees and pest and disease pressures on existing farms, which increases incentives for cocoa producers to encroach upon forest land in pursuit of more favourable growing conditions for their cocoa trees. Climate change will shape the future production of cocoa and requires mutual cooperation amongst sector stakeholders to tailor responses to its differentiated impacts. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an integrative approach for transforming conventional landscapes, to support sustainable agricultural production and food security under a changing climate. To attain this goal, CSA aims to deliver triple-wins by contributing to three interrelated objectives: sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and farmers' income (food security), enhancing resilience capacity of farms and farmers to overcome climate change impacts (adaptation), and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) (mitigation).CSA achieves food and nutrition security for smallholder cocoa families through encouraging the planting of annual and perennial crops in agroforestry systems both for sale or onfarm consumption; raising incomes through sustainable increases in cocoa productivity and sale of alternative products from intercropped species. Food security goals must include marginalized poor who are more vulnerable to climate change effects.In contrast to full-sun systems, adaptation in cocoa farms refers to restoration and maintenance of ecosystem functions and services provided by forests/trees and biodiversity (e.g. pollination, pest and disease regulation, soil health, etc.). By building socio-ecological resilience against climate hazards, low cocoa market prices and infrastructure development, whilst promoting productivity targets under consistent shade levels, diversified shaded systems allow on-farm generation of agricultural inputs for crop management and alternative livelihood opportunities. Adaptation goals must include gender aspects, particularly fostering decisionmaking power, technical knowledge, and access to resources of women, who typically have less access and legal right to the land or other resources that provide capacity to cope with climate change.CSA reduces greenhouse gas emissions and promotes carbon dioxide storage through diverse decisions and activities from the plot-level to the landscape-level. Preventing and reversing deforestation in natural/virgin and agricultural areas respectively, enhancing soil health, transitioning to organic and local inputs, and use of more woody species constitute key strategies to minimize carbon footprints and environmental costs of cocoa production.Identifying and prioritizing CSA responses requires integration of multiple objectives and managing trade-offs between food security, adaptation and mitigation. In order to ensure climate-smartness, a system cannot be optimized for only one of these aspects of without considering the effect on the others. Thus CSA practices applied in heterogeneous/diversified cocoa agroecosystem should be assessed for synergies and minimization of trade-offs through consideration of costs, benefits and stakeholder aims.CSA responses constitute a range of actions that can be undertaken at the different scales of the enabling environment, landscape, farm or plot. These actions span from policies, finance, insurance and value chain interventions to technologies such as digital ICTs, farm management practices and planting material. No matter at what scale, CSA must always maintain ecosystem services because of the important benefits to agriculture of climate regulation, water, soil and biodiversity provisioning. CSA is also forward-looking and therefore takes into account the relevance of responses under future climatic conditions and the sustainability of the benefits over time. These factors all contribute to creation of either an enabling or disabling environment for adoption of CSA practices and are therefore important to identify priority CSA responses for a particular context. In the case of this document, described CSA responses are at the farm and plot level, as this is the scale at which cocoa producers have the most direct control. However, careful consideration of the local contexts at landscape and enabling environment (sociocultural, economic, environmental, institutional, and political)  Recommendations that account for local variations are more suited to the needs and capacities of local stakeholders, and therefore have higher adoption potential. For project implementers, the result of accounting for these dimensions of CSA is higher up-take, improved resilience and larger social impact returns on investments.Local variation in timing: CSA should be implemented through a stepwise approach, whereby the benefits of each improvement step free resources for the next step. For example, this could mean that rejuvenation and pruning of non-productive trees are required in a first step, while weeding, mulching and pest and disease management only make a difference in a second step. Fertilizer, manure or compost application become relevant only after the preceding steps have been implemented. For practices requiring large financial or labor investment, implementation may be gradual with selected cacao trees in order to avoid a large drop in income.Local variation in typology of producer households: Responses to barriers to CSA adoption require ways to deal with producer heterogeneity. Next to ecological heterogeneity in aspects such as climate and soil fertility, CSA promotion should take into account the socio-economic heterogeneity of the target beneficiaries. Characterization of producers into different types of households enables tailoring of responses to their different needs. Both the ecological and socio-economic information are relevant for identifying similar producers in terms of household characteristics and challenges, but which show differences in adoption of cacao management strategies and productivity. This information can be used to match nearby farmers of similar typology but different adoption and cacao yield characteristics to exchange experiences and thereby stimulate adoption of CSA within the community.Local variation in climate: Impact of future climates on growing regions is needed to select locally appropriate CSA. In this example, Indonesia is vulnerable to climate change. Climate change projected scenarios reveal increases in temperature between 0.7 to 2.3 °C in the next couple of decades, as well as increasing variability in the rainfall patterns, especially timing and seasonality. These hazards, coupled with a more frequent and intense El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle (ENSO) might intensify the variated effects of drought and intense rains of different cocoa agroecosystems, increasing the need for climate-specific adaptation strategies. The success of a climate-smart cocoa farm depends to a large extent on the characteristics of the cocoa varieties adopted by the farmers. The development and right choice of locally improved varieties is an essential CSA practice to reduce the crop's vulnerability to biotic and abiotic stresses. Genetic diversification through the use of various planting material (varieties/clones) with special traits, such as higher resistance to pests and diseases, tolerance to climatic hazards (drought and heat) and good bean quality, increase resilience to climate change impacts Developing/choosing high-yielding varieties suitable to specific agroecological zones and accounting for future climates.Developing/choosing drought-and heat-tolerant, or pest-and diseaseresistant varieties depending on local context.Reduces yield losses and harvest failure. Promotes production stability and regularity. Potential increases in profits due to greater crop yield and produce quality. Reduces the need for external inputs (e.g. pesticides) hence reducing production costs.If there is no access to improved varieties or clones, use seeds or grafts from healthy and productive trees.Promoting incentive/subsidy mechanisms needed to enable farmers to afford seedlings cost.Establishing and maintaining on-farm or community based nurseries for reliable supply of high quality seedlings.Fostering varieties development and distribution by research organizations, input suppliers or farmer's organization.Reinforcing local, national, and regional collaboration in cocoa breeding programs.Reduces dependency on synthetic pesticides, thus reducing the carbon footprint associated with the production, packaging, transport, and disposal of these inputs along the value chain. In some contexts reduces energy consumption for water and pesticides management.Drought/heat-tolerant varieties enhance water use efficiency per unit of produce. Pest/disease-resistant varieties reduce the use of synthetic pesticides, hence reducing environmental pollution. Minimizes negative impacts on human health, biodiversity and ecosystem services such as pollination.Full-sun cocoa farming systems can be extremely vulnerable to climate shocks and are more dependent on external/off-farm inputs. Agricultural diversification through intercropping and introduction of native trees for shade and as windbreaks plays a vital role in ensuring household food and nutritional security, and increasing rural employment, since it enables a diversified food-and-cash crop livelihood strategy. It can also positively impact environmental indicators such as biodiversity, and directly contributes to climate change mitigation.Planting temporary shade trees such as banana and fast growing leguminous trees such as Gliricidia spp. or Erythrina ssp.Planting permanent native shade trees such as edible fruit trees (durian, soursop), leguminous and timber trees (mahogany) that also serve as windbreak trees when planted on perimeter of plots or against main strong wind direction to protect cocoa trees from damage (branch breaking, leaves and pod dropping, trees uprooting).Adequate spacing and pruning of shade trees to ensure effective shade provision without compromising cocoa tree growth and yield. Shade density in cocoa of 0-3 years should reach 70%, and be reduced to 30% from year 4 onwards.Appropriately selected species and densities can favor cocoa tree growth, development, and maximum expression of yield and quality potential. Allows the diversification of farm agricultural activities and products for sale and self-consumption. Diversifies income which increases farmer's resilience and therefore their ability to respond in time to address crop failure risks. Smooths farmer income through a more stable and constant production.Creates a micro-climate that provides a buffer against high temperatures, drought, and wind speed, by stabilizing temperature and maintaining soil moisture. Minimizes soil erosion and runoff. Improves habitat connectivity for wildlife, supports higher levels of biodiversity such as pollinators and biological control agents. Improves nutrient cycling efficiency by extracting and releasing subsoil nutrient through litter addition and decomposition. Promotes biological nitrogen fixing, soil health and fertility.Intercropping with leguminous species allows the reduction of off-farm input needs such as nitrogen-based fertilizers. Decreases synthetic pesticides and fertilizers use, and carbon footprint associated with their production, packaging, transport, and disposal along the value chain. Increases soil organic matter (SOM) and soil organic carbon (SOC) content. Captures and stores carbon in woody biomass in trunks, branches and roots.Protecting seedlings of native species that grow naturally on the farm, and maintaining seedlings in the nursery for transplanting.Intercropping with annual crops such as cassava, chili pepper, plantain, etc.Mulching methods in cocoa farms are directly connected to soil and plant health, and therefore productivity. Constant soil cover allows replenishment and preservation of high soil organic matter and soil moisture. This promotes above-and below-ground habitat conditions that enable macro-and micro-biota to develop various processes that enhance biological, chemical and physical characteristics of the soil (e.g. activity of microorganisms, pH, mineral fertility, porosity, infiltration), which in turn creates the enabling conditions for the development of strong and healthy crops.Keeping disease-free residues from weeding and cocoa leaves on the ground.Using leaf/tree litter from intercropped temporary and permanent crops and shade trees such as pruned branches, banana/plantain pseudo Why?Overall agro-ecosystem productivity is maintained, thus increasing yield or buffering against losses. Balanced soil characteristics help to prevent against diseases and enhance crop quality and longevity. Reduces incidence/rate of weed and soil-borne diseases, hence decreasing purchase of fungicides and herbicides. Increases water-and nutrient-use efficiency per unit of output.Reduces soil exposure to direct sunlight and rain, hence preventing erosion, nutrient loss and drying (retains soil moisture). Fosters and conserves soil biodiversity, hence facilitating decomposition of organic matter and improving soil nutrient retention and overall fertility. Prevents soil compaction.Allows the reduction of off-farm input needs such as synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Decreases synthetic fungicide and fertilizer use, and carbon footprint associated with their production, packaging, transport, and disposal along the value chain. Increases soil organic matter (SOM) over the cropping cycle, having a significant CO 2 sink capacity.In full sun cocoa farms where organic material for mulching is limited, put on ground a layer of leaves around base of cocoa trees.Planting of living mulch/cover crops (in some cases at early stage of cocoa establishment or in open spaces) that farmers can also consume or sell such as beans, cowpea, groundnuts, and other legumes or vegetables. stems and leaves.P ru nin g T o l e r a n t B io contro l M o n itor i n g P u s h-p u l l va r i e t i e sImplementing various pest and disease management strategies contributes to minimizing negative socio-economic and environmental impacts caused by conventional control practices (reliance on use of synthetic pesticides). Continued use of synthetic pesticides offers a temporary solution, but is ineffective over the long term and might lead to negative side effects including pest resistance (a serious threat), biodiversity reduction, environmental pollution, and risk to human health.Maintaining soil fertility (mulching, composting etc.), as the ability of crops to resist/ tolerate insect pests and diseases is strongly linked to good soil health and vigorous soil biological activity. Timely pruning to allow sunlight to reach the lower part of the tree canopy, preventing development of diseases.Minimizes yield losses and pest damage or harvest failure. Promotes sustainable yield increase. Increases cost-effectiveness in the long term by reducing the need for external inputs (e.g. pesticides) hence reducing production costs (purchase, application, and disposal). Potential benefits to produce quality and market recognition.Increases crop/farm resilience to pest and diseases outbreaks. Reduces the potential for air and ground water pollution. Decreases exposure of producers and consumers to pesticides (contact, inhalation, or ingestion) and related negative effects on health. Protects biodiversity and ecosystem services such as pollination, natural predators, beneficial organisms that prevent infection.Reduces synthetic pesticide use thus avoiding the carbon emissions associated with the production, packaging, transport, and disposal of these inputs along the value chain. In some contexts reduces energy consumption for water and pesticides management. Reduces negative side effects on soil microorganism and important functions such as nitrogen cycling.The most effective way is through prevention:Developing/choosing pest/disease tolerant varieties suitable to local agro-ecological zones.Understand the factors and environmental conditions that promote growth and spread of pest and diseases.Monitoring to adequately identify when actions are needed: Regular field visits to monitor and for timely detection of pests and diseases. Set action thresholds to inform when, where and what actions are required.Intervening with various management strategies: Cultural and physical practices: e.g. trapping; timely pruning, collection, and disposal of infected branches, pods, and litter (sanitation, bury). Ecological methods: Repellent and trap crops (\"push-pull effect\"); natural enemies; pheromones; natural organic compounds from native/nearby plants (e.g. mahogany leaves, lemon grass, etc.).Increasing involvement of public and private organizations that provide research, education, and training to farmers and practitioners on IPM methods.Pruning is a key CSA practice to ensure optimal conditions for healthy cocoa production. Both cocoa trees and other intercropped species for shade, food or wind protection can be pruned according to their age or stage of development. Pruning helps regulate the height of the trees, aiding balanced vegetative and productive growth by shaping strong and well-proportioned branches in terms of size, form, and quantity. This helps to create the right micro-light regime and aeration, avoiding excessively shaded or humid conditions that could lead to pests and/ or disease outbreaks.There are different types of pruning: Structural: Can be performed on 1-2 year old trees to ensure symmetrical and stable growth of cocoa trees. It involves selective removal of branches to allow a single and not very tall trunk, low jorquettes and branches well-distributed vertically and horizontally.Allows tree regeneration, hence maintaining crop health and productivity. Reduces incidence/rate of pests and diseases, hence decreasing need for purchase of fungicides and herbicides. Minimizes the obstruction to access and harvest pods. Desuckering reduces excessive growth of young sprouts, optimizing trees' nutrients /energy allocation towards pods. Provides byproducts such as wood.Reduces the risk of pest/diseases due to well aerated canopy. Provides raw material / organic matter for composting and mulching, thus increasing soil fertility. Reduces the risk of crop damage from broken and falling branches. Increases water-and nutrient-use efficiency per unit of output.Indirectly contributes to reducing synthetic pesticides and fertilizers use, hence the carbon footprint associated with their production, packaging, transport, and disposal along the value chain. Increases soil organic matter (SOM) over the time, providing a significant CO 2 sink capacity from woody biomass.Maintenance: Removal of suckers as well as unproductive and overlapping branches that consume the trees' energy. Conducted 1-2 times per year in the dry season, maintenance pruning allows sunlight to filter to the ground and stay at the canopy level by about 45% and 30%, respectively. Sanitation: Weekly removal of branches and pods affected by pest and diseases is necessary to effectively arrest spread of pests and contagious diseases in time. Unlike other types of pruning, sanitation is necessary for affected trees only.Pruning with proper and specific tools such as pruning shears or saws to achieve a \"clean\" wound surface prevents cracks, hence avoiding entry points for pest and disease infection. The cut surface can be covered with slaked lime to further prevent infection.Disinfecting pruning tools after each tree or after cutting infected plant parts avoids dissemination of disease.Diverse and well-managed compost makes an effective habitat and nutritious fodder for bacteria, fungi, bugs and worms, among other organisms, that enable decomposition and replenishment of soil nutrients extracted by crops. This provides a mild, slow and constant release of macro and micronutrients which are more readily taken up by root systems and ultimately improve plant growth. As a result, better yields are achieved in a sustainable way by reforming the bio-chemical and physical conditions of the soil, with minimal environmental impact, and particularly optimizing the use of farm wastes, reflected as economic and mitigations benefits. from molasses, alcohol yeast, and rice bran.Collecting pod husk and other organic material into a bin or in heaps. Mix with manure, adding water if the manure is excessively dry, then adding prepared EM mixture and covering with banana leaves, a plastic sheet or mud.An aerobic composting process requires opening the cover and turning the mixture from time to time. This allows a homogeneous decomposition, encourages growth of thermophilic bacteria that are quick decomposers and avoids very high temperatures that could affect beneficial microorganisms.Though a more complicated method, using red worms would facilitate the composting process making it relatively faster and of better quality.Promotes sustainable increase in productivity and potential benefits to income due to higher product quality with minimal environmental impact. Balanced soil characteristics help to prevent diseases and enhance crop quality and longevity. Reduces the need for external inputs (e.g. synthetic fertilizers) hence reducing production costs.Fosters and conserves soil microbial activity, hence facilitating decomposition of organic matter, improving farm's hygiene and soil's water and nutrient retention capacity. Builds soil fertility by improving bio-chemical and physical soil characteristics over time. Promotes efficient use of local/on-farm organic waste including cocoa pod husk and livestock manure.Well-managed compost reduces GHG emissions from N 2 O produced by microbial nitrification and de-nitrification, and after volatilization and leaching of synthetic fertilizers. Allows progressive reduction of off-farm synthetic inputs and related carbon footprint. Maintains or improves soil organic matter (SOM) over the time, hence soil carbon stock.Processing byproduct of cocoa pod husks, crop residues of intercropped species (e.g. lemongrass, banana, and other fruits), and livestock manures.Preparing home-made effective microorganism (EM) products made Healthy soils and crops are the result of a holistic agroecosystem approach. Sustainable enhancement of soil fertility involves a vibrant macro and micro flora and fauna activity that builds biological, chemical, and physical soil characteristics. In farms where inorganic fertilizers are used, their indiscriminate application can destabilize this soil dynamic and offset immediate benefits with longer term degradation of soil health. Transitioning towards sustainable fertility management entails, first, selecting the right source of nutrients and when inorganic fertilizers are used, ensure that type, quantity, application method, and timing are appropriately informed. Consider factors such as the appropriate growth stage-crop phenology-soil moisture, and weather conditions, aiming to reduce the risk of nutrients leaching, water pollution, and GHG emissions from nitrogen volatilization.Carrying out soil fertility tests-there are several laboratory and on-field methods-to determine soil health status, hence planning CSA practices required to attain cocoa tree's nutrient requirements.Increases in productivity per unit of area with minimal environmental impact. Balanced soil ecosystem helps to prevent diseases and enhances crop longevity and product quality. Leveraging biological nitrogen fixation reduces the need for external inputs (e.g. synthetic fertilizers) hence reducing production costs. Avoids crop failure due to the buffering effect against drought.Fosters and conserves soil biological activity, hence favoring structure/ aeration, water and nutrient holding capacity, and efficient use of nutrients. Minimizes soil erosion and runoff. Reduces the risk of over fertilization, nutrient imbalances, and toxic effects on plants caused by synthetic fertilizers. Reduces risk of leaching and subsequent pollution of water bodies and damage to wildlife.Allows progressive reduction of off-farm synthetic inputs and the carbon footprint caused by their production, packaging, transport, application, and disposal. Well composted material reduces GHG emissions per unit of produce. Maintains or improves soil organic matter (SOM) over the time, hence increasing soil carbon stock.Exploring organic fertilizer sources adapted to farmer's needs, composting made from household biodegradable waste, plant/crop residues and livestock manure is the most common. However, many other alternatives sources and techniques, homemade or purchased, include Effective Microorganisms (EM), vermicomposting, bio-fertilizers, liquid humus, compost tea, ashes, slurries, manures and green manures, to name a few.Preparing an informed fertilization plan according to the source, considering the right time of application (crop development phase and weather conditions), the application method (around the plant and covered or in holes outside the dripline), and the correct amount depending on the variables above mentioned.  Rising temperature, prolonged periods of drought and extreme heat, uncertain and intensive periods of rainfall, and strong winds are some climatic hazards that progressively reduce the vigor and productive potential of cocoa trees. In parallel, pest and diseases outbreaks exacerbated by the seasonal changes in temperature and precipitation, and weak crop management practices in full-sun farms, are factors that further negatively affect the production system. Particularly in relation to its productive lifetime, cocoa's reduced growth capacity and vulnerability to pests and diseases is accelerated by the less favorable conditions.Establishing and maintaining on-farm or community based nurseries for high quality and disease-free seedling production.Complete replanting could be expensive, but necessary under high incidence of pest and diseases, or for unproductive trees older than 30 years. However, an alternative strategy for optimizing time and space is selective planting of young cocoaplants/clones under mature trees-that will be gradually pruned and stumped once seedling are well established.Grafting should ideally be conducted early in the rainy season. Rootstocks and scions must be free of disease signals or symptoms, equipment must be clean and disinfected, and whether grafting on coppiced trees or seedlings, the scions have to be covered with waterproof tape or wax sealant to prevent dehydration or excessive humidity causing disease.Planting new trees and/or rejuvenating old trees helps to maintain or improve yield. Grafting makes it possible to select rootstocks and scions with desirable traits, allowing for accelerated production and improved plant and bean quality. Balanced planting densities ensure optimum production and use of time and space for cocoa trees and/or any intercropped species.Allows gradual adoption of varieties that are better adapted to local climatic and soil conditions and incorporate pest/disease resistance, hence minimizing the risk of crop failure, and indirectly reducing the use of synthetic pesticides and associated environmental pollution. Provides raw material / organic matter for composting and mulching. Increases water-and nutrient-use efficiency per unit of output.Contributes to reducing the amount of external inputs, hence decreasing related carbon footprint caused by their production, packaging, transport, application, and disposal. Increased yield reduces the GHG emissions per unit of produce.Rejuvenating cocoa using side grafting techniques with improved scions is recommended for healthy trees with vigorous base but declining productivity.The intensity or prolongation of the rainy season can increase the water content/humidity of cocoa beans, which extends the drying time. Worse, excess humidity can slow down or prevent the natural fermentation process, fostering mold contamination and production of mycotoxines (e.g. aflatoxins). On the other hand, drought can alter flavor quality making it more acidic, and a prolonged dry season can increase sugar content in beans making them less suitable for fermentation. In areas where fermentation is done, this may compromise final formation of typical taste and aroma intensity. These factors ultimately reduce flavor quality, having negative implications during marketing due to the low price or rejection of the produce.Using local/on-farm materials such as bamboo mats or wooden tables to make the fermentation boxes as well as simple solar dryers-adding clear plastics in the last case-are cost-effective alternatives and prevent damage or reduction of flavor attributes of cocoa beans.Appropriate drying and fermentation processes ensure greater produce quality, hence fetching higher market prices and improving household income. Additional revenue contributes to household food security and allows diversification of income sources thus increasing resilience.Preserves cocoa beans sensory characteristics and quality. Reduces risk of damage from insects, molds, and other microorganisms, increasing product shelf-life. Allows farmers to process and add value to their produce, hence increasing their profit margin. Methods such as solar dryers can also be used for food and seed preservation, helping to offset crop losses and phenological changes.Increased yields reduce the GHG emissions intensity, meaning less carbon per unit product. Use of solar dryers reduces energy consumption compared to electric, firewood or gas powered dryers.Controlling the drying or fermentation time and methods, which should ideally range between 5 to 7 days depending on the local humidity and temperature, amount of cocoa beans, method used (linear boxes, stacked boxes, trays, baskets), and even the cocoa variety cultivated. In the case of fermentation, regular mixing/turning after the initial 48 hours allows aeration, homogeneous fermentation and bean quality preservation.Selecting the most suitable and efficient drying method or structure design depends on environmental factors such as space, capacity, position/orientation, wind speed and exposure to sunlight. Passive air-flow systems are preferred.After drying or fermentation, safe and dry storage until point of sale is important to preserve product value.","tokenCount":"4555"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4b5c6eae480c8f69b8727aef4999480f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H042299.pdf","id":"848212764"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b4420d0e-091d-4c2f-9f48-91726c10caaa","pagecount":"2","content":"I am pleased to report significant progress on the challenge of providing sound scientific knowledge to pressing water problems of the day, and at the same time delivering science outputs into developmental outcomes and impacts. Over the last few years, IWMI has increased its number of peer reviewed publications per scientist as well as delivering well documented outcome stories. As seen in the Table on Performance Indicators, IWMI has made significant progress over the last 3 years in quantity and quality of science output, impact culture, and outcomes.The year 2008 was a year of transition, with evolutionary shifts into a new structure to implement a new strategic plan. With increasing concern over water and food globally, increasing demands for relevant science to solve these problems, IWMI is learning and adapting, and will be able to rapidly respond to changes in its operating environment, and changes as the CGIAR goes through reform.IWMI's current focus addresses the key interlinked development challenges of water scarcity, food security and climate change. The project portfolio builds on IWMI's extensive work in irrigation-which is critical for food security but also a key driver of water scarcity; the Institute's view of water and agriculture from the perspective of competing urban, industrial and environmental uses in a river basin context; and IWMI's core strength in examining the underlying policies and institutions to govern and manage the water resource base.The IWMI-led Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, completed in 2007, set forth key challenges for the future, and has been instrumental in setting the water and agricultural research and development agenda. IWMI has taken on a number of these challenges as part of its own project portfolio, has quickly responded to new challenges as they arise, and has influenced the agriculture and water agendas at the global, regional, and national scale. The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) has been an important vehicle for IWMI to enter into partnership to tackle key research for development issues. We would argue that the fact that water scarcity is now seen in many countries as a potential limitation to development and poverty alleviation, food production and overall economic growth, is largely because of our success in putting the issue on center stage via a sound, evidence-based approach. For example:• IWMI has been a leader and key contributor on water productivity, environmental flows, wetlands and agriculture, wastewater irrigation, groundwater governance, multiple uses of water, water policies and institutions, and gender and water.• IWMI has responded rapidly to issues of the food crisis and its relation with water, as well as issues of water and biofuels and energy.• The Institute's water scarcity work is widely quoted in the scientific literature and media of all kinds.• IWMI has provided policy support in countries, especially in India, where IWMI work is regularly cited and up for debate at the national and state level.• IWMI has worked with the World Economic Forum to put water scarcity and agriculture on the agenda of the business community, and has since been increasingly engaged with the business community on the topic of water for agriculture.  Water savings under this scheme will help compensate for the expected loss of 30% of irrigation water due to climate change.• In Sri Lanka, IWMI supported post-tsunami water supply in areas where over one million wells were affected by saline intrusion. IWMI provided timely, sound and simple well cleaning protocols and guidance, the results of which impacted both the tsunami relief efforts as well as the development of international emergency relief guidelines.• IWMI's environmental flow work is recognized globally, with many requests for the Environmental Stress Map, and related tools for analysis. At the national scale, environmental flow computations developed at IWMI are also having significant impact. In India, for example, IWMI's methodology is being used to calculate environmental flow requirements at the state and national level.• Eco-friendly clay technology has rejuvenated degraded soils to improve yields and incomes in Northeast Thailand. An impact assessment study showed higher yields and higher quality of produce for 200 to 400 adopters, and the technique continues to spread with over 20,000 people now exposed to the technology.The new thematic structure represents an evolution of IWMI's past work, and should not be seen as a major shift. Significant changes include the forming of a theme on Water and Society revitalizes IWMI's traditional strength in policies and institutions. Within this theme, gender and poverty issues find a home, but remain crosscutting across the institute. Impact assessment has its separate sub-theme, both to house the impact assessment of IWMI's work, but also to gather methodologies and results and impacts of other people's work. Climate change has arisen to the forefront of IWMI's agenda in Theme 1 on Water Availability and Access. Revitalizing irrigation has returned as an area of focus given the importance of water for food security, and the need for irrigation to grow more food with increasingly constrained water supply. Water quality takes a key role in this strategy and is seen as an area for growth. Issues of water productivity, multiple uses of water, trajectories of basin development, and environmental flows receive less thematic emphasis as special topics, but are integrated into IWMI's work.In addition to science content, the new thematic structure and relation to regional work allows for sharper science and impacts within regions. IWMI has strengthened accountability links to strengthen project delivery and science output, with researchers supervised by project leaders who report to the theme leaders. All research is now designed with impact in mind. IWMI is developing a new 'triple' approach to achieving uptake and eventual impact from its research work, with 1) uptake built into projects, 2) regional strategies both to target relevant research and to turn research into use, and 3) corporate information and communication strategies.IWMI has gone through its internal reform process to respond to needs to deliver more relevant and better science, and to deliver more developmental outcomes. The change was made seemlesly with researchers continuing to deliver high quality results. The world will keep changing, as water and food issues rise on the global agenda. The CGIAR system will change to better respond to rising issues of poverty, food and the environment. IWMI has developed an adaptive learning culture, and is ready for these changes. ","tokenCount":"1049"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"65d1d150dcce0161bbc384381e2b8943","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b683d150-019d-4a09-8934-44467e8501ae/retrieve","id":"1433981966"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c1557489-efce-42f1-aa2a-0ef1c3129a85","pagecount":"1","content":"Bananas (Musa spp.) are a major staple food crop for hundreds of millions of people in developing countries. Banana needs high amounts of water which is one of the most limiting abiotic stress factors in production. Climatic changes as well as expansion of banana cultivation in less humid areas drives the search for a better understanding of drought tolerance at the molecular and physiological levels. Different degrees of drought tolerance have been observed in different cultivars (Vanhove et al. 2012).Most cultivated banana varieties are triploids with an AAA, AAB, or ABB genome constitution, where A and B genomes are contributed by M. acuminata and M. balbisiana, respectively, both sequenced (D'Hont et al 2012; Davey et al. 2013).Three rounds of Whole Genome Duplication (WGD) have been inferred in its evolution (D 'Hont et al 2012); being the last two WGDs relatively recent, the fragmentation process is still in progress and several genes are present in multiple copies (paralogs).To explore the transcriptome global response to drought stress in banana and detect cultivar specific responses to counteract low water availability, three cultivars (one allo-triploid (Cachaco, ABB) and two auto-triploid (Grande Naine and Mbwazirume, AAA)) (Figure 1) with contrasting degrees of observed drought tolerance were sampled for RNAseq analyses under different water supply conditions (5% (W/W) PEG8000 was added to the in vitro medium of the stressed plants, equivalent to an osmotic pressure of 0.5 Bars).Analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) was conducted by taking into account the paleo-polyploid nature of the Musa genome that often implies the presence of two or more paralogous genes with different patterns of gene expression. For each DEG, a genome wide analysis was performed in order to detect all its paralogs (i.e. the Musa genes originated by duplication after the separation of Arabidopsis (dicot) and Musa lineages).In several cases very different expression patterns between paralogs were observed, suggesting sub-functionalization of gene copies (an example in figure 2).Genes coding for several enzymes involved in the energy production were up-regulated in stressed banana roots.All the Musa genes orthologous to the Arabidopsis thaliana genes coding for enzymes in the KEGG Glycolysis-fermentation pathway were identified and their expression checked in the roots of all three cultivars. Most of the genes up-regulated are involved in the transformation of Glucose into Pyruvate (Figure 3). More than one Musa gene can code for the same enzyme. No genes were detected down-regulated.Several banana and plantain cultivars are allo-triploid with A and B genomes. Since the B genome is considered to provide higher drought tolerance to the hybrids (Simmonds 1966), the comparison between A and B derived homeoalleles is particularly interesting. The cultivar Cachaco has an ABB genome constitution and the expression pattern of A and B homeoalleles can be inferred with the help of the Musa A and B whole genome sequences.Silencing of A homeoalleles or additive expression could be observed (Figure 4). The impact of the B genome in the physiological responses to the osmotic stress might be explained by the expression pattern of B homeoalleles.","tokenCount":"501"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3306266133.json b/data/part_3/3306266133.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..334ba20456171eb5ff79f610bec835dcd6d22d9a
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"048e63eb4add1a4827ab95c0d60f1b6c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c6e7ad1a-0d93-453a-b7a9-b287d5e5ece3/retrieve","id":"-1896085737"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0e6e9e75-22d0-4b57-9da4-4c88e000e6ea","pagecount":"14","content":"SECTION A: EXERCISE INFORMATION A1. Date of interview (dd/mm/yyyy) ______/______/__________ A2. Start time (hh:mm) ____________________________________________________________________ A3. End time (hh:mm) _____________________________________________________________________ A4. Name of enumerator 1 (facilitator) _______________________________________________________ A5. Name of enumerator 2 (note taker) ______________________________________________________ A6. Name of enumerator 3 (if applicable) _____________________________________________________ A7. Country _____________________________________________________________________________ A8. Region (UG only) _____________________________________________________________________ A9. Region (TZ)/District (UG) _______________________________________________________________ A10. District (TZ)/Sub-county (UG) __________________________________________________________ A11. Ward (TZ)/Parish (UG) ________________________________________________________________ A12. Village _____________________________________________________________________________ A13. Please indicate the category of respondents for this focus group (W = women; M = men, B = both women and men) _______________________________________________________________________________ A14. Tool use number (the number of times the tool has been conducted) ___________________________ A15. Exercise code 1 _____________________________________________________________________________Within the framework of the IITA-led project \"Improvement of banana for smallholder farmers in the Great Lakes region of Africa\" (also known as the \"Breeding Better Bananas\" project, http://breedingbetterbananas.org), Bioversity International and partners conducted baseline research in the target regions of Luweero and Mbarara in Uganda, and Bukoba, Meru, Moshi and Rungwe in Tanzania during 2015-2016, prior to conducting on-station and on-farm evaluations of new NARITA banana cultivars (http://www.promusa.org/NARITA+hybrids).Five tools were used to characterise the banana and agricultural production systems, and the socioeconomic context of these systems, in the target regions. The research used a mixed-methods, participatory and sex-disaggregated approach to ensure that the knowledge, experiences and opinions of as many people as possible were obtained.The understanding gained from the baseline research will:  be fed into the banana breeding pipeline at multiple entry points to assist with breeding banana cultivars that better meet the requirements of the users. Some of these entry points are: setting of breeding targets; selection of parent material; evaluation in regional on-station and on-farm trials; participatory varietal selection taking into account the criteria (or 'trait preferences') that are important to multiple and different users; facilitating access to and adoption of the new cultivars by farmers and other end-users through scaling up the supply of clean planting materials and ensuring equitable distribution of these through the 'seed' systems; inform the ongoing adaptive management of the project activities to ensure fair participation and decision-making by people in the affected communities; provide the baseline to evaluate, in conjunction with the endline, the impact of adoption of the new cultivars on households, and individuals within, in the target regions.The five tools developed and/or adapted from existing tools for the baseline research were: \"Thank you for coming today to participate in the seasonal calendar exercise where we will discuss the agricultural activities that take place in a typical year. We are ____________, ____________ and ____________, and we work on behalf of Bioversity International on a project where new matooke/ndizi (banana) hybrids, produced by NARO and IITA, will be tested for their performance in different regions of Uganda and Tanzania. If any of the varieties perform well, they will be recommended for official release and made available to farmers. Before we start this project, however, we would like to ask farmers in different regions about their banana production systems, banana varieties, banana products, households and communities -and that is why we are in your village at the moment to conduct household surveys and a number of different focus group discussions.In the seasonal calendar exercise that we will do today, we will discuss the agricultural activities that take place in a typical year, including -the seasons, the crops grown in this village, the activities required to produce the most important crops, who does these activities, and other important times of the year. We expect that this activity will take around 90 minutes. The information that we gather during the exercise will help us to understand your production systems and all the activities and division of labour related to these, and will help us to plan any subsequent project activities that may take place in the village.We would like to record what is said today so that we can make notes later, and we may take some photographs. Also, as some sensitive information might be shared within the group that could cause disharmony in the wider community, we ask you not share any information discussed here outside of this group.Your participation today is entirely voluntary and you are free to leave now before we start, or at any time during the discussion.\"   \"Now we will map these activities onto the seasonal calendar so that we know which activities take place in which seasons and months.\"-When does \"Activity 2\" (as identified) take place? -When does \"Activity 3\" (as identified) take place?~**~ Repeat question as required until all activities listed in D14 have been mapped onto the seasonal calendar.~**~ Record the number of the activity in each month that it takes place, i.e. if \"Activity 1\" occurs in August, September, February, and March then record a \"1\" under each of these months, so that the calendar has \"1\" recorded four times.\"Now that we have mapped all the activities involved in cultivating banana onto the seasonal calendar, the final stage is to go back to the list of activities and designate who does each activity -the men or the women or both. To do this we have four stars that we designate between men and women to the activity:-if the men are the only ones who do that activity, then they receive all four of the stars; -if the women are the only ones who do the activity, then they receive all four of the stars; -if the men and women share that activity equally, then the men receive two stars and the women receive two stars; -if an activity is mostly done by one group but the other group also helps a little, then the allocation of stars would be three to one. Does everyone understand how we allocate the stars to men and women to show who participates in each of the activities?\" ~**~ Use different coloured markers to denote the stars allocated to the men and to the women. Remember to include the coloured stars and which group they represent in the legend.~**~ For questions D16, D17, and D18, use different coloured marker pen to denote the stars allocated to the men and to the women. Remember to include the coloured stars and which group they represent in the legend. \"Now that the calendar for banana is complete, let's map the activities for the second most important crop from our list.\"~**~ Repeat questions D14-D19 for the second most important crop in the list (D8). These activities do not need to be in as much detail as banana activities, e.g.: planting  management  harvest  post-harvest processing and/or selling activities.\"Now that the calendar for the second most important crop is complete, let's map the activities for the third most important crop from our list.\" ~**~ For questions D22, D23, and D24, record the events on the seasonal calendar, underneath the activities of the three crops.. Is there a time of the year when there is an abundance of food in this village? D23. Is there a time of the year when there is a shortage of food in this village? D24. Is there a time of the year when other important events happen in this village? For example: holidays  social events  community events  religious events  Off to one side, hang another sheet of flip chart paper. This sheet will be used for generating lists that group members will need to refer to or keeping other relevant information that remains to be discussed (as a 'parking space' for issues to return to). The discussion starts with identifying the seasons in a year, and characterizing each season and the activities that occur, to create a very specific calendar for the particular village. Remember to record the symbols used on the calendar in a key/legend.  Remember to list the crops grown in the village on a separate flip chart sheet. It is important to achieve consensus on the three most important crops for the village before moving on to make the calendar for the crop-related activities. Remember to use the prompts to guide the participants through the exercise. The goal is to record as much information as possible.During the exercise, the facilitator and note taker have distinct roles and responsibilities:Facilitator: In addition to facilitating the discussion, which includes drawing information out participants, making sure that everyone has a chance to speak, and moving a constructive discussion forward, the facilitator also will draw the calendar and maintain the lists.Note taker: The note taker makes sure that each and every participant is read the Section B: Introduction and Individual informed consent, and that the roster is completed with their details. The note taker will also take notes during the discussion.  Proverbs/adages: language is culture! If there are local sayings that people use in their local languages that express relevant cultural ideas about bananas, agriculture, weather, gender roles, etc. ---please include these.There will be NO English translation for these sayings, but you should note them down in the local vernacular language and then give what the 'gist' or the meaning of the saying is in English. Calendar icons: make sure that at the end of the exercise there is a comprehensive \"legend\" in the notes so that all the icons/symbols are defined.At the end of the exercise  These notes are extremely important to analyzing the calendar information at a later date. Therefore, please try to be as complete and clear as possible!","tokenCount":"1571"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ed150dd6ca274d53745959b531312036","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.fao.org/climatechange/37494-0e0440dd868ad8dad8c2684afbf93efa2.pdf","id":"797345396"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7ab2c9e0-3323-414a-b7e4-a5baa99d2f56","pagecount":"6","content":"La population mondiale augmentera d'un tiers entre aujourd'hui et l'an 2050. La plupart de ces 2 milliards d'individus supplémentaires vivront dans les pays en développement. Dans le même temps, davantage de personnes vivront dans les villes. Si les tendances actuelles de croissance des revenus et de la consommation se poursuivent, la FAO estime que la production agricole devra augmenter de 60% d'ici à 2050 pour satisfaire la demande prévue pour l'alimentation humaine et animale. Ainsi, l'agriculture doit se transformer pour pouvoir nourrir une population mondiale sans cesse croissante et fournir les bases de la croissance économique et de la réduction de la pauvreté. Le changement climatique rendra cette tâche plus difficile dans le contexte d'un scenario tendanciel, en raison des impacts négatifs sur l'agriculture, obligeant constamment à mettre en oeuvre des actions coûteuses d'adaptation.Pour atteindre les objectifs de sécurité alimentaire et de développement agricole, l'adaptation au changement climatique et la réduction de l'intensité des émissions par unité de production seront nécessaires. Cette transformation doit être réalisée sans entraîner l'appauvrissement des ressources naturelles. Le changement climatique a déjà un impact sur l'agriculture et la sécurité alimentaire à travers l'augmentation de la fréquence des événements climatiques extrêmes et l'augmentation de l'imprévisibilité des régimes climatiques. Ceci peut entraîner des baisses de production et de revenus dans les zones vulnérables. Ces changements peuvent également affecter les prix mondiaux des denrées alimentaires. Les pays en développement et les petits exploitants et éleveurs, notamment, sont particulièrement durement touchés par ces changements. Beaucoup de ces producteurs à petite-échelle doivent déjà faire face à des ressources naturelles dégradées. Ils manquent souvent de connaissances sur les options potentielles d'adaptation de leurs systèmes de production et disposent de faibles moyens et de faibles capacités de prise de risques pour accéder à des technologies et des services financiers et les utiliser.Améliorer la sécurité alimentaire tout en contribuant à l'atténuation du changement climatique et à la protection des ressources naturelles, ainsi que des services écosystémiques vitaux, requiert une transition vers des systèmes de production agricole plus productifs, utilisant plus efficacement les intrants, avec une production moins variable et plus stable, plus résilients face aux risques, aux chocs et à la variabilité climatiques de long terme.  Le guide de référence sera publié sur une plateforme web qui permettra également de faciliter l'accès des parties prenantes à des informations, études de cas, manuels, pratiques et systèmes complémentaires. La plate-forme est dynamique et régulièrement mise à jour. www.climatesmartagriculture.org/72611/en","tokenCount":"403"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c0850cfeabcca60bc68e3cf3d578064c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5fa34794-83d7-4275-b115-c72819623de6/content","id":"628186429"},"keywords":["Cercospora zeae maydis","Zea mays","specific combining ability","general combining ability","reciprocal effects","gray leaf spot of maize"],"sieverID":"1a8d72c9-1c50-47db-a004-f789c1690aa0","pagecount":"9","content":"La mancha gris de la hoja o Cercoporosis del maíz (Zea mays L.), causada por el hongo Cercospora zeae maydis Tehon y Daniels, se ha convertido en una enfermedad de importancia económica en regiones del trópico húmedo productoras de maíz en la República de Colombia. Para implementar un programa adecuado de selección y mejoramiento de tolerancia genética a esta enfermedad fue necesario determinar la herencia de esa tolerancia. Para ésto, cinco líneas endogámicas muy tolerantes y cinco susceptibles a la enfermedad se evaluaron usando un diseño dialélico (Griffing Modelo I), en el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Colombia. La variable Índice de Enfermedad (IE; escala 1=tolerante; 5=susceptible) de las líneas progenitoras y sus cruzas directas y recíprocas se determinó en tres ambientes, en lotes de siembra directa e inoculadas artificialmente con inóculo de hojas con síntomas de la enfermedad recolectadas en campos de agricultores. En el análisis combinado, hubo diferencias altamente significativas para los progenitores, cruzas directas y recíprocas, aptitud combinatoria general (ACG) y aptitud combinatoria específica (ACE). No hubo diferencias significativas para progenitores vs cruzas ni para cruzas directas vs recíprocas. Consecuentemente, la heterosis no fue importante en el IE (media de los progenitores: 2.97 y para cruzas: 3.03) y no se observaron efectos maternos para estas líneas (media de cruzas directas y recíprocas: 3.03). La suma de cuadrados (SC) para ACG fue tres veces mayor que la SC de ACE; es decir, los efectos aditivos fueron más importantes que los no aditivos. No se observó interacción de progenitores×ambiente. La interacción de ambientes con cruzas, ACG y ACE fue altamente significativa. Palabras clave: Cercospora zeae maydis, Zea mays, aptitud combinatoria específica, aptitud combinatoria general, efectos recíprocos, mancha gris de la hoja de maíz.ray leaf spot, caused by a complex of the fungus Cercospora spp., is a disease that reduces grain yield of maize (Zea mays L. VOLUMEN 41, NÚMERO 1 4 Huertas, C. A. 2000. Monitoreo de enfermedades de maíz en el Valle del Cauca. Tuluá: ICA. Consejo Regional de Sanidad Vegetal. 22 p. 5 Tisnés, M. R. 2001. Experiencias de maíz/soya en siembra directa en Caicedonia. In: Seminario de actualización tecnológica en el cultivo del maíz. FENALCE/ASIAVA. SENA. Tuluá, Valle. 10 p. 6 Vanegas, H., C. De León y A. M. Moreno B. 2003. Maíces híbridos subtropical x tropical: Una opción tecnológica para la zona cafetalera. FONADE-SENA-SAC-MINAGRICULTURA-FEDERACAFE-CIMMYT-FENALCE. In: Mem. Seminario Internacional en maíz Carlos De León. Manizales, Caldas, Colombia. Sep. 30, 2003. pp: 1-48 (Zea mays L.) (Ward et al., 1999). En Colombia, en 1999, la enfermedad se presentó en forma epidémica en lotes cultivados con labranza de conservación (Varón, 1999) de la región de Caicedonia (zona cafetera del Valle del Cauca, entre 1150-1500 m de altitud). En el 2000 se detectó su presencia en la zona plana del Valle del Cauca, a 1000 m de altitud, con una severidad incipiente (Huertas) [4] . La enfermedad ha prevalecido debido a prácticas de cultivo como la siembra continua de maíz-maíz en ambos ciclos agrícolas, riego por aspersión, siembra directa (en la que los residuos de la cosecha anterior permanecen sobre la superficie), la tendencia a no quemar los residuos ni su incorporación mecanizada y el uso de híbridos comerciales introducidos susceptibles a la enfermedad. Además, la época de siembra y de crecimiento del cultivo coincide con el período de mayor precipitación, alta humedad relativa y bajas temperaturas nocturnas, que hacen más vulnerable al cultivo (Varón et al., 2001;FENALCE-CIMMYT, 2001).En evaluaciones de control de la enfermedad con uno, dos o tres aplicaciones de fungicidas en épocas críticas del desarrollo de plantas de híbridos comerciales de maíz susceptibles, el rendimiento se ha reducido de 22 a 37.5% en función del fungicida utilizado y de la eficiencia de las aspersiones; en lotes comerciales no protegidos las pérdidas fueron 90% (Tisnés, 2001 [5] ; Vanegas et al., 2003 [6] ).Los híbridos de maíz que actualmente se siembran en los climas cálidos de Colombia son susceptibles en diverso grado a esta enfermedad. En Caicedonia (Depto. Valle) y Pereira (Depto. Risaralda) 90% del maiz se cultiva en siembra directa y existen condiciones climáticas propicias para el desarrollo de la enfermedad, como alta precipitación pluvial, alta humedad relativa, variación de temperaturas media diurna/nocturna, nubosidad frecuente y abundancia de inóculo en condiciones naturales, lo que las hace apropiadas para seleccionar germoplasma resistente o muy tolerante. No hay maíces tropicales mejorados con tolerancia genética al complejo de la mancha foliar gris, por lo cual es necesario conocer el tipo de herencia que condiciona la tolerancia al complejo del patógeno Cercospora spp. para diseñar un método de mejoramiento genético más eficiente. Por tanto, el propósito de esta investigación fue evaluar progenitores contrastantes para el carácter tolerancia al complejo de Cercospora, para conocer la importancia y tipo de efectos genéticos que (Ward et al., 1999). In Colombia, in 1999, the disease appeared as an epidemic in maize fields cultivated under conservation tillage (Varón, 1999) of the Caicedonia region (coffee growing zone of the Valle del Cauca, between 1150-1500 m altitude). In 2000, its presence was detected in the plain of the Valle del Cauca, at 1000 m altitude, with an incipient severity (Huertas) [4] . The disease has persisted because of cultivation practices such as the continuous planting of maizemaize in both agricultural cycles, sprinkle irrigation, direct sowing (in which the residues of the previous harvest remain on the ground), the tendency not to burn residues nor to incorporate them mechanically, and the use of introducing commercial hybrids that are susceptible to the disease. Furthermore, the period of sowing and growth of the crop coincides with that of the most abundant rainfall, high relative humidity and low nighttime temperatures, which makes the crop more vulnerable (Varón et al., 2001;FENALCE-CIMMYT, 2001).In evaluations of control of the disease with one, two or three applications of fungicides in critical periods of plant development in susceptible commercial hybrids, yield has been reduced from 22 to 37.5% according to the fungicides used and the efficiency of the applications; in unprotected commercial plots, the losses were 90% (Tisnés, 2001 [5] , Vanegas et al.,  2003 [6] ).The maize hybrids that are currently sown in the warm climate of Colombia are susceptible in varying degree to this disease. In Caicedonia (Depto. Valle) and Pereira (Depto. Risaralda), 90% of the maize is grown under direct cultivation, and there are climatic conditions that promote the development of the disease, such as abundant rainfall, high relative humidity, variation of mean daytime/nighttime temperatures, frequent cloudiness and abundance of inoculum under natural conditions, thus making them appropriate for selecting resistant or very tolerant germplasm. There are no improved tropical maize cultivars with genetic tolerance to the gray leaf spot complex, therefore it is necessary to know the type of inheritance that conditions tolerance to the complex of the pathogen Cercospora spp. in order to design a more efficient breeding method. Consequently, the purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate contrasting parents for the trait of tolerance to the Cercospora complex, to know the importance and Genealogía Origen Reacción a Cercosporacondicionan la herencia de la tolerancia genética a la mancha gris del maíz en germoplasma tropical. Para la siembra en campo se agruparon generaciones (progenitores y cruzas) y se aleatorizaron independientemente en un diseño experimental de parcelas divididas con tres repeticiones por localidad.Las parcelas mayores fueron los progenitores y cruzas, y las parcelas menores fueron las progenies resultantes del cruzamiento directo y de las cruzas recíprocas. La unidad experimental consistió en un surco de 5 m separados 80 cm; en cada surco se sembraron 11 matas a 50 cm y se dejaron dos plantas/mata después del raleo para establecer una densidad de población equivalente a 50 000 plantas ha −1 . En adición del potencial de inóculo presente en condiciones naturales y para garantizar una presión uniforme de inóculo, las plantas se inocularon artificialmente con suspensiones de conidias y con polvo infectivo aplicado 15, 30 y 45 d después de la siembra.Las hojas enfermas utilizadas como fuentes de inóculo se recolectaron de seis lotes de agricultores con una infección severa de Cercospora. En el caso de la aspersión de conidias, el hongo se aisló en cajas de Petri con medio de cultivo papa-dextrosa-agar acidulado con ácido láctico (Tuite, 1969). Una vez que el micelio esporuló, la superficie del medio de cultivo se lavó con agua, la dosis se ajustó a 1.5×10 4 conidias mL −1 con un hematocitómetro y type of genetic effects that condition the inheritance of genetic tolerance to gray leaf spot of maize in tropical germplasm.Five highly tolerant (1 S5 and 4 S7) and five disease-susceptible maize lines (3 S5 and 2 S7) with yellow endosperm (Table 1) The diseased leaves used as inoculum sources were collected from six fields of growers with a severe infection of Cercospora. In the case of spraying of conidia, the fungus was isolated in Petri dishes with a culture medium of potato-dextrose-agar acidulated with lactic acid (Tuite, 1969). Once the mycelia had sporulated, the surface of the culture medium was washed with water, the dose was adjusted VOLUMEN 41, NÚMERO 1 la suspensión resultante se asperjó en las hojas con una aspersora de mochila, al atardecer, para evitar altas temperaturas. En el caso de la preparación del inóculo con polvo infectivo, las hojas enfermas se secaron a la sombra, se molieron finamente y el polvo resultante se aplicó en los cogollos de las plantas (1 g planta −1 ). La aplicación del polvo infectivo se hizo 2 ó 3 d después de la aplicación de la suspensión. Para asegurar una producción adicional de inóculo, se sembró un híbrido comercial muy susceptible en surcos de bordo.Con la experiencia acumulada durante el proceso de selección de las líneas se optó por utilizar el Índice de Enfermedad (IE) por planta con una escala de severidad de la enfermedad de 1 a 5, con de 0.5: 1=muy pocas o prácticamente sin lesiones;2=escasa presencia de lesiones en el primer tercio inferior de la planta; 3=lesiones moderadas en la hoja que acompaña la mazorca superior y abundantes lesiones en las hojas inferiores a la mazorca;4=lesiones severas en dos terceras partes del follaje de la planta excluyendo el tercio superior; 5=toda la planta afectada. Esta escala se aplicó en plantas adultas 20 d después de floración con base en la metodología de Thompson et al. (1987)   El rendimiento de grano (t ha −1 ) de las líneas progenitoras y sus valores de ID de la enfermedad se muestran en el Cuadro 2. to 1.5×10 4 conidia mL −1 with a hematocytometer, and the resulting suspension was sprayed on the leaves with a portable sprayer, at sunset, to avoid high temperatures. In the case of the preparation of the inoculum with infective powder, the diseased leaves were dried in the shade, then finely ground and the resulting powder was applied on the shoots of the plants (1 g plant −1 ). The application of infective powder was made 2 or 3 d after the application of the suspension. To insure an additional production of inoculum, a very susceptible commercial hybrid was planted in border rows.With the experience accumulated during the selection process of the lines, it was decided to use the Disease Index (DI) per plant with a disease severity scale of 1 to 5, with subdivisions of 0.5: 1=very few or almost no lesions; 2=scant presence of lesions in the lower first third of the plant; 3=moderate lesions in the leaf of the upper ear and abundant lesions in the leaves below the ear; 4=severe lesions in two thirds of the foliage of the plant excluding the upper third; 5=the entire plant infected. This scale was applied in adult plants 20 d after flowering based on the methodology of Thompson et al. (1987) and validated by Saghai-Maroof et al. (1993).The data of the diallel were analyzed using the method of Hallauer and Miranda (1981) which combines advantages of analysis of diallels of the Gardner and Eberhart (1966) model and those of Griffing (1956). Because it is Model 1 or fixed model, given the fact that the lines were selected according to their particular reaction of tolerance or susceptibility to the Cercospora spp. complex, and make up the population to be studied, the diallel analysis is restricted to the evaluation of genetic effects, especially of the values of general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA).The SAS program and GENES software were used to carry out the analysis of variance of the corresponding variable to the DI for the Cercospora spp. complex, per environment and the combined analysis of the three environments considered. The significance was determined of the principal factors (environments, genotypes, crosses, parents vs. crosses, GCA and SCA) along with the interaction with environments and the mean square of the experimental error.The linear model used in the analysis of diallelic crosses (method of Hallauer and Miranda, 1981) was as follows: The grain yield (t ha −1 ) of the parent lines and their DI values of the disease are shown in Table 2.Cuadro 2. Rendimiento de grano y reacción a Cercospora de 10 líneas progenitoras. The analyses of variance of individuals (Table 3) show that in the three environments there was a Los análisis de varianza individuales (Cuadro 3) muestran que en los tres ambientes hubo una alta Cuadro 3. Análisis de varianza del diseño dialélico por ambiente para Índice de Enfermedad al complejo Cercospora spp., en 10 líneas de maíz tropical y sus cruzamientos directos y recíprocos. Al descomponer los efectos de ACG y ACE en cada ambiente, la magnitud de los cuadrados medios tambien fueron significativos, lo que concuerda con Coates y White (1998) quienes indican que la ACG y ACE fueron significativas para las líneas estudiadas. En el grupo de líneas tropicales utilizadas en el presente estudio, los efectos de ACG son mayores que los del componente ACE y recíprocos; es decir, en estas líneas debe primero agotarse la varianza genética aditiva debida a ACG, para luego aprovechar la ACE en cruzamientos específicos.Aun con la variación observada entre genotipos en los tres ambientes, las medias de IE fueron cercanas a un valor de 3 (en escala 1 a 5) lo que indica un alto nivel de infección en los ambientes.El análisis de varianza combinado (Cuadro 4) también atribuyó una porción significativa de la variación a los genotipos. Las líneas son bastante homocigóticas y no hay una población referencia para realizar inferencias. Por tanto, cada progenitor constituye una población sobre la que se deriva información genética y, siendo un modelo fijo, la evaluación se restringe a estimar efectos de ACG y ACE según lo establecido por Hallauer y Miranda (1981). Los cuadrados medios para cada efecto genético fueron altamente significativos, aunque la magnitud de los cuadrados medios para ACG fueron 11 veces mayores que el componente de ACE o los efectos recíprocos.Al combinar genotipos (modelo fijo) con ambientes (modelo aleatorio), el modelo se convirtió en mixto y la prueba de los factores principales de la variación (genotipos, progenitores, progenitores vs cruzas, cruzas directas, cruzas recíprocas, ACG y ACE) se realizó usando como denominador la interacción por ambiente correspondiente. En este caso, los componentes resultaron altamente significativos (p≤0.01), incluyendo los efectos de cruzamientos recíprocos, exceptuando solamente progenitores vs cruzas. Cuando las interacciones se probaron con el Cuadrado Medio del Error (CME), todas las interacciones fueron altamente significativas, excepto en progenitores×ambiente y cruzas recíprocas×ambiente.Los efectos de ACG (Cuadro 5) fueron negativos y significativamente diferentes de cero para tres de las cinco líneas altamente tolerantes a Cercospora, cuyo orden fue CLA 111, CLA 105 y CLA 160, lo que significa que estas líneas fueron las de mayor tolerancia a la enfermedad. Además, las medias del IE de high significance of various components of variation, including genotypes, represented by the variation among crosses with effects of greater magnitude due to the direct crosses. The components that were not statistically significant were parents vs. crosses and the effect of the reciprocal crosses.As the effects of GCA and SCA were analyzed in each environment, the magnitude of the mean squares was also significant, which concurs with Coates and White (1998), who indicate that the GCA and SCA were significant for the lines studied. In the group of tropical lines used in the present study, the effects of GCA are greater than those of the SCA component and are reciprocal; that is, in these lines the additive genetic variance due to GCA should first be exhausted, to later utilize the SCA in specific crosses.Even with the variation observed among genotypes in the three environments, the means of DI were close to a value of 3 (on a scale of 1 to 5), which indicates a high level of infection in the environments.The combined analysis of variance (Table 4) also attributed a significant portion of the variation to the genotypes. The lines are highly homozygotic, and there is no reference population for making inferences. Therefore, each parent constitutes a population on which genetic information is derived, and being a Cuadro 5. Efectos de aptitud combinatoria general y media del Índice de Enfermedad por Cercospora. La varianza de los efectos estimados de ACG [DP(gi)=0.03] y de la diferencia entre dos estimadores de ACG [DP(Gi−Gj)=0.05] confirman la validez estadística (en valor absoluto) de estas estimaciones que fueron muy disímiles entre los progenitores.Los efectos de ACE (Cuadro 6, arriba de la diagonal) indicaron que los cruzamientos no necesariamente obedecieron a las expectativas basadas en el comportamiento promedio de los progenitores. Así, sólo una de las combinaciones específicas estuvo formada por ambos progenitores resistentes (L1×L2, que correspondió a CLA 12×CLA 105) en el cual no hay efecto materno como se verifica con el recíproco. Las otras combinaciones específicas sobresalientes estuvieron conformadas por la combinación entre una fixed model, the evaluation is restricted to estimating effects of GCA and SCA according to what was established by Hallauer and Miranda (1981). The mean squares for each genetic effect were highly significant, although the magnitude of the mean squares for GCA was 11 times greater than the SCA component or the reciprocal effects.When genotypes were combined (fixed model) with environments (random model), the model became mixed and the test of the principal factors of the variation (genotypes, parents, parents vs. crosses, direct crosses, reciprocal crosses, GCA and SCA) was conducted using the interaction per corresponding environment as denominator. In this case, the components were highly significant (p≤0.01), including the effects of reciprocal crosses, with the exception only of parents vs. crosses. When the interactions were tested with the Mean Square Error (MSE), all of the interactions were highly significant, except in parents×environment and reciprocal crosses×environment. línea tolerante con una línea susceptible (i.e., L3×L6 y L4×L6), e incluso por combinaciones entre progenitores susceptibles L7×L10 y cruzas donde se esperaría una mayor contribución de tolerancia de la línea 3 (CLA 111) que registró el más bajo ID a través de localidades.Las estimaciones de efectos recíprocos (Cuadro 6, abajo de la diagonal) se reparten proporcionalmente: una tercera parte fue negativa, otra positiva y la fracción restante igual a cero, lo que explicaría, al menos parcialmente, la pequeña magnitud comparativa que exhibió el cuadrado medio de efectos recíprocos (0.2) en el análisis de varianza (Cuadro 3) en comparación con los cuadrados medios para ACG y ACE. Pero, dado que alcanzó una diferencia estadística altamente significativa, no se debe descartar que, adicional a los efectos genéticos del núcleo, haya efectos maternos o citoplásmicos en los materiales con resistencia a Cercospora, porque Huff et al. (1988) consideraron que estos efectos tenían menor importancia que los de ACG y ACE, a pesar de los efectos recíprocos significativos.En las líneas de maíz tropical evaluadas, la acción génica aditiva es de mayor importancia en la determinación de la tolerancia al complejo de Cercospora spp. La mejor combinación específica estuvo formada por dos líneas muy tolerantes: CLA12 y CLA105. Líneas con alto nivel de tolerancia no necesariamente producen híbridos tolerantes; además, no se debe descartar la influencia de efectos maternos o citoplásmicos. La acumulación de genes de tolerancia mediante mejoramiento poblacional y la generación de sintéticos con alto grado de tolerancia ofrecen una alternativa para programas de mejoramiento de maíz tropical con tolerancia genética a este complejo patogénico.The effects of GCA (Table 5) were negative and significantly different from zero for three of the five lines highly tolerant to Cercospora, whose order was CLA 111, CLA 105 and CLA 160, which means that these lines were those of highest tolerance to the disease. In addition, the means of the DI of these lines were 1.7, 2.6 and 2.0, whereas the general mean of infection was 3.02. Except for line CLA83, the susceptible parents showed positive values of GCA; lines CLA37 and CLA154 were the most susceptible, with values of 4.2 and 4.1.The variance of the estimated effects of GCA [DP(gi)=0.03] and of the difference between two estimators of GCA [DP(Gi−Gj)=0.05] confirm the statistical validity (in absolute value) of these estimations which were very different among the parents.The effects of SCA (Table 6, above the diagonal) indicated that the crosses did not necessarily conform to the expectations based on the average behavior of the parents. Thus, only one of the specific combinations was formed by both resistant parents (L1×L2, which corresponded to CLA 12×CLA 105) in which there is no maternal effect as is verified with the reciprocal cross. The other outstanding specific combinations were comprised by the combination between a tolerant line and a susceptible line (i.e., L3×L6 and L4×L6), and even by combinations among susceptible parents L7×L10 and crosses where a higher contribution of tolerance would be expected of line 3 (CLA 111), which registered the lowest DI through localities.The estimations of reciprocal effects (Table 6, below the diagonal) are proportionally distributed: a third part was negative, another was positive and the rest was equal to zero, which would explain, at least in part, the small comparative magnitude exhibited by the mean square of reciprocal effects (0.2) in the variance analysis (Table 3) compared with the mean squares for GCA and SCA. However, given that a highly significant difference was reached, the possibility should not be overlooked that, in addition to the genetic effects of the nucleus, there are maternal or cytoplasmic effects in the materials with resistance to Cercospora, as Huff et al. (1988) considered that these effects had less importance than those of GCA and SCA, in spite of the significant reciprocal effects.In the tropical maize lines evaluated, the additive genetic action is of major importance in the determination of tolerance to the Cercospora spp. complex. The best specific combination was formed by","tokenCount":"3756"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0f477ec2ad77ff285b3bb78c3edf5700","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0662f1d7-a12e-428a-9a87-bf6b4b76b635/retrieve","id":"1332059855"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8acdf053-5b0f-41e7-b2f3-32c7959ab159","pagecount":"1","content":"• Hydrological bounded runoff plots used to evaluate at plot scale (Fig. 2).• Gauge hydrological stations were used to evaluate at watershed scale (Fig. 2).Average SSC (g lt-1)• Plot-and catchment-level experiments showed significate differences in runoff and sediment yield between treatments and land use/cover types (Fig. 3 , 4 and Table 1).• Terraces with trenches on cropland reduced runoff and soil loss by 44% and 52%, respectively.• At the catchment scale, discharge reduced by over 40% for the sub-watershed with SWC practices.• Sediment yield at catchment scale reduced by 70% due to SWC and water harvesting measures.The SWC mobilization program achieved the intended target to reduce soil erosion and increase retention capacity of the watersheds. Integrating physical measures with biological options and supplementing these with water harvesting structures can promote their adoption.Fig  We thank farmers and local partners in Africa RISING sites for their support Soil erosion is a serious problem for agricultural production in Ethiopia (Fig. 1). To tackle it, communities are engaged in various soil and water conservation (SWC) and water harvesting practices.","tokenCount":"175"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a3b2c0adb4db9f65d962a790f93fc340","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c453c0ce-ab47-469d-85f5-449514263ef6/retrieve","id":"1374301183"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ce664964-bbe9-4f9b-b613-61f2c115ef26","pagecount":"4","content":"En los •Dltimos cinco afias en Carimagua, se han desarrollado varios sistemas de establecimiento de praderas, con énfasis en' la reducci6n del costo y del peligro de erosión durante la fase de establecimiento, Se ha empleado maquinaria relativamente sencí lla,y de fabricación nacional o susceptible a la producción loca l.Todavía no se tiene una metodología satisfactoria para determinar los requerimientos de mantenimiento de especies adaptadas en forma precisa.Respecto al manejo de diferentes asociaciones, se han iniciado varios proyectos para determinar los mejores sistemas de pastoreo y los rangos de carga adecuados para las asociaciones más promisorias.  1.-Preparar el terreno con la mínima labranza posible consistente en un control adecuado de sabana ó malezas. se reduce el costo y el pel igro de erosión dura•nte Así la fase de establecimiento y se logra un mejor ambiente pa~a la . . . plántula, recién emergida. El rastrillo ~aliforniano es un implemento común y tradicional que sirve para una labran za mínima. Mientras más arenoso el suelo, más grave la ••sobrepreparación.2.-Sembrar superfictalmente en hileras en el terreno asentado por algunas lluvias fuertes después de la preparación, para evitar la tapada•excesiva de la semilla.3.-Fertilizar en bandas en la siembra para mayor eficiencia en el uso de fertilizahte y menos problemas de malezas. Calfos y roca fosfórica pueden ir directamente con la semilla. Cuando el abono contiene K o N, hay que separarlo 5 cm laterales de la semilla para evitar la qu~ma de las plántulas.4.-Compactar el suelo sobre la hilera con las llantas del trac tor, la sembradora ó con ruedas de compactación. Mientras más profunda la labranza, más floja la tierra y más importa~ te la compactación.5.-Sembrar material vegetativo de ! .. decumbens y!., humidicola de buena calidad, fresco, de buen vigor y con varios nudo.s por•estaca. Es importante taparlo tan pronto se distribuye, dejando expuesto un extremo de la estaca y compactando la tierra por encima. Muchos agricultores prefieren el material vegetativo sobre semilla sexual por ser m.ás seguro el establecimiento.6.-Controlar la hormiga que constituye uno de los'problemas más graves en el establecimiento de pastos. Preparar el terreno con anticipación (mínimo un mes antes de la siembra) y estar pendiente de su control en el momento que emerjan las plantas. A. gayanus es muy susceptible al ataque de . hormigas, aún desptes de establecido. Las hormigas son a menudo nocturnas. 10.-Fertilizar para el mantenimiento; es muy importante para la productividad y la persistencia de la pradera. Se puede aplicar al voleo y superficialmente. aplicaci6n depende de 1.5 especies y de la uso (carga).La 'taza de intensidad de 11.-Serán expuestos varios sistemas no tradicionales de prepa-raci6n del 'terreno y de siembra que reducen fuertemente el","tokenCount":"442"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"07eb9374e8a7887ed088ba78e91e5f3f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d9b30b0e-317f-4be3-95ad-b13316279c2a/retrieve","id":"937709360"},"keywords":["Dinuk Senapatiratne Dahl, H.","Njiru, A.","Sewe, L.","Dlamini, J.","Nortje, K.","Nowak, A.","Giombini, V.","Ires, I.","Peterson, N.","Birachi, E.","Dirwai, T.","Mhlanga, B.","Alamu, E. 2023. Food systems accelerator: agri-innovation report. Colombo, Sri Lanka:"],"sieverID":"2208cf92-3c09-4d7c-9a48-1627dbf9d864","pagecount":"160","content":"Agribusinesses are the bedrock of the African food systems economy. These enterprises are not just commercial ventures; they are essential contributors to food security, economic development, and sustainable livelihoods across the region. With a myriad of value chains, they are intricately woven into the fabric of East and Southern Africa's agricultural landscape.However, a stark reality is hindering growth in the sector. Agribusinesses find themselves chronically underfunded, facing a complex web of challenges that hinder their potential. Two key reasons underlie this financial constraint. First, the lack of access to affordable credit and investment opportunities hampers their ability to expand operations and adopt modern, efficient technologies. Second, market instability and unpredictability deter investors and lenders from engaging with agribusinesses.The CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator presents innovative and effective solutions to strengthen the agribusinesses and support them in delivering impact at scale.By providing a blend of demand-driven, science-based technical assistance and investment-readiness, the program is designed to bridge the gap between potential and progress. By connecting agribusinesses with leading food systems scientists, we are equipping agribusinesses with the tools, knowledge, and resources they need to thrive.The results of the 6-month engagement represent tangible evidence of the program's impact. From the development of Africa's first vegan milk made from indigenous fruits, to improved irrigation systems that enhance productivity while reducing environmental impacts, to new product lines for baby food made from soy, these examples illustrate the real-world benefits of our collaborative efforts.This report is a testament to CGIAR's serious commitment to address the funding challenges facing agribusinesses. It showcases our collective determination to create a future where agribusinesses flourish, investments flow, and research translates into practical change. We invite you to explore these success stories and consider joining us in reshaping the future of agribusiness in East and Southern Africa.Thank you for your engagement and support.Sincerely,Food Systems Accelerator Co-Lead 1.Introduction to the program 2.OBJECTIVES OF THE FOOD SYSTEMS ACCELERATORFour different workstreams were established to provide a comprehensive support mechanism. Those four workstreams are on the Enabling Environment, Gender and Social Inclusion, Impact Measurement, and Innovation-specific Technical Assistance. Each company has received advisory services across the four workstreams, resulting in various outputs that support the companies in their development. The workstreams are described below, and the results are summarized in Section 3.In successful agribusiness acceleration, a supportive enabling environment is as fundamental as addressing the financing gap. The enabling environment comprises policies, rules, and regulations created by governments that are fundamental for agribusinesses to launch and grow successfully. Challenges in devising a conducive enabling environment reflect upon enterprises with high risks and transaction costs and prevent them from making a profit in return for their investment.Enabling environment technical assistance under the Food Systems Accelerator seeks to help agribusinesses tackle these challenges to the extent it is realistic during the program period. The team thereby adapts a low-hanging fruit strategy that will help address some of the biggest challenges highlighted by enterprises in a time-efficient manner. The prioritized assistance is research-based and shortterm: mapping the policy and regulatory environment and the opportunities for public-private partnerships and market expansion. Examples may include providing demand-driven transparent information regarding quality standards and environmental compliances, bureaucratic processes, and land and water rights and fees. For some enterprises, the action plan includes identifying key partners and public-and private-sector parties and linking them with enterprises to form market and partnership connections. Apart from that, long-term assistance includes policy advocacy, such as working with governments to design incentives and enact export duty and tax exemptions for agribusinesses, driving significant social and environmental change. During the first cohort of the FSA Program, the Enabling Environment Unit supported five agribusinesses.Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) is a key strategic factor that determines the economic, social, and environmental(climate) resilience and sustainability of any business, especially Agribusinesses in Africa. This element of the technical assistance focused on highlighting why GESI should matter to businesses while illustrating why women and youth require additional support to participate fully in agricultural value chains. A business case was made by outlining what strategic benefits the Accelerator partners would enjoy by being more inclusive. An individual GESI Action Plan was developed for each Partner.A GESI Action Plan is a powerful mainstreaming tool that will help the Accelerator Partners derive the benefits and impact of being GESI smart by guiding them and their teams in the development and adaptation of inclusive strategies and practices. Additionally, the plan will help monitor the implementation progress of the same. An effective plan allows the business to attain better performance, manage risk, retain good talent, implement business solutions more effectively and efficiently, and engage with aligned gender lens investors effectively.The following key steps were followed in developing the GESI Action plan. They included baseline data collection, analysis, and development of gender goals and activities.The process began with collecting gender and age-disaggregated baseline data through an online questionnaire guided by the 2X Criteria. Data was collected on entrepreneurship (founding and ownership), leadership (senior management and board positions), employment (internal and external workforce and partners), and consumption (products, services, and communication).The baseline data was analyzed to understand and assess the current gender equality and social inclusion profile of the business. The identified gaps and opportunities for higher inclusion formed the plan's basis.Following the GESI analysis and assessment and identifying inclusion gaps and opportunities, a list of goals and activities was developed and summarized into a GESI action plan presented as a schedule/ table (Section 2.3 in each plan). The targets were developed for the primary themes/gender outputs that guided the collection of the baseline data, as summarized above.Three main frameworks guided the GESI outputs and target development: the 2X Global Criteria, the CGIAR GESI framework, and the genderresponsive business model canvas.The Food Systems Accelerator focused on four specific Innovation Themes. In their application to the program, successful companies demonstrated the ability to scale an innovation that falls into one of the four themes. Through the participatory co-design of action plans, companies and researchers created a TA program that matched the companies' needs with relevant researchers' areas of expertise.The four innovation themes are the following:Mechanization in agriculture involves using machinery to boost productivity, encompassing tools and equipment for farming. In contrast, mechanized irrigation, using pumps and other methods, enhances water efficiency, contributing to climate action through innovations like solar-powered irrigation and storage solutions.Conservation agriculture promotes minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and crop diversification to enhance natural processes, reduce the need for chemical fertilizers, and improve overall agricultural sustainability. This approach is based on three principles: minimal soil disturbance, soil cover maintenance, and crop diversification, along with other practices like sustainable intensification, Integrated Soil Fertility Management, and Integrated Pest Management.Nutrition-sensitive, climate-smart agriculture is the solution to decreasing the trade-offs between agricultural productivity, climate change, and human and animal nutrition. They make farming more climate-sensitive and produce more nutritious food while maintaining productivity. Some examples of innovations under this theme include products such as legumes, cassava, livestock, dairy, oil seeds, horticulture (fresh produce and vegetables), and other staples.Agricultural Risk Management (ARM) is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks in agricultural activities, including coordinated and economic applications to minimize, monitor, and control the probability or impact of unfortunate events and maximize opportunities. They make farming more predictable and increase the resilience of farmers. Some examples of innovations under this theme include advisory services, market linkage services, digitizing the value chain, and financial products (microinsurance, savings, lending, and credit guarantees).OBJECTIVES OF THE FOOD SYSTEMS ACCELERATORMeasuring and managing impact helps agribusinesses to (i) attract new finance streams, such as climate-oriented impact investors and emerging funds for incentivizing climate-smart business models;(ii) identify risks and opportunities for building the climate resilience of their supply chain(s); (iii) build credibility and competitive advantage on the market; and (iv) periodically revisit and refine their business models to maximize returns and impacts. This technical assistance aimed to improve companies' understanding of and access to practical, science-informed tools to assess their contribution to climatesmart agriculture impacts for smallholder farmers and rural, peri-urban, and urban communities.These impacts refer to (i) sustainable increases in productivity and incomes to ensure food and nutrition security;(ii) reduced vulnerability, increased adaptive capacities, and climate resilience; and (iii) reductions or capture of greenhouse gas emissions 5 . Throughout the technical assistance, the agribusinesses were engaged in a co-design and co-learning process, allowing them to develop tailored solutions while building their knowledge and skills with their peers. The program equipped agribusinesses with the essential steps to measure and manage CSA-related impacts on their business operations. The knowledge and skills were then harnessed to craft robust impact pathways, which showcase how business innovations provide solutions for addressing poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition, and climate vulnerabilities by creating new jobs, improving farm productivity, profitability, and livelihoods, by increasing resilience to climate risks and reducing contributions to climate change. These impact pathways are integrated into their business models and foundation for identifying, measuring, and tracking indicators pertinent to each agribusiness.KENYA 17 ResultsS table Foods Ltd., based in Kenya, provides comprehensive, tailored-made services to smallholder farmers to increase their agricultural production outputs. Specifically, Stable Foods believes that it is not possible to make the journey from subsistence farmer to high-value, high-yield commercial crop farmer without a foundation of irrigation. Accordingly, SF's primary innovation is its irrigation-asa-service (IaaS) product, which brings irrigation to SHF more affordably than ever before. Beyond that, the company provides smallholder farmers with additional need-specific services that close the production/value chain gap: as-a-service and inputs and agronomic-related (i.e., regenerative agriculture) training provisions and, finally, a guaranteed offtake program. From the menu of products and services Stable Foods provides, smallholder farmers can create different solutions based on their unique needs. The company's business model relies on the sales of its crops on leased land and produces from its partners and subscriptions from its irrigationas-a-service product, as well as the income from IaaS payments and input/services purchases. Stable Foods LTD has enabled economies of scale and driven down the costs of drip irrigation per unit area through leveraging shared capital expenditure (i.e., solar pumps and reservoirs) through networked irrigation solutions feeding into smaller plots in the same area and does not sell IaaS subscriptions to individual customers 6 . The company has further proven that economies of scale can drive down the costs per unit for smallholder farmers, making irrigation work even for tiny plots of land at an affordable price point to any smallholder farmer 7 . Progress and traction with real farmers have proven that the suite of services provided by Stable Foods (irrigation, inputs, training, and offtake programs) is incredibly successful in increasing yield and partner profit. Stable Foods targets a farmer partner yearly output of 25,000kg per acre, which would effectively eradicate food insecurity within the region if scaled to 1% of smallholder farmers, and the company targets a 10x increase in farmer profit vs. pre-Stable Foods interventions. Both metrics have been achieved in the early stages.Kenya's population is mainly rural, divided into pastoral, smallholder agricultural, and large farm areas. Population census has previously estimated that more than 70 percent of Kenya's population lived in smallholder agricultural areas. Poverty is more prevalent in the country's smallholder agricultural areas, but incidences may be higher in some parts. Different poverty estimates in agricultural smallholder areas suggest that about 25% of the smallholder agricultural households were poor enough and unable to afford what is regarded as minimum food requirements 8 . There are still major constraints in smallholder productivity and commercialization of smallholder farmers in Kenya, i.e., the link between production and marketing, as well as practices that will give them a competitive advantage and improved productivity. The smallholder farming industry of the country requires support to improve its productivity through innovative collective action models that combine the strengths of both the private and public sectors 9 . Stable Foods Ltd. has raised about $ 600,000to support smallholder farmers...There exists an evident productivity gap in smallholder farming. On the other hand, there is alarming evidence that implementing irrigation improves yields and income in smallholder farms. Despite the evidence gap, less than 3% of smallholder farmers have access to irrigation in Kenya today due to a lack of affordability. Thus, leveraging shared capital expenditure through networked irrigation solutions could be a solution to improving smallholder yield and income productivity in Kenya 14 .Stable Foods Ltd. has raised about $ 600,000.00 to support smallholder farmers with various tailored needs they may require at the point and time. Through access to the funding, the company has aimed to expand its concept to about 100 farmers by the end of 2023 15 .Dr. Idil Ires is a political economist-consultant specializing in agrarian change, trade, and industrialization in East Africa. She will assist the Accelerator Partners by conceptualizing an Agribusiness Enabling Environment (AEE) focusing on targeted technical assistance, mapping, and policy advocacy. This aided in tackling significant operational barriers, prioritization of the agribusiness partner's needs, providing relevant industry associations, and establishing policy harmonization.With Stable Foods Kenya, a similar significant gap in interactions with the government and a lack of knowledge of bureaucratic steps around water permit acquisitions was identified. Stable Foods indicated that some officials and local guiding persons sought to capitalize on the unfamiliarity of this enterprise to these steps in the county of operations, giving conflicting information about the permit acquisition process and the associated costs. As a result, this enterprise has been impacted by a significant delay in the timely registration of permits at the core of its irrigation business. To help Stable Foods gain transparent information about the permits and in the later stages of its business, linkages with the county governmental office are established, which showed a willingness to support, and introductions are facilitated.The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) technical assistance implementation process was led by The Rallying Cry team in collaboration with Dr. Karen Nortje. The Rallying Cry is an ecosystem initiative working to shift private sector capital at the nexus of gender, climate, and agribusiness. At the same time, Dr. Karen Nortje is a senior researcher and social inclusion subject matter expert. The team supported the Accelerator Partners by equipping them to strengthen the capacity and agency of both the men and women within their agribusiness value chain(s). To achieve this, the team developed a gender action plan for Stable Foods Ltd to help address the barriers to gender inclusivity.The analysis of the company's GESI baseline data showed that the company already has gender resources, including policies and a standing Gender Action Plan (from which info was pulled out and updated into the updated plan). Women are fairly well represented in the small-holder farmers (37.5 %) as well as in the workforce (33%) and senior management (40%). In terms of youth, 83% of the workforce is made up of youth. A majority of customers and beneficiaries are women.A summary profile is given below: The product addresses women's specific needsAddresses a problem that disproportionately affects womenMajority of beneficiaries are women conducted for employees (2023)The main product is healthy, affordable accessible food and women are key purchasers/decision makersPromotional channels that are likely to reach more women or youth have not been explored Products are not marketed in a way that specifically targets women or youthThe activities designed for the Accelerator Partner were geared towards making them more inclusive to youth and more responsive to their customers who are mainly women. For example, the company needs to organize gender mainstreaming training for management and the rest of the employees and adjust the facilities to cater to the unique needs of women. Finally, given the nature of the producthealthy and affordable food, marketing communication needs to be more targeted towards women.Dr. Tinashe Dirwai provided technical support on irrigation systems design, evaluation, and agricultural water management (AWM) strategies. The AWM components include applying crop, water, and land-based models to perform scenario analyses for improved natural resource use efficiencies.The company and CGIAR partners innovated a field guide for irrigation and agronomic farm performance assessment. The field guide was critical for the company to strengthen irrigation water management and agronomy for effective water productivity and long-term environmental sustainability.The impact pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with an interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness.t pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with an interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness.Photography: Ukama UstawiStable Foods provides affordable and sustainable irrigation to thousands of smallholder farmers (SHF) in Kenya. This allows them to engage in farming, to improve crop yields and income, leading to enhanced resilience, livelihoods, food security and nutrition security in their communitiesAssumptions: 1) There is market demand for farmers' products; 2) Farmers implement recommendations shared during training; 3)Women and youth have access to land that they could farm; 4) Increases in yields and farm income make agriculture more appealing to people in the community, especially women and youth; 5) SHF are able to use farm income to improve their livelihoods and wellbeing Photography: Ukama Ustawi T he Insectary Kenya is an enterprise established in 2018 that uses Black Soldier Flies (Hermetia illucens) to produce an alternative protein source for animal feed, thus employing circularity principles of returning food waste into the chain 16 . The company's business model is based on providing high-quality and proteinrich Black Soldier Fly larvae, pupae, and eggs to the animal feed, aquaculture, and waste management industries 17 . Insectary Kenya's business model is based on three principles: (1) Sustainability, which reduces the environmental impact associated with protein production, i.e., reduced greenhouse gas emissions; (ii) Quality assurance: production processes follow high safety and quality standards, and (iii) Research and Development: inhouse research team continuously work innovating to improve breeding techniques, optimizing feed formulation, and exploring new applications for the Black Soldier Fly products 18 .Kenya's population is mainly rural, divided into pastoral, smallholder agricultural, and large farm areas. Population census has previously estimated that more than 70 percent of Kenya's population lived in smallholder agricultural areas. Poverty is more prevalent in the country's smallholder agricultural areas, but incidences may be higher in some parts. Different poverty estimates in agricultural smallholder areas suggest that about 25% of the smallholder agricultural households were poor enough and unable to afford what is regarded as minimum food requirements 19 . There are still significant constraints in smallholder productivity and commercialization of smallholder farmers in Kenya, i.e., the link between production and marketing, as well as practices that will give them a competitive advantage and improved productivity. The smallholder farming industry of the country requires support to improve its productivity through innovative collective action models that combine the strengths of both the private and public sectors 20 .In the wake of a need to reduce landfill waste and the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production chain of other protein sources, i.e., livestock, there is a need to explore alternative environment-friendly animal feed. Hence, the innovation by The Insectary Kenya Ltd. to use Black Soldier Flies in converting organic waste into a valuable protein source 21 .Reducing landfill waste and the intensity of atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions is one of the grand challenges of the 21st century. Thus, Insectary Kenya's innovation of applying the circularity principles through producing protein-rich feed from waste repurposes waste that would otherwise end up in landfills and increase the production and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions 22 .Insectary Kenya currently collaborates with a wide range of universities, research institutions, and businesses to advance the field of insect farming and its applications, intending to innovate and broaden the scope of sustainable solutions 23 . The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) technical assistance implementation process was led by The Rallying Cry team in collaboration with Dr. Karen Nortje. The Rallying Cry is an ecosystem initiative working to shift private sector capital at the nexus of gender, climate, and agribusiness. At the same time, Dr. Karen Nortje is a senior researcher and social inclusion subject matter expert. The team supported the Accelerator Partners by equipping them to strengthen the capacity and agency of both the men and women within their agribusiness value chain(s). To achieve this, the team developed a gender action plan for The Insectary Kenya to help address the barriers to gender inclusivity.The analysis of the GESI baseline data showed that the company already has gender resources, including policies and a standing Gender Action Plan (from which info was pulled out and updated into the updated plan). Women are fairly well represented in the small-holder farmers (37.5 %) as well as in the workforce (33%) and senior management (40%). In terms of youth, 83% of the workforce is made up of youth. A majority of customers and beneficiaries are women.A summary profile is given on the next page: The product addresses women's specific needsAddresses a problem that disproportionately affects womenThe main product is healthy, affordable accessible food and women are key purchasers/decision makersPromotional channels that are likely to reach more women or youth have not been exploredProducts are not marketed in a way that specifically targets women or youthThe activities designed for the Accelerator Partner were geared towards making them more inclusive to youth and more responsive to their customers who are mainly women. For example, the company needs to organize gender mainstreaming training for management and the rest of the employees and adjust the facilities to cater to the unique needs of women. Finally, given the nature of the producthealthy and affordable food, marketing communication needs to be more targeted towards women.Dr. Nathanial Petersen assisted the company in delivering its innovation. Nate is an agriculture and natural resource economist with a Ph.D. in Decision Theory and Behavioral Economics who has been working in research, agribusiness strategy, and running farms in Kenya for 6 years. Much of his work is focused on understanding how farmers perceive risks and risk mitigation strategies, some of which can be complex and/or confusing, like insurance, drip irrigation, agroforestry, and bundled product/ service modules. As such, he's primarily aligned with the CG's work in Agriculture Risk Management. He is especially good at designing and testing communications and interactions with new products and services and learning from those tests. Especially for farmer-centric digital, financial, and risk-management solutions, he can help the Partners explore how your solution can contribute to increasing farmers' autonomy over their economic role and livelihoods and ultimately make them and their activities more resilient to climate change.The Insectary Kenya returns food waste to the food chain by using black soldier flies to produce an alternative protein source for animal feeds. Their research-based solution targets medium-scale farmers seeking an affordable and consistent supply of protein.The agricultural sector is considered a risky investment for microfinance institutions because of market and price risks, climate risks, and other crop risks such as pests.A failure in rainfall, unseasonal rains, cyclones, hailstorms, high-temperature spells, and pests affect crops adversely and have the capacity to impact all the farmers in a single region. Since micro-finance institution (MFI) work in geographically compact areas, they can be severely affected by the high co-variant risk crop-input borrowers face. When many borrowers face crop losses due to weather or pest events, the MFI faces a higher risk of loan defaults or delayed repayments. A spike in loan defaults can impact the MFI's liquidity and overall sustainability, affecting its ability to provide financial services to other clients. In addition, market volatility and fluctuations in commodity prices could impact the income generation of farmers, which affects their loan repayments to an MFI, which can harm their reputation and trust among clients.Seasonality is another risk that MFIs consider when it comes to lending out crop loans to farmers. During the planting season, many farmers are forced to borrow money at nearly the same time, which places peak demand on MFIs, which they cannot mobilize. Therefore, MFIs evaluate an agricultural cooperative's susceptibility to such risks, which can impact crop harvests and income. MFIs also analyze the sector the company is in and its outlook, as well as the company's projections and historical figures.Seasonality itself may be a unique market opportunity for the Insectary, which can capitalize on the increased spending power of farmers to sell systems to farmers or cooperatives when they can best afford it.Below are potential risks and mitigation strategies that The Insectary Kenya should consider before borrowing money from MFIs. The assessments are built from an adapted Agriculture Risk matrix: The impact pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with an interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness.Photography: Ukama UstawiAssumptions: Farmers knowledge of application rates of frass and useage rates larvae, Rearing technology well embraced; Investments in on site infrastructure critical, standardised application rates for the insect breeding and rearing, Technical support available for the teams and owners of the rearing uniits The Insectary Kenya Limited turns organic waste into Value by applying insect technology which transforms the input to feed and soil ammendment, thereby contributing to healthier humans, animals, plants and environment 3.3.Photography: Ukama Ustawi S hamba Records Ltd. is an AgTech company based in Kenya, established to digitize the agriculture sector in Sub-Saharan Africa 24,25 . The company offers tailor-made enterprise resource planning (ERP) and farmers' customer relationship management (CRM) for the tea, dairy, fruits, coffee, and cassava value chains. Through automation and digitization innovations, Shamba Records Ltd. has been able to link smallholder farmers with distributors for their produce, loans, extension services, and insurance to cover livestock loss and the general health of the farmer. The company also offers a Farmer's Wallet, which can unlock credit to farmers and the development of pension schemes 26 .The automation and digitization portfolio of Shamba Record Ltd. involves digitizing the agriculture sector and increasing the incomes of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, the extension services include guided farming methods to assist farmers with improving yield quality and yields. On the other hand, the company's smallholder financing portfolio involves connecting smallholder farmers to loans, trade financing, and pension schemes. The livestock insurance portfolio involves the farmer's livestock against sickness and accidental death 27 .Kenya's population is mainly rural, divided into pastoral, smallholder agricultural, and large farm areas. Population census has previously estimated that more than 70 percent of Kenya's population lived in smallholder agricultural areas. Poverty is more prevalent in the country's smallholder agricultural areas, but incidences may be higher in some parts. Different poverty estimates in agricultural smallholder areas suggest that about 25% of the smallholder agricultural households were poor enough and unable to afford what is regarded as minimum food requirements 28 . There are still major constraints in smallholder productivity and commercialization of smallholder farmers in Kenya, i.e., the link between production and marketing, as well as practices that will give them a competitive advantage and improved productivity. The smallholder farming industry of the country requires support to improve its productivity through innovative collective action models that combine the strengths of both the private and public sectors 29 . Challenge What problems is the company solving?Due to a lack of access to capital to invest in sophisticated software and systems, several smallholder farmers still need to use traditional (paper-based) means of ERP and CRM, which may sometimes be vulnerable to risks 30 , i.e., fire and misplacement.Traditional means of ERP and CRM need more real-time availability of credit financiers, insurance brokers, loan providers, and distributors of farmer produce. Thus, Shamba Records Ltd's automation and digitization innovation addresses the challenge of the real-time availability of records, which may hinder productivity and the improvement of the economic situations of smallholder farmers and the rural economy.The digitization and automation services offered by Shamba Records Ltd. address the need for traditional paper-based record-keeping methods for ERP and CRM systems amongst smallholder farmers, which may sometimes be vulnerable to loss risks and inaccuracies 31 .Shamba Records Ltd. has positively impacted over 10,000 smallholder farmers with an average yield and income growth of about 25%. In its database, the company has 13,000 farmers, has assisted 2300 farmers in unlocking financing, has 20 cooperatives with ERPS, and employs about 100 extension agents 32 . The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) technical assistance implementation process was led by The Rallying Cry team in collaboration with Dr. Karen Nortje. The Rallying Cry is an ecosystem initiative working to shift private sector capital at the nexus of gender, climate, and agribusiness. At the same time, Dr. Karen Nortje is a senior researcher and social inclusion subject matter expert. The team supported the Accelerator Partners by equipping them to strengthen the capacity and agency of both the men and women within their agribusiness value chain(s). To achieve this, the team developed a gender action plan for Shamba Records Ltd to help address the barriers to gender inclusivity.The analysis of the company's GESI baseline data showed that the company is founded by a youth and has both women and youth represented in their employees, farmers and board. 100% of senior management employees are women and youth and the product provided by the company disproportionately benefits women because it is a transparent platform where women gain access to services that they would traditionally not have access to including markets, direct payments and credit.A summary profile is given below: The company has a generic HR policy touching on general employee code of conduct (not GESI focused)The company has no designated facilities for women employees e.g. a lactation roomThe company carries out training with a recruitment focus on women regularlyThe company engages and involves men as key stakeholders while finding solutions to providing more opportunities for women and youthOr 5-member boardare womenare youthThe product addresses women's specific needsAddresses a problem that disproportionately affects womenThe product provided by the company disproportionately benefits women because it is a transparent platform where women gain access to services that they would traditionally not have access to including markets, direct payments and creditThe company has not established which communication channels work best for women and youth and consequently also do not market their product in a way that targets women and youthThe GESI action plan activities focused on the need to organize gender mainstreaming training for management and the rest of the employees as well as adjust the facilities to cater to the unique needs of women. Other activities included using reaching more women; given the nature of the product and its great potential to increase access to equal opportunities for women and youth, they need to establish the most effective communication channels and carry out their marketing in a more targeted manner.Dr. Nathanial Petersen assisted the company in delivering its innovation. Nate is an agriculture and natural resource economist with a Ph.D. in Decision Theory and Behavioral Economics who has been working in research, agribusiness strategy, and running farms in Kenya for 6 years. Much of his work is focused on understanding how farmers perceive risks and risk mitigation strategies, some of which can be complex and/or confusing, like insurance, drip irrigation, agroforestry, and bundled product/ service modules. As such, he's primarily aligned with the CG's work in Agriculture Risk Management. He is especially good at designing and testing communications and interactions with new products and services and learning from those tests. Especially for farmer-centric digital, financial, and risk-management solutions, he can help the Partners explore how your solution can contribute to increasing farmers' autonomy over their economic role and livelihoods and ultimately make them and their activities more resilient to climate change.With over 20 years of combined experience in agriculture and ICT, Shamba Records is an Agtech company to digitize the sub-Saharan Agricultural sector. The company collects and aggregates farmers' production data in real time to link it to markets. The primary customers are farmers, while the secondary customers are cooperatives and other aggregator organizations that work directly with farmers.The agricultural industry is considered a risky investment for Microfinance institutions, hence some reluctance to lend money to farmers. This is quite understandable because of market and price risks, climate risks, and crop risks, among others. A failure in rainfall, unseasonal rains, cyclones, hailstorms, high-temperature spells, and pest attacks affect crops adversely and impact all the farmers in a region. Since MFIs work in geographically compact areas, they can be severely affected by the high co-variant risk that crop loan borrowers face. When many borrowers face crop losses due to weather or pest events, the MFI faces a higher risk of loan defaults or delayed repayments. A spike in loan defaults can impact the MFI's liquidity and overall sustainability, affecting its ability to provide financial services to other clients.In addition, market volatility and fluctuations in commodity prices could impact the income generation of farmers, which affects their loan repayments to an MFI, which can harm their reputation and trust among clients.Seasonality is another risk that MFIs consider a risk when it comes to lending out crop loans to farmers. During the planting season, many farmers are forced to borrow money at nearly the same time to plant, which places peak demand on MFIs they cannot mobilize. Therefore, MFIs evaluate an agricultural cooperative's susceptibility to such risks, which can impact crop harvests and income. MFIs also analyze the sector the company is in and its outlook, as well as the company's projections and historical figures.Below are potential risks and mitigation strategies that Farm Depot should consider before borrowing money from MFIs. The assessments are built from an adapted Agriculture Risk matrix: The impact pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with an interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness.Assumptions: 1) Farmers are aware of Shamba Records and can afford its services; 2) Banks are aware of and trust Shamba Records and provide favorable credit to farmers; 3) Farmers use information from Shamba Records to adjust farming practices, 4) Farmers have access to markets to generate income from increases in productivityThe impact pathways Photography: Ukama Ustawi B atian Nuts Ltd., established in 2017 and based in Kenya, is an agro-processing enterprise that gathers and processes edible aflatoxin-free nuts, i.e., macadamia nuts, groundnuts, and cashew nuts produced by smallholder farmers 33,34 and are exported to countries the United States of America, Europe and Asia 35 , earning foreign exchange. Batian Nuts Ltd. distinguishes itself from other nut buyers and fosters sustainable means through (i) sourcing directly from smallholder farmers, which allows the company to consistently pay a higher farm-gate price per unit weight of nuts, bringing the volume sourced per farmer up over time. With this strategy, Batian Nuts Ltd. brings down the sourcing cost, allowing the company to leverage scale and consistently pay a higher price to farmers than other aggregators 36 . Also, it distinguishes itself through (ii) cash on collecting nuts from farmers, as this is a practice amongst common buyers in the area. Thus, Batian Nuts Ltd. has positioned itself to have working capital and also (iii) facilitate best practices. Partner farmers appreciate the training on good agricultural practices, i.e., high-quality seedlings and seed choices that Batian Nuts Ltd. provides. Batian Nuts Ltd. has expanded its product range to tree tomato, avocado, apple, pomegranate, dragon fruit, mango, and macadamia nut seedlings 37 .Kenya's population is mainly rural, divided into pastoral, smallholder agricultural, and large farm areas. Population census has previously estimated that more than 70 percent of Kenya's population lived in smallholder agricultural areas. Poverty is more prevalent in the country's smallholder agricultural areas, but incidences may be higher in some parts. Different poverty estimates in agricultural smallholder areas suggest that about 25% of the smallholder agricultural households were poor enough and unable to afford what is regarded as minimum food requirements 38 . There are still significant constraints in smallholder productivity and commercialization of smallholder farmers in Kenya, i.e., the link between production and marketing, as well as practices that will give them a competitive advantage and improved productivity. The smallholder farming industry of the country requires support to improve its productivity through innovative collective action models that combine the strengths of both the private and public sectors 39 .Access to sustainable and fair markets is a significant hindrance amongst smallholder farmers, which sometimes leads to spoilage of farm produce 40,41 . Thus, the intervention of Batian Nuts Ltd. has given smallholder farmers the advantage of a direct link to unique markets they would otherwise not traditionally access, thus improving their productivity. In value addition, agricultural commodities are transformed into value-added products and processed, thereby increasing their market value, improving shelf-life, and catering to diverse consumer preferences 42,43 . Thus, the nut processing innovation by Batian Nuts Ltd is critical to increasing the market value of different nuts produced by smallholder farmers in the region.Batian Nuts Ltd has created a sustainable market through a direct link between production and marketing for smallholder nut farmers in the region, which is important to improve the farmer's livelihoods and increase productivity through improved incomes 44 . The processing innovation by the company is further critical in value addition and improvement of the shelf-life for the nuts. Batian Nuts Ltd. factory has built a capacity to process about 1500 metric tons of raw macadamia Nut Inshell (NIS) 45  The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) technical assistance implementation process was led by The Rallying Cry team in collaboration with Dr. Karen Nortje. The Rallying Cry is an ecosystem initiative working to shift private sector capital at the nexus of gender, climate, and agribusiness. At the same time, Dr. Karen Nortje is a senior researcher and social inclusion subject matter expert. The team supported the Accelerator Partners by equipping them to strengthen the capacity and agency of both the men and women within their agribusiness value chain(s). To achieve this, the team developed a gender action plan for Batian Nuts Ltd Ltd to help address the barriers to gender inclusivity.Although the company is not founded or owned by women, it is founded and 100% owned by youth. The company has a board of 3, with 1(33%) being a woman and none being youth. 47% of employees are women, while 60% of senior managers are women. GESI training has been carried out for senior management but not for all employees. However, there is an HR policy in place to increase women's participation internally as employees. Finally, 60% of their smallholder farmers are women, while 80% are youth. Farmer recruitment activities are targeted at women and youth, with the company being keen to onboard teen mothers to offer them training, access to inputs, the market for their produce, and financial literacy training.A summary profile is given below: The product addresses women's specific needs Addresses a problem that disproportionately affects womenProduct sourcing disproportionately benefits women (The company buys fresh produce from farmers who are majority women, and also the majority of customers are women too) Promotional channels which are more likely to reach women customers have not been establishedThe GESI action plan was focused on helping the company to maintain these standards while making some adjustments to be more inclusive e.g. establishing which promotional channels are more likely to reach women and youth as well as including youth and women in their inclusion solutioning process.Lead advisor profile One phone discussion and a physical site visit were conducted with Batian Nuts to understand issues affecting the introduction of groundnuts as a second line in the company's portfolio. The new groundnut line will draw on the successful experiences with macadamia nuts.Groundnut still faces some challenges in the region: it still needs to be wellestablished among farming households, but it is still a new crop. As the company begins building up seed supplies, a challenge lies in seed losses via the smallholder farmers that may consume the seeds or sell them to other buyers. Therefore, it needs capacity building and training for extension staff and the farmers to implement it effectively. It is also unique that more than 65% of the target producers are women; hence, the crop has a high potential to enhance livelihoods and nutrition.The company targets 2600 out-growers for groundnuts for at least 2000 mt of groundnuts. The methods of preparation and use of groundnuts will be included in the training for the farming households.A plan of action with Batian was to hold the training sessions during the low season when all staff farmer leaders and extension officers are available to prepare for the next season. A team of 22 field officers (from the company and government extension officers). Thus, the indicated appropriate period for the training sessions was between October and December 2023. Batian Nuts Ltd intends to add value to groundnuts by processing them into other user-demanded products, such as flour blends and high-value (protein-rich) products. During the meeting, the following strategies were discussed to counter the side selling problem: Market price matching based on demand and supply to reduce incentives to sell elsewhere. Increasing yields from groundnuts would assure farmers of higher incomes while ensuring enough for the market. Side selling happens when there are supply challenges.The impact pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with an interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness.Batian Nuts specializes in processing and marketing of high-quality, nutrientdense food products sourced from small-holder farmers (SHF), contributing to their improved livelihoods, food and nutrition, security, while positively impacting the environment.Purchase Photography: Ukama Ustawi A fri-Farmers Market Ltd. is an e E-Commerce company based in Rwanda. It was established to assist farmers across Africa in practicing sustainable farming practices while assessing markets at fair prices. Afri-Farmers Market is a pioneering social enterprise revolutionizing the agricultural supply chain in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our innovative e-commerce platform connects smallholder farmers directly with urban consumers, creating a stable market for farmers and ensuring fresh, locally sourced produce for consumers. In addition to our marketplace, we provide comprehensive capacity-building training for sustainable agriculture and offer credit to empower rural smallholders to enhance their yields and productivity.The company was established to assist farmers across the African continent to practice sustainable farming while assessing markets at fair prices. Afri-Farmers Market Ltd. relies heavily on small-scale farmers to use their e-commerce platforms to access inputs and best agricultural practices. The initiative also offers training to smallholder farmers on sustainable agronomic management practices, i.e., crop rotations, soil conservation, and choices for good quality farming inputs. Afri-Farmers Market has also developed an input package financing mechanism for selected farmers within its network to expand its scope to include all network farmers. Through Afri-Famers Market Ltd's user-friendly website, farmers can showcase their produce, and buyers can easily place orders. Upon placement of an order by a customer, the platform provides an option for packaging orders for buyers to collect from their stores or door-to-door delivery 46 .The company operates an online marketplace that links farmers with buyers, including hotels, restaurants, individuals, and supermarkets. Afri-Farmers Market's central stores in Kigali receive farm produce collected by the company from different farmers daily. The information about the produce aggregated from the different farmers daily, i.e., prices and available quantities, is uploaded onto the platform. Buyers, i.e., supermarkets and individuals, can window-shop for produce and place orders through the platform. Logistics, including delivery, ensuring that the produce is transported from the farms to their central store in Kigali and then delivered to the buyers promptly and efficiently, is handled by Afri-Farmers Market. The model employed by Afri-Farmers Market has shown remarkable efficiency and has ensured that buyers receive fresh produce daily. Buyers can collect their orders from the central store in Kigali. The platform charges a commission for door-to-door deliveries of produce buyers, which is crucial to cover their operating expenses.The agriculture sector employs about 60% of the Rwandan population, and smallholder farmers comprise most of the workforce 47 . Despite the significant contribution of smallholder farmers to the country's economy, they still suffer numerous challenges. These include but are not limited to post-harvest losses, lack of access to fair markets and prices, and the lack of quality inputs and agronomic support, which leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and poverty. Many Rwandan farmers earn less than $1.90 per day, and about 56% of these farmers live in abject poverty 48 . About 30% of the country's population is experiencing hunger and malnutrition 49 , and it is amongst the top 20 countries in the world with the highest prevalence of malnourishment 50 .What problems is the company solving?The company was established after identifying the problem that rural farmers require direct access to markets for their farm inputs, produce, and capacity building to uplift their household income and break free from the cycle of poverty. The establishment of the Afri-Famers Market was also necessitated by the identification of one of the significant challenges faced by rural farmers is the lack of necessary resources to improve their farming practices, which had a domino effect on the quality and quantity of their produce, hence the businesses aimed to bridge the gap between farmers and the consumers.Afri-Farmers is a social entrepreneurship company that leverages technologies for smallholder farmers to access inputs and best agricultural practices. It gives farmers market-oriented skills and credit and further engages farmers by providing market access. It strives to foster food security nationwide and works with over 7,000 farms in Rwanda. The company is looking to expand to include an additional 5,000 farmers. It has been in operation for three years now. The product range: Horticulture-fruits (watermelon, etc.) and vegetables (spinach, carrots, etc.). It offers around 100 food crops and fruits online through a one-stop center. Afri-Farmers Market is important because it creates a stable market, fair prices, access to quality inputs, and extension services, reducing post-harvest losses and improving farmers' incomes and food security 51 .to access stable and fair prices for their produce in Rwanda since its inception in 2020. Afri-Farmers Market has supported 5,780 farmers to access stable and fair prices for their produce in Rwanda since its inception in 2020. The platform reaches over 4000 households and, as a result, has facilitated the sale of over 22,000 tonnes of fresh produce. Through Afri-Farmers Market's initiatives and efforts, the platform has helped farmers increase their incomes, improve food security, and contribute to developing a sustainable and inclusive value chain in Rwanda 52 . The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) technical assistance implementation process was led by The Rallying Cry team in collaboration with Dr. Karen Nortje. The Rallying Cry is an ecosystem initiative working to shift private sector capital at the nexus of gender, climate, and agribusiness. At the same time, Dr. Karen Nortje is a senior researcher and social inclusion subject matter expert. The team supported the Accelerator Partners by equipping them to strengthen the capacity and agency of both the men and women within their agribusiness value chain(s). To achieve this, the team developed a gender action plan for Afri-Farmers Market Ltd to help address the barriers to gender inclusivity.Although the company is not founded or owned by women, it is founded and 100% owned by youth. The company has a board of 3, with 1(33%) being a woman and none being youth. 47% of employees are women, while 60% of senior managers are women. GESI training has been carried out for senior management, but not all employees. However, there is an HR policy in place to increase women's participation internally as employees. Finally, 60% of their smallholder farmers are women; while 80% are youth. Farmer recruitment activities are targeted at women and youth, with the company being keen to onboard teen mothers to offer them training, access to inputs, the market for their produce, and financial literacy training.A summary profile is given below: The product addresses women's specific needs Addresses a problem that disproportionately affects womenProduct sourcing disproportionately benefits women (The company buys fresh produce from farmers who are majority women, and also the majority of customers are women too) Promotional channels which are more likely to reach women customers have not been establishedThe GESI action plan was focused on helping the company to maintain these standards while making some adjustments to be more inclusive, e.g., establishing which promotional channels are more likely to reach women and youth as well as including youth and women in their inclusion solution process.Dr. Nathanial Petersen assisted the company to deliver its innovation. Nate is an agriculture and natural resource economist with a Ph.D. in Decision Theory and Behavioral Economics who has been working in research, agribusiness strategy, and running farms in Kenya for 6 years. Much of his work is focused on understanding how farmers perceive risks and risk mitigation strategies, some of which can be complex and/or confusing, like insurance, drip irrigation, agroforestry, and bundled product/ service modules. As such, he's primarily aligned with the CG's work in Agriculture Risk Management. He is especially good at designing and testing communications and interactions with new products and services and learning from those tests. Especially for farmer-centric digital, financial, and risk-management solutions, he can help the Partners explore how your solution can contribute to increasing farmers' autonomy over their economic role and livelihoods and ultimately make them and their activities more resilient to climate change.Leveraging technology and the power of e-commerce, Afri-Farmers Market aims to help farmers across Africa practice sustainable farming while accessing markets at fair prices. The agricultural sector is considered a risky investment for microfinance institutions because of risks such as market and price risks, climate risks, and other crop risks such as pests. A failure in rainfall, unseasonal rains, cyclones, hailstorms, high-temperature spells, and pests affect crops adversely and have the capacity to impact all the farmers in a single region. Since MFIs work in geographically compact areas, they can be severely affected by the high co-variant risk that crop-input borrowers face. When many borrowers face crop losses due to weather or pest events, the MFI faces a higher risk of loan defaults or delayed repayments. A spike in loan defaults can impact the MFI's liquidity and overall sustainability, affecting its ability to provide financial services to other clients. In addition, the market volatility and fluctuations in commodity prices could impact the income generation of farmers, which affects their loan repayments to an MFI, which can harm their reputation and trust among clients.Seasonality is another risk that MFIs consider when it comes to lending out crop loans to farmers. During the planting season, many farmers are forced to borrow money nearly simultaneously, which places peak demand on MFIs that they cannot mobilize. Therefore, MFIs evaluate an agricultural cooperative's susceptibility to such risks, which can impact crop harvests and income. MFIs also analyze the company's sector and its outlook, as well as its projections and historical figures.Below are potential risks and mitigation strategies that Farm Depot should consider before borrowing money from MFIs. The assessments are built from an adapted Agriculture Risk matrix: The impact pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with an interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness.Photography: Ukama UstawiAssumptions: 1) Smallholder farmers know about the platform and can access it to sell products; 2) There is demand and a market for products commercialized through the platform; 3) Agricultural practices are sustainable, adapted to local conditions and lead to increase in yields.; 4) Farmers, including women and youth, implement recommendations shared during training; 5) Women can participate in decision-making on resource allocation in their household; Photography: Ukama Ustawi A ggregator Trust Rwanda Ltd is a Rwandese-based company committed to providing relevant research information to inform the development of seasonresilient farming systems 53 . The social enterprise produces iron-rich beans on its land and outsources part of the production to smallholder farmers. Aggregator Trust Rwanda Ltd also connects independent smallholder farmers with local markets, i.e., public schools, thus playing a significant role in school nutrition programs. The company further offers contract farming agreements to smallholder farmers, thus improving their farm productivity through credit-based inputs 54 . Improved farm productivity of smallholder farmers not only reduces the price of staple foods but has a direct influence on improving rural poverty and food security through better incomes 55 .The agriculture sector employs about 60% of the Rwandan population, and smallholder farmers comprise most of the workforce 56 . Despite the significant contribution of smallholder farmers to the country's economy, they still suffer numerous challenges. These include but are not limited to post-harvest losses, lack of access to fair markets and prices, and the lack of quality inputs and agronomic support, which leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and poverty. Many Rwandan smallholder farmers earn less than $1.90 daily, and about 56% live in abject poverty 57 . About 30% of the country's population is experiencing hunger and malnutrition 58 , and it is amongst the top 20 countries in the world with the highest prevalence of malnourishment 59 .The The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) technical assistance implementation process was led by The Rallying Cry team in collaboration with Dr. Karen Nortje. The Rallying Cry is an ecosystem initiative working to shift private sector capital at the nexus of gender, climate, and agribusiness. At the same time, Dr. Karen Nortje is a senior researcher and social inclusion subject matter expert. The team supported the Accelerator Partners by equipping them to strengthen the capacity and agency of both the men and women within their agribusiness value chain(s). To achieve this, the team developed a gender action plan for Aggregator Trust Rwanda Ltd to help address the barriers to gender inclusivity.The analysis of the company's GESI baseline data showed that the company is woman-founded, owned (100%), and led (50% of senior management are women; 25% are youth). The company has a board of 5 members, 40% of whom are women, and 40% are youth. 70% of employees are women, and 54% are youth, while 70% of their smallholder farmers are women, and 54% -youth.A summary profile is given below: The company's trainings and access to finance products are gender neutral but the finance product is especially accessible to women as it only requires their trading history to qualify for the loans (as compared to mainstream and traditional sources that require collateral, which is usually land and other assets that women have limited access to)The product addresses women's specific needs Addresses a problem that disproportionately affects womenIn Rwanda; in the areas in which the company operates, participation in bean agriculture is beneficial for women's economic status and an opportunity to provide nutrient-rich food for their families.Products are not marketed to specifically target womenThe GESI action plan was focused on helping the company to maintain these standards while making some adjustments to be more inclusive by providing gender needs sensitive facilities (e.g., changing and lactation rooms), conducting gender sensitization training, implementing smallholder farmer recruitment activities targeting women and youth, and marketing strategies focusing specifically on women.Dr. Eliud Birachi, a Markets Researcher and Agricultural Value Chain Development Specialist at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, conducted the technical assistance.As an agribusiness expert, he supported the delivery of technical assistance. He worked with other colleagues in both Eastern and Southern Africa to further support the Accelerator Partners in their respective regions.Two on-site visits were conducted to Aggregator Trust in the field and warehouses.The visits and engagements focused on critical issues to enable the supply chain to operate optimally. Specifically, options for reducing seed supply during the season were explored and implemented. Some options explored included contracting seed companies to buy their seeds and using them to contract producers. This option had a couple of seed companies that Trust explored with. Aggregator Trust entered a contract to supply 5 tons of seeds from one. This contract, however, only matured after the national research institution demanded to procure all seeds from the course for its use. The second option involved contracting seed multipliers (individual farmers that multiplied seeds. About tons of seeds were supplied; however, they needed more. Aggregator Trust engaged other individual seed multipliers to reduce the seed supply gap. Further visits and discussions with the company opened discussions with a large-scale seed enterprise (One Acre Fund) to use its experience to supply seeds. While these efforts attempt to close the seed supply chain shortfalls, they must be more sustainable for Aggregator Trust to meet its grain market demand and growth plans. The company will thus attempt to integrate upstream to secure seed supplies by establishing a seed production and supplies unit to guarantee the seeds for the farmers. This approach aimed to assist contract farmers in multiplying seeds using early-generation seeds to the company's required quantities to meet seed and grain demand. The company secured EGS from research and other seed suppliers and multiplied internally. The company, however, did not trade in seeds but kept to its line of business: grain production and trade. The self-multiplication of seeds served several goals: to guarantee seed supply in terms of quantity and quality and to manage the costs of seeds that go into production by farmers. The company required financing from banks and other financial institutions to offtake and bulk grain from farmers-this is a critical part of its business. The model was tested from the planting season beginning September 2023. The company has currently contracted 28,000 farmers to produce grain. Beans are used to rotate with maize.Works with cooperatives that have mechanization; cooperatives have groups of farmers. Demand is rising via schools for school feeding. There is a shift to high-iron beans, which is increasing demand. Prisons are also one other market for beans. Adoption of varieties is higher. Assured market to farmers plays a vital role. The target is farmers with 1 hectare at least. Currently testing with smaller farmers with 0.5 ha who usually need more capacity to pay for the credit or buy seeds. Farmers were provided with credit to graduate to enhance commercialization. The demand is higher for NUA59, short duration maturity, preferred by schools and government institutions. Employ more than 100 women to sort and grade bean grains. There are 34, 75% are women field staff for agronomy support and farmer outreach. Does up to 3000MT of beans, the average is 1500Mt per year. The varieties aggregated depend on the market-e.g., for school feeding prisons, and these need different bean grades, e.g., mixed beans, pure types, or high iron. Aggregator Trust has already started supplying the clients with grain.MOU with OAF APA to multiply seeds. They could be better, but they were assisted in adopting 15 MT of NUA59. Total grains: 27 met-50 tons to be processed by OAF.Price speculations and RAB's price settings affect the cost of seed production.Losing much money on seeds has increased the cost of grain production. 2200 and supplied 1500 to farmers since the contracts had been signed with farmers and had to subsidize 700 to farmers, loss due to price setting behavior by RAB.Has negotiated land with 25 ha from the government and another 9 ha from a cooperative for seed multiplication. The varieties to be focused on will be 2: RWR 3194 and 2245. Other varieties could be more exciting. The large white beans are also in high demand from marketers beyond Rwanda, for example, Burundi. Bujumbura prefers white beans for use with rice. Consumers use other ingredients to use with the beans, e.g., spices. Most schools prefer NUA to 3194 due to the red source color they need for the meals.The self-production of seed and grain targets future investment in value-added processing, so these upstream activities ensure sustaining raw materials from farmers. The strategy is intended to overcome current challenges, such as delays and late distribution of seed supplies, climate hazards, smallholders consuming some seeds before planting, and some families consuming crops while on the field. RICA will be involved in quality assurance.The national strategic reserves also have a demand for grain and have requested Aggregator Trust to supply them as well. They need 150MT of beans. Payment for supplied grain on time is vital for the sustainable operation of the business -to farmers and the company.FOOD SYSTEMS ACCELERATOR Agri-Innovation ReportField engagement on the training needs was conducted through face-to-face discussions with the company. The action points included agronomy training for field agronomists to be conducted. This is planned for October-as a form of refresher training: Two field staff benefitted from the initial training conducted for extensionists. Support for seed quality will be provided by the Rwanda Inspection and Certification Agency (RICA), even though the seeds are not for sale but for internal use.Variety catalogue showing suitability and yields and market preferences; fertilizer recommendations supplied. The company is focusing on two varieties: NUA59 and RWR 2245. These have been well described in the available variety catalogue.Fertilizer recommendations have been provided as part of the good agricultural practices training that has been extended to the extension staff of the company. Fertilizer recommendations accompanied some fertilizer bought and distributed to farmers for planting beans (5 tons of fertilizer) for the season starting September 2023 as fertilizer credit to farmers.Aggregator Trust personnel sorting and grading bean grains at their warehouse.Discussions on digitalization focused on the digital registration of producers and digital payment of producers. Aggregator Trust has digitally registered close to 28,000 farmers. However, the process must be refined for easier registry updating without revisiting all the farmers each season or year. The company is exploring improvements with some digital service providers to achieve it. It has one member of staff supporting the digital-linked activities. However, payments are digitally made by mobile money payments linked to the bank. A comprehensive digital ecosystem is still required to improve efficiency in operations. Such would include being able to communicate with farmers and extension support digitally. Extension services are still largely face-to-face, which is more costly for the company's 34 extension field staff across different districts. These options for digitally connecting producers with the off-taker must be introduced and piloted.Aggregator Trust is interested in developing various bean-based products, among them bean composite flours, that can be used for nutrient-rich products for children, women, and school children. These products would contain 25 to 30% high-iron and zinc beans in combination with cereals. In schools, the bean composite porridge will be a substitute for the pure cereal-based porridge that is more prevalent. Similarly, families can replace maize and other cereal porridges with this product. They will also be used in hospitals as food-based recommendations to address malnutrition. A product variant, bean flour, will be used in the bakery industry and soup. For the bakery industry, the product will enhance the nutritional value of the cereal flour for bakery products such as bread biscuits, among others. The planned development of these products is tied to the planned improvement in the supply chain for the raw materials. The strategic value of the value-added products is to increase markets for the producers but also contribute to the stability of the markets through prices that are relatively more stable for the producers.The impact pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with an interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness.Photography: Ukama Ustawi COUNTRY:UGANDA 93 3.7.Photography: Ukama Ustawi I ncorporated in June 2016 and based in Uganda, Eastern Agricultural Development Company Ltd. (EADC) is an agri-business social enterprise that trades in and processes super-rich bio-fortified foods, i.e., vitamin A-rich orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP) and high Iron (HIB) and Zinc-rich beans 68 . On top of the financial benefit, the business model of the company has social and development aspects, which aim to address Uganda's Vitamin A, Iron, and Zinc malnutrition deficiencies while at the same time increasing farmers' incomes 69 . EADC Ltd. works with local resellers and exporters of the OFSP and HIB, and the OFSP flour is sold locally 70 . The company provides partner smallholder farmers with clean, diseasefree seeds and then buys back the farmer's produce at a market value and further offers ICT extension services 71 . EADC Ltd is digitizing its supply chain and evolving to cashless payment systems, which include the MasterCard farmers network (MFN)-ICTpayment-based solutions, which de-risks smallholder systems 72 .Uganda ranks amongst the countries in East Africa with a malnutrition challenge, with about 29% of children under five years stunted, while about 3.5% of all children under this age face body stunting 73 . In Uganda, access to agricultural credit by rural communities, where above 80% are smallholder farmers, has remained very low and stagnated between 10-20% in the past 10 years 74 . The lack of finance is mainly attributed to supply and demand factors, and the supply factors include weak institutional framework, policy inconsistencies on agricultural financing, high-interest rates, and limited financial literacy. On the other hand, the demand factors include lack of collateral, bankable projects, and high-risk agricultural credit to farmers 75 . Between 2002 and 2022, Uganda lost about 75 kha of humid primary forests, making up to 7.5% of its total tree cover in the same period. Around the same time, Uganda's total area of humid primary forest decreased by 15% 76 .About 29% of children under five years stunted, while about 3.5% of all children under this age face body stunting Access to agricultural credit by rural communities, where above 80% are smallholder farmers, has remained very low and stagnated between 10-20% in the past 10 years Uganda lost about 75 kha of humid primary forests, making up to 7.5% of its total tree cover in the same period Around the same time, Uganda's total area of humid primary forest decreased by 15% 29%What problems is the company solving?Malnutrition linked to Vitam A, Zinc, and Iron deficiencies affects 38% of children and 36% of women of reproductive age in Uganda. About 54% of children in company-targeted communities have stunted growth, and their families live in poverty, which has a domino effect on their productivity capabilities 77 . About 80% of rural smallholder farmers need access to formal financial services, although farming is a capital-intensive venture 78 . The major hindrance is usually linked to the unavailability of their transactional history, hampers increased acreage under production, and rural smallholder farming communities still need to be in poverty 79 . Against the previous context, EADC Ltd identified the problems and developed the innovation of trading and processing Vitamin A-rich OFSP and HIB and Zinc-rich beans and partnered with local smallholder farmers to address their malnutrition challenge while improving the rural economy amongst smallholder farmers through access to finance and improved extension services 80 . Also, about 95% of Ugandan households use firewood to prepare beans for consumption, even though the country is losing about 7.5% of its forest cover per annum due to human settlements and tree-cutting for firewood 81,82 .The company's innovation of producing and processing Vitamin-A-rich OFSP, HIB, and Zinc-rich beans has not only improved the livelihoods and income of partner smallholder farmers in Uganda. However, it has also improved and contributed towards addressing the malnutrition deficiency challenge in the country 83 . Processing and pre-cooking the beans further partially addresses the tree-cutting problem as the rural communities will require less firewood to prepare the beans for a meal 84 .EADC Ltd boasts a network of 3000 farmers in three regions, Teso, Karamoja, and Bugisu, who feed into their production supply chain and have 3567 smallholder farmers registered on their platform 85,86 . The company also employs six agents (2 women) with smartphones to enable farmer digital registrations. Of the EADC Ltd's farmer network, 200 have active bank accounts, and the company has managed to pay 160 farmers digitally. The company has also drafted an MOU with equity banks to avail input credit to farmers 87 .Dr. Idil Ires is a political economist-consultant specializing in agrarian change, trade, and industrialization in East Africa. She will assist the Accelerator Partners by conceptualizing an Agribusiness Enabling Environment (AEE) focusing on targeted technical assistance, mapping, and policy advocacy. This aided in tackling significant operational barriers, prioritization of the agribusiness partner's needs, providing relevant industry associations, and establishing policy harmonization.Eastern Africa Development Company (EADC) pointed out market insecurity and emphasized the need for improved market access and expansion in Uganda. In areas bordering Kenya and South Sudan, foreign traders often offer higher prices than EADC and incentivize their farmers to sell their crops to them by breaching contracts. This poses a supply-side uncertainty and ultimately affects the enterprise's ability to ensure stock. Because they deal in fortified staple food, these enterprises are encouraged to pursue partnerships with institutional buyers. One opportunity identified is their participation in the school feeding programs of FAO, UNICEF, and WFP, which will be able to ensure market security, stabilize income despite the periodic price drops in the market, and thus enable them to pay relatively higher prices to their farmers and compete with foreign traders.Moreover, these enterprises reported that poor extension services by the government compromise the quality of crops supplied by farmers. They indicated a need for collaborators to support them in disseminating knowledge of good agricultural practices. So, in addition to the UN organizations, additional connections have been established with NGOs-Kilimo Trust, Sasakawa Africa Association, the Uganda Grain Council, Food for Thought, and Harvest Solutions-for comprehensive support in addressing supply, market, and extension services-related challenges. A partnership with the Uganda Network of Businesses is established to capacitate the enterprises through lobbying and provide guidance for questions related to tax incentives and the regulatory environment. The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) technical assistance implementation process was led by The Rallying Cry team in collaboration with Dr. Karen Nortje. The Rallying Cry is an ecosystem initiative working to shift private sector capital at the nexus of gender, climate, and agribusiness. At the same time, Dr. Karen Nortje is a senior researcher and social inclusion subject matter expert. The team supported the Accelerator Partners by equipping them to strengthen the capacity and agency of both the men and women within their agribusiness value chain(s). To achieve this, the team developed a gender action plan for EADC Ltd to help address the barriers to gender inclusivity.The company is woman-founded, owned (80%), and led (67% of senior management are women). 67% of employees are youth, and the company has made deliberate efforts to support women and youth since its inception through its farmer meetings and training. The company's product of pre-cooked beans disproportionately benefits women by saving them time to dedicate to other income-generating activities. Finally, the company is constructing its new premises and has made provisions for gender-segregated facilities, including changing and lactation rooms. The company has an HR a general manualThe company has not provided gender sensitive facilities including changing and lactation rooms, but these will be included in the new factory which is under constructionThe company has approx. 3000 smallholder farmers, but a number of women and youth are to be confirmed Smallholder farmer recruitment activities have been carried out with a focus on women and youth farmers The company's training has included both men and women (although with a focus on women)of the board is women and none are youth 100The product addresses women's specific needsAddresses a problem that disproportionately affects womenThe pre-cooked beans product disproportionately benefits women because it saves them time which can be dedicated to other income generating activitiesThe main customers for the product are also womenThe company has not established the most effective means of communication for women and youth across their databaseMarketing and all communications are gender neutral with no effort to target women or youth specificallyThe data analysis established that only 33% of employees are women, which is below the recommended threshold. The plan focused on activities that would help the company close these gaps, e.g., carrying out skills audits, enhancing women's and youth's skills through training, and establishing which promotional channels are more likely to reach women and youth as well as including youth and women in their inclusion solution process.Dr. Eliud Birachi, a Markets Researcher and Agricultural Value Chain Development Specialist at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, conducted the technical assistance.As an agribusiness expert, he supported the delivery of technical assistance. He worked with other colleagues in both Eastern and Southern Africa to further support the Accelerator Partners in their respective regions.Farmer and seed quality management strategyThe company has continued maize and bean production, critical materials used in pre-cooked bean products, and composite flour production when the processing plant is completed. In the meantime, the company is trading in these grains and streamlining the supply chain. The company recently traded 100 tons of grains, including maize and beans. The company is focusing on collaborating with producer cooperatives for the supplies. The company has recently purchased complete cleaning line equipment. This will be key for ensuring the quality of grain for processing purposes. The company has also invested in a truck to assist in moving produce from farmers to the processing plant and other transport services to enhance the efficiency of operations.EADC has identified two significant products: precooked beans, dehydrated pre-cooked beans, and bean composite flours (combined with maize). The company is constructing facilities for handling both processing and grain or materials. The factory has reached the roofing stage. In the meantime, the company is focusing on ramping up production of maize and beans and using the opportunity to overcome supply chain constraints, such as table supplies, sufficient quantities, and the right bean types to be planted by farmers. Testing of the precooked beans continues to be implemented, though slower, as the company anticipates investment in larger capacity equipment when it moves to the new processing plant. In the meantime, there are some procurement issues that the company is engaged with, such as sourcing of appropriate equipment and packaging materials. In the meantime, It still needs to complete the roofing of its factory building. The company intends to enhance its capacity by hiring a professional operational manager but also needs to raise more capital to complete the large processing plant under construction.The impact pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with an interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness.Photography: Ukama UstawiAssumptions: 1) Farmers, especially women, have access to the land and resources they need to grow nutrient-rich foods; 2) Iron-rich beans and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are culturally accepted and liked by the local population; 3) Training is effective and leads to changes in farming practices and business management; 4) Increases in income from selling Iron-rich beans can be reinvested in farming or other economic activities and hence leads to improved livelihoods; 5) Women are able to benefit from increased yields, income, and access to nutritious foods, having decision-making role in the household and the community.Drought and unpredictable rainfall hinder food production Y ellow Star Produce and Food Processors (U) Ltd. is a Ugandan-based company established in 1997 that produces nutritious organic foods, including flour, peanut butter, ground paste, baby products, and honey 88,89 . The company partners with rural women agribusinesses mentored to provide and supply high-quality raw materials for the products 90 . Before onboarding and partnerships are formalized, the group of women who are part of the agribusinesses is trained with varying skills, including financial literacy and agribusiness skills. The financial literacy skills training includes means to form, manage, and maintain village savings and credit societies, through which they can unlock financial support to improve their productivity. On the other hand, the agribusiness skills training includes business-to-business mentorship, where the part farmers are trained in practical agronomic practices, organizational development, and strategic planning 91 . The company's sensitization program is actively helping part smallholder farmers with postharvest grain handling skills 92 , which helps preserve quality. Yellow Star Produce and Processors have empowered women previously internally displaced by war to diversify their income into soap and herbal toothpaste production 93 . Income from diversified products is instrumental in improving women's family livelihoods and plays a role in poverty reduction and the payment of medical care 94 . Yellow Star Produce and Food Processors' Ltd's business model guarantees a strong supply of good quality grain for processing, and smallholder farmers have an assured market for their produce. The company's products are available in over 20 major supermarkets in Uganda, and it has contracted two product distributors, Healthy Entrepreneurs and Catholic Woman Association Gulu Vicariate, who distribute to other regions of Uganda 95 .About 75% of Uganda's population lives in rural areas 96 , and most rural dwellers from low-income groups with limited access to nutritious foods 97 . Uganda ranks amongst the countries in East Africa with a malnutrition challenge, with about 29% of children under five years stunted, while about 3.5% of all children under this age face body wasting 98 . In Uganda, access to agricultural credit by rural communities, where above 80% are smallholder farmers, has remained very low and stagnated between 10-20% in the past ten years 99 . The lack of finance is mainly attributed to supply and demand factors, and the supply factors include weak institutional framework, policy inconsistencies on agricultural financing, high-interest rates, and limited financial literacy. On the other hand, the demand factors include a lack of collateral, bankable projects, and high-risk agricultural credit to farmers 100 . Between 2002 and 2022, Uganda lost about 75 kha of humid primary forests, making up to 7.5% of its total tree cover in the same period. Around the same time, Uganda's total area of humid primary forest decreased by 15% 101 . About 75% of Uganda's population lives in rural areas About 29% of children under five years stunted, while about 3.5% of all children under this age face body wasting Access to agricultural credit by rural communities, where above 80% are smallholder farmers, has remained very low and stagnated between 10-20% in the past ten years Uganda lost about 75 kha of humid primary forests, making up to 7.5% of its total tree cover in the same periodAround the same time, Uganda's total area of humid primary forest decreased by 15% 75% 29% 3.5%Yellow Star Produce and Food Processors Ltd. currently producesOf these,are sold in low-income markets, impacting the lives of over 13,300 low-income area dwellers.Of which,are women signed supplier contracts with 13 farmer groups working with 2897 smallholder farmersCurrently, the company has a production capacity of 215 500 kg per annum and plans to increase production to 1 460 000 kg per annum.Dr. Idil Ires is a political economist-consultant specializing in agrarian change, trade, and industrialization in East Africa. She will assist the Accelerator Partners by conceptualizing an Agribusiness Enabling Environment (AEE) focusing on targeted technical assistance, mapping, and policy advocacy. This aided in tackling significant operational barriers, prioritization of the agribusiness partner's needs, providing relevant industry associations, and establishing policy harmonization.Yellow Star Produce and Food Processing Ltd pointed out market insecurity and emphasized the need for improved market access and expansion in Uganda. In areas bordering Kenya and South Sudan, foreign traders often offer higher prices than EADC and incentivize their farmers to sell their crops to them by breaching contracts. This poses a supply-side uncertainty and ultimately affects the enterprise's ability to ensure stock. Because they deal in fortified staple food, these enterprises are encouraged to pursue partnerships with institutional buyers. One opportunity identified is their participation in the school feeding programs of FAO, UNICEF, and WFP, which will be able to ensure market security, stabilize income despite the periodic price drops in the market, and thus enable them to pay relatively higher prices to their farmers and compete with foreign traders. Moreover, these enterprises reported that poor extension services by the government compromise the quality of crops supplied by farmers. The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) technical assistance implementation process was led by The Rallying Cry team in collaboration with Dr. Karen Nortje. The Rallying Cry is an ecosystem initiative working to shift private sector capital at the nexus of gender, climate, and agribusiness. At the same time, Dr. Karen Nortje is a senior researcher and social inclusion subject matter expert. The team supported the Accelerator Partners by equipping them to strengthen the capacity and agency of both the men and women within their agribusiness value chain(s). To achieve this, the team developed a gender action plan for YELLOW STAR PRODUCE AND PROCESSORS (U) LTD to help address the barriers to gender inclusivity.The company is woman-founded, owned (50%), and partly led (50% of senior management are women; 25% -youth). The company has established a board of directors, 80% of whom are women and 40% -youth. 52% of employees are women and 32% -youth, while 70% of their smallholder farmers are women and 30%youth. Additionally, the company makes deliberate efforts to support women to fully participate in their value chain activities by targeting women in recruitment strategies and providing business-focused training. The company also trained men to explain the importance of gender equality and emphasized the benefit of men and women working together. of the board are womenThe product addresses women's specific needs Addresses a problem that disproportionately affects womenWomen are the main users of the company's products. The benefits to women include access to safe, healthy products that are easy to prepare, therefore saving time and energy.The company does not have information available on which channels are most effective for reaching women.Products are marketed to target women.The company scored highly across all criteria and needs to maintain these standards while making some adjustments to be more inclusive, such as identifying the most effective communication channels to reach women. The activities suggested in the GESI Action plan were focused on this. The company has relied on loans from banks (current loan @12%) for about UGX 600 million (about USD 160,000) from UDB (Uganda Development Bank) and, subsequently, Centenary Bank. These funds were invested in electrical installations, some machines, and physical structures. The company is still short of funds to achieve the following: improve the processing facilities for peanut lines and flour lines. The company would also like to upgrade from manual to automated processing systems such as packaging. The funds are also needed for working capital since payments are made after one month or 2 for products delivered to most buyers.The funds are also needed to secure raw materials from producers. The challenges in financing have forced the company to assess more affordable credit and other investors/financiers.Technical assistance discussions also explored the potential for an additional product line that the company wanted to add, a bean composite flour line, and put it through an optimization process. The optimization will help achieve a product that is safe and high quality but also affordable for the targeted markets. This would target current clientele as well as new buyers. The bean flour would be used for porridge and other products such as bean soup. A plan to initiate the development and testing of the new products was completed and slated for October 2023. The testing will be based on identifying which bean varieties are most suitable for bean flour processing. The plans also include Yellow Star's exposure visits to SMEs that have advanced in bean flour processing in the region. Additional funds will be required for this product line, which could replace one slow-moving product line (cassava flour). Part of the current equipment will be used for the new product.The impact pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with an interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness.Photography: Ukama UstawiAssumptions: 1) Community members can afford and are able to buy improved foods; 2) Farmers implement recommendations provided in training, 3) Use of improved nutrient-rich products leads to reduction in diseases; 4) Reduction in cooking time reduces time spent in household chores and leads to women empowerment; 5) Farmers are able to invest income from increased yields to improve livelihoods.High malnutrition rates especially in rural communities and peri-urban areas Yellow Star Food Processors produces nutritious food grain products to increase healthy and well-balanced nutritional food consumption to all individuals while incorporating small holder farmers in sustainable agricultural ingenuities, leading to reduced malnutrition and improved standards of living.ZAMBIA 121 3.9.Photography: Ukama Ustawi F arm Depot Co.Ltd, based in Zambia, strives to provide high-quality inputs for profitable crop and animal farming to the country's smallholder farmers. The company's innovation was based on the understanding that rural smallholder farmers lack access to relevant farming information and inputs within their location to improve and sustain their productivity and, in turn, their livelihoods through increased rural income 112 . Farm Depot Co. Ltd offers a wide range of products for livestock (cattle, pigs, game. fish, and veterinary products), crops (seeds, chemicals, fertilizers, and implements), and pets (food, accessories, and veterinary products) 113 .The Statistical Office in 2015 reported that 54.4% of the Zambian population lives below the poverty line of about USD1.09 per day, and about 40.8% of this population is classified as living in extreme poverty. The country's rural poverty is estimated at 76.5% compared to 23.4% in urban areas, and female-headed households are generally poorer than male-headed households 114 .Numerous Zambia farmers find themselves in a predicament where they need more credible agricultural information and good-quality inputs in their locality 115 to improve and sustain their livelihoods while improving the rural economy.Lack of access to credible farming information and good inputs is a major hindrance to improved productivity amongst smallholder rural farmers 116,117 . Thus, Farm Depot Co. Limited saw the gap with rural smallholder farmers of Zambia and developed agri shops in the farming communities nationwide that offer a wide range of inputs and agricultural information. The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) technical assistance implementation process was led by The Rallying Cry team in collaboration with Dr. Karen Nortje. The Rallying Cry is an ecosystem initiative working to shift private sector capital at the nexus of gender, climate, and agribusiness. At the same time, Dr. Karen Nortje is a senior researcher and social inclusion subject matter expert. The team supported the Accelerator Partners by equipping them to strengthen the capacity and agency of both the men and women within their agribusiness value chain(s). To achieve this, the team developed a gender action plan for Farm Depot Co. Ltd to help address the barriers to gender inclusivity.The company is woman-founded, owned (50%) and led (75% of senior management are women). 63% of employees are youth, while 27% of their smallholder farmers are youth. Additionally, the company makes deliberate efforts to support women and youth to fully participate in their value chain activities by providing access to loans.A summary profile is given below: The company's trainings and access to finance products are gender neutral but the finance product is especially accessible to women as it only requires their trading history to qualify for the loans (as compared to mainstream and traditional sources that require collateral, which is usually land and other assets that women have limited access to)Or 127Although the company scored highly on the assessment generally, there is a need to maintain these standards while making some adjustments to be more inclusive, including providing gender needs sensitive facilities (e.g., changing and lactation rooms) and regular gender sensitization training, especially for senior managers.The GESI Action Plan focused on the same.The product addresses women's specific needsAddresses a problem that disproportionately affects womenMajority of beneficiaries are womenIn Zambia; in the areas in which the company operates, poultry farming is traditionally done by women as it is a home industry which women can do whilst attending to other domestic commitments.Loan product can disproportionately benefit women by availing resourcesThe company has established from past experience that SMS is the most effective means of communication for women across their database. Radio and social media are also effective; however, important to note is that smartphone penetration is limited in their customer demographic.Marketing and all communications are gender neutral unless there is a specific product designed to target women Recognizing that Zambian rural farmers lack access to relevant information and inputs for profitable farming. With locations close to the farmers, Farm Depot strives to provide high-quality inputs for crops and livestock and advice on production. The agricultural sector is considered a risky investment for microfinance institutions because of market and price risks, climate risks, and other crop risks such as pests.A failure in rainfall, unseasonal rains, cyclones, hailstorms, high-temperature spells, and pests affect crops adversely and have the capacity to impact all the farmers in a single region. Since MFIs work in geographically compact areas, they can be severely affected by the high co-variant risk crop-input borrowers face.When many borrowers face crop losses due to weather or pest events, the MFI faces a higher risk of loan defaults or delayed repayments. A spike in loan defaults can impact the MFI's liquidity and overall sustainability, affecting its ability to provide financial services to other clients. In addition, market volatility and fluctuations in commodity prices could impact the income generation of farmers, which affects their loan repayments to an MFI, which can harm their reputation and trust among clients.Seasonality is another risk that MFIs consider when it comes to lending out crop loans to farmers. During the planting season, many farmers are forced to borrow money nearly simultaneously, which places peak demand on MFIs that they cannot mobilize. Therefore, MFIs evaluate an agricultural cooperative's susceptibility to such risks, which can impact crop harvests and income. MFIs also analyze the company is sector and its outlook, as well as its projections and historical figures. The impact pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with an interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness. 135 FARM DEPOT CO. LTD 3.10.Photography: Ukama Ustawi F orest Africa Zambia Ltd is an entrepreneurial initiative established in 2017 and based in Zambia, focusing on Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP), including organic and healthy indigenous wild fruits, i.e., Mabuyu (Baobab), Monkey Bread, and Ngai (False Medlar). The company gathers and processes these organic wild fruits into nutritious fruit juices while upholding the zero-waste principle. Forest Africa Zambia Ltd employs a business model centered around rural community empowerment and commerce to address rural poverty and pressing environmental issues, i.e., deforestation, of the 21st century. The company works closely with over 200 rural households to source wild fruits for juice processing. The fruit powder is processed at the factory into a nutritional organic juice, and seeds are pressed to extract oils for skin and hair products. The baobab fruit's fibrous funicles are also used for making antioxidant-rich tea, while the shells are processed into charcoal briquettes that provide an energy source for the factory.Further, a portion of the fruit seeds is set aside for reforestation purposes 119 . Forest Africa Ltd's indigenous fruit processing model ensures the produce's circularity and that the zero waste principles are upheld. Forest Africa Zambia Ltd. is further collaborating with scientists from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to continuously improve the shelf life of its juice products and further develop other products, including milk from the baobab fruits. The scientists from IITA have further assisted Forest Africa Zambia Ltd. in developing improved standard operating procedures and manuals for raw material handling and processing and new product development (i.e., yogurt from baobab milk). The collective efforts from external scientists have indirectly improved rural income and alleviated poverty of the communities supplying the fruits through the increased company's income and earnings 120 .The Statistical Office 2015 reported that 54.4% of the Zambian population lives below the poverty line of about USD1.09 per day, and about 40.8% of this population is classified as living in extreme poverty. The country's rural poverty is estimated at 76.5% compared to 23.4% in urban areas, and female-headed households are generally poorer than male-headed households 121 . What problems is the company solving?Zambia is endowed with several indigenously growing organic wild fruits 122 . However, the country faces alarming deforestation rates, resulting in forest cover loss of about 300,000 hectares yearly 123 . The alarming deforestation is a climate change response to flood and drought-driven climate affecting agricultural outputs amongst the rural communities. In response to climate change-induced flooding and drought, rural communities often resort to tree-cutting for charcoal production as an alternative source of income. The overreliance on charcoal production has dire environmental consequences, including habitat degradation and deforestation. On top of the deforestation and degradation problem, rural communities often utilize conventional methods of wild fruit harvesting and processing, resulting in waste and unrealized benefits of the potential value chain of wild organic fruits. Furthermore, rural communities cannot trigger fruit demand and require strong market linkages to enhance rural commerce 124 , which may enhance the quality of livelihoods and improve rural poverty.Against the previous context, Forest Africa Zambia Ltd was inspired by the need to explore sustainable alternatives to address the challenges while promoting economic development, potentially reducing rural poverty, and encouraging and supporting healthier consumption choices 125 . Forest Africa Zambia Ltd has successfully established a business model that has enabled it to produce about 15,000 liters of juice per month and supply its products to over 200 retail outlets in and around Lusaka, Southern, and Copperbelt Provinces 126 .Dr. Idil Ires is a political economist-consultant specializing in agrarian change, trade, and industrialization in East Africa. She will assist the Accelerator Partners by conceptualizing an Agribusiness Enabling Environment (AEE) focusing on targeted technical assistance, mapping, and policy advocacy. This aided in tackling significant operational barriers, prioritization of the agribusiness partner's needs, providing relevant industry associations, and establishing policy harmonization.Forest Africa Zambia has faced hurdles in securing short and long-term financing due to high-interest rates, often up to 33 percent. Such rates have significantly impeded the company's potential to secure working capital to grow its business. Also, its operations are encumbered by an excessive number of mandatory licenses, presenting operational obstacles and inhibiting business growth. Lastly, Forest Africa and other local Zambian SMEs face a lack of monetary or fiscal incentives from the government that are tailored to support them. Current incentives predominantly favor incoming foreign investors and companies, placing local businesses, like Forest Africa, at a disadvantage. In addressing these challenges, the TA team reached out to the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA). It provided key contacts to Forest Africa for the enterprise to access the Zambia Credit Guarantee Scheme, which can negotiate with financial institutions to secure flexible loan terms and significantly mitigate financial risks associated with loan applications. Moreover, the enterprise is linked with the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment to explore concessional green finance options and investigate funding opportunities from the Citizens Economic Empowerment Fund. Moreover, a comprehensible summary of the Investment, Trade, and Business Development Act of 2022 has been provided for the enterprise to understand the investment incentives, and it recommended that it contact ZMD to explore concrete opportunities. The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) technical assistance implementation process was led by The Rallying Cry team in collaboration with Dr. Karen Nortje. The Rallying Cry is an ecosystem initiative working to shift private sector capital at the nexus of gender, climate, and agribusiness. At the same time, Dr. Karen Nortje is a senior researcher and social inclusion subject matter expert. The team supported the Accelerator Partners by equipping them to strengthen the capacity and agency of both the men and women within their agribusiness value chain(s). To achieve this, the team developed a gender action plan for Forest Africa Zambia Ltd to help address the barriers to gender inclusivity.The company is woman-founded, owned (50%) and led (100% of senior managers are women). 67% of employees are youth, 44% of employees are women, and 90% of their smallholder farmers are women. The company does not have genderfocused policies, and gender sensitization training has not been implemented yet. However, the company provides employees with individualized lockers and separate changing rooms for women, including showers and washrooms. Additionally, Forest Africa Zambia identified promotional and communication channels that work best for women (e.g., word-of-mouth social media).A summary profile is given below: No recruitment activities focused on women have been carried out requirements was the need to strengthen product portfolio to increase wild fruit offtake from rural communities and to increase revenue. Forest Africa accumulates a rich repository of baobab seeds in its processing activities. Apart from pressing a baobab seed oil, most of the seed was potentially underutilized. There was clear need to find innovative ways to commercially utilize the seeds other than planting and oil pressing. In order to achieve this level of innovation, critical expertise was missing within Forest Africa's ranks. The product is currently still undergoing local approvals and certification through the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS). The product is expected to be on the Market once certification from ZABS is received.Baobab vegan milk is a nutritious and refreshing beverage that can be easily made using the simple steps involving Sorting, cleaning, Soaking the Seeds, Boiling the Soaked Seeds, blending the cooked Seeds, and finally, adding essential ingredients.With these simple steps, you can enjoy delicious and nutritious baobab seed milk, rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Experiment with the milk by adding flavors like vanilla or cinnamon or using it as a base for smoothies or other culinary creations. The impact pathway was delivered by Andreea Nowak, a social science researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with interest in how to improve the assessment and reporting on climate adaptation and resilience. Within the FSA, her interests were to assess the current impact measurements and metrics used by the agribusinesses and develop additional indicators for impact measurement reporting, data collection, consolidation, and fundraising. Together with a team of researchers, she has conducted interviews and workshops and co-designed the below-impact pathway with the agribusiness.CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Its research is carried out by 13 CGIAR Centers/Alliances in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.orgWe would like to thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders.To learn more about this Initiative, please visit this webpage.To ","tokenCount":"16963"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e21c940beb040b518c4b4e0008c2c0b1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c6d578e-ef02-4143-aaa0-04b660339037/retrieve","id":"2093879455"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3ba3caea-8ed5-4b09-a317-738dd1cb2d4f","pagecount":"106","content":"supported by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), aims to improve the livelihoods of over 30,000 livestock producing households by improving productivity of local breeds through better feeding and husbandry practices, fostering greater access to veterinary services and production infrastructure such as boreholes, increasing the availability of mutton at good prices and enhancing market capacity from both technical and institutional standpoints across different livestock value chains.Livestock production zones and priority species of the Gambia Table 2.Cattle distribution pattern by breed and region for 2016Table 3. The Gambia livestock populations by species, selected years 1991 to 2016 Table 4.Base year (2020/21) livestock number and distribution over the three livestock production zones and commercial system Table 5. Estimated red meat production (t) across the three production zones and commercial system, base year 2020/2021 Table 6. Estimated annual milk production across the three production zones and commercial system, in millions of litres, (base year 2020/2021) Table 7. Estimated annual GDP contribution by production zones and for backyard chicken and commercial system in million GMD, base year (2020/21)  An important component of the Gambia Small Ruminant Production Enhancement Project (SRPEP 1 ) is the development of a Livestock Master Plan (LMP) for the Gambia that is aimed at transforming the sector to improve livelihoods, employment (particularly for youth) and national income.The Gambia LMP is meant to guide the ongoing project to enhance the provision of additional public and private investments in the livestock sector and improve livestock contributions to achieving the stated development goals, explained in the National Development Plan (NDP). An essential element of the SRPEP project is developing LMP to transform the sector to improve livelihoods, employment (particularly for youth) and national income.The purpose of producing an investment roadmap or LMP is to attract more substantial and better targeted livestock sector investments from finance ministries, development partners (DPs) and private sector investors. The development of the Livestock Strategy Analysis (LSA) is an important component of the LMP process.To help raise public and private investment and allocate more budget to the livestock sector, the Government of the Gambia, through the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), requested the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to provide technical assistance in developing a comprehensive LMP.The Gambia LMP will address the following issues:• Provide evidence on priority areas for which it is essential to secure necessary investments and detailed information. The LMP will guide long-term planning in the livestock sector in the Gambia.• Assess the key livestock value chains for their potential and challenges for an effective contribution to the Gambian economy. Areas of focus of the study will include modernizing the dairy sector, developing poultry and small ruminants avenues and animal product processing. This will entail the use of more productive indigenous breeds (the output of selection, control breeding and Artificial Insemination) and exotic and crossbred animals. Improvements will also be made in the control of disease, animal husbandry, veterinary healthcare delivery, animal product processing and marketing.The Gambia in West Africa occupies a land area of 10,120 km 2 and an approximately 1,300 km 2 water bodies and a total area of 11,300 km 2 . A small subtropical country between latitudes 13º28 N and 16º36 W, bordered to the north, south and east by Senegal and has an 80 km coast on the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The country's borders roughly correspond with the path of River Gambia. The Gambia is within three agro-ecological zones: Sahelian, Sudano-Sahelian and Sudano-Guinean. The country has a subtropical climate with two variations of distinct dry and rainy seasons. The dry season usually starts in mid-October and ends around mid-June every year with an average temperature of 32°C/89.6°F. The rainy season (rainfall averaging 1,020 mm and ranging from 800 mm in the east to 1,700 mm at the western end of the country) usually starts around mid-June and ends around mid-October; with August being the wettest month of the year, temperatures can reach up to 41°C/105.8°F.The country has an 80-km Atlantic coastline with an exclusive fishing zone of 200 nautical miles within the continental shelf. The agricultural land is 6,550 km 2 and the arable land is 588 thousand hectares, out of which 334 thousand hectares are under cultivation. It has a forest area of 4,750 km 2 (i.e. 47.5% of the land area).Agricultural production is predominantly rainfed. It is characterized by variability and largely unpredictable weather and rainfall patterns that seldom exceed five months annually. Cash crops produced include rice, maize, millets, sorghum, groundnuts and vegetables. Livestock production and fisheries also contribute significantly to the livelihood of the population.In the Gambia, the agricultural sector is one of the leading contributors to GDP, accounting for 20-30% of the national GDP. The livestock subsector contributes 20 and 8% to the agricultural and national GDP, respectively. The agricultural sector is a key deriver of socio-economic development, providing food, income and employment (for 75% of the country's working population). The Gambia's GDP growth rate declined from 7% in 2018 to 6.2% in 2019 to -0.2% in 2020 (Trading Economics-Central Bank of the Gambia 2020), primarily due to the slump in tourist arrivals as a result of the outbreak of COVID 19.1.1 The context for the Gambia LMP in the current national strategies and planningThe Government of the Gambia currently is implementing a National Development Plan (NDP), 2018-2021. The goal of the NDP is to deliver good governance and accountability, social cohesion, national reconciliation and a revitalized and transformed economy for the well-being of all Gambians (Government of the Gambia 2018). The NDP is anchored on eight strategic priorities or development objectives, namely:• Restoring good governance, respect for human rights, the rule of law and empowering citizens through decentralization and local governance;• Stabilizing the economy, stimulating growth and transforming the economy;• Modernizing agriculture and fisheries for sustained economic growth, food and nutritional security and poverty reduction;• Investing in people through improved education and health services and building a caring society;• Building infrastructure and restoring energy services to power our economy;• Promoting inclusive and culture-centred tourism for sustainable growth;• Reaping the demographic dividend through an empowered youth; and• Making the private sector the engine of growth, transformation and job creation.Agriculture under the NDP aims to have a modern, sustainable and market-oriented agriculture and livestock for increased food and nutrition security, income and employment generation, poverty reduction and economic transformation. Modernizing agriculture will involve transitioning from low-input, subsistent production systems to more mechanized, market-oriented agriculture through:• Utilization of improved breeds and the application of better management practices• Enhancement of the productivity of the indigenous breeds and cautious usage of the improved exotic breeds and crossbreeds• Better access to veterinary services• Improvement in the value chains of species (particularly in value addition and the marketing of livestock and livestock production).The NDP recognizes the livestock subsector as a prime asset and renewable resource that creates opportunities to reduce poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition and to create employment and income-generating activities (particularly in rural households).The plan set the following targets for the livestock subsector:• Increase cattle production by 56% (offtake from 11.9 to 15.9%)• Increase sheep production by 5% (offtake from 22.3 to 29.8%)• Increase goat production by 11% (offtake from 25.1 to 33.5%)• Increase milk production by 10% from 25.8 million litres to 28.4 million litres. (Most milk produced in the Gambia is from cattle, given that milk production from small ruminants is insignificant).• Examine the status of the meat processing industry, assess the economic and financial viability of the initiative and propose feasible strategies, activities, appropriate technologies, as well as best management practices along with an implementation and procurement plan for the meat plant. In particular, the assessment of existing conditions to support the establishment of a state-of-the-art halal slaughterhouse in the Gambia for both domestic and export markets is a priority considering the possible construction of a modern halal meat processing plant through financing by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).To meet these targets, the NDP identified priority value chains in the livestock subsector to strengthen the value chain actors, promote agribusiness, processing and enhance a viable marketing system.The strategy for strengthening the subsector is to develop a market concept (geared towards satisfying the needs of the clients and enhancing the sustainable use of cattle, sheep, goats, chicken and livestock products. The concept represents a major change in the current orientation that provides the foundation for the achievement of competitive advantage). The strategy is anchored on the following:• Support livestock traders, associations and women's groups that are involved in fattening and sale of livestock and processing animal products• Construct livestock infrastructure such as slaughterhouses/slabs and butcher's shops that meet food safety standards• Establish a market information system• Organize livestock shows/fairs• Establish mechanisms for facilitating access to credit.The NDP reiterates the government's policy direction of reversing the erosion of livestock genetic resources by adopting a comprehensive approach to promote the sustainable use, development and conservation of animal genetic resources to increase food production and food security, reduce poverty and contribute to rural development. Implementing the national strategy and action plan for managing animal genetic resources is geared towards achieving the above objective.Apart from disease incidence, the threat to erosion of animal genetic resources diversity in the Gambia is compounded by encroachment on traditional livestock grazing and watering areas (human settlements, double cropping of rice, cashew plantations etc.) and the destruction of the habitat of vectors of diseases allowing gene pool dilution of indigenous breeds as they are gradually replaced by more productive but less disease-tolerant imported breeds/crosses.To guard against the mentioned threat, the international community (109 countries) in 2007 adopted the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources (and The Interlaken Declaration on Animal Genetic Resources), confirming their commitment to the conservation and sustainable use of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture.Translating the Global Plan of Action into a national action plan required the preparation of the National Strategy and Action Plan, which spearheaded the move towards more effective and sustainable use, conservation and development of animal genetic resources (Loum 2019).There is often considerable under-investment in livestock development despite the growing importance of livestock in rural economies and animal source foods in urban diets (Delgado et al. 1999;Herrero et al. 2015). This underinvestment is a major constraint to modernizing the livestock sector and can prevent it from making an even more substantial contribution to national and/or state development goals; including poverty reduction, food security, economic growth and even mitigating climate change (Herrero et al. 2015;Shapiro et al. 2015). In the Gambia, this is evidenced in the government budget appropriation to ministries, in which the livestock subsector received 7.45 and 7.24% of the 2020 and 2021 agricultural budget, respectively. The Ministry of Agriculture has received an appropriation of 1.82% of the total annual budget for 2021 (Government of the Gambia 2021), implying that the livestock subsector received a meagre 0.13% of the total annual budget in 2021 (yet livestock contributed approximately 3-5% of the GDP in the same year). Such a low budget allocation for the livestock subsector is common in low-income countries, stemming from the lack of convincing quantitative evidence of potential impacts to get sufficient financial resources from finance ministries (Shapiro et al. 2015). Thus, returns on investment (ROIs) based on ex-ante impact assessments of combined technologies and policies are needed to help the livestock ministries attract more substantial investments from finance ministries and private sector investors.Another hindrance to generating convincing evidence to motivate public planners and private investors to increase their livestock investments is a lack of capacity to build and use quantitative sector models that document the ROIs possible from new livestock technologies and policies for sector transformation. Such modelling skills are not common in most livestock agencies in developing countries.Using available data from secondary sources and national livestock experts, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Livestock Master Plan (LMP) team has developed a livestock herd and economic sector model (HESM) for the Gambia and then has carried out the baseline assessment (for the base year of 2020/21) of the 15year livestock sector analysis (LSA), under the current level of investment. The LSA will inform the livestock sector strategy (the 15-year with additional investment analysis) and the 5-year investment analysis, which will result in the development of the Gambia Livestock Master Plan (GLMP), investment implementation plans or 'roadmaps'.The LSA is conducted for the business as usual (BAU) scenario or no additional investment, from 2020/21 to 2035/36. It sets a baseline for the long-term foresight analysis, providing quantitative and evidence-based justification for public and private investments in the Gambia livestock sector's recommended and prioritized commodity value chains (VCs).In carrying out the LSA, to choose the investment and policy interventions to be analysed in the 15-year livestock sector strategy and recommended in the 5-year roadmaps or sector investment plan for the Gambia, the alternative investments in new technologies or innovations combined with policy changes will be tested to compare their impacts or contributions to the following specific development objectives (through measurable indicators) chosen by the Gambia livestock sector experts.The identified development objectives are:• Poverty reduction (improvement in household incomes)• Economic growth (contribution of the livestock sector to Agricultural Domestic Product (ADP)• Improvements in food and nutritional security of rural people, especially women and children (more animal source foods-ASFs, including more protein and carbohydrate)• Contribution to social equity (household and post-production income, women empowerment, employment and investment increases for women, youth and scheduled minority groups).The baseline analysis was conducted using quantitative tools from the Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit (LSIPT) 2 . Gender analysis included a literature review drawing on published and grey literature, government surveys, stakeholder meetings and virtual key informant interviews.Once the model or livestock herd and economic sector model (HESM) was developed, it was used to evaluate the productivity over the 15 years based on the sector's present technical and economic performance, given current, no additional investments in technologies and policies. Meanwhile, specific farm systems with potential impact on gender have been identified and included in the analysis. This will help interpret the potential and differential impacts of proposed technology-policy interventions on men and women.This LSA is organized as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the livestock systems in the Gambia, defines the livestock systems and production zones and elucidates important technical parameter. Section 3 describes the existing opportunities and constraints within each priority livestock value chain. Section 4 describes the policy and institutional constraints and opportunities. Section 5 combines the baseline analysis results and explains the current and future contributions of the livestock sector, given the current level of investments. Finally, Section 6 provides some concluding remarks from the baseline analysis.2 Livestock systems in the GambiaThe climate variability that affects traditional livestock production (or agricultural production in general) is not discernible due to the small size of the Gambia. However, notwithstanding, the country has two distinct regional climate classifications:Tropical savannah-covers the country's western half, including the coastal regions (Banjul, West Coast, North Bank and Lower River Regions). The average annual temperature is 25.6ᵒC with a unimodal annual average rainfall of 619 to 719 mm. The rainy season is from July to October. Generally, humidity is low during the dry season (November-June) (47 to 56%) and high during the rainy season (80 to 84%).Hot semi-arid (Sahelian type of climate)-covers the eastern half of the country (Central River Region/North, Central River Region/South and Upper River Region). The average annual temperature is 28.9ᵒC, with a unimodal annual average rainfall of 675 mm. humidity ranges from 33 to 83% during the year.The country has a subtropical climate with temperatures ranging from 29 to 34ᵒC with a rainy season (July-September) and a dry season (October-June). The country's eastern half is slightly warmer and drier than the western part in climatic variability.The country is relatively flat, with 75% of its landmass below 20 metres above sea level (MASL). The highest elevations (53-60 MASL) are in the Lower River, Central River and Upper River Regions.Agriculture remains a key sector in the Gambian economy, serving as a driver for socio-economic development, providing food, income and employment (for 75% of the country's working population).There can be as many livestock production system classifications as possible combinations of criteria used (Seré and Steinfeld 1996). In this study, the Gambia livestock production systems are classified based on the Seré and Steinfeld (1996) approach, which uses a combination of criteria and the farming system concept. It classifies livestock systems into four types: 1) landless livestock production system (LL, which may be monogastric or ruminant), 2) grassland or grazing land system (LG, in which crop based agriculture is minimal), 3) mixed rainfed systems (MR, mostly rainfed cropping combined with livestock keeping) and 4) mixed irrigated systems (MI, in which a significant proportion of cropping uses irrigation and is interspersed with livestock). A farming system is defined as a group of farms with a similar structure, such that individual farms are likely to share similar production functions (Dixon et al. 2001). Classifying similar livestock production systems into production zones based on agro-ecological criteria and farming systems characteristics provides the opportunity to group production systems with similar challenges and opportunities. It can thus simplify the planning of development options/interventions.In the Gambia, agricultural regions comprise the following: For the Gambia LMP, following Seré and Steinfeld (1996) and recommendations from a team of livestock experts, the country is divided into three regions (Figure 1), namely:• The Western Region comprising KMC 3 and West Coast Region (WCR)• The Central Region comprising NBR and LRR• The Eastern Region includes CRR/N, CRR/S and URR. The process for the development of the LMPs requires the participation of national experts in the determination/ confirmation of production and financial parameter of the species of livestock that will be studied (Table 1). In the case of the Gambia, the concentration will be on the following species: The majority of livestock production occurs in the predominantly traditional and small-scale and is generally not commercially oriented. It is characterized by poor management, low productivity, low offtake rates and high disease incidence resulting in high mortality rates for all the livestock species produced.In the Gambia, cattle production forms an important and integral component of the agropastoral/mixed farming system, providing manure, milk, meat and a reserve source of income for satisfying sociocultural and other obligations. The production systems practised are as follows:3. KMC-Kanifing Municipal Council is an urban/peri-urban area with minimal potential for agricultural production, although urban agriculture is gradually becoming important.Extensive system-This is the predominant system based on livestock production and crops (mixed farming). It is characterized by the usage of indigenous breeds of low productivity (N'Dama and Gobra/zebu), with little to no improvement programs. Transhumance and internal migration are practised in search of pastures and water during the dry season.Semi-intensive system-Selected animals (including draught animals) are given supplementary feeding using agroindustrial by-products and crop residues to increase meat, milk, manure and draught power.Intensive system-This system is practised mainly in the urban and peri-urban areas using pure breeds (mostly European breeds) and crosses of N'Dama and European breeds to increase productivity (both milk and meat). Artificial insemination (AI) is practised for improving performance.Cattle are reared in all the administrative regions, but production is concentrated in the rural areas. Cattle herds (average herd size is 56 animals) are managed by herdsmen responsible for their overall supervision. The animals are tethered overnight to pegs and are herded in the morning for grazing in communal rangelands (mainly marginal and fallow lands) for 6-8 hours daily. This extensive management system is applied to the majority of the cattle population (87.9%), while the semi-intensive system is mostly practised for draught animals (12%) (National Livestock Census 2016). Communal rangelands are the main source of feed for the cattle herds. During the dry season, however, they have access to crop residues once field crops are harvested.Lactating cows are milked once or twice daily and the produced milk is sold unprocessed, either as raw or fermented milk. Animals are not individually tagged and reproduction and production performance records are not maintained. N'Dama cattle are the dominant cattle species in the country (Table 2). Their crosses are used in the smallholder commercial dairy production in the peri-urban areas under semi-intensive to intensive management. Various forms of housing, zero-grazing, grazing with supplementation and inputs for disease control are provided. Individual animals are tagged and some production records are maintained. In the 1980s, it was generally accepted, by many livestock specialists in the Gambia, that the country was nearing the threshold of the carrying capacity for the national cattle herd. Hence the population has stabilized at around 300 thousand heads (Sumberg 1988 and others).Small ruminants and poultry play a vital role in the livelihood of the rural populations in the Gambia. Their population, particularly goats and chicken is widespread in all regions and has steadily increased over the last two decades (Table 3). They are raised to generate income and meet the nutritional requirements of rural families. They are also sold to meet other family needs and to fulfil the socio-cultural obligations of the owners. These short cycle livestock species are easier to sell and thus serve as ready sources of income for the purchase of food during lean periods. The erratic nature of rainfall and crop failures observed in recent years imply farmers rely more on small ruminants and poultry to meet the food and other requirements of the families. The small ruminant production system is extensive and subsistent. Different management practices are used for rainy and dry seasons. During the rainy season, flocks are housed during the night and during the day, all the sheep and goats in the villages are pooled to form big flocks and kept away from the crop fields. In some regions, the small ruminants are tethered near the villages or in uncultivated crop fields. However, in the dry season, the animals are left to roam around the villages scavenging on domestic waste or grazing on crop residues in the harvested fields.Productivity of small ruminants under the traditional system is relatively low due to the low productivity of the indigenous breeds (with lambing and kidding rates of 1.2 and 1.5%, respectively and carcass weight of 14 kgs for both species), inadequate nutrition, poor management practices and high mortality rates due to frequent disease outbreaks. Unlike cattle, sheep and goats are sold annually, as evidenced by the higher offtake rate.Traditional poultry production is extensive. The birds are kept in small flocks in the backyards of the owners. In most cases, the birds are owned and managed by women and children. They are confined during the night in locally made shelters to minimize predation, while birds are left to scavenge in the backyards during the daytime. Supplementary feeds such as millet and brans, as well as water, are provided for the birds. The traditional poultry flocks consist of local breeds that are poor producers of meat and eggs compared to exotic breeds. The birds are easier to sell or slaughter for home consumption and for that reason, they serve as a ready source of income and protein for the rural population.Transhumance is an important attribute of the livestock production system in the Gambia and it serves as a coping strategy to guard against feed and water scarcity during the dry season. It is also undertaken to move livestock away from areas designated for crop production during the rainy season. During the dry season, cattle herds migrate from the Eastern Region to the flood plains of the Central Region. In the Central Region, the movement of cattle herds is mainly from CRR/S to the Casamance Region of southern Senegal. During the same period, there is an extensive movement of small ruminant flocks and cattle herds from northern Senegal to CRR/N.The Central River Region is the preferred destination for migrant cattle herds due to the availability of feed and water in the flood plains, islands and rice fields during the dry season.Migration is also prevalent in the North Bank Region of the Gambia. The herds move within and between the districts in search of pastures and water. During the dry season, swampy areas and districts with lowlands and rice fields are the targeted destinations. Herds are also forced to move for short distances to avoid damage to the crop fields during the rainy season.2.2 Livestock species distribution over the different production zones As discussed in Section 2.1, the Eastern livestock production zone has a larger land mass than the Central and Western production zones. Thus, it is pertinent to consider that higher population, production or GDP contributions for the Eastern livestock production zone compared to the other two production zones may not demonstrate the superiority of the zone. The Eastern livestock production zone is the dwelling for more than half of the cattle and goats population and about two-third of the sheep population in the Gambia (Figure 2). The Eastern production zone contributes significantly (nearly 60%) to the red meat 4 production in the Gambia (Table 5). The contribution of the commercial system, mainly commercial dairy, to meat production is marginal, about 0.1%. Milk is another important livestock product in the Gambia. As for meat production, the Eastern production zone has the highest share of milk produced in the country. More than half of the country's total annual milk production comes from the Eastern production zone, followed by the Central and Western production zones (Table 6). Cattle contribute about 92% to the total annual milk production in the country and the rest, about 8% of the total milk produced, comes from goats though it is noted that goat milk is generally not available in the market and is mainly for home consumption.Table 6. Estimated annual milk production across the three production zones and commercial system, in millions of litres, (base year 2020/2021) According to our estimates, the Eastern livestock production zone contributes about 50% to the total livestock GDP, followed by the Western and the Central zones (Table 7). The widespread backyard and commercial systems contribute about a small amount (3.4%) to the livestock GDP.Table 7. Estimated annual GDP contribution by production zones and for backyard chicken and commercial system in million GMD, 5 base year (2020/21) The section below summarizes the different livestock production, reproduction and financial parameter across the livestock production zones for cattle, goats, sheep and poultry. The values of these parameter were collected from existing databases and literature reviews and validated by a panel of experts. The databases and literature reviewed include published and unpublished research articles, government and project report documents, government annual plans and reports, national surveys and census reports. To fill the gap in data and validate existing parameter, a series of focus group discussions were conducted with the livestock technical experts, officials and policymakers in the government organizations, livestock project staff, technical experts from donor supported development projects and all other key stakeholders involved in the livestock sector. The baseline situation of the Gambia livestock system is established using the collected parameter listed in the following Tables and Annexe I.Cattle farms' production and reproduction parameter across the three production zones are depicted below (Table 8). The parturition rate of N'Dama cattle across the three production zones ranges between 0.48 and 0.49, while it is on average 0.52 for zebu/Gobra cattle. The overall mortality figures in N'Dama cattle range between 6 and 7%, whereas for zebu breeds, it ranges between 9 and 10%.The average offtake rate of N'Dama cattle in the Gambia varies between 13 and 14%, while zebu/Gobra cattle varies between 6 and 9%. The zebu/Gobra cattle have an offtake rate of almost half of the N'Dama cattle, possibly attributed to the higher mortality of zebu/Gobra cattle.Commercial dairy farms have the highest daily milk production, on average about 8 litres/day. The average daily milk production from the N'Dama and zebu/Gobra cattle breeds is about 1.1 and 2.2 litres, respectively. The lactation length of all breeds is about 305 days which is extremely long when compared to the extensive cattle production systems in other African countries (Murutu et al. 2016;Shapiro et al. 2017;Ayalew et al. 2019). The cattle financial parameter are presented in Annexe I (Table 42). N'Dama cattle incur a lower veterinary cost and a lower mortality rate than the zebu/Gobra cattle herds. Of the different costs, feed is the most important cost in N'Dama herds, followed by veterinary and labour costs. However, labour is the most important cost in the zebu/ Gobra herds. All recurrent costs in all cattle farmers are not covered by a loan.When it comes to income from cattle production, cattle meat, milk and draught power are the major sources of income. However, there is a difference in the contribution of the different products to the total cattle income depending on the breed of the cattle and the production zone where the cattle live. Except for farmers in the Western production zone, N'Dama cattle farmers in the Central and Eastern zones get the highest share (52 and 54%, respectively) of the total N'Dama cattle income from the meat while milk and draught power are the second and the third important sources of income. Milk contributes the largest income to the total zebu/Gobra cattle system income in all production zones, followed by meat and draught power. Cattle farmers in the Western get the highest income from N'Dama and zebu/Gobra cattle than farmers in the Central and Eastern production zones.Production and reproduction parameter of goats in the three production zones indicate moderate levels of parturition and prolificacy in all three production zones (Table 9). Although the parturition and the prolificacy rates can be considered moderate, the benefit appears largely cancelled out due to the very high annual mortality rates (36 to 39%) of goats. The offtake rates, on the other hand, range between 31 and 35%. In terms of a flock structure, adult females take about 44 to 47% of the total flock size. Their number is the largest in the flock (Table 9).7. Calculated based on the 2016 livestock census data. Financial information (Annexe I, Table 43) shows that goat farmers do not take a loan to finance their recurrent costs. Of all the recurrent costs, veterinary cost is the most important in goat flocks, followed by salaried labour.There is almost no cost spent on feeding goats (Table 41). It is also good to note that no difference in production, reproduction and financial parameter was observed between female owned and the other goat production subsystem.Goat meat is the sole source of income for farmers in the Central and Eastern production zones. However, in the Western production zone, manure contributes about 15% to the total goat income. Both female owned and the small goat production subsystem depicted the same total and net income result. The highest average net income from a goat flock is observed in the Western production zone with about GMD 4,000, followed by goat flocks in Eastern and Central with about GMD 3,600 and 3,300, respectively. The profit margin of goat production in the Gambia is high, with about 69 to 73% rate.8. Calculated based on the 2016 livestock census data.The parturition and prolificacy rates of Djallonke sheep across the three production zones were about 0.95 and 1.1, respectively (Table 10). On the other hand, the Sahelian breed depicted a higher parturition rate and similar prolificacy rates as in the Djalonke breed. The parturition and prolificacy rates in the Sahelian breed are about 1.5 and 1.1, respectively. The mortality rates of sheep in the different production zones range between 22 and 36% for the Djallonke breed, while for the Sahelian breed, it ranges between 36 and 53%. The offtake rate for the Djallonke breed in the three production zones range between 17 and 20%, while for the Sahelian breed ranges between 20 and 34%. Like in goats, sheep's male to female ratio has a similar pattern across the three production zones, with adult females dominating a flock. Financial information (Annexe I, Table 44) indicates that sheep farmers do not take a loan to finance their recurrent costs. The Djallonke and Sahelian sheep breeds depicted huge differences in the structure of the production costs.In Djallonke sheep, the veterinary cost is the major cost accounting for about 45% of the total cost. However, in the Sahelian breed, feed is the dominant cost that can account for up to 75% of the total cost. The other important costs in the two breeds are salaried labour and others like water, shed maintenance and more. A significant difference in production, reproduction and financial parameter was not observed in Djallonke breeds that are exclusively owned by females and others owned by men or jointly.Mutton is the sole source of income for farmers in the Central and Eastern production zones. However, in the Western production zone, manure contributes about 8% to the total sheep income. In terms of total and net income, both female owned Djallonke and the other sheep production subsystem have the same output. The highest average net income from a Djallonke sheep flock was observed in the Western production zone with about GMD 18,600, followed by flocks in Eastern and Central zones. Djallonke breeds presented the highest income per animal than Sahelian sheep in all production zones but in the Eastern. For the Sahelian sheep flock, the highest income per flock was observed in the Eastern production zone, followed by the Western. In the Central zone, Sahelian sheep show a very small income per flock and animal. This could be due to the highest mortality of the Sahelian sheep observed in the Central zone.The profit margin of the sheep production in the Gambia is high, with about 64 to 73% rate for Djallonke. However, for Sahelian sheep breeds, the profit margin can reach as low as 13% and a maximum of about 42%.The backyard chicken is a valuable source of income for smallholder farmers (Table 11, Annexe I, Table 45). The average number of hens in the backyard chicken flock is about 2.2, with 0.6 average cock number and egg production per hen of about 60 eggs. With an average of about three incubations per year, a hen can produce up to 8 marketable chicken with an average weight of 1.5 kg (Table 11). This shows the high productivity of backyard chicken despite the 42% chick and 60% adult mortalities. Age of hens at the start of the laying period (months) 6Duration of the laying period (months) 30Age of layers at culling (months) 36Age of cocks at culling (months) 48Adult mortality (% per year) 42%Chicks and growers mortality (% per year) 60% Production Number of eggs laid: hen/year 60 Age of cocks when sold (months) 4Cocks sold or consumed on-farm/year 8.8Hens sold or consumed on-farm/year 7.5Feed consumption and production parameterFeed consumption layer (g/animal per day) 70Feed consumption growers and cockerel (g/animal per day) 30Proportion of total feed supplemented for layers (%) 17%Proportion of total feed supplemented for growers (%) 17%Average live weight of chicken (growers) sold (kg) 1Average live weight of culled hens (kg) 1.2Average live weight of culled cocks (kg) 1.5Average dressing percentage 65%Total number of animals present per hen 7.1Total number of animals sold or consumed on-farm/year 17.2Animals sold or consumed on-farm/year per hens 7.84Source: Baseline data.Financial information (Annexe I, Table 44) indicates that ruminant farmers and backyard chicken farmers do not take a loan to finance their recurrent costs. A typical backyard chicken farm has a total cost per flock of about GMD 1,288 and makes average total revenue of GMD 2,568, which provides a profit margin of 99.4%. Feed and other maintenance and equipment costs are the dominant sources of recurrent costs. About 87% of the income of backyard chicken farms come from the sale of chicken and culled animals, but egg sales contribute only about 13% to the total chicken income. That is why it is a flaw to use just egg production and income from eggs to evaluate the performance of backyard chicken. The major (87%) income of the backyard chicken come from the selling of live birds.3 Livestock production constraints and opportunities facilitating growthThe need to satisfy the increased demand for animal products and ease pressure on natural resources imposed by animals require a detailed and forward looking livestock development strategy. If the anticipated demand for livestock and livestock products has to be met, it will come through increased livestock productivity and not more animals. Therefore, a sustainable increase in the production and productivity of animals follow a synchronized and relentless improvement in livestock feed, health, genetics and marketing. However, the livestock subsector in the Gambia faces a plethora of challenges, including inadequate access to range resources and water, frequent occurrence of disease outbreaks, limited access to veterinary healthcare delivery, low level market linkages and lack of improved germplasm.In addressing and confronting these challenges, the crucial first step is to explore the existing facilitating factors and constraints to initiate requisite development strategies and target production zones/regions and species that can generate significant economic and social gains without causing irreparable damage to the environment and natural resources.The following section presents the facilitating factors, challenges and constraints of major commodity value chains, livestock production zones and livestock technology intervention areas.Table 12 shows the factors that facilitate cattle systems in the Gambia.  (163,355) of the country's cattle population is located in this area and opportunities exist to improve both the production and productivity of the speciesRice production is significant in the area hence the availability of crop residues and by-products (rice bran and rice straw.) Groundnut, sesame and cottonseed cake are also available. Year round feed and water availability in flood plains of Niamina (CRR)The flood plains in CRR are the traditional dry season grazing areas for both resident and migrant cattle herds from URR and other regions and transhumant herds BreedingThe overwhelming majority of all cattle (98%) in the Gambia are indigenous and belong to the N'Dama breed. The remaining 2% comprises zebus, 'Gobras' (crosses of N'Dama and zebu cattle) and crossbreds of N'Dama and Jersey, Holstein-Friesian and other European breeds (National Livestock Census 2016)• N'Dama cattle breed is known for its innate tolerance to trypanosomiasis (Murray et al. 1982;Paling et al. 1992); resistance to dermatophilosis, heartwater, anaplasmosis and babesiosis (Leeflang and Blockamp 1978;Murray et al. 1991); and relative resistance to helminths Claxton and Laperre (1991). Their physiological adaptation to harsh environmental elements make them more resistant to heat, drought and feed scarcity than other breedsThe N'Dama is a dual purpose breed used both for meat and milk production. The breed also provides the draught power requirements for farm operations of crop farmers for the production of 73.4% of all field crops in the Gambia. Draught power requirements for most farm operations (from planting to transporting the produce) are largely met through the usage of animal traction. Draught power is also useful in the rural socio-economy as a means of transport for serving the weekly markets 'Lumoos' and providing transportation networks and (ambulance services) for remote rural communitiesThe N'Dama cattle breeding program in the Gambia aim to genetically improve the breed to meet future market demands and challenges. The program is implemented through the collaboration of the West African Livestock Innovation Centre (WALIC), the Department of Livestock Services (DLS) and the Gambia Indigenous Livestock Multipliers Association (GILMA). The program operates as an open nucleus breeding scheme at Keneba (WALIC) Wassu, Basse and Yoro-Beri-Kunda (YBK) (DLS) multiplication herds with individual multiplier farmers (GILMA). The schemes serve to produce elite offspring distributed to livestock farmers to enhance animal genetic resources improvement at the community level. The breeding goals have been set to increase milk and meat production for cattle and goats and increase meat production for sheep. In 2017/18, 16 out of 20 selected elite breeding bulls were disseminated to livestock farmers who satisfied the laid down criteria for multiplier farmers The cattle subsector in the Gambia faces several challenges linked to the predominant, extensive production system characterized by limited access to production inputs, feed, water, quality veterinary service and livestock infrastructure exacerbated by market imperfections that stifle performance and growth. The situation is further compounded by the overwhelming use of indigenous breeds of low productivity that have evolved partly/most likely as a result of/in response to nutritional and disease stress (Loum B, Expert opinion 2021). See Table 13 below.Table 13. Challenges of cattle production by production zone Category Production System 1 (Western Region)Production System 2 (Central Region)Production System 3 (Eastern Region) Feed and FodderOver time, the rangelands that constitute the primary feed source for livestock in the Gambia are severely degraded due to overgrazing, bush fires and the absence of improvement strategies such as enrichment planting to replace palatable grass species. Communal ownership of the rangelands precludes any meaningful/efficient management of the range of resources given that they belong to the community at large.Over the years, the vegetative cover and composition of grasses on the pastures have changed considerably due to overgrazing and the frequent occurrence of bush fires. Local fodder tree species such as Pterocarpus Erinaceous, Acacia Albida and other species are declining in the forested areas due to over exploitation /lopping and intensive logging.• Towards the end of the dry season, scarcity of feed becomes so acute that all animals lose weight due to starvation. During this period, in most regions, livestock depend largely on crop residues, swamp grazing and browsing on fodder trees for their sustenance.• Dwindling range resources due to demographic pressures and the mushrooming of excessive numbers of housing estates on marginal lands that were hitherto used as grazing lands Goat production compares favourably to sheep farming in the Gambia and it also plays a vital role in the livelihood of the rural populations. Similarly, sheep are also raised to generate income and meet the rural households' food, nutrition and other requirements. For these reasons, the ownership of goats is even more diverse and widespread than that of sheep.The production system practised is mainly extensive and traditional; hence, productivity is generally low. The thriving market for roast meat ('Affra') is largely satisfied through the slaughter of goats from all regions (particularly from CRR/N and S and URR) and countries in the subregion. The demand for goats and chevon (goat meat) by far exceeds the available domestic supply. As a result, the country heavily relies on imports to cover the deficit, particularly slaughter stock.Low productivity is premised on several challenges that require appropriate policies and strategies to ensure growth. Addressing these challenges will improve performance, enhance food and nutrition security and create employment opportunities.Table 14 shows the factors that facilitate goat production. • Women and the youth play an essential role in goat farming. There is scope to develop women goat entrepreneurs by augmenting agricultural projects, NGOs and the private sectorThe overwhelming majority of farmers involved in goat production are women and the youthGoat production in the Gambia is faced with many challenges linked to the predominant, extensive production system characterized by limited access to production inputs, feed, water, quality veterinary service and livestock infrastructure exacerbated by market imperfections that stifle performance and growth. The situation is further compounded by the overwhelming use of the indigenous WAD goat breed of low productivity that is highly susceptible to PPR (see Table 15).Table 15. Challenges of goat production by production zone Category Production system 1 (Western Region)Production system 2 (Central Region)Production system 3 (Eastern Region)• Over time, the rangelands that constitute the primary feed source for livestock in the Gambia are severely degraded due to overgrazing, bush fires and the absence of improvement strategies such as enrichment planting to replace palatable grass species. Communal ownership of the rangelands precludes any meaningful/efficient management of the resources, given that they belong to the community at large• Over the years, the vegetative cover and composition of grasses on the pastures have changed considerably due to overgrazing and the frequent occurrence of bush fires. Local fodder tree species such as Pterocarpus erinaceous, Acacia albida and other species are declining in the forested areas due to over exploitation/ lopping and intensive logging• Towards the end of the dry season, scarcity of feed becomes so acute that all animals (including goats) lose weight due to starvation. During this period, in most regions, sheep production depends largely on crop residues, swamp grazing and browsing on fodder trees for the sustenance of productivity • Among the most important challenges facing goat production in the Gambia is the frequent occurrence of disease outbreaks resulting in tremendous economic losses that significantly affect the livelihoods, income and sustenance of rural households. It is observed that higher percentages of goats succumb to the disease during outbreaks when compared to sheep. (Mortality and morbidity rates are much higher.) Annually, considerable economic loss accrues to the national socio-economy from a high level of mortalities from PPR.Yearly, mortality from this disease alone can reach 50% resulting in losses equivalent to USD 10,446,197. National Strategy for the Control and Eradication of PPR in the Gambia, Ministry of Agriculture, Banjul( 2017)• The critical shortage of veterinarians in the public sector (only two veterinary officers enlisted in the government of the Gambia payroll is a significant challenge)• Major diseases affecting goats are PPR and pasteurellosis• Generally, there is an acute shortage of livestock market infrastructure at the weekly and terminal markets, where most goats are traded. Trading in goats is encumbered with many market imperfections underpinned by middlemen colluding with dealers to the detriment of goat farmers who have very little bargaining powersSheep production plays a vital role in the livelihood of the rural populations in the Gambia. They are raised to generate income and meet the food, nutrition and other requirements of rural households. In this regard, they are also sold to meet other family needs and fulfil the owners' socio-cultural obligations. The short cycle of the sheep makes it easier to sell and they, therefore, serve as ready sources of income for the purchase of food during lean periods. The precarious and erratic nature of rainfall coupled with the concomitant crop failures observed in recent years are forcing the farmers to rely more on sheep (goats and poultry) to meet rural households' food, nutrition and other requirements. Furthermore, given the prolific nature and short generation interval, sheep significantly enhance food security and poverty alleviation in rural communities. The production system practised is mainly extensive and traditional; hence productivity is generally low. The low productivity is due to several challenges requiring appropriate policies and strategies to ensure the subsector's growth.The demand for sheep and mutton by far outsteps the available supply. As a result, the country relies heavily on imports to cover the deficit. However, the intensive production of fattened rams targeting the 'Tobaski' market (local name for the Muslim feast of 'Eid al Adha') is also very popular. At the national livestock show and 'Tobaski' ram sale in 2017, a total of 33,090 'Tobaski' rams were presented for sale to the public at the livestock show ground in Abuko. The rams presented for sale originated from the regions within the country and also from countries in the subregion (the republics of Senegal, Mali and Mauritania). Loum National strategy and action plan for animal genetic resources in the Gambia (2019). Addressing these challenges will improve the sheep subsector performance, enhance food and nutrition security and create employment opportunities.Table 16 shows the factors facilitating sheep production. • Women and the youth play an essential role in sheep farming. There is scope to develop women sheep entrepreneurs by augmenting agricultural projects, non-governmental organizations and the private sector• The overwhelming majority of farmers involved in sheep production are women and the youthSheep production in the Gambia faces many challenges linked to the predominant, extensive production system characterized by limited access to production inputs, feed, water, quality veterinary service and livestock infrastructure exacerbated by market imperfections that stifle performance and growth. The situation is further compounded by the overwhelming breeding of the indigenous Djallonke of low productivity that has evolved partly/most likely as a result of/in response to nutritional and disease stress Loum Expert opinion (2021). See Table 17 below.Table 17. Challenges of sheep production by production zoneProduction system 1 (Western Region)Production system 2 (Central Region)Production system 3 (Eastern Region)Feed and fodder• The rangelands that constitute the main source of feed for livestock in the Gambia are overtime severely degraded due to overgrazing, bush fires and the absence of improvement strategies such as enrichment planting to replace palatable grass species. Communal ownership of the rangelands precludes any meaningful/efficient management of the rangeland resources given that they belong to the community at large• Over the years, the vegetative cover and composition of grasses on the pastures have changed considerably due to overgrazing and the frequent occurrence of bush fires• Towards the end of the dry season, scarcity of feed becomes so acute that all animals (including sheep) lose weight due to starvation. During this period, in most regions, sheep production depends largely on crop residues, swamp grazing and browsing on fodder trees for the sustenance of productivity • The convergence of many transhumant sheep flocks in parts of CRR/N results in stiff competition for feed and water• Among the most important challenges facing sheep production in the Gambia is the frequent occurrence of disease outbreaks resulting in tremendous economic losses that significantly affect the livelihoods, income and sustenance of rural households. Annually, considerable economic loss increases to the national socio-economy from a high level of mortalities from PPR. Yearly, mortality from PPR alone can reach 50% resulting in losses equivalent to USD 10,446,197 National strategy for the control and eradication of PPR in the Gambia, Ministry of Agriculture, Banjul (2017)• The critical shortage of veterinarians in the public sector (only two veterinary officers enlisted in the government of the Gambia payroll is a significant challenge)• Major diseases affecting sheep are PPR and pasteurellosis• Generally, there is an acute shortage of livestock market infrastructure at the weekly and terminal markets, where most sheep are traded. Trading sheep is encumbered with many market imperfections underpinned by middlemen colluding with dealers to the detriment of sheep farmers who have very little bargaining powersTraditional chicken production is the predominant chicken production system in the Gambian farming system and it is extensive. Birds are poorly housed, fed and provided with little or no veterinary care. Small flocks (10 to 15 birds) that are in most cases owned and managed by women and children are kept in the backyard of the household of their owners. They are confined during the night in kitchens or locally made shelters to minimize predation, while during the daytime, birds are left to scavenge in the backyards; and supplementary feeds such as millet, coos, brans and household leftovers are provided for the birds in the evenings when they return to the households. The chicken flocks are made up of local breeds that are low producers of meat and eggs compared to exotic breeds. However, given their size, the birds are easier to sell or slaughter for home consumption and for that reason, they serve as a ready source of income and protein for many households in rural communities Ministry of Agriculture (2018).According to the National Livestock Census (2016), females owned 66.8% of the chicken. Analysis by region revealed that WCR had the highest number of females (203,532) and males (127,884), respectively.Almost every Gambian family in the rural areas rear poultry. Commercial farmers keep improved breeds-both broilers and layers. All commercial farmers use complete feeds. Nearly all forms of complete poultry feeds are imported into the country.Table 18 shows the factors facilitating backyard poultry production in the Gambia.Table 18. Facilitating factors in backyard poultry production Category Backyard chicken production• Scavenging is the main source of feed for backyard poultry; hence feed cost is negligible• Feed cost is negligible due to better use of crop residues, agricultural by-products and leftovers from the households• Women farmers who depend on poultry production could increase their income and improve their nutritional status by supplementing 20% of the required daily nutrient intake of 120 g (24 g daily)• The Gambia has many indigenous breeds like Firgi; Tunguneh and all others are simply called 'local breeds' because they are not characterized• Generally, the local breeds have a good brooding capacity and mothering ability• Self-propagation• The birds are very hardy and have adapted to their environment overtime and they are more tolerant to the prevalent diseases than imported breeds• Vaccination against Newcastle disease (NCD), treatment using dewormers and dusting powder against infestation could significantly increase and improve production and productivity Marketing • High demand for eggs and poultry meat due to urbanization and high human population densities• Backyard poultry production plays a significant role during socio-cultural and religious festivities. This influences prices upwards• A significant proportion of the population prefer backyard poultry meat to imported chicken due to the free range system and the belief in organic farming. This influences prices upwards• Backyard poultry meat prices are higher than that of layers and broilers in the market Category Backyard chicken production• No technological intervention is required• One of the good initiatives for poverty eradication and income generation for poor farmers• Low initial investment but higher income return• A unit can be started with as low as two chicken to a large flock• Backyard poultry farming acts as savings at the household level because when the need arises, it can be easily converted to cash• Boost up family income and nutritional status of women and childrenTable 19 shows some of the constraints of backyard poultry farming. • NCD is a major constraint to traditional poultry production as mortalities during outbreaks can reach 100% and wipe out whole flocks Marketing • Low levels of awareness and sensitization of farmers about the market potential of backyard poultry meat and eggs• High demand for traditional poultry meat in the greater Banjul area, where traditional poultry is hardly reared and the supply is low• No formal, organized market is set up in this sector• Discontinuation of field and market days organized for poultry farmers made to coincide with feasts such as Christmas, Ramadan, Eid al Fitr, Yamul Ashura (Muslim feasts) etc.• Have meagre carcass weight compared to the imported and or locally reared exotic breeds, therefore, have lesser lose in economic performance than the imported breeds• Interviewed female farmers indicated that they neither eat nor sell eggs because they need more chicks hatched and some added they did not know they could eat the eggs because they thought it is only meant for hatching and it is unhygienic • This region has a highly developed tourist industry with hotels, bars and restaurants hence the high demand for locally produced eggs• There exists in the country a cadre of well-trained experts in animal feed production and some of them are still in active service while others have retired. This wealth of knowledge should be utilized for feed preparations• Experts on feed preparations using locally available feed resources to prepare feed for layers could reduce the cost of layer feed  Table 22 shows the factors facilitating the production of commercial broiler chicken. The constraints/challenges facing both layer and broiler producers are very similar and are associated with difficulties with importing day old chicks and feed, frequent disease outbreaks and inadequate market infrastructure, among others. Table 23 shows the constraints experienced in the commercial production of broilers. • All commercial broiler farmers depend on imported feeds for running their farms• Feeds prices are affected by currency fluctuations• Farmers are unable to prepare their rations• The bulk feed component of poultry rations is mainly composed of maize. Maize is also consumed by many households as a staple food hence there is competition between feed for poultry and food for the households• Non quality assurance of feed purchased The demand and prices for animal sourced foods (ASF) in the Gambia show an increasing trend due to population growth, rapid urbanization and income growth. However, the productivity of the predominant indigenous livestock breeds is low. Thus, the country relies heavily on imports of live animals, processed chicken meat and eggs and dairy products to meet the growing demand. 9The low productivity is due to several challenges hence the need to put in place appropriate policies and strategies to enhance the growth of the subsector, thereby contributing to increased food availability, participation of the private sector and creation of employment opportunities, particularly for the youth and women and girls.The livestock subsector policies are included in the Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) 2017-2026 policy, 9 which was subjected to a comprehensive review in 2016/17. The most recent policy statement of the GoTG on the livestock subsector stresses the objective of transforming the livestock subsector from a predominantly traditional low-input low-output production system to a competitive, commercial, value chain based and private sector led subsector. It further aims to facilitate private sector engagement along the entire poultry value chain, particularly in the hatchery industry, breeding, feed mills, cold storage, processing and product development. The policy and institutional constraints and opportunities presented in this section are a continuation of the initial assessment report of the Gambian livestock sector (see Rich et al. 2020). 10The priority animal health strategy emphasizes on continuously reviewing and updating animal health and welfare legal and regulatory frameworks, including emerging animal health issues.In this context, following a request from the Hon Minister of Agriculture in 2017, the African Union-InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) agreed to assist the GoTG in reviewing and updating its obsolete veterinary legislation. Subsequently, the Minister appointed a five person task force to spearhead the process, while AU-IBAR designated an expert to provide technical support to the task force. This initiative was completed in 2019 and the new Animal Health Bill 2019 and amendments to the Gambia Veterinary Council Act 2000 were forwarded to the national assembly for endorsement.The priority animal health strategies also focus on the development and strengthening of institutional structures (public and private) for animal health, the development of human resources to fill the acute shortage of veterinarians and laboratory scientists and technicians and strengthening the epidemic surveillance system and establishing an early warning system and emergency preparedness and contingency plans.The high prevalence of diseases in the country presents a significant challenge to the livestock subsector. The existence of wetlands close to human settlements attracts many migratory birds, some of which may be implicated in transmitting viruses. Porous borders and uncontrolled movement of people and transport at the level of the commercial farms are other sources of livestock disease transmission.Animal health service delivery is constrained by a lack of laboratory capacity for controlling the quality of veterinary medicines and a lack of a dedicated department responsible for delivering animal health and production services to smallholder farmers and regulating the subsector. Therefore, an important policy objective is to improve animal health delivery and reduce the impact of animal diseases on livestock production, productivity, welfare and public health. This requires:• strengthening the capacity of veterinarians and paraveterinarians;• properly training and equipping the field staff to directly communicate livestock disease data to the central disease and surveillance monitoring unit;• strengthening border control mechanisms;• improving the capacity and infrastructure of the existing laboratories;• adopting well defined roles for the public and private veterinary service providers in conformity with the recommended World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) sanitary mandate;• providing an enabling environment to encourage the private sector to operate in rural areas through providing incentive packages;• strengthening public-private partnership (PPP) in delivery of animal health services;• revisiting/reviewing the outdated acts and regulations;• introducing adequate legislation to regulate the use of antimicrobials;• resolving the administrative constraints that inhibit animal health delivery and• establishing a system that ensures quality control and regulation of services.The Gambia has national policies on the management of animal genetic resources. The policy objectives are to progressively diversify the livestock sector by broadening the number of species, breeds, products and by-products.The strategies proposed to achieve this objective are the continuous exploitation of indigenous species, which have proven to be well adapted (to the livestock production being practised) and the introduction of exotic species and breeds to ensure diversification of the agricultural production base and the satisfaction of the needs of the country. The indigenous breeds are well adapted to the predominant extensive livestock production system that is characterized by low inputs, inadequate feed and water and limited access to veterinary services yet they generally display high levels of tolerance to diseases and produce meat and milk for the owners and the market. However, their productivity is low.However, the programs' continuous implementation is constrained by institutional weaknesses at the national and local levels. This includes:• weakened research and development capabilities;• lack of human, financial and material resources;• lack of organization of the actors involved in the pure and crossbreeding schemes;• lack of a legal and regulatory framework with regards to crossbreeding (risking dilution of the N'Dama's genetic traits) and market weakness in the market structures;• operations and policy formulations concerning importing exotic breeds and animal products.The policy for breed improvement should focus on the Genetic Improvement Program being implemented by WALIC and DLS (for the indigenous breeds) and the establishment of a national dairy cattle breeding scheme (genetic upgrading through crossbreeding using AI aimed at providing genetically superior crossbred cows) and the development of PPP arrangements and guidelines to support crossbreeding programs using AI. In the process, it is appropriate to continue to cautiously introduce exotic pure dairy breeds for increased milk supply and provide adequate and timely financial support, including credit, to develop sustainable cattle production and encourage private sector participation.It is also appropriate to adopt policies that promote the sustainable use of Djallonke and West African Dwarf goats and facilitate their conservation, breeding and multiplication through private and public/private partnerships. Benefits will also accrue to strengthen the adoption of productivity enhancing technologies, including climate change adaptation measures, through the agropastoral farmer field school approach and promote the establishment of exotic sheep and goat breeding farms. Additionally, it is relevant to strengthen animal breeders' capacity, reinforce the genetic improvement programs and encourage PPPs.Adequate and balanced availability of feed and fodder is a prerequisite for increasing livestock production. Over the years, the Gambia has pursued a policy to ensure efficiency and balance between livestock and the fragile environment. The strategies used to achieve the policy objective were to promote active community participation in the management and use of the range resources, improve and increase access to potential grazing areas and the availability of watering facilities there.Under the traditional land tenure system administered by district authorities, rights to crop land are inheritable and relatively secure (Rich et al. 2020). However, the traditional tenure system is strained by population growth and crop land expansion at the expense of grazing. In most parts of the country, cattle tracks have been encroached on, limiting access to grazing and watering points. The recent proliferation of rice development projects in CRR and URR has resulted in encroachment on traditional dry season grazing areas (also on stock routes) in the flood plains of Niamina district and other localities with similar ecologies. Furthermore, demarcated cattle tracks leading from the rangelands to watering points are also blocked by vegetable garden fences. This has resulted in user conflicts between herders and crop farmers/vegetable and horticultural producers. Hence there is an urgent need for policy formulation and direction to reduce current conflicts and prevent their escalation.The review conducted by the Gambia Strategic Program on Climate Resilience (SPCR) concluded that the Gambia does not have a land policy (Bensouda 2013).By virtue of its colonial past, land tenure in the Gambia is based on a dual system-statutory and customary. The statutory system governs the freehold and leasehold titles introduced by the British and is based on English law. The customary tenure evolved from the traditions and practices of the indigenous communities that allow communities to distribute or sell land but discriminate against women heads of household who constitute the majority in rural areas. SPCR reported that land availability is exacerbated by uncontrolled urbanization and haphazard land allocation. The claims and needs for land and the expansion of residential properties tend to conflict with other requirements for land (particularly land for agriculture). Some of the issues are related to urban sprawl into valuable agricultural land and uncontrolled land encroachment, including encroachment into wetlands. Numerous problems exist concerning land administration, outdated maps and the absence of a physical plan. The different statutes that regulate the management of these lands are the State Lands Act 1992 and the Lands (Provinces) Act.The goal of a national land policy should be to ensure efficient and equitable, utilization and climate resilient management of the Gambia's land resources for poverty reduction, wealth creation, environmental enhancement and overall socio-economic development. The government should revisit and modify the land tenure system in a socially acceptable manner and provide efficient management of rangeland resources.The government also has an active role in making land available for feed production and grazing, establishing feed quality standards and monitoring, establishing policy instruments, regulations and incentives to define the rights to grazing and watering, controlling resources and supporting the private sector investment in animal feeding.N'Dama cattle are dual purpose animals producing both milk and meat. The average milk yield is very low (about 1.1 litres per day and 305 lactation days). To increase milk production of the indigenous breed, policies, strategies and legislation should be in place to promote productivity by enhancing technologies to increase meat and milk production. The technologies aimed at increasing meat and milk output should include sustainable feeding practices through forage production, conservation and use of crop residues, disease control and strengthening the genetic improvement program being implemented by DLS and WALIC. AI is practised by very few livestock farmers (mostly in the intensive and semi-intensive dairy sector). To provide genetically superior crossbred cows, policies aimed at establishing a national dairy cattle breeding scheme (genetic upgrading through crossbreeding using AI) should be prioritized. Policies and strategies should be promoted to develop PPP arrangements and guidelines to support crossbreeding programs using AI.For the enhancement of traditional/backyard village poultry production systems, the policy should be through the promotion of improved management practices (disease control, housing, supplementary feeding etc.), improved access to feeds (improving knowledge, quality and affordability) and the development of input and output markets to increase the sale and consumption of poultry products. Biosecurity measures are generally not taken into consideration in extensive backyard/traditional poultry production systems in the Gambia.For the commercial/modern poultry subsector, there is a need for a comprehensive policy that will control the flooding of the market with cheap imports of chicken and poultry products that stifle local production. The fact that it is not that local producers cannot satisfy the demand, it is that they cannot do it cheaply. The engagement of the private sector along the entire poultry value chain, particularly in the hatchery industry, feed mills, cold storage, processing and product development, should be enhanced through tax breaks and other incentives.Presently, there is no policy regarding hides and skins and the industry has undergone a serious decline. In the 1980s, there was a tannery owned by GAMTAN at the abattoir, where hides and skins were treated and exported to both Portugal and Spain. Later, the tannery was sold to an individual, but operations stopped. Currently, there are informal exports by individuals to Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Ghana. Local leather craftsmen make use of available hides and skins.There is a need to put in place policies that will encourage value addition to hides and skins rather than the export of primary produce. These could include the re-establishment of a tannery as it would earn the Gambia foreign exchange, improve the livelihoods of farmers/individuals and create job opportunities. The tanning of hides and skins and exports to Europe (Portugal and Spain mainly) was a viable business and was only discontinued due to stringent sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) measures put in place by the EU.The policy should ensure an efficient marketing channel that will enhance the supply of local meat and meat products to the thriving tourist industry. The cross border trade in live animals should be regulated to improve traceability and provide reliable statistics. Basic livestock infrastructure such as quarantine stations and well equipped livestock markets should also be provided in the rural communities.The policy for breed improvement should focus on the genetic improvement program being implemented by WALIC and DLS (for the indigenous breeds) and the establishment of a national dairy cattle breeding scheme (genetic upgrading through crossbreeding using AI aimed at providing genetically superior crossbred cows) and the development of PPP arrangements and guidelines to support crossbreeding programs using AI. In the process, it is important to cautiously introduce exotic pure dairy breeds for increased milk supply and provide adequate and timely financial support, including credit, to develop sustainable cattle production and encourage private sector participation.The policy should also promote the sustainable use of Djallonke and West African Dwarf goats and facilitate their conservation, breeding and multiplication through private and public/private partnerships. It would be beneficial to strengthen the adoption of productivity enhancing technologies, including climate change adaptation measures, through the agropastoral farmer field school approach and promote the establishment of exotic sheep and goat breeding farms.The current capacity and staffing levels of the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) (which has the mandate for livestock research) and WALIC are inadequate to bring about the anticipated transformation of the livestock subsector. Furthermore, the DLS is constrained by inadequately qualified staff (with only two veterinarians), insufficient funding and a lack of guidelines to deliver efficient extension services.Therefore, it is urgent to develop policies to support livestock research and extension services to facilitate innovation and adoption of appropriate technologies; build institutional capacity for effective delivery of livestock research and extension services. The DLS and the Ministry of Agriculture need to build inhouse capacity to conduct detailed research and quantitative planning exercises. This is also necessary to implement, monitor, evaluate and formulate new policies and review existing policies.The DLS should strengthen (and build staff capacity) the livestock information and epidemiology unit to enhance its capacity to generate (in addition to epidemiological data) reliable social and economic data necessary for policy analyses and investment planning.Given the prominent role women and girls play in the production of small ruminants, poultry and short cycle livestock species, policies need to be elaborated to enhance the participation of women in policy formulation for the livestock subsector. In this regard, the removal of socio-cultural barriers and strengthening of women's participation in all decision-making processes, eliminating all forms of gender based violence and providing better economic opportunities that will lead to improved status and well-being for families should be encouraged.The problems women and youth face in agricultural production are immense, including:• Limited access to land, credit, appropriate technologies.• Ownership and control over animals and income derived from them. Moreover, in cases where the ownership of animals and/or control over income from certain livestock is currently in the hands of women, for instance, small ruminants and poultry, in the face of future development efforts, future ownership and control over income are not guaranteed. This stems from empirical evidence that reveals the tendencies of men to take over traditional women commodities and value chains when these become financially lucrative.• Information, knowledge and skills related to livestock production, food safety, nutrition, biosecurity and zoonosis.• Social and cultural barriers that limit their engagement and voice.• Limited access to veterinary services for the species they own, namely goats and backyard poultry.• Lack of market information and limited access to markets.• Gaps in skills and knowledge to participate in all nodes of the livestock value chain and industry.In the light of these constraints and consistent with the national commitments under the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the gender mainstreaming policy strand will emphasize the following policy threads: a Land tenure• There would be a thorough review of the land tenure system in the Gambia, considering all the past studies on the tenure system.• Legislation would be enforced to avail women of full ownership of land, particularly land for development purposes. This will also enable them to use such land as collateral to secure loans from banks.• The need to synchronize the various land tenure systems to address development needs regardless of gender is paramount to the economic use of resources and does not conflict with social justice.b Livestock development policies i. Gender mainstreaming in livestock value chains with the objective of:• Ensuring that both men and women benefit from these value chains and trade-offs across different value chains (i.e. focus on having a combination of livestock enterprise developments that benefit both men and women).Eliminating the drudgery of labour on women as livestock caregivers may come with increased herds and productivity from animal health and breed improvement efforts. This involves technologies around feeds and feeding, production and marketing that lessen the workload on women, hence the ability to balance their household productive and reproductive roles.• Building the capacity of women and men to understand and participate in livestock and livestock product markets, i.e. understanding how the markets are working, market opportunities and challenges and how to circumvent the challenges.• Building livestock extension and animal health systems that are sensitive to the needs of women and men in terms of circumventing gender norms and challenges that bar them, particularly women, from receiving and benefiting from extension and animal health systems.• Building the collective agencies of women and men by promoting collective action in areas where the acquisition of inputs, access to markets and market information, access to knowledge and access to savings and credit facilities are better made collectively rather than individually.Transforming norms that bar women and youth from accessing, using, owning and benefiting from livestock (animals, products and markets).5 Livestock contribution to the GambiaThe poultry sector has been growing rapidly, with a growth in the number of birds of over 60% from 2010 to 2018 (Figure 3) based on data from FAOSTAT (FAO 2021). The change in the population of cattle and shoats (sheep and goats) has been erratic, with a slight decline in stocks from their reported 2015 peak. The population of sheep and goats decreased by 31% between 2010 and 2018; most of this reduction occurred in 2013 and the population has been roughly stable since. Available data on the number of milking animals and the amount of milk production is highly inconsistent. The FAO data show that the Gambia had about 54 thousand lactating cattle that produced 75,869 t of milk in 2018 (Figure 4).In contrast, results from the 2016 national livestock census indicate that the country has a total of 44,385 lactating N'Dama cows producing a total of 20.3 million litres of milk annually valued at GMD 1.02 million, 52% of which is consumed at home while the rest is sold (Loum 2019). Even if the number of milking cows during the census may have been lower due to the death and sale of animals during 2012-2013, due to the contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) outbreak, the FAO data assumes a higher level of productivity.The FAO data assumes 3.8 litres of milk per cow per day which is more than twice the value from the census data (about 1.5 litres) and still higher than what is documented in the literature, including Jaitner et al. (2003) and Touray (2016). Figure 4 shows the re-estimated milk production level in the Gambia can be estimated using FAO data for the number of milking cows but assuming an average milk yield of 1.4 litres/cow per day (Figure 4), as was the case during the census. Local production accounts for 55-70% of the milk consumed in the country, with imports filling in the gap between domestic demand and supply. The stock figures reported by FAOSTAT also are somewhat at odds with those reported in the 2016 livestock census and summarized by Loum (2019). The livestock census as shown in Table 24 reports cattle stocks at over 160 thousand heads less than FAO estimates (Table 24), whereas for the sheep and goats, the livestock census values are around 92 thousand head more than FAOSTAT. For chicken, FAOSTAT reports 400 thousand more chicken than the livestock census figures. Poultry imports to the Gambia have increased during the past decade. Import figures reported by UN Comtrade (2017) (and reported in FAOSTAT) have some discrepancies. 11 Instead, this section will use export data of partners that sell products to the Gambia to analyse import trends. The Gambia relies significantly on international trade for certain livestock products, particularly poultry and increasingly beef. Most poultry imports come from overseas markets, particularly the USA and Brazil, with growing exports from the Netherlands and Ukraine (Figure 5). Imports comprise the majority of available poultry meat.11. Import figures reported by UN Comtrade (and reported in FAOSTAT) suggest import unit values for beef and poultry products that are not realistic (typically between USD 0.15-0.40/kg) for either product, suggesting some coding error of official data or under invoicing of imports (see https://bit.ly/3pLZRnf for more explanation). Considering the 2016 livestock census figures and a domestic offtake rate of 40%, domestic production comprised about 2.5% of total availability. Using FAOSTAT values (Figure 6) suggests a higher domestic market share, but trends clearly show a declining trend since 2013. There has been a sharp rise in imports of offal in the beef subsector since 2012. The quantity of offal's imported has increased from 30,578 kg to over 778 thousand kg from 2012 to 2019 (Figure 7). Fresh beef cuts are imported irregularly, while there has been steady growth in frozen beef imports, with volumes increasing sixfold in 2019 compared to the imports in 2015.   Estimates of beef cuts are based on live animal numbers and weights, adjusted by the percentage (40%) of the live weight devoted to cuts.On the other hand, imports of offal are gaining market share, with 2019 imports comprising nearly half of the Gambian consumption (Figure 9). Data on sheep and goat meat are scarce. FAOSTAT does not report meat data beyond 2013, with offtake rates ranging between 23-29% for goats from 2010 to 2013 and 24-36% for sheep over the same period. We applied the offtake rates and carcass yields for sheep and goats reported by Loum (2019) in Table 24 from the 2016 livestock census to derive domestic sheep and goat meat estimates for 2014-2018 (Figure 10). Imports of sheep and goat meat are relatively modest (Figure 10) and include 2015-2019 where data were available. From 2015 to 2018, the trend shows an inverse relationship between domestic production and imports. The PROGEBE project summarized the per capita demand for certain livestock products (beef, sheep and goat meat and dairy products) for selected periods in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s (Table 25). The 2015 integrated household survey (IHS) provides additional insights on consumption (Table 26). According to the Gambia Bureau of Statistics ( 2015), monthly household expenditure on food was GMD 6,870 in 2015, of which over 12% were spent on livestock products. Based on a rough calculation of derived unit values from reported purchases, we estimate per capita consumption of red meat at 5.1 kg and poultry at 5.8 kg. The poultry figures reasonably approximate availability, while the red meat consumption figures are nearly double that of computed availability.  1-7.The re-estimated milk production level in the Gambia (Figure 11) using FAO data for the number of milking cows but assuming an average milk yield of 1.5 litres/cow per day, indicates that local production accounts for 55-70% of the milk consumed in the country. Imports fill in the gap between domestic demand and supply. The agricultural sector is an important source of employment in the Gambia. Although livestock-specific data are not available, the data from the Gambia Bureau of Statistics indicated that overall, 46% of the working population was engaged in agriculture in the most recent year available (2015/16). The 2018 labour force survey indicates that over 9% of youth were engaged in agriculture, including 7 and 13% of the male and female workforce, respectively.The values of livestock GDP at current prices together with other agriculture subsectors from 2004 to 2016 indicate that the livestock sector has been an important source of GDP growth (Figure 12). The value of livestock GDP rises steadily from 1.44 to 4.07 million GMD, representing an average annual growth rate of 9%. This growth corresponds to a rise in the share of livestock in agriculture GDP from about 20 to 30%. The increase in value of livestock production is only matched by the relatively small fishing subsector, which rose from 0.3 to 0.9 million GMD during the period. Moreover, it has been observed that the actual contribution of the livestock subsector to the GDP is underestimated because the estimation ignores the values of animal traction, draught power and manure in the calculations (Loum 2019).Figure 12. Contribution of livestock and other subsectors to agriculture GDP ('000 GMD).Source: African Development Bank based on GBOS data.The appropriation 12 of the government of the Gambia for the year 2021 allocated about 2% of the total budget to agriculture (Figure 13) or about GMD 202 million, equal to 3.89 million USD. This is well below the Maputo Declaration, which is remembered mostly for its commitment to allocating at least 10% of national budgetary resources to agriculture to achieve a 6% growth in the agricultural economy. Committing more resources to agriculture is an uphill battle for most of the ministries of agriculture and their treasury or Ministry of finance in Africa.Similarly, the budget earmarked for the livestock sector for 2021/22 is only 7.2% of the total agricultural budget (Figure 14), which is well below the contribution of livestock to the agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP), ranging from 20 to 30% during 2014-2016 based on the available literature. This suggests the appropriateness of revisiting proposed budgets and targets for livestock production to determine if it is appropriate to align them more with the actual contribution, which can be synthesized based on a detailed quantitative analysis of the potential of the livestock sector to contribute to economic development in the Gambia.12. Approved-Budget-2021.pdf  Source: Government of the Gambia (2021).5.2 Current (2020/21) livestock population, production and GDPEstimates for the current livestock population in the Gambia were developed based on the growth rates derived from the latest two censuses (1993 and 2016). According to these two censuses, the livestock population in the Gambia has been growing very steadily. See Table 27 below.The FAO data and other sources are mainly based on sample surveys and projections and show huge fluctuations across different years while the census data are derived from a comprehensive headcount of all the livestock species in the Gambia and relatively are more accurate. Table 28 presents the distribution of livestock over the different production zones, which clearly shows that most of the livestock are found in the Eastern zone. The Eastern zone is home to about 56, 52 and 64% of the total cattle, sheep and goat population in the Gambia, respectively. In contrast, the Western zone hosts a relatively minor livestock population share in all species; cattle about 13%, sheep, 3% and goats 22%.The commercial livestock production system in the Gambia is at an early stage of development. There are only 331 commercial dairy animals and 221,434 commercial chicken. The Gambia produced about 6.6 thousand tonnes of meat during 2020/21 according to our estimates. Specieswise, most meat production comes from cattle, about 60%, followed by goats, 16% and chicken, 17%. In contrast, the sheep contribute only about 7% of the total meat production of the Gambia. Most of the red meat, more than 56%, is produced in the Eastern production zone, followed by the Central (28.5%), Western (14.8%) and the commercial sector (0.1%) as shown in Table 29. Cattle provide most of the milk in the Gambia, about 92% of production. Goat milk production is acknowledged to exist but is not usually available in the market. Goats are generally not milked at all in most regions in the Gambia. However, in some parts of CRR and URR, some households milk goats. The volumes produced are insignificant and it is mostly used for domestic consumption.Livestock production zone wise, the Eastern production zone contributes more than half of the country's total annual milk production (Table 30). The commercial layer system derives egg production in the Gambia. About 91% of the total egg produced in the country comes from the layer system (Table 31). Though the backyard chicken population is about 82% of the entire chicken population, it only contributes about 9% of the total egg production. The other livestock products considered in the analysis include hides and skin, manure and draught power. Although no data indicate quantities of hides and skins, manure and draught power have contributed significantly to the livestock production of the Gambia (Table 32). Draught power (thousand days) 5,590.9Source: Baseline analysis.The contribution of a livestock sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) remains an essential indicator for decisionmakers and donors in their investment decisions. According to the budget appropriation report of the government of the Gambia, the GDP for the year 2021 was about GMD 106.9 billion and the contribution of livestock to the Gambia GDP, reported by the Gambia Data Portal, 13 was about GMD 3.2 billion. However, the estimate of the livestock contribution to the national economy or the livestock sector GDP for 2021 was about GMD 5.4 billion.The livestock share of agricultural GDP is often underestimated or poorly estimated. The main reasons for this are the lack of reliable information on the livestock population and incorrect estimates of technical coefficients (offtake rate, productivity etc.) and the difficulties both in evaluating the multitude of animal coproducts, such as manure and draught power and in capturing the enormous diversity of livestock systems and therefore the underlying variability of outputs within each system (Dutilly et al. 2020). The LSIPT uses a 'production approach' 14 that considers monetary and nonmonetary exchanges (home consumption, barter, gifts etc.). The value of these exchanges is often omitted from analyses and is essential in countries where most of the animal population belongs to small-scale farmers and home consumption represents a considerable share of the national production.Using the LSIPT, the livestock sector GDP for 2021 is about GMD 5.4 billion, which is higher than the official national estimate of about GMD 2.2 billion. The variation arises because the baseline analysis follows the production approach and includes draught power and manure contributions when estimating the livestock GDP. The LSIPT GDP estimates disaggregated by species and product are presented in Table 33 above. Cattle, the dominant species in the livestock sector of the Gambia, contributes about 90% to the total livestock GDP, followed by goats (5%) and sheep (3%).Similar to the livestock production and population, the Eastern production zone contributes the highest to the country's GDP. The Eastern production zone contributes to about half of the total livestock GDP, followed by the Western Zone, which contributes about 28% of the GDP (Table 34). The backyard chicken and commercial production systems currently contribute about 1% to the national livestock GDP. Source: Baseline analysis.In the BAU, the current production, reproduction and financial parameter and future population growth trends are assumed to follow the past trends or the existing level of investment for the coming 15 years. The livestock population growth trends were calculated using the last two censuses (1993 and 2016) (Table 27). The following subsections present the changes in population, production and GDP projections under the BAU scenario by the 15 th year (2035/36).Projected (2035/36) livestock numbers under the BAU scenario suggest population changes of up to 40% for the sheep, goats and chicken populations (Table 35), by 2035/36. Cattle population growth is projected to be much lower, with a total increase of less than 3%. Milk production by 2035/36 is expected to grow by 5.5% compared to the base year, whereas meat production will grow by about 14% (Table 36). Egg production, influenced mainly by the population change of layer chicken, is expected to increase by 40% in the coming 15 years. Source: Baseline analysis.The change in the GDP contribution of the different livestock species is aligned with livestock population change (Table 38). Chicken shows the highest increase in GDP contribution, with about 40% change, followed by goats (with 34% increase) and sheep (29% increase). Under the BAU, the contribution of cattle to GDP in 15-years will increase minimally, by about 3.7%. This finding suggests the need to consider additional investments in all livestock subsectors. This livestock sector analysis (LSA) report analyses the baseline (2020/21) livestock population, production and GDP contributions considering the Gambia livestock production zones, species and subsystems. The assessment establishes the baseline results to carry out the livestock sector strategy (LSS) foresight scenario analysis with confidence that the data and model findings represent the sector's current state.The finding demonstrates that the estimated baseline population, production and GDP, based on the best available data, relatively compare well with reports from the government of the Gambia and other international and nongovernmental organizations.The LSA classified the Gambia livestock production systems into three livestock production zones, Western, Central and Eastern. In addition to the three geographic production zones, a commercial/specialized livestock production system extends across the production zones. The commercial or specialized production systems include urban and peri-urban dairy and layer and broiler chicken systems. The livestock production zones and the commercial production systems are subdivided into different species, breeds, ownership types and flock/herd size groups. Indicators used to classify traditional ruminant production systems in the Gambia include agro-climate, production scale, genotypes, feeding practices, commercial orientation, women participation, prevailing challenges and opportunities.The three production zones include the Western, Central and Eastern zones. Western livestock production zone consists of the Western Coastal region and Kanifing Municipal Council; the Central livestock production zone consists of the Lower River Region and the Northern Bank Region; whereas the Eastern livestock production zone consists of the Central River Region (south), the Central River Region (north) and the Upper River Region.All the three livestock production zones (Western, Central and Eastern) are important for livestock production. However, based on the current technologies and the current level of investment, the Western production zone seems to be more suitable for commercial businesses like commercial dairy. There may also be a potential to expand smallholder and large-scale dairy production in the Western zone, a scenario that will be tested in the next phase or when preparing the livestock sector strategy.The priority species considered in the Gambia LSA are cattle, sheep, goats and chicken. The species are further classified according to the breed type of cattle size, ownership type (female vs. joint or male) categories in the case of goats and both breed and ownership type in the case of sheep. For backyard chicken, a uniform and women oriented production system is assumed to exist throughout the country.The 2021 livestock population is estimated based on the 2016 livestock census report and growth rates from the previous census in 1993. According to the estimate, there are about 296,265 cattle, 188,256 sheep, 360,357 goats and 1,053,356 chicken in the Gambia. All the species portray more or less a similar distribution pattern across the three production zones. More than half of the cattle, sheep and goats population are found in the Eastern livestock production zone, whereas the Western production zone has the least number of cattle, sheep and goats.The Gambia is currently estimated to produce about 6.6 thousand t of meat. A significant share of the meat production comes from cattle, about 60%, followed by goats, 16% and chicken, 17%. Sheep contribute only about 7% of the total meat production in the country. In terms of livestock production zones, more than 56% of the red meat is produced in the Eastern production zone, followed by Central (28.5%), Western (14.8%) and the commercial sector (0.1%).Currently, the Gambia produces about 21.9 million litres of milk. Out of this, about 92% is collected from cattle and 8% from goats. Most of the milk production, about 85%, comes from the Eastern and Central livestock production zones.The current egg production of the Gambia stands at about 5.3 million eggs and most of it, about 96%, comes from the commercial layer production system. The remaining 4% of egg production comes from the backyard chicken system.The current estimated contribution of the livestock sector to GDP is about GMD 5.5 billion, which is higher than the current estimate by the government, GMD 3.2 billion. The variation could be because the LSA follows the production approach and considers the monetary value of the direct and indirect contribution of the livestock sector, such as draught power and manure contributions when estimating the livestock GDP.A BAU scenario is analysed, assuming that a BAU investment trend will continue for the coming 15 years. By 2035/36, the sheep, goats and chicken numbers are projected to increase by 28, 34 and 40%, respectively, whereas the cattle population will increase by 3% only. These imply annual growth rates for cattle, sheep, goats and chicken of 0.2, 1.7, 2 and 2.3%, respectively.It is expected that, under the BAU scenario, milk and meat production are projected to grow by 5.5 and 15%, respectively, in the coming 15 years. At the same time, egg production will increase significantly by 40%.Under the BAU scenario, (between 2020/21 and 2035/36), the total livestock products contribution to the GDP is projected to increase only by about 7%. The most significant increase in GDP contribution will be from eggs (about 40%), followed by meat and manure, each with about an 18% increase. In terms of species, the highest increase in GDP contribution will come from chicken, with about 39% change, followed by goats (with 34% increase) and sheep (28% increase). If the current level of investment continues, the contribution of cattle to the GDP will stay minimal.The changes projected for the livestock production and GDP under the BAU scenario for beef and dairy are very marginal. The production changes and GDP contribution of the small ruminants and poultry subsectors are modest but may not meet future consumption requirements of the country, urging additional investments in areas of animal health, feed, breeding and marketing to revive the livestock sector of the Gambia. This will be further confirmed in the next deliverable, the 15-year livestock sector strategy, which analyses the future production-consumption gaps, areas of improvement or interventions and their likely costs and impacts.      Annexe IV. The livestock sector and investment policy toolkit (LSIPT)LSIPT was developed by a group of international agencies that include CIRAD (France), the FAO, the World Bank, ILRI and others under the aegis of ALive at AU-IBAR.LSIPT is the most rigorous livestock sector analysis tool that uses mathematical models, format questionnaires and other aids. LSIPT consists of a set of interacting and individual tools and checklists, divided into three phases of the analysis:• Based on an initial survey of the importance of livestock (module 1), a first phase look at how well livestock is represented in the national development strategy and budget documents and if the sector has unnoticed and unrealized potential. A set of tools in module 2 help set up a preparatory analysis of the needs (worker, budget) and participatory mechanisms (steering committee, stakeholder consultations) to do a detailed, quantitative sector analysis.• In the second phase, the tools in module 3 help to develop a typology of the prevailing livestock production systems, carry out a detailed analysis of the contribution of livestock to the household economy for each of these production systems and assess the defined key quantitative (volume) and financial parameter of the main value chains. Then, the tools in module 4 help illustrate the sector's direct and indirect contributions to the national economy and provide the instruments for assessing the main technical (feed, genetics and health) and political and institutional constraints.• In the third phase, the tools in module 5 allow for a participatory process to set development priorities to evaluate the impact of alternative policy investment scenarios following these priorities. In addition, the third phase uses module 5 tools to test the economic, social, nutritional and environmental impact of these scenarios. Module 6 then guides monitoring and evaluation.It enables in-depth and systematic quantitative analysis of the livestock sector's significant constraints and the effects of proposed interventions on economic growth and poverty alleviation. LSIPT uses cost-benefit analyses of proposed policy and technology investment options to enable investment scenario analysis, guiding for prioritizing investments according to their potential impacts on private and social development goals.ALive, housed in AU-IBAR, agreed and provided a team with training and technical support for implementing LSIPT and best capitalize data to develop livestock sector analysis. Then, LSIPT has been used to analyse the livestock sector of many countries: Zambia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uzbekistan and India (Bihar and Odisha). There is also huge interest from other countries to use this tool in their livestock sector analysis.Further description of the LSIPT methodology can be accessed at the LSIPT website (www.alive-lsiptoolkit.org), with the username and password to be provided by contacting the authors of this report.","tokenCount":"16141"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"23176906ed45e2c9f1debc989b8dd055","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fd165f7c-95cc-4260-a75b-365abca605b5/retrieve","id":"2070438601"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"471343cd-e9ae-44f0-9d68-2d17541482d5","pagecount":"5","content":"Plant ontroductoon contonues to play an omponant role on the forage specoes selectoon and evaluatoon work Sorne 600 accessoons have been estabhshed on nurserv plots for evlauatoon on the hypenhermoc well draoned savanna regoon of Colomboa representad by the Canmagua research statoonThe objectoves are (1) to evaluate a wode range of tropocal legumes and grasses for adaptatoon to the chmatoc and edaphoc condotoons prevaohng on thos ecosystem and (2) to test compatobohtv of adapted grasses and legumes moxtures andtheor persostence on moxtures under grazong Stabohtv of yoeld of sown grass and legume com ponents under actual grazong condotoons os the ultomate yardstock m the selectoon of omproved forage cultovars As a result of these tnals several promosong pasture plants are on the tonal stages of evaluatoon and domestocatoon Cenaon detocoencoes stoll exost and the pnmarv ob]ectove ot the evaluatoon work centered at Canmagua os to select supenor genorypes ot the key specoes whoch have shown promose on prehmonary tests over the past tour years Sty/osanthes cap1tata S bracteata Desmod1um ova/Jfo/Jum (syn D heterocarpon) heterocarpon Zorma Centrosema Aeschynomene sp and accessoons of Andropogon gayanus constotute the maJOrltY of matenals currently under troal Other promosong specoes each woth a senes of accessoons are S gwanens1s tardfo and S aff leiocarpaThe effect ot hre on the rate ot recoverv ot grasses and legumes was studoed on another expenment followong the burnong ot grass/legume assocoatoons shonly after the forst raons on March The strongly rhozomatous A gayanus showed a sognotocantly faster rate of growth dunng the eoght week penod om medoately after burnong than 8 decumbens (Fogure 4) Two ecotypes ot Sty/osanthes cap1tata also recovered !aster than three other legumes (  Open polhnated progemes of A gayanus CIAT 621 a strongly outcrossmg type show consoderable vana toon m several omportant forage traots Vanatoon m flowenng date os one of the readoly doscernoble charactenstocs of thos accessoon Early and late flowenng segregates dosplay a range of over one month for flower omtoatoon Thos dofference seems to be reduced woth shorter day lengths at the end of the year Under hght grazmg later flowenng types are preferentoally grazed In a prehmonarv st,.dy early and late flowerong segregates of A gayanus were com pared for N P Ca content and m Vltro dogestobohty (Tabla 5) Both N content and dogestobohty dechnes on the early flowenng segregates late flowerong segregates showed B 7% hogher m v1tro dogestobohty than the early flowenng ones P and Ca contents dod not varv due to dofferences '\" flowermg date As a follow up 100 late flowerong clones havebeen selected from old grazed pasturas of A gayanus 621 at the Canmagua statoon and were assembled on a polycross nurserv to obtam seed and data on produc tovoty and nutntoonal valueOf a large number of Sty/osanthes accessoons testad on the Can magua envoronment to date only a few S cap/tata accessoons some vanetoes of S gwanens1s tardoo and one umdentofoed rhozomatous specoes of Stylosanthes possobly S /a1ocarpa are showmg long term persostence m small plot studoes The late and mod season types of S cap1tata are the most productove on moxtures woth A gayanus for the 2000 mm ramfall zona representad by the Canmagua sote (Table 6) Persostence was affected by overgrazong the young  The obJectoves of thos sectoon are to (1) evaluate and select germplasm under Cerrado condotoons for adaptatoon to acod solls persostence under grazong and resostance or tolerance to pests and doseases (2) evaluate the potentoal of the Cerrado for commercoal seed producuon and (3) produce seed of selected germplasm to supply the evaluauon programs at the Cerrado Center (Centro de Pesquosa Agropecuana dos Cerrados CPAC)Prehm~nary germplasm evaluat1onIn November 1978 352 legume ontroductoons were planted on the two ma¡or sool types of the regoon o e 14 red yellow latosol (Latosolo Vermelho Amarelo LVA) and dark red latosol (latosolo Vermelho Escuro L VE) Soma physocal and chemocal characterosucs typocal of these sools are found m Tabla 7 The LVA sote was 100 m hogher than that on the LVE on a more exposed platea u area On the LVE one rephcate was sown woth Andropogon gayanus for grazong to ondocate whether any accessoons were re¡ected by the anomals Genera and number of accessoons evaluated are hsted m Table 8 Specoes of Stylosanthes accounted for almost 50 percent of the ontroductoons and a total of 159 ontroductoons orogonated on Brazol Emphasos has been placed on the genus Stylosanthes because prevoous experoence has demonstrated ots good adaptatoon to the acod onfertole solls of the target area Drv matter producuon of most accessoons growong on the LVE was hogher than that on the LVA","tokenCount":"770"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cdf86ab4e049e28d57d391388fbe3723","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/59b9622b-9378-47cc-b468-3a50242c9dc5/retrieve","id":"270251243"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1c05fc18-2fc0-4e05-8ce1-3c6434f18f66","pagecount":"8","content":"The interspecific Urochloa breeding pipeline at the Alliance of Bioversity-CIAT started more than 30 years ago with the development of a tetraploid sexual of U. ruziziensis, allowing the current scheme based on recurrent selection for specific combining ability (Worthington and Miles 2015). Thus, hybrids of this program combine resistance to several species of spittlebug (Hemiptera: Cercopidae) found in U. brizantha, with the edaphic adaptation to Aluminum and acid soils found in U. decumbens, using the sexual tetraploid U. ruziziensis (J. W. Miles and Valle 1996;J. W. Miles 2007). It is worth emphasizing that the final stages of testing are performed by the partner Grupo Papalotla, who has rights to multiply, research, and commercialize the hybrids (Pizarro et al. 2013).Genetic gain is a key performance indicator of a breeding scheme as it estimates the change in the phenotype within a population over cycles of selection, whether it is needed to measure the success of an established program (realized genetic gain) or a new breeding strategy is going to be implemented (expected genetic gain) (Rutkoski 2019). The phenotypic data from a representative sample of germplasm is used to estimate the rate of realized genetic gain may come from historical records of each population or from ERA trials which evaluate all the populations in a single experiment (Covarrubias-Pazaran 2020).Historical data of the interspecific Urochloa pipeline, showed high rates of genetic gain for resistance to Aeneolamia varia (Hemiptera: Cercopidae). However, due to the implementation of high-throughput methods for biomass cover in the evaluation stage and protocols for nutritional quality quantification in the last selection cycles, estimating the genetic gain from historical data is not possible because previous trials do not have these records. ERA trials allow to obtain data of the different cycles by evaluating the released varieties in a single field experiment, maximizing the connectivity, and reducing the noise of the environment variability (Prasanna et al. 2022;Covarrubias-Pazaran 2020). Thus, this trial is an alternative to estimating genetic gain for biomass (m 2 ) and nutritional quality (i.e., protein content, fiber content and carbohydrates content) in the interspecific Urochloa pipeline for the last seven cycles.Estimate the rate of genetic gain for biomass cover (m 2 ) and nutritional quality in the last seven cycles of the recurrent selection breeding scheme in the interspecific Urochloa pipeline.Palmira and 45 in Llanos of the testing stage 4, after Grupo Papalotla evaluations in multi environmental trials for BR12 and BR15 populations (Fig. 1). The trial in Llanos was established on the first semester of 2021, and had seven standardization cuts (i.e., cut the plots 30 cm from the soil), thus, seven evaluation dates. Similarly, the trial in Palmira was established on the first semester of 2022, and had six standardization cuts, thus, six evaluation dates. For both trials, the field was set as an alpha lattice with 2 replicates and the row-column position was registered.The traits assessed were visual biomass, height, and drone biomass cover. Visual biomass is based on a 1 to 9 scale, being 1 the genotype with less scoring in the field and 9 the genotype with the highest scoring in the field. Height was measured in one representative point of the mean height for each plot. The drone biomass was measured with the DJI Phantom 4 multispectral drone, 5 control points were marked with targets and georeferenced with highprecision GPS to use as control points, then mapping was carried out over 300 plants at a height of 20 meters with intervals of 6 photos every 2 seconds, corresponding to each of the bands included in the multispectral camera (red, green, blue, red edge, NIR and true color) with a total of 721 photos. For post-processing, the orthomosaic was created and the images and coordinates were corrected in the Metashape software and the coverage calculation in the QGIS software through annotations and selection of thresholds to segment only the vegetation cover.The genetic gain for visual biomass, height, and drone biomass cover was estimated from the ERA trial evaluations for each location, as both represent different environments. We followed the methodology of the Excellence in Breeding Platform (Covarrubias-Pazaran 2020; 2022) (Fig. 2). Based on previous work with historical data, we used the two-stage approach in (Covarrubias-Pazaran 2022)using the MrBean and Agriutilities packages in Rstudio (J Aparicio 2022; Johan Aparicio and Bornhorst 2023), along with ASReml-R (The VSNi Team 2023): first, we estimated the BLUEs setting the genotype as a fixed effect to calculate the genetic value, excluding the parentals and the cultivars that do not belong to the six populations of the pipeline. The analysis considered the row-column positions, the alpha-lattice field design and each cut was taken as an environment. After, the BLUEs of the genotypes were merged with their year of origin, fitting a linear model BLUE ~ year_origin and calculating the slope, intercept, and pvalue of the model. The genetic gain for the first year was calculated as:Genetic gain= Slope Intercept x (Slope + First year)x 100The parameters of the linear regression were calculated for the two sites (Table 1). All the rates of genetic gain were positive, although not significant. Considering that the main breeding objective in the evaluated cycles for the Urochloa hybrids was the biotic stress resistance and edaphic adaptation (J. W. Miles 2007), the forage production traits evaluated in this trial were expected to be positive and lower than the ones related to spittlebug resistance. For the breeding program, Llanos is an important target environment for product development. These results show that through the evaluated years the hybrids selected in both sites tend to cover more area (m 2 ), increasing their height without lessening the biomass. It's worth noting that the drone biomass cover genetic gain rate was higher in Llanos.On the other hand, the integration of high-throughput technologies allows to improve the accuracy and to optimize the phenotyping process in the trials, then, new cycles of selection are being evaluated with these methodologies and an increase in the genetic gain is expected.1. Evaluate the nutritional quality of the genotypes in Palmira through laboratory methodologies for protein content, neutral and acid fiber content, and carbohydrates. 2. Estimate the genetic gain of the nutritional quality parameters. ","tokenCount":"1027"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3907e60935e736525792056ad06440cf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6a353382-a56a-454c-b533-6535a1a87f81/retrieve","id":"618106474"},"keywords":["Types of indicators Genetic and demographic verifiers The genecological approach Diversity","productivity","knowledge","management"],"sieverID":"8669ba45-44b5-45b6-a579-819a595feeec","pagecount":"17","content":"There is a general trend of biodiversity loss at global, regional, national and local levels. To monitor this trend, international policy processes have created a wealth of indicators over the last two decades. However, genetic diversity indicators are regrettably absent from comprehensive bio-monitoring schemes.Here, we provide a review and an assessment of the different attempts made to provide such indicators for tree genetic diversity from the global level down to the level of the management unit. So far, no generally accepted indicators have been provided as international standards, nor tested for their possible use in practice. We suggest that indicators for monitoring genetic diversity and dynamics should be based on ecological and demographic surrogates of adaptive diversity as well as genetic markers capable of identifying genetic erosion and gene flow. A comparison of past and present genecological distributions (patterns of genetic variation of key adaptive traits in the ecological space) of selected species is a realistic way of assessing the trend of intra-specific variation, and thus provides a state indicator of tree genetic diversity also able to reflect possible pressures threatening genetic diversity. Revealing benefits of genetic diversity related to ecosystem services is complex, but current trends in plantation performance offer the possibility of an indicator of benefit. Response indicators are generally much easier to define, because recognition and even quantification of, e.g., research, education, breeding, conservation, and regulation actions and programs are relatively straightforward. Only state indicators can reveal genetic patterns and processes, which are fundamental for maintaining genetic diversity. Indirect indicators of pressure, benefit, or response should therefore not be used independently of state indicators. A coherent set of indicators covering diversity-productivity-knowledge-management based on the genecological approach is proposed for application on appropriate groups of tree species in the wild and in cultivation worldwide. These indicators realistically reflect the state, trends and potentials of the world's tree genetic resources to support sustainable growth. The state of the genetic diversity will be based on trends in population distributions and diversity patterns for selected species. The productivity of the genetic resource of trees in current use will reflect the possible potential of mobilizing the resource further. Trends in knowledge will underpin the potential capacity for development of the resource and current management of the genetic resource itself will reveal how well we are actually doing and where improvements are required.The development of biodiversity indicators to track the rate of loss of biodiversity on a global scale has been underway for over two decades, first with the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD 1 ) in 1992 (SCBD, 2001), followed in 2002 (SCBD, 2006) by the agreement on targets to reduce the loss of biological diversity by 2010 (the 2010 Biodiversity Target), and most recently in 2010, by the adoption of the Aichi Targets and a revised and updated Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 (UNEP/CBD/COP, 2010).The rationale behind this work is a general recognition of the richness of biological diversity on Earth, the threats that human activities pose to this richness, and the negative consequences that further loss of diversity may have to mankind and to the Earth biomes as a whole. The objectives of CBD refer to intrinsic and utilitarian values of biodiversity, including their importance for evolution and maintaining life-sustaining systems (Glowka et al., 1994). Its overarching goal of sustainable development is to ensure and enhance the livelihoods of millions of people under the challenge of balancing the human appropriation of nature with the effects of global climate change and a growing world population.According to CBD, biological diversity embraces the diversity of all life on Earth and is commonly distinguished at three levels: ecosystems, species, and genes. The values of biodiversity are generally associated with these levels. Environmental and life-support values are typically provided at ecosystem level, material goods at species level and the improvement of production depends on the availability of genetic variation (FAO, 1989). The idea of identifying biodiversity indicators is therefore not merely tracking the loss of biodiversity, although this is used as the relevant overall measure, but also to enable priority setting for conservation, development and sustainable use of biodiversity.Criteria and indicators are used in different fields of human enterprise to define priorities and measure the extent to which these priorities are met (e.g. Prabhu et al., 1999). They have become an instrument of choice for national and international organizations to guide their members (and attract membership) towards common, quantifiable goals. The focal area of sustainable forest management, for example, relies strongly on criteria and indicators to monitor progress (Wijewardana, 2006). A criterion usually reflects an objective (also termed goal or target), often rather complex and challenging to assess; in our case, the degree to which the genetic diversity of the world's forests and trees is conserved. Practical and informative indicators which can be measured periodically to reveal the direction of change of a variable (the genetic diversity of world forests in our example) are therefore required. Indicators are, by definition, used to track progress and should always be defined in relation to a given target (Feld et al., 2009). An indicator must be measurable and the metric used to measure an indicator is commonly referred to as a verifier.Although important progress has been made overall, there is ''still a considerable gap in the widespread use of indicators for many of the multiple components of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and a need to develop common monitoring schemes within and across habitats'' (Feld et al., 2009). In a scientific assessment, Butchart et al. (2010) compiled 31 indicators to report on the progress of the 2010 Biodiversity Target. They concluded that, despite some local successes and increasing responses (e.g., in terms of protected area coverage), the rate of biodiversity loss does not appear to be slowing (Butchart et al., 2010).Here, we are concerned with genetic diversity, which is not explicitly defined in CBD, and in particular, we focus on trees.Genetic diversity is defined here as the total amount of genetic differences within species. It is also referred to as intra-specific variation. Intra-specific variation can be subdivided into inter-and intra-population variation (also among and within population genetic diversity), and further into the diversity within an individual expressed by differences between alleles across chromosomes. Genetic diversity is a major element of biodiversity (CBD Article 2), it is the basis for adaptation and it has been recognized by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005) for its support to ecosystem functioning. Nevertheless, it is still rarely considered and only a few global or regional indicators make reference to it (Nivet et al., 2012).Genetic diversity is probably the element of biodiversity for which the development of relevant indicators is least advanced. In their 2009 review of 617 peer-reviewed journal articles between 1997 and 2007, Feld et al. (2009) were able to list 531 indicators for biodiversity and ecosystem services encompassing a wide range of ecosystems (forests, grasslands scrublands, wetlands, rivers, lakes, soils and agro-ecosystems) and spatial scales (from patch to global scale). They found that ''despite its multiple dimensions, biodiversity is usually equated with species richness only'', mostly at regional and finer spatial scales. Regional to global scale indicators were less frequent than local indicators and mostly consisted of physical and area fragmentation measures. Despite their role and potential value across scales and habitats, ''functional, structural and genetic components of biodiversity [were] poorly addressed''. Genetic diversity was included in less than 5% of the 531 biodiversity indicators analyzed.This lack of genetic diversity indicators has repeatedly been pointed out by the scientific community (e.g. Laikre, 2010;Laikre et al., 2010). It has been recognized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD, 2010, cf. also Walpole et al., 2009) and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 allows for improved coverage of genetic diversity.Genetic diversity is -or has been -perceived as complex and costly to measure and the task of identifying relevant indicators therefore considered close to impossible. At present, the genetic diversity of terrestrial domesticated animals reported by FAO and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is the only indicator reported under Aichi Target 13 on genetic diversity (Chenery et al., 2013, Biodiversity Indicators Partnership, BIP, 2013). A few additional indicators of relevance to genetic diversity are reported within the BIP (cf. Chenery et al., 2013;BIP, 2013). Although genetic diversity continues to be poorly covered, there are promising initiatives of application, primarily related to wildlife and the marine environment (Stetz et al., 2011;European Commission, 2011;CONGRESS, 2013).Genetic diversity can be assessed by different techniques. Morphological and adaptive traits can be studied in field trials, and biochemical, molecular and DNA variants in the laboratory. Such studies contribute direct measures of intra-specific variation. In combination with knowledge of eco-geographic variation and history, genetic studies can be used to establish possible evolutionary patterns as well as recommendation domains for deployment of reproductive material in production systems.Molecular markers are either influenced by selection or not (in which case they are termed neutral), whereas quantitative variation measured in field trials is usually adaptive. Both types of technique are important to gain knowledge of genetic patterns and processes. The use of molecular tools for genetic monitoring has moved from an era of scepticism (McKinnel, 2002), where studies were limited to revealing patterns of neutral genetic diversity, to a point of great promise of surmising also adaptive genetic variation (Funk et al., 2012;Hansen et al., 2012;Schwartz et al., 2007).While field trials continue to be expensive and time consuming, the costs of genetic marker studies are decreasing. With increasing ability to handle large amounts of data and combine available information from genetic studies with other geographically based information, it now seems possible to suggest indicators of genetic diversity that are both relevant and not prohibitively costly.The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework and a typology for the application of such indicators of tree genetic diversity commensurate with the current international scheme provided by the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the BIP.To do so, we first describe the Strategic Plan and the work of BIP to identify indicators within the established framework that are relevant for tree genetic diversity (Section 2). Next, a review of past attempts to define and report on possible tree genetic diversity indicators is provided, in order to reveal why they have not been widely applied (Section 3). We then move on to suggest what we consider meaningful and realistic indicators of genetic diversity of trees that can be embedded within the Strategic Plan and BIP, and constitute a framework and typology for management of trees within, as well as outside, forests (Section 4). Finally, conclusions (Section 5) are provided.According to Sparks et al. (2011) and UNEP/CBD/AHTEG (2011a,b), indicators should ideally provide answers to, or shed light on, four basic questions (Table 1). In the case of tree genetic diversity, indicators should monitor the adaptive potential of tree species to help identify and prioritize actions, related to its use and conservation.The UN Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 is made of five strategic goals and 20 specific targets to be achieved by 2020, referred to as the Aichi Targets (UNEP/CBD/COP, 2010, 2011). To monitor progress, an elaborate indicator framework for assessing the Aichi Targets has been developed by the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) on indicators for the Strategic Plan (UNEP/CBD/AHTEG, 2011a,b). This indicator framework consists of 12 proposed headline indicators and 97 proposed operational indicators (see Table 2 for examples). A single indicator, used in isolation, is generally considered insufficient to assess overall progress towards a target, thus the necessity to link multiple indicators (Chenery et al., 2013).The global initiative BIP has been established to promote and coordinate development and delivery of biodiversity indicators in support of the CBD and other sectors. BIP brings together over 40 organizations working internationally on indicator development to provide the most comprehensive information on biodiversity trends (BIP, 2013).Currently 29 operational indicators are reported under the 12 headline indicators, covering various aspects of 17 of the 20 Aichi Targets (BIP, 2013;Chenery et al., 2013). These 29 indicators typically relate (but are not identical) to one of the 97 AHTEG indicators in a further operational form. Although termed operational, most cases of the 97 AHTEG indicators will need to be transformed into specific verifiable ''sub-topic'' indicators that can actually be measured (cf. Table 2). It is important to note that the AHTEG framework is flexible enough to allow the transformation and addition of indicators as needed. Types of indicators and indicators relevant for genetic diversity are described further in Appendix B.The indicator sequence used by the UNEP/CBD/AHTEG (2011a,b) system is S-P-B-R, as it is considered to be the logical sequence of the four basic questions listed in Table 1. This is in contrast to the R-S-P-B sequence recommended by Sparks et al. (2011), who emphasize that response (rather than pressure) is the indicator that will be used to guide policy and practice. The sequence can be discussed and Sparks et al. (2011) therefore present the framework as a ''feedback loop'' subject to iterative modifications.From the 97 operational indicators proposed by UNEP/CBD/ AHTEG (2011a,b), we have selected those that we consider to have potential relevance for monitoring tree genetic diversity. They are all listed in Table 2, using the S-P-B-R sequence of UNEP/CBD/ AHTEG (2011a,b).In constructing Table 2, we followed the suggestions for headline indicators and operational indicators considered relevant (''most relevant'' or ''other relevant'') by UNEP/CBD/AHTEG (2011a,b) under the two Aichi Targets directly addressing genetic diversity (Targets 13 and 16), providing 14 operational indicators. These comprise only state and response indicators.We have added those operational indicators that address tree species distribution, population trends and extinction risks, thus targeting intra-specific variation (cf. e.g., Rogers and Ledig, 1996;Bariteau, 2003), but not mentioned as such by UNEP/CBD/AHTEG (2011a,b). This provides an additional set of nine operational indicators, of which two are classified as state indicators, five as pressure indicators, and one each as a benefit and response indicator. In addition we have included three operational indicators that reflect benefit, value and condition of ecosystem services for adequate coverage of the benefits of genetic diversity. We have added one operational response indicator covering capacity building, knowledge transfer and uptake into policy, areas which are of obvious importance for the conservation, management and use of genetic diversity. Finally, we have included one operational response indicator related to awareness and public engagement without specifying a name of the operational indicator.Thus, all 12 proposed headline indicators and 28 of the operational indicators proposed by UNEP/CBD/AHTEG (2011a,b) are considered relevant for genetic diversity in the context of the present study. The distribution of the indicators according to type and level of biodiversity targeted is summarized in Table 3.Of the 28 operational indicators, 5 relate primarily to the ecosystem level, 11 to the species level, 4 to the intra-specific level, and 8 cut across levels. Among these 28 operational indicators, UNEP/CBD/AHTEG (2011a,b) considers 10 ready for use at the global level (class A), 11 are suggested for development at the global level (class B), 6 are proposed for consideration/development at sub-global level (class C, i.e. regional, national or local), and 1 is unclassified in terms of level, but relevant in general for all areas (cf. Table 2). The list of indicators relevant for genetic diversity of trees is thus considerable. However, translating headline and operational indicators of species' distributions and their genetic diversity into specific verifiable sub-topic indicators remains a significant challenge.  (Chenery et al., 2013;BIP, 2013). However, neither of these allows inference on the loss of genetic diversity within tree species.In parallel with the work of CBD, a process for monitoring and promoting conservation of forest biodiversity through sustainable forest management has taken place within the framework of the UN Forest Forum (UNFF) (Rosendal, 2001;FAO, 2002). Consequently, several international criteria and indicator processes have been initiated for forests and many of these have made an attempt to identify indicators of genetic diversity as part of a larger set of biodiversity indicators. A summary and an analysis of these indicators are given in Appendix C.Considerable efforts have been employed for defining and implementing indicators of sustainable forest management, but few relate directly to tree genetic diversity. The most significant are probably the sustainable management schemes developed by FSC and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), the two largest certification systems worldwide, which have been endorsed by numerous organizations (both for conservation and use). Several of the generic principles and criteria of both of these certification systems relate to genetic diversity. However, as both FSC and PEFC criteria and indicators of sustainable management are generic, there is considerable space for discussion on how they are applied locally (Auld and Aitken, 2003). Furthermore, indicators for sustaining genetic diversity are considered difficult to measure, costly and tend to not be implemented (Parviainen and Lier, 2006;Wijewardana, 2006;Anon, 2011;Aravanopoulos, 2011). Among the countries participating in the Montreal Process there was ''no scientific agreement on how the data should be collected'' and ''little or no understanding of how to measure an indicator'' (Parviainen and Lier, 2006).To date, the limited action taken to assess efforts to conserve genetic diversity of trees has been indirect and almost entirely related to response indicators. While tree genetic diversity can be correctly managed and protected in FSC-or PEFC-certified forests or in protected areas, there is no guarantee that it will be. Reporting on response indicators alone without measuring state indicators (as, for example, in the Pan European Process, Forest Europe et al., 2011;Nivet et al., 2012) can result in misleading conclusions because well-intentioned policies and management practices do not necessarily result in an improved conservation status for tree genetic diversity. Overall, in particular, the identification of state indicators at the global level remains a major challenge.A global programme for conservation and management of forest genetic resources was initiated by FAO early in the 1960s (FAO, 1975) and several regional networks on forest genetic resources were established at the initiative of FAO and Bioversity International (then as IBPGR, later IPGRI) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During that period, several reviews of the state of forest genetic resources covering different geographical areas were prepared (Palmberg-Lerche, 2007), and a wealth of reports is available (FAO Forest Genetic Resources Working Papers, 2013). However, in general, the information about characterization of genetic diversity is more descriptive than quantitative. A survey in the early 1990s led to the establishment of REFORGEN (FAO Forest Genetic Resources REFORFGEN Database, 2013), but it also contains little quantitative information on intra-specific variation.The three most recent global forest resource assessments of FAO have dealt with the species level in different ways, by assessing endangered or threatened species, number of native tree species and the tree species composition of the growing stock, repectively (FAO, 2001a(FAO, , 2006(FAO, , 2010a)). It should be noted that such parameters in themselves are of limited value as indicators of genetic diversity. For parameters to be useful as indicators they must not only be quantified and available in time series, but also qualified in a relevant context (see FAO, 2001a). A general problem is, for example, the apparent discrepancy between a seemingly well-known number of endangered species and much more uncertainty about the total number of species.There are probably at least 60,000 tree species on Earth (Grandtner, 2006) and perhaps up to 100,000 (Oldfield et al., 1998, cf. also Petit andHampe, 2006). How many of these species are used by humans, or how many may become useful to human societies in the future remains an open question (Dawson et al., 2014, this issue). Some 2500-3500 tree species have been registered as forestry or agroforestry species (Burley and von Carlowitz, 1984;Simons and Leakey, 2004). Many of them are used largely in their wild state with relatively few brought into cultivation. Even fewer of them have ever been tested for population-level performance across different environments and very little is known about their genetic variation at any level; even their geographic distributions are often poorly documented (Feeley and Silman, 2011). In addition, many of them are considered threatened. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that 20-30% of plant and animal species will be at risk of extinction if temperatures climb more than 1.5 to 2.5 °C (IPCC, 2007, cf. also Ruhl, 2008). However, by the number of species alone, designing surveys to reveal intra-specific variation is obviously not an easy task.The most recent global survey on forest genetic resources has been prepared in connection with the preparation of the State of the World's Forest Genetic Resources (FAO, 2010b(FAO, , 2014)). The Guidelines for the preparation of Country Reports for the State of the World's Forest Genetic Resources Report (FAO, 2010b) include an Annex 2, which consists of table templates to assist the organization and presentation of information. We compared the set of indicators in our Table 2 (cf. also Table 5, later) with these templates to evaluate the degree to which data would have been collected to inform the indicators if all of the templates were completed in the Annex 2 of FAO (2010b). Most of the requested data must be considered as input to response indicators, while one table can be seen as providing a state/pressure indicator. This is a table based on information requested on tree and other woody forest species considered to be threatened in all or part of their range from a genetic conservation perspective [Table 7 in Annex 2 of the Guidelines document (FAO, 2010b)]. This set of information is relevant for the present review, because it can provide a None of the table templates required genetic data that could show trends over time, for example population genetic parameters that could indicate gene flow trends, or quantitative trait variances that could indicate trends in the potential for adaptation. There may be several reasons for the low requirement for information that could inform state indicators instead of response indicators. Among them, the fact that no state indicator for genetic resources has been widely accepted and adopted, at any scale, is not a trivial problem. Furthermore, response indicators are much more easily understood and reported on, especially by non-geneticists. Few state indicators of tree genetic diversity can be fully addressed within the boundaries of one country, and this may also have contributed to the lack of information reported on such indicators.We examined the completed Country Reports (cf. above) to determine how many countries attempted to complete the only table (number 7 in Annex 2, FAO, 2010b) that would inform a state/pressure indicator, and the amount of information that was provided. This information is summarized in Table 4.Among the 84 Country Reports that we examined, 30 (36%) included information on at least one of the five parameter columns (Table 4). Only seven countries reported on all of them, four of which were in Europe. The two most informative columns in the table: Area (ha) of species' natural distribution in your country if known and Average number of trees per hectare, if known were least often completed (11 and 7 countries respectively) and the two columns with the highest response rate were those with the least inherent information value from the perspective of tree genetic diversity.None of the Country Reports from South or Central America included the table from Annex 2 in FAO (2010b) with species distribution and threat information, but two of them reported on levels of genetic diversity. Two of the three North American reports included information about levels of genetic diversity for important tree species, but only one included the table. Genetic diversity parameters for key species were also reported by two Asian countries and two European countries.The general lack of state/pressure type information that was requested from the countries emphasizes the need to focus more on identifying practical informative indicators that could be used to gather information in subsequent reporting cycles. The fact that a few countries did report on genetic parameters indicates that it is becoming increasingly feasible to do so. However, there must be a standardized approach in order to achieve statistically interpretable results.In summary, reasons for the overall scarcity of reported results for genetic indicators include difficulty, real or perceived, in measurement and interpretation, disagreement among experts on the minimal set of indicators required in order to provide useful information, lack of resources to add additional variables to the standard forest inventory data collection procedures, and possibly a lack of understanding among forest management practitioners about the relevance of genetic resources to forest sustainability. The challenge is thus to provide meaningful indicators that can be agreed upon and implemented in practice.In the forestry sector, considerable theoretical progress in identifying relevant state indicators has been made over the past 20 years (Namkoong et al., 1996(Namkoong et al., , 2002;;McKinnel, 2002;Bariteau, 2003;Aravanopoulos, 2011) and much scientific attention has been paid to evolutionary and adaptive processes (e.g. Eriksson et al., 1993;Namkoong et al., 2002;Le Corre andKremer, 2003, 2012) as a basis. However, a general application and scaling-up of the verifiers proposed by Namkoong et al. (2002) have not yet been feasible due to the difficulties summarized above.Any relevant set of indicators for trends in genetic diversity must include components at different scales (local/landscape/ national/regional/global), involving the amount of diversity and how it is distributed in space. There is a need to identify genetically appropriate indicators and, at the same time, not to inflate the already large number of indicators that exist at global and regional scales.The State-Pressure-Benefit-Response (S-P-B-R) loop developed by UNEP/CBD/AHTEG (2011a,b) and Sparks et al. (2011) provides a well-considered and appropriate framework to ensure that the suggested set of indicators meet the requirements of being scientifically sound, realistic, and policy relevant; and the framework has been adopted for implementation by BIP, 2013. The identification of indicators of tree genetic diversity should therefore preferably take place within such a framework and result in a set of S-P-B-R indicators.In Table 5 we list what we consider to be relevant operational indicators and their type (state, pressure, benefit, response) at dif-   (global, regional, national, local), type of work needed (field, lab, web-based search, etc.), feasibility and type of expertise (direct measurement, or based on experimental analysis), level of informativeness, and cost. Each operational indicator is exemplified by verifiable indicators which in turn are assessed by a number of direct or proxy verifiers (verifiable measures). Therefore the practicality and potential prioritization of operational and verifiable indicators can be evaluated based on the verifiers needed for their assessment. The practicality of evaluating a verifier depends on the amount of work, time and costs, which, in turn, depend on the level of readily available and accessible knowledge associated with each verifier.For the purposes of facilitating discussion and implementation, the seven operational indicators proposed in In Table 5, this major S-P indicator area is divided into two operational indicators, one each at the species and population level. The five verifiable indicators associated with the operational indicator trends in species and population distribution pattern of selected species cover global, regional and national reference levels (Table 5). These can be assessed by five highly informative verifiers in a straightforward manner at least for species where some background level of scientific knowledge exists (Table 5). This assessment can likely be carried out by using web-based means and databases, or national archives. However, for species where relevant information is not available, assessing this indicator will be a time consuming and cumbersome process.A comparison of the past and present genecological distribution of selected species is a realistic way to assess intra-specific variation trends, thus it provides a state indicator of tree genetic diversity. Moreover, such a comparison also permits an analysis of the causes of anticipated loss, thereby revealing relevant pressures.The genecological approach addresses genetic diversity at the regional scale where species' distributions are defined (from entire continents down to national and subnational levels). The perception of tree species consisting of a series of locally differentiated populations has been supported by numerous studies (cf. e.g., Rogers and Ledig, 1996). It has stimulated the development of experimental methods since the 18th century based on common gardens, i.e. planting trees of different origins within the same environment, so that the genetic component of phenotypic variation is revealed. The high level of differentiation among populations observed in adaptive genetic diversity, especially for growth capacity, largely inspired the development of forest genetics in the 20th century (Bariteau, 2003).The ability to disperse genes over long distances by pollen or seed is a common feature of many tree species (Smouse and Sork, 2004) and this has a homogenizing effect, reducing differentiation due to divergent natural selection (Kremer et al., 2012). Differentiation at the local scale is therefore only expected to occur if selective forces are strong over small distances (Eriksson et al., 2007). Thus, in the presence of moderate ecological gradients, the adaptive genetic differentiation within a species is anticipated to be manifested at a regional rather than a local level unless in the presence of strong barriers against gene flow at a local level (cf. e.g., Graudal et al., 1997). The empirical evidence for the presence of adaption is substantial in tree species. Provenance and common garden tests over the last century have provided ample evidence of adaptation on a regional scale and clinal patterns in species with continuous distribution across ecological gradients, even in the presence of substantial gene flow (Alberto et al., 2013). Most published studies are from temperate and boreal forests, but several studies in tropical tree species have identified similar levels of adaptation (Finkeldey and Hattemer, 2007;Raebild et al., 2011). The genecological concept therefore builds on an expectation that genetic differentiation in adaptive traits will reflect the variation in ecological conditions at a regional level -at least as long as the species in question has a fairly continuous distribution containing viable populations. The genecological zonation approach thus provides a framework for predicting patterns of genetic variation in traits of adaptive significance between populations sampled range-wide. As the approach is based on the expectation that genetic patterns are generated from the balance between gene flow and selection, it will be less relevant for species that occur predominantly in small isolated populations where drift and inbreeding may have played a prominent role in developing genetic patterns. This limitation can include species with recent rapid geographic expansion or species subject to a recent hybridisation with native or introduced species.Factors such as selection, migration and habitat range may affect species diversity and genetic diversity in the same direction (Vellend and Geber, 2006). However, the links between genetic diversity, species diversity, composition of communities and distribution are far from straightforward (e.g., Alonso et al., 2006). For example, restricted habitat and distribution often lead to low species diversity in communities (islands for example), but responses in terms of genetic diversity can vary widely. For instance, the California endemic Pinus torreyana (Ledig and Conkle, 1983) is genetically narrow (''depauperate''), but Cedrus brevifolia (Eliades et al., 2011), which has a distribution limited to a small area of Cyprus, is one of the most diverse conifers. Conversely, widely distributed species such as the Mediterranean Pinus pinea (Vendramin et al., 2008) and the North American Pinus resinosa (Echt et al., 1998;Mosseler, 1991Mosseler, , 1992;;Allendorf et al., 1982) are genetically depauperate species. Bottleneck-related evolutionary factors may explain such discrepancies (e.g., Fady and Conord, 2010).Although far from widespread (e.g., Feeley and Silman, 2011), data for a number of tree species enabling such genecological analyses are currently made available by the scientific community (such as EUFORGEN, 2013, MAPFORGEN and VECEA, cf. Bohn et al., 2002/3, 2007;Lillesø et al., 2005;Kindt et al., 2005Kindt et al., , 2007aKindt et al., ,b, 2011a,b,c,d;,b,c,d;Mucina and Rutherford, 2006;Friis et al., 2010;Lillesø et al., 2011a;van Breugel et al., 2011a,b). Further work in this direction is laborious and complex, but significant progress can be made if for example it is dealt with by a network of national and international institutions that will jointly be responsible for assessment and evaluation.Assessing indicators at the population level will likely be more resource demanding than the other levels, requiring commitment of significant resources at national and regional levels. Current work aimed at the development of genetic monitoring methods for genetic conservation units of European forest trees promises to be a valuable model (Aravanopoulos et al., 2014).The local level is addressed by the operational indicator trends in population condition and two verifiable indicators pertaining to demographic and genetic verifiers (Table 5) are suggested. In this case, both demographic and genetic parameters, 11 in total, are needed for evaluating population condition. Population demography, as well as fitness, can be assessed by simple field estimations and basic experiments in a straightforward manner. Therefore, besides demographic conditions, two important parameters at the local population level, selection and genetic diversity (the latter at an indirect level), can be assessed (Aravanopoulos, 2011;Konnert et al., 2011).The direct estimation of population genetic parameters, including genetic drift and erosion, and gene flow and population structure, can be undertaken with molecular genetic markers, but this involves significant costs and particular expertise. Although the costs of molecular genotyping are decreasingly rapidly compared to the costs of phenotyping, the latter remains the main or only option in many countries.With sound experimental design and proper care of field studies, phenotypic data from field trials can yield valuable information about genetic diversity and population structure with respect to adaptive traits, but as such studies are generally more expensive now than molecular analyses, it is not feasible to monitor change over time based on such studies only.The assessment of demography and the partial assessment of genetic status at this level will provide some indication of population condition and may on a temporal scale show some underlying trends. However, it is in combination with the full assessment of the genetic status, through the genetic parameters indicated, that a complete evaluation of population condition at the local level may be achieved.The use of already existing information regarding the demographic and genetic conditions of a population is not advisable to inform current status, unless this information is recent (less than a decade old). Otherwise, climatic change and anthropogenic influence may deem the literature outdated. On the other hand, older data are indispensable for establishing temporal comparisons needed to identify trends in population condition.Trees in plantations and on-farm will be one of the major assets of a future global and local economy relying on renewable resources. Through appropriate management of genetic resources (which constitute an indicator area of its own), the benefits of tree planting can be increased many fold. A valuation of this effort in terms of the extent and development of selected tree planting activities and the use of relevant reproductive material can provide a direct indicator of benefit. It may also serve as a verifier for the management of the genetic resource itself (i.e. response), but it is important to emphasize the level of benefit that can be achieved.The Planted Forest Programme of FAO (FAO, Planted Forest Programme, 2013) has compiled and analyzed information on planted forests for more than a decade. In addition, an increasing amount of information on trees outside forests is becoming available (Zomer et al., 2009). The relative contribution of planted forests to the global production of wood serves as a general indicator of the importance of tree plantations. In 2005, forest plantations covered some 260 million ha or 7% of the global forest area, but produced 1.2 billion m 3 of industrial round wood or about two thirds of the total global round wood production (Evans, 2009). By 2030 the production from plantations may surpass 2 billion m 3 of industrial round wood. Given the increasing importance of planted forests, information on trends in genetic diversity, deployment and productivity of a selection of planted tree species could be a feasible indicator of benefit.The benefit of genetic diversity as a resource is directly expressed in the value of tree breeding. The profitability of breed-ing is well established (e.g., Daniels, 1984;Foster et al., 1995;McKeand et al., 2006;Rosvall, 2011;Willan, 1988). Through a fairly simple process it is possible to achieve 35-80% gain with very high returns of investment (see Foster et al., 1995). The basic requirement is of course the availability of genetic diversity. With the increasing focus on the need for a so-called 'green' bio-based economy, there would seem to be a dire need to bring focus back on the societal benefits of tree breeding (Graudal and Kjaer, 1999), not only to increase production but also to alleviate the negative impact of harvesting natural forest to reduce illegal exploitation of even some conservation areas (e.g., WWF, 2012).The proposed operational benefit indicator is thus trends in plantation performance of selected species, which is associated with two verifiable indicators and three verifiers. The only verifier that would be simple to use ''hectares planted by species/provenance either locally or as an exotic'' provides only partial assessment. The two other verifiers are more complicated to measure. These are ''seed source performance: growth and survival'' which can be assessed experimentally, and ''realized genetic gain and profit'' which can be assessed by employing a quantitative genetics approach in a suitable sample of genetic entries.Indicators of the more subtle benefits related to ecosystem services and the management of natural ecosystems (e.g., natural forest management and restoration) still require development. There is a clear need to link genetic variability and ecosystem services, but we should also be aware of the dual nature of genetic diversity, as on the one hand a necessary precondition for future evolution of local populations, entire species and ecosystems, and on the other hand a service provider (e.g., for breeding programs). In both cases the integration of genetic diversity into climate change adaptation planning is important (Alfaro et al., 2014, this issue). Additional work in this area is required.Knowledge, education and communication are closely linked. Scientific knowledge can be gathered from the literature, whereas traditional knowledge can be more difficult to capture. The state of education may to some extent be available from national statistics and may be collected through national surveys. Assessment of trends will probably have to rely on special studies. Knowledge on intra-specific variation can be immediately connected to the two indicator areas discussed above, trends in species and population distribution patterns and condition and trends in plantation performance.Two combined response and benefit operational indicators are related to knowledge and capacity building, with six verifiable indicators listed for the global, regional and national levels, while one trends in knowledge of genetic diversity of species is also proposed for assessment at the local level (Table 5). In total, there are seven associated verifiers and all except one (''parameters of genetic differentiation among populations'', Table 5) can be evaluated based on background information such as National Forest Inventories (NFIs) and National Forest Programs (NFPs), or based on database searches. The estimation of verifier ''parameters of genetic differentiation among populations'' would require the use of molecular genetic markers and/or the evaluation of suitable field trials. Overall the evaluation of the operational indicators is, in principle, straightforward, even if the operational indicator trends in knowledge of genetic diversity of species is assessed based on three out of four dedicated verifiers.The recent rapid development of molecular marker techniques (Allendorf et al., 2010) has greatly facilitated the identification of state indicators at the level of the management unit of identified priority species (Aravanopoulos, 2011;Funk et al., 2012;Geburek et al., 2010;Hansen et al., 2012;Konnert et al., 2011;Laikre et al., 2008;Luikart et al., 2010;Schwartz et al., 2007;Stetz et al., 2011). Such techniques are available at the scientific level and within reach at a practical level, at least where facilities are available. However, in practice availability depends on access to resources and facilities which varies enormously among countries and world regions. In Europe, work by the European Forest Genetic Resources Network (EUFORGEN) has reached a point where implementation of molecular based techniques is likely to begin within a few years (Aravanopoulos et al., 2014).While the increasing utility and the decreasing costs of molecular techniques hold great promise for providing efficient means for monitoring genetic diversity, it is imperative that the basic importance of taxonomy, ecology and field testing are not neglected. The diminishing priority of sustainable forest management in the national policies of some countries (Wijewardana, 2006), loss of competence in taxonomy (Drew, 2011;Hoagland, 1996;Kim and Byrne, 2006) and erosion of applied programs of genetic resource management (Graudal and Kjaer, 1999;Graudal and Lillesø, 2007) are therefore of great concern. There seems to be an on-going world-wide trend of loss of practical knowledge and ability in tree species identification, tree seed handling, tree breeding and tree genetic resource conservation management (Graudal and Lillesø, 2007), which will be an impediment for the implementation of any program to use and conserve tree genetic diversity. Indicators to monitor this area of response policy would therefore be highly relevant and can measured through national surveys.Management responses can be measured by the extent of physical management and conservation activities in the field, and by the integration of response measures in policy, planning and the implementation of programs, including in legislation. Some of these elements are, in principle, easily evaluated by quantification of breeding and gene conservation activities at the national level and are already available and being used in some geographical areas.Measuring legislation or regulation responses is probably more difficult but one approach would be for example to quantify the adoption of certification schemes for distribution and exchange of reproductive material. Schemes exist for some areas, but it is important to validate whether such schemes are relevant for the purpose they are intended before they are used as a positive measure of action (Lillesø et al., 2011b).Two combined response and benefit operational indicators are related to the use of tree genetic diversity and six verifiable indicators are listed for the global, regional and national levels (Table 5). There are nine associated verifiers and all except one (''seed source performance'', Table 5) can in principle -as for verifiers of knowledge generation and capacity building referred to above -be evaluated based on background information (NFIs and NFPs), or based on database searches, although some (''use of adapted seed sources'' and ''use of diverse seed source'') likely will be rather poorly covered. The estimation of verifier ''seed source performance'' would require a seed testing experiment (which could already have been undertaken as part of the reproductive fitness assessment of indicator ''trends in population condition''). Again, the evaluation of these operational indicators is, in principle, straightforward, although assessment of operational indicator trends in sustainable use of tree genetic resources may be based only on three out of five dedicated verifiers (Table 5). All four responsebenefit indicators can be assessed without the need of an experimental approach, two fully and the other two based on an average of around 75% of the suggested verifiers.Table 5 can be seen as providing indicators for the management of reproductive material coupled with breeding programs, and for the implementation of specific gene conservation programs. This is similar to the current reporting by Forest Europe et al. (2011). It is however important to connect such reporting with a relevant genecological baseline.Our suggested genecological approach is similar to that used by the EU as part of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (European Commission, 2011). A comparison between these widely different habitats is useful because some marine organisms and trees have similar life history traits such as long life span, high dispersal ability and large distribution areas. Like marine organisms, forest trees provide ecosystem services of disproportionally large importance relative to their distribution and frequency. Monitoring marine genetic resources is mandated by legislation in the form of an EU Commission decision. The feasibility of applying legislative measures in support of monitoring other types of biodiversity, including forest tree genetic diversity, should be considered.In the forestry sector, such an approach could be combined with the regulation of forest reproductive material (FRM). Statistics on the use of forest reproductive material (e.g., seed sources) over time would not be enough to assess trends in tree genetic diversity. However, when statistics exist on the use and trade of FRM, and when provenances are delineated and their diversity is estimated, such an indicator may be useful. Regions of provenances and the mandatory use of passport data on geographic origin should therefore be established where they do not exist and statistics on FRM collection and trade should be compiled (see also Koskela et al., 2014, this issue).The management of natural forests constitutes a particularly complex area for maintaining genetic diversity (Thomson, 2001) because the management objective, whether for conservation or for production, ultimately depends on the genetic diversity present. The notion 'conservation through use' (Graudal et al., 1997) is applied when forest management deliberately takes care also of genetic diversity. In this context, we have not tried to identify a particular indicator but would consider this covered by the overall monitoring of trends in species and population distribution and diversity patterns.In general, five of the seven operational indicators suggested above can readily be assessed, provided that some level of background information is available. The appropriate level of information is likely available at least for selected key species of ecological and/or economic importance and for a number of endangered flagship species, where forestry operations and/or conservation actions have generated considerable knowledge. These five indicators can be prioritized for the assessment of the headline indicator ''trends in genetic diversity of tree species'' at the global, regional and national levels; however all indicators should be employed for a comprehensive evaluation at the local level.The vast array of indicators that have been proposed for monitoring genetic diversity can be distilled into the set of four aggregated indicator areas that cover the S-P-B-R spectrum of UNEP/ CBD/AHTEG (2011a,b) and Sparks et al. (2011). Table 6 gives a brief characterization of the proposed set of indicators. Our ''diversityproductivity-knowledge-management'' (DPKM) typology is thus a set of four indicators that derives mostly from the genecological approach to genetic diversity and can be applied at multiple scales, from global to local. The typology is intended to emphasize the available potential for development or change in managing the evolutionary potential of trees within and outside forests.Because trends in genetic diversity (and therefore long term adaptive potential) need to be known before the impact of any type of pressure can be assessed, providing a relevant state indicator represents the most crucial step of the assessment procedure. Response, pressure and benefit indicators cannot and should not be used independently of state indicators. Drawing from quantitative and population genetics, substantial theoretical progress has been made over the past 20 years for identifying relevant state indicators of tree genetic diversity. However, these scientifically sound indicators have so far proven difficult to apply in practice. Pressure indicators of genetic diversity are intrinsically linked with state indicators and have therefore in practice not been identified on their own. Benefit indicators for genetic diversity can only be implemented if a valuation of genetic diversity is available. Apart from the value of breeding, such valuation is rare (see also Dawson et al., 2014, this issue). Response indicators are generally much easier to define, because recognition and (even) quantification of research, education, breeding, conservation, and regulation actions and programs, are relatively straightforward.The attempts of the forestry sector to use genetic diversity indicators in practice have therefore been limited to response indicators in general, which do not provide any real information on the status of the genetic resources of trees on the planet, apart from assessments of threat at the species level provided by red lists of threatened taxa.It is important to emphasize the link between species diversity and genetic diversity, making species level indicators relevant to genetic diversity. However, the correlation is true only up to a certain point. Thus, to effectively conserve the genetic diversity of a species, this diversity should be known. For most species, though, knowledge of genetic variation is minimal, pointing to the central dilemma of gene resource conservation: a recognized need for conservation without knowing exactly what to conserve. Knowledge of genetic variation will therefore, to a large extent, have to be derived from such surrogates as the species' ecological diversity (e.g. habitat diversity, diversity of ecological requirements).Although considered unrealistic 20 years ago, a number of state indicators can now be proposed for (immediate) implementation because of scientific advances such as in geographical information systems, high throughput molecular genotyping techniques and the ability to handle large amounts of data (e.g., presence/absence species data). Concurrently, ecological monitoring and sustainable management (including management for genetic resources) have made significant progress.The theoretical basis of the diversity-productivity-knowledgemanagement (DPKM) indicator typology we propose is the ''genecological'' approach, where three factors are the major forces of evolution at the ecosystem/population micro-scale: natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow. The effects of natural selection can lead to differentiation associated with local adaptation, while genetic drift can lead to differentiation associated with stochastic changes and genetic erosion, both being modulated by the action of gene flow that can lead to genetic homogenization.The DPKM set can be applied on appropriate groups of tree species, in the wild and under cultivation, representing different regions and different climates, present as well as projected future. It is flexible enough to accommodate additional knowledge as it becomes available and, in principle, easily and cost effectively implementable by managers.The DPKM set has the potential to provide a realistic picture of the state, trends and potentials of the world's tree genetic resources. Efficient implementation strategies for management worldwide include establishing links with FRM rules and regulations, and sustainable management certification schemes. It is probably realistic to assume that the wise use of genetic resources is one of the real options available to support sustainable growth. Using the DPKM typology is an attempt to underline this potential.Although we are at a stage where a number of indicators can be proposed, some for immediate implementation, the implementation of genetic diversity indicators must be tested in different forest zones, and for different categories of species (autoecology).The establishment of Sentinel Landscapes, a new initiative of the CGIAR Consortium Research Programme on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (CGIAR CRP6, 2013), provides an opportunity for testing and applying these indicators. Sentinel Landscapes are located in Africa, Asia and Latin America, each one spanning national boundaries and including forest-to-farm and environmental gradients. They are intended to provide sites for long term research and monitoring and would be one way forward for exploring regional down to management unit level indicator value. The possibility of applying such work as part of the ongoing effort to identify essential biodiversity variables (Pereira et al., 2013) could be explored. Further, data provided in World Reports such as the Forest Resources Assessment of FAO could be used to indirectly assess genetic diversity of trees at a global level, its status and the threats to it (S and P indicators).The ''diversity-productivity-knowledge-management'' (DPKM) typology of tree genetic diversity indicators. A brief characterization of a proposed set of four operational indicator lines, that can be used for an overall assessment of the headline indicator ''trends in genetic diversity of tree species''. The four operational indicator lines follow the S-P-B-R framework. Implications emphasize the potential for development.Implications Possible primary sources of data and information Trends in species and population distribution and diversity patterns for selected species Indicators must be scientifically sound, technically realistic for monitoring and relevant for defining a policy baseline. Policy relevance can vary across scales from global to the local forest plot level. Indicators can be used to measure the achievement of a target in different ways and, in the terminology used here, fall within one of four categories: state, pressure, response, and benefit (Sparks et al., 2011;UNEP/WCMC, 2011).A state (S) indicator is a direct estimate of the status of a resource or a practice. When state indicators are assessed over regular time intervals, trends can be identified. An indicator can also indirectly track incidents or activities that pose a threat to a resource or a practice, e.g., deforestation, and then it is referred to as a pressure (P) indicator. When an indicator indirectly reflects an action towards improving the status of a resource or practice (whether by implementing a strategy or regulation, or by capacity building), it is referred to as a response (R) indicator. Most of the literature on indicators classically distinguishes among S, R and P indicators in a coherent framework (e.g., Namkoong et al., 2002). Namkoong et al. (2002) present a conceptual model of the relationship between P, S and R indicators in the context of the response being that of biodiversity itself (ecosystem response, also called ecosystem process e.g., by Brown et al., 1997) rather than that of humans (societal response), i.e. different from the way the term response is now used within the framework of CBD.More recently, benefit, understood here as the amount and change in benefit that humans derive from a resource or a practice, has been recognized as a valuable indicator for assessing biodiversity loss (e.g., Sparks et al., 2011;UNEP/WCMC, 2011). Benefit (B) indicators are intended to address value within an ''ecosystem service '' framework (MEA, 2005).The pressure-state-response (P-S-R) framework was introduced by OECD (1993) and was gradually refined into the driverpressure-state-impact-response (D-P-S-I-R) framework (Smeets and Weterings, 1999) that has been widely used in various forms. Impact (I) reflects the change of the state (and resulting changes on social and economic functions) caused by pressure. Benefit in the notion of Sparks et al. (2011) thus corresponds to impact. A driver (D) causes pressure, e.g., agricultural expansion leading to deforestation. Drivers are not considered separately by UNEP/CBD/AHTEG (2011a,b), but dealt with as part of pressures. Sparks et al. (2011) argued that linking indicators into an integrated response-pressure-state-benefit framework (called the ''R-P-S-B feedback loop'') would facilitate an understanding of the relationships between policy actions, anthropogenic threats, the status of biodiversity and the benefits that people derive from it, at global, regional, national and local scales. This framework is considered useful to guide decision making and for communication, particularly at national and local scales; it was introduced by UNEP for its Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 (UNEP/CBD/ AHTEG, 2011a,b) and is now used by BIP (BIP, 2013).So far tree genetic diversity is not explicitly covered by any of the indicators currently reported in BIP (2013; Chenery et al., 2013), but the proposed set of operational indicators (UNEP/CBD/ AHTEG, 2011a,b) and the flexibility of the framework provide the opportunity to include such coverage.In this study, we refer to indicators of tree genetic diversity rather than to indicators of forest genetic resources. Forest genetic resources typically refer to the genetic variation of forest trees of present or potential value for humans. The importance of trees and other woody perennials outside forest is increasingly acknowledged (e.g. Zomer et al., 2009); therefore they are also considered here. The notion of potential value in a likely different future (Alfaro et al., 2014, this issue) implies that different species than the ones currently harvested and used will also benefit mankind. Thus, not only currently known important adaptive genes (genetic resources of present value), but the full spectrum of genetic diversity, is considered here. In reality, the resource cannot be distinguished from the diversity (Graudal et al., 1995). For the sake of simplicity, we therefore refer to ''tree genetic diversity'' as the area of interest of this study.There is a close relationship between the presence of genetic diversity in fitness related traits and the ability of a species to adapt to new growth conditions or challenges caused by new pests or competition from other species (Aitken et al., 2008;Jump et al., 2009). The loss of adapted forests and trees is an issue of worldwide concern under global change, and the overall goal of indicators of tree genetic diversity must therefore be to identify trends in maintaining and enhancing the adaptive (evolutionary) potential of tree species. Thus indicators should be designed to monitor trends which reflect this target. This is crucially important for the long term sustainability of the forestry and other tree-based sectors.State indicators need to be designed for analyzing the status of genetic diversity of trees and how it changes over time and space. Species diversity has been found to be linked with genetic diversity (cf. Vellend and Geber, 2006;Vellend, 2006;Alonso et al., 2006), making species level indicators relevant for monitoring genetic diversity status, but the correlation has limitations. Particularly at large spatial scales in heterogeneous environments, species level indicators cannot be considered to be surrogates for genetic ones (Fady and Conord, 2010;Taberlet et al., 2012). With decreasing laboratory costs for molecular marker techniques, basic knowledge of genetic diversity has increased substantially over the last decades for many forest tree species and is likely to continue to do so (Allendorf et al., 2010). Usually, however, information on the assessment of S and P indicators of genetic diversity of trees must rely largely on surrogate measures, mostly species' ecological requirements and biogeographic distributions (species auto-and gen-ecology, cf. Graudal et al., 1995Graudal et al., , 1997)).Pressure (P) indicators must target the range and intensity of causes contributing to decline or loss of tree genetic diversity (and for which a response is needed). They are to a large extent linked with S indicators (demographic and genetic processes affecting the status of the genetic diversity of trees), although the natural and human-mediated causes for process alteration may not always be easily understood. R indicators for tree genetic diversity monitor the effects of policies and management strategies designed to prevent or reduce its loss.Finally, B indicators quantify the benefits that humans derive from tree genetic diversity. While work on developing S, P and R indicators of tree genetic diversity has been going on for some time, little has been done on B indicators (Sparks et al., 2011). Although different methods are available to estimate the value of genetic resources (Sarr et al., 2008;Thorsen and Kjaer, 2007;Goeschl and Swanson, 2002), few have been used (Bosselmann et al., 2008;Hein and Gatzweiler, 2006), so the value of genetic resources is mostly unknown (Elsasser, 2005).We have summarized these in Table C1. Although the list of indicators presented in Table C1 is impressive in its breadth and intentions, only a few have actually been measured and monitored (Chun, 2005;Rametsteiner, 2006;Wijewardana, 2006).Among the 16 genetic diversity indicators listed in Table C1, six refer to the state of the resource while the other 10 correspond to a management or policy response. Taken together, only two state and four response indicators can be considered unique and nonoverlapping among the different sets.The two distinct state indicators are:Number and geographic distribution of forest associated species at risk of losing genetic variation and locally adapted genotypes (also, ''Number of forest dependent species with reduced range''). Population levels of selected representative forest associated species to describe genetic diversity (also, ''Population levels of key species across their range'').The term population level is not well described in the quoted sources. It is supposed to reflect genetic diversity of forests and must therefore embrace variation among and within populations of a given species, but is somehow intended to go beyond the spe-cific species (cf. FAO, 2001). For practical use, the term would need to be better defined.The four response indicators are:Status of on-site and off-site efforts focused on conservation of genetic diversity (also ''area managed for. . .'', ''mechanisms for. . .'', ''measures for. . .'').Existence of the number of seed provenance (also ''average number of. . .'').In the area of harvesting, the standards are explicit on minimum number of large trees to be retained as seed producers (mother trees) per hectare and species. Management of genetic resources.In principle such indicators could have been part of the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators of CBD, but none of this kind were explicitly included (SCBD, 2006(SCBD, , 2010)). However, if better defined they could be included and adopted in the framework proposed for 2011-2020 (cf. Table 2).Forest Europe reported on the Criteria and Indicators set of the Pan-European Process (Forest Europe et al., 2011), which attempted to measure and report on genetic indicators. The areas managed for ex situ conservation and seed production were found to have increased during the reporting period (from 1990 to 2010). More than 450,000 hectares of forest were reported to be managed for in situ conservation, covering a total of 142 tree taxa, including species, sub-species and hybrids. The report noted that ''there are significant gaps in the geographical representativeness of in situ gene conservation areas as compared to the distribution maps of European tree species'', and furthermore, that ''wide coverage of areas for gene resources ensures the capacity of forest trees to adapt to climate change''. Overall the assessment showed positive trends. Although it is laudable that an assessment of genetic indicators was included in the report, it illustrates the weakness of reporting only on response indicators without measuring state indicators, because an increase in the area reported for in situ and ex situ conservation does not per se document improved conservation status of the forest genetic resource itself.The indicators listed in Table C1 include only those that were specifically intended as indicators of genetic diversity (although some fall more closely into the species-level indicator category). There are other indicators that are not listed here, which measure biodiversity at the ecosystem and species levels, but could also be important for genetic diversity. For example, indicators relating to the extent of protected areas, forest cover and fragmentation, and to the degree of destructive harvest. In some cases these have been assessed more successfully than those indicators that are specific to genetic diversity. Population size and the degree of fragmentation are important indicators of loss of genetic diversity because they affect genetic drift.Genetic diversity indicators associated with biodiversity-related criteria for major regional sustainable forest management monitoring processes. The formulation of the indicator in the text column is quoted from the source mentioned in the process column. Year refers to the date of the indicator version presented. Number is the original number of the indicator in the process. Type: classification of type of indicator (S: state, R: response). ","tokenCount":"10325"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aa2249eea7ea77c2c1a146beacf74812","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/155a6e46-d2ec-4c8a-9671-ed772d63f7fa/content","id":"1303541169"},"keywords":["Zero-tillage wheat","performance stability","climate variability","endogenous switching regression","Bihar"],"sieverID":"c46ef628-044d-436c-84b0-cd5ff384aea9","pagecount":"27","content":"Sustainably enhancing wheat productivity in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) is vital for ensuring future food security. While in controlled field trials zero-tillage (ZT) wheat has demonstrated considerable yield benefits, empirical assessments of the performance stability of the practice in farmers' fields under varying climatic conditions are lacking. Given progressive climate change, this constitutes an important knowledge gap which we address with a unique panel dataset from 961 farm households in Bihar, India, spanning two favourable and two less favourable growing seasons. We employ an endogenous switching regression (ESR) framework to derive unbiased estimates of the expected impacts of ZT on wheat yields and production costs among the farming population (average treatment effect, ATE). The prevailing ZT practices led to significant yield gains in three out of the four years, notably in the less favourable seasons. Overall, the estimated yield ATE was 660 kg ha −1 . More importantly from the farmers' perspective, ZT led to significant cost savings in all four seasons, commensurate to a 5% increase in average total household incomes. We conclude that ZT for wheat in Bihar provides tangible and consistent benefits to farmers. Policymakers in Bihar and adjacent states should continue to strongly support its adoption at scale.The Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) are home to more than 20% of the global population, and sustainably enhancing the productivity of the prevailing rice-wheat cropping systems is vital for ensuring future food security in South Asia (Chauhan et al., 2012). The potential to increase yields is particularly large in the Eastern IGP, such as the state of Bihar (Jain et al., 2017;Singh et al., 2020). On the one hand, Bihar has the lowest wheat yields in the IGP, averaging 2.17 MT ha −1 over the period 2010/11-2015/16, less than half of the 4.70 MT ha −1 achieved in the Northwestern state of Punjab (MoA, 2017a). On the other hand, the Eastern IGP has a wealth of under-developed water resources (Aggarwal et al., 2004;DoA, 2019), whereas intensive irrigation has led to dramatic declines in groundwater tables in the Northwest (Humphreys et al., 2010). To meet both state and national-level cereal demand over the coming decades, technologies are urgently needed that sustainably enhance agricultural productivity in the Eastern IGP and are adoptable at scale by smallholders who have landholding sizes well below one hectare.Across the IGP, the use of zero tillage (ZT) in wheat cultivation has demonstrated agronomic and economic benefits, while improving the environmental footprint of agriculture (Aryal et al., 2015;Chauhan et al., 2012;Erenstein & Laxmi, 2008;Gathala et al., 2013;Gupta et al., 2019;Mehla et al., 2000;Sapkal et al., 2019;Singh et al., 2020). Despite this evidence, a global meta-analysis of paired comparisons of crop yields in ZT and conventionally tilled production systems questioned the significance of the technology as an integral part of a sustainable intensification strategy (Pittelkow et al., 2014). The study concluded that ZT tended to entail sizeable yield benefits only if combined with residue retention and crop rotation. However, in the Eastern IGP, retaining soil cover is currently not a viable option for most farmers: first, the commonly used ZT seed drills are unsuitable for sowing crops into large quantities of loose crop residues and, second, rice straw is an important feed source for livestock in the prevailing mixed agricultural systems. Wheat is cultivated in the winter (rabi) season, extending from November to early April. The prevailing ZT practice uses a ZT seed drill attached to a relatively small four-wheel tractor 1 to sow wheat directly into unplowed fields with a single pass (Erenstein & Laxmi, 2008;Singh et al., 2020). The typical ZT drill opens 6-13 narrow slits using inverted-T openers to place both seed and fertilizers at a depth of 7.5-10 cm (Mehla et al., 2000). In contrast, CT practices in wheat typically involve multiple passes of the tractor to accomplish plowing, harrowing, planking, and to incorporate hand-broadcasted seeds (Erenstein & Laxmi, 2008;Singh et al., 2020). Since tractor ownership in Bihar is typically confined to larger landowners, 2 the vast majority of other farmers depend on tillage or ZT service providers for wheat establishment.Based on a random sample of 1,000 farm households in Bihar and production data from the rabi seasons 2011/12 and 2012/13, Keil et al. (2015) found that the use of ZT in wheatwith only partial retention of anchored crop residuesled to a yield increase of 498 kg ha −1 (19%) over conventionaltillage wheat. In addition, the practice reduced crop establishment costs by 46%. The yield gains and cost savings amounted to an estimated combined average economic benefit of 7,334 INR 3 per hectare, equivalent to a 6% increase in annual household income among sample households. However, due to varying climatic conditions, average wheat productivity in Bihar has fluctuated significantly over the recent past. Whereas the rabi season 2012/13 offered favourable growing conditions with average wheat productivity in Bihar of 2.43 MT ha −1 (MoA, 2015), average yields declined to 1.85 MT ha −1 in the 2014/15 rabi season (MoA, 2017a). Wheat yield data spanning the period since the beginning of the Green Revolution illustrate that, while the yield gap has increased over time between the Western IGP (Haryana) and the Eastern IGP (Bihar), the annual deviations from longer-term trends show a similar pattern with maxima in 2012 and marked depressions in 2015 and 2016. Most of the simultaneous dips in wheat productivity have likely been caused by differences in the onset of the timing of terminal heat stress, a factor that has been identified as the main cause of wheat yield depressions across the IGP (Jain et al., 2017;Lobell et al., 2008). This applies to the year 2016, when average and maximum temperatures in February and March exceeded those in the other three years under consideration by approximately 3°C. In particular, extreme temperatures above 34°C that likely reduced crop growth and growing season duration (see Barlow et al., 2015) were reached on 36 days in the February-March period in 2016 as compared to 18 and 19 days in 2012 and 2013, respectively. 4 In contrast, the wheat yield depressions in 2015 were associated with unseasonal heavy rains and hailstorms: India saw the wettest March in 48 years, with nation-wide average rainfall in the period March 1-18 exceeding that of 'normal' years by 197%. In Bihar alone, 1.458 million ha of wheat were damaged (Bhushan et al., 2015) (Figure 1).Regarding the suitability of ZT as a sustainable intensification technology for smallholders with a low risk-bearing capacity, it is crucial to assess the performance stability of the practice across both favourable and less favourable growing conditions which are anticipated to occur more frequently under progressive climate change (IPCC, 2018).To further validate best-bet recommendations for sustainably enhancing wheat productivity in the Eastern IGP, the objective of this study is to assess the stability of agronomic and economic benefits of ZT wheat relative to conventional-tillage (CT) wheat under contrasting growing season climatic conditions with empirical evidence from farmers' fields in Bihar. We address this knowledge gap with a unique panel dataset and contribute to the existing body of literature in several ways: (1) by revisiting the original sample of 1,000 farm households used by Keil et al. (2015), we expanded the existing dataset to encompass two less favourable wheat growing seasons (untimely, excessive rainfall in 2014/15 and heat stress in 2015/16), enabling a comparison across varying climatic conditions; (2) in addition to modelling the impact of ZT technology on wheat yields, we expand the analysis to estimate per-unit production costs; (3) in comparison to the previous assessment by Keil et al. (2015) who used a Stochastic Frontier production function, we apply a methodologically superior approach that takes potential systematic differences between ZT users and non-users into account and allows all regression coefficients to vary between ZT and CT production systems, rather than assuming a shift of the production function.The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 provides a brief description of the research area, the sampling approach, and the kind of data used for the analysis; Section 3 derives our econometric model estimation strategy and details the final model specifications; Section 4 presents the results from our descriptive and econometric analyses, which are then discussed in Section 5. Section 6 concludes and derives policy recommendations.In Bihar, about 77% of the population are engaged in agriculture (DoA, 2019). Although the state is endowed with good soil, sufficient rainfall and abundant groundwater, its agricultural productivity is one of the lowest among Indian states (MoA, 2017a). Major crops grown are paddy, wheat, pulses, maize, potato, sugarcane, oil seeds, tobacco and jute (DoA, 2019). The research area is composed of six districts where the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA; www.csisa.org) has focused research and scaling activities for sustainable intensification technologies since 2009 (Figure 2). Using a cluster sampling approach, a first round of survey was conducted in 2013 among a random sample of 1,000 wheat growing farm households in 40 villages. Owing to the nascent stage of ZT diffusion in the area, the village-level sampling frame was confined to 87 villages with at least 10 ZT users in the target districts, as documented by CSISA. The number of research villages selected per district was proportionate to the distribution of eligible villages, resulting in three research villages each in Begusarai, Lakhisarai and Vaishali districts, six villages each in Buxar and Samastipur, and 19 villages in Bhojpur District.Based on soil characteristics, rainfall, temperature and terrain characteristics, the agricultural ministry of Bihar has identified four major agro-ecological zones in Bihar (DoA, 2019): the North Alluvial Plain (Zone I), the North-East Alluvial Plain (Zone II), the South-East Alluvial Plain (Zone III-A) and the South-West Alluvial Plain (Zone III-B). We use this classification to group the research districts by agro-ecological zone: (1) Vaishali, Samastipur and Begusarai (falling within Zone I), (2) Bhojpur and Buxar (Zone III-B), and (3) Lakhisarai (Zone III-A).To ensure an adequate size of the adopter subsample, households were stratified by ZT adoption status before randomly selecting 10 ZT users and 15  (DoA, 2017(DoA, , 2018;;DWD, 2017;ICAR, 2018;MoA, 2017aMoA, , 2017bMoA, , 2018)).non-users in each of the 40 selected villages. Household-level sampling frames were compiled through brief census surveys in these villages, in which wheat growing farmers were identified and their ZT adoption status elicited.In 2016, a second round of survey was conducted among the same sample households. Thirty-nine households (3.9%) could not be re-interviewed due to prolonged absence or permanent migration, resulting in a sample of 961 households for which panel data are available [dataset] (Keil et al., 2018a). In each survey round, detailed plot-level wheat production data were collected on the two preceding wheat growing seasons, resulting in a dataset encompassing rabi seasons 2011/12, 2012/13, 2014/15 and 2015/16. Each wave of survey also elicited data on the households' current asset endowment and other factors potentially influencing ZT adoption. Furthermore, survey respondents were asked to provide basic information on three farmers with whom they interacted most frequently about agricultural issues in order to be able to capture potential individual social network effects on ZT adoption. Data were collected from household heads by professional enumerators through structured interviews using CAPI software. 5A direct comparison of agronomic and economic performance indicators of wheat production between ZT adopting and non-adopting households can be misleading as these groups may have different characteristics. Keil et al. (2017) illustrated a significant scale bias with respect to ZT wheat adoption in Bihar, with adopters having significantly larger landholdings and higher levels of education, among other factors. Since observable and unobservable factors that influence ZT adoption may also affect the wheat performance indicators of interest, a direct comparison of the latter may be distorted by selection bias. We employ an endogenous switching regression (ESR) framework to produce unbiased estimates of the farm-level impacts of ZT adoption. The ESR framework involves two stages, first a binary-choice selection equation identifying determinants of ZT adoption and, second, two regime equations explaining the outcome indicator of interest under ZT adoption and non-adoption, i.e. ZT wheat and CT wheat, respectively. To assess the impact of ZT adoption over time, we estimate separate models for each wheat season under consideration, t. The selection equation uses a probit model of the following general form:where a it = 1 if household i used ZT in time period t, and a it = 0 otherwise. As emphasized by Feder et al. (1985), a binary (yes/no) measure of technology adoption has severe shortcomings if there is great variation in the adoption intensity in terms of share of land allocated to the innovation. However, in our case we find that, once the decision is made to use ZT, the practice is applied to the entire wheat area by 82% of adopters, justifying the use of a binary dependent variable. Further, Z it is a vector of exogenous regressors, b t is a vector of parameters to be estimated, and q it is a random error term.The outcome equations under ZT and CT production regimes are linear functions of the following form:where X at are vectors of exogenous regressors affecting the outcome variables y at , a at are parameter vectors to be estimated, and 1 at are error terms for a it = 0 (CT wheat) and a it = 1 (ZT wheat) in period t, respectively. After conditioning on observable covariates in Equation ( 1), the estimation procedure used allows unobservable components to affect both ZT adoption and the outcomes of interest:The method controls for this potential endogeneity by including the residuals from the selection equation as regressors in the outcome equations. The technical details of this 'control function' approach are described by Wooldridge (2010). For a robust identification of the model, the selection equation should contain at least one variable that is omitted from the outcome equations, i.e. a selection instrument. A valid selection instrument will be correlated with adoption, but uncorrelated with the outcome among non-adopters, which can easily be tested (Di Falco et al., 2011). We use variables related to the respondents' social networks and some additional characteristics as selection instruments (see Sections 3.1.2 and 3.2.2). The estimation procedure yields estimates of the following parameters of interest for each period t under consideration: ATEthe average 'treatment' effect in the population ('treatment' = ZT use):POMthe potential outcome mean for treatment level a:ATETthe average treatment effect among the treated, i.e. among ZT users:The main focus of this study is the ATE as it estimates the expected impact of ZT technology among the entire underlying population of farm households, rather than the sub-population of ZT adopters only.Since the seminal paper by Feder et al. (1985) on the adoption of agricultural innovations, which considered farm and farmer-specific characteristics as potential adoption determinants, micro-level adoption studies have been extended to include more dynamic elements related to social learning (Foster & Rosenzweig, 1995;Granovetter, 2005;Feder & Savastano, 2006). As pointed out by Manski (2000), farmers may not only be influenced by the adoption behaviour of their individual social networks (endogenous network effect), but also by their network members' characteristics (exogenous network effect). Drawing on the approach of Matuschke and Qaim (2009), we extend our selection equation (1) to account for endogenous and exogenous individual network effects as follows:where a n(it) denotes the adoption behaviour of household i's individual social network, Z n(it) is a vector of exogenous network member characteristics, and g t and d t are vectors of parameters to be estimated for period t.Based on the review of adoption determinants of agricultural technologies by Feder et al. (1985) and drawing on the concept of livelihood resources as laid out in the sustainable livelihoods framework (Chambers & Conway, 1992;Scoones, 1998), we hypothesize that a household's asset base and risk preferences influence the decision to adopt ZT. The asset base includes (1) natural capital, (2) human capital, (3) financial capital, and (4) social capital and information access. 6 Table 1 provides the definitions and summary statistics of the dependent and explanatory variables used in the selection equation of the ESR. To adequately reflect the concept of information access, the variable Extension access indicates the extent to which information from the extension service was generally available, assessed on a Likert scale; frequently used alternative specifications, such as extension visits received or field days attended, constitute combined measures of extension access and the farmer's decision whether or not to make use of it (Doss, 2006). For similar reasons, we chose to measure Credit access in terms of potential credit availability on a Likert scale, rather than eliciting the amount actually borrowed, which potentially comingles access to credit with demand for credit. While most models of technology adoption treat risk preferences as an unobservable factor, we include a proxy of the household head's risk preferences as an explanatory variable, which is based on a self-assessment question and has been previously applied by Gloede et al. (2011).As elaborated above, a salient feature of our model is the inclusion of the respondents' individual agricultural information network characteristics as explanatory variables. These variables are based on information provided by the survey respondents regarding those three farmers with whom they interacted most frequently about agricultural issues, referred to as network members (NMs). To capture endogenous network effects, we collected data on the NMs' HS adoption status of ZT wheat, including information on the timing of adoption. The latter is crucial to address what Manski (1993) coined the reflection problem: while the behaviour of NMs potentially influences the survey respondent, the reverse is also true. As suggested by Manski (2000), we therefore assume that the respondents' adoption decision is influenced by the level of success that their NMs had with the technology. This 'seeing is believing' type of behaviour has been documented in various empirical studies (e.g. Foster & Rosenzweig, 1995;Dong & Saha, 1998). Hence, only those NMs who applied ZT earlier than the respondent enter our model as ZT-adopting NMs. To capture potential exogenous network effects, i.e. those caused by who the NMs are, rather than how they behave, we elicited information about their age, education, and caste (not all of which are included in the final model). Individual social networks tend to be characterized by a high degree of homophily, i.e. they are usually formed among farmers of a similar social status (Keil et al., 2017;Rogers, 2003). Econometrically this means that peer group membership itself is likely to be endogenous (Matuschke & Qaim, 2009;Songsermsawas et al., 2016), which the inclusion of NM characteristics as control variables may mitigate to some extent. Potential endogeneity could be better controlled through instrumental variables: Songsermsawas et al. (2016) employed the characteristics of friends of the respondents' network peers (who were unknown to the respondents themselves) as instruments for the peers' characteristics, but such costly-to-collect data were not available in our case.We analyse the impact of ZT in wheat on two outcome variables of interest: Model 1 estimates the ATE of ZT wheat relative to CT wheat regarding land productivity, i.e. grain yield measured in kg ha −1 ; Model 2 estimates the ATE with respect to the profitability of wheat production, measured as per-unit production cost (PUC). To be able to assess the consistency of impacts over time, we estimate Models 1 and 2 for each individual wheat growing season and across the entire period. While recall-based plot-level wheat production data are available for rabi seasons 2011/12, 2012/13, 2014/15 and 2015/16, information on household-level determinants of ZT adoption for selection equation (4) was collected at the time of the two survey rounds in 2013 and 2016 only. Assuming that these household-level values are fairly accurate proxies of the situation in the previous year, 2013 and 2016 values were also used for the 2011/12 and 2014/15 outcome models, respectively. For simplicity, we henceforth use the year of crop establishment to refer to the wheat growing seasons under consideration, i.e. years 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015. In Model 2, PUC is defined as variable cost per metric ton (MT) of wheat grain produced. We do not account for fixed costs in our analysis as these are highly idiosyncratic and largely independent of the two technologies under consideration. Land resources can be owned and/or rented in, as is the case with agricultural machinery. Furthermore, machine depreciation depends on use intensity, which in turn depends on the landholding size and the cropping system practiced. Moreover, the multitude of implements used vary widely in their respective investment cost and useful life, compromising any attempt to capture the associated fixed costs in a meaningful way. Hence, PUC includes fees paid for mechanization services 7 and renting of machinery, the cost of all physical inputs (seeds, fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, pesticides) and irrigation, as well as the cost of hiring labour, covering the entire crop cycle from establishment through harvesting. PUC also includes the imputed cost of family labour input, valued at the median wage rate paid to hired labourers in the research area.Both models use the same set of explanatory variables, encompassing agricultural input variables as well as agronomic-, management related-, timing related-and geographic control variables (Table 2). Same as yield, agricultural inputs are measured on a per-hectare basis, which is why land is omitted as an input factor. The variable Capital input encompasses all non-labour related variable costs; total labour input (both family and hired labour) is measured by Labour input. The dependent variables and agricultural input factors enter the model in their logged form as this achieves more compact distributions and a superior fit compared to the unlogged specification. Agronomic control variables are mostly related to wheat varieties and soil characteristics. Since ZT allows to establish wheat in one single pass of the tractor, it facilitates earlier sowing, hence helping to avoid yield depression due to terminal heat stress (Chauhan et al., 2012;Erenstein & Laxmi, 2008;Gathala et al., 2013;Mehla et al., 2000). To be able to disentangle the yield effects of early sowing and ZT, dummy variables account for whether or not wheat was sown before December 01; as the effect of early sowing may vary geographically, we include interaction terms with agro-ecological zone dummies. However, the variables related to Zone 1 had to be dropped from the analysis due to multicollinearity. Management related control variables encompass the same set of variables as in the first stage (selection equation) of the ESR, apart from the following exceptions: Credit access is omitted since capital input is directly accounted for. Similar to Di Falco et al. ( 2011) who used variables measuring farmer-tofarmer extension as selection instruments, we identify variables related to social network characteristics (Farmer association, NM ZT use and NM age) as potential selection instruments and, hence, exclude them from the outcome equations (see Section 3.1.1). As suggested by Di Falco et al. ( 2011), we perform a simple test to verify the validity of these instruments: while all network related variables affect the decision to adopt ZT in at least one of the years under consideration (see Table 5), they should not affect wheat yields and PUC among the non-adopting households. The network related variables pass the test jointly and individually in both Model 1 and Model 2. Based on the same validation procedure we identify the age, risk preference and caste membership of the household head, as well as the land tenure related control variable to be additional valid instruments. In both the yield and PUC models, all instruments are jointly and individually insignificant in the outcome equation for CT wheat, overall and for the individual years under consideration. 8 In Model 1 (Model 2), F-tests on the joint significance of the instruments produce Pvalues of 0.98 (0.91) for the year 2011, 0.91 (0.97) for 2012, 0.54 (0.58) for 2014 and 0.30 (0.26) for 2015. Pvalues for the joint significance test in the 'Overall'  For ease of interpretation, summary statistics are provided for the unlogged variable. b Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are government recognized categories of marginalized groups that have historically been discriminated against and are both socially and economically disadvantaged. The Indian Constitution has provisions to protect their rights and provide them with equal opportunities. The base category which HHs belonging to the SC/ST category and the General caste category are evaluated against are those belonging to the 'Other Backward Castes' (OBC), constituting an intermediate social stratum. specifications amount to 0.18 and 0.46 in Models 1 and 2, respectively.The rationale behind applying the ESR approach in the present study is to correct for selection bias due to potential systematic differences between ZT adopters and non-adopters (see Section 3.  In the interest of saving space and since values are quite similar, descriptive statistics are aggregated across the two earlier and the two later years under consideration. b For ease of interpretation, summary statistics are provided for the unlogged variables.   (head) characteristics of ZT adopters and non-adopters at these two points of time and tests for statistically significant differences between the two groups as well as over time.A comparison of farm sizes (Column 1) shows that both in 2013 and 2016 ZT adopters had significantly larger cropped area than non-adopters. However, while landholdings of ZT adopters exceeded those of non-adopters by on average 68.6% in 2013, the gap had narrowed to 38.5% in 2016. The bottom part of Column 1 indicates that conventional-tillage users in our sample had slightly larger landholdings in 2016 than in 2013, whereas the average farm size of ZT users remained statistically the same. Since, apart from overall farm size, the degree of land fragmentation may influence ZT adoption (see Section 3.2.1), Column 2 displays the average size of the largest irrigable plot, which is typically used for wheat cultivation during rabi season in the research area. It shows statistically highly significant differences in both years, with the average size of the largest plot of ZT adopters exceeding that of non-adopters by 68% and 79% in 2013 and 2016, respectively. Column 3 illustrates that the two groups of farmers also differ in terms of household labour endowment, with labour being relatively scarcer among ZT adopters than among non-adopters. Although the displayed means differ somewhat across years, the bottom part of the table indicates no statistically significant change in the labour-to-land ratio over time. The age of the household head did not differ between the two groups in either year (Column 4), but their level of schooling did: on average, ZT adopters had spent an extra 2.4 and 1.4 years at school in our 2013 and 2016 assessments, respectively (Column 5). Since the study uses panel data, we do not expect the level of formal education of household heads to vary over time. The slight but statistically significant increase in overall years of schooling (bottom row) is caused by the fact that the number of households we could use for our analysis differs across years. Columns 6 and 7 show that a larger share of ZT adopters belonged to castes of a higher social status, whereby caste related differences were more pronounced in 2013 than in 2016. Finally, Column 8 illustrates that the rate of ZT adoption was significantly higher among the informal social networks of ZT adopters than among the social networks of nonadopters. Furthermore, as the bottom part of the column indicates, the gap widened significantly over time as adoption rates within the social networks of adopters increased while rates among non-adopter networks stagnated.Overall, the numerous highly significant differences in basic household characteristics found between ZT adopters and non-adopters imply that the use of an ESR approach in the present study is well justified.This section provides a descriptive comparison of key input and performance related indicators of wheat production under ZT and CT production regimes (Table 4). Similarly to the previous section, we compare the two regimes across time, the first aggregating production values across the years 2011 and 2012 (period I) and the second aggregating those of the years 2014 and 2015 (period II). As highlighted in Section 1, the two periods represent years of diverging yield potential with period I substantially more favourable than period II.Starting with a comparison of yields attained, Column 1 of Table 4 shows that in period I ZT wheat yields exceeded CT wheat yields by approximately 500 kg on the average. In contrast to this relatively high-yielding period with an overall average wheat yield of 2.927 MT ha −1 among sample households, the descriptive comparison indicates no significant difference between CT and ZT in period II which, across treatments, was generally lower-yielding at 2.290 MT ha −1 . The bottom part of the table confirms that under both production regimes yields were significantly depressed in period II.Column 2 compares the average price received per kg of grain produced and detects a statistically significant advantage of CT users over ZT users in period II, whereas there was no difference between the two groups in period I. The difference is probably attributable to a geographically inhomogeneous expansion of ZT adoption into areas where relatively lower prices were obtained, on average. Nevertheless, both CT and ZT users received significantly higher prices for their produce in period II as compared to period I.Column 3 shows that labour input was significantly lower under ZT in both periods, and the bottom part of the table indicates that labour input was further reduced under ZT over time, while it remained at the same level under CT. While total variable costs increased significantly from period I to period II, Columns 4 and 5 illustrate that costs under the ZT production regime, both excluding and including hired labour, were consistently around 15% lower than under CT.As a result of reduced yields and increased costs, gross margins across both production systems (i.e. returns to land) were depressed by a substantial 36% from approximately 22,000 INR ha −1 in period I to 14,000 INR ha −1 in period II (Column 6). While gross margins under ZT exceeded those under CT by some 39% in period I, the descriptive comparison indicates no significant difference in period II; however, if imputed costs of family labour are accounted for (Column 7), ZT produces a significantly higher gross margin than CT in both periods. Column 8 shows that returns to labour were roughly halved in period II relative to period I under both production regimes; however, in both periods, returns to labour under ZT were around double those under CT. Returns to capital show a similar pattern with a somewhat narrower gap between the two practices (Column 9); under CT, returns to capital amounted to approximately 70% and 80% of those under ZT in periods I and II, respectively.Wheat yield, as displayed in Column 1, is one of the performance indicators considered in the ESR model; the other is per-unit production cost (PUC) which is shown in Column 10. Due to the fact that average PUC under ZT are inflated by some large values in period II, this column displays medians as well. In period I, both mean and median PUC were approximately 25% lower under ZT than under CT. In period II, however, mean PUC were 8% higher whereas median PUC were 13% lower under ZT as compared to CT. The Mann-Whitney tests indicate that PUC under ZT were significantly lower than under CT in both periods. PUC were significantly higher in period II than in period I under both regimes, as shown in the bottom part of the column.   (Myers, 1990). The explanatory power of the probit regressions ranges from 72.3% of cases correctly predicted for wheat established in 2012 to 82.9% for 2014 (bottom row of Table 5). While all models produce predicted adoption probabilities that differ highly significantly between observed adopters and observed non-adopters, the 2014 and 2015 models are far superior in correctly predicting both cases of adoption and non-adoption, 10 which may be due to the substantially larger adopter sub-sample.In the following, we highlight key findings from the selection equation, emphasizing the evolution of estimates over time. The variable Cultivable area is included in the models as a wealth indicator and a factor that may influence the adoption of ZT directly, since the provision of ZT services on small farms may be less attractive for service providers due to higher per-hectare transaction costs (Keil et al., 2016). For all four years we estimate a positive quadratic relationship with ZT adoption, but the magnitude of the coefficient on Cultivable area declines over time and is only statistically significant at P < 0.11 in the 2015 model. The magnitude of the significant coefficients indicates that the marginal effect would turn negative beyond a farm size of 8.67 ha 11 in 2011, 7.92 ha in 2012, and 4.72 ha in 2014. Given an average farm size of 1.3 ha and a 99% percentile of 5.7 ha, this means that the marginal effect remained positive across the range of landholdings usually encountered in the research area, but it also indicates that, over time, landholding size became less relevant for ZT adoption. 12 In contrast, Maximum plot size became a significant adoption determinant in 2014 and 2015. This indicates that, while the share of ZT users that are smaller-scale farmers increased over time, farmers with less fragmented land were more likely to use the technology. Very small plots may pose a technical limit to operating four-wheel tractor-based equipment; moreover, per-hectare transaction costs for ZT services increase with decreasing plot size, potentially influencing the willingness of service providers to work on very small plots. While there is strong previous evidence of immediate benefits from the use of ZT in wheat in Bihar in terms of yield increase and cost savings (Keil et al., 2015), Land owned was included as a control variable for land tenure status. While land owners were more likely to use ZT in 2012, the weakly significant negative coefficient in 2015 indicates that, three years later, farmers were also willing to use it on rented land, which is likely related to their growing confidence in the technology's short-term benefits.Regarding human capital, there is some indication of a positive influence of High education on ZT adoption. Although statistically significant in 2015 only, coefficients are of similar magnitude and significantly different from zero at P < 0.15 in 2011 and 2014 as well. Significant coefficients on General caste category (2011,2012,2015) and SC/ST category (2014) indicate some influence of caste membership in favour of those of a higher social standing. Based on a selfassessment measure of Risk preference, we find evidence across years that less risk-averse farmers were significantly more likely to use ZT. Although objectively a risk-reducing technology, ZT was likely perceived to be risky, similar to other agricultural innovations at a relatively early stage of diffusion (Feder et al., 1985;Rogers, 2003, p. 20 f.).While we find a significant positive influence of membership in a farmer group in the 2011 model only, the variables related to farmers' informal social networks yield consistently highly significant coefficients across years and landholding terciles. Over time, we observe that the magnitude of the effect increased for all landholding terciles; furthermore, while in the earlier years the network effect was particularly pronounced among farmers in the smallest landholding tercile, the coefficients are of a more similar magnitude across terciles in the later years. For instance, while in 2011 a one-percentage point increase in the ZT adoption rate among the smallest (middle) farmers' NMs entailed a 0.18 (0.10) percentage point increase in their own propensity to use the technology, in 2015 the marginal effect amounted to 0.33 and 0.36 percentage points, respectively. Apart from these highly significant endogenous network effects, the NMs' age had a weakly significant negative impact in the earlier years, representing an exogenous network effect.Finally, dummy variables control for systematic differences between districts. ZT-related CSISA activities started in Bhojpur district, which serves as the base district in the models. In 2011 and 2012, all statistically significant coefficients are negative, which is likely related to the shorter time of exposure to ZT technology and the lag in the development of the respective service economy. It is interesting to note that in the later years the coefficient on the district Lakhisarai turned positive and very substantial in magnitude while the coefficients on Samastipur and Vaishali have grown more negative, illustrating that the rate of uptake of ZT technology varies significantly across geographies.A test for potential multicollinearity among the explanatory variables in the second stage of the ESR showed that the only VIFs exceeding a value of 10 are related to the variables No. services hired (VIF = 11.45) and No. implements owned (11.06) in the 2012 model. However, the fact that both variables produce highly significant coefficients in the same model indicates that there is no problem of collinearity. 13 The maximum VIF among the remaining variables is 2.87 (variable PBW-343), and the overall average amounts to 1.66, indicating no cause for concern (Myers, 1990). In the other models the VIFs of the two critical variables are below 10, and all other VIFs are at similar levels as in the 2012 model.Table 6 displays the regression results for Model 1, identifying determinants of wheat yields under ZT and CT production regimes across the years under consideration, which varied widely in terms of general yield levels (see Table 4). Table 6 shows that the level of capital input positively affected wheat yields under both production regimes across years. Overall, the estimated elasticities indicate a 0.24% and 0.21% increase in wheat yield for a one-percent increase in capital input under the CT and ZT regimes, respectively. While the estimated effects of labour input are generally low for the earlier years, the coefficients are much larger and highly significant in the less favourable years 2014 and 2015, especially for the more labour-intensive CT production regime.Regarding the agronomic control variables, we find evidence of greater (post-) harvest losses in cases where the harvest was accomplished manually (Manual harvest). As expected, a dummy variable indicating whether the yield was depressed by any extraordinary biotic or abiotic stresses (Wheat damaged) produces highly significant negative coefficients in most cases. Furthermore, we find consistent evidence across all years that the variety UP-262 produces particularly low yields under ZT. Under CT, we find statistically weak evidence of season-specific yield-enhancing effects of other varieties (Sonalika-1553in 2012and HUW-234 in 2015). With respect to soil conditions, CT wheat appears to perform less well in sandy loam soils as compared to the base category of clayey soils (the coefficient is negative and significant in three out of four years); most likely, this is due to the effect of the lower water holding capacity of relatively sandy soils and indicates conditions of deficit irrigation.Regarding variables related to information acquisition, we find relatively consistent evidence of a positive effect of access to agricultural extension on CT wheat yields; a similar effect is not found for ZT wheat, indicating that ZT has not been a particular focus of the extension service thus far. Furthermore, we find positive effects of TV ownership on CT and ZT wheat yields in different years, reflecting that farmers do utilize this medium for agriculture related information. Radio ownership produces mixed results with, overall, a positive effect on CT and a weakly significant negative effect on ZT wheat yields; as shown above, it cannot be ruled out that radio messages regarding wheat management were geared towards the prevailing CT practice, but were much less applicable under a ZT production regime. The models produce a consistently negative and highly significant coefficient for mobile phone ownership under the ZT regime, which is absent in the CT regime. Since this variable is highly skewed especially for ZT users (see Table 2), this result should not be over-interpreted.Moving to the timing-related control variables, the seasonal dummies for the 2014/15 and 2015/16 rabi seasons in the 'Overall' model produce highly significant negative coefficients reflecting the observed general reduction in yield levels (cf. Table 4). Relative to the base season 2011/12, the magnitude of the coefficients indicates a yield reduction by 19 14 and 38 percent in 2014/15 and by 37 and 52 percent in 2015/16 under the CT and ZT regimes, respectively. However, apart from overall seasonal effects, also the time of crop establishment affected yields in each season, with effects varying by agro-ecological zone and production regime. While sowing time    effects are altogether statistically insignificant for Zone 2, for Zone 3 we estimate a consistently positive and highly significant yield-enhancing effect of early sowing on CT wheat yields in the years 2011, 2012 and 2014. Interestingly, the 2015 model indicates a highly significant yield reducing effect of early sowing in Zone 3 for both CT wheat and, to a lesser extent, ZT wheat. Finally, the district dummies control for location-and season-specific yield effects caused by variations in climatic conditions and biotic stresses, many of which produce statistically significant coefficients.In the bottom part of Table 6, the mostly insignificant coefficients on the IMR and endogeneity tests indicate no significant correlation between unobserved factors in the selection and outcome equations. More than the coefficients on individual explanatory variables, the ATE estimates at the bottom of the table are of primary interest in our analysis. They indicate that, accounting for observable differences between ZT adopters and non-adopters (as captured by the 1st-stage equation) as well as potential selection bias due to unobserved factors (found to be insignificant), and controlling for numerous factors in the outcome equation, ZT technology had a positive yield impact at P < 0.05 in all years but the first for which data are available. Importantly, the magnitude of the statistically significant estimates is consistent across years despite varying growing conditions. Calculating the difference between the estimated counterfactual yield (Outcome pot ) and the sum of the counterfactual yield plus the estimated ATE 15 in the 'Overall' model, the ATE translates into a yield gain of 660 kg ha −1 or 32.1%. However, in this quantitative interpretation the fairly wide 95% confidence interval (CI) should be kept in mind, which extends from 123 to 1,329 kg ha −1 .Table 7 presents the regression results and ATE estimates for Model 2, using per-unit cost (PUC) of wheat production as dependent variable. As expected, Capital input produces highly significant and large elasticities across all years and in both production regimes; overall, they indicate 0.57% and 0.65% increases in PUC for a one-percent increase in capital input under CT and ZT, respectively. Labour input produces much smaller coefficients which are positive in 2011 and 2012 and negative in 2014 and 2015. The reversal of the sign may reflect the use of more labour-and, hence, cost-saving technologies in the later years, enhancing the marginal benefit of labour. The coefficient estimates of the remaining control variables are generally very similar to those in the yield model, but with reversed signs; i.e. a yield enhancing factor becomes a cost reducing factor and vice versa.Moving to the bottom part of Table 7, same as in the yield analysis the coefficients on the IMR and endogeneity tests indicate no significant correlation between treatment and outcome unobservables. Most importantly, the models demonstrate that the use of ZT led to a statistically significant reduction of PUC across all years under consideration. The overall model estimates a ZT-induced cost saving of 26.1% or, in absolute terms, 2,114 INR per ton of wheat produced. The estimate is statistically significant at P < 0.01, and the 95% CI extends from 645 to 3,293 INR MT −1 . The estimated PUC saving is slightly higher across the years 2011 and 2012 (29.6% overall) than across the less favourable years 2014 and 2015 (23.6%). However, due to the substantial increase in variable production costs over time (cf. Table 4), at 2,520 INR MT −1 the absolute saving was greater in the later period than in the earlier years (1,895 INR MT −1 ).In Model 1, the overall ATE estimate across years of 32.1% or 660 kg ha −1 in absolute terms represents the average ZT-induced yield gain to be expected in the underlying population if all farm households used ZT. Since potential selection bias between ZT adopters and non-adopters and numerous other yield determinants are controlled for in the analysis, the estimated yield gain is likely caused by soil related factors, especially the reduction of evaporative losses of soil water under deficit irrigation conditions (Schwartz et al., 2010). On the other hand, other studies in NW India have documented that the improved water infiltration and soil drainage commonly associated with ZT (Mondal et al., 2019) is conducive to enhancing crop performance under conditions of excessive rainfall (Aryal et al., 2016).While the ATE is somewhat higher than the average yield gain of 498 kg ha −1 estimated by Keil et al. (2015), the two values are conceptually not directly comparable. Using a Stochastic Frontier production function approach, the previous estimate was based on the observed sample of ZT wheat plots only, producing an estimate of ATET rather than ATE. Furthermore, the previous estimate applied to ZT wheat over CT broadcast-sown wheat in particular. When  we exclude 195 cases of line-sown CT wheat from our analysis, 16 the estimated ATE and ATET amount to 647 kg ha −1 (P < 0.01) and 511 kg ha −1 (P < 0.10), respectively, the ATET being very similar to the estimate produced by Keil et al. (2015). Another methodological difference between the two studies is that, due to conditioning of plot-level outcome equations on a household-level selection equation, in the ESR we omitted 134 observations of CT wheat plots of farmers who also used ZT wheat and were, therefore, classified as ZT users. Compared to the previous study, the lack of direct comparisons of ZT and CT wheat on identical farms is probably the reason for relatively wide confidence intervals around our ATE and ATET estimates and lacking statistical significance in the 2011 model. Moving beyond our yield impact estimate to the explanatory factors in Model 1, an important aspect emphasized in the literature is the time-saving potential of ZT. Since crop establishment is completed in one single pass of the tractor, the use of ZT facilitates earlier sowing, hence reducing the risk of yield depressions due to terminal heat stress (Chauhan et al., 2012;Erenstein & Laxmi, 2008;Gathala et al., 2013;Gupta et al., 2019;Mehla et al., 2000;Singh et al., 2020). In our analysis we control for 'early' (before December 01) versus 'late' sowing and find that, in Zone 3, early sowing enhanced yields significantly in three out of the four years under consideration. Non-detection of positive effects of early sowing in Zone 2 is plausible as this is a low-lying area which tends to be waterlogged during November. Operating tractors under wet field conditions may cause soil compaction with adverse effects on crop yields. However, the positive estimates for Zone 3 indicate that farmers are achieving substantial benefits from earlier sowing in well-drained areas, implying that the use of ZT can entail further economic benefits if its time-saving potential is harnessed.By allowing regression coefficients to vary between ZT and CT production regimes, our analysis provides evidence of differential performance of certain wheat varieties under each regimes. This is particularly true for the variety UP-262 which performs consistently poorly under ZT across all years under consideration. Such genotype by management interactions (G x M effects) should be considered in ZT related agricultural extension messages.While the impact of ZT on land productivity is of primary interest to policy makers with respect to ensuring food security for a growing population, the economic performance of the technology is of particular interest to farmers. To put the ATE estimates produced by Model 2 into perspective, we multiply them with average wheat yields to arrive at ATE estimates of economic gains per hectare. Given an average ZT wheat yield of 2.624 MT ha −1 across the years under consideration (cf. Table 4, Column 1), the estimated overall ATE of 2,114 INR MT −1 is commensurate to an expected total average gain of 5,547 INR ha −1 in the underlying population of all farm households. Considering that in 2012 the average annual income of the sample households amounted to 112,900 INR (Keil et al., 2015), this translates into a substantial increase in household income by 4.9%. Importantly, our analysis shows that the ATE estimates are consistent across years, also and especially in the climatically less favourable years. For the higher-yielding years 2011 and 2012 the estimated ZT-induced gains amount to 5,547 INR ha −1 (1,895 INR MT −1 * 2.927 MT ha −1 ), whereas across the years 2014 and 2015 the estimate amounts to 5,771 INR ha −1 (2,520 INR MT −1 * 2.290 MT ha −1 ).It is important to note that the estimated average ZT induced saving of 5,547 INR ha −1 is some 29% larger than the observed overall difference in gross margins, amounting to 4,290 INR ha −1 (Table 4,  Column 7). This illustrates that a descriptive analysis that neither controls for potential systematic differences between ZT users and non-users regarding their crop management capabilities nor for potential systematic differences in crop responses to production inputs under ZT and CT regimes can be very misleading. This becomes even more apparent when comparing the estimated and observed savings separately for the higher-and lower-yielding years. When interpreting the results one also needs to keep in mind that the sub-samples of ZT adopters and nonadopters were not identical in the two periods; in particular, the group of ZT users expanded from 269 to 367 households (see Table 3). For the earlier period the observed gap between gross margins according to Table 4 was 8,620 INR ha −1 , exceeding the estimated ATE of 5,547 INR ha −1 by 55%. For the later period, however, the opposite is the case with the estimated ATE (5,771 INR ha −1 ) exceeding the observed difference between gross margins (2,190 INR ha −1 ) by 63.5%.To compare our result with the earlier assessment by Keil et al. (2015), we estimate ATET instead of ATE and exclude cases of line-sown CT wheat from the analysis (see the discussion of Model 1 results above); furthermore, we multiply ATET per ton of wheat produced with the average yield attained by ZT users across the years 2011 and 2012. The resulting estimated ATET for this period amounts to 6,346 INR ha −1 (1,943 INR MT −1 * 3.266 MT ha −1 ), which is 15.6% lower than the previous estimate of 7,334 INR ha −1 . As indicated above, we need to keep in mind that the two estimates are not based on the exact same data since the direct comparison of ZT wheat versus CT wheat plots on identical farms is missing in the ESR analysis. Therefore, obtaining estimates of a similar magnitude using different methodological approaches and varying datasets is re-assuring and corroborates previous findings of substantial economic gains from the use of ZT in wheat in Bihar. Nevertheless, we argue that the methodological approach used in the present study is superior as it allows all regression coefficients to vary between ZT and CT production regimes, rather than assuming a shift of the production function. Furthermore, the current approach produces estimates of ATE rather than ATET, which is a more meaningful indicator of the expected impact of ZT if the technology is widely adopted. A recent survey of 79 farm households in Vaishali district of Bihar by Sapkal et al. (2019) provides further empirical evidence of significant yield and cost advantages of ZT wheat over CT wheat.In the context of the dominantly irrigated wheat production systems of Bihar where the adoption of 'full' conservation agriculture (i.e. ZT in combination with soil cover from crop residues) is currently not a tenable goal, this study corroborates earlier empirical evidence that farmers reap substantial yield and monetary benefits from ZT practices with only partial residue retention. However, we add to previous assessments by applying a more rigorous methodological approach producing impact estimates that control for potential selection bias between ZT users and non-users and account for potential systematic differences in crop responses under ZT and CT production regimes. We estimate the average ZT induced gain to be expected among the farming population to be around 5,500 INR ha −1 , which is commensurate to an increase in average farm household incomes by almost 5%. More than that, by using panel data covering four wheat growing seasons of varying climatic conditions, including one with particularly hot temperatures and one with excessive, untimely rainfall, our analysis shows that the gains from using ZT are consistent over time and also accrue under less favourable growing conditions. In the context of progressive climate change, response consistency becomes an ever-more crucial evaluation criterion when assessing the suitability of a technology for smallholders with a low risk-bearing capacity.Our analysis confirms previous evidence that the productivity impacts of early sowing of wheat vary across agro-ecological zones due to temporal differences in soil drainage, which needs to be considered when targeting extension messages. Furthermore, we find evidence of genotype x management interactions affecting wheat productivity under ZT versus CT production regimes. Such effects should be taken into account in plant breeding as well as agricultural extension programmes to ensure the best possible outcomes as the use of the ZT expands.To help increase the number of ZT beneficiaries in the densely populated Eastern IGP and, hence, contribute to enhancing wheat productivity and food security in an environmentally sustainable manner, an expansion of the network of ZT service providers is required since tractor and drill ownership is not a tenable goal for most capital-constrained small and medium-sized farmers.On the whole, this study provides strong evidence that ZT for wheat in Bihar provides tangible and consistent benefits to farmers under varying climatic conditions, while reducing environmental externalities commonly associated with extensive tillage. Therefore, the State Departments of Agriculture and State Agricultural Universities in Bihar and adjacent states should continue to strongly support its diffusion.In the longer term, increasing mechanization of agriculture in the Eastern IGP due to rising costs of manual labour may present an opportunity for greater adoption of 'full' conservation agriculture: similar to the Western IGP, the harvest of rice will most probably increasingly be accomplished by combine harvesters. This will result in larger quantities of crop residues which are hard to collect (Kumar et al., 2015, p. 6). In the Western IGP, the so-called Happy Seeder is demonstrating its capacity to sow wheat directly into a thick layer of mulched rice residues (Sidhu et al., 2015), and there is mounting evidence that its use is profitable for farmers (Shyamsundar et al., 2019). Hence, there is scope for future use of the Happy Seeder in the Eastern IGP as well, especially if a slightly smaller and lighter version is developed that is better adapted to the smaller plot sizes and lower-horsepower tractors, and if appropriate policies, such as a purchase subsidy, support its adoption by ZT service providers.1. Based on a random sample of ZT service providers in Bihar, tractors averaged 38.4 HP in 2013, with a range from 25 to 60 HP [dataset] (Keil et al., 2018b). 2. Only 8,3% of our sample households owned a four-wheel tractor in 2013. Their per-capita land endowment amounted to 1.27 acres as compared to 0.54 acres among the remaining households (Mann-Whitney test significant at P < 0.001). The use of two-wheel tractors is very uncommon in Bihar, and non-existent in combination with ZT machinery. 3. Indian Rupees. 1 USD = 66.5 INR (Sept. 2013). 4. Analysis based on daily temperature data for Patna, Bihar, downloaded from NASA POWER. Retrieved November 18, 2019 from: https://power.larc.nasa.gov/downloads/ POWER_SinglePoint_Daily_20100101_20190505_ 025d73N_085d13E_316c91f0.txt 5. Household heads were male in 98% of cases. Due to the non-sensitive nature of the research topic, the male enumerators did not face any problem in interviewing the few female household heads. The enumerators worked for a New Delhi-based consulting firm specialized in research and communications in the social and agricultural sectors. 6. Variables measuring access to input and output markets were tested and found to not influence ZT adoption; for reasons of statistical efficiency they were omitted from the final models. 7. Encompassing both a labor-and a machine rental component. 8. With one exception: only for the year 2015 the variable General caste category is statistically significant at P < 0.05 and P < 0.10 in Models 1 and 2, respectively. 9. Cases of zero-yields as well as non-sensically high yield estimates were excluded from the analysis.10. Based on the conventionally used cut-off probability of 50%. 11. Condition for maximum fulfilled for Cultivable area = 0.1032438/0.0119063 = 8.67 ha (rounded coefficients are shown in Table 5). 12. cf. Keil et al. (2019) for an in-depth analysis and discussion of the development of the social inclusiveness of ZT technology in Bihar. 13. Which would lead to inflated standard errors and, hence, statistically insignificant coefficients. 14. Calculated as 100*[exp(-0.2113) -1], which is the correct interpretation of the marginal effect of an intercept dummy variable in a model with a logged dependent variable (see Giles, 2011). 15. Calculated as exp(7.629427+0.2781175) − exp(7.629427); rounded values are shown in Table 6. 16. We cannot control for line-sowing through the inclusion of a dummy variable as there would be no variation under the ZT production regime.No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).  ","tokenCount":"9524"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1d079be9bf7b61744744279b1171f66c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5b6ba1f6-7e6a-4209-831c-c15a0b493656/retrieve","id":"-695770544"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"439ceaad-e1c1-4535-9919-465c6a16b1f5","pagecount":"1","content":"Objective: to develop a tool for assessing sustainability of POs Approach: The tool has 6 key sustainability dimensions identified as critical in sustaining smallholder dairy POs in East Africa, namely:1. Financial health 2. Effective and transparent group leadership and management 3. Access to dairy inputs and services 4. Relationship with external environment (CSR) 5. Member loyalty 6. Engagement with milk market • These are decomposed into specific indicators, respective indicators are allocated weighted scores based on their relative importance in contributing to sustainability. An overall score is derived by aggregating all dimension scores, in total the maximum aggregate score is 76 which is then adjusted to 100%POs can be grouped into 5 stages of development based on total scores: • 87% of the POs were in stages 1 and 2, and were all from the extensive cattle feeding areas of Mvomero, Kilosa and Handeni districts. • POs in stages 3 and 4 were from the intensive cattle feeding district of Lushoto• Member loyalty and the PO's relationship with its environment are the strongest attributes for growth.Opportunities to invest and scale ","tokenCount":"180"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ac043faef776ed438b877c5aa8dbdfb9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d1d396cb-3cb9-4c64-9b1f-c3df1644cf63/retrieve","id":"175950120"},"keywords":["Smallholder farming","climate change","agricultural transformation","sustainable economic growth","Sahel regions"],"sieverID":"5767e363-a591-4572-b41d-24ebe6546315","pagecount":"44","content":"About CCAFS working papers Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community. About CCAFS The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and carried out with support from the CGIAR Trust Fund and through bilateral funding agreements. For more information, please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors.The Sahel region, defined here as the semi-arid area of West and Central Africa located between the Sahara Desert and humid Savannas, has average annual rainfall between 400 mm and 700 mm (Figure 1). In the region, complex combinations of semi-subsistence tree-crop farming and livestock agriculture constitute the main source of livelihood for 60-80% of population (Faye et al. 2018). The predominantly rainfed Sahelian agriculture and natural resources are threatened because of climate change and the high human pressure (Da et al. 2017). Implications of climate change to agricultural systems and livelihood are presented in Table 1.With substantial population growth (average 3% per year) and recurring challenges, climate change in the Sahel will compound existing vulnerabilities (USAID 2017).These challenges are linked to environmental degradation, pervasive poverty, access to land, conflicts, rural exodus, low inputs agriculture, and lack of access to credit and markets. Noteworthy among the multiple processes and stressors that shape the region's vulnerability to climate change are:• Widespread malnutrition, disproportionately affecting children and pregnant women. In 2020, it is estimated that more than 5.4 million children under five will suffer from acute malnutrition, including 2.4 million in six Sahelian countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal) and 12 million people will experience food insecurity;• Persistently underperforming agriculture due to low productivity induced by a range of biotic and abiotic stresses. Low soil fertility associated with insufficient use of fertilizers and mechanization, leads to high pre-harvest losses, further compounded by high postharvest losses arising from inadequate storage and limited processing capacities;• Insufficient enabling environment for Sahelian agriculture to boost its performance. Less than 2% budgetary allocation to agriculture against the recommended 13%, mining the region's prospects for food security and household cash savings;• Rapidly growing human and livestock populations putting pressure on land, water and other natural resources (Tilman et al. 2011, Hertel 2015). With limited off-farm jobs in rural areas, rural exodus, diverse conflicts, seasonal migration, emigration and internal displacement are precipitated (Kirwin and Anderson 2018).The promotion of more resilient agricultural development pathways can be achieved through: sustainable agroecological intensification in response to demographic growth, sustainable management of soil fertility and natural resources, more profitable access to the agricultural market for producers, mainly family farms (HLPE 2019, Sinclair et al. 2019, Nelson 2020) and gender equity, while ensuring environmental sustainability (Vermeulen et al. 2018) To address the above, regional projects covering six Sahelian countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal) have been implemented, including: Most soils in this region are sandy and pose a great challenge to sustainable management. This is due to inherent poor soil fertility, pressure from rapid population growth and food price volatility, inappropriate agronomic practices and overgrazing.The drivers of land degradation related to climate change are: gradual changes of temperature, precipitation and wind, as well as changes of the distribution and intensity of extreme events (Lin et al. 2017). Agro-climatic trends in the Sahel show a significant increase in hot days and heat waves that are harmful to agropastoral systems. Temperatures in the Sahel are already close to maximum for plant growth.The effects of increased temperature may affect the pattern of rainy seasons in various ways: 1) Late onset of cropping season with the risk of re-sowing, 2) Early cessation of rainfall which requires varietal adaptation and the tactical planning of farm operations based on climate information, 3) Erratic rainfall patterns with recurring droughts and insufficient rainfall which requires rain water harvesting techniques for increased water infiltration and supplemental irrigation; and a resurgence of heavy rains and floods in other places, 4) higher pressure of pests and diseases and emergence of new ones.The Sahel region is characterized by complex multifaceted challenges, including short irregular rainy seasons and recurrent droughts, resulting in low productivity.Furthermore, the region is characterized by high demographic pressure, political instability, violent extremism around natural resource use, frequent conflicts, and vulnerability to climate change effects, thus accelerating the degradation of natural resources (Nett and Rüttinger 2016). Despite these constraints, there are opportunities to scale climate-smart solutions for more balanced diets, increased food and nutrition security, sustainable food systems and resilience among the rural population (Bayala et al. 2016, Zougmore et al. 2016, Partey et al. 2018). Due to its hot and dry weather, the region has natural comparative advantages for croplivestock integration, climate-resilient and -resistant crop varieties as well as tree   To reach a large number of beneficiaries, partners have to be enabled to help design transformative and climate-smart agricultural development pathways, which will require:1. An enabling environment for scaling (policies, government support, capacity development);2. Climate-smart technologies for crops, livestock, agro-forestry and irrigation;3. Increasing the resilience of Food Systems for Healthy and Sustainable Diets 18 4. Mechanisms for scaling climate smart innovation in collaboration with other outcome actors using balanced and organized approach towards cooperation between actors in the research, development and private sectors.In this context, R4D organizations have actively designed, tested and implemented a wide range of promising approaches, practices and technologies for climate-smart agricultural production that are deemed suitable for small-scale producers. A description of these technologies is presented below and as tool kits in the Annex 1 of this document.Access to climate information enables both strategic (long-term) and tactical (shortterm) planning of farming and livelihood activities for building resilience against climate change (Dayamba et al. 2018). The expanding availability and access to climate and digital weather advisory services requires leveraging digital innovation and state-of-the-art data management technologies (e.g. Open Data Cube (ODC)) to provide advisory services to small-scale farmers so that they can take informed decisions on timing of agronomic practices and irrigation water application.Unlocking the full potential of the ODC will translate vast amounts of data into enduser-focused applications that can help inform agricultural water managementrelated decisions such as water use and availability, risks, water quality and water productivity improvements. In this context, water accounting, flood hazard mapping and agricultural drought early warning system would be developed for the entire Sahel using weather forecast, satellite data and open-source model. This will guide decisions, providing flood and drought analysis for planning and responses, and inform small-scale farmers in the Sahel region with the aim to improve resilience to climate shocks and variability.The Sahel is known to be one the regions most exposed to climate threats with feedback loops both at the regional level and with other regions. This calls for solutions that go beyond a country and even the region. Nevertheless, as we are operating in the region, our approaches will be limited to it without losing sight of the impacts of larger scale. The capacities of stakeholders have been strengthened to generate climate information and develop climate advisory services including their dissemination using ICT tools and evaluating the impacts of their use. Inventory, prioritization, testing and validation of more practical climate-smart technologies and practices have contributed to a compendium of context-specific best-fit CSA options that can easily be taken to scale.To create the conditions for sustainability, efforts are being deployed to mainstream the principles of these climate-smart approaches into policy regulatory measures at the region and country levels (region and national CSA alliances and strategies) and in the operations at the program and project levels. CORAF already has been building a relationship with the national Climate Change Focal points in its mandate region. The Focal Points have been supported by CORAF through the provision of scientific evidence by a cohort of climate change scientists under the auspices of the African Group of Experts. At the regional level, CORAF was a key member of the organizers that established the West Africa Climate Smart Alliance aligned to the continental CSA under the auspices of CAADP.Improved policies, institutions and capacities to mainstream cross-cutting agricultural sector challenges -particularly gender and coordination -will be embarked upon. The institutional framework needs to be improved to allow better access to markets, notably quality and grades in some cases, but also better mainstreaming of gender concerns in programs and policies. All of these will need continued support in terms of capacity building to empower women and other socially disadvantaged groups to participate in decision making. Conflicting national and regional policies and institutional roles are to be identified and corrective measures undertaken at different levels of governance in countries of the Sahel. Key areas to be considered include seed systems, research, input pricing, fertilizer and pesticides, trade, agricultural sector financing and mechanization.Agricultural financing is a critical bottleneck to the agricultural transformation envisioned here to improve food security and nutrition status as well as to reduce poverty. Approaches such as the inventory credit system or warrantage can quickly improve access of farmers to local funding. However, for big investments, a direct involvement of private capital and the private banking sector will be critical. Meanwhile, agricultural policies can quickly and efficiently change the way farmers, particularly women, access and use innovations and how they can access support and essential services such as financing. In Nigeria, for example, the introduction of the e-voucher has increased farmers' access to improved varieties and fertilizers in just a few years (Wossen et al. 2017). In the region, expertise and skills are available to analyze and produce reliable information for use by policymakers. Existing programs such as the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System ( Re-SAKSS) are providing direct policy support and could be expanded to more specific areas for deeper analysis of access to inputs, product pricing and quality, etc.Furthermore, there is a need to organize farmers for collective action (buying inputs and selling outputs) which could affect the prices they get (both selling and buying). This can also help with input quality issues and access to information etc. At the farm level, better threshing and cleaning of grains can lead to price premium in the markets and finally, improving access to financing through contract farming, warrantage, crop insurance etc. are also critical interventions for agricultural transformation in the region.Population in the Sahel has been increasing and currently its growth rate is estimated at 4.5% annually while the arable land remains constant, showing a need for creation of off-farm agricultural product-based jobs. However, agriculture will remain the main job-creating sector in the coming decades given the current weak status of the rural economy and the fact that migration of poorly qualified youth out of the rural areas is not leading to better lives for them (Haggblade 2005). Therefore, a more conductive environment is needed for these youth to enter the job market smoothly.In many countries, the food processing sector is the largest manufacturing sector in terms of employment. A key characteristic of agro-processing is its strong upstream and downstream linkages, making it a key factor for employment creation and poverty eradication. Furthermore, in all countries' agriculture strategy, the agroprocessing value chain is central to Governments' rural development and Development agencies such as AfDB objectives (AfDB 2016). Necessary interventions include value chain development, creation of agribusinesses and entrepreneurship with a focus on youth and women. These approaches can operate across all commodities value chains within and outside the agricultural sector and will be a key point of engagement with private sector partners. With this, youth and women need to be trained, and standard protocols for processing developed to consistently produce high-quality processed products. Indeed, there are opportunities due to the emergence of a middle class and migration of some rural people to the cities, both which have specific needs in processed products.Agricultural transformation in Sahel will require improvement in the production tools and methods, both on and off the farm. The sole reliance on rudimentary farm tools, particularly hoes and cutlasses, have for long kept agriculture backward and made it unattractive for youth while simultaneously making work less efficient. In order to reduce drudgery and improve efficiency of production systems, appropriate mechanization in Sahel will be required. A number of small-scale equipment such as planters, harvesters, ridgers, etc. have already been developed and are currently being deployed. Similarly, value addition equipment (for threshing, grading, grating, extracting, drying, storage, milling and packaging) are being evaluated and disseminated in collaboration with NARS. Introduction of such equipment will certainly make agriculture more attractive while creating opportunities for youth and women in the agricultural sector of the Sahel. These efforts should be coupled with dissemination and use of digital tools to provide information on production technologies and markets to the new generation of farmers. The full potential of digital agriculture should be exploited to allow access and sharing of climate and farm-related information to guide the choice of crop varieties and the development of production plans.CORAF is maintaining a platform (http://mita.coraf.org/) to showcase a vast number of agricultural technologies developed by research organizations in the region. In addition, a web TV (http://agripreneurtv.coraf.org/) established by CORAF showcases technologies as well as success stories of youth in agriculture in the region. Moreover, a youth mentoring program is linking youth seeking professional coaching to designated mentors on the effective use of a range of technologies that these youth are interested in.Common research and development programs and policies highlight significance of women as key players and agents of agricultural growth and productivity, family and national food security, and nutrition, agricultural and/or development projects. To address wide productivity gaps, gender equality/equity approaches have been implemented to increase women's livelihood options (for increasing food security, income, skills and knowledge, and increasing availability of appropriate technology to reduce workload) and strengthen their ability to make strategic life choices and put them into action. Under the just phased-out West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme coordinated by CORAF, all the participating countries across the region made significant advances in mainstreaming gender in the respective national programs. There are now dedicated gender Focal Points in all these countries, and by the end of the program, all countries had surpassed the minimum limit of 40% effective inclusion and participation of women in various projects.Investment for resilience being a long-term engagement, investing in climate-smart practices faces tenure issues (land and tree) which prevent landless farmers, including women and youth, from investing in CSA options even when they have the resources to do so (Partey et al. 2018). Access to land and natural resources is therefore key in the Sahel where agriculture is experiencing tenure tensions. These tensions arise from a combination of factors including rural youth population increase, pervasive circular migration of urban investors buying in rural areas, large-scale foreign acquisitions of lands and the associated transfer of lands from customary tenure to state-titled lands (Haggblade et al. 2010).Climate-smart food production can be achieved by promoting a holistic approach to the systemic challenges in the region. A systems approach that enhances access to water for irrigation; bundles water, crop, agroforestry, livestock management; and combines different technical, social and institutional innovations to use natural resources more productively is the need of the hour.Climate-smart practices, including fertilization, integrated pest and disease management and appropriate planting densities, have been developed for most crops. Some proven practices are presented below:In the Sahel, water availability and access are critical for both crops and livestock. Therefore, local actors have developed a range of water-harvesting or water-saving technologies and practices. Most of these technologies have been improved and made smarter in the face of a changing climate through participatory action research led by national and international institutes. While these well-known technologies work very well at the plot and farm levels, there are challenges operating them at the landscape level.That is where partnering with specialized institutions such as IWMI, ICRISAT and ICRAF can help, to develop integrated and participatory approaches at field level, for small reservoirs and inland valleys, and sub-catchment and watershed levels. Using integrated landscape approaches and participatory tools and approaches, we bring together various users of water resources in a community, including farmers, fishers and aquaculturists, and pastoralists to design adaptive water management plans that ensure food security, optimal use of water resources and stability within a community.Zaï planting pits, water recycling under aquaponic systems and earthen/contour bunds resulted in higher crop yields (30 to 50%), increased supplies of valuable goods and services such as firewood and fodder, increased cash incomes and employment opportunities for youth and women, thereby increasing resilience to the effects of climate change (Zougmore 2018). Similarly, fertilizer micro-dosing, which refers to the utilization of relatively low quantities of fertilizer (< 20 kg ha -1 ) through point placement of small doses of mineral fertilizer has been developed and is being disseminated. Lastly, organic liquid and solid fertilizers from organic waste recycling by insects (Black Soldier flies) has been recently introduced in the Sahel and is under scaling by private partners/companies.Innovative approaches to improve soil health through bio-reclamation/restoration of degraded lands (BDL) were developed. BDL is an agroforestry system that reclaims the lost agricultural potential of degraded soils, and it is being scaled out. BDL increases water availability and productivity of the land by increasing water infiltration and harvesting using a mix of resilient woody species and incomegenerating annual species 1 .Affordable irrigation solutions for small-scale farmers IWMI works with public and private partners on designing and evaluating low-cost irrigation solutions. For example, farmers in Mali and Burkina Faso now efficiently exploit shallow ground water resources using shallow tube well, conveyance and water-lifting technologies. It enables farmers to lift water and irrigate crops during the dry season. Wetting front detectors such as the Chameleon sensors guide farmers in a self-learning process to optimize irrigation quantity and timing to their fields and maximize irrigation water and fertilizer use to increase benefits from farming. Training youth to work as service providers to farmers was successful in Mali where farmers create contour bunds in their fields with support from trained service providers.Finally, solar irrigation solutions are evaluated to be a very cost-efficient, highly profitable and sustainable long-term investment. Business models with private sector involvement are proposed to strengthen the irrigation value chain and to scale solar irrigation solutions to small-scale farmers.This should also include the right to access and to use the water resources in the landscape and by the beneficiary communities. Finally, a good monitoring and evaluation system will be needed, including additional investments in hydro-met infrastructures that will help assess the impacts at scale, collect data, develop a database and generate data-based decision support tools for evidence-based decision making for landscape and water resources management. Opportunities in emerging markets for renewable energy in the sector will be valorized through smarter use of water resources. E.g. Solar pumps to be used at a larger scale for domestic and agriculture applications through context-appropriate input access schemes supported by a strong political will and environment.ICRAF has developed tools and methods to measure and track regreening interventions such as the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF), which aims to understand the underlying processes of land degradation and monitor the impacts of project interventions on soil and land health (Vågen et al. 2013(Vågen et al. , 2018(Vågen et al. , 2019)). This has implications for our ability to measure, for example, the effectiveness of interventions on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration for climate change mitigation. LDSF allows for the measurement of multiple variables at the same geo-referenced location and allows for the rapid assessments of indicators of land and soil health. Coupled with remote sensing, these data are used for producing high quality maps of key indicators and conducting robust statistical analysis on drivers of degradation as well as monitor changes over time (Vågen and Winowiecki 2019).The use of inorganic fertilizers on their own, as per standard recommendations, is not always profitable to many small farmers in West Africa, particularly where rainfall is erratic. By following an Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) approach, the efficiency and hence profitability of inorganic fertilizers can be improved. ISFM has been defined as 'a set of soil fertility management practices that necessarily include the use of fertilizer, organic inputs, and improved germplasm, combined with the knowledge on how to adapt these practices to local conditions, aiming at maximizing agronomic use efficiency of the applied nutrients and improving crop productivity' (Vanlauwe et al. 2010(Vanlauwe et al. , 2017)). Increased use of organic and inorganic fertilizers, together with diversification of cropping to include legumes are important tools in restoring or sustaining the soil fertility for the intensive cropping systems of the savannas of West Africa (Vanlauwe et al. 2001, Sanginga et al. 2003, 2015). These 'balanced nutrient management systems' can be further enhanced through the use of improved cultivars that are tolerant to drought, resistant to Striga and use available nutrients efficiently, such as maize cultivars developed at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria (Kamara et al. 2005). With the Regreening Africa App 2 tool, there is opportunity to allow rapid capture of information on intervention on FMNR, nursery establishment, tree planting and capacity building. Innovative monitoring and evaluation system for assessing programs performances are also determinant.Strengthening the resilience of agricultural systems in the face of climate change necessitates the development and deployment of a holistic and smart management strategy of pests and diseases. Managing biorisks in a climate-smart manner includes the large-scale dissemination of efficient and climate-resilient biocontrol agents and the enhancement of ecosystem services. It also underlies the use of suitable biorationals and biopesticides to sustainably reduce pest-induced crop losses without compromising efforts towards a low-carbon economy. The concept is currently being implemented by the IITA's Biorisk Management Facility (BIMAF) in Mali and Niger through the Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies (CSAT) projects.Real-time climate data linked to pest and disease management will also be important.Striga hermonthica, a parasitic flowering plant, constitutes one of the most severe constraints to cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa. It parasitizes sorghum, maize, millet, rice and sugarcane, as well as pasture and wild grasses, by attaching itself to the roots of the host plant diverting essential nutrients and leaving the host stunted and yielding little or no grain, often causing yield losses in excess of 50%.Component technologies for effective control methods include use of imidazolinone resistant (IR)-maize, which directly controls Striga below ground and reduces its seed bank; use of maize resistant to S. hermonthica; and use of leguminous crops which stimulate suicidal germination and therefore reduce the seed bank. However, Striga control is achieved through an integrated Striga control (ISC) program to provide more flexible and sustainable control over a wide range of biophysical and socio-economic environments.In addition, cowpea production is currently seriously affected by Striga and Alectra. Control of these parasitic weeds is critical for boosting production of one of the most important legumes of the Sahel in terms of nutrition and income. Cowpea is one the most important exports from Sahelian countries to the coastal ones in West Africa. Therefore, it is a regional trade-enhancing factor that needs to be improved. Aflatoxins are potent human carcinogens that suppress the immune system, stunt child development, and often kill people and animals. It is estimated that up to 60% of maize and groundnut crops can be contaminated with aflatoxins leading to 1.6 million disability-adjusted years annually. The profitability of poultry and fish industries is deeply curtailed by aflatoxin-contaminated feed and there is evidence that poultry farmers are willing to pay for options to reduce aflatoxins in their feeds (Johnson et al. 2017). Crops with unacceptable aflatoxin levels face trade sanctions.Aflatoxin can be managed to improve access to markets, increase profitability of the poultry industry and reduce human exposure to aflatoxins, thus improving health.Aflasafe is a biocontrol product that consistently reduces aflatoxins by more than 80% during pre-harvest and postharvest stages, and throughout the value chain.ICRAF has developed a woody species fodder bank technology that can help improve and adapt peri-urban and urban livestock raising while reducing the pressure on natural resources (Place et al. 2011, Bayala et al. 2014). A fodder bank is an enclosed area of concentrated forage legumes reserved for dry season supplementary grazing. It can be preserved from natural vegetation or from densely planted woody fodder species at 2 m spacing between rows and 1 m spacing between plants on the row. Candidate species include Pterocarpus erinaceus, Pteorcarpus lucens, Kigelia africana and Gliricidia sepium. They are planted and managed to produce large quantities of green feed during the dry season (March-June). This is a high-quality forage with 18-22% crude protein levels.In the Sahel, there is significant potential for improving livestock production systems, notably small and large ruminants. NARS and international institutes have developed efficient livestock feeding systems that could help reduce the feed scarcity challenge and improve feed quality in the Sahel. Working with NARS and the private sector, we are introducing in communities the local production of insect meals for livestock feed formulations.it has been demonstrated that simple interventions involving disease control, improved nutrition and better management lead to marked positive effects on small ruminant performance and productivity. This feed and health package developed by ILRI entails deworming and vaccinating sheep and goats against main diseases such as Pasteurellosis and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR). In addition to healthcare, there is strategic supplementation of the small ruminants to improve their performance. The feed supplement is based on available feed resources. This integrated feed and health package led to doubling of the household flocks within one year.Sheep fattening is an increasingly important economic activity in the West African Sahel, particularly in and around Tabaski, the Islamic festival of Eid-al-Kabir. It is extremely attractive to poor farmers, including women, in the region. Traditional sheep fattening is characterized by feed waste as feeding is on an ad hoc basis depending on available feed resources. From several feeding experiments conducted by ILRI -both on-station and on-farm -optimal feed combinations for sheep fattening have been developed which entails feeding levels of between 600 and 900 g per day of cowpea hay or groundnut haulm, and 400 g of millet bran along with ad libitum feeding of roughages such as bush hay, millet stover and/or sorghum stover. The fattening duration should be between 60 and 90 days to be profitable.https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/72736With high population growth rates 3 across the Sahel, increasing crop, tree and livestock production is the main objective to be addressed within the context of agroecological sustainable intensification under climate change conditions. Interventions to be developed and deployed are improved varieties of trees and crops, livestock breeds, and quality local feed formulations, enhanced seed systems, improved plant materials and the promotion of appropriate mechanization. Other opportunities include the dissemination at the community level or in pastoral groups of technologies for animal feeding using insect sources. A substantial increase in agricultural yield and output is expected to be realized by implementing interventions aimed at speeding up the adoption of improved agricultural technologies. This is to be accompanied by a comprehensive support program for the private sector and engagement of agro-dealers in the seed and improved planting value chains.Increase in agricultural productivity is highly dependent on the availability and use of quality planting materials. The CGIAR centers and partners have developed and are promoting well adapted varieties and hybrids of the major crops and trees in Sahelian countries. Many high-yielding and drought-tolerant crops and dual-purpose varieties with end-user-preferred traits have been developed by various R4D institutions in the region. These include millet (high-yielding and dual-purpose), sorghum (high-yielding, disease/pest-resistant and dual-purpose), maize (droughttolerant with breeding progress being made with respect to Fall Army Worm resistance), groundnut (high-yielding, drought-tolerant disease/pest-resistant and dual-purpose), cowpea (high-yielding, disease/pest-resistant, Striga-resistant, drought-tolerant and dual-purpose), cassava (high dry starch content, high-yielding) and fruit trees (climate appropriate portfolios). These improved materials are being scaled out and are largely being adopted by farmers. In clonally propagated crops, tissue culture, aeroponics, semi-autotrophic hydroponics have been implemented with potential impacts on the seed systems. Also, the release of improved varieties of legumes and cereals coupled with improvements of seed laws are having positive effects on seed systems. CORAF is hosting the Secretariat of the Regional Seeds and Seedling Committee under the auspices of the tripartite agreement among ECOWAS-CILSS-UEMOA. Significant improvements have been made in variety registration at national level as well as in improving the link between national variety registration and the regional catalogue. Efforts in the harmonization of seed regulations have yielded significant dividends by fostering regional trade and encouraging private sector involvement in the seed value chain.Across the Sahel, the development of many seed companies offers great opportunities for seed production, distribution and marketing. In addition, links have been developed and are being nurtured between CG centers and the NARS based in the region; these linkages have facilitated processes of varietal selection and release. There are also interventions focused on the introduction of improved forage species and improved livestock breeds with high meat and milk production.Food and nutritional security are associated with food quality, quantity and diversity. The cereal-dominated starch-based diets of the Sahel have led to severe malnutrition due to low levels of the micro and macro elements in daily food intake (WHO 2009). Significant experience and expertise are available in conducting food consumption and nutrition surveys, which are critical in determining the status of population health and the value of nutrition-related interventions. There are a number of routes to reducing malnutrition and hidden hunger, specifically deficiencies in vitamins and minerals. Significant progress has been made on biofortification, particularly in cassava and maize, through breeding of varieties with enhanced provitamin A. Biofortification in millet, sorghum, maize and cowpea has led to the development and release of iron-and zinc-dense crop varieties; Opportunities for developing syrup sorghum varieties are also emerging.Production of crops protected with comprehensive aflatoxin management strategies contain significantly less aflatoxins-and are more nutritious-than crops produced and handled using traditional practices. Such strategies are used at scale in Nigeria, Senegal, The Gambia, and Burkina Faso.Diversification is a risk-reducing strategy and also a source of income and nutrition.With improvements in genetics, some crops such as soybeans could be an interesting option for Sahelian countries as it provides good source of proteins for both human and livestock.Another route requires to make a better use of the biodiversity available by increasing the diet diversity index. Both local and exotic fruits and vegetables are available throughout the year and, with more strategic use, can help addressing most of the hidden hunger issues of the region. Despite livestock being a dominant activity, its products are not used to address the deficiencies. In addition, wherever possible, introduction of more productive root crops such as cassava could increase resilience and make the systems more food secure. Finally, within the existing systems, improvement of local indigenous legumes such as Bambara nuts, and cereals such as fonio would have positive effects on both nutrition and incomes.The dissemination of integrated aquaculture and vegetable production will increase availability and consumption of vegetable and fish products by children and pregnant women. Consumption of animal source food has been widely reported to be important for the cognitive development and growth of children.A forest product value chain can concern both timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) with related ecosystem services, including providing fruits containing vitamins and micronutrients to balance the starchy diets of the Sahel.Promising activities are designed to develop the timber and NTFP value chain of priority and/or strategic trees while establishing new plantations to replace aging and less productive trees to maintain these NTFPs.Horticultural crops involve cultivating woody species planted at 20 cm x 20 cm spacing between rows and plants with possibilities of fertilization and irrigation for intensive production of fresh vegetables throughout the year of Adansonia digitata (Baobab) and Moringa oliefera (Moringa). This technology was developed to enable rural households to meet their food needs with exceptional nutritional quality foods that can be marketed (Bationo et al. 2009).Mechanisms for scaling innovation in collaboration with the private sector or other outcome actors are as follows:The conservation of the diverse genetic resources and animal breeds also needs to be addressed through ex situ conservation and a more effective utilization of agrobiodiversity. The Sadore Regional  1).The RCoS, as the coordinating units of the commodity-based projects, ensure joint planning, resource mobilization, cost sharing and implementation. The RCoS and associated diverse partners that make up the NARS will handle country-level implementations. They will also coordinate training, knowledge sharing and transfer of T&Is across the region. The RCoS will also serve as convening centers for expertise from CGIAR centers (e.g. AfricaRice, ICRISAT, IITA, ILRI, IWMI, etc.) and foundations (e.g. AGRA and Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture), as well as USAID Feed the Future Innovation Laboratories with relevant projects and expertise operating in the region.Revealing business possibilities to key stakeholders may facilitate the development of a conducive business environment making agribusiness more attractive to youth and women. The innovative agripreneur program initiated in IITA, which is today the base for the ENABLE youth program of the TAAT project could be expanded and generalized in the Sahel region to offer youth opportunities to create their own businesses and provide vital services to enhance several value chains critical for the agricultural transformation of the Sahel region.Significant experience and expertise have been gathered in youth agripreneurship and in ways of developing small agribusinesses along crop value chains, combining great opportunities with business plan development and financing. The Business incubation platform of Ibadan is an opportunity for close collaboration with the private sector. The Tubaniso Agribusiness and Innovation Centre (TAIC) in Samanko (Mali) has a vision to be a center for delivering on four business lines for startups in the Sahel. The Innovation and Technology City (Sadore research station) was developed around clusters (agribusiness, health, education and more). The center could host startups and small-medium enterprises, trainings and certification (university for technical/professional training), a coding academy, a business center, a national data center and assembly lines for digital and other equipment including computers, tablets and solar panels.A systemic framework to assess the enabling environment and enhance scaling of irrigation and water management technologies has been developed and implemented in six countries (Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Sudan). Solutions to overcome systemic barriers in ISS scaling are being co-designed and implemented through a research-private sector partnership complemented with innovation grants and multi-stakeholder dialogues in Ghana, with potential for implementation in other Sahelian countries. This scaling approach helps to maximize inclusive and equitable benefits as well as gender-, youth-and nutrition-sensitive ISS investments to support resilience. Furthermore, IWMI's framework for the analysis of social transformation process to support local and national development planning processes is a potentially useful tool in multi-stakeholder dialogues to enhance transformation in the Sahel. Through the TAAT program, the TAAT-Water Enabler, led by IWMI, and Africa RISING in Ghana and Ethiopia, several irrigation and water conservation technologies and practices to improve crop and water productivity of staples (e.g. wheat, rice and sorghum), high-value crops (e.g. fruit and vegetables) and irrigated fodder are being demonstrated. The technology toolkits led to significant increases in crop yields and reduction in water use creating interest in thousands of farmers. IWMI has developed various capabilities to help countries manage the extreme climate shocks that are affecting farmers. Some of these capabilities are the flood forecasting app for Nigeria and a new prototype drought monitoring system for Senegal with potential application in other Sahelian countries.IWMI's recommended guidelines and business models for water reuse and circular economy have been adopted by public and private actors in the region. Overall, IWMI's result is exerting a positive influence on government policies and on-farm practices in some countries. As a result of these efforts, the time is ripe for major investment and scaling across the Sahel.CORAF has established a partnership with Kansas State University under the auspices of USAID. The vision of this Innovation Research, Extension and Advisory Coordination Hub (iREACH) in West Africa (WA) is a strengthened CORAF to meet the objectives of its strategic plan more widely with its broad range of partners throughout the region. The establishment and operation of technology parks is one of the key activities of this partnership. iREACH will initially focus on regions within Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger that USAID has prioritized in its Feed the Future (FtF) and Resilience strategies. Through iREACH, CORAF will ensure coordination, information sharing, collective engagement and alignment of activities to increase the efficiency of these investments and programing, which will allow better implementation of USAID and other donor programs (both centrally funded and those funded by country and regional missions).Several crop recommendations have been made to improve crop productivity in West Africa. These recommendations are, however, site-specific and cannot be extrapolated to other areas in the region. Agronomic field experiments conducted at similar locations provide reliable and valuable information source on crop management (Kassie et al. 2014), but collecting exhaustive data at multiple locations to support management decisions on a larger scale is limited by time and logistical costs. Also, experimental data are expensive, as they require several years of experimental data gathering. Moreover, experimental trials do not report consistent results from year to year and from site to site because nutrient management of maize is site-specific. Thus, most crop management recommendations cannot be extrapolated to wider areas (Kasika et al. 2015). This is simply because soils vary considerably in terms of their properties. Researchers in the region have calibrated and validated crop and soil simulation models that are used to simulate the performance of crop varieties and crop soil management technologies over areas. These models can be used to scale out ready-to-use crop and soil management technologies across the Sahelian region.There is also a need to develop a holistic perspective on the use of climate information and a range of decision support tools (models) to help policymakers and other stakeholders at various levels of the landscape to manage and promote climate-resilient interventions. Within regional limits, CCAFS-ICRAF-ICRISAT-ILRI-IITA and the NARS have developed the capacities of key stakeholders to use projection tools for climate and its potential impacts (analog, scenarios, climate/yield projections using models) in programing investments and planning activities.Developed by ICRAF, the Rural Resources centers (RRCs) concept is driving innovation in the delivery of extension services that responds to the needs of farmers (Degrande et al. 2014and 2015, Takoutsing et al. 2017). RRCs use a farmercentered approach, which focuses on developing farmers' capacity to innovate at all points in the agricultural production and marketing chain (Degrande and Arinloye 2019). The centers facilitate interactive learning and networking -among farmers, and among farmers, researchers and other stakeholders.There is a lack of instruments for financial protection against covariate risks (e.g. drought) in smallholder agricultural or pastoral systems to support financial resilience. Therefore, ILRI has developed Index-based drought risk financing toolkit for pastoral and agropastoral dryland systems which has been very successful in East Africa where 25,000 pastoral households were protected in Kenya and Ethiopia and over 10 million USD payouts during 2016-2017 and 2019 droughts. Feasibility studies are underway in the Sahelian countries for the roll out of this index-based livestock insurance scheme for the agropastoralists in the region.Another challenge in the region is aflatoxin contamination in maize, sorghum and groundnut. ICRISAT has supported ELISA-based aflatoxin detection. IITA has developed several biological control products, such as Aflasafe, which are being deployed alongside the promotion of good agricultural practices (GAP), and improved drying, handling, and storing technologies.In the Sahel, Aflasafe products are registered for commercial use in Nigeria, Senegal, The Gambia and Burkina Faso, while products are currently being tested in Mali and Niger (Bandyopadhyay et al. 2016and 2019, Senghor et al. 2020). Pesticide residue reduction options also exist for improvement in food safety and trade in the region.Several training sessions are being organized with NARS and farmers on the rational use of pesticides and good practices for avoiding misuse and overuse of agrochemicals.Important interventions will aim at promoting commercial agriculture by improving postharvest management practices, enhancing downstream and upstream business activities while supporting linkages of smallholders and small enterprises. This will also involve harmonizing product specifications and standards. Some critical value chain interventions that could improve farmers' incomes include the scaling of hermetic storage to allow farmers to be more in control of when to sell, especially for cowpea (and groundnuts), thereby reducing postharvest losses. This also has significant health implications by reducing the use of harmful pesticides in storing grains.The African and Sahelian landscape is changing rapidly and the rural population is aging; youth migration due to increased opportunities in the urban areas is also contributing to this. Therefore, mechanizing agriculture and agribusiness becomes a critical issue, especially if youth are to be more interested in this business. Climatesmart mechanization appropriate for smallholder farmers include planters, weeders and threshers and more recently, the mobile cassava processors. Furthermore, technologies such as strip cropping (also known as 2 by 4) allows farmers to reduce labor demands and weed infestation, thus increasing productivity in cereal-legume systems. IITA's holistic farm-to-processing approach to mechanization, used for cassava in Nigeria and other countries, could be a model for the Sahel region if adapted to its crops. Introduction of existing machines for plowing, planting (including fertilizer microdosing), weeding, fodder chopping, grating, sieving (and other processing techniques), packaging etc. will be needed to transform the Sahelian agriculture and respond to the labor shortage in rural areas.This initiative complements other activities aiming at creating a demand pull for farmers by generating awareness and interest from consumers, industry and influencers. The overall aim is to diversify diets with nutrient-dense and environmentally and climate-smart foods in the Sahel. The Smart Food initiative promotes better nutrition with a focus on diversifying staples with Smart Foods to have a major impact. Millet and sorghum, that are nutrient-rich, drought-tolerant crops, and can support communities in the Sahel to improve their nutrition, are a priority along with key legumes and vegetables. The initiative has started working with researchers, consumers, farmers, food processors, health workers, policymakers and influencers like the First Lady of Niger who is a Smart Food Ambassador, to increase the benefits and uses of millets and sorghum. By building awareness to support diet diversity, wellbeing and livelihoods of rural communities and farmers, the Smart Food initiative, through its activities and campaign has the potential to improve nutrition in the Sahel where undernutrition, malnutrition, obesity and anemia are already prevalent.Improvement in food quality, and reduction of mycotoxin and pesticide residue contamination in food chains will therefore be critical factors to tackle in order to feed into the ongoing Smart Food campaign with millet, sorghum, legumes and vegetables. On a high priority are high-iron and high-zinc millets and sorghum and high-vitamin A vegetables, along with highest legume protein sources complemented by millets to create a complete protein. However, many other approaches are possible; hence, a holistic approach is required which brings together different facets of dietary diversity, processing, reduced food losses and food safety. Significant experiences and expertise were gathered while conducting food consumption and nutrition surveys to determine the status of population health. It is proposed here to start with evaluating the available technologies across the Sahel to produce catalogs of recipes with an emphasis on food technology scaling. Some areas to start build the excitement and momentum for demand for Smart Foods are: (1) creating an annual Smart Food fair for each country (based on the Niger First Lady's Annual Millet Fair). This will highlight millets and sorghum and biodiversity, the training for chefs and consumers -collecting recipes through competitions and showcasing, (2) Training for processors on product development, recipe development and sharing best recipes and processes, (3) Bring in other influencers as Smart Food Ambassadors and engage them in developing the program further.Innovation platforms (IPs) are hubs that bring together different stakeholders to identify solutions to common problems or to achieve common goals. They ensure that different interests are taken into account, and different groups contribute to finding solutions. IPs allow synergistic actions and reflection among clusters actors on defined entry points that matter the most to the stakeholder. IPs provide engagement networks for value chain actors to find common concerns and win-win solutions through mutual learning activities and demonstrations of innovative knowledge and/or improved practices.Platforms create opportunities for actors to exchange experiences and receive technical and advisory services that are tailored to their needs. Particular emphasis is placed on access to knowledge, interactive learning and networking among producers, and between producers and other actors including advisory services, non-governmental organizations, scientists, microfinance institutions, etc. It is a powerful tool for the successful uptake of innovative agricultural practices and knowledge adapted to the rural context.Extension delivery services in the Sahel currently face two primary barriers, namely, cost-effective utilization of extension workers given significant budget constraints, and the establishment of effective feedback systems between local and national extension bodies. There are opportunities in ICT-related advisory services. With current multiple challenges, there is a need to improve the access and quality of services available to farmers and to use ICT in demand-driven extension processes.Building on IITA's experience, initiatives can (i) design, test and pilot and deploy ICTbased agribusiness solutions for the food production chain; and (ii) support the deployment of an end-to-end tailormade ICT-based platform with solutions to address diverse challenges across the food production chain. Against this background, digital tools, early warning systems for resource management, disaster preparedness, mitigation, relief, and reconstruction efforts will be important. Development and implementation of actionable strategies in addressing smallholder aggregation are required.Making a CG Sahel Farmer App would provide farmers with seed advice, agronomic advice, water advice, rainfall prediction/flood warning, market prices, etc. by integrating or bundling different technologies and themes. Another comprehensive and effective monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning system would provide quality data to inform the Results Framework of all interventions. The digitalized M&E system serves both as a day-to-day management tool to guide project implementation, and a mechanism for periodic assessment of projects' performance to gauge their impact. A key outcome of M&E system is to enhance the understanding of the factors that improve the livelihoods of projects' beneficiaries through data-informed output delivery.In order to support agro-processing with better linkage with the private sector and community engagement, options are presented as follows:Postharvest technologies require strengthening partnerships among farmers into small enterprises that can help them take charge of more steps in value chains. These small enterprises are more likely to adopt technologies when the technology adoption is driven by business orientation, economies of scale, access to credit and services, shared risk, and stronger negotiating power.It is shown from past experience that the tree-crop value chains have engaged in collaboration with the private sector to develop technology packages to strengthen the capacity of stakeholders and the productive system through a series of activities including the integration of beekeeping in agroforestry parks to improve productivity of trees while producing honey; training of farmer trainers on improved trees and NTFP, production techniques, planting, maintenance and grafting; improved techniques for the collection, storage facility constructions for group selling, processing and value adding creation for diversified income generation from local, regional and international niche markets.ICRISAT also relies on its network of private bio-factories for production and supply of beneficial organisms for controlling major insect pests. This is based on its long experience on biological control of the millet head miner and recently with the fall armyworm.For climate-smart agriculture, the consortium has actively implemented a wide range of promising approaches, practices and technologies, suitable for smallholders in the Sahel regions. The implementation of these approaches, practices and technologies would allow smallholders to improve their incomes and to create an employment environment for youth and women. However, development is a long process and externalities of these approaches, practices and technologies, even if already visible and perceptible somewhere, may not be visible and appreciated right now elsewhere. Indeed, to preserve a healthy environment conducive to agriculture and to ensure food security, we must continue to move forward in order to achieve the development of our population in an environment where population itself becomes aware of the need to preserve the climate.Over the years, tree, crop and livestock production systems in the Sahel have been subjected to the effects of climate A 36 m 2 fruit and vegetable garden using improved plant materials of fruit tree species Ziziphus mauritiana (jujube), Tamarindus indica (tamarind), Adansonia digitata (baobab) and vegetable tree species baobab and PKM1 variety of Moringa oleifera combined with annual vegetable crop species such as Amaranth (A 2004), Corchorus (Bafia), Okra (Batoumabé), and Roselle (Samatan) to be established for each household for improving household diet diversity and nutrition security.The Rural Resource Center (RRC) concept, developed by ICRAF, is driving innovation in the delivery of extension services that responds to the needs of farmers. RRCs use a farmer-centered approach, which focuses on developing farmers' capacity to innovate at all points in the agricultural production and marketing chain.The centers facilitate interactive learning and networking -among farmers and between farmers, researchers and other stakeholders.Regreening Africa App is a mobile-based android application that helps users to collect information on how farmers are managing and protecting trees on their farms. The App supports simple text and numeric data, images, and location data of trees and nurseries.It allows users to collect data offline and upload it to a server once the device is connected to mobile network or WIFI.Facilitate relationships with financial and market opportunities Agribusiness and entrepreneurship promotion Private sector engagement Access to financial services Access the local, regional and international market.Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) Integrated feed and health package for improved small ruminant productionLeast cost ration for profitable sheep fattening Index based livestock insurance LDSF was developed by ICRAF as a response to a lack of methods for systematic landscapelevel assessment of soil and ecosystem health. The methodology is designed to provide a biophysical baseline at landscape level, and a monitoring and evaluation framework for assessing processes of land degradation and the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures (recovery) over time.It has been demonstrated that simple interventions involving disease control, improved nutrition and better management lead to marked positive effects on small ruminant performance and productivity. This feed and health package developed by ILRI entails vaccinating sheep and goats against main diseases such as Pasteurellosis and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), and deworming. In addition to healthcare, there is strategic supplementation of the small ruminants to improve their performance. The feed supplement is based on available feed resources. This integrated feed and health package led to doubling of the household flock within one year.Sheep fattening is an increasingly important economic activity in the West African Sahel, particularly in and around Tabaski, the Islamic festival of Eid-al-Kabir. It is extremely attractive to poor farmers, including women, in the region. Traditional sheep fattening is characterized by feed waste as feeding is on ad hoc basis depending on available feed resources. From several feeding experiments conducted by ILRI both on-station and onfarm, optimal feed combinations for sheep fattening have been developed which entails feeding levels of between 600 and 900 g per day of cowpea hay or groundnut haulm, and 400 g of millet bran along with ad libitum feeding of roughage such as bush hay, millet stover and/or sorghum stover. The fattening duration should be between 60 and 90 days to be profitable. https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/72736There is lack of instruments for financial protection against covariate risks (e.g. drought) in smallholder agricultural or pastoral systems to support financial resilience. Therefore, ILRI has developed Index-based drought risk financing toolkit for pastoral and agropastoral dryland systems which has been very successful in East Africa where 25,000 pastoral households were protected in Kenya and Ethiopia and over 10 million USD payouts during 2016-2017 and 2019 droughts. Feasibility studies are underway in the Sahelian countries for the roll out of this index-based livestock insurance scheme for the agropastoralists in the region.Mechanization allows the engagement of relevant stakeholders committed to the development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and NGOs in crop-livestock value chain. The designing crop stalk crusher has greatly helped in alleviating the problem of crushing stalk for animal used during dry-season while contributing to business services.Drudgery reduction: Models of motorized threshers, groundnut harvester and groundnut sheller increase groundnut productivity while reducing drudgery for women farmers in Mali, Ghana and Nigeria. In 2015 ICRISAT worked with the Agricultural Engineering Unit of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), to identify and develop an appropriate motorized groundnut thresher that cut down the time and effort needed to shell groundnuts, by women. The performance parameters of the thresher included a cleaning efficiency of 97%, grain damage of about 4% while scattered grain was estimated to 4% compared to over 20%previously.Public Private partnership","tokenCount":"8775"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8b5c38b888fe1f4ba9e2912282c219f5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3dd6a574-6a68-4679-91b7-be04da1dd2d0/retrieve","id":"512723600"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"926d1a58-fa79-4db9-8ff3-1650101a5b14","pagecount":"72","content":"El Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CiAt) agradece a la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, sede Palmira, por habernos permitido liderar este proceso de zonificación de cultivos de relevancia socioeconómica en el departamento. Del mismo modo, expresamos nuestra gratitud con la Gobernación del Valle del Cauca y el Sistema General de Regalías como financiadores del proyecto. Asimismo, a la Sociedad de Agricultores y Ganaderos del Valle del Cauca (SAg) y a la Unidad de Planificación Rural Agropecuaria (UPrA) por las contribuciones de información que, como fuente de consulta secundaria, sirvieron como cimiento para la construcción de nuevos conocimientos.Por último, extendemos un especial agradecimiento al equipo de trabajo de la UNAL y del CiAt por su compromiso y apoyo con esta investigación, y de forma particular a: Alejandra Gálvez, Lizette Díaz, Natalia Gutiérrez y Mark Lundy (CiAt) Carlos Germán Muñoz, Eyder Daniel Gómez, Herney Darío Vásquez y Raúl Saavedra (UNAL) Mónica Cifuentes (joven investigadora, UNAL).En Colombia, es necesario que los productores adquieran conocimientos y desarrollen capacidades en temáticas concernientes a las cadenas de valor y, de este modo, bajo propuestas de carácter incluyente accedan a los mercados. Así, a partir de esta base, se ha desarrollado el proyecto de regalías: \"Incremento de la competitividad sostenible en la agricultura de ladera en todo el departamento, Valle del Cauca, Occidente\", el cual, mediante un enfoque participativo de aprendizaje en dichas temáticas, ha fomentado la circulación de conocimiento y el intercambio de información.Elaborar la zonificación agrícola del cultivo de mora en el marco del proyecto \"Incremento de la competitividad sostenible en la agricultura de ladera en todo el departamento, Valle del Cauca, Occidente\", del Fondo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Ftcel) del Sistema General de Regalías (Sgr).• Identificar los requerimientos ambientales para el desarrollo óptimo del cultivo de mora.• Identificar las variables (suelos, clima, terreno) existentes para las zonas de ladera del departamento. • Identificar las variables requeridas del componente físico, socioecosistémico y socioeconómico adyacentes e involucradas con el cultivo de mora en ladera. • Determinar (indicar) las diferentes aptitudes de las zonas de ladera del Valle del Cauca respecto a las proyecciones de cambio climático para el año 2050.Fortalecer las iniciativas de competitividad del sector hortofrutícola es fundamental para apuntalar estrategias vinculadas a la seguridad alimentaria y al desarrollo socioeconómico del país y de la región. En este contexto, a nivel departamental, en el caso de la mora, en cuanto a las iniciativas de zonificación como herramientas de conocimiento dirigidas al mejoramiento de la toma de decisiones en este campo, Corpoica (ahora Agrosavia) en el año 2016 llevó a cabo el Plan de Manejo Agroclimático Integrado del Sistema Productivo de la mora, dentro del marco del proyecto MAPA. Su objetivo era contribuir al desarrollo de las capacidades locales del Subsistema de Asistencia Técnica Agropecuaria (Ssata) para adaptarse al cambio y a la variabilidad climática en 18 departamentos, bajo el enfoque de Agricultura Climáticamente Inteligente (ACi) (Agrosavia, 2018).Este plan tenía como objetivo primordial coadyuvar a la reducción de la vulnerabilidad del sistema productivo de mora frente al riesgo agroclimático asociado a las condiciones restrictivas de humedad en el suelo. Simultáneamente, se presentaron algunas herramientas para la toma de decisiones, la gestión tecnológica y se definieron factores que determinan el riesgo climático, así como los tipos de práctica que se pueden implementar en pos de generar una capacidad de adaptación del sistema productivo de la mora ante un escenario de déficit hídrico. Por último, luego de agrupar a los productores según sus características socioeconómicas, se describió la implementación de algunas opciones tecnológicas que podrían servir de guía a los programas de extensión y asesoramiento técnico, teniendo en cuenta, desde luego, las particularidades de cada sector o grupo de productores (Corpoica, 2016). A partir de los resultados, se presentó el panorama, los riesgos, las condiciones y las potencialidades del sector.La mora de Castilla es originaria de los andes tropicales. Esta especie crece casi silvestre en muchos lugares de América del sur tropical y se cultiva en algunos países de Centroamérica como El Salvador, Panamá y Costa Rica, mientras que en Suramérica se considera de relevancia económica en Ecuador y Colombia. Pertenece a la familia de las rosáceas y, junto con otra gran variedad de especies del género Rubus (más de 300 especies), es la más adaptada a las condiciones del trópico alto entre las moras y zarzamoras silvestres. Sus frutos son grandes, jugosos, de excelente sabor y con semillas pequeñas y blandas. En algunas regiones de Colombia también se le conoce como morón.La mora es una planta perenne, arbustiva, de porte semierecto con tallos rastreros o semierguidos y usualmente con espinas. La planta se desarrolla desde altitudes que abarcan los 1200 hasta los 3500 m s. n. m., su óptimo desarrollo se produce al cultivarla entre los 1800 y 2200 m s.n.m., en un clima con frío moderado, cuyas temperaturas varían entre 12 y 18 °C. Por encima de los 2400 metros de altura, la producción es menor y se afecta la calidad y el tamaño de los frutos (Franco y Giraldo, 2001).En lo que concierne a la precipitación anual para el desarrollo óptimo de la planta, esta se encuentra en un rango entre los 1200 a 1700 mm, asociada a una humedad relativa (60 %-70 %). Estas características ofrecen las condiciones ecofisiológicas necesarias para el desarrollo de esta fruta en plantaciones. Así mismo, la zonificación del cultivo debe considerar las variables mencionadas e identificar las condiciones agroecológicas para el desarrollo futuro de las plantaciones en el departamento del Valle del Cauca.Con relación a la realización de la zonificación para el cultivo de mora en la zona de ladera del Valle del Cauca, su objetivo es promover la comprensión -entre las organizaciones y cultivadores de las zonas de ladera del departamento-sobre la importancia de las condiciones físicas, climáticas y geomorfológicas, que, articuladas con aspectos socioeconómicos y socioecosistémicos, impactan e impactarán (proyecciones a 2050) al sector agrícola focalizado en la mora. Con esto, se espera que puedan llevarse a cabo estudios más específicos respecto a las medidas de adaptabilidad que los agricultores deben aplicar y el apoyo institucional o sectorial que debe implementarse. Otro alcance que se evidencia es la posibilidad que se le presenta a distintas empresas que promueven el cultivo, prestan asistencia y llevan a cabo programas de extensión para la cadena de la mora, puesto que, al tener referentes de aptitud por zonas y referentes climáticos presentes y futuros, pueden llevar a cabo una planeación estratégica mucho más concreta.Por otra parte, el estudio de zonificación presenta tres limitaciones principalmente.a) La zonificación en esencia es una herramienta que señala, de forma general, la aptitud de un cultivo, bajo ciertas restricciones y sujeta a la escala y resolución de los datos utilizados. Es relevante entender que, para mejorar la predicción de la aptitud y ser más concretos al determinar localmente las condiciones para llevar a cabo proyectos productivos, se debe acudir a análisis más concretos, tal como la agricultura específica por sitio, que respondan a las distinciones en cada lugar, en especial, en el aspecto edafológico. b) Otra limitante de la zonificación está definida por la coincidencia con las zonas de aptitud de otros cultivos. No se puede definir a través de la zonificación si se debe priorizar un cultivo por encima de otro. Esto se definirá a través de otras herramientas, que incluyan elementos de la cadena de valor de la mora, tales como la competitividad, la variación de los precios internacionales -o los precios de cultivos sustitutos o complementarios-, la inversión, la tradición y los arraigos culturales; los cuales también pueden definir la opción a tomar. c) La zonificación se ve limitada a la hora de responder específicamente a la preocupación de algunos productores que ven cómo sus tierras quedan fuera de las zonas de aptitud. Este hecho puede llegar a restringir el acceso a medios de financiación, programas de extensión, inversión, contratación de seguros, entre otros.De acuerdo con los planteamientos generales de la FAO, esta clase de estudios se enfoca concretamente en la identificación de áreas semejantes en cuanto a potencial y limitantes. Por otra parte, un enfoque de la zonificación vinculado al ámbito agrícola ayuda a una mejor planificación y gestión de los sistemas productivos, con lo cual se mejora el aprovechamiento de recursos y esfuerzos de los diversos programas encaminados a formar enclaves de desarrollo en las zonas vistas con potencial.En lo que concierne a los componentes físicos, estos son fundamentales en la medida que ayudan a determinar el potencial de aptitud que podría tener una zona o región para sustentar un sistema productivo determinado, del cual dependen los rendimientos y la calidad final de los productos agrícolas. En cuanto a la definición de los criterios y variables de clima, suelos y geomorfología, estos se basaron en los expuestos en las zonificaciones llevadas a cabo por Bancoldex y UtCF (2015) y UPrA (2017).De acuerdo con el Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales (Ideam), el clima se agrupa en un conjunto de condiciones que predominan en la atmósfera o, dicho de otro modo, en las condiciones meteorológicas correspondientes a un espacio geográfico específico. Estas se expresan a partir de variables como la temperatura, la humedad relativa y la precipitación.• Temperatura: en términos ambientales, esta variable se define como el estado térmico del aire respecto a su capacidad de transmitir calor en el entorno. En las zonas tropicales, esta capacidad de transmisión está determinada por la altura sobre el nivel del mar (m s. n. m.), tomando como referencia la localización de un punto geográfico determinado. • Humedad relativa: es la cantidad de vapor de agua que se encuentra presente en el aire.• Precipitación: es la media de la cantidad de lluvia que puede caer en un lugar, área o región específicos.Para llevar a cabo el análisis de cambio climático, las variables utilizadas fueron la temperatura y la precipitación, que son las únicas vinculadas a las Trayectorias de Concentración Representativas (rCP, por sus siglas en inglés).En cuanto a las rCP, estas son escenarios que se enfocan esencialmente en las emisiones antropogénicas y no incluyen cambios en impulsores naturales. Estas pueden representar una variedad de políticas climáticas, es decir, cada rCP puede ser resultado de diferentes combinaciones de futuros económicos, tecnológicos, demográficos, políticos e institucionales. Así, las diferentes rCP representan varios escenarios de emisiones a futuro. Consecuentemente, el 2,6 representa un escenario de mitigación, el 4,5 y 6,0 son escenarios de estabilización de emisiones, y el 8,5 corresponde a un escenario con un nivel muy alto de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero continuo hasta el año 2100 (ver figura 1). A pesar de las diferencias, las variaciones más notables se pueden empezar a apreciar a partir del año 2050, razón por la cual se tomó esta fecha como referente para el análisis.Figura 1. Gráfico comparativo de todos los agentes atmosféricos impulsores de acuerdo con las cuatro Trayectorias de Concentración Representativas (RCP, por sus siglas en inglés)Fuente: elaboración propia.En lo que respecta a las dos rCP utilizadas para el análisis, estas presentan las siguientes características:Esta rCP fue desarrollada por el Laboratorio Nacional del Pacífico Noroeste en los Estados Unidos. Aquí, el forzamiento radiativo se estabiliza poco después del año 2100 y es consistente con un futuro en el que la reducción de emisiones es relativamente ambiciosa.Este futuro está fundado en los siguientes aspectos:• Menor intensidad de energía.• Programas de reforestación fuertes.• Disminución del uso de tierras de cultivo y pastizales debido a los incrementos de rendimiento y los cambios en la dieta. • Políticas climáticas estrictas.• Emisiones estables de metano.• Las emisiones de CO 2 aumentan solo ligeramente antes de que comience el declive alrededor del año 2040.Esta rCP es consistente con un futuro sin cambios de política para reducir las emisiones. Fue desarrollada por el Instituto Internacional de Análisis de Sistemas Aplicados en Austria y se caracteriza por el aumento de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, que conducen a alcanzar altas concentraciones a lo largo del tiempo.Este futuro está fundado en los siguientes aspectos:• Tres veces los niveles de emisiones actuales de CO 2 en 2100.• Rápido aumento en las emisiones de metano.• Mayor uso de tierras de cultivo y pastizales impulsado por un aumento de la población.• Una población mundial de 12 mil millones de personas para el año 2100.• Menor tasa de desarrollo de tecnología.• Gran dependencia de los combustibles fósiles.• Alta intensidad energética.• No se han implementado políticas climáticas.En cuanto al componente edáfico, se caracteriza como un ecosistema en el cual intervienen elementos de entrada al sistema, por ejemplo: la materia orgánica, los microorganismos, los minerales, el agua, el aire y otra cantidad de nutrientes; y procesos de salida, principalmente los involucrados con la absorción de los nutrientes por parte de las plantas, en la escorrentía natural de estos materiales o mediante procesos erosivos. En el análisis de este componente se utilizaron las siguientes variables:• Textura: variable que indica el contenido referente a partículas de arena, limo y arcilla de diferente tamaño contenidas en una porción del suelo. La textura determina la posibilidad de labranza del suelo, así como el flujo de aire y de agua que se transportan o retienen a través del mismo. • pH: es la concentración de iones de hidrógeno en una solución de agua y que, suscintamente, se puede describir como la tendencia a que un suelo sea más ácido o más alcalino. La variación del pH puede llegar a alterar el grado de solubilidad de los minerales en los suelos. Y teniendo en cuenta que las plantas dependen de la disolución de estos para poder ser absorbidos, esta variable se vuelve fundamental para la buena respuesta por parte de las plantas, con relación a los nutrientes presentes en el suelo. En general, se espera que los suelos tengan un pH entre 5,5 y 6,5 para permitir el correcto proceso de absorción de nutrientes. • Profundidad efectiva: esta variable está relacionada directamente con la capacidad de desarrollo radicular de la planta, sin encontrar ningún impedimento en el suelo. En suelos más profundos, las plantas pueden sobrellevar los eventos de sequía, pues en este contexto se presenta una mayor retención de humedad.• Fertilidad del suelo: es una variable que se compone, a su vez, de otras, a saber: los nutrientes, la saturación de sales y el carbono orgánico. Esta variable modificará su composición, según el enfoque de estudio o de la fuente de la cual provenga esta variable.• 3.2.3. Geomorfología• Pendiente: variable mediante la cual se mide la inclinación del terreno. Es fundamental a la hora de determinar el uso o la vocación de un terreno. Es una variable restrictiva al momento de evaluar las posibilidades agronómicas. Su medición se hace por medio del cálculo de la tangente del terreno y, a partir de esta, se pueden obtener valores en porcentajes o grados de pendiente. La pendiente se puede clasificar de la siguiente manera:-Fuertemente escarpada o inclinada >75 % -Moderadamente escarpada o moderadamente empinada 50-75 % -Ligeramente escarpada o empinada 25-50 % -Fuertemente inclinada 12-25 % -Moderadamente inclinada 7-12 % -Ligeramente inclinada 3-7 % -Ligeramente plana 0-3 % • Erosión: entendida como el proceso mediante el cual hay alteración y pérdida física y mecánica del suelo a causa de procesos naturales. El principal factor que ocasiona la erosión es, entre otros, el hídrico, ya sea por efectos de la lluvia o por procesos de estancamientos que provocan infiltración en los terrenos y posterior desplazamiento. Este tipo de procesos alteran la composición de los suelos, los despoja de nutrientes y provoca la pérdida de fertilidad que, en definitiva, acabará alterando la producción agrícola.En cuanto a dichos criterios, estos vinculan estrechamente el entorno social y cultural de los individuos y las comunidades con los bienes naturales, los servicios ecosistémicos y la bioriqueza de un entorno. Su intención es determinar un aprovechamiento de estos recursos, dentro de una dinámica de sostenibilidad. Al mismo tiempo, con la inclusión de esta variable, se espera identificar las potencialidades del entorno y los límites de ese aprovechamiento. Esto significa, a su vez, la inclusión de ecosistemas generadores de servicios para el desenvolvimiento del quehacer de la cultura en sus múltiples facetas. Se espera que, con la vinculación de variables como el uso de suelo, la vocación de uso y la vulnerabilidad ambiental, se pueda entender mejor la situación de los entornos potenciales de una zonificación, de modo tal que las limitaciones y potencialidades puedan comprenderse mejor a la hora de tomar decisiones para el desarrollo de programas de fomento agrícola. A su vez, se protege el patrimonio cultural material e inmaterial del país y el derecho a la autodeterminación de los territorios colectivos de comunidades étnicas y campesinas.Estos criterios están centrados en develar el entorno social y económico, ya sea de una localidad, región, país, de uno o varios individuos. A través de estos criterios, se pretende mostrar la situación económica, las relaciones sociales, las formas de vida, los medios de trabajo, la tenencia de la propiedad, el acceso a servicios públicos, la educación, entre otros factores, pues permiten la descripción del ambiente en el cual está inmerso el objeto de estudio. En el caso particular de una zonificación enfocada en la productividad de un sector específico del agro, se espera que el componente socioeconómico muestre, por medio del análisis de las variables, las condiciones del acceso a sistemas de riego, la existencia de maquinaria agrícola, el acceso a asistencia o asesoría, y las fuentes de crédito y financiamiento. De este modo, es posible determinar si existen las bases necesarias u óptimas para enfrentar la producción y los retos de competitividad de la región frente a los mercados, ya sea a nivel nacional o internacional.Así, a partir del punto de vista socioeconómico y de la identificación de patrones geográficos aptos para el desarrollo del cultivo de mora, es posible unir, de forma pragmática, los estudios de competitividad y zonificación, y ofrecer derroteros para el desarrollo económico de la región.El cambio climático global sin duda está operando cambios de profundo impacto que difieren con el espíritu de desarrollo de la sociedad, en especial, de aquellas que se hallan en contextos geográficos, lo que determina, en mayor o menor medida, la severidad de los retos a afrontar según los cambios del clima.De acuerdo con los modelos predictivos planteados por el Grupo Intergovernamental Panel on Climate Change (iPCC, por sus siglas en inglés), las temperaturas podrían subir entre 0,15 y 0,3 grados por década. Como resultado, se presentarán grandes impactos en los regímenes de lluvias, captación de recursos hídricos y altos niveles de evapotranspiración, lo cual provocará un incremento del estrés en los organismos, tanto en plantas como en animales; a su vez, a esto se suma el aumento del nivel del mar por efecto del deshielo de los casquetes polares y, por supuesto, el cambio en la presión del aire y el aumento de las temperaturas del mar. Estas últimas harán que cada vez sean más frecuentes las tormentas de mayor intensidad, que afectarán los asentamientos humanos costeros.En esta medida, se hace necesario acudir a los análisis de cambio climático para establecer los cambios que puedan suceder en una región de interés que, en este caso, es la zona de ladera en el departamento del valle del cauca. De esta forma, con la determinación de los cambios y grados de aptitud, se puede plantear procesos de adaptabilidad y mitigación que permitan, por una parte, sugerir estrategias para hacer frente a la inminencia de estos cambios climáticos y, por otra, diseñar estrategias que coadyuven a aminorar el impacto de las actividades que inciden en el incremento del problema.los y geomorfológico, e intersección de rangos climáticos presentes y futuros con el uso de herramientas Sig. 4. Categorización: en este componente del proceso se asignaron unas categorías (apta, moderada y baja) a los códigos relacionados con las zonas que resultan de la superposición ponderada, y que representan la zonificación edafoclimática final. 5. Validación: la zonificación edafoclimática, teniendo en cuenta el cambio climático, fue validada y contrastada con información in situ de las zonas categorizadas, para obtener una respuesta de confiabilidad de los procesos. Para la asociación de los componentes socioeconómicos presentes, en cada municipio en particular se llevó a cabo un proceso de intersección entre las bases de datos de la zonificación edafoclimática con las bases de datos de la información correspondiente a los datos del Censo Nacional Agropecuario 2014 (DANE, 2015). Por otra parte, para vincular los componentes socioecosistémicos presentes en la región, se realizó la intersección de los datos espaciales de la zonificación edafoclimática con los de los datos obtenidos del Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi (igAC) y de la Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca (CVC), referentes a los conflictos por el uso de suelos, vocación de uso y vulnerabilidad ambiental (ver figura 3).Intersección con datos del Censo Nacional Agropecuario Intersección con datos de vocación de uso del suelo En paralelo al proceso de la zonificación edafoclimática, se realizó un análisis de aptitud exclusivamente con factores climáticos (temperatura y precipitación) para el escenario presente y para las proyecciones a futuro en el año 2050. Este tiene como fundamento la necesidad de observar los cambios que pueden suceder a nivel climático, en las áreas de aptitud determinadas en el estudio de zonificación, solo con las variables de temperatura y precipitación que son la base de las proyecciones de los escenarios a futuro. En este caso, con relación a los escenarios de cambio derivados de las proyecciones climáticas de los modelos globales, ofrecidos por el Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change, estos sirven como soporte para mostrar la situación presente y los cambios a futuro (2050). Cabe destacar que no se realizaron mapas de aptitud de suelos, ya que los factores edáficos para el análisis no están disponibles en escenarios con proyecciones futuras.Para lograr este análisis, se usó la herramienta Targeting Tools desarrollada en Python para el entorno de ArcgiS. Esta herramienta que considera los rangos de los requerimientos climáticos de los cultivos y se enfoca, en especial, en la intersección de temperatura y precipitación, dentro de unos rangos absolutos (de 0 % hasta 100 %), y un rango óptimo en el cual se desarrollara el cultivo (ver figura 4). En esta sección se hace una descripción de la zona de estudio, así como también de las fuentes de las que se obtuvieron los datos de clima, suelos, geomorfología, socioeconómicos y socioecosistémicos, y se finaliza con el cuadro de requerimientos edafoclimáticos para el cultivo de mora.Para delimitar la zona de estudio, se tomó como límite inferior los 1.100 m s.n.m. y se tuvo como referencia la ciudad de Cali, que está ubicada a una altitud promedio de 1.020 m s.n.m. Para obtener los datos de elevación, se acudió a la plataforma del Cgiar-CSi (2017) y se obtuvo de ella los datos digitales de elevación mundiales, a partir de los cuales se extrajeron los correspondientes al Valle del Cauca. En la figura 5, se presenta la zona de estudio (departamento del Valle del Cauca) demarcada.Figura 5. Mapa de zonas de ladera en el departamento del Valle del Cauca Fuente: elaboración propia.Para dar continuidad al esquema propuesto y con el objetivo final de identificar las zonas de aptitud edafoclimáticas para la mora, el proceso de zonificación comenzó con la producción y obtención de los conjuntos de datos climáticos.Frente a la necesidad de incorporar los datos climáticos ajustados, y acordes al resto de las variables relativas al estudio de zonificación de la mora en el Valle del Cauca, fue necesario producir y obtener datos climáticos proyectados al presente, que tuvieran como base estaciones climatológicas ubicadas en la geografía departamental.Para este fin, se obtuvo una base de datos de las estaciones climatológicas desde el portal catalogador de información geográfica del Instituto Alexander Von Humboldt (2017). En este conjunto de datos se incluyó la información mensual de la precipitación y la temperatura hasta el año 2012.Con dicha información se procedió a realizar la interpolación con el uso del algoritmo Thin plate splines (tPS) para su suavizado (Columbia University, 2018). Este último se incorpora en el paquete Anusplin (Australian National University, 2018) y, a su vez, es utilizado en la construcción de datos climáticos de Worldclim (Hijmans et al., 2005). Por su parte, los datos de humedad relativa se obtuvieron desde la geodatabase construida en el marco del convenio n. o 256 de 2009 con el fin de aunar esfuerzos técnicos y económicos para realizar el análisis preliminar de la representatividad ecosistémica, a través de la recopilación, clasificación y ajuste de información primaria y secundaria con rectificaciones de campo del mapa de ecosistemas de Colombia, para la jurisdicción del Valle del cauca [de la CVC y la Fundación Agua Viva].Para ello, se tomaron como fuente las variables climáticas de Worldclim para los escenarios presente y futuro. En el primer caso, los datos climáticos para el presente derivan del uso del procedimiento Thin plate splines, mientras que, para el segundo, los datos climáticos provienen de la aplicación del downscaling: procedimiento que toma los datos climáticos de gran resolución y los lleva a una resolución mucho menor, para hacer predicciones locales a futuro (ver figura 6). Con respecto a los procedimientos, para realizar el downscaling de los datos climáticos, existen dos principales: el dinámico y el estadístico. El primero usa principios físicos resueltos mediante ecuaciones diferenciales a partir de los datos observables o los resultados de modelos climáticos globales, los cuales aportan unas condiciones iniciales de entorno con una limitante de resolución (Guanuchi, 2015). Los modelos estadísticos se componen de dos procesos base:1. El desarrollo de las relaciones estadísticas entre variables climáticas locales (p. ej., temperatura del aire de la superficie y la precipitación) y predictores de gran escala (p. ej., campos de presión). 2. La aplicación de tales relaciones al resultado de los experimentos de los modelos de clima global se utiliza para simular las características del clima local en el futuro\" (NCAr giS Program, 2018).Con respecto a los resultados del downscaling, estos tienen una resolución de 30 arc-sec, lo que equivale a un conjunto de datos raster con una resolución de 1 km por 1 km para cada pixel.Extracción de series regionales para hacer un downscaling a estaciones locales.Modelo climático global Modelo climático regional Figura 6. Downscaling de datos climáticos Luego, el procedimiento consistió en realizar la identificación de las variables más significativas para los componentes de suelos y terreno existentes para las zonas de ladera del departamento del Valle del Cauca.• 4.1.3. Obtención de variables de suelo• Textura del terreno: variable derivada del inventario de suelos del Valle del Cauca (igAC y CVC, 2004). Esta puede tener una desventaja, pues las texturas están supeditadas al porcentaje de probabilidad de que un perfil de suelo sea el más predominante según la zona. Otro factor que determina la textura del terreno es la profundidad del suelo antes del horizonte rocoso que, de acuerdo con los datos, varía en función de la profundidad a la cual se halla dicho horizonte. • Profundidad efectiva del suelo: variable derivada igualmente del inventario de suelos del Valle del Cauca, altamente relacionada con la morfología determinada para cada perfil en este estudio (igAC y CVC, 2004). • pH del suelo: variable adquirida en la plataforma SoilGrids (2018). Al igual que la variable de texturas, el pH presenta diferentes valores según el horizonte del suelo y, por lo tanto, también presenta una gran variabilidad en zonas de montaña donde los perfiles son altamente cambiantes. • Fertilidad del suelo: variable adquirida en los geoservicios de la Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca (CVC, 2017). En términos de la FAO, \"Un suelo es fértil cuando tiene los nutrientes necesarios, es decir, las sustancias indispensables para que las plantas se desarrollen bien\" (FAO Montes, 1996). Además de esta base conceptual sobre la fertilidad, se asume que las áreas determinadas, según su grado de fertilidad, están dadas en términos de unas características básicas como las siguientes: profundidades aptas para el desarrollo y fijación de raíces, nutrientes básicos necesarios, óptima absorción y retención de agua, y buena capacidad de oxigenación.• 4.1.4. Obtención de las variables geomorfológicas• Erosión: capa adquirida en los geoservicios de la CVC. Con esta variable se puede determinar el desgaste que se presenta a nivel regional, ya sea por causas naturales o antrópicas (CVC, 2017). • Pendiente: esta capa deriva del modelo de elevación digital adquirido en el sitio web del Cgiar Consortium for Spatial Information (Cgiar CSi, 2017).• 4.1.5. Obtención de los requerimientos para el cultivo la mora Junto con las fuentes de información bibliográficas, el uso de fuentes secundarias, la realización de entrevistas a profesionales del campo y la asistencia a reuniones de comité, en las que se tuvo contacto con los productores directamente, se realizó el acopio de información para los requerimientos del cultivo, en función de todas las variables tenidas en cuenta para la zonificación. Estos requerimientos se usaron para la reclasificación de las variables en categorías de aptitud (ver tabla 1).  En la consecución de esta información se puso un énfasis especial, pues permite determinar de manera global las posibilidades de las zonas de aptitud para la mora, de acuerdo con el escenario de la vocación y usos principales del suelo. Esta variable posibilita analizar la viabilidad de las áreas resultantes de la zonificación edafoclimática. De acuerdo con el igAC (2017), la vocación de uso del suelo se define como \"las tierras que, por sus características de suelos, permiten el establecimiento de sistemas de producción agrícola, con plantas cultivadas de diferentes ciclos de vida y productos\". Así, el objetivo principal de esta variable es determinar el uso óptimo y apropiado que puedan tener los suelos en el territorio colombiano. Esto último se inscribe en un contexto de producción sostenible y con un respeto total por los recursos naturales.En cuanto a la información vectorial sobre la vocación de uso del suelo, esta se adquirió en los geoservicios del Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi (igAC, 2017).Esta información socioecosistémica es relevante en la medida que permite visualizar con perspectiva la problemática subyacente entre los usos que la sociedad hace de los medios naturales y los usos \"que debería tener de acuerdo con sus potencialidades y restricciones ambientales, ecológicas, culturales, sociales y económicas, y por el grado de armonía que existe entre la conservación de la oferta ambiental y el desarrollo sostenible del territorio\" (igAC, 2017).Se incorpora esta información como componente en la sección socioecosistémica, pues en su construcción se articularon variables climáticas, ecosistémicas, de suelos y socioeconómicas.Esta capa contiene, en su base, información de los multimodelos de precipitación generados para el período 2011-2040, del índice de sensibilidad (iSA), que es una variable que surge a partir de la caracterización de los suelos, la cobertura vegetal, los ecosistemas transformados, el índice de aridez y la erosión en las zonas secas. Tal índice es definido, como el grado en que un sistema puede ser afectado positiva o negativamente, por los estímulos relacionados con el clima. (Ideam, 2010) Así como, del índice relativo de afectación (irA), variable que surge a partir del consenso de profesionales de diferentes áreas y especialidades que se enfocaron en \"identificar cada una de las coberturas, ecosistemas o territorios que podrían resultar impactados por los eventos adversos de cambio climático en su peor escenario\" (Ideam, 2010). Dentro de los elementos socioeconómicos que se integraron al análisis, se pueden destacar los siguientes: la capacidad de adaptación que deriva de la integración de las condiciones socioeconómicas e institucionales (base Sisben) y las capacidades técnicas de las regiones.• 4.1.7. Información socioeconómica departamental derivada del Tercer Censo Nacional Agropecuario de 2014Para complementar el análisis de zonificación, era necesario identificar algunas variables socioeconómicas que permitieran visualizar el estado general de la base productiva agropecuaria en el departamento del Valle del Cauca. Para tal fin, se procedió a la obtención de los microdatos del Tercer Censo Nacional Agropecuario 1 desde el catálogo general de datos (DANE, 2018).Una vez ubicados los microdatos específicos para el departamento del Valle del Cauca, se procedió a la selección de las variables a representar. En particular, se tomaron cuatro variables principales: sistema de riego, existencia de maquinaria agrícola, acceso a asistencia o asesoría, y fuentes de crédito y financiamiento. Para la elección de estas cuatro variables principales, se tomó en cuenta los datos generales para Colombia del Censo Nacional Agropecuario de 2014, en el que se destacan, entre las dificultades propias del sector agrario, la precariedad de los agricultores en temas cruciales como la falta de asistencia técnica, la cual llegó al 83,5 % de las Unidades Productoras Agropecuarias (UPA) sin acceso a esta. Por otro lado, un 66,7 % de las UPA no registran acceso a riego y un 89,3 % no han tenido acceso a crédito para inversión agrícola.Una vez identificadas las variables, se procedió al arreglo de los datos y se tuvo en cuenta hacerlo con relación a las UPA. Así, mediante el uso del software estadístico r, se seleccionaron los subconjuntos de información de la base de datos principal que, en este caso, era la Unidad Productora Agropecuaria.Nota: para el Valle del Cauca, el número total de Unidades Productoras censadas en este departamento fue de 102.704, de las cuales 75.874 eran Unidades Productoras Agropecuarias y 45.830 eran Unidades Productoras no Agropecuarias. Para la obtención de los porcentajes presentados en las tablas, gráficos o mapas, se tomaron en cuenta solamente las UPA que presentaban respuestas afirmativas, negativas o que se registraban en alguna categoría de las variables socioeconómicas consideradas. Así, en cada caso, estos números serán susceptibles a variación respecto al total de las UPA que fueron censadas.A continuación, se hace la descripción de las condiciones generales en el departamento de cada una de las variables del Censo Nacional Agropecuario incluidas en el presente estudio.• Sistema de riego La tenencia, o no, de uno o más sistemas de riego determina el grado de vulnerabilidad de las regiones y sus productores ante las eventualidades del cambio climático o fenómenos como El Niño. En este escenario de riesgo, es posible que los cultivos requieran, en momentos determinados, la asistencia en el suministro del preciado líquido; de lo contrario, se corre el riesgo de pérdidas o disminución de rendimientos.Para llevar a cabo de manera eficiente algunas actividades agrícolas, se ha hecho necesaria la mecanización de los procesos. Si bien es importante tener en cuenta tanto la labranza, que es uno de los dos factores de mayor impacto sobre los suelos, como las proyecciones hacia una agricultura de conservación, también es significativo observar la necesidad de incorporar1 Datos entregados a noviembre de 2014 y actualizaciones a 2017.cada vez más maquinaria especializada que coadyuve al sostenimiento de los procesos del suelo y a la conservación de los espacios agroecológicos (FAO, 2014).En este aspecto, se ha demostrado que los procesos de asistencia y asesoría se configuran como una oportunidad para enfocar la gestión del saber local en pos de acompasarlo con el conocimiento exógeno a los territorios. Esto se traduce en la integración y construcción de alianzas con instituciones académicas y de investigación que, en muchos casos, se encuentran inconexas con las realidades rurales (FAO, 2016).El acceso al crédito enfocado al sector agrícola se ha redefinido por las dislocaciones de la economía y los mercados a niveles nacionales y globales. Las intervenciones estatales derivaron en grandes sobrecostos y cargas fiscales, y muchas entidades captadoras de recursos de donantes internacionales se vieron afectadas por los contrapesos de las crisis financieras. Así, la búsqueda de crédito y servicios financieros en el sector agrario ha abierto una variopinta gama de fuentes que va desde los aún supervivientes bancos agrarios, las entidades de microcrédito, hasta los préstamos particulares de altos intereses. En este contexto, es necesario identificar qué fuentes predominan mayoritariamente en los territorios nacionales, para así vincularlas con las posibilidades de producción de los sistemas alimentarios futuros.El proceso siguiente conduce a la reclasificación de cada una de las variables de acuerdo con los requerimientos básicos del cultivo. De acuerdo con la herramienta de ArcgiS para reclasificación de archivos raster,Al reclasificar por rangos de valores, las herramientas de reclasificación requieren límites inferiores y superiores de los valores existentes en el raster de entrada y el valor alternativo que se va a asignar al rango de valores. Todos los valores del raster original que caen en el rango especificado de valores, recibirán el valor alternativo asignado a ese rango. (ArcgiS Pro, 2019) (ver figura 7) Se procedió a aplicar la herramienta de superposición ponderada (ver figura 8) que ubica los rangos predefinidos en la reclasificación de los raster (en este caso, la escala es 1 a 4) y realiza un proceso de ponderación de acuerdo con los pesos asignados a dichas clasificaciones, según los grupos de variables (clima, suelo y terreno). De este modo, en la herramienta de ArcgiS, Las capas se multiplican por el multiplicador correcto y, para cada celda, se agrupan los valores resultantes. La superposición ponderada presupone que los factores más favorables tienen como resultado los valores más altos en el raster de salida; por lo tanto, identifica estas ubicaciones como las mejores. (ArcgiS Desktop, 2017) (ver figura 8) A continuación, se muestra el modelo general de ponderación de datos aplicado para generar la zonificación edafoclimática (ver figura 9): La clasificación de la zonificación consiste en reasignar los valores producidos en la reclasificación de los datos espaciales a una escala de aptitudes que se vincula posteriormente a las áreas finales de la zonificación (ver tabla 2):Tabla 2. Escala de aptitud según los valores de reclasificación 1 No apto Áreas donde no existen las condiciones mínimas que permitan el cultivo. Las inversiones realizadas pueden no derivar en resultados (mínimos).2 Bajo Áreas donde existen limitantes y se requiere de grandes inversiones adicionales que permitan la producción del cultivo, el retorno de la inversión puede no cubrir lo invertido.3 Moderado Áreas donde se presentan restricciones moderadas, se pueden requerir de algunas inversiones, pero menores. Estas áreas se aproximan a lo óptimo .4 Apto Áreas donde no existen limitantes y se encuentran las condiciones óptimas para el desarrollo del cultivo.Fuente: elaboración propia.Al finalizar el proceso de superposición ponderada, y según las áreas de zonificación final, se restaron las capas de exclusión o restrictivas como las siguientes: recursos hídricos, áreas protegidas, infraestructura y sustracciones de ley (ver figura 10). En la figura 11, se ilustra el mapa de la capa de áreas de exclusión.Figura 10. Esquema de las capas de exclusión y restricción por grupos Fuente: elaboración propia.Fuente: elaboración propia.Para asociar la información socioecosistémica a las áreas de la zonificación edafoclimática, se realizó un proceso de intersección de datos espaciales con ayuda del software especializado (ArcgiS). El objetivo de este proceso era extraer la información de uso del suelo, la vocación de uso y la vulnerabilidad ambiental, con circunscripción exclusiva a las áreas finales de la zonificación (ver figura 12).Conflicto por el uso del suelo Información socioecosistémica adscrita a las áreas de zonificación Figura 12. Flujograma para la información socioecosistémica adscrita a las áreas de zonificaciónFuente: elaboración propia.Para vincular la información socioeconómica con la zonificación edafoclimática, se filtraron los microdatos del Censo Nacional Agropecuario. Como se mencionó en la parte metodológica, los resultados de este cruce de bases de datos se limitan al orden municipal, es decir, que al final, se muestra el comportamiento de las variables socioeconómicas elegidas con relación al orden de importancia de los municipios, según las áreas de aptitud final de la zonificación (ver figura 13). Gráficos del comportamiento de las variables socioeconomicas en los municipios según el orden de importancia en la zonificación Tablas de datos espaciales de las áreas de zonificación Figura 13. Flujograma para la información socioeconómica adscrita a las áreas de zonificación Fuente: elaboración propia.Finalmente, para llevar a cabo el análisis de cambio climático, se procedió al uso de Targeting Tools con el fin de producir capas de probabilidad de aptitud climática para el escenario presente y para el escenario futuro en 2050, según las Rutas de Concentración Representativas (rCP) 4.5 y 8.5 definidas por el Intergovernamental Panel on Climate Change (iPCC, 2018). En la figura 14, se muestra de manera sucinta el flujo del proceso para este análisis. Fuente: elaboración propia.En el departamento del Valle del Cauca, las zonas de aptitud alta para el cultivo de mora se concentran, según su orden de importancia, en los municipios de Tuluá, Sevilla, Versalles, Palmira, Dagua, Santiago de Cali y El Dovio. Todos estos con áreas de aptitud alta, entre 3000 y 1300 ha (ver figura 15 y tabla 3). Sin embargo, de estos municipios, Tuluá, Sevilla y Palmira presentan áreas de aptitud total superiores a las 10.000 ha (ver tabla 4). De modo general, se puede ver que las zonas de aptitud moderada predominan y que las zonas de aptitud baja tienen muy poca presencia.Sector ladera Figura 15. Mapa de zonificación de la mora en el departamento del Valle del CaucaFuente: elaboración propia.A su vez, se puede ver cómo la distribución porcentual de las zonas de aptitud a nivel departamental dejan entrever el predominio de las zonas de aptitud moderada, seguidas por una proporción menor en cuanto a las zonas de aptitud alta (10,7 %) y de aptitud baja (1,5 %) (ver figura 16). En lo concerniente a los resultados a nivel municipal (ver figura 17), estos permiten ver que solo 7 municipios presentan áreas totales de aptitud entre las 9000 y las 22.000 ha. En este contexto, los municipios con las mayores zonas son Tuluá, Bolívar, Calima-El Darién, Palmira, Sevilla, Guadalajara de Buga, El Cairo y Dagua. Tal como ya se observó, aquellos que destacan por tener zonas de aptitud alta son Tuluá, Palmira, Sevilla, Guadalajara de Buga y Dagua. Con el fin de verificar detalles en cuanto a los tamaños de área, según la zona y aptitud, se elaboró la tabla 4.- Fuente: elaboración propia.Para realizar la validación correspondiente a los resultados obtenidos en la zonificación, se recurrió a una muestra de datos obtenidos en algunas visitas a productores. Se debe aclarar que los puntos georreferenciados de productores son solo una muestra de la totalidad de los agricultores de mora de Castilla en el Valle del Cauca.Los puntos reales de producción visitados en las etapas iniciales del estudio estaban focalizados en los municipios de Trujillo, Tuluá, Pradera y Ginebra. Con la obtención posterior de los resultados, y al hacer la intersección de estos con los puntos recolectados, se observó que todos los puntos de referencia se ubicaron en las zonas de aptitud moderada, lo cual permite corroborar la idoneidad de los resultados (ver figura 18). Puntos de cultivoA rasgos generales, en las zonas de aptitud para el cultivo de mora, los usos adecuados o sin conflicto ocurren en el 32,3 % del total de las áreas (62.010 ha), mientras que la sobreutilización se lleva a cabo en el 31,9 % (61.193 ha) de las áreas mencionadas. En cuanto a la demanda no disponible, esta se presenta en el 35,2 % (67.538 ha) de dichas zonas (ver figura 19 y tabla 5). Al entrar en detalle en el análisis de los datos, es posible identificar que los municipios de Bolívar y Calima-El Darién tienen las mayores áreas con usos adecuados o sin conflicto. Con relación a los municipios de Tuluá, Palmira y Sevilla, a pesar de tener grandes áreas de aptitud total, estos poseen mayores áreas con sobreutilización y demanda no disponible. Así mismo, se identificó a Dagua como uno de los municipios con zonas mayores de usos adecuados o sin conflicto. Por lo tanto, este municipio presenta un buen potencial para el cultivo de mora en zonas de ladera, aunque su área total no supere las 10.000 ha (ver figura 20 y tabla 5).  A continuación, en el mapa de distribución de los conflictos por el uso del suelo y según las áreas de zonificación (ver figura 21), se puede identificar grandes porciones de zonas con usos adecuados y sin conflicto. Estas se hallan en las laderas de la Cordillera Occidental desde el municipio de Restrepo, en dirección al norte del valle, hasta Ansermanuevo. Por otra parte, una distribución bastante alta de áreas con demanda no disponible se halla en la Cordillera Central. No obstante, es en esta parte del departamento donde se distribuyen de forma equilibrada los conflictos por el uso del suelo más prevalentes.Figura 21. Mapa de conflicto por el uso del suelo según las áreas de zonificación en el departamento del Valle del CaucaFuente: elaboración propia.Tabla 5. Tamaño de área por municipio según los conflictos por el uso del suelo La asociación de esta variable con las áreas de zonificación muestra que una gran porción de estas tiene suelos con vocación de uso forestal (96,8 %), lo que equivale a 186.044 ha. En tanto que las áreas con vocación de uso agrícola escasamente llegan a 2,5 % (4739 ha) (ver figura 22 y tabla 6). Figura 24. Mapa vocación de uso del suelo según las áreas de zonificación en el departamento del Valle del CaucaFuente: elaboración propia.Con respecto al índice de vulnerabilidad, a rasgos generales, este muestra un índice alto (48,2 %), que equivale a 92.520 ha, y medio (50,5 %), que equivale a 96.970 ha (ver figura 25). Estrictamente, entre los municipios predomina la vulnerabilidad media, lo cual es más favorable, en términos de impacto, en los municipios de Calima-El Darién, Dagua, Trujillo, Santiago de Cali, Riofrío, Yumbo, Restrepo, La Cumbre, Buenaventura y Vijes (ver figura 26). En la figura 27, se puede apreciar cómo la alta vulnerabilidad puede afectar los municipios del norte de la cordillera Occidental, desde Bolívar hasta El Águila, y al sur en Jamundí. Así, la Cordillera Central se vería más afectada en una mayor proporción en las áreas de zonificación de algunos municipios como Sevilla y El Cerrito. Asimismo, estos tendrían más áreas de impacto medio que áreas de impacto alto (ver tabla 7).   Fuente: elaboración propia.Según la importancia de los municipios, y de acuerdo con las áreas determinadas en la zonificación, se hizo el cruce de información con las bases de datos del Censo Nacional Agropecuario (2014), de las cuales se obtuvo la información del número de las UPA que dieron respuestas afirmativas o negativas respecto a la tenencia o no de maquinaria, sistema de riego agrícola, acceso a servicios financieros-crediticios, asistencia y asesoría. La síntesis de datos a partir de los resultados de la zonificación brinda una mirada general de las cuatro variables priorizadas en función de la situación particular de los municipios según el área total de aptitud de mayor a menor.Partiendo de los datos generales, se sabe que un 43,8 % del total de las UPA (76.874) registraron respuesta a esta variable. De ellas, un 32 % tiene al menos un sistema de riego. Con respecto al total de municipios que tienen áreas de aptitud para el cultivo de mora, el 42,9 % de ellos cuenta con un número mayor de UPA con al menos un sistema de riego.Según la zonificación, los municipios con grandes áreas (más de 9000 ha) con aptitud, tales como Calima-El Darién, El Cairo, Sevilla y Guadalajara de Buga, tienen un número bajo de UPA con al menos un tipo de sistema de riego; mientras que Tuluá, Sevilla, Dagua y El Águila presentan un gran número de UPA sin acceso a este servicio (ver figura 28). En general, la tendencia a no tener un sistema de riego alcanza el 57,1 %. Para el caso específico de la mora, este tema debe evaluarse a partir de las particularidades del lugar donde se lleva a cabo el plantío, pues esto determina qué tan crítico o no puede llegar a ser el acceso a este servicio. En este contexto, en muchos de los casos observados, las particularidades climáticas pueden coadyuvar a prescindir del sistema de riego.  Con respecto a esta variable, los datos más generales muestran que las UPA registradas con respuesta representan el 88,6 % del total de 76.874 UPA que hay en el departamento. De este número, solo el 27,1 % registran posesión de maquinaria agrícola. Por otra parte, del total de municipios que tienen áreas de aptitud para el cultivo de mora, solo un 14,3 % cuenta con un mayor número de UPA con tenencia de algún tipo de maquinaria.De acuerdo con la figura 29, se puede observar que la mayoría de los municipios registran un número mayor de UPA sin posesión de maquinaria agrícola respecto al número de estas que sí poseen. En el caso de la mora, en muchos de los puntos de producción observados la actividad del cultivo es llevada a cabo en huertas o en cultivos a pequeña escala. Esto sucede en lugares donde la mecanización compleja no es aplicable. Por tanto, cabría analizar a futuro si en los proyectos productivos de mora, por su extensión y ubicación geográfica, se requiere acceso a este tipo de bienes. Según los datos, del total de las UPA en el departamento (76.874), un 93,1 % registra algún tipo de respuesta con respecto a esta variable. A su vez, solo un 29,6 % de estas ha accedido a algún tipo de asistencia o asesoría. Del total de municipios que tiene áreas de aptitud para el cultivo de mora, el 20 % cuenta con el mayor número de UPA que ha tenido algún tipo de servicio de asesoramiento o asistencia.Según la zonificación, en función del área que poseen, los municipios con mayor potencial de aptitud, con el número más alto de UPA que han recibido algún tipo de asistencia o asesoría son Tuluá, Palmira y Dagua. Esto indica la necesidad de impulsar programas en el tema, en particular, en los municipios que presentan mayores potenciales para el cultivo de mora. De la misma manera, se recomienda prestar atención a los casos más críticos: Tuluá, Calima-El Darién, Palmira, Guadalajara de Buga, El Cairo y, especialmente, Dagua, que presenta un alto número de UPA sin beneficio de asistencia y asesoría (ver figura 30). Los datos generales muestran que, del número total de UPA (76.874) en el departamento del Valle del Cauca, solo un 13,8 % registra algún tipo de respuesta para esta variable. De estas, un 90,6 % ha accedido a algún tipo de asistencia o asesoría. Por su parte, en los municipios con áreas de aptitud para el cultivo de mora, el 100 % de las UPA ha contado con algún tipo de servicio de asesoramiento o asistencia. En lo concerniente a los municipios con más área potencial según la zonificación, Calima-El Darién y El Cairo presentan un muy bajo número de UPA con acceso a este tipo de servicios. En general, los diez municipios con mejores perspectivas de acceso a crédito y financiamiento, sin importar el área total de aptitud, son: Tuluá, Jamundí, Florida, Palmira, Pradera, Sevilla, Bolívar Trujillo y Bugalagrande (ver figura 31).  Fuente: elaboración propia.Con relación a los resultados correspondientes a este análisis, estos se presentan a continuación: a) Mapas de aptitud climática, escenario presente y futuro (rCP 4.5 y rCP 8.5) dados en rangos de aptitud. b) Indicador gráfico del porcentaje de aptitud climática general, para el escenario presente y futuro (rCP 4.5 y rCP 8.5) en todo el departamento, dados en cuatro rangos de porcentajes de aptitud. c) Indicador presentado en gráfico de barras sobre la aptitud climática, para el escenario presente y futuro (rCP 4.5 y rCP 8.5) por municipios, según los rangos de porcentaje de aptitud. d) Mapas de ganancia, no cambio y pérdida de áreas de aptitud climática de acuerdo con la diferencia entre el escenario presente (menos rCP 4.5) y el presente (menos rCP 8.5). e) Indicadores gráficos de ganancia, no cambio y pérdida de áreas de aptitud climática dados en rangos de porcentaje de aptitud.De modo general, se puede decir que, en el escenario presente (ver figura 32) y en los dos escenarios rCP a futuro, no se presentan grandes variaciones en la aptitud climática para el cultivo de mora. Así mismo, los porcentajes de área que corresponden a cada uno de los rangos de aptitud no varían mucho (ver figura 33). Visualmente, se aprecia unas variaciones en la zona norte en los municipios de La Unión, Toro, Argelia y Ansermanuevo, sin embargo, entre los cuatro municipios hay poca área comprometida. Otra zona comprometida con algún cambio es la que abarca los límites entre el municipio de Santiago de Cali y Dagua (ver figura 32, ver los mapas en las figuras 43, 44 y 45, en el anexo 1). En cuanto a otras zonas que presentan algún tipo de cambio entre escenarios están las ubicadas en la Cordillera Central entre los municipios de Sevilla y Ginebra (ver en detalle las figuras del anexo 1). Los siete principales municipios que conservan rangos de aptitud altos y áreas de aptitud superiores a 9000 ha, según la zonificación en tres escenarios, son Tuluá, Bolívar, Calima-El Darién, Palmira, Sevilla, Guadalajara de Buga y Dagua.  En lo concerniente al análisis particular en el escenario presente, en primer lugar, se puede observar el caso del municipio de El Cairo, el cual, si bien es uno de los municipios con más áreas potenciales de aptitud, según la zonificación en lo estrictamente climático, tiene un muy bajo porcentaje de aptitud, pues de sus 10.583 ha potenciales, 7.347,5 están en el rango de porcentaje de aptitud climática más baja (0-20 %) (ver tabla 8). Por otro lado, los municipios que se destacan por tener grandes áreas en el rango más alto del porcentaje de aptitud climática son Tuluá, Bolívar, Calima-El Darién, Palmira y Sevilla; todos ellos con áreas superiores a las 10.000 ha. Si bien la mayoría de los municipios tiene porcentajes de aptitud alta, sin embargo, sus áreas totales están por debajo de las 7000 ha. Los municipios que poseen áreas destacables, en un rango medio alto de aptitud, son Guadalajara de Buga, Tuluá, Versalles y Ginebra (ver figura 34 y tabla 8). En particular, de acuerdo con los municipios, se puede notar que los mayores cambios de porcentaje de aptitud positiva están entre el 1 y el 25 %, y ocurren en los municipios de Tuluá, Palmira, Sevilla, Guadalajara de Buga, El Cerrito y Ginebra (ver figura 38). En otros, se presentan cambios positivos en menor proporción, pero ocurren pérdidas en dicho porcentaje también en grandes áreas. Los municipios en donde será aún mayor el impacto (entre -1 y -25 %) son Bolívar, Dagua, Calima-El Darién y Tuluá (ver tabla 12).  Al analizar el mapa de las zonas de cambio de aptitud, entre el escenario presente y el escenario futuro rCP 4.5 (2050) se observa que el cambio en dichas zonas, según la relación entre el escenario presente y el rCP 4.5, muestra zonas de no cambio y ganancia entre el 1 y 25 %, en especial, en las zonas de aptitud de la cordillera Central de los municipios de Sevilla, Tuluá, San Pedro y Guadalajara de Buga (ver figura 39). Entre tanto, el cambio en las regiones de la cordillera Occidental tiende a la pérdida en los porcentajes de aptitud (entre el -1 y -25 %), en particular, en los municipios de La Unión, Toro, Roldanillo, Bolívar, Trujillo, Riofrío, Calima-El Darién y en la zona de intersección de los municipios de Dagua, La Cumbre, Yumbo y Santiago de Cali. Con relación a la zona de cambio que sufre las peores pérdidas de porcentaje de aptitud (aunque reducidas en aérea), esta se localiza en el municipio de Jamundí.Figura 39. Zonas de cambio de aptitud en el departamento del Valle del Cauca entre el escenario presente y el escenario futuro RCP 4.5 (2050) Fuente: elaboración propia.En cuanto al cambio más notable respecto al escenario rCP 8.5, el mismo se da en el aumento de las áreas con pérdidas de porcentaje de aptitud climática entre el -1 y -25 % (equivalentes a 113.159 ha) (ver figura 40). Si se compara con los cambios dados en el escenario rCP 4.5, se puede notar un aumento de las áreas con porcentaje de pérdida de aptitud climática de hasta -51 %, aunque estas sean reducidas en tamaño solo unas 180 ha. Al llevar a cabo un análisis por municipio, se puede evidenciar la alta proporción de áreas con pérdida de porcentaje de aptitud (entre -1 y -25 %) frente a las áreas con ganancias entre el 1 a 25 %. En este escenario de cambio persisten, dada su tendencia positiva, los municipios de Tuluá, Palmira, Sevilla, Bugalagrande, El Cerrito y Ginebra. En lo que concierne a los municipios más afectados por dichas pérdidas se encuentran El Cairo, El Águila y Jamundí (ver figura 41 y tabla 13). Figura 41. Gráfico de distribución de los porcentajes de cambio de aptitud climática por municipios en el departamento del Valle del Cauca entre el escenario presente y el escenario futuro RCP 8. 5 (2050) Fuente: elaboración propia.de áreas con porcentaje de ganancia en la cordillera Central, aunque son adyacentes a otras áreas de pérdida (entre el -1 y el 25 %). • A través de la zonificación edafoclimática, se pudieron identificar 20.591 ha con aptitud alta, 168.614 ha de aptitud moderada y 2.905 ha de aptitud baja para el cultivo de mora en la zona de ladera del departamento del Valle del Cauca. • Desde el punto de vista edafoclimático, los municipios con mayor área total de aptitud (alta, moderada y baja), respectivamente, son los siguientes: Tuluá, Bolívar, Calima-El Darién, Palmira, Sevilla, Guadalajara de Buga, El Cairo y Dagua. De estos, los municipios que tienen áreas con mayor potencial son Tuluá, Sevilla, Palmira y Dagua. • De acuerdo con el análisis climático, se puede concluir que las áreas aptas para el cultivo de mora en las zonas de ladera en el Valle del Cauca, sin importar el escenario a futuro, serán favorables; solo cambios pequeños en ciertas regiones pueden afectar esta aptitud. En cuanto al cambio, se puede observar una tendencia a pérdidas potenciales en el porcentaje de aptitud (entre -1 y -25 %). Esto no necesariamente significa pérdida total de aptitud, sino apenas un cambio negativo en su porcentaje. • De los ítems relacionados a las condiciones socioeconómicas de la región, se enfatiza la necesidad de mejorar el acceso a la asistencia técnica. Como ya se mencionó, muchas de las unidades productoras de mora están, en su mayoría, asociadas a pequeñas unidades familiares; esto restringe ostensiblemente la aplicación de nuevas tecnologías para la producción. Debe hacerse hincapié en la gestión de paquetes asistenciales para implementar las mejoras tecnológicas. • Es importante tener en cuenta que la zonificación se convierte en una guía general respecto a las áreas potenciales de aptitud a nivel edafoclimático, el porcentaje de aptitud al cambio climático a nivel de los municipios, y a escala general para el departamento. Ahora bien, para la determinación de potencialidades locales se requiere de estudios más focales y específicos. De igual modo, si se menciona la necesidad de implementar programas de adaptabilidad al cambio climático y el fomento de ciertas variables socioeconómicas, esto no indica que sean recomendaciones directas, pues para ello deben conducirse estudios más específicos que indaguen profundamente en las especificidades de los sitios de interés.Figura 43. Zonas de aptitud climática para la mora en el escenario presente en el departamento del Valle del Cauca Este proyecto es financiado por el Fondo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación del Sistema General de Regalías del Departamento Nacional de Planeación y tiene como objetivo beneficiar a 15.000 personas en el Valle del Cauca. Está orientado a incrementar la competitividad sostenible en la agricultura de ladera del Valle del Cauca, mediante procesos de investigación y desarrollo en los diferentes eslabones de la cadena productiva, que va desde la etapa inicial del cultivo hasta la etapa agroindustrial de los tres frutales seleccionados: piña md-2, aguacate Hass y mora de Castilla.","tokenCount":"9906"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3dded00ebac5a668c62f7cfd6089137b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1aba055b-1b37-49be-90a1-cba41842a300/retrieve","id":"-2001851447"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0c743da5-59eb-448d-a0ed-d080c917bd1e","pagecount":"29","content":"To implement the Africa RISING rolling work plan that was developed in 2013, a set of research protocols targeting the main problems and opportunities identified are being implemented. These are summarized in Table 1 under the seven research themes of the work plan.Most of the previous activities implemented by Africa RISING in the Ethiopian Highlands focused on exploratory diagnostic studies. This has given a sound base on which to plan action-based on-farm research, which is reflected by the shift in emphasis in the current batch of implemented research protocols. Currently, 22 action related protocols alongside 11 exploratory protocols are being implemented. These latter have changed in emphasis somewhat with the key focus now on: Exploring some more generic issues around sustainable intensification (e.g. research on indigenous perceptions of sustainability);  Looking at knowledge management and exchange issues around SI to support the equitable and effective, ground-up scaling activities that is implemented from early 2015 (e.g. research on innovations platform communications procedures and the study on gendered constraints to adoption);  Support of our scaling activities, to explore enabling environments for successful adoption (e.g. the historical adoption study). Theme 1: Feed and forage developmentIn the mixed crop-livestock farming systems of Ethiopian highlands, crop residues (CR) constitute an important part of livestock diet, particularly in the dry period when green forage is scarce. In most cases CR are stored as heaps in the open air and feeding takes place by spreading a portion on the ground. These traditional management practices result in considerable loss of CR biomass and quality due to weather, pests, contamination and prolonged storage. The adoption of improved methods of storage and feeding practices will minimize wastage, improve the nutritive value could be a cost-effective feed resource to overcome feed shortage in the dry season. It is also hypothesized that farmers with better livestock market orientations can readily adopt improved CR utilization for increased livestock productivity. Participatory action research and laboratory testing is therefore required to document local practices and CR nutritive value and assess the impact of the adoption of improved techniques by farmers on:  CR wastage and quality deterioration during the storage period  The proportion of CR refusal during feeding  The need for a supplementation plan for CR dietsIf farmers adopt cost-effective techniques that improve the quality and utilization of CR, it will increase their farm/livestock productivity. Moreover, documenting the relationships between livestock market access/orientation of farmers and their CR management and readiness to adopt new techniques will provide valuable input for future technology interventions.The expected outcome of this research is that farmers in the research sites will be acquainted with and adopt new technologies that minimize wastage of crop residues during storage and feeding, while at the same time improving the palatability and the feeding value of the residue. The techniques will help farmers to effectively utilize the available crop residue biomass and increase their farm productivity. During the evaluation process, forums will be created where farmers within and outside the group will share knowledge and experiences on how to further improve the handling and utilization of CR. This will in turn increase awareness among farmers, and enable to scale out better practices of CR utilizations identified in the participatory evaluation.Pilot study on supplemental irrigated fodder production for fattening sheep at LemoSmall scale irrigation practices are vital to the intensification of crop-livestock mixed farming system in the Ethiopian highlands. In the Lemo Africa RISING site a number of farmers have shallow wells and started to practice small scale irrigation to produce vegetables, using treadle and hip pumps distributed on loan through Africa RISING project. In Angacha district farmers have also previous experience in using rope & washer pumps for vegetable production. Integration of the small scale irrigation with livestock rearing through production of irrigated fodders and fattening practices may diversify and increase the income of farmers. Sheep fattening by supplementing locally available feeds with fast growing irrigated fodder plants (oat and vetch) may be a viable option for intensification, especially with farmers who have limited land space and cannot allocate large areas to grow fodder for large ruminants. Moreover, there are good fattening sheep types in the area (Doyogana sheep) and the demand for fattened sheep is high during major holidays. This practice may also allow efficient conversion of locally available feed resources including unmarketable (low-grade) vegetables and crop residues into a high value product (meat) and increase the intake of crop residues which have poor intake rate when fed alone. A participatory action research exercise is therefore required to investigate the effect of this practice on the income of farmers and the tradeoffs in the utilization of irrigation water for supplemental fodder production. Women tend to be less involved in fattening due to lack of feed and labour requirements. Therefore they sell younger sheep (yearling) and earn less unlike the men who bring bigger sheep to the market. Therefore this project has great potential to increase women's participation in fattening and benefit more from the sheep value chain through increased access to and control of fodder.Income diversification and increased integration of crop-livestock systems is important to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers. This pilot project will enable to explore the available opportunities for farmers with regard to sheep fattening using irrigated fodder as a supplement to crop residues and other locally available feeds. The project will enable to establish the feasibility of irrigated fodder production during the dry period to diversify the income of farmers and to further integrate mixed crop-livestock systems. Farmers will get opportunities to acquaint themselves with improved management of cultivated fodder of fattening sheep and share experiences on how to effectively utilize locally available feed resources. Major value chain actors and constraints for sheep fattening and marketing in the districts will be identified. The practice would contribute to increased access to and control of fodder by women and disadvantaged groups. The lessons learned from this pilot project will be used as valuable inputs to scale out irrigated fodder-fattening practices within and outside the Africa RISING sites.Theme 2: Field crop varietal selection and managementMatching crop-specific fertilizer regimes, including types and amounts, with local soil and seasonal climate conditions coupled with the use of improved crop varieties has the potential to greatly reduce the existing yield gaps in AR sites. While local resources such as crop residue and manure are used by many farmers, additional knowledge on their appropriate management including combination with external resources such as fertilizers is needed at the local level to increase their use efficiency. On-farm demonstration and experiential learning where farmer experiment on own field with 1 or 2 selected practices can result in widespread adoption and adaptation of technologies, under varied farmer management and local conditions. Thus by applying the principle that yield is a function of genotype, environment and management, we seek to move farmers from the current practice of low input use to a profitable use of improved seed, optimal fertilizer amounts, nutrients (organic and inorganic), while adapting the technologies to the varied local conditions. Applying this concept can significantly help address the yield gap observed on many smallholder farmers' fields, while at the same time, equipping farmers with needed skills to improve farming.This work will provide information on the missing links in soil and crop management in AR sites (initially in two sites) in Ethiopia. It will demonstrate best management approaches for improved varieties in different configurations of rotations. Through this, a yield increase of at least 25% is expected among practising farmers. A catalogue of technologies that have potential for profitability under local conditions in each of the villages will be developed. The findings of the research will be presented at a community workshop for validation and dissemination. By linking with proposed soil fertility and alternative erosion management activities (3.1.1-3 and 4.1.1-2) under Theme 4 and results of work on varietal selection, technology packages that will be demonstrated stand a high chance of success. The work will also enhance the capacity of existing extension personnel who will continue to have impact on the villages beyond the project life.CGIAR and Associated Partners: ILRI, ICARDAThe Ethiopian highlands are characterized by cereal-food legume production system where the productivity is very low due to pests, poor agronomic practices and growing of unimproved cultivars.Potato is becoming an integral parts of the production system of the highlands. Sustainability of cereals (wheat and barley) and potato is maintained through regular rotation with food legumes in small and main rainy seasons of the highlands. During the implementation of AR in Bale highlands and other projects, it was possible to identify high yielding cereal, faba bean and potato cultivars that can provide high yield and contribute to food security. However, many varieties are not tested in all the four AR sites. Moreover, there are early maturing legumes that can be used in double cropping with cereal and potato to increase land productivity in the highlands. Most of the wheat, barley, potato and faba bean cultivars released are developed with little or involvements of farmers and hence there is a need to put these varieties under PVS where farmers' inputs will be considered. Therefore, this study/intervention is designed to evaluate cultivars of the four commodities following PVS approaches as well as testing double cropping to increase land productivity.A Participatory Variety Selection (PVS) trial, consisting of 3-5 released cultivars, each for food barley, malt barley, faba bean, potato and bread wheat will be conducted (all varieties of one crop /farmer and five farmers/site) in the four Africa RISING sites. Each cultivar of each crop will be planted on a minimum of 100m2 plot of land. Immediately after harvest, double cropping systems will be tested by superimposing short duration crops on the PVS treatments. For this, short duration varieties of chickpea, lentil, barley and possibly potato will relayed into / doubled-cropped after the PVS crops.The double cropping component will be implemented in Sinana, Lemu and Endemehoni sites (4 farmers/site). All field trials will be jointly managed by participating farmers, Researchers from Sinana, Debre Birhan, and Endemehoni and AR site coordinators. All agronomic, insect pests, diseases, yield and gender data will be collected and training of extension and farmers as well as field days will be organized. Participating farmers in this action search will be drawn from the IPclusters established in each AR action kebeles. Selected cultivars will be further evaluated during the small rainy season and supplementary irrigation in North Shoa and Bale highlands in 2015.CGIAR and Associated Partners: ICARDA, CIP, CIMMYTStepwise intensification options for small-scale Faba Bean / forage production systemsThe demonstration activities with faba beans undertaken at the Africa RISING research sites during the Meher season of 2013 highlighted the differences between farmers' existing practices and those required for the successful adoption of improved bean variety / management packages. Most significantly, we have observed farmers in SNNPR and Amhara regions weeding their bean crops very late leaving volunteer wild oats, other grass weeds and Trifolium sp. to create an ad hoc foragebean intercrop. As a source of forage, these \"weeds\" are significant. A preliminary study conducted at Lemo has indicated that up to 2 tonnes (average: 1.4 tonnes) of wild oat forage dry matter may be made available within a growing season. Moreover, the establishment costs for the forage component are, effectively, zero making this a very cost effective source of what is actually quite high quality forage. This protocol proposes a systematic exploration of a set of possible intensification trajectories for the forage -bean intercrop. This needs to include the identification of (1) competition-tolerant bean varieties that can recover after the forage crop is removed under farmers' existing practice, (2) the possibility of identifying alternative forages to increase productivity whilst retaining the cost benefits of the volunteer-based forage crop and (3) options for stepwise intensification towards specialised bean production for those farmers who begin to appreciate the benefits of market participation. This research will lead to a clear view of the relative benefits of a range of options for intensification of a sub-system that generates food, forage and cash income for farmers. These options will differ in the extent to which farmers need to make an initial commitment to intensification; from interventions that require minimal changes in management practices (other than a change of variety) and are, therefore, more likely to be adoptable in the short term to interventions that require significant change of practice but have the potential to generate a greater overall returns. Farmers participating in the research will provide an evidence base that the concept of flexible intensification trajectories and including a robust trade off analysis will constitute sound basis for future scaling of the innovations within and beyond Africa RISING research sites. , 3) open grazing system, 4) lack of awareness and familiarity with the potential opportunities that high value trees can contribute, and 5) lack of water sources for irrigation. This intervention will respond to the local demand and government's initiative to introduce high value trees and campaign for their wider adoption.Smallholder farmers in the sites have not benefited from multipurpose trees because of several reasons including those mentioned above. This intervention will raise farmers' knowhow and awareness on the benefits of integrating multipurpose high value trees to the mixed crop-livestock systems. The integration will improve farmers' productivity, income, nutrition, soil fertility and other products and services. Government extension, EIAR, regional research institutes, NGOs and CBOs will recognize the benefits derived from introduction of high value multipurpose trees and will mainstream to their development programs. Decision-makers will be better informed and recognize on women's role on fruit production and develop gender sensitive policy options. Wider adoption of fruits will be facilitated through an increased awareness by farmers and recognition by development partners (including the government, EIAR, NGOs, and CBOs). This will also lead to mainstreaming of high value trees to the national system and scaling-up through creating partnership and information sharing platform at different levels. Farmers will be convinced to implement controlled grazing system. Project sites, interventions and activities will be properly geo referenced and documented for future monitoring and evaluation. Partnerships, innovation platforms and publications will enhance awareness and encourage adoption. These will ultimately help design other projects as well as government initiatives to expand interventions to other regions.CGIAR and Associated Partners: ICRAF, IWMI, CIAT, ILRI, Private sectorCommunities in Ethiopian highlands are trapped in a vicious cycle of resources degradation, weak institutional capacity and lack of financial resources to overcome these challenges. The pressure on the natural resource base also poses challenges and often leads to increased conflicts between the various land uses and users across the landscape. Such conflicts often arise when some of the essential services or functions of the landscape are partially or entirely lost or when benefits are not shared appropriately. There are successful bright spots in Ethiopia, whereby few communities have undergone a substantial livelihood change by intensively managing small patches of land within the farm for growing market-oriented produces (market gardens) as well as testing and integrating food security crops, particularly Enset, Sweet Potato and Potato and highland fruits. A market garden is a business-oriented, relatively small patch of land within a farm or a landscape providing wide range and steady supply of fresh produces throughput the year. These gardens are commonly small plots around the house or watering points. Such areas generally receive 'preferential management' as they could be fertilised by household refuse, manure, crop residue and night soil, have higher soil organic matter, higher soil water holding capacity and support healthy and high yielding crops. Given the limited amount of inputs required, higher returns of per unit of labour and water investment, low risk of gardens in terms of theft and land tenure, market gardens could be used as an incentive to improve watershed management. They serve the nutritional requirements of children and women through a year round production of legumes, vegetables, fruits and greens. There is thus a possibility to enhance the food security and nutrition requirements of households especially women and children by re-organizing land use across landscapes. A more convincing evidence for developing this proposal emanated from a successful market garden development experience in a drought-prone region in Northern Ethiopia, Bati, which was severely affected by recurrent drought of the 1980s and heavily relied on food aid for about 20 years. Farmers adopted a combination of home garden interventions along with water harvesting and conservation agriculture. In ten years' time, they have moved from food aid to food security and in another 10 years they have increased their income from desperate poverty to an average household income of 5500 USD per year (http://www.raw.info/latest/when-water-is-scarce). The watershed has also changed towards an ecologically sustainable farming system.The anticipated outcome of this study would be:  Increased child nutrition, household income and resilience of resource-poor farmers,  particularly women, through integration of market garden innovations;  Improved market linkages of resource poor farmers using market gardens as entry points;  Institutional and socio-economic incentives identified for development, management, expansion and adoption of market gardens;  Investment costs of market gardens in various market scenarios established;  Strategies for facilitating improvements in landscapes developed and disseminated;  Evidence for policy makers and investors developed and widely shared;CGIAR and Associated Partners: ICRISAT, ICRAF, CIAT Theme 4: Improved land and water management for sustainabilitySurveys carried out by Africa RISING in 2013 revealed that inappropriate soil fertility management in the eight selected kebeles in general, and absence of rational use of mineral fertilizer in the Gudo Beret kebele (Amhara Region) and Jawe kebele (SNNPR Region) in particular, lead to soil mining and a loss of soil fertility. However, more in-depth information of major soil fertility constraints at subregional scale is missing. In addition, there is no adequate information on appropriate fertilizer recommendations that address issues of soil health while at the same time are acceptable by the farming community. Likewise, it is currently unknown what incentives would be required for smallholders to adopt sustainable land management practices, if such entail tradeoffs that currently provide disincentives for farmers to change business-as-usual practices. Computer simulation tools, such as crop-soil simulation models, provide options for fast and wide-scale assessment of soil fertility dynamics and impacts of organic and/or inorganic fertilizer management practices in a predictive fashion. They are ideal tools to carry out scenario (what-if) analyses under current and best-bet, sustainable intensification conditions. These can also be used in combination with other models (livestock production models, household consumption models), to analyze soil fertilityagricultural production -livelihood tradeoffs. National Ethiopian scientists will be in a better position to improve fertilizer management recommendations while accommodating soil fertility constraints, the sustainability of intensified crop production, as well as farmers socio-economic constraints  Farmers in the selected kebeles consider soil fertility management in their planning  Sustainably increased crop production  Reduced vulnerability and production risk (risk of investment in inputs) of smallholders in the selected kebeles  Informed decision making by local, regional, and national stakeholders will strengthen  Communicating results in workshop will strengthen stakeholders buy-in  Reports, training manuals and articles CGIAR and Associated Partners: CIAT, ICRISAT, ATA, ICARDA, ICRAFSoil erosion is a serious problem in Ethiopia affecting food security, infrastructure and development activities. Various processes initiate and aggravate soil erosion including rainfall intensity, terrain, surface cover, land-use and management practices. Different endogenous and exogenous drivers such as population pressure, climate change, deforestation, overgrazing, land tenure, farmer's livelihood and coping strategies also dictate the severity and spatial dynamics of soil erosion. It is thus crucial to map the spatial variability of soil loss, understand the key drivers and identify the major hotspot areas to plan for priority areas of intervention and corresponding sustainable land management (SLM) options. In this study, participatory and modeling approaches will be used to map the severity and spatial dynamics of soil erosion and identify appropriate land use and management options to tackle soil loss at representative kebeles of each Africa RISING woreda. The potentials of mosaics of interventions across the landscape will be evaluated in order to understand synergies and trade-offs. As there is evidence that many implemented SLM and conservation measures have not succeeded as anticipated, policy, institutional and other socio-economic setups required for success will also be investigated.The research will provide information on the severity and driving forces of soil erosion and identify hotspots that require priority management intervention. The modeling and simulation results will help identify site-specific and problem-oriented SLM and SWC options that reduce soil erosion risk and improve productivity. The participatory approach will equip farmers' understanding and perception of soil erosion and its drivers and thus increase their awareness and adoption of feasible and acceptable SLM and SWC technologies. Socio-economic and trade-off analysis results under theme 4.1 will also inform best-bet and acceptable technologies suited to arrest soil erosion. Local and regional stakeholders as well as other partners understand the severity and spatial dynamics of soil erosion and evaluate the significances of different of land-use and management options. Presentation of modeling outputs will help farmers and regional officers understand the benefits and trade-offs of site-specific and problem-oriented management options vis-à-vis stakeholder preferences. Community level partnership will allow implementation of identified SLM options targeting selected erosion hotspots. Based on the outputs of the research, provisional recommendations will be made on necessary policy and institutional setups for the proper implementation and effectiveness of SLM and SWC options. The whole approach used in the study will be documented and made available to guide up-or out-scaling to other sites. In 2015 and beyond, more elaborated in situ testing of the \"promising approaches\" identified in this study and suggested from other AR themes will be tested and demonstrated on selected hotspots.Rainfall variability, poor soil fertility and soil erosion are serious challenges of food security to rural communities in different parts of Ethiopia. With population pressure and climate change, the severity and impacts of these challenges will likely increase. Sustainable intensification at farm scale cannot be achieved unless land improvement measures are taken through sustainable water and land management. A number of natural resources management efforts have been implemented in Ethiopia since the 1970s. However, most of the introduced technologies were not based on combining scientific and traditional knowledge, and as a result performance was far below expectations. In addition, the top-down approach followed created less incentive and community participation. Recent evidences show that participatory landscape based integrated natural resources management is useful approach to reduce resources degradation and improve agricultural productivity. Considering that different potentials and constraints exist across the landscape continuum, it will be essential to design and implement targeted interventions geared to specific landscape and socio-economic conditions. In this study, community based participatory approach will form the basis for improving food security through targeted interventions such as soil/water conservation, afforestation, enclosures, agroforestry, water storage options (peculation systems, check dams, ditches, etc.), water harvesting strategies (river diversion and borehole), horticulture and home-gardens across different landscape positions. Emphasis will be given to awareness creation, community mobilization, capacity building, partnerships and multidisciplinary approaches to enhance technology adoption and sustainable use. \"AR Landscapes\" will be created to demonstrate and implement integrated land and water management technologies in a participatory way. Hydrological model and community evaluation will be used to assess impacts of intervention and facilitate out-/up-scaling. This protocol will contribute to and benefits from various AR themes.The implementation of this project is expected to have the following outcomes: Community awareness resulted in ownership and increased participation for implementation.  Communities implemented sustainable afforestation, SWC and water harvesting measures.  Soil moisture increased and soil erosion decreased as a result of integrated SWC efforts.  New springs emerged and existing ones discharged more, harvested water provided irrigation.  Livestock feed availability and soil health improved.  Diversification such as fruits/vegetables and home-gardens improved nutritious food for household, especially for the youth and women.  More resilient communities and landscapes to climate change and other external pressures  Improved upslope-downslope community interaction to sustain conservation efforts.  Integrated water and soil management model developed for extension officers, MoA and other partners for up-scaling.  AR and USAID will have effective, functional demonstration sites.  Training manual and guidelines developed to aid up scaling and technology dissemination.Multispecies copping systems (relay or double cropping systems) require more soil moisture than monocrops. While residual soil moisture in conventional cropping systems may suffice in years with average or above average rainfall, water may limit crop growth in years with below average rainfallthis is likely to occur more frequently due to climate change. It is therefore critically important to introduce technologies allowing farmers to maximize the availability of residual soil moisture.Conservation agriculture (CA) is being widely advocated to conserve (soil and) water, while maintaining soil organic carbon and cut on production costs. However, the application of CA is challenging under the conditions typical to African smallholders for a number of reasons including competition for biomass with livestock and unavailability of specialized seeders and herbicide. In this situation, the use of permanent raised beds shaped and reshaped annually by the local maresha ard plough -as developed on the vertisols of Northern Ethiopia by the University of Mekelle and CIMMYT -may represent an attractive option. Permanent raised bed allow for soil and water conservation with minimum surface mulch, as these structures increase soil rugosity and thus reduce runoff while increasing infiltration. In Northern Ethiopia, permanent raised bed resulted in a reduction of runoff by more than half, a reduction of soil losses through erosion by a factor more than 4, significantly higher soil organic matter content in the ploughed layer, and improvement in crop yields, albeit only from the fifth season onward. Permanent raised bed also allows for shallow mechanical weed control in the furrows, thus minimizing the need for herbicide or manual labour. For small grain cops (e.g. wheat) the use of raised beds enables reduce seed rates without decreasing grain yield and reduce logging. Raised beds also improve field access (e.g. allowing N application at 1st node and boot stages, when crop N use efficiency is the highest).We anticipate that permanent raised bed will increase soil moisture, allowing for the production of a relay pulse (chickpea, grasspea or lentil). Outcomes will include cropping recommendations to save on energy (particularly draught power) and increase water-use efficiency, perception by farmers of such alternative cropping practices, and cost/benefit analysis.Irrigated agriculture has been on the rise in recent years in the rainfed agricultural systems of Ethiopia both as a livelihood diversification and a climate change adaptation strategy. Abstracting, conveying and applying irrigation water is an important component of the total production cost in irrigated agriculture and affects the profitability of the irrigation technology and thus the economic incentives to farmers. Motorized pumps mounted on and powered by small multifunctional twowheel tractors can be used to abstract and convey water to farm irrigation sites. As these tractors can also be used for land preparation, post-harvest operations and transport, we hypothesize that this type of mechanized irrigation is more adoptable for smallholders than mechanized irrigation using pumps powered by their own engine. On the irrigation site, irrigated water can be applied through furrows between raised planting beds, which is more efficient than flood irrigation on a flat surface. Raised bed can be shaped using a simple tool-bar based furrower pulled by the same tractor used to power the motorized pump. Raised bed also brings a number of benefits such as reduced seed rates and increased access to the field for weeding and fertilizer application.Presumably, productivity and profitability can be increased as a result of supplementary irrigation. However, the profitability of mounted motorized pumps in relation to the capital and operational cost of the technology is unknown for the Ethiopian Highlands. This protocol proposes to fill this knowledge gap. It links directly with 2 other Africa RISING protocols: The CIMMYT-led 'Testing of permanent raised bed systems for soil and water conservation and crop intensification'  The CIMMYT-led 'Giving power to Africa RISING farmers through small mechanization'The work will deliver information to local communities, extension agents and policy makers on how to improve the profitability of mounted motorized pumps to contribute towards sustainable intensification. In addition to the selected sites an ex-ante assessment of instruments can improve cost effectiveness and profitability of the technology?CGIAR and Associated Partners: IWMI, CIMMYTThere is an increasing evidence that crop yield is not increasing in Ethiopia despite huge investments in soil and water conservation, import of chemical fertilizers, increasing investment in small scale irrigation and expanding efforts of the extension system to reach every household in the country. More over pests and diseases are becoming major threats of production, particularly for high value produces. Opening up new land replacing wetlands, forests and hills mostly satisfies the increasing food demand. Although land degradation and nutrient mining is a widely recognized production constraint, crops are rarely responding to the application of the conventional macronutrients, even in soils where application of chemical fertilizers is a first time experience. As a result, the objective of the Ethiopian government to increase yield per unit of land and labour and to improve food security remained to be a challenge. There is unproven local perception that crops in the Ethiopian soils are not responding to the application of fertilizer mainly macronutrients. As a result the Government of Ethiopia, the sole importer of farm inputs, has been importing only Nitrogen and Phosphorus fertilizers to the country. On the other hand, lack of response to Nitrogen and Phosphorus fertilizers could be largely due to the critical deficiencies of multiple micro and secondary nutrients, which are holding back the potential of rainfed and irrigated agriculture. When micro-nutrients become a limiting factor water, fertilizer and other high-energy production inputs may be wasted, since a plant will only grow and develop to the extent that its most limiting growth factor will allow (Mengel, 2012). Many times the hidden hunger for micro and secondary nutrients is not visible, however, such deficiencies make plants vulnerable to attacks by pathogens and insect pests and also the symptoms are considered as disease symptoms. ICRISAT's participatory research for development approach using watershed and soil test-based nutrient management as an entry point activity in Bhoochetana, the state of Karnataka, India (ICRISAT, 2013) have shown that rainfed crops respond very well to application of deficient micro nutrients (zinc, boron and sulphur) and increased crop yields by 20 to 66% on 3.7 million hectares, with an economic impact of around US$ 130 million. The economic returns of Bhoochetana revealed that benefit cost ratio for the farmers were 2.1 to 15:1 with full costing of the inputs added by the farmers (ICRISAT, 2013). Based on the evidence of strategic research undertaken by ICRISAT-led consortium in India and other countries in Asia we proposed to assess nutrient deficiencies and test particularly with reference to micro and secondary nutrients in Ethiopia and develop a scaling-up model in two districts of different agroecologies to achieve the impact in terms of increased agricultural production and improved livelihoods with sustainable intensification. First-hand information of critical deficiencies of micro and secondary nutrients in the region which could be holding back the potential will be available.  Soil health status maps for the selected region will be available to share the information with different stakeholders and enhance the awareness amongst the policy makers, development workers, researchers and farmers for increasing agricultural productivity  A 'proof of concept' of scalable participatory research for development using knowledgebased entry point activity will be available for application in the region.  Policy influence on the quality and type of import of fertilizers to Ethiopia  Increased productivity of crops through enhanced nutrient and water use efficiency to benefit the farmers.CGIAR and Associated Partners: ICRISAT, CIAT, ATA However, women have limited access to fodder which constrains investment in livestock as well as sustainable agricultural intensification. The integration of tree lucerne to the crop-livestock farming system could save labour and time spent to look for fodder and fuel. The intervention could be an incentive to women and marginalized groups to invest in mixed farming systems.Research, extension and none governmental organizations have been trying to promote planting of multipurpose trees like tree lucerne in the highlands of Ethiopia. However, the success has not been as expected due to lack of approaches that consider farmers needs and realities. The participatory and targeted research approach and the training and experience sharing schemes from the current project will enable farmers to grow more tree lucerne plants and improve the availability of biomass for supplementary feed, soil fertility improvement and other products and services. The synthesis that we intend to write from the research approach can serve as a guide for the extension to promote growing of more multipurpose trees, covering more areas within and beyond the Africa RISING research sites and benefits more farmers. We expect increased women's access to and control of fodder and biomass, and labour-saving. Feed and forage combinations that are appropriate for men and women in different agro-ecological zones will also be available. Gender analysis will help us understand the areas to focus on so as to integrate men and women's issue, directly address them and also gauge who will benefit and how gender relations within the household will change.CGIAR and Associated Partners: ILRI, ICRAF, ICARDA, CIPFood shortage in Ethiopia is predominantly taken as a function of limited access to food in terms of quantity, but it is rarely treated as a function of non-balanced nutrition. The current grain-based cropping system lacks real incentives for diversification of crops and nutrition-oriented innovative farming. Malnutrition of vulnerable groups could occur, even in good crop harvest years and in regions of high potential because of non-balanced food intake and lack of diversity. Studies showed that about 45% of the children in Ethiopia are stunted and about 42% are underweight, associated with zinc, iron and vitamin A deficiency (www.bioline.org.br/request?nd09041).Rural households rarely consume animal products as they are scarce sources of cash. Dietary supplements are also rarely available to the rural poor. Therefore, there is a need to establish the level of hidden hunger in the farming systems of Africa RISING districts across social categories and develop a strategy that would improve household nutrition with the existing land and water resources. One possible option to reverse the risk of malnutrition and low farm income is modifying the production system by reallocating cropland in favor of crops with high content of nutrients in deficit and high financial returns. Analyzing households' production of nutrients on farm across farming systems could be valuable in guiding intensification of those systems both in marketoriented and subsistence sub-systems (Amede and Delve, 2008) and to guide research and development investments. Participatory modeling tools would help to evaluate household level food security and cash income, and to assess trade-offs in water, nutrient and labour use while modifying the respective farming systems to achieve the intended production objectives. It will also help to identify farm and landscapes niches where interventions could be integrated across rainfall gradients, market opportunities, gender categories and wealth groups. The tool would also be used to establish whether communities in the various farming systems are currently above or below poverty line (1.25 USD per day) with the existing production practices and create production scenarios that could lift these communities out of vicious poverty cycle.The anticipated outcome of this study would be:  Improved household nutrition of communities through altering cropping systems  Policy awareness on the link between farming systems and hidden hunger (nutrient insecurity) in Ethiopia at household, community and higher scales;  Guideline for development actors to target best-bet crop commodities with higher nutrient density to farming systems in deficit, without radically changing the food habit, market preferences and farmers' choices;  Improved local capacity in participatory modeling for improved resource use and food security CGIAR and Associated Partners: ICRISAT, CIAT, EPHIEnset (Ensete ventricosum) is a food-security and high value crop in the southern and Oromia regions with increasing trend of expansion to other parts of the Country. The crop is a means of food, cash, feed, medicine, sources of fuel wood and other products and services for small holder farmers. It is an important intensifier of production systems given its compatibility with fruit crops, spices, planting materials and other crops when grown in association. Currently, the productivity and area coverage of the crop is declining due to various biotic and abiotic factors. Diseases such as bacterial wilt (Zanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum), pests (Enset root mealy bugs, leaf hoper, mole rat and porcupine) and soil nutrient depletion are some of the important production constraints of the crop in its growing localities. It is reported that up to 80% of Enset farms are currently infected by EXW, which directly affects the livelihood of more than 20 million enset growing farmers in the country. The effect is severe in less fertile soils. The traditional Enset processing practice for various products (Kocho and Bulla) is another challenge associated with Enset production, which is labour intensive and a workload for women. An action research initiative is proposed on Enset and its production system as the production constraints are repeatedly mentioned by farmers, development actors, researchers and policy makers in the southern region; there is evidence that EXW is reducing Enset yield and quality; loss of a single Enset plant in a family would mean loss of one man's feed; production constraints have relevance across Enset growing regions; Enset is a women's crop; and there are best bet Enset production technologies and practices.The anticipated outcomes of this study are: Lack of structured markets is major challenge for many farmers and traders caused by lack of organizing production and marketing institutions. Many farmers suffer from the problem of small quantities that usually is unattractive to many traders or buyers. This is due to high transaction costs and information problems, which present challenges in coordination of supply chains often leading to use of inappropriate varieties, underinvestment in storage and handling facilities, undersupply of finance and large intra-and inter-seasonal price fluctuations which undermine market participation and competitiveness. These are some of the challenges identified in the recent value chain studies by the project in the project sites. One way of structuring the market is through ensuring that producer institutions are well organized for collective marketing and that the producers are also able to access identifiable high value markets. This reduces costs of transacting between farmers and marketers. Building linkages for ware potatoes by improving the capacity of existing agribusinesses (cooperatives and other farmer based institutions and groups) to better link to end markets for ware potatoes (large traders and processors). A focus on the complete value chain will ensure that other interventions at the farm level (such as water harvesting) support the market interventions. More important is that as farmers increase their production, they have defined markets for their ware potato. The absence of an appropriate platform to facilitate these trading interactions reduces returns from farmers' farm operations. Low production and unreliable supplies and failure to meet desired quality and food safety standards for different markets, undermine development of competitive and equitable potato value chains. Market linkages between producers and buyers strengthened  Reduced transaction costs due to agribusinesses collectively market their produce  Better profit margins and incomes from their products through strengthened bargaining and post-harvest handling for better quality  Increased demand for and utilization of market support services  Business models that support sustainable market linkages promoted CGIAR and Associated Partners: CIAT, ILRI, CIPReliable supply of quality seed is necessary to sustain high productivity among the farming communities. However, in many places, seeds of self-propagating and self-pollinating crops may fail to provide adequate incentives for private sector to invest in their supply. Thus seeds and planting materials that are released from the research process fail to reach the intended users due to lack of sustainable seed supply systems. The private sector feels that the returns on such investments are not assured. One of the challenges facing potato as an upcoming commodity enterprise is lack of consistent supply of planting materials, as shown by the recent value chain study in the project sites. The current system relies heavily on the public sector; however, a focus on seed supply as a business enterprise would link better the public sector (foundation seed) with the production of ware potato. A sustainable seed enterprise should be able to contribute increased potato production and consequently food incomes of households. Quantity of seeds of user demanded varieties increased  Profitability of seed businesses improved  Increase access by farmers to seeds of demanded crop varieties  Entrepreneurial capacity of farmer agribusinesses to produce quality seeds enhanced  Linkages between seed businesses and producers and seed traders improved CGIAR and Associated Partners: CIAT, ILRI, CIPUnavailability of quality seed of commonly grown crops was identified as one of the priority constraints to increased agricultural productivity in the four Africa RISING sites (PCA, 2013). The effectiveness of the national extension system is still low due to problems such as high turnover of staff which renders training efforts largely ineffective, poorly motivated extension staff and limited technical know-how of the frontline staff.It is the aim of this activity to develop a system whereby these two constraints can be addressed simultaneously and in a sustainable manner, as far as possible relying on private initiative and community interest rather than being dependent on extension / input support provided by BoAs line agencies and/or NGOs. The approach will build on the Model Farmer (MF) concept and to combine it with a Farmer Field School (light) approach that promotes farmer-to-farmer extension. The MF concept is widely promoted by the GoE as a complementary, informal extension system aiming at bridging the existing 'last-meter gap' between the research system and farmers.Based on the experiences made during the pilot phase (Belg season 2014) in 2 sites with the production of potato seed, the approach will be expanded to 4 AR sites, adding wheat and a legume (e.g. faba bean). In addition, to reduce post-harvest losses and to maintain seed quality, improved seed storage facilities for seed potatoes and grains will be introduced and tested.The outcome of this study is an approach for decentralised seed production and extension service provision, increasing the local availability of good quality seed, addressing national key constraints for increased agricultural productivity. Information on farmer-acceptable, improved seed storage techniques will be generated. In collaboration with other centers (CIMMYT, ICARDA) templates for local seed supply systems are produced and seed supply systems for key Africa RISING crops (wheat, faba bean, potato) are established via Innovation Platforms and other partners. Experiences of the activity are documented and constraints identified as well as opportunities for wider scaling.CGIAR and Associated Partners: CIP, ICARDA, CIMMYTSustainable intensification (through the use of improved germplasm or relay/double cropping) will require more power, e.g. to handle the extra harvest and/or transport it to the market. Moreover, as identified during previous diagnostics, availability of farm labour is a serious constraint in CLP systems. A consequence of low farm mechanization is high labour drudgery, which affects women disproportionally (in, e.g. weeding, threshing, shelling and transport by head-loading). Moreover, labour drudgery makes farming unattractive for the youth.This calls for the participatory testing of labour saving devices such as seeders, threshers, forage choppers and trailers. These could be powered by small, cheap, multipurpose and easy to maintain tractors such as single-axle two-wheel tractors (2WT).Although these tractors are not powerful enough to plough, they can be used for seeding, either in a ploughed field or in an unploughed field (i.e. conservation agriculture).Several seeders are commercially available from China and other countries. Moreover, CIMMYT and its partners recently produced a mobile multi-crop sheller/thresher for 2WT that can be converted into a trailer. We are proposing to participatory test this equipment in one pilot site of AfricaRISING sites.Outcomes will include a better understanding of the demand for mechanization, suggestions by farmers and manufacturers to improve equipment being tested and simple cost/benefit analysis of the technologies tested.CGIAR and Associated Partners: CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDAPilot a system for decentralized, community-based seed potato production system, combined with a Farmer-to-Farmer extension service provision through Model or Lead Farmers and Farmer Field SchoolsUnavailability of quality seed of commonly grown crops was one of the priority constraints to increased agricultural productivity identified during the PCA. It is the aim of this activity to develop a system whereby this bottleneck can be addressed in a sustainable manner, as far as possible relying on private initiative and community interest rather than be dependent on extension / input support provided by BoAs line agencies and/or NGOs. The approach will work closely with the Model/Lead Farmer concept (1 to 5) which is widely promoted by the GoE with a Farmer Field School (light) approach that promotes farmer-to-farmer extension.The anticipated outcome of this study is that decentralised seed systems are being piloted and documented at kebele level, increasing the local availability of good quality seed potato. In collaboration with other centres, design templates for seed supply systems are produced and pilot seed supply systems for key crops (wheat, faba bean, pea) are established via Innovation Platforms and other partners. Experiences of the pilots are documented and constraints identified as well as opportunities for wider scaling. Information will be collected regarding farmer perception of this decentralized seed production system and a participatory cost-benefit analysis will be carried out.Storage losses including impaired quality are partly caused by harvested crops not being stored in a product specific manner. Diffused Light Storage (DLS) is a post-harvest technology which uses natural indirect light instead of low temperature to control excessive sprout growth of potato seeds, extend their storage life, reducing associated storage losses and improving productivity. It is a low cost method which provides a new opportunity for farmers to preserve the quality of seed potato. Quality Declared Planting Material (QDPM) is a value added product and must be stored in DLS.The anticipated outcome of this study is that seed specific storage technologies are adopted within decentralised seed systems established at kebele level, increasing the overall quality of seed produced locally by farmers. Attention must be paid to specific threats to stored product (rodents, tuber moth, theft). Via the IPs, the potential for wider adoption of post-harvest technology will be established. Farmer feedback will be collected via key informant interviews to determine farmers' perception of this technology and potential bottlenecks for wider adoption.Quality seed is more expensive than ordinary seed. While farmers in most communities demand access to quality seed, few farmers are actually willing to pay the premium associated with seed of better quality. It is therefore necessary to promote the merits of quality seed so as to create a farmer-based demand and market for quality seed.Data will be collected to answer the following research question: Does quality seed increase yield and income convincingly for farmers to pay higher prices for better seed? The results will be documented and constraints and opportunities for wider scaling identified to improve supply systems via Innovation Platform.CGIAR and Associated Partners: CIPLack of market infrastructure significantly undermines the market margins farmers generate from their agricultural products and elevate the prices they pay for agricultural products when involved as buyers. The transaction costs of agricultural markets in general are quite high due to, among others, poorly structured and irregular supply, short shelf life of products, lack of transport facilities that force marketers to trek their animals, lack of feed and watering services in and around the markets, lack of veterinary services around markets, lack of storage facilities, and lack of market information.High transaction costs and information problems present challenges in coordination of supply chains which often lead to underinvestment in storage and handling facilities, undersupply of finance and large intra-and inter-seasonal price fluctuations which undermine market participation and competitiveness. Low production and unreliable supplies and failure to meet desired quality and food safety standards for alternative uses (food, feed and other), undermine development of competitive and equitable value chains. It is therefore imperative to emphasise the need for understanding the potential impact of delivery of key market facilities on the marketing performance of smallholder farmers. This study will employ state-of-the art scientific procedures to quantify the added monetary advantage smallholder farmers are going to get from accessing key market facilities in selected markets of the central highlands of Ethiopia.The identification of key challenges market actors are facing and development of alternative institutional innovations will certainly bring about significant behavioral change both among consumers and traders in the agricultural markets. Informed smallholder marketers would make smart marketing decisions and hence would generate higher market margins. This will happen among other essentially through reduced transaction costs. This in itself will increase the efficiency of the markets such that markets will play indispensable role in increasing the speed and efficiency of resource allocation. Concomitantly, smallholders' livelihoods will improve as a result of improved market performance both as sellers and buyers. The findings will also help in increasing the relevance and effectiveness of agricultural market extension programs and interventions. This will be made possible as this study will chart the information on existing markets and underutilized values chain opportunities for smallholders to raise their incomes through reduced transaction costs and hence better prices for their produces.CGIAR and Associated Partners: ICARDA, ILRI The status and role of men and women in mixed farming systems differ markedly across agroecological areas and Africa RISING action sites. A systematic literature review will provide a basis for understanding the key constraints that prevent women and other marginalized groups from investing in intensification and actively participate in project activities (including technology development, information sharing, meetings and trainings among others). This will provide a basis for testing and evaluating different approaches for increasing women's participation in and benefit from research for development interventions.Gender-related constraints to intensification will be established which will be used to prioritize interventions and target appropriate technology clients. Research planning and implementation will incorporate information on constraints, needs and opportunities for gender-responsive innovation. Identification of social, economic and cultural barriers that prevent women and other marginalized groups from actively participating in various project activities. Structures and approaches that facilitate intensification, equal participation of men and women and more equitable benefit sharing will be established using gendered constrains and opportunities. In 2013, participatory community analyses (PCA) were undertaken by multi-disciplinary facilitation teams in 8 kebeles in the Amhara, Tigray, Oromia and SNNPR regions, producing a list of priority farming enterprises, their current bottlenecks, as well as farmer-perceived opportunities for improving income, food security and/or reducing overall risks by intensifying farm enterprises. The PCA was carried out in discussions with kebele members and local leaders, with over 250 men, women and young people. Feedback on the results will be given to the farmers and future participatory planning and implementation of activities based on the results of the PCA and feedback sessions.Contribute to the analysis of strengths, weaknesses and applicability of the methods used both alone and in combination. Contribute to the study of the adoption processes and common features of technologies and management practices currently used by farmers. Analyze synergies between contributing partners and programs.CGIAR and Associated Partners: CIP, ILRIUnderstanding the drivers of adoption and understanding the structure of the diffusion process are essential components of any research aimed at abating the challenges faced by resource poor households. So much has been done in developing improved varieties of food legumes (faba bean, field pea, lentil and chickpea) and in disseminating them in different parts of Ethiopia. Bale highlands are inhabited by resource poor farming communities depending enormously on legumes for nutrition, rotation in their cereal crops and animal feed. The decision to adopt a given technology is possible only if the utility (welfare benefit) derived from doing so is higher than not adopting. The willingness to adopt therefore varies depending on the level of perceived utility. This perception again varies across households and among different members within a household. Accordingly, the impact of the use of the adopted technologies varies depending on the characteristics of the users and the extent to which the technologies are used. This research aims at studying the driving forces behind the willingness to adopt (use or not in Belg and Meher seasons) and the intensity of adoption of improved legume cultivars considering differences among households -in terms of resource endowment, and differences within households (in terms of age and gender). The welfare impacts due to technology use will also be disaggregated based on resource endowments and gender differentials.This research will identify the key driving forces -challenges and opportunities -that determine the willingness to use and the intensity of use of improved food legume technologies in Bale highlands. It would also empirically and comprehensively quantify the welfare impacts of the improved food legume technologies across households of different resource endowments and within households considering gender differences. The information to be generated will be communicated with the study communities and key stakeholders in agricultural extension and development in the area. The communication will be designed in such a way that the communities and stakeholders will be able to use the findings in fine tuning their decision making procedures for better efficiency and effectiveness. Extension workers and decision makers at different levels will be able to design suitable approaches that can facilitate the adoptability of technologies and the adoption 'capacity' of farming households. The research procedure to be followed will also be meticulously documented and will be available for Africa RISING partners and other research and development institutions.CGIAR and Associated Partners: ICARDA, CIATSome technologies applied by farmers arise through tradition and local knowledge, some are introduced through government or NGO led interventions and some filter down through media access. An investigation is required to explore:  The means by which they were disseminated into the community  The reasons why farmers chose to adopt them  Their limitations  Barriers to further adoption  The enabling processes (based on a range of social, biophysical, economic and political factors) that we might be able to make use of to increase the adoptability of Africa RISING innovations.If trends can be discovered and contextual variation in drivers of adoption can be understood the research may then be used for identifying enabling pathways for adoption of new technologies.A three dimensional assessment of the perceptions of sustainability, and their role in the success of project interventionsInnovations usually bring with it some degree of benefit to its potential adopters but it equally creates some kind of uncertainties in the mind of adopters. This uncertainty is however reduced by the information embodied in the innovation itself in the form of the possible abilities of the Innovation to solve individual's perceived problems. The goal of the Africa RISING project is to introduce multiple interventions to achieve Sustainable intensification. This particular innovation has advantages as well as some challenges which need to be carefully examined to ensure that it benefits the poor farmers. The question to be addressed then is whether our interventions have the ability to solve Ethiopian farmers' perceived problems and alleviate poverty. For the project to be sustainable, it is equally important to consider the knowledge and perception of the farmers who are the potential adopters of our interventions. Farmers' perception and knowledge is crucial for successful research and development strategies. They further stated that many promising agriculture policies have failed because they were inappropriate to farmer's needs and perception.Perception generally refers to how people select, organize and interpret information gained through the senses or experience. Sustainability of agricultural production is largely dependent on the action of farmers and their decision making abilities given the level of knowledge and information that is available to them. However, the role of perception has received very limited attention in studies regarding farmers' adoption of a new technology. Also, there has been a general failure of programs to address situations where farmers' knowledge is lacking and inadequate. Thus to prevent failure in our interventions through the Africa RISING Project and ensure sustainable intensification, a good understanding of the knowledge, needs and perception of the farmers is required in order to devise a systems approach of introducing the crop to them. Thus this study will focus on understanding the perception of farmers on issues of Sustainability with regards to their livelihoods and its coherence with research team members, as well as project definition of sustainability.The study will bring out concrete understanding of role of perception of farmers in adoption of an intervention. They Study will also compare and contrast the coherence between the perception or definition of sustainability and its role in success of an intervention in creating Sustainable intensification. The study findings will be applied in future interventions by dealing with constraints to tech adoption.CGIAR and Associated Partners: IWMI, ICRAFInnovation platforms have been established as a primary mechanism for realising the Africa RISING research for development approach. Innovation platforms have already been established in all four Africa RISING sites, however, there is some confusion regarding how these platforms will operate in practice. There is therefore a need for clear and practical guidelines which can be used to ensure a common understanding of the platform process among the various stakeholders and clear steps for platform establishment and on-going communication and coordination. In order for these guidelines to be successful they will need to be supported by good facilitation. Previous research has highlighted the importance of facilitation skills but there are limited practical recommendations for how to develop the facilitation skills of platform members (particularly at the local level). This research activity will design and pilot facilitation training events, and develop training guidelines. These processes will be piloted to test their effectiveness and impact on IP members' capacity to innovate. This research activity will contribute to scaling up platform processes to innovate and ensuring their longer-term sustainability.This research activity will produce easy to use, practical guidelines for facilitating and coordinating IPs that can be used in other sites, and can be updated/amended based on information generated by the on-going research activities. This research will also build capacity of partners in the four sites to facilitate IPs, and through this gain a more detailed understanding of what support local partners need in order to sustain such processes in the longer term. The outcomes of this research will contribute to developing piloted and replicable processes for IP establishment in other sites and projects.CGIAR and Associated Partners: ILRI, ICRAF, CIPInnovation platforms are an increasingly used in research for development projects. The aim of IPs is to bring together a range of stakeholders to identify and take action to address common problems. By identifying their own issues and designing their own solutions stakeholders are more likely to take ownership and make changes than if solutions are externally driven. However, despite the potential of innovation platforms, it can be hard to demonstrate their impact. Attributing impact can be difficult because often the problems that innovation platforms attempt to solve are complex , results may be hard to measure, and benefits may be unforeseen or take time to develop. There is a recognised need to develop participatory, accessible and user-friendly tools that can be used to better monitor and evaluate the impact of IPs. M&E processes can also be an important way of encouraging an iterative process of action, reflection and learning which is key for platforms to operate effectively. This research initiative will aim to design and pilot tools and processes for monitoring and evaluating platforms in the four Africa RISING sites. The results will be documented and analysed over the course of the Africa RISING project in order to enhance understanding of the impact of innovation platforms.The anticipated outcome of this study is a training manual and piloted process for monitoring and evaluating local innovation platforms. Enhanced capacity of local partners to manage, monitor and evaluate innovation platform process and results is another anticipated outcome. This research will also produce data which can be used to assess the impact of innovation platforms processes, and potential weaknesses/challenges. The research findings will potentially be applicable to other research processes using innovation platforms, both in terms of the processes that are designed and the results that are generated.CGIAR and Associated Partners: ILRI, IFPRI","tokenCount":"10024"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a54360377b8033609b590d86582892ff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-92924-3.pdf","id":"-454743960"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dc641a16-9550-4bd7-9f0a-7911eae3f2f6","pagecount":"12","content":"Expansion of various types of water infrastructure is critical to water security in Africa. To date, analysis of adverse disease impacts has focused mainly on large dams. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of both small and large dams on malaria in four river basins in sub-Saharan Africa (i.e., the Limpopo, Omo-Turkana, Volta and Zambezi river basins). The European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC) Yearly Water Classification History v1.0 data set was used to identify water bodies in each of the basins. Annual malaria incidence data were obtained from the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) database for the years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. A total of 4907 small dams and 258 large dams in the four basins, with 14.7million people living close (< 5 km) to their reservoirs in 2015, were analysed. The annual number of malaria cases attributable to dams of either size across the four basins was 0.9-1.7 million depending on the year, of which between 77 and 85% was due to small dams. The majority of these cases occur in areas of stable transmission. Malaria incidence per kilometre of reservoir shoreline varied between years but for small dams was typically 2-7 times greater than that for large dams in the same basin. Between 2000 and 2015, the annual malaria incidence showed a broadly declining trend for both large and small dam reservoirs in areas of stable transmission in all four basins. In conclusion, the malaria impact of dams is far greater than previously recognized. Small and large dams represent hotspots of malaria transmission and, as such, should be a critical focus of future disease control efforts.Dams are key for development. To ensure food security and promote resilience, African governments have embarked on major programs to expand the continent's water infrastructure over the past 2 decades 1 . Many large and small dams, as well as household-level storage structures, are currently under construction, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region where infrastructure development lags behind other developing countries and where per capita water storage is amongst the lowest in the world 2 . Unintended impacts of such infrastructure on vector borne diseases, such as malaria, continue to be a pressing public health challenge in this region 3 .Impact of large vs. small dams on malaria. The impact of large dams (i.e., dams with a height of 15 m or greater from lowest foundation to crest or a dam between 5 and 15 m impounding more than 3 million cubic meters (m 3 ) of water) on malaria has been widely documented around individual reservoirs in different parts of Africa 4-11 . The aggregate effect of large dams on malaria in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has also been assessed 12 . The results provided a conservative estimate that at least 1.1 million malaria cases annually can be attributed to the presence of large dams in SSA. In contrast, with the exception of a few individual dams in the Tigray region of Ethiopia 13 and in Burkina Faso 14 , the impact of small dams (i.e., dams creating reservoirs with surface area less than 100 hectares (ha) or with a storage capacity below 3 million m 3 behind a dam that is less than 15 m high) has not been extensively investigated. In the Tigray region, a seven-fold increase in malaria transmission was found in the vicinity of small dams compared to villages where no dams had been built 13 . Evidence from Burkina Faso was less conclusive with no significant impact of small dams observed 14 . No previous studies have examined the aggregated malaria impacts of small dams, nor compared the aggregated malaria impact of small dams with thatof large dams, over a specific geography. Generation of knowledge on the relative impact of small and large dams on malaria could help to inform the future direction of water planning and management.The study reported here, compared the effect of small and large dams on malaria in SSA using an approach based on precise reservoir delineation. The study focused on four basins, Limpopo, Omo-Turkana, Volta, and Zambezi, which cumulatively contained 258 and 4907 georeferenced large and small dams, respectively, in 2015. We first describe how reservoirs were delineated using remotely-sensed perimeters. The effects of small and large dams on malaria were then determined in each basin. Malaria transmission in communities close to (< 5 km) and far from (5-10 km) the small and large reservoirs were compared and implications for malaria control deduced.Study area. Four major river basins, located across different sub-regions of SSA, were selected for this study: Limpopo, Omo-Turkana, Volta, and Zambezi (Fig. 1). These basins were selected to (i) foster inclusion of enable different African regions and (ii) ensure focus on basins with sufficient data availability.The Limpopo River basin is located in southern Africa. Draining an area of approximately 408,000 km 2 , the Limpopo River basin is distributed among South Africa (45%), Botswana (20%), Zimbabwe (15%) and Mozambique (20%). About 14 million people live in this basin. The climate of the Limpopo River basin varies along the path of the river from a temperate climate in the west to a subtropical climate at the river mouth in Mozambique. The hydrology of the Limpopo River basin is influenced by the highly seasonal distribution of rainfall over the catchment. About 95% of rain falls between October and April with a peak normally in February. Temperature varies from 30 to 34 °C in summer and 22-26 °C in winter 15 .The Volta River basin is located in West Africa with a population of over 23 million. Draining an area of 409,000 km 2 the basin is spread across six countries: Benin (4%), Burkina Faso (42%), Cote d'Ivoire (3%), Ghana (41%), Mali (4%) and Togo (6%). Average annual rainfall varies across the basin from approximately 1600 mm in the southeast, to about 360 mm in the north. Annual mean temperatures in the basin vary from 27 to 30 °C16 . The main rainy season is between March and October.The Zambezi River basin is located in southern Africa. Draining an area of 1.34 million km 2 , the basin is spread across eight countries: Angola (19%), Botswana (1%), Namibia (1%) Benin (4%), Zimbabwe (16%), Zambia (42%), Tanzania (2%), Malawi (8%) and Mozambique (12%). The population of the Zambezi basin is estimated to be about 32 million. Annual rainfall in the basin ranges from 550 mm in the south to 1800 mm in the north. The annual mean temperatures ranges from 18 °C at higher elevations in the south of the basin to 26 °C for low elevations in the delta in Mozambique 17 .The Omo-Turkana Basin covers approximately 131,000 km 2 , stretching from southern Ethiopia to northern Kenya. Hydrologically, the basin is dominated by Lake Turkana, with the Omo River, which drains the Ethiopian portion of the basin, supplying 90% of the inflow to the lake. The basin is home to approximately 15 million people, the majority of whom live in the Ethiopian highlands, in the north. The annual mean temperature ranges from 24 °C in the north to 29 °C in the south. The mean annual rainfall ranges from 250 mm in the south to 500 mm in the north 18 .Data sources. Dam data. Small dams. Data on location and size of small dams are not readily available in either global or regional data sets. The European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC) Yearly Water Classification History v1.0 data set was used to identify water bodies in each of the four basins 19 . Water bodies less than 100 ha and greater than 2 ha were identified. All were checked with Google Earth images to distinguish between reservoirs and natural water bodies (Supplementary Fig. S1). Ultimately, a total of 4907 small dams located in the four basins were identified and included in the analyses.Large dams. For large dams, the FAO African Dams Database 20 , International Commission for Large dams (ICOLD) 21 and the International Rivers Database 22 , which together contain 1286 georeferenced African large dams, were utilized. The accuracy of dam locations was first verified with Google Earth. When the location of a dam did not precisely match the coordinates stipulated in either of the two databases, manual corrections were made by adjusting the coordinates of a dam to its location as shown in Google Earth (see Supplementary Information). Dams for which precise locations could not be determined, as well as dams without reservoirs (i.e., runof-river schemes), were removed. Ultimately, across the four basins, a total of 258 large dams with confirmed georeferenced locations were identified and included in the analyses.Perimeters of large and small dam reservoirs. Reservoir perimeters of both large and small dams were extracted from the European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC) global surface water datasets 19 , published through the Google Earth Engine. This dataset includes maps of the location and temporal variability in maximum perimeter records of the global surface water coverage from 1984 to 2015. In this study, the maximum perimeter records were used in each year of 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. The data were exported to ArcGIS. Data on anopheles mosquito distribution. Data for vector distribution were obtained from the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) database 23 . The MAP database contains a georeferenced illustration of the major malaria vector species in different malaria-endemic areas in Africa. Malaria data. Annual malaria incidence data were obtained from the MAP database. We acquired data for the years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. These years were selected to align with updates to Worldpop population data 24 , which are recomputed every five years. MAP produced a 1 km resolution continuous map of annual malaria incidence for Africa based on 33,761 studies across the region. We imported these data to ArcGIS for analyses. Annual malaria incidence was determined as the number of cases per 1000 population. To ascertain the impact of dams on malaria incidence rates as a function of distance from the reservoir perimeter, we created two distance zones: 0-5 km (at risk) and 5-10 km (control). When distance zones were overlapping for two or more nearby dams, areas were assigned to the closest distance cohort. Populations residing more than 5 km from a reservoir perimeter (large or small) were considered to be free of risk from dam induced malaria transmission because the maximum mosquitoes' flight range is considered to be < 5 km 25 . Hence, the 5-10 km zone served as a control. Population data. Annual population data of SSA were obtained from the Worldpop database 24 . A 1 × 1 km gridded population map was imported to ArcGIS for analyses. The total number of people living in each distance cohort was determined for each reservoir every 5 years for the period 2000-2015.To illustrate the locations of reservoirs with respect to different Anopheles species, we superimposed malaria vector distribution obtained from the MAP database on the small and large dams in the four basins to show the risk of malaria transmission around reservoirs in areas with different vector compositions.Different studies use different approaches to describe malaria stability 26,27 . We followed Gething et al. 26 where areas were categorized as stable (> 0.1 malaria cases per 1000 population), unstable (≤ 0.1 malaria cases per 1000 population) and no malaria (zero malaria incidence) based on the level of malaria incidence in each of the four years: 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. The number of dams in each of the three stability categories for each of the four years was determined, as well as the population at-risk of dam-related malaria (i.e., < 5 km from reservoir shorelines).Malaria incidence around small and large dams. The number of annual malaria cases was estimated for the two distance cohorts (< 5 km and 5-10 km) by multiplying malaria incidence rates by the population in each zone. Repeated analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to determine differences in malaria incidence between the two cohorts, followed by post hoc HSD Tukey's test 28 .Incidence per km of reservoir shoreline. Entomological investigation of dam-associated malaria transmission 29 suggests that reservoir shoreline constitutes the most important breeding habitat and malaria risk factor in damaffected geographies. As such, comparison of the relative malaria impact of small and large dams was determined by computing the average number of malaria cases per km of reservoir shoreline. This was calculated for each reservoir by dividing malaria incidence in the < 5 km cohort by the reservoir perimeter. The average incidence per km was computed separately for small and large reservoirs in each basin for each of the four years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015.Malaria cases attributable to dams. The annual number of malaria cases attributed to dams was determined for areas of both unstable and stable transmission. To do so, the rate of transmission in communities 5-10 km from reservoirs to the population living within 5 km of reservoirs was applied to gauge the number of malaria cases that could be presumed to occur in the absence of the dam. This was calculated as (I 1 -I 2 ) P, where I 1 is malaria incidence in communities living within 5 km of reservoirs, I 2 is malaria incidence in communities living between 5 and 10 km from reservoirs, and P is the total human population in communities living within 5 km of reservoirs.Dams locations in relation to malaria stability. By 2015, the entire Volta basin was located in a region of stable malaria transmission while the Limpopo, Omo-Turkana and Zambezi were mainly in regions of unstable transmission (Fig. 1). In 2000, the Omo-Turkana basin was largely unstable, whereas notable portions of Limpopo and Zambezi were in areas of stable transmission. By 2015, minimal areas in the Limpopo and Zambezi basins were located in regions of stable malaria transmission.Total number of small and large dams in the four basins. The aggregate number of small dams far exceeds the number of large dams. A total of 4907 small dams and 258 large dams existed in 2015 in the Limpopo, Omo-Turkana Volta, and Zambezi basins (Table 1). Over the 15 years' study period, the total number of small and large dams has not changed substantially. The Zambezi basin possesses the highest total number of geo-located dams (i.e. 73 large and 2566 small in 2015), whereas the Omo-Turkana basin has the smallest total (i.e. 6 large and 41 small in 2015) (Table 1).Predominant Vectors around dams in the four basins. The three major malaria vector species An. gambaie, An. funestus and An. arabiensis were commonly spread around the Volta and Zambezi basins (Fig. 2). The Limpopo and Omo-Turkana possess a more fragmented distribution of vector species with a different predominant vector in different portions of the basins. Typically, An. arabiensis predominated in the Limpopo and Omo-Turkana basins while An. gambiae, An. arabiensis and An. funestus co-existed in the Volta and Zambezi basins.Population at-risk around dams in the four basins. A total of 14.7 million people lived close (< 5 km) to reservoirs (small and large dams) in the four basins in 2015; the majority (12.3 million) lived in the vicinity of small dam reservoirs (Table 2; Table 3). The Zambezi River basin accounted for over a third of the population living close to dams in the four basins.Population (within the 0-5 km cohort) per km of reservoir shoreline was compared between small and large dams in the four basins (Fig. 3). In all four basins, populations increased between 2000 and 2015; on average across all four basins 2.4 × in the vicinity of large dam reservoirs and 1.7 × in the vicinity of small dam reservoirs. Population density was greater in the vicinity of small dams than large dams.    Malaria incidence: trends in areas of unstable and stable transmission. Annual malaria incidence was generally (though not always) higher in communities living < 5 km from a small dam reservoir than it was for those living 5-10 km from a small dam reservoir (F = 11.341; df = 1; P < 0.001) (Fig. 4). Similar results were found for large dams (P < 0.001) (Fig. 5). Between 2000 and 2015, the annual malaria incidence showed a broadly declining trend (ANOVA: P < 0.001) for both large and small dam reservoirs in areas of stable transmission in all four basins. Similarly, in areas of unstable transmission there were downward trends in malaria transmission in all river basins around both large and small reservoirs.Annual malaria cases around large vs. small dams. A total of between 0.87 million and 1.68 million malaria cases were attributable to dams (both small and large) in the four basins depending on the year (Table 4). Of these, 68-89% occurred in areas of stable transmission. Between large and small dams in the present study, the majority of malaria cases in the stable (84-93%) and unstable (71-75%) areas were attributed to the presence of small dams depending on the year. Between 2000 and 2015, more malaria cases could be attributed to dams in the Volta basin than the other three basins combined. Generally, while annual malaria cases attributable to small dams decreased slightly between 2000 and 2015, annual malaria cases attributable to large dams almost doubled over the same period.Shoreline length as malaria incidence determinant. In all basins, annual malaria incidence per km of reservoir shoreline was higher for small dams than large dams (P < 0.005) (Fig. 6). Between 2000 and 2015, annual malaria incidence per km of shoreline declined in all basins (ANOVA; P < 0.01). Small dams in the Volta Basin showed the highest malaria incidence per km of shoreline length (3.5 cases/year per km of shoreline; F = 24.982; df = 3; P < 0.001) whereas the lowest values were noted in the Limpopo (less than 0.6 cases/year per km of shoreline). Furthermore, incidence per km was typically 2-7 times greater for small dams than large dams. Overall, small dams represent a greater risk of malaria than large dams in the four basins. This is the first study to systematically examine the adverse malaria impacts of small dams and to compare those impacts with those arising from large dams. The results highlight two major findings. First, adverse malaria impacts of small dams greatly exceed those of large dams in areas of both stable and unstable transmission.Second, impacts of dams on malaria incidence remained pervasive while population density increased in all four study basins over a period of 15 years. Nevertheless, both large and small dams in the four basins studied continue to exacerbate malaria burden in the vicinity of the reservoirs that they created.Significance of small dams. The first major finding suggests that past efforts to approximate the aggregated malaria impacts of water storage infrastructure across SSA-which to date have focused primarily on large dams-are likely to have drastically underestimated the total impact of all dams. The results indicated that between 2000 and 2015 a total of between 0.9 million and 1.7 million malaria cases were attributable to dams in the Limpopo, Omo-Turkana, Volta and, Zambezi basins in SSA. Overall 77-85% of these cases were due to small dams. In western Kenya, McCann et al. 30 showed that microdam impoundments clearly provided habitat for the malaria vector An. arabiensis in the rainy season, most of which was within the shallow apron side of the impoundments where people brought cattle for watering, resulting in compacted soil with aggregations of water- Omo-Turkana Explaining small dam impacts. The impact of small dams exceeded the impact of large dams both in absolute terms and also in relation to incidence per kilometre of shoreline. This is likely because populations and population densities are greater in the vicinity of small dams, and because small dam reservoirs tend to provide a more conducive environment for malaria transmission. The small dams, and populations around them, outnumber the large dams in all the four basins, mainly due to their relatively lower construction cost. Most small dams are built for small-scale irrigation and livestock watering and so have to be located close to communities. In contrast, benefits of large dams can be realized great distances from the actual dam and often there is little incentive for elevated population density in the dam vicinity. Hence, much higher absolute numbers and greater population densities are found in the vicinity of small dam reservoirs than in the vicinity of large dam reservoirs.Potential influence of an environmental variable: slope. Furthermore, the shoreline slope may be lower around small dams compared to large dams because most large dams are built for hydropower which requires high head. Gentle slope generally corresponds to poor drainage, thereby promoting persistence of surface water bodies and the formation of stable pools convenient for mosquito breeding 29 . In contrast, steeper slope facilitates drainage and reduces the likelihood that pools will form for periods of sufficient duration for   [* shows that the difference in malaria incidence/km between dams located in stable and unstable areas for that year was significant (ANOVA; P < 0.05)].mosquitoes to complete their aquatic stages. Slope has been shown as an important topographic factor in determining malaria risk around dams 29 .Pervasiveness of malaria around dams. Temporal trends in mean malaria incidence per km of reservoir shoreline showed a declining trend in the vicinity of both large and small dams over the study period, in all four basins (Fig. 6). These downward trends in malaria incidence concur with the broader evidence that unprecedented levels of intervention have resulted in significant progress in most malarious regions of Africa over the past two decades 31 . Nevertheless, the elevated malaria incidence in communities living closer to both small and large dam reservoirs, relative to those located further away, supports the contention that these human-made water bodies continue to constitute hotspots of malaria transmission, even as overall incidence declines. For instance, the humid climate supports stable malaria transmission in the Volta Basin and the construction of Lake Volta, the largest artificial reservoir in the world based on surface area, has been blamed for creating breeding habitats for major malaria mosquitoes in the region 32,33 . Availability of surface water coupled with humid climate and high density of people (Fig. 3) and efficient malaria vectors-An. gambiae, An. funestus and An. arabiensis (Fig. 2) supported sustained malaria transmission throughout the year. In contrast, much of the Limpopo and the Omo-Turkana basins were unfavourable for major malaria vector mosquitoes due to either aridity (i.e. Omo-Turkana) or the temperate nature of the climate (Limpopo) 34 .Implication. A total of 14.8 million people live close to the dams in the four study basins, of which 79-81% live in malarious areas. This is a cause for concern and calls for intensified control efforts. As Africa endeavours to eliminate malaria, such distinct foci of malaria transmission may pose a challenge as they will remain to be residuals for the disease as the map of malaria distribution shrinks. What is also worrisome is that across SSA at least 160 more large dams and many more small dams are currently under construction 35 . And even more are planned as Africa's climate and development challenges intensify, requiring renewed funding support from donors such as the World Bank. Many of these dams will be located in malarious areas with significant potential to exacerbate malaria burden in local populations.Limitations. This study only focussed on four river basins. Other river basins in SSA were not included.Georeferenced data were not available for some dams in the basin, and these dams were excluded from the analyses. The role of environmental and topographic factors on malaria transmission in small vs large dams was not assessed in this study. Future research should investigate the entomological dynamics associated with increased malaria around small dams.In recent years, intensified control efforts, catalysed by the Roll Back Malaria initiative, have significantly reduced malaria prevalence and incidence across much of SSA. Against this background, this study has shown that both small and large dams stand-out as hotspots of elevated disease burden. The results also show that much greater malaria impact can be attributed to small dams than large dams, in part because small dams are more abundant and cumulatively far more people live close to the reservoirs that they create. In addition, it is surmised, that environmental factors associated with small dams are more likely to promote transmission. While there is recognition of dam-malaria linkages, coupling impacts of small and large dams together helps to reveal a larger effect of surface water \"storage\" on malaria transmission than previously recognized. Concerted effort is needed to address this challenge. Strengthening integrated malaria control efforts in the vicinity of both small and large dam reservoirs including, where technically possible, the use of dam operation as an innovative form of environmental control, should be a critical component of future malaria control efforts. Such a focus is a prerequisite for future strategies to eliminate malaria from SSA to be successful.","tokenCount":"4144"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5bc7455d3798656eddb98e3126239b95","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f8b7c174-9511-44f9-9bc2-71304b43dffc/retrieve","id":"28245355"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a3f5fcf9-bd86-4e3e-b40f-cc0707dc1309","pagecount":"286","content":"Linda Peterson, anterior ~ditora del CIP, tradujeron y editaron el libro •y fueron también contratados por el CIP para producir una carpeta de 25 pinturas del Dr. Frey: \"ThePotatoesofSouth America: Bolivia, a Portfolio of Fine Botanical Prints \". Las impresiones de mayor formato en la carpeta han sido reprcx:lucidas de las láminas originales para el libro del Profesor Ochoa.El Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) es una entidad científica, autónoma y sin fines de lucro, establecida en 1972 mediante convenio con el Gobierno del Perú. El Centro desarrolla y disemina conocimiento con el propósito de lograr la utilización de la papa y la batata como alimentos básicos en el mundo en desarrollo. El CIP es uno de los 13 centros internacionales de investigación y capacitación, sin fines de lucro, financiados por el Grupo Consultivo sobre Investigaciones Agronómicas Internacionales ( GCIAI). El GCIAI es patrocinado por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO), por el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) y el Banco Internacional para la Reconstrucción Prefacio E n la actualidad estamos dándole forma a los planes estratégicos del CIP para los años 90. Los planes se basan en dos años de autoestudio intensivo y de análisis, así como también en las revisiones de nuestro manejo externo reciente y del programa. Cada uno de los pasos dados en nuestra programación para el cambio traza el enfoque institucional ampliamente descentralizado exclusivo del CIP, el cual ha sido completamente aprobado por los donantes y por nuestros colegas de los programas nacionales. Con casi 20 años de experiencia estamos considerando las lecciones aprendidas al lado de nuestros colaboradores en más de 80 países y les estamos pidiendo su aporte continuo. Sin embargo, la planificación del CIP en fases del autoestudio en el proceso de revisión externa ha sido el intento inicial para una revisión amplia de un Centro descentralizado dentro del GCIAI. De esta manera estamos en la tarea de implementar algunos de los planes inmediatos al mismo tiempo que determinamos las prioridades para la próxima década.En el primer artículo que se acompaña, he resumido algunos de los eventos más importantes, resultados y méritos combinados en nuestra filosofía institucional y enfoque global de la investigación y desarrollo de la papa y la batata. Allí encontrarán amplios antecedentes históricos así como también un análisis más detallado de los acontecimientos recientes en el CIP. Aquí en el prefacio he escogido referirme a tres asuntos claves resaltados en el proceso de revisión, los cuales pueden ayudar a orientar nuestros pensamientos y acciones a medida que desarrollamos nuestra estrategia en colaboración con nuestros colegas a través de las redes globales.6 Nuestra estrategia para encarar las necesidades del siglo 21 proviene directamente del Perfil inicial de 1979, que fue el primero en la planificación estratégica dentro del GCIAI. Sin embargo, nuestras recientes revisiones han resaltado la necesidad de reevaluar y adaptar las operaciones de todo el Centro para ajustar el paso a la tecnología que está cambiando tan rápidamente y al cambio de los eventos políticos y económicos. Aunque regularmente hemos usado nuestro plan estratégico como diseño de trabajo, un plan actualizado puede ayudar a enfocar las necesidades comunes expecíficas identificadas en nuestros estudios recientes, particularmente para la investigación en batata que ultimamente se ha convertido en parte de nuestro mandato. f ,,.Los equipos de revisión externa así como los del TAC y nuestros donantes han discutido el rol del CIP en relación con otros Centros donde se hace investigación en batata. Cuando en 1986 se inició nuestro trabajo en batata con fondos de proyectos especiales, la investigación en batata también estaba incluida en el mandato de otros dos centros. El CIP recibió los primeros fondos para este producto en 1988. Sin embargo, en 1987, el IIAT descontinuó la investigación en batata y la junta directiva del CAID H decidió dejar de lado la investigación en batata en 1990. De esta manera, a medida que ponemos al día el plan estratégico, el CIP es el único Centro que trabaja con batata, lo que pone en evidencia un franco y fuerte rol del CIP a nivel mundial.Reconocemos que las prioridades establecidas dentro de la estrategia general deben tomar en cuenta cambios rápidos continuados en una comunidad de investigación que está madurando, así como también en las necesidades del agricultor/consumidor y los requerimientos de alimento. Tanto la papa como la batata están llamadas a jugar un rol muy importante en el futuro; por lo tanto nuestro plan debe proporcionar una buena indicación de las necesidades futuras y cómo van a enfrentarse. Probablemente el más grande desafío del CIP durante los próximos cinco años será el de ajustar la papa y la batata dentro de los sistemas de cultivo basados en cereales y agroforestales usando la tierra buena que ya se encuentra bajo cultivo.Los donantes han manifestado que les gustaría tener identificado el impacto tan pronto como fuera posible en la vida de un Centro. Las recientes revisiones del CIP y de otros Centros también han hecho ver la necesidad de identificar el impacto. Un desafío especial para el CIP será desarrollar a corto plazo un criterio para medir el impacto, comparable con el criterio que ha caracterizado el éxito de la \"revolución verde\". Aún en los medios sofisticados de investigación y producción de semillas de América del Norte y Europa, la adopción de sistemas mejorados nuevos en papa es un largo proceso. Puede requerirse un promedio de 25 años para su adopción -desde el primer cruzamiento que conduzca a la obtención de una nueva variedad hasta que se identifique, se ponga nombre y se siembre en unas 4 000 hectáreas de cultivo del agricultor una variedad potencialmente superior. Comparada con los millones de hectáreas de cereales que nos dieron la \"revolución verde\" 4 000 hectáreas son una pequeña parcela. Con toda claridad la evaluación del impacto de la \"línea de fondo\" es crucial pero también debemos encontrar indicadores que puedan predecir claramente el impacto potencial, dando alguna medida de progreso y acierto antes que se obtengan los resultados finales. En el proceso de evaluar, individualmente, el impacto de un Centro, se debe conceder el mérito a nuestros colegas del tercer mundo con los cuales compartimos todos nuestros éxitos. Ellos continúan siendo los actores claves en la •estrategia total del CIP.Aunque los donantes y revisores elogiaron en forma especial el enfoque ampliamente descentralizado del CIP, parece que los Centros que usan un enfoque de amplia base van a requerir de una revisón externa diferente a la de los Centros en los que la mayoría de las actividades se realizan en la sede central. Indudablemente, los donantes requieren de las revisiones para justificar el financiamiento y para apoyar las necesidades que se van identificando; sin embargo, probablemente sean necesarias algunas com-f 8 binaciones de autoestudio y revisiones externas modificadas para la evaluación efectiva de un centro donde la mayoría de su personal realiza sus actividades fuera de la sede central.En el contenido de este informe, hemos documentado el trabajo de nuestro personal y sus esfuerzos colaborativos con los colegas de los programas nacionales e instituciones afines, los cuales continuarán como la fuerza central conductora de todos los esfuerzos del CIP.Cualesquiera sean los métodos usados para la evaluación de los centros en el futuro, o para medir su impacto, el potencial para una \"revolución verde\" en la década del 90 se encontrará en el esfuerzo creciente de estos científicos a la medida que trabajen con cultivos intensivamente producidos como los tubérculos, raíces y hortalizas en los sistemas agrícolas de Asia y Africa. Dentro del sistema del GCIAI, el CIP ha ganado un reconocimiento especial por su enfoque institucional descentralizado para la investigación y desa\"ollo sobre la base global.En el relato siguiente, el Dr. SaKYer, director del Centro desde sus inicios en 1971, bosqueja la filoso/fa y los eventos históricos que le han dado fonna a este aspecto en las dos últimas décadas.Las operaciones habituales del CIP a nivel global están descritas brevemente en las páginas XV a XVIII, con el mapa de las redes colaborativas mostrando el movimiento de interacción de la investigación del CIPy el des~ollo en el mundo. El Centro es una de las 13 instituciones del GCIAI, descrito en la última página de este in/ onne. La lista de las organizaciones donantes del CIP y su mandato se encuentran en la página que sigue al título.Primer~s años del CIP: Un Sendero Diferente C omo concepto de los primeros años de la década del 60, los primeros Centros se desarrollaron a partir de planes con requerimientos de campos extensos de cultivo e instalaciones para la sede central. Se establecieron para convertirse en Centros por excelencia a través de sus propias instalaciones, personal y apoyo proporcionado. En el CIP hemos tomado una ruta diferente. Hemos establecido también las instalaciones básicas, pero la excelencia de nuestro centro ha sido construida en base a la colaboración que abarca los programas nacionales en el mundo (ver mapa, página XV). Hemos hecho intercambio de expertos con esos programas mientras trabajábamos en problemas prioritarios de mejoramiento de la papa y la batata.Nuestra sede central en el Perú está localizada cerca de la cuna original de la papa donde se halla la más grande diversidad de especies silvestres. De este modo, nuestros esfuerzos iniciales se encaminaron hacia el establecimiento de una colección mundial de cultivares nativos y especies silvestres y al desarrollo de métodos para la identificación y eliminación de enfermedades de tal manera que se pudiera proporcionar material limpio a los mejoradores en todo el mundo. Para ayudar 9• a la identificación de los materiales y apoyar los trabajos prioritarios de los mejoradores, se establecieron estaciones experimentales en zonas agroecológicas específicas en el Perú (página XVI). Tres de éstas se ubicaron en zonas ecológicas tropicales de clima templado y caluroso.~1 Perú está a muy poca distancia al sur del Ecuador, con una amplia variación ecológica, desde los trópicos cálidos de la cuenca Amazónica hasta las frías tierras altas de los Andes.En estos lugares, hemos comenzado a observar los problemas clásicos sobre los que han estado trabajando por años los científicos especializados en papa como son el tizón tardío, los virus y la producción de semilla. Sin embargo, nos hemos dado cuenta que las estadísticas mundiales sobre producción de alimentos indican que en base a porcentajes, la producción de papa se ha ido incrementando muy rápido en Asia y Africa. En muchos países, la papa recién ha comenzado a usarse como artículo alimenticio de primera necesidad y también como hortaliza. Hemos necesitado determinar inicialmente y de primera mano cuáles eran los problemas y dónde era necesaria la ayuda de un centro internacional.De este modo hemos concentrado sólo una parte de nuestros recursos a nuestra sede central y hemos establecido una red de estaciones experimentales regionales a nivel mundial. Su mayor responsabilidad será la de unirnos con los países de la región para que podamos proporcionarles en .mejor forma nuestros tres principales servicios: investigaci~n, capacitación y comunicaciones.Nuestros programas regionales han comenzado rápidamente a proporcionarnos información, influenciando enormemente en nuestras prioridades de investigación. Hemos encontrado que: l. La papa ya no puede ser considerada como cultivo de estación fría, de latitud norte o de altura, puesto que también se ha estado cultivando en climas templados y cálidos d~ los trópicos.2. La dependencia en se~a importada ha sido la que ha limitado en forma más profunda el uso del enorme valor nutritivo de la papa. Individualmente como producto alimenticio de sobrevivencia, no existe ningún otro alimento de origen vegetal que iguale la calidad nutritiva de la papa.3. En muchos países sólo se ha invertido escaso capital humano en investigación y desarrollo de la papa y estos limitados recursos han estado dispersos en diferentes instituciones. Se asignó mayor -prioridad en prestar ayuda a los programas nacionales de papa que podíamos respaldar en respuesta a las necesidades de sus agricultores.4. La \"revolución verde\" con los cereales se ha convertido en el impacto reconocido como el más importante de la década del 70.Los países que pensaron que la mayor parte de su población estaría siempre hambrienta alcanzaron autosuficiencia en arroz y en su búsqueda por cultivos alternativos encontraron en la papa una promesa excepcional de diversificación: el cultivo desarrolla rápido y tiene alto valor nutritivo; es rentable y tiene niveles de producción altos por unidad de área y de tiempo. La papa también se adapta bien en los sistemas agrícolas basados en cereales.Las estadísticas de la Organización Mundial para la Alimentación (FAO), sobre producción de papa están desencaminadas, porque mucha de la producción nunca penetró los canales en los que la F AO obtuvo sus datos. Aún así, sus estadísticas han demostrado que la papa se ha ido incrementando con mayor rapidez que ningún otro producto alimenticio importante en Africa y en Asia.Estas son las influencias importantes que han ayudado al CIP a determinar sus prioridades de investigación incluyendo nuestra decisión de ubicar el mayor énfasis en el cultivo de papa en las áreas tropicales templadas y cálidas. Aunque a veces se arguye que hemos introducido la papa hacia climas para los cuales no está adaptada, los hechos demuestran que estamos sirviendo las necesidades de los países del tercer mundo donde la papa ya se está cultivando. Estos países tienen necesidad permanente de este producto para alimentar su creciente población.Al establecerse la red regional, nuestro personal regional y los científicos de los programas regionales nos hicieron saber de inmediato que la marchitez bacteriana o pudrición parda era tan importante como el tizón tardío en muchas áreas productoras de papa. A medida que•la papa se fue desplazando hacia zonas tropicales más cálidas se ha ido encontrando una nueva lista de plagas y enfermedades que nunca se 11 habían encontrado en los países de mayores latitudes que han estado exportando semilla. Por ejemplo, la polilla del tubérculo nunca había sido mencionada como un problema importante en la primera conferencia de planificación realizada en 1972, a pesar de que los participantes provenían de países desarrollados y en vías de desarrollo de lugares del mundo donde la papa era importante.-La estructura regional de investigación y nuestros colaboradores que contribuyen con la sede central han tenido una influencia decisiva en el establecimiento de prioridades. Este aporte es la raron principal para que nuestra investigación de hoy día tenga el propósito de mejorar la papa que se cultiva en los países del tercer mundo-de las zonas de clima tropical templado y cálido.Muchos de los lectores de este informe han participado activamente en la investigación que emana de nuestro trabajo descentralizado. Nuestros esfuerzos combinados han dado a la papa una posición muy favorable en la agricultura actual, señalando el rol aún más importante que el cultivo va a jugar satisfaciendo las necesidades alimentarias del mañana.Inicialmente, cuando comenzamos a formar la colección mundial de germoplasma para uso de los mejoradores de hoy y de las generaciones futuras, comenzamos a buscar la forma de producir semilla en climas tropicales cálidos. Con la producción a partir de semilla importada, el costo de la semilla por si sola podía sobrepasar el 50 por ciento de los costos de producción en muchos países. Después que se aprendió la forma de multiplicar la semilla importada con bajos niveles de incremento de virus en climas tropicales, nos desplazamos hacia la investigación sobre multiplicación rápida y por semilla botánica. La adaptación de estas técnicas está actualmente localizada en muchas partes en todo el mundo.'La producción local de semilla ha sido esencial en el cambio del rol de la papa, de una-hortaliza relativamente costosa a la de alimento de primera necesidad. A medida que los programas de semilla han ido progresando, las actitudes de los que toman las decisiones políticas han cambiado rápidamente. Aún en las tierras bajas de los países tropicales --como por ejemplo Viet Nam, la papa ha alcanzado el segundo lugar de prioridad entre los productos alimenticios.La capacidad para almacenar el material de siembra entre la cosecha y el cultivo siguiente ha sido la segunda mayor preocupación. Muchos países dependían de costosos almacenes refrigerados. La técnica de almacenamiento en luz difusa del CIP fue el primer resultado importante que se ha extendido rápidamente por el mundo.Nuestros puentes colaborativos alrededor del mundo nos han proporcionado la capacidad de distribución de material varietal potencial, de los países desarrollados y en desarrollo a otras partes del mundo donde sean de utilidad. No hemos tenido que esperar que nuestro propio material estuviera disponible. Aunque el CIP tiene menos de 20 años, los países del tercer mundo ya están recibiendo en forma estable un flujo de variedades potencialmente excelentes, con resistencia incorporada para plagas y enfermedades en los climas tropicales cálidos. Además hemos estado distribuyendo material excelente proveniente de otros programas de mejoramiento, que pueda adaptarse a los requerimientos del programa nacional.En mi opinión el impacto más importante del CIP está muy .por encima de lo que se ha obtenido en investigación. Nuestro mayor logro se ha obtenido ayudando a la formación de los programas nacionales en los países del tercer mundo, a través de la capacitación, consultorías y el establecimiento de redes. En muchos países donde no existía ni un solo hombre-año de inversión para investigación en papa en 1972, existen hoy científicos bien capacitados trabajando como equipos nacionales en investigación y producción de semilla.Nuestro apoyo para la producción de papa en las zonas tropicales cálidas de Africa y Asia recién ha comenzado. Todavía estamos usando menos del 10% de las especies silvestres disponibles para ayudar a resolver los problemas de adaptación varietal y resistencia. Gran parte de nuestra investigación en los programas de producción. de semilla recién se están alineando. Las nuevas herramientas de la biotecnología que son tan fáciles de usar con papa, recién están comenzando a utilizarse. El CIP con su programa descentralizado y los puentes colaborativos, tienen una sólida base de operaciones para responder a las necesidades de mejoramiento de la papa de los programas nacionales y para ajustarse rápidamente a sus condiciones cambiantes.A medida que observamos el rol que debe jugar la papa para satisfacer las necesidades de alimento en los pueblos del mundo, hemos tenido que examinar las tendencias presentes y pasadas. La producción comprobada y los valores nutricionales de la papa van a ser mucho más necesarias en los años venideros. En las siguientes dos décadas, la agricultura va a afrontar sus más grandes obstáculos desde que comenzaran las antiguas civilizaciones el desarrollo sistemático de los sistemas alimentarios de sobrevivencia.Los mayores obstáculos del mañana incluyen:J. Aumento de la población La población mundial se va a duplicar en aproximadamente dos décadas. El Atlas del Banco Mundial señala muchos países del tercer mundo con un incremento anual del 3 al 4%, lo que claramente indica que muchos programas de control de la natalidad no han tenido éxito. Mucho del peso de estos fracasos se transfiere para que la agricultura los remedie.Muchos de los países con los índices más altos de aumento de población se están quedando sin tierras buenas de cultivo. A menudo tienen que recurrir a las tierras marginales de ecología frágil para hacer frente a las necesidades de alimentos. Estadísticas recientes sobre concentración común de la población y presiones relacionadas sobre la tierra están bien descritas en una publicación Foro de IRED: \"Si nuestro mundo fuera un pueblo de 1 000 habitantes, en el pueblo habrían 564 asiáticos, 210 europeos, 86 africanos, 80 suramericanos y 60 nor-. teamericanos. Entre toda esta gente, 60 personas tendrían la mitad de los ingresos, 500 sufrirían de hambre, 600 vivirían en barriadas, 700 serían analfabetos\".De esta manera está claro que el mayor incremento de la producción de alimentos •debe llevarse a cabo en la tierra buena que está actualmente en producción. Esto va a requerir un cambio importante para incluir las hortalizas de mayor producción y los cultivos de tubérculosraíces dentro de los sistemas anuales de producción de alimentos, donde actualmente los cereales se cultivan habitualmente después de otros cereales.El mundo está finalmente acogiendo con entusiasmo el hecho de que el medio ambiente ha sido por mucho tiempo dejado de lado como principal preocupación en los programas agrícolas, control de la natalidad y desarrollo industrial. El informe Burtland de las Naciones Unidas ha impulsado justamente la preocupación internacional que ha dado como resultado la implementación de pr-0gramas que van a afectar la forma como trabajamos, como jugamos y el alimento que consumiremos en el futuro. El plan de política ambiental del gobierno Danés, \"Elegir o Perder\" puede muy bien erigirse como un modelo para la Comunidad Económica Europea. Recomienda una ambiciosa y necesaria aplicación en gran escala de la tecnología conocida, siempre que se logren las metas trazadas para nuestro medio ambiente al mismo tiempo que la producción agrícola aumente.En los últimos 20 años se ha desplegado una importante fuerza categórica para un mayor desarrollo por medio de los centros del sistema internacional de investigación agrícola (CHA) que específicamente señala los principales problemas de producción de alimentos en los países del tercer mundo. Estos centros tienen programas de investigación, capacitación e intercambio de información que están integrando gradualmente el mundo de la investigación agrícola en una comunidad unida. Sus esfuerzos emanan de la fuerza combinada de los países desarrollados y del tercer mundo, del sector público y privado y los CHA. No deben existir dudas acerca del papel fundamental que debe jugar este sistema internacional en la intervención en los problemas de población, agricultura y medio ambiente en las próximas dos décadas.Los dos productos de los que actualmente se ocupa el CIP son alimentos básicos de primera necesidad en algunas partes del mundo, pero están clasificadas y utilizadas en muchas áreas como hortalizas, particularmente en los lugares de reciente introducción. Ambos artículos producen mayor cantidad de calorías por unidad de área y de tiempo que casi cualquier otro cultivo alimenticio principal incluyendo los cereales. La producción de batata ha ido disminuyendo en muchas 15 partes del mundo, donde las condiciones económicas permiten al consumidor elegir alimentos diferentes a aquellos que tradicionalmente han sido considerados como alimentos de subsistencia en los estratos bajos de la población.Los dos principales productos del CIP se ajustan de forma ideal para enfrentar el desafío que afronta la agricultura. La papa y la batata se adecúan bien en el sistema de cultivo basado en cereales y pueden incrementar la producción de alimentos por unidad de área y por año. Son cultivos de crecimiento rápido y producen un follaje copioso que previene la erosión. También crecen bien de preferencia en el cultivo de tipo camellón para la protección de los tubérculos, una práctica que también previene la erosión cuando se usa el sistema de curvas a nivel.En los próximos 20 años, el desafío del CIP para satisfacer las necesidades agrícolas del mundo es adaptar la papa y la batata a los sistemas de cultivo de cereales y agroforestal que permitirán:• Incrementar la productividad de alimentos de calidad por unidad de área y de tiempo.• Incrementar la eficiencia de las inversiones como fertilizantes y agua; y• Mantener el incre~ento de la productividad con prácticas que protejan el medio ambiente.Este desafío está basado en la asunción de que (1) los cereales se mantengan como el principal alimento de sustento, mientras que otros alimentos más productivos jugar. án un papel de mayor importancia; (2) la mayor parte de lo que se necesita para incrementar la producción en los años venideros se cultivará en la' tierra buena que se encuentra bajo cultivo y (3) los suelos pobres de las partes altas y bajas de la zona tropical, donde la agricultura forestal tiene una ventaja comparativa se volverá significativamente más importante para la producción de alimentos.Cada uno de estos componentes se están programando dentro del esfuerzo global del CIP para mejorar la papa y la batata para la década del 90.Solanum acaule Bitter.Solanum vidaurrei Cárdenas.Pintura por Franz Frey. Reproducida de Papas de Suramérica: Bolivia, por Carlos M. Ochoa. Publicado por Cambridge University Press en colaboración con el Centro Internacional de la Papa, 1990.-\"\". .E 1 CIP dirige su programa de investigación y desarrollo mundiales mediante una red regional a través de la cual los científicos del CIP y de los programas nacionales evalúan sistemáticamente las tecnologías bajo una gama de condiciones locales. Este enfoque toma en consideración al agricultor, al consumidor y a la comunidad agroeconómica en todos los niveles, desde el momento en que se identifica un problema, en la estación experimental y pruebas y adaptación en fincas hasta que la solución efectiva es aceptada por los productores locales de papa y batata.La rápida y continua revisión de estas evaluaciones juega un papel clave en la direc-PRECODE~, /_ ... -. . . . . : •\"\"\"' . • .. ,,,.,.,L \\ / 1 ,, t ,, 1 ' , •.ción que sigue el CIP sobre su programa global de investigación en la sede central, en Lima, Perú (ver información general de la siguiente página).La capacidad del CIP se multiplica gracias a los numerosos contratos de investigación y consultoría que aprovechan de la experiencia y facilidades existentes en otras instituciones, a menudo en forma de investigación colaborativa con países desarrollados. Mediante los contratos con instituciones de los• países del tercer mundo, compartimos los recursos humanos y físicos especializados para concentrarnos en la investigación de mayor prioridad local.E 1 CIP ha ayudado a desarrollar cinco redes únicas en su género de investigación colaborativa. En estas redes, varios países de una determinada área geográfica unen sus recursos para resolver problemas comunes de producción. Una vez que se han evaluado las prioridades, cada país ejecuta el proyecto para el cual tiene comparativamente mayores ventajas y comparte los resultados con los demás países. El CIP participa en las redes como un miembro igualitario, proporcionando asistencia técnica en las áreas de su experiencia, al igual que • .. •. ... en la dirección administrativa. La distribución de los esfuerzos permite al CIP y a los países miembros utilizar sus recursos eficientemente.Este sistema de responsabilidad compartida e intercambio activo se diferencia fundamentalmente de otras redes agrícolas diseñadas principalmente para ayudar en la distiibución de germoplasma. Los miembros se benefician de una amplia gama de resultados de investigación y al mismo tiempo sus intereses se consolidan y su confianza en sí mismos se fortifica.  .,,En el Informe Anual del CIP hemos reproducido tradicionalmente, hechos y palabras de científicos y administradores. Sin embargo, en este artículo nos referimos a hechos de aplicación práctica de la investigación científica y la capacitación proporcionada en la sede central del CIP y en las regiones. :t;:ste relato proviene de una entrevista realizada por Tito Alberto Brovelli a Ana María Escarrá y Juan Barrenechea, propietarios de Diagnósticos Vegetales, una firma privada dedicada a la detección de virus. En el futuro publicaremos en los Informes Anuales relatos similares sobre los esfuerzos colaborativos. de• empresas del sector privado e instituciones de programas nacionales dedicados al trabajo en papa y batata en las regiones. Sus palabras expresan mejor que las nuestras la utilidad y el impacto de desarrollo del programa global del CIP (ver Circular del CIP Vol. 17(1), 1987, para información adicional sobre investigación y capacitación en Virología relacionada con las pru~bas de ELISA y Látex que realiza el CIP) .Escarrá y Juan Lorenzo Barrenechea, equipo de esposos, son los propietarios de Diagnósticos Vegetales, empresa que ofrece servicios de detección de virus y produce semilla libre de patógenos. Durante la década del 80 han equipado el primer laboratorio argentino para la identificación de virus de papa por el método de conjugados enzimáticos (ELISA).Después que el laboratorio estuvo bien establecido, comenzaron a desarrollar el proceso de producción de semilla completamente sana para abastecer el mercado interno. Hoy en día, ellos exportan semilla así como también tecnología para detección de virus.La rapidez con que crece el negocio representa una tendencia en Latinoamérica. El éxito de esta pareja ha probado que con un mínimo de capital y crédito fmanciero es posible establecer un sistema comercial de análisis de virus de papa para complementar las actividades del gobierno, en este caso el Programa Nacional de Semilla de Argentina.Antes de iniciar su empresa, Ana María fue a capacitarse en el laboratorio de semilla de papa de la estación ex-Ana María examinando plantines en el estado final de micropropagación.perimental INTA-Balcarce (Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria) donde recibió instrucción del virólogo, Dr. Ivan Butzonitch.Con los nuevos conocimientos adquiridos y una dosis grande de determinación, ella y Juan se las arreglaron para construir dos invernaderos en Otamendi, pequeña comunidad productora de papa al sur de Mar de Plata. Ella dijo que \"allí pudimos reproducir todo lo que he venido haciendo en el laboratorio del INTA\".Ella tuvo la suerte de aprender de un investigador del INTA, el ingeniero agrónomo Atilio Calderoni, el método nuevo de diagnóstico ELISA. Este método involucra un sistema inmunoenzimático que ha sido recientemente desarrollado para su uso en hortalizas y que el CIP ha comenzado a ponerlo en práctica.Para aprender más sobre la prueba de ELISA, Ana María se puso en contacto 24 inmediato con centros internacionales. A través de ellos se enteró sobre un curso de virología ofrecido por el CIP, en el que se impartirían conocimientos sobre la técnica de diagnóstico y se inscribió en el curso que se realizó en octubre de 1981, dirigido por el Dr. Luis Salazar y un equipo de asistentes del Programa dé Vrrología del CIP.   \"La experiencia adquirida en ese curso de capacitación\", dice ella, \"me proporcionó mayor conocimiento práctico y acadéntlco de la virología de la papa, al mismo tiempo que me dio la oportunidad de hacer muy buenas amistades\". Después de haber recibido autorización para usar la nueva técnica en Argentina y adquirir el espacio y equipos necesarios, la pareja se reunió con los 1 : Distribuyendo soluciones de anticuerpos en placas para la prueba de ELISA.La pareja en una discusión de negocios en la sede de Diagnósticos Vegetales.productores para determinar los costos y llegar a un acuerdo.Tradicionalmente la importación de semilla de papa ha constituido un evento anual en Argentina, debido a que la semilla 'nueva tendía a infectarse enormemente. Pero con los conocimientos adquiridos de ELISA y la investigación sobre poblaciones de áfidos se vio la posibilidad real de mantener semilla sana por más tiempo.En diciembre, Ana María tomó parte en el \"Primer Curso Internacional sobre Producción y Almacenamiento de Semilla de Papa\" organizado por el CIP en Osorno, Chile. El Dr. Fernando Ezeta, científico del CIP y coordinador del Programa de Producción de Semilla Básica de Papa en el Perú, describió sus experiencias en el área. Se discutió un método para proporcionar sólo semilla completamente sana.Ana María evoca que \"este concepto fue una revelación para mí. Vi que si podía transferir esta metodología a mi propio país seríamos capaces de auto-Evaluando la calidad de los mini-tubérculos provenientes de plantines In vitro.abastecernos de semilla y eliminar la importación\".Juan añadió que \"la idea de iniciar la producción de semilla sana en nuestro país también significaba el desafío de trabajo más intenso para nosotros\". La pareja hizo los arreglos necesarios para estudiar la nueva técnica. En marzo de 1984 viajaron al Perú para realizar un corto, pero intensivo período de capacitación en el CIP.Después que regresaron a la Argentina, instalaron un invernadero en el área de Sierra de los Angeles y establecieron un pequeño laboratorio de cultivo de tejidos en su oficina principal. El CIP les proporcionó semilla sana de las variedades que se usan en la Argentina.En 1986, los productores de todas las áreas paperas de la Argentina sembraron ensayos con esta semilla libre de enfermedades; luego las autoridades nacionales tomaron nota y recomendaron a otros agricultores hacer lo mismo.En el caso particular de Diagnósticos Vegetales, la oportunidad fue especial para establecer contactos con empresas y productores de otros países latinoamericanos interesados en encontrar soluciones similares. Con la capacitación adquirida por el equipo de Diagnósticos Vegetales, técnicos mexicanos han establecido un laboratorio de detección de virus en La Junta, México. 'mcnicos chilenos y uruguayos también han recibido capacitación para establecer laboratorios similares en sus países.Las actividades de nuestros Planes de Acción continúan vigorizándose dentro de un eficaz marco de trabajo conjunto entre los científicos de los SNIA y los del CIP, en Latinoamérica, Africa y Asia. Los informes de cada uno de los Planes de Acción reflejan logros substanciales debido a este sistema de equipos combinados, particularmente en lo referente al desarrollo de materiales mejorados del CIP que proporcionan combinaciones de resistencia y tolerancia a trastornos de tipo biótico y abiótico, tanto por sí solos o por cruzamientos con materiales localmente adaptados. También hemos contribuido a la integración de fuentes seleccionadas diferentes a las del programa de mejoramiento del Centro. Entre las recompensas de la investigación por los Planes de Acción se encuentran los métodos de control integrado de plagas y enfermedades, los esquemas de producción de semilla de papa que proporcionen materiales selectos de siembra y las metodologías nuevas de poscosecha.Nuestra investigación en batata se ha desarrollado rápidamente y el banco de genes del CIP es actualmente el mayor y mejor documentado del mundo, con duplicados de colecciones nacionales en Latinoamérica, el Caribe, China, Japón y Estados U nidos. Simultáneamente, hemos desplegado un extensivo esfuerzo de colección entre el CIP y IBPGR (Junta Internacional de Recursos Genéticos) para explorar sistemáticamente Latinoamérica y el Caribe donde existe una gran diversidad genética de batata.La colección del IITA ha sido introducida a cultivo in vitro y duplicada para transferirla a la colección del CIP. El AVRDC (Centro Asiático de Investigación en Hortalizas y Desarrollo) ha aceptado transferir íntegramente al CIP los duplicados de su colección. En una evaluación sistemática de la colección de batata del CIP, hemos encontrado resistencia a algunas plagas, tolerancia a trastornos de carácter abiótico y otros factores de calidad que van a ayudar mejor a servir las necesidades identificadas por los países del tercer mundo. Al igual que en nuestro trabajo colaborativo en papa, estamos buscando la manera de eliniinar patógenos y confirmar su eliminación. Este difícil y arduo trabajo está diseñado para producir tecnología que pueda ser usada por los países del tercer mundo. Los resultados obtenidos en el mejoramiento de la floración y fructificación han facilitado la obtención de muchos cruzamientos nuevos.Se están evaluando las necesidades persistentes en los países del tercer mundo por medio de encuestas realizadas por personal local dedicado a la batata y por los científicos sociales del CIP que trabajan junto con ellos y los agricultores.De la misma manera se están tomando en cuenta las tecnologías que han tenido éxito y la forma de adaptarlas para su mejoramiento y difusión.Nuestra investigación en recursos genéticos de papa se concentró en los estudios biosistemáticos y en el mantenimiento, utilización e incremento del germoplasma.En relación con los estudios biosistemáticqs hemos descrito tres especies • nuevas, S. amayanum y S. bill-hookeri de la serie taxonómica tuberosa y S. solanasarium de la serie Conicibaccata. Las 3 corresponden a los Andes centrales del Perú y tienen un número cromosómico 2n=2x=24.Además hemos identificado una nueva forma de la importante especie tetraploide silvestre S. acaule que parece tener un gran potencial en el desarrollo de resistencia mejorada al PLRV y a la inoculación mecánica del PSTV d. Los estudios realizados por el CIP en diferentes h~rbatios de Estados Unidos, Europa y el Perú han demostrado que S. bukasovii posee una enorme variabilidad genética, al extremo que cuatro especies: S. canasense, S. multidissectum, S. pumoense y S. pumilum Hawkes, son todos sinónimos de S. bukasovü. Esta es una importante aclaración genética, porque significa que S. bukasovii puede usarse en mejoramjento sin mayores problemas.Estamos alcanzando grandes progresos en la determinación del número balanceado de endosperma (NBE) de las especies silvestres. Este trabajo nos ayuda a comprender y predecir la cruzabilidad de las especies silvestres entre sí y con especies cultivadas de papa; también nos ayuda a comprender mejor el proceso de evolución para la formación de las especies.28 Continuamos identificando cultivares nuevos y la colección del CIP que se siembra en el campo consiste ahora de 3 439 cultivares andinos de los cuales 99% • se mantiene también in vitro. Después de la identificación electroforética se eliminaron 603 duplicados del material obtenido de Argentina, Bolivia y Perú. Para conservar la diversidad de la papa en los campos de agricultores andinos estamos probando una nueva modalidad que consiste en enseñar a los agricultores a seleccionar materiales segregantes de semilla sexual de acuerdo a sus necesidades y preferencias locales. Los agricultores de tres l~dades están actualmente usando semilla sexual de alrededor de 20 cultivares nativos que son populares en áreas agrícolas tradicionales como Cajamarca, Cusco y Puno, Perú.Entre 200 cultivares andinos, evaluados y seleccionados para resistencia a la polilla del tubérculo de la papa, Phthorimaea operculella, se encontraron 15 resistentes y 35 moderadamente resisten-. tes. Los cultivares andinos de la lista de prueba para presencia de patógenos han sido distribuidos a 14 países en la forma de tubérculos muestras, plantitas in vitro o semillas.Para mayor seguridad, el CIP ha duplicado un conjunto de tubérculos de cultivares peruanos en un campo de banco de genes de altura en la región central del Perú, el que es mantenido por la Universidad Nacional Agraria. Este material ha sido íntegramente duplicado fuera del Perú dentro de un acuerdo colaborativo con el INIAP en Ecuador.Hemos completado la transferencia de la colección mundial de papa a cultivo in vitro. La computadorización de los procedimientos de mantenimiento de la colección está completa y todo el rotulado se hace actualmente por computadora.En cuanto a los estudios sobre utilización, nuestro trabajo se ha centrado en el uso de Solanum acaule y 124 clones de esta especie que se encontraron resistentes (por inoculación mecánica) al PSTV d los que luego se probaron por inoculación de PSTVd cADN mediante Agrobacterium. En dichas pruebas, 21 clones mostraron resistencia a esta forma de inoculación. Cuatro clones adicionales se identificaron como aparentemente resistentes al PLRV, en base a su resistencia a la infestación de áfidos y a la multiplicación del virus. Los 25 clones han sido transferidos a cultivo in vitro y están expeditos para usarse en el incremento del germoplasma y mejoramiento. De este material de S. acaule (que posiblemente también tiene resistencia al PVY y PVX), se han generado poblaciones F2 y retrocruzamientos que van a usarse en los proyectos de mapeo del RFLP (polimorfismo en la longitud del fragmento de restricción). Este proyecto ayudará en el mapeo de genes que determinan la resistencia al PSTV d y a algunos virus. También hemos desarrollado varios esquemas para la utilización efectiva del material de S. acaule, incluyendo una combinación de cruzamiento estre S. acaule y clones tetraploides de papa cultivada. Previamente, esta combinación fracasó debido al comportamiento del bloque tetraploide o de la barrera del NBE.Nuestro trabajo de incremento del germoplasma incluye la identificación de niveles altos de resistencia a los nematodos del nódulo en 5 clones diploides nuevos, usando un método in vitro recientemente desarrollado que ha eliminado los problemas de temperatura que se encontraron en el ambiente tradicional de prueba. Esta fuente de resistencia representa una ampliación de la base para resistencia al nematodo del nódulo en el CIP, puesto que las únicas fuentes anteriores útiles y efectivas fueron clones de S. sparsipilum. El material diploide nuevo tiene entre •sus antecedentes S. multidissectum, S. bukasovii, S. canasense y S. gourlayi. Estas especies silvestres se han cruzado con clones dihaploides de S. tuberosum ssp. tuberosum que fueron producidos por un contrato de investigación con la Universidad de Wisconsin. Algunos de estos clones tienen buena producción de polen 2n y están actualmente en uso en un programa de cruzamiento 4x x 2x. Estos clones tienen tubérculos de apariencia excelente.Se ha encontrado resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana en clones seleccionados 2x que tienen en su genealogía al clon MI49.10. Este don fue previamente seleccionado por su resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana y producción de polen 2n. Entre otros clones con resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana, uno de ellos mostró resistencia al nematodo del nódulo que puede ser trasmitida a progenies de cruzamientos 4x x 2:x. De esta manera, los clones combinan resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana y al nematodo del nódulo.Se han obtenido excelentes progresos en la transferencia de resistencia a la polilla del tubérculo de papa, de la especie silvestre Solanum sparsipilum a germoplasma cultivado 2x. Los hallazgos indicaron que la presencia de S. sparsipilum es deseable, pero no esencial para la expresión de resistencia. También hemos demostrado que la resistencia a los nematodos del nódulo, marchitez bacteriana y polilla del tubérculo de la papa al igual que la producción de polen 2n, puede ser combinada en genotipos diploides individuales que trasmiten estas características a su descendencia 4x.Estamos avanzando rápidamente en el uso de genes plasmídicos construidos de Agrobacterium, para transformar clones de papa. Se ha obtenido y probado una gama de secuencias de promotores nuevos (control), lo que nos ayuda a regular la cantidad y el lugar del producto de un gen en particular. El trabajo colaborativo con instituciones en Florencia, Nápoles, Roma y Vitervo en Italia han permitido la transformación para resistencia a diversas plagas y enfermedades y el uso de métodos in vitro para seleccionar resistencia a trastornos bióticos y abióticos.Se ha diseñado un nuevo contrato de investigación con la Universidad de Cornell para ayudar a producir un mapa conjugado más detallado de RFLP de papa. El mapa está basado en el uso de sondas de tomate y ya ha sido empleado en En cuanto al mejoramiento de papa, nuestra investigación está orientada hacia el desarrollo de la población y a estudios sobre semilla sexual. Hemos realizado una extensa selección de líneas parentales que se usarán para la selección varietal y utilización de esta semilla. En La Molina, se han evaluado 30 clones del programa del CIP y 12 de la Universidad de Maine para su valor parental usando un probador que mostró inmunidad combinada al PVY y PVX. Los clones C83.383, Maine 37, Cl-137, C84.081 y C84.707 han mostrado buen valor parental para rendimiento y uniformidad del tubérculo y tienen índices medios de madurez. En base a estos hallazgos, estamos seleccionando los progenitores para el próximo bloque de cruzamiento. En San Ramón, hemos evaluado una muestra de 25 clones para habilidad general de combinación (HGC), usando un diseño de línea-por-probador. Esta muestra incluyó clones con inmunidad al PVY (simples y duplex) y PVX con inmunidad combinada al PVX y PVY. Los rendimientos fueron aceptables y muchas progenies mostraron rendimientos altos, buena uniformidad del tubérculo y precocidad. Todas las progenies segregaron para inmunidad ya sea al PVY o al PVX y los clones XY.15 y C84.705 tuvieron una HGC alta pararendimiento, uniformidad del tubérculo y precocidad. En La Molina también hemos trabajado con una muestra de 286 clones introducidos de Uruguay para evaluar sus atributos agronómicos. La muestra se generó de progenies segre-gantes de semilla sexual para atributos de procesamiento y resistencia a virus (PVX, PVY y PLRV), de los cuales se seleccionaron 23 clones. Estos se están probando actualmente para inmunidad a varios virus.Para evaluar resistencia a la sequía se probaron en Tacna, 800 clones de papa (seleccionados en San Ramón y La Molina). Hemos encontrado rendimientos altos y buenos niveles de precocidad en varios clones. Esta población contiene muchas combinaciones de resistencia a virus y a otras enfermedades y pueden utilizarse en el desarrollo de clones parentales. También hemos evaluado poblaciones mejoradas para adaptación a ambientes tropicales cálidos y para el desarrollo de líneas parentales para semilla sexual. Diez clones evaluados en La Molina y 2 clones evaluados en San Ramón han sido seleccionados para hacer hojuelas y papas fritas porque presentan buenas características de procesamiento: forma apropiada del tubérculo, color y uniformidad. Los programas nacionales de Burundi, Etiopía, Ruanda, Tanzania, Uganda y Zaire han participado en una prueba regional en la cual hemos evaluado un conjunto de los mejores clones de los programas nacionales y del CIP bajo una amplia variedad de ambientes en países del este y el sur de Africa. En China, el área cultivada con trasplantes de semilla sexual se ha incrementado de 80,5 ha en 1987, a 110 ha en 1988 y 150 ha en 1989. Este incremento se ha extendido en más de 20 provincias en el sudoeste y norte de China y puede ser atribuido al uso de logística mejorada, disponibilidad de semilla sexual de alta calidad, establecimiento de procedimientos de distribución de colecciones de semilla sexual y el aporte del CIP en capacitación del personal.Los estudios en batata se han concentrado principalmente en la colección, identificación taxonómica, mantenimiento del germoplasma, identificación de duplicados, evaluación, distribución e incremento. Se han realizado seis ex-¡}ediciones de colección (una en Guatemala y Panamá y cuatro en el Perú), con un total de 299 entradas colectadas en 130 lugares. De estas entradas 155 correspondieron a J. batatas; 9 representaron dos especies de Ipomoea de la sección Batatas; 12 representaron siete especies de otras secciones y 123 no han sido aún clasificadas.Hemos comenzado a duplicar la colección del germoplasma de batata del IITA en el CIP, con la transferencia de 210 entradas mantenidas in vitro. Este material genético incluye 34 selecciones avanzadas y 176 líneas de mejoramiento. Las 1 202 entradas del IITA han sido cuidadosamente documentadas y una base de datos computadorizada contiene actualmente todos los datos disponibles. Un total de 3 520 entradas de batata se sembraron en La Molina; de éstas~ 1 868 cultivares peruanos y 338 líneas de mejoramiento se sembraron en el campo. Otros •966 cultivares provenientes de otros países se sembraron en macetas en el invernadero de cuarentena y348 entradas se mantuvieron como cultivo in vitro. Estamos transfiriendo materiales a cultivo in vitro tan pronto como es posible y actualmente un total de 2 430 entradas de batata se mantienen in vitro bajo condiciones de crecimiento lento. Algunas de estas entradas se están duplicando fuera del Perú en base a un acuerdo con IDEAS de Venezuela. Las verificaciones de duplicados se hicieron por análisis electroforético en el Instituto de Bioquímica en Braunschweig, Alemania Occidental, donde se hizo el estudio de 254 entradas peruanas cultivadas •de 60 grupos con características morfológicas idénticas. Los resultados y los agrupamientos basados en datos morfo-32 lógicos estuvieron de acuerdo en cerca. de 85% de las entradas.El A VRDC analizó los componentes nutricionales de las raíces reservantes de 897 cultivares peruanos. De estos cultLvares, 35 mostraron contenido de materia seca en niveles mayores al 40%; 13 tenían niveles de contenido de almidón. mayores al 70%; 4 tenían niveles combinados de más de 35% de materia seca con más de 10% de proteína total; 4 tenían menos de 2% de contenido total de azúcar y 26 tenían menos de 2% de contenido de fibra. Se encontró una correlación negativa significativa entre el contenido de materia seca y el contenido de proteína total y entre el contenido de materia seca y el de fibra. Se encontró correlación positiva entre los contenidos de materia seca y almidón. Dieciocho cultivares de l. batatas fueron calificados como resistentes y otros 12 como moderadamente resistentes al gorgojo Euscepes postf ascians. En la República de China Popular (Xuzhou y Guangdong), los científicos están caracterizando la colección nacional china de batata~ computadorizando los datos e introduciendo los clones a cultivo in vitro.En relación con la investigación sobre incremento del germoplasma de batata estamos combinando los métodos innovativo y citogenético tradicional. Los estudios de las especies 2x y 4x de l. trifida han demostrado ser prometedores para trabajos futuros sobre batata. Dentro de la sección Batatas solamente se usó I. trifida en nuestra investigación sobre germoplasma de batata; sin embargo, hemos iniciado un estudio de capacidad de cruzamiento para determinar la posibilidad de usar eí resto de esta sección taxonómica. En este tra ~ajo se formó polen 2n en 6 de las 11 especies estudiadas y de 70 combinaciones interespecíficas examinadas, 28 tuvieron éxito, mientras que los progenitores del mismo nivel de poliploidia demostraron tener una alta capacidad de cruzamiento. Todo el conjunto de las 11 especies estudiadas se ha convertido en genéticamente accesible, ya sea directa o indirectamente. Así esta sección se muestra promisoria para un futuro trabajo de incremento del germoplasma de batata.En nuestro trabajo de mejoramiento de la población en batata en la costa desértica y la cuenca del Amazonas del Perú hemos hecho buenos progresos en la• selección de material con rendimientos altos y precoces, adaptación amplia y una extensa gama de características importantes para el consumidor. Hemos puesto énfasis en el estudio del germoplasma peruano recientemente colectado.El CIP ha distribuido material genético a sus colaboradores en 88 SNIA. Los materiales actualmente disponibles de la lista de prueba para presencia de patógenos incluyen 245 cultivares avanzados de variedades, 35 cultivares en proceso de limpieza, 172 entradas del germoplasma nativo silvestre y cultivado más 56 en proceso de limpieza. Seis cultivares de batata se encuentran actualmente incluidos en la lista de prueba para presencia de patógenos y 62 están en proceso de limpieza.En cuanto a investigación sobre marchitez bacteriana, nuestra colaboración con los SNIA en varios países del tercer mundo continúa concentrándose en la selección de poblaciones tetraploides con resistencia a Pseudomonas solanacearnm heredada de especies cultivadas diploides de Solanum. Hemos incrementado sustancialmente nuestras pruebas y desarrollo de materiales de mejoramiento potencialmente útiles en localidades peruanas y del mundo, intensificando así la selección para resistencia a variantes localizadas de la bacteria. Nuestros esfuerzos combinados han producido una nueva población a partir de una serie de cruzamientos entre los mejores clones resistentes a la marchitez bacteriana y una población resistente al tizón tardío (incluyendo algunos clones libres de genes R). Una amplia gama de materiales ha sido seleccionada por su potencial aceptable de rendimiento y se han .. alcanzado mayores progresos en la selección de clones que no muestran infección latente de P. solanacearnm al momento de la cosecha. Parte de este trabajo se ha realizado en asociación con el Programa Nacional de Papa del Perú (INIAA). Hemos hecho una intensiva selección de materiales con resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana, combinada con adaptación y cualidades agronómicas en varias partes del mundo incluyendo Filipinas, Indonesia, China y Brasil.Hemos desarrollado también un método más preciso y severo de evaluación y selección para incrementar los niveles de resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana. Este método utiliza esquejes enraizados sumergidos en la suspensión de inóculo y es uniforme y reproducible para plantas segregantes individuales, resistentes a la marchitez bacteriana.Se han realizado estudios taxonómicos de Pseudomonas utilizando pruebas bioquímicas en placas microtituladoras de hoyo múltiple .. Estos estudios han dado como resultado la subdivisión del Biovar 2 de P. solanacearom en dos fenotipos diferentes relacionados con su distribución geográfica. Estos hallazgos nos van a permitir determinar la estrategia de mejoramiento.El trabajo colaborativo entre el CIP y los SNIA sobre control integrado de marchitez bacteriana, está diseñado para proporcionar control a bajo costo a los pequeños agricultores de los países del tercer mundo. La filosofía es complementar el desempeño de los cultivares tolerantes. En colaboración con el Departamento de Sanidad Vegetal de ISABU, Burundi, una encuesta para evaluar la ocurrencia de marchitez bacteriana en campos de los agricultores ha proporcionado hallazgos valiosos para ayudar a desarrollar estrategias de control integrado. Se ha demostrado que la incidencia de marchitez se ve afectada por rotaciones previas, con el nivel más bajo de incidencia después de la rotación con yuca durante la época de cultivo de • setiembre a enero y después banana du-34 rante la siguiente temporada. La variedad Ndinamagara (entrada número 720118 del CIP) resistente a la marchitez bacteriana se cultivó en TI% del total de tierra sembrada con papa. En promedio, nuestras variedades mostraron menos marchitez que otras; sin embargo, la incidencia fue menor en las variedades susceptibles cuando se usó semilla proveniente de la finca semillera del ISABU • incidencia de esta enfermedad en pruebas de invernadero podría disminuirse considerablemente con la aplicación de óxido de calcio o úrea, o con una combinación de ambos. Las enmiendas al suelo a nivel de campo con óxido de calcio, úrea y compost de bagazo de caña de azúcar también retardaron el desarrollo de marchitez bacteriana en el campo. Estamos haciendo estudios de seguimiento de estos hallazgos en cooperación con el INIA en Cajamarca, Perú; con LEHRI en Indonesia y con el personal del CIP en Kenya.Se evaluaron métodos alternativos de evaluación y selección para apoyar el mejoramiento para resistencia a pudrición blanda y pierna negra causadas por Erwinia y estamos desarrollando un nuevo método que consiste en poner esquejes en perlita infestada, permitiéndonos de esta manera la selección de diversos genotipos resistentes. Nuestra investigación ha demostrado una acción sinergística entre Erwinia carotovora spp. carotovora y dos especies de Fusarium inoculadas a los tubérculos, lo cual sugiere la necesidad de considerar una estrategia de mejoramiento que tome en cuenta las dos enfermedades en forma simultánea.En cuanto a nuestro trabajo sobre tizón tardío, el mejoramiento para resistencia a Phytophthora inf estans continúa incluyendo dos poblaciones 1) materiales avanzados que contienen genes dominantes para resistencia vertical (genes R), además de genes para resistencia horizontal; y 2) materiales libres de genes R que son agronómicamente menos avanzados. Nuestra intención es poner de relieve la población libre de genes R. Sin embargo, en ambas poblaciones nuestros objetivos son incremen-tar los niveles de resistencia horizontal para luego agregarle caracteres agronómicos adecuados, así como también seleccionar niveles altos de resistencia al tizón tardío.Hemos seleccionado 166 clones nuevos del tamizado en Rionegro, Colombia yToluca, México. Después de una segunda prueba se han seleccionado 39 clones que se han agregado a la lista internacional de prueba de resistencia a tizón tardío. Esta colección contiene actualmente 170 clones que se encuentran a disposición de los SNIA para su prueba.Se han registrado fuentes nuevas de resistencia para la población B. Se está probando en el Perú una muestra de 123 entradas de 3 especies silvestres diploides y estamos planificando cruzar haploides y clones andigena resistentes. La intención es introducir resistencia a formas cultivadas extraidas para hacer cruzamientos con especies diploides silvestres.Las progenies con características de resistencia al tizón temprano combinadas con precocidad se seleccionaron en el campo en San Ramón y se encontró que progenies similares mostraban resistencia al tizón temprano en pruebas realizadas en Israel. Nuestros hallazgos proporcionan evidencia adicional del potencial que existe para controlar esta enfermedad a través de selección para resistencia.Nuestra encuesta sobre enfermedades de batata ha continuado en La Molina y hemos comenzado a evaluar y seleccionar para resistencia a la pudrición de la raíz reservante con énfasis en la pudrición negra de Java y la pudrición de la raíz por Fusarium. En experimentos realizados en San Ramón la pudrición del pie y la pudrición blanda han causado pérdidas severas en almacenamiento. Se ha demostrado que la distorsión clorótica de la hoja es causada por el hongo Fusarium lateritium.En cuanto a nuestra investigación sobre virus estamos enfatizando el aspecto de mejoramiento para resistencia al virus del enrollamiento de la hoja de papa (PLRV) por sí solo o en combinación con inmunidad a los virus X (PVX) y Y (PVY) de la papa. En vista de que se sabe que la resistencia al PLRV tiene componentes múltiples, la búsqueda de genotipos parentales dentro de los componentes de resistencia individual facilitaría los esfuerzos para combinarlos en estados avanzados. Uno de estos componentes, la antixenosis del áfido ha sido identificada en cuatro clones mantenidos en el CIP.La resistencia a la infección es otro componente importante en la resistencia al PLR V. Esta resistencia se puede romper cultivando clones resistentes bajo condiciones de alta temperatura. Por ejemplo, de 62 clones avanzados resistentes a la infección del PLRV después de 5 exposiciones de campo en lea, Perú, sólo 16 mostraron resistencia moderada a alta al PLRV durante la época de verano. Esto indica que las selecciones finales para resistencia al PLRV deben hacerse en lugares con condiciones similares a las que tiene lea durante el verano.Nuestros estudios demuestran que la resistencia a la multiplicación del virus es otro importante mecanismo de resistencia. Aunque no es muy común en papa cultivada, este mecanismo tiene dos importantes ventajas: 1) reduce la severidad del enrollamiento y 2) reduce el potencial a la inoculación en• plantas que tienen este tipo de resistencia. En un 36 proyecto colaborativo de investigación con el Instituto Escocés de Investigación de Cultivos, hemos desarrollado dos clones con resistencia a la multiplicación del virus. Estos clones son G7461.1 y G7445.1. Hemos encontrado variabilidad en ocho aislamientos de PLRV en estudios en los que se usaron anticuerpos monoclonales para examinar determinantes antigénicos ( epítopes) sobre la cubierta proteica de la partícula de PLRV. El conocimiento de esta variabilidad es decisivo en nuestra estrategia de mejoramiento para resistencia.Continuamos buscando métodos adicionales simples y baratos para la detección de virus por los SNIA; la producción de materiales básicos libres de virus es decisiva para los programas de semilla. Por ejemplo, estamos estudiando la forma de rebajar los costos de los antisueros que son los reactivos más costosos que se usan en ELISA, método, sensible, simple y barato para la detección de virus. En uno de los métodos en •estudio, los anticuerpos virales (antiid.iotipos) se producen a partir de un pequeño suministro de anticuerpos previamente producidos en lugar de usar el fl virus purificado. Las secuencias complementarias de ácido nucleico se han desarrollado para ocho viroides y seis virus con el objeto de incrementar el conjunto de métodos para la detección de virus y viroides en el CIP.En cuanto a nuestra investigación sobre virus de batata, hemos continuado con los estudios sobre detección e identificación de virus, al mismo tiempo que se buscan genes resistentes para el virus del moteado plumoso de la batata (SPFMV), que es el más importante de este cultivo. Actualmente, disponemos para su distribución a los SNIA, equipos de antisueros para la detección de virus. En la colección de germoplasma del CIP se ha encontrado un virus (número de código C2), previamente desconocido que se trasmite mecánicamente; este virus ha sido identificado y parcialmente caracterizado. En la colección de germoplasma del CIP se han encontrado 13 entradas que son capaces de proporcionar la mejor resistencia hasta hoy disponible al SPFMV, a través de inoculación por injerto.El control integrado de insectos continúa aplicándose a la identificación y uso de germoplasma resistente, agentes de control biológico y otros métodos prescindiendo del uso de pesticidas. En cuanto a la investigación sobre el nematodo del quiste de la papa se han identificado 20 clones avanzados con resistencia. Se han seleccionado los clones J16.10 y G .16 para usarse en Ecuador, donde también se seleccionaron 52 clones para una próxima evaluación. La resistencia al nematodo del quiste identificada en Solanum andigena ha sido transferida a otro material adaptado. También hemos seleccionado clones con resistencia combinada al nematodo del quiste, tizón tardío y virus.La resistencia al nematodo del nódulo se identificó en varias progenies de papa a nivel diploide y tetraploide y se han identificado fuentes adicionales en S. multidissectum, S. bukasovii, S. canasense y S. gourlayi. Se ha identificado una secuencia efectiva para el control del nematodo del nódulo en Burundi. Han sido identificadas varias fuentes nuevas de resistencia al nematodo del nódulo en batata.La resistencia a la wlilla del tubérculo de la papa ha sido reconfirmada en 7 clones de papa con densidades altas de tricomas glandulares del tipo A y B. Este trabajo es especialmente prometedor porque los tricomas glandulares proporcionan resistencia al ataque de muchas clases de insectos y otras plagas y reducen además la incidencia del tizón tardío.Nuestros estudios han confirmado la efectividad del virus de la granulosis, talco e insecticida Bacillu$ thuringiensis para el control de la polilla del tubérculo de la papa. En Egipto y Túnez, se ha encontrado que el virus de la granulosis y Bacillus thuringiensis son altamente efectivos en almacenamiento. Estos componentes se están usando actualmente en el manejo integrado de plagas.La presencia estacional de la polilla del tubérculo de papa se ha estudiado usando trampas de feromonas en Colombia, Perú, Burundi y Etiopía. Los resultados obtenidos nos proporcionan una base para la aplicación más eficiente de medidas de control. Se han seleccionado 11 clones para resistencia a la mosca minadora. También hemos identificado clones con resistencia al gorgojo andino Premnotrypes suturicallus, al Thrips palmi y a los ácaros Tetranichus urticae y Polyphagotarsonemus latus. El hongo Beauveria ha controlado en forma efec-tiva al gorgojo de los Andes. En Filipinas se han identificado en una diversidad de hospedantes, enemigos naturales de trips y ácaros que atacan papa. Se han hecho buenos progresos en la selección para resistencia al gorgojo de la batata de las Indias Occidentales Euscepes postf asciatus. El hongo Beauveria también parece ser efectivo en el control de los estados larval, pupal y adulto de esta plaga.Nuestros estudios continúan demostrando. los beneficios que . se obtienen mejorando la capacidad de mantener los rendimientos de papa después de la producción contínua y almacenamiento bajo luz difusa. En Filipinas, los clones 384515.9, 385131.52, 385130.8 y 385152.44 se mostraron especialmente promisorios. Evaluando y seleccionando para capacidad de rendimiento de clones de batata, hemos obtenido resultados aceptables de rendimiento de raíces reservantes en cada una de las estaciones en el Perú así como también en una zona salina en Tacna. Durante la estación calurosa de lluvias en Yurimaguas sólo se obtuvieron rendimientos de raíces reservantes por debajo del nivel aceptable. Una nueva línea de investigación ha comenzado a examinar la fisiología de la tolerancia a la inundación. En cuanto a la investigación sobre el efecto de la sequía en batata, nuestros estudios han demostrado la importancia que tiene el mantener una buena cobertura de follaje sobre el suelo y la formación precoz de raíces reservantes.Nuestros estudios sobre papa bajo condiciones de sequía. , han identificado clones que pueden anular (raíces largas, por ejemplo, los clones P-3 y P-7) o escapar la sequía (clones de tuberización precoz por ejemplo, el cv. Berolina). La resistencia a la sequía ha sido confirmada para los cultivares Huinkul, LT-7 y MS-38 3527R. En Egipto, el girasol ha sid9 identificado como un buen cultivo alternativo al maíz para dar sombra a la papa que se cultiva a inicios del otoño. También se han identificado cultivares tolerantes a la sombra para sembríos en hilera en China.Las ventajas del control de plagas a través de prácticas de cultivos asociados ya • han sido cuantificadas en el Sureste Asiático. Nuestra investigación reciente ha demostrado el potencial de uso que tiene la colección del germoplasma para la tolerancia a la sombra. De esta manera anticipamos la selección futura de clones específicamente convenientes para cultivo asociado.En cuanto a nuestro trabajo sobre mejoramiento de la producción de papa • y batata en ambientes fríos de los países del tercer mundo hemos puesto énfasis en los aspectos multidisplinarios. En pruebas de campo y selección para tolerancia a las heladas en Puno (3 850 m), hemos seleccionado clones para tolerancia a las heladas, precocidad, caracteres agronómicos deseables y altos rendimientos, a pesar de las sequías severas e incidencia de heladas. Se han escogido clones sobresalientes para multiplicarlos y liberarlos en colaboración con el INIA, Chile. Los clones de la colección de germoplasma mejorado del CIP para adaptación a días largos tuvieron un rendimiento hasta de 30% más que los cultivares que se usan localmente. En el contrato de investigación con el INIA, Chile, el clon del CIP DT0-33 de brotamiento precoz mostró un promisorio comportamiento bajo condiciones de temperaturas subóptimas. La característica más importante de dicho comportamiento parece involucrar un corto período de latencia e iniciación precoz del tubérculo, conjuntamente con velocidad de engrosamiento más rápida.En pruebas realizadas en Camerún se obtuvieron mejores resultados con la aplicación de estiércol de ave de corral a una dosis de 5 t/ha, en comparación con los rendimientos obtenidos usando fertilizantes localmente disponibles. Informes de Etiopía y Camerún indican que para alcanzar éxito con la tecnología sobre semilla sexual es necesario determinar el umbral de resistencia al tizón tardío en las progenies segregantes. Se han hecho buenos progresos en la evaluación y selección de clones de batata para adaptación a condiciones frías en dos localidades del Perú. En relación con el almacenamiento de papa nuestros estudios han puesto én-fasis en el almacenamiento de papa de consumo. Las técnicas de enfriamiento evaporativo se estudiaron en el Perú, Kenyci e India y en Pakistán se estudiaron las técnicas de aire forzado. En India se probaron almacenes rústicos sencillos. El almacenamiento casero usando canastos de bambú y sacos se analizó en Burundi. En el Perú se evaluaron clones para características de almacenamiento. En Egipto se comparó el almacenamiento de semilla bajo condiciones rústicas y de refrigeración. En Camerún se evaluó el almacenamiento rústico de la semilla. En la India se examinaron los resultados del almacenamiento de tubérculos provenientes de semilla sexual en arena. En Malasia se llevó a cabo un taller sobre almacenamiento.En cuanto a la investigación sobre procesamiento de papa nos hemos concentrado en la evaluación clonal (Perú, Tailandia), pruebas continuadas y evaluación (incluyendo costos y ganancias) de técnicas rústicas de procesamiento (India) y comercialización y demanda de productos procesados en países seleccionados (India y Tailandia). También hemos hecho encuestas sobre prácticas de poscosecha (China). Hemos apoyado los trabajos de investigación y procesamiento relacionados con los que están en el CIP (Colombia, Guatemala, Perú y Zaire) y trabajos de tesis (Kenya). Los estudios sobre batata, también han examinado las técnicas de procesamiento rústico a nivel de aldea.En Lima, la investigación de tesis ha continuado evaluando las características nutricionales y químicas de la colección de germoplasma del CIP, y actualmente se encuentra en ejecución una evaluación similar en Tailandia. La investigación sobre almacenamiento de batata en con-diciones rústicas se ha iniciado en India y Kenya.La investigación colaborativa a nivel mundial continúa con el objeto de mejorar las características agronómicas de progenies seleccionadas provenientes de semilla sexual orientadas a la producción de semilla y para su uso en áreas de clima cálido. Se han identificado varios clones parentales con una aceptable capacidad de formación de bayas para producir semilla sexual con tolerancia a la infección de marchitez bacteriana y para contar con material de trasplante que sea uniforme y de buena calidad y con rendimientos altos y estables. En Chile, India, Italia y Perú se han probado las técnicas para aumentar la producción de h.toridos a partir de semilla sexual.Hemos intensificado nuestra investigación sobre manejo de poscosecha de la semilla sexual. Se ha encontrado que la pérdida de vigor de la semilla se realiza a menor velocidad durante el almacenamiento, cuando la semilla ha sido producida con niveles altos de N. Igualmente se ha encontrado que el ambiente es importante durante el período de almacenamiento. Las pruebas sobre el vigor de las plántulas provenientes de progenies seleccionadas de semilla .sexual a diferentes períodos de almacenamiento han demostrado que la semilla debe pasar por un proceso de posmaduración a 5 y 7% de contenido de humedad (sobre la base de peso seco) y bajo condiciones de temperatura moderada (20°C), por lo menos durante 12 meses antes que la semilla sea efectivamente almacenada en ambientes de temperatura alta. La presiembra de semilla sexual en una solución de N03K más P04KJ y luego su acondicionamiento fue un tratamiento efec-40 tivo para incrementar el vigor de la semilla a temperaturas subóptimas.En India y Perú se ha conseguido una mayor eficiencia de las técnicas de producción de tubérculos provenientes de plántulas. El enfoque colaborativo continúa con el objeto de investigar los problemas técnicos y las modificaciones necesarias en cada lugar para el uso óptimo de semilla sexual en un sistema de producción de tubérculos a partir de plántulas. Paraguay, Venezuela, Camerún e Indonesia son los socios más recientes en esta investigación.Ha continuado también la colaboración para el fortalecimiento o el desarrollo de sistemas de propagación de tubérculo-semilla en Bolivia, Burundi, Colombia, Venezuela, Kenya, Myanmar, Filipinas y Perú. Estos proyectos buscan analizar los factores que limitan la producción de papa en los sistemas tradicionales de distribución de tubérculosemilla. Sus objetivos también incluyen la transferencia de tecnología, como por ejemplo, la simple selección formal de plantas sanas, la multiplicación rápida avanzada y las técnicas de almacenamiento a luz difusa, el desarrollo de métodos sencillos de eliminación en los sistemas de semilla básica. Este trabajo pone enormemente de relieve la participación de los agricultores. En Kenya se ha completado un excepcional caso de estudio como parte de una serie que tiene la intención de explorar las ventajas y desventajas de los sistemas locales de semilla. Las técnicas de propagación de batata se estudiaron bajo una amplia gama de condiciones ambientales y se identificaron los factores agronómicos y climáticos que afectan la floración y producción de semilla. Se ha demostrado que el •uso de plantitas propagadas in • vitro, esquejes grandes sin enraizar y esquejes enraizados dan como resultado un establecimiento y desarrollo más rápido y aumenta la floración.En nuestra investigación para evaluar las necesidades y el impacto, nos hemos concentrado en el estudio de la caracterización, comercialización, demanda y utiliz.ación impacto. Los estudios sobre caracterización de los sistemas alimentarios se han ampliado enormemente a medida que hemos ido analizando las encuestas concluidas por los científicos nacionales ~obre problemas de producción de papa y batata. Los problemas ~e semilla de papa parecen ser importantes en todos los países, pero son particularmente serios en las áreas lluviosas y secas. En el caso de la batata, la importancia del gorgojo como problema de producción está limitada a las zonas tropicales lluviosas. En otras zonas climáticas se ha encontrado que la falta de material de siembra, humedad y fertilidad del suelo son problemas de producción y en todas las zonas estudiadas, los problemas de poscosecha, especialmente la comercialización fueron severos. Hemos hecho estudios sobre estos casos en Asia, Africa y Latinoamérica. En China hemos profundizado nuestros conocimientos sobre los patrones de utilización en diferentes provincias. Nuestros estudios han puesto de relieve la variabilidad de los sistemas de producción y utilización entre los dos cultivos y entre provincias. También se estudiaron las tendencias de la variabilidad intraprovincial. La investigación más importante sobre comercialización incluyó un proyecto para sintetizar los seis casos de estudio de comercialización comple-tados en los últimos seis años. Los hallazgos preliminares resaltan la concentración geográfica de la producción de papa en Asia, y la importancia de la comercialización rural y el consumo rural en el sur • de Asia y Africa Subsahariana en comparación con la comercialización urbana en Latinoamérica.El estudio sobre el impacto en 1988 \"Papas para los países del tercer mundo\" ha sido puesto al día, usando un cuestionario preparado por los líderes de los programas nacionales, el personal principal de la sede central del CIP y los líderes regionales. Los resultados indicaron un crecimiento de la investigación en los programas nacionales en áreas relacionadas con las investigaciones del CIP, reflejando de esta manera una fuerte correlación en prioridades. Las actividades de capacitación realizadas por el CIP han dejado sentir un gran impacto en los SNIA, seguido de una serfo de teenologías de producción relacionadas especialmente con semilla. Un beneficio mucho menor se percibió en las actividades que no involúcraron la tecnología y la producción, debido tal vez en parte a la fuerte orientación en producción de la mayoría de los líderes de los programas.Nuestro trabajo en el fortalecimiento de los SNIA está estrechamente comprometido con dos redes orientadas hacia los sistemas alimentarios. La red de comercialización de PRACIPA ha cumplido dos años de actividades en 1989 y el respaldo continúa a través de talle-Los informes emanados de nuestros planes de acción reflejan un gran progreso en la investigación sobre papa y batata, con las estrategias básicas usadas para papa que ahora se están aplicando a la batata. Ahora debemos encontrar nuevas rutas para cuantificar e indicar el progreso que hemos alcanzado. ¿cuál ha sido nuestro impacto? El CIP y los SNIA están inextricablemente unidos en el esfuerzo para mejorar el cultivo de papa y batata y no tenemos la intención de cambiar nuestro enfoque de equipo. Tampoco intentamos que se nos de crédito por todos los éxitos que aquí detallamos. Sin embargo, necesitamos saber cuáles de nuestros esfuerzos están proporcionando los mejores resultados a los SNIA y a su clientela de familias del campo. Para hacer mejor uso de nuestros recursos combinados debemos entender los resultados que pueden ser atribuidos al CIP frente a aquellos de los SNIA. Hemos comenzado a identificar y descri-42 res y reuniones anuales. La Perspectiva del Consumidor con el proyecto de Investigación Agrícola y Desarrollo (UPWARD) ha comenzado sus actividades en el Sudeste Asiático con 12 proyectos centrados en aspectos de producción, poscosecha o consumo dentro del contexto de sistemas alimentarios. Además de la participación en cursos informales y talleres también se ha conseguido fortalecer la capacidad de los SNIA a través de estudios de diagnóstico de sistemas alimentarios de batata terminados o planificados en Latinoamérica o Africa. bir tales indicadores de los progresos del CIP en todos . los componentes de los Planes de Acción: investigación, capa-citaci<>n y comunicaciones. Y en con-sonancia con uno de los principios básicos del CIP continuaremos usando nuestra propia pericia y exploraremos mediante contratos y conferencias inter-nacionales de planificación a realizarse en 1991 nuevas formas para interactuar con otras instituciones que puedan ayudarnos.El proyecto de mejora del germoplasma del CIP es una alternativa que se ha desarrollado para evaluar y seleccionar entradas silvestres 2x y 4x para características deseables.Colección, Mantenimiento y Utilización de Recursos Genéticos InexplotadosExcelentes progresos se han alcanzado en la utilización y desarrollo del germoplasma de papa silvestre y cultivada diploide y tetraploide, usando métodos tradicionales y nuevos y sus combinaciones.Se han descrito y reportado tres especies de papa diploide nuevas a la ciencia y una forma nueva de la especie tetraploide silvestre S. acaule. La posición sistemática de varias especies con excelente potencial para el desarrollo de germoplasma ha sido clarificada.La colección de papa cultivada, mantenida en el campo y sembrada en 1990 es de • 3 439 cultivares andinos y cerca de 99% de este material se mantiene actualmente in vitro. Más de 1 500 entradas, recientemente obtenidas, están bajo estudio para eliminar la duplicación y ser añadidas a la colección mundial. Razones de seguridad han obligado a duplicar este importante germoplasma fuera del CIP. Se está probando un nuevo enfoque para ayudar a la conservación de la diversidad genética en los campos de papa de los agricultores andinos.La transformación genética de clones de papa con el uso de vectores plasmídicos deAgrobacterium sp. también ha avanzado rápidamente.Se ha desarrollado una base de datos computadorizada para la colección, usándose todos los datos de que se dispone. Un total de 299 entradas se colectaron en 130 localidades de Guatemala, Panamá y el Perú que se añadieron a la coleceión del CIP y se recibieron como donaciones entradas adicionales de Brasil y Australia. La colección de germoplasma de batata del IITA está transfiriéndose al CIP. Un total de 3 520 entradas de diferentes procedencias se han sembrado en el campo o en el invernadero cuarentenario de la sede central del CIP en La Molina, en las afueras de Lima. La introducción a cultivo in vitro y duplicación de esta colección continúa fuera del Perú. Se ha puesto énfasis adicional al uso de electroforesis para identificar los materiales duplicados. El CIP ha distribuido 20 572 esquejes de tallo de 1 810 entradas; 3 810 raíces reservantes de 561entradasy2 345 semillas de 281 entradas de Ipomoea silvestre para su evaluación y utilización.El desarrollo de germoplasma de batata continúa exitosamente,. combinando los métodos citogenéticos innovativo y tradicional. Los estudios de la especie silvestre L trifida 2x y 4x se mostraron excepcionalmente promisorios para su uso en trabajos de mejoramiento en el futuro.Los investigadores del CIP han descrito en 1989 tres especies de papa nuevas a la ciencia: S. amayanum y S. bill-hookerii de la serie taxonómica Tuberosa y S. salasanium de la serie Conicibaccata. Las. tres tienen un número cromosómico 2n = 2x = 24 y son de la zona central de los J\\ndes del Perú (2 700 m a 3 700 m). También se ha identificado una nueva forma de la importante especie tetraploide silvestre S. acaule y se le ha puesto el nombre de S. incuyanum. Las pruebas preliminares realizadas con S. incuyanum han demostrado su aparente resistencia a la multiplicación del PLRV y a la inoculación mecánica del PSTV d. La investigación taxonómica en uno de los ancestros putativos de S. acaule, la especie silvestre S. bukasovii, altamente resistente a • las heladas, ha aclarado la posición taxonómica de esta especie. Estudios comparativos en varios herbarios de Estados Unidos, Europa y el CIP, han demostrado que las especies S. canasense, S. multidissectum, S. punoense y S. pumilum Hawkes (pero no S. pumilum Dun. o S. pumilum Rojas) son todos sinónimos de S. bukasovii. Esta aclaración taxonómica ha puesto en evidencia la enorme variabilidad genética que presenta S. bukasovii, especie que puede usarse en mejoramiento sin mayores problemas. Entradas pertenecientes a las especies S. bukasovii, S, acaule, S. lepthophyes, S. marinasense y S. chiquidenum se han probado para resistencia a Globodera pallida. En las pruebas reali-46 zadas, todas estas especies mostraron resistencia a los patotipos P4A y PSA y las especies S. marinasense y S. chiquidenum mostraron alta resistencia combinada a ambos patotipos.La evaluación y selección sistemáticas habituales para producción de polen 2n en la colección silvestre del CIP persigue dos objetivos: 1) comprender mejor el proceso evolutivo en las especies en formación y 2) encontrar nuevas formas de utilización del germoplasma silvestre en trabajos de mejoramiento. Se ha identificado polen no reducido en la especie hexaploide mexicana S. fendleri. Se ha encontrado que el material de la costa peruana S. medians tiene una alta frecuencia de producción de polen 2n (30% ), lo que ayuda a explicar la alta frecuencia de citotipos triploides en esta especie.Se han realizado cientos de cruzamientos intra e interespecíficos para determinar el número de balance endospérmico (NBE) de las especies para las cuales no se conocía el NBE o necesitaba confirmación. El resultado de los cruzamientos entre especies de NBE1 y NBE2 se analizó para evaluar el efecto de esta barrera específica de cruzabilidad. Se obtu:vieron varios híbridos con progenitores que tienen diferentes tipos de genes de resistencia dentro del \"pul\" de genes de especies silvestres y los materiales hi'bridos con potencial para resistencias combinadas serán evaluados para estas resistencias.Mantenimiento del Germoplasma de Papa El total de la colección de papa cultivada que se sembró en el campo fue de 3 439 cultivares andinos. Cerca de 99% de estos cultivares también se mantuvieron in vitro. Otras 1 600 entradas provenientes de introducciones recientes están en estudio para identificar cultivares nuevos que no están representados en la colección mundial.Como medida de seguridad para la colección de papa, el CIP ha duplicado un conjunto de tubérculos de cultivares peruanos de la Universidad Nacional Agraria en el Perú. Esta Universidad mantiene una colección nacional de papa en un campo de banco de genes de gran altitud en la zona central del Perú. En colaboración con el proyecto SEINP A en el Perú, se está probando un nuevo sistema para conservar la diversidad genética de la papa en los campos de los agricultores peruanos. Este proyecto ayuda a capacitar a los agricultores en la tecnología de semilla sexual de papa aplicada a los cultivares andinos nativos. La selección de plantas segregantes libres de virus es realizada por los agricultores de acuerdo a sus necesidades y preferencias locales. Los agricultores de tres localidades están utilizando actualmente semilla sexual de cerca de 20 cultivares nativos que son los más populares en aquellas áreas geográficas de agricultura tradicional como son Cajamarca, Cusco y Puno.Al Laboratorio de Recursos Genéticos• se le ha añadido un nuevo ambiente refrigerado ( -15°C) para el almacenamiento prolongado• de semilla y actual-mente se dispone ele espacio suficiente para guardar conjuntos de duplicados de semilla provenientes de otros bancos de genes.La identificación de duplicados continúa entre las 1 600 entradas provenientes de introducciones nuevas. Después de la identificación eletroforética se han eliminado 603 duplicados del material obtenido de Argentina, Bolivia y Perú.De 200 cultivares andinos evaluados y seleccionados para resistencia a la polilla del tubérculo de la papa (PTP) Phthorimaea opercul/ela, 15 probaron ser resistentes y 35 moderadamente resistentes. Los cultivares andinos de la prueba de patógenos se han distribuido a 14 países como muestra de tubérculos, 357 en plantitas in vitro y 7 090 semillas.La transferencia de la colección mundial de papa a cultivo in vitro ya ha sido concluida. El material está íntegramente duplicado fuera del Perú a través de un acuerdo colaborativo con el INIAP, la organización nacional de investigación agrícola del Ecuador. La introducción a cultivo in vitro del material clonal de ploidia impar se ha iniciado durante el año. La computadorización de los procedimientos de mantenimiento de la colección ya está completa y todo el rotulado se ha preparado por computadora.Estudios sobre Utilización de la PapaEn el proceso de selección, mantenimiento y utilización de clones resistentes al PLRV y PSTV d, 124 clones que se encontraron resistentes al PSTV d por inoculación mecánica han sido más ampliamente probados por inoculación de PSTVd cADN (variante p160a) mediante Agrt>bacterium para resistencia al mismo patógeno. Se encontraron 21 clones resistentes con este tipo de inoculación y 4 clones adicionales se identificaron con aparente resistencia al PLRV. La resistencia al PLRV está basada en la resistencia a la infestación por áfidos y a la multiplicación del virus. Los 25 clones identificados de esta manera se han transferido a cultivo in vitro y están listos para ser utilizados en el incremento del germoplasma y un mejoramiento. Los resultados preliminares de la evaluación y selección indican que algunos de estos materiales llevan consigo resistencia al PVY y PVX. A partir de este material de S. acaule se han generado poblaciones F2 y retrocruzas que serán utilizadas en los proyectos de mapeo del polimorfismo en la longitud del fragmento de restricción (RFLP) para la identificación de los genes que determinan la resistencia al PSTV d y a otros virus.Se han desarrollado varios esquemas sistemáticos para la utilización efectiva de este material de S. acaule incluyendo una combinación cruzada entre S. acaule y clones tetraploides de papa cultivada, combinación que no ha tenido éxito en el pasado, debido al bloque tetraploide de la barrera del NBE. Un enfoque innovativo usando polinización falsa con el inductor de haploidia IvP35 y rescate embrional dio como resultado hi\"bridos 4x de S. acaule x tuberosum/andigena. Este material fue luego cruzado con material de mejoramiento 2x y el clon híbrido tetraploide resultante AA-3 es resistente al PSTV d, inmune al PVY e hipersensible al PVX. Todas estas resistencias han sido obtenidas a partir de S. acaule como fuente. Algunos de los parientes de AA-3 son aneuploides y de esta manera proporcionarán material excelente para hacer estudios sobre marcadores genéticos del RFLP.Germoplasma Diploide y 4x x 2x de Papa Evaluación y selección para resistencia al nematodo del nódulo (R.KN). Los hallazgos han confirmado que los progenitores 2x del CIP con resistencia al NN trasmiten esa resistencia a sus progenies 4x que resultan de cruzamientos 4x x 2x. Alrededor de 18% de las progenies así 48 obtenidas fueron resistentes al NN. Estos resultados también indican que la interacción masculino x femenino determina los niveles de resistencia expresados en el material híbrido 4.x.un incremento de sºc en promedio en el ambiente de evaluación y selección causado por un cambio en el material de techado demostró ampliamente que las temperaturas altas podrían eliminar las reacciones de resistencia observadas en el mismo material en campañas previas.Debido al problema de temperatura, encontrado en el ambiente habitual de prueba, se ha usado un método in vitro para probar los clones diploides recién desarrollados para resistencia al NN. Se han identificado niveles altos de resistencia en 5 clones diploides nuevos. Este material amplía la base genética específica de resistencia al NN en el CIP, puesto que las únicas fuentes silvestres usadas anteriormente para resistencia al NN fueron clones de S. sparsipilum. El nuevo material diploide tiene entre sus antecedentes S. mu/tidissectum, S. bukasovii, S. canasense y S. gorlayi. Estas especies silvestres han sido cruzadas con clones dihaploides de S. tuberosum que fueron producidos bajo un contrato de investigación con la Universidad de Wisconsin. Algunos de estos clones tienen una buena producción de polen 2n y están actualmente en uso en un programa de cruzamiento 4x x 2x. Su excelente apariencia de tubérculo ha sido confirmada en campañas anteriores.Resistencia de clones selectos 2n a la marchitez bacteriana. Un total de 40 clones diploides fueron evaluados por inoculación con el aislamiento 204 de Pseudomonas solanacearum. Cada don estuvo representado por 10 plantas que fueron evaluadas por síntomas de marchitez después de 12, 25 y 32 días. La escala usada en esta evaluación fue de 1 (sin marchitez) a 5 (planta completamente marchita). Tres clones de este grupo (84.193.30, 85.37.38 y 85.123.8) tuvieron un puntaje de 2 después de 25 días de la inoculación, mientras que el testigo fue completamente susceptible, la variedad peruana Yungay tuvo un pun-taje de 3,4. Todos estos genotipos resistentes tienen al don MI.49.10 en sus genealogías. Este don fue previamente seleccionado por su resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana y por la producción de polen 2n. Similarmente, los clones 84.193.30  Resistencia a la polilla del tubérculo de papa (PTP). Excelentes progresos se han alcanzado en la transferencia de resistencia a la PTP de especies silvestres de S. sparsipilum a germoplasma cultivado 2x, con hallazgos que indican que la presencia de S. sparsipilum es deseable, pero no esencial para la expresión de resistencia. Se evaluó un total de 466 clones de 19 familias 2x para resistencia a la PTP en condiciones de almacenamiento en San Ramón. Se usaron 5 repeticiones por genotipo y el material fue evaluado 150 días después de colocado en el almacén usando una escala de 1 (resistente) a 4 (completamente susceptible). Se identificaron niveles altos de resistencia en la familia 2x-TS-2 x PTMl.33 que tenía citoplasma tuberosum. El promedio de puntaje de resistencia de esta familia fue 2,28 y 2 clones tuvieron el puntaje de l. La duplicación del número de cromosomas de estos clones está actualmente en proceso. El don parental 2x Ml.49.10 parece trasmitir resistencia a la PTP, ya que dos familias con este progenitor que habían sido cruzadas con progenitores femeninos susceptibles mostraron buenos niveles de resistencia a la PTP. El don MI.49.10 ha sido inicialmente selec-clonado para resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana y por su habilidad para producir polen 2x. Desde que su progenitor silvestre es un clon de S. sparsipilum, el resultado sería de esperar. Al compararse progenies derivadas de cruzamientos 2x x 4x con MI.49.10 y FH122 (clones de S. stenotomum susceptibles a la PTP) como progenitores productores de polen, las progenies con Ml.49.10 en su genealogía mostraron niveles de resistencia considerablemente más altos que aquellos derivados de FH122. Las 116 plántulas de 5 familias con MI.49.10 como progenitor masculino tuvieron un puntaje promedio de 2,86 después de 150 días de almacenamiento, mientras que 93 plántulas de 4 familias con FH122 como progenitor masculino alcanzaron un puntaje tan alto como 3,3 después de un tiempo igual de almacenamiento. Estos hallazgos son extraordinarios puesto que el clon MI.49.10 fuente indudable de esta resistencia, no fue seleccionado específicamente por esta característica. Estos resultados apoyan la idea de que la resistencia al NN, y a la MB y PTP al igual que la producción de polen 2n pueden ser combinadas en genotipos diploides individuales que trasmitirán estas características a su descendencia 4x.De material identificado como resistente a la PTP en experimentos anteriores bajo condiciones naturales de infestación en San Ramón, 152 clones fueron sometidos a estudios más amplios con una prueba de laboratorio sin opción y se identificaron tres grupos en el material 2x, de acuerdo a sus niveles de resistencia. El primer grupo proviene de cruzamientos entre haploides de S. tuberosum y clones diploides resistentes a la PTP (S x R). De los 89 clones estudiados, 7 clasificaron como resistentes 50 (R) y 29 como moderadamente resistentes (MR). La identificación de 7 clones con una clara reacción de resistencia apoya la conclusión de que los clones resistentes a la PTP pueden desarrollarse sin la participación de citoplasma de S. sparsipilum. El segundo grupo fue un cruzamiento recíproco del primero (R x S). Sólo se probaron 5 clones y ninguno resultó resistente. El tercer grupo representó un cruzamiento entre clones resistentes (R x R). De los 17 clones probados en este grupo, sólo uno fue susceptible mientras que 9 fueron resistentes y 7 moderadamente resistentes. Resultados anteriores indicaron que el clon MI.49 .10 trasmitió algo de resistencia a la PTP a su progenie 4x en cruzamientos 4x x 2x. Sin embargo, cuando se probaron 38 clones 4x con MI.49.10 como progenitor masculino, usando el método de laboratorio, ninguno fue resistente. Parece que todos los clones identificados como moderadamente resistentes bajo las condiciones de San Ramón resultaron ser susceptibles cuando se probaron por el método de laboratorio.Pruebas de rendimiento de las progenies 4x x 2x. Las progenies tetraploides obtenidas de cruzamientos 4x x 2x se probaron en el campo para determinar si los progenitores 2x, a menudo derivados de especies silvestres serían capaces de trasmitir resistencia a sus progenies 4x. Al mismo tiempo se evaluó el comportamiento agronómico del material 4x. El material 4x derivado de especies silvestres produjo a menudo clones de altos rendimientos con excelentes características agronómicas y las deseadas resistencias, pero este material fue a menudo de madurez tardía. El uso de progenitores femeninos 4xprecoces en cruzamientos 4x x 2x sugiere la posibilidad de corregir esta deficiencia. Para evaluar la importancia relativa de los progenitores femeninos 4x en la expresión de madurez de su descendencia 4x después de cruzamientos 4x x 2x, se produjeron dos grupos de material genético. El primer grupo estuvo constituido por familias derivadas de cruzamientos entre cinco progenitores femeninos 4x (P-3, LT-8, Atzimba, 1-1035 y 78133F2) y 11 progenitores masculinos, de los cuales siete fueron 2x y cuatro 4x. De 55 combinaciones de cruzamientos se produjeron 45 familias híbridas de semilla sexual. Con el uso de una extensa variedad de tipos de madurez, dentro del grupo de progenitores femeninos se espera proporcionar un conocimiento claro sobre el material femenino precoz localmente adaptado que puede ser considerado para este tipo de cruzamiento 4x x 2x. El segundo grupo se produjo cruzando material femenino precoz (Atlantic, Katahdin, A VRDC 1287.19, LT-1 y HP278.22) con cinco progenitores masculinos (de los cuales cuatro fueron 2x y uno 7XY-1, 4x). Este grupo se generó para evaluar la posibilidad de que los progenitores femeninos de precocidad conocida puedan corregir la madurez tardía derivada de masculinos 2x con resistencias específicas. U na investigación colaborativa se encuentra en ejecución como tesis doctoral en la Universidad de Wisconsin.Distribución de semilla de cruzamientos 4x x 2x a mejoradores del CIP. La evaluación crítica de las progenies derivadas de cruzamientos 4x x 2x en los programas de mejoramiento es esencial para evaluar el valor parental de los progenitores resistentes 2x. Por lo tanto, se ha distribuido a los mejoradores del CIP una lista de 158 familias de semilla sexual derivadas de cruzamientos 2x x 4x, para permitirles hacer uso de este material en sus programas avanzados de mejoramiento y para evaluar el valor parental de los progenitores 2x que son productores de polen 2x con resistencias específicas a la MB y al NN.Aplicación de métodos moleculares para la mejora del gennoplasma de papa. Se han alcanzado avances significativos en el uso de variantes del gen plasmídico de Agrobacterium para transformar clones de papa. Se han obtenido y probado nuevas secuencias del promotor (control) y actualmente es posible regular la cantidad y el lugar del producto de un gen en particular. Esta clase de control ha permitido la producción directa de proteína sintética con alto contenido de aminoácidos esenciales y específicamente dirigidos a los tubérculos de papa.Un marcador del gen, relativamente nuevo, conocido como GUS fue añadido a todos los variantes del gen. El GUS, que codifica para la producción de una enzima que reaciona cuando se le proporciona un substrato en particular, constituye una simple prueba colorimétrica para determinar la presencia o ausencia de este producto del gen. La Figura 1-1 muestra los resultados de una pruebaGUS.Variados experimentos de transformación se han realizado en 1989, usando A. rhizogens y A. tumefaciens. Los productos de la transformación de estos experimentos se han probado usando resistencia a la canamicina y la reacción GUS. Genes nuevos más potentes, que muestran actividad contra Pseudomonas solanacearnm, agente causal de la marchitez bacteriana han sido sintetizados bajo contrato con la Universidad de Figura 1-1. Varillas aisladas en la prueba para actividad GUS. Esta prueba indica la evidencia preliminar para inserción del gen. La reacción GUS positiva se reconoce por la presencia de una coloración azul. Colaborando con instituciones en Florencia, N ápoles, Roma y Viterbo, el CIP ayuda en los estudios sobre transformación para resistencia a plagas y enfermedades y en el uso de métodos de selección in vitro para resistencia a trastornos bióticos y abióticos.Análisis del Polimorfismo en el Largo del Fragmento de Restricción (RFLP). Durante 1989, el . CIP ha establecido un nuevo contrato con la Universidad de Cornell en los EE.UU. para un desarrollo más amplio del ya existente mapa de RFLP conjugado de papa (que se muestra en la Figura 1-2). La construcción del mapa ha avanz.ado significativa-  Recursos Genéticos de la Batata Las 1 202 entradas del IITA han sido completamente documentadas y una base de datos computadorizada contiene actualmente todos los datos de que se dispone.En 1989, se sembraron en La Molina un total de 3 520 entradas de batata, de las cuales 1 868 cultivares peruanos y 338 líneas se cultivaron en el campo. Otros 966 cultivares de batata provenientes de otros países se sembraron en macetas en el invernadero de cuarentena y 348 entradas se mantienen en cultivos in vitro.El personal de recursos genéticos de dos estaciones experimentales del INIAA han recibido capacitación relacionada con el mantenimiento de germoplasma de papa para semilla.Se ha obtenido un total de 54 379 semillas de polinización abierta de 78 entradas de 10 especies silvestres de Ipomoea de la sección Batatas sembradas en macetas en La Molina. Adicionalmente, 2 933 semillas de 17 entradas autopolinizadas (que representan cinco especies) se han recibido de la Universidad del Estado de Carolina del Norte (NCSU}.Durante 1989 la introducción in vitro de nuevas entradas se ha limitado al material de mayor prioridad, debido a la falta de espacio adecuado. Un total de 2 400 entradas de batata se han introducido en la actualidad a cultivo in vitro y se mantienen bajo condiciones de crecimiento lento. V arios experimentos se encuentran en ejecución para mejorar las condiciones existentes de crecimiento lento que permiten un lapso aproximado de 9 a 12 meses entre subcultivos. De las 2 400 entradas mantenidas in vitro, 900 han sido duplicadas fuera del Perú por acuerdo con el Centro IDEAS en Venezuela. Este acuerdo ayuda a salvaguardar estos valiosos recursos genéticos.La verificación de duplicados por medio de análisis electroforéticos se ha hecho en 252 entradas cultivadas peruanas que provenían de 60 grupos con caracteres morfológicos idénticos. Estos análisis se han hecho en el Instituto de Bioquímica de Braunschweig, Alemania Occidental y se ha encontrado que los resultados electroforéticos y el agrupamiento basado en datos morfológicos han sido coincidentes en aproximadamente 85% de las entradas. También se diseñaron experimentos para probar la estabilidad de los electroferogramas de batata. No se encontraron diferencias electroforéticas al compararse raíces reservantes del mismo cultivar con pesos de aproximadamente 30, 60, 120 y 250 g. Además, no se encontraron diferencias en los patrones de proteína y esterasa cuando se compararon raíces reservantes en estados fisiológicos diferentes. Los análisis que se realizaron en muestras del mismo cultivar cosechado a intervalos de una semana (comenzando 45 días antes de la cosecha principal), sólo mostraron diferencias electroforéticas mínimas en las raíces reservantes más jóvenes.Se han ofrecido cursos de capacitación sobre el uso de retratos morfológicos para la identificación de duplicados en las colecciones de germoplasma de batata en Kenya y Togo, lugarc~ donde varias instituciones mantienen colecciones similares.Se han analizado los componentes nutricionales de las raíces reservantes en el A VRDC con muestras de 897 cultivares peruanos y se ha encontrado lo siguiente.Entre los cultivares, 37 mostraron un contenido de materia seca de más de 40%; 13 tuvieron un contenido de almidón de más de 70%; 4 cultivares combinados más de 35% de materia seca con más de 10% de proteína total; 4 cultivares tenían menos de 2% de contenido de azúcares• totales y 26 cultivares tuvieron menos de 2% de contenido de fibra. Se encontraron correlaciones negativas significativas entre los contenidos de materia seca y el de proteína total ( r = -0,106) y entre los contenidos de materia seca y fibra (r= -0,411). La correlación fue positiva en el contenido de materia seca y fibra (r = 0,432).La batata peruana, colectada a más de 2 000 m fue evaluada en ambientes fríos de Caraz, (2 300 m) y en otras localidades del Perú. Las temperaturas alcanzaron 10 a 12°C a los 40 a 60 días después de la siembra con el resultado importante del acortamiento de la longitud de los entrenudos y reducción en el tamaño de la hoja. El efecto más visible se observó en el desarrollo de la raíz reservante; de las 57 entradas sembradas en Caraz, 18 produjeron más de 800 g por planta en un período de cultivo de cinco meses. Una observación general fue que aquellas entradas con hojas mediana a profundamente lobadas mostraron una mayor tolerancia a temperaturas bajas.En Caraz también se evaluaron 25 cultivares peruanos con nombres vernaculares que están asociados con la papa, yuca o con plantas de tallo por su bajo contenido de azúcar y color de la piel o de la pulpa. Tres de estos 25 cultivares probados rindieron más de 800 g por planta en 5 meses.Raíces reservantes de 106 entradas de L batatas se evaluaron y seleccionaron para resistencia al gorgojo Euscepes postfasciatus. Un total de 18 cultivares fueron calificados como resistentes y 12 como moderadamente resistentes.En la República de China Popular (Xuzhon y Guandong), el CIP ha trabajado con el programa nacional a través de dos contratos de investigación para caracterizar la Colección Nacional China de Batata, computadorizar los datos e introducir los clones a cultivo in vitro.La distribución de materiales genéticos para evaluación o utilización en el CIP incluyó 20 572 esquejes de 1 810 entradas; 3 810 raíces reservantes de 561 entradas y 2 345 semillas de 281 entradas de especies silvestres de Ipomoea.Producción de Material Cultivado Híbrido con Características Específicas Se han producido semillas sexuales de batata en policruzamientos para obtener 56 algunos caracteres de interés para el mejorador. Estos caracteres son: contenido bajo de azúcar en las raíces reservantes, color anaranjado de la pulpa, color blanco de la pulpa y adaptación a la altura.Desanollo y utilización de una población sintética de L trifida 6x. Después del tratamiento de bJbridos 3x de l. trifida con colchicina, se identificaron y seleccionaron 55 genotipos con buena capacidad de teñido del polen. Ellos son clones sintéticos 6x o clones 3x con alta frecuencia de polen 2x. Para desarrollar una población 6x con efectos de mejoramiento reducidos, estos 55 genotipos seleccionados fueron entrecruzados por polinización manual y se obtuvieron un total de 236 semillas turgentes de 58 familias. También se estebleció un policruzamiento en San Ramón para producir semillas en cantidad, al mismo tiempo que se eliminaba la trabajosa y lenta polinización manual. Se sembraron en macetas 5 plantas por genotipo y el bloque de policruzamiento se separó en un mínimo de 800 m de otras plantas de Ipomoea para asegurar el aislamiento. Cada uno de los genotipos sembrados en San Ramón, han sido controlados previamente para autoincompatibilidad. Los 38 genotipos produjeron más de 3 000 semillas turgentes y ocho de los genotipos produjeron más de 100 semillas hexaploides cada una. El don hexaploide A.19.2.1 produjo 622 semillas turgentes, el mayor número obtenido a partir de un sólo clon en este experimento. De los 55 clones que ingresaron al bloque de policruzamiento, 17 no produjeron semilla alguna. Ellos son mayormente clones 3x con producción de polen 2n. Sin embargo, 18 de estos clones 3x produjeron algo de semilla, lo que indica la producción de óvulos 2n en este material. El valor del método de policruzamiento para la producción de grandes cantidades de semilla ha sido muy bien demostrado en este experimen-to y las semillas obtenidas representan un nuevo ciclo de L trifida 6x con mejoramiento para fertilidad masculina y femenina. Estas semillas han sido enviadas a China y Filipinas para usarse en programas de mejoramiento interespecífico y otro conjunto de este material 6x estará disponible por un contrato de investigación del CIP con la NCSU.Los 55 genotipos seleccionados para los experimentos de policruzamiento en San Ramón van a probarse también para resistencia al NN en La Molina. Seis genotipos demostraron un alto nivel de resistencia a este nematodo y otros 17 fueron clasificados como resistentes. Los clones resistentes fueron probados en campo en San Ramón y 19 de 23 clones mostraron nuevamente ser altamente resistentes. Estos clones se están usando actualmente como una nueva fuente de resistencia para complementar las fuentes de resistencia al NN disponibles en el material cultivado de batata.Producción de híbridos interespecificos de l. batatas e l. trifida. En La Molina, 9 054 cultivares de batata polinizados manualmente entre cruzamientos de 6 cultivares de batata y 55 clones seleccionados de l. trifida mencionados anteriormente produjeron 1 130 semillas de 138 familias. Sin embargo, cuando se sembraron estas semillas en San Ramón sólo 60 (5,3%) germinaron. Este resultado confirma la hipótesis de que existe incompatibilidad entre la batata cultivada l. batatas e l. trifida, lo cual se expresó en la baja germinabilidad de las semillas hfüridas. Esto puede constituir un problema para el uso eficiente de l. trifida en el mejoramiento de la batata.Subsiguientes cruzamientos interespecíficos entre l. batatas e l. trifida dieron como resultado la obtención de 322 semi-llas de más de 8 000 polinizaciones manuales. Estas semillas están a disposición de los programas regionales de mejoramiento que las soliciten.Producción y utilización de híbridos interespecíficos 4x. El éxito alcanzado en la producción de ln'bridos interespecíficos 4x se comunicó en el Informe Anual de 1989; estos ln'bridos se evaluaron en campo en San Ramón el año pasado. La capacidad de rendimiento varió ampliamente y la mayoría de los ln'bridos 4x rindieron poco (menos de 200 g por planta). Sin embargo 4 clones ln'bridos rindieron más de 1 kg por planta mientras que los progenitores cultivados 6x de estos clones, que habían sido sembrado como testigos rindieron solamente 0,49 kg o menos por planta. Veinte de estos ln'bridos se seleccionaron por sus rendimientos altos y fueron cruzados con entradas de L trifida 2x y 4x. Se esperaba que los ln'bridos 3x y 4x, resultantes de estos cruzamientos producirían raíces reservantes como resultado de la inclusión de genes que determinan este caracter, en los progenitores ln'bridos 4x que producen raíces reservantes. La evaluación del comportamiento de los ln'bridos así obtenidos permite la estimación indirecta del valor de las entradas 2x y 4x. La Tabla 2.1 muestra los resultados de los cruzamientos que incluyen a los progenitores ln'bridos 4x seleccionados. Se hicieron más de 25 000 polinizaciones y se obtuvieron 4 212 semillas turgentes. Los resultados de la formación de semilla (número de semillas por 100 polinizaciones) indicaron una clara diferencia recíproca en los cruzamientos entre L trifida 2x y los ln'bridos interespecíficos 4x. Estos hallazgos concuerdan con los datos empíricos que indican que las plantas con bajo nivel de ploidía deben usarse como progenitores masculinos en los cruzamientos interploides. Estos híbridos 4x pueden tener índices bajos de fertilidad masculina y femenina, lo que podría esperarse de ln'bridos interespecíficos. Están en ejecución los ex:periment os de campo para probar la hipótesis de que los ln'bridos interespecíficos capaces de formar raíces reservantes podrían usarse como probadores para determinar indirectamente el valor genético de los materiales silvestres de Ipomoea 2x y 4x que son incapaces de formar raíces reservantes.La baja fertilidad del material ln'brido interespecífico 4x reduce la eficiencia de producción de semilla en cruzamientos con clones silvestres de Ipomoea 2x y 4x; por esta razón algunos de los ln'bridos interespecíficos 4x se interaparearon y Perfil del Plan: 1990. En la selección de progenitores de papa para el desarrollo de variedades y para la utilización de semilla sexual, se evaluaron progenies de clones avéiIJ!.ados del CIP y de los contratos de investigación en varias localidades del Perú. Los clo~es seleccionados mostraron un buen valor parental para rendimiento, precocidad y características del tubérculo y algunos de ellos mostraron buenos atributos para calidad de procesamiento. Para evaluar la tolerancia a la sequía y la salinidad, 800 clones de papa (seleccionados en San Ramón y La Molina), se probaron en Tacna durante la campaña de invierno de 1989 usando parcelas simples de 20 tubérculos por clon. Algunos clones de esta población mostraron rendimientos altos y preeocidad. La combinación de estos caracteres con la resistencia a los virus y otras enfermedades que se encuentran presentes en esta población dan un valor añadido a los progenitoi\"es que se V3!1 a seleccionar en las próximas evaluaciones.Las poblaciones mejoradas . para adaptación a climas tropicales cálidos y la selección de progemtores de semilla sexual se evaluaron en San• Ramón y La Molina. De 200 clones se seleccionaron 10 en La Molina y 2 en San Ramón. La gravedad específica (GE) de estos clones varió de 1 066 a 1 093; el contenido de azúcares reductores (AR) varió de 0,05% a 0,18% y el rendimiento, de 0,6 a 1,3 kg por planta.Los clones mostraron buena forma de tubérculos, color, calidad y cualidades especiales para la producción de papas fritas a la inglesa y a la francesa.Enti:e 1987 y 1988 en San Ramón se evaluaron aproximadamente 220 clones de semilla sexual por sus características agronómicas y reproductivas bajo condiciones lluviosas y secas. Algunos clones mostraron características agronómicas y reproductoras excelentes, incluyendo LM88-B-40, LM88-B-38, LM88-B-10, LM87-B-217 y LM87-B-27. Estos clones se están poniendo en bloques de cruzamiento para evaluar su valor parental.Actualmente se encuentra en ejecución la identificación de clones triplex y cuadrúplex (YYYy y YYYY) con inmunidad al PVY. Este es un importante .logro del CIP, ya que va a permitir resolver definitivamente el serio problema del PVY uno de los virus más perjudiciales de la papa. En efecto, cualquier clon susceptible cruzado con clones triplex o cuadruplex va a producir progenies , con todos sus individuos inmunes al PVY. También se están identificando clones duplex inmunes al PVY y al PVX (YYyyXXxx), Cualquier clon susceptible cruzado con estos clones duplex producirá progenies con 70% de individuos inmunes a ambos virus.El germoplasma ha sido distribuido del CIP-Lima a países de Africa Occidental y Central, incluyendo Ghana, Guinea Ecuatorial, Costa de Marfil, Liberia, Isla de Cabo Verde y Malí. Los clones se evaluaron directamente bajo condiciones de los agricultores, independientemente y en participación con las instituciones colaborativas. Como fertilizante, sólo se usó estiércol durante el período de desarrollo.Se han seleccionado clones promisorios nuevos en experimentos destinados a evaluar cultivares de tipos genéticos diversos para rendimiento y otras cualidades. Estos experimentos se condujeron en Nueva Caledonia, Tuilandia, Fiji, Tonga, Polinesia Francesa, Islas Salomón e Islas Cook (Sudeste de Asia y Pacífico Sur). El clon 377850.1 fue seleccionado en Fiji y ha demostrado buena resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana y a virus, conjuntamente con tolerancia al calor y buenas condiciones de almacenamiento. Muchos otros clones promisorios se encuentran actualmente en estados iniciales de evaluación.En el trabajo de mejoramiento de la población de batata hecho en el desierto costero y la cuenca del Amazonas del Perú, las metas iniciales son la selección de materiales. con alto rendimiento, formación precoz de raíces, adaptación amplia y un conjunto de características importantes para el consumidor. El énfasis está en la evaluación y uso del germoplasma peruano recién colectado. Los clones foráneos de batata introducidos al Perú se usarán en mejoramiento y para comparar los materiales peruanos con materiales avanzados foráneos. Sin embargo, las restricciones cuarentenarias han retardado la introducción de estos clones procedentes de otros lugares.Durante 1989, el CIP ha distribuido materiales genéticos de papa, a los colaboradores en 88 SNIA y los envíos de plantitas in vitro, tubérculos familias, familias de semilla sexual y semilla sexual se han incrementado desde 1988. Los materiales actualmente disponibles de la lista de prueba para presencia de patógenos incluye: 245 cultivares y variedades avanzadas, más 5 en el proceso de liberación de patógenos y 172 entradas de germoplasma silvestre nativo, más 56 en proceso de liberación de patógenos. Seis cultivares de batata figuran actualmente en la lista de prueba para presencia de patógenos y 62 están en el proceso de limpieza.Se ha hecho una amplia selección de líneas parentales que van a ser usadas para selección varietal y para la utilización de semilla sexual de papa. Durante el verano se evaluaron en La Molina, Perú, 42 clones avanzados del programa del CIP (30 clones) y de la Universidad de Maine (12 clones) resistencias a virus (PVX, PVY y PLRV).Los clones resultantes han demostrado tener una forma adecuada de tubérculo para propósitos de procesamiento; se han seleccionado 23 clones que se están probando para inmunidad a varios virus.Para evaluar tolerancia a la sequía y a las sales, se probaron 800 clones de papa (seleccionados en San Ramón y La Molina) en Tacna, Perú, durante el invierno de 1989 usando parcelas simples de 20 tubérculos por clon. Los clones mostraron rendimientos altos con un buen nivel de precocidad (Tabla 2-2). Esta población contiene muchas combinaciones de resistencia a los virus y a otras enfermedades y pueden ser útiles para el desarrollo de clones parentales en evaluaciones futuras.Las poblaciones mejoradas para adaptación a climas tropicales cálidos y para la selección de línea parental de semilla sexual fueron evaluadas en San ª Papa frita a la francesa.b Papa frita a !a inglesa.forma del tubérculo, color y uniformidad para hacer papas fritas a la inglesa y a la francesa (Tabla 2-3).En un estudio genético se sembró un diseño dialelo 8 x 8 incluyendo generaciones Fl y recíprocas, con el objeto de determinar el patrón hereditario de la gravedad específica (GE) y el contenido de azúcares reductores (AR). Diez días después de la cosecha se evaluaron los valores de ARl y GE en todas las plantas y los AR se evaluaron nuevamente 60 días después de la cosecha (AR2). El análisis genético mostró diferencias significativas para HGC y para GE. No se encontraron diferencias significativas para efectos recíprocos en los caracteres evaluados. En tres experimentos de campo se estimaron los parámetros genéticos y se compararon los efectos de las generaciones sexual vs. asexual.La variabilidad genética en la GE se debió a los efectos génicos aditivos con alto sentido estrecho de heredabilidad, O, 75 para la generación sexual y 0,86 para la generación asexual. Esto significa que la selección para GE se puede hacer tanto en la generación sexual como en la asexual en primavera o en verano. La variancia genética aditiva fue importante en ARl cuando se usaron tubérculossemillas con heredabilidad 0,54. La variancia de dominancia influenció principalmente el rendimiento y AR2.Tomando en cuenta los resultados genéticos, se inició en La Malina un primer Los clones avanzados promisorios de batata se evalúan bajo una amplia gama de condiciones ambientales.ciclo de selección fenotípica recurrente y se sembró una población de 100 progenies durante la campaña de primavera Los SNIA y las Regiones Evaluación y Utilización de Materiales Genéticos Avanzados Filipinas. Se realizó la tercera evaluación de campo de clones depositados en almacenes de luz difusa (ALD ), por 8 meses-y seleccionados para períodos largos de almacenamiento y rendimiento alto en condiciones de calor. Los cinco clones con más altos rendimientos fueron 385145.1,384515.9,385131.52,. Todos los tubérculos de cada don se sembraron sin repetición. Al momento de la cosecha, los clones con alto rendimiento de tubérculos y uniformidad en el tamaño y para seleccionar progenies con potencial de procesamiento para los países de clima cálido tropical. forma del tubérculo se seleccionaron y almacenaron en ALD por otros 8 meses para una nueva evaluación. La sobrevivencia de las plantas fue baja en algunos clones debido al estado de vejez de los tubérculos.Todos los clones que dieron buenos rendimientos tenían buen follaje y virtualmente no presentaron síntomas de virus; esto fue particularmente real en aquellos clones que producen más de 500 g/planta. Los cultivares que se usaron como testigos (Berolina, Cosima, LT-7 y Ackersegen), tuvieron bajos rendimientos.Tabla 2-4. Rendimiento de tubérculos y componentes de rendimiento de 1 O clones seleccionados de 73 que se evaluaron para longitud de la capacidad de almacenamiento bajo luz difusa (ALD) y adaptación a condiciones cálidas en Canlubang, Laguna (150 m) b Roya Oectura máxima): O= 0%, 5 = 50%, 6=75%.cna (1-9): 1=0%, 9 100%.Colombia. Tanto los materiales del programa de mejoramiento de Colombia como los introducidos del CIP y de otras instituciones se evaluaron en la Estación Experimental de San José (3100 m), para determinar el valor de los clones en el Programa Nacional (Tabla 2-5). Usando un diseño incrementado con 14 repeticiones y 40 sin repetir se evaluaron 50 clones para caracteres importantes. Los experimentos se hicieron con y sin fungicidas. Aunque el tizón tardío no fue severo y hubo una incidencia de roya (P. pittieriana) fue posible hacer una buena evaluación de la primera enfermedad. Se obtuvieron excelentes rendimientos en algunas entradas y los clones 79 . 43 Tabla 2-7 muestra la producción de estos clones altamente rendidores.Sudeste Asiático y Pacífico Sur. Los estudios en Nueva Caledonia, Tailandia, Fij~ Tonga, Polinesia Francesa, Islas Salomón e Islas Cook evaluaron cultivares de diversas fuentes genéticas para rendimiento y otras cualidades. Los cultivares Serrana y B71-240.2 continuaron dando rendimientos superiores a los de las de semilla importada y a los del cultivo de segunda generación. También mostraron excelente resistencia a virus y buenas características de almacenamiento.El don 377850.1 fue seleccionado en Fiji, donde ha mostrado resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana conjuntamente con tolerancia al calor y buena resistencia a virus y a almacenamiento. Este don se está limpiando actualmente para su distribución a otros países, incluyendo las islas Cook y las Islas Salomón. Muchos otros clones promisorios se encuentran actualmente en sus primeros estados de evaluación.Viet Nam. Los agricultores de las tierras calurosas bajas del sur de Viet Nam no tienen cultivares adaptados apropiados para producir papa, por lo que las evaluaciones se hicieron con germoplasma introducido. De 58 clones evaluados B71-2402,378597.l,LT-7el-1035sedesempeñaron sobresalientemente en terrenos arenosos y arcillosos, tuvieron un vigoroso crecimiento de la planta, rendimientos altos de tubérculos (más de 20 t/ha), buena calidad e iniciación precoz de tubérculos y un follaje bien desarrollado LT-7 tambiénmostró buenas características de almacenamiento del tubérculo. Estos clones se han multiplicado en terrenos de altura para probarlos posteriormente en las zonas bajas.China. Entre 1987y1989 se han identificado 12 cultivares de alto rendimiento, en las evaluaciones realizadas de más de 200 cultivares del CIP en 6 lugares experimentales. Los clones B71240.2, Serrana, Baronesa y LT-4, superaron persistentemente a los cultivares que se usaron como testigos y están considerados como de buena adaptación a las condiciones de cultivo del norte de China.En una prueba de rendimiento en Enshi, provincia de Hubei al sur de China, los clones 386221.7, 3860813 y 386198.3 superaron en rendimiento al cultivar Mira y continúan en proceso de evaluación.Italia. Se han llevado a cabo, experimentos para evaluar clones de contenido alto de almidón. Debido a condiciones severas de clima, muchos tubérculos mostraron crecimiento secundario y resquebrajamiento, incluyendo los tubérculos de la variedad Primura que generalmente tiene buen comportamiento. Algunos clones del CIP se comportaron igual o mejor que las variedades locales.En las evaluaciones realizadas para determinar la gravedad específica, la mayoría de los clones del CIP se comportaron igual o mejor que dos de las variedades locales y significativamente mejor que Primura, a pesar del relativamente corto período de cultivo (110 días) de las variedades locales.En San Ramón, bajo condiciones de clima lluvioso y seco, aproximadamente 220 clones de las poblaciones de semilla sexual de 1987 y 1988 se evaluaron para determinar sus características agronómicas y reproductivas. Se usó un diseño de bloque completamente al azar con 3 repeticiones y 10 plantas por unidad experimental. Se identificaron algunos clones con excelentes características agronómicas y reproductivas, los mismos que serán puestos en el bloque de cruzamiento para evaluar su valor parental.Durante el verano, se evaluó en La Molina, Perú, una muestra al azar de 20 progenitores (incluyendo clones avanzados tolerantes al calor y resistentes a virus), en dos conjuntos usando el Diseño 11 de apareamiento de Carolina del Norte. Las 25 progenies evaluadas en cada conjunto se generaron por apareamiento de 5 clones femeninos con 5 clones masculinos. En general, los rendimientos por progenie fueron aceptables, con buena uniformidad del tubérculo y número de clones selectos.Las progenies Y84.003 x LT-7, Y84.010 x Kathadin, Y84.010 x 377964.5 y PW-31 x 377964.5 fueron las de mejores rendimientos y las que mostraron buena uniformidad del tubérculo para la pro-ducción de papa a partir de semilla sexual. Los estimados de heredabilidad variaron de mediano a alto para tipo de planta, precocidad y uniformidad del tubérculo pero fueron bajos para formación de la baya, rendimiento por planta y clones selectos. Estos hallazgos sugieren que usando la actual estrategia de mejoramiento se pueden obtener mayores beneficios en el primer grupo de atributos. Sin embargo, en el segundo grupo, los progenitores deben seleccionarse por prueba de progenie y la variabilidad se puede mejorar con la introducción de materiales genéticos nuevos.Durante el invierno, se evaluó en San Ramón una muestra de 40 progenies avanzadas segregantes para resistencia a varios virus (PVY y PVX) y otras enfermedades para tolerancia al calor, rendimiento y uniformidad del tubérculo usando un diseño de BCA dividido en dos conjuntos. El rendimiento de las progenies fue relativamente alto, con buenos niveles de precocidad y un gran número de clones selectos. Las progenies Y84.027 X LT-7, C84.705 X YY-9 y LT-8 x YY-9 demostraron alto rendimiento, un buen número de clones selectos y muy buena uniformidad del tubércule. La progenie Y84.027 x 377964.5 mostró excelente uniformidad de tubérculo y un gran número de clones selectos. Los clones Y84.027 y YY-9 mostraron nuevamente su buen valor parental para rendimiento y uniformidad del tubérculo.Cuarenta y un clones producidos por fusión de protoplastos se cruzaron con los clones 7XY.1, LT-7 y Atzimba. Los 41 clones fueron previamente evaluados para color de la flor, germinación, tinción y forma del polen. En experimentos de campo en La Molina y Huancayo se hiw la evaluación del comportamiento de 70 estos clones en diferentes cruzamientos para examinar la segregación para el tipo \"tétrada\" de esterilidad citoplasmática masculina (ECM) en sus progenies. Dos clones han mostrado el tipo tétrada de polen ECM pero sólo uno tuvo comportamiento aceptable para características agronómicas y reproductivas. Estos clones trasmiten el caracter ECM de tétrada a sus progenies y por lo tanto, pueden usarse como líneas parentales de semilla sexual (Tabla 2-8).Más de 300 clones provenientes de semilla sexual que se están desarrollando para líneas parentales de los clones de prueba de patógenos se sembraron en Huancayo, San Ramón y La Molina. Estos se evaluaron para germinación, tinción y forma del polen y fueron probados para polen tétrada de ECM. Seis de estos clones se han evaluado y seleccionado para polen tétrada de ECM C386LM87-B, C116LM87-B, C137LM87-B, 382301.1, 382302.2 y 382291.1. Su valor parental será evaluado en 1990.Egipto. Se comparó un cultivo donde se usaron tubérculos provenientes de plántulas de 13 progenies (almacenados de primavera a primavera) con tubérculos importados de la variedad Alfa. Las progenies 385438, 98001, 384061 y 384078 superaron en rendimiento a Alfa.India. Híbridos nuevos de los ciclos de mejoramiento en proceso de selección para línea parental de semilla sexual se sembraron con el objeto de generar familias nuevas de semilla sexual, usando el método de prueba cruzada. Estas familias se van a evaluar en diversas zonas Tabla 2-8. Catorce familias que segregaron para esterilidad masculina citoplásmica tipo \"tétrada•.Evaluación en Huancayo y La Molina, Perú, 1989.Tasas esperadas Progenie Fértilagroclimáticas en India para determinar su potencial de producción.Indonesia. La investigación en campo de agricultores ha demostrado que la tecnología de semilla sexual necesitaría de mayor perfeccionamiento antes de que se pueda usar como una alternativa viable al sistema tradicional de producción. La falta de progenies adaptadas, establecimiento deficiente de las plántulas y escasa disponibilidad local de semilla sexual son los principales problemas para una adopción generalizada. Se está investigando la forma de resolver estos problemas.China. Muchos hfbridos de semilla sexual y de polinización abierta (P A) han sido evaluados por colaboradores chinos durante los tres últimos años, con más de 580 hfbridos de semilla sexual y 400 de P A han sido evaluados en seis institutos. De estos, 28 hJbridos y 11 de P A se han encontrado que son promisorios y se están evaluando en pruebas en finca. En Durante los 3 últimos años el área cultivada con trasplantes de semilla sexual ha aumentado de 80,5 ha en 1987 a 110 ha en 1988 y a 150 ha en 1989 (en cerca de 20 provincias en el sudoeste de China y en Humeng y Datong en el norte de China). El perfeccionamiento en el manejo del cultivo, disponibilidad de semilla sexual de alta calidad, establecimiento de la colección de semilla sexual y procedimientos de .distribución y la ayuda del CIP en la capacitación del personal han contribuido a este incremento.Durante 1989, el CIP ha distribuido materiales genéticos a sus colaboradores en 88 SNIA, como se muestra en la Tabla 2-9. Se muestran incrementos en el envío de plantitas in vitro, familias de tubérculos, familias de semilla sexual y semilla sexual. La lista de materiales probad.os para presencia de patógenos incluye ahora 245 cultivares y variedades avanzadas, más 35 en el proceso de limpieza y 172 entradas de germoplasma nativo y silvestre más 56 en el proceso de limpieza. Seis cultivares de batata figuran actualmente en la lista de prueba para presencia de patógenos y 62 están en proceso de limpieza.La producción de semilla sexual de papa que comenzó en 1988 en La Molina y Huancayo, Perú, ha producido 0,764 kg de ht'bridos aprobados. Además, se han producido 2,6 kg de varios ht'bridos usando progenitores nuevos y antiguos. Estas progenies se van a evaluar en 3 localidades en el Perú y las mejores se van a evaluar en la red regional. El objetivo es identificar las mejores para producción en gran escala en Chile. La producción en Chile ha presentado dificultades con la floración y la producción de semilla útil fue sólo de 3,05 kg.Se han distribuido materiales avanzados de papa a 13 países del sudeste asiático desde el Centro Regional de Germoplasma y Capacitación del CIP, CIP Lima, y el PRI de Australia. El germoplasma fue distribuido en forma de Total (70) 20938 2313 2518 1 076 1 020 13 41 429 1437 542158 2065 11911100 714Los números entre paréntesis indican el número de países dentro de cada región y para \"otros\" el número de países desarrollados a los cuales se hizo el envío. El trabajo de evaluación y mejoramiento pone de relieve las características identificadas a través de varias actividades priorizadas por los SNIA, incluyendo una conferencia de planificación, talleres y estudios en profundidad. Las prioridades incluyen precocidad y tolerancia a trastornos de carácter biótico y abiótico que permitan rendimientos altos y estables y factores de calidad de las raíces, particularmente alto contenido de materia seca. La evaluación en el campo de las reacciones a los trastornos bióticos y abióticos se hace en lugares del Perú, donde se producen estos trastornos. En Tacna (situado en la costa), el nematodo del nódulo es la plaga principal y la sequía, salinidad de los suelos, y temperaturas frías de invierno son las principales presiones abióticas. En Yurimaguas (en la cuenca del Amazonas), el calor, el exceso de humedad y los suelos ácidos e infértiles son las principales presiones abióticas. La Molina y San Ramón proporcionan lugares más favorables en la costa y selva alta, para la evaluación del potencial de rendimiento de materiales seleccionados en los dos lugares donde hay grandes problemas de estrés.La diferencia en los niveles de estrés entre estos lugares está reflejada en las diferencias de rendimiento de raíces y contenido de materia seca de los clones evaluados en Yurimaguas, San Ramón, La Molina y Tacna. Los rendimientos promedios en las pruebas de La Molina y San Ramón han sido significativamente más altos que los de Tacna y Yurimaguas. El promedio en el contenido de materia seca en Tacna fue significativamente más bajo que en los otros lugares, posiblemente debido a las bajas temperaturas de invierno o la alta salinidad de los suelos existente en aquel lugar. Las condiciones de Tacna podrían ser útiles para la identificación de clones con contenido estable de materia seca.La Tabla 2-10 muestra las poblaciones foráneas de batata introducidas en su forma de semilla en 1989. La mayoría de estas introducciones son materiales avanzados de mejoramiento y son, por lo tanto, fuentes potencialmente valiosas para el trabajo de mejoramiento de la batata en el CIP. Estas introducciones de semilla se van a comparar con el germoplasma peruano en varios lugares de selección en el Perú, para determinar su precocidad, adaptación y reacciones a factüres bióticos y abióticos de importancia para los SNIA. Los resultados de estas comparaciones indicarán el potencial de utilidad del germoplasma peruano, así como también la selección de lugares realizada en el Perú. El germoplasma foráneo y peruano se va a utilizar para integrar las poblaciones mejoradas del CIP. Los cruzamientos de materiales peruanos de características deseables con introducciones foráneas de países específicos, pueden usarse para la exportación rápida de fuentes parcialmente adaptadas de variación nueva a los países de origen.El trabajo de mejoramiento continúa en el Centro Regional de Germoplasma y Capacitación (RCTC) en Filipinas, donde se evaluaron las progenies obtenidas de policruzamientos e hibridación controlada y se seleccionaron los mejores clones para posteriores evaluaciones. Un conjunto al azar de progenies que constituye una muestra representativa de la colección de mejoramiento de germoplasma del CIP se está evaluando en experimentos genéticos para determinar las características importantes de las raíces. Los resultados de estos experimentos van a proporcionar la base para el trabajo de mejoramiento con germoplasma local en Filipinas.En otro trabajo en el RGTC, se ha iniciado la investigación para identificar clones parentales. Se han identificado más de 40 progenitores potenciales que tienen floración profusa, alta precocidad para la producción de semilla, alto contenido de materia seca y altos rendimientos y van a ser evaluados para determinar su valor parental. Los progenitores potenciales han sido seleccionados de 200 clones que mostraron niveles de materia seca mayores a 35%. Paraguay. En colaboración con el SEAG y el IAN, se han colectado variedades locales durante 1987 y 1988. Estas variedades se mantienen en la estación del IAN en Caacupé. Las entradas se han clasificado por caracteres morfológicos y se están transfiriendo actualmente a cultivos in vitro. Seis de las variedades de rendimientos altos se han multiplicado y se están evaluando en pruebas en fmca con la participación de los agricultores en la evaluación. Se continúa con el trabajo de colección y se están introduciendo los materiales del CIP. Las evaluaciones en fmca también continúan y los materiales promisorios van a ser multiplicados para su distribución a las instituciones locales interesadas.Perú. En colaboración con el INIAA se han establecido una serie de pruebas de variedades en fmca, con los agricultores del valle de Cañete, Perú, que es el área principal de producción de batata. Los objetivos de este trabajo son: 1) identificar el criterio de selección usado por los agricultores de Cañete, y 2) desarrollar métodos para incluir las evaluaciones del germoplasma realizadas por los agricultores que pueden ser de utilidad a otros programas de selección varietal de los SNIA. En 1989, este trabajo al igual que las pruebas en la estación se están realizando en otros lugares del Perú.Camerún. El CIP ha iniciado el trabajo en batata para Camerún y varios otros países africanos con la trasferencia de clones selectos del proyecto anterior IRNIITA a un proyecto IRNCIP. Dos de estos clones, Tib 1 y Tis 1112, ya han sido lanzados como variedades en Camerún, como un proyecto IRNIITA y la multiplicación de variedades continúa bajo un proyecto IRNIITNGATSBY.Adicionalmente, se han introducido a Camerún desde la Universidad del Estado de Carolina del Norte 1000 semillas de batata (10 familias que ya se han sembrado y están en evaluación en lugares de elevación media en Mfonta (1350 m) y Babungo (1175 m).Africa del Este y del Sur. El trabajo de mejoramiento de la batata en A.frica del Este se está desarrollando en colaboración con los científicos de los SNIA, directamente y en coparticipación con la red de ESARNN establecida por el TITA. Se da énfasis a un enfoque multidisciplinario usando el modelo \"del agricultor-al-agricultor\" en base a encuestas y evaluación del germoplasma localmente disponible. El trabajo de colección se está haciendo en Kenya, Tanzania, Etiopía y Uganda, para evaluar el germoplasma en su capacidad de rendimiento, resistencia a plagas y enfermedades y otras características deseables. Se espera iniciar el trabajo colaborativo con otros países de esta región durante 1990.India. El trabajo colaborativo de mejoramiento de batata con el CTCRI se ha iniciado durante 1989. El trabajo de mejoramiento se va a guiar por los resultados de los trabajos socioeconómicos que se están realizando. La primera etapa del trabajo de mejoramiento se ha centrado en la hibridación de clones avanzados del programa de CTCRI. El trabajo durante 1990 se va a centrar en la evaluación de materiales para las hibridaciones para precocidad, rendimiento y aceptación por parte del consumidor. Los materiales selectos van a ingresar a la red de pruebas de variedades de toda la India y también se van a distribuir para pruebas internacionales.Filipinas. El trabajo de mejoramiento y distribución de germoplasma en Filipinas se realiza en colaboración con el SNIA {NPRCRTC y VISCA), así como también independientemente. Durante 1989, el trabajo se ha hecho para desarrollar el germoplasma mejorado de batata para las zonas tropicales cálidas y frías del sudeste de Asia. Esto incluyó la colección extensa de germoplasma de las zonas bajas y altas, además de 243 entradas colectadas de las zonas bajas de Luzón, que se mantienen en Canlubang y Santa Lucía y 552 entradas de las zonas altas, colectadas en Banguet, Mt.Province, Ifugao y Nueva Viscaya que se mantienen en el NPRCRTC, Benguet, junto con el germoplasma de VISCA y el de BPI Economic Garden.El germoplasma recientemente colectado ha sido descrito en base a características morfológicas claves y está en proceso de evaluación para determinar su rendimiento, precocidad y contenido de materia seca en las zonas altas y en las zonas bajas, bajo condiciones de clima seco y lluvioso. Las evaluaciones preliminares de laboratorio y de campo para resistencia al gorgojo ( Cylas f onnicarius) han dado resultados promisorios.La Tabla 2-11 muestra el germoplasma clonal distribuido a los programas nacio- ª Número total de semilla/número de familias mitad consanguíneas.nales desde la sede central del CIP, la Universidad del Estado de Carolina del Norte (bajo los auspicios de un contrato de investigación) y el Centro Regional de Redistribución de Germoplasma del CIP en Filipinas.Vista al microscopio electrónico de exploración de la bacteria f Psemtomonas solanacearum) que infectó los vasos del xilema de una planta de papa.lPlan. de Acción 111Perfil del Plan: 1990Las bacterias y los hongos causan enfermedades que limitan la producción de papa y batata en los países del tercer mundo. La investigación que realiza el Plan de Acción III ayuda a los agricultores a controlar las enfermedades en el campo, así como también durante la permanencia de la semilla en almacenamiento, transporte, comercialización y conservación del producto por el agricultor. El CIP colabora con los SNIA y la industria privada a desarrollar resistencia durable a las enfermedades y a adaptar y promover las prácticas de control integrado que saquen ventaja de estas resistencias.•Los recientes logros incluyen a una nueva población desarrollada específicamente para reducir la frecuencia de infección latente e incorporar resistencia al tizón temprano. Esta población tiene también buena calidad y rendimiento, por lo cual ha sido seleccionada para su uso en varios países. Se ha desarrollado un método más preciso-y severo de evaluación y selección para intensificar los niveles de resistencia. Este método utiliza semilla sexual de papa, esquejes y minitubérculos, donde el material establecido se sumerge en la suspensión de inóculo.Se han realizado estudios taxonómicos innovativos usando pruebas bioquímicas en placas microtituladoras de hoyos múltiples, obteniéndose como resultado la subdivisión del Biovar 2 de Pseudomonas solanacearum en dos fenotipos distintos relacionados con su distribución geográfica. Estos hallazgos ayudan al desarrollo de estrategias de mejoramiento bien enfocadas.• En Burundi, Perú y Filipinas se han reportado progresos en el control integrado por medio de una buena elección de cultivos de rotación.Para apoyar en forma más eficiente el mejoramiento para resistencia a la pudrición blanda y pierna negra causados por Erwinia se hicieron estudios sobre métodos alternativos de evaluación y selección. La evaluación y selección para pierna negra que consiste en colocar esquejes en perlita infestada, es un nuevo método que permite la selección de varios genotipos resistentes. Una baja, pero útil correlación se encontró entre la infiltración al vacío y la inyección de tubérculos de papa. La investigación ha demostrado una interacción sinergística de Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora y dos especies de Fusarium inoculadas a tubérculos, lo que indica la necesidad de considerar una estrategia de mejoramiento que tome en cuenta ambas enfermedades simultáneamente.En el programa de selección para tizón tardío, se hicieron 166 nuevas selecciones mediante evaluación y selección en Rionegro y Toluca. Después de probarlos por segunda vez se seleccionó un total de 39 clones y fueron añadidos a la Colección Internacional para Prueba de Resistencia al Tizón Tardío (actualmente 170 clones), los cuales están a disposición de los SNIA para prueba. La metodología de selección se ha mejorado en Rionegro usando riego por aspersión para controlar la humedad.Se seleccionaron en el campo, progenies con resistencia al tizón temprano combinada con precocidad en San Ramón; progenies similares mostraron resistencia en Israel. Estos hallazgos indican el potencial para controlar esta enfermedad a través de la selección para resistencia.La encuesta de enfermedades de la batata continúa en el Perú y en La Molina se ha iniciado la evaluación y selección para resistencia de raíces tuberosas a la pudrición negra de Java y a la pudrición de raíces por Fusarium. En San Ramón se ha encontrado que la pudrición del pie y la pudrición blanda causan severas pérdidas en almacenamiento. Se ha demostrado que la distorsión clorótica de la hoja es causada por el hongo Fusarium /ateritium.Mejoramiento para resistencia. La investigación en el CIP y en colaboración con los SNIA en varios países del tercer mundo, ha continuado concentrándose en la selección de poblaciones tetraploides con resistencia a Pseudomonas solanacearom, heredada de especies cultivadas diploides de Solanum (ver los Informes Anuales de 1984-1989). Los mayores esfuerzos se han dirigido a la prueba y desarrollo de materiales de mejoramiento potencialmente útiles en una variedad de lugares en el Perú y el mundo, intensificando así la selección para resistencia a variantes localizadas de P. solanacearom.Se ha producido una nueva población a partir de una serie de cruzamientos entre los clones más resistentes a la MB 80 y poblaciones resistentes al tizón tardío (incluyendo algunos clones libres de genes R). Las selecciones iniciales fueron para adaptación y calidad agronómica bajo condiciones de ausencia de MB en Huancayo y La Molina. La Figura 3-1 muestra la variedad de materiales selectos por su aceptable potencial de rendimiento. Una población altamente avanzada, que representa la base genética íntegra de resistencia de los progenitores a la MB se multiplicó en Huancayo y casi íntegramente mostró características agronómicas aceptables y rendimientos en un rango de 1 a 2,5 kg por planta.En San Ramón, en pruebas realizadas en campos de agricultores, donde había infestación natural con la raza 1 de P. solanacearom se seleccionaron los clones precoces con resistencia aparente a la MB, después de 90 días bajo condiciones cálidas húmedas (Tabla 3-1). Cuatro de estas selecciones no mostraron infección latente al momento de la cosecha. En estudios asociados con el Programa Nacional de Papa del Perú (INIAA), se probaron materiales similares en Carhuaz, Departamento de Ancash (2 810 m), en el campo de un agricultor. El campo estaba infestado con la raza 3 de P. solanacearum. Después de la cosecha, 11 de los clones seleccionados se encontraron libres de infección latente. En el mismo campo, en materiales segregantes, provenientes de semilla sexual, con los mismos antecedentes genéticos, la frecuencia detectada de genotipos resistentes fue similar a la de los materiales clonal_ es (Tabla 3-1). De los clones seleccionados se encontraron 30 que estaban libres de infección latente al momento de la cosecha.Tabla 3-1. Selección para resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana y cualidades agronómicas bajo condiciones de suelo infestado, en Perú, Filipinas, China y Brasil.Indice de rendimiento de a la MB, en el material seleccionado se va a estudiar en campos infestados en el oeste de Java, donde las pruebas han demostrado que todos los campos se encuentran infestados y que el 50% del cultivo es infectado después de cuatro ciclos de multiplicación con la semilla originalmente sana.En el Instituto de Sanidad Vegetal CAAS (IPP-CAAS), Beijing, China, se seleécionaron 200 genotipos resistentes a la MB, con buena calidad agronómica, de progenies de cruzamientos entre los clones resistentes 800928 (MS-42.3), 800935 (MS-IC.2), 377852.2, 381064.8, 800938 (A VRDC-1287.19) y variedades localmente adaptadas. Tres instituciones nacionales cooperantes (el Centro de la Papa del Sur de China, el Instituto Agronómico de Bashang (BAI) y el Instituto Agronómico del Distrito de Huaihua), ya han iniciado programas de mejoramiento usando germoplasma del CIP resis-82 tente a la MB. Diecisiete combinaciones adicionales entre 5 clones resistentes y cultivares localmente adaptados se hicieron en el IPP-CAAS en cooperación con el BAI. De 84 progenies de semilla sexual, introducidas del CIP, se seleccionaron 101 clones de 61 familias de tubérculos por calidad agronómica, en el BAI y en el Instituto de Cultivos de Al-. tura de la Provincia de Shanxi. En pruebas realizadas con materiales clonales avanzados• para resistencia a la MB en almácigos infestados en Enshi, se hicieron selecciones adicionales de materiales distribuidos por el CIP y de cultivares nacionales (Tabla 3-1).Mediante un contrato de investigación con el CNPH-EMBRAP A, Brasil, se están también preseleccionando materiales segregantes distribuidos por el CIP para caracteres agronómicos adecuados antes de hacer la evaluación y selección de c;ampo para resistencia a la MB. La preselección incluye dos fases: la fase I, en la cual los genotipos individuales son clonados en el invernadero, y la fase 11 en la cual se seleccionan los clones de acuerdo a sus características agronómicas en ausencia de MB. Luego, los clones seleccionados se siembran en un campo infestado con la raza 1 de P. solanacearum para determinar su resistencia durante la fase 111. El año pasado, la fase 1 ha incluido 54 familias de semilla sexual provenientes de 3 diferentes programas de mejoramiento del CIP; la fase II incluyó 39 familias de tubérculos de plántulas y la fase III incluyó 43 clones seleccionados. En las pruebas de clones seleccionados, la incidencia de MB varió de 53 a 89%, confirmando las observaciones de años anteriores en que se encontró que la resistencia de estos materiales es inadecuada para las condiciones de Brasilia.Procedimientos para el tamizado. En razón de que el éxito del mejoramiento requiere de métodos eficientes para la selección de individuos resistentes a la MB de poblaciones diferentes, se evaluaron en el invernadero la uniformidad y reproductibilidad de diversas técnicas de tamizado, usando los cultivares susceptibles de papa Yungay y Ticahuasi. Los resultados más uniformes se obtuvieron cuando los esquejes enraizados de prueba (creciendo en bolitas rehidratadas de musgo Jiffy-7) se sumergieron por 10 segundos en una suspensión de 5 x 10 7 u.f.c. por c~3. Cuando se comparó este método con un método de inoculación estándar en el cual la mezcla del suelo se humedeció con 10 cm 3 de inóculo por planta, los resultados del método de inmersión mostraron un 0% de escape, mientras que con el método de humedecimiento, 43% de las plantas escaparon a la infección. El grado de desarrollo de la enfermedad y la uniformidad de los resultados aumentó cuando se hirieron las raíces con un escalpelo antes de la inoculación. El método de inmersión también proporciona una técnica de selección masiva que permite la evaluación de muéhos genotipos en la mitad del tiempo requerido con otros métodos.En el Perú se han hecho estudios más amplios de la técnica de evaluación y selección de plántulas en el invernadero y en el campo usando 10 progenies segregantes de semilla sexual de papa de cruzamientos entre progenitores con resistencia a la MB y que están adaptados a las zonas tropicales cálidas. U san do el método de mojar el suelo se han encontrado correlaciones significativas entre la incidencia de marchitez durante pruebas repetidas de invernadero en Lima con el Biovar (Bv) 2, raza 3 de P. solanacearum (r = 0,14, P < ,01) y en San Ramón con el Bvl, raza 1 (r = 0,323 P < ,05). Sin embargo, debido a las diferencias en la raza del patógeno y las condiciones ambientales, los resultados no presentan correlación entre las dos localidades. Similarmente, no hubo correlación en la incidencia de marchitez cuando se trasplantaron las mismas familias a suelos infectados en San Ramón (Bv 1, raza 1), Carhuaz (Bv 2, raza 3), o Bukidnon, Filipinas (Bv 3, raza 1).Taxonomía de Pseudomonas solanacearum. Como se indicara anteriormente, la variabilidad de P. solanacearum así como también la de la papa hospedante debe ser considerada en el mejoramiento para resistencia a la MB. Por lo tanto, un programa colaborativo internacional, que incluye al CIP y al SNIA de países desarrollados y del tercer mundo, ha co-menzado a mejorar los procedimientos de identificación y clasificación de las variantes de P. solanacearum, para elaborar un mapa sobre su distribución en el mundo. En la sede central del CIP, un científico visitante de la Universidad de Queensland, Australia, en asociación con científicos del CIP, ha desarrollado un método para caracterizar las variantes de la bacteria usando una serie de pruebas bioquímicas, muchas de las cuales se han llevado a cabo en placas microtituladoras. Los resultados de las pruebas han permitido la diferenciación de 327 aislamientos de P. solanacearum (que represerttan 5 biovares de la colección mundial del CIP) en tres grupos sobre la base del metabolismo de nitrato (Tabla 3-2). Aparentemente, la separación de 138 aislamientos Bv 2 de P. solanacearum en 2 genotipos dístintos de acuerdo a su actividad metabólica ha sido también asociada con su distribución mundial (Tabla 3-3).En el IPP-CAAS en Beijing, China, se han producido anticuerpos monoclonales contra P. solanacearum inmunizando ratones BALB/c con extractos de glicoproteína de los variantes de papa Po41 (raza3) y Pol (raza 1). Cinco líneas hibridoma-célula clonados secretaron establemente anticuerpos monoclonales que fueron específicos para P. solanacearum, pero no para las bacterias que causan pudrición anillada o pudrición blanda. Los anticuerpos de una línea célula (HPS3) fueron específicos para todas las variantes probadas de P. solanacearum y se usaron con éxito en una prueba de ELISA para detectar infección de MB de plantas de papa y tubérculos. En respuesta a una gran demanda, se van a hacer mayores investigaciones para el desarrollo de esta técnica que tiene por objeto producir un método confiable y barato para detectar la infección latente en tubérculossemilla s de papa. Se están usando anticuerpos monoclonales menos específicos para agrupar las distintas variantes de P. solanacearum. Mientras tanto, en la sede central del CIP se han producido 3 nuevos antisueros policlonales (uno contra la raza 1 y dos contra la raza 3) y actualmente se está evaluando su especificidad.Tabla 3-2. Reducción de nitrato a nitrito y producción de gas a partir de nitrato por diferentes biovares de Pseudomonas solanacearum.No. variantes probadas:Producción profusa de gas o 1 57Producción de trazas de gas b Aislamientos de 28 países: Argentina, Australia, Brasil, Burundi, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egipto, Grecia, India, Indonesia, lran, Israel, Kenya, Malasia, México, Nepal, Nigeria, Panamá, Perú, Filipinas, Puerto Rico, Ruanda, Sri Lanka, Suecia, Uruguay y Venezuela.Control integrado de la marchitez bacteriana. La investigación colaborativa entre el CIP y los SNIA continúa concentrada en la selección de los sistemas de cultivo que reducen la incidencia de MB. Los agricultores necesitan estrategias de control integrado para reducir las pérdidas en el campo. Estas medidas de control también se requieren para complementar los niveles de resistencia a la MB en los cultivares de papa recientemente desarrollados que no son completamente resistentes, en ambientes adversos de alta temperatura o bajo presiones altas de inóculo.En colaboración con el Departamento de Sanidad Vegetal del ISABU, Burundi, una encuesta realizada para evaluar la presencia de MB en campos de agricultores ha proporcionado respuestas valiosas para ayudar a desarrollar las estrategias de control integrado. Las rotaciones previas han demostrado tener efecto sobre la incidencia de la marchitez, con los niveles más bajos después de yuca (durante la época de cultivo de setiembre a enero) y después de banana en la siguiente época de cultivo. La variedad Ndinamagara (entrada de germo-plasma del CIP No. 720118), resistente a la MB ocupó el 77% del total de terreno sembrado de papa y en promedio presentó menos marchitez que otras variedades. Sin embargo, la incidencia de MB también fue notablemente baja en variedades susceptibles como la Muziranzara cuando se obtuvo la semilla de la finca semillera del ISABU y se practicó una rotación del cultivo de 2 años. Los crecientes esfuerzos de extensión han prevenido exitosamente la siembra de papa como monocultivo; sin embargo, se ha podido entender que las plantas espontáneas de papa son la fuente principal de P. solanaceamm en el suelo.Los resultados de 3 años de estudios sobre sistemas de cultivo en Bukidnon, Filipinas, llevados a cabo en cooperación con el Departamento de Agricultura Filipino, también han demostrado el efecto de la rotación del cultivo sobre la incidencia de MB, en tres localidades en el lapso de 6 años. El potencial de inóculo de P. solanaceamm (raza 1), en el suelo ha sido el más alto después de un cultivo de papa y el más bajo después de maíz, aunque el potencial permaneció sufi-cientemente alto como para causar enfermedad en todos los casos. La rotación con maíz o frijoles redujo la incidencia de MB e incrementó el rendimiento en el siguiente período de cultivo de papa, mientras que el monocultivo de papa incrementó la marchitez y redujo el rendimiento. La inclinación del terreno, el cultivo en terrazas o a curvas de nivel no tuvieron influencia sobre la incidencia de MB.En San Ramón, Perú, los estudios de los componentes potenciales para el control integrado de P. solanacearum (raza 1) demostraron que la incidencia de MB. (en campo de tomates) se incrementó después de la rotación con caupí o con frijoles, en cambio se disminuyó después de maíz o después de un barbecho con tratamiento de herbicidas. Estas incidencias han sido correlacionadas con el nivel de daño causado por el nematodo del nódulo (r = 0,75, P < ,05). En el invernadero se ha demostrado el efecto directo del herbicida metribuzin en la población de P. solanacearum en el suelo. Cuando se usó tierra de campo en macetas, previamente inoculada con una suspensión de la bacteria (conteniendo 10 8 células viables por cm\\ la aplicación de una dosis equivalente a 4,8 L/ha fue suficiente para reducir la población bacteriana a < ,01. La aplicación de pre y posemergencia de este producto, en los cultivos de papa controlan en forma efectiva las malezas hospedantes de P. solanacearum y Meloidogyne spp. Las enmiendas aplicadas al suelo también retardaron el desarrollo de MB. En pruebas de invernadero la incidencia de MB en plántulas de papa se redujo de 97%, 90 días después de la siembra a sólo 10,7% cuando el suelo inoculado fue previamente enmendado con óxido de calcio (0,5% por peso); a 86 2, 7% cuando la enmienda fue con úrea (0,1 % por peso) y 0% cuando la enmienda fue con una mezcla de los dos productos. La enmienda al suelo con óxido de calcio (2 t/ha), úrea (200 kg N/ha) y compost de bagazo de caña de azúcar ( 10 t/ha), también retardó el desarrollo de MB en el campo (Figura 3-2). La rotación previa con Crotalaria spectabilis o Tagetes erecta dio como resultado el incremento de la marchitez, debido a que, aunque estos cultivos reducen la incidencia del nematodo, tienden a incrementar el potencial de inóculo de P. solanacearum. En San Ramón, en suelos infestados con la raza 1, las pruebas evaluaron la resistencia relativa de los cultivares adaptados de papa. Se ha observado una sustancial variabilidad relacionada con la ubicación específica (Figura 3-3), cuando dos cultivares (Yungayy Mariva) se comportaron igual que el don resistente BR-69.84 que se usó como testigo.La implementación de las medidas de control integrado arriba mencionadas para complementar el desempeño de los cultivares tolerantes, puede proporcionar un control barato de la MB para mejorar la producción de papa de consumo por pequeños agricultores en los países del tercer mundo. En el Perú, el efecto de integración de varios componentes de control, ha sido estudiado en San Ramón y en asociación con el INIAA en Carhuaz. Los resultados demuestran una disminución substancial en la incidencia de MB con el asociado incremento del rendimiento final notado mayormente en cultivares adaptados a condiciones cálidas de cultivo. En San Ramón, los efectos combinados de la rotación del cultivo con maíz, aplicación preemergente del herbicida (Metribuzin), enmienda del suelo con compost de Enmienda del suelo = Bagazo (1 O t/ha) + CaO (2 t/ha) + Urea (200 kg N/ha) Figura 3-2. Efecto de la enmienda del suelo y prácticas de cultivos previos sobre la incidencia de marchitez bacteriana en un campo infestado de Pseudomonas solanacearum (raza 1) en San Ramón, Perú. La población B ha sido previamente seleccionada de 96 familias lnoridas después de la evaluación de plántulas para resistencia a la pierna negra, usando el método en el cual, familias de semilla sexual se sembraron en compost esterilizado y se dejaron crecer por 21 días. Se hicieron esquejes apicales que se trataron con hormona para enraizamiento. Estos esquejes se plantaron en bandejas conteniendo perlita esterilizada a la cual se había vertido uniformemente una suspensión de Echr (la5 u.f.c. por cm\\ No se desarrollaron síntomas típicos de pierna negra en el 47% de estos esquejes, los que luego fueron trasplantados al campo, donde una selección adicional redujo la población al 10% de la original. Once genotipos no desarrollaron pierna negra después de 3 reinoculaciones en las que se usaron 5 esquejes por genotipo por prueba. Cinco de estos genotipos produjeron tubérculos que fueron moderadamente resistentes a la pudrición blanda después de la inoculación por inyección. Más de 300 cultivares probados para presencia de patógenos se han probado en una selección preliminar para resistencia a la pierna negra y a la pudrición blanda causada por Echr, usando el método de infiltración al vacío (Informe Anual del CIP, 1988) .. Nueve cultivares primitivos demostraron niveles altos de resistencia en el tallo y el tubérculo (Tabla 3-4), de los cuales 5 fueron S. stenotomum, 2 S. chaucha y 2 S. phureja y S.goniocalyx. La incidencia de pierna negra y pudrición blanda durante la prueba fue de correlación alta (r = 0,72, p < ,01).Tabla 3-4. Resistencia potencial a pierna negra y pudrición blanda de la papa en cultivares primitivos de la colección probada contra patógenos del CIP.Pudrición entre los patógenos de semilla almacenada de papa, que son los responsables de los graves daños en la producción a escala mundial, la interacción entre Erwinia carotovora ssp. carotovora (Ecc ),Fusarium oxysporum y F. solani fue materia de estudio por un estudiante de la Universidad Agraria en Lima. Cuatro cultivares se inocularon haciendo punciones con agujas que llevaban consigo suspensiones conteniendo 3,3 x 10 7 u.f.c./cm 3 de Ecc y 2 x 1a5 conidios/cm 3 de Fusarium sp. y la cantidad de tejido podrido se calculó en cm 3 . El sinergismo entre la bacteria y cada uno de los hongos ha sido particularmente pronunciado en el cultivar Revolución, pero no se ha observado en el cultivar Desirée. El grado de sinergismo puede estar en relación con la susceptibilidad del cultivar a cada uno de los patógenos en particular.Las pruebas se hicieron con 70 clones de S. tuberosum que habían sido previamente seleccionados por su resistencia combinada a Ecc, F. oxysporum y F. solani. Dos procedimientos de inoculación confirmaron la resistencia a F. oxysporum en el 88% del 93% de los clones y a F. solani en 72% del 74% de los clones. Se está estudiando actualmente la resistencia a la combinación de los patógenos bacteriano y fungoso.Detección de infección latente. Para el desarrollo de reglamentos de cuarentena y de certificación de semilla, en los países desarrollados y en los del tercer mundo se necesita un método sencillo y seguro que detecte y cuantifique la presencia de Erwinia spp. en tubérculos-semillas de papa con infección latente. En Túnez, estudios colaborativos en el EHS en Chott-Meriem indicaron que entre el 50y100% de los tubérculos-semillas que habitual-mente se importan de Europa estaban con infección latente de E. carotovora ssp. atroseptica (Eca), lo mismo que con Ecc y Echr. Sin embargo, los niveles de infección tienden a disminuir bajo condiciones secas en el campo. tisuero contra dos variantes de Ecc y donde Eca (ya sea separadamente o en combinación), reaccionó positivamente con una amplia gama de variantes de la colección del CIP, incluyendo 40 serotipos colectados internacionalmente (Figura 3-4). El antisuero contra Echr fue específico para los aislamientos de Echr de varios países. Ninguno de los antisueros detectó aislamientos de Escherichia coli, P. solanacearnm o Agrobacterium En el CIP, Lima, un estudiante de la UNA usó conejos de laboratorio para producir antisuero policlonal para 6 aislamientos peruanos de Erwinia. El an- Nota a: 1) Las variantes bacterianas.se ubicaron como sigue:: Variantes de Ecc del Perú: 1-6, 13-18, 31-36, 43-48, 49-54, 61-66, 80-83,  Mejoramiento para resistencia. En el CIP, el enfoque común para mejoramiento para resistencia a Phytophthora inf estans incluye dos poblaciones de papa: 1) materiales avanzados que contienen genes dominantes para \"resistencia vertical\" (genes-R), lo mismo que genes de resistencia horizontal y 2) materiales libres de genes R pero agronómicamente menos avanzados. En ambas poblaciones, los objetivos son incrementar los niveles de resistencia horizontal para agregarle caracteres agronómicos apropiados y proporcionar los medios para la selección de cultivares.Los clones parentales para la población avanzada se escogen por pruebas de progenie que determinan la heredabilidad de resistencia horizontal y producen bien en diferentes partes del mundo. Las plantas son inicialmente evaluadas y seleccionadas al estado de plántula rociándolas con una suspensión de esporangios y zoosporas de P. inf estans. En 1989 se seleccionaron aproximadamente 1 500 plántulas de 15 000 que se evaluaron. Otras 1 500 plántulas también se seleccionaron el azar para controlar la eficiencia de la evaluación. Estas se multiplicaron y se probarán en el campo en 1990 en Rionegro, Colombia y en Ruhengeri, Ruanda.La evaluación y selección en el campo incluye la estrecha colaboración de los programas nacionales en Colombia, Ruanda y (para los siguientes ciclos) México. Los colaboradores de los programas nacionales participan en el mantenimiento, evaluación y selección de las generaciones clonales avanzadas, reteniendo los clones promisorios para sus respectivos programas.La evaluación y selección en campo se han basado tradicionalmente en la infección natural. En 1989, las inoculaciones se probaron en México y Colombia; la última fue la más exitosa debido a la disponibilidad de riego por aspersión. Las inoculaciones permiten la uniformidad y ayudan a superar los problemas de incompatibilidad entre las plantas hospedantes y las razas simples del hongo que se presentan en forma natural. Se anticipa que la inoculación de campo se va a convertir pronto en parte rutinaria del tamizado en Colombia.En 1989 se ha adoptado una nueva actividad para juntar las poblaciones A y B. En Colombia, los clones seleccionados como resistentes se han probado con una raza simple para identificar los individuos que no tienen genes R. Los clones que han probado estar libres de genes R se van a usar como progenitores para mejorar el nivel agronómico de la población B. Hasta ahora, la población libre de genes R, basada principalmente en germoplasma deAndigena ha sido seleccionada en varias secuencias de evaluación de invernadero y de campo en el Perú. La evaluación y selección de campo se ha reducido por la pérdida de lugares en el Perú, pero la mayor parte del trabajo de campo se hará pronto cerca de Quito, Ecuador. A comienzos de 1990, la primera generación de pruebas de campo se va a hacer en Ruanda, en colaboración con el programa nacional de papa, al igual que en Colombia. Las épocas de siembra coinciden en ambos lugares y ambos ambientes tienen los mismos niveles altos de inóculo al iniciarse la época de cultivo, debido a que se cultiva papa durante todo el año. Después de dos ciclos de pr:uebas de campo, los clones seleccionados se convierten en parte de la Prueba Internacional de Resistencia al Tizón Tardío (ILBRT). Los clones del ILBRT se mantienen bajo condiciones de cuarentena y se envían a pedido, a los programas nacionales. En 1989 se agregaron 39 nuevos clones a la colección de ILBR T (que ahora tiene un total de 170 clones).Se están llevando a cabo varios cambios para mejorar la ILBRT. Se están incorporando como testigos, clones libres de genes R para su envío a todos los lugares. Esta incorporación va a facilitar 92 la comparación de los resultados. Las lecturas que se hagan de los resultados del tizón tardío se van a recoger y compilar en el CIP, de tal manera que los participantes de los programas nacionales pueden ver el comportamiento del material en otras partes del mundo. A medida que el ILBRT vaya adquiriendo mayor proporción de materiales libres de genes R, este seguimiento estaría en condiciones de proporcionar información sobre la estabilidad de la resistencia horizontal, en diferentes partes del mundo y la adaptabilidad de los clones.Continúa el programa de mejoramiento y evaluación con el Centro de Investigación en Cultivos de Raíces y Capacitación de Filipinas Norte, en La Trinidad. Los materiales genéticos desadaptados de Lima, con un alto nivel de resistencia se han usado en dos ciclos de selección recurrente para resistencia al TTa y adaptación. La adaptación y el rendimiento se han mejorado substancialmente al mismo tiempo que se ha mantenido la resistencia al TTa.Procedimientos de evaluación y selección para resistencia. En un experimento realizado en Rionegro, Colombia, se ha probado la eficacia de la inoculación de P. inf estans en el campo. Se aplicaron 3 concentraciones de una suspensión de esporas del hongo a 4 cultivares con diferentes niveles de resistencia horizontal. La inoculación aumentó el porcentaje de follaje infestado. Este incremento ha sido más perceptible 8 días después de la inoculación, lo que sugiere que la primera evaluación después de la inoculación puede ser importante en la evaluación general de resistencia horizontal. La inoculación redujo también el coeficiente de variabilidad ( CV) entre las parcelas genéticamente uniformes de AUDPC. La reducción del CV de 17,8 a 14,1 es importante, porque representa un incremento en la uniformidad de infección en el campo, lo que es uno de los objetivos de la inoculación.También se ha iniciado un experimento para estudiar la eficiencia de la evaluación y selección de plántulas provenientes de plantas individuales. Se inocularon familias de 10 cruzamientos y se evaluaron plántulas individuales para porcentaje de infección. Antes de la inoculación se propagaron las plántulas a partir de esquejes. Estas se han multiplicado y se van a probar como plantas adultas en el campo en Rionegro, Colombia, en 1990.Control químico. Dos tratamientos de combinación de fungicidas se han comparado en San Ramón en 1989, para desarrollar un procedimiento de control químico que se use conjuntamente con resistencia del hospedante en un programa de control integrado. Se ha encontrado que la mezcla de Dithane M45 + Dyrene es efectiva, mientras que Dithane M45 + Euparen sólo controlaron el tizón temprano cuando se aplicaron antes de la inoculación.Resistencia. En San Ramón, los clones de la lista probada contra patógenos se evaluaron para resistencia aAltemaria solani. Los clones se agruparon de acuerdo a su condición de susceptible, moderadamente resistente y resistente. Los resultados de 1989 coinciden con los encontrados en 1988. Los clones más resistentes, probados en ambos años fueron: 700031, 720118 (Ndinamagara), 700431, 700528, Puca Duraznilla, Mollay Zarda, Tara Ccallo, Pinaza, Español papa, Amarilla, Conga y Yana Ppima.Mejoramiento. Una muestra de 40 progenies segregantes se evaluó para resistencia al tizón temprano después de inoculación de campo con Altemaria sp. Los materiales parentales provienen de la Universidad del Estado de Carolina del Norte, la Universidad de Maine y el CIP. Las progenies de Maine 48 x Y84.012 y de Maine 48 x Y84.011 tuvieron características de rendimiento alto, precocidad y niveles aceptables de resistencia (Tabla 3-5). En general la resistencia tenía correlación con una moderada precocidad, lo que confirma los resultados de otros estudios realizados en el CIP. También se ha identificado resistencia al tizón temprano en poblaciones inmunes al PVY y al PVX.Evaluación y selección intemacional. En cooperación con la Estación Experimental de Gilat en Israel, numerosos clones del CIP se han evaluado y seleccionado para resistencia aAltemaria sp. Los clones probados segregaron marcadamente para porcentaje de follaje afectado por la enfermedad, indicando que existen niveles relativos de resistencia en los materiales con que se cuenta. Pruebas similares se están haciendo en Uruguay en la estación del CIAAB del programa agrícola nacional.Roií,a. Las evaluaciones de campo que se han hecho conjuntamente con el programa nacional peruano (INIAA) en los últimos 3 años han demostrado que 2 variedades ecuatorianas, Gabriela y Esperanza fueron consistentemente resistentes a la roña (causado por Spon- Marchitez y pudriciones fungosas. Durante la época de cultivo 1987-1988, un estudiante de la Universidad de Huancayo (UNCP) colectó muestras de plantas con marchitez, tubérculos con pudrición y tubérculos sanos de 3 zonas agroecológicas, en las alturas del centro del Perú (Comas, Huasahuasi y el Valle del Mantaro ).Los principales patógenos vasculares aislados de las plantas con marchitez fueron Verticillium dahliae, Fusarium oxyspornm, Fusarium solani y Fusarium graminearnm. Otros patógenos como Phytophthora erythroseptica y Rhízoc-94 tonia solani también se aislaron de plantas con los mismos síntomas, pero se trataba de invasores secundarios.Phytophthora inf estans, Phytophthora erythroseptica, Fusarium solani y Fusarium sulphureum fueron los principales hongos que causaron pudrición de tubérculos en las 3 zonas agroecológicas del Perú. La pudrición húmeda (Pythium sp.), de los tubérculos se encontró especialmente en los valles de Comas y el Man taro.La incidencia de plantas con marchitez y pudriciones del tubérculo generalmente fue menor en las partes altas de la zona central del Perú, pero varió con las condiciones ambientales de cada localidad. Los patógenos Fusarium sp., P. erythroseptica, V. dahliae y Pythium sp. se encontraron en estado latente en tu-tados inmediatamente después de la bérculos aparentemente sanos colee-cosecha.Se tiene muy poca información con respecto a la importancia económica de las enfermedades bacterianas y fungosas de la batata. Las enfermedades foliares parecen ser esporádicas y generalmente son de menor importancia. Las enfermedades que se originan en el suelo están consideradas como los mayores problemas porque causan pérdidas cuando las plantas están aún en el campo o cuando las raíces reservantes se guardan para propagación o consumo. Las más importantes de estas enfermedades son la pudrición negra ( Ceratocystes fimbriata ), pudrición carbonosa (Macrophomina phaseolina ), pudrición del pie (Plenodomus destrnens), pudrición radicular por Fusarium y cancro del tallo (Fusarium spp.). Todas estas enfermedades ocasionan pérdidas en el campo y continúan causando pudriciones al producto durante el tránsito, comercialización y almacenamiento doméstico.Cuando las raíces reservantes se guardan para su uso futuro como fuente de plantitas y esquejes de propagación, como se hace en Argentina y Uruguay, las enfermedades que se trasmiten por el suelo más importante son el tizón del tallo (Sclerotium rolfsii), pudrición en el suelo o viruela (Streptomyces ipomoea) y pudrición bacteriana del tallo y la raíz (Erwinia crysanthemi). Del mismo modo, la marchitez bacteriana (Pseudomonas   solanacearnm) es importante en la parte sur de la China.Aunque son muy pocos los lugares entre los países del tercer mundo donde se almacena la batata para su consumo posterior (con la notable excepción de China), son varios los hongos que se han reportado causando pudriciones de almacenamiento; estos incluyen Rhizopus stolonifer (pudrición blanda), Diplodia gossypina (pudrición negra de Java) y Phomopsis phaseali (pudrición seca).En muchos de los países del tercer mundo, especialmente en las áreas tropicales, la batata se consume inmediatamente después de la cosecha y la propagación es por esquejes que se obtienen de cultivos en crecimiento. Enfermedades como la roña del tallo y de la hoja (Elsinoe batatas), pueden ser trasmitidas por esta forma de propagación.Las encuestas realizadas en el Perú han identificado muchas de las enfermedades reportadas en el mundo. Las enfermedades se encuentran en zonas de cultivo de batata de los valles irrigados de la costa y en áreas bajas y elevadas de selva tropical. Se están haciendo evaluaciones para determinar la posibilidad de evaluar y seleccionar para resistencia a todas las enfermedades que tienen importancia a nivel mundial, usando la enorme colección de germoplasma que tiene el CIP, con el objeto de seleccionar las entradas resistentes que se pueden usar como cultivares o como materiales parentales.Se ha iniciado en el CIP Lima, en asociación con la UNA, la evaluación y selección para resistencia a las enfermedades. Se han desarrollado métodos que se están usando para evaluar 324 entradas para resistencia a la pudrición negra de Java (D. gossypina) y aproximadamente 200 entradas para resistencia a la pudrición por Fusarium (F. solani). Ambos hongos se han aislado de raíces reservantes.En(:Uesta en el Perú. Se han hecho encuestas para determinar la presencia de bacterias y hongos patógenos en algunos de los principales valles costeros productores del Perú (los valles del Rímac, Chillón, Chancay y Huaura en el Depar-tamento de Lima y el valle del Río Caplina en Tacna) y en las estaciones experimentales de selva en San Ramón (Junín) y Yurimaguas (Loreto). Los parásitos facultativos fueron identificados y se probó su patogenicidad mientras que los parásitos obligados sólo fueron identificados. En San Ramón se han detectado 19 enfermedades, 12 se encontraron en 4 valles del Departamento de Lima y 4 en Y urimaguas (Tabla 3-6) La pudrición blanda (Rhizopus stolonif er ), ha sido detectada en almacenamiento en la Y arada, Valle de Caplina en Tacna. Todos los patógenos identificados fueron hongos, con excepción de la bacteria Erwinia chrysanthemi. Las encuestas se limitaron a una visita hacia el Enf ennedades del producto almacenado. Las enfermedades se estudiaron en muestras de las numerosas entradas que se mantienen en los almacenes del CIP que se tomaron después de 2 meses de almacenamiento en San Ramón, La Molina (esta última se encuentra en la lista de valles de Lima en la Tabla 3-6) y la Yarada, Tacna. El porcentaje de entradas infectadas se muestra en la Tabla 3-7. En San Ramón se ha encontrado que P. destruens (pudrición del pie) también causa enfermedad en el campo. Las enfermedades de almacenamiento fueron especialmente severas en San Ramón, donde la mayoría de las entradas fueron atacadas por pudriciones en más de 50% de sus raíces reservantes. En San Ramón, un estudiante de la UNCP-Huancayo ha hecho una comparación de 10 cultivares en campo, habiendo encontrado algunas diferencias entre cultivares en relación a la incidencia. El cultivar Japonés-Portugués (RCB64-IN) ha tenido lamayor incidencia de Cercospora sp., Paramonguino (RCB276-IN) y Amarilla de Quillabamba (RCB-173-IN) han tenido la menor incidencia de Fusarium oxysporum en raíces reservantes y en el campo, pero el último de los cultivares nombrados sufrió las mayores pérdidas durante su permanencia en el almacén debido a la pudrición blanda (R. stolonifer) y a la pudrición del pie (P. destruens ). Los cultivares Morado (RCB-3-IN), Nemañete (RCB-31-IN) y Desal (RCB-6-IN), sufrieron mayores pérdidas en almacenaje debido a la pudrición por Fusarium, pudrición carbonosa y pudrición negra de Java respectivamente.Distorsión clorótica de la hoja. Un contrato de investigación con la Universidad del Estado de Louisiana estudio la posible relación de un virus o viroide con la distorsión clorótica de la hoja de la batata (DCH). Se observó la presencia de inclusiones nucleares, pero ningún virus estuvo consistentemente asociado con la DCH. En observaciones al micros- Debido a que F. lateritium fue aislado de meristemas apicales desinfestados ( 0,5 mm a 0,8 mm) y otras partes del ápice de los brotes, se inició un estudio histológico para determinar la localización del patógeno. La microscopía electrónica de exploración (MEE) del ápice del brote ha revelado que la cúpula apical, primordio de la hoja y las hojas más jóvenes que todavía no se han abierto estaban cubiertas de una capa contínua de mucílago con micelio del hongo sobre y dentro del mismo (Figura 3-5, a y b ). Las hojas viejas no mostraban indicios de mucílago; el micelio del hongo se encontró en masas regularmente distribuidas sobre la superficie de la hoja (Figura 3-5, e). El examen de las secciones de estos tejidos al microscopio de luz indicaron la ausencia del hongo dentro de las hojas viejas; sin embargo, el hongo parece estar presente dentro del meristema apical del primordio de la hoja. La presencia de mucílago en la superficie de estos tejidos ha interferido con la infiltración e inclusión, impidiendo así la obtención de secciones útiles. El examen de los ápices del brote de mericlones libres de DCH al MEE indicó la presencia del mucílago en los ápices de brotes sanos (Figura 3-5, d).En 1988 la Sociedad Fitopatológica Americana (APS) ha publicado un compendio de las Enfermedades de la Batata. Este compendio ha sido traducido al español por el CIP, como una publicación conjunta APS/CIP y describe la distribución geográfica, síntomas, organismo causa~ ciclos de las enfermedades y el control de la mayoría de los más importantes desórdenes bióticos y abióticos.Efecto de las enfermedades viróticas sobre' el desarrollo de la batata en el Perú. Izquierda: planta sana, derecha : planta infectada de virus en forma natura!.Perfil del Plan: 1990El control de las enfermedades viróticas está basado principalmente en la prevención de la infección. Por esta razón, en el trabajo del CIP con los SNIA, el mejoramiento para \"resistencia a los principales virus de la papa es una de las medidas más efectivas de bajo costo. El mejoramiento para resistencia al virus del enrollamiento de la papa (PLRV) sólo o en combinación con inmunidad a los virus X (PVX) e Y (PVY) de la papa, es una de las principales actividades del Plan de Acción IV. En vista de que actualmente se sabe que la resistencia al PLRV tiene múltiples componentes, la búsqueda de genotipos parentales con componentes de resistencia individual facilitaría los esfuerzos para combinarlos en estados avanzados. U no de estos componentes, la antixenosis de los áfidos fue determinada en cuatro clones mantenidos en el CIP. La resistencia a la infección es otro componente importante de resistencia al PLRV. Esta resistencia puede romperse si se cultivan clones resistentes bajo condiciones de alta temperatura. Por ejemplo, de 62 clones avanzados que resistieron a la infección del PLRV después de cinco exposiciones en campo durante el invierno en lea, Perú, sólo 16 mostraron resistencia moderada a alta en verano. Estos hallazgos indican que las selecciones finales para resistencia al PLRV deben hacerse en localidades que tif~nen condiciones similares a las que tiene lea durante el verano. La resistencia a la multiplicación del virus, aunque no es común en papa cultivada, tiene dos ventajas importantes en el control de la enfermedad; reduce la severidad del enrollamiento y también reduce el potencial de inóculo en plantas que tienen este tipo de resistenc~a. Dos clones con resistencia a la multiplicación del virus, desarrollados a través de un proyecto colaborativo están actualmente disponibles como líneas parentales.Debi~o a que la variabilidad del patógeno es un factor decisivo en la estrategia de mejoramiento para resistencia, se está evaluando cuidadosamente la variabilidad del PLRV. Se us• aron anticuerpos • monoclonales para examinar los determinantes antigénicos ( epítopes ), en la cubierta proteica de la partícula del PLRV y se ha encontrado una amplia variabilidad entre 8 aislamientos del PLRV. Actualmente se están haciendo estudios de la relación entre la variabilidad serológica y la inf ectividad de varios aislamientos geográficamente diferentes del PLRV, particularmente en genotipos diferentes.La semilla libre de virus es otra medida importante de prevención para el control de enfermedades viróticas. Sin embargo, para producir materiales básicos libres de virus se necesitan métodos sensibles para la detección. Además, los métodos de detección de virus deben ser sencillos y baratos para el uso de los SNIA. La técnica serológica llamada ELÍSA es uno de los métodos que satisfacen estos requerimientos. El antisuero, uno de los reactivos más caros para el uso en ELISA puede ahora producirse en varios SNIA mediante el asesoramiento y capacitación que presta el CIP. Para facilitar este proceso, están en marcha los estudios de la producción de anticuerpos de virus (anti-idiotipos), comenzando de una pequeña provisión de anticuerpos previamente producidos, en vez de virus purificado.Para incrementar el conjunto de métodos de detección de virus y viroides en el CIP se han desarrollado secuencias complementarias de ácido nucleico para 8 viroides y 6 virus, los cuales se encuentran disponibles para usarlos como sondas ADN yARN.La investigación sobre virus de batata incluye el trabajo para detectar e identificar virus, así como también la búsqueda de genes de resistencia al virus del moteado plumoso. de la batata (SPFMV), el virus más importante que ataca a este cultivo. Antisueros y equipos de detección para los principales virus se encuentran actualmente disponibles para su distribución a los SNIA. Un virus desconocido (nombrecódigo C-2) que se trasmite mecánicamente y que se ha encontrado en la colección del germoplasma ha sido identificado y parcialmente caracterizado. Varios otros virus se están caracterizando actualmente.En la colección de germoplasma del CIP se han encontrado 13 entradas resistentes a repetidas inoculaciones por injerto al SPFMV; estas representan la mejor fuente . disponible de resistencia a este virus.Resistencia a los Virus Algunas entradas de la colección de germoplasma del CIP tienen genes para resistencia a los virus y se han desarrollado técnicas virológicas sensibles para detectar la presencia de virus. Usando estos dos elementos básicos el CIP ha desarrollado genotipos inmunes al PVX y al PVY.Estudios previos han demostrado que la resistencia genética al PLRV es más complicada que la del PVX o PVY, debido a la naturaleza multifactorial de esta resistencia y su profunda dependencia de factores ambientales.102PLRV. La resistencia a la multiplicación de los virus en las plantas, es uno de los componentes más importantes de resistencia al PLRV. El nivel de este tipo de resistencia puede evaluarse solamente determinando la concentración del virus en el tejido de la planta a diferentes intervalos después de la inoculación y el índice de infección de los tubérculos progenies en plantas inoculadas. Dos clones avanzados ( G-7461-1 y G-7445-1), en los que existe evidencia de la presencia de genes de resistencia a la multiplicación del virus, fueron parte de la investigación colaborativa con el Instituto Escocés de Investigación de Cultivos. Las inoculaciones preliminares con 9 aislamientos del PLRV geográficamente diferentes indicó que estos clones sólo se infectaron con el aislamiento 01 del Perú y a nivel bajo, por un aislamiento de Nepal. Sin embargo, las plantas infectadas mostraron solamente pequeñas cantidades de virus en el tejido foliar. Estos resultados indican que los clones G-7461-1 y G-7445-1 tienen genes de resistencia a la multiplicación del virus así como también resistencia probable a la infección. Estos clones pueden ser usados como progenitores en los proyectos de mejoramiento del CIP y se van a hacer estudios sobre el índice de infección en los tubérculos progenies.A pesar de las dificultades encontradas para mantener sanas las colonias de áfidos para estos estudios, se ha encontrado un alto nivel de antixenosis en los clones del CIP 703314, CIP 703319, F-3 y el cultivar Compis. Se volvió a confirmar en la antibiosis Solanum neocardenassii.Evaluación y selección para resistencia al PLRV. Un total de 112 clones de la colección de prueba para presencia de patógenos del CIP, se evaluó y seleccionó para resistencia al PLRV bajo condiciones de campo durante el cultivo de invierno en ICA, Perú. Sólo dos clones, G-4 y Monserrate, mostraron un nivel alto de resistencia a la infección por PLRV. Otro grupo de clones de la lista de prueba para presencia de patógenos, que previamente mostraron resistencia a la infección del PLRV bajo condiciones de invernadero, se está exponiendo a la infección del PLRV en el campo, en una prueba para determinar la estabilidad de la resistencia. Este experimento se está realizando en colaboración con la Universidad San Luis Gonzaga de lea, Perú. Durante la campaña agrícola de invierno se midió la población de áfidos sobre plantas y en trampas amarillas Moericke, habiéndose encontrado un número moderado hasta las 6 semanas después de la siembra (35 a 150 áfidos alados por semana). Sin embargo la cantidad fue baja (5-18 áfidos alados por semana) durante el resto del período de cultivo hasta el momento de la cosecha.Durante el cultivo de invierno en lea se encontraron 62 clones avanzados que resistieron la infección después de 5 exposiciones de campo. Después de exponer estos clones a la infección del PLR V, durante el verano (temperatura de 22ºC y 38°C), en la misma localidad, sólo se seleccionaron 16 como moderadamente resistentes y resistentes a la infección (Tabla 4-1). Este deterioro de la resistencia bajo regímenes de temperatura alta también se ha notado en experimentos de campo realizado por un contrato de investigación en Polonia (Instituto de Investigación en papa, Mlochow). Tales resultados son importantes, porque el objetivo de la investigación del CIP es desarrollar genotipos que puedan usarse en clima cálido.La combinación de resistencias a virus (PVX, PVY y PLRV), con resistencia a otros agentes patogénicos es un objetivo clave de investigación, porque la resistencia a un solo virus no es suficiente para el buen comportamiento de un genotipo en condiciones de campo. Esta clase deTabla 4--1. Algunas característicasª de clones seleccionados para resistencia al PLRV después de 5 pruebas de exposición de campo en lea, Perú. ªLA= Altamente resistente (R) o moderadamente resistente (M). GE= gravedad específica g/cm 3 . MS = materia seca en porcentaje. AR= azúcares reductores usando una escala arbitraria de 1 (mínimo) a 5 (m~imo). El rendimiento se expresa en gramos por planta.combinación es especialmente importante para aquella resistencia que se rompe en los genotipos susceptibles al PVXoalPVY.En La Molina se han evaluado las características agronómicas de 37 familias proveniente de cruzamientos entre clones resistentes al PLR V y clones resistentes al PVX y al PVY. De estos se seleccionaron 17 familias (Tabla 4-2) que mostraron la proporción de segregación esperada, para exportarlas a otros países para su evaluación de campo y selección. combinar inmunidades al PVX y PVY con resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana (Pseudomonas solanacearnm) y al tizón temprano (A.ltemaria sp.) El objetivo es tener genotipos con todas estas resistencias para ponerlas a disposición de los SNIA dentro de los próximos 5 años.Variabilidad del PLRV. El estudio de la variabilidad de los virus es esencial para la producción de genotipos resistentes, por lo que el CIP ha hecho estudios extensos sobre la variabilidad del PVX y PVY. Los estudios actuales están concentrados en la variabilidad del PLRV y los aislamientos con que se cuenta en el CIP se están estudiando para comparar la infectividad y sintomatología producida en hospedantes selectos, incluyendo Nicotiana benthamiana, N. c/evelandii, Datura stramonium, Gomphrena globosa, Physa/is floridana y Lycopersicon esculentum. No se ha encontrado diferencia significativa estre estos aislamientos, lo cual indica que la variabilidad en la infectividad del PLR V no se puede usar como un criterio para la clasificación de las variantes de este virus.Se han examinado las diferencias inmunológicas entre los aislamientos del PLRV usando varios anticuerpos monoclonales derivados de un aislamiento Británico, producido en colaboración con el Instituto Escocés de Investigación en Cultivos. Se hicieron pruebas de ELISA y las reacciones del color fueron cuantificadas para determinar los valores de absorbancia en un colorímetro de ELISA. En estos estudios se asignó un valor de 10 a los índices más altos de absorbancia y los siguientes valores se calcularon en relación con este valor. La Tabla 4-3 muestra los resultados, los mismos que sugieren que la variabilidad del isótopo en las partículas del PLR V varía enormemente entre los aislamientos de este virus. En base a estos resultados, los aislamientos del PLRV del CIP pueden agruparse en tres serogrupos: el Grupo 1 incluye los aislamientos provenientes de Corea, El Salvador y Perú. El Grupo 2 incluye aislamientos de China, Kenya, Uruguay y Gran Bretaña; sin embargo, el aislamiento de China fue marcadamente diferente a los otros aislamientos de este grupo en su reacción al PM-10 monoclonal. El Grupo 3 está representado por el aislamiento 10 de los Andes peruanos. La detección serológica o la identificación del PLR V pueden mejorarse pmduciendo antisuero específico para cada serogrupoy luego combinando varios antisueros para obtener un sistema de detección de amplio espectro (detección polivalente).Técnica para la Diagnosis de Infección de Virus y Viroide con NCM-ELISA La prueba NCM-ELISA es la preferida para la detección serológica de virus por su sensibilidad y facilidad de uso. Sin embargo, la técnica se vuelve tan cara como la DAS-ELISA cuando todos los materiales y reactivos se obtienen de laboratorios comerciales que se encuentran fuera de los países del tercer mundo. Se han hecho intentos para reducir los costos, explorando el uso de materiales que se pueden adquirir localmente. El conjugado cabra-anti-conejo y la membrana de nitrocelulosa (NC), son los artículos más caros de la prueba; sin embargo, se han desarrollado actualmente métodos para producir conjugados cabra-anti-conejo en cada laboratorio, inyectando cabras con gama globulina purificada de conejo (IgG) y luego conjugando los anticuerpos obtenidos con fosfatasa alcalina. Este conjugado muestra la misma sensibilidad de los conjugados comerciales a mitad del costo.El NCM-ELISA ha servido para detectar todos los virus de papa con excepción del PLR V que es difícil, debido a la deficiente adherencia de las partículas de este virus a la membrana de NC. La adherencia de las partículas del PLRV a las membranas de NC se ha mejorado a través del uso de soluciones especiales (bufer de 0,2M Tris-borato, DIECA y 106 EDTA). Esta solución se usa para extraer muestras, las que luego se clarifican con cloroformo. Estas medidas ayudan a aumentar la efectividad de la prueba NCM-ELISA.Investigación sobre anticuerpos idiotipicos. La tecnología idiotípica es potencialmente útil para reproducir rápidamente grandes cantidades de anticuerpos específicos para los virus o para reproducir anticuerpos para un conjunto de antígenos. Esta nueva tecnología está diseñada para producir anticuerpos (anti-idiotipos), contra anticuerpos específicos de un virus (idiotipos ), así como también, anticuerpos contra idiotipos, sin necesidad de usar antígeno (virus purificado).Continuando con la alentadora investigación iniciada el año pasado, se han hecho estudios adicionales sobre anticuerpos idiotípicos y se ha estandariz.ado la terminología usada en este tipo de investigación. En el trabajo del CIP, los anticuerpos Ab-1 son idiotípicos o anticuerpos específicos de virus. Estos anticuerpos son de orígen monoclonal o policlonal. Los anticuerpos Ab-2 son anti-idiotípicos intermedios, producidos en un animal inyectado con Ab-1. En una prueba serológica, los anticuerpos Ab-2 imitan la reacción del antígeno del virus original. Los anticuerpos Ab-3 son anticuerpos anti-anti-idiotípicos producidos de inyectar un animal con Ab-2. En teoría, las reacciones de los anticuerpos Ab-3 y Ab-1 deberían ser similares a las producidas por el antígeno del virus.Se producen anticuerpos Ab-3 para varios virus, con mayor énfasis para el PLRV. Los resultados iniciales indican que los anticuerpos Ab-3 producidos tienen la misma reactividad que los anticuerpos PLR V Ab-1 de origen monoclonal.Para producir anticuerpos de Ab-3 se han examinado varias fuentes de anticuerpos PLRV Ab-1 {Figura 4-1). Sin embargo, independientemente de estas fuentes, todos los anticuerpos producidos de PLR V Ab-3, también mostraron un grado variable de reacción con el PVX y PVY. Una mezcla de fluidos de las células de bazo, provenientes de ratones inmunizados conteniendo anticuerpos PLR V Ab-1 produjeron anticuerpos Ab-3, en los que las pruebas de ELISA detectaron evidentemente al PLR V y casi no hubo reacción frente al PVX y PVS. Se están haciendo estudios detallados sobre el origen de las reacciones cruzadas con otros virus y sobre el uso de la misma especie de animal para la producción de Ab-2 y Ab-3 (singénico) y el PLRv' en savia 1/10 crudaPurificada 1 /50 SANA 1/10 1/100 uso de diferentes especies de animales (animal xenogénicos) en el proceso.ARN viral de doble hebra. El ARN de doble hebra ( ds-RNA) es producido en las plantas cuando se infectan con el ARN de un ~us. El tamaño y número de bandas ds-RNA en electroforesis son específicas para grupos de virus y tienen valor de diagnóstico, es así que la tecnología de ds-RNA se puede usar para detectar virus RNA conocidos y desconocidos y puede ser especialmente útil en estudios sobre batata, debido a que varios virus en esta especie no han sido identificados. Además, la capacidad para extraer ARN no genómico, específico del virus, proporciona una excelente herramienta para estudios virológicos.Se esta progresando en la investigación que se realiza para extraer s-RNA de virus del grupo luteovirus usando un procedimiento simplicado que ha desa- Figura 4-2. Electroforesis en gel de agarosa de ds-RNA de 1) PVX, 2) PLRV, y 3) marcadores DNA.rrollado el CIP, el cual emplea potex y luteovirus como modelos (Figura 4.2). Se están haciendo estudios más amplios para comparar el ARN de diferentes aislamientos del PLRV y de otros virus.Sondas de ácido nucleico. Las sondas de ácido nucleico para la detección de viroides ha sido preparada en colaboración con el Centro de Investigación Agrícola de Beltsville, Maryland, EE.UU. (Tabla 4-4). Estas sondas se usan para 108 detectar los agentes en papa, batata y otros hospedantes, así como para determinar las relaciones entre los virus o viioides. La investigación se ha concentrado en el análisis e identificación de clones virales cDNA. Alrededor de 30 diferentes secuencias de cDNA PLRV que varían entre 100 a 1200 bp se pueden usar para detectar el PLRV y con una sonda de 800 bp de largo se puede detectar PLRV en una dilución hasta de 1/1 000 de savia clarificada (Figura 4-3). Sin embargo, se ha encontrado que la concentración de los viriones del PLRV es extremadamente variable en plantas infectadas del mismo cultivar.Debido a que la selección de una sola secuencia de cDNA puede producir una sonda que no sea demasiado específica (índice estrecho de detección), es conveniente seleccionar el mayor número de secuencias de cDNA que pue-dan hibridar a un virus en particular. De esta manera se puede reconstruir una sonda de amplio espectro, o se pueden usar mezclas de secuencias específicas para detectar todas las variantes del virus. Por otra parte, las secuencias altamente específicas son extremadamente valiosas para la diferenciación y caracterización de las variantes. Por esta razón se dispone de un conjunto de 25 sondas para la detección del PVY.  Experimentos donde se combinan varias sondas para virus y viroides, en la misma mezcla de hibridación han revelado que no existe interferencia en la detección de virus o viroides individuales. Estos resultados sugierenLa investigación sobre batata ha enfocado el mejoramiento de la metodología de detección, identificación de los virus y agentes relacionados y la búsqueda de resistencia genética a los virus más importantes. Detección de virus. Actualmente se puede utilizar el método NCM ELISA para detectar el virus del moteado plumoso de la batata (SPFMV), el virus del moteado suave (SPMMV) y el virus latente (SPL V), usando antisuero desarrollado en el CIP y en la Universidad de Carolina del Norte, Raleigh, NC.Se han desarrollado sondas de ácido nucleico para la detección de SPFMV y en comparación con ELISA, el procedimiento tiene la ventaja de detectar el virus en las plantas infectadas, mucho antes de que se desarrollen los síntomas.La detección de virus en las entradas que se van a incluir en la lista de prueba para presencia de patógenos sigue un protocolo que incluye la aplicación de varias pruebás biológicas (serología y NASH), e inoculaciones por injerto a Ipomoea setosa e L nil. El componente trasmitido por mosca blanca (MB ), de la enfermedad virótica de la batata se detecta por medio de inoculación por injerto en el don TIB 8 que ha sido previamente infectado con la variante que tales combinaciones de sondas pueden usarse con un método polivalente, cuando es importante conocer si las muestras están infectadas, pero el uso en este caso se está evaluando actualmente.RC del SPFMV. La enfermedad sinergística causada por el SPFMV y MB sobre TIB 8 se usa como una indicación de la presencia de MB. Está en proceso la investigación encaminada a mejorar este engorroso procedimiento.Se están distribuyendo a los SNIA, los equipos NCM-ELISA para detectar SPFMV, SPMV y SPL V.Estudios sobre resistencia a los virus. La búsqueda de resistencia a los virus continúa en colaboración con el Centro Volcani de Israel. Usando el procedimiento que se muestra en la Figura 4-4, 13 clones demostraron tener aparente inmunidad al SPFMV. Sin embargo, se detectó el virus en el ápice de algunas de estas plantas cuando se injertaron con plumas de L setosa infectada.Tales plantas podrían ser verdaderamente inmunes, con el virus que se mueve pasivamente hacia las plantas a partir de las plumas infectadas. Para confirmar estos resultados iniciales, se extrajeron esquejes de las plantas inoculadas por injerto que se van a probar para presencia del SPFMV cuando maduren. Estos clones representan actualmente el material más resistente al SPFMV con que se dispone y se están examinando para reacción a otros virus de la batata, como el virus del moteado suave (SPMMV), virus latente (SPL V) y los virus C-2.Figura 4-5. Sección ultrafina de la célula acompañante del floema de /. ni/ infectada con el aislamiento C-4. Se observan partículas isométricas entre las membranas de los cloroplastos. C = cloroplastos; S = grano de almidón; V = partículas de virus. La barra representa 500 nm.Identificación y caracterización de virus. La investigación para determinar los virus que afectan a la batata se encuentra en marcha, con el objeto de prevenir la inadvertida diseminación y ayudar a eliminar los virus.V arios aislamientos de virus aparentemente desconocidos han sido identificados, habiéndose encontrado que los aislamientos G-2 y C-5 son serológica-112 mente relacionados a los virus previamente reportados como el SPVC-S en Japón. Se ha producido un antisuero para el C-2, el mismo que se está usando para estudiar la relación con los virus previamente reportados en batata. Los aislamientos C-2 y C-5 tienen partículas alargadas (entre 750 y 900 nm), siendo el C-5 el que tiene las partículas más largas (largo modal entre 800 a 900 nm).El C-3 tiene aparentemente partículas bacilif ormes, mientras que el C-4 tiene sus partículas isométricas, las mismas que se encuentran entre los cloroplastos, en las secciones delgadas que se han analizado al microscopio electrónico (Figura 4-5). El aislamiento C-7 induce amarillamiento, necrosis y caída de las hojas basales y enanismo en l. ni/. Este virus también infecta Nicotiana clevelandi y Gomphrena globosa, causando deformación y enanismo de las plantas infectadas. El C-7 ha sido experimentalmente trasmitido por la mosca blanca (Bemisia tabaci) y también a través de semilla sexual de l. ni/ infectada.Exudado del tricoma glandular acumulado sobre el cuerpo, setas y tarso del ácaró arañita roja (Tetranychus urticae), tal como se observa al microscopio electrónico de exploración (X 442).La investigación del Plan de Acción se centra en la identificación y el uso de germoplasma resistente, agentes de control biológico y otros métodos en los que no se usan pesticidas, con el objeto de desarrollar los componentes apropiados para el control integrado de las plagas de la papa y la batata. El programa de mejoramiento contra el nematodo del quiste de la papa (NOP), ha identificado 20 clones avanzados, incluyendo al don G86056.8 el cual tuvo un rendimiento de 2,86 kg'planta y el G86147.9 que produjo 2,70 kg'planta. Se han enviado a Pakistán, Ecuador, México, Colombia, Holanda, Alemania, Francia y Nueva Zelandia varios clones avanzados, familias de tubérculos y semilla sexual con resistencia al NQP para evaluación en campo y su uso en mejoramiento. En Ecuador se han seleccionado los clones J16-10 y G 1-6 para su liberación. Un total de 52 clones han sido seleccionados en Ecuador para evaluaciones adicionales. La resistencia al NQP, identificada en S. andigena, ha sido transferida a otro material adaptado. Se han seleccionado clones con resistencia combinada al NQP, tizón tardío y virus. Los metabolitos extraídos de la corteza de Uncaria tomentosa y Lonchocarpus sp. fueron tóxicos al NQP bajo condiciones de laboratorio.Se ha identificado resistencia al nematodo del nódulo de la raíz (NNR) en varias progenies de papa a nivel diploide y tetraploide. También se han identificado fuentes adicionales de resistencia en S. multidissectum, S. bukasovii, S. canasense y S. gourlayi. El hongo Paecilomyces lilacinus tuvo un efecto residual para el control del NN en el cultivo de batata y en Filipinas, este hongo fue efectivo para el control del NQP y el NN. Los experimentos sobre rotación de cultivos en Burundi identificaron la ¿ecuencia más efectiva para controlar el NN. En el Perú se estudió la importancia económica del nematodo de la lesión, Pratylenchus spp. y se identificó al P. flakkensis como el más importante. También se han identificado varias nuevas formas de resistencia al NN en batata. Se estudiaron los patrones de proteína del falso nematodo del nódulo, Naccobus abe\"ans, para ayudar en la identificación de las poblaciones. Esta técnica es útil para identificar las razas de este nematodo. Se estudió la incidencia de un nuevo nematodo que causa daños en papa y se ha documentado la naturaleza de los daños en el tejido radicular. Están en ejecución trabajos más amplios para determinar la ~ importancia del impacto de este nematodo en papa.Siete clones con densidades altas de tricomas glandulares tipos A y B se seleccionaron para resistencia a la Polilla del Tubérculo de la Papa (PTP) y se confirmó esta resistencia en material que se había seleccionado anteriormente. El virus de la granulosis fue efectivo después de 6 meses, cuando se almacenó papa a temperaturas de 21C .± 2,5C; sin embargo, también fue efectivo el tratamiento con talco solo. El insecticida biológico Bacillus thuringiensis (BT), aplicado como polvo, proporcionó buena protección en tubérculos almacenados. En Colombia se desarrollaron técnicas mejoradas para crianza masiva del parasitoide de la PTP Chelonus phthorimaea. En Egipto y Túnez se encontró efectivo el uso del virus de la granulosis (VG) y el BT en el almacenamiento. Estos componentes se están usando actualmente en el manejo integrado de plagas. En Colombia, Perú, Burundi y Etiopía se estudió la incidencia estacional de la PTP usando trampas con feromonas. Se identificaron las mayores capturas de PTP para determinar la época oportuna de aplicación de las medidas de control.Para resistencia a la mosca minadora de la hoja se han seleccionado 11 clones adicionales. En otros estudios se identificaron clones resistentes al gorgojo de los Andes Premnotrypes suturicallus, trips, 1hrips palmi y los ácaros, Tetranychus urticae y Polyphagotarsonemus latus. El hongo Beauveria sp. se mostró efectivo en el control del gorgojo de los Andes. Se identificaron enemigos naturales y una gama de hospedantes de trips y ácaros que atacan a la papa en las zonas bajas de Filipinas. Se seleccionaron clones de batata con resistencia al gorgojo de la batata de las Indias Occidentales Euscepes postf asciatus. En pruebas de invernadero, el hongo Beauveria fue efectivo para el control de esta plaga en sus estados de larva pupa y adulto.Nematodo del Quiste de la Papa Los objetivos del Plan de Acción para el estudio del nematodo del quiste de la papa (NQP) son 1) desarrollar material avanzado para selección varietal y material parental con resistencia al NQP Globodera pal/ida, con un principal énfasis en los pa,íses andinos y secundariamente sobre adaptación a las zonas altas tropicales no tradicionales, 2) ampliar la base de resistencia a través de la utilización de especies cultivadas y silvestres y 3) combinar la resistencia al NQP con resistencia a virus, tolerancia a las heladas y al tizón tardío.Evaluación y Selección para el Mejoramiento de la Resistencia Ciento cincuenta clones avanzados, desarrollados por los mejoradores a partir de poblaciones G86 y G85B, se probaron 116 en suelos infestados en Huancayo y 63 se seleccionaron y enviaron a Huamachuco, Cusco y Puno, Perú, para pruebas regionales. De estos clones, 20 superaron en rendimiento a los dos cultivares usados como testigos. Los mejores clones fueron G86056.8 con 2,86 kglplanta y G86147.9 con 2,70 kglplanta. Los testigos fueron María Huanca (1,94 kg) y Tomasa Condemayta (1,54 kgl planta). Los rendimientos mejoraron marcadamente, pero hubo una disminución de la resistencia a las razas P4A y P5A, lo que indica la necesidad de estudiar estas r~s y escoger las más apropiadas para la evaluación y selección en el programa de mejoramiento.Se identificaron altas frecuencias de las razas P4A y P5A. La resistencia a la raza P4A se evaluó en los clones G86 y G85B usando macetas, platos de petri y pruebas de campo. Los resultados de las pruebas de maceta y de campo correlacionaron bien. Sin embargo, numerosos clones que se encontraron resistentes en maceta fueron susceptibles en las pruebas de platos de petri. Estos resultados sugieren la necesidad de estudiar un posible segundo mecanismo para resistencia, relacionado con el de la eclosión de larvas e invasión que se seleccionó para la prueba en maceta.Se enviaron clones avanzados, progenies de tubérculos y semilla sexual a los programas nacionales de Pakistán, Ecuador; Bolivia, México, Colombia, Holanda, Alemania, Francia y Nueva Zelandia. En Ecuador se ha recomendado la liberación de 5 clones, con el clon 13-34 (CIP 279023.3), entre los de mejor rendimiento y resistencia. Sin embargo, el don J16-10 que es originario del CIP (377744.2 x Bulk LB) y el don GI-6 están considerados también para su liberación como cultivares. Hay 17 selecciones de la remesa de 1988 en pruebas de rendimiento y 35 de remesas anteriores. La mayoría de los genotipos han sido descartados por su susceptibilidad al tizón tardío. Para resolver este problema, el actual trabajo de mejoramiento está tratando de combinar la resistencia al NQP con la resistencia al tizón tardío.En Huancayo se hicieron más de 400 cruzamientos usando material resistente al NQP previamente identificado. Un total de 200 progenies se identificaron en evaluación y selección masiva de plántulas, donde 149 se clasificaron como resistentes a G/obodera pal/ida. Diez clones nuevos de S. andigena que calificaron como resistentes fueron autocruzados, intercruzados y entrecruzados con 1-1039, 1-1035 y G3 para evaluar la herencia y resistencia en estas fuentes potenciales de resistencia. El rendimiento promedio fue de 1,64 kg/planta y se seleccionaron 1,6 kglplanta y en Cajamarca, 9 clones con rendimiento promedio de 0,78 kg/ planta. En Huancayo se seleccionaron 60 clones para resistencia al NQP y tizón tardío y 9 en Cajamarca. De los clones en Huancayo se encontraron 21 susceptibles a la raza P4A, pero resistentes a la PSA; 17 fueron resistentes a P4A pero susceptibles a P5A y 22 fueron resistentes a ambas razas. Estos resultados indican que existen genes acumulados para resistencia a P4A y PSA que pueden usarse efectivamente para combinar la resistencia al NQP con otras características porque la herencia de resistencia doble es relativamente alta. Se está investigando la mejor estrategia para combinar estas resistencias. Se han hecho estu-Los principales objetivos de nuestra investigación sobre el nematodo del nódulo radicular son 1) evaluación y selección para utilizar la resistencia a Meloidogyne incognita y 2) identificar los componentes del manejo integrado del nematodo del nódulo y su interrelación con otros organismos.Evaluación y Selección para la Utilización de Resistencia alNN en Papa Se probó un total de 2 670 clones que representaron 33 progenies producidas por cruzamiento de 5 clones femeninos resistentes aMeloidogyne con 4 resistentes 2x, 2 clones susceptibles 2x y un don susceptible 4x. Se encontraron pocas progenies resistentes. Se hicieron otras pruebas de resistencia de 2 580 plántulas representando 35 progenies de cruzamientos 4x-2x y 1 990 plántulas representando 9 progenies de cruzamientos 118 dios del NQP en relación a la actividad nematicida de metabolitos extraídos de la corteza de Uncaria tomentosa y de hojas y tallos de Nerium oleander del Perú y del follaje de Lonchocarpus sp. de Filipinas. Extractos diluidos acuosos y etanol de U. tomentosa resultaron tóxicos a G. pal/ida después de 24 horas, mientras que los extractos acuosos y cloroformo de Lonchocarpus sp. resultaron tóxicos a los nematodos 48 horas después de su exposición. Los extractos de Nerium oleander no fueron tóxicos. Se están planificando experimentos adicionales en el campo. En caso de ser efectivos estos tratamientos, reducirían significativamente el uso de nematicidas tóxicos.4x, los cuales se desarrollaron cruzando material resistente previamente seleccionado con el obtenido para adaptación a la zona tropical húmeda. La frecuencia de genotipos resistentes segregantes en estos cruzamientos fue también más baja de lo que se esperaba. Sin embargo, en otros estudios que incluyeron progenies de cruzamientos 4x-2x se identificó un alto nivel de resistencia al NN.Al volverse a probar la reacción de 743 clones previamente seleccionados (97 clones de cruzamientos 2x, 213 de 4x-2x y 433 de 4x a M. incognita ), la menor incidencia de resistencia se notó en los clones de cruzamiento 2x. Aunque los clones de cruzamientos 4x-2x retuvieron su alto nivel de resistencia, muchos clones provenientes de los cruzamientos 4x también mostraron un buen grado de resistencia.Un total de 81 clones resistentes al NN desarrollados por cruzamientos 4x-2x de progenitores femeninos susceptible y masculinos resistentes se volvieron a probar para confirmar la resistencia. Las temperaturas en estas pruebas fueron 4C a 6C más altas que en las pruebas previas y la mayoría de los genotipos fueron susceptibles con esta mayor temperatura. Estos resultados sugieren la necesidad de estandarizar los regímenes de temperatura durante el proceso de evaluación y selección (ver Tabla 5-1 para condiciones de temperaturas y reacciones de las plantas). Se han encontrado fuentes adicionales de resistencia en 5 clones 2x con Solanum multidissectum, S. bukasovii, S. canasense y S. gourlay~ ampliando así la base genética de la población 2x usada en el programa de mejoramiento.En parcelas aisladas de campo, sembradas con papa como primer cultivo, en lea, se estudiaron los efectos de los siguientes• tratamientos antes de la siembra: una aplicación de Paecilomyces lilacinus a 2x1014 esporas/ha; de materia orgánica (guano de ave de corral) a 6 t/ha y de Aldicarb a 1,5 kg de i.a./ha y 3 kg de i.a./ha cuando se usó solo o en combinación. El estudio también investigó el efecto residual de estos tratamientos sobre batatas sembradas como segundo cultivo. Aunque los rendimientos de papa en las parcelas tratadas fueron mayores que en las parcelas testigos; las diferencias no fueron significativas. Para lamayoría de los tratamientos en batata los rendimientos del cv. Nemañete resistente a Meloidogyne fueron generalmente más significativos que los de las parcelas testigos. No se notaron diferencias en las poblaciones del nematodo con todos los tratamientos cuando se midieron inmediatamente después de la cosecha de cada cultivo; sin embargo, la población del nematodo durante la cosecha de batata fue significativamente más baja que la población inicial y que la que se encontró después de la cosecha de papa. Cuando se usó el programa de manejo integrado para el control del NN, la resistencia de cultivares de batata, en combinación con otros tratamientos empleados en este estudio van a reducir más las poblaciones del nematodo. Una sola aplicación de cualquiera de estos componentes, al inicio del primer cultivo dio como resultado un efecto residual que contribuyó al incremento del rendimiento en el segundo cultivo. Las observaciones de los efectos de estos tratamientos en el tercer cultivo (papa), indicaron un patrón general de disminución de la población del nematodo, lo cual en parte puede ser atribuido al uso de un cultivo de rotación altamente resistente (batata cv. Nemañete).Se hicieron evaluaciones de los efectos de 50 aislamientos de Rhizobacterias promotoras del crecimiento, sobre el desarrollo de la planta de papa y como control del NN. Aunque los metabolitos de todos estos aislamientos fueron tóxicos a M. incognita bajo condiciones de laboratorio, no fueron efectivos cuando se aplicaron al suelo. Todos los aislamientos bacterianos (en el invernadero), aumentaron el crecimiento de las plantas, a pesar de la infección con el nematodo y algunos ejercieron control del mismo. La mayoría de los aislamientos bacterianos mostraron algún efecto residual mientras persistieron en el suelo; promovieron un mejor crecimiento del siguiente cultivo que en los testigos no inoculados. Se evaluó la actividad nematicida de 16 especies de hongos, aislados de quistes del NQP sobre M. incognita, G. pal/ida y Naccobus abe\"ans. Estos metabolitos fueron muy efectivos para matar juveniles de G. pal/ida, sin embargo, no tuvieron efecto en el control del NN y sólo los metabolitos de 3 hongos mataron el 90% de N. abe\"ans. Los datos obtenidos sugieren alguna especificidad en la actividad biocontroladora de los hongos aislados de quistes de G. pal/ida. Se necesita hacer mayores estudios para identificar a los organismos que producen metabolitos con actividad de amplio espectro contra varios géneros de nematodos. 120 La influencia de la rotación de cultivos en el control de NN ha sido estudiada en Gisozi, Burundi. Los mejores resultados se han obtenido con Panicum maximum como cultivo precedente seguido de sorgo y finalmente Setaria sp. y Triticum sp. Estos cultivos reducen la población del NN en el suelo.El nematodo del nódulo (NN) M. incognita es una plaga muy importante de la batata, en muchos lugares tropicales cálidos. Se evaluó un total de 54 clones de la colección del germoplasma debatata para resistencia a M. incognita, y se identificaron 8 clones resistentes y 4 moderadamente resistentes. En San Ramón se probaron 140 clones de segunda generación: se encontró un clon altamente resistente y 29 resistentes.Se probaron plántulas de 1113 genotipos provenientes de 11 progenies y se encontraron 76 altamente resistentes y 106 resistentes.El material previamente seleccionado en una prueba de plántulas, se volvió a probar y 22 de 32 clones probados retuvieron su alto grado de resistencia, mientras que 7 de 14 calificaron como resistentes en esta nueva prueba. Las temperaturas más altas del invernadero cuando se volvieron a probar ( 4C a 6C mayor que en la prueba inicial), pueden ser la causa de esta pérdida de resistencia. No obstante, los resultados de las dos pruebas anteriormente descritas indican que el método de evaluación y selección de plán,tulas es eficiente. Se probó la resistencia de 131 clones de Ipomoea trífida en otra prueba de evaluación y sel~cción y se identificaron 57 clones altan;_ente resistentes y 43 resistentes.Se han realizado evaluaciones sobre la distribución de Praty/enchus spp. en el • Perú y se estudiaron los métodos de manejo. Se colectaron un total de 174 raíces y muestras de suelo en La Libertad, Ancash, Lima, lea, Cerro de Paseo, Junín, Huánuco, Ayacucho, Cusco y Puno. Todo este material se analizó para detectar Pratylenchus spp. y se encontraron los siguientes porcentajes: P. flakkensis ( 46% ), P. penetrans (20%) P. brachyu.rus (12%), P. scribneri (2%), P. zeae (8%),P. coffeae (15%) y P. crenatus (3,5%). También se encontraron pequeños porcentajes de P. andinus, P. macrosty/us, P. neglectus y P. vu/nus. De 50 especies vegetales probadas, todas las Chenopodiaceae, Liliaceae, Tropaelaceae y Umbelif eraceae fueron resistentes. Las especies Chenopodium ambrosioides, Tagetes minuta y Tagetes patula fueron resistentes y antagonistas a P. flakkensis. En la costa peruana, la batata, algodón, arvejas y frijoles fueron efectivos en los estudios de rotación de cultivos y en las zonas altas de los Andes se identificaron a la avena, cebada,La investigación en este aspecto tiene como objetivo identificar los componentes útiles de control para adoptar una estrategia en el manejo integrado de lupino y trigo como cultivos útiles de rotación para reducir la población de este nematodo.Se estudiaron los patrones de proteína para identificar razas del falso nematodo del nudo Naccobus aben-ans. Estudios electroforéticos indicaron que no existen diferencias en los patrones de proteína de estos nematodos cuando se crían en raíces de papa o tomate. Sin embargo, los patrones de proteína fueron diferentes entre las poblaciones colectadas en diversas regiones del Perú. Se han desarrollado métodos de extracción e inoculación para este nematodo. También está en estudio la taxonomía de un nematodo fitoparásito nuevo de papa en el Perú. El examen de secciones de raíces han revelado que este nematodo penetra y se desplaza inter e intracelularmente a lo largo del eje, en el tejido cortical, paralelamente a la región estelar. La necrosis estuvo generalmente limitada a las células adyacentes al nematodo. La identificación de este nuevo nematodo está en proceso. plagas (MIP), tendiente a reducir los daños causados por los principales insectos y ácaros que infestan papa y batata.La Polilla del Tubérculo de la Papa (Pf P)En una prueba inicial, tubérculos de 65 clones avanzados con densidades altas de tricomas glandulares del tipo A (con de estos clones como resistentes. De los siete, los clones T86H735,8, T86H748,3 y TA14,6 mostraron niveles altos de antibiosis. En un segundo experimento, se realizaron pruebas de laboratorio y almacén para reconfirmar la resistencia en 190 clones provenientes de las poblaciones P82, P83, P85, OCH6579, en híbridos seleccionados para resistencia a la población Australiana P87, en clones seleccionados para la población de PTP Colombiana y en clones con altas densidades de tricomas glandulares. El énfasis estuvo dirigido a la identificación de clones con densidades altas de tricomas glandulares y resistencia del tubérculo a la polilla. En pruebas de laboratorio se seleccionaron 32 clones como resistentes. En pruebas de almacén se seleccionaron 79 clones como moderadamente resistentes (Tabla 5-2).Esta población tiene una resistencia de ancha base a las poblaciones de PTP de Australia, Colombia y Perú. En una tercera prueba, se evaluaron 401 clones seleccionados en el campo de la segunda generación clonal P87 en almacén en San Ramón y 75% fue seleccionado para resistencia. Este alto nivel de segregación para resistencia, refleja un avance sustancial en el programa de mejoramiento. La resistencia se ha incrementado actualmente mediante una cuidadosa selección y la mayoría de los clones seleccionados son de rendimientos altos, con un promedio de más de 1 kg/planta. Los progenitores P85072,3 y P85072,4 mostraron la mayor habilidad para trasmitir resistencia.La resistencia a nivel diploide fue estudiada en 111 clones, de los cuales se seleccionaron 16 como resistentes. En  Colombia, las pruebas se hicieron con clones de papa obtenidos de la Universidad de Cornell y de los mejoradores del CIP. El empupado en algunos de estos clones fue sumamente reducido (Figura 5-1) y se han seleccionado un total de 120 clones que se están evaluando y seleccionando para resistencia a otras plagas.En la U Diversidad de Cornell se han desarrollado clones adicionales con tricomas a partir de cultivos de callo: 4001, 4029, 4038 y 4040. Estos clones constituyen una promesa para la trasmisión de gotitas B en retrocruzamientos.Se han hecho evaluaciones más amplias del virus de la granulosis (VG), la bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) y el parasitoide Copidosoma sp. La formulación del V G más talco, almacenada a lOC por 6 meses se comparó con la formulación de almacenamiento para el mismo período a 21C .± 2,5C (temperatura del ambiente) y con la formulación recién preparada del VG. Las tres formulaciones fueron efectivas, lo que indica que el VG no pierde su efectividad cuando se almacena a temperatura ambiental. El efecto del talco sólo ha sido investigado a niveles de 1 glkg, 3 glkg y 5 glkg de papa almacenada. Los niveles de talco de 3 glkg y 5 glkg afectaron el desarrollo y daño de las larvas; el empupado se redujo en 59% y el número de agujeros por tubérculo se redujo en 76%. Las larvas de la polilla en tubérculos tratados con talco cayeron mostrando los espiráculos y las piezas bucales recubiertos y bloqueados. En las pruebas de formulaciones del BT y el VG en la forma de solución o de polvo, los más efectivos fueron el BT aplicado como polvo, el BT más talco, el VG más talco y el talco sqlo. En todos los tratamientos, el daño y empupado de la polilla fueron sustancialmente menores que en los controles no tratados (Tabla 5-3).En los estudios sobre interacción entre la PTP, el parasitoide Copidosoma sp. y el VG, las larvas que emergieron de Tabla 5-3. Efecto de diferentes formulaciones conteniendo Bacíl/us thuringíensis (BT) y virus de la granulosis (VG) sobre el daño y el desarrollo de la polilla del tubérculo de la papa. la Melina, Perú.x Se estudiaron los métodos de crianza masiva de larvas infectadas con el VG en tres concentraciones ( 1, 10 y 20 larvas infectadas con el VG/litro de agua), en papas infestadas con PTP y mantenidas en jaulas de campo de 3m x 2m. La dosis óptima para obtener el máximo de infección del VG fue de 10 larvas/litro de agua. A esta dosis, 91 % de larvas en el follaje estaban infectadas. Se obtuvo un rendimiento promedio de 35 larvas infectadas por planta.En Colombia se han establecido facilidades de laboratorio para crianza masiva de los parasitoides de PTP,Copidosoma desantisi y Chelonus phtho-/ rimaea. Otros parasitoides de Trichogramma spp. también están en estudio. En Kafr El Zayat, Egipto, se probaron VS y BT en almacén y el daño al tubérculo con el tratamiento VG + BT +talco fue menor al 10% mientras que el daño en tubérculos no tratados excedió el 60%.En Túnez, los estudios de control integrado continuaron con la evaluación y refinamiento de los componentes y técnicas de control y el examen de la dinámica de poblaciones, para optimizar la estrategia de PTP en el almacén. La eficacia del VG (aislamiento Tunecino) y BT (Bactospeine ), separadamente y en combinación, se estudió usando portadores selectos secos (talco o cal), a dosis iniciales preestablecidas de infestación en montones de papa de 200 kg, rodeados de paja gruesa. El análisis de regresión indicó que los efectos del tratamiento sobre las poblaciones de la PTP difirieron (P < ,05), un mes después del almacenamiento. A los 3 meses la población se estabilizó sin mayor incremento. Solamente se produjo un ligero incremento de la infestación en el tratamiento testigo después del primer mes. La falta general de infestación fue atribuida al buen aislamiento proporcionado por la paja y a las altas poblaciones de ácaros predatores, escarabajos y arañas, en los montones de papa. Todos los tratamientos proporcionaron un buen control (menos de 10% de daño en comparación con 25% a 60% de los tubérculos no tratados). Siete tratamientos resultaron igual o más efectivos que el insecticida químico K-Othrine. De estos, las combinaciones de BT-talco, BT-cal, VG-BT-talco y VG-BT-cal fueron los más efectivos. Tanto el VG como el BT se obtuvieron localmente en Túnez: el BT de un productor comercial de Bactospeine ($2,89/kg) y el VG de los equipos de crianza en el INRA T (producidos a un costo de $0,03 por larva enferma). Las facilidades para producir VG en este centro no son comerciales. Los costos para almacenar una tonelada fueron: VG-talco, $4,67; VG-cal, $2,17; Bactospeine, $8,67 y el insecticida K-Othrine, $18,33. La producción del VG es muy económica en relación al costo de los insecticidas comerciales.Cuando se compararon 2 formulaciones de feromona sexual (PTMl, 0,4 mg + PTM2, 0,6 mg y PTMl, 0,9 mg + PTM2, 0,1 mg), en trampas de agua en La Molina, Perú, no se observaron en las trampas diferencias significativas en las capturas durante los primeros 8 meses. Sin embargo, la formulación de PTMl, 0,4 mg + 0,6 mg capturó más PTP después de 8 meses. En Tibaitatá, Cólombia, el componente triene de esta feromona atrajo más polillas machos que el diene (P < ,01). No se observaron diferencias en la captura de trampa cuando se mezcló diene y triene en proporciones de 10:40; 20:30; 30:20 y 40:10, Sin embargo, los niveles bajos de triene dieron como resultado capturas bajas de trampa. Estos datos son útiles para identificar el óptimo de la mezcla de feromona para el monitoreo de PTP.En Burundi se verificaron las poblaciones de PTP usando trampas de feromonas en Gisozi, Nyakararo, Munanira, Mwokora y Mahwa, desde setiembre de 1988 hasta agosto de 1989, Las mayores capturas (10a14 polillas/trampa/ semana), se observaron entre noviembre y diciembre, en los campos y almacenes de Nykararo. En los campos de Mahwa, la población fue alta durante mayo-julio (8-20 polillas/trampa/semana). En Etio-pía el contaje en las trampas se hizo en el Centro de Investigación Holetta, donde la población de polilla fue baja (polilla/ trampa/semana). Estos datos ayudan en el desarrollo de las recomendaciones para la aplicación a tiempo de insecticidas para el control de esta plaga y para ajustar las fichas de siembra y de cosecha, de tal manera que coincidan con poblaciones bajas de PTP. En Egipto, los almacenes de malla de alambre, con feromonas y trampas de luz dieron la mejor protección.En evaluaciones de campo de 137 clones en La Molina, Perú, se seleccionaron 11, como moderadamente resistentes a la mosca minadora de la hoja con los clones 282 y 220 de rendimiento mayor a 1,2 kglplanta. En una segunda prueba, 10 clones seleccionados anteriormente del programa de mejoramiento de semilla sexual se volvieron a evaluar y se seleccionaron 7 (136, 662, 731, 661, 28, 25 y33). Los clones 136, 661y28 rindieron más de 900 g/planta. Los clones Monserrate, Kinigi y Mariva que se seleccionaron anteriormente para resistencia, fueron reevaluados y su resistencia confirmada.En el Perú se probaron para resistencia, un total de 26 clones de la población desarrollada para grandes altitudes, usando envases cerrados. De estos se seleccionaron 15 clones, algunos de los cuales son resistentes a las heladas y al tizón tardío. Entre estos, los clones 85F46,J, 85Fl08,3, 380495,1y85LB70,5, rindieron más de 2 kg!planta. U na prueba de almacenamiento se llevó a cabo en Izquierda: Larvas y prepupas del gorgojo de los Andes Premnotrypes spp. encontradas en un almacén de papa. Derecha: Tubérculos con daños del gorgojo de los Andes.Chinchero, Cusco, Perú, usando el hongo Beauveria sp. como agente de control biológico. Este hongo ha sido efectivo para controlar todos los estados larvales que emergen de los tubérculos almacenados. Nueve aislamientos de Beauveria sp. se han colectado en diferentes localidades en el Perú y actualmente se encuentran en proceso de identificación. Se han mejorado los métodos de crianza masiva de este hongo y se ha demostrado que la cáscara de la cebada es el substrato mejor y más barato.En Colombia, las barreras físicas (uso bandas plásticas de 50 cm de altura), para prevenir el acceso de adultos fueron más efectivas para reducir la infestación. De los insecticidas probados, el Carbofuran (Furadan) como rociado foliar fue más efectivo, cuando se aplicó a los 60 y 67 días después de la siembra.Se evaluaron los clones segregantes para tricomas glandulares tipo A y B, para resistencia a Tetranychus urticae y Polyphagotarsonemus latus, enjaulas de campo en La Molina, Perú. Del programa de mejoramiento de la Universidad de Cornell se seleccionaron ~os clones J108,1, J115,1, Jll5,2 y S. neocardenasii, para resistencia a T. urticae (ver fotografía del Plan de Acción donde se observa el exudado glandular acumulado en el cuerpo de T. urticae). Estos clones mostraron susceptibilidad cuando se probaron para P. /atus, lo que indica que la resistencia a una especie de ácaro puede no estar correlacionada a otras especies. Se evaluaron visualmente siete familias de la Universidad de Cornell y se han seleccionado varios clones. Un total de '367 clones se han seleccionado del material de mejoramiento del CIP.En Filipinas, se probaron 30 familias de semilla sexual de la población T88 para resistencia a trips y ácaros y se seleccionaron los clones T88719, T88764, T88766, T88no, T88810 y T88814, En Puno, Perú, también se probaron varias familias y se han seleccionado 17 resistentes.En Filipinas se estudió la gama de hospedantes y enemigos naturales de Thrips palmi y P. latus. Estas dos plagas tienen plantas hospedantes comunes: 13 para T. palmi y 17 para P. /atus~ Se han identificado 9 enemigos naturales para T. palmi y 8 para P. /atus.En el Perú, se han evaluado y seleccionado clones previamente seleccionados y germoplasma adicional, bajo condiciones de laboratorio y de campo, de los cuales los clones RCB 17IN, DLP2173 y DLP2274 resultaron con menos lesiones en las pruebas de laboratorio y de campo. Se usó el microscopio electrónico de exploración (MEE) para diferenciar hembras y machos adultos del gorgojo Euscepes postf asciatus. En las hembras, el segmento ventral posterior resulta ser casi plano, mientras que en el macho se encorva hacia arriba. Para el control biológico, se ha aislado el hongo Beauveria sp. a partir de adultos infectados y de crianza masiva. En las pruebas de invernadero, todos los tratamientos con Beauveria sp. dieron como resultado índices altos de mortalidad y muy pocas larvas y pupas.En la República Dominicana, tres diseños de trampas con feromonas sexuales se evaluaron para Cy/as fonnicarius. La trampa de agua resultó la más efectiva, donde se capturó un total de 4 908 machos en un período de 40 días.Izquierda: Raíz de batata con el daño causado por el gorgojo de la batata Euscepes postfasciatus. Derecha: Pupa del gorgojo alojada en la pulpa de la raíz.En colaboración con el CARDI (Instituto de Investigación para el Desarrollo Agrícola del Caribe), se ha iniciado un programa de manejo integrado para esta plaga en Jamaica, San Vicente y Barbados.Los contratos de investigación con la Universidad Nacional Agraria, La Malina, Lima, Perú, se han concentrado en el control de las principales plagas de papa y batata. La dinámica poblacional de L. huidobrensis se estudió en papa, habiéndose encontrado altas infestaciones en setiembre con parasitismo de 3,3% a 13,6%. En el laboratorio se están identificando insecticidas selectivos a través de bioensayos con parasitoides de mosca minadora de la hoja.128 En cuanto a batata, se han hecho estudios sobre dinámica poblacional de la mosca blanca Bemisia tabaci y se han colectado parasitoides para su identificación. Se ha estudiado también la presencia estacional de otras plagas de la batata. El Centro de Introducción y Cría de Insectos Utiles (CICIU) del Perú ha colaborado para mejorar los métodos de crianza masiva del parasitoide de PTP Copidosoma desantisi. En Filipinas, estudios colaborativos con la UPLB han evaluado el hongo P. lilacinus para el control de nematodos de papa. Se han probado varios aislamientos y el aislamiento peruano, a un nivel de 2 millones de esporas, ha controlado G. rostochiensis en 68,6%. A nivel de 4 millones de esporas, este control se incrementó a 73,4% y con 8 millones el control fue 78,4%. Este hongo también actuó en forma efectiva en el control del nematodo del nódulo en tomate a un nivel de 4 millones de esporas. Se está usando luz ultra-violeta e irradiación gama para incrementar la eficacia de control de P. lilacinus y Metarhizium anisoplae.Se continúan seleccionando clones de papa de buen rendimiento en clima cálido y actualmente también se ha logrado mejorar en algunos clones el mantenimiento de los niveles de producción después de cultivos continuos y almacenamiento en luz difusa (ALD ). En Filipinas, los clones 384515.9, 385131.52, 385130.8 y 385152.44 han superado estas características.Se evaluaron y seleccionaron clones de papa para determinar la capacidad de producción en todas las estaciones del CIP y e~ zonas de suelos salinos en Tacna, Perú. Con excepción de los resultados obtenidos durante la época lluviosa cálida en Yurimaguas, los clones precoces dieron buenos rendimientos de raíces tuberosas.Para mejorar los rendimientos bajo aniego en condiciones cálidas de, una nueva línea de investigación ha iniciado el examen de la fisiología de la tolerancia a las inundaciones. Los resultados del programa de sequía de la batata han ilustrado la importancia de mantener una buena cobertura del follaje sobre el suelo y la formación temprana de raíces tuberosas. Los estudios sobre el efecto de la sequía en papa han permitido identificar clones que pueden eludir la sequía (sistema radicular grande, v.gr. los clones P-3 y P-7) o escapar de ella (clones que tuberizan precozmente, v.gr., el cv. Berolina). Bajo condiciones de creciente sequía, se ha confirmado la resistencia para los cultivares Huinkul, LT-7 y MS-35.27.R. Se está estudiando actualmente la relación entre el contenido relativo letal y subletal de agua en las hojas, fluorescencia clorofílica y habilidad de los clones para soportar la sequía para hacer una evaluación y selección rápida de los genotipos para tolerancia a la sequía. Los problemas de salinidad generalmente se confunden con aquellos de insuficiencia en la provisión de agua, especialmente en las regiones desérticas marginales. U na serie de experimentos con los cultivares Atica, Alpha y Nicola han demostrado que son relativamente tolerantes al agua salina de riego.Se han usado exitosamente cultivos alternativos al maíz (por ejemplo girasol) para dar sombra a cultivos de papa de inicios del otoño en Egipto. Se han identificado cultivares tolerantes para cultivo en hilera én China. Adicionalmente, se han cuantificado las ventajas del control de plagas mediante prácticas de cultivos asociados en el Sureste Asiático.Los estudios realizados sobre respuesta clonal de la batata a diferentes niveles de sombra, ha ilustrado la tolerancia a la sombra presente en el germoplasma de batata y ha sugerido la posibilidad de seleccionar específicamente clones para cultivos asociados.Tolerancia a la Sequía y a la Salinidad Papa. En la encuesta realizada para determinar los problemas de producción, por lo menos 20 de 44 países incluyeron a la sequía como factor limitante de la producción de papa (Plan de Acción X), lo cual amerita una intensa investigación en esta área. En particular, la sequía es una seria limitación para el cultivo de papa en invierno, en las tierras bajas tropicales, donde el cultivo coincide con la estación seca. Además de la selección de campo para rendimiento que se hizo en colaboración con los programas nacionales, que a menudo toma en cuenta que el cultivo está expuesto a la sequía, se han hecho estudios específicos de las respuestas fisiológicas y genotípicas a la sequía en el Perú y Filipinas, así como también en un contrato de investigación en el Instituto Escocés de Investigación de Cultivos (SCRI) y en colaboración con el Centro Volcani de Israel. Los datos obtenidos ayudarán al CIP y a los programas nacionales a decidir sobre 1) estrategias de evaluación y selección que van a identificar con seguridad genotipos tolerantes a la sequía y 2) estrategias de riego apropiadas para condiciones locales de producción.Las evaluaciones sobre resistencia a la sequía, basadas en el rendimiento y la resistencia que opone la planta a ser desenraizada (RD) han continuado en el 132 Perú. La edad fisiológica de los tubérculos al momento de la siembra ha sido lo que más ha contribuido en los efectos de localidad, estación y año. Son 5 las características (peso seco del follaje, número de nudos y estolones y peso seco de las raíces y de los estolones), que han estado íntimamente relacionadas a la RD (r 2 = 0,765). También, el peso del tubérculo estuvo en relacionado a la RD en los clones precoces. En estas pruebas, bajo condiciones de creciente sequía se confirmó la resistencia para los cultivares Huinkul, LT-7 y MS-35,27,R, mientras que BR-65,15, Cruza 27, Haille y MEX-21 recibieron el grado de moderadamente resistentes. En una prueba de campo, en que se comparó la eficiencia de dos sistemas de riego sub-superficial bajo diversos grados dé estrés por sequía, la resistencia estomática abaxial aumentó con la sequía, mientras que la resistencia adaxial se incrementó mucho más. La resistencia y la densidad estomática aumentaron, sugiriendo una reducción en la pérdida de agua y una capacidad para el uso eficiente de agua. Midiéndose repetidamente, el potencial de agua de la hoja se volvió más negativo, sugiriendo un incremento en el nivel de estrés del tejido.En las tierras bajas de Filipinas, cuatro clones sujetos al estrés de sequía por supresión del riego por 30 a 50 días después de la siembra (DDS), mostraron respuestas uniformes de reducción de la altura, ramificación, follaje y enraizamiento (peso, largo y número). Los dos clones con ancestro de S. andigena (P-3 y P-7) produjeron el mayor número de raíces, las cuales crecieron 60 cm hacia abajo. Sin embargo, Berolina, el cultivar más precoz (con un número de raíces similar al de P-3 y P-7), mostró un crecimiento radicular concentrado a los 15 cm, especialmente durante el tratamiento de estrés de sequía. Estos resultados sugieren que P-3 tiene características para eludir la sequía, mientras que Berolina escapa a la sequía.La respuesta de esquejes apicales extraidos de 10 clones de papa, sujetos a control y a regímenes de estrés de humedad en camas levantadas en el campo, estuvo íntimamente relacionada con la respuesta de campo. Estos resultados sugieren que este enfoque podría representar una economía de espacio cuando se hace la evaluación y selección en el campo. La reducción en acumulación de materia seca se hizo evidente a los 30 D DS y las diferencias en rendimiento de tubérculos entre tratamientos fue evidente a los 50 DDS. Los clones DT0-28 y 380584,3 mostraron la menor reducción en rendimiento de tubérculos. Los estudios genéticos deben ahora continuar, con el objeto de determinar la heredabilidad de los caracteres relacionados con la tolerancia a la sequía, antes de implementarse el desarrollo de diversas poblaciones tolerantes a la sequía.Continúan los estudios bajo contrato en el Instituto Escocés de Investigación de Cultivos para determinar la combinación de caracteres que mejorarán la explotación de los recursos de agua en el suelo durante la época de cultivo. Los genotipos se sembraron en tuberías verticales de tal manera que pudieran estar bajo condiciones de agua suficiente o de sequía en la parte terminal. El rendimiento y la distribución de materia seca hacia el tubérculo varió entre genotipos y los índices de crecimiento de las hojas estuvo en relación con el contenido de agua disponible en el suelo. Las diferencias en la respuesta a la sequía entre los genotipos no se asoció con las diferencias en el ajuste osmótico. Experimentos adicionales determinarán si el efecto de la sequía puede ser atribuido al abastecimiento de agua debido a diferencias en el enraizamiento o a otros factores, tales como la flexibilidad de la pared celular. En experimentos colaterales se estudiaron los valores de la mínima conductancia foliar (v.gr. conductancia epidérmica para medir el mínimo de pérdida de agua) y el contenido relativo de agua (CRA) a niveles letal y subletal. Los genotipos no se diferenciaroo marcadamente en CRA, sin embargo, sí hubo diferencia en el número de hojas en que se presentaron los valores letales CRA.La fluorescencia de la clorofila tiene probabilidades en la evaluación y selección rápida para tolerancia a la sequía, mientras que el uso de esquejes enraizados en gradiente osmótica de polietilenoglicol decepcionó, debido a que es absorbido y tiene efectos tóxicos sobre las plantas.En Israel, la decreciente disponibilidad de agua de riego de buena calidad, además de que el cultivo de papa se ha extendido hacia suelos marginales (a menudo salinos), ha hecho que se preste una inusitada atención a la investigación sobre respuestas genotípicas a la salinidad y métodos de irrigación. Esta investigación, financiada por el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Holanda, se ha estado desarrollando desde 1986, Las comparaciones de los diferentes niveles de salinidad del agua de riego (1 dS/m 2 , 3,5 dS/m 2 y 6,6 dS/m 2 ), han demostrado que la reducción del rendimiento es menor a intervalos cortos de riego (2 a 3 días), que a intervalos más largos (7a12 días) cuando se suministra la misma cantidad de agua durante todo el período de cultivo. La flexibilidad del sistema radicular de la papa para buscar agua parece ser limitaaa, por lo que el riego superficial, contiguo al eje de la planta, parece ser el más apropiado. Los genotipos de papa mostraron diferentes respuestas de rendimiento de acuerdo a la salinidad del agua (1,4 dS/m 2 , 4,3 dS/m 2 y 6,8 dS/m 2 ). Cuando se estableció el cultivo de papa con riego por aspersión de agua no salina y luego estuvo sujeta a un sistema de irrigación por goteo de agua salina, los cultivares Atica, Alpha y Nicola y el don LT-4 se mostraron relativamente tolerantes a la salinidad, mientras que Baronesa, DT0-2, DT0-33, LT-7, Superior, Desirée y Cara fueron susceptibles. El riego por aspersión con diferentes tratamientos de agua salina (1,4 dS/m 2 , 3,8 dSJm 2 , 5,6 dS/m 2 y 9,3 dS/m 2 ), no redujo en forma significativa el rendimiento de tubérculos en plantas en macetas, sea que estuvieran creciendo en solución nutritiva salina o no salina. Sin embargo, en otro experimento, la cantidad de follaje cubierto con lesiones de A/ternaria solani fue mayor con el incremento de la concentración de sales en el agua de riego aplicada por aspersión. Parece que esta enfermedad, en combinación con Verticillium dahliae puede incrementar el decaimiento inducido por la salinidad en la sobrevivencia de la planta y por lo tanto acrecentar la necesidad de incorporar resistencia a estas enfermedades en genotipos adaptados a las 134 condiciones del Norte de Africa y el Mediterráneo.Los resultados de un experimento adicional indican que la edad fisiológica del tubérculo-semilla al momento de la siembra puede tener influencia en las respuestas genotípicas a la salinidad. La manipulación de la edad fisiológica de los tubérculos-semillas podría minimirar el efecto de la salinidad sobre el desarrollo y el rendimiento, lo cual será estudiado en futuros experimentos. Hasta ahora los resultados, sobre el uso de agua de riego salina ilustran el potencial que tiene el cultivo de papa para adaptarse a tierras marginales desérticas donde no hay disponibilidad de agua de riego no salina.Batata. Durante el verano se han usado en Lima, los sistemas de riego por tubería y por goteo para proporcionar diferentes niveles de riego, aplicados a frecuencias similares, después que el cultivo se ha establecido bajo condiciones favorables de agua. Con el sistema de tubería en el cual el riego varió de 260 mm a 363 mm durante los 4 meses de cultivo, se notaron reducciones significativas a menor volumen de agua de riego (Tabla 6-1). También se encontró que los clones que producen rendimientos altos generalmente tienen mayores potenciales de hoja-agua. El uso eficiente de agua (UEA, peso de la raíz reservante por unidad de volumen de agua recibido por el cultivo) y el contenido de materia seca fueron mayores en los tratamientos con menos riego. Como en el año anterior, en ninguno se encontró interacción para los tratamientos de riego para rendimiento de raíces reservantes o de EUA; por lo tanto, la selección para rendimientos altos bajo condiciones de agua suficiente, permitiría la selección de cultivares tolerantes a la sequía. Con el sistema de goteo se aplicaron cantidades de agua que variaron de . 250 mm a 477 mm a 6 cultivares durante el período de cultivo de 5 meses. El tratamiento con buen riego no siempre produjo el mayor rendimiento de raíces reservantes pero sí produjo el mayor rendimiento en materia seca total (follaje y raíces) (Tabla 6-2). Los índices de alargamiento de peciolos y láminas foliares fueron sensibles a la deficiencia de agua; sin embargo, en todos los clones, el promedio de reducción en el índice de alargamiento, en las parcelas bien irrigadas y en las de riego deficiente (25%) fue proporcionalmente menor que el índice de _reducción en las parcelas con aplicación de agua (48%).En las tierras bajas de Filipinas se aplicaron a parcelas de 5 cultivares de batata niveles de riego de 160 mm, 360 mm y 580 mm. La sensibilidad a la sequía sólo se observó durante la etapa inicial de crecimiento vegetativo y el rendimiento de raíces reservantes sólo se redujo significativamente bajo condiciones de estrés debidas a un exceso de humedad. En Lima, Perú, el riego mayor a 400 mm parece que fue en detrimento del rendimiento de raíces. Los resultados del estudio en •Filipinas indican que la habilidad genotípica para tolerar el estrés de agua depende más de la precocidad en la formación de raíces reservan-tes y su índice de engrosamiento que en sus atributos de crecimiento del follaje y de las raíces.Los datos generados en ambientes contrastantes sobre las respuestas fisiológicas de los genotipos de batata a la Tabla 6-2. Rendimiento de raíces reservantes, componentes del rendimiento en follaje y tasa de expansión de hojas y peciolos (media-estación}, para seis cultivares de batata en cuatro tratamientos de riego: 1 = 100% (477 mm), 2 = 80% (405 mm), 3 = 60% (325 mm), 4 = 40% (249 mm) de evapotraspiración estimada. Total de evaporación durante el cultivo = 871 mm.de raíces Rendimiento Total Tasa de expansión reservantesde follaje-peso seco (cm d- sequía son únicos y proporcionan una base sobre la cual desarrollar estrategias de mejoramiento y selección para mejorar y explotar la tolerancia a la sequía en batata. La mayor habilidad que tiene la batata, comparada con otros cultivos, para desarrollar bajo condiciones de sequía va a favorecer su extensión hacia tierras marginales.La evaluación y selección in vitro del germoplasma de batata para tolerancia a las sales ha continuado, pero aún quedan varias anomalías por estudiarse. Por ejemplo, el don con producción de mayor peso seco y fresco bajo condiciones moderadas de salinidad (174 mg de ClNa/L), se caracterizó por su menor número de raíces y nudos con raíces.Papa. Se han analizado datos adicionales de los estudios en ambiente controlado, en la Escuela de Agricultura de Nueva Escocia (NSAC), Canadá y de un contrato de investigación en la Universidad de Cornell, E.U .A.En la NSAC, las combinaciones de baja radiación (2S0280/mol/m 2 /s) y alta temperatura (33C/25C día/noche), como la que se encuentra en cultivos asociados para sombra, redujo significativamente los índices de asimilación neta en dos clones estudiados, como se demuestra en los índices comparables obtenidos bajo condiciones de radiación alta y temperatura alta (430-450 mol/m 2 /s y 20C/10C). La respiración después de 16 h a 30C fue mayor en las plantas que crecieron bajo condiciones de alta luz•y baja temperatura, lo que sugiere una mayor cantidad de sustancias asimiladas bajo condiciones más favorables. Los datos sobre frjación de carbono sugieren que las hojas se adaptan a temperaturas más altas: el índice de fotosíntesis neta a 30C fue de 9,19 mol de C02fm 2 /s para las hojas producidas bajo condiciones de calor, en comparación con 7,25 mol para las hojas producidas bajo condiciones frías. Los valores de fluorescencia terminal y variable (punto máximo menos punto inicial), estuvieron estrechamente relacionados a la producción de peso seco total y parámetros de crecimiento y pueden actuar como indicadores para tolerancia a temperaturas altas y radiación baja. A temperaturas relativamente altas probadas en la Universidad de Cornell ( 40C/30C), la sensibilidad al calor estuvo asociada con un conjunto de respuestas: aumentó la senescencia, una relación más alta a:b de clorofila, inhibición de las reacciones oscuras de la fotosíntesis y reducida conductancia estomática. Estos datos apoyan la hipótesis de una conexión causal entre la fotosíntesis y el crecimiento de los brotes a temperaturas altas, contradiciendo la evidencia de una relación entre la tolerancia y la respiración en la oscuridad. La incorporación de un alto índice fotosintético parece ser el próximo paso en la implementación de estos resultados para mejorar la productividad bajo condiciones de alta temperatura.Esta incorporación se podría estimar midiendo la extinción no-fotoquímica de la fluorescencia, la cual se correlacionó estrechamente con los valores saturados de C02 de la evaluación de 02 a 25C y 40C en las entradas tolerantes y en aquellas sensibles al calor.Ha continuado la investigación sobre cultivos asociados, como una técnica para reducir el estrés por calor en la papa, particularmente en la época de siembra y/o próxima a la cosecha. En Egipto, los estudios de seguimiento, basados en éxitos anteriores con cultivo de relevo de papa a inicios del otoño en un cultivo existente de maíz. Este cultivo incluye el uso del girasol como cultivo de sombra y fecha de siembra adelantada (12 de julio) de papa. La papa como cultivo de relevo entre maíz o girasol (establecido 45 días antes), dio como resultado una significativa mejora en el porcentaje de emergencia medido a los 45 días después de la siembra, así como también una cosecha de 6,1 t/ha de maíz de grano y 2,1 t/ha de semilla de girasol.La difundida práctica de cultivo de papa en franjas con maíz, es importante en el centro y sur de China. Las investigaciones en esta materia continúan bajo contrato con el CIP en el Centro de Investigación en Papa del Sur de China, en Enshi, Provincia de Hubei. Los estudios que incluyen variaciones en la distribución de espacio y población de ambos cultivos confirmaron las ventajas de las relaciones de 2:2 y 2:1, surcos de maíz: papa, comparados con los resultados obtenidos con franjas de 3 6 4 surcos. En las comparaciones sobre fechas de siembra de maíz, la de mediados de abril probó ser la mejor en términos de rendimiento total (rendimientos de papa y maíz secos). El rendimiento total no fue influenciado por el volumen de nitrógeno de 160 kg de úrea/ha, cuando se aplicó a cada cultivo en tres altitudes ( 460 m, 1180 m y 1 700 m). Cuando se midieron las respuestas de 16 clones en cultivo en franjas (1:1surcosa3,6 plantas/m 2 en cada cultivo), los clones 694-11, 684-1 y Xinyu 4 produjeron mayores rendimientos que el cultivar Mira usado como testigo. Los rendimientos de maíz se redujeron significativamente debido a la demora en la maduración de la papa (Figura 6-1), lo cual estuvo asociado con una mayor altura de la planta de papa y un aumento de la competencia por luz con el maíz. Los nuevos genotipos de papa y maíz deben reducir la competencia . interespecífica. Se necesita mayor investigación para determinar si la competencia es debida exclusivamente por la luz o si también existe una competencia de las raíces por el agua y los nutrientes.Otras pruebas llevadas a cabo en Kunming, Provincia de Yunnan, compararon los rendimientos de papa como cultivo en franjas o como cultivo ex-Y = rendimiento de maíz (kg/mu)elusivo en un arreglo 2:2, De 20 clones, siete (Serrana, Achirana, lnta, 381064-7, MEX-32, Kufri, Jyoti, Primicia INTA y Yunnan Purple), alcanzaron mayores rendimientos de papa cuando ésta se cultivó en franjas. Se han estudiado varios cultivos medicinales y hortícolas para determinar cuáles son los más adecuados para intercalar con el cultivo de papa. El cultivo de papa asociado con espinaca aumentó las ganancias netas entre 8% y 48% más de lo que se obtiene con papa sola, con una variación en las ganancias que depende del cultivar de papa. Los rendimientos de papa fueron bajos cuando se combinó con otros cultivos (ruibarbo, escrofularia, tabaco, duhuo y ruda). En una prueba de rotación, los resultados (5,1 t/ha contra 4,1 t/ha, LSD = 0,8 t/ha), indicaron los beneficios de cambiar la rotación en las franjas (por ejemplo, sembrar maíz el segundo año donde se sembró papa anteriormente y papa138 6/25 6/30 7/5 7/10 7/15 7/20 7/25 7/28 X = etapa de maduración de la papa (mes/fecha) Figura 6-1. Relación entre rendimiento de maíz y fecha de maduración de 1 O cultivares de papa sembrados en bandas 1 :1, Enshi, Chin_a.:donde se sembró maíz). Sin embargo, los rendimientos no han sido tan altos como los obtenidos cuando el cultivo en franjas se hizo después de un cultivo solo de maíz (8,3 t/ha), o de uno de hortalizas de otoño (8,2 t/ha).Las nuevas variedades y procedimientos agronómicos introducidos a las prácticas de cultivos asociados ya existentes, podrían tener consecuencias compensatorias para el rendimiento total y estabilidad de las asociaciones de cultivos. Sin embargo, la investigación bajo contrato en China ha introducido innovaciones aisladas (v.gr., cambiando las fechas de siembra, variedades), sin detrimento, lo que debe ser plenamente probado por los agricultores.Tomando en cuenta la dificultad que existe para adquirir la cantidad adecuada de semilla de papa en el estado de Maharashtra, en India, el trabajo colaborativo con el Proyecto Nacional de Investigación Agrícola en Aurangabad ha adoptado recientemente el uso de tubérculos provenientes de plántulas, como material de siembra en el cultivo asociado de papa y caña de azúcar. Los tratamientos de cultivos asociados probaron cuatro poblaciones híbridas de tubérculos provenientes de plántulas, tres tamaños de tuberculillos (5-10 g, 10-20 g y 20 g) y dos espaciamientos entre surcos (7,5cmy15 cm). Ninguno de los tratamientos influenció significativamente las características de desarrollo de la caña y la producción de azúcar y los rendimientos de tubérculos (10,2t/haa12,1 t/ha), fueron similares a los del cultivar Kufri Chandramuki (12,3 t/ha). Durante los dos años de experimentos, las mayores ganancias se obtuvieron con los tubérculos más grandes y la distancia entre surcos más corta. Aproximadamente se necesitaron 16 g de semilla sexual para producir 550 kg de tubérculos formados en plántulas en 156 m 2 de camas, los cuales son suficientes para sembrar un campo de caña de azúcar de una hectárea.En las tierras bajas de Filipinas, la variación en fechas de siembra de maíz dulce después de papa (O a 30 días), a una población constante de 5,6 plantas/m 2 en cada caso, no tuvo influencia en el cultivo adelantado de papa ni redujo la tuberización. Sin embargo, la severa sombra resultante hasta de 70% durante la última etapa del cultivo, redujo significativamente los rendimientos de papa. El arreglo en parcelas cuadradas para el maíz sembradas simultáneamente con papa (5,6 plantas de papa/m 2 y 2,8 a 8,5 plantas de maíz/m 2 ), aumentó la sombra y redujo el rendimiento de tubérculos en comparación con el obtenido de las parcelas en arreglo rectangular. Los datos de varios experimentos en los cuales el maíz fue el cultivo de sombra indicaron que los niveles de radiación diaria de MJ/m 2 en las parcelas sombreadas de papa han sido insuficientes para mantener el rápido crecimiento de los tubérculos.Batata. En sistemas agrícolas tropicales, la batata es frecuentemente un componente en cultivos intercalados y se asocia a menudo con bajas poblaciones de maíz. Un experimento en Filipinas ha investigado el uso de variedades adecuadas para el cultivo asociado con maíz. No se notó una disminución aguda en el rendimiento de raíces tuberosas con las poblaciones probadas de maíz dulce (relación de 8:1y4:1 de las poblaciones de plantas de batata:maíz), lo cual sugiere que los genotipos de batata son uniformemente tolerantes a bajos niveles de sombra. Los rendimientos de maíz dulce ( < 1 mazorca por planta), fueron bajos, lo cual puede deberse a una severa competencia de la batata y a la falta de niveles adecuados de nitrógeno.En Yurimaguas, Perú, en pruebas de cultivos asociados de batata y maíz que mantuvieron la población normal del cultivo de batata, se sembró maíz a densidades que variaron entre 0,62 y 1,85 plantas/m 2 y se obtuvo significativamente un mayor rendimiento de raíces tuberosas, •en comparación con lo obtenido del cultivo solo de batata. De los 30 clones probados bajo estas variadas intensidades de sombra, unos pocos superaron al don Jewel que se usó como testigo. El cultivo de relevo de una población total de maíz en una población total de batata (a los 45 días de sembrada la batata), redujo el rendimiento de 30 clones en un promedio de 35%, debido principalmente al reducido peso individual de las raíces reservantes. El peso seco del follaje se redujo enormemente ( 47% ). Sin embargo, algunos clones sufrieron menor reducción de rendimiento que el don J ewel que se usó como testigo, el mismo que podría representar una fuente potencial de tolerancia a la sombra.En un experimento realizado en Filipinas, en el que se usó sombra artificial aplicada desde él momento de la siembra, se notó una interacción entre los distintos tratamientos de sombra (0% a 70% de reducción de la radiación solar) y los genotipos, lo que sugiere que los clones se deben seleccionar específicamente por su comportamiento cuando se usan como cultivos asociados que reciben sombra. Se están realizando experimentos para determinar la posibilidad de hacer la evaluación y selección en laboratorio y campo para tolerancia a la sombra y el potencial que tiene la batata 140 como cultivo de cobertura en un sistema agroforestal.Papa. En el Sudeste de Asia, la producción de semilla de buena calidad en las tierras altas es limitada, debido a la presencia de plagas y enfermedades con origen en el suelo. Las oportunidades para explotar nuevas áreas de tierras de altura son limitadas. Por este motivo, la investigación está poniendo énfasis en la producción de tubérculos para semilla en los campos de arroz, a pesar de los problemas imprevistos de producción. El crecimiento limitado de la raíz ha sido superado enterrando el rastrojo de arroz antes de formar las camas tradicionales para la producción de papa: los rendimientos fueron de 1,26 kgtm 2 en comparación con 0,85 kgtm 2 obtenidos sin la incorporación de rastrojo. Las den-sidad~s de población de plantas influenciaron significativamente en los rendimientos, con promedios que variaron de 1,17 kgtm 2 con 4,6 plantas/m 2 a 1,53 kgtm 2 con 6,4 plantas/m 2 • Se está estudiando el efecto de dosis altas (120 kg!ha a 480 kg!ha), de fertilizante nitrogenado, a manera de seguimiento de los resultados donde las dosis (600 kg!ha), que típicamente se aplican al chalote (Allium cepa), pueden mejorar en mucho el desarrollo del follaje y la cobertura del cultivo.Las plagas y enfermedades limitan seriamente la producción de papa de consumo en los sistemas de cultivo de clima cálido en el Sudeste Asiático. El efecto estabilizador de los cultivos asociados sobre la incidencia de las plagas ha sido recomendado para reducir el uso de pesticidas. En 1988 y 1989 un cultivo asociado en estrecha proximidad con chalotes redujo la población de insectos (particularmente áfidos): en el cultivo de papa, pero incrementó la población de trips. Actualmente se está estudiando la combinación de cultivos asociados y uso de pesticidas, para proporcionar un mejor control de las plagas persistentes.Las plagas, en particular la mosca blanca (Bemisia sp.) y los trips (Thrips tabaci), son también importantes en las tierras bajas de la República Dominicana, donde la papa es un cultivo recientemente introducido. Se está estudiando la asociación de cultivos como parte de un programa de control integrado. En lugares donde las plagas no constituyen problema, los rendimientos de cultivares fácilmente obtenibles (v.gr. Red Pontiac, Desirée, Achirana INT A), alcanzaron un máximo de 24 t/ha con promedios de 9 t/ha a 20 t/ha. El interés en desarrollar la industria de hojuelas, ha impulsado los experimentos financiados por Frito Lay (FL ), usando el don Atlantic y dos clones FL. Los rendimientos obtenidos resultaron iguales o mejores a los del cultivar testigo Kennebec y no se vieron afectados por la composición del fertilizante (15:15:15contra12:30:12deN:P:K) o por el espaciamiento entre surcos (31 cm contra 23 cm). Estos resultados sugieren que las prácticas tradici~nales del agricultor no van a necesitar adaptarse mayormente para acomodarse a los cultivares nuevos.En India se han hecho estudios sobre el uso potencial de hormonas de crecimiento para mejorar los rendimientos de tubérculos y la tolerancia al estrés en papa. Durante 1987Durante -1988, tubérculos brotados de Kufri Bahar se trataron con dos concentraciones de ácido giberélico (AG3), CCC, S3307 y Triadimefon (TFN). Los rendimientos de tubérculos tratados con CCC (25 ppm) y TFN (5 ppm) superaron el rendimiento del testigo (20,5 t/ha) por 3 a 5 t/ha. Los rendimientos de los tubérculos para semilla retenidos y almacenados después de la cosecha también se beneficiaron de las aplicaciones hechas en los cultivos anteriores. En 1988-1989, las aplicaciones directas de TFN a los tubérculos brotados incrementaron definitivamente el rendimiento; sin embargo, la aplicación estimuló el incremento del número de tubérculos por unidad de área. Se están realizando estudios más amplios sobre la interacción entre el medio ambiente y el tratamiento a la semilla.Batata. La batata se cultiva generalmente en terrenos marginales y la planta está sujeta a otros tipos de estrés diferentes a la sequía. La fertilización inorgánica rara vez se aplica a la batata. En el Perú, se ha demostrado que una bacteria de vida libre, fijadora de nitrógeno Azospirillium incrementó significativamente el rendimiento de raíces reservantes de la batata (hasta en 200%), cuando se sembró en macetas conteniendo 3 kg de suelo estéril proveniente de la costa. En un experimento de campo en San Ramón, los efectos del inoculante Azospirillium se compararon usando dos cultivares tres dosis de fertilizante nitrogenado (O kg, 80 kg y 160 kg/ha). Entre los cultivares hubo diferencias en sus requerimientos de N y aun a niveles altos de aplicación de N inorgánico los beneficios deAzospirillum fueron todavía evidentes. La aplicación de fertilizante nitrogenado inorgánico, gran parte del cual contamina el ambiente, podría reducirse por medio de lixiviación o utilización. Se están llevando a cabo mayores investigaciones para cuantificar la contribución de N de varias cepas de Azospirillium.Bajo contrato con la Universidad Nacional Agraria, se han llevado a cabo 12 experimentos en la costa peruana, para estudiar los requerimientos nutricionales de la batata. Los coeficientes de variabilidad fueron altos, de 15% a 30%, al igual que en experimentos comunes de batata. En suelos arcillosos ligeramente alcalinos (que tienen niveles bajos de materia orgánica y N total, niveles altos de P y K y sin problemas de salinidad), la aplicación de 5 t/ha de abono vegetal proporcionó los suficientes nutrientes como para mantener rendimientos de 20 a 30 t/ha. Las respuestas a las formulaciones o dosis de N (O a 120 kg N/ha), P20s (O a 180 kglha) y K20 (O a 200 kglha), no mostraron diferencias significativas. En las tierras bajas del Amazonas, en Yurimaguas, los rendimientos de batata en suelos arcillosos no respondieron a aplicaciones de N a niveles mayores de 30 kg!ha. Estos resultados en suelos contrastantes, confirman la naturaleza eficiente del cultivo de batata que le permite explotar el suelo por nutrientes y la necesidad de una mínima aplicación de fertilizante inorgánico. No se puede descartar el rol que tiene e1Azospirillium u otras rizobacterias fijadoras de N que proporcionan este elemento al cultivo de batata.Durante la época de lluvias en las zonas tropicales, la batata está a menudo sujeta a las inundaciones, un estrés al cual está muy poco adaptada. Esta característica limita la disponibilidad de batata y de otros cultivos de raíces tuberosas durante todo el año en muchas áreas tropicales. Por lo tanto, se está investigando para evaluar la respuesta fisiológica de las plantas jóvenes de batata al aniego y para desarrollar técnicas apropiadas que permitan identificar genotipos tolerantes. Estos estudios 142 demuestran que la abscisión de la hoja se incrementó después de períodos largos de aniego (hasta 6 días), mientras que el alargamiento del tallo se promovió y el contenido ( % ) de materia seca y el peso seco de la raíz reservante se redujeron. La tendencia de las respuestas para otras variables (por ejemplo, peso seco de los vástagos), medida en los cinco genotipos, no estuvo bien expresada y los genotipos no difirieron significativamente entre sí. El propósito del CIP es identificar dentro de la colección del germoplasma genotipos tolerantes que puedan utilizarse para el mejoramiento del cultivo o para una inmediata producción en el campo bajo condiciones de inundación.Aunque el cultivo de batata es fuerte al momento de la siembra, las condiciones desfavorables (v.gr. falta de humedad en el suelo) durante la siembra pueden demorar seriamente su establecimiento y reducir el número de plantas en el campo. U na serie de experimentos cortos (que terminaron 30 días después del trasplante), sugirieron las siguientes recomendaciones. Bajo condiciones de estrés por sequía, un tallo de 30 cm (en vez de 15 cm, 20 cm o de 25 cm), con 10 a 15 cm enterrados, tiene crecimiento más vigoroso, recurso importante para restringir la competencia de las malezas al inicio del cultivo. La ventaja de sumergir esquejes en una hormona radicular disuelta (NAA e IBA), dependió del cultivar, pero el uso de esquejes preenraizados no benefició a ningún cultivar cuando se sembró bajo condiciones de abastecimiento normal de agua. La sequía durante el establecimiento de las plantas redujo significativamente el peso de los tallos y el peso y área de las hojas. El peso y número de raíces mostró una tendencia similar no significativa.Para la papa y la batata, la precocidad es una característica importante que proporciona a ambos cultivos la flexibilidad de adaptarse a la variedad de sistemas de cultivo presentes en las zonas tropicales. Este carácter en combinación con la alta calidad culinaria, ha recibido mucha atención en el pasado, en la selección de papa. La presión de selección intensiva para este carácter se está aplicando al programa de batata.Perú. La marchitez bacteriana en San Ramón ha afectado seriamente la sobrevivencia y el rendimiento de un conjunto de clones (20 tubérculos/don), sembrados durante la estación lluviosa de 1989, Al igual que en años anteriores, algunos clones (v.gr. CFK 69,1, 377250,7, LT-7 y Atlantic), prevalecieron entre los progenitores de clones seleccionados. Las temperaturas favorables (promedio: 31,8C/ día y 16,8 C/noche) y siembra en suelo infestado propiciaron rendimientos altos de los clones del CIP probados contra patógenos, en la estación seca en San Ramón. Los datos obtenidos con este material en los últimos 5 años se han resumido y los clones adaptados a las zonas tropicales de elevación media han sido elegidos para su incorporación en la lista de clones probados contra patógenos. Algunos de estos clones adaptados a las condiciones de San Ramón se han probado. en Yurimaguas durante la estación seca. La marchitez bacteriana se ha encontrado a los 40 DDS y posteriormente, lo que ha propiciado la reducción del rendimiento de algunos c~ones. Sin embargo, algunos de ellos (v.gr. 1-822, CFS-69,1 y 379686,3), tuvieron rendi-mientas mayores a los 1000 g/m 2 • Los 30 clones evaluados se están volviendo a probar en 1990.En Tacna, al sur del Perú, la salinidad es un estrés adicional al de la temperatura alta. De 350 clones resistentes al PVY + PVX evaluados y seleccionados, 5 tuvieron rendimientos de 1 000 g/m 2 • Durante el cultivo de invierno en Lima, los clones resistentes al PVY + PVX tuvieron rendimientos altos y precoces (con resistencia de condición mayormente duplex). Estos clones se usarán como progenitores en los trabajos futuros de mejoramiento.Filipinas. Todas las evaluaciones del germoplasma en las tierras bajas se llevaron a cabo en el Estado Azucarero Canlubang de Laguna, utilizando el sistema de cultivo asociado con caña de azúcar. En la tercera evaluación de campo de los clones repetidamente producidos y almacenados a luz difusa, los clones 384515.9, 385131.52, 385130.8 y 385152.44 mostraron 50% de sobrevivencia al momento de la cosecha, con un rendimiento de 500 g/planta y ausencia de síntomas de virus. Estos clones han demostrado su potencial como cultivares que pueden mantener la producción de papa en las tierras bajas tropicales sin recurrir a la multiplicación frecuente en las áreas tradicionales de producción de semilla. La evaluación y selección para tolerancia al tizón temprano ha sido inefectiva, debido a que sólo se observó una ligera infección durante la última parte del período de cultivo. La pudrición gris (Botrytis cinerea) ha sido prevalen te después de una semana de lluvia continua y ha reducido significativamente los rendimientos. Se probaron en el campo 19 familias de tubérculos provenientes de cruzamientos locales, pero ninguna superó al don LT -7 o. a los clones locales que se usaron como testigos. Los rendimientos del don LT-7 superaron a los de un grupo de clones sembrados para evaluar su calidad de procesamiento y mostraron tener igual calidad.Viet Nam y Pacífico Sur. Se continúan evaluando los clones con buenas perspectivas en Fiji (377850,1) y en Viet Nam (Achirana INTA e 1-1039). Se pone énfasis en sus buenas características de almacenamiento y resistencia a los virus para evitar la dependencia de tubérculossemillas importados.Burundi. Se han obtenido resultados promisorios de las evaluaciones exploratorias realizadas para determinar la posibilidad de adaptación de los clones disponibles a las tierras bajas (800 m).Cama de batata sana en India.Durante la estación seca (después de maíz), las parcelas de papa, irrigadas y con cobertura de material vegetal tuvieron un rendimiento de 8,9 a 12,8 t/ha en una región cercana a la capital, Bujumbura. La incidencia de plagas y enfermedades fue mínima.Perú. En Yurimaguas, la cosecha se realizó 90 DDS o 120 DDS en otras localidades del Perú, para seleccionar los genotipos con formación precoz de raíces reservantes. De un total de 60 clones, 5 de segunda y tercera generación produjeron 1 500 g/m 2 durante el cultivo de verano en Lima. Similarmente, 7 selecciones de segunda generación y 10 de tercera produjeron rendimientos de 1 500 g/m 2 en el cultivo de otoño en Tacna. Los rendimientos fueron iguales o mayores que los de los clones avan-,:; zados de otros programas de mejoramiento que se habían cultivado bajo las mismas condiciones en Tacna. Los rendimientos en Yurimaguas fueron bajos ( < de 1000 gjm 2 , con excepción de un don), lo que podría indicar la falta de precocidad y/o de poca adaptación al estrés de ambiente (aniego, baja radiación, suelos ácidos, etc.), presentes en el lugar. Debido a que estas condiciones adversas son típicas de las áreas donde la batata todavía no se ha explotado como cultivo de poca inversión, se están haciendo grandes esfuerzos con un euf oque basado en el mejoramiento de poblaciones, para elevar los actuales rendimientos de batata bajo estas condiciones.Egipto son de rendimientos bajos, debido en parte a una fuerte incidencia de virus. Dos cultivares libres de virus se recibieron de la Universidad del Estado de Carolina del Norte en 1988, junto con semilla sexual de 5 híbridos. Los cultivares (925 y 1135), superaron a los cultivares locales en 200% a 300%, pero no está claro en estos resultados, hasta qué punto este mayor rendimiento sea debido a la ausencia de infección por virus. Sin embargo, esta prueba ha demostrado un incremento potencial en el rendimiento por lo que se han distribuido esquejes sanos a los agricultores en áreas importantes de producción de batata. El almacenamiento de las raíces reservantes por tres meses en \"nawalla\" ( estructuras rústicas, hechas de adobe, con techos de paja) mejorada, dio como resultado una pérdida de peso del 20% (pudrición más respiración), en el cultivar 925 que es el más tolerante al almacenaje, mientras que en \"nawalla\" sin mejorar, las pérdidas por almacenamiento alcanzaron 55% en el cultivar 1135.India. El CIP ha iniciado en 1989 las evaluaciones agronómicas comparativas de variedades selectas de batata. Se han hecho siembras mensuales para determinar las épocas óptimas de siembra, junto con estudios sobre espaciamiento, fertilización y técnicas de siembra, con el objeto de proporcionar recomendaciones de tipo agronómico. Experimentos similares se están haciendo en otras áreas importantes de producción de batata en el mundo. Con el objeto de desarrollar una tecnología tendiente a mejorar la producción de papa y batata en ambientes fríos de los países del tercer mundo se usó el punto de vista multidisciplinario.El desarrollo de las poblaciones mejoradas de papa para proporcionar cultivares potenciales para estos ambientes se centra en factores de estrés limitante, en las resistencias a las principales enfermedades y plagas y en el desarrollo de caracteres agronómicos para satisfacer las necesidades de productores y consumidores. Las principales áreas de acción para dicho germoplasma mejorado son 1) la región andina, cubriendo principalmente las tierras altas de Suramérica y 2) la región no andina, incluyendo las tierras bajas de clima frío y las tierras altas de latitudes tropical y subtropical. Durante el desarrollo del cultivo, las heladas, las temperaturas subóptimas y la sequía son los mayores problemas abióticos que limitan la producción en estas regiones. ~a reducción de los efectos de estos problemas incrementa el j¡ potencial de producción de papa en ambientes fríos por aumento de la productividad y por expansión del área en que se puede cultivar.Los estudios agronómicos y fisiológicos están enfocando las prácticas culturales para mejorar la producción de papa y para desarrollar métodos de evaluación y selección de genotipos para determinar su eficiencia en la utilización de nitrógeno, en los lugares donde los suelos tienen deficiente contenido de este elemento.El cultivo de batata en ambientes fríos de los países del tercer mundo está jugando un papel creciente de importancia en la dieta humana y animal, con siembras que se van extendiendo gradualmente a ambientes más amplios, debido a la gran plasticidad del cultivo para su adaptación a condiciones desfavorables. El germoplasma mejorado se adapta mejor y se ajusta a las necesidades del agricultor y del consumidor.La investigación sobre papa, realizada el año p~sado incluyó: pruebas de campo y selección para tolerancia a las heladas, en colaboración con el Programa Nacional de Papa del Perú INIAA, en Illpa, Puno (3 850). La quinta parte de los clones probados se seleccionó por su tolerancia a las heladas, precocidad, caracteres agronómicos deseables y rendimientos altos, a pesar de la severa sequía e incidencia de heladas. La estación escogió los mejores clones para su multiplicación y liberación de variedades con posibilidades.Proyectos colaborativos con el Programa de Papa de IN/A, Chile. Los clones seleccionados por su adaptación a días largos, provenientes del germoplasma mejorado del CIP, rindieron hasta 30% más que los cultivares locales. Un segundo proyecto desarrolló una tecnología sencilla para la producción de papa y que facilmente es adaptada por los agricultores.Contrato de investigación con el INIA, Chile. En la selección de papas para temperaturas subóptimas, el don del CIP DT0-33 de brotamiento precoz mostró un excelente comportamiento. Un período corto de latencia, la iniciación precoz del tubérculo y el índice de desarrollo rápido del tubérculo parecen ser los caracteres más importantes para una exitosa adaptación a condiciones subóptimas.Proyecto colaborativo en Burundi. La aplicación oportuna de fungicidas demostró ser de máxima importancia para ayudar al control del tizón tardío en variedades con diferentes grados de resistencia horizontal. La variedad resistente Sangema fue severamente afectada cuando la aplicación del fungicida se aplazó hasta 8 semanas después de la emergencia de las plantas. Aparentemente el nivel de resistencia horizontal de esta variedad no es suficiente para soportar los efectos del hongo en este estado, sin aplicación previa de fungicida.Prácticas agronómicas mejoradas para la producción de papa en Camerún. Los resultados indicaron que el guano de corral aplicado a una dosis de 5 t/ha dio los mejores resultados cuando se comparó con otros fertilizantes que se pueden adquirir localmente. Los informes provenientes de Etiopía y Camerún sobre el uso de semilla sexual para la producción de papa indicaron que para el éxito de esta tecnología es necesario alcanzar un límite para resistencia al tizón tardío en las progenies segregantes. En la producción de papa para consumo humano, los tubérculos de plántulas derivadas de semilla sexual ofreéen mayores ventajas para la sobrevivencia y desarrollo de las plantas.Proyecto colaborativo en Paraguay sobre el uso de semilla sexual para la producción comercial de papa. Los tubérculos provenientes de plántulas originadas por cruzamiento de Serrana x LT-7 mostraron mejor comportamiento que los trasplantes del mismo origen. La producción de tubérculos de este cruzamiento (en camas de almácigo y en el campo) fue la más alta.Evaluación y selección de campo de 400 clones de batata para adaptación a ambientes fríos en dos localidades costeras del Perú. En la investigación llevada a cabo durante el invierno, aproximadamente 90% de todos los clones tuvieron raíces grandes y 69% rindió más de 0,5 kg!planta. Los clones seleccionados se están probando en ambientes fríos de elevación media (2 000 a 2 500 m), para determinar su comportamiento y adaptación.El mejoramiento de poblaciones de papa por selección de cultivares para clima frío se ha concentrado en los factores limitantes de estrés como también en la tolerancia a las heladas, producción en temperaturas subóptimas y (recientemente) tolerancia a la sequía. También se están considerando los caracteres agronómicos apropiados para satisfacer las necesidades del agr,icultor y el consumidor.en una gama más amplia de ambientes.Heladas. Dos poblaciones paralelas de papa están en proceso de mejoramiento para tolerancia a las heladas como caracteres primario de protección del cultivo y la gradual adición de resistencia a las enfermedades y plagas importantes en ambientes fríos, como son los virus, el tizón tardío y los nematodos del quiste.U na población ya ha sido señalada para las zonas altas de los Andes donde la incidencia de heladas es el principal factor limitante y los nematodos del quiste están produciendo daños cada vez mayores. Las características requeridas por el cultivo son similares a las de los cultivares primitivos nativos que son enormemente preferidos por los agricultores y consumidores.Una segunda población se está mejorando para su uso en ambientes fríos no andinos (tierras altas y bajas), de latitudes tropicales y subtropicales donde las heladas a principios y hacia el final de la época de cultivo son limitantes. Esta población tendrá finalmente resistencia al tizón tardío y será adaptada a días largos. Las características del cultivo, requeridas en esta área son similares a las de los cultivares de S. tuberosum, los cuales por mucho tiempo han sido adaptados por los agricultores y aceptados por los consumidores.La prueba y selección de clones se hizo en colaboración con el Programa Nacional de Papa del Perú en su Estación Experimental del Altiplano Sur en Illpa, Puno (3 850 m). El daño por heladas es el mayor factor limitante en esta área, la cual es la más grande región de producción de papa en el Perú. Las sequías periódicas son el segundo factor limitante.De los 600 clones probados en esta localidad durante el año, se seleccionaron 110 por su tolerancia a las heladas y por rendimiento y otras características agronómicas (Tabla 7-1). A pesar de cuatro semanas de sequía que se produjo después de la siembra y la incidencia de heladas 87 días después de la emergencia de las plantas, el promedio de rendimientos fue alto. La estación local seleccionó los mejores clones para la multiplicación de semilla sana y para una mayor evaluación en pruebas regionales. La liberación de variedades con probabilidades está planificada por el programa nacional para ayudar a superar el daño causado por heladas.Bajo condiciones de ausencia de heladas (Estación del CIP de Huancayo ), los clones más avanzados de ambas poblaciones tolerantes a las heladas, sometidos a pruebas repetidas alcanzaron rendimientos tan altos como 2,6 kg de tubérculos por planta a una densidad de 44 444 plantas/ha (Figura 7-1), indicando su alto Tabla 7-1. Rendimiento de tubérculos en clones de mejor desempeño, con tolerancia a las heladas en la Estación de lllpa, Puno (3 850 m). potencial de rendimiento bajo condiciones óptimas de manejo de campo.Adaptación a días laTgos. El Programa de Papa del INIA ( Osorno, 40° lat. S), probó 30 clones selectos de la población no-andina previamente introducida en Chile para adaptación y comportamiento de rendimiento de tubérculos bajo condiciones de días largos. El rendimiento total de tubérculos reportado fue 30% 150 mayor que los testigos locales (Tabla 7-2). Se han hecho progresos en la adaptación de poblaciones de ambiente frío a días largos para la selección de cultivares con probabilidades.Temperaturas subóptimas. El contrato de investigación ha comenzado con el Programa de Papa del INIA, Chile para mejorar y seleccionar papas adaptadas a temperaturas subóptimas (perfil de baja temperatura). Se escogieron dos épocas de cultivo diferentes para la evaluación y selección del germoplasma de papa: 1) época otoño-invierno con temeperaturas moderadas y días cortos {Valle de Santiago, 30° lat. S) y 2) una época de invierno-primavera con temperaturas bajas durante la mayor parte de la época de cultivo y credente longitud del día (O sorno, 40° lat. S). Los resultados de una prueba preliminar con una muestra de clones localmente obtenibles, sembrados a fines de agosto (un mes antes que la época de siembra normal), indicaron que el brotamiento precoz de los tubérculos, puede ser un requerimiento clave para la pronta emergencia y rápido crecimiento de la planta bajo estas condiciones. De todos los clones probados, el clori DT0-33 (originario del CIP), que es de brotamiento precoz, fue el primero en emerger del suelo y desarrollar un buen follaje. Similarmente, cuando se cosecharon los clones, 90 días después de la siembra, el DT0-33 dio los rendimientos más altos (Figura 7-2). Sin embargo, cuando se cosechó a los 114 días, los rendimientos de los otros clones fueron similares o más altos, entre ellos Ultimus y Remehue-10 fueron particularmente sobresalientes. Se están haciendo más experimentos en otras localidades para examinar el brotamiento del tubérculo, emergencia de la planta, iniciación del tubérculo, índice de crecimiento del tubérculo y para confirmar el valor de los caracteres necesarios para seleccionar materiales apropiados para este tipo de ambiente.El éxito en los resultados de estos experimentos va a proporcionar dos beneficios directos para los clientes en latitudes subtropicales donde hay un incremento de la producción de papa durante inviernos moderados y donde las temperaturas bajas son el factor limitante. En primer lugar, el experimento va a seleccionar los cultivares más apropiados a condiciones subóptimas y a perfiles de temperatura baja en particular. En segundo lugar, si las condiciones son favorables, la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades no tiene mucha importancia y las papas que se producen bajo estas condiciones son sanas y de alta calidad para su uso como semillas y para consumo humano.152Pení. No se han hecho estudios de campo sobre el uso eficiente del nitrógeno (N), durante 1988 y 1989. sin embargo, los datos obtenidos en experimentos previos de campo, invernadero y laboratorio han sido ampliamente analizados en la búsqueda de un caracter morfológico simple de la raíz que predeciría 1) la capacidad de rendimiento en suelos con bajo contenido de N y2) la capacidad de respuesta al suplemento de N como fertilizante inorgánico. En pruebas realizadas con clones cultivados bajo condiciones de bajo contenido de Nen el suelo, ~l peso ~resco del sistema radicular (promediado sobre valores medidos en plantas in vitro, esquejes enraízados y brotes enraízados) y el promedio del largo de raíces secundarias estuvo significativa e inversamente relacionado a la capacidad de rendimiento. La facultad para incrementar el rendimiento del tubérculo en respuesta a la adición de N estuvo inversamente relacionado al diámetro de las raíces secundarias (medido en los extremos apical o basal) y positivamente relacionado al diámetro apical de los pelos radiculares. Estas relaciones se mantuvieron en todo el material evaluado y serán verificadas en pruebas de otro conjunto de clones de papa. Las investigaciones están en marcha para determinar la relación no linear entre el rendimiento de tubérculos y el incremento de la producción debido al suplemento de N y caracteres morfológicos de la raíz.Burnndi. U na serie de experimentos agronómicos realizados durante dos períodos de cultivo en Crete, región de Burundi, investigaron el encalado y la fertilización para mejorar la producción de papa y la aplicación de fungicidas para el control del tizón tardío.El rendimiento de tubérculos en respuesta al encalado y fertilización con NPK no fue estadísticamente significativo. Los suelos ácidos (pH: 4,7) y la baja solubilidad de la fuente del encalado, así como también la cantidad aplicada pueden haber tenido efectos negativos en las respuestas a los tratamientos estudiados. Estudios más amplios sobre la cantidad de aplicación de cal así como también otras fuentes de NPK se están planificando dentro del contexto de sistemas agrícolas de recursos limitados.Durante dos cultivos consecutivos, los experimentos se hicieron sobre el efecto de las aplicaciones de fungicidas para el control del tizón tardío en tres variedades con diferentes grados de resistencia. Los resultados indicaron que cuando las aplicaciones se • iniciaron 8 semanas después de la emergencia de las plantas, la variedad Sangema tuvo los índices más altos de infección foliar en comparación con Uganda-11 y Ndinamagara. Los rendimientos se redujeron significativamente en Sangema pero en menor proporción en las otras dos. Aparentemente, la resistencia en Sangema no pudo soportar la alta presión de infección del hongo ante la demora de protección adicional; sin embargo, las otras dos variedades mostraron niveles más altos de resistencia. Como una medida adicional de protección, los siguientes experimentos van a tratar de determinar la frecuencia óptima y el momento de aplicación de fungicidas.Para controlar el tizón tardío bajo presión alta de inóculo puede ser necesario un enfoque más integrado a comienzos del período de cultivo. Ninguna resistencia horizontal al tizón tardío por sí sola podría soportar esta presión sin las adecuadas medidas adicionales de protección.CamelÚn. Las pruebas preliminares de fertilización en Camerún, para determinar las fuentes y aplicación de fertilizantes para mejorar los rendimientos de papa, indicaron que el estiércol de ave de corral aplicado en una proporción de 5 t/ha dio el mejor resultado. El estiércol se puede conseguir localmente y es más barato que los fertilizantes químicos. Se están estudiando otras prácticas agronómicas para el mejoramiento del cultivo, como por ejemplo el cultivo asociado de papa con maíz y el control del tizón tardío.Chile. Informes recibidos de•un proyecto colaborativo con el Programa de Papa del INIA, Chile, señalan que cuando se comparan las aplicaciones de tecnología entre la estación experimental y los campos de los agricultores en condiciones de riego y de lluvia, existe una significativa diferencia en favor de la tecnología aplicada por la estación. Esta diferencia puede estrecharse identificando los factores involucrados y corrigiendo las medidas desarrolladas por una natural adopción por parte de los agricultores.Etiopía. Los informes de Etiopía señalaron que las pruebas realizadas durante la época lluviosa en el Centro de Investigación de Holetta que incluyó las pruebas internacional, regional, esteafricana y de polinización abierta de Grande (89,4%) a <0,5 kg _ _ _ _ _.,_ (30,7%) b semilla sexual, se perdieron casi completamente por causa del tizón tardío. Las pruebas futuras de semilla sexual durante la época lluviosa incluirán progenies de clones parentales resistentes al tizón tardío, conocidos como trasmisores de niveles altos de resistencia a su descendencia. Los tubérculos originados en plántulas también se van a considerar ~ para probar la posibilidad de usar semilla sexual como un método alternativo para la producción de papa.Semilla sexual de Camenín. Experiencias previas han demostrado que el uso de tubérculos originados en plántulas en lugar de trasplantes puede ser la tecnología más apropiada para la pro-Pequeño (0,0%)(5,3%)(5,3%) 0,5-1,0 kg (44,3%) '~-----1,5 to >kg (4,8%). . . . ~------1,0-1,Skg (20,2%) Figura 7-3. Comportamiento de una muestra de clones de batata del germoplasma en la estación fría de invierno, Lima, 1989. a) eng~osamiento de la raíz; b) rendimiento de raíces kg/planta.ducción de tubérculos-semillas. Este año se evaluaron 16 progenies en camas de almácigo, para la producción de tubérculos de plántulas en Mfonta (1300 m). Las progenies de más alto rendimiento para la producción de tuberculillos incluyeron las genealogías del CIP 98004 (CFK69.1 x DT0-28), a 6 kg!m 2 y CIP 978001 (Atzimba x R128.6), a 4,3 kg!m 2 . El comportamiento de los tubérculos provenientes de plántulas para la producción de papa de consumo se comparó con las de variedades holandesas en pruebas (a 2 000 m) en que las plantas se asperjaron una vez cqntra el tizón tardío. Seis de las progenies superaron a las 3 variedades comerciales y mostraron resistencia al tizón tardío.Paraguay. La producción de papa a partir de tubérculos provenientes de plántulas de genealogía Serrana x LT-7, tanto en almácigos como en el campo, fue significativamente mayor qu4 las otras tres genealogías evaluadas durante marzo Batata Evaluación en Ambientes Fríos Se hicieron evaluaciones de 400 clones de batata del banco de germoplasma mantenido en el CIP, para examinar su comportamiento en ambientes fríos, en dos localidades de la costa peruana durante la época de invierno. Los datos preliminares sobre desarrollo de la planta, crecimiento de la raíz y rendimiento al momento de la cosecha (150 días des-a junio de 1989 en la Estación Experimental del IAN-Caacupé.Poco después de cosechados los tubérculos de Serrana x LT-7 se trataron para brotamiento y se sembraron durante julio a noviembre del mismo año en campos seleccionados de agricultores. Sin embargo, los rendimientos fueron bajos como resultado de una deficiente emergencia y situación general del cultivo.El corto período entre las épocas de siembra puede resultar en un factor limitante serio si no se hace el mejoramiento para período corto de latencia en las progenies segregantes; sin embargo, si los ciclos se invierten de tal manera que la multiplicación de los tubérculos se hace de julio a noviembre y la papa de consumo se produce de marzo a junio, se puede obtener una solución para el problema de brotamiento del tubérculo al momento de la siembra. Se encuentran en ejecución estudios adicionales. pués de la siembra), indican que la mayoría del material tuvo buen comportamiento y demostró alguna habilidad de adaptación para producir bajo condiciones de baja temperatura. Los rendimientos alcanzaron hasta 2 kg/planta a una densidad de 35 000 plantas/ha (Figura 7-3). Estos clones se van a evaluar posteriormente para determinar su amplitud de adaptación en ambientes fríos y amayores altitudes.Perfil del Plan: 1990 U na reciente encuesta de los líderes de los programas nacionales ha identificado los problemas en la fase de poscosecha como los más importantes en la producción y uso de la papa y la batata. La investigación interdisciplinaria y las actividades de capacitación en el Plan de Acción VIII ayudan a desarrollar y trasmitir la tecnología de almacenamiento y procesamiento en colaboración con los programas nacionales.Durante 1989, este trabajo incluyó 200 proyectos, cuatro contratos y cuatro tesis en ejecución en más de una docena de países en Latinoamérica, Africa y Asia. El trabajo en el pasado ha puesto énfasis en papa, pero la batata está recibiendo actualmente una atención creciente en la investigación.En base a la exitosa expansión del almacenamiento en luz difusa para semilla de papa, la investigación reciente se ha concentrado en la papa de consumo. La técnica de enfriamiento evaporativo ha sido estudiada en Perú, Kenya e India y las técnicas de aire forzado se han estudiado en Pakistán. Se han probado almacenes rústicos sencillos en India y Tailandia. El almacenamiento casero en canastos de bambú y sacos se analizó en Burundi. En el Perú se evaluaron clones para características de almacenamiento. El almacenamiento de semilla bajo condiciones rústicas comparado con refrigeración se estudió en Egipto. En Camerún se evaluó el almacenamiento rústico de semilla. El almacenamiento en arena de tubérculos producidos de semilla sexual de papa se examinó en India. En Malasia se llevó a cabo un taller sobre almacenamiento. Las exitosas pruebas de almacenamiento de papa de consumo en varios países sugieren que en la actualidad sería necesaria la investigación interdisciplinaria sobre la adopción de estas técnicas.• La investigación sobre procesamiento de papa se ha centrado en la evaluación clonal (Perú, Tailandia); sobre prueba continuada y evaluación-incluyendo costos y ganancias -de las técnicas de procesamiento rústico (India); sobre comercialización y demanda de productos procesados en países seleccionados (India, Tailandia). Las actividades adicionales incluyeron una encuesta de prácticas de poscosecha (China), mantenimiento de la investigación que se está realizando y que involucra el procesamiento simple en países seleccionados (Colombia, Guatemala, Perú y Zaire) y trabajo de tesis (Kenya).La investigación en batata se ha diseñado sobre la base de encuestas de las prácticas de poscosecha y sus problemas, llevadas a cabo como parte de un diagnóstico de los sistemas alimentarios de batata (ver también el Plan de Acción X). Este trabajo se está realizando en el Perú, China, Viet Nam y Filipinas; investigación similar se encuentra en ejecución en Indonesia, Tailandia, Taiwan, Argentina y Uruguay. Los resultados de estas encuestas ponen de relieve la importancia de la investigación interdisciplinaria que incluya científicos en ciencias biológicas y sociales, para identificar, evaluar y mejorar las tecnologías existentes.Los estudios en batata se han incluido en los experimentos en que se usan técnicas de procesamiento rústico a nivel de . aldea en India. La evaluación clonal para procesamiento se ha iniciado en Lima, con trabajo de tesis sobre las características nutricionales y químicas de la colección del germoplasma de batata del CIP. Trabajo similar se está realizando actualmente en Tailandia. La investigación sobre almacenamiento de batata usando almacenes rústicos ha comenzado en India y Kenya.Se continúa desarrollando la tecnología para almacenamiento corto de papa de consumo y para semilla en clima cálido seco y cálido humedo, con experimentos en el Perú, Kenya, Burundi, Camerún, Egipto, India, Pakistán y Tailandia. Estas y otras actividades buscan desarrollar alternativas de bajo costo para patrones establecidos de comercialización y utilización. Pruebas exitosas en varios países apuntan la necesidad de investigación interdisciplinaria sobre los factores que influyen en la adopción de prácticas mejoradas de almacenamiento para papa de consumo.Perú. Un total de 18 clones se probaron para capacidad de almacenamiento bajo condiciones rústicas y a tempera-Cajas con duetos de ventilación para almacenamiento de papa de consumo en Tailandia.tura del ambiente en Huancayo y San Ramón. Se usó como testigo un almacén frío fijado a 4C. La pérdida total de peso después de 6 meses de almacenamiento varió de 6,5% a 20,1 % en Huancayo, de 12,9% a 41,9% en San Ramón y de 5,1 % a 11,8% . en la cámara fría. Los clones Capiro, Yungay, CEW-69.1 y 69-56-52 (Tabla 8-1) mostraron excelente capad-dad de almacenamiento o calidad de conservación como papa de consumo. Los resultados de estos experimentos indican que los clones con largo periodo de reposo no tienen necesariamente buena calidad de conservación.En San Ramón, la investigación sobre control integrado de la pérdida de papa almacenada en las zonas tropicales 11 Días entre la cosecha y el brotamiento.b Días entre la cosecha y la formación de tubérculos en los brotes. e Indice de capacidad de almacenamiento: rendimiento de tubérculos almacenados a luz difusa (Huancayo y San Ramón) como una proporción de rendimiento de tubérculos semillas almacenadosa 4 C.d Sin forrnaci6n de tubérculos en los brotes.cálidas ha mostrado resultados consistentes en varios periodos de almacenamiento (ver Informes Anuales de 1988 y 1989). El almacenamiento de bajo costo, de papa producida localmente, es claramente posible bajo condiciones cálidas (20C a 30C) y rústicas, sin una pérdida considerable en cantidad o calidad. Dos tratamientos en el almacén fueron altamente efectivos: 1) una sola selección de la proporción más conveniente del cultivo (tubérculos sanos sin lesiones) para almacenaje, después de un periodo de dos semanas de almacenada redujo las pérdidas y 2) humedeciendo dos veces al día las paredes de carbón del almacén con agua para inducir el enfriamiento evaporativo redujo la pérdida de peso de los tubérculos y la infestación por la polilla del tubérculo. La aplicación de CIPC inhibió en forma efectiva el brotamiento, al igual que lo hicieron los tratamientos de inmersión en tiabendazol e hipoclorito de sodio utilizados para controlar los patógenos que causan pudriciones (Fusarium y Erwinia spp.). Ni el brotamiento, ni la pudrición causaron daños serios hasta después de cuatro meses de almacenamiento.Una tesis de doctorado en la Universidad E&tatal de Carolina del Norte confirmó lo que previamente. se había encontrado, que la repetida selección de tubérculos durante el periodo de almacenamiento aumenta las pérdidas, debido a los altos niveles de daño mecánico causado por el manipuleo adicional (ver Informe Anual 1989). Durante cuatro meses de almacenamiento rústico en San Ramón, las pérdidas en 14 cultivares adaptados a zonas tropicales cálidas fueron asociadas con su relativa susceptibilidad a los patógenos Erwinia carotovora ssp. carotovora, E. chrysanthemi, Fusarium solani y F. oxysporum. Kenya. La investigación ha continuado desarrollando almacenes de bajo costo para papa de consumo en altitudes bajas. Los experimentos sobre almacenamiento en la costa de Kenya utilizaron la variedad Roslyn Eburu, cosechada a altitud mediana. Diferentes tipos de almacenes con ventilación natural se compararon durante un periodo de almacenamiento de 33 días. Los resultados preliminares demostraron que la pérdida total de peso varió de 21,8% a 51,9%, con pérdidas menores en los almacenes de ventilación natural sin enfriamiento evaporativo. Las mayores pérdidas fueron debidas principalmente a la pudrición blanda causada por Erwinia carotovora, la cual a su vez fue inducida por daños producidos en la pie de los tubérculos cosechados inmediatamente después de la maduración del cultivo. Una tesis donde se resume esta investigación, se está preparando en el Instituto de Tecnología de Cranfield. Las tecnologías de almacenamiento, desarrolladas en años anteriores para las áreas de tierras altas de clima frío continúan evaluándose por parte de los agricultores en cooperación con un proyecto deFAO.Burundi. Los precios de la papa de consumo se incrementaron en 30% a 50% entre la época de cosecha en enero y la temporada de escasez en mayo. El almacenamiento de papa de consumo se probó con cuatro variedades usando tres tipos de técnicas con almacenes ventilados en forma natural. La capacidad de almacenamJento varió de 500 kg a 1 000 kg. El periodo posible máximo de almacenaje se definió como el tiempo sin desarrollo significativo de brotes, puesto que los tubérculos brotados sólo se pueden vender como semilla. Los canastos de bambú, colocados sobre piedras para permitir la ventilación desde abajo fueron los que proporcionaron el período más prolongado de almacenamiento: 31 días para el cv. Ndinamagara, 71 días para el cv. Muruta, 61 días para el cv. Kinigi y 101 días para el cv. Uganda.India. Las pruebas de almacenamiento para papa de consumo se realizaron en Athgara en colaboración con el Instituto Central de Investigación en Papa. Los tubérculos se almacenaron en arena por 80 días con una pérdida de 10% en peso y 5% en número; estos resultados sorprendieron a los agricultores locales no familiarizados con este procedimiento tradicional.Tailandia. En colaboración con el Instituto de Investigación Hortícola y de la División de Ingeniería Agrícola del Departamento de Agricultura en Fong (norte de Tailandia), se probaron cuatro tipos de aimacenes de bajo costo y ventilación natural, en la estación experimental, usando dos cultivares comerciales, Fang-60 y Spunta. Después de 47 semanas de permanencia en el almacén, el peso total varió de 13,8% a 18,9%. Durante el periodo de almacenamiento el .promedio de temperatura mínima en el exterior fue de 21,4C y el promedio de la máxima fue de 34,6C; las temperaturas en papas apiladas varió de 23,2C a 26,SC. Los precios de la papa en chacra variaron de 5,5 a 7 bath/kg durante el período de almacenamiento. Este incremento fue suficiente para generar ganancias como resultado del almacenamiento en cada uno de los almacenes experimentales.Los experimentos recientes en clima cálido en varios países han identificado los métodos apropiados para almacenar la papa de consumo por un periodo hasta de dos meses. Estos métodos incluyen el diseño apropiado de los almacenes, al igual que métodos integrados para el control de enfermedades y plagas del producto almacenado. Actualmente se necesita de investigación interdisciplinaria para evaluar la perspectiva del usuario ante estas técnicas de almacenamiento y para identificar los factores que influyen en su ~dopción (por ejemplo, la disponibilidad de crédito).Camerún. En dos localidades de elevación media (1 300 m y 2 000 m) se realizaron dos experimentos sobre almacenamiento de semilla a luz difusa, usando las variedades locales Kijam y Tibati. Un tratamiento fue con hipoclorito de sodio y el otro con CIPC. Los testigos fueron tubérculos sin tratamiento químico. Cada prueba contó con dos tratamientos, con y sin Lantana, y duró 240 días. Los resultados iniciales indican que se puede almacenar papa exitosamente por un periodo 240 días, pero las condiciones fisiológicas del tubérculo son mejores después de 180 días (Tabla 8-2). Aunque el inhibidor de brotamiento CIPC prolongó el reposo, su efectividad disminuyó después de los 90 días. El hipoclorito tuvo un efecto insignificante, debido tal vez a que los suelos de la región son relativamente sanos. A menores alturas, la pudrición fue más pronunciada en tubérculos almacenados después de la época de lluvias que en la época seca. El porcentaje de tubérculos podridos, el largo de los brotes y la pérdida de peso fue mayor en las wnas bajas que en las altas. Los tubérculos de cada Tabla 8-2. Porcentaje de pudrición de brotes, longitud de brotes y porcentaje de pérdida de peso en tubérculos almacenados en almacenes rústicos a. luz difusa en Mfonta, Camerún, en 1989 (1 300 m).Longitud del brote (mm) % Pérdida de peso 90 3 Lantana y 0,5% de hipoclorito de sodio.uno de los tratamientos se han sembrado para evaluar sus rendimientos.Egipto. Cuatro lnbridos y cuatro variedades comerciales provenientes de semilla importada de Europa se almacenaron (a comienzos de junio), por tres a cinco meses, en un almacén frío a 4C -se y en un almacén no refrigerado (Nawalla). Los tubérculos de ambos almacenes habían sido prebrotados a luz difusa por 2 semanas y luego sembrados a fines de setiembre de 1988. El experimento fue cosechado a comienzos de 1989. La comparación del rendimiento entre los híbridos y las variedades comerciales guardadas en almacenes rústicos indica que bajo las condiciones de Egipto (Tabla 8-3) la refrigeración costosa no es necesaria para semilla de papa.India. Un diseño previo de almacén para papa de consumo fue modificado para acomodar semilla de papa. Durante los 3 primeros meses después de la cosecha la papa de consumo se almacenó en oscuridad y luego fue expuesta a luz difusa abriendo las ventanas y colocando 162 6 CIPC (20 ppm) sin Lantana.los tubérculos en capas delgadas sobre bandejas. Después de 70 días la pérdida total de peso füe de 11,5% para el cv. Kufri Bahar y 4,4% para el cv. KufriJyoti. Los tubérculos de 13 genotipos diferentes -incluyendo nueve familias de semilla sexual-también fueron almacenadas en arena, lo cual es un método tradicional de almacenamiento usado por los agricultores. Después de seis meses de almacenamiento el promedio de pérdidas en peso fue de 52,5% y el promedio de pérdidas por pudrición en tubérculos fue de 38,6%. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en la capacidad de almacenamiento entre genotipos.Filipinas. Se están desarrollando mediante un proyecto colaborativo con la Universidad de Filipinas en Los Baños, métodos no químicos para el control del brotamiento en los tubérculos de papa. En experimentos preliminares, se elevaron y seleccionaron plantas de la familia Labiatae para identificar inhibidores naturales de brotamiento. Las especies que se están evaluando actualmente son Coleus amboinicus Lour, ... Tailandia. La demanda por productos procesados de papa está creciendo rápidamente en muchos países del Sudeste Asiático. En Tailandia cerca de 5 000 t/año de papa (cerca de 30% a 50% de la producción nacional), se procesan en bocadillos y en comida habitual. La mayor parte del procesamiento es realizada por compañías locales. La investigación ha puesto énfasis en la evaluación de clones para calidad de procesamiento. En cooperación con la Sección Agroindustria de la División de Química Agrícola del Departamento de Agricultura, se evaluaron 40 clones y cultivares para procesamiento en papas fritas a la inglesa y a la francesa. Conjuntamente se están evaluando clones para calidad culinaria doméstica.Los resultados de un estudio conjunto de comercialización, consumo y demanda para papa y productos de papa en Bangkok, han sido publicados por el Departamento de Economía Agrícola de la Universidad, el Instituto de Inves-Almacén de bajo costo para papa de consumo en Tailandia.ligación Hortícola y el CIP. Estos resultados resaltan las perspectivas para el incremento del consumo de papa fresca y procesada, a medida que crece la población y el incremento de los ingresos genera una mayor demanda. La metodología desarrollada en este estudio sería de utilidad para realizar similar investigación en otros países.India. Las técnicas de bajo costo a nivel de aldea, para procesamiento de papa, se están desarrollando por intermedio del CIP y SOTEC, una organización de desarrollo sin fines de lucro con base en Bareille. Siete unidades de procesamiento sencillo están operando corrientemente bajo la supervisión de SOTEC. Estas unidades procesan un promedio de 550 kg diarios de papa. Los principales productos procesados son tiras y hojuelas deshidratadas, parte de lo cual se convierte en harina. Los índices de conversión de las tiras y hojuelas (materia prima para productos procesados) varia de 14 a 16% en tubérculos de tamaño mediano. La calidad del producto incluyendo contenido de humedad, uniformidad en el tamaño y color de las hojuelas se está estrechando y se están desarrollando guías para estandarizar la calidad del producto. El equipo de procesamiento ha sido mejorado así como también la eficiencia económica de los Piso levantado con listones. India. El apoyo socioeconómico de investigación sobre procesamiento en SOTEC incluye 1) cálculos de los costos de producción basados en coeficientes técnicos y precios estimados para gastos y producción (Tabla 8-4) y 2) contrato de investigación por un economista del Centro de Investigación Agro-Económica de la Universidad Himachael Pradesh que estudió la comercialización de los pro-duetos de papa en Nueva Delhi. El estimado de los costos incluye diferentes simulaciones de precios para papa fresca y para productos procesados (Tabla 8-5). Estos cálculos indican que el procesamiento de más de 500 kg de materia prima fue escasamente lucrativo; también demostraron la importancia del precio de la papa y el trabajo para determinar los costos unitarios de producción. Aunque se necesita de mayor información sobre los índices de conversión, estos resultados proporcionan una justificación económica para combinar el almacenamiento rústico con el procesamiento simple, comenzando con el primero para financiar el último.Los estudios sobre comercialización de productos procesados de papa en Nueva Delhi encontraron una mayor variedad de productos de los que se suponía. Se dispone normalmente de 15 productos, diferenciados sobre la base de su forma, envase, peso y precio. Las hojuelas secadas al sol que se producen con lécnicas rústicas representan la mitad de lo que se vende. La mayoría de las ventas se efectúa a consumidores de ingreso medio. La mayoría de los vendedores al por menor contactados (82,6% ), piensan que la demanda de productos Tabla 8-5. Factibilidad económica de la producción de hojuelas secas de papa en la India (90 días de trabajo, 3 y 5 años de crédito). procesados podría incrementarse reduciendo los precios e introduciendo envases más atractivos (ver Plan de Acción X para detalles adicionales).Perú. Desde 1987, los científicos del CIP han estado evaluando clones para poner de relieve el potencial de procesamiento para papas fritas a la inglesa y a la francesa, usando el germoplasma del CIP con resistencia o tolerancia múltiple a diferentes problemas bióticos y abióticos. Ocho clones se han identificadoLas encuestas básicas para documentar y analizar las formas existentes de utilización de la batata para consumo humano y alimento animal se encuentran en marcha en China, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Tailandia y Perú. Estos estudios son una respuesta a las opiniones de los líderes de los programas nacionales acerca de los problemas y oportunidades para ampliar la producción de batata (ver Plan de Acción X). Los estudios de campo sobre estos puntos también están en marcha en Argentina, Uruguay y República Dominicana, como parte de una diagnosis como buenos productores de papas para fritura (Tabla 8-6), después de haberse realizado experimentos con cerca de 400 clones en diferentes ambientes (La Molina, San Ramón y Huancayo), con pruebas para rendimiento, gravedad específica y contenido de azúcares reductores. En el futuro van a probarse 1 000 clones adicionales para determinar atributos de rendimiento y procesamiento, para identificar progenies con buenas cualidades de procesamiento. amplia del sistema alimentario para batata en esos países. También se ha diseñado otra investigación para elevar e incrementar la eficiencia económica del procesamiento tradicional. Se están desarrollando nuevos productos alimenticios procesados de batata, utilizando un enfoque orientado al consumidor.Filipinas. Los productos alimenticios procesados de batata para grupos urbanos de bajos y medianos ingresos están siendo desarrollados por científicos en el colegio de Agricultura del Estado de Viscaya (VISCA) en Leyte. Las encuestas realizadas entre los consumidores señalan que la investigación debería enfocarse en la producción de hojuelas, fideos y cubos para los platos tradicionales y en harina para pasteles y alimentos para niños. Los experimentos sobre la estandarización de las técnicas de procesamiento para hojuelas de batata han demostrado que una rebanada de 1,5 a 2 mm de espesor es más apropiada para producir un producto final crocante (cuando se fríe). Se han intentado también varios tratamientos de prefritura con cultivares que tienen la pulpa de color blanca amarilla o anaranjada. Sin embargo, el resultado de la degustación fue más o menos el mismo para las hojuelas fritas y para el testigo.La harina de batata tiene probabilidades para su uso como sustituto de la harina de trigo en la preparación de fideos populares en los mercados de Filipinas, sin afectar la textura y calidad general de los fideos. Se ha encontrado que un nivel aceptable de sustitución es el de 25% para fideos ofong (tipo seco) y 50% para fideos canton (tipo fritura). En la formulación de fideos miki (tipo fresco), el 25% de harina de batata no dio un producto satisfactorio. De las variedades de batata evaluadas y seleccionadas para uso en el procesamiento de fideos, Miracle, Karingkit, VSP-3, VSP-6 y UPLSP-5 fueron los que dieron mejores resultados.China. Con seis millones de hectáreas de batata, China tiene una rica tradición de procesamiento a nivel de aldea. El CIP está trabajando con el Laboratorio de Ciencias Alimentarias de la Academia de Ciencias Agrícolas de Sichuan en Chendu, provincia de Sichuan, para documentar y mejorar las técnicas establecidas de procesamiento de batata en China y en otros países. Sichuan es la provincia mayor productora de batata de China y los agricultores locales y los empresarios tienen considerable experiencia en el procesamiento de batata utilizando técnicas de trabajo intenso. Los principales productos son almidón, fideos y hojuelas secas. Los principales problemas identificados en las encuestas iniciales incluyeron índices bajos de recuperación del almidón debido a la ineficiencia de los equipos de procesamiento y a la falta de cultivares con alto contenido de almidón. La investigación para incrementar la . eficiencia económica de los métodos de procesamiento se encuentra en marcha, para incrementar los ingresos de esta tarea. Se está desarrollando y evaluando a nivel de aldea el procesamiento semi.mecanizado.Tailandia. En colaboración con el Departamento de Extensión Agrícola, se está llevando a cabo una encuesta inicial sobre la producción y utilización de la batata. Los resultados preliminares indican que la batata se usa predominantemente para consumo fresco, con sólo una pequeña proporción de producto procesado para dulces y bocadillos. El procesamiento para almidón también tiene perspectivas siempre que el precio de las raíces pueda reducirse.Indonesia. Una encuesta inicial llevada a cabo por el Instituto Central de Investigación para Cultivos Alimenticios, ha identificado un total de 10 diferentes productos en varios mercados minoristas del oeste de Java. Sin embargo, estos productos sólo representan una pequeña proporción del total de la producción de batata. La mayor parte de batatas se consumen al estado fresco o como alimento animal. Los métodos de procesamiento existentes se están documentando y evaluando. La investigación en el futuro identificará las oportunidades adicionales de mercado para los productos de batata utilizados para consumo humano así como también para alimento animal.Perú.. Una encuesta piloto sobre consumo y procesamiento de batata en Lima, encontró que los productos procesados para consumo humano incluían harina, almidón, hojuelas y pan, utilizándose el follaje C9mO forraje animal. Los resultados preliminares de las entrevistas a los consumidores indican un uso limitado de estos productos (por ejemplo, el almidón sólo se utiliza como un ingrediente del postre tradicional). La información disponible es escasa; sin embargo, otros estudios recientes sugieren un considera-ble potencial para substituir la harina de trigo importada por batata (ver Plan de Acción X). Como los consumidores de mayores ingresos utilizan los productos de batata con mayor frecuencia, un precio bajo podría expandir el mercado para el producto fresco y procesado. Se necesita mayor información en relación con la influencia que tienen los planes de acción del gobierno en la forma de subsidios para los productos en base a trigo y cómo esto puede estorbar el desarrollo de los productos de batata en el Perú y en cualquier otro lugar (por ejemplo, Filipinas).En la Universidad Nacional Agraria, La Molina, en un proyecto de tesis para la obtención del grado de Magister, se están evaluando las características químicas y nutricionales de los cultivares de batata en el CIP, para su uso en productos de panadería. De los 150 cul-Los productos hechos de batata son muy nutritivos. En los países del tercer mundo se está utilizando la harina de batata como sustituto de la harina de cereales para la fabricación de pan.•;. tivares evaluados, sólo se identificaron 15 con valores bajos de azúcares reductores. La harina de los cultivares apropiados se va a usar para evaluar la calidad nutritiva de los productos de pastelería, particularmente pan, donde 30% de harina de trigo se reemplaza por harina de batata.Inflorescencias polinizadas en el campo; identificadas para los experimentos de producción de semilla sexual... .La investigación colaborativa a nivel mundial se ha centrado en el mejoramiento de las características agronómicas de progenies selectas de semilla sexual destinadas a la producción de ~emilla y su utilización en clima cálido. Se han identificado varios clones parentales con una capacidad aceptable de desarrollo de las bayas, que producen semilla sexual con tolerancia a la infección de marchitez bacteriana y al estrés por efecto del trasplante, con ~ubérculos uniformes de buena calidad y alta estabilidad de rendimiento.Las técnicas para aumentar la eficiencia de producción de los lu'bridos de semilla sexual se probó en Chile, India, Italia y Perú. Las aplicaciones suplementarias de N incrementaron la producción de semilla sexual, pero podrían reducir la producción de tubérculos de las plantas madres. En suelos con contenido medio de P y alto de K, las• dosis adicionales hasta 160 ppm (P) y 240 ppm (K) demostraron ser óptimas para el incremento de la floración y peso de la semilla sexual. El peso de las bayas se incrementó por incorporación de estiércol antes de la siembra y por adición de abonos foliares. La transformación de clones fértiles, en líneas masculinas de esterilidad citoplasmática, para incrementar la eficiencia de producción de h.fbridos de semilla sexual tuvo éxito en seis clones en los que se está probando la habilidad de cruzamiento.La investigación adicional ha puesto énfasis en el manejo d~ la semilla sexual. Se ha visto que la pérdida de vigor de la semilla sexual en almacenamiento . avanza a menor velocidad cuando ha sido producida con mveles altos de N. La conservación fue mejor cuando se mantuvo la semilla en ambiente seco que cuando estuvo expuesta al aire del ambiente. La prueba de vigor de las plántulas de progenies selectas de semilla sexual, en varios periodos de almacenamiento ha .demostrado que la semilla debe ser posmadurada con un contenido de humedad de 5% a 7% (sobre la base de peso seco) y en condiciones de temperatura baja (20C), hasta por lo menos 12 meses antes de sembrarla en ambientes de temperatura alta. La presiembra de semilla sexual en una solución de N03K + P04KJ y luego el secado (imprimación osmótica), ha sido un tratamiento efectivo para incrementar el vigor de la semilla a temperaturas supraóptimas (30C).La eficiencia de las técnicas para la producción de tuberculillos ha sido mejorada con extensos estudios realizados en India y Perú. Los proyectos colaborativos continúan extendiéndose exitosamente en Paraguay, Venezuela, Camerún e Indonesia. Los estudios están dirigidos a investigar los problemas técnicos y desarrollar las modificaciones necesarias en cada lugar, para el uso óptimo de semilla sexual en el sistema de producción de tuberculillos.El CIP ha ampliado su colaboración para el fortalecimiento o desarrollo de los sistemas de propagación de tubérculos para semilla en Bolivia, Burundi, Colombia, Venezuela, Kenya, Mayanmar, Filipinas y Perú. Los objetivos de estos proyectos incluyen: el análisis de factores limitantes de la producción de papa y de los sistemas tradicionales de distribución de tubérculos-semillas; la transferencia de información en aspectos tales como la simple selección de plantas sanas, la multiplicación rápida avanzada y el desarrollo de sistemas de producción de semilla básica. La participación de los agricultores es una parte integral del proceso, en todos los proyectos. Se ha completado en Kenya un caso de estudio explorando las ventajas y desventajas de los sistemas de semilla.La investigación sobre el mejoramiento de las técnicas de propagación de batata se ha realizado en una gama amplia de ambientes. Se han identificado los factores agronómicos y climáticos que afectan la floración y producción de semilla. Se ha demostrado que el uso de plantitas propagadas in vitro, esquejes largos sin enraizar y esquejes enraizados, da como resultado un rápido establecimiento y desarrollo e incrementa la floración. Por incorporación de algunos variantes de Azospirillum se obtuvo un aumento en la absorción de N y rendimiento de raíces.Las pruebas de Evaluación Internacional de Progenie se llevaron a cabo en 14 localidades que representan a una amplia gama de ambientes en el mundo. En el Perú, el comportamiento de las progenies en estas pruebas fue diferente en San Ram{?n y en Lima (lugares que representan a los ambientes húmedo y seco tropical respectivamente}, en las dos estaciones de cultivo de la evaluación. Sin embargo, algunas progenies mostraron una producción relativamente estable en todos los ambientes. El material probado incluye Maine x C83.119, Serrana x LT7, C83.174 X C83.119, C83.119 X A VRDC1287.19 y C83.119 x Y87.013. En estas pruebas, el progenitor C83.119 trasmitió a sus progenies altos rendimiento y niveles de estabilidad.En las evaluaciones de progenies avanzadas en Lima, los tratamientos incluyeron dos sistemas de riego y dos métodos de trasplante. Las plantas de las progenies Y84.027 x 377964; LT-9 x A VRDC-1287.19 y YY-7 x LT-7 mostraron alta tolerancia al estrés que se produce por trasplante y los rendimientos no se vieron afectados en aquellos tratamientos en los que las plántulas se trasplantaron al campo a raíz desnuda.Siete progenies selectas de las líneas parentales nuevas, de características agronómicas y reproductoras mejoradas se evaluaron bajo condiciones de frío (Huancayo) y calor (San Ramón}. La mayoría de las progenies superaron a los testigos en la mayoría de los caracteres agronómicos evaluados (incluyendo características del tubérculo). En San Ramón se evaluaron 15 progenies seleccionadas de una población adaptada a clima cálido, durante la época cálida lluviosa, bajo condiciones de infección severa de marchitez bacteriana. V arias progenies tuvieron buenos rendimientos, confirmando su potencial de uso en esas condiciones.U na muestra de 45 familias se evaluó en San Ramón (época seca) y en La Molina (época de invierno) para determinar los parámetros genéticos para esta población. El diseño 1 de Carolina del Norte usó una muestra de 15 clones masculinos y 3 clones femeninos por cada masculino en 3 conjuntos. Han sido identificados los clones parentales que trasmiten sus buenos caracteres agronómicos y reproductivos a sus progenies y se van a utilizar para líneas parentales de semilla sexual.En San Ramón, 220 clones previamente seleccionados para adaptación a clima cálido se seleccionaron por su capacidad de floración y establecimiento de frutos. Se identificaron varios clones por tener caracteres reproductores apropiados (Tabla 9-1), los que serán utilizados como progenitores, en el programa de semilla sexual para evaluar sus posibilidades.Se utilizó la fusión de protoplastos para la transformación de clones, con el objeto de obtener esterilidad citoplasmática masculina (ECM). El polen de progenitores masculinos conocidos como 7XY.1, LT-7 y Atzimba se cruzó con los clones transformados, para evaluar su eficiencia como progenitores y la segregación de sus progenies. Dos de estos clones produjeron tetradás de polen de EMC, pero sólo Y245.7 mostró un buen comportamiento agronómico y probabilidades para usarlo como línea parental en la producción de semilla sexual. Se evaluaron más de 300 genotipos como progenitores potenciales para la producción de semilla sexual y se evaluaron y seleccionaron para tétradas de EMC en Huancayo, San Ramón y La Molina. En esta población se identificaron seis clones con tétradas de polen de EMC: C386LM87-B, C116LM87-B, C137LM87-B, 382301.1, 382302.2 y 382291.1. Las pruebas para determinar su capacidad de cruzamiento están en marcha.Un esquema general, para evaluar agronómicamente las progenies de semi-  lla sexual se probó por segundo año en dos localidades del Perú. con este enfoque, se hicieron las evaluaciones de un conjunto de progenies avanzadas del programa de semilla sexual del CIP, usando dos metodologías: 1) producción directa de tubérculos de consumo por trasplante de plántulas en el campo y 2) uso de tubérculos formados en las plántulas. Los tubérculos provenientes de plántulas se producen en las tierra altas en camas bajo condiciones controladas de riego. Los tubérculos de 3,5 mm a 5 mm de diámetro se siembran en Lima y San Ramón en la siguiente época de cultivo, junto con trasplantes de las mismas progenies. Nuevas progenies mejoradas de semilla sexual se están incorporando cada año en este esquema de evaluación.En India se evaluaron progenies de híbridos localmente desarrollados en Modipuran y Tripura. En Modipuram se evaluaron 13 familias híbridas: HPS-1/111, HPS-1/13, HPS-1/67, HPS-2/67, HPS-2/III, HPS-2/13, HPS-7/11, HPS-7/PPS, HPS-24/111, HPS-25/30, HPS-27 /111, HPS-26/PPS y HPS-(11 X 1), para la producción de tubérculos de plántulas en camas de almácigo. Una a dos semillas se sembraron a una profundidad de 1/2 cm a 1 cm con un espaciamiento de 10 x 10 cm. Dos semanas después de la germinación, se hizo un raleo para que quedaran al nivel deseado de 100 plantas/m2. Todas las poblaciones tuvieron el óptimo de densidad de plantas, con excepción de HPS-26/PPS que tuvo aproximadamente 50 plantas/m 2 • El cultivo fue desbrozado 90 días después de la siembra y antes de la cosecha se registraron las observaciones sobre el total de rendimiento de tubérculos, número de diferentes tamaños de tubérculos y segregación.En la misma localidad, se evaluó el comportamiento de 17 familias htbridas trasplantadas al campo para papa de consumo o para semilla. También se evaluaron 11 familias de las cuales se han usado tuberculillos de tamaños diferentes para semilla. En la prueba con las 17 familias h.tbridas, el porcentaje de sobrevivencia de plántulas, registrado 45 días después del trasplante estuvo por encima de 75% en todas las progenies (Tabla 9-2). Con excepción de HPS-2/13 y HPS-10/111 el rendimiento de tubérculos, producido por familias de semilla sexual fue mayor de 20 t/ha. HPS-12/13 dio el rendimiento más alto de tubérculos, pero mostró una mala uniformidad de los mismos. Las familias de semilla sexual HPS-7/111 y HPS-25/13 tuvieron un rendimiento de 31,7 t/ha y 33,2 t/ha respec- tivamente, lo cual es igual o mejor de lo que se obtiene de los mejores cultivares usados por los agricultores. El porcentaje de tubérculos de tamaño comerciable de las familias de semilla sexual varió de 55,1 % a 88,7%. Algunos de los hJbridos sobrepasaron el 80% de cosecha comerciable. En general, el número de tubérculos por las familias de semilla sexual por unidad de área fue mucho mayor que en los cultivares. El peso promedio de todas las progenies de semilla sexual estuvo entre 12, 7 g y 32,3 g; sin embargo, algunas de las familias de semilla sexual tuvieron una mala uniformidad de tubérculo.Tuberculillos de 2 g-5 g, 5 g-10 g, 10 g-20 g y > 20 g de 11 familias de semilla sexual se evaluaron durante 1988-89 para determinar su comportamiento en el campo en Modipuram. Tubérculos-semillas de los mismos tamaños del cultivar Kufri Bahar también fueron comparados. El cultivo se desbrozó después de 90 días de maduración. El rendimiento de tubérculos (t/ha), producto comerciable (%),número de tubérculos/m 2 y el peso de los tubérculos (g) se registraron al momento de la cosecha. El lu.brido HPS-1/13 dio una producción de tubérculos mayor que el cv. Kufri Bahar, pero la producción comerciable de Kufri Bahar fue mayor que todas las otras familias de semilla sexual. Las familias de semilla sexual produjeron más tubérculos por unidad de área que los cultivares. El promedio de peso del tubérculo de Kufri Bahar fue superior al de todos los híbridos de semilla sexual.En pruebas comparativas de campo, en que se usaron tubérculos de semilla sexual de segunda y tercera generación, el potencial de rendimiento de los tubérculos-semillas de ambas generaciones fue similar. Después de 90 días de maduración en el campo, el cultivo fue desbrozado y se compararon los rendimientos de ambas generaciones de plantas con los cultivares localmente utilizados. De esta manera, el agricultor pudo usar parte del producto de cada generación para sembrar su próximo cultivo sin una pérdida sustancial de su cosecha. En Tipura se obtuvieron resultados completamente opuestos en una prueba en que se usaron 5 híbridos, 1 OP y el cv. Kufri Jyoti como testigo. Se utilizaron tuberculillos del mismo tamaño después de 1 a 2 propagaciones en campo. Los resultados mostraron diferencias significativas de rendimiento en ambas generaciones.Las plántulas de 11 ln'bridos y dos familias de semilla sexual de polinización abierta'( OP) se trasplantaron al campo con un distanciamiento de 60cmx15 cm. Los porcentajes de sobrevivencia de todas fas familias variaron de 74% a 92%. El hfürido HPS-1/67 tuvo el índice más alto de sobrevivencia. El híbrido HPS-7 /111 produjo el mayor rendimiento de tubérculos y OP TPS-2 fue el de menor rendimiento. El rendimiento de tubérculos de algunas de las familias de semilla sexual igualó al de Kufri Jyot~ pero en promedio el peso de tubérculos en todas las familias de semilla sexual fue mucho más bajo.En un ensayo comparativo de campo donde se utilizaron tubérculos de 5 g, 10 g y 20 g producidos en camas en la época de .cultivo anterior, el hfürido HPS-7 /13 fue el de mayor rendimiento y TPS-2 {OP) fue el más bajo. El cultivo se desbrozó 96 días después de la siembra. Las plantas provenientes de tuberculillos 176 de los tres tamaños tuvieron rendimientos estadísticamente similares. Los tuberculillos de 5 y 10 g produjeron un número máximo de tubérculos por unidad de área y tuvieron el promedio más bajo de peso.En otro experimento donde se usaron tuberculillos de 20 g, 40 g y 60 g obtenidos de trasplantes durante el período de cultivo anterior y se desbrozaron las plantas 96 días después de la siembra, no hubo diferencia en el rendimiento o en el número de tubérculos/m 2 , en relación con el taniaño de los tuberculillos usados como semilla. Estos resultados sugieren que el agricultor podría vender para consumo los tubérculos de más de 20 g y usar el producto no comerciable como semilla para su cultivo siguiente, sin pérdida en el rendimiento. Una de las progenies de mejor comportamiento en varios países del Asia, HPS-1/13, se comparó en 3 consecutivos periodos de cultivo con cultivares que se usan localmente {Figura 9-1), en tres localidades (Modipuram, Deesa y Agartala). Los rendimientos comerciables para HPS-1/13 fueron generalmente más bajos que los de otros cultivares con que se comparó; pero la proporción de tubérculos comerciables en esta progenie fue mayor al 60% en las 3 localidades durante los 3 periodos de cultivo. Debido a que los tuberculillos provenientes de trasplantes de esta progenie han producido normalmente rendimi~ntos altos, el hecho de que aproximadamente el 40% de tubérculos no son de tamaño comercial (varían de 10 a 20 g), debe ser considerado como una ventaja, porque esta porción podría ser i4eal para usarse como semilla en el sigwente periodo de cultivo. Más aún, el análisis económico de los datos indicó que el costo de producción Figura 9-1. Rendimiento comparativo (tlha) de trasplantes de plántulas de cultivares HPS 1/13 y cultivares locales.de esta fracción de HPS-1/13 fue de aproximadamente 38 dólares americanos por tonelada de tubérculos-semillas. Además, en lugar de 2,5 t de . tubérculos de semilla comercial que normalmente se usan para sembrar una hectárea, el agricultor requeriría solamente 1,7 t de tuberculillos obtenidos de la porción de 10 ga20 g.Generalmente el promedio del peso de los tubérculos de trasplantes de HPS-1/13 es más bajo que el de los cultivares. Un mayor número de progenies h.füridas se están evaluando y seleccionando para mejorar esta característica.En Canlubang, Filipinas, se evaluaron progenies nuevas derivadas de progenitores locales selectos, para rendimiento y otras características deseables. El h.t'brid9 LT-7 x LBB es una promisoria progeni'? que tiene rendimientos altos, uniformidad en la forma y color del tubérculo y mayor tamaño.En dos localidades de Italia, Marigliano, cerca de N ápoles y Camigliatelli en la región de Calabria, se trasplantaron plántulas de 28 híbridos, usando dos plántulas por mata y 10 matas por parcela. Los mejores resultados se-obtuvieron con la progenie UP 88201 x A VRDC1287.19, con una producción total de tubérculos de 51,6 t/ha. Ch.iquita x A VRDC-1287. 19  En Marigliano, los mejores resultados para rendimiento y calidad se obtuvieron con Morena x BR-63,15. Las progenies de polinización abierta del don del CIP LT-5 dieron excelentes rendimientos, con una producción total de tubérculos de 57,1 t/ha. En Camigliatello, Morena x BR-66.15 proporcionaron la mejor combinación para rendimiento y calidad y LT-5 de polinización abierta nuevamente se comportó bien.En Lima, 9 progenitores femeninos y 11 masculinos se cruzaron para producir semilla sexual para la distribución y evaluación regional de 38 hfüridos nuevos y 2 progenies de polinización abierta. Todo el material parental provino de plantas trasplantadas in vitro. Se obtuvo suficiente cantidad de semillas, excepto cuando se usó polen TS-1 y TS-2, Los cruzamientos hechos con estos dos progenitores masculinos fueron afectados por la baja viabilidad y pérdida rápida de la capacidad de germinación del polen después de un periodo corto de almacenamiento. Similarmente se observó poco o nada de floración en los progenitores femeninos LT-9 y Atlantic. Las plantas se regaron por goteo, se fertilizaron con N suplementario y se trataron con 3 horas diarias de oscuridad. En Italia, un bloque de cruzamiento dialélico que incluyó 7 progenitores (V-2, R-128.6, LT-5, 1-931, 1-1062, CFK.-69-1 y A VRDC 1287.19) se empleó para producir hfüridos de semilla sexual para su distribución en la Región IV del CIP. Las semillas sexuales se produjeron en plantas de dos tallos que crecieron bajo condiciones de invernadero con niveles altos de abonamiento nitrogenado, aplicado a 178 intervalos semanales. Los frutos se dejaron madurar en la planta por un periodo de 10 semanas aproximadamente antes de extraer la semilla.Se produjeron ocho kilos de semilla de htbridos avanzados del CIP bajo contrato con el INIA de Osorno, Chile. Cantidades variables de semilla htbrida se han producido mediante este contrato en los últimos cinco años (Tabla 9-3). La producción en Chile ha puesto de relieve la importancia que tiene el mantenimiento de alta viabilidad del polen utilizando plantas en excelentes condiciones de sanidad y usando métodos eficientes de hibridación.En Kothi, India, se han hecho intentos para producir cantidades sustanciales de semilla sexual de ocho htbridos para evaluaciones en finca en gran escala. Los ocho híbridos fueron HPS-1/13, HPS-1/67, HPS-7/13, HPS-7/67, HPS-2/13, HPS-2/67, HPS-25/13 y HPS-25/67, escogidos en base a su comportamiento en años anteriores y en diferentes localidades. En total, se obtuvieron 4,58 kg de semilla sexual htbrida a partir de los hfüridos antes mencionados. Adicionalmente, se obtuvo aproximadamente 1 kg de semilla sexual de 54 cruzamientos de prueba, cuando se cruzaron 27 htbridos nuevos con dos probadores masculinos Producción de hibridos de semilla sexual en la Estación La Pampa (INIA), Osomo, Chile, 1988-89. selectos (TPS-13 y TPS-67). Estas familias de semilla sexual recientemente generadas se están evaluando para determinar la calidad de la semilla, germinación, establecimiento en el campo, potencial de rendimiento y características de la planta y el tubérculo. Para la extracción de la semilla producida en este año se ha seguido un procedimiento estándar para extracción y procesamiento de semilla sexual, desarrollado en la Región VI del CIP.V arios experimentos sobre aplicación y dosis de fertilizante se han llevado a cabo en diferentes suelos de varias regiones del Perú. Las dosis altas (240 ppm) de N iqcrementaron significativamente la flor ación y el establecimiento de la semilla sexual, pero redujeron la producción de tubérculos de papa Atzimba en suelos areno-arcillosos• de pH neutro, bajo Tabla 9-3. Area, número de plantas femeninas y masculinas, bayas e hibridos de semilla sexual producidos en Osomo, Chile, en 5 campañas de cultivo.Número contenido de materia orgánica y de N y con niveles medios de P y K aprovechables. Las fuentes de N, úrea, nitrato de amonio y sulfato de amonio no tuvieron efecto diferencial en la floración y producción de frutos.En suelos con contenido medio de P disponible (6 a 8 ppm por Olsen), las dosis de 80 a 120 ppm de P20s incrementaron significativamente la producción de semilla sexual, pero dosis más altas afectaron su peso.El uso de superfosfato simple y triple y el de fosfato de amonio tuvieron efecto similar; el fosfato de roca (30% de P20s) demostró ser una buena fuente de P para suelos con un pH menor de 6,5 y poco fósforo disponible.En suelos aluviales de los valles costeros peruanos de Cañete y Chincha, caracterizados por un alto contenido de K disponible, la adición de fertilizantes aumentó la floración y formación de bayas. Sin embargo, 200 ppm de K20 redujeron el establecimiento de la baya y el peso de 100 semillas sexuales. Una formulación de mezcla fertilizante de S04K2 y S04 Mg se comportó mejor que las fórmulas con Ksolo. Dos aplicaciones de abono foliar conteniendo micro y macronutrientes, realizadas a intervalo semanal antes de la floración, aumentaron el número y tamaño de las bayas y el peso de 100 semillas sexuales. Sin embargo, no mejoró la velocidad de germinación ni el vigor de las plántulas durante los primeros 20 días.En Lima, Perú, se estudiaron los clones DT0-28 y LT-7 bajo condiciones de invernadero, para determinar los efectosManipulación de la semilla sexual. El comportamiento de la semilla una vez sembrada ha demostrado estar enormemente afectado por condiciones generales durante la fase de desarrollo de la semilla y después de la cosecha. Las aplicaciones periódicas de N después de la polinización mejoran el comportamiento, por lo que esta práctica se usa rutinariamente en la producción de semilla sexual.Para investigar los efectos de las condiciones de humedad en almacenamiento sobre la germinación de la semilla y el vigor de la plántula, semilla sexual del cruzamiento Atzimba x DT0-28 se desarrolló con aplicaciones altas y bajas de fertilizante nitrogenado. La semilla sexual se almacenó a temperatura natural en el aire del ambiente (9 a 12% de humedad de la semilla) y bajo condiciones secas (5%). Las pruebas de germinación se realizaron en condiciones favorables después de 7, 11y14 meses de almacenamiento (Tabla 9-4) y se probó el vigor de las plántulas después de 14, 20 y 23 meses. El índice y porcentaje de germinación (O a 8 días después de la siembra), estuvieron mayormente influenciados Tabla 9-4. Efectos de la aplicación de N durante la producción de semilla y condiciones de humedad durante el periodo de almacenamiento de la semilla sobre el coeficiente de velocidad (CoV) y porcentaje de germinación después de 7, 11 y 14 meses de almacenaje. por las condiciones de humedad durante el almacenamiento que por la aplicación de fertilizantes: la semilla seca germinó con mayor rapidez y en índices mayores que la que se almacenó al ambiente. El índice de germinación mostró una asociación linear con el tiempo de almacenamiento de la semilla y el porcentaje fue mayor ( ~ 95% ), en las semillas secas producidas con alto nivel de N (Tabla 9-5). Las respuestas en los otros tratamientos fueron curvilíneas; el potencial de germinación comenzó a disminuir al 14vo mes en almacenamiento. Los parámetros del vigor de las plántulas mostraron estar influenciados mayormente por los tratamientos de N durante la producción de la semilla. Las semillas provenientes de tratamientos con alto nivel de N tuvieron índices y porcentajes de emergencia (O a 10 días) y peso seco de las plántulas (17 días), mucho más altos que las semillas que recibieron menos N, particularmente cuando se almacenaron secas. En almacenamiento, los parámetros de emergencia de las plántulas provenientes de semilla con bajos niveles de N, decrecieron linearmente con el tiempo, mientras que la semilla del tratamiento con nivel alto de N mostró incremento linear en el índice de emergencia y los porcentajes fueron altos (95% ). Estos resultados sugieren que la semilla sexual debería producirse con aplica-Tabla 9-5. Efectos del nitrógeno aplicado durante la producción de semilla y condiciones de humedad durante el almacenaje sobre el coeficiente de velocidad (CoV) y porcentaje de emergencia después de 14, 20 y 23 meses de almacenaje. Tratamientos de la semilla sexual antes de la siembra. Los tratamientos de presiembra tuvieron como objetivo comparar el establecimiento del conjunto de plántulas bajo condiciones de invernadero en semillas viejas ( > 18 meses) y nuevas ( < de 6 meses), en tres cruzamientos de papa. Los tratamientos consistieron en remojar la semilla en soluciones de N03 Km + P04KJ a 1,0 MPa (pre-par&ción) y ácido giberélico a 1500 ppm (AG 1500). Las evaluaciones de los parámetros de emergencia y desarrollo de las plántulas se hicieron en los primeros 17 días después de la siembra bajo un promedio de temperaturas (max) del aire de 29C y 34C. Los niveles de vigor de las plántulas en la segunda prueba (34C) fueron más bajos. que en la primera (29C). En ambas pruebas, el comportamiento general de las plántulas fue mejor en semillas de los cruzamientos Atzimba x L T-7, Las semillas viejas fueron más vigorosas que las nuevas, particularmente cuando los cruzamientos Atzimba x R128.6 y Serrana x LT-7 se probaron a 34C. La preparación incrementó la emergencia precoz sobre los otros tratamientos a 34C y aumentó el peso seco de las plántulas en ambas pruebas (Figuras 9-2 y 9-3). El AG 1 SOO incrementó generalmente la emergencia final en Serrana x LT-7. Se llegó a la conclusión de que para sembrar semilla sexual a altas temperaturas a) el genotipo es un factor crucial, b) un periodo suficiente de almacenamiento ( > 18 meses) puede ser esencial y c) la preparación de la semilla es más efectiva que el tratamiento estándar con AG 1500).Almacenamiento de semilla sexual tratada. El mantenimiento de los efectos 182 de varios tratamientos a la semilla, durante el almacenamiento a dos temperaturas se evaluó usando semilla sexual de Atzimba x LT-7, Atzimba x R128.6 y Serrana x LT-7 producida en 1987y1988 en Chile. Los tratamientos a la semilla fueron una solución de preparación (N03K + P04KJ a 1,0 MPa), ácido giberélico (1500 ppm) y enjuague (agua por S minutos). Las semillas tratadas se almacenaron por cuatro meses a dos temperaturas: SC y 22C. Los efectos de la preparación fueron mantenidos mejor a SC que a 22C. Las plántulas producidas con los tratamientos de preparación de las semillas almacenadas a se produjeron plántulas con mayor vigor y peso seco/planta. En general, el tratamiento de preparación produjo una mayor acción que el método estándar con ácido giberélico y el de enjuague antes de la siembra.En India, los estudios con el uso de semilla recién extraída de cuatro ta- maños demostraron que una solución de CIH al 10% puede usarse sin peligro para remojar la semilla, con el objeto de extraerle el mucílago y extraer los hongos o bacterias de la cubierta. Los efectos del tamaño de la semilla se estudiaron también, en otro experimento para determi-nar la proporción de embriotipos diferentes y su relación con el vigor de las plántulas. Las plántulas provenientes de semillas más grandes con embriotipo A, esto es, con embriones completamente desarrollados demostraron ser más vigorosas que las de semillas con embriotipo B.Semilla Sexual en Programas de Tubérculo-SemillaSuramérica. Un proyecto colaborativo entre el Ministerio de Agricultura {MAG) ' y el CIP se inició en Paraguay, para producir grandes volúmenes de tubérculos semillas de dos progenies selectas de semilla sexual: Atlantic x LT-7 y Serrana x LT-7. Estos tubérculos semillas se van a usar como base de un sistema para abastecer de semilla de alta calidad a los agricultores locales. Los tubérculos se produjeron por tras~lante de plántulas en camas de 600 m en el cam~ a razón de aproximadamente 50 por m , en dos estaciones experimentales diferentes. Las plantas se cosecharon tres meses después del trasplante y los tubérculos se almacenaron por tres meses antes de la siembra en febrero para una futura multiplicación. Los tubérculos de cuatro progenies, producidos el año pasado también se sembraron en parcelas en ambas estaciones, para evaluar las progenies mejor adaptadas. Los tubérculos también se sembraron en un campo de producción masiva en la estación experimental. Además, algunos de los tubérculos se distribuyeron entre los agricultores, para obtener su ayuda en identificar los problemas potenciales que puedan necesitar mayor investigación.En cuatro campos de agricultores en Venezuela (estado de Trujillo y Mérida), se produjeron tuberculillos en camas y se sembraron en el campo después del periodo regular de almacenamiento. (Uno de estos agricultores ha estado cultivando papa a partir de tubérculos-semillas originados de semilla sexual sembrada en camas en su fundo hace aproximadamente cinco años. El obtuvo 20 t/ha en el último periodo de cultivo). Debido al potencial que existe para la adopción de este método de producción de papa en aquellas regiones, se evaluaron dos métodos de producción de tuberculillos en camas de almácigo por científicos nacionales: siembra directa y trasplante de plántulas a camas de almácigo. El método de trasplante mostró un mejor establecimiento de la planta, rendimientos más altos y mejor distribución de tamaño del tubérculo. De las diferentes progenies probadas, Atzimba x 104.12 LB mostró los resultados más prometedores y rendimientos mayores de 9 kgtm 2 de almácigo.A/rica. En Camerún, las evaluaciones preliminares indicaron que la producción de tuberculillos en almácigos puede ser un método apropiado para proporcionar material de siembra de calidad proteica a bajo costo a los agricultores. Cuando se trasplantan las plántulas al campo bajo condiciones de fuerte estrés de los lugares de producción, éstas han demostrado tradicionalmente un establecimiento deficiente en el campo; sin embargo, esta limitación puede superarse produciendo tuberculillos en camas de almácigo. En Mfonta (1300 m) se evaluaron 16 progenies en camas de almácigo a una densidad de 100 plantaslm 2 • 184 Los tuberculillos se cosecharon 90 días después del trasplante y las progenies de mayor rendimiento fueron CFK69 .1 x DT028, Atzimba x R128.6, Atzimba x 104.12-LB e I-931 xA VRDC 1287.19. En la Upper Farm, la producción de tuberculillos de 13 progenies se comparó con la de tres variedades comerciales. Seis de las progenies superaron en rendimiento a las tres variedades y tuvieron mayor resistencia al tizón tardío. Las tres progenies de mayor rendimiento fueron CFK 69.1X104.12LB, CFK 69.1 X DT028 y Atzimba x 104.12LB.En Sri Lanka se están adaptando progenies a las condiciones locales. Progenitores mejorados de semilla sexual se han identificado de clones localmente seleccionados y se están produciendo una gran cantidad de ht'bridos de semilla sexual para reemplazar las progenies menos productivas usadas en el pasado.Las pruebas de evaluación socioeconómica del uso de semilla sexual han continuado en varias localidades de la India. Estudios económicos han demostrado las claras ventajas del uso de semilla sexual en muchas áreas; es así que la semilla sexual está atrayendo en forma creciente el interés de los agricultores (ver Plan de Acción X).Un programa muy activo sobre agronomía de semilla sexual se encuentra en marcha en la región de Patna bajo la supervisión de CPRS. Se seleccionó semilla de las mejores progenies a través de evaluación sistemática en India y se ha distribuido a Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka y Filipinas.Las progenies de semilla sexual con respuestas promisorias en lugares de cultivo específicos se han distribuido a los agricultores para que las prueben en sus fincas.La tecnología de semilla fue introducida a dos áreas aisladas de cultivo de Filipinas ( Canlaón, Negros y Lantapan, Bukidnon). En Canlaón, los agricultores han mantenido con éxito la producción de semilla sexual, tres años después de su introducción y actualmente la mayoría de semilla sexual se produce con tuberculillos.En Lantapan, donde la marchitez bacteriana es un factor limitante para la producción de papa, se introdujo semilla sexual con el objeto de proporcionar semilla limpia. Se entregó semilla sexual a 20 agricultores interesados y se les instruyó sobre la forma de producirla; actualmente, ellos obtienen 1, 7 a 3,8 kg por m 2 en sus camas de almácigo. Los tuberculillos de la primera generación se sembraron en junio de 1989. En setiembre de 1989 se distribuyó semilla (se vendió) a varios agricultores en Mindanao, conjuntamente con las instrucciones sobre cómo producir papa a partir de semilla sexual.La producción de semilla sexual continúa en Dalat, Viet Nam, donde la producción de lnbridos se inició en 1989 en la Estación Experimental de Papa y se han producido 200 g de semilla ln'brida. Generalmente, se puso estacas a las plan-tas y sólo se permitieron cinco flores por planta lo que permitió obtener tres frutos por tallo. En promedio, se obtuvieron 100 semillas por baya. Los progenitores femeninos fueron CFK69.1, mientras que los masculinos incluyeron a 38.6,7XY.1,88.14,88.1 yl-1039. La producción se está extendiendo en 1990.En el área del Delta del Río Rojo (DRR), durante la época de cultivo 1988-1989 sólo se utilizaron 10 kg de semilla sexual de polinización abierta para trasplantar en seis cooperativas (2 en Haihung, 2 en Langson y 2 en Hasonbinh). Aproximadamente se han cultivado 700 ha de papa a partir de tuberculillos en la época de cultivo 1988-1989. La adopción más intensa se ha visto limitada por problemas técnicos: exceso o falta de agua en los almácigos y después del trasplante y deficiente adaptación de las progenies presentes a condiciones de día corto. En el DRR, el trabajo de mejoramiento se está actualmente concentrando en la selección de líneas parentales de semilla sexual que van a producir tubérculos de buena calidad y mayor tamaño en condiciones de día corto.Bolivia. Un proyecto de investigación de 12 años fundado por la Agencia Suiza de Desarrollo ha sido iniciado por el Instituto Boliviano de Investigación Agrícola (IBTA) y el CIP, con el objeto de analizar los factores limitantes de la producción de papa y para fortalecer el programa nacional, desarrollando y transfiriendo tecnologías apropiadas.Un intensivo taller de trabajo se realizó con las organizaciones participantes para definir los objetivos y actividades a implementarse por el proyecto.Burundi. El CIP está colaborando con el Programa Nacional de Semilla de Papa de Burundi, para producir grandes cantidades de semilla prebásica para distribución y para desarrollar información técnica orientada a promover los sistemas de reproducción de semilla en fundo. Un invernadero y un laboratorio para cultivo in vitro se han terminado y equipado con la ayuda de Bélgica. Tubérculos provenientes de cultivos in vitro producidos en Gisozi se sembraron en 1 ha de terreno en Mwokora y en 18 ha en Munanira. Los tubérculos cosechados se van a distribuir a los proyectos rurales y a los agricultores. En Mwokora se ha mejorado más la calidad de la semilla a través de un enfoque integrado innovativo para el control de la marchitez bacteriana. Treinta agricultores han participado en estas pruebas y 15 han resembrado la semilla producida en sus propios campos.Colombia. En colaboración con los científicos del CIP, el 1 CA ha iniciado un proyecto en Boyacá y Cundinamarca para 1) producir grandes cantidades de semilla prebásica usando técnicas avanzadas de multiplicación rápida y 2) difundir la tecnología entre los agricultores. Se ha terminado de construir, en abril, un invernadero (120 m 2 ) a prueba de áfidos en la Estación de San Jorge. El CIP ha proporcionado antisuei:'o crudo de PVY, PVX, PVS, APMV y APL V para procesamiento y distribución a los miembros de PRACIPA. Un estudio sobre la adopción de almacenes apropiados de luz difusa por los pequeños agricultores (anteriormente promovida por el ICN CIP), indicó que estos almacenes han sido bien aceptados por los agricultores.Perú. La tercera fase del proyecto colaborativo del CIP con el Programa Nacional de Papa del Perú está diseñado para fortalecer la capacidad de autosostenimiento de cuatro principales instalaciones para la producción de semilla básica. Con estos medios en La 186 Molina se continuó con la producción y distribución de semilla prebásica a otras unidades y con los ingresos obtenidos por la venta de semilla básica durante el año, se ha generado un fondo de reserva adicional para cubrir los costos de operación de 1990.Los sistemas tradicionales de distribución de tubérculos semillas en el Perú, se analizaron para desarrollar una estrategia descentralizada efectiva de distribución de semilla básica a las enormemente dispersas comunidades de pequeños agricultores. La diseminación de semilla básica a través de los proyectos de desarrollo ha continuado en áreas de Cusco, Huancayo, Cajamarca y Puno. En Cusco, una encuesta realizada sobre las principales enfermedades de la papa, cubrió aproximadamente el 20% del área de producción. En Cajamarca se hizo una encuesta de 500 pequeños agricultores y se identificaron 250 productores de semilla. Los resultados de la encuesta demuestran que este sistema tradicional de ancha base maneja 80 variedades de papa de uso común: 25 variedades mejoradas y 55 nativas. Los agricultores identificaron a la marchitez bacteriana como el principal problema de producción de creciente preocupación. Se han probado puntos de vista nuevos para una distribución de semilla con participación de los agricultores. Las asambleas comunitarias seleccionaron agricultores individuales que recibirían 50 kg de semilla básica, con la condición de que después de la cosecha cada uno debería dar 12,5 kg a otros 4 agricultores. De esta manera, con 500 kg de semilla básica, 400 agricultores obtuvieron semilla de alta calidad. La demanda por cantidades tan pequeñas de semilla de alta calidad ha superado en exceso la cantidad disponible.También se han investigado otras estrategias para aumentar la eficiencia de distribución de semilla básica a los mercados informales de pequeños agricultores. Las estrategias de mejor futuro fueron:• Vender lotes de 20 kg de semilla básica en las ferias comunales semanales.• Vender lotes de 100 a 500 k:g a las comunidades.• Vender grandes cantidades a los proyectos de desarrollo rural.En Puno, una encuesta similar involucró a 450 pequeños productores de papa y 30 unidades de cooperativas campesinas. En el área de Puno los agricultores informaron que ellos cultivan 109 variedades de las cuales sólo 19 son variedades mejoradas. No tienen preferencias con respecto a las variedades que producen para su propio consumo o para el mercado. Sólo 4% de los agricultores de Puno producían semilla. Aunque el cultivo de papa está ampliamente difundido en Puno, las parcelas individuales son pequeñas y el promedio que usa el agricultor es de 147 kg de semilla.Venezuela. Se están realizando estudios socioeconómicos para evaluar la importancia de la producción de semilla prebásica en Venezuela y la eficiencia con la que se desarrolla y difunde la información técnica. La investigación para evaluar la importancia de los vectores de virus y viroides está en marcha. En las áreas de cultivo de papa del estado de Caragua, los áfidos vectores de la especie Myzus persicae fueron más prevalentes que Brevicoryne brassicae y las poblaciones se incrementaron hacia el final del cultivo cuando disminuyeron las lluvias. En Trujillo, la incidencia de ambas especies fue considerable. En Monagas pre-dominó A. citricola y se encontró una nueva especie, M. euphorbiae. Nuevos materiales para la producción de semilla se han introducido del CIP y una variedad nueva (Andicinita) ha sido depurada y devuelta a Venezuela para su propagación por la técnica de cultivo in vitro. No se ha detectado presencia del PSTVd. Un proyecto similar se va a iniciar en la República Dominicana el próximo año.Kenya. Se ha implementado un nuevo punto de vista presentado en 1987-1988 para la producción de semilla básica. La Cooperación para el Desarrollo Agrícola producirá materiales depurado in vitro en la Estación Cuarentenaria Vegetal de Muguga; plantas madres y semilla prebásica en el Centro Nacional de Investigación en Papa en Tigoni; semilla básica en Marindas y semilla certificada en Molo. La investigación en Tigoni se ha centrado en incrementar el uso de la eficiencia de la planta madre para producir esquejes, tuberculillos y tubérculos.Filipinas. En la provincia de Benguet, se ha hecho una encuesta, como seguimiento de las pruebas en finca en 1987-1988 que introdujeron cultivares nuevos en base a esquejes apicales. Este estudio evaluó el potencial de uso de los esquejes apicales, así como también la aceptación de los clones del CIP por parte de los agricultores. De 64 agricultores cooperantes, 50 cultivaron los clones del CIP y los compartieron con sus vecinos. Los clones I-1035, P-7 y P-3 fueron los más populares. El área sembrada de estos clones aumentó sustancialmente en comparación con lo que se sembró el año pasado. El don B71-240.2 (llamado localmente Dalisay) también ha sido extensamente cultivado, mientras tanto los clones I-1035 (liberado como Mon-tanosa) e 1-1039 están adquiriendo importancia.Los resultados del estudio indican que los esquejes son un recurso viable para la producción de papa, como se ha demostrado con el alto potencial de rendimiento en los campos de agricultores. Esta práctica puede elevar la producción de semilla, proporcionando una fuente depurada de materiales de siembra. Los tubérculos producidos a partir de estos materiales pueden utilizarse para la producción en gran escala.Myanmar. Desde que se introdujera la variedad Up-to-date en 1914, sólo se han recibido pequeñas cantidades de semilla importada (todas antes de 1935); UTD continúa cultivándose para la producción de semilla. Los estudios se empezaron en 1948 para evaluar la necesidad de un programa de semillas. U san do la selecci<)n simple (selección positiva de plantas sanas), los agricultores comenz.aron a mejorar su provisión de semillas. El CIP también dispuso la importación de tubérculos-semillas del Reino Unido y a depurar la semilla de UTD de todos los patógenos en el Instituto de Investigación Vegetal de Australia. Los resultados de las pruebas realizadas durante la época de verano, usando semilla del dos para la producción de semilla de papa y el hecho de que los virus están a niveles bajos permite su eliminación por medio de técnicas sencillas de selección.Casos de Estudio de los Sistemas de Tubérculo-Semilla El caso de estudio del sistema de semilla de papa en Kenya ha concluido como parte de una serie que incluye Filipinas (Reporte Anual 1988), Ecuador (Informe Anual 1989), Canadá, Holanda y Reino Unido (Infdrme Anual 1988). Se está preparando un informe comparativo. Los resultados más importantes del caso de estudio de Kenya se describen a continuación.La producción de papa en Kenya está dominada por pequeños propietarios dispersos en las áreas elevadas, que cultivan una cambiante mezcla de variedades. la producción está mayormente orientada al mercado y el sistema de semilla está dominado por agricultores que cultivan para su propia provisión. La participación del gobierno en la produc-Batata Efectos del Medio Ambiente sobre la Floración Se han realizado experimentos en varias localidades con el objeto de determinar las condiciones ambientales básicas que promueven la floración y producción de semilla de batata. Los estudios se basaron en las respuestas de desarrollo de 150 cultivares de batata seleccionados como representativos del germoplasma del CIP e incluyen cultivares que florecen abundantemente y también aquéllos que no han florecido anteriormente. El ción de semilla certificada ha recibido muy poco respaldo económico y ha sido muy poco efectiva, proporcionando menos de 1 % de la semilla necesaria. Las actividades de producción y distribución de semilla están dispersas entre instituciones asociadas con la Estación Nacional de Investigación en papa, la cual inicialmente asumió la responsabilidad para el programa de semilla. Las conclusiones del estudio señalan que las estaciones experimentales son fundamentalmente instituciones de servicio, cuyos objetivos de investigación son desarrollar y difundir información técnica que puede ser utilizada en la producción de semilla de papa. De esta manera, la investigación que realizan no tiene responsabilidad directa en la producción eficiente de semilla de papa, concordante con las necesidades de los agricultores.U na empresa privada está actualmente interesada en producir eficientemente semilla de papa, de acuerdo a las necesidades del agricultor y está haciendo planes para promover el uso de semilla certificada. estudio se ha hecho en un conjunto de ambientes diversos en un periodo de más de 12meses.Los resultados de los estudios básicos de campo indican que la floración y producción de semilla de un cultivar de batata puede variar considerablemente de una localidad a otra o de acuerdo al método de cultivo empleado (Figura 9-4). Las diferencias en las respuestas sugieren que los estados de desarrollo de la batata pueden tener un conjunto amplio de requerimientos ambientales. Se ha observado también que la floración y producción de semilla de batata es afectada por una especie no identificada de mosca de la fruta que se alimenta de las anteras, causando hasta 100% de aborto de los botones florales. Esta plaga se ha encontrado en Lima, Chincha, Cañete y Tacna, pero no en otras localidades experimentales del Perú.V arios procedimientos de cultivo se han probado para definir con mayor amplitud los factores que controlan los estados de desarrollo de la batata. Se compararon además, las respuestas de desarrollo de esquejes estándar sin enraizar, con las de esquejes enraizados en macetas, asimismo con las respuestas del material propagado in vitro.Se compararon procedimientos como los de estacas individuales en espalderas 190 de soporte sobre la superficie del suelo. Las respuestas de floración variaron ampliamente entre los cultivares comparados. Por ejemplo, el atar plantas individuales a una estaca no indujo floración en cultivares que no florean; tampoco este método incrementó la floración de un cultivar en comparaciones hechas con el mismo cultivar que se desarrolla en contacto con la superficie del suelo sin soporte.Cuando se ataron las plantas a estacas individuales, todo el volumen de la planta estuvo sujeto, limitando así la luz y ventilación en el centro de la planta.Por otra parte, atar las plantas a espalderas ( 5 plantas por 3 metros de espaldera), indujo la floración y establecimiento de la semilla en algunas variedades que no florecen. Este método aumentó la floración de todos los cultivares que florecen, en todas las localidades donde se probó el sistema de espalderas. Algunos cultivares que no florecen mostraron una extremada sensibilidad a la cantidad y calidad de la luz más allá de los requerimientos de fotoperiodo. Por ejemplo, el cultivar 226 produjo flores solamente en la porción de los tallos que estuvieron en la parte alta de las espalderas, mientras que no se produjeron ni flores ni botones en la porción del tallo entre la parte superior de la espaldera y el suelo.En Filipinas, 12 cultivares desarrollados sobre estacas o sin soporte en el suelo se evaluaron para floración y establecimiento del fruto. Los cultivares VSP-3, Miracle y G113.2b fueron los más prolíficos en floración y producción de semilla. Los cultivares mostraron diferentes respuestas al método de siembra. En general, el uso de estacas estimuló la producción de frutos y semillas; sin embargo, el grado de influencia varió entre los cultivares. Cultivares tales como Miracle y VSP-3 fueron ligeramente afectados por el método de siembra, mientras que cultivares como Tipipay, Sinuksuk y VSP-4 nunca florecieron cuando se desarrollaron sobre el suelo.En Kenya, un proyecto colaborativo con el Instituto de Investigación Agrícola (KARI), ha comenzado a desarrollar métodos de propagación apropiados que podrían aumentar el índice de multiplicación que favorezca el rápido establecimiento de la batata de alta calidad que se cultiva localmente. Los trabajos iniciales se han realizado principalmente en el Centro Nacional de Investigación de Cultivos en Tierras Aridas de Katumani. La investigación se va a extender posteriormente a Mtwapa en la costa y a Embu en la región central del país, donde la batata ha mostrado ser un cultivo tolerante a la sequía. En las zonas áridas, los problemas de producción de batata incluyen la falta de material de siembra al comienzo de la estación lluviosa, retardando así el establecimiento de la planta.Los experimentos en Filipinas han examinado varios factores que influyen en el enraizamiento y crecimiento de los esquejes de batata. Los datos recolectados a los 30, 60 y 90 días después de la siembra (DDS), indican que la sobrevivencia y crecimiento fueron estimulados por el uso de esquejes más largos incluyendo el ápice más cuatro nudos y esquejes de cuatro nudos (Tabla 9-6); con el uso de estos materiales la formación de raíces reservantes fue más rápida y mejor. El número de nudos (que está correlacionado con la edad de la planta), también influyó en el crecimiento. La sobrevivencia e índices de crecimiento fueron más bajos cuando se utilizaron los Tabla M. Influencia del tamaño y origen de los esquejes de batata en el crecimiento sobre la base de una planta, 3 días después de la siembra. nudos más jóvenes como material de siembra.En esquejes de un sólo nudo (EUN) cortados de diferentes segmentos de plantas de 5 a 6 meses de edad, los nudos de la porción media tuvieron un desarrollo más rápido de ramas y raíces y produjeron plantas más vigorosas. Los extremos de los vástagos mostraron crecimiento inicial pobre, pero tuvieron el mayor índice de desarrollo a los 90 DDS. Los nudos de la parte media y basal produjeron mayor número de raíces reservantes.La profundidad de siembra no influyó en el crecimiento de los esquejes; sin En otro experimento, la potencialidad de los EUN como material de siembra fue comparado con el de los vástagos. Los esquejes de un sólo nudo se obtuvieron de plantas madres probadas para presencia de patógenos y fueron enraizadas tres semanas antes de la siembra. Los vástagos provinieron de plantas de cinco meses originarias de esquejes de un sólo nudo. La sobrevivencia fue excelente en ambos casos y los rendimientos variaron de 705 a 970 gi'planta para las provenientes de esquejes de un sólo nudo y715 a 925 gi'planta para las que se origi-Tabla 9-7. Efecto de la profundidad de siembra de esquejes apicales y nodales sobre el crecimiento medido a los 30 y 60 días después de la siembra. naron de vástagos. Los esquejes de un sólo nudo produjeron raíces grandes (60 mm), pero deformadas, en cambio los esquejes de vástagos produjeron raíces de tamaño mediano y apariencia normal. Rendimientos ligeramente más altos se obtuvieron de esquejes de un sólo nudo en todos los cultivares especialmente en el TN-57.En el Perú, las muestras de raíces de batata obtenidas en campos de agricultores, en dos zonas de riego en la costa (Huaral y Cañete) y de la zona con lluvias de San Ramón se utilizaron para la evaluación y selección de poblaciones de Azospirillum. Se aisló un total de 26 variantes, tres con capacidad de fijación de N, como se demostró en las pruebas de laboratorio correspondientes. Cuando se utilizaron estas variantes para inoculación controlada de plantas en maceta, de los cultivares J onathan y Paramutai, se observó un incremento del doble en follaje y peso fresco en el cultivar Jonathan cuando se fertilizó con 80 ppm de N, sin inoculante, mientras que para Paramutai se obtuvo un incremento de tres veces con la misma aplicación de fertilizante, pero inoculada con .la bacteria. El contenido de N del cultivar Paramutai se incrementó cuatro veces cuando se inocularon las plantas con la bacteria. En San Ramón la adición de Azospirillum fue favorable para el rendimiento de raíces en ambos cultivares produciendo el doble de cosecha que la obtenida en las macetas usadas de testigo. / .J \" J l 1 l Investigadores del programa nacional y el CIP discuten sobre eu consumo de batata con una familia de agricultores en el Perú.,.Plan de Acción X Investigación sobre Sistemas Alimentarios Perfil del Plan: 1990 La perspectiva del cliente o usuario es un concepto fundamental, cimentado dentro del trabajo del Plan de Acción X sob~e sistema alimentario, con el objeto de ayudar a orientar la investigación nacional e internacional. Esta perspectiva ayuda a 1) evaluar las necesidades con~retas y las demandas del \"usuario'' final de la tecnología: pequeños agricultores, consumidores de bajos ingresos, procesadores y otros participantes en los sistemas alimentarios en los países del tercer mundo y 2) proporcionar . información basada en el campo a los que toman decisiones y a los investigadores en los programas nacionales. de papa y batata y a otras instituciones públicas y/o privadas. Es una alternativa guiada por la demanda, dirigida a las bases, a diferencia: del modelo convencional de \"transferencia de tecnología\" impulsado por la oferta, dirigido a las esferas altas.Como señala la met~ formal trazada, el enfoque está diseñado para \"difundir el conocimiento de los programas y políticas agrícolas, la producción, comercialización y utilización de la papa y la batata\". Los objetivos son ayudar en la identificación de las necesidades de los clientes, las prioridades, la generación y difusión de tecnologías apropiadas y la evaluación de resultados de programas y políticas.La \"difusión del conocimiento\" referida en la meta formal enunciada se cumple a través de las necesidades actuales e impacto y a través del fortalecimiento de la capacidad de investigación de los Sistemas Nacionales de Investigación Agrícola (SNIA).La investigación sobre las necesidades y la evaluación del impacto se están realizando en tres importantes campos: caracterizaciones de los sistemas alimentarios; estudios sobre comercialización, demanda y utilización y evalu~ción del impacto.El trabajo sobre caracterización del sistema alimentario se ha desarrollado bien durante 1989, a la medida.que los científicos nacionales han completado las encuestas y el análisis de los problemas de producción de papa y batata y uso para cinco de las principales wnas agroecológicas. Los problemas de semilla de papa parecen ser comúnes en las diferentes zonas, pero son particularmente serios en la wna tropical lluviosa y en zonas áridas. La importancia del gorgojo como problema en la producción de batata está limitada a las zonas lluviosas tropicales. En otras zonas, figuran como problemas de producción de material de siembra, la falta de humedad y la fertilidad del suelo. En todas las zonas, los problemas de poscosecha son serios, especialmente la comercialización.Los casos de estudio de papa y batata en los sistemas alimentarios se completaron en Asia, Africa y Latinoamérica. Los estudios continuados en China han ayudado a profundizar el conocimiento de los diferentes patrones de utilización en diferentes provincias. Este conocimiento se va a usar para ampliar la utilización de los cultivos en otros países. En India, una encuesta realizada sobre batata identificó al gorgojo como el principal problema de producción, pero los asuntos relacionados con poscosecha fueron los de mayor preocupación. Las entrevistas informales en Kenya, Uganda y Ruan da pusieron las bases para que los programas nacionales establezcan prioridades y para la organización de una encuesta formal en Kenya. Los resultados iniciales de las encuestas estructuradas informales en cuatro países latinoamericanos señalaron los patrones de distribución como las variables claves que diferencian los sistemas en batata.La principal investigación sobre comercialización se realizó mediante un proyecto de licencia sabática que sintetizó seis casos de estudio sobre comercialización de papa cumplidos en los últimos seis años. Las conclusiones preliminares señalan la concen-tració~ geográfica de la producción de papa en Asia y la importancia de la comercialización y consumo rural en el sur de Asia y Africa subsahariana contra la comercialización urbana en Latinoamérica. Dos estudios de comercialización de batata se realizaron en ciudades latinoamericanas; los resultados resaltan la importancia del color de la raíz y de la pulpa y otros aspectos de presentación para los mercados urbanos.En la preparación para la Tercera Revisión Externa de 1984, el estudio del impactoPapas para los Países del Tercer Mundo fue actualizado, usando las respuestas de los líderes del programa nacional, el personal de mayor categoría de la sede central del CIP y los líderes regionales a los nuevos cuestionarios. Los resultados demostraron que el crecimiento de la investigación en el programa nacional en áreas relacionadas con la investigación del CIP. Se percibió que la capacidad tuvo el mayor impacto sobre los SNIA, seguida por varias tecnologías de producción, especialmente relacionadas con la semilla. Se percibieron en menor grado los beneficios de las actividades que no estaban relacionadas con la tecnología o la producción, tal vez, debido en parte a la sólida orientación hacia la producción de la mayoría de los líderes de los programas.Como parte del desarrollo de tecnología interdisciplinaria, los científicos sociales se involucraron en el estudio de la semilla sexual en campos de agricultores en India e Indonesia. Los resultados de India demuestran que los tuberculillos tienen costos netos más bajos que los tubérculos semillas. En la investigación que incluye la evaluación de semilla sexual por los agricultores en Indonesia, estos han identificado algunos métodos apropiados para el uso de este tipo de semilla los que actualmente se encuentran en evaluación.Las actividades del Plan de Acción están íntimamente asociadas con las redes de dos sistemas alimentarios. La red de comercialización de PRACIPA ha cumplido dos años de actividades en marzo de 1989 y el respaldo continúa por medio de talleres de trabajo y reuniones anuales. En el sudeste asiático la Perspectivas del Usuario en la Investigación y Desarrollo Agrícolas (UPW ARD ), han iniciado actividades con 12• proyectos centrados en materias de producción, poscosecha o consumo, dentro del contexto de sistema alimentario.Además de la participación en cursos formales y talleres, también se ha logrado el fortalecimiento de los SNIA a través de actividades de investigación colaborativa con un sólido componente \"capacitación con investigación\"; estas incluyen los estudios de diagnóstico de la batata en los sistemas alimentarios, concluidos o planificados en Latinoamérica y Africa.Evaluación de los Factores Limitantes de Producción y U so por Región Climática El conocimiento de los factores limitantes de producción y uso de papa y batata en las principales zonas de producción y sistemas alimentarios es esencial para ayudar a establecer las prioridades apropiadas de investigación, señalar los esfuerzos regionales y extrapolar los resultados de la investigación específica de localidad .Los investigadores nacionales han respondido cuestionarios sobre la relativa importancia de varios factores limitantes de la producción de papa y batata y el uso en los diferentes lugares de sus propios países. Las limitaciones poten-. dales variaron desde problemas de presiembra y producción de campo hasta costos de comercialización y demanda limitada.Debido a que los problemas están generalmente relacionados con las con-Cajas de papa listas para exportación, Provincia de Guandong, China.diciones ecológicas que dividen la unidad política o administrativa, el promedio de los resultados para los países o pára las regiones del CIP pueden estar errados. Por este motivo, los datos para los principales climas del mundo se han analizado utilizando la clasificación de Koppen para las cinco zonas climáticas principales sobre la base de combinaciones de temperatura y humedad. Los factores limitantes están influenciados por otras variables a parte del clima, pero en ausencia de información global detallada sobre estas variables la clasificación de los climas de Koppen proporciona un útil esquema preliminar. Se presentan los resultados para las cinco principales zonas climáticas:• Clima tropical lluvioso sin estación fría (clima A en el sistema de Koppen)• Clima árido (clima B)• Clima lluvioso de latitud media con inviernos suaves (clima C)• Clima lluvioso de latitud media con inviernos severos clima D)• Clima frío sin estación cálida (clima E)Está en marcha un análisis más refinado de los factores limitantes, para definir 12 tipos climáticos, incluyendo a la altitud como uno de los factores.Areas de producción de papa y batata. Para papa y batata, la mitad de los lugares para los cuales los investigadores nacionales han proporcionado información tienen latitud media, clima lluvioso con inviernos suaves (clima C). Consecuentemente, considerando el gran número y pericia de los que respondieron a la encuesta, parecería que los lugares con clima C son los más típicos para la producción de papa y batata en los países del tercer mundo. El clima tropical lluvioso (A) quedó segundo para ambos cultivos; computándose cerca de dos quintos de lugares de batata y un tercio de lugares para papa cubiertos por la encuesta. Entre 10 y 15% de los lugares para ambos cultivos tienen clima seco (B) y menos de 10% tiene clima con inviernos severos sin estación cálida (clima D o E) (Tabla 10-1 ).De acuerdo a los investigadores nacionales, la papa se produce generalmente para venta en las áreas urbanas y es  habitualmente consumida por gente de retursos relativamente altos. En cambio la batata generalmente se cultiva para consumo casero en las áreas rurales y en las áreas urbanas la consumen generalmente las familias de escasos recursos (Tabla 10-2). Existen, sin embargo, importantes excepciones para ambos cultivos. En la mayoría de las zonas áridas (clima B) y en las áreas frías (clima D) del norte de China, la batata se cultiva generalmente para venta; y en muchas áreas frías y lluviosas (clima C), particularmente en las montañas, la papa generalmente se cultiva para consumo casero (Tabla 10-3).Factores limitan tes de la papa por zonas. En las zonas tropicales lluviosas (clima A), se considera que los principales problemas son el alto costo y mala calidad de la semilla, costos de producción altos, problemas de transporte, pérdidas de manipulación, precios inestables, tizón tardío y sequía.En las wnas áridas, la escasez y mala calidad de la semilla son consideradas como los problemas más importantes, particularmente en relación con el almacenamiento. Los insectos y el tizón tardío causan pérdidas importantes en el campo. El almacenamiento de la papa de consumo también es importante en las wnas áridas.Muchas zonas lluviosas de latitud media (clima C), son áreas tradicionales de cultivo de papa. Debido tal vez a que la papa se ha cultivado por muchísimo tiempo, muchas plagas y enfermedades atacan al cultivo. Los investigadores consideran que las enfermedades fungosas y viróticas y muchos otros problemas relacionados son especialmente críticos.Factores limitantes de la batata por zonas. El gorgojo de la batata ( Cylas f ormicarius) está considerado como el problema más importante para la producción y uso de la batata en las áreas lluviosas tropicales, donde la falta de productos procesados, inestabilidad de los precios, problemas de transporte, sequía y baja fertilidad del suelo son también factores limitantes importantes.En las zonas áridas, los principales problemas son la inestabilidad de los precios, pérdidas en la manipulación y mala calidad del material de siembra.En las zonas lluviosas de latitud media, los investigadores han encontrado que los principales problemas son la baja fertilidad del suelo, falta de humedad, enfermedades de almacenamiento, precios inestables y falta de productos procesados.En las zonas lluviosas frías del sur de China, los principales problemas citados son la falta de humedad, baja fertilidad del suelo, salinidad, problemas de comercialización y la falta de variedades de buena calidad para consumo fresco.Durante 1989, se completaron los perfiles para todos los países del tercer mundo y se han refinado los mapas de zonas. Para identificar en forma más precisa las características de clima de cada zona de producción, se ha superpuesto la clasificación de Koppen sobre 200 estos mapas. Las zonas paperas están siendo refmadas por un geógrafo de la Universidad Clark (E.U.A.) y los detalles de la distribución espacial se están revisando cuidadosamente. La Asociación Europea de Investigación en Papa está de acuerdo en proporcionar resúmenes sobre producción y utilización de la papa, en la forma de un libro titulado Geografía Mundial de la Papa, el cual se está preparando actualmente y será sometido para su publicación en 1990.Del total de la producción en los países del tercer mundo, China cultiva más de 50% de papas y 80% de batatas. Debido a la importancia de esta producción se ha establecido un acuerdo con el Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre Política Alimentaria (IFPRI), con el objeto de estudiar ambos cultivos en los sistemas alimentarios chinos, para identificar las necesidades de investigación y explorar las oportunidades para transferencias horizontal de tecnologías a otros países del tercer mundo. La investigación provincial y local sobre patrones de utilización de papa y batata iniciada a fmes de 1988 se ha concluido en Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang y Mongolia Interior. Actualmente se están recogiendo datos en Henan, Anhui, Hube~ Hunan, Guizhou y Sichuan y los resultados deberán completar la descripción de las principales provincias de cultivo de papa y batata en China.Una observación clave inicial es que las prácticas de producción y uso de ambos cultivos son muy diversas y las probabilidades varían sustancialmente entre las regiones y subregiones de China. Se necesitan estudios más amplios para comprender los diferentes roles que pueden desempeñar estos cultivos, especialmente el uso industrial de la batata, para así poder determinar el potencial de uso en otros países del tercer mundo. Similarmente China podría beneficiarse de la experiencia internacional sobre procesamiento de papa para la alimentación.La papa y la batata son alimentos de primera necesidad para millones de chinos y probablemente van a continuar siéndolo por décadas. En algunos lugares, más de 80% de la producción constituye alimento de primera necesidad de consumo directo; pero el uso de este alimento básico varía considerablemente, desde menos de 1 % en algunos lugares a casi 100% en otros. El uso de la papa y la batata como alimento animal ( especialmente la batata), como alimento procesado, material industrial y producto de exportación se está expandiendo en varias zonas de China con un potencial de crecimiento para ambos cultivos.Un estudio especial se hizo en la provincia de Yunnan, donde aproximadamente 80% de papas son de la variedad Mira, introducida de Alemania Oriental a principios de la década del 60. Esta variedad tenía originalmente algo de resistencia al tizón tardío, pero era muy susceptible a los virus. La papa blanca en el noroeste de Yunnan, que es una de las áreas más pobres de China, es generalmente de mala calidad y de tamaño pequeño. Una base de mejoramiento de papa en altura en la región podría ser un proyecto atractivo para incrementar los niveles de ingreso y nutrición de la población.Las observaciones en el noroeste de Yunnan, también proporcionan una fuerte evidencia que concuerda con la obtenida de investigaciones locales en el norte de China por lo que el tradicional sistema de información estadística puede estar desestimando sustancialmente el cultivo de papa blanca en las áreas montañosas de China.India. Las estadísticas oficiales proporcionan poca información sobre batata, por lo que existe la necesidad de colectar datos primarios.Una encuesta conducida por científicos y técnicos que trabajan en la estación experimental en zonas de cultivo de batata, indicó que la batata es un cultivo menor en todo India y generalmente se cultiva en parcelas de menos de un cuarto de ha. En general se cultiva bajo lluvia y sólo raramente con irrigación suplementaria. La principal época de siembra coincide con el inicio de los monzones, y la rotación arroz-batata parece ser la más común. La mayoría de las raíces se consumen sancochadas en agua o fritas como bocadillo o como hortaliza y en algunas áreas las hojas también se consumen como verdura. La mayor parte del follaje y las raíces de descarte se usan como alimento del ganado.Los mercados locales son los principales lugares de salida hacia donde los agricultores llevan directamente el producto del campo. En las principales zonas de producción hay agentes que están también involucrados en la comercialización del producto.De acuerdo a los científicos, los factores limitantes más importantes de la producción y uso de la batata se relacionan con problemas de comercialización y de demanda limitada. Ellos citan la inestabilidad de suministros y precios, la no aceptación de variedades, mala presentación del producto, falta de transporte adecuado y el uso de variedades de madurez tardía como las principales limitaciones de mercado. La falta de diversificación del producto y la falta de tradición de la batata en la dieta fueron los principales factores identificados. El gorgojo de la batata ( Cylas ), fue considerado un problema serio de producción. Entr los factores abióticos, la sequía fue considerada como el problema más serio. En algunas zonas la falta de material de siembra es el principal factor limitante. Los nematodos, virus, hongos y bacterias no se consideraron como problemas importantes.Indonesia. La papa y la batata son cultivos importantes para Indonesia, donde la papa se cultiva como producto de utilidad económica y tiene grandes posibilidades de exportación; la batata es uno de los cultivos de subsistencia más importantes de Indonesia y se vende como alimento energético de bajo costo en todo el país. Hasta poco tiempo atrás, la investigación local se centró en el cultivo de papa en las áreas altas más frías, mientras que el rol de la batata fue generalmente descuidado.Un proyecto especial se ha iniciado en 1987 para caracterizar el sistema alimentario y desarrollar tecnología, trabajando principalmente con la Agencia para la Investigación y Desarrollo Agrícola (AARD ).Los científicos de Indonesia y el CIP colaboraron en dos proyectos interdisciplinarios de investigación rural de evaluación rápida en Java y el oeste de Sumatra, en las áreas de la mayor producción comercial. Por todo Java se realizaron tres encuestas cortas para examinar la existencia de mercado para batata colectar germoplasma e identificar la caracterización hecha por los agricultores de los cultivares de batata. Se han recogido datos provinciales sobre 202 rendimiento y áreas de producción en Indonesia.Las encuestas de evaluación rápida en Java rural demostraron que los agricultores buscan cultivares nuevos de batata de maduración precoz, que puedan asociarse con otros cultivos y desarrollen bien en ápoca lluviosa, que sean de buen rendimiento y aquellas cuyas cualidades de color y sabor les permitan una fácil comercialización. El deterioro durante el transporte es un problema. Los insectos, las enfermedades, el periodo de almacenamiento doméstico, las malezas, el sabor, calidad y comercialización no fueron considerados como factores limitantes importantes. Los rendimientos en el campo variaron desde 10 t/ha (sin fertilizantes o desmalezado), a 22 t/ha (con fertilizantes y control de malezas).En el este de Sumatra, el principal problema de los agricultores es cultivar batata en la época lluviosa, durante la cual se dice que los rendimientos son bajos y la piel se oscurece, volviéndola poco atractiva, por lo que los precios por la mala calidad de las raíces bajan hasta en un 50%. Los rendimientos de las pruebas demostrativas fueron muy altos en el mes de marzo y en tres aldeas, superaron las 30 t/ha. Los agricultores han desarrollado métodos para usar tracción animal en la cosecha y ahora están sembrando cultivares que maduran en cuatro meses a 700 m de altitud, lo cual puede ser adaptable a las condiciones en Java. El Instituto Central de Investigación para Cultivos Alimenticios ( CRIFC) está preparando el material para publicar estos resultados, así como también los resultados de las encuestas sobre comercialización, cultivar y colección.Estas encuestas ayudan a identificar nuevas direcciones para la investigación el CRIFC del Instituto de Investigación para Cultivos Alimentarios de Bagor (BORIS), ya que en el pasado, el mejoramiento de la batata en Indonesia ha tendido a dar énfasis a los rendimientos altos dándole poca importancia a otros factores, por lo que las introducciones anteriores de variedades mejoradas han tenido poco éxito.La base de datos sobre selección de cultivares de batata, producción, comercialización, consumo/venta y procesamiento en Java es bien amplia y ofrece un ejemplo y un marco de referencia para futuros estudios en Indonesia.El trabajo inicial se ha concentrado en definir el alcance y las prioridades de la investigación, a través de lazos colaborativos con investigadores nacionales y con el personal del Instituto Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (IITA).Los talleres y actividades de capacitación llevados a cabo como parte del programa de desarrollo en Kenya han ayudado a reunir la dispersa investigación sobre batata del Instituto de Investigación Agrícola de Kenya (KARI), en un programa más orientado hacia el consumidor.Los agricultores en las zonas más importantes de producción han sido encuestados informalmente y se han revisado las estadísticas existentes y los resultados de la investigación previa.V arias regiones productoras se están encuestando formalmente y los resultados van a proporcionar visión concreta del papel de la batata en los diferentes sistemas rurales alimentarios.U na reorganización fundamental de la investigación se encuentra en marcha en Uganda, país de mayor importancia en la producción de batata en Africa. En base a entrevistas preliminares con los usuarios y reuniendo los conocimientos técnicos locales, se han establecido prioridades y se ha desarrollado un plan potencial de trabajo, incluyendo encuestas socioeconómicas interdisciplinarias. El equipo ha hecho encuestas en un distrito y los resultados están en análisis.El trabajo sobre sistemas alimentarios con batata en Latinoamérica comenzó en 1988, con una encuesta de diagnóstico de la producción y uso de la batata en el Valle de Cañete en el Perú. El informe íntegro ha sido extensamente revisado y la publicación final se encuentra en prensa.Durante 1989, se han realizado encuestas de diagnóstico en Argentina, Uruguay y el norte del Perú. Todo se preparó por medio de pequeños talleres interdisciplinarios, colaborativos, involucrando personal nacional de investigación y extensión y científicos del CIP. Los trabajos iniciales de campo en Argentina y Uruguay incluyeron apoyo del CIP en ciencias sociales, pero el personal del programa nacional hizo todo el trabajo de entrevistas. En el Perú, el personal del CIP y del INIAA ha tomado parte en todo el trabajo de campo y poco después de terminado éste se llevó a cabo un taller conjunto para analizar los resultados y definir el marco de referencia para la presentación de los informes.Mercado de batata en Kampala, Uganda.Estos informes se encuentran actualmente en proceso de análisis.Perú. Dos estudios iniciales han proporcionado información sobre los diferentes roles de la batata en diferentes sistemas alimentarios. La producción en la costa árida irrigada está alta y ampliamente determinada por el mercado metropolitano de Lima. En cont~aste, la producción en la zona montañosa del norte está enormemente orientado hacia la subsistencia, con sistemas que incluyen huertos caseros, cultivo asociado, rotación de ciclo corto; la comercialización en el área montañosa es local, esporádica y de pequeña escala. La batata se consume como un alimento de primera necesidad colateral.La diferencia en las dos zonas está reflejada en la variedad del uso. En la costa sólo unas pocas variedades son aceptadas para el consumo en Lima, de tal manera que existe una gran unifor-204 midad en las variedades que se cultivan en el Valle de Cañete en cualquier época del año; este valle abastece el mercado limeño. Los agricultores prueban muchas variedades en busca de los tipos más comerciales, pero muy pocas son las seleccionadas. Por otra parte, en las zonas montañosas del norte se cultivan muchas variedades al mismo tiempo, porque las características no son impuestas por un sólo mercado. También de tiempo en tiempo existen cambios de variedades porque hay menos presión para seleccionar o rechazar.Uruguay, la mayor parte de la producción es altamente comercial y amplia, especialmente en Buenos Aires y Córdoba, donde el promedio de área sembrada de batata es de 21 y 32 ha respectivamente. En el lavado y ensacado especial de las raíces se utilizan una innovativa maquinaria diseñada localmente y un sistema bien desarrollado de comercialización.U no de los principales problemas identificados para trabajar en el futuro es la estrecha base genética de que se dispone en las regiones comerciales, a pesar de la. riqueza de material genético existente en el norte del país. Esta situación es similar a la que existe en el Perú y que promueve la inquietud de cómo explotar . los recursos nacionales de germoplasma. Otro problema que se ha identificado incluye los requerimientos técnicos especiales y las limitaciones asociadas con la zona templada, especialmente la necesidad de camas de propagación con sus alfüs costos y problemas fitopatológicos, así como también la necesidad de almacenar la cosecha.La producción de subsistencia en pequeña escala se encuentra en la región norte de Tucumán, no obstante se vende algo de la cosecha en las ferias locales y en los mercados. La situación es similar en el norte de Uruguay, donde el follaje también se usa para alimentación animal. Aunque menos sofisticado que el sistema de Buenos Aires el del sur de Uruguay es también un sistema metropolitano, en el cual muchos pequeños agricultores proveen de raíces frescas a los intermediarios del mercado mayorista en Montevideo.Paraguay. Se ha realizado una encuesta para caracterizar los estados de producción, comercialización e industrialización de la batata en Paraguay. Se analizó la importancia económica que tiene la batata para los agricultores y grupos nativos, en relación con otros cultivos en la región del sur. Las entrevistas con agricultores, agentes comerciales, agrónomos y procesadores de batata y la información obtenida de revisión bibliográfica indicaron una expansión limitada del cultivo de batata en comparación con otros cultivos, ~sí como una disminución en la tendencia de rendimiento. Los problemas encontrados incluyen bajos niveles de tecnología de producción, falta de variedades de buena calidad, limitado acceso comercial al mercado, desplazamiento de la batata por otros cultivos foráneos en la dieta y procesamiento limitado de las raíces a productos alimenticios alternativos. El estudio señaló la necesidad de activar programas para mejorar la ayuda técnica y fmanciera que corrientemente es posible obtener, hacia los productores y procesadores de baata. Los programas educativos también son necesarios para promover el consumo de esta fuente nutritiva inexplotada.Estos resultados preliminares de Latinoamérica describen un cultivo que, por un lado es producido comercialmente para satisfacer un claro sector de demanda en los centros poblados importantes y por otro lado es un cultivo de primera necesidad colateral o de subsistencia de uso especial, con un potencial de comercialización de pequeña escala.Un sustantivo análisis y síntesis de los elementos se ha desarrollado en base a los casos de estudio de la comercializa-ción de papa ya realizados y publicados en Bangladesh, Bután, Burundi, Ruanda, Zaire, Madagascar, Perú y Tailandia. Los resultados de esta síntesis ponen de relieve lo siguiente:• La concentración geográfica de la producción de papa en Asia y la discordante evolución de la producción y el rendimiento en Latinoamérica, Africa y Asia.• La cambiante importancia de la producción de papa en las diferentes zonas agroecológicas; v.gr. el incremento del rendimiento en las tierras bajas del sur de Asia debido a cambios en la producción y tecnología de poscosecha, a las tendencias demográficas y a los cambios en los precios relativos.• La importancia de la comercialización rural y consumo en la región subsahariana del Africa y en el sur del Asia en oposición a los mercados urbanos en Latinoamérica.Un estudio sobre demanda de productos procesados de papa en Nueva Delhi demostró que se venden 15 productos diferentes de papa procesada en un variado número de expendios, desde confiterías hasta vendedores callejeros. Los productos se diferencian en forma (hojuelas, fritos, lonjas), empaquetado (lujoso, sencillo, ninguno), peso (de 25 a 250 g). Los productos más caros fueron los fritos de papa en paquetes de lujo, pero las mayores ventas consistían de hojuelas secas (cerca de 50%) y hojuelas de papa (16%).La mayoría de los productos procesados se vendían en las confiterías, bodegas y tiendas de comestibles. Los vendedores callejeros al igual que los lugares de expendio de jugos o salones de té, también venden papa procesada.Los mayores compradores de todos los tipos de productos procesados provienen de grupos de ingreso medio (57%), con grupos de altos ingresos que compran productos exclusivos de \"lujo\" 206 (23%). Sólo 4% de los vendedores al menudeo vendieron el producto a los grupos de bajos ingresos. Las mujeres y los niños son la clientela más frecuente, no así los hombres.Desde el punto de vista del vendedor al menudeo, los principales problemas para la expansión de la venta de productos procesados son el precio, el empaquetado y la necesidad de una mayor propaganda.En Lima, Perú, una tesis de Magister sobre la demanda al por mayor de batata, demostró que aunque la producción nacional descendió de 167 000 t en 1971 a cerca de 123 000 ten 1987, los embarques de batata hacia Lima casi se duplicaron, de 47 000 t en 1971 a cerca de 74 000 ten los primeros 10 meses de 1988. Cerca de 70% de este total consiste de variedades de pulpa amarilla, mientras que 30% tiene pulpa morada; sin embargo, desde 1972 los embarques de variedades de pulpa amarilla se han incrementado con mucha mayor rapidez. Las mayores concentraciones de producción han cambiado de la costa norte y montañas (que tenían 45% de la producción anual en 1944, al 18% que tiene ahora), a la costa central, en particular el Valle de Cañete. La demanda se ha satisfecho a través del aumento del área, duplicandolosrendimientos(atravésde un pequeño, pero exitoso programa de mejoramiento), y el fraccionamiento de las cooperativas que ha favorecido la producción agrícola intensiva de pequeña escala. El grueso de la producción en Cañete se vende por intermedio de recolectores locales que tienen a su cargo la clasificación, empacado, carguío y transporte al mercado mayorista de Lima.Los estimados de consumo de batata, basadas en encuestas domésticas, indicaron un consumo que varió entre 6,5 kg/año en 1971-72 y 13,6 kg/año (en familias de bajos ingresos), en 1979. El consumo (y disponibilidad) de batata, a juzgar por los datos de comercialización es mucho mayor: alrededor de 20% de la batata es embarcada hacia Lima y reembarcada a localidades del norte y un aparentemente substancial, pero desconocido porcentaje de la cantidad total se usa en Lima para alimentar mascotas caseras. La batata representa alrededor de •43 de calorías que se consumen en Lima de acuerdo al promedio diario (1977)(1978)(1979)(1980).La batata también se usa actualmente para procesamiento. Una tesis de investigación sugiere que si 5% de la harina de trigo usada para hacer pan se reemplazará por un producto de batata, la demanda total requeriría duplicar la producción nacional habitual.Un estudio sobre comercialización de batata en el mercado central de Buenos Aires, Argentina indicó que 86% del abastecimiento del mercado viene actualmente de las provincias de Buenos Aires y Córdoba. Santiago del Estero que fue anteriormente un importante abastecedor de la capital, proporciona actualmente sólo el 11 %.La primera fase de este estudio de dos etapas describe un sistema altamente sofisticado de comercialización que involucra el uso de maquinaria para el lavado y ensacado especial de la batata. Los resultados resaltan la importancia del color y presentación del producto en el mercado y demuestran las enormes fluctuaciones en el precio, dependiendo del momento de la comercialización. Estos factores subrayan la necesidad para que los esfuerzos en el mejoramiento tengan especialmente en cuenta los requisitos de la comercialización y la preferencia del consumidor.Un libro sobre el consumo de la batata está próximo a terminarse, el cual servirá como una revisión amplia de las fuentes secundarias sobre los componentes nutritivos de las raíces carnosas reservantes y del follaje. Esta revisión examina el uso corriente del cultivo a nivel mundial, incluyendo los usos como espinaca tropical o verdura para ensalada, alimento de primera necesidad, alimento del ganado, fuente de almidón, materia prima industrial, postre, alimento rápido, bocadillos, harina multipropósito y bebidas alcohólicas y no alcohólicas.El estudio de impacto de 1984, Papas para los Paises del Tercer Mundo ha sido actualizado en preparación para la Tercera Revisión Externa del CIP. Las fuentes de información para la actualización incluyen los resultados de un \"cuetionario del impacto\" contestado por los líderes regionales del CIP en 1984, con una versión actualizada contestada en 1989; un cuestionario similar ha sido completado por los líderes de los programas nacionales entre 1987 y 1989 y respuestas escritas de los jefes de planes de acción, jefes de departamento y líderes regionales a cinco preguntas abiertas sobre los principales problemas, logros~ e impactos de su programa. que puede ser usado para analizar la •efectividad de la forma como se identifican las prioridades de investigación a través de la colaboración entre el CIP y los programas nacionales. El rápido crecimiento del número de países que hacen evaluación y selección de material para adaptación a condiciones cálidas, refleja probablemente el incremento de poblaciones adaptadas del CIP y el creciente interés de los programas nacionales para cultivar papa en zonas templadas y cálidas. Un análisis similar se puede hacer del incremento en el uso de feromonas sexuales y semilla sexual. Los bajos niveles de actividad en otras áreas de investigación podrían más bien indicar un problema regional y no uno de importancia global (nematodos), o una área relativamente nueva de actividad de investigación para el CIP (almacenamiento de papa de consumo).A los líderes de los programas nacionales se les preguntó en qué forma se habían beneficiado sus actividades institucionales o de investigación como resultado de la colaboración con el CIP (Figura 10-2y10-3). Los beneficios institucionales que se consideran especialmente valiosos incluyen capacitación, relaciones con otros programas, capacidad • mejorada para la planificación y manejo de la investigación. Estas capacidades mejoradas emanan de los cursos regionales en los cuales se juntan a científicos de varios países y se les pide que preparen planes de investigación como parte rutinaria de las actividades del curso.Las respuestas de los líderes de programas a las preguntas relácionadas con el incremento de la capacidad para conducir ciertas actividades (Figura 10-3) indican que la filosofía de capacitar  al capacitador, usando la experiencia de los estudiantes anteriores como instructores para los cursos del CIP, ha dado muy buenos resultados. La tecnología de semillas, partiendo desde el almacenamiento hasta las técnicas de multiplicación rápida han sido clasificadas como altamente benéficas. V arios factores importantes se pueden reflejar en el bajo nivel de beneficios percibidos en una escala de actividades no técnicas y no productivas. Por ejemplo, los líderes de programas provienen de esferas de científicos biólogos que son capacitados principalmente para resolver problemas en esas disciplinas. Los científicos sociales generalmente no están representados en los programas agrícolas nacionales y a menudo se ubican en otros ~ectores de los ministerios o en las universidades; por lo tanto, los que contestan los cuestionarios pueden estar menos informados de los logros alcanzados en estas áreas. 210 La Figura 10-4 describe la enorme capacidad del programa nacional para mejorar el bienestar de los agricultores. Considerando las opiniones variadas de extraños sobre si los programas nacionales han mejorado sus relaciones con los servicios de extensión (Figura 10-2) y la mejora de los métodos de extensión, tal como se perciben en los programas nacionales (Figura 10-3), no es de sorprender que los líderes de los programas nacionales sientan que los mayores beneficios a los agricultores hayan sido en la forma de tecnologías (v.gr. semilla mejorada), que los programas de investigación entregan directamente a los agricultores.Estos son resultados tentativos que el CIP está colocando como de primera prioridad sobre la revisión de las metodologías de evaluación del impacto para establecer un proceso de evaluación ampliamente institucionalizado.India. Se hizo una evaluación de las características agroecológicas y las condiciones socioeconómicas de tres áreas en la India donde el trabajo en semilla sexual se encuentra en marcha. Asimismo se hizo una evaluación de la parti cipación de los agricultores en las pruebas sobre semilla sexual.Los productores con fmcas medianas a grandes, que cultivan trigo, caña de azdcar y papa en Modipuram, en las planicies del norte, han probado con éxito la semilla sexual para la producción de tuberculillos.En Deesa, en las planicies áridas occidentales, donde los colaboradores son agricultores de gran escala y casi exclusivamente productores de papa, las pruebas realizadas generalmente no tuvieron éxito ya que los colaboradores no se sentían a gusto regentando las pequeñas parcelas de prueba. Estos resultados sugieren que los experimentos en esta área deben continuar con pequeños agricultores.Los agricultores de Tripura en el húmedo noreste, tienen problemas importantes para la adquisición de tubérculossemillas. De esta manera, la semilla sexual debería tener un gran potencial. Los agricultores son mayormente de pequeña escala y muchos sólo tienen instalaciones tudimentarias para el riego.La papa es su cultivo más importante y no están familiarizados con las técnicas de trasplante. Estos factores combinados con las fuertes lluvias después de uno o dos días de la siembra han creado problemas en algunos de los experimentos. En las pruebas en estación y en fmca, los costos se calcularon para el uso de tuberculillos de FlCl de HPS-1/13 comparado con los costos cuando se usan tubérculos-semillas de un cultivar local (Kufri Bahar o Kufri Jyoti). En todas las pruebas, los costos netos fueron menores para las pruebas en que se usaron tuberculillos. Sin embargo en pruebas posteriores en Modipuram, los tuberculillos de F1C2 y Fl C3 mostraron mayores costos por tonelada que los tubérculossemillas, debido a los bajos rendimientos; pero estas comparaciones fueron con semilla grande; por esta razón la investigación en el futuro debe hacerse con tuberculillos pequeños de F1C2 y F1C3.Indonesia. Un equipo interdisplinario de científicos nacionales (LEHRI) y del CIP ha estado trabajando en colaboración con los agricultores para desarrollar y perfeccionar técnicas para la producción de papa de consumo y tubérculos semillas a partir de semilla sexual de papa. Los agricultores formulan su propia investigación, evalúan resultados, perfeccionan técnicas y proceden con nuevos experimentos. Los investigadores de LEHRI y el CIP documentan y discuten con los agricultores en primer lugar las pruebas formuladas y sus resultados utilizando un formato grupal no estructurado.Sea que los agricultores realicen su investigación individualmente o como equipos familiares, o dentro de un grupo mayor, ellos comparan constantemente, evalúan y experimentan con sus propias técnicas para el cultivo de semilla sexual, producción de tubérculos y venta. Ellos formulan sus pruebas en base a sus propios resultados así como también a los de sus compañeros agricultores. Con una nueva tecnología como la de semilla sexual, los agricultores experimentan con técnicas usadas con éxito en otros cultivos, modificándolas para que se ajusten a la semilla sexual y sus requerimientos agronómicos. En las pruebas anteriores, los agricultores han reducido sus preferencias a unos cuantos métodos que tienen probabilidades y los experimentos en los siguientes cultivos han servido para-perfeccionar estas técnicas. Este proyecto ha sido extendido a una segun-da zona en Majalengka, y Java occidental, donde el servicio de investigación y extensión indonesios (Dinas Pertanian), está participando activamente en las visitas CIP-LEHRI a los agricultores y sus campos. El servicio de extensión también está en el proceso de introducir semilla sexual para el uso de un agricultor a gran escala y a un grupo cooperativo adicional de pequeños agricultores. El LEHRI proyecta ser la sede de una reunión de capacitación para extensionistas, agricultores y científicos sobre transferencia de tecnología flexible de semilla sexual.El UPW ARD (Perspectivas del Usuario en la Investigación y el Desarr.ollo Agrícolas), fue establecido en 1989 y es la primera red de investigación que dá énfasis al rol de los sistemas alimentarios en el desarrollo de la producción apropiada de papa y batata en el Sudeste Asiático. La red se va a concentrar en la tec_!lología agrícola y conocimientos del \"usuario\" con énfasis específico en el rol de la familia como unidad de producción, consumo, distribución y uso. U no de los objetivos claves es la capacitación de investigadores jóvenes de ciencias sociales y de ciencias agrícolas no tradicionales (nutrición, comercialización, economía del hogar), de los países del tercer mundo, como miembros de los equipos de los programas nacionales, los cuales en el pasado han puesto énfasis solamente en los aspectos técnicos de la producción.Se han iniciado o lanzado doce proyectos durante el año en tres países: Tailandia, Indonesia y Filipinas.Tailandia. Los proyectos se han concentrado en la producción y uso casero de la batata. La batata al igual que la papa es una hortaliza suplementaria y hay muy poca información sobre su producción y uso. Desde que la concentración de la producción varía enormemente se ha decidido estudiar 13 áreas representativas de las zonas de alta y baja producción. Los ejemplos son Tarchaburi, cerca e Bangkok con más de 800 hectáreas de producción y.Chiang Mai con menos de 160 hectáreas. La investigación inicial ha demostrado que los hábitos alimentarios tailandeses varían ampliamente en relación con el consumo de batata. La preparación popular de batata incluye la batata sancochada en agua, batata en miel de coco, rebanadas de batata en dulce (Mun Rang Nok), bolillas de batata frita (Kai Nok Krata), batata en miel con gengibre y batata frita. La batata también se usa en muchas salsas (curry). La preparación y procesamiento sencillo de la batata son actividades caseras. Los proyectos en Tailandia están dirigidos por la Sección de Cultivos de la División de Pro-: moción de Cultivos del Departamento de Campo-Hogar.Indonesia. Los proyectos en este país son más diversos. Un proyecto liderado por LEHRI condujo un seguimiento de las tecnologías desarrolladas por la estación experimental. El estudio ha sido ampliamente interdisciplinario y se concentra en las principales áreas técnicas: variedades, poscosecha, semilla y agronomía. El equipo se quedó una semana a 10 días en diferentes zonas averiguando como ha utilizado los resultados de la estación experimental el último en la cadena de los usuarios. Los resultados indicaron grandes problemas en el flujo de la información de la estación experimental a los agricultores, debido al gran número de agencias que manejan la información. Este flujo lento constrastó con el flujo de información proveniente de compañías privadas.Se hicieron visitas a unidades de procesamiento comerciales y caseras en otro estudio en Indonesia que investiga el procesamiento de batata en Java, y que ha recibido muy poca atención en investigación. Se formuló un proyecto para evaluar conocimientos del agricultor y coleccionar germoplasma de batata en Irían Java, pero no se ha iniciado aún ninguna investigación.Filipinas. El UPW ARD ha copatrocinado el primer seminario nacional socioeconómico y el taller sobre cultivos de raíces (Mejorando la Relevancia Social• en Cultivo de Raíces R&D). La investigación sobre batata ha marchado bien en las provincias de las montañas así como también en las planicies. La batata es el cultivo de raíces más extendido en Filipinas con más de 7 000 hectáreas sembradas. En las montañas es el cultivo alimenticio de primera necesidad, particularmente entre los grupos tribales. Las prácticas de cultivo y las variedades difieren entre tribus étnicas. Actualmente se están preparando informes detallados sobre estos resultados. Otros estudios se van a concentrar en la comercialización en Baguio y los huertos caseros.El proyecto de comercialización de PRACIP A (Proyecto Andino Cooperativo de Investigación en Papa), ha concluido su segundo año de actividades en 1989. Algunos de los resultados de la investigación se detallan a continuación.Bolivia. La encuesta sobre distribución \"formal\" de semilla por 12 instituciones continuó en la región de Cochabamba, donde actualmente dos instituciones manejan 70% de la semilla. También continúa la evaluación de las opiniones de los agricultores sobre la semilla existente. Se ha preparado un informe oficial que describe el sistema de distribución \"informal\" en ferias locales. El proyecto especial IBT NCIP ha incorporado a otro científico que ha continuado con su investigación sobre semilla desde el interior del proyecto. Los resultados de este trabajo los está usando el proyecto especial IBT NCIP como proyecto gemelo para diseñar un adecuado sistema de distribución de semilla.Colombia. En el segundo año de este proyecto, el trabajo sobre procesamiento sencillo de papa se ha concentrado en la factibilidad de usar papa deshidratada o harina de papa para alimentar cobayos. Los continuos buenos precios de la papa fresca en la región Pasto-Ipiales, sugirieron estudios más amplios de la viabilidad de esta alternativa, para suplementar la limitada información con que se cuenta sobre aspectos técnicos de este 214 tipo de procesamiento y sus beneficios económicos.Se han hecho estimados del costo de producción para procesamiento sencillo en Pamplona, pero se deben hacer ajustes a favor del tiempo y recursos utilizados.Ecuador. En una muestra estratificada se entrevistaron a multiplicadores, usuarios y no usuarios de semilla mejorada en las regiones sur y norte del país. Los resultados indican que 1) los multiplicadores de semilla en el norte producen semilla para su propio uso y para venta; no existen multiplicadores de semilla en el sur y2) en la región norte, 53% de los no usuarios informaron que no sabían donde comprar semilla mejorada, mientras que en el sur, la mitad de los entrevistados no tenían conocimiento de la existencia de tal semilla. Estos resultados confirman lo que se encontró en años anteriores y sugieren la necesidad de reevaluar el sistema de distribución que se utiliza para la semilla mejorada. El problema de la falta de información para los agricultores, tomando en cuenta el tipo, precio local y el momento de disponibilidad de semilla, merece atención especial.Papa. La preparación y distribución de boletines sobre la producción y comercialización de papa ha continuado en la región central y se han editado y distribuido un total de 27 boletines en los últimos dos años. El formato del boletín se ha ~pliado para incluir información acerca de producción y comercialización, así como también de costos de producción y precio de los fertilizantes. La base de datos que se ha instalado como parte de este proyecto, también se ha utilizado para generar proyecciones de los precios en Lima. El trabajo sobre comercialización de semilla y productos procesados de papa en las tierras altas del centro está casi listo.Venezuela. La investigación sobre comercialización en la región de Mérida consistió principalmente en una encuesta formal administrada a los productores de papa. Los resultados claves encontrados en la encuesta reflejan una producción de alta orientación comercial (se vende 76% de la cosecha), el uso de variedades \"blancas\" para el mercado y variedades \"negras\" para el consumo en finca; hay también una tendencia a vender a los colectores rurales de cosecha y las ventas se hacen en el fundo. Los agricultores generalmente informaron que tienen que aceptar el precio que se les ofrece, por la falta de información, recursos económicos (crédito), facilidades de almacenamiento y acceso a los servicios de una organizaGión de productores para comercializarlos directamente.Un crecido número de cursos de producción general de papa y batata incluye un componente socioeconómico o sistema alimentario. Este tipo de capacitación formal se ha dado en los cursos ofrecidos en Chile, Argentina, Kenya, Filipinas e Indonesia.Además, la capacitación especializada en habilidades de diagnóstico en finca, la cual es parte de un proyecto mayor financiado por el PNUD, se ha integrado al trabajo colaborativo de encuestas en los países de Latinoamérica.La capacitación asociada con el desarrollo y ejecución conjunta de los proyectos de países individuales es un componente importante de las redes de comercialización de UPW ARD y PRACIPA.El Departamento de Ciencias de la Inf ormación fue creado en 1989 para integrar las funciones de información y los recursos del CIP y como una respuesta a los desafíos de la surgente comunicación como producto de la progresiva descentr(\\lización del Centro. La generación de información, procesamiento y funciones de relevos del CIP se están reorganizando dentro de una estructura diseñada para satisfacer las necesidades de investigación y de administración de todo el Centro. Esto incluye la Unidad de Información y Comunicación derivadas del Departamento de Capacitación y Comunicación anterior e incorpora las Unidades de Computación, de Estadística y de Información Pública. La conceptualización de la función de información ha recibido la aprobación de los paneles de Revisión Externa.Las metas del nuevo Departamento son: evaluar las necesidades de información y comunicación; diseñar las estrategias de información y comunicación; proporcionar la estructura y los mecanismos para el intercambio de información y manejo, dentro del CIP y con los SNIA, los donantes y el público en general y facilitar el intercambio de información entre los programas nacionales.La Unidad de Comunicación apoya al CIP en el desarrollo e implementación de las estrategias de comunicación mediante la generación, diseño, producción y prestación de servicios de comunicación y ejecución de trabajos. Esto incluye publicaciones simplificadas, fotografías, ayudas audiovisuales y escritura/edición, traducción y capacitación en comunicación. Trabajando con los científicos del CIP para diagnosticar las necesidades del usuario, la U ni dad de Comunicación ayuda a programar y entregar productos y servicios de óptima calidad para las actividades de los Planes de Acción. La investigación, administración y capacitación del CIP están apoyadas en el intercambio de información, basada en la investigación entre las operaciones regionales del CIP y la sede central así como también entre los científicos nacionales. Las redes, asociaciones profesionales y las masas, todos en conjunto juegan un papel en este proceso.A lo largo del año pasado, los logros alcanzados en la Unidad incluyen:•La Unidad de Comunicación ha proporcionado sus instalaciones y experiencia técnica para el procesamiento y publicación en la misma sede, de una amplia gama de publicaciones incluyendo el Informe Anual del CIP, Circular del CIP, materiales de capacitación, informes de investigación, libros y otros materiales impresos. En total se han producido 32 publicaciones incluyendo la traducción de varios títulos a un segundo idioma. Cerca de 90 000 copias de publicaciones del CIP se distribuyen cada año a clientes y suscriptores en todo el mundo.•La Unidad produjo colecciones nl).evas de diapositivas (conjuntos de diapositivas para acompañar los Boletines de Información Técnica (BIT). De estos, cinco se produjeron en inglés, español y francés y cuatro en inglés y español. Además la U ni dad ha procesado más de 30 000 diapositivas e impresiones a color para informes y presentaciones así como gráficos para artículos que los científicos del CIP someten regularmente para su publicm;ión en revistas. La colección de diapositivas ( 4 000), negativos en blanco y negro y láminas de contacto son administrados por la Unidad. Se ha iniciado un nuevo inventario de la colección.• Se han desarrollado o traducido materiales de capacitación para los cursos en la sede central o en las regiones y también para los cursos que ofrecen los países. Se han coordinado 31 traducciones y se han publicado en español siete guías de capacitación, en adición a un gran número de documentos no publicados producidos para ser utilizados en capacitación.• U na lista mundial de correos de cerca de 6 000 entradas, en operación desde 1985, ha sido reestructurada e integrada con los datos sobre capacitación en la Base de Datos de la Red de Papa. Para establecer el sistema de computación que existe en la sede central del CIP y en las regiones, la recientemente formada Unidad evalúa las necesidades y recursos de computación, ayudando a actualizar y desarrollar tecnologías en los campos de computación y telecomunicaciones. La Unidad evalúa las alternativas para el desarrollo de los sistemas de información usando tecnologías apropiadas.La Unidad proporciona al personal científico y administrativo con la orientación, capacitación y facilidades de computación necesarias para realizar sus actividades. También ayuda en la difusión de tecnologías de computación para su uso en los programas nacionales.La Unidad de Computación actúa como una interfase entre los usuarios de la computación y la administración del CIP, proporcionando recursos técnicos para que ('.l Comité de Computación proponga pautas y defma estándares para los sistemas de computación en el CIP.V arios miembros del personal han sido transferidos de la Unidad de Información a la Unidad de Computación yse han redefmido las funciones.U na evaluación de las necesidades de computación y comunicaciones ha sido llevada a cabo en coordinación con la Unidad de Comunicaciones, así como también una evaluación de los sistemas de información presente y proyectada del CIP. Se han desarrollado bases de datos con esta información.En mayo, tres consultores del CIP ayudaron a determinar los cambios prioritarios requeridos para apoyar mejor las operaciones en ejecución y las proyectadas. El Comité de Computación y la Administración han analizado sus recomendaciones y las que tienen prioridad se están implementando. El uso de PCs se ha incrementado sustancialmente y el CIP ha recibido más de 50 compatibles adicionales para apoyar la investigación básica y procesamiento de la información administrativa y la administración. Las telecomunicaciones a través de correo electrónico se han incrementado significativamente durante este año en la sede central y en las oficinas regionales.Comunicaciones por Télex y FAX se envían regularmente a través de correo electrónico, aumentando de esta manera la eficiencia y obteniendo reducción en el costo. Pruebas exitosas se han realizado para la comunicación con ciertas universidades a través de BITNET.El fmanciamiento del proyecto especial proporcionado por el IDRC para establecer un servicio de información para los investigadores del CIP ha concluido este año. Estos servicios han sido incorporados con éxito a las operaciones regulares del CIP. Entre los logros alcanzados por la Unidad de Información están los siguientes:• Implementación y mantenimiento de la Base de Datos Bibliográfica del CIP, en la cual se han incluido entradas de la colección completa de la biblioteca de 34 000 referencias sobre papa y batata.• Búsqueda retrospectiva para el personal del CIPy de los programas nacionales que se proporciona regularmente.Este año se ha puesto énfasis especial en proporcionar servicio regular a los nuevos usuarios de Asia y Africa. De junio de 1989 a junio de 1990 se hicieron 822 búsquedas retrospectivas computadorizadas.•El servicio SDI incluye búsquedas hechas a pedido, ofrecidas tres veces al año con el objeto de mantener actualizados a los científicos nacionales en sus respectivas áreas de investigación. Más de 300 subcripciones SD I se proporcionan a los usuarios del CIP y de los SNIA. La naturaleza individual del servicio SDI ha sido muy bien valorada por los investigadores que reciben este tipo de servicio, como se puede apreciar en las evaluaciones realizadas periódicamente.• Bibliografías. Este año, el CIP ha producido dos extensas bibliografías:Semilla Sexual de Papa y Manejo Integrado de Plagas de Papa que han sido distribuidas a todos los programas nacionales y bibliotecas claves.• Listas de Ingresos. Estas publicaciones registran sobre la base mensual, todos los documentos nuevos recibidos por la biblioteca del CIP y se distribuyen a todos los programas de papa.• Fotocopias y Publicaciones Suministradas. En base a artículos específicos identificados en las búsquedas o a los SD 1, los usuarios de estos servicios de información pueden solicitar al CIP hasta 30 fotocopias gratuitas o dos artículos por cada búsqueda o SD l. Este servicio es muy utilizado por los investigadores de todo el mundo, quienes pueden así encontrar la información que no se encuentra con facilidad en las bibliotecas locales.Uno de los objetivos de los servicios de información y comunicación del CIP es apoyar y forta)ecer el intercambio de información entre los investigadores de papa y batata en los países del tercer mundo. Se han realizado varias actividades que conducen al cumplimiento de estos objetivos, entre las cuales se encuentra la base de datos sobre Procedimientos de Publicación de Revistas Agrícolas.La Red de Base de Datos de Papa ha sido diseñada para integrar toda la información sobre personas e instituciones que trabajan en papa en el mundo. Este sistema de información incluye la lista de correos del Centro, así como todos los datos sobre capacitación.Con la reorganización del Departamento se ha creado este año una U ni dad de 220 Estadística con el objeto de proporcionar asesoramiento y capacitación estadística para el diseño, análisis, organización y presentación apropiados de los proyectos de investigación.La Unidad ayuda a los científicos de la sede central y de las oficinas regionales, en la aplicación de métodos estadísticos avanzados para los procesos de investigación usando programas y equipos modernos de cómputo y comunicación. Colabora en el diseño de los datos utilizados por la Administración y Alta Dirección del CIP. Más aún, evalúa las necesidades específicas del trabajo de investigación de los científicos del CIP en general. La U ni dad promueve el uso de métodos estadísticos y programas por los programas nacionales y las redes.Esta Unidad, ha sido recientemente creada dentro del Departamento. Aunque no se ha contratado personal durante 1989, la función de información al público está asesorada por el Comité de Información al Público, el cual se ha formado a mediados del año. El Comité ha desarrollado un plan operacional de corto plazo para responder las necesidades de comunicación de la clientela del CIP, incluyendo sus empleados y público externo específico que abarca los SNIA, los donantes y la comunidad científica internacional.La capacitación del CIP se desarrolla conjuntamente con los programas nacionales y regionales, para ayudar a mejorar la investigación y la tecnología y de esta manera responder a las necesidades de los agricultores en la producción y uso de la papa y la batata. El plan de trabajo anual consiste en la participación individual o en grupo en la capacitación por corto tiempo o especializada (ver Tabla 1). El CIP también apoya la capacitación a nivel graduado para estudiantes de los SNIA que tienen proyectos de mejoramiento de papa y batata. Cuando es requerido el personal regional y el de la sede central apoya como recurso científico en los cursos organizados por las instituciones nacionales e internacionales dando clases y seminarios.Conjuntamente con el CIA T y el IITA (los otros centros internacionales cuyos mandatos de investigación y desarrollo incluyen cultivos de raíces y tubérculos), el CIP ha comenzado el segundo año de su proyecto de tres años sobre Desarrollo de Recursos Humanos. Este proyecto se centra en la generación y transferencia de tecnología de cultivos de raíces y tubérculos en los sistemas agrícolas nacionales de Africa, Asia, Latinoamérica Varios cursos sobre Manejo de Germoplasma se han ofrecido durante 1989. Un curso sobre Manejo de Germoplasma de Papa se llevó a cabo en Colombia y Ecuador con participantes de los 5 países andinos: Bolivia (1), Colombia (1), Ecuador (2), Perú (8) y Venezuela (2). El curso se inició en Bogotá donde los estudiantes recibieron clases teóricas y prácticas sobre los principios de mejoramiento de papa, selección de progenitores y métodos de mejoramiento. Se puso énfasis en el mejoramiento para resistencia al tizón tardío y a la marchitez bacteriana. Los asistentes al curso participaron en los procesos de cosecha y selección de una Prueba del Proyecto Internacional de Tizón Tardío en Rionegro, Colombia. En Quito, Ecuador, los estudiantes aprendieron sobre mejoramiento para resistencia al nematodo del quiste de la papa.A un curso de capacitación regional de dos semanas sobre manejo de germoplasma de papa en Nairobi, Kenya asistieron 17 participantes de 11 Programas Nacionales de Papa de los países del norte, centro y sur de Africa. Este curso puso énfasis en las técnicas de evaluación y selección para resistencia a factores bióticos y abióticos. Un análisis sumario y discusión por los participantes cubrió cuatro áreas principales: ( 1) mecanismos de comunicación en la utilización del germoplasma; (2) métodos y eficiencia de adquisición del germoplasma de papa;(3) métodos de evaluación y sele<;ción del germoplasma de papa, procedimientos y estrategias; ( 4) investigación con semilla sexual y uso de tuberculillos como método alternativo de propagación. Se hicieron recomendaciones para mejorar la utilización del programa de germoplasma en las regiones.Un taller sobre Germoplasma de Batata en Kenya fue copatrocinado por el Instituto Keniano de Investigación Agrícola (KARI) y el CIP en Nairobi y Katumani. Asistieron un total de 22 participantes: 12 de los programas de batata de 6 estaciones del KARI, 3 de otras 222 instituciones de Kenya, 2 del IBPGR y 5 del CIP. Los tópicos incluyeron investigación colaborativa y colección y utilización del germoplasma de batata. Además, los investigadores kenianos recibieron capacitación sobre el uso de descripciones morfológicas desarrolladas por el Dr. Zósimo Huamán del CIP. El curso regional para Asia -Manejo del Germoplasma de Papa, Mejoramiento y Evaluación -se llevó a cabo en PCARRD, Los Baños, Filipinas, patrocinado por el CIP, SAPPRAD y PCARRD. Los participantes procedían de China ( 4), Fiji (1), Indonesia (1), Malasia (1), Pakistán (1), Filipinas (8), Tailandia (2), Vanuatu (1) y Viet Nam (3). Los participantes fueron científicos que se encuentran actualmente involucrados en el manejo y evaluación de germoplasma. Los tópicos de los cursos incluyeron: genética básica; taxonomía del cultivo; cultivo de tejidos como forma de mantenimiento del germoplasma; virología incluyendo la identificación y detección de virus y estrategias de mejoramiento y métodos de evaluación.Los países del tercer mundo tienen generalmente pocos científicos con experiencia en métodos integrados para el manejo de plagas y enfermedades, por lo tanto, el CIP trabaja en colaboración con otras instituciones internacionales ofreciendo conjuntamente amplios programas de capacitación. El año pasado se han llevado a cabo talleres y conferencias sobre MIP en las Regiones 11, VI y VIII.En Guatemala, en setiembre, los asistentes al curso prepararon un plan maestro para iniciar y conducir trabajos de MIP en sus respectivos países. Al curso asistieron 14 participantes de: Guatemala ( 9), Panamá {1), Honduras (1), Costa Rica {1) y Nicaragua (1), todos en la red PRECODEPA. Entomólogos del CIP y de los países de PRECODEP A están respaldando y haciendo un seguimiento de las actividades de MIP en la región.U na Reunión Internacional sobre Manejo de Plagas de la Batata fue patrocinada por la Universidad de Florida y el CIP, en Miami, Florida. Los investigadores que estudian las plagas de la batata en el mundo intercambiaron información acerca de los problemas causados por insectos y la manera de enfocarlos. Se puso énfasis especial a los tópicos concernientes con el gorgojo de la batata, incluyendo el uso de feromonas sexuales, controles biológicos e interacciones gorgojo/planta hospedante.El gorgojo de la batata es la plaga más seria que afecta la producción y utilización de batata en Asia. Para apoyar a los investigadores asiáticos, el Curso Internacional de Capacitación sobre Control Integrado del Gorgojo de la Batata se llevó a cabo en agosto, en el Instituto Central de Investigación sobre Cultivos de Tubérculo (CTCRI), Trivandrum, India. Al curso asistieron participantes de Bangladesh (2), Filipinas (2), Tailandia (1), Indonesia (1) e India (5). Los tópicos claves incluyeron taxonomía, biología y evaluación de resistencia genética y otros métodos de control para el gorgojo de la batata. Hacia el final del curso, los participantes en el curso, con la ayuda de los científicos del CIP y del CTCRI, prepararon planes de control para esta plaga.Un seminario relacionado con enfermedades y plagas de la batata también se llevó a cabo en agosto en el CTCRI, al que asistieron participantes de India ( 6), Bangladesh (2), Filipinas (2), Tailandia (1) e Indonesia (1).En mayo se llevó a cabo un curso sobre marchitez bacteriana de papa, patrocinado por el Instituto de Sanidad Vegetal del CAAS y el CIP, en Pekín, China. El curso estuvo diseñado para los científicos de China e incluyó discusiones sobre: ( 1) principios y aplicaciones requeridos en el mejoramiento para resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana, (2) evaluación del germoplasma para resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana y (3) manejo de la marchitez bacteriana y técnicas serológicas. Asistieron al curso, doce participantes de diferentes provincias de China.La capacitación en comunicación y métodos de capacitación son una parte integral de retrasmisión e intercambio de la tecnología desarrollada dentro de los Planes de Acción de investigación del CIP, a través de los proyectos de investigación departamental y colaborativa. En mayo se llevó a cabo un taller sobre habilidades en Capacitación y Comunicación en Lima, Perú, al cual concurrieron participantes de Colombia ( 6), Ecuador (6) y Perú (5). Los instructores fueron del CIAT (1) y del CIP (3). Durante el curso, cada equipo nacional desarrolló un plan para apoyar en el futuro, actividades de capacitación y comunicación en sus países.En una actividad relacionada, el CIP y el CIAT clasificaron y compilaron cerca de 100 documentos sobre comunicación, capacitación y evaluación en un Inventario de Materiales de Capacitación. Los materiales en inglés y español se compartieron con los participantes en el taller. Los documentos en inglés se están seleccionando y clasificando con mayor amplitud y varios documentos en español se están traduciendo al inglés para su uso en talleres que habrán de realizarse en Asia y Africa en 1990 y 1991.Aunque se han producido excelentes variedades potenciales por los programas de mejoramiento del CIP y por los mejoradores de los programas nacionales, mediante proyectos colaborativos de investigación, estudios recientes del CIP sobre el uso global de variedades mejoradas de papa han demostrado que los materiales genéticamente mejorados no han estado llegando a los campos de los agricultores. De esta manera, la tendencia hacia arriba en la producción de papa en los países del tercer mundo emana aparentemente de los rendimientos obtenidos con variedades tradicionales y/o por la expansión en el cultivo de tales variedades.El análisis de los factores que están impidiendo el uso de productos mejorados indica facilmente que la disponibilidad de material sano de siembra es el problema de primer orden. Por esto, los Programas Regionales del CIP y los esfuerzos de capacitación están dirigidos a ayudar a los programas nacionales a desarrollar programas eficientes de multiplicación de semilla y en fortalecer los programas existentes. Esta iniciativa requiere capacitación especializada en tecnología de semilla con énfasis sobre la multiplicación rápida de materiales vegetativos sanos, así como la logística y administración de programas apropia-224 dos de semilla que respondan a las necesidades del país.En 1989 las actividades de capacitación en grupo, en tecnología de la semilla incluyeron el Tercer Curso Internacional de Almacenamiento y Producción de Semilla realizado en enero/febrero en Osorno, Chile. Desarrollado mancomunadamente por el INIA y el CIP, el curso reunió participantes de Chile (7), Brasil (1), Bolivia (1), Ecuador (1), Honduras (1), Perú (1) y Panamá (1).Los instructores del INIA, la Universidad Austral, el CIP y el sector privado pusieron énfasis en la producción de semilla y almacenamiento así como a la tecnología de producción de semilla sexual. El curso es parte de un proyecto financiado por el PNUD, orientado al desarrollo de recursos humanos y capacitación técnica y científica. El curso consistió de clases teóricas y prácticas, discusiones, visitas al campo y trabajos de grupo.En Canoinhas, Santa Catarina, Brasil, se llevó a cabo un curso organizado por el programa de papa de EMBRAPA-CNPH, en colaboración con el Servicio de Producción de Semilla B~ica y financiado por el CIP. Realizado en octubre y noviembre, asistieron al curso participantes de Brasil (23), Hungría (2), Paraguay (1) y Mozambique (1). Se puso énfasis en la producción de semilla en colaboración con el gobierno e instituciones privadas.En Quito, Ecuador, el INIAP y el CIP ofrecieron un curso sobre Producción de Semilla Básica de Papa en octubre/ noviembre. Los tópicos principales incluyeron cultivo de tejidos, propagación rápida por esquejes de tallo y prevención de la diseminación de enfermedades sistémicas asociadas con la propagación vegetativa. Al curso asistieron 11 participantes; Colombia y Ecuador con 2 participantes cada uno y Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Perú, Guatemala, Brasil y Venezuela con un participante cada uno. Los tópicos de discusión incluyeron producción de semilla prebásica, mantenimiento in vitro y multiplicación, técnicas serológicas para la detección de virus y NASH para la detección de viroides.Como parte de la ayuda de la sede central del CIP a los programas nacionales, se ha programado un curso práctico en• virología como una actividad anual para participantes individuales interesados en las técnicas básicas de virología. Este curso se ofreció en la sede central del CIP en Lima, Perú, en febrero, reuniendo á participantes de Colombia (1), Venezuela (2), República Dominicana (1), Costa Rica (2), Ecuador (1), Perú (7) y Bolivia (1).Asimismo, se ofreció en junio en el CIP, Lima, un curso en virología avanzada. Participaron 6 estudiantes, uno de cada uno de los siguientes países: Colombia, Brasil, Perú y Austria y 2 de México.Este curso de seis semanas está diseñado para científicos con grados avanzados que están activamente comprometidos en investigación sobre virus y en identificación o preparación de antisuero para la detección de virus. Cada semana de capacitación está constituida de módulos de aprendizaje que cubren en detalle una técnica en particular con experiencia práctica intensiva bajo la dirección de un virólogo experimentado.En San José de Costa Rica, el CIP ha colaborado éon el Ministerio de Agricultura, para realizar un curso de capacitación para la red PRECODEP A. El curso de Patología en la Producción de Semilla contó con la asistencia de ocho participantes de Costa Rica y uno de cada uno El personal del CIP recibe capacitación en la programación necesaria para su trabajo.de los siguientes países: El Salvador, Haití, Panamá, Honduras, Guatemala y República Dominicana. Al finalizar el curso, los participantes presentaron un informe de su país, proporcionando así un intercambio de información en dos sentidos y posibilitando la evaluación de los participantes sobre la comprensión de la materia en estudio.En Gisozi, Burundi, se hizo un Curso Nacional sobre Almacenamiento de Papa, organizado por el Instituto de Ciencias Agronómicas de Burundi (ISABU). El curso se ofreció en febrero con la asistencia de 10 participantes del gobierno y organiZaciones privadas. CIP e IITA ofrecieron en colaboración, un curso sobre Organización y Manejo de Programas de Producción de Semilla Vegetativa. El curso se realizó en octubre con financiamiento del PNUD. Asistieron un total de 17 participantes de Uganda, Zambia, Seychelles, Etiopía, Mauricio, Sudán, Swazilandia, Lesoto y Ruanda.En julio, se realizó un curso en N airobi para seis miembros del personal regional. Asistieron participantes de Kenya, Ruanda y Etiopía.Las Regiones III y IV ofrecieron cursos especializados de capacitación sobre semilla sexual como un método alternativo de propagación de papa. En mayo, un total de seis participantes, representantes de los programas nacionales de Kenya, Ruanda, Uganda, Mozambique y Etiopía, asistieron a un curso de una semana sobre aspectos prácticos de tecnología de semilla sexual en Nairobi.En el CPRA-Saida en Túnez se realizó un curso nacional sobre producción y almacenamiento de semilla. Asistieron 18 participantes de varias agencias de 226 desarrollo. El curso fue organizado por científicos tunecinos del CPRA-Saida, INRATyelCIP.Un curso nacional de producción de papa se realizó en Menemem, Turquía, y Bagdad, Iraq, al que asistieron 12 participantes de compañías privadas y semiprivadas de semilla.En Agadir, Marruecos, 15 participantes de las agencias de extensión estatal, investigación y producción de semilla asistieron a un curso nacional realizado en el Instituto de Agronomía y Veterinaria.El primer Curso Especializado Regional sobre Manejo del Germoplasma y Producción de Semilla para Africa Central y del Oeste se realizó en Bamenda, Camerún en junio. Asistieron un total de 18 científicos de Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Malí, Cabo Verde, Costa de Marfil y Camerún.El Noven o Curso Internacional de Capacitación sobre Producción y Certificación de Semilla de Papa fue patrocinado por el CIP en el CPRS Modipuram, en noviembre/diciembre. Asistieron participantes de Nepal (8), Sri Lanka (3), Butan ( 4) e India (3). Un Taller Regional sobre Almacenamiento a Bajo Costo de Papa de Consumo y de Semilla se realizó en mayo en India. Asistieron participantes de Kenya (1), Nepal (2), Bután (3) e India (10). El taller se concentró en la revisión de tecnologías útiles para la transferencia al agricultor y el análisis de sus necesidades. Los participantes hicieron recomendaciones sobre planes y estrategias para la investigación futura y actividades de desarrollo sobre almacenamiento en clima frío y cálido.Un total de 28 científicos asistieron a un Taller Regional que se realizó en enero en Nueva Delhi, India, para Investigadores sobre Semilla Sexual de Papa. Los participantes fueron de Bangladesh (1), Bután (2), Nepal (2), Filipinas (2) y Viet Nam (1).En Filipinas se realizó un curso sobre Cultivo de Tejidos de Batata y Virología, bajo el auspicio de SAPPRAD, CIP y PCARRD, en Visea. El curso estuvo diseñado para científicos de Filipinas, Indonesia, Malasia, Sri Lanka y Papúa Nueva Guinea. El curso cubrió conceptos básicos, técnicas de cultivo de tejidos y erradicación de virus, identificación e indexación. El conocimiento en estas áreas es necesario para desarrollar los procedimientos requeridos para la limpieza de germoplasma, envío y recepción de materiales limpios del Instituto de Investigación Vegetal de Victoria, Australia.Un curso sobre utilización de los equipos ELISA y dot-ELISA se realizó en enero en la Universidad de Inner Mongolia de la Provincia de Tuke~ China, con siete participantes de seis instituciones nacionales de investigación o producción de papa.En mayo se realizó en China un curso sobre Producción de Semilla de Papa de variedades mejoradas; asistieron 20 participantes de las provincias sureñas de China.El CIP, en colaboración con el Instituto para Investigación Agrícola (IRA-Bambui), auspició un Curso Nacional de producción de Papa en Bamenda, Camerún. El curso se realizó en sesiones de dos días; se inició con la siembra en abril y finalizó en julio con la cosecha. Al curso asistieron 20 agrónomos del go-bierno y de organizaciones privadas de Camerún.El Primer Curso Nacional de Producción de Papa, auspiciado por el CIP, en colaboración con el Instituto Nacional de Investigación en Cultivos de Raíces (NRCRI), se realizó en Jos, Nigeria, en julio. Asistieron 20 investigadores, extensionistas y especialistas en producción de las organizaciones gubernamentales. El curso se ocupó principalmente de la producción de papas de consumo y de semilla.El CIP también auspició el 18vo. Curso Internacional de Capacitación sobre Métodos Modernos de Producción de Papa, realizado en el Instituto Central de Investigación en Papa (CPRI), en Shimla, India. Participaron un total de 22 investigadores, especialistas en extensión y docentes universitarios de India, Nepal y Bangladesh. El curso fue coordinado por la División de Ciencias Sociales de CPRI, de donde también provinieron más de 40 instructores.La tecnología de producción es el punto de vista central de la mayor parte de la capacitación que ~mparte el CIP en relación con la batata (Ipomoea batatas L.). A medida que los proyectos de investigación desarrollan y el interés de los SNIA continúa aumentando, el CIP tiene el propósito de ajustar el balance entre la producción y la capacitación especializada, en concordancia con las necesidades de los usuarios. En 1989, el CIP auspició cursos sobre producción de batata, seminarios y talleres en las Regiones I, IV, VI y VII como se indica en el siguiente resumen.El Primer Curso Internacional sobre el Cultivo de Batata se realizó en San Pedro, Argentina en marzo, coordinado por el Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria de Argentina y auspiciado por el CIP. Al curso asistieron participantes de Paraguay y Brasil (3 de cada uno), Argentina, Colombia, República Dominicana, Cuba y Venezuela (1 de cada uno). Los objetivos del curso fueron hacer posible que los participantes: (1) identifiquen y describan los problemas y posibilidades en la producción de batata;(2) expliquen la base científica para la producción de batata, incluyendo botánica, fisiología, agronomía, patología, economía, etc. y (3) desarrollen proyectos de investigación orientados a resolver problemas de producción y comercialización de la batata.En la estación de Kafr El Zayat en Egipto, se realizó un curso de Producción de Batata para productores, investigadores, horticultores y extensionistas. El curso duró una semana.En el CTCRI, Trivandrum, India, se realizó en julio un Seminario sobre la Batata en Asia.Al Seminario-Taller Nacional sobre Batata qu~ se realizó en Baybay, Leyte, Filipinas, en colaboración con PRCRTC y VISCA, asistieron un total de 47 participantes.Un curso de Capacitación Regional sobre Producción de Batata se realizó en enero/febrero en PCARRD, Los Baños, Filipinas. Asistieron participantes de Filipinas e Indonesia ( 6 de cada uno), Viet Nam ( 4), Islas Salomón, Tailandia y Taiwan (2) y Corea, Tonga y Australia (1). Los objetivos fueron comunicar el estado actual del conocimiento científico en las principales disciplinas de investi-228 gación en batata; preparar a los científicos nacionales para la enseñanza de cursos generales de producción en sus países de origen y desarrollar planes de trabajo de investigación para cada país participante. El enfoque fue sobre problemas a nivel de finca, con análisis de los problemas de producción de los agricultores. Las presentaciones trataron principalmente de problemas de producción, mejoramiento y poscosecha.Un Taller Nacional sobre Producción, Utilización y Comercialización de Batata se realizó en Viet Nam, en setiembre, con grupos de 35, 11 y 22 participantes.El CIP auspició en marzo un curso sobre Procesamiento de Cultivo de Raíces y Tubérculos a Nivel de Aldea en la Sociedad para el Desarrollo de Tecnología Apropiada (SOTEC), en Bareilly, India. Los participantes provenían de India (5), Bangladesh (2) y Nepal y Sri Lanka (1).En el Perú, en estrecha colaboración con el Departamento de Suelos de la Universidad Agraria en Lima, se realizaron cursos con énfasis en técnicas de fertilizantes y fertilización usadas en la producción de papa y batata. Más de 200 investigadores y extensionistas peruanos del gobierno y de instituciones de todo el Perú asistieron a estos cursos. Los cursos incluyeron presentaciones sobre requerimientos nutricionales de la planta; tipos, dosis y métodos de aplicación de fertilizantes y análisis económicos de gastos y ganancias.Las redes de investigación auspiciadas por el CIP están incrementando progre-sivam~nte sus habilidades para dirigir la capacitación dentro de sus regiones. La primera red, PRECODEPA, está satisfaciendo plenamente las necesidades de sus países miembros en materia de capacitación en tecnología de la producción de papa y en materias especializadas conexas. Las otras redes están realizando progresos similares y la capacidad incre-mentada de los SNIA y de las redes colaborativas han permitido que los científicos del CIP se dediquen a la capacitación más especializada, asistencia técnica y desarrollo de materiales de enseñanza.Los líderes nacionales de los programas de los países de PRECODEP A asistieron a un seminario en Lima, Perú en febrero/marzo que proporcionó actualización científica a los participantes al tiempo que les ayudó a fortalecer y desarrollar puentes colaborativos de los países individuales y PRECODEP A. Los contratos de investigación, asesoramiento y proyectos especiales juegan un papel muy importante en los esfuerzos del CIP para eliminar los obstáculos que afectan la producción en general y la utilización de la papa y la batata. Los contratos promueven la investigación en problemas prioritarios y aseguran fonqos para llevar a cabo el trabajo necesario. La flexibilidad del CIP para hacer frente a los cambios necesarios es incrementada significativamente mediante los contratos, que han demostrado ser muy efectivos y de bajo costo. En términos presupuestales, una de las principales vent.ajas de la colaboración con otras instituciones mediante los contratos de investigación es que las instalaciones y el personal necesario para una actividad específica de investigación se encuentran ya en su lugar. Esto representa un ahorro en términos de recursos del CIP y puede convertirse en un factor aún más importante conforme el CIP esté más involucrado en investigación biotecnológica, con el alto costo que ello implica. La retribución sobre inversiones ha sido substancial, tanto en términos de información obtenida como del establecimiento de relaciones valiosas con los contratistas quienes frecuentemente juegan un importante papel en las conferencias de planeamiento de la investigación en el CIP y en otras actividades de planificación y evaluación.Plan Hemos examinado los balances gerterales del Centro Internacional de la Papa -CIP (una organizac16n sin fines de lucro) al 31 de diciembre de 1989 y al 31 de diciembre de 1988 y los estados de ingresos, egresos y de cambios en los fondos no utilizados y de cambios en la situaci6n financiera por los affos terminados en esas fechas. Nuestros exámenes fueron realizados de acuerdo con normas de auditoría generalmente aceptadas e incluyeron, consecuentemente, comprobaciones selectivas de la contabilidad y la aplicaci6n de otros procedimientos de auditoría en la medida que consideramos necesaria en las circunstancias.Como se describe en la Nota 2-c) hasta el 31 de diciembre de 1988, de acuerdo con los lineamientos establecidos por el Grupo Consultivo sobre Investigaciones Agron6micas Internacionales para la preparaci6n de estados financieros oe los Centros Internacionales de Investigaci6n Agrícola, los pedidos a firme para la adquisici6n de activos fijos y servicios, eran registrados en el aflo del compromiso• en lugar de cuando surgía la obligaci6n de pago. A partir de 1989, los pedidos a firme antes mencionados son contabilizados cuando surge la obligaci6n de pago.Como se describe en la Nota 3, debido a la forma en la cual el Banco Interamericano para el Desarrollo transfiere sus contribuciones al Centro, la donación por cobrar a dicho banco al 31 de diciembre de 1989 está sobreestimada en aproximadamente USSl mill6n a esa fecha.En nuestra opini6n, excepto por el efecto en 1988 de la situación descrita en el segundo párrafo, y por el efecto en 1989 de la situación mencionada en el párrafo anterior, los estados financieros adjuntos presentan razonablemente la situaci6n financiera del Centro Internacional de la Papa -CIP al 31 de diciembre de 1989 y 31 de diciembre de 1988 y los resultados de sus ingresos, egresos y cambios en los fondos no utilizados y los cambios en la situaci6n financiera por los af'íos terminados en esas fechas, de acuerdo con principios de contabilidad generalmente aceptados que fueron aplicados uniformemente.  El Centro Internacional de la Papa CIP es una organización sin fines de lucro, con sede en Lima, Perú, y con programas ubicados en América Latina, Medio Oriente, Asia y Africa. Las operaciones del CIP tienen como objetivo principal desarrollar y diseminar los conocimientos sobre la papa y otras raíces tuberosas a nivel internacional, mediante la ejecución de programas de investigación, formación y adiestramiento de científicos, diseminación de los resultados de investigaciones a través de publicaciones, conferencias, forums, seminarios y otras actividades concordantes con sus objetivos.El CIP fue constituido en 1972 de conformidad con el Convenio de Cooperación Científica celebrado con el Gobierno Peruano en 1971 y que vence en el año 2000. El CIP es miembro del grupo de Centros Internacionales de Investigación Agrícola que recibe apt>yo del Grupo Consultivo sobre Investigaciones Agronómicas Internacionales.De acuerdo con las disposiciones legales vigentes y los términos del convenio antes mencionado, el CIP está exonerado del impuesto a la renta y otros impuestos. Si por alguna razón importante se procediera a dar por terminadas las operaciones del CIP, los terrenos, edificios, equipos, vehículos y otros bienes pasarán a ser propiedad del Ministerio de Agricultura del Perú.Las principales prácticas contables son como sigue: a. Moneda extranjera -Los registros contables del CIP son mantenidos en dólares estadounidenses, siendo las transacciones efectuadas sustancialmente en dicha moneda. Los activos y pasivos denominados en otras monedas son convertidos a dólares estadounidenses a los tipos de cambio vigentes al cierre del ejercicio. Las ganancias y pérdidas en cambio son incluidas en el estado de ingresos, egresos y de cambios en los fondos no utilizados.b. Ingresos -Las donaciones se reconocen como ingreso sobre la base de los compromisos aceptados por los donantes.Las donaciones no restringidas, así como las donaciones para bienes de capital y de capital de trabajo son comprometidas anualmente y son reconocidas en el periodo en el cual se comprometen, siempre y cuando sea probable que se reciban.Las donaciones para operaciones restringidas y proyectos especiales son contabilizadas en el periodo estipulado por el donante. Los otros ingresos netos, son registrados cuando se reciben y están compuestos básicamente por intereses sobre inversiones, ingresos por ventas de activo fijo y materiales, diferencia en cambio y por los costos administrativos cargados a proyectos especiales.c. Egresos -Hasta antes de 1989, los pedidos a firme para la adquisición de bienes de activo fijo y servicios se registraban en el año del compromiso. Consecuentemente al 31 de diciembre de 1988, el monto de compromisos registrados bajo esta práctica ascendió a US$892 740. A partir de 1989, los pedidos a firme antes mencionados son contabilizados cuando surge la obligación de pago.Los egresos de fondos utilizados en el exterior se contabilizan en base a informes recibidos de la entidad receptora. Los gastos relacionados con proyectos especiales se aplican al fondo respectivo en el periodo en que se incurren.d. Inversiones -Las inversiones a corto plazo, que comprenden principalmente certificados de depósitos bancarios, están valuadas al costo de adquisición y devengan un interés anual equivalente a las tasas bancarias vigentes.e. Inventarios de artículos de laboratorio, repuestos y otros suministros -Los artículos de laboratorio, repuestos y otros suministros están valuados al valor estimado de mercado, el mismo que se aproxima al costo.f. Activos fijos -Los activos fijos están registrados a su costo de adquisición. Las adiciones y reemplazos se cargan al costo a las donaciones respectivas como gastos del periodo y son subsecuentemente capitalizadas y se presentan en el rubro de Patrimonio institucional y fondos no utilizados. El costo de los activos fijos vendidos o dados de baja por reemplazos, es eliminado de la cuenta de activo y de la cuenta del patrimonio institucional correspondiente. Los activos fijos no se deprecian.Los gastos de mantenimiento y reparación se registran como gastos de operación.g. Vacaciones -Las vacaciones se cargan a los gastos de operación en el año en que se toman.h. Provisión para beneficios sociales -La provisión para compensación por tiempo de servicios del personal peruano se registra a medida que se devenga y se calcula de acuerdo con disposiciones legales vigentes. El importe del pasivo devengado es el monto que tendría que pagarse a los trabajadores asumiendo que ellos se retiraran a la fecha de los estados financieros.Este rubro al 31 de diciembre incluye una donación por cobrar al Banco Interamericano para el Desarrollo (BID) por US$1 650 000. Las contribuciones en dólares del BID son transferidas al Centro a través del Banco Central de Reserva del Perú y convertidas en intis utilizando el tipo de cambio del Mercado Unico de Cambios (MUC) en lugar del cambio del mercado libre. Al 31 de diciembre de 1989, el tipo de cambio MUC es casi el 40% del tipo de cambio del mercado libre vigente a esa fecha, que es el cambio con el cual el Centro opera. Si esta situación prevaleciera, cuando la donación sea finalmente recibida, el Centro recibiría aproximadamente US$1 000 000 menos que el monto de la contribución en dólares por cobrar a dicho Banco. ","tokenCount":"73211"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"167c4a4dd6964d11799f30a12a23f365","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/6b7e5775-d708-4ba4-ab93-96a80e31bbe6/content","id":"1598269406"},"keywords":["farm profitability","risk mitigation","risk aversion","adoption pathways","ex-ante impact","maize","sustainable intensification","innovation modelling","climate resilience","Value-Ag"],"sieverID":"b9d8032d-0dac-45be-888d-39f3963d57b3","pagecount":"24","content":"Conservation Agriculture (CA) is promoted by research and development (R&D) agencies to sustainably intensify agricultural systems with the goals of improving food security and livelihoods and adapting food systems to global climate change. Despite the many benefits of CA, there are few farmers around the world that have simultaneously implemented all facets of the strategy. In part, this reflects the challenges in applying, adapting, and understanding this complex and multi-dimensional agricultural innovation in the context of diverse farming systems. In this paper, we applied an integrated framework that combines bioeconomic simulation, risk analysis, adoption theory, and impact assessment to investigate how various combinations of CA components (no-tillage, soil cover, crop diversification, plus growing a new crop or variety) performed over a 10-year period in representative farms in a central Mexican case study. We found significant differences in profit, net value, downside risk, and risk-aversion cost between double-component scenarios (and improved CA to a lesser extent) and all other scenarios, which suggested that disaggregating CA into smaller component packages could increase farmer adoption in risky contexts. Our findings provided valuable insights on CA feasibility and could help establish policy and reporting metrics. The study highlighted the need for employing a range of research tools to understand the relative value of agricultural innovations and to identify and reduce trade-offs and uncertainty in farming systems.Conservation Agriculture (CA) systems contribute to food security, improve livelihoods, and help farmers tackle climate change [1]. CA is defined by the FAO as \"a farming system that promotes minimum soil disturbance (i.e., no-till or minimal tillage farming), maintenance of a permanent soil cover and diversification of crop species. It enhances biodiversity and natural biological processes above and below the ground surface, which contribute to increased water and nutrient use efficiency and improved and sustained crop production\" [2].Researchers have investigated the potential to intensify under-performing agricultural land through innovations such as CA, particularly among global smallholder operations [3][4][5][6][7][8]. CA's ability to function in the world's diverse contexts and production systems attests to its adaptability. CA can also generate substantial economic and environmental benefits under marginal conditions, particularly by enhancing climate change resilience. Recent meta-analyses confirmed that CA strategies favoured the drier regions of the globe-such as central Mexicoand increased organic carbon in soil and crop yield by helping retain soil moisture [9][10][11]. In southern Africa, CA maize and wheat yields have seen increases up to 50% over six years, relative to conventional agriculture [5]. Dryland maize in central Mexico averaged gains of 38-48% over 9 to 10 years [5,12]. Also, large cost savings can result from increased labour efficiency and reduced automation when moving from conventional systems to CA with only minimal land preparation and direct seeding [13].Although the potential for these interventions has been recognised, their success has been limited [3,10,[14][15][16]. Many factors can contribute to the overall low adoption rates of innovation in agriculture. High risk levels, a lack of economic drivers or incentives, broader social constraints, the level of farmer engagement, or combinations of these can all impact the likelihood of farmers implementing new innovations [17][18][19][20]. Other factors-such as alternative technologies being available as supplements, complements or replacements, either simultaneously or sequentially-may also affect the speed and level of adoption [21,22]. Adoption is particularly problematic for complex sustainable intensification technologies, such as CA, which have multiple components and potential effects in a variety of dimensions resulting in large outcome variability [13,23]. These also frequently present a learning curve and require initial technical assistance or minimal start-up investment for longer-term benefits [23]. In the context of this paper, CA is defined as a series of recommendations that enable farmers to produce more with less, and the resource-conserving behaviour provides a pathway to sustainably intensifying production on existing farmland. However, so-called sustainable practices often have both beneficial and adverse effects on the environment, ranging from measurable yield gains from improved soil condition to broader impacts on air quality and biodiversity [13] that fall outside the scope of this study.Assessing the full impact of CA is challenging given the complex, context-specific and multi-dimensional nature of the innovation and the systems in which farmers implement it. For example, changes in crop yield impact the production of stubble-the remnants of the plants after harvest-which can have multiple uses depending on various factors such as quantity, quality, and value. Crop stubble can be sold as fodder or retained. In the latter case, it can be incorporated in the soil, used as ground cover, fed to livestock, or burned [24]. Moreover, the relative role of crop residues, or stubble, can change, as they may be a better source of income than grains in very dry years, but not in wetter years, potentially complicating the long-term adoption of CA. The fate of crop stubble can be further influenced by crop choice. All of these factors and actions have consequences in terms of resource trade-offs and the allocation of farm inputs, feed, labour, machinery, capital, and sometimes water and land as well. Increasing agricultural production and hastening the shift towards intensified systems often require a well-planned mechanisation strategy that also fits with the multiple goals of farm sustainability, profitability, and resilience; meanwhile, they are limited by local supply, infrastructure, and the farmers' socioeconomic context [25].There is a growing trend towards integrated systems approaches that more effectively harness key stakeholder interactions, promote synergies and minimize trade-offs for resource-use-efficiency, scale innovations, and enable potential adoption and positive impact [7,[26][27][28][29][30][31]. Sadras et al. argued that overlooking resource trade-offs, scaling/adoption drivers, and context-specificity in crop research often lead to over-optimistic projections, experimental shortcomings, and irrelevant (controlled-environment) agronomy [32]. Overlooking the socioeconomic and risk contexts further limits the closure of yield and profit gaps [33].For this study we used a case study within central Mexico, a dry-climate region with high potential for CA implementation outcomes [11]. For three decades, CA has been variously adapted to and promoted in Mexico's prevailing maize-based agriculture sector Agronomy 2021, 11, 1214 3 of 24 in an effort to increase productivity [4,5,8,12,13,25,[34][35][36][37]. One goal of the efforts is to improve the national average maize yield of 2.9 t/ha [38], significantly lower than the world's average of 5.1 t/ha [39], thereby contributing to the country's agricultural selfsufficiency and national food security [40]. Even though Mexico is one of the top 10 maize producers in the world [41] and maize is the nation's staple crop-representing over 50% of the caloric intake for the poorest sectors of the population [42]-the country still imports one-third of its maize, the second highest maize import rate in the world [43].The objective of this study was to gain insight into the feasibility of CA and help to set and adjust reference criteria towards decision recommendations by exploring the economic value of adopting CA practices in the case study area. The selected area is composed of traditional smallholder farming systems near the central Mexican city, Guanajuato. CA in the region has been variously supported under the MasAgro research initiative, supported by the Government of Mexico and coordinated by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) [44,45]. The initiative seeks to increase farmer income and the productivity of maize and wheat in Mexico by implementing research collaborations, as well as by developing and promoting the use of improved seeds, sustainable technologies, and farming practices [46][47][48].In this study, we compared the current conventional production system in the region (baseline) with nine scenarios of various combinations of three CA components (no-tillage, soil cover, and crop diversification), as well as an improved maize variety and a novel legume crop to further explore the robustness and flexibility of the system. In the process, we used Value-Ag [49], an integrated framework using Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) models that combines bioeconomic simulation, risk analysis, adoption theory, and impact assessment to demonstrate how agroecological and socioeconomic drivers determine the relative advantage of CA strategies in the case study. This study specifically addressed the following three questions:1.How do various combinations of no-tillage, soil cover, and crop diversification affect the profitability and the downside risk of the whole farm over time, given farmer risk aversion? 2.What is the net value impact of adopting alternative options of CA? 3.What are the relative benefits of introducing a new maize variety and alternative legume crops to an existing CA field setup?This study intended to quantify the profit-risk profile and net value of the various CA components to enable farmers, researchers, funders/and policy makers to make more informed and strategic decisions in regard to adopting the innovation and prioritising research and investment while fostering a more results-focused culture.The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the study area, modelling approach and analysis design. Section 3 presents and discusses modelling results and future research opportunities, leading to the conclusions and policy implications in Section 4.The study area was located in southern Guanajuato, part of the Bajío region of central Mexico (Figure 1). The region's elevation is around 1750 m above sea level and the area is characterized by a dry season between November and April with an average daily temperature of 20-25 • C. It also has a wet season between June and September with an average monthly precipitation of 100-200 mm. Substantial irrigation in the broader Bajío region is mainly carried out on medium-scale farms (greater than 5.0 ha) [24].The study area was primarily composed of rain-fed smallholder agriculture, which often integrates maize production with livestock. Problems arising from competing demands for crop residue, soil degradation, and low economic profitability are prevalent in these systems [35]. Rainfed maize grown in the smallholder farms of central Mexico is often a mixture of native (criollo) and improved (creolised) landrace varieties [50,51]. The conventional system of agriculture in the region has a high level of heterogeneity in terms of farm size, herd size, crop intensity, level of mechanisation, labour availability, initial endowment, and reliance on off-farm income, among other factors. The degree to which commodities are produced for their consumption or for sale in local markets or larger markets is another differentiator.age monthly precipitation of 100-200 mm. Substantial irrigation in the broader Bajío region is mainly carried out on medium-scale farms (greater than 5.0 ha) [24].The study area was primarily composed of rain-fed smallholder agriculture, which often integrates maize production with livestock. Problems arising from competing demands for crop residue, soil degradation, and low economic profitability are prevalent in these systems [35]. Rainfed maize grown in the smallholder farms of central Mexico is often a mixture of native (criollo) and improved (creolised) landrace varieties [50,51]. The conventional system of agriculture in the region has a high level of heterogeneity in terms of farm size, herd size, crop intensity, level of mechanisation, labour availability, initial endowment, and reliance on off-farm income, among other factors. The degree to which commodities are produced for their consumption or for sale in local markets or larger markets is another differentiator. Zepeda et al. aggregated Guanajuato rural farms into six main production unit typologies (T, n = 480): T1, peri-urban with high female participation (15.6%); T2, rural in poverty with female participation (22.9%); T3, commercial and ageing (6.0%); T4, mechanised with young families (17.7%); T5, diversified with young professionals (12.3%); and T6, agriculture with limited resources (25.4%) [52,53]. Appendix A Table A1 contains a summary description of all typologies. For this analysis, we focused on T6, the most representative farm typology in the study area. There were 122 T6 farms, representing more than a quarter of the 480 farms surveyed in the typology study. T6 farms also displayed Zepeda et al. aggregated Guanajuato rural farms into six main production unit typologies (T, n = 480): T1, peri-urban with high female participation (15.6%); T2, rural in poverty with female participation (22.9%); T3, commercial and ageing (6.0%); T4, mechanised with young families (17.7%); T5, diversified with young professionals (12.3%); and T6, agriculture with limited resources (25.4%) [52,53]. Appendix A Table A1 contains a summary description of all typologies. For this analysis, we focused on T6, the most representative farm typology in the study area. There were 122 T6 farms, representing more than a quarter of the 480 farms surveyed in the typology study. T6 farms also displayed the most geographic uniformity, as almost all T6 farms are located in the plains of southern Guanajuato and had good CA potential overall. In contrast to the other typologies, T6 farmers have limited resources and farm a typical, average-sized farm of less than 4 ha with low livestock numbers (enough to capture key crop-livestock trade-offs without hindering CA adoption), a low level of mechanisation, and limited irrigation. These farms are run by ageing families (more than 90% male, with an average age of 60.9) with high economic dependence on family (63%), and who generate their income from agriculture and livestock relying on hired labour (58%) as well as from off-farm work (34%). These farmers potentially have both the need and willingness to adopt new technologies or learn new skills to intensify their farms.Agronomy 2021, 11, 1214 5 of 24In this paper, we applied an integrated model framework, Value-Ag [49,54], to quantify the likely economic value of implementing variations of CA over 10 years for representative rain-fed smallholder farmers in central Mexico, and predict their multi-year adoption, thereby also informing local and regional agri-food system value chains and farmer communities. Value-Ag is a micro-level bioeconomic modelling framework, and it is part of a rich history of bioeconomic models [55] that have attempted to capture technology choice in dynamic, complex agri-food systems by focusing on their interactions in each context. The Value-Ag framework (Figure 2) effectively combines different tools and their outputs at different scales: (i) whole-farm profit simulated with the Integrated Analysis Tool (IAT) [56]; (ii) risk and uncertainty metrics borrowed from a Profit-Risk-Utility Framework (PRUF) [33,54]; (iii) adoption predicted by the Smallholder ADOPT (Adoption and Diffusion Outcomes Prediction Tool) [57,58]; and (iv) impact assessment through an out-scaled Net Present Value (NPV) analysis [49].with low livestock numbers (enough to capture key crop-livestock trade-offs without hindering CA adoption), a low level of mechanisation, and limited irrigation. These farms are run by ageing families (more than 90% male, with an average age of 60.9) with high economic dependence on family (63%), and who generate their income from agriculture and livestock relying on hired labour (58%) as well as from off-farm work (34%). These farmers potentially have both the need and willingness to adopt new technologies or learn new skills to intensify their farms.In this paper, we applied an integrated model framework, Value-Ag [49,54], to quantify the likely economic value of implementing variations of CA over 10 years for representative rain-fed smallholder farmers in central Mexico, and predict their multi-year adoption, thereby also informing local and regional agri-food system value chains and farmer communities. Value-Ag is a micro-level bioeconomic modelling framework, and it is part of a rich history of bioeconomic models [55] that have attempted to capture technology choice in dynamic, complex agri-food systems by focusing on their interactions in each context. The Value-Ag framework (Figure 2) effectively combines different tools and their outputs at different scales: (i) whole-farm profit simulated with the Integrated Analysis Tool (IAT) [56]; (ii) risk and uncertainty metrics borrowed from a Profit-Risk-Utility Framework (PRUF) [33,54]; (iii) adoption predicted by the Smallholder ADOPT (Adoption and Diffusion Outcomes Prediction Tool) [57,58]; and (iv) impact assessment through an out-scaled Net Present Value (NPV) analysis [49]. As illustrated in Appendix B Figure A1, the IAT integrates data and outputs from a farm-household economic module (labour, capital), a ruminant growth module, and a As illustrated in Appendix B Figure A1, the IAT integrates data and outputs from a farm-household economic module (labour, capital), a ruminant growth module, and a separate crop/forage simulation model such as APSIM [59] or another growth model. Alternatively, the user may enter annual yield data for crop grain and crop/forage biomass (e.g., from experimental trials or relevant literature). Monjardino et al. provided more detail on the integration of the IAT in the Value-Ag framework [49]. McDonald et al. described the IAT in full, including mathematical structure and assumptions [56].Erenstein et al. and Pannell et al. identified risk and risk aversion as important influences on smallholder farmers adopting CA [5,60], as risk management is a major driver of farm-household decision making [61]. Underpinned by rainfall and yield variability, the risk profile of a scenario was established through a combination of standard deviation (SD) and the coefficient of variation (CV) of the 10-year average net profit, probability of a positive net profit [p(π ≥ 0)], and conditional value at risk of the lowest 10% of net profits (CVaR0.1) as a measure of downside risk. Calculation of p(π ≥ 0) and CVaR0.1 were performed with the @RISK software [62]. Additionally, the Value-Ag analysis accounted for the likelihood that risk-averse smallholder farmers may have been willing to sacrifice some expected income (risk premium) to reduce the probability of below-average income [61]. Hence, average net profit was adjusted for risk through the calculation of a risk premium linked to one of five levels of farmer risk aversion (0 = no risk aversion, i.e., a risk-neutral decision-maker; 1= low risk aversion; 2 = moderate risk aversion; 3 = high risk aversion; 4 = very high risk aversion). The maximum cost of risk aversion for each scenario is the difference between the risk-neutral profit and the risk-adjusted profit for very high aversion to risk.Value-Ag employs Smallholder ADOPT to generate predicted adoption outcomes in the years following the introduction of the innovation. While not aiming to specifically capture all possible factors influencing the rate of adoption in smallholder innovation systems [63], the ADOPT framework presented users with 22 questions about commonly influential factors of adoption. Users answered these questions via a choice of Likert-scaled responses, and the responses were given a value that fed into a series of formulas that provided numeric predictions for Peak Adoption Level and Time to Peak Adoption. The predictions were then used to generate an S-curve that approximated the characteristics of the cumulative adoption of an innovation in practice.The farm-scale annual net profit outputs for the baseline and the innovation scenarios were transferred from the IAT into the Value-Ag platform, where the results of each simulation trial were summarised as the NPV of annual net profit over 10 years using a real discount rate (3.0% in this case study). The principal economic criterion used to compare the innovation scenarios with the baseline was the net value of the innovation, calculated as the difference between the NPV of annual net profit of each innovation scenario and the baseline scenario of a typical farm with no innovation. The net value of the innovation varied according to the climate conditions and resulting yields in each scenario throughout the analysis. The last stage in the Value-Ag approach involves three steps. First, out-scaling the farm economic benefit by multiplying the annual net profit outputs of the baseline and the innovation scenarios by the number of farms covered by the project. Second, overlaying the annual net values of innovation (i.e., the difference between annual farm net profits with and without innovation) over a given period with the annual data points extracted from ADOPT's predicted diffusion curve (as described in Section 2.2.3), establishing the net value of the adopted innovation for the entire smallholder population targeted by the project case study. Third, calculating the predicted profit impact of the innovation across the target farmer population (i.e., the percentage change between the out-scaled net value of the innovation relative to the out-scaled NPV of the annual net benefit of the baseline).Overall, the integration of the different scales of the component models-farming system (IAT) and farmer population (Smallholder ADOPT)-is best conducted within farm typologies, as discussed in 2.1, although assuming a relatively homogeneous farmer population (e.g., village) with similar exposure to the innovation is possible [54].The application of Value-Ag to this case study involved a series of research workshops at CIMMYT headquarters in Mexico between November 2019 and February 2020. Various collaborating team members and other researchers (10-15 per workshop) attended these workshops and subsequent online meetings throughout 2020. The team contributed to IAT parameterisation, calibration, and validation for this case study, and aided in establishing adoption predictions for the CA-based scenarios using Smallholder ADOPT. Supplementary Materials Table S1 provides further details on the research workshops.Input data points were drawn from several sources to populate the IAT. Price and cost data, production input levels, labour requirements, and family expenses were derived from a combination of baseline survey reports of households located in the target communities [52,53,64], databases [44,65], government historical records [38,66], research literature [4,5,8,12,13,25,[34][35][36][37], unpublished data [67][68][69], as well as local expert input from CIMMYT researchers. Validation of the modelled baseline scenario relative to the actual historical baseline was conducted via expert and stakeholder assessment of the system represented, as well as through relevant literature and data review.The IAT was parameterised to simulate whole-farm resource flow over 10 years (2011-2020) for a conventional, rain-fed smallholder farm that grows maize and sorghum in central Mexico. Most maize in Mexico is cultivated on rainfed fields smaller than 5 ha [40]. As mentioned in Section 2.1, this study focused on farm typology T6, representing roughly a quarter of all farms in the state of Guanajuato. They are particularly common in southern Guanajuato (Figure 1). The baseline scenario is summarised in Table 1 and described below. The currency used in the analysis is the Mexican peso (MXN). At the time of writing, 1.0 MXN = 0.050 US dollars (USD).Table 1. Key model parameters used in the whole-farm simulation for the representative farm (T6) in southern Guanajuato and changes in modelling parameters between the baseline and nine innovation scenarios with various combinations of conservation agriculture (CA), no-tillage (NT), soil cover (SC), crop diversification (CD), new hybrid maize variety (NewVar) and new legume crop (NewLeg) concerning crop rotation, percent incremental yield change over the 10 years, stubble fate (sold or retained, incorporated, ground cover, or livestock feed), seeding (conventional or direct), number of machine passes and machine hire cost, number of herbicide and N-P fertiliser applications, and other changes relative to baseline or CA (for CA+ scenarios). Land and crops: A conventional maize and sorghum system was grown on a large proportion of the case study farm of 4.2 ha, assuming 3.8 ha of arable land and 0.4 ha (~10%) was occupied by buildings, yards, pathways, etc. Of the arable farmland area, based on clay soil types, 1.8 ha was sown to maize and 1.8 ha sown to sorghum. Annual rain-fed (temporal) maize and sorghum yields for the spring-summer cycle (ciclo Primavera-Verano, PV) were sourced from government agricultural records [66] between 2011 and 2020. The 10-year average yield was 2.68 t/ha for maize (CV = 0.19) and 2.41 t/ha for sorghum (CV = 0.28) based on a mix of criollo and creolised varieties [50,51]. Sale prices were assumed at 3.8 MXN/kg for maize and sorghum and 11 MXN/kg for beans, based on 10-year trends [70,71]. Farmers sold nearly 70% of the crop stubble in the baseline case at an average fixed price of 1.0 MXN/kg. This research assumed that the remaining 0.2 ha of the arable area was used for horticulture (e.g., 0.05 ha carrots, 0.05 ha mixed beans, 0.05 ha pumpkin/calabaza) for sale and/or home consumption (amounting to a fixed gross margin income of 12,163 MXN/year from horticulture for all scenarios), and an extra 0.05 ha of unspecified minor crops, trees, and grasses. These peripheric enterprises-which operate independently of the main crop and livestock modules-use simple average yields and prices, but also add proportionality to the scenario effects and accuracy to the farm labour pool.Livestock and feed: Consistent with the low livestock numbers in the region, the wholefarm simulation was assumed to start with the equivalent of four B. taurus cattle for sale and milk production, including for home consumption. Maize crop residues (stubble) underpin traditional mixed crop-livestock systems in Mexico [35]. In the baseline system, 30% of the maize and sorghum stubble sustained the cattle during the dry season (a variable supply based on annual grain yields and a harvest index (HI) of 0.43/0.40) [72]. Commonly-used feed supplements (molasses, blood meal, fish meal, and chicken manurebased pollinaza) and oat straw and alfalfa fodder purchased on-demand (at a cost of 35-50 MXN per 30 kg bale) [73] were also used to sustain the cattle, along with low-quality native grassland (e.g., on unused land or along roadsides). Overall, feed availability (underpinned by yields, costs and labour) determined the simulated herd performance in terms of calves born, milk production, and beef turnoff over time.Agronomy and machinery: The baseline scenario was assumed to be a conventional farming system which, given the T6 farmer profile, largely depends on machine hire for land preparation and tillage and subsequent planting, fertilising, and spraying. For dry-land conditions, a fertiliser nitrogen-phosphorus (N-P) formula mix (ammonium sulphate/urea/DAP) was commonly applied to maize and sorghum, split over two applications (4270 MXN/ha per crop). Typically, one application of selective herbicide costs 1350 MXN/ha per crop. Operational costs were based on default labour rates described below. The following rules applied to the baseline land preparation and planting [74]:Every two to three years subsoil working; • Annual land preparation: ploughing, two harrowing passes, optional ridging; • Annual minimal planting, sometimes planting pass and fertilisation pass;• Minimum five machine passes at an average of 800 MXN/ha per activity totalling 4000 MXN/ha/year, including operator and fuel costs for each activity.Household and labour: In line with the farm typology T6, the farm was modelled for a household with an ageing couple and a child (grandchildren often live or stay with grandparents). Each adult worked 240 days per year at an off-farm job at an average rate of 150 MXN/day. Farm labour was hired on-demand at 130-180 MXN/day for teenagers and adults. The baseline assumed 10,000 MXN in annual farm overhead costs, including 5000 MXN for general farm maintenance and services and 1000 MXN in electricity costs. The simulation was initialised with 60,000 MXN cash on hand and 3000 MXN in monthly living expenses.The baseline scenario was modified using nine variations of the CA system. All scenarios were rain-fed and underpinned by traditional maize-sorghum crop rotation, plus a legume crop in CA and crop diversification (CD)-based scenarios (beans in Scenarios 2, 5, 7-9; grass pea Lathyrus sativus L. in Scenario 10). Maize was based on a criollo and creolised variety mixture in all scenarios except in Scenario 9, which used a generic hybrid variety. The 10 scenarios analysed in this study are described below and in Table 1: 1.Baseline: the current system 2.CA: Conservation Agriculture (no-tillage, soil cover, crop diversification) 3.NT: No-Tillage 4.SC: Soil Cover 5.CD: Crop Diversification 6.NT + SC: No-Tillage and Soil Cover 7.NT (e) the number of machine passes; (f) the cost of machine hire; (g) the number of herbicide applications; (h) the number of fertiliser applications; and (i) other changes, e.g., the cost of seeds and price of grain, HI, and growing season.As shown in Table 1, most practices were assumed to have an incremental positive effect on crop yield over 10 years. The exception was NT, due to mixed trial results and the reported yield gains mostly occurring in hybrid maize. While it is difficult to define the stepwise increment of yield since it depends on multiple and complex factors-including water availability, soil health, and agronomic management [37]-a 10-year incremental yield boost of 15-30% for maize, 10-20% for sorghum, and 15% for legumes was assumed in this study, based on average figures found in unpublished or preliminary field data from Guanajuato (ciclo PV, 2019). There were also annual yield gains of up to 3.0% and 1.5% pa in maize and sorghum/beans, respectively [75]. For reference, significant improvements in maize yields of up to about 50% have been observed in long-term CA field experiments under rain-fed conditions across central Mexico [12,37].Each scenario was also underpinned by an assumed fate of crop stubble residues, ranging from a sold/retained ratio of 80/20 in SC and NT + CD to 30/70 in the CA scenarios. Stubble retained for soil cover varied between nil (baseline and NT/CD-based scenarios) and 63% in the CA scenarios. Of the stubble produced, 0-30% was fed to livestock across all scenarios. Variation in these values was likely to occur and could be further tested in sensitivity analysis.Transitioning from conventional agriculture to CA in this region assumed a doubling in herbicide use in all scenarios, except SC, at a total cost of 2700 MXN/ha per crop, plus the cost of application. The assumption was that SC limits weed infestation and contributes to the reduced germination of uncovered weeds. However, increased herbicide usage in most scenarios could impact biodiversity. Insecticide use in legume crops is uncommon in the study region, possibly due to lower pest incidence at high altitude (1750 m) [76] and was excluded from the analysis. Relative to the baseline, 20% less N was applied to maize and sorghum in all scenarios with a N-fixing legume crop at a cost of 3416 MXN/ha [75], except hybrid maize (CA + NewVar).In addition, the implementation of CA practices represents a drastic reduction in land preparation (and labour). CA includes the following considerations [36]:A maximum of two or three machinery passes (depending on the CA practices applied) at an average cost of 2400 or 3600 MXN/ha/year. An increase from 800 MXN to 1200 MXN per pass relative to the conventional system accounts for likely higher hire costs under CA and more difficult passage with soil cover; • Initial land preparation works for full CA conversion (subsoil work, ploughing, two harrowing, one bed-making pass) at an average cost of 4000 MXN/ha (year zero, lasting 15-20 years);In NT conditions, farmers conduct subsoil works approximately every eight years at a cost of 1000 MXN/ha. Scenario 9 (CA + NewVar) offered an opportunity to quantify the economic impact of a new generic maize hybrid variety in the CA context. Hybrids offer farmers higher yields but imply a recurring higher seed price. On average, the cost of hybrid maize seed is three and five times higher than creolised and criollo varieties, respectively [77], so a four-fold increase in the cost of seed (15 MXN/kg) was assumed in the CA + NewVar scenario, while the sale price was left unchanged relative to the baseline. Hybrids yield more than landraces and CIMMYT recorded average yield increases of 73% under CA in Guanajuato [65], and we took this into consideration in this scenario (5.8 t/ha, CV = 0.40). Also, maize productivity can be raised significantly when hybrids are combined with judicious fertiliser use and good agronomy [78], so a higher fertiliser rate was applied to the CA + NewVar relative to the CA scenario. Beyond increases in seed cost, grain yield, and fertiliser use (Table 1), other changes are likely to occur between criollo/creolised and hybrid maize varieties. These can include the length of their respective growing seasons, harvest index, grain quality, and chemical use, but these were not considered here.We added Scenario 10 (CA + NewLeg) to the analysis to demonstrate the flexibility of the framework in accommodating diverse changes to the systems, such as replacing traditional beans with a new legume crop to complement the CA system based on grass pea. Opportunities for grass pea to contribute to the sustainable intensification of traditional systems are currently under investigation in Mexico, because the plants are very hardy dualpurpose legume crops that are well adapted to dryland conditions, have high nutritional value, and produce good biomass in the winter months [79][80][81][82][83]. They can also be used as high-quality forage for livestock [84]. In addition, grass pea offers considerable potential in crop rotation, improving soil fertility and reducing the amount of disease and weed populations (from increased crop competition), hence reducing production costs [85]. Encouraged by long-running breeding efforts to stabilise yields and reduce toxicity to the neurotoxin β-ODAP in grass pea-based diets [85][86][87][88][89], Lathyrus species are gaining interest as legume crops in Mediterranean-type environments [90] and production is increasing globally [81][82][83]91].Based on trial data from central Mexico [67][68][69] and local agronomic expertise [92], grass pea was represented in the IAT simulation through the following changes relative to the bean crop and summarised in Table 1: annual grain yields 1.5-2.5 t/ha (CV = 0.18) and straw yields 6.0-8.0 t/ha (HI of approx. 0.31) over the 2011-2020 period; 4% N in grain, based on a 25% crude protein content [68,69]; likely growing season November through April under Guanajuato's conditions; seed density of 80 kg/ha at a cost of 5.0 MXN/kg; no chemicals typically applied in the fast-growing winter cycle; 50 kg DAP recommended in rainfed low-yielding ecologies; long-term incremental yield gains of 15% from CA benefits could apply to this legume crop as well. Based on limited available global market data for the grass pea (mostly from the largest producing countries, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and Ethiopia), the average price was estimated at 0.50 USD/kg [93], or 10 MXN/kg of grain (and 1.0 MXN/kg of baled forage), assuming there is a market deep enough to absorb the produce.The results and discussion of the application of each Value-Ag tool to the case study are presented as follows: 3.1, whole-farm profitability from the IAT; 3.2, risk and risk aversion using PRUF; 3.3, adoption prediction using Smallholder ADOPT; 3.4, Value-Ag based impact assessment; 3.5, implications of assessing the economic value of CA technologies; and 3.6, future research opportunities. Combinations of undisturbed, covered-soil, and diverse crops had an impact on whole-farm profitability and downside risk over time, given farmer risk aversion, adoption rates, and changes in crop type and variety. Key economic and risk results for the baseline and the innovation scenarios are presented in Table 2.  Based on key assumptions outlined in Section 2.3, the disaggregated results for all possible combinations of CA components, shown in Table 2 and Figure 3, indicated that the two-component scenarios with a legume crop (NT + CD and SC + CD) outperformed all other scenarios analysed, with an average farm net profit of around 29,000 MXN pa. NT + SC was also profitable, but to a lesser degree. This does not mean that these practices are better or more stable in the long run, but they offer greater potential to initiate the transition process to more sustainable farming practices. The improved CA scenarios performed considerably better than the standard CA, with hybrid maize and grass pea boosting CA profits by 58% (CA + NewVar) and 51% (CA + NewLeg). The findings are more of a reflection on hybrid maize and grass peas, thereby supporting the role of crop improvement and underlining ample opportunity for crop diversification to facilitate intensification of agricultural systems. SC was the least profitable of the innovation scenarios, with a 21% gain relative to the baseline, despite the largest savings in labour costs (14%), at least in this context. While the analysis was underpinned by the assumption that the various practices were perfectly implemented and achieved their goal, in reality, when not guided, farmers may implement only what they perceive to be the innovation (e.g., reduced tillage instead of no-tillage), or disturb subsoil too often in CA conditions, or have cattle grazing in a CA field-all of which would likely deliver suboptimal results. Conversely, conventional systems may rely on better practices than those assumed in the study baseline, such as mixes of criollo/creolised and hybrid maize varieties, and/or some irrigation enabling double cropping.Overall, the benefits of the innovation scenarios were accrued from improvements in crop and livestock production and cost savings in overheads, machinery hire, purchased fodder, labour hire, and other inputs, while mitigating risk (lower SD and CV, higher CVar0.1 and p(π ≥ 0)) (Table 2). The cost-saving benefits of conservation practices, including NT, are well documented (e.g., [5]). For current assumptions, the highest net value of all innovation scenarios was generated for NT + CD and SC + CD (>200,000 MXN), followed by CA + NewVar, CA + NewLeg, NT + SC and CA (>100,000 MXN), compared with lower net values for NT, CD, and SC (Table 2). These results support the case for equal consideration of agronomic research and technical support beyond yield gains when promoting new crop varieties. Overall, the benefits of the innovation scenarios were accrued from improvements in crop and livestock production and cost savings in overheads, machinery hire, purchased fodder, labour hire, and other inputs, while mitigating risk (lower SD and CV, higher CVar0.1 and p(π ≥ 0)) (Table 2). The cost-saving benefits of conservation practices, including NT, are well documented (e.g., [5]). For current assumptions, the highest net value of all innovation scenarios was generated for NT + CD and SC + CD (>200,000 MXN), followed by CA + NewVar, CA + NewLeg, NT + SC and CA (>100,000 MXN), compared with lower net values for NT, CD, and SC (Table 2). These results support the case for equal consideration of agronomic research and technical support beyond yield gains when promoting new crop varieties.The share of revenue growth in the innovation scenarios that came from direct sale and consumption of crop grains increased by up to 2.6% for conventional maize (CA), up to 6.3% for sorghum (CA + NewLeg), and 119% for hybrid maize (CA + NewVar) on a perhectare basis (although a significant rise in input costs resulted in lower crop gross margins relative to the baseline). It should be noted that all scenarios with crop diversification (CA, CD, NT + CD, SC + CD, CA + NewVar, CA + NewLeg) implied moving from a twoway area split to a three-way split, resulting in a reduction in area from 1.8 ha (for maize and sorghum each) to 1.2 ha for each rotational crop, including maize, sorghum and a legume crop-with the legume making a significant contribution to the farm bottom line (12,067 MXN for beans and 23,294 MXN for grass pea) (Table 2).We showed livestock management to be a profitable activity that could continue to play a key role in the long-term viability of mixed smallholder farming systems. The underlying assumption is that the farmer/trader buys low-cost cows that can be fattened and then sold at a profit. Compared with the baseline, cattle gross margins increased by up to 21% and calf births increased by 4.3% in several scenarios (Table 2). The reduction of up to 12% in cattle gross margin in the CA scenarios was due to the high retention of crop residue on the field, otherwise used for fodder.A major driver of farm profitability in the two-component scenarios was a 31% reduction in the cost of purchased fodder relative to the baseline, due to a combination of increases in maize and sorghum yields and biomass production, integration of a legume crop with high-quality stubble and, above all, more efficient stubble management (Table 2). CD had the highest fodder costs due to 80% of crop stubble being sold (Tables 1 and  2). The share of revenue growth in the innovation scenarios that came from direct sale and consumption of crop grains increased by up to 2.6% for conventional maize (CA), up to 6.3% for sorghum (CA + NewLeg), and 119% for hybrid maize (CA + NewVar) on a per-hectare basis (although a significant rise in input costs resulted in lower crop gross margins relative to the baseline). It should be noted that all scenarios with crop diversification (CA, CD, NT + CD, SC + CD, CA + NewVar, CA + NewLeg) implied moving from a two-way area split to a three-way split, resulting in a reduction in area from 1.8 ha (for maize and sorghum each) to 1.2 ha for each rotational crop, including maize, sorghum and a legume crop-with the legume making a significant contribution to the farm bottom line (12,067 MXN for beans and 23,294 MXN for grass pea) (Table 2).We showed livestock management to be a profitable activity that could continue to play a key role in the long-term viability of mixed smallholder farming systems. The underlying assumption is that the farmer/trader buys low-cost cows that can be fattened and then sold at a profit. Compared with the baseline, cattle gross margins increased by up to 21% and calf births increased by 4.3% in several scenarios (Table 2). The reduction of up to 12% in cattle gross margin in the CA scenarios was due to the high retention of crop residue on the field, otherwise used for fodder.A major driver of farm profitability in the two-component scenarios was a 31% reduction in the cost of purchased fodder relative to the baseline, due to a combination of increases in maize and sorghum yields and biomass production, integration of a legume crop with high-quality stubble and, above all, more efficient stubble management (Table 2). CD had the highest fodder costs due to 80% of crop stubble being sold (Tables 1 and 2).Moving from conventional to almost any conservation variation assumes a reduction in machinery passes on the field due to reduced tillage [13] and consequently reduced machine hire costs, which resulted in lower overhead costs (by up to 16%). This had a significant positive impact on the farm bottom line (Table 2). Most scenarios required 9% more labour relative to the baseline, matching the wider expectation that farm intensificationwhile improving efficiencies-will put extra pressure on labour resources. Adequate mechanisation planning could be needed to counterbalance this conflict [94].Moving from traditional varieties and crops-such as criollo/creolised maize and beans-to the more productive hybrid maize and grass peas improved the profitability of CA relative to the other scenarios. However, these scenarios were not tested with the new variety and crop options in this study. Likewise, introducing irrigation could potentially benefit the CA package through increased yield [8] or yield stabilisation under climate change scenarios [40]. It should be noted that this does not always result in higher yields compared with conventional practices in irrigated conditions [4].Small-scale maize farmers may expect economic gains from combinations of reduced tillage, retention of sufficient residues, and appropriate rotations, compared with the common practices of heavy tillage before seeding, monocropping, and crop residue removal. The simulation captured key whole-farm trade-offs, based on trialled CA benefits in this region, including up to 30% maize yield increases over 10 years, higher crop and cattle revenue, and larger cost-savings in fodder, labour, and machinery hire. Smaller benefits from CA relative to conventional systems captured in other economic studies with a focus on Africa are likely justified by lower assumed yield gains from CA [16,60], as well as a lack of whole-farm analyses accounting for machinery hire and/or crop-livestock tradeoffs, especially since a major constraint of full CA adoption is livestock ownership, which affects residue retention on/in the field instead of removal as baled fodder [24]. Likewise, previous Value-Ag studies around the introduction of a legume crop-either in rotation with a traditional rice crop in Southeast Asia [54] or in intercropping with maize in South Africa (unpublished results)-generated lower profit gains (26-40%) but did not consider other CA components besides crop diversification.As indicated in Section 2.2.2, all innovation scenarios had the positive effect of reducing CVar0.1 (or downside risk) significantly, relative to the baseline. This was especially true in the poorer growing seasons (e.g., 2015 and 2019) where stable livestock performance and feed system offset rainfall-dependent losses in crop yields. Other key drivers of financial risk mitigation included lower overhead/machinery costs (in CA-and NT-based scenarios), and more reliable gross margins (hybrid maize and grass pea) (Table 2). CVar0.1 was reduced for all other innovation scenarios over 10 years by between 32% (SC) and around 230% (CA+ scenarios). The probability of break-even, p(π ≥ 0), varied between 61% (baseline) and 100% (CA+ scenarios). The CV of net profit decreased from 3.46 in the baseline to 0.21 (94%) in CA + NewLeg, suggesting a significantly reduced risk, or increased resilience in most cases (Table 2, Figure 4). Importantly, key trade-offs between profit and risk were identified across the analysed scenarios, and these are expected to change with each case study.  The results so far assumed a farmer with a risk-neutral behaviour (i.e., nil risk aversion). Accounting for four levels of risk aversion (low, moderate, high, very high), we found that the highest risk-adjusted profit was achieved across all risk aversion levels by the NT + CD and SC + CD scenarios (Figure 5), closely followed by CA + NewVar and CA + NewLeg. Similarly, NT + SC, CA and NT generated positive risk-adjusted profit for all The results so far assumed a farmer with a risk-neutral behaviour (i.e., nil risk aversion). Accounting for four levels of risk aversion (low, moderate, high, very high), we found that the highest risk-adjusted profit was achieved across all risk aversion levels by the NT + CD and SC + CD scenarios (Figure 5), closely followed by CA + NewVar and CA + NewLeg. Similarly, NT + SC, CA and NT generated positive risk-adjusted profit for all levels of risk aversion. CD ranked next with a positive profit achieved for a neutral-to lowrisk-averse farmer. Additionally, while SC broke even in risk-neutral conditions, it was too risky for any risk-averse farmer in this context (Figure 5). The maximum cost of risk aversion significantly varied from 2184 MXN (CA + NewLeg) and 8623 MXN (NT + CD) to 50,493 MXN (SC). These results suggest that improved CA and two-component packages are less risky than single practices or standard CA, and could become the preferred option of more risk-averse farmers. Thus, they could be potentially appealing options to all types of farmers. The results so far assumed a farmer with a risk-neutral behaviour (i.e., nil risk aversion). Accounting for four levels of risk aversion (low, moderate, high, very high), we found that the highest risk-adjusted profit was achieved across all risk aversion levels by the NT + CD and SC + CD scenarios (Figure 5), closely followed by CA + NewVar and CA + NewLeg. Similarly, NT + SC, CA and NT generated positive risk-adjusted profit for all levels of risk aversion. CD ranked next with a positive profit achieved for a neutral-to low-risk-averse farmer. Additionally, while SC broke even in risk-neutral conditions, it was too risky for any risk-averse farmer in this context (Figure 5). The maximum cost of risk aversion significantly varied from 2184 MXN (CA + NewLeg) and 8623 MXN (NT + CD) to 50,493 MXN (SC). These results suggest that improved CA and two-component packages are less risky than single practices or standard CA, and could become the preferred option of more risk-averse farmers. Thus, they could be potentially appealing options to all types of farmers. The opportunity to provide evidence on which practices are more likely to reduce risk or boost the net profit of farms increases the likelihood of risk-averse farmers adopting conservation practices [60,95]. Likewise, the knowledge that non-action (baseline) or The opportunity to provide evidence on which practices are more likely to reduce risk or boost the net profit of farms increases the likelihood of risk-averse farmers adopting conservation practices [60,95]. Likewise, the knowledge that non-action (baseline) or reluctance to step away from conventional practices (out of fear of change) poses at least and equal risk to farmers is very valuable in the case-study context.While the official CA adoption records for Guanajuato only date back to 2012 [65], the innovation was first implemented 30 years ago with early trials taking place at the Centro de Desarrollo Tecnológico Villadiego in Valle de Santiago in 1988 and 1990 [96]. The implicit slow transition to sustainable farming in the region confirms that the adoption of conservation practices is a gradual and dynamic process [15,97]. Given limited information on the long-term adoption of most CA components in the region (and negligible adoption of newly introduced crops like the grass pea), workshop participants used Smallholder ADOPT to generate predictions of future Peak Adoption and Time to Peak Adoption for all innovation scenarios (Figure 6a). For example, 28% of the representative farm type (T6) in southern Guanajuato could adopt CA with a productive legume such as the grass pea (CA + NewLeg) on their farm within 10 years; it would take 20 years to reach 35% Peak Adoption. Table S2 summarises the results from Smallholder ADOPT, along with all questions and the responses that were chosen for each innovation scenario based on group consensus.Smallholder ADOPT to generate predictions of future Peak Adoption and Time to Peak Adoption for all innovation scenarios (Figure 6a). For example, 28% of the representative farm type (T6) in southern Guanajuato could adopt CA with a productive legume such as the grass pea (CA + NewLeg) on their farm within 10 years; it would take 20 years to reach 35% Peak Adoption. Table S2 summarises the results from Smallholder ADOPT, along with all questions and the responses that were chosen for each innovation scenario based on group consensus. It is worth noting that the relative advantage for the target farmer population was unchanged across scenarios (Q1-6) as population characteristics and attitudes (e.g., risk orientation) were not assumed to be substantially influenced by typical project interventions. Some responses remained subjective, however, such as the relative upfront cost of CA machinery (Q14), which can be larger than expected due to extra security requirements in the specific area of intervention or supply and demand issues linked with the particularities of specific CA machinery, like direct seeders, residue management equipment, or precision fertilisers. This could hinder further adoption of CA in the region, which has low adaptive manufacturing infrastructure and bad distribution channels that complicate access to these more specialised mechanical solutions. The ease and convenience of CA (Q22) can also be perceived through a social lens, considering factors such as tradition, neighbour opinion (even aggression due to straw burning), and other economic impacts including youth migration and local labour availability [98]. Additionally, while there is a relative advantage of the innovations in terms of social cohesion, human and animal health, the environmental footprint generated, and the information gap (which is captured to some extent in Qs 16-20), the full potential and long-term impacts of CAbased practices in situ remain difficult to quantify. It is worth noting that the relative advantage for the target farmer population was unchanged across scenarios (Q1-6) as population characteristics and attitudes (e.g., risk orientation) were not assumed to be substantially influenced by typical project interventions. Some responses remained subjective, however, such as the relative upfront cost of CA machinery (Q14), which can be larger than expected due to extra security requirements in the specific area of intervention or supply and demand issues linked with the particularities of specific CA machinery, like direct seeders, residue management equipment, or precision fertilisers. This could hinder further adoption of CA in the region, which has low adaptive manufacturing infrastructure and bad distribution channels that complicate access to these more specialised mechanical solutions. The ease and convenience of CA (Q22) can also be perceived through a social lens, considering factors such as tradition, neighbour opinion (even aggression due to straw burning), and other economic impacts including youth migration and local labour availability [98]. Additionally, while there is a relative advantage of the innovations in terms of social cohesion, human and animal health, the environmental footprint generated, and the information gap (which is captured to some extent in Qs 16-20), the full potential and long-term impacts of CA-based practices in situ remain difficult to quantify.We showed partial adoption validation using actual data (rain-fed, ciclo PV) from a total surveyed farm area of less than 2000 ha (i.e., with and without the innovation) implementing CA (using criollo and improved/hybrid maize) and crop diversification (using various crop types, including legumes) in Guanajuato over nine years (2012-2020) [65]. A similar period of the analysis confirmed a growing trend in the region to adopt CA practices, along with improved maize varieties (Figure 6b). However, the surveyed area was less than the total farmed area in southern Guanajuato and may also not directly equate to the number of farmers adopting these technologies. Additionally, reduced tillage has been widely adopted (67%) in the broader, partly irrigated Bajío region of Mexico [24], where improved soil moisture conditions better suit no or reduced tillage [9]. Adoption validation data will inform ongoing calibration of Smallholder ADOPT.Overall, selected bundles of conservation practices (NT + CD, NT + SC, SC + CD, CA + NewVar,) would be the most likely to be adopted by the farmers identified in this case study, although it would take two to five years longer to reach Peak Adoption relative to single subsets (NT, SC, CD). This research's findings aligned with Canales et al. who suggested that complementarities between conservation practices may enhance the benefits from adoption and thus the speed of adoption over time [22]. It is crucial to note that with potential changes in rainfall, farm resources and management, commodity prices, and farmers' attitudes, the relative scale and speed of adoption of interventions would be expected to change further [16,22].Combining the annual net values and the adoption curves within Value-Ag resulted in a more accurate estimation of the net value of each innovation scenario for the targeted 122 smallholder farmers in the case study area. The predicted lower rate of adoption of each innovation scenario resulted in significant differences in profit impact with full adoption vs. predicted adoption. The expected value generated by each scenario can be summarised as the profit impact of the innovation with predicted adoption (see Section 2.2.4), ranked as follows: 145% NT + CD, 140% SC + CD, 98% CA + NewVar, 75% NT + SC, 72% CA + NewLeg, 41% CA, 25% NT, 24% CD, and 1.7% SC.Even though conservation practices were found to increase farm profitability and resilience over the 10-year period investigated, the region-wide value of intensifying this central Mexican mixed system will depend on how many target farmers adopt these practices and to what extent. Clearly there is a need for long-term commitment and program continuity to sustain farmer support and promote innovation uptake across the region over several years.For the representative farm (T6) in southern Guanajuato, the double-component scenarios NT + CD and SC + CD performed better than the CA packages, and much better than the single scenarios in terms of farm profitability, risk mitigation-across all five levels of farmer risk aversion-and overall net value. The profit impact of the innovations with predicted adoption averaged 120% in the two-component scenarios, 70% in the CAbased scenarios, and 17% in the single scenarios. These findings could inform CA-related investment decisions by the government of Guanajuato, for example, by justifying the need for technical assistance over the years. They could also help inform decision making by building on the gradual progress of implementing one innovation-or a component thereof-and subsequently changing the system to include other innovations, such as new crops or varieties, farm machinery, precision agriculture technologies, or even irrigation.This analysis supports the idea that CA should not be promoted as a one-size-fits-all solution and that there is a real benefit in disaggregating the CA package into smaller components to better suit diverse agroecological and socioeconomic contexts, as well as different attitudes to risk [60]. It also provided insight into why farmers often adopt the elements of packages like CA in a selective, partial way or do so stepwise over time [15].We found that livestock ownership-which is associated with residue retention and fodder requirements-and the cost of and access to machinery hire were the main factors that hindered further adoption of CA. Likewise, introducing a new maize variety or alternative legume crop to an existing CA program could significantly increase its value to farmers. However, adoption rates of new varieties and crops are often compromised by lack of awareness, lack of seed access, and high seed prices [24,99].It is worth noting that positive results occurred despite a number of environmental benefits not being explicitly quantified in the economic risk analysis-although they are captured in predicted adoption outcomes through Smallholder ADOPT Q18 and Q19such as reduced soil erosion and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (e.g., fuel savings, less residue burning, N fertilizer efficiency) [13]. Conversely, there are potential impacts on biodiversity from higher chemical use that could detract from the positive results. A more complete evaluation of the identified conservation practices would be especially relevant for individual components of CA that may be unattractive options in some contexts, given that there likely are needs to couple a surface cover strategy and a reduction of fodder availability with zero-tillage or direct seeding equipment to potentially reap the full agroecological benefits.Relative to existing evaluation options, Value-Ag can provide: a structured analysis framework for quantification of the impact of innovations on farm productivity, profitability, and resilience; a platform to out-scale these changes across the case-study area based on predicted adoption outcomes; and explicit insights into bioeconomic and socioeconomic trade-offs to improve the design/delivery of intensification options, the engagement of project proponents in R&D evaluation, and the building of research capacity.Finally, we acknowledge a potential limitation of the study: the results were strictly dependent on the data assumptions underpinning key farm parameters. Nevertheless, this study provided valuable insights that could improve farm productivity and profitability while reducing risk exposure from a range of CA-based scenarios in a smallholder system in central Mexico. It also offered a novel platform to evaluate scaling strategies across Mexico and other regions according to predicted adoption outcomes.This study and the multi-disciplinary team that performed it identified some gaps and opportunities for potential future research:1.Explore changes in intervention levels and \"what-if\" scenarios via further scenario and sensitivity analysis at both farm and regional scales. An analysis of the changes in key farm parameters could include grain yields, stubble fate, herd numbers, labour supply, produce prices, and input costs. These, for example, could be a part of new scenario analyses focusing on irrigation, climate change, machine innovation and availability, livestock trade, price shock, or government subsidies. Likewise, changes in key adoption parameters as a result of farm simulation outputs, such as linking risk attitudes to farmer risk aversion metrics, could influence adoption outcomes [49]. 2.Characterise wrongfully or partially implemented CA practices and innovations via sensitivity analysis of key parameters (e.g., stubble fate, degree of tillage/subsoil work).Evaluate the performance of the new maize variety (generic hybrid) and legume crop (grass pea) across all scenarios and transient farming systems, not just CA. Specific new maize varieties promoted by CIMMYT and other legume crops in the context of CA and disaggregated scenarios should also be evaluated.Apply a similar approach to the other five farm typologies (T1-T5) identified for Guanajuato [53], as well as to other smallholder contexts across Mexico and beyond. This can help explore how geography, farm size, resources, attitudes to risk, time horizons, irrigation, and market access may impact different conservation practices. 5.Improve the scaling process by exploring potential synergies with other relevant tools, such as CIMMYT's Scaling Scan that determines the potential to scale [100]. 6.Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Value-Ag approach relative to comparable modelling tools (e.g., TradeOff Analysis-MultiDimensional, TOA-MD) [101] in terms of their performance in quantifying whole-farm profit, risk, adoption, and impact in context-specific conditions. 7.Expand the approach to include additional components for modelled scenarios that reflect the ecosystem services and sustainability factors of the farming systems (e.g., soil carbon accounting, GHG accounting, biodiversity index, land condition index). It could also reflect other factors relating to employment or fee-for-service provisions around farm, including machinery and postharvest services. 8.Expand the approach by using individual household data and aggregating at the end, instead of using average parameters of the farm typology. This Monte Carlo approach will provide not only the expected outcomes but also information on the bandwidth of outcomes.The Value-Ag analytical framework was used to investigate how profit-risk trade-offs, farmer risk aversion, and adoption drivers are likely to impact a range of CA practices to intensify a representative smallholder crop-livestock farm in central Mexico. We were also able to demonstrate the relative value of disaggregating the CA package to suit specific agroecological and socioeconomic conditions. For this case study, two-component and improved CA scenarios were the clear winners in terms of farm profitability and stability, as well as the overall net value given adoption predictions. NT + CD and SC + CD had the highest profit impact overall. Beyond that, the large difference in the cost of risk aversion between these scenarios and most of the others indicated that disaggregating CA into smaller component packages and including a more productive crop/variety will likely increase farmer adoption in riskier contexts.Our study further demonstrated the potential to learn, not only from where benefits may be greatest, but also where risk and uncertainty can most readily be mitigated. Higher volatility in terms of seasonal rainfall and commodity prices, lower availability of capital and farm labour, reduced market access, and threatened food security are examples of where uncertainty can be mitigated in this way. The complex interplay of these and other factors has a crucial role in determining the economic value of the various components of CA and their likelihood of being adopted, together and separately. Based on this Guanajuato case-study, prioritising livestock and stubble management, a mechanisation strategy, and technical support beyond yield gains when promoting new crops and varieties, along with the gradual implementation of practices, would likely maximise the value from investments in CA in the region. More broadly, our results supported the need for employing a context-specific, system-based approach that quantifies the complex trade-offs and best informs farmer decisions and the strategic prioritisation of research investment in technological change in target geographies around the world.","tokenCount":"10242"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ae830498b573cb9c2c27e81b3402f68f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/576cda2a-b017-4602-b508-3457bab5fe0d/retrieve","id":"-669550713"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d01c1b6b-8c59-4b7a-b0f4-8e44ec1394b2","pagecount":"2","content":"• Retail prices of maize increased by 5 percent in October.• Maize prices were highest in the Southern region.• ADMARC sales were reported in 13 of 26 markets monitored by IFPRI, mostly in the Southern region.• Retail prices of maize in Malawi were higher than in the neighboring countries, attracting informal imports.Figure 1 shows a trend in prices in the past 12 months ending in October 2023, and, for comparison, over the 12 months ending in October 2022. At the beginning of the harvest season, we start reporting prices of newly harvested maize, which has a higher moisture content than maize from the previous harvest. High moisture content makes it unsuitable for storage or milling. During drying, it loses about 20 percent of its weight. Solid lines in Figure 1 represent observed maize prices. Dotted lines represent prices adjusted for moisture content and thus the true price trend.Retail maize prices experienced a 5 percent increase in October, rising from K692 in the final week of September to K732 in the final week of October (Table 1). This increase in price, occurring at the onset of the lean season, represents a notably more lenient change compared to the same period in the previous season (when prices increased by 23 percent), but from a much higher base (Figure 1).Consistent with the typical trend, the Southern region recorded the highest monthly average maize retail price of K775/kg, with the peak weekly retail price (K883/kg) noted in Luchenza in Thyolo. The Central region maintained relatively stable prices, with the monthly average settling at K710/kg. Two markets in the Central region even recorded a modest price decline: Mitundu in Lilongwe (4%) and Mchinji (1%). This can be attributed to local availability of maize as farmers are releasing previously withheld stock to use in purchasing farm inputs and labor as they prepare for the upcoming farming season.The Monthly Maize Market Report was developed by researchers at IFPRI Malawi to provide clear and accurate information on the variation of maize prices in selected markets throughout Malawi. All prices are reported in Malawi Kwacha (K). To learn more about our work, visit www.massp.ifpri.info or follow us on Twitter (@IFPRIMalawi).The Northern region documented the lowest monthly average retail maize price at K585/kg, with the lowest weekly average price recorded in Chitipa at K505/kg during the third week of October (Table 1). Towards the end of the month the region experienced a decline in prices (Figure 2) thanks to maize inflows from Zambia and Tanzania.Markets in southern and central Malawi as well as in Mzuzu recorded higher retail prices of maize than neighboring countries at both the official (K1,180) and the market (K1,950) exchange rate (Figure 4), attracting imports of maize.ADMARC sales were reported in half of the 26 markets monitored by IFPRI, 1 in each of the Central and Northern regions and 11 in the Southern region. No ADMARC purchases were reported in any of these markets.IFPRI Malawi has been monitoring retail maize prices and ADMARC activities in selected markets since October 2016. Currently, data is collected from 26 markets across the country, with monitoring occurring six days per week, excluding Sundays. At least three monitors report data from each market. Data is collected by means of phone calls to the monitors. Regional prices reported in Figure 4 are sourced from weekly reports from Commodity Insights Africa.  ","tokenCount":"558"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0f56382d3da4c42ca60169bb0d86ae66","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/97c7de48-955c-4757-bcbe-c90fc0eb2dad/retrieve","id":"45656678"},"keywords":["Forage conservation","Avena Altoandina","climate change","specialized dairy production","agribusiness"],"sieverID":"e779b5e6-4868-451c-b085-8bfe54f109ba","pagecount":"10","content":"on the fermentation of lactic acid bacteria in an environment without the presence of air (Sánchez  and Báez, 2002). In the Colombian higher tropics, in particular the highland regions of Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments, making silage is the most common practice of forage conservation since this canCattle in Colombia are a productive activity with relevance both economically and socially. In economic terms, the cattle sector contributes 21.8% of the agricultural gross domestic product and 1.6% of the national GDP (Fedegan, 2018). On the other hand, it generates 19% of the jobs in the agricultural sector and 6% of the overall national employment (Fedegan, 2018). Specialized dairy production mainly takes place in the higher tropics (>2,000 m elevation) and contributes 45% of the national milk production (Fedegan, 2018). Dairy production and productivity depend, however, on climatic conditions (Enciso et al., 2021;Fedegan, 2018) since those affect the availability of pastures, which constitute the main feed source of cattle in Colombia (Cuesta, 2005;Vargas et al., 2018;Enciso et al., 2021;Fedegan, 2018). Therefore, critical conditions in rainy or dry seasons impair access to high-quality animal feed and lead to strong seasonality in animal production (Vargas et al., 2018;Arreaza et al., 2012;Mendieta et al., 2015).Forage conservation is a strategy that allows decreasing the vulnerability of animal feeding to climate variability by providing good-quality feed throughout the year (Sánchez and Báez, 2002). Forage resources can be conserved as silage, hay, and haylage. Silage is based Dairy production in the Colombian higher tropics (>2,000 m elevation) depends on the climatic conditions. Because of climatic variability, the availability of forage resources for animal feeding is affected throughout the year, generating seasonally marked dairy production.Silage production as a business model is a viable option in financial terms for producer associations. Limitations in access to machinery and technical assistance affect the adoption of this practice among independent smallholder and mediumsized producers.The forage oat Avena sativa AV25-T (Altoandina) has technical characteristics that favor its use as silage rather than the commonly used Porva maize (e.g., precocity, lower costs). Likewise, the production of oat silage generates higher economic benefits than the production of maize silage. Time from sowing to harvest of forage (days) 132Plant height (cm) 108Overturning 7%Average green forage production (t/ha) 24.8Dry matter content 33%Crude protein content 7.5%Total digestible nutrient content 51%Neutral detergent fiber content 57%be done manually, and the humidity of the environment does not allow for other forms of conservation (J. Castillo, pers. commun., 6 December 2021). Silage is mainly made of ICA-508 maize, also known as Porva maize, in the least technical production systems of the region (Fedegan, 2012, cited by Enciso et al., 2021).This document suggests the use of Avena sativa AV25-T (Altoandina) for silage production in the highland regions of Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments, which has advantages over the traditionally used technology, ICA-508 maize. Among the advantages of Altoandina are its lower labor costs and precocity, and the possibility of sowing and harvesting in both agricultural semesters of the region (J. Castillo, pers. commun., 29 November 2021;Campuzano et al., 2018).In this sense, the objective of this document is to analyze Altoandina oat silage production as a business model and evaluate the economic and financial viability of this practice.Altoandina is an oat variety evaluated by Agrosavia as an option for animal supplementation in specialized milk production systems located in the higher tropics of Colombia, such as in the savannah of Bogotá, Alto Chicamocha, and the valleys of Ubaté and Chiquinquirá (Campuzano et al., 2018). It adapts to soils with drainage and porosity. Altoandina can be harvested 132 days after sowing and is thus considered an intermediate cycle crop that can be grown and harvested in both agricultural semesters (Campuzano et al., 2018). In addition, it stands out for being resistant to overturning and having a low incidence of leaf and stem rust. The dry matter (DM) yield of Altoandina depends on the precipitation and rate of fertilization, and varies, on average, from 10.6 to 24.8 tons/ha (Campuzano et al., 2018). Altoandina can be conserved as silage and fed to the cattle herd in times of forage scarcity. Altoandina silage generates benefits in terms of feeding efficiency and environmental impacts, that is, it leads to increased milk production (22 L/cow/day), decreased grazing areas, and decreased urea nitrogen in milk (Campuzano et al., 2018). Altoandina can also be used for other purposes: as a trap crop for the sowing of ryegrass and alfalfa and the renewal of degraded pastures (Campuzano et al., 2018). Table 1 presents the important characteristics of Altoandina.• To evaluate the use of Altoandina as a possible alternative business model for silage production in the Colombian higher tropics.• To compare the economic viability of Altoandina and maize silage in the highlands of Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments.The Business Model Canvas was structured based on the methodology developed by Alexander Osterwalder (2004). It was complemented by an economic and financial analysis in which the associated profitability indicators and risk factors were calculated using @ Risk software (Palisade Corporation). The data were obtained through interviews with experts from Agrosavia and by the consultation of secondary information provided by the National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia (DANE).  In the highlands of Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments, maize silage is a key resource for animal feeding. The most widely used variety is Porva maize (ICA-508), which is the reference point for evaluating Altoandina silage. Altoandina has several advantages over maize: better precocity (it can be harvested 132 days after sowing (DAS) compared with 150-180 DAS for maize) and it can be sown in both agricultural semesters (two harvests versus only one for maize). Maize, however, has a higher yield in both green forage and dry matter (Table 2). On the other hand, planting maize requires more labor, thus causing higher establishment costs than Altoandina. Table 3 details the cost structure of ICA-508 maize and Figure 1 presents the distribution of establishment costs for both technologies.High-quality maize silage is obtained by including both sugarcane and the highest amount possible of grains (Iriarte, 2013). Sugarcane is commonly ensiled in the region, whereas the maize cobs are sold for human consumption when the prices are high. The subtraction of the cob in the silage relinquishes part of the nutritional quality, leading to low content of protein (8-10%) and high content of fiber (>60%) (J. Castillo, op. cit.), in addition to generating greater variability in the quality of animal feed. Likewise, ethical considerations are involved when using a product destined for human consumption (cob) as animal feed. The problems described for maize silage are unrelated to the production and silage making of Altoandina, which makes it a promising alternative.  Lance Cheung / USDA The production of Avena sativa AV25-T (Altoandina) silage as a business model for the higher tropics of Colombia | 1 Average length of land lease contracts in the higher tropics of Colombia (J. Castillo, pers. commun., 29 November 2021).2 Based on the Finagro credit line, which is established according to the DTF (fixed-term deposits) + 7% effective annual rate (Finagro, 2021). The DTF was determined based on the projections of Bancolombia 2021-2025 (Bancolombia, 2021).The financial viability of the project was evaluated based on the profitability indicators net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and benefit-cost ratio (B/C). The silage production of Altoandina was compared with the silage production of Porva maize ICA-508 as a baseline scenario. The average yield of Altoandina and Porva maize is 17 and 35 t/ha, respectively. For the evaluation of each silage option, a time horizon of 5 years 1 and an average discount rate of 10.85% were used. 2  Source: Own elaboration.two income flows per year because it can be sown and harvested in the two agricultural semesters. It involves high annual costs compared with maize, but the costs per harvest are lower.Analyzing the distribution of the profitability indicators shows that the NPV for Altoandina can result in negative values with a 4.1% probability, whereas for maize the probability is 10.9% (Figure 2). The probability that the IRR is less than 0% is 5.3% for maize and 1.3% for Altoandina (Figure 3). The B/C ratio is greater than 1 with a probability of 91.7% for Altoandina and 89.3% for maize (Figure 4).  Source: Own elaboration.Source: Own elaboration. Values in percentages The production of Avena sativa AV25-T (Altoandina) silage as a business model for the higher tropics of Colombia | Source: Own elaboration. The business model is executed mainly by producer associations and to a lesser extent by independent producers. This is because of the better access to machinery, infrastructure, and technical assistance for associations than for independent producers. These possibilities are supported by institutional policies, as is the case of Conpes 3675 of 2010, which aims at improving the competitiveness of the dairy sector and supports associations in obtaining access to the resources necessary for feed production and supplementation, such as silage (DNP, 2010).The value proposition is Altoandina silage sold in 50-kg bags. In addition to its nutritional quality, the bag presentation allows the silage to be preserved in the distribution and feeding phase of the animals. The customer segment is cattle (i.e., dairy) producers affected by climatic variations. 3 Relations with customers and distribution channels depend on the operational plan managed by the producer association.The poor quality of road infrastructure in rural areas, however, is a bottleneck for the distribution channel since it causes losses in the delivery of silage to the animals (J. Castillo, op. cit.). The business model proposes a single source of income: the sale of silage.The price is determined by comparing with the prices for commercial concentrates.Adequate machinery for sowing, harvesting, and silage making; infrastructure; and access to water sources for sowing are the key resources for the proper functioning of the business model. The key activities are related to the sowing and harvesting of Altoandina. To take advantage of the two agricultural semesters of the year, sowing should be done in March-April and October-December so that it coincides with the rainy seasons and does not involve additional irrigation expenses.Regarding the harvest, in the highland regions of Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments, it can be done after 132 days, approximately (Campuzano et al., 2018), which coincides with the beginning of the dry season.The key actors for the execution of the business model come mainly from the fields of policy, research, and marketing. Regarding policy, the relevance of the National Federation of Cereal, Legume, and Soy Growers (Fenalce) and the territorial governmental entities (city halls and governorships) stands out. For its part, the Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation (Agrosavia) stands out as the research institution that, in addition to developing Altoandina, is carrying out scaling processes of the technology 3 These can be the associations that produce the silage or independent producers. The commercialization process depends on internal policies of the association.Values in millions (COP)in different territories through dissemination and promotion activities. In terms of commercialization, Sáenz Fety is the sole distributor of Altoandina seed. Finally, the cost structure considers the establishment and silage making costs of Altoandina 4 (Table 5).   Source: Own elaboration based on obtained data.Table 5. Price: determined by comparing with the prices for commercial concentrates as well as by analyzing the minimum levels of production.Silage is a feasible strategy for conserving forage in the Colombian higher tropics, thus allowing an increase in feed availability in critical times caused by climatic variability and affecting the production indicators of the dairy production system. Altoandina forage oat silage is a promising alternative to the commonly used Porva maize silage ICA-508 in terms of financial profitability, production indicators, and socioeconomic advantages.Producer associations have advantages over independent smallholder and medium-scale producers in adopting the proposed business model. Policy instruments such as CONPES 3675 of 2010 allow access to the machinery required for silage production and other activities that encourage the modernization of the dairy sector.Political and institutional efforts are still needed, however, to overcome bottlenecks related to road infrastructure in rural areas, extension, and technical assistance for smallholder and medium-scale producers, among others. These factors limit the adoption of practices that benefit dairy production, such as silage.","tokenCount":"2012"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"122f1e2ffe40b6916e7083f1f83b9bac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5e396047-8d26-49d3-925c-925d9d4121bf/content","id":"1364866436"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cff03ac8-b847-4a2d-b8da-819a8f39c6f3","pagecount":"8","content":"Wheat breeders in Turkey have been developing new varieties since the 1920s, but few studies have evaluated the rates of genetic improvement. This study determined wheat genetic gains by evaluating 22 winter/facultative varieties released for rainfed conditions between 1931 and 2006. The study was conducted at three locations in Turkey during 2008-2012, with a total of 21 test sites. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with four replicates in 2008 and 2009 and three replicates in 2010-2012. Regression analysis was conducted todetermine genetic progress over time. Mean yield across all 21 locations was 3.34 t ha −1 , but varied from 1.11 t ha −1 to 6.02 t ha −1 and was highly affected by moisture stress. Annual genetic gain was 0.50% compared to Ak-702, or 0.30% compared to the first modern landmark varieties. The genetic gains in drought-affected sites were 0.75% compared to Ak-702 and 0.66% compared to the landmark varieties. Modern varieties had both improved yield potential and tolerance to moisture stress. Rht genes and rye translocations were largely absent in the varieties studied. The number of spikes per unit area decreased by 10% over the study period, but grains spike −1 and 1000-kernel weight increased by 10%. There were no significant increases in harvest index, grain size, or spike fertility, and no significant decrease in quality over time. Future use of Rht genes and rye translocations in breeding programs may increase yield under rainfed conditions.World demand for wheat is growing at approximately 2% per year [1]. While genetic gains in yield potential of irrigated wheat currently stand at <1% progress in rainfed environments is even lower [2]. Worldwide, approximately 50% of the area under wheat cultivation is rainfed and periodically affected by drought [3]. These areas provide 50%-90% less wheat yield compared to irrigated conditions. During the 21st century, climate change is likely to increase both the intensity and frequency of droughts [4]. The area planted to wheat in Turkey has declined from 9.5 million hectares (Mha) at the beginning of the 1990s to 7.8 Mha in 2011-2015, but grain yield increased from 2 t ha −1 to 2.7 t ha −1 during the same period [5]. The highest production was 22 million tons in 2013 while severe droughts during 2007 resulted in production of just 17.2 million metric tons. Eighty percent of the wheat produced in Turkey is cultivated under dry rainfed conditions, primarily in the Central Anatolia and Transitional regions [6]. Thus, in these regions, the most important factors affecting yield are precipitation and its distribution within the wheat cultivation period.In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of varieties released in Turkey and there are now 201 officially listed bread wheat varieties [7]. Worldwide, fewer experiments have evaluated wheat genetic gains in dryland areas, compared to optimal environments. In a trial conducted in Iran, 81 wheat cultivars released from 1930 to 2006 were examined under irrigated and terminal drought stress conditions at Karaj during 2008-2009 [8]. Grain yields improved by 31 and 20 kg ha −1 per year under irrigated and drought stress conditions, respectively. Compared to old cultivars, modern cultivars incurred less yield loss under drought stress. Across all environments, significant genetic changes over time were found for harvest index, grain number m −2 , and spike dry weight at anthesis. No changes were observed for above-ground dry matter and 1000-kernel weight. Battenfield et al. [9] studied 30 cultivars comprising two tall cultivars (Kharkof, released in 1919, and Triumph 64, released in 1964) and 28 semi-dwarf cultivars released in the USA during 1971-2008. Cultivars were tested in 2010 and 2011 at 11 rainfed locations in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. Compared to Kharkof, a significant annual yield increase of 14.6 kg ha −1 or 0.93% was obtained across all locations (including tall cultivars), although this was reduced to 11.03 kg or 0.40% per year when only semi-dwarf cultivars (released 1971-2008) were considered.A study conducted in the Brazilian savanna focused on quantifying the genetic progress of dryland wheat released between 1976 and 2005 [10]. Mean estimated genetic progress for grain yield was 37 kg ha −1 per year. In another study, eight dryland winter wheat cultivars widely cultivated from 1940 to 2010 in Shaanxi province of China were grown in plots that could be sheltered from rain [11]. Plant height decreased from 140.7 cm to 79.5 cm from the earliest to the most recent cultivar. Yield increased significantly with an annual genetic gain of 0.48% and was consistently and positively associated with increased grain weight and harvest index. Afridi and Khalil [12]  A limited number of studies have been conducted on wheat genetic progress in Turkey. During 1992-1996, Avçin et al. [13] studied 14 bread wheat varieties developed during 1933-1991 under Central Anatolian conditions and calculated annual genetic gains of 16.1 kg ha −1 . The same researchers documented genetic gains of 10.3 kg ha −1 year −1 for durum wheat in the region [14]. In another study, 16 cultivars released in Turkey after 1976 were evaluated in the Çukurova region under two nitrogen application levels during 2003-2004 to evaluate yield progress and changes in associated traits [15]. Average genetic gain was 0.64% year −1 and was associated with increased harvest index, reduced plant height, and higher grain number. In Konya, Turkey, researchers found no difference in spike number m −2 between old and new varieties, but grain number and grain weight per spike in varieties Karahan-99, Demir-2000, and Bağcı-2002 were higher than older germplasm [16]. Another study estimated genetic gain for yield and other traits in winter wheat released in Turkey during 1963-2004 for irrigated environments [6]. Fourteen varieties grown in 16 environments were evaluated from 2008 to 2012 in Konya, Eskişehir, Ankara, and Edirne. The highest yields were obtained from the recent varieties Kinaci-97 (5.48 t ha −1 ) and Ekiz-2004 (5.42 t ha −1 ), compared to the old varieties Yektay-406 (4.17 t ha −1 ) and Bezostaya-1 (4.27 t ha −1 ). Over a period of 20 years, grain yield increased by 58 kg ha −1 year −1 (1.37%). This gain was mainly achieved by reducing plant height and increasing harvest index. There was no clear tendency of changes in specific yield components, indicating that new high-yielding varieties reach their yield potential by different avenues.Periodic evaluation of genetic improvement of crop cultivars is useful, both as a demonstration of the importance of plant breeding to the public and as a way of identifying traits or target environments that may warrant increased efforts by breeders [17]. Evaluating cultivars from different eras in a common environment is the most direct method to estimate breeding progress. This study aimed to document the genetic gains in grain yield and associated changes in agronomic traits in rainfed winter wheat in Turkey to assist development of future breeding strategies.This study was conducted at the Agricultural Research Institutes of three Turkish provinces (Ankara, Konya, and Eskisehir) over five seasons (2008 to 2012, inclusive), using 22 registered winter bread wheat varieties developed for rainfed conditions (Table 1). Genotypes were classified into five groups according to the year of release:1) One landrace variety (Ak-702) widely cultivated prior to modern breeding. 2) Three landmark varieties (Kirac-66, Bezostaya-1 from Russia, and Gerek-79) that became popular during the 1970s and were to some degree \"Green Revolution\" winter wheat varieties with significantly higher yield potential.The area sown to these varieties has declined substantially but both Bezostaya-1 and Gerek-79 can still be found in production. Trials were designed using a randomized complete block with four replications in 2008 and 2009 and three replications in 2010-2012 (Table 2). Plots were planted in six rows measuring 7.0 m × 1.2 m. There was 20 cm distance between rows and 550 seeds m −2 were planted with a plot seeder. Plots were fertilized with 40 kg ha − 1 nitrogen and 70 kg ha −1 phosphorus at planting, and 40 kg ha −1 nitrogen (ammonium nitrate) was applied at tillering. Weeds were controlled by applying herbicide (1500 mL ha −1 2-4 D) before stem elongation. Plots were harvested using a combine harvester, with a 1 m edge left at both ends of the plot (harvested area = 5.0 m × 1.2 m). Genotypes remaining at the tillering stage when those with the spring habit had headed were classified as winter types (Table 1).Data were recorded for grain yield, plant height, days to heading, biomass, harvest index, spikes m − 1 , grains spike −1 , 1000-kernel weight, test weight, protein content, dry gluten content, and SDS sedimentation, and yield components were determined based on data from ten spikes. Data were processed by variance analysis using the \"JMP\" statistics package and significance was confirmed using an LSD test. Regression analysis was conducted to determine genetic progress over time, using years as the independent variable (x) and productivity traits as dependent variables (y). Average yield, regression coefficient (b), and total of squares of deviation from the regression were used to determine the stability of the old and new varieties. Correlations between grain yield and other traits were also calculated. Molecular marker data for the 1B.1R and 1A.1R translocations, Rht-B1, Lr, and Yr genes were provided by the CIMMYT Biotechnology group in Mexico.Ankara, Konya, and Eskişehir provinces are located in the Central Anatolia Plateau; the research sites of this study are described in further detail in [6]. This region generally experiences hot summers (average temperature in July is 22 °C) and cold winters (average temperature in January is − 0.7 °C) with average annual temperatures of 10.8 °C. There was not much difference in spring season temperature variation from the long-term data in the three locations during the study period. Precipitation during the wheat season (autumn-spring) at all three sites was higher than the long-term average in 2009 and 2011, and lower than the long-term average in 2008, 2010 (except Konya), and 2012 (Table 2). Environmental conditions and agronomic practices across different sites and years resulted in high grain yield variation. Moisture stress caused low yields of <1.  3) demonstrated high significance of all major factors and their interactions. ANOVA for individual trials showed that yield differences between the varieties were significant at P < 0.05 for 19 trials; for the remaining two trials (Konya-2010 and Eskisehir-2012) the significance was P < 0.10 (Table 1). Data from all 21 trials were used for multi-locational analysis.Table 4 presents grain yield and other agronomic traits for the varieties included in the study. Compared to the landrace variety Ak-702, the modern varieties showed clear genetic superiority. Even the landmark varieties of the 1970s (group 2; Kirac-66, and Gerek-79) exceeded Ak-702 by 24.1% (3.14 t ha −1 versus 2.53 t ha −1 ) when considering yield across all sites. The increase was 14.0% at lower yielding sites below 2 t ha −1 (1.06 t ha −1 versus 0.93 t ha −1 ). The annual genetic gain of the varieties developed in 2004-2006 (group 5) compared to Ak-702 was obvious across all environments. For low-yielding sites, gains were 6.1 kg ha −1 year −1 (0.66%), compared to 18.0 kg ha −1 year −1 (0.49%) for high yielding sites and 12.5 kg ha −1 year −1 (0.50%) averaged across all sites.This study was primarily concerned with the genetic gains achieved by the breeding programs compared to the group 2 landmark varieties (Kirac-66, Bezostaya-1, and Gerek-79). These varieties (especially Bezostaya-1 and Gerek-79) had a large impact on wheat production in Turkey during the 1970s and 1980s and are still cultivated on limited areas. The yield of group 3 varieties (released during 1991-1997) across all sites, exceeded the landmark group by 2.2% (3.21 t ha −1 vs. 3.14 t ha −1 ); group 4 yields (3.52 t ha −1 ) exceeded the landmarks by 12.1%, and group 5 yields (3.46 t ha −1 ) were 10.2% higher than the landmark group 2. At the four drought-affected sites with yields <2 t ha −1 , the yield gains for groups 3, 4, and 5 compared to group 2 were − 2.8%, 25.5%, and 30.2%, respectively. At the six high-yielding sites, yield gains compared to group 2 were 3.5%, 12.2%, and 15.0% for groups 3, 4, and 5, respectively.Over the 40 years of breeding evaluated in this study, yearly genetic gain compared to landmark varieties was 0.30% across all 21 sites; 0.75% based on data for drought environments and 0.38% for high-yielding sites. The respective coefficients of   determination of grain yield on years of release were 0.36 (P < 0.01) for all sites; 0.17 (P < 0.10) for low-yielding sites <2 t ha −1 , and 0.42 (P < 0.01) for high-yielding sites >4 t ha −1 (Fig. 1). Varieties developed at the Ankara and Eskisehir institutes are comparable in terms of average yield and yield at high-yielding sites. At low-yielding sites, varieties developed at Ankara produced 6.5% higher yields (1.31 t ha −1 vs. 1.23 t ha −1 ). The only other notable difference between varieties developed at the two institutes was grains spike −1 , which was 9.3% higher for varieties developed at Eskisehir. These institutes are therefore able to provide farmers with a choice of superior varieties.Rates of plant development (indicated by days to heading) did not change over time. Early-maturing cultivar (Bayraktar, released in 2000) reached heading 5-6 days before others, but there was generally no change over the last 40 years of breeding. The frequency of winter or facultative growth habit genotypes did not change over time (Table 1). On average, plant height decreased by 4-5 cm, but only cultivar (Demir-2000) possessed Rht1 and none had Rht2.Yield components were recorded at all three experimental sites during 2008 and 2009. No substantial increase over time was observed for biomass per unit area. Harvest index was generally low (around 0.3) and underwent a very small increase over time, as determined by comparing the average harvest index for each group. Number of spikes per unit area decreased by an average 10% in all varieties released after 1990, compared to the landmark group. During the same period, grains spike −1 and grain size both increased by around 10%, thus spike productivity appears to be a key factor in increasing grain yield over time. Bezostaya-1 is favored by millers and bakers in Turkey for its superior bread-making quality whereas modern varieties have slightly lower protein contents and SDS sedimentation values.The contribution of plant height and yield components to grain yield were evaluated during 2008 and 2009 using coefficients of correlation (Table 5). A significant positive correlation between plant height and yield was observed only under severe drought in Ankara in 2011. Among the yield components, only harvest index demonstrated a positive significant correlation with grain yield in five of six environments. The two important contributors to yield genetic gain (grains spike − 1 and 1000-kernel weight) were significantly y = 0.0132 x -23.019 R ² = 0.361 2.5 2.7 2.9  1.correlated with yield only in one and two environments, respectively. However, as data was available only from six of 21 sites the analysis was limited and might not represent all environmental scenarios.This study evaluated 22 Turkish rainfed winter wheat varieties across 21 environments and builds on the previous study of genetic gains in irrigated wheat in Turkey [6]. Gummadov et al. [6] concluded that genetic gains of 1.37% year −1 for irrigated wheat over the last 20 years were achieved through introduction of semi-dwarf genes Rht1 and Rht2, with a stable biomass but increased harvest index. Annual genetic gains in rainfed varieties were more modest at 0.50% compared to the landrace selection Ak-702 (released in 1931), or 0.30% compared to the first modern landmark varieties released in the 1970s (Kirac-66, Bezostaya-1, and Gerek-79). However, the genetic gains at four drought-affected sites (<2 t ha −1 ) were higher in relative terms: 0.75% compared to Ak-702 and 0.66% compared to the landmark varieties. Modern varieties had both improved yield potential and tolerance to moisture stress, resulting in overall higher and stable grain yield. Estimation of the genetic gains in this study was consistent with previous work on this subject in Turkey [16].The rainfed winter wheat varieties used in this study do not represent semi-dwarf germplasm typical of Green Revolution spring wheat; they do not possess the Rht1 and Rht2 genes and there was no substantial reduction in plant height, which conforms with the findings of other studies on Rht genes [18] and 1B.1R (or 1A.1R) [19]. Most of the varieties have a height range of 85-95 cm, which is probably optimal for Turkish dryland conditions and controlled by other Rht genes. It seems that the development of rainfed wheat germplasm in Turkey followed a more conservative approach and achieved reasonable genetic gains without conversion to semi-dwarf stature and without using rye translocations, typical of CIMMYT semi-arid spring wheat germplasm and varieties from drought-prone areas (India, Pakistan, USA). The semi-dwarf genes (Rht1 and Rht2) and 1B.1R (or 1A.1R) translocation play fundamental roles in wheat adaptation and affect a number of traits including grain yield and its components, and disease resistance [17]. Although parents possessing these genes were relatively widely used in the crosses, selection pressure for good bread-making quality and taller types in dry conditions might have contributed to the absence of these genes. One of the reasons why dwarfing genes and rye translocations have not been found in Turkish rainfed winter wheat cultivars was the breeding methodology and locations used to test advanced lines. Turkish wheat breeding has historically used modified bulk selection in segregating populations, and this may have favored selection of taller types. Regional trials are primarily conducted in yield-limiting environments, which may also have hindered selection of dwarf types. Another consideration is that straw is a valuable animal fodder, especially for small ruminants. Thus farmers tend to favor taller types for the straw, a feature that may affect breeders' decisions during selection.Trethowan et al. [20] demonstrated that tall isolines have longer coleoptiles. Compared to tall lines genotypes with Rht1 or Rht2 alleles have poor seedling emergence in dryland plantings that may result in yield penalties. In order to overcome this problem some breeders have replaced these dwarfing genes with other reduced height genes such as Rht8 in order to increase coleoptile length and enable deeper planting [21,22]. The genotypes with Rht genes in Turkish wheat breeding system may have been inferior to tall types in yield due to poor emergence and subsequent crop establishment. A number of wheat breeding programs maintain semi-tall or tall varieties targeted for drought conditions and still make substantial genetic gains in yield [23]. In the case of Turkish rainfed winter wheat germplasm, it would be worthwhile to investigate optimal plant height and the effects of different Rht genes for variable degrees of moisture stress.Our analysis of yield components demonstrated a gradual decrease of 10% in the number of spikes per unit area, as well as 10% increases in grains spike −1 and 1000-kernel weight. Spike size and productivity also tended to be higher in groups 4 and 5 germplasm. However, as with the Gummadov et al. [6] study of irrigated wheat, we also observed substantial diversity in the capacity of individual varieties to increase yield by different means. Some varieties had lower biomass but higher harvest index and larger grains, while others had average grain size but highly fertile spikes. It also illustrates the opportunities for crossing programs targeted to combine optimal traits. Gummadov et al. [6] found a slight deterioration of grain quality associated with breeding progress in yield. In rainfed wheat we found less deterioration compared to the superior grain quality check Bezostaya-1, with varieties such as Demir-2000 and Izgi-2001 almost matching Bezostaya-1 in protein content and sedimentation value.The breeding strategy for sustaining and enhancing genetic gains for dryland winter wheat in Turkey should consider the following: a) possible utilization of semi-dwarf genes and rye translocations to enhance drought tolerance and yield responses to optimal environments, provided that coleoptile length is not reduced; b) multi-location testing involving the institutes at Ankara, Eskisehir, and Konya would provide an excellent basis for further progress, including new field phenotyping approaches and utilization of physiological tools; c) as yields increase, more attention should be paid to grain quality to meet the requirements of the milling and baking industries; d) more diverse sources of germplasm could be utilized in the crossing program, including wheat landraces recently collected in Turkey [24] and winter synthetics with proven resistance to moisture stress (Morgounov, unpublished); e) utilization of single seed descent or doubled haploid technology to speed up the breeding process and contribute to more rapid genetic gains; f) the current modified bulk breeding methodology should be switched for another methodology, such as selected bulks, to enable semi-dwarf genotypes to demonstrate yield potential.","tokenCount":"3458"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2f86696cb343789b44c7bf80ede2e0fe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9f1e9aa3-27a5-4d89-908c-8d0417266f5d/retrieve","id":"-2007695403"},"keywords":["adaptability","agroecosystem resilience","collective action","biodiversity","community management","farmer selection","genetic diversity","incentives","local institutions","participatory breeding","seed systems"],"sieverID":"cfa585ca-459d-4ba1-89d3-a3640d20bfe1","pagecount":"52","content":"This paper reviews and discusses how studies on (i) on-farm diversity assessment, (ii) access to diversity and information, (iii) extent of use of available materials and information, and (iv) benefits obtained by the farmer or farming community from their use of local crop diversity, are necessary to identify the different ways of supporting farmers and farming communities in the maintenance of traditional varieties and crop genetic diversity within their production systems. Throughout this paper two key themes are emphasized. First, any description or analysis within the four main areas (assessment, access, use and benefit) can, and most probably will, lead to a number of different actions. Second, the decision to implement a particular action, and therefore its success, will depend on farmers and the farming community having the knowledge and leadership capacity to evaluate the benefits that this action will have for them. This in turn emphasizes the importance of activities (whether by local, national and international organizations and agencies) of strengthening local institutions so as to enable farmers to take a greater role in the management of their resources.The last two decades have provided substantial evidence that significant crop genetic diversity continues to be maintained in farmers' fields in the form of traditional varieties (Bellon et al., 1997;Brush, 1995;2004;Jarvis et al., 2004Jarvis et al., , 2008;;Bezancon et al., 2009;Kebebew et al., 2001;Guzman et al., 2005;Bisht et al., 2007;FAO, 2010). This diversity constitutes an important element for the livelihood strategies of these farmers. Traditional crop varieties are used because of their adaptation to marginal or specific agricultural ecosystems (Barry et al., 2007), heterogeneous environments (Bisht et al., 2007), rainfall variability, variable soil types (Bellon and Taylor, 1993;Duc et al., 2010) and as insurance against environmental risk (Sawadogo, 2005;Bhandari, 2009), to meet changing market demands (Smale, 2006;Vandermeer, 1995;Brush and Meng, 1998;Gauchan and Smale, 2007), for pest and disease management (Thurston et al., 1999;Zhu et al., 2000;Trutmann et al., 1996;Finckh et al. 2003;Jarvis et al., 2007a), because of post harvest characteristics (Tsehaye et al., 2006;Teshome et al., 1999, Latournerie-Moreno et al., 2006), distance to market, adult labor availablity and other social and economic characteristics of the household (Gauchan et al., 2005;Fu et al., 2006;Benin et al., 2006;Van Dusen, 2006;Bela et al., 2006), and cultural and religious needs (Rana et al., 2008;Nabban, 1989;Tuxill et al., 2009). They may be kept for their dietary or nutritional value (Johns and Sthapit, 2004;Belanger et al., 2008), taste (Sthapit et al., 2008a) or for the price premiums they attract because of high-quality traditional properties, which compensate for lower yields (Smale et al., 2004). A diversity of traditional varieties within the production system can en-able the farmers' crop populations to better adapt and evolve to changing environmental and economic selection pressures, through increasing the farmers' option value (Evenson et al., 1998;Gollin and Evenson, 1998;Smale et al., 2004;Smale, 2006;Swanson, 1998;Brush, 2004;Kontoleon et al., 2007;Pascual and Perrings, 2007;Aguilar-Støen et al., 2009), and by widening the genetic base of the crop population (Scarcelli et al., 2006;Barnaud et al., 2008;Sagnard et al., 2008;Carpenter et al., 2006;Elmqvist et al., 2003;Jackson et al., 2007;2010;Bezanc ¸on, et al., 2009). The utility of crop varietal diversity within the production system also lies in its potential to provide ecosystem services (Hajjar et al., 2008;Ceroni et al., 2007;IAASTD, 2009), such as the regulation and control of pest and diseases (Finckh and Wolfe, 2006;Abate et al., 2000;Garret and Mundt, 1999;Zhu et al., 2000;Strange and Schott, 2005), sustain pollinator diversity (Richards, 2001;Kremen et al., 2002), and support below-ground biodiversity and soil health (Swift et al., 2004;Brown et al., 2007). This can in turn reduce the financial and health risks of high levels of agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer and pesticides to small-scale farmers and the environment (Tilman et al., 2001;Mosely et al., 2010). This diversity maintained both by farmers in situ and by genebanks ex situ, continues to be fundamental in trying to achieve global food security (Frankel et al., 1995;Gollin and Smale, 1999;Gepts, 2006;Jarvis et al., 2007b).The continuing maintenance of traditional varieties is largely undertaken by poor, small-scale farmers, and is often associated with poverty (Keleman et al., 2009;Kontoleon et al., 2009;IAASTD, 2009). In these areas, diversity of traditional crop varieties is one of the few options that farmers have to meet their livelihood needs (Sawadogo et al., 2005). As long as farmers themselves find it in their best interest to grow genetically diverse traditional varieties of crops, both famers and society as a whole will benefit at no extra cost to either party (Smale et al., 2001;Dusen et al., 2007). In areas where genetic diversity is significant, but farmers have few market or non-market incentives to maintain it, different public activities will be necessary to help support the conservation of this valuable resource (Smale, 2006;Bellon, 2004).Although it was widely assumed for many years during the 1970s and 1980s that traditional varieties would be rapidly and completely replaced by modern varieties (Frankel and Soule, 1981), this has not been the case in many production systems. Traditional crop varieties still meet the needs of the farmers and communities where they occur. Indeed, recent studies suggest that one of the responses of poor rural communities to climate change is to increase the use of traditional materials in their production systems (Bezanc ¸on et al., 2009;Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research, 2010). Their continued maintenance in situ also meets a wider social need for evolving and adapted materials to meet changing production needs and challenges. Given the continuing importance to the farmers who grow them, there are good reasons to embed the continued use of traditional varieties into development and improvement strategies designed to improve the well-being of some of the world's poorest communities. A part of this will involve the implementation of appropriate different public activities that can support their maintenance and use.Over the last few decades, a range of actions or practices has become available to help farmers and farming communities continue to benefit from the maintenance and use of local crop genetic diversity in their production systems (Friis-Hansen and Sthapit, 2000;CIP/UPWARD, 2003;Sthapit et al., 2006a;Jarvis and Hodgkin, 2008;Lipper et al., 2010;Kontoleon et al., 2009) (Table 1).Most actions are small in scale and site and crop specific, resulting from a local evaluation of farmers' constraints to their current use of local crop genetic resources. Along with the advancement of these actions has been the development of tools and methods to work out which action would be most relevant for a specific situation. There has also been an emphasis on the need to understand the different situations and circumstances of different communities with respect to different crops before deciding on an approach to use.Although the actions that can support the maintenance and use of traditional varieties are often apparently site, culture or crop specific and varied, we suggest that an overall framework can be usefully created to help conservation and development workers and communities discern which action will most likely be the most relevant in different situations. This framework, a kind of heuristic device, is based on categorizing into four main groups the issues or constraints that farmers face, which may decrease their ability to benefit from the conservation and use of crop genetic resources within their agricultural production systems: (1) the lack of sufficient diversity of traditional crop varieties within the production system; (2) the lack of access by farmers to available diversity, (3) the limitations in information on and the performance of varieties available in key aspects, and, (4) the inability of farmers and communities to realize the true value of the materials they manage and use. Figure 1 contains a descriptive diagram of the relations within this heuristic device and connects the outcome of analyses of the different types of information to an array of potential actions (Table 1).Based on a review of literature, this paper discusses how studies on (i) on-farm diversity assessment, (ii) access to diversity and information, (iii) extent of the use of available materials and information, and (iv) benefits obtained by the farmer or farming community from their use of local crop diversity, are necessary to identify the different ways to support farmers and farming communities in the maintenance of crop genetic diversity within their production systems. Throughout this paper two key themes are emphasized. First, any description or analysis within the four main groups can, and most probably will, lead to a number of different actions. Second, the decision to implement a particular action, and therefore its success, will depend on the farmer and the farming community having the knowledge, institutions and leadership capacity to evaluate the benefits that this action will have for them. This in turn promotes an emphasis on the importance of strengthening local institutions to enable farmers to take a greater role in the management of their resources.The assessment of diversity provides the necessary description of the extent and distribution of genetic diversity of traditional varieties, and of the way in which that diversity is partitioned within and among varieties at household and community levels. It allows exploration of the relation of the observed diversity to factors such as ecology, gender or poverty. Description in terms of variety names and the traits farmers use to describe their varieties is important for understanding how well their materials are adapted to the farmers' environments and preferences, as well as the farmers' perspectives of diversity distribution. Genetics, particularly molecular genetics, provides further information on patterns of diversity distribution and allows the investigation of the relation of observed diversity with environmental, social and cultural factors, providing a means to reconcile classification schemes using farmers' varietal names with genetic distinctiveness. It also helps determine whether there is a wide enough genetic base for future improvement of the in situ materials, or whether there is sufficient diversity to provide system resilience (Figure 1: 1a, 1b).Estimating the Diversity of Traditional Varieties Diversity within the agricultural production system can be assessed at different levels: within and among households, villages, communities and countries. Many studies are now available which describe the amount and distribution of genetic diversity of individual crops in farmers' fields, at different scales, using a wide range of methods. These studies range from counting the names of varieties to biochemical and molecular studies which assess allelic richness and heterozygosity (Berg, 2009;Brown, 2000). Some studies have developed and used indices of diversity or other methods to compare the amount and distribution of diversity within the farmers' production system across sites and crops. Not all production systems have the same amounts of diversity or the same reliance on traditional cultivars (Bajracharya et al., 2006;Eyzaguirre and Linares, 2004;Gautam et al., 2008). The diversity found within one community may or may not be representative of a much wider geographical area (Chavez et al., 2000;Guzman et al., 2005).Many studies have reported the numbers of farmer-named varieties at household and community levels for major crops, including corn (Bellon and Taylor, 1993;Bellon and Brush, 1994;Louette et al., 1997), common bean (Martin and Adams, 1987;Voss, 1992), potatoes (Quiros et al., 1990;Brush et al., 1995;Zimmerer, 2003), sorghum (Tesema et al., 1997) and cassava (Boster, 1985;Salick et al., 1997;Kizito et al., 2007), barley (Kebebew et al., 2001;Gupta et al., 2003;Banya et al., TABLE 1 Descriptions and references to actions used to support the conservation and use of traditional crop varieties within agricultural production systems. Numbers and letters in the column, \"Where applicable,\" refer to specific constraints outlined in the heuristic framework shown in Figure 1. Actions can be used to overcome multiple constraints.actions (Note: Actions can be applicable to more than one category) Actions Where the action is applicable to specific constraints outlined in the Heuristic Framework (Figure 1) Community managed nurseries 1b, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d 3a,4b, 4c Community nurseries allow growers to access both mother plants (scion and rootstocks) and the associated information. They also are a place for farmers to learn about better nursery management practices. Oyedele et al., 2009;Shalpykov, 2008;Kerimova, 2008;Djavakyants, 2010 Diversity field flora 1b, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 3a, 3b, 3c, 4b, 4c In order to supply an evolving diversified gene pool through exchange and selection to allow the continued adaptation to changing conditions through the informal seed system, farmers' groups in low heritability environments test both improved and local cultivars and the selected cultivars are multiplied and disseminated within and outside the groups. The approach can be used to meet preferences of women and men farmers that often different. BUCAP, 2002;Smolders & Caballeda, 2006, Bioversity International, 2009;Jackson et al., 2010;Huvio and Sidibe, 2003;Grum et al., 2003;Bhandari, 2009 Diversity Kit 1b, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d 3a,,4b, 4c Diversity kit is a set of small quantity of different seeds made available to farmers to enhance their access to a wider range of local varieties. Seeds are harvested from diversity blocks, research farms or farmer's fields and distributed among the farmers. Sthapit et al., 2006d;Sthapit et al., 2008b;Joshi and Sthapit, 1990;Sperling et al., 2001, Almekinders et al., 2006, Halewood et al., 2007 Diversity Fairs 1b, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d 3a,4b, 4c Diversity fairs aim not only at promoting the exchange of knowledge and germplasm between farmers, but they are also organized to explore diversity-rich areas and to recognize communities as custodians of traditional knowledge and biodiversity. Farmers from different communities are brought together to exhibit a range of traditional varieties and the farmer's knowledge of their varieties. Diversity fairs are organized differently to fit the culture of a specific community. Tapia, and Rosa 1993;Sthapit, 1998;Rijal et al., 2000;Sthapit et al., 2003a;Rusike et al., 2003;Guerette et al., (undated); Sperling et al.,. 2008;Adhikari 2006b;UNORCAC, 2008;CIP/UPWARD, 2003;Hardon, and de Boef, 1993;Satheesh, 2000 Seed vouchers 1a,1b,2a,2b,3c,2d, Seed vouchers are coupons or certificates with a guaranteed cash value that can be exchanged for seed from approved sellers.Seed sellers can then redeem their vouchers for cash from the issuing agency. CRS, ICRISAT and ODI. 2002;Makokha et al., 2004;Remington et al., 2002;van der Steeg et al., 2004;Alexander et al., 2004 (Continued on next page)  Bouhassan et al., 2003a;Tushmereirwe, 1996;Bertuso et al., 2005;Rijal 2009;McGuire et al., 2002;Celis-Velazquez et al., 2008;Kennedy and Burlingame, 2003;Cazarez-Sanchez, 2004;Cazarez-Sanchez and Duch-Gary, 2004;Demissie & Bjørnstad, 2004;Trutmann et al., 1993;Karamura and Karamura 1995;Finckh et al., 2000;Joshi and Witcombe, 1996 Community Biodiversity Registries 3a, 3d, 4a, 4b, 4c  Kesavan and Swaminathan, 2008;Munyua et al., 2009;Lightfoot et al., 2008;Kenny, 2000 (Continued on next page)  Witcombe et al., 1996;2005;2006;Sthapit et al, 1996;Sthapit and Jarvis, 1999;Sthapit et al., 2000;2003b;Joshi et al., 2000;Joshi et al., 2001;2002;Ceccarelli and Grando, 2007;Witcombe et al., 2005;Gyawali et al., 2006a;2006b;2007;TABLE 1 Descriptions and references to actions used to support the conservation and use of traditional crop varieties within agricultural production systems. Numbers and letters in the column, \"Where applicable,\" refer to specific constraints outlined in the heuristic framework shown in Figure 1. Actions can be used to overcome multiple constraints. Pradhanag and Sthapit, 1995;Finckh, 2008;Finckh, and Wolfe, 2006;Di Falco and Perrings 2006;Zhu et al., 2000;Thinlay et al., 2000;Finckh, 2003;Trutmann and Pyndji, 1994;Ghaoti et al., 2005, Li et al., 2010;Benton et al., 2003;Willey, 1997 Improve seed storage facilities and methods 3c,3d,4a,4c Seed storage devices and methods determine the vulnerability of seeds to pests, diseases and physiological deterioration. Some common methods are improving the air tightness of containers or head treatment. Some tested examples combine traditional with modern methods e.g. cow dung ash was combined with air tight storage to increase the seed longevity. Gepts, 1990;Yupit-Moo, 2002;Latourniere et al., 2006;Grum et al., 2003a;Wambugu et al., 2009;Thamaga-Chitja et al., 2004;Beckett et  and associated ethnic identity has also been used to create niche markets. Lee, 2005;Irungu et al., 2007;Giuliani, 2007;van Dusen, 2006;Gauchan and Small, 2003;Rana, 2004;Gruere et al., 2007;Caviglia and Kahn, 2001;UNORCAC, 2008;de Boef, 2010;Bhandari et al., 2006;Bhandari, 2009 Education and financial support to farmers' groups to develop a marketing strategy 3a, 4a, 4c Institutions support farmer unions and cooperatives for educating farmers in production and marketing, assisting with price negotiations, collecting land taxes, information sharing. Kruijssen and Somsri, 2006;Ramirez et al., 2009;Caviglia and Kahn, 2001 Gardening books that promote traditional varieties for their uses can be useful for raising awareness.Yucatan cook book; Sthapit et al., 2008a;Gruere et al., 2007;Ramirez et al., 2009 Fair trade price premiums -Eco-labeling (paying the full production value through price premiums) 2d, 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, 4a, 4c Fair trade or eco-labeling is a conservation strategy that is market based, in which consumers pay a price premium for a product which is produced on certified farms that are committed to the preservation of biodiversity or fair working conditions; the label of fair trade requires that the buyers agree to: pay a price that covers the production costs and a social premium; make an advance payment; purchase directly from the producer; and establish long-term contracts. Kitti et al., 2009;Perfecto et al., 2005;Swallo and Sedjo, 2000;2002;Renard, 2003 (Continued on next page)  Giuliani, 2007;Kruijssen et al., 2009 Private and public partnership for the construction of small infrastructure for the production of a better quality product 3a,3b,3c, 4a, 4cThe formulation of producer marketing groups, and micro-enterprise that provides better access to local, national, and international markets for locally grown and processed products. Giuliani, 2007;Audi et al., 2010;Friss-Hansen, 2008;Pretty, 2008;Jarvis, and Ndung'u-Skilton, 2000;Swaminathan, 2003  Pascual and Perrings, 2007;van Noordwijk, et al., 2005;FAO, 2007;Wunder et al., 2008 Linking upstream and downstream communities 2d, 3d, 4b, 4c An example is an environmental payment system initiated in 2002 in the Rupa Lake area, Nepal. The Rupa Lake Cooperative pays 10% of its income from fishery management to the upstream communities. The realization among the users of the Rupa Lake about the potential role of upstream and downstream communities in management of the lake has led to expansion of members within the cooperative. The 360 membership in the cooperative in 2006 is now more than 600 members. 2003; Tanto et al., 2009), apricot (Baymetov et al., 2009), walnut (Butkov and Turdieva, 2009;Djumabaeva, 2009), apple and pear (Djavakyants, 2010), and grape (Djavakyants, 2009;Turgunbaev, 2009). While the numbers of varieties provides a useful first approximation of the extent and distribution of diversity, there has been discussion both of the extent to which variety names adequately reflect agro-morphological, biochemical or molecular diversity, and of whether variety names are used consistently by farmers at different geographic scales. Sadiki et al. (2007) reviewed studies which correlated names of varieties to the agromorphological descriptors used by farmers. He and his colleagues compiled information globally for different communities, which suggested that variety names, when complemented by farmer descriptions, could be used as a basis for arriving at estimates of traditional variety numbers, and provide a useful estimate of the amount of genetic diversity within the farmers' production systems. As shown by Jarvis et al. (2008), variety names can also be used to provide a valuable global estimate of diversity, focusing attention on the role of farmers themselves in the maintenance of crop diversity in production systems.Variety names also provide information on the nature, status and management of varieties. Nuijten et al. (2008) found that three types of names could be distinguished for rice in the Gambia; those referring to common old varieties, common new varieties, and uncommon varieties, thus showing that variety names supply information on the period of time the variety was used in a village and on the flow of varieties between and within villages. The farmers' or community beliefs that a named recognizable population has particular properties and identity is likely to lead to management practices that tend to reinforce separate identities. This creates a powerful selection practice able to maintain the preferred traits in specific populations (Brown and Brubaker, 2002).Methods to analyze diversity information when farmers use the same name for different varieties or different names for the same varieties, have been discussed by Chavez-Servia et al. (2000), Arias et al. (2000), andTuxill et al. (2009) for maize and beans in Mexico, by Sawadogo et al. (2005) for sorghum in Burkina Faso, by Karamura and Mgnezi (2004) and Gold (2002) for banana, and by Bajracharya et al. (2006) and Bisht et al. (2007) for rice. Gender has been shown to play a role in the number of descriptors used (Rijal, 2007), and the type of characteristics described (Karamura et al., 2004). The work has also shown the importance of using information from farmers on the traits they use for distinguishing their traditional varieties, to define consistent units of farmer managed diversity (Sadiki and Jarvis, 2005).A range of studies is now available which have tried to quantify the amount of diversity within farmers' fields by comparing the descriptions given by farmers to distinuguish their varieties according to agromorphological field data: in faba bean (Sadiki et al., 2001;2002), barley (Tsehaye et al., 2006;Tanto et al., 2009), maize (Mar and Holly, 2000;Arias, 2004;Burgos-May et al., 2004;Latournerie-Moreno et al., 2006) and taro (Rijal, 2007;Canh et al., 2003;Hue et al., 2003). Other studies have examined the diversity of adaptive and ecophysiological traits within the production system (Teshome et al., 2001;Weltzien et al., 2006;Thinlay et al., 2000;Hue et al., 2006). The diversity of quality and nutritional traits (Duch-Gary, 2004;Cazarez-Sanchez, 2004) has also been described, as has the relationship of levels of crop genetic diversity to geographical regions (Taghouti and Saidi, 2002;Bouzeggaren et al., 2002;Teshome et al., 2001). Brown and Hodgkin (2007) reviewed some of the molecular methods available to assess the extent and distribution of diversity, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), phylogentic analysis (Clegg, 1997;Brown and Brubaker, 2000) and functional genomics (Aharoni and Vorst, 2001;Peacock and Chaudhar, 2002). Kumar and colleagues (2009) reviewed the potential advantages and disadvantages of different molecular markers in assessing genetic diversity, while Witcombe et al. (2008) reviewed the use of traditional and new genomic technologies for breeding for tolerance to abiotic stress of low nitrogen, drought, salinity and aluminum toxicity. Laurentin (2009) recently synthesized data analysis methods for molecular characterization of plant genetic resources.Various studies have tried to compare the descriptions supplied by farmers to distinguish their crop varieties by means of agromorphological, biochemical and molecular descriptors, so as to provide an overall diversity assessment in traditional varieties. In some cases, genetic data have substantially confirmed information that the number of traditional varieties distinguished by their names is a good representation of diversity within a production system. In other cases, names were not correlated with diversity patterns of either agromorphological or molecular descriptors, but with the sets of traits farmers used to describe different units (Sadiki et al., 2007;Baymetov et al., 2009). Sagnard et al. (2008) showed a low correlation between the diversity of farmer names and the genetic diversity assessed by microsatellites for sorghum in West Africa. The relationship between molecular markers, variety names and agromorphological traits, has also been reported to be poor or complex in sorghum traditional varieties from Mali (Chakauya et al., 2006), cassava in Uganda (Kizito et al., 2007), and sorghum in Zimbabwe (Mujaju et al., 2003;Mujaju and Chakauya, 2008). Busson et al. (2000) found that farmer management of the outcrosser-pearl millet-resulted in more differences with respect to microsatellite marker variation among farmers, than among same named varieties grown by different farmers; thus, the traits used by farmers to distinguish the different named varieties did not give genetic identity at the molecular level. Pressoir and Berthaud (2004) found that high variation in flowering time among populations of maize in Mexico suggested that these agromorphological traits would be different from those described with molecular markers. In Jumla, Nepal (a high altitude site), over 20 traditional rice varieties were identified by farmers using grain color. These 20 varieties were found to differ with respect to a small number of key morphological traits, and by using SSR analysis had only limited molecular genetic diversity (Bajracharya et al., 2001;2006). In contrast, in the low lands and middle hill sites of Nepal, the richness of farmer named rice diversity agreed with the diversity measured by SSR markers (Bajracharaya et al., 2010).Most of the molecular studies were undertaken using what are believed to be neutral markers on a rather small scale and, particularly for cross-pollinated crops, it is perhaps not surprising that it is difficult to find a good correlation between variety names, or agromorphological traits, and molecular markers. There is a need to collect much more complete data sets using a much wider range of markers.An understanding of the extent and distribution of diversity using both farmer-determined categories and a range of genetic markers, underpins the identification of ways of supporting the maintenance of traditional varieties. Community biodiversity registers (Subedi et al., 2005) (Table 1) enable farmers to maintain information on diversity within their community and to provide the information needed to address bio-piracy concerns. Information on the extent and distribution of diversity also provides the information needed to assess whether there is enough diversity within the system for selection, or whether the system will be able to adapt to environmental and economic change (Figure 1: 1a, 1b).Information on consistency with respect to names is also essential when reintroduction of materials is envisaged and various approaches have been tested to support this process, in Ethiopia and elsewhere (Worede, 1997;Worede et al., 2000;Feyissa, 2000;2006;De, 2000) (Table 1). Ecuador won the 2008 Ecuador Initiative award for the return of 10,000 plants of 15 traditional crop varieties (roots, tubers, grains, and fruit) to local communities (UNORCAC, 2008). In Burkina Faso, a series of local genebanks are being established in high-priority conservation areas. These gene banks are part of the National Plant Genetic resources system and will both emphasize conservation of local varieties and be a source of local seeds that can be deployed in the event of natural disasters such as extreme drought (Balma, et al., 2004;Bragdon et al., 2009).Communities and Landscapes The analysis of patterns of diversity and the distribution of diversity over greater or lesser areas has provided information on the importance of biological, ecological, environmental, and social characteristics, which can usefully guide the development of supporting management practices for traditional varieties (Brown, 2000). Measurements of richness, evenness and divergence, often used in ecological studies, have more recently been applied to the partitioning of traditional varieties within and among communities on-farm (Jarvis et al., 2008). Richness is the number of different kinds of individuals regardless of their frequencies; evenness describes how similar the frequencies of the different variants are, with low evenness indicating dominance by one or a few types (Frankel et al., 1995;Magurran, 2003). Divergence is a measurement of the proportion of community evenness displayed among farmers. A recent evaluation of Jost (2010) discusses evenness related to the maximum and minimum possible for a given richness, by decomposing richness into independent diversity and evenness components.Measurements of richness, evenness, and divergence were used to bring together varietal data of 27 crop species over five continents, collected by partners from over 50 government and non-government institutes, to determine overall trends in crop varietal diversity on-farm (Jarvis et al., 2008). As well as showing that considerable crop genetic diversity continues to be maintained on-farm, in the form of traditional crop varieties, this synthesis provides a baseline for estimating future genetic erosion on-farm, and information on the relationship between richness and evenness for traditional varieties maintained at farm and community levels. The results showed that as farmers increase the number of traditional varieties they grow, they often plant relatively even areas for each of the different varieties.The mode of reproduction (whether inbreeding, outbreeding or vegetatively propagated) of a species is an important factor in understanding the patterns of genetic diversity observed in traditional varieties. The breeding and reproductive systems of crop species affect the farmer's perception of diversity and his or her management practice. Clonal and inbred species are more strongly differentiated genetically and can be more easily separated into identified types or varieties. In a number of cases, fields of clonal or inbred crops are planted to a mixture of traditional varieties, which can later be separated at harvest (Brown, 2000;Jarvis et al., 2000). In contrast, for outcrossed species such as maize, a traditional variety appears to be a more polymorphic entity in which any particular genotype is ephemeral (Louette et al., 1997;Teshome et al., 2001). Hamrick and Godt (1997) summarized the effect of breeding systems on partitioning variation within and among crop populations, with self-pollinating crops showing twice as much population differentiation as outcrossers. Clearly, breeding systems and crop biology are important in identifying supportive management options. Communities and farmers are usually both aware of this and have embedded a variety of procedures for crops with different characteristics (Jarvis et al., 2004).It is widely expected that patterns of diversity will reflect differences in climate, altitude and other agro-ecological factors. In fact, the amount of variation that can be attributed to agro-ecological factors has often been found to be relatively small by comparison with that found within populations, although clustering of varieties with similar agromorphological characteristics has been described (e.g., sorghum in Zimbabwe, Mujaju and Chakauya, 2008). Thus, in rice in Nepal, genetic variation was mostly due to intra-population diversity (within a farmer-named variety) and was independent of agroclimatic zones, variety names, and altitude (Bajracharya et al., 2006). In contrast, phenotypic traits in Ethiopian barley arid sorghum were strongly related to altitudinal range (Demissie and Bjørnstad, 2004;Teshome et al., 2001). Microsatellite diversity of traditional sorghum varieties across Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, has shown that sorghum exhibited more genetic diversity in terms of allelic richness in Niger than in Mali, despite a lower agroclimatic range in Niger, suggesting that anthropogenic management practices, together with agro-ecological factors, form the structure of sorghum genetic diversity in this region (Sagnard et al., 2008). On balance, the evidence suggests that when introduction of new diversity is planned, it is better to use materials that come from similar agro-ecological zones.The area in which individual varieties occur varies substantially and while some are maintained very locally, others may be part of extremely extensive seed systems extending over more than one region or country (Louette et al., 1997;Zimmerer, 2003;Valdivia, 2005). The agromorphological diversity of 15 traditional maize varieties from a single site, Yaxcaba in the Yucatan State, was comparable with that of 314 maize varieties from all three States of the Yucatan Peninsula (Chavez-Servia et al., 2000;Camacho-Villa and Chavez-Servia). Similary, in Morocco, Belqadi (2003) showed that a major portion of agromorphological variation diversity for the Moroccan faba bean was captured in populations from the two northern provinces, and Barry et al. (2007) reported that in Guinea each of the villages studied had more than half of the regional allelic diversity of African rice, with genetic differentiation among varieties from the same village accounting for 70% or the regional variation. These studies have helped identify areas where local diversity is representative of a much wider area for a given crop and could be used to reintroduce diversity into a larger area.At a more local level, the \"four cell\" analysis has proved to be a useful method of exploring the distribution of varieties in Nepal, Vietnam, Brazil, Ethiopia, Mali, India, Indonesia and Malaysia (Sthapit et al., 2006b;reviewed in Sadiki et al., 2007) (Table 1). This approach brings together farmers and researchers to categorize varieties according to whether they are grown by many or few households, and whether they cover small or large areas of the community (Rana et al., 2007;Hue et al., 2003). Grum et al. (2003) used this method to give opportunities to farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa to discuss their perceptions on whether they considered varieties rare or common, or widespread or local for rice, yam, sorghum, millet, and cowpea. The tool can be used too for farmers to collect information for self-directed action at community level (Sthapit et al., 2008b).of Materials Estimating the extent and distribution of diversity provides the information needed to determine whether there is sufficient diversity of a crop within a production system to meet the various needs of farming communities (Figure 1: 1b). This is not always the case, as illustrated by Smale et al. (2009) who describe the shortage of well-adapted millet and sorghum seed in the Sahel. They found that local markets were important sources of seed in riskier, more isolated villages, indicating a need to legitimize local seed markets and, perhaps, to separate them from grain markets, through product information including marking with geographic origin. Such studies also provide information that can guide support for local seed systems, the introduction or reintroduction of traditional varieties and conservation actions.A number of projects and studies have explored the ways in which varieties are best introduced when it is believed that farmers do not have the desired diversity. However, the majority of such programs had the aim of facilitating dissemination of new varieties (Rohrback et al., 2002;Tripp et al., 2001;Scheidegger et al., 2000;Bentlay et al., 2001) and took little or no account of existing traditional varieties and traditional seed systems (Tripp, 2006).While the decision to add new diversity into the farmers' production systems, or to rehabilitate an area with lost diversity, rests ultimately with the farmers, the provision of traditional varieties is associated with a number of difficulties, in addition to those associated with establishing the identity and the range of the desired materials mentioned above. Kouressy et al. (2008) have argued that population sizes of varieties should be large enough to allow adaptation. Kouressy et al. (2008) have shown that large enough population sizes of traditional sorghum varieties allowed farmers in Mali to shift to short cycle varieties in adaptation to changing environmental conditions. However, few gene banks are equipped to provide sufficient seeds for direct sowing by farmers or to provide population sizes sufficient for adaptation to changing environmental conditions and management practices (Iriarate et al., 2000). Further, most genebanks are not easily accessible to farmers and communities. In the absence of a gene-bank, the Western Terai Landscape Project (WTLCP), in Western Terai, Nepal, used a systematic, participa-tory, seed exchange meeting to exchange seeds of local varieties of traditional crops and vegetables that are neglected by commercial seed retailers and extension system (Shrestha, 2009).One approach that appears to be successful has involved the development of community seed banks and community gene banks (FAO, 2006a). This has occurred in several countries, including Ethiopia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines (Bertuso et al., 2000;Ramprasad, 2007;Poudel and Johnsen, 2009;Swamanathan 2001;De Boef et al., 2010) (Table 1). These banks are usually established in collaboration with local organizations and national or regional genebanks, and sometimes universities, to conserve and distribute local varieties through a farmer-led on-farm conservation approach. The selection of the materials to be multiplied relies on an assessment of the local diversity and on ensuring that the diversity of the population of the different traditional varieties is adequately covered. Deciding which varieties to target may be based on whether they are rare versus common, on particular traits for particular soil types or on market opportunities. Empowerment of local communities and their institutions is a precondition to implementing such community-based activities (Cromwell and Almekinders, 2000;Bartlett, 2008). The varieties can be used also to target the niche markets discussed in Section 5 below. The analysis of diversity also provides conservation guidance. Measurements of richness and evenness indicate which varieties are more likely to be lost and how much of the landscape they represent; they guide decisions on the maintenance of representative samples in community seed banks, or in national and international gene banks, or on whether to develop incentive mechanisms to promote endangered varieties.Access to crop seed or planting material diversity requries people having adequate land (natural capital), income (financial capital) or connections (social capital) to purchase or barter for the varieties they need (Sperling et al., 2008). Used in this sense, \"seed\" includes other planting materials such as tubers, cuttings or bulbs. Farmers may not have the desired access they need because they lack the resources necessary to acquire planting materials. They may lack funds to purchase or exchange the preferred planting material from within their communities (Figure 1: 2a.1). Appropriate seeds may not be available within the village, and the farmers may lack the resources to go to where seeds are being sold or exchanged (Figure 1: 2a.2). Planting materials for traditional varieties may also not be accessible due to social constraints. There may be pressure from both formal extension services and community peers against obtaining and using planting materials of local varieties (Figure 1: 2b.1). In addition, a farmer may lack the correct social ties or social status to obtain varieties (Figure 1: 2b.2). Seed quality and seed management practices can also be an issue and are discussed in Section 4, as can seed regulations (Figure 1: 1d). The availability of materials and the ways in which farmers access and manage seeds are expected to affect genetic diversity both within and among traditional varieties and, over time, may lead to changes in patterns of diversity (Hodgkin et al., 2007;Figure 1: 2c).A. Seed Sources, Scale, and PatternsThe seed system is composed of individuals, networks, institutions and organizations involved in the development, multiplication, processing, storage, distribution and marketing of seeds (Maredia and Howard, 1998;Locha and Boyceb, 2003;Dominguez and Jones, 2005). Seed flows influence the pattern and dynamics of material that move in and out of the farmers' systems, and analysis of these flows give an insight into the constraints farmers face in acquiring preferred and quality planting material at the time it is needed for planting (Brocke vom et al., 2003).Although there is no one systematic way in which farmers acquire and manage seeds, many, if not most rural farming communities in developing countries continue to use traditional or informal sources to meet most of their seed needs (Almekinders et al., 1994;Gaifani, 1992;Hardon and de Boef, 1993;Tripp, 2001;Cromwell et al., 1993;Tahiri, 2005;Muthoni and Nyamongo, 2008;Thijssen et al., 2008). The seed a farmer plants may have been selected from his or her own crop in the preceding season, exchanged or purchased from other farmers or institutions, or be a mixture of seeds from a combination of sources (Jarvis et al., 2000;Bellon and Risopoulos, 2001;Sperling and Mcguire, 2010;Badstue et al., 2002: Asfaw et al., 2007). Recent studies have quantified the amounts of farmers' own saved seeds versus seeds obtained from friends, relatives, neighbors, or local markets, and have confirmed that farmers prefer to save their own seeds in most situations (Gildemacher et al., 2009;Rana et al., 2008;Hodgkin et al., 2007;Lipper et al., 2010). These studies have described a range of techniques and opportunities that farmers use under different circumstances to access and save seeds (Cromwell and Almekinders, 2000). The different practices used are expected, over a period of years, to produce a dynamics of movement and mixing in which the progenies of individual populations are transferred among farmers, become mixed during exchange or marketing, become sources for new exchanges, or are lost.Farmers' demands for off-farm seeds often result from an emergency, which may be personal (poor health, individual production failure) or more general (floods, drought, war), and affect the whole community or region. Reasons identified for accessing new seed stocks include low yields, consumption or sale of seed stocks, poor seed quality, the desire to access new varieties, and changes in national policy that affect subsidies and grain imports (Tripp, 2000;Mosely et al., 2010). There have been a number of studies on the ability of informal seed systems to meet users' needs during emergencies and disasters, such as floods, drought, or war (Almekinders et al., 1994;Richards and Ruivenkamp, 1997;Sperling, 2001;Asfaw et al., 2007). In a number of cases, informal markets were found to be critical to restocking traditional variety seed resources, both in normal and stress periods (Sperling and Mcguire, 2010). Diversity fairs, diversity-kits, micro-credit schemes, and community seed banks are also interventions which can increase access (e.g. Mazhar, 2000;Sthapit et al., 2006a, c, d;UNORCAC, 2008) (Table 1).Seeds may be acquired via cash transactions, barter, as gifts, by exchanging one variety of seed for another, as a loan to be repaid upon harvest, or even by surreptitious expropriation from another farmer's field (Badstue et al., 2002;Mbabwine et al., 2008). Seeds of varieties developed by the formal sector are often maintained and distributed informally (Mellas, 2000;Bellon and Risopoulos, 2001), largely independently of government institutions. In some societies, there is a significant dependence on farmer-to-farmer seed transactions for traditional varieties (Hodgkin et al., 2007) as these sources are regarded as more trustworthy than alternatives such as local markets (Latourniere-Moreno et al., 2006). In South Asia, community seed banks are becoming an increasingly important intervention which also preserves local varieties and provides a source of local material for seed multiplication (Mazhar, 2000;Satheesh, 2000).Various approaches are being used by non-government and government research, education and development agencies at local and national levels to support seed acquisition and increased numbers of transactions within and among communities, including community seed banks and seed diversity fairs (Tapia and De la Torre, 1998;Guerette et al., 2004;Shrestha et al., 2006;UNORCAC, 2008;De Boef et al., 2010) (Table 1). During a diversity fair, farmers from different communities are brought together to exhibit a range of landraces: this allows farmers to locate rare and unique diversity and provides an opportunity to exchange seeds and associated knowledge. Participatory seed dissemination (Rios, 2009) integrates seed diversity fairs and farmers' seed experimentation and dissemination. Seeds from diversity fairs are tested in the farmers' production systems to be further multiplied and diffused to other farmers. Identifying whether there are farmers who are known for reliably and regularly producing a good crop which provides seeds of high quality can be important for developing local practices that help maintain traditional varieties.Analysis of patterns of seed transfer and exchange of traditional varieties provides important information for maintenance of traditional varieties helping to assess, for example, the effective population size, extent of mixing, degree of gene flow, and existence of defined subpopulations (Hodgkin et al., 2007). Studies among diverging subpopulations in model systems have shown that an uneven migration rate reduces the effective population size of the system, particularly when the seed of one farm is replaced (Maruyama and Kimura, 1980;Wang and Caballero, 1999;Whitlock, 2003). Heerwaarden and colleagues (2010) have used empirical data from maize in traditional agricultural systems in Mexico to demonstrate that seed dynamics in human-managed environments differ from existing mega-population models of natural ecosystems. In particular, the assumptions of most meta-population models (Kimura and Weiss, 1964;Slatkin, 1991, Wang, 1997) as to the absence of population bottlenecks following extinction and single-source migration, do not apply to systems under farmer management (Louette et al., 1997;Dyer and Taylos, 2008;Heerwaarden et al., 2010). High levels of pollen migration, such as occur in cross-pollinated crops such as maize and pearl millet may mask the effects of seed management on structure (Heerwarrden et al., 2010). In general it seems that farmer selection practices may not be a constraint in terms of having the diversity needed, as long as the effective population sizes are large enough to allow for evolution and adaptation, supported by adequate seed or gene flow.Seed migration in traditional varieties can be fairly local-within communities or among neighboring communities (Collado-Panduro et al., 2005;Mar, 2002;Bela et al., 2006;Latourniere-Moreno et al., 2006;Banyia et al., 2003). Along the central Amazon River in Peru, most seed exchange of maize, cassava, peanut, chili peppers and cotton, occurred within rather than among the 13 communities. This seemed to reflect difficulties of access and communication among communities. Similarly, Tanto et al. (2009) found that seed flow for barley does not occur independently across the years within two seasons in areas of Ethiopia where there are two cropping seasons for the crop. Sagnard et al. (2008) found no genetic structuring among traditional sorghum varieties in villages in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, indicating that traditional seed systems operate at a very local scale in these study sites. However, some seed networks can be extensive covering distances that cross national boundaries and ecosystems (Zimmerer, 1996;Valdivia, 2005;Coomes, 2001).While farmers may prefer to obtain desired seeds from others immediately after harvest, they may also need to obtain seeds at planting time when germination failed. At this point, farmers often have little choice in the variety obtained although they may try to obtain material from a microenvironment similar to theirs (Rana, 2004). Usually under such situations, farmers rely on social connections for their immediate needs, but community seed banks can be seed sources. Community biodiversity registers can provide information to locate the relevant variety within the community, but this requires very good documentation of local crop diversity in the register (Subedi et al., 2005), as well as access by farmers to the information. In cases of difficulty in acquiring seeds, local markets, middlemen, NGOs and experts, or nodal farmers, become increasingly important as sources of seed supply (Table 1).Trust has been shown to be an important factor in farmers' choice of which seeds to acquire (Badstue, 2007). Public extension services may not always be seen as a trusted source, because the system is perceived to deliver too narrow a range of varieties which are not suited to the diverse growing conditions that a farmer may be managing (Adato and Meinzen-Dick, 2007). The response to seed needs is usually to look first for a family member or a friend as a reliable source (Almekinders et al., 1994;Badstue et al., 2007;Barnaud et al., 2008), and social relations play an important role in seed acquisition throughout the world (e.g., Ethiopia;McGuirre, 2008). Poudel et al. (2005) reported that communities with weak social networks are more vulnerable to accessing locally adapted seeds in adverse conditions, compared to those with strong social networks. Social seed networks can be strengthened by interventions that improve access to existing varieties and new diversity (e.g., seed fairs, diversity kits, community seed banks, participatory variety selection programs; Table 1). With better exposure of farmers to breeding skills and knowledge, participatory plant breeding (PPB) can strengthen farmer seed systems and promote on-farm management and sustainable use of local crop diversity (Sperling et al., 2001;Almekinders et al., 2006;Halewood et al., 2007) (Table 1).Access to seeds may require appropriate social ties and kin networks (Lopez, 2004). Heritage and cultural identity values can be enhanced when a traditional variety is acquired from someone who is a relative or an elder in the community (Meinzen-Dick and Eyzaguirre, 2009). Analysis of rice seed supply networks in Nepal (Subedi et al., 2003) revealed their complexity and dependence on a range of social variables. In many communities, certain individuals may act as nodal farmers, characterized by their involvement in a large number of exchanges (Subedi et al., 2003;Subedi and Garforth, 1996). Further investigation has shown that the people who act as\"nodal\" farmers may change from one year to another (Poudel et al., 2008). Social prestige and religious values can be used to enhance the incentives to both maintain and share traditional crop varieties (Meinzen-Dick and Eyzaguirre, 2009).Seed networks can be dependent on gender, wealth status, and age (Lope, 2004;Rana et al., 2008;Howard, 2003;Sillitoe, 2003;Song and Jiggins, 2003;Morales-Valderrama and Quiñones-Vega, 2000), but in some cases, they have been found to be gender-independent (Subedi and Garforth, 1996). Poor women often have less access to finance, markets, technologies, education systems, thus inhibiting ability to diversify (Vernooy and Fajber, 2004). Community seed networks, which were menmen, men-women (men led), women-men (women led), and women-women, have all been found in certain communities (Belem, 2000;Okwu and Umoru, 2009).Gender, wealth, social status, and market-related variables have different effects on diversity in different parts of the world. In Ethiopia, education positively influenced the amount of diversity on farm for maize, wheat, and teff, but not for barley. Female-headed households grew more evenly distributed wheat varieties. Households with substantial outside sources of income grow a greater range of barley varieties, but this was not the case for maize (Benin et al., 2006). Labour policies that affect household labour supply and its composition are likely to have a large impact on traditional crop variety diversity. Loss of adult male labour has been correlated with the reduction of the diversity of crops and varieties grown (Van Dusen, 2006;Gauchan et al., 2006). Several studies have found that femaleheaded households are more likely to grow more traditional varieties (Gauchan et al., 2006;Edmondes et al., 2006;Benin et al., 2006;Dossou, 2004).A number of ways to support key groups and hence increase the use of traditional varieties have been proposed and tested (Table 1). Most methods include training key seed producers and women in seed cleaning, multiplication and distribution and support for local institutions and social networks. Common approaches involve the development of community seed banks and diversity fairs and the identification of reliable farmers who can underpin farmer-to-farmer exchanges, as in Syria (Aw-Hassan et al., 2008). Diversity seed fairs that are organized by public institutions together with communities or non-governmental organizations, can help to increase transparency in seed quality and bridge knowledge across institutions and farmers on variety quality (Meinzen-Dick and Eyzaguirre, 2009;Nathaniels and Mwijage, 2006). Such interventions are likely to work best when the characteristics of the different families, communities and groups (gender, ethnic, religious, and wealth) who are most likely to conserve diversity are known (Smale et al., 2004).The characteristics of the seed systems and the ways in which they change over time are likely to have a substantial impact on the genetic diversity present in individual crops and varieties. The seed systems of specific crops are subject to substantial variation in the availability of different materials as a result of variation in production, market fluctuations, government policies, climate variability, and in the framework of catastrophes such as droughts and hurricanes (Latourniere-Moreno et al., 2006). The ability to access seeds promotes resilience in the farmers' production systems. Access to seeds can buffer against uncertainty and periods of rapid change across temporal and spatial scales. Lack of funds to purchase seeds, particularly during times of environmental uncertainty, reduces where coping strategies are needed, such as high seeding rates to counter uncertainty (Mcguire, 2007;Tuxil et al., 2009;Latourniere-Moreno et al., 2006;Bisht et al., 2007). Analysis is needed to ensure that the planting materials have enough diversity to adapt to farmer selection and management. Modeling social-ecological systems are needed to explore attributes that affect resilience, particularly in systems with high predictability (Walker et al., 2010).The extent of migration can change substantially from year to year with significant migration occurring in years where production is poor, or as a result of major seed losses through disasters such as floods and hurricanes (Hodgkin et al., 2007). In the Western Terai of Nepal, farmers maintain a portfolio of local rice varieties (usually of short duration such as Sauthariya) to replant the crop when total crop failed because of stochastic events or poor rain after planting (Bhandari, 2009). Every year small nurseries are maintained for such cultivars in case the crop fails by community seed banks where farmers \"borrow\" seeds at planting time and return them after harvest (Table 1).Farmers' ability to maintain and acquire seed from the informal sources described above may be affected by the establishment of formal seed systems, e.g., seed distribution and release systems are regulated and monitored by the state (Figure 1; 3d). The original elements that defined the formal seed systems were put in place as a result of the development of specialized plant breeding products in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, in order to create transparency in a seed market where variety names were rapidly proliferating. (Bishaw and Van Gastel, 2009;Louwaars and Burgoud, in press). Current variety registration for commercial purposes requires that the new variety be distinct from all varieties of common knowledge, uniform in its essential characteristics and highly stable after repeated multiplication (DUS = Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability, Bishaw and Van Gastel, 2009). These criteria guarantee that when a farmer buys seeds of a registered variety, these will be indeed of that variety and it will perform as such over time. In addition, testing for cultivation and use values (VCU) was introduced as a requirement for commercial release, in order for farmers to have an independent assessment of the yield, quality and value of the grain. As developing countries have established seed production systems greatly inspired by the ones in Europe, they have adopted seed certification and variety registration schemes that are similar to the European model (Louwaars and Burgoud, in press;Grain, 2005). Some civil society organizations, organic food producers and environmentalists have denounced the rigidity of the uniformity criteria, and the costs involved in variety registration and seed certification, which make the formal system unfriendly for farmers' varieties such as landraces and new varieties developed through participatory plant breeding, leaving these varieties outside the legal market of seeds (Farm Seed Opportunities, 2009). In addition to limiting the opportunities for farmers to obtain revenues from the varieties they produce, this situation results in less genetic diversity available in the market and may ultimately threaten diversity on farm (Leskien and Flitner, 1997;Louwaars, 2000;Kastler, 2005;Farm Seed Opportunities, 2009).A number of studies have shown that the formal seed sector does not have the capacity to supply the variability needed in low input farming systems, nor to meet the need for locally adapted varieties (De Boef et al., 2010;Kesavan and Swaminathan, 2008;Lipper, 2010). Common figures suggest that the formal system provides for around 15% of the total seeds used by farmers in developing countries (Cooper, 1993;FAO, 1998;2010;Hodgkin et al., 2007), although the situation varies by crop and region. In Europe, there is still an important demand for traditional varieties among small farmers and amateurs for direct cultivation and for participatory breeding programs sponsored by organic agriculture associations (Toledo, 2002;Negri, 2003;Chable, 2005;Negri et al., 2009). According to European Union regulations, farmers are allowed to reproduce non-certified seeds for themselves, but they are not able to sell it. Depending on how strict governments are, exchange of non-registered seeds may be considered illegal as well (Louwaars and Burgaud, in press). The situation in developing countries is quite different: Seed regulations are rarely enforced at the local level, and both traditional and modern varieties are exchanged freely among farmers and sold in local markets (Louwaars, 2002). However, the existence of a formal seed system can affect the dynamics of the informal systems and have an impact on the diversity available to farmers. Firstly, the use of certified seeds of modern varieties is either recommended by extension services, linked to credit facilities and subsidies, or is obliged by the processing industry (Jaffe and Van Wijk, 1995;Tripp, 1998, Pascual andPerrings, 2007;Mosely, 2010). Subsidies can lock farmers into a pest-control technology linked to the distribution of modern crop varieties (Wilson and Disdell, 2001). Secondly, the illegality of selling noncertified seeds discourages the development of alternative models of seed supply (Birol, 2007;Lipper, 2010).Different models have been proposed and tested to create a space for different ways of seed production and supply, within the formal seed system. Keeping the formal system's original objectives of providing transparency and ensuring seed quality, these models try to address the information gaps commonly found in informal seed systems by regulating the commercialization of traditional and modern varieties in a way that better adapts to farmer and small breeder needs. The European Union has recently approved a special treatment for the so called conservation varieties by which landraces adapted to local and regional conditions and threatened by genetic erosion can be registered for commercialization under certain conditions. 1 The special treatment consists, of 1) a certain degree of flexibility in the level of uniformity that is required, and 2) an exemption from official examination if the applicant can provide sufficient information about the variety through other means such us unofficial tests and knowledge gained from practical experiences. In Nepal, the uniformity requirements of the Nepalese Seed Act were applied in a relaxed manner in order to accommodate farmers' application for the registration of certain varieties developed by participatory plant breeding together with traders and hoteliers in 2006 (Gyawali et al., 2009;Halewood et al., 2007). In Argentina, seeds of ancient varieties of forages can be commercialized as \"Clase Identificada Común\" (Common Identified Variety), without indicating the name of the variety on the seed package. An alfalfa landrace known as alfalfa pampeano can therefore be sold under the general name of alfalfa seed.Since the name of the variety is not required in this case, the landraces can be legally sold without having to meet the DUS criteria required for variety registration (Gutierrez and Penna, 2004). This alternative, however, may lead to information gaps once the landraces' seeds are commercialized beyond a limited and reliable circuit.Some countries recognize partial or full auto-certification systems for traditional varieties (Table 1). The Quality Declared Seed System proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, 1993) has been widely used in areas where seed markets are not functional and government resources are too limited to effectively manage comprehensive certification systems. Under this system, seed producers are responsible for quality control, while government agents check only a very limited portion of seed lots and seed multiplication fields. The system has been recently revised with the aim of recognizing the role of national policies and providing a clearer explanation on how quality declared seeds can accommodate local varieties (FAO, 2006b).The use of the traditional crop diversity by farmers or communities might often be increased (i) if there were more information on the characteristics (eco-physiological, adaptive, quality traits) or uses of these materials, (ii) if the materials themselves were enhanced, or (iii) if the agronomic management of the materials were improved. Farmers may perceive that traditional varieties are not competitive with other options because of a lack of characterization and evaluation information on the varieties, or because of a lack of information on appropriate management methods (Figure 1: 3a). This lack of information may occur either because the information does not exist, e.g., the varieties have never been characterized or evaluated on farm (Figure 1: 3a.2) or because the information is not available to the user community (Figure 1: 3a.1).Even when traditional varieties meet some of the farmers' needs, there may be a number of constraints which limit their use and prevent them reaching their full potential. Thus, environmental or market conditions may have changed, or varieties may have become susceptible to new pests and diseases (Figure 1: 3b). If the varieties available to the community lack the diversity needed to adapt to these changes, new materials may be needed with the required traits, or different management methods that improve the performance of the varieties may be required (Figure 1: 3c).Evaluation Information for Traditional Varieties Farmers who have to access seed from other sources have to depend on information offered by the seed provider or on common shared knowledge on traits, consumption characteristics, environmental adaptation and seed quality etc. to manage their crops. Often their information about crop varieties is extremely limited (Tripp, 2001) and seeds obtained from farmers, market vendors, or seed companies are frequently reported to be accompanied by a lack of adequate information (Badstue, 2007). Farmers may also lack access to information on management methods, particularly, for example, for nursery practices for fruit trees (Oyedele et al., 2009;Shalpykov, 2008).There is a widening recognition by the agricultural research and development community of the value of farmer knowledge, and an increasing use of new information and communication technologies to disseminate this information (Ballantyne, 2009;Kesavan and Swaminathan, 2008;Liang and Brookfield, 2009). Despite the reports that farmers often lack information (as noted above), there are also reports that farmers exchange information on individual varieties, local uses of plant parts, cropping systems, and eating qualities, along with seeds (Rijal, 2007). Farmers also share ecological information together with seeds through local networks. The technical messages derived from failures are shared among local farmers faster than those associated with success (Rijal, 2007;Rana, 2004;Shah et al., 2009). In some cases, information may be shared through cultural media, such as folksongs that characterize different traditional varieties and promote genetic enhancement in Ethiopia (Mekbib, 2009) (Table 1).Lack of both formal and informal inter-agency and interministerial (e.g., ministries and departments of the environment and of agricultural) information sharing is a barrier to successful policy formulation to support innovative land management technologies and strategies that support local crop genetic diversity in the production system (Grarforth et al., 2005). Robertson and Swinton (2005) and Pretty and Smith (2004) discuss the increasing importance of new communication methods among agricultural professionals and farmers. Modern information and communication technologies in village-based knowledge centers have been used to provide timely and local-specific information that meets farmers' demands (Kesavan and Swaminathan, 2008). Nursery growers in Central Asia and India can now access information related to scion and rootstock compatibility, and contact custodians of diversity of both mother plants (scion block) and rootstocks (Kerimova, 2008;Djavakyants, 2010;Singh, pers. Comm., 2010) (Table 1). Radio and television are also effective and easily accessible sources of agricultural information (Shah et al., 2009;Baral et al., 2006;Ballantyne, 2009;Balma et al., 2005) (Table 1). In the developed world, networks of weather stations in farming regions are becoming the norm. Farmers tap into these for real-time weather data. A relatively inexpensive weather station can be purchased for a farmer community and added to a free weather network such as Wunderground Weather (http://www.wunderground. com/weatherstation/index.asp#hardware) (Table 1).In addition to information, access to traditional varieties may often be limited within the community, even when a sufficient quantity of seed is available (Badstue, 2006), simply because of poor access to information, weak social networks, social exclu-sion, and weak institutional mechanisms for collective actions (Sthapit and Joshi, 1996;Shrestha et al., 2006) (Figure 1: 3a.1). In some instances, many farmers may not be aware that useful resources are available, particularly when a variety is only grown by a few farmers within a community (Sthapit and Rao, 2009). For example, Sthapit et al. (2006d) reported that while aromatic sponge gourd was grown by only a few farmers in a mid-hills community in Nepal, the number increased significantly after a diversity fair was organized and locally multiplied seeds were distributed.Most of the work on the evaluation and characterization of traditional varieties is undertaken in the context of the description of materials from genebank collections (Dudnik, et al., 2001;Fowler and Hodgkin, 2004). It has been suggested that this may have limited value with respect to evaluation data, as many traditional varieties are specifically adapted to their abiotic and biotic environment (Budenhagen, 1983;Harlan, 1977;Teshome et al., 2001). Recently, there has been an increased interest in testing varieties collected directly from farmers and in comparing their performance with modern varieties (as checks or controls) under low input conditions, in order to have data that compares traditional varieties with other options available to farmers (Bouhassan et al., 2003;Tushmereirwe, 1996;FAO, 2010). These studies have included multi-locational trials on farm and on research stations for adaptive traits such as drought tolerance (Sadiki, 2006;Jackson et al., 2008); Magorokosho et al., 2006;Weltzien et al., 2006), salt stress (Rhouma et al., 2006;Hue et al., 2006), nitrogen fixation (Sadiki, 2006), cold tolerance (Thinlay, 1998;Thinlay et al., 2000) and disease resistance (Trutmann et. al., 1997;Gauti et al., 2005;Finckh and Wolf, 2007). In one study, the relative performance of rice varieties was tested by reciprocal planting in different moisture regimes using upland, rain-fed and irrigated rice ecosystems. Interestingly, the results showed that some rice varieties had higher yields outside their home environments (Rijal, 2007).While traditional knowledge (and variety names) may provide some information about the nutritional value of different varieties, specific macro-or micro-nutrient data is often not available (Worede, 1997). Laboratory evaluations comparing nutritional levels among traditional and modern varieties for Bangladesh rice showed that some of the traditional varieties had higher iron and zinc contents than modern ones (Kennedy and Burlingame, 2003). Similar work has been done to compare protein levels across traditional and modern bean varieties (Cazarez-Sanchez, 2004;Cazarez-Sanchez and Duch, 2004) and levels of hotness in chili varieties in the Yucatan, Mexico, (Cazarez-Sanchez et al., 2005). Hotness was related also to the different dishes prepared with chili. Surprising little characterization of traditional varieties for systems that adopt certified organic agricultural practices has been done until very recently in Europe (Dawson et al., 2008;Bengtsson, 2005).It is important that characterization and evaluation studies are done under farm conditions, in sites that are accessible to farmers and include appropriate modern varieties as controls or checks. Farmers often do not have sufficient capital or time to experiment with allocating their varieties to different production spaces in replicated trials. Growing varieties from different areas together in replicates on farmers' fields offers farmers the chance to observe comparative reactions of traditional and modern varieties. Interventions, such as the establishment of diversity blocks by community seed banks, and the organization of farm walks, cross-site visits for farmers, or other community events, can act as platforms for social learning. An important aspect is to provide the platform at the community level that allows farmers and researchers to interact and learn.Improving the performance of traditional varieties in participatory crop improvement programs has been undertaken in many programs over the last decade, particularly in low input systems (Table 1). Some of these programs have involved the identification of agronomic traits with molecular characterization so as to exploit the local diversity and produce varieties that are superior in marginal environments, but have a broad genetic base (Chiffoleau and. Desclaux, 2006;Ceccarelli and Gando, 2007;Dawson et al., 2008;Gyawali, et al., 2007;Joshi et al, 2001;Sthapit et al., 1996;Witcombe et al., 2005;Ceccarelli et al., 2009;Danial et al., 2007;Almekinders et al., 2006;Ortiz et al., 2009;Valdivia Bernal et al., 2007;Marquez et al., 2009). Participatory or decentralized crop improvement begins with an understanding of the farmers' preferred criteria, and often includes describing the management methods that farmers use for selecting the next generation (Smith et al, 2001, Mekbib, 2008;Nkongolo et al., 2008;Jarvis and Campilan, 2007) (Table 1). Traditional varieties may be improved both by preserving traits which are preferred by farmers and by adding additional traits (e.g., pest resistance) to a preferred traditional variety; the process can be implemented at a large number of locations (Lacy et al., 2006). The process helps to link farmer and breeder choices, and analyze tradeoffs that might differ among farmers' and breeders' choices (Gauchan et al., 2006). Setting collaborative breeding goals with farmers in Nepal for improving the traditional rice variety mansara, adapted to poor soils, resulted in the development of the improved variety, mansara-4. This variety is now spreading to areas where no other rice variety could be grown (Sthapit et al., 2006a;Gyawali et al., 2007).In several countries resistance breeding procedures are integrating farmer selection and using local material and participatory breeding to improve other production and quality traits of locally-resistant varieties, as well as improving the resistance of locally adapted non-resistant varieties (Mgonja et al., 2005;FAO, 2010). Varieties that are made available from participatory programs are most likely to spread through existing seed systems. It is therefore important that methods used to improve crop material and seed quality take account of and are linked to seed supply systems (Bishaw and Turner, 2008;Gyawali et al., 2007).A major concern for farmers is seed quality including purity, high germination rates, and reduced disease problems (Weltzien and vom Brocke, 2000;vom Brocke et al., 2003;Asfaw et al., 2007). Studies on traditional variety seed germination rates (Celis-Velazquez et al., 2008) and resistant to post-harvest pests (Teshome et al., 1999) have compared relative levels for traditional and modern varieties and found traditional varieties to perform well in many cases. Village seed systems certainly maintain the identity of varieties and, in central Mozambique, have been shown to maintain the purity of varieties and supply quality seed (Rohrback and Kiala, 2007). On-farm seed quality for traditional sorghum varieties was found to be comparatively good by comparison to modern varieties and met national and regional West Asian and North African standards (Mekbib, 2009). Truthful labeling and declaring the source of seed is being used to ensure quality at the community level (Devkota et al., 2008). Actions such as seed sorting machines, training in seed quality improvement, seed health, and processing can improve seed quality. Seed cleaning technology for seed-borne diseases, normally recommended for certified varieties, has been used on traditional varieties to increase faba bean yield for traditional varieties by almost 50% (Sadiki et al., 2002). Recommendations have been made to expand agricultural extension packages to include traditional varieties with improved management methods (Jarvis and Hodgkin, 2008).Management practices may also serve to improve the productivity and stability of traditional varieties within the farmers' production system (Figure 1: 3c). Planting mixtures of traditional varieties, or of crop populations with high genetic variability, has the potential to reduce pests and diseases on farm (Li et al., 2009). Managing sets of varieties or crop populations with different levels of avoidance or tolerance to abiotic stress can decrease the probability of yield loss due to unpredictable rainfall and temperature regimes (Figure 1The potential negative consequences of planting large areas to single, uniform crop cultivars were recognized as early as the 1930s by agricultural scientists (Marshall, 1977). The Irish potato famine has been cited as one of the most dramatic examples of genetic uniformity leading to devastating loss of crop (Schumann, 1991). Breeding programs continue to develop new varieties and to replace varieties that have lost their resistance to diseases, but the maintenance cost, particularly in developing countries, is high (Strange and Scott, 2005). Resistant varieties may only remain so for a few cropping seasons as new pathotypes emerge (de Vallavieille-Pope, 2004). When resistance in a monoculture breaks down, the whole area of the crop sown to susceptible varieties may succumb while, in a genetically diverse field or variety, it is much less likely that all the different types of resistance present will break down (Mundt, 1991).Farmers often have local preferences for growing mixtures of cultivars that provide resistance to local pest and diseases and enhance yield stability (Trutmann et al., 1993;Karamura and Karamura, 1995;Trutmann et al., 1993;Jarvis et al., 2007). High levels of diversity of traditional rice varieties in Bhutan has been shown to have high functional diversity against rice blast (Thinlay et al., 2000;Finckh, 2003) while high wheat diversity in Italy has been shown to provide yield stability in conditions of low pesticide application (Di Falco and Chavas, 2007). The development of varietal mixtures, or sets of varieties with nonuniform resistance and with lower new pathogens migration or mutation probability of existing pathogens, is in progress in many parts of the world (Finckh et al., 2000;Finckh and Wolfe, 2007;Jarvis et al., 2007). Such mixtures are based on the analysis of the resistance background, agronomic character, economic value, local cultivation conditions, and farmer preferences.There is substantial genetic variation for response to water deficit within and among traditional varieties, and a growing literature on the use of a diversity of traditional varieties to minimize risks dues to climatic variability (Sawadogo et al., 2006;Sadiki, 2006;Weltzien et al., 2006). Drought is a complex stress, influenced by both heat and drought, and plant response also varies according to timing in relation to the plant growth stage and stress intensity (Witcombe et al., 2008). Drought tolerance and drought avoidance seem to involve different mechanisms (Yue et al., 2006). While no unified abiotic stress resistance mechanism exists (Blum, 2004), there are certainly genes which are involved in responding to a number of different stresses. Planting a range of varieties or multilines with different drought avoidance and resistance properties could be an attractive option for low input systems. Sorghum growers in West Africa use a diversity of traditional varieties with different flowering dates to minimize risks due to climatic variability (Weltzien et al., 2006). Lipper et al. (2009), have shown that for sorghum farmers in Ethiopia the adoption of a sorghum improved variety, developed to allow drought evasion, was not an effective means of coping with drought and that landraces were more likely to provide the desired drought tolerance characteristics desired by farmers. They also noted that improving education levels among farmers might allow them access to more varieties adapted to low production conditions. Brown and Rieseberg (2006) compared methods for managing diversity for abiotic and biotic stress that would enable farmers to cope with the stress factors in their production systems. They noted that the scale of variation of abiotic stress both in time and space was greater for abiotic than for biotic stress, that the degree of abiotic stress is less affected by the plant condition than biotic stress, and that divergence is more important that local polymorphism for abiotic versus biotic stress (Brown and Rieseberg, 2006).Both farmer selection and natural selection can have substantial effects on the seed produced for future crops. Different farmers may have diverging perspectives and management practices in managing their seed stocks and introducing new material. This can result in differences in the time when seed can be provided and in the population structure of the next generation of seeds (Louette et al., 1997). Different farmer selection practices (or different participatory selection procedures will affect the genetic make-up and evolutionary dynamics of crop populations (Ceccarelli et al., 2009;Scarcelli et al., 2007;Barnaud et al., 2008;Sagnard et al., 2008;Gautam et al., 2009). In the case of vegetatively propagated crops, this reflects farmers' varietyspecific handling of seed tubers (Zannou, 2009;Scarcelli et al., 2006) and genetic effects are likely to result from mutation, epigenetic influences or mixing by farmers.Marketing at a desirable price can be a problem when farmers do not have storage facilities but must sell their crop to avoid seed or tuber rot (Figure 1: 3c.1). Improved storage allows farmers to sell their seeds or grain at periods when the market price is higher (Agbaje et al., 2005). Seed storage devices and methods determine the vulnerability of seeds to pests, diseases and physiological deterioration (Gepts, 1990;Latourniere-Moreno et al., 2006; Table 1). Post-harvest losses are a serious cause of production losses in developing countries (Grum et al., 2003). Improving the air-tightness of storage containers (Wambugu et al., 2009;Thamaga-Chitja et al., 2004), heat treatment (Beckett et al., 2007), manual seed cleaning, and application of nontoxic materials, are some easily applicable methods that combine traditional and modern seed storage technology to reduce the post-harvest vulnerability of seeds (Table 1). Complementary technical solutions will be necessary to integrate the future use of agricultural strategies that include the use of diverse traditional varieties. These may also include adjustments of planting and harvesting to facilitate separation of the harvest products where the handling of mixtures is not possible or not desirable (Finckh, 2008).Traditional Varieties In general, there are few incentive structures that promote: the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity and farmers' customary practices-the heart of Farmers' Rights (2010); Figure 1: 3d). Current legal systems make it difficult to adequately recognize the contributions of farmers and farming communities in conserving, developing and using agricultural biodiversity. National and local governments have not yet adequately given a real content to the overused, but so far rather diffuse concept of Farmers' Rights by translating it into practical measures that effectively support farmers who conserve and generate crop diversity (Andersen, 2005;2007).Intellectual property rights have been a recurrent element in the discussions around the concept of farmers' rights. The limitations to use, save, duplicate and exchange plant varieties protected by intellectual property rights, the lack of recognition or compensation for farmers when new products based on their traditional varieties and ancestral knowledge are subject to property rights, the incapacity of the current intellectual property system to adequately protect farmers' varieties and knowledge as well as innovations generated at the community level, are some of the issues that are commonly raised when dealing with the protection of farmers' rights (The Crucible Group, 1994;Leskien and Flitner, 1997;Correa, in press).Some national laws have attempted to conciliate the different stakeholders' interests with regard to intellectual property protection by combining UPOV-style protection of new plant varieties and a sui generis protection of farmers' varieties. Examples of this are the Thailand Plant Varieties Protection Act 1999, the Indian Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act 2001, and the Malaysian Protection of New Plant Varieties Act 2004. However, the success of such laws in achieving crop diversity conservation and farmers' rights protection is questionable. There is also a great deal of opposition to the belief that conferring private rights to farmer varieties would be beneficial to farmers and farmer communities (Srinivasan, 2003;Eyzaguirre and Dennis, 2007). Jaffe and Van Wijk (1995, p.76) argue that the introduction of plant variety protection causes a change of principle: \"When farmers start to use protected varieties, their natural right of seed saving becomes a legal right, or even less, a \"privilege.\" Such a legal right is subjected to political decisionmaking and possibly prone to restrictions in the future.\"Registers of traditional varieties have been promoted by a few national and local governments to help advance the realization of farmers' rights in different ways (Table 1). The registries document and perpetuate traditional knowledge related to the use of crop diversity and have been used to create a sense of ownership over traditional varieties and empower local communities with regards to local activities oriented to the conservation and sustainable use of traditional varieties (Lopez Noriega, in press;Aboagye, 2007). In addition, they have worked as defensive publications and prevent the misappropriation of farmers' genetic resources by acting as a record of the farmer varieties found within the community together with descriptive agronomic, adaptive, quality and other use traits. Examples of local registers can be found in several communities in Nepal (Subedi et al., 2005;Sthapit and Quek, 2005). The government of Peru maintains a national register of traditional varieties of potato, and several regional governments in Italy support regional databases of ancient varieties (Lopez Noriega, in press;Ruiz, 2009). In some cases, the registers or databases constitute the basis for the government to provide direct support to the farmers who cultivate traditional varieties. In Hungary, a list of locally-grown traditional varieties targeted for protection is published as an annex to a law, with mechanisms developed for adding new varieties to the list. Farmers who grow crops from the list can receive subsidies, on the condition that they provide a prescribed quantity of seeds to others interested in the growing of the same crop (Mar, 2002, Bela et al., 2006.).Another important aspect of Farmers' Rights, as pointed out by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, 2 e.g., the farmers' involvement in decision-making processes dealing with plant genetic resources. In reality, due to the complex nature of the trade-offs that genetic resource policies have to address, their development and implementation require the involvement of as many stakeholders as possible (Wale et al., 2008). For this reason, innovative governance methods that facilitate communication and understanding among all the actors involved and between science and policy need to be tested and eventually adopted. To a great extent, the local farmers' ability to express themselves in participatory decision-making is linked to the existence of strong and efficient civil society organizations such as farmers' associations representing their interests (Lapena, 2008).GENETIC DIVERSITY Benefits from the use of local crop genetic diversity may come from its current use value, derived from the consumption of a good or service by an individual or a community. Benefits may come from its options value, or the value associated with retaining an option to a good or service in the future. Finally, a resource may be valued for its existence, unrelated to any use of the resource and/or its bequest value, the altruistic value that the individual or community is concerned that the resource should be available to others in the current or future generation (Smale, 2006;Bateman et al., 2002). Enhancing the benefits for farmers of local crop diversity means enhancing the net benefits, as there also could be costs to farmers associated with any benefit generating option (Sthapit et al., 2008b). This involves ensuring that appropriate incentives for creating and sharing benefits with farmers are developed and that unnecessary or unintended barriers to the flow of benefits to the farmer are not created through the introduction of taxes and subsidies (Bragdon et al., 2009).There are many ways which farmers can derive greater benefits from the traditional crop varieties they manage. The success of these involves inter alia supporting local institutions, enhancing collective action and property rights, and enabling farmers to participate and lead the decision making process to the appropriate action and its implementation.Markets involve the exchange of goods and services between participants, and as such constitute one of the principal social arenas structuring farmers' management decisions about diversity (Smale, 2006). The market value of agricultural production can be increased through development of new markets, improved marketing, value addition, high value product differentiation; improved processing equipment adapted to diversified sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and the equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use, in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity. Parties to the Treaty recognize their responsibility for realizing Farmers' Rights under Article 9 of the Treaty. raw materials, and building trust among market chain actors (Kontoleon et al., 2007;Lipper et al., 2010;Di Falco and Perrings, 2006;Giuliani, 2007;UNORCAC, 2008; Figure 1: 4a; Table 1).Agricultural communities interact with markets directly and indirectly on a variety of scales, from household to global. The steady integration of traditional farming regions into wider national and international market relationships is a dominant trend of the last half-century. Pascual and Perrings (2007) reviewed the influence, at the micro-scale (household, family farm) and meso-and macro-scale (national and international policies), of economic and institutional failures that have systematically distorted farm-level decisions to conserve agricultural biodiversity. These include agricultural production subsidies, 3 tax breaks, and price controls (Tilman et al., 2002;Kontoleon et al., 2007;Kitti et al., 2009).Several market practices have been tested and put in place to create incentives for agricultural biodiversity conservation. \"Fair trade\" for \"free trade\" are market schemes that support and advocate replacing millions of dollars in aid by paying a decent price for the products purchased from poorer countries and giving producers in those countries an opportunity to take care of their own production environment (Kitti et al. 2009;Kesavan and Swaminathan, 2008;Renard, 2003). Price premiums that represent true costs of production have been studied to understand how they can provide an incentive to conserve agricultural biodiversity and, at the same time, to create benefits for poor farmers (Kitti et al., 2009;Perfecto et al., 2005;Smith et al., 2008). Product labeling can provide consumers with important information not only on food quality, but about the conditions under which the commodity was produced (Swallo and Sedjo, 2000;Giuliani, 2007). This labeling practice includes various geographical identification procedures (Ramakrishnappa, 2006;Garcia et al., 2007;Nagarajan, 2007;Salazar et al., 2007;Ori-Gin, 2010).Among other factors, creation of appropriate market conditions depends on the provision of accurate and credible information (Pascual andPerrings, 2007, Lipper et al., 2010;FAO, 2007;Okwu and Umoru, 2009;Bela et al., 2006). Many developing country farmers are aware of market prices before participating in the market, obtaining information most often from neighbors, followed by village traders, the mass media, and Extension agents (Nagaranjan et al., 2009). The increased use of mobile and fixed phones has improved the flow of price information among markets for small scale farmers (Nagaranjan et al., 2009). Groups working with rural poor communities in India are supporting local market intelligence systems for small-scale farmers in order to improve the availability of data on demand and supply, production capacity and market prices (Kesavan and Swaminathan, 2008). In some cases, creating sta-ble markets for diverse varieties sold as raw agricultural products may not be a valid option although it may be possible to enhance the benefits to farmers of local varieties by processing them for specific markets (Kruijssen et al., 2009). This would involve having processing equipment that can be used with diverse raw materials (Finckh, 2008).Choice models were originally developed by economists during the 1970s to explain patterns of adoption of \"green revolution\" crop varieties by farmers in Asia and other regions (Smale, 2006). Subsequent researchers applied and refined revealed preference models to identify why many smallholder farm households continue to grow traditional crop varieties even in the presence of agricultural development and widely available improved varieties (Brush et al., 1992;Meng et al. 1998;Smale et al., 2001;Van Dusen 2006;Gauchan et al., 2006). Recent studies have shown that although greater on-farm diversity can increase the likelihood that a household will sell traditional varieties, high levels of diversity on farm may not be reflected in local markets (Edmeades and Smale, 2009). Diversity on-farm was reported to be a necessary condition for market involvement, both in terms of the decision to participate and the richness of traditional varieties sold. But this does not guarantee that onfarm diversity will lead to market sales or diversity at the point of sale (Edmeades and Smale, 2009).Changes in markets linked to infrastructure and rural development may trigger the erosion of traditional crop varieties, both directly and indirectly. For instance, a new paved road that reaches a previously isolated farm community can help farmers to replace local varieties with improved seeds available in more distant markets. The same road can also enable farm households to substitute newly available goods or services for those previously supplied by diverse varieties (Smale and King, 2005). However, improved access to a greater number of markets can also provide potential incentives for farmers to retain crop diversity, such as when demand for unusual heirloom or niche market varieties exists among urban residents or other consumers (Lee, 2005;Irungu et al., 2007;Giuliani, 2007;Van Dusen, 2006;Gauchan and Smale, 2003;Rana, 2004;Gruere et al., 2007;Ramirez et al., 2009;UNORCAC, 2008).Assisting smallholder groups to produce together and expand niche markets, will include such activities as educating consumers about the values of diverse varieties, providing better packaging (Gruere et al., 2007;Devaux et al., 2006) and offering credit provisions to support transportation costs (Lee, 2005;Almekinders et al., 2010). In the best of cases, niche markets might be useful for traditional varieties that are also \"best fit\" to particular ecosystems, such as particular traditional varieties shown to grow well on swampy soil or on poor upland soils (Gauchan and Smale, 2003;Rana, 2004;Gruere et al., 2007). Marketing social-cultural aspects of traditional varieties for particular culinary aspects and associated ethnic identity have also been used to create niche markets (Gruere et al., 2007;Ramirez et al., 2009;Williams, 2009;Sthapit et al., 2008a).Econometric methods have been used to test the effects of crop genetic diversity on expected crop yields and yield variability as well as the probability of crop failure, given levels of pesticide applied (Di Falco and Chavas, 2007). The work has shown that when pesticide use is low crop genetic diversity reduces yield variance, but when pesticide use is high the effect of the crop biodiversity on yield variance is not significant. Indicating that crop genetic diversity is acting as a substitute for pesticides.Value chain analysis has been used by economists to identify bottlenecks to obtaining increased value from traditional varieties and to map out the relations among actors and flows of crop genetic resources (Andersen et al., 2010;Giuliani, 2007;Kruijssen et al., 2009). The analysis has shown that stakeholder meetings provide a forum for collecting crucial information about the market chain as the meetings involve as many actors as possible: producers and traders, cultivation experts, NGOS, and representatives of relevant ministries (Giuliani, 2007). These meetings help to design joint ventures with private sector entities. They also create reputation and trust in the areas of quality and prices among farmers, food manufacturers, retailers, NGOs, community-based and government organizations, important in reducing transaction costs (Lipper et al., 2010;Almekinders et al., 2010;Smith et al., 2008) (Table 1). Retailers and other intermediaries are important sources of seed inputs and credit for farmers (Almekinders et al., 2010;Giuliani, 2007;Lipper, 2010). They facilitate the flow through the chain by storing, transporting, and reselling seeds and can respond to seed demands from different regions at different planting times.The role of local markets in seed provision, particularly of traditional varieties has been the subject of a number of important recent studies. Local markets can be more effective in promoting seed movement than specialized traders who may overlook locally sourced seed (Dalton et al., 2010). In the case of traditional crop varieties, seed and grain markets are usually the same and the availability and identification of materials that will be used as seed, with information on the desired production and consumption traits may be difficult (Lipper et al., 2010). Some studies have suggested that local seed supply channels cannot be enhanced unless they are separated from grain supply channels (Nagarajan and Smale, 2007;Smale et al., 2010;Almekinders et al., 2010). Enhancing local seed supply channels may involve, for example, developing mechanisms for production and trade of truthfully labeled or quality-declared seed by farmer organizations with building collective action groups that screen and value seed. Certifying the sellers rather than seed may also be an option. Current examples are Producer Marketing Groups (PMGs) in Kenya (Audi et al., 2010) and Quality Declared Seeds in Tanzania where small scale farmers are registered to produce seed for local sale and are provided with vendor certification (FAO, 2006b: Granquist, 2009) (Table 1). Smale et al. (2010), nevertheless, caution against the formalization of the informal markets in Mali. They suggest that this development could have negative effects on women who would lose the little control they now exert over the grain resources unless they were trained about seed and linked to seed producer groups. It might be more appropriate to develop regulations that shorten the process of certifying seeds or that focus on seed quality rather than seed purity (Lipper et al., 2010).The full value of agricultural biodiversity and its services is not captured by the market because of a failure to internalize external costs (Thies, 2000). Crop biodiversity has socio-cultural, insurance and option values, that will be underestimated if left to the market (Pascual and Perrings, 2007;Smale, 2006). These different values of traditional varieties may to some extent be realized through non-market incentives (Figure 1: 4b;Table 1). They can be realized, for instance, by improving public awareness about sociocultural values of traditional varieties (Birol et al., 2007), by providing information on the substitution value of traditional variety diversity for fertilizer and pesticides (Di Falco and Perrings, 2007), moral suasion, regulation and planning, by preventing specific land management practices such as low input zones (Pascual and Perrings, 2007), by designing agroecological parks or agrotourism zones (Ruiz, 2009;Ramirez et al., 2009;Ceroni, et al., 2007). Other possibilities include compensating farmers for their conservation functions through payment for environmental services (FAO, 2007;Brussaard et al., 2010) or by supplying insurance functions and option values (Bragdon et al., 2009). Insofar as they exist, the enforcement of Farmers' Rights, and the adaptation and enforcement of intellectual property law could also play a role.Methods to assess the non-market value of public goods can be divided into two categories (Birol et al., 2007): 1) choice experiment studies (or direct methods) that use stated preference (willingness to pay/accept) to investigate the public's valuation of agri-environmental schemes and crop genetic reources (Campell et al., 2006;Birol and Ryan-Villalba, 2009); and, 2) hedonic analysis (or indirect methods) that use revealed preference (market information) to estimate the value of attributes of crop genetic resources (Van Dusen and Taylor, 2005;Edmeades, 2006;Edmeades and Smale, 2009). Birol et al. (2007) reviewed the different models and experimental data for obtaining notmarket values of biodiversity resources. They combined choice experimental data with farm household data and concluded that welfare measures derived form non-market public goods could be more accurate when the methods are combined. Welfare measures (willingness to accept compensation) can be calculated for different agrobiodiversity attributes within the farmers' production system and for the services provided by traditional varietal diversity. These methods have helped to identify least cost agrienvironmental schemes that can encourage farmers to undertake home gardens and on-farm management practices to support the conservation and use of traditional varieties (Birol et al., 2006;2007;2009;Poudel and Johnsen, 2009).Diversity, in the form of traditional varieties, has also been valued as a deliberate strategy for managing abiotic and biotic pressures in labor-intensive production systems with low levels of chemical inputs (Edmeades et al., 2006;Waage et al., 2008). Low chemical input or organic farming with local varieties can promote agro-ecosystem stability and health (Østergård et al., 2009). Other studies have been used to account for substitution value that traditional varietal diversity may give for pesticide inputs using a damage-abatement framework. These models value the effect of crop varietal diversity not only for the yield effect but also for the damage abatement effect of crop genetic choices as a substitute for pesticide application (Oude and Carpentier, 2001). In this context, it is also worth noting that pesticide manufacturers probably do not pay the full cost of the adverse affects that pesticides have on the environment of human health (Pretty, 2008;Pingali and Roger, 1995).There are several examples across the world of countries and institutions implementing mechanisms to capture the nonmarket value of local agricultural biodiversity (Table 1). Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) in Hungary are a window for promoting organic farming, which could include the use of traditional crop varieties (Bela et al., 2006). In Poland semi-subsistence farms are often regarded as a major obstacle to development. However, Siudek (2008) notes that expanding farm businesses to include agrotourism in rural areas of Poland would have the potential to reverse negative economic trends. Agricultural biodiversity for recreation (Ceroni et al., 2007;UNORCAC, 2008) includes agrotoursim zones established in Peru (Ruiz, 2009) and agrobiodiversity botanical gardens in Ecuador (Williams and Ramirez, 2006). These emphasize both traditional crop diversity and cultural identity and are a means to share benefits with local farming communities. Bela et al. (2006) have suggested that there is a need to improve communication among stakeholders to understand tradeoffs between public attributes and profitability. Advertising campaigns could be used, for example, to change norms on nutrition and taste and or try to reduce the use of chemical inputs. Education on the value of increasing use of traditional varieties can be part of these campaigns. Modification of existing primary and secondary school curricula to include agricultural biodiversity as an adaptive resource in biology courses is another method of introducing new ideas into the education system (Ramirez et al., 2009;UNORCAC, 2008) (Table 1).Case studies compiled in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity indicate that empowerment and benefitsharing with farmers and farming communities will only take place if additional measures accompany activities related to access and benefit-sharing (Regine, 2005;Convention on Biological Diversity, 2010). National laws on access to genetic resources, intellectual property and bio-safety need to form part of the legal landscape that supports the use of traditional varieties. This includes advocating that local and national governments integrate biodiversity, including agricultural biodiversity, into their legislation on environmental impact assessment of projects, policies, plans and programs as a method for informing decision-making with regard to agrobiodiversity maintenance and use (Slootweg et al., 2006;Wale, in press).Participatory plant breeding has been shown to help enable farmers to influence the development of materials and technologies in ways that are informed by their specific needs, agroecological environments and cultural preferences (Halewood et al, 2007;Gyawali et al., 2007;in press). The Thai Plant Variety Protection Act is one example of a law that includes a benefitsharing scheme by which those who are granted plant breeders' rights must pay part of the monetary benefits gained through the commercialization of the variety to a common fund which will support Thai small farmers who conserve and use crop diversity. The practical implementation of the law has been very challenging and the plant variety fund is still empty (Gagne and Ratanasatien, in press). Benefit-sharing policies must combine different approaches; the reality shows that conservation of crop diversity on farm cannot rely only on levies on plant breeders' royalties (Srinivasan, 2003).It has been argued that true benefit-sharing involves developing mechanisms that support communities and their farming systems and thus agricultural techniques that conserve local agricultural biodiversity. Farmers' Rights implies the development of some means of ensuring benefits flow to farmers and farming communities either through an ownership approach or a stewardship approach 4 (Farmers' Rights, 2010). In this context, creating incentives and removing disincentives to enable farmers to continue their work as stewards and innovators of agricultural biodiversity need to be part of any benefit-sharing mechanism (Bragdon et al., 2009). Currently, disincentives to the maintenance of traditional varieties may be associated with various aspects or consequences of agricultural development strategies such as 1) alterations in land tenure systems that threaten the survival of traditional farming communities; 2) subsidy schemes that promote exclusive adoption of uniform agricultural productions; 3) research programs that neglect traditional varieties and their associated knowledge and uses; and 4) food standards that limit entry of traditional farmers' varieties and products into markets.Leadership All approaches or activities to enhance benefits to farmers rely on building up social capital, or the ability of men and women farmers to develop and use social networks (Figure 1: 4c). Social networks help farmers to obtain access to credit as well as information and knowledge about new options and practices. Furthermore, these networks expand choices available to each household member (Pretty, 2002;Bantilan and Padmaja 2008). Building social capital includes developing appropriate collective management practices, which are understood as the voluntary action that is taken by a group to achieve common interests and property regimes (Meinzen-Dick and Eyzaguirre, 2009;Eyzaguirre and Evans, 2007). Through collective action members of the group may act directly on their own or through an organization, such as deciding on and observing rules for use or non-use of a resource through coordinated activities across individual farms. Property rights involve the \"the capacity to call upon the collective to stand behind one's claim to a benefit stream\" (Bromley, 1991). Interventions to strengthen the property rights of individuals or groups to help them participate in collective activities can improve their bargaining positions (Eyzaguirre and Evans, 2007). This may involve the development of institutional mechanisms that local participants can use to organize themselves, such as through special districts, private associations, and local/regional governments (Meinzen-Dick and Eyzaguirre, 2009) and better link them to policy institutions (Pretty, 2008).Combinations of farmer innovation and empowerment, the transformation of local government staff, and the establishment of new farmer-governed local institutions that have equitable links to the private sector have resulted in successful collective action for equitable management and use of traditional crop varieties (Friss-Hansen, 2008;Pretty 2008;Swaminathan, 2003;UNORCAC, 2008) (Table 1). Pimbert et al. (2010) discusses citizen juries formed by farm leaders, progressive researchers, and NGO technicians to evaluate, deliberate, and publicly address the equity and sustainability of conventional research systems and initiatives in West Africa. Collective action is important in enabling farmers to address market imperfections and transaction costs, such as in surmounting information, credit and marketing constraints. Such institutions support farmer unions and cooperatives for educating farmers in production and marketing, assisting with price negotiations, collecting land taxes, and information sharing (Caviglia and Kahn, 2001).Diversity field fora (Smale et al., 2008), which bear some similarity to farmer field schools (see Van der Berg and Jiggins, 2007), are becoming a new institution in West Africa which can strengthen the capacity of farmers to analyze, manage and improve their own crop plant genetic resources (Bioversity International, 2008). In diversity field flora, farmers acquire both knowledge and leadership skills through experiments that are designed and conducted by the farmers with technical support from project staff, to better manage and benefit from their crop genetic resources (Bioversity International, 2009;Smale et al., 2008;Jackson et al., 2010). The community-based biodiversity management (CBM) approach, developed in Nepal and now being tested in South and Southeast Asia, is a similar multistep process that focuses specifically on strengthening the local decision-making and governance capacity of communities to utilize agricultural biodiversity (Sthapit et al., 2006a;De Boef et al., 2007). Collective action is also supported when participatory plant breeding is not limited to the development of varieties for a specific area, but becomes part of integrated community-based biodiversity management activities (Sthapit et al., 2008b).It has been argued that agricultural policies are required that build human capital (Neuchatel Group, 2007;Smale et al., 2006). Policies that support inclusive agricultural extension or advisory services need to go hand in hand with the process of strengthening local institutions. Extension services have to be more responsive to the needs of all farmers, including women and those who are poor and marginalized (Neuchatel Group, 2007;Smale et al., 2006). This is likely to involve paying increased attention to contextual factors in the design and implementation of agricultural extension service programs. In addition to the characteristics of the local communities, the types of farming systems and the degree of market access are examples of important contextual factors that need be be taken into account (Birner et al., 2010). In the same way it has been suggested that agricultural policies need to be more gender sensitive and designed to empower women by providing knowledge and ensuring access and control of resources toward achieving food security (MEA, 2005). Women have multiple responsibilities within the household and communities but are often ignored at all levels of decision-making.Most studies agree on the need to improve trust and mutual understanding across different actors and institutions (Kruijssen et al., 2009). These studies emphasize the need for reciprocity, obligations, and mutually agreed upon rules, which are structured and connected through groups and networks (Cramb and Culasero, 2003;Pretty, 2008). Cultural institutions, such as weddings and tea houses, are places of trust where information on traditional crop diversity is exchanged and which could be linked to wider support networks (Van Dusen et al., 2006). There is potential for local institutional support and capacity building to link individuals of different networks together through a neutral party (NGO or other organization) or to both build smaller networks that could be linked to help diffuse innovations and messages (Granovetter, 1973). Resilience is built into agroecological production systems through supporting institutions and social-ecological networks that create flexibility in problem solving and that can balance power among interest groups (Folke et al., 2002;Walker et al., 2002;2010). These many different types of networks can be strengthened by linking them to community-based seed production groups and to participatory plant breeding schemes so as to capitalize on natural pathways of seed flow. Networks can help demystify laboratory-based technologies (Kesavan and Swaminathan, 2008), provide technology empowerment, and support literacy training, to enable farmers to have more control over their resources (Swaminiathan, 2003). These can be supported by knowledge empowerment actions that take advantage of the new information and communication technology (Kesavan and Swaminathan, 2008).Over the last two decades a substantial body of information has developed on the continuing maintenance and use of traditional varieties by small-scale farmers around the world.Farmers appear to find that diversity, in the form of traditional varieties of both major staples and minor crops, remains important to their livelihoods, despite earlier expectations that these varieties would rapidly disappear from production systems.No doubt the arguments about long-term trends with respect to the continued use of traditional varieties will continue. However, there are a number of reasons for thinking that these varieties will continue to play an important role for many crops in a wide variety of production systems in the future. In addition to the reasons such as adaptation to marginal and low input agriculture, stable performance, and the socioeconomic conditions of many small-scale farmers-who, as Lipton (2006) noted, make up 45-60% of the rural poor-already mentioned in the Introduction, farmers around the world are using traditional varieties to help cope with climate change (Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research, 2010). The growing concern with developing more sustainable production systems and reducing dependence on chemical inputs is also likely to favour the maintenance and use of traditional varieties.In these circumstances it seems important not only to understand better the nature and contribution of traditional varieties to the production strategies of rural communities around the world, but also ways in which they are maintained and managed. This can help in the development of ways of improving the use of these varieties and their contribution to rural livelihoods. As shown in this review, there is a rich and growing body of information on traditional varieties, and on the problems and benefits associated with their maintenance and use. The review has also demonstrated the importance of work that adopts a multidisciplinary approach and emphasizes working with farmers in collaborative ways. There remain clear gaps in our knowledge. There is still a need to develop better indicators and ways of monitoring diversity that are adapted for the use of farmers, communities, and scientists. Molecular methods, which can now provide significant additional insights into the extent and distribution of diversity and on the ways in which it is correlated with important social, environmental, and management variables have yet to be undertaken on the scale needed except perhaps for sorghum and pearl millet in Africa (e.g. Barnard et al., 2008;Bezancon et al., 2009;Busso et al., 2000;Deu et al., 2008;Sagnard et al., 2008;Allinne et al., 2008). With the rapid improvements in methods over the last decades this is now possible on the required scale.While each situation may appear to be unique with respect to the amount of diversity present in the system, its distribution and the associated biological, environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural characteristics, it is possible to recognize general properties which can be used to ascertain the sorts of activities that farmers, and those working with them, may find useful in identifying ways in which traditional varieties can both be maintained and contribute to improved livelihoods. The heuristic framework presented here provides a number of overlapping approaches and entry points for such activities. At present this probably should be regarded very much as \"work in process\" as it is likely to be amended as further information becomes available. However, even at this stage, it is possible to draw some general conclusions based on its application. Firstly, it is essential to develop an appropriate understanding of the extent and distribution of diversity in a system and of how it is maintained through local institutions and practices. Secondly, the analysis is likely to lead to the identification of a number of complementary supporting actions. Thirdly, the success of any actions will depend centrally on local knowledge, the strength of local institutions and the leadership of farmers and communities.","tokenCount":"17646"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"eb4660f6bf24009323cf6d28ff32e815","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/AKSGF1/WZKVVH","id":"-700504077"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7d384cbb-ae52-43b7-bc37-21adea56190e","pagecount":"29","content":"This paper presents a 1996 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Bolivia as part of a project analyzing the distributive effects of trade liberalization in a general-equilibrium set up 2 . This SAM has largely disaggregated activities, labor and households. The 1996 SAM permits a meaningful and detailed analysis of the productive structure of the economy as well as alternative trade reforms and income distribution channels. Agricultural activities are further disaggregated into agriculture and livestock production. Manufactures are further disaggregated into multiple sectors and products in order to identify export manufacture. Labor is disaggregated according to skill, and type of occupation, while households are classified according to geographical location (urban vs. rural). The Taxes are differentiated into income, sales and tariffs. Finally, the paper describes both the macroeconomic and microeconomic SAMs, paying special attention to a careful documentation of data sources, assumptions, and balancing methods.Resumen: El documento presenta una Matriz de Contabilidad Social de 1996 (MCS) para Bolivia, como parte del proyecto que analiza los efectos distributivos de la liberalización comercial en el marco de un modelo de equilibrio general computable. Esta MCS está desagregada en varias actividades, factores y tipos de hogares. La MCS fue estimada principalmente a partir de datos del Instituto Nacional de Estadística, sobre la información desagregada de la demanda intermedia y matrices de producción para Bolivia. Como resultado, la MCS-1996 permite un análisis detallado de la estructura productiva de la economía y constituye la base para el análisis de las reformas sobre la distribución del ingreso. En la MCS, las actividades agropecuarias están compuestas por agricultura y la producción pecuaria, forestal, silvicultura y pesca. La manufactura presenta múltiples sectores y productos con el objetivo de identificar a los sectores de exportación. El factor trabajo está desagregado de acuerdo al tipo de calificación y ocupación, mientras que los hogares están clasificados de acuerdo al lugar de residencia (urbana vs. rural). Los impuestos están diferenciados entre impuesto al ingreso, a las ventas y Tarifas. Finalmente, el documento describe tanto la MCS agregada como desagregada, poniendo atención especial a la documentación y fuentes de datos, supuestos y métodos de balanceo.During Nineties the Statistics National Institute (INE) of Bolivia generated efforts in order to construct a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) as part of social information system. The interest to evaluate the structural reforms encouraged the data about the structure of the economy, in a coherent and systematic frame, derivative from National Accounts, complemented by institutional sectors information, employment, income and others.The statistical production increased gradually, increasing geographic cover in employment data, income and household consumption, from released data in the Households Surveys of national reach. In 1996 and1997, the National Employment Surveys (Jan/ 96 and Jan/97) opened the possibility to generate disaggregated matrix of employment with a similar classification like was used in the National Accounts. The National Census of 1992 (Census/92), the Economic Establishments Census and Households Surveys were sources to generate a more coherent information.INE concluded a first version of SAM in 1998, in order to measure impacts of reforms, mainly the effects of the external opening, capitalization of public enterprises, reforms in the hydrocarbons sector and other objectives related to the changes in income distribution.At the beginning of the present decade, many international and national institutions used the initial data generated by INE and applied computable general equilibrium models, which are related to the impact of reforms and external shocks on the main variables of the economy (Jemio and Wiebel, 2001). Intermediaries except societies, h) Insurances Societies, i) Central Government, j) Decentralized Public Institutions, k) Local and Regional Government, l) Founds and Cash boxes of Social Security and, m) Households.This matrix considers the primary and secondary income distribution. The primary distribution is the factorial income allocation among institutional sectors, so it obtains: net national income, property income of national residents, residents of rest of the world and consumption of fixed capital. The secondary distribution incorporates the current transferences among institutional sectors; so that, they allow to arrive to concept of Disposable Net Income. There are three types of current transferences: a) taxes on Income and wealth, b) contributions and social benefits, and c) other current transferences. The transferences that pay the institutional sectors, it registers like use into account. For example the income taxes, while the transferences received by institutional units registers like resources.The account of income use shows how distribute the Households and the government the Disposable Income between Consumption and Saving. This last one is a countable balance that is obtained by residual after deducing the final consumption expenses from the Disposable gross or net Income.The summarized information by INE was base to construct specific SAM for project \"Export-led Growth Strategies and Income Distribution 3 \". Details for this matrix methodology are explained in the present paper. The rest of the document contains the SAM aggregated flows (chapter 2). The disaggregated SAM displays the economy structure and selected sectors for analysis (chapter 3). Finally it explains the methodology evaluation for some special accounts.This SAM is an empirical Real Sector representation of the Economy (Lofgren Et al) the SAM elaboration adopts a strategy in two parts: i) It present the aggregated data which have relation with the National Accounts of 1996 and, ii) disaggregated category in: Households, activities and products flows.The SAM-96 is based on previous works of INE based on Input-Output Matrix.The initial disaggregating is on the Value Added among: wages, Surplus and Production Matrix. Also, institutional sectors data were built from transactions matrix and from secondary distribution flows of incomes originated in the National Accounts. The differences with respect to the original matrix are explained by the consolidation of the incomes and expenses accounts from each institutional sector, which were adjusted in order to obtain a balance in the matrix.The data for constructing employment matrix come from Households Surveys.These provide the suitable structure to disaggregate the Value Added. In the same way it was obtain special tabulations of Households Surveys to distribute the factorial income among types of households considered in the SAM.Formally, the first stage to SAM-1996 construct must generate consistency in economy aggregates described in the National Accounts in a single table. The second stage consisted on disaggregate the macro SAM on a set of activities, products, factors and institutions.The SAM-96 for Bolivia was adapted to the suggested structure by Löfgren et.al (2002), which is oriented to establish a relation between the external sector accounts (exports, imports and incomes flows), on macroeconomic variables, employment and income distribution. This matrix has some particularities in some accounts treatment of, in special with: The production account, the taxes disaggregated in the government sector and the institutional accounts treatment.The production account includes the Intermediate Consumption matrix and the Production Matrix. The main characteristics of Structure Production Account are: i) activities are separated of products, ii) transaction costs are separated from domestic activities, and iii) taxes are disaggregated among incomes taxes, sales taxes and import tariffs.The 1996 SAM for Bolivia makes difference between activities and products.It imply that Income flows are estimated to producer prices in the Activity Accounts, and to market prices in the Product Accounts, the difference affects the valuation of indirect taxes and transaction costs.As the products are the final result of activities, they can be exported, consumed or domestically imported. The product column shows that payments are done by activities or the rest of the world. The production matrix opens the possibility to do an activity can produce several products, or a product can be produced by several activities. This is a much more realistic assumption.The commerce flows are explicitly associated with the transport costs and commercialization. For each product, the SAM can enter associated costs to domestic transactions, exports and imports. The margin of commerce reflects the cost of mobilizing products from the producer to the domestic consumer.For the imports, this margin represents the cost of transferring products from the border to the domestic consumer, whereas for producer it is the product mobilizing cost from the exporter to the border. The account is built from statistics of margins of commerce and transport.The transaction costs were estimated from the information on margins of commerce including it in the estimation of the product. Of similar way, the imports information presents detached data on import rights.The 1996 SAM for Bolivia was disaggregating among: Incomes tax (YTAX), Sales tax (STAX) and Tariffs on imports (TARIFF).The incomes tax conceptually is applied to Surplus enterprises Taxes or capital accumulation, as well as the Complementary Tax to Aggregated Value (RC-IVA). This last one corresponds to net amount after applying the fiscal credit of consumption 4 .The sales tax (STAX) burdens to final consumer goods sales. The enterprises are retention agents of these incomes. In Bolivia, this tax is attracted through the value added tax (IVA) which has a nominal rate of 13% that prevails from 1986.The tariffs (TARIFF) are applied to legal import products when it enters to the economy. The nominal tariff in 1996 (SAM base year) was 10% for consumer goods, and 5% for capital goods. During the Nineties, the effective rates decreasing showing it the commerce liberalization and the results of regional and bilateral agreements.The negative taxes (subsidies) to production benefit to specific products: to liquefied petroleum gas (GLP) 5 .Other specific taxes are applied to consumption of cigarettes, beer and drinks. However these are subject to balance adjustments. The income taxes are not proportional because, generally, only the wage-earners pay it, even more they contribute a part, by the possibility of fiscal credit.Among the domestic institutions considered by the SAM-96 are: Enterprises, Households and the General Government.Enterprises are the economic agents that produce goods and services. They The accumulation account shows, on one hand, the surplus or deficit of institutional sectors with components of internal saving (enterprises, Households and government) and external saving (rest of the world). On the other hand, the accumulation account shows the investment of the economy, as much in fixed capital gross accumulation like in variation of stocks.The SAM-96 displays the equilibrium between saving and investment in the aggregated level, so it cannot reflect financing needs of each institutional sector.The SAM structure and initial data are in annexed tables 1 and 2, which have been transformed to US dollars of 1996. The Macro SAM is balanced, since the rows value is equal to the columns value. This matrix has not required a balance because it comes from a previous work of INE, according to double entrance format 6 . The capital accumulation combines two sources of data: i) ESS available for 1996 and 1997, which allows up differentiate the investments from institutional sectors (private and government) and ii) the sector allocation of the Supply -Use table.The 1996 SAM for Bolivia is consistent in the basic balances of the economy with National Accounts, the balance of payments, public budget, employment and income, and household expenses were used. The Gross Domestic Product, calculated from expenses, is estimated in the SAM in thousands of constant dollars from 1996:  Micro SAM-96 reflects a detailed structure of the Bolivian economy in the base period, as much production, through the account production, distribution of factorial income, as the income, expenses and the institutional sectors saving flows.The production account presents a disaggregating of products and activities, oriented to explain the relation between the external sector, growth and income distribution. The production matrix displays 20 activities and 14 products. It is not a square matrix due to the characteristics of production in Bolivia, for example the cattle activities also have an agricultural production and semi elaborated products. The information base has limited to the accounting matrix for disaggregating the production matrix much more.Although Bolivia export some agriculture products, they are difficult to identify in the SAM, due to aggregation level that contains the basic information. At disaggregate the agricultural sector, it allows find only the agricultural production and the cattle production.The extractive activities are heading by hydrocarbons and minerals, which represent near 28% of the Bolivian exports in the base year. In the middle of the Nineties the structural reforms began transferring the national enterprises to foreign capital hands. Particularly, the hydrocarbons sector received near $US800 million of capital port from foreign partners to exploration and operation investment of the sector.The manufacture activities display a best disaggregating, as: food production, textiles, wood, paper, chemistries, hydrocarbons derivatives, metals and nonmetals, and other industries. In the middle of the Nineties, the manufacture has increased the exports level, in special to 1996 it was more than 40% of Bolivian exports. So, it had impact on the expansion of the nontraditional exports.For the rest of activities and products, these correspond with the traditional industrial classification, including public services as: electricity, gas and water, also  The According to the qualification, the income average difference tends to be significant between both groups and reflects the productive structure clearly because it prevails in the activities.In order to define the skilled work, it has settled down a threshold of 10 years of schooling. The work is considered non skill when the worker is below that limit.This level is two years over the completed primary (8 years). Even though it seems a relatively high limit, the low quality of education in Bolivia justifies for fixing a top over the primary.According to the position in the employment, the independent work represents most of the informal employment. In Bolivia, in the middle of the Nineties, near   The Table 4 shows the participation of unskilled workers in employment: wageearner and independent workers are more than 70%. The low qualification of labor has majority presence in farming, construction and commerce (annexed table 3). The activities with qualified labor are pondering in the public administration, financial services and personal services.Including agricultural sector, the participation of independent workers arrives at 70% of the national employment. The agriculture concentrates a large number of small farmers, self-employed workers and unpaid family workers (farmer economy). On the contrary, the urban informal sector is formed by employment into micro enterprises and transformation familiar sector units, commerce and services.In order to disaggregate factors in the SAM were considered the totals of macro SAM. So the structures are proportional to each factor contribution, in the total income estimated in the Households Survey of 1997.In spite of the consistency into the work contribution types, the capital disaggregating in activities has been considered of indirect way. The Value Added of capital agricultural activities was calculated based on Farming Sector estimations and registries (Ministerio de Asuntos Campesinos). And the rest of capital, the National Account System (NAS) has estimations about stock of capital associated to each activity. Also it has references of capital-product relations and capital retribution that feed the sector squares.The data are more reliable in the manufacture sector because it displays an estimation of surplus by class of activity and establishment, differentiating among small, medium and big enterprise. This information takes up regularly in the Annual Survey of Manufacturing Industry.Households are differenced by the residence place, between those who lives in the urban area and those who inhabit the rural area. Urban area is defined as localities with more than 2000 inhabitants, nevertheless for aims of the SAM, the residence means that predominant activities are different in each area, and determine a different structure of household income.Households of the rural area receive income from independent work in general unskilled. Most of the incomes come from the agricultural activities, and the consumption levels are lower than those lives in the urban area, whose activities are diversified among the industry, commerce and services, as much formal as informal, it facilitate levels of differenced remuneration according to the qualification of workers. The percentage of Bolivian population that lived in the urban area, in 1997, reached to 60%. Twenty years before, in 1976, the urbanization grade was 42%;and in 1992 it reached to 58%. By the characteristics of the SAM, in a static economy, does not consider the rapid changes by the migration, which could be important to explain the function of labor market and its implications on inequality and poverty. The household saving is the difference between the income and expenses reported by each household category. Nevertheless, in order to obtain consistency in the matrix, the saving amount of the families has been contrastedwith the ESS flows. The relative contribution of each type of home on the Total Savings is applied to macro SAM-1996, in this way it obtains the consistent SAM with the savings distribution.The accounts of aggregated SAM displayed an initial balance, and considered the macroeconomic equilibrium. Nevertheless, the disaggregated accounts of consumption, private and public investment, the expenses and government investment, value added, capital flows, balance of payments and the saving accounts. These were adjusted until present a consistent balance with national account system and accounts originated from other sources.According discussion on Robinson et.al (2000) and Lofgren et.al (2001), the disaggregated SAM presents matrices typically not balanced, as a result of using different data sources, generally not consistent each other, measurement errors, the use of supposition on values allocation between some accounts. Therefore, on the base of a disaggregated SAM, in a preliminary way, is constructed a balanced SAM through widely used methods, for example under the crossed entropy approach which comes from the information theory (Shannon, 1948) 8 .This approach organizes the available information from alternative sources in different years, before the data contained in the original matrix. For the balance, the discrepancies in the matrix are defined as distances, which can be diminished. This optimization process is submitted to a set of restrictions as parameters. A SAM can be defined as a for monetary flows representing to whom receive and spend on different economic agents. Dividing each cell of j i T , SAM matrix by the total of its respective column (y j ), a matrix A of coefficients column can be obtained:Optimization process consists on minimization of discrepancies between the original matrix (A) and the matrix balanced optimal points (A*) submitted to some fixed elements in the entrance (and j *) :  ","tokenCount":"2995"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a9d356ecb52ce15b8cb3f17715561db8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c80d0e9d-91f0-4c24-9052-11dfb87b988c/retrieve","id":"187279854"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ed535dd0-f0d0-49e0-b01a-e6366521244c","pagecount":"15","content":"GnpIS is a data repository for plant phenomics that stores whole field and greenhouse experimental data including environment measures. It allows long-term access to datasets following the FAIR principles: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable, by using a flexible and original approach. It is based on a generic and ontology driven data model and an innovative software architecture that uncouples data integration, storage, and querying. It takes advantage of international standards including the Crop Ontology, MIAPPE, and the Breeding API. GnpIS allows handling data for a wide range of species and experiment types, including multiannual perennial plants experimental network or annual plant trials with either raw data, i.e., direct measures, or computed traits. It also ensures the integration and the interoperability among phenotyping datasets and with genotyping data. This is achieved through a careful curation and annotation of the key resources conducted in close collaboration with the communities providing data. Our repository follows the Open Science data publication principles by ensuring citability of each dataset. Finally, GnpIS compliance with international standards enables its interoperability with other data repositories hence allowing data links between phenotype and other data types. GnpIS can therefore contribute to emerging international federations of information systems.Plant phenotyping regroups all the observations and measures that can be made on a precisely identified plant material in a characterized environment. This very general definition of phenomics [1] includes diverse types of properties and variables measured at different physical [2] and temporal scales, ranging from field observation of plant populations to molecular cell characterizations, including for some research community metabolomics or gene expression. The acquisition of these data is conducted in various experimental facilities like greenhouses, fields, phenotyping networks, or natural sites. It can be done using many different devices from hand measurements to high throughput means. The resulting complex and heterogeneous datasets include all the environment and phenotypic variable values at each relevant scale (plant, micro plot, . . .) and very importantly the identification of the phenotyped germplasm, i.e., the plant material being experimented. In addition, there are often relationships between levels, i.e., physical scales, inside datasets and between different datasets. The resulting rich wealth of data is usually formatted in a very heterogeneous manner and is difficult to integrate automatically.Phenotyping experiments are expensive and are not exactly reproducible since the environmental conditions are difficult if not impossible to completely control. Furthermore, most traits are highly dependent on genotype by environment interactions, which increases again the uniqueness and the value of the data collected to describe environmental conditions and resources available to the plants during their lifecycle. Hence, being able to reuse phenotyping data to carry out large meta-analysis would allow better deciphering the genetic architecture of traits across environments. It could help the prediction of genotype performances in the context of the climate change adaptations. An example is the use of data series collected over centuries that have demonstrated or supported the modelling of the impact of climate change on crops [3,4]. In this context, long-term data management following the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) principles [5] is among the main challenges of modern phenomics. There are two answers to this challenge: data standardization and data integration.Several initiatives are developing tools for standardizing phenotyping data description. The Minimal Information About Plant Phenotyping Experiment (MIAPPE, www.miappe.org) [6,7] defines the set of information necessary to enable data reuse. This includes the objective of the experiment, the authors, location, and timing, as well as the minimal description of the observation units, i.e., the objects being measured and assayed, including the plant material identification and the traits with their measurement protocols. The latter are formalized through the Crop Ontology (CO, www.cropontology.org) [8] which states that all observations and measurements are done through an observation variable which is defined by three components: (i) the targeted trait (phenotypic or environmental), (ii) the method of measurement or observation, and (iii) its scale or unit. A trait can be formalized as the association of an observed entity like a part of the plant (e.g., leaf, grain, and stem) and an attribute or quality to be measured or observed (colour, weight, and height) [9]. The method can be a phenotyping protocol or a statistical computation and can include cross references to method books or software. A new variable is created each time a new method or a new scale or unit is added to an existing trait. The Crop Ontology provides a collaborative platform to a growing number of crop communities to develop a series of species-specific ontologies. The Planteome project (http://planteome.org/) links through a semantic mapping these species-specific ontologies to a set of reference plant species-neutral ontologies including the reference Trait Ontology (TO) and the Plant Ontology (PO) [10]. This annotation process adds a generic trait above the crop-specific traits [11]. This helps to connect crop phenotyping data to genomic data across species. Besides, through the mapping, CO inherits the ontological structure of TO and can be used for building an ontology optimized for data sharing and integration between crop research communities. Finally, the Breeding API (BrAPI, www.brapi.org) [12] is building a specification of web services to enable standard data exchange between information systems and tools. All these tools are facilitating data standardization and are now widely adopted by the international plant community [13][14][15].Data integration relies on datasets and data repositories interoperability and links different datasets together [16] in order to avoid data silos. It is achieved by following the Linked Data principles [17] and in particular by defining and identifying the key resources, i.e., the key \"things\" in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) sense, that acts as interoperability pivot by linking one dataset to another. These interoperability pivots, shared between datasets, enable the construction of datalinks and must be unambiguously identified and curated in each data repository. Pivot identifiers must be shared among repositories to enable data interoperability and build a working information system federation. Indeed, phenotyping experiments can be carried out for a wide range of scientific objectives (e.g., study of the impact of climate change, study of the genetic architecture of traits) with different types of underlying analyses that impact the nature of datasets. The consistency of the datasets is ensured through the integration of the data collected from the different experiments, which is achieved by building links between some clearly described and identified pivots. A common example is the integration of genotyping and phenotyping datasets obtained with the same panel of individuals in distinct experiments in order to search for marker-trait associations. In this case, individuals of the panel in each dataset provide the pivot required to enable interdataset integration. Other examples of interoperability pivot are the Global Positioning System (GPS) localization of plants (e.g., integration of climatic and phenotyping datasets) or the observation variables (e.g., integration of several phenotyping datasets).When managing and therefore integrating research data in any Phenotype Information System, the objectives of the data services to be provided must be considered. For instance, the MaizeGDB [18] database gives access to phenotypic data in the context of functional genomics studies by offering very elaborated phenotype without experimentation environment data. Genomes To Fields (https://www.genomes2fields.org [19]) and the Triticeae Toolbox [20] offer more trial centric portals for, respectively, the US maize and the US Triticeae communities. All these repositories allow sharing and publishing curated datasets but neither data discovery nor multitrial data integration. There are also a number of trial-centric databases whose objectives are to capture all the steps of the data production of platforms, like PhenopsisDB [21], the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP, https://www.integratedbreeding.net), Phenomics Ontology Driven Database (PODD) [22], or the Phenomic Hybrid Information System of the Phenome-Emphasis (https://www.phenome-emphasis.fr/) infrastructure (PHIS, http://www.phis.inra.fr) [23]. This latter database, PHIS, is specifically designed for addressing the challenges of data acquisition in high throughput phenotyping platforms.GnpIS [24] (http://urgi.versailles.inra.fr/gnpis) is an international information system that links phenomic, genetic, and genomic data (see examples in [25,26]) for plant and their pathogens. It is the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) phenotyping archive which has been designed to publish and integrate standardized data from phenotyping trials carried out in natural sites, field, or controlled environments, with observations at different physical scales like groups of plants, single plants, single organs, or tissues. It gives access to standardized data and enables the development of federations of repositories.The GnpIS software component dedicated to phenotyping, named GnpIS-Ephesis, is based on a four layers' architecture, Plant Phenomics 3 described in the result section: storage, data discovery, query, and web interface.The storage layer of GnpIS-Ephesis is implemented in PostgreSQL 9.6 running in a 2-core 4 Gb Virtual Machine plus file-system access through simple HTTP GET requests for direct file download.The query layer is based on Elasticsearch 2.3 running on Java 7 in two 8-core 16Gb RAM Virtual Machines. It allows precise, field-by-field, data querying and processing. Its native Representational State Transfer (REST) API is hidden behind a service business layer for security and ease of querying. Its API is queried either by Google Web Toolkit Remote Procedure Call (GWT RPC) or by a REST Web Service API. This Web service layer is written in Java/JEE using Jersey 1.18+ and Spring 2.5. The Extract Transform Load (ETL) tools allowing for feeding the query layer from the storage layer are written in scripted PostgreSQL specific JSON-SQL queries orchestrated by a Shell tool suite.The data integration and insertion toolbox is developed with the Talend Open Studio (http://www.talend.com/) Extract Transform Load (ETL) tool version 6, plus some Shell and Python scripts.The ontology repository is based on a public Gitlab project running on the INRA forge (https://forgemia.inra.fr/ urgi-is/ontologies) which allows versioning of the ontologies plus a graphical widget giving access to their last versions. The Ontology Widget (https://github.com/gnpis/trait-ontologywidget) is written in JavaScript and uses the JQuery (https:// jquery.com/) and JStree (https://www.jstree.com/) libraries.The Web interfaces are running on a Tomcat 7 instance using Java 7 in a dedicated Virtual Machine with 2 cores and 16Gb of RAM. They are developed in Java 7 using the GWT framework. The geographic map overview is powered by Leaflet (https://leafletjs.com/) with OpenStreetMap (https://www.openstreetmap.org/) as map backend.The web user interfaces are open source under BSD3 license and available upon request. The database model of the storage layer is under a proprietary license and is protected by deposits in at the European program deposit agency (Agence de Protection des Programmes).GnpIS is a repository for phenotyping experiments, i.e., Trials, at various physical and temporal scales. It has been developed within the GnpIS-Ephesis project which gave its name to the software modules of GnpIS dedicated to phenotyping. The experimental data may be associated with measurement time, hence creating time series. Data can be raw or computed, organized in textual data matrices of physical measures possibly derived from sensors, phenological observations, or concentrations for a few dozens of biochemical components. Those data matrices are inserted in the storage database together with additional information like factors, cofactors, timing, location, and other trial parameters description. In some cases, such as dense time series with up to hundreds of measures, multispectral images, or Near Infrared Spectrometry (NIRS) spectra, the data can be stored as files (with a size limit of few Gb by Trial) or can be cross-referenced to specialized platform information systems. It is designed to allow data access either by full experiment or by aggregating data across several experiments. It also allows the linking of phenotypic data with genetic and genomic data for Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs), Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS), and gene annotations published in GnpIS.GnpIS currently stores data for the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and its national and international partners. It is the official repository of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium [25] and it is included in emerging international federations of information systems in the frame of the Elixir plant community (https://www.elixir-europe.org/ communities/plant-sciences), the French node of the Emphasis European infrastructure for plant phenotyping (https:// www.phenome-emphasis.fr/), and the global WheatIS of the Wheat Initiative (www.wheatis.org). Public and private data from phenotyping experiments are currently available for wheat, grape, maize, tomato, rapeseed, pea, and forest and fruit trees (Table 1).This high level of integration and interoperability relies on the proper identification of interoperability pivots: mainly the plant material or germplasm and the observation variables (mandatory) and to a lesser extent the location and timing.Phenotyping data is handled in GnpIS through the GnpIS-Ephesis conceptual data model (Figure 1). It has been designed in close collaboration with field scientists, experts in plant phenomics, geneticists, and breeders, many of them being particularly interested in deciphering genotype by environment interactions. It has been designed for flexibility, to allow both the retrieval of individual datasets and the combination of different subsets for meta-analysis. It relies on three main components: (i) the main dataset containing the description of the trial and the observation units (Figure 1) as well as the observation values, (ii) the observation variables, and (iii) the identification of plant material assayed. Those three components act as independent but linked subdatasets. This structure allows to update the description of the plant material or of the variables without affecting the main phenotyping dataset. The GnpIS-Ephesis data model is continuously improved to remain compliant with the MIAPPE [6] standard evolutions. Datasets can be published along with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) [27] which provides authorship, reuse license, and citability.Figure 2 shows a typical phenotyping dataset and how it is integrated in GnpIS through four main concepts: Trial Set, Trial, Observation Unit, and Observation.The Trial and Trial Set handle most of the experiment metadata. A trial is an experiment under field or controlled conditions (greenhouse, culture chamber. . .), in a single location and possibly on multiple years. This allows for handling series of yearly observations for perennial plants, possibly over several decades. Note that, in this case, the plant material list is stable from one year to another. The Observation Unit in GnpIS and MIAPPE v1.1 is the object, i.e., the scale or level, on which the measurements or observations are done (Figure 1; example in Figure 2(B)). It is possible to describe different scales in the same experiment. The scale name is ontology driven, but there is no recommended level ontology at the time of writing. Therefore, we have our own controlled vocabulary (e.g., micro plot, plant, and pot) which can grow upon requests from our data submitters. Some details of the scientific design are stored as Observation Unit fields, alongside the unit position and all the experimental factors. The Observation Unit stores the combination of the mandatory genotype factor (Plant Material below) with optional treatment factors (e.g., Cultural practices, Irrigation, Nitrogen, . . .). Each treatment factor has a list of two or more possible values or modalities, (e.g., high input and low input for the factor Nitrogen on Figure 2(B)). Each Observation Unit is associated with only one modality of a given factor. For instance, a Trial can combine a factor Nitrogen, with modalities low input and high input, plus a factor Water with no watering and watering modalities. Each observation unit allows for observing the behavior of a single genotype under a combination of one modality from each of the two factors.The Observation is ontology driven, with all metadata stored following the Crop Ontology framework [8]. It allows for storing Phenotype or Environment measures. The Observations consists in triplets formed by an Observation Variable described below (e.g., yield in q/ha, plant height in cm, rust score, . . .), a value (the measure), and an optional date (Figures 1 and 2). Additional metadata can be stored either as linked files, for cultural practice or soil analysis reports, for instance, or as events and observation like lodging scores or hail date. The Observation Unit and Observation data model have been inspired by approaches like The Extensible Observation Ontology (OBOE) [28,29] and the GMOD Chado Genomic Feature [30]. In MIAPPE, the observations are stored in the data file.The phenotyped plant material, or germplasm, is the main interoperability pivot in GnpIS. Its correct identification varies depending on the context, but this problem has been discussed for several decades now and is addressed by an internationally recognized data standard, the Multi Crop Passport Descriptors (MCPD) [31]. Its importance and possible related issues are described in the study by Adam-Blondon et al. [13]. GnpIS is MCPD compliant and slightly extends it to fit the needs of its communities of users. In particular, our system handles experimental material that is not conserved in Genbanks as well as the concept of Lot which is a group of seeds or plant derived from a single accession. The identification of accessions in the MCPD relies on a triplet of information: the accession number, the holding institution, and the genus plus optional species. The Accession Number is the actual identifier of the plant material and must be unique in the holding institution and genus namespace. This triplet is now completed in GnpIS by a permanent unique identifier through a DOI or an URI (Unified Resource Identifier), as recommended by the FAO (International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources citation). Those permanent unique identifiers are unique at the scale of the World Wide Web.This allows for storing a comprehensive description of the plant material at different levels: identification of the accession of a germplasm collection and of a derived seed lot used in an experiment and the corresponding variety name.For instance, in a Zea maize trial, the variety B73 would have been provided by the INRA maize collection under the accession identifier B73 inra and the B73 inra SMH08 seed lot was experimented.The second important interoperability pivot is the Observation Variable, formalized by the Crop Ontology as three terms that describe (i) the phenotypic or environmental trait, (ii) the method used for the observation or measurement, and (iii) the unit or scale used for this observation [32]. The variable annotates the actual measurement, i.e., Observation, made during the trial. To support FAIR data, the Observation Variable must be fully described and the three terms must be agreed and shared within the relevant crop communities.Architecture. An overview of the software architecture of GnpIS-Ephesis is given in Figure 3. Its originality is to isolate the long-term storage of the data from the query Plant Phenomics layer, which is specific to the current web services and user interfaces. Furthermore, the user interface and the query layer are connected through web services and inspired by the microservice architecture. The storage layer consists of (i) a relational database which implements the conceptual data model and stores the two-dimensional data matrices and (ii) a file repository that stores data files such as images, global description of cultural practices, soil characteristics, NIRS results, and ontologies. The storage layer uncouples components of the phenotyping datasets to ease data curation and update. This is fully implemented for observation variables where datasets are stored in the database and ontologies in the file repository as seen in Figure 3. This allows for updating the ontologies without interfering with the Trials storage.The storage layer relational model is almost fully normalized (in the third normal form) which makes it efficient for storing consistent data on the long term but difficult to optimize for fast querying. Indeed, filtering the data or rebuilding the data matrix for export involves SQL joins between the Observation Unit table (more than 360 000 rows in 2018) and the Phenotype table (near 4 million rows in 2018), plus most of the other tables of the model. This join is costly even with fine-tuned indices such as composite indices or programmatic optimizations, i.e., using several light queries rather than one expensive query. To address this problem, we have explored data denormalization with a pure SQL approach. This proved to be efficient for the expected volumes but was not flexible enough to handle heterogeneous phenotyping data, in particular with respect to the varying width of the data matrices. Furthermore, NoSQL systems allow much easier horizontal scaling to cope with data volume increases.The phenotype query layer was therefore introduced as a document-oriented NoSQL system based on Elasticsearch. Trial and Observation Unit documents are aggregating all the data necessary for querying, filtering, displaying, and exporting whole datasets. This document structure is based on the denormalization of the first normal form [33] by aggregating several objects in a single document. For instance, the trial document includes all the information about locations (coordinates, names, . . .), plant material, and authorship. This simple aggregation is completed by a nesting of data graphs in the documents which can be seen in the Observation Unit document where all observations are listed as objects including value, variable, time, and metadata (Figure 2). Thus, no costly joins are needed between Observation Unit and Observation, well known problems like the select n+1 are avoided and the response time is below one second. GnpIS JSON Documents have been modeled in collaboration with the Breeding API (BrAPI) consortium [12]. GnpIS has contributed to BrAPI with the Observation Unit model and we have adopted the BrAPI Study, Observation Variable, and Germplasm documents which are based on shared standards.Interface. GnpIS provides phenotyping data discovery capabilities and data aggregation among several datasets. The dedicated query form, available in the phenotyping section of GnpIS (https://urgi.versailles.inra.fr/ gnpis/), is based on three tabs: (i) \"Genotype\" for filtering the plant material by species, genetic panel, and collections, (ii) \"Observation variables\" that allows variables selection using a Breeding API compliant open source widget (https://github.com/gnpis/trait-ontology-widget), and (iii) \"Trial\" that contains filters for general metadata like the Phenotyping Campaign, i.e., Year, the location, the datasets list, or project filtering. The trait-ontology-widget (Figure 3) provides a biologist friendly tree navigation and keyword search in the ontologies and displays the full details of each variable. It is specific to the Crop Ontology model and therefore relies on the BrAPI observation variables Web Services rather than a generic ontology server like the Ontology Lookup Service. The selected variables are used to filter the phenotypic data search. It can easily be integrated in any system and is available in the BrAPI Application Showcase (BrAPPs, https://www.brapi.org/brapps.php). Note that the search filters apply not only to the Trials but also to the actual data. In other words, when filtering with a specific variety, we will preview only the trials using this variety, but also only the measurement made on this particular variety. This cross-tab filtering is useful to guide users in the search criterion selection steps.The result page (Figure 4) provides an overview of trials location through an interactive map. The list of selected trials is displayed in the \"Trial list\" tab. On the \"Phenotypic data\" tab, the data from several trials can be previewed with one data matrix by level. Each line of a matrix corresponds to one observation unit. It includes most of the metadata necessary for traceability and reliable data analysis.From the result page, several cards can be accessed to give synthetic overview of key objects, the main one being the Trial and the Accession. The trial card displays all the MIAPPE metadata, plus a free list of key value pairs for additional trial information. The accession card displays all MCPD metadata, the genealogy, primary descriptors (trial independent phenotypic values like the shape of the fruit), pictures, panels, and collections.GnpIS allows data access through Open API (https://www.openapis.org/) compliant web services implementing in particular the Phenotype related sections of the Breeding API, including Germplasm, Study, Location, Observation Variables, and Phenotypes. GnpIS includes BrAPI clients and a publicly available serverside implementation on top of the query layer. A swagger interface provides documentation and a test bench (https://urgi.versailles.inra.fr/Tools/Web-services).GnpIS data publication and integration process includes both a data review step by data managers and an automated validation step to ensure a good balance between data submission ease and data quality. It starts by filling a tabular exchange format available through the web application. This format is the result of several years of collaboration with biology experts including geneticists, agronomists, genotype by environment specialists, researchers, and experimentation managers all working on annual or perennial plant, including forest trees. This exchange format has been designed to be both human and machine readable. This allows data validation and curation by data producers as well as efficient and reliable parsing before database insertion. When submitting a dataset, the users must first consolidate their interoperability pivots. The plant material list must be submitted with minimal information necessary for its identification and GnpIS data managers work in close collaboration with the curators of the INRA genebank collections.The observation variables are handled through the workflow developed with the Crop Ontology Trait Dictionary exchange format v5 (TDv5), with the assistance of GnpIS data managers. They can be either chosen within an existing ontology, added to an existing ontology, or listed in a new dedicated one. Indeed, whole comprehensive new ontologies have been created, like for grapes (Vitis Ontology) or Forest trees (Woody Plants Ontology) (Table 2). As seen in Figure 3, the ontologies are managed and versioned in the INRA GitLab in Crop Ontology TDv5 format, before being integrated within the data layer. Some of them are also being published on the Agroportal [34] and on the Crop Ontology portal which is synchronized with the EBI Ontology Lookup Service [35]. It has sometimes been necessary to create some new parallel ontologies for species which were already present on the Crop Ontology portal. It indeed facilitates the capture of the information about their phenotyping variables in large consortia with a history of data sharing practices. This is the case for the Wheat INRA Phenotype Ontology (WIPO) that shares many traits with the CIMMYT Wheat Crop Ontology (published on the Crop Ontology portal) but lists measurement methods specific of their respective user communities. The merging of those two ontologies is in progress. More than ten ontologies are currently used in GnpIS (Table 2).A data stewardship service to support users in their submission and curation work is offered allowing so far the publication of more than a thousand trials (Table 2).Fully formatted GnpIS exchange format files are submitted, validated, and inserted using the GnpIS toolbox. Dedicated workflows can also be developed collaboratively.The phenotyping data life cycle main steps are data collection, quality control including curation and cleaning, analysis, publication, sharing, and finally reuse. GnpIS mainly supports the three last steps while, for instance, the recently published PHIS [23] supports mainly the first three. Experimentation datasets usually include three types of data: (i) raw untransformed data (images, multispectral images, NIRS, frequencies, etc. . .) which are transformed into (ii) raw transformed data (in International System units, including dates) and finally (iii) elaborated or derived data (stress resistance, biomass, leaf area index, etc.). Depending on the needs, data of the second and third types can be directly managed in GnpIS whose data model has been designed to handle both field and greenhouse experimental data.GnpIS focuses on interoperability and integration capabilities through the usage of MIAPPE, the Breeding API, and the Crop Ontology standards. The system is therefore very versatile and can be used to integrate and consolidate datasets suitable for genetics studies, trait diversity studies in genetic resources, or modeling approaches in physiology.Currently, phenotyping data in GnpIS implements mainly the \"FAIR for the human\" as described in the study by Wilkinson et al. [36]. It is well advanced and allows a good traceability of the data acquisition methods, of its transformation, and experimentation factors. But that information still needs to be expressed with more advanced formalisms to enable FAIR machine readability and to improve the quality of the metadata. Indeed, enabling FAIRness for machines would in particular imply the use of semantic formats, i.e., Resource Description Framework (RDF) and JSON-LD. It is a complex objective that is not only technical but would require an evaluation of the FAIRness of each of the datasets integrated in GnpIS, which is not yet done. In addition, the linked data principles [17] state that every resource must be correctly identified with an HTTP URI, described in RDF, and linked to other resources. This has been partially implemented in GnpIS: the interoperability pivots (Variables, Accessions, and Datasets) are linked to other resources with permanent unique IDs but only the accessions and some datasets have DOIs or URIs. Nonetheless, with the right namespace, GnpIS IDs are unique at the scale of the World Wide Web and therefore provide a strong basis for future full enabling of linked data in GnpIS. The interoperability of GnpIS with other databases is ensured by REST Open APIs, and especially the increasingly adopted Breeding API. REST is well integrated with the current web application development ecosystem. As a consequence, RDF is not planned to be used directly as the main medium for linked data in GnpIS, which will rather be enabled through extension of those APIs using the JSON-LD semantic format, hence enabling the conversion to RDF. A proof of concept has been realized with a Wheat dataset available in a dedicated triple store and as a downloadable RDF file (see link to data in the DOI of [37]).Findability of the datasets by users is enabled through indexing rich metadata and fast querying mechanisms. Accessibility is guaranteed by long-term storage associated with open technologies (HTTP REST) and format (CSV, JSON, and ISATab). The license is by default Creative Commons (CC-BY 4) and can be modified through a DOI associated with specific datasets.Interoperability in GnpIS also relies on data curation and integration aiming at the unambiguous identification of the pivot data and the use of standard formats for metadata descriptions and vocabularies, which is a costly effort [38]. In our experience, the most difficult points are the correct identification of the plant material and the development of the appropriate Crop Ontology variable list when it does not exist yet. This curation process is greatly eased by the uncoupling of the datasets and the ontologies which allow seamless updates of the variable ontologies. Indeed, upgrading an ontology version, or switching back to a previous version in case of problems, can be done in less than an hour by a data manager. The Crop Ontology community is also working on easing the process of building and enriching ontologies from information systems like Cassavabase [39] which provides a web form for creating or requesting new variables.The use of the CO approach and trait dictionary format to submit Observation Variables in GnpIS has two objectives. The first one is to guide and capture agreements within a research network on measurement methods which allows consistent data collection and analysis. The originality of the Crop Ontology approach [40] is to build a set of species specific, or clade-specific, variable ontologies, rather than building a global variable ontology, which would be difficult if not irrelevant. Therefore, the second objective is to focus on a better standardized list of traits and to let communities freely create methods and variables adapted to their research. This work has begun within the Planteome initiative, and could be extended by publishing common Trait lists. To ease this process, we are considering maintaining two sets of ontologies for some species, one to address the specific needs of GnpIS communities and to act as a clearing house for variable curation and validation and the other which is much broader and therefore published on references portals. With this pragmatic approach, the FAIRness of the datasets is ensured either by annotating with existing ontologies, published in Crop Ontology, or by creating ad hoc ontologies following the proven CO model.Particular Observation Variables use cases needed some adaptations of the recommendations of the Crop Ontology while keeping semantic interoperability. A good example are complex variables, elaborated by combining several variables like, for instance, measurement of plant height at flowering (combination of flowering time and plant height time series) or green Berry pH and mature Berry pH (combination of berry composition with phenology). In those examples, we are dealing with classical trait/method/scale variables combined with a development stage or a treatment duration. Creating the variables covering all the needed combinations would lead to ontologies with several thousands of variables. GnpIS proposes to create complex variables specific of the trial and which are not listed as such in the Crop Ontology. Each of those specific variables are annotated by a crop ontology variable, hence linking them to reference variables. For instance, the variable Canker lesion length (CO 357:0000088) annotates two local variables, Bacterial canker lesion length 1 or 2 years after inoculation (Canker length.2 and Canker length.1). This example can be found with the Trial Code \"POP2-Orleans-chancre\". This way, any variable necessary for a given experiment can be freely created as long as it is linked to a variable existing in a crop ontology. In the future, those specific variables could be simple text description annotated with IDs taken from several reference ontologies (e.g., Plant Environmental Condition Ontology for the treatment part, Plant Ontology for the growth stage part, . . .).Curation of the plant material identifiers is more difficult to achieve. Indeed, while the MCPD standard provides identification principles, their application is community-based and cannot be automated for the moment. Currently, the plant material ID curation is a prerequisite for each dataset integration and publication in collaboration with the data providers. Once achieved, GnpIS associates with each accession a DOI generated by INRA to ensure a good traceability of the plant material and an unambiguous identification across any federation of information systems. This curation process, however, can introduce a delay in data publication.Reusability in GnpIS varies from one phenotype dataset to the other. Data is generally available in easily parsable standard open formats: OpenAPI (BrAPI), JSON, and MIAPPE compliant Isa Tab or csv. They are currently being improved to better handle traceability of environment parameters and field practices. This type of data can currently be handled in GnpIS through variables like lodging or hail storm dates, comments on each variable or files describing field practices attached to the Trial. There is, however, no clear standard way yet proposed in GnpIS for this type of data. Since they are very important on the long term for meta-analysis, their submission should be facilitated in the future through a full upgrade of GnpIS to MIAPPE v1.1. Finally, the documentation of the provenance of the dataset, including measurement methods and data processing, is only partial and varies too much. The use of dedicated systems like the Phenotyping Hybrid Information System (PHIS) by the data producers would certainly facilitate the capture of all the metadata and their MIAPPE compliant publication in GnpIS.Plant Science. Making data FAIR is necessary to enhance knowledge development and innovation but has an important cost as it requires time of different types of experts to standardize the data (experts in standards maintaining registries and often tools facilitating their use, experts in the specific type of data considered, and computer engineers maintaining the repositories). It is therefore important to build international communities of practice around suites of tools that facilitate the generation of linked data and ensure a better sustainability of these tools. MIAPPE, BrAPI, and the Crop Ontology are good examples of such suites that are the products of a close collaboration between computer scientists and biologists from various communities at the global level. The importance of the implication of end users is well demonstrated in the collaboration with the Crop Ontology. Indeed, the biologist friendly framework built within this initiative and based on the CGIAR experience has been easily adopted by GnpIS and Elixir Plant communities. This greatly helped to improve the quality of our datasets and in turn will open collaborations with large initiatives in the domain of plant ontologies like Planteome or Agroportal.The implementation of these standards in GnpIS together with data curation efforts in collaboration with the data producers have been instrumental to ensure GnpIS interoperability at a larger scale. Indeed, GnpIS is included in international data repositories federations including Elixir plant community, Emphasis (https://emphasis.plantphenotyping.eu/), and the WheatIS. The use of common global standards focused on interoperability allows independent updates of the members of a federation and should enhance the sustainability of the tools built at the global level to support the federation and in the end of the whole federation.GnpIS provides an archive for phenotyping experimental data compliant to FAIR principles in terms of data access, traceability of the metadata, and citability of the datasets. It applies open data recommendations promoted by several national and international infrastructures, scientific societies, and funding agencies. It also allows for integrating different sets of data to support different types of researches in the field of the adaptation to environment or to the impact of climate change. As there is no global archive for phenotyping data, GnpIS has been built to be integrated in several federations of information systems accessible through common data portals, the oldest one being the WheatIS portal. This has been possible thanks to the continuous implementation of the current standards recommended by the international community, hence facilitating interoperability between information systems and data integration and providing strong foundations for new federations.Findable ","tokenCount":"6144"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6a4d10652fb485989faed41a2617bcc1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5a98e094-64ef-4b2c-bd96-c8d81fc9cff3/content","id":"-871766953"},"keywords":["Bhutan","employment","income","inequality","nonfarm","rural JEL codes: D33","J24","J46","O17","O18"],"sieverID":"aa5a2476-8944-4ca4-9742-ab7017587f1d","pagecount":"30","content":"Using the 2012 Bhutan Living Standard Survey, this paper finds that rural nonfarm activities comprise 60.7% of rural household income in Bhutan and this contribution increases with higher income and education levels. The poor and less educated participate less in the nonfarm sector. When they do, they are selfemployed in petty nonfarm activities, which require little investment and little or no skills. Accounting for endogeneity and sample selection issues, we estimate the determinants of participation in nonfarm activities and nonfarm incomes. We find that a household's education and labor supply play an important role in accessing more remunerative nonfarm employment. Interestingly, we find that women play an important role in self-employment in nonfarm activities. Decomposition shows that nonfarm income has a disequalizing effect and farm income has an equalizing effect, indicating the need to increase the endowment of poor households to enable them to access the lucrative rural nonfarm sector. Further decomposition reveals that self-employment in petty nonfarm activities reduces inequality.Over the last 3 decades, Bhutan has achieved remarkable growth and development. Gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices has increased from Nu1,154 million ($17.5 million) in 1981/82 to Nu99,455 million ($1,507 million) in 2012/13. Real annual GDP growth averaged 8. 4%, 6.7%, and 8.2% during 1981/82-1990/91, 1991/92-2000/01, and 2001/02-2012/13, respectively. Agriculture has traditionally been the main source of income for most of the population. However, as a result of the slow growth of the agriculture sector and a decline in the contribution of agriculture to GDP from 41.3% in 1980/81 to 27.8% in 2000/01, and further to 17% in 2012/13, the Bhutanese economy has gone through massive structural changes. Average annual growth in the agriculture sector declined from 5.5% in 1981/82-1985/86 to 1.3% in 2006/07-2012/13. Thus, participation in nonfarm sectors is of paramount importance for growth, livelihoods, and poverty reduction. An important question is whether the rural labor market has moved in the direction of increased participation in the rural nonfarm sector. This study takes a comprehensive look at the sources of income that rural households in Bhutan rely upon.This paper attempts to understand the determinants of participation in nonfarm activities and of the levels of incomes derived from these activities in order to answer the following research questions: (i) What types of nonfarm activities do rural households engage in? Do they mainly engage in self-employment or work for wages? (ii) What determines participation in nonfarm employment? (iii) What is the impact of rural nonfarm activities on inequality? (iv) What should be the main focus of strategies aimed at supporting the growth of nonfarm activities in rural Bhutan?Recent literature has shifted attention toward the heterogeneity of rural nonfarm sectors (Barrett et al. 2005;Micevska and Rahut 2008;Rahut et al. 2014;Rahut andMicevska Scharf 2012a, 2012b). Thus, this paper differentiates between nonfarm self-employment and employment with respect to wages. Heterogeneity is further addressed by differentiating between self-employment in business and petty self-employment (e.g., handicrafts and pottery). By taking into account the heterogeneity of the nonfarm sector, we aim to refine our knowledge of factors that have an impact on the labor allocation of rural households.The importance of education for participation in rural nonfarm sectors has been widely recognized, particularly high-return, nonfarm employment. However, the empirical evidence that accounts for endogeneity is scant. In examining the impact of education on the employment decisions of households, this paper adopts a different approach.To identify the structural relationship between education and participation in the nonfarm sector, we estimate probit and Tobit models with endogenous education by using the education of the spouse and marriage at an early age as instruments for education. Furthermore, when estimating income from economic activities, we recognize the existence of both simultaneity and self-selection issues, and estimate sample selection models with endogenous education.This paper decomposes inequality by income sources to examine the marginal effect of the income sources on inequality, taking into account the heterogeneity of rural nonfarm income.The remainder of this article is organized as follows. Section II briefly discusses the empirical literature on rural nonfarm employment. Section III presents the dataset and the variables employed in our analysis. Section IV describes the extent and nature of nonfarm employment in rural Bhutan. In Sections V and VI, we report the results of an empirical enquiry of the determinants of participation in nonfarm activities and of income derived from these activities. Robustness checks are presented in Section VII and inequality decomposition in Section VIII. In the last section, we present our concluding thoughts and reflect on the policy implications.Against the backdrop of widespread and deep-rooted poverty, rural-urban migration driven by poverty, and the inability of the agriculture sector to employ a growing population, there has been increasing interest among policy makers and researchers in rural nonfarm sectors in developing economies (Janvry and Sadoulet 2001;Lanjouw and Lanjouw 2001;Micevska and Rahut 2008;Reardon, Berdegué, and Escobar 2001;Haggblade, Hazell, and Reardon 2009), including with regard to improving welfare and decreasing poverty (Ruben 2001;Holden, Shiferaw, and Pender 2004).Unlike traditional beliefs that rural households are mainly farm households, recent literature points out that rural households have several sources of income (Dercon and Krishnan 1996;Ellis 1998;Barrett, Reardon, and Webb 2001). Rural households diversify into nonfarm sectors for several reasons, including to cope with a shock in the agriculture sector (Alderman andPaxson 1992, Collier andGunning 1999) and to maximize the return on assets (Rahut and Micevska Scharf 2012a).Livelihood diversification studies in rural Africa confirm that poor households are less diversified despite the fact that they should be more risk-averse (Dercon and Krishnan 1996, Reardon 1997, Barrett et al. 2005), which makes it difficult to assess the role of risk as a factor in their participation in nonfarm activities. Therefore, the current paper focuses on the role of factors other than household risk aversion on participation in the rural nonfarm sector. Although a rural household would like to participate in rural nonfarm activities, not all households have the capacity to participate because of several impeding factors.Education is one of the most important factors determining a household's ability to participate in nonfarm activities. Using case studies from 11 Latin American economies, Reardon, Berdegué, and Escobar (2001) concluded that education is the key factor determining participation and success in rural nonfarm employment. In the introduction to seven studies on income diversification in rural Africa, Barrett, Reardon, and Webb (2001) argue that educational attainment is one of the most important determinants of nonfarm earnings, especially in more remunerative employment. Interestingly, Micevska and Rahut (2008) found a differential role for education on participation in high-return and low-return nonfarm employment in the foothills of Sikkim and Darjeeling in India.In Asia, there are several studies that have highlighted the association between education and participation in the rural nonfarm sectors. Fafchamps andQuisumbing (1999, 2003) argue that better-educated males in rural Pakistan earn higher nonfarm incomes and are more likely to undertake nonfarm work. Yang and An (2002) show that education improves the allocation of household resources between agricultural and nonagricultural activities in rural parts of the People's Republic of China. Micevska and Rahut (2008) conducted an enquiry on participation in nonfarm activities in the Himalayas and showed that education plays a major role in accessing more remunerative nonfarm employment.The effect of physical assets (land and nonland) on participation in nonfarm activities is ambiguous (Reardon, Delgado, and Matlon 1992). A negative impact of landholdings on participation in nonfarm employment has been reported in Thailand (Rief and Cochrane 1990) and Viet Nam (Van de Walle and Cratty 2004), while a positive impact was found in Burkina Faso (Reardon, Delgado, and Matlon 1992) and India (Lanjouw and Shariff 2004). In the current study, we have divided land into three categories-wetlands, drylands, and orchard-to assess if a differential role for land exists with respect to participation in rural nonfarm activities.Larger households are more easily able to meet the demand for subsistence agriculture and supply their surplus labor for nonfarm activities. Several studies across the globe have confirmed the correlation of participation in nonfarm activities and the size and composition of the household (Reardon 1997, Fafchamps and Quisumbing 2003, Rahut and Micevska Scharf 2012b).Literature on the role of gender has been mixed: while some studies find that males dominate the nonfarm sectors (see, for example, Fafchamps and Quisumbing 2003), other research observes that, in certain types of nonfarm activities, women are more heavily represented than men (Corral andReardon 2001, Elbers andLanjouw 2001). In Cambodia, female-headed households participate more in all types of nonfarm activities (Rahut and Micevska Scharf 2012b). Thus, the mixed findings on the role of gender vary across economies depending on social norms and the status of female members in the household and in society.Although one can find several studies exploring participation in rural nonfarm activities in other Asian economies (see, for example, Fafchamps and Quisumbing 2003;Lanjouw and Shariff 2004;Micevska and Rahut 2008;Rahut et al. 2014;Rahut andMicevska Scharf 2012a, 2012b;Rief and Cochrane 1990;Van de Walle and Cratty 2004;Zhang, Huang, and Rozelle 2002), there is a lack of empirical research on nonfarm sectors in rural Bhutan.The literature on the impact of nonfarm income on income inequality is divergent. Some researchers have found that nonfarm income increases inequality (Reardon and Taylor 1996;Canagarajah, Newman, and Bhattamishra 2001;Kung and Lee 2001), while others have found that it decreases inequality (Adams and He 1995, Janvry and Sadoulet 2001, Zhu and Luo 2006). Such contradictory results could be related to aggregation of different nonfarm activities with different returns to labor (Dercon and Krishnan 1996). Low-return, nonfarm employment has an inequality-decreasing effect and high-return, nonfarm employment has an increasing effect (Scharf and Rahut 2014).In this paper, we take a detailed look at nonfarm activities in rural Bhutan using the most recent and nationally representative dataset collected by the National Statistical Bureau of Bhutan. The major contribution of this paper is fourfold. First, we estimate probit and Tobit models with endogenous education by using the education of the spouse and age of marriage as instruments for education. Furthermore, when estimating income from economic activities, we recognize the existence of both simultaneity and self-selection issues and estimate sample selection models with endogenous education. Second, while the study of rural nonfarm employment and income is very important for poverty reduction and improving the well-being of the rural population because of the rapid structural transformation of the Bhutanese economy in recent decades, there is no such study at present. Third, we estimate the role of peer effects on participation in nonfarm employment and the role of concentration in nonfarm income. Fourth, we estimate the effect of sources of income on income inequality.This study uses data from the 2012 Bhutan Living Standard Survey (BLSS 2012) (NSB and ADB 2012) to explore the determinants and impacts of nonfarm employment on income inequality in Bhutan. The data were collected by the National Statistics Bureau of Bhutan with funding from the Asian Development Bank. The BLSS 2012 followed the methodology of the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study. The selection of sample households was based on two mutually exclusive sampling frames for rural and urban areas. Since this paper focuses on rural nonfarm employment and its impact on inequality, the sampling methodology for rural households is described below.The 2005 Population and Housing Census of Bhutan-conducted at the village level and updated after a more recent listing of activities such as those in the Bhutan Multiple Indicator Survey-was used to construct the sampling frame of primary sampling units for rural areas. Rural villages with fewer than 10 households were combined with adjacent villages; the total sample size for rural areas was 4,986. Primary sampling units were selected in proportion to size, and households in a selected primary sampling unit were drawn randomly so that the selection probability was constant within a group or stratum and selection probabilities across strata did not vary widely within the rural strata. The BLSS 2012 collected information from the selected households for the year preceding the interview through an integrated household questionnaire covering consumption, expenditure, assets, housing, education, health, fertility, and prices for different commodities.The dependent variables of interest in this study are related to participation in nonfarm activities and the levels of income derived from these activities. To account for the heterogeneity of the nonfarm sector, we distinguish between two main types of nonfarm activities: self-employment and wage employment. It is important to differentiate between these two types of economic activity because self-employment income includes returns to entrepreneurship, risk-taking, and capital, while wage income does not. It is also important to take into account the returns to labor in nonfarm employment. To do this, we use information from the survey to further classify self-employment in nonfarm activities into two types: business activities and other activities such as handicrafts and pottery. Self-employment in business provides relatively higher returns, while self-employment in handicrafts and pottery usually provides low returns and is physically demanding.We use the following explanatory variables in the analysis life-cycle effects, which are captured by age and the age-squared of the household head; and the demand for farm labor by households, which is measured by farm size in acres. We have divided the land into three categories: wetlands, drylands, and orchard.The supply of labor by households is captured by the household size (total members in the household). This study also uses the number of men and women of prime working age (15-65 years old) separately to capture the differentiated impact of gender on participation in nonfarm activities. We included the number of children under the age of 15 years and adults older than 65 years to measure the impact of dependency on the choice of livelihood. Level of education within the household is measured in different ways. First, we use years of education of the household head. Then, taking into account differences in education levels and the diversification of farm tasks by gender, we consider specifications of education that allow for different gender effects. In particular, we use the average education level of adult males and females and the highest level of schooling completed by adult males and females separately. In addition, to account for the nonlinearity of educational effects, we divide the household into several categories according to the highest level of education attained by the household head: no formal schooling, less than primary, completed primary, completed high school, and tertiary education. We regard the results of educational effects as robust when they are present in all specifications. An important limitation of household surveys, such as the BLSS 2012, is that they generate cross-sectional data that are usually not adequate to establish causal relationships between education and nonfarm employment since the optimal education decision depends on the expected labor market outcomes. In addition, education and nonfarm employment tend to be correlated with unobserved factors, such as intelligence and motivation. Fortunately, the BLSS 2012 provides information on instrumental variables that can be used to account for the endogeneity of education, such as age of first marriage of the household head and the education level of the spouse of the household head. The rationale for using marriage at an early age as an instrument is that it is correlated with educational choices but not correlated with current employment choices and earnings. Using the education level of the age of marriage as an instrument should reduce concerns that the correlation between education and nonfarm activities actually depicts family background. In order to account for accessibility to markets, we use a distance-to-market measure in terms of the time taken to reach the market. Interregional disparities are captured by classifying the households into 20 districts and Thimphu, which as the capital city of Bhutan is used as a base category. Although we include only rural households in the analysis, it is still important to control for regional differences as access to nonfarm sectors probably varies with geography. District dummy variables should capture differences in economic development and account for differences in agricultural potential, institutional arrangements, infrastructure, prices, and other unobserved region-specific characteristics as well.One of the major contributions of this study is the endeavor to capture the role of peer effects on participation in nonfarm employment. The peer effect is measured by the number of household members excluding oneself pursuing rural nonfarm activities, wage employment in nonfarm activities, self-employment in business, and self-employment in handicrafts and pottery. This paper also captures the effects of the concentration of nonfarm activities in the village on the level of income from particular sources. The effects of the concentration of nonfarm activities contribute to higher incomes overall because of competition, and higher incomes from business as the competition attracts large numbers of customers to the village.Table 1 shows the contribution to total rural household income by income source across income quintiles. Nonfarm employment contributes 60.7% to rural household incomes across all income quintiles, while agriculture contributes only 23.7%. Within nonfarm income, wages contribute 47.9% to household income, business (self-employment) contributes 11.7%, and handicrafts and pottery contribute only 2.1%. This indicates that wage employment arising from industries and infrastructure development plays an important role in rural livelihoods, and that only a small section of rural Bhutanese households are engaged in business (self-employment).The share of agriculture in household income declines and the share of nonfarm income increases as income rises across quintiles, indicating the importance of nonfarm sectors to richer households. The share of agriculture in household income in the lowest (first) quintile is 45.7% and it falls to only 16.9% in the top (fifth) quintile. The contribution of nonfarm income to household income is 32.1% in the lowest quintile and 67% in the top quintile.Table 2 shows the relation between income sources and the level of education of the household head. With an increase in the level of education, the share of agriculture in household income decreases. The share of agricultural income is 32.5% for households whose heads do not have any formal education, 4.9% for households whose heads have completed high school, and 0.8% for households whose heads have completed university. The contribution of nonfarm activities to income rises with an increase in the level of education of the household head. The contribution of nonfarm activities to income is 50.8% for households whose heads do not have any formal education and 96.8% for households whose heads have completed university. This analysis reiterates the importance of education for employment in nonfarm activities, particularly wage employment.We estimated the determinants of participation in nonfarm activities using a probit model. Unlike many previous studies, we recognize that the level of education of the household head is endogenous to nonfarm participation because the optimal education decision depends on expected labor market outcomes. We use instrumental variable probit regressions to remove the potential endogeneity problems in the first stage of the regression; the level of education of the household head is regressed on all exogenous variables and the following instruments: the education of the spouse of the household head and the age of first marriage. The null hypothesis of exogeneity is rejected in all regressions, except for self-employment in nonfarm activities (business). Thus, correcting for endogeneity bias is appropriate in most cases.The result from the instrumental variable probit in Table 3 shows that education plays a fundamental and differential role in a household's participation in nonfarm activities. Higher levels of education enable households to participate in nonfarm wage employment, while education is negatively associated with participation in self-employment in petty nonfarm activities (e.g., handicrafts and pottery). Education is insignificant for participation in nonfarm self-employment, highlighting the fact that self-employment in nonfarm activities does not require prior education. A strong preference for wage employment among the more educated households arises from the fact that wage employment pays more and is less risky compared with self-employment.For wage employment, we observe a U-shaped relation: with the increase in age, the probability of participation in wage employment decreases initially and increases later. Participation in nonfarm self-employment does not show any relation to age.With regard to gender, we observe a negative effect of female headship on the probability of participation in wage employment and self-employment in petty nonfarm activities (handicrafts and pottery), but a positive effect on participation in self-employment in nonfarm business. This result suggests that female-headed households engage themselves in business in contributing to family incomes.As expected, a larger labor supply in a household is associated with a higher probability of participation in nonfarm activities as a larger household has surplus labor and can more easily allocate workers to nonfarm employment. A similar result is observed for working-age males and females for participation in nonfarm activities. A working-age female has a positive effect on participation in self-employment in nonfarm business and petty nonfarm activities such as handicrafts and pottery, while a working-age male has a positive effect for participation in nonfarm wage employment. Women in Bhutan are enterprising and run small businesses such as shops and vegetable vending to support their families, while most of the men seek wage employment. This finding also reflects gender-differentiated economic roles in rural Bhutan.Reconfirming the findings from previous studies, the results show that households with less land are more likely to work for wages off the farm; we find a negative effect for wetlands, drylands, and orchard on participation in wage employment in nonfarm activities. We also observed a negative association with orchard land and  participation in self-employment in petty nonfarm activities, while orchard land has a positive association with participation in self-employment in nonfarm business because households with an orchard generally earn large incomes and do not need to participate in petty nonfarm activities for their livelihood. Distance to market does not seem to influence participation in nonfarm activities. Peer effects, as measured by the percentage of households in the village participating in nonfarm activities (excluding the household itself), shows a positive association with participation in all nonfarm activities. In communities and villages, a household's behavior and activities are heavily influenced by their neighbors; rural households adopt livelihood strategies and technologies based on what their neighbors are doing.Spatial analysis shows that participation in wage employment in nonfarm activities is positive and significant in three districts-Pema Gatshel, Samtse, and Zhemgang-while it is either insignificant or negative for the rest when compared with the capital city, Thimpu. Pema Gatshel and Zhemgang are poor districts with degraded land. As a result, households in these districts explore nonfarm employment opportunities. Samtse is a vibrant district bordering the Indian state of West Bengal with lots of opportunities for trade because there is a concentration of industries like mining, juice factories, and cement factories. Households in Thimphu are more likely to participate in nonfarm self-employment because of the city's large population, higher incomes, and proximity to markets.To gain further insight, we analyze the determinants of the intensity of participation. The intensity of participation in nonfarm activities is measured by the share of income from a particular activity in total household income. As the dependent variable is bound between 0 and 1, the equations are estimated as an instrumental variable Tobit. The findings in Table 4 reinforce those of Table 3.Education has a differentiated impact on participation in nonfarm employment. The association between education and wage employment is positive and significant, while it is negative and significant with self-employment in petty nonfarm activities. Similarly a household's male labor supply (between 15 and 65 years old) is positive and significant for wage employment in nonfarm activities, and negative and significant for self-employment in petty nonfarm activities. The female labor supply is positive and significant for self-employment in nonfarm business and self-employment in petty nonfarm activities. The gender of the labor force available in the household influences participation in different activities differently. The number of children under 15 years old is positive for wage employment in nonfarm activities, indicating the existence of child labor. Female-headed households are less likely to participate in nonfarm wage employment and more likely to participate in nonfarm self-employment. Ownership of drylands is negatively associated with wage employment. The ownership of an orchard is negatively associated with wage employment and petty nonfarm self-employment, while it is positively associated  with self-employment in nonfarm business, indicating the differential impact of wealth on the choice of participation in rural nonfarm employment.Analysis of employment participation in rural nonfarm sectors merely tells us whether the household participates in nonfarm activities or not. Therefore, in this section, we endeavor to understand the determinants of household income from different nonfarm activities. We estimate the income equation using a sample selection model with an endogenous education variable because not all households derive income from nonfarm activities (Wooldridge 2002).In addition to instrumenting education, we use two variables to identify restrictions at the first stage of the regressions: land (see, for example, Fafchamps and Quisumbing 1999) and the peer effect percentage of households in nonfarm activities in the village (excluding the household itself). In the second stage, we use the variable percentage of the household in nonfarm activities to measure the effect of the concentration of activities and competition on income. In the first stage, we estimate exactly the same probit model specified in Tables 3 and 4. The income equations in the second stage are estimated in logs and the results are presented in Table 5.The result shows a U-shaped relationship between age and earnings from wage employment; initially, the wage income decreases with age and after a certain minimum it increases. A similar association is observed between age and earnings from self-employment in petty nonfarm activities. The earnings from self-employment in nonfarm business activities increase with an increase in age and decrease after a certain point.Female-headed households earn 4.6 times less income from wage employment and 11.7 times more income from self-employment in nonfarm business activities than male-headed households, indicating that while rural women in Bhutan are disadvantaged in the nonfarm wage labor market, they are highly enterprising. The male labor force is positively associated with earnings from nonfarm wage employment and nonfarm self-employment, while it is negatively associated with income from self-employment in petty nonfarm activities. The female labor force is positively associated with income from self-employment in nonfarm business activities and petty nonfarm self-employment. The number of elderly is negatively associated with earnings from nonfarm wage employment and nonfarm petty self-employment, while it is positively associated with income from nonfarm self-employment in business activities.Education is associated with higher nonfarm income and it is positively associated with income from nonfarm wage employment and nonfarm business self-employment, but negatively associated with earnings from self-employment in  petty nonfarm activities. This is not surprising as petty self-employment mostly comprises simple activities with low returns that require little or no skill. The concentration of rural nonfarm activities is likely to have a strong positive influence on income from different sources of rural nonfarm activities because of competition. Compared to Thimphu, income from wages in nonfarm activities are higher for those households in Monggar, Paro, Pema Gatshel, Samtse, Trashi Yangtse, Trongsa, Wangdue, and Zhemgang, while it is negative or insignificant for the rest. The earnings from self-employment in nonfarm business activities are lower for all the districts compared with Thimphu. Income from self-employment in petty nonfarm activities (handicrafts and pottery) is positive only for Pema Gatshel and Lhuentse, while it is either negative or insignificant for the rest.In order to establish the robustness of the key results reported in the preceding section, we estimate a model with alternative specifications and present selected results in Tables 6, 7, and 8. Since the analysis in Section VI shows that the education level of the household head is a key determinant of participation in and income from nonfarm activities, we present estimates from alternative specifications in which education is measured as the level of education of the oldest member of the household, average level of schooling, and maximum level of schooling completed by an adult of the household. To account for the differences in the role of males and females separately, we also estimate the equation with the average level of schooling and the highest level of schooling completed by an adult male and adult female member of the household. The estimates are qualitatively similar to the corresponding estimates in Tables 3, 4, and 5: education has a positive impact on participation in nonfarm wage employment and nonfarm business self-employment, and a negative impact on self-employment in petty nonfarm activities.To account for the nonlinearity of education, we divided the level of education into no formal education, less than primary, completed primary, completed high school, and completed university, and estimated the determinants of participation in and income derived from nonfarm employment. The result shows that the marginal effect is positive and progressively increasing for participation in and income derived from wage employment, while it is positive and significant for participation in self-employment in nonfarm business only for less than primary and completed primary, and it is negative for completed high school, and negative and significant for completed university. Participation in self-employment in petty nonfarm activities is insignificant for less than primary and completed primary, and it is negative and significant for completed high school and completed university.We replaced the number of adult males and females with household size (total number of household members) and found a strong and positive relationship with participation in nonfarm employment. Wealth status, as measured by a dummy of households with a flush toilet, shows a positive association with participation in nonfarm self-employment.The income from nonfarm wages and self-employment are positively associated with the level of education attained by the eldest member of the household and the maximum education of working-age members, confirming that the earnings from all categories of nonfarm activities increase with education. The mean of education of the working-age member is positively associated with income from wage employment, while it is negatively associated with income from self-employment in petty nonfarm activities. The mean and the maximum education of the working-age male member is positive and significant for income from nonfarm wage employment, nonfarm self-employment, and petty nonfarm self-employment, while the mean and the maximum education of the adult female member is positive and significant only for nonfarm wage employment. Specification with nonlinearity of education shows that the earnings from wage employment progressively increase with the increase in the level of education. In the case of income from nonfarm self-employment, it is positive and significant only after the completion of university, while it is significant and positive after the completion of high school for self-employment in petty nonfarm activities. We replaced the number of adult males and females with the household size (total number of household members) and found a strong and positive relation with income from nonfarm employment. Wealth status, as measured by the dummy of households with flush toilets and without flush toilets, shows a positive association of wealth and income from nonfarm self-employment.We decomposed income inequality by income components to determine the contribution of a particular income source to total income inequality based on the methodology proposed by Lerman and Yitzhaki (1985). Table 9 shows the income from each source, the contribution of each component to the overall Gini coefficient, and the elasticity of the overall Gini coefficient to small changes in income components. We divided the total income into three major components: farm income; nonfarm income; and income from other sources such as transfers, remittances, pension receipts, and other sources of unearned income. The contribution of nonfarm income to overall income inequality of about 67% is quite high, compared with only about a 17% contribution from farm income. The elasticity of 0.63 indicates that an increase in nonfarm income increases overall inequality, as opposed to an increase in farm income, which decreases the overall Gini coefficient. However, on further disaggregation of rural nonfarm income sources, we find that not all nonfarm sources of income are associated with higher income inequality. An increase in income from self-employment in handicrafts and pottery actually decreases overall inequality. Thus, even if self-employment in handicrafts and pottery activities offer very low remuneration levels and therefore no realistic prospects for upward income mobility, such income sources are obviously important from a social welfare perspective. For poorer subgroups of the population, these nonfarm incomes may offer the only means to some level of economic security. On the other hand, income from wage labor in nonfarm and self-employment in nonfarm business activities contributes significantly to overall inequality. This suggests that entry barriers impede the less educated and poor from accessing nonfarm wages and nonfarm business self-employment, thereby causing nonfarm sectors to have distributionally regressive effects on incomes.Bhutan has gone through a remarkable structural transformation during the last 3 decades that has resulted in an increase in the contribution of the secondary and tertiary sectors to GDP, and to the declining role of agriculture in the economy. Against the backdrop of these structural changes, it is important to explore if the rural labor market has moved in the direction of increased participation in rural nonfarm sectors.Rural nonfarm sectors have been widely recognized as an important source of income in the drive for growth and poverty reduction in developing economies. This paper has endeavored to examine the importance of rural nonfarm employment and income in Bhutan, and the determinants of participation in income generation activities in rural nonfarm sectors.Rural nonfarm sectors contribute 60.7% of total rural household income in Bhutan, while the agriculture sector contributes only 23.7%. Among nonfarm activities, nonfarm wage employment is the most important, contributing 47.9% of total rural household income. The analysis shows that the importance of the agriculture sector declines sharply across income quintiles, while the contribution of nonfarm sectors increases, indicating the importance of nonfarm income for richer households. Likewise, we find that the contribution of the agriculture sector decreases with an increase in the education level of the household head, while the contribution of nonfarm sectors increases exponentially with the increase in the level of education. The poor and the less educated participate less in rural nonfarm sectors than richer households. As in most previous studies, we find that education is a key determinant of participation in rural nonfarm sectors and the subsequent income generated.The probit and Tobit model estimation with endogenous regression confirms the importance and differential role of education for participation in rural nonfarm sectors. In addition, the instrumented selection estimation reinforces the level of education on the return from different types of nonfarm activities. To check the robustness of the result, the model was estimated with different specifications for education, which yielded similar results.The results confirm that Bhutanese women play an important role in the family and in society; female-headed households, the number of adult females in the household, and female education systematically influence the labor allocation and income from nonfarm sectors. In fact, women are engaged in self-employment in nonfarm activities and contribute to family incomes. In addition, the results show that ownership of an orchard positively influences participation in nonfarm business self-employment. We find that wealth status is key to assessing nonfarm business self-employment.The policy implications from the analysis are obvious and important: First, raising education levels should be a high priority for improving access to rural nonfarm sectors and reducing poverty. Second, there are significant direct and indirect costs of education that create a critical barrier to access for the rural poor; therefore, providing free education alone is not enough. Third, it is questionable whether the Bhutanese education sector equips rural youth with the skills necessary for successful participation in modern nonfarm sectors. The Bhutanese government policy of compulsory and free education, and equal opportunities to access formal and nonformal education, is a step in the right direction. But while education is free and compulsory, households are expected to pay for the cost of dress and other miscellaneous expenses. In addition to the direct costs, there exists an opportunity cost for sending children to school, which is particularly high for poor families as their children contribute to the livelihood of the family by fetching water and firewood, helping on the farm, selling vegetables, and completing other tasks. During vacation, children from poor Bhutanese families tend to work in the construction sector and as potters on horticulture farms to generate cash income to support their education. Therefore, education policy should provide extra support and incentives to children from low-income families.Returns on investment in education accrue only after a certain level of education is attained; hence, households will invest in education if families can continue to send their children to school beyond high school (Rahut and Micevska Scharf 2012a). In Bhutan, the number of seats available for students significantly decreases after secondary and higher secondary school, making it challenging to get a place for higher secondary, technical, and tertiary education. (See Appendix 1 for more details.) Children of those families who are not able to be placed in government schools and colleges are forced to look for seats in private schools in Bhutan and in India, which is beyond the capacity of poor Bhutanese households. Such a situation creates disincentives for the Bhutanese to send their children to school. The other pressing issue in Bhutan is increasing unemployment among educated Bhutanese, which also creates disincentives for investment in education.Although a major focus of this paper is on demand-side analysis of nonfarm employment, a small part of the analysis investigates the supply side, which is crucial for the transformation of the economy from reliance on the primary sector to the secondary and tertiary sectors. In the probit, Tobit, and Heckman models, we included a variable-peer effect, supply, and concentration of activities-as a proxy to analyze the supply side of nonfarm employment. Results from all three models confirm the importance of the supply of nonfarm sectors for participation in rural nonfarm employment. Therefore, government policies should focus on creating industries and enterprise to generate nonfarm employment opportunities. Given that Bhutan and India share a long and porous border (699 kilometers), as well as a preferential trade agreement, and Bhutan has an abundant supply of energy, the country is in a position to create industries and enterprises to supply employment opportunities that can absorb young Bhutanese in productive nonfarm activities. Such development of industries and enterprises can also lead to the growth of small household businesses to meet the demand for goods and services from large industries and enterprises. (See Appendix 2 for more details.) As Bhutan is increasingly viewed as a sought-after tourist destination, government policies should invest in promoting rural tourism.The investment of resources by the government to encourage the private sector to invest in agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism in rural areas would trigger the growth of productive employment in other sectors of the rural nonfarm economy. Policies should not only encourage private investment in rural sectors, but also foster a business environment that is conducive to the growth of private sector enterprises in rural areas. Sufficient incentives are necessary to encourage manufacturing in rural areas; incentives can be in the form of providing suitable infrastructure, cheap electricity, or a tax holiday. Rural industrialization must adopt a cluster-based approach, where large and medium-sized firms utilize local resources and are linked with small businesses.Rural manufacturing also requires investment in skill formation and entrepreneurship development. Unlike the agriculture sector, in Bhutan, rural nonfarm sectors suffer from the lack of a single institution that supports the development of the rural nonfarm economy. Single window integrated service centers to promote rural nonfarm sectors are a perquisite for the development of the rural nonfarm economy. The Government of Bhutan should also provide social security benefits to participants in unorganized sectors such as agriculture. Rural households would also indirectly benefit from linkages between the nonfarm and farm sectors.Results from the decomposition of inequality by income source show that income from agriculture, livestock, handicrafts, and remittances has an equalizing effect, while income from wage and self-employment in nonfarm activities has a disequalizing effect. Only a small proportion of the population is able to access nonfarm wage and self-employment opportunities. Lucrative nonfarm employment requires a higher level of education, financial capital, and skills; hence, households with a low level of endowments of financial and human capital are only left with the option to engage in the agriculture sector for livelihood. Policies augmenting the endowment of poor households' resources would enable them to participate in lucrative sectors, thereby reducing the disequalizing effect of nonfarm sectors.Increasing the supply of nonfarm employment opportunities and creating an enabling environment for small businesses would absorb the surplus labor in the farm sector and ultimately lead to equilibrium with respect to returns to labor in the farm and nonfarm sectors. However, the results also confirm the importance of the supply of nonfarm employment opportunities, which depends on forces that extend beyond the rural sector, including growth and broader macroeconomic policies. The Government of Bhutan announced a loan program for students to pursue tertiary education in India and Bhutan. In 2015, 99 students were selected to receive a loan to pursue tertiary education in Bhutan and 11 students were selected for a loan to pursue tertiary education in India.Development policies focusing on education can help in augmenting the endowment of rural households and enable them to seek employment opportunities in nonfarm sectors that require higher levels of education and skills. The supply of education and skills development alone will not lead to livelihood diversification into lucrative nonfarm sector opportunities and increases in income and welfare. Therefore, augmenting the supply of rural nonfarm employment opportunities through a comprehensive and inclusive set of macroeconomic policies is crucial for rural industrialization and for expanding the scope of rural nonfarm-based livelihood. The rural nonfarm sector development policy should focus on providing rural infrastructure and incentives to attract investment in rural areas, like tax holidays and the provision of electricity at affordable prices, and on expanding the links between rural areas and urban centers within Bhutan, and with India.","tokenCount":"6947"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3f78e56c61f27fedc3aa20cc7c1c64f9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c9b6d9d5-c831-497a-b163-98cc2be2d52c/retrieve","id":"-715303743"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"928ed8e2-f604-4a97-a27d-cbfbcc2de376","pagecount":"4","content":"Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the Government of Odisha and WorldFish that formed a collaboration between WorldFish and the Fisheries & Animal Resources Development (FARD) Department. As per the terms of the agreement, WorldFish would provide technical support to the FARD Department from July 2016 to March 2022 in order to implement the government's Odisha Fisheries Policy (2015) across the state of Odisha.Sustainable aquaculture and fisheries in Odisha, India, through technical collaboration with the Fisheries and Animal Resources Development DepartmentFisheries and Animal Resources Development Department, Government of Odisha, IndiaJuly 2016-March 2022Government GIFT Tilapia hatchery, Kausalyaganga (left), GIFT Tilapia seed (right).Approximately 9229 women SHGs received training and farmgate extension services on nutrition-sensitive fish farming in Gram Panchayat (GP) tanks on longterm leases. This helped empower more than 92,000 women members of the SHGs under Mission Shakti by increasing their incomes through the sale of large carps and through household consumption of small indigenous fish, specifically mohurali (mola). On average, the SHGs are now making a net annual income of INR 154,000/ha from farming fish in the GP tanks.2. In 2020, in collaboration with PFCS/SHGs, the Government of Odisha rolled out an investor friendly, and socially equitable and environmentally sound, \"single window clearance\" policy for fish farmers, private entrepreneurs, and companies to undertake cage culture in reservoirs. A total of 101 sub-zones were allotted to 96 entrepreneurs for them to take up cage culture on a \"lease-install-operate\" basis in the Hirakud reservoir and, two years later, the entrepreneurs had installed 213 cages (69 circular cages in 23 subzones and 144 rectangular cages in 6 subzones). WorldFish supported the effort by providing them with support in adopting technology for commercial-scale cage culture. Overall, reservoir cage culture in Odisha has the potential to add as much as 125,000 t of fish to the state's fish basket.3. In all 138 reservoirs of the state, the program made reservoir fingerling stocking and fish production more efficient and effective by using a community-based, co-management approach and strictly implementing standard operating procedures. This empowered local fishers with greater fish catches from reservoirs and improved household incomes and nutrition. In addition, a reservoir atlas was prepared to help manage reservoir fisheries resources, both now and in the future.4. To achieve self-sufficiency in fish seed production, the Master Plan for Fish Seed Production was prepared in 2019-2020. As a result, adoption of early breeding of Indian major carps was successfully introduced, Photo credit: Arun Padiyar/WorldFish and four government/OPDC hatcheries were upgraded to mega hatcheries. In addition, introducing genetically improved varieties such as jayanti rohu, catla and amur common carp improved early breeding and seed quality in 49 private hatcheries.5. Technical support was provided for lateral expansion of freshwater aquaculture through Matsya Pokhari Yojana and PMMSY, under which more than 6689 ha of new fishponds were excavated over the past 3 years. To this end, beneficiary farmers received district-and block-level training on better management practices for sustainable and profitable fish farming.6. To increase farmer profits and resilience to climate change, several measures were used to successfully promote crop diversification. A state-of-the-art GIFT hatchery was set up at the government fish seed farm in Kausalyaganga, amur carp seed production was introduced in 11 government hatcheries, and four GIFT hatcheries were established by the private sector. In addition, farmers were given demonstrations on best practices for GIFT production in over 250 acres of farms and were provided with support on how to create market links.7. Nutrition-sensitive carp-mola polyculture was widely promoted throughout Odisha in various types of water bodies, such as GP tanks, private tanks, backyard tanks and and agricultural farm ponds. The goal was to make nutritional gains, especially among vulnerable and tribal communities in the state. To accomplish this, the government brought out suitable schemes for promoting polyculture fish farming system in 10,000 agricultural farm ponds on an annual basis.8. In the freshwater and brackish water sectors, biofloc and polyliners were introduced to jumpstart intensive aquaculture. At total of 7080 biofloc tanks were installed in all 30 districts, and more than 1838 farmers, entrepreneurs and youths were trained to take up this activity.conducted in order to understand ground-level impacts achieved in the fisheries and aquaculture sector as a result of the technical collaboration between WorldFish and the FARD Department. 12. Support was provided to effectively implement a fishing ban in olive ridley turtle nesting sites in three rivermouths and the Bhitarkanika marine wildlife sanctuary along the coast of Odisha. This was done by integrating GIS-based mapping in the Fisher Friend Mobile Application of the department with the GPS navigation systems of the fishing vessels.13. A third party \"Impact assessment study of the FARD-WorldFish technical collaboration\" was impact assessment study of the Odisha-WorldFish Project wasWomen SHG members farming fish in Gram Panchayat tanks (left), Photo 4: Nutritious Small Indigenous Fish (right). Currently, WorldFish is providing technical support to the FARD Department with two externally funded projects:1. The Taking Nutrition-Sensitive Carp-SIS Polyculture Technology to Scale project is supported by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Germany and will be implemented over 3 years (2021)(2022)(2023)(2024). It focuses on developing and disseminating hatchery seed production technology for small indigenous fish species, including mola.2. The One CGIAR Resilient Aquatic Food Systems for Healthy People and Planet (RAqFS) project is funded by the CGIAR Trust Fund and is also a 3-year program (2022)(2023)(2024)(2025). For this project, WorldFish is supporting the FARD Department, as well as other line departments (WCD, Mission Shakti, Water Resources-OIIPCRA project) with implementing fisheries sector development programs, as per the requirements and guidance of the government.","tokenCount":"925"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b79d181bbbcfc7e01966408445bacdcd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4756be11-d16c-4b21-981e-ee676a168966/content","id":"-730569318"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c583c5ab-d38d-4336-a5c8-0ab7b3887023","pagecount":"16","content":"International Public Goods Communications experts suggested, e.g. instead of saying:\"No conclusive evidence of adverse effects of GE crops on health or the environment\"\"GE crops are as safe as non-GE crops\"• Need short, clear, unambiguous messages -There are risks to using any technology• Societies need to legislate and regulate -There are risks to not using GE technologies, for example:• More pesticides will be used if insect resistant GE crops are not available • More hazardous pesticides may be usedmore ecological damage • We might be slower or unable to respond to some arising challenges: diseases, climate change • We will forfeit important health benefits, e.g. reduced acrylamide or mycotoxins; increased micronutrients • Small-holder farmers will be \"left behind\" and fail to benefit from novel technologies• CIMMYT produces international public goods • CIMMYT proactively pursues equity in benefits from its products • GE crops have benefited many farmers, but they are not a \"silver bullet\" • Newer technologies already exist; others will emerge and may likely displace transgenics • Therefore, new varieties must be evaluated for their traits and not for the technologies used in their developmentThank You for Your Interest!","tokenCount":"189"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9750f423910325460157eab48fb23585","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2fabc2db-fd4a-41d9-91f8-a0ccd1fd25d1/retrieve","id":"-2141011914"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fb3c0e1d-7e42-45c6-ba49-54e07aa2ea1f","pagecount":"10","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim research on the scaling of climate services and climate-smart agriculture in Africa, in order to stimulate feedback from the scientific community.1 Introduction Access to climate information services (CIS) and climate smart agriculture (CSA) innovations are key to build farmers' climate resilience and enable them to make adaptive decisions. However, gender inequalities in access to CIS and CSA result in women farmers having low adaptive capacities. This makes them more vulnerable to climate change and variabilities compared to men. Intentionally targeting women and reaching them with the necessary CIS and CSA is crucial to reduce their vulnerabilities and build their climate resilience.Women's collective action through their organisations remains a key strategy for scaling innovations and resilience strategies. Supporting women's collective action is considered as one of the key ways to increase their climate resilience (Huyer, 2021). Aside serving as a conduit to reach women with capacity building activities, women's collective action is a platform where they exercise collective and individual agency to take decisions towards climate adaptation (Mishra & Gadeberg, 2022). Strengthening the capacity of women's groups on CIS-CSA therefore, can be a key pillar for gender-responsive climate smart agriculture intervention.In the last three decades, village savings and loans associations (VSLAs) have come to represent a vital medium for women's mobilisation and collective action in rural areas. These associations represent a medium through which many rural women can be reached with climate smart agriculture interventions. In this Info Note, we put the spotlight on working with VSLAs in Ghana as a key route to gender-responsive CIS-CSA intervention.Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) are a self-managed and self-capitalised savings group of about 15-30 members who use members savings to lend to each other at local rates. Since its inception in the early 1990s, VSLAs have been popularised and spread by non-governmental and civil society organisations across many parts of the developing world. Although VSLAs are primarily set up to offer low-cost savings and loans for the rural poor, they have become a formidable form of organisation in rural communities that have propelled other forms of collective action. Globally, over 75% of VSLA members are women, thus, these associations have become crucial for women's mobilisation (VSL Associates n.d). The strength of VSLAs lie in the strong foundation for community-based action, democratic principles, and accountability which fosters social networking, solidarity and trust, and serve as springboard for collective action.VSLAs are a formidable unit of women's collective action in Ghana. They have become an integral medium through which women mobilise resources for economic activities including investments in agriculture. Nguyen-Perperidis et al., (2023) see VSLAs as having the potential to play a strategic role to launch gender-responsive climate smart agriculture interventions in Ghana. They reiterate that VSLAs provide a platform to reach different categories of women with capacity building on CSA. Also, VSLAs offer an opportunity for women to mobilise financial resources to make capital investments into CIS-CSA. AICCRA Ghana therefore, launched a \"VSLA Plus\" intervention aimed at building women's climate resilience through gender-smart CSA interventions.Insights from a situational analysis (see Obeng Adomaa et al., 2022a) showed that in AICCRA intervention communities, VSLAs were key in mobilising women farmers and to reach them with agro advisories. Thus, in 2022, AICCRA Ghana worked closely with VSLAs to reach women with CIS-CSA innovations. Women VSLAs members were selected as lead farmers to host demonstration activities on CSA in their communities. These women drew other VSLA members to participate in demonstration activities which were also tied to their VSLA meeting days to enable many of them to attend. With successes in reaching women with CSA through VSLAs (See Obeng Adomaa et al., 2022b), AICCRA Ghana launched a VSLA plus intervention in 2023. The VSLA Plus intervention hinged on leveraging on the solidarity and collective action among women in VSLAs to build their collective and individual climate resilience. The main goal of the intervention was to work with women to co-prioritise and implement CIS-CSA innovations that will respond to their lived realities, and promote their use of these innovations to make adaptive decisions. Below are the innovations co-prioritised and implemented with women VSLA groups in AICCRA Ghana VSLA Plus intervention.To reach farmers with CIS and CSA, AICCRA Ghana has been using multiple approaches, including field demonstrations, digital advisories, and in 2023, a radio extension programme. The radio extension programme was particularly scaled as a gender-responsive channel after a pilot in 2022 showed that this channel was effective to reach women who were mainly disadvantaged in accessing digital extension. After few weeks of running the radio programme, a monitoring visit to communities to interact with women in VSLAs revealed that women needed further discussions of information that were disseminated during the radio programme. This according to the women was to help them to make adaptive decisions. AICCRA Ghana together with the women therefore prioritised the need to build the capacities of VSLA groups as radio listener groups and connect them with agriculture extension agents for further discussions. This was implemented and some VSLA groups became radio listener groups. The conjoined activity of radio extension and women's listener groups improved women's access to and use of CIS for adaptive making, especially in planning their planting time, crop and variety selection, and management of pests and diseases. Obeng Adomaa et al., (2023) presents details of this radio extension programme and its outcomes for women's adaptive decision-making.Cowpea remains one of the key crops for women in Ghana. AICCRA has been promoting climate smart cowpea production among women. This intervention comprises the use of improved varieties, good planting methods and use of CIS for adaptive decision making. Women however identified cowpea nematodes and the resultant financial investment in chemical pesticide for control as a challenge they face. To address this challenge, AICCRA together with the women prioritised and implemented the use of neem leaf powder as a bio-pesticide to control nematodes. The women were trained on how to dry neem leaves in shade, pound it and use the powder for soil treatment or seed treatment during planting. The neem leaf powder when applied has nematicidal effect on larvae hatching, inactivation of the larvae and reduction in juveniles, all of which reduce the population of nematodes. Neem leaf extract thus, help to manage cowpea nematodes and reduce the overreliance on chemical pesticides and its associated financial demands. Neem leaf extract as a bio-pesticide therefore, became a major CSA innovation AICCRA Ghana promoted to target the needs of women cowpea farmers. The intervention on cowpea production including management of pests and diseases with neem leaf powder was demonstrated on 13 demonstration plots set-up by AICCRA to train women on climate smart cowpea production, which many women cowpea producers adopted on their farms (Plate 1).3 Plate 1: Some women who implemented AICCRA climate smart cowpea production inspecting their farmsThe women highlighted the importance of getting CIS for post-harvest processing and storage which is mainly their duties in their households. To this aim AICCRA Ghana extended the duration of the radio extension programme and developed content on CIS for post-harvest management to include in the programme. The content on climate smart post-harvest management practices was also discussed with women during their VSLA radio listener group meetings. These agro advisories included weekly weather forecast and associated advisory on how to harvest, dry and process grains properly for storage to reduce post-harvest losses. The right conditions for drying and options for using bio-pesticides to treat grains for storage were given to women.Reducing the drudgery associated with farming is noted to be key for women's ability to adopt CSA practices. Women in the VSLAs indicated that mechanising labour-intensive agriculture activities was crucial for them. First, mechanisation of what is considered as male activities is needed to improve women's ability to access machinery for such labour activities which remains a challenge for many of them; men rarely provide their labour in women's farms. Second, mechanisation of what is considered as women's activities is crucial to enable women free some of their own labour which is demanded in both household farms as well as their own farms. Women's labour is squeezed for productive activities in addition to their reproductive roles, thus, women prioritised mechanisation of agriculture activities (both men and women's activities) as a key component of a genderresponsive CSA intervention that will respond to their lived realities.To this end, AICCRA Ghana in collaboration with CSIR-Crops Research Institute, the African Conservation Network, Centre for No-Till Agriculture the World Bank, and the Korean Green Growth Trust Fund (KGGTF) piloted a sustainable agriculture mechanisation (SAM) project. The needs assessment conducted for this pilot (See Amankwaa- Yeboah et al., 2023) indicated that there is low capacity among farmers on access to and use of SAM services although there is a high potential for farmers to adopt and pay for these services with funding from their VSLAs. Farmers indicated their preferences for SAM options such as land preparation with crimpers and rippers, no-till planting/seeding, and slashing for weed management. Insights from the needs assessment informed activities in the pilot where stakeholder support was garnered to build awareness on availability of SAM services among farmers and to set-up demonstration plots to demonstrate the use and performance of SAM services in one of AICCRA intervention communities (Plate 2).Plate 2: Farmers participating in AICCRA demonstration on SAM.Majority of farmers (53%) intend to rely on VSLAs as their primary source of funds for SAM services. This reiterated the strategic position of VSLAs to promote access to and use of SAM services through capacity building activities. Thus, the SAM pilot like other AICCRA demonstration was also conducted in close collaboration with VSLA groups. This enabled many women to build their capacities on how to access and use SAM services individually and/or as a group.Discussions with women in VSLAs brought to the fore the need for more women especially those outside AICCRA intervention communities to benefit from AICCRA Ghana gender-smart innovations. They reiterated the strategic opportunity working with existing network of government extension officers offers to reach other women with CIS-CSA innovations. To this end, AICCRA Ghana worked closely with officers from the women in agriculture development directorate (WIAD) of Ghana's department of agriculture as champions of AICCRA gender-smart CSA innovations. WIAD officers have the mandate to oversee the development and implementation of gender-responsive programme for women in agriculture, ranging from production to processing and nutrition enhancement. AICCRA Ghana convened a meeting of WIAD officers from the projects 11 implementing districts as well as leaders of other women's groups and organised capacity building workshops for them on AICCRA gender-smart CSA innovations. These officers became AICCRA gender-smart champions who worked closely with other women's groups to build their capacities on accessing and using CIS-CSA innovations. Notably, these WIAD officers built the capacity of other women's groups as radio listener groups to listen to AICCRA radio extension programme. They also trained them on the preparation and use of neem leaf powder to manage cowpea nematodes and other pests of yam and sweet potatoes (Plate 2). The officers encouraged other women's groups to participate in AICCRA field day activities and in some instances, conveyed women's groups from other communities to attend AICCRA demonstration activities. Working with the WIAD officers thus enabled the scaling of AICCRA gender-smart innovations to women's groups in other communities. For women cowpea farmers, their participation in the AICCRA VSLA plus intervention enabled them access innovations for climate-smart cowpea production that increased their productivity. These farmers are testifying to the importance of the AICCRA intervention to improving their cowpea production and incomes. They highlighted that the high-yielding and drought tolerant qualities of seeds, combined with good planting practices, and neem leaf powder to control nematodes culminated into increased output for them with subsequent improvements in their income. Indeed, yield analysis conducted by Yeboah et al., (2023) on AICCRA cowpea demonstration plots reiterates the great potential climate smart cowpea production has to increase yield and incomes for women. Results from the study indicate that there was a yield increase of 128% through AICCRA climate-smart cowpea production compared to the national average yield (Figure 1). And at a selling price of USD1.39/kg (USDA-GAINS, April 2023) yield from AICCRA climate-smart cowpea production can result in USD 1302.01 (118.0 %) more income than what was received for the maximum national average cowpea yield (Figure 2).  2023). (Yeboah et al., 2023).Working with women's groups is noted to be key for building their climate resilience. These groups provide a leverage to reach women with the needed CIS-CSA for adaptive decision making. The novelty of AICCRA Ghana VSLA plus intervention however, laid beyond working with women's groups to easily reach them with CIS-CSA innovations. The success of the intervention was pivoted on the engagement with women who actively participated in charting the course for what they needed to be climate smart. They were active in co-prioritising and implementing listener groups, CIS for post-harvest activities, pilot SAM approaches and building connections with WIAD officers to scale gender-smart innovations to women in other communities. Indeed, working with women's groups remains a key strategy to build their climate resilience. This particularly hinges on leveraging on their effective mobilisation and collective action which offers a strategic entry for co-innovating and adapting validated CIS-CSA to target their lived realities.","tokenCount":"2211"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7460ed3b670c242b591a60ed3aca6393","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cb888c65-ddbd-48f5-be33-dfca298d9f74/retrieve","id":"-525781493"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ec720fce-c83b-44a6-9649-1df37741bcfb","pagecount":"5","content":"Alliance and CCAFS researchers have produced studies advising African Improved Foods (AIF) on opportunities for projected $130M-205M in investment in prioritized value chains in Ethiopia and Kenya, sourcing from an estimated 270k farmers. Based in Rwanda as a public-private partnership involving DSM, Government of Rwanda, and others, AIF is using this research to guide its entrance into the Ethiopian and Kenyan markets, by helping to identify climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive investments in specific value chains.Part II: CGIAR system level reporting Link to Common Results Reporting Indicator of Policies : Yes• 626 -African Improved Foods Investments (https://tinyurl.com/2hqtzgy3) The ERA database was used in the data provided for the GCF concept note being developed. Other CG approaches were used including value chain mapping, climate suitability modeling, climate risk profiling.• 1099 -Evidence for Resilient Agriculture (ERA): a meta-data based tool for technology-shift decision in Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (https://tinyurl.com/2krblsgj)This outcome starts with the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) identifying African Improved Foods (AIF) as a private company interested in expanding its operations into Ethiopia and Kenya using a climate and nutrition evidence-based lens for targeting investment. The GCA then directly identified and funded the Alliance and CCAFS as partners who can provide science-based assistance on climate, nutrition and market opportunities to inform AIF investment decisions.The work was conducted through a very participatory approach with AIF to best deliver research that is relevant to their decision-making processes. At the inception of the project, it became clear that AIF needed to identify a small set of priority value chains for further detailed analysis and consideration for specific investments. The research team quickly designed an approach to analyze a long list of high-interest value chains in each country across a range of indicators on nutrition improvement potential, value addition ability, market potential, price volatility, and production potential. Based on the analysis of indicators across the long list of value chains, AIF selected maize, bean, sorghum, and lentil to focus on in Kenya, and teff, wheat, bean, and lentil to focus on in Ethiopia. This has resulted in direct input into their investment strategy as highlighted in a presentation from the AIF Investor Overview, which notes that AIF priority value chains in Kenya include maize and pulses, and in Ethiopia include maize, teff, sorghum and pulses, all of which were identified in this prioritization of value chains.The Alliance and CCAFS research team further analysed these priority value chains in a \"scoping study\" report for Kenya and Ethiopia that further analysed in more detail the criteria listed above, and went deeper looking at climate change impacts and adaptation options, historic price volatility, price waterfall, processing and value addition opportunitiesThe Alliance and CCAFS built on this in supporting AIF develop a Green Climate Fund (GCF) proposal, as shown in the email from Jaehyang So, GCF Director of Programs (interim), outlining the work proposed to be done in an extremely short one month time period. The research team working quickly and was able to provide valuable information that went into the GCF proposal (see email from Louise Postema, GCF Program Officer). And now we are in contract discussions for the Alliance and CCAFS to further support the Green Climate Fund proposal development process (see email from Claude Mugisha).Gender relevance: 0 -Not Targeted Youth relevance: 0 -Not Targeted CapDev relevance: 1 -Significant Main achievements with specific CapDev relevance: One goal of this scoping study was to build the capacity of AIF for understanding current and future climate risks. Through the use of spatial modeling and risk assessments, Alliance staff worked directly with to help them understand and use this information in the scoping studies for Ethiopia and Kenya. Climate Change relevance: 2 -Principal Describe main achievements with specific Climate Change relevance: This work directly led to AIF selecting value chains to propose investments spatially targeting specific parts of Ethiopia and Kenya. As evidenced above, this information was used in AIF presentations highlighting specific value chains. Moreover, this work is now informing the development of a proposal to the Green Climate Fund to finance some of these investments.Other cross-cutting dimensions description: <Not Defined> Outcome Impact Case Report link: Study #3872 ","tokenCount":"687"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"753f861f54410c815f2c363d39ee8fa6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/11d10a9a-9d9c-4383-b214-f054d94a7ba3/retrieve","id":"1551778527"},"keywords":["Action learning","Adoption","Banana","Ethiopia","Fruit production","Market linkages","Metema","Innovation","IPMS","Value chain"],"sieverID":"2443a22b-26ff-4c74-8405-1df0c64f5ddf","pagecount":"21","content":"Ethiopia has a diverse agro-ecology and sufficient surface and ground water resources, suitable for growing various temperate and tropical fruits. Although various tropical and temperate fruits are grown in the lowland/midland and highland agro-ecologies, the area coverage is very limited. For example, banana export increased from less than 5,000 t in 1961 to 60,000 t in 1972, but in 2003 declined to about 1,300 t worth less than USD 350,000. The limited development of fruit sector in the country could be attributed to input supply constraints, limited skilled manpower and extension approaches and, focus of agricultural development efforts on grain production amongst others. The current government's policy and development strategy prioritizes intensive production and commercialization of agriculture, including fruit production. In an effort to support this change, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) initiated a five year project with financial assistance from Canada, called Improving productivity and Market success (IPMS) of Ethiopian farmers. IPMS follows participatory value chain and Innovation Systems perspectives and focuses on knowledgebased development of identified agricultural commodities with market potential in 10 pilot learning weredas (districts) in four Regional States. One of the weredas is Metema where the project introduced banana production. The objective of this paper is to share IPMS experiences in promoting innovation in banana value chain development in Metema wereda. The paper provides a brief history of banana introduction in Ethiopia, describes the value chain in banana production, input supply and marketing and the various innovations that have been introduced to develop the chain, with a focus on actors and action learning processes. The future outlooks of banana value chain and the reasons for the successful adoption of the innovation and the options to sustain it so that the value chain can respond to changing conditions are highlighted.Banana is grown in many developing countries and is mainly distributed between 30 0 North and South latitude (Taye, 1975). It is the fourth most important food crop in terms of gross value of production. Total value of international banana trade ranged between USD 4.5 and 5 billion per year, of which 80% of the export comes from Latin America with African countries having a share of only 4% during 1998-2000. The majority of the global banana production (47%) comes from Cavendish sub-group (FAO, 2003).Ethiopia with a geographical area of 1.13 million km 2 and a total human population of over 77 million (CSA, 2007), is agro-ecologically diverse and can support production of temperate, sub-tropical and tropical fruits. It has areas with altitudes ranging from 116 m below to 4620 m above sea level. Twelve major river basins in Ethiopia have an annual flow of 123 000 million m 3 of water with a groundwater potential of about 2.56 million m 3 . This gives the country a potential irrigable area of 3.5 million ha with net irrigation area of about 1.61 million ha, of which currently only 4.6 % is utilized (Amer, 2002). In addition to these major river basins, there are many smaller perennial rivers and many areas with sufficient annual rainfall which could support fruit production.. Despite this potential, the area under fruit crops in Ethiopia is very limited. About 450,932 ha of land was estimated to be under vegetable, root and fruit crops in 2004, of which about 40,600 ha (9%) is mainly under smallholder fruit crop production (MoARD, personal communication). Total fruit production in Ethiopia was estimated at about 320,000 tonnes (FAO, 2002). Banana export from Ethiopia (including Eritrea) started at less than 5,000 tonnes in 1961 but jumped to 60,000 tonnes in 1972 and was exported to many countries in Europe, Asia and Africa (Taye, 1975). In 2003, Ethiopia exported only about 5,366 tonnes of various fruits (including banana), and earned only about Birr 2 13.3 million (equivalent to about USD 1.5 million) in foreign currency. Of this only about 1,300 tonnes worth Birr 2.8 million (USD 325,000) was from banana exported mainly to Djibouti (CSA, 2004). Global share of Ethiopia in banana export was only about 0.01% (FAO, 2003). Some reasons for the limited development of fruit production in Ethiopia include: • Planting materials of improved fruit varieties are produced only in very few state farms and research centres, with very limited efficiency and capacity. As a result of which there has been limited production and expansion of fruit crops. For example, Upper Awash Agro-Industry annually raises about 700,000 mango and avocado seedlings for sale to Regional Bureaus of Agriculture and Rural Development and NGOs. • Trained manpower in the area of horticulture is also very small, compared to other areas of specialization. For example, Jimma University's Department of Horticulture, one of the main education institutes for horticulture in Ethiopia, graduates about 300 students at BSc and MSc level annually (http://www.wi.wur.nl/NR/rdonlyres/2438A68B-E1BA-467F-8FF0-AD3517F7244F/40002/SummaryReportVisitEthiopiamarch2007.doc). As a result, there are no horticulturists working in many weredas (districts) despite the efforts of expanding fruit development in Ethiopia. Instead, there are many plant science graduates who only took a course or two in horticulture production. • Production of fruits may have also been limited due to lack of post-harvest and marketing infrastructure like packaging, pre cooling, warehousing, cold storage, pre-package & distribution, chemical treatment and washing facilities both on farm and at port (Seifu, 2003). • Hitherto, the government focused mainly on improvement of grain crop production due to the objectives of attaining food security. Hence, all these might have discouraged entrepreneurs to enter into fruit development.Historically, development needs of horticultural production were not sufficiently addressed by the government, but currently efforts have been stepped up to improve and support this sector. The policy and development strategy prioritises intensive production and commercialisation of agriculture, and horticulture has been identified as one such sector for attention. In the government economic development policy and strategy document, the need to accelerate the transformation of the agricultural sector from subsistence to a more business and market-oriented agriculture is also stressed. The objective of this paper is to share the IPMS experiences in supporting innovation processes in banana value chain development in Metema wereda, using innovation system and value chain as analytical constructs. The paper after describing the study area and methodology employed, provides a brief history of banana introduction in Ethiopia, describes the value chain of banana and the various innovations 3 that have been introduced to develop the chain, with a focus on actors and action learning processes employed. Finally, the future outlooks of banana value chain and the reasons for the successful adoption of the innovation and the options to sustain it so that the value chain can respond to changing conditions are also outlined.The study was conducted in Metema wereda, located about 900 km north-west of Addis Ababa and about 160 and 340 km west of Gondar and Bahir Dar towns (the nearest big towns), respectively (Figure 1). The total population of the wereda was 78,328 (CSA, 2005) and is one of the west most woredas bordering the Sudan. The total area of Metema is about 4,400 sq. km and altitude ranges between 550 and 1608 m asl while minimum annual 3 We define innovation here as a new idea, practice, or product that is successfully introduced into economic and social processes, which positively affects the competence, productivity, competitiveness, and livelihood of agents in the value chain. They could be technological, organizational, institutional and policy innovations. temperature ranges between 22 and 28 o C. Daily temperature becomes very high during the months of March to May and reaches as high as 43 o C. Nearly all the land in the woreda is located in the lowlands except some mountain tops. Sesame, cotton and sorghum are extensively grown in this woreda. Cattle, goats and sheep are the main livestock raised in the woreda.Ninety percent of the woreda receives mean annual rainfall between 850 to 1100 mm (IPMS, 2005), with a unimodal rainfall extending from June until September. The soils in the area are predominantly black and some are soils with vertic properties (IPMS, 2005). The soils in the area are believed to be fertile and consequently, farmers do not apply fertiliser (IPMS, 2005).Average land holding is about 5 ha (IPMS, 2005) which is very high compared to the highlands. There are some large farms with a holding of about 600-700 ha. In addition, Metema is a cash crop area (sesame and cotton) and hence income of farmers is relatively better than farmers in the highlands of Ethiopia. A number of refugees returned from abroad to Metema after the fall of the Military regime in 1991.Literature review and personal experiences of the senior author formed the basis for the documentation of the history of banana development in Ethiopia. Primary and secondary data collected from the Office of Agriculture in Metema, banana producers in Metema and, key informant interviews were used to collect primary and secondary data regarding banana production and innovations thereof. The documentation of action learning processes by the IPMS project staff in Metema and their reports complemented the data set. Tools like Actor Time Line and Actor linkage maps were employed to map the changes in value chain over time, trace the chronological development of innovations along the banana value chain in Metema, involvement of new actors and roles they played in this process, development of actor linkages and knowledge flows over time that facilitated the innovations.Reports indicate that local cultivars of banana were under cultivation in Ethiopia. For example, reports indicate that banana was cultivated since mid 18 century, around Ankober (McCann, 1995). A traveller to Eritrea also reported the existence of several Italian owned fruit farms, including banana, as early as the 1920s (Maydon, 1924) which could possibly be from Gros Michel varieties. Dwarf Cavendish (Musa acuminata) was however introduced from Somalia to Eritrea in 1939(Taye, 1975). In Ethiopia, it is believed to have been introduced from farms in Eritrea (Figure 2) during the late 1950s or early 1960s (Taye, 1975) by Italians who had started banana farming in Ethiopia (Kidane 4 , personal communication). Almost all big banana farms were owned by Europeans and were mainly concentrated in the Upper and Middle Awash basin. There was also a banana plantation of about 62 ha 5 in Arba Minch state farm in 1984 in the southern Rift Valley. In the mid 1970s, however, all the farms (including those in Eritrea) were nationalised by the then military government. After this time, productivity of many of the farms declined (Seifu, 2003) and some were also converted to other land uses. However, some farms such as the state owned farm, Melka Sedi, in Middle Awash have recently stopped producing banana due to increasing salinity (Michael and Sileshi, 2007). Dwarf Cavendish was introduced to smallholder farms around Arba Minch from the nearby state farm in 1984. The senior author of this paper while working as a regional agronomist for the then Gamo Gofa region (now Gamo Gofa zone) agricultural office introduced 5,000 suckers on 4.2 ha at the then Lante Farmers' Producers' Cooperative farm. Production on this cooperative farm continued, but expansion was very limited until the change of government in 1991 (Abren and Daniel, 2006). Smallholder banana farmers in Lante and surrounding Farmers Associations (FA) have since increased the hectarage from none in 1984 to over 970 ha in 2005 (Abren andDaniel, 2006), mainly producing for the market. A study indicated that more than 75% of the banana sold in the Addis Ababa fruit market comes from this area but and they are also almost the only source of planting material for the entire country (Aithal and Wangila, 2006). About 80 to 100 trucks (50 qt 6 capacity) transport banana daily from this area (Melese Mada, personal communication) to the market in Addis and elsewhere. Once it comes to the Addis market, the green mature banana receives air tight heat treatment using kerosene burners in a ripening house, locally called \"Chela house\" in order to initiate the ripening process. It is then distributed to supermarkets and shops in Addis but also to other towns throughout the country.This section describes the identification of constraints and opportunities and the various innovations that have transformed the various elements in the banana value chain in Metema, followed by a chronological summary of these presented in the form of an Actor Time line.A multi-stakeholder meeting (farmers, Office of Agriculture and Rural Development (OoARD) staff, researchers, traders, farmers' association (FA), administrators, etc.) conducted in 2005, preceded by a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) identified improved banana production as one of the potential marketable commodities in Metema district. The opportunities and constraints in the banana value chain were identified during this process (Figure 3). This helped planning of activities to address some of these and the potential actors to partner with.Even though the district is agro-ecologically suitable for the production of the improved banana variety, no Cavendish dwarf bananas were grown in the wereda. Some farmers were growing a very tall (locally known as \"Kenya\") variety. The seedling supply system for this variety too was not sufficiently developed with a government nursery producing only very limited numbers. Hence, adoption of this variety was also very low. Other reasons for the limited spread of this variety were the low yield, difficulty in harvesting, low market preference due to its poor taste and, general lack of farmers' knowledge and skills to manage banana. There was demand for the Cavendish varieties in the market and these were being imported from Arba minch, 1400 km away. Gondar (zonal capital) and Bahir Dar (regional capital) are two big cities close to Metema. The population of these towns is estimated at 213,673 and 183,489, respectively (CSA, 2007). The banana market in these towns is also served by production from Arba Minch via the central market in Addis Ababa. Their weekly import capacity is around 1000 qt of banana (Worku Teka 7 , personal communication). This is then redistributed to these cities and many neighbouring towns for retailing. These two cities were identified as potential market outlets for Metema banana during the PRA. All stakeholders, particularly farmers with access to irrigation, were enthused when this opportunity was identified. Limited availability of and access to planting material of canvendish variety was identified as one of the major reasons for limited spread of banana production. In order to overcome the limitations and to take the production of planting material beyond government farms to make it more sustainable and accessible, a strategy was designed to develop a farmer based sucker production and distribution system. In March 2005, the first 35 suckers of Cavendish dwarf banana were brought from Zwai private farm located 160 Km south of Addis Ababa. These suckers were planted in one farmer's plot and the wereda OoARD nursery. The idea behind planting some of the suckers in the government nursery was for multiplication and easy distribution of the suckers to farmers. Once they became aware of this, many farmers with access to irrigation contributed money to buy suckers from Zwai and Arba Minch. The wereda OoARD and IPMS provided transport, while IPMS also provided information on where, what price and how to get suckers. In June 2005 and 2006, the wereda OoARD and IPMS facilitated the procurement of 600 and 750 banana suckers, respectively for the farmers who paid for the suckers. The initial adopter farmers were located around three rivers (Genda Wuha, Guang and Shinfa). Once these plants were successfully established, the district OoARD and farmers were linked to the major planting material source area, to facilitate additional supply of planting materials. In addition, it was also necessary to create linkages with chemical suppliers to be able to respond to possible pests and diseases attacks. Over 400 suckers have also been recently sold by a Metema farmer to a Sudanese businessman, expanding the market area for inputs.Previously input supply, especially for smallholder farmers, was completely in the domain of the wereda OoARD. However, for banana now it is completely farmer based. The role of the wereda OoARD in the banana value chain has been mainly focusing on providing technical knowledge, linking farmers and facilitating transport of suckers.Both the farmers and development agents (to develop accessible technical backstopping services as and when required) were trained in the production and management of banana. In nine months time, most of the plants yielded bunches weighing about 18 kg each. Currently, there are about 100 farmers growing Cavendish banana in the wereda on area ranging from 0.1 to 2 ha each. Some of the farmers involved in banana production are returnee refugees from the Sudan and ex-soldiers, but few are also native people. Some are farmers who are town dwellers, who can afford capital investments in water pumps for irrigation.Currently, it is estimated that a total of about 15 ha is under banana with an estimated annual production of 660 tonnes 8 . This must have required exchange of about 30,000 suckers on a farmer to farmer basis but also suckers used for expanding own plantations, except for the initial suckers supplied from external sources. Weight of individual bunches increased to more than 25 kg the following year because of better management. Some giant Cavendish plants introduced on some farmers' plots yielded about 40 kg weighing bunches. Around Arba Minch, giant Cavendish yields up to 95 kg per bunch (Bizuneh, personal communication). Based on the above calculations and assuming that 50% of the total irrigable land (Table 1) will be under banana, it is estimated that about 21,000 tonnes of banana could potentially be produced in the near future in Metema annually. The enthusiasm to grow banana by many farmers and support by development workers and many other government officials now made us estimate that at least 50% of the total irrigable land will be under banana soon in Metema. Other reasons are also listed under the \"future outlooks....\" section of this document.  Team (2008) Although woreda experts had little knowledge on banana production to begin with, they were involved in capacity building and knowledge management, through field days, video shows, posters and paper presentations which helped scale up and out banana production within and outside the wereda. The wereda advisory and learning committee (WALC) 9 established by IPMS project, has also played a major role in this regard.During the first harvest, due to lack of ripening experience, farmers were cutting and keeping the fruits in wooden crates without any cover. As Metema has a high annual average temperature, the fruit turned black and put off consumers. This offered a temporary setback to marketing banana. A banana farmer, based on information he got from one of his friends who previously worked in a farm (Akordat farm 10 ) in Eritrea, attempted a simple and innovative method of ripening in situ. This involves digging a hole in the ground and placing hands of banana (Figure 3) in it. Between layers of the hands, dry grass was placed to hasten ripening and also serve as a cushion between the hands. Once filled, it was covered with banana leaves and other green materials at ground level (Figure 4). The fruit was kept for about 5 days, before the banana was ripe but the colour of the fruit did not become yellow. Using this system, the first harvest, which was small in quantity, was sold. Some farmers also attempted another way of ripening, by keeping the fruit above ground in sacks, crates and simply under shade but covering with hay and thick banana leaves and sometimes plastic sheeting for 5-6 days. This method proved to be better in attaining the desired colour, but the fruit remained hard, hence better shelf life (Figure 6 and 7). This method is suitable for farms which are located close to towns and are on routes to commercial farms, where commuting daily labourers buy fruit from these farms. Banana ripened in this manner had fewer bruises but is difficult to transport and market in far away places. 9 WALC is a team comprised of key stakeholders in weredas where IPMS is involved. 10 This is believed to be one of the first banana farms in Eritrea and the source of initial planting material for Ethiopia. That is probably why banana in Arba Minch is known as \"Asmara muz\" (Banana from Asmara, Eritrea's capital). The wholesalers in Gondar with whom market linkages were created were not able to ripen the bananas and the fruit became black, now due to low temperature in Gondar. These wholesalers were therefore unwilling to buy the banana from Metema.It was observed that wholesalers in \"Atkilt tera\" (vegetable market) in Addis Ababa allow green mature bananas to ripen in an airtight room heated using properly placed kerosene burners (Figures 8 & 9), which induces early ripening. The size of the room is usually around 3 x 4 m with a capacity of about 100-110 quintals. In \"Atkilt tera\", these rooms are locally called as \"Chela\" houses. The number of kerosene burners or hours heated depends on how soon the fruit is needed or how high or low the surrounding air temperature is. If it is needed very soon, then up to 6 burners are used overnight, but if not, about 3-4 burners are placed for about 1½ days. However, only two burners are used for the same quantity of banana for 24 hours in Hawasa, which has a warmer climate compared to Addis Ababa. Special arrangement of bunches and burners is made to give uniform heat to the fruit. In order to ensure air tightness, all outlets are sealed with newspapers using the fresh banana fruits as glue. Ceilings of these rooms are usually made of wood. Experienced people take up this activity in Addis. Once ripening is initiated, the fruit is sold to wholesalers from different parts of the country. These wholesalers distribute it to retailers who further ripen them by wrapping with newspapers and keeping them in warm places before selling them to consumers. Having acquired knowledge of this method, IPMS facilitated a ripening training by an experienced ripening technician 11 from \"Atkilt tera\" in Addis Ababa for two major fruit wholesalers in Gondar and six banana farmers from Metema.As the production increased gradually, the producers had to explore markets outside the wereda. IPMS facilitated linkages with the Gondar market. Sample bunches were delivered to big fruit wholesalers to introduce produce from Metema. A visit was organised for the wholesalers to the various smallholder banana farms in Metema on more than one occasion.Fruit marketing groups were organised to facilitate collective marketing in two FAs.Samples of banana were distributed to wholesalers in Bahir Dar, while video on banana development in Metema was shown during a National Farmers Festival. This opened new avenues for expanding the markets. There is demand from these traders now for banana from Metema. Traders in Gondar obtain banana from Arba Minch (1250 km away) via Addis Ababa (750 km away), while Metema is only 160 km away. This would substantially reduce the transportation cost, post harvest losses for the traders, and make it relatively cheaper for the consumers.An entrepreneur and large fruit distributor from a neighbouring region, Tigray, was contacted and inspired to open ripening house in Gondar. A market promotion event was organised in Gondar OoARD for furthering market linkages.Figure 10 represents the current banana value chain in Metema and the innovations introduced to upgrade the value chain. The value chain now has a significantly higher number of links, actors and linkages. This trainer happens to be the first in the country who started using kerosene burners for ripening. Before he came back from Eritrea in 1991, heat generating diesel engines and electricity was used for ripening, which made the operation very expensive. Placement of the burners, according to him, is very critical for facilitating faster and uniform ripening. Small-scale farmers participate in value chains in many different ways. The types of participation can be summarized in two broad dimensions -(a) the types of activities that farmers undertake in chain and (b) the involvement of farmers in the management of the chain. When farmers engage only in production and have no influence over the management of the chain, they are called chain actors. They become chain activity integrators when they move from farming into other activities in the chain, yet without exerting any influence on the management of the chain. Chain activity integrators may be organised into groups (such as marketing co-operatives) to buy inputs, process or market produce, but have no managerial control over the chain because they are not involved in quality management, consumer targeting or proactive innovation. They become chain partners when they start exerting influence over the management of the chain. They may develop a long-term chain partnership with traders, processors or retailers. They may be organized for technological innovation and institutional dialogue in the chain (KIT et al., 2006). In the case of the banana value chain in Metema, the following chain movements took place.During the first year, three trips were made to Zwai and Arba Minch in order to bring enough planting materials until suckers from the established plants in the wereda could support its own expansion. Some entrepreneurial farmers, who saw the opportunity, started selling suckers to fellow farmers in the wereda while at the same time expanding their own farms. Banana production was popularised by farmers, IPMS, development workers and government officials in the wereda. A number of field days, video shows, posters and paper presentation were organised in Metema involving farmers and experts from within and outside of the wereda. Farmers and development workers from the neighbouring weredas (eg. Quara) made regular visits and shared experiences and planting materials. In addition, distant weredas also bought suckers from Metema at Birr 10/sucker equivalent to 1 USD (personal observation).Gradually, a well developed and efficient farmer to farmer banana sucker supply system, triggered by the high and stable demand, has developed in the wereda.In order to support marketing, a fruits marketing group was created to link the smallholder farmers and the wholesalers in big towns. The process should now aim at developing the capacities of the smallholder farmers to become chain partners, so that they develop sustainable linkages with various other actors in the chain and organize for pro-active innovation and dialogue.  Field visit involving decision makers from the region, zone, neighbouring weredas (Quara, Tach Armacho, Adi Arkay) and more than 500 farmers from other FAs of Metema organised to scale out the banana innovation. This fora was also used to fulfil demand for irrigated land by some farmers who wanted to enter into banana farming. A private banana distributor from Tigray, neighbouring region, participated in this visit.December1-2, 07Panel discussion organised for regional, zonal and woreda level decision makers to discuss issues of market and raod infrastructure.December 07Opening of a private ripening house in Gondar by the Tigray fruit distributor Trader December 07 Market promotion event facilitated in the premises of Gondar zone OoARD to link private banana distributors in Gondar with some consumers. More than 300 kg banana was sold.IPMS, Zone OoARD January 08 Regional higher officials including head of Regional BoARD head, food security head, Trade and industry bureau heads visited some of the banana farms in Tumet and Marterad areas and awarded the banana farmers' cooperative in Mertrad with a water pump. A DA working there was awarded with a motorbike in appreciation of the developments.March 08 Cigar rot symptoms observed in 3 farmers plot located along the Guange river side and managed to control the disease by spraying fungicides IPMS, OoARD, Farmers, Chemical supplierMarch 08 More than 500 suckers sold to farmers outside Metema.Banana production is expanding within and outside of Metema. Number of farmers involved and area under banana has substantially increased from 0 in 2005 to 100 farmers and 15 ha in 2008 in Metema alone. Metema traditionally has been known for its rainfed sesame and cotton production, and no interest was evident in irrigated agriculture. Since the introduction of banana, applications for access to irrigated land have overwhelmed the wereda OoARD. Irrigated vegetable production is also expanding. The trend indicates that expansion of banana production will continue as far as irrigation potential allows. It is expected that soon banana from Metema will fulfil market demands of Gondar and Bahir Dar because of the distance advantage. The road between Gondar and Metema is being upgraded to concrete and this is expected to ease the transportation constraints to further encourage the marketing of banana beyond Metema.Currently, mainly the initial volunteer farmers have benefited from the sale of both fruits and suckers, due to the front runner advantage. While most of the banana producers until recently, were male, many women farmers have now taken the lead in growing banana. For example, there are two groups of 78 native Gumuz women and 5 men organised to grow banana in one FA (Table 2). In any case, the role of women even in the male-lead banana farms is significant as they carry out most of the day to day activities related to banana production on these farms.The smallholder farmer banana production around Arba Minch took about a quarter of a century to reach to about 970 ha (Abren and Daniel, 2006), but it is expected that it will take much shorter time to attain an equivalent level for Metema. The high demand owing to high population, a developing road network connecting big towns and improving telephone connectivity, proximity to some major market outlets (both domestic and cross-border in Sudan), possibility of irrigation through the use of perennial rivers and the fact that banana is not grown on a larger scale in nearby areas are expected to contribute to this growth. The entrepreneurial mindset of farmers who are leading this is also a positive factor, as compared to the subsistence farmers around Arba Minch at the initial stage.Livelihood of farmers involved in banana production is improving. For example, three farmers earned equivalent to USD 1600, 1087 and 950 in one season from the sale of suckers only (Worku Teka, personal communication). Many other farmers also benefited from sales of both fruits and suckers.Future expansion efforts are therefore expected to play a significant role in the economy and also change in dietary composition of people in the area and beyond. One could also expect changes to the existing land use (natural grasslands, bushes and shrubs) around the perennial rivers.Shortage of feed is a major problem for livestock production in Ethiopia. In Metema, livestock are extensively managed under open grazing conditions, with very low productivity. Average milk yield is about 1 l/day. Major livestock feed in Metema is grass, mainly hyparrhenia spp from the bush. Transhumance cattle production system is common with many highland cattle moving to Metema during the start of the rainy season in June, and stay until October every year, competing for available feed resources. Recently about 151 farmers in 13 FAs have started fattening about 400 cattle for the market, adding to the competition for the available feed resource from natural pasture. During the dry season, hyparrhenia spp becomes very hard and unpalatable and its nutritive value also becomes very low (about 3-4% crude protein).Feed conservation is not practiced in Metema because of lack of knowledge, which would have facilitated meeting year round livestock feeding requirements.The low nutritive value of tropical grasses and roughages highlights the need for low-cost supplementation to improve animal productivity.Banana farmers have started fattening cattle with supplements coming from banana leaves, pseudostems, peels and damaged banana fruits. About 7 farmers have started fattening small ruminants in association with banana. Some banana farmers have started growing feed for river bank stabilisation and selling this to other farmers during the dry season. According to Perez and Roldan (1984) cited in Babatunde (1992), cattle fed on 40% banana reject, 42% Napier grass and 18% legume forage (all on dry matter basis), gained up to 0.91 kg/day in 100 days. Banana can also be mixed with leguminous feed species such as Leucaena, Sesbania, Gliricidia and others which could easily be grown in association with banana for fattening cattle. Hence, by-products from banana can effectively be mixed with grasses or legumes to supplement available feed resource. The nutritive value of banana is shown on Table 3.  Machin, D.H. (1992).Many banana farmers are integrating apiculture in their farms. About 7 farmers have introduced 2 to 10 modern and traditional beehives in their farms. Farmers say that productivity is very high with an average honey production of 30 kg/modern hive annually. Two harvests are possible with round year flowering and rejected fruits as major source of bee forage.There are many factors involved in the success of banana adoption in Metema, some of which have been alluded to in the preceding sections. To summarise, some of the contributing factors are:Adoption of a systems view: The project and its partners took a systems view in addressing this issue, which meant seeking entry points and interventions for knowledge-based development of banana for increased productivity and market access, using value chain and innovation systems perspectives. This has been a radical departure from the routine way of doing things in the context of Metema, in particular and Ethiopia, in general. The policy and public sector hitherto focused solely on technical solutions, but ignored the fact that some non-technical (organizational, institutional and managerial) interventions are necessary, to make the technical interventions effective and help embed them in socio-economic processes. Taking a systems view meant the public sector partners had to forge linkages with private sector actors, with whom they had limited interactions previously, and facilitate private sector led innovation. This led to a coordinated innovation across the whole value chain. No one innovation would have achieved the impact that is visible now without linkages through the rest of the value chain.Adaptive management approach: Taking an adaptive management perspective meant that partners had to go away from their much preferred 'one size fits all' solutions for problems and appreciate the importance of context specific solutions, entry points and appropriate pathways based on particular characteristics of the banana value chain, based on knowledge (combined from various sources). This in turn, meant following participatory approaches and engaging in dialogue processes, so the clients had a voice and were able to determine the pathways they preferred (that conformed to their socio-cultural norms).Boundary spanning role: To forge linkages with various actors (for example chemical suppliers, market agents etc), an actor was needed. IPMS project played that role to begin with. But recognising the importance of such a boundary spanning role for sustaining the innovation processes, the project tried to develop the capacities of the public sector to play such a role to ensure sustainability after the project and ownership by local organisations.The first banana plants started to bear fruit in only 5½ months and demonstrated the possibility of quick economic return. The dual benefits from the commodity (fruits and suckers) could also have played an important role for the adoption of the fruit. This was one factor which seems to have motivated a large number of farmers to get involved in banana production. Previous experiences in banana production and management of one of the experts involved during the PRA, to realise the suitability and potential was critical in this whole process.Variety suitability: The fact that banana easily established under the farmers management conditions and that there was ready market with fruits produced being sold right at the farm gate is another reason for rapid spread of banana production.Resource availability: Some of the volunteer farmers were already involved in irrigated agriculture and some possessed reliable water pumps. The success of these farmers then attracted others to be involved in banana production.Knowledge through previous exposure: Equally important is also the fact that some of the farmers were refugee-returnees who were exposed to fruit development in general when they were farm workers in the Sudan.Development of sustainable and farmer based input supply: Sucker supply system is totally devoid of any bureaucratic hassles and suckers are easily available through farmer to farmer networking. This has led to a rapid expansion.Trust: The provision of timely access to planting material as per commitment may have contributed to farmers developing trust in IPMS project and OoARD staff. Continuous and close interactions, coupled with dialogue processes and commitment of partners to provide support and backstopping during all stages of development through creation of appropriate linkages to address emerging problems and challenges created close relationships over time and hence contributed to the adoption.Enabling environment: The policy of the government towards promoting irrigated agriculture and horticulture was encouraging. This has been demonstrated by regular visits and encouragement of farmers by government officials at regional, zonal and wereda levels. Farmers were supported by continuous technical knowledge delivery about the management of banana from experts (even with the limited knowledge). In addition, farmers were supported through the supply of vehicles for transporting suckers from Zwai, Arba Minch and later on within Metema. Involvement of government officials at various stages in the process and the communication strategies followed gave fillip to the scaling out of banana and a sense of ownership paving way for strategies to support this initiative, even beyond Metema.Technically, farmers need to be advised to minimise mono-cropping, although it is still early, so that disease build up and fertility decline will be minimised. Recently, a new strain called 'Panama disease' (Fusarium oxysporum) has begun to attack Cavendish banana plants in south Asia. Even though, plant breeders and geneticists are trying to develop new resistant cultivars, the progress is slow. This is because the banana cultivars selected for human consumption are seedless and reproduce asexually which decreases genetic variation and makes breeding difficult (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusarium_wilt.). Hence, development workers need to capacitate farmers on safe propagation methods of this crop. Farmers should also be advised to apply optimum nutrients and irrigation water. In general, banana on nearly all farmers' fields in Ethiopia is grown without fertilizer even in areas around Arba Minch where banana has been grown for about a quarter of a century (Abren and Daniel, 2006). Farmers who grow banana near to their homesteads were however, observed applying manure and ash (Daniel, 2000). Excessive application of irrigation water in Metema may also enhance salinity in the long run. Therefore, optimum irrigation practices should be made so that farm lands under banana would be used for a longer period of time.Cavendish dwarf variety is widely grown in the country, including the study area. This variety is susceptible to nematodes and cigar tip rot disease (Seifu, 2003). On the other hand, the planting material moving from one place to another (as a planting material) is from very old clones (Taye, 1975). Therefore efforts should be made to introduce other varieties of export quality to the area for the sake of variety diversification and hence minimise losses in case of these problems. According to Taye (1975) and Seifu (2003), poyo variety is tolerant to these problems, high yielder and also has less after harvest weight loss compared to Cavendish dwarf, except that it is susceptible to wind.Linkages among farmers, traders, the public sector and NGOs have been made but need to be strong enough to respond to emerging challenges (new diseases, salinity, changes in market dynamics, etc). This will require regular capacity building and information sharing among the stakeholders. This should enable banana farmers to source knowledge and services as and when required, and hence take banana production and marketing forward in the future. This linkage among major stakeholders should further be strengthened and should enable establish a platform so that development of the commodity is further strengthened.On the other hand, the zonal and wereda OoARD are already involved in the scaling up and out of banana. The Regional Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development need to also be strongly involved in this activity. The strong involvement of these bodies along with the other stakeholder is very important to support future development of banana in Metema. Creditor institutions are also expected to support the development of this commodity in the future where poor farmers, including women and the young, could also benefit from this activity.The experience shows that, although a technology can spread from farmer to farmer, adoption at a bigger scale is greatly enhanced when well equipped extension staff actively help farmers in the diffusion process. This is because banana has proved beneficial to farmers and there would be a big loss of opportunity if the spreading of banana is not actively facilitated by the concerned bodies.In general, Ethiopia has a relatively good export potential for banana, provided infrastructure necessary for export, including new varieties and market linkages are put in place. These facilities will be required at all levels (on farm, during transportation on land and sea; and port) at a country level. The fact that the study area is a border town, banana from Metema could easily be marketed to or through the Sudan. There is good road network to and cooling facilities at Port Sudan (Dr. W. Hancock, personal communication).On the other hand, a project, supported by Common Fund for Commodities, has recently started to be operational in both Ethiopia and the Sudan in order to promote organic banana production destined for export. This project could contribute to enhancing the marketability of banana from Ethiopia by creating market linkages. IPMS will therefore need to link with this project to learn and improve on farm and post harvest management systems to support banana production and marketing.","tokenCount":"6904"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"83548a90d6c4fe6776fe4566d2034496","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7a559450-826c-46f7-b4f9-0874c92f6845/retrieve","id":"584713158"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4ce4836b-fa9f-44ae-b889-c31b7d018c1b","pagecount":"176","content":"This module could not have been produced without the support provided by ILRI senior management.We would like to record our deep appreciation and sincere thanks to Dr Carlos Sere, Director General of ILRI, Mr Bruce Scott, Director of Partnership and Communications, Dr John McDermott, Deputy    Director General, as well as members of the Board of Directors for their continuous support and guidance.We would also like to thank Dr Denis Keytere, Director General of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Uganda, for allowing Mr Sylvester Dickson Baguma to participate in this exercise.This module is a direct response to a request made by Graduate Fellows of ILRI. The content of this module was drawn from a large number of sources. We are grateful for the authors of these various publications. The content of the module was presented during a training session for the Graduate Fellows in Addis Ababa and Nairobi. The feedbacks received from participants certainly added value to this module.Finally, we would like to thank all those who either directly or indirectly contributed to the content as well as the development of this module. This is a work in progress and we would welcome any suggestions and comments.Guiding principles of agricultural research for development• Innovation Systems Perspective (ISP)• Value Chain Approach (VCA)• Impact Orientation (IO)• Research for Development (R4D)   Complementary and mutually reinforcing 4 4Changing context• Ongoing transformations • Changing paradigms • Emerging challenges Reform agenda within the R&D arena• Redefinition of role of government in agricultural R&D • Decentralization/Privatization of agricultural R&D activities.• Broader and active stakeholder participation-pluralism in service provision, networks and partnerships.• New funding arrangements.• Separation of financing from service provision and research execution• Changing the funding base to competitive funding. • Orientation of R&D to be more outward looking, client oriented and impact driven.• Embracing \"systems\" perspectives.  • AKIS (R,E,T in one system; knowledge triangle)• Innovation systems perspective* Innovation, innovation system and innovation systems perspectiveApplication of systems thinking in agriculture • Innovation • Deals with product innovation, process innovation, management, organizational and institutional innovation and service delivery innovation.• Two important factors are knowledge and networking.• Value of knowledge increases with its use, and exchange can only be realised in a cooperative environment.• Organizations are entities created by individuals to support the collaborative pursuit of specified goals. Formal organization is that kind of cooperation that is conscious, deliberate, and purposeful.• Institutions are the \"rules of the game\" which prohibit, permit, or require certain actions. Whether formal or informal, they are recognized and generally followed by members of the community.1.22 1.231.24Innovation system • An innovation system is• a group of organizations and individuals involved in the generation, diffusion, adoption and use of new knowledge and their actions and interactions• the context and institutions that govern the way these interactions and processes take place.• Associated learning • Not a theory, but an organizing principle • Can be defined at different levels It is an analytical construct National innovation system (NIS) (Innovation ecology)• The network of organizations in the public and private sectors whose activities and interactions initiate, import, modify and diffuse technologies (Freeman 1997) • Those institutions that affect the process by which innovations are developed, delivered and adopted (laws, regulations, customs, norms).• Incorporates actors, processes as well as products.National innovations systems (contd..)• Reveals that R&D organizations are one type of knowledge agents in a larger system• Need for multiple roles for R&D organizations Intervention based innovation systems• An intervention-based innovation system incorporates • the invention system, as well as• the complementary economic processes required to turn invention into innovation and subsequent diffusion and utilization• intervention-based Innovation systems do not occur automatically• it is the problem situation that defines a particular innovation opportunity• Intervention-based innovation systems are created for a purpose,• they will change in content and patterns of interaction as the problem situation evolves and• they are constructed at mico-and macro levels.• Although the IS can be defined at different levels (national, sectoral, commodity and problem/intervention), the most relevant innovation system is the one that is constructed to address a particular problem i.e., intervention based 1.31 1.321.33Innovation systems perspective• Using the innovation lens in analyzing critical constraints; identifying, implementing and assessing appropriate interventions and; subsequent utilization of knowledge generated.• Suggests the analysis of three elements • Components (organizations and actors)• Relationships and interactions (institutions)• Competencies, functions and result of such interactions Key features of ISP• Focus on innovation as its organizing principle • Makes the distinction between \"organizations\" and \"institutions\" explicit• Learning and role of institutions are critical • Partnership and networks are integral parts • Escapes the polarized debate \"demand driven\"Vs. \"supply push\" IAR4D• a new approach to help research contribute more effectively and efficiently to poverty reduction and sustainable NR use• to mainstream a new way of doing business that ensures that research does not only lead to knowledge and publications, but also and most of all contributes to change and innovation for the betterment of people, while also preserving the natural resource base for future generations 1.34 1.351.36Major thrusts of IAR4D approach• Set of principles for conducting research for development• New research agenda that addresses interaction between NRM, production systems and agricultural markets and policies• Institutional change for new partnerships involving all stakeholders in the agricultural innovation systemThe 4 pillars of ARD • A value chain describes the full range of activities which are required to bring about a product or service from design through the different phases of production, delivery to final consumers, and final disposal after use• From \"hoe -fingers\"• From \"Plough -fork\"A simple value chain has four basic links Why is value chain analysis important ?• Value chain analysis plays a key role in understanding the need and scope for systemic competitiveness -growing division of labor, global dispersion of production of components• Efficiency in production is only a necessary condition for successfully penetrating regional and global markets• Entry into the various markets: national, regional, and global requires an understanding of dynamic factors within the whole value chain• Commercialization of smallholder production system and market orientation• To reap the maximum benefit it is important to understand the nature, structure, and the dynamics of the value chain.Value chain analysis cont….• In the real world, value chains may be much more complex Extracted from Kaplinsky and Morris (2000) Domestic wholesaleRecycling Foreign WholesaleThe forestry, timber and furniture value chain        by increasing the supply of staple products and by increasing the international competitiveness of national economies (Rajalahti et al. 2008).For a considerable period, the public sector research investment and research policy has focused on national agricultural research organizations/institutes (NAROs/NARIs). In this paradigm, public funds were provided as a block grant, usually through the Ministry of Agriculture, to a centralized research department or institute who then set research priorities and executed research through a network of research centres under the control of NARO/NARI. In the 1990s, this paradigm has been challenged, since it failed to consider a variety of other public and private organizations that are involved in research policymaking and research execution (Byerlee 1997).The research approach was also challenged, as the traditional approach (often referred to as the topdown approach) to agricultural research and development was not having significant impact on the development of small-scale agriculture. The researchers and development practitioners argued that an appropriate technology could only be developed if it was based on full knowledge of the existing farming system and livelihood system, and technologies should be evaluated not only in terms of their technical performance in specific environments, but also in terms of their conformity with the objectives, capabilities and socio-economic conditions of the target group of farmers. As a response to these challenges, there is a gradual evolution of the central source model of innovation of the 1970s and 1980s to the current agricultural innovation systems approach. This evolution occurred as a result of the identified weaknesses of the predominant paradigm of the time, and the emerging challenges and needs of the society.Over the years, the agricultural R&D arena has seen a number of paradigm changes and transformations.In this chapter, we will first discuss the reform agenda within the agricultural R&D arena, then the paradigm shifts and the changes in the global food systems. Currently, the knowledge generation, dissemination and the utilization process within the agricultural sector is guided by four complementary and mutually reinforcing principles. They are the innovation systems perspective, value chain approach, impact orientation and research for development. These concepts are briefly discussed so that the reader is familiar with these developments and effectively use this understanding in developing winning proposals. However, it is worth noting that impact orientation and research for development are implicit in the concept of innovation.The policy and institutional context within which agricultural research and innovation occurs have changed dramatically over the years. Rapid changes continue to take place in the structure and authority of governments, the global economy, the structure of the farming sector and in the global and local food industries. The institutional landscape is also changing dramatically with the third parties (such as non-governmental organizations, farmer organizations and civil society organizations) playing an important role in agricultural R&D.Ongoing reform agenda within the agricultural R4D includes:Orientation of research to be more systems based, outward looking, client oriented and, impact • Given the sweeping reforms that are taking place, the R&D systems are facing a transition period in which they will need to restructure themselves, confront new demands, and adjust to new political, scientific, institutional and economic environment.The last several decades have also seen a profound change in the nature of the global food system.Massive increase in the volume of food moved across national borders (both formal and informal) • These changes offer both challenges and opportunities to the smallholder producers. In some instances, they can squeeze small producers out of certain markets, contributing to greater poverty and inequality.On the other hand, if the smallholder farmers respond positively, this can offer new sources of income and a marked improvement in the quality and safety of food.Agricultural research and development has been undergoing paradigm shifts over the years which is in fact affecting their organizational structure, management style, as well as the way business is done.We have seen a shift from a single commodity and mono-disciplinary base to an innovation system and a multidisciplinary based approach together with a change from top-down research model to participatory approach to research for development.The system thinking is not new to agricultural research and development. It has been there since the 1970s when a significant shift in paradigm occurred by moving away from the top-down, linear, technology development and transfer model to the introduction of farming systems approach (FSA).Since then, the application has evolved gradually to the various participatory approaches to the current innovation systems approach. Now the use has been extended to the application in the organizational analysis resulting in the 'Agricultural Innovation System' concept. This evolution is traced in Figure 1, and it is the result of the changing needs and expectations of the society.Source: Anandajayasekeram et al. (2005). Figure 1. Evolution of systems thinking and its application in agriculture. The origin and application of the innovation systems perspective (ISP) in agricultural research can be traced to a number of sources. These include: the successful application of the concept in the industrial sector of the developed economies, the multiple source of innovation model for agricultural research and technology promotion as suggested by Biggs (1989); the inadequacy of the linear model to explain the actual process of innovation in the real world; the inadequacy of the existing organizational frameworks to be all inclusive in terms of the coverage of the various actors; and the increasing demand for demonstrated developmental impacts and the expanded mandate and expectations from the R&D communities (research for development).The main attraction of innovation systems framework stems from the fact that: it recognizes innovation as a process of generating, accessing and putting knowledge into use; explicitly recognizes the interactions and knowledge flows among different actors in the process; emphasizes that institutions are vital in shaping the nature of these innovations and learning as a means of evolving new arrangements specific to local contexts (Sulaiman 2008).1.4.1 Innovation, innovation system (IS) and innovation systems perspective (ISP)In the literature, different authors have defined the term innovation differently (ECm 1995;Drukker 1998;OECD 1999;Quintas 1977cited in ISNAR 2001). The simplest definition is 'anything new introduced into an economic or social process' (OECD 1999). The most useful definition of innovation in the context of R&D is 'the economically successful use of invention' '(Bacon 1998). Here invention is defined 'as a solution to a problem'. This allows us to make distinction between knowledge and innovation. Taking a brilliant idea through, on an often painful journey to become something which is widely used, involves many more steps and use of resources and problem solving on the way.In the past, science and technology generation were equated with innovation. It is crucial in recognizing that innovation is strongly embedded in the prevailing economic structure, which largely determines what is going to be learned and where the innovations are going to take place. Moreover, such innovations are not limited to technological (both product and process) innovations only but also include institutional, organizational, managerial and service delivery innovations. This also emphasizes the notion that the responsibility of agricultural research organizations does not end with the production of new technology or knowledge only. They can claim success when their 'innovations' are being disseminated, adopted and used (Chema et al. 2001).Innovations are new creations of economic significance. They relate to the production of new knowledge and/or new combination of existing knowledge. The critical point to note is that this knowledge cannot be regarded as innovation unless it is transformed into products and processes that have social and economic use (Edquist 1997). This transformation does not follow a linear path but rather characterized by complicated feedback mechanisms and interactive relations involving science, technology, learning production policy and demand. The use of the term 'innovation', in its broadest sense, covers the activities and processes associated with the generation, production, distribution, adaptation and use of new technical, institutional and organizational, managerial knowledge and service delivery (Hall et al. 2005).The thinking until the early 1990s was that innovations were created by knowledge and technology production processes and through formal R&D initiatives by firms and technology creating agents such as universities and public-private research institutes. The assumption was that the market would draw upon the technological resources it needs, as and when necessary. The demand for knowledge would be identified by the formal R&D systems, produced and passed down to those who necessarily apply it because of its usefulness (Hartwich and Meijerink 1999). In reality, however, innovations are not only associated with or stem from major scientific discoveries, but also often develop as a fairly minor scientific and technological advances and can occur without any research (e.g. through learning and adaptation process). Therefore, innovations can be generated by different organizations, group or individuals and the conventional research institutions is only one such entity.An innovation system is a group of organizations and individuals involved in the generation, diffusion, adaptation and use of new knowledge and the context that governs the way these interactions and processes take place. In its simplest form, an innovation system has three elements: the organization and individuals involved in generating, diffusing, adapting and using new knowledge; the interactive learning that occurs when organizations engage in these processes and the way this leads to new products and processes (innovation); and the institutions (rules, norms and conventions, both formal and informal), that govern how these interactions and processes take place (Horton 1990). People working on similar issues, be it in a specific commodity sector, at a particular location or in any problem area, tend to form a chain or network that can be described as innovation system.A collaborative arrangement bringing together several organizations working towards technical change in agriculture can be called 'Agricultural Innovation System'. Such a system may include the traditional sources of innovations (indigenous technical knowledge); modern actors (NARIs, IARCs, advanced research institutions); private sectors including agro-industrial firms and entrepreneurs (local, national and multinationals); civil society organizations (NGOs, farmers and consumer organizations, pressure groups); and those institutions (laws, regulations, beliefs, customs and norms) that affect the process by which innovations are developed and delivered. Agricultural innovation system can be defined at three levels: national, commodity-based, and intervention-based. A typical national agricultural innovation system is presented in Figure 2. An AIS within an agrifood chain is presented in Figure 3. An intervention-based innovation system can be developed based on the nature of the problem and the context in which the innovation is applied (see section 5 for details).It is important to make sure that the innovation system is not confused with the invention system.Innovation system incorporates the invention system as well as the complementary economic processes required to turn invention into innovation and subsequent diffusion and use. Innovation systems do not occur naturally; it is the problem situation that defines a particular innovation opportunity. Hence, innovation systems are created for a purpose, they will change in content and patterns of interaction as the problem sequence evolves and they can be constructed at micro-and macro levels. Thus, although the innovation systems can be defined at different levels (national, sectoral, commodity and problem/intervention), the most relevant innovation system is the one that is constructed to address a particular problem. As Antonelli (2001Antonelli ( , 2005) ) argues, innovation systems are constructed to solve 'local' innovation problem and they are constructed around a market problem (along the value chain) that shape innovation and not problems that shape the growth of science and technology.Source: World Bank (2007). Figure 2. A national agricultural innovation system.Innovation systems are constructed to address specific problems. These systems are very specific in nature and deal with the connection between the relevant components of the ecology as well as ensure that the flow of information is directed at a specific purpose. Depending upon the problem at hand, there can be multiple innovation systems supported by the same innovation ecology. Moreover, since the solution of one problem typically leads to different and new problems, we would also expect that, as the problem evolves, the actors in the system as well as their interconnectedness will also vary.Thus, while the ecologies are more permanent, the problem-focused innovation systems are transient or temporary in nature. Once a particular problem sequence is solved, the associated system can be dissolved. The dynamism of an economy/value chain depends on the adaptability with which innovation systems are created, grow, stabilize and change as problem sequence evolves (Metcalfe 2008, 442). A problem-focused innovation system can be trans-boundary in nature or cut across national boundaries and may be spatially unconstrained. This problem-focused, transboundary, and dynamic nature of the innovation system is the most relevant one for the R&D community.Source: Anandajayasekeram et al. (2005). Figure 3. AIS in an agrifood chain/agri business system.Innovation systems perspective implies the use of innovation lens in the design, implementation and evaluation of the activities of the various actors involved in the innovation process. Innovation systems perspective (ISP) sees the innovative performance of an economy as depending not only on how individual institutions (firms, research institutes, universities etc.) perform in isolation, but on how they interact with each other as elements of a collective system and how they interplay with social institutions such as values, norms and legal frameworks. ISP suggests the analysis of three elements:the components of the system, principally its actors; the relationships and interactions between these components; and the competencies, functions, processes and results such components generate.Therefore, the analytical implications of ISP are that there is a need to consider a range of activities and organizations related to research and development and how these might function collectively and the need to locate R&D planning and implementation in the context of norms and the cultural and political economy in which it takes place, i.e. the wider institutional context.The key features of ISP are (Hall et al. 2005):Focus on innovation (rather than research/technology/knowledge) as its organizing principle; • Helps to identify the scope of the actors involved and the wider set of relationships in which • innovation is embedded;Escapes the polarized debate between 'demand driven' and 'supply push' approaches; • Recognizes that innovation systems are social systems, focusing on connectivity, learning as well • as the dynamic nature of the process; Leads us to new and more flexible organizations of research and to a new type of policymaking • for science, technology and innovation;Emphasizes that partnerships and linkages are integral part of the innovation system; • Emphasizes that learning and the role of institutions are critical in the innovation process; and •The dynamics do not depend on the agents 'expanding the frontier of knowledge' but on the • innovative abilities of a large number of agents. This dynamics depends on the strength of information flows and the absorptive capacity of the individual agents of institutions and of society as a whole. The innovation processes depend on the interactions among physical, social and human capital, but mostly on the absorptive capacity of individual agents (Ekboir 2004).A good understanding of the concept of innovation, innovation systems and the innovations systems perspective is vital to develop successful proposal as most of the funding agencies are looking for developmental impacts of research.The agricultural research for development takes a systems approach that goes beyond integrated natural resources management to encompass the domains of policies and markets and the effects that these have on the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of agriculture. The four pillars of agricultural research for development and their important interactions are presented in Figure 4. The procedure recognizes that the general approach to rural transformation involves intensification of subsistenceoriented smallholder farming systems, better management of natural resources while intensifying their use, developing more efficient markets and enabling policies.  Capacity building of the various stakeholders (farmers, scientists, and other relevant stakeholders) • Information and knowledge management and • Continuous monitoring and evaluation and systematic approach to impact assessment.The agricultural research for development in fact utilizes the various participatory methods and tools.The four key steps in the agricultural research for development process are team organization, defining the system of interest, identifying strategies, and plan formulation (Figure 5). These steps are discussed in the following sections based on material prepared by International Centre for Development-oriented Research in Agriculture (ICRA). The AR4D procedure starts from the assumption that one or more organizations (including your own) and other stakeholders have identified a problem or area of concern, or an idea for intervention.It also assumes that addressing this problem requires concerted action of these organizations and stakeholders. This may require a team of professionals from these organizations, comprising specialists in the various disciplines needed to address the problem. It is assumed that by using the various diagnostic procedures the 'clients' and stakeholders have agreed on a sufficiently well-defined specific problem. Clear planning requires that your team develops a good understanding of the problem statement and the output that the client expects at the end of the process. At the end of this phase, the team should have produced the following outputs:Team is composed, mandates are defined, and resources are made available (at least for planning) •The problem is clearly stated and the expected output is clearly defined •A mechanism for monitoring is established • Phase II:Define the system of interestHere the team looks at policy issues, markets, institutional issues and other macro-development in and outside agriculture that may have an influence on the problem and on attempts to solve it. It is important to identify the 'system' that needs to change in order to address the problem that was defined in phase I. We have to look at all elements needed for the change within the mandate of the stakeholders involved. It is of little use to suggest changes that the stakeholders do not have the power to change or influence.At the end of this phase, the following outputs must be in place:Description of how the wider 'macro trends' influence the problem • Redefinition or further elaboration of the problem as seen from different perspectives • Demarcation of the 'system of interest' •Identify strategiesHere there is need to engage all stakeholders involved in the 'system of interest' defined in phase II to identify strategies that will bring about the desired changes, under different scenarios based on the external factors influencing the system of interest. There may be also a need to stratify the target group based on resource endowments, capabilities, strategies and vulnerabilities. It is also important to assess the anticipated effect of these alternative strategies on the environment (sustainability), vulnerable groups (social equity) and the competitiveness of the enterprises of the various stakeholders in the system of interest.If this 'screening process' shows that strategies have anticipated negative effects, then these need to be addressed through accompanying measures or the strategy should be dropped. Agreeing to some concrete strategies may usually require compromise between different stakeholders. Each strategy should be assessed in terms of their ecological, social and economic implications. These aspects should be considered simultaneously. The relative importance of each of these analytical perspectives is dependent on the problem and usefulness of each in terms of finding a possible/viable solution. This integrated analysis should result in the following outputs. The contribution of each stakeholder in the implementation of the agreed upon strategy defined in Phase III is identified. As available resources are usually not enough to implement all activities, there may be a need to prioritize the list of activities/options identified. The criteria for prioritization must deal with the balance between the extent to which each activity is likely to contribute to the solution of the problem, the cost and time needed for the activity as well as the risk of failure of the activity.The final step is the formulation of convincing development and research proposals for the activities of highest priority; and mobilization of resources to implement them. The process of implementation (based on the operational plan), monitoring, evaluation and the eventual impact assessment of the intervention needs to be worked out as part of the planning process. As most participants are familiar with the participatory approaches to knowledge/technology development and transfer process, it may be possible to easily integrate the missing elements from the AR4D process described in this section.But a clear understanding of the process will certainly assist in the development of convincing/winning project proposals.It is important to ensure that the innovation system perspective, value chain analysis, research for development and impact orientation are effectively integrated in the proposal.A value chain describes the full range of activities required to bring a product or service from conception, through the different phases of production, delivery to final consumers, and final disposal after use (Kaplinsky and Morris 2000). It is worth noting that production is only one of a number of value-added links in the agrifood chain (Figure 6). Some people refer to this chain as from hoe (plough) to the finger (fork). A simple value chain has four basic links. In the real world, value chains are much more complex than this simple depiction. In many circumstances, intermediary producers in a particular value chain may feed into a number of value chains.Agricultural value chains are defined by a particular finished product or closely related products and includes all firms engaged in input supply, production, transport, processing and marketing of the product, and their associated activities, interactions and institutions governing the activities and interactions. It entails the addition of value as the product progresses from input supply to production to  Porter (1985) distinguished two important elements of a modern value chain analysis:Various activities which were performed in particular link in the chain and • Multi-linked value chain or the value system. • Both these elements are subsumed in the modern value chain descried in Figure 7. In many developing countries, there is heavy emphasis on the commercialization of smallholder production system; and production is increasingly becoming market oriented. In order to reap the immediate benefit, it is important to understand the nature, structure, and the dynamics of the value chain related to the various enterprises engaged in by the smallholder farmers. Given the new agricultural innovation system perspective, we need not only understand the dynamic but should also focus on the enabling environment, facilitating institutions as well as services associated with a given value chain.In the previous sections, we discussed the organizational and institutional transformations taking place within the agricultural research for development and the associated paradigm shifts to address the broadened agricultural agenda. In addition, the system is also confronted with a number of emerging challenges which shapes the priority agenda. Some of the key challenges currently facing the R&D communities are as follows:In the recent past, global food prices are increasing at an unprecedented rate and analysts say that they will continue to remain high for a considerable period. Both the demand side and supply side factors contributed to the current price crisis. The demand side factors include: economic growth and the associated changes in life style and eating habits in many countries; diversion of food crops (maize, sugarcane) for making biofuels: declining world stock piles, financial speculation in commodity markets (a collapse of the financial derivatives market); and of course the increase in population (although at a slower rate). The supply side factors include: increased fuel and fertilizer prices and the associated increase in cost of production (and low input use); biofuel subsidies pushing production towards biofuel rather than food; idle crop land under a conservation program, export bans and tariffs by many grain exporting countries; production shortfalls from natural disasters and the long-term effects of climate change; trade liberalization making many developing nations depend on food imports (subsidized) which are cheaper; loss of crop lands due to mainly soil erosion, water depletion and urbanization and finally declining investments in agriculture.The continuing increase in fuel prices is pushing countries towards biofuels. As a result of rising energy costs, inputs such as fertilizers become more and more unaffordable for small farmers who are at the centre of response to the world food crisis. Transport costs have become higher and higher once again resulting in higher consumer prices. Thus the rising fuel prices and the emerging food crisis are closely linked.Since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, it is generally accepted that the environmental agenda is inseparable from the broader agenda of agriculture for development. Both intensive as well as extensive agriculture lead to environmental consequences. To address the expected climate change challenges and impact, R&D need to play a major role in increasing the adaptive capacity of the most vulnerable groups in different regions. The climate change could create changes in the geographical production patterns, as well as deterioration of natural resource base due to scarcity of water and rising temperature. It will also affect parasites like the tsetse fly and parasitic diseases such as malaria. With the increased risk of droughts and floods due to rising temperatures, crop yield losses are imminent. World agricultural GDP is projected to decrease by 16% by 2020 by global warming.Although SSA produces less than 4% of the world green house gases, the region's diverse climates and ecological systems have already been altered by global warming and will undergo further damage in the years ahead. Sahel and other arid and semi-arid regions are expected to become even drier. A third of Africa's peoples already live in drought-prone regions and climate change could put the lives and livelihoods of an additional 75-250 million people at risk by the end of the next decade (Africa Renewal 2007). Climate change will create new food insecurities in the coming decades. Low income countries with limited adaptive capabilities to climate variability and change are faced with significant threats to food security.The global and national food systems are increasingly being driven by consumer interests, changing consumption patterns, quality and safety concerns and the influence of transnational corporations and civil society organizations. The changes in the emerging food systems such as rapid rise and economic concentration in supermarkets need for quality standards; a shift towards non-price competition among supermarket chains, biosafety issues and the development of new forms of (contractual) relationships between suppliers and buyers offer both challenges and opportunities. They can either squeeze small producers out of certain markets contributing greater poverty and inequality or can offer new sources of income and market improvement in the quality and safety of food.The incidence and impacts of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria are well documented. Additional threats and challenges are posed by emerging diseases. Approximately 75% of emerging diseases are transmitted between animals and human beings; the increasing demand for meat increases this risk of transmission. Serious socio-economic consequences occur when diseases spread widely within human and animal populations.One of the major constraints to getting agriculture moving in SSA is the general lack of comprehensive policies and weak intersectoral linkages. Now there is growing awareness that a number of sectors such as agriculture, education, health, water and energy are very closely linked. Thus any agenda to transform the smallholder agriculture should follow a multisectoral approach and capture the synergies between technologies (seeds, fertilizer, livestock breeds); sustainable water and soil management, institutional services (extension, insurance, financial services) and human capital development (education and health)-all linked with market development (World Development Report 2008).Over the years, there has been a significant change in the expectations of science and technology and innovations, from increasing crop and livestock productivity to creating competitive responsive and dynamic agriculture, that directly contribute to the Millennium Developmental Goals. Biosafety is a highly technical field, which typically requires high initial investments for building the necessary human resource capacity and institutional infrastructure (including laboratories and green houses for risk assessment or testing and identification of genetically modified organisms).The revolution in ICT technologies and increased access to them in developing countries is enabling a variety of new approaches to capacity building and knowledge sharing and exploitation of these opportunities require additional investments.In the recent past, there is a trend towards globalization of private agricultural research. Drivers of globalization of R&D are growing markets for agricultural products and agricultural inputs (reduced restrictions on trade in agricultural inputs), new technological opportunities due to breakthrough in biotechnology; improved ability to appropriate the gains from innovations, improved policy environment for foreign investments and technology transfer (tax breaks); and growth in demand due to increased income and policy changes (Pray 2008). If carefully nurtured and managed, this may offer additional opportunities for public-private partnership to mobilize additional resources and to move the poverty reduction agenda forward.Over the last several years, countries in the regions are committed to a number of targets and goals.Under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, targets are set for: reducing hunger and poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, improving maternal health and nutrition, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and ensuring conservation and the enhancement of basic life-support systems including land, water, forests, biodiversity and the atmosphere. There is increasing evidence to show that we will not meet any of the targets set for 2015.In 2001, African heads of state adopted the strategic framework to develop integrated socio-economic development framework for Africa-the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) under the auspices of the African Union (AU). The agricultural agenda of NEPAD is driven by the comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP). This strategy calls for an annual growth rate of 6.5%. At least 10% of the national budget as defined in the Maputo Declaration (February 2003) should be allocated to agriculture.The current financial crisis is contributing significantly to the slow down of many countries resulting in reduction in the capital availability at a time when accelerated investment is urgently needed in the agricultural research and development arena. Although the current food and financial crisis developed from different causes, these two crises have fed into each other and could have significant impact on financial and economic stability and, political security (von Braun 2008).The projected low economic growth is likely to have negative second-round effects for investment and productivity with direct ramifications for food prices and food security around the globe. IFPRI (2008) has projected that under slow growth and declines in agricultural investment, the prices of major cereals increase significantly. According to projections in SSA, per capita consumption would be 10% lower in 2020 and its share of the number of malnourished children will increase from one fifth in 2005 to one fourth in 2020. The study concluded that if the developing countries and investors can maintain agricultural productivity and investment under recession, they can avoid many of the negative effects of slower growth.To sum up, there is a need for agriculturalists to grow intellectually and operationally from a narrow focus on agriculture and technological research and dissemination to a better understanding of rural societies and their needs. There is a need to seek greater understanding of alternative pathways for rural economic development, placing the role of agriculture in perspective, and redefining the role, mission, and strategy of the agricultural institutes and agents as facilitators of rural economic growth. This calls for change in the mind-sets of the change agents and greater flexibility and creativity in defining the agenda as well as in defining new public-private-civil society partnerships on the basis of whatever is necessary to improve opportunities, productivity and income generation capacity of poor rural households.Session 2: What sort of projects do donors like? When and when not to write a full proposal?By the end of this session participants will:Be able to avoid writing projects that • Projects that can make a marked, measurable and rapid improvement in the living conditions of poor or marginalized and vulnerable people• Projects that can make a marked, measurable improvement in the environment• Projects with low risks and high returns • Projects that beneficiaries (end users) have themselves claimed as priorities, i.e demanddriven and client-oriented Development donors want to give their support to … 2.5• Proposals that offer a team composed of strong research partners whose experience and qualifications give them a comparative advantage over others to carry out the project i.e multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder involvement• Proposals whose level of detail indicates that the authors have given careful thought to the design and implementation of the project -Project logic• Proposals with a modest yet realistic budget, that is within the means of the target donor• Projects that are novel or innovative Development funding partners want to give their support to … (cont'd)2.6• Over-ambitious projects that claim more than they can possibly achieve in the time specified and for the funds requested• Projects that call for infrastructure and capital investment, unless the need for these can be very clearly identified and linked directly to the project activities• Poorly written and poorly presented proposals i.e lack of clarity Funders will not like ….When and when not to write a full proposal• Preparing a concept note takes a fraction of the time needed to prepare a full proposal. Proceed to full proposal when;• You are responding to a competitive grants program• You have submitted an unsolicited (unasked for) concept note to a donor, who has responded by asking you to provide more information• A funding partner/donor has asked for more than a 3-7 page concept note, and wants you to submit a full proposal• The best basis for a full proposal is a good concept note 2.8What is a concept note?• A concept note is a short version of a proposal • It has the same structure as a full proposal When to prepare a concept note Moving from a concept note to a proposal• You will need to add or expand several sections • You will need to reassemble your project design team and partners to think through the additional details required to write a full proposal• You now have a chance to make changes to the project that you described in your concept note• So long as the basic concept of the project remains the same, you should feel free to make these changes in the light of evolving internal and external realities 2.12 Thank You! Session 2: Notes for trainers: What sort of projects do donors like? When and when not to write a full proposal Development funding partners want to give their support to the following:Projects that can make a marked, measurable and rapid improvement in the living conditions of • poor or marginal people. This means that to sell your project to a donor you will need to carefully trace the path between the results of your research and how those results will make a difference for the end users.Projects that can make a marked, measurable improvement in the environment. This may have to • do with preserving biodiversity, conserving water, improving soils, preventing erosion, etc.Projects with low risks and high returns-i.e. are likely to achieve their objectives within the • allocated time and budget and within the constraints of the location, while likely to yield impressive benefits for the end users. As you are designing your project, you need to think carefully about whether the situation in your location has elements that might render the project outputs or impacts very difficult to achieve.Projects that beneficiaries (end users) have themselves claimed as priorities. This means that you • may need to get information about their needs and preferences from the potential end users of your research.Proposals that offer a team composed of strong research partners whose experience and • qualifications give them a comparative advantage over others to carry out the project. Very few projects (except very small ones) are nowadays implemented by just one organization. This means that you will need to be making linkages with potential partners to complement your own inhouse skills.Proposals whose level of detail indicates that the authors have given careful thought to the design • and implementation of the project. This module will help you to include this level of detail.Proposals with a modest yet realistic budget that is within the means of the target donor. The topic • on budgets will help you to prepare budgets that are convincing to donors.Projects that are novel or innovative. The first thing that a funding partner will ask when picking • up a concept note or proposal is, 'What's new about this?' You need to have a good answer to this, early on in your proposal. One of the topics in this module will show you how to write a section on 'What Has Already Been Done', so that you can be sure you are not repeating work done by others.Funders will not like all of the following:Over-ambitious projects that claim more than they can possibly achieve in the time specified and • for the funds requested. Although donors may not know your particular field of specialization in detail, they have lots of project experience, and will have a good sense of what can and cannot be done within a given time and budget.Projects that call for the purchase of vehicles and computers, unless the need for these can be • very clearly identified and linked directly to the project activities. As you can probably imagine, funders often receive proposals that are little more than requests for these items, for the individual use of the proposers.Poorly spelled and poorly presented proposals. Nowadays, with spell-checks and computers, there • is no excuse for turning in a shoddy proposal. At the same time, you should not go for something too glossy-if you can afford to produce something really fancy, the funder may feel that perhaps you don't really need the money you are asking for! 2.2 When and when not to write a full proposal Preparing a concept note takes a fraction of the time needed to prepare a proposal. So you should only proceed to the development of a full proposal under the following conditions:You are responding to a competitive grants program • You have submitted an unsolicited (unasked for) concept note to a donor who has responded by • asking you to provide more information.A funding partner/donor has asked for more than a 3-7 page concept note, and wants you to • submit a full proposal In all other cases, you should start to write up your project ideas in the form of a concept note. Also, the best basis for a full proposal is a good concept note. For these two reasons, we strongly recommend that you learn how to write a convincing concept note.Full proposal 3-7 pages long 10 pages minimum, average 20 pages Summarized in bullets (title, budget etc.)Begins with a summary section Background section one page or less Background section about 10% of total Activities summarized, in time line Activities are written up in detail Beneficiaries, impact summarized End users and impact described in detail Summary budget is adequate Budget details required Annexes minimized Annexes often required Thus, as you move from a concept note to a proposal you will need to add or expand several sections.You will need to reassemble your project design team and partners to think through the additional details required to write a full proposal. You now have a chance to make changes to the project that you described in your concept note-you may want to change the sites, or the activities, or include new elements in your design. So long as the basic concept of the project remains the same, you should feel free to make these changes in the light of evolving internal and external realities-i.e. things that have happened since you first thought of the project and discussed it with your peers. Session 2: Exercise 2Individual exercise on when and when not to write a full proposal Answer the following questions. Use your pad and pencil to take notes a. Give two occasions when it is appropriate to write a full proposal, rather than a concept note.b. In a concept note, the first section consists of some bullets (giving the project title, total budget, duration, partners, location etc.). What is the equivalent in a full proposal? c. Name two other elements you would find in a full proposal that you would not find in a concept note.See Annex 2 for answers.Trainer's guide What are these programs?• Calling for proposals and choosing the best, based on certain selection criteria• This is a growing trend around the world • It is used by national, regional and international funding sources 3.3Call for proposals Finding out about competitive grants programs• Explaining who will be responsible for disseminating results to end-users• Explaining the conditions under which dissemination will take place• Explaining the strength of interest of end-users in applying/using research resultsTrace the logic that links your research results with the solution of an important problem….• Explaining the difficulties that might prevent results being used -Risk factor• Explaining at what stage (i.e. how many years after the start of the project) the application of results will start to be seen• Explaining how and who will measure the extent to which your results were appliedTrace the logic that links your research results with the solution of an important problem (cont'd….)Where to place your 'silent' messages…We are ready and eager to do the work -all that is needed is your supportIf we do the work, our end-users will be significantly better offOur approach builds on the work that others have done beforeWe have collected the ideal team to implement the project -they are highly qualified and experiencedWe have thought throug h all the details All sections Our approach is cost-effective BudgetWe have a good approach to do this important thing Competitive grants programs are a growing trend around the world. Both national and international funding sources now choose to spend at least part of their funds by requesting proposals and choosing those they like the best, based on certain selection criteria. Donors announce their interest in receiving proposals by issuing of a 'call for proposals' or 'request for proposals' or 'request for applications'. In these calls, the funders reveal a great deal about the type of projects they want to fund. For instance, these calls will likely specify many, if not all, of the following things: The single most important thing about responding to a call for proposals from a donor is to read and reread the call carefully, underlining all the key points, and then to follow the instructions to the letter. One of the great advantages of the competitive grants programs from your point of view is that the donor agency is telling you exactly what it wants. You do not need to guess. Nor should you second guess-i.e. believe that somehow you know better than the funding agency what it really wants.Believe every word in the request for proposals. Your submission will indeed be reviewed according to the selection criteria, so you would be foolish not to follow them. Bids from ineligible groups will not be read, so do not bother applying to a program for which you (and your partners) are not properly qualified. For instance, if the donor requires you to partner with a private sector group to qualify for a particular grants program, do not bother to apply unless you have such a partner.In some of the later topics in this training module, we will be presenting you with a 'generic' proposal format that you can use if:(a) you are not responding to a call for proposals (b) your organization does not have a preferred format, and (c) your target donor has not suggested you use a format applied by his or her agency. This generic format is no better than any other. But if you write your proposal using this format, you will readily be able to adapt it to the needs of any research or development donor's needs.However, when you are responding to a call for proposals from a competitive grants program, we recommend that you do not use this generic outline, but directly follow the instructions in the call. In other words, believe the words of the donor, rather than what you learn in this training module!Because more and more funding agencies are using competitive grants programs, you need to know about them. You can find out easily by carefully reading the web pages of the major donors in your country every few months. You can, and should, visit the donor agencies that have offices in your capital city, and ask them about any grant programs they have ongoing or planned for the future. Here are just a few of the donor agencies likely to be supporting competitive grants programs. You will be able to find their addresses in their web sites.The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has started a number of new initiatives recently. These are called 'Challenge Programs' and they attempt to bring together researchers of all kinds from all types of organizations to work together to address some of the world's biggest development challenges. To be sure that all interested parties are involved, each of these programs has a competitive grants element, and your organization may well be eligible to bid. You can find out more about these programs by reviewing the CGIAR website at www.cgiar.org and reading up on the Challenge Programs. At least two or three are now approved, and more are planned for the future.What are the hidden messages of a good proposal? A convincing proposal is one that convinces your reader to provide funding for your project. All convincing proposals, regardless of size, or even content, share the same key qualities. Although it does not say so in these words, all convincing proposals strongly convey all of the following messages:Something important needs doing right away! • Some groups of people are suffering (and/or the environment is under grave threat) •We have a sensible, cost-effective approach to tackling the problem •We have thought through all the details of the project •We have collected the ideal team of people, qualified and experienced to do the work •We are ready and eager to do the workIf we do the work, our end-users will be significantly better offWriting a research proposal to a development donor: These implicit messages need to be conveyed to both a development and a research project. In the proposal for a research project, you will need to trace the logic that links your research results with the solution of an important problem that is causing suffering for some group of people or has the potential to benefit some groups of people.Tracing the logic may involve: explaining who will be responsible for disseminating results to end-users • explaining the conditions under which dissemination will take place • explaining the strength of interest of end-users in applying/using research results • explaining the difficulties that might prevent results being used • explaining at what stage (i.e. how many years after the start of the project) the application of • results will start to be seen explaining how and who will measure the extent to which your results were applied • Where in the proposal do you convey the 'hidden' messages? Table 1 shows which sections of the proposal convey these messages. We have a good approach to do this important thing Budget Our approach is cost-effective All sectionsWe have thought through all the detailsWe have collected the ideal team to implement the project-they are highly qualified and experienced Background Our approach builds on the work that others have done before Outputs and impactIf we do the work, our end-users will be significantly better off All sectionsWe are ready and eager to do the work-all that is needed is your support • What is the problem (problem statement)• Why is it urgent, (justification)• What has already been done (summary of literature review) • What will be in place at the end of the project • It is evidence which shows that resources were properly used 8. Beneficiaries and impact• Who will benefit from the results/outputs?• In what way?• How will you measure the impact, and when will it be observed?• What would be their contribution?Generic proposal format (cont'd…) 4.79. Monitoring and evaluation• How can you track the project progress in terms of implementation and promised results?• How will the project be assessed at its end?• Helps to take corrective action if the expected results are not forthcoming as anticipated 10. Budget• Shows how much it will cost and how the cost items were estimated 11. Logframe• Project summary, aid to data collection for monitoring and evaluation Generic proposal format (cont'd…)Other sections in a proposal• Proposal can be biological or socioeconomic Be aware of the following sections:• Environmental and ethical issues Outputs (What will be in place at the end of the project?)Beneficiaries and impact (Who will benefit from the results/outputs, in what way? How will you measure the impact, and when will it be observed?)Monitoring and evaluation (How can you track the project progress in terms of implementation and promised results? How will the project be assessed at its end?)(How much will it cost?)If you use this generic format, you should have no difficulty in repackaging the material (i.e. rearranging the sections, and perhaps changing some of the terms) to suit the template or format used by any donor.In addition to the sections shown above, you may also need some annexes to show supporting material for your project. Some of these annexes might include:a copy of a logframe for your project •Statements about past performance of your institute and your partners • You will also need a cover letter to submit with your proposal.Although the proposal will be submitted in the order shown in Table 3, we do not recommend that you prepare the sections in that order. We suggest that you prepare the proposal in the order of steps shown in Table 2 below. Notice that Step 10 is as important as all the others. Having your colleagues review your proposal a little after it is finished will yield many useful suggestions for improving your proposal, and may make the difference between convincing your donor or not.This order of preparation ensures that you first concentrate on the 'heart' of the project-the five key elements of the project design. Once you have those things clearly written down, you can start to write some of the 'selling' parts of the proposal-i.e. the Impact and Background section. The Monitoring and Evaluation section is separated from the heart of the project, because we assume that your institute has a regular program of reviewing its ongoing projects. You will mention this in your proposal, along with the specific issues about the monitoring and evaluation of this particular project. The Summary is always written last, since you need to have all other sections finished before you can summarize them.Session 4: Individual exercise on proposal format and order of preparation  Guidelines for writing a good title• The title should not be wordy -should contain less than 15 words• Make the most important words stand out, usually by putting them first• Be faithful to the content of the proposal • Be accurate, concise and specific • Contain as many of the key words as possible and be easy to understand• E.g. ( 1)\"Adaptation of pedal thresher for smallholder rice farmers\".• (2) \"Recovering the degraded lands in eastern Tororo district\"• (3) \"Development of rain water harvesting options for Karamoja region\"A title should not:• Contain abbreviations or formulas • Promise more than is in the proposal What is a goal?5.9• Alleviating poverty (increasing household incomes)• Protecting or preserving the environment An example of selecting a goal Project • Our sample project is designed to test the nutritional and economic advantages for Malawian farm families with less than 2 ha of land with aquaculture of tilapia species over a three year period. Its author got members of his design team together to brainstorm some goals to which this project might contribute, and how Goals• Poverty alleviation • Household food security • National food security • Improved on-farm nutrition (women and children?)• Improved on-farm health (larger babies?)• Increased farm incomes • Decreased urban migration They picked two-poverty alleviation and household food security-to explore further, because these were of great importance in their country. Here were their thoughts as they considered the two possible goals:For household food security Were households insecure before? If so, how insecure? A pre-project survey would likely be • needed to make any comparison.What would happen if the fish died during the project? • Would the head of household likely sell the fish for cash, rather than keep some or all for • household consumption? How would household food security be measured? In number of meals eaten by the family? In • calorie intakes for all family members? Who would do this measurement?How much food security could the tilapia contribute under the best of circumstances? • For poverty alleviation How many people qualify as owning less than 2 ha of land? How large a sample would need to • be tested to get meaningful results?What baseline data would need to be collected on the current situation of poverty in the area: • income, expenditure for individual, household, whole target group, etc.? How much would it cost to do the pre-project testing? Who would carry out the survey? By how much could the project possibly increase household incomes under ideal circumstances? • What would it take to mean that the families received no extra income at all? Could a reasonable range of possible increase be estimated? How soon could income improvements be seen? • How would those improvements be measured? • Session 6: Summary of presentation slides: Project objectives, anticipated outputs and beneficiaries 6.1 Project objectives and anticipated outputs 6.2Objective? Goal?Try and differentiate between goals and objectives and include both  Objectives and outputs (cont'd…)Examples 1. To provide 500 mothers in Oromia Woreda with relevant information regarding child health and nutrition 2. To reduce the degree of malnutrition among young children in Oromia Woreda 3. To assist mothers in Oromia Woreda in learning how to effectively apply health and nutrition information to improve child health 4. To teach mothers in Oromia Woreda to evaluate changes in the health of their young children.Objectives and outputs (cont'd…)General objective• This is the purpose that your project intends to achieve Objectives• The key element of your project's design 1. To enhance knowledge of market opportunities for fishermen 2. To provide fishermen with twice-weekly news bulletins about fish prices in all markets within a 20 mile radius 6.6Good objective (cont'd…) 2. SMARTer: \"To develop at least two new drought-resistant fodder varieties that can be grown with 3 grams of salt per litre of water.\"6.9Project anticipated outputs• Outputs of a project are those things that will be in place at the end of the project, that would not have existed without the project Writing about beneficiaries/ end users 6.15Things that your readers want to know• For whom is your research ultimately designed?• Whom is your project trying to make better off?• What sort of people are these?• What are their circumstances now, without the project?• How might their circumstances change, if the project is funded?Understand the beneficiaries• Sit with your design team, brainstorm about the potential end-users of your project outputs.• Carefully sample the potential beneficiaries and confirm their characteristics and their needs through participatory surveys/interviews• Understand their culture and attitudes towards the changes expected from the proposed intervention 6.17Understand the beneficiaries• Poor urban consumers?• Refugees from neighboring war-torn countries?• AIDS orphans?• Pregnant or nursing mothers?• Unemployed youth?• Landless laborers?• Fishing communities? etc,etc.Will your project have a positive effect on any of the following?Emotive realistic description• Write a sentence or two about each group.• Provide some statistics (with source, if at all possible)• Provide details that make those people seem real to the reader.• Describe the unemployed youth as 'desperate'and 'volatile' groups, who can cause social unrest.EmotivelyEmotive realistic description• Providing some positive benefit for this group • Explain recent surveys suggesting half-a-million AIDS orphans in your country• Most of these are heading families or living on their own or trying to take care of other siblings, with or without the disease.• These children often make do with only one substandard meal per day• As a result they are severely malnourished, and unable to continue fending for themselves• These few details may help the reader to identify with the plight of these poor people, and want to support your project, that may make a difference, albeit small, to their wellbeing What may be most appealing to a potential donor?6.20Here is a sample description of a group of target beneficiaries.This project, which seeks to plant 5 million trees over a 3 year period, will achieve a variety of environmental benefits. It will provide urgently needed employment for an often over-looked group in province Y. The World Bank estimates that there are over 100,000 landless laborers in the rural areas of this highland province, who have lost their jobs in the South African mines, and are now urgently seeking alternative work…… 6.21Emotive realistic description (cont'd...)In years of better rainfall, the larger farms might have absorbed many during harvest time, but three year's drought has put a dent in this prospect. These laborers have been used to large pay checks in the mines, sending home significant remittances to provide food and education for their families. From being people who were admired in their home towns and villages, these men cannot now provide for their families and may become a liability to their communities.Emotive realistic description (cont'd...)• It is hoped that the tree project will be able to offer at least part time jobs to as many as half of these laborers in the province.• It is important to include a discussion of all the possible beneficiaries specially disadvantaged groups, like those out-of-work migrant miners.Reference fileStart a file on beneficiary groups for all future project development. This file might contain useful statistics, newspaper articles, magazine clippings and other sources of news about various poor segments of your society. You will find that being able to quote from material in this file will greatly strengthen the quality of your writing about project beneficiaries and end-users.Session 6: Notes to participants: Project objectives, anticipated outputs and beneficiariesThe objectives of your project are the key element of your project's design. They describe exactly what it is you intend to do, if you receive the financial support you seek. Because of their importance, you need to spend considerable time in getting their meaning and wording exactly right. We strongly recommend that you do this with your design team of between three to five people. Brainstorming your objectives will be much easier and more enjoyable than working out the language on your own. Every proposal will have a separate objectives section. Many proposal readers may look at that section first. That is one of the reasons for being careful to get the wording quite right. You are encouraged to number your objectives, and use them to organize later sections of the proposal, such as the activities and outputs sections, described below.It is something that you can tell, at the end of the project, whether you have succeeded in achieving it or not. 'To enhance knowledge of market opportunities' is not a good objective, because you have not specified how much knowledge you expect to add in your project.Even one additional fact might allow you to claim that your objective had been achieved, but that would not please a potential investor. A much better objective would be something like 'To provide fishermen with twice-weekly news bulletins about the fish prices at all markets within a 20 mile radius.'This would no doubt 'enhance knowledge of market opportunities', and would also enable a reviewer to assess whether or not your project had indeed achieved its objective.There is a neat acronym for preparing good objectives, called SMART. SMART stands for five elements of what makes a good objective. It should be:• Specific• Achievable• RealisticBy 'specific' we mean you should give some details about what it is you want to do; in our example, we specify that the end-users are fishermen, and that we will be sharing information about fish prices at nearby markets.By 'measurable' we mean you should give some sense of the scope of what you intend to do. In our example, we have indicated our news bulletins will be twice weekly. We could have indicated the number of fishermen (e.g. fishermen living along the east coast of Sri Lanka) to make our objective even more measurable. Perhaps this would be evident from the parts of the proposal already written.But by giving more details, we make it easier again to assess the extent to which we have succeeded in meeting our objectives at project's end.By 'achievable' we mean you should make sure that your objectives are achievable within the scope of your project (i.e. with the budget you have asked for, and with the team of people you propose to implement the project). Your donor readers, who have read many project proposals, will have a good sense of what is achievable for what sort of budget in the country in which they work. They will know, for instance, that you will need at least two experts to do that market-information enhancement project-one an economist and the other a translator, who can put the information into terms that the fishermen will understand. If you forget to include the translator, your reader will feel that your project (as you have designed it) is not achievable. (Notice that the achievability of the project cannot be seen from the objectives alone, but takes into account what you have written in other sections of the proposal.)By 'realistic' we mean that your objective must be achievable within the context of the country-its climate and socio-political realities. For instance, if our fisher people cannot read and write, then our news bulletins must come via radio. But if the families are too poor to own radios, how can the news get through? Are there communal radios? Who listens to them? You need to ensure that what you want to do in your project is do-able in the context of the reality of the people you are hoping to help.By 'time-bound' we mean that your objective must be achievable within the time period of the project.We may be able to get our twice-weekly fish price information to our fishers within a two-year project, but we may not be able to get these fishers to change their behaviour as a result of having that new information in that time. Changing human behaviour always takes longer than you think! So, when you are preparing the objectives for your proposal, remember to think SMART. Original: 'To develop drought resistant fodder varieties that can be grown with saline water' • SMARTer: 'To develop at least two new drought-resistant fodder varieties that can be grown with 3 • grams of salt per litre of water.'The outputs of a project are those things that will be in place at the end of the project that would not have existed without the project. Outputs may be tangible (like a new building or a new publication) or intangible (like a workshop or a new knowledge). You need to specify in your proposal all the outputs you anticipate you will 'deliver' at the end of the project.Here are some examples. In item (a) of the above exercise, one output of your project might be at least 100 new fish ponds on small farms in Southern Malawi. In item (b) one output might be two types of fruit tree shown to grow quickly and provide fruit for sale within two years. In item (c) an output might be one approach to chick-deaths that proved effective in keeping alive more than 85% of young chicks in the test area.If your project is a piece of research, your outputs may be research results-either answers to a research question or the answer to a hypothesis you have posed. For instance, supposing you were testing the hypothesis that there is an inverse relation between adoption of new technologies and the level of poverty of potential adopters. The result of your research might be statistical proof that the poorer the farm family, the less likely they were to adopt a new technology. The output might be the writing up of this information in a report to your donor, or a paper given at a conference or workshop. Every proposal will have its own separate section in which you are encouraged to list all the possible outputs of your project.Outputs relate directly to your objectives. In your objectives you state what it is you want to do in your project (or piece of research). In the outputs section, you state what you expect will be in place at the end of the project as a result of your efforts to achieve the objectives.Your project will likely have several outputs. Brainstorm with your design team to be sure that you are listing all the possible (positive) outputs your project might have. If your project is likely to have negative outputs of any quantity, you may want to reconsider the design of your project. Some people, including some donors, prefer to call outputs 'deliverables'. This is a useful term, because it helps to convey the idea that you are 'promising' to deliver the outputs, if the donor provides you with the money. This is the case. If your proposal is successful in attracting donor funds, it will be turned into a grant agreement (or similar document) which will specify the outputs you are expected to 'deliver' in return for receiving the grant. Any evaluation of your project or grant will be assessing the extent to which you did, indeed, deliver those outputs.In a project of two or more years, you are likely to achieve outputs well before the end of the project.In fact, you are encouraged to identify outputs that you may achieve (deliver) regularly throughout the project. Why? To help you monitor your project.You will want to keep a tight control on the development of your project by having a good monitoring or tracking scheme. A key tool in this project monitoring is to identify intermediate results, or outputs, at regular intervals in the project. You can then assess, as you go along, if you have achieved those results, as anticipated.For instance, in a three-year tomato-improvement project, you may wish to specify a milestone every six months, as shown in the table.• Month 6: -Base-line survey of current Lablab Fodder varieties and harvests in Alemaya completed.• Month 12: -Six new varieties planted together in a test pattern in at least 100 home gardens. project is on track. For instance, if in Month 24 you find that only 350 sites are now testing the various Lablab Fodder varieties, you will know you have a problem you need to address. You will need to understand why your sites are far fewer than anticipated. If necessary, you may need to adjust your project design. You will need to explain this to your donor. Much better to do this at the end of Year 2, which you still have time, than at the end of the project, when you will annoy your donor by springing an unhappy surprise, that you did not deliver the outputs you promised. An annoyed donor, faced with an unexpected negative surprise, is unlikely to be thrilled about follow-on funding for your next piece of research! Note: In writing proposals we always use terms like 'Year 1', 'Month 30', 'Week 4', etc., rather than real dates, like 2005 and February. This is because we can never know when a donor will agree to fund a project, and thus cannot be sure when a project will start. The use of Year, Month or Week, plus a number, allows you to specify the duration of certain activities, etc., without making your proposal out of date at any time.For the moment, all that you need to know here is that in some parts of the project proposal you can 'let your hair down' and write with a bit more emotion than you usually do. One of those places is in the section where you write about the beneficiaries or end-users of your project outputs or research results.First of all, you will have to decide who you think those end-users are. For whom is your research ultimately designed? Whom is your project trying to make better off? What sort of people are these? What are their circumstances now, without the project? How might their circumstances change, if the project is funded? These are the things that your readers want to know.We suggest you sit with your design team and brainstorm about the potential end-users of your project outputs. Will your project have a positive effect on any of the following?Poor urban consumers? • Refugees from neighbouring war-torn countries? •Pregnant or nursing mothers? •Try to think beyond your 'usual' target beneficiaries-perhaps smallholder farmers, and be a little more specific.Once you have identified all the groups that might benefit, try to write a sentence or two about each group, providing some statistics (with source, if at all possible) and some details that make those people seem real to the reader. Your object is to make your reader care about the situation of these people. For instance, you may describe the unemployed youth as 'desperate' or 'angry'. These are volatile groups who can cause social unrest. Providing some positive benefit for this group may be most appealing to a potential donor. You may explain that some suggest there may be as many as half-a-million AIDS orphans in your country, many living on their own, trying to take care of other siblings, with or without the disease. You may mention that these children often must make do with only one meal per day, often of substandard food. As a result, they are severely malnourished and unable to work for a living. These few details may help the reader to identify with the plight of these poor people, and want to support your project, that may make a difference, albeit small, to their wellbeing.Here is a sample description of a group of target beneficiaries. 'This project, which seeks to plant literally thousands of trees over its three-year life to achieve a variety of environmental benefits, will provide urgently needed employment for an often over-looked group in Country Y. The World Bank estimates that there are over 100 thousand landless labourers in the rural areas, who have lost their jobs in the South African mines, and are now urgently seeking alternative work. In years of better rainfall, the larger farms might have absorbed many during harvest time, but this year's drought has put a dent in this prospect. These labourers have been used to large pay checks in the mines, and to sending home significant remittances to keep their families in food and education. From being people who were admired in their home towns and villages, these men are now the object of pity, and their families are dependent on the charity of others. It is hoped that the tree project will be able to offer at least part time jobs to as many as half these labourers in the three highland provinces.' Notice that even in an environmental project, with a goal of preventing soil degradation and preserving arable land, it is important to include a discussion of all the possible beneficiaries, not just the nation's farmers and food consumers, but specially disadvantaged groups, like those out-of-work migrant miners.Your project will probably benefit various fairly privileged groups, like other research organizations, or may be politicians and civil servants, or the like. You may mention these groups as potential users of your research results or project outputs, but do not highlight these groups as your donor is not really interested in spending money to benefit these people.We recommend that you start a file on beneficiary groups for all future project development. This file might contain useful statistics, newspaper articles, magazine clippings and other sources of news about various poor segments of your society. You will find that being able to quote from material in this file will greatly strengthen the quality of your writing about project beneficiaries and end-users. • Activities should be well thought through for every objective• Within each objective, the activities should be arranged in logical order with clear flow of information.• Explain clearly how (methodology) you will address/solve each activity sometimes including key inputs like personnel, lab equipment, etc.• Number the activities in a logical order following your objectives/outputs.• Objective 1• Activity 1.1How to write activities….7.5Activities..• Every sentence specifies who will do what, when, where and for how long• Write all sentences in active voice, starting the sentence with the person(s) who will do the particular action• Do not use \"we\" 7.6• Sometimes activities are described and arranged according to project outputs.• However project outputs are derived from the objectives.• In some formats, the donor wants you to describe the key activities leading to achieving objectives/outputs and then put subsequent for explanation (methodology) of addressing the activities.How to write activities….Discuss activities for this objective • The previous example is good for a multi-year but if the plan is for a single year, you need to show your plan on quarterly basis. Some activities can overlap.• In other formats of work plan include :1. milestones and total annual budgets. E.g. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2. people/stakeholder responsible for each key activity 3. total budget for each activity 4. Etc.Example of simple work plan (cont'd…)7.11• Describes goods and services that you need to achieve your objectives (personnel, equipment, transport etc.)• Once you have defined your objectives, the next job is to list all the things you will need to achieve those objectives 7.12Most critical inputs required are:1. Personnel• Time of the people who will work on the project is one of the major inputs for projects • The cost of all inputs constitutes part of the project budget.• Estimate the total cost of inputs including those you will not ask from the donor• Identification of inputs is usually done iteratively with the activities.Thank you!In the Activities section of the proposal you will tell the reader what you want to do with your inputs. This is a section in which the more details you put in, the more convincing you will sound. A detailed Activities section will persuade your reader that you have carefully thought through exactly what it is you will do. In a way, if your project gets funded, this section will constitute your project work plan.The best way to write a good Activities section is to ensure that every sentence specifies who will do what, when, where and for how long. Here is a good Activities sentence. 'In Month 1, the economist will design a baseline survey of household incomes in the project site, and in Month 2, she will administer it to the target 200 families.' Try to write all sentences in the active voice, starting the sentence with the person(s) who will do the particular action. Do not use 'we' as this is too vague to be convincing.Avoid passive sentences like 'the trees will be planted along the sides of the fields'. This sentence does not tell who will do the planting. In the full proposal, you will need both a narrative Activities section, as described above, and a chart or time line, summarizing the key activities and people who will do them. Depending on the size, scope and complexity of the project, you may also need other charts, lists and narratives. For instance, you may need:A training plan (listing all the courses you expect to give) •A distribution plan (e.g. of seedlings, seed, brochures etc.) • A grant-making plan (if your project involves making small grants to end users).The more details you can provide, the more convincing your proposal will be, and the more the project will come alive for your reader. Of course, you should not try to make your project more complex than need-be, and if your project is relatively simple, you may need none of these special plans. When should you include a workshop plan in your proposal?See Annex 5 for answers. • 'Organogram' that shows the structure of the management team -identifying the project leader (or manager) and the positions of the other key personnel•   • Description of the number of meetings you intend to have to manage the project, giving the frequency of the meetings, where they will take place, who will attend, and what will be decided.Some of the things you might include under this topic are….Aspects that are monitored • In addition, evaluations usually deal with strategic issues such as program/project relevance, effectiveness, efficiency (expected and unexpected), in the light of specified objectives, as well as program/project impact and sustainability.Evaluation …• … involves comprehensive analysis of the project/program with the aim of adapting strategy and planning and influencing future policies and programs.• This implies that evaluation is a more complete and thorough process and a less frequent form of reflection.• It usually takes place at certain points in time, e.g. mid-term-final evaluation-and leads to more fundamental decisions.Types of impactMonitoring and evaluation: Key differencesMonitoring: What are we doing?Tracking inputs and outputs to assess whether programs are performing according to plans (e.g., people trained, condoms distributed)Evaluation: What have we achieved?Assessment of impact of the programme on behaviour of target group (e.g., increase in condom use for risky sex, reduced HIV prevalence)In summary •The inclusion of milestones (things you expect to achieve at different points in the life of the project) allows you to check every so often to determine whether these milestones have been achieved If the project is very complex indeed, you may want a separate section on project management.Otherwise you may choose to talk about this topic as a subsection of 'work plan', or as part of a separate heading called 'Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation'. Some of the things you might include under this topic are:• 'Organogram' that shows the structure of the management team-identifying the project • leader (or manager) and the positions of the other key personnelTable showing the roles and responsibilities of the, say, five senior-most project personnel •Table showing the roles and responsibilities of each of the project partners •Description of the number of meetings you intend to have to manage the project, giving the • frequency of the meetings, where they will take place, who will attend, and what will be decided.(Do consider, by the way, involving your donor in one or more of these meetings each year.) Here is an example of a project organogram.Here is an example of part of a table of roles and responsibilities of personnel: Monitoring is done to identify deviations from the norm or plan and any anticipated problems to and to take corrective action. The activities of monitoring include; recording data, analysis (to generate information), reporting and data management including storage.As we saw in Topic 6, you need to include milestones-i.e. intermediate outputs or results-in your project to help you design your monitoring plan. Monitoring is something you need to do in all projects. It means checking regularly to see that you are progressing as you had planned. The inclusion of milestones (things you expect to achieve at different points in the life of the project) allows you to check so often in order to determine whether these milestones have been achieved. If not, you have the opportunity to (a) find out what went wrong, and (b) if necessary, redesign the project. It is much better to do small course corrections over the life of the project than to suddenly come to the end and find you have missed all your targets (i.e. outputs) by a great deal. In the latter case, you really do have a failed project, one from which you have learned no lessons, and pleased no-one-not yourself, your beneficiaries or your donor.So regular, planned, methodical monitoring is a very important way of making yourself credible with your actual and potential funders.In a project proposal you need to explain how you plan to monitor the project. In other words, you need to tell (like in the Activities section), who will do what, when, where and for how long. The more details, the more convincing you will be.As we shall see in the next two topics, evaluation is a much more complex thing than monitoring.Monitoring merely concerns itself with measuring the distance between what is actually happening, as compared to what was envisaged some time previously. Evaluation looks at the contribution of the project to the well-being of its end-users. Such an evaluation might ask about the value of the project to (a) its end-users and hence (b) its investors (i.e. donors). In our most recent example, the evaluation might ask, after the project is over: Did the tomato project contribute to increasing household incomes?If so, by how much? When was the increase seen? Will it be sustained for the coming years? This sort of evaluation is often called impact assessment; we will discuss it further in Topic 10.Some evaluations are done internally, perhaps by a special group of evaluation experts in your institute.Or they may be done by outsiders, selected because they are not involved in any way with the project, and thus have more objectivity than people in your institute may have.You can usually include the funding for an external evaluation at the end of your project in your proposal budgets. Donors like external evaluations because they often need the results of these for their own records, to show whether or not they made a wise investment in your project. So by including the funding for this in your budget, you may be helping the donor's own efforts. You can always discuss this point with your donor during grant negotiations.You should also value an external evaluation, since you can use the results to learn from your past projects, and if you have done a good job with your projects, have something nice to quote when writing about your past performance.'Boilerplate' sections: The three topics-project management, monitoring and evaluation-belong together because at some institutions (hopefully including yours), these topics are a regular part of how their projects are managed. In other words, at some institutes or organizations, project management, monitoring and evaluation are regular parts of everyday life. All ongoing projects are regularly reviewed by senior management to check that (a) they are being properly managed, (b) that they are progressing as envisaged in the project proposal and work plan, and (c) that their contribution to the goals of the projects are being properly assessed. If such regular reviews are indeed part of the way in which your institute works, then by all means say so in your project proposals. You can write up your institute's approach to the three topics (or whichever is appropriate) in language that can be used in all proposals.Session 8: Exercise: Project management, monitoring and evaluationTo show you understand the items in this topic, please mark the following statements true or false.a. You should include some boilerplate sections on monitoring and evaluation, even if your institute does not have a regular system for doing these things. True False b. An organogram shows how your project will be managed. The objective hierarchy \"How lower level activities contribute to the higher level objectives and how these in turn help achieve the overall project purpose and goal\" IFAD 2004 9.5Component purposeThe logframe logic  Objective hierarchy • Logical sequence -when necessary • Carefully worded to avoid sounding like activitiesThe products, services or result that projects or programs are directly responsible for and MUST be delivered for the purpose to be achieved 9.12 Activities • Tasks personnel undertake to transform inputs to outputs.• These are actions taken by implementers which are required to deliver on the outputs by using inputs such as funds or technical assistance Activities:• Carry out diagnostic survey to assess available feeds on farm• Formulate appropriate rations • Conduct feeding trials including participatory monitoring of options Output: Appropriate and cost effective dairy cattle feeds developed and validatedRisks and assumptions• External environment conditions upon which the attainment of project outputs and contribution to purpose depends = External indicators• Need to make realistic assumptions about the external environment. Avoid killer assumptions since they nullify the whole plan! 9.14• Specific information that provides evidence about the achievement of planned impacts, results and activities• Indicators are qualitative or quantitative criteria used to check whether proposed changes have occurred• They can be used to assess if objectives,activities or outputs have been met• They provide a standard against which to measure or assess success or progress of a project against set standards.What are indicators?• Indicators are yardsticks that can be used to demonstrate whether change has or has not taken place• They provide meaningful and comparable information to changes• They are measurable or tangible signs that something has been done or that something has been achieved• Indicators help you understand where you are• which way you are going and • how far you are from where you are going.Quantitative indicators• Should be reported in terms of a specific number (number, mean, or median) or percentage.• Assessing the significance of an outcome requires data on both number and percent.Qualitative indicators • Qualitative indicators can \"tell the story\" from the participant's viewpoint, providing the rich descriptive detail that sets quantitative results into their human context.• One set of indicators is not better than the other; each has its own strengths and weaknesses• It is important to combine both 9.18Examples -Quantitative• Potential of • etc.Qualitative/Quantitative In general, indicators should:• be verifiable (where and how to we get information about the indicator)• measure what is important and not what is easy to measure• measure only changes that can be linked or attributed to the project/programme (they must be specific and relevant)• be targeted in terms of quantity, quality and timing • measure either quantitative or qualitative change 9.21• Clear (precise and unambiguous)• Relevant (appropriate to the subject at hand)• Economic (available at reasonable cost)• Adequate (able to provide sufficient basis to assess performance)• Monitorable (amendable to independent validation)• Valid : proxy to assess expected impact, \"better be approximately correct than precisely wrong…Aron\"• Precise: measure, perceived & interpreted clearly • Consistent: range of applicability across projects • Analytically sound : changes related to project • Proxy indicators are needed when it is difficult to measure the outcome indicator directly.• Used when data on the direct indicator is not available • Used when data collection is expensive.  The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is an instrument for objective-oriented planning of projects.LFA was developed during the 1960s and has been widely spread all over the world since the 1970s.Today it is used by private companies, municipalities and by almost all international development organizations, when assessing, and making follow-ups and evaluations of projects/programs.The method may also be used for analysis, assessment, follow-up and evaluation of projects. What the method is used for depends on the role of its users and their needs.It is an instrument to improve the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a development intervention. The systematic application of the method, with good judgement and sound common sense, can help to improve the quality, and hence the relevance, feasibility and sustainability of development cooperation.An ideal situation when planning a project is when the owner of the project (the cooperation partner) and the development partners (e.g. donors and consultants) are clear about their respective roles and when the project owner, the cooperation partner, assumes the main responsibility for the planning, implementation and follow-up of the project. Hence true local ownership should exist. The owner of a project is always the local organization (the cooperation partner). Promoting local/recipient 'ownership' of projects and programs is recognized as a key issue in the strategy for sustainable development cooperation.LFA is based on the idea that the user, the project owner, assumes the main responsibility for the planning process. However, assistance with planning may be needed and useful. LFA has the aim of improving the quality of project operations and can only achieve this if the user has a good grasp of the method and uses it throughout the entire project cycle. Therefore, it is useful to start cooperation by integrating information on LFA in the dialogue between the parties concerned. Most steps in the LFA method are often used during participatory workshops.LFA is used to: 1) identify problems and needs in a certain sector of society 2) facilitate selecting and setting priorities between projects 3) plan and implement development projects effectively 4) follow-up and evaluate development projects.What the method is used for depends on the role of and the needs of its users.LFA is: An • instrument for logical analysis and structured thinking in project planning A framework, a battery of questions which, if they are used in a uniform way, provide a structure • for the dialogue between different stakeholders in a project A planning instrument, which encompasses the different elements in a process of change • (problems, objectives, stakeholders, plan for implementation etc). The project plan may be summarized in a LFA matrix, the log frame An instrument to • create participation/accountability/ownership Common sense. • Objective-oriented planning means that the point of departure of the planning process is the problem analysis, which leads to the objectives and finally makes it possible to choose the relevant activities.Hence, before making a plan of activities, an analysis of the problems and objectives is necessary.The LFA is not a control instrument and thus does not replace different control systems such as environmental assessment studies, gender analysis or financial control systems.The LFA method should be used during all phases of a project cycle (i.e. during preparation, implementation and evaluation). When the LFA analysis has been performed, the plans made with the aid of the analysis should be used and followed-up actively at each project meeting. Normally, it is necessary to make certain adjustments throughout the project implementation phase. The LFA method must be used with flexibility and with a great sense of feeling of what is required in each situation.The LFA is a suitable tool to use for capacity development, 'the effort to facilitate for individuals, groups or organizations to better identify and deal with development challenges, by facilitating discussion among stakeholders to identify obstacles to change. During the problem analysis the needs and approaches for different forms of capacity development can be recognized and made transparent. The problem analysis shows whether professional knowledge is needed among the individuals involved, or whether it is necessary to use a broader approach-for example to strengthen organizations, or whether there is a need to improve institutional frameworks (legislation or policies).We noted that many evaluations nowadays were focused on measuring the impact of projects on their selected goal. In effect, this form of evaluation is an exercise in measuring or assessing the impact of a project on its target beneficiaries.Imagine you are proposing a project that will introduce to some poor farmers a new rice variety that has in-built vitamin A. You are not sure if this new variety will be acceptable to the farmers, or what its effect will be. You believe it may be able to improve the health of poor women and children in the families of farmers with less than two hectares of land, and you use this goal to 'sell' your project to a donor who you know is very concerned with this target group. How do you assess, in your proposal, the extent to which this new variety might have the desired impact on the health and nutrition of your target beneficiaries? How do you propose to measure that impact? What do you need to write in the project proposal? What you need to do is explain the logic of why you think your project might have the desired effect.If the farmers adopt this rice, and if they keep a proportion for home consumption, you assume that women and children will receive about 75% more vitamin A than they do at the present time. The literature suggests that a significant increase of this kind could make an appreciable difference, within a few years, to the incidence of eye disease, anaemia and overall malnutrition. So you are going to be looking for evidence of a slowdown in these ailments. This evidence will be in the form of indicatorsthings to look for to show that you are having the impact you want. In this case you might select one or more the following indicators: Fewer visits by mothers and children to health clinics • Higher levels of haemoglobin in blood tests • Higher weights of children when they go to clinics and the children are healthier when attending • school Fewer complications at childbirth • You would choose those indicators that were easy to measure, and that would give you a good picture of the difference that new rice was making.You would, of course, have to have some before-the-project data to compare with the after-the-project assessment. And you would have to include the collection of that pre-project data as part of the proposed project, remembering that this activity would require personnel, travel, and other inputs.You will rarely find donors unwilling to pay for pre-project baseline surveys and post-project impact assessments, so it is definitely advisable to include these in your project, if appropriate.As with so many other sections of the proposal, we strongly suggest that you prepare the indicators and measuring impact section by working with your project team. By brainstorming with your colleagues, you can come up with a much wider range of potential indicators, and do a better job of selecting those which will make your post-project measurements as easy as possible.Remember, that if you already have an impact assessment unit or specialist in your institute, be sure to write this up as a boilerplate piece for all your project proposals. You need not include pre-and post-project surveys in all project proposals. But you should always trace the logic of how your project might, in time, make a real contribution to your project goal. You need to do this because, for the most part, impact is what your development donor wants to buy. And the quicker and greater the impact, the more your donor will like your project idea.We noted in Topic 5 that impact was related directly to the project goal. So depending which goal you choose for your project (and it should be a goal that is common to your institute, your country and your potential donor), the impact of your project may take many forms. We suggest that you develop an impact check list-writing down all the possible impacts of your sort of work might have on various potential target beneficiaries. Keep adding to that list, and consult it whenever you are writing project proposals.Here is an illustrative and partial list to get you going. Will your project result in: More education for poor people? • Make the budget estimates for each input schedule for the activity from start to end 10.12 • Some activities take more than one year to finish. In such cases estimate how much the activity will require on yearly basis while bearing in the work plan• Add budgets of each activity to be implemented in that year until the end of the project life Qualities of a good budget: A good budget should be clear, transparent and easy to read. This means that anyone can pick up your budget and understand it, without you having to be there to explain your cost assumptions. The paragraphs below will provide you with tips on how to ensure your budgets are clear, transparent and easy to read. Footnote every line item: A transparent budget shows exactly how you achieved your line item totals.You do this by footnoting each line item with the unit cost. Here is a simplified example. Three person months of a senior agronomist at USD 5000/month for both years, plus one month • of an economist at same cost in Year 2.One RT airfare and per diem from Site A to Australia @ USD 5000 in Year 1 and two in Year 2.In Year 1-USD 10,000 for seedlings, USD 20,000 for fertilizer and USD 30,000 for tools for • farmers. In both years, USD 10,000 for renting well-drilling equipment.Notice how the footnotes make it quite clear how you arrived at each of the totals in the budget.Rounding the numbers and naming the currency: We recommend rounding to make your budgets easier to read; you can see how this is so, by looking at the examples below. You always need to explain in your budget which currency you are using. This will depend on the circumstances and the donor. Never assume that your reader will know! Getting your budget 'just right': You want to avoid a greedy budget and under-budgeting. Nothing is as frustrating as an under-budgeted project. If you lack the funds to do a good job, you and your partners, your donors and your beneficiaries are all going to be disappointed. So resist any temptation to promise too much for the money available. If a donor cuts your budget, you will need to cut the objectives and activities accordingly, and you need to make clear to the donor that fewer outputs will be delivered.At the same time, a padded, greedy budget will turn off your funder completely. Do not be tempted to inflate salaries or travel costs. Some eagle-eyed finance person in the donor agency will catch all and any inflated unit prices. Notice that these are extra project elements, not inflated prices. Their inclusion will not annoy your potential donor, and, if you are lucky, you will be able to keep all your bay windows! Indirect costs: All projects have direct costs-these are the inputs to the project, as we have described. In addition, a project has indirect costs. These are the costs of things such as rent and lighting in your office, the library in your institute, the services of your finance office, the supervision of your DG.You need these items to implement the project, but only a little bit of each, and it is very difficult to say exactly how much of each will be needed for each project. To spare you the time and effort involved in calculating how much of these items you need for each project, the convention is to use an indirect cost recovery rate. All organizations do this, both public and private sector. Basically, the rate is obtained by dividing all the costs not directly attributable to specific projects, and dividing that by the number of activities and projects. Indirect cost recovery rates vary greatly, depending on the type of organization. In the business of research and development projects, rates of 10-40% are common. Not all donors are willing to pay for indirect costs. If not, you can claim this cost as part of your matching funds, and your contribution to the project. But other donors will pay, especially if you charge all donors (even if they don't pay), and your rate is properly derived and audited. Once a donor has paid your indirect cost recovery rate on one grant, they will likely do so in all future grants, so it worth negotiating on this.We have noted several times that all proposals, even the shortest of concept notes, when submitted to a donor, should be accompanied by a one-page project summary budget. Often this is all that you will need to at least arouse a donor's interest in your idea. But in a large, complex project, involving one or more partners and perhaps several countries, you are likely to need back-up budgets to fully explain your project.One thing we recommend is that you consider giving each partner (and your institute) a separate budget. If you and your partners sign off on these separate budgets before submitting the proposals to a donor, this will prevent any kind of argument about the allocation of project funds. Some donors now require these separate budgets, for the same reason-they don't want fights about money to slow down project implementation.You may also want to give more details about the specific costs of certain project activities, like field trials, or study tours, or training courses. Use your own judgement. The intent of these additional financial details is to give your reader confidence that you have carefully thought through all the details of your project, including what it will cost.Often, too, the donor will have financial requirements for a full proposal, and you will learn about these in discussions or through filling in the appropriate forms.Background -Sequence of preparation • What are the pressing problems that you want to address?• How do you know these problems are important?• What other sources/programs similarly support these needs as major needs?11.9Background -Style and presentation…• You have already taken some small steps to begin your project• An excellent small step that can occur prior to requesting funding is a needs assessment that you conduct (survey, interviews, focus groups, etc.) • A good background section is a page or less in a concept note, and at maximum three pages in a long (30-40 page) full proposal-exception may be thesis proposal• You can make it easier to read by illustrating your text with a few well-chosen graphs, pictures and/or diagrams• Organize the text with sub-headings • Make the location, the beneficiaries and their problems come alive for the reader Sequence of preparation: Whatever you call it, here are some tips on preparing this section well. Most importantly, do not write this background section first. Many novice writers think this is the place to start, but it is not. This is one of the places where you can 'sell' your project to the donor, and it should not be written until you have completed all the sections covering the 'heart' of your project design-i.e. goal, objectives, activities, outputs and budget.As you will learn from the module 'How to write for non-technical audiences', the background section is a place where you can use a different style of writing-it is a place where you can write with more urgency and passion than in other sections.One of the things you should avoid is telling your reader various facts they already know, and that really have nothing directly to do with your project. Resist the urge to tell your reader various basic facts and figures about the country in which you plan to work, unless these figures are either new or startling, or have a direct bearing on your work. A donor working in Cairo once told me that she would scream if she received one more proposal telling her that 'the Nile is the longest river in Africa'.The key to a good background section is to be as short and sharp as possible. A good background section is a page or less in a concept note, and at maximum three pages in a long (30-40 page) full proposal.You can make it easier to read by illustrating your text with a few well-chosen graphs, pictures and/ or diagrams. You need to organize the text with subheadings. And you should refer to your sources, although without the need for footnotes, as in a journal article.The sort of style that is highly appropriate for a background section of a proposal is that used in the science and technology section of the Economist magazine. You should try to make the location, the beneficiaries and their problems come alive for the reader by using interesting words, and arresting examples. Short sentences and words will make your piece easy to read and give your reader an idea of the urgency of the problem.We recommend that in the next few proposals that you prepare you always use the following two subheadings:The problem and why it is urgent • What has already been done • I suggest that until you get proficient at writing summaries of our own, you continue using this outline for proposals to donors who do not have specific proposal formats of their own. Exercise for Topic 15: Please review the concept note titled 'Sweet smells and tangy tastes: reviving the essential oil industry in White Land's coconut-growing areas', at the bottom of this page. Use the material in this concept note to prepare a summary using the sample outline that follows. Use your pad and pencil to take notes and check your notes with the explanation provided. Expected budget and duration: USD 600,000 over three years; of which approximately USD 400,000 is requested as a grant from donor x Partners: Department of Horticulture scientists with assistance from University of White Land Location and sites: Three White Land coconut areas Related donor projects: (to be completed when potential donor is identified) 11.4.2 The problem and why it is urgent About 150 years ago, White Land had a thriving and profitable essential oils sector, centred on the export of ilang-ilang oil to Europe. World War I led to the closure of most firms in the business, and subsequently production moved to French territories, leading to the death of the whole industry.However, White Landers never lost their taste for essences and oils, and today the country imports over 3500 metric tons, with a value of more than USD 25 million.The Government of White Land's budget is stretched to the limit, so savings of this size can make a real difference, freeing up funds for high-priority investments in women's health and education. These essence crops having once grown, there is no doubt that they can once again flourish in White Land.In particular, Department of Horticulture scientists believe that the country's large coconut areas offer the ideal location, offering both shade and nitrogen nutrition for the young plants.For the past five years, scientists from the University of White Land have been helping staff of the Department of Horticulture to identify crops that might be grown in the country to lower the nation's import bill. Last year, essential oils surfaced as one of the top six possibilities as described in a paper widely circulated to government and university personnel. The paper made exciting reading for two staff of the Plantation Crops Division, who saw the essential oils idea as a way to reignite interest in the stagnant coconut plantation sector. The two principal proponents of this project, Dr CCG and Ms RAR of the Plantation Crops Division, felt that coconut would offer the ideal environment for a pilot project to test the feasibility of bringing the essential oils industry back to life in White Land.The goal of the project is to create new agriculture-based industries in White Land while cutting the cost of importing agricultural products into the country.The general objective of the project is to determine whether essential oils can be cost-effectively grown in White Land's coconut plantation areas.The specific objectives of the project are: (1) to determine the levels of nitrogen and shade under coconut canopies that will provide optimum growth and development conditions for selected essences, and (2) to identify which of six selected essences are most suitable for cultivation under coconut.The following activities will be undertaken:The project team (consisting of the two principal scientists and a research associate from the • University) will select three coconut areas with the following features: Site A, with newly planted coconut, representing 0% shade • Site B, with coconut providing 25% shade • Site C, with coconut providing almost overlapping canopy >75% shade •In each area, during Months 2-3 of the project, staff of the selected coconut plantations will plant • six essences (sweet basil, lemon grass, citronella, vetiver, peppermint, and spearmint).In each area, plantation staff will apply three nitrogen fertilizer levels (0, 30, 60 g/plant).The principal scientists will supervise the gathering and analysis of data on key morphological and • physiological features over the three years of the project, using a two-factor factorial experiment (shade x fertilizer level) format.The project will require personnel expenses and maintenance and operating expenses. Staff time required will include three person-months/year by the two principal scientists and four person months/ year by a university research associate. Graduate students will help with data gathering and analysis.Labourers will be hired from among the plantation staff. The project will purchase seedlings and fertilizer and use a Department of Horticulture motorcycle as the project vehicle. The Department of Horticulture will be responsible for all aspects of the project, from grant compliance to production of reports. The University of White Land will be working under a subcontract.The main output of this project will be a report published by the principal scientists at the end of Year 3, reporting on the experiment, identifying which essences are particularly suitable for cultivation under coconut, and making recommendations on the production technology for those essences that proved most successful.The impact of the project will depend on the results of the experiment. If, as expected, several of the selected essences are found to thrive under coconut, the project has the potential to revive the entire essential oils industry in White Land. In this case, the impact will be at both the micro and macro level. On the one hand, consumers in White Land will be able to purchase the essences they need on a local market at cheaper, local prices. On the other hand, the White Land economy will benefit through savings on the import bill, the creation of new jobs in the revived industry, and the expected boost to the stagnant coconut plantation sector. These impacts are likely to be felt gradually, starting approximately one year after publication of the project's final report, as commercial planting and growing of essences takes hold. The full impact of the project will likely not be felt until a decade after the project is over. If the experiment has a positive outcome, it will have many beneficiaries. These will include essential-oil consumers, those who work and invest in the coconut plantations, and ultimately all citizens of White Land, who will benefit from the improvements to the country's economy.The requested funds will be used to remunerate University of White Land staff and coconut plantation labourers, and for the purchase of project inputs such as seedlings and fertilizer. The Department of Horticulture will pay for the time of the principal scientists, but will charge an administrative fee of just over USD 12,000 per year for managing the project and its grant funds.Cover letters for solicited and unsolicited proposals: In this module we have been trying to give you advice about how to write proposals to submit to international development donors. As we said at the beginning, if you are responding to a competitive grants program, the call for proposal will include instructions of how to bid, and these instructions will almost certainly give you advice about what to put in your cover letter. Usually this letter will give details of your eligibility to compete in the program. But if you are not responding to a request for proposals, but rather writing to a donor who did not solicit (ask for) your proposal, you need to craft a rather different cover letter. You will need a letter that both serves to introduce your proposal, and also paves the way for you to find out what the donor thinks about it.To whom should you write, and who should sign: The first thing you need to decide is to whom you are going to write. By this stage in the project development, you should already have had some correspondence with the donor, in connection with preparing your concept note. It will have been because the donor liked you concept note that he or she asked you to prepare a full proposal. So you may want to write to the person you have been dealing with. But you may also want to write to the most senior person in the donor organization-i.e. go right to the top. You may wish to do this, because you know that that person will be making the final decision. Or you may have been told by your contact in the donor agency that that is what you should do. Note that if you do address the letter to the local or regional director of the donor agency, you should write the letter for the signature of your own seniormost person, i.e. your Director General.In fact, that is always the rule-that the person addressed and the person who signs the letter should always be about the same level.You, as the author of the project, may be required to draft the cover letter, but the person who signs it will probably want to edit it before she or he signs.As with all letters, you should write with the reader in mind. (There is much more on this topic in the sister module 'How to write for non-technical readers', which you may wish to consult before drafting a cover letter.) If the person signing the letter knows the person to whom you are writing, make that clear in how you write. For instance, refer to any previous interaction between the two. Of course you must not be too pushy or rude, so depending on the nationality or cultural background of the donor, you may want to be more gentle on this point. However, you do want to be able to followup on your submission, and not just sit there, wondering if the proposal arrived, and if anyone at all is reading it! Here is an example of a really good cover letter. It benefits from the fact that the two people involved know each other quite well. As you read this letter, try to see why it works so well. I am pleased to enclose a proposal modelled closely on the guidelines we received from your office.It is a three-country proposal on arresting ever-increasing and livelihood-threatening water loss and soil degradation. The project is designed to have a positive impact on the agricultural productivity of India, Myanmar and Vietnam. We estimate that this impact will be felt by up to 130 million poor farmers, nearly half of them women. In fact, the research will have direct benefits on the conservation and sound management of soil resources throughout the semi-arid areas of Asia, and builds directly on a number of EU-supported activities involving farmer participation in watershed management now underway in India.Attached to our proposal are letters of support from our partners, expressing their eagerness to begin work on the projects soon, as well as requests for the project that we have received from water user association leaders throughout the targeted countries, and from politicians representing those areas. In line with your funding limits, you will notice that the proposal calls for support of just under Euros 3 million over the five year life of the project.Martin, I will look forward to hearing your reaction to our proposal when we are both in Washington next month, and in the meantime, I wish to thank you for your continued support for our institute and its important work.With warm wishes, Jim Johnston, Director General Institute for Agricultural Research Annex 1: Answers: What sort of projects do donors like? a. True -Funding partners will look favourably on proposals that have the potential to increase the incomes of low-income smallholders or that recommends to smallholders various types of trees whose fruits can be harvested, and that can be planted on hillsides to prevent soil run-off in the rainy season.In general, all funding partners like to support research that can contribute to poverty reduction and/or preservation of the environment. b. False-Donors will never fund proposals unless more than one organization is involved in the implementation of the project If an organization has within itself all the personnel with all the skills needed to implement a project, there will be no need to partner with another group to find complementary skills. However, most agricultural research organizations are too small to include all the needed capacity to undertake all but the simplest and smallest projects. Some competitive grants programs (such as the INCO-Dev program of the European Union) require extensive partnerships-in this case at least two European partners teamed with at least three groups from developing countries. c. False -Donors will only fund projects with low risks and high returns Under certain circumstances, funders will be attracted to high risk, high return projects. In such cases they are willing to accept that there is a chance that the project might not succeed within time and budget, because of the very high potential of the results, if the project does succeed. One such example might be a malaria or AIDS vaccine. The chances of a single project achieving an effective vaccine for either disease are very low, but if the project were successful, the pay-off would be enormous. That's why many donors are now funding projects like that. d. True-Investors are always on the look out for interesting, unusual and innovative projects If you have an idea for something that has never been done before, and that might make a real difference to a major development goal, you are on to a winner. Here's a small example. A researcher in Ethiopia came up with a small 'hay box' that could be used to raise chickens from baby chicks to full-grown chickens, without electricity, which is unavailable for millions of small farmers in the country. Families who tried the hay box found that they could add to their incomes by selling fully grown chickens for a small investment. The inventor was given a prize by the Ethiopian Government! And donors will be happy to fund projects for up-scaling this work.e. False-You should never include a request for computers in a project, for fear of looking greedy and turning off your target donor Investors will be happy to fund computers if they are integral to the design of the project, and if they are attracted to the potential project returns. One example would be a project to increase access to selflearning modules, by setting up internet cafes in rural colleges and universities in the poorer African countries. The key is to carefully justify the need for all capital items in your list of project inputs.f. True -You can help give your project an edge over others if you can show that the end-users of your research are really eager to get its benefits.If you have taken the trouble to talk directly to the people you feel will be the end users of your research, you show that the results of your project will not only be of scientific interest, but will also be put to productive use. Those are just the sort of research projects development donors are looking for from scientists.Annex 3: Answers: Qualities of a convincing proposal a. Where in the proposal would you show your interest in ensuring that end-users are benefiting from the results of your research? Explanation:You will describe the effect of your research outputs on the beneficiaries in the Impact section of the proposal.b. Name two things that you want readers to think and feel when they read your background section.In the background section you want to convey the message that (1) something important needs doing, and (2) it needs immediately, because it is very urgent. c. In a research proposal, is the author required to show the potential impact of his or her research results (outputs)? Explanation:Yes, the author need not say that his or her project will be responsible for achieving the impact on the end-users, but the author must trace that path that will need to be followed if the research results are to turn into real benefits. The author needs to show who will disseminate the results, how they will be disseminated, why the end-users will adopt the results, and when the benefits of that adoption will become evident. Further, the author can make the proposal more convincing by saying how those benefits will be measured. You can show that you have carefully thought through all the elements of your project throughout the proposals, i.e. in all of its sections. The more details you put in, the more convincing your proposal becomes. However, you do not want to make your proposal impossibly long. About 10-20 pages is about right for a full scale, detailed proposal for a significant project of about 3-4 years duration. e. Can a proposal have as its goal both something to do with people and something to do with the environment? Explanation:Yes, you can have more than one goal for a project. In fact most projects have multiple effects-i.e. potential impact. For instance, the introduction of new fruit-bearing tree varieties can have an effect on household incomes (new products to sell), and on the environment (the trees providing wind-breaks, carbon sequestration, or perhaps planted to prevent soil erosion). However, the more goals you choose for your project, the more you will have to write when you come to the Impact section. There will be more on this later. f. Do you think you need to 'sell' the quality of the people who will implement the project in your proposal? Explanation:Yes, definitely, you will want to sell the quality of the people you are proposing to implement the study or project. You are trying to convey the message that your team has a comparative advantage over any other group of people to do this work. You can do this by giving their names and attaching their CVs, and also by including in your proposal a brief description of the past successes of your institute. There will be more on this later, too. ","tokenCount":"21284"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2c9247d80f941b52baf46756ab330017","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4bff07f1-462a-48b2-adcf-af61d9345c83/retrieve","id":"-240425853"},"keywords":["Rs.10","440 Rs.9","000 Rs.1","428"],"sieverID":"f54e424f-03b5-4f11-8dda-8c0f6cf2dd83","pagecount":"16","content":"Revenue and net profit (Rs/animal) Anthelmintic treatment Before After Net profitEconomic benefits of anthelmintic treatment in small ruminants.marrow were transplanted in different locations to analyze the cost effectiveness of the drip irrigation system. The drip systems saved up to 30% water and 34% fertilizer.In the case of livestock, a small ruminant health camp was organized in Khuzdar District, Balochistan, where an anthelmintic treatment was provided to livestock holders. A total of 10,603 animals belonging to 78 farmers were drenched with anthelmintic (Nilzan Plus). Moveable mesh wall model housing for dairy animals equipped with plastic feed and water troughs was handed over to poor widowed dairy farmers of Bedara village, Swat.The annual maize working group meeting was held during this period; it was attended by 20 representatives from public and private seed companies to evaluate progress in the deployment of CIMMYT-derived maize products to farmers. A training course on maize breeding program management and statistical data analysis was attended by 40 participants across the country; it will help scientists select varieties suitable to be sown by farmers in Pakistan. More than 50 wheat farmers engaged in participatory varietal selection trials including paired plot comparisons and village-based seed production using eight new high yielding, disease resistant wheat varieties in Gilgit. The introduction of new high yielding varieties helped to enhance wheat productivity in the target areas.For mechanized farming, locally modified multi-crop zero-till planters were evaluated at five sites for dry seeding of Basmati rice in Punjab. The use of zero-till planters resulted in plant populations, tillers and grain yields that were 10% higher than when older fluted roller drill machines were used for seeding. Private sector partner Greenland Engineering has manufactured and sold over 30 multi-crop planters to rice growers across Pakistan.In Punjab, 10 tons of certified Basmati 515 seed were distributed to 2000 farmers for planting on approximately 2000 acres in collaboration with private partner Engro Fertilizers Pvt. Ltd, Lahore, to increase production of quality rice varieties.In the current period, a total of 20,000 beneficiaries received assistance and of these, 8793 beneficiaries received training on modern management practices.AIP is the result of the combined efforts of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), the University of California at Davis, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). It is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). With these national and international partners on board, AIP continues to improve Pakistan's agricultural productivity and economy.Internal parasites are highly prevalent in grazing animals; this lowers their productivity and leads to high economic losses (up to 30%). Raising awareness of the prevention and control of these parasites among farm communities is direly needed for proper productivity. Analyses of faecal samples from sheep and goats in target sites showed that 80% of the animals are infected with seven types of internal parasites.In May 2016, AIP-Livestock, in collaboration with ICARDA, PARC and the Department of Livestock, Balochistan, organized a small ruminant health camp and provided anthelmintic treatment to livestock holders in Khuzdar District. A total of 10,603 animals (6,353 sheep and 4,250 goats) belonging to 78 farmers were drenched with anthelmintics (Nilzan Plus). The farmers were trained in the proper handling of internal parasitic problems and other major diseases in sheep and goats. The increase in net profit as a result of anthelmintic treatment is Rs. 1,428 per animal. With a total of 10,603 animals treated, a net profit of Rs.15.16 million was generated.  133,333) in feed wastage annually. The water and balanced feeding intervention provided 6.2 million rupees (US$ 620,890) in benefits alone in Punjab. Identified constraints and key issues have been effectively addressed through farmer participatory field demonstrations and targeted capacity building on specific issues, which could eventually lead to a change in farmers' mind-set and significantly increase livestock productivity and their livelihoods.Animal health camps on anthelmintic treatment in District Khuzdar Balochistan.The various livestock feed companies are suggesting that livestock farmers must introduce calf starter to their calves at the age of three months, at a recommended dose of 10% of their body weight. AIP-ILRI have been working to improve livestock production and create awareness among livestock farmers that they must fatten their calves to get higher economic returns. A farmer participatory trial was conducted on a total of 39 Cholistani calves (24 male and 15 female) in Ganga Singh village, Bahawalnagar District. The results reveal that the average calf growth rate was 198 g/day during one month of the trial period when only half a kilogram of calf starter was provided to calves after one month of age. Based on theseMeasuring calf weight during early introduction of calf starter to enhance growth: Ahata Mukhian, District Bahawalnagar.findings, livestock farmers during the trial easily achieved a weight gain of 11.98 kg in their calves before the recommended three months of age without using the recommended 10% body weight dose of feed.In terms of profit, every livestock farmer can easily get US$ 21 during the first 2-3 months of a calf's life. Therefore, introduction of early calf starter feeding can provide more value addition from livestock in GDP of Pakistan. According to statistics, if 30% of farmers adopt this strategy of early feeding of calf starter to their calves, this would yield an additional US$ 113,079 in value addition of livestock to the economy of Pakistan.Female Dairy Farmers Laid the Foundation for a Village-based Ryegrass Seed Enterprise in Danyore Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan District Ryegrasses are widely grown cool season grasses that are better suited and have greater agronomic potential in the northern mountainous regions of Pakistan. Since 2015, AIP-ILRI have been working to improve dairy production through higher biomass production of improved fodder varieties, especially in mountainous areas like Gilgit. Chand Bibi, a female dairy farmer, successfully produced ryegrass seed to lay the foundation stone of a villagebased seed enterprise in Danyore Valley through the AIP-ILRI improved fodder variety seed program. Field monitoring and results show that she earned/saved US$ 479 in biomass production with a meager US$ 16 investment from AIP-ILRI, which initially provided only one kanal seed. This amount is in addition to 3 kg of ryegrass seed (US$ 16 per kg) she produced on three quarters of the land she cultivated last year. Last year, the AIP-ILRI seeds program in Gilgit yielded US$ 3,311 from high biomass production on only 2.5 acres of land. This will help dairy farmers provide highly nutritious feed to their animals and increase milk production (0.5-2.5 L/day/animal).Rye grass seed produced by female livestock farmer in Danyore District Gilgit.Female farmer explaining about the successes of a village based seed enterprise in Danyore District Gilgit.In Pakistan, most farmers have mixed goat breeds without clear breeding objectives; thus the expected genetic improvements are rather arbitrary. AIP-Livestock provided two pure Beetal (Makhi-Cheeni) bucks to the local community at Chak 93DB to improve productivity and income from goat production. Five farmers' goat flocks were involved in this breeding exercise.The breeding strategy (including breeding season, supplemental feeding for breeding stock, keeping a breeding record) and the use of two quality bucks was compared with the use of local mixed Beetal bucks by five farmers (having 20-30 goats each). Breeding was initiated in November 2015 and the kids were born in April 2016. The birth weight of kids sired by quality bucks was higher (2.2 kg) as compared to kids sired by local bucks (1.5 kg). The kidding percentage was higher (84%) in properly managed flocks compared with local practices (78%).First generation kids from the Makhi-Cheeni Beetal buck.Under AIP-Livestock (ILRI-ICARDA), cactus was introduced to farmers in the dry areas of Chakwal, its adaptation was tested and its value as animal feed evaluated. Three supplemental feeds were formulated based on available fodder such as oat, lucerne and spineless cactus, to assess the productivity of small ruminants. The four categories of animals (ewes/does/ lambs/kids) belonging to four farmers were used in a farmer participatory trial. The animals grazed for 5-6 hours daily on rangeland followed by 2 kg/head/day supplemental mixed feed rations including oat, cactus and lucerne in the evening. However, animals in the control group (D) were maintained on 6-8 hours daily grazing only, as per farmers' practice. The trial lasted 60 days. Ewes that were fed oat-and lucerne-based supplemental feed showed similar high live-weight gain (67 g/day) followed by those fed cactus-based supplemental feed (33 g/day). However, the daily live-weight gain (g/day) of kids fed oat-and lucernebased rations was 100 g, followed by kids fed cactus-based feed. The lambs/kids on grazing only showed lower live-weight gain (33-50 g/day). We concluded that cactus can be used as an alternate feed when other green fodder is not available.Cactus based feed ration for the improved small ruminants productivity in District Chakwal.Wheat AIP-Wheat is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).For feedback and queries, contact Krishna Dev Joshi (CIMMYT-Pakistan): k.d.joshi@cgiar.orgParticipatory Varietal selection Can Be an Effective Way of Enhancing Wheat Productivity in Gilgit-Baltisan• Gilgit-Baltistan lacks wheat varietal diversity because there is no functional wheat breeding and release system in place.• Participatory varietal selection can be an effective way of strengthening the wheat seed system in Gilgit Baltistan.• Creating awareness among farmers regarding new wheat varieties and their production technology is vital.Current wheat production and productivity in Gilgit-Baltistan is unsatisfactory and requires immediate attention. The use of old varieties in the existing cropping system results in poor yields. Small landholdings, poor quality seed and traditional farming practices are challenges that make it difficult to boost wheat production and ultimately improve economic conditions of people in northern areas. In view of all these facts, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is making serious efforts to address some of the major issues systematically with the support of three local partners: Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), Mountain Agriculture Research Center and the Department of Agriculture of Gilgit Baltistan.During the current wheat season, participatory varietal selection (PVS) trials, paired-plot comparisons and village-based seed production trials were conducted with more than 50 farmers using eight new high yielding, disease resistant wheat varieties in two districts (Ghizer and Nagar) of Gilgit. In June 2016, two field days were organized to create awareness among the farming community regarding the new wheat varieties. The first field day was organized on 4 June at Munapin Union Council involving more than 25 farmers from that area. A PVS trial was planted in collaboration with the Agha Khan Rural Support Programme. Farmers were really amazed to see the performance of the new high yielding wheat varieties in comparison to their own local cultivars. They also visited the seed production plots of the new wheat varieties. Farmers ranked the new varieties according to their preferences; Pakistan-13, Dharabi-11 and Pirsabak-13 were among the wheat varieties they liked best. AIP beneficiary farmers made commitments to their fellow farmers to share the seed of the new wheat varieties after crop harvest.The second field day was organized at the Mountain Agriculture Research Center (MARC) farm on 5 June 2016 and was attended by 40 farmers. A wheat scientist from MARC, Gilgit, highlighted the importance of utilizing new wheat varieties and their production technology. After the formal lectures, the farmers were taken to the research farm where they were briefed on different new wheat varieties and their production technologies. Farmers were really happy and motivated to see the performance of the new wheat varieties in the field. All the farmers promised to grow the new wheat varieties next year. • To contribute to the sustainability of all AIP Wheat activities, systematic efforts have been made to link farmers with private seed companies.• Capacity building and exposure visits will play a vital role in informal seed production at the village level.The project is working on village-level seed production with hundreds of farmers through a number of public and private sector partners. Collaborating farmers were trained on quality seed production and management, seed business and seed provisioning; they will eventually form business-oriented seed groups in their respective areas. For feedback and queries, contact Abdurahman Beshir Issa (CIMMYT-Pakistan): a.issa@cgiar.orgThe Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) held its annual maize working group meeting on 10-11 May 2016 with over 20 representatives from public and private seed companies and higher learning institutions in attendance. The working group evaluated partners' progress in deploying CIMMYT-derived maize products to farmers.\"The sharing of valuable parental lines and breeder seeds is one of the invaluable contributions and successes of AIP. This is the best example for sustainable development projects,\" said Nadeem Amjad, Chairman of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, during his opening statement. According to Amjad, CIMMYT hybrids can help \"resource-poor maize farmers have affordable maize seeds at their doorstep.\"During the meeting, partners talked about the progress of parental seed production in their own fields and about their plans to deliver quality seeds to farmers. They also identified key challenges in Pakistan's maize seed value chain and made recommendations during the group discussion session.  For feedback and queries, contact Imtiaz Hussain (CIMMYT-Pakistan): i.hussain@cgiar.orgDry seeding of rice (DSR), a practice that involves growing rice without puddling of soil, can help save up to 25% of the water needed to grow crops and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. However, the old fluted roller drill machines used for DSR do not guarantee uniform plant-to-plant distance and break rice seeds, requiring farmers to purchase more seed than is required.In 2014, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) imported a multicrop, zero-till planter from India that has the ability to drill both seed and fertilizer simultaneously, and maintain an appropriate distance between plants without breaking the seeds. Zero-tillage drills and ridgers were provided through community organizations and research institutes to help 186 farmers practice these technologies. After the field day at Pir Ashab, Bhakkar, wheat farmers expected to produce 15% higher wheat yields and 30% savings in water using the ridge planting technique. Ghulam Abbas planted wheat with zero tillage and saved Rs. 5000/acre in cultivation costs.Ghulam Abbas in his zero-till planted wheat in Bhakkar.AIP-Vegetables is led by the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC).For feedback and queries, contact Mansab Ali (AVRDC): mansab.ali@worldveg.orgTo demonstrate and promote the use of simple drip irrigation, 23 drip systems were installed in areas of 250 m 2 (0.5 Kanal) to 500 m 2 (1 Kanal) under plasticulture tunnel structures, three at partner institutes (the Agricultural Research Institute, Mingora-Swat; Barani Agriculture Research Institute, Chakwal; and the Agriculture Research Institute, Quetta) and 20 in farmers' fields in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Balochistan. Forty-five tunnels were selected to compare water and fertilizer use, and observe the differences in crop growth with and without drip irrigation. Ordinary flumes were fixed in tunnels to measure the water applied through furrow irrigation. Five 'Peter engines' to power water pumps were installed; these engines run on petrol and are very cost-effective, as they use 1 liter of petrol every 1.5-2.0 hours. Energy-free drip systems were installed in four locations; these operate by gravity and can be used where a head of more than 5 meters is available.Cucumber, tomato, bitter gourd and vegetable marrow were transplanted in Swat, Haripur, Islamabad, Bhikki, Chevanda, Noorpur Thal and DI Khan to calculate the amount of water and fertilizer applied through drip and furrow irrigation systems.During the 2015 growing season, the drip systems saved from 16 to 34% water and 20 to 30% fertilizer compared to conventional practices. The highest water (68%) and fertilizer (92%) savings were achieved in the sandy soils of Noorpur Thal. The drip system allows for more uniform distribution of water and fertilizer, and drip-irrigated crops are more vigorous than crops irrigated with a furrow system.After the success with drip irrigation last season, several farmers, including Mr. Faisal from Pishin, Mr. Ahsan and Syed Majid from Haripur, and Mr. Javed from Sheikhupura, extended their systems to larger areas. They said drip irrigation uses less water and fertilizer, and reduces their pesticide usage and weeding and hoeing costs. Plans are underway to install more systems in the coming years.Collaborating farmers are delighted with the system's efficiency due to the uniform distribution of water and fertilizer, and the vigorous crop condition as compared to the crop irrigated using the furrow system.Healthy tomatoes raised with drip fertigation system at Kallar Syedan, Punjab (Pakistan).Drip fertigation system under plasti-culture (bamboo tunnel) at Pishin, Balochistan (Pakistan).The World Vegetable Center under the USAID Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) introduced anti-insect nets at two different sites in Sheikhupura. The cucumber crop is grown under the nets and drip irrigation. The new system was compared with the old traditional system that includes furrow irrigation and polythene sheets.A crop of cucumber hybrid (Yousef) was sown at the end of November under anti-insect nets and polythene sheets. Initially in the season there was a clear difference in the crop, as leaf color and size were much better under the anti-insect net than under the polythene sheets. Plants also attained more height and greater leaf size under the anti-insect net than under the polythene sheets. There was also less insect attack and downy mildew disease incidence was very low. At the fruiting stage, node-to-node distance was minimal and the fruit was much healthier. But in mid-season, some wilting of young baby tubes was observed under the anti-insect net. This was controlled by adding more potash to the anti-insect plots. Later in the season, there was a much healthier crop, fruit size, color and plant vigor were much better, and pickings were prolonged under the anti-insect net. A saving of 10-15% in insecticide usage was observed in case of anti-insect net compared to polythene sheet only.Healthy crop under an anti-insect net early in the season.A Simple But Comprehensive Vegetable Seed Value Chain (Fresh News)happy with the prices they received,\" said MianZada, President of the Shuga Seed Growers Association in Bunir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Seed peas sold at US$ 1.25-1.50/kg and okra seed sold at US$ 1.50-2.50/kg. Whole chili fruits for seed were sold in the open market in Sindh at US$ 1.80-2.00/kg. Farmer-tofarmer seed sales were also successful, as Tayyab Ali Shah, a farmer in Tandlianwala, Faisalabad, discovered.Capacity building is essential for successful vegetable value chains. More than 800 men and women participated in a series of crop management, postharvest handling, seed packing, and marketing training sessions in Gilgit Baltistan, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. \"To intensify seed production, linkages between all stakeholders in the vegetable value chain should be strengthened and enhanced,\" said Mansab Ali, AIP Team Leader.Pakistan's varied agroclimatic conditions favor production of a wide range of temperate, tropical and subtropical vegetable crops. However, this potential has not been exploited due to a lack of quality vegetable seed at affordable prices. Most seed requirements are met through imports.To increase national vegetable seed production and supplies at the local level, the USAID/AIP, in which the World Vegetable Center is a partner, initiated a large-scale vegetable seed production program. Five public sector research institutes, two seed companies and a seed growers' association were selected to participate in vegetable value chain activities. In 2014-15, a total of 14,446 kg seed of onion, tomato, chili, okra and peas was obtained from an area of 15.6 hectares. Seed was packed in pouches, cloth and jute bags with USAID/AIP and partners' labels. Varieties were selected according to market choice, consumer preferences and regional suitability.Based on a single production and marketing cycle, a simple but comprehensive diagram of the seed value chain was developed that encompasses 14 steps from sowing to marketing. Regular field visits with producers and seed companies were essential for the successful completion of this chain.Pea seeds ready for packing in a 10 kg perforated cloth bag in Gujranwala, Punjab.A farmer cleaning okra seed the traditional way in Gujrat, Punjab.Seed marketing was the main hurdle for growers. Mazullah Khan, World Vegetable Center Seed Specialist, suggested the growers invite seed dealers to see the crops in the fields as a way of inspecting the goods before purchase. \"This was a successful strategy, as all seed sold at premium prices,\" said Mazullah. Onion seed sold at US$ 25-45/kg, depending on the region. \"Farmers were extremelyPromoting Healthy Vegetable Seedlings in Pothwar-Punjab (Pakistan)Tomato seedlings raised in multi-pot trays.A healthy nursery.Plasticulture is gaining importance in Pothwar District, Punjab, Pakistan. To produce a successful vegetable crop under cover, growers must start with healthy seeds and seedlings. Previously, farmers lacked the technical knowledge to set up and manage their own seedling nurseries. When they purchased seedlings from the market, costs were high, quality was poor, and diseases were a common problem. For feedback and queries, contact Akhter Ali (CIMMYT-Pakistan): akhter.ali@cgiar.orgSocial Scientists from Balochistan Trained on SPSS and STATA Software AIP-Perennial Horticulture is led by the University of California Davis (UC Davis).For feedback and queries, contact Louise Ferguson (UC Davis): lferguson@ucdavis.eduMr. Abdul Rehman training citrus growers on the causes of citrus fruit blemish and its prevention.The University of California Davis (UC Davis) under AIP's commissioned citrus projects is making systematic efforts to improve the citrus value chain. In collaboration with AIP's working partner, the Citrus Research Institute (CRI) Sargodha, UC Davis organized a series of trainings and exposure visits on citrus problems during April-June 2016, with 371 registered citrus growers, nursery men, packinghouse labor, picking labor, domestic women, extension staff, students at women's training institutes and agricultural colleges from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. These efforts convinced 75 growers of Sargodha to practice improved disease control, orchard management and mechanization in citrus orchards in an area of 1097 acres. AIP Promotes Pistachio that Requires Less Water in Baluchistan, Pakistan's Most Water Scarce ProvinceIn collaboration with the Agriculture Research Institute, Sariab Quetta, UC Davis is working on nursery and orchard production to promote pistachio that requires less water and has high value in Baluchistan. UC Davis is also helping pistachio farmers to organize themselves under the pistachio growers association.During April-June 2016, three farmer days were organized on pistachio chip budding, irrigation scheduling and nutrition management; they were attended by a total of 61 participants. These trainings utilized practical field demonstrations during which participants were given the opportunity to practice the new skills themselves. Training on summer season vineyard management at PMAS, AAUR.Photo courtesy of UC DavisUnder AIP's postharvest management initiative, the following events were held:• Professional training of extension staff on \"Postharvest (Mango/ Guava) Fruit Quality Management Technology\" on 11-12 April 2016 at ATI (21 participants).• Training on \"Postharvest quality assessment and value addition in horticultural crops\" on 23-24 May 2016 at ATI (26 participants).These events will help train farmers in their respective areas to snowball the impact of these interventions.AIP-E-Pak Ag is led by the University of California Davis (UC Davis).For feedback and queries, contact Mark Bell (UC Davis): mark.andrew.bell@gmail.com Launching ceremony of the ICT working paper at NARC, Islamabad.School girls in Mansoora Village, Faisalabad, being trained on ICT use in agriculture. Under ICT gender initiative, three training courses were organized on previously identified key topics (poultry, goat and dairy farming, and kitchen gardening) at selected project sites (i.e., Okara, Chakwal, and Faisalabad) with a total of 62 school girls. The girls were taught to use ICT tools like cell phones, tablets and laptops to obtain the needed information.AIP gave a new dimension to Pakistan's agricultural extension by holding a two-day conference aimed at exploring agriculture productivity improvement through nudging on 6-7 May 2016. Organized by UC Davis in partnership with Pir Mehar Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, the conference sought to explore the application of nudging (a technique that influences people towards desirable behavior) to improve agricultural productivity in the context of academic and government policy reforms and the use of ICT. Diverse bodies of practitioners and academics, both national and international, were invited to discuss the possibility of nudging farmers towards higher yields and enhanced productivity.Conference on agricultural productivity improvement through nudging at PMAS AAUR. Photo courtesy of UC Davis.Human Resource Development AIP-HRD is led by the University of California Davis (UC Davis).For feedback and queries, contact Thomas L. Rost (UC Davis): tlrost@ucdavis.edu I have so much to take back to Pakistan once I return from the US -beautiful memories of searching for Pakistani food all over the US, the experience of doing everything on my own, the cultural diversity and many many more beautiful things. I will for sure share my experience with the youth of Pakistan, especially girls, to motivate them by telling them that I have been to the US, and they could be next. I will be returning to Pakistan as a more empowered version of Noorani. I want to thank AIP people, UC Davis, USAID and CIMMYT-Pakistan for being there and guiding me from the first step till today and for believing in me and selecting me for this scholarship from among hundreds of applicants.Workshop on \"Quality Seeds: Issues and Options\" at UAF.","tokenCount":"4133"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"51b037ea0f28292cd67ed5fdb44e3df8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/11a2409b-f0fb-49a0-9384-b8954520d3aa/retrieve","id":"739530833"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aba7a82d-3fb1-46b2-a44f-7797703249b4","pagecount":"1","content":"Vaccination is espoused as the most reliable and effective control mechanism for the procedures outlined in the Global Control and Eradication Strategy for peste des petits ruminants (PPR). However, extant studies assert that vaccination can be expensive. Hence, the effectiveness of disease control may not necessarily translate to overall profit for farmers. Also, the consequences of PPR control on socioeconomic indicators like food and nutrition security at a macronational level have been underexplored.Pictures § Compared to a no-vaccination scenario, all the vaccination scenarios for both 26.5% (prevailing vaccination coverage) and 70% (expected vaccination coverage) resulted in statistically significant difference in the gross margin earnings and the potential per capita consumption for the supply of mutton and goat meat. § At the prevailing vaccination coverage (with or without the provision of government subsidies), farm households will earn on average $69.43 annually more than the novaccination scenario, and the average per capita consumption for mutton and goat meat will increase by 1.13kg/person/year. § When the vaccination coverage is increased to the prescribed threshold for PPR eradication (i.e., 70%), with or without the provision of government subsidies, the average gross margin earnings will be $72.23 annually and the per capita consumption will increase by 1.23kg/person/year.A bi-level system dynamics model, compartmentalised into five modules consisting of integrated production-epidemiological, economics, disease control, marketing, and policy modules, was developed.Simulation duration: 30 years at a weekly timestep.Data sources: Household surveys from pastoral areas in Northern Senegal and FAOSTAT, relevant official government data, and AfDB data.Scenarios: Nine (9) vaccination scenarios were examined from three vaccination dimensions (vaccination coverage, vaccine wastage [multiple vaccination], and the provision of government subsidies).Joshua Aboah j.aboah@cgiar.org This study seeks to examine the ex-ante impact of PPR control (vaccination) strategies on farm-level profitability and the socioeconomic consequences concerning food and nutrition security at a national level in Senegal. • There was no statistically significant difference in the gross margin earnings and the potential per capita consumption when vaccination is performed with or without government subsidies• This study's findings offer an empirical justification for a sustainable approach to PPR eradication in Senegal.The information on the socioeconomic benefits of vaccination can be promoted via sensitization campaigns to stimulate farmers' uptake of the practice.• Additionally, this study provides the precursory grounding for the development of web-based simulation interface that can serve as decision support tool for stakeholders (scan the QR code) ","tokenCount":"393"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3680967682.json b/data/part_3/3680967682.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..15445eba9f5e0f69eb9a834b4f36ee8cb4ec4aca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_3/3680967682.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"82452ef5fb38b92877d546beb56966a0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3ba466d8-7917-4c8a-b5b4-d8a60325da6d/retrieve","id":"225026148"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2b6f94bb-e0a0-4ca3-94d0-afb16d159c27","pagecount":"1","content":"Geographic Scope: Regional• Latin America and the Caribbean Outcome Impact Case Report:• 2571 -CCAFS supports implementation of the Regional Strategy for Disaster Risk Management in the Agriculture Sector and Food and Nutrition Security in Latin-America and the Caribbean (https://tinyurl.com/23dz8k5r)• 121 -Implementation of novel agro-climatic services help more than 500,000 farmers in Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua better plan their crops (https://tinyurl.com/25gqxxb4)• 3105 -Scaling-up and strengthening of climate services promotes knowledge democratization and practice adoption across Latin America (https://tinyurl.com/y66wo6jy)• I289 -Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (LTACs) approach generating climate forecasts and crop response (https://tinyurl.com/2mtjxpvg) ","tokenCount":"92"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3701495819.json b/data/part_3/3701495819.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2a886c1b1f4647624bd04b2bb650e85dee9da281
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aebeda50efad095c48a7b5cfd59f3277","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H013936.pdf","id":"1166464898"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b29d58e8-6e85-4ee9-a2d3-63a87784828d","pagecount":"4","content":"This note describes a method tested by the authors to extend successful irrigation management practices.The method consisted of supervised visits by government officials and farmers from planned and newly established irrigation systems to farmer-managed systems observed to have effective management.conducting research on irrigation systems in the hills of western Nepal in 1983, the authors arranged for several delegations of government officials and farmers to visit the systems being researched and discuss the management arrangements used by the host farmers. The encounters reported here were ad hoc, and the impact of the information exchange has not been systematically evaluated.However, they have demonstrated the potential for develo ping effective, low-cost extension methods.We know others have also been experimenting with farmer-to farmer and farmer-to-agency exchange and would like to initiate discussion and share experiences on this topic. .Is it a method that merits more systematic development and testing? Argali has four irrigation systems with command areas of 10 to 95 hectares and Chherlung, two of 35 and 17 hectares.Our research found all six to be effectively managed with sophisticated organizations and technologies.Farmers in these systems practice extremely intensive agriculture, cultivating three crops per year--monsoon rice, winter wheat, and pre-monsoon maize.Monsoon rains cause floods that damage the diversion structures and landslides that block canals, necessitating the mobilization of a large amount of labor each year to maintain the systems.The organizations are able to mobilize labor and cash for' the maintenance and aFe able to enforce fines on their members who are absent from work.Water is allocated either in proportion to area irrigated (Argali) or by purchased shares (Chherlung), and the property rights are well defined.Through the use of propor tioning weirs and rotational distri bution, water is distributed very closely in accordance with the pattern of ,,\",'ater allocation with no measurable head-tail discrepancy.Nearly all the farmers of these systems were able to explain the structure of their organ ization and its management procedures. Members take pride in their organiza tion and are quite willing to explain how it operates.The Eventually they adopted a similar concept in planning their system.In addition to getting information about methods of water allocation and viewing first hand the impact of the water allocation method on the expansion of the irrigation systems, there was an exchange of information about the effort required to keep a system operating.It was useful for farmers from an area where many do not have land with irrigation facilities to observe the continued cost and effort needed to operate and maintain an irrigation system.After their visit• to Chherlung, the management committee of the Andhik hola irrigation project requested that 24 two of the officers of one of the Chherlung systems visit their project and l.alk with a larger group of farmers about how they managed their system, in particular how they bought and sold shares in the system. The Andhikhola system is still in the construction phase, so it is hard to know what impact the interaction with the farmers of Argali and Chherlung will have on the actual management of that system.Two delegations of about 20 men each--one of farmers and the other, officials--came from the Garkar irrigation system in Nuwakot District north of Kathmandu.This system was constructed by the Department of Irrigation, Hydrology, and Meteorology (DIHM) in 1979 under a World Bank financed integrated rural development project.It was managed by a DIHM overseer and a management committee consisting of farmers, some of whom were local and district-officials.Because farmers at the head end of the system took more than their allotment of water, the system was unable to irrigate all of the planned command area.For example, one of the committee members, who was a district official, with land at the head of the system would regularly break the canal bund and take water when it was not his turn.The organization was unable to control this unauthori zed water use. They stayed two nights in Argali, and all were able to stay in a village \"hotel\" run by a woman who was able to produce a tasty meal within a short time after the group had arrived.After an early morning visit to a famous temple near Argali, the visitors spent most of the day talking with members of several of the irrigation organizations and walking through the systems.A majority of the time was spent in discussion with some of the 160 members of the largest system. traditional meeting large Pipal trees command area. articulate members They met in the place under several at the head of the One of the more of the organization began by presenting the history of the system, the structure of the organiza tion. and how it is managed. The farmers had written several pages on the history and operation of the their systems.Much of the discussion focussed on the principle of water allocation through purchased shares. A member of one delegation was an irrigation department forcefully opposed selling water rights. objected to the fact one organization had official.He the concept of He especially that when the received a small grant to improve their system enabling it to supply more water, farmers with. shares in the system were able to sell their excess water.These farmers, who now had more water than they needed, since a share represented a proportion of the total supply and not a fixed discharge, were able to sell shares to farmers who previously had no access to irrigation.What the irrigation official could not appreciate was the fact that this method of water allocation provided a mechanism for expanding the area that was irrigated and the number of people who benefitted as the system was improved. This is in contrast to many situations where an intervention to improve an irrigation system res.ults in no expansion of the area irrigated, and the original farmers reap all the benefits of the improvement.The discussion was quite intense for awhile, and only cooled down after the Chairman of the Nuwakot District Panchayat said that the official should not be critical of these farmers who had obviously invested so much of their own effort into constructing and maintaining their irrigation system.The visitors were amazed at the accomplishments of the host farmers in constructing and maintaining technically difficult irrigation systems. They were especially impressed, when on the way back to Tansen they walked along the seven-kilometer main canal which in some places is carved out of rock cliffs.\"We could never construct a canal like this,\" was a comment heard from several of them. Fortunately for them, they did not need to construct their system, but only needed to learn to manage it more effectively.Several important impressions that were transferr.ed to the Garkar farmers related to the power that an organization can have in disciplining members and the need to develop rules and sanctions that are fair so that they are supported by all members. In addition it was useful for them to see the magnitude of resource mobilization accomplished by the farmers in Argali and Chherlung to operate and maintain their systems.It gave them an apprecIation for what they could do for themselves instead of complaining about poor maintenance and manage ment of the system by the agency which had constructed the system for them.Management of the Garkar system has improved markedly.The area irrigated has increased considerably. However, without a systematic study of the system, it is not possible to determine the impact that the visit to Argali and Chherlung has had on the farmer organization. ","tokenCount":"1241"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3708099087.json b/data/part_3/3708099087.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..efecaf0701f7c788ab4918183fca76985ef84403
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9c42fa8c7b1766cb98acfe4e3f74603f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b83f8d92-3b03-4b70-8de6-7313a51db23b/retrieve","id":"-445344683"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0c00babe-40a5-46df-b7bc-c7c77cc8c2be","pagecount":"4","content":"At first glance, the problem might be hard to spot. The broad, fertile highlands of East, Central, West, and Southern Africa are blessed with a temperate climate and generally dependable rains. These are ideal growing conditions for potato, a well-established, nutritious crop with high market demand. But look closer and the challenges appear in sharp relief. Rising populations and growing cities are shrinking landholdings, pressuring small-scale farmers to increase farm incomes in order to offset the loss in acreage. For this region's six million smallholder potato farmers, potato is one of the few choices for cash crops on farms as small as half a hectare. Troubling is that many farmers are trying to meet the growing demand for potato by expanding the areas under production rather than tackling productivity constraints. This is costly and inefficient. Yields range from 6 to 10 t/ha, far below attainable yields of 25-35 t/ha and the 2010 global average of 17.4 t/ha. Moreover, farmers' knowledge of good agronomic practices, which could boost potato yields and marketability, is uneven.The single major bottleneck to increasing productivity is farmers' limited access to quality seed potato of suitable and more nutrition varieties and biofortified with micronutrients. Farmers in this broad area of Africa tend to grow potatoes in very close rotations or even, in some cases, continual mono-cropping. As a result, diseases accumulate in crops and soils, yields decline, and farmers are left with less to sell. Another problem is that seed sourced from markets or farmer's own fields is also prone to diseases, which can build up and spread in farmer-saved seed stocks and the seed system in general. Farmers often are unaware of how to select quality seed or use good agricultural practices; many have limited capacity for storing healthy potato. Seed certification standards exist but are difficult to implement in practice. Many national policies do not recognize alternative approaches and more practical quality standards, such as Quality Declared Planting Material, or efforts to maintain quality seed in farmers' own fields. Access to quality seed is limited further. Policy advocacy at national levels for more practical quality standards is sorely needed.For more than 40 years, breeding for adaptive and disease-resistant traits has been a defining pursuit at CIP, which has an inventory of advanced materials with demanded traits available. These traits include resistance to diverse diseases such as late blight and various viruses, drought and heat tolerance, and high levels of iron and zinc. However, having good varieties is not enough when the supply of planting material is limited, or when conventional multiplication usually takes several generations to produce high-quality seed. Ineffective seed dissemination schemes further delay seed's timely availability. Farmers' inability to access quality seed of potato varieties with desired traits undermines all investments and innovations in breeding for new varieties.Accelerating the multiplication of high-quality seed and increasing its supply to smallholder potato farmers have been critical to breaking the seed bottleneck. The centerpiece of this effort is the three-generation (3G) seed multiplication strategy that can reduce the number of specialized multiplications from the conventional five generations to just three. A threeyear pilot project implemented by CIP and its national partners pioneered the 3G approach and supported the development of rapid multiplication techniques (RMTs) in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. More than 15,000 smallholder growers also gained knowledge and skills on potato production technologies and best practices, and saw average yields increase by 20%. Results from similar projects in other African potato-growing countries reveal that decentralized multiplication, onfarm seed maintenance, and capacity building can improve farmers' access to quality seed.A new level of partnership An efficient seed system will ease the seed potato bottleneck by accelerating much-needed access to and adoption of varieties with in-demand traits. But seed systems, if they are to be sustainable, need further private sector engagement, which includes creating entrepreneurial opportunities for young and female farmers. Part of the success of the 3G approach came from targeted, strategic private-public partnerships all along the seed value chain. This has spurred increased investment by the private sector in seed potato production as it responds to high demand for seed. And although 3G initiatives have since expanded into Angola, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania with promising results, private sector involvement is still lagging. Africa's overall improved investment climate and e-commerce offer attractive opportunities in a stronger seed potato value chain that continues to mature.CIP's traditional partners are essential for adaptive research on and implementation of RMTs for in-vitro, minituber, and field generation seed categories. They play a critical role in building persuasive business models around socioeconomic and costbenefit analyses and willingness-to-pay studies. To continue to attract critical private sector investment, we need to understand current and shifting user preferences and demands along potato value chains to address changing food habits. We will promote activities to increase the use of seed and ware potato through identifying, adapting, implementing, and documenting effective methodologies to raise awareness of the value of potato, quality seed, and improved varieties. Similarly, adaptive research into technologies for on-farm seed quality management, integrated crop management, and postharvest storage for seed and ware potato producers will revolve around national agricultural research systems and advanced research institutions.Tapping the potential CIP's 10-year goals are ambitious but realistic. In close collaboration with a wide set of partners, CIP has pledged to improve the livelihoods of at least 600,000 smallholder households in potato-growing regions of Africa by the use of high-quality seed of robust, market-preferred and biofortified varieties. We expect farmers to increase potato yields to 15 t/ha and incomes of at least US $800/ha per season. Multiplier effects will benefit an additional three million households. The initiative will exploit the crop's largely untapped potential, creating entrepreneurial opportunities for all levels along the seed value chain, with a special focus on women and youth farmers. The approach includes testing and implementing of methodologies to generate innovations on large-scale production and use of quality seed, as well as on effective linkages among value chain actors, paying special attention to private companies. We will identify, document, and promote replicable and scalable methodologies to reach new areas and users with suitable varieties. ","tokenCount":"1020"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3714610554.json b/data/part_3/3714610554.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ee44ffd89584c71f28d63fad47dc8120f5e9af05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_3/3714610554.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"475eef3a71659cfae564f210847f5974","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aec0db26-ab1d-4220-89f8-b0435d76ee08/retrieve","id":"-2049360844"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8178e94c-8712-4f1b-8668-52ec637e210f","pagecount":"19","content":"The Challenge  Behavior and Social ChangeGoal -Increase the demand for, and access to nutritious foods by identifying and using leverage points to improve nutrition through the value chain. Impact Pathway -increased supply and intake of nutritious foods to be delivered in value chains (formal and informal markets) involving private producers, market agents and companies. Links to food commodity chain research.Goal: Develop and release new varieties of carefully selected staple crops with enhanced bio-available nutrients to improve nutrition for millions of people 2 subcomponents:-HarvestPlus (targeting Africa and Asia) -AgroSalud (targeting Latin America)Goal: To control and mitigate agricultureassociated diseases in order to enhance environmental sustainability, reduce poverty, increase food security, and contribute to the health of poor communities- ","tokenCount":"116"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3723763293.json b/data/part_3/3723763293.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9e423b1129c44429dfbf828be8b9961956cdec8a
--- /dev/null
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ced9146bffd02d46781d564278a5fba2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/946fd9b3-e132-4a6c-9274-3f12c43f6cf7/retrieve","id":"-994127297"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"807806db-a3a1-448e-9770-98555b704ab1","pagecount":"8","content":"The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) Project has established 137 limiting nutrient trials, and 70 intercrop trials in a bid to crack the agronomy of cassava, according to a 5-month progress report of the project.A breakdown of the work done so far indicates that 20 limiting nutrient trials have been established in Nigeria and 117 in Tanzania. For the intercrop trials, 29 cassava/maize trials have been established in Nigeria, and 41 cassava/ sweet potato trials in Tanzania.Dr Abdulai Jalloh, Project Leader for ACAI said the trials would help researchers answer key questions relating to cassava agronomy.\"Understanding the agronomy of cassava is a crucial step towards maximizing the genetic gain of the root crop, \" Dr Jalloh said.The ACAI project plans 667 trials in both Nigeria and Tanzania across the four use cases directly associated with field experimentation. These are as follows: fertilizer recommendation (295); best planting practices (150); intercropping (202), and staggered planting (20).Cracking the cassava agronomy: ACAI commences establishment trials in Nigeria and TanzaniaThe trials so far established represent about 44% of the targeted total number of trials.The progress report shows that across countries, establishment of trials has been higher in Tanzania (82%) compared to Nigeria (26%). This is mainly due to the varying rainy season and farming systems in the two countries. The rains for the first planting during which most of the planting has been done in Tanzania are relatively earlier (March/April), while the main planting season for cassava in Nigeria is April/May. The remaining trials will be planted by the end of May/June in Nigeria while the rest of the planting in Tanzania has been shifted to the second planting in October/November. In general, the trials will be established within the window of planting by the farmers in both countries.Dr Bernard Vanlauwe, IITA Director for Central Africa said, \"We hope that more trials will be set up as we enter June when rains would have steadied in Nigeria. \"The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) and the IITA Cassava Weed Management Project (IITA-CWMP) have Finally, ACAI and IITA-CWMP adopt Cassava Matters as common platform for communication adopted a new name (Cassava Matters) for information dissemination as part of efforts to have a unified communication front. Dr Bernard Vanlauwe, who first muted the idea, believes that the coming together of the two projects would engender efficiency and better use of resources.Drs Alfred Dixon and Abdulai Jalloh who are leading IITA-CWMP and ACAI respectively endorsed the plan as a step in the right direction.The common platform will also provide communication support to the newly launched Cassava Seed Systems project also known as Building an Economically Sustainable, Integrated Seed System for Cassava in Nigeria (BASICS).Hemant Nitturkar, Project Coordinator of BASICS, notes that \"unless all pieces of the whole cassava value chain jigsaw puzzle fall in place at the same time, none of the individual parts like seed systems, or weed management, or agronomy or processing would sustainably succeed. \" This meeting discussed some linkages and complementarities between the two projects and the possibility for collaboration. Both teams agreed to share information on their activities.The AATF team also visited one of the IITA-CWMP mechanical experimental field were the IITA Youth Agripreneurs were using the motorized Mantis weeders to control weeds.Excited by the youth activities and in particular the mechanical weed control option, both teams agreed in principle to involve the youths in their activities either as service providers or to help the youngsters by offering services to them at scale. Despite being the largest cassava producer in Africa, Nigeria's average yields of 14 tons per hectare are less than half of what may be realistically attainable.The project aims to help Nigerian producers reach this potential through developing a commercially sustainable cassava seed value chain based on the purchase of quality seed by farmers provided by vibrant and profitable village seed entrepreneurs and basic seed production linked to cassava processors.These seed businesses will provide healthy seed of more productive cassava varieties leading to the adoption of new varieties to improve productivity and food security, increase incomes of cassava growers, and village seed entrepreneurs and enhance gender equity.Kicking off the public launch, Dr. Nteranya Sanginga, IITA Director General, explained that the key to industrializing cassava is to increase productivity, and this means addressing the problem of weeds, improving agronomy and providing quality seed.Dr. Graham Thiele, RTB Program Director, gave the project overview: \"Our vision is that by 2019 smallholder cassava growers BASICS Project kicks off in Nigeria with the vision to improve cassava seed quality are buying high quality stems of their preferred varieties and planting them with improved agronomic practices. As a result yields have jumped by at least 40% and farmers have more secure markets for expanded production… Novel rapid multiplication technologies have lowered the cost of producing seed and accelerated the introduction of new varieties. Vibrant new businesses have been created all along the cassava seed value chain creating employment especially for women and youth. \"Mrs. Doyin Awe, Representative of Nigeria's Minister, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development noted that exciting new opportunities were opening for cassava, but planting materials for cassava present special challenges as they are bulky and perishable. She committed the full support of the Ministry to the new project and thanked the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for providing the funding.Dr. Julius Okonkwo, Executive Director, National Root Crops and Research Institute (NRCRI), noted that Nigeria's cassava seed system was informal, and that NRCRI was very pleased to form part of the project in developing a modern seed system for cassava.Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo, Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) said: \"I am excited to get back to BASICS so that we could move forward for a food secure Nigeria. \" He underscored the need to work on the entire innovation to impact pathway, and stressed that today history is being made, and that he was very proud to see such a great initiative unveiled.Mr. Louw Burger of Thai Farms, a cassava flour processing company, explained that better roots were easier to harvest and that its extremely important to start with the right seed. The aim is to help Africa maximize the benefit of genetic gain which has been hitherto stymied over the years because of poor crop management among which poor weed control is a major factor. This situation is exacerbated by low capacity and a lack of the critical human resource to tackle weed problems, according to Prof Friday Ekeleme, Principal Investigator for IITA CWMP, who also doubles as the President of the Nigeria Weed Science Society of Nigeria, during the recently organized 3-day workshop on \"Herbicide Action on Weeds and Crops. \"The training, which provided the opportunity for the participants to access latest information in weed science, covered wide range of areas that explained the nature of herbicide, how it works, how it should be used and the effect on weeds and crops.Prof Stephen Weller, from the Purdue University, United States of America (USA) while facilitating the session on \"Herbicide Site of Action\", stressed the effect of the environment on the use of herbicides while adding that it was good to thoroughly read labels and understand the content of herbicides before use.On \"Herbicide Absorption, \" Prof Michael Owen, from the Iowa State University, took time to analyse the area of herbicides' absorption from the soil and the factors affecting soil uptake such as relative humidity, temperature, and light. He spoke on, \"Adjuvants/Safeners and Herbicide Metabolism in Plants\", and explained how safeners work. He also listed the various classification and categories of adjuvants. Other areas he proffered insights included herbicides resistance in weed management and best possible options African researchers could take to avoid the occurrence of weed resistance.Prof Segun Lagoke, of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria, emphasized the need for weed identification as an important step to any weed management control.\"Weed identification gives insight into the anatomy, morphology, ontogeny, physiology and ecological distribution of weeds, \" he added.The 3-day workshop, which ended 3 March 2016, enabled participants to understand the requirements for effective herbicide application in weed management and touched on a wide variety of areas in weed management ranging from, plant anatomy and physiology, molecular biology, cell biology, herbicide chemistry, plant membranes and herbicide translocation, and soil principles.During his opening remarks, Project Leader of the IITA Cassava Weed Management Project, Dr Alfred Dixon said the training was particularly designed to offer weed scientists access to globally current information in the field of weed management.He encouraged participants to apply lessons learnt to their research work in universities, research institutes, the Agricultural Development Programs (ADPs) and also to disseminate the information to farmers on the field. \"This will ensure sustainability and applicability of the knowledge acquired, \" he said.At the end of the 3 days, participants expressed good feedback on the quality of delivery by the resource persons as well as the quality of training module contents used during the workshop. ","tokenCount":"1493"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3728021417.json b/data/part_3/3728021417.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5c32b0667216356fc49fa236b4a1929e69f38846
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_3/3728021417.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"808f94318461e19511de7131d2891e82","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e6427172-e2f4-4cea-a368-7bbbe36739b0/retrieve","id":"1340698577"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"92d86bcc-2255-446a-82c6-a479c7ae779e","pagecount":"117","content":"Climate information implemented in AICCRA ANCAR mobile app that can deliver localized data to users directly in the field. Climate information tools are technologies designed to provide users with critical climate-related data for decision-making. These tools help stakeholders like from farmers, enumerators and government agencies to researchers to access accurate, real-time or forecasted climate information, enabling them to plan and respond to changing weather and climate conditions effectively. This climate information often integrates data from satellites, weather stations, and climate models and are supported by national meteorological services, international organizations, or research institutions.Some key functions of climate information tools include:Weather Forecasting:Open Access to Climate Information (Senegal weather data)Step 7.1: Advice system Enter ANCAR agent's basic details such as a. First & last name Fill the location details, • AEZ (select from the option) • Region (select from the option) • Department (select from the option) • Commune (select from the option) b. Gender (select from the option) c. Agent's mobile no. d. Email ID (…..@gmail.com) e. Agent's status & f. Agent's registration no. Activity 1: Information & awareness Click on 'New data' tab to collect the information & awareness ata Fill the location details, • AEZ (select from the option) • Region (select from the option) • Department (select from the option) • Commune (select from the option) • Village (select from the option) • Collect the date of training conducted Activity 2: Training & visits Fill the location details, • AEZ (select from the option) • Region (select from the option) • Department (select from the option) • Commune (select from the option) • Village (select from the option) • Collect the date of training conducted Click on 'New data' tab to collect the training & visits data Activity 3: Intermediate Click on 'New data' tab to collect the intermediate data Fill the location details, • AEZ (select from the option) • Region (select from the option) • Department (select from the option) • Commune (select from the option) • Village (select from the option) • Enter the date Activity 5: Dynamics organizational Click on 'New data' tab to collect the data on dynamics of the organization Fill the location details, • AEZ (select from the option) • Region (select from the option) • Department (select from the option) • Commune (select from the option) • Village (select from the option) • Enter the date Fill the location details, • AEZ (select from the option) • Region (select from the option) • Department (select from the option) • Commune (select from the option) • Village (select from the option) • Enter the date from the calendar * Cliquez sur cet onglet et changez la langue de l'anglais au français ou vice versa. Rédigez la brève description des contraintes et des recommandations.Providing daily or seasonal weather forecasts that help communities prepare for shortterm weather events, like storms or droughts.Long-term climate predictions or projections that aid in strategic planning for climate adaptation, especially for regions vulnerable to climate change.Early Warning Systems:These tools often integrate with early warning systems for extreme weather events like floods, hurricanes, or heatwaves, enabling timely interventions to minimize damage and loss of life.Offering information on rainfall, temperature, and growing seasons to help farmers optimize planting schedules, water use, and crop selection.This Climate information feature provide data visualization platforms that allow users to see trends in temperature, precipitation, and other variables over time, which is critical for research and policy-making.Step 7.2: Advice system Conti… The app collects the count of total no. of beneficiaries such as (no. of men, women, young-men & young-women) were reached in receiving the management advisory.This gender-differentiated count helps to understand the target groups. Step 10 : Submitted data  Informations climatiques implémentées dans l'application mobile AICCRA ANCAR qui peuvent fournir des données localisées aux utilisateurs directement sur le terrain. Les outils d'information climatique sont des technologies conçues pour fournir aux utilisateurs des données climatiques essentielles à la prise de décision. Ces outils aident les parties prenantes telles que les agriculteurs, les enquêteurs, les agences gouvernementales et les chercheurs à accéder à des informations climatiques précises, en temps réel ou prévues, leur permettant de planifier et de répondre efficacement aux changements météorologiques et aux conditions climatiques. Ces informations climatiques intègrent souvent des données provenant de satellites, de stations météorologiques et de modèles climatiques et sont prises en charge par les services météorologiques nationaux, les organisations internationales ou les instituts de recherche.Some key functions of climate information tools include:Providing daily or seasonal weather forecasts that help communities prepare for shortterm weather events, like storms or droughts.Long-term climate predictions or projections that aid in strategic planning for climate adaptation, especially for regions vulnerable to climate change.Early Warning Systems:These tools often integrate with early warning systems for extreme weather events like floods, hurricanes, or heatwaves, enabling timely interventions to minimize damage and loss of life.Offering information on rainfall, temperature, and growing seasons to help farmers optimize planting schedules, water use, and crop selection.This Climate information feature provide data visualization platforms that allow users to see trends in temperature, precipitation, and other variables over time, which is critical for research and policy-making.Après vous être connecté avec succès,synchroniserles données.Cliquez sur le bouton « Synchroniser ».Autorisez l'application à se synchroniser complètement.Note:Habituellement, ce processus prend peusecondes. Ne revenez pas en arrière et ne fermez pas l'application pendant que le processus de synchronisation est en cours. L'application collecte le nombre total de non. de bénéficiaires tels que (nombre d'hommes, de femmes, de jeunes hommes et de jeunes femmes) ont été touchésen recevant l'avis de la direction.Cedifférencié selon le sexecompter aide à comprendre la ciblegroupes.Vérifier le journal de données page avant de quitter/déconnecter de l'application. Si la collecte de données est terminée pour ce jour particulier, l'utilisateur peut cliquer sur « OK » pour se déconnecter.Les données collectéesvia l'application mobile AICCRA-ANCAR est téléchargéà un système basé sur le cloud danstemps réelet également présenté sur untableau de bord Web. ","tokenCount":"984"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"25e1b8fad3df26f5a423aee47ec6bf60","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a171996b-fee5-45b4-ade7-5029b4ef32b3/content","id":"-1600470357"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4fc504e6-e263-482b-867f-e4800b6d439c","pagecount":"33","content":"1. Choice of models showed some level of differences in prediction accuracies 2. Relative to pedigree or marker only models, there were consistent gains in prediction accuracy by combining pedigree and marker data 3. About 200 SNP markers were found to sufficient to get good prediction in biparental maize populations for simple traits with moderate-to-high heritability, but GBS outperformed low-density SNPs for complex traits with low-to-moderate heritability 4. The prediction accuracies of grain yield were consistently lower than those of simple traits (such as anthesis date) 5. Prediction accuracies under stress conditions were consistently lower and more variable than optimum environments• We used GS is rapid cycle of recombination in bi-parental populations • Total 34 bi-parental populations (total =6252 F 2:3 , each with ca.184 progenies) • Objective: To improve drought tolerance using GS/MARS • Phenotyped in 2-4 managed water-stressed and 3-4 well-watered environments in SSA • Genetic gain studies completed for 18 populations• 10 populations using MARS• Selection at C 0 based on phenotype and marker data, followed by one recombination and two selfing• 8 populations using GS  Genetic gain from conventional breeding in Africa 18 kg ha -1 yr -1 (Edmeades, 2013) 32 kg ha -1 yr -1 (B. Masuka, submitted) Genetic gain GS is 2-4 times higher than from conventional breeding reported in sub-Saharan Africa.Yield;t/ha ","tokenCount":"218"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3749125015.json b/data/part_3/3749125015.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f1444da49a79f75e3c1aa251f5202901","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b32512d3-7661-41f9-916c-c1d05457fbf3/retrieve","id":"-79597338"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b8244216-b6e0-43fa-af53-84227aec58fc","pagecount":"1","content":"El ataque del salivazo es un serio limitante para el cultivo de Brachiaria, el forraje más promisorio del neotrópico. Mediante mejoramento clásico han sido desarrolladas líneas del pasto con efecto antibiótico sobre ninfas del insecto. En una aproximación a las bases moleculares de esta resistencia se realizó un librería sustractiva enriquecida en secuencias inducidas por el ataque de la plaga en plantas resistentes. Dentro de los genes aislados, un transcrito de proteasa (bcp) se constituye en el principal candidato a efector de la antibiosis.bcp codifica para una cisteín proteasa de la familia de las papaínas, grupo al cual pertenecen enzimas que participan de varias formas en respuestas a estrés biótico. Con el fin de averiguar cual es el papel jugado por bcp en la interacción Brachiaria-Salivazo se aislaron las secuencias genómica y transcrita del gen y se estudió su patrón de expresión.Las cistein proteasas de Brachiaria (BCPs) forman un clado aislado dentro de las papaínas similares a catepsinas L, lo cual dificulta la realización de predicciones acerca de su función fisiológica (figura 2). No obstante nuestros resultados indicarían que estas proteínas participan en la resistencia de Brachiaria al salivazo: Las secuencias de los ortólogos de plantas resistentes y susceptibles presentan diferencias (figura 3). Por otra parte, aunque el gen se expresa constituviamente en la raíz de todos los genotipos estudiados, el ataque del insecto induce su sobre-expresión únicamente en accesiones resistentes (figura 4-A). Ademas en los perfiles proteoliticos en zimografías de gelatina se evidencian diferencias inter-varietales (figura 5-A) y se demuestra la existencia de proteasas en el xilema radicular (Figura 5-C), tejido del cual se alimentan las ninfas de la plaga. Esta enzima no se produce en hojas y tallo (figura 4-B), lo cual explicaría que todos las plantas estudiadas sean susceptibles a los insectos adultos (que se alimentan de estos orgános). Finalmente, en el promotor del gen hay elementos cuya intervención en regulación de la expresión de proteínas xilematicas y de respuesta a estrés ha sido demostrada en otros modelos. Existen dos copias de bcp en el genoma de Brachiaria diferenciadas en la secuencia y longitud de único intrón. El aislamiento de psuedogenes y parálogos sugiere que el gen está sometido a un dinámico proceso evolutivo. bcp es objeto de poliadenilación alternativa por lo que su transcripción produce cuatro mARNs distintos. Estos presentan una corta región 5´UTR, una zona codificante de 1014 pb y una amplia 3´UTR de longitud variable en la que se localizan posibles elementos reguladores (figura 1). La traducción de bcp genera papaínas producidas como zimógenos con una señal de localización N-terminal que las dirijiría hacia la ruta secretoria, un propeptido inhibitorio con los dominios conservados ERFNIN y GNFD, y una región catalítica en la cual se localizan los cuatro aminoácidos del sitio activo (figuras 1 y 3) •Mapear los bcps en el genoma de Brachiaria.•Secuenciar el promotor genico en variedades susceptibles.•Evaluar el efecto de la transformacion con bcps (en Brachiaria u otros modelos) sobre la resistencia al salivazo. ","tokenCount":"493"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"23d397c8734aaed737ee3ef62c00b288","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f8cb5d05-266b-4d96-96fa-60eb2bdade5a/retrieve","id":"2102533348"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4e1a145d-c2ad-440a-83a1-19016fe3c0c1","pagecount":"16","content":"Land degradation has already affected 67 percent of the land in sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 2010)  with up to two thirds of productive land being affected (UNCCD,  2013). United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates approximated 20 percent of cropland and 20 to 25 percent of rangeland to be degraded (ELD  Initiative and UNEP, 2015). The total annual costs of land degradation is estimated at US$ 65 billion which accounts for about 4% of the total gross domestic product (GDP) (Global Mechanism of the UNCCD, 2018). The major causes of degradation in sub-Saharan Africa include high population growth leading to pressure on land, conversion of grassland to cropland, deforestation, inappropriate management practices, low adoption of sustainable land management practices soil erosion, low inputs and overgrazing (Nkonya and Mirzabaev, 2016;Muchena et al., 2005). This has led to soil nutrient loss and loss of productive land resources, decreased quality and quantity of available water, salinization, acidification, crop yield losses, loss of biodiversity, increased food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition, and increased poverty (Kirui and Mirzabaev, 2014). Given the severity and the consequences on the ecosystem functioning, food security and mitigation of climate change (Demessie et al., 2015;Lal, 2012), there is an urgent need to restore degraded lands and prevent further degradation.The objective of this research brief is to review methods that are used to quantify the contribution of forage grasses to land restoration in order to inform future studies in East Africa. Publications were retrieved from Google Scholar by searching the following key words: land degradation, land restoration, soil health indicators, forage grass and land restoration, forage grass and soil health, soil, modelling and grass, simulation and forage grass, sub-Saharan Africa. The research brief reviews empirical methods as well as simulation methods.Land restoration can be achieved through protecting natural forests, afforestation, establishing livestock enclosures, and adopting sustainable land management practices in cropland areas. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have committed to restore 100 million hectares of degraded and deforested areas through the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), which will contribute to the achievement of the domestic and development commitments set in the Bonn challenge and Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). Forage grasses have the potential to contribute to achieve the massive targets of restoration, although their potential in SSA remains unexploited (Kitonga, 2019). Forages form parts of plants that are eaten my livestock and they can be herbaceous or dual-purpose legumes, shrubs or grasses.In this research brief, we focus on forage grasses. Soils under well managed forage grasses exhibit good soil health qualities such as large organic matter concentrations, efficient nutrient use, low susceptibility to erosion and good soil structure. However, poorly managed forage grasses can also accelerate the land degradation potential.To assess the contribution of forage grasses in enhancing soil health and land restoration, changes in chemical, biological and physical soil properties have to be monitored. The biological indicators include microbial communities, enzyme activities, total nitrogen and organic carbon, while the physical indicators include aggregate stability, bulk density, soil moisture and porosity. Soil organic carbon (SOC) content is one of the main indicators of soil health which is affected by forage grass species (Horrocks et al., 2019). In addition, due to their deep-rooted systems forage grasses have a great effect on soil aggregation and aggregate stability (Harris et al., 1996), which contributes in soil erosion and degradation reduction (Amézketa, 2008). Over the last decades, several in-depth field approaches have been applied to monitor some of these indicators in different parts of the globe. In addition, the application of biophysical models particularly for quantifying SOC in forage grasses has gained momentum over the last decades. Fifteen publications were reviewed and findings are summarized in Table 1. The review focuses on the location, year of the trial establishment and data collection period, objectives of the study, species of forage grass, study type, experimental design and treatments, management practices, soil parameters measured and the method used for analysis for each parameter. KENYA, Embu (Angima et al., 2002) DATA COLLECTION PERIOD 1997-19991. Determine erosion rates from on-farm plots with and without contour Calliandra-Napier grass hedges 2. Use the soil loss data to develop a support practice P-sub factor for use with the RUSLE soil erosion prediction computer model 3. Determine biomass production from the hedges 4. Determine N and P losses in eroded sediments from the runoff plots to gauge the effectiveness of the combination hedge system in retaining nutrients 1. Determine the effect of intercropping Brachiaria Sp. cv Mulato with forage perennial peanut, in single alternate row (1:1) on sustainable improvement of yield and quality of forage.• Hybrid Brachiaria (Cv Mulato)On-station experimental trialRandomized complete block designPlots with pure stands of hybrid Brachiaria (Cv Mulato) and forage perennial peanut (Arachis pintoi) were compared to plots with their mixture There was no control• Basal fertilizer composed of 33 N, 66 P 2 O 5 and 48 K 2 O kg ha -1 in the form of NPK (11-22-16) was applied during planting • 20 tons of cattle manure ha -1 were evenly applied to all treatments at the planting time and at the beginning of the third and the fourth year • No fertilizer was applied to all plots at the beginning of the fifth year 1. Assess the impact of perennial forage grasses and organic amendments on soil properties and fodder productivity• Thysanolaena maxima (Broom grass),• Brachiaria ruziziensis (Congosignal grass),• Pennisetum typhoides x Pennisetum. Purpureum (Hybrid Napier),• Megathyrsus maximus (Guinea grass) • The forage herbage and barley straw were returned and spread over the respective plots • Before seeding forages and barley, the site was fertilized with 87 kg ha −1 of P and 166 kg ha −1 of K • Ammonium nitrate was applied on ryegrass and barley at the early tillering stage at 50 kg N ha −1 and on red clover at 25 kg N ha −1 • Ammonium nitrate at 40 kg N ha −1 was applied again after the first and second cut for the Italian ryegrass, and after the barley harvest for the barley plus Italian ryegrass rotation • Fertilizer was broadcast at 90, 87, and 166 kg ha −1 of N, P and K, respectively, and incorporated into the soil prior to planting • The last three years three N rates (0, 45 and 90 kg N ha −1 ) was applied from ammonium nitrate• Soil structure, organic carbon and organic nitrogen | Carter, 1998 DATA COLLECTION PERIOD 1998PERIOD , 2001PERIOD , 2004PERIOD and 2007 1. Assess soil properties over 9 years for a rainfed study of N fertilizer rate (0, 60, 120, and 180 kg N ha -1 ) and harvest management on switchgrass (harvested in August and post frost) and no tilled corn (NT-C) (with and without 50% stover removal)On-station experimental trialRandomized complete block split-split plot experimental designPlots with two cultivars of switch grass (Panicum virgatum Cave-in-Rock and Panicum virgatum Trailblazer), nitrogen fertilizer rate (0, 60 and120 kg N ha -1 ) and harvest management (harvested in August and post-frost) was compared to plots with no-tilled Zea mays (corn), nitrogen fertilizer rate (60, 120 and 180 kg N ha -1 ) and harvest management no residue removal or 50% residue removal for). There was no control.No phosphorus (P) or potassium (K) fertilizer was applied• 1. Compare aboveground biomass C production and depth distribution of SOC content of continuous winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) 2. Determine the contribution of switchgrass to soil organic carbon 3. Characterize soil C inventories under each crop across a wide range of precipitation regimesOn-station experimental trialRandomized complete blockPlot with (Panicum virgatum Blackwell) was compared to plot with continuous Triticum aestivum (winter wheat). There was no control.• Urea (46-00-00) fertilizer was applied to winter wheat plots at N levels of 197, 246, and 296 kg ha -1 • Ammonium phosphate (16-20-00) with 12% sulfur was broadcast giving 11 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 and 8.4 kg S ha -1 • Nitrogen was applied to switch grass at the rates of 45, 90, and 179 kg N ha -1 • Ammonium phosphate with 12% sulfur was applied at the rate of 45 kg N ha -1 , 56 kg PP 2 O 5 ha -1 and 34 S ha -1 • No fertilizer was added in 2007 to prevent weed growth• Gravimetric soil water content / Gardner, 1986 • Bulk density / oven dry weigh of the core was divided with its volume • pH and electrical conductivity / 1:2.5 soil/water extract • Total carbon and total nitrogen / automated dry combustion analyzer • Isotopic signature of soil carbon( 13 -Fertilizer was applied as N 15 kg ha −1 , P 40 kg ha −1 , K 37 kg ha −1 as ammonium sulphate, single super-phosphate, and potassium chloride, respectively. -Micronutrients was applied at the rate 30 kg ha −1 each of fritted trace elements [FTEs] type BR12 and zinc sulphate • Site 2:-Fertilizer was applied at the rate of 72 kg ha −1 of P as single superphosphate, 60 kg K as KCl and 46 kg ha −1 of N as urea in 1985 and 1995, and 2Mg ha −1 of lime in 1995, followed by a further 46 kg N ha −1 as urea in 1997. -Replanted pasture in 1997 was applied with 1.5 Mg ha −1 lime and fertilized with 12, 45 and 30 kg ha −1 of N, P and K, respectively/ METHOD USED The review of the empirical methods shows that most of the studies were conducted outside of sub-Saharan Africa with very few studies in Africa (27 percent). The majority of the trials that were used for measurements were conducted for more than two years, with limited short-term studies. The main indicators for short-term studies were aggregate stability and microbial biomass carbon. Main species of grasses being studied were Brachiaria species and Panicum virgatum (switch grass). Most of the experiments were on on-station experimental trials instead of on-farm reserach. In sub-Saharan Africa, Napier grass was the main species studied and the main soil health indicator was soil erosion.Biophysical simulation models are a specific form of models concerned with the interaction of weather, soil, and/or biological processes in agricultural production and /or environmental actions and they simulate the growth of crops to retrieve biophysical crop parameters such as crop production, biomass, water use (Kogan et al., 2013). According to Andrade et al. (2016), biophysical models have benefits compared to empirical methods since they can be used for wider region and can predict future conditions over a longer period. These models include CROPGRO, DSSAT, APSIM, ALMANAC (Andrade et al., 2016). The review highlights the simulation methods and the outline include the region, type of model, species of forage grass, data input for the model, source of data and type of study in Table 2.  The review of the simulation methods indicates that all the studies were carried out outside of Sub-saharan Africa and CROPGRO is the most commonly used model. The study also showed that the main sources of data were experimental trials.The objective of this research brief was to review methods that are used to quantify the contribution of forage grasses to land restoration to inform future studies in East Africa. Major findings from the empirical studies indicate only 15 studies in total were found showing that forage grasses are not well studied for their potential of land restoration, with most studies focusing outside Africa. Further, methods to study short-term impacts are rare with most methods relying on multi-year experiments, which might be expensive to run. The major parameters studied include soil organic carbon and aggregate stability with Brachiaria grass as the main species. In simulation studies, the centers of expertise were in USA and Brazil with CROPGRO as the main model, which was well adapted. The main sources of data were from experimental trials thus need to set-up trials. However, since models can project long-term simulations, they can be substituted with multiyear experiments. Further, since CROPGRO was the main model, it can be calibrated and adapted in Africa. This review highlights the scarcity of experimental studies that focus on the impact of forage grasses on soil health in Africa, hence the need to explore and quantify their potential to contribute to restoration of degraded landscapes.THAILAND (Norsuwan et al., 2015) TYPE ","tokenCount":"2046"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3786794698.json b/data/part_3/3786794698.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"179f9ad9c806c79898b693640f4f1f49","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H013935.pdf","id":"1165541377"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"08eb26ec-0bc4-4b2d-8ec3-43c8145e8b0a","pagecount":"4","content":"Action Resea.rch in Nepa.l An ongoing research project in Nepal is developing and testing methods to intensify and/or expand the command area of FMIS in hill regions.The project' will utilize and build upon the farmers' experience and work within the present structure of water rights and group organization.Studies of FMIS in several regions of Nepal have shown that their performance is often excellent, but could be further enhanced by (1) expanding the command area, (2) more intensi\"{,~_ cropping patterns, or (3) more reliable delivery of water.In some cases the constraints are physical and further development by the farmers has been limited by the technologies and resources available to them.In other cases the operation and main tenance costs are extremely high, making further expansion or intensifi cation impossible without improvement of the physical system.Many systems that are relatively new have not developed the management . capability demonstrated in some of the older systems and have not achieve the full food production potential of their water and land resource.Providing outside assistance to these FMIS depends on methods for systematically and quickly identifying the specific problems faced by indi vidual systems, establishing criteria for selection and developing low-cost assistance strategies for each system.The project area is within the Indrawati River Basin in Sindhupalchok District, NE of Kathmandu.In Phase I of the project, a method was developed for on-the-ground reconnaissance to produce an inventory of existing systems.The reconnaissance inventory activity was used to select specific clusters of systems where outside assistance would be most beneficial. An additional rapid appraisal of the selected systems in each cluster was carried out to identify the specific problems ot each and to identify the type of assistance the beneficiaries felt would be useful.A second phase ot activities has just begun, and will develop and test different intervention strategies in \": n action research mode in FMIS.The assistance is designed to strengthe\" 1 the beneficiaries' own capacity manage operation and maintenance ar;d assist them in making necessary physical improvements in their system.The goal of this phase ot the project is to find practical low-cost procedure for improving the performance of FMIS by using the systems identified in Phase I as a field laboratory, The Phase II activities seek to:(1) Preserve the \"farmer-managed\" character of each system, i.e. ensure that the operation and maintenance activities remain the responsibility of the farmers;(2) This will be used for paying all labor and 20 purchasing and transporting materials necessary for physical improvements in each system.All purchases and other expenditures will be made by WECS. In most cases the amount of money available will not be enough to' carry out all the physical improvements that are identified in each particular system. The beneficiaries will need to decide on the priorities for improve ments or mobilize additional resources of their own for any additional activities.Contractors will not be used for construction.\" \"All unskilled labor for construc tion and transport of materials must be provided by the beneficiaries of each respective system.Within the guidelines set by the District Pancha yat, the beneficiaries will help the consultant 'set the wage rates and the rate for transporting materials.If skilled labor is required that is not available among the beneficiaries, they shall either seek training in the skills necessary or hire skilled labor from outside the community to be paid from• the amount of money available for improvement of that system.\"First dialogue with the benefi ciaries.\"The first activity in each system will be to communicate to the beneficiaries that their system has been selected for assistance under certain terms and conditions. The terms and conditions include that the beneficiaries will form a users' organi zation if they do not already have one.All beneficiaries of the existing . system will automatically be members of the organization.The organization will decide on the number of members required to form a quorum and the basis for making binding decisions. All activities will be carried out on the basis of the decisions made by the users' organization.\" \"In addition the users' organi zation will form a management commi ttee to take care of the day-to-day activities.All the beneficiaries will be in volved in deciding on the number of functionaries, describing their respon sibilities and accountability, and electing individuals to fill the posi tions.These persons will not be paid from the project improvement fund.\" The users' organization will: Prepare a list of the existing irrigation season, each irrigates cadastral survey; of all beneficiaries system for each and the land area based on the Prepare a list of potential benefi ciaries if the system is to be extended, and the• land areas to be irrigated, based on the land title from the cadastral survey;Prepare a plan for allocating rights to water to the new beneficiaries and a plan for distributing the available water;Prepare a plan for supervising ,the improvements to be made and for future operation and maintenance of the system including the roles, rules, sanctions, basis for resource mobilization, etc., that will be applied and how they will be enforced;Indicate the amount each individual beneficiary will contribute in cash or free labor for improving the system in addition to the amount contributed by the project (they are Agree to provide all unskilled labor and to the extent possible also skilled labor from among the beneficiaries, Prepare and follow a resource mobilization plan (proportional to land area irrigated, share of water each beneficiary is entitled to or whatever other basis is agreed upon) for providing all the labor for construction and materials transport, and for future operation and maintenance of the system; Assist the consultant in planning and carrying out the site investi gation and design work;\"The project will provide materials locally available including the cost of transportation, pay for collection and transportation of all construction materials, and pay for all (unskilled and skilled) construction labor provided by the beneficiaries.\"\"The consultant will assist the beneficiaries in carrying out the requirements in meeting the terms and conditions by calling a meeting of all of the beneficiaries. must be allowed to information to all addition to providing potential assistance, be used to confirm information already Sufficient time communicate the involved.In information about this meeting shall and expand the reported in the free to decide not contribution but are raged to make some own to be handled beneficiaries and project); to make any to be encou input of their entirely by the not by the Within the panchayat the rate for skilled labor;guidelines, set and unskilled• 21Reconnaissance/Inventory and Rapid Appraisal report of Phase I of the project.\" \"Through the .dialogue, it will be determined whether the beneficiaries are ready to take advantage of the opportunities of the project.If they are not interested or need more time to prepare their user organization, the second dialogue shall be postponed until they communicate that they are ready. \"Second ditilogue with the beneri ciaries.\"Investigation for design and estimating the cost of structural improvements will be carried out at the site by the consultant with full participation' of the beneficiaries.A field design book shall be opened for each system.In the field design book all measurements are to be recorded, sketches made with all pertinent dimensions for each structure (where appropriate, alternative designs shall be considered), and advice and sugges tions of the beneficiaries noted. Materials quantities and cost estimates for procuring them shall be prepared in the field for each structure. Emphasis shall be placed on maXImI zing the use of local materials and the existing canal alignment.The consul tant shall provide the beneficiaries with information about costs and' relative labor requirements for alternative designs.On the basis of this informa tion, the beneficiaries, in consultation with the consultant shall decide on the priorities for making physical improve ments in the system within the ,gUidelines of the budget.\" \"Good engineering judgement shall be used in the site investigation.The maximum discharge of the existing canal must be estimated by measuring the slope and cross section of a stable section of the canal that the benefi ciaries identify as a location controlling the flow.Manning's equation shall be used to calculate the estimate.\" Detailed the canal profile, hill slope shall be of• each structure. be made at each intake and cross drainage that is to be improved, and of all other important features.A reference sign for identi fication of the photo and a suitable scale shall be visible in the photo.\" \"In consultation with the benefi ciaries, the consultant shall prepare a detailed workplan for implementing the construction work.This must include the dates when the beneficiaries will be free to engage in the work, rates for collecting and transporting mate rials, person-day requirements for each activity, and the number of workers that can be expected to work each day, etc.\" \"The inception report for the cluster shall be prepared as soon as the first and second dialogues are completed in each system.It shall include a comprehensive report on what took place in each dialogue at each system.It shall also include a list of beneficiaries names, minutes of the meetings, important points of discussion with the beneficiaries, information about rules and roles, the field design book, maps, photos. etc., and the workplan prepared at each site, including the breakdown of costs for each structure to be constructed.\" ","tokenCount":"1538"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"800d4de34dbd4c5c4570dd2db2f658cf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5021fc0e-41c9-430c-8a9a-a62f79165a21/retrieve","id":"1123998378"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7288866d-d998-450e-b516-29afde20ea93","pagecount":"3","content":"Tadel Gebre, Kahsa 1 ; Meseret, Selam 2 ; Mrode, Raphael 3 ; Gebreyohannes, Gebregziabher 4 ; Mészáros, Gábor 2 ; Okeyo Mwai, Ally 3 ; Sölkner, Johann 3 1 Mekelle University, Department of Animal, Rangeland and Wildlife Sciences (ARWS), Enda-Eyesus campus, P.O Box 23, Mekelle, Ethiopia,; 2 BOKU University, Institute of Livestock Sciences, Gregor-Mendel-Strasse 33, 1180,  Vienna, Austria,; 3  International dairy breeds are utilized extensively in developing countries, such as Ethiopia, for crossbreeding with local cattle populations with the objective of improving milk production. In Ethiopia, Holstein Friesian and Jersey are the most widely used international breeds. The objective of this study was to investigate the breed difference and heterosis components for two traits in crossbred dairy cows in Ethiopia. Most previous studies have primarily focused on the impact of breed differences, yet heterosis is also a crucial aspect to consider in cows kept under on-farm conditions in the tropics. Milk yield (yield trait) and calving interval (fitness trait) were identified as traits that are expected to be differentially affected by heterosis. A total of 4,759 phenotype records and genotype data of dairy cows with 38,344 SNP were obtained from the African Dairy Genetic Gains (ADGG) project in Ethiopia. Local ancestry information was calculated using Efficient Local Ancestry Inference (ELAI) software, employing reference populations comprising Local cattle (Fogera (37) and Boran (44)) and international breeds (Jersey (37) and Holstein Friesian (29)). The prediction of heterosis effects was performed by calculating the additive, dominance, and epistasis levels from ancestry informative markers. For milk yield, a mixed model was employed, considering parity, stage of lactation and calving season as fixed effects, and additive, dominance, and epistasis as covariates, along with animal genetic plus permanent environmental as well as herd-test-day as random effects. In the case of calving interval, a similar model was used, excluding stage of lactation and replacing herd-test-day by herd. Genetic, permanent environmental and herd-test-day/herd variances were obtained by single-trait analysis using the AIREMLF90 software, and the heterosis effects were estimated ICQG7 using BLUPF90+. Heritability was 0.28 for milk yield and <0.02 for calving interval. Significant breed differences were observed for milk yield and calving interval, with values of 7.85 kg and -38.77 days, respectively, indicating that the milk yield of pure international dairy cows is more than double that of local Ethiopian cows and calving interval is more than one month shorter for international dairy cows. Somewhat surprisingly, no significant dominance and epistatic effects were identified for either of the traits, indicating that F1 or F2 cows will be intermediate in performance compared to ancestral pure breeds. These results are not supported by a recent meta-study that found strong heterosis effects for milk production and many functional traits in similar types of crosses under tropical conditions.Most software for performing Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) is restricted in many aspects, including limited or no additional fixed and/or random effects, accepting only a homogeneous error variances, and using a single record per genotype (unreplicated data). This limits the full use of the phenotypic records available, yielding in many cases to suboptimal analyses. This simplification is difficult to justify given the current availability of complex and powerful linear mixed model routines. In response to the above issue, at VSNi, we have developed a free R library, ASRgwas, to provide a complete tool to implement GWAS. This library assists with preparing data and matrices, and verifies that they are adequate to perform GWAS. In addition, it has a set of complementary functions to be used for post-GWAS analyses to help with interpretation, use of the output information, and obtaining graphical outputs. The main tasks considered within ASRgwas are: 1) preparing and auditing phenotypic and genomic data, 2) fitting GWAS models and identifying significant markers, and 3) evaluating results and generating tables and graphical output. The intent of this tool is to facilitate the execution of GWAS in a straightforward and efficient manner, along with providing full reproducibility of these analyses. We have used state-of-the-art approaches and algorithms to obtain reliable and fast estimation of marker effects. In addition, we have made use of parallelization, whenever possible, and fast matrix operation routines (e.g. C++) available within the software R. ASRgwas is designed to allow for any number of fixed and/or random structures, and heterogenoeus error variances. It also accepts raw and replicated data. All of this making full use of the linear mixed model (LMM) methodology as available in ASReml-R. In addition, this package accepts missing values in the marker information avoiding the need to implement marker imputation. As part of ASRgwas we have extended the analytical options within GWAS beyond a Normal distribution, by allowing the evaluation of phenotypic responses that follow a Binomial distribution using Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM). ASRgwas is a free to use R library which can be downloaded from this web page: https://asreml.kb.vsni.co.uk/download-asrgwas/Resilience is defined as the ability of an animal to be minimally affected or quickly recover from a disturbance. Thanks to an increasing abundance in automated on-farm monitoring systems, longitudinal performance measures of individual animals become more routinely available. Several studies have proposed that statistical measurements of the deviation of an animal from its target trajectory (i.e., performance in ideal condition) provide useful resilience indicators (RI) and may be suitable for genetic selection. The aim of this study was to assess the ability of these RI to discriminate between different response types, their dependence on the quality of available data and correlated response to selection. The RI considered in this study were skewness, autocorrelation, integral, mean of squares and log-variance of performance deviations. Performance trajectories of three broad response types with respect to a short-term challenge were simulated which were, Fully Resilient (not affected by the challenge), Partially Resilient (affected but recovered after a period), and Non-Resilient (permanently affected by the challenge). The simulations included individual variation within response types. The ability of the RI to discriminate correctly between the response types was assessed assuming that target trajectories were unknown and using different methods to estimate these. Across all simulated scenarios, it was found that all RI could correctly distinguish Fully Resilient from Partially or Non-Resilient animals. However, only log-variance, integral and mean of squares correctly identified the Partially Resilient response type as more resilient than the Non-Resilient type, and this required data both within and outside the perturbation period. The results of this study highlight the potential risk of misclassifying animals based on the diverse RI, and method and data requirements to overcome these. Furthermore, response to selection based on log-variance on actual disease resilience of a sheep population was evaluated using an existing mechanistic host-pathogen interaction model for gastrointestinal nematode infection under various scenarios. The results show that selection for logarithm of variance can reduce the production potential but could increase resistance to parasite (lower faecal egg counts -FEC). Selection on resistance, however, can increase the resilience but is less likely to reduce the production potential.","tokenCount":"1152"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/3850112603.json b/data/part_3/3850112603.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"97c27ccf4a67e215150c55d1c05d75c5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9f201874-43bd-4458-bb32-183cd95cd0d5/retrieve","id":"-1336822090"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7c119f33-72bf-45f1-8545-0e43e0986815","pagecount":"16","content":"partilhemos os nossos conhecimentos para benefício das comunidades rurais Mensagem do Director urante o meu primeiro ano como Director do CTA reconheci as enormes oportunidades para aumentar o trabalho em rede e consolidar as parcerias entre as instituições que lidam com a segurança alimentar e o desenvolvimento sustentável nos países da África, Caraíbas e Pacífico (ACP). Aprendi imenso com os decisores políticos, cientistas, representantes de agricultores e profissionais agrícolas. Acima de tudo, fui encorajado pelas cartas recebidas de extensionistas e agentes de desenvolvimento que operam na vanguarda, que apreciam o apoio proporcionado pelo CTA ao seu trabalho nos países ACP.O ano de 2010 foi especialmente importante para o CTA. Desenvolvemos um Plano Estratégico para os próximos cinco anos: \"Capacitar as Comunidades Rurais dos Países ACP através de Conhecimentos\". Concentrar-nos-emos nos problemas críticos enfrentados pela agricultura e mobilizaremos os nossos esforços por meio de partilha de conhecimentos, trabalho em rede e reforço de capacidades.A agricultura pode -e deve, de facto, -desempenhar um papel essencial no auxílio às nações e comunidades para que estas aumentem o seu rendimento, reduzam a pobreza e combatam a malnutrição. Três quartos da população pobre do mundo vive em áreas rurais e a maioria depende da agricultura para a sua sobrevivência e meios de vida. O mundo deve aumentar a produção de alimentos, no mínimo em 70%, para poder alimentar uma população estimada em 9 milhares de milhões em 2050, sem que isso cause ainda mais danos aos recursos naturais de que depende a agricultura.As alterações climáticas e a degradação dos recursos naturais criam desafios adicionais. Os países ACP contribuem pouco para as emissões dos gases de estufa e, no entanto, são dos primeiros a sofrer os impactos negativos das alterações climáticas. Isto é particularmente difícil para os pequenos agricultores, muitos dos quais já estão limitados por pouco acesso a capital, capacidade restrita para influenciar as políticas e formação inadequada.Mas há boas notícias. Nunca até agora se observara uma concordância tão generalizada sobre a importância da agricultura para o alívio da pobreza e o crescimento económico. Nunca houve melhor altura para trabalhar em prol do desenvolvimento agrícola.O CTA tem um papel decisivo a desempenhar para melhorar o bem-estar e a produtividade das comunidades agrícolas nos países ACP. Como estes destaques provam, estamos já a ajudar a enriquecer os conhecimentos, melhorar as comunicações e aperfeiçoar o trabalho em rede entre os que têm um interesse no desenvolvimento rural.Mais de 150 profissionais, sendo a maioria dos meios de comunicação e todos eles sediados nas regiões ACP, discutiram as suas necessidades com o CTA para definir a melhor maneira de reorientar os esforços do CTA de utilização dos média nas suas regiões.Trinta peritos reuniram-se em Fevereiro em Wageningen, Holanda, durante o segundo workshop Assessments, Projections and Foresights Seminar (Seminário de Avaliação, Projecção e Previsão) para identificar o futuro da agricultura e determinar para onde dirigir as prioridades de investigação.O CTA organizou durante o mês de Março em Montpellier, França, o workshop \"MIS in Africa, Renewal and Impact\" (SIM em África, Renovação e Impacto) em colaboração com o French Agricultural Research for Development Centre, CIRAD, (Centro Francês de Investigação Agronómica para o Desenvolvimento) e a French Agency for Development, AFD, (Agência Francesa de Desenvolvimento). Entre outros assuntos o workshop definiu a primeira topologia de Sistemas de Informação de Mercado (MIS) e o seu impacto.O CTA formou mais de 300 indivíduos durante os eventos \"Web 2.0 Learning Opportunities\" (Oportunidades de Aprendizagem de Web 2.0) realizados em Benim, Gana, Quénia e Nigéria, utilizando uma abordagem inovadora na qual o CTA patrocinou a realização de cursos e deu apoio às instituições hóspedes.Angola e Moçambique deram a sua opinião na terceira fase de Information Outreach and Impact Review (Análise do Alcance e do Impacto da Informação) realizada em Junho.O CTA participou na 5ª edição da iniciativa European Development Days em Bruxelas, na Bélgica, a 6 e 7 de Dezembro, e deu o seu apoio à participação de vários beneficiários dos países ACP. A nova publicação de 28 páginas, Spore / Esporo, foi lançada em Junho com uma composição gráfica melhorada, novas secções temáticas, mais reportagens fotográficas, páginas sobre as actividades do CTA e diálogo com os leitores.Criar sEnsibilização para as polítiCas na semana da agricultura das Caraíbas (CWa) de 2010 o Cta coorganizou uma série de eventos que examinaram os desafios e oportunidades enfrentados pelo sector da agricultura. os cientistas, decisores, jornalistas e agricultores começaram a mapear um futuro mais saudável e mais sustentável para a região.A nossa abordagem em Grenada foi reunir quatro eventos que estávamos a planear para as Caraíbas de modo que pudessem funcionar em paralelo e nos permitisse congregar o maior número possível de participantes num só lugar\", explica o Director do CTA, Michael Hailu. Os eventos realizados durante a semana examinaram os problemas que o agricultores e os consumidores enfrentam e exploraram as soluções necessárias para um futuro melhor e mais sustentável. O Briefing Regional sobre \"Reforço do Sector Privado Agro-alimentar das Caraíbas\" foi um dos cinco briefings de políticas que o CTA organizou nas regiões ACP em 2010 (ver \"Depois de Bruxelas\"). O evento de 2 dias, também realizado em Grenada, atraiu mais de 150 pessoas e analisou um amplo leque de desafios que a agricultura das Caraíbas enfrenta, que vão desde as alterações climáticas ao roubo de culturas e à necessidade de reduzir as importações.As actividades agrícolas nas Caraíbas são responsáveis por uma percentagem muito pequena de emissões de gases de estufa e, no entanto, as alterações climáticas constituem uma ameaça considerável para a região. O workshop \"Alterações Climáticas e Agricultura nas Caraíbas\", organizado juntamente pelo CTA e pelo Instituto de Investigação e Desenvolvimento Agrícola das Caraíbas (CARDI), analisou as relações entre alterações climáticas e agricultura e as estratégias de mitigação e adaptação regionais. Em especial, o workshop incidiu sobre o papel que a agricultura protegidadesenvolvimento de culturas em estufas -poderia desempenhar no futuro. A agricultura protegida, quer seja high-tech e dispendiosa ou low-tech e barata, está a desempenhar uma função cada vez mais importante nas Caraíbas, protegendo as culturas contra furacões, pragas e doenças. \"Sem tecnologias específicas para lidar com as alterações climáticas os problemas não serão resolvidos e, por isso, este workshop tem um cunho prático\", explica José Fonseca, coordenador de programas sénior, parcerias regionais, do CTA.Uma Mesa Redonda da Agricultura, organizada juntamente com o CTA, reuniu peritos da agricultura, decisores e os média para estudar como o sector poderá desenvolver-se entre o presente e 2015. Anteriormente estes grupos tinham tendência para se tratarem com suspeita. \"A ideia era conseguir que as pessoas dos meios de comunicação passassem a fazer parte da comunidade agrícola, para poderem compreender os problemas chave e saberem onde ir buscar informação rigorosa\", afirma J. Fonseca. Ele acredita que a mesa redonda ajudou a desenvolver uma nova compreensão entre os peritos agrícolas e os meios de comunicação e que ambas as partes ganharam melhor percepção das ideias e necessidades da outra parte.Durante o workshop dos meios de comunicação, um dos quatro eventos realizados durante a CWA, os participantes de 14 países das Caraíbas desenvolveram um Quadro Regional de Acção. O CTA espera que isto melhore a cobertura de políticas agrícolas nos meios de comunicação. Moldar a ciência para o futuro as mulheres têm um papel muito importante na produção alimentar e na agricultura da África subsariana, proporcionando 60% a 80% da mão-de-obra envolvida na cultura e colheita de alimentos para consumo humano. no entanto elas desempenham um papel mínimo quando se trata de tomar decisões sobre a agricultura e a investigação científica. os concursos geridos pelo Cta e os seus parceiros promovem a investigação realizada por mulheres e por jovens profissionais.Estou convencido de que muitos dos problemas de África podiam ser resolvidos se as mulheres estivessem mais envolvidas na investigação e tivessem maior influência sobre as políticas\", afirma a Professora Mary Abukutsa, professora de Horticultura da Universidade de Agricultura e Tecnologia Kenyatta, Quénia. O artigo da Professora Abukutsa sobre agrobiodiversidade e a importância de legumes nacionais ganhou o primeiro prémio do concurso Women in Science (Mulheres em Ciências) de 2009, organizado pelo CTA e cinco parceiros africanos.Em Julho de 2010 ela proferiu o discurso de abertura do segundo concurso Young Professionals and Women in Science (Jovens Profissionais e Mulheres em Ciências), realizado durante a Assembleia Geral da 5ª Semana da Ciência Africana e Fórum para a Investigação Agrícola em África (FARA) em Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.\"Quando criámos o concurso pela primeira vez em 2008, o nosso objectivo era promover o trabalho das mulheres e dos jovens profissionais em ciências e galardoar a excelência\", explica Judith Francis, coordenadora de programas sénior, ciência e tecnologia, do CTA. \"Esperamos que isto incentive um maior número de mulheres e jovens a seguirem uma carreira científica.\"O concurso de 2010 produziu um número extraordinário de candidatos. Após o convite para apresentação dos resumos dos trabalhos, pediu-se aos 40 melhores candidatos para prepararem os seus artigos para serem publicados pelo FARA e pelo CTA. \"Os artigos são sujeitos a um rigoroso processo de análise e os cientistas são aconselhados sobre como os aperfeiçoar\", explica J. Francis. Em Ouagadougou, 17 jovens profissionais e oito mulheres defenderam os seus artigos perante um júri de cientistas africanos 1 .A vencedora da secção das mulheres foi Sarah Lubanga Mubira, pelo seu trabalho sobre uma ferramenta de apoio ao processo de decisão para melhoria da nutrição de vacas leiteiras no Uganda. Sandrine Nguiakam, dos Camarões, ganhou o concurso de jovens profissionais pelo seu artigo sobre o impacto da flutuação dos preços internacionais das matérias-primas no PIB da Costa do Marfim. Ambas receberam um laptop, prémios em dinheiro, um troféu e publicações do CTA. Os quatro melhores candidatos seguintes em cada categoria também receberam prémios.\"O facto de ter ganho o prémio no ano passado ajudou a dar mais relevo ao meu perfil como cientista, tanto na minha universidade como fora dela\", afirma a Professora Abukutsa. \"Isto também me ajudou a ganhar outro prémio atribuído pela União Africana e penso que incentivou outras mulheres.\" Ela usou parte do prémio em dinheiro para produzir folhetos sobre a sua investigação sobre legumes nacionais, para serem distribuídos pelos agricultores locais.\"Os concursos ajudaram a sensibilizar mais os cientistas para o facto de que a ciência tem mais valor se for partilhada e utilizada, não apenas entre os outros colegas cientistas, mas também entre os decisores, os fornecedores de serviços de consultoria e os agricultores\", afirma Myra Wopereis-Pura, uma directora do FARA. \"Por meio destes concursos as mulheres e os jovens profissionais têm a oportunidade de serem mais abertos e de pertencerem a uma comunidade mais vasta.\" A telefonia móvel abriu novas possibilidades para as mulheres.o seminário anual do Cta sobre \"Gestão integrada da Água e a agricultura sustentável\" chegou à conclusão de que deveria haver maiores investimentos para os esquemas de pequena escala que beneficiassem os agricultores pobres. também deveria haver um grande foco sobre a melhoria da agricultura pluvial na África subsariana.uitos agricultores dos países ACP não têm acesso a fontes de água fiáveis e às competências e tecnologias necessárias para a gestão eficiente da água que possuem. Aliado às ameaças criadas pelas alterações climáticas, com algumas áreas a ficarem cada vez mais secas e outras mais húmidas, o futuro parece pouco animador. \"Algo tem de mudar\", afirmou David Molden, vice-director geral de investigação do Instituto Internacional de Gestão da Água, no seu discurso de abertura do seminário. \"Se devemos duplicar o rendimento das colheitas, temos de gerir a nossa água muito melhor do que o fazemos presentemente.\"Combater a crise da água M Torna-se necessário gerir melhor a água a fim de aumentar a produtividade agrícola de modo sustentável.O seminário de 4 dias foi realizado em Novembro em Joanesburgo, África do Sul, durante uma reunião dedicada à análise de inovações para um futuro sustentável em agricultura. O seminário foi organizado pelo CTA e pela Agência de Planeamento e Coordenação da NEPAD e atraiu 150 participantes.O seminário tinha três objectivos principais. \"Queríamos determinar o actual estado do conhecimento sobre a escassez da água e as medidas a serem tomadas para melhorar a gestão da água para a agricultura nos países ACP\", explica André Vugayabagabo, coordenador de programas sénior, promoção do intercâmbio da informação, do CTA. \"Queríamos também verificar onde se concentra este conhecimento, e como o partilhar, e examinar as lacunas técnicas e de políticas que temos de solucionar para melhorar a gestão da água.\"Quatro grupos de trabalho exploraram tópicos diferentes: estratégias de adaptação para comunidades rurais vulneráveis que sofrem de escassez da água; armazenamento de água para adaptação às alterações climáticas; governança da água e reforma do sector da água; e a distribuição equitativa dos direitos e acesso à água.Apesar dos consideráveis desafios, há razão para sermos cautelosamente optimistas. Por exemplo, reconhece-se actualmente que uma melhor gestão da água deve estar na base de futuros aumentos da produção agrícola e portanto merece sério investimento. Presentemente grande parte do investimento no armazenamento de água é dirigida para esquemas de grande dimensão; o seminário concluiu que se deve fazer mais pelos esquemas de pequena dimensão que beneficiam as populações rurais pobres.Uma das mensagens chave do seminário foi que o maior potencial da África subsariana reside nos sistemas pluviais. A recolha e armazenamento de água pluviais podem ser associados a vários métodos para preservar a humidade do solo, a fim de melhorar a produtividade agrícola. O Painel Intergovernamental sobre Alterações Climáticas (IPCC) avisou que o rendimento das culturas da África subsariana podia diminuir 50% devido às alterações climáticas. Contudo, D. Molden argumentou que o rendimento podia duplicar com uma melhor gestão da água. o Cta e os seus parceiros encorajaram as populações babongo e mitsogho do Gabão a registar os seus conhecimentos em modelos 3D construídos localmente. habilitados por esta experiência, eles estão agora preparados para desempenhar um papel mais relevante na gestão dos recursos naturais do seu território.Estamos satisfeitos por termos vindo aqui\", afirmou Dominique Monanga, um homem Babongo durante a cerimónia na qual ele e um grupo de pessoas da sua tribo apresentaram um modelo 3D do seu território aos funcionários do governo local na província de Ngounié, no Gabão. \"Estamos satisfeitos porque demonstrámos o nosso conhecimento e provámos que somos seres humanos e não animais.\"Os Babongo e os Mitsogho -dois grupos que são frequentemente chamados \"pigmeus\" -há muito que são tratados como cidadãos de segunda classe pelos seus vizinhos Bantu e as suas necessidades e aspirações têm sido praticamente ignoradas pelas autoridades locais. Por exemplo, quando se criou o Parque Nacional Waka em 2002, os Babongo e os Mitsogho que viviam na área e em seu redor foram raramente consultados.Trabalhando juntos na construção de um modelo tridimensional.\"A criação do parque nacional teve um impacto significativo nas suas vidas\", explica Giacomo Rambaldi, coordenador de programas sénior, TIC e inovação, do CTA. \"Eles foram forçados a abandonar algumas das áreas onde caçavam e já não podem colher frutos silvestres no parque, como a ameixa africana. E também já não podem caçar livremente como faziam em tempos passados.\" Contudo, tudo isto pode mudar graças a um projecto que permite aos Babongo e aos Mitsogho registar e partilhar os seus conhecimentos. A Rainforest Foundation UK (Fundação das Florestas Tropicais, RU), o CTA, o Comité de Coordenação dos Povos Autóctones de África (IPACC) e várias outras organizações deram o seu apoio a uma série de iniciativas, uma das quais envolveu um modelo participativo 3D. Isto faz parte de um esforço mais generalizado para envolver as comunidades locais na gestão sustentável dos recursos naturais da Bacia do Congo.As fases iniciais do projecto incluíram a construção de um modelo em branco representando uma área de 625 km², a uma escala de 1:10,000. Os membros das comunidades Babongo e Mitsogho \"povoaram\" seguidamente o modelo com informação sobre as características e uso da terra, incluindo cursos de água, zonas de caça e pesca, aldeias, caminhos e locais de importância cultural.\"Foi notável como este processo ajudou a mudar tão rapidamente as suas percepções de si próprios e da sua paisagem\", conta G. Rambaldi. \"Processos deste tipo ajudam as populações autóctones a gerirem o seu conhecimento com maior eficácia. Ao registarem aquilo que conhecem ficam capacitados, porque aprendem que os seus conhecimentos são úteis não só para eles como para as pessoas de fora.\"Isto foi imediatamente óbvio quando a comunidade apresentou os resultados na cerimónia de encerramento a que assistiram os empregados do governo local, o chefe da polícia, o director da escola local e o presidente da câmara. \"Muitos destes ficaram surpreendidos com o que as pessoas locais tinham conseguido fazer e com a extensão dos seus conhecimentos\", recorda G. Rambaldi. O presidente da câmara pediu que se criasse um processo que levasse a uma participação mais activa das pessoas locais na gestão do Parque Nacional Waka. A existência destes modelos 3D coloca os Babongo e os Mitsogho numa posição muito mais vantajosa para negociarem direitos de gestão e acesso aos recursos do parque e das zonas tampão envolventes. A woman takes a photograph on her new mobile phone.Os telemóveis tornaram-se um dos principais catalisadores para a inclusão social.Melhor conectividade por banda larga e preços mais baixos levaram a uma revolução das comunicações. Há cinco anos a percentagem de assinaturas de telemóveis nos países em desenvolvimento era apenas 53%; hoje este valor é 73%. Durante este período o número de telefones em África quintuplicou. O crescimento da telefonia móvel significa que existe um grande potencial para uma vasta gama de aplicações móveis ou \"m-apps\". Estas foram o foco do Observatório de 2010.Durante a reunião de três dias, 25 peritos exploraram o actual uso das \"m-apps\" e o seu potencial para o desenvolvimento agrícola e rural. Algumas já estão a ter um impacto significativo.• O Quénia está a usar EpiSurveyor para recolher informação sobre doenças e questões relacionadas com a saúde.   ","tokenCount":"2950"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8f7712c382c54ddd37d3742fb37d37b1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f9cf57d4-f30b-4023-985f-bf0547c6af26/retrieve","id":"1874026465"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"503e2dc5-cb8d-4a67-b008-2f0e6ab325e3","pagecount":"28","content":"L'adaptation et la traduction : approches pour l'adaptation, la traduction et la distribution permettant d'assurer une diffusion efficace des Agrodoks. Il faudra prendre en considération les questions liées aux droits d'auteurs.En octobre 2009, après bientôt 23 années de collaboration, Agromisa et CTA organisèrent conjointement le séminaire : « l'avenir de la série Agrodok ». La série Agrodok est une collection de manuels pratiques qu'Agromisa publie depuis le début des années soixante-dix du siècle dernier. Depuis 2005, le CTA copublie la série. Les ouvrages Agrodok couvrent des questions essentielles pour l'agriculture durable à petite échelle. Pendant le séminaire, les participants ont parlé de différentes stratégies ayant pour objectif le développement exhaustif de la série et l'efficacité des procédés de publication et de distribution des manuels. Parmi les participants figuraient des professionnels avec beaucoup d'expérience dans l'industrie de communication et de publication pour le développement actifs en Afrique et en Europe. Les discussions se sont concentrées sur la génération de contenu, la contribution de la rédaction, le design des manuels ainsi que sur l'utilisation des outils Web 2.0 visant à faciliter la collaboration entre les auteurs et les personnes-ressource.In October 2009, after almost 23 years of collaboration, Agromisa and CTA co-hosted the seminar \"The Future of the Agrodok series\". The Agrodok series is a collection of practical handbooks that have been published by Agromisa since the early seventies of the last century and from 2005 copublished with CTA. These Agrodok books treat issues of critical importance for small-scale sustainable agriculture. During the seminar participants discussed several strategies to ensure the comprehensive development of the series and the effective publication and distribution of the Agrodok handbook.Participants included experienced professionals involved in development communication and publishing in Africa and Europe. Discussion focused around content generation, editorial input, handbook design and the use of web2.0 tools to facilitate collaboration between authors and resource persons.  Le premier Agrodok a paru en 1972, il était conçu pour appuyer le travail des vulgarisateurs néerlandais travaillant avec des populations africaines. Agromisa assurait l'impression des manuels et la distribution était gratuite.A la fin des années 1980, Agromisa a conclu un accord avec le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA). Selon les modalités de cet accord, le CTA se chargerait d'approximativement 70% de la distribution des ouvrages dans les pays ACP. A ce jour, 50 titres sont parus en anglais, en français, en portugais et en espagnol et plus de 250,000 ouvrages ont été distribués. Certains titres ont été adaptés et traduits en langues locales.En 2005, Agromisa et le CTA ont signé accord quinquennal de copublication dans le but de promouvoir la pertinence et la portée mondiale de la série Agrodok. Le séminaire « l'avenir de la série Agrodok » organisé en octobre 2009 s'inscrit dans ce cadre et les échanges des participants portaient sur les questions suivantes :-L'adaptation : Veiller à la pertinence du contenu et assurer que la mise en page soit adaptée au lectorat ciblé, formé surtout par des ONG, des professionnels de l'agriculture et des étudiants en agriculture dans le sud, sont considérés comme facteurs clés par les participants.-La technologie : il faudrait réviser régulièrement les titres Agrodok pour veiller à ce que le contenu couvre les approches novatrices récentes de l'agriculture durable à petite échelle tout comme les progrès réalisés au niveau de la transformation, de la commercialisation et de l'utilisation des produits agricoles.-La communication : comment utiliser les nouveaux médias -y compris l'Internet -pour faciliter la collaboration, la communication, le développement de contenu, la publication et la distribution ?-Le format Agrodok : quel est le format le plus approprié à l'utilisation sur le terrain ?The first Agrodok appeared in 1972 and was designed to support the work of Dutch extensionists working with African communities. The handbooks were printed by Agromisa and no charge was made for their distribution.In In 2005, Agromisa and CTA signed a five year copublishing agreement with the objective of ensuring the relevance and global reach of the Agrodok series. The October 2009 seminar \"The Future of the Agrodok series\" was organized in this context and discussion centered on the following issues:-Adaptation: key factors here were identified as ensuring that content relevance and lay-out was appropriate to a target readership consisting primarily of NGOs, agricultural professionals and agricultural students in the South.-Technology: Revision of current Agrodok titles to ensure content includes new and innovative approaches to sustainable small-scale agriculture as well as reference to recent advances in the processing, marketing and use of agricultural products.-Communication: How can new media -including the internet -be used to facilitate collaboration, communication, content development, publishing and distribution? -Agrodok Format: What is an appropriate format for use in the field? -Adaptation and translation: Approaches to adaption, Pendant le séminaire, les représentants des organisations partenaires d'Agromisa et du CTA ainsi que ceux des organisations de publication des pays ACP ayant déjà eu à faire aux manuels Agrodok ont réfléchi au sujet de l'avenir de la série Agrodok. Comme ils ont l'habitude de travailler en faveur des producteurs, ils étaient capables d'identifier les opportunités et les limitations de l'approche Agrodok pour disséminer l'information agricole. Les présentations sont évoquées dans la Section 2.La section 3 de ce document aborde les questions formulées dans une phase préparatoire au séminaire afin de faciliter les discussions pendant les ateliers. Ces questions étaient conçues pour générer des informations ayant rapport au contenu des manuels tout comme à leur durabilité, à leur accessibilité et aux aspects pratiques. Les recommandations exprimées pendant les ateliers serviront de lignes directrices pour le développement de la série Agrodok à l'avenir.La section 4 décrit l'atelier de formation qui avait pour objectif de montrer aux participants comment on peut utiliser les outils Web 2.0 pour appuyer le développement, la production et la distribution des manuels Agrodok et pour faciliter la collaboration en ligne des acteurs impliqués dans ce processus. Les Wikis, les blogues et les P2P figuraient parmi les différents outils de communication présentés.Pour conclure, Roy Keijzer (Agromisa) et Thierry Doudet (CTA) ont présenté leurs idées sur les voies par lesquelles la série Agrodok peut contribuer à l'amélioration des moyens de subsistance ainsi que le bien-être des populations rurales vivant de l'agriculture à petite échelle. Copyright issues have to be taken into consideration here.During the seminar participants from Agromisa and CTA partner organizations as well as representatives from publishing organizations in ACP countries who had experience with the Agrodok handbooks reflected on the future of the Agrodok series.Through their work at grass roots level they were able to identify the opportunities and limitations of disseminating agricultural information using the Agrodok approach. The presentations made are reported in Section 2.Section 3 of this document deals with the questions developed to facilitate workshop discussions. They were designed to generate information on the content of the handbooks as well as their practicality. The recommendations emerging from the workshops will be used to guide the future development of the Agrodok series.Section 4 describes the training session designed to show participants how Web 2.0 tools could be used to support the development, production and distribution of Agrodok handbooks and facilitate online collaboration between those involved in this process. Amongst other communication tools participants were introduced to Wikis, Blogs and P2Ps.In conclusion, Roy Keijzer (Agromisa) and Thierry Doudet (CTA) present their vision of the way in which the Agrodok series can contribute to strengthening the livelihoods and welfare of smallscale agricultural communities.Martin Sekeleti from the Swedish Cooperative Centre's regional office in Lusaka, Zambia, focused on the importance of visual material. He suggested that photographs could be used more extensively to support the written text. He also noted the importance of ensuring that illustrations were clear and culturally acceptable. Technical terms should be fully described in a glossary that used a style and language suitable for the target reader.Cultural factors as well as differences in geographical location and organisation were factors that had to be taken into consideration when lecteurs ciblés.  gathering and sharing information. These were issues that required particular attention when developing content or adapting and using Agrodok in the field. With reference to the use of digital media he noted that the limitations of some online services as well as the different software systems currently in use affected the amount of data that can be transferred and downloaded.Ton van Schie, managing editor of Roodbont Publishers stressed that any future revision of Agrodok titles should be focused, practical and developed with a full awareness of the needs of the target group.The danger that the target reader was already drowning in a \"sea of inaccessible theoretical information\" was a very real one. What small-scale agricultural communities and those who worked with them needed was real-world useable practical and trusted information. The current Agrodok handbooks conformed to these criteria and every effort should be made to ensure that these standards were maintained.Here Ton van Schie referred to a concept created by a Dutch veterinarian known as \"The Signals Concept\". It relies on the use of photographs to provide information as efficiently as possible. Photographs can communicate or send \"signals\" that are familiar to the target reader and make the information contained in a text or publication more accessible. Using more visual and photographic material would enable Agrodok to reduce the amount of descriptive text and make its publications more attractive and user friendly. This effect would be heightened if Agrodoks adopted a landscape format which would make it possible to have a three column layout.Participant's reactions to these suggestions indicated that while more colour, photographs and interesting layouts and features would have a positive effect in terms of readability, care had to be taken to avoid creating an expensive product that would be outside the reach of the target reader. The Ontwikkel Centrum (Development Centre) is a Dutch organisation that develops educational tools that can be used for agricultural objectives. Marco Meurink highlighted the successful use of digital databases in supporting Ontwikkel Centrum communication activities. Database publishing is cost effective and makes it possible to publish on demand eliminating the need for bulk ordering. Online databases can be accessed anytime from any part of the world and storage can be organised in a way that facilitates exchange between formats and languages and reduces the chance of loss and damage to source documents. This procedure facilitates editing and layout and results in the publication of PDF \"tailor made\" manuscripts.Agromisa could access this Educational Content Catalogue (ECC) in developing its Agrodoks. Some 52,000 organisations subscribe to ECC services and each has access to over 70,000 tools including authors' tools, tools for converting multiple formats into XML coding, online searching and document retrieval as well as tools for the arrangement and alteration of content.By investing in an online database and related digital technologies Agromisa could enhance its ability to provide up-to-date publications, make it possible for Agrodoks to be distributed in varied formats and enable users not only to adapt Agrodok data to their own needs but also make it possible for them to \"mix and match\" publications into one document.Acacia publishers in Kenya have extensive experience of adapting development-orientated publications to the needs of a specific readership. Jimmi Makotsi has also been involved with adapting Agrodok handbooks to the Kenyan situation. In his presentation he ran through the key points in the adaptation process. First, the author should be instructed to write in a way that was appropriate to the educational and literary level of the target audience, most of whom would be subsistence farmers whose first language would not be English and who would benefit when technical terms were explained in a simple glossary. It was also essential that illustrations supported the text and avoided any impression of amateurism. Photographs -cost permitting -might be a solution here and local illustrators with knowledge of the target readership could also make an effective contribution. Les animateurs de l'atelier, Paul Mundy et Domien Bruinsma, ont formulé un certain nombre de questions pour guider les échanges pendant l'atelier et pour fournir des recommandations permettant de façonner le développement futur de la série Agrodok. L'idée était de centrer les discussions sur les améliorations à apporter à la série Agrodok actuelle.Les participants se sont concentrés sur les questions suivantes pendant les différentes sessions :-Changements possibles dans le développement et la rédaction du contenu des Agrodoks.-Autres formats pour l'impression ;-Procédures d'identification des auteurs ;-Méthodes efficaces pour sélectionner des sujets à traiter dans les Agrodoks ;-Méthodes utiles pour adapter les Agrodoks à une utilisation aux niveaux local, national et régional ;-Suggestions pour améliorer les dispositions de copublication ;-Les avantages liés à l'établissement d'un réseauThe Agrodok series would benefit from closer consultation with members of the target audience in the development of content. More attention should be paid to local knowledge, proven traditional methods and the use of simple technical solutions. Whilst encouraging closer editorial collaboration amongst those involved in the local publication process, Makotsi also had a number of specifically editorial suggestions. These included ensuring the accurate labelling of illustrations, charts and diagrams; keeping Appendix information concise and relevant and ensuring that font size corresponded to the needs of those who had poor eyesight and older community members as well as those unaccustomed to reading and who perhaps had to depend on artificial light.Workshop facilitators Paul Mundy and Domien Bruinsma elaborated a number of questions to guide workshop discussions towards recommendation that could be used in developing the Agrodok series.Areas suggested for discussion centred on the way the current Agrodok series could be improved.During workshop sessions participants focused on the following issues:-Possible changes in the way Agrodok content could be developed and written.-Alternative print formats;-Procedures for identifying authors;-Effective ways of selecting Agrodok topics;-Methods useful in adapting Agrodoks for local, national and regional use;-Suggestions for improving co-publishing arrangements;-The advantages of establishing a formal network of partners and partner organisations to facilitate future formel de partenaires et d'organisations homologues pour faciliter la production des Agrodoks à l'avenir ;-Les procédures pour évaluer les besoins des lecteurs et le retour d'information par rapport aux ouvrages publiés ;-Méthodes pour améliorer la promotion et la distribution.Les recommandations issues des échanges reflètent comment les participants évaluent les défis et opportunités liés au développement de la série Agrodok pour aborder efficacement les besoins des lecteurs.Agrodok actuelle ?Bien que les manuels Agrodok aient été conçus pour servir en premier lieu d'ouvrage de référence sur le terrain, on les emploie de différentes façons : pendant des formations, des ateliers de rédaction ou des séances de champ école, plusieurs personnes travaillent avec un titre spécifique. Dans beaucoup de cas, un seul exemplaire est disponible pour tout le groupe. Le format actuel n'est pas idéal pour utiliser le manuel dans ce genre de situation. Si le manuel est destiné à être consulté sur le terrain, il doit pouvoir résister au transport et à la consultation intensive ayant lieu dans des centres de ressources ainsi qu'à des conditions de terrain difficiles. Les participants de l'atelier ont conclu que :-Le format A5 de l'Agrodok limite le nombre de personnes pouvant consulter et extraire les informations d'un manuel à un moment donné.-Les textes correspondant à certains tableaux, graphiques et cadres de texte sont parfois trop détaillés et trop petits pour l'utilisation en groupe. Une mise en page format paysage offrirait plus de place pour les graphiques, les tableaux et les illustrations et permettrait d'organiser les pages de manière plus lisible.-Le papier utilisé pour les manuels Agrodok ainsi que le fait que la couverture ne soit pas plastifiée font que l'ouvrage est facilement abimé par l'utilisation intensive que l'on en fait dans le contexte des formations ou de l'utilisation en centre de ressources. Afin de surmonter ces problèmes, il a été suggéré d'utiliser un papier de qualité plus lourde Agrodok production; -Procedures for assessing readers needs and obtaining feedback;-Ways to improve promotion and distribution.Recommendations emerging from the workshops reflected the way in which participants assessed the challenges and opportunities for developing the Agrodok series in a way that would effectively address the reader's needsAlthough Agrodok handbooks have been primarily developed to serve as reference documents in the field they are used in a variety of ways. During training courses, writeshops and field sessions they were often used by several people simultaneously. However, in many cases there was often only one copy available and this made it difficult to use the publication in its current format in a group situation.When the handbook is being used in the field it needs to be sturdy enough to withstand transportation and use in resource centers and often difficult field locations. Workshop participants concluded that:-The A5 size of the Agrodok limits the number of people able to study and extract information from the document at any one time.-The text in some of the tables, graphs and textboxes were sometimes too detailed and small for group use. A landscape layout, for example, would provide more space for graphs, tables and illustrations and enable a more readable layout et peut être même un papier glacé. Cela allongerait la durée de vie et permettrait le nettoyage de taches éventuelles. Il est à conseiller de plastifier la couverture ou d'utiliser un papier plus résistant.-Les illustrations pourraient être réalisées en couleurs afin de transmettre l'information de manière efficace au lecteur. Les illustrations et photos en couleurs sont coûteuses à imprimer, il faut donc être sélectif et veiller à les utiliser surtout pour appuyer des thèmes tels que la préservation des fruits et légumes ou l'identification des dommages de culture. Toute illustration doit être claire, bien réalisée et nette.- -The paper used for the cover and inside pages of the Agrodok and the fact that the cover is not laminated meant that the current handbook could easily become damaged during intensive used in study or resource centre situations. To overcome these problems it was suggested that the paper used to make the Agrodok handbooks should be of heavier quality and possibly with a \"glossy\" finish. This would increase durability and allow stains to be removed more easily. A laminated or stronger cover was also advisable.-Illustrations: to ensure that illustrations bring information effectively over to the reader some could be in colour. Colour illustrations and photographs are expensive to print and should be used selectively to support an understanding of topics that require explicit visual identification such as, for example, the process of preserving fruit and vegetables and the identification of crop damage. All Illustrations should be clear, well executed and to the point;-Cultural sensitivity: Illustration should be culturally sensitive. Illustrating themes that require the portrayal of gender, race, youth-age relations as well as gender specific tasks, for example, requires special care.-Charts, tables, graphs and annexes: statistics, more detailed explanations as well as references that the reader can use for further clarification are an essential part of the informative and technicallyorientated Agrodok series. There were some problems with the way these tools were currently being used and suggestions were made for improvement. Appendixes should not be too long and complex and some Agrodoks could benefit from the inclusion of conversion tables for weight, distance and cash. Care should also be taken to ensure that charts, tables and graphs should adequately support the text. Currently the contents of some tables were too technical given the reading practices and the technical background of the average reader.-Readability: Agrodoks were used by many different categories of readers. It was therefore important that the text was easy to read under all conditions and that end users who were not habitual readers had no problem with following the text. Font size should be relatively large and language and terminology kept as open and basic as possible.Headings and subheadings and the appropriate use of spacing to show that new pieces of information or ideas were being introduced were important. At the same time text and visual materials should alternate in a way that encourages the easy absorption of additionnelles dans le corps du texte.-L'édition est un travail essentiel pour réduire les textes excessivement longs et pour veiller à ce que l'information importante ne se perde pas dans une mare de langage redondant. Une fois que les auteurs et réviseurs ont approuvé la version finale du texte, un correcteur -une autre personne que l'éditeur du texte -devrait également lire la totalité du document pour contrôler la précision et l'uniformité de l'ouvrage et détecter les oublis.- - -Qui assure la rédaction -identifier des auteurs : l'auteur d'un titre Agrodok ne doit pas seulement connaître à fond le thème à traiter mais doit également avoir de l'expérience avec ou une certaine affinité par rapport au lectorat ciblé. Il faut être capable de se mettre à la place du groupe-cible ce qui requiert des compétences spécifiques. Si l'auteur envisagé n'a pas d'affinité avec le lectorat, il pourrait information and cross references and footnotes should be kept to the minimum. Additional information should be incorporated in the text whenever possible.-Editing was essential to reduce \"long-winded\" text and ensure that important information was not lost in a morass of redundant language. After authors and peer reviewers had approved the final version of the text, a proofreader -not the editor -should also go through the entire document to ensure accuracy, uniformity and that nothing had been omitted.-Style: care should be taken to ensure that the subject of an Agrodok had been developed in such a way that it meets the needs of the end user. Some texts will be more scientific and technical than others. Agrodoks that deal, for example, with more social issues might need to be more descriptive. A step by step approach should be used when describing procedures or processes.-Additional and supporting materials: Wall charts based on the graphs and tables used to illustrate a specific theme; posters; summary handouts; on-line suggestions for adapting an Agrodok for field or study use and backup information and resources that could be used when needed. Some of these media could be made available on-line.Sufficient time should be given to defining the content of a proposed Agrodok. Its position in the series, the specific theme, the degree of textual depth and detail and the method of presentation including format should be defined by those involved. At all stages in the production process -from conception to writing, editing, peer review and proof reading -new digital media can be used to facilitate the cost -Who should write -identifying authors: An author should not only have a comprehensive background in the subject of a proposed Agrodok but should also have some experience or affinity with the target readership. Writing for such a group requires special insight and skills and if an author lacks these he or she should be linked to an editor that can provide support, guidance and copy-write the text if necessary. A writer's or style guide can also be helpful to authors writing for a specific type of publication such as an Agrodok. It is also essential that the chosen author is able to work in a team and be open-minded enough to accept feedback and constructive criticism. The Agromisa and CTA networks and the networks of their partner organisations should be extensively consulted when trying to identify prospective authors.-Identifying the theme: Agromisa and CTA networks should be consulted to identify information needs and gaps that could be filled by an Agrodoktype handbook. This was already happening to some extent but the process could be expanded and formalized further. Also the most frequently asked question received on the Agromisa Question and Answer site and the CTA Q & A service provide a useful guide to the need for new titles. Surveys could also be used to identify and assess demand for specific types of information.-Adaptation for local, national or regional use: adapting an Agrodok for local use is a complex process. Adaptation may be required because there are new ideas about a subject or issues, there is demand from the field or because a gap in the Agrodok series itself has been identified. Adaptation for local, national or regional use should include those who will be involved in the production, publishing, distribution and end user contact. Practical details such as placing electronic versions of the original text and graphics on the web or targeting translators who have the technical vocabulary to translate into local languages should also be thought through and planned before adaptation begins. Participants noted that there was an apparent lack of knowledge about the possibility langue locale, avant d'entamer le processus d'adaptation. Les participants ont remarqué que dans différents pays, dont les pays ACP, on n'est pas au courant de la possibilité de copublication offerte par Agromisa. On a alors suggéré de faire circuler par le biais des médias locaux et nationaux des informations concernant Agromisa et la série Agrodok, en faisant éventuellement mention des titres actuels pertinents sur place et de la possibilité de copublication.-Améliorer les dispositions de copublication : dans les pays où la demande de titres Agrodok est suffisamment importante, les maisons de publication requièrent des contrats clairs et concis ainsi que des termes de référence précis avant de s'engager à adapter puis publier ces manuels. Le  -Un réseau formalisé pour appuyer la production Agrodok : les participants étaient d'avis que pour l'avenir de la série Agrodok il est probablement plus important de faciliter la communication entre partenaires que de formaliser les partenariats et réseaux qui sont déjà en place. Une fois qu'on s'est mis d'accord pour produire un manuel, il est important de désigner une personne -possiblement au sein d'Agromisa -chargée de l'initiation, de l'entretien et du renforcement d'un réseau de partenaires et organisations disposés à contribuer au processus de production. Ce type de réseau sera peutêtre temporaire, mais les acteurs ayant contribué une fois à la production d'un Agrodok seront peut-être disposés à échanger leurs expériences et à appuyer of co-publishing with Agromisa in ACP countries, for example. Therefore, it was suggested that information about Agromisa, the Agrodok series perhaps with specific reference to current and locally relevant issues and possible co-publishing opportunities could be circulated through local and national media.-Improving co-publishing arrangements: Publishers in countries where there was a sufficient demand for Agrodok titles required clear and concise contracts and terms of reference before committing themselves to adapting and publishing these handbooks. The initial contract with the author(s) of the original Agrodok version makes it clear that their text may later be adapted for local use. Similarly in the original version of the contract there is a clear indication of where copyright rests in respect of visual material. Copyright agreements have to be respected and if organizations refuse to allow their visual material to be used in adapted Agrodoks then appropriate alternatives will have to be found. Authors who agree to adapt an Agrodok to local conditions not only enter into a contractual agreement with the local publisher but also with Agromisa and in some cases also with CTA. Every effort should be made to ensure that all texts and illustrations produced for the Agrodok series fall under open source conventions.-Based on the outcome of the seminar and further negotiation, Agromisa and CTA will sign a follow up general agreement in 2010 that will also include copublishing arrangements with organizations within the ACP countries -A formalized network to support Agrodok production: Participants considered that facilitating communication between partners was perhaps more important for the future of the Agrodok series that formalizing existing partnerships and networks. Once an agreement to produce a handbook had been reached it was important that someone -possibly within Agromisa -be responsible for initiating, maintaining and reinforcing a network of partners and organisations prepared to support the production process. These networks might be temporary but once having worked on the production of an Agrodok those involved might be prepared to share and discuss their experiences and support others involved in the production process particularly at the level of facilitating local adaptation.-Feedback and assessing need The \"feedback\" questionnaires included in every Agrodok copy have proved an effective way of communicating with readers. This could be taken a step further by d'autres acteurs s'investissant dans le processus de production, particulièrement quand il s'agit d'un effort d'adaptation à une situation locale.-Feedback et évaluation du besoin : les questionnaires invitant à un retour d'information accompagnant chaque exemplaire d'Agrodok se sont révélés être une manière efficace de communiquer avec les lecteurs. On pourrait aller plus loin, en ajoutant sur le site Web d'Agromisa un module de feedback en ligne. Il serait extrêmement utile d'évaluer en fin de séance le contenu d'un titre Agrodok consulté dans le cadre d'un atelier, de groupements paysans, ou d'autres échanges. On pourrait former des groupes de travail dans le but spécial d'évaluer les Agrodoks. Il a également été suggéré que les organisations partenaires pourraient veiller à ce que les nouveaux titres de la série Agrodok soient annoncés dans la presse locale, dans les médias de proximité. Les homologues pourraient également encourager les écouteurs et lecteurs à commenter le contenu ainsi que le sujet des ouvrages. Toutefois on a signalé que les méthodes d'évaluation à identifier ne devront pas conduire à une augmentation des coûts ni de la main d'oeuvre requise -Distribution et publicité : Le rapport coûtefficacité est favorable lorsqu'on imprime les Agrodoks localement, cela facilite également la distribution. Il faudrait s'investir pour faire imprimer les Agrodoks dans des lieux qui se rapprochent autant que possible du lectorat ciblé tout en garantissant la conformité aux normes de qualité. Des versions PDF en ligne des titres Agrodok pourraient faciliter l'accès à la série. On pourrait également promouvoir les Agrodoks à l'occasion de séminaires, de conférences, de formations et de salons du livre, en particulier aux évènements où le CTA est représenté. Plusieurs participants ont évoqué l'importance de faire connaître la série Agrodok au secteur agricole commercial. Une approche possible est de réaliser et faire circuler un catalogue de publications, une autre est de publier des critiques d'Agrodoks dans les journaux et magazines lus par les personnes travaillant dans l'industrie agricole. Certains participants ont indiqué que l'on pourrait faire compenser les coûts liés à ces activités de relations publiques par des annonces d'organisations homologues dans les Agrodoks ou sur le site Web d'Agromisa.Le terme Web 2.0 s'applique aux applications basées sur le Web qui facilitent les échanges d'information including an on-line feedback facility on the Agromisa website. At the end of a workshop, farmers meeting or other information exchange activity where an Agrodok had been used, a content evaluation would be extremely useful. If necessary a small focus group could be constituted for this purpose. Such focus groups could also be brought together specifically for the purpose of Agrodok evaluation. It was also suggested that partner organisations ensure that new topics in the Agrodok series receive publicity in the local press and via community media and that listeners and readers be encouraged to give their comments on the material and theme. However, it was pointed out that evaluation methods should be identified that did not involve extra costs and labour.-Distribution and publicity: Printing Agrodoks locally was cost effective and facilitated distribution. Efforts should be made to ensure that Agrodoks were printed in locations as close to the targeted reader as possible while ensuring that quality standards were met. PDF online versions of Agrodoks could facilitate access to the series and Agrodoks could also be promoted at seminars, conferences, training workshops and book fairs especially those organised and attended by CTA. Some participants suggested it was important to familiarize the commercial farming sector with the Agrodok series. One way of doing this was to develop and circulate a publications catalogue, another was to review Agrodoks in the journals and magazines read by those working in the farming industry. Some participants suggested that the PR costs involved in the suggested activities could be offset by advertisements placed by partner organisations in the Agrodoks or on the Agromisa website.The term Web2.0 applies to web-based applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interactifs, l'interopérabilité, le design orienté sur les utilisateurs et la collaboration par le biais de l'Internet. Parmi ce de sites, on compte par exemple Facebook, YouTube Twitter. Beaucoup de ces sites sont utilisés principalement à des fins de contacts sociaux et de divertissement. Cependant un très grand nombre de sites appuyant des Blogues et des Wikis peuvent servir de plateforme de création, de collaboration et de distribution des matériaux ayant rapport au développement.Agromisa a pleine conscience des possibilités offertes par ces sites pour l'avenir de la série Agrodok. Joitske Hulsebosch, consultant technique d'Agromisa, a animé un atelier de formation pour introduire le concept, les avantages et les défis liés à la publication Web 2.0.L'atelier de formation avait deux principaux objectifs. Tout d'abord, sensibiliser les participants à la disponibilité des outils Web 2.0, à leurs fonctions et aux avantages qu'ils peuvent apporter dans le processus de collaboration internationale en vue de réaliser des publications. Deuxièmement permettre aux participants d'accéder à différents sites dans un environnement d'apprentissage pour qu'ils s'entrainent à utiliser ce type d'outil. Dans ce contexte, on a présenté le nouveau site Agrodokonline qui a été conçu pour démontrer le fonctionnement d'une plateforme Web 2.0 mais qui pourrait également agir en tant que plateforme commune permettant aux participants de collaborer après le séminaire.Certains outils 2.0 sont particulièrement intéressants pour les acteurs de l'édition visant à promouvoir le développement parce qu'ils peuvent appuyer le développement conjoint de contenu, l'édition en ligne et la transformation se contenu (repackaging) en différents formats.Un des principaux outils disponibles pour la collaboration est le « Wiki ». Un Wiki permet de télécharger un document source sur un site d'hébergement, d'y inviter des pairs ou même le grand public à lire et modifier le document à leur guise. L'auteur original pourra alors décider d'accepter la mise à jour ou de revenir au contenu original.Les participants ont trouvé cela particulièrement interoperability, user-centred design and collaboration on the internet. Examples of such sites include Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Many of these sites are used primarily for social and entertainment purposes. However, a great many sites that support Blogs and Wiki's can be used as platforms for the creation, collaboration and distribution of development related materials.Agromisa is fully aware of the possibilities that these sites offer for the future of the Agrodok series. During a training session organised by Joitske Hulsebosch, technical consultant to Agromisa, participants were introduced to the concept, advantages and challenges of Web 2.0 publishing.The training workshop had two main objectives. First, to raise the awareness of participants to the availability of Web2.0 tools, their functions and the benefits they can bring to the collaboration process of publishing at the international level. Second to allow the participants to access some of these sites in a learning environment where they could experiment with using these tools. In this context participants were introduced to the new Agrodokonline site which had been specially created both to demonstrate how a Web2.0 platform operates and which could function as a shared platform that would enable participants to collaborate after the seminar.Some Web 2.0 tools are particularly relevant for publishers in the development sector because they can support the collaborative development of content, online publishing and the transformation of content (repackaging) in different formatsOne of the most important tools available for the purpose of online collaboration is the 'Wiki'. Wikis allow for a source document to be uploaded onto a host site, where any invited peer, or indeed the public at large, is able to read and edit the document as they see fit. The original author is then able to choose whether to accept the update or revert to the original content.Participants found this to be particularly interesting because it was clear that this tool could be used not only in collaborating on the creation of a new Agrodok, for example, but also to revise older documents. Wiki could also facilitate the process of intéressant parce qu'il est clair que cet outil peut être appliqué non seulement pour travailler en collaboration afin de créer un nouvel Agrodok, par exemple, mais également de réviser des documents préexistants. Wiki pourrait également faciliter le processus d'adaptation d'un texte à l'utilisation locale et d'assurer une mise à jour régulière du contenu.Les participants ont soulevé entre autres la question de sécurisation d'un document ou wiki téléchargé sur un serveur Internet contre des modifications indésirables. Joitske a expliqué que les sites d'hébergement peuvent avoir différentes configurations et qu'il à conseiller de vérifier les dispositions d'utilisation afin de garantir la sécurisation d'un Wiki.Un autre développement important dans le monde de Web 2.0 est la venue de sites de communication point à point comme Skype. Skype permet une connexion audio et vidéo gratuite pour tout utilisateur qui s'est enregistré, où qu'il se trouve dans le monde. Non seulement on peut parler à un collègue ou ami sans frais, mais le service facilite la transmission rapide de fichiers de données très volumineux. Cet outil a impressionné les participants , toutefois ces derniers ont observé que son efficacité décline à partir du moment où le débit de l'Internet décroit, ce qui peut présenter un obstacle considérable pour ceux qui vivent dans des zones ou la vitesse de connexion est loin d'être optimale, comme dans beaucoup de lieux situés dans les pays ACP.Joitske a proposé une solution à ce problème en suggérant que l'on peut se parler par le biais de Skype sans utiliser la fonctionnalité vidéo qui réduit considérablement la quantité d'information transmise. Si nécessaire, il est également possible de n'utiliser que la fonctionnalité messagerie instantanée de Skype si le débit de connexion Internet disponible est sérieusement limité.Pour la session de formation, Holly Ashley du journal Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) s'est joint à nous par le biais de Skype. Selon son expérience de l'emploi des sites Web 2.0 -et particulièrement des Wikis -ils sont très utiles pour la collaboration en ligne et la création de matériel ayant rapport au développement. Il faut cependant faire face à quelques défis : la mise au point d'unadapting a text for local use and to ensure content was regularly updated.How safe an uploaded document or Wiki would be to unwanted alterations was one of the concerns raised by participants. Joitske pointed out that many host sites have different configurations and that it was advisable to check the terms of use in order to ensure the security of a Wiki.Another important development in the world of Web2.0 is the advent of peer to peer communication sites such as Skype. Skype allows for the free connection of audio and video to any registered user in the world. Not only can you talk to a colleague or friend for free, but the service also facilitates the fast transfer of large amounts of data files. The participants were highly impressed with this tool but commented that it loses its effectiveness as the connection speed of your internet decreases, which can be a significant barrier to those living in areas, like many parts of the ACP, where there is a less than optimal connection speed.A proposed solution to this problem came from Joitske, who suggested that many people can still talk without video as this drastically lowers the amount of information being sent. Likewise, if necessary, Skype also allows for 'instant messaging' for people with severely reduced internet connection speeds.During the training session, we were joined -via Skype -by Holly Ashley of the Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) magazine. In her experience Web2.0 sites -and Wikis in particularare useful tools for online collaboration and the creation of development related material. However, there are some challenges that have to be faced: Setting up a Wiki can be quite time consuming and for a user who is new to the tool, it can be quite an arduous task. In addition:-The use of Wiki's for collaboration can often prolong the process of peer-review. This is partly due to the fact that on many host sites the author is not notified when an edit is made to a Wiki and is, therefore, not able to keep up with developments.The onus is on the author to constantly check the Wiki, something which many people do not seem to want to do. This in comparison to email based collaboration, where authors, like everybody else, Wiki peut prendre beaucoup de temps et pour un utilisateur qui ne connaît pas à fond l'outil, la tâche peut être ardue. Par ailleurs :-L'emploi des Wikis à des fins de collaboration allonge souvent le processus d'évaluation par les pairs. Ceci est partiellement du au fait que sur de nombreux sites d'hébergement, l'auteur ne reçoit pas d'alerte de modification du Wiki, il ne suit donc pas toujours l'évolution du texte. L'auteur en question a la charge de contrôler en permanence son Wiki, et il semble que peu de personnes sont disposées à assumer cette responsabilité. A titre de comparaison, la collaboration organisée autour du courriel est plus abordable car les auteurs, comme quiconque, vérifient régulièrement leur boite de réception.-Beaucoup d'auteurs trouvent qu'il est délicat d'échanger leurs idées préliminaires et ébauches d'ouvrages avec des pairs. Un Wiki ne permet pas faire le suivi des modifications comme dans un document Word, il est plus difficile d'y insérer des commentaires. On préfère en général travailler sur un document achevé au lieu de travailler sur un document en cours de rédaction.-Le processus de rédaction finale peut également poser des problèmes, surtout si tous les acteurs impliqués dans la préparation du document sont autorisés à apporter des changements et des commentaires. La transparence a des avantages intéressants mais dans le contexte des Wikis, un texte rendu public peut également conduire à des désaccords et des retards. Différents niveaux d'autorisation quant à l'accès au texte peuvent jouer un rôle dans la procédure de révision par les pairs. Faut-il permettre à l'auteur de prendre connaissance des commentaires avant que l'éditeur ait pu les évaluer? Le rédacteur en chef veut éviter à tout prix de heurter les sensibilités des auteurs, mais en même temps il est nécessaire de veiller aux aspects de clarté, pertinence et précision.La nouvelle plateforme de collaboration créée par Joitske en faveur de tous les participants est désignée par le terme « AgrodokOnline ». Elle est hébergée sur un centre serveur Internet appelé Ning. Le site fonctionne avant tout comme une page communautaire de Facebook, permettant aux utilisateurs d'échanger, de télécharger des documents vers le serveur pour la révision par les pairs ainsi que pour mettre à disposition des photographies.Les participants ont eu l'occasion de s'exercer à utiliser le site. Ils ont pu échanger, télécharger vers le check their inboxes regularly.-Many authors find it a challenge to share their first ideas and drafts on subjects with their peers. Unlike the track changes function in Word, it is more difficult to insert comments in a Wiki based document. Many people prefer to work on a completed document rather than a document in progress.-The final editorial process could also present problems especially when changes and comments were open to all those involved in the preparation of the document. Transparency has positive advantages but, in the context of Wikis, publicly presented text can also lead to disagreements and delays. Levels of permission to access a text also arise around the process of peer review. At all costs a managing editor does not want to offend authors but at the same time, there is a need to ensure clarity, relevance and accuracy.This new collaborative platform created by Joitske for all participants is known as 'AgrodokOnline' and is hosted on a host-site called Ning. Essentially the site functions like a community Facebook page, allowing users to start a discussion, upload documents for peer review and make photographs available as well.Participants were able to experiment with the site, talking to each other, uploading profile photographs and even beginning some early collaboration on possible future Agrodok themes.It became clear as the seminar drew to an end that the recommendations, ideas and shared experiences provided a stimulating insight into the way Agrodoks could -also in the future -contribute to strengthening the capacities of small-scale farmers.serveur des photographies et même commencer à travailler ensemble sur des thèmes à envisager pour des nouveaux titres d'Agrodok.Vers En dehors des ateliers, les participants ont également eu d'autres activités dans le cours des deux jours de l'évènement. Dans ce qui suit, nous allons passer en revue rapidement ces autres activités.Le premier jour du séminaire, tous les invités ont pris un déjeuner délicieux chez la National Bakery School des Pays-Bas. Située à proximité du CTA, la Bakery School a permis aux étrangers de goûter à un déjeuner typiquement néerlandais de sandwiches assortis.Après une longue journée de travail ardu le groupe s'est rendu à un club de navigation de plaisance et d'aviron implanté sur le bord du Rhin à Wageningen. Un buffet bien mérité de denrées internationales y attendait les participants. Après le repas et quelques rafraichissements, les hôtes ont pu assister au divertissement du « Inspringtheater » (Jump-in However, there were also challenges facing the series as it confronted the task of providing up to date technical, agronomic as well as social and economic information. Responding to these challenges and ensuring that relevant information of sufficient depth was available to agriculturalists, extensionists and those engaged in agricultural studies could only be achieved through the cooperation, exchange and analysis of the type of material that would best support rural livelihoods and welfare. For this, it was agreed, intensive collaboration between Agromisa, CTA and partner organisation was essential. A better understanding and use of the potential of both conventional and new media would facilitate the implementation of Seminar recommendations.Aside from taking part in the workshops, the participants also attended various other venues during the course of the two day event. Here we'll take a quick look at some of the other activities that were enjoyed.For lunch on the first day of the seminar, all guests were treated to a delicious lunch in the National Bakery School of the Netherlands. Close to the headquarters of CTA, the Bakery School provided many of the foreign visitors a taste of a traditional Dutch lunch with assorted 'broodjes'.After a long and arduous day's work the whole group attended a local yacht and rowing club situated on the banks of the Rhine River in Wageningen. There, a well deserved buffet of international foods awaited the hungry participants. After the meal and a few refreshing drinks, the guests were entertained by Theater), un groupe de théâtre forum local.La bibliothèque centrale de l'université de Wageningen et des centres de recherche.Le deuxième jour du séminaire, dans le bâtiment Forum nous avons eu la chance de faire une visite guidée de la bibliothèque centrale de la WUR, qui est la plus grande bibliothèque agronomique de l'Europe. Les hôtes ont également eu le privilège de visiter le département des collections spéciales qui compte, parmi ses nombreuses raretés, des manuels agricoles et horticoles datant du quinzième siècle.Après deux jours intensifs de travail, les participants ont trouvé le temps de faire du shopping à Wageningen afin de s'acheter des souvenirs. Plus tard un groupe de musique folklorique latin, Canella Band, a joué des notes apaisantes pour décontracter les quelques participants qui étaient encore là. A la fin de la soirée, on était bien fatigué !Avec autant de participants représentant des organisations partenaires, le séminaire était inspirateur pour l'équipe Agromisa -CTA. La plupart des échanges et communications se font par le biais de l'Internet et bien que ce soit un véhicule merveilleux, les informations ainsi transmises ne sont pas toujours comprises à fond. Cela explique pourquoi il était si agréable de rencontrer en personne autant de partenaires pendant quelques jours. L'organisation de l'évènement n'a pas vraiment été facile et nous regrettons que certains partenaires invités n'aient pas pu venir pour participer à ce séminaire.Considérant le déroulement du séminaire et les 'Inspringtheater' (Jump-in Theater), a local forum theater group.On the second day of the seminar, while in the Forum building, we were lucky enough to be invited for a guided tour of the WUR Central Library, the largest agricultural library in Europe. The guests were also privileged enough to be invited to take a look at the 'special collections' department, which amongst its many rarities, we were able to view some agricultural and horticultural textbooks dating back to the fifteenth century.After two strenuous days of workshops, the participants found some time to do some souvenir shopping in Wageningen. Afterwards, Canella Band, a local Latin folk music group, played some soothing tunes to relax what participants remained. By the end of the evening, there were many weary eyes!The Seminar with so many participants of our partner organizations was very inspiring for the Agromisa and CTA team. Most of our contacts and communication goes through internet and although this is a wonderful medium, not all information comes through or is well understood. For that reason it was good to meet so many partners in person for several days. Of course, it was not easy to organize the event and we regret that not all the partners we invited were able to come to the Seminar.Looking back at the seminar and the conclusions and recommendations reproduced here we have confidence that the future of the Agrodok Series will become an increasingly shared product.The expressed experiences of all participants during the seminar and recommendations made are valuable to us. They will certainly inspire the follow-up discussions and the decisions that will soon be made about the future of the Agrodok series. We hope that the output of this Seminar will be reflected in a better product but also that the outreach of the Agrodok series will increase considerably and that it will help the end users of this kind of practical information to become stronger and enable them to improve the livelihood and welfare of their families and communities.But most of all we hope to develop the next Agrodok generation in a multi-partnership environment so that we will be able to share knowledge and valuable experiences and make the most up to date and relevant information available to our mutual target group. Website ------Email Address-jimakotsi@yahoo.com","tokenCount":"8313"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"309742d3fa93c3037e1e45d389f988b5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a3e4ded6-213b-4773-afd6-974f57971af8/retrieve","id":"-86643841"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f022df49-2c8f-44b7-8843-cc6e5beb2b59","pagecount":"8","content":"The 2014 World Milk Day (WMD) was colourfully celebrated at Hawassa City, the capital of Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS) in Ethiopia. It was the first World Milk Day celebration in the region. The objectives of the event were to increase the demand for dairy products, increase awareness of the nutritional benefits for consuming milk and dairy products, increase awareness of the need to boil/pasteurize milk, inspire the government and dairy industry to organize such events in the future in order to increase milk consumption.The event was jointly organized by the Regional Bureau of Agriculture, Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development (AGP-LMD) project of USAID, Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project of ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute) and SNV-EDGET project.The event was attended by participants drawn from Bureau of Agriculture, the Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Hawassa University, FAO, WFP, private dairy producers and processors, students, and passer-by's. Participants of the events enjoyed drinking refreshing pasteurized whole milk and yogurt.The celebration was held in five populated centres of the city (Piazza, TTC, Atote, Warka and Menaheria).The 2014 world milk day of SNNPR was inaugurated by the Deputy Director of the Regional Livestock Development Agency at the heart of the city [piazza]. During his keynote address, the Deputy Director highlighted the major challenges of low milk consumption in the country and requested all governmental organisations, non-governmental organizations and the private sectors engaged in dairy development and service provisions to work together to bring attitude change, create demand for consumption of boiled/pasteurized milk, improve milk supply through addressing the nodes of dairy value chains, and thereby build healthy, productive and vibrant citizen. He further stressed that the region is committed to support this kind of initiatives and sustain events like the World Milk day.During the occasion, white T-shirts bearing messages of the day, were distributed to the participants, music band, circus team and others. Several banners that signify the event were also posted. The message of the day was 'Drink, invite and love milk' and interpreted in local language.The event was accompanied by various activities and performances in the selected city centres as described below.During the celebrations the music band played different folk songs, which attracted many people in 5 selected centres of the city. The band has also publicized the message of the day and importance of drinking boiled/pasteurised milk.The Q&A competition session focused on issues associated with the objective of the world milk day celebration and the need for consuming boiled/pasteurized milk and other dairy products.The Winners of the competition were awarded with 2 packs (each with 500 ml) of pasteurized milk.The 2014 WMD celebration at Hawassa city was further glorified by a joyous performance of the CIRCUS team. White T-shirt (bearing the message Drink milk; Invite milk; Love milk in local language) dressed teenagers and youth CIRCUS team members presented different activities that created an opportunity to attract many people.The circus team also played a drama on the nutritional benefits of milk and the need to boil/pasteurize milk before consumption.The event included speedy milk drinking competition for both females and males whereby the contenders were given a pack of pasteurized milk to drink. Similar to Q&A, winners of the competition were awarded with 2 packs (each with 500 ml) of pasteurized milk.The road show session with music band also promoted the value of WMD in the main streets of Hawassa. The music band performers included folk dancers and musicians from the local community who enthralled the audience and passer-bys with their performances. This created an excellent opportunity to spread the indispensable messages of the event to the community. Across all the celebration centres, a range of activities including dancing, circus and playing of educative conversations by children attracted the attention of everybody gathered around.The different activities and performances undertaken during the celebration were documented to be used as inputs for further efforts towards promoting consumption of dairy products and thereby contribute to upgrade dairy value chains across the region.The celebration was also documented and broadcasted by Debub Television program of the Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency (ERTA) and FM 100.9 Radio program to the wider public.Over 3000 brochures and posters highlighting the objective of world milk day, relevance of milk consumption, nutritional value of milk, and the need for boiling/pasteurizing raw milk were distributed to the participants and passer-bys in different centres of the city.In related updates, the 2013 World School Milk Day was celebrated for the first time at Nigist Fura Elementary and Secondary School, Hawassa city, SNNPR, Ethiopia on November 25, 2013. The event was jointly organized by Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development (AGP-LMD) project of USAID and Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project of ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute). The objective of the school milk day was to spread the message about the nutritional value of milk, encourage young children to drink milk and encourage their families to provide their children with milk. About 2,335 people attended the event, of which about 65% (30% male and 35% female) were students, 2.57% (24 male and 36 female) were teachers & school administrative staff, 30% were parents' of the students and 2.43% were public stakeholders. Apart from these, milk producers & processors, distributors and other interested individuals attended the event. Below are pictures displaying the different activities and performances conducted during the School Milk Day event in 2003.Students participated in songs and Q & A sessions","tokenCount":"907"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c404487bb9141759da89eae081bd66dc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a523da09-e2ca-463a-a964-108906b1c89a/retrieve","id":"-1356278589"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"64624383-7d5f-4512-a3fa-787b21d8dd98","pagecount":"2","content":"• The meeting was the 3 rd series of the Smallholder Poultry Forum (SPF) that was established to ensure the sustainability of the national innovation platform (IP) beyond the ACGG program. • The Forum is important for sustained monitoring of the continuous demand and supply (required quantity and quality) of standardized and competitively priced input and output of the poultry value chain (VC) in Nigeria.• Majority of the community IPs in Nigeria have transitioned to farmer cooperatives and registered with the local government authorities. These cooperatives will serve as the farmer collective action for the marketing and processing of poultry products and, purchase of farm inputs. • The national Forum could use these community co-operatives as the building block to create a bigger (national) chicken/ poultry industry movement. The cooperatives will need some leadership and business training to run them effectively and transparently.• The meeting was attended by 81 participants [women (43); men (38)] with a good mix of the youth. • Specific attention to gender has always been an important commitment of the project, and this is reflected in all dimensions of the stakeholder engagement, including actions to mobilize and engage women and youth. • Women participation was well over 50% in Nigeria during the 7 th national IP and had quality input during the meeting sessions.• Working closely with the Forum facilitators, ECI-Africa helped to design the meeting process. Below was a meeting in session.Involvement of women and youth, and their active participation during the sessions was key.• The main focus was to mentor Forum facilitators to be able to design and run functional and effective Forum processeshelping them in designing Forum meetings, mentoring them (through shadowing during actual processes); and supporting them to develop mechanisms for on-going analysis/ review and identification of critical Forum focal areas and processes. c) To establish a viable business negotiation and agreement system amongst stakeholders. The Smallholder Poultry Forum will meet after 6 months to review progress and hold the 4 th SPF half-year general meeting.The Forum members spent quality time in understanding, reviewing and agreeing on the vision, mission and strategic objectives of the Forum.","tokenCount":"354"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b9574941bc299d716797493a135e2058","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b519334f-dbf9-4d88-870a-c440079d0424/retrieve","id":"373353694"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2999df90-3c0d-40a4-846f-064cb9a633ee","pagecount":"26","content":"Trainer's guide Session 3: Why partnerships in agricultural research for development?To enhance the capacity of agricultural researchers to forge effective and efficient partnerships with other relevant stakeholders in the agricultural innovation system for achieving greater impacts Objectives At the end of this session participants will be able to: What is partnership?• 'A mutually beneficial dynamic relationship between or among two or more persons or organizations having similar vision, goal, objective and interest' (Ojha and Morrin (2000))• Leverage resources and skills • Recognize contribution and culture • Maintain autonomy and independence • Can be formal or informal 3.5• Common interest space condition • Cost-benefit condition Why partnerships (cont'd…)• Increasing service integration • Improving access to end users Factors contributing to increased use of partnerships in agricultural R4D• Changing paradigms • Increased use of system concepts and participatory research methods• Increased complexity of the developmental challenges and changed expectations• Increased competitionFactors contributing to increased use of partnerships in agr. R4D (cont'd…)• Globalization of agricultural R4D and the changing organizational landscape        The major challenge facing the practitioners working in the agricultural innovation systems is to provide the goods and services to meet the diversified needs of ever increasing 'consumers' and society at large, effectively, efficiently and responsively. One of the key opportunities to achieve this is the better utilization of accumulated knowledge and the untapped resources around us. One of the untapped resources is the human, institutional and social capitals within the various R&D institutes, specifically the partnership that two or more institutes can forge to produce the synergy and unleashing of the accumulated energy to meet the needs of the society (Ojha 2002).Innovation systems are about exploiting available and new knowledge for socio-economic use.Innovations emerge from systems of actors through a social process, in which networks of actors (players from the public, private civil society, research, enterprise and policy sectors-entire supply chain) play a crucial role. Innovation is a result of co-operation and is determined by interaction between them.Partnerships form the core of the innovation systems and have primary purpose of knowledge sharing.This knowledge could be about constraints, opportunities, technology, production contexts and market conditions among others. This interaction and knowledge exchange leads to learning, development and deployment of new products and processes and ultimately, social and economic change. Therefore, very important in the process is how patterns of relationships, habits and practices either nurture or hinder knowledge flows, sharing and process of learning (learning by doing or by interacting).Partnerships per se are not new. Partnerships and networks have been in existence since mankind started, and from the day that people began to create institutional and organizational structures. However, partnership activity on a wider scale as it now occurs is a relatively new phenomenon, having emerged over the past 15-20 years. In this chapter first partnerships and networks are defined. Then the factors which contributed to the increased use of partnership and networks in the agricultural R4D arena are discussed. Finally the benefits of partnerships are outlined, and some of the factors enhancing as well as hindering the impacts of partnership are listed.3.2 What are partnerships and networks?  Hartwich et al. (2004) outlined some key considerations for entering into partnerships. These are:Common interest space condition -partners should have a common goal. •The cost-benefit condition. One enters into partnership when the perceived benefits are • greater than the sum of the investment costs plus the cost of interaction (the transaction cost).Perceived benefits > investment cost + costs of interactions. •The cost in this case includes both direct and indirect cost (including opportunity costs) as well • as tangible and intangible benefits. One enters into partnership when the perceived benefits are higher than those from equivalent investments in non-partnership arrangements.Synergy results from economies of scale in the use of R&D resources (knowledge funding • and infrastructure) which could not be obtained otherwise, from mixing complementary R&D resources, (e.g. Bringing knowledge about production and market together), from the effects of joint learning, from reduced costs in seeking and exchanging information.The no-conflict condition • One enters into partnership when the generation of benefits does not substantially conflict with • other interests. Partnerships may be very beneficial in terms of cost-benefit ratios (or returns to investment) that do not take into account the negative externalities (social and environmental conflicts).One enters into a partnership when one's perceived benefits are not proportionately lower • than those of their partners. Proportionality also takes into account the inputs that the partners provide, and therefore goes beyond fifty-fifty benefit sharing solutions or equal sharing of the pie.One of the compelling reasons for forming partnership is the ability to achieve something together in a cost effective manner that no organization individually could have produced on its own. Some of the key features identified in good partnerships and alliance programs are:Longer term commitment of partners based on mutual respect and trust. • Common and shared vision of the problems to be tackled and the approach to be utilized.  Networking is a process by which two or more organizations and/or individuals collaborate to achieve common goals (Waring 1997). Theoretically, a network consists of two things: nodes and links between those nodes. In social network analysis the nodes of concern are people, groups and organizations and the links may be social contacts, exchanges of information, political influence, money, joint membership in an organization, joint participation in specific events or many other aspects of human relationships (Davies 2003).Networks in agricultural innovation can be seen as groups of agents with restricted membership.Network members choose each other; agree explicitly to co-operate in some way and to depend on each other to some extent. Often the members aim at exchanging information and knowledge that is of limited availability; however, the members pursue individual objectives which in the context of the network are likely to result in mutual gains. The difference between partnerships and networks can be found in the different degrees with which the collaboration is formalized: partnerships are often more formal, sometimes involving written contracts and agreements, whereas networks can range from very informal to formal arrangements. In this respect, partnerships can be seen as a formal type of networks (Hartwich 2005).Networks may be informal or formal, but the main objective is to facilitate information flows. They also build social capital, confidence and trust and create preparedness for change, lowering barriers to forming new linkages and thus have broader objectives (Hall et al. 2006).With respect to networks, Powell (1990) elaborated the following salient points: Networks seek to gain from pooling resources, but involve the dependence of each party on • resources controlled by others; They are based on the agreement to forego the right to pursue one's own specific interests at the • expense of that of others;In their evolution, they operate through the exercise of voice rather that exit; • Their focus is on mutual orientation and on reciprocity emphasizing indebtedness and obligation; • They seek to build trust within a long-term perspective-operate within Axelrod's notion (1984) of • 'the shadow of the future';The information passing through networks are 'thicker' than that obtained in markets, and 'freer' • than that communicated in hierarchies;Finally, given the potentiality of conflict at each point of contact within the network, networking is • a contentious process in which both centrifugal and centripetal forces are at work.Networking has been in existence from the day that people began to create organizational structures. Networks and networking continue to serve as a means of sharing information for competitive and cooperative reasons among organizations and individuals with common interests. According to Creech and Willard ( 2001), there has been a surge of experimentation with network models for fast-tracking sustainable development in the last 10-15 years with emergence of information and communication technology being a significant driver.Networking to support small farmer development is not a new issue. Networking has in fact received substantial attention and resources, with a mixed record of success. There have been ebbs and flows over time in the importance attached to networking. Interest now appears to be on an upswing. This is because new information and communication technologies are improving opportunities while reducing the costs of networking. Governing decentralization, adoption of ISP, growing role of farmer organizations, NGOs and private sector in the R&D are also contributing to a resurgence of interest in networking.Interest is also increasing in developing organizational partnerships to tackle the challenges of small farmer development. Multi-organizational partnerships-based on common objectives, interactive decision-making, resource sharing and formalized reciprocal obligations-have a potential for tackling a broader range of issues at more scales of action than is possible for any organization working independently. However, the process of developing organizational partnerships supporting small farmer development is not well understood, nor is there a record of success allowing easy or quick judgment.'Innovation networks' is a term used to capture the impetus behind the immense web of collaborative relationships created between business and non-business entities: 'Networks involve a wide range of collaborative activities including joint ventures, research corporations, joint research and development (R&D), technology research agreements (such as technology sharing, cross-licensing, mutual secondsourcing), direct investment, customer-supplier relations, R&D contracts, one-directional technology flow agreements (e.g. licensing, second-sourcing) manufacturing agreements, and so forth. Innovation networks also often involve informal collaboration and knowledge exchanges across individuals in different organizations and systemic learning…' (Okamura and Vonortas 2004) Various other forms of networks are: information sharing networks, research networks, and special purpose networks. Networking in research suggest mainly lateral interaction-that is, interactions between organizations engaged in similar activities, although, of course, activities of different organizations may be (partially) complementary in nature. Inter-organizational learning between research institutes is an example of these types of interactions.According to Farrington et al. (1994), a network with a sectoral (e.g. agriculture) or subsectoral (e.g. irrigation or crop processing) mandate generally operates more closely with ultimate beneficiaries (like those deriving livelihoods from agriculture) than those concerned with generic or cross-cutting themes such as methods of agricultural research or extension.The key processes involved in a networking are summarized in Table 1. It is abundantly clear that both partnerships and networks go through a similar set of activities and processes in their genesis and successful implementation. These key steps/stages are discussed in detail in sessions 4 and 5 of this module. As identified by a number of reviewers and practitioners, partnership offers a number of advantages.These include: offering greater capacity, cost effectiveness, sustainability, addressing complex issues of common interest/concern, larger area coverage, educating stakeholders, reinforcement, reaching vulnerable groups, sharing and learning of new competence, avoiding duplication and overlap, complementarity of resources and skills, leveraging scarce resources, creating wealth and increased flow of information and knowledge Ojha (2002). Agter and Hage (1993) argued that four conditions are necessary (but not sufficient) for collaboration among two or more institutes: willingness to collaborate, a need for expertise, a need for financial resources and a need for adaptive efficiencies. The most important pre-condition is the willingness to collaborate.Primarily organizations enter into partnership because this would increase the organization's potential to achieve its objectives. In other words, partnership decisions are strategic decisions that organizations make in order to fulfil their mission. Rangan and Yashiro (1996)  Partnerships help to improve an organization's potential to achieve its strategic objectives through various avenues:Mobilizing and augmenting resources • Entering into partnership helps organizations mobilize additional resources and enhance the potential of the organizations' own resources to generate impact. Information, human capital, material, equipment (physical capital), technology and management are some of the resources that are frequently acquired or accessed through partnerships.Each organization has one or a set of core competencies i.e. very good in doing some tasks.When a new task requires additional competencies, which are not available in the institute, one solution is to obtain the needed competency through partnership with another organization. By pooling complementary know-how and skills both organizations gain. Problems to be solved by agricultural research are by nature very complex to be solved by one discipline, sector or organization.In business ventures, co-operative arrangements often result in bigger market share, taking advantage of established brand names and territorial dominance. Faster entry into new markets and quick pay back are some key strategic advantages. In the case of R&D this deals with the coverage of larger geographical areas/regions.When two organizations engage in similar businesses through partnership, both could benefit from economies of scale. This may result in lower average costs and increased output by exploiting the synergy generated by relying on comparative advantage of each partner.This is often a secondary reason for an organization to enter into partnership. Augmenting resources, competencies or markets simply expands the range of strategic options available for an institute. An expanded set of options at a point in time also makes it possible for the organization to consider subsequent strategic moves which would not have been possible without the partnership.Working together can help reduce the chances of duplication of effort.The impact of research activities is often increased by working with the farmer in an integrated manner in which the farmers' needs are considered in a holistic way. Partnering can help achieve a better integration of services offered to resource-poor farmers.Getting research results into the hands of farmers in ways that encourage appropriate behavioural change has always been difficult. Partnering can help connect researchers and farmers in ways that strengthen results.In these days of limited and diminishing resources, partnering can allow organizations to do more with less or to do something entirely different from what their existing resource base permits.Often people talk about learning organizations. More and more institutes and individuals are seeking to learn from one another and from others involved in improving agricultural productivity NRM and contributing to the developmental impacts. Creating opportunities for learning and strengthening the NIS are important mandates of institutes engaged in Agricultural R&D.Improving access to donor resources • Donors often insist on broader partnerships in agricultural R&D. One of the criteria for selecting projects partnership can improve an organizations' ability to compete.Partnerships and networks can improve the development and delivery of innovations that directly affect the livelihoods of resource-poor or vulnerable households if structured appropriately. Challenges of today's complex society are such that individual agencies and programs cannot succeed in delivering results on their own any longer. A collaborative effort that reaches across agencies, across levels of government, and across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors is needed to achieve results. The key tools for doing this are partnerships and networks. Communities are built on connections and better connections create an economic opportunity (Krebs et al, 2002).Several recent studies illustrate the need for partnerships and networks to support the development and delivery of agricultural innovation. Studies of agro-industrial firms and agro-industrial opportunities, for instance, suggests that there is high demand for technologies to enhance the quality of valueadded agricultural processing, for new marketable products, and for institutional and infrastructural improvement to enhance supply chain efficiency (Hall and Yogandand 2002;Chema et al. 2003).To meet these demands, the studies recommend further investment in partnerships and networks to improve strategic managerial and institutional capacity in the agricultural sector (ASARECA 2003;NARO 2003).The overriding rationale for networks in agricultural research and innovation is the interdependence among organizations which enables mutual reliance upon one another to accomplish their joint goal as well as their individual objectives. The potential for synergy within networks enables actors to achieve more through co-operation than they would if they were alone. Knowledge creation through networks may better respond to the demands of agriculture in developing countries, which is characteristically riddled with complexity, uncertainty and risks (Chambers et al. 1989).Different studies indicate that it is worth investing in networking of different actors in the society because their contribution to learning and innovation for sustainable development is tremendous. Moreover weak linkages among research, education and extension institutes result in systematic bottlenecks in national agricultural technology systems and limit their effectiveness to contribute to development (Crowder et al. 1997). Increased number of players entering the field is evidence that a synergy would be created by working in partnership (Biggs 1989).Networking is also a means of giving greater regional, national or international impacts to the activities of community-based organizations. There is evidence to suggest that partnerships and networks are playing an increasingly important role in addressing global issues such as health, environment, finance and governance (World Bank 2002;UNF/WFE 2003). In the international agricultural R&D community, there is a similar interest in promoting greater collaboration among diverse actors in the sector, including key international organizations (CGIAR 1998;GFAR 2003;World Bank 2003), leading agricultural research firms (Barry and Horsch 2000;Shear 2000;Richer and Simon 2000), and non-governmental organizations engaged in agricultural science and technology (James 1996).Increasingly the challenge facing many organizations is to operate not in 'splendid isolation' but in relationship with others. Inter-organizational networking is becoming an issue of considerable interest amongst researchers, policymakers and development practitioners. Here, we deal with 'collective efficiency' as opposed to the efficiency and effectiveness of individual members.Partnerships and alliances are hot topics in every major sector of business today. Without exception, private, public, academic and non-profit organizations are embracing the strategic mandate of collaboration. Partnerships are found extensively, both domestically and internationally, and on a local or national level. The use of partnerships to accomplish strategic and operational goals within the agricultural R&D arena has risen substantially over the last two decades. A number of factors contributed to the proliferation of partnerships and networks. This section briefly outlines these factors.Currently the R&D process is guided by four complementary but mutually reinforcing concepts: Innovation systems perspective, value chain approach, research for development and impact orientation.Managing innovation has become one of the key strategic tasks facing organizations of all shapes, sizes and sectors. Although technical innovations are important, so are organizational, managerial, institutional, service delivery and policy innovations. Partnerships that promote innovation are thus not only concerned with frontier research and technology but also concerned with incremental problem solving i.e., continuous process of minor adjustments and improvements that farmers and firms (institutes) make to survive, improve profits, and compete with other farmers and firms domestically and internationally, (Hall 2006). The emerging paradigms in agricultural research and development scene are rooted in participatory approaches and partnership amongst the various stakeholders/actors.The evolution of systems thinking and participatory approaches (from farming systems research to participatory research methods to IAR4D and innovation system perspective) have changed the power relationships in decision-making and resource allocation. One of the most notable trends in development research over the past thirty years has been the move towards more multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. The movement has also contributed to the participation of stakeholders from diverse spectrum in the R&D processes within the agricultural sector.Within the agricultural research and development arena, innovation systems have become increasingly complex. From 1960s onward, the traditional thoughts have been that S&T involves three inter-related actors-infrastructure, production structure and government policies for S&T. A current model of innovation system, however, must also include at least seven other types of actors-the financial system, technology brokers, industry and professions associations, the legal/institutional base, non-governmental organizations, media, public opinion and regional and international co-operation structures (Plonski 2000). Without adequate development and interactions of these actors and organizations in domestic and regional setting, the innovation structure remains under developed, weak, and inefficient.Over the years, the goal of agricultural research has broadened from an initial narrow focus on near term technologies to increased food production and productivity gains to incorporate a much larger agenda that includes environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation and social inclusion. The complex and multifaceted nature of these problems and the diverse needs and interests of the society at large demanded expertise beyond the scope of an individual organization or group of actors. This has necessitated the pooling of resources and the need for working together.The developmental challenges are increasingly complex calling for multidisciplinary multistakeholder participation. Furthermore, downsizing and reengineering (largely through economic structural adjustment program) of R&D organizations has created leaner organizations focusing on core competencies thus lacking in the broader technical capabilities outside their primary mission and mandate.In many cases, the mere survival of organizations due to their inability to face complexities brought about by globalization, hyper-competition and deregulations have forced them to form strategic alliances and partnerships. Kogut (1988) emphasized the role of competition and observes that competitor incentives are important for both the formation and termination of joint ventures. It has been argued that vulnerability in market conditions and fear of competition provide the seed for cooperative ventures.In the recent past, there is a trend towards globalization of agricultural research. Drivers of globalization of R&D are decrease in global investments (leading to clear roles and responsibilities); growing markets for agricultural products, agricultural inputs, new technologies, improved ability to appropriate the gains from innovations, improved policy environment for foreign investments and technology transfer; and growth in demand due to increased income and policy changes.There is also growing awareness that a number of sectors such as agriculture, health, education, water and energy are very closely linked. Thus the agenda for agricultural transformation should follow a multisectoral approach to capture the synergies and complementarities. In addition there are also a number of continental and regional bodies to co-ordinate agricultural R&D.A reorganization of the global agricultural research systems to include stakeholders such as farmer organizations, civil society organizations, NGOs and private sector also calls for greater collaboration.The information communications technology revolution has made the exchange of information across boundaries easier and the increasing prominence of biotechnologies that call for new competencies not always available in one institute.Biotechnology is a highly technical field, which typically requires high initial investments for building the necessary human capital and infrastructure including laboratories and green houses for risk assessment and identification genetically modified organization. Thus, a number of countries and institutes have opted to work in collaboration to derive the benefits of the emerging gene revolution.Over the last two decades, the policy and institutional context within which agricultural research and innovation occurs have changed dramatically. The reform agenda within the R&D arena include: redefinition of the role of government in agricultural R&D, decentralization/ privatization of agricultural R&D activities, broader and active stakeholder participation and pluralism in service provision, networks and partnerships and new funding arrangement. Another key feature is the separation of financing from service provision and research executions. These changes provide increased opportunities for public, private and third party (such as civil society, farmer organizations and NGOs) collaboration and partnership.Presentation of adequate legal frameworks and mechanisms for sharing benefits also contributed to increased private sector participation in agricultural R&D activities.The growth in agricultural research investments was very rapid in the 1970s and slowed down since the mid 1980. While the available R&D resources are declining, there has been a universal move towards the use of competitive funding for research. One of the criteria for selecting successful project is the multi-organizational, multistakeholder partnerships in the design and implementation of projects. There is an increasing demand from donors for regional alliances and partnerships.Increased anecdotal evidence of socio-economic benefits of co-operation. • There is growing realization that individual institutes and group of actors have limited capacity to address the multifaceted developmental challenges. It has been argued that the total value of the partnership efforts is greater than the sum of the values derived from individual efforts. This is basically the economic rationale behind partnership formation. Although the available evidence is mostly advocacy type, comprehensive studies of partnership process and benefits are still very limited.Although partnership and networks are gaining grounds in recent past in agricultural research for development, partnership has been a common phenomenon in the R&D arena in the other sectors for a considerable period of time. Over the years number of systematic reviews have been conducted (NCHRP 2001;Atkinson 2005;Masselli et al. 2006;Bradley 2007a, b) to identify the factors that enhance as well as hinder the aspects of partnership. This knowledge will assist a great deal in the design and management of effective research partnership and are presented in this section.Direct contact with community • This helps create relationships with people and among research teams, change attitudes and trigger changes in behaviour. The contact with people also includes feedback exercises, and this results not only in validation of findings but also in follow-up for capacity building, analysis and action at community level.This forum provides a space for researchers to share their research methods, approaches, findings and conclusions and for the partners to make plans for sharing these with the research and development community outside the research project.In collaborative research projects, aspects related to domains such as capacity building and impact beyond scientific findings are important. But these are often neglected or completely overlooked.Planning for impact requires active inclusion of all concerned stakeholders and joint thinking about desired and undesired project impacts. Unless the desired impacts are clearly spelled out, discussed, negotiated, agreed upon, and planned at the beginning they are unlikely to materialize and the undesired effects cannot be mitigated effectively.A M&E system looking beyond the output has to be developed as part of design and implementation.Impact monitoring helps to learn, reflect and adjust to improve the performance of all stakeholders involved (Hagmann et al. 2002). Stakeholder perceptions and expectations may vary. Participating impact assessment provides an opportunity for these different views, judgments and observations to come to the surface.For each partnership project, an appropriate M&E system allowing to assess work in progress and to take corrective measures, if necessary, should be jointly developed at an early stage. There must be a strong commitment to make proper use of this M&E system by all those concerned.Making resources available-earmarked resources for IA • Even if effectively integrated, resources are needed to facilitate and evaluate impacts within a project. There is a need for a clear-cut communication and dissemination strategy before, during and after the project. This strategy should cater for the needs and levels of different stakeholder groups and audiences such as policymakers, the research community, the development community and (society at large) the user community. Appropriate feedback mechanisms have to be developed in order to satisfy the expectations of the targeted end-users. Creating mutual learning platforms are very useful.Proper documentation is recommended to track the research for development process as a basis for mutual learning and self-evaluation with respect to improve the collaboration/performance in the future. Safe storage and maintenance of data and information collected during the process is vital to avoid delicate situations such as changes in personnel.Each project has to develop jointly an appropriate reporting, documentation and communication strategy including an action plan in a proactive and transparent manner.Making an impact at different levels requires speaking the language of those that one seeks to influence. e.g. language of researchers, language of farmers, language of policymakers etc.The following factors have been found to have had a negative impact on partnership.The competition between different researchers often results in inadequate support for innovative and new approaches from within the forum. The expert attitude inhibited researchers from relating to others.Thus engaging in one another's research was very limited.Fears, anxieties and prior orientations limit not only the formation of deeper partnerships, but also influence the opinions that one researcher held of another's research. Emotionally moving experiences were recognized as powerful change agents, and as positive influence both in research and development.Stop and go policies, abrupt changes, or discontinuity of support due to policy changes, or instability of government could have a significant effect on the success of the project and the planned impact.It may be useful to think about this in advance so that provision is made for decent termination of the collaboration. It is also worth noting that no legal recourse is possible in official national or international development co-operation commitment.Funding arrangements with rigid disbursement regulations hinder meaningful and flexible use of funds for the project duration.Year to year carry over, adaptation between line items must be allowed or responding to emerging needs.Sound knowledge of the project, its context, expected output and impacts is a fundamental pre-requisite of every partner in the process. Effort should be undertaken to maintain communication at all levels: Funding agency and researchers • Researchers and end users •Conflict may arise due to disparities, imbalanced power distribution or budget allocation between institutes. Some of these disparities are unavoidable and need to be discussed, classified and made transparent. Compensation mechanism (national vs. international; North vs. South), cultural gaps, hierarchical positions, unclear roles and competencies required may cause international tensions and conflicts among the partners.Some individuals are predisposed to some prejudices and have a fixed mindset. Lack of flexibility and unwillingness to change/reluctance to change may cause problems in partnership and hinder the achievement of desired impact. Inter-organizational bias especially in situations where partnerships involved research academic institutes, private sector and NGOs can affect the performance negatively.Increasing competition for research funds frequently leads to overambitious project designs with overly optimistic timing, overloaded activity plans etc. The consequences of such a design are that the expectations are not met. Commitments to the funding agencies and the end users cannot be fulfilled. This in turn leads to mutual deception and frustration, not only hampering successful project performance but often also leading to reduced commitment among all stakeholders involved, and even to negative impacts.In many instances, one could observe that the staff resources have declined without corresponding decline in work load. These heavy workloads often lead to difficulties in maintaining partner accountability for work commitments and work quality.Management may agree to new partnership anticipating additional resources, visibility and/or recognition. Very often commitments are made by individuals and senior and middle level managers to partnerships without realizing the implications of integrating these new partnerships into the existing portfolio of activities of the organization. As a result, the individuals and management may fail to give the required support. Leaders may find themselves ignoring these new partnerships rather than nurturing and supporting them.Lack of attention to the process of building the partnership and trust • Given the declining resources organizations often compete for resources, for visibility and for recognition. This survival strategy can endanger the trust needed for collaborative processes.Partnerships often work better when all partners are equal in access to resources and staff skills and knowledge. Very often we find that the staff working in NARES and NGOs are paid much less than their counterparts in the CG systems and advanced institutes leading to feelings of unfairness and resentment that may be difficult for the partnership to overcome. motivation for establishing partnership? Were your expectations met? Explain -------------------------------------------------b.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------","tokenCount":"5061"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"15eb00ad49e08a5456dd6ec870d0dbf8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/490297e2-03bb-4f14-9623-d6ce959ca99d/retrieve","id":"-1113571844"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a01cc3ad-e667-47ee-9cce-14758648e40f","pagecount":"10","content":"questionnaires. The cards shown by the researcher limited the choice of desired traits--other traits based on specific cultural practíces, such as a preference for purple-colored rice varieties or for varieties suited to the beushening method of land preparation, were not mentioned at all. Moreover, other social considerations, such as a preference for late and medium varieties to coincide with a religious festival such as Diwali were not captured. Farmers usually harvest rice onIy afterthe Diwali festival. During this festival, families give special rice as gifts to relatives.Although scientists accept that farmers are careful managers and possess a wealth of knowledge about theÍr production systems, this knowledge is not sufficiently used in the formal breeding process (Kshirsager et al. 1998) Several strategies were used to mvolve farmers in PVS. Farmers volunteered to grow 16 early-to medium-duration group varieties and late-duration varieties on their own fields for three consecutive years. The early/mediuru-duration group varieties were tested at Tarpongi village on two farmers' fields that have light soíls. The late-duration varieties were tested on two farmers' fields at Saguni village under heavy soíls. The new varieties had sorne of the preferred eriteria mentioned by farmers obtamed in the intervíew and partícipatory-ranking activities. Farmen and breeders ranked the rice Hnes on the station and on farmers' fields in the research siles.  Farmers' rankings were compared with breeders' rankings during different stages of crop growth (vegetative, flowering, and maturity) as shown in table 7.Correlation between breeders and farmers al all siles and in al! the years was consistently low. Very few of the trials showed significant or highly significant agreement between farmers and breeders (trials that showed any significant agreement were mainly in 1999). In general, agreement was insignificant or even negalive (although not strongly so). It was impossible lo make an assessment of agreement between farmers and breeders in 1997 and 1998. However, in 1999, although there was high agreement in varietal ranking among farmers and among breeders, there was generally low agreement between farmers and breeders, which may indicate that farmers and breeders consider different criteria. Farmers' rankings are not correlated with yield, indícating Ihat farmers consider other criteria in their rankings.The breeders' top five favorite late-duratíon varíeties ín the 1999 trials included Swama, BKP-232, R650-18l7, R304-34, and R738-1-64-2-2 (aH modern varieties). These varieties also ranked in the top five in yield. The farmers' top five favorite varieties included Swarna, Safii-17, R 738-1-64-2-2, Mahsurí, and R650-1817. These were not always the highest yielding varieties-in fact, Mashuri gave one of the lowest yíelds and Safii-17 (a tradítional variety) was somewhere in the middle. These varieties were likely selected for other reasons than yield. Varieties preferred by both groups (ranking on average in the top 5) included Swarna (first choice ofboth farmers and breeders, and also high yieldíng), R650-1817, and R738-1-64-2-2. These are aH modero varieties, and are also the three varieties that had the híghest yíelds in the trials (table 8). In Tarpongi, the top ranking medíum-duration varieties for breeders were R574-11, IR42342, Chepti gurmatia, BG380-2, R703-1-52-1, and ORl158-261. AlI of these were also the top six yielding varietíes. Al! are modem varieties except for Cheptí gurmatia. F or farmers, the top ranking varieties included BG380-2, ORI158-261, R714-2-9-3-3, IR63429, and R574-11. These are al! modem varietíes, bu! no! always top yielding. R714-2-9-3-3 gave medium yields, while IR63429 gave relatively low yields when compared with the other varieties. Farmers and breeders agreed onIy on R574-11, BG380-2, and ORl158-261 as their favorite varieties (table 9). During the kharif season 2000, Ihe medium-duratíon' varielies that were further evaluated on-stalion and on farmers' fields were IR4234 (breeders' choice), R574-1I (farmers' choice), BG380-2 (common choice), and Chepti gurmatía (best local choice). The late-duration varieties were BKP-232 (farmers' choice), R304-34 (breeder's choice), R650-1817 (common choice), and Swarna (local check).The challenge facing plant breeders in IGAU and IRRI ís lo develop new cultívars that are better Ihan Swama and Maharnaya, while a1so meeting the other requirements and criteria thal furmers have for their given rice environments. While it is impossíble 10 combine all the requirements in one single variety, giving farmers (both men and women) an opportunity 10 test the performance of different rice genotypes on their own fields and 10 evaluate their cooking and eating qualíties can ¡ead 10 more efficient rice varietal improvement in the Chhattisgarh region in Madhya Pradesh.This paper focused on methodologies for improving our understanding ofthe eriteria used by farmers (both men and women) in selecling specific rice varieties and ofhow these criteria are considered in partícipatory breeding strategies in the rainfed lowland environments of the Chhatisgarh region in Madhya Pradesh, eastem India, Different methods for understanding farmers' eriteria in selecting rice varíeties were used. These melhods were (1) a questionnaire with open-ended queslions eliciting positive and negative attribules ofthe most popular modem and traditional varíeties, (2) a participatory weighted-ranking method, disaggregating the perceptions of men and women by land types and size oflandholdings, and (3) participatory varietal selection, where farmers evaluated severa] prereleased and local varíeties on their fields as well as on-station. The results of the study highlíght the importanee farmers attach to characteristies other than grain yield: eating quality (taste), rnarket price, durationlrnaturity, drought tolerance, and pest and inseet resistance.Both men and women have similar eriteria in choosing rice varíeties. However, straw quality for multiple uses is an important consideration for women farrners but not for meno F armers, particu-larIy women who do most ofthe weeding, prefer rice varíeties that are inherently dark green orpurpie to distinguish them from wild rice and enable the farmer to eradicate the wíld rice at an early stage of crop growth. Wild rice is a prevalent pesl and a constraint to high rice productivity in the Chhattisgarh regíon. The attributes considered by men and women farmers, however, are not gen-eralIy used as screenlng eriteria in most formal breeding prograrns, where the emphasis is mainly on grain yield. Qualíty attributes should be' emphasized more Ihan they have been in the past in breeding prograrns for rainfed areas. Because of the proximity of the villages lo !he markel, farmers prefer lo grow varieties Ibat no! only mee! their own eonsumption needs bul also those of consumers, including millers and traders. Therefore, farmers maintain their rice diversity and grow both traditional and modero varíeties that meet their varied interests and needs. Using approaches like farmer participatory breeding and varíetal selection from many rice lines provides an opportunity to fanners to choose varieties suitable lo their environment and needs as well as access to new seeds.Breeding lines R574-1l, BG308-2, and IR42342 performed well over the tbree years ofthe project in the medillm-duratíon group and showed tolerance to drought. Breeding lines R304-34 and JET -14444 (R 738-1-64) also proved promising. A large quantity of seeds have been multiplied by one ofthe farmers of Saguni village where blight is a problem.Badakshan is located in the extreme northeastem comer of Afghanistan and has not yet come under Taliban control. The province is virtually cut off from the rest of the country and is traditionally food deficient. The 20-year-old conflict in the region has further aggravated the situation, causing massive population displacement and almost complete destruction of civil institutions and infrastructure. The situation has become so serious that food aid has to be distributed in the period of grain deficit, starting from before the harvest. Simultaneously, efforts are being made to rehabilitate and improve the agricultural systems of these farming cornrnunities.In all formal and informal surveys in the area over the last three years, the farmers have identified good seed of wheat cultivars and fertilizer as being their main priority. Currently the seed of high-yielding cultivars acquired from the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) are available, but such varieties do not always perform well underfarmer's conditions. The potential ofthese varieties can not be realized without the use offertilizers. Almost all the available animal dung is used to as fue! and Iittle is available for use as manure. The small amounts of chemical fertilizer available are totally inadequate in quantity and exorbitant in price. In response to these needs, improved varieties of wheat, potatoes, and vegetables are being provided to over 100 villages in five isolated districts bordering Tajikistan. Three to eight farmers in each village are testing the new planting materials under their local conditions. These farmer-Ied, on-farm evaluations are al so serving as demonstration plots forthe remainder ofthe farmers in the village. The farmers will compare the performance ofthe varieties provided with their existing varieties. Cultivation of the better of the two will be encouraged through farmer-to-farmer exchanges and credit through village organizations for the inputs. This procedure will be repeated every growing season whenever new potential materials, including varieties, ｬ ｡ ｮ ､ ｲ ｡ ｣ ｾ ｳ Ｌ ＠ and different crop species are available. A secondary goal is to enhance on-farm genetic diversity among and within different crop species. These activities will be gradually transformed into participatory breeding, allowing the community to gain full control over the type and amount ofvarieties being produced and exchanged with their neigbbors. Participation in the management and decision making for seed security by the farming community will contribute to reestablishing local food security and peace in the area.Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS) is an intemational group of agencies established in Europe, North America, and Soulh Asia to complement lhe provision of emergency relief, principal!y in lhe developing world. It helps people in need reduce their dependency on humanitarian aid and facilitates lheir transition to sustainable, self-reliant, long-term development. FOCUS is affiliated wilh lhe Aga Khan Development N etwork, a group of institutions working to improve opportunities and living conditions for people of al! faiths and origins in specific regions of lhe developing world. Underlying the establishment ofFOCUS by the Ismaili Muslim cornmunity is a history of successful initiatives to assist people struck by natural and man-made disasters in Soulh and Central Asia, and Africa.Assisting farmers in disaster situations to restore agricultural systems was identified as a priority in lhe Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilisation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The plan was adopted by over 150 countries at lhe Intemational Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resources (Leipzig, Germany, June 1996). The conference Iqbal Kennali is a Senior Program Officer with the Focus Humanitarian Assistance Europe Foundation in the UK.recognized Ihat disasters, civil strife, and war pose challenges lo agricultural systems, Often, adapted crop varielies are losl and canno! be recuperaled locally. Food aid, combined with Ihe importation of often poorly adapted seed varieties, can undermíne food security and íncrease Ihe costs of donor assistance.ln such situatíons, the goal is 10 deliver seed of adapted varieties and landraces as needed to help reestablish indigenous agricultural syslems in arcas affected by disaster. In turn, Ihis can playa major role in restoring local food security,Afghanistan is one of the pooresl countries in the world. This millenium, the country passed (he mark of 2! years of conflict, which has brought complete destruction and immense suffering to its people. After the fall of the Soviet-backed government in 1992, ¡he prospects for peace have receded, with continuing civil war fragmenting the country into struggles between the various politica! and mililary groups in shifting allianees. Currentl}', more than 80% ofthe eountry is under the Taliban, while the remainder is under a united front. However, the Taliban movement is not yet recognized by the internatíonal community, exeept for Pakistan, Saudí Arabia, and the United Arab Emírates, The natíon's agricultural system has suffered from physical damage to irrigation structures, from mines, and from the disruption of normal markets and input-delivery mechanisms. Seeurity eoneems, high transport prices, and continual currency depreciation aH combine to cause shortages of agricultural iuputs such as seeds, fertilizers, chemieals, credit, and labor, resulting in increased food searcity. The civil umest has caused the country to move from near self-sufficiency in the mid-1970s lo a dependency on imports in recent years.Badakshan, one ofthe mosl remote areas in Afghanistan, is located in the northeastern comer bordering Kunar, Lagham, Kapisa, and Thakar provinces, In addition, the province borders Pakistan in the southeast, China in Ihe east, and Tajikistan in the north. It is one ofthe two major areas not under the control of the Taliban. The Panj River (Amu Darya) separates its long border with Tajikistan. The province is normally linked with the rest of country a by narrow, drivable road through the province ofTakhar on the West. Currently, after Takhar tbe road intereepts the frontline with the Taliban. The provine e is thus virtually cut offfrom Ihe rest ofthe country, On tbe eastern side, the road is línked with the Gorno-Badakshan provinee ofTajikistan through a narrow bridge over the Panj River at lshkashem. Badakshan lies in the Hindu Kush mountain range with the Wakhan rising up into tbe Pamir Mountains. The Hindu Kush mountain system is characterized by young, rugged ranges witb sharp peaks and deep valleys. The eastern half of tbe provine e lies between 1,300 meters (Darwaz) to 3,000 meters (Wakhan). The westem half is at a lower elevation, wítb Keshem, the lowest point, at 960 meters. Inside the province, mosl of the districts are isolated from each other for a greater part ofthe year by heavy snowfall in the winter, landslides in spring, and floods in the surnmer, Because of tbe rugged mounlain terrain, mueh of the land area is uninhabitable. Connecting dirt roads are either very rough or do not exist. Donkeys, horses, and walking constitute tbe major means of transport. It is eornmon for villagers to walk three to four days lo the nearest market. There is virtually no effeetive government operating in Ihe provinee at the current time. The víllages and larger towns in the province have no electricity, no running water, no sanitation facilities, few medical facilities, and poor schools.Badakshan province has historically been isolated and neglected. It has always been considered a poor province; even before ¡he war, local agricultural production met only 50% of the needs. The few development inítiatives ever started were abandoned after the eornmunist takeover and the subsequent fight between the Taliban and the Northern Allianee. 1t í5 estímated that agricultural production is down by at least 40% as a resutt of the war (UNIDATA 1966).The province has a highly diversified eropping system. Crop production, hortieulture, and livestock are Ihe maín sourees of income for most households. It is difficult lo obtain relíable statistics on agricultural produetion. Figures on land holdings provided by farmers during intervÍews tend 10 be grossly underestimated for fear of government taxalion and lo qualíf'y for humanitarian assistance. The majority ofhouseholds own less than one hectare, and further fragmentation ofland holdings occurs because of Ihe traditional inheritance laws. Srnaller farmers usually sharecrop Ihe land owned by farmers with relatively larger holdings (more !han two hectares). Many distrÍcts do not produce enough food, for example, surveys have shown tha! food deficits in Sheghnan, Ishkashem, and Wakhan range frorn two 10 5ix months.Autumn and spring wheat i5 Ihe main grain crop. Other crops include pulses (broad beans, vetches, field peas, grass peas) ofien grown as a companion crop with spring barley. Finger millet and chickpeas are also planted in spring. Srnall quantities of oil-seed crops such as sesarne and flax are oeeasionally grown for oil, bu! the wild mustard that giows as a weed in the wheat fields is harvesled by women and clúldren for oi! and cooking. Maize i5 grown at lower elevations (below 1600 m) from Darwaz through Shekay as a second crop after wheat. Colton is also grown in small quantities in sorne villages from Darwaz downstrearn, where it is used for stuffing quilts and pillows, and Ihe oi! extraeted from !he seed ís used for larnps.Vegetables include spinach, oníons, beans, occasionally tornatoes, carrols, squash, and a variety of herbs. Several kinds ofpotatoes ofvarying lengths of rnaturity are grown. These vegetables provide a supplementary dietduring the hungry months of spring and early surnmer before Ihe harvest. Fruit trees, particularly mulberries, are important. Olher cornmon trees inc1ude fruit trees such as walnut, apricot, plum, sour eherry, apple, and grape, and timber trees such as poplar, willow, and walnut. Several wild plants play an important role and include wild mustard, wild rhubarb, wild orclúd tuber, black cumin, licoriee, and mushrooms, in addítion lo the wild herbs of medicinal value. Opíum poppy i8 not cultivated on a cornmercíal basis, allhough small patches rnay be planted by addicts for Iheir own use.Livestock are a main source of Ihe household eeonomy in rural areas. The sale oflivestock ís the primary means for much of the population to earn income for purchase of other food and essential items, especially wheat, during the spring monlhs when they run out of food stock. The province has huge eornmon grazing areas that support herds oflivestock belonging to Ihe local people as well as to nomads.The cMonic food-deficit situation in the province resulta in a cycle of poverty leading to hunger, and hunger leading to even greater poverty, which is very difficult to reverse. Because of its remoteness, very few assístance agencies are abre to work in the province.In response lO the food deficit in the region, FOCUS is implementing a relief programo The program has included the distribution of 10,000 tons of food aid to 250,000 people over the last years. Food rations were provided for every household in about half of the province. In sorne dístricta, food was provided in a food-for-work programo FOCUS ís able to carry out ¡ls activíties in Badakshan for several reasons: FOCUS is affiliated with the Aga Khan Development Network, wruch has been active in Tajikistan and Pakistan on the northem and southem borders of Badakshan. During the last three years, good working relationships bave been established with localleaders and wíth international organizations. A participatory model for rehabilitation comprising situation assessment, health, food assistance, village organization, agriculture, physical infrastructure, education, and economic initiatives is being considered.Agricultura[ interventions by FOCUS bave been initiated this year in the districts along the Panj River (Darwaz, Sheghaan, Ishkashem, Zebak, and Wakhan). Although Zebak is not strictly along the river basin, ita farmíng systems resemble those of Ishkashem. These districts are among the most food-deficient arcas in the province. FOCUS is able to access these areas across the river from Gomo-Badakshan in Tajikistan wherc t,l¡e Aga Khan Dcvelopment Network has a comprehensive development program, of which agriculture is an important component.The populated areas ofthe Sheghnan, Ishkashem, Wakhan, and Zebak districts are at an altitude of 2200 to 3000 meters. Population densities are low. Although there is a comparativcly Iarge area of land per capita, low temperatures, short growing seasons, low rainfalI, and poor soils combine to lower productivity. Darwaz, on the other hand, is at a lower altítude (mínimum 1300 meters) and has a longer growing season with higher rainfalI and temperatures. ","tokenCount":"3140"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e709355db1858da1177571ab852a1202","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3396de81-740d-4860-a48b-2e4a08a98361/retrieve","id":"-543116510"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d26cc0c9-60da-401c-8be6-fd2f0dc9d4f7","pagecount":"2","content":"In each episode, upbeat presenters and guest experts help farmers like Angela and Joseph give their 'shamba', or farm, a makeover. They cover common challenges such as water scarcity and animal diseases, and offer strategies to boost production and reach new markets. The fun and instructive formula attracts a combined audience of 11 million in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, far more than an ordinary training project could hope to reach.A popular Kenyan program is teaching farmers about climate-smart agriculture At a weather research station in Makueni, Kenya, about a dozen farmers are gathered in an outdoor classroom. Scant and variable rainfall is a big problem in Makueni, so a training program from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is tutoring the group on drought-resistant crops. But these few smallholders are not the only ones learning -the tips on climate adaptation are also being broadcast to millions of viewers across East Africa. A participant named Angela and her husband Joseph are the stars of this week's episode of Shamba Shape-Up, a Kenyan reality television show that works with CCAFS and other partners to spread information on low-cost, climate-conscious solutions for small-scale farmers.\"The aim of the program is to give farmers the information they want in an entertaining and educational way that they can then use and apply to their own farms,\" explains the show's manager, Anne Marie Steyn.For CCAFS, it's an ideal opportunity to scale up communication and turn knowledge into action. Scientists involved in climate-smart agriculture research across CGIAR help develop the show's content and are regularly featured in episodes. The Centers involved include ICRISAT, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the International Potato Center (CIP), along with EverGreen Agriculture and other programs. CCAFS collaborates with all these institutes to develop smallholder-friendly practices and tools for adapting to and mitigating a rapidly changing climate.Strategies to deal with climate variability are particularly needed on the shambas. Shamba Shape Up host Tonny Njuguna says, \"All the farmers we visited have commented on the unreliability of the weather.\" For Angela and Joseph, water supply is the main obstacle. The presenters coach them to collect rain from gutters, plant sorghum varieties that thrive on a short rainy season, and add hardy trees to prevent soil erosion.Fast facts `Shamba Shape Up uses the engaging format of makeover reality TV to share tools that help smallholders improve their livelihoods while facing climate change head-on.`CCAFS works with CGIAR Centers and Research Programs to provide the latest climate-smart research and lend guest experts to the show.`With an audience of 11 million in East Africa, Shamba Shape Up magnifies the impact of CCAFS research. The vast majority of farmers who watch the show say they have learned from it.The techniques are detailed further in free pamphlets that viewers can obtain by sending an SMS message. Over its first 18 months, 70,000 people contacted the show for more information. There's also a growing social media audience, with 40,000 'likes' on Shamba Shape Up's Facebook page and almost 3,000 engaged Twitter followers.The program clearly has people's attention, but what are the actual impacts? In a 2014 survey by Mediae, the company that produces Shamba Shape Up, 87% of smallholders who watched the series said they had learned something new, and 45% had adopted at least some of the practices demonstrated -most commonly methods for improving soil fertility. The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), which funded the show's pilot series, has also sponsored economic impact surveys of the target audience. An AECF study in 2014 estimated that in Kenya's agrarian region more than 400,000 households benefitted from Shamba Shape Up, and the increased income for dairy farmers alone totalled about USD 24 million.The AECF study called the show \"a trusted source of information presented in a format that engages farmers' interest and emotions, encourages discussion and provides opportunity for follow-up and interaction.\" In fact, the study found that Shamba Shape Up is more trusted than other, more conventional sources of information.Results like this prove the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, especially when that picture is beamed out to millions of TVs. Shamba Shape Up's edutainment programming is powerful encouragement for farmers to try new techniques and improve their livelihoods. `87% of smallholder viewers said they learned something and 45% said they adopted new practices. Over 90% of those who made changes claimed their households had more food or income as a result.`In one study, maize farmers who used soil improvements shown on the program gained a net profit of about USD 82 per season. Dairy farmers used various husbandry tips to gain USD 59 per month.`If only 10% of the total audience follows advice from the show and receives similar benefits, the subsidy to smallholders could be hundreds of millions of dollars per year.","tokenCount":"807"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3b1128add59cd3c456c253c1ef2dd109","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a0e9a673-40ea-4be7-be49-10966224d6e0/retrieve","id":"1428981140"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"af11c2a2-5b41-4864-871f-d876331ad7c6","pagecount":"11","content":"Hillside agro-ecosystems have a complex spatial and temporal distribution of natural resources. Farmers generally possess a vast body of knowledge about environmental resources on their farms but this knowledge is largely based on locally observable features rather than generalized knowledge. The lack of process-based knowledge concerning agroecosystem function creates uncertainty that obstructs sound decision-making under conditions of rising economic and ecologic pressure in many developing countries. Since the past decade, Precision Agriculture provides tools to reduce uncertainty caused by environmental variation. By describing spatial and temporal variation of the environment, Geographic Information Systems help to detect suitable crops for specific environmental niches and support farmers to find optimal management practices for their plot of land. Hence Precision Agriculture helps to raise the economic benefits of farming, ensures consistent product quality and reduces negative environmental impacts caused by inappropriate management practices.A spatial decision support system called CaNaSTA was developed to aid the decision making process of crop adoption in tropical agriculture. Using Bayesian probability statistics, CaNaSTA integrates trial data, spatial data and expert knowledge and provides maps, tables and graphs analyzing and interpreting the probability distributions of spatial phenomena. The International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has applied CaNaSTA to three case studies related to tropical agriculture. The first case study identifies niches for specialty coffee production, the second analyses the potential of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) for tropical hillside environments in Colombia. Finally, Canasta was applied to a non-crop related area by performing a study of carbon concentration in tropical soils.A complex spatial and temporal distribution of natural resources is characteristic for hillside agro-ecosystems. Site-specific management further compounds the naturally introduced, uncontrollable spatial and temporal variation. Considerable evidence exists that farmers identify and use variation at scales relevant for management. Encouraging as this is, increasing land degradation and remaining poverty in developing countries suggest that locally devised methods, on their own, are no longer effective enough to cope with rapidly changing pressures. Farmers generally possess a vast body of knowledge about environmental resources on their farms but this knowledge is largely based on observable features rather than generalized knowledge. The lack of process-based knowledge concerning agro-ecosystem function and its temporal or spatial variability creates uncertainty that obstructs sound decision-making under conditions of change and provokes farmers to generally underestimate existing environmental variability (COOK, 1999;COOK and BRAMLEY, 2000). Hence this uncertainty prevents farmers from taking decisions that are too risky and may have contributed to their reputation of being risk-averse.Over the past decade, Precision Agriculture has provided tools to reduce uncertainty caused by environmental variation, in order to improve crop management (DIXON and MCCAIN, 1997;COOK and BRAMLEY, 2000). Site-specific management practices -as an integrative part of Precision Agriculture -use information technologies like GPS, GIS, Remote Sensing and computer models tailoring crop management to fit specific environmental conditions (LOWENBERG-DEBOER, 2000). By describing spatial and temporal variation of the environment, these techniques help to detect environmental niches and support farmers to find optimal management practices for their plot of land (ROBERT, 1996). They enable farming to be analyzed as controllable systems, rather than a disaggregated set of agronomic and environmental factors and therefore help to better estimate the influence of environmental factors like climate, soil or topography on crop production or product quality (COOK et al., 2004). Hence site-specific management practices help to raise the economic benefits of farming, ensure consistent product quality and reduce negative environmental impacts caused by inappropriate management practices (BLACKMORE, 2002;COOK and BRAMLEY, 2000).In the 1990s, a number of models for predicting crop respond to climate, water, light and other conditions (SADLER and RUSSEL, 1997) or for predicting the geographic distribution of species in the wild (JARVIS et al., 2002;JONES and GLADKOV, 1999) have been developed. However, only a few of them included a spatial component precise enough for site-specific management practices, which in general require numerous data points. Hence the statistical approaches used in these models are not appropriate for many high value crops, which are not widely cultivated due to a lack of information.Especially in heterogeneous hillsides where many cultivars can vary within a very small area (OBERTHUER et al., 2004) it is of interest to predict which crop or variety can produce well in a given niche. Lately, researchers at CIAT have initiated the development of the \"Crop Niche Selection for Tropical Agriculture\" tool \"CaNaSTA\". CaNaSTA combines expert and local knowledge on the requirements of given crops or varieties, with the identification and characterization of a small number of specific sites where a crop or variety is known to grow well. CaNaSTA uses this information in order to identify other similar niches where a crop or variety is likely to perform in the same way (OBERTHUER et al., 2004). By making the spatial variability of environmental factors explicit, CaNaSTA supports farmers in order to make less risky agronomic decisions even when there is just limited data available, helping to rapidly identify potential production areas for agricultural products saving time and money.The main difficulty in modelling environmental variability is related to the attempt to represent complex, spatially and temporally variable behaviour with simplified models, which use sparse input data (COOK and ADAMS, 1999). CaNaSTA was particularly designed for such situations, when only sparse data is available or data generation is too expensive. The tool operates on the basis that the state of a particular property, which may be difficult to measure directly over a wide area (e. g. soil carbon content or the incidence of speciality coffee), can be inferred from the state of other more easily measurable entities (e. g. climate or topographic data) and the knowledge of their interrelationships. CaNaSTA uses probability theory (Bayesian statistics) to combine these disparate data sets and provides maps, tables and graphs in order to visualize and interpret the probability distributions of spatial phenomena at specified levels (O'BRIEN et al., 2004).As a first step of the CaNaSTA model set-up, decisive environmental variables have to be identified and mapped in order to calculate probability surfaces for the model's response variable (which can be e. g. sensorial coffee quality, crop yield or soil carbon content). For the case studies mentioned in Chapter 3.1 -3.3, we selected up to 14 different environmental factors representing environmental variability, mapped and integrated them to CaNaSTA as the model's predictor variables. Resolution for the factor maps is 30 arc and 3 arc seconds, which correspond in Colombia to a 1 km and a 90 m grid size, respectively (O'BRIEN, 2004).For generating data of climatic factors in the tropics, it has to be often resorted on interpolated climate surfaces, as generally data of only a few weather stations is available in these regions (JONES and THORNTON, 2000). In our model we extracted and mapped climate data using WorldClim data, which is a set of global climate layers at a resolution of 30 arc seconds. The layers were generated through interpolation of average monthly climate data, collected from up to 47.000 weather stations of a period from 1960 to 1990 (HIJMANS et al., 2005). We extracted and generated the following climate factors using WorldClim data: Annual precipitation, annual temperature, dry months per year, diurnal temperature range, dew point and solar radiation. We defined dry months as months with less than 90 mm of precipitation. We calculated mean diurnal temperature range according to JONES et al. (2002) as the difference between mean monthly maximum and mean monthly minimum temperature. We mapped dew point by the method of LINACRE (1977) and calculated mean annual solar radiation according to the method of KUMAR et al. (1997) using digital elevation and latitude data.Identifying and preparing pedologic factors for CaNaSTA use was the most challenging task during the data preparation process as it was not possible to map specific soil attributes, which heavily influence the models' response variables. Soil characteristics vary widely at a small scale in the study area, but unfortunately there are no soil maps at a high enough resolution to represent this soil heterogeneity available for Colombia. Although various general characteristics such as pH-value and fertility can be derived from maps representing soil types, direct correspondence between soil type and other soil characteristics is less certain (O'BRIEN, 2004). Therefore, we digitized the 1:500 000 soil map of the Agustín Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC, 1981) and simply used the corresponding soil types for the analysis. We generated and mapped topographic factors (elevation, aspect and slope) using a processed DEM of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM).CIAT applied CaNaSTA to three case studies related to tropical agriculture, which are presented in the following chapter. The first case study identifies niches for high quality coffee production, the second study analyses the potential of cowpea (Vigna Unguiculata (L.) Walp.) as component of animal feed concentrates. Both analyses were performed for tropical hillside environments in the Colombian Province of Cauca. Finally, CaNaSTa was applied to a non-crop related area by performing a study of carbon concentration in the tropical soils of Fúquene Lagoon Basin in Cundinamarca Province, Colombia.Around 25 million families in hillside regions of the tropics depend on cultivation of coffee as the major source of their income. Steadily declining and highly volatile coffee prices are jeopardizing the livelihood of thousands of smallholder farmers for nearly 40 years now. From 1977 to 2001 real international prices for coffee fell by 5.1 % yearly; in 2002 the price of coffee was at a 30 year low -25 % less of that in 1960 (GRESSER and TICKELL, 2002). This alarming development and its related socio-economic and ecological consequences (FLORES et al., 2002;VARANGIS et al., 2003) have shifted the attention of coffee-related research from increasing production volumes to specialty coffee. Within the framework of the \"Diversification Agriculture Project Alliance\" DAPA, CIAT is investigating promising economic alternatives for diversifying smallholder coffee agroecosystems. In this context specialty coffee was identified as one promising economic alternative to commodity coffee, besides other cultivars like tropical fruits, honey, medicinal plants and cowpea.Sensorial coffee quality depends on environmental and genetic factors, as well as on agronomic management of the crop and post-harvest practices. In order to analyze the barley investigated dependency of coffee cup quality on environmental factors, we carried out a case study linking coffee quality data from 88 farms to the ten climatic, topographic and pedologic factors, mentioned in Chapter 2.2. Study area was the Province of Cauca in Southern Colombia. Cauca is a rural department with agricultural production as the main source of income. More than 60.000 ha coffee was cultivated in 2002 by more than 90.000 mainly small and medium producers (COLLET, 2005).We used data from literature and expert consultations as indicators in order to identify sample farms with potential to produce speciality coffee. Within each farm, the coffee samples were harvested on Management Unit (MU) base. We defined a MU as one or several fields with homogenous environmental and agricultural management characteristics, with a minimum of about 5.000 coffee trees. We geo-referenced each MU by the latitude, longitude, and elevation in the centre of each MU using GPS. 90 percent of the samples were harvested from the variety Caturra, the remaining ten percent from the varieties Colombia and Bourbon. Samples were subject to standardized post-harvest management, in order to assure comparable results. All the samples of the study were cupped by a panel of five cuppers according to international cupping standards including e. g. aroma, flavour, after-taste, acidity and uniformity of the coffee.We carried out different analyses using CaNaSTA for relating environmental conditions to cup coffee quality (only selected results are presented here). In order to delimitate the study area to zones with specific quality characteristics, we used CaNaSTA for estimating the most probable quality per niche (Figure 1). This probability surface shows that large area produce mediocre coffee but only very limited areas can produce superior quality coffee. Nevertheless, we can identify ecological niches with high probabilities of producing specialty coffee using CaNaSTA. The niches identified are situated in the municipalities of Tambo and Timbío in the Popayán area and the municipality of Inzá on the eastern border of Cauca Province. These municipalities are commonly known as areas where specialty coffee is produced.Most probable coffee quality class, Cauca ProvinceThe localization of niches in the same areas can be observed when we generate maps for individual coffee quality characteristics such as acidity, sweetness, and body.Besides identifying environmental niches that are able to carry high quality coffee, it is also of interest to know which environmental factors are prone to improve or derogate coffee quality. When analysing the factors that most affect cup quality (\"driving factors\") with CaNaSTA, it became obvious that especially the combination of specific factors drive coffee quality. The impact of elevation on coffee quality, for example, seems to depend on the aspect of a slope where coffee is grown. Not only specific factor combinations, but also specific factor ranges seem to be important for coffee quality. CaNaSTA showed that altitudes from 1800 -2000 m in the study area have a positive impact on quality, whereas other altitude categories have a negative or not a significant impact. Regarding annual median temperature as a driving factor for coffee quality, a range of 16 -18 °C show a positive influence, while a range of 19 -20 °C show a negative one.As argued in the coffee case study above, one promising alternative for diversifying commodity coffee cultivations is speciality coffee, commonly grown at altitudes above 1500 m. Coffee cultivated in so called \"marginal coffee growing areas\" at lower altitudes between 1000 -1500 m is usually of marginal quality and therefore relies on the highly volatile markets for volume coffees (GRESSSER and TICKELL, 2002). Hence alternative crops should be found for cultivation in these areas. CIAT identified forage seed and leaf meals produced from cowpea (Vigna Unguiculata (L.) Walp.) as a possible way for many smallholders in these regions to substitute commodity coffee cultivation.Cowpea, one of the most widely grown legumes in tropical and subtropical regions, is of major importance to the livelihoods of millions of poor people, especially in Africa and China (PEREZ-LOPEZ et al, 2003). Cowpea provides inexpensive and nutritious food (grain, pods), gives excellent forage (grain concentrate, leaves and haulm), hay and silage. The plant improves soil quality by fixing soil nitrogen. It is drought and heat resistant, and as a fast-growing ground-cover plant it prevents erosion (QUIN, 1997;COOK et al, 2005). At present, cowpea is not widely grown in most of Colombia or other tropical hillsides in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Very scarce evidence exists of its use as an input to commercial feeds and its production potential. Moreover its performance in the hillside eco-region is not yet fully understood.Therefore the general objectives of this case study were (a) to identify optimal growing areas for cowpea by examining the effects of environmental variability on grain and biomass production using CaNaSTA, and (b) to estimate financial viability of cowpea as component of animal feed concentrates cultivated by smallholders in remote areas as substitute crop for locally traded soy.We established four different cowpea accessions (DICTA 9611, IITA 5234, IITA 1088-4 and IITA 1069-6) at seven different sites located in contrasting landscape positions in the study area, the Cauca Province. Trial sites were 2100 m 2 each -areas big enough to give farm-size agronomic and therefore economically valid data. We measured coordinates and areas of each trial site with GPS and integrated grain and biomass yield data as point data to the CaNaSTA model. We identified more yield data at sites in the Colombian Provinces of Valle de Cauca and Nariño as well as in Honduras revising the literature and added it to the model as one way of integrating expert knowledge to CaNaSTA in a data sparse situation.In order to represent environmental variation in the study area, we mapped 14 different environmental factors. In addition to the climatic, topographic and pedologic factors used in the coffee case study, we derived four hydrologic indices from the DEM. These indices are considered as good indirect measures for the spatial variability of hydrological processes (MOORE et al., 1991), which play an important role in the local composition of soils. For modeling soil water content and surface saturation zones we derived a \"Topographic Wetness Index\", TWI (MOORE et al., 1991) and a \"Slope-length factor\" (MOORE and WILSON, 1992) using Arc View 3.2 \"Topocrop Terrain Indices\" Extension (SCHMIDT, 2003). Furthermore, we used \"plan curvature\" and \"profile curvature\" for describing the spatial pattern of the deposition of nutrients and other soil components in our model (ZEVERBERGEN et al., 1997).In (a) the spatial analysis we examined the adaptation of the above-mentioned cowpea accessions to specific environmental conditions analysing grain and biomass yield. We used CaNaSTA to identify areas in marginal coffee growing regions of Cauca Province between 1000 -1500 m where cowpea is likely to adapt well. This data was required to estimate the potential area for cowpea production and hence the potential quantities available as animal feed concentrate. Figure 2 shows the probability of cowpea adaptationdark areas show high probabilities of adaptation (up to 75%), light areas low probabilities.CaNaSTA also mapped the certainty of the prediction based on the number of trial data entries, the stability of cowpea adaptation in case of changing environmental conditions and the specific influence of each of the environmental factors used in the model on cowpea adaptation (results not presented). We also determined the best cowpea accession for selected locations (farms) using CaNaSTA. Driving factor analysis revealed several ranges of environmental factors driving cowpea adaptation. As positive driving factor ranges CaNaSTA identified warm temperatures (24.1 -27.5 °C), low altitudes (0 -700 m), a low diurnal temperature range (6.8 -9 °C), a high dew point (18.1 -23.4 °C) and a high TWI (9-15; that means areas, highly saturated with water). Negative driving factor ranges are slightly flat to medium slopes (6 -10 °) and slopes with northern aspect (NW -NE).CaNaSTA enabled us to calculate the most likely cowpea yield category occurring at each cell of the study area. We used this information in (b) the financial analysis for deriving income surfaces, showing possible revenues of cowpea cultivation at an estimated cowpea price for each cell. Revenues up to nearly 2.400.000 Colombian Pesos (approximately 1.050 U$) could be achieved per hectare in the best performing niches. For deriving this map, we examined production costs at each trial site in order to determine yield-price-profit thresholds. CaNaSTA results showed that cowpea could be an alternative crop for diversifying marginal coffee regions in specific environmental niches.Probability of cowpea adaptation, marginal coffee growing areas, Cauca ProvinceIn a third case study, researchers of CIAT are using CaNaSTA for deriving probability surfaces of carbon concentration in the soils of Fúquene Lagoon Basin in the Colombian Province of Cundinamarca. In this area the decrease of natural vegetation cover due to intensive agriculture use over the past decades resulted in a constant loss of organic matter, resulting in diminishing carbon content in the Lagoon Basin's soils (RONDON and AMEZQUITA, 2005). The main aim of the investigation is to analyze under which environmental conditions, and in which soil horizons a maximum of carbon is absorbed. This case study should give an example, how CaNaSTA can be applied also on non-crop related topics in the near future. Preliminary results will be available in autumn 2006.The CaNaSTA methodology used in the above-mentioned case studies provides insight into the interaction of agronomic and ecologic variables (e. g. sensorial coffee quality, cowpea yield, carbon soil concentration) with environmental conditions that was not previously available. Considerable results can be achieved by calculating probability surfaces integrating trial data and expert knowledge to a GIS-based model instead of exclusively using time and resource-costly field trials. CaNaSTA proved to be an effective modelling tool in data sparse situations when not enough data is available for common statistical analyses. Using local and expert knowledge, CaNaSTA approximated coffee quality and cowpea yield for very small-scale areas (90 m grid-resolution) with highly varying environmental conditions. The results proved that CaNaSTA can provide farmers valuable information for choosing the right cultivar for a specific environmental niche or for choosing appropriate management practices in order to reducing agronomic decision uncertainty rooting in temporal and spatial variability of the surrounding environment.The most limiting factor for CaNaSTA application is the lack environmental data of highresolution. In particular, soil data is not commonly available at a resolution high enough to represent its spatial variability. In the near future CIAT will focus on the use of CaNaSTA as a spatial analysis tool in order to delimit environmental niches where specialty coffee has a high probability to grow well. The approach used in the case studies will be applied for denomination of origin in coffee by identifying environments that are capable of producing coffee of similar quality profiles. CaNaSTA will also allow definition of zones that are less appropriate for coffee production where coffee should be replaced with other crops like cowpea, tropical fruits, honey or medicinal plants in order to ensure sustainable farmer income. Over the longer term, CaNaSTA should provide means for quickly identifying potential production areas for agricultural products, thereby helping farmers to engage in profitable supply chains on national and international agricultural markets.","tokenCount":"3521"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2ec56c8d86d82b1db2cb197c19b215a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e7e4e853-c798-49b7-96a0-06edcaea4417/retrieve","id":"726797581"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"733093eb-3fe3-4b88-a21a-b15ee1f5fe82","pagecount":"1","content":"The Challenge Farmers extracting low profits from their dairy animals High and intermediate grade cows are reared in low and average production environments No pedigree records are kept so most farmers do not know the genetic make up of their animals Heifers and crossbred bulls with breed composition that is appropriate to farmers' circumstances are needed, but are not readily available Identify genomic regions associated with productivity and resilience (i.e. number of times animals are treated, reproductive performance and longevity)Incorporate GWAS results into GEBVs computation to optimize productivity and functionality Accuracies of genomic prediction for young bulls with no records are reasonable (about 40% across a wide range of cross-bred bulls)The SNP chip could be used initially to eliminate the worst bulls and select the best young bulls for AI Genomic prediction can be achieved using a low density (3-4K) SNP chip combined with imputation exploiting the covariance between SNPs Use the information from A to develop a genomic tool to screen exotic bulls for adaptability and performance in Africa Design strategic mating plan for selected bulls and indigenous cows and select progeny with optimum combination of desired traits Use AI to deliver millions of semen doses with the aim of establishing tropically adapted cattle In addition to organizations recognized for specific projects and outputs, we thank all donors which globally supported the work of ILRI and its partners through their contributions to the CGIAR system www.cgiar.org/our-funders at a glance ","tokenCount":"240"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d6b5a3b2c2616f783b9d1bf143af7ce9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/51570bec-d626-4477-86f6-b22ebfa5b6a4/retrieve","id":"1710233107"},"keywords":["Grain legumes","grain legumes haulm","haulm traits","rhizobium inoculants"],"sieverID":"21da555a-92c7-4028-8b45-6cc1ca878bba","pagecount":"128","content":"My first earnest appreciations goes to my major advisor, Professor Adugna Tolera for spending his precious time and give me genuine and regular advice, comments and encouragement from the beginning of research proposal writing to the very end of this manuscript preparation. I am very much indebted to my co-advisor, Dr. Melkamu Bezabih, for the valuable efforts he made in my thesis work through this encouragement, sincere guidance, supervisions, useful comments and excellent cooperation starting from the research idea generation, up to the last minute of this thesis preparation.My special thanks and appreciation also goes to my ILRI supervisor and N2Africa project leader Dr.Enkalkachew W/Meskel for his commitment in budgeting this thesis research as well as constructive comments, suggestions and continuous follow up and supervision of the work.Nutrition Laboratory Teams, Mr. Yonas Asmare, Mr. Degsew and Mr. Alemeshet Zewde for their unreserved assistance and helps during laboratory works.My special thank goes to my fellow friends Mr. Gashaw Sefera, Mr. Tesfaye Ararsa, Miss Fentanesh Sendike, Mr. Bikila Mengistu and Miss Wubye Eshetu for their precious moral support and encouragement in various aspects during my study and thesis work. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to all members of my family who offered me comprehensive moral support and treatment that enabled me succeeds throughout my academic life. I owe them more than a mere expression of thanks.v DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis manuscript to my beloved parents, W/ro GADISSE BEDADA and Ato BELETE ASEFA, for nursing me with affection and love and for their dedicated partnership for the success of my life.I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to N2Africa teams; Mr. Birhan Abdukarim for his invaluable cooperation and facilitation of the work throughout the study period with tireless communication with partner institutes; Mr. Tamiru Amanu for his kindness help and assist from the beginning of preliminary application of the fellowship to the end of the work and Mrs. Simret Yemane for her timely settlement of all research financial issues.I would like to express my deepest acknowledgment to Ambo University for allowing me to pursuit my master study. My thanks also special for IRLI-N2Africa project for sponsoring my thesis work with require budget and necessary facilities.  12: Mean squares of grain essential amino acid parameters from combined analysis of variances for chickpea growth with application of P fertilizer and inoculants at different locations .... 13: Mean square of grain essential amino acid parameters from combined analysis of variances for haricot bean grown with application of P fertilizer and inoculants at different locations 14: Mean squares of grain essential amino acid parameters from combined analysis of variances for soybean grown with application of P fertilizer and inoculants at different locations .......xviiiA study was conducted to evaluate the effects of phosphorus fertilizer and inoculants application on yield and nutritional quality of grain and haulm of selected grain legumes and to assess farmers' grain legumes haulm use practices and their perception on the effects of phosphorus fertilizer and inoculation on haulm yield and quality. The study involved field experiment and household survey. For the field experiment, four grain legumes (faba bean, chickpea, haricot bean and soybean) were subjected to four fertilizer treatments (inoculation + P fertilizer (+P+I), inoculation alone (-P+I), P fertilization alone (+P-I) and control i.e. no inoculation and no fertilizer (-P-I)) on individual farmer plots. Grain and haulm yield data were recorded and subsequently representative samples were collected for quality analysis in the laboratory. A semistructured questionnaire was administered to collect data on household characteristics. Analysis of variance was run in general linear model of SAS for experimental data in randomized complete block design and household data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of SPSS. Faba bean grain and haulm DM yield were significantly improved (P<0.05) due to the treatments and the highest mean grain yield (2.87 and 2.84 t/ha) were obtained from +P-I and +I+P treatments, while the maximum haulm DM yield (3.61 t/ha) was recorded in treatment +P+I. Faba bean haulm CP content, IVOMD and ME values of treatment +P+I, -P+I and +P-I were found to significantly (P<0.05) surpass the control, whereas treatment +P+I, -P+I and +P-I resulted the lowest mean haulm NDF, ADF and ADL content than the control. Application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer had a highly significant effect (P<0.001) on grain yield but non-significant effect (P>0.05) on haulm DM yield of chickpea. The maximum mean grain yield (2.13 t/ha and 1.98 t/ha) of chickpea was recorded in treatment +I+P and +I-P, respectively. The haulm CP, IVOMD and ME contents of chickpea responded positively (P<0.05) to the treatments, but the responses of ash, NDF, ADF and ADL content were not significant (P>0.05). The highest mean grain (1.98  Livestock population of Ethiopia is estimated to be around 56.7 million cattle, 58.4 million shoats, 9.8 millions equines, 1.7 million camels and 56.9 million chickens, excluding animals from nonsedentary areas of the country (CSA, 2015a). The greatest concentration of these livestock population, except camels, is found in the mid and highland altitude areas where cultivation of a variety of crops and rearing of different livestock species are practiced together by smallholder farmers. Livestock production play very important role in the livelihood of smallholder farmers in the mixed crop-livestock farming system. They are main sources of draught power, nutritious foods, cash, and manures and have a big social value. In most cases, the livestock and crop subsystems have a strong interdependence and complementarities (Getachew et al., 1993a;Solomon et al., 2009). Generally, livestock play a crucial role both for the sustainability and intensification of agricultural productivity of the mixed crop-livestock production system.Among the constraints facing livestock production in the small scale mixed crop-livestock farming system, inadequate feed supplies and low quality of available feeds stands as the most important (Bayush et al., 2008;Belay et al., 2013;Malede and Takele, 2014). The major livestock feed resources in these areas are natural pasture, crop residues, stubble grazing and other agricultural by products (Getachew, 2002;Seyoum et al., 2001;Solomon, 2004). The role of grazing as sources of feed is diminishing due to continuous expansion of cropping into grazing lands (Yayneshet, 2010). As a result, crop residues are increasingly becoming the major sources of feed for livestock (Bayush et al., 2008;Daniel, 1988;Malede and Takele, 2014) and contribute up to 30-80% of the total feed dry matter available for animals in the highland part of Ethiopia (African RISING, 2014).Therefore, crop residues are valuable low cost roughage sources for animals in extensive ruminant production systems particularly during the long dry season of the year when green fodder is critically scarce.However, the utilization of crop residues (cereal straws and stovers and legume haulms) as an ultimate year round diet source are limited by their low nutritive value because of high fiber content, low energy and protein content, low digestibility, and seasonal availability. For instance, the reported value of CP content of most abundantly available crop residues in Ethiopia (Dereje et al., 2010: Seyoum andZinash, 1989;Solomon et al., 2008) is lower than the critical value of 7% required for normal rumen microbial action and feed intake (Van Soest, 1994). On the other hand, availability of crop residues for utilization at a particular time of the year is markedly affected by the seasonal and inter-year variations in crop residue production (Williams et al., 1997).Dry matter yield and nutritional values of crop residues of different crops are influenced by genotypes and various environmental factors (Sannasgala and Jayasuria, 1987). Regardless of the biomass yield, grain legume haulms have relatively better nutritional values such as CP and metabolazable energy (ME) contents and digestibility than cereal straws and stovers (Lopeze et al., 2005). Crop residues of most grain legumes (pulse crops) in Ethiopia can be categorized under medium quality roughages depending on their CP content which range from 5% to 12% (Adugna, 2008). Hence, grain legume haulms can be considered as a good option in ruminant feeding.Grain legumes are the second largest crops produced next to cereals in Ethiopia. Annually around 1.6 million hectare of land is planted to grain legumes and more than 2.6 million metric tons of grain is produced (CSA, 2015b). Moreover, it touches the lives of about 10 million smallholder farmer households and low income urban dwellers. In the subsistence type of farming system, legume crops have a great recognition as they play a big role in intensifying the productivity and interactions among soil, crop and livestock. But the use of legumes haulm as feeds in Ethiopia is limited for two possible reasons. The first one is associated with limited annual production of the legume residues due to the smaller land allocation for these crops by smallholder farmers (Leulseged and Jemal,1989;Solomon et al., 2008) and lower straw yielding potential of these crops as compared to cereals (Lopez et al., 2005). Akinola et al. (2015) stated that the size of land used by the household has positive and significant influence on the decision to use legume crop residue as feeds for livestock because the quantity of crop residue produced on the farm is the main determinant for the intensity of use of legume haulm as livestock feed.The other one may be related to the efficiency of post harvest managements like storage condition.In Ethiopia, farmers store their crop residues dominantly in the form of traditional heaps with exposure to vagaries of weather condition. As compared to cereals residues grain legumes haulms are more susceptible to spoilage (decomposition) if exposed to adverse environmental condition particularly rainfall and this can cause considerable decline in nutritive value of the haulm (Alkhtib et al., 2014). Additionally, awareness of the farmers on the feeding value of grain legume haulms also can determines the extent of utilization in livestock feeding (Akilona et al., 2015).Currently multiple works are being undertaken by various governmental and non-governmental organizations to benefit smallholder farmers from legume crop production in Ethiopia, which will create a big opportunity to boost annual production of grain legumes with concomitant increase in grain legumes haulm production and availability for livestock feeding. However, most of previous works on development of varieties and agronomic studies were basically targeting improvement of grain yield without considering crop residue yield and quality. Improvement of whole plant values of grain legumes is possible through combined efforts of variety selection and breeding together with application of better agronomic practices like soil fertility nutrients supply without marginalizing grain yield. Study by Ibsa (2013) showed significant improvement in yield performance and total haulm nitrogen and phosphorus content of chickpea due to phosphorus fertilizer and inoculants application, while the improvement is more prominent with combined application. Additionally, a remarkable increase in dry matter yield and CP content of annual forage legumes (vetch species) was also found due to inoculation with more effective rhizobium bacteria on two soil types in Ethiopia, though the crop was not grain type (Muluneh, 2006).Generally, it was timely to work on generating and promoting best bet agricultural technologies which can optimize the uses of whole plant values under smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. So far only limited information is available on the effect of phosphorus fertilizer and rhizobium inoculations on haulm dry matter yield and haulm quality of grain legumes in mixed-crop livestock production system of Ethiopia. Furthermore, current status of farmers' perception on the utilization of grain legume residues for animal feeding and the effects of agronomic practices on haulm yield and quality traits was not well studied and documented. Thus, this study was initiated with the following objectives:• To evaluate effect of phosphorus fertilizer and rhizobium inoculations on grain and haulm dry matter yield of selected grain legumes.• To evaluate the nutritive values of grain and haulm of selected grain legumes grown under phosphorus fertilizer and rhizobium inoculation.• To assess farmers' perception on the use of grain legumes' haulm for livestock feeding and the effects of phosphorus fertilizer and rhizobium inoculation on yield and quality of the haulm.Mixed crop-livestock farming is a predominant production system in Ethiopia and mainly found in altitudes ranges between 1500 and 3200 m.a.s.l (Alemayehu, 2003). More than 60% of human population and nearly two thirds of the ruminant livestock population of the country are found in this farming system (Dejene, 2003). This production zone receives adequate rainfall and has moderate temperature which makes the area suitable for cultivation of various crops and rearing of different livestock species (Malede and Takele, 2014). Thus, a wide range of crops are grown and many species of livestock kept for different ends by smallholder farmers (Alemayehu, 2003).Accordingly, many studies had conducted in different parts of the country and revealed that mixed crop-livestock farming as predominant mode of agricultural activity in the highlands of the country (Belay et al., 2012;Dawit et al., 2012;Mergia et al., 2014;Solomon et al., 2014).Livestock production is an integral component in the mixed crop-livestock production system of Ethiopia. The two sub sectors, i.e. crops and livestock production are interdependent and complementary (Getachew et al., 1993a;Solomon et al., 2009). Livestock play a crucial role in crops cultivation through provision of draft power, organic fertilizer (manure), and cash availablity for purchase of agricultural inputs whereas crop provide in return inputs for livestock production in the form of crop residues (Getachew et al., 1993b;Powell et al., 2004).There are also variations in the degree of integration exist between livestock and crops (Malede and Takele, 2014) as well as type of crops integrated with livestock production (Fekadu, 2009).For instance, studies conducted in cereal dominated mixed crop-livestock farming system of Bale highlands showed highly significant interaction exist between livestock holding and crop production (Solomon, 2004;Solomon et al., 2009). On the other hand, the integration of livestock with crops is lower in perennial crops-livestock system (coffee growing areas) of South Ethiopia where livestock have less importance (Malede and Takele, 2014). Generally, although the major liking elements that integrating crop and livestock sub-sectors in the mixed crop-livestock farming areas are crop residues and draught power. Increasing productivity of either crop or livestock alone is impossible without due consideration of the interaction exist between the two components (Hart and McDowell, 1985).Despite of the valuable importance's livestock has in food security and food self sufficiency of the farming households and presence of huge resources potential, the current production and productivity of livestock in the mixed-crop system is by far below the existing potential.Inadequate feed availability both in quantity and quality is identified as a major bottleneck that constraining the productivity of livestock subsector in this farming system (Bayush et al., 2008;Belay et al., 2013;Gezu et al., 2014;Malede and Takele, 2014;Solomon et al., 2014).The dominantly used feed resources in the mixed crop-livestock production system of Ethiopia are obtained from natural pastures, crop residues and stubble grazing (Alemayehu, 1985;Mergia et al., 2014;Samuel, 2014;Seyoum et al., 2001;Solomon, 2004;Solomon et al., 2014). However, the great variability observed on the availability and quality of these feed resources has been remaining as a major determinant for exhaustive utilization of the resources. Intensity of crop production and amount and distribution of the rainfall have a big function in determining the availability of each types of feeds in general (Mohammed and Abate, 1995). In addition to the above described feed supplies, hays, agro-industrial by products, improved forages species, and other non-conventional feed sources have also contributed about 7.44, 1.22, 0.30 and 4.76%, respectively in annual livestock feed supplies in sedentary area of the country (CSA, 2015a). The most commonly used feed resources in mixed crop-livestock production system of Ethiopia are further discussed below.Natural pasture is grassland that is available for grazing herbivores and it dominated with native herbaceous plants species and some indigenous browse trees. According to Alemayehu ( 2004), natural grassland in Ethiopia was accounts for about 30.5% of the area of the country and mainly found in highland parts. It was also a key source of livestock feeds in Ethiopia highlands where more livestock and human population found (Seyoum et al., 2001).According to the reports of some recent assessments (Belay et al., 2012;Endale, 2015;Samuel, 2014;Solomon et al., 2014); natural pasture remains as a major component in livestock feed supplies in different parts of the country where mixed crop-livestock production is a predominant agricultural activity. CSA (2015a) recent estimation has shown that green fodders that are obtained through grazing from natural pasture are contributing about 56.23% of the total annual feed supplies in sedentary areas of the country above ahead of the others. However, the contribution of natural pasture reaches this peak during a certain season of the year.Moreover, better quality forages was obtained from this source particularly during wet season of the year. The availability and quality aspect of forages from native pasture is governed by different factors which directly and indirectly influence species composition, i.e. climate (rainfall and temperature), altitude, soil and farming intensity (Alemayehu, 2004;Malede and Takele, 2014).Seasonal fluctuation in the availability and quality of pastures is a common feature of Ethiopia's grazing lands which results in serious feed shortage thereby affecting livestock production and productivity (Alemayehu, 2004;Solomon, 2004).The problems of natural pasture is a growing concern as the share it has in smallholder farmers feed supplies in mixed farming areas is drastically declining as a result of continuous expansion of cropping, poor management system and overstocking. For instance, study conducted to analyze land use change in the last 27 years in Amhara Regional State had revealed rapid shifting of grazing lands into arable land and 30.52% grazing land has been converted to crop field in the described time period (Tadesse and Solomon 2014). The same authors noticed that the remaining grassland has also changed into degraded grassland, degraded shrubby bush land, urban settlement, and eucalyptus woodland. Similarly, shrinkage of overall contribution of grazing lands for livestock feeding due to grazing pressure and farm land expansion into grazing areas had reported in West Shewa Zone due to (Seyoum and Fekede, 2003) and North Shewa zone of Ahmara Regional State (Ahmed, 2006). Furthermore, majority of the interviewed households (81.2%) were also reflected continues decrease of grazing lands due to conversation of grazing land to crop field as consequence of ever increasing population growth in Metekel zone (Solomon et al., 2014).As noted by Alemayehu (1985) losses of valuable plant species and replacement by unpalatable ones as a result of sever overgrazing and poor managements are core problems observed on most natural pastures in Ethiopia. Generally, in mixed farming areas of the country, better soils are used for cropping and the main permanent pasturelands are found on the upper slop of hills, seasonally water logged areas and broader of lands and rivers (Alemayehu, 2003).Crop residues are the fibrous by-products obtained from the cultivation of cereals, pulses, oil plants, roots and tubers; and can be used as an important feed resource for ruminant production particularly in subsistent type of farming. Crop residues also represent the largest agricultural harvest and incorporate more than half of the world's agricultural biomass (Lopez et al., 2005).Similarly, substantial amount of crop residues is produced annually in Ethiopia following cultivation of various grain crops. Smallholder farmers are used these crop by-products for different purposes including livestock feeding, domestic fuel, bedding material, source of income, as housing material and for mulching crop lands (Adugna, 2007a;Ahmed, 2006;Zinash and Seyoum, 1989). The most commonly used crop residues for animal feeding in Ethiopia are obtained after grain harvest of barley, teff, wheat, maize, sorghum, lentil, faba bean, field pea, chickpea, haricot bean, etc (Endale, 2015;Solomon et al., 2008). These crop residues are either grazed by animals on field in situ or collected and stored for stall feeding.Different scholars have made an attempt to predicate annual total DM production of crop residues in Ethiopia. For instance, Adugna (2007a) was estimated the quantity of available cereal and pulse crop residues for livestock feeding in Ethiopia to be about 29.2 and 1.4 million tons in DM bases, respectively. Moreover, availability of different types of crop residues for livestock feeding is depends on multiple factors such as agro-ecology, altitude, season of the year and size of land allocated for different crops species by farmers etc, (Ahmed, 2006;Solomon et al., 2014). In association with this, Williams et al., (1997) stated that availability of crop residues at farm level depends not just on production level only, but also on a variety of social and economic factors.Therefore, land, crop and animal ownership patters, cultural practices, the use of modern crop varieties and the opportunities for market and non-market exchanges are can influence a farmer's access to the residues that are locally produced (Williams et al., 1997).Due to the decreasing role of grazing land in feed supply as a consequence of farm land expansion to meet the demand for food, urbanization and land uses for other purposes, the potential uses of crop residues as feed sources have been increasing significantly from time to time (Daniel, 1988;Bayush et al., 2008;Malede and Takele, 2014;Solomon et al., 2008). Consequently, different studies (Bayush et al., 2008;Endale, 2015;Malede and Takele, 2014) ranked crop residues on the tops of all the other feed resources based on availability and contribution to the total annual dry matter supplies in the mixed crop-livestock farming system.Different researchers and development workers were made an estimate on the contribution of crop residues in livestock feed supply in different farming systems and areas of Ethiopia. However, estimates of the contribution of this feed resource vary greatly. Accordingly, the contribution of crop residues is estimated to reach up to 30-80% of the total dry matters available for livestock in highlands of the country (African RISING, 2014). Further, report of Adugna (2007a) indicated that almost half of (50%) the national feed supplies come from crop residues in Ethiopia. Similarly, assessment made in mixed crop-livestock system in Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia was also indicated that the contribution of crop residue to livestock feed sourcing ranged from 58.5% to 78.2% in the area (Bedasa, 2012).The major challenges in the use of crop residues for animal feeding come from its inherent property of having low nutrient concentration, less nutrient digestibility and limited availability of the nutrients to the animals. Since, crop residues are harvested after the plant reaches physiological maturity, and therefore they are high in cell walls and lignin and low in nitrogen content, deficient in sulfur, phosphorus and other minerals (Sundstøl and Owen, 1984). Therefore, the most dominantly used crop residues are characterized by the predominance of lignocelluloses cell wall materials (cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin) as main components, a high content of ash and a low content of CP, vitamin, minerals and storage carbohydrates (Cheeke, 1999;Sundstøl and Owen, 1984). Consequently, crop residues particularly cereal straws fail to meet the productive function of livestock because of their poor nutrients profiles such are soluble carbohydrate, crude protein, vitamins and minerals as well as lower digestibility (Cheeke, 1999).There are many other factors that influence the extent of crop residues utilization in livestock feeding by smallholder farmers. For example, problems associated with collection, transportation, storage, processing and feeding can be mentioned as causes for poor utilization of crop residues as feed in Ethiopia (Adugna, 2007a;Ahmed, 2006). Collection and preservation of straws when the availability is better and application of different processing and treatment methods to improve the feeding value could be an option to enhance the benefits expected from crop residue in animal feeding (Daniel, 1988).Different  (Adugna, 2007a;Lulseged and Alemu, 1985).Improved forages mainly legumes have appreciated benefits as they supply high quality fodders for livestock and maintaining soil fertility and health through their nitrogen fixing capability (Tilahun, 2003). Nutritional profiles especially CP, ME and in vitro DM digestibility of some improved browse and legume forages are comparable with oilseed cakes and these make them a potential supplements for poor quality roughage feeds (Dirba et al., 2013). A number of works have been also done on evaluation of potentiality of forage legumes as supplementary diets in poor quality roughages based feeding and promising results have been found in terms of production and reproduction performance of animals (Adugna, 2007b;Dawit, 2007). However, different improved fodder species and varieties are identified and recommended in Ethiopia; their contribution in national feed supply is very low and accounts only for 0.3% (CSA, 2015a). As lower adoption rate of the technologies by smallholder farmers remain as a major contributor for the minimal production of improved fodders in the country. In line with this, study conducted in Northeast Highlands of Ethiopia was revealed that only 1.3% of the total cultivated land is covered with improved forage seeds (Hassen, 2013).The major agro-industrial by products commonly used in Ethiopia are obtained from different agro-industries such as flour milling industries (wheat bran, wheat short, wheat middling and rice bran), edible oil extracting plants (Noug cake, cottonseed cake, peanut cake, linseed cake, sesame cake, sunflower cake etc), breweries and sugar factories (molasses) (Adugna, 2008;Malede and Takele, 2014).However, the nutritional qualities of these agro-industrial by products are excellent, their relative contribution in smallholder farmers feed supply are very minimal (Berhanu et al., 2009). This could be attributed by unaffordable prices of the products by most smallholder farmers, limited availability of the resources and lack of enough awareness on feeding values of these feed resources. Thus, the availability and utilization of these feed resources are limited only around towns where different agro-industries are found and the beneficiaries of the products are mainly livestock fattening operations and urban and peri-urban dairies located in the area with better accessibility to the resources (Berhanu et al., 2009;Birhan, 2014). The fast growing trend of agroindustries in different parts of the country to satisfy the growing demand for the edible main agricultural products is expected to create a big opportunity for the growth of agro-industrial by products production which can be used in livestock feeding (Yayneshet, 2010).Grain legumes are the second largest crops produced next to cereals based on area harvest and total production and grown on about 160 million hectare of arable land globally (Graham and Vance, 2003). Similarly, in Ethiopia around 1.56 million hectare of land (12.4% of total cultivated lands) planted to grain legumes annually and more than 2.67 million tons of grain (9.88% grain production) is produced (CSA, 2015b). An estimated 3.12 million tones of haulm could be also produced annually in Ethiopia by considering the 1.2 conversion factor suggested for grain legumes to estimate crop residues production from grain yield by FAO (1987). Thus, grain legumes have well recognized importance in food security and socio-economic of most Ethiopian households.In human nutrition, grain legumes are good sources of protein, vitamins and minerals as they are contained these nutrients in better balance. For instance, protein contents of grain legume seeds are estimated to 20-40% and good complements for the carbohydrate sources foods (cereals or root crops) in terms of amino acid composition (Gepts et al., 2005). Legume seeds contain lysine amino acid which is deficient in cereal seed proteins, while cereal seed proteins have good balance of sulfur-containing amino acids such as methionine and cystine which are deficient in legumes seeds (Wang et al., 2003). Generally, the contributions of grain legumes alone in the dietary protein nitrogen of human needs are reach about 33% (Vance et al., 2000). The same author was noticed that under subsistence condition, the percentage of legume protein nitrogen in the diet of human can reach twice of this figure.On the other hand, as livestock feed shortage both in quantity and quality is increasing become the major bottleneck for livestock production in mixed crop-livestock dominant farming areas, cultivation of grain legumes can be serves as a good buffering mechanism for this constraint. The main components of grain legumes that are used for livestock feeding include grains, grain processing by products (bran and hulls) and haulms. In line with this, soybean and peanut seeds and meals (produced during oil extraction) are the main sources of protein in the diet of modern chicken and pork industries (Graham and Vance, 2003). The highest CP content of these legume seeds and legume seed processing by-products is attributing for the increasing interest in use of them as main sources of protein in the nutrition of mono-gastric animals. Grain legumes hulls that produced during de-hulling of the seeds using mill machine or traditional available millstone for human consumption is also has good CP content and can be used in livestock feeding. For example, CP content of faba bean hull is ranging from 12.78 to 16% (Abdi et al., 2015;Jansman et al., 1995). Thus, it has a potential to be used as supplement in poor quality roughage based diets.Accordingly, importance of bean and pea hulls in feed supply for smallholder dairy producers had reported in Ethiopia (Belay and Greet, 2016).Grain legume haulms are also playing a significant role in supplying fodders for ruminant feeding in small scale mixed farming system. An assessment done by Alkhlib et al. (2014) Ethiopia demonstrated increasing trends in the use of grain legumes haulms as livestock feed by smallholder farmers. In association with this, a dramatic decline of using grain legume haulms for soil fertility improvement practices in the mixed crop-livestock farming system had reported (Alkhlib et al., 2014). Similarly, area specific livestock feed technologies prioritization work done with the aid of TechFit tool in selected sites of Bale highlands was identified feeding home grown legume residues as a potential feed technology for intervention in mixed crop-livestock farming system of the area (Sisay et al., 2012).The increasing interests in using grain legume haulms in livestock feeding could be considered as positive response to the existing feed problem. The better nutritional value of legume haulms which can be described in terms of high CP, ME and digestibility values with low fiber contents make preferable of legume haulms than cereals (Lopez et al., 2005). In Ethiopia also various studies have identified better nutritional quality of different grain legumes haulms than cereals (Dereje et al., 2010;Yetmwork et al., 2011). However, basic problem in legumes haulms use is that they easily lose their leaves, and then the haulms basically constituted by stems which tend to lower their nutritive value.Grain legume haulms have already became constant components of ruminant diet in small scale mixed crop-livestock farming areas. Similar to other crop yield attributes, haulm DM yield of grain legumes is also a result of interaction between plant genetic makeup and environmental factors.Thus, based on plant factors, agro-ecology of the area, crop management conditions and related factors, variations have been observed among different reports in haulm DM yield of different grain legumes. According to Lulseged and Jemal (1989) haulm biomass yield of field pea and faba bean are 5.0 t/ha and 3.8 t/ha, respectively in Ethiopia. Likewise, haulm DM yield ranging from 3.44 to 7.11 t/ha was obtained from study conducted on faba bean cultivars at two different sits in Ethiopia (Yetmiwork et al., 2011). Furthermore, crop residues yield of grain legumes is relatively lower than that of cereal in most cases (Lulseged and Jemal, 1978).Nutritional values of feeds in general and crop residues in particulars are determined based on their nutrient composition, intake, and utilization efficiency of the digested DM.  18, 5.10, 2.85, 96.90, 80.80, 63.20 and 13.00% for DM, CP, EE, OM, NDF, ADF and ADL contents, respectively and rumen degradability of DM and OM of this haulms was very low, although it has better rumen degradable CP (Maheri-Sis et al., 2011).Nutritional values of chickpea haulms was also studied by Golshani et al. (2012) and chemical composition of 6.1% CP, 5.5% EE, 34.3% CF and 46.2% NFE were reported. In the mean time, degradability kinetics of chickpea haulms was evaluated; and the result showed soluble fraction (a) of OM (17.5%) and CP (40.8%) and potential degradability (a+b) of OM (56.7%) and CP (72.0%) (Golshani et al., 2012).Haulm biomass yield and quality characteristics of different crops are under influence of various factors. Genetic makeup, crop growing and harvesting condition, soil, temperature, threshing and storage methods all can influence dry matter yield, chemical composition and palatability of crop residues (Daniel, 1988;Reddy et al., 2003). Effect of species and varietal difference and application of fertilizers on haulm biomass yield and quality are discussed below.The variability comes due to species and varietal differences of the crops are a result of genetic makeup of the given plants. Thus, beyond the remarkable differences observed in yield and quality attributes of crop residues from crops of different botanical families such as cereals versus legumes, crop species of the same botanical families have show a big variation in terms of yield and quality related traits (Leulseged and Jemal, 1989;Lopez et al., 2005).Nutritional value, i.e. CP, ME and in vitro DM digestibility of 5.0 -9.7%, 6.1 -7.1MJ/kg DM and 45.1 to 55.3 %, respectively were noticed for chickpea and field pea haulms (Abreu and Bruno-Saores, 1998).  et al., 1999;Diriba et al., 2011;Tena, 2016;Yetmiwork et al., 2011).Nutrient availabilities are among the major determinants of crop productivity in all cases, because plants require balanced amount of all essential nutrients for their normal physiological process that facilitate optimum growth and then final yield performance. Therefore, any crop management practices including fertilizer applications applied with an objective to increasing grain yields could be result in higher yield of crop residues also, because all yield components of any crops are a function of active vegetation growth which can be altered with different nutrient management activities (Leulseged and Jemal, 1989).According to Asnakew et al. (1991) deficiency of nutrients especially N and P is a characteristic of most soils in Ethiopia and application of fertilizers to overcome these has showed significant increase in yield. On the other hand, low soil P availability and poor utilization efficiency of added P was reported as a major constraint limiting productivity of most grain legumes (Aulakh et al., 2003). Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for normal plant growth and development as it has a direct roles in biochemical, physiological and morphological process of plant production (Novoa and Loomis, 1981). Unlike cereal crops, legume crops have a capacity to fix atmospheric N2 through the symbiotic association exist between soil microbes (Rhizobium bacteria) and their nodules (Giller, 2001). Thus, biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is a natural cycle that is available for solving the problem of N deficiency in agricultural systems. According to Peoples et al. (1995) the contribution of BNF to the nitrogen cycle is under control of many factors as it can be altered through manipulation of various nutritional, biological, physical and environmental factors.Therefore, effectiveness of BNF capacity of legume crops can be controlled through different management approaches like applications of P fertilizer and inoculations of crop seeds with more effective strains of rhizobium bacteria. Furthermore, the two components have a big interaction effect, because soil P deficiency is among the factors which can affect BNF efficiency of legume crops through its effects of root infection, nodule development and function, and plant growth (Giller, 2001;Yakubu et al., 2010).In research system, substantial numbers of experiments have been conducted to evaluate the effects of different nutrient source fertilizers including P and inoculants application separately and in combination on various legume crops with primary goal of grain traits improvement. Study conducted with an objective to evaluate effect of S and P source fertilizer on yield and yield contributing parameters of pigeon pea was showed a significant increment in haulm yields, and the maximum haulm yield (4.12 t/ha) was obtained with combined application of 20 kg S/ha with 50 kg P2O5/ha (Deshbhratar et al., 2010). Field experiment conducted on soybean using inorganic and organic fertilizer also demonstrated variation in straw yield of the crop during two different cropping season, while significantly higher haulm yield of 5.31 t/ha harvested with application of NPK followed by urea (5.13 t/ha), compost (4.31 t/ha) and control (4.29 t/ha) in second year (Yagoub et al., 2012).Study done by Ibsa (2013) had demonstrated a significant improvement obtained in chickpea due to P and inoculants application and the improvement was more prominent with combined application of phosphorus and inoculants. The same study was also illustrated an increase of haulms N content by 56% and 82% due to inoculation and phosphorus-inoculation treatments, respectively compared to the control. Another important mineral (P) content of feeds was also showed significant improvement in the chickpea haulm with higher mean value of 567mg/kg and 334mg/kg in sole P and combined P with inoculants supplied treatments, respectively (Ibsa, 2013).Significant improvement attended in haulms yield and other economically important traits and nutrient contents of haulms in chickpea at different level of P fertilizer application was discussed in detail in the literatures reviewed by Dataniya et al. (2014).Similarly, Tagore et al. (2013) find out the effects of rhizobium and phosphate solubilizing bacterial (PSB) inoculants on symbiotic traits, nodule leghemoglobin, and yield of chickpea. Their study revealed significant increase in grain and haulm yields due to microbial inoculation and the highest mean grain and haulms yield (2150 kg/ha and 2461Kg/ha) were obtained in inoculation of chickpea seed with Rhizobium + PSB. Experiment carried out by Bozorgi et al. (2011) to see the effects of biological and mineral fertilization and foliar zinc spraying on yield and yield components of faba bean had demonstrated significant increment in yield and yield contributing traits of the crops. Accordingly, maximum haulms yield was obtained at 60 kg/ha pure N treatment (Bozorgi et al., 2011). This study was showed significant interaction effect between N fertilization and foliar zinc spraying on the yield and yield related attributes of faba bean. Marked increment of grain and haulms yield of faba bean was also reported with the application of mineral P fertilizer with phosphorus dissolving bacteria (PDB) by Gizawy and Mehasen (2009).In addition to grain crops, efforts were also made on evaluation of forage legumes responses to various nutrient sources fertilizers with emphasis on yield (DM and seed) and nutritional quality.Mohamed-saleem and Kaufmann (1985) had reported significant effects of P supply on DM yield, CP content, P concentration and digestibility of forage legumes. Similarly, significant improvement had obtained in DM yield and CP content of annual forage legumes in central highlands of Ethiopia due to seed inoculation with effective Rhizobium bacteria (Muluneh, 2006).The same finding showed that DM yield increment of inoculated vetch species over uninoculated treatments of the same species was 20.55%, 29.30%, 21.10 % and 33.56% for V. dasycarpa, V. villosa, V. narbonensis and V. sativa, respectively at Holleta (Nitisols).Whereas the increment reached up to 27.27%, 9.8%, 16.1% and 40.00 % for V. dasycarpa, V. villosa, V. narbonensis and V. sativa, respectively at Ginchi (Vertisols).Overall, although some information available on the effect of both mineral and biological fertilizers application on crop residue yields of grain crops in general and grain legumes in particular. Limited information is available on the responses of grain legumes to the application of different fertilizers in terms of straw quality. This shows low attention given for the straw traits in most crop improvement programs. In the mixed crop-livestock farming systems where both crops and livestock have valuable importance for livelihood of the farming communities; improvement of whole plant values has a big contribution in increasing productivity of overall households farming activities.The study was conducted in selected districts that have been used by N2-Africa project as pilot implementation sites throughout the country. Four regional states (Amhara, Oromia, Benishangul-Gumz, and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People) were represented with different number of districts. These districts were further grouped under different clusters and tagged with different grain legumes based on the potential of the areas for the study (Table 1). As these study districts were selected from different parts of the country and locations their agroecological condition also differed. Agro-ecological zone of the country is shown in Figure 1. Most of the study districts are found in agro-ecological zone of Derived Savannas, while only few numbers of districts considered from Southern Guinea Savanna, Northern Guinea Savanna and Humid Forest agro-ecological zones (Figure 1).In general, these different locations from various agro-ecological zones are also different in soil type, temperature, rainfall, humidity and light intensity which are the major determinants for the type of crop species distributed and/or grown in the respective areas. Thus, districts used in current study are representing subsistence based small scale mixed crop-livestock farming system in which livestock production is integrated with cultivation of different crops. Overall, good annual rainfall distribution and temperature make these areas favorable for production of different crops by farmers. Altitude, mean annual rainfall and mean annual temperature of the study districts are summarized in Table 2.  Improved varieties of four grain legumes, namely faba bean (Vicia faba), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), soybean (Glycine max) and haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) which are already grown in the areas were used. The experimental treatments included control (without inputs, -P-I), separate applications of phosphorus fertilizer (+P-I) and inoculants (-P+I), and combined application of phosphorus fertilizer and inoculants (+P+I) for each crop species. Hence, there were four treatments for each respective crop as arranged below.• T1: DAP or NPS fertilizer application and rhizobium inoculation (+P+I)• T2: Rhizobium inoculation only (-P+I)• T3: DAP or NPS fertilizer application only (+P-I)• T4: Without inputs/control (-P-I)This study was applied on the crops established on selected farmers' plots in 2015/16 main cropping season for the demonstration of best bet grain legumes technologies across all locations.Accordingly faba bean, chickpea, haricot bean and soybean were established on 20, 12, 26 and 17selected farms, respectively. The crops were established on well prepared plots of lands. All treatments were applied on all farmers plot without replication. The plot size was 100m 2 per treatment with one meter walking space between each treatment plots. The seed was sown to the experimental plots using row planting method. Recommended seed rate for each respective crop under a given area was used for planting, while for treatments of sole P fertilizer and inoculatedphosphorus fertilizer plots, DAP/NPS was applied at a rate of 50 kg per hectare.For inoculated treatments, seed of faba bean, chickpea, haricot bean and soybean were inoculated with HB-1035, CP-39, HB-429 and MAR-1495 rhizobium strains respectively using the recommended procedures and rates by producers/manufacturer. In all cases, uninoculated seed was sown first and followed by the inoculated seeds to avoid cross contamination and the inoculated seeds were planted on the same day they have been inoculated. Moreover, all other crop husbandry practices were done by farmers under close supervision of the researchers and development workers until the crops reach physiological maturity for grain harvesting.At appropriate stage of physiological maturity of the crops for grain harvesting, plants from entire plot area were harvested manually using sickles and total above ground biomass yield was recorded for each plot. Then, the harvested plants were threshed separately for each plot to separated grain from haulms, and the grain yield was measured. Furthermore, the haulm weight was determined by subtracting weight of grain from the total above ground biomass weight. In the mean time, representative samples of grain (100-200gm) and whole plant haulm composed of stems, leaf and pod husks (500-1000gm) were collected into sample bags for each plot separatelyand labeled with all necessary information.Haulm dry matter yield (HDMY) was estimated according to the formula developed by Tarawalie et al. (1995) by using above ground total biomass and grain yield data. Dry matter (DM %) used for HDMY estimation was determined using NIRS prediction. Harvest index (HI) was calculated as a ratio of total grain yield to total above ground biomass yield.Where: HDMY=Haulm dry matter yield, TFW= total fresh weight of the haulm, DM %= dry matter percent of the haulmWhere: HI=harvest index, GY=grain yield, TBMY=total above ground biomass yieldCollected grain and haulm samples were transported to ILRI Animal Nutrition Laboratory, Addis Abeba for laboratory analysis. The samples were given laboratory number and ground to 1mm mesh size using Wiley mill and packed into paper bags and stored pending to further laboratory works. Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) prediction were employed for the analysis of the intended nutritional value variables of both grain and haulm samples.Accordingly, haulm samples were scanned for predication of DM (%), Ash (%), N (%), ME (MJ/kg DM), IVOMD(%),and fiber fractions (NDF%, ADF% and ADL%) contents, while in grain samples the scanning was done for the predication of DM (%), Ash (%), CP (%), ME (MJ/kg), IVOMD (%), and essential amino acid contents of the grain. Crude protein (CP %) of grain and haulm samples were determined by multiplying N content of the samples with the value of 6.25.For scanning purpose, already ground sample was dried overnight at 60 0 C in oven to standardize the moisture conditions. Then, the partially dried sample was filled into NIRS cup and scanned using Foss NIRS 5000 with software package WinISI II in the 1108-2492nm spectra ranges (Win Scan version 1.5, 2000, intrasoft international, L.L.C). Finally, NIRS scanned information of the haulm and grain samples were used for the prediction of the above mentioned nutritional value variables, using predictive equations developed based on previously conducted conventional analyses.After crop harvest, three districts (Sinana, Damot-Gale and Ada'a) were selected purposively based on their accessibility and intensity of crop production for the survey purpose from basket of N2-Africa project target districts. Then, single-visit survey was carried out to assess farmers' grain legume haulm utilization practices and their perception of the effects of P fertilizer and rhizobium inoculation on the haulm yield and quality using semi-structured questionnaires. Accordingly, 28 households from each of Ada'a and Sinana districts, and 34 households from Damot-Gale district were considered for the collection of household data. Then, the selected households were interviewed individually.During the survey, information was mainly gathered on livestock holding, total landholding and land use pattern, type of grain legumes grown in earlier year, household level uses of legume haulms, method of straw collection, treatment, storage and feeding to animals, their perception on the effect of P fertilizer and rhizobium inoculants on yield and quality the haulms, trends in use of grain legume haulms for livestock feeding, limitations of using legume haulm for livestock feeding.Household survey data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS, Ver.16).Percentage, mean and standard error were calculated for the survey data. Further, data on livestock and land holding and land use pattern of the surveyed households were subjected to general linear model (GLM) of SPSS for analysis of variance. Yield and laboratory result data were checked for compliance of homogeneity of variances in Minitab software using Levene's test prior to actual analysis of the variance (Levene, 1960). Then, combined analyses of variance (ANOVA) was performed using general linear model (GLM) procedure of SAS 9.1 in random complete block design (RCBD) considering farms as block factor. P value of <0.05 was used to declare significance effects of the treatment. In case of significant difference in means, Duncan Multiple Range Test was used to locate mean separation. Effect of treatment, location and the interaction between treatment and location were included in the statistical model for yield and quality data. Faba bean, chickpea, soybean and haricot bean were grown on-farm during main cropping season of 2015/16 to evaluate their responses to the soil fertility treatments which include seed inoculation with rhizobium bacteria and application of P fertilizer alone and in combination. The effects of rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer application on grain and haulm yield as well as harvest index of the four grain legumes is presented and discussed below.The mean grain yield, haulm DM yield and harvest index of faba bean grown under different soil fertility treatments are presented in Table 3. There was significant effect (P<0.05) of the treatments on the grain and haulm DM yield of faba bean in the present study. However, the interaction effect of treatment with location was not significant (P>0.05) in all studied yield parameters (Appendix Table 1).The highest mean grain yield of faba bean (2.87 t/ha) was obtained with treatment +P+I followed by treatment +P-I (2.84 t/ha) (Table 3). Similarly, significant improvement was observed in haulm DM yield of faba bean (3.61 t/ha) due to combined application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer (Table 3). On the other hand, haulm DM yield of the remaining three treatments (-P+I, +P-I and -P-I) showed only numerical differences (P>0.05). In contrast to grain and haulm DM yield, harvest index of faba bean was not significantly affected (P>0.05) by the treatments. Harvest index of faba bean ranged between 0.42 and 0.46 (Table 3). The mean grain yield, haulm DM yield and harvest index of chickpea grown under rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer application are presented in Table 4. The soil fertility treatments were found to significantly affect (P<0.05) grain yield and harvest index of chickpea. But analysis of variance showed that all studied yield parameters in chickpea were not significantly (P>0.05)affected by the interaction of treatment by location (Appendix Table 2). The mean grain yields of treatment +P+I and -P+I were significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of the control and +P-I treatments (Table 4). The haulm DM yield of chickpea varied between 2.25 t/ha (control) to 2.47 t/ha (treatment -P+I) but the difference among the treatments were not significant (P>0.05). The harvest index was highest (0.46) in treatment +P+I, while the lowest value (0.40) was obtained in the two uninoculated treatments (Table 4). Table 5 shows the mean grain yield and haulm DM yield as well as harvest index of haricot bean.The yield parameters (grain and haulm DM yield and harvest index) of haricot bean were significantly influenced (P<0.05) by the application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer.Analysis of variance also revealed significant interaction effect (P<0.05) of treatment by location on haricot bean yield parameters (Appendix Table 3).Grain yield of haricot bean showed increasing trend with application of the soil fertility treatments, although the improvement attended in the case of separate applications of the inputs (treatment -P+I and +P-I) was not significant (P>0.05) over the control treatment (-P-I). Accordingly, the highest mean grain yield (1.98 t/ha) was recorded in the +P+I treatment, whereas the lowest value (1.60 t/ha) was recorded in the control (Table 5). The haulm DM yield was higher (P<0.05) in the +P+I treatment than the single input supplied treatments but was not significantly different from the control. Harvest index calculated for haricot bean also revealed the presence of significant variations among the treatments (P<0.05) and the highest (0.52) and lowest (0.47) values of harvest index were obtained in sole P fertilized (+P-I) and control treatments, respectively. The mean grain yield, haulm DM yield and harvest index of soybean are presented in Table 6.Analysis of variance showed that yield parameters of soybean significantly responded (P<0.05) to the treatments with increasing in grain and haulm DM yield compared to the control. On the other hand, there was non-significant interaction effect (P>0.05) between treatment and location on yield parameters of soybean (Appendix Table 4). The maximum mean grain yield (2.56 t/ha) of soybean was obtained from the treatment +P+I, followed by -P+I (2.46 t/ha) and +P-I (2.10 t/ha) treatments (Table 6). Meanwhile, grain yield harvested from control treatment (1.75 t/ha) was significantly lower than the two inoculated treatments but in par with treatment +P-I (Table 6). The effect of rhizobium inoculation was more prominent than P fertilizer supply in both grain and haulm DM yield of soybean. The highest mean haulm DM yields (3.23 t/ha and 3.07t/ha) were obtained from the inoculated treatments (-P+I and +P+I). Haulm DM yields of the two uninoculated treatments (+P-I= 2.32 t/ha and -P-I=2.12 t/ha) were not significantly different (Table 6). On the other hand, no significant effects were observed among the different treatments in harvest index of soybean (Table 6).Values of Grain Legume HaulmThe effects of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer on chemical composition, in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) and metabolizable energy (ME) values of faba bean haulm are shown in Table 7. Analysis of variance done on haulm quality revealed significant difference (P<0.05) among the treatments in all studied parameters except the ash content. Moreover, except the CP content of the haulm, the remaining parameters were not significantly affected by the interaction between treatment and location (Appendix Table 5).The mean ash (%) content of faba bean haulm obtained in the current study ranged from 6.91% in control treatment (-P-I) to 7.78% in treatment +P-I but the ash content was not significantly varied across the treatments (Table 7). The results showed that application of soil fertility treatments had a significant positive influence (P<0.05) on CP (%) content of faba bean haulm. As a consequence, the CP content was higher in input supplied treatments (+P+I, -P+I and +P-I) compared with the control treatment (-P-I) and the values were similar among the input supplied treatments (Table 7).The application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer had significant negative effects (P<0.05) on haulm NDF, ADF and ADL contents of faba bean. Thus, control treatment (-P-I) contained significantly higher mean NDF, ADF and ADL values than the remaining treatments (Table 12).There was no significant differences among the input supplied treatments (+P+I, -I+P and +P-I) in NDF, ADF and ADL contents of the haulm. The IVOMD (%) and ME (MJ/kg DM) values of faba bean haulm were significantly lower (P<0.05) in the control than in the different soil fertility treatments supplied groups (Table 7). Haulm chemical composition, IVOMD and ME values of chickpea are given in Table 8. Analysis of variance revealed that the CP and ME contents and IVOMD value of chickpea haulm were significantly improved (P<0.05) with the applications of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer. No significant differences (P>0.05) were observed in ash, NDF, ADF and ADL contents of the haulm among the different treatments. The result also showed highly significant (P<0.001) interaction effect of treatment by location on haulm CP content of chickpea (Appendix Table 6).  8).Table 9 shows the mean nutritional values of haricot bean haulm as affected by rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer application. The rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer application had significant effects (P<0.05) on all nutritional quality components of haricot bean haulm except the ADL content.The ash content of the haricot bean haulm was increased significantly (P<0.05) with the combined application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer over sole P fertilization and control. Similarly, rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer had significant positive effect (P<0.01) on CP content of haricot bean haulm. The highest mean haricot bean haulm CP content (7.50%) was obtained from +P+I treatment followed by -P+I (6.85%) and +P-I (6.72%) treatments, whereas significantly lowest CP content (5.94%) was recorded from the control treatment (Table 9).The NDF and ADF contents of haricot bean haulm were significantly decreased (P<0.05) with the application of soil fertility treatments. The IVOMD of haricot bean haulm was increased (P<0.05) from 55.70% in control treatment (-P-I) to 57.79% in the +P+I treatment. The ME content of haricot bean haulm also showed significant increment (P<0.05) due to rhizobium inoculation over uninoculated treatments (Table 9). Nutritional value parameters analyzed for soybean haulm are presented in Table 10. The soil fertility treatments had significant effects (P<0.05) on CP content, IVOMD and cell wall constituents of the haulm of soybean. The study also showed treatment by location interaction effects on CP content, IVOMD and ME values of soybean haulm (Appendix Table 8). Soybean haulm CP content was significantly increased (P<0.05) due to the application of rhizobium inoculants both with and without P fertilization. The mean CP contents of +P+I (6.74%) and -P+I (6.08%) were significantly higher than the results of the remaining treatments viz. +P-I (5.30%) and the control (4.67%). The soil fertility treatments resulted in reduced NDF, ADF and ADL contents of soybean haulm.Thus, the control treatment (-P-I) contained significantly higher NDF, ADF and ADL contents than the treatments that received soil fertility enhancing inputs, though single input supplied treatments contained similar NDF with the control treatment. The IVOMD of soybean haulm showed significant increase as a result of the use of rhizobium inoculants. As a result, the maximum mean IVOMD (50.62%) value of soybean haulm was recorded in treatment +P+I, whereas the lowest mean value of IVOMD (%) was obtained in uninoculated treatments (+P-I = 49.38% and -P-I = 49.55%). As shown in Table 10, all treatments had similar ME value of soybean haulm in the current study.Parameters of Grain LegumesMean thousand seed weight (gram) of chickpea, haricot bean and soybean grain is presented in Table 11. The thousand grain weight of haricot bean showed significant increase (P<0.001) as a result of rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer application. Thus, the highest mean thousand seed weight (210.55 g) was recorded in the treatment with combined application of the inputs (+P+I)whereas the lowest (199.15 g) was observed in the control (-P-I). Thousand seed weight of soybean and chickpea grains from +P+I, -P+I and +P-I treatments were heavier than the control (-P-I), although the difference was not significant (P>0.05).   13). The ash, CP and ME contents and IVOMD value of soybean grain showed significant response (P<0.05) to the application of soil fertility treatments (Table 14). The rhizobium inoculation had highly significant (P<0.001) effect on grain CP content of soybean and the highest mean values (42.97 and 43.17%) were recorded in +P+I and -P+I treatments, respectively (Table 14). The ME and IVOMD values of soybean grain were also increased significantly (P<0.001) with the application of rhizobium inoculants. The highest mean ME contents (10.14 and 10.15 MJ/Kg DM) recorded in inoculated treatments (+P+I and -P+I) were significantly higher than the mean values of ME (9.50 and 9.73 MJ/Kg DM) obtained from uninoculated treatments (+P-I and -P-I). The IVOMD of soybean grain showed similar trend of change with CP and ME (Table 19). The interaction effect of treatment by location was significant only for CP content and IVOMD of the haricot bean grain (Appendix Table 9, 10). In soybean grain, significant (P<0.05) treatment by location interaction effects were observed for all studied parameters (Appendix Table 11). Essential amino acid contents of chickpea, haricot bean and soybean grain are presented in Table 15, 16 and 17, respectively. The essential amino acid contents of haricot bean and soybean grain were significantly affected (P<0.05) by the application of the rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer.The essential amino acid contents of haricot bean grain improved significantly (P<0.05) with the application of P fertilizer with more prominent improvement in the case of sole P fertilizer application in most parameters. Accordingly, higher mean value of histidine (0.95%), threonine (0.96%), valine (1.10%), isoleucine (0.86%), leucine (1.96%), tryptophane (0.27%), cystine (0.41%) and tyrosine (0.69%) were obtained from treatment +P-I (Table 16). On the other hand, higher mean value of total amino acid (22.90 and 23.01%) and phenylalanine (1.36 and 1.37%) content of haricot bean grain were recorded in +P+I and +P-I treatments (Table 16).The essential amino acid contents of soybean grain showed highly significant (P<0.001) response to soil fertility treatments. In most parameters, the significant increment was obtained in rhizobium inoculated treatments (+P+I and -P+I) than uninoculated treatments (Table 17). Furthermore, histidine, tryptophane and tyrosine in treatment +P-I showed significant increment over the control (Table 17). As a consequence, significantly higher mean values of individual essential and total amino acids were recorded in rhizobium inoculated treatments both with and without P fertilization (Table 17).   In this study, household survey was also conducted to get farmers viewpoint on the effects of rhozobium inoculation and P fertilizer on haulm yield and quality as well as to know the current status of grain legume haulm use practices under smallholder farmers' conditions. The results on household socio-economic characteristics, livestock feed sources, uses of grain legume haulm, and farmers' perception on the effects of these soil fertility treatments on haulm yield and quality are presented in the following sections.The demographic characteristics of the sampled households of the study area i presented in Table 18. Majority of respondents were male headed households (95.6%). As indicated in school education, respectively (Table 18). About 12.2% of the respondents also have the ability to read and write (obtained through basic and traditional education), while the remaining 7.8% were illiterate.  19).The current survey showed that the overall average total land holding per household in the study area was 2.10±0.13ha.Total land (3.24±0.14 ha) and cultivated land (2.57±0.12 ha) holding per household in Sinana district was significantly higher (P<0.05) than in Ada'a (2.52±0.14 ha total land and 2.02±0.12ha cultivated land) and in Damot-Gale (0.81±0.13ha total land and 0.53±0.11ha cultivated land) districts. On the other hand, land allocated for grain legumes production in Ada'a district (0.95±0.07ha) was significantly (P<0.05) higher than in Sinana (0.21±0.07 ha) and Damot Gale (0.24 ±0.06ha) districts. Common grain legumes (pulse crops) grown by smallholder farmers in the surveyed districts are shown in Figure 2.The average grazing landholding per household was very small and not significantly different (P>0.05) among the study districts. The overall mean grazing land owned per household in the study area was 0.12±0.02 ha (Table 19). Moreover, the land allocated for cultivated fodder per household was significantly different (P<0.05) among the surveyed districts. As shown in Table 4, the average farm size (0.11±0.02ha) allocated for fodder production per household in Sinana district was significantly larger than the remaining two districts.  The major feed resources prioritized by the sampled households according to the perceived contribution of each type of feeds to total feed supply in the study area are presented in Table 20.The result showed that crop residues (32.5%), natural pasture (22.1%), stubble grazing (18.8%), other feeds (11.9%), cut and carry forages (8.9%), agro-industrial by products or concentrates (5.3%) and hay (0.5%) were the major feed resources utilized by smallholder farmers in the study area (Table 20).As shown in Figure (3-A), about 72.2% of the households have reported livestock feed shortage as an important constraint that challenged them in livestock production. The respondents also stated that feed scarcity occurred in different periods of the year. Accordingly, majority of the households (73.4%) reported that they experience feed shortages in the dry seasons of the year (Figure 3-B), whereas the remaining 25.0% and 1.6% of the respondents reported feed shortage to be a critical challenge during wet season and throughout the year, respectively. The farmers of the study area adopted different coping strategies in time of limited feed availability (Figure 3-C). The major coping strategies identified in the present survey includes efficient utilization of conserved crop residues (32.8%), use of different farm and home by-products (29.7%), use of purchased feed (18.8%) and exploration of other alternative like moving animals where better grazing (including stubble grazing) available during the day time and obtaining from fellow farmers (18.7%).  source of feed (76.7%) and followed by source of household fuel (11.4%), for mulching and compost making (8.8%) and for sale as alternative source of cash (3.1%). For sale/income source 3. 1 4 Total 100 # Index means x 100. Index mean= sum of (2x number of response of 1 st rank + 1x number of responses of 2 nd rank) divided by (2x total response of 1 st rank + 1x total response of 2 nd rank) Majority (90.0%) of the sampled households stated that the trend of haulm utilization in livestock feeding is increasing from time to time (Table 22). There are many factors that triggered the rapid shifting of legume haulm use as livestock feed source than other roles in the mixed crop-livestock farming areas. Shortage of livestock feed and lack of other options, improved awareness on the nutritional advantages of legume haulms than cereal residues and increased annual production of grain legume haulm are the three main drivers prioritized by the respondents for the increasing interest in including grain legume haulm in livestock diets (Table 22). Responses of the sampled households on the effect of applying P fertilizer and inoculants on the biomass yield and feeding value of grain legume haulm is shown in Figure 4. As illustrated in Figure (4-A), about 62.2 % of the interviewed households believed that applying P fertilizer and inoculants have an effect on haulm yield of the grain legumes. They correlated the influence of these soil fertility enhancing treatments with the improved vegetative growth of the crops which in return increased the final above ground biomass production. Meanwhile, the remaining 24.5% of households did not recognize the impacts of the fertilizers on the haulms yield, whereas 13.3%of the respondents said that the treatments did not bring any change on the haulm biomass yield of the crops (Figure 4-A).Similarly, questions were raised to the respondents to capture their perception on the effect of the treatments on nutritional quality of the haulm. The proportion of the morphological fractions (leaf to stem ratio) of the harvested haulm and animals' preference to the haulm harvested from different plots were used as key indicators to assess the farmers perception of the nutritional quality of the haulm. Accordingly, 46.7% of the interviewed households replied that they did not know the impact of the treatments on the nutritional value of the haulms (Figure 4  The increased grain yield of the different grain legumes as a result of soil fertility treatments is consistent with the findings of different authors (Ibsa, 2013;Tagore et al., 2013Tagore et al., , 2014)). Similar to present result, significant improvement of chickpea grain yield was reported with the inoculation of chickpea seed with dual microbial fertilizers (Tagore et al., 2013(Tagore et al., , 2014)). Similarly, Ndlovu (2015) also reported about 16.15-27.50% grain yield increment in two dry bean (Phaseolues vulgaris) cultivars due to rhizobium inoculation. The result obtained in soybean grain yield is in accordance with the earlier research finding that showed mean grain yield of 1.75, 1.42 and 1.42 t/ha in inoculation plus P fertilizer, seed inoculation alone and sole P fertilizer applied treatments, respectively (Ronner et al., 2015). The current result also in agreement with report that showed a significant increment in soybean grain yield due to inoculation with two isolates (SB6B1 and legumfix) of Bradyrhizobium inoculants in Ethiopia (Tesfaye, 2015). Additionally, comparable soybean grain yield was also reported with the use of various N source fertilizers (Khaim et al., 2013).Significant improvement of haulm DM yield of all the studied crops except chickpea was possible due to the application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer. Combined applications of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer (treatment +P+I) resulted in highest mean haulm DM yield in faba bean (3.61 t/ha) and haricot bean (1.84 t/ha), while the two inoculated treatments (+P+I and -P+I) gave maximum yield of 3.07 and 3.23 t/ha respectively, in soybean. Similarly, Yagoub et al. (2012) and Khaim et al. (2013) reported significant improvement in soybean haulm yield as a result of application of N and P source fertilizers. However, of the improvement in chickpea haulm DM yield due to the application of the inputs was not significant in contrast to the positive responses reported earlier for the same crops by Tagore et al. (2013Tagore et al. ( , 2014) ) Variations were also observed among the studied grain legumes in their responses to the inputs in terms of harvest index. In the present study, chickpea and haricot bean harvest index were affected significantly due to the soil fertility treatments. The results illustrated that the maximum harvest index of chickpea (0.46) and haricot bean (0.52) were recorded in treatment +P+I and treatment P-I, respectively. Contrary to the current result, lack of response to rhizobium inoculants application and P fertilizer level was reported in two dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) cultivars in terms of harvest index (Ndlovu, 2015). On the other hand, unlike the finding of the current study which showed non-significant effect of the treatments on soybean harvest index, significant effect of N and P fertilizer on harvest index were also reported (Yagoub et al., 2012;Khaim et al., 2013).Generally in the present experiment, the increased levels of plant available nutrients particularly N and P in the rhizosphere due to the application of P fertilizer and seed inoculation with more effective rhizobium strain might have positively affected the nodulation and vegetative growth of the plants, which ultimately resulted in increased yield performance.Values of Grain Legumes HaulmThe current result showed that all nutritional quality variables of faba bean haulm except ash content were significantly affected with the treatments. The CP content of faba bean haulm was significantly increased over the control as a result of rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer application by 24.19%, 22.85% and 21.53% in +P+I, -P+I and +P-I treatments, respectively.Similarly, positive and highly significant effect of P level and bio-fertilizer on N (CP) content of faba bean straw was reported by Habbasha et al. (2007). According to the same authors, the highest straw N (1.93%) content which is equivalent to 12.06% CP was achieved with the combined application of rhizobium, Nitrobein and P2O5 fertilizers in faba bean. On the other hand, despite showing significant improvement over the control treatment, the haulm harvested from faba bean grown on rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer supplied plots contained lower CP content to be classified in medium quality roughage category according to Nsahlai et al. (1996), who put roughage feeds with CP content of 9.92-15.2%, 6.6-9.1% and 3.0-6.5% as high, medium and low quality roughages, respectively.Furthermore, the recorded haulm CP content for all treatments in the present study were lower than the CP content reported for the same crops under unknown soil nutrient regimes in different parts of the country (Solomon et al., 2008;Yetmwork et al., 2011), but higher than the value reported for five faba bean cultivars in Ethiopia (Teklu, 2016). Regardless of the treatments, some The decrease in NDF, ADF and ADL contents of faba bean haulm due to the treatments can also contribute to concomitant improvement in the rumen soluble plant cell constituents. These cell wall components (NDF and ADF) have direct effects on animal performance through their influence on DM intake and nutrient digestibility. Singh and Oosting (1992) pointed out that roughage feeds containing NDF values of less than 45% to be classified as high, those with values ranging from 45 to 65% as medium and those with values higher than 65% as low quality.Meanwhile, Kellems and Church (1998) indicated that roughage with less than 40% ADF is categorized as high quality and those with greater than 40% as poor quality. Thus, taking into consideration the criteria of Singh and Oasting (1992) based NDF composition, unlike haulm harvested from the control treatment, haulm of faba bean grown using soil fertility treatments can be classified as medium quality roughages, although haulm from all treatments do not fulfill the criteria of Kellem and Church (1998) to be a good quality roughage feed based on their ADF profile.Faba bean haulm IVOMD and ME values were significantly improved due to the application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer. The improvement achieved in IVOMD and ME values of faba bean haulm due to the treatments might be associated with the increased haulm CP content and decreased NDF, ADF and ADL contents. Overall, the improvement obtained in terms of CP, IVOMD and ME with associated decline in NDF, ADF and ADL contents entail important achievements from nutritional point of view.Positive effect of rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer application was observed on haulm CP content, IVOMD and ME values of chickpea. Improvement of haulm CP content of chickpea was significant in all soil fertility treatments supplied groups compared to the control, while combined application of the inputs (+P+I) resulted in significant change over separate use of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer. The improvement obtained in haulm CP content due to the application of soil fertility treatments over control was 30.51% in treatment +P+I, 10.57% in treatment -P+I and 8.76% in +P-I treatment. The increased haulm CP content might be associated with the enhanced N availability to the plant through atmospheric N2 fixation. The current finding is in agreement with Ibsa (2013) who reported significant increment of chickpea haulm N content due to the application of the same treatments in Southern Ethiopia. Similarly, significant improvement of haulm protein content of chickpea due to application of different type of bio-fertilizers in combination and separately was noticed by Tagore et al. (2014). According to those authors, the the ash content of haricot bean haulm was significantly increased with the application of rhizobium inoculants with P fertilizer (+P+I) over the control and sole P fertilization (+P-I). The observed positive effect of P in combination with inoculation on ash content of the haricot bean haulm might have been resulted from increased availability of P in the soil and its favorable effect on nutrient uptake. In association with this, regulatory role of P in plant nutrient uptake was reported by Ayub et al. (2012) which could be mentioned as a possible reason for improvement in ash content.The current results also demonstrated that the CP content of haricot bean haulm significantly increased over the control with more prominent improvement in combined application of inoculants and P fertilizer. Accordingly, haulm CP content of treatment +P+I, -P+I and +P-I exceeded the control treatment by 26.26%, 15.32% and 13.13%, respectively. Enhanced atmospheric N2 fixation due to seed inoculation with more effective rhizobium bacteria and P fertilizer supply could have caused increased N availability in the soil and N uptake which could have likely improved the CP content of the haulm.Haulm CP content recorded for haricot bean crop harvested from soil fertility treatments applied plots were higher than the values of 5.4% and 5.9% reported for haricot bean haulm in Ethiopia by Tesfaye and Musimba (2003) and Seyoum and Fekede (2008), respectively. Haricot bean haulm produced on plots supplied with rhizobium inoculants and/or P fertilizer can be grouped under medium quality roughage feeds based on criteria of Nsahlai et al. (1996). Thus, haulm CP content of treatment +P+I, -P+I and +P-I can fulfill the rumen microbial requirement for fermentation and effective degradation which is 6.25-7.5% crude protein (Van Soest, 1994).Effects of rhizobuim inoculation and P fertilizer were significant on the two cell wall components (NDF and ADF) of haricot bean haulm. In haricot bean, the lowest mean haulm NDF (67.76%)and ADF (54.96%) contents were recorded in treatment +P+I. The mean values of haulm NDF and ADF contents recorded for all treatments in the present study were above the medium range forage quality (45-65% and 31-45%, respectively) as indicated by Ball et al. (2007). On the other hand, except treatment +P+I which had the lowest mean values of NDF, ADF and ADL; comparable result with the present finding was reported for the remaining treatments in haulm NDF, ADF and ADL contents of haricot bean (Tesfaye and Musimba, 2003).The IVOMD of haricot bean haulm was significantly increased due to application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer and the minimum (55.70%) and maximum (57.79%) values were recorded in control (-P-I) and +P+I treatments, respectively. Evitayani et al. (2004) reported that digestibility of legumes depends on chemical composition (particularly, fiber, lignin and silica contents), forage species, stage of maturity, leafiness, and soil fertility and other environmental factors. Thus, the improvement achieved in organic matter digestibility of the haulm is a positive result obtained from the application of soil fertility treatments.Furthermore, the mean IVOMD value of haricot bean haulm found in all treatments were higher than the minimum threshold level (50%) required for acceptable digestibility of forages according to Owen and Jayasuriya (1989). Application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer also resulted in significant improvement of ME value of haricot bean haulm and the highest mean value was obtained in combined use of inoculants with P fertilizer (treatment +P+I). Generally, the improvement attained in terms of haulm IVOMD and ME values of haricot bean could be associated with the positive result achieved in protein content of the haulm as well as the decreased NDF and ADF contents due to the treatments. As described by Seyoum and Fekede (2008); grain legume haulm has better IVOMD and ME value than cereals due to their better composition of nitrogen or crude protein.Except the ash content and ME contents, all analyzed nutritional value variables of soybean haulm showed significant difference among the treatments. The improvement of CP content of soybean haulm was attained due to rhizobium inoculations and the highest mean CP value of the haulm was recorded in treatment +P+I (6.74% CP). Generally, the CP content of soybean haulm from +P+I, -P+I and +P-I treatments exceeded the control with 44.36%, 30.19% and 13.49%, respectively.The current result is in agreement with the finding of Tesfaye (2015) who reported significant improvement of soybean haulm nitrogen or CP content due to application of Bradyrhizobium inoculants in Ethiopia. Moreover, based on Nsahlai et al. (1996) criteria, soybean haulm produced on plot with combined application of both inputs (treatment +P+I) can be classified under medium quality roughages. Haulm produced on plot which supplied with rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer in combination can also satisfy the rumen microbial protein requirement for fermentation and effective degradation (Van Soest, 1994). The better CP content of the soybean haulm produced in inoculated treatments in the present study clearly is associated with enhanced N availability and uptake through atmosphere N2 fixation by rhizobium bacterium.The result shows that soybean haulm NDF, ADF and ADL contents were significantly decreased due to the application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer compared to the control. Thus, rhizobium and/or P fertilizer supplied plots had lower mean value of NDF, ADF and ADL content than the control. Regardless of the improvement obtained in CP, IVOMD and ME, soybean haulm produced from different treatment plots in the present study could be categorized under poor quality roughage feeds based on the composition of NDF (Singh and Oosting, 1992) and ADF (Kellems and Church, 1998).Combined application of rhizobium inoculums and P fertilizer (treatment +P+I) resulted in significant increment in digestibility of soybean haulm (IVOMD=50.62%). Owen and Jaysuriya (1989) noticed that 50% digestibility is a critical threshold level to consider a given feed to be in acceptable range of digestibility and combined treatment +P+I advanced soybean haulm quality into this range. The improvement achieved in IVOMD value in treatment +P+I in this regard, might be associated with the increased CP value and lowered proportion of NDF, ADF and ADL contents.Effects of rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer on grain quality of chickpea, haricot bean and soybean were evaluated based on thousand seed weight (physical quality), chemical composition (ash and CP), IVOMD, ME and essential amino acids contents. The present findings illustrated that only haricot bean had positive respondes to the treatments in thousand seed weight and the heaviest (210.55 g) thousand seed weight of haricot bean grain was recorded in treatment +P+I. In conformity with the current finding, Ndlovu (2015) reported significant response of two drybean (Phaseolus vulgaris) cultivars to the application of inoculants in thousand seed weight. Contrary to the non-responsiveness observed in thousand seed weight of chickpea and soybean to seed inoculation and P fertilization in the current study, various scholars demonstrated significant effects of the fertilizers on thousand seed weight of these crops (Ibsa, 2013;Tesfaye, 2015;Zarei et al., 2012).Effects of rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer on grain ash, CP, IVOMD, ME and essential amino acid contents in chickpea were not significant. Contrary to this finding, significant response of chickpea in grain protein content to the application of two different microbial-fertilizers (separately and in combination) was reported by Tagore et al .(2014). As reported by the same authors, CP content of chickpea grain was 20.73%, 18.73%, 17.31% and 17.14% in combined inoculation of rhizobium and phosphate solublizing bacteria, only rhizobium inoculation, PSB alone and control, respectively. The non-responsiveness of chickpea in terms of grain protein and amino acid contents in this study might be associated with the low efficiency of nitrogen stabilizer nodes in the late growth period of the crop. In haricot bean, except the ash content all grain nutritional quality parameters were significantly responded to the treatments and the improvement obtained due to P fertilization was more prominent than rhizobium inoculation. Thus, the highest value of grain CP content, IVOMD and ME as well as most essential amino acids contents of haricot bean crop were recorded in P fertilized treatments with more prominent increase in sole P fertilizations (treatment +P-I). The improved availability of P nutrient in the root area of the crop might have increased the CP content of haricot bean grain through its direct effect on nodule development and functioning. Phosphorus with other soil nutrients has significant role in root proliferation and thereby atmospheric nitrogen fixation of legumes which is in turn used for the synthesis of crude protein (Ayub et al., 2012;Tairo and Ndakidemi, 2013). Importance of P in the production of protein, phospholipids and phytin in legume grains was also reported by Rahman et al. (2008).All analyzed nutritional value parameters of soybean grain were also significantly affected due to the treatments. The significant improvement of grain ash, CP, IVOMD, ME and most essential amino acids were attained due to rhizobium inoculation than P fertilizer in soybean. The mean value of grain ash, CP, IVODM, ME and essential amino acids of rhizobium inoculated treatments (+P+I and -P+I) were significantly higher than uninoculated treatments (+P-I and -P-I). In agreement with the current finding, significant improvement of seed protein content of soybean was reported with the use of two strains of rhizobium inoculants in Ethiopia (Tesfaye, 2015). The same author stated that seed inoculation with more effective rhizobium bacteria can enhance the nitrogen supply of soybean grain which in turn results in higher protein content. Similar reasons can be mentioned for the improvement achieved in amino acid compositions since amino acids are building blocks for protein. The improvement obtained in grain digestibility and ME value due to the treatments might be also associated with increased grain CP content.Majority of the respondents were male headed households, which means most of the responses were given by men on behalf of their households. According to Household education is a human capital and it can be used to define socio-economic features of the households. This study demonstrated that majority of the interviewed households across all surveyed districts had education status of primary level and above (Grade 1-12). Overall, only small proportions of the sampled households were illiterate. The high level of education of the households observed in this study could have a positive impact on the adoption of improved agricultural technologies easily. The higher the level of education of the households, the higher the probability of taking the right decision, read simple instruction relating to farming and take necessary precautions where necessary (Akinola et al., 2015).Total and cultivated land holding as well as land allocated for various agricultural activities by farmers were quantified in the current study. The result showed significant difference among the districts in total land holding, cultivated farm size, land allocated for pulse crop and land used for fodder production per household. The smallest land holding and land use pattern per households observed at Damot-Gale district, while except land used for pulse production, farmers from Sinana district came on the top of the remaining districts in total land holding, farm lands and land allocated for fodder cultivation. The landholding per household found in Sinana and Ada'a districts is above the national average (1.77 ha) and Oromia region average (1.98 ha) rural land holding (ERSS, 2013). Average landholding per household recorded in Damot Gale district is comparable with the estimated average rural land holding in the SNNP (0.88 ha) but below the national data (ERSS, 2013). Additionally, the smallest landholding (0.81ha total land and 0.53ha cultivated land) per household observed in Damot-Gale district is comparable with the reports of 0.6 ha in Wolayta Area (Ibsa, 2013) and 0.7 ha in Umbulo-Watershed of Southern Ethiopia (Funte et al., 2010). Generally, due to very high population density (746 persons per square kilometer) in Wolayta zone, average landholding of the area decreased to about 0.25-1 ha per household (Jufare, 2008).Furthermore, the overall average total landholding per household (2.10±0.13ha) observed in this study was in comparable range with some previous reports in similar agricultural production system (Ahmed, 2006;Tsedeke, 2007;Solomon et al., 2014), but lower than the report made by others in similar farming situation (Bayush et al., 2008;Dawit et al., 2012;Endale, 2015).Differences were observed among the districts in the proportion and area of land used/household for grain legume production. Accordingly, about 47.03%, 45.3% and 8.17% cultivated land was allocated for grain legumes production per household in Ada'a, Damot-Gale and Sinana districts, respectively. This shows that unlike farmers from Ada'a and Damot-Gale districts, most smallholder farmers in Sinana district give more priority for production of cereal crops than grain legumes. The current result is in agreement with the report of Dawit et al. (2012), which showed that the farming system of Sinana district to be a predominantly mixed cereal-livestock type.As the survey districts are known for their crop dominant mixed farming system, the average grazing landholding per household recorded was very small and comparable. The mean grazing land holding (0.12 ha) per household in the study area was comparable with the reports of 0.13 ha in central highlands of Ethiopia (Bayush et al., 2008) and 0.10 ha in Umbulo-Wacho watershed of southern Ethiopia (Funte et al., 2010). But, it was smaller than the mean grazing land holding of smallholder farmers in Bosana (0.27 ha), Halaba (0.38 ha) and Meta-Robi (1.22 ha) districts (Ahmed, 2006;Tsedeke, 2007;Endale, 2015), respectively and higher than in Enset dominated mixed farming system (0.073 ha) of Southern Ethiopia (Samuel, 2014). The small grazing landholding per household observed in this study is an evidence to conclude that in the mixed farming areas smallholder farmers are continuously converting their productive grazing land to crop fields regardless of its role in supplying better quality feed for livestock. In line with this, Alemayehu ( 2004) noted that due to continuous conversion of grazing lands to crop fields, the current available grazing land is limited to the areas which have no farming potential.On the other hand, farm land used for cultivated fodder production in Sinana district was significantly larger than the remaining two districts. But when we consider the share of cultivated fodder in terms of area coverage out of total farm land it was 7.55, 4.0 and 0.99% in Damot-Gale, Sinana and Ada'a districts, respectively. The relatively higher of cultivated forage from the total farm land in Damot-Gale, the district with the smallest total land holding per household, refutes the notion that shortage of land is the main barrier to adoption of cultivated forage production.This calls for more in-depth research to identify and address barriers to adoption of improved forage production and use. Smallholder farmers in Sinana area were reported to grow oat and maize fodder for livestock feeding. Accordingly, Dawit et al., (2012) reported experience of smallholder farmers in Sinana district who have been growing fodder oat and maize solely for livestock feeding purpose. Similarly, in Damot-Gale district sampled households were also reported to have established Desho and Elephant grasses on the border of their farm field to serve dual purposes i.e. soil conservation and feed source. In accordance with the current findings, study by Hassen (2013) showed that only 1.3% of the cultivated land is covered with fodder crops in northeast highlands of Ethiopia.Livestock holding of the households was assessed based on ownership of cattle, small ruminants and equine. The overall average livestock holding per household (5.86 TLU) found in this study was comparable with the findings reported in different districts where small scale crop-livestock farming is predominant mode of agricultural activity (Ahmed, 2006;Bedasa, 2012). Contrary to this finding, larger mean livestock holding per households was reported in Halaba (Tsedeke, 2007) and Meta-Robi (Endale, 2015) districts. Livestock holding per household was also significantly different among the surveyed districts and significantly lower (3.04 TLU) and higher (8.63 TLU) in Damot-Gale and Ada'a districts, respectively. The smaller livestock holding found in Damot-Gale district might be associated with limited land holding observed per household in the area.The average TLU per household recorded in Damot-Gale district was comparable with the 3.78 TLU in Umblo-Wacho watershed of Southern Ethiopia (Funte et al., 2010), but higher than the 1.9TLU in Wolayta Zone (Ibsa, 2013).The current study identified the major feed resources used by smallholder farmers of the study area. The feed sources identified and ranked according to their contribution by respondents include crop residues, natural pastures, stubble grazing, cultivated fodders, different non-conventional feeds, agro-industrial by products, and hays. Similarly, many earlier studies showed that smallholder farmers in the mixed crop-livestock farming areas use feeds obtained from various sources (Ahmed, 2006;Dawit et al., 2012;Endale, 2015;Funte et al., 2010;Solomon et al., 2008;Solomon et al., 2014). However, the contribution of each types of feed in annual household feed supply is fluctuating in line with the season of the year. On the other hand, feed shortage was noted as a major constraint for livestock production by the respondents. This is also in accordance with many earlier findings which reflected the same scenario in different parts of the country under similar farming condition (Bayush et al., 2008;Belay et al., 2012Belay et al., , 2013;;Endale, 2015;Solomon et al., 2014). The current result also showed that dry season is a critical period of feed scarcity.Meanwhile, the study also identified different coping strategies adopted by smallholder farmers to feed their animals during feed scarcity. In agreement with the current finding, Belay and Greet (2016) and Funte et al. (2010) reported that smallholder farmers have their own experience of using various available options to feed their animals when they faced limited feed availability.Smallholder farmers of the study area used grain legume haulm for various purposes. However the amount of haulm biomass allocated for different alternatives is variable. In the current study, smallholder farmers used grain legume haulm predominantly as fodder source than other alternatives. The finding is in agreement with earlier report in the highlands of Ethiopia (Alkhtib et al., 2014). Furthermore, haulm refusals from feeding systems have alternatives uses like biofuel, fertilizer and compost making. Additionally, sale of haulm is an alternative source of income for the households in the study area. However, the amount of crop residues (including grain legume haulm) allocated for other purposes rather than livestock feeding in mixed farming systems is very small (Ahmed, 2006;Alkhtib et al., 2014).An increasing trend of grain legume haulms use as feed resource was reported by the respondents, which is in agreement with the findings of Alkhtib et al. (2014) who reported increasing trends of grain legume haulm use as livestock feed by smallholder farmers in the highlands of Ethiopia. As indentified in the current study, livestock feed shortage and lack of other options, improved awareness on the nutritional advantages of legume haulms than cereal residues and increased annual production of grain legume haulms are the main factors contributing for the increasing interest of farmers in including grain legume haulms in livestock diet. In support to this idea, different scholars (Akinola et al., 2015;Valbuena et al., 2015) described that many interacting factors determines farmers' decision to use crop residues for various alternatives.The viewpoint of smallholder farmers on the whole plant yield improvement due to seed inoculation and P fertilizer application is very important in order to promote the use of these agricultural technologies. According to Marenya et al. (2008); farmers' perceptions on the impacts of fertilizer on crop yields is closely associated with estimated returns to fertilizer applications.The same authors concluded that farmers' perceptions on the impacts of fertilizer are mainly driven by observed yields. The present finding showed that most (62.2%) of the interviewed households recognized the impacts of the soil fertility treatments on biomass yield and then on haulm yield of grain legumes. They reported that haulm yield of the crops increased with the applications of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer due to improved vegetative growth of the crops.Regarding haulm quality, however the assessment was made by taking into consideration the leaf to stem ratio of the haulm and preferences of animals to haulms harvested from plots supplied with soil fertility treatments. Most of the respondents (46.7%) did not recognize this, while those who responded on the impacts to be either negative or positive accounted for 32.2%. Their lack of recognition of the impacts of the inputs in the present assessment was associated with the fact that they mixed crop residues of different plots and different crops species together prior to feeding to livestock. Moreover, legume crops are highly susceptible to leaf shattering prior or during harvesting the crop, and this could have contributed for the lack of proper recognition of actual value of grain legume haulms by the farmers.The result of current study showed that the majority of the farming households in the study area predominantly use grain legume haulm as feed sources. Similarly, the study revealed that use of grain legume haulm as livestock feed by smallholder farmers' has been steadily increasing over the past few years. Increasing trends of grain legume haulm use in livestock feeding appear to be associated with factors such as feed shortage and lack of other options, better awareness of their nutritional quality and increased annual production of annual grain legumes. Moreover, majority of the respondents reported positive effect of rhizobium inoculation and P fertilizer on the haulm biomass yield of grain legumes, whereas most of the interviewed farmers were not fully aware of the impact of the inputs on the nutritional values of the grain legumes haulm.The results obtained from the experiment conducted with the use of four grain legumes (faba bean, chickpea, haricot bean and soybean) under application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer showed considerable effects of the treatments on yield and quality attributes of the crops. Statistical analysis showed significant effect of the soil fertility treatments on grain and haulm DM yield of the studied crops, except haulm DM yield of chickpea. Accordingly, more prominent improvement of grain and haulm DM yield of faba bean and haricot bean was observed with combined application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer (treatment +P+I). On the other hand, the significant improvement obtained in grain and haulm DM yield of chickpea and soybean were more associated with the application of rhizobium inoculants, although the effect was not significant in chickpea haulm DM yield.Faba bean haulm quality parameters such as CP, ME, and IVOMD were significantly increased with subsequence decline in NDF, ADF and ADL contents due to the application of rhizobium inoculants and P fertilizer. This study also revealed that CP content, ME and IVOMD values of chickpea haulm showed significant improvement. However, NDF, ADF and ADL contents of chickpea haulm showed a decline due to the application of the inputs; the change observed in cell wall components (NDF, ADF and ADL) was not significant. Haricot bean haulm ash, CP, ME and IVOMD values were improved whereas the fiber (NDF, ADF and ADL) contents were decreased with the application of soil fertility treatments with the maximum mean values in treatment +P+I for ash, CP, ME and IVOMD. Response of haricot bean to the treatments in thousand seed weight was also highly significant. Grain CP content, ME, IVOMD and amino acid composition of haricot bean were significantly improved due to the application of the soil fertility treatments. Effect of the treatments was significant in all analyzed soybean haulm quality parameters except the ash content and ME value. Soybean haulm showed significant increment in CP and TIVOMD value with the application of inoculants, while there was a decline in NDF, ADF and ADL contents.Thus, the highest mean value of CP and IVOMD and the lowest cell wall fractions were found in soybean haulm harvested from treatment +P+I. Grain ash, CP, ME and IVOMD values as well as most essential amino acids composition of soybean were significantly increased with the application of rhizobium inoculants over uninoculated treatments.In the mixed crop-livestock farming systems of Ethiopia, both grain and haulm of grain legumes have significant importance for the livelihood of the farming households. Agronomic practices which can improve both grain and haulm attributes obviously foster the benefit of smallholder farmers from grain legumes production. The finding of current study indicated the possibility of ","tokenCount":"15906"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"401a06dcb0e596e07941a1fde42e3333","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d50be997-9339-48b9-b785-fe5494a11be6/retrieve","id":"312500278"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0714ba51-f9aa-4ad2-a333-1baba6a4bf9f","pagecount":"13","content":"This first Module provides some insight to the needs for better use of animal genetic resources (AnGR) in the context of projected demands for food in developing countries until 2020. Note that 800 million people suffer from hunger and that a livestock revolution has to take place to meet the nutritional needs for improvement of the livelihood of poor people. The module provides the background, facts and reasons that call for increased attention to improve the utilisation as well as the maintenance of AnGR in developing countries. It is also supplemented by a list of some key literature. References and links to the internet [burgundy] and to parts of this resource [blue] are made to some case studies, breed resources and all other relevant components of this CD-ROM that illustrate the issues presented.Livestock play important roles for production of food and for many other purposes. They represent great socio-economic and cultural values in various societies around the world. The present situation and implications for the future use of AnGR can be summarised as follows:• There is a great challenge to alleviate poverty in developing countries by producing more food, especially of animal origin, against a shrinking animal genetic diversity. A livestock revolution has to take place to meet the demands of more than doubled meat and milk consumption in developing countries over the next 20 years. • The potentials of indigenous breeds in developing countries are largely neglected in the name of improved breed selection for better livelihood of people. • The value of AnGR conservation is generally underestimated, as the indirect values are often neglected and future option values are yet difficult to accurately predict. • Global initiatives must be accompanied by local activities to implement conservation programmes that increase animal productivity while maintaining necessary genetic diversity. Previous programmes have largely failed. Simple, yet effective methods, that take into account environmental, socio-economic and infrastructure constraints must be developed.• The most efficient way to sustain a breed is to continuously keep it commercially or culturally viable. • Research, in combination with capacity building at all levels, to improve the knowledge on indigenous AnGR, are instrumental for increased awareness on the roles of livestock and their genetic diversity and for implementation of sustainable breeding programmes.At the dawn of the 21st century more than 800 million people do not have enough to eat. Most of these people are found in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and South and East Asia. Of the 40,000 people that die each day of malnutrition, about half are infants and children. Throughout the developing world, poverty is linked to hunger, and every other person in SSA is considered poor, i.e. lives on less than one US dollar a day. The challenge to feed the people in the future is jeopardised by the fact that the global population annually climbs by some 90 million people. This means that the world's farmers will have to increase their production by 50% to feed about 2 billion more people by the year 2020 (World Bank 2002).The Box shows the changes in the past three decades  of population figures of humans as well as of different domestic animal species in the developing world. Most of the increase in animal production result from increased animal numbers rather than from better productivity per individual animal [Delgado et al. 1999]. Such changes in animal populations require resources that conflict with future sustainability of the agricultural systems. The increasing disparity between population growth and food production for SSA is illustrated in Figure 1 (CGIAR 1999). Unless constraints to higher yields are overcome, onethird of the population in this region will not have sufficient food by 2010.Enhanced food security is a key factor for poverty alleviation. The overwhelming challenge to improve the well-being of people in developing countries is highly dependent on the realisation of increased food production in the coming decades. A study by ILRI´s Livestock Policy Programme examined the food security and marketed surplus effects of intensified dairying in a peri-urban area of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where a market-oriented dairy production system with utilisation of complementary feed and management technologies for increased production had been introduced for smallholders. It was shown that women in households with access to crossbred cows earned nearly 7 times more dairy income than women in households with local breed cows due to the same division of work, but have larger opportunities with increased output. They consumed on average 22 % more milk and 30 % more calories per day and could afford 36 % higher food expenditures, leading to the intake of a more nutritious diet (Mohammed et al. 2002;Tangka et al. 2002).Estimates of realised and projected consumption trends by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) shows that production of certain food commodities will have to increase more rapidly than others (Figure 2) in different parts of the world to meet expected demands (Delgado et al. 1999). Whereas only marginal increases in consumption of meat and milk are expected in the developed world, increases of 114% and 133%, respectively, are projected until the year 2020 for meat and milk consumption in the developing world. The projected production increases to meet these demands in developing countries amount to 108% for meat and 145% for milk. The demands for increased animal production are bigger than for cereals because of changing consumption patterns following urbanisation, population growth and projected income growth. Diets with more high-value protein and micronutrients will improve human health and the livelihood of many poor. The implications of increased food production and changed diets of billions of people may be dramatic in the next few decades and could improve the well-being of many rural poor as both consumers and producers. Contrary to the familiar green revolution that started in plant production thirty years ago, a livestock revolution is taking place because of the increase in demand for food of animal origin. Such a revolution assumes a wise use of natural resources, including animal and plant genetic resources, in order to be realised. The challenge is how to take advantage of prevailing trends for the benefit of the poor.Source: Delgado et al. (1999). ILRI, in its strategy to 2010 (ILRI 2000), has identified activities in livestock research and development (R&D) for developing countries, which focus on poverty reduction, food and nutritional security and environment and human health. Results of a study conducted by ILRI's Livestock Policy Analysis Programme in the Ethiopian highland, to asses the impact of improved dairy technology introduction on household income, expenditure and nutrients intake demonstrate that adoption of market-oriented dairy technology significantly raises per capita income and income effect extends positively to expenditure and consumption. The study indicated that doubling the number of crossbred cows of the household may increase household income by 46.5% (Mohamed et al. 2002). The mean income of an adopting household was 41% higher than a non-adopting household. The higher the income level, the higher was the expenditure on food and non-food items and farm inputs. On the other hand, household expenditure was directly related to household nutrient intakes. A 100% increase in expenditure on food may result in about 32%, 33% and 19% increase in calorie, protein and iron intakes, respectively. Households with dairy crossbred cows consume 22% more milk than households without crossbred cows due to the perceived lower cost of own production.The current ILRI's strategic plan (ILRI 2000) includes a substantial programme on characterisation of indigenous AnGR, and development of strategies for sustainable utilisation of the diversity in livestock species for the livelihood of people in developing countries [see ILRI Strategy to 2010].Domestic animals have, for more than 10 thousand years, contributed to the human needs for food and agricultural products, such as meat, dairy products, eggs, fibre and leather, draft power and transport, manure for fertilisation of crops and for fuel. Livestock also play an important economic role as capital and for social security. The many-sided contributions of livestock are also emphasised by their cultural role in many societies. Hence, the use of animal resources varies considerably between various parts of the world as the social, environmental and other conditions for animal production enormously differ.Of the world's total agricultural output it is presently estimated that about 30% is produced by its variety of livestock. In some parts of the world, including some parts of Africa, where intensive mixed livestock-crop systems are practised, as much as 70-80% of the farm income is from livestock. Here, much of the crops produced are fed to livestock and converted to high quality food for human consumption. High yielding breeds of a number of species have been developed genetically to fit different markets and environments [CS 1.4 by Mpofu]. Such genetic changes, combined with continuously better feed and management, have in a few decades doubled the food production in a number of breeds and species. This increase in agricultural produce has required high technology and large inputs of feed, labour, energy and capital, as well as good disease control and management practices. However, only limited considerations regarding total efficiency in nutrient cycling and pollution may have been made. Without such considerations, these production systems will not be sustainable.In most parts of the developing world environmental conditions and availability of capital, technology, infrastructure and human resources have not allowed such an intensification of agriculture, including development of the genetic resources. Instead, harsh climate, less nutritious feed and irregular feed availability, diseases, as well as traditions and lack of education and infrastructure, have for long kept the agricultural output per animal at a low and rather unchanged level. On the other hand, livestock breeds in the tropical parts of the world have during thousands of years been adapted to cope with harsh environments, including disease challenges, and produce under conditions in which breeds developed in more favourable environments will not even survive [CS 1.1 by Mpofu & Rege]. Such differences among animal populations have a genetic background and are the result of the interaction between genetic constitution and environment that has evolved over time from natural as well as human selection of animals for performance in different environments. That is why we have such a variety of indigenous breeds.The issue now is to find ways of exploiting the potential for improved and sustainable livestock production that the variability among and within the indigenous breeds may offer different environments and production systems in various parts of the tropics. Otherwise, we will not be able to produce what is needed for the people of the developing world to survive. Hitherto demands for increased livestock production has largely been met by increasing the number of animals without improving yield or efficiency per animal or area used. This development cannot continue. Land degradation and increasing amounts of resources required to only maintain the animal populations must be replaced by more efficient systems, demanding higher outputs per animal or area of land used to meet the future demands of livestock products. For sustainability, these systems must emphasise effective resource input/output ratios and more integration of livestock and crop production rather than industrialised mono-cultural production systems that seriously challenge the wise use and care of our natural resources. Thus, the role of the smallholder farmer will be as important as ever, but the production will need to be intensified, yet diverse, and be located in rural, peri-urban and urban areas. The interaction between genotypes and environments would continue to be a key element in developing the future breeding stocks, while some environmental changes, such as improved feeding, including concentrates, will also have to take place.In analysing the distribution of species by world regions, there are some striking differences, which, likely, are the results of different natural resources, climate, culture and socioeconomic conditions (FAO 1993(FAO -2002)). Whereas cattle and sheep together dominate the animal populations in all regions, the swine populations are more or less confined to the western parts of the world and Asia (Figure 3 and Table 1).Asia keeps more than half of the world's swine population, of which 80% is found in China. Goats are primarily found in Asia and Africa. Chickens are not included in the statistics shown, but the estimated world population of some 11 billion is rather well distributed across regions, although Asia has the largest share and Africa the smallest. The most remarkable changes in the past decade concern the former USSR, where several species populations have been halved. Europe generally shows decreased animal numbers of all species, yet there is a surplus in production. Africa and Asia show steadily increased population numbers, except for sheep in the latter region. Among small ruminants, goats increase relatively more than any other species, whereas sheep decrease in all regions except for Africa.   The consistent contribution of animal production to human needs under different environmental conditions, as diverse as arctic and tropical, maritime and mountain, humid and, arid semi-desert eco-zones, has provided during thousands of years, stems from the development of some 4000-5000 breeds of different species. Of these, about 70% are found in the developing world. They have been domesticated from about 40 wild animal species according to different needs and uses under the variable environments that have covered the world over time. The adaptation of different species and breeds to a broad range of environments provides the necessary variability that offers opportunities to meet the increased future demands for food and provide flexibility to respond to changed markets and needs [Breed information].The diversity among breeds is usually known to contribute half of the genetic variation found among animals within species, while the other half is attributed to genetic variation within breeds. The latter variation is less vulnerable to loss, whereas breeds are easily irreparably lost when commercially non-competitive. That is why the maintenance of local breeds is of great importance for the genetic diversity [CS 1.17 by Drucker]. However, it may not be possible to maintain all breeds forever, especially if they are not competitive enough, all values considered. The definition of a breed is somewhat arbitrary and has, throughout history, allowed for some dynamics. Some breeds are disappearing or have disappeared, while others have been formed [Breed information]. Such changes have been possible and necessary as part of the evolution and the dynamics that the variability of the genetic resources allows their interaction with environmental changes.The sustainable use and improvement of indigenous breeds has been justified on grounds that they are already adapted to local conditions [CS 1.8 by Mpofu]. It is also a fact that a large genetic variation exists in productivity within these breeds in most traits of importance, and that this potential for genetic improvement has so far only been exploited to a very limited Crossbreeding for rapid improvement of traits, such as milk production, requires even more consideration in the choice of breeds and the design of both the crossbreeding programme [CS 1.5 by Kahi] and the breeding programmes of the pure breeds. This is necessary to ensure the future availability of genetic material needed to develop appropriate genotypes as the environment and human needs change.Developments The rather recently started World Watch List of global animal genetic resources suggests that approximately 30% of all current livestock breeds are at risk of extinction. The erosion of animal genetic resources, that already has taken place, is anticipated to continue according to present trends in population statistics. Such a development threatens the future opportunities to cope with the increased or new human needs and the environmental challenges and market changes for future food and animal production.Genetic improvement of animal populations is dependent on the existence of genetic variation. Such variation exists between species, breeds within species and among animals within breeds. As species and breeds are adapted to certain environments, through centuries or thousands of years of natural and artificial selection, it may be difficult to restore such genetic variation that may still be desired, but that has been lost by, for example, breed replacements in certain regions or environments. The continuous loss of breeds and genetic diversity is usually fuelled by short sighted and restricted genetic and socio-economic considerations [CS 1.17 by Drucker]. The real long-term values, including ecological effects, may not have been taken into account. Also not usually considered are future changes that may have an impact on the needs for variable genetic resources. The irreversible losses of genetic diversity therefore, reduce our opportunities for future developments. That is why it is so important to seriously consider both the present and future breeding programmes of all species and breeds.The previously shown distribution of species by world regions may lead to the conclusion that ruminants, which today have the largest world coverage by a large number of breeds adapted to different environments, will also have the best opportunities to adapt to future environmental changes. Similarly, populations confined to few regions or specialised production systems are more vulnerable to changes in production or economic systems in those regions. Such effects may dramatically reduce the genetic diversity and our future opportunities for development of efficient animal food production under variable conditions.In order to put the right emphasis on long-term genetic improvements, or the needs to conserve genetic variation for present and future use, it seems important to find ways of economic valuation of the genetic resources [CS 1.17 by Drucker] and their developments. Procedures are well developed for economic evaluations of the improvements of individual traits as well as for multi-trait breeding objective programmes within a breed [see Weller J. in ICAR Tech. Series No. 3]. Such procedures may consider different time horizons as well as the probability of the different traits to be expressed in monetary terms. However, these models do not automatically capture the non-monetary values, e.g. social or cultural values, which may also be quite important [CS 1.18 by Drucker]. Furthermore, beyond economic evaluation of alternative breeding schemes within a breed or crossbreeding programmes, it seems even more important to value different genetic resources, especially when the choice has to be made between different breeds to be conserved when all are not commercially viable. Unfortunately, there is no single method to readily apply for such economic valuations, but a few important principles need to be understood.Normal economic market forces have driven much of the extinction of the world´s biodiversity, whereby lower yielding animals or breeds have been replaced by higher yielding stock. However, the Total Economic Effects in the long run have been small and even negative in many cases. The Total Economic Value (TEV) of a genetic resource, compared to another one, must therefore also include all Indirect Use Values (IUV), such as long-term ecological or social effects, along with the Direct Use Values (DUV), which also must consider the long time horizon [CS 1.18 by Drucker]. Furthermore, TEV should include Option Values (OV), which account for the unforeseen future needs, just as an insurance. All valuations assume correct weighting of traits in the breeding objectives defined, meaning that proper consideration must be given to production as well as adaptive traits and health under prevailing and expected future environmental conditions. For these reasons, the value of conservation of animal genetic resources (AnGR) is generally underestimated.The increased awareness of the importance of genetic variability among livestock species, breeds and individuals within breeds as a potential for increased food and agricultural production, as demonstrated in many countries and breeds around the world, has led to several global initiatives to ensure the future availability of these resources.In 1972 the UN conference on environment in Stockholm recognised the need to consider biodiversity as an essential resource for humankind's future well being. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has ever since then had AnGR and their developments on its agenda. Realising that 30% of all present breeds are at risk of extinction and that conservation programmes are lacking for more than 75% of these breeds [Breed information], one may ask how we could ensure the genetic diversity needed for the future. Three circumstances are quite obvious:Firstly, there is no method to conserve a breed for future generations that is more efficient than continuing to improve the breed in such a way that it keeps its commercial value for food and agricultural production or for other economic or cultural reasons, while also considering the ecological aspects of its use [CS 1.2 by Mpofu]; [CS 1.7 by Khombe].This sustainable use of AnGR imposes a tremendous challenge on the livestock policies and breeding programmes of indigenous breeds in developing countries, where the needs to increase food production are greatest, to wisely use the genetic diversity for improved animal production efficiency.Secondly, the awareness of shrinking diversity and the challenge to increase future food production must be translated into efficient long-term strategies and operational breeding schemes. Thirdly, as restricted short-term economic benefits may override the long term benefits, including indirect and option values, in the decision process for choice of alternative genetic resources to be used, policies are needed for supporting conservation and utilisation of potentially important breeds, which usually carry some unique valuable traits. That is the type of framework that FAO has established through its global strategy, but it is the responsibility of each country to see that its AnGR are given the right support to be sustainably used. In this context, ILRI's research and capacity building programme will play a significant role in revealing new knowledge needed and for strengthening the national capacities in implementing this knowledge into sustainable programmes for conservation and utilisation of indigenous AnGR.The awareness of the demands for increased productivity has not been lacking. In fact, many attempts have been launched to genetically improve the livestock in the tropics. Although it should be recognised that improved livestock have been produced or introduced in favourable areas of the tropics, e.g. in some highland areas, in maritime climates and in relatively intense peri-urban production systems, many attempts have failed [CS 1.3  The introduction of crossbreeding with temperate high yielding breeds without a long-term plan on how to maintain either a suitable level of 'upgrading', or how to maintain the pure breeds for future use in crossbreeding has been another reason. Too high upgrading has generally led to animals without resistance to withstand environmental stress.The lack of analysis of the different roles of livestock in each specific area, usually leading to falsely defined breeding objectives and a neglect of the potentials of various indigenous breeds of livestock. Examples of these problems are illustrated in the case studies by Philipsson (2000) and in the comprehensive publications and reviews found in FAO (1993) and in Payne and Hodges (1997).New approaches must apparently better consider the potential of indigenous livestock breeds and realistic ways of improving this livestock in the context of environmental and socioeconomic demands as well as within the resources available. For this purpose there is a great need to characterise the indigenous livestock breeds, in order to find out which are the most suitable ones for further improvement, and for implementation of simplified, but yet effective, breeding programmes [CS 1.7  The author of this module gratefully acknowledges the valuable views on this section given by the project colleagues at ILRI and SLU, the university faculty participants of the workshop and first two courses for Africa as well as by Prof Charan Chantalakhana, Thailand and Dr John Hodges, previously with FAO, who kindly reviewed the initial manuscript and had many constructive suggestions.","tokenCount":"3904"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ec58f84f20dcefc311afe2239017ed5f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b7da6b93-65a1-4a05-a9b0-b65a541fc2c9/retrieve","id":"-1916798991"},"keywords":["Julianna White","Program Manager","CCAFS Low Emissions Development"],"sieverID":"bab54f48-699e-4ff5-9182-0932532c520c","pagecount":"5","content":"◼ Use of fertiliser (either mineral or organic) can increase soil carbon sequestration. More focus is needed on potential trade-offs with increases in nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and synergies with prevention of land conversion from forests or grasslands to agricultural land.◼ Empirical evidence suggests that a combination of mineral fertiliser and organic fertiliser seems most promising for sequestering soil carbon in agricultural soils.◼ Climate change mitigation policies focusing on fertiliser use and soil carbon sequestration should distinguish between regions with low yields and low fertiliser use and regions with high mineral fertiliser use.◼ In regions with low yields and low fertiliser use, increasing fertiliser use can increase soil carbon, improve soil fertility, enhance crop yields and in some setting, save carbon stored in forests; however, net emissions from a field will likely increase due to increased N2O emissions.◼ In regions with high fertiliser use, efforts should focus on reducing mineral fertiliser use, preventing nutrient leaching and maximizing nutrient use efficiency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increasing soil or biomass carbon stocks are the main agricultural pathways to mitigate climate change. Scientific and policy attention has recently turned to evaluating the potential of practices that can increase soil carbon sequestration. Forty percent of the world's soils are used as cropland and grassland, therefore agricultural The stock of organic carbon in a given soil depends on:◼ historical land use;◼ the annual amount of organic carbon inputs (biomass added to soil) together with the rate at which the organic carbon inputs are transformed into soil organic carbon (composition rate); and ◼ the amount of soil organic carbon that decomposes each year (decomposition rate).The amount and type of biomass added to a soil largely depends on land use (types of crops or vegetation) and management (e.g., irrigation, fertiliser use, weed and pest control). Soil organic carbon composition and decomposition rates depend on biophysical factors such as soil texture and climate. In general, colder climates have slower decomposition rates while soils with more clay content can store larger amounts of carbon. As such, for a given land use or management, clay soils in colder climates will store more carbon than sandy soils in warmer climates.Changes in land use or management increase or decrease soil organic carbon and thus carbon stocks, until a new soil carbon stock equilibrium is reached. While the annual increase in soil carbon is therefore limited to a certain time period, maintaining the achieved soil carbon stocks requires a continuation of the new land use and management beyond the time period of carbon gains, to prevent CO2 losses.In general, increased soil organic carbon improves soil structure, nutrient supply and moisture retention, thereby improving the conditions that increase crop yields and improving resilience in water-stressed environments.Crops cultivated with more mineral fertiliser, irrigation and tillage tend to depend less on soil organic carbon for soil fertility. Yet, even intensively managed farming systems can benefit from adding organic carbon, especially on sandy soils or when cultivating specialized crops such as potatoes or sugar beets which depend more on a supportive soil structure (Hijbeek et al. 2017).Several management practices-including cultivating green manures and reducing periods under which land is fallow-increase soil organic carbon stocks, although at different rates depending on the soil and climate. This info note focuses on how the use of mineral fertiliser affects soil carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation. Mineral fertiliser is defined as fertiliser based on inorganic substances, in contrast to organic fertiliser, such as manure, crop residues or compost, derived from animals or plants. Nitrogen-based mineral fertilisers in particular are a major source of nitrous oxide (N2O), and depending on the use of fossil fuels in their production, can also be a major source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.Mineral fertilisers can increase soil carbon stocks by: ◼ Increasing crop yields, which can lead to an increase in the availability of organic residues that can be returned to the soil either directly, after composting, or, after feeding to animals, as animal manure.◼ Improving the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N ratio) when crop residues are incorporated into the soil, thereby increasing the rate at which soil organic carbon forms.Generally, a combination of both mineral fertiliser and organic fertiliser is most promising for increasing crop yields, increasing nutrient use efficiency and soil carbon sequestration (Hijbeek et al. 2019;Vanlauwe et al. 2011).Two global meta-analyses found that soil organic carbon content was on average 8 to 8.5% higher in the topsoil of plots with mineral fertiliser application compared to unfertilized plots (Ladha et al. 2011;Geisseler and Scow 2014). These are promising insights, but when assessing the potential climate mitigation, trade-offs with other GHG emissions such N2O emissions also need to be taken into account, which we will discuss in the following section.Can soil carbon sequestration compensate for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions?Several studies have analysed whether soil carbon sequestration could achieve carbon-neutral agriculture.◼ A modelling study using 8,000 soil sampling sites in the European Union found that incorporating residues from N-fixing cover crops (i.e. leguminous species) increased soil carbon sequestration; however, the resulting increase in N2O emissions outweighed the potential carbon sequestered (Lugato et al. 2018).◼ Similarly, a model-based analysis focusing on the Netherlands found that mineral fertiliser use increased soil carbon, and a combination of mineral fertiliser with slurry and in particular compost further increased soil carbon. However, depending on fertilization, yield level and type of organic amendment, associated N2O emissions may outweigh climate change mitigation from soil carbon sequestration (Bos et al. 2017).◼ A study across a range of different cropping systems in China showed that soil carbon sequestration compensated for less than 10% of the total GHG emissions associated with these cropping systems (Gao et al. 2018).◼ Powlson et al. (2011) found that mineral fertiliser use increased soil carbon in an experiment in the United Kingdom, but that associated GHG emissions of all cropping management aspects (tillage, fertilisers, irrigation, crop protection, etc.) were four-fold higher.Categorically reducing nitrogen fertilizer inputs (and thus reducing emissions) may have unintended negative effects. Particularly in areas with poor soil fertility and where nitrogen is not overused, yields can decrease, increasing the likelihood of food insecurity or accelerating deforestation of nearby forests for cash and cropland (Burney et al. 2010).Low fertiliser use is typical in many developing countries, including almost all countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Given adequate production potential (Van Ittersum et al. 2016;Ten Berge et al. 2019), small increases in mineral fertiliser use and other nutrient inputs in these systems can increase the availability of biomass which can be returned to the fields to sequester carbon, creating a positive feedback loop between soils and crops. In addition, land conversion from forests or grasslands to agricultural land might be prevented by intensifying agriculture, thereby preserving more soil carbon stocks.Especially in areas where fertiliser use is high, farmers should maximize nitrogen use efficiency (yield obtained per amount of nutrient applied) to keep emissions below environmental thresholds. This will reduce nutrient losses (to water and air) for total food production, and minimize CO2 emissions from fertiliser production and N2O emissions from fertiliser application (Powlson et al. 2018).Reducing fertiliser use-and therefore emissions-while maintaining crop yields achieves climate change mitigation every year in which this change in management is in place. This is in contrast to sequestration of soil carbon, which only has a positive effect on climate change mitigation in the initial years after a change in management.Practices for improving nitrogen use efficiency include:◼ Application of mineral fertilisers in combination with organic fertilisers, such as farmyard manure;◼ Weed and pest control;◼ Using lime on acid soils;◼ Optimizing rate, type, timing and placement of fertilisers;◼ Using nitrification inhibitors;◼ High nitrogen-efficiency crop varieties.Mineral fertilisers can increase soil carbon stocks by: ◼ Increasing crop yields, which can lead to an increase in the availability of organic residues that can be returned to the soil either directly, after composting, or, after feeding to animals, as animal manure.◼ Improving the carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N ratio) when crop residues are incorporated into the soil, thereby increasing the rate at which soil organic carbon forms.Increased soil organic carbon supports improved soil productivity and enables resilience during times of water shortage. The increase in soil organic carbon can also offset some of the emissions from mineral nitrogen fertiliser to help mitigate climate change. Ambitions should however be modest as soil carbon sequestration currently cannot compensate for total agricultural GHG emissions, let alone for GHG emissions from other economic sectors.Hotspots for soil carbon sequestration in agriculture are regions with higher storage potential (e.g. clay soils or colder climates) and regions where synergies with soil fertility and food security are likely to occur (farming systems in tropical regions, on sandy soils and/or when cultivating more specialized crops). Geographically, the two hotspots may however not overlap, making it challenging to find synergies between soil carbon sequestration potential, soil fertility and food security.In regions with relatively low agricultural productivity and low fertiliser use, increasing mineral fertiliser use can benefit food security and soil carbon sequestration. In these areas, policies should support farmers to carefully increase nutrient inputs using both mineral and organic fertilisers. In areas where fertiliser use is high, policies should rather support farmers to maximize nutrient use efficiency and keep nutrient emissions per hectare below environmental thresholds.. ","tokenCount":"1539"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0f75b55e2317b6f9083a1a7b8e90c291","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cb46f831-10b8-48a6-bdfb-086febfe4e84/retrieve","id":"1660339623"},"keywords":["r , \" • \"V","\"''-'~''''•","''1',.,~j¡\\ :","y"],"sieverID":"3e54dfe0-de88-4cb5-96eb-ba5afd2311ab","pagecount":"5","content":"lntemational Center for Tropical Agriculture ( C , ' \"L *CIRAD prograrnme pour l' Amélioration des éthodes PQur l' lnnovation ~ientFque.Este artículo presenta los fundamentos de uno de los proyectos que tonnan parte del convenio entre el CIA T y el Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (MADR) intitulado \"Explotación de oportunidades de desarrollo agrícola y uso de la tierra en la Orinoquia colombiana\". Este proyecto se inició en cnero de 1999, luego de que fuera protocolizado el convenio en mención, y después de varios meses de planificación intensiva. El proyecto cuenta con la partícipación activa de los grupos de Manejo de Tierras, Suelos y Agroempresas Rurales del CIA T; además de muchos socios en la región; también forma parte del componente de sabanas del programa ecorregjonal del CIA T, proporcionándole así nexos con otros proyectos en sabanas de América tropical. El propósito de este proyecto es contribuir al desarrollo agrícola de la Orinoquia colombiana y al mismo tiempo desarrollar métodos y herramientas (gulas, modelos de simulación y sistemas de información geográfica -SIG-) qne podrán servir en otras partes del país o del mundo.La plarúficación del desarrollo agrícola y del uso de la tierra, aún para un sitÍo especifico, es un proceso muy complejo. Involucra \"tornadores de decisión\" de muchos niveles administrativos y técnicos; y de sectores muy diversos. desde el agricultor o el terrateniente hasta los planificadores nacionales y los elaboradores de políticas internacionales. Para lograr el propósito del presente proyecto, el CIA T decidió involucrarse en los procesos de planificación que muy activamente se están desarrollando en la actualidad en Colombia, aprovechando la oportunidad de aprender junto con los planificadores, apoyándolos en los aspectos que son de su competencia mediante un conjunto bien artículado de acciones a diferentes niveles. En este artículo cubriremos las actividades reali7lldas y planificadas por el CIA T con sus socios a nivel comuuitario, muuicipal, departamental y regional. No pretendemos aquí cubrir las otras actividades del CIA T en la región que se realizan a nivel de fmea, de sisterna de producción o de desarrollo de nuevas variedades de cultivos.Para nuestra participación en los procesos de planificación a estos diferentes niveles, hemos escogido las áreas de estudio que se presentan en la figura L Estas' áreas van desde áreas regionales de planificación (los 7 departamentos que conforman el CORPES de la Orinoquia), incluyendo los entes territoriales del orden departamental (departamento del Meta) y municipal (municipio de Puerto López), hasta áreas locales de planificación (cinco comunidades del rnmllcipio de Puerto López). Se espera que las experiencias y las herramientas desarrolladas para un área específica puedan ser difundidas a las otras con el apoyo de los planificadores de nivel administrativo más amplio.pta. Alicia pta. Guadalupe El Turpial Humapo La Vic:toria Puerto López -\"'7----Jurisdicción delFigura 1: Localización de las áreas de estudio iucluidas unas dentro de las otras: La región dentro de la jurisdicción del CORPES-Orinoquia (7 departamentos), el departamento del Meta, el municipio de Puerto López y comunidades dentro del municipio.Actividades y colaboración a diferentes niveles: comunitario, municipal, departamental y regional El proyecto apoyará la planificaci6n del desarrollo agroempresarial de las comunidades del rrnmícipio de Puerro López, empezando con estudios específicos en Puerto Guadalupe, El Turpial, Puerro Alicia y los resguardos indígenas de Humapo y La Victoria. Estos estudíos empezarán con la evaluaci6n de mercados alternativos y la producci6n con valor agregado para los cultivos y frutas que están siendo cultivados en la actualidad y para otros productos en los cuales las comunidades han mostrado un especial interés. Se compararán también los costos de producci6n, los riesgos y beneficíos posibles para una serie de opciones. Se desarrollarán con las comunidades escenarios posibles de producci6n. Más importante, estaremos estudiando cómo las políticas y los canales actuales de comercializaci6n pueden ser fortalecidos para hacer más competitivos los agricultores de las comunidades de toda la regi6n.Durante este año iodos los municipios del pals deben completar sus planes de ordenamiento territorial en cumplimiento de la ley 388/97. Como apoyo a este proceso, el CIAr ha venido colaborando con el municipio de Puerro López en la elaboraci6n de su plan básico. En enero del 1999 hemos impartido una capacitaci6n sobre el programa Map Maker (Dnddley, 1999) para funcionarios de la alcaldía y hemos proporcionado datos digitales básicos que habían sido digitalizados en CIA T en el pasado. Los funcíonarios de la alcaldía están actualmente utilizando estos materiales para elaborar mapas digitales a partir de la informaci6n obtenida darante los talleres participativos que realizaron con la poblaci6n. En CIA T, estamos actualmente recopilando infonnaci6n sobre los requerimientos de los cultivos que han sido nombrados como opciones favorables para el municipio darante una encuesta que realizarnos en octubre del 1998 (Rodríguez et al., 1999). Con base en el mapa de suelos a escala 1:100,000 realizado por el IGAC en 1978, se realizaran mapas de aptitud para los cultivos que cumplan con los requisitos climáticos y mapas que representan la posibilidad de mecanizaci6n. En desarrollo del Plan Básico de ordenamiento territorial del municipio de Puerto López, se dividirá el territorio en urbano, rural y de expansi6n urbana. Con base en los estudios de aptitud de la tierra se clasificara el área rural en forestal, minera, agropecuaria o de protecci6n. En las zonas aptas para explotación agropecuaria, se diferenciaran aquellas zonas en donde se puede o no realizar la mecanización de los cultivos, que es una práctica generalmente utilizada para instalar palltos introducidos. Se propondrán también zonas de conservaci6n y de uso restringido, que no son necesariamente forestales. Una gran parte de los paisajes más disectados, lo que representa de hecho una buena proporci6n del municipio, no son aptos para la mecaniz.ación. Tienen suelos muy frágiles y una baja profundidad efectiva, debido a la presencia de plintita petroférrica. La carga auimal sobre los pastos naturales es actualmente muy baja y se podría destinar una gran parte de estas áreas a la recuperaci6n de ambientes de sabana arbustiva, sin petjudicar mucho la productividad agrícola del municipio. Los beneficios ecol6gicos de tal conservaci6n, como serian un aumento de la flora, la fauna, el secuestro de carbono, y el ecoturismo, sobrepasarían sin doda los beneficios de una ganaderia extensiva sobre un territorio más grande de lo requerido.En el año 2000, las gobernaciones de los departamentos colombianos deberán recopilar los planes de ordenamiento de los municipios que los confonnan para realizar los planes departamentales. Estaremos apoyando al departamento del Meta en este proceso. Mientras tanto, hemos iniciado una colaboración con esta gobernaci6n para la elaboraci6n de lUl sistema de infonnaci6n geogr'dica agrupando datos de base e penTIÍlÍendo el cálculo de indicadores para cada uno de los muniCipios. En este proceso, retomamos las bases de datos compiladas por Winograd, Aguilar y Vera (1998), quienes desarrollaron lUla aplicación preliminar de indicadores de sostenibilidad para el departamento del Meta a partir de la meiodología de Winnograd (1995, a y b). El conjunto de datos deberá permitir no solamente el diagnóstico y el seguimiento, sino también la evaluación (tanto ex-ante que ex-post) del impacto de las políticas o del mejoramiento de teenologías, usando modelos como el descrito por Rivas el al.(1 998} A nivel regional, el CIA T está participando en la fonnación de una red de usuarios de información agro-ambiental para la Orinoquia, junto con CORPOICA, el MADR y el CORPES-Orínoquia. Esta red relacionará las diferentes ínstitocíones y corporaciones con un alcance regional, las gobemaciones de los siete departamentos y sus municipios correspondientes, además de las ONG que están trabajando en la región y que quieran participar. Sus actividades incluirán el apoyo a las instituciones en la compilación de los planes de ordenam.iento territorial municipales para la elaboración de los planes departamentales, la acmalización periódica del plan de desarrollo regional existente (CORPES-Orinoquia, 1998), y la evaluación del efecto de las políticas mediante indicadores ambientales y socioeconómicos.A corto plazo, esperamos que la red estará distribuyendo programas de Sistemas de Información Geográfica, material didáctico y proporcionando capacitación \"en cascada\" al personal de los diferentes niveles administrativos. Los programas de SIG contemplados incluyen \"MapMaker Popular\", una versión castellana de \"MapMaker\"que está siendo desarrollada en este momento con el apoyo del CIA T y que será pronto disponible sin costo para las organizaciones sin fines de lucro.Queremos agradecer muy especialmente al Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (MADR) quien rmaneia este proyecto a través de su convenio de cooperación con el CIAT, Queremos también agradecer nuestros colaboradores en la Orínoquia, el CORPES-Orínoquia, el MADR, CORPOICA, la Gobernación del Meta, la Cámara de Comercio de Villavicencio y la Alcaldía de Puerto López.","tokenCount":"1415"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cab2367e7ea4e91ba41473ab73f9c43a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d2564a3c-fefa-48b6-b678-5e75afd72b27/retrieve","id":"-821764657"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"27bdf806-2536-48e4-89df-4449fc9e9ac1","pagecount":"22","content":"Areas have low and variable rainfall, high temperatures, poor quality soils, and high risk of drought or other climatic events Results in sparsely and variably distributed vegetation -areas of higher productivity and potential for agriculture (around permanent water such as rivers) and low productivity i.e. \"the rest\".To optimize the use of the land (including low productivity areas) a large area of land must be used including the higher productivity areas i.e. those with permanent water used in dry season Because if is not possible for one person to own such a large territory or rangeland, or for the land to be divided up between individuals, the land is normally accessed, used, managed and governed communally. This could be either private communal such as a group ranch (with a landholding certificate) or non-private where land is held by the state in custody for land users -pastoralists have a use-right rather than ownership.Within this rangeland landscape or territory there can be different layers of tenure and governance -a 'nested' governance systemFlexibility is required -changes temporally and spatially: mobility.So what does this mean for gender and land administration and governance in pastoral areas?• The complexities of land, land use and governance need to be understood • As part of this we need to understand how men and women use and access land, and are involved in decision making processes • We might find that men and women access and use land in similar or different ways, different rights, we might find equalities or inequalities, we might find different levels of participation in decision making processes • What we will probably find is that overall there is a system of rights for the group to access, use and manage land (even to own) and then men and women have different degrees of rights within this.Some challenging issues• In pastoral areas, the group, the collective is very important -for managing the land and resources, for assisting each other to get through drought, for sharing management of livestock, for identity etc.• So how do we keep or make the group strong whilst also assisting individuals who might be marginalized to get more equal access etc.• Pastoralists often have weak tenure security. Women may have weaker tenure as women.• By giving women individual tenure 'outside' the group can weaken the group/collective itself, which may not benefit women in the longterm.Economic empowerment: working with women on aloe vera enterprises• Pastoral tenure security needs to be strengthened with women as part of this.• Working with community leaders and others, women can be given additional rights to individual plots as part of the communal system -but decision should come from community not from outside. It should not be seen as challenging authority of the groups • Women's capacity can be built by such as Women's Leadership Forums• Ensuring women are part of decision making processes -organizing meetings at times suitable for them -may need separate meetings, strategiesOptions to consider• Quotas for number or %age of women in committees etc.• Data collected in gender disaggregated way• Supporting and enabling policy and legislation• Certification and registration to protect women's land rights as well as men.• What else based on your own experiences?• Pastoral land tenure and governance is complex -gender adds further complexity• Women need long term protection from the group -the strengthen and rights of group needs to be strengthened better lives through livestock ilri.org ILRI thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions to the CGIAR system","tokenCount":"582"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/4008017698.json b/data/part_3/4008017698.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..bdd6f753203941f7642f7b0ef25fb1e70f319b8e
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"310cbeb97f42183c0fed7e13cebca411","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eb027cda-7a39-4397-8dfc-8c9af6222eb0/retrieve","id":"2092012303"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d01686cb-af25-4801-82c4-ff47b413c00c","pagecount":"11","content":"Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a crop of global economic and food safety importance, used for human consumption and in various industrial applications. The genebank of the Genetic Resources Program of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT currently holds the world's largest cassava collection, with 5965 in vitro accessions from 28 countries. Managing this extensive collection involves indexing quarantine pathogens as a phytosanitary certification requirement for safely distributing cassava germplasm. The study therefore aimed to optimize a quantitative diagnostic protocol to detect cassava common mosaic virus (CsCMV) using quantitative PCR (qPCR) as a better alternative to other molecular techniques. This was done through designing primers and a probe in the RdRP region of CsCMV, and optimizing the qPCR conditions of the diagnostic protocol using primer concentration assays, and reaction amplification conditions such as volume and reaction time. We also evaluated the qPCR protocol by comparing the results of 140 cassava accession evaluations using three diagnostic methodologies (DAS-ELISA, end-point PCR, and qPCR) for CsCMV. Our protocol established that qPCR technique analysis is ten-times more sensitive in detecting CsCMV compared to end-point PCR, showing a maximum detection level of 77.97 copies/μL of plasmid, with 76 min of reaction time. The comparison allowed us to verify the level of CsCMV detection through the techniques evaluated, concluding that qPCR was more sensitive and allowed the quantification of viral concentration. The optimized qPCR protocol will be used to accelerate diagnostic screening of cassava germplasm for the presence or absence of CsCMV to ensure safe movement and distribution of disease-free germplasm.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is considered the sixth-most important crop globally after wheat, rice, corn, potato, and barley, respectively. It is a basic primary staple for more than a billion people worldwide [1] Currently, global cassava production exceeds 300 million tons, with an annual yield of 10.61 ton/ha [2]. It is therefore a crop of economic importance, classified as the main crop for food security, human consumption purposes, and industrial applications as starch such as thickener, binder, and stabilizer that are widely used in the food industry [1]. Furthermore, cassava roots, stems, and leaves are used for animal feed [3].Germplasm banks perform various functions for conserving and providing genetic resources in research, breeding, and improvement of seed supply, contributing to food security and nutrition [4]. The Genetic Resources Program (GRP) of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT holds and distributes the world's largest cassava collection, made up of 5965 in vitro accessions from 28 countries. The main functions established by the genebank are conservation, distribution, duplication, and indexing of cassava germplasm [5]. Indexing is carried out by the GRP Germplasm Health Unit (GHU) using standardized and validated methodologies such as end-point PCR, qPCR, and LAMP [6]. Indexing cassava germplasm is an essential requirement for its safe distribution and must be fulfilled in accordance with international phytosanitary regulations. Samples must be accompanied by phytosanitary certification issued by the national institute authorized to issue sanitary certificates [4], which in Colombia is the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA).Phytosanitary certification of the Alliance's cassava in vitro collection is currently carried out for three quarantine diseases, which are (i) Cassava frogskin disease [7], reported in association with four viral forms: Cassava frogskin-associated virus (CsFSaV), Cassava new alphaflexivirus (CsNAV), Cassava polero-like virus (CsPLV), Cassava torrado-like virus (CsTLV), and a phytoplasma of the 16SrIII-L group [8,9]; (ii) asymptomatic disease X of cassava caused by virus X (CsVX); and (iii) common mosaic disease caused by cassava common mosaic virus (CsCMV) [10,11].CsCMV belongs to the genus Potexvirus in the Alphaflexiviridae family. The virus was first reported in southern Brazil [12,13] and in other Latin American countries such as Mexico [14], Colombia and Paraguay [15], Venezuela [16,17], Argentina [18][19][20], and Peru [21]. CsCMV has also been reported in Africa and Asia [22][23][24]. CsCMV was first detected using serology method with the Standard Double-Antibody-Sandwich Assay (DAS-ELISA) technique [11,25]. Currently, CsCMV is commonly detected using end-point PCR [26]. However, the technique involves additional steps in the reaction process, such as the use of gels, which is more time consuming and shows different levels of sensitivity in the diagnostic processes [27]. Thus, updating diagnostic methodologies has an important role to play in germplasm phytosanitary certification. This has allowed optimizing and improving diagnostic processes where conventional techniques such as end-point PCR are used.Molecular techniques are among the most promising diagnostic methodologies, offering a safe, rapid, and reliable pathology diagnosis; specifically qPCR, which allows real-time detection of any fragment of interest using specific probes labeled with fluorophores [28]. The benefits of qPCR diagnosis are the real-time reading of the amplified product, shortening the detection process; quantifying the virus' concentration; and using a specific probe that enhances diagnostic sensitivity and reliability [29].In recent years, molecular diagnostics for CsCMV using end-point PCR with different sets of primers has been reported specifically in Brazil, China, and Colombia [24,26,30]. However, there are no reports for CsCMV diagnosis using qPCR.For this reason, a robust qPCR protocol requires a good primer and probe design, both previously verified, which contributes to the robustness of the diagnostic technique [31], as well as establishing the amplification profile, standard curve, and verification of percentages of sensitivity and specificity compared to other methodologies. Therefore, the objective of this research was to perform the quantitative detection of the CsCMV virus by optimizing a protocol based on qPCR for the phytosanitary certification of cassava germplasm, contributing to the continuous improvement of diagnostic processes for safely moving germplasm.Primers and a probe for detection of cassava common mosaic virus (CsCMV) were designed in the coding region for the RNAdependent RNA Polymerase protein (Replicase) described by Lozano et al. [26] as a conserved region used to classify species of viruses of the genus Potexvirus. For designing the primers and the probe, the sequence KT002437.1 belonging to the replicase region for CsCMV was used, from nucleotide 1 to 609 of the sequence.For this design we used the PrimerQuest software Tool from Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) [32]. The process followed quality parameters such as GC content, salt concentration, product size, melting temperature (Tm), size of the primers and probe, ΔG of hairpins, self-completion, and crossover dimers [28].Verification of the primers' and probe specificity was performed using the primer BLAST tool available in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/tools/primer-blast/. The primers and probe designed were evaluated with the database of the genus Potexvirus and Manihot esculenta, to verify the non-binding to specific sequences such as cassava and other viruses belonging to the described genus [33].Additionally, each ΔG sequence was evaluated using the PREMIER Biosoft Beacon designer free edition program, available at: http://www.premierbiosoft.com/qOligo/Oligo.jsp?PID=1. Once the best result was selected, the primers and probe sequences were synthesized in IDT [32], using a 6-FAM reporter fluorophore at the 5′ end and two Quenchers for the probeone called ZEN (internal) and another one at the 3′ end called Iowa Black FQ.Through four standardization trials, the diagnostic protocol for CsCMV was established. The first was performed by evaluating a gradient with four hybridization temperatures: 50, 54, 57, and 60 • C. The reaction was performed using 1X GoTaq® Green Master Mix (Promega©), 0.2 μM of previously-designed qPCR primers, 0.5 ng/μL of plasmid and water at a final volume of 25 μL. The amplification profile used was denaturation at 95 • C for 30 s, and a final extension at 72 • C for 10 min in an end-point PCR thermocycler. The results were visualized in a 1 % agarose gel stained with GelRed®. The second assay was conducted by optimizing the primer and probe concentrations using a concentration matrix: 100, 200, and 300 nM of the primers, and 150, 200, and 250 nM of the probe. The reaction was completed with 1X QuantiNova Probe Master Mix (QIAGEN©) and water to a final volume of 25 μL [31,34,35].Nine concentration combinations between the primers and probe were performed with the following reaction profile: Denaturation at 95 • C for 2 min, 40 denaturation cycles at 95 • C for 15 s, annealing and extension at 50 • C for 60 s with reading of signal in this last step using the Green channel (FAM) in the QIAGEN© Rotor-Gene Q equipment. In the nine combinations, 0.5 ng of positive control was used, 0.5 ng of negative control corresponding to a healthy plant, and a reaction blank with water.The third trial consisted of optimizing the reaction volume from 25 to 20 μL, using the reaction, amplification, and control conditions described in trial 2, with the defined concentration of the primers and probe. The fourth assay was performed for qPCR reaction time improvement. Assay reaction and amplification were carried out using the conditions described in assay 2, changing the reading time from 1 min to 30 s in the annealing cycle, using 20 μL of the final volume in the reaction, a positive control (0.5 ng), negative (0.5 ng), and no-template control.All the results in the qPCR assays were visualized using the QIAGEN© Rotor-Gene Q series software. They were analyzed according to the controls used in each of the assays; positive control previously verified with PCR, negative control, and blank reaction, each of the reactions was performed in duplicate. The established protocol for CsCMV was used for sensitivity and specificity assays.The qPCR limit of detection (LOD) was evaluated using a standard curve of 10 serial dilutions of a positive control plasmid of previously known concentration (4.2 ng/μL). The plasmid used for this assay belonged to the pGEM®-T Easy Vector Systems kit with an insert of 650 bp corresponding to the RdRP region of the CsCMV virus. Each dilution was carried out with two replicates, two negative controls, and two no-template controls. These dilutions were also compared with end-point PCR to determine the level of LOD between both techniques [36]. The number of copies of the serial dilutions was calculated with an equation described by Shirima et al. [37]. The serial dilutions were obtained from a concentrated plasmid with 1.05 × 10 9 copies/μL. The calculated copies were added to the Rotor-Gene Q series software before starting the run.Lack/presence of non-specific amplification of the qPCR protocol was evaluated using plasmids and DNA from different viruses such as CsFSaV, CsNAV, CsPLV, CsTLV, Cassava virus X (CsVX), bacterial DNA (Xanthomonas sp. (Xt), Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. phaseolicola (Ps), and Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. flaccumfaciens (Cb8)) and fungal DNA (Phoma sp. (P3), Trichoderma sp. (T1), and Alternaria sp. (A2)), with positive (C+), negative (C-), and no-template controls (B), with two replicates by reaction [35]. This assay was also carried out in end-point PCR using two reactions for each plasmid and DNA evaluated with the respective reaction controls mentioned above.All samples used in this research were cassava plants established under greenhouse conditions at the in vitro conservation laboratory of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT's Genetic Resources Program (GRP). The materials used were the young leaf tissue of 70 accessions, according to 2020 historical results for this virus; 35 positive accessions and 35 negative accessions with endpoint PCR performed by the GHU. Furthermore, 35 additional accessions were randomly selected from the Argentinian (Arg) collection of the same greenhouse with unknown results. The collection of plant material was carried out using the methodology described by Cuervo et al. [6]. This protocol describes the method for collecting young leaf tissue from the establishment plant, using a previously-disinfected scalpel. The samples were covered and labeled in aluminum sheets and stored in a Styrofoam cooler during transportation. From each sample, 200 mg of tissue was selected and organized in 2.0 mL Eppendorf tubes. The tubes were stored at − 80 • C until processing.The RNA extraction process was carried out following the CTAB methodology (N-Cetyl-N, N, N-Trimethyl-Ammonium bromide, Merck) described by Lopez et al. [38], with modifications in the buffer solution, solvents, and reagents used for the RNA extraction. For preparing the buffer solution, the following stock solutions were used: 2 M NaCl (4 M), 25 mM EDTA (0.5 M), 100 mM TRIS HCl (1 M), 2 % W/V CTAB and 2 % W/V for PVP. Additionally, at the beginning of the extraction process, 0.2 % β-Mercaptoethanol was added to the extraction buffer.RNA extraction was performed using 200 mg of young leaf tissue previously macerated with liquid nitrogen, which was mixed with the extraction buffer mentioned above. The steps for the isolation of nucleic acids involved the following order of reagents: 1) Chloroform (1:1), 2) Isopropanol (1:1), and 3) 70 % Ethanol. Finally, to obtain the total RNA, a treatment with type I DNAse from Promega's RQ1 RNase-Free DNase kit was used for DNA degradation. Once the enzymatic treatment was completed, the total RNA was precipitated overnight with lithium chloride at 2 M. The next day, a second wash was performed with 70% ethanol, the samples were centrifuged, and the ethanol was discarded and left to dry in an extractor chamber for 1 h. The total RNA was resuspended in 50 μL of nuclease-free water. The quality and quantity of total RNA was measured in a spectrophotometer before the cDNA synthesis step [6].Evaluation of CsCMV was carried out from a new collection of plant material to establish the same conditions of physiological state and sampling time of the accessions to be evaluated in the comparative diagnostic. We evaluated 105 accessions collected from the cassava bonsai greenhouse, using two diagnostic techniques currently available to detect CsCMV virus: DAS-ELISA test and end-point PCR [6], plus an evaluation with qPCR using the optimization of the protocol carried out in this research work, in order to determine the protocol's sensitivity, according to the number of positive and negative results for each diagnostic technique.Evaluation of CsCMV with the DAS-ELISA technique was carried out using a sandwich-type serological kit. The diagnosis was made using 200 mg of fresh tissue from the 105 accessions to be evaluated. The capture and conjugate antibody concentrations used in this work were 1/200 for both, in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.All the accessions were evaluated in duplicate, and the protocol was evaluated by adding 1X of PNP substrate, performing a first reading at 30 min and a second reading at 60 min with a 405 nm wavelength in a Biotek Epoch 2 spectrophotometer. Positive results are those that present absorbance of more than twice the value of the negative control.Firstly, cDNA synthesis was performed according to the methodology described in Cuervo et al. [6], using the Invitrogen synthesis kit (M-MLV Reverse Transcriptase -200 U/μL). Subsequently, the cDNA was verified with an internal control PCR using the primers described by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) (Nad5.656.f and Nad5.835.r) that amplify for a region corresponding to the endogenous gene of the Nad5 plant, with the following reaction conditions: 1X GoTaq Green Master Mix (2X) and a primer solution at 0.2 μM each, following the amplification profile described by Cuervo et al. [6].All PCR products were visualized in 1 % agarose gels stained with GelRed® (Biotium); in this way the confirmed cDNA presented a PCR product of 200 base pairs [39]. The samples were evaluated for the CsCMV virus using the CsCMV_3269F/CsCMV_3896R primers described by Lozano et al. [26] for CsCMV, with the following reaction conditions: 1X GoTaq Green Master Mix (2X), 0.2 μM forward primers and reverse, and 2 ng of cDNA previously verified with internal control PCR. The amplification profile reported by Cuervo et al. [6] was used for the amplification of the reaction.Accessions were evaluated with qPCR using the new primers and probe described in section 2.1. Five positive samples were selected and visualized in 1 % agarose gels stained with GelRed® (Biotium) in a transilluminator. The bands were cut and purified according to the protocol described by QIAGEN [40] using the QIAquick Gel Extraction purification kit. The purified samples were sent to Korea for the Sanger sequencing service at Macrogen. The received sequences were edited in Bioedit [41] and later analyzed with the NCBI https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi nucleotide BLAST tool [42] to confirm and verify the qPCR amplified product.Analysis of the concentration matrix, volume, and time assays was performed with the normalized fluorescence emitted by the QIAGEN© Rotor-Gene Q series software at 40 cycles, using ANOVA and Tukey's means test. The results of the comparison of methodologies (ELISA, PCR, and qPCR) were analyzed using a Chi-square test (X2). The variables used for the comparison were the total number of positive and negative accessions obtained in the three diagnostic techniques of the virus (CsCMV).All analyzes were performed using the statistical software SAS® Studio (https://welcome.oda.sas.com/login) with a significance value of 0.05 %. The reactions were visualized and interpreted according to the Ct obtained from the positive controls in each of the assays. The bar graphs for the comparison of methodologies were generated using the statistical software R (https://www.r-project. org/).Primer and probe design performed to detect the CsCMV virus using IDT's PrimerQuest Tool software showed five primer set options for amplification of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) domain region of the RNA polymerase gene. The primers and probe used in option one -CsCMV-q5F (5′-CAAAGCTAGGCTCGTGATAAG-3′), CsCMV-q5R (5′-GGATGGGATCTTCTGGTAAATG-3′), and CsCMV-q5P (5′-CCGTCCAGTTGTGTTCCTTAT-3′) -were those that showed the best results according to the in-silico analysis performed (Table S1). These analyses showed primers and the probe between 21 and 22 bases in length, with a Tm of 54 • C for the primer Forward (F) and Reverse (R), and 56 • C for the probe, with a final product of 125 bp.Other parameters such as the percentage of GC values were between 45 and 47 % and showed some secondary structures within the acceptable ranges (less than 15) with ΔG values maintained between 0 and -3.5 in structures such as crossed dimers, selfcomplementarity, and hairpins.Additionally, the selected primers and probe presented favorable results in terms of the specificity evaluation carried out in silico in Primer Blast, with the Manihot esculenta database and the Potexvirus genus, where they did not present pairing with cassava genome sequences and virus sequences belonging to this genus, thus demonstrating the specificity required to perform the diagnosis of CsCMV by qPCR.In the first assay of qPCR primer optimization for detecting CsCMV, the annealing temperature of 50 • C showed strong amplification of the positive control. Dissimilarly, the other temperatures of 54, 57, and 60 • C showed amplification, but in a reduced band intensity from 54 • C upwards. Also, the results showed that the negative controls and the no-template controls did not present nonspecific results and dimer formation (Fig. S1).On the other hand, the second assay ANOVA for the optimization of primer and probe concentrations showed that the different combinations evaluated presented significant differences in at least one of them. Furthermore, the Tukey means test showed that the best combinations were C7, C8, C9, and C4, presenting the highest value in their respective means, and that the C7 and C8 combinations were statistically equal, but different from C9 and C4 (Table S2).Finally, C4 and C9 combinations were the same among themselves, but different from the other combinations (C5, C6, C1, C2, and C3). These results suggest that the best combination is C4 because the combinations C7, C8, and C9 require a higher concentration of primers and the probe. Furthermore, C4 presents the second-best average value in normalized fluorescence, therefore selecting these conditions will allow the detection of CsCMV by qPCR allowing the correct optimization of reagents (Table S2).Assays three and four, for optimizing the volume and reaction time, respectively, showed that the changes made did not present significant differences in the amplification of the positive control of each trial (normalized fluorescence) (Table S3). Therefore, the reduction of the final volume to 20 μL and the 20-min reduction in the reaction profile allowed optimization of the qPCR protocol for CsCMV diagnosis.According to the assays carried out, the reaction mixture preparation by qPCR defined for the diagnosis of CsCMV was: 1XQuantiNova Probe Master Mix (QIAGEN©), 0.2 μM of primers, 0.15 μM of the probe, 0.5 ng of sample and water to final volume 20 μL.The amplification conditions established in the equipment were: denaturation at 95 • C for 2 min, 40 cycles of denaturation at 95 • C for 15 s, annealing and extension at 50 • C for 30 s using the Green channel in this last step (FAM) of the QIAGEN© Rotor-Gene Q for reading the fluorescent signal during amplification, obtaining a final reaction time of 76 min.Serial dilutions evaluated with the qPCR technique for CsCMV showed amplification of the positive control up to the 10 − 7 dilution of ten serial dilutions (Fig. S2), with a threshold of 0.0248. The average Ct of the 10 − 7 dilution was 37.34 and is the last value detected by the technique, indicating that the maximum reading for the diagnosis of CsCMV will be made up of this Ct value (Table 1). Additionally, the negative controls and the no-template controls did not show non-specific amplifications. Also, the calculation of the average number of copies (Rep. Cal. Conc.) quantified by the qPCR technique showed the first reading in the 10 − 1 dilution with 70,327,206.46 copies/μL up to the 10 − 7 dilution with 77.97 copies/μL of the CsCMV virus. In the other dilutions (10 − 8 to 10 − 10 ) no quantification of the virus was found (Table 1).Quality parameters of the standard curve for the diagnosis of CsCMV showed an R 2 value of 0.9973, a slope value (M) of − 3.088, and an efficiency value of 1.11. These values are within the parameters suggested by the literature [43]. Thus, analysis of the sample evaluation results using this curve would show a reliable result in CsCMV copy number quantification. On the other hand, when evaluating the previous standard curve by end-point PCR, the technique only detected the first six dilutions (from 10 − 1 to 10 − 6 ), showing very clear bands in the last dilution (10 − 6 ), indicating the LOD of the end-point PCR (Fig. S3). The results shown in Figs. S2 and S3, and Table 1, suggest that the qPCR technique LOD is 10 times more sensitive than the end-point PCR. This is because qPCR presented an additional dilution reading to those detected by the end-point PCR, indicating the technique's greater capacity to detect and quantify the CsCMV viral concentration, and therefore greater reliability in the results obtained.The qPCR assay results for CsCMV indicated that the nucleic acids evaluated were not detected with the primers and the CsCMV probe, except for the amplification of the positive control (Fig. S4). This result indicated that the primers and the probe designed in this work for the diagnosis of CsCMV by qPCR are specific for the diagnosis.Additionally, the primers test performed by end-point PCR described by Lozano et al. [26] for CsCMV, showed only the amplification of the positive control, confirming that the primers are specific for virus amplification (Fig. S5) and non-specific amplifications were not observed in the negative controls, no-template controls, and DNAs of other pathogens. Thus, both methodologies proved to be specific for the detection of CsCMV.Chi-square analysis carried out in the comparison of the three methodologies for the diagnosis of CsCMV showed that there are significant differences in at least one of the diagnostic methods used (p < 0.05) (Table S4). In this way, the null hypothesis is rejected, indicating that there is no difference in the results according to the diagnostic method used. These results were verified through a comparative analysis between the evaluated techniques, showing that, in the case of the DAS-ELISA methodology, all results (100%) were negative. Additionally, in the case of the end-point PCR technique, 9 (8.57%) samples were positive and 69 (65.71%) were positive for qPCR (Fig. 1), demonstrating that the lowest detection rate was obtained through DAS-ELISA and the highest through qPCR.All the positive results with the end-point PCR coincided with the positive results of the qPCR, and the five positive samples with qPCR selected were confirmed with Sanger sequencing showing identity percentages greater than 94% for this virus, indicating the reliability of the qPCR-amplified product.On the other hand, the comparison of techniques between end-point PCR and qPCR diagnosis, according to the groups of samples selected and evaluated at different times, showed that in the case of the CsCMV group, of the 35 accessions positive by end-point PCR in 2020, 27 (77%) accessions tested positive for this virus using qPCR (Fig. 2). In addition, the 35 accessions of this group were evaluated again by end-point PCR, finding only two positive samples (5.7%) for CsCMV.Additionally, in the group of negative accessions called Neg, we found that, of the 35 accessions that tested negative for CsCMV by end-point PCR in 2020, 17 (48.5%) accessions tested positive using qPCR for CsCMV (Fig. 2). Also, the new diagnosis made with endpoint PCR for this group of samples did not show positive results for this virus.  Finally, the group of samples from Argentina (Arg) − 35 accessions without prior evaluation with PCR in 2020 − found 25 (71.4%) positive accessions with qPCR for CsCMV (Fig. 2). These results seem to indicate that the plants belonging to this group of accessions could present a degree of susceptibility to CsCMV and its detection was possible with qPCR because in the evaluation with end-point PCR (2022) only seven (20%) accessions were detected as positive (Fig. 2).All the techniques compared in this diagnosis presented different execution times and different operational costs (Table 2). The cost and time described are based on the evaluation of 140 cassava samples. This comparison showed that the qPCR technique has a running time of 2 h, with an approximate cost per reaction of US$2.23. In contrast, ELISA and PCR techniques took two days and 6 h of execution with an approximate cost of US$2.5 and US$1, respectively. Although the qPCR technique has some limitations, it showed greater advantages compared to the ELISA and PCR (Table 2), allowing a complete and safe diagnosis in phytosanitary certification in the evaluated germplasm. Additionally, the operational cost of qPCR can be lower in duplex reactions for the simultaneous evaluation of different pathogens, reaching an approximate cost of US$1.16 per reaction.   for the phytosanitary certification of the cassava collection for CsCMV for many years. However, this technique relied on the antisera produced by the CIAT Virology Laboratory in the 1980s, which was running out. Thus, more recently, the DAS-ELISA protocol was replaced with an alternative available molecular technique, end-point PCR, for this germplasm certification.At the same time, the implementation of quantitative methodologies such as qPCR for cassava germplasm certification has raised interest for its applicability in the quantification of viral concentration. However, to obtain a reliable protocol that would speed up the evaluation process, the qPCR protocol needed to be refined, through the optimization of primers, reaction conditions, amplification, and by verifying if the protocol is sensitive and specific. This work designed a set of primers and a probe for CsCMV detection using qPCR analysis following the parameters indicated for the design of the qPCR protocol, such as the primer and probe length, which indicates a direct relationship with the specific amplification, stability, and cost [28]. Additionally, the correct selection of the Tm (less than 60 • C) avoids the unspecific binding of the primers and the formation of secondary structures, which should not be greater than 5 • C between the designed primers [44].Furthermore, in the formation of dimers and secondary structures, the primers must not present sequences with internal homology and at the 3′ end, because they could lead to the formation of hairpins and self-complementarity structures, generating interferences with the alignment of the DNA and with the formation of the final reaction product [45]. Furthermore, acceptable ΔG values for primers and probe should range from 0 to − 3.5 to avoid any non-specific structure formation, such as dimers [44].Advancement in molecular methods and the widening range of techniques have contributed to the GRP Germplasm Health Unit's advancement of the protocol established for CsCMV diagnosis by qPCR. This allows updating, refining, and using more efficient techniques such as qPCR when detecting any virus of interest [46]. The safe movement and distribution of germplasm are strictly linked to the requirement of diagnostic tests to determine the germplasm's phytosanitary status, because one of the risks involved in the transfer of plant material is the possible movement of pests and diseases to unreported sites [47]. For this reason, methodologies must contribute to a safe and reliable diagnosis for safely acquiring and distributing germplasm.Based on some reports, the qPCR technique offers greater diagnostic sensitivity compared to other techniques [48]. This coincides with our diagnostic protocol, which found qPCR to be 10 times more sensitive than end-point PCR. In addition, qPCR offers the advantage of quantifying the emitted fluorescence proportional to the concentration of the template sequence of interest [49]. In this way, qPCR protocols are an option for the quantification of viruses in germplasm testing to guarantee the phytosanitary status of the material, and also contribute to the indexing of germplasm for both the GRP and for breeding programs [37,47]. An additional advantage of qPCR is that it can be used as a tool to verify the effectiveness of virus-cleaning protocols currently applied by the germplasm bank.Fluorescence techniques such as qPCR work best with TaqMan type probesalso known as hydrolysis probesthat provide a specific and reliable reaction [48]. This was evidenced by the results of the test performed for the qPCR, where non-amplifications were not obtained with the DNA, plasmids, negative controls, and no-template controls evaluated. Likewise, end-point PCR has been reported as specific in protocols for detecting Ralstonia solani, Fusarium oxysporum, and Alternaria alternata, showing specificity levels of 100% [50]. This was confirmed with the test performed for the end-point PCR, demonstrating 100% specificity in CsCMV detection. Nonetheless, this technique did not show greater detection of positive samples than qPCR. Some research papers report qPCR as a specific and sensitive method for virus detection, such as in the Cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) model of the genus Ipomovirus for the certification of cassava germplasm [37], and in the detection of viral models such as baculoviruses for the quantification of virus concentration in biological products at an industrial level [49].Additionally, the comparison between the diagnostic techniques also confirmed that qPCR can detect lower viral concentrations, allowing a reliable safety diagnosis. In contrast, techniques such as DAS-ELISA incur similar costs (~USD 2.5 per sample), but are not as sensitive. They also present the risk of omitting virus-contaminated accessions, which could cause long-term quarantine problems. Additionally, qPCR i) offers a better cost/benefit ratio, since the investment made ensures the diagnosis; ii) avoids crosscontamination, (corroborated by Hendling et al. [28]); iii) allows viral quantification, and iv) contributes to rapidly obtaining results.Comparing the evaluation of the three accession groups, according to the diagnosis conducted at different times, results for the CsCMV, Neg, and Arg group tested with qPCR and end-point PCR carried out in 2022 showed that (i) the highest detection rate for CsCMV is obtained with qPCR and that (ii) even though qPCR did not achieve total detection for the 35 accessions of the positive group for this virus (2020), qPCR continues to be the tested technique that provides the greatest detection of positive samples. However, this result may also be because the samples evaluated in 2022 presented physiological changes generated by the agronomic management practices carried out in the greenhouses during the time interval between the two evaluations (2020 and 2022), which may have generated a change in the viral concentration.Management practices applied prior to testing in 2022 include fertilization and pruning, where fertilization for greenhouse accessions includes products with a high content of macroelements such as potassium (K), whichaccording to the literatureinduces resistance to bacteria, fungi, and viruses due to the generation of high molecular weight compounds such as cellulose and lignin, creating barriers and making it difficult for pathogens to move [51].Additionally, potassium deficiency generates susceptibility in the plant to the presence of viruses, generating foliar chlorosis due to the response mechanism generated by the activation of reactive oxygen species as a signal for the positive regulation of transcriptional genes such as HAK5 involved in the uptake of potassium ions [52]. Thus, the application of this macroelement would reduce the effect generated by the virus in the movement from cell to cell, affecting the viral infection. These reasons could explain the change in viral concentration in the plants evaluated. Additionally, the tissue collected in 2022 differed from that initially evaluated in 2020 due to pruning that was conducted, which could also be an important factor in reducing the viral load. This study has allowed designing new and effective primers and a probe for efficient and rapid detection of CsCMV generating the amplification of the region conserved RdRP. Also, the optimized amplification conditions allowed establishing a protocol for accurately diagnosing CsCMV, with optimal concentration values of primers and a probe for correct amplification. This achieving shortened diagnostic time and optimized reagents use.Additionally, this qPCR protocol allowed us to achieve absolute viral quantification, favoring the LOD calculations for both the Ct and the maximum number of copies of the technique. On the other hand, the comparative analysis between end-point PCR and qPCR showed that the latter is 10-times more sensitive than the former for detection of CsCMV. Additionally, the study determined that both techniques and the DAS-ELISA were specific detecting CsCMV. Our results verify that qPCR provides greater detection of positive cassava germplasm samples, thus contributing to the sanitary certification of CsCMV in cassava germplasm for safe distribution processes.","tokenCount":"5568"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d6aab734d9cea12810e0f88cf2ec44ef","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c8037aea-0ae0-48d7-b976-a95e58852469/retrieve","id":"-63089649"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ee843e68-784a-4aaf-a1d4-af4541997dba","pagecount":"28","content":"Accords de pêche Ue-Acp Le défi de la mise en oeuvre FleUrs La délicatesse n'a pas de prix Le magazine du développement agricole et rural des pays ACp http://spore.cta.int in tE rv iE w sa no u so um aïl a, pr és ide nt du ré se au ou es t af ric ain de s cé ré ali er s (r OA C) N°167 décembre 2013-jANvier 2014 Découvrez le CTA En un clic, sur notre nouveau site web, prenez connaissance de nos programmes: + Politiques agricoles + Marchés et chaînes de valeur + TIC pour le développement + Savoir pour le développement www.cta.int dossier ACCOrds dE pêChE uE-ACp Le défi de la mise en oeuvre à la une 4 interview sAnOu sOumAÏLA Le plaidoyer des céréaliers ouest africains 12 EnsEignEmEnt supériEurPlages de sable blanc baignées de soleil, Usain Bolt, reggae…, les Caraïbes évoquent souvent des images de carte postale. Au point de faire oublier que cet archipel est confronté à de réels défis nutritionnels et de sécurité alimentaire. Contraints d'importer massivement des produits alimentaires -une facture annuelle de 4 milliards de dollars qui ne fait que croître -les pays surendettés de la région se tournent vers l'agriculture. Non seulement pour produire davantage d'aliments nutritifs mais aussi pour favoriser l'emploi des jeunes et soutenir l'économie.En octobre 2013, la Semaine caribéenne de l'agriculture a réuni les acteurs du secteur agricole de la Communauté caribéenne (CARICOM), représentés par des ministres, de hauts fonctionnaires, des membres d'organisations agricoles et du secteur agroindustriel, mais aussi des chercheurs, des responsables d'organisations régionales et internationales et des professionnels des médias. Cet événement annuel, qui a eu lieu à Georgetown, au Guyana, leur a permis de discuter des pistes les plus efficaces pour transformer le secteur. À la veille de la réunion ministérielle, les délégués ont formulé des recommandations à l'intention des responsables politiques. Un large éventail de questions ont été examinées, dont l'amélioration de la productivité des cultures traditionnelles, le développement de chaînes de valeur inclusives, l'élaboration et la mise en oeuvre de stratégies d'adaptation au changement climatique et la promotion de l'entrepreneuriat chez les jeunes. Des plans d'action ont vu le jour concernant la création d'opportunités d'affaires pour les agricultrices, l'utilisation des TIC dans l'agriculture et dans la vie rurale, l'accès des petits exploitants aux marchés, le développement d'une feuille de route pour le secteur de la noix de coco et la mise en oeuvre de politiques visant à créer un environnement favorable à la prospérité des petites exploitations.La présence de plusieurs participants du Pacifique, notamment les ministres de l'agriculture des Samoa et des Tonga, a favorisé de fructueux échanges d'expériences et la mise en place de partenariats futurs entre les deux régions.Comme de coutume, le CTA a contribué activement au succès de l'événement, en co-organisant huit ateliers, les Prix des médias et le Concours de films et de vidéos.Union européenne (UE) importe 60 % de sa consommation de produits halieutiques. Il est, de fait, le plus grand marché mondial. Historiquement, la création des Zones économiques exclusives (ZEE) au plan international a amené l'UE à négocier des accords de pêche avec des Etats tiers -en particulier les pays ACP -pour garantir à ses flottes un accès à la ressource. Aujourd'hui, 14 accords de partenariat de pêche (APP) sont en vigueur, dont 11 thoniers et 3 sur plusieurs espèces.Objet de fortes critiques, les accords ont été remodelés lors de la réforme de la Politique commune de pêche (PCP) en 2002. Entre autres facteurs, la notion de partenariat y a été introduite et des améliorations substantielles ont été apportées.Toutefois, des défis demeurent. Le premier est d'ordre financier, la compensation financière poussant la plupart des Etats tiers, en manque de trésorerie, à accepter des bateaux qui ne devraient pas y être si on s'en tenait aux avis scientifiques et aux impacts sur les communautés de pêcheurs. D'où une surexploitation des ressources. Toutefois, ce serait bien la pêche, son exercice, et non les accords de pêche qui mène à une surexploitation des ressources, tient à souligner Béatrice Gorez, coordinatrice de la Coalition pour des accords de pêche équitables (CAPE). L'exemple du Sénégal est révélateur. Avec la rupture du protocole d'accord en 2006, une quarantaine de chalutiers européens ont, du jour au lendemain, pris pavillon sénégalais engendrant les même méfaits sur la ressource mais sans compensation financière.Le deuxième défi est lié au concept de \"value for money\", indique Béatrice Gorez. Historiquement, dans le cadre des négociations des accords, la Commission européenne cherchait à négocier le maximum de volumes pour des compensations financières les moins élevées possibles. Une attitude qui peut sembler pour certains comme contraire à la Convention des Nations unies sur le droit de la mer (CNUDM) qui stipule que seul le surplus peut être négocié avec des flottes étrangères.Enfin, si une certaine opacité a longtemps demeuré dans les négociations et la mise en oeuvre des accords, il convient de souligner qu'aujourd'hui, sous la pression des ONG, des progrès importants vers plus de transparence ont été réalisés avec notamment la publication des accords et des évaluations ex-ante.le test de l'accord Mauritanie-ueDans un contexte de surexploitation des stocks halieutiques marins, l'UE a entrepris une nouvelle réforme de la PCP, entrée en vigueur en 2013. Selon la FAO, 57 % des stocks mondiaux étaient pleinement exploités et 13 % surexploités. Aussi Bruxelles a-t-il totalement intégré ces préoccupations dans les nouveaux Accords de partenariat de pêche (APP) qui, d'ailleurs, ont été renommés Accords de pêche durables (APD).Précurseur, l'APD signé en juillet 2012 entre la Mauritanie et l'UE s'inspire de ces principes en intégrant les concepts d'accès uniquement au surplus et de transparence dans la négociation en incluant toutes les parties prenantes. En outre, les possibilités de pêche se voientDans le cadre de la nouvelle Politique commune de pêche (PCP) de l'Europe, les accords de pêche entre l'UE et les ACP ont été réformés. Durabilité de la ressource, bonne gouvernance maritime, développement des pêcheries locales en sont les maîtres-mots. L'accord signé entre l'UE et la Mauritanie est le premier du genre et aura valeur de test.progressivement déliées de la contribution financière.Cet accord UE-Mauritanie a été fortement débattu au niveau européen, les flottes européennes y étant très réticentes. Elles s'y référaient en le qualifiant d'\"accord de non accès\" puisqu'il les oblige à sortir des eaux mauritaniennes, souligne Béatrice Gorez. Mais pour la spécialiste, l'aspect clé de cet accord se trouve ailleurs : la Mauritanie a accepté que les conditions qu'elle ferait aux flottes européennes seraient aussi appliquées aux flottes étrangères. Des principes de pêche durable de l'APD qui s'imposeraient, de facto, aux flottes chinoises, russes mais aussi aux navires européens opérant sous licence privée.Des avancées majeures certes, mais qui doivent être encore appliquées. L'APD avec la Mauritanie aura, à ce titre, valeur de test. Entériné avec seulement une petite majorité au Conseil des ministres de l'UE, l'accord a été ensuite refusé par la Commission Pêche du Parlement européen. Malgré l'opposition de certains députés, le protocole de pêche a été finalement adopté par le Parlement européen début octobre.Au-delà, se pose le problème fondamental de la capacité d'un certain nombre de pays ACP à gérer et contrôler leurs pêcheries de façon durable. Les besoins sont énormes : les petites îles du Pacifique doivent, chacune, gérer, avec des ressources limitées, une zone impressionnante de 200 milles nautiques. Autre point délicat : la récolte des données de captures. Un exercice difficile pour les flottes qui pêchent au large mais aussi pour les débarquements de la pêche artisanale. Sur ce dernier point, on note souvent une multiplication des lieux de débarquement mais aussi parfois une sous-estimation des ressources locales afin de négocier des licences plus importantes avec les pays étrangers.Au grand regret des pays ACP, les négociations des accords de pêche se placent encore aujourd'hui sur un plan strictement bilatéral pour les pays africains, à l'inverse de celles qui sont en cours avec le Pacifique. Regroupés dans un cadre de négociation régionale, les pays africains auraient plus de poids notamment pour les questions d'intérêt commun, comme la lutte contre la pêche illicite, non déclarée et non réglementée (INN), la recherche ou encore la gestion des pêches. La gestion des pêcheries est un enjeu considérable pour la plupart des 15 îles du Pacifique. Les ressources halieutiques sont essentielles à leurs économies tant en termes d'emplois que de revenus financiers, d'industrialisation et de sécurité alimentaire. Toutefois, la croissance démographique, la surpêche et le changement climatique font peser une véritable menace et appellent à renforcer leur gestion. Une bonne gestion qui ne peut se concevoir sans avoir accès à de solides informations.Un défi auquel entend répondre le projet SciCoFish (Soutien scientifique à la gestion des pêcheries côtières et hauturières dans la région océanienne). Financé par l'Union européenne et mis en oeuvre par le Secrétariat général de la communauté du Pacifique (CPS) sur la période 2010-2014, il tend à réunir des données scientifiques fiables et constamment mises à jour. Ceci passe, inéluctablement, par la formation d'observateurs, le renforcement des bases de données nationales halieutiques et la modélisation de paramètres bioéconomiques. Autant d'éléments qui devraient contribuer à faciliter les négociations des accords de pêche entre l'UE et le Pacifique.Le résultat est plutôt satisfaisant si l'on en croit l'évaluation indépendante réalisée par Poseidon Consultants. Globalement, SciCoFish permet aux pays insulaires du Pacifique de mieux gérer leur pêcherie, grâce, notamment, au renforcement de connaissances et compétences, et un accès à des données fiables.■ Utiliser la vidéo pour former les agriculteurs aux bonnes pratiques de la gestion intégrée de la fertilité des sols, telle est l'ambition de Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) et de Countrywise Communication. Pour y parvenir, une technologique simple, efficace et très originale a été mise au point : le tricycle vidéo à moteur. Chargés de projecteur, générateur, écran de projection, micros et lecteur vidéo, ces tricycles sillonnent les villages les plus reculés pour former des communautés dénuées d'électricité. Quelque 7 000 agriculteurs des districts de Tolon et de Central Gonja ainsi que de Tamale Metropolis au Ghana ont bénéficié d'un tel service avec une présentation vidéo -en langue locale -de la gestion intégrée de la fertilité des sols. Madam Issa Mamunatu, cultivateur de riz à Worribogu-Kukuo dans le district de Tolon, a ainsi augmenté de plus de 100 % ses rendements grâce à cette formation. Financé par la Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), à travers l'Alliance pour la révolution verte en Afrique, le projet ambitionne de former 34 000 agriculteurs en trois ans.■ Grâce au programme de formation \"Sell More For More\" (SMFM) -vendre plus, gagner plus -près de 60 000 producteurs rwandais de maïs et de haricots ont réduit les pertes post-récolte de 20 % à moins de 5 %, et plus de 90 % d'entre eux ont augmenté leurs revenus. Initié en 2011, SMFM offre une formation sur les techniques de récolte, la manutention post-récolte, les méthodes de stockage et de transformation ainsi qu'en matière de leadership, marketing, planification commerciale, tenue des registres et gestion des entrepôts. Pour renforcer l'impact, des \"fermiers leaders\" reçoivent une formation de formateur avant de diffuser leur savoir à au moins 25 autres agriculteurs.Avec un grain de qualité supérieur, les agriculteurs sont en mesure d'attirer des acheteurs comme le Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM). SMFM est mis en oeuvre via des coopératives agricoles et s'inscrit dans le cadre d'un programme sur la manutention post-récolte et le stockage financé par l'USAID. Selon Kristin Beyard de CARANA Corporation, une société de conseil impliquée dans le projet, 80 % des grains produits par des coopératives formées par SMFM ont été acceptés par le PAM, contre seulement 47 % pour les autres coopératives. Ceci a favorisé une fidélisation et un renforcement des liens commerciaux. mArChés La Jamaïque soutient un plan \"pomme de terre\" Alors que la demande en pomme de terre ne cesse d'augmenter en Jamaïque, les pertes post-récolte restent importantes et environ 30 % de la production est de faible qualité. Pour lutter contre cela, le ministère de l'Agriculture finance des projets d'infrastructure et offre une aide à la gestion et la commercialisation des cultures, un soutien évalué à quelque 150 000 €. Une somme complémentaire de 75 000 € a été dégagée pour offrir aux agriculteurs des prêts sur six mois au taux de 5 % via la People's Cooperative Bank. Le gouvernement vise l'autosuffisance du pays en pomme de terre d'ici 2016 et espère ensuite exporter au niveau régional, notamment vers la Barbade, Sainte-Lucie et Trinité-et-Tobago.Avec des techniques simples et des ressources locales, 200 membres de l'association de femmes Gurara à Addis-Abeba, capitale de l'Ethiopie, produisent sur à peine 2 ha de terre ce dont elles ont besoin pour leur ménage. Les femmes ont créé des bassins pour limiter l'érosion de cette parcelle pentue et y pratiquent l'agriculture verticale, les légumes poussant sur des terrains suspendus. \"Les étagères permettent de tripler la production sur une même parcelle car les cultures sont réalisées en plusieurs couches verticales\", explique Ehite Wolde Mariam, présidente de l'association. Lapins, poulets, abeilles et même cinq vaches, qui produisent 60 litres de lait par jour, complètent la production.  ■ Plante légumière sauvage présente au Burkina Faso, au Mali et au Tchad, le Cassia tora est aujourd'hui domestiqué par des paysans nigériens dans le cadre d'un projet du Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA). Riches en micronutriments, les feuilles de Cassia tora sont habituellement consommées en période de soudure. \"Cette domestication se fait par l'identification d'une densité optimale de production et la multiplication des semences. Les paysans procèdent aux semis en juin et plantent les graines avec un écartement de 0,5m x 0,5m, en association avec d'autres cultures dans des champs fertilisés\", précise Issa Hassane, technicien du projet. Le sarclage et le démariage interviennent deux semaines après. Dès que les plants atteignent 20 à 30 cm, le prélèvement des feuilles peut commencer et se poursuit jusqu'à la récolte des graines à maturité.Pendant la période de soudure, les populations vulnérables peuvent ainsi améliorer leur alimentation en recourant à une plus grande quantité de légumes. En outre, \"la vente des feuilles vertes ou séchées rapporte entre 17 000 et 66 000 FCFA (26 à 100 €) par an aux femmes qui s'y adonnent\", souligne Issa Hassane.mOuChEs dEs Fruits l'Île Maurice contre-attaque éradiquée avec succès en 1996, la mouche des fruits est réapparue en mars 2013 à maurice. un plan de défense autour de trois axes a été rapidement mis en place par le ministère de l'Agro-industrie pour éviter une propagation à l'ensemble du pays. Le nombre de pièges est passé de 600 à 1 000 ; les fruits et légumes abîmés sont collectés puis détruits ; et enfin, pour les arbres fruitiers dans les régions infectées on a recours aux pulvérisations d'appâts protéinés.une production victime des intempéries suite aux fortes pluies qui ont mis fin prématurément à la récolte en jamaïque, seulement 128 000 tonnes de sucre ont été produites avec les 1,4 mt de cannes récoltées, soit 10 000 tonnes de moins que prévues. Le pays a beaucoup investi dans la production de canne à sucre et envisage de dépenser dans les quatre prochaines années 30 millions d'euros en formation, infrastructure et conseil. Au Kenya, deux communautés pastorales ont mis leurs différends de côté pour créer ensemble une entreprise qui approvisionne Brookside Dairy, le principal groupe laitier du pays. Suite aux incidents de 1999 qui ont causé des centaines de morts, les Pokot et les Marakwet ont été incités à remplacer leurs bêtes indigènes à faible rendement par des vaches laitières frisonnes. Plus de 3 000 familles élèvent maintenant dans les collines de Cherengani des vaches de race pure frisonne qui produisent plus de 14 000 litres de lait par jour. L'entreprise a ainsi transformé une zone de conflits violents en une communauté économique. Elle a récemment acheté trois machines frigorifiques pour conserver le lait avant sa livraison.■ Plus de 80 000 agriculteurs et éleveurs en Mauritanie ont augmenté leur production alimentaire de 37 % et diminué le taux de mortalité du bétail de 24 %. Le revenu des femmes a aussi augmenté de 40 % grâce à des activités rémunératrices comme la fabrication de savon et la boucherie. Bien que riches en ressources naturelles qui pourraient en faire le grenier de la Mauritanie, les régions des Hodhs, de l'Assaba, du Gorgol et du Guidimakha sont les plus pauvres du pays. \"Les habitants de ces régions sont marginalisés\", ajoute Ahmed Barro, directeur du programme Mauritanie auprès de l'Agence de coopération et de recherche pour le développement (ACORD).Avec l'aide d'ACORD, des agriculteurs ont été formés à la gestion de la fertilité des sols, à la production agricole et ont reçu des semences de qualité et des intrants. Les éleveurs ont accès aux médicaments et aux vaccins et des campagnes de sensibilisation les aident à appréhender les maladies qui affectent le bétail. La nutrition au niveau des ménages s'est également améliorée depuis que les femmes cultivent des légumes dans leurs jardins et vendent le surplus. Pour assurer la sécurité alimentaire toute l'année, des entrepôts ont été construits dans les Hodhs et le Guidimakha afin de regrouper les récoltes et les semences pour les saisons futures.Les chercheurs de l'Institut international de recherche sur l'élevage (ILRI) et du Centre international d'agriculture tropicale (CIAT) ont mis au point un instrument de contrôle des aliments (FEAST) pour évaluer la disponibilité et l'utilisation des ressources en aliments. FEAST collecte les données via un système d'évaluation rurale participative. Beaucoup plus rapide que les méthodes traditionnelles, il permet ainsi aux chercheurs de concevoir des interventions qui maximisent l'utilisation des aliments et la production animale. Cet outil a été testé auprès de 5 000 agriculteurs dans sept pays, dont l'Ethiopie (voir image d'une session à Godino), l'Inde et le Kenya, et a entrainé dans certains centres laitiers un doublement des livraisons de lait en périodes sèches.La FAO recommande vivement à l'île de grenade de mettre en place des unités avicoles résistantes aux catastrophes naturelles, en particulier aux ouragans. Efficaces, abordables (2,5 $ us par m2), durables, simples à mettre en place et nécessitant peu d'entretien, ces structures permettent de préserver une importante source de revenus et d'assurer une disponibilité alimentaire immédiate après la catastrophe. Le descriptif est disponible sur le site de la FAO : http://tinyurl.com/q7b37nb séCurité ALimEntAirEFinAnCEmEnt La bancarisation du bétail Interface entre le milieu marin et le milieu terrestre, il est aujourd'hui unanimement reconnu que les mangroves sont un élément essentiel de notre écosystème. Non seulement c'est un lieu de reproduction de nombreux poissons, mollusques et crustacés, mais elles permettent aussi de lutter contre la salinisation des sols. Or, dans le monde entier, ces mangroves sont menacées. En 2006, à Tobor en Casamance au Sud du Sénégal, l'ONG Océanium a démarré leur replantation. Aujourd'hui quelque 150 000 palétuviers ont été plantés, principalement en Casamance, sur une superficie totalisant 12 000 hectares. Et, petit à petit, l'écosystème se reconstruit.risQuEs CLimAtiQuEsDepuis deux ans, les petits exploitants agricoles ghanéens peuvent assurer leur récolte contre les risques climatiques par l'intermédiaire du Programme ghanéen d'assurance agricole (GAIP). Le mécanisme est relativement simple. En début de campagne agricole, le paysan s'acquitte auprès du GAIP d'un dixième des coûts engagés pour sa mise en culture. S'il ne pleut pas durant 12 jours consécutifs, un dédommagement est déclenché automatiquement au profit du paysan. Ce système de police d'assurance repose sur l'existence de 18 stations météorologiques automatiques qui enregistrent quotidiennement les données climatiques relatives aux vents, aux précipitations, à l'humidité relative et aux températures. Au cours de la première année de mise en oeuvre du GAIP, 136 agriculteurs ont été indemnisés.■ Sur les 200 000 hectares du corridor faunique de Kasigau, qui sépare les parcs nationaux de Tsavo East et Tsavo West au Kenya, un projet REDD+ a permis de fournir du travail à 400 habitants, diminuer de 70 % le braconnage et financer des projets communautaires. Initié en 2009 par Wildlife Works, une société de promotion du REDD+, ce projet lutte contre la pauvreté qui est une des causes du braconnage et de la déforestation.Des plants d'arbre sont distribués gratuitement par des pépinières locales pour favoriser la replantation, la production fruitière et la fabrication de charbon durable. L'objectif de ce projet de 30 ans est de réduire les émissions de carbone de 30 Mt. Parmi les entreprises qui ont déjà acheté des crédits carbone dans le cadre de ce projet, on peut citer Allianz, Barclays Bank, Microsoft et Puma.En 2012, la vente de crédits carbone a rapporté plus de 2 millions de dollars US (1,5 millions d'euros), dont près du tiers a été affecté à des projets communautaires, notamment des bourses d'études, la construction de salles de classe et la réhabilitation de conduites d'eau. Un autre tiers a directement bénéficié aux propriétaires fonciers. Quelque 120 personnes ont aussi été engagées comme gardes non armés pour arrêter et dénoncer les braconniers au service kenyan de protection de la nature. ■ Dans le nord du Nigeria, deux nouvelles variétés améliorées de blé, appelées Norman Borlaug et Reyne 28, permettent de produire environ 5-6 t/ha, soit près du double du rendement des variétés traditionnelles. Développées par le Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI), un institut de recherche public nigérian, en collaboration avec le Centre international pour l'amélioration du maïs et du blé (CIMMYT) et le Centre international de recherches agricoles dans les régions sèches (ICARDA), ces variétés participent à la réalisation du plan nigérian de transformation du blé qui a pour objectif de cultiver 150 000 hectares durant la saison agricole 2013-2014.\"Nous disposons de 600 000 ha de terres propices à la culture du blé à travers le pays dont seulement 10 % sont utilisés pour cette production\", explique Oluwasina Olabanji, directeur exécutif du LCRI. Actuellement, la demande en blé au Nigeria est d'environ 3,7 millions de tonnes par an, et quasiment toute satisfaite par les importations. Pour les réduire, le gouvernement a introduit une taxe de 65 % sur la farine de blé importée et impose aux boulangeries nigérianes de mélanger de la farine de manioc à la farine de blé, avec une proportion initiale de 10 % de manioc à augmenter à 40 % d'ici 2015.■ Au Cameroun, l'Institut de recherche agricole pour le développement (IRAD) et l'établissement public de développement du cacao SODECAO introduisent de nouvelles espèces de cacao résistantes aux maladies provoquées par la sécheresse. Les récoltes de cacao ont été affectées ces dernières années par des sécheresses prolongées, sources d'importants dégâts causés par les mirides, des insectes qui s'attaquent aux tissus des tiges du cacaoyer adulte. \"Ces insectes sont généralement plus actifs et destructeurs quand la saison sèche se prolonge\", explique Celestine Nkuo, chargée de recherche à l'IRAD. Les espèces résistantes sont aussi plus productives avec un rendement de 700-1000 kg/ha après 18 mois, contre 370 kg/ha après 5-6 ans pour les variétés traditionnelles.   Les attentes sont multiples. Tout d'abord, les membres souhaitent que le ROAC finalise et déploie son plan de plaidoyer auprès des Etats de la région, afin que les entraves au commerce soient levées dans chacun des pays membres. Au Burkina Faso, en Côte d'Ivoire ou au Mali, nous voulons permettre une libre circulation des céréales. Sur les huit pays de la sous-région, tous ne sont pas déficitaires en même temps. En permettant aux pays excédentaires de vendre leur surplus, on améliore la sécurité alimentaire. Pour ce faire, il faut qu'au niveau national chaque pays communique ses \"vraies\" informations sur le marché. L'information est donc primordiale. Une autre question fondamentale est celle de l'harmonisation des normes sur les produits céréaliers. Aujourd'hui, chaque pays a ses propres normes. Nous comptons donc, avec la CEDEAO ou l'UEMOA, harmoniser ces normes, tant pour les produits secs que transformés, afin de lever cette entrave au commerce.Hormis ces aspects, lorsque vous observez attentivement ces pays, vous constatez qu'ils se heurtent aux mêmes difficultés : les banquiers ne sont pas prêts à soutenir les producteurs céréaliers et les Etats ne s'engagent pas totalement pour les accompagner. Nous devons donc nous mobiliser, adopter un discours commun, afin que certaines situations se débloquent.Quelles devraient être vos toutes premières actions ?  Les universités ACP sont en pleine mutation ! Elles s'efforcent d'offrir un enseignement supérieur adapté à la prochaine génération de diplômés auxquels se poseront les défis de développement du 21e siècle. Pour y parvenir, les innovations se multiplient dans toutes les régions grâce à la réforme des programmes, la mise en place de partenariats et l'utilisation des TIC. ans les pays ACP, l'enseignement agricole de niveau universitaire se trouve à la croisée des chemins Tout à la fois, la demande pour un enseignement supérieur de qualité n'a jamais été aussi importante alors que les contraintes financières sont énormes. Pour relever le défi de l'augmentation nécessaire de la production agricole dans un contexte de diminution des ressources naturelles, de concurrence sur les marchés locaux et internationaux et d'insécurité alimentaire dans les régions ACP, les pays doivent être prêts à investir dans leur capital humain afin de favoriser leur développement. Pour surmonter les obstacles, il faudra améliorer la pertinence de l'enseignement et former des diplômés plus performants. Et il sera indispensable de recruter davantage de femmes et de préparer les étudiants à assumer des postes de dirigeants.En 2010, les ministres africains se sont engagés, dans le cadre du Programme détaillé de développement de l'agriculture africaine (PDDAA), à augmenter l'investissement dans l'enseignement agricole supérieur et à en restaurer la qualité. Ils ont convenu que les institutions d'enseignement supérieur devaient jouer un rôle plus important en matière de développement en resserrant leurs liens avec les organismes publics concernés et les communautés agricoles. Un engagement qui a été réitéré en novembre 2012 à la première Assemblée Générale de l'Association pour le renforcement de la recherche agricole en Afrique centrale et de l'Est (ASARECA).Alors que les universités africaines sont bien placées pour développer la capacité agricole, elles doivent d'abord favoriser davantage l'innovation, la technologie, les institutions et le développement agricoles. \"Les universités devraient considérer que l'agriculture est un important domaine de recherche et affecter du personnel et consacrer des ressources au développement de nouvelles techniques utiles pour les populations et les écosystèmes\", écrit Calestous Juma, Professeur à Harvard et auteur de The New Harvest : Agricultural Innovation in Africa. \"La recherche universitaire doit rester proche des agriculteurs et de leur style de vie pour favoriser une croissance agricole plus productive.\"Des changements au niveau institutionnel seront déterminants pour que les universités soient en mesure de répondre aux besoins du développement et être utiles aux petits agriculteurs, aux politiques et autres acteurs des secteurs agricole et rural. Toutefois, pour réaliser de tels changements, il leur faudra acquérir \"un certain nombre de nouvelles compétences, dont la résolution interdisciplinaire des problèmes, la prise en considération des intérêts exprimés par de multiples acteurs et des approches participatives en matière d'innovation\", déclare Arjen Wals, Professeur à l'Université et Centre de recherche de Wageningen, dans un article du site Connaissances pour le développement du CTA. Le Réseau africain pour l'enseignement en agriculture, agroforesterie et ressources naturelles (ANAFE) vise également à soutenir le développement institutionnel de l'intérieur. Son programme de Renforcement des capacités stratégiques africaines pour un impact sur le développement (SASACID) cherche à renforcer les capacités de 16 institutions pilotes à travers l 'Afrique. Le SASACID se concentre sur l'auto-évaluation institutionnelle pour remédier aux insuffisances de la réforme des programmes, y compris en matière de qualité de la prestation des cours. Le programme vise à favoriser l'application d'une gestion axée sur les résultats pour renforcer la vocation des universités africaines à servir leurs communautés.Alors que les universités ploient sous la pression d'une population étudiante toujours plus nombreuse et doivent répondre aux besoins en termes de développement, le Professeur Etienne Ehouan Ehile, Secrétaire général de l'Association des universités africaines (AUA), constate que l'enseignement supérieur a été négligé ces dernières années. Il l'a été au profit de la scolarisation de base sur laquelle les gouvernements ont porté leur action. \"Bien qu'évidemment l'éducation de base soit essentielle, il n'est pas possible de répondre aux objectifs de développement en Afrique sans un enseignement supérieur de qualité\", avertit M. Ehile. L'accès à l'enseignement supérieur est toutefois inégalement réparti. Reconnaissant la nécessité de repenser et de soutenir l'enseignement supérieur en Afrique à l'échelle régionale, l'AUA, en partenariat avec la Banque mondiale, a lancé en juillet 2013 un appel à propositions visant à mettre en place des \"Centres africains d'excellence en sciences et technologie\". Le projet vise à développer jusqu'à dix centres régionaux pour consolider l'expertise scientifique en agriculture et dans d'autres secteurs, tels que les mines et la santé. Une approche régionale permettra de concentrer les ressources et de partager les connaissances entre tous les pays. \"Cette initiative est essentielle pour le développement socio-économique de l'Afrique par sa contribution potentielle à l'économie du savoir, la croissance et le développement\", soutient le professeur Ehile.Dans les Caraïbes, l'appui régional à l'éducation est assuré par l'initiative Campus ouvert de l'Université des Antilles (UWI). Travaillant avec les 16 Etats anglophones des Caraïbes, le Campus cherche à améliorer davantage la qualité de l'enseignement ouvert, souple, à distance et en ligne grâce au lancement de son Espace universitaire virtuel unique (SVUS). Ainsi, grâce aux TIC, y compris la vidéo-conférence, les étudiants de tous les campus pourront suivre les enseignements d'un ensemble unique de cours universitaires. Selon Pauline Francis-Cobley, coordinatrice de programmes au SVUS, \"le SVUS est un mode de fonctionnement qui est rendu possible par la technologie et qui redéfinit la manière dont l'UWI dispensera ses services à la région et au monde\".Ces nouvelles initiatives régionales ouvrent certainement des perspectives très intéressantes pour la prochaine génération de diplômés ACP. Mais, il ne faut pas pour autant sous-estimer la capacité des actions nationales existantes à améliorer la situation des communautés rurales. Dans le nord du Ghana, le gouvernement a créé, il y a plus de 20 ans (1992), l'Université des études du développement (UDS). Cette université privilégie un apprentissage pratique axé sur les communautés et est sensible aux questions de genre, àOnze universités se sont réunies pour former le Réseau de recherche universitaire des Îles du Pacifique (PIURN) -la première initiative régionale de recherche du Pacifique. Lancé à la fin de 2012, le but de ce réseau est de mieux répondre aux besoins des communautés du Pacifique grâce à une recherche collaborative en science, technologie et innovation. Pendant les premières années, le PIURN s'occupera essentiellement de partage des informations et de formation. Son action portera sur les échanges d'étudiants et de personnels, l'attribution de subventions et le partage de normes et politiques liées à la recherche. \"Á plus long terme, la vision du PIURN consiste à créer un Réseau régional de recherche et d'éducation basé sur les TIC qui permettra d'améliorer au maximum la collaboration pour la recherche\", déclare le Dr. Jito Vanualailai, Directeur de recherche à l'Université du Pacifique Sud, qui le premier a développé le concept du PIURN. \"Ce réseau permettra de surmonter les obstacles auxquels seraient confrontées les universités si elles continuaient à travailler individuellement, notamment la mobilisation des ressources. Il comblera les lacunes dans les compétences des étudiants en matière de recherche et évitera la duplication des résultats.\" Ce réseau reçoit l'appui du CTA. dossier P o in t d e V u e la résolution de problèmes et à l'interaction. Au cours du dernier trimestre universitaire, les étudiants vivent et travaillent avec les communautés rurales pour déterminer et exploiter les opportunités de développement. Les effets d'une telle approche apparaissent clairement dans le nombre de diplômés de l'UDS qui continuent à travailler avec les communautés rurales.L'Université rurale africaine a adopté une démarche semblable en mettant toutefois l'accent sur le rôle des femmes dans le développement (voir le reportage aux pages 18 et 19). Elle axe son action sur la formation de femmes responsables susceptibles de réussir des carrières dans l'agriculture et sur l'implication des communautés pour satisfaire les besoins identifiés à l'échelle locale. Sur les berges du Lac Volta, au Ghana, la création d'une école de formation en agroalimentaire dans l'exploitation agricole commerciale Africa Atlantic permettra aux étudiants d'acquérir les compétences concrètes nécessaires pour mettre la recherche en pratique et stimuler l'innovation et l'esprit d'entreprise. Dans l'ouest du Kenya, l'acquisition en 2012 d'une usine textile abandonnée par l'Université Moi est le premier cas d'université publique possédant et exploitant une usine essentiellement à des fins pédagogiques.L'initiative UNiBRAIN, gérée par le Forum pour la recherche agricole en Afrique en collaboration avec l'ANAFE, a également pour objectif d'encourager les jeunes diplômés à s'engager dans le secteur agroalimentaire. Axée sur les produits de base comme l'élevage, le poisson, le café et la banane, cette initiative propose des stages dans le secteur agroalimentaire et de s'y faire des contacts (voir Le bel espoir des incubateurs d'entreprises dans Spore 164).L'Association des écoles de commerce africaines (AABS) a également mis en place un Consortium agroalimentaire (AAC) visant à soutenir l'enseignement de la gestion des agroentreprises en Afrique. L'AAC, composé de membres de l'AABS, d'autres établissements universitaires et de partenaires internationaux concernés (dont le CTA), offre des programmes sur mesure permettant de doter les professionnels de l'agroalimentaire de compétences en commerce, gestion et encadrement dans un certain nombre de chaînes de valeur. Le Programme de gestion des entreprises agroalimentaires a été lancé en octobre 2013 au Ghana, en partenariat avec l'Institut ghanéen de gestion et d'administration publique et au Nigeria en collaboration avec l'Ecole de commerce de Lagos ; la Tanzanie suivra au début de 2014.Ces avancées encourageantes montrent qu'une transformation de l'enseignement agricole supérieur est réellement possible. Cette transformation, avec le renforcement de l'engagement des universités dans la lutte pour la sécurité alimentaire, exige que soient sensibilisés à cette cause un grand nombre d'hommes et femmes dévoués qui en comprennent les besoins concrets et soient résolus à contribuer au développement de l'Afrique. À cet égard, le processus de transformation devrait également être renforcé de l'intérieur par un appui au développement institutionnel. Des progrès prometteurs ont été accomplis en matière de réforme des programmes, de partenariats et de participation, mais il faut maintenant que les plans d'action nationaux s'engagent à accorder une plus grande priorité à l'enseignement supérieur mis au service du développement.Le Professeur Adipala Ekwamu est Secrétaire exécutif du Forum régional universitaire pour le renforcement des capacités dans le domaine de l'agriculture (RUFORUM), un réseau de 32 universités africaines qui contribue à l'innovation dans les programmes d'études, la recherche et l'amélioration des compétences des étudiants.La hausse du coût de l'enseignement supérieur, associée à la diminution de la pertinence de la formation supérieure du Nord et à l'incapacité des universités africaines de combler ces déficiences, rend indispensable une nouvelle approche de l'enseignement agricole supérieur. Il est particulièrement important de former des chercheurs en agriculture détenant des diplômes universitaires supérieurs. Ces derniers sont essentiels pour le développement de solides programmes et institutions de recherche agricole, l'enseignement agricole supérieur, la politique agricole et l'encadrement dans les secteurs publics et privés.Le RUFORUM entreprend des projets pilotes communautaires de recherche-action conçus pour développer des compétences en matière de recherche et d'apprentissage par l'expérience. Ils se traduiront par des résultats de recherche plus adaptés et des programmes d'études plus axés sur la sensibilisation. Ces travaux sont liés à ceux de l'Université de la Terre au Costa Rica et du Centre international pour la recherche axée sur le développement en agriculture. Le RUFORUM facilite aussi les politiques, principes et pratiques institutionnels, dont l'apprentissage électronique et l'accès libre aux ressources éducatives.Les membres du RUFORUM viennent des universités agricoles d'Afrique de l'Est, centrale et australe ; nous entreprenons également des projets communs avec des universités agricoles d'Afrique de l'Ouest et organisons une conférence biennale réunissant un groupe de partenaires très divers du secteur agricole afin d'y favoriser des possibilités de travail en réseau, dont l'apprentissage partagé.Je voudrais voir les universités s'engager davantage dans l'apprentissage par l'action pour les petits exploitants agricoles et mener des recherches qui soutiennent l'innovation rurale dans ces systèmes. Les TIC devraient servir à améliorer l'enseignement, l'apprentissage, la recherche et la collaboration. Les gouvernements nationaux devraient accorder une plus grande priorité à l'enseignement agricole supérieur. http://www.ruforum.org dossier Première et unique université pour les femmes d'Afrique de l'Est, l'Université rurale africaine (ARU) a pour objectif de former des diplômées qui resteront dans les communautés rurales et y travailleront. Une approche qui devrait permettre aux femmes rurales de contribuer davantage au développement socio-économique de l'Ouganda. également d'autres candidates. Elle est axée sur le développement de compétences en agriculture, commerce et management. Le principal atout de ce cursus est qu'il propose un programme d'études adapté aux besoins des familles rurales, à la différence des programmes conventionnels qui souvent ne préparent pas les étudiants à travailler dans les zones rurales.Les étudiantes de l'ARU sont actuellement inscrites dans deux programmes d'études, un certificat en entreprenariat rural et gestion des affaires et une licence en sciences et technologies pour la transformation du milieu rural. Ces deux programmes comprennent 60 % de théorie et 40 % de pratique, phase durant laquelle les étudiantes entreprennent des projets dans leurs villages pour appliquer ce qu'elles ont appris. Un chargé de cours conseille les étudiantes sur leurs projets communautaires et elles sont évaluées à la fois sur les acquis théoriques et les travaux pratiques. Ce qui importe le plus, toutefois, ce sont les retombées qu'elles obtiennent sur le terrain.L'une de ces retombées est l'évolution des attitudes relatives aux questions de genre. À long terme, Okello Atwaru est optimiste quant à la perception des hommes vis-à-vis des étudiantes, en particulier lorsqu'ils constatent que leurs projets profitent aux communautés. \"Leur expertise les met sur un pied d'égalité avec les hommes et leur permet de prendre part à des discussions sur le développement participatif\", dit-il. Toutefois, le processus pour parvenir à une telle \"égalité\" peut prendre du temps.Quand Immaculate Nyagol, étudiante en licence de 23 ans, a lancé un projet de jardins potagers dans son village, elle s'est rendu compte que les hommes hésitaient à travailler avec elle. Elle a donc pris contact avec les épouses de dix ménages différents et leur a enseigné comment créer un potager en utilisant son propre jardin comme parcelle de démonstration. Lorsque les femmes ont commencé à vendre des légumes et à en tirer leurs propres revenus, les hommes se sont beaucoup plus impliqués dans le projet. \"S'ils (les hommes) font obstacle à mes efforts, je travaille avec leurs femmes qui les conduisent à s'investir\", dit-elle. Des femmes qui ont chaleureusement remercié Immaculate Nyagol pour son travail.Dix-sept diplômées de l'ARU ont été nommées directrices de Centres communautaires de l'URDT (CBE) pour le développement. Elles aident les membres des communautés à mettre en oeuvre des stratégies de développement pour leurs villages. Depuis qu'elle a obtenu son diplôme en 2011, Mary Anakuya Gorreth est directrice du CBE dans le sous-comté de Burora. Dans les cinq villages avec lesquels elle a travaillé, elle a encouragé les cultures à haute valeur ajoutée telles que le cacao, le café, le riz et la vanille comme alternative à la culture du maïs et des haricots. Bien que le projet sur le cacao démarre, Mary Anakuya Gorreth a mis des groupes d'agriculteurs en relation avec ESCO Uganda Limited, une entreprise privée qui favorise la culture du cacao et fournit des intrants et un appui technique. Elle a également mobilisé des agriculteurs pour former le groupe Kayembe Bright, ce qui leur a permis d'accéder à des crédits pour se procurer des intrants agricoles, payer les frais de scolarité et financer l'amélioration de leur habitat.Si l'ARU ambitionne de recruter 30 étudiantes par an pour chacun de ses programmes, elle n'y parvient pas toujours. Cela s'explique en partie par le faible pourcentage de filles qui terminent leurs études secondaires et aussi par le fait que nombre de diplômées du secondaire choisissent de poursuivre leurs études en ville, où la qualité de l'enseignement est censée être meilleure. Encore jeune, l'ARU doit aussi se faire connaître. De nombreux diplômés ne sont pas aussi très motivés par un retour dans une zone rurale pour aider les communautés à se transformer ajoute Okello Atwaru. \"Les gens n'apprécient pas encore pleinement les avantages du modèle d'enseignement et du programme d'études de l'ARU\", dit-il. \"Nous savons toutefois que notre approche innovante fonctionne pour les jeunes femmes qui obtiennent leurs diplômes, et cela fera réellement la différence.\" \"À considérer la chaîne de valeur des fleurs, bien souvent on ne parle pas de valeur ajoutée mais de valeur détruite car c'est en ces termes que se pose la problématique du conditionnement\", constate Jacky Charbonneau, chef de section de la compétitivité des entreprises dans les pays en développement au Centre du commerce international (CCI). \"Les neuf dixièmes des fleurs en Europe sont vendus aux enchères, aux Pays-Bas, et en fonction de la qualité, on peut passer sur une rose de 25-28 centimes d'euros la tige à 10-12, voire 8, si elle est abîmée.\"L'enjeu est donc de taille, de la ferme au tarmac. Au Kenya, tout est encore manuel afin d'avoir une meilleure qualité et une valeur ajoutée supplémentaire par rapport aux pays qui trient à la machine\", explique Isabelle Splinder qui dirige Red Lands Roses. \"Emballer une fleur n'est pas, en soi, compliqué car les techniques sont simples mais cela demande de la précision, de la concentration et du savoir-faire.\"une question de savoir-faire ou de coûts ?Chez Red Lands Roses, l'emballage (cartons, pochons, tiges, etc.) représente 8 à % des coûts. En Ethiopie, il constitue, en moyenne, 20 à 30 % du prix de la fleur, indique Tedla Zegye de l'Association éthiopienne des producteurs et exportateurs horticoles (EHPEA). Pour la fleur en pot, en Côte d'Ivoire, c'est 5 à 10 % du prix FOB, selon Xavier Finan chez Gaignard Fleurs. Des emballages, qui sont souvent fabriqués localement avec toutefois une qualité variable. En Ethiopie, suite au changement de l'unité de mesure de la tige au poids pour les fleurs exportées, l'Agence de développement de l'horticulture (EHDA) et l'Entreprise d'évaluation de la conformité (ECAE) ont instauré un certificat de qualité obligatoire pour la fabrication de cartons standards. Des 15 fabricants en activité, seule une poignée a reçu l'agrément l'année dernière.Au Kenya, si au niveau des pochons, papiers, etc. les produits seraient aujourd'hui aussi beaux qu'en Europe ou en Amérique du Sud, les cartons, en revanche, seraient le maillon faible de la chaîne, selon Isabelle Splinder.Fabriqués à partir de pâte à papier recyclé, ils seraient plus chers qu'en Amérique latine et surtout pas de la même qualité. \"Vous pouvez vous mettre debout sur un carton d'Amérique du sud, il ne bougera pas. Ici, il s'aplatira complètement. C'est sans doute une des faiblesses de notre industrie\", explique-t-elle.Pour Jacky Charbonneau, le problème est ailleurs. \"Au Kenya, on trouve du carton de qualité, ce qui n'est pas nécessairement le cas en Ethiopie ou en Ouganda. Mais la difficulté est dans le respect du cahier des charges de l'ensemble du processus d'emballage.\"Ainsi, une ferme horticole étant, par nature, un endroit très humide, les cartons, une fois bien choisis pour leur calibrage, doivent être entreposés dans un endroit très sec. Le carton doit ensuite pouvoir être dressé sans colle ni agrafes s'il est à destination de l'UE. Cette dernière a des exigences en matière de recyclage et, en outre, l'inspection phytosanitaire y est d'autant plus aisée. Ensuite, les fleurs doivent être disposées dans les cartons, sans obstruer les trous pour que l'air circule, et sans les surcharger au risque d'abîmer les fleurs. Un point très sensible car le coût du fret aérien se calcule au poids volumétrique : moins il y a de poids, plus le transport aérien est cher en termes relatifs.Le maniement des cartons de la ferme à l'aéroport, la gestion des changements de températures et des plans de chargement de l'avion, le choix des palettes -qui doit obéir à des normes de fumigation si l'UE est leur destination -, sont d'autres étapes délicates.\"Il s'agit donc de sensibiliser l'ensemble des acteurs de la filière tout en sachant que, contrairement à l'Amérique latine où les circuits sont relativement bien intégrés, en Afrique, la plupart du temps, la marchandise passe d'opérateur en opérateur\", précise le spécialiste du CCI. L'articulation tout au long de la chaîne de valeur n'est, ainsi, pas toujours optimisée.Quoi de plus beau que recevoir une rose, blanche de surcroît ? Mais quelle déception si celle-ci est tachée, même très légèrement. Et cette tache sur cette rose, autrement immaculée, est souvent liée à un défaut de connaissances et de bonnes pratiques d'emballage dans les pays producteurs.© PANOS/ S. ForrestTravailleurs dans une unité d'emballage de l'exploitation Oserian (Kenya).■ Pourquoi deux scientifiques, l'un agroéconomiste, l'autre biologiste, sont-ils sortis de leurs laboratoires pour prendre part à un débat, souvent passionné, sur l'huile de palme ? Essentiellement pour éviter, à l'instar des OGM, que le débat sorte du champ scientifique pour se cristalliser sur des positions extrêmes \"pour\" et \"contre\".Ils analysent avec nuance l'impact de la production et la consommation d'huile de palme sur l'environnement et sur la santé en donnant des données précises, scientifiques sur la filière et ses acteurs et en faisant partager leur expérience de terrain. Ils considèrent que la filière est emblématique de l'évolution des rapports Nord-Sud dans le développement agricole, avec un équilibre à découvrir.Oléagineux d'exception, l'huile de palme poursuivra sa croissance dans les années à venir. \"Il n'est plus question de stopper l'expansion du palmier à l'huile mais de la contrôler intelligemment\", soulignent les auteurs qui préconisent notamment pour y parvenir l'intensification écologique et les mosaïques paysagères. Originaire du Sri Lanka, la Bactrocera invadensa a été détectée en Afrique de l'Est en 2003, puis en Afrique de l'Ouest en 2004. La mouche des fruits provoque des pertes importantes pour de nombreux exportateurs d'Afrique de l'Ouest et peut aussi compromettre l'équilibre nutritionnel des populations. Sous la forme d'un dépliant de huit pages, ce guide traite des différentes méthodes de lutte contre ces mouches : des mesures préventives aux traitements à base d'attractifs alimentaires, en passant par les pièges à \"paraphéromones\". accès au marché européen Quelle est la demande en fruits et légumes exotiques et tropicaux sur le marché européen ? Le COLEACP apporte des réponses précises aux pays ACP pour saisir les opportunités offertes par ce grand marché. Global GAP, \"Social GAP\", marché de niche et de commodités, l'ensemble des sujets sont abordés, sans oublier les nouvelles tendances comme le \"locavorisme\", le \"mûr-à-point\" ou \"prêt-à-manger\". L'étude est complétée par des profils marchés pour plusieurs produits : ananas, avocat, banane plantain, fruit de la passion, litchi, mangue, papaye, \"petits exotiques\" et racines. Fruit d'un travail collectif de près de 150 experts scientifiques, l'ouvrage présente une première synthèse des recherches sur l'adaptation climatique. Pour chaque grande filière -productions végétales, élevage, forêts, pêche -mais aussi pour les sociétés pratiquant une agriculture de subsistance et pour les aires protégées continentales, sont exposés le contexte, les enjeux, les impacts et les perspectives de recherche. Les défis s'appréhendent en termes de ressources en eau, de qualité des sols, de lutte contre l'effet de serre, de sécurité alimentaire, de compétitivité des filières, d'activités agricoles et de territoires.Prévenir, maîtriser ou éliminer les mycotoxines constitue une priorité pour assurer la qualité sanitaire des aliments. Ce numéro spécial de Cahiers Agricultures traite notamment des mycotoxines au sein de quatre filières (céréales, arachide, café et pisciculture), analyse l'effet des pratiques culturales et des conditions agro-édapho-climatiques sur le développement des moisissures responsables de la production des mycotoxines ainsi que l'impact des traitements post-récolte. Les femmes jouent un rôle déterminant dans les chaînes de valeur agricoles dans les pays ACP. Un rôle fréquemment sous-estimé et peu ou pas valorisé. Toutefois, plusieurs initiatives sur les questions de genre sont apparues à l'instigation d'organisations de développement et d'entrepreneurs privés. Cet ouvrage montre, à travers 25 études de cas en Afrique, en Asie et en Amérique latine, que des solutions existent pour améliorer le rôle des femmes dans les processus de production, de transformation et de commercialisation. À la clé peuvent être retirés des bénéfices en matière d'autonomisation des femmes, de reconstitution des moyens de subsistance et en fin de compte de performance de la chaîne de valeur. Ces initiatives, qui portent aussi bien sur des cultures vivrières (le riz au Mali), des cultures commerciales locales (le miel en Ethiopie et au Rwanda ou le karité en Guinée et au Ghana), des cultures d'exportation (le café au Kenya) ou l'élevage, s'articulent autour de cinq stratégies détaillées par les auteurs. Enfin, un cadre analytique spécialement élaboré pour évaluer les initiatives en matière de genre est proposé. ■ Regarder la terre depuis l'espace tel est le voyage que nous offre ce livre. Au-delà de la beauté, de l'étrangeté et de l'émerveillement, les images satellitaires fournies par Astrium offrent un nouveau regard sur la planète. Elles donnent une multitude d'informations pour suivre l'évolution du climat ou la croissance des villes, mesurer la déforestation, observer la pollution atmosphérique, préserver la vie sur la terre. Des images qui peuvent constituer de véritables outils pour protéger notre planète. Ainsi, à Madagascar, elles contribuent à protéger 500 000 hectares de forêt en permettant l'analyse en détail de l'occupation des sols. Depuis la fin des années 80, le Brésil a établi un programme de surveillance par satellite pour mesurer l'évolution de la couverture forestière. Au Tchad, où quelque 10 000 puits seraient hors d'usage faute de maintenance des pompes, les photos satellitaires servent à localiser ces puits pour ensuite les réparer. Dans le Logoné oriental, l'ONG IDO a ainsi réparé 167 pompes depuis 2009. Au-delà, grâce aux satellites, le phénomène de la désertification peut être aujourd'hui observé avec précision.■ Malgré leur rôle primordial dans les écosystèmes, les insectes, qui représentent les trois quarts des espèces animales identifiées à ce jour sur terre, sont encore mal connus. Leur relation avec l'homme le règne végétal, que ce soit comme compétiteurs au niveau des cultures ou comme auxiliaires, notamment par la pollinisation, revêt pourtant une importance majeure.Mieux comprendre le rôle que jouent les insectes, leur fonctionnement individuel et populationnel, leurs interactions avec les composantes de l'écosystème -en particulier les plantes -et, plus globalement, leur intégration dans les milieux naturels et anthropisés : tel est l'objectif de cet ouvrage, la première synthèse en français dans domaine ayant connu récemment d'importants développements.L'ouvrage présente les grands courants de pensée, des approches et des découvertes dans les différents champs disciplinaires : physiologie animale et végétale, éthologie, écologie chimique, biologie évolutive, agronomie et paléoentomologie. Il présente aussi les multiples applications des recherches pour réduire l'impact des insectes ravageurs sur les cultures, tout en limitant l'usage des insecticides.   Connaître ce monde microscopique permet de mesurer l'importance de sa contribution à la chaîne alimentaire des organismes marins, à la fourniture de l'oxygène par la photosynthèse mais aussi à la lutte contre le changement climatique (car il absorbe plus de la moitié des gaz carboniques) et ainsi de le protéger.investissements agricoles et droits de l'homme  Au sein de la communauté du développement, la pratique courante en matière d'évaluation d'impact consiste à identifier les \"changements significatifs ou durables dans la vie des gens, suite à une action ou une série d'actions\". L'évolution des capacités des organisations et des réseaux qui mettent en oeuvre les actions de développement ne relève habituellement pas de l'impact. Et c'est la raison pour laquelle les études d'impact sont généralement distinctes de l'évaluation du développement de la capacité organisationnelle et donc réalisées séparément. Un certain nombre de voix faisant autorité dans le domaine de l'évaluation ont souscrit à la vision d'une évaluation de l'impact allant au-delà des programmes et des projets et qui explore donc les influences et les rôles des organisations. Toutefois, le CTA a pu observer, lors de la planification de son étude d'impact, que la communauté du développement n'avait toujours pas proposé un modèle d'évaluation d'impact satisfaisant, répondant à cette exigence.Afin de remédier à ce vide méthodologique, le CTA a développé un cadre d'analyse des voies d'impact orienté sur les capacités (Capacity-centred Impact Pathway Analysis, CcIPA). En substance, la CcIPA est basé sur l'hypothèse selon laquelle les résultats et l'impact des organisations ou des réseaux dépendent, dans une large mesure, du niveau de leurs capacités fondamentales.D'emblée, le CTA et ses partenaires ont défini très clairement la stratégie de mise en oeuvre de l'étude d'impact. Une stratégie efficace s'imposait tant pour garantir une bonne communication entre les participants que pour assurer leur entière participation à l'étude. Un élément clé de la stratégie de mise en oeuvre a consisté à subdiviser l'étude en deux phases distinctes : une rapide analyse d'une durée de trois mois environ, suivie d'études plus approfondies. L'analyse rapide portait essentiellement sur la collecte d'éléments probants attestant des résultats agir aveC le Cta immédiats et des réalisations à court terme. Au cours de cette phase, des témoignages et des hypothèses sur l'impact potentiel ont aussi été recueillis. La phase d'étude approfondie, qui vient d'être lancée, vise à étayer et approfondir un petit nombre de récits d'impact -et de réussites ou d'échecs -déjà mis en évidence lors de l'analyse succincte. Ces études approfondies devraient faire davantage la lumière sur les voies d'impact.Un autre élément stratégique concerne les rôles des divers participants. Chaque organisation est responsable de la gestion financière et technique de son étude de cas. Elle doit donc choisir, au niveau local, un expert externe en charge du suivi et de l'évaluation, qui travaillera en coopération avec un membre du personnel compétent. L'expert externe apporte le soutien technique tandis que le membre du personnel fournit les données et les informations. En définitive, toutes les organisations ont été consultées à tous les stades de l'étude : l'élaboration de la méthodologie, la définition de la portée de l'étude, la planification et le budget et l'évaluation à mi-parcours.Les analyses rapides ont abouti à des conclusions des plus intéressantes, dégageant notamment des preuves attestant d'une croissance importante et d'une plus grande performance des organisations et des réseaux partenaires lors de leur coopération avec le CTA. Tous les partenaires ont indiqué que c'est lors des phases critiques de leur développement (par exemple peu après la mise en place de l'organisation/du réseau ; ou durant la transition vers une stratégievision plus ambitieuse) que le partenariat avec le CTA s'était révélé le plus bénéfique. En outre, tous les partenaires ont affirmé que le CTA avait grandement facilité leur capacité de contact avec les acteurs extérieurs, ce qu'un partenaire a attribué à l'objectif qui était d'\"améliorer la visibilité et la sensibilisation auprès d'une large audience bénéficiaire des activités et des projets\". Un autre partenaire reconnaît que le \"soutien du CTA a directement contribué à son développement institutionnel, à l'amélioration de sa visibilité et de son réseautage ainsi qu'au renforcement de ses membres\". Les analyses rapides indiquent également que le soutien du CTA a généré des résultats et/ou des impacts au niveau des bénéficiaires et de la société dans son ensemble. Certaines de ces déclarations seront examinées plus attentivement dans le cadre des études approfondies, qui se sont achevées en novembre 2013. Le CTA et ses partenaires se sont engagés à diffuser à une grande échelle les enseignements de cette étude conjointe afin de promouvoir cette expérience.  ","tokenCount":"9109"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aa0aadd7f493abd76440bfe727e8ddfe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://apps.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/Publications/PDFS/2022028.pdf","id":"281366021"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9f9389ed-2c6c-48db-be39-b84a7abf60ab","pagecount":"3","content":"Firewood and charcoal are the most commonly used fuels for cooking in Sub-Saharan Africa as they are relied on by over 90% of the population (IEA, 2006). Mostly, these fuels produced and consumed leading to negative environmental and health have because new devices fail to meet the users' innovation attention a cooking stove in developing countries (Torres-Rojas et al., 2011). article is based a case study from a biochar-bioenergy project where 150 smallholder farmers from Embu, Kwale and Siaya Counties were given cookstoves. These were as \"GASTOV\" from the Kenya and Institute (KIRDI) and provided for free after training on their use. The households were interviewed after three months of using the stove and thereafter participatory cooking tests were conducted whereby 25 randomly selected households in each of the the test with a three-stone When fuel turns charcoal before food is ready, it is harvested and the canister is reloaded with fresh fuel, lit and cooking is continued.After 3 months, 86%, 96% and 100% of the households were using the respectively with 58%, 42% and 86% using it (3-5 days per week).include a reduction in fuel used, less generation and production These were the most common which indicates that cooks are concerned about fuel sourcing, smoke reduction and charcoal production which is a form of fuel poverty alleviation (Gitau et al., 2019a) (Figure 1). Charcoal is harvested and cooled using oxygen and stops burning. Households were requested store the they use as for soil improvement in participatory farm trials. However, some of the charcoal was put into other uses (Figure 3), an indication that energy poverty alleviation is of importance to these households. Households produced 193g of charcoal per cooking on average. When charcoal is applied to the soil (Photo 2), it is referred to as et al., 2017). Biochar increases yields since it retains moisture and nutrients in the soil making it available to the crops for a longer period. For instance, after applying biochar to maize and kale plots at Kwale and Embu during the long and short rains of 2017 respectively, maize yield increased from 0.9 Mg ha-1 in the control plot to 4.4 Mg 1 on average kale increased by 33% (Sundberg et al., 2020). Biochar performed better when used in combination with fertilizer or manure. Increased mean reduced need to buy food and additional income.Biochar hold nutrients for longer hence reduces amount of fertilizer less fuel than a three-stone open is considered as fuel and not fuel respectively, hence reducing the women's workload and associated risks.in the kitchen of CO, CO2 and PM2.5 by 73%, 30% and 90% respectively al., forthcoming, Gitau al., 2019c). This in-turn reduces associated health problems such as respiratory diseases.Biochar application to the soil helps to sequester carbon for a long period and leads to increased growth of above-ground biomass which acts as carbon sinks.to cook or because biochar helps frequently reduces greenhouse gases emission and contributes to climate change mitigation.challenges when using stove (Figure which should be addressed better adoption. Within project, cookstove users were issued with a second canister, to ease the changeover of fuel, acooking option fuel, smokes produces charcoal as a by-product which is used for either cooking or as biochar which improves crop yields.• Fuel preparation, lighting and reloading fuel were found to be challenging and need to be addressed for enhanced adoption.there is for improvement of the GASTOV design; for example to allow continuous feeding fuel, or provision of a tool for ease of cutting wood into small pieces.• Stove users should dry the fuel well for ease of lighting as well as reduced smoke and fuel consumption. To reduce smoke in the kitchen the stove should be lit outside.• Stove users should be involved in designing and development of the stoves to ensure that their needs and preferences are taken care of. ","tokenCount":"638"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"37687642436f6befaa08b37cf4d469e5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H017839.pdf","id":"-1336961472"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bff21025-4310-41f8-b67b-32bf7de54583","pagecount":"23","content":"The stated objective of the Study relative to cost recovery is not very p x 5 c -to \"nuke further progress towards clarifying and establishing recovery and cost shanng to ensure the sustahabil management. Nevertheless, ZIMI's previous reports water service cost sharing, the report on budgeting and ~sults of the workshop on cost recovery have pro necessary political decisions. The present report is intended to contn'brrte to the plamiq for implmenting a phased program for water services cost sharing. lIMI would like to acknowledge the contributions of the cost recovery tas-lr'force appointed by the M i n i s t r y to participate in preparing the previous reports on task force did not participate directly in prepamtion of this provided the basis for this report. Among the IIMI team, Chris Perry wits the leader o€ the work on cost recovery and much of this report reflects his wo prepared an excellent report on non-agricultural cost recovery wbi v and Adrian Hutchens, Raouf K h o u m , and I Elassiouti contributed as ITEUSI consultar& on cost recovery. Jeff Brewer made important contributions to clarifying the prese report. Doug Merrey was responsible for preparation of the first draft and revisions, based on the work of the other team members. IIMI is gratefbl to RoUo W c h , Wadie Fahim, and Donnie H h g t o n of USAID in Cairo for their comments ' drafts. Wadie Fahim was the Project Officer for the Study, and Don& Nurington as Activity Manager when this report was being prepared.Resources (MPWWR) during 1995. The paper first summarizes the main conclusions from the previous studies, and outlines the present policy of the Government of Egypt. At present non-agricultural water users pay no fees to the MPWWR, and farmers pay no fees toward O&M above the mesqa (field channel). Farmers pay the capital costs of tile drainage of a 20-year periuod at no interest, and will soon begin paying the capital costs of a mesqa improvement program. The MPWWR has committed itself to developing an implementation plan for further sharing of the costs of providing water services with non-agricultural and agricultural water users.Based on the conclusions of a Workshop on Cost Recovery in Egypt held in May 1995, the paper suggests a three-phased approach to cost sharing, beginning with the simple goal of recovering some or alI of the costs of providing water services, moving to an additional goal of encouraging water conservation by users, and finally adding the goal of encouraging improvements in the efficiency of the service provider. While the first goal could in principle be achieved with relatively few institutional or infrastructural changes, achieving the efficiency goals requires increasingly important and difficult changes.The paper suggests beginning with the implementation of cost recovery for the mesqa improvement program and for non-agricultural users. The three phases with the associated actions are:Phase I: Implenten~*on of Cost Sharing for Non-Agricultural Water Services, and Pre-rrratian for ImplementatSon in the Agricultural Sector 1 .Prepare a detailed implementation plan for cost sharing.Implement the program of cost recovery for mesqa improvements and document the experience.Introduce cost recovery for water services provided to non-agricdtural users.Carry out a public education campaign on the benefits and costs of water delivery services.Test and validate a functional budgeting and accounting system so that actual costs can be identified clearly and transparently.Carry out preparatory studies, for example social marketing studies on conditions affecting willingness to pay, and studies on what disadvantaged users actually pay at present....Carry out a further study on the options for service fee collection as a basis for a firm recommendation. The major conclusions for Egypt from the IIMI-MPWWR studies relative to agricultural water service cost sharing include:FuIl recovery of water service charges to agriculture would amount to about LE 75 per feddan per yea?, or some 4.5 to 5 % of f m income.This figure is relatively insensitive to dlocation of costs among sectors, since agriculture is by far the Iargest consumer.There are large regional variations in costs of agricultural water service charges because of differences in pumping, with regional costs estimated at LE 130, 80, and 60 per feddan for Upper, Middle and Lower Egypt respectively.More precise estimates of the cost are prevented by the highly aggregated accounting system used in the MPWWR.Service charges that relate either indirectly (crop-based) or directly (volumetric measurement) to water use will have a rather limited effect on farmers' choice of crops. The physical measuring infrastructure and complex accounting principles for volumetric charging is unlikely to be feasible or cost-effective in the near future.These studies are listed in the references, and include: Cestti The present situation regarding recovery or sharing of water service costs is as follows: nonagricultural users (municipalities, industries, navigation for example) pay no fees b the Ministry, which is the bulk provider or wholesaler of water in the Nile system. W i t h i n agriculture, in the old lands there are no procedures for directly recovering any portion of the capital OT operating costs for water services above the mesqa3. Farmers are rrspom&le , the Minisby for O&M of their \"private\" mesqas, but if these are not adequately miuntafned can (and sometimes does) undertake the work and charge the farmers. In the New Lands, farmers are responsible for capital costs for infrastructure downstream of the booster pumps drawing water from distributary canals, serving areas of about 100 to 200 feddam. If the investments are made by government, they are recovered over twenty years at no interest (UMI 1995b).* .Under Law Number 12 of 1984, the Government has a policy of collecting the costs of installing tile drainage from beneficiary fanners. The costs are to be recovered over twenty years, beginning after a five-year grace period; included in the costs is an administrative fee of ten percent. However, no interest is charged, so that even with perfect collecdons, the government collects Iess than 25% of the real costs (IIMI 1995b; Mohieddin 1995).Mohieddin (199215) found collections are far from perfect: up to mid-1995, less than 6% of the total cost of the tile drainage program had been recovered. Charging users for provision of water and water services is a sensitive issue in many countries, including Egypt. It involves political, historical, social, religious and economic factors. Beneficiaries will tend to prefer low or zero charges, and this preference will be reflected by their political representatives. Their position may be reinforced when investments have been made in the national interest -to emure food security, develop new areas or diversify the economy -thus implying some higher goal than the direct productive impact on those receiving the service. In the case of agriculture, and in a predominantly agrarian economy, the combination of these factors is often powerfuI, and fuIl recovery of service charges correspondingly rare.On the other hand, the availability of public resources is increasingly constrained, and the maintenance of infrastructure is consequently at risk, threatening a vicious circle of reduced productivity, reduced financial surpluses to direct beneficiaries and to government, and further reduced capacity to fund maintenance and replacement of capital investments. In Egypt, the pubIic subsidy to irrigation services (about LE 670 million annually) is approximately equal to foreign assistance to the Government's programs of vertical and horizontal expansion and new lands development.Depending on the design of the service charge mechanism, one or both of two additional objectives beyond recovery of the cost of providing the service, can be achieved.First, if the charge is directly linked to the cost of providing the service, pressure is created on the service agency to control and reduce its operating costs -beneficiaries will point to any apparent inefficiencies in the service agency, and use this as a reason to resist increases in charges, or demand reductions. Similarly, beneficiaries may be encouraged to undertake some O&M activities themselves if they believe they can do so at lower costs than incurred by the agency 4 .Second, if the charge is directly linked to the quantity of service provided (in this case, a charge per Unit of water delivered), the users are encouraged to be more efficient -for example by using water-saving technologies, or selecting crops which produce higher returns to water (wheat rather than sugar cane, for e~ample)~.Against this background, the introduction of service charges is increasingly perceived as an economic necessity, whose political consequences must be addressed through a process of public awareness and persuasion. simplicity in their formulation and introduction. As discussed below, a fIumber of actions are required: some are mutually supportive and require parallel activities by more than one agency; others &re sequential, where the results of one step determine the nature aad timing of subsequent steps; and sume are beyond the control of MFwwfc.This section summarizes the consensus reached at the Cost Recovery Workshop. The fiveelement framework used in that workshop (god, definition of service, rate base, collection, use of funds) provides the basis for this discussion. More details of the wide discmion that resulted in these conclusions can be found in the Workshop Report @MI 199Sa). To summarize the five inter-linked elements of a charging mechanism:\"goals\" are the purposes and objectives; \"service\" refers to the entitlement of the user -where and when it is provided and its essential characteristics; \"rate base\" refers to the amount charged users per unit of service; \"collection\" is the process and implementing agencies that secure payments from users; and \"use of revenue\" refers to the destination of the funds collected and how they are used, including deductions for collection costs and rules specifying sharing of costs.Participants in the Cost Recovery Workshop agreed that the goah of service charges, in order of priority should be: The rate base should be simple, and based initially on a flat rate per unit area (undifferentiated by crop or cropping intensity). To encourage awareness of water scarcity, it was further proposed that service charges should eventually reflect consumption of water, and be differentiated by crop, or crop category, with more water-commhg crops subjected to higher charges.The collection of funds should be entrusted to the existing Ministry of Finance's field collection staff, who currently collect both land taxes and charges associated with the recovery of investments in drainage. A question not addressed by the workshop was whether the existing land tax commissions could coIIect irrigation service fees effectively, and whether service charges based on more than the area of the farm, i.e., a more complex charging system, could be undertaken through this agency. Seasonal accounting for area irrigated and crop type is clearly a far more complicated and potentially contentious issue than assessing an annual charge based on the cultivable area.Since that Workshop, IIMI has commissioned a study of the present functioning and capacity of the land tax commissions in three selected districts, to test the assumption the M i n i s t r y of Finance could collect irrigation service fees effectively through its existing organization (Mohieddin 1995). The study raises great doubts on this point, The study found low motivation of staff as a result of poor compensation and facilities, and as a consequence, low levels of performance, inadequate record keeping, and overall, low levels of recovery of tile drainage costs6. Mohieddin concludes that irrigation service fees should not be collected through the land tax commissions. He recommends the MPWWR itself should take on this function.The use of funds should be for the purpose of system operation and maintenance, and thus funds should come directly to a fund within the MPWWR established for this purpose. A number of additional complexities were foreseen within this simple objective: if charges are linked to expenditures, should charges vary regionally, or Iocally? How would revenues be distributed among local, regional, and national levels?The average annual cost of O&M services at LE 75 per feddan masks huge differences in regional costs because of differential dependence on pumping: costs by region are estimated at LE 130, 80, and 60 per feddan for Wpper, Middle, and Lower Egypt respectively (IIM]: 1995b:Q. Uniform rates may be more \"equitable\" and politically attractive but would involve substantial subsidies and/or transfer payments from one region to another. This is an important political decision to be made. Related to this issue is the distribution of revenues. In other countries, revenues usually remain within the system except for an agreed payment to higher levels for higher level services; in Indonesia for example, 90% of the fees collected remain in the system while 10% goes to offset higher level administrative costs. This is another important decision, and is related to the regional differences in costs.Finally, and intrinsic to the whole service charge exercise, a system of accounting for expenditures by purpose and location as proposed by Lewis and Hilal(1995) would mxi to be i n place if anything beyond simple flat-rate charges are proposedand indeed improved accounting may be required to justify the selected level of flat rate charges. At the moment, the cost of irrigation services can be estimated in the aggregate; but it is not possible to identify local and functional costs. What does it cost to maintain X canal, and how are these costs allocated among cost categories? This is a legitimate question for a farmer to ask, and it cannot be answered precisely and transparently. It will be essential information if cost recovery becomes a mechanism for inducing better water delivery efficiency by the MkGstry.Table 1 provides a matrix showing how choosing increasingly complex goals can have important implications for the other components of a water service charging mechanism. aUrsuing only the goal of recovering some or all of the costs could be implemented through a flat area-based rate; in principle this would require the fewest inStionaI changes, although Mohieddin's study of the land tax system shows some changes would be required. Pursuing other goals through a water service charging program has more important implications for the institutional framework for delivering the services (and vice versa). If achieving these higher order goals is important, and most would agree they are, then the Table can be read as suggesting thee stages of cost sharing. Egypt could begin with the simpre approach, while experimenting with how more compIex goals could be achieved, and implement these more complex approaches based on lessons learned over h e .The stages are based on the priorities agreed at the Cost Recovery Workshop 1995a).There is no a priori reason why achieving the goal of efficient use of water by users (\"conserve water\") should come before the goal of achievirlg improved efficiency of the service provider.Successive stages involve a degree of sequential dependence witbin some (not all) specific components of the charging mechanism: for example, defined alIocation and management of water at the regional level is a pre-requisite to defining allocations at the meqa or farm Ievels. In addition, there are dependencies across components -most particularly between the service and the rate base, and dependencies beyond the components of the charging mechanism -for example to the infrastructure, s h e the present facilities cannot provide measured volumetric services. There are intermediate options within the third stage: volumetric charging can be done at the rnesqa or distributary level if they are under the control of an autonomous unit; that unit can find other means to charge its members instead of measurement at the farm level. Not all the component characteristics are dependent on the goals -some are \"desirable\" rather than strictly necessary.The IIMI-MPWWR Study used the Separable Cost-Remaining €hefits (SCm) method to allocate operation, maintenance and replacement costs among beneficiaries (Cestti INS;XIMI 1995b). Following this method, about 85% of the OM&R costs are allocated to agriculture, and the remainder is allocated among a variety of other users (see Cestti 1995: 26, Table 14). The largest non-agriculturaI category is municipal and industrial intakes from canals :9.4%); \"tourism and recreation\" is next with 2% and all other categories each represent less &an 1 % * Nevertheless, some of these users could possibly be charged in effect subsidizing other users.at it higher seem rates, thus feasible to For municipal and industrial sectors taking water directly from canals, introduce volumetric water charges for raw water at the intake point; sirmlar systems are found in other countries (Cestti 1995:28). The WF4W-R keeps records of the volume of water delivered to each water treatment and each major industrial unit; charging for these volumes, aside from recovering some costs, may introduce incentives for improving efficiency. For example, Cestti (1995:28) suggests that if the General Authority for Greater Cairo Water Utility were charged for each cubic meter of water withdrawn from the Nile, it would have more incentive to reduce its current (very high) level of losses. If industries were similarly charged, they too may increase their efficiency.Charging volumetric rates from self-supplied f m for direct intakes either from the Nile or Erom groundwater may be more difficult as there is presently no system in place for monitoring. A possible solution is selectively taxing pumping costs by increasing the electric rates for pumps by about lo%, but implementation would be difficult. 2. , Implement cost recovery for mesqa improvements and document the experience.ntroduce cost recovery for water services provided to non-a@cultwal users.Carry out a public education campaign on the benefits and costs of water delive: ervices.Test and validate a functional budgethg and accounting system so that actual costs identified clearly and transparently.6. Carry out preparatory studies, for example social marketing affecting willingness to pay, and studies on what disad present.Carry out a further study on the options for service fee collection as a basis for a fm recommendation.8. Implement the proposed Irrigation O&M Program contained in the Action Plan (IIMI 199%) to test ways of consolidating and improving service with users' involvement. 9. Adopt legislation for cost sharing.Phase II: Implementation of Cost Sharing for Agricultural Users and Pilot-Testing of 1.6 .Implement the flat area-based fee, in subphases. Over a five year period, the fee couId be initiated at 33% of the total cost (years 1 to 2), raised to 67% (years 3 and 4), and finally to 100% in year five.Implement the validated functional budgeting and accounting system throughout the Ministry.Expand the results of the Irrigation O&M Program to other districts and directorates. Items under phases II and even III can be initiated even while the first phase activities are still under way; in other words, these can be considered as overIapphg in time.section sets out actions that would be required to implement service charges. For mpleteness, the proposed program covers all three of the nstagesn idmt5ed above (Table ), in terms of moving from a single objective to having two or more objectives'. However, some introductory notes of caution may be appropriate.First, it is difficult -indeed impossible at this stage -to anticipate much of the detail. The litical decision to proceed with service charges w i l l determine aratory and impIementing activities by defining the targe s of the proposed cost sharing program. At one extreme, it may be decided to over all costs from non-agricultural users, which wodd mean a t no futther consideration needs to be given to mec\"hanisms for agriculturd cost recovery.it may be decided to charge fully, and immediately, under which is no alternative to a flat rate, as this is the only mechanism which can be fully defined an8implemented with available information and infrastructure.More likely, it may be decided to introduce service charges gradually, over a period of time.This wouid provide a context within which alternative mechanisms can be; field tested. Bath IIP and the proposed Irrigation O&M Program provide opportdlies for such field testing.Second, while a progression of objectives and charging mw-m was agreed by the participants in the workshop to be desirable, it is possibbxe that further study (again, light of political decisions) will show that the first or second stages of chwges as defmed in Table 3.1 w i l l be optimal (see Phase 11, points 4 and 5 , above).As mentioned in the introduction, IIMI's studies show that the impact on water use efficiency The major actions to be taken p r h a d y by MPWWR (and in some cases other entities of the Government of Egypt) corresponding to each of the three \"stages\" are summarized below.The sequence of activities is aIso to some degree a sequence of dependencies --Action 2requires Action 1 to be completed.This decision will indicate the allocation of costs between irrigation and non-irrigation users, whether agricultural rates will reflect differential costs or be uniform, and the sequence of application of charges (whether simultaneous, or phased across industrial, commercial, domestic and agricultural users).Therefore the political decision should address three specific points within the context of charges for irrigation: a. whether the differential costs of pumping in Upper, Middle, and Lower Egypt wiIl be charged (resulting in estimated rates of LE 130, 80, and 60 per feddan per year, respectively), or whether an average rate will be charged; b. the extent to which cross subsidization across sectors should be provided (possibly including direct subsidy from government); and c. the time scaIe over which cost sharing should be achieved.It is suggested that the rationale for service charges should be based primarily on the cost of providing the service, and the possibility that service quality would decline in the absence of additional resources from the beneficiaries. Promising that services will improve as a result of the charges should be avoided; this may indeed happen but should not be promised, because demonstrating improvements will be difficult, and would provide a possible reason for beneficiaries to refuse to pay in the absence of demonstrated incremental benefits.The precise nature of aIl subsequent actions will depend entirely on the nature of the political decision reached. It is assumed below that it is decided to introduce full cost recovery, possibly phased over t h e , with progressively more service-related charges to achieve conservancy and service improvement goals as set out in Table 3.1. There should be a time frame for implementation, but with the understanding that it will be a \"rolling plan,\" subject to revision as Iessons are learned.Document the results of cost recovery for mesqa improvement presently in place, though not yet applied, for the coUec associated with IIP. Implementation should begin soon.implementation details to be sorted out, and farmers need to be fully inform on their frnaxlcial obligations. The implementation process and reflxlts should carefully to learn lessons. This will provide valuable field experience in procedures for use in non-IIP areas.Formulate detailed plans for introduction of charges to noa-agriculturd users, induding how to deal with the relationship between charges and the quafitylquantitY of ef$lwnt.The Government may find it attractive to initiate charging non-agricultural users (especially municipalities and industry) before moving to a program of cost sharing with agricultural users. ImpIementation of this plan can be initiated during Phase I problem arises when farmers are simply asked if they would like to pay more -the response is obviously predetermined. But using more sophisticated survey methods such as \"mntbgertt evaluation\" (Griffin et d 1995) will produce more useful and te informtion on how much people would be willing to pay, under wbat Systematically study service fee collection options. Mohieddin's study of the land tax collection system was not intended to be conclusive; the questions it raises requh further study. If the land tax collection system is as ineffective his report suggests, it w i l l be necessary either to refom and strengthen it, or develop alternative capaciey within the MFWWR itself for fee collection. The latter w i l l be a considerable investment and its cost effectiveness needs to be examined carefully. 2, Implement a functional budgeting and accounting system throughout the Ministry. This will be a major institutional reform, based on the results of the pilot testing of the revised system completed in Phase I. It will allow the Ministry to become more costconscious, make better use of funds to achieve management objectives, understand what the costs of a variety of functions are more clearly, and become transparent in the use of funds. In addition to the benefits within the Ministry, it will also provide a basis for more fundamental reforms leading to more efficient service delivery.Expand the results of the Irrigation O&M Program to other districts and directorates.If successful, this program will provide a decentralized management package that WiIl improve the effectiveness of water delivery services.Pilot test a crop-based charging system. A prerequisite for pilot testing altemtive charging mechanisms is that the principle of payment be established arad hplernented for all agricultural users. Building on this, it w i l l be possible to pilot-test altemtive approaches including crop-based charging systems. The objective wifl be to assess the impact on cropping patterns, productivity of water, and farmers' incomes; identify any infrastructural implications and their costs; identify the dflhlties encountered in setting charges, measuring based charges; assess the benefits and costs of such a system of charging; and assess its social acceptability.Activities might include: f. €5 h.Definition of seasonal operational plan Definitions of measurement points, measuring standards and procedures Definition of adequate and inadequate provision of service Definition of farmers' remedies against MPWWR in case of inadequate supply Definition of remedies against farmers in case of misuse of water, or deviation from agreed cropping pattern Definition of crop charges Definition of responsibilities for surveying and recording crop areas Definition of procedures for billing (frequency, responsibilities, accounting and processing of fimds) Definition of dlocation of funds among levels in the irrigation system. A number of issues may become relevant as a result of the political decisions taken regarding cost recovery. For example, if rates are to be low for a considerable period of time, or a flat rate is selected as the ultimate basis for charges, the question of controlling the area under high water-using crops will remain important, If relatively high charges are proposed, the question of ensuring that farmers do not switch to uncontrolled groundwater exploitation to avoid surface water charges may arise, Such topics cannot be defined in advance as they will relate to the seIected basis for charging, but provision should be made for a review of likely impacts once the charging mechanism and phasing have been selected. I + The experiences from Phase I1 pilot testing will provide a basis for making firm decisions and impIementing future cost sharing policies, including mechanisms for collection (flat rate, crop-based, or volumetric), and the institutional framework for sustainable water management. It is IikeIy that an entirely new decentralized customer-oriented institutional framework will emerge that will dso be financially sustainable. It is aIso likely that different mechanisms for collecting water service charges wiI1 be appropriate for different areas and conditions.2. Once these basic decisions are made, there will be a long-term consolidation and institutional strengthening phase as Egypt uses its new-found institutional capwity to \" more with less water.\"Deciding to proceed with a program for cost sharing by asking users to contribute to the costs of the service will itself be difficult. Whenever people are accutum service, they naturally resist being asked to pay. But the clearly communicated. The cost of delivering water to Egypt is being paid now. The lack of a transparent relati costs complicates the problem of improhg the sewic relationship is established, there will be strong incentives for Service and to use the resource more wisely; and-for the service to keep the customers happy. This is a challenge sectors. But the precarious balance of Egypt's water €6 move ahead with a program for cost sharing to \";motivator for improving the services.","tokenCount":"4580"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"87e16a4e4be7d384df0031c6b72917bf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1f8fe3fb-faba-4cd3-b6b0-a00f5ee35026/content","id":"1107731154"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"27d6b16e-fc35-4454-a8f4-3263e8454526","pagecount":"10","content":"Groundwater irrigation plays a critical role in supporting food security, rural livelihoods and economic development in South Asia. Yet, large disparities in groundwater access and use remain across the region. In the Western Indo-Gangetic Plains (WIGP) of India and Pakistan, subsidized rural electrification and fuel for groundwater pumping has enabled significant growth in agricultural productivity over recent decades (Shah 2007). In many areas, groundwater development has however also contributed to over-extraction and aquifer depletion, especially in the WIGP (MacDonald et al. 2016;Mukherjee et el., 2017). In contrast, groundwater resources in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (EIGP) of Nepal and eastern India remain underexploited; current aggregated rates and areas of irrigation also appear to be only a fraction of estimated development potential (Saha et al., 2016). This limits farmers' ability to grow crops outside the monsoon season, or to manage risks posed by rainfall variability and dry spells within the monsoon -both of which contribute to low productivity and rural poverty.A barrier to expansion of groundwater irrigation in Nepal's Terai region is the dependence of farmers on expensive, unsubsidized diesel or petrol power for irrigation pumping. At present, diesel pumps account for over 80% of installed irrigation pump horsepower in the EIGP (Shah et al., 2006). Proposals by governments, donors and researchers to address economic barriers to groundwater access include the expansion of rural electrification or introduction of renewablebased (e.g. solar) pumping technologies that reduce or eliminate the comparatively high costs of diesel fuel (Mukherji et al., 2017;Shah et al, 2018). While desirable in many ways, solar irrigation systems nonetheless face a number of technical and financial scaling challenges in the EIGP (Hartung & Pluschke, 2018). These include high up-front capital costs, limited availability of maintenance services, and risk of accelerated and excessive withdrawal where pumping costs are significantly reduced and regulation is weak (Closas & Rap, 2017). Similarly, while access to reliable electricity supplies through direct grid connections are increasing in many parts of the EIGP (Mukherji et al., 2018), rural electrification for irrigation is likely to require considerable investments in infrastructure and may take decades to deliver at scale. As such, policies and development initiatives that focus exclusively on electrification or solar pumping fail to seize opportunities for near-term gains in water availability that could positively affect farm production, income generation, and food security in the EIGP. could positively affect farm production, income generation, and food security in the EIGP. For more details: https://csisa.org/ Addressing sub-optimal performance of existing diesel-pump irrigation systems offers an alternative for delivering quick improvements in the affordability of groundwater irrigation in the EIGP, while also complementing and supporting future transition to alternative technologies including solar. Anecdotal evidence indicates that many diesel-pump irrigation systems in the EIGP operate at very low fuel to water delivery efficiencies (Bom et al., 2001;Shah, 2009), suggesting that scope may exist to improve pump performance and reduce irrigation costs for smallholder farmers. However, to date, there has been little systematic research to quantify the magnitude and underlying causes of variability in groundwater access and pumping costs in the EIGP, or the resulting impacts on farmer irrigation practices and livelihoods. This is a first-step in addressing this knowledge gap and identifies potential opportunities to reduce groundwater access costs in existing diesel-pump irrigation systems in the EIGP.Data were collected in two districts in the mid-western Terai of Nepal -Rupandehi and Kapilbastu districts. These two districts were selected as they represent areas where groundwater is the main source of water supply for most farmers and diesel-pump irrigation systems are widespread due to limited rural electrification. These locations are therefore in many ways comparable with characteristics of smallholder agriculture across the EIGP. Furthermore, Rupandehi and Kapilbastu districts are also heterogeneous with respect to the socio-economic status of farming communities and underlying aquifer characteristics, both of which we hypothesize may be drivers of heterogeneous groundwater access and irrigation costs within the EIGP.To evaluate heterogeneity in groundwater access costs and their impacts on agricultural practices, we conducted a structured survey of 434 households who reported using groundwater for irrigation in a total of 33 villages (Figure 1). Villages were initially selected randomly from national census lists; this sample was subsequently refined through field investigations to ensure groundwater resources were accessible and that groundwater provided the main source of irrigation supply.In each village, between 12 and 16 farmer households were selected randomly for survey. Farmers were asked to provide information about household demographics, livelihood strategies, assets, and agricultural production and input use decisions in the past year. Detailed questions were asked about irrigation practices, including the (i) types and characteristics of systems -borewells and pumpsetsused to access groundwater for irrigation, and (ii) the frequency, duration and cost of irrigation events per crop and season on the household's largest plot. For the latter we selected the largest irrigated plot as the unit of survey discussion and data analysis. This is because this plot typically represents farmers' greatest expenditure on irrigation. It also provides a consistent comparison for assessing irrigation access costs and their impacts on agricultural production across households. Alongside information for the largest plot, we also collected information about the total irrigation cost per season across all of the plots managed by farmers to analyze the proportion of irrigation costs to whole farm costs.Our survey focused on households where agriculture was the primary occupation and groundwater provided the main source of water for irrigation. The average cultivated land area per household was 0.95 hectares, often comprised of multiple plots, with 67% of households (n = 292) cultivating less than 1 ha. Significant land fragmentation was observed -consistent with evidence about farm sizes and landholding structures in the Terai -with each household cultivating an average of 5.6 plots with a typical plot size of 0.20 hectares.Of the farmers in our sample, 76% irrigated their plots using their own pumpsets. The remainder relied on rented pumpsets. Farmers renting pumpsets had smaller land holdings (0.43 vs 0.99 hectares for owners) and cultivated smaller land areas (0.50 vs 1.10 hectares for owners). Renters also received lower levels of financial support from off-farm work or remittances -potentially indicative of greater financial constraints to investment in irrigation technologies. On average, each household utilized a total of 1.1 pumpsets for irrigation across all plots, with 99% of households using two or less owned or rented pumpsets for irrigation in the past year. In contrast, farmers accessed on average a total of 2.4 borewells for irrigation. Renting and sharing of borewells was also widespread; 72% of borewells reported were rented, and 81% of households rented at least one borewell for irrigation.Indian pumpsets -almost all of which are operated using diesel -account for 61% of pumpsets reported, with Chinese pumpsets -typically operated using petrol, kerosene and/or diesel fuelaccounting for 39% of pumpsets (Table 1). Farmers erroneously reported a significant proportion of Chinese pumpsets as being Indian-made (around 17% of all pumpsets reported originally as Indian), with widespread prevalence of false or misleading branding (Figure 2) indicative of a lack of reliable information for farmers when making decisions about pumpset investment. Indian pumpsets typically had a higher horsepower than Chinese pumpsets (5.3 vs 4.9 HP) and considerably larger investment costs (30,000 vs 19,000 NPR). However, Chinese pumpsets exhibited lower reliability, as evidenced by higher reported frequencies of repairs (0.38 per year of operation vs 0.25 for Indian pumpsets). Focusing on data related to the 2018 monsoon season -during which almost all farmers (379/434) in our sample grew rice irrigated with a diesel, petrol or kerosene pumpset on their largest plot -we observed large farmer-to-farmer variability in the cost of groundwater irrigation. The cost to fully irrigate one hectare of land was on average 3,425 NPR for surveyed farmers, with a range from 500 NPR to 22,489 NPR between households (Figure 3).One of the major drivers of variable irrigation costs observed in Figure 3 appears to be pumpset ownership. Renters of pumpsets pay on average 184 NPR/hour to access a pumpset excluding embedded costs of fuel, which are equal to 100 NPR/hour on average given reported fuel prices and consumption rates. However, local variability in rental rates also exists. High market prices reaching as much as 400 NPR/hour (excluding fuel) were observed in some villages, while in others pumpsets were shared free of charge as long as the renting farmer provided their own fuel for running the pumpset. Notably, farmers typically do not pay any fee for renting a borewell. Only 2.7% (7/257) of borewells rented for irrigation in our sample incurred a cost to the renting farmer, with an average price paid of 92.9 NPR/hour paid on the few occasions when a fee was levied.Alongside pumpset ownership, differences in the fuel use efficiency of pumpsets also contribute to variability in groundwater irrigation costs. Indian pumpsets have significantly (p<0.001) higher reported average fuel consumption rates (0.95 litres/hour) compared with Chinese pumpsets (0.80 litres/hour). Fuel consumption rates increased with horsepower for both categories of pumpsets, with the largest rates of fuel consumption -sometimes in excess of 2 litres/hour -typically found for large (6+ HP) Indian pumpsets (Table 2). Importantly, switching from a large (> 5 HP) Indian pumpset to a smaller (≤ 5 HP) Chinese pumpset equates to an average fuel consumption saving of 0.39 litres/hour -equivalent to 991 NPR/irrigation/ha (a 29% reduction) given reported average irrigation times, plot sizes and fuel costs for paddy production in the last monsoon season. Analysis is ongoing to determine the key underlying drivers and determinants for irrigation event duration in order to understand potential opportunities for reducing irrigation costs through more efficient water management practices. However, it is clear that higher irrigation times can play an important role in magnifying existing differences in variable irrigation costs, in particular those related by rental fees or fuel efficiency of pumping systems, with important implications for equitable access to irrigation among smallholder farmers. Farmers with higher irrigation costs -whatever their underlying causes -may choose or be forced to reduce use of irrigation inputs, resulting in greater exposure to drought risks and lower agricultural productivity. To evaluate impacts of variable costs observed in our sample on farmer irrigation management practices, Figure 4 displays the average costs to irrigate one hectare of paddy subdivided by the number of times farmers reported irrigating paddy during the last monsoon season on their largest plot. Our results show a clear downward trend -farmers with the highest irrigation costs on average irrigate paddy crops less frequently than those with lower irrigation costs. In general, differences in average irrigation costs for alternative frequencies are statistically significant (p<0.01) in particular across high and low frequency irrigators. However, it is important to recognize that irrigation costs are also highly variable between farmers irrigating at the same frequency, highlighting the importance of individual behavior in determining decisions around irrigation water use alongside economic costs. Further analysis is also needed to control for other confounding drivers of irrigation decisions, such as soil type/drainage class, and to determine measurable impacts on crop yields and incomes of reduced irrigation frequencies.High costs of accessing groundwater for irrigation currently limit the ability of smallholder farmers in the EIGP -including the Terai of Nepal -to intensify agricultural production and reliably buffer crops against production risks, such as drought and monsoon rainfall variability (Kishore et al., 2014;Jain et al., 2017). Our preliminary findings demonstrate that opportunities exist to significantly reduce the variable costs of groundwater irrigation within existing diesel-pump systems, which if implemented could support rapid, near-term improvements in agricultural productivity, intensity and livelihoods.We these issues in steps below, beginning with targeted subsidy programs, more energyefficient pumping, reduced irrigation costs, and solar pumps.First, given the wide disparity in groundwater access costs between pumpset owners and renters, key priorities for irrigation development policy could include interventions that improve access to pumping equipment for marginalized farmer groups. In Nepal, current government programs focus primarily on subsidizing the cost of borewell drilling (ADB, 2012). Our preliminary analysis however suggests that this is not a key driver of high costs of accessing groundwater for irrigation. Support should instead be targeted explicitly towards improving rates of pumpset ownership amongst small and marginalized farmer households, who currently are disproportionality dependent on rental markets for accessing groundwater and thus face the largest costs to access water for irrigation.Without support for accessing pumpsets, smallholders are likely to struggle to invest in productivity enhancing and risk-reducing irrigation technologies, and are unlikely to benefit from improvements in the performance of existing pumpsets -especially larger equipment -due to somewhat unique and oligopolistic nature of local water markets in the Terai. Irrigation in other countries in South Asia is highly subsidized through direct and indirect mechanisms (Shah et al., 2006). The overall costs of and unsustainability of subsidies are however a concern; well-designed programs should therefore phase out support mechanisms over time as smallholder farmers are increasingly able to access irrigation services and the private sector develops more affordable pumpset solutions.Our analysis also indicates that reductions in irrigation access costs could also be achieved through promotion and support for farmers to adopt more fuel-efficient pumpset technologies and irrigation management practices. For example, smaller horsepower Chinese-made pumpsets consume less fuel than larger Indian pumpsets that appear to be preferred by farmers. Yet, despite Chinese pumpsets also being less costly and relatively easy to repair, our survey results indicate that the majority of smallholders continue to favor less fuel-efficient and unnecessarily large Indian pumpsets. Anecdotal evidence gathered through interactions and interviews with farmers in our study region and the Terai more broadly suggest that these decisions are driven by perceptions that Indian-made pumps have greater robustness, along with advice given by agricultural machinery dealers who are motivated to suggest larger horsepower pumpsets as a sales strategy to maximize sales profits on a per-unit basis.These findings highlight the need for greater education of farmers about fuel efficient pumpset selection supported by data from in-situ pump testing, along with broader improvements in quality control and provision of maintenance services for imported Chinese pumpsets that currently constrain potential technological benefits. Improvements in the affordability and performance of existing diesel-pump irrigation systems could also help to support future transitions to use of alternative energy sources (e.g. solar) by increasing farmers' capacity to invest in these emerging, but still expensive, technologies. However, long-term shifts to renewable pump technologies must also consider risks to groundwater sustainability posed by large reductions in the variable cost of irrigation pumping (Closas & Rap, 2017;Urfels et al., 2019). While groundwater resources appear to be underexploited in the EIGP, aggregate regional statistics may mask significant spatial heterogeneity in aquifer conditions that could locally limit sustainable extraction potential. For example, farmers in some villages included in our survey reported challenges in accessing reliable groundwater supplies at shallow depths, in particular during the dry season when borewell yields were sometimes insufficient to enable farmers to irrigate landholdings fully. These findings are consistent with broader evidence of large local-level variability in shallow groundwater availability and resilience to abstraction across the IGP (van Dijk et al., 2016), and warrant further attention in the Terai when assessing future potential for intensification and extensification of groundwater irrigation.Alongside these hydrologic constraints, our survey also highlights that capacity to scale renewable energy technologies such as solar irrigation may also be affected by some of the unique socio-organizational and economic characteristics of agricultural systems in the Terai and wider EIGP. Given high levels of existing land fragmentation in our study area and the region more broadly, development of portable high-capacity solar pumpsets that mimic existing lightweight and moveable pumpsets are a key need to support scaling of these technologies. Current state-of-the-art portable solar products are heavier, more expensive and deliver significantly lower water output than existing low-cost Chinese diesel or petrol pumpsets (Durga et al., 2016). Although increased demand may over time drive down costs, in this context, fossil fuel pumping systems are likely to remain the workhorse of irrigated cereal systems in the EIGP in the coming decades, highlighting the value of efforts to reduce inefficiencies these systems alongside ongoing advances to renewable pumping technologies.","tokenCount":"2669"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"635a859ec931531495eadf6ae70d99ac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/301f371a-47a4-4ae9-b51d-a65378c6ad27/retrieve","id":"-378922459"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8d10bedf-1c74-4034-bc35-854fb962af57","pagecount":"28","content":"The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is a CGIAR research center. CIAT works in collaboration with multiple partners to make farming more competitive, profitable, and sustainable through research-based solutions in agriculture and the environment. We help policymakers, scientists, and farmers respond to some of the most pressing challenges of our time, including food insecurity and malnutrition, climate change, and environmental degradation. Our global research contributes to several of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Headquartered in Cali, Colombia, CIAT conducts research for development in tropical regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. www.ciat.cgiar.org CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources. www.cgiar.orgNatalie Orentlicher Jennifer Twyman Anton Eitzinger Osana BonillaReflection on the use of mobile phones for monitoring gender indicators related to climate-smart agriculture practicesMonitoring and Learning (M&L) systems are increasingly being requested to measure gender indicators in the context of agricultural interventions. This study reflects on the feasibility of using cellphones to collect data for monitoring gender indicators related to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices through callbased surveys. The study was conducted in the context of the development of an M&L system for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security. In this case, the approach is used to understand if and how a climate smart agriculture practice impacts the gender division of labor, control over resources and benefits, and participation in decisionmaking. We reflect on the constraints and aspects that enable the development of monitoring gender indicators related with CSA practices. In our reflection, we identify five challenges related to survey design and sampling: choosing which indicators can be monitored, survey design and question wording, response rates of men and women, identifying respondents, and how cellphones impact sample selection. Each of these issues should be considered when using cellphones to monitor gender indicators in a development project.Monitoring and learning (M&L) 1 systems are increasingly being requested to measure gender indicators within intervention contexts, including those within the field of agricultural development and climate change adaptation. There is a growing pressure to demonstrate results, since gender research is no longer solely a matter of social justice, but also an issue of investment (Batiwala 2011;Bowman & Sweetman 2014). Feminist and gender sensitive approaches have been designed and implemented in order to strengthen this research, either for projects that are considered gender-specific or for those that mainstream a gender perspective in order to accomplish their outcomes (Podems 2010). Usually, such gender project components have time, budget and geographical constraints. Flexible, inexpensive and rapid M&L systems are expected.Previous research has highlighted the usefulness of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), such as mobile phones, for disseminating agro-climatic information (Aker et al. 2016;Deichmann et al. 2016;Dillon 2012;Dillon et al. 2015;Nakasone and Torero 2016) or for collecting socioeconomic information, at a lower cost and in less time than other methods (Aker et al. 2016;Dillon 2012;Dillon et al. 2015;Vogl 2013). But less is known about the usefulness and potential gender implications of using ICTs for collecting data from farmers. Recent studies have demonstrated the existence of gender bias in the use and benefits of mobile phones in rural and agricultural research and development projects. Women can have less access to and/or control over this ICT compared to men, since the use of mobile phones depends on intra-household power relations, gender roles and social differentiation (Aker et al. 2016;Burrell 2010;Dodson et al. 2013;Geldof 2011). Other experiences, however, have shown that mobile phones can be used as an enabler for women's empowerment and women's wellbeing outcomes in developing countries (Belalcázar 2015;Klonner and Nolen 2010;Mittal 2016).Yet little is known about how mobile phones might be used as a research tool for collecting sex-disaggregated data and gender indicators in projects related to agriculture and climate change adaptation. In order to help fill this gap, in 2017 we reflected on the feasibility of using cellphones to collect data for monitoring gender indicators related to climate smart agricultural practices. This reflection was part of the first pilot test used for Photo: CCAFS the creation of the monitoring system being developed by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) for their climate-smart villages (CSVs) learning platform. In this pilot we assessed the gender dimensions of that system. Specifically we sought to understand if and how one selected climate smart agriculture (CSA) practice, the climate sustainable home garden, 2 impacts gendered division of labor, control over resources and benefits, and participation in decision-making. This paper describes our experiences on testing the use of cellphonebased automated calls for monitoring gender indicators, within the context of CSA agriculture, using the farmers' mobile phones as the main data collection tool. The results of this experience provide useful lessons learned for researchers interested in the use of ICTs for monitoring, evaluation and learning purposes. We expect this assessment to guide researchers and stakeholders who work within agriculture and climate change adaptation to better monitor gender indicators.For the analysis, we consider the minimum standards of sex-disaggregated data collection. A principal component of sexdisaggregated data collection is that information about women's and men's contributions, opinions and needs should be collected from their own perspectives (Doss and Kieran 2013). This is important because studies report that there is a lack of spousal agreement about issues regarding the household and the farm (Alwang et al. 2017;Ambler et al. 2017;Weeratuge et al. 2016;Twyman et al. 2015).  The study site is within the CCAFS CSV in Cauca, Colombia. 3 While the CSV site includes about 15 communities, data collection for piloting the M&L system was initially implemented in three of them, with a population of about 272 households. Within this site, CSA practices were identified by farmers for trial, including sustainable home gardens (our study's focus), improved bean varieties, water harvesting and new water management techniques.Data from an intra-household baseline survey with 198 households from the 15 communities of the CSV in 2014 indicate that 65.7 % of the households are dual-headed, while 21.7% are single female-headed and 12.6% single male-headed. In terms of education, 93% of adults have finished at least primary and 28% at least secondary studies. The majority are smallholder farmers (with an average farm size of 1.3 hectares) that own their land and produce coffee, sugar cane and beans as primary cash crops. In terms of access to mobile phones, 90.4% of the households have mobile phones, with 54% of households owning just one mobile phone. Predominantly, women are reported as owners of the mobile phones (in 28.8% of households), but men or joint ownership by the couple is nearly as common (21.2% and 23.7% respectively) (Table 1). Finally, during implementation of the study, we noticed that mobile network access was not available in all of the study site.Photo: Laura Lopez (CCAFS)The reflection on the use of mobile phones was based on our experience in undertaking the pilot test of the M&L in the study site. Moreover, we conducted exploratory semi-structured interviews with farmers who were part of the population for the M&L system pilot test.We interviewed the principal man and/or woman of twelve households to gather information about their perception on using this kind of tool for monitoring. These households included both implementers and non-implementers of any CCAFS-promoted CSA practice, respondents and non-respondents of the mobile phone survey, and dual and single headed households. In total, we interviewed 9 men, between the ages of 41 and 85, and 11 women, between the ages of 27 and 80. The majority of the participants interviewed had a primary-level education, with some, especially the oldest members, not knowing how to read or write. We asked women and men separately about their opinions on the survey call, their limitations for answering the calls, and what they liked and did not like about the calls.The main objective of the project was to build a tracking system that could provide feedback to scientists, local partners and stakeholders on gendered benefits from and constraints to implementing CSA practices. We decided to build on the idea of the 5Q approach, since it is a monitoring and evaluation approach that aims to reach the beneficiaries or participants of a development project while minimizing costs and time. This approach is also characterized by the use of ICT, specifically mobile phones and interactive-voice-response (IVR) calls, to gather the information. \"5Q\" refers to five targeted and simple questions that concentrate on identifying what participants' \"needs and perceptions of activities carried out within a project are and how a specific project can serve them\" (Jarvis et al 2015: 3). After deciding on this approach to structure the survey questionnaire, we then employed the use of interactive-voice-response (IVR) calling platforms (in our case we use VIAMO) to record the 5Q survey in a series of calls, as well as to automatically execute the calls and gather the recorded responses.As a first step of the pilot study, we established the objectives and gender indicators needed to respond to the program's needs. The main objective of the M&L system is to monitor the uptake of CSA practices in the site. In terms of gender, the objective is to identify and monitor genderrelated issues of CSA practice uptake. Gender indicators related to access and control over resources, participation in decision-making, and the gender division of labor, were identified from the CCAFS Gender and Social Inclusion Strategy (Huyer et al. 2016) and the wider CGIAR Gender Strategy (CGIAR 2015). For this pilot study, we decided to monitor just one CSA practice, the sustainable home garden, which according to a local NGO was the mostused practice and was most expected to demonstrate observable gender differences. Second, we formulated the survey questions for each indicator, and then validated these with other researchers involved in the broader CCAFS monitoring project and with the local partners.We then conducted four rounds of survey calls with five to seven questions each: three rounds for those households that use the sustainable home gardens and one for those which do not (each round had different questions). These calls were implemented on Fridays and Saturdays, days in which farmers usually go to the market, in order to take advantage of the stronger mobile network access there. Lastly, we identified those households that did not answer or finish the survey calls and performed in-person interviews with them in order to fully finish the surveys.Overall, 8 men and 11 women answered the survey.Source: Authors' calculations based off of the 2014 gender survey in the 15 villages of Cauca site, which can be found: CIAT; IFPRI, 2014, \"CCAFS Gender Survey -Colombia Climate Smart Village\", https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/ DVN/283241 This includes households where there is joint ownership of one mobile phone by both spouses and/or households where there are more than one mobile phones owned by the spouses.We identified five main challenges which influenced the tracking of gender indicators related to CSA practices through mobile phones and Interactive-Voice-Response (IVR) calls. The first two challenges are mainly related to the survey study design, such as setting the appropriate indicators and wording. The last three challenges revolve around full and equitable sampling obstacles, including the survey call response rates by gender, gendered practices and responses, and sampling gaps. In this section we describe the five challenges and provide recommendations for overcoming them. In section 4, we discuss the factors behind these challenges and how the challenges affect the monitoring study as a whole.At the beginning of the M&L study, we proposed 30 different indicators that sought to achieve gender equality in five key areas of the project: participation in household and agricultural decision-making, control over economic resources (e.g. income), time use for agricultural activities, benefits from CSA practices, and targeting of agricultural innovations. The M&L system is designed to study these indicators across three different types of groups: a) current users of the CSA practice, Table 2 lists the 30 indicators. In the table these indicators are divided in three groups: originally proposed for the survey and dropped, the ones that were piloted and at end dropped, and the ones that were piloted and were the most comprehensible. Eighteen of the original 30 gender indicators were dropped in the initial project stage while prioritizing indicators based on suggestions from experts on using mobile phones for M&E and the need to minimize the amount of information put into the M&L system. These 18 questions were dropped because they were too complicated to answer easily by mobile phone survey. As shown in Table 2, after ruling out such indicators, we tested 10 of the remaining 12 indicators. Two of the 12 were not tested because they correspond only to the group of previous users which does not yet exist. Of the 10 we tested, two were not comprehensible because they were also too complex to be understood by voice recording on a mobile phone call without additional explanation. Overall, we found 10 gender indicators to be the most comprehensible: 7 for users of the practice, 2 for those who have stopped using the practice, and 1 for those who have never tried it. For implementers of the CSA practice, it was possible to measure indicators related to decision-making, control over income generated, participation in and perceived changes of labor, perceived benefits, and knowledge, skills, and interest of the CSA practice. For the nonimplementers, it was possible to measure knowledge, skills and constraints to implementing the CSA practice. For the previous implementers, we believe it will be possible to measure indicators related to decision-making and the choice to stop using the practice. In The proportion of women and men who perceive that the CSA practice generates incomeThe proportion of women and men who perceive that the CSA practice increases access to foodThe proportion of women and men who perceive that the CSA practice improves food securityThe proportion of women and men who perceive that the CSA practice helps with adaptation to climate variabilityThe most comprehensible gender indicators from our studyThe design of the survey questionnaire has a strong effect on how both men and women from across different social groups will respond to the survey, as well as what the researchers will be able to gain from the information collected. There are particular challenges to dealing with the instrument design and wording for a mobile phone survey, as there is no ability to control the environment or assist the participants while they respond to the survey. As one participant explained, \"Face to face, you can ask again about the questions. But by mobile phone, the majority of the time it is a machine, and sometimes you do not understand the question that was asked.\"(Man, Popayan, April 2017). While it is possible for participants to listen to questions again on the cellphone, they cannot be formulated differently or explained in more detail.The location and situation in which the interviewee answers the survey may be less than ideal, and without a physical interviewer present, there is little ability to correct for questionnaire-based confusion or problems. Thus, the response rate is likely to be lower with mobile phone surveys compared to in person interviews since participants are more likely to opt out or not finish the survey. As such it is important that the survey is designed to be as clear and short as possible: that the interviewees understand the questions and answer choices, that they do not need additional clarification, and that they can answer quickly and concisely without needing to justify or explain themselves. Obviously, there are many challenges involved, particularly with asking questions about complex concepts (such as dynamics and changes in intra-household relations) to participants that are unfamiliar with mobile phone surveys.Gender-equitable targeting of agricultural innovations (Current, previous and non-users of the CSA practice) Identify men's and women's awareness, knowledge, initiative and interest in regard to the CSA practiceThe proportion of women and men that are aware of the CSA practice (non-users)The proportion of women and men that know how to implement the CSA practice (current & non-users)The proportion of women and men that have tried to implement the CSA practice before (previous users)The proportion of women and men that want more information about the CSA practice (current & non-users)For our study, all of these difficulties played a role and the most critical challenge attached to these difficulties was orienting the wording and formatting of the questionnaire. The wording and formatting of the survey instrument need to ensure that the interviewees can understand the questions, feel comfortable, and provide information of at least the minimum quality needed. All while preferably also taking a short amount of time, as participants noted at times being too busy to finish answering the survey. As such, a decision must be made on the most important questions to ask and how the survey can be oriented around a few, quick, and easy questions.For collecting responses pertinent to gender analysis, it is also very important to consider what is implied by any social concepts used. For example, for our project, we asked about 'participation in decision-making', which is a concept that is subjective to different perspectives (Ambler et al. 2017). Perhaps in regards to decisionmaking about a practice, a couple discussed a decision beforehand, but the man made the final decision at the time of implementation. Here the man and woman may have different views on if the decision was made solely by the man or made jointly by the couple. Likewise, the implied meaning of the concept will be affected by the type of social concept it is and the type of information that the researchers are seeking. In regards to questions about social concepts, it is recommended to be more explicit in what information is being sought by the question.In tables 4 and 5, we provide specific recommendations on question wording and structuring based on our experiences in creating, piloting, and implementing the survey. We then provide specific examples of questions which were worded badly and dropped from our survey alongside the type of wording which we would recommend instead.A trade-off with using the recommended questions and answers from column 2 of Table 5 is that they do not gather additional information which could be obtained through other kinds of questions such as understanding the decision-making process (e.g. with whom the decision is made or how the person participates in the decision-making). We also learned about the need to carefully consider the phrasing of questions/indicators based on whether the information should be collected at the individual or the household level. For example, at the individual level: 'Have you personally heard about sustainable home gardens?' And at household level: 'Has this sustainable home garden been implemented before in your household?'It is important to ensure that the survey instrument is phrased and recorded to be as understandable to the study site population as possible (taking into consideration dialect, word choice, expressions and accent). Furthermore, we recommend carrying• How many crops do you have for consumption and for selling?• How crops do you have just for consumption? Just for selling?• For how many months has the home garden supported the household with a greater provision of food?• Did you participate in making the decision to implement the home garden?1) Yes, alone2) Yes, joint with partner/spouse 3) Yes, joint with others 4) No, other person 5) No, other person outside the household.• Has the home garden allowed for more variety of products for your household consumption?• Did you personally do any work related with the home garden?• Did you personally participate in making the decision to implement the home garden?• Have you heard about the home garden?• Do you know how to implement a home garden?Asking about a process or an explanationJoining and linking questions through conjunctionsAsking for numbers or asking them to choose between various long phrase answers Ask for a concrete item or action Ask about just one concept Privilege \"yes\" / \"no\" answers \"How\" \"And\", \"or\", \"but\", \"just\" \"How many,\" as in with hectares, months, years, units of productionRecommendation and advise on structuring questions for mobile phone surveysNon-recommended and recommended questionsout a pre-survey pilot test to resolve unforeseen complications with the instrument design, taking care to sample across genders and various groups and backgrounds. Finally, it is important to have regular meetings between the researchers, technicians and participants throughout the process in order to receive and address feedback.Another important challenge was accounting for variables of mobile phone use which affect the gendered rates of response to the survey. In our study site, the mobile phone can have different uses within the household; we identified two main situations in our study site to exemplify this issue (but they may not be present in other sites and/or other sites may experience other specific issues related to this topic).The first is that the mobile phone often fulfilled a social function within the household, namely that of keeping in touch with friends and families. In this regard, the mobile phone is then treated similarly to a landline and left at the house in a place where the mobile signal is stronger. Within our study site, the women also tend to stay at home during the day to perform domestic work, while the men leave to work in agricultural plots. As such, the women in the first situation had more access to the mobile phone. The best times to call for them were after certain responsibilities were fulfilled, such as after preparing the lunch. On the other hand, it was found that in order to reach the men, the best times to call would be in the evening and over the weekend, when they were not away working in the fields.\"The mobile phone is managed by my daughter and wife. I don't typically have the mobile phone, since I'm not usually at home. [How then can we communicate with you?] It would be best if you call them (the wife or daughter), and then they can give me the information.\" (Male interviewee, Popayan, April 2017)For the second situation, in contrast, it was more difficult to reach the women in some households. This could occur for various reasons, including a 'work-oriented' purpose, whereby the male spouse would take the mobile phone with him to the fields, and the wife would perform her work at the house without mobile phone access until the man had returned. Or this would occur because there is no signal in the house and the cellphone calls must be taken outside. In our study we found that because mobile phone use was gendered and time constrained, it was difficult to guarantee that both men and women within each household could be reached equally. We became aware of such factors only during follow-up interviews and, as previously mentioned, our calling schedule was already constrained by mobile network access being most accessible during market visits. In part due to such difficulties, we were unable in the end to perform an intra-household survey through mobile phone use alone, as we could not gather answers from both the principal woman and man for each and every household. As such, we supplemented these calls with in-person interviews.Without an interviewer present, it is impossible to know who is answering the questions. Knowing the participant is who they are, is crucially important when collecting sex-disaggregated data to perform gender analysis. For our study, at the beginning of each mobile phone survey call, the sex of the person was asked. However, because the questions were about the use of a sustainable home garden, which is considered a female-oriented activity, some male respondents would then pass the mobile phones to their wives. We learned about this phenomenon during the follow-up in-person interviews, where the male interviewees revealed that their wives had actually answered the mobile phone survey's questions. With a practice that is male-oriented, the opposite case would be likely to occur, a situation which could lead to women's voices being mistaken and remaining invisible, possibly while the researchers remain unaware. This is a very important aspect of using mobile phones for gender work, because if we do not know the respondent's gender, we cannot have a gender M&L system. Furthermore, if the gender given is mistaken or false, our results, based on sexdisaggregated data, will be skewed.Recommendations to tackle such a challenge include having the survey ask for the gender of the respondent at the beginning of each call, putting in a message to remind the respondent that only s/he should answer the questions and no one else (regardless of knowledge, responsibility, or experience about the practice), and/or including such a message in any pre-survey implementation workshops or communications materials.The final important challenge we faced was to identify where sampling gaps may occur because of the use of mobile phones to implement the survey. In our study, we found that the two main variables which caused sampling gaps were ICT literacy and mobile network access issues. These are not necessarily challenges related to measuring gender indicators, but are also important considerations for other types of indicators (they may be gender issues if ICT literacy and/or mobile network access are gendered).First, we found that it is important to identify sub-groups with low ICT literacy within the sampled population. With our study in particular, the elderly population (also found to have a low education level) was identified to have the most issues with ICT literacy. According to the data of the Gender survey of 2014, approximately 29.1% of the principal men and women identified for each household were classified as elderly, 60 years old or older. There was also a high correlation between elderly status and low levels of education; of the elderly in the sample, 98.2% had only primary-level or no education. Futhermore, only 34.8% of the elderly owned a mobile phone. This signaled that a fairly high proportion of the population may be unable to or have difficulties to answer the mobile phone survey due to ICT literacy and subsequent ownership issues. We found two different scenarios were present in regards to this phenomenon:The first scenario is that the household does not even own a mobile phone:The second scenario is that the household does own a mobile phone, but the principal man and/ or women need assistance to use it. In this second situation, the intended interviewees often use the aid of family members to help them take the survey. Such is the example of one man who related that his wife was the one who used the mobile phone to help him answer the survey questionnaire, as she knew how to use it. His wife explained: 1 2 \"Yes, I put the loudspeaker on. When the questions were asked, I asked him what was the number I should press. He told me 1, 2, or 3. I pressed the number, but he was the one who told me which to press\" (Woman, Popayan, April 2017).\"No, we do not have mobile phones. Neither of us. Our sons, they have them. It's that we do not know how to manage the mobile phones, in other words, to be frank\" (Man, Popayan, April 2017).In both situations, in-person interviews would need to be conducted. People from this group told us that they preferred in-person interviews, as they felt more comfortable. It is also possible that the influence of the family member assisting the interviewee may bias their responses. Holding pre-survey workshops is another possible strategy to combat the second situation by teaching ICT literacy skills and preparing the sampled population for the survey. Some interviewees mentioned even if they knew how to use the mobile phone, that they felt, at first, fear or nervousness about taking the mobile phone survey. The workshops are an opportunity to help them become accustomed to the survey format, as well as an opportunity to help relieve other potential concerns.As well as low ICT literacy, mobile network access may be another obstacle. As such, identifying mobile network access in the study site is another key activity to carry out before the mobile phone survey implementation. For our field site, many of the households did not have access to the mobile network. As such, one of our alternative strategies was to call the participants on the days and times that they were most likely to go to the market, which had much stronger signal access. As previously mentioned in challenge 2, however, such a strategy might have conflicted with other time-dependent gendered mobile phone access considerations. As such, for those participants that we were unable to reach, we conducted in-person interviews. Identifying the mobile network coverage of the study site is a necessary consideration for the survey implementation plan and in the case of the inability to reach all of the sampled population, it is necessary to identify alternate strategies. In other sites, electricity for charging mobile phones may also be an issue; however, we did not identify in this pilot this difficulty.The challenges of the study were mainly caused by a mixture of effects from two factors: the effects of not having an interviewer physically present and the effects of using mobile phones as the survey implementation tool. Even though we concentrated our reflection on the use of mobile phones as a research tool, we faced challenges that also could be extend to face-to-face interviews when collecting sex disaggregated data, such as implementing an appropriate sampling technique or wording questions correctly in a given context.Going beyond the present challenges as independent factors, we now discuss their effects on the monitoring system as a whole. The mobile phone survey can track sex-disaggregated responses. We were able to fulfill the minimum standards for collecting sex-disaggregated data, because in the end it was possible to collect information about women and men from their own perspectives. From this, we were able to measure indicators, through the sex-disaggregated data we collected, which corresponded to the objectives of the monitoring system. However, these indicators do not explain why gender inequalities exist, directly measure women's empowerment or measure changes in women's empowerment.Furthermore, it was difficult to ensure that both the principal woman and man from each and every one of the households were reached. While analyzing the data, it also proved difficult to identify, with a high degree of confidence, to which household each interviewee belonged. As such, an intra-household unit of analysis was not obtainable. Instead, we ended by having sex-disaggregated data from the communities at an individual level of analysis. Therefore, we cannot measure variables at the household level, such as the number of households in which women make decisions on the CSA practice over the total number of households that use the practice. However, it is possible to measure variables at the individual unit. For example:Not Possible: # of households with women decisionmakers total # of households which use practice Possible:It is important to consider not only the benefits, but also the challenges of using cellphones to collect data for monitoring gender indicators. Some of the benefits of using cellphones to collect survey data include the following three topics. First, cellphone use provides crucial benefits by reducing key implementation concerns of time and budget, especially important factors when the project requires multiple interviews to be carried out with the same participants (Dillon 2010;Jarvis et al. 2015). Second, mobile phone surveys are able to eliminate the potential of enumerator-related bias. Social characteristics of the enumerator (e.g. place of origin, age, gender, ethnicity and institutional affiliation) and their actions (e.g. facial expressions) during the interview can influence the answers of the interviewee. Third, another benefit to consider is the ability for local teams to implement this survey. A mobile phone survey requires a high level of knowledge of the local context, therefore, it is recommended to be implemented by technicians and researchers that work permanently in the site.We faced five challenges, which stem from the intricacies of performing a monitoring survey through the use of mobile phones, of which we were able to confront, analyze, and learn from. The specific attributes of each monitoring study should be considered, planned, and re-evaluated by taking into account how such intricacies may affect the study. Such challenges will affect the overall framework that can or should be utilized, the type of sampling and unit of analysis that can be employed, and the gender indicators that can be measured. Furthermore, the benefits, as well as the difficulties, of this type of survey implementation should be weighed in regards to the specific study being carried out.We can remark from this first site-specific experience that it is possible to implement a gender-sensitive M&L system, using mobile phones as the main research tool for CSA adaptation projects, as long as the aforementioned challenges and recommendations are taken into account. However, since this reflection is from the experience of one case, further pilot tests should be implemented to inform more confident assumptions on the use of ICT-supported automated phone-based system for gender work.","tokenCount":"5484"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6676145ba818458fbaa6939b1dd7c392","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/65161000-1bd6-4877-b9a1-5c754c907884/retrieve","id":"-1028215021"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f5978f4f-7c81-4c25-9a99-d94523a73b74","pagecount":"87","content":"En esta sección se describirán algunos conceptos de cartografía, esto con el objetivo de facilitar el aprendizaje en el curso.Cartografía Es la ciencia que se encarga del estudio y de la elaboración de los mapas geográficos, territoriales y de diferentes dimensiones lineales y demás. Para el ser humano siempre ha sido necesario representar la superficie terrestre y los elementos situados sobre ella. De esta inquietud por conocer el mundo que les rodea surgieron los mapas.La forma real de la Tierra es un geoide cuya superficie irregular coincide con la que resultaría al prolongar por debajo de las superficies continentales, los mares y océanos en calma (Figura 1)Conocer con exactitud el geoide es complicado; para facilitar los cálculos, en cartografía se simplifica la forma de la Tierra asemejándola a un elipsoide o a una esfera regular, figuras geométricas cuya formulación matemática es perfectamente conocida y por lo tanto una red de coordenadas puede usarse para localizar cualquier punto de la tierra.Es evidente que en ningún caso es posible la representación de la Tierra a tamaño real, por lo que se debe plantear una relación entre una distancia sobre el mapa y su correspondiente sobre la superficie terrestre: la escala.En resumen, la primera cuestión, la forma, se soluciona mediante los métodos de proyección cartográfica, mientras que la segunda, las dimensiones, conduce al concepto de escala. Estos dos factores hacen posible la relación entre el mapa y la realidad, es decir condicionan la representación de cualquier mapa.Figura 1. Geoide terrestre.La representación de la superficie terrestre sobre una superficie plana, sin que haya deformaciones, es geométricamente imposible.En cartografía, este problema se resuelve mediante las proyecciones. Así, una proyección cartográfica es una correspondencia biunívoca entre los puntos de la superficie terrestre y sus transformados en el plano llamado plano de proyección.Este método consiste en establecer una radiación de semirrectas a través de un punto, llamado vértice de proyección; se consigue así una correspondencia entre cada punto interceptado en la esfera y su homólogo en el plano cortado por la misma semirrecta.Las proyecciones tampoco evitan ciertas distorsiones. Según como se proyecten, pueden afectar a la forma, al área, a las distancias o a los ángulos de los elementos representados Aquí surge otro aspecto importante de la cartografía: decidir qué proyección se va a utilizar para minimizar esas distorsiones.Las proyecciones admiten diversas clasificaciones dependiendo de sus cualidades, fundamentos y propiedades:En el paso de la esfera al plano resultará imposible conservar simultáneamente las propiedades geométricas: ángulos, superficies y distancias se verán distorsionadas. Las proyecciones cartográficas se pueden clasificar en función de la cualidad que conserven: a.-Proyecciones Conformes. Una proyección cartográfica es conforme cuando mantiene los ángulos que forman dos líneas en la superficie terrestre. Este tipo de proyecciones se utilizan en cartas de navegación.b.-Proyecciones Equivalentes. Una proyección cartográfica es equivalente cuando en el mapa se conservan las superficies del terreno, aunque las figuras dejen de ser semejantes. Se utilizan generalmente en mapas temáticos o parcelarios.c.-Proyecciones Equidistantes. Una proyección cartográfica es equidistante cuando mantiene las distancias entre dos puntos situados en la superficie terrestre (distancia representada por el arco de círculo máximo que las une). Por ejemplo, la distancia real de un vuelo MiamiCalcuta será igual a la equivalente que puede medirse directamente en un mapa creado con una proyección de tipo equidistante.d.-Proyecciones Afilácticas. Una proyección cartográfica es afiláctica cuando no conserva ángulos, superficies ni distancias, pero las deformaciones son mínimas. En conclusión, se debe seleccionar el tipo de proyección según el propósito del mapa. Si por ejemplo se requiere el cálculo y comparación de superficies, será necesario utilizar proyecciones de tipo equivalente. Si, por el contrario, el objetivo del mapa es simplemente ubicar los países del mundo, y no se requiere rigor en las mediciones de áreas, pueden utilizarse las proyecciones conformes.Las proyecciones se pueden clasificar según posición del plano tangente a la esfera El punto de tangencia puede ser cualquier punto de la superficie de la esfera.a.-Proyecciones polares o ecuatoriales. Las proyecciones polares también reciben el nombre de ecuatoriales, por ser su plano paralelo al del ecuador, y por tanto perpendicular al eje de la Tierra. Los meridianos se representan por rectas concurrentes al centro de proyección (localizado en cualquiera de los polos) y conservando el valor de sus ángulos. En consecuencia, la escala de representación varía con la latitud.b.-Proyecciones meridianas o transversas. Las proyecciones meridianas o transversas, al ser el punto de tangencia el punto de corte de cualquier meridiano con el ecuador. En este tipo de proyecciones, los paralelos y los meridianos se representan mediante curvas transcendentes.c.-Proyecciones oblicuas u horizontales. Las proyecciones oblicuas se denominan también horizontales, por ser paralelas al horizonte de un lugar. El punto de tangencia está situado en un punto cualquiera que no se encuentre en el ecuador ni en ninguno de los polos. En esta proyección, los paralelos quedan representados como curvas cónicas tales como parábolas, elipses e hipérbolas.También se pueden clasificar en función de la figura sobre la cual se proyecta: las que utilizan el plano o las que se desarrollan a través de una figura geométrica (cono o cilindro).a.-Proyecciones cónicas. Utilizan el cono como figura de proyección, tangente o secante a la esfera. El eje del cono coincide con la línea de los polos, estableciendo análogamente entre los puntos de la esfera y el cono una correspondencia biunívoca. Al desarrollar el cono, se obtiene una representación en la que los meridianos aparecen como rectas concurrentes al vértice del cono y forman ángulos iguales entre sí, mientras que los paralelos son circunferencias concéntricas cuyo centro es el vértice del cono. Son ejemplos las proyecciones de Lambert y Bonne.b.-Proyecciones cilíndricas. Utilizan el cilindro como figura de proyección, tangente o secante a la esfera. El eje del cilindro coincide con la línea de los polos, estableciendo análogamente entre los puntos de la esfera y el cilindro una correspondencia biunívoca. Al desarrollar el cilindro, se obtiene una representación en la que los meridianos estarán representados por rectas paralelas equidistantes, y los paralelos por rectas perpendiculares a las anteriores que se van espaciando a medida que aumenta la latitud. Ejemplos de esta proyección son la de Mercator y la UTM (Universal Transversa de Mercator).Otro grupo importante de proyecciones lo constituyen las diseñadas para poder representar la totalidad de la superficie terrestre sin incurrir en deformaciones excesivas, permitiendo representar fenómenos geográficos globales.Son proyecciones que representan la superficie terrestre en su totalidad sin deformaciones excesivas. Algunos ejemplos característicos de este tipo de proyecciones son los siguientes:a.-Proyección Sinusoidal. Los paralelos son rectas horizontales equidistantes, el meridiano central es una recta perpendicular a ellas y los restantes meridianos son curvas. En esta proyección sólo son verdaderas las distancias a lo largo de todas las latitudes y el meridiano central. Es una proyección equivalente (conserva las áreas). Se utiliza para representaciones donde las relaciones de latitud son significativas, al estar los paralelos uniformemente espaciados.b.-Proyección de Mollweide. El ecuador tiene doble longitud que el meridiano central y está dividido en partes iguales que marcan los pasos de los meridianos, que quedan representados por elipses. Los paralelos se representan por rectas horizontales paralelas al ecuador y su separación queda determinada por la condición de que las áreas de las franjas entre paralelos sean semejantes en la superficie terrestre. Por ello esta proyección es equivalente, es decir, conserva las áreas. Se utiliza para distribuciones mundiales cuando el interés se concentra en latitudes medias.c.-Proyección de Goode Es una proyección discontinua en la que la Tierra se representa en partes irregulares unidas; de esta forma se mantiene la sensación de esfera y se consigue una distorsión mínima de las zonas continentales, pero con huecos en las superficies oceánicas. Es útil para la representación de datos en el mundo ya que su área es igual a la real. Se utiliza en los mapas de distribución de productos.La relación existente entre las distancias medidas en un plano o mapa y las correspondientes en la realidad se denomina escala. Por tanto, la escala es una proporción entre dos magnitudes lineales, independientemente del sistema de unidades de longitud que se utilice. En general, los mapas, cualesquiera que sean sus características, están dibujados a una escala determinada que permite efectuar medidas y conocer la distancia exacta entre los diferentes puntos del terreno.La escala puede expresarse de tres formas distintas: numérica, gráfica y textual o literal. Cualquiera de estas formas (o su combinación) es suficiente para conocer inequívocamente la relación entre las dimensiones reales y las medidas en el plano o mapa.a.-Escala numérica. La escala numérica se expresa mediante una fracción que indica la relación entre la distancia medida de dos puntos en el mapa (numerador) y la correspondiente en el terreno (denominador) de modo directo entre unidades del sistema; así la es-cala 1:60.000.000 o 1/60.000.000 indica que una unidad medida en el mapa equivale a 60 millones de unidades medidas en la realidad.b.-Escala gráfica. La escala gráfica es una línea situada en el mapa, a menudo en el margen de la hoja, que se ha subdividido en segmentos para indicar las longitudes sobre el mapa de las unidades terrestres de distancia. Gracias a este elemento, es posible medir la distancia real directamente sobre el mapa con la ayuda de una regla o un compás.c.-Escala textual. La escala textual se expresa, claramente, mediante una relación escrita y literal. Por ejemplo, en el caso ilustrado sería: \"un centímetro representa 600 kilómetros\".convencional gráfica de fenómenos concretos o abstractos, localizados en la Tierra o en cualquier parte del Universo\". De forma general, los mapas se pueden clasificar desde dos puntos de vista Según la escala de trabajo a.-Mapas de pequeña escala. Son los mapas que representan amplias zonas de la superficie terrestre, por lo que es imprescindible tener en cuenta la esfericidad de la Tierra. En estos mapas el nivel de detalle es pequeño. Se suelen denominar mapas de pequeña escala aquéllos cuya escala es menor de 1:100.000. Algunos ejemplos de este tipo de mapas son los que representan países, continentes, hemisferios, etc.b.-Mapas de gran escala. Son los que representan pequeñas zonas de la Tierra. En estos mapas el detalle de los elementos cartografiados es mayor. Se suelen llamar mapas de gran escala aquéllos de escala mayor de 1:10.000. Se denominan planos a partir de 1:2.000, al no considerar la esfericidad de la Tierra.a.-Mapas topográficos. Un mapa topográfico o de propósito general es el que representa gráficamente los principales elementos que conforman la superficie terrestre, como vías de comunicación, entidades de población, hidrografía, relieve, con una precisión adecuada a la escala. Históricamente, los mapas topográficos o de propósito general fueron el objetivo de la cartografía hasta mediados del siglo XVIII; ya que el estudio de geógrafos y cartógrafos se centró en el conocimiento geográfico del mundo.b.-Mapas temáticos: Un mapa temático o de propósito particular es aquel cuyo objetivo es localizar características o fenómenos particulares. El contenido puede abarcar diversos aspectos: desde información histórica, política o económica, hasta fenómenos naturales.Los elementos imprescindibles que deben aparecer en todos los mapas son: la escala utilizada y la leyenda. Con la escala se consigue aclarar la relación métrica entre el mapa y la realidad que representa, mientras que con la leyenda (signos convencionales) se facilita al usuario la interpretación correcta de los símbolos que aparecen en el mapa. Sin embargo, se pueden añadir otros elementos y otros datos en los márgenes del mapa. Se mencionan algunos a continuación: a.-Situación, divisiones administrativas y términos municipales. Se puede agregar información de los elementos colindantes y ubicación general del área mapeada, de igual forma gráfico de divisiones administrativas y lista de términos municipales.b.-Proyección y elipsoide. En el margen inferior de la hoja usualmente se añaden los datos de escala, la proyección, el sistema de coordenadas, el elipsoide de referencia y el sistema de altitudes. [1] Escala numérica y gráfica del mapa. [2] Elipsoide de referencia, proyección, dátum geodésico, sistema de coordenadas, sistema de altitudes y equidistancia de curvas de nivel. [3] Gráfico de convergencia de meridianos y datos de declinación magnética para el centro de la hoja y su variación anual.c.-Portada del mapa. Alrededor del mapa se sitúa un marco de coordenadas, y sobre el mapa aparece dibujada una cuadrícula. [1] Marco de referencia: con coordenadas geográficas dividido en espacios de 10'' (varía según escala), y tiene como referencia las coordenadas geográficas de las cuatro esquinas. [2] Cuadrícula de líneas horizontales y verticales, dibujadas con una separación de 2 cm (equivalente a un kilómetro en el terreno). El marco y la cuadrícula de referencia permiten extraer las coordenadas de cualquier punto del mapa.d.-Leyenda. Se refiere a la lista explicativa que define con detalle y sin lugar a equívoco todos los signos convencionales utilizados en el mapa. La leyenda se divide en tres columnas: [1] Lista de elementos lineales como carreteras, ferrocarriles, límites, construcciones, etc. [2] Lista de símbolos puntuales (vértice geodésico, cementerio, castillo, pozo, mina etc.). [3] Lista de usos del suelo (monte arbolado, viña, olivar, regadío, etc.).Hoy en día, los seres humanos estamos creando y almacenando información constantemente, y cada vez más en cantidades astronómicas. Ejemplo de esto es la transformación digital de la producción agraria que representa la agricultura de precisión y el Big Data.Esa información podrá ser muy variada, pero toda comparte una cualidad: ocurre en algún lugar. El análisis de la espacialización de toda esa información nos ayuda a ver qué dónde y por qué está sucediendo en nuestro entorno. Al final, nos encontramos con que tenemos una cantidad de datos, ligados a un punto en el espacio, y una gran necesidad por analizar y describir los mismos.Es aquí donde entran los Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG), posibilitando ligar geo -espacialmente todos estos datos, para determinar cómo se relacionan entre sí. Se entiende por SIG, la conjunción de datos relacionados con el espacio físico con herramientas informáticas, es decir, con programas informáticos o software.Así pues, un Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG) es un conjunto de componentes específicos que permiten a los usuarios finales crear consultas, integrar, analizar y representar de una forma eficiente cualquier tipo de información geográfica referenciada asociada a un territorio.La información geográfica va a ser aquella información que tiene algún componente espacial, es decir, una ubicación, además, una información atributiva que nos detalle más sobre ese elemento en cuestión. Esa ubicación se podrá definir con un nombre de una calle, por ejemplo, o con coordenadas espaciales.El uso de este tipo de sistemas facilita la visualización de los datos obtenidos en un mapa con el fin de reflejar y relacionar fenómenos geográficos de cualquier tipo, desde mapas de carreteras hasta sistemas de identificación de parcelas agrícolas o de densidad de población. Además, permiten realizar las consultas y representar los resultados en entornos web y dispositivos móviles de un modo ágil e intuitivo, con el fin de resolver problemas complejos de planificación y gestión, conformándose como un valioso apoyo en la toma de decisiones.En la mayoría de los sectores, los SIG pueden ser utilizados como una herramienta de ayuda a la gestión y toma de decisiones. Algunas de sus aplicaciones más comunes serían las siguientes: Cartografía automatizada, Infraestructura, Gestión territorial, Medio ambiente, Recursos mineros, Ingeniería de Tránsito, Demografía, GeoMarketing, Banca Planimetría, Cartografía Digital 3D, entre otros.El SIG está compuesto por cinco elementos: personas, software, hardware, datos y procedimientos. Todos los elementos son muy importantes y dependen unos de otros para el funcionamiento con éxito del SIG (Figura 2). Aquí es donde entran en juego los experimentados en SIG. Existen muchas tareas dentro de un análisis SIG, las cuales necesitan una amplia gama de conocimientos en el campo SIG. Dentro de los perfiles SIG fundamentales podemos encontrar a los técnicos / analistas y programadores SIG. Además, se incluyen a este grupo los usuarios finales de la información.b.-Hardware Son todos aquellos componentes físicos de informática, y que pueden ser principales y accesorios. Por mencionar algunos tenemos: computadoras (escritorio, laptops, pc pockets, etc), impresoras (comunes y \"plotters\"), aparatos receptores de GPS, redes (LAN e Internet), escáneres, etc. c.-Software Son todos aquellos programas y aplicaciones que sirven para la adquisición, almacenamiento, procesamiento y presentación de la información del sistema. Estos pueden ser servidores de bases de datos, servidores de mapas, herramientas de metadatos, clientes de escritorio y clientes web. El programa de libre acceso QGIA, entra dentro de este componente.Son la materia prima para trabajar con los Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG). Esos datos podrán venir de diferentes fuentes: sensores remotos, GPS, fotografías aéreas, archivos formatos shapefile, archivos CAD, archivos Excel, etc. Esta información geográfica será el punto de partida para empezar a trabajar con los SIG, los cuales nos permitirán analizarla y extraer toda la información posible para plasmarla en un mapa que nos ayude a la interpretación de esa información.Para llevar a cabo las distintas tareas relacionadas con el diseño, creación y funcionamiento de los SIG, se requiere de un cuerpo metodológico específico. Los métodos tienen en última instancia, la finalidad de establecer la estructura de un SIG y, en concordancia con ello, implementar aplicaciones que sustenten la toma de decisiones. La adopción de un buen método determinará el éxito o fracaso del proyecto.El modelo lógico hace referencia a como se muestrean y organizan las variables y objetos para lograr una representación lo más adecuada posible. En un SIG existen básicamente dos modelos lógicos que se conocen como formato ráster y formato vectorial y que dan lugar a los dos grandes tipos de capas de información espacial.En el formato ráster está dividido en una serie de líneas y columnas vertical y horizontal, en las cuales cada elemento de la cuadrícula es llamado \"celda\". Cada celda puede contener un valor que representa un elemento particular del mapa (ej: los tipos de suelo pueden representarse por números, 1, 2, 3, etc.), también, cada celda puede representar un valor de una variable (ej: los niveles de ETo para un área en específica). Los diferentes objetos se representan como puntos, líneas o polígonos. La representación de puntos o líneas es inmediata, sin embargo, la representación de polígonos resulta algo más compleja. Las propiedades espaciales y no espaciales y, en algunos casos, las topologías se almacenan en tablas enlazadas.La elección de un modelo u otro dependerá de si las propiedades topológicas son importantes para el análisis. Sí es así, el modelo de datos vectorial es la mejor opción, aunque el proceso puede verse ralentizado por su estructura de datos compleja. Por ello, si el análisis que nos interesa no requiere acudir a las propiedades topológicas, es mucho más rápido sencillo y eficaz el uso del formato ráster. La siguiente tabla (Tabla 1), muestra las ventajas y desventajas de trabajar con los diferentes modelos lógicos.Tabla 1. Diferencias entre modelos vectoriales y ráster.Desde que se desarrolló formalmente el primer Sistema de Información Geográfico (SIG) a principio de los 60, se ha logrado disponer de un inventario de datos geográfico que han y seguirán siendo indispensables para el análisis y planificación territorial. Los SIG son herramientas versátiles, con un amplio campo de aplicación.Entre el gran espectro de utilidad que proveen los SIG, son de particular interés en el desarrollo de este módulo, aquellos que permiten identificar, cuantificar y analizar las características geográficas y de relieve, dentro del territorio de una microcuenca. Estos diagnósticos de características nos llevaran al desarrollo de planes de ordenamiento territorial certeros.En este sentido, se utilizará el software de código abierto Quantum GIS (QGIS abreviado) creado por Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), para crear y preparar insumos necesarios para correr RIOS (Resource Investment Optimization System por sus siglas en ingles), en el último modulo del diplomado.RIOS es un software para el modelamiento espacial, de libre acceso, desarrollado por Nature Capital Project. Apoya en el diseño de inversiones rentables en servicios de cuencas hidrográficas, proporcionando un enfoque estandarizado y basado en la ciencia, para el manejo de cuencas hidrográficas, en cualquier escala y lugar del mundo.Combina datos biofísicos, sociales y económicos para ayudar a los usuarios a identificar las mejores ubicaciones para actividades de protección y restauración, para maximizar el retorno ecológico de la inversión, dentro de los límites de lo que es social y políticamente factible.Son precisamente estos requerimientos de datos, los que trabajaremos con la ayuda de QGIS. Siendo más específicos, las capas raster que trabajaremos serán las siguientes: 1) Mapa de uso de la tierra, 2) Mapa de elevación, 3) Mapa de erosividad de lluvia, 4) Mapa de erodabilidad de suelo, 5) Mapa de profundidad del suelo, 6) Mapa de precipitación del mes más húmedo, 7) Mapa de índice de textura de suelo, 8) Mapa de precipitación anual media, 9) Mapa de evapotranspiración, 10) Mapa de zonas de recarga, y 11) Ubicación de beneficiarios.El propósito principal del presente manual es el de mostrar los procedimientos para la creación de las diferentes capaz que RIOS ocupa para generar el mapa de inversiones. Adicionalmente, se mostrará el entorno de la herramienta QGIS y algunas de sus funciones básicas.Una vez instalado y ejecutado el programa, podremos identificar cinco secciones o grupos de elementos (Figura 5). La conjugación de todos estos ítems, es lo que conforman el entorno principal de QGIS.Hos Ad nictum inatur ignos cendactorare es te popotistore ia Es obligatorio conocer cada uno de estos ítems, puesto que contiene elementos o herramientas que nos serán de utilidad en todo el curso. Se procederá a explicar cada uno de estos ítems en el orden presentado en la figura de arriba. Al \"Menú principal\" lo componen doce elementos. Se dará una breve descripción de cada uno de ellos.Proyecto: Desde acá podremos crear (Nuevo), cargar (Open) y guardar (Guardar y Save as) nuestros proyectos. De igual forma, encontraremos las opciones de Propierties, para editar información del proyecto y el sistema de coordenadas usado; cambiar la presentación de las figuras (shapefiles); consultar la tabla de atributos de nuestras capas implementar macros, entre otras. Se incorporan las funciones de New Print Layout para crear mapas con el diseñador de impresión; y New Report , para generar reportes. Para mayor información de estos últimos, puede dirigirse a los links siguientes: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJWrSmOUPWw y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NIq2yuqC2I respectivamente.Edición: En este elemento del menú principal, encontraremos todas las opciones para edición de capas vectoriales. Podemos mencionar: Añadir polígono, para añadir un nuevo polígono a nuestra capa; Mover objetos espaciales, para desplazar nuestro objeto a otro punto del espacio; Añadir anillo, para cortar un segmento dentro de un polígono; Rellenar anillo, para hacer un crear un polígono del anillo creado; Remodelar objetos espaciales, para cambiar la forma del objeto en edición; Dividir partes, para cortar nuestra capa vectorial, etc. Para más información, consulte el siguiente video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=200SfBIqA_EVer: Acá están organizadas todas las herramientas para el desplazamiento, acercamiento y consulta de las capas que se visualizan en nuestra \"Pantalla de Datos\". Entre las herramientas mencionamos: Desplazar mapa, para desplazarnos sobre nuestro mapa; Acercar zoom y Alejar zoom, para cambiar la extensión de nuestro mapa; Zoom a la selección Mostrar marcadores, para mostrar todos los marcadores (puntos) creados en nuestro mapa; Mostrar todas las capas y Ocultar todas las capas, para activar y desactivar capas; por último la opción Paneles, permite adicionar o remover paneles que tienen diferentes funciones, por ello, es recomendable que el usuario se familiarice con ellos.Capa: Dentro de este menú encontraremos herramientas que nos asistirán en el proceso de edición de las capas. Se consideran esenciales las siguientes: Administrador de fuentes de datos, permite guardar un directorio origen o conexiones de servidores, para todos los tipos de archivos (capas) que podemos trabajar en QGIS; Crear capa, empezar desde cero un archivo tipo vectorial (punto, línea, polígono), Añadir capa, añadir capas de cualquier tipo, desde directorios o servidores conocidos; Copiar estilo, y Pegar estilo, copian y aplican el formato (color, etiquetas, rango de datos, etc) de una capa, a otra del mismo tipo; Abrir tabla de atributos, útil para visualizar los atributos tabulares de nuestra capa; Conmutar edición, con esta opción iniciaremos el proceso de edición en los archivos vectoriales. Iniciar edición habilitará muchas otras opciones en el menú de \"Capa\" y \"Edición\". Guardar cambios en la capa, salva los cambios efectuados en la capa editada, de no aplicar esta opción a la edición, los cambios desaparecerán; Duplicar capa, duplica la capa seleccionada; y, Etiquetado, permite mostrar etiquetas en nuestras figuras, en dependencia del campo (en la tabla de atributos) que se quiera representar.Configuración: este espacio contiene elementos para la personalización del entorno de QGIS. Administrador de estilos, con esta opción diseñaremos un formato de presentación para nos archivos vectoriales; Proyecciones personalizadas, podremos crear o anexar un sistema de coordenadas que atienda a nuestras necesidades particulares; Atajos de teclado, nos posibilita crear combinaciones en el teclado que nos lleven a funciones específicas en el programa; Personalización de la interfaz, con esta alternativa podremos personalizar algunas características de nuestra interfaz; Opciones, encontraremos muchas opciones de configuración, se aconseja al usuario indagar en este último. Puede consultar el siguiente video para más detalle de esta última: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=srnbvIByYnU.Complementos: dentro del menú, encontramos dos opciones: Administrar e instalar complementos, desde acá podremos instalar complementos disponibles para QGIS, y Consola de Python, para usar comandos en código Phyton, para agilizar la interacción con objetos (capas, herramienta e interfaz).Vectorial: en este menú, encontraremos todas las herramientas de procesamiento de vectores. Los grupos principales de herramientas son: Herramientas de geoproceso, contiene todas aquellas que involucran una relación geoespacial de los elementos cada capa o entre diferentes capas; Herramientas de geometría, dentro de esta categoría, encontramos aquellos procesos que involucran atributos geométricos; Herramientas de análisis, contiene herramientas para el análisis estadístico -logarítmico de vectores; Herramientas de gestión de datos, esta categoría contiene la herramienta de re -proyección de sistema de coordenadas, al igual que otras opciones para dividir o adicionar características de nuestras capas; por último, encontramos el grupo de Herramientas de investigación presentando procesos que están muy ligados al ámbito científico, ejemplo de estas son: creación de una malla de puntos, selección de puntos al azar, crear puntos aleatorios dentro un polígono, entre otras.Raster: este menú contiene las principales herramientas para el procesamiento de ráster, disponibles en QGIS. Encontraremos diferentes categorías: Análisis, dentro de este grupo estarán los procesos que involucran el análisis en el contenido (valor) de las celdas; Proyecciones, encontraremos las opciones de proyección y cambiar proyección, en rásters; Miscelánea, algunas opciones para la construcción de rásters y presentación de datos; Extracción, presenta herramientas para el corte de rásters; Conversión, como el nombre de la categoría indica, desde acá se puede convertir el formato ráster, a otros formatos. Por último, pero no menos importante, dentro de este menú se pone a disposición Calculadora raster, herramienta que sirve para efectuar cálculos simples o complejos en los valores de cada raster, o entre ellos.Base de datos: a este menú lo compone un elemento: DB Manager, está destinado a ser la herramienta principal para integrar y administrar formatos de bases de datos espaciales compatibles con QGIS (PostGIS, SpatiaLite, Geopackage, Oracle Spatial, capas virtuales) en una interfaz de usuario. Permite arrastrar capas desde el navegador QGIS al administrador de bases de datos, e importará su capa a su base de datos espacial. Puede arrastrar y soltar tablas entre bases de datos espaciales y se importarán.Web: este menú contiene el plug -in de MetaSearch, su función principal es la de interactuar con información dispuesta en catálogos web, también, se pueden acceder a servicios de apoyo en el manejo de estos metadatos.Procesos: dentro de este menú, están dispuestas las alternativas de: Caja de herramientas, que muestra el panel de todas las herramientas disponibles en QGIS; Graphical Modeler, permite crear modelos complejos (cadena de operaciones) utilizando una interfaz simple y fácil de usar; History, y Visor de resultados, este último nos permitirá ver cómo fueron ejecutados los procesos.Help: es el último elemento de menú. Encontramos las siguientes funciones: Contenidos de la ayuda, esta función nos llevará directamente a la guía de usuario de QGIS, dispuesta en línea; Documentación de la API; nos introduce a los espacios de colaboración (códigos, informes de errores, documentación, soporte técnico, listas correos y foros) Informar de un problema; para reportar errores en el programa; ¿Necesita soporte comercial? presenta algunas opciones de servicios comerciales, brindados por compañías ligadas al software; Página web de QGIS; nos direcciona a la página principal de QGIS; Comprobando versión de QGIS; busca nuevas versiones de QGIS, y actualiza de acceder; Acerca de: muestra las características del programa, entre otra información; y, Patrocinadores de QGIS, información de los donantes y como ser parte de ellos.En el segundo grupo de elementos se incluyen la mayoría las herramientas del \"Menú principal\" (Figura 5 arriba), por ende, el grupo de \"Barras de herramientas\" no es más que la organización en accesos rápidos de las herramientas más usadas en QGIS.A continuación, se describe muy brevemente el contenido de los grupos en la barra de herramienta. En algunos subgrupos de este conjunto de elementos, se presentan funciones nuevas, para las cuales se dará una breve explicación. Se referirá a estos elementos de la misma forma que son referidos en QGIS.• Barra de herramientas del proyecto: Éste subgrupo integra herramientas del menú Proyecto.• Navegación de mapas: compuesto por las herramientas de desplazamiento y zoom localizadas en el menú Ver.• Atributos: este subgrupo presenta alternativas propias al menú Capa y Procesos. Adicionalmente, encontraremos las opciones siguientes: Identificación, muestra los atributos tabulares del elemento seleccionado; Duplicar objeto, como su nombre lo indica, duplica el elemento seleccionado; Seleccionar objeto Seleccionar objeto por atributos y Cancelar seleccionar, son herramientas de selección; Calculadora de campos, para crear y calcular el contenido de un nuevo campo en la tabla de atributos; Mostrar resumen estadístico, realiza análisis descriptivo de cada campo de la tabla de atributos; Medir línea, nos permite hacer mediciones lineares, de área y de ángulo en nuestras figuras; Avisos del mapa y Anotaciones del texto, esta última para incluir anotaciones en nuestro mapa.• Barra de herramientas del administrador de fuentes de datos: el subgrupo está construido por las opciones de Crear capa, en el menú CAPA.• Digitalización: lo conformar en su mayoría herramientas del menú EDICIÓN. Adicionalmente, encontramos Ediciones actuales, para guardar o revertir ediciones en las capas trabajadas y Conmutar edición, para iniciar trabajos de edición en la capa seleccionada.• Etiquetas: el siguiente subgrupo nos muestra opciones adicionales para el etiquetado y diagramado de nuestras capas.• MetaSearch, Consola Phyton y Contenidos de ayuda: el último subgrupo lo componen elementos del menú de WEB, COMPLE-MENTOS y AYUDA respectivamente.Los grupos de herramientas contenidos en nuestra \"Barra de Herramientas\", pueden activarse o desactivarse dando clic derecho sobre algún espacio vacío de nuestro menú. De igual manera, se podrán adicionar más paneles en nuestro espacio disponible. (Figura 6) Figura 6. Paneles y grupos de herramientas.El \"Panel navegador\" (Figura 7), crea conexiones a todos los tipos de fuentes de datos que se pueden utilizar en QGIS, principalmente a Bases de Datos Relacionales. También, podremos consultar las propiedades de ciertos elementos (metadatos), y crear bases de datos con algunas alternativas. El panel se encuentra al lado izquierdo de nuestra pantalla.Las fuentes de datos se describen a continuación:• Directorios: tendremos conexiones establecidas a todos los directorios de nuestro computador. Podremos llamar cualquier capa (compatible con QGIS) de nuestro ordenador hacia nuestros proyectos. Al dar clic derecho a cualquiera de los archivos, podremos acceder a su metadata y hasta eliminarlo.• GeoPackage: es la alternativa más moderna del shapefile. Desde el panel podremos crear un archivo con formato .gpkg* (GeoPackage) o definir el directorio de trabajo que los contenga. Este tipo de archivos es ideal para transferir información, por ser compactos y compatibles con otros softwares. Consulte para más información: https://mappinggis. com/2019/06/como-crear-e-importardatos-a-un-geopackage-con-qgis/.• SpatialLite: es un formato de archivo ligero, suportado por QGIS, que almacena una base de datos espacial. Desde esta opción se pueden crear un archivo.db* (data base), y hacer conexiones a otros ya creados. Para más información consultar: https://docs.qgis.org/2.8/es/ docs/training_manual/databases/spatialite.html.• PostGIS: es una extensión que convierte el sistema de base de datos PostgreSQL en una base de datos espacial.PostgreSQL es un sistema de base de datos relacionales bastante popular en la actualidad. Para más información consulte: https://mappinggis.com/2012/09/ como-conectar-qgis-a-postgis/.• MSSQL: es un sistema de gestión de base de datos relacionales desarrollado por Microsoft. Desde acá se establecen conexiones a servidores SQL, para acceder a las bases de datos almacenadas. Consulte el siguiente link para información adicional https://freegistutorial.com/ how-to-open-ms-sql-server-spatial-table-on-qgis/.• Oracle: esta opción es útil para conectar QGIS al espacio de Oracle, para visualizar y procesar datos. https://www. igismap.com/connect-qgis-oracle-spatial-quantum-gis/.• DB2: un espacio de base de datos relacionables desarrollado por IBM. Permite al usuario almacenar y diseñar información espacial en tablas relacionables. Suporta gran variedad de operaciones de visualización, análisis y manipulación de bases de datos espaciales. • XYZ Tiles: esta opción es útil para añadir mapas base desde el servidor de Open-StreetMap. Para indagar en el tema, puede consultar el siguiente link: https:// mappinggis.com/2018/03/como-anadir-mapas-base-en-qgis-3-0-openstreetmap-google-carto-stamen/.• WCS y WFS : QGIS nos permite cargar servicios web de datos espaciales bajo los estándares WFS y WCS. Dichos servicios son invocados por medio de una cadena de caracteres URL desde un cliente recogiendo la información devuelta por un servidor. WCS, para coberturas Raster y WFS para coberturas vectoriales. Información adicional en el siguiente link. https://www.cursosgis.com/cargar-servicios-wfs-y-wcs-en-qgis/. El \"Panel capas\", es el espacio donde se desplegarán las capas que hayamos anexado a nuestro proyecto de QGIS (Figura 8). También, podremos visualizar algunas herramientas dispuestas en la parte de arriba de nuestro panel. El \"Panel capas\", es el espacio donde se desplegarán las capas que hayamos anexado a nuestro proyecto de QGIS (Figura 8). También, podremos visualizar algunas herramientas dispuestas en la parte de arriba de nuestro panel.De izquierda a derecha, las herramientas son: panel Estilos de capa, posibilita cambiar la presentación de nuestra capa (color y etiquetado); Añadir grupo, útil cuando queramos conformar grupo para mejorar la organización de las capas; Administrar temas de mapas, muestra algunas opciones de nuestro menú Ver, encima, podremos diseñar mapas con información prominente distinta, a través de la opción Add Theme.Continuando con las herramientas, le siguen en orden Filtrar leyenda por contenido de mapa, Filtrar leyenda por expresión, Expandir todo y Comprimir todo, para expandir o contraer la leyenda de la capa; por último, Eliminar capa/grupo, para desaparecer una capa o grupos de capas, de nuestro \"Panel de capas\".El quinto y último grupo del entorno QGIS. Es en este espacio donde la información geoespacial de las capas, será desplegada. De igual forma, es acá donde las características ligadas a la capa se visualizarán (etiquetas, marcadores, comentarios, colores, ediciones, etc).En la parte inferior de la \"Pantalla de datos\", encontraremos algunos ítems que brindaran información espacial de nuestro despliegue de datos (Figura 9). Comenzando desde la izquierda superior, tenemos el elemento de \"Coordenada\", mostrando la coordenada del puntero sobre el espacio del \"Data Frame\"; el valor de coordenada presentada acá, será el mismo que el de la primera capa ingresada. Le sigue el elemento de \"Escala\", muestra la escala de reducción en la que las capas son presentadas; \"Amplificador\", hace acerca o aleja nuestro mapa, sin alterar nuestra escala; \"Rotación\", aplica un ángulo de inclinación a nuestro mapa; \"Representar\", desmarcar esta opción ocasionará que el mapa deje de renderizarse, es decir, que no actualice el detalle a medida que disminuimos o aumentamos la escala; Propiedades del proyecto, este botón nos lleva a las propiedades de proyecto; Mensajes de registro, al usar esta opción, nos aparecerá un panel que contendrá el registro de actividades o mensajes recibidos por el software.De esta manera habremos concluido la introducción al entorno general de QGIS. Seguidamente, ilustraremos los pasos e introduciremos a las herramientas específicas a usarse en la creación de las capas insumos a utilizar en la herramienta de RIOS, planeada para el siguiente módulo.Este ejercicio lo vamos a realizar haciendo un mapa de tipos de uso del suelo o cobertura vegetal a través de una imagen de satélite. Para iniciar descargaremos el plugIn de QuickMapServices. Hacemos esto desde el menú Complementos-Añadir e instalar complementos. Este plugIn permite cargar imágenes satelitales renderizables.Bajo la pestaña de Todos, ubicar y seleccionar QuickMap-Services, para después dar clic en el botón de Instalar complemento. Una vez instalado, podemos cerrar la ventana.El recién instalado complemento se añadirá a la \"Barra de herramientas\" con el siguiente icono . Al desplegar el elemento, encontraremos la opción de Settings casi al final de la lista. Damos clic en la alternativa mencionada. Una vez dentro de la ventana de \"QuickMapServices Settings\", nos posicionaremos sobre la pestaña More services, daremos clic sobre la opción Get contributed pack, y una vez que aparezca el mensaje de confirmación de la descarga, daremos clic sobre el botón Guardar (Figura 11).Al desplegar nuevamente el elemento de QuickMapServices, se listarán muchas más opciones que antes. En este caso, el servicio que utilizaremos para cargar nuestro mapa base, es Bing. Desde acá marcaremos la alternativa de Bing Satellite, lo que agregará una capa de mapa base satelital, a nuestro \"Panel de capas\".Figura 11. Ventana de QuickMapServices.En la barra de herramientas nos vamos a Web, se nos despliega una ventana y escogemos la opción QuickMapServices. Se desplegarán más de 29 opciones de imágenes y mapas disponibles desde la web. Para este ejercicio usaremos la opción Bing y dentro de esta escogeremos Bing Satellite (Figura 12). Bing contiene el servicio de representación cartográfica en la Web de imágenes aéreas Bing Maps, que ofrece imágenes de satélite y aéreas ortofotográficas de todo el mundo. La cobertura varía en función de la región, siendo la cobertura más completa en Estados Unidos y Reino Unido. La cobertura en distintas áreas de un país también varía ligeramente en función de la disponibilidad de imágenes para esa región. Bing Maps añade continuamente imágenes en nuevas áreas y actualiza la cobertura en áreas de cobertura existente.El mapa satelital de Bing se desplegará en el visor de mapas (Figura 13).Figura 13. Mapa Satelital.Usando la herramienta del zoom ubicamos la zona donde vamos trabajar (Figura 14).Figura 14. Acercamiento con la herramienta zoom.Una manera más fácil para ubicar nuestra zona de estudio es haciendo uso de un mapa básico que podemos encontrar en Bing Map (Figura 15). Otra opción viable es usar la capa de Departamentos de Guatemala que descargamos de la página web de la Secretaría de Planificación y Programación de la Presidencia del Gobierno de Guatemala (Figura 16). Disponible en el siguiente link: http://www.segeplan. gob.gt/nportal/index.php/ide-descargas. Escogeremos un zoom apropiado para el trabajo a realizar. Esto debe de permitirnos distinguir bien los elementos a digitalizar. En lo personal para digitalizar cobertura vegetal o uso actual de la tierra, la Escala 1:5,000 es bastante buena para visualizar y distinguir cada tipo de uso (Figura 17).  Ahora aparece en la lista de capas nuestra nueva capa Usos_Cunori (Figura 20).Para dibujar los nuevos polígonos vamos a usar el botón , al activarlo, aparecerán nuevos botones como el de Crear polígonos.Figura 20. Panel de capas con la nueva capa shape creada.Damos Aceptar y ya tendremos un nuevo campo.Procedemos a dibujar los polígonos, en el caso de la Figura 21 se digitalizaron las edificaciones de CUNORI. Para terminar un polígono presionamos clic derecho, al cerrarlo saldrá el siguiente formulario:Figura 21. Digitalización de polígonos.Procedemos a llenarlo, poniendo en Id el número 1 y en Tipo_uso Edificio, dejando vacío el campo de \"Area\". De la misma forma procedemos a dibujar más polígonos (Figura 22).Figura 22. Agregando nuevos poligonos de edificios.Luego, nos dirigimos a la tabla de atributos.Como podemos observar solo el campo de \"Area\" aparece vacío. Lo calcularemos dando clic en el ábaco que aparece en la tabla de atributos (Figura 23).Figura 23. Herramienta para calcular áreas.Debido a que ya tenemos creado el campo de \"Area\", desmarcamos el cuadro de \"Crear un campo nuevo\", y marcamos el check en \"Actualizar campo existente\" quedando algo así (Figura 24):Figura 24. Ventana de la calculadora de campos.En la lista que aparece al centro buscamos \"Geometry\". Desplegamos y localizamos \"$area\" dando doble clic sobre ella hasta que aparezca en el recuadro blanco de la izquierda y hasta entonces damos Aceptar (Figura 25).Figura 25. Actualizando campo existente para calcular el area.Al terminar el proceso anterior, podremos observar que aparece el cálculo de área en metros cuadrados en el campo \"Area\" (Figura 26).Figura 26. Áreas calculadas de los edificios.Digitalización avanzada es un complemento que integra diferentes herramientas muy útiles que se utilizan durante las sesiones de \"digitalización\" y que no encontramos en las herramientas básicas de \"QGIS\", sobre todo cuando digitalizamos sobre entidades ya existentes. Podemos acceder a estas navegando a través de la barra de menú Ver > Barra de herramientas > digitalización avanzada (Figura 27).Figura 27. Activando las herramientas de digitalización avanzada.Al activar este set de herramientas se anclará a nuestro menú principal la barra de Digitalización avanzada (Figura 28).Figura 28. Conjunto de herramientas disponibles para digitalización.La función de cada herramienta se muestra a continuación:Figura 29. Descripción de funciones de cada herramienta de digitalización.En el ejercicio que se está realizando, la cancha deportiva se digitalizó junto al edificio de aulas. Ahora practicaremos a sepáralos para tener dos polígonos en lugar de uno solo. Para esto utilizaremos la herramienta de Dividir objetos espaciales.Primero habrá que seleccionar el polígono a dividir, después activamos el botón indicado y ubicaremos el cursor fuera del poligono dando click izquierdo, atravesamos el poligono de lado a lado y cerramos con un click derecho. El resultado se verá así (Figura 30):Figura 30. Dividiendo polígonos.Ahora la tabla de atributos presenta 3 objetos o polígonos (Figura 31).Nótese que el polígono dividido sigue teniendo la misma área a pesar de que se separó.Figura 31. Áreas de los nuevos polígonos sin actualizar.Hay que recalcular el área de los polígonos. Procedemos a abrir proceso de edición y a recalcular las áreas. Primero seleccionamos el polígono a editar (Figura 32).Figura 32. Seleccionando poligono a editar.Nuevamente abrimos la tabla de atributo y cambiamos el tipo de uso (Tipo_uso) de Edificio a Cancha (Figura 33).Figura 33. Edición de campo de Tipo de uso.Luego recalculamos el campo \"Area\" usando nuevamente el ábaco. Hay que tomar en cuenta no actualizar solo un objeto espacial seleccionado, así que quitamos el check de esta opción. Esto es porque al polígono original le vamos a calcular su nueva área después de la extracción y lo mismo aplica para el nuevo polígono de cancha (Figura 34).Figura 34. Recalculando campo de Áreas.El resultado con las nuevas áreas corregidas, se verá de la Figura 35:Figura 35. Áreas corregidas de polígonos.Otro detalle es que los edificios no están techados en la parte central. Si quisiéramos excluir la parte sin techo de nuestro polígono, primero tendremos que entrar en las Propiedades -Simbología (Figura 36) de la capa Usos_Cunori y poner transparente el polígono. Por tal fin, escogemos el símbolo de outline blue.Figura 36. Cambiando las propiedades (color) de los polígonos.Lo siguiente que tenemos que hacer es un corte usando la opción Añadir anillo. Activamos Añadir anillo y digitalizamos el área sin techo de ambos edificios (Figura 37).Figura 37. Añadir anillo. Función para extraer áreas dentro de polígonos.Además, en la parte frontal del edificio hay una entrada que debemos de eliminar para tener un área más exacta. con la herramienta Remodelar hacemos un polígono iniciando en la parte exterior, marcamos los vértices dentro del polígono del edificio y para finalizar le damos botón derecho en la parte exterior. El resultado se verá así (Figura 38):Figura 38. Remodelar. Función para extraer áreas exteriores de polígonos.Ahora toca recalcular el área. Vamos a la tabla de atributos y con el ábaco repetimos la operación de calcular área, quedando de la siguiente manera (Figura 39):Figura 39. Nuevas áreas de polígonos corregidos.Podemos practicar más, digitalizando los usos de suelo de los alrededores de CUNORI (Figura 40).Figura 40. Imagen satelital de campos agrícolas alrededor de CUNORIEsta sección está destinada únicamente a mostrar los pasos y herramientas necesarias para la preparación de las capas ráster a utilizarse en el modelo hidrológico RIOS.Es importante quedar claros con algunos detalles obligatorios:Todos los insumos se requieren en el modelo lógico ráster. Se trabajará con el formato estándar .TIFF* (GeoTIFF), seleccionado por su versatilidad y capacidad de resolución.Todas las capas ráster generadas tendrán la misma resolución. Cada celda de ráster tendrá 100 metros en cada uno de sus lados.Descargar y leer el manual de RIOS elaborado por los desarrolladores de la herramienta. Sirve como una guía teórica, en donde se describen detalladamente los insumos necesarios y la mecánica de cálculo dentro del programa.http://data.naturalcapitalproject.org/rios_releases/RIOSGuide_Com-bined_May2016_Espanol.pdf.Se trabajará con el mismo sistema de coordenadas. Todos los ráster deben usar el sistema de coordenadas asociado a Guatemala Transversa Mercator (GTM), para garantizar la compatibilidad de las capas y así evitar errores en la modelación con RIOS.Para trabajar con un Sistema de coordenadas definido por el usuario habrá que dirigirnos al menú Configuración -Proyecciones personalizadas.El nuevo Sistema de Referencia que añadiremos será el GTM (Guatemal Transversa Mercator). Los parámetros de este sistema están disponibles gracias al Sistema Nacional de Información Territorial (SINIT) a través del link https://spatialreference.org/ref/srorg/6866/.Estos parámetros únicos del sistema GTM son las que ingresaremos en la ventana \"Definición de sistema de referencia de coordenadas personalizado\". Configuraremos las siguientes opciones:Primero agregaremos un nuevo sistema de referencia con ayuda del botón Añadir nuevo SRC. Marcaremos la opción al final de la lista (Figura 41).En la casilla \"Nombre\" asignaremos el nombre al nuevo sistema de coordenadas. Se recomienda el siguiente nombre: Guatemala (GTM) EPSG: 42500.En \"Parámetros\" copiaremos y pegaremos la información que se nos proporciona en el link compartido. Usaremos el formato Proj4js format, que es la última opción dentro del recuadro de formatos. Pegaremos esto en la casilla: \"+proj=tmerc +lat_0=0 +lon_0=-90.5 +k=0.9998 +x_0=500000 +y_0=0 +ellps=WGS84 +units=m +no_ defs\".Lo que queda es presionar el botón Aceptar.Desde este punto en adelante podremos usar el sistema de referencia recién agregado a la base de datos.Figura 41. Ventana para agregar un sistema de referencia de coordenadas personalizado.Previo a la construcción de cualquier ráster es necesario tener creado el archivo que corresponde al área de la microcuenca a trabajar, en formato vectorial.El archivo shapefile de la microcuenca trabajada será el punto de partida en la generación de la mayoría de los rásters. Archivos oficiales pueden descargarse desde la plataforma de IDEG (Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de Guatemala), usando el siguiente link: http://ideg.segeplan.gob.gt/geoportal/.En caso de que se prefiera delimitar el parteaguas de nuestra microcuenca por nuestra cuenta, usando un Modelo de Elevación Digital (MED), los procedimientos se explican a continuación:1) Hay que crear una carpeta especial de trabajo. En esta carpeta guardaremos todos los archivos trabajados para definir la microcuenca. De no hacer esto los datos pueden verse comprometidos.2) El segundo paso es abrir QGIS con GRASS integrado (QGIS Desktop with GRASS). Esta versión de QGIS se descarga e instala simultáneamente a la versión común (Figura 42). La encontraremos en la raíz de la carpeta de instalación.Figura 42. Descarga e instalación de GRASS.3) Al abrir el programa, tenemos que asignarle un sistema de coordenadas al proyecto que trabajaremos. Desde el menú Proyecto -Properties -SRC, utilizaremos la opción \"Filtrar\" (Figura 43) para encontrar el sistema de coordenadas definido para este módulo (GTM). Lo seleccionaremos y daremos clic en el botón Aceptar. En el campo \"Capa de entrada\" seleccionaremos nuestro ráster MED. Muy probablemente sea el único ráster dentro del \"Panel capas\", por lo tanto, aparecerá por defecto.El campo \"SRC de origen\", es el sistema de coordenadas que el ráster tiene previo a la re -proyección. Hay que consultar esta información desde las propiedades de la capa. \"SRC Objetivo\" será el nuevo sistema de coordenadas que la capa tendrá después de la re -proyección.En \"Resolución del archivo de salida en las unidades georreferenciadas de destino\", definiremos 100 metros. Esto en concordancia con lo acordado para todas los rásters input.Ejecutar en segundo plano. La capa se añadirá instantáneamente al \"Panel capas\". Las demás opciones quedan sin cambios.Figura 44. Re-proyectando con nuevo Sistema de Referencia de Coordenadas.   Al dar clic sobre la opción, el asistente nos pedirá indicar la ruta de la carpeta creada (Explorar). Una vez indicada la ruta, daremos al botón Siguiente (Figura 46).La siguiente ventana nos solicitará crear otra carpeta dentro de la previamente localizada.En el campo de \"Crear nueva localización\" escribiremos el nombre de la carpeta. Daremos Siguiente al finalizar con este paso (Figura 47).Figura 47. Creando nueva localización de mapas para GRASS.Posteriormente, el asistente nos pedirá que confirmemos el sistema de coordenadas con el que trabajaremos. A lo cual seleccionaremos GTM y después Siguiente. Utilizaremos la función \"Filtrar\" para tal fin (Figura 43 ARRIBA)Seguidamente, vamos a establecer la región de trabajo.Haremos esto al dar clic al botón Establecer la extensión actual de QGIS. Antes de marcar la opción hay que asegurarnos de tener un Zoom General en la capa. Una vez seleccionado, daremos clic en Siguiente (Figura 48).Figura 48. Estableciendo la región de trabajo de QGIS La siguiente ventana manda a definir un nombre para los mapas que trabajaremos en la región de trabajo. Después de haber definido el nombre, daremos clic a Siguiente y luego Finalizar. Notaremos un recuadro de color rojo dentro la \"Pantalla de datos\" (Figura 49).Figura 49. Pantalla de datos y herramientas de GRASS.7) Continuando con los procedimientos, es necesario abrir las herramientas GRASS. Iremos al menú Complementos -GRASS -Abrir herramientas de GRASS. Las herramientas se anclarán al lado izquierdo de la pantalla (Figura 49).8) Ahora seleccionaremos nuestra extensión de trabajo. Dentro de las \"Herramientas de GRASS\" ubicaremos la pestaña Región.Acá marcaremos la opción de Seleccionar la extensión arrastrando en el lienzo, lo que nos va a permitir encerrar en un recuadro la extensión aproximada de la microcuenca (Figura 50). De ser necesario escriba los límites de forma manual. Se recomienda poner cuidado en este paso.Las opciones de resolución las dejaremos por defecto.Figura 50. Herramientas de GRASS de la pestaña Región. 9) Convirtiendo el archivo ráster a archivo GRASS. Regresaremos a la pestaña de Módulos y seleccionaremos las alternativas Administración de archivos -Importar a GRASS -Importar raster a GRASS -Importar raster a GRASS desde la vista de QGIS -Importar raster cargado.Dentro de la herramienta Importar raster cargado, tendremos que definir la \"Capa cargada\". Esta capa será el MED de nuestra área de trabajo, en formato lógico ráster (Figura 51).En el campo \"Nombre del mapa ráster de salida\", asignaremos un nombre a la nueva capa.Importante marcar la opción \"Invalida verificación de la proyección (usar proyección de la localización). Para que se utilice la proyección y espacio de nuestra área localizada en el paso 6 (Figura 46).Solo queda dar Ejecutar para realizar la conversión. Daremos clic a Ver salida para que se cargue la capa recién creada a nuestro \"Panel capas\" (Figura 51).Figura 51. Herramientas de GRASS de la pestaña Módulos.Ahora vamos a crear las cuencas a partir de nuestro archivo de elevación GRASS creado en el paso anterior. Desde la pestaña Módulos, seleccionaremos las opciones de Raster -Modelos espaciales -Modelos hidrológicos -Análisis de cuenca.Figura 52. Herramientas de GRASS para análisis de cuencas.Una vez dentro la herramienta de Análisis de cuenca lo primero que hay que hacer es cargar el archivo GRASS de elevación en la casilla \"Nombre de mapa ráster de entrada de elevación\". Asegurándonos de presionar el botón de Usar la región de este mapa para utilizar lo configurado en el paso 6.En el campo \"Tamaño mínimo para cada cuenca (número de celdas)\" escogeremos el mínimo de celdas que tendrá que tener una cuenca para que esta sea tomada en cuenta en la división. Entre más alto sea el valor, más grandes serán las cuencas generadas. Se recomienda probar con distintos tamaños hasta encontrar el tamaño que dibujará nuestra microcuenca.Lo siguiente es definir un nombre para las capas ráster que serán generadas al finalizar el proceso. Se generarán cuatro capas en total: a) ráster de acumulación, b) ráster de dirección de drenaje, c) ráster de segmentos de arroyo y d) ráster de cuencas (Figura 53).Una vez nombrada las capas de salida daremos clic al botón Ejecutar. Luego, al botón Ver salida, que se activará cuando el proceso termine.Figura 53. Capas raster generadas con GRASS para el análisis de cuencas.Podemos entrar a Properties -Simbología para visualizar mejor las capas.Ahora crearemos las cuencas hidrográficas de nuestra capa en GRASS. Iremos a la pestaña de Modulos -Raster -Modelos espaciales -Modelos hidrológicos -Crear una cuenca hidrográfica.Al abrir la herramienta Crear una cuenca hidrográfica aparecerá una ventana en donde tendremos que seleccionar el \"ráster de dirección de drenaje\" (b) en la casilla de \"Name of input drainage direction map\". Recordemos presionar el botón Usar la región de este mapa después de seleccionarlo. En las dos casillas de \"Coordinates of outlate point\" escribiremos la coordenada en X y Y, respectivamente. Las coordenadas que se detallarán en esta parte representarán el punto de salida de los ríos (raster de segmentos de arroyo (c)) (Figura 54). Al estar la microcuenca asociado a una red de drenaje, es posible dibujar el parteaguas de nuestra área si identificamos el punto de salida de su flujo.Figura 54. Punto de salida de la microcuenca.Por último, asignaremos un nombre a nuestra capa en espacio de \"Nombre para mapa de salida de cuencas hidrográficas\" y daremos al botón Ejecutar. El resultado se observa similar a la Figura 55.Para más información sobre el proceso de creación de cuencas hidrográfica es QGIS favor consulte el siguiente link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFuO7Q7MCKE.Existen catorce insumos principales para que RIOS funcione correctamente. Sin embargo solo once de ellos son capas ráster. En este manual nos concentraremos únicamente en los últimos (los ráster). Ahora, en caso de no tener algunos de los insumos, será necesario crearlos, lo que involucra el procesamiento de capas adicionales. En otras palabras, podremos necesitar más de once capas. El mapa de uso de la tierra es referido en RIOS como \"LULC\" (Land Use Land Cover). Es un conjunto de datos SIG ráster, con un código de LULC entero para cada celda, a su vez, cada entero representa un tipo de uso de suelo (ejemplo: para bosque, 2 para pastizal etc). Estos códigos deben coincidir con los códigos de uso del suelo en la \"Tabla de Clasificación US\".La categorización más simple del uso del suelo en el paisaje supone solamente la delineación de la ocupación del suelo (por ejemplo, tierras de cultivo, bosques de coníferas templados, praderas). Una clasificación un poco más sofisticada podría implicar el dividir ciertos tipos de uso del suelo relevantes en categorías más significativas. Por ejemplo, las clases de tierras agrícolas podrían ser divididas en diferentes tipos de cultivos o se podría hacer una diferenciación de tierras sobre utilizadas y correctamente utilizadas.En caso de no contar con el mapa de uso de suelo actualizado y oficializado por la entidad autorizada del país, se propone una alternativa para la creación de nuestro propio mapa de uso de suelo. Antes de iniciar a describir los pasos para la creación de nuestro mapa, es obligatorio estar registrado en al menos uno de los tres portales que proveen de imágenes satelitales a QGIS. Los portales son:• ESA (European Space Agency) https://scihub.copernicus.eu/dhus/#/self-registration • USGS (United States Geological Survey) https://ers.cr.usgs.gov/login/ • EarthData https://urs.earthdata.nasa.gov/profile Tras habernos registrado a cualquiera de los portales, iniciaremos con los pasos para la creación de un mapa de uso de suelo.2) En la ventana de \"Complementos\" nos posicionaremos sobre la pestaña de Todos, desde ahí, buscaremos y descargaremos el plugIn Semi -Automatic Classification Plugin, y daremos clic en Instalar complemento (Figura 56). Una vez terminado el proceso, daremos clic al botón Cerrar. Notaremos la nueva adición del menú SCP, en el área del \"Menú principal\" de QGIS. Previo a identificar los usos de suelo, hay que descargar una imagen satelital sobre la cual dibujaremos nuestros los mismos. Esta imagen comprenderá el área que estaremos trabajando.3) Para descargar la imagen satelital, seleccionaremos la alternativa Download products, accesible desde el menú SCP, que recién activamos.4) Inmediatamente nos aparecerá la ventana SCP, contiendo todas los items de este módulo, dispuestos al lado derecho del mismo. Concentraremos nuestra atención únicamente en la pestaña de Downloads products, al marcarla, se nos presentan las pestañas de Login data, Search y Opciones de descarga.5) En la pestaña de Login data podremos escribir usuario y contraseña de los tres portales que nos podrán proveer la información necesitada. Recordemos que estar registrado en cualquiera de estos servidores, es un paso obligatorio.En la siguiente pestaña (Search), iniciaremos una búsqueda de imágenes, en los portales donde establecimos conexiones (Login data). Antes de iniciar nuestra búsqueda, es necesario llenar y especificar ciertas opciones. Se comentará cada una de estas opciones siguiendo el orden que muestra la Figura 57.Figura 57. Búsqueda de imágenes satelitales para identificar tipos de uso del suelo.6) En nuestra pestaña Search, tendremos que especificar primeramente las coordenadas de referencia para iniciar la búsqueda de imágenes satelitales que contengan nuestra área de estudio. En las casillas \"UL\" (Upper -Left) y \"LR\" (Lower -Right) se definirán las coordenadas geográficas en latitud y longitud, para la esquina superior derecha y esquina inferior izquierda respectivamente. El área que estas coordenadas encierre, tiene que abarcar en totalidad el área de estudio.7) En la casilla de \"Products\", se especificará el tipo de imagen satelital que se requiera extraer desde nuestros servidores.No todos los tipos de imágenes estarán en consonancia con nuestros objetivos, al igual que tampoco estarán disponibles para todos los servidores (portales).8) En el rango de fecha especificaremos la serie de tiempo en el que podremos descargar las fotos. Comenzando con \"Fecha desde\" y terminando con \"hasta\", para el ingreso del período. Entre mayor sea el rango, mas fotos tendremos a disposición para elegir. Por otro lado, es recomendable seleccionar fotos más actuales. 9) Max. nubosidad (%) es la casilla en donde indicaremos el máximo permitido de nubo-sidad en la imagen, que estaremos dispuestos a tolerar. Entre el 0 a 20 % es recomendable indicar.10) Una vez definidas las casillas anteriores, daremos clic al botón Encontrar , su función es la de iniciar la búsqueda de las imágenes en dependencia de lo indicado en las casillas. Tras usar Encontrar, se desplegará en el panel \"ProductID\", nuestra lista de productos.11) En las opciones dispuestas al lado derecho de nuestro \"ProductID\", podremos tener una vista previa de las imágenes , suprimir alguna fila , Reiniciar nuestra búsqueda, y opciones para importar y exportar el registro de productos. Se recomienda usar la opción de vista previa para trabajar con la imagen directamente desde QGIS, sin necesidad de descargarla. También, es recomendable usar la opción de suprimir fila, para descargar imágenes con baja calidad.12) Por último, se podrán descargar las imágenes usando el botón Run . Este solicitará un directorio para guardar los rásters. Posteriormente se podrán descargar estos rásters en QGIS, para iniciar el procesamiento.Es muy recomendado que el usuario indague más sobre este tema dando clic en los siguientes links: http://www.gisandbeers.com/plugin-scp-descarga-imagenes-sateliteen-qgis/ y https://fromgistors.blogspot.com/p/user-manual.html?spref=scp.La alternativa recién presentada para la obtención de imágenes satelitales usando el plugIn de SCP, descargado desde el menú Complementos de QGIS no pretende ser una camisa de fuerza para los usuarios en necesidad de este tipo de información. Por ende, se presentan fuentes adicionales que implican la descarga directa de estas imágenes en la página web de estos servidores. Continuando con la elaboración de nuestro ráster de uso de suelo, vamos a digitalizar manualmente los diferentes usos de suelo presentes en nuestra microcuenca. Haremos esto con la ayuda las herramientas del menú Edición. Podemos anclar estas herramientas al menú, dando clic derecho sobre un espacio vacío, y seleccionando las opciones de Digitalización y Digitalización avanzada.A este punto ya debemos tener a mano la \"Capa de microcuenca\", también, es necesario cargar una imagen satelital que contenga esta área, para poder observar los diferentes usos de suelo. En caso de no tener una imagen satelital que coincida con nuestra área de trabajo, podemos utilizar el plugIn recientemente descargado de QuickMapServices, para generar un mapa base renderizable.Antes que todo, haremos una copia de la \"Capa de microcuenca\". Clic derecho sobre la capa, Duplicar capa . Trabajaremos sobre la copia.1) El proceso implica el uso de la herramienta Dividir objetos espaciales, para dividir la \"Capa de microcuenca\" según el tipo de suelo. El corte debe iniciar y terminar fuera del polígono. El proceso se terminará con el clic derecho. Repetiremos este proceso hasta tener bien clasificada toda el área de la microcuenca que este dentro de la imagen.Figura 58. Digitalizando polígonos desde una imagen satelital.Otra herramienta que muy probablemente usaremos es Rellenar anillo. Para cortar un segmento dentro del polígono y rellenarlo. Antes de utilizar esta herramienta tendremos que tener seleccionado el polígono que deseamos cortar. Para seleccionar usaremos la herramienta Seleccionar objetos espaciales por área o por clic único dispuesta en la barra de Atributos. Es recomendable cambiar el color de los polígonos seleccionados para que no afecte la visibilidad, esto lo hacemos desde el menú Proyecto -General -Color de selección.El siguiente paso para la creación de nuestro ráster de uso de suelo es:2) En la tabla de atributos de la \"Capa de microcuenca\" ubicaremos la opción Campo nuevo, al hacerlo aparecerá la ventana de \"Añadir campo\", donde especificaremos el nombre, tipo (entero, decimal, fecha, texto, etc) y la longitud (capacidad del campo) (Figura 59). Al finalizar daremos Aceptar.Figura 59. Añadiendo campos a polígonos de uso del suelo digitalizados.3) Es momento de asignar un código de uso de suelo a cada uno de los polígonos delimitados al cortar la \"Capa de microcuenca\". Se accede dando clic derecho a la capa (Figura 60).Respaldaremos esta capa, ya que la usaremos más adelante. Se referirá a esta capa \"Capa uso\" de ahora en adelante.El siguiente paso contempla la transformación de nuestra capa shapefile de uso de suelo a formato ráster. Iremos al \"Menú principal\", Raster -Conversión -Rasterizar (Vectorial a Raster). Al dar clic en la opción se nos presenta la ventana de \"Rasterizar\", en donde ingresaremos información según nos indique la Figura 61.Figura 60. Abriendo taba de atributos para capa de uso del suelo.En \"Capa de entrada\", ingresaremos la capa de uso de suelo recién construida en pasos anteriores. Importante asegurarnos que la capa se encuentra en el sistema proyectado estipulado (GTM).El campo que definiremos en \"Campo a usar para un valor de marcado\", será aquel que contenga nuestra clasificación numérica de uso de suelo. En este caso es nuestro campo de \"tipo\".Seleccionaremos Pixeles en \"Unidad tamaño del ráster de salida\".En las casillas \"resolución Ancho/Alto\" y \"resolución Horizontal/Vertical\". Se especificará el valor de 100 metros de acuerdo a lo acordado.La \"Extensión de salida\" será la misma que la \"Capa de entrada\". Al presionar el botón aparecerán las opciones de Usar extensión de capa / lienzo y Seleccionar extensión sobre lienzo, seleccionaremos la primera para utilizar la misma extensión que la capa de entrada.Por último, solo queda conectar el archivo generado, con nuestro folder destino y dar clic al botón Ejecutar en segundo plano. La nueva capa deberá de añadirse a nuestro \"Panel capas\".Figura 61. Convirtiendo un archivo vector a ráster.El siguiente insumo no es una capa ráster, sin embargo, es esencial para la creación de futuras capas. A través de la tabla de coeficientes biofísicos se determina el impacto relativo de diferentes manejos en diferentes tipos de cobertura terrestre.Esta capa puede ser generada hasta que sean definidos los tipos de usos de suelo de nuestra microcuenca. Los coeficientes de erosión que contiene esta tabla, se relacionan con la información espacial de nuestros tipos de suelo.En general, estos coeficientes son obtenidos a través de una búsqueda bibliográfica, para encontrar los valores que mejor representan la cobertura del suelo. Se ofrece una tabla de valores de coeficientes biofísicos para una selección de clases de cobertura del suelo comunes que puede utilizarse como punto de partida (Tabla 2). Esta tabla se comparará con las clases LULC (usos de suelo) que aparecen listadas en la página 72 del manual de RIOS que se recomendó.La idea es observar la clase LULC que más cercanamente corresponda a la clasificación de usos de suelo de nuestro ráster de usos, una vez determinadas las similitudes copie los valores en la tabla de Coeficiente Biofísicos que se generará.La tabla debe estar contenida en un archivo .csv* y tiene que seguir exactamente la misma estructura que la presente. Más información sobre el formato de la tabla en la página 77 del manual de RIOS.De esta manera habremos finalizado la construcción de nuestro ráster de uso de suelo (LULC). Continuaremos con las demás capas ráster requeridas en los procesamientos de RIOS.Es en un conjunto de datos SIG ráster con un valor de elevación para cada celda. Utilice el MDE de más alta calidad y mejor resolución que sea apropiado para su aplicación. Esto reducirá las posibilidades de que se produzcan sumideros y datos faltantes, y representará más precisamente el flujo de agua superficial de la zona, proporcionando la cantidad de detalle requerido para la toma de decisiones informada a su escala de interés.Algunas fuentes gratuitas para descargar MED (Modelos de Elevación Digital) son: ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer), ALOS PALSAR (Advanced Land Observing Satellite), STRM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission), LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), GTOPO30, NOAA GLOBE (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), OpenDEM, entre otros.El procedimiento para obtener un mapa de elevación para la microcuenca trabajada es simple:1) Una vez descargado nuestro ráster MED lo primeor que hay que hacer es verificar el sistema de coordenadas asociada a la capa y la resolución de los pixeles. Haremos esto dando clic derecho sobre la capa-Exportar-Save as.2) En caso de que la capa MED no esté en el mismo sistema de coordenadas trabajado en el módulo. Se transformará usando des-de Raster -Proyecciones -Combar (Reproyectar). Cambiaremos al SRC GTM.3) Si la resolución del pixel no es la misma que la trabajada (30 metros), entonces exportaremos la capa con otra resolución. Daremos clic derecho sobre la capa Exportar-Save as y cambiar la \"Resolución\" del mapa de salida. Escribiremos 30 en la casilla \"Horizontal\" y \"Vertical\".Dejaremos las demas opciones por defecto y daremos clic a Aceptar para finalizar la creación del mapa de elevación.Un conjunto de datos SIG ráster, con un valor de índice de erosividad para cada celda. Esta variable depende de la intensidad y duración de las precipitaciones en el área de interés. Cuantos mayores sean la intensidad y la duración de la tormenta de lluvia, mayor será el potencial de erosión.El índice de erosividad (factor R) es ampliamente utilizado, pero en caso de su ausencia se propone un método alternativo de cálculo.Utilizaremos el Índice de Fournier Modificado (IFM) para calcular un valor aproximado del factor R para nuestra microcuenca. Para más información consultar https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/308971440_Determinacion_y_mapificacion_de_la_ erosividad_de_la_lluvia_en_la_cuenca_del_embalse_La_Copa_Boyaca El cálculo de este índice involucra el uso de capas externas: Precipitación mensual promedio (12 rásters), Precipitación anual promedio (Bio 12) y Precipitación promedio del mes húmedo (Bio 13), esta última a utilizarse más adelante. En caso de no poder generar estas capas, se pueden conseguir desde la siguiente página http://worldclim.org/version2.Los procedimientos para general el ráster de índice de erosividad (R), requieren el uso de la herramienta Calculadora de raster, por lo que es recomendable reducir nuestra escala de trabajo. Capas ráster de mucha extensión pueden volver algo lento y problemático el cálculo.Por tal motivo, iniciaremos cortando las capas Precipitación mensual promedio y Precipitación anual promedio, con la opción Cortar Raster Por Capa De Máscara, ubicada dentro del menú Raster -Extracción.Esta herramienta permite utilizar un archivo vectorial de tipo polígono para hacer un corte en la capa ráster a la que esta sobrepuesta. En este caso, el archivo vectorial de tipo polígono que servirá como capa de entrada será un recuadro que encierre a la capa \"Capa de microcuenca\". En otras palabras, la capa molde será el recuadro (Figura 62).Figura 62. Capa vectorial de microcuenca usada como máscara para cortar ráster.Dentro de la ventana \"Cortar Ráster Por Capa De Máscara\" hay que indicar algunas opciones (Figura 63):1) El primer elemento que tenemos que especificar es el de \"Capa de entrada\". Acá elegiremos el ráster que pretendemos cortar.En el caso de la Figura 63, es el promedio mensual del primer mes.2) Seguidamente, indicaremos en \"Capa de máscara\", nuestro archivo vectorial de tipo polígono. El archivo mascara será un polígono que encierre nuestra microcuenca, con el propósito de que este exceda los límites del parteaguas y así los valores de las celdas ubicados a los bordes de la microcuenca sean bien representados (Figura 63).3) No hay que olvidar marcar la opción de \"Recortar la extensión del conjunto de datos de destino a la extensión de la línea de corte\", para que los valores de las celdas sean incluidos en el corte (Figura 63).  Idealmente, el proceso de cortar polígonos se repetirá 13 veces en esta sección. Un procedimiento por cada mes (12) y 1 por el ráster de precipitación anual promedio. Decidir no cortar los polígonos puede hacer más lento el proceso, aunque no imposible.La herramienta de Raster Por Capa De Máscara se usará en repetidas ocasiones durante el módulo. Se recomienda visitar siguiente link para más detalle: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=EdBk2eK0DXA.Continuando con los pasos, iniciaremos los cálculos en la herramienta Calculadora de raster, ubicada en el menú Raster. El primer cálculo que realizaremos será el Índice de Fournier Modificado (IFM) (Figura 64):IFM: Índice de Fournier Modificado en mm;Pi: es la precipitación del mes en mm P es la precipitación total anual en mm. El IFM no es más que relación entre la suma de los cuadrados de las precipitaciones mensuales para un año, respecto de la precipitación total anual de ese año. Procederemos de la siguiente manera:1) En la ventana \"Calculadora Ráster\", configuraremos los elementos según se aprecia en la Figura 66.Primero especificaremos nuestra carpeta destino y nombre del ráster que se generará usando la casilla \"Capa de salida\". Seguidamente, seleccionaremos el formato de salida del ráster en la casilla \"Formato de salida\" (GeoTIFF). No tocaremos el \"SRC de Salida\" por el momento.El siguiente paso es la selección de los rásters desde la sección \"Bandas ráster\", para ir replicando la fórmula del índice de Fournier con la ayuda de los operadores. Las operaciones serán detalladas en el espacio \"Expresión de la calculadora de campos\" y será similar a la mostrada en la Figura 65.Figura 65. Expresión de la calculadora de campos.Donde \"ene_chiqui@1\", \"feb_chiqui@1\".......\"dic_chiqui@1\", son los rásters de precipitación mensual promedio y \"anual_bio12@1\" es el valor anual promedio de las precipitaciones para la misma área.Lo que sigue es esperar la confirmación de \"Expresión valida\" en la sintaxis de nuestra operación. El siguiente paso es dar Aceptar para que nuestra capa sea añadida a nuestro \"Panel capas\".Figura 66. Ventana de Calculadora Raster.2) Habiendo terminado de calcular IFM, ahora proseguimos con el cálculo de una aproximación del factor R. Lo calcularemos usando la siguiente formula (Figura 67):Figura 67. Fórmula para calcular el Factor R (Erosividad de la lluvia).La expresión del procedimiento de cálculo se ve así: , donde \"IFM@1\", es la capa que resultó del cálculo anterior.El siguiente paso es el de cambiar el sistema de coordenadas y la resolución de nuestro ráster de erosividad. La herramienta de Combar (Reproyectar), usada con anterioridad, servirá para esto.3) Raster -Proyecciones -Combar (Reproyectar). El procedimiento es similar al ejemplo mostrado en la sección \"Requerimientos de RIOS\". En la casilla \"Resolución del archivo de salida en las unidades georreferenciadas de destino\", digitaremos 100 y en la casilla \"Extensión georreferenciada del archivo de salida a crear\" dejaremos la opción por defecto, en este caso porque usamos la cobertura del recuadro que es mayor a la de la microcuenca.4) Lo que queda es presionar el botón Ejecutar en segundo plano para que el ráster recién creado se agregue al \"Panel capas\".5) El último paso es de cortar el ráster resultado del proceso anterior usando la \"Capa de microcuenca\". Utilizando la opción Cortar raster por capa de máscara.De esta forma habremos terminado la creación de nuestro ráster de Erosividad de lluvia.Este mapa es un conjunto de datos SIG ráster con valor de Erodabilidad del suelo para cada celda. La erodabilidad del suelo (a veces denotada como K) es una medida de la susceptibilidad de las partículas del suelo a separarse y ser transportadas por la lluvia o la escorrentía.La textura es el principal factor que afecta a K, pero el perfil, la materia orgánica y la permeabilidad del suelo también contribuyen. Varía de 70/100 para el suelo más frágil y 1/100 para el suelo más estable. Valores de 0,001 -0,06 son razonables, pero valores mayores deben ser analizados críticamente. K puede ser hallado como parte de mapas de datos de suelos estándar.La situación ideal es la de tener mapeada todas las características de suelo en un archivo compatible con QGIS y que esta información sea lo suficientemente detallada para los tipos de suelo que contiene nuestra microcuenca. En caso de no tener información textural de nuestros suelos, se presentan alternativas en el siguiente cuadro:Algunas de fuentes de información para consultar texturas de suelo son: el programa Harmonized World Soil Database Viewer (http://www. fao.org/soils-portal/soil-survey/mapas-historicos-de-suelos-y-basesde-datos/base-de-datos-armonizada-de-los-suelos-del-mundo-v12/ es/) y el Atlas de suelos de América Latina y Caribe (https://www. researchgate.net/publication/262731098_Atlas_de_suelos_de_Ame-rica_Latina_y_el_Caribe)En este manual se mostrará una alternativa para generar un ráster de erodabilidad de suelo basados en el tipo de textura. El procedimiento se alargará en dependencia de nuestra fuente de datos, por ejemplo, si tenemos información mapeada y digitalizada de texturas, bastará solo con asignar un valor de K a las celdas. Por otro lado, si lo que tenemos es una captura de pantalla de un mapa que encontramos en algún documento en la web, entonces habrá que georreferenciar la imagen antes.Los pasos a describir iniciarán pensando en este último escenario:1) Primero, hay que asegurarnos de que la imagen que queremos georreferenciar podamos asociarla con algún tipo de coordenadas geográficas. Ejemplo de esto es un mapa cartográfico, en él se pueden observar claramente la grid de coordenadas que nos servirán para anclar la información en QGIS (Figura 68).Figura 68. Grid de coordenadas para anclar la información en QGIS.2) Posteriormente nos dirigimos al menú Raster -Georreferencer. Nos aparecerá una ventana de \"Georreferenciador\". Con el botón Abrir Raster cargaremos la captura de pantalla del mapa que queremos georreferenciar. En el caso de la Figura 69, se cargó una imagen que contiene una clasificación de suelo y para la cual se conocen las coordenadas de su grilla.Figura 69. Georreferenciando un mapa de suelos.3) Utilizaremos la opciones de Mover y Acerca zoom , para ubicar mejor los puntos con los que anclaremos la imagen al sistema de coordenadas conocido en QGIS. Se seleccionaron como puntos de anclaje las esquinas de uno de los cuadrantes de la grid, puesto que el mapa original cuenta con coordenadas para estos puntos (Figura 69).4) Después, con la herramienta de Añadir punto comenzaremos a introducir coordenadas a los puntos definidos como anclas. Haremos esto con el asistente \"Introducir coordenadas de mapa\", en donde tendremos que escribir coordenadas para eje X y Y. Hay que repetir esto para cada punto y al finalizar dar Aceptar (Figura 69). Otro método de involucra la ayuda de un mapa base para georreferenciar la imagen, para el cual puede consultar el siguiente link: https://mappinggis.com/2014/10/como-georreferenciar-una-imagen-en-qgis/.5) Posteriormente, presionaremos el botón Comenzar georreferenciado Aparecerá la ventana de \"Configuración de la transformación\", acá especificaremos en \"Tipo de transformación\": Polinomial 1, en \"Método de remuestreo\": Vecino más próximo y en \"SER de destino\" el sistema de coordenadas que se acordó trabajar (GTM). Por último, especificaremos la carpeta destino y nombre de nuestra imagen de salida en la casilla de \"Ráster de salida\", 6) El último paso es el de dar clic en el botón Aceptar.Nuestra capa resultante se cargará a nuestro \"Panel capas\" o podremos añadirla con la opción Añadir capa desde el menú \"Capa\". De esta manera habremos terminado la georreferenciación de nuestro mapa de suelo.Lo siguiente es la digitalización de los tipos de suelos. Para ello utilizaremos el conjunto de herramientas de Digitalización y Digitalización avanzada, previamente descritas en el manual.La idea es clasificar las texturas representadas en la \"Capa de microcuenca\", de acuerdo a los tipos de suelo presentes en el mapa de suelo que recién georreferenciamos. La Figura 70 es un ejemplo de división del polígono inicial en diferentes partes con base a un mapa de suelos. Recordemos trabajar con una copia de la \"Capa de microcuenca\". Continuando con los procedimientos para la construcción de nuestro mapa de erodabilidad de suelo: 5) Empezaremos a dividir nuestra copia de \"Capa de microcuenca\", en dependencia del tipo de textura que contenga. Las herramientas que probablemente utilizaremos son Dividir objetos espaciales y Rellenar anillo.A medida que vayamos dividiendo nuestro polígono inicial (Capa de microcuenca), irán incrementando el número de polígonos contenidos en la capa (Figura 70). Para cada polígono se deberá especificar el tipo de suelo (textura) al que pertenece, esto se hará a través de un campo en la tabla de atributos de esa capa.6) En la tabla de atributos de la capa ubicaremos la opción Campo nuevo para añadir que contendrá el código de textura que digitalizamos. Guíese con la Figura 59 y 60 para más detalle. En este caso, el campo creado se tendrá por nombre \"Textura\".Ahora podemos iniciar a clasificar nuestro polígono en los diferentes tipos de suelo presentados en la imagen, a la vez que codificamos el tipo de textura en la tabla de atributos. La capa generada en este paso hay que respaldarla puesto que la usaremos más adelante. De ahora en adelante se referirá a esta capa respaldada como \"Capa de textura\"Para asignar un valor de K para cada textura de suelo se propone una tabla de valores de K en función de las diferentes clases texturales basada en información publicada por el Servicio de Investigación Agrícola de los Estados Unidos (ARS por sus siglas en inglés) (Tabla 3).Tabla 3. Tabla de valores de factor K según clases texturales.7) El siguiente paso es convertir una copia de la capa de suelo generada en el paso anterior a formato ráster, usando la herramienta Raster -Conversión -Rasterizar (Vectorial a Raster). En este caso para la opción \"Campo a usar para un valor de marcado\", escogeremos el campo con la información del tipo de suelo de nuestra capa (\"textura\"). Recordemos que la resolución del pixel en ambos lados será de 100 metros para todas las capas.8) Una vez configurada la ventana de \"Rasterizar (Vectorial a Ráster), daremos clic en el botón Ejecutar en segundo plano. El ráster se cargará en el \"Panel capas\". Así habremos terminado de construir nuestro mapa de erodabilidad de suelo.Es un conjunto de datos SIG ráster con un valor promedio de profundidad del suelo para cada celda. Los datos de profundidad del suelo deben estar en milímetros.La profundidad del suelo se debe calcular como la profundidad máxima de todos los horizontes del suelo dentro de un componente de clase, y luego se debe estimar una media ponderada de los componentes. Esto puede resultar en un análisis SIG complicado, debido a un problema común de información detallada de los mapas de suelos.Una alternativa muy práctica es usar los MDS o Mapas Digitales de Suelos que existen para ciertas zonas y que puede reunir diferentes informaciones, que representan los factores de formación de los suelos. También se puede utilizar el conocimiento experto, porque es importante conocer las variaciones del suelo en el paisaje, no es algo matemático, pero además de esto igualmente se aplican funciones matemáticas. Y con todo esto se generan mapas de propiedades de suelos o de las funciones de suelos, que son mapas, por ejemplo, de Profundidad o de pH. Estos mapas, por estar en este formato ráster, nos permiten combinar la información de maneras distintas, y hacer cálculos matemáticos, y generar otro tipo de información con la combinación de esto con otras informaciones.Una fuente para mapas digitales de suelos encontraremos en el siguiente link: https:// soilgrids.org/#!/?layer=ORCDRC_M_ sl2_250m&vector=1En caso de no contar con MDS podemos usar un mapa tradicional, en que también aparecen las propiedades del suelo en forma de una Leyenda convencional. El procedimiento para la creación de nuestro mapa de profundidad de suelo será muy similar que el mapa de Tipos de uso del suelo digitalizando sobre una imagen escaneada y georreferenciada de nuestro territorio. Así concluimos la creación del mapa de profundidad de suelo.Se trata de un conjunto de datos ráster SIG con un índice para cada celda que representa la clase de textura del suelo. El índice de la textura del suelo puede derivarse de una capa de datos de suelos, tales como la Base de Datos Mundial de Suelo Armonizada de la FAO.A cada tipo de suelo se le debe asignar un valor basado en la textura.Para crear el mapa de Índice de textura ocuparemos la capa digitalizada que contiene las diferentes texturas de suelo. A partir de esta capa, agregaremos valores de índice textura Mapa de índice de textura a cada textura encontrada dentro de la microcuenca trabajada. Los pasos se describen a continuación:1) Primero añadiremos un nuevo campo (nombre ejemplo \"ind\") a la capa de textura de suelo digitalizada en pasos anteriores. Para hacer esto hay que iniciar trabajos de edición en la capa y después dirigirse a la tabla de atributos de la capa.2) Seguidamente, es necesario asignar un valor de índice a cada tipo de textura que encontramos en la capa. La siguiente tabla (Tabla 4.) nos asistirá en la asignación de estos valores.3) Transformaremos la capa vectoria de texturas de suelo digitalizada, a un archivo ráster. En la casilla \"Campo a usar para un valor de marcado\" seleccionaremos el campo recién creado (\"ind\"). También, detallaremos una resolución de 30 para ambos lados de la celda.Tabla 4.Tabla de índices por tipo de textura.De esta manera habremos terminado la cración de nuestra Mapa de Índice de textura.Se trata de un conjunto de datos SIG ráster, con un valor para la altura de lluvia para cada celda en mm. La profundidad lluvia influye en la cantidad de escorrentía producida de un píxel dado. A menudo, estos datos no están disponibles, por lo que los usuarios pueden proporcionar alternativamente la precipitación media del mes más lluvioso (mm).Para generar el mapa de precipitación del mes más húmedo bastará con utilizar las herramientas de re -proyección y corte. La capa de entrada que utilizaremos será la precipitación del mes más húmedo (Bio 13), descargable de WorldClim desde el siguiente link http://worldclim.org/bioclim.La capa de corte será la misma que usamos para crear el mapa de erosividad de lluvia, en este caso hablamos de la ''Capa de recuadro''. Recordemos que esta capa nos es más que el recuadro que encierra a nuestra \"Capa de microcuenca\". Los pasos se resumen en los siguientes:1) Después de descargar el raster Bio 13 e ingresarlo a QGIS, utilizaremos la herramienta de Raster -Extracción -Cortar Raster por Capa de Máscara. Donde la \"Capa de entrada\" será el raster Bio 13 y nuestra \"Capa máscara\" el shapefile de recuadro, definiremos la carpeta de destino y daremos clic al botón Ejecutar en segundo plano. Las demás opciones quedan por defecto.2) El siguiente paso es el de re -proyectar la capa resultante del paso anterior. Iremos a la opción Raster -Proyecciones -Combar (Reproyectar). El \"SRC Objetivo\" será el definido para Guatemala (GTM). En la casilla \"Resolución del archivo de salida en las unidades georreferenciadas de destino\" escribiremos 100. En la casilla \"Extensión georreferenciada del archivo de salida a crear\" seleccionaremos la opción Usar extensión de la capa/lienzo para que tengamos la misma extensión de la capa de entrada. Una vez guardada la capa en la carpeta destino, daremos clic sobre la opción Ejecutar en segundo plano.3) El último paso es el de cortar nuevamente el raster recién re -proyectado esta vez usando la \"Capa microcuenca\" como capa de corte. Desde la herramienta Cortar Raster por Capa de Máscara seleccionaremos como capa de entrada aquella resultante del paso número 2 y como \"Capa máscara\" la \"Capa microcuenca\".De esta manera habremos terminado con la construcción de nuestro mapa de precipitación en el mes más húmedo.Se trata de un conjunto de datos SIG ráster con un valor promedio anual de profundidad de lluvia para cada celda en mm. La profundidad de lluvia influye en la cantidad de escorrentía producida en un píxel. La profundidad media de precipitación anual se utiliza para representar la magnitud relativa de la escorrentía.El procedimiento para generar el mapa de Precipitación anual es el mismo que usamos para la creación del mapa de Precipitación del mes más húmedo. La única diferencia radica en la capa de entrada que utilizaremos. En este caso será la precipitación promedio anual (Bio 12), descargable de WorldClim desde el siguiente link http://worldclim.org/ bioclim.Es un archivo en formato ráster conteniendo un valor promedio de evapotranspiración específico por celda, conocido en algunas bibliografías como \"ETo\". Esta variable es importante para determinar áreas probables de recarga de acuíferos; además que es uno de los requerimientos del programa.El raster de evapotranspiración está disponible desde (https://figshare.com/articles/Global_Aridity_Index_and_Potential_Evapotranspiration_ET0_Climate_Database_ v2/7504448/3) Global Aridity and PET Database -CGIAR-CSI, creada por Zomer, R.J.; et al (2007). Descargada con una resolución de 30 arco segundos (1 km2).El procedimiento para la construcción de nuestro mapa de evapotranspiración es el mismo al usado para crear el mapa de precipitación para el mes más húmedo. Con la única diferencia que nuestra capa de entrada no será Bio 13, sino el raster de evapotranspiración (ETo) descargada desde el link compartido.1) Lo primero es utilizar la herramienta Raster-Extracción-Cortar Raster por Capa de Máscara. Donde la \"Capa de entrada\" será el ráster ETo y nuestra \"Capa máscara\" el shapefile de recuadro, definiremos la carpeta de destino y daremos clic al botón Ejecutar en segundo plano. Las demás opciones quedan por defecto.2) El siguiente paso es el de re -proyectar la capa resultante del paso anterior. Iremos a la opción Raster -Proyecciones -Combar (Reproyectar). El \"SRC Objetivo\" será el definido para Guatemala (GTM). En la casilla \"Resolución del archivo de salida en las unidades georreferenciadas de destino\" escribiremos 100. En la casilla \"Extensión georeferenciada del archivo de salida a crear\" seleccionaremos la opción Usar extensión de la capa/lienzo para que tengamos la misma extensión de la capa de entrada. Una vez guardada la capa en la carpeta destino, daremos clic sobre la opción Ejecutar en segundo plano.3) El último paso es el de cortar nuevamente el ráster recién re -proyectado esta vez usando la \"Capa microcuenca\" como capa de corte. Desde la herramienta Cortar Raster por Capa de Máscara seleccionaremos como capa de entrada aquella resultante del paso número 2 y como \"Capa máscara\" la \"Capa microcuenca\".De esta manera habremos terminado con la construcción de nuestro mapa de evapotranspiración.Es un archivo en formato ráster, indicando áreas con posible ocurrencia de recarga en acuíferos. Existen muchos métodos para determinar el potencial de una zona para recarga de sus acuíferos. Recientemente, los métodos basados en \"Remote Sensing\" (RS) han sido usados para reemplazar la exploración in situ.Los métodos de sensores remotos o RS para determinar posibles áreas de recarga toman en cuenta muchos factores que inciden en la ocurrencia y movimiento de las aguas en el subsuelo de una región. Se incluyen entre estos: topografía, litología, estructuras geológicas, meteorización, fracturas en el terreno, porosidad, pendiente, patrones de drenaje, formaciones en el terreno, cobertura de la tierra y clima (Mukherjee, S., 1996 y Jha, M. et al, citado por Yeh, Hsin Fu. Et al, 2015).La metodología que se presentará para la elaboración del ráster de posibles zonas de recarga tomará en cuenta algunos de los factores mencionados. Los factores de drenaje (densidad de drenaje), textura (como alternativa a litología), cobertura del suelo y pendiente.El método consiste en asignar un valor de entre 0 a 10 a alguna característica del terreno, intrínsecas a cada factor priorizado (drenaje, textura, cobertura de suelo y pendiente), en dependencia a que tanto influya en la formación de acuíferos. Posteriormente, sumar los valores de cada factor, a medida que se vayan sobreponiendo unos sobre otros, de tal manera que las áreas con posibilidad de recarga acuífera serán los resultados (acumulación de la suma por celda) que se encuentren desde el valor medio hasta el rango superior (ej: en una escala de 0 a 100, serán las áreas elegidas las que se encuentren con valores entre 50 y 100).Finalmente, y según dicta la guía de RIOS, se reasignaron valores de 1 a aquellas áreas con posibilidad de recarga (desde el valor medio de la sumatoria, hasta el máximo) y 0 aquellas sin posibilidad (desde el valor mínimo, hasta el valor medio).Iniciaremos los pasos para la construcción de nuestro mapa de posibles áreas de recarga, obteniendo información de los ríos y arroyos que son contenidos en la \"Capa de microcuenca\". Podemos descargar un shapefile de ríos guatemaltecos desde http://ide. segeplan.gob.gt/descargas.php.1) Tras haber descargado y cargado la capa de ríos, es necesario definir mejor la red hídrica de nuestra microcuenca. Con ayuda de Bing Satellite y MED, terminaremos de detallar el recorrido y afluentes de los ríos y arroyos que este dentro de la \"Capa de microcuenca\" (Figura 71). La opción de Añadir línea, ubicada en las herramientas de Digitalización, nos será de mucha utilidad.Figura 71. Digitalizando Red Hidrica de la microcuenca.Una vez correctamente definida nuestra red de drenaje habrá que asignar un valor de entre 10 y 0 a cada ramificación del rio. En este caso, los ríos de tercer orden (3) tendrá un valor de 5, los ríos de segundo orden (2) un valor de 7 y el rio principal un valor de 10.2) Los valores se asignarán a un campo creado en la tabla de atributos de la capa. Llamaremos a este campo \"ríos\" de ahora en adelante. Recordemos que, para añadir un campo en la tabla de atributos, lo haremos con la función Campo nuevo. La opción Cortar objetos espaciales puede ser de utilidad para separar los afluentes de distinto orden entre sí.3) Ahora aplicaremos un buffer a la red drenaje. Desde el menú Vectorial-Herramientas de geoproceso -Buffer. El buffer será para dar más representatividad de la red hidrográfica en el resultado final.La \"Capa de entrada\" será nuestra capa de red hídrica correctamente definida y valorizada (Figura 71).En la casilla \"Distancia\" especificaremos la distancia de nuestro buffer. En este caso se eligió una distancia de 50 metros. Recordemos que todas las capas deben de estar en el sistema UTM GMT (Figura 72). Detallaremos la carpeta destino y nombre del buffer en la casilla \"Hecho buffer\". Para terminar el proceso daremos clic a Ejecutar en segundo plano (Figura 72).Figura 72. Creación de buffer para red hídrica.4) Para finalizar, tendremos que convertir nuestro archivo vectorial red de drenaje a formato ráster. Hacemos esto desde el menú Raster-Conversion-Rasterizar (Vectorial a Ráster). El \"Campo a usar para un valor de marcado\" será el campo de \"ríos\".Continuando con la construcción de nuestro mapa de posibles áreas de recarga lo que hay que hacer es sumar todas las valoraciones asignadas a los factores, usando la Calculadora de raster.13) La expresión en la \"Calculadora de ráster\", deberá verse similar a la de la Figura 76.Figura 76. Expresión de calculadora de ráster para áreas de recarga.Los valores del ráster resultante de la suma de todas las ponderaciones se deben agrupar y reclasificar nuevamente, de tal manera que se dividan en dos grupos. De la mitad hacia arriba tendrán el valor de 1 (indicando posibles áreas de recarga) y de la mitad hacia abajo el valor de 0 (indicando poca probabilidad de recarga.14) Utilizaremos de nuevo el algoritmo Reclassify values (simple), ubicada dentro de la Caja de herramientas.De esta manera habremos concluido con la creación del mapa de posibilidad de recarga hídrica.Un conjunto de datos SIG ráster que indica la ubicación y el número de beneficiarios. Cada celda contendrá la cantidad de personas que residen en esa cuadricula. En este sentido, marcaremos con un punto los hogares dentro de nuestra microcuenca para luego aplicarles un valor de habitantes por hogar basado en censos poblacionales. Asumiremos que todos los pobladores de la microcuenca serán beneficiados. Los pasos son los siguientes:1) Iniciaremos creando el shapefile que contendrá la información del número de beneficiarios. Hacemos esto desde el menú Capa -Crear capa -Nueva capa de archivo shape. Otra alternativa es acceder desde la \"Barra de herramientas del administrador de fuentes de datos\".Una vez dentro de la ventana \"Nueva capa de archivos shape\" habrá que configurar algunas opciones antes de crear de nuestra capa.2) En la casilla de \"Nombre de archivo\", indicaremos la ruta y el nombre del archivo a crear. Haremos esto usando el botón al final del espacio en blanco .Para empezar a marcar la posición de los hogares dentro de la \"Capa de microcuenca\" es necesario iniciar procesos de edición. 9) Para iniciar la edición en la capa usaremos Conmutar edición . Podemos acceder a ella desde el menú Capa o dando clic derecho sobre la capa. Para que esta opción se active, hay que seleccionar previamente la capa a trabajar.Estando dentro del proceso de edición se activarán las opciones de Digitalización y Digitalización avanzada en el menú de Edición. Se recomienda anclar estas herramientas al menú principal para tener accesos rápidos a las mismas.Ahora es cuestión de marcar todos los hogares que encontremos dentro de nuestra área de trabajo. Es recomendable dejar sin relleno nuestra \"Capa de microcuenca\", de esa manera poder digitalizar lo que está dentro. Clic derecho a la capa Propiedades de la capa -Simbología -Simple fill -Estilo de relleno -Sin relleno.10) Añadiremos la capa de Bing Satellite o Google Satellite para visualizar los hogares que marcaremos con la capa de puntos recién creada. Podemos acceder desde el plugIn QuickMapServices -Bing o Google.11) Empezaremos a añadir puntos. En las herramientas de Digitalización ubicaremos la opción Añadir punto , con la cual iremos marcando cada hogar que este dentro de la \"Capa de microcuenca\" (Figura 78). En la pestaña \"Atributos del objeto espacial\" escribiremos el dato de número de habitantes por hogar obtenido del censo poblacional. En este caso es 4 personas por hogar.Figura 78. Digitalizando hogares desde imágenes satelitales.13) El siguiente paso es el de convertir la capa de puntos (vectorial) de hogares a ráster. El algoritmo se encuentra en el menú Procesos-Caja de herramientas-Interpolación-Mapa de calor.• En \"Capa de puntos\" seleccionaremos la capa de puntos en la cual digitalizamos los hogares dentro del límite de la \"Capa de microcuenca\" (Figura 79). • En la casilla \"Radio (unidades de la capa) escribiremos 15. En caso de tener correctamente referenciada la capa en el sistema UTM GTM (Figura 79). • En \"Tamaño X de pixel\" y \"Tamaño Y de pixel\" marcaremos el valor 30. Las casillas \"Filas\" y \"Columnas\" se actualizarán cuando escribamos en la casilla inferior (Figura 79). • En \"Weight from field (optional)\" indicaremos la capa que contenga el número de habitantes por hogar. Este valor influenciara el resultado final (Figura 79). • Seleccionaremos la opción Cuartico en \"Kernel shape\", como método para el cálculo de la densidad de puntos (Figura 79). • En la casilla \"Output value scaling\" seleccionaremos la opción por defecto En bruto (Figura 79). • Ya para terminar, en la casilla \"Heatmap\" detallaremos la carpeta de destino para el ráster de densidad de puntos y el nombre que le asignaremos. Una vez terminada la configuración daremos clic en Ejecutar en segundo plano (Figura 79).Para más información puede consultar los siguientes links: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=xkdzkTWcRgM y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgDVreINyRY.Figura 79. Convirtiendo la capa de puntos (vectorial) de hogares a ráster.","tokenCount":"15761"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b291f175715ba5ad3922868ce5337bcb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8b32f5c8-b59f-4613-8fd2-161ccfdbed3a/retrieve","id":"899590661"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"52a80e00-114c-44ff-90a6-cc5fc81c8696","pagecount":"62","content":"What are the gender implications of Africa RISING's agricultural intensification practices in target communities in Northern Ghana? In 2015 the project set out to evaluate this question based on four broad investigation areas:1. Gender differences in the criteria farmers use to evaluate the suitability of new practices. 2. The impact of gendered access and control over productive resources on the adoption of Africa RISING practices. 3. Gender considerations informing the adaptation of practices by male and female farmers. 4. Gender differences in access to information and learning about agricultural innovations.The evaluation was conducted in six target communities in the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions. A total of 119 individual farmers were covered in 12 focus group discussions. Data were supplemented by 31 key informant interviews. In three workshops held in May 2016 research participants validated the results. The analytical framework was informed by Kabeer's social relations approach exploring how rules set by the state, market, community, and household define gender orders underlying women's reaction to agricultural interventions.Findings show that farmers' main criteria for evaluating crop varieties were the place of the crop in family meals, its position in agricultural production, its market value, and its ability to withstand unstable weather conditions and pests. Moreover, the potential to increase yields and the suitability for cultivation of multiple crops on a piece of land mattered. The adoption of high yielding, short maturing maize was most dramatic for women, since it reduced their dependence on men. Access to community-based resources like land, labor, storage, and markets were gendered. The same held true for externally based resources such as capital or credit, technology, and extension services. Limited access to larger plots of land constrained women's ability to up-scale from baby trials.Only a few cases of adaptation of Africa RISING's practices were observed. Respondents either did not see the need to do so or technical officers did not permit. Men reported altering the number of rows cropped with cereals and legumes and changing fertilizer application. In terms of access to information and learning, women were generally more eager to learn about innovations because of their meal provisioning roles. Women were more likely to gain information from sources that rely on interactive human contact while males had a broader variety of sources including input dealers, extension officers, radios, mobile phones, and lead farmers. Domestic chores, costs of accessing information as well as restrictive husbands frequently limit women's opportunities for learning. Dissemination approaches for Africa RISING's innovations appeared top down and male-centered with few instances of peer exchange.This report is in fulfillment of a major requirement detailed in one of the terms of reference (TOR) of the consultancy agreement between the authors and the Africa Research In Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) project of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Launched in 2011, Africa RISING seeks to increase food production, improve livelihoods, and enhance the nutrition of smallholder farmers in ways that conserve the natural resource base. In Ghana the project has been implemented in 25 communities in the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions.The TOR detailing the scope and content of the evaluation charged the consultant to undertake a literature review, an empirical study, and a synthesis of both. The field research was expected to answer four broad evaluation questions:1. Any gender differences in the observed criteria farmers use to evaluate the suitability of new agricultural practices. 2. How gendered access to and control over productive resources impact the adoption or rejection of agricultural practices introduced by Africa RISING. 3. What gender considerations inform the possibility of female and male farmers to adapt agricultural practices introduced by Africa RISING. 4. Any existing gender differentials in accessing information and learning about agricultural practices in the study communities.The main interest of the evaluation was gender and labor force allocation, access to productive resources, and participation in decision-making. An additional concern was highlighting the existence or otherwise of inter-and intra-regional differences. Such interests demanded an understanding of the systems and structures underlying the positioning of females and males within the study communities. It was also necessary to understand the interrelations of various institutions at play in the transmission of innovations within and outside the study communities.Contesting the framing of women in development practice, Okali (2012) is at pains to show that the kind of analytical frames used lead to results that can impact interventions and their outcomes. According to Okali (2012), out of the existing gender analytical frameworks that guide research feeding into development planning and practice, it is only Kabeer's (1994) social relations approach that insists on an interrogation of the broad social context of communities. Such an engagement, she insists, is important to understand the social relations that shape particular outcomes. The analytical framework of this evaluation therefore was informed by Kabeer's social relations approach which demands an understanding of how four main institutions-the state, market, community, and household-set the rules for resource allocation. We were interested in how institutional rules define gender orders and the forms of access and control rights women and men are allowed.This report provides the results of the literature review, analysis of the qualitative data collected, as well as recommendations in respect of Africa RISING's intensification practices and their interaction with gender dynamics at household and community levels. It outlines also follow-up issues emerging from examinations of data derived from the evaluation questions. The structure of this report, in fulfillment of the TOR, is in two main parts. The first, the literature review, and the second, the detailed report and analysis of primary data collected in six target communities of the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions, where Africa RISING's interventions are based. There are six main sections; the first details its background and focus. The second section, which is the literature review, discusses concerns in existing literature about the place of women within agricultural production in African countries such as Ghana. Some conceptual and analytical tools that allow for a deeper examination of the core issues underlying women's access to, and, most importantly, control over productive resources in agriculture are also presented in the literature review. The review provides a brief overview of debates on women's inferior land rights, recognizing the key role land plays in providing access to other agricultural resources as well as in securing rural livelihoods. Studies reviewed note that women's land rights are deeply embedded in household sexual division of labor, which dovetails into agricultural production. The emerging gendered dimensions of accessing non-land resources such as credit, labor, and extension services are outlined. The last section of the literature review raises the observations, which note that adopting agricultural innovations is determined by the systems and structures underlying gender relations.The third section covers the study approach, data gathering, and analytical procedures. Section four details the findings of the study structured around the four main evaluation questions, beginning with a discussion of the demographic background of respondents. This fourth section presents findings on issues informing female and male technology evaluating criteria as well as differences in female and male propensity to adopt and adapt innovations introduced by Africa RISING in the study communities. The discussions take into consideration the role differential resource and information access play in structuring learning, participation, and finally technology uptake. The findings reveal how female and male provisioning roles built into the farming systems shape their resource access and control and finally their response to innovation. Field findings give credence to literature concluding that the ability of agricultural innovations to allow women greater independence in pursuing their productive activities lies in the alternatives they provide them to circumvent existing patriarchal relations that are at the base of male power evident in household provisioning. Applying the social relations approach to unravel meaning from the data gathered (section five) revealed that gender orders structured around household provisioning are further constrained by state institutional capacity that Africa RISING uses to deliver innovations to farmers in the project communities. Thus, community-and household-based values systems that shape gender orders are just as important as market and state rules that configure resource access in the project communities. For the future, we recommend in section six, the setting of clear gender-responsive goals with matching monitoring indicators to guide the conception, planning, and execution of the second phase of Africa RISING's intervention program.Agriculture forms the largest production sector in Ghana, employing 42 percent of Ghana's working people (GSS 2013). The recent national and population housing census found 49 percent of Ghana's agricultural labor force to be female and 51 percent male. Females, however, dominate subsistence production, constituting 70 percent of its labor force. They also form the majority of the operators in food distribution and marketing (65 percent) (GSS 2013).The main agricultural workforce in Ghana are peasant farmers, very few operate as waged laborers. Women in agriculture are mainly unpaid household laborers, with the majority working on their husbands' farms (Duncan and Brants 2004).There are additional concerns for Africa's agricultural labor force. Beyond low productivity is the operation of patriarchal systems that pose huge challenges for women's access to productive resources (Koira 2014). Ghana, like other countries in the West African sub-region, is signatory to international conventions guaranteeing women's rights and has enshrined constitutional provisions that recognize equality of opportunities as well as political and legal rights of citizens. Yet, norms and deeply entrenched patriarchal cultural practices deny women the opportunity to exercise their full rights as citizens (Koira 2014). Women as a result, do not have equal access to productive resources for agricultural production.Ghana recognizes the challenges of agricultural productivity and women's place within the sector in its efforts at national development. Ghana's food and agriculture policy, for example, acknowledges women's contribution to the sector and the gendered constrains under which they carry out their agricultural activities. The 2007 policy notes that:Majority of women in agriculture have limited access to land, labour and capital due to cultural and institutional factors. Access to land is often restricted to usufruct rights only; women cannot provide collateral for credit because they may not have legal ownership of tangible assets. Agricultural produce traders are mostly women; yet official credit programmes do not usually cover trading activities. Their reproductive roles, which are usually defined by culture, interfere with their productive roles in terms of time for the latter (Ministry of Food and Agriculture 2007).A number of efforts have been made to assist farmers and additionally promote women's rights within the agriculture sector (Ministry of Food and Agriculture 2007; Other shortfalls on the part of the Ministry identified were the implementation of the Gender and Agriculture Development Strategy, described as slow and with a narrow focus. The rest were the weak coordination and collaboration of identified stakeholders, the absence of a monitoring framework for holding implementers accountable as well as the lack of a review implementation process (Ministry of Food and Agriculture 2007).Africa RISING's initiatives fall in line with the concerns of the Ghana Government over its agriculture sector. The interventions of Africa RISING are geared towards improving technological inputs, early maturing and resistant seed varieties, agricultural chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides), and equipment. Skills' development to ensure the appropriate use of new technologies as well as the adoption of practices that enhance productivity are also key parts. A fundamental aspect of Africa RISING's intervention is the introduction of agricultural innovations to facilitate community well being. As announced by Ellis-Jones, Okali, and Agyeman (2014), Africa RISING seeks to end poverty and hunger among smallholder households in Northern Ghana, by enabling the adoption of intensive and diversified farming. Its interests are to improve food, nutrition, and income for the benefit of women and children. It targets smallholder farmers through a variety of work packages on production, food storage and processing, nutrition information as well as marketing (Ellis-Jones et al. 2014). These work packages, in all, were developed out of Africa RISING's Program Framework 20122016, which seeks to address identified farmer constraints through the introduction of participatory integrated systems. Specific activities include improving soil fertility through cereallegume cropping and intensifying the raising of livestock. Efforts focusing on food processing include attempts to reduce food spoilage, introducing new products, and value addition.Africa RISING's attempt to deepen its intervention through targeting, more specifically, the connection between gender constructs and how they impact the adoption of intensification practices in the target communities is a logical concern. The project document specifies these main goals as an attempt to increase food production, improve livelihoods, and enhance the nutritional status of smallholder farmers, and at the same time, conserve time and natural resources. Such goals speak to the developmental challenges of the three northern regions of Ghana, where the project is based. Having a dedicated gender focus is important for realizing such goals, since women form a key productive force in the regions where Africa RISING's interventions are based. They work, however, under severe social and economic constraints.The second part of this task is the collection and analysis of primary data from selected beneficiary communities, six in all, drawn from the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions. The chosen framework for the analysis was an adaption of the social relations approach as outlined by Kabeer (1994). This informed the data gathering and analysis of primary data presented in the second part of this report. Kabeer's social relations approach is an attempt to explore, for greater clarity, the structuring of gender inequality in order to direct policy. According to Kotey and Tsikata (1998), a social relations approach is useful in discussions on women's resource rights. It allows extensive insights of the social structuring of women and men, while recognizing the role power relations play in determining access to and control over productive resources. Such analysis according to Okali (2012) is important to move away from discourses that simplify the complex social interrelations shaping the lives of women and men in rural agricultural production systems. For her, it is important to \"return to the wider social context to determine and understand actual outcomes, and to learn more about the processes involved\" (Okali 2012: 8). She explains that for policies to effect change in women's social position they should be informed by an approach which \"reinforces the need to shift attention away from households and marital relations to other institutional sites where limited research has been undertaken to date, but where much of the discussion of change in the agricultural sector is situated\" (Okali 2012: 15).The social relations approach proceeds on the assumption that institutional rules, often stable over time, set routines for executing social tasks in all communities. Social rules set the parameters for division of labor-the assignment of social responsibilities to specific social groups based on gender, class, age, and ethnicity. Peoples' response to the rules so set over time became so engrained in their actions that they become self-fulfilling, legitimizing the hierarchical ordering of unequal distribution of rewards attached to such social roles. The division of labor by sex is so embedded within society that it appears natural, making people believe that gender roles are biologically determined.A significant part of the social relations approach for analyzing gender relations is its conceptual tools. The first we highlight, for the purposes of this work, is the phrase, \"social relations\". Kabeer's (1994) original formation used this phrase to refer to the positional structuring of groups of people within a given community based on socially constituted systemic differences.These differences, at one stage, give some groups power and privilege over others, while simultaneously disadvantaging others. Thus, embedded in the term social relations are power relations.The second concept, part of this analytical frame, is the term institutions. And here we find Veeman and Politylo's (2003: 322) definition; that institutions are \"social decision systems that provide rules for the use of resources and for the distribution of resultant income or other benefit streams\" most appropriate for our specific context. Kabeer outlines four institutions, two formal and two informal, as structuring women's lives with set rules for resource access and control. They are the state, market, community, and household. They do not act in isolation, but are intricately intertwined. Hampel-Milagrosa and Frickenstein (2008) argue that social norms regarding valued resources penetrate and influence profoundly, even formal institutional resource allocation structures.We shall therefore, in our examination of field data, show how the four institutions shape the gender orders that structure women's rights to existing agricultural resources. We use the term gender orders to refer to norms and traditions that determine who is considered a \"proper\" woman or man and their place in a particular community. Gender orders include culturally specific notions of appropriate behavior and gender responsibilities and rights. Our attention will focus on how gender social relations structure women's participation, adoption, as well as information sources for accessing Africa RISING interventions. Additional concepts that inform data analysis in this report are access to and control over resources included in the social relations approach. These are important feminists' conceptual tools, which help unravel power relations over resource use. Thus, adopting a social relations approach to the study of female and male household members as regards roles and division of labor in general and particularly in agricultural tasks, will provide useful insights into women's resource rights in agricultural communities in northern Ghana. Unraveling the extent to which social relations shape women's participation in Africa RISING's projects should assist in identifying how to confront some of the deeply entrenched rules and practices that determine women's participation in agricultural tasks and in turn shape women's bargaining power over productive resources within their households and the broader community.Literature shows that globally there are differentiated patterns of female and male participation in agriculture (Bryceson 1995;Young 1993). The seminal publication by Boserup (1970), first highlighted these differences as situated in farming production systems, marked by technology. With time however, the differentiations are understood as being more complex. Later Young (1993) explained that farm production worldwide is marked by variations in socioeconomic as well as agroecological systems. Gender divisions in farming tend to be shaped by notions of female and male abilities and are therefore more likely to reflect traditional sex divisions within the domestic realm. Again, according to her, levels of mobility granted women determine the nature and amount of agricultural tasks they will perform (Young 1993).Young varied Boserup's categorization of female, male, and mixed farming systems to forms of labor organization in agriculture. She introduced the concepts of sex segregation and sex sequential farming systems, noting that the two operate simultaneously (Young 1993). Sex sequential farming systems, she explains, drive different labor inputs from females and males at specific stages in farming on the same plot of land. Women therefore perform farm tasks like weeding, fertilizer application, harvesting, and processing farm produce. Men's tasks include land clearing and preparation (ploughing and mound making), weedicide application, and pesticide spraying. Sex-segregated production in agriculture, Young notes, is assigning the production of certain crops or livestock to women or men alone. Male crops tend to shore up their provider roles. She cautions, together with others, that such differentiations in agricultural tasks and produce however are not rigid and breakdown easily in the face of a number of factors. These include changing socioeconomic situations, such as out migration and the market value of crops, and the adoption of new technologies (Doss 2002).Existing literature in Ghana captures sex-segregated and sequential divisions in crop and livestock production (Duncan 2004;Duncan and Brants 2004). In Ghana, crops usually attributed to men are the main staples, or those grown for local or international markets such as cocoa, yam, millet, or sorghum and women operate with legumes and vegetables (Duncan 2004;Britwum et al. 2006). They note at the same time that women are not wholly absent from cash crop production; they participate in their own right or as unpaid household laborers on their husbands' farms or as waged workers on commercial farms.The main concern here is the usefulness of the commonly accepted constructs of gendered cropping systems in existing literature for policy making. Doss' exploration of the distinctions in women and men's cropping systems offers useful lessons. She notes that distinguishing female and male crops is not a straightforward issue, explaining that \"[t]he cultural constructs of crops as men's and women's crops may not, however, match current practices in African households\" (Doss 2002(Doss : 1987)). For her, \"there are gendered patterns of cropping, but the patterns are more complex than simply that some specific crops are grown by either men or women\" (Doss 2002(Doss : 1988)).A number of issues stand out then in assigning crops as women's or men's. They include considerations such as the relative importance of crops for women and men farmers even within the same farm households as well as the mode in which farmers are categorized. Doss believes that such issues are important to inform policy about the gendered issues within cropping systems. In order to assign crops by gender, she defines farmers by household headship, holder of land, and farm revenue control. Her final conclusion is that:No crops stand out as being either men's crops or women's crops, other than rice and sorghum in the savannah zone. Yet, the proportion of women as farmers varies across crops. This implies that although there are no clearly defined men's and women's crops, agricultural policies are not gender neutral if they focus on some crops rather than others (Doss 2002(Doss : 1992)).Whatever sex-differentiated systems operate in a particular community, it is generally observed that female agricultural tasks are normally linked to tasks with lower value, while male tasks confer ownership claims to land and market-oriented products. The important lesson from Doss is the observation that policy making should be more concerned about gender relations within cropping patterns and other forms of social relations that differentiate women. Thus it is the crop and its importance to different categories of women because of their social positioning and the way they feed into their gendered provisioning roles that should inform policy. In order to do this, more robust forms of gender analysis that move beyond what women and men do and the relative resource base is important for informing policy.Existing literature on economic participation in Africa notes sharp gender differences in access to productive resources, most pronounced in agricultural communities. Studies on Ghana include those that cover general assets like that of Oduro et al. (2011). Others such as Duncan (2004), Duncan and Brants (2004) as well as Apusigah (2009) focus on women in agricultural production. A substantial number however, examine gender and the land question, noting the significant role of land in agricultural communities in Ghana.  (1997). They all point to considerable differences in access to land for residential and agricultural purposes for women and men.The fact of women's unequal land access is sometimes contested (Britwum et al. 2014). The majority of authors writing on the subject like Tsikata (2008), Rünger (2006), Sarpong (2006), Kotey and Owusu-Yeboah (2003), Quisumbing et al. (1999), and Bortei-Doku Aryeetey (2002) note that women's access is deeply constrained. Tsikata (2008) observes how a small body of influential literature disputes the claim that gender relations constrain women's land access. Millar et al. (2007) and Benneh et al. (1995), for instance, reject outright, claims that portray men as owners of farmlands and women as cultivators. They insist that in most cases, even men never have outright ownership of land. There are also claims that land commoditization is transforming women's inferior land rights since all who have the means can own land through market purchase and register the title in their name. Rejecting these conclusions, Tsikata (2009) insists that such observations are erroneous deriving from the failure of writers to distinguish between ownership (legal title), access (ability to use), and control (the right to use and determine use). Making a distinction between access and control, Tsikata shows that women can use land for farming and keep the proceeds as they want, however, they only have use right, under the discretion of their husbands or family heads, and if they are tenants, then their landowners. The last two tend to be male. In some cases, access precludes even the right to determine what to grow. Gender divisions in agricultural tasks make men automatic owners of land. The main route for conferring customary ownership is land clearing. This is a male task in all farming communities in Ghana (Duncan 2004).Ghana's land reform project pays attention to strengthening individual legal ownership through titling. However, Minkah-Premo and Dwuona-Hammond's study, which examined land titling, reveals that few women have registered land in their name (2005). Land titling processes tend to exclude women since fewer women can afford to purchase land as easily as men (Tsikata, 2008;Rünger 2006;Sarpong 2006). When women purchase land, this and other studies show that they tend to register it in the names of male relations rather than their individual names (Minkah-Premo and Dwuona-Hammond 2005).Beyond women's human rights, there are efficiency concerns in the discourse of gendered access to productive resources. Studies such as Kelkar (2013) and Doss and Morris (2001) note that removing gendered constraints to productive resources not only enhances women's productivity beyond men's, but have more direct benefits to household well-being. Thus, it is noted that:…if women enjoyed the same level of inputs as men, this would lead to higher yields and to potential benefits for themselves and for Ghana's rural economy. … The as yet untapped nature of this potential is an opportunity cost and demonstrates the importance of gender equity measures not only for women's welfare, but also for developing rural economies at large (ADVANCE 2013: 32).The observation about the beneficial outcome of women's productive work for household well being stresses both the human rights and efficiency dimension of improving women's productivity (Doss and Morris 2001). A concern, we believe, underscores Africa RISING's interest in undertaking a gender analysis of its interventions so far and how the gender sensitivity of its second phase can be enhanced.Women and men's unequal access to and control over land have attracted attention for a number of reasons. First, land is the main resource in all farming systems. Second, some observers note that access to land usually determines access to other productive resources (Dittoh 2000;Duncan and Brants 2004). Land in Ghana is communally owned and most subsistence farms are on such lands, governed by customary law, specific to each community (Aryeetey et al. 2007). Statutory law recognizes customary rules and practices, a fact enshrined in Ghana's constitution, which gives Ghana what is called a legally plural system (Woodman 1996). Certain customary norms determine women's right to land. The most important factors identified are inheritance systems, land availability, conception of women's agricultural productivity, and the notion about women's claim to be recognized as agricultural workers in their own right.Literature notes that in Ghana, a distinct sexual division of labor exists in all spheres of production, including the agricultural sector: a fact that has implications for the rules underlying access to and control over productive resources. The use of land clearing as a means of acquiring usufruct rights over agricultural land under customary law, for instance, is disadvantageous to women in gaining direct access to land, since land clearing is predominantly a male task. In the case of northern Ghana, the belief in the sanctity of land, with the associated rites and rituals performed prior to land allocation, is another route that grants male control over communal land. Such rites are male roles and give men power in decisions over land allocation and use (Britwum et al. 2014;Apusigah 2009).Women's involvement in productive activities is often viewed as secondary or supplementary to those of men, based on the notion that males are solely responsible for household provisioning.This assumption legitimizes unequal access to agricultural resources. Dittoh (2000) reports that even in cases where the women constitute the main source of agricultural labor, they still are regarded as assistants. As a consequence, women tend to gain smaller and less fertile plots of land for their own farming activities (Manuh et al. 1997;Whitehead 1984). But women are incorporated into agricultural systems differently. Apusigah's discussion of livelihood-based interests in land notes variations in women's incorporation in productive activities in Ghana's three northern regions where the study was based. Her argument is based on Sen's notion that \"the household as a political space remains a contentious site due to the privileging of some interests and under-privileging of others. … this has been found to yield unequal entitlements and capabilities\" (Apusigah, 2009: 53). Her analysis shows how rules structuring marital obligations within farm households around gender divisions of labour are also set within community-based culturally specific authority systems. Thus, despite the critical role women play in household provisioning, their positioning as secondary producers is derived from the notion that the soup ingredients they provide are not as important for household survival as cereal staples and yam. Britwum et al. (2014) explain that while a lack of carbohydrate staples such as maize, millet, rice, sorghum, and yam (supposedly male crops) results in starvation and might lead to death, vegetable privation is not life threatening and its immediate absence in the diet is not readily perceptible. This fact is used to justify the allocation of relatively smaller and less fertile plots of land to women. According to Apusigah (2009), the sexual division of agricultural labor is often advantageous for men in securing a longer term usufruct right over agricultural land. For instance, while women require annual renegotiation for use of land after each harvest, their male counterparts, who may be growing cash or market-oriented crops, have longer security of their lands (Kotey and Tsikata 1998;Benneh et al. 1995).… the social positioning of women and land-labour ascriptions in the farm household are important determinants of their livelihoods im/possibilities. As members of farm families, their livelihoods options and choices are determined largely by the cultural constructions of their labour in relation to land (2009: 65).Such positioning of women and men in relation to farm production subsumes female land access within that of their household provisioning roles. Their access to land and reciprocal labor of their husbands in the first place, and in the second, the nature of land they are entitled to, is largely informed by such divisions of labor.Apusigah notes some inter-regional differentiations and points to how in the Upper East and West Regions, women are considered farm hands, with strict marital obligations to work on their husbands' or household farms, performing several agricultural tasks. In this system, women have dual cultivation roles, work on their so-called personal farms, usually smaller, and that of the household (husband's). In the Northern Region and among the Gonjas and Nanumbas of Upper East Region, Apusigah identifies instances where women are considered non-farm hands and therefore have no culturally specific \"on-farm cultivation responsibilities\" (Apusigah, 2009: 57). Women here are seen as helpers on their husbands' farms. In these communities, women are hired independently to work on farms. Wives can be rewarded for providing services on the farms of their husbands. As non-farm hands, women's entitlement to communal lands is severely curtailed and as farm hands, their entitlements stop at the quality and size of land available once male interests have been served.Beyond household and community prescribed roles that structure women as non/farm hands and their corresponding entitlements, are natural and market forces. Land availability of course determines the amount and quality of land women can access after male interests have been served. A situation, influenced by climate change, and in recent times, determined by market forces and the push towards urbanization, that is putting pressure on land available for cultivation.One of the issues underlying discourses contesting women's inferior land rights is that legal plurality allows the application of customary rules with tenets that some insist, are inherently egalitarian. Customary practices some say embody the principle of social justice and grant equality of access for both sexes (Benneh et al. 1995). Literature has it that about 80 percent of rural land in Ghana is regulated under customary law, where leaders of landholding groups such as lineage heads and chiefs are expected to distribute land equally to all members of their respective landholding groups (FAO 2013). All who acquire such land only have \"use rights or customary freehold regardless of their sex\" (ADVANCE 2013: 27). The customary land rules have significant ethnic variations (FAO 2013). The FAO report notes, however, the similarities in the tenure systems operating in the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions, and that they differ considerably from those of the rest of the country.Literature reviewed shows that marriage restricts women's ability to benefit from customary access to land (Britwum et al. 2014). Marriage can rid women of their access to lineage lands for a number of reasons. These include the location of the marital home, the type of marriage, and the woman's status within that marriage. Most Ghanaian working women spend a significant amount of their adult life in marriage (Kotey and Tsikata 1998). The tendency is to consider women temporal members of their natal home and strangers in marital communities due to rules for reckoning descent that exclude an affine (Kotey & Tsikata 1998). In Ghana, two main systems of reckoning descent operate, the matrilineal covering most of the Akan groups in Southern Ghana and the patrilineal where the main ethnic groups within the three northern regions are located. Women in northern Ghana are first and foremost members of their paternal ethnic groups but lose their customary use right to lineage land when they marry and move to join their husbands. None of the ethnic groups grant wives equal rights to lineage land of their husbands except in isolated cases. Their access to land through their husbands' lineage is often contingent on the success of the marriage. Women's main access to land within the three study regions was dependent on their relations with male relatives, their fathers through whom they claim membership to their natal lineage, and husbands who can cede land from their landholding groups to wives to cultivate crops for the household cooking pot.Women do not have uniform access to land even within the same marriage. Other factors deriving from maternity, a woman's childbearing status, and the sex of her children, can all influence her access to land for a number of reasons (Whitehead and Tsikata 2003). Women with male children in northern Ghana have better access to land since all lineage systems pass on property to males (Manuh et al. 1997). Widows without children, and more so without male children, are the worse off when it comes to maintaining claims over plots of land accessed through the largesse of a deceased husband (Adolwine and Dudima 2010). More problematic are the land rights of daughters, step and adopted daughters as well as women in consensual relationships (Britwum et. al. 2014).Outside the realm of customary norms, there are factors operating in concert to undermine the limited access that customary practices offer women seeking land for agricultural purposes. We will classify these factors as market forces, using the social relations framework. They are identified in literature as shifts in land use and management largely driven by private profitseeking interests. They include pressures on land from urbanization and commercial farming as well as the extractive industries, mining both legal and illegal (Yaro 2009). These are the market pressures driving land commodification and removing most lands from the ambit of the communal land holding groups. According to Britwum et al. (2014), as the economic value of land increases, conflict among traditional leaders, clans, and their members deepens and undoubtedly, women's land rights worsen. Thus, increasingly, male heads are converting their traditional trust holding positions to individualized titles. Land is sold out for residential and commercial purposes, leaving little for anyone, including women. This situation is further worsened by rapid population growth. The Northern Region which was known for is relative land abundance is today one of the fastest regions experiencing growth, with Tamale, the regional capital, noted in Ghana's last census, as the third fastest growing city (GSS 2013). Urbanization threatens women's access for the simple reason that theirs are usually lands on the fringe of the communities and are the first to go under peri-urban expansion. Yaro (2009) observes that factors beyond peri-urbanization, such as government land claims, further limit women's access to agricultural land in northern Ghana.Formal institutional structures exhibit gender-related discrimination in land governance in Ghana. Britwum et al. (2014) posit that this is due to the gendered nature and outlook of the formal institutions. State institutions, for example, lack accurate information about the state of women's land rights. Empirical evidence shows that in Ghana, the incidence of registration of land titles and deeds by men far outnumber that of women. For instance, Rünger (2006) reports that most land titles registered are in the name of men. This is confirmed by Tsikata (2008), who notes that significant disparities exist with the numbers of women and men in land titling and registration in both Accra and Kumasi. Minkah-Premo and Dwuona-Hammond (2005) also noted that in many cases women register land belonging to them jointly with their husbands or solely in the names of their husbands and other male relatives.Women's land right problems persist even under reforms. It is said that the emphasis on efficiency concerns in land tenure reforms lead to a change in the rules of the game intensifying women's land rights problems in a different way (Tsikata 2008  (Larbi 2006: 9).In these words, Larbi is raising concerns about the absence of dedicated attention of the reform processes to groups of persons like women and migrants, whose land rights are secondary and derived from primary holders. Limited as legal provisions for securing women's gendered land rights are, low literacy levels further constrains their access to vital information about existing legal provisions that can facilitate some measure of land rights. The modes of enforcement of such rights, and even knowledge about the state institutions responsible for the enforcement of such rights, often elude women (Sarpong 2006).There are significant variations in women and men's land holding patterns beyond unequal access. According to a report of the Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement report (ADVANCE 2013), the main characteristic of farming in Ghana is that about 80 percent of agricultural activities are on small subsistence farms averaging 1.2 hectares with little mechanization. The report notes further that males hold more farms than females and their farms are likely to be larger. Men hold 8.1 times more of the medium and large-sized farms of five acres or more. Even though women's farms tend to be smaller they are more likely, according to the report, to be market-oriented. A significant observation is that the Upper East Region happens to be a region where female held farms are on average larger than those of their male counterparts (ADVANCE 2013). This observation requires further investigation to ascertain the factors accounting for this situation. The Upper East Region of Ghana is experiencing the highest pressures on land with some places identified by Apusigah (2009) as where women are more likely to operate as non-farm hands.Even though research notes discriminatory access to resources structured around social gender relations, a number of them do acknowledge that women are not entirely helpless and have been utilizing existing avenues to access land in their own right. Some women in Ghana secure land through inheritance from their male relatives. Duncan and Brants (2004) have identified sharecropping as another means of securing agricultural land in some southern farming communities. A third means identified is land purchase. It appears that the alternatives tend to be region specific; with women in Southern Ghana having a greater range of alternatives. Miller et al. (2007) argue that, in Northern Ghana, cases of land inheritance are so rare and cannot constitute a reliable means for Northern women's access to land. Apusigah (2009) as well as the ADVANCE report (2013: 30) note that sharecropping is uncommon in northern Ghana. By this, they were implying that sharecropping is not an agricultural land-securing avenue for women in the three northern regions. Also, relative to the situation in southern Ghana, land markets-the outright sale of land-are not as developed in northern Ghana (Apusigah 2009;Duncan and Brants 2004). These findings appear to suggest that, for women in Northern Ghana who could afford to buy land, it is difficult to do so within the context of gendered power relations in productivity and the spirituality associated with land allocation. Critical to agricultural production are other productive resources beyond land such as labor and time, credit and financial resources, extension services, technology, and infrastructural facilities (Duncan 2004). Their distribution, however, is determined by a number of factors with gender playing a key role. A number of publications have expressed concern over marked differences between women and men to such resources noting that women's lower yields could be due to gender-specific inhibitions to agricultural resources other than land (Agarwal 2011 Agricultural production worldwide is fast becoming capital intensive creating a rising need for cash among agricultural producers. Literature states that the most inhibiting productive resource constraint is the lack of credit to pay for agricultural inputs like tractor and ploughing services, agro-chemicals, and seed varieties (Britwum et al. 2014). Credit also provides the needed capital to access other productive resources like land and labor. In fact, it is noted that about 97 percent of loans raised for rural agriculture are for the acquisition of agricultural inputs (ADVANCE 2013). But credit is hardly available to farmers in Ghana. Available credit tends to be restricted to large-scale cash crop farmers with small-scale food crop farmers hardly able to access formal lending from financial institutions (Adolwine and Dudima 2010). The lending policies of the formal institutions are unfavorable to small-scale rural farmers generally. Both female and male subsistence farmers depend mainly on non-formal sources like relatives, friends, and moneylenders. However, according to an FAO report, there exist gender disparities in credit access \"with men overall having better access to formal credit sources (public sector and private banks) compared to women\" (FAO 2013; 7). Also noted are differences in female and male credit sources. Male market-oriented farms, according to the ADVANCE report, have better access to public sector credit (ADVANCE 2013).The drive to improve women's access to credit has resulted in a proliferation of micro-credit schemes with different players spanning state, donor, private individuals, NGOs, and cooperative schemes (FAO 2013: 2011). Women are not evenly disadvantaged in terms of credit access. Women involved in market-oriented farming are reported as having better access to NGO and cooperative sources than men (FAO 2013). The lending activity of NGOs is heavily concentrated in income-generating projects within the food processing industry. Women who are involved in food processing are more likely to benefit from the numerous credit schemes set up by NGOs working to ease access to credit for rural women (Britwum et al. 2006;Duncan 2004). Age is an additional factor and younger women have been noted to face additional obstacles to credit than their older counterparts in similar standing (Koira 2014).Limitations to credit are noted to inhibit women's ability to efficiently utilize the small plots of land they are able to access. According to Padmanabhan (2004), women's ability to cultivate cash crops can in turn enhance their capacity to access other agricultural assets like land. Cash income enables women to overcome credit scarcity and facilitates access to the known critical productive resources like labor, improved seed varieties, and agrochemicals.Extension delivery in Ghana is a problem for all farmers. There are, however, regional as well as ecological differences in the intensity of extension shortfalls. Farmers in the forest zones are recorded as having better access than those in the coastal and savannah zones. Such disparities, largely traced to colonial rule, have not seen much improvement since (Duncan 2004). In addition to regional disparities, the FAO (2013) notes that gender differences in extension services tend to be more pronounced than other resources. The publication cites in support a survey by the World Bank and the International Food Policy Research Institute, conducted in 2010, which shows that contact between extension officers and farmers is generally low and even lower for women. The study noted that the proportion of male farmers visited by extension officers ranged between 10 and 13 percent as against less than 2 percent for female farmers. The female farmers mentioned were farmers in female-headed households and female spouses in male-headed households (FAO 2013). In Ghana, studies explain that the lack of parity in accessing extension services for women is due to a number of reasons. These reasons become more intense in Ghana's northern regions (Bortey-Doku Aryeetey 2013). The first is the sheer absence of women extension officers. In communities with entrenched patriarchal values, like the Northern Region, for example, cultural restrictions on the extent to which female farmers can interact with male extension officers further constricts women's access to extension services. Again, extension services concentrate on cash crops to the neglect of locally consumed foods or subsistence crops, an area where men dominate and where few women dare to venture at the risk of offending culturally established norms (Kelkar 2013;Agarwal 2011).Labor needs on most rural farms according to Anaglol et al. ( 2014) are mainly for manual tasks like land preparation, planting, and harvesting. Such labor is met either through unpaid household labor or waged workers. Within all farming systems the social as well as economic relations that structure labor relations are part of the system of determining rewards for other resources and the beneficial outcomes of agricultural products. Here again literature shows marked differences in the access of women and men to labor, and time available for farmrelated tasks. Two main factors that structure labor relations are access to additional cash to hire labor and traditional rights that grant access to the free labor of others (Britwum et al. 2014). The general observation of most findings is that males tend to have better access to labor than women (Anaglol et al. 2014). Again there are differences in the forms of labor employed on female and male farms. With women more likely to rely on unpaid household labor and mutual self-help groups.A number of factors have been identified over the years as affecting a woman's right to her own labor and that of others in her household and the community generally (Duncan 2004;Apusigah 2009). These include the disappearance of reciprocal labor relations between kin and neighbors, marriage, male migration, and reduced access to cash that can be used to pay hired labor (Duncan 2004;Duncan and Brants 2004). First and foremost is what Apusigah describes as the cultural appropriation of women's labor, which defines their farm roles as supplementing men's provider responsibilities (Apusigah 2009). Thus conjugal arrangements for household provisioning as well as the sexual division of domestic tasks govern women's time use and their labor responsibilities (Britwum et al. 2006). In a number of cultural settings in Ghana, marriage confers rights of husbands to the labor of their wives within farm households (Britwum et al. 2014). Again women's unequal share of domestic work reduces their time for farm activities where household provisioning require her to have her own farm separate from the household farm, which is normally conceived as the male head's. Zakaria et al. (2015) note in their study in Northern Ghana how women were more likely than men to work eight hours per day.Though contributing immensely to agricultural productivity, agricultural innovations and improved technologies, according to existing literature, are often out of reach of most rural women and were hardly patronized by them. For example, it has been reported that women farmers are less likely than men to adopt improved crop varieties, use fertilizer, and apply agricultural chemicals. Doss and Morris (2001), in a study on maize production in Ghana, discovered that 39 percent of women maize farmers had adopted improved varieties. This was against 59 percent of male farmers. Their adoption of new crop varieties was the outcome of access to agricultural resources like land, extension services, and labor; in the study by Doss and Morris, it was family labor. The reasons ascribed for low levels of fertilizer application include lower educational attainment in tandem with reduced access to information (Quisumbing et al. 1999). Lower formal education among women can be traced to the social construction of the sexes and the assumption that boys need more education for their future breadwinning roles, and that girls do not need formal education to function well in their reproductive roles. While inability to read the language of agricultural innovation and technologies affect women's access to such information, it is important to note that their multiple roles further limit their time to avail themselves of such information where it is available and in a form they can access.Adoption and adaptation of agricultural innovations and technologies such as fertilizer use, improved seeds, irrigation, and mechanized farming are ideal for those who have the financial wherewithal. Bugri (2004) suggests that in northern Ghana, the focus of intervention is mostly on men because they tend to produce cash crops. Benneh et al. (1995) describe this situation as excluding the rural poor; the majority of whom are women. Duncan and Brants (2004) confirm this observation in their Volta Region study when they note that, as subsistence farmers, women are often marginalized in the introduction of productive technologies, information, storage facilities, and even markets. Morris et al. (1999) noted in their study on the adoption of maize technologies, three main factors: technology characteristics, farming environment, and the farmer. The characteristics of the technology they identified included its complexity, profitability, riskiness, divisibility, and compatibility with other technologies. In the specific case of the farming environment, the determining factors were the agroclimatic conditions, prevailing cropping systems, degree of commercialization of agriculture, farmer knowledge, and the availability of physical inputs. In the case of farmer characteristics, they noted that the underlying factors were structured by ethnicity and culture, wealth, education, and gender (Morris et al. 1999).They noted no observed differences between women and men in two areas, specifically in the adoption of crop varieties and row planting as against fertilizer application. However for them:…the observed gender-linked differences in the rates of adoption are not attributable to inherent characteristics of the technologies themselves; rather the differences result from the fact that women in Ghana have less secure access than men to land, labor, and credit, enjoy relatively fewer contacts with the extension service, and receive less formal education (Morris et al. 1999: 34).(1998) that institutional factors and resource constraints influenced decisions to adopt technology and not gender. For them, to the extent that access to resources remained gendered, women and men's differential adoption of agricultural innovations can be said to be located more in gender power relations.A key point is the fact that agricultural innovations are not gender neutral and can either entrench existing gender orders or undermine them. New crop varieties also bring with them, new demands such as irrigation, agrochemicals, and levels of labor intensity (Padmanabhan 2004). These, of course, affect labor relations in terms of whose tasks get displaced and who has to take up additional roles. New crop varieties can produce forms of gender segregation and alter the sex sequence in which women and men perform farming activities. New varieties may not appeal to women for the simple reason that they come embedded with traditional gendered barriers that they face in agriculture (Padmanabhan 2004). Beyond gender differences in the rate of adoption of innovations, there are differences in the types of agricultural technologies adopted. The determining factor is the agricultural task technology is replacing. It becomes a matter of the technology and its ability to address women's access barriers. A main point here is the type of additional tasks improved varieties call for. These might include intensive cropping systems involving the use of agrochemicals, pesticides, fertilizer, and weedicide application. The new tasks and implication for women's time use burden is one problem; the other is the additional cost. Women's preference for local varieties and rejection of improved seeds, according to Padmanabhan (2004), serve as ways of getting round access barriers to agrochemical inputs and new markets. New crop varieties have cost implications and are therefore not suited for subsistence economies where food markets are undeveloped. Local varieties are not dependent on agricultural chemicals.The utility of crop varieties is an additional consideration informing its uptake by women. In predominantly subsistent economies any crop or varieties introduced must respond to household provisioning need. Padmanabhan (2004), in her discussions on crop innovations and gender relations among the Dagombas and Kusasis in the Northern and the Upper East Regions, outlined household meal provisioning as the key issue. She identified the key gender modifiers for structuring women's meal provisioning as maternity, conjugal status, and age. Thus, household provisioning is fully integrated into life-cycle changes around puberty, marriage, and motherhood. A further dimension is the fact that being subsistence economies, these gendered constructs become fully incorporated in the production systems of the people. The first is the nature of crops grown and second is the kind of agricultural tasks performed even where women and men farm the same plots of land. Thus, the traditional cropping systems structured around cereals and legumes respond to food staples and soil management practices.Gender constructs in Northern Ghana are located not only in the production of staples but their storage, distribution, and preparation for household consumption. Quoting Goody, Padmanabhan (2004) insists that the time and energy required in food preparation is an additional factor underlying the constructs of gender around food provisioning. Among the Kusasis and Dagombas, male power is deeply embedded in the production and distribution of the main staples, millet and sorghum. Men are perceived first as the main providers and the main cereal staples enjoy high status and corresponding value. In fact, this is evidenced in the position of the sorghum barn and its significance in rituals. Women are barred from entering the barns and only do so during widowhood rites. Womanhood is structured around the main soup ingredient dawadawa. In the Northern Region, the acquisition of the dawadawa seeds falls under male control (Apusigah 2009).The adoption of new varieties then, is a response to existing provisioning systems and the extent to which such varieties lend themselves as viable alternatives to local staples. An additional consideration is their market appeal and the extent to which the returns for the sale of such varieties allow farmers to recoup losses and purchase the food ingredients. In this case, improved varieties that are viable only as market-oriented crops might have a different appeal from those that can be substituted for local, key staple ingredients in household meals. Crops then do not have the same value and depend to a large measure on their place in the family meal as well as their market value. The main crops in family meals in the three northern regions beyond the cereal staples of millet and sorghum are maize and rice, vegetables like okra, and legumes such as beans and groundnut. Dawadawa serves as a soup ingredient.Earlier discussions have raised the point about how inter-and intraregional difference arises from gender orders around household provisioning and the ability of new crops to replace known staples. In the three northern regions, this has been built around maize as a substitute for millet. Calling this staple replacing, Padmanabhan (2004) explains it as the process where the introduction of new crops or seed varieties shifts gender restrictions in crop segregation. Such occurrences can either intensify women's restrictions for the production of certain crops or usurp patriarchal restrictions that bar women from cultivating certain crops. Thus, the agricultural innovations do make a direct impact in the constructions of gender. The case of soybean replacing dawadawa, the main soup ingredient is one such example Padmanabhan (2004) explored at length.There are, in addition, intra-gender power relations within households that arise out of the provisioning role and shore up male power. In this instance, it is the relations between mother and daughter-in-law. The notion that a woman qualifies to pick up the laborious process of preparing dawadawa into kpalago only when she has had three children is a case in point (Padmanabhan 2004). Further to this fact is that the mother-in-law has to initiate the wife who so qualifies on attainment of motherhood into this skill. This practice serves to make marriage an important event for women to acquire provisioning skills. In this instance, it is not a question of gender and access to productive agricultural resources and women's lack thereof but rather, how such resources turn into elements in gender constructs.The main finding of this literature review is the place of social gender relations in the uptake of agricultural innovations in the project regions in Ghana and the rest of West Africa. These will be highlighted in this section to inform the main evaluation questions directing the collection of primary data in the selected Africa RISING project communities. The first of the four evaluation questions seeks to explore the criteria that female and male farmers use to determine the suitability of an innovation for adoption. The second targets the place of gender roles in adoption as well as resource access. The third question seeks to unravel female and male differences in innovation adaption and the reasons for their choices. The fourth and last question is interested in community sources of information about agricultural practices, access to information, and learning spaces for innovation adoption.The review captured various explanations for women's limited access to recourses highlighting the core place of social gender relations in structuring unequal female and male access. Variations in intensity of access barriers were determined by existing gender orders around household provisioning. Land access was deeply entrenched within social norms and customs, deriving from the customary rules that govern household provisioning, which require both women and men to make contributions towards the family meal. Male provisioning roles override females'-a fact that was dominant within the three northern regions. Male farming activities and crops attract more value and therefore are favored when it comes to the distribution of resources. Women's provisioning according to traditional norms, however, was not considered crucial to family survival and therefore not worthy of investments like time, money, and other agricultural inputs, especially land.These findings call for greater attention to existing gender orders and how innovations sit in relation to female and male provisioning roles and their corresponding agricultural tasks. The ensuing evaluation questions to be explored should be framed within the existing gender orders, which govern the production systems of various crops and livestock. Detailed questions that should inform primary data gathering therefore are:  Which gender roles are undergoing change as a result of the introduction of specific innovations?  What is the implication of such changes to women's time use burdens, among others?  Which new gender roles introduced by the adoption of Africa RISING technologies are likely to empower women and which ones are likely to enhance male power? These questions are important for exploring how gender orders can, to choose the words of Padmanabhan (2004), \"make or unmake gender\".This section of the report focuses on the methodology for data gathering. Specifically, the study area, the design, and methods as well as the instruments used in gathering primary data from Africa RISING intervention communities. The section concludes with a brief outline of the limitations of the study.The study was conducted in the three northern regions of Ghana The broad study design used for primary data gathering was qualitative. This was the requirement stated in the TOR of the contract necessitated by the need to complement the quantitative assessment that Africa RISING had engaged. Qualitative research is rooted in the belief that reality is socially constructed and purely quantitative approaches are limited in the manner in which they can unravel such social constructs, in particular women's realities. The qualitative design therefore sought to distil female farmers' experiences in relation to their male counterparts in the study communities. Secondary sources, a review of scholarly literature and publications of some development organizations, proved useful in providing a retrospective view of the issues, which informed the data collection questions as well as insights into teasing out meaning from primary data gathered.Primary data gathering methods, largely determined by the requirements of the TOR were qualitative, employing focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KII). Four FGDs were conducted in each region in the local languages of the participants. They covered two female and two male groups. This gave a total of 12 FGDs in all. Participants for the focus group discussions were drawn from farmers participating in Africa RISING projects in the study communities. Focus group discussions were later supplemented by ranking exercises, where participants were engaged to rank their preference for Africa RISING interventions.The respondents for the KII covered in the six study districts were also outlined in the TOR guiding the study. They were: The District Directors of Agriculture  Agricultural Extension Agent  R4D Platform Member  Female Traditional Leaders (Magagyia)  Africa RISING Community Facilitators.A total of 31 key informant interviews were conducted (Table 2). Interviews with the community facilitators, female traditional leaders (Magayias), and the R4D platform members were conducted by the facilitation team in the respective local languages. The first main data gathering occurred in November 2015 and was followed by the ranking exercise in December of the same year. The interviews with the District/Metropolitan Directors of Agriculture, the Agricultural Extension Agents, as well as the R4D members in the Northern and Upper West Regions were conducted in the English language. Out of the 31 KII participants, 10 were females and the rest males. They included one female District Director of Agriculture, two agricultural extension agents, and one R4D member. The inclusion of Magagyias (leaders of female groups) instead of traditional leaders, who were predominantly male, was informed by the need to increase female participation in the study. This was especially necessary because almost all the agricultural extension officers as well as district/metropolitan directors of agriculture were males.The two types of qualitative data gathering instruments used were the FGD and key informants interview guides. The FGD guide used for both the female and male FGDs was organized into five sub-sections, namely; gender demography, access to productive resources, sources and access to information and participation in learning activities, adoption and adaptation of technologies, and technology evaluation criteria informing adoption. The FGD guide made it possible for participating farmers to assess themselves in relation to the Africa RISING interventions. The ranking exercise required research participants with the aid of photographs, to order their preferences for various agricultural products and processes. The pictures included legume and cereal farming methods and practices.Three separate key informant interview guides (KIIG) were developed for the different categories of respondents. There was one KIIG for the agricultural extension agents (AEAs) and the district directors of agriculture (DDAs). There was another used to gather data from Africa RISING's community facilitators and another for Africa RISING's R4D platform members. Questions on the KII guides required these key insiders to assess Africa RISING's interventions and how female and male farmers related to them.After the initial analysis and presentation of the study findings, the data was further subjected to validation in participants' workshops in each of the three northern regions. The purpose was to substantiate the accuracy of the findings and fill in data gaps. Validation workshops held in May 2016 were in Wa for the Upper West Region, Navrongo for Upper East, and Tamale for the Northern Region. During the validation, research findings were presented in plenary sessions, structured according to the evaluation questions specified in the TOR. The plenary sessions were followed by female and male breakout sessions. With the help of carefully designed illustrative banners depicting findings around productive resources, information sources, crops, farming practices, and farming methods, further ranking and discussions ensued. The results constitute rich data and helped to fill data gaps. The participants hardly objected to any of the findings presented but made additions to some findings and explained further the importance of others. There were sessions for recap of the main issues emerging from the sex-segregated breakout sessions. These were followed by reaction sessions, which allowed the participants to further clarify some emerging issues.The main limitation of this qualitative study was the language barrier between the consultants and the actual project beneficiaries. Having to depend on third parties for information from the participants undoubtedly affected the depth of reflexivity on the part of the consultants in the analysis. A second limitation of the study was the heavy male proportion of key person respondents. Out of five main target groups identified only one was all female; these were the female community leaders, the Magagyias. The rest as office holders in male-dominated spaces were mainly men. One way of dealing with this situation was to interview an additional AEA who happened to be female. This brought the number of interviews for this category of respondents to 13 instead of 12 (Table 2). The use of FGDs as the main data gathering method submerged individual voices, making the analysis of data gathered for individual respondents impossible. This fact constrains intersectional analysis comparing women by other forms of identity beyond their sex, like age and religious background. Our findings however, should serve as pointers that inform policy. These limitations notwithstanding, the use of group methods allowed spot data checks for reliability and validity, since members of the group were able to collectively bring up issues that could have been submerged in individual contacts. A separate ranking exercise as well as findings' validation workshops allowed a deeper interrogation of research findings with the study communities. It was also possible to fill in some data gaps.The findings and insights gained from the qualitative empirical data gathering are presented in this section. The contents of this section are based on data gathered from the various FGDs and the KIIs, and additional insights from the validation workshops. The section is organized accordingly by themes of the evaluation questions detailed in the TOR. The section begins with a presentation of some general demographic characteristics of participants from the study communities. This is followed by discussions on issues relating to the four thematic areas informing the evaluation questions in the TOR.The issues examined included the usual demographic information like sex, age, marital status, religion, dominant marriage and household types, family size, educational attainment, and main occupation. Table 3 is a composite presentation of some of the characteristics of the individual farmers covered in the FDGs. A total of 119 individual farmers were covered in the 12 FGDs (Table 3). Generally, there were more female participants (52.9%) than male participants (47.1%) in the FGDs across the regions. In the Northern Region however, more male participants (53.3%) than females (46.7%) were covered in the four FGDs.On the whole celibacy was not a preferred situation for participants covered in the study. The majority (79.8%) were married, with a higher proportion of Northern Region participants (about 93%) reporting being in marital relations. This was followed by 77 percent in the Upper East Region, and 74 percent in the Upper West Region. A little over 13 percent were widowed while a few (2.5%) were separated. One male research participant however indicated that he had never been in a marital union (Table 3). There were instances of widow inheritance reported during the demographic data gathering. Generally, marriages tended to be monogamous with nearly 56 percent of married FGD participants reporting that they were in monogamous relations. A further probe into religion and marriage type showed no strong links. Thus all religious types reported incidents of polygynous relations although their proportions in relation to monogamy were lower. The minimum age of participants was 18 while the maximum was 90. The median age was 45; however, participants in the Upper East (43 years) and Upper West (41.5 years) regions had their average age below the median age (Table 4). Such differences cannot be used, however, as the basis for making any associations with emerging trends from the data gathered since research participants in the main were purposively selected. This section seeks to provide answers to the first evaluation question directed at distilling how social gender relations might determine the criteria farmers use to evaluate the suitability of new technologies for uptake. The specific questions detailed in the TOR are: Which criteria do female farmers use when evaluating new agricultural practices for suitability? Which criteria do male farmers use when evaluating new agricultural practices for suitability? How can gender differences in evaluation criteria be explained?We present the findings for each region and comment on emerging regional similarities and differences when addressing the last part of this evaluation question. First, we begin with discussion on crop types and varieties and later farming methods and practices for women in the three regions separately.Women in the three data gathering sessions, focus group discussions, ranking as well as the validation workshops, identified the use of a crop in the family meal and how it was placed in the traditional gender divisions in agricultural production, as constituting the main criteria for evaluating the suitability of new crop varieties for uptake. Other considerations were the market value, that is, the ease with which a crop could be sold to raise income. They were attracted to early maturing varieties. Such crops are able to withstand drought and the unstable weather patterns that have been affecting the region over the past years. Though these considerations were common for all women in the six study communities there were variations in the details of how they influenced the final uptake of the various crops.In the Northern Region, the specific communities covered as mentioned earlier were Tingoli and Tibali. Here groundnut was placed first for women, because in addition to being an important soup ingredient, it was used to prepare a wide variety of dishes (Table 5A). It was an important income-earning crop. Early maturing groundnut varieties also constituted important hunger gap crops. Maize and soybean were new crops that did not fall within the traditional sex-segregated crops and had been taken up by women. In fact, maize was the favorite cereal for women in both communities (Table 5A), first, for its higher yield and second, its early maturity. Women at Tibali preferred cowpea to soybean, blaming lack of market and low use in the family diet. Cowpeas, they said, cooked faster. Millet was ranked last because it was considered difficult to cultivate, especially harvest, and had a short shelf life. It was easily attacked by pests even before harvest. For women at Tingoli however, soybean had an additional attraction over cowpea; this was its longer shelf life due to its ability to resist pests. Gender role provisioning was an important consideration in the uptake of crop types for women in the two Northern Region communities. Crop ability to overcome drought and resist pests was also an important criterion for evaluating the suitability of a crop for uptake. New crops introduced were maize, soybean, and black-eyed cowpeas. Women do not farm millet and sorghum, traditional male crops, even though they claimed no taboos barred them from doing so.For us women, what goes into the cooking pot is the most important consideration in choosing a crop. For us Tibali women, land is an issue so we grow what is important for our meals.… Maize is our staple cereal and it is used to prepare a number of dishes, groundnut is easy to prepare and it is a soup ingredient that goes with all the cereal dishes like tuo zafi 1 .There was a slight variation in crop ranking for women in the Upper West Region. The reasons underlying their choices, however, were similar to those for their counterparts in the Northern Region. Here again the place of the crop in the family diet, variety of dishes it can be used to prepare, market value, and shelf life were important considerations informing crop preferences. For Goli women, an additional criterion was ease with which the crop can be prepared for eating. Maize was the first choice crop for women in both Goli and Passe because it was the key ingredient used in preparing the family meal and could be sold for income in the local market. Groundnut was a preferred crop for its multiplicity of use and low preparation demands. Additional attractions included the fact that it could be eaten raw and sold to raise income. Cowpea was attractive for its even greater variety of use in meal preparation and rituals. In fact, women of Passe had difficulty choosing between the three legumes; groundnut, cowpea, and soybean. Soybean could be used in a wider variety of dishes but had a drawback: like cowpea, soybean required cooking before eating, but its preparation, unlike that of cowpea, was time consuming. The ease of planting was also a factor that women took into consideration when adopting a particular crop (Table 5A). Millet and sorghum were least preferred by women because of the demands of production; they require mounds which are male tasks; it is a taboo for women to prepare mounds. Millet and sorghum are male crops and women have limited access and control over these crops during storage because men store them in barns. Women are barred by tradition from entering millet and sorghum barns. Male family members are the only ones who can issue out these cereals to women for cooking from the barns. Yield, maturity, and shelf life also informed crop preference. Maize yields were higher and together with groundnut had shorter days to maturity; while cowpea, with shorter days to maturity, required special attention during planting and storage. Passe women would have ranked cowpea as the second preferred crop but for its numerous cultivation problems.In the Upper East Region, the specific study communities of Gia and Samboligo, crop utilization, yield, and ease of preparation for cultivation were important considerations informing adoption of improved varieties. Here, utilization, the extent to which the crop can be used for feeding the household and the variety of dishes it could be used to prepare, topped all the factors. As subsistence farmers, the crops planted should constitute an ingredient in the meals prepared for household consumption. Having a ready market where excess harvest can be sold to earn income was another important consideration. Thus groundnut and maize were the favorites; maize as the main cereal staple and groundnut an important ingredient in soup preparation. Here again groundnut was preferred for multiplicity of use and the fact that it serves as snack for children. An additional consideration for Samboligo women was that it was easy to cultivate. It only requires weeding once after planting, harvesting was an easy task, and it had short maturity. Soybean was not a favorite in both communities. Not only did women find it difficult to cultivate and harvest, it was difficult to prepare and, most importantly, it cannot be eaten raw. Thus millet and sorghum ranked higher than soybean. Though millet and sorghum were traditional crops and after harvest men were the ones who stored these grains, women were not barred from their cultivation and in the two communities, women actually planted millet and sorghum and harvested the crops from their farms and stored it for their use. They were however barred from entering their husbands' grain barns and could be accused of stealing if they did. They could enter only during widowhood or with express permission when their husbands had travelled. Crop maturity time and yield were also important criteria for women. Their choices were informed by the levels of crop resilience against drought and variable weather conditions. Millet and sorghum scored low because of their lower yields. Where there was greater understanding of how to use soybean, it received a high ranking. It was ranked least by women in Gia because they had very little use for it; they found it difficult to grow and had no market for it.The outcome of the ranking exercise and validation workshops confirmed largely the observations of the Northern Region key persons that women will usually consider in order of priority: utilization of crop in the household meal preparation, market for selling farm produce, land access for planting the crops being introduced, higher yields, and mobilization of additional resources accompanying the cultivation of the particular crop being introduced. Upper East Region women reported a preference for groundnut, maize, and cowpea because of their high utility, since they can be eaten even before they mature. It appears that adoption of high yielding, short maturing maize was most dramatic for the women because it reduced their dependence on their husbands. Women farmers found growing maize economically empowering. In Goli female focus group discussion participants noted that \"if he [husband] drops one bag of maize and my flour finish, I just go to fetch from my stock, unlike in the past when the millet was stored in the barn and he has to fetch for me\" 2 .Likewise, the Bongo DDA observed that in his district \"women like to consider high yields, profits, and utilization; the extent to which the crop can be used for food\". He further explained, \"they eat what they grow. In this case, the taste of new varieties counts as well as preparation time.\" Thus, \"there is a preference for the new variety of cowpea nicknamed omondo because it cooks fast\" 3 . Other factors like cost, familiarity with the new variety and its production techniques, and availability of inputs were cited in key person interviews with AEAs as important criteria that inform technology adoption. Yield is important for the adoption of crop varieties. The ability of the crop variety to counter some of the major agricultural problems of a particular community especially climatic change was one of important considerations in evaluating crop suitability for uptake. Such crops must however fit within their traditional feeding patterns and failing that, provide income. The financial burden for planting was not cited among the key criteria informing crop adoption.Yield was the most important consideration informing adoption of farming methods. Methods proven to increase yield were the ones most likely to be adopted. Women in both communities of the Northern Region, in addition to yield, preferred farming methods that allowed several crops to be planted at the same time (Table 5B). They need so many ingredients to prepare family meals especially the soup, female participants explained during the ranking exercise. Monocropping was considered a waste of time and land. The additional advantage was insurance against crop failure due to climatic changes. In case of drought some crop was sure to be resistant and provide food for the family. All farming methods introduced by Africa RISING were acceptable and had the potential to address the stated concerns. In terms of ranking, the farming methods most preferred by Tibali and Tingoli women farmers were row planting and crop spacing. This was followed by mixed cropping; strip cropping was the least preferred for both female farmers in Tingoli and Tibali (Table 5B). Women in the two Upper East Region communities of Gia and Samboligo found mixed cropping to produce higher yields than strip cropping. Again in Goli in the Upper West ,strip cropping was ranked last because it was believed that maize produces heat leading to poor crop performance when intercropped with cowpea, for example (Table 5B). Women at Passe, however, preferred strip to row. An additional attraction to mixed cropping was the fact that it allowed a variety of crops to be cultivated on one plot of land.We do not have enough land so we like to farm a variety of crops at the same time. We have been planting in rows long before Africa RISING's interventions so we understand the benefits of row planting. Bullock for ploughing makes row planting easier. We only plant in the rows created by the plough. Bullocks are good for smaller farms and tractors for large tracks of land 4 .Women's choice of farm method was informed by what they considered to be practices that produce higher yields. Other considerations were the amount of sunlight allowed to shorter leguminous crops when intercropped with cereals that tended to be higher and how easy it was to adopt a particular practice. The preference for row planting and crop spacing was because they allowed easy movement around crops, facilitating planting and other agriculture activities.Criteria for choosing farming practices were informed by a major agricultural problem in the three regions: soil fertility. Fertilizer application featured first for all communities except for women in Tibali whose most preferred farming practice was weedicide application. Pesticide spraying was ranked last because as the women explained, only cowpea required pesticide application. Weeds affect all crops and soil fertility was important for plants to grow. Tibali women felt that it was important to clear weeds before applying fertilizer. In addition, weedicide enabled them to overcome their labor constraints. For Tingoli women, soil fertility was primary and weedicide application, secondary. Using manual forms of weed control was less of a problem. Weedicide and pesticide spraying were male tasks. Women of Tingoli had to rely on male relations to spray their farms, a fact that can cause delay, because men had to complete such tasks on their farms first. In Tibali, women hire men who do this for a fee. The women of Tibali agree that they do not have the knowledge and will welcome any move to equip them with skills to apply agricultural chemicals through spraying. The concern for soil fertility meant that women in Gia and Samboligo placed fertilizer application above all practices. Some, in addition, apply foliar fertilizer. In fact, Gia women participants at the validation workshop in Navrongo, explained that \"you have to kill the weeds first before you can see the pests\" 5 . Women of Goli explained that not all crops need pesticides, \"… the weeds also take up nutrients from the soil, they will compete with plants for any additional nourishment that the fertilizer provides\" 6 . Farming is time bound, delaying a particular farm task can compromise crop yield. Women farmers of Goli explained that sometimes services like ploughing are delayed because men have to be serviced first. They have to work on their husbands' farms before theirs, so planting or weeding can be delayed. Having independent access to weedicides can reduce this dependence.For women, adoption decisions are informed by their gendered positioning within the agricultural production systems of their respective communities. Other issues were the main agricultural constraints within the regions, soil fertility, and climate change. Women's gender positioning further constrained these challenges. First the nature of the land they could access as well as labor, including their own. Land quality had serious implications for crop yield. Next to yield, utilization, and market outlets were the other criteria that informed adoption. A fact, related to their gendered provisioning roles within farm households. High yields provide two benefits: more food for household feeding and more income from the sale of the products that have a ready market and fetch a good price. Utilization and yield stand out more over markets and value for the crop. As they explained, you have to produce in excess first before you can sell. Other considerations were labor force demands. But such considerations become unimportant for women if practices lead to high yields and produce a surplus they can sell to raise income.Men, just like women, had the gendered provisioning role uppermost in their minds when making decisions about an agricultural technology for uptake. The main considerations informing the choice of new crop varieties, farming methods, and practices were for men just as much gendered as for women.Thus men preferred high-yielding cereal varieties and those that had a ready market. Thus maize was the first choice for men in all the six study communities. Maize was the most preferred because it was the main staple. Men were by tradition expected to provide the main cereal staples, which used to be sorghum and millet until the introduction of fast-maturing maize varieties. Men were attracted by the early maturing, high yielding maize varieties with a ready market to sell surplus production for cash. In addition, maize had better resistance to pests than millet, they explained. Groundnut placed second for men in Tibali in the Northern Region and Gia in the Upper East Region and third for Goli and Passe men in the Upper West Region and Samboligo in the Upper East Region (Table 6A). Preference for sorghum was higher compared to millet because the latter had longer maturity and fewer ritual uses. Groundnut again was the favorite legume for men just as for the women because of its place in meal preparation and the fact that its preparation was not demanding.There was less agreement about the place of specific crops especially the legumes, in terms of ranking but the issues informing preference were the same. Yield, maturity duration, market, production costs, and pest resistance were factors that made groundnut attractive for men in a number of the communities. Groundnut, cowpea, and soybean were cheap to grow because they did not demand fertilizer application. For Tibali and Tingoli men this informed their preference for soybean, especially the cash they could raise from its sale (Table 6A). There were marked differences in terms of choice of crops for men with the exception of maize, which scored a consistent first for all the communities. Cowpea receiving low recognition in three out of the six communities was ranked second in Goli because it was easy to prepare. Men in Goli, Gia, and Samboligo ranked soybeans low because they either found it difficult to cultivate or sell off in the local markets to raise income (Table 6A). An emerging development was a new variety of high-yielding sorghum that was gaining ground in the Northern Region even among female farmers. This new variety does not require fertilizer application and according to males at the validation workshop might come to replace maize in future. Maize requires fertilizer and it is becoming costly. This underscores the production cost as an issue for men more than women.For men, the key criteria in making choices about which farming method to adopt were the nature of the farming technique and its impact on yields. Men will adopt a practice once they observe that it will produce high yield. Mixed cropping was ranked first for male farmers in Tingoli and Passe, second for their Goli and Gia counterparts, and third for the other two (Table 6B). Key persons like the facilitator insist, \"we can see that single cropping does better than mixing many crops on the same plot\". Thus strip cropping was ranked last by men in four out of the six communities (Table 6B). Men in Gia of the Upper West Region and Tingoli in the Northern Region found strip cropping unsuitable; they did not think that the crops were adequately ventilated when tall crops are intercropped with short ones. They found the spaces left between crops wasteful. Men also found investment in land preparation for strip cropping a waste of time. The impact of row planting on crop yield, for men in communities such as Tibali, Goli, and Gia was more visible than that of strip cropping (Table 6B). Row planting was believed to produce higher yields and made plant care like weeding and fertilizer application easy. Though there was group acceptance among men for the new methods introduced by Africa RISING during ranking and the validation workshops, some male farmers expressed personal reservations about the methods introduced by Africa RISING. Some explained that row planting was demanding, time consuming, and a waste of land. Cereals overshadow legumes when mixed cropped, cutting out sunshine and lowering yield of the legumes. Land use was a deep concern for all but more especially Samboligo men who insisted during the validation workshop, that they had less land than their Gia counterparts. They felt however that women's preference for mixed cropping was due to their need of more ingredients for their soup. Women had to plant a greater variety of crops. \"You can always tell women's farms by the number of crops you find on a plot of land\" observed men at the Upper West validation workshop. \"Women like to plant every crop\". They explained. This discussion raised questions about how far men were convinced about the farming methods they had been introduced to and the extent to which adoption will be sustainable over time.Adoption of farming practices such as fertilizer application and spraying by men was just as for women; informed by the need to ensure crop survival and increase yield. Soil fertility was an issue for communities in Northern Region. All crops need fertile soils and are affected by weeds, but only a few need pesticides. For men in all communities (except Tibali) fertilizer application ranked first (Table 6C). Weedicide spraying was first for Tibali and second for Tingoli, Passe, and Gia men. The Samboligo and Goli men ranked it least. These were the two communities that ranked pesticide application second. For the other four communities the majority of crops grown, they explained, were pest resistant. Farming practices were gendered tasks, with fertilizer application considered a women's task in all the communities. The reasons, men explained, were due to the fact that women were used to bending down to perform household and farm tasks such as sweeping and sowing. Applying fertilizer requires the same skill and so comes easily to women. Spraying is perceived to be difficult and so men were responsible for spraying weedicide and pesticide. Women were obliged to apply fertilizer on their husbands' farms before they did so for their own farms. In some communities, men do so on their farms and that of their wives, in others the practice was commercialized and both women and men paid to get it done on their farms. Availability of inputs was another key criterion for male farmers. Thus, according to one farmer, \"Apart from ploughing for you they [Africa RISING] give everything you need, e.g., chemicals and seeds. Africa RISING is the best so far…\" This suggests that availability of inputs influences men's choices.How farmers evaluated different types of crops during one of the FGDs. Photo credit: Michael Dakwa.The evaluation criteria for both women and men were informed by their gendered positioning within the agricultural production systems of their respective communities. Farm household provisioning, deeply embedded in agricultural production relations, in particular between husbands and wives, shaped agricultural preferences. Other issues were the main agricultural constraints within the regions, soil fertility, and climate change. Women's gender positioning further constrained these challenges. First the nature of the land they could access as well as their control over labor including their own. Land quality had serious implications for crop yield. Next to yield, utilization and market outlets were the other criteria that informed adoption. Gendered provisioning roles made household sustenance an important evaluation criterion for particular crop varieties or farming practices and methods. High yields provided two benefits: more food for household feeding and more income from the sale of the products that have a ready market and fetch a good price. Women had to provide soup ingredients; men were responsible for cereal staples. The differences in crop preferences therefore played into traditionally designated female and male crops. Ability to raise income also featured for both but more so for men as also did the ease of cultivation and preparation of crops into meals for women. For women, multiple use of a crop in meal preparation was an additional consideration that was more important for them than for men.In the specific case of gender differences informing evaluation criteria for farming practices and methods, the considerations tended to be same for women and men. Yield stood out more over cultivation ease, labor force demands, and input availability and costs. Yields were important in that beyond feeding, the household surplus can be sold for income, making markets a crucial adoption criterion. Availability of markets to sell the crop and its market value constitute key technology evaluation criteria for men more than women. As women explained you have to produce in excess first before you can sell. And for most women production levels are low. Women were prepared to forego additional requirements like time and costs once the yields are high and can feed directly into their household food preparation roles. Thus the fact that food is readily available for the household, in particular for children, is considered by women a reward for the time invested in planting. For women then, the acceptance criteria were related to their reproductive role as the Magagiya of Passe said: \"We the women accept new technologies first and fast because the children worry us when they are hungry. If there is food in the house, we don't have any problem\" 7 . Just as the FGD group at Passe put it: \"We take care of our children. No child goes to the father when he/she is hungry so why would we not accept things fast to take care of them?\" 8 This is why crop utilization features so much more for women than for men. For men it is income earning, a continuation of the so-called provider role. The main issues therefore were crop utility and place in household meals, gender divisions in farm tasks, and farm productivity.The second evaluation question seeks to explain gender differences affecting the adoption of new practices introduced by Africa RISING. The broad evaluation question, broken into three, seeks answers to specific issues such as: Which Africa RISING practices have been/have not been adopted by male farmers? Which Africa RISING practices have been/have not been adopted by female farmers? Why have female or male farmers adopted/rejected certain practices and what is the relationship with gender dynamics in terms of labor allocation, income distribution, access to resources and to information, as well as other key aspects of gender analysis? The following subsections present our findings on these questions.An important consideration informing the adoption of Africa RISING practices is yield and ease of picking up the new practices. The trials are important and as the R4D platform member put it, \"We compared what we produce to what we used to get using the traditional farming methods and we realized that the modern technologies are easy and can be adopted successfully. They give us more yields…\". Row planting and spacing were the most important practices adopted by farmers; the effect on their farms they insist is easy to see. In the specific case of new crops and high yielding varieties, the Bongo DDA notes that \"five to ten years ago, there was no maize production here in our district. Now maize has taken over from sorghum. This is better because maize is more productive in terms of yield.\" Maize was reported to respond better to fertilizer application than sorghum. Maize was considered to have a more appealing taste than the traditional sorghum.Very few Africa RISING technologies have been rejected in the communities for the simple reason that they have been found to deliver high yields. The trials provide a useful basis to assess effectiveness. According to the Passe R4D platform member: I am always invited to Africa RISING's office in Wa where I receive training. I in turn have to train my colleagues. We practice whatever training we receive, and that is why the farming activities are growing in this society. It is really growing because we were twenty in the past, now we are seventy in number. Officials sometimes come here to educate us on farming activities like spacing, fertilizer application, and how to take good care of the farm. We also work hard on our farms by following Africa RISING farming methods, spacing, line-line sowing (row planting) that bring about bumper harvests. Africa RISING's methods are good because they bring about bumper harvests. We work less and get more produce due to the way we follow their farming practices.Our findings revealed that male adoption of Africa RISING agricultural practice was contingent on their attitude towards the innovation being introduced. Men, various groups of respondents noted, feel new methods challenged their knowledge base. They therefore take longer to come to terms with new ideas and practices that differ from the existing ones they are used to. Male attitudes therefore were identified as a barrier for adoption of Africa RISING practices in the Northern Region. According to the two DDAs, men in the Northern Region were more likely to resist new methods. Men they explained were expected to have superior knowledge and farming skills, a fact that is derived from their traditional roles in agriculture and better contact with extension services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and other related agencies that have been introducing innovations for agriculture workers in Ghana. This so-called superior knowledge tends to create an attitude that stands in their way and blocks their reception to new ideas that appear to challenge what they are used to.One farm practice, however, that appeared unpopular was crop spacing among male farmers especially for soybean production. The respondents in the Northern and Upper West regions have had cause to complain. There were reports from farmers that spacing requirements between crops, especially soybean, were too demanding and a waste of land. For the Goli male focus group discussion participants the spacing requirements are … \"unsuitable because it is like a waste of land to us\". Similar concerns about land-use efficiency and crop spacing as well as row planting emerged during the Upper East Region validation workshop. Where there was pressure on land like at Samboligo, the benefit of crop spacing was likely to be contested. At Goli again there were concerns about the crop rotation period of three years, which some farmers had observed was too long. Others reported crop loss due to factors they could not explain. The fact that Africa RISING was research based was also lost on farmers for whom survival was an immediate concern and therefore tended to overshadow long-term benefits. A number were yet to scale up so they kept to their traditional crops and traditional methods of farming because the Africa RISING farms are \"not big enough for us\" reported a male R4D platform member at Goli. Thus findings appear to suggest rejection was more located with men than women.Africa RISING practices adopted by female farmers An important finding was the insistence by the majority of the respondents that women were more likely to adopt Africa RISING technologies than men. Generally, female and male respondents, key persons, and FGD participants stated that women farmers adopt technology faster than men. Thus for a Samboligo R4D member \"both participate but the women do not joke with their time; because by nature women want to always learn and know it very well than men\". Women were reported to be adopting all Africa RISING technologies accompanying the planting of the crops that have been introduced. These included pesticide spraying, strip cropping, and rotation. According to the women, \"the method of sowing is very good, and we go by that because it is less tiring\". Even though they reported having a higher preference for mixed rather than strip cropping, they noted, \"we find mixed cropping to be very good especially with maize and beans mixed. It is good because the beans also get the fertilizer from the maize and we get plenty of beans and maize in the end.\" The type of crops planted in mixed cropping systems was an issue for women. There was a higher preference for mixed cropping maize with cowpea than with soybean. Women insisted that the soybean yield is low when stripped cropped with maize. Women at Passe reported, \"it does not get enough air\".Even though technical officers found adoption of Africa RISING technologies higher among women than men, married women, they explained in some instances, could only adopt if their husbands so desired \"because they own no farms and work as farm hands on their husbands\". They described married women as passive adopters since they went along with their husbands. Those who did adopt owned their plots and had smaller farm sizes. However, the main criterion that was used to reject Africa RISING farm practices was when both women and men were convinced it would not support higher yields.We explore in this section key issues about gendered access to resources and its relationship with adoption or rejection of farm practices. The specific issues of information sources and how they affect adoption will be covered in the section discussing Evaluation Question 4 where gender differences in accessing and participating in learning new technologies for uptake are interrogated in greater detail. First we discuss the main productive resources identified in the study community highlighting gender issues informing their access and control. Later we discuss their likely impact on adoption of interventions, noting regional differences, where evident.We identified two main groups of productive resources that we termed community based and the others, externally derived. Community-based resources were locally owned by members of the communities. Access to such resources was governed by the traditional system regulating agricultural production. Community-based resources included land, labor, time, storage, and markets. Productive resources external to the communities were those that required external support to acquire. They were capital or credit, technology, and extension services. Other external productive resources were transportation and processing and irrigation facilities. In tables 7A and 7B female and male farmers, respectively, identified the relative importance of these resources for their agricultural livelihoods. The most important considerations informing the importance attached to a particular productive resource was ease of access. Technology for land preparation, capital, and land were productive resources posing challenges for women. While for men the three most important productive resources were capital, technology, and extension services. Land access was the least challenge for men in four out of the six communities. Even in Gia, where land was acknowledged as scarce, it was placed third for men and last for women. Technology to plough the land for farming, though ranked differently, was deemed critical for farming. Tractors and bullock ploughs, research and workshop participants insisted, were important for land preparation ensuring that large tracts of land could be cleared in a short period. Such technology for land preparation made it possible for women to farm crops that were the preserve of men, like sorghum and millet, because traditionally they were cropped on mounds. Mound making was a male task in some communities. Traditional rules made this task a taboo for women in the Upper West Region, for example. Ploughing by tractor or bullocks allowed crops to be planted on flat land, a practice that removed gender barriers preventing women from farming crops such as sorghum and millet. But plough technologies were reportedly scarce in the study communities. Scarcity can mark up the cost of access. Increased costs meant few women could access ploughing technologies and where they could their access was constrained by time. Farming is time based according to Tibali women, planting at the wrong time can compromise yield. Tractors therefore are the first thoughts of farmers when the season sets in. Tractors serve the additional purpose of transporting farm inputs and produce and helped farmers overcome labor shortages, which they explained have been exacerbated by enrolling their children in school. The additional constraint for women was that the tractors had to first prepare the land belonging to men before theirs, thus delaying planting for them.Men as the primary holders of land had fewer issues about land acquisition. Findings from the primary data collection, confirmed the literature reviewed about women's inferior land access and lack of control. Age and marital status emerged strongly as the most important demographic characteristics in determining women's access to farmland and other agricultural recourses, as well as directing their decisions regarding agricultural practices. The vast majority did not own land or exercised little control over the land they used for farming activities, since such land was mostly allocated by their husbands. Women will often get land from their husbands' families or seek land through their husbands. This secondary right to land for women no doubt had implications for young unmarried women in the sense that they cannot access land. Women in polygamous marriages had to share their husbands' allotments. There were instances of widow inheritance reported during the demographic data gathering. Widows could retain access to their deceased husbands' allotment or pass it on to their sons if they had older male children. Thus one respondent explained during the FGDs in the Upper East region that should she be widowed her deceased husband's land would pass on to her son, who could then grant her access to the land. In the Upper East Region, one agricultural extension agent reported, \"older women are more likely to take land from their natal families\". Our findings also suggest that marriage influences the extent to which a woman can decide whether or not to adopt a particular agricultural technology.In addition to their secondary access women tend to get smaller plots of land and sometimes the less fertile land. The reason, it was explained, was that women were not members of their husbands' families. They were deemed strangers. \"The men are the landlords and you have to go them to acquire land; even when your husband has no land to give you and you have to step outside your husband's family, he has to do so on your behalf,\" explained women at Passe. Labor posed a challenge for women farmers first because they have lost access to children's labor and second because they have to work on their husbands' farms first before they work on theirs. Migration of young persons from the communities was noted as a fact depleting labor force. The practice of communal support had collapsed due to waged labor and the cost involved in providing meals for the communal working group. Women find the cost of meal provisions high; a cost that can go into hiring labor to prepare the land. Capital was considered important because it allowed access to all other productive resources. Women's access was constrained by the nature of crops they farmed and their ability to farm in excess of their consumption needs. Men had additional sources of income besides the crops, like livestock, cattle, and other ruminants that can be sold to raise income on the quick.Markets were therefore important for earning income from the sale of farming produce. However, lack of diversity in crops produced meant the markets were easily flooded, creating a glut and depressing prices. An interesting development was that women were slowly gaining better access to credit as a result of a number of micro-credit schemes that have encouraged group formation. Accessing credit through their groups was easier, a fact that men at the validation workshop in the Upper West Region noted with envy. In the main though, women's access to productive resources were constrained by their gendered positioning with the farm households that structured their productive roles as secondary to that of their husbands.The main issues informing adoption or rejection, we have noted, were crop type and their ability to fit into women and men's gendered spaces in family provisioning. Thus women, as discussed earlier, were adopting improved varieties of legumes, cowpeas and groundnuts, traditional crops associated with their farming tasks and meal preparation. They were, however, adopting new crops like maize and soybeans, which fell outside the traditional gender divisions. Other gendered issues were their marital status. Thus married women living with their husbands were the least likely to adopt a crop or practice if their husbands had not or refused to. Women need their husbands' approval to alter farming practices and methods. Reporting widows as intransigent and more likely to oppose the authority of husbands, male FGD participants affirmed, 'it is only the widows we marry who sometimes have problems with the farming methods but our real wives do just that'. Some farmers, both female and male, rejected strip cropping because they insisted that the late maturing crops interfered with yields of early maturing ones when intercropped on the same plot. According to women in Goli strip cropped cowpeas, for example, 'didn't do well because the second crop was not sown early, therefore we could not harvest anything'. Soybeans appeared to be the only crop introduced that suffered rejection within certain communities in the Upper East Region. Production demands were the reason men failed to adopt it in certain communities, men farmers had difficulty complying with distance between crops and found harvesting too demanding. Then there was the question of use in the family meal and ease of preparation, and market for the crop. Time use constraints came second to use and markets.New developments that allowed women to circumvent traditional rules were important considerations affecting their decisions to adopt interventions. Otherwise women were careful to ensure that the interventions enhanced their provisioning roles. But perhaps the most important barrier to adoption was women's ability to upscale beyond baby trails. Here access to the productive resource land played up. Most women had difficulty accessing larger plots of land that is the criteria for up scaling Africa RISING's bundle of innovations and opted out because they could not meet the land size requirements. As a cereal, maize's ability to replace sorghum and millet in preparation of the main dish Tuo Zafi of the three regions is enormous. Soybeans, unfortunately, did not have the same capacity. Even though some women mentioned soybeans during FGDs as having better resistance to pest and its use as a substitute for dawadawa in soup preparation, such factors did not enhance its adoption status. Such considerations notwithstanding, a number of respondents explained that they had no control over the types of crops chosen in the intervention. It is the resources that Africa RISING provides that at the end of day determine which crops women and men will plant. Their preferences hardly came to play sometimes.This section presents findings to answer the third evaluation question, addressing propensity to adapt Africa RISING technologies. The details of evaluation question 3 as spelt out in the terms of reference were: Have female farmers adapted certain Africa RISING practices to make them more suitable for their use? Have male farmers adapted certain Africa RISING practices to make them more suitable for their use? If yes, how have male versus female farmers adapted these practices for their purposes? Why have they adapted them?On the whole the motivation to adapt Africa RISING practices presented to farmers was a question of what flexibility AEAs allowed. Thus, in the Northern Region it was noted that the attitude of AEAs' played a crucial role determining whether farmers will adapt or not. Some were permissive and will allow farmers to exercise initiative. The technical officer in the Northern Region, for example, claimed that he recognized and respected farmers' prior knowledge; according to him 'you know these people have been farming for a long time and their experience too can be important sources of some good agricultural practices.' Some AEAs were emphatic about outlawing any attempts at adaptation. They even presented all attempts to alter practices taught as signs of indiscipline that could result in disqualifying farmers from participation in Africa RISING projects. 'No, no; I encourage them to do as they have been told and not to alter the Africa RISING methods' one AEA insisted. There were some reported cases of adaptation notwithstanding the objections of technical officers cited above. A number of respondents reported male farmers as more prone to adapt technology introduced than females. As one DDA reported 'Women hardly adapt. For them, they accept the technologies as they are'. In the other regions however, there were no observed differences in the propensity for females or males to adapt. Adaptations were possible in the timing of tasks, when to plant crops, and here farmers relied on their traditional knowledge to predict the rainfall patterns. Other few instances of adaptation reported were in the area of strip cropping and crop spacing; with more men than women farmers altering the number of strips or rows between plants, in the Wa West District, for example. In the Upper East Region women in FGDs reported that they were just as likely as men to make changes in the recommended spacing between rows. Another area was in fertilizer application, where they designed practical means to prevent rain runoff from washing away the fertilizer applied in the fields. Thus they will bury the fertilizer rather than broadcast during application or raise mounds to block rainwater flow that might wash away the fertilizer. Here also female and male respondents in Samboligo all reported raising mounds to prevent rainwater from carrying away the fertilizer applied in the fields. Others reported the use of manure in addition to fertilizer.On the whole it appeared that few farmers whether female or male saw the need to adapt technology. Male focus group discussants insisted that they had no reason to vary the practices introduced by Africa RISING in fact they '… go by Africa RISING innovations because it brings about good yields.' A number are making no effort to adapt because they did not see the need to, as female participants in the focus group discussion explained:We are doing exactly what Africa RISING has taught us to do. Sowing line by line, spacing the crops to give air to the plants, mixing the crops and all they taught us. This is because we get good yields.In fact, some reported of a reduction in time spent farming. They made the point about working less and gaining more in terms of yield. Thus, a number of respondents saw little need to vary the methods introduced.The last evaluation question targets access to information. It is interested in the information sources for learning about Africa RISING innovations as well as levels of participation and how gender influences female and male information sources. Additional issues of interest were how the gender differences were structuring access to information vital for participation in learning new technologies introduced by Africa RISING. The details of this evaluation question are as follows: Evaluation Question 4: In each community, what are the most important sources of information and learning about agricultural practices? How do female farmers have access to information and participate in learning? How do male farmers have access to information and participate in learning? How can gender differences in access to information and participation be explained?Women and men's agricultural information sources and learning spaces Women were identified at most female and male data gathering sessions as being more eager than men to learn about agricultural innovations for several reasons. Women were more anxious and concerned with food availability for household consumption. Consistently respondents mentioned the fact that women attended meetings more than men. Women were noted to be more conscientious with their time. According to the Sambologo R4D platform member 'they do not joke with their time' and 'women always want to learn'. Women are more serious with learning new things that will improve agricultural practices, the Sambologo Magagyia explains: \"The pain is on the women so when they hear of any help they are serious to do it to alleviate their poverty. We can't joke with things that concern food\". The general consensus at the ranking and validation sessions was that women tend to learn faster than men, because they have to implement all the farming practices after ploughing has been completed. Men had a tendency to be complacent with old practices and therefore less eager to learn new things.Information sources served as learning spaces for farmers in the study communities. During the validation workshops, information sources identified from the field data collection was shared for confirmation. All the sources were confirmed as important. The main emerging trend from the three field data collection exercises was that for women, sources with human contact were most effective, while for men electronic media like mobile phones and radios were preferred. It was also confirmed at the validation sessions in all the three regions that women participated better in interactive female only learning spaces. In fact agricultural extension agents explained that women would ask and answer questions so long as it was an all-women-meeting. They were however inhibited in mixed sex groups and less inclined to offer opinion or seek clarification.In all the communities, channels provided by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) were identified as major sources of information for learning about Africa RISING's agricultural practices. 'They [Africa RISING] are using MoFA's existing channels of communication' the Kassena Nankana DDA explained. In the communities, FGD participants acknowledged that their information sources were technical officers. The responses to the question about how they heard of Africa RISING practices; were 'we were called to a meeting;' 'they brought someone to train us'' 'someone came and asked us to write our names and they brought us seeds and fertilizer'. Some were more personal mentioning the 'agriculture people' or 'our assemblyman or farmers' leader'. The extension service channel, though effective, was hindered by the number of technical officers available. None of the districts had their full complement of technical officers. The agricultural ministry was severely constrained, the DDAs explained. The Kassena Nankana District Director complained that '\"nstead of the 36 required agriculture extension assistants, we have only nine, all men\". The Savelugu District Director reported: \"I have 15 agriculture extension assistants instead of the 32 required. Only one out of the lot was a woman and she had just been promoted to the rank of a supervisor.\" Nadowli District had three extension officers and three supervisors, but there was only one woman among them. Participation in Africa RISING project did not relieve officers of their normal responsibilities to the Ministry.To get round the shortfall in technical officers, meetings had become important sources of information. Most communities had farmers' groups (farmer-based organizations). Such groups usually comprised women and men as members; others were single sex, usually women's groups. The groups held regular meetings, which served as platforms for disseminating information on agriculture practices. Farmers' meetings were held within the communities, in the chief's house, or at social centers. The meetings could either be at the instance of Africa RISING or the Ministry of Agriculture, or in some instances community members could call meetings on their own initiative as the R4D member at Sambologo said, \"…they look for a day and invite the Africa RISING to come and talk to them\". Other forums for holding meetings were field days and here the local chiefs played a mobilizing role. Community level meetings would be addressed by technical officers from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, R4D platform members, or designated input dealers who have been licensed by the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to provide information on their products to farmers.In addition to the institutionalized channels of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Africa RISING used its own officers who interacted directly with the communities to teach new practices to farmers. Facilitators and R4D members however derived their information from meetings organized in their respective district capitals. The Africa RISING facilitator and R4D platform member at Goli explains:Female extension officers were reported to be more effective in reaching women farmers to provide information on agricultural innovations, since cultural norms barred married women from speaking to strange men. Most extension officers in the districts were men; group meetings were used to overcome this traditional constraint.The main farmer education interventions we have outlined so far were as the Savelugu DDA observed, all top down approaches. There were others, however, that allowed peer exchange of ideas and information sharing; they included informal interaction among fellow farmers. Others acting as information sources were local leaders such as the Magagyia as well as chairpersons of farmer-based organizations in the communities. For women, husbands were additional sources of information. Direct observation was another important learning forum. Farmers get information from observing the outcome of farm practices on their colleagues' farms. A fact that made Africa RISING demonstration plots important learning spaces. This route was identified in the Upper West Region as being more effective for older men resistant to change.Despite the effectiveness of human contact, the validation workshops brought out additional issues of the benefit of electronic media, especially mobile phones and radios. Discussion programs on radio were another information source on agricultural practices in use in the study communities. Radios are effective if the programs are targeted and broadcast at a time when women would have ended their domestic chores. Women then plan to make time to listen to scheduled broadcasts. Some districts reported special arrangements with radio stations to broadcast farmer education programs. Nadowli DDA, for example, reported a programmed twohour weekly slot used to educate farmers. The program was broadcast in English and the local languages. In Gia, for example, the presence of a community radio facilitated access for all. Another instance of radio use that was considered effective was cited in the Upper East Region where Africa RISING supplied radios earlier in the project. Women used to carry them everywhere including their farms. All the radios were out of use they reported with regret. The preference for radios was the intensity of information they carried. Radios carry a lot of information but timing matters, and here there was some disagreement about the time of day most suitable for women. The preference for women in Tingoli was early mornings and for Tibali women it was in the evening when all household chores were over. This points to the need to consult women over the most appropriate time since community specific situations might affect women's domestic scheduling.But women in the Upper West Region, for example, insisted that the most effective information source was the mobile phone; they explained that mobile phones allow access to other sources. Since it is targeted, there is a better chance for the message to reach the person for whom it is intended. Additionally they explained; … you need it to mobilize people to attend meetings and mobile phones are effective for this; radios are good but you should have the time to sit and listen; if you don't there is no guarantee that some important message of use to you will be delivered if you are not there to hear it for yourself; then, sometimes you might even forget to listen to the radio. Mobile phones are useful in times of emergencies, for example, we got lost on our way here [to the workshop venue]; thanks to the mobile phone we found our way with ease. The mobile phone is an important source used by farmers to request information or assistance for agriculture/farm-related challenges. Community facilitators and Africa RISING officers as well as AEAs also used mobile phones to communicate. \"Sometimes …, they [Africa RISING officers] call me on phone to disseminate information to my colleagues\" the Goli R4D platform member explained. Mobile phones had practical relevance in granting access to information on weather conditions and about when to plant. Male farmers were more likely to use the mobile phones to contact technical officers for assistance. They were of little use to female farmers because most women had none, and the few who did especially in Goli and Samboligo had no electricity to charge the phones. They could only charge on market days and this had to be done at a fee.The Savelugu District had an additional medium, a mobile cinema van that was used to support farmer education. According to the Savelugu DDA, \"the women love to watch the educational programs\". Participants pointed out that the use of the mobile cinema vans had its challenges, first was the timing and second frequency of use. Very few remember having accessed information from this source. Women in some communities like the Upper West would have difficulty attending at night, first was getting their husbands permission and second was dealing with childcare.The main constraints affecting women's use of electronic media were gendered. Few women had the income to buy phones and radios. Some communities did not have electricity for charging phones. Then there was the bigger issue of women's domestic roles constraining access to radios in particular. According to men in the validation workshops, women are usually away fetching water or fuel wood or busy cooking to pay attention to radio programs. Another concern was that husbands were averse to allowing their wives to own phones and some would bar their wives from watching mobile cinemas at night. Extension officers are therefore the best option in the light of the difficulties with accessing radios and phones and so are group meetings, which women use to share information. Other sources are peer exchanges where individual women share information about innovations at the person-to-person level, especially women leaders. But for Gia, women meetings were not effective because people do not attend meetings or turn up late when they do. For practical purposes however, they conceded that the most effective source of information for women was peer contact and women leaders who have a good understanding of the issues.Female leaders like the Magagyia have direct links with the Africa RISING officers and can get to the district capitals to access specialized training. They are expected to pass on such information to women within the community. Female groups were more likely to mention Africa RISING or what they identified as \"some agriculture people\" as their sources of information. The use of meetings as an information disseminating point on agricultural practices was useful for women, so were other women and especially the Magagyia. Another source was their husbands.Male information sources identified were agricultural extension officers, input dealers, radios mobile phones, and lead farmers of the farmer-based organizations. The fact that all technical officers were mainly men facilitated male access to information. Men were more likely to call the AEAs and even provide them with money to buy fuel to travel to their communities on their motorbikes to assist with agricultural problems.All the human information sources mentioned had men as the main carriers. Men dominated as technical officers in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and in Africa RISING personnel in contact with the communities. The R4D platform, an important management system at the community level for dealing with farmer issues around the Africa RISING project, is male dominated. But for the special position of the Magagyia, women would have been virtually absent from this structure. Even here Magagyias operate as sources of information for reaching women and less as the women's mouthpiece on issues related to their participation and access to resources to facilitate their participation in the projects.Information access was also determined by the institutional location of farmers within the chain of operation of the Africa RISING project. Gender differences in information sources took an institutional dimension with persons highly placed socially having better access. Thus ones' position within the chain of operation of the project determines what information sources can be accessed and the nature of information that will be available at each source. Agricultural officers use lead farmers who then organize farmers in the community. Thus the Magagyia of Goli whose husband was the community facilitator, reported that, \"My husband is free with some agricultural officers who have taught him some methods of farming.\"Existing relations with agricultural officers have a gender dimension first in terms of the fact that they were mainly men and, secondly, that they were few and therefore unable to make contact with the communities as they should. Then the need to provide fuel for technical officers to visit their farms served to disadvantage farmers who could not afford such. Women's lower income levels also put them out of touch with a number of information sources like mobile phones and radios. Bicycles and motorbikes for travelling to meetings put men at an advantage. As was explained the distance to district offices could be a deterrent for persons without a means of transport in places where roads were bad and public transport system was non-existent.Women's housekeeping roles were an additional barrier to agriculture information. AEA in the Tolon District noted, \"participation among women is low because of the demands on their time. Mostly when I go, they are away at the stream, clinic, market; and even when they come they wait for their men to talk\".Another factor that further limits women's access to relevant agricultural information is the use of English language in some of the meetings. According to one DDA, \"when it comes to participation in learning, there are more men and this is because some of our trainings are done in English and we target literate farmers, most of whom are men\" (DW/DDA). Then most community farmer-based production groups were said to be organized around the production of market-oriented crops, an area where men dominate. Women's groups were more likely to operate around processing activities. Female access to information in mixed sex groups was less effective than in single sex groups. A number of DDAs were unhappy about their inability to reach women. The Tolon DDA explained:We are not reaching women enough since Africa RISING resources are as minimal as that of the government. They just give the Agricultural Extension Assistants fuel. Meanwhile the work is difficult so they are getting demoralized. Whatever it is, we could do better with accessing women. Women need to be singled out and targeted. We also need more female Agriculture Extension Assistants because male farmers get suspicious when male assistants are interacting with the women.As noted earlier, Kabeer's Social Relations Approach was the conceptual framework adopted for analyzing field data. This conceptual tool is useful for studies seeking to unravel power relations embedded in socially constituted differences within social groups. We identified analytical categories of formal and informal institutions of state, market, community, and household that act in concert to set rules to justify differential access to, and control over, resources. At the core of our analysis were forms of gender orders, which emerged out of the rules set. Gender orders, we explained, are standardized appropriate behaviors and expectations for women and men in each social setting. Our interests were the forms of privilege and advantage emerging from gender differentiations within the study communities. We believed such a focus would lead to findings that can assist Africa RISING to determine how existing gender orders impact the adoption of its intensification practices. The rest of this section utilizes this framework to analyze the findings towards this end. The discussions are reported under the four main evaluation questions set out for this report. The questions were directed at seeking answers to how socially constituted gender differences might account for how female and male farmers adopt and adapt Africa RISING's innovations. The specific issues explored were around variations in farmers' evaluation criteria as well differential access to and control over productive agricultural resources, including information and learning conditions. We discuss these in relation to the institutional arrangements adopted for delivering intensification practices.Institutional arrangements for delivering intensification practices, we have explained, account for the rules legitimizing existing power relations regulating resource distribution. Africa RISING utilizes existing structures of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to reach farmers in its intervention communities. Again Africa RISING employs the services of private agents to provide such inputs as seed varieties; agro-chemicals, weedicides, pesticides, and fertilizer. Africa RISING therefore straddles state and market institutions. Farmers use community and household structures to implement the innovations. Thus all the institutions identified by Kabeer as important for rule setting in resource access and control, played significant roles in Africa RISING project implementation. There are inherent gender constraints that will feed into project implementation and uptake within this mode of operation, despite some apparent advantages. Africa RISING's partnership with the Ministry is important in granting access to farmers and shoring up the credibility of the project. Again it provides access to a team of staff with some level of gender awareness and understanding of women-specific constraints in the agriculture sector. However there are a number of internal gender constraints within this partnership that will impact the gender responsiveness of future strategies and practices. First, is the structure of the Ministry for Food and Agriculture, and how, despite years of dedicated attention in policy and institutional set up, efforts to improve the conditions under which women participate in agricultural production fall short of set goals. For example, attempts by the state to reach female farmers through its Women in Agriculture Development Technical Directorate are challenged by the sheer dearth of officers. This fact affects information access and learning spaces for women. The use of private agents also poses challenges for long-term sustainability of innovations especially after project closure. Since the motive of input dealers is profit, the extent to which they may remain with innovations that serve to provide alternatives to existing gender orders should be a source of concern. The question is how far the supply of an input that serves to empower women will be upheld if it does not yield the needed profit. Again we note that attraction to Africa RISING's interventions is based on the fact that, as research participants explained, the inputs were given out free at no cost to farmers.We observed that the main issues shaping criteria for evaluating innovation suitability for adoption were how crop types and farm practices fitted into existing constructions of gender orders. Vital systems shaping these orders were household provisioning as outlined in productive and reproductive roles. The key institutional structures underlying the observed criteria for evaluating the suitability or otherwise of new agricultural practices by farmers were located within the rules set by the two main informal institutions: the community and the household. Community interactions and household organization were based on social rules and norms that determine women and men's provisioning roles, both productive and reproductive, and what was considered acceptable conduct for persons occupying set positions in the study communities.The rules that determined female and male roles within the household setting and at the community levels were those governing marriage; wife and husband's responsibility in household provisioning, especially meals. The rules were supported by the norms that granted access to, and control of, the most important agricultural resource, land. As patrilineal societies were expected to move women from their natal communities to live with their husbands on marriage, they have no entitlement to their natal lineage lands. Household provisioning rules assigned women and men to specific roles and these in turn determined their agricultural tasks. According to the existing gender orders, men were the main providers of the household. Their farms were conceived as the main source of household sustenance. They were the primary farmers and women secondary farmers or farm assistants to their husbands. The plots of land on women-farmed soup ingredients (vegetables and legumes) were designated as their individual farms. These rules placed male crops in hierarchical position over and above female crops, legitimizing male entitlement to larger and better farmlands than women. The rules, in addition, gave men primary access to women's labor and it was unheard of for women to refuse to offer their labor on so-called household farms.Crops were associated with women or men primarily because of their relation to the responsibilities in providing the family meal. Farming practices were used to legitimate male control over crops, like mold making for sorghum and millet, for example, and in certain cases customary rules like taboos were used to keep women away from performing such tasks.Female provisioning roles, structured within the farm household by existing traditions, supported by the rules of marriage and female conduct in the household and community, were key issues informing the criteria for adoption of new technologies. Females' responsibility for soup ingredients, for example, pushed them to identify more with legumes such as groundnut, cowpea, and soybean as well as vegetables.Linked to provisioning were land quality and climate change. They informed adoption criteria for the simple reason that they underscored crop yield. Thus maturity duration of crop varieties and farm practices that supported high yields were important considerations. For women, the place of crop utilization in the criteria setting ladder for making innovation choices was linked to the rules that assigned them heavy responsibility for household social reproduction, giving them primary responsibility for the family meals.We noted that two sets of resources were based on the institutions responsible for their regulation and distribution. We identified community-based resources, like land and labor, and external resources, like credit, technology, extension services, irrigation, transportation, and processing facilities. The distribution of community-based resources, our findings revealed, depended on local customary rules on household provisioning. While external productive resources were located more within the realm of the state. As explained, traditional rules informing gender responsibilities in providing family meals grant males more privileges in accessing a critical agricultural resource, land, in all the study communities. As patrilineal societies, land was passed through the male line, male gender roles as providers of staples for the household meal, justified their access to larger plots of land than those available to women. This was buttressed by the rules of marital residence that required women to live with their husbands. Marital status becomes a factor creating differences among women, informing their ability to adopt and adapt technologies. Land access through men is a limiting factor for women since they need their husbands' permission in order to adopt technologies. Widowhood allowed women to escape the rules of submitting to men. But this widowhood advantage was offset by land access and the likelihood that women might not have land to farm on at all. This calls for further interrogation in future studies.Beyond access to land is the nature of land and size. Land size is a key criterion for qualifying to participate in Africa RISING technology, beginning with the baby trials and later moving on to upscaling. Upscaling is contingent on land size. Women's ability to upscale then is located more within traditional rule setting than personal choices. Where land is scarce women might fail to qualify to upscale. This suggests that rule-setting criteria by Africa RISING for qualifying farmers to participate in its interventions have to be tested for its gendered impact.External resources were constrained first by the ability of the state to provide them to all farmers and use of the market to deliver them. We have discussed at length constraints in extension delivery and its implications for women farmers in particular. The use of market to provide inputs like tractors, chemicals, and improved variety, we noted also, produces differences in uptake. The ability to pay becomes an important criterion for access. In fact the success of Africa RISING in the communities, we were told, was due to the fact that important inputs were given out free.Overcoming access brings to the fore the need to deal with the traditional division of labor. The ability of technology to transcend gender norms becomes important. There were instances where innovations were beginning to break the rules controlling women and men's agricultural tasks. This was along the introduction of crops that break women's dependence on men (maize and soybean). These crops fall outside the traditional crop divisions and allowed women to earn independent income. An additional gender order-breaking avenue was the introduction of ploughing that allowed women to plant on flat land and not on mounds. Such findings call for deeper understanding of how to support women beyond their ability to perform their traditional roles better. How to break down gender barriers structuring their discriminatory access to agricultural resources is an area where research is needed to provide additional insights.The data suggests that adaptation of Africa RISING practices is dependent on the attitude of the AEAs and the extent to which they allow it. Generally, adaptations are not encouraged by most AEAs and so it is not common practice among farmers in general, whether male or female. Few instances reported were around timing, fertilizer broadcasting, and spaces between intercropped plants. We contend however that if avenues were provided for adaption, the same factors that influence women's adoption could inhibit women from adapting innovations easily. If a woman farms alongside her husband, for instance, she cannot decide to adopt and adapt technologies easily without her husband's consent. The rules of marital conduct will not support this. Since few women were living alone and farming their individual plots, questions of adaptation have to be routed through gendered rules and women's ability to navigate existing gender orders.Perhaps it is in the discussion of our findings on gender differences in access to information that the institutionalized gender biases from formal systems play up most. It is obvious from the data on information sources and access, as well as participation in learning about agricultural innovations and practices that deep-seated gendered differences exist in information access for women and men. These differences stem from: Male dominance in the information sources.  The paucity of human-resource capacity of the state institution, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and its women's organ, the Women in Agriculture Directorate, as well as their institutionalized gender bias.  Cost of accessing information by means of technology, radio, and mobile phones.  The burden of women's domestic and care work.  Use of English language in some instances.  Nature and composition of farmer groups used for information dissemination.These were only superficial explanations to the gender differences in accessing information and participating in learning. The underlying foundations can be traced to social gender relations with the institutionalized gender orders. Thus, rules governing female behavior in Northern Region communities discourage interactions with strange males. Norms of engagement for women also dissuade them from speaking in the presence of a male. This explains why a woman would be silent in a mixed group especially if her husband is present. The rules assigning women the larger share of domestic work is another inhibiting factor. Men have time to participate in meetings because they have little or no responsibility for household chores like childcare and fetching water and fuel wood.The fact that the most important information sources for women are human based raises issues of access since their interactions with others outside their households is carefully controlled by norms of appropriate gender behavior. Findings also revealed that the institutional settings tend to be male dominated. Customary rules of decision-making organs limit women's participation in leadership and where they happen to operate their jurisdictional remit extends to female affairs. Existing spaces like farmer groups operate within such customary rules. Membership of the R4Ds, for example, tends to be male dominated. But for the introduction of the Magagyia there would have been no female presence on this important community-based, decisionmaking arena of Africa RISING. Thus, having the Magagyia on the R4D is a useful starting point. Her primary responsibility to assist women acquire skills to process soy products in order to facilitate the acceptance of soybean, facilitates the acceptance of a gender order breaking crop in communities where this crop has been accepted. There is a need to explore how her role can stretch to other areas of resource constraints beyond serving as a conduit for reaching women. It is important also to explore how membership on the R4D platform can be expanded to include more women.Working within established systems of state and market institutions has implications that should inform Africa RISING's decisions about how to make its strategies gender sensitive. First, is the ability of these institutions to address rules shaping gender orders that structure women and men's engagement in agriculture, and the orientation of, these institutions. We note, for example, the implications of the for-profit motive of market-based input providers for gender responsive interventions. We also point out state policy content for reaching women farmers and the implementation capacity of responsible ministries. Here we are making reference to the institutional setting of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and its capacity to meet women farmers' gender needs. Such gender needs might hinder women's participation in Africa RISING's intensification practices. We note that a number of challenges need to be overcome to improve agricultural productivity for all farmers, which also have implications for women's productive capacity in the interventions' communities. A number of these issues fall beyond Africa RISING's capacity. These include the provision of irrigation facilities, ploughing technology, and transport infrastructure.The question is how far interventions can move beyond access to grant women greater autonomy over productive resources. Our findings have provided leads to avenues for circumventing institutional rules around gendered crop divisions and agricultural task allocations. The findings suggest that the rules, far from being rigid, and like all customary practices, are amenable to change. This calls for a better understanding of how gendered rules engaging agricultural production can be circumvented. Additional questions needing attention are how interventions can be used to support women who are able to transgress existing gender orders. This calls for real attention to identifying existing institutional arrangements that allow men to maintain their stronghold on agricultural resource access and control.Dealing with gender differences in observed criteria for evaluating innovation suitability Our findings and subsequent analysis show that informal institutional rules are the most important factors shaping gender differences in observed criteria for evaluating the suitability or otherwise of new technologies or practices. These rules, generated at the community and household levels, are important for shaping female and male responses to agricultural innovations. It was clear, however, that for gender differences to be overcome it might be necessary for Africa RISING to explore crops like maize that transcend gender boundaries and therefore do not submit to the rules of gender provisioning. An additional consideration will be to explore markets for female crops, in particular cowpea and groundnut, to enable women to earn additional income to reduce their dependence on men. Another consideration is the introduction of technology for farming, tractors and bullock ploughs, and spraying machines that women can easily access. Women will have to be provided with the skills to manage such technology outside male control. This calls for research to understand how technology introduction can circumvent existing rules on female and male roles in agricultural production and how the introduction of technology can unmake gender orders in the community.Land access, we noted, constituted a major constraint to female ability to adopt Africa RISING technology. This affected access to other community and externally based productive resources. We noted, in addition, the land criteria for qualifying farmers to be admitted to try Africa RISING technologies. Dealing with women's land access is therefore an important condition for promoting a gender-responsive policy. An important approach calls for a reexamination of women's groups and the role of the Magagyia as presently constituted. It might be important to push for group acquisition of land for women. This will call for the promotion of women's groups and specific capacity building to set them up to push for land from traditional leaders in the respective communities. There are suggestions that male traditional rulers might be amenable to granting women access to land if they approach them as a group and not as individuals. The role of the Magagyia in mobilizing women to push for, secure, and protect lands so acquired might be an important strategy to get women to benefit from Africa RISING technologies by overcoming an important resource constraint. Another approach will be to support the Ministry of Food and Agriculture's Women in Agricultural Development Directorate to institute a monitoring mechanism for its own policy goals. This could lead to greater pressure for delivering policy targets and provide an avenue for discussing even policy assumptions and their ability to address gendered constraints underlying women's differential resource access and control. To meet this aim it might be important for Africa RISING to outline clearly what its goals and targets are for meeting its own gender policy and set up facilities for monitoring adherence.technologies for male agricultural tasks are critical openings for empowering women through agricultural interventions. We insist that agricultural interventions are not gender neutral and can make or unmake gender orders; a fact made by existing literature. An understanding of the gender orders and how they feed into the technology uptake is important for developing and delivering gender-responsive strategies. The rules of formal institutions are just as important as community and household-based customary norms and practices. It is apparent that in order for Africa RISING to be responsive to gendered constraints, the conception, planning, and execution of the second phase will have to respond to clearly set goals. As our findings reveal, women miss a good part of the positive impact of projects when gender responsive goals are not clear and monitoring indicators are absent.","tokenCount":"24799"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d43d19fa9cff2dfc1a718d5797c6fdda","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/27a9936f-d391-40f7-8c45-7adc968726f0/retrieve","id":"-1349218677"},"keywords":["Contributing CRPs/Platforms:","CCAFS -Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Contributing Flagships:","FP4: Climate services and safety nets Contributing Regional programs:","WA: West Africa"],"sieverID":"967856a3-8b71-4e10-b451-798d4d73c25c","pagecount":"4","content":"The CCAFS Climate Information Services in West Africa project, in collaboration with meteorological services, radio stations, and mobile phone companies, was instrumental to the development of a component dedicated to the use and dissemination of climate information for VALPAPE program in Burkina Faso. A study tour to was organised to the Climate-Smart Villages of Tibtenga (Burkina) and Cinzana (Mali), made up of a group of 20 people from local communities, agricultural services, farmers' associations, national extension services and agricultural research.The Agropastoral Potential Valorization Program in the East (VALPAPE) aims to improve food security in the Eastern region of Burkina Faso by increasing and securing the income of agropastoral producers. Recognizing that agricultural producers and pastoralists are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, the ACCORD Consortium (ACADE Switzerland and CORADE) executing the VALPAPE Program, decided to draw on experience of CCAFS on CIS design and dissemination. Indeed, the CCAFS Climate Information Services in West Africa project, in collaboration with meteorological services, radio stations, and mobile phone companies, has proven both its significance and relevance in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana, Niger and Mali.During an evaluation study of the Climate Information Services in West Africa project in 2015, CORADE was able to learn from the achievements of the project and to understanding the importance of climate information for the beneficiaries of the VALPAPE Program. CORADE then organized a study tour to the Tibtenga Climate-Smart Village (CSV) in Burkina Faso and to the Cinzana CSV in Mali. The mission was made up of about 20 people from local communities, agricultural services, farmers' associations, national extension service and agricultural research. Participants had the opportunity to become familiar with the specificities of the pilot project directly with the beneficiaries and other stakeholders.Based on this experience, the climate information component of the VALPAPE Program was developed according to the realities of the provinces of Tapoa, Gnagna and Gourma in the eastern region of Burkina Faso, the largest agro-sylvo-pastoral wildlife area in the country. The climate information is provided through collaboration between the meteorological services, the agricultural supervision services and the local radios. Daily and even weekly, weather forecasts are broadcast at specific times by local radio stations. Farmers and pastoralists from VALPAPE testified their satisfaction and explained they received the information through the radio.Small-scale agricultural producers and livestock herders in the region showed a need and a real motivation for the sustainability of the project for better decision-making related to their livelihoods. As a consequence, the support system for the use of climate information set up in the framework of VALPAPE is a success and the Regional Directorate of Agriculture has advocated for its strengthening through the second National Rural Sector Program (PNSRII). A video documented the piloting of the agro-meteorological dissemination within VALPAPE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=928&v=zHHQG7NgPdU). The CIS project will reach about 400 000 beneficiaries of which at least 47% are women.","tokenCount":"475"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"05bdcefda544407e5761a7d68885669c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2b4ff0cb-6597-436f-96e2-dc8b30ba0131/retrieve","id":"950620264"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f591ebd6-381a-4517-9b56-a358a11e2220","pagecount":"8","content":"• Milk, meat, eggs and fi sh are key components of a balanced and nutritious diet for most people.Inadequate supplies often result in malnutrition, especially among women and children.• The world is seeing an explosive growth in demand for these animal source foods. This is especially true of developing countries.• Increasing the availability and affordability of animal source foods to meet the needs of poor consumers will be essential to ensure food and nutrition security for all.• Increasing the supply of affordable fi sh to meet demand requires continued growth of small and medium enterprise aquaculture, serving national and regional markets.• This is especially true for Africa, where aquaculture production lags behind the rest of the world and is in urgent need of support to develop at scale.Consumption of milk, meat, eggs and fi sh (the animal source foods) contributes signifi cantly to preventing undernutrition and achieving nutrition security. For many developing country communities, especially those living close to coastal and inland waters, fi sh are the dominant animal source food. Accounting for more than 50% of the animal protein in the diet for 400 million poor people in Africa and South Asia, fi sh provide both quality animal protein and critical micronutrients. This nutrition is especially important for vulnerable groups, such as infants, children, pregnant and nursing women and those living with HIV/AIDS.Driven by rising population, urbanization and increasing expectations of a diversifi ed diet, demand among poor consumers will increase dramatically for many countries where fi sh are an important part of the diet. Meeting this demand will be especially challenging for Africa where per capita fi sh supply has remained low and relatively static for the last three decades.Globally, about 47% of fi sh for human consumption is now supplied by aquaculture. With most wild capture fi sheries either fully or over-exploited, achieving large scale, environmentally sustainable increases in supply of fi sh to poor consumers will require further aquaculture growth. This is especially true for Africa where aquaculture currently makes a much lower contribution to fi sh supply than the rest of the world. African aquaculture currently produces less than 2% of global aquaculture production, representing less than 5% of Africa's fi sh (FAOStat, 2010).As a member of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), The WorldFish Center will partner with several other CGIAR Centers in the CGIAR Research Program 3.7 \"More Meat Milk and Fish by and for the Poor\" (CRP 3.7). Under this program we will work to help achieve large scale, environmentally sustainable increases in supply of fi sh to poor consumers in developing countries. We will do this by focusing our research to develop new seed and feed technologies, understand how to improve the institutional environment, and by testing an integrated value-chain approach to these issues in a limited number of countries. In doing so, we also recognize the importance of aquaculture as an engine for rural development and will seek to achieve these increases by strengthening aquaculturebased value chains in which the poor are able to capture a signifi cant share of the benefi ts.The program takes a themed approach that combines foundational technological research (Theme 1) with focussed programmatic engagement to support integrated value chain development in a few selected countries (Theme 2). A fi nal underpinning theme on Targetting Gender and Impact (Theme 3) is designed to support the program by: • Ensuring that gender and equity are mainstreamed into the program in a transformative way. • Ensuring that the program is well focussed and working to deliver its intended impact on target benefi ciaries. • Measuring whether the intended impact on target benefi ciaries are delivered. • Identifying and documenting the mechanisms and processes that brought success.With a budget of $25m over the fi rst three years, the program aims to deliver annual production growth rates of over 10% in priority countries, leading to gender equitable increases in per capita consumption of over 20% for 20m poor consumers by 2018, thereby contributing to reduced micronutrient defi ciencies among these populations.The focus of research for the fi sh components of the Program are on technology platform and integrated value chain research.Research on aquaculture breed and feed technologies forms the platform for growth in the aquaculture sector. With a view to generating widely applicable international and regional public goods, we will work on these issues in a limited number of countries where there is emerging national demand for these technologies, and where institutional capacity exists to develop and apply them. The research agenda will focus on three broad themes:Growth in aquaculture is essential if Africa is to produce enough fi sh to feed its people.i. Selective breeding of key species continues to deliver signifi cant productivity gains for aquaculture. The Program will therefore continue this work to provide improved strains suitable for developing country farmers. It will also provide technical backstopping to partner countries in Africa and Asia where there is potential for large scale increase in fi sh supply. This support will help develop and evaluate national breeding programs for species that are suited to the prevailing environmental, production and marketing conditions.ii. The risks associated with developing and disseminating genetically improved strains need to be managed. The Program will therefore work with partner countries to develop guidelines and tools that help do this and help implement them.iii. Improving feeds remains key to ensuring that enterprises remain profi table and sustainable. The program will work to identify approaches and share lessons on producing nutritritionally sound and environmentally sustainable feeds. We will give particular emphasis to identify onfarm and local sources for these inputs and potential synergies between the fi sh and livestock sector.CRP 3.7 is based on the premise that a systematic and integrated approach to overcoming barriers to production is the best way to increase fi sh supplies and therefore improve food security and nutrition in poorer countries. To do this the program takes a whole value chain approach to overcoming the full range of technological, market and institutional barriers to substantial growth in production.Most importantly, the approach places signifi cant emphasis on the stakeholders as valuable participants in the research process. In the case of aquaculture, value chains include all the input suppliers, farm production through to transporting, processing and marketing of outputs to creation of added value products through to consumption.Research and supporting action will fall under three broad themes that will support outcomes and innovations along the value chains. i. Using participatory market chain analysis we will work with stakeholders along the seed, feed and fi sh production value chains to understand their structure and dynamics and where value is captured. This diagnosis will also allow us to identify the constraints to be overcome and opportunities for improvement. It will also allow us to identify gender disparities that might be addressed. As part of this work we will facilitate the dialogues and learning networks among stakeholders that are needed to help aquaculture to develop in the country and support capacity development efforts through training and technical support.ii. We will work with government and the private sector to identify how the national policy and institutional environment might better support the aquaculture sector and the investments that would be needed. This will include work to develop and improve markets for seed, feed and fi sh and to ensure equitable access to these markets, especially for women. It will also include research on how best to provide extension services and other support to value chain participants.iii. Drawing on our Theme 1 research and the diagnoses outlined above we will work to help farmers and other actors along the feed, seed and fi sh value chain adopt improved production practices and improve profi tability.In doing so we will also work to ensure that approaches are environmentally sustainable and make best use of available resources.Our value chain research will focus on Uganda and Egypt, two countries with important fi sh consumption but signifi cant undernourishment, and an aquaculture sector that has potential for effective intervention (Table 1). Because their aquaculture sectors are at different stages of development the needs of each country are different and they provide different opportunities for learning (Figure 1).Egypt leads African aquaculture production with 700,000 tons per year, but the sector needs to grow substantially if it is to sustain per capita consumption. The goal will be to move from the current large number of small-scale enterprises with limited support and scattered technology innovations, to a consolidated sector with a mix of emerging medium scale enterprises and sustainable small scale farms supported by signifi cantly improved technology and services.Fish farming has increased fi sh supply for consumers and maintained affordable prices. This has contributed to a doubling between 1994 and 2008 for the contribution that fi sh protein makes to total protein in the EgyptianTechnological research and support.In Egypt we believe a combination of upgrading farmers to produce at the level of the current best producers, expanding areas under production and technical innovation could increase annual average production growth rates to 10%, yielding an additional 615,000 tonnes by 2017. At current population growth rates, and assuming all other sources of fi sh supply remain static, this increase in tilapia alone would bring per capita fi sh supply from 15.37% in 2008 to 18.56% in 2017.Diagnosis, dialogue and knowledge sharing. Supply to local and regional markets and retail chains.Maturing value chains.On farm Small scale enterprises Mainly small scale enterprise, but some MEs emerging.Medium scale enterprises becoming dominant, some consolidation occurring.Rudimentary, with supply and quality problems.Rudimentary, with supply and quality problems.Functioning, but considerable scope for improvements in quality Systems well developed and operating at a high standard.Rudimentary, few adopted norms.Rudimentary, few adopted norms.Broadly sound, but considerable scope for improvements.High standard. Focus on innovation to drive down production costs.Poor to basic, farmer to farmer learning networks emerging.Poor to basic, industry associations emerging.Basic services available. Well developed.Household food and nutrition securityIncome generation for farmers.Stable and affordable fi sh supplies for poor consumers.Employment and income through value chain participation.Stable and affordable fi sh supplies for poor consumers.Employment and income through value chain participation.Figure 1. Stages of Aquaculture Development and the status of Uganda and Egypt.Table 1. Aquaculture production, the importance of fi sh in the diet and the level of undernourishment in the population for the top eight aquaculture producers in sub-Saharan Africa. diet (Box 1). But, despite this impressive growth and current value, aquaculture production will need to rise further to meet growing demand for fi sh. Even more will be required for fi sh to continue to be available to people with lower incomes.To meet projected national need for the next 10-15 years, a further 1.0-1.6 million tonnes of fi sh will be required. Analysis of the sector indicates that this growth will need to be based primarily on the expansion of tilapia aquaculture in semiintensive to intensive ponds.Annual average production growth rates for tilapia between 2003 and 2008 were approximately 16%. In the absence of further investment in innovation, this growth is unlikely to be maintained. Growth of 5% annually until 2017 would yield an additional 213,000 tonnes over 2008 levels.Growth in aquaculture production has affected the affordability of fi sh for consumers. For the last decade wild capture supplies have been stable or declining, fi sh imports have remained relatively stable and exports have been In Uganda approximately 3,000 households participate in fi sh production in each of the priority regions and we believe this program can increase this total by 50% by 2017. Improving the livelihoods of both current farmers and these 3,000 new entrants would reach 9,000 households. A further 3,000 would benefi t from participating in the upstream and downstream linkages in the target value chains.Uganda has a looming food security crisis, with a predicted 14 million Ugandans becoming food insecure in the next 10 years (USDA Global Food Security Assessment 2010 -2020). The government of Uganda has identifi ed increased aquaculture production as a priority for helping to achieve this by meeting the local and regional fi sh supply gap.Ugandan aquaculture is growing rapidly, but from a low base of 2,400 tons in 2002 rising to 52,000 tons in 2008/9. With a strong culture of fi sh consumption, increasing income and population growth in urban areas, and an increasing and food insecure rural population demand for fi sh is projected to rise. (Jagger and Pender 2002). The goal in Uganda will be to move from a few small-scale enterprises with rudimentary value chains, technologies, production practices, and support services to a large number of smallscale enterprises and support services ready to rise to the next level of development.Two areas in Uganda have been chosen as the focus of the fi sh value chain research -a northern area that has a high unmet demand for fi sh and potential for cross border trade with southern Sudan and another area in south eastern Uganda where the demand for fi sh comes from urban markets and cross border trade from Kenya (Figure 2). The Government of Uganda has identifi ed both as priority regions for aquaculture development. WorldFish and partners believe that these regions not only provide the greatest potential for impact but also the contrasts between them offer excellent opportunities for learning. ","tokenCount":"2207"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"77a456f3454afcaafeefe119e581603e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c375f7d8-8794-476a-9abd-6ee79507213d/retrieve","id":"-1338526610"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2570d6dd-64ac-490a-a0b4-2729419ec8cc","pagecount":"8","content":"national average is 1.7 tJha, clearly indicating that a threefold yield increase-compared to experiment-station yields-and a twofold increase-compared to fanners' field trials-is possible,To achieve this, new technological advances are to be made in the area of crop improvement through participatory plant breedíng and partícipatory varietal selection. This will facilitate fue rapid adoption of newly released varieties, along with a faster seed-replacement rate. And ultimately, fanners will get varieties wifu fueir preferred traits. This will further help in the identification and release oflocation-specific wheat varieties for different agroecological niches.  Figure 2 illustrates the presen! and past wheat varietal development process of tbe wheat variety release system. Farmers' informal participation starts from tbe initial evaluation trial onwards, where farmer-visitor groups are allowed to evaluate wheat genotypes planted at different research ,tations. Coordinated farmers' field trials are carried out in tbe farmers' fields in multilocational test sites. The genotypes in on-farm trials are evaluated jointly by farmers and researchers. As in farmers' acceptance tests, small seed kits of pre-released and released varieties are distributed to a number of farm families tbroughout tbe country, along with a questionnaire to be retumed by them. The questionnaire used in evaluating coordinated farmers' field trials and tbe farmers' acceptance test are given in annex l. Frontline, on-farm research is a triangular activity where farmers, extension personne1, and research scientists are involved right from síte selection to variety evaluation.In frontline research, a complete technology package is introduced, along with an improved variety, in a large area where many farmers are allowed to join in. In the district seed self-sufficiency program, tbe multiplication of seed from recently released varieties is carried out jointly by farrners groups, extension personnel, and research scientists. The seed produced is procured and marketed by tbe farmers groups tbems<;lves. A part of tbis wheat-research program is continuously supplying genetic materials to several NGOs and actively participating in variety-evaluation work.Thus, with tbe involvement of farmers and various developmental agencies, tbe participatory crop-improvement program could help in (1) the ídentificatíon and release of farmers' preferred varieties, (2) the release of location-specific varieties for diverse agroclimatic ruches, (3) faster A participatory assessment to determine the preferenee eriteria that farmers employ in selecting wheat genotypes was carried out at Bankatti village in the Rupandehi distriet. Twenty male and female farroers were invited, divided into two groups by gender, and asked te list the traits tha! they preferred in selecting wheat genotypes. After Iisting their preference eriteria, individual members were alIowed to rank the preference eriteria. Based on their preference eriteria, 12 wheat varieties with two replieations were planted in farroers' fields in Bankatti vilIage. These differed in maturity, height, tillering, grain size, disease response, grain yield, and other traits. At physiologieal rnaturity, women and men farroers were allowed to seleet wheat genotypes based on the preference traits listed and ranked previously. A format-containing list of 12 wheat genotypes and preference traies listed by the two groups was distributed to both the groups, and they were asked to rank the genotypes from one te 12, Afier harvesting the crop, farmers were asked to rank the grain size and color for their preference. Grain-yield samples frOID the harvest were weighed, adjusted to 12% moisture, and analyzed statistically.The preference eriteria ser by the two groups is presented in table 2. The women's group listed 12 traits, while men listed only níne traits. There were eight traits that were common to both groups. If we compare the eriteria set by tbe two gender groups for selecting wheat genotypes and tbose set by the National Wheat Research Program, we can see many similarities, except in sorne traits related to quality, drought, and sterility. This is because Bankatti is an irrigated and sterility-free area and farmers have never experienced drought and sterility. Table 3 reveals the preference eriteria set by the two gender groups afler ranking in order. It clearly shows the differential ranking of traits by gender. Men gave top prioríty to tolerance to late heat stress, followed by large, white graillS and tolerance to shattering, while women ranked resistance to diseases first, followed by high tillering and high yield. Tables 4 and 5 show the preference ranking of wheat genotypes by women and men farmers, respectively. Both lhe groups selected BL 14 73--a recently released variety-as lhe number one choice, followed by Nepal 297. The differential ranking appeared when selecting lhe lhird genotype, where women group ranked NL 731 as third and lhe men group selected Bhrikuti (table 6). Table 7 represents the genotypes evaluated, along with lheÍr main characteristícs. It can be seen that the farmers' number one choice is not grain yield but other important traits like bold grain, earliness, and disease resistance.Tahle4 ","tokenCount":"782"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"52c9d1e171dbc36ef30d2464ad008d66","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/90db7ca0-565f-48c5-be3c-bc9461300140/content","id":"-1822047405"},"keywords":["Gender","Seed Systems","CGIAR","Workshop","Africa","Maize","Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project","Improved varieties of seed","Seed access","Women participation in seed sector","CIMMYT"],"sieverID":"4f2f0773-a913-4c35-89b0-3e9baefbaeae","pagecount":"47","content":"The designations employed in the presentation of materials in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of CIMMYT or its contributory organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, or of authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. CIMMYT encourages fair use of this material. Proper citation is requested. Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the donors of the authors' institutions. The usual disclaimer applies.The workshop and this publication was made possible through the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project. The current on-going project, Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA), was launched in 2016. The project aims to help farmers mitigate the combined effects of multiple stresses such as drought, heat, poor soil fertility and diseases that affect maize production and farming, in order to improve food security and smallholders' livelihoods across sub-Saharan Africa. For more information, visit https://stma.cimmyt.org/ CIMMYT -the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center -is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. For more information, visit www.cimmyt.org.The CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) is an international collaboration led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) that seeks to mobilize global resources in maize research and development, in order to achieve greater impact on maize-based farming systems in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. MAIZE strategy draws upon learning and experiences obtained through decades of extensive partnerships with national and international research and development partners, including both public and private institutions, and farming communities. For more information, visit www.maize.org.Seed is life. Seed systems are complex and multilayered, involving diverse interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral actors in multiple fronts, from seed conservation to multiplication; improved breeding; regulatory sanitary and phytosanitary measures (for safety and quality assurance); and distribution and sale. Seed systems are also highly dynamic, constantly forming and reforming. The gender challenge then is to first clearly understand how these dynamics affect women, youth, men and other marginalized groups, and then to ensure that these shifting dynamics and end-results do not however widen the gaps, especially by gender. Thus, the Gender Dynamics in Seed Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and Worldwide Lessons Workshop was convened on 2 nd December 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya, to examine this challenge, and how to address it.Main objectives were to share research findings on gender and seed-systems research, to discuss lessons learned by researchers and development practitioners operating in the nexus of gender and seed systems, to identify knowledge gaps and to exchange ideas on promising -and implementable -interventions and approaches that expand opportunities for women in the seed sector.From the workshop deliberations, it emerged that funders such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID have invested heavily in breeding improved crops that are tailored to agro-ecological zones primarily targeting farmers who continue to use and recycle unimproved seeds. Nevertheless, much more remains to be done in gender responsiveness to more precisely address distinct variety preferences by women and men farmers. This calls for more research funding to enable gender and social scientists to work with breeders, food technologists, nutritionists and marketers in an integrated manner, right from breeding to product development and market studies.Moreover, although notable progress has been made in parts of Africa on women's participation and involvement in agri-business and crop science, much more needs to be done to increase the numbers of women and to substantively deepen their involvement in the seed sector. Interventions to support women in the seed-sector business and/or science should be broad and far-reaching, focusing on the entire seed value chain. There is an urgent need to provide facilitative information and support to smallholdersparticularly women and youth -and to assist womenowned micro-enterprises to access opportunities in existing affirmative-action policies and programs. For instance, the Kenya government is implementing an affirmative-action policy to preferentially award 30% of tenders in each government ministry to businesses owned by women, youth and persons with disabilities. 1 This policy was supposed to empower women across all categories, but thus far, smallholder women farmers and women-owned micro-enterprises have not taken full advantage of this opportunity, as they are unaware of this policy.Besides the barriers to actively engage in the seed business sector, women also face numerous barriers in adopting improved seeds. One solution is gendertransformative approaches that empower women to take charge of their own destiny in addressing their food-security needs and problems.The youth also face barriers similar to women, meaning young women are up against a double barrier, being both women and youth at the same time. As such, gender-responsive seed value chains must necessarily also be youth-responsive as well, to ensure that this ultra-vulnerable, doubly burdened and potentially very productive critical core group is not left behind. Studies have shown that women play a major role in agriculture in Africa, and the value of catching them while young is inestimable and exponential.Fake seeds persist and seed quality-control standards remain weak. Even then, seed-import policies and regulations are not business-friendly due to the multiple clearances required by and through different government agencies. 2 Main workshop achievements were deepening interdisciplinary links amongst various actors and organizations in a position to influence gender dynamics within the seed systems, identifying the gender research gaps in seed systems, investment and policy priorities, and launching a Gender and Seed Systems Community of Practice for continued post-conference dialogue on this critical topic to enhance and sustain greater food security right at the heart and very foundation of agricultural productionseed systems.Seed is the foundation and very beginning of any and all agricultural production, and fundamental to food and nutritional security. Therefore, as the spring and source of all agricultural production, seed must be of high quality and readily accessible.The seed sector has rapidly evolved in ways that have greatly altered the landscape of seed delivery to developing-world smallholder farmers, including in Eastern and Southern Africa. This is largely due to direct interventions through widespread support from funders, national governments and research institutions.It is therefore timely to review how these changes have evolved, and their implications for women's involvement downstream and upstream in the seed system. Do women have equal opportunity to participate in the seed sector? Are interventions to enable this (increase in participation and engagement of women) needed, and more so for staples such as maize, rice, legumes, and roots and tubers?Because most of Africa's poor population depends largely on subsistence farming, increasing agricultural productivity is critical for agricultural growth in Africa. Overall, agricultural growth in Africa lags behind economic growth, with only moderate increases since the 1960s. A major constraint is limited availability of inputs for smallholders, particularly lack of seeds for improved varieties; most farmers rely on traditional seed varieties that are recycled and generally have very low yields.Improved varieties have relatively higher yield potential, better adaptation to common biotic and abiotic stresses such as diseases, pests, drought and low nutrients, and are water-efficient, thus raising actual and potential smallholder productivity.Studies have shown that women play a major role in agriculture in Africa and other regions of the developing world. And yet, entrepreneurs in the agricultural value chain pay only low attention to women farmers. Women remain largely marginalized and have less access than men to productive resources and opportunities, including to inputs such as seeds and fertilizer. Women farmers, for example, are less likely to use improved seed than men, leading to relatively lower productivity levels for women compared to men.If not addressed, these gender gaps represent real costs to households, seed companies, agrodealers, communities and nations. Consequently, stakeholders in the sector have recognized -and prioritized -the need for increased and well-targeted support for women in agriculture. For instance, the African Union's June 2014 Malabo Declaration, includes a commitment to reduce poverty in Africa by 50% by 2025, through, among other measures, supporting and facilitating the preferential entry and participation of women and youth in gainful and attractive agri-business opportunities.It is in this spirit that the Gender Dynamics in Seed Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and Worldwide Lessons Workshop was convened on 2 nd December 2019 at Nairobi Safari Club, Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop was organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Attending were researchers, development practitioners, funders, farmer representatives, farmers, seed companies and other private-sector actors. Institutions participating and represented are listed in Annex 1. The agenda of the workshop can be found in Annex 2. Workshop objectives were: (i) to share findings from research on gender and seed systems, lessons learned by practitioners who are working closely with farmers on the ground, as well as private-sector actors and funders in gender and seed systems; (ii) identify knowledge and research gaps in gender and seed systems; and, (iii) pinpointing promising interventions or models, and jointly identifying implementable solutions to increase opportunities for women in the seed sector.The multi-stakeholder workshop was held as part of a process towards promoting equitable participation and opportunities for African women in development, particularly in the formal seed sector along the entire value chain from production to use.Outputs and outcomes included: (i) launching a gender and seed-systems community of practice and deepening links among researchers, development practitioners and funders in the seed sector agriculture and gender; (ii) increased awareness by participants of the knowledge gaps in gender and seed-systems research, as well as the challenges and opportunities for women's participation in seed systems; and, (iii) sharing lessons and good practice amongst researchers, private sector, government agencies, development partners and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for creating promising models for intervention to increase women's participation in seed systems across the entire value chain.Dr. Mugo welcomed participants, noting that CIMMYT's mission aligns itself with the CGIAR strategy to advance agricultural science and innovations to enable poor people -especially women -to better nourish their families, and improve their productivity and resilience so they can effectively participate in economic growth and manage natural resources in the face of climate change and other challenges (CGIAR System 3-Year Business Plan 2019-2021). 3 CIMMYT deeply cherishes inclusivity, and women and youth are an integral part of CIMMYT's work so as to enable equitable access by women and marginalized groups to knowledge, markets, technology and training (CIMMYT Strategic plan 2017-2022). 4 Gender and social inclusiveness in research and its outcomes are amongst CIMMYT's core competencies, since social differences such as gender, age, wealth and ethnicity play a key role in successful agricultural interventions. More than any other sector, agriculture requires social inclusiveness.The workshop objectives are to learn, and to share experiences, results and lessons from various existing seed-system interventions in legumes, cereals, trees, roots and tubers, and livestock. Gender and social inclusiveness in research and its outcomes are amongst CIMMYT's core competencies.Principal Scientist & CIMMYT Regional Representative (CRR) for Africa Mr. Bernard Rono a Rural Sociologist, KALRO-Embu noted that gender aspects must be incorporated within the seed systems to deliver demand-derived seeds for improved food security and productivity. Mr. Rono represented the NARS. Ms. Kamau, Team Leader, Resilient Food and Livelihoods Systems. Ms. Kamau remarked that FAO's role is to support the government and partners, and to collaborate with funders to ensure a world free of hunger, and with secure food nutrition for all. Ms. Kamau represented development partners and NGOs.Greetings from the private sector were presented by Dr. Peter Mbogo, Senior Maize Breeder at SeedCo, Kenya. Dr. Mbogo said that for many seed companies, research is followed by commercialization. As such, this workshop is important so that companies understand gender aspects in seed systems throughout the value chain, and not just at marketing. Greetings from the CGIAR centers were presented by Dr. Jan Low, Principal Scientist and Agricultural Economist at the International Potato Center (CIP) and leader of the Roots, Tubers and Banana Consortium, and the 2016 World Food Prize Laureate. Dr. Low said that as progress towards One CGIAR continues, researchers are committed to providing improved seeds to farmers through inclusive seed systems to ensure the needs of men and women are integrated in crop breeding.Mr. Julius Nyangaga, moderator (left) and Mr. Peter Mutinda, farmer (right). Photo: CIMMYT/Kipenz Films Keynote 1: Overview of seed systems in Africa Dr. DeVries (formerly Director, Seed Systems, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa), President, Seed Systems Group, said that though there has been progress, achieving a green revolution in Africa is no simple undertaking. Developing seed systems in Africa is somewhat complex given the wide range in crops and agro-ecologies. Therefore, increasing crop productivity across agro-ecologies calls for focus on seed quality and productivity potential. And while there is greater emphasis on maize and rice, other crops too also count and have made some progress: for example, improved cowpeas resistant to drought, striga and foliar diseases. Funders such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID have heavily invested in breeding improved crops tailored to agro-ecological zones, and in targeting farmers who continue using landraces. CGIAR centers have played a paramount role in developing these improved varieties, thus providing farmers with better alternatives. Africa's agriculture is on the move with focus on good-quality seed. There has been a significant improvement in seed-system development over the past decade. This -coupled with better seed-delivery systems over the years -have largely contributed to improving productivity. Four primary pillars for improving Africa's seed system are:• Capacity building and education; invest in training and knowledge for the current and next generation (MSc and PhD);• Crop breeding; investment at the international and local levels;• Increase farmer awareness -this has not been given enough attention, but methods are available, e.g., providing free sample of small seed packets to women and disadvantaged farmers ; andGenerally, women's participation and leadership along the seed value chain is quite impressive but not as well documented as it should be.President, Seed Systems GroupPhoto: CIMMYT/Kipenz Films \"• Seed companies and agro-dealers ought to be placed at strategic positions to enhance seed supply and access.In countries with improved seed systems for farmers, there has been significant improvement in productivity, and also in investing in seed supply in a practical way through which Africa will attain food security. Seed system revolution and development in Africa is a potential solution to perennial food insecurity. Women are part of this revolution and development as plant breeders, seed-company owners, seed producers and seed inspectors.But we still do not have enough women in seed development in Africa. However, there is hope as a new generation of women is being trained at different levels in seed systems. We also have quite a number of women CEOs and managers in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) seed companies. For example, approximately 40% of agro-dealers in Kenya's seed value chain are women. There are complex problems to be solved to feed Africa, and women have demonstrated capacity in taking the lead. They have a better understanding of the role of food and nurturing society. Generally, women's participation and leadership along the seed value chain is quite impressive but not as well documented as it should be.Nevertheless, despite their potential, and their demonstrated capacity to take the lead in solving seed security, nutrition and food-security challenges, women have historically been at a disproportionate disadvantage in the seed system. More opportunities should be provided, and enabling factors and hindering encumbrances identified. Enablers include providing a conducive environment for women in their reproductive age to combine reproductive activities and seed-sector development. And, despite multiple encumbrances, some women, particularly in ESA, are still taking the lead in seed-sector development. These women should be supported so that they can further extend the benefits of seed development to all farmers. By prioritizing women needs in seed development, it is possible to transfer the development in ESA to other regions in Africa.Keynote 2: High correlation between gender inequality and food insecurity -IDRC investments in genderDr. Njuki, said that seed systems are the starting point for food security, because food-security programs are premised on improved seed. There is a high correlation between gender inequality and food insecurity. The countries that have the highest levels of gender inequality also have high food insecurity. Women play a critical role in achieving food security. If we remove the barriers women face, women would work more productively, will be empowered, and they would not have to face hurdles getting into leadership. But all is not lost: seed systems are evolving, providing fresh opportunities to embed and mainstream gender in the seed sector. Gender equality should not be an add-on but an integral part of existing and emerging seed systems. There is a renewed focus on gender equality, especially in agriculture and food sector. How do we position research and evidence to link to major investments on gender equality? For instance, a World Bank report entitled Profiting from Parity: Unlocking the Potential of Women's Businesses in Africa 5 noted that Africa has more women entrepreneurs than men entrepreneurs. However, women's profit is 38% less compared to men's profitability. So why is this the case yet they are operating within the same politico-economic context? The differences stem from capital, labor and sectoral choices. Women tend to be more in the traditional sector, e.g., in sweet potatoes than maize or rice. Basically, women are more likely to be involved in the informal than formal sector, and their businesses tend to be smaller.The critical role of women in agriculture is clear, with an equally clear distinction between a focus on women and a focus on gender. However, the two must be linked to effectively tackle the gender gaps and differences by identifying the innovations and solutions Gender equality should not be an addon but an integral part of existing and emerging seed systems.Senior Program Specialist, IDRC Photo: CIMMYT/Kipenz Films to close these gaps. In addition to the seed-system revolution, favourable institutional arrangements, and the increased women participation in seed systems, all provide good opportunities. Barriers include gender gaps in access to resources such as land, capital, labor and extension services. There are also several inter-related challenges:• Seed systems are still heavily masculine. Most institutions, programs, policies and interventions still view farmers as male, and/or are malebiased.• There is a disconnect between the reality on farms and related institutions. Gender is not simply a matter of including women. Although this is necessary and important, in and of itself, it is insufficient for gender equality, because there are key gender barriers warranting research to overcome the challenges.• It is important to link gender gaps and seed systems, examining access to resources, seed at farm level and knowledge and information.Oftentimes, we address the symptoms of gender inequality rather than tackling the root causes such as gender and socio-cultural norms. For example, the ability to access seed, use seed, or become seed entrepreneurs is determined by cultural and social norms that define what women can and cannot do, the women's own aspirations, and what they own or do not own.Given this background, the following steps are necessary:1. Develop, test and scale-up inclusive innovative solutions that work for men, women and youth. These includes transformative financing through institutional change. For example, approaching financial institutions by making women an attractive value proposition and mobilising them into groups which makes them more 'bankable', training and educating them to further enhance their value proposition to financers, and organizing a guarantee scheme as an assurance for financial institutions investing in women. However, we need to change the mindsets of financial institutions about women. Evidence shows that women are more likely to repay loans on time. And yet, more is expected from women (e.g., training, converting them into 'bankable') upfront for them to access these loans, including collateral they may not own and therefore cannot readily provide. This requirement and other stringent conditions in accessing loans demonstrate that the problem is more institutional than womenrelated. It is therefore important to make financial institutions 'womenable', especially because the institutions have instead been trying to make women 'bankable'.2. Transforming gender and social norms is crucial, by carefully selecting how and with whom we partner. It is important to understand the social norms that undergird -and therefore defineinequality. This can be done through participatory methods such as the gender-transformative farmer field schools (FFSs) used by CARE International to create a dialogue on workloadsharing, women decision-making and ownership of resources in the FFS curriculum. Community theater can also be an important tool to change norms, decision-making and ownership of resources.3. Adopting a more synchronised, holistic and cohesive approach on gender inequality: currently, different pieces are sitting in different places at different times. For instance, various groups and institutions are working to build capacity, mentor women, and reform social norms. However, when separated and uncoordinated, these noble undertakings nevertheless paradoxically render it impossible to see the full picture -and to appreciate the immense complexity -of gender integration in agriculture. Gender-transformative food-systems research includes: IDRC invests in gender in various ways including:• Support to women scientists and gender researchers, e.g., fellowships, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), One Planet Fellowship led by the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) and supporting women scientists to advance their careers.• Gender-specific projects -where gender is not just integrated but is indeed the core project.Q1: Transformational research takes time and resources compared to project timeframe and funding. How can we do things concurrently so you can be working for change but still recognizing the reality of time and resources? Is it possible to track social change and still be mindful of funding and timeframe requirements?A (Dr. Jemimah Njuki): Regarding the time aspect, it is important to track the short-term changes that are leading to a norm-change that has a long-term effect. The second aspect depends on what is changing, and the approaches that accelerate change, e.g., getting a critical mass of men as change champions. It is important to adopt approaches that accelerate change, and to clearly understand and determine which norm you want to change, how best to change it, and who its gatekeepers are. Changing social norms requires more approaches, primarily because the social-change process happens within the context of other socio-cultural issues. Power relations within the systems must be clearly understood before addressing social norms.Q2: How can access to loans be enhanced among women?A (Dr. Jemimah Njuki): Capping of bank interest rates in Kenya made the banks more risk-conscious and hence this affected general lending but more especially lending to women, as they are not able to provide collateral, e.g., title deeds in their name.Future research is therefore focusing on understanding women's needs and accordingly customizing financial products. However, this will take time.6 https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/10625/57119/IDL57119.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y• Streamlining processes to ensure gender is an integral part of the research process in calls for proposals and project design. Gender-blind proposals are ineligible, because gender-blind interventions have potential to further increase women's marginalization and workloads.• Knowledge sharing, such as Lessons Learned Synthesis Paper: Gender Integration and the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund. 6According to Dr. Marenya, society demands much from cropimprovement programs. For instance, improved seed should be stress-resilient, meaning able to withstand drought, heat, poor soil fertility and diseases, among other factors. Therefore, farmer demands must be prioritized, bearing in mind that there are no silver-bullet solutions, and so we cannot pack all these demands from the society into a single seed.The study findings presented here are based on preference elicitation experiments and econometric choice analyses using data from more than 1,200 respondents.More than 80% of households in eastern Africa are maleheaded. The decision on what variety to plant is often made by the household head (of whom 80% are male). Disaggregated country results are however more encouraging from a gender In all three countries... clearly, women have very little power in decisions on different aspects of maize production. perspective for what they reveal: percentages for joint variety choice were 67% (Ethiopia), 34% (Uganda) and 47% (Tanzania). Spouses (mostly women) made the variety choices in 10% of the cases in Uganda, 2% in Tanzania. There were few cases of women making sole variety decisions in Ethiopia. Singlegender decision over control of maize harvest is mainly by men (Ethiopia 28%; Uganda, and 54%; and Tanzania, 46%) compared to women (Ethiopia, 1%; Uganda 10%; Tanzania, 2%). In all three countries, clearly, women have very little power in decisions on different aspects of maize production. Different methods were used for robustness of the analyzed data; such as choice experiment. Focus group discussions were conducted on grain varieties. A tradeoff analysis in seed-variety characteristics is important so that breeders prioritize specific traits that are preferred by farmers, and that suit them, especially women.To surface the tradeoffs women and men farmers are willing to make in variety choice or prioritization of variety preferences, a willingness to pay study was conducted in Ethiopia and Kenya. Findings were:• Women appear not to prefer large grain size and hence prefer medium-size grains. One of the reasons behind this is milling for flour conversion: conventional wisdom is that small grains are more efficiently converted to flour than large grain sizes.• Women prefer varieties that store well more than twice as much as men. Typically, storability is related to the flintiness of the grain. This therefore suggests that flint varieties will be greatly preferred by women compared to similar dent varieties. Given women's role as custodians of household food security, ability to store grain well for several months is crucial. Barring financial or other pressures, women and their households expect to store harvested maize grain for as long as possible to assure household supply.• Controlling for socio-economic variables in the analysis (such as experience in farming, education, income, age and gender), men prefer closed-tip varieties nearly 10 times more than women. But without the control, the results are similar for women and men.• Women value drought-and striga-tolerant maize nearly twice more than men. This finding can be used by seed companies to specifically target women.• Yield, grain size, closed tip, storability, drought and striga are among the top traits for consideration among the farmers.• It was also observed that women farmers are more sensitive to improved seed prices i.e., they find them to be costly.In summary, women valued storability three-and-ahalf times more than men: women valued storability five times more than early 90-day maturity, men valued closed tips 10 times more than women, women valued drought-and striga-tolerant maize varieties nearly twice more than men, while men valued nitrogen efficiency 20 times more than women.Therefore, product differentiation is important to determine consumer (farmer) preferences and needs in different markets. Secondly, market segmentation is key for different farmers in different segments. In conclusion, there is a tale of two principles: what to breed for, and whom to breed for. It is well known that no single product can have all the desired traits simultaneously. Therefore, breeding programs should focus on a manageable number of traits per product, guided by principles of market segmentation based on client needs. Seed companies can then segment their seed markets based on traits demanded in specific geographies as delineated by socioeconomic and production factors, coupled with market studies.(ii) Gender dynamics in the formal maize seed systems in sub-Saharan AfricaDr. Adam emphasized the need to understand the rationale behind gender-responsiveness in seed systems, and why this responsiveness is important. It is well-documented that women farmers are less likely to use improved seed than men. The gender gaps in adoption of improved varieties of seed represent real costs to households, seed companies, agro-dealers and society.Nine women-owned and co-owned seed companies were identified in ESA. Details are in the study Women in the maize seed business in East and Southern Africa. 7 These women are in a male-dominated field. Their production portfolio is small, with output ranging between 33.3 and 1,411.3 tons of maize. These women-owned and co-owned seed companies have established unique innovative mechanisms for marketing. For instance, in Uganda, Ms. Josephine Okot of Victoria Seeds uses a mobile seed shop tricycle (tuk-tuk) to reach farmers in remote villages, small seed packs (maendeleo pack) and visiting cattle markets to reach women farmers, works with women lead farmers respected in their communities, and takes different promotional approaches with womentargeted branded materials, e.g., maternity-ward sheets. Majority of the employees in these seed companies are women who handle seed processing (sorting, cleaning and grading, which all require fine precision and attention to detail), while men mostly load and off-load maize-seed bags. If land ownership were tackled, it could create more opportunities for women to become out-growers. b) Gender mainstreaming in seed companies: A case from Uganda A total of 13 companies were interviewed and studied, representing 80% of the market share in Uganda. Men hold leadership positions in seed production, processing, product development, sales and marketing, and management. Additionally, in a majority of the cases, breeders, agronomists and technicians are also usually men. Women are the majority employees, dominating the seed-processing sector, though majority of the employees are seasonal workers and men are the majority of outgrowers since land control locks out many women.The findings of the study showed that 62% of the engaged seed out-growers are men. While there are a few seed companies that have an inclusive marketing approach targeting women, most seed companies have employed a one-size-fits-all marketing strategy with no gender lens to reach women farmers, nor deliberate avenues by which to reach women as a distinct market segment.The results of the farmers' evaluation study (2016-2017, two country datasets), showed that the stated preferences are the same for men and women. In Kenya, men and women farmers gave higher ranking for germination, yield, and early maturing.In Rwanda, the stated preferences reported were similar for men and women, and topmost traits for both were germination, drought resistance and cob size. However, the results of the by-gender analysis revealed criteria from Kenya and Rwanda showed that other than resistance and lodging, there were statistically significant differences between men and women farmers in the revealed traits. Nevertheless, the relative importance between criteria has not changed, and it is more or less similar for both men and women. As a result, the evaluations of the different hybrids did not differ between men and women. The findings indicate that we need to go beyond traditional traits only and also investigate other aspects such as post-harvest and processing. There is also a need for nutritionists and other food technologists to identify if there are any differences between men and women farmers in taste preferences for different varieties of maize (sensory evaluation). Gender gaps in the adoption of improved maizeseed varieties must be bridged, and better farming practices strengthened. Seed companies should be gender-responsive externally in product positioning, and internally in workplace operations. Additionally, trait preferences for all farmers need to be synthesized, and further studies conducted in postproduction characteristics, i.e., processing, cooking and consumption.Q1: How do we distinguish between the stated preference versus the revealed importance?A (Dr. Rahma Adam and Dr. Hugo De Groote): Even though the stated and revealed preferences are conceptually the same, empirically and methodologically, they are clearly distinct variables. The stated preferences collect replies on hypothetical situations: the respondents are asked to imagine that they find themselves facing a choice, and to state which alternative they prefer from amongst the choices. The revealed preferences, on the other hand, are real, actual choices made by farmers in a determined context. Comparing the two, farmers tend to overstate the importance of minor characteristics in stated preferences, thus making revealed preferences a good indicator of what farmers would actually prefer. Therefore, revealed preferences is more preferred as a good (and closer) indicator of farmer preferences, but it is more time-consuming and its data-collection costly.Dr. Rustaert examined the formal seed system, covering variety development, dissemination to seed companies, and onwards to agro-dealers who sell seed to farmers. Despite considerable investment in agro-dealers, especially by AGRA, there are few studies or scientific knowledge on seed-distribution systems, and how farmers make seed-purchase decision.In the Access Seed Index Report, seed companies indicated that agro-dealers are the best option to reach rural farmers, as the most sustainable and scalable approach for seed distribution within the formal sector. They provide affordable and convenient access to technologies and provide advice on how to use these technologies. In Kenya, numbering nearly 10,000, agro-dealers dominate hybrid seed sales.The study presented examined:• agro-dealer choices and strategies in maize seed sales;• seed-company support to agro-dealers to sell maize seed;• how farmers decide on what seed to buy once in agro-dealer store; and,• to what extent agro-dealers influence farmers' seed-purchase decisions.Agro-dealers and farmers (while at the agro-dealers buying seed) were both interviewed. Nearly 59 different seed varieties were on sale, with three new varieties introduced in the last five years in Kenya, and 81% of agro-dealers having introduced at least one new variety in the last 5 years. Agro-dealer maize-seed sales are demand-driven. Six out of 10 agro-dealers indicated that seed companies notifiy them of new products and provide information on geographical suitability and performance. Four out of 10 and three out of 10 agro-dealers said seed companies provide sales support and credit support respectively. Farmer seed selection appears to be rapid, automatic and intuitive. Beyond pure sales, Eight out of 10 farmers stuck to what they know when buying seed.Dr. Pieter RustaertChain Specialist, CIMMYT(iii) The role of agro-dealers in driving variety turnover for men and women farmers Photo: CIMMYT/Kipenz Films \" farmer interaction with agro-dealers is limited: only 1 out of 10 farmers asked for information and looked at store offers. Eight out of 10 farmers stuck to what they know when buying seed. Notably, behavior was very similar in male and female farmers, and young and old farmers.Farmers make decision on what seed to buy before going to the agro-dealers. Eleven percent of the farmers got advice from agro-dealers and of these, only 9% of the farmers followed the advice. About 20% of the farmers bought new varieties. The two main factors for variety change were agro-dealer and social-network recommendations, of which the latter remains very crucial (e.g., visible performance in neighbor's farm). For promoting new varieties, demand creation for end user is vital. Demand pull can be created by showcasing the product, and through product demonstration plots. Radio, TV and other media channels are less important at the point of sale. Supply push (where, instead of people asking for the product, it is delivered to them) is rarely used. Prominent display at purchase points is also supply push. For this reason, packaging requires careful thought so as to drive sales by assuring better visibility to create awareness and exposure. It is strategic to focus on active salespersons (for accurate and informed decision-making) and establish the level at which to set competitive prices. Failure to do effective supply push presents a risk of leftover stock. Market research is very important as promotion of products to both men and women is context-specific and can be challenging and sensitive. Therefore, understanding response to push marketing from male and female farmers will be key.(iv) Gender-sensitive participatory evaluation of climatesmart agriculture technologiesFor men, important traits included yield, and stalk and cob size, while for women, it was early maturing, germination and insect resistance. To better understand the gender differences in maize trait preferences, it is important to first understand the roles men and women play in agriculture. Findings were:• Overall, there is substantial difference in roles for men and women.• While women are involved in cooking, washing and other home chores as well as farm work, men are involved in purchasing of inputs and improved seed, and plowing.• Variety choice is joint, and women have a major role in decision-making.• Major household expenses are mainly decided by men, while minor ones are by women.• Women attend farmer and agricultural group meetings more than men and are more active.• The reason men do not show up for the group meetings is because they are in formal employment (73% of women said their husbands are employed in the formal sector), doing farm work, or conducting other business: in sharp contrast, only one-third of the women are in formal work.• While distance was a problem, employment was the main reason men did not attend.• Women make substantial contributions to agricultural activities and decision-making.Principal Scientist and Agricultural Economist, CIMMYT \" Photo: CIMMYT/Kipenz Films \"Statistical analysis reveals differences in varietal preferences between men and women.While there were no statistically significant differences between men and women farmers regarding stated preferences of traits, there were however stark differences between men and women on revealed traits. For men, important traits included yield, and stalk and cob size, while for women, it was early maturing, germination and insect resistance. According to Dr. De Groote, the results are somewhat confounding: when rating important traits for maize seed during farmers' varietal evaluation, the results are similar for men and women. But when you use another methodology to evaluate farmers' trait preferences -like the one described by Dr. Paswel Marenya above -there are statistical differences between men and women. Scores ranged between 3.0 and 3.9 for different varieties, with men assigning the same score to almost all the varieties (only one variety was distinct from other varieties), while for women, one variety scored 3.2 and another 3.8. And although men and women stated similar importance of criteria, women have a more critical, nuanced evaluation of varieties and clearly distinguish between varieties, and more women than men participate in variety evaluations. When projects end, does sweetpotato vine production continue? Distributing vegetatively propagated seed is not viable business for most dealers because farmers retain their seed.To assess the post-project scenario, a quick 2019 snapshot was done on the status of vine multipliers by gender in 11 countries. Of the 1,030 multipliers, 925 were reached, of whom 741 was by phone (to minimize costs).The results showed that 76.2% were still producing vines, of whom 29.7% were women. Tanzania has the highest number of multipliers (n=67). Vine multiplication by farmer groups is common, and more so for women farmers, particularly in eastern and southern Africa (Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda and Malawi). Updates are posted to the SweetPotato Knowledge Platform 8 showing the status, location and contact number of the vine multipliers to increase their visibility to NGOs for example. Women dominate production of traditional crops such as cassava and sweetpotato as opposed to potato production where men tend to dominate. The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Banana (RTB) has developed a multi-stakeholder framework that includes genderanalysis tools for intervening in RTB seed systems. These are:• Gender-based constraints analysis tool: To understand gender division of labor in the sweet potato vine multiplication business -a focus group discussion guide• Ladder of Life: to describe household socioeconomic types in an area or region (better-off and poor households), assess their involvement in the sweet potato vine multiplication business, and whether the commercialization of sweetpotato vine production has influenced their position in the 'ladder of life' communities and train vine multipliers to produce quality vines. However, not many women were selected because they had no access to land with a reliable water source, and their inability to keep records due to lack of skills to do so. The criteria were then modified to include group multiplication, which enabled more women to participate.After five years, of the original 88 DVMs, 81 were located for follow-up studies. Of these, 22% were still selling planting material of Marando Bora (MB) varieties, 21% kept MB varieties for their own use, but were no longer selling. Of the original 59 DVM groups that were traced, 42 were no longer functioning as a group, 10 were still selling and 14 previous group members began selling vines as individual multipliers. Women reported that becoming multipliers raised their status in their households and communities, and in joint negotiations for land use. In Tanzania, sweetpotato became a cash crop after vines were commercialized. The willingness to pay for quality vines is increasing, especially for vines from well-managed fields. Women became more involved in vine multiplication and managing its social and commercial aspects. The social aspects included sharing of vines with neighbors in need. It is a time-honored traditional practice, as a means to make sure communities are food secure. If the vine is of good improved quality, the multipliers will only give out a few vines or cuttings for free to continue an encouraged (and expected) social construct because someday, the vine producer too may need help, while still maintaining their vine enterprises. If they were improved varieties, women would give away fewer vines. Women are now being encouraged to establish vine root enterprises. In the event of drought, business boom is guaranteed if one has irrigation.• How can we scale up these models using key food-security crops? We need to make sure that cassava and sweetpotato are integrated into these models (they are food-secure crops).• Do women-led seed enterprises reach other women better and more effectively? How are women helping other women? Information on that is needed.• Is it better to take a household enterprise approach? That is, working with both men and women for quality vine multiplication?• Will harmonization of seed-release policies lead to empowerment and equal access to seeds for all?Q1: What advice would you give a farmer who wants to venture into vine multiplication?A (Dr. Jan Low): Do research on the various varieties available. Compare the old with the improved varieties in terms of output. Farmers tend to make decisions based on what they see, emphasizing the importance of demonstrations.Q2: It is very common in sweet-potato farming for women to be greatly involved in the production process, but when it comes to controlling income, the men take over. How can this be addressed?A (Dr. Jan Low): By making a deliberate and conscientious effort to include women in all aspects of the value chain, and by paying attention to -and designing forit right from the outset, anticipating eventual commercialization.\" \"The project wants to replicate this agent's model, but in a more genderinclusive and sustainable way, as it is very maledominated.Dr. Galie demonstrated how we can bring livestock into seed systems, a topic rarely discussed. In response to a 2018 call for proposals on Seed Systems Development Enabling and Scaling Genetic Improvement and Propagation materials of Crops, Livestock and Fish, ILRI submitted a proposal entitled Women in business: chicken seed dissemination in Ethiopia and Tanzania, to bring livestock into seed systems. 9 This project aims to develop, promote and test womenled chicken businesses in Ethiopia and Tanzania, with the goal of promoting the economic empowerment of young women, and also of improving the food and nutrition security of their households. The resultant project by the same title has proposed an innovative solution for reaching women farmers. This is a scaling out of the African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG) Project, where high-yielding breeds of chicken were tested for suitability in selected areas in Tanzania and Ethiopia. The project is about disseminating locally selected chicken seed stock of improved breeds.Two private companies -one in each country -have been identified to multiply and sell day-old chicks to brooders. They package the day-old chicks together with feed, vaccines and information needed and deliver them to the brooders. The brooders are women and men in different villages, who raise them to 45-day-old chicks then sell them to neighboring farmers. A challenge identified during project assessment was that brooders have difficulty reaching bigger distant markets. Solutions include expanding the reach of 'chicken seed', by connecting the brooders with women farmers in remote areas. The chicks will beSenior The vendors will be young graduates, 10 who have been trained and are qualified to handle vaccines. Brooders will deliver the 45-day-old chicks to women farmers (the project goal is to empower women) in remote areas and collect from them market-ready chickens for sale in the more lucrative distant markets. This market model already exists in Ethiopia and Tanzania, where agents -mostly men -buy chicken from farmers and take them to towns for sale. The project wants to replicate this agent model, but in a more gender-inclusive and sustainable way, as it is very male-dominated. The young women graduates will undergo a business incubation program, in which they will be trained and provided with resources such as finance to be able to start their activities. There will be community engagement in discussions to design gender-transformative approaches that ensure -and deliberately target -inclusion of women in economic activities.Questions that need to be addressed in the ILRI assigned project above are:• What are the best women-led business models to expand rural women's access to relevant chicken breeds?• Can chicken businesses support women's economic empowerment? If yes, how?• How does economic empowerment of women affect household nutrition?Q: How do we resolve the difficulties women face in transporting chickens purchased from different farmers and harassment by male farmers?A (Dr. Alessandra Galie): Unfortunately, access to transport is a major constraint for women farmers, with a cascade of consequences as result. It must be tackled, and transport facilitated. Women can engage in collective action in the communities and try to find solutions to the problem. On harassment, the project will endeavor to ensure gender-transformative approaches are established to address harassment.Dr. Njuguna-Mungai presented two case studies on challenges faced by women and youth in seed systems. The first case study was from Ethiopia, where the project donor -the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -required that a minimum of 30% of project participants be women. However, women in Ethiopia could not take part in the participatory variety selections because social norms and structures did not allow them to go far away from the household. Older women in the communities were the custodians of the younger women and made sure that these norms were adhered to. Funds were withheld until the requirement of women involvement was fulfilled. Consequently, widows, elderly women and single women were the ones selected for the variety selections. With time, the women who got involved in the project increased their food production and improved their food security and nutrition. This led to a social transformation of sorts in the communities, as married men requested that their wives be involved in the chickpea breeding project since they had witnessed how it had changed the lives of the women who were initially selected.The second case study was on youth and gender. Gender issues transect age, and most youth issues are also gender issues. Youth involvement in agriculture was investigated, and a qualitative tool designed to identify the youth, and what they were engaged in. In a focus group discussion in Tanzania, the young men said that a man can be a youth until he is 40, but a woman who is 23 ceases to be a youth. Dr. Njuguna explained that according to the young boys, a man or boy can be youth until they are 40, but a girl who is 23 can never be called a youth because by ages 16, 17, or 18, young girls already have children, automatically making them adults. But despite this socially constructed 'adult' status, they are however excluded from society, in that they cannot access This led to a social transformation of sorts in the communities, as married men requested that their wives be involved in the chickpea breeding project since they had witnessed how it had changed the lives of the women who were initially selected.Senior Gender Research Scientist, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) \"(iii) Highlights of the presentation on legume case studies on challenges faced by women and youth in seed systemsPhoto: CIMMYT/Kipenz Films \" land, engage in meaningful economic activities or follow their aspirations, in and addition to their childcare burden.Therefore, an effective youth project must be designed from a gender perspective. The women above end up as casual workers in agriculture. Their limited access to resources and inability to access credit mean that they cannot undertake meaningful agricultural work.In order to obtain access to resources, these women sometimes must trade their dignity or get married.In this patrilineal society, women mainly get land through their husbands. What does this mean for the economy and society? Studies on this are needed, as well as interventions that build agency and capacity for these women, because they must negotiate for land, credit, etc., at a very young age. Are our seed value chains youth-inclusive and youth-responsive? Q: Will the seed harmonisation initiative result in better and faster access to legumes like cowpeas in Kenya?A (Dr. Esther Njuguna): This is the anticipated result.Ms. Ana Maria Paez-Valencia, Gender Specialist, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), said that rural women have been the custodians and domesticators of trees, for which they require specialized knowledge of trees and forests, yet they have limited access to -or control on -land, trees, information, extension services and time: women have to fulfill the triple roles -home and childcare, farming, and community work.Key challenges pertaining to seed systems include:• Low monetary value of high-quality germplasm.There is a high dependence on NGO projects that provide free high-quality germplasm, which crowds out private entrepreneurs.• Low seed replacement rate for trees and low seed requirements of smallholders further hamper development of viable tree-seed enterprises.• National tree seed systems have problems delivering extension services. This can be solved by adapting community mechanisms for delivery of seed information.• There are two ways to engage using communitybased mechanisms:i. Rural resource centers -venues found in rural areas, run by community-based organizations, where farmers can go for training, information, multiplication of planting material, etc. These have been effective in reaching women and youth (agricultural information addressing women's needs), and for on-time dissemination and accessibility.ii. Farmer-to-farmer extension -this is through the creation of farmer trainers who train other farmers. But how effective and sustainable is this approach? Women farmers tend to reach out to more fellow women farmers than they would to men farmers, leading to a significant multiplier effect in terms of the number of women farmers reached for access to seed and information.Emerging questions:• What is the impact of increased women's participation in tree seed systems on women's empowerment, and contributing to gender equality?• How do more equal gender relations at the household and community level contribute to more effective, low-cost, sustainable, community-based germplasm production and distribution systems?Social Scientist, Gender, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)Rural women have been the custodians and domesticators of trees, for which they require specialized knowledge of trees and forests, yet they have limited access to -or control on -land, trees, information, extension services and time (iv) Women in tree seed systems Photo: CIMMYT/Kipenz Films \" \"Dr. Kamanda presented on behalf of Dr. Eileen B. Nchanji, Gender Specialist at CIAT. In Africa, CIAT mainly works on beans through the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA). Based on the data from bean trade production and flows in Africa, PABRA has developed nine corridor maps across its three networks -the East and Central Africa Bean Research Network (ECABREN), Southern Africa Bean Research Network (SABRN), and West and Central Africa Bean Research Network (WECABREN). The corridors span 17 countries: 7 in West Africa, 3 in Southern Africa, and 7 in Eastern Africa. PABRA was established in 1996. It has 517+ partners in both the private and public sectors. The corridor approach focuses on improving the 'bean flow' -intensifying production, linking farmers and businesses, and mainstreaming nutrition in the value chain. Bean corridors are characterized by production, distribution, and consumption hubs. 11 Through PABRA, CIAT and other institutions are endeavoring to close the gender gap in access to bean seed. For instance, through the TAAT Project, CIAT is increasing access to improved seeds to communities through school gardens in Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Bean processors in Burundi now contract bean farmers (60% women) to grow improved bean varieies with seeds from ISABU (Institut des Siences Agronomique du Burundi; Burundi's National Agricultural Institute). Out of 63 seed enterprises (of which 33 are private, nine public and 21 farmer seed enterprises in Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania Uganda, and Zimbabwe), 11 are women-owned (17.6%) and contribute about 7.5 % of 25,926.8 tons of seed production. CIAT intends to engage more women and build their capacity as bean-seed entrepreneurs by making the business case for women entrepreneurs along the bean corridors and by catalyzing and encouraging private-sector investment in women entrepreneurs. In Malawi, Ms. Grace Mijiga initiated a bean art business line. She does home and office decor with beans as well as green jewelry from bean seeds attacked by weevils. This offers additional livelihood options for women after the bean season. In addition, introducing the mobile bean thresher has created youth employment, reduced drudgery for women farmers and encouraged mono-cropping of improved bean varieties. A solar bubble drier was also given to a women's group in Tanzania to maintain good seed quality after harvest for better prices and reduce post-harvest losses especially in face of the reality of climate change. CIAT intends to engage more women and build their capacity as bean-seed entrepreneurs by making the business case for women entrepreneurs along the bean corridors and by catalyzing and encouraging private-sector investment in women entrepreneurs.The Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) was presented by Dr. Daniel Karanja, Deputy Director, Development, Africa. According to Dr. Karanja, CABI has initiatives such as Good Seed Initiatives 12 which works with farmers in both informal and formal seed systems. In the informal seed systems, CABI works with farmer groups, and with men and women contract seed outgrowers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.World Vision was presented by Ms. Jedida Mwendwa, who is a Policy, Advocacy and Livelihood Specialist. According to Ms Mwendwa, World Vision has more than 30 food-security related projects. They work with farmers, farmer groups and other stakeholders in agricultural issues. More than 66% of the project participants are women. Accessibility of quality seeds by farmers is a priority. World Vision supports institutions to spearhead agricultural production, for the sole purpose of increasing food and nutritional security for the households and provide local savings mechanisms.  A (Dr. Daniel Karanja): In Tanzania, we are working with a women's group in production of traditional vegetables. They obtain seed from open markets and buy seed from trusted people who however have a challenge accessing quality seed. In processing and in laborsavings technologies, women are the majority. CABI had an initiative where women in private seed production came together and were linked to labor-savings technology, which created and increased opportunities for women. A (Ms. Jedida Mwendwa): Our focus at World Vision is now more towards gender equity and social inclusion. We have tools that help us investigate the extent of vulnerability, priorities, analysis on resource access, decision-making and participation, and issues around equitable systems that will help with accurately targeting particular groups with specific interventions.Q2. How do you ensure that information on climate issues is delivered to farmers on time? A (Ms. Mwende Kusewa): CARE International works closely with Kenya Meteorological Department to get location-specific information, then organize participatory scenarioplanning workshops before every season (with Kenya Met Department Institute of Meteorological Training and Research [IMTR], traditional forecasters, agricultural officers and farmers). Thereafter, an advisory is drafted for the area on rains information and which crops suit the quantity of rains forecasted for a particular time or area. Farmers learn about the expected time, quantity of rain and what to grow.and Nutrition Security. 13 Focus is on increasing food production, gender equity and climate resilience. CARE has assisted in creating the farmer business schools' approach, and integrated different business aspects in its approaches to help farmers. CARE provides training and has initiated models such as the gender-transformative model in training farmers. CARE also use social-analysis models to train its staff, who later then train farmers on gender inclusivity. There is a need to work with both men and women to influence change. CARE ensures women's access to information on climate change to understand their cropping seasons better, in addition to providing them with appropriate quality seed. CARE also engages in savings, collective investments, collective marketing and credit facilitation approaches to help farmers access funds and markets.The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was represented by Ms. Elizabeth Kamau, who is a team leader of one of the FAO's sub-programs in the Kenya office called Resilient Food and Livelihoods Systems. The program works on the following areas of agriculture: seed security, plant protection (maize lethal necrosis, potato cyst nematode and fall armyworm), and seed availability, quality and access. FAO is involved in community-based seed production for pulses, grains, legumes and green grams in both arid and semi-arid areas to ensure localized supply. FAO builds resilience by reducing vulnerability, and by direct humanitarian assistance, giving farmers free seed after drought and floods. They also have socialprotection projects to improve livelihoods which include working with refugees. FAO is recognized for its role in knowledge dissemination and capacity building for farmers and small seed enterprises. 14 They use farmer field approaches for extension and hold field demonstrations and seed fairs. They are committed to research for development. FAO also works on national policy formulation and legal drafting.Leldet Seed Company was presented by Mrs. Janey Leakey, founder and owner of the Kenya-based seed company. \"As an innovative way to get seed to farmers, we pack seed in the small maendeleo pack because we know that women are very risk-averse in trying out new seed types\" this was noted by Mrs. Leakey. The company targets women in markets and presents the seed-pack to women. Through a foodand nutritional-security approach and sustainable management of the soil, the farmers are encouraged to grow maize and legumes on the same plot. Cowpea leaves provide additional food, beans provide muchneeded protein for children and the family, maize grain sell as green maize and sorghum grain is used to make porridge.Agricultural Market Development Trust (AGMARK) was presented by Mr. James Mutonyi who is a Managing Director of the organization. AGMARK develops the capacity of retailers, that is agrodealers, who serve farmers by providing seed. They also work with government subsidy programs. Kenya has two subsidy programs implemented through agro-dealers. AGMARK has a research program, Innovations in Gender Equality to Promote Household Food Security, which has three components: incorporating gender issues by building agro-dealer capacity, increasing the participation of women agrodealers, and supporting women to access inputs. 15 In western Kenya, AGMARK works with 60 agro-dealers and 600 farmers. AGMARK encourages farmers to save small amounts of money at a time throughout the year on an M-PESA platform that is linked to agrodealers. This enables farmers purchase inputs (seed and fertilizer) in time for the planting season.SeedCo-Kenya was presented by Dr. Peter Mbogo, who is a Senior Maize Breeder at the company. SeedCo's biggest clients are small-and large-scale farmers, whom they serve though digital platforms, as well as through field days and demonstrations. SeedCo's main challenge is border control while importing seeds, and the requisite certificates of conformity. But biotic and abiotic challenges are also important. According to Dr. Mbogo, management should deliberately include gender in their programs. For every three internship positions SeedCo offers each year, two are purposely considered for women. He also noted that most job applicants in the agricultural sector are male, depicting a limited pool of qualified women. However, there are more women in agribusiness side than in field-based work. Strong mentorship programs are needed, especially for women, and a pool of highly qualified women that the private sector can tap into.Seed Trade Association of Kenya (STAK) was presented by Mr. Duncan Onduu who is CEO of the organization. STAK is a membership of seed companies dealing with formal seed. STAK pays attention to gender inclusion. According to Mr. Onduu, oftentimes, women farmers are heard saying phrases like \"Nataka ile mbegu ya akina mama\", which translates to, \"I want that variety that belongs to women\". What does this statement mean? STAK works with seed companies to ensure varieties that are appealing to women farmers are brought to the company's attention. printed on the seed packets. A farmer uses this code to confirm whether the seed is genuine or counterfeit. The number of students attending a seed congress are gender-balanced at 50-50, as are participants at seed demonstrations. KALRO was presented by Dr. Jessica Ndubi, who is a Senior Research Scientist at the organization. KALRO has attempted to ensure gender equality in most of their projects. For instance, all gender categories are incorporated right from project conception to implementation and monitoring and evaluation. Women have many challenges, especially on access to productive resources. These could be solved through technological innovations, using participatory variety selection and women empowerment.MoALFI was presented by Dr. Jacinta Ngwiri who is an Assistant Director of Agriculture. The government provides adequate policy and regulatory environment for all actors in the sector. The government has developed a draft policy document on gender and is in the process of implementing the Big Four Agenda. As part of this agenda, it has identified key value chains that promote food and nutrition security. On gender, the government has documented affirmative action including youth and women funds implemented to help individuals in these groups to access investment funds. Other seed-specific programs include:• The Kenya seed enhancement program;• Youth in agriculture program;• Food and crop diversification program -provides grants to women and youth to start crop and food projects;• Fruit trees program -targets youth since majority of nurseries are manned by the youth. Women are also good at grafting; and• Land access -this has been made possible for women and youth, plus other factors of production.However, there are only limited data on the number of individuals participating in -and benefitting fromthese initiatives. More research is needed to develop varieties largely grown by women, e.g., cowpeas, among other crop varieties.Q1: Packaging: How does Leldet work with seed regulators in labelling and packaging the maendeleo pack?A (Mrs. Janey Leakey): The seed is fully certified, and one sticker can be used to show the seed details for the different seeds.Comment 1: Private-public partnership can be one strategy to enhance information access.Q2: Is it possible to reduce the 16% VAT on vegetable seed?A (Dr. Jacinta Ngwiri): Taxation is for revenue and protection of local industries. For instance, imported maize attracts 50% taxation. It is important to first understand the rationale for the tax.Comment 2: Regarding the youth and women fund, the situation on the ground is very different on beneficiaries. There is need to create more awareness.A (Dr. Jacinta Ngwiri): It has been noted that farmers do not heed to the call to self-organize for collective action. Funds are for groups, not individuals. More information is made available to groups as opposed to individuals. This information is made available at the sub-county offices.Policy and institutions How to achieve policy and institutions prioritiesEnsure that national seed health and safety standards are followed and abided toPolicies that enable women entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector to thrive need to be followed and be well implemented. If these policies are not strong, they need to be revisited and strengthened in order to create enabling conditions for women in the seed sector enterprise to thrive Make women and other groups of smallholder farmers aware of the policies that exist and how they might benefit from those policies Government institutions need to create harmonious environment in order for policies to be well-implemented and succeed. More recipes and food-preparation methods for root and tuber crops, i.e., sweetpotatoes, cassava, yams, among others, in order to increase demand for these crops See Table 1b Understand how to cost and set price for seed. A demand in roots and tubers will lead to a demand in 'seed'Maize and rice Strategic gender research on post-harvest losses, to be able to uncover all the gender matters as they relate to aflatoxin control, getting access to storage facilities, among others See Table 1b Table 2: Knowledge gaps and investment priorities for legumes; livestock, fodder and trees; vegetables, roots and tubers; and maize and rice.Ms. Amanda Lanzarone, Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said the Foundation has four main outcomes articulated in its Agricultural Development Strategy. 16 These are increased agricultural productivity; increased income for smallholder farmers; increase women's empowerment in agriculture; and equitable consumption of safe, affordable and nutritious foods. It is widely recognized that women are vital drivers for economic and social development. Yet, they lack decision-making power in agricultural systems and in households. Women face inequitable access to information, inputs and land, which not only affects agricultural productivity but also empowerment outcomes. The workshop clearly showed that social norm changing starts with individuals before going to communities. It was an excellent, rich and insightful workshop. Workshop deliberations provided evidence on the need for continued discussions and research focused on understanding women's roles within seed systems, how these seed systems serve women -or put them at a disadvantage -and why gender should remain a focus within our work goals.Dr. Rahma Adam, Gender and Development Specialist, CIMMYT, gave the final remarks and mapped the way forward, noting that the workshop provided the participants with an opportunity to learn, connect, interact, engage and cultivate deep links amongst themselves.The two main outcome of the workshop were:1. Deepening links amongst and across CGIAR organizations, funders, NGOs, public sector, private companies, and other development actors. Presenters showcased their research, work and knowledge, and had an opportunity to share and interact on key lessons focused on gender dynamics within seed systems.2. Launching a Gender and Seed Systems Community of Practice to raise awareness of the gender matters in seed systems and continue the dialogue on the challenges and opportunities for women's participation in seed systems amongst researchers, development practitioners and donors. The workshop was a platform for all to learn and reflect on how best to distinctly serve women, men and youth smallholder farmers within these seed systems, now and in the future.Dr. Adam formally closed the workshop and thanked all the participants and presenters for their attendance.Program Officer, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ","tokenCount":"11068"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7f7837280f52a7ffca4867e171b69ee8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/8M15D6/ABV1EK","id":"1199712787"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8194df27-35c6-4773-a2e5-d1c1785a68f4","pagecount":"5","content":"SECTION A: COVER Question Name Code A06a. Enter the correct name of the LC1 if it is incorrect in the list above A06b. Enter the correct name of the subcounty if it is incorrect or missing in the list above A07a. GPS -Latitude (N/S) 1=N, 2=S A07a_1. GPS -Latitude degrees A07a_2. GPS -Latitude minutes (mm.mmm') A07b_1. GPS -Longitude (E) degrees A07b_2. GPS -Longitude (E) minutes (mm.mmm') A07c. Accuracy (meters) A07d. Elevation (meters) A07e. Were you able to interview this household?? 1..Yes>>A08 2..No A07f. Why not? Codes A08. What is the name of household head (Surname, First name)? A09. What is the common household name in the village? >>End of Survey if A07e=2 A10. Name of the Primary Respondent (Surname, First name) (Try to interview the household member who is the primary decision maker on agricultural activities for the household)We are conducting a short survey to learn about the activities of households in this community regarding farming and other activities. I would like to ask you some questions about your household. Your participation in this short interview is completely voluntary. Do you agree to take part in this survey? A15. Consent given Yes…1 No…..2A16a. Date/time stampFirst, I would like to ask you some information about your household. For this survey, a household is defined as a group of people who live and eat together, share resources and form a common decision-making unit. A household member is anyone who met these criteria more than half of the time during the past 3 months. The household head is the individual who plays a leading role in household decision-making, particularly household economic activity and expenditures. Enumerator: These questions should be asked of the person who makes the decisions regarding agriculture and agricultural input purchases (person named in B05) if possible. ","tokenCount":"296"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"24fe59313e36bad80b2614fc3e493bea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/de4864d8-88e1-4fdc-b6de-39ee380d08c6/retrieve","id":"-968696514"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"789d703a-2849-47dc-ba7b-0c6ec7d51c41","pagecount":"150","content":"The objectives of Training and Information are to strengthen animal agricultural research in national agricultural research systems (NARS) and the linkages between ILCA and NARS and to help develop a cadre of trained, educated and technically informed NARS scientists. These objectives are pursued through short-and long-term training activities and information services (e.g. computerised library data base, literature searches, dissemination of information and bibliographies).Training and Information has been very committed to livestock policy over the years. Since 1986, a livestock policy course has been offered. To date, 120 individuals from 34 SSA countries have attended. The course has been offered in English and French and is intended to increase the effectiveness of technical advisors in policy making structures. The course identifies national livestock policy objectives and discusses the consequences of policy options. At issue during the workshop is whether the course should be continued.Animal agriculture plays a significant role in the economies of sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries with livestock contributing between 5% (Z aire) and 88% (Botswana) of the total agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Livestock commodities account for 25% of the agricultural domestic product in the region. Livestock transform feeds with low or no alternative value into high-value livestock products. They are also living banks for farmers, providing flexible financial reserves for periods of economic stress and a buffer against crop failure. They are a source of cash income, enabling farmers to purchase inputs, foods and other needs. Livestock play a particularly critical role in the agricultural intensification process by providing draft power and manure for fuel and fertiliser. Farm-level values of power and manure raise the contribution of livestock to the total value of agriculture from 25% to about 35% .The problem in SSA is that livestock productivity is low; between 1962 and 1987, meat and milk production grew at only 2.6% and 3.2% a year, respectively. If these trends continue, SSA is expected to face massive shortages of meat and milk by the year 2025. Currently, 10% of the milk consumed in the region is imported. Increased livestock productivity would therefore benefit economic development at both the household and the national level.The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) was established in 1974, with a mandate to \"assist national efforts which aim to effect a change in the production and marketing systems in tropical Africa so as to increase the sustained yield and output of livestock products and improve the quality of life of the people in the region\".ILCA's research has addressed the main constraints to livestock products in SSA, many of which have been resolved through technological interventions. However, new technologies alone are not enough to ensure that (a) enough animal products are produced to meet the increasing demand for food in sub-Saharan Africa and that (b) livestock contribute (through traction, manure, and enhanced income) to the profitable intensification of agriculture. Technological interventions will contribute to increased agricultural products only if they are adopted by farmers.The policy environment has a direct bearing on the demand for technological change and on the extent and impact of that change. Policy factors greatly influence the efficiency of food production and distribution and consumption. In SSA, the livestock sector has, over the years, been subjected to a variety of inappropriate government policies that have hampered the development of animal agriculture. In addition, inappropriate policies have discouraged sustainable use of the natural resource base for agriculture. Currently, there is widespread concern about the degradation of natural resources in SSA and the root causes of these e nvironme ntal proble ms are government policy and property arrangements.Policy constraints that have adversely affected the livestock sector and have encouraged poor management of the natural resource base include:• food pricing policies that favour consumers at the expense of the producer • foreign exchange and trade policies that have distorted markets and stifled production • inadequate input and credit markets and • excessive regulation and monopolistic behaviour (e.g. marketing boards and parastatals).Other policy factors which (combined with inappropriate government policies) may have resulted in over-exploitation, under-investment and general mismanagement of resources include insecure tenure, multiple ownership, common property and lack of clearly defined and securely held property rights. These factors are compounded by the poor understanding of the appropriate role of institutions that govern the use of land, water, rangelands and other resources.Clearly, increases in agricultural products and sustainable use of natural resources are unlikely without sound economic policies that support agriculture. Therefore, research that leads to improved understanding of the nature of macro-economic policies and local institutions and their impact on the smallholders, traders and consumers is important. Specifically, research is needed to (a) identify policy options and their implementation and (b) quantify the social, economic and technical effects of policy changes.Through policy research, ILCA hopes to influence the design, production and diffusion of new livestock or livestock-related technologies in sub-Saharan Africa and research priority setting and planning. The results will also give the Centre a better sense of where its work may have an impact, thus facilitating a more efficient allocation of resources.ILCA hopes that the results of its policy research will provide decision makers with soundly formulated policy alternatives and help to document the effects different policies have on animal agriculture. Available evidence shows that policy studies conducted within ILCA and the CGIAR system have enabled public administrators in developing countries to grapple more effectively with linkages between changes in national agricultural and economic policies and changes in agricultural production.This workshop was convened to help ILCA develop priorities and plan for research over the five-year period, 1994-1998. Thirty policy researchers, drawn from the World Bank, the Untied Nations Economic Commission for Africa, National Agricultural Research Systems, International Food Policy Research Institute and Universities in north America, Europe and Australia participated in the workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to identify issues and priorities for research and training in the general areas of livestock and resource management policy, appropriate methodologies for research in these priorities, the role of ILCA in policy research and opportunities for collaboration with national and international institutes. The workshop addressed topics in the areas of trade and macro-economic policies, technology policy, markets, and institutions, and resource management policy.International L ivestock Centre for Africa (IL CA) P O Box 5689 Addis Ababa, EthiopiaThe purposes for this workshop are to:• identify priorities for policy research• identify policy research opportunities where ILCA may have a comparative advantage • identify opportunities and modalities for ILCA to collaborate with others on priority policy research.ILCA is one of the few international centres with substantial interest in policy-oriented research. The Centre has carried out research activities on such topics as prices and trade, credit and financing, land tenure and livestock services.The dual nature for ILCA policy research stems from two factors. First, environmental issues and resource management are important concerns in terms of livestock development. Global concerns about degradation, desertification, deforestation, global warming etc., have a technical basis that is interrelated with policy issues. Arguably, policies emanating from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Brazil in June, 1992 and the preparatory conferences will have major ramifications for livestock production in the future. Thus, for ILCA, it is important to maintain a level of research capacity to address policies associated with environmental and resource management issues.Second, livestock production is market-oriented in comparison to subsistence food crop production. It is frequently through the sales of livestock products that smallholders generate funds for an increasingly cash-based economy. At national levels, many African countries depend on export sales of livestock products to generate foreign exchange. Regional, national and international policies have great influence on the market value of livestock products in Africa.The contribution of livestock products to the economies of developing regions has increased over the last 20 years as has its value to overall agricultural production. The value of livestock products in sub-Saharan Africa is about 25% of the economic value of agricultural production. This figure includes the contributions from meat, milk, eggs and hides but excludes the values placed on traction and manure. If these are included, this figure rises to 35-40% .ILCA can bring to bear on policy research the following: We look forward to the discussions over the next few days. As we plan for the next five years, we expect that this workshop will help us set priorities and develop partnerships for the future in livestock and resource management policy research.My assignment at this workshop is to initiate discussion on the International Livestock Centre for Africa's (ILCA) agenda and roles regarding trade and macro-economic policy. A three-part process is involved: agreeing on the nature and importance of the major trade and macro-economic policy issues facing African livestock; selecting those issues on which ILCA should work (ILCA's agenda); and defining the kinds of work ILCA should do (ILCA's role). 1   This paper provides some background for the discussion. The first section offers a classification system that may be useful in setting priorities. The next section draws on previous work (Shapiro et al, 1988;Shapiro, 1991;Shapiro and Doumbia, 1992;Shapiro et al, 1992) to illustrate some of the major issues. The final section begins to define the variety of roles that ILCA might play. The paper does not attempt to select the issues that should be included in ILCA's agenda, nor to decide the best modality for ILCA's work on each issue. Those are tasks for the workshop.Trade and macro-economic policy issues can be categorised along two dimensions-control and specificity. We can distinguish between (a) those issues over which governments can have considerable control and those over which they can have less control and (b) issues that primarily affect (or can be targeted primarily at) livestock and those which bear upon a broader set of commodities and activities (Figure 1). This categorisation may help identify issues that should be high on ILCA's agenda. Arguments are invited about the usefulness of this approach and about the placement of issues in different boxes.It is not necessarily true that ILCA should focus most on issues in the upper left and least on those in the lower right. For example, in the \"more control-more specific\" group, ILCA may find it difficult to contribute to issues regarding state enterprises because of political sensitivities. At the other extreme (\"less control-less specific\"), ILCA may have a role to play in conducting analyses and developing positions for the current General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations.  The West African meat and animal tradePrior to the Sahelian drought of the late 1960s and early 1970s, tsetse-infested coastal West Africa relied almost entirely on Sahelian live animal imports to supplement their own limited meat production. Meat imports from the rest of the world were insignificant. For example, before 1975, Côte d'Ivoire had not imported more than about 1500 tonnes in any one year from the rest of the world (compared to over 40 000 tonnes in 1988). Furthermore, most of this amount was high-quality meat for the \"class 1\" market (Ariza-Nino and Steedman, 1980: p. 4).The drought sharply curtailed animal exports from the Sahel at the very time that beef cycles in the world's major producing regions all came into alignment in their surplus phases. This coincided with tighter import restrictions in the EC, US and Japan. As a result, exporting nations had to seek new markets (Shapiro, 1979). South American producers were especially hard hit as they were closed out of their traditional EC markets. They found West Africa. These developments, in a sense, constituted a learning period for importers and exporters. The long-term effect is that West Africa is now part of the world meat economy. Importing countries now have experience with a variety of sources from which they can seek the cheapest supplies; non-African exporters consider coastal West Africa as a potential market; and Sahelian producers are competing with producers in the EC, North and South America and Oceania.The world meat market is characterised by variability, part of which is predictable and part of which is not. The predictable part stems from the beef cycle. The world's major producers go through alternating periods of increasing and decreasing their herds in anticipation of higher and lower prices, respectively. When herds are increasing, slaughter and meat supply are relatively low, and vice versa.The unpredictable (or perhaps less predictable) part of the world beef economy stems from government policy. All major exporting nations intervene significantly in their agricultural sectors. Their priorities are steady incomes for farmers and steady supplies for consumers. But policies aimed at stability at home often cause instability abroad.During the 1980s, West Africa felt the impact of sharp changes in the world meat economy caused largely by changes in EC policy. Changes in the Sahel reinforced some of these impacts. Josserand (1990) presents a regional overview of the effects of both sets of changes on West and Central Africa. In 1970, 11 major net meat importing countries in the region (excluding Z aire) imported about 700 000 live head of cattle from within Africa (primarily from the Sahel) and the equivalent of 124 000 head as meat, primarily from outside of Africa. In 1980, the respective numbers were 689 000 and 370 000, after which there was a dramatic change. The totals in 1985 were 780 000 and 670 000; by 1987 those 11 countries were importing only 478 000 from within Africa and the equivalent of 740 000 from non-African sources. Thus, non-African sources increased their share of the region's import market from 15% in 197015% in , to 35% in 198015% in , to 46% in 198515% in and 61% in 198715% in (Josserand, 1990: p. 12: p. 12). Kulibaba and Holtzman (1990: p. 117) summarise the policy dynamic that led to this change:The legendary mountains of butter, powdered skim milk and processed milk that characterised the EC in the first half of the 1980s led to reduced public intervention in support of dairy producers. This provided an incentive for producers to cull surplus cows [the EC dairy herd declined from 25.7 million in 1983 to 22.5 million in 1987], which expanded beef surpluses and shipments to non-EC markets. Subsidised EC exports flooded coastal West African markets during the mid to late 1980s. Urban consumers benefitted from the low prices to expand red meat consumption [most of the meat was capas, low grade sidemeat with 25% or more fat and with no market in Western Europe where it is considered industrial waste], but West African livestock producers were penalised.The situation is now different. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expects tighter world supplies and higher prices until at least 1992 because, not only has the EC disposed of its surplus, but EC dairy herds are expected to stay lower because of the dairy quota (OECD, 1989: p. 49). Also, the US and Canada are in the herd rebuilding (supply decreasing) phase of their beef cycles and Japan may emerge as a major beef importer. West Africa's major importer of non-African meat is Côte d'Ivoire. In 1980, about 66% of that country's red meat supply came from live Sahelian imports, 17% from imported meat and 16% from domestic production. In 1988, only 29% came from live Sahelian imports, 52% came from meat imports and 19% from domestic production. Virtually all meat (i.e. dead meat) imported by Côte d'Ivoire comes from outside Africa. As shown in Josserand's analysis, the declining Sahelian position is not just relative but also indicates an absolute decline from 40 500 tonnes (carcass equivalent) to 22 800 tonnes. Similarly, there was an absolute increase in meat imports, from 11 200 tonnes in 1980 to 41 450 tonnes in 1988 (Kulibaba and Holtzman, 1990: p. 108).Mali is Côte d'Ivoire's main Sahelian livestock supplier. A review of Malian exports shows the impacts of EC dumping as well as other factors that affect African livestock trade. Estimates of Mali's total cattle exports went from 220 000 head in 1972, down to 102 000 in 1977, up to 300 000 in 1983 and then down to 185 000 in 1990. Estimates of small ruminant exports (perhaps one-third of the value of cattle exports) went from 280 000 head in 1977 to 134 000 in 1978, up to 537 000 in 1982 and then stayed between 480 000 and 390 000 through 1990. During the 1960s, Ghana was the main export market for Malian livestock, but by the mid-1970s only negligible amounts were going there and more than two-thirds were going to Côte d'Ivoire. In the latter 1980s, the Ivoirien market received over 90% of Malian cattle exports.These fluctuations had various causes:1. the rise of inefficient state importing mechanisms and the decline of purchasing power in Ghana;2. the long-run rise and recent decline of purchasing power in Côte d'Ivoire;3. the Sahelian droughts of the 1970s and 1980s (resulting first in greater exports as herders destocked and then lower exports as herds were rebuilt);4. the surplus of world beef in the mid-1970s (filling the gap left by lower Sahelian exports after the drought); and 5. the dumping of European meat in the latter 1980s (undercutting the price of Sahelian meat).Total meat and offal imports, almost all from Europe, skyrocketed from about 12,000 tonnes in 1984 to almost 60 000 tonnes in 1988. The effect on Sahelian cattle exports is striking. Exports fell from almost 40 000 tonnes (of carcass and offal equivalent) in 1985 to less than 23 000 tonnes in 1988. Sahelian cattle imports accounted for two-thirds of Ivoirien beef in the 1970s and early 1980s, but only about one-third by the late 1980s. On a smaller scale, dumped poultry meat jumped from about 5% of all poultry supply in 1985 to 25% in 1989, mainly at the expense of domestic Ivoirien production.Côte d'Ivoire imposed a ban on poultry imports in mid-1989 to protect its own poultry industry. In January 1991, Côte d'Ivoire imposed a countervailing levy against beef imports to protect its own cattle industry, but which also protects Sahelian exporters of live animals, i.e. Mali and Burkina Faso.The countervailing levy (200 FCFA/kg) has fallen primarily on capa, the deboned frozen meat with 10% to 30% fat content. For capa with relatively low fat, about 10% to 15% , the levy has meant an increase of 68% -from 325 FCFA to 525 FCFA/kg. For higher (25% -30% ) fat capa, the increase has been 118% , from 169 to 369 FCFA/kg (USAID/World Bank, 1991: p. 59). No levy is applied to hindquarter imports, which sell for about 600 FCFA/kg. This is considerably below Sahelian beef, which sells for about 800 FCFA/kg. Capa imports have fallen to negligible levels as a result of the countervailing levy. This has mainly affected low income consumers who had been able to increase their animal protein consumption with cheap capa since the mid-1980s. They are shifting to fish, which sells for about 300 FCFA/kg. It is unlikely they will shift in the foreseeable future to the much higher-priced Sahelian beef.Given price levels of West African red meat (800-1000 FCFA per kg) and poultry (800 FCFA per kg), consumption is likely restricted to middle and upper income Ivoiriens (and expatriates) who can afford higher prices for animal protein (USAID/World Bank, 1991: p. 61).Despite this, the USAID/World Bank Action Plan expects that, effective implementation of the countervailing duty should have positive welfare effects on livestock producers in Côte d'Ivoire and the Sahel, especially in the long term, depending on the efficiency of internal marketing channels. ...The magnitude of welfare effects depends on cross price elasticities of demand between costly domestic and Sahelian livestock products and cheaper imported meat of non-African origin (USAID/World Bank, 1991: p. 61).Good estimates of those cross price elasticities are not available.The OECD (1989:p. 51) sounds a warning for small, vulnerable exporting and importing areas like Sahelian and coastal West Africa:The international meat trade is still heavily protected and encompasses many trade distorting practices. Direct or potential limitation of market access continues to be a cornerstone of meat policies in many countries and together with the widespread use of export subsidies, national meat policies continue to affect international prices. Current agricultural support and trade policies in many countries, by insulating the domestic producers, inherently consider the world as a residual market to dispose of domestic instability. Even though the world supplies and demand for beef have temporarily moved into a position where higher prices prevail, these same policies, if not changed, will again inhibit adjustment and depress world market prices once meat supplies begin to exceed demand.In other words, national policies continue to have the potential to exacerbate the inherent variability of the world meat economy. Small changes in the domestic markets of major producers tend to be magnified into large swings in the international market. Africa faces the task of developing mechanisms to cope with these external conditions that are likely to continue to be quite variable.To make matters worse, several West African nations have policies that impede inter-African animal trade and many countries have or had overvalued exchange rates that encourage cheap imports of meat and milk. Sahelian livestock producing countries have imposed a variety of taxes, charges and tariffs that have raised the cost of animals exported to the coast and thereby decreased their competitiveness against non-African imports. Mali and Burkina Faso imposed income-type taxes, animal head taxes, pasture taxes, domestic market taxes, licensing charges, export taxes and customs charges (Kulibaba and Holtzman, 1990: pp. 80-82). These taxes and charges totaled between 24% and 48% of all marketing costs found in the 1989/1990 study of trade between Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, just lower than the costs of transport (Kulibaba and Holtzman, 1990: p. 100).Stryke r e t al ( 1987: pp. 65-66) provide anothe r insight into gove rnme nt discouragement of exports, in this case in Mali:Most important, perhaps, are the complex procedures which traders must go through. In Bamako, for example, an exporter must go to at least six different physical locations to have his animals vaccinated, pay his taxes, get a bank guarantee, and obtain a licence and other papers. This may take two or three days. There are other delays at the border, both on leaving Mali and on entering the neighboring country. Corruption has increased markedly in recent years, and bribes of 500 to 1000 FCFA must be paid at each step of the export process.In addition to dealing with the challenges of the global livestock economy and detrimental national policies, African livestock exporters must also cope with changing economic conditions in their target markets on the continent. Those conditions, in turn, are also affected by external as well as African developments. Côte d'Ivoire is again a useful illustration. From independence to the mid-1970s, the country's real GNP grew at an average rate of 7.7% per year. From 1975From -1977 there was a boom in the prices of coffee and cocoa, the economy's mainstays. Following this boom, the country undertook a massive public investment programme. But then coffee and cocoa prices fell and import prices rose. The government obtained large foreign loans to maintain the investment program. By 1980, there were major problems with foreign debt and balance of payments.In 1981, Côte d'Ivoire, with assistance from the IMF and World Bank, initiated a structural adjustment programme to deal with these problems. But by 1990, conditions had hardly improved. The government was forced to make \"draconian\" cuts in public expenditures and will have to continue its adjustment programme-at least for the medium term. The World Bank expects this will cause a further reduction of 30% in consumption per person between 1990 and 1994-on top of the 13% decline from 1987 to 1990. If this harsh programme succeeds, the Bank expects that the Ivoirien economy could start to grow at 4% per year in 1996 (USAID/World Bank, 1991: pp. 1-2).Meat and offal consumption in Côte d'Ivoire increased from 10.5 kg/person in 1975 to 13.2 kg in 1988. This 1988 peak coincided with the peak of non-African meat imports, i.e. European dumping. Consumption of meat and offal then declined to 10.0 kg/person in 1990. The drop in fish consumption from 1980 to 1987 and 1988 was 20.9, 14.2 and 15.6 kg/person, respectively and then its rebound in 1989 and 1990 to 19.6 kg and 19.2 kg/person seems to support the above hypothesis about substitution between fish and capa.Predictions of demand are important inputs for formulating a strategy of livestock research and development. Long-run projections of population and income are often used in support of optimistic, aggregate scenarios for the African livestock sector. Focusing on the nearer term and a particular market is a bit more complicated, as can be seen by comparing recent World Bank and African Development Bank (ADB) projections of Ivoirien demand for meat.For the year 2000, the ADB's high, medium and low scenarios project total demand for meat and offal at 190 000, 140 000 and 120 000 tonnes, respectively. This compares with a 1990 consumption figure of 117 300 tonnes. The difference among the scenarios is the assumed annual growth rate of consumption per capita-1%, -2% and -3%. Thus, the high case winds up with per capita meat consumption of 11.0 kg. The pessimism in all these scenarios is clear since the high case projects lower per capita consumption than was true throughout the 1980s until the sharp contraction from 13.2 kg in 1988 to 10.2 kg in 1989. The medium and low scenarios assume even lower levels, down to 8.2 kg and 7.2 kg, respectively.The World Bank offers high (106 704 tonnes) and low (86 240 tonnes) projections to 1997. This compares with the African D evelopment Bank's 1997 projection (by interpolation) of 164 600, 133 100, and 119 500. The Bank's two cases are driven by different income elasticities of demand applied to income projections (N= 1.2% for the low case and 0.8% for the high case-the higher the income elasticity, the sharper demand will fall as income falls). It is of course striking that the African Development Bank's lowest projection is 12% above the World Bank's high projection, and that its highest projection is 55% greater than the World Bank's high projection.Two factors are at play here. They show how sensitive these exercises are to seemingly slight differences, i.e. differences that are probably within the margin of error of surveys on which the estimates of variables are made. First, the ADB estimates population growth at 3.9% while the World Bank uses 3.5% . Note that still a third estimate, 3.8% , appears in the World Bank's Annual Development Report for 1991. Second, the two sets of projections estimate future per capita consumption with different methods and from different initial conditions. As a result, the World Bank estimates 1997 per capita consumption at 7.3 and 5.9 kg in its two cases, while the ADB gets 10.7, 8.7 and 7.8 kg in its three scenarios.While accurate projections of meat demand in Côte d'Ivoire may not be possible, it is clear that short-term demand will be affected by low world prices for coffee and cocoa and by consequent national economic problems and the strong measures taken to resolve them. The African Development Bank's scenarios do not show any decline in total meat consumption, just lower per capita consumption and slower growth. World Bank scenarios show declines to 1995 and then a recurrence of growth by 1996. The world market picture for coffee remains bleak, with prices 75% of their 1977 peak. However, cocoa futures prices, which had fallen even further and are still 75% below their 1977 peak, surged up about 50% since this summer to US $1245 per tonne (International Herald Tribune, 1992).Further complicating the picture is the Ivoirien political situation. In the 1970s the stable political environment helped attract foreign investment. Just the opposite has been true for some years now. If [President] Boigny retires or dies in office in the next few years, that may lead to greater instability or it may clarify and stabilise the situation. Demand projections are obviously problematic.The international dairy situation bears many similarities to the international meat situation and, as shown above, the two have some direct linkages to each other. Von Massow (1989: p. 1) offers this assessment for the early and mid-1980s:Europe and the United States have significant dairy surpluses and are prepared to sell significant dairy quantities at very low prices or to give them away free. This has a two fold impact, as the availability of cheap or free dairy imports not only discourages domestic production, but also stimulates an increase in domestic consumption, exceptions being countries where food aid is being used to help finance dairy development projects. [These were largely unsuccessful.]In addition, a number of African countries maintain overvalued currencies, which also cheapens the domestic price of imported milk, discourages domestic production and encourages consumption. And while some African countries have trade policies which may be designed to protect [the] domestic dairy industry,...such policies have generally been overwhelmed by the effect of overvalued currencies.However, looking at the late 1980s and 1990, Shapiro et al (1990: p. 20) predict that, depressed world dairy prices and large dairy donations will not continue because of changes in dairy price support policies. Essentially, it has become too costly for either the EEC or the US to continue their past programmes, which have encouraged surplus milk production. Consequently, sub-Saharan Africa will have to rely increasingly on domestic production to expand consumption... The authors point to several developments in support of this somewhat controversial prediction (Shapiro et al, 1992: p. 21-25). Following unsuccessful efforts to control supply with incentive payments (for farmers to quit dairying) and with co-responsibility levies, the EC in 1984 instituted compulsory quotas. The quotas have been very successful in alleviating excess supply. By 1989, EC-12 ending stocks of skim milk powder were down 73% from 1986 and butter stocks were down 77% .Since 1981, US farm legislation has had provisions to cut the milk support price if government purchases of surpluses exceed specified limits. This has resulted in a cut in the support price from US$0.29/kg in 1981 to US$0.22/kg in 1990. This drop, along with voluntary supply control and increasing US cheese consumption, caused US dairy surpluses to fall from 12% of production in 1983 to about 5% by the end of the 1980s. Current support prices are believed to be lower than full production costs and hence supply and demand should come into balance.New Z ealand and Australia do not subsidise exports but they are low cost producers. They account for about 25% of world exports, but the potential for expansion is limited, especially in New Z ealand. Eastern Europe is a major unknown. Large co-operative farms have produced in excess of consumption, especially as the easing of price controls has dampened demand. However, privatisation of production and higher incomes should bring supply and demand closer in line.The above developments have resulted in lower surpluses and higher prices. The world's 1990 ending stocks for butter and skim milk powder were projected to be only 35% of their 1986 levels. Dairy prices increased considerably from 1986 to 1989 and while they softened in 1990, they were still 50% to 100% above 1985-1987 levels. Lower stocks and higher prices discouraged food aid donations which were estimated to have fallen by 35% between 1984 and 1988. In conclusion, any build-up in stocks will be met with more restrictive quotas or lower support prices. Consequently, the longer-term prospect is for dairy prices on world markets to remain high relative to levels experienced in the 1970s and 1980s. Smaller surpluses will also generate smaller dairy donations (Shapiro et al, 1992: p. 24).Total sub-Saharan dairy imports (commercial and donated) declined by nearly half from their peak of almost 3.5 million tonnes (liquid milk equivalent) in 1985 to less than 1.8 million tonnes in 1988. Most of the decline was in the form of dry milk (the dominant dairy import), which experienced stronger world markets. Donated dairy products in total dropped from nearly one million tonnes (liquid milk equivalent) in 1985 to 315 000 tonnes in 1988. Imported dairy products account for a small and declining share of total milk available in Africa. Donated dairy products have been considered a development tool, not just a form of welfare for consumers or of competition for local producers. Between 1983 and1988, the World Food Programme (WFP) donated approximately US$134 million worth of dairy food aid to 13 African countries: Angola, Mali, Senegal, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda (WFP, 1988). Tanzania was the largest recipient with US$35 million and Uganda was next with US$24 million.Locally produced milk from the Tanzania Sisal Authority farms were to provide 3000 litres and the rest was to be made up by combining WFP powder. The plant design was enlarged from the original after Tanzania received a US$10 million World Bank credit to expand parastatal dairying. The installed capacity finally was 40 000 litres (Netherlands Economic Institute, 1988: p. 165).The plan for Tanga and other plants was that locally produced fresh milk would eventually replace imported powder as the domestic industry developed-helped in part by proceeds from WFP donated powder. Not only has this not materialised, but in Tanzania there was actually an increase in the share of powder in total processing between 1976 and 1983 in the four plants with reconstitution capability (Netherlands Economic Institute, 1988: p. 167).The best known example of using dairy food aid to develop a local dairy industry is India's Operation Flood. At the start of Operation Flood, India had several advantages that Africa does not now enjoy. The relatively high level of industrial development in India allowed Operation Flood to buy locally produced dairy equipment with local currency generated through food aid sales. The foreign exchange needs of the project were thereby minimised. There was a relatively large pool of trained manpower to draw on for project implementation and research. In terms of dairy development, India had and continues to have much higher levels of per capita consumption of dairy products than African countries. When the project began, there were areas of India with thriving commercial dairy production by both smallholder and commercial operations. This situation exists in only a few African countries. Similar efforts to use WFP dairy food aid for development of African dairy industries have enjoyed much less success.Mali provides an interesting case study. In 1969, the country received WFP aid for the development of the milk industry in Bamako. The outcome was not as hoped for, and the WFP cancelled a renewal of the Mali project in 1979. Since 1984, however, the EEC has supplied skim milk powder and butter oil, much of which is sold by the government to the Union Laitière de Bamako (ULB). The revenues from sales of dairy food aid currently go to a compensation fund for famine victims, whereas the original WFP project envisioned them going to a research station or dairy development.ULB reconstitutes milk and sells it at subsidised rates to consumers in the capital. ULB incorporates negligible amounts of local milk in its product and its retail prices are almost half the retail price of fresh milk. According to von Massow (1989) less than 50% of ULB's pre-tax profit goes to stimulate milk production.Mali's use of dairy food aid has provided inexpensive milk to consumers in the capital area. Yet it has not helped to promote dairy development either through research, extension or price incentives for producers. ULB's cheaper product, though inferior, decreases potential demand for local milk in the short-run. It has brought milk consumption to a greater portion of the population, stimulating domestic demand for milk without an increase in domestic production. This increases dependence on foreign sources of dairy products, whether donated or commercial. In other parts of the continent, researchers have documented the negative impact that low consumer prices have had on the domestic dairy industry (Mbogoh 1984;Rodriguez, 1987). Dairy food aid is unlikely to play a major role in the development of Africa's dairy industries.For sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, real effective exchange rates rose through the 1970s and early 1980s and then declined sharply (World Bank, 1989: p. 29). Overvalued exchange rates were a significant factor in increasing African dairy imports in the 1970s and early 1980s. Von Massow (1989: pp. 29, 31) studied the growth of dairy imports in 22 African countries from 1970-1972 to 1980-1982 and concluded that, where imports grew faster than can be explained by changes in population, income, and domestic production, the increase was due to the effects of exchange rate overvaluation and low import prices;...national governments have significantly influenced this increase through their own policies, specifically their interference with the exchange rate.The dominance of the exchange rate over other policy variables is seen in Nigeria. Nwoko (1986) showed that Nigerian policy was consistent with the objective of decreasing dairy imports and increasing domestic production. However, those policies were overwhelmed by the overvalued exchange rate (and low world prices) so that imports increased tremendously from 1972from to 1982from (von Massow, 1989: p. 34: p. 34). Similarly for beef, ILCA (1990: p. 106) showed that when evaluated at official exchange rates, import policies resulted in a nominal protection coefficient (NPC) well above 1.0 from the mid-1970s onwards, i.e they operated to give domestic producers considerable protection from the world market. However, when evaluated at an adjusted exchange rate (approximating a free rate) the NPC was found to be much lower and below 1.0 between 1979 and 1985, i.e. domestic producers actually were implicitly taxed and imports were favoured during those six years.Devaluation of the FCFA is often discussed as one way to increase the competitiveness of the West African livestock sector. However, overvaluation may not be so intractable a problem as it appears and devaluation is not the only tool at hand nor is it without significant risks. 3   The problem with an overvalued exchange rate is that it artificially makes exports more expensive and imports less expensive. Basically, it decreases the competitiveness of exports and of domestic goods facing import challenges. A well-known way to deal with this is through a mix of import tariffs and export subsidies that will affect competitiveness just as devaluation would. Thus, for example, since the mid-1980s, several Sahelian countries have been subsidising cotton and groundnuts, making them more competitive on the world market and they have been protecting food grains. There are limits to such a strategy. It may lead to unsustainable political and/or fiscal problems and it is prone to being undercut by smuggling.A second alternative is to operate directly on the real exchange rate (the nominal rate adjusted for inflation). If Mali's nominal rate (e.g. 50 FCFA = 1 French franc) stays constant but the country undergoes 50% inflation, then the real rate will have appreciated by 50%. For competitiveness, what matters is the \"real effective exchange rate,\" which takes into account not just Mali's rate of inflation but also that of its trading partners and competitors. Monetary and fiscal policy have to be brought to bear to control inflation to rates below those of competitors. In the 1980s, with the help of structural adjustment programmes, several CFA (Communauté financière africaine) countries experienced declines in their real effective exchange rates: -25% in Mali between 1976 and1986;and-29% in Niger between 1981 and1987. While devaluation is often a faster and more direct way to affect competitiveness, it carries risks that may outweigh the gains. First, in countries without a real option to devalue, the fixed rate imposes monetary and fiscal discipline. For example, USAID/World Bank (1991: p. 3) have described Mali's reform programmes as, \"good, almost exemplary\".Second, devaluation after such a long tie to the French franc would likely lead to capital flight and enhanced inflationary expectations. That would make control of the real effective exchange rate all the harder. Third, without the devaluation tool, countries are forced to intensify the search for productivity raising reforms which are essential for increased competitiveness. Cost reductions in Sahelian cotton sectors after the decline of world prices are cited as examples of such beneficial actions. Finally, devaluation raises the issue of the survivability of the French zone. Each CFA state cannot define its own parity with the French franc without threatening the zone.All of this is not to say that devaluation of the FCFA should never be considered. Rather, the full implications of devaluation must be taken into account, as must alternative measures to control the real effective exchange rate. It may turn out that the devaluation option is not better than its alternatives.Inadequate and costly transportation is a major marketing problem. Average road construction costs in Africa are said to be almost one-third more than in South Asia; road and rolling stock maintenance are more than twice as expensive (Singh, 1990: p. 35). Singh lists various causes: low rates of equipment utilisation caused by lack of spare parts make construction more costly; limited funds diminish the frequency of maintenance which means that roads and rolling stock deteriorate to levels that are costly to restore; both very wet and very dry climates speed road deterioration; and heavily staffed roads departments use most of their budget for salaries (90% in Kenya in one year).Not only is transport costly, it may also not be available or not available in the amount and at the time needed. For example, in parts of Kenya in the wet season, roads deteriorate to the point where milk deliveries to processing plants decline by 20% to 30%. Thus, farmers cannot get their milk to market (IDF, 1986: p. 12).High transport costs on the African continent can give an advantage to competing imports. This has particular relevance for West African meat facing competition from imports in the main urban consumption centres. Those centres are on the coast. Thus, imports landed at the docks do not suffer from inadequate transportation systems in the interior. In contrast, most meat animals are in the Sahel, far from the consuming centres and thus very much at the mercy of interior transportation systems.In the 1970s, most Sahelian exporters could choose among three means of transporting animals to market-trek, truck and train. The University of Michigan's livestock studies found trekking to be the most common means of moving animals from the Sahel to the coast in the mid-1970s (Shapiro, 1979: pp. 18-19, 178, 402). Staatz (1979: p. 181) showed that in 1976/1977 the cost per animal of moving cattle from Tingrela at the Mali-Côte d'Ivoire border to Bouaké in south-central Côte d'Ivoire was twice as high by truck as by trek. That comparison includes the cost of weight loss, alleged to be high on treks but found to be modest by Staatz (1979: p. 181). In fact, he states that in some cases, animals gain weight from good grazing along the trek route, although this obviously depends on the season and on how fast the drover moves the animals.The main indirect cost of trekking was time. The Tingrela-Bouaké route took 30 days by trek compared to only one day by truck. The importance of this difference depends on the opportunity cost of capital, but it generally was not enough to outweigh the great cost-saving in trekking. In some cases, however, truck or train was preferred because of herd size, the need to reach a market during a short period of high prices or other factors.Over the last 20 years, trekking has become less feasible while truck and rail options have expanded, albeit in a costly and inefficient fashion (Kulibaba and Holtzman, 1990: pp. 39-40):Increased population density and the expansion of residential, agricultural, and reserve lands in the coastal states have severely restricted the use of trekking to coastal markets...Government regulations have been imposed which severely restrict the passage of livestock in certain regions.While trek options declined, the road network expanded. Unfortunately, according to Kulibaba and Holtzman (1990: p.  The 1990 option is also problem-ridden. Kulibaba and Holtzman (1990: pp. 69-77) found that the Regie Abidjan-Niger (RAN), which operates between Ouagadougou and Abidjan, suffers from management problems, insufficient and overaged rolling stock, frequent breakdowns and limited repair capability. In addition, the shortage of rail cars, the infrequent service, and the system of charging per car rather than per head encourages overcrowding and animal mortality. Not surprisingly, RAN's inefficiency, infrequent service and insufficient rolling stock have spawned a system of bribes to gain priority access.More generally, the World Bank (1989: p. 53) comments that, \"railways, which were once the backbone of Africa's transport system, are now in a critical situation.\" Only two of 22 had even modest profits between 1985-1987 and many had large deficits. Ghanaian annual rail tonnage dropped from about 2.6 million in the early 1970s to 0.4 million in the mid-1980s. Nigeria's railways lost 33% of their traffic from 1979 to 1986. Lack of equipment and poor maintenance prevent the railways from taking the tonnage that would be available to them.The West African live cattle trade from the Sahel to the coast has recently come under increasing pressure from illegal charges imposed by officials who control necessary papers and access to transport. Kulibaba and Holtzman (1990: p. 101) found that bribery and extortion accounted for between 5% and 23% of marketing costs in the region, with the highest costs being in Mali and Ivory Coast.The University of Michigan studies in the mid-and late 1970s also found these charges. At that time they do not seem to have been so important in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso as they were in Mali. Staatz (1979: p. 181) and Herman (1979: p. 406) cite these charges mainly when animals were trucked in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. At the time of their studies, trucking was not a very important mode of transport; trekking dominated.As trekking has declined, trucking has become more important, and this may help explain the increasing importance of illegal charges. In the companion Michigan study of Mali, Delgado (1980: p. 377) found that \"non-official fees\" were quite important and an expected cost of exporting. He cites the case of the most important legal trader who had to pay 6800 FM per head in illegal charges for cattle trucked from Bamako to Abidjan in 1977. This almost equals the 8730 FM per head of official fees required for exports.The rise of illegal charges has added a further impediment to intra-African animal trade. Not only does it lower producer prices and raise consumer prices, it also gives an advantage to non-African imports, which do not face most of these illegal charges.The pervasiveness of structural adjustment programmes throughout Africa attests to the effectiveness of research and proselytising by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and others over the past decade. The importance of trade and macro-economic policies is accepted, and the general nature of their impacts is understood-at least to the point where additional general work faces diminishing marginal returns. The emphasis now must be on (1) country and sector-specific research, and (2) development of national capability to continually monitor and adjust these policies. IL CA 's strategy and long-term plan (1987: pp. 75-76) proposes an ongoing research planning process and identifies the following three modes of research implementation: collaborative research; contract research; and own research. The planning process calls for biannual meetings with the \"Leaders of Livestock Research, Training and Development in Africa\", the collaborative research mode focuses on National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and contract research is anticipated with various specialised institutes. This orientation to national research leaders and institutions is especially appropriate for trade and macro-economic policy. However, ILCA may have to co-operate with a broader set of institutions than those indicated above. National directors of livestock research are unlikely to be the best participants in ILCA's ongoing planning process as it relates to trade and macro-economic policy. Similarly, the livestock research services are unlikely to be the best partners for research on these issues. Indeed, ministries of agriculture may not be the best starting point.At the ministerial level, finance is, of course, a logical target. ILCA may play a useful role in sensitising decision makers in finance to the effects their policies have on the livestock sector and the need to conduct research on those effects.At the level of research co-operators, ILCA can look to various kinds of institutions. Economic research units within some ministries may be useful. However, it is our experience that in ministries of agriculture, there may be expertise in micro-economic but not much in macro-or trade. (This, in part, reflects the training offered in most departments of agricultural economics in US universities). Thus, ILCA must look beyond its usual collaborators.Research institutes such as Centre ivoirien de recherches économiques et sociales (CIRES) in Côte d'Ivoire, Makerere Institute of Social and Economic Research (MISER) in Uganda, and Economic Research Bureau (ERB) in Tanzania may be effective partners. Many of these are linked through networks that can also be useful. The ADB hopes to start a programme to strengthen such institutes and the World Bank's African Capacity Building Initiative may be relevant.Compared to other economic issues, trade and macro-policy may require the most attention in the national context to foster good analysis and effective implementation. Thus, ILCA faces two related challenges-first, to collaborate with national researchers in a way that builds national capacity and second, to collaborate with the right institutions in such a way as to maximise the prospects that research will lead to policy change.ILCA may also be able to work effectively in other modalities. It may perform a valuable service by continually monitoring and analysing the world meat and dairy markets and communicating findings to national institutions. As argued above, the livestock sectors in many African countries are strongly affected by world market conditions. However, few, if any, African countries monitor those external forces; nor do they analyse their likely impacts.ILCA may also play a role in upgrading livestock statistics. Livestock have not been well integrated into previous efforts to improve agricultural production data, and we are unaware of any efforts to improve livestock trade data. If trade and macro-policy analysis is important, then the data base for such analysis must be improved.ILCA may be helpful in efforts to organise regional trade groups. Those efforts call for a good understanding of the constraints to greater regional trade and also identification of winners and losers from regional trade agreements. Outside, impartial analysis may be the most helpful.ILCA may also have a role to play in calling attention to the deleterious effects of developed country policies on developing countries. Can ILCA serve as a voice for Africa in forums discussing US or EC policies or at GATT meetings?Finally, can ILCA bring special expertise about the livestock sector to collaboration with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) or World Bank researchers?1. Liberalisation/structural adjustment (applications to livestock, national and general) 2. Regional economic integration (impediments, winners and losers, welfare, protection) 3. Impediments to trade (regional and national) 4. Market prospects (national, export) 5. World market conditions (analysis, warnings, advocacy) 6. Coping with variability (drought, world market, export market economies) 7. Improving data (production, trade, how is livestock different) 8. Encouraging policy change (internal, external) 9. Credit (for trade, for fattening, for butchers, landlords)Q: What did you mean by the statement \"the drop of per capita imports is good for producers but bad for consumers?\" I believe that both consumers and producers would be worse off.A: You are right. In Côte d'Ivoire, the result was that cheaper meat was not made available to consumers.C: I think that ILCA could do more about the application of subsidies.C: We should work with the issue of exchange rates but I hope the conclusions we reach are not the same as those of the speaker. Alternatives do not work well. At issue here is the short-term costs versus long-term benefits. ILCA should look at the available data on exchange rates.C: It is true that exchange rates have, for too long, been inappropriate. Unfortunately, few African countries have sufficiently developed markets. When it comes to an overvalued exchange rate, devaluation is not necessarily the solution. Perhaps a better solution would be to maintain a nominal exchange rate for SSA or to develop more appropriate fiscal policies.A1: I agree that changing exchange rates will not solve problems if no internal measures, such as marketing, are put in place as well. We are still not going to get far with overvalued exchange rates. We need balanced internal and external changes.A2: With reference to structural adjustment and the poor, we found in our study that dramatic effects were more pronounced in developed countries. We tend to be too concerned with short-term effects; short-term negative effects are not strong enough to negate devaluation.C: You say that in 1989, there was a large jump in per capita beef consumption because of dumping. In fact, there was only a 200 g/person increase. The real increases were in pork and fish.A: The argument should be for 1985-88.C: If we focus too much on exchange rates, we lose the point. We should be looking at structural adjustment as a package.Q: Your three-way matrix seemed useful. This group needs to debate about the appropriate audience for ILCA's research. Who are our targets? We are not making policy but providing information, analysis etc. Is there a target audience where ILCA has a comparative advantage?A: ILCA's audience should not just be Africans, but livestock people involved in the production cycle.Q: Can the speaker comment on dairy food aid-the impact of reduced dairy aid on domestic consumption/production? Do we know enough here?C: Regarding dairy marketing in Nigeria, imports hit different markets. Imports did not damage producers/peri-urban dairying. Is this true and are there any similarities in terms of meat? Are they competitive or separate markets?A: There may be more competition in terms of dairy, than meat markets. Importation of milk hurt peri-urban dairy production. Regarding imports and local production, in terms of dumping meat, clearly there was segregation in markets.C: There are two types of target consumers for meat in Côte d'Ivoire and Mali. In Côte d'Ivoire, meat has been subsidised for a long time. One of the responses of the government was to suppress subsidies. As a result, the price of meat went up and people tended to substitute fresh meat for frozen meat. For the second type of consumers-those using frozen meat as snacks-when the price of frozen meat became cheaper, people went to market to purchase this meat for snacks.S: Out of this discussion, a number of points were raised that should be addressed by the work groups. Specifically, the issue of ILCA's target audience; dairy aid/food aid as a researchable issue; the priority research areas listed by Dr. Shapiro in his presentation; and ILCA's involvement in regional economic integration.C: A real comparative advantage for ILCA is its expertise in livestock development. The issue of regional economic integration, proposed by Dr. Shapiro, does need more technical understanding.C: We should keep this list and return to it. As we talk, opportunities may open up. For instance, in terms of world market conditions, we do have many linkages outside of Africa. This list may also expand.For almost two decades, African countries have been going through a series of economic reforms. Most of these reforms have been undertaken under the stabilisation programme of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the structural adjustment programmes (SAP) promoted by the World Bank. The conditions and terms of these reforms were often ill-defined and inappropriately controlled. Those, notably under the SAP, have not always achieved their stated objectives.The need for reform cannot be questioned. However, these reforms should be directed towards growth and development. Hence, structural transformation of African economies should be the basis of any meaningful economic and social reform. This paper deals with the guidelines for structural reforms and transformation in the African livestock sector and is in line with the African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment Programme (AAF-SAP). It is argued that no matter how many resources are poured into the livestock sector or the volume of results that are generated by research institutions such as the centres sponsored by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), they will have no measurable impact with the target or ultimate beneficiaries if the policy environment is not enabling.What follows is based on the principle that African people and governments should pursue a collective goal in animal food self-sufficiency based on self-reliance and within the framework of the major subregional economic groupings and the newly established African Economic Community (AEC).Despite huge potentials in productivity and production, the performance of the African livestock sector has been disappointing. Indeed, the productivity index for cattle over the period 1980-88 was less than 12.7% with an annual average offtake rate of less than 11.7%. It takes about seven years to raise an animal for slaughter and the production of one tonne of meat requires eight head. Likewise, nearly 500 milking cows are needed to produce 1000 litres of milk. Each year, at least 100 out of every 1000 cattle die for one reason or another.There is a need to reverse the present trend of deteriorating performance in livestock productivity. This will, however, require bold decisions for structural transformation. In particular, reforms should take advantage of the potential in both production and trade and create conditions for the control of production by producers which will motivate them to adopt and adapt packages for increased productivity and sustained production. Reforms should be aimed at self-sufficiency in livestock production based on collective self-reliance and enhanced subregional trade. For instance, subregional markets should be developed in order to stimulate competition among producers within the subregion. This might require the temporary use of trade distortion instruments (tariff, quota). Costs of production should be minimised by controlling risks, uncertainties in the availability of inputs, services and market outlets and by valorising all by-products (blood, bones, manure, hide and skin, hair etc).These conditions may include land reform where, for example, an individual or group of individuals will have exclusive rights of use to a piece of land, access to a wide range of quality and competitive services (veterinary, extension, marketing) and inputs provided by both the public and private sectors.The efficient and planned supply of livestock products will require the development of information and data management systems and the use of policy analysis tools. Appropriate policy instruments should be used to stimulate the demand for livestock products. The livestock sector should contribute to the achievement of food security by generating more jobs in the sector and in allied industries.African governments, assisted by international financial institutions, are presently designing and implementing the structural adjustment component of the agricultural sector. Under SAP, which is based on a pure market mechanism, emphasis is on acquiring supplies from cheaper sources in order to meet the aggregate food demand. The international meat market is distorted through production subsidies and export promotion facilities by collective or individual governments as in the case of the European Economic Community (EEC) or Australia and Argentina to name but a few. Therefore, it is almost impossible for African livestock farmers, who are theoretically not allowed under SAP to obtain subsidies, to match the price offered even in their domestic meat market.Hence, pursuing animal food security under the terms of SAP could mean a decreased share of domestic production in the aggregate supply of meat at the national level and an increased share of foreign frozen meat. In such circumstances, while the access of consumers, notably urban dwellers, to goods may increase in the short-term, purchasing power will be severely affected in the long run as domestic production would decrease leading to fewer jobs in the livestock sector, allied industries and the public sector. A consequence would be a reduction in tax revenues.The main policy instruments used under the stabilisation and adjustment programme of the IMF and World Bank as they could affect the livestock sector are discussed below. Possible impacts of the various policy instruments are also discussed.In many countries, the price of meat is often artificially set at a level that does not include sufficient margin for the butcher to adequately cover cost of production. As a result, the butcher compensates by tapering on the composition, quality and quantity of meat sold to consumers, avoiding paying taxes in the slaughterhouse or not reimbursing as scheduled, loans from commercial banks, from the farmers or the middlemen. Hence, farmers suffer from a high rate of payment defaults. They also have no incentive to produce high quality slaughter animals for domestic consumption.Decontrolling meat prices for urban consumers would lead, ceteris paribus, to an increase in the margin per animal at farm gate. The expected outcome of decontrol is to induce greater livestock production as net profits should be higher. Since the supply function for livestock is often backward-bending in the areas with comparative advantage in breeding (ACABs), it is likely that the response of producers to price increases would be a reduction in meat production in the short run.Reforms in pricing policies also imply a reduction, if not the elimination, of input subsidies. This, in turn, would affect the profitability of livestock production as the private cost of production would increase. Because of lags in response to price changes, it is likely that the withdrawal of input subsidies will initially negatively affect the volume of production, notably in ACABs.The removal of subsidies might lead to an increase in the price of meat at the retail level and, perhaps, to a better quality domestic meat in a transparent meat market in the producing country.Overall, reforming pricing policies would affect producers (higher production costs versus improved physical access to inputs and increases in farm-gate price of livestock for farmers) and consumers (higher price of meat versus better quality services and products). In particular, producers in the areas with comparative advantage in cropping (ACACs) and areas with comparative advantage in intensive production of meat, milk and eggs (ACAIs) could take advantage of price increases in meat, eggs or milk as adjustments are possible in a period of about three months (fattening operation, poultry operation, intensive milk production). However, these producers are heavy users of modern inputs whose prices will become higher from the removal of input subsidies.The existing world market for livestock products is distorted by export promotion measures, including production and export subsidies, applied by developed nations. Hence, world market prices are low, affecting the ability of African producers to compete in the world market.Import liberalisation may be destructive to African production and to consumers as the contribution of livestock to the generation of employment and income would be reduced. Indeed, many producers, notably those in ACACs and ACAIs, would be forced out of business; many more in ACABs would end up retaining animals beyond their economic life.Equally, import liberalisation might lead to the promotion of competition in the input market by dismantling the state monopsony. The availability of inputs could then be increased and sustained provided that the private sector was able to fill the void left by the state's withdrawal. Production of livestock products and by-products might further improve as a result. Increased competition could lead to a reduction in the demand for locally produced meat as less income would be available in the livestock sector and allied industries.The export of livestock products should be enhanced for the producing countries under the export promotion scheme. Credit, export subsidies, relaxation of export quotas or regulation are normally advocated under this scheme.Enhancement would take place only if trade distortions were not applied by potential consumer countries. So far, African producers have met resistance in their attempts to enter the lucrative markets of the Middle East and Europe, thanks to the application of quotas and stringent health measures. Hence, such a programme, if applied to the livestock sector, would have minimal impact on production.Public expenditure is often reduced through freezes in recruitments and salary, lay-offs and closing government-owned input and output supply outfits. These measures will, in the short run, all negatively affect the demand for livestock products, notably meat which is considered a luxury commodity. Equally, the production of livestock products and by-products could be negatively affected by cuts in public expenditure that would severely affect the number of extension workers, delivery of animal health services and development of technologies and infrastructure in favour of livestock. A reduced demand for livestock products may also result. The reduction in production activities will further affect economic access of consumers to livestock products.Reforms in fiscal policies in the form of improved tax collection and increases in tax rates are often used to reduce budget deficits. Indeed, the tax collection in many countries is deficient and subject to corruption. Improving the tax collection system could lead to increases in production costs. However, an improved tax collection system would be beneficial if it meant transparency and an increase in the effectiveness and honesty of government employees. A more efficient and fair tax collection system may decrease price distortions and result in reduced costs for transactions and the distribution of livestock products/by-products.An increase in the tax rate could result in further increases in production costs as taxes might be levied at the point of production and processing of livestock and livestock products, or, at the point of consumption. This measure would negatively affect both the supply of and demand for domestically produced livestock products.However, improving tax revenues could mean more job opportunities in the public sector and improved delivery capacity of public institutions and services (e.g. better extension services, animal health services, research activities etc.). Productivity could be enhanced and production increased as the economic access of consumers to livestock products would be further improved.Under SAP, it is often recommended that the access of both private and public sectors to credit be limited through credit ceilings or through higher interest rate on loans (to discourage contracting loans). In this scheme, it is recommended that credit be redirected towards exportable commodities.Limiting access to credit may reduce production and trade activities of producers in ACABs and ACACs as they often require short term credit for their operations. Equally, productivity in ACABs could be affected as the access to inputs might be reduced due to the credit limits or simply because operators might be denied access to credit. Also, inputs might be more expensive because of the scarcity and/or the higher cost of credit.Employment opportunities, notably in ACACs and ACAIs, might be further reduced, thus contributing to a deterioration in the purchasing power of consumers. However, the export sector (skin, leather and meat) might benefit where credit is redirected towards exportable commodities that include livestock products.Devaluation of currency should, in principle, make imported products more expensive and exports cheaper. For instance, in a country with excess capacity in livestock production and an overvalued currency, importing livestock products would be relatively expensive while exporting livestock products would be enhanced through currency devaluation. However, since the African livestock sector depends heavily on imported inputs (e.g. day-old chicks, vaccines, drugs, equipment etc) currency devaluation will result in an increase in the cost of imports.Increasing export opportunities could lead to increases in intensive production of quality livestock products. However, such opportunities will depend on the import component of inputs. Furthermore, because of distortions in the world livestock market, the extent to which African exporters will realise export opportunities from devaluation is uncertain.The privatisation of government-owned input and enterprise supply outfits is often advocated under SAP. It is meant to increase efficiency in production as well as trade through the abolition of state monopoly and monopsony and the promotion of competition. However, in many African countries, the private sector is not prepared to take over from the public sector.In principle, the sale of these enterprises would lead to a reduction in the budget deficit. If some of the revenue generated is partially directed towards the livestock sector, the delivery of services provided by the government could be improved. This, in turn, could help improve productivity and production (extension services, research, infrastructure). Yet, if government withdrawal is not accompanied by the entry of the private sector into vital domains, the livestock sector could suffer from a lack of, or inadequacy in, the supply and distribution of inputs and outputs and/or a reduced demand for livestock products.Government withdrawal might result in lost jobs if the private sector is not interested in government-owned enterprise or it is interested but resources are not available to acquire the parastatals. The demand for livestock products might be negatively affected, although demand could be stimulated through the generation of additional or well-paid employment in the private sector.Any given policy instrument may have positive and negative impacts. Since international financial institutions advocate the application of many instruments simultaneously, it is often asserted that several of them could reinforce the negative impacts of one or a group of instruments. Hence, the need exists to study the multiple impacts of a set of policies on target and related sectors in order to better understand the potential costs and benefits of policy instruments.Reforming the livestock sector under existing conditions (e.g. public ownership of vital resources such as water and pasture land etc) and the terms of the international financial institutions, could aggravate conditions of the livestock sector and of those deriving their living from that sector. This would not lead to a lasting solution to Africa's livestock development problems, but instead, frustrate efforts aimed at realising animal food security. Hence, there is a need to undertake deep-rooted structural transformation of the sector based on self-reliance in the framework of subregional groupings.Structural transformation and adjustment programmes should enable livestock and business communities to competitively produce quality livestock products and by-products to satisfy the demand for the continent while effectively contributing to the development of the overall economy. They should contribute to the diversification of the economic base by creating job opportunities in allied industries for inputs, services, products and by-products to improve economic access of consumers to meat and other essential goods and services.In the following pages, a framework for the structural transformation of the livestock sector is provided. Emphasis is laid on the harmonisation of livestock development policies and strategies within the framework of subregional and regional co-operation. Reforming land tenure is considered a precondition for self-sustained and self-reliant transformation.The harmonisation of livestock development policies should help further the comparative advantage of producing countries while ensuring competition among the domestic private and/or public sectors for greater efficiency in the production and trade of livestock inputs, products and by-products. It should help foster joint programming and investment ventures across national boundaries to ensure that the integration of livestock economies is based on overall mutual dependency among member states within and across subregions.Harmonisation should help mobilise productive resources, divert to low cost production sources and lead to relative specialisation in the livestock sector. Marketing and pricing policies should be harmonised between countries to promote intra-African trade, proper identification of every animal or consignment of animals put through export channels and development of market structures. To facilitate and increase intra-African trade in slaughter animals and meat, common preferential trade areas for animal products produced within a subregion or within the continent should be developed and protected.Mechanisms to equitably redistribute part of the financial benefit within the subregion or the continent should be devised. Preferably, redistribution should be through the financing of public activities that would reduce the cost of production and distribution while improving the quality of products and related services.The following interventions, adjustments and reforms are recommended:• harmonise the protocols and accords related to the promotion of trade and marketing of live animals and meat• standardise the collection of statistics and systems for the dissemination of information on commodities, especially meat, live animals and inputs • prepare a directory of major livestock and meat markets in the subregion and the continent • identify two to five livestock markets per major producing country to be part of a subregional or regional network • prepare a directory of livestock and meat marketing institutions with a view towards greater co-ordination and integration of activities • provide incentives to encourage joint undertakings between the private and/or public enterprises, especially in the areas of transport for live animals and meat, feedlots, processing and marketing infrastructure.The integration of livestock economies should be mainly at the point of production in order to promote trade. Joint ventures involving private and/or public enterprises of a subregion or the continent to exploit animal and range resources should be encouraged. Greater integration at subregional and regional levels and more dynamism in the livestock sector through broad-based diversification and complementary programmes are essential.Joint ventures should aim at producing goods more efficiently and competitively to satisfy the requirements of subregional or continental markets. This could be achieved by reorganising existing production units to ensure economies of scale while avoiding monopoly and collusion in an oligopoly or monopsony.Hence, efforts should be directed towards taking full advantage of the existing potential in production, distribution and facilities by creating the enabling environment for transforming some of these ventures into specialised multinational corporations with the full involvement of the private sector. Also, the utilisation of all relevant mechanisms, institutions, national endowments and natural and human resources in a spirit of collective self-reliance and solidarity is essential for sustained growth and development.Above all, governments at the subregional and continental level should unite around valid economic and mutually profitable goals and protect the livestock market in the long-term interests of consumers and producers. Particular attention should be paid to providing adequate incentives towards the formation of multinational enterprises by nationals of both surplus and deficit countries for the valorisation of by-products which constitute a potential source of income.Pastoral land in Africa is often, by decree, public domain with open access. The cost of developing resources, such as water and range, is so high that attempts to do so are rarely made. Negative externalities to the livestock community are becoming increasingly high, particularly in terms of degradation of the resource base for livestock production. Hence, there is a need to re-examine the current approach to land tenure and the exploitation of natural resources.The thrust of land reform should be secure access or exclusive rights to the main resources (pasture and water) by the producers. Land reform should help the livestock community be more responsive to policy and technological changes. Moreover, it should allow greater participation of pastoralists in government decisions on matters affecting their lives and help improve their access to commercial (competitive) loans.Policy research should be directed toward evaluating the impacts of policy options on the performance of the livestock sector and allied industries in meeting production and consumption objectives, environmental and other societal goals (e.g. efficiency in resource use and equity in income distribution). Results from these efforts will lead to the development of alternative livestock development programmes containing action packages and policy actions for selection by decision makers. Thereafter, indicators would be developed to monitor the progress of the adopted programme.To this end, policy analysis units could be established at national, subregional and regional levels. These units should mainly be publicly funded and staffed on a continuing basis with individuals from branches specialising in selected policy areas. At the national level, the major policy analysis unit could be established in the Office of the President or the Prime Minister with branches in major ministries. Corresponding units could be established within the secretariat of the major subregional economic groupings and the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Above all, these units should help generate information necessary to make the best-informed decisions.At the subregional and continental levels, these units should play a catalytic role in the design and translation of joint decisions into concrete actions and investment programmes. For instance, concrete proposals, notably in the following areas should be developed:• measures to harmonise livestock development policies and to integrate livestock economies with a view to creating and maintaining an enabling environment • a list of subregional project ideas for the public sectors to be implemented under the leadership of the major economic groupings • a list of project ideas to the private sector. For instance, current reform programmes are leading to the liquidation of many industrial units in Africa as they fail to meet the criteria of economic and financial viability. Some key industrial units could be salvaged by converting them into multinational units.The units could then be called upon to undertake activities in the following areas:• an inventory on evaluation of the production units that could be part of a network of multinational enterprises with subregional or regional dimensions • a cost/benefit analysis of entering into joint undertakings through the conversion of the national units into subregional ones.To persuade a government to undertake alternative development policies and programmes, especially in the framework of collective self-reliance, it must be convinced that present livestock development policies generate little benefit compared to costs. Pay-off must be evident with an alternative plan. Thus, the need exists to develop instruments of analysis for livestock problems that are simple but powerful. These instruments should provide estimates of gains or losses for member states who are considering entering into co-operative agreements. Such instruments should help to bridge the communication gap between livestock development researchers, analysts and decision makers and promote fruitful dialogue among livestock developers and between them and others.Modelling techniques and their use by policy analysts should help promote dialogue not only at the national, but also at the subregional level. They should also identify constraints to development; quantitatively assess policy objectives before making policy decisions, which will in turn help policy analysts assess their assumptions and limit the number of alternatives; and evaluate the multiple impacts of programmes and policies designed to modify the rates of economic development at national and subregional levels and hence to serve as a measure of the effectiveness of specific policies in force or to be implemented.This paper has provided some insights on how to promote structural transformation of the livestock sector based on collective self-reliance. Reforms should be directed towards making the livestock sector the engine of its own development by putting them in full control of the development of the sector. To generate the best policies, policy research to evaluate the impact of policy choices is needed.The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and other development and research institutions can collaborate to assist African countries individually and collectively to develop policy laboratories in order to evaluate the impact of their policy options while maintaining and preserving the quality of their environment.This paper addresses four questions:• What are the trade and price trends for livestock products emerging for the 1990s in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)?• What issues do these trends present for policy research?• What will be the potential impact of research that addresses the identified issues?• Does the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) have a comparative advantage in undertaking work on the identified issues and are there potential collaborators to work with?The issues and areas identified in the following pages constitute a modest set of suggestions for future research.A number of studies conducted in the early 1980s, using mid-1970s data, pointed out the anti-agricultural incentive bias of trade and pricing policies being pursued by SSA countries (Lutz and Scandizzo, 1980;Bale and Lutz, 1981;World Bank, 1982). These policies hampered agricultural growth and weakened the contribution of agriculture to overall growth and economic development. Studies conducted in the late 1980s, using data up to the mid-1980s, showed some improvement in the price incentive structure in most countries (Byerlee and Sain, 1986;Ghai and Smith, 1987;Williams, 1990). However, the indirect macro-economic and exchange rate policies implemented at the same time negated whatever improvement was forthcoming from direct pricing policies.The 1980s also marked a period of declining world prices for major traded agricultural commodities. For livestock products in particular, there was much instability in world markets due to surplus production of beef and milk in Europe, the USA and Oceanian countries. Some of the excess production, especially from Europe, was dumped at very low prices in African countries. While the cheap imports benefited urban consumers, they indirectly depressed domestic producer prices. Even the African beef exporting countries (e.g. Botswana and Z imbabwe) were not spared. Export markets were lost because they could not effectively compete with the subsidised exports originating from EEC countries. Thus, considering economy wide effects, a combination of inappropriate domestic policies and declining international prices for major primary exports added to serious economic crises in most of SSA. To avert further deterioration and at the insistence of multilateral financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, a series of policy measures under structural adjustment programmes have been instituted in a majority of SSA. These programmes emphasise three kinds of policies which are germane to the topic at hand:• devaluation of real exchange rates • reduction of taxes and controls in international trade • alignment of domestic producer prices with their equivalent world prices and reduction of consumer subsidies.These policy measures are meant to improve the balance of payments and promote economic growth and competitiveness in international markets. By the end of 1991, 26 SSA countries had fully or partially adopted structural adjustment programmes. Partial adopters are mostly countries in the CFA (Communauté financière africaine) zone where the currency has not yet been devalued.It is worthwhile to briefly consider what appear to be the initial effects of structural adjustment on prices, production and trade in livestock.In those countries (e.g. Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Z imbabwe) where the full reform package has been adopted, domestic prices have risen sharply (Igbedioh, 1990;Weissman, 1990). The rise in domestic prices and the reduction or outright elimination of producer and consumer subsidies have different implications for producers and consumers. 1 For producers, the rise in prices presents opportunities for increased production. In addition, producers face reduced competition from imports as devaluation raises prices of imported commodities. Livestock producers in exporting countries (e.g. Z imbabwe) can expect to obtain more revenue in domestic currency terms.On a related note, in anticipation of the inevitable devaluation of the CFA franc and the changes in economic opportunities this would bring about for the traditional trade in live animals between Sahelian and coastal countries in West Africa, some authors have argued that the time is now ripe to re-examine the case for a Sahelian dairy industry which could complement trade in live animals (Delgado, 1989;Delgado, 1990). The presumption is that the coastal countries which have always been net importers of livestock products would remain so for some time to come and that their comparative advantage lies in the production of other agricultural commodities.Opportunities also now exist for intensification of livestock production in many African countries as previous harmful policies are being discarded. However, three related issues need to be considered:• the comparative advantage of livestock production in specific African countries and agro-ecological zones • prospects for regional trade and harmonisation of trade policies and regulations • continuing instability in domestic and world markets.To a certain extent, the second and third issues could be submerged in the first as long as one considers dynamic comparative advantage. Therefore, attention will be devoted to the first issue; only passing references will be made to the other two issues.The price differential that now exists between locally produced and imported animal products is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for sustainable growth in livestock production. Long-term sustainable growth depends on a country or location's comparative advantage in the production of a commodity. Also, if it is accepted that free trade promotes economic growth, then trade and pricing policies designed to promote livestock production cannot ignore issues of comparative advantage.It is dynamic rather than static comparative advantage that is relevant. Dynamic comparative advantage considers the shifts over time in a production system's competitiveness as a result of changes in long-term border prices, the opportunity costs of domestic resources and production technologies in use.Country-specific studies should be undertaken to examine the evolving comparative advantage of animal and milk production in different systems. The justification for advocating this type of studies will become clear after considering the methods normally used to measure comparative advantage.Comparative advantage is usually measured using the Domestic Resource Cost (DRC) or Resource Cost Ratio (RCR) approach. The two are quite similar. Simply put, DRC is the ratio of the foreign exchange it costs to produce a commodity under optimal conditions to the foreign exchange received from producing it. If DRC is greater than one, foreign exchange is lost by producing the good; conversely if DRC is less than one, foreign exchange is gained.While this summary measure is useful, it does not give much practical information that is of use in policy analysis. To draw practical implications for production decisions using this kind of measure, one needs to consider the factors that are driving changes in comparative advantage. The variables needed to compute DRC or RCR include:• border equivalent prices of tradable outputs and inputs It is the evolution and the impact of these variables on DRC that can provide information on the binding constraints-that tend to reduce comparative advantage-and help identify which policies can be addressed to remove them. One approach to analysing the evolution of the cost components of DRC is outlined in Delgado (1990).Conceptual difficulties in measuring some of the variables listed above, particularly the opportunity costs of domestic resources and the real exchange rate, need to be taken into consideration. Also, given the limitations of the partial equilibrium approach embodied in the DRC (or RCR), the results obtained will be more useful in assessing the relative importance of different factors and the direction of their impact rather than in determining the absolute magnitude of different effects.The dynamic DRC approach suggested here could be used:• to assess the relative importance of the various factors (e.g. overvalued exchange rate, inadequate transport facilities, taxes etc.) that have eroded the comparative advantage of, say, Sahelian countries in exporting live animals to the coastal states in West Africa. The approach could highlight the most important constraints and indirectly indicate the kind of policies needed to ameliorate the situation.• as a tool for making decisions on resource allocation to support alternative production opportunities, e.g. dairy production work in humid versus subhumid zones. In this respect, the approach becomes a useful ex ante tool for diagnosing the ability of a production system to remain competitive long into the future and thus justify investing resources in it.This approach calls for a series of targeted primary data collection in specific areas, e.g. on transportation costs, farm budgets and seasonal labour costs in addition to data from secondary sources.The uses listed above provide some insight into the potential impact that studies based on a dynamic approach can make. The DRC ratio can be used to make decisions on the relative emphasis given to different production activities. Studies based on this approach can point out inefficient activities and those that will ensure long-term growth. By considering the evolution (i.e. changes over time) of the various components of the DRC and the relative importance of the direction of their effects on the DRC, the method provides a framework that can permit policy makers to better understand the major factors that tend to diminish comparative advantage and what policies are appropriate to deal with them.This approach makes possible opportunities to involve national agricultural research systems (NAR S) scientists and policy makers in the execution of these studies. Collaboration on data collection, analysis and interpretation of results will help to strengthen the technical and analytical capacity of public officials who may also be the ones to implement whatever policies the results call for.ILCA is well placed to work in this area and there are a number of potential collaborators. A series of targeted data collection exercises will be required. This work is best done in collaboration with NARS scientists and policy makers.The issues of comparative advantage, regional trade and harmonisation of trade policies and regulations extend far beyond the livestock subsector. For example, in the West African Sahel, these issues cannot be sensibly addressed without looking at the staple cereals (e.g. millet and sorghum) which are wage goods and determine the opportunity cost of labour. There is room for collaborative work with ILCA, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and NARS.At the most general level, there is the need for a set of studies on the evolving comparative advantage of livestock production in specific SSA countries and agro-ecological locations given current economic changes in the region. If these studies are conducted in collaboration with other international or national research institutes in such a way as to include major crops grown in the study countries, a basis would be established for identifying the relative weight to give to trade, pricing and other policies needed to promote mutually beneficial regional trade and growth in livestock production.C: Measuring the comparative advantage of livestock in different sub-Saharan countries, by focusing on this method, one may ignore the input sector and resource management issues that can effect the direction of DRC.A: The input sector is included. Natural resource issues that are outside a particular commodity market are excluded.C: The point is how to develop sustainable livestock production. I like the idea of basing research decisions on the long-term comparative advantage of regional sectors.Regarding integration, meat markets tend to be isolated so putting this on a regional basis is a good idea. Stratification across agro-ecozones is an important issue. The potential importance of agro-ecozones and disease pressures and how this changes with the introduction of inputs (e.g. vaccines) is important. Issues of where policy is linked to technology in the framework of dynamic comparative advantage are important.C: It is important that environmental factors be tied into DRC. Perhaps this is an area for research.C: One issue debated at UNCED [the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development] was whether there should be payment to developing countries to secure preservation of natural resources. If a country sees that its comparative advantage is to do one thing, this could lead to disaster (e.g. mining and rain forests).Q: In calculating domestic resource costs, would you not end up ignoring within-country differences in agro-ecological and production systems?A: DRC can be country-specific. Your end-product would be the relative efficiency of resources.C: These measures are good for cost-benefit analysis but are not very useful in terms of comparative advantage.C: When looking at comparative advantage, you are not looking at simple ratios. It pin-points which cost components are important -which are constraints and which promote development.S: Comparative advantage is important. The issue is how to use it. DRC is useful but there are some factors not taken into account in the model. This should be addressed as a topic in working group discussion.Agriculture is a dominant sector of most African economies, accounting for about 30% of the gross domestic product (GDP) (World Bank, 1981). Thus, the growth of the sector is central to the development of Africa. Agriculture generates foreign exchange revenue through exports. 1 As such, trade policies are important to the development process. The purpose of this paper is to assess the potential for Africa to improve its development prospects through participation in world agricultural trade. Factors which hinder progress are discussed as are possible measures which can facilitate greater development.Despite its dominance, the agricultural sector has been in decline for the past two decades.Almost half of the countries in Africa are suffering chronic food deficits. Financial resources are often lacking to import sufficient food supplies. It is reported that the continent will remain a net importer of food unless deliberate efforts are made to improve the region's productive capacity (FAO, 1985).Chronic food shortages have been due to drought, epidemic crop or livestock diseases, rapid population growth rate (averaging 3% per annum) and persistent or recurring political conflict. Moreover, fundamental structural factors such as inappropriate national agricultural policies, poor infrastructure and a \"hostile\" international economic system contribute to food insecurity. Decline in the agricultural sector has led to industrial decline and general unemployment. This in turn, may result in political and social instability. The continent currently has a high number of refugees.The poor performance in agriculture has also led to debt accumulation. In the 1970s, African countries borrowed heavily when they were experiencing temporary economic booms and invested in enterprises which turned out to be non-viable (World Bank, 1981). By 1987, the debt service ratio (total debt servicing as a percentage of export earnings) for over half of the African countries was above 20% (World Bank, 1989). Debt servicing competes with important agricultural and industrial inputs for the scarce foreign exchange. This high debt ratio implies that Africa's socio-economic future will be bleak unless there is a major reversal of current trends in the agricultural sector.The classical theory of international trade is that of comparative advantage. To maximise gains from international trade, countries should concentrate on commodities that are relatively most efficiently produced, say, in terms of inputs. What this implies is that countries should specialise in what they can produce most efficiently. Developing countries (e.g. in Africa) have a comparative advantage in the production of agricultural goods. If there is free trade, a country's comparative advantage can be exploited to raise the standard of living through trade.In this respect, trade becomes an engine of growth (World Bank, 1981;Ghatak and Ingersent, 1984). 2   However, experience in Africa has shown that even where an export-led growth strategy has been \"faithfully\" followed, broad economic development as defined today has not been achieved. 3 Backward or forward linkages resulting from the export production sector have been weak. Countries which tend to specialise in the production of agricultural commodities face a number of problems. These include: There is some evidence that Africa has suffered adversely from declining terms of trade (World Bank, 1984). World Bank statistics (1989) show that almost all African countries have negative balance of payments. The real price levels of agricultural exports have not matched those of imported industrial and other processed goods. Thus, as populations rise, export volumes must increase to afford even a constant level of welfare. Imports, including inputs needed for domestic production, tend to decline. Consequently, capacity utilisation of domestic industries is low or falling. If increasing output is constrained by internal policies, then Africa's share of the world market for major agricultural exports will continue to fall. Berg (in World Bank, 1981) emphasises that difficulties with foreign exchange in Africa are caused mainly by the continent's inability to expand export volumes. However, in more recent years, other factors, such as a general decline in commodity prices, have magnified foreign exchange difficulties. Moreover, these prices are characterised by sharp fluctuations. Foreign exchange earnings from year to year may continually fluctuate so that planned development programmes cannot be implemented.Demand elasticities for agricultural commodities are generally low. This implies that world demand for agricultural commodities does not increase as price levels are lowered. In fact, demand may drop if prices increase significantly. Moreover, as incomes rise, the proportion spent on these commodities tends to decline. At the same time, artificial substitutes for agricultural products emerge. These realities may cause one to question the possibility of achieving development through an export-led growth strategy. If export volumes are increased, countries, as a group, will force commodity prices to fall with consequent low foreign exchange earnings.It should also be recognised that some of the traditional high-volume importers of agricultural commodities from the world market (e.g. China and India) are themselves becoming self-sufficient in those commodities. This will further shrink world market demand for agricultural commodities.The structure of the international trading system does not favour African exports, be they raw or processed products. Developed countries continue to have trade barriers (including tariff and non-tariff) against import commodities which could compete with commodities produced domestically. For instance, it is reported that protectionist measures against sugar alone cost African countries approximately US$270 million annually between 1979 and 1981, rising to more than US$420 million in 1983. For beef exports, the cost to the continent due to trade barriers was about US$100 million per year during this same period (World Bank, 1985). Protectionism effectively reduces the value of exports, further exacerbating the continent's balance of payments difficulties. The capacity for servicing the foreign debt is lowered and the importation of necessary goods and services for development programmes cannot be undertaken.Apart from the protectionist measures, developed countries also have other agricultural policies meant to benefit their own farmers. This creates problems for the agricultural exports coming from Africa. Agricultural price support measures, including subsidies, lead to surpluses in agricultural commodities. As a result, commodity prices on the world market become depressed, making it difficult for African agricultural products to enter developed-country markets.External shocks which hinder the expansion of agricultural production and exports include the occasional oil price increases (e.g. in 1973 and 1979), the \"overvaluation\" of the major convertible currencies like the US dollar and frequent increases in world interest rates. The adjustment to these external shocks usually takes the form of reduced imports and loss of export market shares (Belassa, 1983). Oil price increases, in particular, cause the proportion of available foreign exchange to be diverted to oil imports which lowers imports of other necessary commodities. Recession may result in the process.Given the problems noted above, several studies have recommended intra-African trade, regional integration or special trade agreements (Etherington, 1972;Gwyer, 1973;Chileshe, 1977;Weber and Hartmann, 1977;World Bank, 1989). Given technological changes, comparative advantage positions also change. Therefore, African countries may benefit by diversifying traditional exports. The World Bank (1989) emphasises that greater trade among African countries would help overcome imbalances in food supplies, thereby reducing Africa's dependence on overseas food imports. Liberalising regional trade in food would contribute to food security. Establishing buffer stocks, undertaking joint crop forecasting and livestock disease control can benefit co-operating countries. For better resource management in Africa, regional co-operation, rather than individual efforts, would bring greater benefits to the continent as a whole.Trade within Africa can stimulate development in several ways. It permits countries to exchange complementary commodities and services. If the goods produced are similar, this increases efficiency of the producing firms within the region against alternative supply sources. Thus, the regional market becomes efficient and eventually may become competitive world-wide. Increased competition provides incentives to raise productivity and lower costs. Since internal markets are generally small, competition should be aimed at enlarging the share in the world market.Currently, official trade among sub-Saharan African countries amounts to a modest US$4 billion, or less than 10% of total African trade (World Bank, 1989). This has been due to macro-economic policies, including overvalued exchange rates, distorted credit allocation and self-sufficiency policies. It is estimated that intra-African trade can be more than doubled if deliberate efforts are made to formalise trade arrangements. Already, informal trade is practised extensively in the region. It keeps prices down through increased competition, supplying needed goods across various borders and providing employment opportunities.Regional co-operation and integration was a central theme of the 1980 Lagos Plan of Action. However, sustaining regional integration has always been a problem due to: political differences, unequal initial resource endowments, level of economic development, inability to agree on the distribution of costs and benefits and balance of payments problems and sometimes, lack of funds to catalyse the formation of the regional bodies due to lack of interest from possible donors.The Preferential Trade Area (PTA), involving about 20 member states, could promote intra-African trade given political goodwill. It aims at reducing existing trade barriers, particularly by giving preferential treatment to certain products. The commodities considered for preferential treatment must be both of export and import interest to member countries. The producing firms should be 51% or more locally-owned; not more than 60% of their components should originate outside the PTA.An important avenue open to countries to increase their gain from exports is to enter into special trade (commodity) agreements. However, as small producers of agricultural commodities, no single African country has sufficient bargaining power to influence matters in such agreements. Countries should be encouraged to act as a group so that they can benefit from trade negotiations (e.g. the Lomé Convention, where exports coming from developing countries into EEC markets are given duty free status, or the various GATTsponsored rounds of trade talks).Over time, technological changes have enabled some African countries to excel in producing non-traditional exportable commodities. This trend should be encouraged.The agricultural sector in most African countries has undergone a period of crisis over the past two decades. Part of the problem is due to internal national policies which are biased against the agricultural sector. However, some are related to the external economic environment. For countries which can generate exportable surplus, much can be gained through intra-African trade, regional integration or co-operation, special trade agreements or export diversification. Through these avenues, available resources could be managed in the most efficient way. The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) can assist in that effort by disseminating information on available livestock technologies and identifying potential deficit and surplus livestock and livestock product areas. Moreover, the Centre can undertake studies to determine the prospects of intra-African and regional integration from trade liberalisation within the region. These efforts will enable African countries to develop appropriate livestock and livestock product trade policy strategies.Q: How can Africa participate in world trade through regional co-operation? A: It can gain a better bargaining position if co-operating countries are able to command a surplus for a certain commodity.C: The African continent does not consume what it can produce. Therefore, regional trade is a good idea. In addition, we do not participate in price fixing.C: Inter-regional trade needs to be based on specialisation. I see that only in West and perhaps South Africa. I do not see much hope for it elsewhere in Africa.C: Trade also depends on the political whims of people; dependence on common markets can be very costly.C: The notion of regional markets has been examined in terms of grain, but it has not been studied for livestock. I hope your comments do not spark debates on protectionism. Putting protection around the grain market in West Africa is done; it is not done for livestock. In general, are there opportunities for ILCA research in the area of world markets? market projections? the variability of livestock economies?Priorities for research on government policies to support livestock development in Africa P. Pinstrup-AndersenIt is indeed a pleasure to be here at ILCA (International Livestock Centre for Africa) and to have the opportunity to discuss with this distinguished group, issues related to livestock policies for Africa. I hope that my participation in this meeting signifies the continuation and strengthening of fruitful collaboration between ILCA and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). In this presentation, I will focus, as requested, on policy research needs in the areas of technology, markets and infrastructure.Before we can consider policy research priorities, it is important to agree on the goals of the overall effort of livestock-related research in Africa. Two alternative goals come to mind. First, one could focus exclusively on the goal of expanding livestock production in the region; or second, the focus could be on the alleviation of poverty through improvements in the livestock sector. If these two goals are not fully compatible, it is important to decide what should be the goal and what might be a means of reaching it.In the short run, I would argue that there are serious trade-offs between the two goals. If we pursue an exclusive production expansion goal, we might wish to focus on large-scale commercial production relying on subsidies for inputs, production and marketing, including heavy subsidies for capital. Such capital-intensive large-scale production would probably be placed close to the consumption areas. In my opinion, such an approach is unacceptable. The overall goals of the international agricultural research centres is to alleviate poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. Therefore, enhanced production and productivity should be a means to reaching that goal rather than a goal in itself. For the rest of this presentation, I will assume that poverty alleviation rather than expanded production per se is the overriding goal.The next question we need to address is whose poverty we are trying to alleviate. Most poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is found in rural areas. However, there is a small but rapidly increasing proportion of poor people in urban areas. If we are concerned with rural poverty alleviation, we must emphasise policies that will alleviate rural infrastructure bottlenecks. This would reduce transportation costs, link rural markets and in general, foster transformation of the agricultural and livestock sectors while improving marketing of inputs and outputs.Rural infrastructure tends to be a public good. Therefore, while private investment is important in certain cases, most of the investment usually has to originate from the government. During the last 10 -15 years, there have been insufficient investments in rural infrastructure partly because of lack of willingness on the part of international agencies to provide capital for such investment. This is due, in part, to the inability of the governments to show that such investments would be profitable in the long run, partly because of the low food prices and inappropriate discount rates. The problem of using inappropriate discount rates is also an important issue when we make decisions regarding investments to protect natural resources because the benefits and costs for future generations are poorly represented.Research is urgently needed on policies that will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of input and output markets. There is a particular need for research to identify the proper role of government in a situation of insufficient private competition, poor rural infrastructure and a lack of tradition for private-sector involvement. We need research on how to reduce or eliminate rent-seeking by public and private institutions, both during the transition phase towards privatising input and output markets and beyond. Clearly, it would be a mistake to argue that governments have no role to play in future agricultural input and output markets. The question is, therefore, how to identify the appropriate role not how to eliminate governments from these areas of activity.Research is also needed on livestock and input price policy, but it is important to recognise the limitations of price policy in expanding livestock production and in alleviating rural poverty. Such limitations are due primarily to the non-price constraints to expanding livestock production such as poor rural infrastructure, poorly functioning markets etc. If the supply response is low, then higher prices will merely transfer income from consumers to producers. While there is ample evidence to support the argument that the total supply response in agriculture is low, there is also a great deal of evidence to show that commodity-specific supply responses may be quite high. Supply responses in the livestock sector in each of the important ecoregional zones are not well known and research is needed on this topic. Price policy is also ineffective in alleviating rural poverty if the marketed surplus is skewed to a small portion of better-off producers. This may be the case for certain livestock products in certain regions. More research is needed to better understand how the benefits from higher livestock product prices will be distributed among various income groups in rural areas.Related to this question is the issue of who consumes livestock products. Again, if most consumers are from the more-affluent section of the population, then increasing prices may do little harm to the poor. On the other hand, if low-income people spend a large part of their income on livestock products, then higher livestock product prices may have serious negative effects on poverty, food security and nutrition. There is an urgent need for consumer surveys to determine consumption patterns among the different income groups in relation to the various livestock products. In addition to budget shares, the analysis should focus on the role of livestock products in meeting protein and energy needs in each population group. Such analyses should include studies of household behaviour and intrahousehold allocation. Income elasticities for most livestock products are likely to be high among the poor, but the budget shares are expected to be rather low. This, of course, will vary among population groups. Thus, the budget share of animal products may be very high among herdsmen and very low in certain urban areas.Additional research may be needed on consumer subsidies for milk and capital subsidies to large commercial milk producers and peri-urban areas because of their prevalence in many African countries. It is not clear that such subsidies can be justified either on poverty or nutrition grounds. Additional analysis of consumer data will provide information on the extent to which such subsidies benefit the poor.Research is urgently needed on how to make current market liberalisation and privatisation efforts successful. Such efforts are currently undertaken in most African countries as part of policy reforms and structural adjustment. The success of these liberalisation and privatisation efforts has not been outstanding in most of these countries and there is a need for more research to assist governments in implementing the efforts for the benefit of the poor. Such research should be undertaken with regard to inputs for the livestock sector, livestock products, and other agricultural commodities. A related topic deserving more research is the pan-seasonal and pan-territorial pricing policies being followed for livestock products and inputs in some countries.There is a need for research at the farm level, particularly on how policies may facilitate integrated livestock crop systems. Such research should take into account labour use and its seasonality, risks and complementarities of various kinds. Research is also needed to guide feed supply and other input policies. Research to facilitate appropriate credit programmes and programmes to alleviate excessive risks and uncertainty associated with seasonality are also needed. As part of such research, analysis is needed to explore the appropriateness of using livestock as a savings/credit mechanism relative to other mechanisms. Regarding seasonality and uncertainty, research is needed to guide market policies during droughts to reduce fluctuations in herd size.The competition between draft animals and humans for food/feed needs additional research. In particular, research should explore the feasibility of using motorised hand cultivators instead of animal traction in order to reduce feed requirements or make feed available to other classes of animal.Research is needed to assist in developing policies that will reduce seasonality in milk production, increase the use of small-scale processing plants and reduce the large current fluctuations in producers' incomes.Research is also needed on a number of institutions, including those influencing land use and tenure. Research on political economy aspects of livestock production and marketing, including the importance of various public-and private-sector interest groups and associated rent-seeking, is needed. Such research should be linked to the above-mentioned research on market liberalisation and privatisation to ensure that government rent-seeking is not replaced by private-sector rent-seeking.These are some of the issues that I believe deserve additional policy research. I look forward to the opportunity of working with ILCA on some of these research priorities.Q: Is it necessary for parastatals to be involved in milk purchasing? I have doubts about the effectiveness of monopoly purchasing to maintain quality control.C: While hand tractors can be used in China, they are not an appropriate technology for Africa because spare parts are often unavailable.C: When addressing the issue of poverty alleviation, there is evidence that the urban poor can benefit from peri-urban dairying (e.g. in Mali).C: With structural adjustment programmes, we cannot go part way yet no one is going all the way. In Africa, it tends to be very contradictory. The market is open to dumping and the private sector cannot defend itself from external constraints. The government may stimulate domestic production but freeze equipment purchases.C1: In terms of growth versus equity, there will always be economies of scale that will favour larger enterprises. Differences in costs and in economies of scale will work for change.C2: I do agree that mechanised cultivation is a good alternative to animal traction.C3: Using credit, instead of animals, as a buffer is not a good idea. During drought, for instance, credit will not bring in more feed; the result will more likely be large-scale corruption. Credit and technology adoption-there is a problem of information on the true characteristics of the borrower.C1: Livestock production and economies of scale could be a researchable issue. I think this exists only where livestock are subsidised. Most of the research I have seen says there are limited economies of scale in the absence of subsidies.C2: My experience with repayments of credit suggests repayment rates are high. Failures tend to be design failures.C1: In terms of increasing the efficiency of feed utilisation, the greatest energy efficiencies will accrue to swine and poultry, not ruminants. We need to recognise that the majority of meat consumed in Africa will be non-ruminants because of supply.C2: Cyclical supply of grains-course grains should be the focus, perhaps in the subhumid zone. If we are going to improve livestock production, we will need to use grain, but where will it come from? There is a major trade-off between feed and food value. This is a major strategy issue that needs to be researched.Q: How does one alleviate rural poverty without first dealing with production issues? Unless we improve market access for rural and urban areas, it will not work. We need market access to raise incomes, address equity concerns etc. Without production, there is no opportunity to redistribute income.A: I presented two scenarios. The issues were whether production should be viewed as a goal or a means to another end.Q: I am more concerned with the rural-urban issue. Both need to be considered otherwise you will not generate income in rural areas.A: That is why you need a solid infrastructure.C: How is infrastructure incorporated into your thinking? You cannot assume things will change. Therefore, locational issues become important in defining research areas. For instance, peri-urban dairying may, under some circumstances, be a good idea, but feed supply may be a countervailing factor. We need to look at comparative advantage.Where are processing plants, location of feed production, transportation etc optimal? Basically, the issue is that we have to integrate locational aspects in terms of where we put the research.C1: The comment that structures affect price/adoption of new technology is good, but price tends to be inelastic. The question is how to make price changes flatter.C1: Increased livestock production and the alleviation of poverty may well be complementary goals. The issue of multiplier effects from livestock production may be a locational issue as well. The issue of poultry and income for women, seasonality and price policies in severe times are all important and researchable topics.A: The argument with the CGIAR is that poultry technology can be easily transferred from temperate to tropical zones and that intensive poultry/swine production will soon be in place. I disagree with this position, nevertheless, this is the reason why the CGIAR gives no priority to this issue.A: Our rationalisation for not investing in swine/poultry production is that there is no comparative advantage for ILCA (but there is for NARS, the private sector etc); most research in this area is adaptive; production tends to be larger, rather than smaller scale; and there are few technology-generating opportunities for ILCA in this area. However, policy issues (e.g. feed supply, consumption patterns etc.) could be considered. The working groups may wish to discuss this issue further.Owing to its comparative advantage in crop-agriculture compared to Sahelian countries, Côte d'Ivoire has not favoured livestock development over the years. In the 1980s, within the general framework of structural adjustment policy reforms and more specifically in the agricultural sector reform programme, livestock production was recommended. It was also decided that the local meat supply should be developed to prepare for uncertainties in world markets. A government corporation, Société de développement des productions animales (SODEPR A), was created with the mission of conceiving livestock policy, creating a new generation of Ivoirien herders and developing an extension service directed towards the older generations of herders. With the new interest shown by Ivoirien nationals, especially the younger generation, for poultry and pork production, socio-economic studies of livestock policy in the context of a crop dominated farming system have been put on the short-term research agenda of CIRES (Centre ivoirien de recherches économiques et sociales).In this short paper, we first focus on issues considered research priorities for CIRES and then move on to briefly discuss potential areas for collaboration with ILCA.Three major areas of socio-economic research priorities are discussed below: livestock production policies; public and institutional policy reforms; and market and trade policy.Younger generations of Ivoiriens, willing to become modern farmers, have cited a number of reasons for their unwillingness to enter into livestock production. These include the longer production cycle for livestock production as compared to food crops, the lack of readily available inexpensive inputs for feeding, treating diseases and the low prices of animal products.The two major ruminants currently produced in Côte d'Ivoire are cattle and sheep which have received most of the policy makers' attention through extension services provided by SODEPRA. They have not, however, attracted the interest of younger farmers as have poultry and pork. Domestic supply of beef increased by 36% in the 1980s while imports from Sahelian countries decreased by nearly 45% during the same period. The deficit is filled by carcass and offal imports and processed meat which have increased by 167% and 50% , respectively. The overall beef supply has increased by 5%.The domestic supply of small ruminant meat increased by 25% between 1980 and 1989 while imports from Sahelian countries decreased by 1% during the same period. Carcass and offal imports increased by 4%, while the total supply of small ruminant meat increased by 4% during the period considered.In 1990, Côte d'Ivoire was almost self sufficient in poultry. By 1975, 25% of the supply originated from Sahelian countries. Poultry meat supply during the 1980s increased by 72% . Imports from Sahelian countries have decreased by 31%.During the period 1980-1990, total imports in pork increased by 111% and the domestic pork supply increased by 21%. The difference is met by imports of offal and carcass which have increased by more than 17 000 times and represent 50% of the country's total pork supply needs. Pork is not exported by Sahelian countries for religious reasons.Pork and poultry products have been developed by the private sector while the government subsidises beef and sheep through SODEPRA. The research question is to determine factors that account for the adoption of a particular livestock production system.Many countries have abandoned the small livestock they once owned because feed has become too expensive, there is poor management of the herd, there are prevailing health problems such as trypanosomiasis and parasites and there is lack of training on appropriate technologies needed to face these problems. The research question is to identify constraints to technology adoption which prevent the livestock owner from being competitive on national and international markets.Sectorial analyses of structural adjustment programmes have indicated many areas of inefficiency in livestock production. The promotion of policies on livestock were constrained for various reasons and resources devoted to modernisation programmes such as sedentarisation appeared a waste.Policy reform in the livestock sector has never shown a clear political will to go beyond self sufficiency in meat production. Livestock imports from Sahelian countries have maintained political ties. Specific government policy of tariffs and non-tariff barriers and price controls have mostly been counter-productive. A research agenda which could involve other researchers from the subregion may try to assess the impacts of major policy decisions affecting livestock not only in Côte d'Ivoire but also in the region and the combined impact of external factors such as world prices and world supplies.Finally, structural adjustment and liberalisation programmes in livestock production in Côte d'Ivoire have eased price controls on meat to consumers and advocated world market liberalisation programmes as compared to limited market liberalisation conceived within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) grouping. Due to the administrative difficulties, ECOWAS structural adjustments programmes have been very difficult to implement. This has led to many delays in policy reform in Côte d'Ivoire. A research agenda should be devoted to the study of the effect of structural adjustment policy and institutional reforms on livestock production.Agricultural products are either donated or subsidised by developed countries. In African production areas, they are subject to uncertainties originating from sources such as the weather or government policy. Problems are compounded by internal constraints such as transportation costs, inadequate transportation for perishable products (meat and milk) and administrative problems in the office and on the roads. Trade and market policy research is a formidable task because it sometimes lacks the prerequisites-the data. One area of possible research collaboration is to organise and clean trade data among the countries of the region.Within the country itself, one needs to better understand the national market of live animals. There seems to exist an oligopoly type of market of meat which either excludes non-ethnic group members or has led to violent confrontation in the market place. To what extent does the market organisation and factors affecting the supply of meat determine the floor price of meat? How are the meat markets organised in other meat importing coastal countries? These are areas for collaborative research.The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) has a comparative advantage in terms of a pool of multidisciplinary scientists and its rich experience covering sub-Saharan Africa. It has access to data and research facilities that most research institutions in the region do not possess.For the past 20 years, CIRES has conducted research in many social science areas but mostly in agricultural economics. In its recently established three-year research programme, CIRES re-affirmed the necessity of pursuing applied field research in rural areas of Côte d'Ivoire and of developing collaborative research with other institutions. With a team of 30 qualified researchers (18 doctorates) and a relatively well equipped research centre, CIRES is in a position to carry out such endeavours.In the three broad areas of research priorities identified above, ILCA can be a potential research partner with CIRES. ILCA's experience in appropriate techniques and technologies for livestock can be useful in our search for the most cost effective animals for specialisation in livestock development in Côte d'Ivoire. The international experience of ILCA team members can facilitate a network of national researchers working on this particular topic in the same regional economic grouping. ILCA could help identify potential researchers in areas of policy reforms and bring them in contact with international experts.A new activity to be conducted by CIRES is training in policy research of Ivoirien decision makers. CIRES trainers may benefit from ILCA experience by attending training or trainers' courses.C: Given the failures of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the promotion of self-sufficiency will fail as well. The livestock sector in the Sahel should be stimulated. This would increase interest in meat production in Côte d'Ivoire.C: This supports the notion that we need regional integration in terms of livestock trade.Problems in livestock development Cassen and Associates (1986) found a high degree of failure in livestock projects in Africa. Policy problems were found in overvaluation of national currencies, export bans, taxation on exports and controls on prices intended to benefit consumers.More recently, the Asian Development Bank (1991) evaluated nine out of 10 completed livestock projects and one livestock component of an agricultural project. Eight were found to be unsuccessful and none were 'generally successful'. Unsustainable technologies (e.g. reliance on imported animals and feed), inadequate pricing policies and excessive dependence on government for implementation were mentioned as major reasons for failure.The lack of political commitment, not of financial resources, is often the real cause of human neglect.The problem, the report argues, is that government budgets in many countries are spent on the military, on debt servicing and on unprofitable state enterprises. An important question for policy research is whether this lack of political commitment applies to the livestock sector. Specific questions might deal with the role and relevance of state or parastatal livestock enterprises. Does their contribution to the alleviation of rural poverty and savings on imports of animal products justify the investments and recurrent costs incurred by governments? Are they environmentally friendly?A problem faced by national animal agricultural institutions and ministries is that of institutional memories. Important lessons are lost with transfer of staff or termination of contract. As a result, past experience is often not incorporated into new policies, programmes and projects.The International L ivestock Centre for Africa (IL CA) should take an interest in communication inside bureaucracies because, in order for research results to reach the ultimate beneficiary-the farmer -sound policies, programmes or projects will need to be developed. Policy research in this area would provide insight into how inappropriate policies, programmes and projects are derived and the extent to which past experience is or is not incorporated into new agendas for action.In addition to policy research, there is need to examine the best ways of disseminating information from international research centres to their target audiences. Some suggestions concerning a future communication strategy can be drawn. First, for IL CA research to be applied, participation and publishing in conferences in Africa seem to be more important than publishing in so-called prestigious journals. Q: Do you really believe extension is needed? Farmers learn from one another once things go right.A: We need to look at where innovations come from (e.g. farmers, business, etc).C: We need new directions in training and education; texts need to be revised and methodologies need to be updated.C: Has ILCA a role to play as an institutional memory? Why do so many projects fail? This is not addressed by ILCA. We need to think about policy and the people involved-not only technological intervention. Often, people designing projects do not know or have enough information.C: Farmers are prepared to innovate but often are prevented from doing so by various constraints.C: Do we need more research on land tenure? There is enough information available now to say that secure user rights are important.Q: What do you mean when you say there is the need for scientific leadership?A: Scientific leadership needs to go out on-farm, take what is learned and go back to the laboratory. Methodology should not get in the way of asking interesting questions.Q: You suggest that the interests of producers are marginalised. Would you say that empowerment of producers would be a legitimate research topic?A: Yes, but the smallholders are weak. It will be difficult to do. ILCA could go out and see the comparative advantage of smallholders to compete.C: Institutional training in Africa has been poor. University graduates are not absorbed; curriculum is outdated. We need to upgrade quality.A: I agree. In the presentation I did not suggest that focus should move away from the university. More emphasis should be placed on-farm.C1: What you are asking is going on. In the 1960s and 1970s, more attention was placed on setting priorities according to the knowledge and information gained in the field or on-farm.C2: Regarding land tenure, we need the research because the issue is very complex (e.g. common use rights). The issue of privatising land is often taken to be too simple. In some places, privatisation has led to more landless rural labourers and, by implication, less ownership of land by the poor.Animal agriculture can add to agricultural development through income generation, intensification (animal traction, manure, crop/livestock interactions), foreign exchange earnings and non-agricultural development (employment and income generation) (Shapiro, 1991). Perhaps the primary justification for being concerned with animal agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) at present is the need to increase farmer incomes (Winrock, 1992). Technological change is the primary means of raising farmer incomes. However, while new technology is a necessary ingredient in the process of agricultural development, it is not sufficient without conducive policy.The importance of and the relation between technology and policy becomes clearer by considering theoretical constructs of the process of technological change. Relevant constructs include Boserup's hypothesis and induced innovation.The Boserup hypothesis and extensions to it state that population growth motivates intensification and technological change over time. Induced innovation is mainly concerned with how the process of science-led technological change takes place. Induced innovation purports that developers of new technologies respond to the demand for labour using or labour saving, capital using or saving, or land using or saving technologies, as expressed through changes in relative factor prices. Technology innovators can be private individuals, businesses or public research organisations. However, the primary source of new technologies is public research (McIntire et al, 1992). The continual development of new technologies takes place as producers adopt existing ones and science advances, motivated by the demand for further new technologies.The induced innovation model is then based on the premise that technological change is endogenous to the development process. Thus, it rests on the assumption that the demand for technologies by producers, as expressed by correct price signals, are getting to innovators and especially to researchers and development agents. The major assumptions of the model are that:• Distorted prices resulting in biases in factor use do not exist as a result of inappropriate government policies. The potential for violation of these conditions provides a motivation for policy research.Policies are often defined as those decisions (market interventions) made by governments which alter the prices farmers face in the market and that can affect their incomes and welfare. The major features of policies followed in SSA are that they often:• tax farmer output and subsidise farm inputs Often, analyses of policy concentrate on price and macro-economic factors. In the context of SSA, however, institutional factors are often as important. All of the following types of policies are relevant in SSA:• price incentives: commodity, factor and input markets Although there has been some improvement in price and macro-policy in SSA, there is still a need to carry out research on all aspects of policies that affect the livestock sector.There is some evidence that commodity price and macro-policy instruments such as exchange rates are becoming less biased against livestock producers. For instance, Williams (1990) has shown that since the early 1980s, the level of price discrimination against livestock producers in Mali, the Sudan, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire and Z imbabwe has been reduced. Evidence from Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali and elsewhere, however, indicates that while meat price policy is being liberalised, this may not be the case for dairy products. Furthermore, the effects of and remedies for indirect sectoral and service provision policies that negatively affect technological change have not been fully investigated.Identifying policies already followed in SSA that promote development is an essential element of technology policy research. Comparisons with developed countries are often of limited use because of substantial differences in resource endowments, climatic conditions and economic conditions. Relevant comparison countries do exist in SSA. Such comparison case studies can include the effects of policies on the choice of alternative production methods or technologies.The long-term impact of government policy depends on the manner in which it affects the comparative advantage of different economic activities. A domestic resource cost (DRC) methodology such as the Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) methodology developed by Monke and Pearson (1989) provides a systematic framework for analysing government interventions and making country comparisons. PAM sorts out the set of sometimes contradictory policies and programmes governments follow and evaluates the individual and net effects of policy on given objectives, i.e. increased privatisation, increased producer income, increased supply of dairy products etc.Another advantage of the PAM analysis over traditional cost-benefit analyses and DRC studies is that it is focused on impacts of policy on production technologies. Traditional analyses, considering supply and demand characteristics, often produce only the overall effects of policies on the welfare of the economy. The PAM analysis is able to separate out the individual effects of deliberate micro-and macro-policies, as well as market inefficiencies and failures and other distortions. Since the analysis is focused on production, PAM evaluates the impacts of these factors not only on production incentives, but also on alternative technologies. The implications of policy for the development of production technologies become clear.The issues that can be considered with the PAM tend to be the ones central to agricultural policy questions-long-term relative profitability and costs (as indicated by social values) and how these are affected by policy interventions (Monke and Pearson, 1989). Furthermore, PAM presents these issues in a simple and understandable manner, allowing policy makers convenient access to the most important facts to be considered in the decision making process. This ease of communication between economic analysts and policy makers also makes PAM a useful tool for training and institutional development.Species and commodities that are of importance in fulfilling ILCA's (International Livestock Centre for Africa) objectives are those that have the potential to increase production and improve the income and welfare of farmers. It may also be necessary to consider the impact of our work on the urban poor. A framework for determining the potential of specific species and commodities should include consideration of the following factors: agro-ecological environment (rainfall, soils), population density, market access, target populations (rural/urban impact) and potential for change (economies of scale and specialisation). This work should be carried out by agro-ecological zone to identify species, commodities and technologies that have the greatest potential for impact. This can be collaborative work carried out with national agricultural research systems (NARS). To make an impact on the incomes and welfare of farmers (and the urban poor), ILCA will have to give priority to mixed crop-livestock systems undergoing intensification-those where conducive agro-ecological conditions, population pressure and market access exist. It may be useful to concentrate on the following species and commodities: dairy, especially peri-urban dairy; short-term fattening; and poultry and swine.The technology transfer process is a priority for ILCA economists since by definition, ILCA must be concerned with making an impact. There have been a number of technologies developed by ILCA that were based on perceived needs of targeted clients. Yet, these technologies have not been adopted to the degree expected. While ILCA's mandate is not extension, the Centre still needs to be concerned with adoption and diffusion. The question is, however, in what capacity?Technology transfer tends to be site-specific. As such, ILCA cannot become involved in actual instances of technology transfer per se because it has a limited resource base. However, the Centre is responsible for the effectiveness of the technology transfer process. ILCA is well placed to do strategic research on the technology transfer process and to transfer this information to NARS. In this regard, an appropriate Centre output would be a general framework for analysis that NARS could apply to specific situations.Many factors between technology generation and technology transfer can impede the adoption and diffusion of new technologies. Technologies that show potential in on-station and on-farm trials are not always adopted by farmers. Constraints to adoption can exist on several levels: in the micro-economic behaviour of producers; in support structures and institutions; and in macro-economic linkages. Inappropriate policy, undeveloped infrastructure and ineffective service institutions can result in resource misallocations and inefficiency. Under these circumstances, the development of new technologies remains only an academic exercise.In order to examine and identify factors that contribute to or constrain technology transfer, ILCA is currently carrying out research to:• identify the policy constraints to adoption (individual)• identify the policy constraints to diffusion (aggregate)• identify the role of market imperfections in technology development and diffusion• relate adoption and diffusion to technology development.Ex ante evaluation of new technologies at the farm level in a whole-farm context is the first stage in this work. Whole-farm evaluation of new technologies can help determine the potential effects of the new technologies on resource use, income, other household objectives and risk. Such evaluations can include the effects of various policies, including input and output price policies, on adoption. Analysis also provides feedback to technology developers and policy makers.The exogenous constraints that impede diffusion can arise from policy and other government interventions. The exogenous factors can include those at the institutional (related to social and political organisation) or the structural level (e.g. infrastructure, roads, transport etc). The functioning of support institutions (e.g. extension, research, credit, input supply and health facilities) can also be important.One format for studying the policy constraints to diffusion is to do case studies comparing technologies that have been developed and diffused with those that have not. The objective of such a research effort would be to set up possible criteria for successful policies and programmes that could be presented to policy makers. Cases to be studied could draw on ILCA technologies that have been developed over the years (e.g. broadbed maker, dairy processing equipment, alley farming techniques, fodder banks).Development of a multidisciplinary analytical framework to study diffusion would provide policy analysts and policy makers with the information needed to more effectively allocate development resources to achieve widespread diffusion of new technologies.A multidisciplinary approach to this type of research, utilising techniques such as the PAM, is required. Livestock research in Africa has traditionally been divided into social, economic and technical/biological research. Institutional aspects of diffusion have been ignored. Economists or anthropologists have been responsible for evaluating impacts and have relied on biological scientists for an understanding of the technical/biological aspects of new technologies. This disciplinary approach has not been productive and has left important questions unstudied and cross disciplinary questions unanswered.ILCA priorities in studying the interactions between policy and technology should include:• providing a systematic framework for analysing technology transfer issues for international agricultural research centres (IARCs) and NARS The research methods developed by ILCA economists should be useful to NARS, advance the discipline of economics and involve cost effective methods of data collection to facilitate policy analysis and research.An example of the type of strategic research in the area of technology and policy that should be pursued is the work ILCA is beginning to do with the PAM. The objectives of this research include:• to provide a systematic framework for policy analysis • to determine the data requirements to do effective policy analysis and devise a system of data collection that can be used by NARS• to determine the effects of market inefficiency and the magnitude of investments that can be made to improve market performance • to provide recommendations for appropriate policies, programmes and investments • to train African policy analysts in the use of the PAM framework.The effectiveness and impact of the African Livestock Policy Analysis Network (ALPAN) is a major concern of the ILCA Livestock Economics Division (LED) since it is a primary means through which we can affect the making of livestock policy. The objectives of ALPAN are to improve policy analysis and policy making pertaining to the livestock subsector. ALPAN provides a means of communicating policy research that is relevant to the problems faced by African livestock policy analysts. The papers published in ALPAN also provide examples of relevant methodology and thus assist in human resource development.ALPAN should be strengthened to increase its impact on livestock policy analysis and policy making in SSA. One way that this could be accomplished would be by making the network more like the others at ILCA. ALPAN could also be tied more closely to the Livestock Policy Training Course (LPTC), thereby improving the impact potential of both.The objective of the LPTC is to improve policy analysis and policy making by training policy analysts. A weakness of the course is the lack of training follow-up. Means should be designed to continue the involvement of LED with those who have participated in the course.The impact of the course in terms of manpower development and the impact of ALPAN could be increased by providing seed money to course participants and others to develop research proposals and to carry out policy research. Accomplishing this would, of course, necessitate finding funds for this purpose. Donor support would be important in this regard.Participants in the course who develop proposals for policy research could be given research support by ILCA economists. The development of such proposals could be made an integral part of the course. Participants could also be assisted in finding additional funding to support the research from agencies such as the African Development Bank. Proposals submitted by other NARS economists that are judged worthy by a research panel could also be offered this assistance.Regional meetings could be arranged to encourage interaction among economists involved in livestock economics research in SSA. The purpose of these meetings would be to share research and policy analysis work done and to promote active participation in ALPAN. Training course participants could be invited to these meetings, as well as others who might be future course participants. Thus, these meetings would provide another means of the developing the skills of course participants.It is paramount that ILCA be concerned with making an impact through the technology it generates. This is especially the case if the Centre is to have a significant effect on farmer incomes. To accomplish this, the interactions between policy and technology need to be better understood. ILCA is in a good position to gain a better understanding of macro-micro linkages, e.g. the interactions between policy and technology. It may be useful to pursue the following research priorities in the area of policy and technology:• identify the policy constraints to adoption and policy instruments that can promote adoption Among the methodologies that can be used to accomplish these research priorities and can provide methods useful to NARS are ex ante whole-farm modelling using mathematical programming, econometric adoption studies and DRC methods such as the Policy Analysis Matrix.Q: PAM addresses the whole system, but is it a good methodology for cross-country comparisons? In some countries, the absence of data would be problematic.A: Your question is relevant and true. With all quantitative measures there are problems. PAM could be extended into the areas of sustainability and resource endowment.C: Methodology is always a concern for me. For instance, the issue of social pricing is burdensome. What it is based on may not be useful.C: The point is that every country has a comparative advantage in some respect; countries need to trade amongst themselves.Q: If a government is seeking self sufficiency, suppose there is a market failure and government intervention favours importation. Where would you go from there?A: PAM is a methodology, not a prescription. Neither is it necessarily a free market advocate. The constraints to PAM are similar to those of DRC discussed yesterday. The method helps set up a system for data collection, analysis and interpretation.Q: Unless you identify specific technologies, PAM is difficult to use. I have doubts about its efficacy in field research. How do you plan to operationalise PAM?A: We will do work on peri-urban dairying across sites and check the methodology. PAM has been applied before. There is experience to draw on. It is basically a budgeting technique. It means going out in the field and getting data, acknowledging that there will be data limitations. C: For ALPAN, we need to consider the costs of production, its relative value in terms of peer reviewed journals etc.Q: How would you include francophone countries into these research networks? The research methods for proposals are different.A: Yes, this is an issue, but who will train us? Somewhere this needs to be addressed if better collaboration between francophone and anglophone countries is to be developed.Widespread belief exists that African policy has added to a decline over time in agricultural production. This belief is reasonably well established for annual crops, particularly cereals, and for some tree crops. There is some quantification of the notion in the livestock sector as well.The adverse effects of policy are thought to work through, inter alia, disincentives to adopt new technologies. If that belief is true, then policy research is a legitimate focus of centres like the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), which seek to generate technological innovations and, by assisting national research/extension services, promote them to producers.African agricultural policy, at least until the beginning of many of the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s, may be styled as follows:(a) There was negative effective protection of agriculture which operated through an overvalued exchange rate and heavy taxation of imported inputs. This negative effect was perhaps less severe in livestock products (which could evade public controls more easily) than in crops.(b) There was widespread state intervention in production and marketing. This intervention took the form of establishing state enterprises and protecting them so as to eliminate or damage putative private competitors.(c) Public investments in production and marketing were made without due attention to social profitability.(d) In addition to the market power of public firms, private investment was further discouraged by credit rationing, overvalued exchange rates and various official and extra-official administrative controls).(e) There was tight regulation of economic activities, including professional services (such as veterinary and extension), where barriers to entry were so high as to exclude many entrants and to discourage others from leaving the impecunious, but relatively secure, haven of government service.(f) Government policy often promoted technologies which were inappropriate to the production systems and factor prices prevailing in many countries.(g) Producers' organisations, which in other countries have served to mobilise private savings, attract public investments or contract private services, were discouraged for political reasons or were made the dull instrument of a coercive and inefficient state bureaucracy.(h) Little or no value was assigned to environmental costs.What were the effects of these policies?The possible effects of African policies can be summarised in terms of their effects on sectoral output, technological change, income distribution and factor markets.Sectoral output. First, agricultural production began to fall when the rate of area expansion started to decline in the late 1960s; in some countries, this decline accelerated as the agricultural/non-agricultural terms of trade became very distorted. Second-and only partly as a result of the first-the sectoral composition of output changed. It became more oriented to government and private services than at comparable income levels experienced during economic growth elsewhere. This was because the state could not control the non-traded sectors as well as it could the traded. Hence, the balance of incentives shifted toward non-tradable services. Third, and as a consequence of the first two, many African nations lost international market shares in agricultural commodities.Technological changes. The rate of technological change (as measured by crop yields, the use of improved seeds and agrochemicals, for example) in African agriculture was much lower in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s than in Asia and Latin America. This was true even after adjusting for such differences as population density, rainfall, soils and length of growing season. Asia and Latin America are the relevant comparisons because they began from the most similar bases of income level and agroclimate. This lower rate of technical change translated into a slower rate of output growth than would have been otherwise achieved.Income distribution. The effects on income distribution are the most well-understood.Policy transferred income from producers to consumers of agricultural commodities.Within the class of agricultural producers, policy typically transferred income from (i) producers of tradables to producers of non-tradables via the over-valued exchange rate;(ii) sellers of marketing board commodities to sellers of open market commodities via the explicit or implicit taxes levied on the former group; (iii) purchasers of open market inputs to purchasers of rationed, state enterprise, inputs via the subsidies allotted to the latter.Factor market effects. The systematic under-valuation of agricultural production had several impacts. First, it suppressed the value of land and discouraged the genesis of land saving innovations, where the latter is defined to include both technological changes such as fertiliser use and contractual innovations such as land markets and credit arrangements in which land is used as collateral. In many areas, this would not have made much difference because they were so sparsely populated, land-saving innovations would not have been profitable. In others, it had a significant direct effect on the incentives to use profit maximising levels of inputs. Fertiliser is the best example.An important indirect effect-and one which is more serious in the long run-was on the development of transparent land markets. The latter take many years to develop because they incur costs in adjustment from customary rules of land allocation to market ones, 1 notably: the development of new legal rules; the adjudication of conflicting claims under the old and new rules; the compensation of losers after the transition; and the development of new income sources for those who may have been compensated for the loss in the value of their land assets but who are still unemployed. Hence to the extent that policy discrimination against agriculture hindered the rise of modern land markets, it had a more profound and persistent effect on allocative efficiency than did the more easily reversed effects of negative effective protection on such variable inputs as agricultural chemicals and such professional services as private veterinary agents. Several countries have had very rapid growth in fertiliser and machinery use subsequent to reforms, but the passage to an efficient land market promises to be much more arduous.Yet another indirect effect was on the labour market. The shift of incentives to services and non-agricultural tradables because of the lack of agricultural competitiveness induced both permanent and seasonal migration. The short-term consequence of this was to make labour intensive techniques less remunerative because of the fall in the physical availability of labour, principally male labour. The long-term consequence was to stop the construction of labour intensive agricultural works such as dams, terraces and flood control structures, or where such structures existed, to degrade their upkeep.Many countries have seen the need to reform some of the aforementioned policies. Reforms have included, among others:• the establishment of more realistic exchange rates • more liberal rules affecting factor markets, including the end of limits on transactions in land, the end of credit rationing, the institution of positive interest rates and the abandonment of attempts to restrict hiring labour.Though at least one attempt has been made to evaluate these reforms, the best one can honestly say now is that, while they are necessary in the long run, their course and effect are presently unclear.Before addressing the interactions between policies and technological changes as foci of economic research, let me define some categories of technical change as a way of showing which have been productive and/or are likely to be so and which ones are likely to be efficiently generated and/or promoted by a centre like ILCA. Here I distinguish among four types of innovations: those induced by Boserupian intensification (e.g. manuring crops); introductions (e.g. the introduction of cocoa production from outside the continent); innovations in production methods; and innovations in markets and contracts. Table 1 illustrates this scheme. Throughout Africa, there have been many successful technical innovations of both the intensifying and the introduced type. The intensifying type include irrigating by hand from wells and small diversion dams of local construction; manuring, mulching and shading crops; managing crop residue; shaping land (e.g. levelling and terracing) and shifting from zero-livestock systems to ruminant production (with and without trypanotolerant stock) in areas freed from tsetse. There are obviously many other examples.The introduced type include veterinary drugs; irrigation with pumps; dairy production with crossbred animals; sown forages and concentrate feeds; some investments in housing and water supply; animal traction and tractor mechanisation; cash crops; chemical fertilisers; and (occasionally) improved seeds.There have been few technological changes induced by truly indigenous scientific research. One example is vaccines and antibiotics for livestock diseases. Nearly everything else was introduced or is a response to the evolution of factor prices (distorted or not). There are few plant cultivars bred under African conditions in wide use. There are even fewer novel animal breeds which have out-competed those introduced many years ago. Practically the only tradition of mechanical research is adaptive.Perhaps less frequently considered as technical change-but just as important from the economist's point of view, which is cost per unit of output-are innovations in markets and contracts.Intensifying technical changes affect systems of land tenure. As farming systems change under population pressure and market access, land becomes a market commodity, subject to pledges, rentals, sharecropping, non-cash exchanges and, ultimately, sales among unrelated individuals. In commerce, traders' networks flourish over long distances, typically linked via kinship to cut information and other transaction costs while expanding the volume of trade. Other innovations have comprised livestock entrustment, animal borrowing and crop residue grazing/manure exchanges.Examples of introduced market and contract innovations include the fall in transport costs associated with mechanised transport; electrification and refrigeration; mechanised processing (e.g. oil presses and grain mills); and, to a limited extent, modern banking and insurance. The latter two are rare and usually linked to export crops like cotton and cocoa.There are many innovations whose failure provide rich material for reflection in the context of technology generation. Sadly, many of the failed innovations are those which have most strongly boosted agricultural productivity in other countries, both temperate and tropical.The successful technical changes through progressive intensification and through introductions have some elements in common. Population growth encourages more labour intensive methods of crop and livestock husbandry. Those produce an apparently more sophisticated agriculture, with higher yields per unit of land, slightly lower yields per unit of labour, and, in some instances, market and contractual innovations to relieve seasonal labour bottlenecks and to raise the rate of capacity utilisation of mechanical and animal capital. The unsuccessful instances are mainly those in which the cost of labour is too high (e.g. transplanting rice or incorporating manures into the soil) relative to the benefits. Others involved resource use conflicts. An example of the latter is that African farmers often do not restore crop residue to the soil because they need it for feed, whereas such restoration is common in the United States on grain producing farms which, because they employ tractors and not horses for power, do not need the residue for animal feed. Unsuccessful market and contract innovations-such as rural deposit banking to replace money-lending, or public grain reserves-typically failed because they could not resolve information cost problems.Despite the greater sophistication of intensified agriculture, the main lesson of intensification is that it does not promote economic growth without the complement of results from scientific research. This is not necessarily a conclusion which can be easily seen in Africa, both because intensification is spottier there and because the use of modern scientific agriculture is so much rarer, but is very easily perceived in Asia. In both the wet and dry tropics of Asia, there are many farming systems with what is, by African standards, high quality farming as indicated by the long-standing presence of intensive practices: planting in rows, transplanting, land shaping, harvest and storage of crop residue. Yet the income levels of those farming systems-in the absence of modern crop cultivars, machines and agrochemicals-are no better and are sometimes even worse than those of African production systems in which such intensive practices have been promoted by outsiders and have failed. In essence, intensification allows a shift along a production possibility frontier and not an outward shift of the frontier; while it leads to greater economic efficiency at the margin in response to differing land/labour ratios, it does not provide much higher utility to the farmer.No policy inducement was required in most cases of successful innovation, whether of the Boserupian or of the introduced types. The great successes of export-led growth in agriculture-cocoa in Ghana and the Côte d'Ivoire, groundnut and cotton in several countries, tea in Kenya, oil palm in Nigeria-benefited from a favourable production environment and an existing technology which could be borrowed from outside. In some cases, there was a good extension service. In others, local adaptive research was useful.Future technologies in the developed countries are likely to continue the secular downward trend in international primary commodity prices. Hence, technical change in African agriculture will be necessary not only to maintain present market shares of tradable commodities, but to prevent further erosion. In the short run, this will occur against a background of stagnant technology in the traditional sector.What has been the effect in the past of this conjuncture of rapid technical change in modern agriculture and stagnation in the traditional sector? Good examples come from Latin America, whose varied mix of environments, farm size, foreign trade orientation and producer characteristics have produced dualism-the modern sector supplies goods to urban and export markets while the traditional sector supplies goods to itself and labour to the modern sector. Naturally this is a recipe for disaster in Africa, just as it has been in Latin America, because of the deep disparities in income distribution which ensue. One main challenge for the research system, therefore, will be to generate productive technologies for the traditional sector which will allow it to compete with the modern sector, both domestically and abroad.An additional source of external change is the demand for lowered costs in traditional African agriculture. Two such costs are the externalities caused by treating the environment as a free good and the opportunity cost of output foregone caused by discrimination against women in the generation and the transfer of technology.Given the characteristics of the various innovations and the evolution of demand for research outputs, what will a public agricultural research system look like? The characteristics of a successful public agricultural system-which includes national, regional, and international programmes like ILCA-are at the very least:• dedication to research and not to technology transfer, which is the role of national extension services• non-duplication of private sector research. This means that there should be little or nothing on developing mechanisation or processing techniques since most of their benefits are appropriable by private agents• not working on intensifying management practices which have, via fairly simple diagnostic farming systems research, been shown to have been tried by farmers and found unprofitable• an opportunistic and adaptive nature, in that a primary source of technical change will be innovations first generated abroad and then adapted to local circumstances.What will be the technical outputs of that research system?• crop cultivars, including the embodied characteristics of stress resistance, input response, gustatory qualities and storage traits, among others Do some characteristics of livestock production and products justify special research efforts, either in amount or in kind, given the expected technical outputs of the system? Perishability. Though many livestock commodities are perishable, this creates no special demands on the public research system because many other commodities are perishable. Moreover, reducing losses to perishability is not a research problem in most cases and, even where it is, it may not be a public research problem, as private research and technology transfer can treat it if intellectual property rights are protected. This should create no special needs for ILCA research.Transferability. The major livestock products are produced in many countries, under a variety of conditions, so that some research results will always be available as imports. Even the minor products-manure and power-have substitutes so special programmes are not required to improve them. The availability of technical alternatives has to be a continuing preoccupation of ILCA's research in order to avoid the temptation of inventing uncompetitive local alternatives which could be introduced more cheaply from outside.Temporal characteristics. The assertion is often made that livestock research is special because it takes longer to generate results. This would not necessarily be true of the primary production part of the livestock research process, which is similar enough to crop production research. With respect to policy research-the study of technical change, prices, markets and institutions-most of the work can be done with cost-benefit models or with historical simulations. In those respects livestock research is not different at all. Risk characteristics. The relative and absolute variability of African livestock production will always be high simply because its comparative advantage is in zones of low and extremely variable rainfall. It is plausible to think that the resulting risks-complete herd loss and lowered productivity of the remainder-are legitimate objects of public policy because they cannot be adjusted for completely by the actions of producers. There may be the further justification that one risk adjustment of the producers-holding supra-optimal herds-creates a negative externality in the form of overgrazing. These are legitimate issues for research, but it will be very tricky to come to any definitive conclusions.It is occasionally held that livestock have the specially worthy characteristic of generating a marketable surplus (i.e. cash) where other alternatives do not. That cash surplus is then held to be available for investment in crop production and hence to justify livestock development as a motor of growth. I do not believe that this is a real phenomenon, unlike the risk issue, which is. The 'cash generation' hypothesis essentially results from the misperception of the economic features of low-population density areas. Those features include (usually) low primary production, high transport costs, the absence of a land market and the absence of profitable technical improvements for crop production. In such conditions, wealth is not held as land, but as livestock and cash surpluses which are most likely to be reinvested in animals, not in crops. It is simplest to admit this, rather than to adduce a tenuous externality resulting from a cash generation hypothesis.There is sometimes the tendency to think that the poorest agricultural regions-having sparse and variable rainfall, infertile and shallow soils, strong pest and disease pressure, isolation from markets and dissimilarities from other agricultures from which they could borrow production te chniques-require the simplest research technique s. To over-simplify, this is like saying that because poor farmers characterise such regions and because they supposedly require simple techniques, simple research methods are what is needed. In fact, it is precisely because such regions present the most difficult challenge that they require the most sophisticated research techniques. This is a recurrent fallacy, which, when it occurs, has been very damaging.A programme of relevant policy research can only be defined with respect to the expected policy context. This will include:• Continuing economic and political liberalisation and a concomitant decline in the role of the state. Many state enterprises will disappear and regulation will, it is hoped, be less bothersome.The real prices of non-tradables will continue falling relative to those of tradables. The short run analytic impact of this will be complicated. Many tradable inputs have been rationed so that their scarcity values on local markets exceed their c.i.f. (cost, insurance, freight) prices. Hence, the immediate effect of a real devaluation plus domestic trade liberalisation will have two components; devaluation causes the relative prices of non-tradables to fall, while eliminating rationing of tradables causes their relative prices to fall. The net effect of the two components cannot be easily predicted. The long-term evolution is easier to predict; as long as African productivity growth lags behind world productivity growth, then there will be a continuing real devaluation, i.e. a rise in the quantity of domestic goods needed to buy a unit of foreign goods.• Changes in intellectual property regimes will continue and will improve the prospects for technology transfer.There will be a rising real price of land brought on by population density and by the transition from traditional systems of land rights to market systems. Associated with this trend will be increasing restrictions on common property use, including but not limited to land use.A falling nominal price of labour relative to that of land, possibly falling real wages.Greater direct foreign private investment with associated technology transfer.Higher market valuation of environmental costs.ILCA's comparative advantage in economic and policy research will be in access to biological and environmental data, in collaboration with ILCA and other scientists, and in comparative studies of market and institutions in Africa facilitated by close contact with national research and extension programmes in African countries.The principal issues for an ILCA research programme will be:• Technology studies of the cost-benefit and adoption type ought to be the most important. ILCA has a strong comparative advantage in them because of its access to technical data and to the wisdom of biological scientists. Such studies are not only the basis for the evaluation of production and marketing policies, but are requisite for any review of a research programme itself. I would insist-though ILCA has never done this-on detailed studies of rates of return to animal disease control as a means of providing better advice to national livestock disease control programmes, which are often completely in the dark about priorities. Relevant types of technology studies should be mainly of introduced methods using experimental data. Traditional technologies should be controls, but not the main object of study. Why? Because the traditional technologies have, in many cases, either passed or failed the market test; and because they are typically factor substitution methods, not ones which lead to net productivity gains.• Several important issues are related to technology studies. Such things as risk, uncertainly, optimal scale and environmental questions, appear fruitful areas for study, but have to be very strictly linked to technology studies. Emphasis has to be placed on identifying constraints to market mechanisms for risk adjustment and reducing environmental costs, because those mechanisms are not well understood in Africa, either for intensifying or introduced technologies. With respect to policy barriers for market solutions, I take the point that some of the apparent cost advantage of larger producers is policy-induced-directed credit, regulation of private veterinary and extension services, restrictions on imported inputs-but we do not know exactly how far that extends.• Factor market studies are crucial given their importance for the technologies demanded by producers and for the fate of those generated by the research and extension systems. This area includes land, labour and credit markets. I would place very great importance on mining secondary data from existing surveys of production and consumption, in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and with national programmes. It is also essential to create consistently formatted and publicly accessible data bases from whatever studies are done.Input and product markets studies would concentrate on traditional market efficiency analyses of the structure-conduct-performance kind. I see no role for studies of international market conditions or for projections, which are better done elsewhere by institutions with greater resources. It would be much better to exploit ILCA's comparative advantage in working with national institutions in understanding such markets and how they are hobbled, if indeed they are, by national policies.• Institutional studies would concentrate on: the appropriate division of labour in technology generation and transfer between the public and private sectors; the efficiency of national research and extension systems; the functioning of public and private veterinary services; the efficiency of technology transfer mechanisms, including direct investment, contract farming and bank lending. While in theory it is nice to confine the role of the public sector to the provision of public goods, including the relief of poverty and the management of exceptional risks, it has to be recognised as a practical matter that the capacity of the private sector to provide many goods and services with some research/technology characteristics is positively correlated with national income; this perspective has to be part of any analysis in this domain.C: I agree regarding research on risk. For the most successful cases of growth, your point on policy inducements is too strong. They can contribute to intensification.A: Studies generally show that people are risk-averse. There is variability in production outcomes. Regarding policy inducements, I stand by my statement. They have either not been successful, failed to work or made no difference.C: I also believe your statement on policy is too strong. For instance, the introduction of cocoa and palm oil in Côte d'Ivoire was supported by systematic government policies. We need to understand how policy is implemented, adopted etc.A: The comment could be turned around. The successes you end up finding may be the result of getting rid of impediments caused by bad policies.Q: What types of animal technologies would move us forward in terms of introduced technologies?A: Animal productivity goes up with primary productivity.C: You seem to suggest that ILCA should primarily focus on the market, micro-level issues.A: You cannot do policy research without knowing the basic parameters such as the rates of return to different technologies, e.g. the impact of technology on animal nutrition, productivity etc. The work that ILCA does on rates of return (e.g. veterinary returns) are good.Q: How do you best deploy limited resources to get at this information?A: Use your collaborators, the body of available data to analyse etc. This will give you a multiplier effect.This paper discusses priority research needs for livestock and natural resource policy, appropriate methods for research in these priorities and potential collaborators for the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA).Public policy is defined here as the strategy to meet the goals of a government programme or initiative. Successful development of the livestock sector requires sound policy formulation. Governments must identify problems, determine goals which will alleviate these problems and develop strategies that will lead to the realisation of these goals. In Africa, governments and donors have a poor record of developing appropriate policy for the livestock sector.Research (Perrier, 1991) suggests that this poor record has mainly been caused by the failure of governments to incorporate production goals and strategies of livestock owners into policy development. As a result, policy project goals often diverge from producer goals. Reasons for this divergence are threefold. First, there is frequently a general ignorance of the production goals and strategies of traditional producers. For example, public initiatives to assist producers have often been directed towards improved cattle production for beef offtake while farmer or pastoralist interests are in cattle production for milk, traction and capital accumulation. Second, government policies tend to reflect the goals of governments and the commodity demands of their major trading partners, which commonly differ from the goals of producers. Third, the range and livestock management disciplines brought into Africa tend to follow a Western model of development and, therefore, do not have a conceptual framework that incorporates characteristics (e.g. common property resources, herded livestock, dairy production on rangeland, capital accumulation role of livestock etc) frequently found in traditional African livestock production systems (Perrier, 1990). As a result, Western production goals have been imposed on African systems with the implication that the traditional goals are inferior and therefore less important. When the goals of traditional producers are considered, they are often seen as static and homogeneous across households. There is abundant evidence to suggest that they are neither (Lawry, 1987;Solomon Bekure et al, 1991).Range and livestock professionals in government and in donor agencies must see the goals and strategies of producers as the foundation upon which successful programmes are built. Livestock policy needs to be aimed at helping producers better meet their goals, rather than at addressing the interests of external or urban groups.The following discussion examines some major issues in livestock policy in Africa and identifies related research questions important to sound policy development.There are three important policy areas concerning livestock and the environment: management of common property resources; control of livestock stocking rates; and the conservation of grazing land biodiversity.Common property. Many of the resources on which the livestock sector in Africa is dependent are held as common property. Of particular importance are communal grazing resources. In general, grazing lands belong to the state and thus essentially, belong to nobody. If these important communal resources are to be conserved, policies must be developed that link producer interests to sound resource management.If producer households are to effectively work together to manage common grazing lands, benefits to the household from management must be greater than costs. Micro-economic analysis of the management of common grazing resources is called for. Research questions should include the following. How can costs be reduced or benefits increased? Are modifications, such as different institutional mechanisms or a focus on only the most productive or critical resources potential answers? How does inter-household diversity in herd structure and size and in production resources, goals and strategies affect household economics and control over communal resources? These questions must be addressed before sound common property resource management policies can be developed.Control of stocking rate. Governments or donors have frequently calculated a carrying capacity (or desired stocking rate) and attempted to get producers to voluntarily limit livestock numbers. Such efforts have repeatedly met with failure. Why? There is evidence that in some contexts it is inappropriate to try to limit livestock numbers. In many livestock production environments in Africa, a decline in total system productivity can occur due to stocking rate effect. How can governments determine in which context livestock can actually degrade the system? In those systems where livestock can cause declines in system productivity, what policy and institutional frameworks can promote control of stocking rate? How does the role of livestock in terms of capital accumulation affect stocking rate control? If deemed necessary, how can investment opportunities with higher returns than livestock be created to move capital out of livestock? How does the expanding human population in the livestock sector affect stocking rate control? Rather than through drought, what policy incentive can induce people to reduce the stocking rate?. Finally, how does inter-household diversity in terms of herd structure and size and in production resources, goals and strategies affect stocking rate control? Answers to these questions are necessary for the development of sound policies.Within a general grazing area, there are frequently many different types of vegetation communities, the result of local variations in soils, topography, texture and history of use. Range and livestock specialists in governments and donor agencies are just now becoming aware of the nature and importance of this diversity within grazing lands. Pastoral producers have developed intricate grazing strategies based on this biodiversity. Researchable issues include the following. What is the nature of site diversity? How have daily, seasonal and annual grazing strategies evolved to take advantage of this diversity? What types of sites are critical to livestock production and how can they be conserved? How does the expansion of cropping into grazing lands and development interventions affect this diversity? Policy makers need answers to these questions in order to develop sound policy on resource use.The effect of price on supply of livestock and livestock products and the marketing strategy of producers is an important issue for livestock policy research. There is abundant evidence to support the existence of the backward bending supply curve. As price goes up, fewer animals are sold. Many pastoral households engage in target sales-selling just those animals required to meet household cash demands.Those disputing the existence of this curve have focused research on the relationship between price and total volume in the formal markets (Swallow and Brokken, 1987;Jarvis, 1980). This approach is inappropriate in systems where a significant number of animals passes through informal markets. An increase in the formal market price can divert animals from informal markets to the formal market without affecting total volume. Also, both backward bending supply and commercial livestock systems show an initial decline in market volume with increased price. Therefore, studies of volume-price relationships are not very helpful for answering this question.Research on producers' selling strategies (e.g. Coppock, 1992) shows that large livestock are used for capital accumulation and milk production. They are sold only to meet major cash demands or to purchase more productive animals. Small stock are sold to meet smaller cash demands or to buy large stock. There is a need for more micro-level studies in different livestock systems to see the effects of wealth, herd composition and production goals and strategies on household marketing strategies. This information is vital for understanding how government price policy or natural market forces will affect offtake, stocking rates and household production strategies. Inadequate understanding of this issue has been a major cause of the failure of many African livestock initiatives.The major policy issue concerning livestock technology is sustainability. There are numerous cases of technology introductions that are deemed beneficial by producers (e.g. livestock dips), but have not been sustainable. The sustainability of technology often depends on donor funding or government services that lack long-term operating funds and trained staff. Introduced technologies frequently have high recurrent costs, due to lack of cost/benefit considerations or because they are too advanced. In other cases, technology development has focused only on specific constraints or system components, failing to identify the negative effects of proposed technologies on other components of the system.Research must address the effects of policy choices on the costs/benefits of technology and sustainability. Can decentralisation and local control over services and procurement reduce costs? Can producers realistically fund recurrent costs? Is there an important role for co-operatives, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), or the private sector to play in providing technology? Is the technology appropriate for existing production goals and strategies? What is the role of credit in technology provision and how does the use of credit affect household risk? These are the types of questions that must be answered before sound technology policies can be developed.In addition to providing answers to the research questions raised above, basic research is needed to describe existing livestock production systems, identify causal associations among the elements of these systems and, through inter-system comparisons, develop and test theories on how pastoral systems function. This information provides the level of understanding of pastoral systems required to develop sound livestock policies. Livestock research also needs to identify opportunities for or constraints to livestock production, develop cost effective responses to these constraints and determine outreach processes by which research results can be utilised by producers or other decision makers in the livestock sector.ILCA must provide guidance and act as a facilitator for both basic and applied ruminant livestock research in Africa. The Centre may be in a unique position to act as liaison among various donor-funded and national agricultural research systems (NARS) livestock, range and forage research activities. ILCA can do this through its agro-ecozone programmes. The programmes can assist NARS within their regions to establish sound interdisciplinary basic research programmes and to identify appropriate applied research questions. ILCA has an obvious role in inter-system synthesis and in facilitating a dialogue within regions between researchers, producers and other decision makers in the livestock sector. This last role is especially important because livestock production systems in Africa frequently cross over national boundaries.There are numerous methods available to research livestock policy related questions. The most appropriate method will depend on the nature of the question being researched. ILCA has identified intercountry comparisons using secondary data, collection and analysis of primary data and modelling.It is the approach to research, rather than specific methods, that is most important. Livestock research in Africa has traditionally been divided into social, economic and technical/biological research done by social, economic and technical/biological scientists, respectively. This approach, results in multidisciplinary, rather than interdisciplinary research.The multidisciplinary approach has left important questions unstudied and cross-disciplinary questions unanswered. For example, the way that producers actually manage their livestock and natural resources and their indigenous technical knowledge has not been adequately studied. Such studies require a sound technical/biological background and skill in social science methods. Social scientists, who are often asked to conduct such studies, lack the technical training to fully appreciate what they are observing, while technical scientists have been reluctant to conduct qualitative research with producers. The few observations that have been made in this area indicate the existence of a set of very sophisticated and subtle management systems (Perrier, 1988). If it is agreed that sound policy be built on the goals and management strategies of producers, there must be a good understanding of existing management strategies and indigenous technical knowledge before appropriate policy development can occur.Although ILCA's research can provide guidance on methods and procedures, it cannot provide answers specific to the numerous contexts found in Africa. Therefore, it is imperative that ILCA collaborate and network with NARS in Africa to stimulate livestock policy related research at these institutions. The Centre should also maintain communication with NGOs and livestock producer groups to help further identify important policy issues.ILCA must also collaborate and network with institutions and universities outside of Africa with research programmes concerning livestock policy in Africa. 1 Collaboration could have a large synergistic effect on livestock policy research in Africa.The results of policy research need to reach decision makers in government. ILCA must remain in communication with such people throughout Africa and in donor institutions and provide information that assists in the application of results from policy research. Researchers must keep the end use of policy research in mind and not simply provide the results of the research. Suggestions on the process by which these results can be incorporated into actual government policy should be offered. This process itself is a legitimate area for policy research in Africa.The preceding sections provide some guidelines for enhancing future policy research and initiatives aimed at assisting the livestock sector in Africa. Implementation of these guidelines requires a new way of thinking about the policy development process. What is needed is a policy development process that is founded on strong interaction among administrators, technical specialists and livestock producers; that starts with existing pastoral production goals and strategies; and that works within a conceptual framework appropriate for African livestock production systems. ILCA should take a leadership role in moving livestock policy development in Africa in this direction.Some general issues In recent years, policy has become central to theories and discussions on technology and development. However, empirical evidence on the contribution of policy in shaping technical change and growth is inconclusive (Alston and Pardey, 1991).Research and technology generation-diffusion and promotion activities have always been interrelated with political, economic and institutional events. Many livestock development projects in Africa and elsewhere have failed and lack of appropriate policy environments have often been blamed for these failures. While such conclusions m ay be true, it is also likely that these other environments (individually or in combination) may be primary causal agents of failure. Thus, policy formulation and outcomes need to be analysed with full cognizance of these multidimensional factors.T he relationships am ong technology, m arkets and institutions are neither unidirectional nor linear. Therefore, the outcome of a particular policy will depend on the direction and the extent of change it can generate in other areas. To be effective, policies need to be compatible at the national and international levels.Any ecoregion usually cuts across political boundaries. Thus, it is exposed to different sets of markets, institutions and policy environments. While biological and physical uniformity of an ecoregion may make technology generation easier, socio-economic differences within the zone may make the diffusion and adoption process difficult. Moreover, the forces that influence the diffusion and adoption of technologies are only partly national in character. Hence, analysis needs to be done in a transnational setting. Further justification for such an analysis is the potential for spillover effects. This suggests that policy analysis should move from a partial/sectoral realm to a macro-economic framework that includes the national and international levels.International agricultural research centres (IARCs) are well placed to analyse some of these issues.International agricultural research centres (IARCs) have long recognised that adverse policies can restrict the adoption of improved technologies and, therefore, impact on productivity and welfare. This recognition has led, among other things, to the creation of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the incorporation of economists into IARC programmes and the creation of explicit policy research programmes in some of the centres. However, policy research has not been subjected to as much of the scrutiny on priorities and impact as has biological research. The International Livestock Centre for Africa's (ILCA) effort to set priorities in its policy research programme is a commendable step in that direction.How does an institution like ILCA begin to set priorities in policy research? One approach is that the research agenda should evolve through the published literature. ILCA, however, has to be more strategic in its selection of research areas and research agendas for applied research in areas such as livestock policy in Africa are not really well developed within the literature. The objective of this section is to suggest factors that might go into the development of a formal framework for policy research.Policy is a generic term and this has led to a great deal of confusion about what comes under the policy rubric. Macro-economists would be rather narrow in their definition; agricultural planners, rather wide-ranging. If one starts with a dictionary definition that policy is \"a definite course selected from among alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions\", then defining policy starts with a specification of a policy area or objective of the institution forming policy and the policy instrument. Understanding how to manipulate the policy instrument to meet the objectives requires an ability to undertake policy analysis. Such analysis can lead to the design of new policies or the need for policy reform, so that the application of policy instruments better achieves policy objectives. Achieving impact in the policy arena requires linking policy analysis to effective implementation in priority areas.Policy research within the agricultural sector has at least three possible dimensions. First is economic policy which essentially tries to influence the structure of price incentives in which economic decisions are made. Thus, there is macro-economic policy, price policy-which is defined in terms of commodity, factor or input markets-and trade policy. Second is sectoral planning policy, such as for rural development, agriculture, labour, land, fertiliser or livestock. This may include economic policy components but will also include investment strategy, infrastructural development, institutional reform and market development. Policy in this dimension is set in planning departments or ministries and tries to assure consistency in sectoral development. The capacity for policy implementation is usually weak since the focus is on improved co-ordination. Third is policy regarding service provision, such as credit, agricultural research, extension, seed production and animal health. Policy in this dimension focuses on institutions, their organisation, regulations and resource deployment. If policy does not focus on public institutions involving the provision of public goods, then it focuses on the regulatory environment controlling the operation of private firms.In general, policy research is prescriptive; it analyses the consequences of current policies, evaluates alternatives to current policy and prescribes best or second-best alternatives in light of policy objectives. Underlying policy research is methodology development, data assembly or collection, model estimation and evaluation of alternative scenarios. For economic policy, there are sophisticated methodologies that have been developed for policy analysis. The problem in Africa is that the secondary data base to support such analysis is often not available. Model sophistication has to be matched to data availability (or the costs of data collection) in undertaking research. Methods for the additional two policy dimensions are either very costly and data intensive, e.g. computable general equilibrium models, or not well developed, e.g. organisational theory or optimal regulatory policy. Research priorities must, therefore, be a factor in the resources that will be devoted to methodology development and data collection in analysing particular policy areas.Policy is designed to effect change. As such, it becomes an agency for that change. Policy analysis or research should have as close a linkage as possible to policy formulation and implementation. Applied policy research, apart from purely methodological research, should have an explicit institution or set of institutions which would formulate and then implement the policy. Optimally, analysis, formulation and implementation should be embedded in the same institution in order to ensure co-ordination between policy design and implementation and to monitor and evaluate results. With each of the policy dimensions above there is an associated type of institution, i.e. principally marketing boards or authorities in the case of economic policy, agricultural, livestock or planning ministries in the case of sectoral policy and specialised service delivery institutions in the last case. The institutional landscape is a principal determinant of ILCA's policy research agenda, at least in terms of ensuring that policy analysis is turned into effective policy implementation.The framework provided above suggests that the issues of what research areas are selected, who ILCA works with and how the research is done are linked. This section identifies particular research areas under the rubric of livestock policy. The research issues are framed in terms of sectoral policies, economic policy research, especially in the price and trade area and service delivery policy. The approach considers first the research issues within the livestock sector as a whole and then addresses the question of which may be most relevant to ILCA.Sectoral policy may be described as policy in the broad sense, as it attempts to develop a coherent basis for planning interventions in the livestock sector as a whole. There is an institutional basis for such sectoral planning in Africa, as ministries of livestock exist in many, if not most, African countries and many of these have planning units. What does not exist, and this is the largest challenge for livestock sector policy, is a comprehensive empirical framework in which to make that policy. The variability within and across national livestock sectors in Africa is tremendous. First, there is very little understanding of demand for meat and milk, how this demand is distributed between rural and urban groups, across income strata and between different meat sources and the response to price and income changes. Second, livestock production is an amalgamation of different livestock types (cattle, small ruminants, swine, poultry, camels and, increasingly, wildlife harvesting), produced in a diverse set of management systems, usually conditioned by the ecology and the disease challenge and with significant diversity in access to feed resources, influenced by both market development and ecology. With this diversity, how are supply responsiveness and constraints on production to be understood? Finally, what are the marketing systems that connect supply to demand? How efficient are transport systems, slaughter and dairy processing facilities, meat grades and pricing in the retailing sector, credit provision and livestock auctions?In sum, the data, basic economic studies and conceptual framework is not yet in place to begin to do livestock sectoral planning. Such a framework also serves to set research priorities and, therefore, very much overlaps with the concerns of ILCA. The question is how analysts move beyond the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) data to an optimally minimal level of disaggregation and how such data collection is promoted and funded. I advocate developing a livestock data base for Africa based on a standardised, minimum data set. Much of this would consist of characterising diverse livestock systems in diverse ecologies with diverse feed resources. In essence, I am arguing for the development of a macro-planning frame both to aid sectoral planning and to orient in-depth micro-research.This framework provides a static cross-sectional basis for livestock planning. Possibly as important in sectoral studies is ascertaining the growth paths of the African livestock sector. If it is excepted that meat demand will be the principal driving force behind the future evolution of the livestock sector, the question arises, how demand, as influenced by increasing population growth, rapid urbanisation and increasing incomes, will be met. One solution is continued horizontal expansion in which ruminants continue to expand onto unexploited forage resources, either into drier, more marginal areas or areas currently limited by trypanosomiasis. Some consensus exists that there is little scope for expansion through this strategy, except in the subhumid zone of West Africa and tsetse areas of southern and East Africa. The predominant strategy would appear to be vertical expansion, that is, intensification. There are several potential lines of intensification and the interesting question is along which line will animal systems intensify?The rate and pattern of intensification of animal production will principally be driven by the opportunity costs of feed resources. Initial phases in the development of an animal industry are based, essentially, on animals scavenging feed resources of low opportunity cost. Rising competition for land, especially from agriculture, limits imposed on animal migration, rising value of animals (due either to market penetration or demand rising faster than supply) or increasing animal populations can all increase the implicit value of feed resources. Increasing value of forage leads to intensification of feed production. How feed production is intensified largely determines the path of intensification of animal production, but this issue is hardly understood in Africa. Under what conditions are investments made in pasture improvement? Under what conditions can planting annual forages compete with crops for land? What is the potential of integrating forages into the farming system, such as agroforestry, forage strips, undersowing and rotation? Under what conditions does a market develop for forages and are forages efficiently transported? Answering these questions will determine the extent to which it is possible to intensify ruminant production. Another point is that investment in intensification of forage production requires increasing the certainty of return from animal production, which implies that animal disease control becomes a complementary input into feed intensification.The alternative path of intensification is development of the poultry and possibly swine industry where feeding is based on mixed rations. There is no understanding of the prior conditions that will motivate this path of intensification in the African livestock industry. Development of the poultry-mixed-feed industry has taken place in land-scarce Asia and in pasture-rich countries of Latin America. Only peri-urban pockets of intensive poultry production exist in Africa. The ingredients determining its development certainly include demand growth for meat and the resultant price stability; the rate at which the ruminant sector increases output, especially through increased productivity; and competition for carbohydrate sources between food and feed demand. There are apparent economies of scale in this industry, which have fuelled exponential rates of growth in many developing countries. The dynamics of grain, root crop and by-product markets will have a major influence on the development of a poultry or swine industry. The potential of a poultry-mixed-feed industry to develop in Africa is still an open question.Economic policy has principally to do with government intervention in and manipulation of markets through price floors, storage and sales and imports. The ability of governments to intervene in livestock markets is more difficult than for basic grains, primarily because meat is not storable and imports are expensive due to the costs of quality control or canning. The high income and price elasticity for meat makes this doubly difficult. However, an area where policy distortions can be severe is in the dairy sector, and this is due to the special role that powdered milk can play as a storable, fungible commodity. Another principal area of market intervention is in the grain market which has implications for the development of an animal feed market.The dairy industry is of sufficient importance to warrant a major policy study. On the one hand, a dynamic dairy industry, such as that in Kenya, can be a major source of income growth in smallholder systems. Moreover, the increased value of forage leads to investments in such things as agroforestry, rotation systems and forage strips, which improve soil resource management and the overall sustainability of the production system. On the demand side, improved milk supplies in urban areas seem to have a significant impact on the nutritional status of disadvantaged groups. Nevertheless, dairying is not an easy industry to develop, especially where it is based on extensive management or indigenous breeds. This often leads to increasing imports of dried milk, often under food aid programmes, but which are compounded by the subsidised nature of dairy pricing in exporting countries such as the United States (US) and the E uropean Economic Community (EEC). This makes an evaluation of policy choices complex. Domestic Resource Cost (DRC) methodologies would be useful in the exploration of these choices, but this relies on a good understanding of the technical and economic feasibility of improved dairying systems, the technical parameters of which can be very location specific.Feed markets in Africa are rudimentary at best. Their development depends on the maintenance of undistorted price signals, a condition which applies to only a small but increasing number of grain markets in Africa. There are two principal components to feed market development in Africa. First is the market for dry season feed supplementation. In this case, feed can either be transported to production areas or livestock can be transported to fattening areas, usually closer to urban markets. Development of seasonal spreads in livestock prices is essential to motivate such feeding systems, as feed prices will obviously be higher in the dry season and there would be some increase in transport costs. Any government intervention to stabilise seasonal meat or dairy prices will curtail the development of such markets. Second is the development of a mixed feed industry to service intensive non-ruminant production. Infant industries have appeared in such countries as Kenya and Nigeria. These industries have based their feed component supply on grain by-products, lower quality grains and root flours. Initial expansion of the feed industry will probably be based on these lower quality carbohydrate sources, including yellow maize in East and southern Africa. This requires the development of price differentials in grain and root markets, something which does not usually happen with marketing boards. Case studies of market diversification, as feed markets are established, would be very useful in understanding how best to nurture this process.Policy in the area of service provision deals with strategy definition within the service institutions, the organisation of service provision or delivery, the split in activities between the public and private sectors and financing of these services. Financing of services is often a central issue, both in the public and private sphere. One issue is whether livestock services should be provided by one single ministry of livestock or whether this would duplicate manpower and infrastructure with agriculture in the rural sector and livestock services are best integrated with agriculture in research, extension and credit institutions. The tendency is one of a movement away from the former to integrated institutions. This is due to the recognition of the need to reduce redundancy in government services. Probably more importantly, it is due to the fact that increasing integration of livestock and agricultural activities is occurring within African farming systems and delivery systems for both agriculture and livestock need to focus on the same clientele.Following on the sectorial policy issues raised above, the key policy or planning question for the livestock sector is the development of a framework for strategy development and priority setting. How are research priorities assigned across ecologies, management systems and species? Does a strategy have to be developed for each cell in this three dimensional matrix, e.g. the strategy for pastoral goat systems in semi-arid regions? Within each of these cells, what is the relative research emphasis on increasing feed supply and quality, on animal health and on breeding for increased productivity? That such a framework is necessary is shown by the large investments that have been made in pasture research in Africa but with little investment as yet in the area of sown pastures. ILCA has a significant role to play in this area, not only in terms of better defining its own programmes, but also to help research planning in national programmes. ILCA and the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) should have a shared interest in the development of such a framework.Another major issue facing service policy is the conditions under which and the extent to which animal health services are privatised. There is a perception that public veterinary services are not meeting animal health needs of the livestock sector. On the other hand, planners are concerned about how much farmers can afford to pay for drugs and veterinary services, the public benefits of co-ordinated control of infectious diseases such as rinderpest, the number of veterinarians that need to be trained to precipitate movement into private practice and the fact that incentives for private veterinarians will reside in high value, high productivity sectors and services will not be available in more marginal areas. A series of case studies are needed to explore this issue and diffuse what is a relatively dogmatic debate between those who say privatisation is the answer under all conditions and those who argue that privatisation would undercut the effectiveness of public institutions.Very little institutional capacity exists in Africa to make, much less implement, policy on natural resource management. Various institutions, among them the World Bank, have been promoting the idea of an environmental action plan, where existing ministries are brought together to develop an integrated plan across environmental issues and delegate responsibilities. However, since the issues of deforestation, desertification, soil erosion, loss of genetic diversity and disruption of the hydrology all derive from management of the land resource, the question is whether a policy framework can be put in place to direct more optimum use of the land. The answer is that there has been very little work done on this issue in the African context and certainly the policy instruments that can be utilised to do this have not yet been fully defined, much less evaluated as to their effectiveness. Therefore, ILCA should not undertake research on natural resource policy, but rather on research that explores how management of the livestock system influences the quality or management of the land resource and how the two can be improved together. It is important to understand how livestock systems can lead to degradation of the land resource and how that degradation can be prevented. As well, at issue is how livestock systems enhance the management of the soil resource and how this complementarity can be both enhanced and promoted. Animal production can be both a cause and a solution to environmental degradation in Africa. ILCA needs to understand both scenarios.Overgrazing stands out as the single most important negative impact of animal systems on the land resource. It can lead to soil erosion, soil compaction and reduced moisture penetration, more variable hydrology, shrub invasion and changes in the micro-climate. Overgrazing can occur in all ecologies and understanding the causes of and solutions to overgrazing is quite specific to ecology and production systems.Pastoralism in the arid and fringes of the semi-arid zone essentially depends on migration to maintain livestock populations and vegetation resources under a highly variable rainfall regime. There is rising pressure on these systems from increasing restrictions on the overall size of the grazing area; movement to more permanent, individual grazing areas caused by land adjudication and investments in permanent structures such as schools and clinics; and an apparent low point in the long-term rainfall cycle, at least in the Sahel. This leads to the concentration of livestock in particular areas for longer time periods, which results in overgrazing, particularly under increasingly limited rainfall. Expansion within this extensive system has always been along a horizontal rather than a vertical path. It is not clear that the grazing component in these systems can be intensified without replacing pastoralism by a completely different system. If this is so, given the pressures toward more permanent settlements, pastoralism will become an increasing anachronism in African livestock sectors. Given this inability to intensify and the fact that these fundamental pressures will only increase with time, the issue is how best to accommodate this system change in marginal rainfall areas. Diversification by exploiting revenues from wildlife has been one option in East and southern Africa.Many of the semi-arid areas have intensified by shifting from essentially livestock systems to integrated agricultural-livestock systems. Crop production has been the key to this vertical expansion path. However, the process has generally led to even greater pressure on shrinking grazing lands (often still communally owned), at the same time that investments in land improvement go into agricultural rather than grazing land. The quality of these grazing lands has been, as a result, badly degraded. Improving grazing lands in such systems will require improving returns on the livestock enterprise, so that investment in grazing becomes competitive with investment in cropping.Increasing population density in these zones leads to a reduction in livestock numbers and a greater focus on the quality of livestock. Market development would greatly accentuate this process and increase the returns on livestock and therefore forage production. However, technological planning has to be done in a dynamic framework, reacting to changes in land pressure and factor and output market development. This emphasises the need for a disaggregated sectoral planning frame.Given the low population and livestock density in the subhumid zone of West Africa and the potential demand from the population centres on the West African coast, this zone is seen as a major expansion site for livestock production. Controlling trypanosomiasis will increase this potential and result in possible ruminant expansion into the humid zone and very probable expansion into tsetse areas in East and southern Africa. Given the experience in the arid and semi-arid zones and some negative experience with livestock projects in subhumid West Africa, how grazing will be managed in these as yet only lightly exploited areas remains a question. In this era of rising concern about sustainability, this is an issue of some concern. The basic issue is how the higher, and hopefully more resilient, biomass potential of these areas will respond under what will probably be an extensive development path. Land tenure, the expansion of cropping and the future role of pastoralism will all determine the types of management systems that evolve and the pressure this puts on the vegetation resources of the zone. Given that cropping also exists in these areas, how best to integrate the agricultural and livestock components should be explored.The influence of livestock on the quality of the land resource base has been traditionally expressed in terms of carrying capacity. When animal population density exceeds carrying capacity, degradation ensues. This concept implies that farmers will alter animal populations in relation to long-term feed availability. Farmer strategies are more complex than this; short-term priorities (which focus on how to maintain the herd) will usually have precedence over long-term strategies. Wealth and security objectives may draw down natural resource \"capital\", and farmers may intensify forage production. This introduces simultaneity in the relationship between livestock production and forage availability. In fact, the development paths charted above would suggest that the key issue underlying sustainable resource management under ruminants is the condition that causes farmers to invest in the production of feed resources.Experience suggests that there is no direct path of intensification for extensive livestock systems that improves or even maintains the quality of the land resource base. Agriculture is a necessary next step to promote investment in the land. Forage production within an integrated crop-livestock system, whether through agroforestry, cut and carry strips, or ley cropping with a legume, improves the sustainable management of the soil resource devoted to cropping. However, such investments need to compete with crops for land; otherwise, livestock drops out of the system in intensive land use regions. An alternative is to intensify the animal production system (animal health and breeding interventions) while at the same time intensifying management of the land resource base. That is, increased returns to a more efficient animal production system will justify the investment in forage production. This strategy depends on well-developed markets and would be aided by any tendency for livestock prices to rise. There is, however, no experience with this development path in Africa, as it depends on a well-developed research and extension system.It is axiomatic that good livestock policy in Africa depends on a good understanding of the pressures and possibilities facing the sector. The message of this brief synopsis is that understanding does not yet exist. The priority for livestock policy research in Africa is that more work has to be devoted to data collection-the demand studies, the characterisation of animal production systems, the evaluation of marketing systems and, most critically, the understanding of growth paths.The livestock sector in Africa is much more complex than that in either Asia or Latin America. How it will develop is very much a question mark. Except for the dairy sector, economic policy is not going to be as dominant an issue as it has been for the agricultural sector. The real potential for intervention is in technology and service delivery. The complex mix of health, breeding and feeding technologies will have to be finely targeted in order to achieve impact. For an international centre such as ILCA, this will require priorities, and, by definition, a capacity to set those priorities.C: Overgrazing is related to aspects of credit and technology development. It is a symptom of poverty and a point in the cycle of degradation. The effects of overgrazing can be reversed. Poverty alleviation can be promoted through policy.C: What are the policy interventions? In the larger economy, there are so many dynamic forces which maintain the system.C1: Range scientists are beginning to say that their models from the US do not fit for Africa. But, the damage has been done. Livestock are unfairly being accused of desertification. There is a need to determine what is going on. For the next five years, we need to be more innovative in terms of policy. As pastoralists increasingly move into a market economy, they will want cash. This will be generated or supported through policy.C2: In wetter areas, land tenure becomes a major issue. Crop producers want adjudicated land. There will be a great deal of pressure put on crop agriculture. Environmental policy may need to be considered here. If there is to be degradation, it will be due to cropping, not livestock.C3: There will be much discussion in the next few months regarding the environment and degradation of humid areas. ILCA could play an information generating role in this re spect. For instance, there is concern with the environmental impact of trypanosomiasis eradication or control. Could ILCA play a role here?C: The issue of environmental degradation and the control of trypanosomiasis is probably overstated.Q: Should ILCA complete its retreat from the arid areas? Twenty years after the Sahelian drought, we still do not understand the problem. As long as there is sufficient seed stock, it will regrow. On a global scale, the issue is more complex. For instance, from a study carried out in the Sahel, stocking rate was recorded as 5-10 LU/km 2 . If forage production equalled 0.5 tonnes/ha, there would be enough to eat. But ecosystems are not uniform. Water resources, settlement sites etc result in overgrazing. We only look at main roads; there is no overgrazing off roads. When people look for overgrazing, they look at land after a drought. We are dealing with localised under-and over-utilisation made worse/better by rainfall. This is not overgrazing.C: In North Africa, there are two approaches to sustainability: improving the rangeland (which did not work) and technology. Looking at herd structure in this region, 20 -25% are unproductive animals. When we asked people why they kept the animals, we were told that there were no markets. The conclusion would suggest that if you can find ways of selling animals, there would be less pressure on the range.C: Overstocking is linked to other activities in other sectors. The more you move into arid and semi-arid areas, the more severe the problem. There is a need to focus not only on the livestock sector, but other sectors as well (e.g. service, management etc).C: On this last point, TAC (Technical Advisory Committee) is thinking of putting more emphasis on ecoregions rather than commodities. This may suggest that ILCA needs to rethink its mandate.Q1: Is there a rationale for ILCA pulling out of the arid zone except in terms of policy questions? I see little potential for livestock production, reduction of poverty through livestock production or reduction of degradation through livestock production.C: I have a problem with ILCA doing policy research without anything else. In terms of the relation between pastoral societies and land, is land seen as a free good or as a resource to be maintained over time? I suspect it depends on external pressures facing them at any one time. I am also concerned about the ability of national governments to maintain environmental integrity.A: ILCA has a comparative advantage to monitor rangelands.A: ILCA pulled out of the semi-arid zone because donors wanted technology interventions that the Centre was unable to deliver. The issue is donor fatigue and the need for impact. The work requires a sustained effort. We have been unable to sell our range monitoring work to donors. We have also had only variable success getting sustained national agricultural research systems (NARS) partners. In terms of policy, we need to understand the principles of poverty. One could take pressure off by making progress in feed resources in accompanying zones. This is a potential solution.Q: What outputs do you expect?A: Hiernaux's work showed that livestock did not add pressure to the land. What we want to do is understand the dynamics of pastoral systems, causes of overstocking, how to alleviate pressures during drought.Some sustainability and resource policy issues in ILCA's livestock research in sub-Saharan AfricaAustralian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics Canberra, AustraliaThe resolution of problems associated with agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has increasingly challenged development agencies, including the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and its associated international agricultural research centres (IARCs). According to the World Bank (1989), 16 of the 20 poorest developing countries are located in Africa. Of a total population figure for 1989 of 480 million (World Bank, 1991a), nearly 100 million Africans survive on diets which are below subsistence level (Eicher, 1988).During the 1960s, Africa was a net exporter of food. It now imports eight million tonnes of food each year. This figure is likely to increase, as projections indicate a net population growth of 3.1-3.2% annually. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has estimated that by the end of the century, Africa's net imports of basic food staples may be seven times higher than that of the early 1980s (Hibler, 1988). These developments have occurred despite Africa's vast potential for food production and more than two decades of development initiatives by IARCs.The causes of the present crisis are both climatic and socio-political in nature. Agricultural growth has been slow and real per capita output has declined since 1973 (World Bank, 1991a). The International Monetary Fund estimated that for SSA as a whole, the terms of trade deteriorated by 16% between 1977and 1985(Africa Review, 1987). Thus, export performance has been poor and, with increasing population (Table 1), problems with balance of payments and fiscal crises have been persistent. Against a background of continuing political conflict, those factors have, in turn, contributed to increasing malnutrition and accelerating environmental degradation. In 1950, the region's income per person was 11% of the industrial country average. It is now about 5%. Food production has risen more slowly than population-at an average annual output growth of less than 1.5% since 1970. Debt service obligations in 1988 were 47% of export revenues. Africa's debt increased from about US$ 6 billion in 1970 to US$ 134 billion in 1988(World Bank, 1989).Five specific categories of famine have been identified: physical, transportation, cultural, political and population (Plucknett, 1991). During the 1980s, the incidence of famine (in almost every category) in Africa increased.Rapid population growth, agricultural stagnation and environmental degradation are interrelated and often mutually reinforcing. Population growth, without strong growth in urban employment opportunities and incomes, results in increased demands on a limited land base. People are forced to migrate onto marginal lands in arid and semi-arid areas and into tropical forests in order to establish new farms. Increased cultivation of fragile soils contributes to soil degradation, deforestation and desertification. Pressure on arable land has been worsened by the demand for wood fuel and livestock grazing. Between 1975 and1980, approximately 37 million hectares of tropical forest were destroyed in Africa (FAO, 1983). To supplement or replace dwindling supplies of wood fuel, farmers are burning dung and crop residues that in the past were used to enrich the soil. Less organic fertiliser is available to replenish soil fertility. The threat of soil erosion and nutrient loss is worsened by the grazing requirements of Africa's 160 million head of cattle.  1965-73 1973-80 1980-89 1965-73 1973-80 1980 More than one quarter of sub-Saharan Africa's land area (750 million hectares) is moderately to very severely desertified (FAO, 1983). FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) argues that only 13% of desertification is caused by natural changes in the environment; the other 87% is caused by human mismanagement of resources. This includes overgrazing, over-cultivation, deforestation and inefficient irrigation policies. Environmental degradation has both domestic and international implications. Domestically, it threatens agricultural productivity; internationally, it may significantly increase the tendency towards ecological imbalance and global warming.To re ve rse curre nt e conomic tre nds, population growth and accelerating environmental degradation must be checked. For the continent to achieve self-sufficiency in food on a sustainable basis, food production would have to increase at approximately 4% per annum with the available resources and without further systematic damage to the environment. This is the challenge facing national agricultural research systems (NARS) policy makers, non-governmental organisations (NG Os) and IAR Cs such as the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA).Experts agree that there is tremendous potential for improving the current situation in sub-Saharan Africa. As Plucknett (1991) says: I do not believe Africa is inherently less suited to productive agriculture than other continents. Indeed, theoretical estimates of potential productivity place Africa second among the continents, behind Latin America, but ahead of Asia, Europe, North America and Australia in that order. Neither do I believe that development of scientifically based agriculture is beyond the reach of most African countries.Technical and policy solutions Eicher (1988) identifies five prime movers of agricultural development: a favourable economic and policy environment, human capacity and managerial skills, diffusion of appropriate technology, rural capital formation and rural institutions. The contribution of each by itself is limited, but taken together, is complementary and mutually reinforcing. Until recently, the major emphasis of development efforts was on technology. Little attention was given to developing policies for an enabling economic and policy environment and to strengthening human capacity and managerial skills. Issues relating to land tenure, the environment, the role of women and the need for institution building were neglected.Elements of Eicher's prime movers of agriculture and related sectors are directly relevant to the activities of ILCA. First, and most obvious, is the search for useful technical advances in livestock production. Second is improvement in broad economic management policies. Third is improvement in natural resource management policies.ILCA's research strategy is based on a farming systems perspective. Research is useful only if it leads to innovations that provide some increase in the level or certainty of income. It must be practical enough to be adopted by farmers. African farming systems are complex and varied. Considering potential innovation in terms of its place in a farming system appears more likely to produce results than does a more traditional approach of specialised disciplinary research with parallel extension.A farming systems approach is also appropriate in attempts to ensure that agricultural developme nt is sustainable. Conway (1985) argues that viewing research and implementation in terms of the environmental setting of farms is essential to the development of agriculture that will operate successfully at a local level and that can be sustained over time.Incorporating environmental considerations into research planning will likely generate innovations that are either more sustainable themselves or that lead to more sustainable benefits. Yet, in an environment of scarce research funds and pressing farm problems, there is a strong need for research results with very broad application. In terms of developing technologies, ILCA should focus on issues related to major ecological zones, ensuring that NARS have a strong adaptive research capacity to fine-tune technologies to their specific environments.A major cause of the economic crisis facing Africa has been the incapacity of governments and institutions to respond quickly and decisively to a rapidly changing global economic environment. The effects of inappropriate exchange rate, trade and pricing policies have been devastating for agriculture. The market signals become so distorted that farmers receive only a fraction of the value of the commodities they produce, while the inputs and goods they consume become more scarce and expensive. The unsuccessful agricultural policies of the 1960s and 1970s are still common (World Bank, 1989) for most of Africa.Effective policy analysis and economic management are necessary for successful development in all sectors. However, Faaland (1990) concluded that a serious deficiency in policy making in the developing world, including SSA, is the lack of an appropriate research base to generate the knowledge needed for effective policy decisions. To be effective, policies must be sustainable. Sustainable policy, in turn, requires a strong sense of African ownership. There is no better way to foster the sense of ownership than to produce policies through first-rate indigenous research and policy design capacity. This capacity is scarce in almost every sector of most African countries (World Bank, 1991b). Therefore, there is a need to provide the policy research and managerial capacity in the short term and to develop a capacity to produce these skills in the longer term.Explicit attention by IARCs to agricultural sustainability is relatively new, although it has been implicit in much of their past work. The CGIAR did not view sustainability as a separate or discrete area but as something that must influence the way in which research is planned and conducted (Hibler, 1988). Sustainable development may mean different things to different people. Swindale (1988), for example, argues that sustainability and concern for the environment cover much the same ground. Some environmental matters are closely linked to the ability of natural assets to continue to provide food, shelter and a capital base for future generations. Pearce et al (1989: p. 48) define sustainable development as \"a bequest to the next generation of an amount and quality of wealth which will at least be equal to that inherited by the current generation.\" It has been suggested that such a definition is consistent with the depletion of some natural resources (Hartwick, 1977), provided that the net returns, or rents, from these resources (e.g. soils, forest) are productively invested. In an African context, with rapidly increasing population and limited development of industrial/urban capital, a condition for sustainable development would appear to be maintenance of most of the natural capital underlying agriculture. Agricultural policies must address the issues of proper pricing of resources, non-attenuated property rights, taxes and controls on pollution and investment in production alternatives. Finding a minimum cost approach to confronting environmental problems is a high priority for the region.How effectively resources are used largely depends on resource management policies. Critical policies in this context include those concerning land tenure and user rights. Shepherd (1991) points out that, for significant areas of African forest and woodland regions, stable structures of communal and individual user rights have long been in place. He argues that such systems were generally based on long-term sustainable rotations of activities centred on forest and land resources. However, such systems generally cannot survive the increasing demand for arable land, due to increasing population.Secure tenure rights to privately held land is likely to have an important bearing on long-term management. An individual or family with inalienable title to land will have a strong incentive to develop and use the land in a way which promotes long-term sustainability. The same is not necessarily true of community or group ownership and efforts to ensure sustainability are dependent on the social cohesiveness of that group. Doran et al (1979) argue that a combination of traditional attitudes towards cattle as a store of wealth with communal grazing and limited availability of other stores of wealth underlie much of the deterioration in grazing land in eastern and southern Africa. In such circumstances, research aimed at increasing production and quality of meat available from turn-off of young cattle may have only limited production effects. The result may instead be increased pressure on communal land.Secure land tenure, while likely to encourage efficient long-term land use, may not guarantee such a result. First, there may be significant spillover effects, for example on other land users, that land owners have little or no incentive to consider. Second, if land owners do not have full information on the costs and benefits of their actions, they may make suboptimal decisions. Finally, farmers under pressure to survive may have little choice but to discount the long-term consequences of their actions. This may frequently be the case in African agriculture.The most obvious potential off-site impacts of farming and grazing activities are those associated with downstream effects of increased rates of soil erosion and runoff. Those who own the land which they use may have a much stronger incentive to limit runoff and soil loss than those with short-term or more tenuous use rights. Land clearing and farming activities which increase runoff and siltation may do significant downstream damage. The converse may sometimes be true. Actions such as damming or diverting streams may, by limiting the flow of water and nutrients, reduce productive opportunities in some downstream areas. These examples serve as reminders that the range of off-site effects of agricultural activities needs to be considered.Opportunities faced by farmers can be strongly influenced by commodity price and marketing policies. Brown and Wolf (1985) argued that widespread adoption of price policies designed to provide cheap food to urban populations has had a detrimental effect on rural incomes and subsistence levels.Other economic and social policies, such as those regulating the development and operation of commodity markets or exchange rates, can have a large influence on smallholder agriculture. Policy settings are important to agricultural research in two ways. First, policy research may be an important primary research activity if its results can be used to influence decision makers. Second, existing policies may strongly influence the degree to which the potential of research-based innovations is realised. From the latter standpoint, there is a need to ensure that a sense of policy relevance is part of the background to setting priorities in any technical research programme.A wide range of infrastructure and infrastructure policies may influence the opportunities available to farmers. Three sectors are of particular importance: transport, finance and commodity marketing. Market accessibility will strongly influence the types of products farmers will produce for market in addition to those produced for subsistence. For example, opportunities to market milk in Africa may be most influenced by transport.Improving the performance of African agriculture will involve, inter alia, large investments in farmers' skills, livestock equipment and land care. Finding sufficient investment funds will be difficult at any level. Direct individual choice, rather than bureaucratic control, is important to the success of financial markets. However, the difficulty in extending the informal financial sector to smallholders arises from the close correlation of risks faced across farms. Most regionally-based financial schemes risk failure because drought, disease or falls in commodity prices are likely to be common to most participants in a scheme. Finding ways to overcome some of these difficulties may be as important as finding technical solutions to problems of livestock production.There is no simple way to set research priorities to ensure the highest net pay-off. Research is a risky activity. Setting broad programme priorities is probably the most difficult part of a research planning process because of the breadth of issues to be considered. While there is no definitive simple model for assessing the likely pay-offs to broad avenues of research, there are some lessons to be learned from application of project assessment techniques in a cost-benefit framework.A firm basis exists for project assessment in a modern market economy. The approach to assessment of research benefits outlined by Edwards and Freebairn (1981;1982;1984) can be used within a cost-benefit framework. Lemieux and Wohlgenant (1989) and Johnston et al (1992) provide examples of the use of such a framework to assess the likely pay-off from a particular research project. A concept that is relevant in this context is that the total benefits from adoption of an innovation which successfully reduces production costs increase with: the size of the industry; the size of the unit cost saving; and the elasticity of world demand for the country's product.For a product which is not traded internationally, the demand elasticity makes little difference to total benefits but it makes much difference to the way it is shared between farmers and consumers. There may be few gains, or even losses, to farmers from innovations which reduce the costs of supply of commodities for which demand is not price-sensitive. For products which are important subsistence items for farmers, but are not generally traded, the first two points (size of industry, size of the unit cost saving) are still important. The more broadly applicable the result is, the greater the pay-off. The greater the saving in labour, land or other inputs, the greater the pay-off.The net benefits of research depend on several factors besides those influencing gross benefits. In particular, net pay-off is an increasing function of the probability of successful adoption and the length of time for which the innovation remains useful. Net pay-off is a decreasing function of the cost of research and the time taken for the innovation to be adopted.A further important aspect of research pay-offs concerns the degree to which a single project contributes to overall change. Even within a farming systems approach to research, an effective innovation may be the result of a number of separate research projects.To date, the research evaluation framework discussed above has been used specifically for openly marketed private goods. Environmental impact has been assumed to be minor. In principle, there is no reason that assessment of research projects cannot include analysis of environmental impacts. For example, Dixon et al (1986) outline a cost-benefit framework for development projects that includes measures of environmental costs.There are two broad approaches to incorporating environmental values into a cost-benefit framework. The first is that outlined by Dixon et al (1986) which involves an attempt to value environmental aspects of project impacts on the same basis as is used for other goods. The second, outlined by Pearce et al (1990), involves the imposition of conditions of sustainability of activities as constraints in a conventional cost-benefit analysis. Application of either involves some assessment of environmental impact of the proposals being analysed. Dixon et al (1986) outline three ways of estimating values for non-marketed environmental effects of development projects. The first is based on concepts of opportunity cost or estimates of changes in resource productivity over time. The second involves the use of indirect valuation approaches through observations of land and other asset values. The third involves survey methods such as contingent valuation. In considering research programmes for African agriculture, the first set of measures has most relevance. Most of the trade-offs in land, water and forest resource use can probably be assessed in terms of opportunity costs of alternative uses, costs to future productivity of current uses or replacement expenditure. For example, the costs of excessive soil erosion, aside from downstream effects, will accrue largely through decreased land productivity in future periods. The more complex valuation methods using such techniques as contingent valuation are not as relevant since they tend to be data-intensive, costly and less related to basic food and shelter issues of the developing world. Thus, a cost-benefit framework can accommodate environmental issues and still provide a useful basis for investigating differences in likely pay-offs to alternative research programmes.Given that the major emphasis in the research programme is on alternative ways of promoting smallholder productivity, extreme distributional choices are not likely to become an issue. There are aspects of the research evaluation model which remain relevant. First is the size of the industry, whether uptake is regional, national or international. In this context, an emphasis on policy research, particularly resource and environmental policy, appears important. It may be easier to find broad resource policy principles that can be widely applied than to find technical innovations that can be used in many areas of Africa. Second, the size of the unit cost saving or income increase is also important. Third, projects with a high probability of producing a useful innovation will be of high value. Finally, early adoption is important.Five of the 18 CGIAR centres are located in SSA and work largely on African agriculture. ILCA is the only centre with an exclusive mandate to improve livestock production systems in Africa. The Centre is expected to help the region meet its goals in food production and to satisfy other expectations of the CGIAR. In this effort, the CGIAR looks at all aspects of efficiency, equity and the environment (Hibler, 1988).The Centre is expected to give high priority to strengthening the capacity of NARS to integrate sustainability into their endeavours. The problems of resource management and use are more critical in semi-arid and arid areas where livestock is an important enterprise. It is in these areas that the future of agriculture appears to be most threatened.It is not possible for ILCA to meet these challenges alone. ILCA must work with NAR S, other IAR Cs in the region, non-governmental organisations and regional organisations. Looking at NARS, total national funding for research is still well below 0.5% of GDP. Between 80 and 90% of the total recurrent budget is spent on personnel salaries and budgets (Nyiira, 1991). In terms of budget allocation, crop research still receives a high priority. Effective policy analysis capacity is scarce in most African countries. It is within this environment that ILCA is expected to improve the livestock production systems of Africa.The medium-term objective of ILCA's Livestock Policy and Resource Use Thrust is to help national efforts to improve policies affecting the livestock sector and to increase the efficiency with which natural and other resources are used in sub-Saharan Africa (ILCA, 1988). Given the current critical constraints and issues of African agricultural production systems, this objective is very appropriate and addresses the immediate concerns of the region. It is encouraging to note that total funds allocated to this thrust increased from 9% in 1988 to 13% in 1991. The task, then, is to determine how to meet the enormous demand for such services with the limited available resources.ILCA should continue its activities in all six identified themes, namely policy services, policy research, range trends, semi-arid livestock, resource services and network co-ordination. Given the limited resources and the enormous regional demand for services, it is not possible for any one organisation to manage the situation. The critical element is local capacity building in policy analysis and development management. A series of reinforcing, co-ordinated actions by donors, IARCs, NARS, local universities and non-government organisations, phased over a long period, are necessary to accomplish this task. Given the acute shortage of this capacity within the region, it is disturbing to note that ILCA has reduced the budgeting allocation for policy services from almost 30% (of the total budget for the thrust) in 1988 to 6% in 1991 (ILCA, 1988). The amount allocated for policy research has increased from about 10% in 1988 to 28% in 1991. Given the large interest in policy research at the moment in SSA, it is vital for ILCA to carefully select those areas that are considered a high priority and represent a comparative advantage for the institution.Besides ILCA, there are several other IARCs working in SSA. A number of these centres are currently involved in policy research and are working with national institutions and scientists conducting research with their respective mandated crops. In addition, other organisations such as the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) are also involved in policy-oriented research.A number of African academic institutions, in collaboration with universities in the developed world have initiated policy work and training (e.g. Egerton University in Kenya in collaboration with Harvard Institute of International Development; the University of Z imbabwe in collaboration with Michigan State University). These institutions are acquiring the necessary organisational, managerial and technical skills to continue training and networking. The African Economic Research Consortium is another example of a potentially successful capacity-building institution. If collaborative working relationships could be established with institutions and organisations such as these, the efficiency of ILCA's operation in the region could be improved.Two IARCs in particular can play a crucial role in shaping the activities of the Livestock Policy and R esource Unit of ILCA. The first, International Service for National Agricultural R esearch (ISNAR ), is actively assisting NAR S in strengthening their capacities in the areas of research policy, organisation and management (ISNAR, 1987). ILCA can potentially collaborate with ISNAR in changing livestock resource policies and resource allocation at the country level.The second, IFPRI, has a strong policy orientation. IFPRI is currently involved in collaborative research agreements with national research institutions and universities in 18 SSA countries. Currently, research is underway in seven countries on the impact of policies on the welfare of the poor. Recently, IFPRI expanded its micro-economic research capabilities through its involvement in field-level data collection. At the moment, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT) and IFPRI are jointly running a policy analysis network in eastern and southern Africa. Given IFPRI's traditional macrofocus combined with the micro-research base, it is in a position to undertake policy research (Faaland, 1990) both at a micro-and a macro-level. ICRAF, because of its mandate and the production systems it deals with, also must look at natural resource issues. Natural resource management research must be focused on problems faced by smallholders in environmentally threatened areas, as well as the implications of past environmental degradation for current decisions faced by farmers. Thus, there is a great opportunity for collaborative research and training in the region. This requires joint planning and co-ordinated action.There is considerable scope to undertake research on policies in natural resource management as related to livestock production systems. In arid and semi-arid areas, it seems essential that ILCA establish collaborative work with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). In macro-policy research, there is a great opportunity to collaborate with IFPRI. In fact, IFPRI has a comparative advantage in this area. There is a strong case for ILCA to concentrate on those natural resource issues which are unique to the livestock production systems where ILCA has a comparative advantage based on its experience and available skills. As much as possible, ILCA should embark on collaborative research programmes with stronger NARS.Capacity building for policy analysis should be given a very high priority, with stronger linkages and working relationships with national academic institutions. Probably the best way to do this is to start with pilot projects based in a few countries while: A balance needs to be struck between national and regional activities. One way of doing this is to concentrate resources on developing methodologies and manuals on policy analysis frameworks for natural resources to be used by national programmes.in sub-Saharan Africa: Issues for policy analysis There is currently widespread concern about degradation of natural resources in the developing world. D egradation threatens both the economic prospects of future generations and the livelihoods of current users. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), deforestation threatens biological diversity and contributes to alteration of the global climate. Soil erosion is increasing which reduces the capacity of many countries to satisfy the expanding demand for food. It also jeopardises the benefits from water resource development. D eposition of eroded soil in reservoirs, for example, diminishes hydroelectricity production and reduces irrigation and water supplies (Southgate et al, 1990).These various elements are linked together in a cause-and-effect chain. For example, when forests are cleared, the physical and chemical properties of soils undergo significant changes, leading to nutrient loss and accelerated soil erosion (Sanchez, 1976;Ehui and Hertel, 1992). This, in turn, results in a decline in crop and livestock yields which exacerbates rural poverty and income inequality.Although the dependence of sustainable economic development on sound environmental economic development is increasingly recognised, economists' attention to date on the macro-economic implications of environmental matters has been somewhat fragmentary. In this paper, a broader perspective on the causes of environmental degradation is taken and issues for policy analysis are examined.Social scientists, including agricultural and resource economists, have a vital role to play in policy analysis; their specialised knowledge is vital to understanding people's behaviour in order to predict their responses to economic or other incentives introduced by government policies. Policy analysts identify causes, measure relationships and formulate policy options evaluating their cost effectiveness with due consideration of political constraints.Population growth is a primary catalyst for the expansion of agricultural production into marginal lands as well as the abandonment of fallowing and other practices that maintain soil fertility. Continuous agricultural production is now the norm in some places, resulting in low yields. With the exception of the highland zones, much of the soil in SSA tends to be thin and not very fertile. Diminished fallow periods cause yields to fall off substantially. Applying fertilisers often compensates for only part of this decline (Lal, 1981). As land deteriorates, farmers colonise marginal hinterlands or migrate to urban areas.Where behavioural analysis of resource degradation in SSA has been conducted, simple Malthusian explanations are widely circulated. O ther than the general recommendation that human fertility be controlled, these explanations offer little guidance for the design of conservation strategies. Malthusian assumptions are that population growth is reflexive, accelerating whenever living standards rise above subsistence levels. The idea that agricultural technology never changes was also shared two centuries ago. Together, these assumptions imply that expansion of agricultural land is the only possible response to market and demographic shocks. To Malthus, since in the long run the quantity of land is absolutely fixed, the principle of diminishing marginal productivity of labour implied serious problems for the future of humanity (Southgate et al, 1990).Investigation of social realities in SSA reveals that the behaviour of rural people is much more complex than classical economists believed. Demographers find that increased rural population density induces various reactions. Fertility rates tend to fall as incomes rise. Relocation to urban areas or the agricultural frontier is also a possibility (Bilsborrow, 1987). Similarly, the assumption that technology for crop and livestock production never changes has been rejected. In various ways, agricultural land can be used more intensively as rural populations rise or as demand for agricultural commodities increases (Boserup, 1965;Pingali et al, 1987). Intensification often begins with a decline in fallowing cycles, which usually diminishes soil quality. Other intensification options are available which can enhance output without accelerating resource depletion. They include, for example, increased employment of non-land inputs (e.g. fertiliser, labour), a switch to new crops and mechanisation.The central point of this paper is that government policy and property arrangements have much to do with the countryside's reaction to markets and demographic shocks. Evidence, however, shows that the environmental impacts of rural population growth and increased demand for agricultural commodities greatly depend on government policy and property arrangements. Inadequate investment in research and extension, governmental interventions that keep food prices low and other policies hindering agricultural development accelerate the depletion of natural resources. In addition, formal and informal tenure arrangements often discourage the adoption of conservation measures, encourage excessive land clearing, or both. In many parts of SSA, deforestation is a prerequisite for formal and informal land tenure and conversion of forests into cropland and pasture is directly or indirectly subsidised. Under these circumstances, population growth and increased demand for agricultural commodities usually induce excessive migration to hinterlands as well as depletive forms of extensive settlement.Insecure tenure, multiple ownership, common property, lack of clearly defined and securely held property rights over resources, including land, result in over-exploitation, under-investment and general mismanagement of resources. Other factors which may explain suboptimal land or resource use are uncertainty, myopia, high discount rates, imperfect capital markets and ignorance coupled with high information costs. These market failures, as they relate to land use patterns and resource management will be examined in turn.Insecure ownership or land tenure inhibits optimum land use in a number of ways. First, it reduces the incentive for improvement since insecure owners with insecure rights or tenants, while having to incur the full cost of investment in land improvement, are uncertain whether they will receive the full return from their investment-which may be spread over a number of years. Second, for the same reason, these owners and tenants are unlikely to put land under perennial crops or forest which take a number of years to mature and yield a stream of income extending into an uncertain future. Third, even if insecure owners had the incentive to invest in land improvement and perennial land uses, they are deprived from doing so since untitled land cannot be used as collateral for securing credit except from non-institutional sources at exorbitant interest rates. This makes such investments unprofitable. Finally, untitled land cannot be sold or legally transferred. Therefore, land continues to be put to inferior use. As a result, those who possess, but do not own the land, remain in poverty, unable either to improve or liquidate the land or even to move away for fear of losing the land.Multiple land ownership, however secure, has detrimental effects on investment analogous to those of insecure tenure. No single joint owner has sufficient incentive to invest in land improvement when he or she knows that all other co-owners have a right to the benefits from his/her investment. A recent joint International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) and University of Wisconsin Land Tenure Center study on the relationships between land tenure and the uptake of alley farming indicated that those with the longest record of continuous alley farming had obtained their land through divided inheritance, i.e. land divided among the heirs, giving each full control over individual parcels of land. In contrast, most farmers who had not adopted alley farming and those who had stopped, obtained their land through undivided inheritance (ILCA, 1991), i.e. land that passes to heirs collectively with the result that no one person has absolute control over any part of the land (multiple ownership).Common property 1 or open access, is an extreme but common case of multiple ownership, whereby every citizen of a country is a joint \"owner\" of the resource. Examples include forest lands, pastures and rangelands. Common property not only inhibits development but also induces \"exploitative\" behaviour. Since everybody's property is nobody's property, no single individual or group has sufficient incentive to either improve or manage the commonly owned resource. To the contrary, the individual has every incentive to deplete the resource as soon as possible as there is no guarantee that whatever he or she leaves unharvested today will be available tomorrow.While insecure ownership and common property or open access are almost certain to lead to mismanagement and waste, secure individual ownership is no guarantee that land will be put to its best use or that the resource will be conserved and properly managed. Uncertainty, political instability, a general feeling of insecurity, shortsightedness and sheer ignorance may induce people to put even securely-owned resources under uses which yield quick profits but deplete the resources needed to sustain productivity.Another reason for suboptimal resource use, especially in poverty areas, is the severe capital constraints faced by farmers combined with highly imperfect and distorted capital markets. The scarcest of resources for farmers, especially in poverty areas, is often not land, but cash for both consumption and investment. The availability of credit and its costs are crucial factors in this regard. In many rural areas, institutional credit is either not available or the poor are not eligible, while non-institutional credit is too costly. Interest rates from informal credit sources are as high as 110% (Lele, 1975). The result is that many farmers are unable to put their land to best use even if they know how and have the incentive to do so. Those farmers, unable to borrow or meet the repayments on borrowed funds, join the ranks of landless labour. They then seek refuge in common access areas which are already susceptible to environmental degradation. Since they rely more than other groups on informal credit markets, smallholders are, in general, discouraged from short-term sacrifices for the sake of future gains. Activities such as applying conservation measures to existing farmland and the clearing of new land for crop or livestock production are, therefore, not practised.Just as policy-induced distortions in rural financial markets result in smallholders' paying high real rates of interest, policy-induced distortions in markets for agricultural commodities result in their receiving low prices for crops and livestock. Influenced by both affluent and poor urban clientele, governments use price controls and other policy instruments to keep food prices cheap. Receiving low prices for crops and livestock, smallholders in SSA are discouraged from investing in natural resource conservation measures.The linkage between exchange rate policy and land resource development is the same as the relationship between pricing policy and the use and management of resources. Setting official exchange rates above market exchange rates discourages the production of agricultural exports. This, in turn, diminishes derived demand for land which discourages individuals from managing existing farmland well.The lack of adequate marketing facilities is another key factor contributing to environmental degradation and low productivity on marginal uplands. The ability of farmers to improve and invest in agroforestry and livestock-based systems relies, in part, on the returns from their marketing efforts. In studying agricultural mechanisation and the evolution of farming systems in SSA, Pingali et al (1987) showed that for a given population density, improved market access caused further intensification of the farming system. Their survey results support the hypothesis that with poor access to markets, extensive forms of farming, such as forest and bush fallow, are usually practised.Research needs for resource management policy are massive. While all market failures and policy issues described above have the same effects-the suboptimal use of land and depletion of resources-it is of paramount importance both from an analytical and policy perspective to distinguish between them. At present, the issue of how resource degradation comes about is still much disputed. Unicausal theories abound and range from placing responsibility on population growth to climatic variations. It is clear from the above discussion that in many, if not most cases, causation is a complex mix of exogenous factors such as climate and exogenous price changes, alterations in the social control over resources, population change and immediate policy factors such as endogenous price changes. Understanding which are more important and how they interact is clearly essential for any policy analysis. Better understanding of the chain of causality leading to severe environmental problems is therefore required in order to identify remedial policies. The following research areas are suggested as those that merit attention.There is need to review the literature and test possible relationships between macro-economic policies and property arrangements. Such studies should encompass: The ultimate target for incentives designed to improve resource management is the household or the farm unit. This is because smallholders, including pastoralists with small herds, are often held responsible for environmental degradation. In recent years, modelling of household behaviour has improved considerably (e.g. Singh et al, 1986), however, modelling of decision making, within the household, relevant to natural resources is still lacking. Particular interest should centre on decisions about fuelwood collection, land use, labour time distribution between subsistence and cash crops, livestock, tree planting and land clearance. What needs investigation is how these decisions are made and what factors influence them. It should then be possible to identify those factors that are open to policy influence and those that are not. Such a modelling exercise should also have regard to gender issues within the household or the farm.A bias against sound environmental management has been encouraged by the difficulty of assessing the monetary value of environmental goods and services. A major limitation of conventional approaches to natural resource economics is their concern with only those resources which directly provide economically valuable productive services, to the exclusion of environmental services such as waste absorption and ecological and life support mechanisms. For example, while it has been possible in some cases to estimate the external benefits which the forests confer upon agriculture, it has been difficult to estimate other positive externalities such as preservation of genetic diversity (Ehui and Hertel, 1989). The challenge that economists face is to devise a more comprehensive approach to cost-benefit analysis where rigorous attention is paid to the non-monetary consequences of investments. More significant improvements in environmental management are likely to result from efforts aimed at integrating environmental concerns into macro-economic and other government policies.Productivity and sustainability measurement R elated to the above is the issue of productivity and sustainability measurement. Agricultural productivity measurement is an important indicator by which technical change is measured. Many studies have been dedicated to the measurement and explanation of technological change. In these studies, however, very limited attention has been given to the environmental effects of changes in production technologies. Given the importance of resource degradation in SSA, conventional productivity measures will be influenced. Thus, there is a need to revise standard productivity measures and to incorporate the environmental effects of agricultural production.In one approach, Ehui and Spencer (1990;1993) merge biological, physical and economic measures into a single economic index of total factor productivity (TFP). TFP is defined as the aggregate index of all outputs produced by the system over one cycle, divided by the aggregate index of all inputs used by the system over the same cycle. In normal practice, the outputs and inputs would comprise those attributes that are recognised as economic variables, namely purchased inputs, labour costs, the value of harvests, etc. Ehui and Spencer (1990;1993) have adjusted this by valuing and costing natural resources used in the system, such as soil nutrients and the costed inputs and outputs are aggregated to give the TFP index. If TFP shows a constraint or upward trend over a period of time and does not fluctuate widely, then the system is sustainable. One advantage of the approach is that the TFP index can be decomposed to determine which factors contribute to the sustainability of the system. Although this approach was strictly applied to cropping systems, there is scope for improving upon it to account for mixed crop-livestock systems. This is a challenge faced by ILCA economists.Economic analysis of policy factors on resource management at farm and national levels can be analysed using mathematical programming models (Bogess and Heady, 1980;Batie and Grumbach, 1983;Kramer and McSweeney, 1983). The parameters for these models can come from various sources. For example, soil erosion rates can be computed using the Universal Soil Loss equation or by direct field measurement. These models can be very effective in uncovering potential long-term implications of various agricultural and conservation policies because they incorporate technical practices as prescribed by scientists.For example, this approach may be useful in the area of economic and environmental trade-offs in crop-livestock systems. It is hypothesised that animals increase overall net productivity and reduce environmental degradation by serving as alternatives to crops on marginal area farms and by utilising crop residues as feed. The need for animal feed often broadens the crop base to include crops that prevent soil erosion (Grove T L, Winrock International, Arkansas, USA, unpublished data). If that is the case, then it is appropriate to ask what price or policy incentives might induce farmers to operate in a manner consistent with national environmental objectives. The problem, however, with the engineering models is that the outcome is conditioned by the technical parameters selected rather than observed behaviour.A behavioural model can help explain the link between various agricultural policies and environmental degradation (e.g. soil erosion, deforestation) on actual, as opposed to \"synthetic\" farms as in the case of engineering models. Recent developments in the economic theory of duality where all economically relevant technological information about a firm indirectly, through a cost or maximum profit function are derived, sound quite attractive. For example, how might commodity prices, taxes or subsidies be expected to affect deforestation or erosion rates?The use of an explicit behavioural approach also facilitates the development of a dynamic model, whereby the farm is assumed to maximise intertemporal profits. This dynamic formulation also gives way to some additional important hypotheses. For example, because forests, soil or livestock are \"stock\" resources which must compete with other investment alternatives, economists hypothesise that the rate at which resources are depleted will depend in part on the real rate of interest. When the latter rises, we expect resource depletion to increase as farmers will attempt to recoup the return on their investment. Where interest rates are relatively constant, this may not be a problem. Once such a behavioural model is developed, it can be utilised to forecast the effect of alternative policy scenarios on crop and livestock mix, input and resource use.Most public policies, whatever their purpose, will have an impact on the environment in some way. Similarly, policies designed explicitly to affect the environment will have impacts elsewhere. The way in which economists would like to capture the various interactions is through the construction of a general equilibrium model, showing how sectors within the economy are interlinked. The technical linkages are best captured by an input-output model. The operational use of such models for simulating public policy has advanced considerably in recent years. Computable general equilibrium models (CGE) should be investigated for policy impacts on the environment.The centre that immediately comes to mind in terms of international policy research is the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). This centre has the mandate to identify and analyse alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting worldwide food needs, with particular emphasis on low-income countries. As such and with a critical mass of policy researchers, IFPRI appears to have a net comparative advantage over commodity oriented centres such as ILCA in conducting policy research. The contribution of IFPRI in policy analysis and research cannot be over-emphasised. However, given its worldwide mandate and its location in Washington, DC, IFPRI does not have the opportunity to address more location-specific issues. It can successfully collaborate with ILCA which can bring to bear its multidisciplinary research teams and the wisdom of its biological scientists.The serious degradation of natural resources in developing countries stems primarily from the cumulative effects of many small agricultural operations. Remedies must include changes in economic policies and incentives to promote sustainable resource use by large and small enterprises and households, and to channel economic and demographic growth into activities that raise incomes while preserving important natural resources. Existing studies on the relationship between government policies and environmental management only serve to underline the importance of these linkages.Population growth explains a large part of depletive human interaction with the natural environment in SSA. However, accepting a simple Malthusian analysis of resource degradation does not leave much room for optimism. Government policies and property arrangements have much to do with the use of natural resources in SSA. As a result, extensive agricultural production on fragile hinterlands, instead of sustainable land intensification, is the principal response to demographic and market shocks. In addition, existing tenure regimes often discourage tree planting and encourage deforestation. Policies and property arrangements must be changed in order to foster environmental conservation.Effective reform is also a challenge because piecemeal changes in policy and property arrangements can be ineffective or counter-productive. For example, if food and timber markets are deregulated but tenurial disincentives for resource conservation remain in place and no investment in research and extension is made, then wasteful exploitation of the countryside is likely to worsen. The chances for environmental conservation are significantly bette r whe n all policies and tenurial arrangements are reformed simultaneously. All these require that a sound analysis of the policy factors affecting environmental degradation be conducted. A few of them have been discussed in this paper. It is hoped these can be of use to foster resource management policy research at ILCA as well as in collaboration with our sister institutes, particularly, IFPRI.ILCA research agendaInternational L ivestock Centre for Africa (IL CA) Nairobi, KenyaAfrica's populations of cattle, sheep and goats have the potential to make greater contributions to economic development and improved self-reliance for rural Africans.Livestock contribute to the supplies of food, skins, traction and animal wastes, the demands for feed and rural labour and serve as substitutes for insurance and credit markets. The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) seeks to increase the absolute magnitude of those contributions and to ensure that those contributions can be sustained over the long term. As an international agricultural research centre, ILCA advances that objective by undertaking policy-related and production-oriented research and by supporting the ability of its national agricultural research systems (NARS) partners to better undertake policy and production research (ILCA, 1987;1992).Since its inception, ILCA has been concerned with the inter-relationships between livestock production and the environment. To be environmentally sustainable, Africa's livestock subsector must develop in ways that are consistent with the long-term productivity of its resources and the long-term viability of its ecological systems. Livestock can have net positive, net negative or ambiguous environmental impacts. On the positive side, it is generally acknowledged that moderate levels of livestock grazing can be beneficial for maintaining a mix of forage species that minimises soil erosion and is most productive in terms of livestock output. Also, in mixed crop/livestock systems, livestock can have positive impacts on nutrient cycling and the processing of organic matter into fuel. On the negative side, \"overgrazing\" by livestock is often seen (perhaps unjustly, as is suggested below) as an important cause of rangeland deterioration.As the only international centre that is solely concerned with African livestock, ILCA has a responsibility to play a lead role in defining the agenda of research issues related to livestock development and environmental policy in Africa. In the next section of this paper a framework appropriate for defining that agenda and for guiding analysis of particular research issues is offered. The following section goes into some detail on how ILCA might approach the specific area of range management policy in the arid and semi-arid areas.To define research priorities on environmental policy issues, ILCA scientists might consider using a procedure with the following steps: A) Identify the resources and ecological systems that are at risk. De Leeuw (1992) presented a matrix of resource pressures and impacts by agro-ecological zone (p. 5) in which he identified certain \"danger areas\" in which \"the human support capacity of land has been or will become insufficient to feed its population and where as a consequence, environmental degradation is likely to be greatest\" (1992: p. 4). Danger areas identified include pasture lands in highly populated areas of the semi-arid and highland zones, water resources in the highlands and forest resources in the lightly populated areas of the subhumid and humid zones.ILCA might consider developing an expanded version of this matrix with greater ecoregional distinctions (both at the pan-African level and the regional level) and an expanded list of resources (including various domesticated and undomesticated genetic resources). The matrix could then be used to prioritise ecological issues for analysis.B) Study the dynamics of resource use that are associated with livestock production and environmental change (James et al, 1990). In particular:• Identify long-term driving forces impacting the rural economy and the biosphere (e.g. population growth, reduction in the power and legitimacy of customary authorities, concentration of livestock wealth in the hands of fewer resident livestock keepers and an increased number of absentee owners, increased importance of market relations, technical changes in animal health and water provision).• Identify future conditions which are likely to cause severe perturbations in those long-term trends (e.g. severe drought, epizootics, liberalisation of output marketing and input delivery systems).• Identify irreversible processes and how they might be related to livestock development and policy (e.g. extinction of species, loss of distinct breeds of West African shorthorn cattle, clearance of ancient forest).C) Within each agro-ecological zone and/or farming system, identify groups of people who pose environmental risks and groups who are at greatest risk from environmental change. For example, livestock producers posing environmental risks might include:• those who earn income by cutting and selling firewood and charcoal from communal forest areas• peri-urban dairy producers located upstream from other users of ground and surface water resources• entrepreneurs who construct new bore holes in areas that formerly were used only for grazing during the wet-season• owners of mixed agropastoral production units who use animal traction to expand cultivation in areas of marginal agricultural land• pastoralists who use state managed water resources without paying adequate attention to the long-term implications of their resource use• absentee herd owners who exploit collectively managed rangeland resources without adhering to the customary institutions regulating their use.People who are at risk from environmental change and the environmental externalities of livestock production include: those who live downstream from peri-urban dairy operations and use water which has been contaminated by upstream users; those who specialise in livestock production and lack access to non-livestock related sources of income; or particular groups, often including poor people and women, who are reliant on communally managed resources but lack the voice to influence decisions affecting the way those resources are managed or used. D) Identify the economic, institutional or political factors that contribute to the environmental problem. For example,• people who utilise benefit streams generated by resources may feel that their property rights are insecure or ambiguous• people may largely ignore the future consequences of their current actions if they have difficulty achieving subsistence levels of consumption in current periods or if there are constraints on the credit or insurance markets• individuals in the current generation of resource users, unless they have a strong bequest motive, will tend to discount the consequences of current resource use on future generations• the state may have declared itself to be the sole \"owner\" of resources without having the managerial capacity or legitimate authority to effectively manage the use of those resources• environmental goods, such as clear air or water, are public goods which will never be supplied to an optimal level by private decision makers• certain individuals or groups may be taking advantage of new institutional arrangements to extract increased economic rents or other forms of social, economic or political power.E) Identify the types of policy instruments that can be used to advance environmental objectives, their actual and potential impacts and those that have the greatest potential to be effective. Policy instruments can be grouped into regulations, property rights, fiscal policies and provision of public goods.African governments, following colonial precedents, have tended to address potential environmental risks by enacting laws and regulations specifying what rural residents may do, what they may not do and what punishments will be imposed for deviant behaviour. Lesotho's grazing regulations and the West African forestry codes are examples. However, those same governments tend to be very inefficient in their enforcement of most regulations. In Lesotho, it appears that the government may be most effective in enforcing opening dates and closing dates for the mountain rangelands and least effective in enforcing restrictions on the number of livestock that may be grazed (Lawry 1990;Swallow 1990).Resource use is crucially dependent upon the rights or entitlements that individuals and groups have to the streams of benefits emanating from natural resources and the duties that others have to respect those rights. African governments can play key roles in defining and protecting property rights and enforcing duties. Important questions are: (a) How will property rights be protected by property rules, liability rules, or inalienability rules? With property rule protection, an agent Alpha may not take actions that interfere with another agent Beta without Beta's consent. With liability rule enforcement, Alpha may take actions that interfere with Beta, but must compensate Beta for damages. And with inalienability rule enforcement, Alpha may not interfere with Beta under any circumstances (Bromley 1991: p. 46). In Africa, traditional governance systems tend to rely very heavily on liability rules; (b) Should rights be held by individuals, groups of individuals or the state? (c) What social and/or political units should have the authority and responsibility to enforce rights and rules related to resource use? (d) What conditions should be placed on the rights of individuals and groups? Fiscal policies are favoured policy instruments in industrialised countries for stimulating private individuals to make resource use decisions that are consistent with the public interest. Fiscal policies can affect output prices or factor prices through tariffs, subsidies, export promotion activities, guaranteed prices or tax exemptions. In addition, fiscal policies can promote certain resource usages through direct subsidies. For example, the US Conservation Reserve Program is a subsidy programme that stimulates individual farmers to remove the most erodible lands from agricultural production. To achieve their objectives, however, taxes and subsidies must be administered fairly and at low cost. Accountability is essential.Government investments in public infrastructure can have positive environmental impacts. For example, public marketing infrastructure can help livestock owners to destock before and during periods of drought and restock after those periods. More obvious, however, are the instances in which government investments have negative impacts. Roads through forest areas usually lead to greater exploitation, and often over-exploitation, of the forest resources that are thus made more accessible. Publicly owned bore holes have contributed to the over-exploitation of former dry season grazing areas in such countries as Senegal, Botswana and Niger.F) Establish research priorities, identify potential collaborators and identify the Centre's comparative advantage. Because of ILCA's location between research conducted in the more developed countries and the problems of African livestock owners, ILCA policy analysts generally have a comparative advantage in operationalising and testing the concepts and theories that are developed in the more developed countries. For example, Ehui and Spencer (1990) have operationalised the total factor productivity approach for analysing the sustainability of cropping systems.Four issues that are likely to be identified as deserving high priority for ILCA's environmental policy research are: (1) range management policy, especially in the arid and semi-arid areas;(2) disease control policy in the humid and subhumid areas; (3) policies promoting the development and extension of agroforestry and improved fallow techniques in the semi-arid and subhumid areas; and (4) soil and water protection policies in situations of intensified animal production. In the remainder of this paper I discuss range management policy in some detail.The myth that communal rangelands will be over-grazed and that overgrazing will invariably lead to irreversible deterioration in rangeland quality, was supported by theories developed by western economists and range managers in the 1950s and 1960s. For an entire generation, that myth has influenced the way that livestock and range management projects and policies were designed and implemented. Very few of these projects or policies have been declared to be successes. Many, in fact, have been declared economic, social and ecological failures.The myth, the theories that support it and the policies it has promoted, have been slow to die. Since the early 1980s, a mass of empirical evidence has accumulated to challenge both the alleged \"inefficiency\" of common property rangeland institutions and the alleged \"degradation\" of Africa's commonly managed rangelands. Alone, however, such empirical evidence has not been sufficient to debunk such clever cliches as \"the tragedy of the commons\" (Hardin, 1968).In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, alternative conceptual frameworks have emerged to replace the \"succession-retrogression\" model of range ecology. The empirical work of ILCA scientists has been key to the development of the \"state-transition\" or \"persistent non-equilibrial\" models of rangeland systems. O n the resource management side, Sandford's (1982) model of \"opportunistic management\" has proven to be invaluable in challenging the simple \"tragedy of the commons\" model of resource management. Policy makers still encounter difficulties, however, in devising positive interventions to serve the interests of livestock owners and ensure the protection of Africa's rangelands. ILCA is well placed to undertake further conceptual and empirical studies on the management of common property resources. The Centre is also well placed to provide intellectual leadership to the NARS and the international donors as they search for more appropriate resource management policies and programmes.To help us think through the potential role for ILCA is this area, I present very brief summaries of the \"old\" models of range ecology and range tenure, the main criticisms regarding the applicability of those models and the \"new\" models that are now emerging.In very simple terms, the old range ecology assumes that each area of rangeland has a single state, called the climax, that it will eventually achieve if subjected to no grazing pressure. A rangeland that is lightly stocked will succeed along a smooth sequence of states toward the climax, while a range that is heavily stocked will retrogress through those states away from the climax. The carrying capacity of the range is exceeded-the range is overstocked and there is rangeland degradation-if the grazing pressure is so high that the range retrogresses away from the climax state.In recent years, a number of range ecologists (e.g. Ellis and Swift 1988;Westoby et al, 1989) have offered propositions that challenge the applicability of the old model to African rangelands. Those propositions can be summarised into the following: (P1) On African rangelands, there tends to be an inverse relationship between mean rainfall and the temporal and spatial variation in rainfall.(P2) Rangelands are not spatially homogeneous but rather are comprised of various \"patches\" and \"key resources.\" Certain patches may be grazed 10 or 20 times as heavily as other areas. Patch use varies across years and seasons (Scoones, 1989).(P3) The concept of rangeland carrying capacity is of little use for rangeland management policy. The appropriate stocking rate for an area of rangeland depends upon variable climatic conditions and upon the production system and management objectives of those who use the rangeland (Caughley, 1979;Bell, 1985).(P4) The \"succession\" model of range ecology-in which the concept of carrying capacity plays a key role-is only appropriate for conceptualising \"equilibrial\" range systems with perennial grasses, high levels of soil nutrients, high rainfall and relatively little temporal variation in rainfall.(P5) The \"state-transition\" model is more appropriate for conceptualising \"persistent non-equilibrial\" range systems. Non-equilibrium rangelands are dominated by annual grasses, receive relatively little rainfall and are kept in perpetual disequilibrium by episodic climatic events. The state-transition model assumes that each rangeland has several discrete and relatively stable states or vegetation communities. Transitions between states can be triggered by substantial changes in weather, fire, or perhaps less often, grazing pressure (Westoby et al, 1989;Dodd, 1991).(P6) The concept of degradation should be re-evaluated f or non-equilibrium rangeland systems. For changes in a rangeland to be called \"degradation,\" they should be long-term and have negative impacts on the capability of the rangeland to produce economically important products.(P7) For non-equilibrium systems, livestock/rangeland policies should be devised that facilitate \"opportunistic management\" (Sandford, 1982) of the variable forage and water resources.New range management and tenure theoryRange management policy needs to account for more than ecological realities. It also needs to consider the economic, social and institutional dynamics that shape the policy environment. This is where ILCA policy research comes in. Policy makers need new concepts and models of rangeland tenure and rangeland management.In very simple terms, the old theory of range management and range tenure is that African livestock owners are forever driven to accumulate more and more livestock. When those people have access to collectively used rangelands, this accumulation is only constrained by their ability to breed and purchase new animals, by periodic droughts and by diseases such as rinderpest and trypanosomiasis. According to this model, the only way to limit the overgrazing that this promotes is to introduce people to the market value of their livestock and confine each individual's livestock to his/her own individual plot of land.The new theory is based on more careful analysis of livestock owners' incentives, the operations of common property regimes and the impacts of governments. Sandford's (1982) proposition about the potential benefits of \"opportunistic management\" is a central tenet of the new theory. Also important are the studies that have shown that African livestock owners are very rational in using their animals as credit and insurance market substitutes (Fratkin, 1986;Swinton, 1986). Some of the analysts who have challenged the applicability of the open access model have offered new theoretical models of common property (Runge, 1981;Runge, 1985). In Swallow (1991), I argue that the common property regimes for African rangeland resources are comprised of diverse constellations of rights, rules, conventions and contracts. To understand the operations of those institutions, one must consider the governance structures on which they are based, the nature of the dynamic interactions between resource users, the incentives of individual resource users and the incentives of those individuals and agencies who are charged to enforce the terms of the institutions.Where would researchers interested in range management policy go with these new concepts and models? Several propositions from the theoretical and applied literature that have implications for the development of range management policy have been distilled and are presented below.(P1) The more variable their environmental conditions, the more mobile, flexible and diverse-opportunistic in Sandford's terminology-livestock owners' strategies must be. In highly variable environments, livestock owners will favour strategies that maximise flexibility in their management practices, market transactions, portfolio choices and institutional transactions (Swallow, 1990). Livestock owners will have reason to react against policies that attempt to restrict their mobility and flexibility.(P2) The structure of livestock ownership has changed dramatically in the last twenty years. In many places there has been a democratisation of ownership that has reduced the power of traditional authorities. In most places there has also been a centralisation of ownership among livestock owners and across Africa there has been an increase in absentee ownership of livestock. Traders, government employees and urban workers are increasingly becoming the new class of livestock owners (Little, 1985). Policies must take account of the diversity of interests among livestock owners.(P3) African governments have generally proved to be ineffective in managing rangeland resources as state property. Policies should be encouraged that support individual or group rights to commonly-used resources.(P4) Governments may have important roles to play in the definition and protection of the property rights of groups and individuals. With population increase and economic and institutional changes occurring elsewhere in society, the customary property rights of livestock owning groups are generally being undermined (Shanmugaratnam et al, 1991). In such situations, governments can play important roles in defining the \"boundaries\" of common property regimes.(P5) Governments can provide research and extension support to livestock owners and others to facilitate the opportunistic management of rangeland resources exhibiting high spatial and temporal variability. Research needs to be redirected to be consistent with the new models of rangeland ecology and rangeland tenure.(P6) Governments, or perhaps more appropriately non-governmental organisations (NGOs), can play roles to protect the interests of livestock owners who are most vulnerable to the effects of drought. Even when they lose all of their livestock capital in droughts, pastoralists still have great capability to take advantage of favourable post-drought ecological conditions. R estocking programmes may be the most cost-effective form of famine relief in many circumstances (Hogg, 1987). C: It is not just the model that needs to be changed, but the framework as well.Q: What do you expect to get out of range management work in the arid areas?A: ILCA's mandate is not only to increase milk and meat production. We have a responsibility to the resources and the people. There are many vulnerable people in the area. The question is, what can we do to help these vulnerable groups?C: If ILCA's goal is to reduce poverty, then identifying the factors contributing to environmental degradation and poverty are important and the Centre has a role to play here. Therefore, it is key to identify policy factors that will help alleviate poverty in those areas.Q: How can you address poverty if you do not address production?A: Protecting the environment is a way of improving productivity.C: There are some differences in the arid and semi-arid zones that could be technologically exploited. Keeping people in agriculture could help reduce poverty for producers and consumers.C1: If there is alleviation of poverty, it will be among consumers. If producers incomes rise, it will be because they leave and go elsewhere.C2: Regarding priorities, ILCA has a comparative advantage to look at the physical mechanisms/processes of resource degradation. This is the basis for doing policy research.C: I do not agree that livestock production increases consumer income by reducing prices.C: Donors want to promote productive employment provided it is within the Centre's mandate. Much of the work on rural contractual arrangements is superficial.C: I agree that we know little about the physical processes of degradation. In Ethiopia, the causes of desertification are being identified and the extent of degradation has been evaluated. There is a lack of information regarding what should be conserved.ILCA could have a role to play here.C: Monitoring is another area of comparative advantage for ILCA. ILCA has been in the forefront using remote sensing data. We have mainly used it in the Sahel. We have developed close collaboration with those using remote sensing as a tool of measurement.Q: Regarding Dr. Ehui's presentation on behavioural models, we have done a lot of behavioural studies with cattle. How does this type of knowledge get integrated into the economists' behavioural model? What is the connection between the two?A: The economist's model is used to explain the behaviour of people.Q: How do we link the micro-and macro-level work?A: It depends.C: Do not forget about human resources. There are many people in these zones with a great deal of knowledge. They should be consulted/involved when we talk about livestock policy research. They can help us set our agenda and provide valuable information regarding technology and the transfer of technology.C1: I am concerned that our focus on policy research is on the arid areas alone. I think we should expand our horizon.C2: The Fulani, Maasai and Borana all epitomise pastoralism under dry land conditions. Fifty years from now, they are likely to still be traditional rather than be part of a market economy. They may stay out of a cash based economy. We do not know what to do until we commit ourselves to a vision of the future.C: It is a complex issue. It is hard to know how they will change.C: Many Fulani have been integrated into a market economy for a long time. My question would be, how will they diversify? The point is to look at how groups are evolving.C: This is a researchable issue and an area where sociology is needed.C: The greatest pay-off from land tenure studies will be in the highlands, subhumid and humid zones, not necessarily in the arid zones.C: The problem of resource management and degradation is in all areas. ILCA, however, may be the only centre looking at these issues in the arid zone. Thus, we may, in fact, have the greatest comparative advantage for work in the arid zone. As the context in which livestock activities take place and to which they ultimately must respond, the macro-economic environment plays a crucial role in the development of the national livestock sector. In addition, macro-economic policy conditions opportunities for trade and may thereby facilitate expansion of the livestock sector, or conversely, limit sectoral growth. In the presentations made by invited speakers and during subsequent discussion, the following trade and macro-economic policy issues were highlighted as being of particular consequence for sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) livestock sector development:1) Structural adjustment/liberalisation 2) Regional economic integration3) The evolving comparative advantage of various SSA countries in different livestock products The working group evaluated each of the above policy issues with respect to its comparative need for research. It deselected the following issues for the indicated reasons:• impediments to trade: these are well known and documented • harmonisation of regional macro-economic policies: may be considered an integral part of regional economic integration • preparation of a directory of livestock markets and marketing institutions: this is not a strategic research issue per se • world market conditions: work of this kind is already being carried out by other institutions• improving data: while unanimously agreed to be in need of greater attention and financial support, it cannot generally be deemed a research activity • encouraging price policy reform: perceived as a component of structural adjustment impact research• land policy reform: more appropriately addressed as a resource management policy issue.The group appraised the remaining research issues in terms of their priority for research, and for each articulated: the underlying need for this particular research, the institutions either working on these issues or best qualified to do so, ILCA's comparative advantage and envisioned role in the subject area and opportunities for collaboration. Group deliberations established the following set of research priorities, based on the stated justifications.Priority 1: The effects of structural adjustment/liberalisation on livestock production but concentrating on supply and demand effects resulting from changes in economic incentives and constraints.Structural adjustment is already a reality for many sub-Saharan African countries. While its impacts on the public sector may be documented, specific research is needed on potential Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) impacts on the livestock subsector. Research on producer supply response would be expected to provide greater insight regarding the constraints that inhibit producer response. This would then afford policy makers a clearer view of the structural changes necessary to stimulate the livestock sector. The International Bank for R econstruction and Development (IBRD), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (ADB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are involved in this area, and all constitute potential partners for collaboration. The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), however, has superior understanding of the biological and technical issues surrounding livestock production which are required to fully assess SAP impacts on the livestock subsector.Priority 2: The effects of and impediments to freer regional trade via economic integration.The emergence of regional trade agreements and economic communities such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Preferential Trade Areas (PTA) and the European Economic Community (EEC), bear testimony to renewed interest in economic integration. Especially if European efforts are successful, there will be strong incentive for African countries to form countervailing economic unions. Beneficial integration will require informed policy decisions. Policy research would include projecting changes in national comparative advantage in livestock production enterprises over time (i.e. dynamic comparative advantage) as well as identifying \"winners and losers\" from removal of existing trade impediments. Analysis of the arguments for and against protective tariff barriers around these regional economic systems would also be required. The Southern African Centre for Cooperation in Agricultural Research (SACCAR), the newly formed African E conomic Community (AE C) and the U nited Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are already examining the consequences of regional integration. Again, however, ILCA's biological and technical expertise makes it an invaluable partner in the assessment of potential costs and benefits of such arrangements with regard to national and regional livestock industries. Considerable work on food demand in SSA has been undertaken by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). However, relatively little attention has been devoted specifically to animal product demand. Consequently, ILCA's data bases and understanding in this area are poor. Thorough understanding of the effects on livestock product demand due to macro-economic policy adjustments affecting relative prices of beef, mutton, fish and other foods, requires knowledge of demand structures. This information will also be needed to complete our understanding of micro-level impacts on household consumption. On yet another level, understanding the complexities of market segmentation can provide useful insight into the distributional effects of changes in macro-economic variables. Knowledge of the geographical attributes of different consumption patterns will provide further understanding about the distributional effects of policy change and may guide locational decisions for livestock development. IFPRI's substantial data bases and its proven expertise in food policy analysis, identify it as the lead partner in this area of research; ILCA's need for estimates of demand for different livestock products necessitate its involvement.Coping with variability as a result of drought and world market fluctuations Cyclical droughts and down-turns in world prices for livestock products have had catastrophic consequences for SSA's livestock owners. Currently, there are no effective policy mechanisms for softening the blows of these events, though the potential benefits of such mechanisms would be substantial. Perhaps livestock policy research could borrow aspects of crop insurance schemes or STABEX (Export Stabilization System) lending to devise means of protecting livestock owners against these periodic phenomena. Ideas on this subject could be explored together with the International International Monetary Fund (IMF), IFPRI, or individual specialists, e.g. P. Hazell.The issue of credit is often put forth as an impediment to livestock technology adoption. Still others contend that formal lending institutions cannot compete with indigenous informal credit institutions for their efficiency. Further research needs to be done in order to clarify these and other credit-related issues. ILCA's technical expertise and its interest in the adoption of the livestock technologies which it has developed-and will develop in the future-give it a comparative advantage in this area. Likely partners in this area of research are national agricultural finance institutions, universities and perhaps more interestingly, non-governmental organisations involved in livestock promotion, such as Heifer Project International.The above review of possible research issues and of ILCA's role in that research suggests that trade and macro-economic policy should not be a major focus for ILCA. However, the Centre does have a role to play in facilitating and supporting analysis of livestock-related issues in the first three broad topics listed above. ILCA must redouble its efforts to develop or identify appropriate policy analysis tools through its own research and make sure the ability to use these tools is transferred to national policy analysts. One approach suggested for transferring these analytical tools is to include analytical appendices in all of ILCA's research publications.The group unanimously agreed that some central repository for African livestock data was needed and that it would be most desirable if this data could be standardised. It was suggested that ILCA spearhead this effort by defining a standard set of data needed to conduct livestock policy research. It could then contact other livestock monitoring agencies, e.g. FAO, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) etc to discuss gaps in existing data and how to go about filling them. In the meantime, ILCA should continue with its present approach to African livestock data collection, i.e. down-loading FAO data tapes and augmenting these with available national data.The body of African livestock policy analysts appears too small to merit transforming African Livestock Policy Analysis Network (ALPAN) to a collaborative research network. Alternatively, perhaps ALPAN could be used to fund existing regional research journals. At the very least, the hope was expressed that ALPAN would serve the function of keeping African livestock policy analysts informed about research in progress.Q: What kind of policies/benefits are likely to come out of these research efforts? Q: Can you repeat the issue of credit and technology uptake?A: Credit plays a role in the adoption of livestock technology and sustainability. It is an important area of research but should not be accorded priority above variability and control. Some of the group members thought that informal credit markets are more efficient at present.A: There was a split in the group regarding whether credit was still an open question or well researched. In the end, there was no consensus. Thus, we said maybe more research is important.C: Credit, variability and livestock production may be issues more important to Group 2. I am not sure that this is a macro-level problem. The biggest issue in terms of variability and livestock production is the poverty dimension which is a more micro-level issue. Additionally, if credit was perceived as a macro-level issue, it would need to be viewed for individual situations.Q: Given the movement towards structural adjustment and liberalisation, do you think that a secondary data base is sufficient to move into sectoral analysis?A: No, but we need to recognise that this is an important issue. This will help tease out non-price effects. I do not think this will be a major role for ILCA.Q: Which issues on your list are priority areas for ILCA?A: The group consensus was that ILCA should look at the livestock sector while the World Bank could look at structural adjustment on a global level. ILCA has a comparative advantage in terms of biology and technology issues. The concern is that the livestock sector will be overlooked unless we somehow get involved, i.e. as a junior partner.C: This sounds like an affirmation for multidisciplinary input. Would the group allow for ILCA to serve as facilitator and identify expertise? On the statement made that benefits from livestock development are small, I would argue that compared to crops, livestock development has done well. Development has been low because the financial input has been low.C: We were thinking more in terms of policy output. Maybe we do not have a comparative advantage in macro-economics and trade policy.C1: ILCA does have a comparative advantage in terms of regional trade issues. To understand these issues, they must be backed up with solid micro-and farm-level information that ILCA does have. This may be done with other groups. The producer price response was de-emphasised by the group because the non-price structures were viewed as more important.C2: In terms of demand for livestock products, ILCA should not enter into demand projections. So much is already done. Since demand will not run out for some time to come, it should be left alone as a researchable issue.C: A great deal of work is going on in reference to regional trade markets. ILCA should consider this work.Q1: How high a priority should research on regional trade be for ILCA? Would it have high enough impact in terms of policy implications?Q2: In terms of demand projections, one point to consider is the location(s) and nature of the demand. Could this be a researchable issue?A2: Yes, but this should be done by national institutions.Q: Does FAO, rather than ILCA, have a comparative advantage as a data base clearinghouse?A: The group suggested that a repository be developed and standardised but we did not specify/suggest that it be ILCA.C: FAO is an intergovernmental organisation. They are less likely to support non-governmental data unless it is supported by governments. ILCA is in a better position to do this.C: Should ILCA be archiving data? The Centre should not compete with FAO but it has a comparative advantage in terms of collecting primary data on livestock production.If the data could be standardised and made available, then archiving becomes an issue. Do we have proper documentation? Such a data base would be useful.Q: Does the Livestock Information Management System (LIMS) have this capacity?A: The package is so flexible in defining variables, that it can serve many purposes, including archiving.C: The quality of livestock data is abysmal. To do policy analysis with this data is questionable.Q: I detect some hesitation to push forward the collection of primary data. Is this an accurate perception?A: At all locations, primary data collection is taking place.A: There is no reluctance-rather, a recognition that it has been difficult to pool information from surveys for cross-site comparisons. As we get better at these comparisons, more will come out. Our networks are also contracting to carry out surveys.C: ILCA's role in the collection of national statistics has been useful.Q: Can you say more about policy analysis tools?C: The key point may be training and information, not policy tools and instruments.C: National institutions need new tools and models for analysis. We need to help policy analysts access information etc so that they may do this type of research on their own. ILCA cannot take a lead on macro-policy but there is room for collaboration, advisory services etc. Making a distinction between policy and other types of economics research in the areas of technology, institutions and markets is not meaningful. Micro-level research in these areas should be linked with addressing policy questions so that the policy implications of the micro-work become clear.The following areas and topics are considered priorities for the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) economics research in the coming years.Species and commodities that are of importance in fulfilling ILCA's objectives are those that have the potential to increase production and improve the welfare of farmers and the urban poor. The framework for determining the potential impact of research on specific species and commodities should include consideration of the following factors that influence the potential for change:• enterprise location: market access; rural/urban impact (target populations)• enterprise scale: potential for economies of scale• degree of specialisation: mixed to specialised.This ex ante evaluation work should be carried out by agro-ecological zone to identify species and commodities as well as technologies that ILCA should be working on. This can be collaborative work carried out with national agricultural research systems (NARS). The specifics of how this work should be carried out can best be determined jointly by ILCA and NARS.Topics of importance that should be investigated within this framework include: Research on these topics can be policy-oriented and not necessarily technology research.How price and non-price factors influence technological change.• Factor markets land tenure credit -labour Price policies and institutional factors indirectly affect technology adoption through the factor markets.• Output markets input and product prices non-price factors (quality, infrastructure, market efficiency) More emphasis should be given to non-price factors since much progress has been made in recent years to remove price distortions. Furthermore, there is a need to advance the theoretical and empirical study of non-price factors.This is an important issue for livestock development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, given that this is a new area of research for a commodity-focused research institute such as ILCA, the group recommends an exploratory approach making use of a post-doctoral or visiting scientist with a social science specialisation. It is essential, however, that the trial period for this exploratory work be not less than two years since it takes time to understand the relationships involved and carry out this type of political science research. It is recommended that this work be carried out collaboratively with institutions such as the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) and national institutions that have this type of expertise.Priority research topics should include: This important area of research would explore the implications of consumption patterns for livestock policy. It should begin by exploiting existing data sets for sites in SSA, collected by ILCA and other research organisations, including NARS. This is a prime area for collaboration with IFPRI.Gender issues were not specifically identified as a separate priority area of research. Although the working group recognises that gender issues, as well as issues related to other family member relations, are often critical in the area of technology, institutions, markets and policy research, it was felt that these are best considered within each of the priority research areas where they are hypothesised to be relevant. Gender and family relations should be understood and incorporated as needed into ILCA research.The working group considered at length the effectiveness of present endeavours and possible areas of modification. The group concluded that both are successful at achieving their current objectives and could not be easily modified to achieve other objectives, such as providing research training and promoting collaborative research.It is recommended that one way in which ILCA could provide further research training and promote collaborative research would be by institutionalising short-term training as a part of collaborative research projects. Thus, when a collaborative research project is identified, collaborating NARS scientists could be brought to ILCA for short periods for project planning, methodology training etc.Q: Within ILCA, we are overwhelmed with areas of potentially highly significant impact.Did this group consider a better alternative to ALPAN and the training course? Drop them and move money to areas of potentially high impact?A1: We do not think there is high impact from ILCA's training of policy analysts through the present course. A better approach is to bring in collaborators to receive training in order to help them carry out research. This is better than bringing in people for general training. However, the opportunity costs of collaborative training for ILCA scientists are high.A2: By providing solid conceptual training (the existing training course), there is pay-off. The communication link provided by ALPAN is also seen as important.C: It is a good question. There are many institutions doing policy analysis. Using national collaborators is the key. Returns on quality and costs should, however, be improved.Q: I mis-stated myself. It is not the difference between policy research and other research.It is these two activities themselves. Does the group recommend that these two non-research activities be continued?A: They should be kept but transfer costs to another account.C: With your points on political economy, with no comparative advantage, we become viewed as facilitators of relationships rather than a research institution.C: The political economy of NARS is definitely a research issue. C: ILCA has comparative advantage for looking at linkages between technology generation and technology transfer. ISNAR could take the latter aspect-diffusion.C: You have to understand the technology in order to analyse it.Q: When analysing market structure, did you decide it was not important to look at output markets?A: We are interested in output markets but recommend concentrating on non-price factors.  Following the mandate given it by the conference organisers, the group also considered several selected issues related to ILCA's research on environmental policy.1. African Livestock Policy Analysis Network (ALPAN)-It is recommended that ILCA continue to support ALPAN as an information exchange forum. The editors might encourage contributions on topical issues and recommend that certain contributions be referred to relevant journals such as African L ivestock Research.  5. Methodologies-The group focused on disciplinary needs for this research programme. Research on resource tenure will especially need to draw upon various social science disciplines since it is recognised that the way that resource tenure institutions operate and evolve depends upon a variety of social, economic and political factors. Agricultural economists, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, ecologists and all of the biological sciences represented at ILCA would be necessary for the research programme to be a success. Where ILCA lacks the appropriate expertise, collaboration must be sought.C: We are heading towards a general restructuring of our concept of ecology, rangelands, savannahs. While some of our system studies may be out of date, it might be important to look at this again.Q: If so many people are working in this area, where does ILCA have a comparative advantage?A: We can catalyse-act as facilitators.C: You have to justify your investment in anthropology/sociology etc and indicate what you will get out of these disciplines in the future.C: In order to protect at the national level, there is work that should be done at the community level. Also, under point 3, it might be important to examine community behaviour; look at how externalities effect community level behaviour.Q : U nde r point 2, did you e xamine non-e conomic factors? D id you look at macro-economic and non-economic issues?A: It was raised in discussions in terms of rent seeking, but this is not reflected in the group recommendations.Q: What is the expected output of these suggestions?A: In part, enhancement of local tenure reforms, micro-level research etc.C: Regarding the inclusion of social scientists, I have problems with nutritionists and social scientists. I agree with an earlier comment-they are academics and do not relate to the real world. Both animal and social scientists have proved to be a block to the development process in the tropics.C: Social scientists should come into an institution with a more problem-oriented basis and background (e.g. community studies).C: Successful policy research is that which forces people to change policies. Therefore, target your audience. You could do very good academic research, but have no impact.C: I have worked in multidisciplinary teams; there is a need for dialogue between biological and social scientists. When we deal with non-economic factors, who is going to do the work-e.g. understand community behaviour? Unless we have this information, I doubt we will get very far in our efforts.Q: In terms of soil loss in relation to expansion of cash crops and the loss of nutrition, would it be possible to find ways of avoiding the negative effects beforehand?C: My observation is that although we have talked about soil erosion as a problem, when we speak of resource use, we talk about how government puts resources to use. We do not have an understanding of the resources themselves. We need to better understand the capabilities of the resources before we attend to their uses.C: We looked at each of the areas and discussed whether or not appropriate work had been done in the area. My opinion is that a good deal of work is needed in the area of soil erosion.","tokenCount":"50751"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"629727cbc007b3b0130833ebf5871600","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ad8f2026-fbec-4a0c-825b-63588673d9b7/retrieve","id":"1960809353"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"644c320e-fdb9-45c6-8f52-de215ccb3a5d","pagecount":"6","content":"Keep, improve, and, if necessary, regenerate the grazed ecosystem of Colombia's Eastern Plains (or Llanos), in the context of intensifying the introduction of new technologies, particularly forages and agro pastoral systems (rice-pasture).The Eastern Plains of Colombia are located between the Andes Mountains to the west, the Amazonian rain forest to the east and south, and Venezuela to the north. These pastures are called \"tropophilous\" savannas, treeless or \"clean\" savannas. intersected by gallery forests over a narrow band along rivers (Map 1 l.Ten to twelve percent of this area is improved pasture grasses and some legumes, with the area in improved pastures increasing regularly (Map 2, Table 1 l.These native pastures have low productivity (3-4 t DM/ha/yr) and fair quality due to very poor soils and species with bad palatability and low forage value.Because of the importance of livestock and low stocking rates. as well as large native pasture areas and their poverty, it is essential to maintain or improve the use of these natural pastures and, if necessary, regenerate them, since all this area cannot become forages (especially in the Serranía and poorly drained Altillanural.Normally, the climatic conditions of Colombia's Eastern Plains (rainfall, 2000 mm per year, with a rainy season of eight months or more; an annual mean temperature of 24°C; relative humidity of 80% in the rainy season and 50%-60% in the dry season; relatively well-drained soils) would lead to a physiognomic form of shrub savanna (and/or a tree savanna) or a foresto However, clean savanna (or a very limited shrub sa\\tanna) and gallery forest can now be seen.This physiognomy can be explained by natural conditions (fertility and hydric soil conditionsl, by the action of the pastures and, particularly, men and animals (deforestation, fire, forage).Fire, regrowths'\" low productivity 5.In this context, our objectives will be to:1.Increase the basic knowledge of the native savanna of Colombia's Eastern Plains:Complete the inventory of flora (biodiversity). Establish the typology of the savanna and bases for mapping (using satellite images). Determine palatability, quality, and productivity of local species and pastoral value of savannas.Better understand and explain the reasons for the present physiognomic form (fire climax) and the botanical composition of vegetation of these plains in order to avoid more degradation and, if possible, improve soil fertility, pasture productivity and quality.Study productivity, quality and, in particular, the dynamics (or stability) of different types of vegetation managed with fire, rotation, rest and, stocking rateo 4.Propase new systems to manage native and improved pastures adapted to natural and improved conditions that will allow amelioration or at least stability (in a farming system). These systems will avoid pasture degradation (decrease of the best local and exotic species, erosion, etc.).  (4). The vegetation is poor in good, productive legumes but quite rich in frequency.Ecology and inventoryIn the Carimagua region, we made a pilot study of vegetation ecology character.ization and the inventory of the vegetation units Twenty vegetation groups were identified. These twenty groups where reduced to eight ecological groups. Each group is characterized by characteristic species and edafic specifications. We have mapped this region. With the help of satellite images.Vegetation of the Llanos. According to management practices. SPOT Sate/lite Image. CNIICA/CIAT window, Carimagua/Colombia:Vegetation classes and management practices 1.Recent burning (0-1 month), bare soíl + ashes 2.Recent burning (1-2 monthsL bare soil without ashes 3.Savanna > 5 months after burning. Clay soils 4.Open savanna (soil visible: ant-hills) degraded and cultivated pastures overgrazed 5.Savanna > 5 months after burning. Sandylimo-soils with Schizachyrium hirtiflorum 6.Sare soils or recent ploughing 7.Wet grassland Oowlands) 8.Dry savannas (very old burning) 9.Gallery forest 10.Vegetation classes and management practices 1.Regrowth after burning during the dry season (dense chlorophyll savanna) 2.Savanna;:: 1 year after burning 3.Savanna;:: 1 year after burning (with more chlorophyll than 2). 4.Dry savanna with important biomass (very old burning, > 1 year)Open savanna, young savanna well grazed or degraded cultivated pastures (soil visible) 6.Wet lowlands + subsidence zones of river and lake 7.Young savanna, young or degraded cultivated pastures 8.Bare soil or degraded cultivated pasture 9.Gallery forest + lowlands near the rivers 10. Free water lIake) + large rivers Dutch students are assisting with so me preliminary studies of the vegetation in the undulating \"serranía\" savannas with the aim of relating the species composition to management practices and soil type.A student from the University of Paris conducted a preliminary survey of soil macro-fauna under native pastures compared with gallery forest, improved pasture and severa! crops. Compared with the gallery forest, the savanna had lower diversity and numbers of macro-fauna. An old Brachiaria decumbens/Kudzu pasture maintained the diversity and dramatically increased the populations of earthworms. In contrast, crops of rice, and especially cassava, almost eliminated macro-fauna.","tokenCount":"772"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"40e49ec863a582b13481c28afc14da77","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d92cf856-7a0e-494e-b385-eb1988c3b4be/content","id":"-742833971"},"keywords":["Colorimetric method","modi cation","Quality protein maize (QPM)","lysine"],"sieverID":"f4a8aa11-159c-4b44-93d7-e1470cdde7db","pagecount":"5","content":"Los maíces (Zea Mays L.) de alta calidad proteínica (ACP) tienen mayor contenido de lisina y triptófano, dos aminoácidos esenciales que normalmente están presentes en bajas cantidades en el grano de maíz. La metodología colorimétrica que se usa actualmente para monitorear el contenido de lisina en el grano de maíz es costosa y poco reproducible. El presente trabajo es una modi cación a la metodología para la determinación colorimétrica de lisina en grano completo de maíz. Se hizo una reducción de reactivos costosos como el acetato de etilo, reducción de riesgos al personal que se encarga de desarrollar este análisis por la disminución en la emisión de residuos contaminantes, y reducción de pasos para desarrollar la curva de calibración, lo cual aumenta la capacidad de análisis por día. La metodología descrita se validó por comparación con la metodología colorimétrica de referencia y con NIR, y se obtuvieron coe cientes de determinación (R 2 ) de 0.97 y de 0.85, respectivamente. El método desarrollado es económico, preciso y rápido, y puede ser usado para la determinación de lisina en un gran número de muestras durante los programas de mejoramiento.Palabras clave: Método colorimétrico, modi cación, maíz de alta calidad proteínica (ACP), lisina.El maíz (Zea mays L.) juega un papel importante en la nutrición humana y animal. El grano de maíz aporta entre 15 y 56 % de la ingesta calórica diaria de la población en alrededor de 25 países en vías de desarrollo, particularmente en África y América Latina (Atlin et al., 2011). El grano de maíz normalmente es de ciente en los aminoácidos esenciales tales como lisina, triptófano y metionina, debido principalmente a la proporción alta de prolaminas como proteínas de almacenamiento que carecen de dichos aminoácidos (Prasanna et al., 2001;So et al., 2009).El término QPM (Quality Maize Protein o ACP, alta calidad proteínica), se re ere al maíz que tiene el gen opaco 2 (o2) junto con genes modi cadores, cuya acción origina un maíz con mayor contenido de lisina y triptófano y un endospermo relativamente duro, que lo hace resistente a las plagas durante el almacenamiento. El maíz ACP no es un producto de eventos transgénicos y tiene el mismo aspecto y se desarrolla de la misma forma que el maíz convencional (normal); puede ser diferenciado únicamente por medio de análisis de laboratorio que cuanti can su contenido de lisina y triptófano (Sierra-Macías et al., 2004;Krivanek et al., 2007). El consumo de maíz ACP contribuiría al aseguramiento de la cantidad de proteína e ingesta de aminoácidos esenciales requeridos por el ser humano (Nuss y Tanumihardjo, 2011).De esta forma, se hace necesaria la cuanti cación de lisina y triptófano durante las etapas del mejoramiento de los maíces ACP. Debido a que estos aminoácidos guardan una proporción aproximadamente constante de 4:1, normalmente se da seguimiento sólo al contenido de triptófano como parámetro para la evaluación de la calidad nutricional de la proteína de maíz (Vivek et al., 2008). Por su parte, el análisis de lisina usado para apoyar programas de mejoramiento de maíces ACP (Villegas et al., (1984), presenta características que limitan su implementación: a) La hidrólisis enzimática se debe realizar en tubos de ensayo porque se usan 100 mg de muestra previamente acondicionada y el volumen de la solución de extracción es de 5 mL; b) En la reacción colorimétrica por cada muestra a analizar se requieren 15 mL de acetato de etilo como solución de lavado, volumen que prolonga el tiempo del análisis puesto que se debe pipetear repetidamente para remover el solvente antes de hacer la lectura en el espectrofotómetro; c) Elaboración de la curva de calibración con numerosas diluciones, que provocan que se prolongue el tiempo requerido en esta fase y que aumentan el error durante su preparación.La cuanti cación se basa en la reacción entre el compuesto 2-cloro-3, 5-dinitripiridina y el grupo ξ-amino de lisina, después de haber bloqueado con cobre los grupo α-amino de los aminoácidos y de los péptidos de bajo peso molecular presentes en el hidrolizado proteínico. El complejo ξ-dinitropiridil-lisina que se forma es soluble en agua pero insoluble en acetato de etilo, lo que permite remover los demás compuestos formados durante la reacción, y además eliminar el exceso del reactivo 2-cloro-3, 5-dinitripiridina (Tsai et al., 1972).El objetivo del presente trabajo fue modi car la metodología para que la cuanti cación de lisina sea un análisis útil para apoyar los programas de mejoramiento. Con base en el método de Villegas et al. (1984), se optimizó el desarrollo de las curvas de calibración, se redujeron los volúmenes para la reacción y se implementó el uso de microplacas, todo lo cual reduce tiempo de trabajo ya que permite analizar hasta 36 muestras por duplicado, en una sola lectura.El fosfato de sodio dibásico (Cat. 3828), borato de sodio (Cat. 3568), carbonato de sodio (Cat. 3602), bicarbonato de sodio (Cat. 3506-05), fosfato de sodio tribásico (Cat. 3836), fosfato de potasio monobásico (Cat. 3246) y el cloruro cúprico (Cat. 1792-01) se adquirieron con la empresa J. T. Baker (Phillipsburg, NJ, USA). El ácido clorhídrico (Cat. 1.00317.2500) y el acetato de etilo (Cat. EX0240-5) se obtuvieron de la empresa Merck KGaA (Darmastadt, Germany). Con la empresa Sigma-Aldrich (St. Luis, MO, USA) se adquirieron el 2-cloro-3, 5-dinitripiridina (Cat. 22,404-9) y la mezcla de aminoácidos: cistina, metionina, prolina, histidina, alanina, isoleucina, treonina, tirosina, glicina, fenilalanina, valina, arginina, serina, ácido aspártico, leucina y acido glutámico (Cat. LAA21-1KT). La papaína puri cada 0.32 MCU (Milk Cloth Units) Proteoferm® fue adquirida con la empresa Mixim (Naucalpan, Estado de México, México). La lisina (L-Lisina monoclorhidrato, Cat. 6364) fue adquirida con la empresa Nutritional Biochemicals Corp. (Cleveland Ohio, USA).Las soluciones de papaína (4 mg mL -1 y 5 mg mL -1 ) se prepararon diariamente a temperatura ambiente con una solución amortiguadora de fosfatos 0.03 M con pH 7.4 (mezcla de fosfato de sodio dibásico y fosfato de potasio monobásico). Diariamente se preparó la suspensión de cobre al disolver 2.8 g de cloruro cúprico en 100 mL de gua y 13.6 g de fosfato de sodio tribásico en 200 mL de agua. Se mezclaron ambas soluciones, se centrifugaron a 800 x g durante 5 min (aprox. 37.5 mL en cada tubo) y se descartó el sobrenadante. El precipitado se lavó tres veces con 15 mL (por tubo) de solución amortiguadora de boratos 0.05 M con pH 9, y al nal se resuspendió el precipitado con 80 mL de la misma solución.La solución de 2-cloro-3,5-dinitropiridina a 3 % (p/v) en metanol, se preparó minutos antes de ser utilizada. La solución de aminoácidos se preparó mediante la dilución 100 mg de la mezcla de aminoácidos en 10 mL de una solución amortiguadora de carbonatos 0.05 M con pH 9. La solución concentrada de lisina se utilizó como estándar y se preparó utilizando la solución reguladora de carbonatos a una concentración de 1000 µg mL -1 .Se utilizaron maíces (no-ACP y ACP) del programa de mejoramiento del CIMMYT (Centro Internacional del Mejoramiento del Maíz y Trigo). La metodología fue validada en 70 muestras de maíz ACP y 70 muestras maíz no-ACP.Se molieron 30 semillas por cada muestra de maíz, en un molino Cyclotec 1093 (manufacturado por Foss Tecator®, Hoganas, Sweden) con una malla de acero inoxidable de 0.5 mm. La harina obtenida se desengrasó con hexano en un extractor intermitente Soxhlet durante 6 h continuas. Posteriormente se evaporó el excedente de hexano. En microtubos se digirieron 30 mg de harina desengrasada con 1.55 mL de la solución de papaína (4 mg mL -1 ), veri cando la ausencia de partículas de harina adheridas a la paredes del microtubo y sin estar en contacto con la solución de extracción. La solución de papaína sin muestra fue utilizada como blanco. Las muestras se incubaron a 64 °C por 16 h, con agitación por lo menos dos veces durante la primera hora de incubación. Se aseguró que los microtubos estuvieran perfectamente cerrados para evitar la evaporación de la solución. Una vez completada la incubación, los extractos se enfriaron a temperatura ambiente y se centrifugaron a 20160 x g por 5 min, para así agregar un sobrenadante libre de partículas de harina.Se trans rieron 500 µL del hidrolizado (sobrenadante) a un nuevo microtubo de 1.5 mL y se adicionaron 250 µL de la solución amortiguadora de carbonatos y 250 µL de suspensión de cobre. Se agitaron manualmente durante 5 min y se centrifugaron a 1333 x g por 5 min. Se trans rieron 125 µL de sobrenadante a un microtubo nuevo de 2 mL y se adicionaron 12.5 µL de reactivo 2-cloro-3, 5-dinitropiridina. Después de una fuerte agitación en vórtex, las muestras se protegieron de la luz y se incubaron a temperatura ambiente durante 2 h con agitación cada 30 min; después de la incubación se les agregó 625 µL de ácido clorhídrico 1.2 N y se agitaron nuevamente hasta homogenizar. Posteriormente, se adicionaron 650 µL de acetato de etilo y la solución se mezcló por inversión de los tubos por 10 veces; luego se dejaron en reposo para permitir la formación de dos fases, y se eliminó el sobrenadante resultante. El lavado con acetato de etilo se repitió dos veces más, pero en la última repetición, después de mezclar la solución, los tubos se centrifugaron a 1333 x g por 5 min para asegurar la separación de las dos fases formadas y la remoción del acetato de etilo. Los tubos con la tapa abierta se colocaron por 5 min en la campana de extracción para asegurar la eliminación de cualquier remanente de acetato de etilo, y nalmente se trans rió una alícuota de 200 µL a microplacas de 96 pocillos. La lectura se llevó a cabo en un lector de microplacas (μQuant (MQX200), BioTek®) para determinar la densidad óptica (DO) a 390 nm.Semanalmente se preparó una solución concentrada (1000 µg mL -1 ) de lisina con una solución amortiguadora de carbonatos 0.05 M con pH 9. La solución concentrada de lisina se almacenó a 4 o C. La curva de calibración se desarrolló diariamente en un rango de 50 a 200 µg mL -1 de lisina, para lo cual se diluyeron distintos volúmenes de la solución concentrada en la solución amortiguadora de carbonatos y la solución de papaína (5 mg mL -1 ), como se muestra en el Cuadro 1.Posteriormente, en tubos de vidrio se hizo la etapa inicial de la reacción colorimétrica, con una alícuota de 1 mL de cada dilución y 0.5 mL de la solución de carbonatos que contiene la mezcla de aminoácidos y 0.5 mL de la suspensión de cobre. La adición de solución de papaína con concentración de 5 mg mL -1 y la mezcla de aminoácidos, tiene por objeto garantizar la acción bloqueadora del cobre y evitar sobreestimaciones. El resto de la reacción colorimétrica se hizo como se describió previamente.Para veri car la precisión y exactitud de la modi cación propuesta, 140 muestras se analizaron también por el método colorimétrico descrito por Villegas et al. (1984) y por NIR (espectrofotometría en el infrarrojo cercano).El porcentaje de lisina se obtuvo al multiplicar la DO corregida (DO 390nm muestra -DO 390nm promedio de los blancos de papaína ) a 390 nm por el cociente volumen del hidrolizado/(pendiente de la curva estándar x peso de la muestra). Se utilizó un diseño completamente al azar con dos repeticiones. Se efectuó un análisis de varianza y comparación de medias con el método de Tukey (α = 0.05) con el programa SAS 9.2 (SAS Institute, 2008).Por lo general, en los programas de tomejoramiento de maíces ACP únicamente se monitorea el contenido de triptófano, debido a la alta correlación que existe entre el contenido de triptófano y el de lisina, principalmente en programas de conversión de líneas normales a ACP. Otras razones para monitorear únicamente el contenido de triptófano en programas de mejoramiento de maíces ACP son el costo y el tiempo requerido por el análisis de lisina con la metodología propuesta por Villegas et al. (1984), según Vivek et al. (2008). Sin embargo, la modi cación realizada en este trabajo ofrece la posibilidad de realizar ambos análisis (lisina y triptófano) a un menor costo y en un mayor número de muestras, con más rapidez del análisis y con un método reproducible. Entre las modi caciones realizadas al método de referencia se incluye la reducción de reactivos de elevado costo, como el acetato de etilo, y reducción de los riesgos al personal que se encarga de desarrollar este análisis debido a la disminución en la emisión de residuos contaminantes. La cantidad de acetato que se requiere para el método aquí propuesto representa solamente 13 % del volumen original. Otra ventaja importante es la reducción de pasos para desarrollar la curva de calibración, lo cual aumenta la capacidad de análisis por día.El Cuadro 2 muestra el intervalo de valores de la DO para cada una de las concentraciones conocidas evaluadas en las curvas de calibración desarrolladas y leídas en microplaca. Los rangos presentados corresponden a 11 curvas de calibración efectuadas en diferentes días, con un R 2 superior a 0.98 en cada curva.Existen otros métodos para la cuanti caron de lisina que se basan en la reacción del ácido 1-sulfónico-2,4,6trinitrobenceno (TNBS) o en la reacción colorimétrica de la nihidrina (Beckwith et al., 1975;Obi, 1982). Sin embargo, éstos presentan algunas desventajas, como requerir un tratamiento previo de la muestra para la remoción de aminoácidos libres o varias ltraciones de soluciones durante el desarrollo del análisis, lo cual demanda más manipulación y tiempo. Se han propuesto también metodologías bacteriológicas para la cuanti cación de lisina, pero dado que son métodos semi-cuantitativos dependientes del tiempo de crecimiento de las bacterias, su aplicabilidad en programas de mejoramiento ha sido restringida (Nurit et al., 2009). El método que aquí se propone mantiene un proceso de acondicionamiento de muestras y de hidrólisis enzimática que requieren poca manipulación por parte del personal del laboratorio.La cromatografía líquida (HPLC) es otra técnica utilizado para la cuanti cación de lisina (Paulis et al., 1991). Sin embargo, su elevado costo y tiempo de análisis hace que esta metodología no sea una alternativa para apoyar programas de mejoramiento.La correlación para las 140 muestras analizadas con ambos métodos fue de 0.96 (Figura 1), aunque se observó una menor correlación entre los materiales con contenido de lisina menor a 0.3 % (maíz normal). Según Nurit et al. (2009), este tipo de diferencias son atribuibles a las bajas concentraciones de lisina y a los mayores errores estándar, lo que disminuye la precisión de los valores obtenidos. El valor mínimo detectado con el método modi cado es de 0.19 % de lisina en grano completo.Con base en la comparación de medias (P ≤ 0.05), los dos métodos evaluados no presentaron diferencia signi cativa, con medias de porcentaje de lisina de 0.359 y 0.355 para LMP y Esp, respectivamente. Al comparar los datos obtenidos con el método químico modi cado y los datos obtenidos por NIR (Modelo Lysun1), la correlación obtenida es de 0.83 (Figura 2), valor similar al que se ha obtenido previamente con dicho modelo y con datos provenientes del método en espectrofotómetro.  Actualmente el análisis de lisina por química húmeda tiene un costo de USD$ 7.90 por muestra. Con las modi caciones propuestas dicho costo se reduce hasta en 30 %. Adicionalmente, con la metodología propuesta, un solo técnico de laboratorio puede analizar hasta 100 muestras por día, mientras que con el método de referencia se requiere el trabajo de dos técnicos por día para analizar igual número de muestras.El costo del análisis por NIR es de USD$ 4.3 por muestra y tiene la ventaja de ser una metodología que no involucra tratamiento previo ni extracción de la muestra. No obstante, un equipo NIR es costoso y se deben tener en cuenta los siguientes puntos: 1) Requiere curvas de calibración robustas, desarrolladas con un rango amplio de contenido del analito y diferentes germoplasmas; 2) Transferencia adecuada de curvas de calibración entre equipos distintos, mediante la veri cación de la compatibilidad de los programas de cómputo utilizados y de los criterios usados en las ecuaciones generadas.De acuerdo con los resultados obtenidos con el método descrito, se concluye que es viable su implementación en los programas de mejoramiento de maíces ACP. Dada la simpli cación y bajo costo de la metodología descrita, se convierte en una herramienta adecuada para el estudio de la variabilidad del contenido de lisina en maíces criollos o nativos como parte de la caracterización de la diversidad genética del maíz.","tokenCount":"2734"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7fd485525533421c703c9e2b9a4cb2b5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3027a4fa-f412-4ffa-90d4-61333b41b69f/retrieve","id":"-1521747888"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dc3c1f9c-6d48-41f3-b9f7-8a4164b83cee","pagecount":"73","content":"Established in 2020, CGIAR's GDI Function provides expert advice, tools, and training to advance gender, diversity and inclusion in CGIAR's global workplaces. We partner with leadership and staff to ensure that CGIAR's workplaces are truly inclusive. We are guided by CGIAR's Framework for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion and our ambitious Action Plan. We collaborate and are aligned with CGIAR's Gender Research Platform and we work to embed a GDI-lens into all areas of CGIAR's work.What is workforce diversity? Key Considerations The Candidate Journey CGIAR is committed to fostering diversity and inclusion. We recognize and value the multiple, intersecting dimensions of social and professional diversity in our global workforce 1 and we seek to sustain and further enhance it.Gender, diversity and inclusion (GDI) is a proven enabler of growth and innovation. We know that organizations that take a comprehensive approach to diversity and inclusion have a competitive advantage in attracting talent and creating more adaptive and effective teams. Inclusive hiring practices are increasingly critical for CGIAR to remain an attractive employer to the world-class scientists and support professionals we need to drive our innovation. Such inclusive recruitment practices seek to maximize the diversity of our talent pools, minimize selection bias and support attainment of diversity targets as set by CGIAR leadership.This toolkit has been produced CGIAR's System support function for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion (GDI) in support of People and Culture professionals and other individuals who play a leading role in CGIAR's recruitment processes. This toolkit focuses on the initial stages of the employee career life-cycle (see right in yellow). This toolkit is complemented by an additional eLearning course (forthcoming) for use by hiring managers and all those serving on hiring panels.Inclusive recruitment is one element of a holistic approach to creating and sustaining enabling and inclusive workplaces.You are encouraged to consider other GDI toolkits and resources available on the Knowledge Hub. 1 References throughout this document to CGIAR's global workforce and staff are used to emphasize our joint commitment to accelerating efforts related to gender equity, diversity and inclusion. It is understood that individual employment contracts rest with a CGIAR entity.Strengthen the advancement and retention of underrepresented staffIntroduction | What is workforce diversity?The Candidate JourneyInclusion requires you to understand the recruitment process from the candidates' perspective. At each stage consider how your efforts will resonate with the diverse candidates you are seeking to recruit. What are diverse candidates' main wants and needs at each stage? What thoughts and feelings drive their behavior?A candidate journey map is a representation of all the touchpoints that candidates have during different stages of the recruitment. Mapping a candidate journey is a great way to improve your candidate experience and to enhance CGIAR's employer branding strategy.Put yourself in your candidates' shoes. Try to better understand their needs, wants and fears as they travel along the recruitment journey. What are their thoughts and actions and how might these answers differ for diverse applicants and at different stages of the process? 1.At this stage, candidates become aware of our employer brand.How do you reach candidates to tell them about our organization? Are the networks/job boards/academic institutions, which you are using to source candidates, able to reach the diversity of candidates that you are targeting?See the Targeted Sutreach section later in this Suide for more information.At this stage, candidates apply to our open job positions.Does the application process make it easy for the candidate to apply? Does it ask questions that make the candidate uncomfortable or dissuade him/ her from applying?See the Application Process section later in this Suide for more informationSelection At this stage, candidates go through our selection process.Are the candidate's skills and experience going to be valued here? Does the candidate feel like s/he is being fairly assessed and given equal opportunity? Does the candidate see diversity in the hiring panel?See the Assessment and Interview sections later in this Guide for more information.6.At this stage, candidates become our new employees!Take a look at the two different candidate experiences above. Some assessment processes can consist of reviewing CVs for 6-10 seconds each, followed by unstructured gut-driven interviews and no feedback or follow-up is given. This leaves candidates with a feeling that they were not given fair consideration and that the organization is not very thoughtful in its recruitment processes.Debiasing our recruitment processes and taking a more structured approach will help provide candidates with a positive experience, regardless of whether they get the position in the end. By giving candidates the opportunity to showcase their skills and providing them with concrete feedback, we are able to promote CGIAR's image as an equal opportunity employer with fair recruitment processes.www.cgiar.orgC Ca an nd di id da at te e I In nt te er rv vi ie ew w E Ex xp pe er ri ie en nc ce eIn the interview, I was asked very specific and relevant questions to the role.I had the opportunity to showcase my ability and skills to the interviewers.www.cgiar.orgC Ca an nd di id da at te e I In nt te er rv vi ie ew w E Ex xp pe er ri ie en nc ce eMy application never even got shortlisted even though I am qualified for the job.I got asked very insensitive questions in the interview, it was pretty disorganized.Quick review Inclusion in recruitment begins with candidates' first experiences of CGIAR. This is often a visit to our website to learn more about our organization. Consider:What does our public facing image say about diversity?Are diversity and inclusion highlighted in our core values and on the career webpage?Does our public facing image feature our commitments and progress on GDI?Are webpages accessible to persons living with disabilities? Do our career page and recruitment materials feature images of diverse personnel in all roles?Candidates will often use external sources to research our organization, such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor. Look at what is being said on these sites, so you can actively consider and address any issues raised.To brand CGIAR as an employer of choice for diverse candidates, we must put diversity front and center in our websites and materials. We must integrate the importance of diversity into our mission, values, and work. Integrating diversity into our mission has been shown to attract more ethnic minorities and to improve selection outcomes. Increased transparency also sends applicants, partners, and other stakeholders a clear sign that we are committed to advancing gender equity, diversity and inclusion in our global workplaces.Public image matters when trying to encourage diverse applicants to apply. To understand pull factors in attracting women applicants, PwC conducted a survey of thousands of geographically and professionally diverse women, asking them what elements they considered important when applying for a job. The survey found that the majority looked at:• the diversity of the organization's leadership;• whether there are positive, relatable role models for them; and• whether the organization publicly shares its progress on diversity.Consider whether your communications prominently feature the information above.Things you can do:• Ensure images are inclusive without feeling like tokenism. That is, the photographs are not artificially composed or featuring stereotypical images. Show diversity in all its dimensions and counter common occupational stereotypes. For example, show women in logistics roles and men in human resources.• Show that we are promoting a more inclusive environment and the progress we are making (such as linking to the GDI Action Plan and the GDI Dashboard).• Feature comments by CGIAR leadership to gender, diversity and inclusion on websites. Words are not the same as actions, but these public commitments set an important tone from the top that indicate priorities and direction.• Make sure your recruitment process is accessible to persons with disabilities by providing clear contact information and instruction for those wishing to request \"reasonable accommodation 2 \". In addition, use tools, such as the ones mentioned in the textbox mentioned on the next page, to make websites more accessible.• Use testimonials from diverse personnel, especially those working in underrepresented fields. Video testimonials from diverse staff on careers pages such as this one, can help prospective candidates to imagine themselves in our workplace. They also engage current personnel to promote inclusion as an organizational priority.• Feature the achievements of staff, especially those from under-represented backgrounds prominently. This sends an empowering message about the career possibilities in our organization, as well as its support and recognition of achievements by staff from under-represented backgrounds.• Use inclusion statements in job advertisements and in the careers section of webpages. This low-hanging fruit is a clear and direct way of communicating our workplace commitment to diversity in the workforce. Specific reference to various dimensions of diversity, such as sex, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, and disabilities in these statements and the integration of inclusion into our values send a stronger message than generic statements about being an \"equal opportunity employer\". See below for an example inclusion statement.Diversity statements in isolation will feel like a 'check the box' exercise and work against creating an inclusive culture.Commitments must be evidenced in action, which is conveyed through a holistic and integrated approach to GDI, not just in recruitment, but throughout our organization's values and practices. Showcase GDI strategy and other efforts to attract and support diverse candidates.A wide variety of resources are available to help make webpages accessible to persons with disabilities, including standards like those by the Americans with Sisabilities Act (ASA) and the Web Content Accessibility Suidelines (WCAS), as well as companies and plugins specialized in enhancing websites for accessibility.The below statement is an example to guide and inspire. You are encouraged to adapt the below for your local context to make the statement more meaningful.Don't just \"encourage\" persons with disabilities to apply, make it possible! Salary and benefit specifics help encourage candidates to apply, so add links to more information.We are committed to fair, safe, and inclusive workplaces. We believe that diversity powers our innovation, contributes to our excellence, and is critical for our mission. Secruiting and mentoring staff to create an inclusive organization that reflects our global character is a priority. We encourage applicants from all cultures, races, colors, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability statuses, sexual orientations, and gender identities. We particularly welcome applications from women. Linguistic biases can undermine diversity and inclusion goals by failing to recognize the way different words attract or deter people. The words chosen on our websites, in our recruitment materials and most importantly in a job description, paint a picture of our organizational culture and the candidate qualities we value.By better understanding the impact of language in recruitment, your efforts will be more inclusive and attract the diverse candidates you are trying to recruit, not just in terms of demographics, but also those who support the organizational values needed to promote an inclusive culture.A series of studies titled \"Evidence that gendered wording in job advertisements exists and sustains gender inequality\" (Gaucher, Friesen, and Kay, 2011), revealed that participants, particularly women, found jobs most appealing when they included words associated with their gender. Notably, however, men were not found to be dissuaded from applying to jobs with feminine-coded words as much as women were from masculine-coded words in job descriptions.The study found women were not put off by masculinely worded job advertisements because they see themselves as unskilled for the job, but because such wording indicates an environment that is male-dominated and possibly unsupportive of gender diversity. This happens on an unconscious level. Not a single participant in the post-experimental debriefings said their responses were influenced by the wording of advertisements, or realized the extent to which advertisements included words that conformed to gender stereotypes.Action Areas | 2. Language MattersA review by Textio, an augmented writing tool3, found that job advertisements with words like \"exhaustive\", \"enforcement\", and \"fearless\" tend to be predictive of male hires and \"transparent\", \"catalyst\", and \"in touch with\" of female hires. The figure below shows other phrases found by Textio to be predictive of male and female hires.LinkedIn's study \"Language Matters: How Words Impact Men and Women in the Workplace\" found distinct differences in the words women and men use to describe themselves. In general, LinkedIn found that women are more likely to showcase their \"soft skills\" in their profiles, and men their \"hard skills\". When trying to appeal to all genders, 3 Augmented writing tools can search for words and phrases in written material, such as job descriptions, and suggest alternatives. It can be used for a variety of purposes, including making language more inclusive by eliminating gendered words it's important to remember to go beyond skills and describe the expected deliverables and ways of working.Instruction on this is included in the hiring manager training module (forthcoming). People and Culture professionals are advised to scan all job advertisements for gendered words and work with hiring managers to rephrase as necessary in order to support more diverse applicant pools.There are several quick and free tools to do this, such as those featured in the text box on page 19 -\"Resources to help make your language more inclusive\"Phrases used that resulted in higher numbers of applications from men or womenPhrase statistically results in a higher proportion of applications from:Things you can do:• Screen job and workplace descriptions for words and phrases found to have gendered impacts on potential candidates. Support hiring managers to create gender neutral job descriptions by reviewing and suggesting replacement words or phrases. Remember to run these checks on all your written materials, including emails to candidates.• Use tools like LinkedIn Job's \"view-to-apply\" ratios to assess who is viewing your job notices compared to who actually applies, and then adjust your approaches accordingly. If you're finding that men are responding to your job descriptions at a higher rate than women, try adjusting the words used and information so that the job description resonates more with women.• Use gender-inclusive language across all languages used. Provide both the masculine and feminine forms of gendered nouns and pronouns for languages with grammatical gender such as French and Spanish.Resources listed below include tools and guides in a number of languages.• Integrate gender-inclusive writing as a workplace practice, not just for recruitment. Remember that efforts will fall short if new recruits are met with a workplace that does not reflect the inclusion which attracted them in the first place. Widely circulate guidance and tools to help personnel make their writing more inclusive. Make these available on internal platforms like Sharepoint for easy reference. Promote their usage.Inclusion is conveyed differently across languages and cultures. Languages with gendered forms of adjectives and nouns can be made more inclusive by using gender neutral forms (Latinx, for example) or presenting all forms alongside one another (Director/a, for example). • UN Gender Inclusive Language Guidelines and Toolbox.Available in linguistically and culturally contextualized Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish versions.• Wikipedia \"Gender Neutrality in Genderless Languages\"• NonbinaryResource.org, Multilingual Non-binary Pronoun List• Washington Post \"A guide to how gender-neutral language is developing around the world\"• Engadget \"Google is working to remove gender bias in its translations\"• Resources in non-English languages:• Spanish: nobinario, Archivo Mogai• French: Langage non binaire Augmented Writing Tools (English)• Kat Matfield's Gender Decoder for Job Ads is a free tool that screens for gendered words in your job descriptions. It has shaped other similar tools such as the Gender Bias Decoder from Total Jobs.• Textio (paid service) analyzes the text in millions of job ads, where the hiring outcomes are now known, to find words and phrases predictive of male or female hires. This means that these words and their weight may change over time as more data is analyzed.Resources to help make your language more inclusiveAction Areas | 3. Targeted OutreachPeople are different. While this sounds obvious, recruitment strategies must be tailored to cater to diverse candidates. To do so, it's important to understand the different ways applicants, particularly women and other under-represented groups, apply for jobs and what they are looking for in potential employers. If our goal is to increase the representation of key diversity dimensions in our organization, how are we adapting efforts to reach and resonate with these groups?Studies, such as LinkedIn's Gender Insights Report, reveal gender differentiated approaches in how men and women apply for jobs. The report found that both men and women search for jobs with the same frequency and they research companies to the same extent too. But when it cames to applying, women were found to be more selective. They apply for 20 percent fewer jobs than men and -after viewing a job -are 16 percent less likely than men to apply. This selectivity may be why women were found to form a more robust candidate pool, having a higher success rate once they apply (16 percent more likely than men to get hired after applying to a job), and even more so when the position is above their current one (18 percent more likely for senior posts). Therefore, when trying to recruit more women, bear in mind that you may need to be more proactive about encouraging women to apply and to reach passive recruits (those not actively looking for a job) with methods such as direct outreach or headhunting.Such findings, as well as those on the effects of gendered language (see Language Matters) and job requirements (see Job Information and Application Process), should inform how you shape job descriptions, application forms and evaluation processes to avoid women self-selecting out of applicant pools and to screen for overconfident male applicants. If job descriptions and evaluations are executed by hiring managers, HR can provide training and oversight of these to make sure they do not contain unnecessary requirements and are focused on the right competencies for the job.How do you maximize talent pools and increase applications from diverse candidates?Low numbers of qualified under-represented candidates are often cited as the main obstacle to achieving a diverse workforce: \"There just aren't enough women scientists\", for example. But a closer look at the data reveals otherwise. Examining women's education and labor participation in a more disaggregated and nuanced manner can help us to better target our outreach and to appeal to more varied candidates. Differences in global trends also present an opportunity to address gender and nationality diversity goals inter-sectionally.Women's overall participation in tertiary education has surpassed men's in recent years, and globally they form an increasing proportion of the skilled workforce. In 2017 53 percent of Doctoral Degrees in the United States (U.S.A.) were awarded to women (52.6 percent in the field of Biological and Agricultural Science), making it the ninth year running that women earned the majority of doctoral degrees in the U.S.A.In fact, biological and agricultural sciences is the only Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subject in the U.S.A. where women have earned a higher proportion of doctoral degrees since 2009. This trend is also global. Since 2000, the world has seen a steady rise in the numbers of female agriculture graduates [UNESCO, 2015].Much of sub-Saharan Africa is moving in the same direction, with women accounting for a rising proportion of doctoral graduates in scientific fields. South Africa and Zimbabwe, which have large numbers of science graduates, have achieved parity, with 49 and 47 percent respectively. In agricultural science, the numbers of female graduates have also been increasing steadily across the continent. Eight African countries report shares of women graduates in agriculture at 40 percent or more.In South Asia, where the participation of women in tertiary education remains low in general, women in Sri Lanka account for 61 percent of tertiary education [UNESCO, 2015].These gender equality gains in doctoral degrees, particularly in agriculture, signal an opportunity to dramatically improve gender diversity at the entry-level of CGIAR's research pipeline, and amongst post-doctoral fellows especially. At present, women comprise only 34 percent of post-doctoral fellows in CGIAR [GDI Dashboard, 2020].Action Areas | 3. Targeted Outreach Action Areas | 3. Targeted OutreachLow overall rates of labor participation in certain countries may cause women to be overlooked in our outreach efforts. While women only make up 18 percent of researchers in the Republic of Korea, they comprise 40 percent of the graduates in science and agriculture.Outreach efforts should also take into account the progress being made in the countrylevel ratios of women in research. In many countries, women outnumber men, for example in Bolivia (63 percent), Venezuela (56 percent), Thailand (52.7 percent), the Philippines (52.3 percent). They are nearing parity in countries such as Malaysia (49.9 percent), Namibia (43.7 percent), and South Africa (43.7 percent) [UNESCO, 2015].Interestingly, female researchers in CGIAR both confirm and counter some of these trends in 2020. Five countries account for 44.4 percent of female research staff in CGIAR: Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, India, and Colombia [GDI Dashboard, 2020, listed in descending order]. This indicates that CGIAR is a competitive employer for women even in regions where their participation in the research workforce is low, for example in India (13.9 percent) and Kenya (25.7 percent) 4 .Notably, some high-income countries have a surprisingly low proportion of female researchers. In France, Germany and the Netherlands, for instance, just one in four researchers is a woman.Outreach efforts should also consider the disparities in where researchers end up working. Are you creating blind spots through the kinds of work experience you are looking for or networks with which you are engaging? In the Arab States, for example, female researchers are primarily employed in government research institutes, although some countries also have a high participation of women in private non-profit organizations and universities. In the business enterprise sector, fewer than one in four researchers is a woman and for half of the countries reporting data, this sector employs barely any women at all [UNESCO, 2015].Ask yourself whether you are valuing certain kinds of research experience more than others?Being open and intentional in hiring employees from a broader range of diversity dimensions will enable CGIAR to access untapped and under-utilized talent pools.Things you can do:• Take a proactive approach to reach under-represented candidates. As discussed, women tend to be more selective in applying for jobs. Take a proactive approach to increase our organization's visibility and brand. For example, use opportunities at public forums and events to announce calls for applications. Engage staff in promoting vacancies through their personal networks. Some 75 percent of the workforce is not actively looking for a job, but the majority (75 percent) of these are open to considering new opportunities.• Diversify your approach to outreach at the national and regional levels in order to respond to varying trends and availability of talent, as described above.• Use multiple platforms and types of media to reach candidates. Besides the traditional outlets such as your career page, job boards and career fairs, other platforms may be more effective in reaching the diverse candidates you seek. Think about the context and those you are trying to reach. Maybe the use of social media (to attract younger applicants) or print advertisements (where online access is more limited) will help to broaden your reach.• Actively reach out to thematic associations or sub-groups focused on diversity. Ask them to circulate job postings through their networks. A non-exhaustive list of CGIAR-relevant networks is included here to facilitate this wider engagement.Developing relationships with such networks helps to increase CGIAR visibility as an \"employer of choice\" for diverse candidates.• While you recruit as individual Centers/Alliances, consider doing outreach together to help maximize resources and reach. Collaboration on similar roles also conveys a sense of the broader career possibilities across CGIAR. Further, this is one of the deliverables of the GDI Action Plan for 2020-2021 (see Key Objective 1.4 \"Targeted, collaborative sourcing and outreach increases diversity in applicant pools\").• Strengthen internal pipelines for diverse candidates. Internal pipelines fed by leadership, mentoring and/or sponsorship programs can strengthen career development for all. Ensure minimum participation rates for women or underrepresented groups in such pipelines. If these targets are not met, consider more proactive efforts to identify candidates and encourage their participation.• Internship and fellowship programs can be a useful way to strengthen diversity at the pipeline entry-level. To become more inclusive, these programs may need diversity targets and financial assistance to support applicants with costs. Many applicants from lower socio-economic backgrounds cannot otherwise afford toCommunication is key when implementing temporary special measures. This includes clear explanation of why the measures are needed, how they will be implemented, and for how long. It helps to assuage fears and increase buy-in.work without income for months, and they may also face excessive visa expenses. Without such support, they would be excluded from applying. Consider equalizing opportunities for all interns, national and international.• Tap into overlooked candidate pools, like \"returners\". Returners are people who have taken an extended career break for caring or other reasons. These career breaks may cause them to be \"sifted\" out of longlists or make them more highly scrutinized. This is particularly the case when advertisements demand a minimum number of years of work experience, rather than emphasizing knowledge, skills and abilities. As a result, they are often unemployed or under-employed (in roles for which they are over-qualified). While returners can be any gender, 89 percent of people out of unpaid work caring for family or the home are women. A report from the UK Government Equalities Office found three quarters of women surveyed would like to return to work at some point, but face significant personal and structural barriers.Ensure your processes are supportive and encouraging of returners in order to access this under-utilized and experienced talent pool, that can be especially helpful in improving gender and age diversity.• Temporary special measures can help to accelerate progress where distance to equality would take a long time or might never happen under usual circumstances. If they are available (not all workplaces or countries may allow such measures) special measures can be appropriate tools to accelerate progress towards its GDI goals. A Dutch engineering university recently took such a step, only allowing women to apply for the first six months of the recruitment process for permanent academic positions. While such measures are often controversial because they are exclusionary, they can help rectify historic and systemic imbalances in application and selection rates. Limiting applicant pools to candidates, who meet diversity criteria, at least initially, can also alleviate workloads for HR practitioners and managers who then review a reduced number of applications.Action Areas | 3. Targeted OutreachWhile designing jobs and writing descriptions may be executed by hiring managers in some cases, People and Culture practitioners play an essential role in guiding and supporting them. The recommendations below are covered in the training module for hiring managers (forthcoming).Consider what experience and skills are strictly necessary for the job and keep this list of 'must-haves' short. Other qualifications can be listed as desirable, but keep these clearly separate from essential criteria to avoid unnecessarily limiting candidate pools. Standard requirements, such as field experience, are often blanketed across job descriptions without questioning whether they are really essential to the role. This can limit applicant pools unnecessarily by deterring women and other under-represented applicants from applying. Such people often face additional barriers to gaining such professional experience. Field service opportunities are more restrictive for those with families and care responsibilities or for LGBTQI+ personnel whose identities are criminalized in some countries.Success in the sciences is often measured by the number of authored publications and patents, the citation rate of these papers, and the amount of research funding obtained. These criteria inherently limit diverse candidate pools, because, universally, the research publication and funding rate for women is lower than that for men. It is also lower for some people of color and other minorities than whites.Research suggests that the main hindrance to women's research publication rate lies in differential access to funding, opportunity and recognition, which are all interrelated.Women and minorities are less represented than men in the very positions where researchers publish the most, such as senior faculty in universities. The number of women and minorities who have been recognized as leaders by high-prestige societies or through awards remains low, despite some high-profile exceptions. Are you over-valuing publishing and public recognition, in a way that limits the way you source and evaluate candidates?Such systemic barriers lead to the underutilization of women professionally, particularly in STEM fields. In its study of 153 countries and using data from LinkedIn, the World Economic Forum's 2020 Global Gender Gap Index found that some professions could embrace more diversity in their hiring and adopt more inclusive managerial practices. In the Data and AI sectors, for example, more women have relevant skills (31 percent) than are being utilized (25 percent).Stop requiring poor predictors of performance, like years of experience Years of experience have not shown to be strong predictors of performance, yet they are often listed among the top requirements. This can disproportionately impact women, who are more likely to have taken career breaks for caregiving. Seniority requirements also create a systemic barrier to increasing representation of minorities at the highest levels, since minorities are not as well represented in management positions. Instead, ask candidates to provide evidence of their ability to achieve the desired performance objectives.Consider if a position could be done flexibly, in part or entirely, or if it could be a parttime or shared position. Many people want flexible working arrangements, but these have a special importance for marginalized groups, such as those with disabilities or those with caregiving responsibilities, who are constrained by commuting or spending mandatory time in an office. Note any such possible arrangements, link the role to any relevant policies.Job advertisements, which include flexible working options have been found to attract up to 30 percent more candidates. Commissioned by the UK government, a study by the Behavioral Insights Team found that adding the phrases \"part-time\", \"job share\", and \"flexible working\" to job ads resulted in the following:• Applications from women increased 16 percent overall and 19 percent for senior management positions;• Women hired for top roles increased by a third;• The total number of applications more than doubled, suggesting that flexibility also appeals to men.Workplace flexibility is a key part of being a competitive employer, now more than ever.The global pandemic has normalized remote working for many positions. And flexible working arrangements such as compressed work weeks, staggered working hours, and telecommuting are likely to become mainstays of the modern workplace.Flexibility is not just about attracting diverse talent, it is also key to retaining it. In a survey of US women who took a career break after having kids, some 31 percent said they were forced to do so by a lack of flexible options.Be transparent and proactive with job information, especially salaryState salaries, even in ranges. Women are more likely to apply if salary details are stated, including whether it's negotiable. Pay transparency promotes a culture of trust and equality conducive to inclusion. The value of work is linked to the duties and responsibilities, not to the person or their ability to negotiate. Job boards are doing their part to increase transparency around pay. LinkedIn's Salary Insights and Glassdoor draw on their data to suggest a market salary range when employers do not provide this information.It is therefore advisable to be proactive in this regard.Job information -for example on benefits or flexible working arrangements -helps candidates, particularly women to make informed decisions. It can be the difference between them applying or not.Despite the importance of this information to them, women are often reluctant to ask for details, especially on salary, parental leave or flexible work out of fear that it will negatively impact their chances of getting a job.• Benefit policies such as medical, leave policies (vacation, parental, etc.)• Work-life balance (flexible work arrangements, part-time opportunities, etc.)• Career advancement opportunities (leadership, mentoring, sponsorship programs)• Information on duty stations (living conditions, security, etc.). This is particularly recommended for hardship locations.• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) or blogs can help candidates get an idea of what our organizational culture is like.• Policies on standards of conduct, anti-harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse of power to reflect our organization's commitments to creating a safe and respectful workplace.Action Areas | 5. Application ProcessAre applications accessible to all in terms of format and options?Consider whether you have gone beyond encouraging diverse applicants to apply. Have you made it possible? What does \"equal opportunity\" mean, if diverse applicants are met with forms they cannot complete? These forms must have representative options in terms of gender identity or other dimensions, and be accessible to those with vision impairments.Offering only female/male options for gender signals to gender non-conforming or transgender applicants that an organization does not recognize that gender identify can be non-binary. If, for medical reasons, biological sex must be recorded in line with some national documentation, there is still the opportunity to include a third option. Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Malta, Nepal, New Zealand and Pakistan have all issued passports with markers other than \"F\" (female) and \"M\" (male). Consider how inclusive/ exclusionary your recruitment process is for applicants with such documentation or nonbinary gender identities, and the message it sends them.Are you asking too many questions?The wrong ones?Application forms must include the right type and extent of questions in order to not limit or deter any candidates unnecessarily.Application forms should contain only the essential information needed to screen for qualified candidates. However, they often request excessive details that are unnecessary in the initial stages. Long applications can deter applicants with little time or those who are more selective. For example, women tend to apply to 20 percent fewer jobs than men.Think about what information is truly necessary for your initial screening steps, and limit your forms to that.Queries on age, sex or gender identity or requests for photos, are not appropriate for application forms. Soliciting such information, which is unrelated to job functions, can send the wrong message about which criteria are being used to evaluate applicants. It can deter those who fear discrimination on these bases. Reduce demographics to the essentials (such as those required for monitoring GDI progress) and place them outside the application form, or even in a separate form altogether, so that applicants know they are considered separately and that experience and qualifications are the primary considerations.Demographic information is needed to assess your recruitment efforts and how they are progressing towards diversity goals, but it should not be available to the hiring managers and reviewers who are long-listing and short-listing candidates. People and Culture professionals should monitor the diversity of candidate pools, extend advertisement times, and increase outreach efforts as necessary until the pools of diversity are achieved.Questions about salary history can impact women and others who tend to occupy historically undervalued professions with low wages. Such questions reinforce a cycle of inequity and lower salaries. Such questions should be omitted. Linking salary to the job, rather than making it conditional based on an applicant's qualifications or ability to negotiate, promotes a culture of transparency and pay equity. As mentioned above, job descriptions should state salary or salary ranges.Though less common due to being illegal in some countries, information on marital status and number of dependents, should never be asked in job application forms. Even at a later stage when such information is needed to calculate benefits for selected candidates, the question should be asked in a sensitive and inclusive way that recognizes the breadth of possible partner and dependency arrangements. Such discussions should be between applicants and People and Culture professionals only.Things you can do:• Consider what information is truly necessary for your initial screening steps, and limit forms to that.• Ensure application forms are accessible to all, such as persons with disabilities. Application forms should be in accessible formats, such as in Word or PDF, to facilitate use with screen readers. See \"Sow to make webpages accessible\" in Public Image section for resource links.• Expand gender identity options beyond the binary. As a minimum, use \"Female\", \"Male\", \"I prefer to identify in another way\", \"I prefer not to share\". You may wish to offer more than these options to recognize the diversity of non-binary gender identities. Do not use \"Other\" as this has derisive connotations and is offensive. As advised by Stonewall in its guide, \"DO ASK, DO TELL: Capturing data on sexual orientation and gender identity globally\", information solicited on gender identity should always be selfidentified, optional, and changeable by the person at any time.• Reduce demographics to the essentials (such as those required for monitoring GDI progress) and place them outside the application form, or even in a separate form altogether. Demographic information should still be collected and monitored by People and Culture professionals. It is needed to assess your recruitment efforts and their progress towards diversity goals. However, it should not be available to hiring managers and reviewers, who are long-listing and short-listing candidates.• If diverse slates are not achieved, People and Culture professionals should re-advertise openings and increase targeted outreach to widen applicant pools.• Do not penalize gaps in employment. Ensure forms are open to people with gaps in employment. Ensure automated application forms accommodate gaps in working history. Further, do not interpret such gaps negatively with regards to candidates' professionalism or ability to perform a job. Doing so will tend to disproportionately impact women who are more likely to have taken career breaks for caregiving.Action Areas | 5. Application ProcessAction Areas | 6. AssessmentKey to debiasing the assessment process is removing irrelevant information from the evaluation process, such as the demographics discussed in the Application section. Years of education, CVs/ Resumes, and past experience have all been found to be poor indicators of potential job performance. Other types of useful questions are those that capture candidates' situational skills, how they would handle hypothetical situations, similar to those they might encounter on the job. Such questions often pose a dilemma likely to occur in the job position and find out how candidates would handle it.Behavioral questions are similar to situational tests, but ask candidates about their past experience and require them to demonstrate how this experience demonstrates the necessary competencies. The STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) approach is typically used to frame these behavioral questions. Be sure to make it clear to candidates that you are looking for this structure in their answer. An example of a STAR question would be: \"Share an example of a time when you faced a difficult problem at work (Situation/Task).How did you solve this problem? (Action) What did that experience teach you? (Result).\"Make sure that the above tests do not gauge knowledge that applicants will acquire after starting the job, and only focus on requirements needed to qualify for the position. Instructions on developing these types of questions have been included in the hiring manager training module (forthcoming).Action Areas | 6. AssessmentAssessment tools can often be integrated with applicant tracking software (ATS), such as Taleo, SAP or Workable, to automate the process. Some organizations choose to outsource this stage and use the services of companies specializing in hiring assessments, such as Criteria Corp, ideal, or Wonderlic. These platforms tend to specialize in particular industries and/or testing certain types of cognitive or behavioral skills.While these tools may not be able to test for the specific subject matter knowledge, or scientific and research skills relevant to CGIAR's work, they are equipped to assess broader skills such as leadership, management, problem-solving, critical thinking and personality. You'll need to assess the applicability and validity of using such tools for your context.While ATS are commonly used to collect and sort recruitment information, it can also facilitate the process of anonymizing candidates during the sifting process. However, its CV focus and narrow approach to sifting applicants can undermine efforts to promote diversity.By comparison, people decision platforms, such as Applied, Pymetrics and TalVista, focus on the quality of hiring decisions. This means they use anonymization, skills-based assessments, and prioritize diversity and inclusion in their approach. These companies have recognized the power of technology to help organizations debias their hiring process. They make the language of job descriptions more inclusive, removing opportunities for bias by masking candidate identities, standardizing the assessment process, and focusing it on skills. The benefits of this approach are not limited to increasing diversity. Applied found that:• in a randomized control trial, some 60 percent of hires made through the platform would have been missed in a traditional CV sift;• hiring teams found up to three times as many suitable candidates than before, and reduced time spent on hiring by 66 percent; and• selected candidates had a 96 percent retention rate after one year, compared to an 80 percent average in the UK.Action Areas | 6. AssessmentTechnology has great potential to support automating elements of the hiring process, to make it more efficient, fair and supportive of diversity. However such tools are only as good and unbiased as the those that design them and must be used with caution. The below Figure from a Red Thread Research report highlights the potential benefits and risks of diversity and inclusion technology.• Implementing more consistent, less-biased, and scalable people decision-making processes • Enabling the perception that the technology will solve bias problems, not that people are responsible for solving them• Reducing people's sense of empowerment to make critical people decisions• Implementing technology or processes that are disconnected from other people processes or technologies• Enabling employee perceptions of big-brother monitoring, an overfocus on \"political correctness,\" or \"reverse-discrimination\"Action Areas | 6. AssessmentInitial screening biases, such as the one found by a LinkedIn study, in which recruiters were 13 percent less likely to open women's profiles, make a strong case for implementing anonymized hiring and removing key identifiers from candidate applications. This is where People and Culture practitioners have a key role to play as an anonymizer of applications.The use of written screening questions facilitates this by enabling candidates' answers to be grouped, randomized and anonymized for reviewers. This minimizes the opportunities for bias, including rating answers more or less favorably based on how the previous answer was rated, or inferring candidate demographics or background from responses. Applied uses the following process to reduce bias in assessing written responses:1. Anonymize -remove all demographic information or indications 2. Chunk -group answers together, so that all responses for Q1 are reviewed together 3. Randomize -the order in which candidate responses appear for each 4. Review -based on clear evaluation criteria, reviewers score responses independently from one another After this assessment hiring managers may wish to review CVs, although some argue these should not be reviewed at all, as they are an unreliable indicator of performance. If, after the initial skills assessment, CVs are reviewed by the hiring panel, People and Culture practitioners should remove all indications of demographic information (gender, age, nationality, etc.).Further, People and Culture practitioners should act as intermediaries with candidates for any correspondence and for arranging meetings. This ensures a standardized approach and mitigates any opportunities for bias from hiring managers. By arranging meetings with candidates, People and Culture practitioners can prevent variances in candidate availability, flexibility or their needs for reasonable accommodation from impacting the decisions of hiring managers. For example, if a candidate has a visible physical disability, People and Culture practitioners can level the playing field by arranging for all candidates to be interviewed virtually and with no video. The focus should always be on candidates' abilities NOT their disabilities. This means that the necessary technology should be available so that everybody is able to participate no matter their diverse and respective needs.Use reference checks as an opportunity to gather more information on the candidate's quality of work, their interpersonal relationships, and other soft skills like adaptability, cooperation, respect for others, and more.With regards to GDI, this is the time to investigate the candidate's ability to support and contribute to a diverse, safe and respectful workplace. Include questions in the application about their personal commitment to diversity and inclusion, and have candidates complete a self-declaration form, where they declare that they have no previous convictions or dismissals for misconduct. This is particularly important for personnel who will be working with children or at-risk adults. The CHS Alliance's Protection from sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment (PSEAH) Handbook recommends that previous employers are questioned on the candidate's conduct and behavior and that criminal background checks are performed.To help candidates showcase their best selves, include, in your application guidance, an overview of how your recruitment process works and provide tips and guides to help them prepare. For example, if you are using a specific approach for developing questions and assessing their responses, make this clear to candidates, and provide practice guides to help. Explain the STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Result) interview format, explain what type of answers and evidence you are expecting, and give sample questions to help them practice.Increased transparency around the recruitment process, what qualifications you are looking for, and how you will evaluate candidates, promotes a culture of equity from the outset. Examples of how some are doing this:→ Google provides videos tutorials and tips on how they hire. In line with other recommendations in this toolkit, the tutorials feature commitments to and information on wellness and diversity, as well as information on requesting reasonable accommodation for those with disabilities.→ The United Nations' Careers page features diverse staff and provides information on pay, benefits, the recruitment process and more. In addition the page has accessibility features to assist those with vision impairments.Things you can do:• Support hiring managers to conduct skills-based assessments and structured interviews. Train them and provide guidance on creating work sample/situational/behavioral or other competency based questions and interview techniques.• Anonymize candidate applications to the fullest extent possible. Demographic information should not be available to evaluators until the interview stage.• Use technology, when appropriate, to support debiasing efforts.• Act as an intermediary between evaluators and candidates to further standardize the process.• Use reference checks to assess candidates past behavior and soft skills, as well as their commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace. This is the time to investigate the candidate's ability to support and contribute to a diverse, safe and respectful workplace, and ask about any instances of misconduct.• Provide clear guidance on the process and evaluation criteria to help candidates showcase their best selves.Action Areas | 6. AssessmentAction Areas | 7. InterviewsOne of the final steps in the assessment process is the interview.The interview process however is fraught with opportunities for bias. Once candidates are visible, whether in person or by video, affinity bias 5 , beauty bias 6 , and other prejudices against gender, accents, disabilities, race and other demographics can come into play.Unstructured interviews make bias more prevalent as they hinder reviewers' abilities to focus on the key criteria for job qualifications. They give hiring mangers false overconfidence in their decision-making since it is a more gut-driven approach.This has been found to lead to less accurate decisions in terms of hiring the best candidate. A group of candidates were assessed based on two standardized tests alone, or the two tests and an unstructured interview. Results, shown on page 43, found that individuals presented with interview information exhibited more overconfidence than individuals presented with test scores only. However, based on subsequent performance appraisals of selected candidates, the accuracy of decisions made using only the tests was found to be higher, both than thought by the hiring managers and compared to the decisions made using tests and an unstructured interview. This study showed that not only do unstructured interviews fail to help make accurate personnel selection decisions, the false overconfidence they give shows how informality and bias skew our ability to gauge candidate competency. Awareness alone is not enough to mitigate the effect of these forces on the evaluation process. Debiasing must be built into its structure. Inconsistent formats, questioning and assessment methods hinder our ability to compare candidates fairly across the same criteria. Structured interviews standardize these elements and guide reviewers to make decisions based on facts rather than subjective impressions.Accuracy in hiring decisions A structured interview, as the name implies, has a structured format that:• Designs questions to gauge candidates' competence to perform the job's duties• Has questions asked in the same way, order and with the exact wording to all candidates• Has clear evaluation criteria linked to demonstrated skills for grading answersIn a structured interview, hiring managers and panelists should:• Record only what the candidate says, and not interpret their responses;• Prompt the candidate with general follow-ups such as, \"Go on\", \"Please elaborate\", or \"Let me repeat the question\" if the question has not been sufficiently answered or if it has been misunderstood; Do NOT ask leading follow-up questions or suggest answers, which differ from the structured interview questions used; and do not ask different follow-up questions that give candidates different opportunities;• Score candidates' responses immediately after the interview and independently from other reviewers;• Discuss scores horizontally, that is, assess scores for Q1 all together, and so on;• Be able to justify ratings based on the evaluation criteria and facts gained from the interview;• Stick to what the scores tell them about who is the strongest candidate.Comparatively, an unstructured interview does not have a consistent format across interviewees and is more conversational without pre-decided questions. It might include questions like: \"Tell me about yourself\", or \"What are your strengths and weaknesses?\" This open-ended format hinders the ability to evaluate candidates equally across the same criteria, and tends to focus on dimensions not necessarily predictive of capacity to do the job. Unstructured interviews are also more prone to being influenced by subjective factors, like interviewers' biases, moods, or candidates' conversational abilities or appearance, as reviewers are not being guided to focus on clear job-related criteria.The above is covered in the hiring manager training module, however People and Culture practitioners should refresh panelists on these guidelines prior to interviews, as well as provide clear rubrics for evaluation. People and Culture Practitioners should also be present as observers, to monitor panel compliance with interview guidelines.Action Areas | 7. InterviewsPre-recording video answers to interview questions, also known as automated / asynchronous video interviewing (AVI), may minimize bias and offer additional benefits. Research has found that use of AVIs is increasing. It can impact applicant interview behaviors, processes, and outcomes, and influence key organizational outcomes. However, it is worth noting that AVIs vary massively in their design and use. Therefore, People and Culture practitioners should take the following into consideration when deciding if and how to implement AVI.• They have a consistent structure -all candidates have the same time to answer the same questions -which as early discussed, is better, both in terms of predictive validity and equality, than unstructured interviews. • They prevent the interviewer from impacting the interview. In face-to-face interviews, interviewers may give different prompts to different candidates, or may bond with some candidates based on irrelevant information, such as discussing shared hobbies. Further, studies have shown that women are more likely to be interrupted and asked more follow-up questions than men during an interview. As a result women are more likely to feel nervous and/or rush through their answers. • Spacing issue: They allow for greater flexibility around scheduling and travel limitations for both reviewers and candidates. This is particularly important for those with caring responsibilities, disabilities, and/or financial constraints. • They enable multiple reviewers to assess responses horizontally and independently from one another, as with the standardized process for written assessment described earlier.• They provide an audit trail / accountability of interview assessments by having answers recorded and encouraging compliance with grading criteria. • They allow candidates with lower proficiency in the interview language to perform better, because they can see the questions written and / or have more time to consider their replies.Cons of AVIs:• They cannot prompt candidates for further information. However, this may be done subsequently after reviewing recorded responses. • They do not give all candidates access to the right equipment/location in order to record their interviews. • As with face-to-face (F2F) interviews, they might also allow evaluators to be influenced by non-job-relevant factors such as physical attractiveness or professional appearance. • Unlike F2F interviews, they do not give applicants the opportunity to change/overcome interviewers' biases via their good performance, or adjusting responses. • They can potentially provide more biasing info if the videos are recorded at home.Interviewers may judge candidates on their homes, and/or inferences from personal items, such as religious items or children in the background. Interviewees should be instructed on how to blur their backgrounds or use a standard background. • In cases where AVIs are assessed by computer algorithms, they can inadvertently bring additional diversity challenges such as those discussed under \"Potential benefits and risks of diversity technology\" in the earlier section on Assessment.When using AVIs, bear in mind the following considerations:• Be very clear with candidates about what to expect, why you are using video interviews, the benefits for both them and you.• Consider allowing candidates to come into a CGIAR location to record their interview if they do not have the ability at home.• When designing AVI formats, decide whether:• Candidates should see the question and record their answer immediately, or whether questions will be shared in advance;• Candidates can re-record responses, and if so how many times this can happen.• There is a time limit for responses.• Candidates can take breaks or not while recording.Designing QuestionsBased on the essential qualifications identified for the role, and as stated in the job description, help hiring managers to create questions so that candidates can evidence the desired qualities. We recommend that before the interview you have already used written assessments and/or pre-screening tools like work sample tests. • Be cautious of how panel diversity requirements can unfairly overburden diverse staff! Because they are often fewer in numbers, women and other under-represented staff tend to be asked to serve on interview panels more frequently. Put limits on the number of panels that staff members are asked to serve on in a given period and ensure People and Culture oversight so that requests are evenly distributed.• If diverse panels cannot be achieved with only internal staff, compile a roster of external panelists from other relevant organizations, who could serve.• Make sure that under-represented panelists are not treated tokenistically and that their inputs and decisions are valued equally. Having more than one panelist from under-represented diversity dimensions will help.Action Areas | 7. InterviewsWhile studies have found mixed results when assessing the impact of diverse selection panels, it can send a powerful message to under-represented candidates, when they see people like themselves amongst decision-makers in CGIAR. As a matter of principle and practice, panels should be as gender-balanced and diverse as possible. But there are key considerations in doing this the right way.According to one study of 598 finalists for university teaching positions. One under-represented candidate on shortlists may not be enough. A study found that the higher the proportion of under-represented candidates on shortlists, the more likely they are to be selected. When there was only one woman on the shortlist there was statistically no chance she would be hired (see figure below). Adding one more woman to have a gender balanced shortlist, saw the likelihood of her being hired jump to 50 percent and up to 67 percent when women comprised the majority. Other studies have found similar results that women were less likely to be hired (by both men and women) when they comprised 25 percent or less of the total pool.Having only one under-represented candidate highlights how they are different from the norm. Status quo bias (a deference/preference for the norm) makes selecting a lone underrepresented candidate unlikely. Conversely, normalizing the presence of under-represented candidates in recruitment means they're more likely to be selected. To increase the likelihood of ending up with more diverse interview lists, People and Culture practitioners can track the demographics of applicants and extend advertisement deadlines and/or increase outreach efforts to ensure more diverse pools are achieved from the start (see Leveraging Data section). Selection policies should stipulate a minimum number of underrepresented candidates (in excess of one) for posts where diversity is lacking. This is in line with the GDI Matrix requirements for recruitment, as well as providing written justification if this requirement is not met.Things you can do:• Support hiring managers to conduct structured interviews. Train them and provide guidance on questions and interview techniques.• Allow candidates to record their responses to interview questions so that evaluators may review flexibly, horizontally, and independently.• Make panels as diverse and gender-balanced as possible, without overburdening diverse staff.• Require more than one under-represented candidate on shortlists. Diversity Dashboard, a diversity software company, recommends the below metrics for diversity in recruiting. These not only track activities but compare the results with others and show why they matter -for performance, talent management and organizational impact.Action Areas | 8. Leveraging DataAction Areas | 8. Leveraging DataData can also reveal blind spots. For example, are diverse applicants being lost before they even apply? By using tools like LinkedIn Job's \"view-to-apply\" ratios you can see who is viewing your job notices and compare that with who applies, and then adjust your approaches accordingly. If you discover that men are responding to job descriptions at a higher rate than women, try adjusting the words used and information provided, so that the language resonates more with women (See Sanguage Satters guidance).When data produces lessons learned and good practices, then it can be further strengthened by sharing the results collectively across CGIAR, for example through GDI channels such as the Knowledge Hub or Sharepoint. This will help to create a database for shared use of what efforts are most impactful for increasing diversity in application rates and hires.Data monitoring enables target setting and remedial action. If a target is not reached for a minimum number of applications from under-represented candidates, that may highlight the need to review a job description for inclusion, to keep a job advertisement open longer and/or to engage in more proactive and targeted outreach. However, if the data shows that desirable levels of under-represented candidates are applying but not being short-listed, then attention can be focused on re-evaluating the process of sifting and assessing candidates.If the data shows low numbers of under-represented applicants at the different stages, then consider the following remedial actions:Remedial Action(s) to increase under-represented candidatesReview the description for use of gendered words and phrases that may deter women. Review requirements of job descriptions. Ensure that they contain only essential qualifications and that they include information to encourage diverse applicants, such as salary or flexibility of the position.In addition to the above, consider the use of more proactive targeted outreach efforts to encourage applications from under-represented groups. Engage with thematic networks specializing in diversity, referral programs and/or headhunting.If under-represented candidates are applying, but not being long-listed, then review your sifting process for possible bias. This might be gendered keywords in the search, overemphasis on years of experience, or seniority requirements that may be screening out diverse candidates.Use skills-based assessments and blind hiring to increase the number of diverse candidates that make it to shortlists. At this stage, it may be necessary to fix minimum numbers of underrepresented candidates on the short-list in order to ensure diversity progress.Review interview and assessment processes to ensure they have applied standard methods and criteria across all candidates. Require hiring managers to show evidence that they have made substantial efforts to recruit an underrepresented candidate and to justify whenever diverse hires were not made.Annex IV:Annex IVBelow is a broad range of professional and thematic networks with CGIAR-relevant focuses, such as science, agriculture, economics, and STEM. All focus on increasing diversity and supporting underrepresented groups within these fields.The list serves as an example of targeted networks that can help strengthen diversity and inclusion outreach efforts. It is not intended to be exhaustive and should be reviewed periodically to ensure groups are still active.Some of these have job boards on their sites, and actively serve to promote the networking and career development of diverse groups. Others may not have specific job platforms, but may be able to circulate job notices through internal communications within their network. • 500 Women Scientists is a platform for journalists, educators, policy makers, scientists and anyone needing scientific expertise to connect. While it is not a career site, it could be used as a tool to find passive recruits (those who are not actively looking for jobs). More than 20,000 women in STEM and supporters from more than 100 countries have signed in support of 500 Women Scientists, pledging to build an inclusive scientific community dedicated to training a more diverse group of future leaders in science, and to use the language of science to bridge divides and enhance global diplomacy.• Association for Women in Science (AWIS) is a global network that inspires bold leadership, research, and solutions that advance women in STEM, spark innovation, promote organizational success and drive systemic change.• The Earth Science Women's Network (ESWN) supports a range of activities aimed at professional growth and creating a just, equitable and inclusive geoscience community. A grassroots, nonprofit, member driven organization with the mission \"to support the scientists of today and welcome the scientists of tomorrow. Women and black, indigenous and people of color are importantly under-represented in the geosciences/Earth sciences. ESWN is dedicated to increasing diversity across the geosciences with an emphasis on creating and supporting a nurturing community, working for cultural change to eliminate barriers to a diverse scientific workforce, and empowering scientists through professional development.• Femmes and Sciences Association launched in Montpelier in 2015, brings together members from multidisciplinary backgrounds to strengthen the status of women in STEM careers and improve their working conditions and career prospects. They have also developed a mentoring program to support doctoral students in building their career plan, by reflecting on the possibilities and choices open to them with the help of experienced mentors.The European Platform of Women Scientists is an international non-profit organization that represents the needs, concerns, interests, and aspirations of more than 12.000 women scientists in Europe and beyond. They have a Careers page that requires adverts to contain a special reference indicating the sincere interest of the advertising institution to hire women for the job in question.• Minority Post-Doc is a web portal on the minority postdoctoral experience featuring news, articles, resources, and events about jobs, career advice, professional development, funding, fellowships, mentoring, and diversity issues. They publish postdoctoral and professional job/ opportunity advertisements for all employment sectors: academia, industry, government, nonprofit, etc.The National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) seeks to assist people of color in fully realizing their potential in academic, professional, and entrepreneurial pursuits in chemistry, chemical engineering, and allied fields.They have professional programs focused on helping members advance their careers by providing opportunities for career development coaching and training, networking, and positive community involvement. They annually recognize minority scientists and engineers through professional awards to enhance their professional profile and create a network of role models who can serve as inspiration to others.• Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM), Inc. is a non -profit professional association for LGBTQ+ people in the STEM community. With almost 90 student chapters at colleges/universities and professional chapters in cities across the United States and abroad, oSTEM is the largest chapter-based organization focused on LGBTQ+ people in STEM.Score Profile 0-10You are currently falling short when it comes to recruiting for diversity. Reevaluate your practices, and make an active effort to improve the attractiveness of your public image to diverse candidates. Proactively recruit from schools and professional networks where women and other diverse candidates are well represented, such as those featured in the targeted outreach list. Actively support managers and recruiters in their efforts to attract diverse candidates.You are beginning to make progress towards inclusive recruitment, but there is room for improvement. Review the areas where you are effectively reaching diverse candidates, and ensure you continue those efforts. Identify and apply more pro-diversity strategies. For example, your recruiters may be very successful in identifying women candidates, but if women candidates are not making it through the recruitment process, being selected or ultimately choosing to join CGIAR, your processes may be failing you.You are on the right track when recruiting diverse talent. Continue to make diversity and inclusion an integrated part of your recruitment efforts. Consider strengthening results by holding recruiters and hiring managers accountable for attracting diverse candidates, if they are not already. Consider expanding your initiatives to attract an even broader pools of diverse talent, and inspire others by sharing your successes through CGIAR GDI channels and in public forums.Organizational Assessment Tool on Recruitment ","tokenCount":"10763"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"51a4580ad138a4b20fb920e2cf129d88","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/36f6d326-680d-468e-abee-d9ee222e8b0f/retrieve","id":"554023993"},"keywords":["Kaushal, M.","Mahuku, G.","Swennen, R. Comparative Fusarium wilt","banana","differentially expression gene (DEG)","gene ontology (GO) annotation","Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways","resistance genes"],"sieverID":"8b17edc8-ff4b-49be-a27e-a7f4a2c7d8e3","pagecount":"29","content":"Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) is one of the most destructive diseases of banana. Methods to control the disease are still inadequate. The present investigation targeted expression of defense-related genes in tissue cultured banana plantlets of Fusarium resistant and susceptible cultivars after infection with biological control agents (BCAs) and Fusarium (Foc race 1). In total 3034 differentially expressed genes were identified which annotated to 58 transcriptional families (TF). TF families such as MYB, bHLH and NAC TFs were mostly upregulated in response to pathogen stress, whereas AP2/EREBP were mostly down-regulated. Most genes were associated with plant-pathogen response, plant hormone signal transduction, starch and sucrose metabolism, cysteine and methionine metabolism, flavonoid biosynthesis, selenocompound metabolism, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, mRNA surveillance pathway, mannose type O-glycan biosynthesis, amino acid and nucleotide sugar metabolism, cyanoamino acid metabolism, and hormone signal transduction. Our results showed that the defense mechanisms of resistant and susceptible banana cultivars treated with BCAs, were regulated by differentially expressed genes in various categories of defense pathways. Furthermore, the association with different resistant levels might serve as a strong foundation for the control of Fusarium wilt of banana.Banana is among one of the most economically important crops in the world. Besides being a staple food crop, banana is also of critical importance for food security and income generation for small holder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Banana production has been negatively impacted by Fusarium wilt, a disease caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) [1,2]. Substantial losses in banana production have been observed around the globe [3]. The fungus persists in soil for long periods as chlamydospores even in the absence of its host. Once bananas have been infected, the fungus can easily spread through infected planting material, soil run-off and farm implements. The fungus penetrates through small openings or wounds in roots, clogs the xylem vessels and interferes with nutrient and water translocation, leading to wilting [4]. Typical wilt symptoms include yellowing of leaves, longitudinal splitting of pseudostem and necrosis [5]. Till to date no effective control exists for this disease in affected banana farms [6]. As the roots are the main organs responsible for plant growth through the assimilation of water and nutrients, biological control through root priming needs to be studied as a potential disease management strategy. Plants have inherent defense systems and banana itself also has many strategies to overcome Foc infection [7]. During Foc attack, root cells restructure and inhibit spore germination [8] significantly impacting host resistance against the phytopathogen [4]. Thus, priming of host plants with effective biocontrol agents well in advance of Foc infection could enhance plant resistance. Bacillus and Trichoderma are the two endophytes that have been successfully utilized as biological control agents (BCAs) against F. oxysporum in many host plants [9,10]. In addition, many defense genes associated with hormonal signaling are responsible for Foc resistance in banana [11][12][13]. Hormone signaling molecules which regulate the host immune system include abscisic acid (ABA), auxins, cytokinins, ethylene (ET), gibberellins, jasmonic acid (JA), and salicylic acid (SA) [14]. Some of these molecules such as SA, JA, and ET are widely considered to be important for plant growth [15] and in defense against biotic and abiotic stress [16]. These signal molecules induce pathogenesis-related (PR) gene expression during host-pathogen interactions [17,18]. Several defense related genes have been identified in banana roots [19], but defense gene expression of banana in response to Foc infection is inadequate. Gene expression in banana in response to Foc infection can provide important information on plant genes associated with defense to Foc. Several proteomic studies have analyzed osmotic and cold stress of banana growth and development [20][21][22]. In addition, general response of Grand Naine cultivar to Foc was also studied earlier [23]. However, examining gene expression profiles of Foc on the resistant and susceptible banana cultivars would provide more information on resistance mechanisms that could be exploited in managing Fusarium wilt.The present study examined the mechanisms of banana resistance to F. oxysporum (Foc race 1) infection with and without biocontrol agents (Bacillus subtilis and Trichoderma asperellum). We studied the gene expression in the genetically related Foc susceptible (Mchare) and Foc resistant (Grand Naine) since Mchare (Mlali), one of the putative parents of Grand Naine. Comparative analysis was conducted to identify genes, gene ontology (GO) annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways related to resistance and susceptibility of banana to Foc. In addition, metabolites profiles and expression of PR genes in response to pathogen infection were also examined. This is the first study to use biological control agents (BCAs) to study the molecular mechanisms of resistant and susceptible banana roots infected with Foc. Our results reveal the defense mechanisms for Foc resistant and susceptible cultivars with or without BCAs inoculation and serve as a strong foundation for the control of Fusarium wilt of banana.We compared the symptoms on leaves as well as in roots in response to Foc inoculation in both resistant and susceptible cultivars. After 72 h of Foc inoculation, no significant symptoms were observed in leaves and roots of the resistant cultivar \"Grand Naine\" (CR5, FR6, FTR7, FBR8). Also, many smaller secondary and tertiary roots grew from the primary roots in all the treatments of the Foc resistant cultivar. However, the susceptible cultivar \"Mchare\" treated with Foc (FS2) displayed severe root necrotic symptoms and with clearly visible symptoms on the new leaves. Less necrotic symptoms were observed in the roots and leaves of the susceptible cultivar treated with BCAs (FTS3 and FBS4). Few lateral roots were observed from the main roots of the susceptible cultivar treated with BCAs (Figure 1). We sequenced root samples from resistant and susceptible banana cultivars using BGISEQ-500 platform and generated 50.17 million reads with an average data of about 4.96 Gb per sample. Sequencing of the RNA libraries generated 49.32 to 49.71 and 49.67 to 49.74 million paired end reads for the susceptible and resistant cultivars of banana, respectively (Supplementary Table S1). Over 92% of reads for the susceptible and for the resistant cultivar were high-quality bases (quality score ≥ Q30). When mapped to the reference banana genome, on average 31.35% and 27.81% RNA-seq reads were mapped to the host banana genome of the susceptible and resistant cultivar, respectively. The uniformity of the mapping result of each sample suggests that the samples are comparable with an average unique mapping ratio of 23.21% and 20.16% for the susceptible and resistant cultivar, respectively (Supplementary Table S2). The retained high-quality pairend reads of banana from each sample were mapped to the reference banana genome and assembled with Cuffcompare Cufflinks to reconstruct unique transcribed sequences using parameters -u, -i, -o, and -j. In total, we identified 7624 novel transcripts, 5146 of them were previously unknown splicing events for known genes, 312 of them were novel coding transcripts without any known features, and the remaining 2166 were long noncoding RNAs.A total of 1,495,885 and 1,712,529 SNPs were identified in the susceptible and resistant banana cultivars, respectively. The nucleotide substitution type of SNPs also indicated higher frequency of transitions (C-T and G-A) than transversions (C-A, G-T, C-G, and T-A). Surprisingly, the ratios of transitions to transversion were equal for CS1 and CR5 (1.46), FS2 and FR6 (1.47), and FBS4 and FBR8 (1.46). The ratio of transitions to transversion for FTS3 was 1.48 and FTR7 was 1.49. It was also observed that the G-C frequency was lower than three other types of transversions (Supplementary Table S3). SNPs and INDELs of susceptible and resistant banana samples showed an identical distribution in separate genomic regions. Approximately 23% SNPs and 32% INDELs were distributed in the Up2k (upstream 2000 bp area of a gene), intergenic regions and Down2k (downstream 2000 bp area of a gene). About 77% SNPs and 68% INDELs were observed in the genic regions of the susceptible and resistant banana cultivars (Supplementary Figure S1). The most frequent alternative splicing (AS) event reported for both susceptible and resistant cultivar is SE, followed by RI and A3SS. The least frequent AS event reported for both susceptible and resistant cultivar is MXE (Supplementary Figure S2).To investigate the gene expression response against Foc infection, we merged novel coding transcripts with reference transcripts to get a complete reference of both resistant and susceptible banana cultivars. Sequence profiling produced more than 396 million clean reads from all the root samples corresponding to approx. 49.5 million reads per sample (Supplementary Table S4). About 31.67%-37.47% and 38.45%-43.20% of the raw reads of the resistant and susceptible cultivars mapped to the banana reference genome (Supplementary Table S5). The number of genes that correspond to resistant and susceptible cultivars were 35,966-37,710 and 37,352-38,055, respectively (Supplementary Table S6). Sequencing data saturation analysis was used to measure whether the depth of sequencing data was sufficient for bioinformatic analysis. Increasing the number of sequenced reads increased the number of identified genes. However, when the number of sequenced reads reached a certain amount, the growth curve of identified genes flattened, indicating that the number of identified genes tends to reach a saturation (Supplementary Figure S3). In order to reflect the consistency, we calculated the Pearson correlation coefficients for all gene expression levels between the susceptible and resistant cultivars. Pearson R2 varied from 0.58 to 1.0 (Figure 2a). All the samples were hierarchically clustered by the expression level of all genes to directly reflect the relationship between compared samples for a same treatment (Figure 2b). Results revealed a more similar level of gene expression among CS1-FTS3, FS2-FBS4, and FR6-FBR8. Based on the expression information, we performed box plot to show the distribution and dispersion of the gene expression level of each sample. The box plots of the relative log10 FPKM values for each RNA-seq library displayed few distributional differences among the libraries (Figure 2c) suggesting similar transcription profiles. We further reflected the gene abundance change and the concentration of gene expression in the sample interval with a density map (Figure 2d). Genes with similar expression patterns usually have the same functional correlation. To identify genes with similar expression patterns, we clustered the 9033 genes identified by cluster software and Euclidean distance matrix for the hierarchical clustering analysis of the expressed gene and sample program at the same time (Figure 2e).To study the gene expression of banana roots after infection with Foc, a pairwise comparison was performed between libraries to determine differentially expression genes (DEGs). On the criterion of p < 0.05, we analyzed and compared the same treatments of resistant and susceptible banana cultivars. Genes with FDR ≤0.05 and fold-change ≥1 were considered as differentially expressed compared with the control. We identified 14,488 (7794 upregulated and 6964 downregulated) and 7926 (2701 upregulated and 5225 downregulated) banana DEGs in control and Fusarium inoculated plants, respectively of the susceptible cultivar compared to the resistant one. Similarly, we detected 8992 (4363 upregulated and 4629 downregulated) and 10,384 (3472 upregulated and 6912 downregulated) banana DEGs in Fusarium-Trichoderma and Fusarium-Bacillus inoculated plants, respectively of the susceptible cultivar compared to the resistant one (Figure 3). Again, the infection responsive DEGs in the susceptible cultivar was delineated by cluster analysis.Gene ontology (GO) functional analysis showed that DEGs in the CS1 vs. CR5 group were enriched into 335 GO terms, of which six were significantly enriched; DEGs in the FS2 vs. FR6 group were enriched into 1005 GO terms, of which three were significantly enriched; DEGs in the FTS3 vs. FTR7 group were enriched into 1124 GO terms, of which four were significantly enriched, and DEGs in the FBS4 vs. FBR8group were enriched into 1261 GO terms, of which seven were significantly enriched (Table 1). GO analyses of all these DEGs were categorized into three categories viz. biological processes, cellular component, and molecular function (Figure 4).    Among the biological processes, cellular and metabolic processes were most prominent. In the cellular components, cell, cell part, membrane, membrane part, and organelle were prominently represented. Among the molecular functions, binding and catalytic activity were dominant among the GO terms in the resistant and susceptible cultivar. GO term relationship networks analysis was performed to demonstrate and confirm the roles of BCAs in the resistant and susceptible cultivar (Figure 5). We further analyzed pathway enrichment to get more insights into classification and functional enhancement in resistant and susceptible banana cultivars. The DEGs between all treated and control groups of the resistant and susceptible cultivars were enriched to 20 subclasses of 5 broad pathways (cellular processes, environmental information processing, genetic information processing, metabolism and organismal systems) analyzed utilizing the KEGG database (Figure 6 i).KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the DEGs in the four comparison groups were enriched in 133 (CS1 vs. CR5), and 131 (FS2 vs. FR6, FTS3 vs. FTR7 and FBS4 vs. FBR8) pathways, respectively, of which 4 (CS1 vs. CR5), 7 (FS2 vs. FR6), 5 (FTS3 vs. FTR7) and 4 (FBS4 vs. FBR8) pathways were significantly enriched. A total of 21 KEGG pathways in the four comparison groups showed significant enrichment, of which two pathways were common and significantly enriched in all the treated and control groups of the resistant and susceptible cultivar as follows: Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and MAPK signaling pathway (Table 2). The pathways with the greatest enrichment between control plants of the resistant and susceptible cultivar were glyoxylate and decarboxylate metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation, steroid biosynthesis and carbon metabolism. The resistant and susceptible cultivar inoculated with Fusarium demonstrated the greatest enrichment of metabolic pathways, plant hormone signal transduction, starch and sucrose metabolism, cysteine and methionine metabolism, flavonoid biosynthesis, selenocompound metabolism, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. The resistant and susceptible cultivar with Fusarium-Trichoderma inoculation were enriched with mRNA surveillance pathway, mannose type O-glycan biosynthesis, amino acid and nucleotide sugar metabolism, cyanoamino acid metabolism and plant-pathogen interaction. Enrichment of plant hormone signal transduction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, starch and sucrose metabolism and plant-pathogen interaction were found in the Fusarium-Bacillus treated resistant and susceptible cultivar (Figure 6-ii). The differences in degree of enrichment and pathway specific enrichment suggested that responsive variability existed between the variously treated plants with BCAs and Fusarium. These results also suggest that these pathways and processes are involved in the Fusarium stress response among the different banana cultivars and treatments.   To regulate gene expression, transcription factors (TF) recognize DNA in a sequencespecific manner. A total of 3034 genes were identified as DEGs and annotated in 58 different TF families for resistant and susceptible cultivars (Figure 7). In the BCA inoculated resistant and susceptible cultivars, the top largest differentially expressed TF families that were involved in response to the pathogen challenge include MYB (402 members) followed by MYB-related (303 members), AP2-EREBP (231 members), bHLH (230 members), WRKY (171 members), and NAC (126 members) (Figure 7). The expression levels of transcription factors coding DEGs in each sample of the resistant and susceptible cultivars were clustered. TF families such as MYB, bHLH, and NAC TFs were mostly up-regulated in response to pathogen stress, whereas AP2/EREBP were mostly down-regulated. Co-expression analysis were conducted using the normalized gene expression values of the common DEGs from the resistant and susceptible cultivar and Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was calculated. We used similar clusters to construct the connecting networks pairs with similarity score above 10. The TFs belonging to MYB, MYB-related, AP2-EREBP, bHLH, WRKY, and NAC TF families had the maximum number of significant edges. With other genes, many of these edges were positive that displayed conserved downregulation (Figure 8). In our network analysis TFs-MYB displayed a role in secondary metabolism and plant defense response. bHLH has been found to be crucial for plants against disease stress. This predicted interaction network of TFs in resistant and susceptible cultivars with different proteins could be useful to elaborate the DEGs role in studying the resistance mechanism in the banana host against Fusarium.Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network revealed a better understanding of biological processes and interconnections (Figure 9). PPI approach was used to analyze and compare the defense pathways against Fusarium of resistant and susceptible cultivar with and without inoculation of BCAs. We constructed PPI network of resistant and susceptible cultivars considering node degrees and found that a significant (58 and 6 (control), 40 and 11 (Fusarium), 41 and 33 (Fusarium-Trichoderma), 63 and 3 (Fusarium-Bacillus)) number of genes were down-regulated and up-regulated, respectively. Most of the genes in Fusarium-Trichoderma showed a significant up-regulation compared to other treatments. PPI network protein significantly enriched in mRNA surveillance, MAPK signaling pathway, plantpathogen interaction and signal transduction as displayed by KEGG pathways. The results revealed the importance of splicing activity for triggering defense gene against Fusarium infection in banana.The transcript levels of the top six largest differentially expressed genes (MYB, MYBrelated, AP2-EREBP, bHLH, WRKY, and NAC) were validated by RT-qPCR. The expression levels of all these genes were affected by the Fusarium infection as compared to the susceptible and resistant control plants. The expression level of MYB gene was upregulated about 3.5 times upon BCAs inoculation. Identical results were obtained for bHLH, where however the transcript level upregulated 2.5-fold when compared to susceptible and resistant control plants. On the other hand, upregulation in the expression profile of other genes were found with BCAs treated plants but transcript level was only increased 1.5-fold when compared control.     Unlike other crops, the defense mechanism of banana in response to pathogen infection at the molecular level is not well understood. In the present study, we used the BGISEQ-500 platform, a high throughput DNA sequencing approach for performing transcriptome sequencing to investigate changes in banana. The library was constructed from root samples of Grand Naine and Mchare cultivars that are resistant and susceptible, respectively to Foc race 1. More than 90% of the sequences from the resistant and susceptible cultivar were of high-quality with a score ≥Q30. The average mapping ratio to the reference genome was 29.58% and 37.64%, respectively. On average 29.58% reads were mapped, and the uniformity of the mapping result of each sample suggest that the samples were comparable. Functional annotation analysis revealed that 42,726 genes were expressed in all the root samples and 312 of them were novel genes.Further, to screen the genes responsible for Fusarium resistance and better understand the mechanism underlying the resistance of banana to Foc race 1, we carried out a DEG analysis. The analysis has a higher precision as compared to microarrays and was used to distinguish gene expression between the resistant and susceptible cultivar giving a quantitative measure of transcript abundance [24]. The resistant cultivar contained a novel set of genes associated with numerous functions to reduce pathogen colonization. The total number of DEGs in the Fusarium resistant \"Grand Naine\" was far less than that in Fusarium susceptible \"Mchare\" (Figure 3). This might be due to the higher susceptibility of micropropagated young banana plantlets [25,26].Transcription factors (TFs) regulate gene expression with regard to plant defense against various phytopathogens, thus are crucial in plant development. In the present study, most of the TF families showed heterogenous expression profiles with complex regulatory behavior during disease stress. 58 TF families were identified, among which MYB, MYBrelated, AP2-EREBP, bHLH, WRKY, and NAC were the most abundant and involved in various stress responses [27] in all compared groups. Among these TF types, the most abundant were NAC with 126 members (126), and MYB with 409 (Figure 7A). Upregulated TFs, including MYB, bHLH and NAC were found in the Foc resistant cultivar \"Grand Naine\". SpMYB TF expression was also significantly induced in Arabidopsis challenged with Fusarium oxysporum [28]. WRKY22, WRKY33, and DREB TFs showed a different expression pattern between Fusarium resistant and susceptible banana cultivars, and were differentially expressed in the CS1 vs. CS5, FS2 vs. FR6, FTS3 vs. FTR7 and FBS4 vs. FBR8 group. The expression levels of WRKY22, WRKY33, and DREB were two-fold higher in the resistant cultivar \"Gand Naine\" than in \"Mchare\" under untreated conditions. Bai et al. [26] also suggested that three WRKY TFs showed different expression patterns in Cavendish banana cultivars after Foc infection.A large family of plant-specific TFs encoded by MYB gene family plays a crucial role in stress regulation followed by overall plant development. Isolated from Zea mays, the first plant MYB gene, C1, was involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis [29]. In comparison, our study found a total of 409 (MYB) and 303 (MYB-related) proteins in banana roots. Specifically, MYB and 303 MYB-related, were involved in plant-pathogen pathways, and differentially expressed in the CS1 vs. CS5, FS2 vs. FR6, FTS3 vs. FTR7, and FBS4 vs. FBR8 group. These are involved in many functions including secondary metabolism, gene regulation and response to stress (Figures 7 and 8). MYB and MYB-related proteins form transcription complexes and work along with bHLH proteins in various cellular processes including cell cycle regulation [30].The bHLH proteins are one of the largest TF families. These proteins regulate various biological processes including wound and drought stress responses, hormone signaling and tissue development in plants [31]. Our analysis showed that 230 bHLH proteins were expressed in banana roots, and differentially expressed in the CS1 vs. CS5, FS2 vs. FR6, FTS3 vs. FTR7 and FBS4 vs. FBR8 group (Figures 7 and 8). The bHLH proteins were classified into 32 subfamilies based upon evolutionary and genome analysis having the same plant subfamilies with identical functionalities [32]. These bHLH subfamilies were found to be involved in the control of biosynthesis of phenylpropanoid, flavonoid and anthocyanin [33].The NAC domain-containing 126 protein has been reported to be involved in resistance of banana to Foc [34], and differentially expressed in the CS1 vs. CS5, FS2 vs. FR6, FTS3 vs. FTR7 and FBS4 vs. FBR8 group. Other studies also reported that it is involved in the susceptibility of plants to diseases with NAC21/22 involvement in wheat (Triticum aestivum) [35] and reduced bacterial wilt resistance due to the over-expression of SmNAC [36] suggesting the importance of plant NAC in plant-pathogen interaction. A recent study by Dong et al. [37] revealed that six NAC TFs were up regulated in the Foc1 vs. CK group and Foc1 vs. Foc4 group, respectively, but not differently expressed in the Foc4 vs. CK group.C3H are the zinc finger families of proteins involved in RNA-binding activity in pre-mRNA processing, transcriptional regulation and tolerance to adverse stress conditions [38]. In total 111 root specific C3H proteins were revealed in banana roots. On the other hand, 68 and 67 C3H family genes were identified in Arabidopsis and rice, respectively [39]. Our study revealed that C3H proteins, are differentially expressed in the CS1 vs. CS5 and FS2 vs. FR6 group. Other zinc finger families were found in banana including WRKY and C2H2 related genes and differentially expressed in the FTS3 vs. FTR7 and FBS4 vs. FBR8 groups (Figures 7 and 8).In the present study, WRKY TFs which are well-established regulators of defense genes were expressed more and upregulated in the FTS3 vs. FTR7 and FBS4 vs. FBR8 groups (Figures 7 and 8). WRKY is a crucial TF involved in both basal and induced resistance of banana to Foc. WRKY50 involvement is also well-known in the signaling pathway of salicylic acid in Arabidopsis [40].All candidate genes (MYB, MYB-related, AP2-EREBP, bHLH, WRKY, and NAC) were tested using RT-qPCR assay to evaluate their influence on the gene expression in Fusarium infected and BCAs inoculated plants. MYB genes, the largest families in plants play a key role in development such as two displayed in our study-secondary metabolism and plant defense response. bHLH has been found to be crucial for plant growth including photomorphogenesis, light signal transduction, and in plant response to disease stress.We utilized comparative transcriptome sequencing approach to identify DEGs in banana root samples under Foc stress conditions and BCAs inoculation. GO annotation and KEGG pathway analysis revealed the DEGs enrichment in multiple GO terms and pathways including plant-pathogen interaction, MAPK signaling, starch and sucrose and cyanoamino metabolism and biosynthesis of phenylpropanoid and secondary metabolites in BCAs treated plants (FTS3 vs. FTR7 and FBS4 vs. FBR8 groups). These pathways were associated with transcription, metabolism, signal transduction and defense, and transport, which are involved in the regulation of responses to pathogen attack [41]. Multiple pathways against Foc infection were found through the genes that are involved in the plant-pathogen interaction pathway [42]. Plant responses to pathogen attack also occur through MAPK signaling that mainly include expression of pathogenesis-related (PR), hypersensitive reaction (HR), and cell wall lignification which further activated the immune response. The involvement of the amino acid metabolism in plant resistance to diseases was recently reported. For instance, a strong up-regulation of asparagine synthetase was observed in infected wild-type tomato and in Botrytis cinerea-tomato interaction [43]. The aspartate and aspartate-derived amino acids content affected the defense responses in Arabidopsis thaliana due to the over-expression of cytosolic aspartate amino transferase [44]. In addition, the plant hormone signal transduction pathway was found only in cultivars treated with BCAs (FBS4 vs. FBR8 group). The role of plant hormones in response to plant defense against biotic stress has been well established [45,46]. Similarly, to other species [47], our data displayed very important roles of secondary metabolites in plant pathogen defense. Foc infected and BCAs inoculated banana cultivars were found with upregulated genes in the FTS3 vs. FTR7 and FBS4 vs. FBR8 groups. These enzymes play a major role in antifungal compound synthesis and other components of the cell wall that are involved in the phenylpropanoid pathway and other pathways. These results indicate that these pathways were related to Foc stress response in banana. Furthermore, enrichment pathways and DEGs suggested the contrasting response mechanisms against Foc stress under varied treatments. In the present study, MYB (409 genes) transcription factors were also differentially expressed in Foc inoculated plants. In Arabidopsis, MYB transcription factor was found to respond to stress [48]. In addition, we observed that the genes encoding MYB-related, AP2-EREBP, bHLH, WRKY, NAC, and C3H were differentially expressed in the FTS3 vs. FTR7 and FBS4 vs. FBR8 groups (Figure 7). These TF are involved in diverse biological processes and contributed to Foc stress response through modulation of plant immune responses.Production of pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins have been widely studied in plant pathogen interactions. In our study, the constitutive expression of glucanases and chitinases was significantly higher in the resistant cultivar \"Grand Naine\" compared with the susceptible cultivar \"Mchare\". When inoculated with the Foc and respective BCAs, expression of pathogenesis related (PR)-1, glucanases and chitinases were affected in both resistant and susceptible cultivars. PR-1 was up-regulated in the resistant CR1, FR6, and FRT7 and down-regulated in the susceptible cultivars. The expression of glucanase changed dramatically over time in FS2 and FBS4. Very high expression of glucanase genes were observed in the resistant cultivar \"Grand Naine\" compared with those in the susceptible cultivar \"Mchare\" where it was observed only at the stages of Foc infection and BCAs inoculation. Upregulation of chitinase was found in resistant cultivar \"Grand Naine\" while those in the susceptible cultivar \"Mchare\" showed up-regulation only during the BCAs inoculations (FTS3 and FBS4). Higher accumulation of mRNA of PR-1, glucanases and chitinases was observed in resistant and susceptible banana cultivars after BCAs inoculation and Foc infection; suggesting their involvement in plant defense response in bananas. The findings identified some Foc stress related genes through comparative transcriptome approaches that can be harnessed for the genetic improvement of banana.Two banana cultivars, Mchare and Grand Naine, susceptible and resistant to F. oxysporum (Foc race 1), respectively, were used in this study. Tissue-culture derived plantlets of the two cultivars were procured from Crop Biosciences Limited, Arusha, Tanzania. Two indigenous strains, viz. Bacillus subtilis and Trichoderma asperellum were used as endophytic BCAs. F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Tropical Race 1) was isolated and identified from the pseudostem of diseased plants of farmer's field in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania and preserved in the laboratory [45,46]. Roots of banana plantlets were dipped in a 10-mL solution of Bacillus subtilis (1 × 10 6 cfu/mL) and Trichoderma asperellum (1 × 10 5 cfu/mL) inoculation for 30 min before planting in pots. Control plantlets were treated with sterile distilled water. Treated plantlets were transplanted into pots (with 7 kg capacity) containing 5 kg sterile sand and soil (loamy textured) mixed in the ratio of 2:1. A week after planting, plantlets were drenched with their respective treatment solutions at @5% v/v. The treatment was repeated 15 days later. Plantlets were grown in the greenhouse at 30 ± 2 • C (day)/25 ± 2 • C (night) with ~14 h photoperiod. With some modifications, banana plantlets were inoculated with Foc according to Van et al. [19]. At the four leaf stage, roots of banana plantlets were washed with sterile distilled water and wounded by gentle crushing, and dipped in a beaker containing 200 mL of 10 6 conidia/mL spore suspension of Foc for 30 min. Similarly, the control plants were treated with sterile distilled water. After treatment, plants were replanted in pots as described above. This sample set up was done in triplicates. Root samples were collected after 72 h of Foc or sterile distilled water treatment. The samples were marked as CS1 (control susceptible), FS2 (Fusarium susceptible), FTS3 (Fusarium-Trichoderma susceptible) and FBS4 (Fusarium-Bacillus susceptible) for Mchare and CR5 (control resistant), FR6 (Fusarium resistant), FTR7 (Fusarium-Trichoderma resistant) and FBR8 (Fusarium-Bacillus resistant) for Grand Naine. The samples were immediately kept in RNA later solution and transported to laboratory for further use.Total RNA was extracted from banana roots using Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent RNA 6000 Nano Kit). The concentration, integrity and yield of total RNA were determined using Agilent's 2100 Bioanalyzer with the Plant RNA Nano chip assay (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA). Concentration (ng/µl) of RNA was measured by comparing with a standard sample. We analyzed RNA integrity using two methods: The ratio of the large (28S) to small (18S) ribosomal RNA subunits (28S/18S) and the RNA integrity number (RIN). RNA purity was determined on a NanoDropTM.The poly-A containing mRNA molecules were purified using poly-T oligo attached magnetic beads. Following purification, the mRNA was fragmented into small pieces using divalent cations under elevated temperature. The cleaved RNA fragments were copied into first strand cDNA using reverse transcriptase and random primers. This was followed by second strand cDNA synthesis using DNA Polymerase I and RNase H. These cDNA fragments have the addition of a single \"A\" base and subsequent ligation of the adapter. The products were then purified and enriched with PCR amplification. We quantified the PCR yield by Qubit and pooled samples together to make a single strand DNA circle (ssDNA circle), which gave the final library. DNA nanoballs (DNBs) were generated with the ssDNA circle by rolling circle replication (RCR) to enlarge the fluorescent signals at the sequencing process. The DNBs were loaded into the patterned nanoarrays and pair-end reads of 100 bp were read on the BGISEQ-500 platform. Prior to assembly of sequences into scaffolds, we filtered the low-quality reads (more than 20% of the bases qualities are lower than 10), reads with adaptors and reads with unknown bases (N bases more than 5%) to get the clean reads [49]. Then we mapped those clean reads onto the reference genome. We used HISAT (Hierarchical Indexing for Spliced Alignment of Transcripts) to do the mapping step [50].We used StringTie [51] to reconstruct transcripts and used Cuffcompare Cufflinks [52] tools to compare reconstructed transcripts to reference annotation. We selected \"u\" (Unknown, intergenic transcript), \"i\" (A transfrag falling entirely within a reference intron), \"o\" (Generic exonic overlap with a reference transcript) and \"j\" (Potentially novel isoform (fragment): At least one splice junction is shared with a reference transcript class code types as novel transcripts. CPC [53] was used to predict coding potential of novel transcripts and merged coding novel transcripts with reference transcripts to get a complete reference, and base of downstream analysis. The transcriptome assembly were assessed based on this reference [54].After genome mapping, we used GATK [55] to call SNP and INDEL for each sample. The unreliable sites were filtered to get the final SNP and INDEL. For the detection of differentially splicing genes (that is differential isoform relative abundance between samples), rMATS were used [56] to calculate the inclusion isoform and skipping isoform. The statistical model of MATS calculates the p-value and false discovery rate (FDR) that gives the difference in the isoform ratio of a gene between two conditions. In our study, gene with FDR ≤ 0.05 was defined as a significant differentially splicing gene (DSG).Clean reads were mapped to reference using Bowtie2 [57], and gene expression level was calculated using RSEM [58]. Pearson correlation were analyzed between all samples. Hierarchical clustering between all samples was accomplished using hclust, ggplot2 with functions of R used for diagrams. The clustering results were displayed with javaTreeview [59] using cluster [60,61] software to analyze the expressed genes and sample scheme using Euclidean distance matrix.We detected DEGs with PossionDis based on the Poisson distribution [62]. With the GO annotation result, we classified DEGs and performed GO functional enrichment using phyper in R. The false discovery rate (FDR) was calculated for each p value. Similar steps were repeated with KEGG annotation results for pathway analysis of DEG. We used getorf to find ORF of each DEG. ORF were aligned to TF domains (from PlntfDB) using hmmsearch [63].The selected reference genes, including the most expressed genes, were validated for for qPCR assays in different samples (CS1 vs. CS5, FS2 vs. FR6, FTS3 vs. FTR7 and FBS4 vs. FBR8) groups which controls the defense patways. The 2 −∆∆ct method was employed to calculate the relative expression level of the targeted genes.We used DIAMOND [64] to map the DEGs to the STRING [65] database to obtain the interaction between DEG-encoded proteins using homology with known proteins. The top 100 interaction networks were selected and used to draw the picture. We used DIAMOND [66] to map the DEGs to the PRGdb [67] database for the detection of plant disease resistance genes based on the query coverage and identity requirement [68].This is the first study to perform transcriptome and expression profile sequencing of a Fusarium resistant and susceptible cultivar following inoculation with BCAs. BCAs reduced the necrotic symptoms in the roots and leaves of the susceptible cultivar (FTS3 and FBS4). Results revealed DEGs that are involved in complex defense pathways including transcription, metabolism, secondary metabolites, signal transduction and defense, and transport, in response to the pathogen. The results also showed that TF families that were involved include MYB, MYB-related, AP2-EREBP, bHLH, WRKY, and NAC suggesting that these TF play important roles in response to Fusarium infection of banana. The expression patterns exhibited by Fusarium-responsive genes in the resistant and susceptible cultivar provides useful information of the molecular basis of defense in banana. These top regulatory and signaling Fusarium-responsive genes will allow us to explore their function and crosstalks of complex signaling networks. Furthermore, mechanistic insights gained in banana to stress response provide important clues to explore the orthologous genes and potential candidates for the development of stress tolerant banana cultivars.","tokenCount":"5781"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a60839347093939ccfa84a73f8b2d67e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H042697.pdf","id":"101413150"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"99a18761-668e-4551-8553-aed2a19f4337","pagecount":"30","content":"Irrigation is a vital input for food security in the State of Tamil Nadu. Rice is the major staple food, accounting for three-fourths of the consumption of food grains. Irrigation covers most parts of the rice area. In 2000, 96% of the rice production was carried out under irrigation conditions. Groundwater contributes to a major part of the irrigated area. However, recent trends of groundwater water use in the state show that its abstractions in many regions exceed the total net annual recharge (CGWB 2006). Overall, groundwater exploitation exceeds 85% of the annual recharge. Moreover, irrigated areas under tank commands, once a dominant source of irrigation in Tamil Nadu, and under canal commands are decreasing. Besides, the cropping and irrigation patterns are changing to meet the increasing demand of non-grain food products. In view of the recent trends in irrigation, meeting food security in Tamil Nadu will indeed be a major challenge.What factors have influenced these changes in the state of irrigation in Tamil Nadu, and how significant are they in the long run? Given the past trends, what types of investments in agriculture, especially in irrigation, will yield higher returns and can meet food security in the state? Answers to these questions are important for assessing future water demand, since irrigation shares more than 90% of total water withdrawals at present. The major purpose of this report is to assess the trends of irrigation development in Tamil Nadu over the last 35 years .After a brief introduction to the districts and regions, in section 2 we assess the trends of major exogenous drivers that influence the water sector development. Section 3 presents the spatial and temporal trends of land use and cropping patterns, and crop production. Finally, we discuss major drivers that will influence the patterns of irrigation water use in the future.Tamil Nadu, located in the southeastern part of Peninsular India, with a geographical area of 13 million ha (Mha), is the tenth largest state in India (Figure 1). The state has been divided into seven agroclimatic subzones for planning agricultural development (ARPU 1991). Semiarid conditions dominate the climate in three subregions: north, northeast coastal and southeast coastal. The delta and central regions mainly have semiarid to dry-subhumid climates. These five regions consist of 97% of the total area. The average rainfall varies from 865 to 3,127 mm among subregions, and the climate of a major part of the state is categorized as semiarid to dry subhumid (Table 1). The demographic pattern in Tamil Nadu is changing rapidly, indicating major shifts in the profile of the population dependent on agriculture. In 2001, the state had a population of 62 million, accounting for 6% of India's total population and the sixth largest in all states (GOI 2001). Most (60%) of the total population still live in rural areas, but the growth of rural population became negative in the late 1990s. In 2001, the rural population was 2 million less than in 1991. Over the same period, the urban population increased by almost 12 million (Figure 2). The high growth rate of the urban population (6.1% per annum) in the 1990s indicates a substantial rural-urban migration. The data show that a majority of the population could live in urban areas before the end of this decade.  With changing demographic patterns, dependency of rural livelihoods on agriculture is gradually decreasing. The agricultural cultivators in 2001 were 15% of the rural population, compared to 17% in 1981. However, this indicates a 0.7 million reduction in the total number of cultivators over this period. In fact, of the 21 million total workforce in 2001, only 49% were either cultivators or agricultural laborers, and the latter are only about 40% of the rural population. Such trends indicate that the contribution of the nonfarm economic activities to the overall employment has been increasing in recent years.The composition of economic growth in Tamil Nadu is fast changing. In 2005, Tamil Nadu had the seventh largest state gross domestic product (SGDP) of all the states, contributing 8% of the GDP of India. The share of agriculture in SGDP has decreased considerably over the last decade, accounting for only 12% in 2005, compared to 19.6% at the all-India level. However, annual growth of SGDP is highly variable, and the variability is largely influenced by agricultural growth (Figure 3). If growth in agricultural SGDP is very low or negative, the average growth of SDGP is 3.4%. When agricultural growth is high (>4.7%), the growth of SGDP is 8.4%, indicating that although the share of agriculture on SDGP is decreasing, high agricultural growth is a vital component for higher growth of the overall economy in the state. With rapid economic growth, water demand for domestic, service and industrial sectors will increase. The total domestic and industrial water demand in India is projected to have two-threefold increases by 2050. Tamil Nadu will account for a significant part of India's additional water demand for the nonagriculture sectors. Meeting such demand in the presence of increasing water scarcities in the agriculture sector would be a serious challenge.Food consumption patterns have been changing rapidly in recent years, affecting major changes in land use and cropping patterns. Rice is the staple food in Tamil Nadu, contributing to nutritional security of the major part of the rural population. But its consumption in both rural and urban areas has declined in recent years (Table 2). Overall, consumption of food grains per person per month has declined by 4.7% in urban areas and by 6.2% in rural areas from 1993-94 to 2004-05. This decline combined with changing demographic patterns has translated to only a 15% increase in the total demand for food grains over this period vis-à-vis a 24% growth in the total population. This reduction in demand partly explains the changing production patterns in food grains (see section 3 for a detailed discussion on cropping pattern and production changes).  The changes in consumption of non-grain food, which is also significant between 1993 and 2004, also influenced major changes in the cropping patterns. Over this period, consumption of milk, poultry and eggs has increased by 34%, 373% and 33%, respectively, showing a significant increase in demand. With increasing feed demand, the area under maize had a 14fold increase between 1970 and 2005. Similarly, consumption of fruits and vegetables also increased significantly, increasing area under fruits and vegetables by 234% over the same period. With increasing income and lifestyle changes, the consumption patterns will experience further changes. As a response, cropping patterns will also undergo further changes. Next, we assess how the agriculture sector responded to these major drivers of change.This section explores trends and turning points of irrigation and crop production between 1970 and 2005. The source of cropping patterns and crop production from 1971 to the late 1990s is the International Crops Research Institute for Semiarid Tropics (ICRISAT 2000), Hyderabad. The data from the late 1990s to 2005 are from two websites, namely (dacnet.nic.in/eand) of the Directorate of Economic and Statistics, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India (GOI 2007), and(www.indiastat.com) of India Stat.com (IndiaStat.com 2007). This analysis only considers rainfall data of agroclimatic regions, for which the monthly estimates are available in the website of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (www.tropmet.res.in) (IITM 2007).Rainfall within the state is a key determinant for both surface water and groundwater irrigation. Therefore, first we assess the long-term trends of the average seasonal and annual rainfall and their variability. Next, we explore how these rainfall trends influenced the trends of cropping and irrigation patterns in Tamil Nadu and its agroclimatic subregions. We use piece-wise linear regressions 1 for assessing the turning points and trends thereafter.Bi-monsoonal patterns dominate rainfall in the sub-agroclimatic zone of Tamil Nadu. Being situated on the eastern side of the Western Ghats, most parts of Tamil Nadu miss a substantial part of dependable rainfall in the southwest monsoon. However, the southwest monsoon contributes to 60% of the annual rainfall of about 925 mm. But the southwest monsoon has high interannual variability, with a coefficient of variation close to 35%, as against 20% in the northeast monsoon. Even with the high variation of monsoonal rainfall, irrigation has played a valuable role in agricultural development in Tamil Nadu.Long-term records show nonsignificant trends in average annual or seasonal rainfall in the agroclimatic region of Tamil Nadu (Figure 4). However, the standard deviation (over 5-year periods) of seasonal rainfall has changed over time. The variability of rainfall in the southwest monsoon (from May to October), which is most critical for crop production, has increased in recent years. In the past, tanks played a major role in holding the rainwater of the southwest monsoon for irrigating crops in the rabi (October-March) season (Gomathinayagam 2005). However, increasing variability of southwest monsoons seems to have had a significant effect on surface where, the indicator functions, taking values 0 when i T t < and 1 when i T t ≥ , show major turning points of trends; T t is the time trend; 1 β and 2 β show the extent of changes in trends from that before turning points; RF t is the annual or seasonal rainfall, RF t-1, the lagged rainfall variables, and StDev t the standard deviation of 5-year rainfall periods. irrigation, especially of those under tanks. As a way of mitigating the effects of increasing variability of rainfall, and also for meeting the increasing demand for irrigation, groundwater irrigation has rapidly expanded. But recent changes in many other key drivers may have had a significant effect on irrigation landscape in Tamil Nadu. We explore these in the following subsections.Net sown area The net sown area (NSA) seems to have followed three distinct trend 2 patterns between 1970 and 2005 (Figure 5). The NSA has decreased at an annual rate of 0.77% during the 1970s, remained steady until the mid-1990s, and started declining again, at 2.1% annually, after 1995. Overall, the total NSA of the state has declined by 25%, or 1.5 Mha, from 6.3 Mha in 1971 to 4.8 Mha in 2005. Among major agroclimatic subregions, the NSAs of all regions except the delta were declining (Table 1). The central region has not only the largest share, one-third of the total NSA in 2005, but also the largest contribution to the decline of about 28% between 1970 and 2005. But the biggest drop of NSA was in the northern region, where it declined by more than 40% of its peak in the early 1990s. Only the NSA in the delta region, which contributed to about 15% of the total NSA in 2005, has increased over the last three decades.Rainfall was significant in explaining the annual variation of the average NSA. A plausible explanation for declining trends of NSA is that part of the NSA was converted towhere AN_ RF is the annual rainfall, AN_RF t-1 and AN_RF t-2 are lag values of orders 1 and 2 of annual rainfall, T t is the time trend, and * indicates statistical significance at 0.05 level. All variables in the regression are statistically significant in explaining the variation of the NSA. Othet than current fallow Barren land nonagricultural use 3 and another significant part left as fallow for long periods of up to 1-5 years (Figure 5). The nonagricultural land (NAGL) has increased by 0.6 Mha, or 42%, between 1971 and 2005. The central and northeast regions have the highest share (27% and 26%) of NAGL and also the highest contribution (39% and 38%) to the overall increase. In fact, the NAGL of these regions has increased by 61% since 1971. Over the same period, land in the category, other than current fallow, has increased by 0.79 Mha while barren land has decreased by 0.3 Mha.No significant trend in net irrigated area (NIA 4 ) existed between 1970 and 2005 (Figure 5). Annual rainfall and lagged rainfall up to the two previous years are significant in explaining the variations of NIA. The significance of lag rainfall variables mainly shows negative effects of droughts on NIA. However, with the decline in net sown area, the share of NIA in NSA increased from 42% in 1970 to 56% in 2005.The central and northeast coastal regions have trends of NIA similar to that of the state, and share 60% of the total NIA (Annex Table 1). That is, there are no significant trends of NIA in these two regions, except for the effects due to low rainfall patterns in consecutive years. However, NIAs of the delta and southeast coastal regions have significant declining trends, with 16% and 11% drops, respectively, from the level in the 1970s. On the other hand, NIA in the northern region, with a share of 7% of the total, has increased by 40% from 1970, and has offset the drop of NIA in other regions.Groundwater irrigation expanded rapidly between 1971 and 2005. Canals and tanks were the main sources of irrigation in the 1970s and 1980s, contributing to about two-thirds of the total NIA. But, groundwater has been dominating irrigation since the mid-1990s, contributing to more than half the NIA in 2005 (Figure 6). 5 which have lost more than 140,000 ha between 1971 and 2005, account for only 29% of the total canal NIA (Annex Table 2). The central and deltaic regions contribute to 84% of canal NIA in 2005. Half of this loss was in the deltaic region, contributing to 52% of the total under canal commands in 2005. The central region, with the second highest canal irrigated area, also lost about 20,000 ha, but it is only 12% of the total decline in the canal NIA. Tank irrigation, 6 which contributed to one-third of the total NIA in 1971, has lost more than half of its NIA by 2005 (Annex Table 2). The northeast and southeast coastal regions share three-fourths of the NIA under tanks. And these two regions lost more than 54% and 24%, respectively, of NIA under tank commands between 1971 and 2005. The central region, with 15% of total tank NIA, lost more than 27% area over the same period. Although low rainfall in three consecutive years explains the short-term variation, there seems to be a consistent declining trend in the recorded NIA under tanks during the last few decades.However, not all of the NIA lost under tank irrigation systems, was lost from the production system. Wherever the net tank irrigated area has decreased, much of that is replaced by groundwater irrigation. This is especially true in central and northeast coastal regions, where net tank irrigated area has decreased by 103,000 and 242,000 ha, respectively, while the net groundwater irrigated area has increased by 194,000 and 307,000 ha, respectively. It seems that tanks in these areas are operating as a valuable recharge structures for utilizing groundwater irrigation.Groundwater irrigation, which has contributed to a major part of NIA in recent years, had some notable trend patterns between 1971 and 2005.• First, groundwater has replaced part of surface irrigation, especially a part of the area under tank irrigation. This pattern is prominent in the northeast coastal and central regions (Annex Table 2), where the NIA under tank commands has decreased by 243,000 and 103,000 ha, respectively, and NIA under canal irrigated areas has decreased by 38,000 and 10,000 ha, respectively. Over this period, the NIAs under groundwater in the two regions have increased by 303,000 and 195,000 ha, respectively, and have offset the loss of surface irrigated area.• Second, groundwater irrigation has also spread well outside surface command areas.Increases in net groundwater irrigated area in central and northeast coastal regions far exceed the loss of area under surface irrigation. In the north region, increase in groundwater irrigated area is even higher than the combined area of canal and tank irrigation. Indeed, these excess groundwater irrigated areas must have occurred outside the surface command areas.• Third, recent growth patterns indicate that groundwater irrigation especially that through dug wells, is not sustainable in many regions. Dug wells were the main contributor to the growth of groundwater irrigation before late 1990s (Figure 7, right-hand graph). However, the NIA through dug wells has been decreasing in recent years. Part of this decline was due to the droughts of 2001-2003. But the declining trend seems to be continuing beyond the drought period.• Fourth, it is clear that reliance of tube-well irrigation is increasing. In fact, tube-well irrigation seemed to be taking the place of dug wells in most regions (Figure 7 Many of the blocks in the north, central and northeast coastal regions are either critical or overexploited. These regions have 74% of the net available groundwater resources of the state, but contribute to 89% of the NIA under groundwater. Indeed, sustaining groundwater irrigation at the present level is a major issue in these regions. In fact, after a continuous growth, the NIA under dug wells in all three regions has decreased between 2000 and 2005 whereas that under tube wells has increased over the same period and helped maintain a positive growth in area under groundwater irrigation.However, with the present trends of falling groundwater tables, how long these growth patterns of groundwater irrigation can be maintained is a critical issue.Although the NIA remains a constant, the gross irrigated area (GIA) showed a statistically significant declining trend 7 between 1971 and 2005 (Figure 8). This indicates that the area that is irrigated more than once has declined over the last few decades. In fact, the irrigation intensity, the ratio of GIA to NIA, has declined from 131% to 112% between 1971 and 2005. As a result, the GIA has declined by 0.49 Mha, from 3.47 Mha in 1971 to 2.98 Mha by 2005.The sharp decline 8 of irrigation intensity and hence GIA started since the mid-1990s. Part of this decline, especially the trends after 1995, can be attributed to low rainfall. But the statistically significant time trend indicates that other factors are also contributing to decrease GIA by about 3,500 ha annually. These factors include the increasing demand for water from other sectors in dominantly canal irrigated areas, and increasing variability of water supply and water scarcities and low profitability in tank irrigated areas. In fact, the largest contributions to the decline of GIA are from the delta-a region dominantly canal-irrigated, and the northeast coastal subregion-a region dominantly tank-irrigated. In both regions, GIA has decreased by 0.21 Mha (Annex Table 3). In 1971, canals contributed to 93% of the irrigation in the deltaic region, while tanks contributed to more than half the irrigation in the northeast coastal region.    1971 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 1971 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995  An increase in GIA was registered only in the north region. Groundwater, which contributed to two-thirds of the irrigated area in 1971, has sustained the expansion of irrigation in this region. Our analysis showed that NIAs under canals, tanks and dug wells have contributed more or less the same for expanding the GIA, where each additional ha of NIA added 1.16-1.23 ha to the GIA. However, with greater ability to pump water from deep aquifers, each hectare of net tube-well irrigated area contributed an additional 0.65 ha to the GIA.The gross cropped area (GCA) also registered a declining trend 9 (Figure 8) similar to that of the net sown area (NSA). The GCA declined in the 1970s, remained steady during 1980s, and began declining again in the mid-1990s. Overall, GCA declined by 21%, or 1.58 Mha between 1971 and 2005 (Annex Table 3), to which the decline in NSA has contributed 94%. This shows that there are no major changes in cropping intensity (CI), ratio of GCA to NSA. The CI was 124% in 2025, compared to 120% in 1971.The GCA has declined significantly in all regions except in the north, where it slightly increased by about 0.2 Mha. The central and southeast coastal regions have the largest share of GCA (about 54%), and are also the largest contributors to the decline in GCA (about 68%).No major crop diversification trends from grain to non-grain crops exist in Tamil Nadu (Figure 9). Although grain-crop area has declined by about 1.41 Mha between 1971 and 2005, non-grain area has no commensurate increase over this period. In fact, the decline in food-grain area has contributed to 89% of the overall reduction in the GCA, decreasing the share of food grains in the GCA from 63% to 54% over this period.The share of non-grain crops in the GCA increased from 37% to 45% from 1971 to 2000. However, this increase was primarily due to the reduction in area under food-grain crops. In fact, the area under non-grain crops had slightly increased before 1990, but again decreased to the level of the early 1970s. However, a change towards crop diversification occurred in the north region, where increase in area under non-grain crops exceeded the decline in area under food-grain crops by about 195,000 ha (AnnexTable 3). The expansion of groundwater irrigation, which dominates the land-use patterns in the north region, has contributed to this increase.Although no major changes occurred in the overall share of GIA in the GCA, the share of irrigation in grain and non-grain crops changed sharply. Close to 80% of the GIA was under food-grain crops in 1970 and this share had decreased to 60% by 2000. This means that much of the reduction in irrigated area under food-grain crops was replaced by irrigated area of nongrain crops. In fact, between 1970 and 2000, the non-grain-crop area increased by 539,000 ha, while the grain-crop area declined by 785,000 ha. Similar trends of irrigation patterns exist in all agroclimatic regions, indicating changing preference for using scare irrigation resources, especially groundwater, for high-value non-grain crops. Paddy dominates the cropping pattern of food grains, accounting for 60% of the total foodgrain area, and more than 80% of the total food-grain irrigated area in 2005 (Figure 10). However, area under paddy has decreased over time, by 0.67 Mha of the total and by 0.64 Mha of irrigated area since 1970 (Annex Table 4). This contributed to a major part of the decline in GCA and GIA. Although the total paddy area has decreased, the share of food grains has remained steady over time. This is primarily due to the declining area under coarse cereals. The area under coarse cereals has also declined by 64%, from 1.48 to 0.54 Mha between 1971 and 2005. Only the area under maize has increased over this period. The growth in maize area is only a recent phenomenon, and the total area under maize has more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, indicating increasing demand for livestock feed.As in the total area, paddy dominates the irrigated area under food grains. In fact, the share of irrigated area under paddy has increased slightly, from 88% in 1970 to 94% in 2000. Irrigated area under food-grain crops, except maize and pulses, has decreased over this time. Irrigated area under maize, although small in comparison to other crops, has an eightfold increase between 1970 and 2005. This trend is expected to increase with increasing feed demand, which primarily emanates from increasing consumption of poultry products.In fact, the changes in cropping patterns seem to be quite parallel to the changes in food consumption patterns. While the consumption of cereals is decreasing, the preference for nongrain food crops, such as vegetables and fruits, and animal products, especially for milk, poultry and eggs is increasing. The consumption of rice per person per month in urban and rural areas has slightly decreased by 0.68 and 0.41 kg, or 7% and 4%, respectively, between 1993-94 and 2004-05. And the consumption of coarse cereals has dropped drastically, especially in rural areas by about 0.46 kg or 46%. Over the same period, consumption of milk has increased by 22% and 18% in rural and urban areas, respectively, with the consumption of poultry products increasing more than threefold. The latter has increased the demand for feed, particularly for maize.With increasing income and changing lifestyles, food consumption patterns are expected to change further (Amarasinghe et al. 2007). As a result, consumption demand, and hence the production requirement and area of coarse cereals could further decrease. The consumption demand for rice will also decrease slightly. Thus, as in the last two decades, additional demand for rice will be met primarily through increase in yield rather than through increase in area. However, area under maize will increase manifold to meet the increasing feed demand. 1970-71 1979-81 1990-91 1999-01 2004-05 1970-71 1979-81 1990-91 1999-01  Although the total area has not increased, major changes in cropping and irrigation patterns of non-food-grain crops have occurred since the 1990s. The areas under oilseeds, once dominated non-food-grain cropping patterns, but area under cotton has decreased (Figure 11). The area under fruits, vegetables and sugarcane has more than doubled and virtually replaced the area of production of other non-food-grain crops. The area under fruits and vegetable has increased in all but the deltaic region, and area under sugarcane has increased in all regions (Annex Table 5). The area under oilseeds has declined significantly in central and northeast coastal regions, while the area under cotton has declined significantly in central and southeast coastal regions.Although the total crop area of non-food-grain crops shows no major change, the area under irrigation increased significantly between 1971 and 2000. Only one-quarter of area under non-food-grain crops was irrigated in 1971, and this has increased by 43% by 2000. Fruits/ vegetables and sugarcane contributed to a major part of additional irrigated area in non-foodgrain crops, increasing by 171,000 and175,800 ha, respectively, between 1971 ad 2000. Figure 11. Cropping patterns of non-food-grain crops.The decline in irrigated area under non-food-grain crops between 2000 and 2005, of about 320,000 ha, shown in Figure 11 may, in fact, not reflect the long-term trends. This decline is mainly due to slow recovery of irrigation in non-food-grain crops after the severe droughts between 2001 and 2003. In fact, total area under irrigated non-food-grain crops between 2000 and 2003 has declined by 458,000 ha. But with good rainfall, the declining trend was reversed and the area under irrigated non-food-grain area recovered 138,000 ha during 2004-2005. If changing consumption patterns and increasing income are indicators of future direction, the trends of increasing irrigation patterns in non-food-grain crops will most probably expand in the future. Per capita consumption of fruits and vegetables is significantly higher in urban areas than in rural ones (21% and 52%, respectively); and it increases significantly with increasing income (NSSO 2007). Thus, Tamil Nadu is rapidly changing its rural and urban structure, with increasing income. Therefore, demand for fruits and vegetables will further increase in this state.  1971 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 1971 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Total Growth of crop productivity varies between crops and also between regions. Paddy is the major crop in Tamil Nadu, and almost the whole paddy area is irrigated. Paddy yields increased only marginally in the 1970s, and significantly (3.77% annually) in the 1980s. However, the growth in yield 10 as a whole stagnated in the 1990s (Figure 12). This is primarily due to decreased yields in the deltaic region, where canal irrigation dominates, and the stagnant yields in the southeast coastal region, where tank irrigation dominates. These two regions had 42% of the paddy area, contributing to 30% of the total paddy production in 2000. The paddy yields in the other three major paddy-producing regions, where groundwater irrigation dominates, have increased even in the 1990s. Increasing reliability of irrigation supply in groundwater irrigated areas may be a factor in sustaining yield increase in the north, central and northeast coastal regions. In fact, the contribution from groundwater irrigation to the overall yield growth is about three times that of canal irrigation. The reliability of irrigation supply seemed to be lowest in canal irrigated area, where yield has been declining since 1990, as is indicated in the deltaic region. Increasing groundwater irrigation in tank command areas could have somewhat offset the negative impact due to unreliable water supply in tank irrigation, as is evident in the southeast coastal region. Changes in trends of yields of other crops are also observed in Tamil Nadu (Annex Table 6). Among these, yields of:• sorghum, a prominent coarse cereal crop in north and northeast coastal regions, had a slight declining trend of 1.2% annually in the 1990s,• pearl millet and finger millet, which are prominent coarse cereal crops in the north and northeast, had a slightly increasing trend of 1.6% annually in the 1990s,  • pulses are stagnating in all regions except the north,• oilseeds were gradually increasing by 1.21% in the 1980s and by 2.34% in the 1990s; Groundnut is the major oilseed crop in the state, contributing to 94% of the total oil seed production and its yield increased by 3.2% annually in the 1990s,• sugarcane, a prominent crop in the state, had no significant yield increases since 1980, and• cotton increased by 4.2% in the 1980s and by 7.8% in the 1990s; the spreading of BT cotton has contributed to the sharp growth in yield in the latter period; this has contributed to increase cotton production by 42% between 1990 and 2000, although area under cotton declined by 36% over the same period.Declining productivity and crop area have had a severe effect on the state's situation in food-grain security. Supply of food grain in 2004-05 was only 65% of the demand, in comparison to 96% in 2000. Importantly, rice production has dropped drastically, 31% over this period, accounting for only 61% of the demand in 2004.In this section, we discuss a few future scenarios emerging from recent trends or to explore in the irrigation sector in Tamil Nadu.• The NSA of the state has been declining, and nonagricultural uses have taken up part of the decreased area. With rapidly increasing urban population and expanding industrial and service sectors, this trend is expected to continue.• A part of the NSA area was also left fallow for an extended period of time. Increasing migration of agricultural labor to nonagriculture sectors, decreasing the agriculturedependent population and increasing competition for water from other sectors could aggravate this situation. Although no visible trends exist at present, opportunities for land consolidation for increasing economies of scale in land use in agriculture could emerge in the future.• With increasing competition for surface water from other sectors, maintaining area under major/medium irrigation schemes at the present level could be a serious challenge. It is likely that net irrigated area under major/medium irrigation would further decrease. And most of the surface irrigation under major/medium schemes will be confined to high productive and high potential areas. Moreover, as a solution to the declining irrigated area, changing operations of irrigation deliveries to increase adoption of water saving technologies or changing to low-water-intensive cropping patterns needs to be explored.• Increasing variability of rainfall and unreliable surface irrigation supplies are major causes for declining tank irrigated area. Many small tanks cannot offer adequate irrigation supply for even a single season. Thus, command area under tanks will decrease further. However, many of these tanks can be used as water recharge structures for groundwater irrigation. They will provide a better control of on-farm water use in irrigation. Additionally, it will be a reliable drinking water supply for human beings and livestock in tank command areas. Thus, it is likely that groundwater irrigation will increase in the tank command areas.• In spite of the declining water tables, the number of dug wells and tube wells in most regions are increasing, albeit at a slower rate. Groundwater irrigation has better control of water use and can, in turn, contribute to higher crop productivity than surface irrigation. Augmenting groundwater supply for maintaining or expanding groundwater irrigation should be a key plank of the state water policy. Artificial groundwater recharge should be promoted to the extent where there is no impact on downstream water users. These will have major spatial distributional impacts on agriculture-dependent livelihoods.• Micro-irrigation techniques improve water-use efficiency, reduce irrigation demand and improve crop productivity. Yet, only about 66,000 ha of cropped area use drip and sprinkler irrigation (Narayanamoorthy 2009), which is only 4% of the net area under groundwater irrigation. In general, groundwater irrigation is conducive to adopting microirrigation. Groundwater is the source for a large part of irrigated area of non-grain crops such as vegetables, fruits and sugarcane. These crops and areas have the largest potential for adopting drip and sprinkler irrigation in India.• Decreasing per capita demand, water scarcities and low prices are major reasons for decreasing paddy area. Paddy area seemed to have stabilized at around 2 million ha, and most of that are irrigated. Providing a reliable irrigation supply to support paddy growing in this area will be a key challenge. Water saving techniques, such as system of rice intensification (SRI) or aerobic rice (AR), reduce the irrigation demand and, in most cases, improve crop productivity. With increasing water scarcities, the demand for introducing water saving techniques in paddy cultivation will increase.• Food demand for coarse cereals is decreasing. Thus, the area under other cereals is also decreasing. This trend will likely continue into the future.• Demand for feed crops, such as maize, has increased sharply. The total and irrigated maize area have had a sixfold and fourfold increase, respectively, since 1990. Maize area will expand further, and much of that expansion will take place in areas under other coarse cereals. Thus, additional water demand for increasing maize production could be marginal.• Sugarcane area, with most of it under irrigation, has increased until 2000 and declined sharply since then. Even this area has a significant production surplus now. Whether this decline is a blip in the cropping pattern or a continuous trend is not exactly clear.• Although area under cotton is declining, its production is gradually increasing. Adoption of high-yielding varieties, such as BT cotton, could be the main driver for yield growth. This trend is likely to continue into the future. ","tokenCount":"5661"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"91f3f6e74a693c6e336d5311aa9c7af0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/76f8fb85-29bb-4bb5-b240-658d1ba8933f/content","id":"952871769"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d28eaa60-f39f-4e2e-bc03-f0dec2470812","pagecount":"13","content":"In Mexico, the estimated 2.8 million farmers who produce maize (Zea mays) do so under a great diversity of environmental and economic situations (Eakin et al., 2014). Many of these farmers are considered smallholders, who operate on less than 20 hectares, and in rural areas without adequate access to land tenure, capital, credit, and other inputs that may contribute to adequate maize yields (Eakin et al., 2015). Under such production constraints, these smallholder farmers may not produce enough maize to satisfy their consumption needs in the home (which may include feeding livestock), or to sell in order to recuperate some of the costs of production (Appendini and Quijada, 2016;Hellin et al., 2009). Additionally, maize is subject to losses due to poor handling and pests throughout the production system. After harvest and during storage, postharvest losses have been estimated as high as 25% in parts of Mexico (Arahon Hernandez and Carballo Carballo, 2014;García-Lara and Bergvinson, 2007). Such losses not only limit the quantity of food available for home use, but can also result in quality losses, reducing opportunities for farmers to sell their grain when prices are high, or even rendering the grain unsafe for human consumption (Affognon et al., 2015;Jones and Alexander, 2014). Adequate postharvest practices-all practices conducted during and after harvest, including drying and storing-can help prevent these losses, while also helping farmers maintain the desired quality of their grain for its end use.Losses can occur at any point during the postharvest process. Harvesting when the grain is too moist may result in inadequate water content later, and moist grain provides an excellent environment for the development of various fungi (Doohan et al., 2003). Drying the grain in the field, where the farmer has little opportunity to monitor the grain and little control over climatic factors, may result in insect infestations as well (Tigar et al., 1994). Many farmers store grain for upwards of 6 to 12 months, using traditional wooden structures (trojes), which are essentially small outdoor rooms, or in polypropylene sacks which may be exposed to the environment and inadequately protect the grain (Manuel Rosas et al., 2007). Additionally, some farmers may choose to treat their grain with pesticides to protect it, and little is known about how widespread this practice is, what chemicals the farmers may be using (e.g., if these chemicals are actually approved for use in stored grain for human consumption) and how they apply the chemical (e.g., whether they are using protective equipment during application) (Ognakossan et al., 2013). All of these losses result in wasted time and resources on the part of the farmer, and threaten food security for many of Mexico's rural poor (Stathers et al., 2013).Alternatives exist throughout the postharvest system for minimizing losses, for example the use of hermetic technologies like metallic silos or specially designed plastic bags for storage can help reduce losses in quantity and quality of stored grain (García-Lara et al., 2013;Manuel Rosas et al., 2007). The adoption of these technologies is dependent on a variety of factors, including the perceived benefit of their use and their initial cost, both of which are dependent on local conditions, e.g., where losses associated with traditional storage methods are high and the cost of transporting a metallic silo, for example, to the location of its use is low, adoption may be higher (Jones and Alexander, 2014;Tefera et al., 2011). However, understanding such local conditions is necessary prior to the recommendation of alternatives for mitigating postharvest losses.The decisions that farmers make regarding their postharvest practices and their methods for storage are extremely diverse, depending on tradition, knowledge of alternatives, the local environmental conditions, and availability of technologies. Because of this diversity in approaches to postharvest management and grain storage, few summaries and case studies exist on a regional level in Mexico regarding how farmers decide to harvest, asses grain moisture and decide on the appropriate time to store their products. Additionally, we have an understanding of the pests that may cause damage, but little information exists regarding which pests farmers perceive to cause the most damage in the grains in specific states and regions within Mexico (García-Lara and Bergvinson, 2007). By assessing the perspectives of smallholder farmers on such aspects of their postharvest system, CIMMYT and our collaborators can help prioritize interventions for minimizing losses in different areas. To obtain these perspectives, CIMMYT's collaborators conducted a survey of rural smallholder farmers between 2013 and 2016, with a focus on smallholder farmers because of the opportunities for effective interventions for reducing postharvest losses amongst this group (Gitonga et al., 2013). The responses the farmers provide, while largely qualitative and subjective, can provide valuable baseline information for understanding their current postharvest practices, as well as a summary of important pests and areas for future research.As part of the Sustainable Intensification Program (SIP), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) works through collaborators (e.g., universities, research institutions, farmers' groups, farm advisors, etc.) to conduct research on various themes related to the production of maize and other grains, with the end goals of increasing yields, augmenting farmer incomes, and conserving natural resources, among others. Since 2013, CIMMYT began work in the postharvest system, which includes investigating the behavior in different environments of various practices for grain storage, training farmers and other stakeholders in appropriate grain storage practices, and outreach and extension of recommendations for minimizing losses after harvest. As part of this work, our collaborators conducted interviews with smallholder farmers in the Mexican states of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Mexico City, Mexico State, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, and Yucatán (Fig. 1). The states where the interviews were conducted were dependent on where CIMMYT conducts postharvest activities, with our level of activity in a state being a function of regional need and capacity in each area. The farmers interviewed were selected by the collaborators conducting the interviews, and were generally those that assisted a postharvest training or demonstration event organized by the collaborators. Because CIMMYT's postharvest work focuses specifically on smallholder farmers, the results presented here are not representative of farmers of all scales in a certain state, but rather for the smallholders producing maize in those states.The survey covers over one hundred questions related to the agronomic and postharvest practices of grain farmers, including basic data regarding the age of the farmer interviewed, family size, size of their operation (total hectares planted), and average maize yields. The survey includes questions regarding the farmer's practices for harvesting, drying, and conserving or storing their grain, and common problems and pests they experience during each step of their postharvest activities. Many of the questions were open, so the farmers could provide an appropriate description of their activities for their production system, for example \"What steps do you take at the moment of harvest, or how do you determine the appropriate time to harvest?\" In three states, we have less than 10 interviews-Chihuahua (1), Hidalgo (5), and Tlaxcala (1)these are not included in the final summary, as the sample size is too small to be representative. Not all of the farmers provided answers for all of the questions in the survey, and in these cases, we only report the total number of producers who responded to the question and the associated number of percentages (i.e., the percentages of the farmers who actually responded). We did not exclude any surveys, although the questions farmers chose to answer varied. Many of the farmers also produce more than one grain, but all of the data we provide for yield, steps at the time of harvesting, storage practices, etc. refer only to maize, as it is the primary crop most of these producers consume and store. The numeric data, for example, yields, percentages of losses, etc. are estimations provided by the farmers; however, these numbers provide important information regarding their perspectives. If a farmer provided a numeric range, we provide the average of that range. We did not attempt to interpret the answers provided by the farmers if their answers were not clear. For example, in the question regarding end use, some farmers would indicate that they used 50% of grain in their home, but would not indicate the use for the other 50%; we did not automatically assume that it would have been sold.The collaborators completed a total of 1,299 interviews in 13 Mexican states (Table 1). The average age of the farmers in all states is over 40, with average family sizes of greater than 4. In most states, more than 75% of farmers report agriculture as their primary economic activity, with lower percentages only found in Mexico State (53.8%), Mexico City (60.0%) and Quintana Roo (61.4%). The average of the total land operated by the farmers was highly variable depending on the state, with an average low of 1.42 hectares (ha) in Nayarit and an average high of 4.42 ha in Puebla, with high variability in Puebla (Table 2). The size of these operations, and the water regime in which the farmers produce their maize (rainfed, irrigation, or with both systems), further indicate that the survey is representative of smallholder farmers in each state. In total, 94% of the farmers surveyed produced in rainfed conditions, only 2% use irrigation, and 3% rely on both sources of water. Mexico State has the highest percentage of irrigation use, with 32%. The state reporting the lowest average yield per hectare, Yucatán, also reports the highest average number of family members. Access to more land was not directly linked with higher yields, however, as the highest and lowest average yields reported by the farmers were both in states with moderate access to land (Michoacán and Yucatan, respectively). Likewise, a higher percentage of farmers reporting use of hybrid seed instead of a native variety did not correspond with higher average yields, for example, in Mexico City, 23 (of 25 farmers) responded to the question regarding their choice of seed, and 61% reported using hybrid seed, with only moderate average yields. Of all surveyed farmers who reported on the timing of their activities, the highest percentages begin planting their operations in June (41%), begin the process to dry their grain in November (33%), and harvest in December (38%) (Fig. 2). In total, 63% of farmers (n = 980) indicate they dry their grain in the field, 29% report drying their grain in their homes, 4% dry their grain in some combination of in the field and in their homes, and 4% report that they do not dry their grain. However, certain states dominate the different categories, with many farmers in Chiapas drying their grain in the field, and no farmers doing so in Mexico City (Table 3). Only 109 farmers responded to the question as to what their primary problem is during the process of drying, and of these 55% indicate they have no problems during drying, 25% report atypical rains, 7% indicate the maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais M.) can be a problem, and the remaining 13% indicate problems with rats, robberies in the field, birds, and infestations by other insects and fungi as problems. The decision-making process as to when the farmers chose to harvest is extremely varied. In total, 871 farmers indicated a response as to how the decide to harvest, and of these, 42% rely on the humidity of the plant or grain (\"when the plant looks dry\"), 24% use a criteria related to the characteristics of the plant or grain (e.g., color or the texture of the grain when bitten), 15% rely on time (e.g., a specific amount of time after planting or depending on the phases of the moon), 8% use unspecified customs or commented they harvest based on experience, and the remaining 11% of farmers use other criteria, including when the grain can easily be removed from the cob, the sound the grain makes when it has been removed from the cob and poured, and maturity of the grain (appearance of the kernel black layer in the grain). Most of these criteria seem to be based on experience of the farmers, and not on any particular quantitative measurements (e.g., use of a humidity meter to test grain moisture). The majority of farmers harvest their grain manually (98%, n = 989), 1.6% use a method for mechanized harvesting (although what method is not specified), and the remainder use some combination of mechanized and manual harvesting.Over 1200 farmers responded to the questions regarding the practices for storing grain, and only 9 of these farmers (<1%) indicated that they do not store grain for any reason during the year. The length of time and amount of grain stored was highly variable depending on the state, ranging from an average low of 3.43 months of storage in Mexico City, to an average of 10.60 months in Mexico State (Table 4). The quantity of grain stored is also highly variable, but the lowest average quantity (kg) stored, in Yucatan, is the same state reporting the lowest average yields (Table 2). In the whole survey group, the most common choice of storage container is the polypropylene sack, which 34% of farmers reported using to store their grain, followed by traditional wooden structures (trojes), which 22% of farmers report using (Table 5). It is important to note, however, that many farmers store their grain in polypropylene sacks within the traditional wooden structures, but the numbers we report are for the method the farmer indicated, and we cannot exactly say where the polypropylene sacks would have been stored. In the case of the bulk grain, the farmers indicated simply that they stored the grain \"on the floor\" or \"on a pallet,\" but did not indicate where, and in the case of the category reflecting storage \"in the home,\" the farmers indicated that they stored their grain somewhere in their home, e.g., in the patio or in the kitchen, or simply, in the home (casa). Although a variety of plastic hermetic bags specifically designed for grain storage also exist, all the answers indicating the use of the plastic bag said only \"plastic bag,\" so we cannot assume that these bags are actually those designed for grain storage. While certain technologies may not be important nationally, for example plastic or metal drums, these technologies seem to have regional importance. For example, in both Morelos and Guerrero, a high number of the farmers surveyed indicate using these containers to store their grain, and in Morelos, few farmers reported (3%) using the hermetic metallic silo. To assess the baseline level of losses associated with storage, the farmers were asked about the levels of damage they estimate for various pests. Of the farmers that responded to the questions ( 1110), approximately 5% stated that they do not have losses during storage or that they feed damaged grain to their animals, and thus do not consider it a loss. The most common pests within all of Mexico, as indicated by the number of farmers reporting these pests were as follows: maize weevil, 86.6% of farmers indicated this as a problem (n = 1140); grain moth (Sitotroga cerealella O.), 36.9% of farmers; rodents, 34.2% of farmers; and fungus, 4.5%. Rarely, other insects, birds, and other wildlife were cited as concerns. How these various pests affect stored grain is very dependent on the state; for example, only the humid states report (high) average losses associated with various fungi (Table 6). Whereas the farmers estimate higher losses associated with the maize weevil in the central Mexican states of Morelos, Puebla, and Michoacán. Farmers in Yucatan also report high estimated average losses associated with the maize weevil, and it is important to note that they also indicated the highest rate of use of the traditional wooden structure (troje) for grain storage (Table 5).In the case of Total Insects, the farmers did not assign a specific percentage to individual insects. The farmers did not assign a specific percentage to individual insects, and this may also reflect damage by other insects, e.g., the larger grain borer (Prostephanus truncatus H.).In regards to any type of treatment that the farmers may apply to their grain to minimize these losses, 927 farmers responded to the question, 25% indicated that they do not apply any type of treatment (Table 7), and those that do apply a treatment provided a list of 31 different brand names of insecticides that they apply to their stored grain. Insecticides are the most common treatment (64% of farmers nationally apply some insecticide to their grain). Regionally, however, farmers favor other treatments, for example, 100% of the farmers interviewed in Yucatan apply an inert powder to their stored grain, e.g., calcium hydroxide. These inert powders have the potential to protect the grain by serving as a desiccant of insects; the fine powders enter the insect's spiracles or damage the insect's cuticle, upsetting the insects system for water balance and thereby causing death (Fields and Korunic, 2002;Upadhyay and Ahmad, 2011). Only 40 farmers (all in the state of Veracruz) responded to the question regarding what type of personal protection they use (for example, gloves or goggles) when applying an insecticide to their grain, and 100% of these farmers responded that they do not wear any type of protection. Nationally, the farmers perceive a benefit of these various treatments; in every state, the farmers report lower average estimates of losses when they use one of the aforementioned treatments (Table 8). Where the farmers do not employ a treatment for their grain during storage, they also report lower average estimations of their total losses. In every state except Nayarit, the farmers sell some percentage of their grain (Table 9). Where the farmers report selling the higher average quantity of grain (Mexico City), is also where they store their grain for the shortest average number of months. The farmers interviewed also indicate that they only use polypropylene sacks for storage; the high percentage of grain sold and perhaps relatively quickly, may indicate why these farmers have never adopted other strategies for storing their grain. The results we present here are in no way meant to be exhaustive regarding the many practices that smallholder farmers employ across Mexico throughout their postharvest system. However, this summary provides a baseline understanding of some of the practices in that smallholder maize farmers use for harvesting, drying, and conserving their grain in certain states, and the key sources of losses associated with these practices. These conclusions are valuable for understanding future research needs, as well as identifying the types of interventions applicable to specific regions.It is necessary to survey more participants in states where yields are low and the number of family members is high, to ascertain how representative these results are for the state as whole. In particular, in Yucatan, farmers have an average family size of 6.2, and the lowest average estimated average yield of all of the states (0.7 t ha -1 ). These low yields and high number of family members puts additional stress on the food security of the family, and thus adequate methods for reducing postharvest losses are all the more essential in these areas in order to preserve the quantity of grain available to the family, and that the grain is of adequate nutritional quality.In Yucatan, Quintana Roo, and Chiapas, a high number of participants report drying their grain in the field, and in Chiapas, Michoacán, and Veracruz, the participants indicate that they do not have a specific practice for drying their grain. Considering grain humidity is one of the many factors affecting postharvest losses during storage and at other times (Ognakossan et al., 2013), appropriate methods for drying grain are essential. Drying in the field may not allow for frequent monitoring of the grain crop (depending on how far the field is from the home), and if farmers do not monitor their fields during drying, they may not be able to make management decisions if it becomes infested with any particular insects (e.g., removing the grain from the field or treatment with an insecticide). Additionally, while few farmers responded to the question regarding problems during the drying process, 25% of these farmers indicated a concern for atypical rains during drying. Not surprisingly, participants in only three states reported that various fungi are a concern during storage (with high average estimated losses in all three states), and these states are the same in which farmers seem to have less control over their drying process. Little research actually exists on the potential for pest infestations during the drying process in the field, and this is an important avenue for further research to mitigate any infestations which may occur. Additionally, new technologies for drying, for example, \"mobile drying patios\" which are essentially large tarps with a zipper to allow for closure during erratic rains, could be viable technologies in areas where the incidence of fungi is high. Research into adapting these types of technologies for the customs of-and time and resources available to smallholder farmers is also essential.In regards to the various storage methods employed by the farmers surveyed, there is much room for improvement to reduce losses. The most common method employed nationally, the polypropylene sack is not resistant to many of the common pests (including rodents), and many of the farmers indicate they don't necessarily use any type of container to protect their grain (e.g., those storing their grain in bulk, and potentially those storing their grain \"in the home\"). Of note regarding these practices, the state with the highest estimated use of the hermetic metal silo, Mexico State, is also the state with the highest average number of months of storage. This may indicate that the farmers here have realized the benefit of hermetic technologies for long-term storage. Also in Mexico State, more farmers report that they do not use any type of treatment on their grain, indicating that hermetic technology may have been adopted as an alternative to these treatments. However, these results may also be indicative of high investments on the part of the government or others to provide silos to farmers, and it is necessary to investigate why some states have adopted silos and other hermetic technologies at higher rates than others. Similarly, the longer storage times may be indicative of lower inherent incidences of pests, and this is another area worthy of further study.In Yucatan, the state in which participants report high use of traditional wooden structures (trojes), which are typically exposed to the environment and do not prevent infestations by insects, the participants indicate a high use of inert powders to protect the grain, but did not indicate use of hermetic silos. If the low quantities of grain stored by these participants are reflective of the situation as a whole in Yucatan, this state may be an appropriate one in which to introduce small silos (1000 kg or less), and hermetic plastic bags, which can typically store 70 kg of grain or less.Because hermetic technologies work due to the absence of oxygen, it is necessary to keep the containers closed for a certain amount of time (typically three months), to allow grain respiration to reduce the quantity of oxygen within the container. At that time, any living organisms (fungus and insects) in the container are likely to die or cease development (Williams et al., 2016). As such, for farmers who frequently need to open their storage containers to obtain food for family or animal consumption, as may be the case in Yucatan where the famers consume most of their grain on0%farm, having many smaller recipients like the hermetic plastic bags instead of one large container may reduce the potential for introducing additional contaminants into the grain or augmenting the amount of oxygen in the container. Additionally, maintaining the temperature and humidity of grain, which hermetic technologies can help do, is essential for maintaining nutritional quality of the grain (Rehman et al., 2002). Further research into the habits regarding home consumption of grain could help in providing additional recommendations for storage strategies in Yucatan and elsewhere.Finally, our survey included basic information on the percentage of grain the participants sell. However, it would be worthwhile to further investigate how farmers can improve their storage practices to take advantage of fluctuations in the prices of local markets, in order to sell grain when prices are high and potentially increase their profits. It is also essential to understand the value of hermetic technologies for preserving the quality of grain so farmers can be insured adequate compensation for their product. Such information could serve useful in the promotion to farmers of various alternatives for drying and storing grain. Overall, while the participants generally report low usage of hermetic technologies and other alternatives for reducing losses in grain quality and quantity, the results presented here indicate there many opportunities for collaborating with these farmers to develop locally adapted methods for mitigating postharvest losses.","tokenCount":"4139"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1f01cdabbf353246698f5c5df3b6d243","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a02f54f-0bdc-4476-803a-fcbd9b1ec468/retrieve","id":"-1975824073"},"keywords":["Michael Blümmel","Melkamu Derseh","Aberra Adie","Tunde Amole"],"sieverID":"fe76cdab-f3c3-468a-b80a-4bb1657748d1","pagecount":"25","content":"The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) partnered in the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa project (Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Ghana) with three major objectives in mind. First, to improve on meat and milk production for improved nutrition though better feeding. Second, to evaluate forages as cash crop to improve income and employment opportunities. Third, to employ irrigated forage production to support diversification, intensification and sustainability. Specifically explored were:1. Opportunities for using small irrigation for annual and perennial forage production 2. Management options for optimizing irrigated forage integration and production from mixed crop livestock small holdings 3. Irrigated forages for multiple beneficial impact on soil improvement and water management 4. Use of irrigated forages for improved on farm feeding and as cash crop Allocation of scare resources such as arable land and water to irrigated forage production by small holders was a new departure when the project started and ILRI's primary role has been to lead and implement field level studies to 1) assess and target areas where irrigated forage may play a role because of high feed demand using interactive and demand driven feed assessments tools (FEAST), 2) test key annual and perennial grass and legume forages for forage yields and fodder quality and optimize their agronomic management and depart essential training to farmers, extension officers and researchers, 3) survey fodder markets for demand for forages and forage price-quality relationships to work backwards for assessing demand and opportunities for forages as cash crop; and 4) explore multi-purpose use of forages for soil improvement, direct food production and water management. In the way the project was structured, ILRI had to work though national partners sub-contracting with national partners in all 3 countries, as follows: Ethiopia (Amhara Regional Agriculture Research Institute, Southern Agricultural Research Institute); Ghana (CSIR Animal Research Institute); Tanzania (Sokoine University of Agriculture) ILRI's general approach has included following steps: 1) Stakeholder engagements, 2) Community engagement, 3) Rapid diagnosis, 4) Pilot interventions and assessments of their impact.2. Accomplishments: Field research results for evaluating impacts, trade-offs, and synergies of small-scale Irrigation technologies and practicesContrary to initial expectations, irrigated forages were shown to be attractive to farmers particularly in Ethiopia, followed by Tanzania and Ghana. The attractiveness was inversely related to farm size. In Ethiopia small landholdings had usually around 0.5 (small farmer) to 1.5 ha (large farmer). This constraint was less severe in Tanzania where small farmer owed up to 2 ha and large farmers more than 6 ha and Ghana where small holders farm up to 5 ha and large holdings farm more than 15 ha. Consequently, small scale irrigation interventions for forage production had a higher urgency in Ethiopia than in Tanzania and Ghana because access to alternative feed resources was less. Thus irrigated fodder work under ILSSI in Ethiopia started with 14 farmers in 2014/2015 and increased to 399 towards the end of the 1 st phase of the project largely as a result of farmer to farmer information flow. In contrast in Tanzania and Ghana number of total famer allocating land to irrigated forges remained below 100. Anecdotal evidence exists that some farmers replaced Khat, a narcotic shrub, with irrigated forages (video linkage). The momentum generated in Ethiopia around irrigated forages resulted in the recommendation of the Agricultural Transformation Agency to look at irrigated forage production as a potential transformative intervention for Ethiopian small holders to increase income and fodder security.The feed assessment tool (FEAST) was shown to be an informative and interactive yet rapid tool to assess feed resources in a farming systems context and to prioritize feed interventions.Application of the FEAST tool afforded a structured demand driven approach for the targeting and selection of irrigated forage option.Broadly, two irrigated forage options were explored: annual forages that allowed integration of fodder cultivation with crop cultivation within one year of cultivation and perennial forages where land was allocated exclusively to fodder production over several years. In the category of annual forages oats-vetch mixes were the most preferred irrigated forage intervention. A two cut system emerged as the preferred farmer management option with two-cut oats and two cut oats-vetch mix out-performing the one cut option by 13 (8.7 vs 7.6 ton DM/ha) and 30% (12. 2 vs 9.4 ton DM/ha). Besides oats-vetch mixes having higher yield than pure oat stands, forage quality was substantially higher in the mixes.Among the perennial forages, Napier that could be harvested during the course of a year between 6 and 9 times resulting relative to a 12 month growing period in a dry matter yield of a minimum of 17.9 tons/ha and a maximum of 23 t/ha performed well in Ethiopia and Tanzania. Average dry matter yields of Desho -indigenous to Ethiopia -as extrapolate from recorded 3 cuts and assumed 6 cuts per year was 41.9 tons per ha (range 31.4 to 92.3 tons per ha) was even higher.On-farm livestock productivity trials and forage quantity/quality -livestock productivity modeling showed that irrigated forages have higher returns when fed to improved livestock rather than to local animals. In the latter case irrigated forages could have negative costbenefit ratios (0.60) in Ethiopia. However, fodder market and feed value chain studies in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana showed that considerable demand exists for forages as cash-crop. Small holder could sell forages likely with even higher returns from cropping irrigated forages than more commercial farmers feeding irrigated forages to their own improved livestock.Emerging results / key findings Farmers were selected from different wealth categories using landholding as the main proxy as agreed by the villagers. The farmers participated in a guided focus group discussion followed by individual interviews. The two districts have generally similar faming practice and feed resource option, although landholding per household is much smaller in Angacha (0.5-0.75ha) than in Lemo (1-2ha). The agricultural practice employed in the area is traditional oxen-plough and hoeculture practices. The main food crops grown in the districts are wheat, tef, barley, maize, field peas and broad beans. Root crops, enset, and potato are also grown in the district Among the perennial crops enset (false banana) plays an important role through its multiple uses as a source of food, fiber, animal fodder, construction material and sleeping mats. Predominant potential water sources for small scale irrigation were shallow well water and rivers and springs water. Water was lifted mostly with rope and washer pumps and sometimes with jerry can fastened to a rope and distributed to irrigation fields with human labor using watering cans. Spring and rivers water was conveyed to crop fields by traditional canals using gravity and plastic hoses. Labor was reported to be readily available when needed. Due to limited land and high population density almost 35% of the family labor per household migrated every year in search of off-farm employment. Livestock were integral part of the agricultural production system and up to 30% of the direct income was derived from sale of livestock and livestock products. This was in addition to the contribution in the form of farm power and as a source of animal protein. Enset leaves and crop residues represented the largest portion of animal feed during the entire dry period. Cattle holding per household was mostly limited to 3 heads of animals due to the limited feed resource availability. Shortage of feed quantity and quality was ranked by farmers as the main constraint for livestock production in the areas. Poor quality of available feeds was also reported to be a limiting factor especially during the long dry season. Based on FEAST findings feed technologies that showed high probability of success with small scale irrigation included fast growing short-lived annual forages such as oat-vetch fodder which do not occupy cropping land for the entire cropping period and perennial grasses which can be planted on soil bunds, backyards and farm boundaries.In Bahir Dar Zuria district FEAST was applied in the Robit Bata kebele in the three sub-villages of Deri Gedel, Jimma Midir and Terara Gichamintola. A total of 45 farmers (15 from each sub-village) were selected for focused group discussions and subsequent individual interviews. All the farmers were selected from three wealth categories (small, medium and large landholdings) as defined by the villagers based on landholding. Farmers with land holding of less than 1ha were considered small, between 1 and 1.5 ha medium and above 1.5ha large. The study sites had two cropping seasons, the main rainy season (kiremt) when most of the major stable crops including maize, tef, and finger millet are produced, and the short rains (belg) when land preparations took place and planting of crops such as tomato, grass pea, chick pea, maize, onion, cabbage, green pepper, mango, coffee and Khat were grown by irrigation. About 90% of the households in the three sub-villages had access to irrigation mainly through shallow wells. Livestock form the backbone of the farming system and most households keep cattle, small ruminants, equids and poultry. The main feed resource options included naturally occurring and collected fodder, crop residues and grazing. Farmers in the group discussion showed strong interest for crossbred animals. Average milk yield per cow was reported to be less than 2 liters per day. Arable lands in this district were reported to be affected by hardpan formation which limited crop root growth and productivity. Shortage of feed quantity and quality was perceived by farmers as the major constraint for livestock production with the feed resource severely dwindling in the dry period. As a result, most farmers reported that they depend on purchased concentrate feeds to supplement their lactating cows and draft oxen. Supplementary forage production was generally not practiced by farmers. Forage technology options that would work well in the area were identified to be high yielding perennial grasses such specifically Napier.In Southern Ethiopia in Lemo interventions focused on oats-vetches mixes, which the farmer preferred as a forage (oats, vetch) and management (intercropped) option. A three multi cut management of oats and vetches was introduced, following field observations in year one and two of the projects with single cut management. The three cut management had a 2.3 times higher forage yield than the single cut management. However, a two cut management emerged as the preferred options of farmer since the fields could be cleared in time for food crops, which a three cut management did not allow. Two cut management out-yielded the one-cut management besides proving forage twice over an 85-day growth period (Table 1). It became also evident that the oat-vetch mix has over sole oat cropping the added advantage of higher biomass yield and fodder quality because of the protein component of the vetch. The mean protein content of oats forage was 9.2% (range 7.3 to 12.6%) while vetch forage contained on average 20% protein (range 11.8 to 26.5%). Similarly mean in vitro digestibility of oats was 56.4% (range 53.5 to 61.3%) while mean vetch forage digestibility was 67.7% (range61.5 to 73.8%). Perennial forage options were Napier and Desho, initially in year one and two as single perennial crop later in various form of intercropping (see next para). Napier is the perennial option preferred by farmers in Robit Bata. Our findings show that Napier could be harvested during the course of a year between 6 and 9 times resulting relative to a 12 month growing period in a dry matter yield of a minimum of 17.9 tons/ha and a maximum of 23 t/ha. Average dry matter yields of Desho -indigenous to Ethiopia -as extrapolate from recorded 3 cuts and assumed 6 cuts per year was 41.9 tons per ha (range 31.4 to 92.3 tons per ha). A series of laboratory fodder quality trait analysis performed in the ILRI laboratory of Napier and Desho forages collected were summarized in Table 2. In Ethiopia small landholdings had usually around 0.5 (small farmer) to 1.5 ha (large farmer). It was therefore paramount to make optimum use of the small areas that can be allocated to irrigated forages by 1) increasing forage yield and fodder quality, 2) maintaining and where possible improving the sustainability of the cropping systems and 3) maintaining or improving direct food security. Intercropping was used to explore and achieve these objectives. Three leguminous species were used for intercropping: Desmodium is a ground covering and climbing forage species, Sesbania a multi-purpose tree and the deep rooting food-feed crop pigeon pea. Pigeon pea and Desmodium had a positive effect on Napier yield, only Sesbania depressed Napier yield (Table 3). However total biomass yield was consistently and substantially higher in intercropped Napier then when cropped sole. The Napier -pigeon pea combination deserves particular interest, because of the positive effect pigeon pea has on penetration of hard pans and water infiltration. This has been reported in more detail elsewhere. On-farm livestock productivity trials showed, and modelling of livestock performance provided the conceptual framework, that irrigated forages benefit farmers with improved livestock breeds more than farmers with local livestock. These considerations are out-lined in Table 4 assuming dairy cattle with a genetic potential of yielding 3, 6, 9 and 12 kg of milk daily and that are fed oatvetch mix harvested from 100 m 2 in a single cut (forage yield and quality data were obtained from our on-farm trials in Lemo). The considerations presented in Table 4 contributed also to the explanation that negative benefit: cost benefit estimates were obtained for irrigated forage production in Ethiopia, Table 5. The major contributing fact was the high labour cost for irrigated forage production, which doubled the livestock associated labour relative to livestock associated labour cost in none irrigating farms. Pure rain-fed farmers -Farmers not using irrigation i.e. 0.95These findings resulted in new activities within ILLSI, namely exploring opportunities from feed and fodder value chains. A rapid one-of assessments of fodder markets bear ILLSI project sites was conducted in 2015 with following findings. Informal fodder markets existed near all sites transacting mainly green forages and crop residues with women been the major players in the greed forage market. Put differently a significant market demand for forages exists. Samples were collected from all fodder markets and analysed for feed price quality relationships. By extrapolation the sales price of oat-vetch mix used for calculation in Table 4 would be at least 1185 Birr. Thus, farmers owning local cattle will fare better by selling irrigated quality forages to more commercialized farmer with improved livestock. Along similar lines based on on-farm yield data of Napier and Desho their estimated value at fodder markets were between 150 000 and 200 000 Birr per ha.• Feed Assessment (FEAST)• Food-feed Crops The study sites were characterized by mixed croplivestock production systems with the major crops being maize, rice, millet, sorghum, groundnut, soybean yam and cowpea grown during the raining season from May to October. Tomatoes, onions, okra and other vegetables were occasionally planted during the off season for consumption and income with supplemental irrigation. Only 20% of the farmers in Duko and 30% in Zanlerigu practiced irrigation using bucket and rope to draw water from the shallow wells.Livestock species in the area included cattle (dairy and draught), sheep, goat, pig, poultry and donkey. Sheep were the dominant livestock species in the Duko, mostly used as a source of cash, manure and meat, and draft were the dominant livestock holdings in Zanlerigu. About 30% of farmers in Zanlerigu rear dairy cattle. In both sites small ruminants were an immediate source of cash income. Four major livelihood activities contributed to household's income generation in the sites: crop farming, livestock rearing, of-farm labor and remittances. However, the main contributor to household income was crop farming and off-farm labor work in Duko and Zanlerigu respectively. The annual feed availability correlated strongly and positively with rainfall in all places in northern Ghana and increased from June to October. Grazing on natural pasture and crop aftermath were found to be the main source of feed for livestock. The type of feed available to livestock depended on the season. Naturally occurring forages and greens were mostly available during the rainy season. During this time, animals were restricted to graze areas where cropping activities were not taking place. However, its availability reduces from November to June which is the period of dry season. From September to December, both crop residues and few naturally occurring greens were reported to be more accessible to ruminants after crops were harvested and animals allowed to graze freely without restrictions. Legume crop residues were very important feed resource throughout the year in Duko. About 60% of the farmers in Duko collect, store and feed the residue of legumes crop to the animals. In Zanlerigu, residues of cereals and other legumes were widely collected and stored as feed for livestock. According to farmers, greater percentages of the cereal residues were left on the field and grazed along with naturally occurring forages. Improved forage cultivation was not practiced in either of the study sites. Animal disease was ranked as the main constraint for livestock production, but lack of water and dry season feed shortages were also reported to be limiting factors. FEAST identified planting of irrigated cereal forage sand of food-feed-crops as promising entry points for feed improvement.In 2016, there was demonstration of irrigated fodder production in the project sites in Northern Ghana. Ten farmers (including 7 women) in Bihinayili and 14 farmers (including 7 women) in Zanlerigu were involved. The plot size for each farmer was 5m x 20m. Two forage grasses: Brachiaria ruziziensis and Sorghum almum (forage sorghum) were cultivated with one forage legume (Lablab purpureus). A total of 100 m 2 size plot was mapped out and divided into two (2). 50 m2 each for grass and legume. Cajanus cajan was planted as hedges on pilot farmers' plots.The irrigated method was pump and hose. There was a general willingness of the farmers towards irrigated fodder production. Small scale irrigated fodder established better at Bihinayili than Zanlerigu. Brachiaria and Sorghum regenerates well after several cutting regimes and during the dry season where there is moisture. However, there is the challenge of producing enough biomass for animal production as this requires a large area of land. The farmers tended to prefer rain fed fodder production to irrigated fodder because of the low cost of inputs. The protein content of both forages (Brachiaria ruziziensis: 7.6%; Sorghum almum: 8.3%) would suffice to provide for minimum microbial protein content in the diet (6 to 7%) but has to considered poor for a green forage. Similarly, ME contents were low (Brachiaria ruziziensis: 6.16 MJ/kg; Sorghum almum: 5.84 MJ/kg). Based on feedback from farmers the prospects of growing irrigated forages in Bihinayili and Zanlerigu for feeding of own livestock seemed less attractive than selling in fodder markets. This promoted the project to initiate fodder market surveys. Preliminary results show that legume haulms from cowpea and groundnut are strongly traded and attractively priced. Both crude proteins and ME in groundnut and cowpea haulm are superior to the one observed in Brachiaria ruziziensis and Sorghum almum raising serious questions about which fodder technology to invests in: forages or food-feed crops.In May 2017, eight farmers in each project site (Zanlerigu and Bihinayili in Northern Ghana) established irrigated fodder plot measuring 5m x 20m each, making eight plots in each study site.To establish the irrigated fodder plots, a meeting with project farmers was held on 4/5/2017 at Bihinayili in the Savelugu district and Zanlerigu on 15 May 2017 in the Nabdam district to identify lands and project farmers that would offer lands that can be used for both irrigated and rainfed fodder production. This was necessitated by the fact that irrigated fodder was being sown in May and the rains would start in June through to September. Each of the eight fields in each location was randomly allocated to each farmer. Eight (8) farmers at each district are used rainfed forage production as control. The forage species planted were Brachiaria ruziziensi, Sorghum almum, Cajanus cajans and Lablab. Germination of all forage species (grasses and legumes) was 100% at Bihinayili. Lower percentage germination was recorded at Zanlerigu probably due to the shortage of water in the shallow wells and the adjacent pool which usually supplied project farmers with water. Germination percentage was about 60% for Brachiaria and Cajanus and 90% for Lablab and Sorghum. Agronomical and morphological data collection has been completed at Bihinayili in the Savelugu district and Zanlerigu in the Nabdam district. Fertilizer application to forage grass species seems to enhance fodder yield at Bihinayili. Cutting was done of 1m 2 quadrat (thrown randomly).Fodder harvesting was carried out at different plant ages: 4 weeks after planting (WAP) 8 WAP, 12 WAP and 16 WAP. At each age, regrowth after every 4 weeks was harvested till no substantial yield could be harvested. Generally, fertilizer application in 2017 could be responsible for the higher yield in 2017 as against that of 2016. Delay in harvesting irrigated fodder until 16WAP increased the dry matter yield (DMY) of both Brachiaria (24 t ha -1 ) and sorghum (13 t ha -1 ). Only forages harvested at both 4 and 8 WAP were able to withstand three successive cuttings. Generally, Brachiaria showed better regenerative capacity than Sorghum. Fodder harvested at 12 WAP had the maximum neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL) and cellulose contents with a concomitant minimum value of ash, crude protein (CP), in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) and ME (MJ/kg). Nutritional quality with reference to CP contents declined with age but remain same at each successive regrowth. Brachiaria and Sorghum had 21% and 19% CP content respectively at 4-week-old. This was reduced to 6.9% and 7.4% respectively in the first harvested regrowth. Only one successful harvest was achieved in Zanlerigu at 4WAP, this is due to the shortage of water for irrigation.Surveys on potential for irrigated fodder for producers, sellers and buyers were completed at both districts for the 1 st (late dry season, May 2017), 2 nd (Wet season, August/September 2017) and 3 rd (early dry season, November 2017 -January 2018) quarters. Seed samples of fodder sold have been collected and analyzed in the ILRI laboratory in Addis Ababa.  (February, March and April), ERS =Early rain season (May, June and July),LRS=Late Rain season (August, September and October), EDS=Early Dry season (November, December and January) Quality: 1-Green with much leaves, 2-Green but with mainly stems, 3-Dry with much leaves, 4-Dry but with mainly stems,5-Spoilt by rain,6-Spoilt by sunThe estimated market price of the irrigated fodder by the buyers at livestock market showed that it has market value per unit kg relative to other available feeds in the market with better quality than natural pasture and straw. Fodder buyer speculated what the price of fresh irrigated fodder would be in dry season. Sorghum and cajan were not profitable when sold during the wet season (Table 7). Fodder farmers need to study the market to target production towards peak of sale. A survey to determine the motivation and willingness to continue irrigated fodder production was conducted to complement the fodder market survey. High demand for irrigated fodder (mean rank= 0.258), regular supply of irrigated fodder in the market (0.252) and a high likelihood of profit (0.235) were ranked as the chief extent of importance of motivational factors for selling irrigated fodder in the study areas. Index=[(4×number of responses for 1st rank+3×number of responses for 2nd rank+2×number of responses for 3rd rank+1×number of responses for 4th)] divided by (4×total responses for 1st rank+3×total responses for 2nd rank+2×total responses for 3rd rank+1×total responses for 4th rank). # The higher the rank for a given reason, the greater its importance Livestock farmers ranked major factors for buying irrigated fodder are listed in Table 9. Evidence of good performance by the animals fed irrigated fodder (mean rank =0.299), regular supply of irrigated fodder in the market (0.269) and capacity building in conservation techniques of fodder (0.204) were ranked as the chief factors for buying irrigated fodder. In Tanzania FEAST was implemented in the Babati district in the three villages of Hallu, Matufa, and Shaurimoyo. A total of 47 farmers (30 male and 17 female) from across the three villages were involved in focus group discussions and subsequent individual interviews. Farmers were selected based on land holdings, cropping and livestock ownership. Small landholdings were 0.5-1.0 ha (20% of the households) and above 6ha for large holdings (44% of the households). Farmers in the district practice mixed crop livestock farming with crop cultivation the main source of livelihood contributing about 41% of the total income. Livestock contributed 32% to total income. There were three major cropping seasons in the area: Masika (long rains), Vuli (short rains), Kiangazi (dry period. The main crops grown in the area include maize, paddy, pigeon pea, beans, sunflower, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, cowpeas, sorghum and wheat. Across the villages maize was the dominant crop grown. Livestock species raised include local dairy cows, crossbred dairy cows, draft oxen, sheep, goats, poultry, pigs and donkeys. In terms of tropical livestock unit, dairy cows are the dominant animals reared. The livestock production in the district is generally extensive with natural pasture grazing providing more than 68% of the feed resource and crop residues and other collected feeds proving the rest. Crop residues were collected from the farms after crop harvest, stored and fed during the dry season when grasses are inadequate. Feed scarcity was perceived as the main constraint for livestock production in Shaurimoyo and the second in Hallu and Matufa. In the latter two sites low genetic potential of breeds was ranked the first major constraint. The district was reported to have irrigation potential of about sixteen thousand hectares of land, of which more than five thousand hectares were already irrigated for food crops. Evaluation of high yielding Napier accessions under irrigation and rainfed conditions was proposed as an important entry point.Forages species explored in Tanzania were Napier, Buffel Grass and Rhodes Grass. Fore the preferred species different cultivars/accessions were then tested. Napier out-yielded the other two grasses by at least a factor of 1.8. (However, farmers appreciated that Buffel and Rhodes Grass could be converted to hay much easier than Napier, which becomes significant in the context-of-forages-as-cash-crop, see below). After the preliminary investigations four Napier cultivars -ILRI 16835, ILRI 16937, Ouma and Kakamega 2 (KK2) cultivars were evaluated under pump irrigation technology and rainfed conditions (control) during the dry period of July to October 2017. In Mawemairo village, Napier cultivars under the irrigation technology were cut three times at intervala of 6 weeks. Cultivars under rainfed conditions could only be cut twice at intervals of 8 weeks. Overall the Napier hybrids ILRI 16835 and ILRI 16837 under irrigation gave DM yields of 12 t/ha. The Napier varieties Ouma and KK2 were superior giving dry matter (DM) yield of 15-18 t/ha. The superiority of Napier varieties over Napier hybrids were maintained under rain-fed conditions where Napier hybrids ILRI 16835 and ILRI 16837 yielded DM 5 t/ha while varieties Ouma and KK2 yielded DM of 6-8 t/ha. In Gichameda village, farmers selected and tested Napier cultivars Ouma and ILRI 16835. Ouma and ILRI 16835 gave DM yield of 14 and 22 t/ha respectively under pump irrigation technology while the DM yields for Ouma and ILRI 16835 under rain-fed conditions were 5 and 4 t/ha (Figure 4). These findings suggest that the relative performance of Napier hybrids versus Napier varieties is highly location specific. Leafiness was a farmer's criteria for forage quality. Leaf yield could vary by more than 2 -fold in 5 cultivars of Napier. Promising cultivars identified are ILRI 16837 and Kakamega 2 with 5.18 and 4.98 ton of leaf yield per ha, respectivelyMarketing of fodder was surveyed at 6 sites in Tanzania with focus group discussions, expert consultations and feed and fodder sample collections to determine price -quality relationships. Addressed were: 1) Mapping of feed and fodder value chains, 2) Profiling of value chain actors, 3) Characterization of market chain linkages between production and consumption of feed and fodder; 4) Opportunities for fodder markets beyond the urban and peri-urban domain; and 5) Feed and fodder price-quality relationships. A generalization of the feed and fodder value chain is in the Figure 1 below. Fodder markets were found to be are an important source of forage to smallholder dairy farmers particularly around urban and peri-urban areas of Tanzania. The largest (57%) proportion of fodder market actors comprised consumers, with about a third of them depending entirely on purchased fodder. Majority of fodder traders were males, 26 to 35 years old who sold fodder as a business and depended mainly on fodder gathered from open/public land. Producers comprised only 7% of the fodder market actors, and the majority were small scale farmers who produced fodder in excess of their requirement. Fodder trading took place throughout the year, but the fodder types and volume varied according to seasons. The major fodder types traded (in terms of volumes and availability) across all the sites were grasses from natural unimproved pastures and dry maize stover. The price of fodder was determined mainly by availability and quality, the main quality indicators being used was maturity and leafiness. Most of the fodder was traded in its fresh form and little or no conservation was done at market or farm level. This therefore had implications on price. Fodder quality, insufficient supply (due to scarcity of land for production and effect of seasonality), lack of technical knowledge and lack of capital were major challenges across all sites and fodder market actors. The study concluded that there is opportunity for improving the livelihoods of rural and urban poor through fodder marketing and suggested areas of intervention, the major ones being dissemination of improved technologies to enhance fodder production, utilization and conservation, provision of market information and establishment of policy, institutional and social structures to support fodder marketing.  In Tanzania, Sokoine University of Agriculture intends to include the WFD in its demonstration sites being developed for promoting irrigation. In sum, WFD holds promise for scaling but with constraints to large commercialization. Steps have been made toward public sector acceptance and demand.• Studies have also shown potential for the Berken plow to improve yields and groundwater recharge that would strengthen water productivity at multiple scales.Separate studies and support is provided to national partners to examine commercialization; relevant public sector institutions have been invited to see demonstrations and have received evidence generated through ILSSI. A private sector partner is involved.• The wetting front detector has received serious attention by public institutions in all the project countries. In Ethiopia, other projects are now applying WFD in the farmer fields, including on communal irrigation schemes. IWMI also provided technical training and backstopping to the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research, as well as presentations to the national program for Small Scale and Micro Irrigation for Ethiopian Smallholders (SMIS) that seeks to improve capacity in smallholder irrigation nationally. In addition, in Tanzania, Sokoine University of Agriculture is installing and applying the WFD and other irrigation scheduling tools on their new model farmers for irrigation technology, as introduced by ILSSI. In Ghana, requests have been made by the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority for training at an institutional level on the WFD and related irrigation scheduling tools toward introduction in public irrigation schemes.2.7.2. Influencing national and global dialogue ILSSI sought to inform both national decision-making and programming on, and global research on and investments in small scale irrigation. This was based on a continuous engagement approach at sub-national and national level, ensuring consultation and input on research questions and design, as well as frequent engagement around emerging research results and evidence. ILSSI also identified opportunities at national level to support or convene conferences and workshops on small scale irrigation (Annex 4). At the same time, ILSSI recognized the need to share research results and influence debates at global level on small scale irrigation (Annex 5). ILSSI contributed to the debate and growing interest in farmer led irrigation through small scale irrigation technologies, including the range of benefits and limitations on expansion.ILRI's perspective on phase 2 Annex 2. Data sets Insert table of data sets transferred to TAMU","tokenCount":"5340"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"17cada0115e9c38e1e4d29ecfa9d0401","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/17d1d2b0-7f8b-4b1e-80c8-8fdadacc63e6/retrieve","id":"-1883605282"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"67a11353-218c-4add-b4dd-ef895f9f77f2","pagecount":"5","content":"La producción de papa por unidad de superficie y unidad de tiempo es una de las más interesantes entre los alimentos básicos. La papa puede producir entre dos y cuatro veces más alimento que el arroz o el trigo y presenta numerosas propiedades nutritivas. Hasta 85 % de la planta es comestible, mientras que en los cereales, esta proporción es de más o menos 50%. El elevado rendimiento por hectárea de la papa permite obtener además una producción de energía digestible diaria comparable a los cereales 1 . Esto se puede lograr en regiones donde existen escasas alternativas productivas, como los Andes.Una vez hervida, una papa de tamaño promedio proporciona aproximadamente la mitad de las necesidades diarias de un adulto en vitamina C, así como importantes cantidades de hierro, de potasio y de zinc. La papa contiene también cantidades importantes de vitamina B y proporciona oligoelementos esenciales tales como manganeso, cromo, selenio y molibdeno. Su alto contenido en vitamina C mejora la absorción del hierro. Los científicos del CIP buscan desarrollar un valor nutricional agregado a la papa con el mejoramiento de variedades, o el bio-fortalecimiento, como una alternativa para mejorar la salud en las comunidades andinas, donde las personas no pueden pagar alimentos enriquecidos comercializados o suplementos vitamínicos.En el transcurso de los últimos años, la producción mundial de papa ha crecido sustancialmente, sobre todo en los países en desarrollo. Gracias al mejoramiento de las semillas, de las variedades y de los métodos de manejo de los cultivos, la productividad de la papa ha aumentado significativamente. Además, en muchos países, el cambio de las costumbres alimenticias, con un consumo creciente de productos transformados industrialmente, ha generado una demanda mayor. En 2005, la producción de papa en los países en vías de desarrollo ha superado por primera vez aquella de los países industrializados. Igualmente, sigue aumentando en el Sur y disminuyendo en el Norte. Los productores más importantes son hoy China, Rusia e India. En el África Sub-Sahariana, la superficie de papa prácticamente se ha duplicado en el transcurso de los 10 últimos años y sigue expandiéndose con fuerza.Aunque la pobreza, la malnutrición y la desnutrición se han reducido considerablemente en la región andina, continúan siendo problemas significativos, particularmente en Bolivia, Ecuador y Perú. Las tasas más altas de desnutrición crónica se encuentran entre la población rural, aun cuando todos estos países están experimentando un rápido proceso de urbanización (Cuadro 1). La producción primaria en Bolivia, Ecuador y Perú se caracteriza por una mayor dispersión de las áreas agrícolas y una gran variabilidad en los sistemas de producción debido a varios factores: tipo de productores, área ecológica, cultivos de temporada, altitud, preferencias de los consumidores rurales y urbanos, condiciones climáticas, acceso a innovación tecnológica, tipos de organizaciones, capacitación y acceso a créditos. Al mismo tiempo, la mayor parte de la producción de papa (90 % o más en los 3 países) se consume sin procesar, lo cual explica por qué las papas en fresco constituyen aún un alimento básico para la gran mayoría de la población pobre, particularmente en las áreas rurales de los Andes, donde no existe infraestructura adecuada para almacenarlas o procesarlas. El concepto de seguridad alimentaria se puede dividir en cuatro dimensiones, siguiendo el concepto de la Organización de Agricultura y Alimentación (FAO) 3 :1. Disponibilidad de alimentos. Es esencial que la gente tenga alimentos suficientes para su subsistencia. La producción de alimentos es importante y se puede mejorar mediante innovaciones que hagan más eficientes los sistemas de producción. Donde no haya suficientes alimentos disponibles, se deben importar.Los alimentos deben ser seguros para su consumo y de buena calidad nutricional. La buena nutrición es importante para el crecimiento y la salud, especialmente de los niños.3. Estabilidad en la oferta de alimentos. Los hogares y los individuos deben tener acceso a los alimentos en todo momento, sean frescos o almacenados. Sin embargo, a veces hay situaciones que pueden afectar el aprovisionamiento:-Factores externos como sequías, inundaciones, conflictos o pobre gobernabilidad política y económica. -Factores internos como pérdida de ingresos o enfermedades.4. Acceso a los alimentos. en ocasiones las personas no tienen acceso a los alimentos incluso cuando están disponibles a nivel nacional. Hay dos aspectos importantes para garantizar el acceso a los alimentos:-Económico: las personas necesitan dinero para comprar alimentos e insumos agrícolas -Físico: las personas pueden vivir lejos de los mercados y no tener acceso a transporte, o pueden existir barreras físicas como carreteras de mala calidad La buena nutrición de la población es uno de los principales resultados de la seguridad alimentaria. Esta definición ha sido promovida por la FAO y es compartida por muchos organismos gubernamentales, empresas privadas y agencias de cooperación internacional en todo el mundo. En la región andina, es un tema transversal en los programas de erradicación de la pobreza y forma parte de varios programas de desarrollo agrícola con enfoque local.Se presentan cuatro componentes de análisis para implementación de dicho enfoque:1. Orientación hacia los sistemas de producción y alimentarios basados en papa.Muchas dietas andinas claramente son muy dependientes de alimentos feculentos y carecen de diversidad y características nutricionales. Consumir más papa no va a resolver la desnutrición e inseguridad alimentaria. Sin embargo, tomando en cuenta los actuales sistemas de producción andinos, en los cuales la papa es un componente importante de la dieta de las familias pobres, el enfoque se dirige a los sistemas de producción basados en papa y alimentos cuyos componentes incluyan otros productos agrícolas y ganaderos (quinua, cereales, legumbres, forrajes y leche). La bio-fortificación obtenida de la selección de germoplasma local (variedades de papas nativas) con alto contenido de hierro, zinc y vitamina C y por mejoramiento, así como la diversificación y el conocimiento nutricional son analizadas como posibles enfoques que contribuyen a la seguridad alimentaria. El cambio climático ya está influyendo directamente sobre los sistemas de producción de alimentos debido a heladas y sequías y al desarrollo de plagas y enfermedades que afectan al cultivo y almacenamiento de la papa. Es importante evaluar alternativas tecnológicas para mejorar la resiliencia de los sistemas de producción. 2. Vinculación de la investigación científica y tecnológica al desarrollo y a las necesidades de los productores(as). Se requiere usar y promover metodologías participativas para incluir a las organizaciones de productores (hombres y mujeres) en la determinación de las demandas y estimular las innovaciones que respondan a sus necesidades. La mejora de los procesos de innovación debe incluir la perspectiva de género para alentar la participación de las mujeres en actividades y toma de decisiones. Esto se hará vinculando la investigación científica y tecnológica al desarrollo y a las necesidades de los hogares, haciéndolos complementarios, usando las herramientas y experiencias participativas disponibles y estableciendo alianzas entre los actores. Se busca promover herramientas para la creación de capacidades y aprendizaje colectivo con los diferentes actores para aumentar el capital social y una mejor interacción. 3. Acciones de incidencia en políticas que articulen los efectos positivos de las innovaciones con las políticas de seguridad alimentaria en la región. Para influir en las instancias decisorias, es necesario promover acciones con los actores de la región para defender políticas que articulen los efectos positivos de las innovaciones en la seguridad alimentaria con las políticas de seguridad alimentaria y para usar los resultados concretos de los programas dentro y entre los países. Se requiere también promover políticas y acuerdos institucionales a nivel local, nacional y regional andino mediante plataformas y el fortalecimiento de capacidades. 4. La papa puede ser una parte importante de la solución de la seguridad alimentaria a través del aumento de los ingresos mediante el acceso al mercado. Los enfoques para mejorar el acceso de los agricultores de pequeña escala a mercados de alto valor ya han sido probados por el CIP -particularmente con las papas nativas-y pueden ser aplicados con otros métodos en un contexto de seguridad alimentaria. Se debe considerar mejorar la competitividad de los productores mediante la difusión de tecnologías de producción/procesamiento y creando vínculos entre las cadenas productivas y plataformas multi-actores.Para responder a estos retos es importante trabajar a diferentes niveles (local, nacional y región andina) e interactuar y colaborar con una amplia gama de actores para fortalecer la innovación agrícola para la seguridad alimentaria a favor de los pobres, en respuesta a las necesidades de los grupos rurales vulnerables.","tokenCount":"1377"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8045a2f5c08ecf7f425d89ec0ca7167e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/23ceddb0-4863-4c03-bc0d-2638ee10d8f3/retrieve","id":"-1051241943"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4b4aab0b-a0fa-49c5-9fb6-50707a8e02b6","pagecount":"7","content":"Tthe Automatic Weather Station Data Tool (ADT) is a web-based tool initially developed by the IRI in the context of Rwanda. The ADT helps to address challenges in accessing and processing Automatic Weather Station (AWS) data collected by different systems and networks such as Vaisala, Edkon, and KOICA, which are on different servers and in different formats, by enabling data quality control, processing, and visualization.The intention of this workshop was to install ADT for the Kenya Meteorological Department and provide training in its use. Installation and training took place in three sections. From February 28 -March 4 was the ADT installation, from March 7 -11 was devoted to developing ADT components, and March 14-16 was for training in CDT. ","tokenCount":"119"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2b2e7944941cc6f82a0c5c640675ddcb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b2f50a60-6f6d-4078-a027-fa5bd3629526/retrieve","id":"-647205417"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5b022807-ea82-409e-bfc0-eeedd9b52b93","pagecount":"4","content":"A growing range of web 2.0 applications is revolutionizing how information can be accessed and shared. The experience of Euforic shows how these tools can be applied to increase content on a website while still keeping costs low.I n the mid-1990s the internet was only just beginning to be widely used but its potential was already clear. Across Europe, many development organizations were involved in policy discussions and activities in ACP countries, but the information they generated was dispersed and difficult to access. A group of these organizations -NGOs, research and education institutes, networks, and government agenciesdecided to set up a cooperative, Europe's Forum on International Cooperation, Euforic. The members would collaborate on gathering and indexing this information at a single point of access: the Euforic website.With the rapid growth of the internet, information and communication managers were soon confronted with several major challenges. There was an information explosion -more information was being produced on more development topics than ever before. The ease of publishing led to internet anarchyinformation was being published by a greater variety of sources than ever before. Information was scattered across thousands of 'institutional' homes on the internet, presenting an indexing nightmare. Despite increasingly sophisticated search tools, finding relevant information on development issues and themes was a largely hit and miss affair.Over the past decade Euforic has tackled these and other challenges. Now, participatory web 2.0 applications offer other opportunities and Euforic is using them to improve its services, and to streamline the organization.Euforic 1.0 In the early years, the Euforic team collected and indexed content, and supported the member organizations as they moved towards the web. Editors searched for relevant web resources and indexed them in the Euforic 'library' database, as well as digital versions of documents that could be published on the website. They also helped the members to build up their own websites with digital content, which was also indexed in the Euforic database. Thematic and country web pages were generated from the database and published, rather like feeds, on the Euforic website.Soon the online library was joined by a shared contacts database known as OneSite, where web pages were generated to create an online directory of organizations. Subsets (or feeds) of the contents of these two databases were often used within other projects; one example is the institutional guide on the website of European Development Cooperation to 2010.Until 2005, Euforic's web services combined a few manually created and edited web pages and many automatically generated pages with lists of resources (from the library database) and organizations (from the contacts database). Some pages displayed feeds from the members, and some from the library database. The idea was that Euforic members would use these databases as collective resources, with user-generated entries. Although the databases allowed for this, we found that while people were willing to update their own websites and databases with new content, they were not indexing their content in the shared databases -that task fell to the Euforic team.In late 2005, we decided to adopt another model. After some experimentation, it was decided to adopt a range of web 2.0 tools, and to refocus how the web and other services were managed and delivered.With web 2.0 tools, including blogs, RSS feeds, wikis and social bookmarking, we now see increasing amounts of 'user-generated' and 'userpersonalized' content. Individuals and organizations can now create their own personal 'mashup' by bringing together, re-mixing and personalizing different streams of content in text, video and audio formats.Euforic has assembled a web 2.0 toolkit to manage content, engage with members and partners, and communicate with team members. We use combinations of applications to replicate and extend what we did before, but on a scale that we could not otherwise have contemplated. A (very desirable) side effect is that the content we publish and provide access to is 'open' -in the sense that it can be easily exchanged, subscribed to and reused by others.Regarding content management, our aim is to alert users to interesting new content and resources, and to point them to reliable sources of further information. The intention is not to have a 'sticky' website, but to draw the visitor's attention to relevant resources from our members and other sources, and quickly send them there.Each page of the Euforic website is built up from several RSS feeds. Where these feeds already exist -from members or other sources -we publish them, with due credit to the original source. Where feeds are not available or relevant, we create our own (and encourage content publishers to do so as well). The primary tool we use to track and index content is del.icio.us -a social bookmarking tool that allows many people to index web resources collectively using shared bookmarks and index terms, or tags. We systematically publish feeds from our del.icio.us accounts across the websites we support. As well as being free and easy to use, del.icio.us has many advantages -including the possibility Peter Ballantyne (peter.euforic@gmail.com) is director of Euforic (www.euforic.org). Visit the ICTUpdate website (http:// ictupdate.cta.int) to hear an audio interview with Chris Addison of Euforic.to combine multiple feeds, and to share content with other del.icio.us users.Other features include an agenda of events, which we track and share using Google calendars and Google custom searching across the Euforic site and those of our members.While del.icio.us and RSS feeds are the main tools we use to publish content, we also use blogs, hosted on Blogger, to produce original content based on our own and our members' activities. We do not use blogs as a personal diary or website, but as a news publishing tool. By treating each news item as a blog posting, we can publish regular series of content items. Blogs have the advantage that they can include RSS feeds -and we believe the postings are well-indexed in search engines like Google.Euforic also uses blogs and other tools alongside face-to-face meetings, and as part of various special projects. Examples include the blogs we set up for the 2007 Euforic annual meeting, for a series of development briefings in Brussels, and to support consultations on the joint EU-Africa strategy. In each case, we uploaded photos from the meeting using Flickr, presentations using SlideShare and video interviews using Blip.tv. All of this content is brought together on the blogs, together with other feeds. For such focused activities, we find that a combination of web 2.0 tools is very powerful, accessible and inexpensive. All the content generated is, in principle, open and public and can be republished or subscribed to by anyone with an interest in the topics.The Euforic team also uses web 2.0 applications to run our 'back office.' We use Google calendar to track and share tasks, travel schedules and appointments, Gmail to access our email, and iGoogle and Bloglines to track incoming newsfeeds and content. We also use a team wiki as our intranet page. We normally set up a wiki for each project and training event where we can collectively draft and edit texts, and where training exercises can be accessed. We use Google analytics to track use of our websites; and Feedburner to manage and track the use of the RSS feeds we create, and to offer email alerts.With these tools, we have been able to downsize our physical office while upsizing the virtual abilities of our small team. We have been able to reduce office costs, streamline some activities, and increase the efficiency of what we do. Most importantly for such a small organization, we have been able to do this without calling on any specialist technical expertise, and with very little financial investment.Mirroring the situation 10 years ago when Euforic was assisting its members to get on the web, we organize awareness and training events to explain and demonstrate web 2.0 tools. We are also engaged in projects with members who wish to introduce these tools into knowledgesharing and learning initiatives. More and more of the people we work with are introducing different web 2.0 applications in their own activities.Euforic is now championing these approaches and encouraging organizations to make their own content more accessible in open -and re-usable -formats. Rather than building a centralized collection of content, we now catalyze open content production and exchange, and bring different types of content together, and then aggregate, remix and re-present it for others to exploit.Our web 2.0 starting point was to put together a collection of tools in order to do some specific tasks, and do them better. One was to streamline content management, making it much easier to track, publish and provide access to information from various sources. Another was to explore ways that development content could be made to flow more easily among organizations and across disciplines. We were not immediately trying to enhance the participatory aspects of our work, but to use the participatory nature of web 2.0 tools to do other tasks much better.While we knew what we wanted to do, we had no master plan with regard to tools and applications. We experimented, made some choices, and often changed our minds. Each week we hear of some new tool or interesting use, so we keep our eyes and ears open and tuned into what others in our community are doing.One major change in mentality associated with web 2.0 is that a single application is not normally the solution. The concept is based on the collective possibilities offered by a number of unrelated -though interoperable -tools. Instead of building a single content management system with 10 functions, web 2.0 offers a 'pick and mix' approach in which the best 10 applications can be put together to build systems that handle content, and much more besides. This means that a single item of information or an application has multiple access points and dissemination pathways. One user may view it by email, another via an RSS feed or on the web, and yet another in print or a text message. This poses many challenges, just to keep up with the various tools, the login details, and the interfaces. There is no one way to access a story; there is no single click to login to the system. Such an approach forces us to continually think about the 'architecture' of the service, including the wiring, the plumbing, and the drains! It's complicated, sometimes frustrating, but offers many possibilities to experiment and explore and perhaps innovate.Another major change with web 2.0 is that many of the uses of Euforic's services happen away from our website, and thus can be invisible. Web statistics show that the hits to the main Euforic website are decreasing, while the number of visits is rapidly increasing. We think this is linked to visitors clicking on feed items that take them off the site. Statistics on the use of our feeds show, roughly, an additional 10% of our visitors each month arrive via the feeds, many from email alerts and feeds off the website. Perhaps in the longer term, web 2.0 will force us to seek different metrics for our services. In particular, we may have to reconsider the effort given to the look and feel and 'stickiness' of the pages as users come, via feeds, directly to lower-level content and avoid the home page completely.Along the way, we have encountered many operational challenges, some of which have yet to be fully resolved. Relying on third-party hosting solutions has its problems, as when a service is unavailable for a short time (as has happened with del.icio.us), or when backups of 'our' content are needed.There is still a major awareness gap among development practitioners and information specialists regarding the nuts and bolts of using and exploiting web 2.0 services. Some still want people to visit their websites and they see the use of their content in other services as a threat. There is also a perception that blogs are low-quality personal vanity pages. While the content of many blogs may indeed be poor quality, as tools they offer many opportunities. Worried that web 2.0 will bring more information to our desktops, people also complain of being overwhelmed with information, while at the same time they make almost no use of basic tools to manage and organize their email, for instance.Overall, we find that using web 2.0 tools in a development service like Euforic provides more advantages than disadvantages. While the actual tools are just technical applications, using them forces us to adopt a mindset that particularly values the content and efforts of other people, encourages collaboration and makes knowledge open. These three notions are themselves close to the heart of effective development cooperation itself. So perhaps web 2.0 will become a perfect complement to 'development 2.0'! ■ ","tokenCount":"2112"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"29e35abd88b844d47153086345354272","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/60511960-1411-42d7-a12b-e9c1f45e67a1/retrieve","id":"1931959944"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"14ef0044-1db4-48b6-bb8c-0fe7ff6356cc","pagecount":"23","content":"Tables Table 1: Samples collected from different agro-climatic zones of Odisha     Feed (nutrition) is an important component in livestock rearing and a major factor affecting the development of viable livestock industries in rural economies. With feed being the major input factor in all livestock production systems, the production/productivity of livestock is strongly linked to feed resource availability. Makkar (2016) argues that feed costs account for up to 70% of the total variable cost of livestock production and may reach 90% in more intensive farming systems. Therefore, the availability of, and access to, good-quality feed will improve ruminant livestock productivity, resulting in lower age at first calving and shorter inter-calving, thus increasing productive life and profitability (Linde et al. 2002). Thus, any attempt to enhance feed availability and minimize feed costs would result in high profit margin for the livestock owner (IGFRI 2013). However, at present India faces a net deficit of 32% green fodder, 23% dry fodder and 36% concentrate feed ingredients (Government of India 2016).Adequate provision of feed is essential for livestock production and feed scarcity has been one of the major limiting factors for better animal productivity in Odisha (Swain et al. 2015). 1 In 2020, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) observed that there is a 59% shortage of green fodder and 33% shortage of dry fodder in the state (Swain et al. 2020), with the use of combined harvesters expected to reduce the available dry fodder (rice straw) further (Panda and Swain 2021). Milch animals in Odisha are usually fed with locally available resources, especially crop residues and collected grass. This often leads to feeding of an imbalanced ration, which contain protein, energy, minerals and vitamins either in excess or deficit related to the nutrient requirements of the animals. The imbalanced feeding adversely impacts not only productivity, health and welfare of animals, but also the environment.These lack of high-quality feed resources and imbalanced feeding mechanisms have resulted in the under exploitation of the genetic potential of dairy animals in Odisha. Although the state's daily milk production has increased, data shows that the average milk yield of cattle (both crossbreed and local) in Odisha is lower than the national average. The milk yield of crossbred and indigenous cattle is 6.52 and 1.43 kg/day, respectively, in Odisha, while all India's average is 7.95 and 3.01 kg/day (Government of India 2019).To improve livestock production in Odisha, the deficit in feed and fodder has to be met either by increasing the utilization of untapped feed resources, or by increasing the area under green forage production (which may not possible due to pressure to grow food crops to feed a growing population). The use of different types of feed including industrial by-products, horticulture and vegetable waste, local grasses, tree leaves, weeds and other nonconventional feed resources should also be promoted. The availability of crop residues and concentrates is linked with food crop production, which has shown an increasing trend with a commensurate increase in the amount of crop residue and concentrate feed ingredients available in the state. However, crop diversification, seen in recent years with commercial crops replacing the traditional (coarse) cereal crops, is likely to reduce the availability of crop residues. In addition, the lack of knowledge among farmers on the nutritional composition of feeds means that 1 Animal husbandry is one of the key sectors which plays a vital role in employment and income opportunities for the rural inhabitants of Odisha. The livestock sector has the highest potential for generating rural self-employment at significantly low investment per unit. This sector contributes about 30% of total rural income (Government of Orissa 2002) and provides large-scale employment to women and workers belonging to the marginalized sectors of society. Livestock contributes about 24% to the gross value of the agricultural output of Odisha and 3.91% to the gross state domestic product (GSDP). The share of the livestock sector in gross value added (GVA) at the constant basic price has been increasing from 2.45% in 2011/12 to 3.91% in 2019/20. The average growth in this sector has stood at 17% at the current price over the years (Government of Odisha 2021).the available feed resources are not used in the correct proportions to meet the dietary needs of different animals. Further, manufactured compound feeds produced by different agencies in Odisha don't often meet the specific composition and required level of nutrients to meet feed requirements of different animals based on species, breed, stage of lactation and physiological status and quality of basal roughages etc.The adoptions of supplementary feeding can improve the productivity of livestock, dairy animals in particular. When planning a supplementary feeding program and choosing the feed types, it is important to know the nutritional composition of the feed and fodder that is fed to animals. Milk production and the productive life of dairy animals can be improved substantially if the available feed resources are utilized judiciously. This report shares the results of an examination of the nutritional composition of different feed and fodder resources that are used as livestock feed in different regions of Odisha. It includes nutritional content estimates of these ingredients, which are provided to help farmers roughly calculate how to meet different animals feed requirements using locally available resources.The study assessed different types of fodder such as dry fodder and green fodder (natural grasses available in the open field, cultivated fodder and others) and concentrate feed samples in different blocks across 10 agro-climatic zones of Odisha. A total of 1,528 samples were collected for the study. Of these, 417 samples were concentrate-feed, 417 were dry fodder, and 939 were green fodder. A stratified random sampling strategy was used to identify the blocks and villages. First, the blocks and villages were selected where to collect the samples based on dairy population and milk production in consultation with the Chief District Veterinary Officers (CDVO) and the Block Veterinary Officer (BVO) or Additional VS, and the District Fodder Officer. After the selection of villages, the samples were collected randomly from the village in consultation with a local Livestock Inspector (LI) and farmers. The samples were collected in consultation with the BVO or Additional VS, district Fodder Officer and LI of the respective village. Among the agro-climatic zones, more samples were collected from the East & South-Eastern Coastal Plan (321 samples) followed by Northeastern Coastal Plain (284) and the least from the Southern-Eastern Ghat (37 samples) (Table 1). The accuracy and reliability of the feed analysis results are associated with the method of sample collection following the collection of feeds and feed materials (Barel 2013). Therefore, it is important to ensure sampling of feed ingredients and feeds is done in an area and in a way that makes the procedure easy and minimizes the risk of contamination and cross-contamination, making proper performance of the laboratory analysis possible. The study followed a very simple method in collection of samples. As the samples were collected from all over Odisha, it was not possible to process them (by drying, grading and grinding) in the field, so logistic arrangements were made to ensure that the samples reach a central place (the project office at Bhubaneswar) without losing dry matter (DM) and other nutritional contents. Then after grading and drying at the Odisha project office, the samples were sent to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) feed laboratory at Hyderabad for analysis.Several standard laboratory methods have been developed over the years for the detection of both nutrients and contaminants in feed ingredients and feedstuffs. Feedstuffs can be analyzed using traditional wet chemistry techniques or near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) (Rasby and Martin 2022). The study used the NIRS method to analyze the samples.The moisture content of feeds can vary greatly and so DM content can be the biggest reason for variation in feed composition on an 'as-fed' basis. Therefore, chemical constitutes, and biological attributes of feeds are presented in this report on a DM basis. The study has different indicators to examine nutritional content in different types of feed (Table 2). Odisha is characterized by complex and mixed agro-climatic situations, and wide variations exist within and between agro-climatic regions. The east and north-eastern parts of Odisha have more Kharif (rainy season crop) and Rabi (winter season crop) with pulse crops like black gram and green crop intercropped with paddy rice. Paddy rice is the major crop in this region. The western part has a mixture of paddy rice, maize, cotton and other cash crops. The details of the cropping systems in different agro-climatic zones are presented in Table 3. The following are the principal cropping system in rainfed upland, medium and lowlands.Rainfed upland: rice-mung/pulses/black gram/ groundnut-jute Lowland area: jute-rice-pulses, rice-black gram/ mung.Crop residues play an important role in livestock feeding, contributing more than more 70% of total feeding resources (Rao and Hall 2003;Panda et al. 2015). The availability of crop residues is closely related to the farming system, crop produced and the intensity of cultivation. The potential use of crop residues as livestock feed is of great importance in integrated crop-livestock farming systems. When crop and livestock production are segregated, most of the crop residues are wasted. Livestock feeding in coastal Odisha is dependent on rice straw while the zones closer to forest area are mostly rely on the use of forest wastes. It is well known that livestock in Odisha are fed with locally available feed (e.g., paddy straw, maize stover, local grass, tree leaves, rice bran etc.) with or without supplementation of compound feed and mineral mixture. These ingredients are used without knowing their quality and nutritional content. Therefore, a systematic analysis is needed to assess the nutritive values of different types of feed and fodder available in different agro-climatic zones of the state The following section discusses the nutritional content in concentrate feed, green and dry fodder of the samples collected across Odisha.Concentrates are low-fibre, high-energy feeds when compared to forages (dry or green) but they vary considerably in nutritional content including crude protein (CP). There can be substantial variation in nutritional content in concentrate feed based on the feed ingredients. St-Pierre and Weiss (2015) found large variations in nutrient composition of common feeds and mixed diets on commercial dairy farms. 3.18% to 57.45% (Figure 1). Dry mater content in the majority of concentrate feed (more than 70% of samples) ranged from 80 to 98% and CP content ranged from 10 to 30% (Figure 1). The nitrogen on dry matter (NDM), Neutral detergent fibre on dry matter (NDFDM) and Acid detergent fibre on dry matter (ADFDM) is around 2.70%, 44.93% and 25.88%, respectively. The metabolisable energy is around 8.72 mega joules/Kg DM.Dry matter content in concentrate feeds was low in the Northeastern Coastal Plain (81.43%) and high in the Northeastern Ghat (93.21%). A high crude protein content was observed in the Mid Central Table Land (21.82%) and it was low in Southeastern Ghat (10.23%). An attempt was made to examine the nutritional content of different types of concentrate feed and the results are presented in Table 5. They indicated that there is considerable variation in dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) content not only among the types of concentrate feed but also the same type of concentrate feed. Higher variation in CP content is observed in the oil cake, followed by horse gram bran. High CP content is observed in oil cake (35.60%) and the lowest is observed in platen rice bran (7.55% There is a large variation in the quality, which is hampering the milk yield of dairy animals. Table 6 presents the nutritional content of green fodder available in the different agro-climatic zones of Odisha. The average value of dry matter content in green fodder was around 31.03% (Table 6) and it varied from 5.88% to 58.49% (Figure 2). The average crude protein (CP) content in green fodder is around 14.56% and it varied from 1.90% to 35%. Dry mater content in the majority of green fodder (more than 80% of samples) varied between 10 and 50% and CP content varied between 2 and 20% (Figure 2). The NDM, NDFDM and ADFDM is around 2.33%, 56.99% and 33.73%, respectively. The metabolic energy content is around 7.85 mega joules/KgDM (Table 6).Green fodder is an economical source of nutrients for dairy animals. Green forages have a cooling effect on the animal's body since they are more palatable, easily digestible and, provide fresh and effective nutrients. Microorganisms present in green fodder help in improving digestibility of crop residues for animals maintained under a mixed feeding system. The feeding of concentrates gives higher milk yield per unit of feed intake, however, it may not be economically viable in states like Odisha, where grains and concentrates are costly and/or of inadequate supply. On the other hand, feeding only with concentrate will not be cost-effective and without fibre some benefits can be wasted. Animals yielding as high as eight litres of milk can easily be maintained by solely depending on green fodder without feeding any concentrate. However, farmers in Odisha hardly grow any green fodder in their fields. The population pressure of Odisha compels farmers to undertake agricultural activities on their land and the lack of proper irrigation facilities also does not encourage them to engage in fodder cultivation. They use different types of green grass from different sources such as the forest floor, roadsides and other areas that may have high nutrient content. Identifying these particular varieties and knowing their nutritional content will help in feed planning in the state.  Table 7 presents the dry matter and crude protein content in different types of green forges available in Odisha. The value of crude protein content indicated that Sesbania grandiflora (Agasti) has high CP content (31%) followed by Leucaena leucocephala (Subabool) (26%). Among all the samples collected for the analysis, sugarcane leaf had the lowest CP content (8.08%) even less than the local grass or tree leaves. The aquatic fern, Azolla has 17.56%, fodder sorghum (COFS-29) has 10.63% and a hybrid Napier grass has 11.17% CP. High variation in CP content is observed in the vegetable leaf samples, varying from 10.28% to 29.92%. Cowpea contained 16.76% CP and Congo signal grass had 10.34%. Feed shortage is one of the main constraints to exploiting the full genetic potential of dairy animals. Due to inadequate availability of green fodder production, paddy rice straw is the main feed resource for dairy animals in Odisha. It is estimated that paddy rice straw contributes around 70% of total roughages available to large ruminants.In the foreseeable future, it is envisaged that if alternative feeds are not available in the state, farmers will continue to depend on straw for feeding their animals. Due to other uses of paddy rice straw (i.e., packaging, use for mushroom cultivation and use of combine harvesters), there is likely to be scarcity of dry fodder for livestock feeding in the future. To mitigate this shortage, efforts should be made to explore other dry forages, which are being grown by the farmers but are underutilized or not even fed to the animals. Therefore, it is important to know the nutritional content of the dry fodder options available in Odisha.The average value of dry matter content in dry fodder was around 82.72% (Table 8) and varied from 11.32% to 97.64% (Figure 3). The average crude protein (CP) content in dry fodder is around 6.34% and it varied from 0.70% to 18.47%. Dry matter content in the majority of dry fodder (more than 80% of samples) varied between 80% and 98% and CP content varied between 1% and12% (Figure 3). The NDM, NDFDM and ADFDM content in dry fodder is around 1.01%, 62.21% and 45.01%, respectively. The metabolic energy content is around 6.97 mega joules/KgDM (Table 8).   Table 9 presents the dry matter and crude protein content in different types of dry fodder available in Odisha. The value of dry matter indicated that horse gram residue had high dry matter content (93.59%) followed by chickpea residue (93.19%), and it is lowest in sugarcane bagasse (32.84%). Paddy rice straw content 82.59% dry matter and maize stover has a little higher (86.76%). Pigeon pea had the highest CP content (13.85%) followed by red gram residue (12.36%). Among all the samples collected for analysis, paddy rice straw has the lowest CP content (4.18%) even less than finger millet residues. Bajra residue has 4.48%, maize stover has 6.65%, groundnut haulm had 10.59% and black gram had 9.64% crude protein.Adequate provision of feed is essential, and its scarcity is one of the major limiting factors that is hampering livestock productivity in Odisha. To meet the enhance the level of livestock production in the state, the deficit in feed and fodder has to be met either from increasing utilization of untapped feed resources or by increasing the area under green forage production. Most livestock keepers in the state use locally available feed resources such as paddy straw, local grass, tree leaves, rice bran etc. with or without supplementation of compound feed and mineral mixture. These ingredients are fed without knowing their quality and nutritional content. This study examined the nutritional content in different types of feeds in Odisha and provided estimates that could be used by actors in livestock sector including farmers in the state to improve livestock feeding, especially for dairy production.The results showed that the average value of crude protein in available concentrate feed is approximately 17% and varies from 3.18% to 57.45%. The highest CP content was found in oil cake (35.60%) and the lowest in platen rice bran (7.55%). The average CP content in concentrate feed supplied by OMFED (Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation) is 21.62%. For green fodder, Agasti has the highest content of CP (31%) followed by Subabool (26%). Sugarcane leaf was found to have the lowest CP content (8.08%), which is less than that found in local grass or tree leaves. Azolla has 17.56%, COFS-29 (Perennial sorghum) has 10.63% and hybrid Napier has 11.17% CP. In the case of dry fodder, the results indicated that pigeon pea residue has high CP content (13.85%) followed by red gram residue (12.36%). Paddy straw had the lowest CP content (4.18%) even less than the finger millet residues. Pearl millet (Bajra) residue had 4.48%, maize stover had 6.65%, groundnut haulm had 10.59% and black gram residue had 9.64% crude protein.These results indicated that nutritional content of available feed resources in Odisha varies significantly. Some concentrate feed quality is very poor compared to the green fodder. Therefore, the authorities and manufactures need to enhance quality control to ensure the commercial feed in the market is of a high standard and meets the nutritional requirements of animals. Some types of dry fodder available in the state have a higher CP content than paddy straw and need extension support to promote them alongside green fodder varieties, for use as livestock feed.","tokenCount":"3132"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b2faf490f176e887bdb5f2ada137df52","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6f79f638-4fc5-4af7-bac9-315097fd8be7/retrieve","id":"-514541950"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4e53e5af-3f61-4317-b8a1-f43664f31d25","pagecount":"12","content":"Gender-sensitive plant breeding processes can enable an understanding of how gender differences in roles, resources, power, and status affect preferences and decisions in the adoption of plant technologies and innovations.• It helps identify differential needs of men and women regarding plant traits and anticipate how breeding decisions can impact -and generate benefits forwork, resources, opportunities, and the empowerment of women.• In the face of the historical inequalities that women have confronted in social, cultural, economic, and political fields, science and research must play an active and committed role in transforming these realities.• The empowerment of women farmers and livestock keepers is a complex and non linear process, involving the need for increased access to land, credit, technologies, seed and machinery innovations, training, information, and the socialization of knowledge.• This should be reflected in their economic autonomy, increased productivity, food security for themselves and their families, and the effective reduction of poverty and social inequalities that disproportionately impact them.The presence of women in agricultural and livestock production has been characterized, historically and globally, by a continuous process of participation in these productive activities, although generally overlooked and not recognized (Deere, 2005;Galiè, 2013). The so-called \"feminization of agriculture\" in recent years, marked by an increase of women in this productive field, responds to various factors: the migration of men (traditionally associated with this work) to other types of jobs and urban areas, economic crises, the scenario of neoliberal globalization, the displacement of agriculture to a secondary position in terms of economic relevance for many countries, and the high concentration of land by small elites in countries of the global south (Deere, 2005).Barriers to access basic rights and services such as health, education, land, food, and employment are challenges faced by women around the world. Even though there is an increasingly significant number of women involved in agriculture and livestock farming, this has not been reflected in an improvement in their living conditions, which are marked by social inequality, gender discrimination, and economic vulnerability. Their jobs are generally temporary and precarious, they receive lower pay for their work (compared to equivalent work done by men), and they lack appropriate decision-making participation within their productive units (Deere, 2005). Beyond being a social and ethical imperative, global actions for gender equity are also framed within a series of multi-institutional and transnational regulations in the contemporary world, aimed at addressing these gender inequalities and promoting fundamental human CIAT rights for women, girls, and youth. Examples of such initiatives include the Millennium Development Goals (2000) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2015), both proclaimed and ratified by the United Nations.Considering the aforementioned landscape, this piece proposes to conduct a literature review on various topics related to participatory plant breeding, participation in variety selection, and scientific research in agricultural issues (including forages and their connection to livestock) from a gender analysis perspective. The aim is to identify how discussions, considerations, approaches, and genderrelated proposals have been incorporated in different contexts around the world and within agricultural scientific research. This involves analyzing how science is produced and work is conducted in multidisciplinary research teams, examining key findings and successful processes in implementing trials and experiments that take gender differences into account in different countries. The review will also explore the methodologies used for this purpose, the main limitations and challenges faced, and the potential applications of these findings to the field of research in forage plant breeding for livestock.The methodology used to construct this literature review involved a non-exhaustive search in the CGIAR institutional repository (CGSpace) for bibliographic material related to the topics addressed in this text. Initially, we aimed was to focus the review exclusively on gender studies related to livestock and forages. However, due to the limited amount of applied research in the field, the decision was made to expand the review to experiences of improvement in other types of crops. Information was sought in the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform digital community, using terms such as \"PVS\" (Participatory Varietal Selection), \"PPB\" (Participatory Plant Breeding), and \"Gender and Breeding.\" It' s important to note that this is a \"nonexhaustive\" review because not all entries found in the search were included. The reviewed materials, according to the repository classification, included journal articles, research reports, working papers, and book chapters. Briefs and slide presentations were not reviewed. The documents were initially classified into two main categories: 1) Gender and studies of PVS and PPB in cultivars intended for human consumption; 2) Gender and livestock. From the identification of categories and central issues in the different consulted texts, the present document of literature review and assessment was constructed.This text is composed of four sections, including this brief introduction. In the next section, some theoretical, methodological, and epistemological considerations regarding the incorporation of gender in scientific studies of plant breeding and participatory varietal selection are presented. Following that, examples of experiences implementing gendersensitive analysis in crops intended for human consumption are discussed. The subsequent section provides an assessment of similar studies specifically applied to the field of forages and livestock. Finally, brief conclusions and recommendations are proposed in the last section.Gender analysis in agricultural and crop scientific research seeks to understand, through gender-sensitive research methodologies, the prevalence of gender norms in particular contexts (Farnworth, 2003;Galiè et al., 2022a). Gender norms in this context are understood as the rules that define and normalize actions, roles, social spaces, and positions of power for men and women in various sociocultural settings (Galiè et al., 2022a). Gender-sensitive research in this field can be accommodative -based on existing roles and responsibilities that do not challenge established social orders -or transformative, aiming to bring about social change by questioning norms that limit progress in gender equity and the empowerment of social groups such as women (Tarjem et al., 2021;Galiè et al., 2022a).In addition to the gender perspective, more recent approaches also emphasize the need to consider, from an intersectional analysis, how gender interacts with other categories of social inequality, such as age, ethnicity, class, among others, in specific historical and cultural contexts (Galiè, 2013;Puskur et al., 2021;Galiè et al., 2022a;Tavenner et al., 2022). Similarly, there has been a challenge to the unilateral view of considering gender analysis synonymous with \"women\" and the consequent invisibilization of scientific discussions about the role of men and masculinities in improvement studies (Tarjem & Tufan, 2023). Some central questions in these discussions include: who does what and where? Who has access to and control over resources (including land, seeds, income from product sales, machinery, and technological innovations)? Who makes decisions regarding productive units? Who benefits the most? How are gender differences included in the selection of participants for experiments and trials (for example, in Participatory Varietal Selection or PVS)? (Farnworth, 2003;Mudege & Walsh, 2016).Gender-sensitive plant breeding processes thus can enable an understanding of how gender differences in roles, resources, power, and status affect preferences and decisions in the adoption of plant technologies and innovations. It helps identify differential needs of men and women regarding plant traits and anticipate how breeding decisions can impactand generate benefits for-work, resources, opportunities, and the empowerment of women (Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018;Ashby & Polar, 2021). This can also have an impact on the efficiency of plant breeding, reducing the duration of experiments and optimizing the use of genetic material in terms of needs and opportunities (Farnworth, 2003). From a transformative socioeconomic perspective, the aim is to generate empowerment processes among women in their homes and communities (Galiè, 2013). Additionally, these research processes must be guided by a \"do no harm\" principle, meaning that a specific trait, when introduced, should not have a negative impact in terms of gender, such as changes in women' s work or control over resources (Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018;Ashby & Polar, 2021). Some of the difficulties and challenges identified in plant breeding and PVS research from a gender perspective include the lack of inclusion of women farmers in trait testing (Paris et al., 2001;Mudege et al., 2015;Mudege & Walsh, 2016;Elango & Kawarazuka, 2019;Nchanji et al., 2023). There is a need for gender-differentiated focus groups (Twyman, Muriel & García, 2015;Nchanji et al., 2023) and training of data collection personnel to include data on women, which also involves the relevance of incorporating women who are peasant or community leaders in the research teams, as men may reproduce practices that invisibilize women' s participation in such research strategies (Twyman, Muriel & García, 2015). Additionally, farmers are often incorporated into the final stages of breeding experiments and not from the beginning, so their differential needs or preferences are not always sought to be understood but rather the scientific team' s actions are adjusted to the final suggestions made by them (Mudege & Walsh, 2016;Nchanji et al., 2021).Other internal discussions within plant breeding teams and their relationship with gender researchers are also interesting to analyze. Some of these discussions include: 1) the scarcity of women scientists conducting field trials or engaging in genderrelated discussions (Galiè et al., 2022a;Galiè et al., 2022b;Tarjem, 2023); 2) the limited formation of multidisciplinary teams (Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018;Nchanji et al., 2021); 3) the lack of awareness and resistance from many plant breeding scientists and donors to engage in gender discussions. This is reflected, for example, in the low allocation of resources to social research, as its \"utility\" is not easily understood or it is assumed that it \"complicates\" the standardization of traits (Nchanji et al., 2021;Galiè et al., 2022a;Galiè et al., 2022b;Tarjem, 2023;Voss, 2023). Sometimes, discussing gender within natural sciences is seen as too challenging, given the historical dominance of men in this field and the prevalence of unequal gender relations (Tarjem & Tufan, 2023). These discussions are also influenced by contemporary trends in research, as summarized by the team of Tarjem et al. (2023) in a phrase uttered by one of the donors in their research interviews: \"We can get it without gender, but with gender, it sounds nice.\"In terms of methodology, there are limited tools for understanding how gender relates to scientific research in agriculture, to incorporate data and make plant breeding processes more effective and sensitive to social realities (Tarjem et al., 2021). Nevertheless, various CGIAR-associated centers have developed initiatives to address this need. For instance, the Gender and Breeding initiative created the G+ Toolbox to help plant breeders identify gender gaps and preferences to prioritize the development of products and traits. This toolbox has been used in crops such as beans (Nchanji et al., 2022) and roots, tubers, and bananas (RTB) (Ashby & Polar, 2021) in Africa. Other tools include the Food Product Profile (used in crops like banana, cassava, sweet potato, and yam in African countries such as Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda), Gender-Potato (developed by the International Potato Center -CIP-and applied in Bhutan, CIAT Ethiopia, India, Peru), Gender-Mechanization, and Gender-Irrigation (aimed at identifying gender differences in needs and demands related to mechanized and irrigation technologies) (Tarjem et al., 2021). Additionally, the Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), developed by USAID, IFPRI, and the University of Oxford, evaluates five aspects of empowerment: production, income, resources, leadership, and time control (Mwambi, Bijman & Galiè, 2021).Another interesting example of gender-sensitive research methodology in plant breeding is the Triadic Comparisons of Technologies (Tricot), a type of participatory experiment with farmers where they receive improved seeds from three different varieties. After planting and evaluating them, farmers provide feedback using a simple format. Subsequently, these data are combined with other socio-economic and environmental analyses conducted by the research team. The benefits of this technique include the participation of many farmers in simple trials without the need for extensive training, allowing for a broader range of studies and testing a greater number of traits in \"real\" contexts (i.e., not in laboratories, greenhouses, or controlled research farms) (Bessette, 2018;van Etten et al., 2020;van Etten et al., 2021). Additionally, Tricot reduces trial costs by operating as an outsourcing mechanism for agricultural organizations (van Etten et al., 2021) 1 . In terms of gender-related benefits, this methodology has been identified as contributing to women' s empowerment, although not exclusively. It can reduce the vulnerability of crops and strengthen women' s decision-making abilities by enabling them to choose the best traits. Women participate directly in the trials and make their own decisions in trait selection, as they have their own testing lines, even when coexisting with other men who have their own lines for decision-making (Bessette, 2018).In the case of forages and livestock, one tool for measuring the incorporation and impact of gender perspectives in scientific studies on livestock is the Women' s Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI), developed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). This tool aims to quantify women' s empowerment in the sector by evaluating six factors: decisions on agricultural production (product selection and crop management), decisions on animal nutrition, access and control of productive resources (livestock, land, credit), control and use of income, access and control of opportunities (marketing markets, information, training), and control over work and time (Galiè et al., 2019a;Mwambi, Bijman & Galiè, 2021). Another important tool is the Gendered Feed 1 It is important to mention that this methodology generates a series of discussions that go beyond the scope of this article but are still important to note: What are the working conditions, hiring practices, and protection of producers involved in these types of exercises and research? What is the level of participation of farmers in the design of these methodologies? How are seed and technological innovation property rights regulated in these cases? These questions entail a political discussion about the implementation of such methodologies, which cannot be overlooked in multidisciplinary research.Assessment Tool (G-FEAST), which identifies the availability of resources for animal feeding and gender-related aspects affecting these practices (Amole, Ayantunde & Duncan, 2020;Atieno et al., 2021).Various studies have highlighted the limited development of gender-differentiated analyses in agricultural scientific research (Deere, 2005;Puskur et al., 2021;Puskur et al., 2023;Polar et al., 2022;Tarjem, 2023), particularly for crops such as rice (Twyman, Muriel & García, 2015;Clavijo et al., 2016;Asante et al., 2023b), peanuts (Yila, Martey, and Etwire, 2023), beans (Nchanji et al., 2023), or the group of roots, tubers, and bananas (Mudege & Walsh, 2016;Nasirumbi et al., 2023). Without sufficient scientific information available, there is a lower possibility of quantifying the differential impacts of these varieties on the lives of farmers and consumers; what is not documented cannot be systematized.Parallel to this situation, there is a longstanding tradition of not properly recognizing women as participants in agricultural work. They have been perceived primarily as \"wives\" of the (male) farmer, mainly focused on domestic work, a situation that marginalizes and underestimates their contribution to agricultural production (for example, in rice cultivation (Twyman, Muriel & García, 2015;Clavijo et al., 2016), potatoes (Mudege et al., 2015), or barley (Galiè, 2013)). One scenario where the repercussions of this entrenched mindset can be seen is that, in most cases, men are the ones making decisions for agricultural units. This is evident in the case of beans in Zimbabwe (Hagmann, Chuma, and Gundani, 2001), Burundi (Nchanji et al., 2023), and Cameroon (Siri et al., 2020;Puskur et al., 2023), in potato cultivation in Malawi (Mudege et al., 2015), or rice in India (Paris et al., 2001;Elango & Kawarazuka, 2019), Ecuador (Clavijo et al., 2016), and Ghana (Asante et al., 2023b), or in the example of barley in Syria (Galiè, 2013).Traditionally, gender norms have associated women with agricultural activities such as planting, weeding, and storing, which are particularly focused on family subsistence (food security) 2 , while men have been associated with crops more related to commercialization and the sales process itself. This situation is found in bean cultivation in Cameroon (Siri et al., 2020), Burundi (Nchanji et al., 2023), and Kenya (Nchanji et al., 2021); potato cultivation in India (Elango and Kawarauka, 2019); rice cultivation in India (Paris et al., 2001) and Ghana (Asante et al., 2023a); or the RTB complex in Africa (Mudege & Walsh, 2016;Marimo et al., 2020;Tarjem, 2023). In the case of women involved in marketing aspects, it has been documented that they remain engaged in local market sales, while men have access to larger and more organized markets (for example, in banana cultivation in Africa (Marimo et al., 2020;Polar et al., 2022) and potatoes (Mudege, Sarapura & Polar, 2020).Women farmers around the world face higher poverty rates, low productivity, and less access to markets, land, and financial services (credit). This has been documented for crops such as peanuts in Ghana (Yila, Martey & Etwire, 2023), potatoes in India (Elango and Kawarauka, 2019), and Malawi (Mudege et al., 2015), beans in Zimbabwe (Hagmann, Chuma & Gundani, 2001), and Burundi (Nchanji et al., 2023), the RTB complex (Mudege & Walsh, 2016), and maize in East and Southern Africa (Voss et al., 2023), among others. There is also a lower access to training, technical advice, and the incorporation of technological innovations (such as improved seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides) in rice cultivation in India (Paris et al., 2001;Elango & Kawarazuka, 2019) and Ghana (Asante et al., 2023b), barley in Syria (Galiè, 2013;Puskur et al., 2021), potatoes in India (Elango and Kawarauka, 2019), and Malawi (Mudege et al., 2015), beans in Kenya (Nchanji et al., 2021), Burundi (Nchanji et al., 2023), and the RTB complex in Africa (Bentley et al., 2016;Mudege & Wash, 2016;Nasirumbi et al., 2023). This particular situation often leads to improved varieties being adopted more rapidly by men, who also have greater financial capital to take the risk of investing in new technologies (Mudege & Walsh, 2016;Siri et al., 2020;Nchanji et al., 2021). One of the reasons found for the lower productivity of women-led agricultural units is that they have less time available for these activities, as they are also responsible for domestic and family care tasks, culturally assigned to them (Puskur et al., 2023).In plant breeding and PVS studies conducted with a gendersensitive approach, some of the relevant characteristics associated with men' s preferences include attributes related to market and crop commercialization (size, yield, resistance to adverse weather conditions), while women focus more on characteristics related to domestic and family food security and reduced working time throughout the value chain. In the case of beans (Siri et al., 2020;Nchanji et al., 2022), peanuts (Yila, Martey, and Etwire, 2023), sweet potatoes (Polar et al., 2022), and bananas (Marimo et al., 2020;Polar et al., 2022;Nasirumbi et al., 2023), men are concerned with higher yield and less land use, while women prefer faster maturation that involves less harvest work. In the case of rice, men also focus on yield and marketing aspects, while women are concerned with taste and shorter cooking time (Elango & Kawarazuka, 2019;Asante et al., 2023a). In crops such as potatoes (Mudege, Sarapurua & Polar, 2020) and cassava (Bentley et al., 2015;Polar et al., 2022), women more frequently mention attributes related to reduced working time (such as easier peeling or shorter cooking time) and higher nutritional qualities.These findings correlate with the earlier discussions. If women are primarily concerned with the food security of their families, it makes sense that the most important characteristics for them in various crops are shorter maturation times or higher nutritional qualities. Regarding the characteristic of less working time invested in the crop, this preference is directly related to the extra (and usually unpaid) labor burden that has been culturally assigned to women in terms of domestic chores (such as cooking or cleaning) and caregiving (for children, the elderly, and sometimes animals). Using working time for these activities implies less time available for productive agricultural work.Other interesting findings related to gender-sensitive crop improvement and participatory varietal selection have been observed in Africa. In the case of potatoes in Malawi (Mudege et al., 2015), it has been identified that women have various ways, not exclusively or primarily through the market, to obtain seeds (through social relationships of kinship, friendship, trust, bartering, and favor exchanges). Also related to the market and gender, in the case of cassava in Nigeria, Bentley et al. (2016) find that women do not necessarily need to enter large markets for marketing and increasing their profits. As they are socially responsible for transforming this product into other edible foods (such as garri or fufu) 3 , they find their niche in local markets (contrary to the idea of the imperative need to massify sales to increase profits). In studies of beans in Burundi, women demand greater involvement in the marketing of crops because decisions by men (more connected to the market) can negatively affect the food security of domestic households (Nchanji et al., 2023). Some studies (Hagmman, Chuma & Gundani, 2001;Farnworth, 2003) have shown that participating in crop improvement experiments and varietal selection has empowered women, increased their knowledge and confidence, and that men have been receptive to these experiments, expressing increased trust in their partners' decisions. That said, another series of studies have also pointed out the care that must be taken from a gender analysis perspective in the implementation of improved varieties and the differential impacts these can have on the lives of agricultural producers. In some cases, harvesting and evaluating new varieties has increased workload for women (documented in cases of rice in India (Paris et al., 2001), banana in sub-Saharan Africa (Marimo et al., 2020), and beans in Kenya (Nchanji et al., 2021), involving actions such as more frequent fertilization or weeding of crops. Additionally, tensions between farmers, their families, and research teams have also been emphasized through these gender-sensitive innovations, as in some studies on maize in Africa (Voss et al., 2023), participatory improvement trials and PVS with women were not entirely supported by their husbands.Even acknowledging the persistently low number of studies related to the topic, in recent years, various research groups have been concerned with understanding the relationships between livestock and gender to grasp their opportunities, interventions, challenges, and possibilities for improvement in production. Some examples of these studies have been conducted in India (Ravichandran, Farnworth & Galiè, 2021), Burkina Faso (Amole, Ayantunde & Duncan, 2020), Kenya, and Ethiopia (Galie, Mulema & Mora Bernard, 2015;Wamatu et al., 2015;Crane, Bullock & Gichuki, 2020;Kristjanson et al., 2020;Elias et al., 2023), Tanzania (Brandes et al., 2015;Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018;Galiè et al., 2019b), and in Latin America (Gumucio et al., 2015;Gumucio et al., 2016;Rivas Herrera, Ramírez y Chacón Cascante, 2017;Ruíz-Torres et al., 2017).A significant portion of these studies has indicated that culturally, livestock farming is assumed to be a primarily male occupation, but in reality, it depends on a whole \"ecosystem\" of family work, where the work of women, children, and girls is often invisible, unpaid, and not considered productive but rather as a \"contribution\" or exclusively relegated to \"complementary\" domestic work (Bhanotra et al., 2015;Gumucio et al., 2015;Vázquez-García, 2015;Gumucio et al., 2016;Rivas Herrera, Ramírez y Chacón Cascante, 2017;Ruiz-Torres et al., 2017;Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018;Amole, Ayantunde & Duncan, 2020;Galiè et al., 2022b;Elias et al., 2023;Triana & Burkart, 2019). Precisely, caregiving activities for children, and the elderly, as well as domestic obligations culturally assigned to women, can limit their participation in beneficial activities for their integration into livestock economies such as associations and cooperatives or training processes and the adoption of technological innovations (Gumucio et al., 2015;Gumucio et al., 2016). In the case of women-led productive units, this set of situations represents an even greater challenge (Gumucio et al., 2016). This is related to the fact that, in most livestock farming units, men are the landowners and the main decision-makers regarding the livestock economy (use and sale of animals, adoption of new technologies, management of economic incomes). This has been found in various studies in Latin American countries (Patiño Murillo & Tobasura Acuña, 2011;Gumucio et al., 2015;Vázquez-García, 2015;Gumucio et al., 2016;Rivas Herrera, Ramírez y Chacón Cascante, 2017;Ruiz-Torres et al., 2017), Asian countries (Bhanotra et al., 2015), and African countries (Brandes et al., 2015;Galiè et al., 2015;Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018;Galiè et al., 2019b;Amole, Ayantunde & Duncan, 2020;Crane, Bullock & Gichuki, 2020;Kristjanson et al., 2020;Elias et al., 2023). According to the FAO (2012), women own only 20% of the land in the world and represent 70% of the poor population, as well as 2/3 of the poor livestock keepers globally; this also corresponds to women being the majority owners of small livestock species (such as poultry, goats, and sheep), while men are mostly owners of more valuable livestock species (such as cows or buffaloes) (FAO, 2012;Elias et al., 2023;Quisumbing et al., 2023).That being said, women play an active role in livestock farming, being responsible for tasks such as sowing forages and feeding animals, taking care of calves and sick animals, cleaning pens and livestock facilities, milking, and transforming milk into other products (such as cheese or butter). In contrast, men are more involved in the movement and herding of animals and their commercialization in various markets (Paris et al., 2001;FAO, 2012;Bhanotra et al., 2015;Brandes et al., 2015;Gumucio et al., 2015;Gumucio et al., 2016;Rivas Herrera, Ramírez y Chacón Cascante, 2017;Ruiz-Torres et al., 2017;Triana & Burkart, 2019;Crane, Bullock & Gichuki, 2020). In Africa, the climatic condition of droughts is also significant, and women spend more time and effort in searching and collecting water, both for domestic consumption and for livestock (Brandes et al., 2015;Wamatu et al., 2015;Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018;Amole, Ayantunde & Duncan, 2020). Additionally, it has been documented that rural women more frequently preserve local livestock breeds (compared to the higher adoption of improved breeds by men), which are usually more resilient to extreme climatic conditions (FAO, 2012;Elias et al., 2023). Some of the barriers identified for women involved in the livestock economy are that they face greater difficulties in accessing land, forages, credit, marketing opportunities, animal health services, and training and technological innovations (such as improved forage seeds) (Kristjanson et al., 2014;Bhanotra et al., 2015;Vázquez-García, 2015;Gumucio et al., 2016;Rivas Herrera, Ramírez y Chacón Cascante, 2017;Galiè et al., 2019b;Amole, Ayantunde & Duncan, 2020;Kristjanson et al., 2020;Ravichandran, Farnworth & Galiè, 2021;Galiè et al., 2022b;Elias et al., 2023;Quisumbing et al., 2023). Additionally, some studies have noted that, due to these limitations, it is even easier for women to access livestock than land or machinery and technological innovation associated with the livestock industry (Kristjanson et al., 2014;Galiè et al., 2019b;Ravichandran, Farnworth & Galiè, 2021;Galiè et al., 2022b).The socio-economic functions of livestock can include storage, savings, a form of insurance for unforeseen situations, social currency, consumption and food sovereignty, income generation, provision of resources for manufacturing other goods (such as inputs like wool, milk and its derivatives, or hides), and guaranteeing access to credit, among others (FAO, 2012; Gumucio et al., 2016;Njuguna et al., 2022). Several of these functions can contribute to the empowerment of livestock-dependent populations, especially women, when they are active participants in these economic dynamics (Gumucio et al., 2016;Quisumbing et al., 2023). Therefore, it is necessary to undertake a series of differentiated actions in research endeavors related to gender, livestock, and improvement. For instance, there should be inclusive but differentiated representation of men and women during participatory evaluation processes (Wamatu et al., 2015), as well as in training on technological innovation and decisionmaking (Bhanotra et al., 2015;Amole, Ayantunde & Duncan, 2020;Crane, Bullock & Gichuki, 2020). Some studies have identified the importance of the Livestock Ladder as a strategy for economic empowerment for women (Galiè et al., 2022b), so multidisciplinary dialogue with other improvement teams should not be overlooked 4 . Since gender is a relational process, it is imperative to work in these scenarios with men as well, not only because they are a significant part of the livestock economy but also because addressing inequalities is only possible if they commit to being part of this effort. In line with the above, other studies (Gumucio et al., 2016;Quisumbing et al., 2023) have found that involving only women in PVS trials can be counterproductive by generating domestic conflicts (which would go against the \"do no harm\" policy mentioned earlier). On the other hand, other research has pointed out that training women may have a low impact and reach if men are the only ones-or the majority-who maintain primary access to markets and predominantly control household income (Rivas Herrera, Ramírez y Chacón Cascante, 2017; Galiè et al., 2022b).Studies on dairy cooperatives led by women have concluded that such exercises provide the opportunity for empowerment: making decisions, increasing and controlling resources (such as buying and selling land and cows), greater ease of access to credit, gaining opportunities for acquiring more knowledge and training, as well as challenging gender norms that restrict their leadership (Bhanotra et al., 2015;Galiè et al., 2019b;Mwambi, Bijman & Galiè, 2021;Ravichandran, Farnworth & Galiè, 2021;Quisumbing et al., 2023)  5 . For example, in Tanzania (Galiè et al., 2019b), the intensification of milk production helped generate better nutritional conditions for the families of women livestock keepers, allowing them to have greater control over the income from the sale of the product, ensuring greater independence in decision-making compared to men.However, the flip side of the coin is that, in many case studies, as women' s profits increase due to dairy intensification, men have also benefited and take control of these additional incomes (for example, because they own the cows) or women' s work has intensified (as men start to travel for training, resulting in more agricultural work for women, in addition to their usual household and caregiving tasks) (FAO, 2012;Kristjanson et al., 2014;Brandes et al., 2015;Rivas Herrera, Ramírez y Chacón Cascante, 2017;Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018;Crane, Bullock & Gichuki, 2020;Kristjanson et al., 2020;Mwambi, Bijman & Galiè, 2021;Ravichandran, Farnworth & Galiè, 2021;Njuguna-Mungai et al., 2022;Njuguna et al., 2022;Elias et al., 2023;Quisumbing et al., 2023). Other types of unexpected precisely contrary to those mentioned in the previous paragraph, relate to nutritional deficits in family units because more milk is used to feed a greater number of animals or there is greater pressure to commercialize a larger volume of the product (FAO, 2012). In light of this, it becomes imperative to investigate who and how benefits from these types of technological innovations, as well as the power relationships that mediate these social constructions of gender.In studies conducted in Kenya and Ethiopia (Crane, Bullock & Gichuki, 2020) and Tanzania (Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018), women reported an increase in milk production with the introduction of improved forages. However, formal sales of this product were mostly controlled by men, while women remained involved in managing the income from the sale of milk-derived products (such as cheese and butter) in local markets. To address such situations, initiatives like the Crop and Goat Project by ILRI in Tanzania (focused on dairy production intensification through the improvement of local goat breeds) proposed as a prerequisite for participation that dairy goats be co-owned by both men and women, fostering more shared decision-making. This led to significant experiences of improved family nutrition, increased income for women (through the sale or exchange of surplus milk), and greater commitment and assistance from men in activities related to livestock (Brandes et al., 2015).In another study conducted in these same countries (Njuguna et al., 2022) -as part of the Grass2Cash project carried out by CIAT and ILRI in 2018, which introduced improved forage varieties -it was evident that women controlled the profits from milk, but the cows were owned by men. This ownership gave men the decision-making power regarding when to sell the animals and how to use the income from these sales. The study found that the adoption of improved forage crops contributed to reducing labor, especially for women, as the animals required less food to meet their nutritional demands, and forages could be cultivated closer to the enclosures, reducing effort in their collection. Additionally, women were more involved in decision-making within their households, as they participated in training provided by the project, gained more knowledge about crops and income management, and increased the confidence of their husbands in them.Associated with the economic role of women in these African countries related to milk sales, it is logical that these studies have found that the trait prioritized by women in livestock feed is the one that has an effect on the quantity and quality of milk (Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018;Njuguna et al., 2022), as well as the speed of its growth (Njuguna et al., 2022). Additionally, since women are responsible for family nutrition (Tufan, Grando & Meola, 2018), it makes sense that their concern is the quantity and quality of milk, not solely focused on commercialization. In the case of Kenya (Njuguna et al., 2022), women mentioned the trait of reduced labor in harvesting and weeding forages (as they are responsible for planting them, while men handle livestock marketing) and higher yields. By selling surpluses (of livestock feed, milk, or manure), they can hire support for labor and dedicate their free time to other activities (household, community, and caregiving).As seen throughout this section and the previous one, several findings regarding unequal conditions for women, their preferences for traits in PVS experiments, and the challenges they face for greater economic and social empowerment are shared in both cases of agricultural crops for human consumption and forages and livestock. The exercise of tracing various studies in both research fields allows for correlating and corroborating the significance of gendersensitive research to identify opportunities for improvement, both scientifically and socially.In the face of the historical inequalities that women have confronted in social, cultural, economic, and political fields, science and research must play an active and committed role in transforming these realities. The empowerment of women farmers and livestock keepers is a complex and nonlinear process, involving the need for increased access to land, credit, technologies, seed and machinery innovations, training, information, and the socialization of knowledge. This should be reflected in their economic autonomy, increased productivity, food security for themselves and their families, and the effective reduction of poverty and social inequalities that disproportionately impact them.Simultaneously, albeit timidly, scientific research in the field of seed breeding, including forages, has made efforts in recent decades to incorporate gender into its analyses, hand in hand with social sciences. These endeavors have encountered a series of successful applications but also challenges, several of which have been outlined in this document. By way of conclusion, we present a brief summary of the main findings and some recommendations for further incorporating gender into scientific innovations in the field of forages:• The studies reviewed in this exercise have demonstrated that women are active participants in agricultural and livestock industries; however, their work has historically been invisible and generally poorly compensated. The belief that women are \"helpers\" and not producers in this economic field is false and reflects an androcentric and misogynistic view their work. This scenario highlights the need for collaborative efforts among agricultural, natural, and social sciences to develop strategies to impact and improve the living conditions of women in these industries.• Studies also show that the main traits demanded by women are those that enable them to manage the food security of their families while generating their own income to enhance their economic autonomy and empowerment. In the case of livestock farming, the intensification of dairy production can have positive impacts on these women' s processes, given their historical association with dairy production and the processing of derived food products.• It is essential to consider the sociocultural differences in the contexts where seeds are released, as the same traits may not necessarily work in all places. Therefore, multidisciplinary field research is necessary, fostering constant and strengthened dialogue between breeding teams and social science professionals.• It is relevant to adhere to the \"do no harm\" policy when introducing biotechnological innovations, as these can generate or exacerbate socioeconomic gender inequalities, as evidenced by some studies cited in this work. The preassessment that contributes to avoiding negative impacts can only be achieved through the fieldwork of social scientists.• Since CIAT does not conduct trials with seed users, it is necessary to strengthen collaborative work between CIAT and Papalotla to develop more experiments on varietal participation and participatory plant breeding. This approach helps understand the demands and needs of the target population.• There is a need to strengthen gender research in forages and breeding because this field has fewer studies in this regard. As livestock farming has traditionally been associated with men, questions about the role of men and sociocultural constructions around masculinities are areas of research that can help transform gender inequalities. It is crucial to work not only with women but also to sensitize and engage men in questioning social orders of exclusion and subordination.CIAT / N Palmer","tokenCount":"6065"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bd399011e67361b9c7ca7564a77f90f4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fa4dba6f-44cc-471d-bc02-2d512fdcff9b/retrieve","id":"-862296888"},"keywords":["General combining ability","Partial diallel","Soybean","Specific combining ability Otusanya","G.O.","Chigeza","G.","Chander","S.","Abebe","A.T.","Sobowale","O.O.","Ojo","D.K. and Akoroda","M.O"],"sieverID":"458bb49c-5f54-48e5-a9f3-84e65afdfc73","pagecount":"6","content":"The success of hybridization programme depends on the combining ability of parental lines. Methods: Seven soybean genotypes and all their partial diallel crosses in the F 2 generation were evaluated in a randomized complete block design at two locations in Nigeria, during the 2017-2018 growing season. Result: Analysis of variance showed that both environments and genotypes were significantly different for all measured traits. The genotype TGx 1988-5F was the best general combiner for earliness in flowering and poding, while TGx 1448-2E was the best general combiner for number of pods/plant and seed yield/plant. Crosses having significant and positive specific combining ability effect for number of pods/plant and seed yield/plant were TGx 1485-1D × TGx 1448- 2E and TGx 1988-5F × TGx 1989-19F, respectively.  Genotypes TGx 1988-5F and TGx 1448-2E  exhibiting good general combining ability for earliness and seed yield/plant, are thus, promising for utilization in the future hybridization programme for soybean improvement.Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] is one of the most important leguminous and oilseed crop in the world (Mikic and Peric, 2013). According to Agarwal et al. (2013), soybean contributes to about 26.7% of the global vegetable oil production and about two thirds of the world's protein concentrate for livestock feeding. Its richness in oil (20%) and protein (40%) content makes it an ideal crop to alleviate protein malnutrition in developing world (Bhartiya et al. 2018). Parent selection is one of the most critical aspects of any breeding programme, as its success depends directly on this step (de Almeida Lopes et al. 2001).Diallel analysis formulated by Griffing (1956) helps breeders to evaluate newly developed cultivars for their parental usefulness and to assess gene action controlling inheritance of yield and its contributing traits in order to formulate efficient breeding programme (Susanto, 2018). Also, diallel crossing analysis is an excellent tool, which provide breeders with information on general and specific combining ability of parents and their hybrids (Nassar, 2013). According to Kearsey (1965), half diallel which involves a set of progeny and their parents have advantage over the other diallel techniques, because it provides the maximum information about genetic architecture of parents and traits. The use of Diallel analysis, excluding reciprocals for analyzing combining ability of soybean for yield and its related traits across environments have been reported by various authors (Paschal and Wilcox, 1975;Kaw and Menon, 1981;Cho and Scott, 2000).Combining ability analysis is used to identify better parents, which can be hybridized to select better crosses for further breeding work (Murtadha et al. 2018). Combining ability study in soybean revealed significant estimated general and specific combing ability for yield and related traits (Agrawal et al. 2005;Gaviloli and Perecin, 2008;Abd El and Nassar, 2013). Aims of the study were to identify the best general combiners in soybean for measured traits, and estimate the extent of additive and non-additive gene actions in-order to derive implications for further improvement of the populations generated from the crosses across environments.Seven soybean parental lines (TGx 1989-19F, TGx 1987-10F, TGx 1988-5F, TGx 1987  1) were used for the crossing. To generate the F 1 s, crossing was attempted among the seven selected parental lines (all are released varieties) in all possible combinations without reciprocals (partial diallel). The resulting 21 F 1 populations were further advanced to F 2 . All the F 2 s along with their parents were planted in the field at IITA, Ibadan (Longitude 730N, Latitude 354E) and Fashola (Longitude 649N, Latitude 316E) in Oyo State, Nigeria, during 2017 and 2018 growing season in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Each block was divided into 28 plots each measuring 2 m × 0.75 m and a distance of 0.75 m was allocated between blocks and plots. The number of rows for each plot was four rows with two harvestable middle rows and an intra and inter-row spacing of 10 cm and 75 cm, respectively.Standard agronomic practices, like weeding, fertilizer application and pest management were done during the entire growing period. Data for five quantitative traits viz. days to flowering, days to poding, plant height, number of pods/plant and seed yield/plant were measured on forty randomly selected plants. Harvesting and threshing were done manually. Combining ability analysis after Griffing (1956) Method II, Model I using DIALLEL-SAS (Zhang and Kang, 1997) was performed.Combined analysis of variance of partial diallel crosses of soybean for yield and yield-related traits across locations revealed that the two environments were significantly different from each other (Table 2). Entries (parents and crosses) were significantly different from each other for all the traits studied, indicating sufficient genetic variability among the parents and crosses generated (Kose, 2019). Significant interaction between environment and entries was observed in all the measured traits, except for number of pods/plant and seed yield/plant. There were significant general combining ability (GCA) effects across environments   for almost all the measured traits, except for days to poding. Similarly, the specific combining ability (SCA) effects across environments were significant for days to poding, number of pods/plant and seed yield/plant, exhibiting that variability in the breeding material can be attributed to both additive and non-additive gene effects. Highly significant GCA × Environment interactions for almost all the measured traits showed that the performance of parents used in the study was influenced by environment, and thus, testing under different environments will ensure selection of stable parents that can perform to the potential of that environment (Machado et al. 2009).Greater magnitude of GCA compared to SCA was observed for all measured traits, which reveals the prevalence of additive gene action, indicating and that selection will be effective to improve the traits (Gravina et al., 2004;Nazim et al. 2014). The GCA: SCA ratio close to unity for all measured traits showed that the parents contributed mostly to the performance of the crosses observed, and influence of the environment was minimal and thus, there is preponderance of additive gene action controlling traits studied (Murtadha et al. 2018). Adsul et al. 2016 reported that additive gene action was found predominant in the inheritance of 100-seed weight and yield/plant in segregating population of soybean. Also, Umar et al. (2017) reported the importance of additive gene action in inheritance of days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, number of pods/plant and 100-seed weight. Nassar (2013) also observed high GCA:Combining Ability of Selected Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] Parental Lines SCA ratio for earliness and number of pods/plant in soybean.The estimates of GCA effects of parental lines used in the study across Ibadan and Fashola (Table 3), revealed that TGx 1988-5F had desirable negative and significant GCA effect for days to flowering and poding. The parent TGx 1448-2E gave significant and positive GCA effect for number of pods/plant and seed yield/plant, showing the importance of this parent in improving these traits. Soybean parental lines with significant GCA have been reported by Durai and Subbalakshmi (2009). Good GCA in soybean for yield and its related traits have also been reported earlier by Srivastava et al. (1978), and Sharma and Phul (1994).The SCA effects of the cross TGx 1835-10E × TGx 1989-10F was negative and significant and desirable for days to flowering (Table 4). Two crosses, TGx 1988-5F × TGx 1989-19F and TGx 1485-1D × TGx 1835-10E exhibited significant and positive SCA effects for days to poding. Significant good specific combining ability for reduced plant height was observed in cross TGx 1987-62F × TGx 1988-5F. Crosses having positive and significant SCA effects for number of pods/plant are TGx 1988-5F × TGx 1987-10F and TGx 1485-1D × TGx 1448-2E. Significant and positive SCA effect for seed yield/plant was observed in the cross TGx 1988-5F × TGx 1989-19F. Datt et al. (2011) have also reported crosses with good SCA for earliness and grain yield/plant in soybean. Crosses showing good specific combining ability for traits studied have either parent as good or average combiners. According to Kenga et al. (2004), cross combinations with favorable SCA estimates, and involving at least one of the parents with good GCA estimate would likely enhance the concentration of favorable alleles to improve traits of interest.Parental varieties of soybean used in the study had higher GCA than SCA showing preponderance of additive gene action controlling seed yield and its related traits. Hence, selection for measured traits at early growth of segregating populations might be effective. As evidenced by their significant GCA effects, the parental line TGx 1988-5F can be used to improve earliness, while TGx 1448-2E can be used to improve seed yield in soybean breeding program.","tokenCount":"1408"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6fd887823c46a8474f5b9f33b6fdc409","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7be147b8-89ae-473e-b901-57cd7d2c574c/retrieve","id":"2088040325"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cfac89da-6e49-4a25-b3f7-e4c848a16978","pagecount":"61","content":"All rights reserved. Parts of this publication may be reproduced for non-commercial use provided that such reproduction shall be subject to acknowledgment of Hawassa University/ILRI as holders of copyright.Editing, design and layout-Total income vs. income from sale of dairy and its derivatives by area | and production systems Table 2. Mean (± ME) total farm land size (ha) of households in the mixed crop-livestock production systems Table 3. Dairy cattle and overall livestock holdings of the mixed crop-livestock production system Table 4. Dairy cattle population by breed and classes, livestock composition (in tropical units), estimated annual milk production Table 5. Primary purposes for keeping cattle by dairy farmers in urban and mixed crop-livestock production systems Table 6. Percentage of producers under the respective primary selling outlets and selection criteria for selling outlets of milk in mixed crop-livestock and urban production systems Table 7. Average prices of milk and milk products Table 8. Butter trade routes to, from and within the study area v The estimated human population of Ethiopia in 2006 was 79.4 million (The Economic Intelligence Unit 2007), with an overall density of 67 persons per km 2 (Edmond 2007).The population is comprised of 61.369 million rural (84%) and 11.675 million urban (16%), and the overall annual population growth is estimated at 2.78% (ECSA 2005).Ethiopia has a diverse population, with more than 70 distinct ethnic and linguistic groups (Edmond 2007).The Ethiopian economy is highly dependent on agriculture, which in the 2004/05 fiscal year, contributed about 48% of the GDP, followed by 39% from the service sector, and 13% from the industrial sector. The agriculture sector provides employment for about 80% of the population (The Economic Intelligence Unit 2007). The livestock subsector plays a vital role as source of food, income, services and foreign exchange to the Ethiopian economy, and contributes to 12 and 33% of the total and agricultural GDP, respectively, and accounts for 12-15% of the total export earnings, second in order of importance (Ayele et al. 2003). According to FAOSTAT (2007), among the 20 major food and agricultural commodities ranked by value in 2005, whole fresh cow milk is ranked third. Milk production in the same year was estimated at 1.5 million tonnes which is equivalent to USD 398.9 million (FAOSTAT 2007).Dairy production, among the sector of livestock production systems, is a critical issue in Ethiopia where livestock and its products are important sources of food and income, and dairying has not been fully exploited and promoted in the country. Despite its huge numbers, the livestock subsector in Ethiopia is low in production in general, and compared to its potential, the direct contribution it makes to the national economy is limited.For years or decades Ethiopia ranked first in cattle population in Africa, but the dairy industry is not developed even as compared to east African countries like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Regarding dairy production, the national milk production remains among the lowest in the world, even by African standards (Zegeye 2003). Although many efforts were made towards dairy development and various research projects have been undertaken in some parts of the country, the outcome and impact have not been satisfactory. Most development and research projects in dairying were conducted within and/or around Addis Ababa milkshed. 1  Current development in the country is characterized by rapid population growth in the country in general and regional towns (like Awassa) in particular. The demand for dairy products is increasing as ever.de Leeuw et al. (1996) defined dairy production as a biologically efficient system that converts large quantities of roughage, the most abundant feed in the tropics, to milk, the most nutritious food. The dairy industry also occupies a special position among the other livestock sectors due to four interrelated features (Perera 1999). The first factor is related to the specific properties of milk in that it is a bulky and heavy commodity, which is produced on a daily basis. Secondly, the socio-economic position of the majority of the farmers involved is small-scale producers, with a weak and vulnerable position on the market. Thirdly, dairy cooperatives hold a strong position in milk marketing and processing. The fourth and final feature is the fact that milk is a very valuable but an extremely expensive raw material to make a wide range of products.One of the necessary conditions for increased milk production is the provision of assured marketing outlets that are sufficiently remunerative to producers. Experience of countries like India, Uganda and Kenya reveals marketing outlet is a key initiator of milk production to smallholders (Matthewman 1993). Even in the long run, surplus milk can be processed into different dairy products for export, which brings foreign exchange.Planners should consider the relative efficiency of alternative milk marketing systems in terms of costs and marketing margins, product hygiene and quality, range and stability of services offered and stability of producers and consumer prices. To do so, policy makers, development organizations and private investors are in need of information of different aspects of the production system of the specific area, potentials and constraints of production and marketing conditions/systems.Several organizations including international and national agricultural research centres, the World Bank, Ministry of Agriculture, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)have developed and promoted the use of improved dairy technologies to help increase farm productivity and smallholder income in Ethiopia (Freeman et al. 1995;Freeman et al. 1998). Different dairy development projects have also been launched at different times and at different parts of the present study area. Dairy Rehabilitation and Development Project (DRDP), Smallholder Dairy Development Project (SDDP), which was started in April 1995 (Ojala 1998), Sidama Development Project (SDP), National Livestock Development Program (NLDP) and 'Pilot package' are some to be mentioned. Despite these efforts to run in the direction with above-mentioned scenarios, there are no studies on the impact of all these projects and the current potential they created to 'improve', if any, market-oriented production of the sector. Above all, dairy production in southern Ethiopia is constrained by several factors that can be classified as: (a) technical or biological and (b) socio-economic and institutional factors (Fekadu 1994). Therefore, it is justifiable to generate scientific information on the current production potential and market success of this dairy production system in the study area.The total human population in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS) accounted for 15,321,000 in the year 2007 (SNNPRS-RSA 2006).There is a need, therefore, to differentiate and describe in detail the different types of dairy production and marketing systems that exist within the agriculture sector so that research, recommendations and technical assistances are tailored to the specific needs of the farmers in each production systems. In contrary to this, there is limited knowledge of the dairy production, processing and marketing systems in the study area. With this background and understanding, this study was conducted with the following objectives.To support dairy development in the region through careful collection and • documentation of information on the current practices, challenges and opportunities of dairy production, processing and marketing systems in the Shashemene-Dilla areaTo characterize dairy production systems of Shashemene-Dilla area and to prioritize • problems, challenges, and opportunities of milk production.To describe the dairy marketing systems and to identify constraints and opportunities • for dairy marketing in the area.To explore ways of dairy processing and milk handling. • 2 Literature reviewAccording to Ahmed et al. (2003), in the first half of the 20th century, dairying in Ethiopia was mostly traditional. Modern dairying started in the early 1950s when Ethiopia received the first batch of dairy cattle from United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). With the introduction of these cattle in the country, commercial liquid milk production started on large farms in Addis Ababa and Asmara (Ketema 2000).Government intervened through the introduction of high-yielding dairy cattle in the highlands in and around major urban areas. The government also established modern milk processing and marketing facilities to complement these input-oriented production effort.In 1960, UNICEF established a public sector pilot processing plant at Shola on the outskirt of Addis Ababa in order to enhance growth of the dairy sector. The plant started by processing milk produced by large farms. The plant significantly expanded in a short period and started collecting milk from smallholder producers in addition to large farms.This led to further expansion of large dairy farms. During the second half of the 1960s, dairy production in the Addis Ababa area began to develop rapidly as a result of the expansion in large private dairy farms and the participation of smallholder producers with indigenous cattle facilitated by establishment of milk collection centres (Ahmed et al. 2003). Subsequently, different dairy development projects were launched in different parts of the country. The distribution of exotic dairy cattle, particularly the Holstein Friesian, in different parts of the country, especially around the major urban areas, also contributed to the further development of dairying in Ethiopia.As defined by Sere and Steinfield (1995), livestock production systems are considered a subset of the farming systems, including cases in which livestock contribute more than 10% to total farm output in value terms or where intermediate contributions such as animal traction or manure represent more than 10% of the total value of purchased inputs. There are different classification criteria for livestock production systems in general and dairy production systems in particular. For example, based on criteria such as integration with crops, relation to land, agro-ecological zones, intensity of production and type of product, the world livestock production systems are classified into 11 systems (Sere and Steinfield 1995). Of these livestock production systems, mixed farm rain fed temperate and tropical highlands (MRT system) is by far the largest. Globally, it represents 41% of the arable land, 21% of the cattle population, and 37% of dairy cattle (Sere and Steinfield 1995).Dairying is practised almost all over Ethiopia involving a vast number of small or medium or large-sized, subsistence or market-oriented farms. Based on climate, land holdings and integration with crop production as criterion, dairy production systems are recognized in Ethiopia; namely the rural dairy system which is part of the subsistence farming system and includes pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and mixed crop-livestock producers; the peri-urban; and urban dairy systems (Azage and Alemu 1998;Ketema 2000;Tsehay 2001;Yoseph et al. 2003;Zegeye 2003;Dereje et al. 2005). The first system (pastoralism, agropastoralism and highland mixed smallholder production system) contributes to 98%, while the peri-urban and urban dairy farms produce only 2% of the total milk production of the country (Ketema 2000).The rural system is non-market oriented and most of the milk produced in this system is retained for home consumption. The level of milk surplus is determined by the demand for milk by the household and its neighbours, the potential to produce milk in terms of herd size and production season, and access to a nearby market. The surplus is mainly processed using traditional technologies and the processed milk products such as butter, ghee, ayib and sour milk are usually marketed through the informal market after the households satisfy their needs (Tsehay 2001). Pastoralists raise about 30% of the indigenous livestock population which serve as the major milk production system for an estimated 10% of the country's human population living in the lowland areas. Milk production in this system is characterized by low yield and seasonal availability (ZegeyeThe highland smallholder milk production is found in the central part of Ethiopia where dairying is nearly always part of the subsistence, smallholder mixed crop and livestock farming. Local animals raised in this system generally have low performance with average age at first calving of 53 months, average calving intervals of 25 months and average lactation yield of 524 litres (Zegeye 2003).Peri-urban milk production is developed in areas where the population density is high and agricultural land is shrinking due to urbanization around big cities like Addis Ababa.It possesses animal types ranging from 50% crosses to high grade Friesian in small to medium-sized farms. The peri-urban milk system includes smallholder and commercial dairy farmers in the proximity of Addis Ababa and other regional towns. This sector owns most of the country's improved dairy stock (Tsehay 2001). The main source of feed is both home produced or purchased hay; and the primary objective is to get additional cash income from milk sale. This production system is now expanding in the highlands among mixed crop-livestock farmers, such as those found in Selale and Holetta, and serves as the major milk supplier to the urban market (Gebre Wold et al. 2000).Urban dairy farming is a system involving highly specialized, state or businessmen owned farms, which are mainly concentrated in major cities of the country. Cows are the main source of milk, and it is cows' milk that is the focus of processing in Ethiopia (Layne et al. 1990). Dairy processing in Ethiopia is generally based on ergo (fermented milk in Ethiopia), without any defined starter culture, with natural starter culture. Raw milk is either kept at ambient temperature or kept in a warm place to ferment prior to processing (Mogessie 2002).Dairy processing in the country is basically limited to smallholder level and hygienic qualities of products are generally poor (Zelalem and Faye 2006). According to Zelalem and Faye (2006), about 52% of smallholder producers and 58% of large-scale producers used common towel to clean the udder or they did not at all. Above all they do not use clean water to clean the udder and other milk utensils. Of the interviewed small-scale producers, 45% did not treat milk before consumption, and organoleptic properties of dairy products are the commonly used quality tests.In a study conducted in the Borena region of Ethiopia, butter was found to be an important source of energy as food for humans, and is used for cooking and as a cosmetic. The storage stability of butter, while not comparable to ghee, is still in the order of four to six weeks. This gives butter a distinct advantage over fresh milk in terms of more temporal flexibility for household use and marketing (Layne et al. 1990).Efficiency of traditional butter production was measured for 28 instances in which soured milk was churned by women in 20 households of Borena region. Prior to churning, the milk had a temperature of 20.0 ± 0.42 o C and an acidity of 1.06 ± 0.03%. The milk was churned for 40.0 ± 2.5 minutes and afterwards the temperature of the buttermilk was 23.7 ± 0.32 o C. The sour milk contained about 46.8 g of fat, compared with 7 g of fat in the buttermilk after churning. Thus some 85% of the butterfat was extracted by churning.Butter yield was 66.9 ± 5.6 g but moisture content of the butter was not determined (Layne et al. 1990).In the African context, markets for agricultural products would normally refer to marketplaces (open spaces where commodities are traded). Conceptually, however, a market can be visualized as a process in which ownership of goods is transferred from sellers to buyers who may be final consumers or intermediaries. Therefore, markets involve sales, locations, sellers, buyers and transactions (Debrah and Berhanu 1991).The term 'informal' is often used to describe marketing systems in which governments do not intervene substantially in marketing. Such marketing systems are also referred to as parallel markets. The term 'formal' is thus used to describe government (official) marketing systems (Debrah 1990). The history of the dairy cooperative system in India began in 1946 with the establishment of the Anand Milk Union Ltd (AMUL). In 1970, Operation Flood commenced with the objective of establishing a cooperative structure on the Anand pattern (Matthewman 1993). In 1980, some 12 thousand village cooperative milk producers' societies had been established in 27 selected milkshed districts. This was expanded by 1984 to 28,174 village producers in 155 milkshed districts linked to markets in 147 towns. The case of Uganda (followed the same milk collection schemes through cooperatives with this regard) is also a good example from east Africa (Matthewman 1993). Cooperative selling institutions are potential catalysts for mitigating costs, stimulate smallholders' entry into the market, and promote growth in rural communities (Holloway et al. 2000). Case studies from Kenya and Ethiopia illustrate the role of dairy cooperatives in reducing transaction costs (Staal et al. 1997). A good example to be mentioned in Ethiopia is Ada'a-Liben Woreda Dairy Association (Azage 2003) which presently renders milk to processing plants in Addis Ababa.Terms related to marketing outlets, marketing channels, and marketing chains are important to describe dairy marketing systems. Marketing outlet is the final market place to deliver the dairy product, where it may pass through different channels. A network (combination) of market channels gives rise to the market chain.A study of the milk marketing system in Kenya has shown that there are at least eight different marketing channels, with the number of intermediaries ranging from 1 to 4 (FAO 1996). A study in Addis Ababa milkshed revealed that dairy producers sold milk through different principal market channels (Debrah 1990;Mbogoh 1990), which included:Producer-consumer (P-C) channel: direct sales to individual consumers, which • accounted for 71% of the total channels (Mbogoh 1990); Producer-catering institution-consumer (P-CI-C) channel: catering institutions • includes// itinerant traders, small private shops and kiosks, coffee and tea sales, hotels, and supermarkets; and Producer-government institution-consumer (P-GI-C) channel: sales to government • institutions such as the armed forces, schools and hospitals.The main outlets for cooking butter for rural producers near Addis Ababa were:(i) restaurants in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas that serve local foods, (ii) itinerant traders, and(iii) individual consumers or butter wholesalers in Addis Ababa.Sales to restaurants accounted for 36% of total sales, while those to itinerant traders accounted for 33% and sales to individuals and those to wholesalers in Addis Ababa accounted for 31% of sales (Debrah 1990).Challenges and problems for dairying vary from one production system to another and/or from one location to another. In the debate of poverty reduction or small-scale vs. industrial production and in spite of a general consensus on the appropriateness of general recommendations, there seem to be a lack of vision regarding the future structure and roles of the present small-scale producers. Many donors seem ready to protect and preserve the smallholders, but few have a vision of the process requiring 'transforming small-scale subsistence producers into commercial producers supplying a modern, demanding food market' (Kristensen et al. 2004). According to the same report, small-scale farmers can be empowered through:Promoting farmer organization, provision of training etc. 3.2 Sources and methods of data collectionIn order to characterize the dairy production systems in the area, farmers/producers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire which was pre-tested, and translated into Amharic language. Enumerators (diploma holders in Animal Science), were recruited and trained before actual data collection commenced.Multi-stage sampling procedure was followed at four stages. In the first stage, a primary sampling unit represented by two broad categories of producers (Rural and Urban) was selected within each study woreda. In the second stage, kebeles, in the case of rural producers, and groups of urban kebeles in the case of urban producers, were identified after a livestock census was conducted at each town. In the third stage, individual households having dairy cows of any breed and size were identified and listed. In the fourth stage, individual dairy cow owner households were randomly selected from the list for an interview.Since there was no formal marketing and/or milk collection scheme in the rural producers in the area, two rural kebeles were randomly selected within 3 to 10 km radius of each woreda. This radius was assumed to be an ideal distance for dairy marketing in their respective neighbouring towns.Prior to data collection, dairy cow owners were identified from each of the rural kebeles by the data collectors from the respective administrative kebeles from which households were randomly selected from the list. Since there was no reliable and up-todate information on the livestock holdings of each town, a census was conducted from October to November 2007, with special reference to dairy cattle owners at Shashemene, Awassa, Yirgalem and Dilla towns. This census result was also used to estimate the total amount of milk produced from the four towns considered. The lactation length and daily milk off-take of both zebu and their crosses were obtained from producers; hence the total amount of milk produced in a year was calculated.The total number of households interviewed was 240 comprising 60 households from each woreda where 30 were from rural and the other 30 were from urban kebeles of each of the four woredas. In addition to the main survey employed, participatory rural appraisal (PRA), as group discussion, was employed with the help of topical guidelines for some qualitative dairy production parameters (Bayemi et al. 2005). This provided additional information to characterize the dairy production systems in the area. Personal observations at the time of visits and supervisions were also made to fill the gap that might have not been described during the survey particularly to describe some of the routine dairy activities practised by producers.Marketing of the possible marketable dairy commodities like whole milk, butter, yoghurt (ergo), cheese and sour buttermilk (arera) were studied as the second activity. Rapid market appraisal (RMA) (Holtzeman 1986;Menegay and Molina 1988;Miles 2000) was employed in order to collect relevant data from the respective key informants at different stages (milk producers, dairy traders and consumers). Separate semi-structured informal interview guideline (checklists) was used for each group of key observers. Prior to conducting the RMA on the different marketing agents, census was conducted to count the number of permanent butter traders and ergo sellers at each of the four towns, i.e Shashemene, Awassa, Yirgalem and Dilla.Data collected for the characterization of dairy production and handling systems were analysed using appropriate statistical software-Statistical Procedures for Social Sciences (SPSS 2001) andStatistical Analysis System (SAS 1997). Survey results were reported using descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistical analysis such as correlations, and mean comparisons were made for some variables of interest. Mean comparisons were made using Duncan's multiple range tests. Levels of significance considered were at alpha of P < 0.01, P < 0.05 and P < 0.001.Data related with pricing, collected for the characterization of dairy marketing system, were analysed using descriptive statistics of SPSS, and the data collected with RMA were reported with flow charts and summarized discussions.4.1 Dairy production and handling systemsTwo major dairy cattle production systems were identified; namely the mixed croplivestock production system in the rural (suburb) areas and the urban dairy cattle production system, which was found within cities or towns. Although a third production system was identified, the pastoral production system, its characteristics was not studied at present as this production system is outside the radius (3-10 km) of the present work.Each of these two production systems were further subdivided into subsystems based on the type of major crops produced in the area as cereal based and enset-coffee based dairy cattle production systems. Based on criteria that included land and resource use, Sere and Steinfield (1995) also characterized the cattle production systems into different production systems. Therefore the present study was mainly focused on detail characterization of these two systems as presented in the following sections.Mixed crop-livestock agricultural system was identified in the rural parts of the studied areas, and it is a system of which outputs or products and/or by-products of crop and  and Talew (2006) in Yirgachefe also found the mixed crop-livestock production systems in the country that have some common characteristics in terms of resource use with the one identified in the studied areas.This subsystem was identified in the rural areas of Shashemene and part of Awassa. Cereal crops predominantly produced in the adjoining rural areas of these two towns are maize, teff, sorghum, wheat and barley. Crop farming in this area is mainly practised using oxen draught power and oxen are given due attention than other cattle types. Farmland size and communal grazing area, particularly in Shashemene area are relatively better. Bull calves are more preferred than heifer calves. This prioritization is similar to Dilla area, but in Dilla area these bull calves are not raised for ploughing purpose, they are fattened for beef production. In most rural parts of Awassa and Dale areas, heifer calves are more preferred than bull calves. Milk production is from animals kept for multipurpose use, and feed production and utilization is limited to communal grazing land and crop residues. Dairy products are produced and used as source of income to buy farm inputs and family needs and cattle are an asset securing farmers at the time of emergency.Enset and coffee based dairy cattle production system is the other subsystem under the mixed crop-livestock production system identified in the area. This system mainly defines the cattle production system in the rural parts of Dale and Dilla areas. This production system is characterized with perennial cash and food crop production and farmers are primarily engaged in the production of cash crops rather than rearing livestock. Because of small farm size holdings in these areas, it is common to see highly diversified cropping practices within a single farmland. Enset, coffee, fruits (like banana, avocado, mango, and pineapple), 'Boynna' (yam), cassava, 'Godere' (Taro), 'chat', and annual crops like maize and sorghum are common cash and food crops grown in the area. Crop farming in this system is mainly practised with hand tools, seldom with draught oxen.  Evidence of spatial growth and economic importance of urban agriculture in general, and urban livestock production in particular in many African cities and capitals are also well documented in literatures, for example Mosha (1991) in Tanzania; Lee-Smith and Memon (1994) in Kenya; Azage and Alemu (1998) in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa; Smith and Olaloku (1998), Nigussie (2006) in Ethiopia, Mekele.In the following sections, important production parameters are compared between the mixed crop-livestock production systems and urban dairy production system. For some of production and reproduction parameters, the four woredas are grouped into the cereal crop-based and enset and coffee-based urban and rural systems respectively (totalling four systems). In case of some socio-economic characteristics of respondents, the overall values are presented for discussion.Out of the total interviewed dairy cattle producers (N = 240), 77% were male and the rest (23%) were female household members of different age and educational status.Most (87%) of the respondents were household heads while the rest were other family members (mainly wives). Most of the respondents ranged in age between 25-40 years (31.5%) and 41-50 years (32%). Out of the sample dairy cattle producers, 211 households (88%) were male headed households.With respect to educational status of the household head, the majority of urban dairy producers were literate beyond elementary school. number of family members in urban and rural areas within the age groups of 11 and 25 years was 3.17 (0.17) and 1.63 (0.16), respectively and within the range of 25 to 40 years of age was equal to 2.54 (0.16) and 1.53 (0.10), respectively.Dairy cattle owners of the sampled households generate income from different sources and for the majority of rural producers dairying is not the main income source. Although butter and sour buttermilk were marketable dairy products, throughout the year, the income obtained from these was meager in the studied rural communities. Urban producers generate substantial (50% of their total income) level of income that dairy producers achieve from dairying. Contrary to this, dairying contributed only 1.6% to the total income of families in the rural areas (Table 1). The result of studies in the mid highland crop-livestock production system of Ethiopia have shown that depending on the distance from urban centres, the level of income share from dairying increases and ranged from 0.07 to 44% of the total income of farmers (Zelalem and Ledin 2000).Similar studies conducted on market oriented-dairy producers around Holleta area indicated that dairying on average contributed 34% to the total income of the farmers (Ahmed et al. 2002). Compared to other areas, therefore, the present study showed that the contribution of dairying to the income of rural families is quite insignificant.By contrast, urban producers in the study areas generated considerable amount from dairying and this can be considered as a good prospect to further promote dairying in these areas. The amount of income obtained by dairy producers in the studied areas was affected by different factors. Among these, herd size, income from other sources, crop land (farm) size, and productivity of animals owned (high yielder vs. low yielder) were the main factors. The overall correlation analysis based on data of all towns indicated that there was a positive correlation (r = 0.45, P < 0.001) between total household income and total cattle size. Total family income was also positively correlated (r = 0.39, P < 0.001) with the number of educated family members, mainly with those that have diploma or higher level of education.Like most smallholder dairy production systems of Ethiopia, family members are the major source of labour for any dairy activities in the studied areas, such as indicated for Addis Ababa milkshed (Yoseph et al. 2003). Results of the interviewees indicate that cattle purchasing, selling and breeding activities were mainly operated by adult males.Of the interviewed producers in the mixed crop-livestock and urban system households, 89.8 and 71.2% of adult males were involved in purchasing, 87.4 and 66.4% in selling of cattle and 45.8 and 46.6% in breeding activities, respectively. Cattle herding, if grazing is allowed especially in the mixed crop-livestock production, was found to be operated by either male family or hired children. But other family members were also found to be involved in this activity on a shift basis. Routine dairy activities like feeding, milking and nursing of sick animals were operated by family members and hired labourers. In the case of urban producers, the overall role of hired labour in the four towns ranged from 5 to 11.7%. This figure is lower as compared to the urban dairying of Mekele town, where the involvement of hired labour goes as high as 75.7% in large and medium scale farms (Nigussie 2006). Most activities related to milking, milk handling, processing (churning) and milk selling were performed mainly by household wives and other adult female members and/or female children above 15 years old. For example, 86 and 60% of household wives were involved in milking, in the mixed crop-livestock and urban production systems, respectively.With respect to control over of dairy products, females in all of the studied areas had control over milk and its by-products. For example, 76.3% of the females in the mixed crop-livestock system were involved in churning activities and marketing of dairy products, while in the urban areas 70.3% of the spouses handled the milk marketing activity. The overall dairy cattle management in the study area is controlled by male adults, female adults or combination of both. For example, 88, 7.7, and 3.4% of the cases in the mixed crop-livestock system and 61.9, 26.3, and 11% in urban dairy cattle producers, adult males, household wives or both, respectively, were involved in the whole control over of cattle management.The overall average land size in the surveyed rural areas was 1.14 ha per household, but this varied in different areas considered (Table 2). The largest holding was in the rural areas of Shashemene (1.97 ha/household) followed by Dale area (1.12 ha/household).But holdings were fairly small around Dilla (0.87 ha/household) and Awassa (0.59 ha/ household). Land is one of the important prerequisites for any farming activity. One of the big challenges of both rural and urban dairy producers in the area is the diminishing land size they own. Because of rapid urbanization in the area, farmers do not have extra land to develop improved animal feeds or do not have access to communal grazing land. As indicated in Table 2, there is small land size especially in the rural parts of Awassa and Dilla area, but compared to the regional average land holdings of SNNPRS and Oromia, the overall mean value of 1.14 ± 0.99 ha for this study area is not low compared to the fact that 46.5% of the farmers in SNNPRS and 24.6% in Oromia households own only 0.1-0.5 ha of farm land (CACC 2002). More than 96.6% of the interviewed dairy cattle producers in the urban system run dairy farming within their own residence compound.These producers indicated that land size is among the main constraints for expanding their dairy farming. The majority of dairy farms were established about 15 years ago, and the proportion of farms established during the last 6-10 years in the rural areas of Shashemene, Awassa, Dale, and Dilla areas was 32, 20, 24, and 27.6%, respectively. Slightly higher percentages of urban dairy farms were established during these period with the highest in Shashemene (46.7%), followed by Dilla (38%) and Awassa and Dale (31%). Most of the dairy farms in the mixed crop-livestock system of Dilla (38%) and urban areas of Awassa (34.5%) flourished over the last 5 years. This result shows that farmers in both mixed crop-livestock and urban systems have been encouraged to engage in dairying activities quite recently and improved dairy farming is fairly a recent development in these areas.The overall trends in dairy development showed that the majority (55.7%) of the farms were showing a progressive trend, while 27.4% regressed, 13.5% remained stable and the remaining 3.5% was unknown.4.1.5 Characteristics and types of cattle owned by dairy producers 4.1.5.1 Herd size and compositionCompared to enset and coffee based crop-livestock production system, cereal based crop-livestock production system was found to be better in terms of average total livestock (4.35 ± 0.47 TLU) holdings and total cattle herd size (3.80 ± 0.42 TCU) (Table 3).From the livestock census report (Table 4), conducted during October-November 2006 with special reference to cattle owners at the four towns, out of the total livestock population of 11,620 TLU found in all towns, 85% (9871 TCU) was cattle of different breeds. The proportion of local cattle was 57.8% (5703 TCU) and the rest were crosses between exotic dairy types and local breeds. This being the overall situation, notable differences were also observed among the considered towns. For instance, both livestock and cattle population in the two towns within cereal based systems were nearly fourfold than those two towns that exist within the enset-coffee systems. With respect to cattle breed composition, although crosses were fewer than locals in all four towns, the proportion between the two was fairly narrow except for Dilla, where locals were more than three times higher than crosses. In the cereal based mixed crop-livestock production system, cattle of dual purpose predominated by local type (zebu), were mainly kept to produce milk for household consumption and male calves were grown to assist the crop production by providing draught power. Above all, cattle were an asset to farmers, which provides collateral during purchase of farm inputs like fertilizers and improved seeds for the next crop production cycle. The role of animal dung in this subsystem was not that much important to the crop production system, as compared to the enset and coffee based mixed crop-livestock system. In the cereal based mixed crop-livestock production system, the primary purpose of keeping cattle is quite different from any urban dairy or some other mixed crop-livestock production system. These characteristics were also noted by other authors for different crop-livestock production systems in the country, such as Wollega Dairy cattle production in the enset-coffee based crop-livestock production system was very important. Unlike the cereal based system, cattle were not used as draught animals in the enset and coffee based system; rather perennial crops were cultivated with hand tools. Milk and milk products, being a good protein source to supplement enset, and the contribution of animal dung to perennial crop production signifies the importance and integration of cattle and crop production in this production system. Talew (2006) also reported that the need for animal dung is the primary purpose of keeping cattle in Yirgachefe area, which is the other enset-coffee based system located south of Dilla. Dairy producers in urban and mixed crop-livestock production systems had also different purposes for keeping cows (Table 5). There is a big difference between the mixed croplivestock and urban production system, where the majority proportion of households (74.2%) in the urban system produced milk primarily for sale, while the majority of households (37.9%) in the mixed crop-livestock system used milk for household consumption. Growing males for ploughing 0 1 (0.9) 4.1.6 Cattle husbandry and management practices 4.1.6.1 Feeds and feeding systems  Like most dairy cattle production systems in the country, both conventional and nonconventional feed resources are used in the study areas. Feed resources commonly used by dairy producers include grazing land, hay and purchased succulent grass, cereal crop residues, pseudo stems of enset and banana, maize stover, improved forages, mixed/ balanced home made concentrate feeds, plant weeds, and non-conventional feeds like attella (brewery by-product from locally produced beer, and other alcoholic drinks), kitchen and fruit wastes, and leaves of other palatable agro-forest plant. Maize stover is the most commonly used roughage feed resource in all the production systems of the study areas and 77.5 and 45.4% of households use it during wet and dry seasons, respectively.The cereal crop based system, which is mainly found in the rural areas of Shashemene and parts of Awassa, is similar in feed resource use with most mixed crop-livestock production systems of Ethiopia (Mohammod 1992;Agajie et al. 2002;Zelalem and Ledin 2003;Tessema et al. 2003;Dereje et al. 2005). Crop residues are also the major source of feeds for most African countries as reported by Aregheore and Chimwanu (1992) in Zambia; Boitumelo and Mahabile (1992) in Botswana; Ayoola and Ayoade (1992) in Nigeria; and Mdoe et al. (1992) in Tanzania. In these systems, annual food crops particularly cereals and root crops are dominant, and crop farming is highly integrated with livestock production, particularly with cattle rearing.In the enset and coffee based system, cows are grazed along roadsides or tethered and grazed in the backyard. Other feeds provided to cattle include the pseudo-stem (well chopped), tinned and/or whole maize plant and leaves from different fruits and trees.What makes these areas peculiar from the rest of the production systems, with regard to animal feeding practices is that, cattle are fed with succulent roughage throughout the year. During the dry season, unlike cereal crop based systems of the mid-highlands of Ethiopia, farmers feed their cattle with enset pseudo stem, pseudo stem and leaves of banana, parts of sugar cane and its bagasse, and leaves from different trees. Similar ). In the study area, supplementary feed was mainly given to lactating cows. For example, 137 (58%) of the respondents indicated that they give priority to lactating dairy cows, while the rest did not give any special attention.The main sources of water identified in the present study areas were rivers, pipe water, dams and wells, lakes, spring water and bore holes. The majority (45.8%) of the households in the mixed crop-livestock system obtained water from rivers, while 24.2% from pipe water, 10.8% from lake, 10% from spring, and the rest from other sources. With regard to urban producers the majority (71.8%) obtained water from pipe water.Although relative, all the interviewed dairy producers perceived that they provide good quality water to their cattle.Frequency of watering to dairy animals varies from one production system to another, which is affected by different factors, among which season of the year, accessibility, performance and/or breed of the cow, and type of predominant feed and feeding systems are some to be mentioned. The overall figure during wet season shows that the majority (35.6%) of the households water their cattle once a day while the rest 21, 16.7, and 5.6% water freely, twice a day, and none at all, respectively. During the dry season, the majority (47%) of the households provide water once a day, but the percentage for twice a day is increased by double. From this figure it can be seen that, in the mixed crop-livestock system, the majority (68.4%) of farmers water their cattle once a day during dry season, and 38% of households water their cattle during wet season. Since urban producers usually give water in the form of liquid feeds (mixed atella, concentrates, and water) free water is not given by some of the households (8.4 and 4.2% for dry and wet seasons, respectively). The development of livestock rearing could not be considered without water supply.Most households (70%) in the mixed crop-livestock system kept their cattle within their own residence compound, while considerable proportions (27%) used open barn/shed.By contrast, in the urban systems sheltering cattle with the family or cooking places (kitchen) was uncommon and was only practised by 6% of the households. Similarly, urban dwellers seldom used open barn as a night shelter for cattle and the majority (85%) used a separate shelter for their animals. Sheltering cattle, not only protects animals from extreme environmental hazards, but also ease some other husbandry practices. Therefore, cow sheds must be designed in such a way that routine activities like feeding, watering, milking, waste management and other activities can be easily and effectively handled.Though this is the principle behind housing, certain factors prohibit farmers to do so.In the mixed crop-livestock system, most of the households (81.7%) used local bulls for mating, and only few households used AI (10%) or bulls with exotic blood (4.2%).Whereas in the urban system, the majority (50%) of the households used AI as a sole source of genetic improvement and among those who used natural mating, only 20% used solely local bulls and the rest used exotic (4.2%) or combinations of AI and exotic (15%) or combinations of AI and local bulls (10%).The type of crop farming system is one of the factors that determined the proportions of the breeding bull or oxen in the area. In cereal based system, crop farming is usually practised with male animal power, and prior to castration these animals can also be used as a breeding bull for those who do not have access or do not want to use AI. In enset-coffee based system, since oxen were not commonly used as draught power, lower proportions of oxen or bulls were observed, and this often posed a problem of finding breeding bulls in the area. With regard to preferences of breeding methods, the majority of the households (53.9%) preferred AI.Genetic improvement of cattle does not come free of cost, but once attained it is generally there without the need for further effort (Wiener 1994). Provision of genetically potential dairy cattle and/or good breeding services as per the demands of producers is one of the prerequisites for the development of dairying in the studied areas. As discussed earlier there is a marked difference in milk productivity and other economically important traits between locals and crosses in the studied urban systems, and the profitability of urban dairying as well as future prospects to improve urban dairying largely depends on the productivity of the animals. As a result, if urban and peri-urban dairying production is to flourish, access to improved genetic material through improved AI or breeding service is critical. Similarly in the suburb parts of mixed crop-livestock systems, there is a good prospect of intensifying dairy production because of market availability.Out of the interviewed dairy cattle producers, 96.3% of households milked their cows twice a day. Very few farmers and milk their cows thrice (3.3%) and once (0.4%) a day.The high percentage of milking twice a day is similar to the milking frequency practised in many parts of the country. Fekadu (1994) also noted that in some enset producing areas of Wolaita Zone, farmers milk cows thrice a day. Time of milking is normally in the early morning and late evening for twice/day milking. Rural farmers did not bother about the regularity of milking time. Urban producers, however, milk their cattle early and at a specific time so that milk is delivered to urban consumers early. Among the urban producers, about 52.2 and 41.4% indicated that they complete their morning milking between 0600 and 0700 hours, and 0700 and 0800 hours, respectively. Regarding evening milking, 16.8% of the households complete milking before 0600 hours, and the remaining 41 and 36.2% milk their cows between 0600 and 0700 hours and 0700 and 0800 hours, respectively.In 79.3% of the cases in all production systems milking was predominantly handled by household wives or adult females. The rest 9.3, 6, 2.5 and 3% are handled by hired labour, household adult males, children and combination of wives and husbands, respectively. Milking in different parts of Ethiopia is primary handled by women, nonetheless, there are few exceptions such as the Fogera area of Amhara region where milking is entirely performed by males (Belete 2006).All dairy cattle producers in the mixed crop-livestock system practised partial suckling prior to milking, and colostrums are given freely. However, in the urban production system, 31.6% of households followed early weaning while the rest 68.4% practised partial suckling prior to milking. Since local/zebu cows are believed not to give milk without partial suckling, local or cross calves from such cows are not weaned early.Colostrums feeding for early weaning calves in the urban system lasted for 4 to 7 days in the majority (52.8%) of the cases, while 37% fed milk beyond 7 days and the rest 10.2% terminated within 3 days of birth.Out of the interviewed dairy producers in the mixed crop-livestock production system, 68.6% of households provided supplementary feed (on top of milk) to calves between 15 and 30 days after birth, while 28.8% provided supplementary feeding after one month of age. On the other hand providing supplementary feed within seven days after calving is quite rare and was practised by only 2.5% of the respondents. In case of urban producers, the majority (66%) started supplementation within 7 to15 days after birth, and relatively less proportions, i.e. 25.7 and 8.3% started between 15 to 30 days, and after 30 days, respectively. This figure shows that, urban producers follow early weaning practices with the assumption of profit maximizations from sale of milk that was otherwise be used by calves.Waste disposal in the urban production system is one of the major problems of dairy producers in the study areas. Almost all the interviewed dairy cattle producers in the mixed crop-livestock system (97.4%) used animal dung primarily as fertilizer while only few (2.6%) households used primarily as household fuel. Similarly, 72.5% of households did not use animal dung other than as fertilizer and the rest 18.2% used it for household fuel. Manure from these animals played a vital role for their perennial crop farming, particularly for coffee, enset and fruit crops in Dale and Dilla areas. Enset usually requires a large quantity of organic fertilizer and thus animal dung in the enset-coffee system had special attention than the cereal based areas. Some people who do not have their own cattle in the enset-coffee based areas kept dry and pregnant cows that belonged to other people until calving for the benefit of using the manure to fertilize their enset plantation.The majority (46.5%) of urban producers spend extra money to dispose off animal dung out of the towns. The rest 33.8% of households used the cow dung primarily as household fuel. Unlike most production systems in the country, animal dung (dung cake)in the investigated areas is not marketed for fuel or fertilizer purpose. Rather, the majority of dairy producers in the mixed crop-livestock system used animal dung as organic fertilizer for their perennial and annual crops while the majority of dairy producers in the urban system spend extra cost to dispose it out of the town. Waste disposal was among the burning issues in the rapidly growing towns like Awassa. Urban producers in these areas are seen usually pleading for availability of efficient and less costly mechanisms of manure disposal and the issue should receive the attention of concerned authorities.Alternatively, collected manure from urban dairy farms can be made available to the surrounding rural communities for use as organic fertilizer and thereby reduce expenses of farmers spent on purchase of inorganic fertilizers. As a third option, the manure can be used as a source of energy through biogas production, if the facility can be installed within reach of urban farmers. Thus, concerned bodies should facilitate better use of this useful product and pave the way for a twofold advantage, promote urban dairying as well as make use of organic energy than wasting it. Next to feeding and milking, waste handling is one of the major routine activities in dairy production. Manure and urines must be properly cleaned from the dairy farm to ensure good and hygienic working conditions.About 79 and 94% of the urban and mixed crop-livestock producers, respectively, did not have any record keeping schemes. Only 21.2 and 6% of the urban and mixed crop-livestock producers, respectively, were found recording some reproduction parameters using informal sheets. Record keeping in modern dairying is a prerequisite for any decisions and control over certain production and reproduction performance of dairy cattle in the farm and to measure the profit of any market-oriented farms. Despite this principle, record keeping in the area is not practised as the owners do not have adequate experience and are not aware of the benefits. It is therefore essential to provide formal training on this useful practice to dairy owners in both the urban and rural areas. Given that the majority of dairy producers are literate, this practice should not be considered difficult to extend especially in urban areas.4.1.7 Milk utilization, handling and processingThe overall daily milk production/farm per day in the mixed crop-livestock system ranged from 1.97 ± 0.24 to 2.84 ± 0.28 litres, while in the urban system it ranged from 10.21 ± 1.59 to 15.90 ± 2.36 litres. These figures suggest that urban producers, which relatively keep better performing dairy cows, are able to benefit much more from dairying and provide good service to the community by providing milk to the urban population.However, the total estimated annual milk production (from the census result), which was 9.645 million litres from 4469 dairy farms in the 4 towns, is low as compared to other urban production systems like the Addis Ababa milkshed which produced 34.65 million litres per annum from 5167 small, medium and large farms (Azage and Alemu 1998). This suggests that a comprehensive intervention program has to be in place with respect to genetic improvement, feeds and feeding systems, animal health care and other management aspects in the current study area.Out of the interviewed dairy producers in the mixed crop-livestock system, the majority of the households (61.7%) used whole milk primarily for home processing (traditional), while the rest 25% and only 13.7% of the households used primarily for household consumption and sale, respectively. On the other hand, the result in the urban system showed that the majority (79.2%) of the households produced milk primarily for sale, while only 14.2 and 6.6% of the households used it for family consumption and home processing, respectively. Similar studies conducted in different parts of the country showed differences in the utilization pattern of milk in different production systems. A study conducted in Borena area of Ethiopia showed out of the total milk produced, 69%was used as fresh milk, 24% was stored and soured to make butter, 6% was used for short-term sour milk and 1% was used as long-term sour milk (Layne et al. 1990). These Most urban producers (73.5%) usually clean their milking utensils before and after milking while the rest 13.3% did it twice a day, 7% once a day and 6% once in two days. However, nearly half (43.3%) of rural producers did it once in two days while 30% before and after milking, 16.7% twice a day and 10% once a day. With regard to milking utensils, two major noticeable differences were observed for dairy producers in the studied areas-type of materials used for milking and methods employed in cleaning.Different ways of cleaning milking utensils were identified in the area. The majority of the households (70%) washed with or without hot water followed by smoking with different aroma producing plants like Woira (Olea africana) and Tid (Juniperous procera).Likewise, 22.7, 6.4 and 4.7% of the households cleaned with water and detergents, smoked with aroma producing plants, and washed only with water, respectively. Smoking Frequency and methods of cleaning of milking utensils and types of material used by the urban dairy producers were better for hygienic milking procedures. However, oneshould not forget about the consumption preference of dairy products in the two areas.Proper milk handling practice is a prerequisite prior to consumption, marketing and/or further processing purposes. Milk is an ideal medium for the survival and multiplication of pathogenic and spoilage microbes. Utensils that are used in milking, fermenting, churning, or consumption of milk must be properly cleaned. With this respect proper training should be given to create awareness among producers in different aspects of milk handling practices.Out of the interviewed urban dairy producers, 54.5% of the households practised butter churning only at times when all the produced milk is not sold. Only surplus milk from market and house consumption had been further churned. The rest 37.3% of the households did not churn at all and 8.2% of the households did not sell milk and were always churning. In the crop-livestock mixed system, 66% the households churn all the milk produced and the rest 37.3% of households did it intermittently, while only 1.7% did not churn at all.The primary dairy product traditionally processed by urban and crop-livestock system differed between the two production systems. In the urban system, the primary dairy product was butter for 71.6% of the households, fermented whole milk (ergo) for 24% of the households and cottage cheese for 4.5% of the households. Similarly, in the mixed production system butter was the primary product for 87.7% of the households, ergo for 9.6% the households and cottage cheese for the remaining 2.6% of the households.Out of the interviewed households in the mixed crop-livestock production system, 58.8% preferred churning to get butter and use buttermilk for household consumption, while 14% had not access for whole milk market and 12.3% households were restricted by traditional taboos not to sale whole milk and preferred to churn it. With regard to urban producers the majority of households (41.8%) did churn during fasting days where there is less demand for dairy products. The rest 18.2, 16.4, 12.7 and 10% of households did churn because of preference of butter and other by-products, if all milk could not be marketed, because of taboos against selling whole milk and other reasons, respectively.The majority (96.5%) of dairy producers used traditional churning material made from clay pot while the rest used wooden, 'Kell' and metal. This observation is similar to the case for the central highlands where clay pot churn is mostly used (O'Mahoney and Peter 1987), whereas it is different from the case of East Wollega where 91% of women used gourd for churning and storage of milk (Alganesh 2002).In the mixed crop-livestock system, the majority (62.5%) of dairy farmers produced butter as the predominant dairy product for sale while 20.6% of households produced sour buttermilk for sale and 14.3% of households sold whole milk and the rest sold cottage cheese and ergo. In this production system, the amount of income from the sale of whole milk was low. The major dairy products used for income generation in this production system were only butter and sour buttermilk. Out of the total sour buttermilk produced after churning, a higher proportion (74.4%) was used for household consumption while the rest 24.5% was sold.In contrast, the majority of urban dairy farmers (89%) primarily produced whole milk for sale, while 7.3, 1.8, and 1.8% of the households produced ergo, butter and sour buttermilk, respectively, as primary dairy products for sale.Out of the interviewed producers in the crop-livestock system, only 18.5% of households were market oriented, while in the urban production system the majority of households (78.2%) were market oriented. Most dairy producers were engaged in market-oriented dairy business quiet recently. For example, producers in the mixed crop-livestock production system begun to adopt market-oriented dairy business over the last 6.6 years where as in the urban system, market-oriented dairying started on average about 11.6 years ago. The overall mean capital that dairy producers used to establish their dairy business in the mixed crop-livestock system was ETB 1 1127 per farm, while in the urban system it was ETB 1750 per farm.The major dairy marketing system found in the studied areas was informal marketing. Milk was sold mainly on contract basis to customers. However, cooperatives/producer groups were trying to fix price for milk collection in Shashemene, Awassa, and Yirgalem towns based on organoleptic qualities of milk. Dairy producers are the ones who fix price of milk and other dairy products when selling their product to consumers and through negotiated prices when selling to traders. The government does not substantially intervene, in any way, be it through regulation or trade of dairy products in the area.Dairy marketing channels were established by producers, few cooperatives, traders and consumers and there is no formal marketing system. Similarly, Nigussie (2006) reported the absence of formal marketing system in Mekelle urban dairy system. In contrast, because of the presence of milk processing plants in Addis Ababa there are emerging formal marketing systems in the Addis Ababa milkshed (Sintayehu 2003).The primary selling outlets and criteria for selection of these outlets in the two production systems are shown in Table 6. Individual consumers or traders usually buy milk at specified milk selling points as well as at the farm gates. The majority of producers in both urban (52% households) and crop-livestock systems (68% households) sold their milk directly to consumers either at the producers or consumer's gate, as their selling outlets. Next to consumers, the major recipients of milk from producers are catering institutions both in urban system (33.3%) and in the mixed crop-livestock (22.7%).Most of the households in the urban production system use proximity (47%), better price (17.7%) or both (13.5%) as their primary selection criteria for selling outlets. Also in the mixed crop-livestock system proximity is the main criteria (45.5%) for using a given selling outlet but considerable proportions 22.7% said lack of alternative is the other factor for using the available outlet. This indicates that market options need to be improved in the mixed crop-livestock system to encourage rural producers and thereby enhance dairying in this system. Out of the total households, 77% of urban producers did not face any problem with selling agreement, while 23% reported problems with selling agreement. With regard to pricing, 92.5% of the urban dairy producers followed flat pricing, while only 7.5% followed quality based pricing. The dairy marketing systems identified in the present study is similar to the previous findings reported for other African countries and within Ethiopia. Staal and Shapiro (1996) reported that about 90% of the milk marketed in sub-Saharan Africa is delivered informally to consumers. Similarly, 75% of dairy producers in Addis Ababa milkshed are sold directly to consumers, while 15% of the households supplied their milk to catering institutions and the rest marketed through retailers and farm shops. Staal and Shapiro (1996) also showed 44 and 27% of the farms in and around Addis Ababa sold their milk directly to individuals and institutions, respectively.Although there was high seasonality for the demand in dairy products in the study areas, the majority of dairy producers (87%) said they did not satisfy the demand of their customers. As a matter of fact, this figure has some implication towards dairy development in the area. Dairy producers should be encouraged in order to optimize milk production for the ever increasing population in the urban centres. Producers were found mentioning many problems and constraints that limit them not to produce as per the demand.Data obtained from the Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA) showed that marketable dairy products in the study areas include whole milk, traditionally processed butter, ergo (fermented whole milk), cottage cheese, and sour buttermilk. Moreover, imported dairy products and processed products from Addis Ababa processing plants were also identified in Awassa supermarkets. These include pasteurized milk, imported and locally produced cheese of different varieties, yoghurt, table butter, cream and imported milk powder (Table 7).Marketable dairy products of a certain locality are dependant on many factors, amongst of these the production system, the purchasing ability of consumers, taste of the consumer, development of the country in general and the dairy sector in particular are some of the influential factors to be mentioned. Prices of each dairy derivatives are indicated with its possible factors determining the demand and prices of dairy commodities in the studied areas.Price data were collected from 484 ergo sellers, 145 butter sellers, 240 milk producers, 10 sour buttermilk producers and 3 supermarkets and data were averaged for each town (Table 7). Prices of some dairy products varied by more than twofold. For example, the price of whole milk ranged from ETB 2 to 4 per litre and the price of butter ranged from ETB 25 to 50 per kg in the four towns. In general, prices of dairy products varied greatly among and within each town. Since informal dairy marketing was the only means of marketing in the area, there was no fixed price for each dairy product. This suggests the importance of some regulations related to control of quality and prices of dairy products which guarantee dairy producers not to be discouraged by such big price and demand fluctuations. The major factors affecting the prices and demands of dairy products in the studied areas included season (dry and wet seasons), access to market (proximity to urban consumers), fasting and non-fasting days (followers of the Orthodox Christian church), holidays and festivals, quantity of dairy supply vs. purchasing ability of the urban dwellers as well as quality vs. origin of the product. The price and demand for milk and milk products, especially butter, are highly vulnerable to the mentioned factors.Wet seasons are characterized by better vegetation cover, and hence provide better roughage supply to dairy cattle, resulting in higher milk yields. Moreover, the wet season in the studied areas mark the period of limited cash income for cereal as well as cash crop producing rural farmers. Thus, farmers are forced to sell much of their dairy products for immediate cash generation. It was also noted during the survey that there was a relatively higher supply of especially butter and buttermilk in the rural open market points. Therefore, during the wet season the price of butter and buttermilk is lower, and there was relatively higher supply of milk and milk products in most rural markets.Contrary to this, there was relatively a shortage of succulent roughage during dry season and hence poorer performance of cattle in the area. Moreover, during the early dry season, farmers in the mixed crop-livestock system harvest cash (mainly coffee) and food crops. Therefore, rather than selling, there is preference to consume dairy products at home. This results in less supply of milk and milk products to the market and even higher price for dairy products. Out of the dairy products, the price of butter was the most affected by season. In addition to feed limitations during the dry season, most traditional and religious holidays occur during the dry season and further aggravate the price of butter. Although dry season inflicted less pronounced effect on urban producers, the price of butter in the nearby small rural towns affected the overall price during the stated season.Access to market/distance from towns Fresh milk could not be kept for long hours before consumed or processed. Distance from the market was a major factor that prohibited farmers from selling whole fresh milk to urban consumers. Moreover, in some parts of the studied areas, some traditional taboos prohibit the sale of milk by rural producers. Therefore, the prices of dairy products in the rural markets were lower than in urban markets. Even the price of dairy products in large towns like Awassa was higher than smaller towns. Therefore, distance from market determined the type and price of dairy products marketed.The price of dairy products especially butter and the demand for whole milk, ergo and other dairy products, particularly in the urban centres, were highly affected by the long fasting period of the followers of the Orthodox Christian religion. Because of low demand for dairy products during these days, dairy producers in the urban centres were obliged to process unsold milk into butter and sometimes to cottage cheese. Even then, the cottage cheese which contains higher moisture does not last long. Therefore, milk is mostly converted into butter. Butter traders usually store large amount of butter until the end of fasting, and sell it afterwards.During religious and some cultural festivals in the region, dairy products were highly demanded. Thus, the price of dairy products especially butter inflates highly. Religious festivals of Ethiopian Christians such as 'Enkutatash' (Ethiopian New Year), 'Meskel' (Finding of the True Cross), 'Genna' (Ethiopian Christmas), and 'Fasika' (Ethiopian Easter)were the main ones when animal products are highly demanded leading to high prices.In addition, the demand for dairy and other animal products increase many folds during the locally celebrated festivals such as 'Fiche' (which is Sidama New Year).Level of supply vs. purchasing ability of the urban dwellersThe relatively low supply, compared to the high demands for milk, in Dilla and Awassa towns resulted in higher price of milk as compared to the price in Shashemene and Yirgalem towns (Table 7). Moreover, the rapid urbanization of the regional capital, Awassa, has led to increased use of dairy products. In general, the low level of supply as compared to the demand has resulted in increased prices of dairy products in the studied area.Imported products and those produced in Addis Ababa milk processing plants were relatively more expensive in most supermarkets (Table 7). This is attributed to the value addition due to processing, organoleptic value (quality) and safety of processed foods for consumption than those locally produced products.The price of locally produced dairy products also varied depending on the origin of the product. For example, butter from Wolaita and Kucha areas were considered high quality and therefore fetched better price. Also the level of fermentation of butter caused price variations, i.e. fermented butter fetches fewer prices as compared to fresh one.Adulteration was also one of the big price determining factors, especially for butter.Among others, vegetable oils are mixed with butter mostly by retailers that collect butter from rural primary markets and deliver to markets in nearby towns and/or to butter shops in towns. For example, even if pure Wolaita butter in most parts of the towns is more expensive, it was noted that Wolaita butter adulterated with vegetable butter was marketed with reduced prices in Dilla and Shashemene towns.Marketing channels of each marketable milk and milk products in the studied areas is indicated below. Butter was the most marketable dairy derivative having the longest market channel and more intermediates between producers and consumers, while sour buttermilk had few intermediates and reached consumers with the shortest channel.Market channels for each dairy commodity are depicted in the following manner:1. Butter The combinations of market channels give rise to the market chain. Compared to other areas, the market chains in the studied areas is not complex. The dairy market chain of the present work is depicted in Figure 3.   OoARD. This shows that the proportion that received AI service were lower in mixed system, whereas producers in both systems that received extension service are low, and the situation is worse in urban production system. On the other hand, none of the interviewed dairy producers were given credit and training services, and there were no defined and responsible institutions to render such services to dairy producers in the area.Dairy cooperatives also contribute a lot especially with regard to linking producers to market and by providing input supply. With this regard, the role of dairy cooperatives, in Shashemene and Awassa appeared to be quite active and more beneficiary to their members than those in Dilla and Yirgalem. For example, 163 members in Shashemene, 81 members in Awassa (through two cooperatives), 37 members (both urban and rural producers) in Yirgalem and 30 urban producers in Dilla were linked with market through their producer groups/cooperatives. In view of the number of dairy producers in each of the four investigated areas, only few producers had benefited through their producer groups/cooperatives. Thus, cooperatives are expected to be more active and beneficiary to their members. Traders of different types with different capital sizes are also contributing a lot in facilitating dairy marketing in the area. Locally produced whole milk, traditionally processed dairy products such as butter, ergo, and fermented cottage cheese were some of the dairy products traders were involved with. The census conducted in the four towns indicated that there were more than 145 permanent traders engaged in butter marketing at the 4 towns, with estimated stocking capacity of 5290 kg of butter per month. The number of ergo sellers in the 4 towns was 484, out of which more than 75% were found in Awassa town. An estimated amount of 4300 litres of milk is sold in the form of ergo (fermented whole milk) in a day in the 4 towns. Substantial amount of milk is also sold in hotels, coffee/tea houses and the contribution of these traders in supplying milk to consumers is quite remarkable. Ergo sellers usually fill up glasses with fresh milk and keep them in refrigerators overnight so that ergo will be readily sold in the following morning. The price of ergo especially sold in small coffee/tea houses is quite affordable for low income groups like daily labourers. Thus, the role of this small coffee/tea houses in supplying this rich protein source to low-income part of the society had a twofold advantage for both producers and consumers.The role of Awassa College of Agriculture (ACA) and the regional research institute were also worth mentioned as stakeholders partly contributing to the sector. Dairy producers of especially Awassa town benefited and continue to benefit from the contributions of the Awassa College of Agriculture (ACA), directly or indirectly. This institution, in addition to producing qualified agricultural scientists, conducted different research projects with highly qualified instructors and students, which may indirectly contribute to the dairy sector. Above all, the dairy farm found in ACA was the first parastatal farm which has been used as demonstration farm as well as a source of improved dairy stocks for some dairy farmers in Awassa town. The Regional Research Institute is also another intuition to be mentioned for its research outputs that could assist dairy development in the area.Private input suppliers are the other stakeholders to the sector as they supply different inputs such as feeds, animal drugs, and other small-scale processing utensils. The contribution of concentrate feed suppliers and milling factories (wheat flour factories)as the major feed resource especially for urban producers has been very high. It was, however, noted that there is no commercial feed processing plant in the area.The role of dairy producers, particularly the urban and peri-urban farmers, has been high as compared to the level of support rendered by different stakeholders. They are the predominant milk producers providing dairy products to the rapidly growing urban population in the area. The contribution of NGO farms like SOS farm in Awassa, and the government owned Gobe cattle breeding station near Shashemene also contributed as sources of improved dairy animals to the adjoining dairy producers. The extent and significance of the problems and constraints differed between and within the different production systems and/or studied areas.Large proportions of dairy producers, both in the mixed and urban production systems, ranked shortage and high costs of feeds as number one problem. About 55 and 73% of producers in the mixed crop-livestock and the urban system highly stressed the problem of seasonal variation in availability and the high price of feeds. With regard to to reutilize animal dung in Awassa town. Although adjoining rural crop farms were constrained by fertilizers, urban producers suffer from appropriate ways of disposing animal dung. Most producers pay extra money for labourers to dispose the manure. Even then, there is no place allocated for disposing this animal dung. Waste disposal was not a problem for rural dairy producers.Seasonality in demand for milk and milk products was identified as one of the major problems by 10.5% of the rural and 75% of the urban dairy producers, respectively.There was no strong market chain between the rural producers and urban consumers.Moreover, potential areas like Shashemene and Yirgalem were not linked with consumers in Awassa and Dilla towns. This discouraged producers, which was also aggravated by high costs of inputs and lower prices of milk.With regard to marketing of dairy products in the studied areas, adulteration of milk and milk products was considered as a problem especially in butter marketing.For the seasonality in demand for milk and milk products, processing technologies which could extend the shelf-life of dairy products may remedy the problem. For potential dairy areas, where there is no market access, a milk collection scheme through establishment of milk marketing groups may alleviate the problem.The majority of dairy farmers (58%) in the mixed crop-livestock production system and 6% of the urban producers were constrained on unavailability of AI services, which curtailed genetic improvement. Reproductive problems were also identified as serious problems that affected performance of dairy herds. In the mixed crop-livestock production system 30, 10 and 5% of the respondents indicated problems related to long calving interval, abortion, and late age at first mating, respectively. The major reproductive problem in the urban production system was long calving interval (85.6%) and late age at first mating (8.5%). Although calving interval is relatively better in the urban production system, market-oriented farmers were dissatisfied with the unavailability of improved genotypes and the AI service. Although many problems and constraints that may hinder the development of the dairy sector were identified in the area, the majority of dairy producers of both the mixed crop-livestock (67.5%) and urban (86.6%) production systems were willing to continue, expand and/or involve in dairying in the future. The rest of the producers were not willing to expand dairying in the future for various reasons. About 27.5 and 5% of the respondents in the mixed crop-livestock system and 11 and 2.5% in the urban system, respectively, indicated that they will maintain their stock or stop dairying, respectively.Generally the urban producers were more willing to continue and expand dairying due to market opportunities in urban areas. Because of the rapid urbanization, substantial population growth and change in the living standard by urban societies in the area, the demand for good quality and quantity of dairy products are increasing. A good example is that supermarkets in Awassa town indicated that there is a high demand for quality milk and milk products in the town and they are not in a position to fulfill the demand.Dairying provides the opportunity for smallholder farmers to use land, labour and feed resources and generate regular income. Although market opportunity and linkage are key issues for smallholder dairy development, support services in terms of accessing adequate land, organizing input supplies (improved genetic material, feeds, AI, drugs), provision of credit, extension and training services, production and entrepreneurial skills development are key elements for success.This study covered dairy production systems in the Shashemene-Dilla area of southern Ethiopia and covered four major towns along the main Addis Ababa-Moyale highway.These are Shashemene, Awassa, Yirgalem and Dilla. Two major dairy production systems, namely the urban and mixed crop-livestock systems, were identified and characterized.The mixed crop-livestock systems were still divided into cereal crop and enset-coffee crop based subsystems. Dairying was found as a good source of income for urban producers which accounted for 48.8% share of the total income, while the crop-livestock producers generated only little share from dairying. Family labour was the major source of dairy activities where milk related activities and control-over were the responsibility of women in both systems. Cattle in the cereal based mixed crop-livestock system had multipurpose. However, cows in both production systems were mainly kept for milk production.Most of the foundation stocks of both the urban and mixed crop-livestock producerswere purchased from open markets, which revealed that producers were not curious and/or did not have access to the selection of dairy cattle. Producers were found to have different perceptions on some of adaptation and production traits of the cattle they own and were found to give priorities to production traits for optimum resource utilization and maximum outputs. As a result of differences in the production system, types of breeds and the management conditions, the reproductive and productive performance of cattle in the study areas were highly variable.The major feed resources identified in the area included grazing land, hay and purchased succulent grass, cereal crop residues, pseudo stems of enset and banana, maize stover, improved forage, mixed/balanced homemade concentrates, plant weeds, and nonconventional feeds like atella, kitchen and fruit wastes and other tree parts. Major sources of water for urban producers were pipe water while rivers were used in the mixed crop-livestock systems. The majority (81.7%) of rural producers used natural mating by local bulls, while 50% of the urban producers used AI as sole source of breeding improvement. Twice milking was the predominant frequency of milking in both the mixed crop-livestock and urban production systems. Animal dung was used primarily as fertilizers in the mixed crop-livestock system, while the majority of urban producers pay extra money to dispose it out of the respective towns. Record keeping is not a common practice in all the systems.An estimated total of 9,645,020 litres of milk was produced annually from 4463 small and medium farms in and around the 4 towns. The majority of producers (61.7%) in the mixed crop-livestock system used milk for home processing, while the majority of urban producers (79.2%) produced milk for sale. Unless there was some problem with milk market urban producers do not prefer to churn milk.Marketable dairy commodities in the area included whole milk, butter ergo (fermented whole milk), cheese and sour buttermilk. These products are supplied from both local produce and from dairy processing plants in Addis Ababa. Butter in the mixed croplivestock system and whole milk in the urban systems was the major dairy products sold.Informal dairy marketing was the only means of marketing system in the study area and there is no proper milk processing plant in the region. The primary selling outlet of milk was direct sell to consumers. Price of dairy commodities were determined by different factors such as season, access to market/distance from towns, fasting and non-fasting days, festivals and holidays, level of supply vs. purchasing ability of the urban dwellers, and quality and sources of dairy products.The major constraints for dairy development in the area included availability and costs of feeds, shortage of farm land, discouraging marketing systems, waste disposal problems, lack of improved dairy animals, poor extension and animal health services, and knowledge gap on improved dairy production, processing and marketing. The rapid urbanization of the regional capital town Awassa and even the rest towns like Shashemene, Dilla and Yirgalem, with that of human population increase is an opportunity for the development of dairying in the area. Dairy development in the studied areas can be improved by encouraging private investors to establish dairy processing plant in the area, and thereby rural and urban producers could be encouraged to enter into milk collection schemes. Moreover, smallholder dairy producers should be supported through services related to feed supply, land, marketing systems, waste disposals, veterinary, AI, credit, extension and training.In conclusion, development of dairy production and marketing in the studied areas could be achieved with the contribution and integration of different stakeholders in a sustainable way. Urban producers have permanent buyers through informal marketing channel; however, rural dairy producers do not have reliable market for milk. Even then, highly potential areas like Shashemene and Yirgalem have not been well exploited and linked with strong market-chains between potential consumers in the major towns. As market is the deriving force to the development of this sector, responsible stakeholders should not only work towards dairy production and productivity of cattle but also towards dairy marketing options.","tokenCount":"13346"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7f986dd9434e1148880b764843af0e4d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/21b43766-78c7-41ab-a792-8b3a738848be/content","id":"700381579"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1f0fdfb6-2eb6-4a06-961f-7ca5622efbd8","pagecount":"20","content":"When information on multiple genotypes evaluated in multiple environments is recorded, a multi-environment single trait model for assessing genotype • environment interaction (G • E) is usually employed. Comprehensive models that simultaneously take into account the correlated traits and trait • genotype • environment interaction (T • G • E) are lacking. In this research, we propose a Bayesian model for analyzing multiple traits and multiple environments for whole-genome prediction (WGP) model. For this model, we used Half-t priors on each standard deviation term and uniform priors on each correlation of the covariance matrix. These priors were not informative and led to posterior inferences that were insensitive to the choice of hyper-parameters. We also developed a computationally efficient Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) under the above priors, which allowed us to obtain all required full conditional distributions of the parameters leading to an exact Gibbs sampling for the posterior distribution. We used two real data sets to implement and evaluate the proposed Bayesian method and found that when the correlation between traits was high (.0.5), the proposed model (with unstructured variance-covariance) improved prediction accuracy compared to the model with diagonal and standard variance-covariance structures. The R-software package Bayesian Multi-Trait and Multi-Environment (BMTME) offers optimized C++ routines to efficiently perform the analyses.Since the whole-genome prediction (WGP) model of Meuwissen et al. (2001), practical results have shown that genomic selection (GS) using Bayesian and non-Bayesian linear regression models improves prediction accuracy compared to conventional and pedigree selection (de los Campos et al. 2009Campos et al. , 2010;;Crossa et al. 2010Crossa et al. , 2011;;Heslot et al. 2012;Pérez-Rodríguez et al. 2012). With GS, genomic breeding values are estimated as the sum of marker effects for genotyped individuals in the testing or prediction population. The marker effects are estimated simultaneously using a training population that contains phenotyped and genotyped individuals.In plant breeding, most of the available methods for WGP are useful for analyzing a single trait measured either in a single environment or in multi-environments with the incorporation of genotype • environment interaction (G • E) (Burgueño et al. 2012;Heslot et al. 2014;Jarquín et al. 2014, Montesinos-López et al. 2015, López-Cruz et al. 2015). However, researchers often face situations in which multiple traits are measured across multiple environments. For example, crop breeders record phenotypic data for multiple traits such as grain yield and its components (e.g., grain type, grain weight, biomass, etc.), grain quality (e.g., taste, shape, color, nutrient content), and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. They often aim to improve all these multiple correlated traits simultaneously or to predict the ones that are difficult to measure with those that are easy to measure. However, it is common practice to perform an independent analysis and genomic prediction on a single phenotypic trait.The advantage of jointly modeling multiple traits compared to analyzing each trait separately is that the inference process appropriately accounts for the correlation among the traits, which helps to increase prediction accuracy, statistical power, parameter estimation accuracy, and reduce trait selection bias (Henderson and Quaas 1976;Pollak et al. 1984;Schaeffer 1984). In the context of WGP, Jia and Jannink (2012), Guo et al. (2014), and Jiang et al. (2015) found that joint prediction of multiple traits benefits from genetic correlation between traits and significantly improves prediction accuracy compared to single trait methods, specifically for low-heritability traits that are genetically correlated with a high-heritability trait. Jia and Jannink (2012) also found better prediction accuracy for multiple traits than for single traits when phenotypes are not available for all individuals and traits. Therefore, there is evidence that multiple trait analysis is useful to predict yet-to-be observed phenotypes in plant and animal breeding when selecting unphenotyped candidates early through the prediction of their genomic breeding values. Multi-trait analysis has also been found to substantially increase prediction accuracy when some traits are observed in all individuals but the trait of interest is not observed in the individuals in the test set (Pszczola et al. 2013;Rutkoski et al. 2016).Multivariate analysis of continuous outcomes is well established in statistical literature (Johnson and Wichern 1992). However, the available methods cannot be applied in a straightforward manner for WGP, since the number of independent variables (p) is usually larger than the available sample size (n). The genomic best linear unbiased predictor (GBLUP) WGP model can be implemented in standard software for multiple traits and multiple environments by taking into account twoway interaction terms and estimating separable unstructured covariance matrices of the form A5B (where A and B are the corresponding covariance matrices of factors A and B, respectively). However, these software programs are unable to estimate separable unstructured variance-covariance matrices of the form A5B5C for three-way interaction terms. For this reason, in this situation, at least one of the variance-covariance components is assumed to be identity or a new variable is created by merging two factors and estimating a covariance matrix with only two components as A5B Ã , where B Ã contains the variance-covariance of two factors, but each component cannot be separated. Also, univariate Bayesian inference has been proposed and extensively implemented in WGP models (Gianola 2013). The Bayesian alphabet methods (Bayes A, Bayes C, and Bayes Cp) have been extended for multiple trait analysis (de los Campos and Gianola 2007;Calus and Veerkamp 2011;Jia and Jannink 2012;Guo et al. 2014) and most recently, Jiang et al. (2015) proposed a Bayesian multivariate antedependence model.Despite evidence of the increased prediction accuracy of WGP models incorporating G • E (Burgueño et al. 2012;Jarquín et al. 2014, Montesinos-López et al. 2015;López-Cruz et al. 2015) and of WGP models for multi-trait data, statistical models for analyzing continuous data for simultaneously assessing multi-traits and multi-environments are lacking. Thus, the integration of these two approaches in one unified WGP model is required (Jiang et al. 2015). This unified WGP model would be useful in two cases: (i) when individuals are measured for all traits in one environment, but only some traits in other environments; and (ii) when some traits are recorded in only a subset of individuals in all environments. This model would be useful not only in plant breeding but also in animal breeding, where genetic evaluation of many traits is performed on a weekly basis by many breeding programs globally. It is also possible to integrate other advantageous strategies such as the antedependence model to incorporate dominant and epistatic effects.All the Bayesian methods developed so far for multiple trait analysis use the Inverse-Wishart (IW) conjugate family of distributions as priors for the covariance matrices between traits. However, Gelman (2006) and Huang and Wand (2013) argued against using IW priors for covariance matrices because they impose a degree of informativity and the posterior inferences are sensitive to the choice of hyper-parameters. Recently, Huang and Wand (2013) proposed a scale mixture approach involving an IW distribution and independent Inverse-Gamma (IG) distributions for each dimension as priors for the covariance matrix parameters. The ensuing covariance matrix distribution is such that all standard deviation parameters have Half-t distributions and the correlation parameters have uniform distributions on (21,1) for a particular choice of the IW shape parameter. The advantage of this approach is that it is possible to choose shape and scale parameters that achieve arbitrary high noninformativity of all standard deviations and correlation parameters (Huang and Wand 2013). However, the model proposed by Huang and Wand (2013) is a standard mixed model with correlated errors that does not include interaction terms of any kind and does not consider three-way interaction.In this study, we propose a Bayesian method that integrates the analysis of multi-traits and multi-environments and takes into account trait • genotype • environment interaction (T • G • E) in a unified WGP model. We used Half-t priors on each standard deviation term and uniform priors on each correlation to achieve high noninformativity and posterior inferences that are not sensitive to the choice of hyper-parameters. We illustrate the use of the unified Bayesian Multi-Trait and Multi-Environment (BMTME) method in simulated data sets and two real data sets (one maize and one wheat) including multiple traits measured on wheat and maize lines evaluated in multiple environments and genotyped with dense molecular markers. We also provide an R package called BMTME that can be used to fit the proposed methods.We use y ðlÞ ijk to represent the normal response from the kth replication of the jth line in the ith environment for the lth trait (i ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; I, j ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; J, k ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; K, l ¼ 1; . . . ; LÞ; where K represents the number of replicates of each line in each environment and L denotes the number of traits under study. To present the theory in a simple manner, we will use I ¼ 3 and L ¼ 3: Therefore, the total number of observations for the lth trait is n ¼ I • J • K: We propose the following linear mixed model for each trait:where E ðlÞ i represents the ith environment for the lth trait and is assumed as a fixed effect, g ðlÞ j represents the genomic effect of jth line in the lth trait and is assumed as random effect, gE ðlÞ ij is the interaction between the genomic effect of the jth line and the ith environment for the lth trait and is assumed a random effect, and e ðlÞ ijk is a random error term associated with the kth replication of the jth line in the ith environment for the lth trait. To take into account the correlation between traits, one could use the following L variate linear mixed model:(2) i ; x ðlÞ ir ¼ 1 if the environment i is observed and 0 otherwise for the lth trait, for r ¼ 1; 2; 3; and l ¼ 1; 2; 3: b TðlÞ ¼ ½b  1), we can perform a separate analysis for each trait, with the inconvenience that independence between the L traits is assumed. Model (2) can take into account and exploit the correlation between traits.In matrix notation, the model given in equation ( 2) including all the information is expressed as:wherewhere S E is assumed a diagonal matrix of order I • I, which indicates that we are assuming independence between environments. It is important to point out that the trait • environment (T • E) interaction term is included in the fixed effect b, while the trait • genotype (T • G) interaction term is included in the random effect b 1 and the three-way (TThe errors are assumed to be correlated with the covariance defined as R ¼ I n 5R e . More flexible variance-covariances as diagonal or identity are straightforward. Also note that G g is of order J • J; therefore, G 1 is of order JL • JL and G 2 is of order IJL • IJL. The matrix of the genomic relationship between lines G g , also known as Genomic Relationship Matrix (GRM), was calculated using the method of VanRaden (2008).In this section, we provide the joint posterior density and prior specification for the Bayesian WGP Multiple Trait and Multiple Environment (BMTME) model. The joint posterior density of the parameter vector becomes:  b Next we combine the joint posterior density of the parameter vector (4) with the priors to obtain the full conditional distribution for parameters b, s 2 b , a b , b 1 , b 2 , S t ; a; R e ; a e . All full conditionals, as well as details of their derivations, are given in Appendix A.In order to produce posterior means for all relevant model parameters, below we outline the exact Gibbs sampler procedure that we propose for estimating the parameters of interest. As is the case with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques, the ordering of draws is somewhat arbitrary; however, we suggest the following order:Step Posterior mean and standard deviation (SD) of the b coefficients ( b) of three traits (T1, T2, and T3) in three environments (E1, E2, E3) and the estimated variance-covariance components for the traits ( Ŝt ), for the residuals ( Re ), and for the environments ( ŜE ).Step 8. Simulate a Ei ; for i ¼ 1; . . . ; I; according to the IG distribution given in Appendix A (A.9). Step 9. Simulate R e according to the IW distribution given in Appendix A (A.10).Step 10. Simulate a el ; for l ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; L; according to the IG distribution given in Appendix (A.11).Step 11. Return to step 1 or terminate when chain length is adequate to meet convergence diagnostics.The Gibbs sampler described above for the BMTME model was implemented as an R-software package. We performed a total of 60,000 iterations; 30,000 samples were used for inference because the first 30,000 were used as burn-in to decrease the MCMC errors in prediction accuracy. We did not apply thinning of the chains following the suggestions of Geyer (1992), MacEachern and Berliner (1994), and Link and Eaton (2012), who provide justification of the ban on subsampling MCMC output for approximating simple features of the target distribution (e.g., means, variances, and percentiles).We implemented the prior specification given in the previous section where the BMTME model was defined. The hyper-parameters used were for bfor S t a 1; . . . ; a L we used n t ¼ 2, for a l we used A l ¼ 100; 000;Ei ja Ei we used n Ei ¼ 2 for a Ei we used A Ei ¼ 100; 000 for i ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; I; for R e a e1; . . . ; a eL we used n e ¼ 2; for a el we used A el ¼ 100; 000 for l ¼ 1; ::; L. All these hyper-parameters were chosen to lead weakly informative priors.We used two cross-validation schemes for generating training and validation sets that mimic two real situations a breeder might face. Cross-validation 1 (CV1) mimics a situation where lines were evaluated in some environments for all traits but some lines are missing in other environments; this is similar to cross-validation 2 of Burgueño et al. (2012). The other cross-validation scheme is CV2, which mimics a situation where a trait is lacking in all lines in one environment but present in the remaining environments (see Table D1 in Appendix D). In this case, information from relatives is used, and prediction assessment can benefit from borrowing information between lines across environments, and among correlated traits. We implemented a 10-fold cross-validation with 80% of the observations in the training set and 20% in the testing set. Of the variety of methods for comparing the predictive posterior distribution to the Mean and standard error (SE) of the estimated correlations and Mean Squared Prediction Error (MSPE) from the 10-fold cross-validation CV1. The BMTME model was fitted using unstructured (U), diagonal (D), and standard (S) variance-covariance matrix. Environment (E1, E2, E3)-trait (T1, T2, T3) combination. Method stands for the variance-covariance matrix used with the BMTME, E-T for the environment-trait combination, R for rank, and Ave for average. a Since three conditions are compared (unstructured, diagonal, and standard), the values of the ranks range from 1 to 3, and the lower the values, the better the prediction accuracy. For ties, we assigned the average of the ranks that would have been assigned had there been no ties.observed data (generally termed \"posterior predictive checks\"), we used two criteria: the mean square error of prediction (MSEP) and the Pearson correlation. Models with small MSEP indicate better predictions, and higher correlation values indicate better predictions. The predicted observations were calculated with S collected Gibbs samplers as: To illustrate the parameter estimation of the proposed BMTME method, a small simulation experiment was conducted. The data were simulated based on model (3) with three environments, three traits, 80 genotypes, and 20 replications. We assumed that b T ¼ ½15,8,7,12,6,7,14,9,8], where the first three b coefficients belong to traits 1, 2, and 3 in environment 1, the second three values for the three traits in environment 2 and the last three for environment These two variance-covariance matrices gave rise to a matrix of correlation between traits with each correlation between pairs of traits equal to 0.85. Also, we assume that the GRM is known, G g ¼ 0:7I 80 þ 0:3J 80 , where I 80 is an identity matrix of order 80 and J 80 is a matrix of order 80 • 80 of ones. The relationship between environments is assumed as S E ¼ diagð0:65; 0:55; 0:75Þ. Therefore, the total number of observations was 3 • 80 • 3 • 20 ¼ 14400; i.e., 4800 for each trait. With these parameters, 50 data sets were simulated according to model (3) and for each data set, parameters b T , S t , S E , and R e were estimated with the BMTME model using the Gibbs sampler given above. We used the priors given in the section on model implementation, which were also used for the applications with real data sets. For this simulated data set, we computed 20,000 MCMC samples, and Bayes estimates were computed with 10,000 samples, since the first 10,000 were discarded as burn-in. In Table 1, we report average estimates along with standard deviations (SD). Also, with the proposed BMTME model, we simulated two data sets similar to the simulation study explained above, except that the environmental covariance matrix we used was an identity matrix. The first data set assumes that the genetic and residual correlation between traits was 0.85 for all pairs of traits under study, while the second data set assumes that the correlation between all pairs of traits was 0.2 for both covariance matrices (S t and R e ). We implemented a 10-fold crossvalidation (CV1). The training data set has 80% of the lines (64 lines), while the testing data set has the remaining 20% (16 lines). We assessed the prediction performance using the simulated data set under three conditions: (1) unstructured (Appendix A): assuming both variancecovariances are unstructured (S t and R e ); (2) diagonal (Appendix B): assuming both variance-covariances are diagonal; and (3) standard (Appendix C): assuming both variance-covariances are identity multiplied by the scale parameters s 2 t and s 2 e , respectively.Maize data set: A total of 309 double-haploid maize lines were phenotyped and genotyped; this is part of the data set used by Posterior mean and SD of the b coefficients ( b) for three traits, Yield, anthesis-silking interval (ASI), and plant height (PH) in three environments (E1, E2, and E3). Estimate variance-covariance components for the traits ( Ŝt ), the environments ( ŜE ), and the residuals ( Re ). In Ŝt and Re , the upper triangle contains the variancecovariance components and the lower triangle contains the correlations. ŜE is a diagonal matrix.yield (Yield), anthesis-silking interval (ASI), and plant height (PH); each of these traits was evaluated in three optimum rainfed environments (E1, E2, and E3). The experimental field design in each of the three environments was an a-lattice incomplete block design with two replicates. Data were preadjusted using estimates of block and environmental effects derived from a linear model that accounted for the incomplete block design within environment and for environmental effects.Information about genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) data for each maize chromosome, the number of markers after initial filtering, and the number of markers after imputation, was summarized in Crossa et al. (2013). Filtering was first done by removing markers that had .80% of the maize lines with missing values, and then markers with minor allele frequency lower than or equal to 0.05 were deleted. The total number of GBS data was 681,257 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and, after filtering for missing values and minor allele frequency, 158,281 SNPs were used for the analyses. About 20% of cells were missing in the filtered GBS information used for prediction; these missing values were replaced by their expected values before doing the prediction.Wheat data set: A total of 250 wheat lines were extracted from a large set of 39 yield trials grown during the 2013-2014 crop season in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico (Rutkoski et al. 2016). The trials were sown in mid-November and grown on beds with 5 and 2 irrigations plus drip irrigation. Days to heading (DTHD) were recorded as the number of days from germination until 50% of spikes had emerged in each plot, in the first replicate of each trial. Grain yield (GRYLD) was the total plot grain yield measured after maturity, and plant height (PTHT) was recorded in centimeters.Image data of the yield trials were collected using a hyper-spectral camera (A-series, Mirco-Hyperspec VNIR, Headwall Photonics, Fitchburg, Massachusetts) mounted on a manned aircraft. From this data, vegetative indices for each plot were calculated. The green normalized difference vegetation index (GNDVI) was one of the traits used in this study. Trait GNDVI is considered a good predictor when used with pedigree and/or genomic prediction of GRYLD in wheat due to its high heritability and genetic correlation with GRYLD. Also, trait GNDVI can be measured remotely in large numbers of candidates for selection.Genotyping-by-sequencing was used for genome-wide genotyping. Single nucleotide polymorphisms were called across all lines using the TASSEL GBS pipeline anchored to the genome assembly of Chinese Spring. Single nucleotide polymorphism calls were extracted and markers were filtered so that percent missing data did not exceed 80% and 20%, respectively. Individuals with .80% missing marker data were removed, and markers were recorded as 21, 0, and 1, indicating homozygous for the minor allele, heterozygous, and homozygous for the major allele, respectively. Next, markers with ,0.01 minor allele frequency were removed, and missing data were imputed with the marker mean. A total of 12,083 markers remained after marker editing. Mean and SE of the estimated correlations and MSPE from the 10-fold cross-validation CV1. The BMTME model was fitted using unstructured, diagonal, and standard variance-covariance matrices. Environment (E1, E2, E3)-trait (Yield, ASI, PH) combination. a Since three BMTME models are fitted (unstructured, diagonal, and standard) the values of the ranks ranged from 1 to 3, and the lower the values, the better the prediction accuracy. For ties, we assigned the average of the ranks that would have been assigned had there been no ties.The phenotypic and genotypic information of the two data sets included in this study as well as the R package for performing the analyses can be downloaded from the link: http://hdl.handle.net/11529/10646. This link contains the phenotypic data on maize (Data.maize) and wheat (Data.trigo), as well as genomic data on maize (G.maize) and wheat (G.trigo). Also, the link includes the BMTME.zip with the R package used to perform the analyses under the BMTME model.Nowadays the R programming language is a popular tool in statistical science for analyzing and visualizing data (R Core Team, 2015). However, in the context of big data with complex models, the speed of R is slow. For this reason, many times R is combined with C++ codes to produce high-performance programs that considerably increase the speed of programs (Stroustrup 2000;Eddelbuettel and Sanderson 2014).The R package we developed for fitting the BMTME models merges R and C++ through the use of Rcpp together with Armadillo C++ library (Sanderson 2010;Eddelbuettel 2013). Appendix E describes how the three-way data should be arranged and Appendix F explains the basic input needed to run the routines built in the R package for fitting the BMTME.The authors state that all data necessary for confirming the conclusions presented in the article are represented fully within the article.Results for the simulated data sets and for the real data sets (maize and wheat) are shown below.Table 1 gives the posterior mean and posterior SD for b coefficients (b T ) for each trait and for the variance-covariance matrices (S t ; R e ; S E ). The estimates of the posterior means for the b coefficients (b T ) and for the variance-covariance matrices (S t ; R e ) are very close to the true values, while the estimates of the diagonal covariance matrix (S E ) are slightly overestimated. Although the diagonal covariance matrix of S E is slightly overestimated according to the performed simulation study, we have evidence that the proposed BMTME model does reasonably well in terms of parameter estimation. We also tested the proposed BMTME model with another set of parameters and our results agree with the above mentioned results.Table 2 shows the resulting prediction accuracy (Correlation and MSEP) for each environment-trait combination for the two simulated data sets; we also present the ranking of the BMTME model under the three conditions (unstructured, diagonal, and standard) for each environment-trait combination. Based on the ranking given in Table 2, the best prediction accuracy for both data sets with low and high correlation between traits (using both criteria) was achieved when the model assumed an unstructured variance-covariance matrix for both S t and R e , followed by the second condition, which assumes a diagonal matrix for S t and R e in terms of MSEP, but for the standard condition in terms of the Pearson correlation. In terms of the Pearson correlation for both data sets (low and high correlation between traits), in five of the nine environment-trait combinations, the unstructured condition performed better in terms of prediction accuracy, while the standard condition performed better in three of nine environment-trait combinations, and the diagonal condition performed better in only one of nine.In terms of MSEP, the unstructured BMTME performed better in five (low correlation between traits) and six (high correlation between traits) of the nine environment-trait combinations, the diagonal BMTME in only four (low correlation between traits) and two (high correlation between traits) of nine combinations, and the standard BMTME in zero (low correlation between traits) and one (high correlation between traits) of nine combinations. Regarding the average of the nine groups (environment-trait combinations) for both prediction criteria (correlation and MSEP), the unstructured BMTME gave the best prediction, correlation = 0.57 (low correlation between traits), and correlation = 0.67 (high correlation between traits) and MSEP = 1.06 (low correlation between traits) and MSEP = 1.07 (high correlation between traits). In both data sets, the unstructured BMTME model had the best prediction accuracy; however, the higher the correlation between traits, the higher the prediction accuracies observed, since the average correlation between traits under the unstructured BMTME was 17.5% higher when the correlation between traits was 0.85 compared to when it was 0.2.Table 3 shows that for each trait there are moderate differences between the b coefficients between environments. For Yield and PH, the largest and smallest b coefficients were observed in environments E1 and E2, respectively, while for trait ASI, the largest b coefficient was observed in E3 and the smallest in E2. The genetic estimates of the variance-covariance components of traits are given in Ŝt , where the correlation between traits is moderate. Yield and ASI have a negative correlation (20.27), and the correlation between ASI and PH is also negative (20.25), while the correlation between Yield and PH is 0.41. The same tendency is observed in the residual correlation between traits but with smaller correlation between traits.Table 4 shows the prediction accuracies (Correlation and MSEP) for each environment-trait combination and the ranking of the three conditions studied for each criterion in the maize testing data set for crossvalidation CV1. From the ranking, the best condition is the standard model, since it was the best in five of nine environment-trait combinations in terms of correlation, while in terms of MSEP, the diagonal model was the best in three of nine environment-trait combinations. As for the averages of the environment-trait combinations, the standard model was also the best in terms of both criteria. The second-best model was the diagonal, and the unstructured model was the worst in terms of both criteria. This can be explained by the low correlation between traits that exists for this maize data set.Table 5 provides the results of cross-validation CV2 for the maize testing data set. The trait yield is unobserved in only one environment (for example, E1) for all lines, but data on the other two traits are available for this environment (E1), as well as for the other two environments (E2 and E3). The best model in terms of correlation and MSEP for predicting Yield for all lines in E1 was the standard model (0.215, 41.714), followed by the diagonal (0.168, 43.691) and the unstructured model (0.163, 46.407). In E2-Yield and E3-Yield, the best BMTME model was the unstructured model with Pearson correlation. In terms of MSEP, the BMTME unstructured model was the best model for predicting the Yield of the unobserved lines in E2, followed by the other two models (diagonal and standard). For E3-Yield, the best predictive model in terms of MSEP was the BMTME standard, followed by the unstructured model.Table 6 shows that b coefficients are very different between traits and environments for the wheat data set. In environment Bed2IR, the largest b coefficients were observed in traits DTHD and GNDVI, respectively, while in environment Drip, the largest b coefficients were observed in traits GNDVI and GRYLD, respectively. The genetic estimates of the variance-covariance components of traits are given in Ŝt , where the largest correlations were observed between trait DTHD vs. GNDVI, GRYLD, and PTHT; the same is true for the residual corre-lation between traits ( Re ). In terms of prediction accuracies for the entire data set, they are high in terms of correlation and less precise in terms of MSEP mostly for trait PTHT in the three environments.Table 7 gives the prediction accuracy of the wheat data set for the testing data set for each environment-trait combination; it also gives the ranking of the three conditions studied under both criteria for cross-validation CV1. The best case is when the BMTME model assumes an unstructured variance-covariance matrix for both S t and R e and a diagonal matrix for the variance-covariance for S E ; followed by BMTME with a diagonal matrix for S t; R e , and S E : As for the ranking in terms of Pearson correlation, in 6 of 12 groups the BMTME unstructured model performed better in terms of prediction accuracy, while the BMTME diagonal model was the second-best model since it was the best model in 3 of 12 cases; the BMTME standard model was the worst model in terms of prediction accuracy since it was the best in only 1 of 12 cases. In terms of MSEP, the BMTME unstructured model performed better in 5 of 12 cases, the BMTME diagonal model was the best model in only 3 of 12 cases, and the BMTME standard model was the best in 1 of 12 cases. The BMTME unstructured model also had the best average prediction accuracy of the 12 groups.Table 8 gives the results of cross-validation CV2 which assumes that trait GRYLD is lacking in one environment for all lines but not in the other environments. The results given are only for the testing data set (trait GRYLD missing for all lines in one environment). The best model for predicting GRYLD for all lines in environment Bed2I with Pearson correlation was the BMTME unstructured model, followed by Posterior mean and SD of the b coefficients ( b) for four traits (DTHD, GNDVI, GRYLD, and PTHT) in three environments (Bed2I, Bed5I, and Drip). Estimated variancecovariance components for traits ( Ŝt ) and for residual ( Re ). In Ŝt , and Re the upper triangle contains the variance-covariance components and the lower triangle contains the correlations.respectively. The simulation study provides evidence that when the correlation between traits is high, it is really important to use a multivariate model that takes into account this correlation to improve prediction accuracies. This evidence is also supported by the results obtained with the wheat data set, where the BMTME unstructured model was the most accurate model, followed by the diagonal and finally by the standard model. However, with the maize data set, we did not observe any gain using the unstructured variance-covariance matrix in comparison to the other two variance-covariances used (diagonal and standard), maybe because in this data set the genetic and residual correlations between traits were low. Therefore, the important message is that when the correlation between traits is high (.0.5), it is really important to estimate the unstructured variance-covariance matrix; when this correlation is low, it is enough to use the BMTME standard model because with the unstructured model, the results could be worse than those of the standard model. These suggestions are not new; they were also made by Calus and Veerkamp (2011), Jia and Jannink (2012), Guo et al. (2014), andJiang et al. (2015) in the context of multi-trait analysis. Here we only point out that they are also valid in the multi-trait, multi-environment context, taking into account the T • G • E interaction term.Our contribution added to the traditional multi-trait model (proposed by Calus and Veerkamp 2011;Jia and Jannink 2012;Guo et al. 2014;Jiang et al. 2015) is that our model also is valid for the multienvironment and the three-way (T • G • E) interaction term, which more realistically mimic the type of data that are very common in plant breeding programs, where genotypes are evaluated for multi-traits in multi-environments. We are also aware that normally distributed traits are not the only traits commonly measured in plant breeding programs. For this reason, models for multiple categorical ordinal traits, multiple count traits, or a mixture of types of traits are also needed to help breeders improve the process of selecting candidate genotypes.We introduced a Gibbs sampler for Bayesian analysis of multi-traits and multi-environments that takes into account the three-way (T • G • E) interaction term that uses simple conditional distribution to simulate the joint posterior distribution of all required unknown parameters in the WGP model. This model has the advantage that it uses Half-t priors on each standard deviation term and uniform priors between 21 and 1 on each correlation of the covariance matrix of traits in order to achieve noninformativity and posterior inferences with low sensitivity to the choice of hyper-parameters for the variance-covariance matrices.Since we modeled the correlation patterns separately for each factor as G 1 ¼ G g 5S t and G 2 ¼ S E 5G g 5S t , this facilitates the interpretation of the contribution of every factor to the overall correlation structure. It also allows choosing specific covariance structures for each factor, which improves accuracy and makes model fitting easier. In addition, fewer parameters than an unstructured model are required. For example, for modeling G 2 under an unstructured model, we need to estimate IJLðIJL þ 1Þ=2 unknown parameters; this number of parameters is larger than the number of parameters required to be estimated using Kronecker products for a three-factor separable model that only needs IðIþ1Þ 2 þ JðJþ1Þ 2 þ LðLþ1Þ 2 2 2 parameters. In our context, the number of parameters is lower, since we assumed a diagonal matrix for the variance-covariance matrix of environments and the matrix G g is given. Also, if needed, partial derivatives, inverse computation, and Cholesky decomposition of the overall covariance matrix are performed more easily on the factor-specific covariances because they have smaller dimensions. Therefore, the use of separable covariance matrices with Kronecker products has substantial computational advantages, besides improving interpretation and model fitting (Simpson et al. 2014). However, care needs to be exercised with the assumption of a Kronecker product structured variance-covariance matrix, especially in three-way multivariate data, because incorrect assumptions may lead to invalid conclusions (Roy and Leiva 2008).This study clearly described the full conditional distributions for modeling the three-way (T • G • E) interaction term with multi-traits and multi-environments, which is of paramount importance for evaluating genotypic performance in target environments and for predicting yetto-be observed phenotypes when the relative performance of genotypes varies across environments. Because the proposed model takes into account the correlation between traits and includes the three-way (T • G • E) interaction term, the BMTME can be a useful tool for efficiently selecting superior genotypes. The proposed BMTME model can be considered a Bayesian GBLUP for multiple traits and multiple environments since the marker information is taken into account in the GRM (G g ). Some of the advantages of our model over standard software are: (a) it is able to estimate separable covariance matrices of the form A5B5C, which is not possible with other software; (b) the estimation of three-way terms with covariance matrices of the form A5B5C is more parsimonious since fewer parameters are needed than when two factors are joined and the estimation process is performed using two separable covariance structures as A5B Ã , where B Ã contains the covariance of the two factors B and C; (c) the convergence of our model is not a big deal compared to the convergence problems of other software for complex data; and (d) our model facilitates the interpretation of the covariance matrices because we can estimate the three covariance matrices.On the other hand, as expected, the disadvantage of the BMTME model is its high computational cost even under the optimized C++ developed and made available in this research article. Large numbers of lines might indeed cause some delays in the computation of such large numbers of parameters in the full conditionals. However, constant developments in computing science will soon reduce the computing time of the three-way BMTME model.Finally, our proposed BMTME model can also be useful (a) in QTLmapping studies, since some WGP methods are also commonly used for GWAS (Peters et al. 2012;Garrick and Fernando, 2013;Jiang et al. 2015), and (b) to include spatial information in the residual R matrix of the proposed model. This information is often available from breeding programs since they measure geographical information of the plots where genotypes are tested in each environment; this could help improve prediction accuracy.In this paper, we extended the multi-trait WGP model to the multi-trait and multi-environment WGP model. This unified WGP model takes into account the correlation between traits and the three-way interaction term (T • G • E). Additionally, a transparent derivation of all full conditional distributions required is given that allows us to propose an efficient Gibbs sampler that is easy to implement and produces precise parameter estimates with high noninformativity and posterior inferences with low sensitivity to the choice of hyper-parameters for the variance-covariance matrices. Finally, we successfully applied the proposed method to simulated and real data and found that when the correlation between the traits is high (.0.5), the proposed BMTME model with an unstructured covariance matrix should be preferred over the diagonal and standard methods to help improve prediction accuracy. However, when correlations are low, it is enough to use the BMTME standard model because if we use the unstructured model, the results could be worse than those of the standard model. The R-software package BMTME offers specialized and optimized C++ routines to efficiently perform the analyses under the proposed model.Full conditional for bAlso, if we had assumed PðbÞ}1 as prior for b, we would have maintained a multivariate Normal posterior distribution due to the multivariate Normal distribution's conjugacy. However, the mean vector and covariance matrix would be slightly modified.where . Obtained using ðB T 5AÞvecðXÞ ¼ vecðAXBÞ.Full conditional for a l Pða l jELSEÞ } PðS t ja l ÞPðawith l ¼ 1; ::; L and ðS 21 t Þ ll denotes the ðl; lÞ entry of S 21 t .Ei ; with i ¼ 1; ::; I:Full conditional for a Ei ; with i ¼ 1; ::; I:  Full conditional for a l Pða l jELSEÞ } Pðs e ijk e T ijk Þ ll denotes the ðl; lÞ entry of the matrixe ijk e T ijk .Full conditional for a el   APPENDIX E Data preparation for analysis with I environments, J lines, K replications, and L traits is shown in the table below. gid denotes unique lines name, env are the environments, rep denotes the replications, and resp represents the response variables.","tokenCount":"6694"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a0830712c1fd2ea6fb5462bf1dc7b82","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/72da305d-f720-4d5d-9934-fa3c6540fe39/content","id":"-1402963809"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b1bc325a-31dd-4db2-a206-515ae9f54a82","pagecount":"13","content":"In sub-Saharan Africa, there is considerable spatial and temporal variability in relations between nutrient application and crop yield, due to varying inherent soil nutrients supply, soil moisture, crop management and germplasm. This variability affects fertilizer use efficiency and crop productivity. Therefore, development of decision systems that support formulation and delivery of site-specific fertilizer recommendations is important for increased crop yield and environmental protection. Nutrient Expert (NE) is a computer-based decision support system, which enables extension advisers to generate field-or area-specific fertilizer recommendations based on yield response to fertilizer and nutrient use efficiency. We calibrated NE for major maize agroecological zones in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, with data generated from 735 on-farm nutrient omission trials conducted between 2015 and 2017. Between 2016 and 2018, 368 NE performance trials were conducted across the three countries in which recommendations generated with NE were evaluated relative to soil-test based recommendations, the current blanket fertilizer recommendations and a control with no fertilizer applied. Although maize yield response to fertilizer differed with geographic location; on average, maize yield response to nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) were respectively 2.4, 1.6 and 0.2 t ha −1 in Nigeria, 2.3, 0.9 and 0.2 t ha −1 in Ethiopia, and 1.5, 0.8 and 0.2 t ha −1 in Tanzania. Secondary and micronutrients increased maize yield only in specific areas in each country. Agronomic use efficiencies of N were 18, 22 and 13 kg grain kg −1 N, on average, in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, respectively. In Nigeria, NE recommended lower amounts of P by 9 and 11 kg ha −1 and K by 24 and 38 kg ha −1 than soil-test based and regional fertilizer recommendations, respectively. Yet maize yield (4 t ha −1 ) was similar among the three methods. Agronomic use efficiencies of P and K (300 and 250 kg kg −1 , respectively) were higher with NE than with the blanket recommendation (150 and 70 kg kg −1 ). In Ethiopia, NE and soil-test based respectively recommended lower amounts of P by 8 and 19 kg ha −1 than the blanket recommendations, but maize yield (6 t ha −1 ) was similar among the three methods. Overall, fertilizer recommendations generated with NE maintained high maize yield, but at a lower fertilizer input cost than conventional methods. NE was effective as a simple and cost-effective decision support tool for fine-tuning fertilizer recommendations to farm-specific conditions and offers an alternative to soil testing, which is hardly available to most smallholder farmers.The formulation of fertilizer recommendations tailored to specific crops, climate and soil fertility conditions, as well as farmers' socioeconomic status can increase productivity, and reduce climate-related production risks and undesirable impacts of fertilizer on the environment. The need for such specific recommendations is much more so in diverse farm types, in different soil and climatic conditions (Mtambanengwe and Mapfumo, 2005;Zingore et al., 2007;Giller et al., 2011), and in crop systems most vulnerable to changing rainfall patterns (Rurinda et al., 2015;Nezomba et al., 2018), such as in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, the irony is that agricultural advisory services in SSA have been promoting blanket fertilizer recommendations in which a single fertilizer rate is used for large but heterogeneous areas. This leads to unbalanced application of fertilizer nutrients relative to the needs of a crop, and low use efficiency of fertilizer. Further, despite their promotion, many smallholder farmers hardly afford the recommended quantities of fertilizers. Current fertilizer nutrient application rates in SSA average only about 16 kg ha −1 year −1 , compared with over 100 kg ha −1 in Europe and North America, and over 150 kg ha −1 in China in Asia (IFASTAT, 2019). Blanket fertilizer recommendations have been developed with a conventional 'top-down' method, which uses a limited number of field-experimental data points, as investment requirements to conduct such fertilizer trials are considerable. With evolution of computer-based modelling and decision support systems (which have capabilities to simplify and solve complex systems problems by integrating empirical and farmers' knowledge) reliable and cost effective fertilizer guidelines can be developed and delivered quickly. Given that there is increasing number of fertilizer companies that produce more site-and crop-specific fertilizer types in SSA, these decision support systems can also leverage efforts from fertilizer companies to support better access for farmers to knowledge of their soils and crops to adapt fertilizer and integrate technologies to optimize yield.Crop production models have been developed and widely used to test hypotheses, run virtual experiments, and perform scenario and risk analyses at different scales, and enhanced the scientific understanding of complex interactions between soil, crop, environment and management. Examples of such models are WOFOST (van Diepen et al., 1989), DSSAT (Jones, 1993) and APSIM (Keating et al., 2003). Because of their complexity and high demand for input data (i.e. data for model development, evaluation and use) that are seldom available for much of SSA, these models have hardly been used to package and deliver scientific knowledge in a way that can be used by policy makers, extension advisers and farmers. Studies have shown that policy makers, agricultural extension advisers and farmers can only make use of decision support tools when they perform well, are simple, cost-effective and relevant to the user (Rose et al., 2016). The model QUEFTS Fig. 1. Geo-spatial distribution of nutrient omission trials (NOTs) in the studied areas in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania.(Quantitative Evaluation of Soil Fertility of Tropical Soils), which accounts for interactions among macro-nutrients to estimate balanced nutrient requirements for a crop target yield at a specific location, is generic and requires limited input data (Janssen et al., 1990). It has been calibrated and validated for different crops in varying soils, climate and management conditions in sub-Saharan Africa (Smaling and Janssen, 1993;Haefele et al., 2003;Ezui et al., 2016) and other regions (Witt et al., 1999;Sattari et al., 2014). Consequently, the QUEFTS model enables the development of simple and cost-effective decision support tools for nutrient management and fertilizer recommendations. One such decision support tool is Nutrient Expert (Pampolino et al., 2012).Nutrient Expert (NE) is a simple, computer or mobile phone based decision support tool, developed with a method based on QUEFTS and on-site agronomic information (i.e. climate, inherent soil fertility conditions of the targeted field, previous crop and nutrient management, current and expected yield, availability of fertilizer types, farm inputoutput prices and farmer objectives) (Pampolino et al., 2012). It provides a systematic method to develop strategies for balanced nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), secondary-and micro-nutrients use on a specific field or in a larger area with similar growing conditions. NE is designed for agricultural extension advisers to provide advice to farmers on best crop management practices and to help farmers maximize the benefits of their investment in fertilizers. It has been developed in a participatory manner, involving researchers, extension service providers and farmers to address their needs.The agronomic and economic performance of NE recommendations has been comprehensively evaluated in Asia (Xu et al., 2014(Xu et al., , 2019)), where NE use increased maize yield by between 0.9 and 1.6 t ha −1 and profits by between US$ 270 and US$ 380 ha −1 as compared to farmers' fertilizer practices (Pampolino et al., 2012). In much more variable and complex farming systems in SSA, such evaluations have been limited. Further, in order to convince agriculture planners and extension advisers of the value of nutrient management decision support tools such as NE, it is crucial to initially evaluate them relative to prevailing blanket recommendations and commonly accepted methods such as soil testing. Although widely used, soil testing method has several challenges that limit its use in smallholder farming systems in SSA, such as: high costs of soil sampling and analysis, the difficulty in taking representative soil samples, ill-equipped laboratories and the time required to produce results. There are also limitations associated with interpretation of soil test results (Njoroge et al., 2017).The main objective of this study was to evaluate soil nutrient constraints for maize production in major maize-based farming systems in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, and to use this for the calibration and validation of NE. The study specifically sought to: (i) estimate maize yield response to nutrients supplied from fertilizers and calculate agronomic use efficiencies of N, P and K, (ii) calibrate NE for maize for a wide range of cropping systems, soil and climatic conditions, and (iii) to gain insight into the agronomic and economic benefits of NE recommendations relative to soil-test based and blanket fertilizer recommendations. The focus was on maize (Zea mays L.), as this is a strategic staple crop for achieving food security in SSA. The study was conducted in smallholder farming systems in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania as together, these countries comprise one-third of the human population of SSA.We calibrated and evaluated Nutrient Expert (NE) for major maize agroecological zones in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania between 2015 and 2018. In each country, the study areas were selected based on three main criteria: (i) large coverage of major maize producing areas (classified with the Africa Soil Information Service -AfSIS) scheme; (ii) areas with research and development programs that can support the scaling of nutrient management decision support tools, (iii) areas with relatively high human population densities (i.e. > 25 persons km 2 ) and good market access (within 3 h of an urban market), for intensification of maize production. Consequently, the study was conducted in three states of Nigeria: Kaduna, with testing sites in Giwa, Ikara, Kauru, lere, Makarfi and Soba local government areas (LGAs); Kano, with testing sites in Bunkure, Doguwa, Tofa and Tudun Wada LGAs; and Katsina, with testing sites in Bakori, Dandume, Faskari and Funtua LGAs (Fig. 1) (Shehu et al., 2018). In Ethiopia, the study was conducted in the Jimma, Bako, Hawassa, Bulbula and Adami Tullu areas (Balemi et al., 2019). In Tanzania it was conducted in the southern highlands, with testing sites in Iringa Rural, Kilolo, Ludewa, Mbeya Rural, Mbozi, Mufindi, Namtumbo, Njombe Rural, Nkasi, Songea Rural and Sumbawanga Rural districts; and in northern zone with testing sites in Arumeru, Babati Rural, Hai, Hanang, Karatu, Kiteto, Mbulu, Monduli, Moshi Rural, Mwanga and Rombo districts (Fig. 1). The study areas covered a wide range of climatic and soil conditions, cropping systems and farm types, and socio-economic conditions (Table 1). We characterized a few soil properties (i.e. soil organic carbon (SOC), P and texture, Table 1), which are relatively stable in the soil and hence assumed to be good indicators of soil fertility in the context of African smallholder farming systems. In Nigeria, the study areas are characterized by unimodal rainfall from May to November. In Adami Tullu and Hawassa in Ethiopia, the rainfall is bimodal with the short rains from March to May and the long rains from June to November. In Jimma and Bako areas in Ethiopia, the rainfall is unimodal from May to November. The rainfall in the northern zone of Tanzania is bimodal with the short rains from March to June, and the long rains from October to December. In the southern highlands of Tanzania the rainfall is unimodal from November to May.Nutrient Expert is based on the QUEFTS model (Janssen et al., 1990), and follows the principles and guidelines of site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) (Dobermann and White, 1998;Pampolino et al., 2012). The aims of SSNM are to (i) supply a crop's total nutrient uptake requirements tailored to a specific field or larger area with similar growing conditions, (ii) account for nutrients supplied by the soil including nutrients from organic sources such as crop residue and manure, (iii) apply fertilizer at optimal rates and at critical growth stages to bridge the deficit between the nutrient needs of a crop and the nutrients supplied from the soil; and (iv) account for net P and K offtake in harvested produce to maintain long-term soil fertility status for sustainable crop production. NE integrates all this information to determine crop nutrient input requirements. Each of N, P and K input requirement (kg nutrient ha −1 ) of a crop is calculated with an Eq. (1):where N is the crop nutrient input requirement; i is N, P or K; U is the whole-crop nutrient uptake for attainable yield; S is the amount of a nutrient supplied from the soil; and RE is the maximum recovery fraction of the applied nutrient (i).The whole-crop nutrient uptake (U i ) is calculated from the attainable yield (Y a ) and internal nutrient use efficiency (IE, i.e. the relation between grain yield and balanced uptake of nutrients at harvest in kg grain kg −1 nutrient in above ground plant dry matter) with an eq. ( 2):The attainable yield (Y a ) is the yield of a crop for a typical growing season at a location using best management practices without nutrient limitation. It is determined from the NPK treatment in nutrient omission trials (NOTs) if no other deficiencies are yield-limiting. These trials aim to establish crop responses to N, P and K (and in this study also a specific combination of micro-nutrients); described subsequently through treatments that omit at least one nutrient of interest while applying other in ample amounts to determine the limiting effect of the nutrient of interest. The IE is predicted from the QUEFTS envelope functions (Janssen et al., 1990). The QUEFTS model requires the estimation of the minimum and maximum internal concentrations of the macronutrients N, P and K in the economic product of a crop and its residues (i.e. the estimation of the upper and lower borderlines describing the minimum and maximum internal efficiencies). In this study the borderlines excluded 2.5% of upper and lower extreme values and observations with harvest index (HI) of < 0.4 as the data with low HI was assumed to be from a crop suffering from water, poor soil fertility, biotic or abiotic stress (Xu et al., 2019). The NE uses IE for a linear function until a relative yield of about 70-80% of the genetic maize yield potential.The RE, which is the ratio of crop nutrient uptake to nutrients applied from fertilizer, is calculated with an Eq. (3):(Uptake of a nutrient ( ) from an NPK plot-Uptake of a nutrient ( ) from nutrient ( ) limited plot)/Total nutrient ( ) applied from fertilizer i(3)The QUEFTS envelope functions and recovery fractions of N, P and K were calibrated for each study area in each country with fertilizer applications, grain yield and nutrient uptake datasets generated from the NOTs.The amount of a nutrient (i) supplied from the soil (S) is estimated from the nutrient-limited yield, which is the yield achieved when only the nutrient (i) of interest is omitted (is determined from the NOTs). The indigenous N soil supply determines the ratio of N-limited yield (Y s ) to attainable yield (Y a ). Similarly, the indigenous P soil supply and indigenous K soil supply determine the ratio of the P-limited yield and K-limited yield, respectively, to Y a . The indigenous nutrient soil supply varies widely in space and time due to inherent soil properties, climate and agronomic farm management. To account for this variability, NE uses datasets from on-farm nutrient omission trials (NOTs) conducted in a wide range of soil, climate and farm management conditions. Then the 25th percentile, median, and 75th percentile of all nutrient omission trials data for the ratio of Y s to Y a are used as coefficients to estimate the nutrient limited yield for a given attainable yield and soil fertility class. The median represents soils with 'average' fertility, and the 25th and 75th percentile represent 'low' and 'high' fertility, respectively.Given that the amount of nutrients taken up by a crop is directly related to its yield, the attainable yield indicates the total nutrient requirement and the nutrient-limited yield indicates the indigenous soil nutrient supply (Pampolino et al., 2012). Therefore, the crop's nutrient input requirements can be estimated from the expected yield response to each fertilizer nutrient and agronomic fertilizer use efficiency. Therefore, the eq. ( 1) mentioned above is similar to an eq. ( 4), which is used in NE:where N is the crop nutrient input requirement; Y a is attainable yield; Y s is the nutrient limited yield; and AE is the agronomic efficiency of applied fertilizer nutrient input. The yield response is the difference between the Y a and Y s . In other words, the yield response to N, P or K is the yield gap between NPK plots that received ample nutrients and omission plots when one of the nutrients is omitted. The yield response indicates the nutrient deficit, which must be supplied by fertilizers. The AE is kg extra grain per kg nutrient applied and was calculated with data from NOTs with an eq. ( 5).Characteristics of the study areas in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania; the values are means with minimum and maximum (range) in brackets. Overall in NE, the crop N input requirements are determined based on yield response to fertilizer and agronomic efficiencies of N (the eq. 4). The determination of fertilizer P and K requirements has been modified to consider the internal nutrient efficiency, attainable yield, nutrient balances, yield responses and residual nutrients from the previous crop (Pampolino et al., 2012;Xu et al., 2019) and calculated with eqs. (6 and 7).where (Y a -Y s ) i is yield response (kg ha −1 ), RIE is nutrient uptake requirement per ton of grain yield (kg ha −1 ), RE is recovery efficiency to nutrient application (%), Ya is attainable yield (kg ha −1 ), HI is harvest index, X G % and X S % are the nutrient return proportion of grain and straw, respectively. Further information on the development and parameterization of NE can also be found in the selection from Pampolino et al. (2012).Nutrient omission trials (NOTs) with maize were conducted in farmers' fields in the studied areas in Nigeria (N = 423), Ethiopia (N = 148), and Tanzania (N = 300), following a standardized experimental protocol. The trials were conducted over two agricultural seasons in Nigeria and Ethiopia in 2015 and 2016, and over one season (2016)(2017) in Tanzania. In Tanzania, the trials were conducted for only one season and this was assumed to suffice as the trials were conducted across a wide range of soil, climate and farm management conditions. In Adami Tullu and Hawassa in Ethiopia, and in the northern zone of Tanzania, the trials were conducted during the long rainy seasons only. Experimental fields were selected by delineating each study area into 10 × 10 km grids with ArcGIS software. Each of these 10 × 10 km grids was further delineated into 1 × 1 km sub-grids. A total of five 1 × 1 km sub-grids were selected in each study area to represent major climatic conditions, soil type, common cropping systems and farm management conditions with the aid of agro-ecological maps and local researchers. In each selected sub-grid, a field for experimentation was randomly selected, taking into account the willingness of a farmer to host the trial and availability of land to accommodate all six treatments (described subsequently).The trials comprised six treatments: (i) a control, (ii) an NPK, (iii) N omitted from NPK, (iv) P omitted from NPK, (v) K omitted from NPK, and (vi) secondary and micronutrients added to NPK. The trials were laid out in a randomized complete design replicated across farm. Plot sizes of 8 × 8 m were used in Ethiopia and Tanzania. In Nigeria, a plot size of 5 × 6 m was used because suitable fields were limited; and two trials had to be established side by side on each field -one to evaluate hybrid maize and the other one to evaluate an OPV.The nutrients (N, P & K) were applied with straight fertilizers at rates estimated to achieve the expected attainable yield without nutrient limitation in each study area. The nutrients application rates were calculated depending on the maximum attainable yield as determined based on rainfall and agro-ecological potential (Table 2). Secondary and micronutrients were applied at 24 kg S ha −1 as sulphates of Ca, Mg and Zn, 10 kg Ca ha −1 as CaSO 4 , 10 kg Mg ha −1 as MgSO 4 , 5 kg Zn ha −1 as ZnSO 4 and 5 kg B ha −1 as borax. Nitrogen was applied in three equal splits, i.e. at planting (basal), and at 21 and 35 days after emergence (DAE). All other nutrients were applied as basal at time of planting. Maize was planted at a spacing of 75 × 25 cm (1 plant per hole after thinning) equal to a plant population of 53,000 plants per hectare. A high yielding maize hybrid variety recommended for each study area was used as the test crop. In the Jimma and Bako areas of Ethiopia, the hybrid BH661 (with 160 average days to maturity) variety was used, while in the Hawassa and Adami Tullu areas BH540 (with 145 average days to maturity) was used. In Nigeria, the hybrid varieties used were OBA SUPER-9 (with 105-110 days to maturity) and OBA SUPER-1 (with 105-118 days to maturity) in the 2015 and 2016 seasons, respectively; and the OPV varieties used were IWD C2 SYN F2 (with 105-110 days to maturity) and EVDT W STR (with 90-95 days to maturity) in the northern Guinea savanna and Sudan savanna study sites, respectively. In Tanzania, a number of hybrid maize varieties were used, including SC 403 (with 131 days to maturity), SC 513 (with 137 days to maturity), SC 627 (with 142 days to maturity) each suitable to the locations in which they were planted.The experimental fields were cleared and the residues from previous season's crops removed before ploughing and harrowing to a depth of 20 cm. The plots were weeded manually at least twice during each cropping season. Pests and diseases were monitored regularly and remedial action taken as required. The trials were managed by researchers, but with support from extension advisers and host farmers.Maize grain yield was determined at physiological maturity from a net plot size of 4 × 4.5 m in Ethiopia and Tanzania, and of 3 × 3 m in Nigeria. Plants in the net plot were harvested and total fresh weights of cobs and stover were recorded. Out of the total cobs and stover harvested in the net plot, ten cobs and five stalks of stover were randomly selected and weighed. The grain and stover samples were oven-dried at 60 °C for the determination of dry matter weight. The five cobs were shelled and the shelling factor was calculated as the ratio of grain to total cob weight of the five cobs. The product of total cob weight (kg cobs/net plot) and the shelling factor (kg grain/kg cobs) is the maize grain yield (kg/net plot). Grain yield was then adjusted to 15% moisture content and converted to yield per hectare.Grains and stover samples were taken, dried to constant weight and ground for determination of biomass nutrient concentration. The concentration of total nitrogen in the grain and stover was determined using a micro-Kjeldahl digestion method, while phosphorus and potassium were analysed based on Mehlich-3 extraction procedure preceding inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy.To evaluate agronomic and economic performance of fertilizer recommendations generated with Nutrient Expert, 368 trials were *Most favourable: high rainfall and high potential maize production with attainable yield of 8-10 t ha −1 ; more favourable: moderate rainfall and medium potential maize production with attainable yield of 7-8 t ha −1 ; favourable: low rainfall and low potential maize production with attainable yield of 5-6 t ha −1 .conducted in farmers' fields in the main crop growing seasons of 2016, 2017 and 2018. Maize yield responses to different nutrients, determined from the NOTs data, were used to guide the selection of these performance trial sites to cover a broad range of response domains in the major maize growing areas. A total of 58 and 108 field trials were conducted in Ethiopia and Tanzania, respectively. In Nigeria, two trials were conducted side by side in the same field to give a total of 202 field trials; one trial was for hybrid maize and the other one for OPV. In each study area in each country, the maize varieties used in the NOTs were also used in the performance trials.The performance trials comprised of four treatments: (i) nutrient recommendations generated with NE, (ii) soil-test based nutrient recommendations (ST), (iii) the current blanket regional nutrient recommendations (RR) and (iv) a control plot (CR) with no nutrients applied. The attainable yields were determined from the NOTs and they were the same for each treatment in each study area.NE was used to generate fertilizer recommendations at each experimental field. Once NE is calibrated and validated for a particular location with data from the NOTs, it estimates the attainable yield and yield responses to fertilizer from site information with decision rules developed from on-farm trials. To enable rapid collection of input data through the NE digital interface, data for a total of only five observable variables (minimum data input) are required to run NE software to generate reliable fertilizer recommendations. The attainable yield is estimated from two variables: (i) farmer's maize yield with current fertilizer management for a growing season with typical rainfall conditions, and (ii) characteristics of the growing environment: water availability (irrigated, fully rainfed, rainfed with supplemental irrigation) and any occurrence of flooding or drought. The growing environment is classified into: low-risk, medium-risk, and high-risk based on the probabilities of flooding or drought. The soil N, P and K supply classes for determining nutrient limited yield are estimated from three variables (i) soil characteristics (i.e. texture, color and content of organic matter), (ii) historical use of organic and inorganic inputs, and (iii) apparent nutrient balance (for P and K) from the previous crop (i.e. crop type, fertilizer input) (Pampolino et al., 2012). The input data are collected from host farmers and extension advisers through NE digital interface with simple questions.Before trial establishment, the soils were sampled with an auger from 0 to 20 cm depth from four points in each trial field using a Vrandom sampling scheme. The four collected samples from each field were thoroughly mixed to form a composite sample. The clods in the composite sample were crushed and the sample sieved through a 2 mm sieve for laboratory analysis. The soils were analysed for pH in water, soil/water ratio of 1:1, (measured with a glass electrode pH meter), texture (hydrometer method), total N (micro-Kjeldahl digestion), and available P and K were analysed based on Mehlich-3 extraction procedure preceding inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. The secondary and micronutrients were not included in the analysis as the NOTs results demonstrated that overall maize yield responses to these nutrients were low across the studied sites in all three countries (see Table 3). Based on concepts described by Berger (1954), each of P and K input requirement was estimated for an attainable maize yield (Y t ) with an eq. ( 8):where N i is the crop nutrient input requirement; i = P or K; NR is N, P or K requirement per tonne of maize grain; Y a is attainable yield; S i is soil available nutrients derived from chemical analysis; E s is efficiency of soil nutrients, which is estimated from the ratio of a nutrient uptake (kg ha −1 ) to soil test value for available nutrient, derived from the nutrient omission plots. The values of NR, S i , Ya, RE and E s were derived from the NOTs data. The N input requirement for each experimental field was calculated from yield response agronomic fertilizer use efficiencies data generated from the NOTs, and confirmed from literature reported for SSA (Tittonell et al., 2008;Vanlauwe et al., 2010). The method we used for the soil-test based recommendations was an alternative after we recognized that there were no well-established recommendations developed based on this method in each country.The blanket regional recommendations (RR) were acquired from agricultural research institutions in each country. Blanket recommendations are the most commonly recommended type of fertilizer recommendations in Africa. They have been developed for large areas or agroecological zones, and are based on general soil and climate information using limited number of nutrient response trials, and usually take economic cost and benefits into consideration.The three different fertilizer recommendation treatments and the control were arranged in a randomized complete design and replicatedMaize yield response to fertilizer nutrients in major maize production areas in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania; the values are means, and the values in brackets are 25th and 75th percentiles. 1.9(1.0-3.1) 1.4(0.8-2.3) 0.2(0.0-0.8) 0.3(0.0-0.9) 2.1(1.3-3.3) Hawassa (N = 30) 1.4(0.5-2.3) 0.4(0.0-1.3) 0.2(0.0-0.6) 0.0(0.0-0.4) 1.4(0.5-2.2) Tanzania Zones Southern highlands (N = 108) 1.9(0.7-2.7) 1.2(0.3-1.8) 0.2(0.0-0.8) 0.2(0.0-0.8) 2.4(1.1-3.0) Northern (N = 66) 1.5(0.5-2.4) 0.3(0.0-1.0) 0.1(0.0-0.6) 0.1(0.0-0.6) 1.6(0.7-2.4)The data for Nigeria and Ethiopia was averaged for two cropping seasons (i.e. 2015 and 2016). * Secondary-& micro-nutrients included calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron and zinc. Yield response to N, P or K is the yield gap between NPK plots that received ample nutrients and omission plots when one of the nutrients is omitted; yield response to secondary nutrients & micronutrients was calculated as yield from plots supplied with NPK + secondary & micronutrients minus yield from plots supplied with NPK. Yield response to NPK was calculated as yield from plots supplied with NPK minus yield from plots with no fertilizer applied. The yield response data for OPV for Nigeria are not presented in this table because the responses were similar to this of hybrid.across farms. The experimental fields were prepared with a plough using draught animals. The size of each experimental plot varied from 90 to 250 m 2 , depending on the size of the field offered by a farmer. Plant spacing of 75 × 25 cm was used to achieve a plant density of 53,000 plants ha −1 . The nutrient sources were urea, single superphosphate (SSP) and muriate of potash (MOP) fertilizers. Nitrogen fertilizer was spot applied in three splits: at planting, at 21 and 42 days after emergence for recommendations generated with each method. All other nutrients were spot applied at recommended rates as basal at planting. Weeds, pests and diseases were controlled by following each country's recommended practice.Maize grain yield was determined with the same method as used for the NOTs. The net benefit of each recommendation method (treatment) was estimated through a partial budgeting approach. Net benefit was calculated by subtracting the total costs that vary across the treatments (i.e. fertilizer cost) from the gross benefits for each treatment. The gross benefits for each treatment were calculated by multiplying the price of maize grain yield per kg by the maize grain yield (kg). Other costs of production such as labour for ploughing, planting, weeding and harvesting were not taken into account since they were similar for all four treatments. Given that the increase in costs is also important in determining the use of a technology by farmers, marginal rates of return were also calculated as the change in net benefits divided by the change in costs that vary, of alternative treatments, proceeding in steps from the least costly treatment to the most costly. This ratio is expressed as a percentage. The prices of fertilizer and maize grain yield at harvest were obtained from local agro-dealers and farmers.Summary statistics including maximum, minimum, median, mean and standard deviation were used to explore the datasets of both the nutrient omission and performance trials for yield response to fertilizer nutrients, nutrient use efficiency. In accordance with the central limit theorem, the data were assumed to be normally distributed because their volume was large (N > 30). A generalized linear fixed model (GLFM) was used to test for significance of the effects of nutrient (in Genstat, version 9.2), season (in case of Nigeria and Ethiopia) and cultivar type (in case of Nigeria), and the two-way and three-way interactions on maize yield. All three factors (nutrient, cultivar and season) were included as fixed. The effects of fertilizer recommendations generated with Nutrient Expert, soil-test based and blanket recommendation methods on maize grain yield and nutrient use efficiencies were also analysed with the GLFM. Means were separated with Tukey's test at α = 5% level of significance.Maize grain yields were on average higher in Ethiopia than in Nigeria and Tanzania for each treatment, with maize yields for NPK treatment ranging between 3.8 and 7.5 t ha −1 in Ethiopia, 4.1 and 5.2 t ha −1 in Nigeria, and 3.7 and 4.6 t ha −1 in Tanzania (Fig. 2). In Nigeria, the maize grain yields realized from OPV and hybrid varieties were similar for each nutrient application category (data not shown), implying that similar nutrient management and fertilizer recommendations can be used for both maize varieties. Compared with the control (no fertilizer applied), maize yield increased significantly at most of the studied sites when NPK fertilizer was applied (Fig. 3a-c).The maize grain yield response to nutrients supplied from fertilizer varied from farm to farm and from season to season. Maize yield response to N averaged between 2.1 and 2.6 t ha −1 in Nigeria, 1.4 and 3.7 t ha −1 in Ethiopia and 1.5 and 1.9 t ha −1 in Tanzania (Table 3). The response of maize yield to P was also positive in the majority of the studied locations, averaged between 1.4 and 1.8 t ha −1 in Nigeria, 1.0 and 1.4 t ha −1 in Ethiopia, and 0.3 and 1.2 t ha −1 in Tanzania (Table 3). Significant maize yield response to K, secondary nutrients and micronutrients were observed in specific areas in each country (Fig. 3d-f, Table 3). Maize yield increased by at least 1 t ha −1 when secondary and micronutrients were applied in Bunkure, Dandume and Soba LGAs in Kaduna, Kano and Katsina States of Nigeria, respectively. Secondary and micronutrients also increased maize yield in Adami Tullu in Ethiopia and Mbozi district in Tanzania.The agronomic, recovery and internal efficiencies of N, P and K use Error bars for all interactions are not shown as they were not significantly different.varied with location. However, the most frequent scores of agronomic efficiencies (AE) of N are lower than 30 kg grain kg −1 N; on average 18, 22 and 13 kg kg −1 in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, respectively (Fig. 4). The agronomic efficiencies of P and K were respectively 32 and 2 kg kg −1 in Nigeria, 21 and 3.6 kg kg −1 in Ethiopia and 15 and 0 kg kg −1 in Tanzania (Table 4). The recovery efficiencies of N, on average, ranged from 0.24 to 0.41 in Nigeria, 0.22 to 0.34 in Ethiopia, and 0.21 to 0.23 in Tanzania (Table 4). The recovery efficiencies of P were on average > 0.2 in Nigeria and Tanzania, and 0.1 in Ethiopia (Table 4). The recovery efficiencies of K were 0.5 in Nigeria, while it was 0.1 in both Ethiopia and Tanzania (Table 4).  nutrient use efficiencies were estimated at 44 and 103 kg grain kg −1 N, 176 and 608 kg grain kg −1 P, and 38 and 110 kg grain kg −1 K, respectively, in Nigeria (Table 4). In Ethiopia, the maximum accumulation and dilution of the internal nutrient use efficiencies were estimated at 27 and 80 kg grain kg −1 N, 194 and 505 kg grain kg −1 P, and 16 and 87 kg grain kg −1 K, respectively (Table 4). In Tanzania, the maximum accumulation and dilution of the internal nutrient use efficiencies were estimated at 34 and 98 kg grain kg −1 N, 90 and 537 kg grain kg −1 P, and 30 and 126 kg grain kg −1 K, respectively (Table 4).NE recommended lower amounts of phosphorus by 9 and 11 kg ha −1 than soil-test based and blanket regional fertilizer recommendations, respectively, in Nigeria (Table 5). Similarly NE recommended lower amounts of potassium by 24 and 38 kg ha −1 than soil-test based and blanket regional fertilizer recommendations, respectively, in Nigeria (Table 5). Yet, maize yields were not significantly different (at 4.4 t ha −1 ) for the three recommendation methods although the yields varied with location (Fig. 5a). Using less P and K nutrients while maintaining high yield levels, NE recommendations increased the agronomic efficiencies of P and K fertilizer use by 106% and 108%, respectively, over the blanket fertilizer recommendations (Fig. 6b & c). The mean agronomic efficiency of N was 27 kg kg −1 and was similar among the three recommendation methods in Nigeria (Fig. 6a). The cost of fertilizers used in maize production was lower by US$ 77 ha −1 for NE than for the regional fertilizer recommendations in Nigeria (Fig. 7a). Net benefits were also higher by US$ 30 ha −1 for NE than for blanket regional recommendations (Fig. 7b). On average, NE net returns are equal to 97% of the soil-test based net returns, while NE costs are 89% of soil-test based costs. NE is more profitable than soiltest based in almost half of all cases (46%). The marginal rates of return were higher for NE (554%) than for ST (158%) in Nigeria (Fig. 7c). Regional blanket recommendation was excluded from the net benefits curve because it has higher cost that vary, but lower net benefits.In Ethiopia, maize grain yield was not significantly different among the three recommendation methods (Fig. 5b) despite varied nutrient recommendations by the three methods (Table 5). NE and soil-test based methods respectively recommended lower amounts of phosphorus by 8 and 19 kg ha −1 than the blanket recommendations. However, the recommended N rate (120 kg ha −1 ) generated with NE was similar to soil-test based recommendations, but higher by 9 kg ha −1 than the blanket recommendations (Table 5). Fertilizer recommendations generated by all three methods did not require application of K fertilizer in Jimma and Bako regions of Ethiopia, as available soil K was adequate for maize production. However, NE recommended a median of 27 kg ha −1 of potassium (Table 5) for longterm soil fertility maintenance for sustainable crop production as NE is designed to take cognizance of the effect of nutrient mining on long term soil degradation. Consequently, in Ethiopia NE played a critical role as a co-learning tool between researchers and extension to further understand nutrient requirements in the two regions for improved recommendations.In Tanzania, the median N rates generated with the three methods were similar although there were variations in NE and soil-test based recommendations (Table 5). The amount of P generated with NE and blanket recommendations were comparable, but they were respectively lower by 10 and 13 kg ha −1 than recommendations developed with the soil-test based method. The blanket fertilizer recommendations in Tanzania currently exclude recommendations for K fertilizers. However, NE recommended small amounts of K for soil fertility maintenance. Maize grain yields obtained between NE, soil-test based and regional fertilizer recommendations were not significantly different (Fig. 5c). However, maize yields obtained in Tanzania for all the three recommendation methods were highly depressed due to within-season dry spells and infestation by fall armyworm. The low maize yield affected the net benefits and hence they were low and comparable between the three methods (data not shown). The fertilizer recommendations generated with NE and soil-test based methods varied from farm to farm in each country. Consequently, the fertilizer rates developed from NE maintained high maize yield, and increased use efficiency of nutrients and net benefits of maize farmers. In particular, NE recommended lower amounts of P and K fertilizers, yet maize yields were similar to soil-test based and regional fertilizer recommendations in Nigeria. Using the available fertilizer blends in Nigeria, this meant a decrease in the use of NPK fertilizer, resulting in an investment saving of about US$ 80 ha −1 . In Ethiopia, NE also recommended lower amounts of P than the blanket recommendations, but it maintained high yield levels. Using less P and K while maintaining high yields, NE recommendations thus increased the agronomic use efficiency of fertilizer. These results demonstrate that the blanket recommended P and K amounts in Nigeria and P amounts in Ethiopia, are higher than required. However, farmers normally apply lower rates of fertilizer than the recommended rates. At regional and global scales, excess P in the farming systems has a tendency of being washed away by rain water into water bodies leading to water pollution (Nyamangara et al., 2013).In Ethiopia, NE and soil-test based methods recommended higher amounts of nitrogen than the regional recommendations. Yet similar yields were achieved with a lower rate of 111 kg N ha −1 from the blanket recommendation suggesting that NE and soil-test based recommendations underestimated the N that was supplied from the soil. Therefore, further work to improve the understanding of indigenous soil N supply in these regions in Ethiopia in relation to soil types and management history is needed to adjust the N rates recommended by NE. In this case NE was important as a co-learning tool among researchers.All three recommendation methods were in agreement that in most of the studied sites, especially in Ethiopia, the soil K supply was adequate for maize production as no yield penalties were observed when K fertilizer was omitted. This is in accordance with the low maize yield responses to K observed in the nutrient omission trials (see Table 3), as also reported in literature (Nziguheba et al., 2009;Kihara et al., 2016). However, NE recommended small amounts of potassium for soil fertility maintenance based on SSNM principles that provide guidelines for maintenance K application in high potential maize production environments to avoid depletion of soil K reserves in the long-term (Dobermann and White, 1998). However, there is a trade-off between applying K for soil maintenance and profitability of a recommendation. The important implication of this is that there is need to revise the NE algorithm for applying K for maintenance of soil fertility to reduce K application for increased profits of maize farmers in Ethiopia.The variability in fertilizer recommendations generated with NE and soil-test based methods is due to wide variability in yield responses to soil and fertilizer nutrients as influenced by varying inherent soil nutrient supply, attainable yield, recovery and internal nutrient use efficiencies (Tittonell et al., 2008). The soil nutrient supply, attainable yield and nutrient use efficiencies vary due to different soil types with varying mineralogy and soil water holding capacity, rainfall conditions, crop variety and crop agronomic management practices. Results from the nutrient omission trials conducted in this study demonstrated that maize yield responses to soil and fertilizer nutrients and maize yield vary with location and season.Similar to yield responses, the agronomic and recovery efficiencies of applied nutrients also varied with study site. Although agronomic efficiencies of N (AEN) fertilizer vary with location, their mean values of < 22 kg kg −1 observed in each country in this study were much lower than an average value of 36 kg kg −1 observed in well-managed farmers' fields with high organic carbon content (Kurwakumire et al., 2014) and when a combination of mineral fertilizers and manure or compost was used in maize in SSA (Vanlauwe et al., 2010). This demonstrates the importance of improved agronomic management practices to increase efficiency use of nutrients and productivity in these crop systems, especially in Tanzania where the values of AEN are too low (ten Berge et al., 2019). The low values of AEN were, however, comparable with the values reported for SSA for maize applied with mineral fertilizer alone (Smaling and Janssen, 1993;Vanlauwe et al., 2010).The N recovery fractions of < 0.4 observed in this study are lower than a standard value of 0.5 reported for maize under on-farm conditions in sub-Saharan Africa (Janssen et al., 1990;Smaling and Janssen, 1993). However, these low N recovery fractions are similar to values observed in poorly managed fields characterized by low organic carbon (Kurwakumire et al., 2014). The P recovery fractions observed in this study in Nigeria and Tanzania are slightly higher than a standard value of 0.1 reported for maize in SSA (Janssen et al., 1990). The higher values of P recovery fractions may be partly related to build-up of residual P in the soil due to continuous application of excess P fertilizers in the previous seasons. The K recovery fractions observed in this study in Ethiopia and Tanzania are lower than a standard value of 0.5 observed for maize in SSA (Janssen et al., 1990). The yield to nutrient uptake ratios of maximum dilution and accumulation of N, P and K observed in this study are within the ranges of values reported for SSA (Janssen et al., 1990;Smaling and Janssen, 1993;Tittonell et al., 2008) and other regions (Liu et al., 2006;Sattari et al., 2014) suggesting that these values are applicable to a wider range of maize growing conditions.Overall, the wide variation in yield responses to soil and applied nutrients reinforces the need for development of decision support tools such as NE for site-specific fertilizer recommendations in SSA.NE decision support tool has demonstrated its usefulness in formulating fertilizer recommendations that are specific to field conditions, but scaling its recommendations to new geographies demands establishment of fertilizer response trials or mobilization of legacy data from fertilizer trials. Due to considerable financial, time and infrastructural investments, it is difficult to continually establish multi-location on-farm diagnostic fertilizer response trials in a wide range of agro-ecologies. On the other hand, the legacy data on yield responses to nutrients is not available in many areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Geospatial data on soil, weather, crop yield, which have become increasingly available for public use, will create a great opportunity to understand crop response to soil and fertilizer nutrients for larger areas and enable rapid calibration of nutrient management decision support tools such as NE to be able to reach millions of farmers with nutrient management advice. For instance, the soil information project has improved the availability, quality and resolution of geo-referenced data on soil fertility properties and soil water, in SSA (Hengl et al., 2017;Leenaars et al., 2018). Similarly, HarvestChoice has increased the availability of spatial yield data (https://harvestchoice.org), while the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) has increased the public availability of spatial weather data (http://chg.geog.ucsb.edu/data/chirps). However, groundtruthing of geospatial agronomic data is important to improve the predictions as well as to evaluate the uncertainties of fertilizer recommendations provided to farmers.NE can be overlaid on emerging spatial frameworks as the technology extrapolation domain (TED), which is designed to scale out technologies and practices to larger areas (Andrade et al., 2019). The TED framework delineates an area with similar climate and soil factors (i.e. annual total growing degree-days, aridity index, annual temperature seasonality and plant-available water holding capacity in the rootable soil depth) and these factors govern crop yield response in rain-fed cropping systems. Consequently, NE can be used to provide a specific recommendation to a TED, as the domain is assumed to have a similar yield response to soil and fertilizer nutrients.Over 700 nutrient omission trials conducted across a broad range of major maize producing areas in this study reinforced earlier observations that there is a wide spatial and temporal variability in crop yield response to soil and fertilizer nutrients in African smallholder cropping systems. Nitrogen was the most limiting for maize growth followed by phosphorus in each country in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Promoting fertilizers that balance soil N and P dynamics for balanced plant nutrition is important for increased yields and profits of small holder maize farmers as well as protecting the environment. The calculated QUEFTS envelope functions from this study were overall within the range of values reported for SSA and this demonstrates that QUEFTS is generic and can form a basis for developing simple nutrient management decision support systems such as NE that promote sitespecific nutrient management. The nutrients recommendations generated with NE decision support system balanced fertilization and maximized the agronomic efficiency (AE) of applied nutrient inputs. It maintained high yields, but at a lower fertilizer input cost than current recommendation methods. Even though NE performed better, there is still a room to further improve its predictions as more knowledge about local maize production is acquired and capacity to improve the quality of input data is built. NE was effective as a simple and cost-effective tool for fine-tuning fertilizer recommendations to farm-specific soil fertility conditions in wide range of soil and climatic conditions in sub-Saharan Africa. However, NE recommendations need to be evaluated relative to farmers' current fertilizer practices as many farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa do not use recommendations generated with blanket or soil-test based methods. Geo-spatial soil and agronomic information that has become increasingly available for public use will create a great opportunity to enable rapid calibration of nutrient management decision support tools such as NE to provide recommendations for larger areas and reach millions of farmers with improved and sustainable nutrient management advice.","tokenCount":"8126"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6c801e6634882bbfc5d25604b63e374f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.icid.org/wif3_bali_2019/wif3_1-1_53-min.pdf","id":"1990192425"},"keywords":["Canal Irrigation","groundwater recharge","high value crop cultivation","conjunctive management","lift irrigation"],"sieverID":"55749d00-d177-47dd-b7aa-0e2bd530b869","pagecount":"10","content":"During the Green Revolution era, paddy cultivation was promoted with much vigor within Kerala. The canal systems that supplied timely irrigation played an important role in promoting food security within the state as rice self-sufficiency became a political concern. Under changing circumstances, paddy cultivation has seen a drastic downward trend in the last 30 years. One of the reasons for this trend is the irregularity in water supply through canals resulting from the flow fluctuations due to various hydroelectric projects that have come up in the upstream and inefficiencies arising out of low maintenance and performance management. At the same time, farmers in Kerala have largely shifted towards the cultivation of high valued cash crops. This paper presents a case study of the Chalakudy River Diversion Scheme which once served the irrigation requirements of paddy in the Chalakudy river basin. The paper tries to shed light on how farmers have adapted to the evolving nature of CRDS as they continually shift towards cash crops that require better water control. In this process, CRDS has ended up as an entity vastly different from the intent of its planners. The role of canal irrigation, changing from direct flow irrigation to complementing recharge or replenishment of groundwater and surface water storages, may point towards the imminent transformation of canal irrigation in the rest of India.Paddy is the major food crop cultivated in the southern-most Indian state of Kerala. The area under paddy in 1967-68 was 48% of the total food crop area. This reduced to 15% in 1995-96 and 10% in 2004-05. In the last forty years, there has been a steady decline in Paddy cultivation within the state. The total paddy area during the year 1975-76 was 8.76 lakh hectares which came down to 1.71 lakh hectares in 2016-17, a sharp decline of 80.48% and currently accounting for only 6.63% of the total cropped area in the state (Agricultural Statistics 2017). The present trend shows that the ratio of food crop to non-food crop area is 12:88 indicating a threat to food security within the state (Karunakaran 2014). District wise data also indicates a tremendous decrease in traditional rice growing areas like Palakkad and Alappuzha which have shown a decline of 51.69 percent and 26.46 percent respectively between 1995-96 and 2016-17 (Figure 1)Agriculture in Kerala has seen a gradual shift from food crops like rice and tapioca to plantation crops like coconut, rubber and coffee. The reduction in area under food crops from 40.23 percent in 1970-71 to 18.74 percent in 1992-93 and 16.52 percent in 2002-03 is a phenomenon that has happened very rarely in any state (Mani 2009). On the other hand, there has been a sizeable increase in the cultivation of cash crops like Nutmeg which has seen an increase of 190% in 2016-17 as compared to 2001-02 (Agricultural Statistics 2017). Diversification of crops is the dominant feature of the state today (Karunakaran 2015). Looking at the change in cropping pattern (Figure 2), rice has lost the maximum area, while rubber gained the maximum area (5.23 percent in 1960-61 to 19.69 percent in 2009-10). In recent years, rubber seems to be replacing rice in the plains, coconut in the midland valleys and, coconut and cashewnut in the midland and highland areas (Mani 2009). The drastic reduction in paddy cultivation may be attributed to a number of factors. These may be high cost of cultivation resulting from a steep rise in farm wages, labour shortage, lack of institutional support, delay of payments in government procurement, decline in soil fertility and deteriorating irrigation facilities among others (Suchitra 2015). Another reason is the livelihood diversification that has taken place at the household level leading to an increased dominance of service sector jobs within the state. As farmers become more prosperous with higher quality of life, moving out of food crops like paddy and towards high income crops is only rational as they make maximum use of the already fragmented landholdings.Three crops of paddy are taken up for cultivation in all districts of Kerala except in Wayanad district where there is no autumn cultivation. However, the major crop which contributes 51 percent of the cultivated area is the winter paddy. In the districts of Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta, 100 percent of the cultivated winter paddy is irrigated (Agricultural Statistics 2017). Traditionally winter paddy, also known as Mundakan paddy, has relied mainly on canal systems which were solely designed keeping in mind the water requirements and irrigation timings of the paddy crop. The irrigation infrastructure in Kerala is divided into storage schemes and diversion schemes which have a combined net irrigation potential of 2.5 lakh ha. Canal irrigation was promoted widely during the Green Revolution era to improve food security within the state as rice self-sufficiency became a political concern for the leaders of the state. However, similar to most canal systems in India, these schemes have faced degradation over time increasing the IPC-IPU gap within the state. The reasons for this decline include deterioration in planning and management of public irrigation at all levels, failure to adapt to the increase in groundwater irrigation and the challenge of performance management in the new irrigation economy (Shah 2011).River diversion is a traditional method that comprises of a weir constructed across the stream for raising and diverting water from the river for gravity flow irrigation. Of the four major diversion schemes under the irrigation department, the Chalakudy River Diversion Scheme (CRDS), commissioned in 1958, is the largest. It was meant to serve a total ayacut area of 14942 ha that almost entirely comprised of paddy cultivation. The canal system has a length of 100km of main canals and 280 km of branch canals and distributaries. The purpose of the scheme was to facilitate irrigation in 29 Local Self Governments (LSG) in Ernakulam and Thrissur districts.The diversion leads to a Left Bank Canal (LBC) and a Right Bank Canal (RBC) which cover 14 municipalities in total.Flow of water through the canal initially depended on the flow through Chalakudy River. When CRDS was constructed, there were no irrigation or hydro-electric projects in the upstream. Subsequently three projects have come up in the upstream of the diversion schemethe upper Sholayar Dam in Tamil Nadu which is in the far upstream, the Poringalkuthu Left Bank Hydroelectric Project (PLB-HEP) in the immediate upstream and the proposed Athirapally Hydroelectric project which would lie in the immediate upstream after PLB-HEP. Thus, currently CRDS is completely dependent on the tail race discharge from PLB-HEP. According to South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) (2013), The PLB-HEP was supposed to function as a base load power station but over the last two decades, the semi-peaking operation of the hydroelectric project has led to daily flow fluctuations in the CRDS as the power scheduling and irrigation scheduling do not match.Organisations like SANDRP and the Irrigation Department have vehemently opposed the construction of the Athirapally project which is also designed as a peaking station and would lead to further fluctuations in the flow through CRDS thus affecting the 29 LSGs that depend on it for their irrigation as well as drinking water needs. CRDS has also been subjected to poor maintenance and faces seepage of 50 percent leading to an enormous loss in the canal water flow. All these factors add up to the present situation of unpredictable water availability for irrigation which has, among other reasons, led to farmers opting to move out of paddy to other commercial crops.  (d). farmers have resorted to effective management of water for irrigation in their farms.A total of six panchayats were identified for the study, Pariyaram, Chalakudy and Aloor belonging to the upper, middle and tail areas of the RBC, and similarly Mukanoor, Melur and Karukutty belonging to the LBC. Four wards were identified from each panchayat, where Focus Group Discussions and semi-structured interviews were conducted with farmers in each ward. The data so collected included crops cultivated, farming and irrigation techniques used, changes in cropping pattern and techniques adopted for effective management of irrigation water. The CRDS after its inception had a steady flow of water with a meticulously planned irrigation schedule that was required for paddy cultivation, where flooding of fields has to be done once in 10 days. Since the late 1980s there had been a steady decline in the area irrigated under paddy and at the same time cropping intensity of commercial crops like Coconut, Plantain and Nutmeg had been on the rise, much in line with the scenario in the rest of Kerala. From 2005 to 2015, the area cultivated under paddy reduced from 2400 acres to 1500 acres within the canal command. Of the 24 wards that were surveyed, paddy was no longer the principal crop and was replaced by coconut. Plantain, nutmeg and arecanut followed (refer Table 1).  This clearly shows that farmers have adapted to changes in their irrigation pattern given that CRDS was designed exclusively for paddy cultivation. Currently, water release in the RBC happens once in 14 days until January and then this increases to once in 17-18 days in the following months. On the LBC the release happens once in 22 days post January. To accommodate these changes, farmers in all the wards have resorted to alternate measures such as lift irrigation, use of storage tanks, dugwells, panchayat instituted thodu (streams/drains) and chiras (natural ponds) all of which depend on the indirect recharge or replenishment through canal water seepage.In the year 2005-06, canal as a source of direct irrigation constituted 80-85 percent of the irrigated area near the head end. This reduced to 60 percent in 2015-16 combined with an increase in dependence on wells and other sources of irrigation such as private or community-initiated lift irrigation structures, ponds and other storage structures. The decrease in dependence on canals was found to be even more severe in the middle and tail ends (see Figure 4). While irrigation through wells is common for nutmeg, tapioca, yam and colocasia; coconut, arecanut and plantains, that require less frequent irrigations, are managed using Lift Irrigation (LI) structures, tanks and ponds. Farmers have unanimously mentioned that inefficiencies in canal irrigation have resulted from poor maintenance of the canals, degradation of sprouts and shutters, absence of proper field channels for fields situated away from the sproutsand inefficient management resulting in improper distribution of water. Tail enders are forced to delay their plantation periods resulting in loss of productivity.Poor performance of CRDS drove farmers away from paddy to crops with variegated irrigation schedules which in turn made canal irrigation secondary, and allowed bureaucracy to relax management processes, thus creating a negative loop within the system.Being a first-generation project, the Command Area Development Authority (CADA) stipulated the setting up of Beneficiary Farmers' Associations (BFA), Canal Committees (CC) and Project Advisory Committees (PAC) to manage the anarchy in the last mile delivery of canal water in the command. This was meant to construct field channels and ensure adequate water supply with equitable distribution. Studies conducted by Chackacherry (1996) and Joseph (2001) on the efficacy of these institutions in Kerala, suggest the failure of such measures due to lack of awareness among farmers, absence of effective leadership for BFAs, corruption, political interference, lack of structural reforms, administrative lapses etc. Interaction with Irrigation Department officials revealed that BFAs are non-existent within the command area and PAC meetings were only held as a formality.Highly water dependent, requires water in its seedling and transplantation.Best productivity is achieved during the first three months of growth. Flooding fields once in 10 days is shown to produce best results. Delay of 5 days leads to reduction by 15-20 percent and total loss if watered in 20 days.Needs to be watered only during the sapling stages, after which it tends to manage without water for as long as 15 days.Needs to be watered once in 7 days, to produce best results. Delaying irrigation can reduce productivity. Irrigation can be extended to once in 10 days, but extending beyond that has seen reduced quality of the fruit and drying of the leaves. What we see today in the CRDS command area is a combination of state, private and community led irrigation systems, as the change from subsistence crops to high valued commercial crops requires assured irrigation during critical months.Wells: Farmers' investment in wells is dependent on two main factorsthe type of crop grown and the status of farmers owning the land. In the head regions, large farmers who grow nutmeg, tapioca, plantains and tubers were found to depend more on private dugwells. Since the productivity of these crops depends on timely irrigation, farmers invest up to ₹25,000 -30,000 for the construction of wells. These are mostly part-time farmers who also own other businesses. George and Mohan (2016) observed that almost every house in the head end had a well/tubewell for irrigation and direct dependence on canal had significantly reduced. It was also found that farmers at the head end over-appropriate the canal water by illegally pumping water into their wells using PVC pipes and 3 hp pumps during summer months. After every summer, the pipes are destroyed and the pumps are taken back for use during next summer. At the same time it was also noted that tail enders, who do not get sufficient canal water supply during summer months, need to depend on tankers which fill up their wells during these critical months.Panchayat efforts: Farmers of Karukutty panchayat which falls near the tail end of CRDS had been facing extreme water shortage especially during summer months.Through the support of the panchayat, Manjalithodu, a natural pond within the panchayat was rerouted to two new storage structures which were constructed between wards 17,12 and 13. Although this solved the problem of water scarcity to some extent, the tanks can only maintain their levels if there is sufficient flow through the canal which would recharge the pond.As compared to investment in well irrigation which is done at the individual level, lift irrigation has seen widespread collective response. Vis-à-vis canals where water supply depends on scheduling, lift irrigation schemes supply water as per the demand. George and Mohan found that LI pumps were greater in number in the middle and tail ends which were mostly managed by farmer collectives.The chief crops cultivated here were coconut, arecanut and rubber which are less water intensive. Menon et al. (2005) studied several lift irrigation schemes in Meloor panchayat, which falls under the command area of CRDS, that were promoted by the state, co-managed by state and farmers, and owned and managed collectively by farmers. Efficient allocation through these schemes depend on the presence of water allocation rules, monitoring system, strong organizational set up, and able and fair leadership. One such example is the Naduthuruth Lift Irrigation Unit where the need for alternative supply of water motivated farmers from Naduthuruth region of Meloor panchayat to set up a lift irrigation project within the village through financial support from the Small Farmers' Development Agency (SFDA). The project lifts water from a natural drain and supplies it in three directions through outlets that work in rotation depending on need. They have also included a pump operator who additionally monitors the time allocation and conducts fee collection. Field channels are repaired by the water users themselves.The Minor Irrigation Department has also set up over 29 LI schemes within the Chalakudy basin, with a combined ayacut of 1900 ha. The majority of these schemes have come up post 1985 with the weakening of the CRDS and significant decline in paddy area. Using pumps that range from 15 hp to 150 hp, these schemes include both lifting directly from Chalakudy river as well as through the multiple chiras within the command. The water is then transported to fields through small canals of 2m width and 75cm depth which use gravity flow or through underground pipelines that transport water to the uplands. These LI schemes function from November to May on a daily basis.The irrigation department, despite their tight budgets and a meagre annual maintenance fee of ₹1.8 crore, have proposed implementation of additional infrastructure to ensure the timely flow of water through the CRDS. These include the provision of additional sprouts and the construction of two checkdams at Vettilapara and Kunankuzhi which are located in the immediate upstream just after the proposed Athirapally project. Water stored in these checkdams can then be controlled for regularizing the flow through the canal. The department has also proposed a Link Canal project costing ₹75 crores which will connect the main canal of Bhoothanketu barrage to the LBC thus ensuring that water reaches the tail ends even during critical months. System design and centralized operation were the cornerstone of large gravity flow systems constructed by the state in India since the colonial times. However, a comprehensive irrigation management regime that enforced rules and minimized head-tail inequity was always critical for managing these systems to their design potential for performance. Post 1990, despite large public investment in canal systems, their relative share in area irrigated showed an absolute decline (Shah 2009). CRDS was one such system that was scientifically designed to match the irrigation schedule of paddy. Over time, anarchy crept in at the last mile arising from acts of commission like the unauthorized lifting of water from the canal by head reach farmers and acts of omission like the failure of BFAs to cooperate in maintenance and repair (Burt and Styles 1999). This was coupled with administrative lapses in maintenance that resulted in the current decrepit state of the canal system. From the viewpoint of the performance of an irrigation system is judged by the level of water control it offers (Boyce 1988). In the CRDS command, there is now a lack of homogeneity of farming systems that once existed. Farmers grow different crops with varying scales and schedules of water demand. Head reach farmers who have better water control through reliance on private wells cultivate high value crops that require frequent watering whereas tail end farmers that depend more on collective LI structures grow less water intensive crops.Much of the blame for flow fluctuations within the canal has been directed towards the hydro-electric power plants in the upstream which have accorded higher priority to power generation in scheduling water releases than the irrigation needs of farmers. However, as farming shifts towards cash crops, an irrigation schedule specifically designed for paddy may not be beneficial. Farmers now have been shown to indirectly depend on irrigation canals which have been converted into recharge canals within the command. This is similar to the case of the Guhai irrigation system in North Gujarat, where canal releases are available only 3-4 times but most farmers irrigate 35-45 times in a year through canal recharge of wells in the command area (Shah, 2010). Therefore, even though the water release is untimely, if enough water flows through the canal during critical months even a few times, it would result in sufficient recharge. Verma (2011) observed, during a field visit to canal commands in Rajkot district, that farmers at the tail end request to release one full irrigation through canal release instead of multiple smaller irrigations, so that it would help recharge wells in the command area through water seepage. This could be one of the ways to salvage more value from the canal system in an era when everybody wants private irrigation. Another way could be inducing seepage through the canal system by making the canal distributaries largely unlined. Meijer et al. (2006) while studying the UdaWalave irrigation scheme in southern Sri Lanka found that canal seepage accounts for a substantial contribution to groundwater recharge, about 55 percent annually and up to 75 percent in dry seasons. It was estimated that after concrete lining the annual groundwater recharge in the irrigated areas would be reduced by approximately 50 percent. Conjunctive management of surface and ground water could lessen the diseconomies of canal systems and maximise its positive externalities. Shah (1990) argues that establishing a long-term water balance equilibrium over the entire command would require discouraging canal irrigation use and encouraging groundwater irrigation near the head and along the main and branch canals. This could be the most effective way to secure an extensive spread of canal water resources.Policy makers continue to infuse fresh capital in modernizing flow irrigation systems through programs such as Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Program (AIBP). The CADA act of 1986 also failed to yield positive results in managing anarchy at the last mile.According to Shah (2009) the dependence on unreliable flow irrigation has rapidly eroded because of three changesa) new opportunities for off-farm livelihoods, b) pressures and temptations to diversify cropping and c) pump irrigation. As farmers grow prosperous, what can be seen in the CRDS command area may be observed in canal commands all over the country.7.","tokenCount":"3466"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c26db09774d350453316c17de9500810","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://newmedit.iamb.it/share/img_new_medit_articoli/1079_10kashiwagi.pdf","id":"802153270"},"keywords":["Jel classification: O12, O13, O14 Olive oil","stochastic frontier production function","technical efficiency","in-house production, Tunisia"],"sieverID":"a85dc261-5c7e-4dca-9b37-92212fe814dd","pagecount":"11","content":"Tunisia under the industrial upgrading programme (programme de mise à niveau: PMN). Using a sample of 113 olive oil firms, the translog type of stochastic frontier production function was estimated. Results suggest that the introduction of modern technology, employment of management staff and in-house production of olives contribute to improved technical efficiency. These results confirm the pertinence of the PMN which promotes the use of modern technologies and the introduction of the continuous chains system for olive oil extraction; however, development of in-house production of olives could contribute to improving quality of olive oil product.Tunisia is the world's third-largest exporter of olive oil during the period 2014/15 after Italy and Spain. Tunisia's production of olive oil accounted for 260,000 tonnes and its export amounted to 170,000 tonnes in 2014/15 1 . However, the olive oil sector in Tunisia has faced difficult times since the mid-1990s. One factor is the increasing pace of liberalization since the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. Another factor is the agreement with EU under the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership launched during the mid-1990s. This agreement requires the Tunisian agro-food sector, which includes olives and olive-oil production, to open its markets and join the EU-Mediterranean free trade area. In the face of growing international competition, the Tunisian government put in place the industrial upgrading programme (programme de mise à niveau: PMN) in 1996 as part of the liberalization process (World Bank, 2009). This programme aims at improving the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector to meet the new challenges posed by the accession of Tunisia to the WTO and European partnerships.A whopping 90% of Tunisian firms are small and medium enterprises that are largely familyowned (World Bank, 2009). To prepare them for a more liberal and competitive environment, substantial financial support has been made available through a dedicated fund aimed at improving industrial competitiveness. The upgrading process has two components: physical investment in machinery modernisation and laboratory equipment, and intangible investment in the form of training and capacity building, mainly for quality control and the adoption of the ISO or European quality schemes. This upgrading programme is run in conjunction with the Industrial Modernisation Programme (IMP), which was launched in 2004, supported by EU under the MEDA programme for the implementation of the EU-Med partnership (Zaibet, 2007;World Bank, 2009).Olive oil production, the first agro-food export sector, was among the first sectors to be served by PMN. Despite its increasing importance, few studies have investigated the productivity and technical efficiency of this sector. Regarding the analysis on technical efficiency of olive production in Tunisia, Lachaal et al. (2005) estimated the level of technical efficiency of olive-growing farms using cross-sectional data. The study focused on the relatively low level of technical efficiency scores as well as their determinants -small farm size, large number of farm plots and scarcity ofKenichi KASHIWAGI (1) , Nadhem MTIMET (2) , Lokman ZAIBET (3) , Masakazu NAGAKI (4)  Ce travail analyse l'efficacité technique des entreprises productrices d'huile d'olive en Tunisie sous le Programme de mise à niveau (PMN). En utilisant un échantillon formé par 113 entreprises productrices d'huile d'olive, on a estimé une fonction de production stochastique du type translog. Les résultats obtenus suggèrent que l'utilisation des technologies modernes, le fait d'avoir des cadres en management, et l'autoproduction d'olives améliorent l'efficacité technique de l'entreprise. Ces résultats confirment la pertinence du PMN qui soutient l'utilisation de technologies modernes et l'introduction du système de chaîne continue d'extraction d'huile d'olive. Cependant, l'autoproduction d'olives pourrait contribuer à l'amélioration de la qualité du produit. skilled labour and training. By collecting panel data, Tzouvelekas et al. (1999) surveyed the olive production of Greek farmers to show how factors of production affected technical efficiency and technological change. Tzouvelekas et al. (2001) compared the technical efficiency of organic olive-growing farms with those of conventional farms in Greece, and found slightly higher technical efficiency on organic farms, relative to their production frontier, than conventional ones 2 .Although many studies have investigated technical efficiency at the farm level (olive production), there are, to our knowledge, only two studies that focused on olive oil production. The first is by Damas and Romero (1997), who analysed the technical efficiency of olive oil producing cooperatives in Jaén (Andalusia). They found that technical efficiencies varied by periods as well as between and within cooperatives. Decisions on the development of cooperatives and their financial policies had a significant impact on their technical efficiencies. Moreover, Spain's admission into the EU economy had a positive effect on the efficiency of cooperatives. A subsequent study by Dios-Palomares and Martínez-Paz (2011) examined technical efficiency in production, quality and the environmental management of the olive oil sector in Andalusia (Spain) by applying the nonparametric approach. The study showed a medium to high level of relative technical efficiency (84.8%), and highlighted the importance of efficiency factors in production and marketing associations for achieving production quality and for environmental management purposes. Both studies employed the data envelopment approach (DEA) for estimating the level of technical efficiency of olive oil producers; however, sources of technical inefficiency were not identified by applying the parametric approach.To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to examine technical efficiency of olive oil production in Tunisia. In addition, it would be valuable to have a baseline estimated in the initial stage for the efficiency scores. Given the aforementioned PMN, an assessment of improvement in technical efficiency would provide useful insights into their efficacy and on future steps and decisions. Hence, this paper investigates technical efficiency at the firm level for olive oil producers in Tunisia, using a stochastic frontier production function with technical inefficiency effects. The objective is to estimate the level of technical efficiency and identify the sources of efficiency in the production of olive oil during the implementation of the PMN.The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we review the Tunisian olive oil sector. The methodology of the stochastic frontier model is elaborated in Section 3. In Section 4, we examine the data collection process. Empirical results are presented in Section 5. Based on the empirical results, we extend discussions in Section 6. Section 7 concludes the paper.Production of olives comprises an important part of the Tunisian agro-food sector, accounting for 41.1% of the total harvested area and 15.1% of agricultural production in 2012 3 . The olive oil sector contributes to Tunisian socio-economic development by providing 40 million working days per year (20% of agricultural employment) and mitigating an exodus from the rural to urban areas by employing the rural population. The olive oil sector, either directly or indirectly, employs over 1 million people and 269,000 farmers are dedicated to growing olives (Angulo et al., 2011).Olive oil is a major export product of Tunisia. FAO statistics of 2011 shows volume of its export accounted for 18.6 million US dollars, representing 18.1% of the total export of agricultural products. As noted, Tunisia is the thirdlargest exporter of olive oil; however, these exports are mainly directed to Italy, Spain and USA. In fact, 97% of Tunisian olive oil export is still traded unbranded and in bulk (World Bank, 2009, Karray andKanoun, 2013), with a large proportion of it forming part of the olive oil contingent free-trade agreement signed by Tunisia and EU. The Tunisian government sought to increase bottled olive oil exports, specifically extra virgin olive oil, to reach 10% of their total exports by 2010. However, this goal has not been achieved; only 2% to 3% are actually exported in bottles. The aim of increasing bottled olive oil exports is to generate higher value added and establish a presence in overseas markets with the bottles having an original Tunisian label.The Tunisian government launched PMN in 1996 to improve the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector and meet the new challenges of the accession of Tunisia to the WTO and European partnerships. PMN forms part of a series of other national upgrading programmes initiated by the Tunisian authorities in the mid-1990s to re-adjust the economy. At the end of October 2015, approximately 5,289 companies had participated in PMN, with a total investment amount of 9,039 million Tunisian dinars (TND) 4 . The mechanical and electrical industry and the agro-food sector account for the largest investments, representing 19.5% and 19.0% of total investment, respectively. In the agro-food sector, physical investment, which consists of equipment and machinery modernisation, represents 92% of the total investment. The remaining 8% (148 million TND) were allocated to intangible investments in the form of employee training and capacity building, mainly for quality control and the adoption of ISO or the European quality schemes.Regarding the olive oil sector, specifically olive oil producers at the end of 2010, the upgrading programme permitted the participation of approximately 140 firms. Nevertheless, only two companies were certified with ISO 9002.Improving product quality is an important factor in increasing Tunisian olive oil competitiveness in local and foreign markets. The proportion of extra virgin olive oil (higher quality) exports is increasing compared with ordinary virgin olive oil. It represented 56% of the value of total Tunisian olive oil exports in 2008. To improve product quality, the Tunisian government supported olive oil producers (through the fund for improvement of industrial competitiveness) to improve the extracting processes and capacities by upgrading the machinery and facilitating the adoption of new technologies. The number of modern olive oil mills, such as continuous chains, has increased substantially over the past 15 years, leading to a national extracting capacity of 41,500 tonnes per day, three times greater than the triturating capacity of the 1980s.The Tunisian olive oil producing system is composed of three coexisting olive oil extracting systems: the traditional method, the super-press and the continuous chains (the modern method). A few olive oil mills have more than one type of processing unit; these mills are called mixed units. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources in Tunisia, there were 1,725 olive oil mills in 2010, of which 628 were traditional units, 388 were super-press units and 709 continuous chains. These figures suggest the rate of diffusion of the continuous chains is around 41%. According to the World Bank (2009), olive oil extraction in Tunisia with modern equipment currently represents 31%. In contrast, it is 70%-80% in Italy, Greece and Spain. Thus, although the government is promoting the number of continuous chains, Tunisia's remains the lowest of the four main olive oil producers and exporters.Following the seminal paper by Farrell (1957), stochastic frontier production function (SPF) was introduced by Aigner et al. (1977) and Meeusen and van don Broeck (1977). Jondrow et al. (1982) extended the SPF to allow for the estimation of individual firm efficiency levels with cross-sectional data. Techniques to estimate efficiency scores range from the non-parametric approach to the statistical frontier or parametric approaches. The non-parametric approach, initially proposed by Farrell (1957), gained through the developments by Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (CCR) and others. This approach is called the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach (Charnes et al., 1978). On the other hand, the parametric approach and its technique were developed by Richmond (1974) and Greene (1980). Kumbhakar et al. (1991) used system approaches and proposed a one-stage procedure to estimate efficiency measures along with their determinants. This approach has been widely used and made more popular due to the development of computer applications, namely Frontier (Coelli, 1996).Given the above, we adopt the Battese and Coelli (1995) model of the SPF, but in the context of cross-sectional data.where y i denotes output for the ith firm; β is a vector of unknown parameters to be estimated; x i is a vector of inputs of production and other explanatory variables associated with the ith firm; v i refers to statistical random disturbance terms, assumed to be independently and identically distributed N(0, σ v 2 ) ; u i represents non-negative random variables, assumed to be independently and identically distributed as truncation at zero of the normal distribution with mean2 ). In this specification, (− u i ) measures the distance between the realized output and the frontier output. The exp (−u i ), which varies between 0 and 1, is a measure of the technical efficiency of the ith firm. Following Battese and Coelli (1995), the technical inefficiency effect, u i , in the stochastic frontier model ( 1) could be specified in Equation ( 2): where δ is a vector of the unknown parameters to be estimated; z i is a vector of explanatory variables associated with technical inefficiency in production; w i is a random variable, defined by the truncation of the normal distribution with zero mean and variance σ w 2 , N(0, σ w 2 ), such that the point of truncation is −δ′z i , i.e., w i ≥ −δ′z i . The technical efficiency of production of the ith firm can be defined as:In this study, the following translog functional form is used for the estimation of the SPF:where The subscript i refers to the ith firm; j and k represent inputs applied to olive oil production (j, k = K, L, M); y i denotes the quantity of output for the ith firm measured in tonnes; x Ki is the capital stock of the ith firm in TND; x Li is total hours of labour devoted to olive oil production by the ith firm; x Mi is volume of intermediate inputs for the production measured in TND. In equation ( 5), h =1, 2,…, H are the firm-specific efficiency related variables.The model of technical inefficiency effects is defined as follows:where D MS is the management dummy variable that equals 1 if the firm employed management staff for accounting, supplying, or marketing, and zero otherwise; D TEC is a dummy variable that equals 1 if the firm adopted modern technology in oil extraction process, and zero otherwise;represents the ratio of supply of olives from in-house production; D N , D S are dummy variables representing the north and south regions, respectively. The variable of choice of modern technology, D TEC , represents captures the effect of PMN that promotes the introduction of modern extraction method and equipment. The parameters of the SPF in Equation (4) and the model for technical inefficiency effects in Equation ( 6) are simultaneously estimated by the maximum likelihood (ML) model (Reifschneider and Stevenson, 1991;Huang and Liu, 1994).The typical statistical issues that have to be solved in this model are selectivity and/or endogeneity involving the choice of supplier of olives and extraction technology. The decision whether relying on the supply of olives from his/her own farm land or collecting from outside, SOP is a choice variable and thus might be correlated with the error term in equation ( 6) 5 . Since we consider these variables are endogenous, an instrumental variables (IV) technique is used to correct for the bias caused by endogenity. For the decision to rely on in-house production (SOP), a dummy variable of traditional method, D TRD , which equals 1 if the firm employed traditional method of oil extraction process, and zero otherwise; share of skilled labour to total employees, SKL; ratio of supply of olives from same governorate, SOS, were used as instrumental variables. These variables were used as a set of explanatory variables to estimate the first step of auxiliary regression model. Because of its statistical characteristics of the dependent variable, we estimate an auxiliary regression by OLS. Consequently, the Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) method is employed. The variables included in the inefficiency effects model are the expected value obtained from the estimation of these auxiliary regressions.The data used in this study is drawn from a survey conducted in February and March 2009. The questionnaire was sent directly to directors or managers of olive oil production units. The selected units were located in the north, centre and south of the country. The targeted governorates included Zaghouan from the north, Sousse and Mehdia from the centre and Sfax from the south. In accordance with the distribution of olive oil manufactures by the Directorate General for Agricultural Production (DGPA), Ministry of Agriculture in Tunisia, these four governorates were chosen in each region as major areas where olive oil manufactures locate. According to the data by DGPA, olive oil firms in these selected governorates represents 50.0% of total olive oil manufactures and contributes 46.0% of national triturating capacity. In these governorates, the random survey was conducted, and 137 samples were collected in total. The olive oil firms were randomly selected from each region, and the number of questionnaires completed was 45, 43 and 49 in the north, centre and south of Tunisia, respectively. According to the DGPA, the number of olive oil producers in 2009/10 was 222, 857 and 655 for the northern, central and southern regions, respectively. Thus, the coverage of this survey was around 8%. Our analysis is based on the subsample of 113 firms, 82.5% of the sample, which reported producing extra virgin olive oil. Thus, the sample actually used in the analysis consists of a random sub-sample of 113 producers from 34, 43 and 36 in the north, centre and south of Tunisia, respectively, representing 6.5% of the national establishment. As noted, the number of olive oil producers which participated in PMN was 140 in 2010, representing 8.07% of total. Consistently, our sample includes 9 firms operating under PMN (7.96% of the sample).Table 1 shows the summary statistics for the variables. The average annual production of the sample firms ranges from a minimum of 10 tonnes to a maximum of 1,200 tonnes, with a mean value of 296 tonnes. The table also indicates that sample firms employ 15,200 hours per year on 13 NEW MEDIT N. 4/2016 5 Our endogeneity assumption is supported by the Durbin-Wu-Hausman test. In the right-hand-side (RHS) variables of the inefficiency model, the possible endogeneity may be identified in the variables of D TEC and SOP. Following the Durbin-Wu-Hausman test, we firstly run an auxiliary regression of possible endogenous variables on all other RHS variables of the original inefficiency model, plus a set of instrumental variables (Davidson and MacKinnon, 1993;Wooldridge, 2002;Saldias and von Cramon-Taubadel, 2012). Second, the equation (4), simultaneously equations (6), are estimated including the residuals of the auxiliary regression as an additional RHS variable in the inefficiency model. Under the null hypothesis of no endogeneity, the coefficient of this additional residual term equals zero. While the null hypothesis that the residual estimated by the equation which endogenized D TEC is insignificant was not rejected, the null for SOP was rejected. average, 20.7% of which consist of skilled employees.While 96 firms evaluated their level of technology as modern, 17 firms deemed it traditional. The sample includes 45 firms that employ management staff. The average ratio of olives supplied from own farmland is 0.06, where 39.8% of the sample (45 firms) depend their inputs of olives on in-house production.ML estimates based on the translog stochastic frontier production model and technical inefficiency effects model are obtained using the Frontier 4.1 package (Coelli, 1996). Table 2 shows the estimates of the parameters and corresponding t-values. In the model corrected for endogeneity, the expected value of SOP obtained from the estimation of the auxiliary regression was used for the estimation of the inefficiency model. Comparison of the estimated coefficients with and without the correction for endogeneity reveals few changes; however, most coefficients retain their original signs and levels of significance. The signs of the estimated parameters are as expected, except for the intermediate inputs. The estimated coefficients of the capital stock and labour input are positive and statistically significant. These results indicate a positive relationship between the input of capital and labour inputs and the production of extra virgin olive oil. The negative coefficient of the intermediate inputs is not significant.As for factors of production, capital stock is mainly composed of oil extraction equipment and buildings. The positive and significant sign on the capital coefficient suggests that increasing firm's milling capacity and purchasing new equipment contributes to increase olive oil production. This result implies the modernisation process under PMN would upgrade the level of production. Likewise, we find a positive correlation between labour and extra virgin olive oil. Although the adoption of modern technology, such as continuous chains, is labour saving compared with the traditional method, labour is still a significant factor in increasing production.The estimated coefficients of the technical inefficiency model are also as expected. The following four empirical results were found. First, the estimated coefficient of the employment of management staff for accounting, supplies or marketing (D MS ) is negative and statistically significant. This result indicates that the activities of management staff contribute to an increase in the level of technical efficiency. As mentioned, PMN allocated its budget for investments in employee training and capacity building through quality schemes and export promotion. This result implies that the accumulation of management knowledge, including mar-keting and quality control, would be a significant factor in upgrading efficiency. Second, the coefficient of the dummy variable of adoption of modern technology (D TEC ) is negative and statistically significant at the 1% level. This result confirms a positive effect of the adoption of modern technology on upgrading efficiency. According to the DGPA, the number of continuous chains increased from 163 (12% of total mills) in 1994 to 718 (41%) in 2010 with the implementation of PMN. This result implies that PMN, which promotes the introduction of modern technology such as continuous chains for oil extraction, contributed to improving efficiency. Third, the estimated coefficient of in-house production (SOP) is negative and statistically significant. This result suggests that an increase in the self-supply of olives contributes to an upgrade of the technical efficiency. The higher the internal production of olives, the greater is the stability of olive supplies from olive-growing farms as well as the production of standardized olive oil 6 . Lastly, the location dummy variable of the southern region (D S ) is positive and statistically significant. This indicates that the southern region of Tunisia showed a lower level of technical efficiency compared with the central region. According to the Olive Tree Institute in Tunisia, the level of capital investment and use of new extraction machineries in the southern region of Tunisia are lower compared with those in central and northern regions.As explained in the estimation model, the  was endogenised by the three instrumental variables, D TRD , SKL and SOS. The estimated results of the auxiliary regression suggest that these instrumentals were positive and statistically significant. The positive sign of D TRD suggests that firms that adopt the traditional method of oil extraction rely more on the self-supply of olives. This could be due to the daily trituration capacity of the traditional method which is lower compared to the modern method such as continuous chains. Since the modern method requires large quantities of olives, olive oil manufacturers cannot only rely on in-house production. By contrast, in the traditional method olives are ground into olive paste using large millstones. In this method, the introduction of water is minimal for malaxation of the paste, and the oil extraction is done at normal temperature (cold pressed). Compared with the modern method, these conditions are favourable for extracting high-quality olive oil without losing the aroma and taste, and they reduce the washing of polyphenols.While the traditional method has such advantages in quality of extracted olive oil, it requires more manual labour and the extraction capacity is limited. In addition, this method calls for more waiting time for the olive oil to separate from the paste, resulting in a degradation of the product quality owing to exposure of the paste to oxygen and light. Olives are best harvested and the grinding process started within 24 hours, 72 hours at the longest, to produce high quality olive oil, since oxidation begins immediately after harvesting. However, in-house production of olives may mitigate these disadvantages by reducing the time from harvesting to pressing. In this sense, adoption of inhouse production can be rational behaviour for olive oil producers using traditional methods.Similarly, to avoid degradation of olive oil quality, firms try to collect olives from neighbouring olive-growing farms. The positive sign of the estimated parameter of SOS implies firms that prefer collecting olives from their neighbours tend to rely on the self-supply of olives. This behaviour is consistent with producing high-quality olive oil by minimizing the time from harvesting to pressing. Thus, it appears that quality-oriented firms may have an incentive to stabilize the supply of olives and save time after harvesting by collecting from their neighbours as well as producing them on their own farms.The positive and significant parameter of SKL implies the accumulation of skilled labour is instrumental for in-house production. Generally, the traditional method requires skill for oil extraction compared with the modern method. Moreover, human skill is necessary to produce high-quality extra virgin olive oil, for instance, in the selection and separation of fresh olives and in the extraction of olives by cold press. Among firms that adopt in-house production, some qualityoriented firms introduced practices, such as selection of seeds by the cultivar and early harvesting of olives manually to avoid damaging the olives. These practices also require human skill.The estimate of the variance parameter γ is positive and statistically significant at the 1% level, implying that inefficiency effects are significant in determining the level and variability of the olive oil producing firms. Thus, the stochastic frontier inefficiency model is empirically justified. Furthermore, two hypotheses related to the model parameters are examined using the likelihood test. 7 The value of the log-likelihood function under the specification of the alternative hypothesis (i.e. unrestricted model) is −29.828. The result of the first hypothesis of no inefficiency effects is rejected at the 1% level. In addition, we reject the null second hypothesis that no firm-specific factor makes a significant contribution to the explanation of the inefficiency effects 8 .Table 3 gives the estimations of firms' technical efficiency in distribution frequencies. The estimated efficiency scores indicate the existence of technical inefficiency in firms while more than half of the sample is relatively efficient with their efficiency scores more than 80.0%. The average level of technical efficiency is 72.9%, ranging from a minimum of 8.2% to a maximum 96.4%. It is suggested that firms in this sample are producing, on average, 72.9% of their potential at the current levels of technology and input. Seventy-five firms (66.4% of the total sample) are more efficient than the average. However, 16.8% of the sample firms show relatively inefficient levels with scores less than 40.0%. These results imply the possibility of these firms to increase their production by 27.1%, given the current state of technology and input levels. 7 The null hypothesis can be tested using the generalized likelihood ratio statistic λ, given by λ = -2{L(H 0 ) -L(H 1 )}. L(H 0 ) and L(H 1 ) denote the values of likelihood function under the null (H 0 ) and the alternative hypothesis (H 1 ), respectively. If the given null hypothesis is true, λ has approximately Chi-square distribution or mixed Chi-square distribution. 8 The null hypothesis representing the empirical validity of translog specification over Cobb-Douglas form of production function was not rejected at 5% level of significance. While this result indicated indifference between the two specifications, we employed the translog specification for the sake of estimation purposes and its flexibility of the functional form.  Table 4 presents the comparison of the estimated efficiency scores by group (i.e. firms by location, firms employing modern technology in the olive oil-extraction process and those that use traditional methods, and firms that partially use olives produced in-house and those that use olives from outside). Accounting for the location effect, firms located in the central region have a relatively high efficiency score of 91.2%, whereas those in the south remain at 46.6%. This result is consistent with the estimation of the positive and significant value of the location dummy D S in the inefficiency effects model (Table 2). These results indicate that the level of technical efficiency of firms located in the southern region is significantly lower than that of those in the central region. Relatively low standard deviation for the firms located in the central region suggests a level of efficiency close to the average (91.2%). However, in the southern region, the relatively high standard deviation indicates that the efficiency level is dispersed across firms. These results are consistent with the sign of regional dummies and observations by the Olive Tree Institute in Tunisia.It is noteworthy that the average level of technical efficiency of the firms employing modern technology is estimated at 76.3% on average, whereas that of the firms employing traditional methods is 54.0%. The null hypothesis of no difference between the means of efficiency of these two groups was rejected at the 1% level by the z-test. This result confirms that the introduction of modern technology, such as continuous chains, increases the average level of efficiency. In addition, this empirical evidence implies that a governmental policy such as PMN contributed to an improvement of the extraction processes and capacities through the overhaul of equipment. Moreover, among the firms employing modern technology, the technical efficiency of firms using partially the olives produced in-house was estimated at 80.2%. Even in the firms employing the traditional method, in-house production of olives contributes to an efficiency improvement to 67.0% on average. Among the firms employing the traditional method, when we compare the average efficiency of firms using partially olives produced in-house and firms collecting olives from outside their firm, the z-test rejected the null hypothesis of no difference between these two groups at the 1% level. These results confirm the significance of self-supply of olives for improving efficiency. It also suggests that a combination of modern technology and in-house production of olives would contribute to achieving the maximum possible output. Indeed, more than half the firms (52.4%) located in the central region adopted this combination.The average level of technical efficiency of the firms participated in PMN is 81.4% while those not participated is 72.1%. However, the z-test cannot reject the null hypothesis of no difference between the means of efficiency of these two groups. This is probably due to the low number of observations for the firms under PMN (9 observations). Although we cannot identify statistically significant posi-tive effect of the participation of PMN on efficiency, at least we can confirm the pertinence of the direction of PMN that promotes the adoption of modern method for olive oil extraction.The reason why the introduction of the modern technology contributes to an efficiency upgrade may seem obvious. This extraction technology is continuous and automated, and it helps produce a large amount of good quality olive oil. Owing to its large daily production capacity, this method can avoid the need to stockpile olives and it is also efficient since each process of washing, crushing and extraction is continuous. Thanks to the centrifugation process of this method, yield performance is better as most of the olive oil is collected and well protected from contamination (Kiritsakis, 1998). By contrast, in the traditional method, the implicit knowledge and techniques for crushing, pressuring and separating, embedded in human skills, may differ among firms. Although operation of the continuous chains needs explicit knowledge for running automated machines such as crushing, malaxation, centrifugation and separation, the quality of output is standardized regardless of differences in implicit human skills. As a result, the modern method may help bridge differences in productivity and efficiency, barring random disturbances.However, the level of technical efficiency varies among the firms employing modern technology. Table 4 showed the average level of efficiency of firms using partially olives produced in-house reached 80.2%, whereas that of firms using olives from outside their firms remained at 72.8%. This difference may be attributed to problems of olives supply and their quality. Artukoglu and Olgun (2008)   suggest that there are significant factors at play that affect the quality of olive oil, such as the method used to transport olives to the production units and the waiting period before processing. Olives are best transported in plastic boxes, yet olive farms in Tunisia mostly use sacks for transportation.Owing to the oxidation/fermentation process, the acidity of the oil extracted from olives stored in sacks and kept for long periods before being processed increases significantly and reduces its quality. Although some firms in Tunisia separate and store olives in plastic containers by region, farms or even cultivar, usually olives brought from various olive farms are mixed. These facts imply the time from harvesting to processing and degree of oxidation i.e., freshness of olives as raw materials is a significant factor in the production of high-quality olive oil. However, freshness may be difficult to observe and control. Once olives collected from outside the firms are mixed, it becomes more difficult to monitor and trace their freshness. Thus, it can be said that information asymmetry on quality of raw materials (olives) exists between olive-oil extraction firms and olive farms, and between the firms and middlemen. In addition, transaction costs may emerge for collecting olives of standard quality. However, in-house production may reduce transaction costs and mitigate such variations in the quality of olives. Indeed, some firms in Tunisia adopt early-harvesting practices by hand to prevent damage to the olives and select good olives to control the degree of freshness. In addition, in-house production of olives can alleviate risks resulting from instability of olive yields due to fluctuating rainfall. Olive oil producers who have direct control on the supply of olives through inhouse production would be able to guarantee both good quality and a stable supply of olive oil.Despite the advantages of self-supply of olives for the production of high quality oil, it should be noted that the firms with in-house production constituted only 39.8% of the sample. This fact suggests that the adoption of in-house production is not a major phenomenon. Yet, an explanation may be possible from the demand side and process of industrial development. It is generally observed that the production of low-quality products targeting the domestic market is a major pattern in the early phase of industrial development. At this phase, producers strive to produce simple and standardized products rather than high-quality differentiated products (Sonobe and Otsuka, 2006). In Tunisia, the domestic consumer is the main target of the olive oil market. Indeed, access to the export market is also limited as only seven firms out of the 113 samples (6.2%) export olive oil, and the majority of olive oil is exported in bulk. As long as domestic consumers dominate the market and exports are in bulk, the pressure of quality assurance may not be much for olive oil producers. In such a situation, incentives for the introduction of in-house production to control product quality and to meet quality assurance standards may be low. Indeed, among Tunisian olive oil producers, only 28 firms of the survey sample introduced quality control measures (24.8%).In such a phase, i.e. the quantity expansion phase of industrial development, demand for standardized olive oil products dominates the domestic market 9 . Owing to its large production capacity and automated system, continuous chains are suited to the production of standardized olive oil. According to Kapellakis et al. (2008), a factor that affects the oil yield is the amount of water added to the olive paste. Actually, in the malaxation process of the continuous chains, heated water is added to keep the paste around 27°C, allowing the smaller droplets of oil to be released more easily, since a temperature increase results in lower viscosity of the oil and more olive oil. Moreover, the centrifugation process of this method has the advantage of better yield performance, as most of the oil is collected (Kiritsakis, 1998). As evident from the higher efficiency score of the firms employing modern technology (76.3%), the continuous chain may be productive in terms of producing standardized olive oil.On the contrary, at a more advanced phase, i.e. quality improvement, it becomes increasingly important to upgrade the quality of products and increase the agility of responding to increasing and changing demands, as poor quality products become increasingly difficult to sell (Schmitz and Nadvi, 1999;Sonobe et al., 2004;Sonobe and Otsuka, 2006). At this phase, demand for high-quality differentiated products increases. As noted, the continuous chains are productive and suited to mass production; however, some firms prefer traditional methods such as cold-pressed without heating, and try to establish a brand of the cold-pressed oil. From the viewpoint of nutritional composition, the centrifugal process of the modern method has a disadvantage in terms of quality of oil, since a significant amount of phenols (natural anti-oxidants) are lost by using water and energy for heating (Kiritsakis, 1998). The taste and flavour may also suffer degradation in the heating-up process.Regarding the product differentiation, experience of Jaén's mountain olive grove regions in Spain suggested that the advantage of the spatial concentration of a wide-spread network of olive firms, oil mills and marketing firms, input suppliers, companies using olive by-products and local institutions related to olive oil and rural development. Development of such local olive oil systems, spatial differentiation and segmentation in mountainous in different geographical areas may contribute to produce specific olive oils and add value to local chains, realizing by the development of Protected Designations of Origin (POD) labelled oils (Sanz-Cañada et al., 2015). In Spanish olive oil production, Sanz-Cañada and Macías-Vázquez (2005) suggested the significance of the POD for certifying quality, geographical origin and environmental attributes of the products they give their distinctive label. In Tunisia, some olive oil factories developed a link and contract with olive-growing farmers to stabilize the supply of highquality olives and develop local supply chains. Also, some export-oriented olive oil factories extract olive oil without mixing cultivars and produce labelled oil by cultivar. These facts suggest that the development of local supply chains is crucial to produce differentiated product and establish local brands.As far as improvement in the quality is concerned, inhouse production may become increasingly important to differentiate olive oil products in terms of quality. For instance, early harvesting and harvesting by hand (handpicked) observed in some firms that have adopted in-house production are possible ways of establishing a brand. Production of olive oil by cultivar is another way to add value. Generally, the improvement of product quality entails the use of high-quality inputs. While the establishment of longterm relationships with dependable and competent suppliers is a way to secure high-quality inputs for the improvement of product quality, another way is to establish a vertically integrated production system in which such inputs are produced in-house (Sonobe and Otsuka, 2011). In-house production of olives may contribute to the development of such differentiated products 10 .This paper is the first attempt to investigate firm-level technical efficiency of olive oil producers in Tunisia during the implementation of PMN. Our empirical findings indicate that production of olive oil in Tunisia is a stochastic phenomenon. The estimated efficiency scores imply olive oil producing units in Tunisia can further increase their production by 27.1% through a more efficient use of technology and production inputs. Interestingly, introduction of modern technology, employment of management staff, and in-house production of olives contribute to improving the technical efficiency. The average technical efficiency of firms adopting modern technology such as continuous chains in the oil-extraction process is higher than that of firms employing the traditional method. Introduction of inhouse production of olives is also a significant factor for the improvement of efficiency. These results also suggest that a combination of modern technology and in-house production of olives would help achieve the maximum possible output.The introduction of modern extraction technologies contributes to an efficiency upgrade because of its continuous and automated system. On the other hand, adoption of inhouse production can be deemed rational behaviour be-cause it minimizes the time taken from harvesting to pressing. In-house production helps mitigate variations in the quality of olives, since information asymmetry on quality may exist between olive oil extraction units and olive farms and between the firms and middlemen. In addition, it may also contribute to alleviating risks resulting from the instability of olive yields.Despite its several advantages, the adoption of in-house production is not a major phenomenon. The underdevelopment of in-house production can be explained from the demand side and the phase of industrial development. As long as domestic consumers dominate the market and exports are done in bulk, the pressure of quality assurance is not so great for oil producers, resulting in low incentives to develop internal production. In such a quantity expansion phase, demand for standardized products dominates the domestic market. While we cannot find a statistically significant effect of the participation of PMN on upgrading technical efficiency, the implementation of PMN which promotes the introduction of continuous chains is in the right direction, as it is suited to mass production.On the contrary, demand for differentiated products increases in the quality improvement phase. Indeed, some quality-oriented firms in Tunisia prefer the traditional method such as cold-pressed without heating and early harvesting by hand. They also try to establish a brand of valueadded olive oil. From quality and nutritional viewpoints, the modern method has a disadvantage because considerable amount of phenols are lost during the centrifugal process, and taste and flavour may suffer degradation in the heating process. This paper finds that in-house production becomes increasingly important to develop differentiated olive oil products in terms of quality. In this context of Tunisian olive oil production, higher efficiency of internal production implies significant vertical integration, from the cultivation of olives to the extraction of olive oil.As policy implications, this paper emphasise the significance of the adoption of modern method and accumulation of management knowledge for upgrading productivity of olive oil manufactures. The participation to PMN that encourages the adoption of modern method of olive oil extraction should be more promoted. However, for reducing variations in quality of extracted oil and help stabilizing fluctuations of its supply, the merit of the in-house production and promotion of the vertical integration should be underlined which would minimize the time from harvesting to processing.Based on these implications, this paper recommends two development strategies for olive oil manufactures. One has the objective of maximizing the volume of production of olive oil, extra virgin olive oil in particular, by introducing modern extraction method such as continuous chains. This strategy is significant in quantity expansion phase to maximize the production of standardized products. The second strategy is focused on producing high-quality, dif-ferentiated olive oil, using traditional methods such as coldpress. The product differentiation is getting more crucial in the quality improvement phase. For both strategies, the stable supply of olives with high quality is essential. To sustain its stable supply, this paper recommends developing a link and contract with olive-growing farms for assuring quality of olives in the short run; however, in the long run, the introduction and expansion of in-house production of olives should be promoted towards the development of vertical integrated production system.","tokenCount":"7160"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7c6963ba335a7b59299bc2fd16cbb3ec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/de70e0c8-737a-466a-b950-40c5a022f619/retrieve","id":"213681659"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eeebb57f-81d2-49bd-a0d0-bfb0825ff99a","pagecount":"18","content":"It is widely recognized that increasing agricultural production to the levels needed to feed an expanding world population requires sharply increased public investment in research and development and widespread adoption of new technologies, but funding for national and international agricultural research has rather declined in recent years. In this situation, priority setting has become increasingly important for allocating scarce research resources among competing needs to achieve greater impacts. Using partial equilibrium economic surplus models and poverty impact simulations, this paper assesses cassava research priorities in Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, and Asia based on the potential economic and poverty reduction impacts of alternative research and technology options. The results showed that efficient planting material production and distribution systems and sustainable crop and soil fertility management practices have the greatest expected economic and poverty reduction impacts in the three regions. Lack of clean planting materials is a major constraint to adoption and it is envisaged that efficient production and distribution systems for planting material can accelerate technology adoption by farmers. Similarly, sustainable crop and soil fertility management practices play a key role in closing the observed yield gaps, especially in Africa. The paper discusses the results of the priority assessment for key cassava research options and concludes with the implications for cassava research priorities.Cassava is the third most important food crop in the tropics after rice and maize and is the second most important food staple in Africa after maize accounting for more than half of the dietary calorie requirements of over 200 million people [1]. Half a billion people in Africa eat cassava every day, and this high-starch root is also an important staple in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Asia, cassava serves as a source of food and livestock feed while also providing raw material for the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, industrial starch, biofuels, and other products [2]. As such, cassava is important not only for rural households but for national economies. Despite major biotic and abiotic threats to cassava production and productivity, cassava production has expanded especially in Africa and this is largely attributed to national and international cassava improvement research efforts [1].International cassava improvement research was initiated in the early 1970s at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) with a focus on developing high-yielding varieties with resistance to major pests and diseases [3,4]. In addition to breeding for high yield and resistance to major pests and diseases, cassava research involved developing biological control and integrated pest management options to reduce losses due to insect pests. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the work resulted in a number of several elite genotypes that had resistance to cassava mosaic disease (CMD) and cassava bacterial blight (CBB) as well as high and stable yields and good consumer acceptability. The development of improved varieties and their delivery to national programs for testing under specific local conditions during the late 1970s and 1980s has led to the successful release of high yielding and disease resistant varieties for adoption by farmers. The new varieties combine enhanced CMD tolerance with preferred postharvest characteristics, wider agroecological adaptation, and 50-100% higher yields even without the use of fertilizer [1,3].Despite major research successes in the past, farm level cassava yields remain low especially in Africa due to a number of emerging threats such as pests and diseases. Realization of higher potential yields in farmers' fields requires continued investment in genetic improvement and better agronomy as well as pest and disease management. To help counter the threat of pests and diseases, scientists should identify and use biotechnology tools to develop molecular markers for traits such as whitefly resistance, quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in populations derived from heterozygous parent materials, and protocols for rapid multiplication of disease-free planting materials through tissue culture.It is widely recognized that increasing agricultural production to the levels needed to feed an increasing world population requires sharply increased public investments in research and development and widespread adoption of new technologies, but funding for national and international agricultural research has rather declined in recent years. In this situation, priority setting has become increasingly important for allocating scarce research resources among competing needs to achieve greater impacts [5]. Systematic priority assessment has been conducted since recently by combining scientists' views on the potential for addressing particular constraints through research and technology options with an economic assessment of the benefits that could arise from adoption of those technologies [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Following its official launch in 2012, the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) embarked on a strategic assessment of research priorities for banana, cassava, potato, sweet potato, and yams. Using partial equilibrium economic surplus models and poverty impact simulations, this paper assesses the expected economic and poverty reduction impacts of cassava research and technology options with a view to informing strategic priority setting of cassava research in Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, and Asia. While a lot of past priority assessment work focused on strategic commodity priorities, this study undertakes crop-specific technology priority assessment. This kind of priority setting is becoming increasingly important for a number of CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) supporting a set of priority commodities that need to focus on high-impact lines of research. The paper presents and discusses the procedures and results of the priority assessment for key cassava research options and discusses the implications for cassava research priorities.The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The next section provides an overview of the methodology used, whereas section 3 provides details of the data sources. Section 4 presents and discusses the ex-ante impact assessment results and the last section draws conclusions and implications.Several impact studies of agricultural technologies have estimated aggregate economic benefits through extrapolation of farm-level yield or income gains using partial equilibrium simulation models such as the economic surplus model [5]. The economic surplus method is the most widely used procedure for economic evaluation of benefits and costs of a technological change. Technological change due to research in agriculture increases the yield, reduces yield losses, or reduces the cost of production [5]. If the new technology is yield increasing, the producer sells more of the good in the market and if demand is downward-sloping the price decreases as well. Technology adoption reduces the per-unit cost of production and hence shifts the supply function of the commodity down and to the right. If the market for the commodity is perfectly competitive, this will lead to an increase in the quantity exchanged (Q 0 to Q 1 ) and a fall in price from P 0 to P 1 (Fig 1). As a result, consumers benefit from the price reduction and producers may benefit from selling more of the product [5].The economic surplus model was therefore used to derive summary measures of the potential impacts of cassava research options for a period of 25 years starting from 2014. The benefits were measured based on a parallel downward shift in the (linear) supply curve. The annual flows of gross economic benefits from cassava technologies were estimated for each of the countries and aggregated, with the aggregate benefits and costs finally discounted to derive the present value (in 2014) of total net benefits from the interventions. The key parameters that determine the magnitude of the economic benefits are: each country from a downward shift in the supply curve. The demand for the commodity is denoted by D, whereas the pre-research supply curve is S 0 and the post-research supply curve following technological change is S 1 . The initial equilibrium is denoted as (P 0 , Q 0 ), while the post-research equilibrium is (P 1 , Q 1 ). That is, the initial equilibrium price and quantity are P 0 and Q 0 , whereas after the supply shift they are P 1 and Q 1 . The total benefit from the researchinduced supply shift is equal to the area beneath the demand curve and between the two supply curves (ΔTS = area abce). The total benefit comprises the sum of benefits to consumers (ΔCS = area P 0 bcP 1 ) and the benefits to producers in the form of the changes in producer surplus (ΔPS = area P 1 ce minus area P 0 ba). Under the assumption of a parallel shift (so that the vertical difference between the two curves is constant) area I 0 de equals area P 0 ba.In a closed economy, economic surplus measures can be derived using formulas presented in Alston et al. (1995): (1) Change in economic Surplus (ΔES) = P 0 Q 0 K t (1+0.5Z t η); (2) Consumer surplus (ΔCS) = P 0 Q 0 Z t (1+0.5Z t η); and Producer Surplus (ΔPS) = (K t −Z t )P 0 Q 0 (1 +0.5Zη), where K t is the supply shift representing the product of cost reduction per ton of output as a proportion of product price (K) and technology adoption at time t (A t ); P 0 represents pre-research price for 2010─2012 (US$/ton); Q 0 is pre-research level of production for 2010─2012; η is the price elasticity of demand; and Z t is the relative reduction in price at time t, which is calculated as Z t = K t ε/(ε+η), where ε is the price elasticity of supply. The researchinduced supply shift parameter, K, is the single most important parameter influencing total economic surplus results from unit cost reductions and was derived as K t = [((ΔY/Y)/ε-(ΔC/ C))/(1+(ΔY/Y))]×A t where ΔY/Y is the average proportional yield increase per hectare; ε is the elasticity of supply that is used to convert the gross production effect of research-induced yield changes to a gross unit production cost effect, ΔC/C is the average proportional change in the variable costs per hectare required to achieve the yield increase, and A t is the rate of adoption of the improved technology at time t-the proportion of total cropped area under the improved varieties and practices. Annual supply shifts were then projected based on projected adoption profile for improved technologies (A t ) for the period from 2014 to 2039. Adoption (A t ) is assumed to follow the logistic diffusion curve.For each country i (i = 1. . .N), the changes in economic surplus (ΔES) and the research and extension costs (C t ) are discounted at a real discount rate, r, of 10% per annum to derive the net present values (NPV) as follows:The aggregate internal rate of return (IRR) was also calculated as the discount rate that equates the aggregate net present value (NPV) to zero as follows:Extending the results of the conventional economic surplus and cost-benefit analysis, the impact of each of the cassava research options on rural poverty reduction was estimated following Alene et al. [15]. It weighs the economic surplus results according to the poverty levels in each of the countries, the share of agriculture in total GDP, and the agricultural growth elasticity of poverty. The impact of each research option on rural poverty reduction was estimated by first estimating the marginal impact on poverty reduction of an increase in the value of agricultural production using poverty reduction elasticities of agricultural productivity growth.The reduction in the total number of poor was then calculated by considering the estimated economic benefits as the additional increase in agricultural production value. Thirtle et al. [16] found that a 1% growth in agricultural productivity reduces the total number of rural poor by 0.72% in Africa, 0.48% in Asia, and 0.15% in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Under the assumption of constant returns to scale, a 1% growth in total factor productivity leads to a 1% growth in agricultural production. For each country, the number of poor lifted above the $1-a-day poverty line was thus derived as follows: where ΔN p is the number of poor lifted above the poverty line, N p is the total number of poor, N is the total population, Y is agricultural productivity, and ΔES is the change in economic surplus. The poverty elasticity is interpreted as the marginal impact of a 1% increase in agricultural productivity in terms of the number of poor reduced as a percentage of the total poor (N p ), and not of the total population.Data on average crop area per household and average household size were used to estimate the numbers of beneficiaries, following a procedure and dataset developed to estimate total number of RTB poor beneficiaries [17]. Data for individual countries were obtained mostly from FAO statistical database, published sources of information, or expert opinion when needed. Estimated area under two adoption scenarios (high and low adoption) was divided by the average area per household to estimate the number of adopting households, and then multiplied by household size to estimate total number of beneficiaries.Expert surveys and consultations were conducted between 2011 and 2013 to guide the constraints analysis and the identification and ranking of research options. Recognizing the importance of farmers' voice in priority setting of agricultural research, a literature review was first undertaken to take stock of available evidence and secondary data on production and market constraints, technology preferences, yield gaps, and farm level impacts from baseline and adoption studies involving farmers as well as from on-farm farmer participatory research work. The outcome of the review served as a guide not only for designing the questionnaires used for the expert surveys but also for facilitating the consultations during workshops that were organized to elicit and validate individual expert opinions and estimates about the major constraints, yield gaps, and the prospects of a range of promising research and technology options. The surveys engaged stakeholders from a broad range of disciplines and backgrounds. The cassava expert community was involved in the identification of the production and market constraints and in the selection of research and technology options that can address the identified constraints. Consulting a broad range of experts with different fields of expertise enabled us to capture key constraints irrespective of institutional priorities and capacity. Overall, the expert surveys enabled the identification of the major constraints and associated research options to be included in the ex-ante impact assessment in the subsequent steps of the priority assessment exercise.The identification of cassava research options started with analysis of the data obtained from the global expert survey in which a sample of 343 cassava experts identified the priority constraints to cassava production, processing, and marketing. The opinions of scientists who are closely involved in research on cassava production, processing, and market constraints served as the major source of information for identifying research options to address those constraints. For this objective, a global survey instrument was designed in consultation with scientists at CIAT and IITA in Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese. A global online survey of cassava experts was conducted in 2012 using the online Survey Monkey tool and 60 questionnaires were completed. In addition, questionnaires were administered to cassava experts who attended international events. A total of 282 responses were obtained at the Second Scientific Conference of the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century, held on 18-22 June 2012, in Kampala, Uganda. At the 16th Triennial Symposium of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops held on 23-28 September 2012 in Abeokuta, Nigeria, another 29 questionnaires were completed. Finally, cross-country surveys of the national cassava programs and expert consultations were conducted in 2013 in Africa as well as in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Asia. The results of the survey based on the 343 completed questionnaires are presented in Alene et al. [18] Potential research options were identified based on the expert surveys and consultations for further formal evaluation using the economic surplus model [5]. These research options included those that address the constraints relating to: Cassava research and extension experts served as the major source of information for the economic surplus analysis of cassava research options. A structured questionnaire was developed to guide consultations with IITA and CIAT scientists as well as with NARS partners in Africa, LAC, and Asia who are working on particular cassava production and market constraints to elicit key parameter estimates for the research options addressing those constraints. Expert consultations at IITA involved 12 scientists: cassava breeders (6), agronomists (3), virologists (2), and processing and utilization specialists (1). The cross-country survey in Africa involved 30 experts from NARS partners in Africa: Benin (1), Cameroon (1), DRC (1), Ghana (4), Kenya (1), Mozambique (3), Nigeria (2), Togo (3), Uganda (3), Tanzania (9), and Zambia (2). In CIAT, a group of 14 scientists (breeders, agronomists, postharvest processing experts, molecular biologists, entomologists, plant physiologists, and virologists) working in LAC and Asia was consulted. An online survey was also designed and implemented and 46 responses were obtained.For each research option identified, scientists were asked to estimate the values of the following key parameters: maximum adoption rate, year of beginning of adoption, years to maximum adoption rate, expected yield increase (%), area affected by the constraint (%), cost change due to inputs (%), and probability of research success (%). The values of some parameters such as research costs were assembled from several sources, such as RTB program proposal and past empirical work [15,16] as well as from FAO (http://faostat.fao.org/) and the World Bank (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator). The limitation of expert opinion surveys relates to the degree of subjectivity with the estimation of the values of key parameters that determine the size of the expected benefits. While it is true that many of the judgements made in the process are subjective, the use of a more transparent, participatory and iterative approach facilitates greater dialogue and consensus building to ensure some level of objectivity. Table 1 presents the description of the key project, technology, and market-related parameters used and the corresponding data sources.Table 2 presents the data on the key socioeconomic parameters used in the economic surplus analysis of cassava research options for individual countries in Africa, Asia, and LAC. Data on annual harvested area, production, and producer prices were obtained from the FAOSTAT database (http://faostat.fao.org/). We used three-year national averages for each country for the period 2010-2012. In cases where FAO data were not available for particular countries and years (e.g., producer prices), we used data obtained from the respective ministries of agriculture and offices of statistics. Data on the incidence of poverty, the number of poor, and agricultural value added were obtained from the World Bank's World Development Indicators database (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator).We also used poverty elasticities of 0.72, 0.48, and 0.15 for Africa, Asia, and LAC, respectively [16]. The data on cassava area per household and household size that were used for the estimation of the numbers of beneficiaries were taken from a dataset put together for the estimation of the potential number of beneficiaries of the RTB program [17].The economic surplus model employed for the ex-ante impact analysis typically uses marketrelated data on socioeconomic parameters and technology-related data on technology development, dissemination, and adoption parameters [5]. Therefore, in addition to the socioeconomic parameters such as production and prices, the economic surplus model uses a number of parameters that relate to the research and dissemination process and includes those that relate to the expected effects of new technology adoption on yield gains (or reduced yield losses) and production costs. In addition to parameters related to expected yield gains and production cost changes following technology adoption by farmers, other technology-related parameters of importance include (1) the research lag defined as the number of years it takes until an adoptable innovation will be available to farmers; (2) adoption ceiling defined as the maximum adoption rate as a proportion of total cropped area; (3) adoption lag defined as the number of years until maximum adoption is reached; (4) the costs required to conduct R&D Elasticities of supply and demand Elasticities of supply and demand were assumed to be 1 and 0.5 respectively across technologies and for all countries due to limited availability of information.Expert estimates for a particular technology supported by field trial data.  Since the outcomes of research investments cannot be realized for many years, ex-ante technology generation and adoption parameters can only be based on the opinions of R&D experts who draw on a wealth of experience and knowledge in making informed predictions. Most of the data relating to cassava technology development, dissemination, and adoption were obtained primarily through expert surveys and consultations. Expert estimation of the values of some of these parameters involved a number of steps designed to facilitate the elicitation process. For example, estimation of the adoption ceiling involved estimation of the area affected by the underlying constraint as a proportion of the total cropped area and the expected adoption rate as a proportion of the affected area. For Africa, the affected area was thus used only to facilitate the estimation of the ultimate value of adoption as a proportion of the total cropped area. That is, adoption as a proportion of total cassava area is estimated as the product of adopting a proportion of the affected area and the affected area as a proportion of total area. For almost all research options, however, cassava experts working especially in Africa argue that much of the cassava area has been (or is expected to be) affected by the underlying constraints, such as low yield potential, poor resistance to pests and diseases, shorter shelf life, and lack of clean planting material multiplication and distribution system. Consequently, the experts argue that improved seed systems and improved varieties with high-yield attributes would be appropriate for almost all recommendation domains. However, varieties with resistance to pests and diseases should be developed not only for those areas that are currently affected by the diseases but also for all areas that will be affected in the many years to come (including pre-emptive measures). Indeed, using currently affected area as a recommendation domain for adoption would understate potential adoption of those technologies. Looking at the nature of most of our research options that make explicit mention of \"high yield,\" they also say that much of the cassava area should be a relevant adoption domain, especially because wider geographic adaptation is also one of the key criteria of varietal release.On the other hand, R&D costs were estimated as the sum of (1) CRP-RTB investments in cassava research disaggregated by research theme [17]; (2) bilateral project funding for IITA (mainly for Africa) and CIAT (mainly for Asia and LAC), which was estimated to be approximately equal to the CRP-RTB funding; and (3) NARS partner costs, which were assumed to be equal to the total of CRP-RTB and bilateral funding through IITA and CIAT. Aggregating the costs across countries for each research option gives the global R&D costs needed for calculating the global NPVs and IRRs. The CRP-RTB costs were estimated based on the allocations in the RTB program proposal. The annual cassava budget was allocated across the research options. For some options such as \"planting materials,\" the RTB proposal had details of the allocation already made and only required little adjustment to reallocate the overheads and CRP management costs. Dissemination costs were estimated to be US$50 per hectare of adopted area for new varieties and US$80 per hectare of adopted area for other knowledgeintensive technologies, such as crop management interventions.Table 3 provides an overview of the parameters related to cassava research and technology dissemination process. Cassava research in Africa dates back to 1936, when scientists started doing research to address major production constraints such as CMD. However, efforts to address CBSD by developing varieties with dual resistance to both CMD (including the new Uganda variant) and CBSD started recently. As can be judged from the year when research started to address particular constraints, some research and technology options have been pursued for a number of years whereas other lines of research started only recently before they were both integrated into the new RTB program . In this assessment, we treat all past research costs as sunk costs-that is, costs excluded from the computation of research costs. Thus the information on how long the research has already been conducted puts the result of the assessment in perspective as one would expect higher NPVs and IRRs for research options with much of the R&D cost not accounted for. Clearly, the IRR measure favors such research options due to shorter research lags and higher probability of research success.The estimates of the parameters used in the economic surplus analysis such as maximum adoption rate, research lag, years to maximum adoption rate, percentage yield increase, cost changes due to inputs, and probability of success that are specific to each research option. This section provides an overview of the parameter estimates for each research option.  input cost change of 5-20%; and (6) probability of success of 50-80%. Expected reduction in postharvest losses as a proportion of total production following adoption of varieties with longer shelf life was taken as the yield loss avoided and was estimated as the product of (1) current postharvest losses as a proportion of total production and (2) expected reduction in postharvest losses (as a proportion of current losses) following adoption of varieties with longer shelf life.• High-yielding, drought-tolerant varieties and increased water-use efficiency: In view of significant yield responses of cassava to crop and soil fertility management practices, the experts also estimated a relatively higher yield increase of 15-55% as compared to the rest of the research options.• Integrated pest and disease management practices, including resistant varieties: (1) maximum adoption rate of 8-90%;(2) research lag of 5-8 years; (3) adoption lag of 12 years; (4) yield increase of 25-70%; (5) input cost change of -30 to 20%; and (6) probability of success of 50-80%.• Efficient and massive high-quality planting material production and distribution systems:  6) probability of success of 50-80%. The expected yield gains were estimated indirectly based on the supply response to price increases attributable to value addition through processing. With a unitary price elasticity of supply, cassava price changes due to processing and value addition translate into equivalent production increases. As the area under cassava can be reasonably assumed to be fixed in the short run, production increases in response to price increases can only be achieved through equivalent yield increases.• Strategies to prevent introduction of exotic pests and diseases: (1) maximum adoption rate of 10-60%;(2) research lag of 5 years; (3) adoption lag of 10 years; (4) no yield increasethat is, impact of intervention realized through production cost reductions; (5) input cost change of -35 to -10%; and (6) probability of success of 50%.• High-yielding varieties tolerant to cold weather and frost: (1) maximum adoption rate of 10% in Colombia to 100% in Argentina;(2) research lag of 8 years; (3) adoption lag of 12 years; (4) yield increase of 20%; and (5) probability of success of 50%.The ex-ante analysis was undertaken under two alternative maximum adoption scenarios: (1) \"higher adoption\" scenario using adoption rates of technologies estimated by experts who are usually optimistic about the prospects of the technologies they are developing, and (2) a more conservative \"lower adoption\" scenario with expert estimates of adoption reduced by 50%. The summary measures of the ex-ante economic benefits of cassava technologies are presented in Table 4, whereas Table 5 presents the number of beneficiaries and poverty reduction impacts. It is worth noting that the estimated economic benefits or poverty reduction impacts for the different cassava research options cannot be aggregated. This is because the assumption underlying the strategic assessment is that the research options are mutually exclusive, with only one option pursued at a time rather than all options at the same time. The discussion in this section focuses on the results under the basic \"higher adoption\" scenario, but Tables 4-6 also present the results under the conservative \"lower adoption\" scenario for comparison. As expected, halving adoption ceiling estimates of technologies only reduces the size of expected benefits and impacts on poverty reduction, but does not alter the relative importance and impacts of the various research options. The results show that each of the cassava technologies generates large NPVs of benefits, indicating the profitability of investments in the respective cassava research options. There is considerable variation in NPVs across options ranging from US$194 million for high yielding varieties tolerant to cold weather and frost to US$16.7 billion for sustainable crop and soil fertility management practices. However, because of the substantial variation in the R&D and dissemination costs needed to generate the estimated benefits, the NPVs cannot be used to rank the research options. The IRRs are a preferred measure for ranking alternative technologies.The results of the ex-ante analysis further show that, even under the lower adoption scenario with expert estimates of adoption reduced by 50%, the IRRs for each of the cassava research options are much higher than the standard 10% interest rate. There is, however, considerable variation in the returns on investment across research options. For the higher adoption scenario, for example, the IRRs range from 30% for high-yielding varieties tolerant to cold weather and frost to 641% for high-quality planting material production and distribution systems. Similarly, for the lower adoption scenario, the IRRs range from 23% for high-yielding varieties tolerant to cold weather and frost to 416% for high-quality planting material production and distribution systems. The results are consistent with the fact that lack of an efficient planting material multiplication and distribution system is a major constraint to cassava production. As such, the research option addressing this constraint can have very high returns on investment by unlocking the huge potential for a cassava-planting material system that promotes large-scale adoption of improved varieties. Research in this area aims to improve quality and access to cassava planting material through rapid multiplication and mass propagation methods, alternatives for micro-stakes from disease-free stocks and on-farm management of planting material, and decentralized multiplication with improved management practicesi.e., capacity building for farmers to produce their own high-quality, clean planting material.Table 4 also presents the estimated area on which the new technology would be adopted under both the lower and higher adoption scenarios. As per definition of the scenarios, the adoption ceiling to be reached under the lower adoption scenario is half of the area under the higher adoption scenario. The estimated adoption area is an additional indicator to be considered when making funding decisions as it translates into the likely number of beneficiaries of the new technology. Similar to the NPV results, however, the adoption ceiling information should be interpreted with caution because of the different levels of investments required for each of the research options to achieve the respective maximum adoption rates. Table 5 shows the estimated number of households and individuals who will benefit from each of the research options. These estimates are determined by the adoption ceilings and the total area under cassava in Africa, Asia, and LAC. The estimated number of beneficiaries of the various research options offers an alternative perspective of their respective potential impacts. The estimates show that up to 16 million households (or 73 million people) will benefit from the different research options. High-yielding varieties with drought tolerance and water-use efficiency, high-yielding varieties with high dry matter and starch, integrated pest and disease management practices, and high-yielding varieties with longer shelf life can reach the largest number of beneficiaries because of the largest area coverage in all the regions. The last two columns in Table 5 show the estimated poverty reduction effects of the different research options. Although the expected impacts on poverty reduction do not account for the differing R&D and extension investments across the research options, the high and low priorities implied by the poverty reduction measure are generally consistent with those based on the economic IRR. The estimated impacts on poverty reduction range from some 100,000 people for cold weather and frost tolerance research and 220,000 people for research on prevention of introduction of exotic pests and diseases to over 4 million people for efficient planting material production and distribution system and over 5 million people for sustainable crop and soil fertility management practices. As noted earlier, sustainable crop and soil fertility management practices and efficient planting material production and distribution systems also have the highest IRR, whereas developing high-yielding varieties tolerant to cold weather and frost generates the lowest IRR of 30%. The results show that an integrated approach involving sustainable crop and soil fertility management practices and an efficient planting material production and distribution system would greatly reduce poverty among the poor cassava-growing households. The expected number of poor people lifted out of poverty depends largely on the size of the total economic benefits, national poverty rates, and regionspecific elasticities of poverty reduction with respect to agricultural productivity growth.With Africa having the highest poverty rates as well as poverty elasticity, the poverty reduction measure thus favors research options generating much of the global economic benefits that accrue to Africa. This partly explains why the two options targeting Asia and LAC only (i.e., strategies to prevent introduction of exotic pests and diseases and high-yielding varieties tolerant to cold weather and frost) have the lowest expected poverty reduction effects. The relative impacts of research options on poverty reduction thus depend not only on the total economic benefits but also on the regional shares of total economic benefits. Research options generating comparable global economic benefits may actually have different poverty reduction impacts depending on Africa's share of the total benefits. High-yielding, drought-tolerant varieties and increased wateruse efficiency have lower global economic benefits than does integrated pest and disease management, but the poverty reduction impacts are greater (over 4 million vs. 2.4 million people) because Africa accounts for much of the global economic benefits from drought tolerance.Table 6 presents information on the regional distribution of the adoption area for the different research options. For most research options, Africa accounts for over 50% of the cassava area that will be under improved varieties when maximum adoption is reached. More specifically, Africa's area share under improved varieties ranges from 57% for processing technologies for value addition to 73% for high-yielding varieties with high dry matter and starch and 100% for high-yielding varieties with dual resistance to the major diseases CMD and CBSD. Globally, the adoption ceilings for improved cassava technologies ranges from a little over 0.5 million ha of cassava for high-yielding varieties tolerant to cold weather and frost to nearly 8 million ha for high-yielding, drought-tolerant varieties and increased water-use efficiency.Assessing research priorities based on potential impacts of alternative lines of research is critical for resource allocation efforts aimed at enhancing the impact of agricultural research in the face of declining public research budgets. This paper evaluated alternative cassava research and technology options using the traditional economic surplus measures of the benefit of research as well as the likely impacts on poverty reduction. The research options included not only those needed to remove significant constraints to crop yield but also others aimed at adding value to cassava production through new varietal traits or improved post-harvest processing. The results of the priority assessment generally show high returns to each of the cassava research options evaluated, indicating the social profitability of investments in cassava research to address a whole range of production and market constraints.Improving the quality and supply of cassava planting material and promoting integrated crop and soil fertility management options have the largest potential economic and poverty reduction impacts. Efficient planting material production and distribution systems can go a long way in addressing the observed low adoption of improved varieties due to lack of clean planting materials. Similarly, sustainable crop and soil fertility management practices play a key role in closing the observed yield gaps, especially in Africa. Clearly, research options that lead to greater technology adoption and increased root yields should have greater economic and poverty reduction impacts. The relative impacts of research options on poverty reduction depend not only on the total economic benefits but also on the regional shares of total economic benefits. As both poverty rates and poverty reduction elasticities are the highest in Africa, research options generating comparable global economic benefits may actually have different poverty reduction impacts depending on Africa's share of the total benefits. For example, high-yielding, drought-tolerant varieties and increased water-use efficiency have lower global economic benefits than does integrated pest and disease management. However, the poverty reduction impacts are greater because Africa accounts for much of the global economic benefits from drought tolerance. The regional distribution of the adoption area for most research options shows that Africa accounts for over 50% of the cassava area that will be under improved varieties when maximum adoption is reached.It is worth noting that for research options such as processing for value addition or varieties with longer shelf life that generate economic benefits mainly through demand shifts rather than supply shifts, there is need for further refinement of the models to fully account for economic gains due to shifts in the demand function and the resulting price changes. For cassava processing and other value addition technologies, for example, the economic surplus model used in this paper only captures the economic benefits associated with increased productivity and supply in response to higher derived demand-i.e. demand shift for processed cassava also leading to demand shift for fresh roots-and market opportunity for fresh cassava roots. As the model does not account for the more direct benefits associated with the demand shift and the value-added farmers earn from selling the processed product, there is need to develop and apply a unified framework involving both demand and supply shifts to measure the direct and indirect economic benefits associated with processing technologies for value addition.","tokenCount":"6251"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"78b4298a40f96bfa808b35e4feffb3e3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1a8de3b-d6c2-4658-a0a9-a052f3a67015/retrieve","id":"1140286341"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3da4f975-cf76-49ba-bbe0-1095fc04addd","pagecount":"1","content":"• An indicator framework and associated user-friendly tool for ex-ante assessments of environmental impacts of development interventions in livestock Value Chains.• It evaluates land requirements, productivity, water use, soil health, economics and greenhouse gas emissions associated with livestock production enterprises.• It compares the environmental impacts of different livestock production practices in different livestock production systems.• The CLEANED indicators align with the concerns raised by global experts.• The system-specific footprint calculations and assessments of environmental footprint changes of promising solutions, fills the knowledge gap identified by the experts, i.e., system-specific knowledge about such solutions.• Results can provide input in investment decisions of local implementers, both in the private and public sphere. The CLEANED approach for flagging and addressing environmental issues • Researchers, development practitioners and policy makers all agree that livestock production systems are at risk of global environmental change while at the same time contributing to it.-Major risks are perceived to be climate-related.-Major impacts were considered to be land-related (degradation and competition for land), closely followed by pressure on water and GHG emissions.• Most promising approach towards reducing environmental impact brought forward was more sustainable livestock production practices (incl. managed grazing, improved pastures, silvopastoral systems and planted forages).-Barriers to uptake of such solutions: lack of rapidly available, site-and system-specific knowledge about such solutions and their potential environmental impacts.-Sources of information: The importance of journal papers, however, decreased as an information source from researchers to policy makers to development practitioners, while the use of professional networks and internet searches increases for the latter two groups.» Livestock provide food, nutrition, income, insurance, soil nutrients to millions of millions of smallholders across Africa, Latin America and Asia.» Livestock systems are drivers of global environmental degradation and predicted demand increase for animal sourced food poses a sustainability challenge, particularly as many ecosystems are already under heavy pressure.» Efforts to maximize livestock production, productivity and profitability thus need to be balanced with long-term sustainability and environmental stewardship.Important to take a participatory approach and present results in multi-stakeholder forums and targeted internet posts.  ","tokenCount":"337"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"406d04e9eaef2bd3f717ee7de00c7319","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8255cebf-fb9d-4926-9021-29b90f900f70/retrieve","id":"1272619673"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aed50f4a-94f1-4935-b600-a09de9b73756","pagecount":"15","content":"Como parte de la iniciativa \"AgriLAC Resiliente: Sistemas de innovación agroalimentaria resilientes en América Latina y el Caribe\", en el marco del paquete de trabajo 1, \"Dando forma a las 'mejores apuestas' socioecológicas-tecnológicas (SET) sensibles a la nutrición\", se ha priorizado el fortalecimiento de las capacidades comerciales y técnicas de los socios y actores clave dentro de la cadena de valor agrícola. Esta intervención tiene como objetivo no solo mejorar la producción, sino también asegurar la sostenibilidad comercial a largo plazo para las asociaciones locales.En este contexto, se ha acompañado a productores vinculados con Global Communities, Asociación de Cooperación para el Desarrollo Rural de Occidente-CDRO, Servicios Católicos de ayuda CRS por sus siglas en inglés y la asociación de Estudios de Cooperación Occidente -ECO, ubicadas en el occidente de Guatemala, con el fin de optimizar sus procesos de producción, postcosecha y comercialización. Este documento presenta un resumen del plan de fortalecimiento comercial implementado, destacando las acciones realizadas en relación con la comercialización y el análisis de la capacidad productiva.Durante este proceso, se llevaron a cabo talleres con los miembros de las asociaciones, donde se abordaron temas como el análisis de costos de producción, identificación de mercados potenciales y estrategias para mejorar su competitividad. Los datos recopilados en estas actividades resultaron fundamentales para tres objetivos principales:• Análisis y diagnóstico de la situación actual basada en el análisis FODA (Fortalezas, Oportunidades, Debilidades y Amenazas) desarrollado en conjunto con la comunidad. Este análisis permitió identificar áreas críticas para la mejora y definir acciones a corto y mediano plazo, orientadas a fortalecer la situación comercial de los productores y mejorar su posicionamiento en el mercado regional.• Análisis detallado de los costos de producción para el cultivo de tomate, donde se identificaron los principales insumos y mano de obra para desarrollar la actividad productiva. Este análisis permite a los productores determinar la rentabilidad del cultivo, optimizar el uso de recursos, establecer precios de venta adecuados y tomar decisiones informadas que mejoren la eficiencia y sostenibilidad del negocio agrícola.• Formulación de un plan de acción adaptado a las necesidades específicas de los productores y orientado en fortalecer el componente comercial alineado con las características de su producto y su mercado objetivo.El fortalecimiento en el componente comercial se desarrolló de la siguiente forma:• Análisis y Diagnóstico (Análisis FODA): Identificar áreas críticas para la mejora y sentar las bases para la planificación estratégica.o Ejercicio participativo con la comunidad: realizar un análisis FODA colectivo con los integrantes de las asociaciones para que permita identificar en conjunto aspectos internos (Fortalezas y debilidades) y externos (oportunidades y amenazas) que influyen en los procesos de comercialización.o Priorización de áreas críticas: En conjunto con la comunidad, se priorizan los factores del análisis FODA que tienen mayor impacto en la competitividad de los productoresy su capacidad de mejorar su situación comercial.o Definición de objetivos a corto y mediano plazo: Con base en el FODA, establecer metas claras para las áreas críticas identificadas.• Análisis de la capacidad productiva y costos de producción: Establecer etapas productivas del cultivo y los costos asociados para la optimización de recursos y mejora de la rentabilidad.o Taller participativo con la comunidad: Llevar a cabo un análisis detallado con la comunidad de los insumos utilizados en el cultivo de tomate, y calcular los costos asociados a cada uno de ellos, incluyendo el costo de la mano de obra.o Evaluación de la distribución de los costos: Analizar el uso de insumos y recursos en el proceso productivo para identificar ineficiencias y posibles mejoras.o Definición de datos claves: de acuerdo con la información recopilada se determina total de costos de producción, ingresos, margen de rentabilidad y costo unitario de producción.• Plan de acción: crear un plan de acción que permita establecer estrategias y acciones orientadas a responder las brechas identificadas.La producción y comercialización de productos agrícolas en el occidente de Guatemala, particularmente para los productores de tomate vinculados con Global Communities, CDRO, CRS y la asociación ECO, enfrenta una serie de desafíos que limitan su desarrollo sostenible y competitivo. A pesar de disponer de tierras adecuadas, diversidad productiva y cosechas de alta calidad, los agricultores se ven restringidos por el limitado acceso a recursos esenciales como créditos e insumos. Además, carecen de formación en áreas clave, como la gestión financiera, los costos, estrategias organizacionales y de mercado. La pequeña escala de las áreas de producción y la escasez de mano de obra empeoran estas dificultades, mientras que la resistencia al cambio y el temor a la formalización limitan la posibilidad de establecer estructuras más eficientes y sostenibles.Aunque la proximidad a mercados estratégicos y la creciente demanda de productos agrícolas ofrecen oportunidades para el crecimiento, existen amenazas externas que generan incertidumbre en el sector. Factores como la alta variabilidad climática, el aumento de los costos de producción, la migración de la mano de obra y la falta de apoyo estatal ponen en riesgo la rentabilidad y la expansión del sector. A esto se suman la presencia de plagas y enfermedades, el deterioro de las vías de acceso y la tendencia a la reducción de las áreas productivas, lo que incrementa la vulnerabilidad del sistema productivo.En conjunto, estos factores crean un escenario en el que, a pesar de las fortalezas y oportunidades existentes, la falta de recursos y el impacto de factores externos impiden que la producción agrícola alcance su máximo potencial y la generación de ingresos por la actividad productiva se vea restringida, comprometiendo su viabilidad a largo plazo.El tomate es la hortaliza más relevante en Centroamérica tanto por su extensión cultivada como por su valor en el mercado, siendo también la más consumida. Su producción es intensiva y está mayormente a cargo de pequeños y medianos agricultores. En la región, existen diversas zonas agrícolas, tanto tropicales como templadas, que favorecen su siembra. Aproximadamente el 90% de los cultivos de tomate se realiza en campo abierto o en ambientes semi-protegidos, mientras que el 10% restante se lleva a cabo en condiciones protegidas.También hay una gran diversidad de tomates, y su consumo se divide en dos categorías principales según su uso. Por un lado, están los tomates que se consumen frescos, ya sea como fruta o en ensaladas junto a otros vegetales, e incluso algunas variedades pequeñas, como el tomate Cherry, se combinan con quesos o se usan en preparaciones caseras para acompañar diferentes platos; El segundo gran uso del tomate es para la industria, donde debido a sus innumerables características de sabor, dulzura, acidez, color, sólidos, etc. se ha posicionado como el rey de las salsas y pastas para combinar en diversas preparaciones culinarias.En Guatemala se ha convertido en una hortaliza de mucha importancia en los últimos años, de acuerdo con los aspectos productivos los volúmenes de producción que se generan han logrado abastecer la demanda el país, además se ha logrado exportar volúmenes considerables a países como el Salvador y Estados Unidos y otros. La producción nacional se encuentra distribuida de la siguiente forma: Jutiapa 20%, Baja Verapaz 20%, Chiquimula 11%, Guatemala 8%, Zacapa 7%, El Progreso 6%, Alta Verapaz 6%, Jalapa 5% y los demás departamentos de la República suman el 17% restante (Solis & Pinto, 2020).Según el Observatorio de Complejidad Económica (OCE), en 2022 Guatemala exportó 32,7 millones de dólares en tomates frescos o refrigerados, posicionándose como el 24.º exportador mundial de este producto. Ese mismo año, los tomates frescos o refrigerados fueron el 87.º producto más exportado del país. Los principales destinos de exportación fueron Estados Unidos (22,3 millones de dólares), El Salvador (8,24 millones), Canadá (1,11 millones), Honduras (651 mil) y Nicaragua (192 mil). Además, en 2022 Guatemala importó 35,9 millones de dólares en kétchup y otras salsas de tomate, lo que lo convirtió en el 14.º mayor importador mundial de este tipo de productos, siendo el 137.º producto más importado del país en ese año.Lo anterior demuestra la importancia del tomate y sus derivados para Guatemala tanto en el ámbito de exportación como en el de importación. Por un lado, el país se posiciona como el exportador número 24 de tomates frescos o refrigerados a nivel mundial, destacando Estados Unidos como su principal mercado. Por otro lado, Guatemala es uno de los mayores importadores de ketchup y otras salsas de tomate, ocupando el puesto 14 a nivel global en 2022. Esta dualidad refleja la relevancia económica de este producto para el país, tanto en su papel como exportador como en su consumo interno de derivados.Fuente: Productora Zulma SajcheGlobal Communities ha trabajado con comunidades en Guatemala por más de 40 años, enfocados en reducir vulnerabilidades y crear futuros más resilientes. A través de sus programas en Huehuetenango y otros distritos, la organización aborda desastres naturales, crisis climáticas recurrentes, mejora el rendimiento escolar, la salud de mujeres y niños, y transforma asentamientos urbanos en lugares más resistentes.Guatemala enfrenta múltiples desafíos, como inseguridad alimentaria, desnutrición infantil, bajas tasas de alfabetización y crisis climáticas y sanitarias. En el Altiplano Occidental, más del 75% de la población vive en pobreza, y la desnutrición crónica afecta a dos tercios de los niños. Global Communities colabora con las comunidades para implementar huertas climáticamente inteligentes y mejorar la alimentación escolar, además de mitigar el cambio climático.La Asociación de Cooperación para el Desarrollo Rural de Occidente (CDRO) fue creada en 1984 con el objetivo de recuperar la confianza de las comunidades, uniendo esfuerzos de sus líderes para ser los protagonistas en la identificación, formulación, gestión y ejecución de proyectos de desarrollo integral. Su estrategia principal ha sido la \"participación total de la comunidad\", lo que ha permitido importantes logros en 132 comunidades de seis departamentos del occidente de Guatemala (Totonicapán, Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, San Marcos, Sololá y Quiché) fortaleciendo a través de procesos integrales que mejoren la calidad de vida de las familias.Catholic Relief Services (CRS) comenzó sus operaciones en Guatemala en 1963, con un enfoque inicial en la asistencia humanitaria para las comunidades más vulnerables. Durante la década de 1970, sus programas incluyeron la distribución de alimentos junto con iniciativas en educación, salud materno-infantil, agricultura y reforestación, en colaboración con Cáritas.Con los años, CRS amplió su trabajo para incluir programas en seguridad alimentaria, nutrición y salud, agricultura sostenible, educación, desarrollo juvenil, cuidado infantil, reducción del riesgo de desastres y respuesta a emergencias. Para el año 2022, CRS tiene presencia en 11 departamentos y 73 municipios de Guatemala, implementando proyectos en tres áreas clave: respuesta a emergencias, medios de vida agrícolas y programas para la niñez, adolescencia y juventud.La Asociación Estudios de Cooperación de Occidente (ECO) en San Marcos ha trabajado desde 2015 en colaboración con USAID y Nexos Locales, mediante subvenciones, para fortalecer el trabajo comunitario en diversas áreas del noroeste y suroeste de Guatemala. Su enfoque se centra en impulsar las capacidades de las organizaciones locales para generar un impacto positivo en sus comunidades.Como una organización sin fines de lucro, ECO gestiona y ejecuta proyectos orientados a mejorar el acceso a oportunidades de desarrollo social, económico y cultural. A través de su labor, busca contribuir al bienestar de sus beneficiarios, guiándose por los principios de solidaridad, honestidad y compromiso.Como parte del análisis de las prácticas comerciales y las brechas que se presentan los productores, se desarrolló en conjunto una matriz FODA, en la cual se presentan las principales fortalezas, oportunidades, debilidades y amenazas identificadas con los productores de las diferentes asociaciones. Este ejercicio muestra, por un lado, los aspectos internos o propios del grupo, y por otro, los aspectos externos sobre los cuales no se tiene el mismo nivel de control por parte de los productores, pero que en definitiva influyen en los procesos y dinámicas alrededor de los mismos. Cabe mencionar que este ejercicio se centra en el análisis de la oferta y la comercialización de los productos agrícolas con énfasis en el cultivo de tomate.• Tierras disponibles para la producción.• Variedad en la oferta productiva.• Experiencia productiva, especialmente en cultivos como el tomate.• Buena calidad en las cosechas.• Clientes fijos y venta de toda la producción.• Capacitación constante en temas relacionados con la producción de cultivos y calidad.• Presencia de instituciones de apoyo.• No hay piloneras locales para comprar las plántulas de tomate.• Áreas pequeñas para la producción agrícola.• Difícil acceso a créditos.• Falta de educación en diferentes aspectos como: financiero, costos, organizacional, tributario y de mercados.• Escases de mano de obra.• Falta de recursos para la compra de insumos necesarios para el proceso productivo.• Resistencia al cambio.• Están ubicados en una zona estratégica para la producción y las ventas de los productos.• Temor a la formalización, no están legalmente constituidos.• Cercanía con diferentes mercados (ubicación estratégica).• Acceso a mercados diferenciados: producción limpia.• Valor agregado de los productos, transformación en otros derivados.• Alta demanda de las cosechas.• Posibilidad de suministrar al PAE.• Alta variabilidad climática que pone en riesgo los cultivos. (canícula prolongada, fenómenos extremos: heladas o sequias)• Falta apoyo estatal.• Alta migración por falta de oportunidades.• Altos costos de los insumos agrícolas para la producción.• Poco relevo generacional.• Presencia de plagas y enfermedades (ej. trips).• Tendencia a la reducción de las áreas productivas.• Mal estado de las vías.Para el análisis de los costos de producción se realizó un ejercicio junto con los productores que permitió establecer y validar información sobre sus prácticas en el cultivo, el valor del jornal, la cantidad y los costos de los insumos y herramientas. El ejercicio de costos se realizó para el cultivo de tomate tipo casa malla y el área establecida fue de una cuerda (21*21mtrs). Las etapas consideradas como propias del cultivo de tomate fueron: preparación manual del terreno, siembra, fertilización, manejo fitosanitario, poda y cosecha. Posteriormente, se identificaron los insumos y las herramientas necesarias para su ejecución, y sus respectivos precios en el mercado local.La estructura de costos cultivo de tomate, indican que la mayor participación está representada por los insumos y la mano de obra con 31.83% y 31.39% de participación respectivamente seguido por las herramientas con un 23.01% de participación y por último el transporte con un 13.76% de participación. Con respecto al primer rubro considerado el más alto, incluye los pilones, fertilizantes e insecticidas para la producción y control de plagas y enfermedades. En relación con el presupuesto destinado al segundo rubro las principales actividades de mano de obra son la preparación del terreno, podas y cosecha estas actividades se realizan en su mayoría de forma manual y se requiere más de 30 jornales para su ejecución.En cifras, los costos totales calculados para el cultivo de tomate fueron de $17,440Q; que se distribuyen de la siguiente forma: 5,552Q Insumos, 5,475Q Mano de obra, 4,013Q herramienta y 2,400Q en transporte.De acuerdo con el análisis de la información alusiva a los rendimientos promedio del cultivo de tomate (180 cajas), y a los precios por bulto de 125Q/caja reportados por información directa de los productores se realizó el cálculo de estos datos claves:Margen bruto de rentabilidad 5,060Q Rentabilidad 29%Según la información anterior, el análisis de los costos y rendimientos del cultivo de tomate evidencia que el cultivo de tomate es rentable para los productores. Con un costo total de 17,440Q y un ingreso total de 22,500Q, se obtiene un margen bruto de rentabilidad de 5,060Q, lo que se traduce en una rentabilidad del 29%. Estos resultados indican que, a pesar de los costos asociados, el cultivo de tomate puede ser una actividad económicamente viable y rentable. Además, el costo unitario por saco de 97Q sugiere que los productores están en una posición competitiva para maximizar sus ingresos, siempre que mantengan un control eficiente sobre sus insumos y costos de producción. Falta de una figura asociativa para los procesos productivos, de comercialización y acceso de proyectos públicos.Actualmente, los productores no cuentan con una asociación, lo que debilita significativamente su poder de negociación en el mercado. Esta falta de organización impide que puedan acceder a mejores precios para sus productos, negociar en condiciones más favorables con compradores o proveedores, y aprovechar economías de escala en la compra de insumos o en la comercialización. Además, la ausencia de una estructura organizativa dificulta su acceso a programas de apoyo gubernamental o de cooperación, ya que muchas de estas iniciativas requieren que los beneficiarios estén formalmente organizados.La creación de una asociación les permitiría fortalecer su posición en el mercado, la capacidad productiva además del poder acceso a programas de formación, recursos y financiamiento gubernamental.Los productores enfrentan limitaciones en su acceso y conocimiento sobre nuevos mercados y canales de comercialización, lo que incluye una falta de comprensión de los requisitos específicos, como normas de calidad y certificaciones, así como de los procesos de transformación primaria necesarios para agregar valor a sus cosechas. Esta carencia de información restringe su capacidad para aprovechar oportunidades comerciales másIncursionar en nuevos mercados con productos con valor agregado que les permitan tener mayor rentabilidad en el negocio y ser competitivos a largo plazo.rentables y diversificar sus opciones de venta, lo que a su vez limita su crecimiento y competitividad en el mercado.El análisis FODA, la identificación de las principales brechas que limitan la competitividad comercial del tomate, la evaluación del modelo de negocio y el análisis de la capacidad productiva y costos de producción permitieron reconocer las oportunidades de mejora para los productores. Estos hallazgos fueron categorizados según las posibilidades de los productores y las instituciones aliadas para generar estrategias y acciones dirigidas a atender los cuellos de botella definidos.Así entonces, se tuvieron en cuenta los siguientes criterios: i) productivo, relacionado con la búsqueda de alianzas institucionales que permitan ampliar las áreas de siembra con esto promover una mayor tecnificación en los procesos productivos. ii) lo organizacional, orientado a fomentar la asociatividad dentro de los grupos productivos con el fin de acceder a proyectos y mercados diferenciados; iii) comercialización, que hace referencia a la necesidad de explorar nuevos mercados en el departamento, además diversificar con otros productos agrícolas y dar valor agregado a través de procesos primarios de transformación. A partir de lo expuesto, se presentan las estrategias, acciones, resultados y estimaciones del tiempo que puede requerirse para la ejecución de los resultados planteados • Elaboración de un plan de fortalecimiento que contenga las necesidades de formación del grupo y que a su vez contemple la introducción de tecnologías agrícolas y estrategias de ampliación para las áreas de siembra.• Gestionar reuniones o mesas de diálogo con las instituciones identificadas para ejecutar el plan de acción.• Base de datos de las instituciones estratégicas para la gestión y fortalecimiento productivo.• Plan con necesidades de fortalecimiento y formación requeridas por los productores. • Creación de una base de datos de clientes potenciales locales, evaluar sus demandas y requisitos específicos de productos.• Participar en procesos de formación en transformación primaria (como secado, clasificación, empaque y procesamiento básico) que agreguen valor a los productos y los hagan más atractivos para los mercados identificados.• Desarrollar productos con valor agregado partiendo del cultivo principal: el tomate.• Base de datos de clientes locales.• Productores capacitados en procesos de agregación de valor y transformación de cosechas.• Producción de productos con valor agregado (ej. Salsa de tomate) Mediano plazo -2 años• La aplicación de herramientas como el análisis FODA y el análisis de la capacidad productiva permitió identificar y priorizar problemáticas para los productores relacionadas con la comercialización de tomate. Las brechas identificadas fueron el punto de partida para el diseño de las estrategias y acciones que se espera contribuyan al fortalecimiento de los productores, de tal forma que puedan mejorar su propuesta de valor y percibir mayores ingresos. Para lograr este propósito y asegurar el éxito del proceso descrito en este documento, es preciso que los productores se familiaricen con el seguimiento y la implementación de las estrategias y acciones y trabajen de manera articulada con las instituciones locales para su gestión. Así entonces, será posible mejorar algunos aspectos del proceso de comercialización que permita que se evolucione hacía unos productores más competitivos.• El análisis de las brechas productivas, organizacionales y de acceso a mercados en el sector agrícola guatemalteco revela importantes desafíos que limitan el desarrollo de los productores. La falta de infraestructura adecuada y de mano de obra compromete la eficiencia y competitividad de los cultivos, mientras que la falta de una estructura organizativa formal impide que los agricultores puedan acceder a mejores condiciones de comercialización y apoyo institucional. Además, el desconocimiento sobre nuevos mercados y los procesos de transformación primaria limita las posibilidades de los productores de agregar valor a sus cosechas y alcanzar mayores niveles de rentabilidad.A pesar de estos desafíos, existen claras oportunidades para revertir la situación. La incorporación de jóvenes al sector agrícola no solo resolvería en parte el problema de la mano de obra, sino que facilitaría la adopción de tecnología y prácticas innovadoras. Asimismo, la creación de asociaciones podría fortalecer la posición negociadora de los productores, facilitar su acceso a programas de financiamiento y apoyo público, y mejorar su capacidad de entrar en mercados más rentables.• En aspectos organizacionales y productivos se hace relevante y necesario la incorporación de jóvenes y tecnologías innovadoras, esto por un lado para asegurar la sostenibilidad de la actividad agrícola a largo plazo y mejorar su competitividad en el mercado. Los jóvenes pueden liderar el relevo generacional y la adopción de nuevas tecnologías, optimizando los procesos productivos y reduciendo costos. Además, los jóvenes pueden promover prácticas más sostenibles, alineándose con las tendencias globales de producción responsable y eficiente e incorporando tecnología simple que puedan facilitar los procesos productivos. Esto no solo aumentaría la eficiencia, sino que también garantizaría la continuidad generacional en el campo y la adopción de prácticas más sostenibles.• Promover la asociatividad entre los productores es crucial para mejorar su poder de negociación y acceder a condiciones comerciales más justas. Al formar asociaciones, los productores pueden negociar precios más competitivos con compradores y proveedores. La formalización de los productores mediante la creación de asociaciones les abrirá la puerta a una gama más amplia de programas gubernamentales y de cooperación internacional que con frecuencia están disponibles solo para grupos organizados formalmente. Estos programas ofrecen acceso a financiamiento, capacitación y recursos técnicos, lo que fortalece sus capacidades productivas y comerciales.• En el componente comercial, Se recomienda a los productores explorar nuevos mercados y añadir valor a sus cosechas para diversificar sus canales de comercialización. Esto les permitirá atraer nuevos clientes y acceder a nichos de mercado más especializados que valoren productos diferenciados por su calidad. La incorporación de valor agregado, como el procesamiento del tomate o la obtención de certificaciones, puede incrementar la competitividad y los ingresos, además de reducir la dependencia de mercados tradicionales. Al diversificar, los productores minimizan riesgos y aumentan su resiliencia frente a fluctuaciones en precios y demanda, mejorando su sostenibilidad económica en el tiempo.• El plan de fortalecimiento comercial es una herramienta que guía y facilita la toma de decisiones y el logro de resultados enfocados al tema comercial de los productores. Las estrategias y acciones planteadas en el plan se diseñaron a partir de los problemas actuales en función de su importancia e impacto que pueda generar. Por último, se recomienda una actualización periódica del plan, teniendo en cuenta que existen cambios continuos y dinámicas provenientes del entorno.Solis ","tokenCount":"3831"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e09122c7d35e400df8a0fdf93910b60c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/62c52fb3-db12-410e-a9e1-a10b4a29870c/retrieve","id":"1252058901"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5ea418ab-b93a-43ec-9e8c-4aa95f2e53b1","pagecount":"15","content":"The Blometry Unlt: 1ts new role at CIAT Actlvltles e) and d) wUI be lmplemented through externally-funded projects. ActMty e) can be Implementad through a comblnatlon of efforts between the Unlt permanent staff and external Blometriclan ConsUtants.Table 1 shows the core-budgeted personnel of the Blometry Unlt for 1993. Responslblltles asslgned to blomaUtciane are a func:don of CIAT \"data dornains\" needs combined with the person speciftc technical expertlse. Blometriciane are normally assigned to \"projects\" wtthin data dornalns. Thelr contribution, apart from methodological advlce, are the conductlon of methodologlcal studles relevant to a partlcUar research discipline withln a data domaln. Wlth the recent reductlon of personnelln the Blometry Unlt, the ratio blomaUtcian researcher ls of 12 principal researehers per biometriclan: Table 2 shows the number of principal researchers wtthln each \"data dornaln\". Table 3 shows the type of blometrical methods most wldely requlred by eaeh data domaln and the biometriclans asslgned to support thern.In other to cope with demand, and given the reductlon of Blometry personnel, the blometricians priority will be on statlstlcaljmathematlcal consulting, lnvolvement In collaborative methodologlcal studles with CIAT sclentlsts and tralnlng to CIAT research personnel. Support on day-to-day data processing/data analysls of experiments or data analysls of students thesls will not be provlded by the Blometry Unlt anymore-thls responslbillty would need to be assumed by the respectlng Program or Unlt.There are two types of tralnlng requlred by the blometrlclans during the next two years to better In Colombia, courses and semlnars on statlstlcs are offered by Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Departamento de Estadistica, Universidad de los Andes-Facultad de Ingeniarla and durlng the Simposio Nacional de Estadistica, held annually (thls year lt will be held in Bogotá, between June 7-11 , 1993). These events are useful opportunltles for CIAT biometrlcians to revise and update concepts as well as to share and leam experlences frorn colleagues.Table 4 shows the proposed tralnlng plan for 1993-1994 In biometrical methods.Bklmetrtclans wll need to be tralned on how to access sclentlflc software, such as SAS, GENSTAT, OAACLE and Graphlcal Software, through the new operatlng systerns of the CIAT Wlde Area Natwork (UNIX operatlng system, presumably) and Local Area Networks (NoveN Netware 3.11 operatlng system, presumably).The tralning coursea, thelr content, dates, duratlon and costs will be deffned after final dectsJons are made by OAT and the person frorn University of Georgla responslble for the Network design. However, an estimated budget amount needs to be kept for thls very lmportant traJnlng during 1993 and 1994.BUOGET REQUIREMENTS 1193-1194      ","tokenCount":"409"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5d33df090fbb9677cdd28f9f3a1611b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2b915bea-938c-47dd-a5e4-29cbd643bd3a/retrieve","id":"1326054572"},"keywords":["Escherichia coli","faecal contamination","milk","water","rural community","Ethiopia"],"sieverID":"3758f0a7-9225-4b3e-b5e1-244a49ffc882","pagecount":"120","content":"Over the past three-and-a-half years, I have received support and encouragement from a number of individuals/organizations. Understandably, words of saying indicated below cannot cover all of the contributions. First of all, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Anne Valle Zaráte, my supervisor, for her willingness to accept me as her student. Moreover, her constructive comments, advices, supports and overall guidance were so crucial for the successful completion of this thesis. It is highly motivating to work with her and simultaneously challenging, of course for good reasons which in due course of time found out to be the wheel of success. PD Dr. Marianna Siegmund-Schultze, Dr. Regina Roessler and Dr. André Markemann are thanked for their close mentorship at various stages of my study. Dr. Markemann deserves my sincere gratitude for correcting my thesis, so that his comments were so valuable in shaping my work. Thank you André! Your friendly and humorous approach always gives motivation to work more. The great administrative support of Mrs. Dominique Keller, secretary for Prof. Valle, deserves special appreciation. Thanks to Mrs. Sigried Seitz for facilitating the procurement of the reagents used in my study. Mr. Markos Hildebrandt (Pharma Share Company, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is also thanked for his help in facilitating the importation of the reagents.v          Water is an important resource for the wellbeing and survival of people with a wide range of uses. Specifically in the rural areas of developing countries, water is used for both domestic purposes and other livelihood productive activities such as gardening, small-scale irrigation and livestock farming, among others (Makoni et al., 2004). In this respect, water provision in rural areas should ideally take into account such multiple uses of water (Katsi et al., 2007).The increasing water scarcity and quality deterioration due to various reasons is becoming a global problem. Unchecked urbanization and industrialisation, rapid population growth, agricultural expansion and climate change are negatively affecting the quality and availability of water resources (Zimmerman et al., 2008). The increasing problem of water scarcity and poor quality is specifically very serious in many developing countries attributed to the predominance of over utilisation and mismanagement of water resource (Kakonge, 2002;Saravanan et al., 2011).In developing countries like Ethiopia, the interactions among livestock, water and rural communities are very complex. In the first instance, livestock play versatile roles in the rural farming communities. In addition to food provision (i.e. meat and milk), livestock offer important functions as repositories of household savings, insurance to mitigate financial risk and source of draft power (Upton, 2004). Indeed, animal source foods are major sources of essential micronutrients required for human nutrition (Murphy and Allen, 2003;Randolph et al., 2007;Dror and Allen, 2011). While livestock are the foundation of rural livelihoods, they can also degrade the environment and contaminate water sources with their excreta, subsequently risking human health (Steinfeld et al., 2006). The health risk could be very high in areas where livestock and people share the same micro-environments and have several points of interfaces (Mazet et al., 2009).Water quality, which is defined based on microbiological or physicochemical parameters, affects both human and livestock in various ways. The concern of low quality water is either due to direct health impacts from drinking or a reduction in the palatability for humans and animal consumption (Willms et al., 2002;WHO, 2011). Low microbiological quality water is one of the major health concerns and causes of high human morbidity and mortality in developing countries like Ethiopia (Prüss et al., 2002;Ashbolt, 2004;WHO, 2011). Exposure General introduction 2 to elevated levels of chemicals in water is also responsible for various human health problems (WHO, 2011). In addition to the impact through drinking, use of contaminated water in food production and/or processing can be a significant source of pathogens with subsequent adverse health effects (Kirby et al., 2003). Specifically, animal source foods such as milk and milk products are highly prone to microbial contamination. Therefore, the use of contaminated water for cleansing of containers can adversely affect the safety of milk and milk products (Chye et al., 2004). Similarly, water can be a vehicle for the transmission of clinically important pathogens such as Salmonella, Cryptosporidium and Eimeria, especially in young animals (Bolton et al., 2012;Mitchell et al., 2012). Noteworthy to mention is that poor quality water can affect the productive performance of livestock, for example, in terms of reduced milk production (Solomon et al., 1995) or poor weight gain in growing animals (Willms et al., 2002;Lardner et al., 2005).The drinking water supplies in many rural areas of developing countries suffer from lack of quality monitoring (Guppy and Shantz, 2011) and the quality is checked to the best only once, when water supply schemes are installed (Rossiter et al., 2010).Though Ethiopia is endowed with huge water resources and the annual renewable water resource of the country was estimated at 124.6 billion cubic meters (Word Bank, 2006), there is a large spatial and temporal disparity in water availability. Consequently, high water scarcity is experienced in different corners of the country. In particular, the Rift Valley area, where this study was carried out, is challenged by water scarcity and impairment of quality associated with mismanagement and over-utilization (Ayenew, 2007;Jansen et al., 2007).However, studies addressing the extent of water scarcity and quality problems are limited in Ethiopia in general and in the study area in particular (Reimann et al., 2003;Tekle-Haimanot et al., 2006;Biadglegne et al., 2009). Most of the studies were carried out in urban settings (Admassu et al., 2004;Kifle and Gadisa, 2006;Biadglegne et al., 2009). Therefore, comprehensive assessments of water utilization by farmers and their livestock with respect to potential health and food safety impacts are necessary.Taking water as a core element affecting the health of people and livestock, the present study was carried out in Lume and Siraro districts (both located in Rift Valley area of Ethiopia).Generally, the study aimed to assess: (1) water sources, availability and utilization by livestock and farmers, (2) the concern of farmers related to water quality and availability in comparison with other livestock production constraints (e.g., feed scarcity and diseases) and General introduction 3(3) the quality status of water sources destined for human and livestock drinking based on selected microbiological and chemical quality parameters. The potential risk of using water of poor microbial quality on the safety of milk and milk products traditionally produced and consumed by households was also one of the focuses of the study. Throughout this study, comparisons of the factors assessed were made between the two districts.The specific objectives of the present study were to: (e) investigate the potential impacts of poor water quality on the quality/safety of milk and milk products.Lume and Siraro, the two districts where this study was carried out, were purposively selected constituting different water quantity and quality challenges in the Rift Valley areas in Ethiopia. While surface water resources are available to a greater extent in Lume, the Bilate River is the only perennial surface water in Siraro, marking the extreme south-western border of the district. In other respects, the water bodies in Lume were assumed to be prone to pollution from industrial and domestic effluents, because of the proximity of the district to urban areas. Siraro district is remote and infrastructural facilities were underdeveloped.Though farmers in both districts practice mixed crop-livestock farming system, the livelihood of farmers in Lume is more dependent on crop. In contrast, livestock play more roles in Siraro and a transhumant migration according to grazing area and water availability was also common in the district.The methodological approach of the study encompassed different components: (1) a questionnaire survey complemented by focus group discussions, (2) assessments of the microbiological and chemical quality of water destined for human and/or livestock consumption, (3) microbial assessments of milk and milk products produced and consumed in the study area, and (4) a compilation of secondary data on human health, management of improved water sources and rainfall data of the two districts.For the questionnaire survey, a total of 320 households (160 in each district) were randomly selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire format. The questions focused on the socio-economic characteristics of the households, constraints for livestock production, seasonal water supply and accessibility to water sources, as well as farmers' perceptions on the quality of water sources, water-related health problems and impacts of livestock on the quality of water sources. Group discussions were held with farmers to complement information obtained from the questionnaire survey.For the assessment of water quality, water samples were collected from sources (supply points) and household containers (consumption points) from December 2010 to January 2011 and July to August 2011, corresponding to the dry and wet seasons, respectively. The assessed water sources were those utilized by the rural communities for human and/or livestock consumption purposes. Samples collected from sources were analysed for total dissolved solids (TDS), pH, manganese (Mn), hexa-valent chromium (Cr), fluoride (F), E.coli and total coliforms. All quality parameters were determined during both sampling periods (in the dry and wet season), with exception of chromium and manganese, which was analysed only during the wet season. The assessed parameters were selected based on their importance regarding health and/or aesthetic aspects of water for both human and/or livestock use. The water samples from household containers were only examined for E. coli; assuming that the chemical quality of water does not change significantly when transported and stored. Milk and milk products were also collected from the households during the wet season and analysed for E. coli. This was done to assess the potential effects of microbiologically poor water on the quality/safety of milk and milk products.Secondary data were collected from various offices of the districts. Specifically, to assess the occurrences and magnitude of water-related human diseases in the study area, a summary of disease reports (July 2009 -June 2010) was obtained from the Health Offices of the respective districts. Moreover, to assess the relationship between monthly pattern of farmers' perceived water scarcity for livestock and rainfall distribution, monthly rainfall data of the two districts were obtained from the National Meteorological Service Agency of Ethiopia (for the duration of [2004][2005][2006][2007][2008]. Secondary data on the price, status and management of improved water sources intended primarily for domestic uses and also used for livestock were also obtained from the Water Resources Development Offices of the respective districts.This thesis is composed of three manuscripts submitted to refereed journals. The manuscripts correspond to the second, third and fourth chapters. Following this general introductory part (chapter one), the second chapter deals with constraints and challenges in meeting the water requirements of livestock in the Rift Valley areas of Ethiopia. The chapter presents various issues with focus on the extent to which water scarcity and poor quality constrain livestock production in the area, factors impairing the quality of water intended for livestock drinking and the strategies adopted by farmers to cope with water scarcity problems. In this chapter, individual interviews with randomly selected respondents and farmers' group discussions were mainly used for data collection. The data were analyzed using descriptive (means and proportions) and analytical (t-test and chi-square) statistics.The third chapter has two main sections: (1) a section based on a questionnaire survey and farmers' group discussions, complemented by secondary human health data and ( 2) the other one which was based on laboratory assessment of different water sources for selected quality parameters of aesthetic or health concern. Accordingly, the accessibility of water sources, farmers' perception on water quality and water-related health problems associated with mismanagement of water sources are the focus of the first section. The second section in this chapter deals with the health implications of the measured water quality parameters (microbiological and chemical).Chapter four presents microbiological quality of water and milk consumed in rural communities of the study area. Ready to consume water and milk samples were collected and analysed for E. coli, an indicator of microbiological quality and safety. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to assess the correlation between E. coli counts of water and milk samples.Chapter five connects the findings of the previous chapters. The potentials and limitations of the overall methodological approaches of the study processes are also discussed under this chapter, followed by general conclusions of the work. Finally, comprehensive summaries of the thesis both in English and German are given (Chapter six and seven).Compared to the total water use in livestock production systems, water for livestock drinking is small in amount, but an important requirement for the health and productivity of animals.This study was carried out to assess the constraints and challenges of meeting the drinking water requirements of livestock in rural mixed smallholder crop-livestock farming districts in the Ethiopian Rift Valley area. Data was collected by individual interviews with randomly selected respondents and farmer group discussions. Farmers ranked feed and water scarcity as the two most important constraints for livestock husbandry, although the ranking order differed between districts and villages. Poor quality water was a concern for the communities in the proximity to urban settlements or industrial establishments. Water provision for livestock was challenging during the dry season, since alternative water sources dried up or were polluted. Though rainwater harvesting by dugout constructions was practiced to cope with water scarcity, farmers indicated that the mismanagement of the harvested water was posing health risks on both, livestock and people. A sustainable water provision for livestock in the area thus depends on the use of different water sources (intermittent or perennial) that should be properly managed. Industrial establishments should adopt an environment-friendly production to minimize pollution of water resources used for livestock consumption.Technical support to farmers is required in the proper design and use of existing rainwater harvesting systems. Further investigations are recommended on the effect of poor quality water (perceived by farmers) on the performance of livestock.Keywords: Water scarcity; poor water quality; livestock production constraints; farmers' perception; EthiopiaLivestock have versatile roles in the Ethiopian farming systems. On top of provision of food (i.e. meat and milk), livestock play important functions as repositories of household savings, as insurance to mitigate risk and as source of draft power. Livestock are kept in various agroclimatic zones and agricultural production systems of the country, including mixed croplivestock, pastoral/agro-pastoral and urban/peri-urban systems (Benin et al., 2003;Gizaw et al., 2010). The mixed crop-livestock system in the highlands and the pastoral system in the lowlands represent the dominant form of agricultural production. The crop-livestock mixed farming system constitutes about 44 % of the total land area (Dejene, 2003)  (Cecchi et al., 2010). The synergetic interaction between crop and livestock in the system is an opportunity for sustainable food production (Legesse et al., 2008).However, crop-livestock systems are confronted with various constraints and challenges regarding the utilization of water and land resources, because of very intense competition for these resources (McDermott et al., 2010). Especially water is a very limited resource affecting the sustainability of livestock and crop agriculture, people's livelihoods and the environment (Malley et al., 2009;Descheemaeker et al., 2010;Tarawali et al., 2011). At local, regional or global level, there is rapidly increasing competition over freshwater for domestic, industrial, environmental and agricultural activities (Rosegrant and Cai, 2002;Zimmerman et al., 2008).This necessitates the application of remedial interventions in water management through targeted research and development activities.Adequate water supply is one of the important services for the well-being of rural communities for both, the people and their livestock. Large amounts of water are indirectly consumed for food and feed crop production in comparison to the amount directly consumed by livestock or people (Peden et al., 2003). Though relatively small amounts are consumed directly, animals require water of adequate quantity and quality (Wilson, 2007). The water requirements of livestock are affected by different factors such as species, breed, body weight, physiological status, feed type and air temperature, among others (Schlink et al., 2010). Under tropical conditions, about 20 litres of drinking water is required per Tropical Livestock Unit (TLU) per day (Wilson, 2007).Constraints and challenges of meeting the water requirements of livestock in Ethiopia: Cases of Lume and Siraro districts 9Though Ethiopia is endowed with huge water resources (World Bank, 2006), a very high variation in the spatial and temporal availability of water resource is one of the main problems in the country (Awulachew et al., 2007). Moreover, the quality of water is also becoming one of the main problems of communities in the vicinity of urban areas associated with indiscriminate disposal of industrial and domestic wastes (Legesse and Kloos, 2010).Particularly the quality and availability of water resources in the Rift Valley area of the country is adversely affected by anthropogenic activities (Ayenew, 2007). From the perspective of providing adequate drinking water to livestock, the high variation in the availability of water and the poor quality of water can have adverse effects on the health and productivity of the animals. In spite of the aforementioned facts, studies focusing on the quantity and quality of water, which is intended for livestock production, are very limited in Ethiopia. Studies assessing livestock production in Ethiopia hardly included issues of the availability and quality of livestock drinking water and at the most only gave a very limited insight without further details (e.g. Tsegaye et al., 2008). Tsegaye et al. (2008) reported scarcity of water during the dry period as one of the main constraints to livestock production.In this respect, the present study aimed to assess the constraints and challenges of meeting the water requirements of livestock in the Rift Valley area of Ethiopia, mainly based on questionnaire surveys and focus group discussions with farmers. The study specifically focused on: (1) the extent to which the scarcity and low quality of water are concerns of the farmers compared to other livestock production constraints (e.g. feed and diseases), ( 2) the factors impairing the quality of water, and (3) the strategies adopted by farmers to cope with water problems. The study thereby contributes to better identify priorities for utilization and management of water sources intended for livestock.The study was carried out in Lume and Siraro districts of Oromia Regional State, both located  While in Lume water availability is comparatively good, but prone to pollution from industrial, agricultural and domestic effluents, because of the proximity of the district to urban areas (Berehanu, 2007), perennial water sources are scarce in Siraro and frequent food insecurity arises from droughts (Senbeta, 2009). Mojo River traverses through Lume district from North to South and the southern border of the district is also bordered by Koka Lake.Bilate River represents the only perennial surface water in Siraro, marking the extreme southwestern border of the district. In both districts, rainwater was harvested in the form of traditional ponds (dugouts) during the rainy season.According to unpublished secondary data obtained from the districts' Agricultural Offices in After selection of the districts, a two-stage random selection (selection of villages followed by selection of households) was employed to identify the households for the questionnaire survey. Based on the lists of villages obtained from each district and village administrative offices, four villages (Biyo-Bisike, Koka-Nagawo, Malmale and Tiliti-Garbi) were selected from a total of 35 villages in Lume, and four villages (Alem-Tena, Kite-Tesisa, Lokke-Sifo and Shasha-Goyke) from a total of 28 villages in Siraro district. In each of the selected villages, 40 households were randomly chosen using computer-generated random numbers (with 10 additional households selected for reserve in case of inaccessibility of the households or insufficient participation). In total, less than 5% of the households were replaced during the actual questionnaire survey.The data collection lasted from July to October 2010, employing individual farmer interviews and focus group discussions with farmers. The latter served to complement information Constraints and challenges of meeting the water requirements of livestock in Ethiopia: Cases of Lume and Siraro districts 12 collected by the individual interviews. In the questionnaire survey, a total of 320 households (160 in each district) were interviewed using a structured questionnaire format developed in English and translated to Oromo, a language widely spoken in the study area. The format was pre-tested for clarity and logical flow by interviewing selected households (3 respondents in each district), which were later discarded from the random selection for the actual interviews.Before the interviews, a verbal consent was obtained from each of the respondent by explaining the objectives of the survey. At the same time the anonymous use of the collected information was assured. The questionnaires included socio-economic characteristics of the households, rankings of the constraints for livestock production and seasonality of water scarcity. In order to assess the constraints for livestock production, the respondents were requested to list constraints they were experiencing in relation to livestock husbandry.Thereafter, the constraints were grouped into categories, i.e. disease, feed scarcity, low offspring output, inadequate veterinary service, water shortage and poor water quality. The constraints were ranked according to their priority, starting with one for the highest priority problem and continuing ranking up to the number of constraints mentioned by a respondent.There was the possibility to make 'tied rankings' (giving two or more constraints the same rank), or to leave the constraints unranked. Unranked constraints were later given the last number and considered as 'tied ranks' (Allison and Christakis, 1994).Two group discussions (one each for male and female participants, respectively) were held in each village (in total 16 group discussions). Random selection of participants for the group discussions was not possible due to difficulty in calling the participants to a central place from the scattered households. Instead, a transect walk was made through the villages, stopping at household clusters and inviting people from nearby households to join the discussions. It was aimed to limit the number of participants to 8-10 people. In Siraro, there were several occasions when up to 15 participants attended the discussions, however, without affecting the flow of discussions. The criteria for participating in the group discussion were that the participants were residents of a specific village and above 18 years old. The participants were informed about the discussion topics and verbal consent was obtained before starting the discussions. Among other livestock constraints, the discussion mainly focused on three key issues: (1) water problems (quantity and quality) for livestock uses, (2) local coping practices to tackle the water problems and (3) potential challenges regarding the practices.Constraints and challenges of meeting the water requirements of livestock in Ethiopia: Cases of Lume and Siraro districts 13In addition to questionnaire survey and focus group discussions, secondary data on the price, status and management of improved water sources intended primarily for domestic uses and also used for livestock were obtained from the Water Resources Development Offices of the respective districts.Descriptive statistics (frequencies and means) were used to summarize households' socioeconomic characteristics and livestock ownership. condition, the independent t-test is considered to be robust, even in the presence of skewed distributions (Stonehouse and Forrester, 1998). Therefore, the t-test was preferred to compare the means of the continuous variables.The mean ranks of the different constraints were calculated for the overall sample as well as for the district and village levels. To further elucidate the extent of water shortage and poor quality in the study area, the percentage of respondents who ranked the two constraints as first or second priority problem was calculated. Data collected through group discussions were analyzed qualitatively by organizing the issues raised into logical categories. All statistical analyses were done in Stata 9 (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA).As can be seen in Table 2.1, most interviewed household heads were male, with a considerably higher average age in Lume than in Siraro. The survey showed a higher illiteracy rate and larger average family size in Siraro than compared to Lume (68% vs. 35% and 8.3 vs. The farmers kept multiple species of livestock and all of the surveyed households owned at least one cattle. Next to cattle, donkeys were the second most common livestock species kept by the majority of surveyed households in both districts. The cattle herd in Lume was dominated by oxen, whereas a larger number of cows and bulls were kept by households in Siraro (Table 2.2). In Siraro district, farmers kept more goats and less sheep than in Lume, while overall small ruminant flock sizes were higher in Lume (Table 2.2). Results of the questionnaire survey show that different water sources in the districts were utilized to meet the water requirements of livestock. The water sources for livestock were either ground water (hand-dug wells, boreholes) or surface water (rivers, dugouts, surface runoff from roadsides).High seasonal variation becomes evident from the percentage of respondents utilising different water sources for livestock (Figure 2.2). The Bilate River was the dominant source of water for livestock in the dry season in both districts. During the wet season, farmers in Siraro were shifting towards dugouts as the main source of water for their livestock. There was large variation between dry and wet seasons in the perceived water scarcity by the farmers with the majority of the people experiencing water scarcity for livestock during the dry months of a year. The results show that more than 40% of the respondents in Siraro experienced water scarcity for their livestock the whole year round (Figure 2.3).    In the group discussions, different constraints related to water provision for livestock were identified and described in detail in order to complement the results of the individual questionnaire survey. The constraints were more specifically described on village level and varied accordingly. In Biyo-Bisike and Koka-Nagawo, two villages in Lume, water availability in terms of quantity was not perceived as a problem, contrary to the other two villages in the district. Instead, seasonal flooding of the farm and grazing land was mentioned as problematic, specifically in Koka-Nagawo. Poor quality water was reported as another pressing problem in Koka-Nagawo, being associated to tanneries and abattoirs located along Mojo River, into which effluents from the factories were directly discharged without any treatment.In Siraro, water scarcity was the highest priority problem mentioned and a major concern for the people, limiting livestock productivity. It was indicated that in most villages of the district animals were trekked over long distances to get access to water, particularly in the dry season when temporary water sources like dugouts and roadside runoffs dried up.Different local strategies were applied to cope with the existing problems of water provision for livestock. These were either making use of alternative water sources or altering livestock management to suit to current conditions (e.g. decreasing herd size and keeping only selected groups of livestock). Water resources harnessed by initiatives of the local community included dugouts (rainwater harvesting) in Siraro and hand-dug wells in Lume. Dugouts were constructed in such a way that the runoff from slope fields or along roads is diverted and collected in excavated land. Dugouts were used when perennial water sources were inaccessible for the rural residents. Shallow wells primarily dug for domestic consumption in Lume were also used for livestock drinking, especially for selected groups of animals (oxen, lactating cows and young animals). The associated problems reported by the farmers in the use of hand-dug wells for livestock were collapse of the wells, poor financial capability of the farmers to cover the cost of construction and high labour requirement to lift the water. The farmers had indicated various problems and challenges with regard to dugout construction and management of the harvested rainwater. The commonly mentioned problems were failure of the dugouts to receive enough surface runoff and quick loss of water through evaporation and seepage. Shortage of land for dugout constructions and dwindling interest of the farmers in the proper management of the harvested rainwater were also one of the main challenges reported by the farmers in Siraro. According to the group discussants (specifically in Siraro), the recently drilled boreholes were perceived to be unreliable and expensive, generally reducing interest in the proper management of dugouts by the farmers. As a result of the mismanagement, the quality of the water was found to be deteriorating to such an extent that even animals abandoned drinking the water. The farmers reported animal morbidity and mortality to be a result of drinking the poor quality stagnant water, especially at the end of the wet season.A change in livestock management was adopted by the farmers as a strategy to cope with the prevailing constraints, particularly water scarcity in the area. The strategies included keeping only important animals (e.g. oxen for draft power in Lume), giving access to water for selected groups of animals (e.g. oxen and lactating cows) and reducing the frequency of livestock watering in the dry seasons.Protected springs, boreholes (diesel or electrically operated) and shallow wells (hand-pump or wind-pump) were the improved water sources in Lume. In Siraro, all of the improved schemes were boreholes. Improved water schemes were constructed by the government or non-governmental organizations with relatively small one-time contributions (in cash, in kind or in labour) from the local communities. In both districts, a community-based water management approach was used to manage the improved water schemes. Operational and Constraints and challenges of meeting the water requirements of livestock in Ethiopia: Cases of Lume and Siraro districts 20 maintenance costs of the water schemes are covered by its users (i.e. the communities) with subsidies from the government (when major maintenance is needed). According to data obtained from the Water Resources Development Offices of the respective districts, the price set for rural improved water supply was village-and scheme-specific. As an example, water price for a specific borehole in Lume was 7 Birr/ m³ and 16.7 Birr/ m³ in Siraro (exchange rate: 1 US Dollar = 13.5 Birr in July 2010). It was evident that variation in the price existed among villages depending on the types of energy used to abstract the water. In addition to the regular pricing, an informal market for water was also common in Siraro. In times of scarcity, water fetched from any source (including from rivers and dugouts) was usually sold at a high price (up to 3 Birr per 20 litres jerry-can). At the time of the questionnaire survey (July 2010), livestock watering troughs connected to improved water schemes were available in four villages of Lume (out of 35 villages) and in three villages of Siraro (out of 28 villages). The price for livestock drinking was commonly set based on the assumption that one cattle or donkey drinks 20 litres of water (one jerry-can). For small ruminants, no price was set and they were watered irregularly.The differences in the livestock holding size and herd structure observed in the study area are a direct reflection of the objectives of keeping the specific livestock species. Cattle specifically dominate in the area, with all of the interviewed households keeping at least one.In the mixed crop-livestock systems of Ethiopia, cattle play a major role as a source of draft power among other functions (Gryseels, 1988). The large number of oxen kept by farmers in the more crop production-oriented district of Lume is linked with the power required for land tillage of the vertisols (predominant soil type in the district), compared to the sandy-loam soils of Siraro. The high clay content and the unfavourable consistency of vertisols makes seedbed preparation a difficult task and up to six passes are required before crops like teff and wheat can be sown (Woldeab, 1988), necessitating more draft oxen. Moreover, it became evident in the group discussions that the scarcity of resources (e.g. feed and water) was forcing the farmers to keep only small herds of livestock.The overall rank ordering of the various constraints for livestock production in this study is consistent with a previous one (Tsegaye et al., 2008) that reported continuous shrinkage of land, feed shortage and water scarcity as the main constraints for livestock production in Ethiopia, where many poorly regulated industries are located (Berehanu, 2007). Tanneries and abattoirs are the predominant industries, which directly discharge effluents to water bodies without control (Leta et al., 2003). For example, it was reported that only two out of five tanneries located along Mojo River (in July 2010) had functional wastewater treatment facilities (Amenu et al., accepted). Related studies showed that some quality parameters (e.g.pH, total dissolved solids) of Mojo River water are above the recommended levels for livestock consumption (Leta et al., 2003;Amenu et al., accepted).Water shortage was ranked as an important problem in those villages, which are located far from perennial surface water sources (up to 20 km straight-line distance for some villagers).In order to cope with the problem of water scarcity, dugout constructions were common in the area. The dugouts were available in many of the villages in Siraro during the wet season, with the exception of villages with sandy (porous) soils. In the case of porous soils, the people continuously depended on distant river water or bought water from boreholes. The tendency of mismanaging the dugouts by the farmers, which was evident in this study, can pose a health risk to humans and livestock. The reason for the low interest in the proper management of the dugouts might be associated with people shifting towards borehole water sources.However, boreholes are inherently expensive and unreliable. It was observed that rainwater harvesting in the form of dugouts in the study area was not getting enough technical support from governmental or non-governmental organizations. If properly managed, the harvested rainwater can satisfy substantial water requirements for livestock in the area. Therefore, technical support is needed for farmers in the proper design and use of already existing rainwater harvesting systems.Constraints and challenges of meeting the water requirements of livestock in Ethiopia: Cases of Lume and Siraro districts 22Provided that surface water sources in the study area are either industrially polluted (e.g.Mojo River) or mismanaged (e.g. dugouts), an increasing dependency on groundwater sources (e.g. boreholes) could be uneconomical, leading to high competition with water intended for domestic consumption.The seasonal variation in the availability of water for livestock was significant and closely linked to rainfall patterns (Figure 2.2). Water scarcity was a pronounced problem of the communities especially in the dry season. The high seasonal fluctuation in the quantity of water for livestock consumption can adversely affect the performance of livestock. Small changes in body water content can cause profound changes in the animal's body functions and lead to reduced productivity within a relatively shorter time compared to feed deprivation (Nicholson, 1985). In addition, water scarcity might also affect the safety of milk and milk products, as farmers are obliged to use low quality water for cleansing of the milk utensils in case of water shortages especially during the dry season. This can be a potential source of contamination of the milk and milk products (Kivaria et al., 2006;Grimaud et al., 2009), increasing the public health risk in the study area.Climate change could additionally aggravate the challenge in meeting the water requirements of livestock, as it might affect the hydrological regime in the area and subsequently the availability of water resources (Malley et al., 2009). Previous studies (Hailemariam, 1999;Wagesho et al., 2012) showed that climate change in terms of uncertain rainfall and increased temperature is affecting the availability of water resources in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia (including the study area). In response to increased temperatures, the water demand by livestock increases for body thermoregulation (Thornton and Herrero, 2010).It can be concluded that water quantity and quality were perceived as the major constraints for The study aimed to assess the quality and health aspects of water intended for human and Keywords: Water access; water quality; rural community; livestock; health; EthiopiaWater plays a crucial role in the livelihood and wellbeing of rural communities. In rural areas, in addition to basic human needs, water is also used for other livelihood productive activities such as livestock drinking, among others (Makoni et al., 2004). Therefore, water provision for rural populations should ideally take into account such livelihood activities (Katsi et al., 2007). In countries like Ethiopia, where livestock keeping represents one of the main livelihoods sustaining activities of rural communities, provision of water solely intended for domestic purposes may not bring the required improvements in the health and wellbeing of people. In rural areas, associated with socio-economic and cultural factors, there is an intricate interrelationship between livestock and people often sharing the same micro-environments (e.g., at water points or in dwellings) (Mazet et al., 2009). In spite of such interdependency between people, livestock, and water in rural areas, utilization and quality of water sourcesdid not yet get much attention from research.The suitability of water for human or livestock consumption depends on the microbiological and/or physicochemical properties of water (Schlink et al., 2010;WHO, 2011;Beede, 2012).Low microbial quality of water is associated with contamination of water sources with human or animal excreta and the chemical quality of water is influenced by geological features of an area or the anthropogenic activities in the vicinity of the water sources (WHO, 2011). The concern of low quality water is due to its negative health impacts or the reduction in the palatability of water for humans or animal consumption (Willms et al., 2002;WHO, 2011).Ethiopia is an agrarian country with 84% of the population residing in rural areas (CSA, 2008) and heavily relying on natural resource bases such as water, soil and forest. In absolute terms, Ethiopia is endowed with huge water resources, with the annual renewable water resources being estimated at 124.6 billion cubic meters (World Bank, 2006). In spite of the vast water resources, there is large spatial and temporal variation in the availability of water sources. This high variation is responsible for a high prevalence of water scarcity in many parts of the country. In particular, the Rift Valley area of Ethiopia (where this study was carried out) is characterized by water scarcity and impairment of quality associated with mismanagement and over utilisation (Ayenew, 2007;Jansen et al., 2007).Studies addressing water quality problems and subsequent health consequences in the area are limited (Reimann et al., 2003, Tekle-Haimanot et al., 2006). Moreover, the quality and Water for human and livestock consumption in rural settings of Ethiopia: assessments of quality and health aspects 30 suitability of the available water sources utilized in the area are rarely monitored. Research that explores the utilization and management of water by communities can make a contribution towards identifying priorities for better health at the local level for both livestock and people (Karanja et al., 2011). Thus, the objectives of this study were to assess: (1) the utilization and management of water sources and ( 2) the suitability of water sources for human and livestock consumption based on microbiological indicators and selected chemical quality parameters.The study was carried out in Lume and Siraro districts of Oromia   The water samples were analysed for total dissolved solids (TDS), pH, manganese (Mn), hexa-valent chromium (Cr), fluoride (F), Escherichia coli (E. coli) and total coliforms (TC).All quality parameters were determined during both sampling periods (in the dry and wet seasons), with exception of chromium and manganese for which the analysis was done only during the wet season. The assessed parameters were selected based on their importance regarding health and aesthetic (palatability) aspects of water for human and/or livestock usesWater for human and livestock consumption in rural settings of Ethiopia: assessments of quality and health aspects 33 (Solomon et al., 1995;Reimann et al., 2003;Beede, 2005;Manning, 2008;Olkowski, 2009;WHO, 2011;Beede, 2012;Mitchell et al., 2012). The parameters were also assessed taking into account the geological features and anthropogenic activities impacting on water quality in the study districts (Reimann et al., 2003;Ayenew, 2007;Berehanu, 2007). The selection of the assessed parameters was limited by available logistics and laboratory facilities. TDS and pH of the water samples were determined in-situ, using a portable combined instrument (HI-991300, Hanna ® Instruments). Proper calibration of the instrument was done according to the instruction of the manufacturer. The concentration of manganese, hexa-valent chromium and fluoride were determined using UV-Visible Spectrophotometer (DR5000 TM , Hach, USA). The analyses were made following the manufacturer's instructions (Hach, 2008). For the spectrophotometric analysis of the parameters, blank solution (deionised water)was used and finally the absorbance of the sample water was determined by subtracting the absorbance of the blank. In order to minimize the interferences by turbidity, before chemical analysis in the laboratory, all water samples were filtered through polycarbonate filter (0.45 mm pore size) until clear water was obtained.For the determination of fluoride concentration in the water samples, the SPADNS (sodium 2-(parasulfophenylazo)-1,8-dihydroxy-3,6-naphthalene-disulfonate) method (Bellack and Schouboe, 1958) was used. A 10 ml of test sample and blank (deionised water) were prepared into dry sample cells and 2 ml of SPADNS solution were added to each cell and allowed to react for one minute. In the presence of fluoride the red-coloured SPADNS solution changed to form a colourless solution. The intensity of colour change from red to colourlessness, corresponding to fluoride concentration in the water samples, was measured by the spectrophotometer at 580 nm wavelength (Hach, 2008).Manganese concentration was determined using the pyridylazonaphthol (PAN) method (Goto et al., 1977). First, an alkaline-cyanide reagent was added to the samples and the corresponding controls to mask any potential interference by other elements such as iron, cadmium, zinc, cobalt and nickel. Then, PAN indicator was added to the solution and allowed to react with manganese for two minutes. Finally, the absorbance of the orange-coloured manganese-PAN chelate complex (corresponding to the manganese concentration in the water samples) was read at 560 nm wavelength (Hach, 2008).Water for human and livestock consumption in rural settings of Ethiopia: assessments of quality and health aspects 34 Hexavalent chromium was determined by the diphenylcarbohydrazide method (Balasubramanian and Pugalenthi, 1999). A single dry powder formulation called ChromaVer 3 chromium reagent (Hach, 2008), which contains an acidic buffer combined with diphenylcarbohydrazide was added to the water sample. Upon waiting for five minutes to react, the intensity of the development of purple colour corresponding to the concentration of hexavalent chromium was measured using UV-Vis spectrophotometer at 540 nm wavelength.Water samples were analysed for total coliforms and E.coli within 12 hours after collection using a commercially available chromogenic medium, Brilliance TM E.coli/coliform selective agar (Oxoid CM 1046). Pour plate technique was mostly used for bacterial counts instead of the widely recommended membrane filtration technique. This was done because of the fact that upon initial testing of few water samples, uncountable bacterial colonies were observed.Therefore, membrane filtration was applied for only selected water samples that were assumed to contain low bacterial loads (e.g., water from boreholes). After 24 hours of incubation at 37°C of the cultured water, purple and pink coloured colonies were counted as E.coli and other coliforms, respectively, and expressed as colony forming units (CFU)/100ml of water.Descriptive statistics were calculated for the data obtained through the questionnaire survey.The information collected in farmers' group discussions was qualitatively analysed to draw conclusions. Upon preliminary assessments, the water quality data did not follow a normal distribution and data transformation was not successful. Therefore, the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test for dependent samples (Helsel and Hirsch, 1992) was used to compare the quality parameters between dry and wet seasons. The suitability of the water sources for livestock and human consumption was evaluated by comparing the assessed quality parameters with the recommended values for human and livestock consumption (Table 3.1). Most of the water quality variables for livestock consumption are similar with those of humans, though the total permissible levels for selected parameters may be higher in case of livestock (Beede, 2012).Water for human and livestock consumption in rural settings of Ethiopia: assessments of quality and health aspects 35 In the present survey, more than 60% of the interviewed households responded to use improved water sources in some months of a year. However, only 31% and 2% of the up to five hours for a one-way walk to access the river). According to the participants of the focus group discussions, the time allocated for water collection was more than any other livelihood activity in Siraro.The perception of the farmers on the quality of different water sources for livestock and human consumption is indicated in Figure 3.3. As depicted in the figure, more than 90% of the households perceived the quality of borehole water to be 'good' for both human and livestock consumption. Rivers and dugouts were perceived to be of low quality by the farmers. None of the households in Lume perceived water from rivers to be suitable for human consumption and only 10.2% of the respondents perceived the river water to be good for livestock drinking. In Siraro, 7.2% and 36.8% of the respondents perceived river water to be suitable for human and livestock consumption, respectively. The survey showed that the quality of river water was perceived to be low in Lume compared to Siraro (Figure 3. From another perspective, the farmers also attributed the low quality of surface water sources (river and dugouts) to the indiscriminate access of livestock to the sources. In the questionnaire survey, 91% of the total respondents interviewed were aware of the negative impacts of livestock on water quality. However, the level of awareness did not translate into taking precautive action to minimize the negative impacts of livestock. For example, in Siraro, it was observed that people fetched water intermingled with animals from the same source (Figure 2b). Therefore, the observed in-stream activities of animals can contaminate the water sources, risking the health of people.  of the cases were due to 'non-specific acute febrile infection', pneumonia, bronchitis, gastrointestinal parasites and malaria, respectively. On the other hand, in Siraro, 16.6%, 6.8%, 5.1%, 4.2% and 3.6% of the reasons for the outpatients' visits were associated with malaria, pneumonia, internal parasites, diarrhoea and gastritis, respectively. From Table 3.3, it is evident that water-related diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and gastro-intestinal parasites were very common in Siraro. This can be directly related to the scarcity and the mismanagement of water sources. The high prevalence of malaria in Siraro could be associated with the rainwater harvesting practices through the construction of dugouts prevailing in the district. Group discussions and observations in the area showed that the improper utilization and management of the harvested rainwater may be associated with subsequent health risks. The study showed indiscriminate access of livestock to the harvested water sources. Livestock access can lead to high faecal contamination of the sources and can also create biologically favourable conditions for the multiplication of the malaria vector (mosquito). A study in carried out in Ethiopia showed that puddles and cattle hoof prints around the shore of water reservoirs (dugouts) can provide an ideal breeding habitat for Anopheles mosquitoes (Boelee et al., in press). Therefore, proper management of dugouts through fencing to restrict livestock access should be done to minimize the health risk associated with rainwater harvesting in the study area. The secondary data (Table 3.3) also showed that diarrhoea and gastro-intestinal parasites were one of the top diseases/syndromes recorded in the study areas, which specifically in Siraro may be related to water scarcity and quality problems.The questionnaire survey showed that water-related livestock morbidity was reported by 12.5% and 16.9% of the respondents in Lume and Siraro, respectively, during the 12 months preceding the survey. The perceived reasons for livestock morbidity included drinking water from polluted river (a common complaint in the surveyed villages located downstream of Mojo River in Lume), drinking stagnant water, sudden access to water after long deprivation and infection with liver flukes after grazing in water-logged areas.Water for human and livestock consumption in rural settings of Ethiopia: assessments of quality and health aspects 40 Twenty-five water sources (water points) were assessed in this study and the chemical and bacteriological results are depicted in Table 3.4. A summary of the overall water sources assessed with percentages of non-compliance to the recommended values are also shown (Table 3.5).The pH of sampled water sources ranged from 6.7 to 9.2 in the dry season and 6.2 to 10.2 in the wet season (Table 3.4). The pH of most groundwater and surface water samples were in the alkaline ranges (pH>7.0). Specifically, water samples from Mojo River in the downstream sites were more alkaline (Table 3.4). The pH values of the assessed water sources did not comply with the WHO recommended range of 6.5 to 8.5 for human consumption in 8% and 16% of the analysed sources in the dry and wet seasons, respectively. Likewise, 12% of the assessed sources in the wet season had pH values exceeding the limits for livestock consumption (Table 3.5), Although a higher pH was observed in the wet season compared to the dry season (Table 3.5), the difference was not statistically significant (Wilcoxon signedrank test, p=0.154).The alkalinity of water samples from Mojo River, specifically in the lower stream might be associated with direct discharges of tannery effluents into the water body. Two mainWater for human and livestock consumption in rural settings of Ethiopia: assessments of quality and health aspects 41 categories of tannery wastewater exist: highly alkaline wastewater from the pre-tanning processes (soaking, liming and de-liming) and wastewater from the tanning process with very acidic pH. The final pH of tannery wastewater is determined by the ratio of the two wastewater sources (Bajza and Vrcek, 2001) in which the alkaline wastewater seems to have dominated in the present study.The pH of water has no direct impacts on human or livestock health, but an extreme pH can be a cause of unacceptable taste. In addition, extreme pH can cause corrosion of pipe walls with subsequent negative effects on the taste of water. In livestock operations, an extreme pH of drinking water can reduce water intake with subsequent low performance (Manning, 2008;Olkowski, 2009).Total dissolved solids (TDS) ranged from 32 to 493 mg/l in the dry season and 35 to 529 mg/l in the wet season (Table 3. 4). No statistically significant differences were found upon pairwise comparison of the matched water data in dry and wet seasons using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (p= 0.767). All water sources in both seasons complied with the recommended TDS levels for human and livestock consumption (Table 3.5). For human consumption, water with TDS less than 500 mg/l is regarded as very good for drinking and TDS between 500-1000 mg/l as fair. When TDS of water is greater than 1000 mg/l, taste complaints are common (WHO, 2011). Cattle can tolerate water with TDS up to 3000 mg/l and beyond that a problem can arise (Beede, 2012). High TDS can reduce water and feed intake in livestock leading to low productive performances (Solomon et al., 1995).The concentration of fluoride varied from below detection level in rivers to a maximum of 6.9 mg/l in boreholes (Table 3.4). In Siraro, high fluoride concentrations were consistently measured from boreholes in both seasons with all the boreholes showing concentrations above 4.3 mg/l. In Lume, high concentration of fluoride above the recommended limit was recorded in boreholes during the dry season, while its level was below the maximum permissible limit during the wet season. The same was true for Bilate River in Siraro, in which above-limit concentrations were measured during the dry season and below the limit of detection during the wet season. Overall, significantly higher fluoride concentrations were measured during the dry season compared to the wet season (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p=0.002).The concentrations of fluoride were higher than the WHO recommended value of 1.5 mg/l for human consumption in 40% and 28% of the samples during the dry and wet seasons,Water for human and livestock consumption in rural settings of Ethiopia: assessments of quality and health aspects 42 respectively. Suitability assessment for livestock drinking, taking 2.0 mg/l as the maximum permissible limit, showed that 32% and 20% of the samples were above the recommended value in the dry and wet seasons, respectively (Table 3.5). Similar to the present study, high concentrations of fluoride were also recorded in other studies conducted in the Rift Valley area of Ethiopia (Kloos and Haimanot, 1999;Reimann et al., 2003). In small quantity, fluoride is essential for a healthy tooth and bone development (WHO, 2011), but excess of fluoride leads to mottling of teeth and osteosclerosis of the skeleton (Haimanot, 1990;Choubisa, 2007). Similar to humans, teeth and health problems can also develop in livestock.For example, high prevalence of teeth mottling in calves and skeletal fluorosis in adult cattle were observed in an area where animals primarily consumed water with a high fluoride concentration recorded up to 5 mg/l (Choubisa, 2007). Hypothyroidism and anaemia associated with high fluoride concentration in water were also reported in livestock elsewhere (Hillmann et al., 1979).In this investigation, the concentration of manganese ranged from non-detectable to 1.5 mg/l with non-compliance rates of 60% and 20% for aesthetic and health reasons, respectively.Moreover, increased levels of manganese concentration above the maximum permissible limit for livestock drinking (i.e., above 0.5 mg/l) were recorded in 20% of the assessed sources (Table 3.5). Manganese is an essential nutrient for body metabolism in small amount. In larger quantities, it can affect the aesthetic of drinking water and has adverse health effects on humans. Epidemiological studies revealed that elevated manganese levels in drinking water significantly reduce children's intellectual function (Wasserman et al., 2006;Bouchard et al., 2011). In general, a concentration greater than 0.5 mg/l of manganese is thought to affect water intake of ruminants, because of the off-taste it imparts (Beede, 2005). Although, the health effect of manganese on livestock is not well established, it is regarded as less toxic unless ingested in large amounts, a condition which is less probable for manganese intake from water (Beede, 2005).The water sources assessed for hexavalent chromium during the wet season showed concentration ranges from undetectable levels to 0.4 mg/l. In 16% of the water sources, hexavalent chromium concentrations exceeded the permissible limit as per the WHO guideline for human consumption. In 4% of the water sources, the concentration of chromium was above the recommended level for livestock drinking. Ecological studies and health risk assessment modelling indicated that oral exposure of people to hexavalent-chromium throughWater for human and livestock consumption in rural settings of Ethiopia: assessments of quality and health aspects 43 drinking water increases the risk of gastrointestinal cancers (Beaumont et al., 2008;Stern, 2010;Linos et al., 2011). Similar to manganese, the effect of waterborne chromium on livestock health and performance is not well understood.Boreholes in both districts and seasons were free from E. coli. On the other hand, surface water sources (rivers and dugouts) were found to be highly contaminated with indicators of faecal contamination (Table 3.4). In the dry season, E. coli contamination ranged from no detection (0 CFU/100 ml) in groundwater sources (boreholes and hand-dug wells) to 28.0x10 3   CFU/100 ml in dugouts. In the wet season, the bacterial load in water varied from no detection in boreholes to 240.0x10 3 CFU/100 ml in dugouts. Out of the seven hand-dug wells assessed, E. coli was detected in two of them (in both seasons). For the overall assessed water sources, it was found that E. coli contamination was higher during the rainy season compared to the dry season (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p=0.04). In line with the present investigation, other studies elsewhere reported effects of season with more contamination found during the wet season, associated with surface runoff (Strauch and Almedom, 2011). The high prevalence and counts of E. coli found in rivers and dugouts may be associated with high human and animal activities around the sources. It was observed that people used the water from rivers and dugouts not only for drinking, but also for bathing, washing and recreation.Moreover, animals were drinking from rivers and dugouts with direct access (Figure 3.2b).The dugouts were constructed in such a way that the runoff from upper slope fields or along roads is diverted and collected. Due to poor environmental hygiene (i.e. open-air defecation practices) and also grazing of animals on the field, the runoff water was assumed to be contaminated with faecal materials. Animals were kept on roadsides because of shortage of grazing land and feed resources during the wet season with further high deposition of their faeces, leading to high faecal contamination of the runoff. Livestock were also tended to be kept along the river's course for long periods of time, which can be a contributory factor for increased faecal deposition in the surface water bodies of the study area. In addition to the negative affect on the quality of water, livestock grazing along rivers may also damage the riparian ecosystem, as evidenced by a study conducted in tropical Africa (Strauch et al., 2009).Water for human and livestock consumption in rural settings of Ethiopia: assessments of quality and health aspects 44According to the WHO guideline, E. coli should not be detected in a 100 ml sample of water directly intended for human drinking (Payment et al., 2003) and the presence of E .coli in water is indicative of faecal contamination from humans or animals. In Ethiopia, like in many developing countries, diarrhoea is one of the major health problems associated with microbial contamination of water sources (Prüss et al., 2002). The condition in Siraro district was worse than in Lume due to prevailing water scarcity problems and dependency of the people on contaminated surface water sources.Microbial quality of water is often neglected in water for livestock drinking (Beede, 2012).However, some studies revealed water as an important vehicle for the transmission of various clinically important pathogens such as Salmonella, Cryptosporidium and Eimeria; urging to ensure good microbial quality of water offered to farm animals (Bolton et al., 2012;Mitchell et al., 2012). Specifically, waterborne pathogens bear problems for young animals (Mitchell et al., 2012). Another possible effect of faecal contamination of drinking water on health of animals is associated with algal overgrowth in water bodies (Beede, 2005). In the presence of faecal contamination and high organic matter, toxic blue-green algae can grow specifically in stagnant water (Beede, 2005). In this regard, the dugouts in Siraro are very prone to algal growth. Table 3 Water for human and livestock consumption in rural settings of Ethiopia: assessments of quality and health aspects The present study revealed that the rural residents in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia lack sustainable access to safe (bacteriological and/or chemical aspects) water sources, with potential health repercussions. The health repercussion on people was substantiated by secondary health data, which showed diseases attributable to unsafe water and poor sanitary conditions constituted one of the top health problems in the study area. Farmers' perceived that water-related diseases were also substantial impediments for the health of livestock in the area. The individual questionnaire survey and focus group discussions revealed that there is an intricate interrelationship between the rural communities and their livestock often sharing the same sources of water points or dwellings. Sharing of the same source of water can lead to contamination of water by livestock faeces with subsequent negative health impacts on people. Under such intimacy of livestock and people, further research should be carried out on the transmission and burden of zoonotic diseases in general and waterborne zoonotic pathogens in particular. The traditional water harvesting system should be given proper attention to get the most benefits from the practices without compromising the health of the people and their livestock.On the whole, 76% of the assessed water sources (25 points) assessed failed to comply with WHO guidelines for human drinking water in both, dry and wet season for at least one parameter of health or aesthetic concern. For surface water, the non-compliance with recommended levels was mainly due to E. coli, while in the case of groundwater, high fluoride and manganese concentrations were responsible for the non-compliance. In particular, groundwater sources from Siraro were highly contaminated with fluoride (3)(4) times more than the maximum permissible limit for drinking). Combining the results of fluoride, manganese and chromium analyses, 32% and 20% of water sources were found unfit for livestock consumption in the dry and wet seasons, respectively.As revealed by the questionnaire survey and focus group discussions, the respondents were not aware of the chemical quality status of groundwater sources. The water supply in most rural areas of developing countries suffers from a lack of quality monitoring (Guppy and Shantz, 2011). At best water quality is checked once, when water supply schemes are installed (Rossiter et al., 2010). Due to the interaction of water and rocks, however, the chemical characteristics of groundwater show high temporal variation (Davraz et al., 2008), necessitating regular monitoring of the water quality in order to ascertain its suitability for drinking. In the present study, the high fluoride concentration (up to 6.9 mg/l) recorded in boreholes (widely utilized improved water sources) can be dangerous for the health of the communities depending on such water sources for drinking, calling for immediate remedial action.Towards achieving the millennium development goals, with respect to improvement in access to safe drinking water, the Ethiopian government with its development partners is drilling boreholes and rehabilitating hand-dug wells. However, high chemical contaminants (e.g., fluoride) in the groundwater sources as revealed in this study are a big challenge for such efforts. This means that the rural communities of the area are not enjoying optimal benefits from the very expensive borehole drilling projects implemented, because of the poor chemical quality of the groundwater sources. Therefore, in addition to groundwater development, surface water protection and restoration should be given emphasis. There is also a need to create awareness of the communities on the proper utilization, management and protection of water sources in the area.Rural households of developing countries like Ethiopia commonly depend on water sources which are located at some distances from the homesteads of households; requiring collection, transport and storage before use (Wright et al., 2004). Under such circumstances, the microbial quality of water destined for various domestic uses is affected by both, the quality status at source and the handling practices of water during collection, transport and storage (Trevett et al., 2005;Rufener et al., 2010). Consequently, the health benefits from improved water sources depend on both, the quality of water at sources and point-of-consumption (Oswald et al., 2007). Water samples taken from storage vessels of households may provide an actual risk of consumers' exposure to microbial agents with subsequent potential health impacts (Moyo et al., 2004;Rufener et al., 2010).Microbial contamination of water is causing various diseases in most developing countries like Ethiopia (Marino, 2007). Children, women, immuno-compromised individuals and rural residents are at a high risk of contracting waterborne pathogenic micro-organisms (Obi et al., 2006). People can be exposed to waterborne pathogenic agents either through directly drinking contaminated water or when the contaminated water is used for food production and/or processing (Kirby et al., 2003). Specifically, milk products are highly prone to bacterial contamination with subsequent health risks to consumers. A broad range of pathogens causing human diseases are milk-borne (Oliver et al., 2005). Recognizing water as important vector of milk contamination, it has been suggested that water used for cleaning of equipment and processing of milk should have quality standards equivalent to that of drinking water (Chye et al., 2004). However, people in rural parts of developing countries, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa, may not have access to improved water sources and are forced to use water from contaminated sources risking the safety of milk and milk products.Among several microbiological quality indicators of faecal contamination of water and food, Escherichia coli (E. coli) represents a very specific and well accepted one. Detection of E.coli in water or food indicates presence of other dangerous pathogenic micro-organisms, specifically those responsible for gastrointestinal illness (WHO, 2011).Studies on the microbiological quality of water in rural areas of Ethiopia are limited and mostly focused on urban settings (Admassu et al., 2004;Kifle and Gadisa, 2006;Biadglegne et al., 2009). This study aimed to assess the microbial quality of water used by rural Microbial quality of water in rural households of Ethiopia: Implications for milk safety and public health 56 households for domestic purposes (primarily for drinking), using E. coli as quality indicator.Special emphasis was paid to assess the association between the quality of water destined for domestic uses and that of milk taking E. coli as indicator of contamination. This was done to assess the potential health risk associated with low microbiological quality of water intended for drinking and domestic uses including cleaning of milking utensils, milk storage and processing. In the present study, it was hypothesized that the quality of water consumed in the rural communities of the study area is poor risking the health of people. It was further hypothesized that the quality of water intended for drinking is affected by season and the type of water source from which it was initially collected. Finally, microbiological quality of milk may pose a further risk on human health and may be impacted by poor water quality.The study was carried out in Lume and Siraro districts of Oromia the strategies being implemented to increase milk production for the growing population of Ethiopia (Staal et al., 2006).A total of 233 water samples were collected during December 2010 to January 2011 and July to August 2011, corresponding to dry (n=126) and wet (n=109) seasons, respectively. Only during the wet season, 53 milk samples were collected. All samples were collected at randomly selected households in two districts of the Rift Valley, Lume and Siraro. Initially, 160 households were targeted to be surveyed (repeated twice in dry and wet season).However, from 34 household in the dry season and 53 households in the wet season, water samples could not be collected because the households did not have water at the times of the visit or no access to the homesteads was given. Disaggregated by districts and seasons, the households fetched water from different sources. Table 4.1 shows the numbers of water samples by district, season and sources from which the samples were initially fetched.Milk and milk products could only be collected from a sub-sample of the households, since several of the households from which water was collected, did not have lactating cows or milk was destined solely for calves. Accordingly, 14 and 22 raw milk samples from household containers and 5 and 12 samples from processed milk products (e.g., yoghurt and skim milk)were collected in Lume and Siraro districts, respectively.The water samples were analysed for E. coli within 12 hours after collection. Commercially available chromogenic agar medium (Brilliance TM E. coli/coliform selective agar, Oxoid CM 1046) was used for the enumeration of E. coli in the samples. Ringer's solution (Oxoid) was used to dilute water samples (dilution factors: 10 1 , 10 2 and 10 3 ) to get a countable number of colonies per plate. The diluted samples were inoculated on the agar and incubated for 24 h at 37°C, as recommended by the manufacturer. Membrane filtration was applied for the selected water samples that were assumed to contain low bacterial indicators (samples from boreholes). From the chromogenic agar plates, purple colonies were counted and recorded as E. coli. Results were obtained by multiplying the counted colonies with the dilution factor and then expressed as colony-forming units (CFU) per 100 ml of water.Microbial quality of water in rural households of Ethiopia: Implications for milk safety and public health 58For the milk samples serial dilutions (10 1 to 10 4 ) were prepared and the diluted samples were cultured using the pour plate technique. After incubating the cultured samples for 24 hours at 37°C, purple coloured colonies were counted similar to the water samples and then expressed as CFU/ml of milk.Percentages of households who had water from different sources at the time of visits were compared by district between seasons using Chi-square test. The prevalence of E. coli contamination of water samples was calculated by dividing the number of samples with counts greater than zero CFU/100 ml by the number of samples analysed. Wilcoxon signedrank test was used to compare the E. coli counts between dry and wet seasons of the different water sources. Mann-Whitney test was used to assess the equality of microbial load between raw milk and processed milk products, which were compared by district. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was calculated to assess the relationship between E. coli counts of milk and water for the wet season data. Stata 9 (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA) was used for the statistical analyses.Water sources for domestic uses encompassed hand-dug wells, boreholes, dugouts, springs and roof-collected rainwater. Significant seasonal differences were evident in the percentage of households obtaining water from the different sources only in Siraro, but not in Lume, as indicated in The overall prevalence of E. coli contamination in water samples, exceeding zero CFU/100 ml of water, was 54.9% (n=233). By aggregating the wet and dry season data, the result showed that 34.1% (n=129) of boreholes, 95.4% (n=43) of dugouts, 76.5% (n=17) of handdug wells, 72.4% (n=29) of roof-collected rainwater and 60% (n=15) of springs were found to be contaminated with E. coli. Generally in most of the water samples analysed, higher prevalence of E. coli was recorded during the wet season compared to the dry season (Table 4.2). The prevalence of E. coli in raw milk sampled from household containers was 21.4% (n=14)in Lume and 54.6% (n=22) in Siraro. For the traditionally processed milk products, the prevalence of E. coli was 60% (n=5) in Lume and 50% (n=12) in Siraro. Though not statistically significant (Mann-Whitney test, p>0.05), the E. coli count of raw milk from household containers seemed higher in Siraro (mean=1068, median=15 inter-quartile range=1000) than in Lume (mean= 360, median=0, inter-quartile range=0). On the other hand, the samples of the processed milk products in Lume were found to contain higher E.coli counts (mean= 2880, median=400, inter-quartile range=4000) compared to those in Siraro (mean=1595, median=20, inter-quartile range=950); the difference in counts between the districts found to be statistically significant (Mann-Whitney test, p<0.05). It was evident that in both, Lume and Siraro districts, the traditionally processed milk products contained higher E. coli counts compared to raw milk sampled from household containers.Assessment of the correlation between the E. coli counts of water and milk showed only a weak positive relationship (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient =0.1, p-value=0.5, n =53).The use of different sources of water for domestic consumption irrespective of the quality indicates that people in the investigated districts do not have sufficient access to reliable Microbial quality of water in rural households of Ethiopia: Implications for milk safety and public health 61 potable water for drinking. During the wet season, farmers in Siraro considerably switched from boreholes to dugouts and roof collected rainwater (Table 4.1); both highly contaminated water sources (Tables 4.2 and 4.3). Such intermittent use of potable and non-potable water sources may have negative impacts on the health of the communities. It has been indicatedthat repeated low-dose exposure to pathogens can reduce the incidence of waterborne diseases in communities permanently depending on non-potable water sources compared to intermittent users (Frost et al., 2005). Under the situation of communities shifting to contaminated water sources after a period of consuming potable water, a high health burden is expected due to low immunity (Hunter et al., 2009).The microbiological safety of food and water is commonly assessed by quantifying bacterial indicators, because of difficulty in assessing all the potential individual pathogenic microorganisms. Total coliforms and E. coli are the most common indicator bacteria for such assessments, with E. coli being the more specific indicator of water or food contamination with animal or human faecal materials (WHO, 1997;Byamukama et al., 2005). The presence of other coliform bacteria in drinking water indicates a low efficiency of water treatment schemes (if present). In the present study, water sources utilized by the communities were largely not treated. It is recommended that water directly intended for human consumption should not contain E. coli (WHO, 2011), since detection of E. coli indicates a high risk health for consumers.In general, the microbial quality of water at the point of consumption is influenced by many factors such as the initial state of contamination of the water at sources, the storage conditions, fetching and handling practices as well as the applied treatment methods to improve quality (Wright et al., 2004;Trevett et al., 2005). The higher prevalence and counts of E. coli found in water from dugouts might be attributed to the initial contamination by human and animal activities around the source. As evidenced by a study in the area (Amenu et al., submitted) and elsewhere (Parker et al., 2010), borehole water sources are generally free from faecal indicators (i.e., E. coli) at source level. However, in the present study, more than 20% in the dry season and 45% in the wet season of borehole sourced water samples were contaminated at the point of consumption (Table 4.2). This could be associated with overcrowding of people and animals at the borehole pump (public standpipe) during water collection, loose plastic hose fittings to the borehole pipe and generally poor handling practices of the water during collection, transportation and storage. Another considerable Microbial quality of water in rural households of Ethiopia: Implications for milk safety and public health 62 cause of concern for the high microbial contamination of water could be the biofilm from containers due to inadequate washing after every use, or the recurrent use of the same containers for fetching water from different sources. Therefore, the higher prevalence of E.coli in the wet season compared to the dry season may be associated with such biofilm created on the wall of the containers. In the wet season people tend to collect water alternatively from contaminated sources such as dugouts (e.g., in Siraro district).Roof-collected rainwater is generally assumed to be safe and potable (Nevondo and Cloete, 1999). In this study, 50% and 78.3% of rainwater samples were contaminated with E. coli in the dry and wet season, respectively. The contamination was most likely associated with the improper design of the rainwater harvesting system, which consisted of concrete walled cisterns or temporary containers (buckets or pots). In most cases, the concrete cisterns were either open or barely covered and the temporary containers to harvest rainwater were not put high enough above the ground to protect soil contamination.The high E. coli contamination of water destined for human consumption recorded in the present study has implications for the efforts being undertaken towards improvement of drinking water resources. The improvement of water resources alone may not result in significant health improvements of people, if not accompanied by proper health education, especially for women; since they are customarily responsible for the collection and handling of water for domestic consumption.In the present study, traditionally processed dairy products showed higher E. coli counts compared to raw milk. In contrast to this, Mhone et al. (2011) recorded lower counts of E. coli in processed dairy products than in raw milk samples. It is assumed that the organic acids produced as a result of natural fermentation of milk and milk products can potentially reduce the growth of microbial agents including E. coli (Ashenafi, 1994) with subsequent possible health benefits. However, since the consumption of the milk products usually takes place before the fermentation is completed, this fermentation cannot be a guarantee in reducing associated health risks (Tsegaye and Ashenafi, 2005). The higher E. coli counts in the processed milk products in Lume compared to Siraro could be partly attributed to differences in the households applying smoking of milking utensils. It was observed during field sample collection that milk storage utensils were more commonly smoked by households in Siraro compared to those in Lume. The high bacterial counts found in the raw milk and traditionally processed milk products is a foreseeable health risk for consumers in the study area.Microbial quality of water in rural households of Ethiopia: Implications for milk safety and public health 63The correlation of E. coli counts between milk and water was low and not significant in the present study, which may be due to the small number of paired samples. Conversely, Kivaria et al. (2006) reported a significant influence of the bacterial quality of water on the total bacterial counts of milk in smallholder dairy systems. Another study in intensive dairy production systems also showed a significant effect of the quality of wash water used to clean milking equipment on the quality of the raw milk produced (Perkins et al., 2009). Though statistically significant correlation was not evident in the present investigation, water as a source of bacterial contamination in smallholder dairy production systems of the study area should not be under estimated. Actually, the water samples analysed in the current study were those intended for direct human consumption, but it is expected that more inferior quality water is used for sanitation purposes in different domestic activities including milk processing.Detection of E. coli in water and milk highly suggests the presence of dangerous pathogens, such as Vibrio cholera, Salmonella typhi, Salmonella paratyphi and Campylobacter spp. (Ashbolt, 2004). In addition to being used as hygienic indicators of water and food, some strains of E. coli (e.g., E. coli O157:H7) are important waterborne or foodborne human pathogens causing illness with symptoms ranging from mild to severe conditions (Griffin and Tauxe, 1991;Olsen et al., 2002). The serious health consequences as result of waterborne or foodborne E. coli serotype 0157:H7 infection include gastroenteritis, hemorrhagic colitis, haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, for example (Wells et al., 1991;Olsen et al., 2002).Taking E. coli as a proxy for the presence of enteric pathogens in water, it can be concluded that the microbiological quality of water consumed in the study area was found to be rather poor, posing a potential food safety and health risk to the rural communities. It is further concluded that microbiological quality of water varied according to season and types of water sources. High E. coli counts were recorded during wet season compared to dry season. The highest load of E. coli was detected in water samples initially fetched from dugouts. Though the microbiological quality of boreholes (common improved water sources in the study area) at point of collection was good (Amenu et al., submitted), more than 20% in the dry season and 45% in the wet season of borehole sourced water samples were found to be contaminated with E. coli at the point-of-consumption (household containers) putting risk on the health of consumers. The study revealed a high post-collection recontamination of water associated Microbial quality of water in rural households of Ethiopia: Implications for milk safety and public health 64 with mishandling and improper storage. Recontamination of water can severely compromise the expected health benefits from installation of improved water sources. In the present study, the correlation of E. coli counts between milk and water was not statistically significant, indicating that the degree of recontamination of water and direct contamination of milk depends on multiple factors, which could only be revealed in site specific studies on high numbers of paired samples. The assumption still holds valid that the recorded poor quality of water is contributing to the low microbiological quality and safety of dairy products produced and consumed in the area. This needs further research and moreover necessitates further action in the improvement of the water supply scheme in the area and awareness creation on safe water handling practices.This chapter focuses on the major findings of the study with regard to the potential health aspects of water consumption by people and livestock. The potential health impacts associated with poor quality water and mismanagement of water sources are also discussed. Finally, this chapter critically discusses the overall methodological approaches followed in the study.An adequate amount of water is required for the maintenance and optimal production performances of livestock. Relatively small changes in body water content can cause profound changes in the animal's body functions and lead to reduced productivity within a relatively shorter time than that compared to feed deprivation (Nicholson, 1985). The water requirements of livestock are influenced by various factors, such as species, breed, age, body weight, physiological status, feed type and air temperature (Schlink et al., 2010). The water content of feed provided to animals specifically determines the amount of water intake through drinking (Pallas, 1986). Some livestock species can potentially survive without requiring additional water for drinking if they are given feed with high water content (King, 1983;Nicholson, 1985). In general, it is estimated that during the wet season in tropical areas about 37% of the body water requirements of livestock grazing on natural pasture can be met from the moisture content of feed (Pallas, 1986). Frequent access to drinking water is required for lactating and young animals.In addition to the quantity of water that livestock need, the quality of water also matters.Generally, the quality of water is affected by the geological features of an area and the anthropogenic activities in the vicinities of water sources. The concern of the low quality of water in livestock production is due to its negative health consequences or the reduction in the palatability of water for animal consumption with subsequent reduction in water intake (Willms et al., 2002). The presence of contaminants in water the supply has a significant impact on animal health and productivity (Lardner at al., 2005). Some of the common quality parameters which can affect the health and productivity of livestock are related to the physical properties of water (e.g. taste, smell, turbidity) and chemical constituents (e.g. pH, total dissolved solids, fluoride, sulphate, nitrate, chromium, lead, phosphates, copper, iron, magnesium, calcium, manganese) of water, and presence of microbial agents in water (Beede, 2012).Water scarcity and a high seasonal variation of water supply can seriously hamper the productivity of livestock. Improvements in the efficiency of water use in both livestock and crop production are needed to mitigate the scarcity of water (Peden et al., 2007;Descheemaeker et al., 2010b). The concept of improving the water use efficiency in livestock production is to adopt integrated approaches, which maximise the net outputs of livestock with minimal water depletion (Peden et al., 2007). Provision of adequate and good quality drinking water for livestock is one of the main strategies which should be followed to improve overall water use efficiency and then tackle water scarcity problems (Peden et al., 2007;Descheemaeker et al., 2010b). Apparently, a large amount of water in livestock farming is indirectly consumed for feed production in comparison to the amount directly consumed by livestock (Peden et al., 2003). Though the amount of water directly consumed through drinking by livestock is small in amount, it is an important requirement for the maintenance and optimal productivity of animals (Wilson, 2007). Therefore, livestock should be provided with easily accessible and good quality water in order to maximize the productivity of livestock and subsequently the per unit efficiency of such a scarce resource.The present study revealed various challenges and constraints in the provision of water for livestock both in terms of quantity and quality. The overall water-related livestock health and productivity problems were summarised using flowcharts, combining the results of a questionnaire survey, group discussions and laboratory analysis of water samples (Figure 5.1).Water shortage was reported as one of the main constraints for livestock production, potentially impacting the health and productivity of the animals (Chapter 2). The perceived scarcity of water was highly seasonal and closely linked to the rainfall patterns (Figure 2.3).Water scarcity was found to be an astringent problem particularly during the dry season, and it was found that the highly erratic rainfall pattern of the study area was further worsening the problem. In the wet season, livestock were getting water from various intermittent sources such as dugouts, temporary streams and surface runoff accumulating in small roadside ditches. The high seasonal fluctuation in the quantity of water for livestock consumption can adversely affect the performance of livestock (Section 2.4). The present study showed that animals are trekked up to 20 km distance in straight-line for some villagers and taking several hours to access water sources (Section 2.4; Table 3.2). Physical inaccessibility of perennial water sources can lead to reduced water intake in animals. After prolonged water deprivation excess intake of water by livestock can lead to serious physiological disturbances leading to livestock morbidity and mortality (Figure 5.1).Figure 5.1: Schematic presentation of water-related livestock health and production problems in the study areaThe problem of water scarcity for livestock in the dry season in the villages which were located in the vicinity of urban and industrial areas was further complicated by the fact that available perennial water sources were found to be highly polluted. This was attributed to indiscriminate disposal of industrial and/or domestic waste into the water sources (SectionEnvironmental pollution from industrial sources has serious impacts on the rural people of most developing countries. This section of the community has low negotiating power with environmental polluters and regulators to enforce the existing regulations or to get compensation for the already existing environmental or economic damages (Behera and Reddy, 2002). As a result, whatsoever environmental pollution exists and causing damages to them mostly remains unresolved and continues (Behera and Reddy, 2002). There is an apparently huge gap in Ethiopia between the theory and practical implementation of the environmental protection policies (Ruffeis et al., 2010), and such conditions certainly affect the rural people and the general ecosystems of the area. Although rivers might have some self-purification capacity along some distances of the downstream flow, the capacity can be overwhelmed by persistent upstream pollution overloads from industrial and domestic waste.It is noteworthy to mention that unless the water pollution conditions are overcome by strictExcess intake of water implementation of environmental laws and regulations, the health and livelihoods of the rural population in the vicinity of the industrial establishments are extremely at risk.Laboratory assessments of the quality of water sources indicated considerable noncompliance with the recommended guidelines of livestock drinking water (Table 3.5). The alkalinity of water samples from the Mojo River and the high fluoride concentration of groundwater sources were responsible for most of the non-compliances. The extreme pH of livestock drinking water can affect its palatability, reduce intake and ultimately result in poor performances (Manning, 2008;Olkowski, 2009). Primarily, exposure of animals to fluoride results in mottling of teeth and osteo-sclerosis of the skeleton (Choubisa, 2007). Animals that are kept for production over a prolonged period of time (e.g., draft oxen and dairy cattle) in the study area might be at a higher risk of fluoride poisoning due to chronic exposure. For instance, teeth mottling resulting from fluorosis could substantially affect feeding (chewing of cuds) and subsequently cause low productivity in livestock.Contaminated water can be a vehicle for the transmission of clinically important pathogens in livestock, such as Salmonella, Cryptosporidium and Eimeria (Bolton et al., 2012;Mitchell et al., 2012). Though it can be practically difficult to assure the microbial quality of water offered to free grazing animals on pasture, where the animals get water from various sources, gross contamination should be avoided especially in stagnant water sources. Toxic blue-green algae can grow in stagnant water bodies such as dugouts and ponds, in the presence of faecal contamination and high organic matter (Beede, 2005). In this regard, the dugouts widely utilised in those villages far from perennial water sources were very prone to algal growth and need improvement in the management of the water sources. Farmers also reported livestock morbidity and mortality as a result of drinking from the poor quality stagnant water sources (Section 3.3.3).The interaction between water and human health is very complex with water-related diseases responsible for a very high morbidity and mortality of people living in developing countries such as Ethiopia (Helmer, 1999;Prüss et al., 2002). Water-related diseases are attributed to either the poor quality of water, inadequacy of water intended for human use or the improper methods of water resources development and management (Helmer, 1999;Kahinda et al., 2007;Boelee et al., in press). The relationship between water utilisation and human health was summarised using a flowchart combining the results of a questionnaire survey, group discussions and laboratory analysis of water samples, similar to the one carried out for livestock (Figure 5.2).Contamination of drinking water by human and animal excreta is the most important aspect of waterborne diseases (Fawell and Nieuwenhuijsen, 2003). Infectious diseases (e.g. typhoid, campylobacteriosis, giardiasis, cryptosporidiosis, cholera) are the most common water-related diseases that are acquired mostly from ingestion of contaminated water (Helmer, 1999;WHO, 2011) or when contaminated water is used for food production/processing (Kirby et al., 2003).There was a high risk of waterborne diseases in the study area attributed to various factors (Figure 5.2). In the first instance, the communities in the districts investigated do not have sufficient access to reliable improved drinking water sources. By definition, improved drinking water sources include household connections, public standpipes, boreholes, protected hand-dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection (WHO/UNICEF, 2010).Consequently, the improved drinking water sources utilized by respondents in the study area constituted boreholes and protected hand-dug wells. In the present investigation, though more than 60% of the households interviewed responded that they use improved water sources in some months of the year in both districts, a considerably much lower percentage of the farmers had constant access to improved drinking water sources (Section 3.3.1). The unreliability and high competition over such sources were forcing the communities to resort to microbiologically unsafe water sources such as rivers and dugouts, potentially leading to higher health risks (Figure 5.2). Surface water sources (rivers and dugouts) were found to be highly contaminated with E. coli, an indicator of the microbiological quality and safety of water. As discussed in Chapter 4 (Section 4.4), the intermittent and unreliable supply of improved water was found to seriously affect the health of the communities related to waterborne infectious diseases.Most rural households in developing countries are not connected to pipe-borne water supply schemes due to the scattered settlement patterns of the population and poorly developed rural infrastructures. Therefore, the water supplies are usually located at some distance from the homesteads of the people and water intended for domestic use is collected from remote sources, transported and stored for several hours or even several days before consumption (Wright et al., 2004). Under such circumstances, water can most likely become contaminated with microbial agents before consumption (Trevett et al., 2005;Rufener et al., 2010). In line with this, the microbiological assessment of the water samples from sources (Chapter 3) and household containers (Chapter 4) showed different levels of microbial contamination. The study revealed that borehole sources were free from E. coli at source level in both wet and dry seasons (Table 3.4). On the other hand, more than 20% and 45% of borehole-sourced water samples in dry and wet seasons, respectively, were contaminated at the point of household containers (see Table 4.2,Chapter 4). Re-contamination of water towards the consumption point was apparent, as the same containers were used to collect water from various sources (clean and contaminated sources) facilitating the cross-contamination and formation of microbial biofilm (Chapter 4). Surface water (dugouts and rivers), for example, was highly contaminated with E. coli both at source level (Table 3.4) and consumption point (Table 4. similar study elsewhere also showed that riparian grazing causes increased faecal deposition in water bodies leading to quality deterioration (Strauch et al., 2009). In general, traditional livestock management practices in the study area can lead to the contamination of water by livestock faeces with subsequent risks to public health.In addition to microbial quality, elevated levels of some chemicals in drinking water can also cause various human health ailments (Helmer, 1999). Chemical contamination of water sources due to geological conditions has been linked to negative impacts on human health (Ng et al., 2003). Exposure to high concentration of fluoride is one of the major public health problems associated with groundwater utilisation in certain areas of the world (Haimanot, 1990;Fewtrell et al., 2006). Moreover, some chemicals may not directly affect the health of people, but affect the taste and acceptability of water, and subsequently, force the communities to resort to poor quality water sources with potential health consequences (Hunter et al., 2010). In the present study, the elevated chemical level in drinking water above WHO guidelines (Table 3.5) can pose a high health risk to consumers.There are two contrasting problems regarding the quality of water sources utilised by rural communities in the study area. On the one hand, the microbiological quality of unimproved surface water sources (still widely utilised by the rural communities irrespective of the quality) was found to be rather poor, posing a high health risk to the consumers. On the other hand, the groundwater sources (considered as an improved drinking water supply scheme by General Discussion 74 definition) were free from E. coli contamination, but were found to contain elevated levels of chemicals with health or aesthetic concerns. The contrasting aspects of the microbiological and chemical quality of the water sources have serious implications with respect to the development and management of improved rural water supply schemes in the area. For example, based on secondary data obtained from the respective districts' Rural Water Development Offices, the rural coverage of improved water sources was 38.6% in the district near to urban settlements and 14% in more remote rural district (Section 3.2.1). However, borehole water sources, particularly, serving the more rural remote district were contaminated with a high fluoride concentration (3)(4) times more than the maximum permissible limit in drinking water), making the water sources unsafe for drinking (Figure 5.2; Tables 3.4 and   3 .5). It means that the percentage of safe drinking water supply coverage, which is apparently estimated based only on microbiological quality criteria, can be misleading for development agents and policy makers. Therefore, in addition to the action towards the improvement in the microbial quality of water, the issues of chemical quality should be put forward in order to minimise the associated health risks.Figure 5.2: Schematic presentation of water-related human health problems in the study areaRainwater harvesting, referring to the small-scale concentration, collection, storage and use of rainwater runoff for various purposes, is a common practice in many parts of the developing world, specifically in water-scarce rural areas (Kahinda et al., 2007;Helmreich and Horn, 2009). Rainwater harvesting affects the health and livelihoods of rural people either positively or negatively (Barron, 2009). Primarily, rainwater harvesting supplements the water requirements for domestic and agricultural activities. Accordingly, if properly designed and managed, rainwater water harvesting can potentially supply water of good quality for domestic consumption (Kahinda et al., 2007). Harvested rainwater can also be used for the supplemental irrigation of household gardens as well as for livestock drinking. to get optimal outputs (Section 5.1). In this respect, harvesting rainwater has a considerable advantage in improving the accessibility and quality of the water supply for livestock drinking.A study by Descheemaeker et al. (2010b), for instance, has indicated a considerable reduction in the energy spent by animals associated with long-distance walking to the drinking points in the dry season when rainwater harvesting near homesteads is adopted by farmers. Similarly, harvested rainwater can be an accessible source of water for domestic use, lowering the burden of long-distance walks for water collection (Helmreich and Horn, 2009). Rainwater harvesting in the study area was one of the local strategies practiced by farmers to cope with existing water scarcity problems (Section 2.3.3). Rainwater was harvested using different storage systems such as temporary household containers (buckets and pots), concrete walled cisterns and excavated land (dugouts). Specifically, farmers in the villages far from perennial water sources were widely harvesting rainwater to supplement the water needs of livestock and/or people.On the other hand, serious health risks can be associated with rainwater harvesting and utilisation (Kahinda et al., 2007;Waktola, 2008). Widespread rainwater harvesting can favour the breeding and maintenance of disease transmitting vectors, which subsequently increase the prevalence of vector-borne diseases (Kahinda et al., 2007).In general, the traditional rainwater harvesting systems practiced by farmers in the study area were not technically supported by any governmental or non-governmental organisation.Therefore, lack of know-how for proper site selection for rainwater harvesting and improper management of the rainwater harvested was putting the health of people and livestock at risk. Several dugouts, for example, were unfenced giving livestock indiscriminate access which further deteriorated the water quality within a short time. Malaria, a water-related vectorborne disease, was highly prevalent in the remote rural district where perennial water sources were scarce and dugouts were constructed to harvest rainwater. The high prevalence of malaria was probably associated with the improper utilisation and management of the traditionally harvested rainwater in the form of dugouts (Section 3.3.3; Figure 5.2).The other concerns of poor water quality and inadequate availability are associated with the potential adverse impacts on the quality and safety of food (Kirby et al., 2003). Several foodborne human health problems can be traced back to the use of poor quality in the process of food production and/or processing (Oliver et al., 2005;Jawahar and Ringler, 2009). The main waterborne agents of potential health concerns are bacteria, viruses, parasites and chemical residues (Jawahar and Ringler, 2009). A broad range of bacterial pathogens such asCampylobacter jejuni, Salmonella spp, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, and Listeria monocytogenes are regarded as waterborne (Ashbolt, 2004). Animal source foods, such as milk and milk products. are highly prone to such microbial contamination with subsequent high health risks to consumers (Randolph et al., 2007).The quality and safety of milk is affected by different factors among which the health status of the animal, hygienic practices in the dairy operation and post-milking handling and processing are the major ones (Gran et al., 2002). The cleaning and disinfection of equipment used in milk storage and transportation is a crucial activity to maintain the hygienic quality of milk and, subsequently, improve its safety (Bonfoh et al., 2006). An adequate supply of good quality water is required to make cleaning and hygienic practices effectiv, (Chye et al., 2004).Therefore, a combination of the quality and availability of water for hygienic practices and the awareness level of milk handlers regarding hygienic practices ultimately affect the safety of milk and milk products (Bonfoh et al., 2006;Grimaud et al., 2009). However, the rural communities of developing countries may not have access to improved and reliable water sources and are hence forced to use poor quality water sources for drinking and/or food processing. The potential health risks of using contaminated water in the handling and processing of milk products can be higher than the risk through direct drinking. This is due to the fact that multiplication of pathogenic micro-organisms can occur in milk and milk products with amplification of the load of the pathogens. The present study also showed a low level of access to safe water supply (section 3.4.1) which could have a considerable implication for the safety of milk and milk products.Water scarcity compromises hygienic practices and the effective cleaning of utensils used for milking and milk handling. This favours the formation of microbial biofilm on the surfaces of utensils and adversely influences milk quality and safety (Austin and Bergeron, 1995). The present study also revealed a serious scarcity of water with high seasonal fluctuations (Figure 2.3). The problem was worse during the dry period due to frequent dysfunction of the standpipes, the common improved water sources (section 3.4.1). This may limit routine hygienic practices, such as cleaning of milking and milk-handling utensils. Instead of cleansing utensils with water, some households use smoking for hygienic purposes and also to add a specific flavour to the milk (section 4.5). In this regard, a previous study showed that smoking can reduce the bacterial load in fermented milk (Ashenafi, 1996). However, this practice may not be effective due to the variation in the duration of smoking and when bulk milk is handled. Smoking is also not acceptable in areas where farmers supply milk to dairy processing plants. Therefore, access to adequate good quality water remains indispensable for the production and processing of milk and milk products in the area.In the present study, a comparison of E. coli counts in milk and water showed a low, but positive correlation (Section 4.3.2). Though the results are statistically insignificant, the very poor quality water utilised by the communities in the study area can still negatively affect the quality and safety of milk and milk products. The samples analysed in the current study were actually the one intended for direct human consumption. It is expected that water of more inferior quality is used in different domestic activities, including milk processing (Section 4.4).Methodologically, the main components of this study encompassed an individual questionnaire survey complemented by focus group discussions, laboratory quality assessments of water and milk, and compilation of secondary data.The two methods, questionnaire surveys and focus group discussions, have a divergent set of strengths and limitations (Ward et al., 1991). In questionnaire surveys, representative respondents can be randomly selected, and accordingly, the external validity of the research can be realised. On the other hand, an individual questionnaire survey has limitations due to its time-consuming nature (Saint-Germain et al., 1993). This is especially true when respondents are randomly selected in rural scattered settlements, and consequently, additional time is required to locate the homesteads of the respondents. Difficulty in the identification of respondents was one of the main problems encountered during the implementation of the present study. Structured questionnaire interviews also lack flexibility to discuss particular issues of interest at the required depth. With regard to focus group discussions, the method gives a chance to explore the details of the various questions with high interaction between interviewer (facilitator) and discussants (Wolff et al., 1993). However, focus group discussion has limitations due to the inherent nature of difficulty in selecting representative participants.Consequently, extrapolation of the results of a study to target population cannot be easily made. The other aspect which can be considered as a limitation of focus group discussion is that some outspoken participants can adversely dominate the discussion and lead to biased results (Kidd and Parshall, 2000). In the present study, focus group discussions were held separately for male and female groups in each site to minimize potential over-dominance of male participants.According to Wolff et al. (1993), the methods of focus group discussions and questionnaire surveys can be combined in various approaches based on the sequential order in which the two methods are carried out. In the first case, focus group discussions can be carried out initially, aiming to facilitate the design and formulation of questions intended for the questionnaire survey. In the other aspect, focus group discussions can be carried out after or concurrently with the questionnaire survey in a unified research design to explore the question of a research in greater depth. The latter approach was followed in the present study, in which focus group discussion was carried out to complement the results of the questionnaire survey.This was done with the assumption that carrying out focus group discussions in the villages before the questionnaire survey can sensitise farmers and bias the responses during the actual survey, especially with regard to the perceptions of farmers about various constraints for livestock production and other related issues.In this study a structured questionnaire format was used to interview randomly selected farmers, with the questions focusing on various aspects (sections 2.2.3 and 3.2.2.1). Random selection of the respondents included in the individual questionnaire survey was carried out for the sake of the representativeness of the study. Additionally, the questionnaire format, initially prepared in English, was translated into Oromo, a language widely spoken in the study area as well as in many parts of Ethiopia, to improve the reliability and validity of answers from the questionnaire survey. This helped to acquire the information required by reducing possible misunderstanding of the questions. The format was also pre-tested before actual interviews to clarify the wording and logical flow of the questions. Focus group discussions (one each for male and female participants, respectively, per village) were also held with the farmers to complement the information collected through the questionnaire survey. One aspect worth mentioning here is that the researcher himself facilitated the discussions for male as well as female groups, and this might have influenced the interactions among the female participants to some extent. However, maximum care was taken to minimise such influence and it is believed that the overall result of the group discussion was not severely affected.The use of focus group discussions in the present study provided a chance to explore the details of the various issues already covered under the questionnaire survey; for example, the local strategies applied to cope with the existing problems of water provision for livestock were identified during the group discussions (section 2.3.4).The human health aspect was assessed based on available secondary data from the districts, and consequently, when a direct link to the household interviewed was not possible.Therefore, the result (section 3.4.3) only gives an overall picture of the study districts instead of the households interviewed.Water samples in this study were collected and analysed from sources and household containers involving two seasons, dry and wet. The water samples collected from different sources were analysed for total dissolved solids, pH, manganese, chromium, fluoride, E. coli, and total coliforms. On the other hand, the water samples collected from household containers were analysed only for microbial quality assuming that the chemical quality parameters do not change notably during the transportation and storage of water. The chemical quality parameters selected and assessed in this study were mainly based on their importance regarding health and aesthetic aspects of water for human and/or livestock uses. The selection of the parameters assessed was also influenced, to some extent, by the availability of logistics and laboratory facilities at the time of the study. This can be considered as one of the limitations of the present study. Water quality parameters, such as the concentration of sulphate, nitrate and pesticides could have been analysed in order to assess non-point sources of water pollution from agricultural activities. Another limitation of the present study may be related to the frequency of water sampling. Though water sampling had covered dry and wet seasons, the quality of surface water can fluctuate over relatively short periods and high frequency of sampling might have been needed in order to establish the quality status of the sources. This is especially true when several sources of pollution (including point and nonpoint origins) are impacting the quality of water (Facchi et al., 2007), and this condition was common in the study area. In order to assess the microbial re-contamination of water after collection during transportation and storage, water samples were collected from both sources and household containers. However, one-to-one matching of the samples from sources and household containers was not made during sample collection. Therefore, based on the present study, exact causes of contamination cannot be determined. An attempt had not been made in General Discussion 81 this study to assess the direct link between health impacts and poor quality water; instead, water-related health problems were discussed only by implication.A part of the present study aimed to establish a correlation between E. coli counts of milk and water. Milk and milk product samples could only be collected from a sub-sample of the households, because either several of the households that provided water samples did not have lactating cows, or milk was destined solely for calves. Therefore, the results of the microbiological quality of milk suffered from the small size of paired samples. Further sampling to increase the sample size by the inclusion of more households was not possible due to time and logistic constraints.The study findings emphasise that water availability and quality are among the major constraints identified by the farmers, the consequences of which imply a negative influence on the health and performance of livestock. Challenges in the water provision for livestock consumption were associated with physical inaccessibility and high seasonal variation in the availability of water sources. Quality problems were associated with industrial and domestic pollution of the water sources intended for livestock drinking in those villages which are located in the sites downstream from urban settlements or industrial establishments. Water quality deterioration attributed to industrial activity needs due attention. In the long-run, it can induce adverse effects on the health and performance of livestock and also consequently on the health of the communities. The results of the present study showed that most of the surface water sources intended for domestic or livestock use were contaminated with faecal materials and did not meet the WHO guidelines for drinking water quality. Irrespective of the contamination level, water sources were widely utilised for domestic purposes and this potentially can pose a high health risk to the rural communities. On the other hand, taking E.coli as an indicator, groundwater sources were microbiologically safer, but chemically contaminated with natural elements, such as fluoride and manganese. The potential microbiological health risk associated with borehole water was low at its supply point, but the risk remained due to recontamination after collection. In this regard, recontamination of water after collection from sources can severely compromise the expected health benefits from the installation of improved water sources. Generally, taking E. coli as a proxy for the presence of enteric pathogens in water, it can be concluded that the microbiological quality of water consumed in the study area was found to be rather poor, posing a potential food safety and General Discussion 82 health risk to the rural communities. The study revealed that the rural residents in the study area lack access to safe and reliable water sources, with potential health repercussions. In this respect, interventions should be sought towards the protection of surface water sources from pollution and possibly remediation of groundwater sources to remove the elevated chemicals.Bone char filtration, for example, which is claimed to be an efficient, simple and low-cost defluoridation technique (Kloos and Haimanot, 1999), can be taken as an option to reduce the health risk of fluoride-contaminated water. The rainwater harvesting system was one of the strategies practiced to cope with water scarcity. However, the mismanagement of the water harvested was found to pose a high health risk to livestock and farmers. In order to minimise such a health risk, farmers should be technically supported by the local government in the proper design and management of the rainwater harvesting systems. In connection with recontamination of water, targeted health education is required, especially for women; since they are customarily responsible for water collection and handling. ","tokenCount":"18294"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"39d7b95aef0d5dc75b7637ae04811742","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/253ab51a-eeeb-4f99-8519-691ee55f9d4d/retrieve","id":"55457352"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"019b5954-e854-4406-bc91-81e3063ae165","pagecount":"12","content":"The Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming Systems Initiative aims to provide equitable, transformative pathways for improved livelihoods of actors in mixed farming systems through sustainable intensification within target agroecologies and socio-economic settings.Through action research and development partnerships, the Initiative will improve smallholder farmers' resilience to weather-induced shocks, provide a more stable income and significant benefits in welfare, and enhance social justice and inclusion for 13 million people by 2030.Activities will be implemented in six focus countries globally representing diverse mixed farming systems as follows: Ghana (cereal-root crop mixed), Ethiopia (highland mixed), Malawi: (maize mixed), Bangladesh (rice mixed), Nepal (highland mixed), and Lao People's Democratic Republic (upland intensive mixed/ highland extensive mixed).Explanation about intention of project and our interest in understanding their farming systems and natural resources management and to hear about the challenges/obstacles to their farming systems and livelihoods. This context important for designing solutions and interventions to address these challenges.1) Are people in this community able to meet their food needs for the year from their own farms? If not, for how many months are they food secure? Which months are they usually food insecure and why?2) If people cannot meet their food needs from their farms, how do they get food? Do they sell crops earlier in the year and then use the cash to buy food? Do they sell livestock? Do they trade in other goods? Migration? Etc. Is it different for men and for women? 11) What are the most important cash crops? Are these crops different for men and for women and for youth?12) Who does the labor on agricultural fields? Clearing? Planting? Weeding? Harvesting?13) When do people do these activities? (by month) Which requires the most time and effort (from above list) 14) Do people apply inorganic fertilizer to their fields? Manure? On which plots and crops? Why? (Proportions that applied fertilizers, manure the previous season)25) Do people use livestock manure for their fields? Is it enough? Is manure sold in the community?26) What are the 5 most significant problems facing farmers in this community that affect their livelihoods negatively? (Prompt: Consider both crops and livestock). Do these problems different for men and for women?27) What farming activities require purchasing/use of cash? Inputs? Labor? Other?28) Is soil fertility, etc. declining or increasing, and why? Has this affected crop yields?29) What do people do to increase soil fertility on their plots? 30) Do people burn the bush or their plots here? If so why? Who does the burning and why?31) What are the practices farmers carry out to manage soil and water on their plots?Are markets easy to access here? 41) Are inputs (for agricultural production) available and affordable? 42) How do most people earn cash here? Men? Women? (Get a list for each gender)43) Do most women in this community engage in some trading? If so, what are the most common products that are traded? 44) Do you get low prices for your crops and livestock products? What stops you from getting higher prices? (prompt: time of year when sell, selling to middleman, inability to access value-added markets, inability to transport goods to further markets, meet emergencies, etc) 45) What are some other non-farm income generating activities? Mining? Migration 46) Is migration out of the community during certain times of the year common here? When? 47) Who migrates? Men? Women? For what kind of opportunities?","tokenCount":"561"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1384c079ec3c290ea16e8c59cc806cb7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a03926b8-a303-49b4-a93c-56b68450a2e1/retrieve","id":"1460207053"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6670440c-ea52-4ad9-9a73-2643edb65d10","pagecount":"29","content":"Collecting, conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources and their global distribution are essential components of international crop improvement programmes.Inevitably, the movement of germplasm involves a risk of accidentally introducing plant pests 1 along with the host plant. In particular, pathogens that are often symptomless, such as viruses, pose a special risk. In order to manage this risk, effective testing (indexing) procedures are required to ensure that distributed material is free of pests that are of quarantine concern.The ever-increasing volume of germplasm exchanged internationally for research purposes, coupled with recent advances in biotechnology, has created a pressing need for crop-specific overviews of the existing knowledge in all disciplines relating to the phytosanitary safety of germplasm transfer. This has prompted FAO and IPGRI to launch a collaborative programme for the safe and expeditious movement of germplasm, reflecting the complementarity of their mandates with regard to the safe movement of germplasm. FAO, as the depository of the International Plant Protection Convention of 1951, has a long-standing mandate to assist its member governments to strengthen their plant quarantine services, while IPGRI's mandate -inter alia-is to further the collecting, conservation and use of the genetic diversity of useful plants for the benefit of people throughout the world.The purpose of the joint FAO/IPGRI programme is to generate a series of crop-specific technical guidelines that provide relevant information on disease indexing and other procedures that will help to ensure phytosanitary safety when germplasm is moved internationally. The scope of the recommendations in these guidelines is confined to small, specialized consignments used in technical crop improvement programmes, e.g. for research and basic plant breeding programmes. When collecting germplasm, local plant quarantine procedures, for example pest risk assessment, should be considered.These technical guidelines are produced by meetings of panels of experts on the crop concerned, who have been selected in consultation with the relevant specialized institutions and research centres. The experts contribute to the elaboration of the guidelines in their private capacities and do not represent the organizations for whom they work. The guidelines are intended to be the best possible advice for institutions involved in germplasm exchange for research, conservation and basic plant breeding. FAO, IPGRI and the contributing experts cannot be held responsible for any failures resulting from the application of the present guidelines. By their nature, they reflect the consensus of the 1 The word 'pest' is used in this document as it is defined in the International Plant Protection Convention. It encompasses all harmful biotic agents ranging from viroids to weeds.Musa 5 crop specialists who attended the meeting, based on the best scientific knowledge available at the time of the meeting. The experts who have contributed to this document are listed after this introduction.The guidelines are written in a short, concise style, in order to keep the volume of the document to a minimum and to facilitate updating. Suggestions for further reading are given at the end, along with the reference cited in the text (mostly for geographical distribution, media and other specific information). In order to be useful, the guidelines need to be updated when necessary. We ask our readers to kindly bring to our attention any developments that possibly require a review of the guidelines, such as new records, new detection methods or new control methods.For your convenience, a form is provided on the last page of this publication. Germplasm should be tested for all viruses known to affect Musa according to the protocols specified in these guidelines. However, in some instances tests may be omitted if there is strong, reliable evidence that particular viruses are not present in the country of origin of the germplasm.l Indexing procedures and results should be documented, e.g. in a germplasm health statement. A sample copy is attached.Vegetative material 1.3.Select a sucker from a plant without symptoms of systemic infection.The sucker should be trimmed to remove soil, roots and any other extraneous material, leaving part of the central corm containing the meristem and about 10 cm above it. The overall dimension of the block of tissue will be about 20 cm high and 10-15 cm in diameter. The block should be air-dried for 2-3 days and wrapped in newspaper. The material should be labeled and dispatched in a cardboard box. No plastic should be used for wrapping.The material should be sent to an appropriate tissue culture laboratory in the country of origin, or if this is not possible, a tissue culture laboratory which preferably should not be in a banana-growing area.Meristems should be excised, surface-disinfected and cultured.The meristem culture should be cloned to seven plantlets, of which five should be No.15.Musa 9sent to an indexing facility and two should remain in culture for future multiplication.7.8.At the indexing facility, four plants should be established in a vector-free, insect-proof greenhouse under conditions conducive to vigorous plant growth (the fifth serves as a back-up).After 3 months of growth, tissue samples should be taken from the three youngest expanded leaves and indexed for viruses as described below.Three months later, tissue samples should again be taken from the three youngest expanded leaves and indexed for viruses as described below. In addition, electron microscopic observations should be undertaken to look for the presence of other viruses. The minipreps described in the BSV section can be used for this.If all tests are negative, the four indexed plants may be released and the cultures derived from the two remaining subclones may be further propagated and distributed in vitro. For the movement of in vitro material, neither charcoal, fungicides nor antibiotics should be added to the medium. In vitro cultures should be shipped in transparent tubes and visually inspected for bacteria, fungi and arthropods. Contaminated material should be destroyed.Seed should be free of pulp, air-dried, inspected for the absence of insect pests and fumigated when necessary They should be sent to an appropriate tissue culture laboratory in the country of origin, or if not possible, preferably in a non-banana growing area.1. Seed should be surface-disinfected with 0.5% sodium hypochlorite for 10 minutes at room temperature to eliminate externally seed-borne pathogens.2. The seed coat should be removed before culturing in vitro.3. Seedlings should be indexed in the same way as material derived from meristem culture.FAO Technical Guidelines for the Safe Movement of GermplasmThis expression is used to describe the distribution of pathogens which are reported to occur in all continents, and in many countries of these continents.A set of different genotypes conserved or used in breeding programmes.Operated by INIBAP at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium in order to facilitate a safe exchange of Musa germplasm. With over 1000 accessions the Transit Centre contains the largest in vitro collection in the world.Operated by INIBAP at Virology Research Units having expertise with Musa viruses, namely at CIRAD-FLHOR, Montpellier, France (Officer-in-Charge: Dr Marie-Line Iskra-Caruana); QDPI, Brisbane, Australia (Officer-in-Charge: Dr John Thomas); TBRI, Pingtung, Taiwan (Officer-in-Charge: Dr Sin-Wan Lee). Other laboratories, such as the one at IITA, also index Musa germplasm for viruses.Cause A potyvirus, possibly a strain of sugarcane mosaic potyvirus, causes the disease. The flexuous rod particles measure about 680 nm.The disease has been a significant constraint to abaca production in the Philippines. The disease affects fiber yield as well as fiber quality.Leaves show yellowish or light green streaks (Fig. 1). Petioles and midribs are mottled with dark green and yellowish streaks, even when no symptoms appear on the leaves (Fig. 2).Hosts natural: Musa textilis (abaca, Manila hemp), Marantha arundinacea, Canna indica. experimental: several experimental hosts, including banana.Philippines.The virus is transmitted by vegetative propagation and tissue culture, as well as by aphids (mainly Rhopalosiphum maidis and Aphis gossypii) in a nonpersistent manner. Mechanical transmission is extremely difficult.The virus can be detected by ELISA using antibodies for sugarcane mosaic virus (Eloja and Tinsley 1963).No information reported.For bibliography see p. 23 The disease is caused by banana bract mosaic potyvirus (BBMV). The virus consists of flexuous filamentous particles about 700-750 nm in length.Up to 40% yield loss in the Philippines, where comprehensive roguing/sanitation programmes are implemented (Magnaye 1994). Fruits fail to fill on infected plants in India (Jones, unpublished). On export bananas, streaks on the fruit are a cause for rejection.Symptoms progressively develop as distinct, dark coloured, broad streaks on the bracts of the inflorescence (Fig. 3). A shortening of bunch internodes is also characteristic. After removal of dead leaf sheaths, the presence of large, dark coloured stripes of varying length, sometimes with a mosaic pattern, is diagnostic of the disease (Fig. 4). Greenish to brownish broad, irregularly scattered spindle streaks develop along the petioles, possibly with raised veins (Fig. 5). Leaf symptoms of chlorotic spindle-shaped lesions may or may not occur.Musa species and cultivars.Philippines (Magnaye and Espino 1990), India (where the disease is commonly found on French plantain in Kerala State and is called 'Kokkan') and Sri Lanka (Thomas et al. 1996). No mechanical transmission has been reported in Musa. In addition to transmission through vegetative propagation and tissue culture, transmission by the aphids Rhopalosiphum maidis, Aphis gossypii and Pentalonia nigronervosa has been reported.The virus can be detected in extracts of leaf laminae, midribs and flower bracts by ELISA, using BBMV specific polyclonal and/or monoclonal antibodies. Leaf symptoms can be erratic and bract symptoms are evident only during flowering. Dead leaf sheaths must be removed to reveal mosaic and streaking on the pseudostem.No information reported.For bibliography see p. 23 Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) has been consistently associated with the disease. The virus has 20 nm isometric virions with a coat protein subunit of 20.1 kDa and a multicomponent single-stranded DNA genome.The virus causes substantial disease outbreaks if the aphid vector Pentalonia nigronervosa is present. A serious epidemic has been reported recently from Pakistan (Soomro et al. 1992). Several countries (e.g. Australia, Taiwan, Philippines) have implemented comprehensive roguing/sanitation programmes.Typical severe symptoms include dark green streaks of variable length in the leaf veins, midribs and petioles (Figs. 6, 7). These streaks, however, may be rare or absent in abaca (Musa textilis) and Ensete spp. Leaves become progressively shorter and develop marginal chlorosis (Fig. 8). As the disease progresses, leaves become more upright or 'bunched' at the apex of the plant (Fig. 9). Depending on when the plant becomes infected, it may produce no fruit or the bunch may not emerge from the pseudostem. When infection takes place very late in the season, no leaf symptoms may appear, but dark green streaks may be seen on the tips of the bracts. Mild symptoms of vein clearing as well as symptomless infections have been reported from Taiwan. Attenuation of initial severe symptoms has been reported in the cv. Veimama from Fiji.Musa species and cultivars; Ensete ventricosum has been experimentally infected. There is some evidence for the existence of alternative hosts: Canna indica and Hedychium coronarium (Su et al. 1993).Note: new records which were not in the 1989 guidelines are printed in bold; * = unconfirmed (this status conferred by the quoted author).  Kampuchea* (Stover 1972) Laos* (Stover 1972) Malaysia (Su et al. 1993) Myanmar* (Buddenhagen 1968) Pakistan (Soomro et al. 1992) Philippines (Castillo and Martinez 1961) Taiwan (Sun 1961) Vietnam (Vakili 1969) The virus is reported to occur in symptomless plants or in plants with mild symptoms from India, Malaysia, South Africa, Taiwan and Thailand (Su et al. 1993). The phenomenon of symptomless infections of BBTV in bananas is currently being investigated in other laboratories.The virus is transmitted vegetatively, through tissue culture and by the aphid vector Pentalonia nigronervosa. No mechanical transmission has been reported.The virus can be reliably detected by ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). Monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies are commercially available (Wu and Su 1990b;Dietzgen and Thomas 1991). Samples from midribs of leaf tips should be indexed 3 months after plantlets have been established from tissue culture. DNA probes are available for BBTV DNA components 1 to 6 (Burns et al. 1995).Meristem-tip culture (Thomas et al. 1995b), possibly combined with heat therapy (Ramos and Zamora 1990;Wu and Su 1991), has been successful in achieving a proportion of virus-free plantlets. Testing after treatment is essential.No. 15. MusaThe disease is caused by cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV), a virus with a tripartite single-stranded RNA, packaged in icosahedral particles about 28 nm in diameter. The two major serogroups of the virus, coinciding with two hybridization groups, occur in Musa.Occasionally, severe outbreaks occur. Plantlets derived from tissue culture are more prone to infection. Numerous strains exist, varying from those not causing symptoms to those inducing mild or severe symptoms in banana. The heart-rot strain found in Morocco is particularly destructive (Wardlaw 1972).Mild or severe chlorosis, chlorotic streaking or flecking, mosaic patterns and leaf distortion (Figs. 10,11). The heart-rot strain causes severe yellowing and necrosis, which begins on the cigar leaf and spreads into the pseudostem (Fig. 12). Eventually the pseudostem rots. Uneven ripening has been associated with the virus. Suckers produced from infected plants may show no symptoms. In some varieties, high temperature may suppress symptoms. Symptoms have often been confused with those of BSV.Extremely wide host range, including numerous dicotyledon and monocotyledon species.Cosmopolitan; some strains causing severe symptoms, e.g. heart-rot t s rain, are limited in distribution.The virus is transmitted in a nonpersistent manner by aphids, including Aphis gossypii, Rhopalosiphum maidis, R. prunifoliae and Myzus persicae. In experimental studies, when associated with BBTV, CMV was transmitted by Pentalonia nigronervosa. Seed transmission has been reported (Gold 1972).(Dr The virus can be reliably detected by ELISA using polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for CMV, or by mechanical inoculation to a range of diagnostic test plants, e.g. Chenopodium amaranticolor, C. quinoa and Vigna unguiculata (Francki et al. 1979).Virus-free plantlets have been obtained by culture of meristem from heat-treated suckers (Gupta 1986) or from lateral buds developed on heat-treated rhizomes (Berg and Bustamante 1974).For bibliography see p. 25 (Dr H.J. Su, National Taiwan University, Taipei) The disease is caused by banana streak badnavirus (BSV). The virus consists of nonenveloped bacilliform particles measuring 120-150 x 30 nm. In some isolates longer particles of up to 1500 nm length occur. Particles contain a circular double-stranded DNA genome approximately 7.4 kb in size.Few quantitative studies are known; there is the potential for serious yield losses with some isolates (Lassoudiere 1974). Plant death has been reported in Africa. Disease incidence varies between countries and this may be related to strain differences and/or vector activity. Tissue culture plantlets seem to be very susceptible.Symptoms vary with isolates and cultivars. Most isolates produce broken (Fig. 13) or continuous (Fig. 14) chlorotic streaks or spindle-shaped patterns which are first chlorotic, then become increasingly dark in colour, and finally result in black streaking in older leaves (Fig. 15). Some isolates of BSV occurring in Africa produce severe necrosis which begins with the cigar leaf and results in internal pseudostem necrosis (Fig. 16) and plant death. Other isolates produce very fine, indistinct broken brown interveinal streaks or pin-points. Bunches may be reduced in size. Symptomless infection occurs frequently. Symptoms appear sporadically, and may be absent on leaves produced during many months before reappearing. Symptom appearance and severity are associated with temperature changes, but the precise correlation has not been experimentally determined. Symptoms are often confused with those of CMV.natural: Musa species and cultivars. experimental: Ensete spp.  South and Central America: Brazil (Jones and Lockhart 1993) Colombia * (Caruana, unpublished) Costa Rica * (Lockhart, unpublished) Cuba * (Jones and Lockhart 1993) Ecuador * (Jones and Lockhart 1993) Grenada (Jones and Lockhart, 1993) Guadeloupe * (Jones and Lockhart 1993) Honduras * (Jones and Lockhart 1993) Jamaica (Jones and Lockhart 1993) Trinidad * (Jones and Lockhart 1993) USA (Florida, Virgin Islands) * (Lockhart, unpublished) Venezuela (Jones 1995) Asia: China, Peoples' Republic (Jones and Lockhart 1993) India * (Thomas and Jones, unpublished) Indonesia (Jones, unpublished) Malaysia (Jones, unpublished) Philippines * (Caruana, unpublished) Sri Lanka * (Thomas and Jones, unpublished) Thailand (Jones, unpublished) Vietnam (Jones, unpublished) Oceania: Australia * (Thomas et al. 1994) New Caledonia * (Lockhart, unpublished) Papua New Guinea (Jones, unpublished) Tonga * (Thomas et al. 1994) Western Samoa * (Thomas et al. 1994)BSV has not been transmitted to Musa by mechanical inoculation. The virus is transmitted by vegetative propagation to 100% of progeny plants. Field spread is by the citrus mealybug (Planococcus citri). Sugarcane bacilliform virus (ScBV), which is closely related serologically to BSV, is transmitted from infected Saccharum officinarum to banana by P. citri and the pink sugarcane mealybug (Saccharicoccus sacchari), and produces typical streak symptoms (Lockhart and Autrey 1988). There is evidence that BSV is seed-transmitted in Musa (Daniells et al. 1995).Serological detection of BSV is complicated by the occurrence of a wide degree of serological diversity among virus isolates, some of which are unrelated serologically to each other (Lockhart and Olszewski 1993). A recently developed antiserum raised against many isolates is capable of detecting all known isolates by ISEM in partially purified extracts, even in asymptomatic leaf tissue (Lockhart, unpublished). Samples of laminar and midrib tissue from the three youngest expanded leaves should be tested 3 months after plantlets have been established from tissue culture.Miniprep protocol for ISEM: Extract 5-7 g leaf tissue in 18 ml 200mM phosphate buffer pH 6.0, containing 1% Na 2 SO 3 . Filter, centrifuge 10 minutes at low speed and discard pellet. Add 1 ml 33% Triton X-100, mix well, and layer over 5 ml 30% sucrose in 100mM phosphate buffer pH 7. No information reported for BSV. Thermotherapy followed by apical meristem culture failed to eliminate or reduce the titre of the related SCBV in sugarcane (Lockhart, unpublished).For bibliography see p. 25No. 15. M u s aAccession Name:The material designated above was obtained from a shoot-tip cultured in vitro. Shoot-tip culturing is believed to eliminate the risk of the germplasm carrying fungal bacterial and nematode pathogens and insect pests of Musa. However, shoot-tip cultures could still carry virus pathogens.A representative sample of four plants derived from the same shoot-tip as the germplasm designated above has been grown under quarantine conditions for at least 6 months, regularly observed for disease symptoms and tested for virus pathogens as indicated below following methods recommended in the FAO/IPGRI The designations employed, and the presentation of material in these Guidelines, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO, IPGRI or the CGIAR concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.Similarly, the views expressed are those of the authors and editors and do not necessarily reflect the views of FAO, IPGRI or the CGIAR. In addition, the mention of specific companies or of their products or brand names does not imply any endorsement or recommendation on the part of FAO, IPGRI or the CGIAR.The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) is an autonomous international scientific organization operating under the aegis of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Publications Office, IPGRI Headquarters, Via delle Sette Chiese 142, 00145 Rome, Italy.© FAO/IPGRI 1996","tokenCount":"3194"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5644acf73e2c095ff3093b64f0bc053a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/269581a8-2ad9-4621-bdf7-e023ef188f56/retrieve","id":"1510926818"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d35a95a1-2afe-4564-8af2-66ef41d7ba82","pagecount":"3","content":"Dirección de contacto: m.cuervo@cgiar.org Actualmente el Banco de germoplasma del CIAT conserva las colecciones más grandes de Fríjol (37.938 accesiones de Phaseolus spp) y Forrajes tropicales (22.694 accesiones de leguminosas y gramíneas) almacenadas en forma de semilla y Yuca (6.155 accesiones de Manihot spp.) conservadas in vitro. Anualmente se distribuye un promedio de entre 5.000 y 6.000 muestras a nivel nacional e internacional. Esta distribución se realiza de acuerdo a un conjunto de reglas y marcos legales definidos dentro del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (TIRFAA) y las normas fitosanitarias establecidas por los entes gubernamentales de los países involucrados. Todo el germoplasma de las colecciones y en general de la institución (semillas o plantas in vitro), para su conservación y distribución, deben estar libres de enfermedades de tipo cuarentenario (hongos, bacterias, virus y fitoplasma), para esto el LSG realiza diferentes pruebas biológicas, serológicas y moleculares, mediante las cuales se garantiza su calidad fitosanitaria. Aquellos materiales que sean aprobados quedarán disponibles para su distribución, solicitando previamente el certificado fitosanitario y los respectivos permisos al Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA). Después de implementar un sistema de gestión de calidad bajo la norma ISO 17025, documentar todos los procesos, estandarizar metodologías altamente sensibles, adquirir cepas de referencia y mejoramiento de infraestructura, el LSG mediante resolución emitida por el Gobierno de Colombia, Minagricultura e ICA, obtuvo el Registro como laboratorio reconocido de diagnóstico fitosanitario a nivel nacional; esto significa que todas las pruebas que allí se realizan se encuentran avaladas y reconocidas por el ICA para la expedición de los permisos requeridos. Somos el segundo laboratorio a nivel nacional que se encuentra registrado ante el ICA y que pertenece a su red de laboratorios de ensayo, prueba y diagnóstico. La obtención de este registro es muy importante para el banco y para los proyectos de investigación de CIAT que requieran de la importación y exportación de germoplasma, igualmente con este registro el Centro abre sus puertas a la prestación del servicio de diagnóstico no sólo a las dependencias internas, sino también a otras instituciones que los requieran.Palabras clave: control legal, Recursos Fitogenéticos, norma ISO 17025, intercambio, certificado fitosanitarioMaritza Cuervo-I, Julio C. Ramírez, Angélica M. Martínez, Diana P. Niño, Alejandro Gutiérrez, Lucely Muñoz, Edwin F. Dorado, Marisol Tamayo, Paola A. Quintero and María A. Montes.Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, CIAT, Palmira -Colombia.Contact address: m.cuervo@cgiar.org Currently, the CIAT Germplasm Bank preserves the largest collections of Beans (37,938 accessions of Phaseolus spp) and Tropical forages (22,694 accessions of legumes and grasses) stored in the form of seeds and Cassava (6,155 accessions of Manihot spp.) Preserved in vitro . An average of 5,000 to 6,000 samples are distributed annually nationally and internationally. This distribution is carried out according to a set of rules and legal frameworks defined within the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (TIRFAA) and the phytosanitary standards established by government entities of the countries involved. All the germplasm of the collections and in general of the institution (seeds or plants in vitro), for their conservation and distribution, must be free of quarantine diseases (fungi, bacteria, viruses and phytoplasma), for this the LSG performs different Biological, serological and molecular tests, through which its phytosanitary quality is guaranteed. Those materials that are approved will be available for distribution, previously requesting the phytosanitary certificate and the respective permits from the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA). After implementing a quality management system under ISO 17025, documenting all processes, standardizing highly sensitive methodologies, acquiring reference strains and infrastructure improvement, the LSG through a resolution issued by the Government of Colombia, Minagricultura and ICA, obtained Registration as a recognized laboratory for phytosanitary diagnosis at the national level; This means that all the tests performed there are guaranteed and recognized by the ICA for the issuance of the required permits. We are the second national laboratory that is registered with the ICA and belongs to its network of test, test and diagnostic laboratories. Obtaining this registry is very important for the bank and for CIAT research projects that require the import and export of germplasm, also with this registry the Center opens its doors to the provision of the diagnostic service not only to the dependencies internal, but also to other institutions that require them.Keywords: legal control, Plant Genetic Resources, ISO 17025, exchange, phytosanitary certificate","tokenCount":"722"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"70b5a773236e6476fb57215ec78405d9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4feb11c3-aa8c-4323-8f64-912905f8c3b8/retrieve","id":"1227825819"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e320fba3-bd3b-4fd0-9bca-238ed088284b","pagecount":"6","content":"Since 2002, the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food has conducted research for development in ten small river basins in the Andean region.Researchers have sought to identify ways to share the costs and benefits of water resources between all water users, including relatively wealthy, downstream urban water consumers and relatively poor, upstream rural communities.People in the Andean region are facing many challenges that actualize the need to share water and land resources more equitably. Globalization of trade, changes in food consumption patterns, ecosystem degradation caused by agriculture, pollution caused by mining, climate change, and urbanization is leading to competition and conflicts between water and land users. Often downstream areas are using most of the water, although nearly all of it originates from upstream areas.February 2014• A system of river basins that runs along the Andes mountain range and through the countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.• The climate within the Andean system of river basins varies greatly depending on latitude, altitude, proximity to the sea, and local topography. Temperature and atmospheric pressure increase at lower elevations. Rainfall regimes are very complex and have extreme spatial gradients determined by Amazonian humidity influence, Pacific Ocean currents, or both.• In the Andes, many different groups of stakeholders rely on access to water resources, including farming communities, urban populations, and hydropower companies.Benefit-sharing mechanisms are intended to redistribute the benefits of a healthy watershed equitably between all water users. Typically, a benefit-sharing mechanism is a series of agreements on how to use land and water in ways that protect the environment, are sustainable, and account for climate change. The agreements also outline how downstream water beneficiaries can provide financial and other benefits-including schools and health care-to the upstream communities that safeguard the environmental health of the basin.To be successful, a benefit-sharing mechanism must be designed with the local social and hydrological context in mind. The mechanism should be continuously revised to respond to the ever-changing needs of communities and the environment.Benefit-sharing mechanisms are likely to be successful in areas where high demand for water downstream occurs in combination with a seasonal water supply upstream. However, in such areas, the power balance between stakeholders is often skewed; the poorest, who often live upstream, have limited access to information and lack negotiating skills. To achieve equitable agreements that can contribute to poverty alleviation, stakeholders must have access to all relevant information and thus empowered to make informed decisions.• One size doesn't fit all. Benefit-sharing mechanisms must be designed within the local social and hydrological context.• Benefit-sharing mechanisms help create a virtuous circle between the welfare of people and the ecosystems they live in.• Benefit-sharing mechanisms are most likely to be successful in watersheds where a high downstream demand occurs in combination with seasonal water supply upstream.• Fair and equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms are designed and implemented when all stakeholders are provided with all necessary information.• Benefit-sharing mechanisms should be designed as living programs with continuous monitoring and adaptation for best results.• Benefit-sharing mechanism schemes can be used as tools for integrated water resources management and climate change adaption.• Benefit-sharing mechanism schemes can flourish without supporting regulatory frameworks, however thoughtfully designed regulations can greatly assist the design and implementation of a benefit-sharing mechanism.• Benefit-sharing mechanisms are not simply payment for ecosystem services (PES) by another name. Benefit-sharing mechanisms require a new approach.At the same time, increased competition over water is slowly creating interest for conserving ecosystems, improving infrastructure, and adopting new water management practices.The need to share water more equitably brings about the challenge of how to establish benefit-sharing mechanisms. Benefit-sharing mechanisms encourage a redistribution of benefits derived from water resources, for example by fostering investments that promote sustainable production and livelihood resilience in poor rural areas. CPWF regards benefit-sharing mechanisms as tools through which the benefits and risks associated with natural resource management, or development, can be more equitably shared.Seizing the opportunity for change, CPWF set out to find ways to increase water productivity and reduce waterrelated conflicts through the establishment of equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms.Researchers used a water-crop growth model to identify geographical areas where modifying the use of water upstream or allocating water to different plots downstream could make more water available. By ensuring that the newly available water was used to produce biomass such as crops (thus increasing the productivity of water), CPWF created better conditions for community-driven benefit-sharing mechanisms. Further, any surplus from additional agricultural production could benefit the poor in the watershed.To indicate where benefit-sharing mechanisms might be successful, CPWF mapped poverty and identified geographical units, the so-called socially effective hydrological response units, in which modified use of water and land could improve agricultural production and farmers' competitiveness.• Prompted by the growing impacts of climate change, CPWF researchers realized the importance of considering subsoil over land cover when looking to ensure sufficient natural infiltration of rainwater on mountain slopes. This discovery can help researchers and policy-makers in Colombia focus future flood prevention efforts on the analysis and strengthening of aquifers in the subsoil.• CPWF researchers reviewed the Fund for the Protection of Water. The private, commercial fund is regulated by Ecuador's stock market law and tasked with conserving water and protecting biodiversity in watersheds, thereby ensuring ample water supply to Ecuador's capital, Quito.The review of the fund shows that benefit-sharing mechanisms underpinned by an institutional framework, rather than social agreements and market schemes, are feasible.• CPWF researchers mapped areas where improved water productivity could lead to poverty alleviation. This exercise highlighted the highly variable conditions in the Andes. The mapping also revealed the faultiness of a typical hypothesis: wealthier water users downstream are generally not able to pay to alleviate poverty in upstream communities. Adopting the analytical mapping method introduced by CPWF, the Schools of Agrarian Revolution in Ecuador identified socially-effective hydrological response units and assessed the potential for fighting poverty through increased water productivity. CPWF quantified how changes in land and water management impact livelihoods in upstream rural communities and the supply of water for downstream water consumers, enabling researchers to assess the effectiveness of benefit-sharing mechanisms. They concluded that specific conditions in each watershed, such as the share of water available at different elevations, determine whether a benefit-sharing mechanism can be effective or not.• CPWF researchers have contributed to the Ministry of Environment in Peru designating the Cañete River basin as an official pilot site for a national benefit-sharing program. The purpose of this scheme is to allow communities downstream to benefit from water-related ecosystem services, while ensuring that the people who maintain water-related ecosystem services are also receiving benefits. CPWF expects that this reciprocity-in the form of an economic retribution-will promote sustainable use of land and water, a prerequisite for maintaining ecosystems and their biodiversity.• In drafting a proposed eco-system services law, the Ministry of Environment in Peru involved a range of partners, including CPWF, to seek their advice on how to ensure that the law can foster benefit-sharing mechanisms. As a result of such consultations, the draft law has been carefully phrased in an effort to make it comprehensible to a range of different stakeholders. For example, the law refers to \"retribution\"-a term that encompasses both compensation and rewards-rather than \"payment for ecosystem services\". The careful phrasing of the law is intended to prevent stakeholders from misunderstanding the law as a commoditization of natural resources.CPWF has promoted the use of 'conversatorios': a facilitation framework through which stakeholders can come together to define the key issues causing water-related conflicts in the basin and identify any politically and socially acceptable benefitsharing mechanisms that could prevent conflicts. Stakeholders assess potential mechanisms using two tools: the AguaAndes Negotiation Support System and the Water Evaluation Planning System, which provide valuable information related to regional water resources and water allocation baselines and can assess the impacts of potential scenarios. By highlighting the benefits and drawbacks of potential benefit-sharing mechanism schemes, the tools can help local stakeholders develop hydro-literacy.If, after reviewing information and scenarios, stakeholders agree on a way forward, then they can partner to secure funding and implement the benefit-sharing mechanism. In this way, sciencebased tools are applied to develop benefit-sharing strategies that are equitably negotiated using a common platform, where everyone has access to the same information.• Through the use of conversatorios, CPWF researchers helped voiceless communities in the Coello-Combeima Rivers basin in Colombia to become informed participants in political decision-making. After achieving hydro-literacy, capacity for active citizenship, and communications and conflict management skills, the people, particularly the women, in these communities were able to take on active political roles and demand attention to the lack of collective services and goods in their communities. Local stakeholders negotiated with more than 15 local, regional, and national institutions and contributed to 28 binding agreements on investments and management for the conservation and protection of strategic areas, reconversion of productive systems, and basic sanitation and potable water. Most remarkably, institutions now listen and answer to previously voiceless communities.• The main water management challenge in the La Paz/El Alto region of Bolivia is to increase water supply for the rapidly expanding city of El Alto, while at the same time ensuring that enough water remains available for irrigation. Adding further complexity is the fact that the region's glaciers are retreating, thereby changing the hydrological conditions in the watershed. CPWF helped a group of decision makers, established by the Bolivian Ministry of Environment and Water, consider new mechanisms for sharing water resources in the face of this challenge. CPWF researchers developed an application of the Stockholm Environment Institute's Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) system that can represent current water management systems as well as benefit-sharing mechanisms under consideration. By reviewing these models, members of the group were prompted to shift their discussions from focusing solely on how to increase water supply for the main cities in the watershed to understanding the need for establishing an integrated water resources management strategy that boosts benefits for all water users.• CPWF researchers partnered with students and professors at universities in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru to increase their knowledge about benefit-sharing mechanisms. As a result, tools to promote benefit-sharing mechanisms are now better integrated into academic institutions and policy. For example, hydrologists from the Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology (IHH) of the University Mayor de San Andres, who were trained by CPWF, were able to influence water resources planning in Bolivia.The CPWF Coordination and Change project connected researchers with external stakeholders such as policy makers in the Andean region in order to contribute to benefit-sharing mechanisms that can increase water production and be used as replicable models for sustainable rural development.CPWF has been successful in collaborating with high-level policy makers in Ecuador, Colombia, and especially in Peru. The impact of these partnerships is difficult to quantify, but CPWF has contributed to a better understanding of the limits of benefitsharing mechanisms that are being designed or implemented in the region. The CPWF coordination project produced a time line study on the trends that mark the evolution of water sharing concepts: from payment for environmental services to benefitsharing mechanisms and watershed investments. The study is also contributing to increased understanding throughout the region.CPWF has given specific hydrological advice to many river basins in the Andes region. For example, through specific assistance to the incubator for benefit-sharing mechanisms in Peru, CPWF has been able to advise the Peruvian government on its draft of the Law for Environmental Services, considerably increasing the impact of CPWF's research.In addition, CPWF projects developed a variety of tools that can help river basins in the Andes region set up benefit-sharing mechanisms, including the AguaAndes Negotiation Support System, the Water Evaluation Planning system (WEAP), and protocols for Rapid Hydrological Assessment and Hydrological Monitoring of Andean Ecosystems. CPWF intends for the tools to be flexible enough to consider regional differences, a necessity in a region with extreme biophysical and social diversity. The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food was launched in 2002, with the aim to increase the resilience of social and ecological systems through better water management for food production (crops, fisheries and livestock). We do this through an innovative research and development approach that brings together a broad range of scientists, development specialists, policy makers and communities, in six river basins, to address the challenges of food security, poverty and water scarcity.The CPWF is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems. WLE combines the resources of 11 CGIAR centers and numerous international, regional and national partners to provide an integrated approach to natural resource management research. ","tokenCount":"2081"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7bf19a0f08fb04fa839eb4bc6c5fd1cd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d3fbc17c-930a-480b-ab15-991135df8c61/retrieve","id":"-1277189174"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a6c047f7-f01a-45f8-a47a-d3115b51011c","pagecount":"42","content":"Although water, energy, food, and ecosystems are deeply interconnected, mainstreaming a crosssectoral and collaborative approach to their management in policy and practice is a relatively nascent endeavor. Enabling multistakeholder and multisectoral water-energy-food-ecosystems (WEFE) nexus approaches poses a significant challenge to traditionally siloed institutions and sectors. Addressing key capacity gaps to employ such systems thinking is therefore a critical step.In Nepal, Buchy et al. (2022) found critical gaps in understanding and implementing a WEFE nexus approach, and called for capacity strengthening using various channels to implement a socially inclusive approach that equitably addresses differing needs among actors engaged in WEFE nexus management. The scoping study showed limited existing options for capacity strengthening in Nepal, as well as other barriers to implementing nexus approaches, including:○ A lack of short-term sensitization events on WEFE nexus approaches for decision-makers ○ Insufficient practitioner training for development of technical WEFE nexus skills ○ Limited availability of academic courses for graduate students to develop a pipeline of nexus thinkers and practitioners ○ Challenges in navigating discriminatory gender norms that undermine women's confidence in mendominated WEFE workplaces ○ Deficiencies in the development of women professionals' leadership skills in WEFE sectors ○ An absence of practical measures and dedicated gender equality and social inclusion policies and of budgets required to create more inclusive workplaces in WEFE sectors To contribute to filling these gaps, and to enhance the capacities of professionals to adopt equitable and sustainable WEFE nexus approaches, the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains supported the development of a program on 'Developing Leadership Capacity for WEFE Nexus Actors'.Developed and piloted in Nepal, the program aims to strengthen the capacities of diverse actors in WEFE sectors, with an emphasis on women professionals. The program is designed to support participants in navigating the complexities of managing the WEFE nexus in an integrated and equitable way to drive sustainable development efforts around the world. Through a comprehensive curriculum delivered via adult learning approaches entailing experiential and social learning methodologies, the program addresses knowledge gaps, organizational challenges, and behavioral barriers hindering the effective implementation of nexus solutions. Moreover, by providing practical strategies to navigate gender norms and patriarchal work environments, the program seeks to support women professionals, who face myriad gender-related barriers in WEFE sectors, to become catalysts for change within their respective WEFE sector. This manual describes the program structure and contents, along with clear guidance and practical facilitation strategies to enhance WEFE nexus knowledge and practices. The manual and the program it describes are intended for an international audience. As such, this program can serve as a flexible resource adaptable for a broad range of settings.1. Enhancing technical knowledge of professionals directly involved in WEFE sectors and using or wanting to adopt a WEFE approach by fostering capacities to critically analyze complex interconnections of WEFE, gender, and climate 2. Strengthening advocacy and leadership capabilities by equipping participants with the general skills, tools, and information to advocate for and lead the implementation of WEFE nexus approaches 3. Building a community of practice by linking nexus professionals across levels and sectors, providing a safe and welcoming space for asking questions and seeking professional support, and encouraging the growth of an inclusive and expansive WEFE nexus networkThe program and this accompanying manual are tailored for those seeking to facilitate capacity strengthening on WEFE nexus approaches and their implementation among organizations in WEFE sectors. Intended program participants include governmental and non-governmental organizations, community groups, facilitators, researchers, the private sector, and media personnel. While primarily intended for professionals directly involved in applying WEFE nexus approaches, some aspects of the program can be adapted and applied to other work that requires the integration of gender, climate, and leadership perspectives for inclusive and participatory development.Facilitators of this course will ideally have expertise in WEFE sectors and in systems approaches that support an analysis of the complex interconnections among WEFE, gender, inclusion, and climate. They This manual serves as a comprehensive guide for facilitators to successfully deliver the program. It describes the program structure and contents to enable future initiatives in Nepal and beyond to draw on and adapt relevant aspects for their purposes. Links to the course slides are provided in the Annex.The examples included in the slides are suited to the Nepali context, but facilitators are encouraged to adapt these to suit the experiences, needs, and sociocultural context of their own participants. As such, this manual can serve as a flexible resource adaptable for diverse local, national, and international settings.Program principles and approach Rooted in adult learning principles, such as transformational and experiential learning, the program is designed to offer comprehensive learning on WEFE nexus approaches for WEFE professionals from various disciplinary backgrounds and at varying levels and stages of professional development through the following strategies.Accommodating structure: To accommodate the busy schedules of the professionals who participate in the program, the training is divided into five distinct blocks, each delivered approximately one month apart. Regular updates to session contents are made based on feedback from participants and the observations of the facilitators.Recognizing the challenges professionals may face in attending scheduled sessions, in-person and online catch-up sessions may be required to ensure participants have access to the material and discussions. A WhatsApp group supports effective communication among participants, enabling quick updates and addressing queries promptly.In the spirit of multistakeholder collaboration and inclusive nexus approaches, the program is designed for a diverse audience that reflects the diverse makeup of nexus stakeholders and decision-makers. In Nepal, for example, although participants were mostly women, men also participated and the group represented a spectrum of caste/ethnicity, age groups, and educational backgrounds, hailing from the Government of Nepal, non-governmental and civil society organizations, academia, and media. With career spans ranging from 4 to more than 28 years, participants brought extensive expertise in areas such as community forestry, climate change, advocacy for Indigenous rights, and socio-economic development.To reinforce theoretical concepts and practices introduced in the course modules, the program design incorporates: (i) learning diaries, to encourage participants to reflect on their learning and insights on various aspects; and (ii) a mentorship component, in which participants are matched with mentors for the duration of the six-month training.To facilitate seamless access to resources, all essential materials, including mandatory and optional readings, are shared with participants on a shared drive. Participants are also encouraged to share resources among themselves through WhatsApp and other relevant channels.Arranging mentor-mentee pairs: Each participant should be paired with a mentor with expertise in WEFE-related fields or in gender equality and social inclusion (GESI). In the first iteration of the training in Nepal, a list of mentors was provided and each participant was asked to choose three preferred mentors. The facilitation team then reviewed all the choices and developed mentor-mentee pairs, taking into consideration the participants' choices while ensuring that each mentor did not have more than two mentees.To be able to fine-tune the program and monitor learning, participants and mentors should complete a brief pre-program assessment. Box 1 provides an example of such an assessment, which facilitators can tailor as needed. ○ Learnings from your mentor-mentee interactions − this should be done after each meeting, especially for the mentee.○ Challenges you face in advancing your own leadership (with attention to gendered dimensions) and in creating a more conducive environment for women leaders.○ Recommendations for the training team.transformative journey together, please take a moment to complete the attached pre-program assessment. This assessment aims to capture insights from mentors and mentees to tailor our program to meet your unique needs and expectations.\" The program comprises five training blocks (Table 1). The first block spans two days and the remaining blocks take one day each. These blocks can be spread out and delivered over several months.Alternatively, the entire program can be conducted within a week (seven days). In the opening session the facilitator sets the tone for the program, introduces key objectives, and helps participants get to know each other, possibly through the icebreakers and team-building activities listed here:○ In plenary, ask each participant to introduce themself, sharing their name, position, and one interesting fact about themself.○ Set up pairs or small groups. Give participants a limited time to introduce themselves and share something specific about themselves before rotating to meet a new pairing or group.Expectations can be developed as a group or individually, for individual and/or organizational-level change. It is important to establish realistic expectations, keeping in mind the degree of difficulty and time required to bring about change at these levels. This can be discussed using a framework such as○ Understand the strengths and weaknesses of existing approaches related to water, energy, food and ecosystems.○ Have a clear idea of the rationale for nexus approaches.○ Identify key concepts needed to apply a nexus approach in policy and planning processes.○ Understand the characteristics of mentorship.○ Clarify own professional goals, the process for achieving these, and how a mentor can support this process.○ Establish a mentor-mentee pair.the one presented in ○ Begin by highlighting the significance of the WEFE nexus in addressing complex challenges at the intersection of water, energy, food, and ecosystems.○ Discuss the differences between the WEFE nexus and existing approaches, such as IWRM, emphasizing the key distinctions that make the WEFE nexus a unique approach.○ Foster a participatory environment by encouraging questions, discussions, and the sharing of experiences related to the WEFE nexus.○ Systematically cover each topic, including food security and nutrition, climate change, climate justice, biodiversity conservation, and energy security. Use real-world examples and case studies to enhance understanding.○ Encourage participants to relate each topic to their professional experiences, fostering practical insights and connecting theoretical concepts to real-world applications.○ Encourage participants to analyze how each element interacts within the WEFE nexus.○ Emphasize sustainability aspects of the WEFE nexus. Discuss how interconnected WEFE systems contribute to sustainable development.○ Encourage participants to contemplate how WEFE nexus concepts align with their work and the potential relevance of WEFE approaches to their professional roles.Purpose: This session aims to explore various domains of change within the WEFE nexus. The facilitator should guide participants through discussions on: social, political, and governance aspects of the nexus, from global to local scales; environmental, economic, and societal tradeoffs; and the interconnections among energy, food, water, and ecosystems. Align these discussions with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).○ Facilitate discussions on social equity, political decision-making, and governance structures.Encourage participants to share insights and experiences related to these aspects.○ Explore the interconnectedness of WEFE systems on a global scale, down to regional, national, subnational, and local levels. Discuss the impact of policies and adaptations at each scale.○ Engage participants in conversations about the tradeoffs involved in environmental conservation, economic implications, and societal aspects within the WEFE nexus.○ Facilitate discussions on the integration of energy, sustainable agricultural practices, water resources management, and the role of ecosystems. Encourage participants to share examples from their respective sectors.○ Explore the alignment of WEFE actions with the SDGs. Discuss how WEFE approaches contribute to achieving specific SDGs and introduce indicators for measuring progress.○ Foster an open and inclusive environment for participants to share perspectives, challenges, and success stories related to each sector.○ Provide participants with a table containing various concepts, such as classical, populist, and neoliberal ideologies, as shown in Figure 2.○ Instruct participants to underline which concept best represents their organization's view of people's behavior to understand how this affects the decisions the organization makes related to the WEFE nexus.○ Discuss how these perspectives influence decision-making, resource allocation, and collaboration within the WEFE nexus. Purpose: This activity aims to explore real-world applications of the WEFE nexus approach. Participants will explore case studies to understand practical implications and lessons learned from the use of WEFE nexus concepts and the WEFE nexus approach.○ Briefly introduce the purpose of the activity, i.e., to understand the practical applications of the WEFE nexus.○ Distribute case studies to participants and ask them to analyze the case study individually or in groups.○ Encourage participants to identify key WEFE nexus concepts, challenges faced, and successful strategies employed.○ The facilitator can also share case studies of the application of a WEFE nexus approach and discuss as a group. Here is an example in the form of a 15-minute video: Solar irrigation in Nepal:Opportunities and challenges.○ Encourage participants to relate the case studies to their own professional contexts and discuss potential applications in their work.○ Allow time for participants to ask questions and seek clarifications on the case studies.Session 1.4: Developing a mentor-mentee relationshipPurpose: The objective of this session is to explore mentorship, including its purpose, stages, and the opportunities and challenges it poses. The facilitator will introduce practical tools to enhance mentoring relationships and focus on building skills for effective mentorship. Mentors and mentees will create a roadmap outlining the purpose of and milestones for a successful mentoring journey.After an introduction to the concepts and practices of mentoring, introduce a Purpose Road Map (PRM) to guide each participant on their professional development goals and the pathway to reach their goal. A PRM encompasses essential milestones, activities, and skills needed to move along a professional journey.○ Encourage the mentor and mentee to meet to develop the mentee's PRM.○ Have you ever had a mentor? For professional work or your personal life course?○ Have you mentored anyone?○ What have been some of the good experiences of being in a mentoring relationship?○ What have been some of the not-so-good experiences of being in a mentoring relationship?○ Have you been in a \"formal\" mentoring relationship?○ Are you aware of any tools or methods that can support this kind of relationship?○ Emphasize the importance of clarity in defining career goals, technical skill goals, and academic/professional/recognition goals.Use the example in Figure 3 as a reference to illustrate the structure and content of an effective PRM.Guide the mentees and their mentors to have detailed discussions on the PRM and identify when and where the mentor can lend support to the mentee (at least throughout the training period). This should lead to the creation of a Mentor-Mentee Agreement, a document to be jointly signed by both parties.The following elements can be included:○ Establish a shared understanding of the mentorship's purpose and scope. ○ Identify concrete actions and strategies to work toward the agreed-upon goals.○ Determine the frequency of mentor-mentee meetings for effective collaboration.○ Specify the preferred locations for mentor-mentee meetings.○ Address the confidentiality of discussions and information shared during the mentorship.○ Agree on the handling of intellectual property issues arising during the mentorship.○ Identify any constraints or limitations to be considered in the mentorship.○ Establish conditions and procedures for terminating the mentorship if needed.○ Define the approach to dealing with critical feedback and constructive criticism.Purpose: This session aims to deepen participants' understanding of gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) within the WEFE nexus. Through a World Café format, participants will explore gender concepts, discuss the implications of gender-blind development, and delve into the intersection of gender and natural resource management (NRM). The session will also introduce key frameworks for integrating GESI perspectives in WEFE nexus approaches.○ Gain an understanding of gender-related issues within the context of the WEFE nexus.○ Develop a deeper understanding of power relationships and unconscious gender biases.○ Be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses related to tools that can be used to integrate gender into the WEFE nexus.○ Understand tenure rights of local communities, Indigenous peoples, women, and socially excluded groups in relation to WEFE sectors.○ Develop insights and skills to contribute to inclusive practices and mainstreaming efforts in various contexts.○ Begin with a brief overview of fundamental gender concepts.○ Facilitate small group discussions at each table, encouraging participants to share their perspectives on gender-related issues within the WEFE nexus.○ Introduce the concept of gender-blind development and its implications.○ Encourage participants to discuss instances of gender-blind practices and brainstorm ways to address them.○ Explore key approaches at the intersection of gender and NRM.○ Facilitate discussions on successful strategies and challenges in implementing gender-sensitive NRM practices.○ Engage participants in identifying missing links and challenges related to GESI within WEFE nexus approaches.○ Encourage brainstorming for potential solutions and improvements.○ Introduce key frameworks for integrating GESI perspectives into the WEFE nexus.○ Facilitate discussions on the applicability and effectiveness of these frameworks in diverse contexts.○ Allow time for participants to reflect on how they can incorporate GESI considerations into their work within the WEFE nexus.○ Split the group in four (depends on group size) and seat each sub-group at a different table (see Figure 4).○ Provide each table with a sheet containing different gender concepts (Figure 4).○ Designate a notetaker/facilitator from each table.○ Round I: Allow participants 15 minutes to discuss gender concepts at their respective tables. The notetaker/facilitator records key points during the discussion.○ The notetaker/facilitator remains at the table, while the other participants move to a table where a different set of topics has been discussed.○ Round II: The notetaker from Round I briefly explains the initial discussion.○ Allow 10 minutes for a new discussion at each table, incorporating insights from Round I.○ Encourage participants to provide additional input and perspectives. Participants will gain insights into the conceptual framework of tenure, elucidating criteria for the terms of resource access and duration. Practical applications of these concepts will be explored through the examination of tenure rights, with a specific focus on water, land, and/or forest tenure in the local context. In some contexts, pastures may also be discussed.○ Emphasize the significance of tenure rights in the WEFE context.○ Explore the three essential pillars of tenure: basis, bundle, and property rights. ○ Encourage participants to relate tenure concepts to their professional contexts.○ Discuss the specific relevance of tenure rights in the local context, emphasizing the importance of water and land and/or forest resources.○ Develop four group exercises focusing on tenure rights, each corresponding to one of the WEFE sectors (water, energy, agriculture, and ecosystems) (Figure 5).○ Assign participants to one of four groups, each dedicated to one sector. Ensure a mix of backgrounds and perspectives in each group.○ Facilitate a brief discussion within each group, allowing participants to explore tenure rights specific to their assigned sector.○ After the discussion, encourage participants to share their insights and key findings with the larger group. Purpose: This session aims to deepen participants' understanding of GESI mainstreaming, exploring its evolution, entry points, and practical applications within WEFE nexus approaches. The facilitator should encourage interactive discussions and reflections to enhance participant engagement.○ Begin by tracing the historical development of GESI mainstreaming, highlighting key milestones in its evolution.○ Discuss opportunities, challenges, and effective strategies associated with mainstreaming GESI in diverse sectors at different levels and scales.○ Explore why gender mainstreaming is essential, emphasizing its significance in achieving gender equality and social inclusion in the context of WEFE nexus approaches.○ Provide a clear definition of GESI mainstreaming, ensuring participants grasp the concept and its application within various sectors.○ Discuss entry points for GESI mainstreaming, focusing on institutions, policies, and programs.○ Illustrate GESI mainstreaming through real-world examples, emphasizing both general integration and targeted approaches.Purpose: The primary objective is to offer participants a comprehensive understanding of opportunities for inclusion, mainstreaming, and leadership within WEFE sectors. Through engaging panel discussions, participants will gain diverse perspectives, insights from practical experiences, and actionable knowledge.○ Design interactive segments within the panel discussions, allowing for an open dialogue and time for participants to pose questions.○ Promote an inclusive environment, motivating participants to share their experiences and perspectives. Create opportunities for networking, enabling participants to connect with panelists after the discussions.Panel I − Grassroots Perspectives on Women's Leadership ○ Invite local leaders with experience in WEFE sectors to share real-life instances, challenges faced, and successful local initiatives.○ Create a supportive atmosphere where participants can connect with the personal narratives shared.Panel II − Sectoral Experts ○ Engage sectoral experts with extensive practical knowledge in water, energy, agriculture, forests, biodiversity, and food security.○ Facilitate discussions around sector-specific challenges and share practical, on-the-ground examples.○ Encourage experts to present firsthand instances of successful GESI mainstreaming and inclusive practices.○ Understand the diverse pathways to leadership development.○ Understand various leadership styles and their relevance in WEFE sectors.○ Understand interconnected elements of transformation and their role in effective leadership.○ Understand how leadership practices contribute to transformative processes in WEFE sectors.○ Expand knowledge of strategies and actions to promote leadership within the WEFE context.○ Grasp the concept of emotional intelligence and its importance in leadership.○ Acquire negotiation skills relevant to effective leadership in WEFE-related scenarios.Purpose: The session aims to provide clarity on leadership styles, particularly focusing on the characteristics of transformational leaders. Participants will identify key elements required to become transformational leaders.○ Present and discuss five distinct leadership styles: Democratic, Autocratic, Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez-faire.○ Focus on and discuss the characteristics of transformational leadership and leaders.○ Outline the various pathways individuals can take for leadership development, such as formal education, experiential learning, mentorship, and self-directed growth.○ Purpose: Emotional intelligence (EI) is a pivotal leadership trait that involves the capacity to perceive, reason with, understand, and manage emotions − both one's own and those of others. For effective leadership, it is crucial for leaders to connect emotionally with their team members. This session aims to deepen participants' comprehension of EI and its significance in leadership effectiveness. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of EI, assess their own EI, acquire techniques for emotional regulation, and develop negotiation skills tailored to the challenges of the WEFE sectors.○ Before starting the session, guide participants to assess their emotions, stressing the importance of self-awareness in transformational leadership.○ Clarify that EI involves the adept handling of emotions, encompassing perception, reasoning, understanding, and management.○ Emphasize the integral role of EI in leadership, particularly in establishing emotional connections with the participants' supervisors.○ Highlight how EI empowers leaders to navigate interpersonal relationships with empathy.Allocate time for a focused individual exercise aimed at participants' self-evaluation of their EI competencies (Box 2). Guide them through a structured self-assessment process to identify their strengths and areas for improvement. participants will gain valuable perspectives on the integration of leadership roles with the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the WEFE sectors. This activity aims to motivate participants to envision themselves as transformational leaders contributing to sustainable development in these critical sectors.○ Prior to the session, invite an experienced external resource person with expertise in transformational leadership, preferably within the context of WEFE sectors, to come to the session to share their experience with participants.○ Develop thoughtful questions that explore various aspects of leadership and their integration with the challenges and nuances of WEFE sectors. Topics may include overcoming obstacles, fostering innovation, and promoting sustainability.○ During the session, facilitate an engaging and interactive interview. Encourage the resource person to share real-world experiences, insights, and reflections on effective leadership within WEFE sectors.○ Open the floor for participant questions and encourage a dynamic discussion. Participants can delve deeper into specific aspects of leadership, seeking advice and guidance from the resource person.○ Emphasize the link between the insights shared during the interview and the principles of transformational leadership. Connect the resource person's experiences to the participants' potential roles as transformational leaders in the WEFE sectors.○ Encourage participants to reflect on how they can apply these insights to their own leadership journeys within the WEFE sectors.Purpose: This session aims to empower participants with practical leadership insights and tools, fostering self-awareness and encouraging thoughtful reflection on their leadership journey within dynamic WEFE sectors.○ Set up and begin the session with a Mentimeter online assessment to invite participants to selfreflect on their leadership styles.○ Explore the key differences between managers and leaders within the WEFE sectors. Discuss the distinct roles and responsibilities, emphasizing the transformative impact leaders can have on teams and organizations.○ Identify and discuss the characteristics that define effective team leaders in WEFE sectors.○ Foster an interactive discussion, encouraging participants to share their experiences and insights.○ Conclude the session with a reflection exercise, prompting participants to consider how they can apply the leadership strategies and tools discussed in their specific roles.○ Ensure all participants have access to a device with internet connectivity.○ Instruct participants to open their web browsers and navigate to the Mentimeter website.○ Provide participants with the unique code to log in to the Mentimeter session.○ Encourage participants to enter the code on the Mentimeter website to access the interactive assessment.○ Once logged in, participants should answer two questions related to transformational leadership competencies (Figure 6):o Question 1: \"What are two high score competencies for a transformational leader?\"o Question 2: \"Select the five most important statements describing transformational leadership.\"○ Encourage thoughtful consideration and reflection on the competencies and statements related to transformational leadership. ○ Curate reading materials that provide insights into leadership within the local context, covering politics, administration, bureaucracy, and various institutions.○ Foster a discussion among participants to share their observations and experiences related to leadership within the local landscape.○ Introduce global leadership models and case studies to broaden participants' perspectives on leadership.○ Facilitate a dialogue on the key characteristics and attributes that contribute to transformative leadership.○ Encourage participants to critically analyze and reflect on the intersection of leadership and WEFE nexus management, both locally and globally.○ Conclude with a collective reflection on the essential elements identified for transformative leadership, connecting insights to the local context.○ Prepare reading materials on \"Politics, Administration, Bureaucracy, and Institutions in the Context of [relevant region/nation].\"○ Circulate the reading materials to participants before the session.○ Assign participants to extract at least five keywords from the provided article.○ After the exercise, organize a small debate among participants on the link between administration, politics, and bureaucracy. Use the fishbowl methodology for the debate, creating two circles of chairs. The inner circle has three chairs, with the remaining participants in the outer circle.○ Three participants from the inner circle initiate the debate on the provided topics.○ After each participant in the inner circle speaks, they leave the chair and move to the outer circle, allowing others to take their place to foster diverse perspectives and participation.○ Do you agree or disagree that bureaucrats (public administrators) exert undue influence on political leaders, leading to bureaucratization of agendas that do not/cannot meet the public's expectations?In other words, are bureaucrats to blame for ineffective change agendas and a failure to meaningfully implement WEFE nexus approaches?○ Do you agree or disagree that politicians use and misuse administration and bureaucracy, treating them as scapegoats for ineffective change agendas and nexus approaches?○ Do you agree or disagree that bureaucrats and politicians have common vested interests, meaning that both are to blame for ineffective change agendas and nexus approaches?○ What would be the role of transformational leadership in changing this situation?Block 3B: Enabling environment for advancing transformative leadership and reaching national goals through a WEFE nexus approach Session 3B.1: Enabling environment for a gender-responsive workplace Purpose: The session aims to equip individuals with the knowledge and tools necessary to foster a WEFE sector workplace that is responsive to gender-related issues and ensures the safety and wellbeing of all.○ Understand the enabling environment for transformative leadership in the WEFE context.○ Understand the role of gender responsiveness in creating an inclusive workplace.○ Understand the role of leadership in achieving national goals through a WEFE nexus approach.○ Acquire skills for designing effective WEFE leadership sessions.○ Clearly articulate the distinctions between sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse, ○ Create an open and safe space for dialogue, enabling participants to openly express their thoughts and concerns, contributing to a collective understanding of the nuances surrounding these sensitive topics.○ Facilitate a group discussion on existing systems within participants' organizations/agencies related to SEAH. Encourage participants to share insights on the strengths and weaknesses of current systems.○ Guide participants through a reflective exercise to identify the next steps their organizations/ agencies need to take to enhance SEAH policies and practices. Encourage thoughtful considerations for improvement.○ Engage participants in an individual reflection on their role in preventing, protecting against, and addressing SEAH in their everyday work environment. Encourage participants to think about changes that can be implemented collectively within their teams or organizations to ensure a workplace free from sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment. This can include policy enhancements, awareness programs, or structural adjustments. Participants should consider practical actions they can take within their specific roles. Allocate time for participants to write down their reflections, ideas, and commitments.○ Provide a platform for participants to voluntarily share their reflections and commitments with the larger group. This fosters a collaborative and supportive environment, encouraging collective efforts in addressing SEAH.Purpose: The session will provide a comprehensive understanding of how the interconnected dynamics of the WEFE sectors play a crucial role in attaining specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).○ Begin the session with a brief and focused review of the SDGs, emphasizing the targets with particular relevance for human development and planetary health in the local context.○ Highlight the intricate connections between these SDG targets, with a specific focus on WEFE sectors.○ Facilitate a visualization exercise that allows participants to discern the intersecting points among these targets to understand their interdependencies.○ Work with participants to consider the budgetary aspects associated with designing effective programs that address the identified intersections holistically.○ Encourage active participation and discussion to ensure a comprehensive grasp of WEFE nexus approaches and their role in achieving SDG targets.○ Organize a group exercise in which each group has a hypothetical scenario where they assume the role of an employee within a designated organization.○ Specify the tasks for each group:o Group 1: Rewrite the vision, mission, and expected outcomes of the hypothetical organization, considering the WEFE nexus approach.o Group 2: Rewrite the text on national achievements toward the SDGs, incorporating the WEFE nexus approach.o Group 3: Review and adapt the country's standing national legislation on NRM, integrating a WEFE nexus perspective.o Group 4: Adapt and localize the targets of SDGs, considering the WEFE nexus approach.○ Encourage participants to think critically and creatively, allocating sufficient time for group discussions.○ Facilitate a debriefing session where each group presents their work and discusses the insights gained from applying a WEFE nexus approach.Purpose: The objective of the session is to equip participants with the skills to independently design effective WEFE leadership sessions, enhancing their capacity to conduct quality policy analysis.Participants will be able to identify and articulate the seven steps (below) involved in designing a session effectively.○ Walk participants through the below steps for designing a session:2. Analyze the chosen topic thoroughly.3. Identify the \"must-know\" areas related to the topic.4. Prioritize the must-know areas considering participants, available time, and resources.5. Develop Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) objectives based on the prioritized must-know areas.6. Identify suitable methods and materials to achieve the session objectives.7. Clearly outline the step-by-step process for the session.8. Plan an assessment to evaluate the participants' understanding against the session objectives.○ Form three groups of approximately six participants each, each with a mix of policymakers, practitioners, civil society, academia, and the private sector. ○ Carefully select panelists who have had diverse leadership experiences, ensuring representation across genders and fields of work.○ Structure the panel discussion to cover opportunities, challenges, and strategies for overcoming obstacles in their leadership journey.○ Allow each panelist sufficient time to share their leadership journey, providing a well-rounded view.○ Facilitate audience engagement through a Q&A session. Encourage participants to ask questions related to specific challenges, successes, and practical leadership tips.○ Moderate the discussion effectively, ensuring a balance between different perspectives.○ Manage time effectively to cover all aspects of the panel discussion and allow ample time for audience questions.Purpose: This session aims to offer participants a firsthand exploration of the WEFE nexus in action through real-world case studies. The purpose is to explore the potential and opportunities for applying○ Recognize the potential of a WEFE nexus approach.○ Recognize good practices in implementing WEFE nexus approaches.○ Understand the practical challenges pertaining to leadership within the WEFE nexus context.WEFE nexus approaches, providing valuable insights and lessons learned from practical implementation across various sectors.○ Introduce the session focus on challenges, conflicts, and potential solutions related to WEFE approaches through relevant case studies.○ Select and present case studies that highlight conflicts and challenges in various contexts, ensuring diversity in sectors and geographical locations.○ Encourage participants to analyze each case study individually or in small groups. Prompt them to identify the conflicts presented and potential solutions proposed within each case.Ask the participants to discuss the following questions in pairs:○ What are some of the major lessons learned from the case studies?○ What are your important take-aways/messages from these case studies?○ What lessons from the case studies could be transferred to [your country]?○ What challenges do you see that might arise in adopting WEFE nexus approaches in your context?Exercise II: Group discussion -reflections on nexus solutionsThe objective of this two-part exercise, presented in Box 3, is to identify possible solutions to overcome the nexus challenges discussed in Exercise I.Purpose: The purpose of this session is to facilitate a reflective exercise where participants can consolidate their learning from the entire program.○ Explain the purpose of the reflective exercise to participants, emphasizing that it is an opportunity for them to distill insights, assess the impact of the training, and set meaningful goals.○ Instruct participants to reflect individually upon their key learnings in their learning diaries, considering:o Key learnings from the preceding sessions and from the entire program ○ Where do you perceive potential synergies among WEFE sectors?In a second step, choose one solution and discuss possible next steps that would have to be taken to implement that solution. The following questions can help guide your discussion:○ What activities/steps are required?○ Who would be responsible for implementation?○ What is the timeline for the activities?  This group activity is the continuation of Session 3B.3 in Block 3B.1. In their groups, participants should prepare a 45-minute presentation of their analysis of a project or program using a WEFE nexus lens. The presentation should include a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the project or program, considering GESI, multisectoral integration, and sectoral policies and guidelines.2. Each individual or group has the opportunity to share a brief idea and estimated budget for an activity they can conduct to share WEFE nexus learnings within their own organization(s). All participants should plan at least one session to share these learnings in their organizations. ○ Close with a warm farewell and a sense of unity within the WEFE nexus community.","tokenCount":"5699"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0f7f8bf53528235bc6f03d1a40da5376","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d230fecb-deb0-47db-8250-53e2a0966bc1/content","id":"159080728"},"keywords":["ADi, adaptation to density index","G  E, genotype  environment interaction","G  R, genotype  row interaction","GNO, grain number","GWAS, genome-wide association study","HYP, highyield-potential","LYP, low-yield-potential","PC, principal component","Q-Q, quantile-quantile","TKW, 1000-kernel weight","WAMI, a wheat association mapping initiative","YLD, grain yield"],"sieverID":"5005493e-5b92-4b50-a8da-0a059a05e3dd","pagecount":"11","content":"1 ReseaRch I ncreasing yield potential per se still remains a major objective of crop improvement programs worldwide (Braun et al., 2010;Reynolds et al., 2012). A significant proportion of the yield potential of CIMMYT's semidwarf spring wheat lines can be explained by genetic variability for adaptation to agronomic planting density (Reynolds et al., 1994a). Earlier-released lower yielding lines showed a higher yield response to reduction in interplant competition-treatments that increased light penetration to the lower canopy from boot stage onward, as well as treatments that combined increased light penetration with decreased belowground competition-than modern higher yielding varieties. The results indicated the sensitivity of low-yielding genotypes to plant density and the potential of some high-yielding genotypes to perform well both under high interplant competition and reduced interplant competition. In other words, high-yield-potential (HYP) genotypes respond less when interplant competition was reduced than the earlier-released low-yield-potential (LYP) lines.The results were consistent with genetic adaptation to agronomic planting density, an idea first proposed by Donald (1968), who suggested a specific set of traits associated with a communalSivakumar Sukumaran, Matthew P. Reynolds,* Marta S. Lopes, and José CrossaPrevious research has shown that progress in genetic yield potential is associated with adaptation to agronomic planting density, though its genetic basis has not been addressed before.In the current study, a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) association mapping initiative (WAMI) panel of 287 elite lines was assessed for the effects of plant density on grain yield (YLD), 1000-kernel weight (TKW), and grain number (GNO) in yield plots consisting of four evenly spaced rows.The YLD and GNO of inner (high plant density) rows compared with outer rows (low plant density) indicated a consistent pattern: genotypes that performed best under intense competition (inner rows) responded less to reduced competition (outer rows) while being generally the best performers on aggregate (inner plus outer rows). However, TKW was not affected by plant density. To identify the genetic loci, an adaptation to density index (ADi) was computed as the scaled difference in trait values between inner and outer rows. Results on biplot analysis indicated that ADi was correlated with YLD in high-yielding environments, suggesting that it is a component of high yield potential. Genotyping of the WAMI panel was done through 90K Illumina Bead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. Association mapping employed using 18,104 SNP markers for ADi identified a major locus in chromosome 3B at 71 cM that explained 11.4% variation in ADi for YLD and GNO. Functional marker for ADi will enable identification of the trait in early generationsnot otherwise possible in spaced plants typical of pedigree breeding approach-and to select parents for hybrid development.ideotype, that is, short, strong stem, sparsely tillering plant with few small erect leaves. In theory, by competing minimally with its neighbors, the ideotype will make fewer demands for limited resources (light, water, and nutrients) compared with plant types that express a more competitive growth habit associated with redundant tillers, for example (early vigor and canopy establishment).Other studies have also shown yield benefit of reduced plant density at low levels of available soil N (Reynolds et al., 1994b). The effect of plant density (ranging from 19 to 338 plants m −2 ) on canopy formation, radiation use efficiency, partitioning, and dry mater production was studied by Whaley et al. (2000). Results indicated that at the early stage of plant growth the green leaf area was low at lower plant densities, but in the later stages of plant growth, plants at lower plant density had higher green leaf area per plant and higher radiation use efficiency. As a result, grain number per ear increased from 32 to 48 at low plant density (Whaley et al., 2000). However, in the present study we are interested in genetic adaptation to high plant density rather than the agronomic response to seed rate. The role of direct selection in improving adaptation to plant density was proved by a study of unimproved base population of Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic compared with advanced recurrent selection populations in maize (Zea mays L.). Selection improved adaptation to high plant density for grain yield and stalk lodging traits but with little effect on root lodging, test weight, and grain moisture (Brekke et al., 2011).Genome-wide association study (GWAS) is a complementary approach to biparental mapping where we have the leverage of using a genetic mapping population with large number of lines for higher mapping resolution and wider application of results. Several association studiescandidate gene as well as GWAS-have been conducted on this WAMI population for the genetic dissection of simple as well as complex traits (Edae et al., 2013(Edae et al., , 2014;;Lopes et al., 2015;Sukumaran et al., 2015). Little is known about the genetic basis of adaptation of wheat plants to agronomic density, which is interesting considering that it is not something that would have been selected for in nature, interplant competition of single plants being of clear survival value. Our hypothesis was that adaptation to high plant density is a component of yield potential and therefore amenable to genetic dissection. Plants under high density tend to reduce the number of grains set, but the genotypes better adapted to the density stress show less reduction in the number of grains per spike. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were twofold: (i) to quantify the effects of plant density on YLD, TKW, and GNO and (ii) to identify genomic regions for adaptation to plant density in the WAMI panel through GWAS.The genetic material was the WAMI panel of 287 lines assembled at CIMMYT for dissecting the genetic basis of complex traits through association mapping. The WAMI panel has been previously described in detail (Edae et al., 2013;Lopes et al., 2015;Sukumaran et al., 2015); its main characteristics are a restricted range of phenology in a genetically diverse panel of advanced lines all of which have been released at one time or another by the International Wheat Improvement Network coordinated by CIMMYT (Braun et al., 2010).The WAMI panel was evaluated under optimal management conditions at Norman E. Borlaug Experiment Station at Ciudad Obregon in northwestern Mexico (27.20 N, 109.54 W, 38 m asl) during the 2009 to 2010, 2010 to 2011, and 2011 to 2012 growing seasons, hereafter referred to 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively. During these 3 yr, experiments were conducted under the raised bed system with four rows per bed. The site is a temperate high-radiation environment with full irrigation matching evaporative demand. The interrow spacing within each bed was 10 cm and the spacing between the beds was 80 cm. Therefore, the inner-row treatment represented two rows 10 cm apart with border rows on both sides at the same distance, while outer rows were bordered by rows at a 10 and 50 cm distance, respectively. The two inner rows represent high plant density, whereas the two outer rows represent low plant density. The rows were 2 m long (Fig. 1). Grain yield and TKW were measured on the two inner and two outer rows, and GNO was estimated from YLD and TKW.In addition, WAMI was also evaluated, and grain yield was recorded at 33 international environments including Mexico, Iran, Sudan, Egypt, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh under two rows per bed system in 2010, 2011, and 2012 (Lopes et al., 2012). We used this data to evaluate the hypothesis that ADi is a component of high yield potential in wheat. When the average yield of the lines in an environment was higher than 5.0 Mg ha −1 , it was considered as a high-yielding environment.For simplicity, data for yield and yield components are also reported per 2 by 2 m linear rows, and this was used for the estimation of the ADi. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and estimates of repeatability was done using the PROC MIXED and PROC GLM procedures in SAS version 9.2 (SAS Institute, 2008). ANOVA was done by accounting the experimental design (i.e.,  lattice) with environments, replicates within environments, incomplete blocks within replications, replications, genotypes, and genotype  environmental interactions (G  E) considered as random effects using the MIXED procedure in SAS 9.2. Adjusted means were calculated for each trait.Broad-sense heritability (h 2 ) (repeatability here because this is a collection of different lines) estimates were calculated as follows:, yields between inner and outer rows was calculated as the ADi and scaled by multiplying with the grand mean of the trials and then divided by the trial specific mean. We calculated ADi for YLD (ADi YLD ) as follows:where YLD O is the grain yield of outer rows, YLD I is the grain yield of inner rows, µ is the grand mean of all 3 yr data, and l is the mean of the specific trial. Similarly, the ADi for GNO (ADi GNO ) was also calculated. To test if ADi is a component of higher yield, correlation biplot was estimated by correlating the ADi with the yield of high-and low-yielding environments (Vargas Hernandez and Crossa, 2000).The biplot on the effects of the G  E plus the genotypic effect were obtained with the objective of examining the relationship of the ADi YLD to the yield of different low-and high-yielding environments. Biplots use the principal component obtained from the singular value decomposition of the G  E matrix with the objective of describing the G  E patterns that will reflect the association (correlation) among environments and ADi measured at different years in Obregon.where h 2 is the heritability estimates, s 2 G is the genetic variance, ś2 G E is the G  E variance, s 2 e is the residual variance, r is the number of replications, and l is the number of environments.Genotype  row (G  R) interaction for each trait for each year and combined analysis were also estimated along with the heritability estimates. The G  R interaction was illustrated visually and apart from that it was also analyzed using PROC REG in SAS 9.2, where genotype, rows, and environment were the class variables. When each row was considered as a different environment, we had four environments in a year-one inner and one outer by two reps-and a total of 12 environments in 3 yr for the regression and factorial analyses. We also did factorial analysis using PROC GLM to estimate the significance of row position on YLD, TKW, and GNO.Grain yield and GNO were significantly affected by high density planting, but to rate cultivars for their adaptation to agronomic density, an ADi was estimated. The hypothesis that low-yielding plants tend to respond more to reduced competition was confirmed in an earlier study (Reynolds et al., 1994a). In the current study, the outer two rows experienced more light (and probably underground resources) on one side of the rowwhere the gap between rows was 50 cm and thus representing a low plant density environment-than the inner two rows that were at 10-cm spacing on both sides and a high plant density environment (Fig. 1). The outer rows, with low plant density, always yielded higher than the inner rows, so the difference in Genotyping by 90K illumina snP Markers DNA extraction of WAMI, genotyping, SNP calling are described in an earlier paper (Sukumaran et al., 2015). From 38,000 SNPs, 18,104 SNPs were resulted after screening for minor allele frequency (5%) and missing values cut off (10%). These SNPs had known position information (Wang et al., 2014).Population structure was assessed with 877 diversity array technology and 744 SNP markers in this panel using the STRUCTURE software (Pritchard and Rosenberg, 1999;Pritchard et al., 2000;Falush et al., 2003). A detailed analysis of the population structure, linkage disequilibrium, and minor allele frequency can be found in Lopes et al. (2015) and Sukumaran et al. (2015). We also looked at how the ADi varies across the subpopulations based on 1B.1R translocation in this WAMI panel.Marker-trait association analysis was performed using mixed model (Yu et al., 2006;Zhang et al., 2010) and the simple generalized linear model (P3D) in TASSEL 5.0 (Bradbury et al., 2007;Zhang et al., 2010). Model testing for the best model to test marker-trait associations were done in SAS, comparing simple model, model with kinship matrix as random factor (K), population structure matrix (Q 1-5 ), Q 1-5 + K, principal components (PC 1-10 ), and PC 1-10 + K according to previously described methods (Yu et al., 2006;Zhu et al., 2008;Sukumaran and Yu, 2014). Consistency of the results were also verified in R (R Development Core Team, 2011) using GAPIT codes (Lipka et al., 2012) by fitting kinship as the random term, PC10 as the population structure estimate with model selection. The quantile-quantile (Q-Q) plots showing the control of type I error in detecting marker-trait associations were also plotted to determine the best model. The threshold to call a marker-trait association significant was based on the Q-Q plot, where the observed distribution deviates from the expected distribution. We used the p-value threshold of 10 −4 for the same set of markers in Sukumaran et al. (2015).Phenotypic Analysis of Grain Yield, 1000-Kernel Weight, and Grain number Mean, standard deviation, and range of the 287 WAMI panel studies are shown in the Table 1. Phenotypic values were calculated as linear meter rows as well as per square meter. A comparison of inner and outer rows for YLD, TKW, and GNO showed that outer rows had higher YLD and GNO than inner rows. The TKW did not show any significant differences between the inner and outer rows. On average, inner rows yielded 37% less than outer rows, and the yield of inner rows ranged from 40 to 90% of the yield of outer rows. Inner rows had 37% less GNO, with a range of 41 to 88% of outer rows. For TKW, the percentage difference between inner and outer rows ranged from −9 to 5%, indicating that TKW was higher in some inner rows by 9%, and in some cases, outer rows had higher TKW by 5%. On average, the inner rows had an insignificantly 1% higher TKW than outer rows. To give a reference point for YLD and GNO in conventional units, values for inner plus outer (I + O) were calculated on an area basis as means averaged across years. The YLD per bed (I + O) had a range of 4.2 to 8.4 t ha −1 with an average 6.8 t ha −1 .Analysis of variance using PROC GLM and PROC MIXED indicated YLD, TKW, and GNO were significantly different among the 287 genotypes. Estimates of covariance parameters, and repeatability for I + O rows showed that TKW (0.96) had the highest heritability, followed by GNO (0.83) and YLD (0.76). A separate analysis for I + O rows showed variation in heritability estimates for I + O rows for both YLD and GNO. Outer rows had higher repeatability values of 0.61 (YLD) and 0.74 (GNO), compared with inner rows 0.50 (YLD) and 0.62 (GNO). The TKW did not show differences in repeatability values between inner and outer rows (Table 2).The G  R for YLD and GNO was highly significant and is visualized in Fig. 2. However, the interaction was not significant for TKW. Variation explained by rows was estimated by multiple regression analysis. Factorial analysis indicated that rows accounted for 49 and 46% variation in YLD and Table 1. Mean, standard deviation (SD), and range of the traits (YLD, grain yield; GNO, grain number; TKW, 1000-kernel weight) studied in wheat association mapping initiative at Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, from 2009 and 2010 to 2011 and 2012 (3 yr) under four-row planting (I, inner two rows; O, outer two rows). Values for YLD and GNO are estimated per unit length (grams per meter) of the rows as well as in traditional unit (grams per square meters).  .86-334.85 678.12  60.3 424.66-837.13 6347  796 3857-8644 15,868  1990 9643-21,610 43.14  4.5 33.30-57.50  to zero, indicating high G  R. In 2011, repeatability was 0.4. The KW had high repeatability estimates across inner and outer rows each year indicating it is not affected by plant density (Supplemental Table S1).Our hypothesis, based on the earlier study (Reynolds et al., 1994a) in which low-yield potential lines responded more to reduce competition for light under low planting density than the high yield potential lines, was validated in this study. Our results indicated that plants that yielded low under normal spacing will respond more to low density planting. In other GNO, respectively, but rows explained little variation in TKW (0.001%). This indicates that TKW is not affected by plant density, but that YLD and GNO were affected by row position or the effect of plant density. Repeatability estimates considering inner and outer rows as separate environments within each year and combined repeatability estimates of inner and outer rows were estimated. Combined repeatability estimate of (I + O rows) across the years is lower than separate heritability estimates for I + O across years for YLD and GNO. Genotypic variance was lower than the G  R variance in some years. The combined repeatability estimates for inner and outer rows for 2010 and 2012 was close  ś2 G E , variance of genotype  environment; s 2 e , residual variance. ‡ Repeatability was calculated similar to heritability (h 2 ) from PROC MIXED analysis.words, the high yield potential lines showed less variation in YLD between high and low plant densities. The GNO also exhibited a similar trend, but TKW showed no response to plant density (Fig. 2). This indicates that interplant competition determines grain set early enough for the TKW target to be achieved. The genotypes adapted to high plant density do not show much reduction in YLD and GNO when comparing density treatment: ratio of inner to outer rows for yield will have higher value for adapted plants and lower value for not adapted plants. It also indicates that plants adapted to high plant density are \"optimistic\" plants that do not tend to reduce the number of grains per plant compared with nonadapted plants. The nonadapted plants are sensitive and show conservative response under high plant densities setting fewer grains.To understand if ADi is associated with the yield of highyielding environments (Table 3), a biplot of ADi YLD was made with the yield from high-and low-yielding environments. The biplot depicts the correlation patterns of the genotypes among environments. The interpretation of the biplot is as follows. The cosine of the angle between two lines in the biplot approximates the correlation between the ADi and the environments. Parallel vectors indicated a correlation close to unity, vectors in opposite directions indicate correlations close to −1, and perpendicular vectors (orthogonal) indicate no correlations.The ADi was positively correlated (correlation coefficient r) with yield of higher-yielding environments Me_YP_2010 (0.50), Me_YP_2012 (0.35), Pak_2011 (0.29), Eg_S_10, Me_YP_2011 (0.23), and In_I_10 (0.16). The ADi was not significantly correlated with the yield of low-yielding environments and even showed negative associations in environments Ban_11 (−0.09), In_V_11 (−0.06), In_L_11 (−0.05), Ban_10 (−0.21), Su_D_10 (−0.11), Nep (−0.10), and several other environments (Fig. 3, 4; Supplemental Table S2). The biplot of all the international environments with the ADi indicated that ADi YLD indeed is positively correlated with the yield of high-yielding international environments (Fig. 4). The ADi YLD and ADi GNO were highly correlated in each site in Mexico (Supplemental Fig. S1).Linkage Disequilibrium, Population Structure, and Trait Analysis Linkage disequilibrium decay was higher in the D genome than A and B genomes (Lopes et al., 2015;Sukumaran et al., 2015). The population structure of WAMI-two subpopulations based on the presence and absence of 1B.1R translocations and pedigree-was described in detail in earlier publications (Lopes et al., 2015;Sukumaran et al., 2015). A detailed analysis of the ADi YLD and ADi GNO indicated that lines with 1B.1R translocation have lower ADi YLD values (mean of 259  standard error of 4.77) than the lines with 1B.1R (mean of 235.08  standard error of 5.9) translocation (Supplemental Fig. S2). Student t-test indicated the two distributions are different at a p-value of 0.001.Association mapping was conducted in TASSEL using generalized linear model and mixed linear model testing for 18,104 SNPs markers from the 90K SNP data. The PC10 + K matrix fitted as the random factor in the mixedmodel framework was the best model for ADi YLD and for ADi GNO . Manhattan plots of the marker positions andlog 10 (p) values were also plotted (Fig. 5A,C). The Q-Q plots of the −log 10 (p) values indicated goodness of fit of the selected model in controlling type I error (Fig. 5B,D).   Significant and consistent marker-trait associations were detected for ADi YLD and ADi GNO in chromosome 3B (Fig. 5). In chromosome 3B, several markers at 71 cM that explained 11% variation in ADi YLD were detected with a range of p-value from 10 −5 to 10 −8 . In addition, significant markers were detected for ADi YLD in chromosomes 1B and 2A and for ADi GNO on chromosomes 2D, 3B, 4B, 6B, and 6D that explained 7 to11% variation for the trait (Table 4). Effects of significant markers are shown in Supplemental Fig. S3. The marker IAAV7721 in chromosome 3B was further analyzed through BLAST search in National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and it resulted in a BLAST hit of SET domain protein gene with 99% identity.Most of the plant density studies in wheat consider the effect of planting density on weed populations or the effect of sowing date on planting densities in winter wheat (Bulson et al., 1997;Spink et al., 2000;Baccar et al., 2011). The effect of sowing date on optimum plant density was studied by Spink et al. (2000). They observed that YLD was reduced from 9.2 to 5.5 t ha −1 when the plant number was changed Table 4. Genome-wide association study results for adaptation to density for yield (ADi YLD ) and grain number (ADi GNO ) in the wheat association mapping initiative population. Best model used to test marker-trait associations was PC10 + K Matrix. from 336 to 13 m −2 at different sowing dates. But at low plant densities, the yield was maintained by increased shoot number per plant, increased grain number per ear, and, to a lesser extent, increased grain size (Spink et al., 2000).In the 1960s (Stringfield, 1964) suggested that breeding for tolerance to high plant density is the greatest contribution that can be made in crop breeding, especially considering its use in hybrid development. Maize yield has increased over the years, not owing to increase in yield potential per plant, but by newer hybrids that outperform old hybrids because of their ability to withstand the pressure of high plant density. New hybrids at high plant densities make the same number of ears per plant as old hybrids do at low plant densities (Duvick, 2005). High planting density normally results in higher yield per hectare but reduced yield of individual plants. This has been demonstrated in several studies in maize. Adaptation to high-plant density is very important in hybrid maize production, and it was proven that selection for high yield in maize has resulted in lines adapted to higher plant density (Duvick, 1992;Brekke et al., 2011). While high density planting may reduce yield per plant as a result of aboveground competition for light, and possibly belowground competitive effects, developing plants that can better withstand high-density planting will have a tremendous impact on yield per hectare in wheat and other crops under intensive cultivation.Adaptation to high plant density was estimated using an index that measures the scaled difference in the yield of inner and outer rows (ADi). The purpose of this index was to capture the lines that show a minimum difference in YLD under high and low plant densities. Even under high-plant density stress, an adapted plant maintains the number of grains in the plant and tries to fill them with available resources. However, under high-plant-density stress, the sensitive plants try to reduce the number of grains to conserve energy and produce viable seeds (Reynolds et al., 1994a;Whaley et al., 2000). High-yieldpotential lines might use available light more efficiently than LYP lines under high plant density. The main evolutionary objective of a plant is to reproduce through its viable offspring. Previous studies indicate that there is an optimum balance in efficient use of the available energy in relation to the size and number of offspring (Smith and Fretwell, 1974). Our approach was to look for plants that are \"optimistic\" about filling grains under density stress and to maintain a maximum number of grains per plant, as opposed to those that responded conservatively, showing a reduced number of grains per plant and as a result, reduced grain yield per plant.A number of hypotheses could be tested to explain genetic differences in adaptation to density. For example, a more optimal distribution of chlorophyll b (i.e., light antenna pigments) throughout the canopy, which permits increased light penetration to lower leaves, may result in a greater proportion of leaves operating close to optimal light levels and, therefore, increased radiation-use efficiency (Melis, 2009;Ort et al., 2011). Another hypothesis, which is more difficult to test, is that high plant densityperhaps in response to red or far-red light receptors or other responses induced by a density stress-elicits a plant growth regulator response reducing grain set (Ugarte et al., 2010;Blum, 2013). Since spikes per square meter was higher in adapted lines than nonadapted lines (Reynolds et al., 1994a), a third hypothesis would be that lines adapted to density express a tiller dynamic whereby their production and abortion is minimized or optimized.Considering the large range of responses shown by the genotypes in this study to different plant densities, this panel is ideal for association mapping to dissect the genetic architecture of this complex trait (Zhu et al., 2008;Sukumaran and Yu, 2014). This association mapping panel also serves as screening material for density studies aiming to determine the high and low density-adapted plants that could serve as parents for future hybridization in wheat in addition to parents of mapping populations. In this study, we used 18,104 SNP markers from 90K SNP assay with known genetic positions from consensus maps (Cavanagh et al., 2013).We also analyzed how the adaptation to density traits vary among subpopulations and how 1B.1R lines adapt in comparison to absent lines. Grain number was not significantly different among the subgroups. A narrow phenology range for flowering time and plant height reduce confounding effects as a result of population structure in this panel for association mapping (Lopes et al., 2015). The markers in chromosome 1B, 2A, 2D, 3B, 4B, 6B, and 6D can differentiate lines adapted to density from nonadapted plants. The marker locus in 3B at 71 cM was also associated with YLD from a recent study (Sukumaran et al., 2015). BLAST analysis indicated the similarity of the marker to a SET domain protein gene. SET domain proteins are associated with pollen abortion in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. (Xu et al., 2010). This region may also harbor other genes and further validation is required to fully understand the biological function of this locus and the genes in the region associated with the trait. A previous meta-analysis using data from 21 Australian and Mexican environments detected a major quantitative trait loci associated with YLD, TKW, and early vigor in 3BL chromosome (Bonneau et al., 2013). We propose this region might be validated in different populations for use in molecular breeding.No earlier reports on markers for adaptation to plant density or studies focused on molecular markers for adaptation to density in wheat and other crops exist. This novel study identified loci for adaptation to plant density in wheat that may pave the way to select parents for hybrid wheat development. Although there are many longstanding studies related to cytoplasmic male sterility and hybrid wheat, it is still not developed and commercialized to its full potential (Driscoll, 1972;Mukai and Tsunewaki, 1979;Wilson and Driscoll, 1983). Ideally, hybrid wheat should not only produce high yields per hectare but also at the level of an individual plant.The present study is a first step toward elucidating the genetic mechanism of adaptation to plant density. Even though we used 287 lines and ~18,000 markers, the resolution could be improved with a larger mapping population and a higher number of markers. Among the above hypothesis related to adaptation to density, effect of density on tiller dynamics can be tested by looking at the number of productive and nonproductive tillers at cardinal growth stages. Testing whether adaptation to density is a function of antenna chlorophyll distribution would require verifying differences in light extinction down the canopy followed by direct measurement of chlorophyll a and b ratios at different canopy depths; others have proposed mutagenesis to induce variation in this trait (Melis, 2009). The most difficult hypothesis-related to red and far-red light-requires the use of phyllochrome for light treatment and analysis of hormone levels in plants and different plant density. conclusions Adaptation to plant density is a component of high yield potential in spring wheat. Wheat plants adapted to high plant density are \"optimistic\" and show reduced tendency toward producing fewer grains under density stress. Lower yield potential lines react more conservatively under high plant density, producing a reduced number of grains per plant, resulting in lower yields. Through GWAS we identified a novel locus for adaptation to plant density in spring wheat that might have an impact on hybrid wheat development and lead to higher yields. The identification of functional markers for this trait will have enormous value in pedigree breeding, as it is not possible to select for adaptation to high density in spaced plants typical of early-generation selection methods.","tokenCount":"4921"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"69b49a8e2d9f3f3de9d4f3d44cbf2391","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4485a195-5735-403f-84fb-b19bb43b4b7d/retrieve","id":"-1062040945"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"266b51aa-3427-4681-bbe7-4ef5b8936de0","pagecount":"152","content":"The International Foundation for Science supports scientists in developing countries, not only by giving research grants, but also by arranging seminars, workshops and conferences on scientific subjects. At such meetings participants often provide written texts to their reports or lectures.The purpose of an IFS Provisional Report is to make such material available without delay to the participants, to the scientific or financial sponsors, to those IFS Grantees who are doing research in the subject concerned but who did not attend the meeting, to IFS Scientific Advisers and Member Organizations.In this context speed is more important than perfection. Therefore, the original manuscripts are only partially edited and retyped and duplicated as soon as possible and in a small number of copies.At an early stage of planning it was obvious that ILCA would be a suitable location for a workshop on small ruminants research in Africa. ILCA has the facilities to host a larger meeting and it is also engaged in research on small ruminants all over Africa. Thus, when ILCA confirmed its interest and willingness to arrange the workshop, it was finally decided to arrange it at the ILCA facilities outside Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.The presentations given during the workshop are presented in this Provisional Report.The participants represented 13 African countries. Drs Branckaert, Devendra, Haenlein, Lefèvre and Wilson were invited to present lectures on their special research interests and each to chair one of the four sessions. The final outcome was 21 papers covering aspects of productivity, nutrition, reproduction and pathology.Finally, I would like to thank Ms Eva Andersson for her assistance before and during the meeting as well as for her work in collecting the manuscripts and modifying them for publication in this Provisional Report.Opening speech Aims of the workshopby Dr Lennart Prage International Foundation for Science Dr Sall, Dear Participants of this Workshop, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure for me to finally be able to welcome you all to this workshop on \"Current Small Ruminants Research in Africa\" which is being jointly organized by ILCA and IFS.I say finally, because the plans for this workshop have been discussed for several years with various places being proposed as a site for it the last proposal before Addis Ababa being Mauritius. Having seen the nice ILCA facilities, the devoted and competent enthusiasm of the ILCA staff and noticed the pleasant temperate climate, I am confident that the workshop will be fruitful and enjoyable to all of us. I would also like to take this opportunity to present the International Foundation for Science and its goals.The International Foundation for Science (IFS) is a non-governmental organization which was founded in 1972 in order to counteract the brain drain from developing countries and to stimulate the build up of scientific competence in these countries. It is an international organization receiving its funds from research councils and academies in 11 different countries. The annual budget is about two (2) million US dollars. The IFS has Member Organizations in 63 countries and has up to now awarded grants to more than 680 researchers in 79 countries in Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin America. More than half of these scientists have received more than one grant.The grant is given in order to enable a non-established promising young scientist in a developing country to prove his competence by doing research in a developing country. Normally the upper limit of the grant is USD 10 000 and a grantee cannot receive more than four grants. The grant can be used to purchase equipment, expendable supplies and literature. It cannot be used for a honorarium or salary to the grantee but may provide limited sums to hire manual labor (field hands, drivers) which is needed to execute specific parts of the research project.The IFS also supports grantees to participate in scientific meetings which can contribute to the advancement of his/her scientific competence. In order to enable a grantee to establish contact with the international scientific community and the expertise within his/her field of research the IFS arranges workshops on specific research themes and also supports visits of experts to the grantee's institution. This workshop on \"Current Small Ruminant research in Africa\" is an example of this activity.Although the IFS primarily supports an individual scientist and only secondarily a project, its activities are restricted to research on natural resources and their appropriate use. Presently, the IFS has grantees doing research on aquaculture, animal production, food crops, mycorrhiza and afforestation, applied microbiology and fermentation, natural products and rural technology.In conclusion the IFS tries to provide means to encourage and stimulate the enthusiasm of competent individuals dedicated to research so that they will continue to use their skills by solving problems relevant to their native country and also to contribute to the build up of the national scientific competence.By proving their research capacity and the usefulness of the results in solving problems relevant to the region the IFS grantees may help to convince the respective governments and national authorities that every country or region needs its own scientific expertise and that research is not a luxury item. Scientists native to the developing countries have the necessary knowledge of the particular conditions (language, social habits, natural resources etc.) to plan and execute research which is appropriate to the particular region. This knowledge is needed in order to design research which can result in acceptable implementations in the particular region. Foreign experts very seldom have this knowledge and therefore their advice may ultimately prove to be inappropriate and of limited usefulness.I will end this talk by thanking the ILCA-staff, particularly Dr Wilson and Mr Mukasa for their efforts to organize this workshop. Also I would like to extend a cordial thanks to Dr Devendra for his enthusiastic involvement in the planning and execution of the workshop as well as providing his scientific expertise.I am also very glad that we have been successful in attracting such distinguished experts as Dr Branckaert, Dr Haenlein and Dr Lefèvre.Welcome all of you and please enjoy yourselves. Let me say what a great honour and satisfaction it is to be here in Ethiopia at this important workshop. The meeting is the result of a concerted effort and in this context I wish to record a word of thanks to both IFS and also ILCA for their support, since its realization is consistent with the fact that small ruminants are one of the priority areas of the IFS Programme as well as that of ILCA.During the last decade there has been an upsurge in the research and development of both species throughout the developing countries. This is reflected in international, regional and national activities such as the USAID Small Ruminant Collaborative research Support Programme (SRCRSP) with satellite centers in Peru, Brazil, Morocco, Kenya and Indonesia. Additionally there has been a marked increase in the number of various conferences and the like resulting in a sharp increase in the volume publications. If I may use an example that I am personally acquainted with, the revised edition of, \"Goat Production in the Tropics\", has a 142% increase in the number of references since its first publication in 1970.Let me briefly remind you about the position in Africa before considering the objectives of the workshop. Small ruminants represent about 62% of the total population of grazing ruminants in Sub-Saharan Africa. They record an annual growth rate of about 1.3%, slightly higher than that of cattle. Significantly, small ruminant populations in the drought striken countries suggest higher population growths by virtue of their higher fertility rates and better adaptation to drought in demographic terms than of cattle. Associated with their production characteristics are the important socio-economic contributions of small ruminants to small farmers and peasants who live in the threshold between subsistence, low income and illiteracy.The workshop title is, \"Current Small Ruminants Research in Africa\". The objectives of the workshop are as follows:1) discuss thoroughly progress in on-going research consistent with what has already been done2) provide a forum to discuss available information which lends itself to practical application, and 3) enable formulation of new initiatives and direction of research projects which must necessarily be problem-oriented and cost-effective I believe we can achieve these objectives by useful and informal discussions to ensure a successful workshop.It is said that the search for new information is infinite and to provide information to a wise man is to make him wiser. More than anything else I personally hope that the week's deliberations will provide a sure and significant step forward to the realization of the potential contribution of the goat and sheep genetic resources in Africa.Husbandry, nutrition and productivity of goats and sheep in tropical Africa L'élevage caprin au Burundi: Les premiers paramètres zootechniques obtenus en station A review of goat production in Uganda Réflexions sur l'élevage des petits ruminants en République Populaire Révolutionnaire de Guinée Recherches sur le mouton au Rwanda Chairman's report Husbandry, nutrition and productivity of goats and sheep in tropical Africa by Dr R. T. Wilson Tropical Africa has one-sixth of the total world flock of sheep and one-third of all goats. There are 0. 71 goats and sheep per inhabitant in tropical Africa but their distribution is uneven, tending to the drier areas (Table 26). Within the semi-arid and humid zones the number of goats and sheep per head of human population varies from as low as 0. 07 in Sierra Leone and 0.13 in the Congo and Zaire to as high as 6. 0 in Djibouti and 5.4 in Mauritania. In the countries in which ILCA has zonal programmes the figures are 2.13 for Mali, 1.65 for Ethiopia, 0.73 for Kenya and 0.47 for Nigeria; production from small ruminants is important in all these countries. Total meat production from small ruminants in Africa is 1.15 million tonnes (16% of world production), total milk production is 1.99 million tonnes (14% of world total) and total skin production is 211 000 tonnes (15% of world production). The total milk production from goats in Africa is about 3 times that from sheep.Sheep and goats contribute about 17% of the total ruminant biomass in Africa (Table 26). This percentage varies from 9. 3% in wet tropical Africa (including Tanzania and Zambia) to 35% in the Mediterranean Littoral. There are slightly more sheep than goats, and as sheep are generally bigger than goats they contribute more to meat production, although the value of goats is increased by their better milk production. The term husbandry is used in a rather wide sense to include breed types (because these have undoubtedly developed in response to local needs and have been influenced by selection pressure), ownership patterns (because these reflect the preferences and needs of the human population) and management (which does exist under traditional systems in spite of a lingering feeling in some quarters that this type of husbandry proceeds on an ad hoc basis).Breed types. Both goats and sheep of the semi-arid zones are generally larger than those of the more humid zones. They have for long been considered \"unproductive\" but it is doubtful if any other type of animal -at least of those currently domesticated -could produce as much in terms of returns for resources utilised. Over large areas of the West African Sahel there is little differentiation of breed or type in conditions of similar ecology. In general in the west and to some extent extending across the Sudan, where differentiation does occur it is found along east-west lines which follow the main ecological zones. In East Africa the situation is more complicated, being influenced by climate and altitude, by the diverse origins of the ethnic groups owning sheep and goats and by importations into the area. These importations may be of considerable antiquity-from Arabia and south-west Asia, for example -or more recently from the developed areas of Europe, Australia and South Africa. Table 27 indicates some of the, main races of goats and sheep in the semi-arid areas and the economic justification for them.In the humid zones there is little differentiation into breeds or types in either goats or sheep nor indeed is there any functional division. Both species are of the dwarf type, the extreme in goats often having a grotesque appearance. Goats seldom weigh more than 25 kg and sheep are little bigger although some of the intermediate type of Djallonke males in the sub-humid zone of West Africa may weigh as much as 35 or 40 kg. These types are generally trypanotolerant. In this zone the principal, if not the sole, reason for keeping small ruminants is for the production of meat (although it is said to be very greasy and is not liked by the peoples of the more arid areas) with the skins also being cooked and eaten. Milk production is very poor.In the Mediterranean Littoral the Merino is important in some areas as it is in Southern Africa. In Southern Africa the Karakul sheep and Angora goat are also important, particularly in Namibia (South-West Africa). Recent attempts to \"improve\" local races with these breeds in tropical Africa, with the exception of the Highlands, have met with almost universal failure (see, for example, Wilson, 1981). No traces of these attempts can be seen in the stock existing to-day. In East Africa, apart from the out-and-out \"European\" operations, some progress has been made towards improvement of native breeds by the introduction of the Blackhead Persian and its derivative, the Dorper, in particular in Masai flocks. Similarly, the Boer goat and a prolific fast-growing local breed, the Boran, are being introduced, by the Masai themselves, into traditional flocks.Table 27. Principal types of goats and sheep in semi-arid Africa and their aptitude for production.Ownership. The ownership pattern is very varied and, for an outsider at least, extremely difficult to establish and understand. The ramifications of many African kinship systems; the extremely complicated systems of \"stock friends\", loans and herd splitting; the herding out procedures involving professional herders often of a different ethnic group all lead to a rather fluid idea of owner-ship which often involves many displacements of an animal over its lifetime.It would nonetheless be true to say that larger numbers are owned by individuals or families in the drier areas than in the less dry ones. In West Africa and the Sudan this in effect means that flock size decreases from north to south and in Ethiopia and Kenya there is a trend to smaller flocks at higher altitudes. This trend reflects the obvious change of system from a purely pastoral one associated with the very dry areas through an agro-pastoral one in the less dry areas (and where the agricultural component may be assuming more importance) to an agricultural one in the gradation to a sub-humid climate.What is perhaps less obvious in the ownership pattern is the gradual change in emphasis from sheep to goats as the macromanagement system moves from nomadism to sedentary and from pastoral to agricultural. This is reflected not so much in the size of flocks as in the numbers of owners who either have preferences for goats over sheep or who, for other reasons, are forced to keep goats. Goats are, of course, generally more prolific than sheep and are probably less trouble to manage for the agriculturalists and agro-pastoralists who are recent entrants into animal husbandry. Table 28 provides some idea of the distribution of ownership in an agro-pastoral system composed of two subsystems in the semi-arid zone of Mali; Table 29 indicates patterns in the humid zone of south-west Nigeria while Table 30 shows additional data for Kenya and Tchad.In recent years, although there is little hard evidence to support such a contention, it is probable that the goat population has been increasing not only in absolute numbers but in relative terms in comparison with sheep. This is perhaps due to their higher total reproductive rate and their wider dietary range. Although, as can be seen in the section on productivity goats are not generally as productive as sheep when calculated on the same basis in terms of meat production (although there are exceptions), their superior milking ability undoubtedly renders them more attractive overall, particularly in the drier areas.Trends in total population and in numbers of families owning small ruminants are thus likely to continue towards goats and away from sheep, at least in the traditional sectors. Notes:(a) of all owners i. e. irrespective of whether the holding of one species of stock is nil (b) of only those flocks in which animals are held, i. e. nil holdings excluded. Management. Until recently, and indeed the feeling lingers on in some quarters, it was considered that under traditional systems of operation no management was practised. Only a little thought shows the inherent nonsense of this tenet.Nomadism is a sophisticated management response to a resource base which is always seasonally and often totally deficient.Stall feeding is equally a response to the availability of a surplus of nutrients in a particular environment and to a demand often very strictly confined in time and space, for a convenient quantity of meat. These management options are the extremes of a wide range of such which form a continuum from the almost totally unendowed very arid end of our spectrum to the much more favourable environment at the sub-humid end of the scale where irrigation possibilities may provide the opportunity for relatively sophisticated interventions. In the very humid zones all management is sedentary with animals often being stall fed or given quantities of household and crop waste and being tied or housed at night. Table 31 indicates the strategies (\"macro\"-management) and tactics (\"micro\"-management) of traditional owners in the African semi-arid zone. With only few exceptions there are clear trends from low to higher rainfall which are: nomadism to stall feeding; uncontrolled or very loosely controlled ranging by day and open camp at night to very restricted herding by day and confinement at night; a tendency to generally smaller flock sizes as conditions improve and an increased emphasis on goats associated with the agro-pastoral zones as already mentioned in the section on ownership. Large scale modern management of sheep (for wool and to a lesser extent for fat lamb) is confined to the highland areas of Kenya.Prestige and perverse supply were once catch words used to typify the attitudes of traditional livestock owners. Undoubtedly African pastoralists are conservative but it is doubtful if they are any more so than their peers in Australia or America. Their reasons for keeping stock are rarely irrational and are perfectly in keeping with the problems encountered and the short and long term goals of the owners. One aspect which supports this contention relates to the age and sex structure of the flocks. Whatever the main economic objective in keeping goats or sheep, a remarkable similarity in flock structure is apparent across the whole of the semi-arid zone, as can be seen from Table 32. With the single exception of the Afar of Ethiopia whose subsistence is almost entirely milk, all the flocks have around 75% of females (and somewhere in the region of 55% of the total flock breeding females in excess of twelve months of age). In a sample of flocks belonging to four different ethnic groups in Mali, covering the whole range of \"macro\"-management systems and including more than ten thousand animals, the mean percentage of females was 74.7 with a standard deviation of ±3.07. Breeding females in this sample showed even less variation at 54.3 ( ±2.43)% of the total flock. Contrary to another popular misconception, there are very few old unproductive females in the flocks, this class of stock being usually less than 5% in large scale flocks and rarely exceeding 10% in the small agro-pastoral ones. The main management practice used to achieve this structure and stability is the early culling of males which are sold or slaughtered for home consumption. Males of reproductive age are kept, strictly speaking, in numbers in excess of those actually required for breeding. There is, of course, the consideration of losses from diseases and of a temporary sterility as a result of nutritional deficiencies: when these factors are taken into account the number of males is seen to be no more than reasonable. Where older males other than breeding animals are kept they usually contribute directly to the flock economy in terms of wool or hair or to specialised dietary requirements such as, for example, in the case of the Maasai. In the humid zones flock structures are even more heavily weighted to females with as many as 80% females in the derived savanna areas and 83% in the true forest area (Mosi, Opasina, Heywood, Carew and Valez, 1982).Table 31. Ecology and management of goats and sheep in semi-arid Africa Table 32. Some of management objectives related to flock structures (structure as per cent of total animals) It has to be said that the true pastoralists are much better at flock management, for example in terms of foraging time allowed to their animals and in control of mating to certain desired males, than the recent entrants into the livestock industry. These agriculturalists and agro-pastoralists appear to have much to learn before maximum production levels are achieved. With better management and with more efficient use of agricultural by-products and tree fodder, productivity could be raised considerably from these areas.According to IEMVT (1980) the studies done on the nutrient requirements of small ruminants in the tropics are for the most part fragmentary. They quote voluntary intake for sheep as between 1.8 and 3.0 kg dry matter for maintenance, 3.0-3.8 kg DM for the last six weeks of pregnancy and 4.4-6.0 kg DM for lactation, all figures expressed per 100 kg liveweight for 35 kg sheep. ILCA studies in the semi-arid zone of Mali have shown large fluctuations in DM intake over time from about 1.6 to 3.2% of liveweight for both sheep and goats with mean values of 2.6%. Seasonal trends here were difficult to detect but there was low intake of DM from October to January (i.e. in the eary dry season) with goats eating much less than sheep in the rains. On average mature male sheep ingested 0.70 MJ of energy per day while goats averaged 0.53 MJ. It has also been difficult to isolate the effects of mixed species flocks on the nutrition requirements and intake of goats and sheep. It is possible that either one or other species largely determines the activity and consumption patterns of both at certain times of the year, depending on the type of food available and this could have some effect on overall productivity. In the dry zones of Mali goats spend as much as 87% of their time on browse while sheep spend only 34% of theirs. ILCA studies in Kenya have shown that goats spend 56% of their time browsing compared with no time at all by sheep. While the truism that goats are principally browsers and sheep mainly grazers thus appears to be confirmed, it is necessary to be cautious in this respect. In studies in the humid zone Carew, Mosi, Mba and Egbunike (1982) showed that goats spent 98.7% of their feeding time browsing but sheep also spent 92.6% of time browsing in the forest zone while in the derived savanna zone sheep (61.1%) actually spent more of the feeding time, and much more of total time, in browsing than goats (52.2%).The conventional wisdom of the greater efficiency of goats over sheep in the digestibility of organic matter, crude protein and fibre (Devendra and Burns, 1970) has also been challenged recently (McDowell and Woodward, 1982). It is apparent that a great deal of further work is required before nutritional aspects can be properly evaluated and the relation of nutrition to breeding physiology and reproductive performance probably needs special attention.Improved nutrition greatly increases the growth rate of indigenous animals but the seasonality of the food supply has only minor effects on reproduction with both goats and sheep producing young all the year round even in the semi-arid areas with monomodal rainfall. This is not the case for cattle where more than 60% of births occur in a 10-week period related to conception in the previous rainy season.Table 26 showed that goats and sheep account for almost 17% of the total domestic ruminant biomass. This in itself is a not inconsiderable figure but nonetheless gives no indication of the real contribution of this class of stock to total animal production. On account of the higher prolificacy and the shorter generation cycle, offtake figures are much higher than for cattle or camels. Based on figures for biomass and offtake rates, sheep and goats can be expected, as Table 33 shows, to contribute almost 30% of total meat protein (excluding poultry and pigs) in the semi-arid zones. This high contribution is often not acknowledged, the trade in sheep and especially goat meat being internal to the countries concerned or on a much smaller scale even within the flocks themselves. That the figure of 30% is not far out is supported by the data for registered slaughterings in the principal towns in four of the Sahelian states shown in Table 34. In 1970 the figure was almost 36% and in 1976, after a lengthy period of drought, sheep and goats contributed overall 43.2% to meat production on average and more than 70% in Niger. The ability to withstand drought conditions and to recover from them much more quickly than cattle is a not inconsiderable factor in the production potential of goats and sheep.In addition, as can be seen from Figure 2, in drier areas, goats in particular, and sheep to a lesser extent contribute to human welfare by assuring a supply of milk at the time of year when cows' milk is not available.At the level of the individual animal some of the ways in which the relatively high productivity is achieved are shown in Table 35. Sheep give birth for the first time at about 15 months of age on the average: goats are generally two to three weeks earlier. Parturition intervals vary from 8 to 10 months. Although the semi-arid races are not as prolific as the small races of the more humid zones, twin births are common in goats and are far from unusual in sheep, In these races the number of young born per year is thus in general about 1.6 per breeding female for goats and somewhat less for sheep. In the forest races because of the higher rate of multiple births, rates of annual reproduction in goats are in excess of 2.0 and not much less than this in sheep, In all types the first litter is smaller, as would be expected, than subsequent litters.  Growth rates in the semi-arid races are some three times more rapid than the rates in forest types when expressed simply as grams/day. However forest types have similar or slightly greater productivity indices calculated per unit weight of breeding female (ILCA, 1979b). The withdrawal of males for slaughter at light weights (90% of marketed and home slaughtered males in Darfur, for example, have liveweights less than 20 kg) represents some loss of potential meat availability but is certainly an efficient use of the resource base.There are few data available on aspects of production other than meat. Such products include milk, wool, hair and skins; and the contribution of manure to the agricultural systems with which goats and sheep in the less dry areas are associated. Data collection on some of these aspects may well be beyond the means of a simple animal scientist and may require considerable cross-disciplinary inputs from sociologists and economists as well as agronomists. These products are certainly worthy of much more attention than they have received.While mortality rates in small ruminants are considered to be high (up to 40% in goats and 30-35% in sheep before weaning and up to 10% in older animals) losses due entirely to disease are difficult to categorise. Country statistics in this subject, as for animal numbers, must be to a certain extent suspect and while there is a voluminous and rapidly growing literature on small ruminant disease at least when compared with productive aspects -it would be true to say that the real causes of most mortalities are only suspected rather than known. Except In certain clear-cut cases death usually supervenes as a result of a complex of factors involving nutrition, management and disease.The semi-arid zones of Africa represent a difficult environment with seasonal, and occasionally much longer, severe stress periods. Different kinds of stress, for example trypanosome infections and extremely heavy parasite burdens affect forest types. Goats and sheep are obviously fairly well adapted to these stress conditions. \"Modern\" technical inputs, even where available, are beyond the financial, and often physical, reach of the owners.Although nothing akin to a \"green revolution\" can be expected, this does not mean that improvement is not possible. In the case of liveweight gain, for example, consider one specific and one general example. In Darfur flocks studied in 1972-74, one male sheep, reared under exactly the same conditions as his contemporaries, gained 265 g per day to 12 weeks of age when he weighed 26.5 kg this rate of gain compares very well with the 299 g mean achieved in New Zealand for grass-fed lambs. A general example concerns the so-called \"mouton de case\" of West Africa. In Mali, the feeding of rice bran, leaves of Khaya senegalensis and cow-pea haulm can lead to weight gains which are 50% higher than those of similar animals reared on the open range and on millet and rice stubbles. It is apparent that the genetic base is not as impoverished as many people think.In terms of weight gain, however, it is often just the fastest growing males, which would be the best sires, which are removed from the flocks. Management has been shown to be an important factor in overall performance. A general lift in production so that the worst flocks can be raised to the level of the current average producer, thus raising the existing output by 15-20%, should not be too difficult to achieve, This target could be attained by encouraging the worst owners to follow the practices of the better ones. It is just this field the one of management -that is most likely to be successful in raising production levels at the least cost.Selon différentes sources, le cheptel caprin compterait 1 à 2.000.000 de têtes et serait ainsi le premier troupeau au Burundi.Cependant la chèvre n'avait jusqu'ici attiré l'attention ni des planificateurs ni des chercheurs dont l'attention était centrée sur le gros bétail.Une telle situation ne pouvait durer face à la pression démographique (plus de 160 habitants au km 2 ) sur les terres qui élimine progressivement l'élevage bovin dans beaucoup de régions au profit du petit bétail et en particulier de la chèvre.  Après le sevrage, ces jeunes reçoivent ±200 gr. de son de riz additionné de carbonate calcique (5-6%).Les animaux s'abreuvent à la sortie et à la rentrée du pâturage. Un plan prophylactique permet un contrôle parasitaire efficace dans le troupeau. Pour la croissance présevrage (£ 13 semaines), les portées simples présentent un gain quotidien moyen supérieur à celui des portées doubles (+29.5%, +20.70% respectivement pour les femelles et les mâles).Concernant la croissance post-sevrage, les différences se réduisant (+5% en faveur du mâles simples castrés) et s'inversent même (+42% pour les femelles de portée double et @ 400% pour les mâles non-castrés de portée double). S'agit-il du phénomène de croissance compensatoire après une sous-alimentation présevrage (les portées doubles disposant de moins de lait)? La réponse sera donnée par les résultats ultérieur. Le taux de mortalité semble plus élevé pour les femelles que pour les mâles 60% des mortalités vent des morts-nés, 18%des accidents, 18% dues aux verminoses et 11% vent dues à des causes non identifiées.Le taux de mortalité globale de 14.4% peut être considéré comme faible pour la région.Malgré le caractère très partiels de ces résultats, nous pouvons reconnaitre que la chèvre locale manifeste de bonnes aptitudes de croissance et de reproduction eu égard aux conditions d'alimentation et d'environnement.Une amélioration de ces conditions et une sélection rigoureuse pourront la rendre compétitive avec les autres races améliorées.  One of the current crucial problems in the developing countries is malnutrition. The majority of people in these countries do not eat enough animal proteins which are necessary particularly for pregnant mothers and growing children. The problem has been worsened by the rapidly increasing population and emphasis on cash crops production. Although formerly neglected, it is now believed that goats can play a major role in bridging the protein gap deficiency in these countries (Devendra, 1981).The goat population in Uganda is found throughout the country and its regional distribution in 1981 is shown in table 1.There are about 3.2 million goats in Uganda and almost all of them are the indigenous types reared in the villages. Mason and Maule (1960) described three breeds of indigenous goats in Uganda. These are (a) The Small East African goats with adults weighing up to 25 kg. Wilson (1957) describes these goats as East African Dwarf goats. Sexual maturity is normally reached before four months when the goats weigh only 14-16 kg. These goats are mainly kept for meat. (b) The Mubende goats found mainly in the District of Mubende but also distributed in higher rainfall areas of north and west of L. Victoria. The goat is compact and medium sized with well fleshed body; udder development is moderate. Adult males weigh up to 48 kg while females weigh 28 kg. It is pure black in colour. (c) Kigezi goat which is found in Kigezi in Western Uganda. The goat is small and is characterised by long hair. The Bakiga people in Kigezi use the hair for clothing.Large herds of goats are generally rare. A few years ago, some dairy breeds (Toggenburg and the Nubians) were imported into the country for the purpose of upgrading the indigenous breed in order to improve milk production. These exotic goats are about 160 and are now distributed in three government farms and one private one.The number of goats kept in a homestead usually varies from 5 to 10 but large herds may consist of up to 30 goats.Tethered goats are taken daily to grazing areas near the homestead and are usually moved from one grazing site to another to allow the goats access to ungrazed land. In the evening the goats are returned to their shelters around the huts. This type of management prevents the goats from wandering into the fields where they could eat crops. Large untethered herds are usually driven to grazing areas far away from home and cultivated areas and returned to a night assembly yard in the evening. Supplementary feeds and water are usually not offered to the goats. However, very occassionally sweet potato and banana peelings are offered especially to the animals which are tethered. Goats play important roles in the traditional village life in Uganda. The most important role is the provision of meat. The majority of people in Uganda think that goat's meat is more palatable and is preferred to beef. It is also easy to store. This confirms what Kagoda (1969) stated about goat's meat being preferred, even though it is high priced. It is a very favourable dish in special ceremonies like funeral rites and on occasion like Christmas. Goats can be slaughtered also in honour of special guests or at wedding feasts. In Bugishu, goats are slaughtered during tribal ritual of circumcision. Among the Acholis, goats are often slaughtered as a sacrifice following indecent behaviour; for example commitment of sexual offence between relatives. Quite often goat's meat is roasted along roadside and sold to passers-by or sold at drinking places. In most cases, however, a peasant farmer would not slaughter his goats in order to supplement family diet. This is possibly because the average number of goats in a homestead varies only between 5-10 and it is believed wasteful just for only family consumption.Goats, also play other roles in the socio-economic and cultural lives of the Ugandan peasants. For example, the goats can be given as part of the dowry in marriage or presented as gifts to important person or at fund raising functions. They can also be offered to the gods during religious ceremonies. Furthermore, during a period of economic stress goats can easily be sold to raise money for the peasant farmer either to pay school fees for his children or to pay graduate poll tax. Uganda is now also exporting goats on a small scale.A few clans in Uganda believe that the soup obtained from boiling goat's viscera cures measles. The forestomach and intestines are occasionally dried and their pieces are cooked with vegetables to give flavour to the food. Customary taboos which forbid certain people from eating goat meat are now being abandoned. Most women now eat goat meat unlike the past. However, in certain communities (e.g. in Bukedi) leppers are forbidden from eating goat meat because it is believed that the meat promoted the seriousness of the disease.The amount of goat milk consumed by human beings in Uganda is negligible. In Kigezi in Western Uganda it was considered obscene to drink goat's milk. However, in Bugishu in Eastern Uganda goat's milk is drunk by people of all ages. Among the Iteso and Karamojong tribesmen in Eastern Uganda some people believe that goat's milk has medicinal value in curing epilepsy. The general lack of interest in goat's milk in Uganda is possibly due to the fact that the Uganda indigenous goats produce so little milk that it can not stimulate enough desire for its consumption. For example, individual Mubende goats gave only 2 1/4 kg per day of milk (Mason and Maule, 1960). Secondly the milk is associated with the smell of the he-goats which is offensive. However, if proper dairy breeds of goats are introduced in Uganda, most people may change their attitude towards goat's milk.Goat skin, hair and horns are also utilised markedly in the traditional lives of Ugandans. The skins are used as mats for both sitting and sleeping on and for making bags, drums, traditional dresses and handles for pangas. Hans-Joachim de Hass et al (1979) observed that better quality skins are often found among the shorthaired goats than among the long-haired. For example, the Mubende goats give a higher proportion of qualitatively better skins than do the long-haired-Kigezi goats. The Karamojong use goat's skin for carrying their babies. The long grey hair of Kigezi goats is used by the Bakiga people in Kigezi for clothing (Mason, and Maule, 1960). The horns are used among the Acholi and Langi tribesmen as 'flute' (\"Bila\") for communicating messages during hunting, at traditional dances or at funeral rites. The Karamejong use the horns also for storing tobacco.Goats, however, have some habits which are undesirable. Most people in Uganda think that the goat can be a nuisance if it is not properly managed. They can stray into cultivated fields and destroy crops. This often causes the goat owner to pay compensation if a neighbour's crops are destroyed. Untethered goats wandering in the homestead can eat items like soap and clothes. However, with proper control the problems can be avoided. Goats and their dropping may also litter the compound making it untidy. The smell of the billy goat is unpleasant and is especially detested by the women, and during mating seasons, the billy goats make terrible resentful noise. Some people among certain tribes believe that children who sleep on goat skins can contract ringworm.With human population of 13 million and goat population of 3.2 million the ratio of human to goat in Uganda is 4:1. This is an economically significant ratio, and the goat can contribute markedly towards provision of animal protein in Uganda. However, the methods of rearing are unimproved and may not allow full utilisation of the performance potentials of the goats.The most important role of goats in Uganda is provision of meat, and this implies that the production capacity of goat must be evaluated in terms of fertility and prolificacy, kidding interval, growth rate and early sexual maturity. However, from the work done by Sacker and Trail (1966) it appears that the indigenous Uganda goats have low production. For example age at first kidding was found to be 18.9 months compared to 9.7 months in the Sudan (Wilson, 1976). It is probable however, that the Uganda goats have the potential for improved production.There are several factors which could contribute towards improvement of production of goats in Uganda. One factor is selective breeding. This requires proper monitoring of the performances of goats and then selecting the best animals whose performances are above average in terms of fertility and prolificacy, growth rate and liveweight for breeding. Another way for improvement would be the introduction of goats with superior genetic potential for cross-breeding with the indigenous animals. This would particularly be relevant with the dairy breeds of goats. A few of such animals are already in the country and it would be of immense interest if the performances of their cross-breeding are monitored.Adoption of modem husbandry methods would probably promote goat production in Uganda. At the moment little attention is paid to the goats so that they are left to survive on what nature can provide for them. Following selection of a good breeding stock, the subsequent goat herd could be ran as a unit and communual grazing should preferably be avoided. Goats reared for meat grow to a maximum weight within an average age range beyond which they become uneconomical to keep. Animals at such a stage should be culled and utilised for meat and replaced by young ones. Breeding stock should also be replaced when necessary. There should therefore be a continous flow of animals within the system with a shift towards increasing the overall number of animals in the unit within the accommodation capacity. Attempts should be made to improve pastures and supplementary feed and water should be provided to the goats. Disease control measures and proper veterinary care should be observed, although not much is known about disease of goats in Uganda.Although goats already contribute so much to the socio-economic wellbeing of the people of Uganda, it is important that the people should be properly educated to get rid of the social belief that goats should mainly be slaughtered at funeral rites, in honour of special guests or at sacrifices. Since the goat seems to be the ideal animal for the peasant farmer, it is important that the goats should play a direct role in supplementing family diet for the provision of protein. This requires a change of attitude of the peasant farmer about the traditional roles of the goat in his society. Another area which needs education is the adoption of modem husbandry of the goats by the peasants. This should involve fencing the land and possibly planting suitable pastures for utilisation by the goats.The trend in expert thoughts on Animal Production in developing countries is now towards possible utilisation of smaller animals for meat. Goats and rabbits are thought to be more ideal than cattle for the peasant farmers. However, research work needs to be carried out to identify the areas which could be exploited for better yield. The production potential of the indigenous goats should be assessed. Supplementary feeds (legume, potato/banana peels, concentrates etc.) and improved housing conditions could be used to determine their influences on production by these goats. Vigorous research should also be pursued on diseases which could be limiting goat production in the developing countries. Research in both of these fields have not been extensively carried out in Uganda.Réflexions sur l'élevage des petits ruminants en République Populaire Révolutionnaire de Guinée Compte tenu de leur importance économique et social et du défi de l'explosion démographique, il est urgent de prêter assistance aux éleveurs et de lancer des programmes de développement intensif de l'élevage des petits ruminants afin de pouvoir augmenter la production de viande et élever implicitement le niveau de la consommation nationale et le revenu des éleveurs.The small ruminants (sheep and goat), which we have so far given least attention, could contribute considerably to our national meat production.The guinean farmers, however, unfortunately gives priority only to cattle. Parallel to this, our sheep and goat, essentially of dallonké race, are adapted to support draught, resistant to diseases and can in addition live on poor quality fodder.The keeping of livestock is purely extensive and done exclusively by traditional village-breeders.Taking into account their economical and social importance and the challenge of the population explosion, there is an urgent need to give assistance to breeders and to starts programmes of intensive breeding of small ruminants with the aim to increase the meat production and raise the national consumption and the salary of the breeders.Présentation de la Guinée: Avec une superficie de 245.857 Km 2 , la Guinée compte 6.000.000 d'habitants dont les 80 à 85% sont occupes à des activités agricoles. Le pays est divise en quatre régions naturelles qui diffèrent les unes des autres aussi bien sur le plan du relief que du climat, du sol et de la végétationCe sont:1) La Moyenne Guinée: région de plateaux et de massifs montagneux disséqués par des valides, elle est caractérisée par des sols-pauvres. La pluviométrie varie de 1200 à 1700 mm par an. C'est la plus grande région d'élevage.2) La Haute Guinée: caractérisée par une végétation de savane arborée et de plateaux de faible altitude (400 m). La pluviométrie est de l'ordre de 1300 à 1800 mm par an.3) La Basse Guinée: région de plaines côtières avec à l'arrière-pays des savanes arbustives sur sol ferralitique. La pluviométrie est de 2600 à 4000 mm/an. Dans notre plan quinquennal de développement économique et social (1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985) figure parmi les priorités un projet d'élevage des petits ruminants. Mais en raison du manque d'études et de renseignements suffisants sur le système de production animale des ovins et caprins, ce projet n'a pas encore pu démarrer.Les principales difficultés et contraintes liées au développement des petits ruminants dans notre pays se résument en ces points:-Concurrence de la boviculture et de l'aviculture -Méconnaissance du potentiel des animaux -Manque d'alimentation suffisante -Incidence des maladies et leur interaction avec le problème alimentaire -Manque de motivation du paysan-éleveur -Manque de crédits suffisants pour le financement des programmes etc.La R.P.R. de Guinée est un pays qui se prête particulièrement bien à l'accroissement de la production animale. Mais cet avantage potentiel ne pourra être concrétisé que si des études des aptitudes et du potentiel de production et de reproduction son faites pour pouvoir établir un système d'amélioration approprie pour la production. Les paramètres des animaux sont améliorables.En somme il apparaît que les principales contraintes au développement de l'élevage des petits ruminants ne sont liées qu'au mode de gestion et de conduite du troupeau, aux conditions sanitaires et aux problèmes alimentaires.Quoique modeste, nous avons le sentiment que ce rapport donnera aux participants une idée plus ou moins indicative sur l'élevage des petits ruminants et les principaux problèmes auxquels nos programmes de développement sont confrontés à cet effet en Guinée. Production de lait Les données sur la production laitière ont été rassemblées à la suite d'un essai de contrôle sur 12 brebis primipares. Cette production a été déterminée par pesée des agneaux avant et après au rythme de 2 heures d'intervalle d'allaitement les cinq premières semaines de lactation, de 3 heures les sept semaines suivantes. La figure 1 montre l'allure de la courbe moyenne de lactation, les poids des brebis et le gain de poids des agneaux. La production totale de lait est de l'ordre/516 g par jour sur une période de 5 mois. Le système actuellement étudié, mais avec des moyens très immodestes, est l'élevage et embouche intensive en stabulation à partir de fourrages et/ou de sous-produits agroindustriels. Il est le seul envisageable pour l'instant, étant donné la démographie, la dispersion de l'habitat, qui ont contribué à la mise en culture des pâturages naturels et à la disparution des jachères.Sur ce, certaines plantes fourragères ont été soumises à des essais d'alimentation, notamment:1° Setaria splendide stapf:C 'est une graminée qui se cultive aisément en pure, ruais essentiellement utilisée sur les lignes de lutte anti-érosive dans le pays. Une étude abordant les possibilités de son utilisation comme fourrage de base a été menée sur 24 mâles castrés sevrés qui ont été répartis en 4 groupes et cela pendant 18 semaines. Un des 4 lots recevait du setaria seul ad libitum. Les 3 autres lots consommaient en plus respectivement 100, 200, 300 g de son de blé par tête et par jour.Le tableau 4 donne les quantités ingérées tandis que la figure 2 montre 1' incidence de la ration sur la croissance des animaux. Les accroissements journaliers enregistrés sont successivement de 23 g, 29 g, 37 g, 44 g.  La quantité de matière fraîche et de matière sèche (tableau 5) du fourrage ingérée n'a pas changé significativement (P = 0,05) avec le niveau de supplémentation. Il en a été de même pour ce qui concerne la matière sèche totale. L'évolution pondérale (figure 3) n'a pas suivi d'une façon marquée le sens de la supplémentation bien que l'apport de 60 g seulement de concentré ait entraîné une crise de sevrage plus sévère au cours des premières semaines. Le gain de poids quotidien s'est chiffré respectivement à 31,9 g, 43,1 g, 36,2. g, 38,1 g Tenant compte du fait de les concentrés et les sous-produits des industries agricoles ne se trouvent pas en quantité suffisante pour être facilement accessibles au petit exploitant, on a envisagé les possibilités de substitution par des légumineuses fourragères, par exemple le desmodium intortum.Trente-six mâles castrés ont été utilisés pendant 13 se aines dans l'idée de tester l'incidence du desmodium (2 Kg tête/jour) comme supplément au Pennisetum et Tripsacum,. en comparaison avec le concentré.Actuellement, les résultais sur les quantités de matières consommées et les calculs statistiques ne sont pas encore disponibles, mais les gains moyens atteints sont les suivants:• Pennisetum distribué seul: 21,1 g/j.• Pennisetum + concentré (120 g/j/tête): 41,3 g/j.• Pennisetum + Desmodium (2 Kg/j/tête): 39,0 g/j.• Tripascum laxum distribué seul: 33,2 g/j.• Tripascum + concentré (120 g/j/tête): 40,5 g/j.• Tripascum + Desmodium (2 Kg/tête/j): 61,0 g/j.Comme nos animaux, subissent un stress nutritionnel pendant la saison sèche (juillet-août-septembre), on a pense à l'usage des feuilles d'arbres et arbustes comme aliments complémentaires possibles dans le pays. C'est pourquoi une étude sur l'utilisation du Ficus... et Leucaena sp. est actuellement en cours dans le but d'améliorer la qualité de la ration à base de foin.Alors que le facteur limitant pour le bovin est la disponibilité des terres, chaque exploitation aussi petite soit-elle dispose d'assez de superficie pour tenir une brebis d'autant plus que le mouton s'élève parfaitement en stabulation.Pour que ce système, intensif en quelque sorte, soit rentable et paye la main d'oeuvre nécessaire aux cultures fourragères, il faut un bon mouton, l'élite de la race locale. Or le mouton rwandais possède de bons atouts zootechniques, est en bon équilibre avec son milieu et ne demande qu'à être travaillé pour atteindre un niveau de production satisfaisant.C'est de la combinaison du potentiel de production, de l'amélioration des soins vétérinaires (verminoses principalement) et celle des régimes alimentaires que dépendra le développement de l 'élevage ovin. Note technique N° 2 ISAR. NGENDAHAYO M. (1983) Pennisetum purpureum schum: influence de l'apport de concentré sur son ingestibilité et son efficacité alimentaire chez le mouton loca en croissance.Sous-presse.Session on Productivity -R.T. WILSON Productivity was the first session and in addition to the introductory paper there were four papers, one each from Burundi, Uganda, Guinea and Rwanda. A fifth paper expected from Rwanda was not presented.The introductory paper was principally concerned with the types of African goats and sheep and dealt with their production aptitudes -meat, milk, wool, skin -and gave some figures for these. The data presented related almost entirely to production under traditional systems of management.The Burundi and Rwanda presentation dealt with productivity of local herds, respectively goats and sheep, under station or station type conditions while the Guinea and Uganda papers gave general reviews of small ruminant production, including their socio-economic importance in the two countries.It was generally agreed that not only had the possibilities of small ruminants been neglected in the past but that where research had been clone on them this had sometimes been inappropriate. For example research on station \"under mosquito nets\" had generally failed to establish the real genetic potential of indigenous breeds, this being due in part at least to poor foundation stock being bought from traditional owners being only too willing to rid themselves of their worst animals.There have now been more wide scale studies carried out over a large number of animals in traditional systems and this kind of study should be given greater consideration outside ILCA where its main support base lies at the moment.Methods of calculating productivity were presented and discussed. These can be used for comparing within or between species and taking into account various environmental or genetic influences. The indices presented are applicable over a wide range of data -for example the indices could be calculated for both the Burundi and Rwanda data as they were given. However, they are still imperfect. For example they might better be calculated on carcass rather than liveweight data: this would have the immediate effect of improving the indices of goats at the expense of sheep. Production other than meat or meat potential should also be included if possible. Less tangible production social, cultural, value in traditional medicine -is extremely important but probably impossible to quantify. Other indices of production -birth weight for example -might also be used either as additions to or instead of the ones given in the main paper. There is, however, a clearly perceived need to standardize terminology and calculation methods, particularly in respect to the reproductive aspects of reproduction but it needs to be noted that classic methods of expressing these parameters pose some problems for traditional systems.There was a wide range of opinion from never to almost always over the suitability or desirability of introducing \"exotic\" breeds. Exotic in this sense was mainly taken to imply breeds of European origin. The consensus of opinion was that more work needed to be done on indigenous breeds and that some of those \"native\" to some African areas might well be of use as \"exotic\" improvers in other areas. Most attempts to use non-African types even where conditions could be improved by management, veterinary or nutritional interventions had met with only partial success. There are some notable exceptions, for example Kenya ranches, and in more favourable areas (the Ethiopian highlands or the Burundi/Rwanda highlands) where non-African types might have some chance of success. A minority opinion considered that stratification of the small ruminant sector could lead to success in the introduction of exotic breeds. Inadequate nutrition represents the most important factor that currently limits high productivity from goats. The animals suffer not only from deficiencies of energy, protein and minerals mainly because of inadequate feed supplies often of poor quality, but also from a lack of application of what is already known about feeding and nutrition of the species. Definite differences do exist between goats, cattle and sheep in feeding behaviour, metabolism and requirements; these have been briefly reviewed. The nutrient requirements of goats for either meat and milk production including mohair production in Angora goats are well defined and particular reference is made to the recent NRC publication on this aspect. Practical dietary formulations for a specific function must aim to ensure a balance of nutrients (energy, protein, mineral and vitamins) that refer to these recommendations. The feeding systems are of five categories: village, primitive extensive, semi-intensive to intensive based on forage, very intensive (stall feeding) and integration with cropping systems. Much more use can be made of a variety of tree leaves (eg. Acacia, Leucaena and Cassava) and also a vast variety of agro-industrial by-products and non-conventional feeds that are available in Africa. Feeding strategies should aim therefore to utilise these resources based on known principles of feeding, and the objective of a realistic potential level of productivity from goats in Africa is essentially dependent on this approach.Le facteur qui limite le plus souvent la productivité dans l'élevage des chèvres est l'utilisation d'une alimentation inadéquate. Non seulement les animaux souffrent de déficiences énergétiques, protéiniques et minérales en raison d'apports alimentaires inapropriés et de basse qualité, mais ils pâtissent en outre de carences dans la mise en application des connaissances déjà existantes en matière d'alimentation et de nutrition de ces espèces. Les chèvres, les bovins et les moutons présentent des différences importantes en ce qui concerne leurs comportements alimentaires, leur métabolisme et leurs besoins. Ceux-ci ont été rapidement passés en revue. Les besoins nutritionnels de chèvres, que ce soit pour la production de viande, de lait, ou de mohair (pour les chèvres angora) sont très bien définis. A ce sujet il faut noter la récente publication du CNR. La formulation des régimes alimentaires pratiques pour chaque fonction spécifique doit assurer l'équilibre de l'apport nutritionnel (énergie, protéines, minéraux, vitamines) se référant à ces recommandations. Il existe cinq catégories de systèmes alimentaires: en village, en extensif primitif, en intensif (du semi-intensif à l'intensif basé sur l'utilisation des fourrages), en très intensif (en stabulation) et en système intégrant l'élevage et les cultures. On pourrait utiliser davantage un grand nombre de feuillages (par ex: Acacia, Leucaena, Manioc) ainsi qu'une large variété de déchets agro-industriels et d'autres aliments non conventionels disponibles en Afrique. Les stratégies alimentaires pourraient, en tenant compte des principes connus d'alimentation du bétail, permettre d'utiliser ces ressources. Le niveau potentiel de production auquel on peut prétendre de façon objective et réaliste en Afrique dépend essentiellement de cette approche.For many years it has geen said that the nutrition of goats is similar to that of sheep and to some extent to that of cows, and therefore no textbooks dealing specifically with goats were necessary. All the leading textbooks on the feeding of farm animals and their nutrition did, and still do have, many long chapters discussing the specific characteristics and requirements of cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, and poultry but goats are usually dismissed in one little paragraph with the contention that:(1) not very much is known or has been published about them, (2) feeding goats similar to small cows or like sheep is sufficient; and(3) they are not farm animals in the first place, but are either pets or animals that destroy the environment.These textbook treatments ignored and overlooked the fact that goats are an important part of the national and farm economies in many countries (Table 1), including some that are developed countries e.g. France, Greece, Norway and even the USA. The textbook treatments ignored the fact on the contrary that there exists a substantial volume of world literature on the scientific and practical aspects of goat feeding (Haenlein 1980). Failure to search for this literature, coupled with a general bias against the species is the basic fault, which at the present time is both unrealistic and also unacceptable.In recent years there have been repeated calls to examine the value of goats and their attributes especially from South East Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe even the USA, (ADSA, 1980;CAST, 1982). Implicit in these calls are an earnest plea to utilise them more completely to increase the contribution from them, especially to the small farmers, the malnourished, sick and subsistence peasants in the undeveloped and developed countries alike. This bulletin brings together for the first time specific-data on goats with supporting references from all around the world.There has been very limited if not no extrapolation of data from cows and sheep. The bulletin also gives an extensive listing of nutrient composition of more than 300 feeds obtained directly from goat feeding experiments from both temperate and tropical regions. This bulletin has assembled for the first time not only the nutrient requirements of goats for maintenance, growth, weight gain, milk production, pregnancy and mohair production, but also for varying degrees of activities which are so characteristic of goats in their search for feeds and browse on lowland pastures, rangeland, hills and also mountain pastures.In addition and more recently, all aspects of feeding, nutrition and management systems specific to the tropics have been reported in detail (Devendra and Burns, 1983). The availability now of both publications emphasises that the opportunities for applying what is already known, and this is considerable, are enormous. The appropriateness of the data and the need for additional information will be the subject of further research and development. In addition, specific data are needed on the requirements for minerals and vitamins (Haenlein, 1980b), and also an the subject of rumen solubility of proteins and nutritional disorders. For example while it is true that dairy goats are not as much bothered by ketosis and parturient paresis as are high producing dairy cattle, nevertheless, goats do have other serious and frequent problems which have received limited research attention. These include the following: enterotoxemia, scours, abortion, urolithiasis, and internal parasites.The contention that goats can be fed like small cows led to the extrapolation earlier of the nutrient requirements determined for cows being divided by an appropriate factor, e.g. an the basis of body surface by bodyweight to the 0.66 or 0.75 power or by a direct fraction of bodyweight. Table 2 straws that such extrapolation varied widely from the now recognized requirements obtained for energy and protein from actual experiments with goats (with one exception: protein at the 0.75 power). The direct relationships of bodyweights underestimated the real requirements of goats, while the commonly accepted body surface relationships overestimated the requirements of goats. The real relationship of nutrient requirements rather like to 8:1. This also puts a different perspective on species comparisons and can be interpreted to mean that the comparable producing ability and dairy merit, or net efficiency, of goats is not 1/10th but 1/7 to 1/8 of cows. A 600 kg cow producing 60 kg milk per day would then be expected to be comparable to a 60 kg goat milking 7.5 to 8.5 kg instead of 6 kg per day or to a total of 7 to 8 goats instead of 10. Table 2 also shows rather close agreements between the energy requirements of goats and sheep, but a slightly smaller need for crude protein in goats, even though these values were derived totally independent of each other in separate experiments and at different times and locations.Other differences in nutrient metabolism and requirements between the three ruminant species are known (Haenlein, 1980c). Magnesium concentrations in blood plasma may not be affected by potassium supplementation in goats but in sheep. Newborn goats have very low iron reserves in liver and haemoglobin in contrast to calves and lambs. Iodine concentrations in plasma, thyroid and milk are relatively much higher in goats than in cows and the mammary glands of goats excrete iodine or radioactive iodine at a much higher rate than the mammary gland of the cow. Differences between sheep and goats in tolerances and deficiency levels of copper, molybdenum, fluorine, cobalt, zinc, strontium, manganese and selenium have been suggested, but there is limited supporting evidence for this.However, striking differences have been documented between the milks of the three species. Sheep milk is much higher in solids and fat contents than either goat or cow milk. Goat milk compared to cow milk. is very similar in solids aid fat content but lacks beta-carotene, alpha-s-1-casein, and agglutinin; and has less citric acid, sodium, iron, sulphur, zinc, molybdenum, ribonuclease, alkaline phosphatase, lipase, xanthine oxidase, N-acetylneuraminic acid, orotic acid, pyridoxine, folate, vitamins C and B 12 , a lower freezing point and pH. On the other hand, goat milk is usually higher than cow milk in calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, chlorine, manganese, the shorter chain fatty acids in particular, vitamins A and D, nicotinic acid, choline, inositol, and has much more small diameter fat globules. Cow and goat milk have about the same content of carnitine but sheep milk is about eight times higher (Haenlein, 1980c).Furthermore, it has been reported that glycerol ethers are much higher in goat than in cow milk, which is of significance to the nursing newborn; that the lower orotic acid content of goat milk is important in the prevention of fatty liver syndromes; and that the milkfat globule membrane in goat milk is much more fragile, which has significance in the development of rancidity and off-flavors.In feeding activities, there are also considerable differences between cows, sheep and goats spending 76, 80 but 38% of their time for grazing, while 8, 10 and 53% for browsing, respectively. Goats may average six miles walking per day foraging for feed, compared to 3.3 for cows and 3.8 for sheep. There are also differences in water metabolism between the three species with goats being able to survive on much less frequent water intake. The comparative characteristics of sheep and goats have recently been reported (Devendra and Coop, 1982).Since there appear to be some metabolic, physiological and therefore, also nutritional characteristics unique to goats (Haenlein 1980c), it follows that they need to be treated separately in nutrient requirements and practice for feeding. The new NRC bulletin has gathered most of what is known around the globe and the evidence is that the requirements of energy, protein and dry matter are fairly well established (NRC, 1981;Haenlein, 1983). This is however, not the case for minerals and vitamins, their tolerances, which need more documentation (Haenlein, 1980b). Wide differences in absorption under different conditions lead to the conclusion that gross contents in feed rations may often be meaningless.Calcium and phosphorus have received some attention. However, are we correct in increasing their requirements as the muscular work during foraging increases? The ratios of Ca:P are held at 1:0.7 but is this correct for all situations, pregnancy, dry period, milk production, weight gain, meat production and the maintenance of bucks? It is known that one of the predisposing factors of urolithiasis is a high phosphorus content in the feed ration, or one in which it is high relative to calcium or potassium contents. Besides an adequate level of potassium in the ration, the calcium to phosphorus ratio should be at least 1.5:1. However, inappropriate levels of calcium in the diet and variable calcium to phosphorus ratios affect significantly, the size and half-life of the readily exchangeable internal calcium pool of goats and predispose them to parturient paresis. Interactions with phosphorus and vitamin D also play an important role in the amount of calcium actually absorbed in the digestive tract, as well as the simultaneous presence and amount of fat, carbohydrates, sodium, strontium and possibly magnesium, zinc, manganese and estrogens.Table 3 summarises the limited information apparently available an the daily mineral requirements of goats. In some cases, only minimum levels are known. Since some of these minerals (e.g. zinc, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, iodine, copper) have been shown to affect significantly the reproductive performance of goats it should be valuable to determine appropriate feeding levels. When zinc supply is subnormal, underdevelopment of testes, scrotum and reduced libido occurs in bucks. In does, delayed first estrus and a changed sex ratio on kidding towards fewer male twins is noted. Manganese deficiencies result in silent oestrus, reduced conceptions, abortions at 12 to 15 weeks of pregnancy and higher numbers of male kids are born.Maximum levels and tolerance ranges may be known only for zinc at approximately 1,000 times the minimum. Subclinical levels of mineral deficiencies or excesses are not known unfortunately, nor are quantitative aspects of the essential vitamins for goats. Carotene and vitamin A are particularly important for efficient reproductive performance as is vitamin D for Ca metabolism and vitamin E as an antioxidant in goat milk and a synergist with selenium under Se-deficient soil conditions and reproductive problems. Recommended NRC feeding levels of vitamin A are 20,600 IU for a 60 kg doe milking 5 kg daily and 4,127 IU vitamin D.Much speculation has centered around the unique feeding habits and preferences of goats, their ability to survive where cows and sheep would die and their successful utilization of tree leaves, brushes and browse that may not only be woody and thorny but also have relatively high contents of lignin, terpenes, tannin and silica, which are known to inhibit nutrient utilization, growth of rumen bacteria, depression of digestion of feedstuffs and intestinal enzymatic activities.Possibly, these browse feeds have more specific nutritional roles than just being a source of energy and protein. Of course, energy may be the first limiting nutrient in high producing dairy goats, especially during the first 2-3 months of lactation. However, in order to provide for this likely energy deficit, high amounts of highly digestible grain-concentrate feeds are offered to goats, just like for dairy cows, with the resulting usual problems of:(l) a narrow roughage to grain ratio.(2) low fibre content as well as a low amount of long fibre.(3) the fat content in the milk is much lower than normal.(4) the animals usually get fat while milk yields are high, or (5) the animals develop scours and may be off feed.One of the usual veterinary remedies against scours contains tannin! Is it possible, that goats under range conditions select browse that have tannin contents, e.g. oak leaves, to maintain healthy gastrointestinal conditions and avoid scours naturally? It is also possible that the intake of tannin in the feeds consumed provide a sparing effect on the utilisation of the nitrogen present.The high fibre content of the browse could have similar beneficial effects against scouring, the law-fat syndrome in milk and the number one disease problem probably of goats, enterotoxemia. Certain seeds, which are preferred by goats, e.g. sunflower seeds, may have that particular value of preventing enterotoxemia (Haenlein, 1982) by providing sufficient fibre from the seed hulls (31%), but also supplying high amounts of energy due to a high fat content (28%) for the high producing dairy goat. Sun-flower seeds and other similar browse seeds, not yet studied sufficiently may be more appropriate feeds for goats under many conditions than corn, soybeans, oats or barley. This implies that specific roles of nutrients should also be considered in feeding recommendations besides reference to just energy and protein. This is suggested from work with a high producing Saanen herd over a 3-year period where no enterotoxemia vaccinations and antitoxins were needed when sunflower seeds were part of the daily grain ration.Other specific roles of nutrients have already been mentioned earlier in relation to urolithiasis and phosphorus, and about the possible need of iron supplementation to newborn goat kids. In order to control urolithiasis successfully, it may also be necessary to pay more attention to the effect of certain feeds on the pH of urine in goats, of which essentially nothing is known.Some recent work in South Africa and Norway indicates that alkalinization of feeds (Wentzel, 1982), e.g. with a NaOH pretreatment may have beneficial effects in controlling rumen acidosis which would otherwise lead to scours and enterotoxemia with often fatal consequences. The current widespread Norwegian work of predigesting straw with weak alkali, e.g. anhydrous ammonia may accomplish two things: provide a new, palatable roughage source and introduce a higher pH in the rumen to safeguard against acidosis, scours and enterotoxemia. It also would protect partially against the debilitating impact of internal parasites in goats.Absence of scouring, mal-and undernutrition, and loss of weight help significantly in postponing clinical effects of internal parasite infestations, especially if mineral and vitamin supplies, particularly zinc, carotene and vitamin E are amply supplied.Dairy goats under confinement conditions and/or in humid, humid-warm climates need in addition, to be separated from selfreinfestation. This is accomplished by modification of:(l) housing and ( 2) feeding systems.Confined goats must not be housed like little cows on the ground in structures that are just scaled down from cow sizes. Goats are different from cows and must be handled accordingly. Goats in confinement and in humid areas need to be housed off the ground on elevated slotted floor structures which allow constant separation from their faeces and from reinfestation with internal parasites. Goats must never be forced (by management or starving) to have to eat off the ground, in order to prevent reinfestation with internal parasites. Hayracks and other feeding structures for goats must be constructed in such a way that feed dropping to the ground is minimized, are kept practical and clean.One appropriate solution can be to feed pellets from a grain trough or self-feeder, preferably with a pellet diameter of 2 to 3 cm to maximize fiber length. There is no wastage with pellets; the nutrient intakes are usually maximized and the use of expensive grains are reduced.Energy intake is critical in high producing dairy goats and those nursing triplets. An adequate dry matter intake from some concentrate supplements with high fat levels (e.g. from sunflower seeds) are appropriate solutions to the energy imbalance in early lactation. Energy imbalance in middle or late pregnancy can have serious consequences, especially on the range. It has been stated that in the Southwestern part of Texas (USA) where the world's leading Angora-Mohair industry is located, the number of Angora goats are far short of the current and projected market needs, mainly because their reproductive rates are limited by frequent energy imbalances and consequent low kidding percentages and survivals.The goat is a corpus luteum dependent animal in contrast to cows which can successfully complete pregnancies without it. Any interference with functional corpus luteum will cause abortion in goats. A low incidence of abortion due to stress is common among Angora goats under range conditions, but catastrophic losses do occur at times. Most abortions due to stress occur between 90 and 110 days of pregnancy. Undernutrition during this critical period of rapid foetal development is the chief reason for abortion. An explanation comes from recent South African studies. Stress abortion is triggered by low maternal blood glucose due mostly to poor nutrition and energy imbalance of the doe. Low maternal blood glucose triggers hyperactivity of the foetal adrenal gland, producing estrogen-active corticosteroids, which initiate parturition, or in this case premature parturition, called abortion. As expected, a live foetus is aborted. If undernutrition occurs after 110 days of pregnancy, the foetal adrenal gland produces less estrogen-active steroids and abortion may not occur. However, maternal undernutrition can also stimulate maternal hyperadrenalism, resulting from maternal low blood glucose levels, without affecting foetal adrenals. Abortion will also occur in these cases, but with the expulsion of a dead edematous or autolyzed foetus. In either case, a specific role, even of energy, is very important in the nutrition of goats. Dietary allowances for goats and sheep have recently been discussed (Haenlein, 1983).It follows from the above discussion that goats need to be fed not like small cows nor like sheep, but more appropriately according to their uniqueness plus state of production and reproduction; and more specifically according to prevailing climatic and territorial conditions such as are found in the tropics. Many feeds that are available in one geographic area are not available in another or are too expensive. However, the discussed principles are the same and should prevail regardless of whether e.g. alfalfa pellets, sunflower seeds or cassava leaves are available. Silage e.g. is widely fed in Norway to goats but in the U.S.A. is not used at all, although it is most popular with dairy cows. Black sorghum seed has a high tannin content discouraging birds from picking and decimating seed heads. Sorghum is better adapted to hot climates than corn. Would it not be a more appropriate grain source for goats because of the tannin content plus the energy in preference to corn? It is not widely used far feeding goats in the U.S.A. however, while corn is.The difference between high and low producing goats is their individual ability to redirect nutrient from the feeds offered for different physiological functions. The appropriate feeding strategy and management of goats is to optimize these abilities.Maximizing production by feeding strategies may invite the consequences of the law of diminishing returns, i.e. the costs of record production may exceed the net return profits due to veterinary complications. Instead optimizing production should be the desirable strategy.During early lactation in dairy goats, there occur many metabolic changes. The mammary gland suddenly changes from a dormant state to a hyperactive organ requiring a flow of nutrients far greater than that required to maintain the animal itself. Milk synthesis is a continuous high stress requiring:(1) increased lipid mobilization from adipose tissues as an alternative energy source instead of glucose and instead of lipid synthesis previously;(2) increased glucose synthesis and mobilization from glycogen stores in the flyer instead of use of glucose as an energy source;(3) increased mobilization of protein reserves for gluconeogenesis;(4) increased absorption and utilization of minerals especially calcium, including mobilization from bone reserves.A daily high amount of synthesized and mobilized glucose is especially critical for the high producing goat since the amount of lactose in the milk, synthesized from blood glucose by the mammary gland, controls the volume of milk produced. In a high producing goat yielding 7 kg milk daily, as much as 1/3 kg of lactose must be synthesized daily from blood glucose mainly from propionate absorbed from the rumen. However, normal rumen fermentation provides more acetate than propionate and feeding strategies that change this ratio often result in insufficient acetate supplies to the mammary gland, thus reducing milkfat synthesis.Feeding systems for goats are linked to the prevailing production systems and are classified into five categories (Devendra, 1981a) as follows:(1) village systems (2) primitive extensive system (3) semi-intensive to intensive based on forage (4) very intensive system (stall feeding), and ( 5) integration with cropping systems.It is relevant to consider these briefly.(l) Village systemsThe village system is a traditional method of goat rearing throughout the tropics. They are usually maintained in small areas of land (l to 3 ha). There are two types of the system. One is tethering where goats are confined to limited grazing. The second involves feeding in situ the various crop residues that are produced in addition to kitchen remnants. Very seldom are concentrates provided. Usually women and children manage the goats in this system.(2) Primitive extensive systemThis system is based on the utilization of large areas of relatively unproductive land. These are usually marginal lands unable to support crop production and because of the arid environment usually only provide limited grazing and browsing. The flock sizes are generally larger (1-15 goats) made up usually from various small flocks which are herded together by a shepherd. The goats browse and scavenge on what feeds are immediately available in the area exposed to them. Stocking rates are usually in the range 1-4 animals/ha. Very extensive systems are found in Africa and parts of the Near East. Often the goats are shifted from area to area in a migratory system which takes advantage of the sparse grazing without subjecting it to continuous grazing. The seasonal movements, inadequate feed supplies and infection by helminths, trypanosomes and other parasites seriously affect live weight and cause high mortality.(3) Semi-intensive to intensive system based on forageIn this system cultivated grass is made available usually through grazing. However, intensive grazing of pasture is not very common mainly because of the value of land for alternative purposes. Goats are nevertheless quite capable of making efficient use of cultivated pastures for either meat or milk production and stocking rates of the order of 16-60 goats/ha are feasible depending on the type of grass used, level of fertiliser application and the presence or absence of legumes. Quite often available agro-industrial by-products are also provided to supplement the intake from pasture.(4) Very intensive system (stall feeding)This system requires higher labour and capital investment. It is not commonly practiced in the tropics, but has commercial potential. The system of stall feeding assumes that there will be continuous management of goats and is justified by the presence of abundant supplies of various agro-industrial byproduct feeds. The system also enables greater control over the goats and is common in many countries in Latin America and parts of the Near East.(5) Integration with cropping systemsIn this system the nature and the extent of integration depends on the type of crops being grown (annual or perennial) and also the relative importance of goats. Usually the integration of goats is more common with perennial or tree crops such as coconuts, oil palm or rubber and has the objective of making efficient utilisation of the herbage under-growth, mainly grasses, weeds and legumes. The dry matter production of the undergrowth is variable (400-1,200 kg DM/ha). The advantages of integration are increased fertility of the land due to return of dung and urine, reduced fertiliser used, control of waste herbage growth, easier management of the parent crops and distinct possibilities of increased crop yield and greater economic returns. For the success of the system much will depend on the manipulation of stocking rate with available dry matter production from herbage.7. Feeding tree leaves Associated with the feeding systems is the use of tree leaves which is common throughout the tropics. Farmers traditionally feed varying quantities of it, the amount fed being dependent on the time available for collection, duration of grazing and also availability. These leaves provide variety in the diet as well as meet part of the requirements for energy, protein and minerals. Many of the tree leaves are important sources of dietary nitrogen (Devendra, 1983).There are several examples of tree leaves that are used in the tropics. In Africa, these include inter alia Acacia (Acacia spp.), Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala), cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz). Much more use can be made of these tree leaves as an important component of the diet of goats.The effective utilisation of agro-industrial by-products for feeding goats is an important means by which the contribution from the species can be-substantially increased in Africa. The justification for this is associated with the fact that there exist a large reservoir or various types of feed materials.These are of two categories and include firstly, a long list of crop residues that are traditionally used in feeding systems, and an equally long list of various non-conventional feed resources (NCFR). These feed materials are summarised in table 4.  par Abou BACAYOKO Institut-Polytechnique Rural B. P. 6, KOULIKORO, Mali RESUME Des essais de digestibilité des pailles de brousse et de riz ont été effectués sur des moutons du Sahel.La digestibilité des pailles seules a été faible = 40 à 43 % pour les pailles de brousse, 51 % pour la paille de riz.Le traitement à la soude a amélioré le CUD. L'apport de complément par les sous-produits à raison de 8 % de MAD a permis d'éviter les pertes de poids chez les moutons.Les pailles seules n'ont pas couvert les besoins d'entretien des animaux et la complémentation avec les sous-produits agroindustriels a nettement amélioré l'ingestion et la CUD de la Matière sèche.Digestibility trails on bush and rice straw were carried out on Sahel sheep.The digestibility of the straw alone was low: 40 to 43 % for bush straw and 51 % for rice straw. Sodium treatment improved digestibility. Supplementation with a by-product with a DCP of 8 % allowed sheep to maintain their weight.Straw alone did not cover maintenance needs and supplementation with agro-industrial by-products markedly improved both intake and digestibility of DM. Ils sont habitués à consommer de la paille et on les trouve sur le marché de Bamako en nombre important.1-3 Autres matériels:-bascule de 1 000 Kg pour peser les animaux -balance pour la pesée des aliments, des fèces et de l'urine (précision 1/10 de gramme)-balance électronique pour la pesée des échantillons (aliments fèces pour la détermination de la matière sèche en laboratoire -hache paille pour réduire la paille -une étude réglée à 80°C pour la détermination de la matière sèche.-Un réfrigérateur pour la conservation des échantillons d'urine.Equipement des animaux:Chaque mouton est équipé pour permettre la récolte des fèces et de l' urine.Les fèces vent récoltés dans un cas à fèces.L'urine est collectée dans un entonnoir relié à un bidon placé sous le plancher.2-1 Pailles et sous produits utilisés:Les essais ont porté sur les pailles de brousse comme le pennisetum pedicelatum, l'andropogon gayanus, le Loudetia togoensis et sur une paille de céréale. La paille de riz qui a été utilisée traitée à la soude et non traitée. Les pailles choisies proviennent des espèces dominantes.Les pailles ont été essayées seules sans complément ensuite elles ont été complémentées avec les sous-produits locaux comme:-tourteau d'arachide -tourteau de coton -graine de coton -farine basse de riz -mélasse de canne -urée 2-2 Traitement de la paille de riz à la soude:La paille de riz traitée à la soude a été utilisée dans nos essais.La méthode semi-humide de traitement a été adoptée en raison de sa simplicité et pour faire des économies d'eau en vue des possibilités futures de vulgarisation du système.Pour traiter 1 Kg de paille 40 g de soude ont été dilués dans deux litres d'eau.La paille de riz arrosée de la solution était distribuée 24 h après le traitement.Nous avons choisi de traiter la paille de riz à cause des quantités disponibles dans les zones rizicoles.Les cinq sous produits choisis pour la complémentation vent les plus importantes du Mali et leur disponible est faible par rapport au cheptel national.Evolution de la production des sous-produits agro-industriels au Mali (en tonnes) source CIPEA 1979 Avant la mise en cage, les moutons vent vaccinés contre la pasteurellose et déparasitées contre les douves et les strongles gastro-intestinaux.Les moutons ont été reparties en 5 lots de 4 à 6 bêtes.La composition des régimes a été faite en utilisant les valeurs des tables de l'I.E.M.V.T. (1978).3-1 Quantité d'aliments proposés aux moutons:La paille a été distribuée ad libitum en admettant 10% de refus. Les concentrés étaient distribués en fonction de la consommation de paille.3-2 Taux de matière azotée digestible des régimes:Nous avons choisi deux niveaux de MAD 8% et 12%. Le taux azoté des pailles étant nul seul l'apport des sous-produits a été considéré et ajusté à 8% ou 12% de la ration totale.Ces taux ont été choisi pour savoir si à 8% on peut satisfaire les besoins d'entretien des animaux et si à 12% on peut obtenir un gain de poids.Les animaux du Mali traversent chaque année des périodes en saison sèche.Le disponible en sous-produits agro-industriel est également faible. Ces deux facteurs expliquent le faible niveau azoté adopté dans les expériences.3-3 Apport de sels minéraux et de vitamines:L'apport de sels minéraux est assuré par la pierre à lécher (K.N.Z) qui est donnée ad libitum.Les moutons reçoivent régulièrement des injections de vitamines.La méthode de mesure de digestibilité utilisée est celle de Demarquilly et Boisseau (1976) légèrement modifiée:-la période d'adaption a dure 15 jours minimum -la période de mesure a duré 10 jours -la récolte des fèces a été faite dans des sacs maintenus par des bretelles attachées à deux sangles (l'un autour de l'encolure l'autre autour du thorax). C'est le dispositif de Balch 1951. Modifié par Mme DICKO Maimouna.-l'urine est collectée dans un entonnoir relié à un bidon placé sous le plancher.-l'entonnoir couvre le fourreau et est attaché aux bretelles du sac à fèces.Chaque essai est conduit avec 4 moutons au minimum et 6 au maximum. Le chiffre de six permet d'éliminer les animaux qui tombent malades en cours d'essai.-La matière sèche des aliments et des fèces est déterminée chaque jour (par animal).-Les échantillons sèches vent conservés et à la fin de l'expérience on mélangé tous les fèces des animaux d'un même lot et on prend un échantillon moyen pour le laboratoire.-Les échantillons d'urine vent conservés au réfrigérateur et un échantillon moyen par lot est préparé en vue d'analyse.-Des échantillons moyens de tous les aliments vent constitués par lot.-La pesée des animaux a lieu au début de la période de collecte et à la fin de la même période. Le poids considéré est la moyenne des poids de début et de fin de période expérimentale.4-1 Pesée des régimes:Les rations journalières vent distribuées en deux repas à 8 h et 15 h.Le concentré était d'abord distribué et après sa consommation complète la paille était donnée.La quantité de paille était toujours ajustée en fonction de la consommation de la veille afin d'avoir environ 10% de refus.La matière sèche de la paille déterminée quotidiennement sur un échantillon de 100 g.Pesée des refus: Les refus de paille étaient pesés chaque matin avant la distribution de la ration.4-2 Mesure de l'eau consommée:L'eau était distribuée deux fois par jour à 9 h et 16 h. Les quantités bues étaient déterminées en mesurant l'eau avant l'abreuvement et le reste après l'abreuvement.Les fèces vent récoltés à 7 h 30 avant la distribution du régime et le soir vers 16 h 30.Suivant l'importance de la quantité on prend 1/4 ou 1/3 des fèces pour la détermination de la matière sèche. Le séchage se fait pendant 24 h dans une étuve à 80°C.5-1 Aliments:Durant la période de mesure on prelevait chaque jour des échantillons de paille et de sous-produits. Ces échantillons étaient séchés pour la détermination de la matière sèche puis conserves dans des sacs plastiques.A la fin de chaque essai en échantillon moyen de paille et des différente sous-produits étaient enlevés et conserves pour analyser chimique.Les échantillons de fèces séchés durant la période de collecte sont conserves par animal dans un sac plastique. A la fin de la période de mesure (10 jours) on homogénéise le contenu des sacs et on prend un échantillon par sac correspondant à un mouton. On mélange tous les échantillons du même lot et on prend un échantillon moyen pour analyse chimique (environ 200 g). Le CUD de la matière sèche est faible concernant les pailles de brousse.La paille de riz a un CUD nettement supérieur à celui des pailles de brousse.4 Effet du traitement sur le CUD:Le traitement à la soude a nettement amélioré le CUD de la paille de riz (augmentation de 6,5 points). La consommation d'eau se situe autour de 2 ml par gramme de matière sèche sauf pour la paille de riz traitée qui contient beaucoup d'eau ce qui diminue la quantité d'eau bue. La consommation d'eau a varié en fonction de la quantité de matière sèche ingérée.6 Variations du poids des animaux:Les pailles seules ne couvrent pas les besoins d'entretien des animaux. Tous les moutons ont maigri durant l'essai ce qui confirme le pauvreté des pailles.Les pertes de poids ont été les suivants:La perte a été très importante dans le lot V nourri à la paille de riz traitée. Ceci est sûrement du à faible quantité de matière sèche ingérée.Expérience II:Au 2è essai les pailles ont été complémentées par les sous-produits.-Paille de Pennisetum + Tourteau de coton + Farine basse (ration à 8% de M A D).-Paille de Pennisetum + Tourteau de coton 8% MAD.-Paille de Pennisetum + Tourteau de coton + Mélasse de canne 8% MAD -Paille de Pennisetum + Tourteau d'arachide 8% MAD.Nous avons choisi 83 de MAD dans la matière sèche de la ration. Seul le contenu en azote des sous-produits a été considéré.D'après les données des tableaux et la consommation de matière sèche les taux azotés ont été les suivants:  La consommation d'eau n'a pas varié et s'établit autour de 2 ml par gramme de matière sèche ingérée.6 -Variation du poids des animaux:Au cour de 2è essai les moutons ont gagné du poids. Le gain de poids pour les dix jours de mesure a varié de 0,54 Kg à 1,21 Kg.L'apport de 8% de MAD dans le régime suffit donc pour éviter les pertes de poids et permet même un leger gain pondéral.En conséquence on pourrait lutter contre les amaigrissement de saison sèche en apportant à l' animal un peu d'azote (8% MAD).Expérience III: L'ingestion de la matière sèche de l'expérience III est supérieure à celle de l'expérience II.L'ingestion par kilogramme de poids métabolique est de 55 g quand le taux azoté atteint 12% alors qu'elle était de 50 g avec un taux azoté de 8%.Le traitement à la soude de la paille de riz a amélioré l'ingestion par rapport à la paille non traitée 55,18 g par P075 contre 61,42 g par p075 Les régimes complémentés avec de la mélasse ont un CUD nettement supérieur aux régimes complémentés avec de la FB Si on compare les CUD des régimes contenant de la paille de pennisetum + TC + FB et de la paille de pennisetum + TC + MC il y a une différence significative de 2 points. Concernant les régimes à base de paille de riz la différence est plus grande et la mélasse améliore de 7 points par rapport à la FB.La paille de riz traitée a un CUD de 66,5% tandis que le paille de riz non traitée complementée avec les mêmes sousproduits a un CUD de 54%.La consommation d'eau n'a pas variée et se situe autour de 2 ml par gramme de matière.Comme dans les expériences précédentes la consommation d'eau est plus faible avec la paille traitée.Régimes 12% de 5 -Variation du poids des moutons:Durant l'expérience no 3 tous les moutons ont gagné du poids. Les gains ont varié de 260 g à 1030 g en 10 jours.Le régime à base de paille contenant 12% de MAD permet donc à l' animal de couvrir des besoins d'entretien et de gagner du poids.A l'issue des trois séries d'expérience que nous avons menées les constatations suivantes s'imposent.Les pailles seules ont une digestibilité très faible (40 à 43%) sauf la paille de riz qui a une digestibilité de 51%.Le traitement a amélioré la digestibilité de la paille de riz (5 pts). Le taux azoté des pailles est nul, ce qui diminue leur valeur alimentaire. C'est ainsi que non complémenté les pailles ne couvrent même pas les besoins d'entretien des animaux (perte de poids pour tous les lots).L'apport d'azote à 8% de MAD nettement améliore l' ingestion et le CUD de la matière sèche (tableau 10).L'apport d'énergie par la farine basse de riz a un effet bénéfique sur la digestibilité. La mélasse améliore nettement mieux surtout si elle est apportée en même temps que l'urée.Nous avons constaté que le tourteau d'arachide améliore plus que le tourteau de coton mais ce dernier est mieux appeté avec un disponible plus important au Mali.L'apport d'azote à 12% de MAD a amélioré le CUD par rapport au taux de 8% de MAD.La consommation d'eau ne varie pas avec les régimes mais plutôt avec la quantité de MS ingérée.Nous avons également constaté une augmentation de l'ingestion de la MS par P075 avec l' augmentation du taux azoté.  Le halètement est un mécanisme de rafraichissement evaporatif très important chez le mouton. En dépit de l' augmentation de la production de chaleur au cours de la gestation, la fréquence respiratoire atteinte après 8h d'exposition à la chaleur a été légèrement plus faible que durant la période de contrôle. Ce qui indique que les animaux ont éliminé de grandes quantités de chaleur par d'autres voies.Les brebis gestantes peuvent éliminer des quantités supplémentaires de chaleur en augmentant la prise d'eau relativement fraiche (température d'eau 20°C). Ainsi, les animaux ont absorbé durante les 8h. de chaleur 3,5 1 durant la gestation et seulement 2,3 1 au cours de la lactation et la période de contrôle. En conséquence, une diurèse hydrique importante s'est produite chez les brebis gestantes.L 'augmentation du flux d'eau à travers l'organisme refraichit l'organisme. Ceci est un moyen supplémentaire de thermolyse chez la race Dman puisque dans les oasis l'eau est disponible en permanence. Cependant, la perte de chaleur par cette vole n'est pas assez élevée pour compenser l'accroissement de la production de chaleur au cours de la gestation et donc il est probable que la contribution de la sudation a augmenté au cours de cette période.De toute façon, le fait que la polypnée thermique ne s'est pas accrue au cours de la gestation est bénéfique pour les nombreux fetus en croissance, puisque il a été rapporté (Oakes et al.) que l'alcalose respiratoire diminue le flux sanguin uterin.Conclusions 1) La gestation induit une augmentation du renouvellement d'eau proportionnelle à la taille de la portée.2) La capacité du rein à économiser l'eau diminue au cours de la gestation et la lactation entrainant une plus grande prédisposition à la deshydratation.3) La capacité du rumen à stocker l'eau baisse au cours de la gestation, ce qui réduit l'abilité des animaux pâturant à s'éloigner des points d'eau.  A part le lot I qui ne recevait que du fourrage seul, les autres avaient en plus un complément farineaux; les différents lots se présentent de la façon suivante:-Lot I: Fourrage seul (= témoin) -Lot II: Fourrage + son de riz ad libitum -Lot III: Fourrage + son de riz ad libitum + Soja grillé -Lot IV: Fourrage + concentré équilibré Les animaux avaient en permanence de l'eau à leur disposition et les quantités consommées étaient estimées en soustrayant des quantités offertes, les quantités refusées.Pour chaque lot, les mesures suivantes ont été effectuées:-poids du fourrage offert et refusé: A chaque repas et tous les jours;-poids su complément farineux offert et refusé (le refus était pesé le lendemain matin avant la distribution du repas matinal): chaque jour;-poids vif: chaque semaine, le dimanche entre 8h et 8h30 du matin.Les mensurations externes ont été faites la veille de l'abattage et celles des carcasses chaudes le jour même de l'abattage.Une fois par semaine, un échantillon du fourrage offert et du refus était prélevé. Les échantillons hebdomadaires ont été composités en des échantillons mensuels pour la détermination de la matière sèche, des teneurs en cendres, en azote, en cellulose brute (Weende) en matière grasse et en Ca par le Laboratoire de Chimie de l'I.S.A.R.Méthodes statistiques L'analyse de la variance à un critère (Test F) a permis de tester l'effet des quatre rations sur les performances pondérales des chevreaux. Dans les cas où le test F était significatif, le test de la plus petite différence significative (p.p.d.s.) nous permettait de connaître lesquelles des moyennes différaient significativement les unes des autres.L'essai d'engraissement a duré 20 semaines, mais dès la 12ème semaine, certains animaux ont attrapé une maladie que le Laboratoire Universitaire de Butare n'a pas pu déterminer et qui a provoqué soit des mortalités (5), soit des perturbations de la réponse A l'engraissement. Les examens nécropsiques n'ont pas pu révéler les causes de la maladie, de même, lés analyses microbiologiques des aliments n'ont décelé aucun micro-organisme qui aurait intoxiqué les aliments. Il ne nous a pas été possible de faire procéder A des analyses toxicologiques.     * 93 FRW = 1 $ U.S.La manque de circuits de commercialisation organisés et la faible rémunération de la viande au Rwanda ne permettent pas actuellement une spéculation d'engraissement des chevreaux. Seule la méthode paysanne qui consiste à attacher les bêtes le long des routes, dans des bois, des jachères,...est \"rentable\".La chèvre commune rwandaise accuse un faible potentiel à produire de la viande et il s'avère nécessaire, si on veut promouvoir son élevage, de procéder à son amélioration soit par sélection, soit par croisements avec des races d'un plus grand format mais présentant une rusticité similaire.Il serait intéressant de répéter l'essai tout en surveillant le taux de matière grasse de la ration pour confirmer ou infirmer les présents résultats et dans la mesure du possible faire des essais de digestibilité avec cet animal.Information on the nutrition of small ruminants in Cameroon is very scanty. Hence, most of the available is derived from sheep of temperate regions. Some attempts have been made to establish the protein and energy requirements of West African dwarf goats (Akinsoyinu et al, 1975(Akinsoyinu et al, , 1976) ) and sheep (Adegbola, 1974) in Nigeria, but none of these studies have been carried out in Cameroon. This paper reports estimations of the crude protein requirement for maintenance and live weight gain of lambs of Cameroon Blackbelly sheep which are a variety of West African dwarf sheep found along the West African Coast.Eight young Blackbelly sheep ranging from 6 to 8 months and weighing between 9.0 and 15.2 kg were used in the investigation. They were selected from the flock of Blackbelly sheep at the Teaching and Research Farm of the National Advanced School of Agriculture, Nkolbisson, Yaounde. The animals originated from the Ntem and Upper Nyong Divisions of the United Republic of Cameroon, and were kept under improved managements (fed concentrates, salt licks, dried brewer's grain and water ad libitum) and provided adequate medical care. All the animals were dewormed before the experiment started. The eight animals were divided into 4 groups in a Latin Square design (Table 1).A mixture of fresh Panicum maximum, Paspalum virgatum and Pennisetum purpureum was the basal ration. Four concentrate supplements corresponding to four treatments A, B, C and D and containing 2.25, 12.31, 21.63 and 34.64% crude protein respectively were used in the experiment. The combinations and proportions of ingredients for each concentrate supplement are shown in Table 2 while the proximate composition of the forage and various concentrate supplements are shown in Table 3. Fresh forage fed to the animals was chopped into small bits of about 5 cm. Representative samples of the fresh forage and forage residue were collected daily for dry matter determination. A representative sample of each concentrate supplement was also collected for dry matter determination and other chemical analyses.The metabolism cage used in the present study is shown in Fig 1 . The main structures of the cage were made of timber. The floor was made of an irremovable wire mesh which allowed the animal to stand well, while permiting faeces to pass through freely. The faeces was trapped by a tray of fine plastic mesh that was easily removed, and allowed urine to flow unto an inclined plastic sheet below from where it drained into a collection plastic dish containing 10 ml of 5% mercuric chloride solution to trap urea in the urine. Each metabolism cage was provided with a separate trough for grass, concentrate supplement and drinking bucket to supply water ad libitum. The cages were kept in hangar having a roof of corrugated aluminium sheets and a cemented floor.The trial was conducted from 1st February to 30th April 1983. The experimental period of 12 weeks was divided into 4 subperiods each consisting of 3 weeks. For each sub-period, the first two weeks constituted a preliminary period to enable the experimental animals adjust to the new feed regime while the third week was devoted to collection of urine and faeces. In order to estimate feed intake, weighed amounts of grass and concentrate supplement (300 g per day) were served to the animals each morning. The residues from the previous day were weighed before the day's ration was served at 9 a.m. All experimental animals were weighed at the beginning and at the end of the collection period.During each day of the collection period urine and faeces were collected separately in the morning at 8 a.m. before the day's feed was served to the animals. The total urine output for 24 hours was with a graduated cylinder, mixed well and a 10% sample retained in a clean stoppered bottle. Daily urine samples were later bulked for the entire collection period and stored in a refrigerator at -5°C until the time of' analysis.Similarly, the daily faecal output of each animal was collected in a calico bag and immediately placed in a hot air oven at 65°C for 48 hours. The daily collections for each animal were bulked, milled to pass through a 2 mm screen with a laboratory hammer mill and stored in air-tight plastic bags until required for chemical analysis. content. Metabolic faecal nitrogen in dried faeces was determined according to the method of Van Soest and Wine (1967) as modified by Mason (1969).Rows (animal group) Columns (periods)A, B. C, D represent treatments (concentrates with graded levels of crude protein). Faecal nitrogen excretion (g/kg dry matter intake) was significantly correlated with nitrogen intake (g/day) with a correlation coefficient of 0.93 that was highly significant (P<0.01). The regression equation representing the relationship was as follows: Y = 2.89 + 0.49x (r = 0.93, SE = ±1.64)where: Y = faecal nitrogen excretion (g/kg. DMI) X = nitrogen intake (g/day)From the equation the intercept of the Y-axis by the regression line was 2.89 g/kg dry matter intake and represented an estimate of metabolic faecal nitrogen excretion. Meanwhile MFN estimate by chemical analysis yielded a mean value of 3.67 g/kg dry matter intake which was 27% higher than the estimate of 2.89 g/kg dry matter obtained by regression method.Urinary nitrogen (g/day/W 0.75 kg) excretion was highly correlated with absorbed nitrogen (g/day/W 0.75 kg) with a correlation coefficient of 0.94 which was highly significant (P< 0.01). The regression equation was as follows: Y = 0.42x -0.12 (r = 0.94; SE = + 0.13)where: Y = Urinary nitrogen excretion (g/day/W 0.75 kg) X = Absorbed nitrogen excretion (g/day/W 0.75 kg) The estimate of endogenous urinary nitrogen was 0.12 g/day/W 0.75 kg (i.e. intercept of regression line on Y-axis).The biological value of dietary protein was estimated from the relationship between nitrogen balance (Y) and absorbed nitrogen (X). Nitrogen balance (g/day/W 0.75 kg) was positively correlated with absorbed nitrogen (g/day/W 0.75 kg) with a correlation coefficient of 0.96 that was highly significant (P<0.01). The linear regression equation was: Y = 0.54 x -0.04 (r = 0.96; SE = ± 0.17)where: Y = Nitrogen balance (g/day/W 0.75 kg) X = Absorbed nitrogen (g/day/W 0.75 kg)The coefficient of X expressed as a percentage represented the estimate of the biological value of dietary protein. The value was 54%.Nitrogen intake (g/day/W 0.75 kg) was positively correlated with nitrogen balance (g/day/W 0.75 kg) with a highly significant (P<0.01) correlation coefficient of 0.93. The linear regression equation describing the relationship was: Y = 0.42 + 0.386 x (r = 0.93, SE = ± 0.17)where: Y = Nitrogen balance (g/day/W 0.75 kg) X = Nitrogen intake (g/day/W 0.75 kg)Nitrogen intake at zero balance or equilibrium was 0.42 (g/day/W 0.75 kg).The DCP requirement for maintenance was estimated from the relationship between nitrogen intake (g/day/W 0.75 kg) and nitrogen balance (g/day/W 0.75 kg) by multiplying nitrogen intake at zero balance by the overall apparent digestibility of nitrogen expressed as a decimal and by the factor 6.25. The result was 1.73 g/day/W 0.75 kg (0.42 x 0.66 x 6.25).The DCP requirement for maintenance with growth was estimated by the nitrogen balance method by multiplying nitrogen intake (g/day/W 0.75 kg) at maximum balance by the overall apparent crude protein digestibility expressed as a decimal and by the factor 6.25. The estimate was 13.24 (g/day/W 0.75 kg) (3.21 x 0.66 x 6.25). Subtracting the corresponding maintenance from the maintenance with growth requirement gave a growth requirement of 11.51 (g/day/W 0.75 kg) (13.24-1.73) for a young sheep gaining on the average 172 g per day. Thus, the cost of a gram live weight gain was estimated to be 0.07 g DCP/day/W 0.75 kg (11.57 + 172).Dry matter intake by young Blackbelly sheep fed forage and concentrate supplement containing crude protein levels ranging from 2.23 to 34.64% varied from 55.97 to 66.68 g/day/W 0.75 kg. These values fall within the range of 61.80 to 81.50 g/day/W 0.734 kg reported for young West African dwarf sheep by Adebambo (1976) but higher than 50.49 to 51.65 g/day/W 0.734 kg reported by Robinson and Forbes (1970) with 7 months old lambs. The increased DM intake observed when the crude protein level of the ration was raised agrees with the findings of Blaxter and Wilson (1963) and Elliot and Topps (1965). This is attributed to the improved protein status of the animals which tends to promote the activity of rumen microbial population, hence digestion of roughage. This has a positive effect on dry matter intake.The enhancement of crude protein digestibility observed in the present investigation as the dietary level of protein was raised is in agreement with the findings of Robinson and Forbes (1970) who also observed a linear increase in crude protein digestibility when dietary crude protein level was increased.The generally low digestibility of crude fibre observed in the experiment may be attributed to the fact that the experimental animals were relatively young, thus their rumen had not attained full functional capability to be able to handle roughage effectively as in adults where CF digestibility coefficient can exceed 60%. However, the increasing trend of CF digestibility as CP level of the ration was increased is explained in terms of the promotion of microbial activity, hence the production of cellulases that digest cellulose.The metabolic faecal nitrogen estimate of 2.89 g/kg dry matter intake obtained in the present work is similar to 2.91 g/kg dry matter obtained by Mason (1969), 2.65 g/kg dry matter reported for young West African dwarf sheep by Njwe (1978) and 2.90 g/kg DM intake indicated for young lambs by Walker and Faichney (1964a). The value is, however lower than the ARC (1965) estimate of 5 g/kg DM intake for sheep. The low MFN value obtained in this trial for young sheep compared to 5 g/kg DM intake (ARC, 1965) for adult animals agreeswith the findings of Schneider (1955) and Awah (1982) that the age of the animal is an important factor in MFN excretion. Other factors that may influence MFN include level Of dry matter intake, digestibility of feed, level of crude fibre in diet and the feeding nitrogen free rations to animals. MFN excretion is positively correlated with body weight of animal, dry matter intake, and level of crude fibre in the diet. It declines with increasing digestibility of diet. Feeding of N free diets to animal also tends to increase MFN excretion.The endogenous urinary nitrogen (EON) estimate of 0.12 g/day/W 0.75 kg agrees with estimates reported with sheep by Smuts and Marais (1939) but lower than 0.17 g/day/W 0.734 kg reported for young sheep by Walker and Faichney (1964a) and 0.15 g/day/W 0.734 kg recommended for sheep by ARC (1965). The high level of urinary nitrogen excretion resulting from high levels of N intake may be responsible for the high EUN estimate; considering that Black, Pearce and Tribe (1973) obtained a value of 0.056 g/day/W 0.734 kg with young lambs.The biological value of dietary protein of 54% is lower than 63% obtained with young West African dwarf sheep fed graded levels of protein by Njwe (1978) 65% recommended for sheep by ARC (1965). The high level of nitrogen eliminated in urine may have contributed to the relatively low biological value obtained in the present study. This may be the case especially when protein intake exceeds the normal requirement resulting in a general increased rate of the catabolism of amino acids leading to a depression of the biological value of dietary protein.The digestible crude protein requirement of 1.73 g/day/W 0.75 kg is comparable to values of 1.51 to 1.86 g/day/W 0.75 kg obtained with young West African dwarf sheep in Ibadan, Nigeria, but much higher than 1.16 g/day/W 0.734 kg reported for adult temperate sheep by Robinson and Forbes (1970) or 1.16 g/day/W 0.734 kg for adult Indian sheep by Singh and Mahadevan (1970). However it is about half 3.60 g/day/W 0.75 kg proposed for temperate sheep by Brody (1945). From the above discussion the higher DCP requirement for young sheep compared for adult sheep is justifiable since their metabolic and growth rates are higher.Contrairement aux pays tempérés où les céréales constituent la majeure partie des aliments complémentaires du bétail, dans les pays tropicaux á cause d'une production à peine suffisante pour la population humaine, la presque totalité des céréales est réservée á l'alimentation de cette population. D'autre part, la production des animaux est faible et ne permet pas de rentabiliser l'utilisation des céréales dans leur régime.Cependant, dans tous les pays sahéliens, comme le Mali, la supplémentation du bétail pendant la mauvaise saison s'avère indispensable.L'agriculture malienne a été caractérisée depuis l'indépendance par le développement des cultures industrielles (coton, arachide, canne à sucre) et la création d'industrie de transformation (usine d'égrenage de coton, huilerie, sucrerie, rizerie, abattoir frigorifique et conserverie de poisson). Ces différentes industries fournissent des quantités importantes de sousproduits qui utilisés dans l'alimentation du bétail laisse entrevoir des perspectives très intéressantes pour le développement et l'amélioration de la production animale. Malheureusement les informations disponibles sur la valeur alimentaire de ces sous-produits sont très fragmentaires:Les quelques tables de composition disponibles ne donnent que des valeurs moyennes ou ont été établies á partir des résultats d'analyse effectués sur un petit nombre d'échantillons et chaque fois qu'on a besoin d'introduire ces sous-produits dans une ration on a toujours recours à des tables étrangères par exemple: Feeds of the World, de B. N Schneider, datée de 1947, Feeds et Feeding, de F.B. Morrison, de 1946-1959 et \"Tables annexes du manuel d'alimentation des ruminants domestiques en milieu tropical de R. Riviere, 1978\" qui sont incomplètes et pour lesquelles les résultats ont été obtenus par des études effectuées généralement sur des animaux des régions tempérées. Leur utilisation permet, certes, une approche de la détermination de la valeur de certains sous-produits. Mais quand ces sous-produits sont destinés au bétail tropical dont connait mal les capacités digestives, on se trouve le plus souvent devant une grande incertitude quant aux résultats escomptés an niveau, des productions zootechniques (lait, viande etc...)C'est donc, dans le souci de mieux apprécier la valeur de nos sous-produits (quantité ingérée et digestibilité) que nous avons choisi d'entreprendre une étude systématique de tous les sous-produits agro-industriels du Mali par la mesure directe sur moutons.Pour un départ nous avons retenu d'étudier les 5 sous-produits agro-industriels les plus couramment employés dans l'alimentation du bétail. Ce sont:-le son de riz -la graine de coton -le tourteau de coton -le tourteau d'arachide -la mélasse de canne.On le sait depuis longtemps que les alimenta dits \"concentrés\" ne peuvent être distribués Seuls aux ruminants, ils nécessitent l'apport d'un aliment grossier pour des raisons d'ordre physiologiques qui peuvent être résumées en:-l'insuffisance de lest et le manque d'encombrement qui peuvent entraîner un mauvais fonctionnement du rumen.-la diminution de la motricité et la baisse excessive du P.H du rumen parfois, pouvant provoquer des troubles pathologiques.-dans d'antre cas la production excessive d'ammoniac qui se traduit par un manque (d'efficacité alimentaire.-et pour certains sous-produits, l'insuffisance en éléments nutritifs pouvant assurer la couverture des besoins de l'animal.Pour toutes ces raisons, nous avons retenu d'étudier chacun de nos sous-produits en les associants à la paille de riz comme fourrage grossier, aliment disponible en grands quantité au Mali (c.f. tableau N°1).Evolution de la production des sous-produits agro-industriels en tonnes (source C.I.P.E.A.. 1979) Etant donné les lacunes signalées an niveau de la digestibilité dite par \"différence\" (c.f. aux revues de Abou Raya et col, 1976;D. Sauvant, 1980;P. Berge;1982) nous avons choisi d'étudier chacun de nos cinq sous-produits ci-dessus cités par la méthode de régression. Pour cela, chaque sous-produit a été distribué associé à la paille de riz à 3 niveaux différents (15-30 et 45 p. 100 par rapport à la matière sèche. (M.S).Il est à noter qu'au début de notre étude nous ne disposions pas de données sur la composition chimique de nos sousproduits, donc pour composer nos régimes alimentaires, nous avons utilisé les valeurs des tables de l'IEMVT (1978) celles de l'I.N.R.A, (1978) et de Schneider, (1947).2-1°/ Taux de matières azotées des régimes:Vue la pauvreté de la paille de riz en azote nous nous étions fixés une teneur minimum de matières azotées totales (MAT) de 8 p. 100 par rapport à la matière sèche et par régime.Les régimes qui présentaient une teneur inférieure à ce seuil ont été corrigés par un apport d'urée (46 p.100 d'azote).An début de chaque essai, et pour la mesure de la digestibilité, nous nous sommes proposés d'alimenter nos animaux en quantité limitée à l'entretien, soit en leur distribuant 23 g de matière organique digestible par kg de poids métabolique (MOD/ kg p.0,75).La méthode de mesure de digestibilité utilisée est celle décrite par Démarquilly et Boisseau (1976) qui a été légèrement modifiée afin de l'adopter aux moyens disponibles.Les modifications ont porté sur:-la mise en régime des animaux: elle s'est opérée en deux phases (une première période où les moutons sont alimentés en enclos, et une deuxième période an cours de laquelle les moutons sont nourris en cage de digestibilité).-le système de collecte des fèces: Les fèces ont été collectées par la méthode des sacs maintenus par deux harnais (l'un autour de l'encolure, et le second autour du Thorax Pour l'étude d'un sous-produit donné à partir de la valeur des régimes mixtes (paille de riz et sous-produits) nous avons utilisé 12 moutons, auxquels il a été distribué 3 régimes à volonté avec des niveaux de sous-produits différents (15-30 et 45 p. 100 de la m.s. de la ration totale) pour la mesure de la consommation à volonté puis en quantité limitée (Q.L.) pour la mesure de la digestibilité. Ceci nous a donné 3 traitements à raison de 4 moutons par traitement et deux périodes de mesure (ad. libitum et en quantité limitée). Le schéma expérimental est reporté ci-dessous:-6 j. de mise en régime an enclos -6 j. d'adaptation en cage de digestibilité -6 j. de mesure en cage des quantités ingérées à volonté -4 j. de mise en régime en quantité limitée -6 j. de mesure de digestibilité en quantité limitée soit. 22 Jours en cage et 6 jours de repos.5-1°/ Pesée des régimes: Les régimes étaient distribués en 3 repas pour la paille et 2 repas pour les sous-produits et l'urée.Pour la mesure des régimes en ad libitum, les quantités étaient calculées d'après la consommation de paille de riz et de sous-produits de la veille, afin d'obtenir le taux de sous-produit choisi par traitement. Les quantités offertes étaient ajustées d'après la consommation de la veille pour obtenir 5 à 10 p. 100 de refus environ.5-2°/ Pesée de refus: Les quantités refusées ont été pesées chaque jour. Les refus de la veille étaient recueillis avant le repas du matin.5-3°/ Pesée des fèces: Les fèces étaient récoltées et pesées individuellement en deux périodes (7 h 30 et 17 h.) Un échantillon (1/3 par animal était séché à l'étuve à 103°C pendant 24 h pour la détermination de la M.S.6°/ Echantillonnage des aliments et des fèces:6-1°/ Aliments: Chaque jour, pendant toute la durée de la période de mesure (quantités ingérées et digestibilité) des échantillons de 500 g pour la paille de riz et de 250 pour les sous-produits, ont été séchés dans une étuve à 103°C pendant 24 h (échantillons en double).6-2°/ Fèces: Les échantillons de fèces séchées quotidiennement pendant toute la période de mesure (6 jours) étaient cumulés par animal et bien homogénéisé ensuite, on y prélevait 200 g, qui étaient broyés dans un broyeur électrique muni d'un tamis assez fin (1,0 mm) puis gardés en sachets plastiques pour l'analyse chimique.7°/ Les analyses chimiques:Elles ont eu lieu au laboratoire de Nutrition de l'I.E.M.V.T. (France). Les méthodes utilisées sont celles décrites par le B.I.P.E.A. ( 1976).An niveau des aliments, nous avons effectué une analyse complète (c.f au tableau N°3). Mais au niveau, des fèces, nous avons dosé seulement la matière sèche (M.S.) les cendres ou matières minérales totales (M.M.) la cellulose brute de Weende (C.B) et les matières azotées totales (M.A.T).8°/ Analyse statistique:Afin de mettre en évidence l'existence de différences significatives entre les moyennes des résultats obtenus par traitement, nous avons utilisé la méthode d'analyse de variance à une voie de Snedecor et Cochran (1967). Celle-ci a été complétée par un test de \"t\" de Student, qui nous a permis de comparer deux à deux les moyennes au niveau des régimes ou des sous-produits étudiés et de préciser le seuil de signification des différences lorsqu'elles existent.II -1°/ Composition chimique des sous-produits La composition chimique des sous-produits étudiés est consignée dans le tableau N°3. Elle diffère légèrement de celle des tables de l'I.N.R.A. ( 1978) et de Schneider (1947). La différence porte surtout sur la teneur des M.A.T. et de la matière grasse pour les quatre premiers sous-produits et de l'extractif non azoté ou sucres totaux pour la mélasse de canne.II -2°/ Quantité de matière sèche volontairement ingérée (m.s.v.i) (c.f. tableau N°4)2-1 -Paille de riz: Au fur et à mesure que le temps est passé, les animaux ont augmenté progressivement leur consommation de paille. La quantité de M.S de paille ingérée à volontée est passée de 33,2 à 45,9 g/kg P.0,75.Ceci peut s'expliquer par la lenteur des ovins à D'adapter à un régime à base de paille, (Xande, 1978). Cet auteur note dans un essai' que la quantité de paille ingérée est passée de 430 à 860 g/ mouton/jour en 20 semaines.L'analyse de variance appliquée aux moyennes de X S.V.I. de paille, a revelé une différence hautement significative ( à P < à 0,01) entre les régimes.Tableau N° 3 Composition chimique des sous-produits agro-industriels étudié (en p. 100 de la matière sèche).Tableau N°4: Moyenne des quantités ingérées à volonté de paille de riz et des régimes. 2-2°/ Effet du niveau d'apport de sous-produit sur les quantités de M.S.V.I de paille. taux de substitution L'augmentation de la proportion de sous-produit dans la ration a été suivie par une baisse de la quantité de M.S.V.I de paille de riz au niveau de tous les régimes.Le taux de substitution (S) exprimé par la quantité de paille ingérée on moins pour un apport de sous-produit en plus' a été calculé entre les niveaux 1 et 2 et 2 et 3 de sous-produits. Nous n'avons pas étudié le niveau 0 p.100 de sous-produit (c.f. matériel et méthode), les résultats obtenus font l'objet du tableau N°5. Au niveau des régimes à base de son de riz et de tourteau de coton, le taux de substitution augmente avec le pourcentage de sous-produit dans la ration.Au niveau des régimes à base de graine de coton, et ceux qui sont composés par le tourteau d'arachide, le taux de substitution (S) a été plus élevé que les valeurs habituellement rencontrées dans la littérature pour des régimes composés d'aliments concentrés classiques (céréales + Tourteaux) .Les taux de substitution ont été par exemple de S = 0,45 pour la graine de coton et S = 0,69 pour le tourteau d'arachide contre S = 0,30, dans un essai de Shrestha et Col (1972)  (Schneider, 1947(Schneider, et I.N.R.A., 1978)). La différence a été surtout importante pour la mélasse de canne. Ceci peut s'expliquer d'abord par la différence de composition chimique, que nous venons de signaler et la méthode de calcul utilisée pour déterminer la digestibilité des sous-produits (c.f. aux résultats de Berge, 1982).Les valeurs énergétiques des sous-produits sont portées au tableau N°7. Elles sont exprimées en unité fourragère Lait (U.F.L.) et en unité fourragère viande (UFV). Elles ont été calculées à partir des équations proposées par l' INRA (1978) dans le manuel \" Alimentation des Ruminants\", des formules d'estimation de l'énergie brute des aliments concentrés de Schieinman et Col (1971) et de celle de la digestibilité de l'énergie des aliments concentrés de Nehring et Col (1963).Ces valeurs doivent être considérées comme indicatives de l'ordre de grandeur Se la valeur énergétique des sous-produits étudiés. En effet les formules utilisées sont établies pour des aliments concentrés et des fourrages en zone tempérée, destinée à du bétail amélioré.II -5°/ Valeur azotée des sous-produits (c.f tableau N°7)Elle a été calculée par la formule = % MAD = DMA x % MAT.Il est à noter que les MAT des régimes à base de son de riz, graine de coton et mélasse de canne ont été corrigés avec de l'urée. Ceci a du certainement entrainé une surestimation de la valeur azotée de ces sous-produits.Les quelques idées qu'on peut retenir de ces essais sont les suivantes:-La d.m.o. de la paille de riz, aliment grossier, peut être améliorée an l'associant à un aliment qui lui apporte de l'azote nécessaire au bon fonctionnement de la micropopulation du rumen et la méthode de régression permet de mieux apprécier l'effet du complément azoté comparativement au calcul par différence.-La graine de coton, aliment assez riche en membranes (26,9 % de c.b.), (47,1 % de NDF) et en lignine (7,1 %) est mal consommée par les moutons à partir de 30 p. 100 dans leur ration.-Le tourteau d'arachide mal conservé peut influencer la quantité de M.S.V.I. des régimes.Le son de riz et le tourteau de coton ont été moins encombrant que la graine de coton et le tourteau d'arachide. Le son de riz a été à son tour moins encombrant que le tourteau de coton entre les niveaux 2 et 3 de sous-produits.-La mélasse de canne a été très faiblement digérée par nos moutons et dans les conditions de notre expérience (d.m.o. = 71 % contre 91 % pour la littérature).-Enfin, nos moutons semblent mieux digérés les membranes que les montons des pays tempérés.Abou Raya et Col (1976) P. Berge, ( 1982) rapportent que la nature du fourrage peut aussi influencer la digestibilité des aliments concentrés.Par contre, la digestibilité de la c.b. de la plupart de nos sous-produits est plus élevée que celle des tables étrangères (d.c.b. = 12,0 à 15 points p.100 excepté au niveau de la graine de coton, pour laquelle les valeurs des tables de Schneider, (1947)  Pour établir le profil biochimique, nous avons pris 50 béliers âgés de 2 à 5 ans, vivant en zone Darmous selon un élevage extensif. Les animaux présentaient des signes de fluorose dentaire de degré allant de 2 à 5 selon la classification de Dean (1942). Tous les animaux ont fait l'objet, en outre, de prélèvements de mandibules pour y déterminer le taux de fluor.Parallèlement 50 moutons répondant aux mêmes caractéristiques de race, d'âge et entretenus selon un mode d'élevage comparable mais vivant en zone non \"fluorée\" ont été utilisés pour établir les \"valeurs de références\".I -3. Les prélèvements.Sur chaque animal deux prélèvements ont été effectués: le premier de 5 ml sur mélange anticoagulant (fluorure + Oxalate) a été destiné à l'analyse du glucose; le second de 10 ml a été effectué dans des tubes secs pour la détermination des autres paramètres sanguins. Le sang est ensuite centrifugé à 3000 g pendant Le fluor osseux des animaux témoins correspond aux valeurs de référence habituellement rapportées dans la littérature. En revanche les animaux vivant en zone Darmous présentent un taux de fluor osseux, fortement élevé. Les conditions d'élevage des 2 groupes d'animaux étant similaires, on peut alors supposer que les modifications biochimiques observées chez les animaux de la zone Darmous sont essentiellement dues aux effets de la fluorose.Dans cette étude, la calcémie des animaux vivant en zone Darmous est plus faible que celle des animaux témoins et à la limite inférieure de celle rapportée habituellement. Cette hypocalcémie relative est en accord avec celle souvent rapportée lors de fluorose aiguë ou subaiguë chez le mouton; une hypocalcémie a été, en outre, observée lors de fluorose chronique dans la même espèce (Zumpt, 1975). La chute de la calcémie serait en relation avec l'abaissement de l'absorption du calcium dans l'intestin par le fluor (Poey et al, 1976) et à la formation, dans l'os, de fluoro-apatite, produit stable ne participant pas aux échanges avec le sang. La diminution de la magnésiémie observée dans cette étude a été également rapportée lors de fluorose expérimentale chez le singe (Armand, 1971), le rat (Armstrong, 1970) et le mouton (Egyed and Shlosberg, 1975). Cette hypomagnésiémie serait due à la fixation massive du magnésium dans l'os et le rein (Soldatovic and Nedeljkovic, 1974). En revanche, la phosphatémie a été rapportée inchangée (Gentile et al, 1975) comme dans cette expérimentation.La glycémie des animaux vivant en zone Darmous présente une diminution importante par rapport à celle des animaux témoins. Chez les ruminants, elle est normalement faible et assez variable (en fonction en particulier, des conditions d'élevage, du régime alimentaire...). Hewett (1974) rapporte, par ailleurs, qu'une alimentation riche en phosphore -comme c'est le cas en zone Darmous -est susceptible d'abaisser la glycémie chez les bovins et les ovins. Des recherches récentes (Leeman and Stahel, 1972) ont mis en évidence l'effet inhibiteur du fluorure sur la multiplication de la flore ruminale laquelle est indispensable à la dégradation de la cellulose en acides gras volatils précurseurs du glucose.Des perturbations de la fonction hépatique ont été rapportées lors de fluorose chronique avec chute du taux de sérumalbumine (Kaur et al, 1978) avec, comme conséquence, une diminution des protéines sériques totales (Jones. 1972). Nos résultats sont en accord avec ces observations. Nous notons en outre, une inversion du rapport albumines/globulines qui est une donnée , constante des affections hépatiques chroniques (Boyd, 1970).communication between different countries and locations, with their different production problems. One important advantage of this of course, is continuous awareness of the problems of each other in the context for a search for solutions.The fact remains however that in general, whereas in the developed countries where widespread application of the results of scientific research has led to a quantum jump in animal production efficiency, the situation in the developing countries has been generally small, and the overall contribution to development small. Outstanding success has been achieved in some enterprises, for example beef production based on sugarcane by-products, but the success has been all too often central to the enterprise.By comparison, with small ruminants, where the situation is even more backward, there has been inadequate development of efficient management systems that involve the animals and the feed resources. Efforts to improve efficiency appear to have been based on similar applications of the same results, coupled with the difficulties in translating techniques from temperate to tropical environments.Let me dwell very briefly on the feed resource base which is so central to efficient feeding systems and hence, high performance in small ruminants. In the search for encouraging maximum utilisation of the available feed resources, it is essential to have detailed information of the quantities of the agro-industrial by-product and non-conventional feeds available, seasonality of production, nutritive value, limiting factors to their utilisation (e.g. toxins and tannins) and effectiveness in feeding systems. Such inventories enable a demarcation between identifying major by-products, that is those that from a major base in a feeding system (e.g. rice straw), as opposed to secondary by-products which are supplements in the diet (e.g. cotton seed cake).Prof. Haenlein gave an important overview on the principles of feeding and emphasized that these were essentially the same irrespective of where it was applied. He drew particular reference to the need to apply what is already known, information on which has been summarised with the N.R.C. publication in 1981 of the Nutrient Requirements of Goats. He also drew attention to the peculiar characteristics of goats versus sheep.The papers by Drs Bacayoko, Karangwa and Kassambara were of particular interest in that they provided information in the efforts to utilise practical diets based on locally available feeds in Mali and Rwanda. Studies such as these are not only important from the standpoint of a demonstrable means to increasing performance in these animals, but also eventually providing innovative packages of technology that can be adopted by small farmers.Dr Benlamin presented an interesting paper on the water balance in Dman sheep in Morocco and how this is affected by both climatic components as well as during the different phases of the life of the animal, such as during gestation and lactation.Dr Njwe provided new information on the protein requirements of Blackbelly sheep in the Cameroon and how such requirements compared with similar estimates for other breeds. Such studies are useful in reflecting how such breeds utilise dietary nitrogen in a particular situation which obviously also has a bearing on the formulation of practical diets.The study of Dr Kessabi indicated the importance of such specific nutrients as flourine in the diet of sheep in Morocco, and particular effects on the animals. This study emphasized the need to take cognisance of the importance in nutrition, of limiting, or regulating non-nutritional factors.There was considerable discussion on differences between the digestive efficiency between goats and sheep and how to best utilise the available feeds throughout Africa. The general consensus was that tremendous opportunities exist for investigating the feeding behaviour between goats and sheep, possible differences in digestive physiology, appropriate feeding systems and methods to encourage utilisation of the available feeds. I feel that this session while, successfully discussing fairly thoroughly these various issues, also underlined the need for continuing research and development on all these aspects as an important means to increase the productivity from goats and sheep in Africa. Les problèmes de reproduction chez les petits ruminants sont fondamentaux, car ce sont eux qui représentent les principaux facteurs de supériorité de ces espèces par rapport aux grands herbivores polygastriques.Plusieurs observations ont mis en évidence l'excellence capacité reproductrice des Petits Ruminants Africains Tropicaux fondée sur:-une prolificité, moyenne chez les ovins, bonne à excellente chez les caprins -un taux de fertilité élevé -un intervalle entre mise-bas moyen mais qui peut être rapidement amélioré par sélection en conditions alimentaires et d'exploitation favorables.-une absence de saisonnement des périodes de reproduction, de sorte que, théoriquement, les Petits Ruminants Africains sont susceptibles de reproduire tout au long d l'année.-de la capacité reproductrice de ces espèces -de leur potentiel de croit plus élevé on peut estimer leur productivité théorique bien supérieure à celle des bovins.Exemple: La capacité de charge thionique des parcours naturels est estimée à 150 Kgs/ha. Ceci représente 0,6 UGBT (Unité Gros Bétail Tropical) ou 3,6 UPRT (Unité Petit Ruminant Tropical) soit 2,5 chèvres suitées.Ce qui fournira respectivement:-37,5 Kgs poids vif annuel de bovin à l'hectare en tenant compte qu'un bovin Ankole met au moins 4 ans pour atteindre son poids d'abattage.-et de 91,875 Kgs poids vif annuel de caprin à l'hectare, se décomposant en:-82,5 Kgs de chevreau (indice de fécondité 1,65 poids d'abattage atteint en 12 mois/20 Kgs) -9,375 Kgs de chèvre de réforme (âge de réforme: 6 ans, soit ±15% de réforme annuellement).Cet exemple assez simpliste démontre que la supériorité théorique des P.R. est fondée, pour sa plus grande part, sur un potentiel reproductif élève.A l'heure actuelle, ce dernier est cependant encore largement contrebalancé par les facteurs pathologiques qu'entraîne un pourcentage fort élevé de pertes, principalement dans le jeune âge. Il n'est pas interdit de penser toutefois que, tout comme dans les autres espèces, un programme prophylactique soigneux et adapté à la situation sanitaire régionale permettra de juguler ces pertes dans une proportion appréciable.Rappelons rapidement que, sur 10 ans, l'effectif ovin ne s'est accru en Afrique que de 5,75%, soit de 0,58% l'an, tandis que l'effectif caprin connaissait une progression de 7,54 soit 0,75% annuellement (*Source: FAO Annuaire de la Production, 1979).Or les caractéristiques moyennes généralement admises font état pour ces espèces de:-taux de fécondité % 90-150 (X=120) 95-185 (X=140)-taux d'exploitation % 25-30 25-35En ne tenant pas compte des mortalités, le taux de croit aurait du se situer entre 60 et 125% pour les ovins et 60 à 160% pour les caprins, pour cette même période.On en déduira ainsi l'importance considérable des contraintes pathologiques rencontrées dans l'élevage des Petits Ruminants, et frappant préférentiellement les jeunes.Par cette méthode, on a pu ainsi constater que les chèvres pouvaient être très rapidement saillies après la mise-bas.Le record est détenu par un sujet ayant repris le bouc 13 jours après chevrotage.La moyenne s'établit à 66,59 jours (écart-type: 30,64) pour l'intervalle entre mise-bas et saillie fécondante mais les variations individuelles sont très importantes.Ce chiffre est très proche de celui obtenu par le laboratoire de Recherches Vétérinaires et Zootechniques de Farcha (Tchad) sur la chèvre Massakory: 68 jours.Ce gain est-il souhaitable? Non, d'après Rombaut et Van Vlaenderen qui constatent dans la race ovine Djallonke une diminution de poids des produits à la naissance au fur et à mesure des agnelages, lorsque ceux-ci sont trop rapprochés. Cette diminution serait due à l'épuisement de l'organisme maternel. Cela nia cependant pas été remarqué sur la même race au Cameroun. On rappellera toutefois que les observations de Rombaut et Van Vlaenderen ont été faites en milieu rural, celles de Vallerand et Branckaert en station où les conditions alimentaires étaient plus satisfaisantes.On retiendra que l'intervalle entre mises-bas est le paramètre le plus variable dans le calcul de l'indice de fécondité et qu'il peut être amélioré de diverses manières: par sélection, par amélioration du niveau alimentaire, par modification des conditions d'exploitation.Saisonnement de la reproduction.Les observations concluent unanimement à l'absence de saisonnement chez la plupart des races tropicales africaines de P.R., il s'agit là d'un avantage appréciable, que l'on peut mettre peut-être sur le compte de la faible amplitude des variations de rythme nycthéméral, en régions intertropicales.En effet, à Ngozi (Burundi) des chèvres alpines importées de France et régulièrement saisonnées ont fourni des descendantes qui ne l'étaient plus.A l'encontre de cette explication on mentionnera toutefois, que des chèvres naines importées du Zaire au Parc de Plankendael (Belgique) ont continué à présenter un polyoestrus permanent.On signalera enfin que, même en l'absence de saisonnement marqué, les P.R. des zones sahéliennes -où les variations du rythme nycthéméral sont plus prononcées qu'à proximité de l'équateur présentent un certain regroupement des mises-bas (environ 40% à 60% à certaines époques de l'année.Mais cela ne serait-il pas en relation avec des conditions alimentaires améliorées au moment de la saillie fécondante?Par exemple, le mouton du Nord-Tchad et plus encore la chèvre de la même région, mettent bas de préférence en saison sèche froide, ce qui correspondrait à une saillie fécondante de saison des pluies.Le même phénomène se rencontre chez la chèvre rousse de Maradi et Haumesser avance, entre autres hypothèses, que les chèvres lâchées sur les chaumes après récolte bénéficient alors d'un flushing naturel.On retiendra ainsi que si dans certaines zones, une certaine forme de saisonnement est perceptible, elle est probablement plus sous la dépendance de facteurs alimentaires que des conditions climatiques Des études supplémentaires devraient être poursuivies sur ce sujet car il est certain que dans les zones où cette forme de saisonnement existe, elle influe sur l'indice de fécondité en augmentant l'I.M.B.On signalera, pour terminer, un autre fait d'observation; c'est le regroupement assez spectaculaire des mises-bas à certaines périodes du mois. Ainsi, chez la chèvre burundaise qui n'est pas maisonnée -on rencontre chaque mois des \"vagues de mises-bas\", suivies de périodes creuses.L'activité sexuelle mâle et femelle serait-elle plus intense à certaines époques ou en relation avec certaines conditions climato-écologiques? Il n'est pas encore possible de répondre à ces questions.Age à la première mise-bas.Il est très variable suivant les régions et les races. Les animaux les plus précoces peuvent mettre bas déjà à 10 mois, les plus tardifs à plus de 24 mois.Cependant dans ces dernières races cet âge peut être sensiblement abaissé par une complémentation alimentaire ou un traitement régulier contre les verminoses.On peut se demander par ailleurs s'il est utile de faire saillir prématurément les jeunes femelles, dont la croissance n'est pas terminée et où les besoins alimentaires foetaux peuvent donc sérieusement concurrencer les besoins maternels, et entraîner des conséquences fâcheuses à la fois pour la mère et pour le jeune.Ainsi, Rombaut et Van Vlaenderen ont observé une augmentation significative:-des avortements -des mortalités de jeunes chez les brebis Djallonke saillies entre 4 à 8 mois par rapport aux brebis adultes.On mentionnera également la plus grande fréquence de dystocies chez des primipares trop précoces, aboutissant souvent à la mort du produit, bloqué au niveau du détroit antérieur ou postérieur du bassin.Il serait peut être utile de fixer pour chaque race un poids optimal pour le passage à la reproduction. A titre d'exemple' celui-ci a été estimé à 18 Kgs pour la chèvre burundaise. C'est à ce poids que les antennaises passent de la classe des sevrés à celle des reproductrices. Suivant les sujets, il peut être atteint entre 8 et 12 mois.Pour leur part, Wilson et Durkin recensent un poids de 16,9 Kgs chez la chèvre malienne et de 23,4 Kgs chez la brebis sahélienne du même pays, lors de la première saillie fécondante.Les observations sont peu nombreuses, et ne font que confirmer les chiffres habituellement retenus, soit -chez les ovins: un cycle de 17-18 jours avec un oestrus de 36 heures en moyenne.-chez les caprins: un cycle de 20-22 jours avec un oestrus de 24 à 48 heures.Robinet signale cependant chez la chèvre de Maradi une réapparition des chaleurs assez irrégulière de 15 à 30 jours à Maradi jusqu'à 66 jours à Sokoto.En absence de toute cause pathologique, la 1ère saillie est fécondante dans plus de 75% des cas, du moins chez la chèvre.Durée de gestation.Aussi bien chez les ovins que chez les caprins, elle se situe aux alentours de 5 mois. Elle est un peu plus courte chez la chèvre naine d'Afrique de l'Ouest.Poids des jeunes à la naissance.Ils sont extrêmement variables d'une race à l'autre mais toutes les observations concordent pour affirmer:-que les mâles sont toujours plus lourds que les femelles -que les produits issus de portées simples sont toujours plus lourds que ceux issus de portées multiples.Il peut exister des différences considérables entre des produits d'une même portée.Ainsi nous avons pu observer une portée double de chevreaux où le mâle pesait 3,9 Kgs à la naissance, et la femelle seulement 1,2 Kgs.-qu'une liaison étroite existe entre le poids du nouveau-né et son espérance de vie.Elle est généralement aux alentours de 50/50.Cependant, dans la race Djallonke, Berger et Ginistry relèvent un taux de masculinité de 57%.Toujours en Côte d'Ivoire des essais sont actuellement poursuivis pour déséquilibrer artificiellement la répartition sexuelle en faveur des femelles.Les observateurs font état de données extrêmement variables: de 0% chez le mouton Oudah nigérien à près de 60% chez le Djallonke;De 4% chez la chèvre tchadienne de Batha à prés de 30% chez la chèvre Massakory dans le même pays.Ce paramètre dépend étroitement des conditions locales dans lesquelles évolue le troupeau. On citera pêle-mêle: le mode de conduite, l'hébergement, l'alimentation, l'âge des reproductrices, les différents agents pathologiques spécifiques ou non à l'appareil de la reproduction.Assez fréquentes sont dues à la conjugaison d'une grande précocité sexuelle à une sous alimentation et à une lutte non contrôlée. Les jeunes femelles laissées en liberté avec des mâles entiers, atteignent la puberté alors que leur développement morphologique n'est pas achevé. Elles sont ainsi saillies trop tôt et ne peuvent terminer leur développement, compte tenu des priorités nutritionnelles du foetus particulièrement pendant les six dernières semaines.A la mise-bas, elles éprouvent de grosses difficultés de parturition qui nécessitent généralement pas d'intervention chirurgicale mais qui aboutiront souvent à la mort du produit, bloqué au niveau du détroit antérieur ou postérieur du bassin.Ce paramètre, associé à celui de la capacité de maintenir un rythme de reproduction soutenu a été peu étudié. Pour ce faire, il convient en effet, de suivre pendant de longues années, la carrière reproductrice d'un nombre important d'individus. Si, en station, cette pratique peut être instaurée, en organisant un service d'archives bien suivi, sa réalisation devient presque impossible en milieu rural traditionnel.A titre d'exemple, Vallerand et Branckaert ont pu -après neuf années d'observation -établir que la moyenne d'agnelage de la brebis Djallonke camerounaise tournait autour de 7 avec un âge moyen de réforme de 6 à 6,5 ans.La potentiel reproductif des Petits Ruminants tropicaux semble excellent.Certains paramètres en sont améliorables, particulièrement l'intervalle entre mises-bas, ainsi que certaines formes de saisonnement qui peuvent l'influencer.Fertilité et prolificité sont par contre des paramètres liés à l'espèce ou à la race et ne semblent pas pouvoir être bonifiés, du moins en race pur.Il apparais ainsi que les principales contraintes au développement de l'élevage des P.R. ne sont pas liées à la reproduction, mais plutôt au mode de gestion, aux conditions alimentaires et surtout aux problèmes sanitaires.Les P.R. ne pourront véritablement extérioriser leur excellentes capacités reproductrices que si ces dernières contraintes sont jugulées dans des systèmes de production adaptés où les programmes prophylactiques devraient avoir une part importante, de pair avec une alimentation suffisante et équilibrée.Les P.R., remarquablement adaptés à la plupart des régions tropicales africaines, pourraient alors jouer un rôle de plus en plus important dans les systèmes intégrés de production agricole de nombreux pays où l'explosion démographique combinée à des conditions d'accueil inhospitalières rend de plus en plus aléatoire l'élevage des grands herbivores polygastriques. - The various breeds of sheep and ecotypes of the Sudan were described by McLeroy (1961 a & b). On a very general classification he grouped the animals into 2 main categories. The large Desert Sheep breeds (>40 kg) and the small Nilotic breeds (<25 kg). Moreover, various grades of sheep and ecotypes have resulted from the continuous contact among nomadic pastoralists. Of less importance are three other minor breeds, namely, the Zaghawa, the Fellata and the Fat tailed (or Fat rumped) breeds. Of these, the large breeds are the predominant. They are in high demand for their better meat and milk qualities both for home consumption and export. However, performance recording of these important types of sheep is very limited. This situation urged us to design studies to collect information of various reproductive and productive traits of some of the Desert type breeds of sheep.The flock of sheep in this study was procured by direct purchase from Um'Durman Animal market and kept at the University of Khartoum Farm during the study. The Farm is situated on the eastern bank of the Nile at latitude 15°40'N and longitude 32°32'E. The climate of the Province is described as semi-arid or semi-desert (Adam, 1975 andWhiteman, 1971). It indicates a hot climate (Table 1) with variable rainfall mainly falling in the period of June to September. The rest of the year is dry forcing agriculture to rely on irrigation from the River Nile. The relative humidity is variable reaching a maximum of 68% in August -the peak of the rainy season. The minimum is usually in April.Temperatures are characteristically high in the summer, ranging between a maximum of 47.5-38°C in May and July and low in winter reaching sometimes a minimum of 5°C in January.En partant d'un troupeau initial de 200 brebis et 20 béliers nourris au pâturage avec complémentation en concentrés pendant une période de deux ans, on a relevé les caractéristiques de performance de deux types d'ovins du Soudan. L'expérience qui a débuté par des examens cliniques, des traitements anthelmintiques et l'analyse du lait pour déceler d'éventuelles traces de brucella a duré deux ans et a permis de relever plusieurs variables.L'analyse statistiques a donné les résultats suivants: (a) les poids moyens à la naissance (3,994 kg), plus élèves chez les mâles, étaient comparables à ceux des autres races tropicales de grande taille; (b) le rapport des sexes était de 52,4 % en faveur des mâles; (c) la durée de l'oestrus était en moyenne de 21 ±3 jours, les conceptions distribuées tout au long de l'année et la durée des gestations de 154 ±4 jours; (d) les taux de conception étaient de 74,6 % la première année et de 63,8 % la deuxième; (e) les taux de reproduction atteignaient 131 % et le nombre de petits par reproductrice était de 1,29 par an; (f) les taux de survie étaient de 83,7 % avec des taux de pertes prénatales de 10,8 %.S'il est vrai que toute politique d'amélioration de l'élevage ovin doit passer par la sélection des races les plus productives, le taux de survie s'est avéré déterminant et au Soudan, il est généralement faible.The low rainfall and high temperature result in a high evaporation rate. In the area around the University Farm Piche evaporimeter reached a maximum of 21 mm in April (period of maximum radiation) to a minimum of 10 mm in August.ii) The Foundation FlockThe foundation flock was made up initially of 200 ewes and 20 rams, formed of a merger of two flocks; an old and a newly purched group of animals. x) All the animals were housed randomly in two adjacent half-roofed conventional pens. Concentrates were provided in troughs inside the pens after the animals' return from grazing that took place between 7-11 a.m. Animals were grazed on crop residues of the University Farm. Occasionally, barseem (Medicago saliva) was offered in the afternoon when available. The concentrates provided was home-mixed and made up of: wheatbran, 35%; Sorghum grans, 30%; cotton seed cake, 25%; mollases... etc., 9% and sodium chloride, 1%.Feeding of concentrates was according to the production cycle of the animal and age. Salt licks and water were provided an libitum.x) This was financed by a grant from IFS.All animals were clinically examined on the day of purchase and thereafter every two months. They are drenched with an anthelmintic and their milk was checked for bruchellosis.All animals were ear-tagged and records were collected on several aspects of performance. In this report, we present data for 2 years on reproductive traits.Statistical analysis was performed according to Snedecor and Cochran (1967).i) Birth weight Birth weights, their standard errors and coefficients of variation for males and females in the flock. The average birth weight was higher in males than in females by 0.249 kg (Table 2).Birth weight is a reflection of the maternal abilities of the ewe (Bowman, 1966) and is important for survival. The average birth weight (3.994 kg) compares favourably well with other large tropical breed (Eliya & Juma, 1970).The sex ratio at birth was 52.4% in favour of males, though the difference was not statistically significant (P >0.05).ii) Duration of Oestrus and Lambing Rate Thirty ewes were selected for a close observation of the duration of the oestrus cycle using a teaser ram. The duration of the oestrus cycle was 21 ±5 days.Lambing was distributed all the year round, but the period between May and August have experienced the least lambings. It is evident that summer lambing were the least preferred and it seemed that there was a very long lambing season extending between October and March. This probably coincided with pregnancies occurring when day length was maximal in the period: March to September. However, further studies are required since these extended lambing seasons with lambings all the year round are quite common in Tropical Sheep (Reyneke, 1969).The 30 ewes studied for duration of oestrus were synchronized and observed for the calculation of the oestrus. Of the thirty ewes, twenty conceived during the observation period with a gestation length of 154 ±4 days and a range of 147-166 days.iii) Ewe Fertility and Reproductive Rate Ewe fertility was calculated as (a) ewes conceiving of total present at mating; (b) ewes lambing of those present at lambing time.Over the two years studied conception rate was 74.6% and 63.8% respectively.Reproductive rate was measured in terms of the percentage of lambs born per ewe lambing as 131%. The number of offspring per breeding female per year was found to be 1.29 lambs.Effective survival rate was measured as the number of lambs weaned to those born alive. All ewes that were pregnant at the time of purchase were excluded. The overall survival rate was 83.7%. Prenatal losses from abortions and stillbirths were in the region of 10.8%. Postnatal loss was not significantly affected by the type of birth, though it was higher in multiple births of twins and triplets (21.6%) and was not affected by sex of the lamb (P> 0.05).However, it was observed that most of the postnatal losses (53.0%) occurred in the first month of the preweaning period which extended to 4 months post-birth.The improvement of sheep production in the Sudan depends upon several factors. Of these: (a) The selection of the relevant breed(s) with sufficient numbers (b) Method of husbandry practiced (c) Reproduction (d) Prolificacy (e) Performance recording of important traits.Sheep were less fortunate than cattle and horses in the Sudan. The few studies conducted on sheep production (Osman and El-Shafie, 1967;Osman, El-Shafie and Mukhtar, 1968;Osman, El-Shafie and Khatab, 1970;Gaili, Ghanem and Mukhtar, 1972;Elamin, 1975;Elamin and Rizgalla, 1976;Wilson, 1975;Suliman, Elamin and Osman, 1977) were mainly on feedlot performance and carcass traits. Parameters collected on reproduction and weights for age were rather few when compared to European breeds (Owen, 1971).Reproductive traits in sheep are influenced by several genetic and non-genetic factors (Turner, 1966 andDonald andRead, 1967). The genetic improvement depends upon management, nutrition and amelioration of the adverse environmental conditions under which sheep live and produce.Since lambing efficiency and ewe fertility varies between breeds, it is necessary to study these traits by collecting and evaluating more breeds. Reproductive traits are a function of management and therefore proper supplementation of feed at the required time is of paramount in importance. Sheep kept under extensive conditions, like most animals in the Sudan, reveal considerable variation in lambing performance because of the variability in feed availability during different seasons. Generally, winter lambings are to be preferred to summer lambings because pregnancies will occur in the former during and following the rainy season, when pasture is lush and temperatures mild.In any breeding flock the most important criteria influencing economic production in the percentage of lambs weaned per ewe lambing. This depends upon survival which increases the number of lambs available for both a high selection intensity and lambs culled for sales. It was shown from this and other studies that survival rates of lambs are low in the Sudan.  Les résultats obtenus chez la brebis peulh bicolore ne diffèrent pas de ceux déjà connus chez d'autres races tropicales (REVERON et al, 1976;SULIMAN et al, 1978) ou européennes (HANRAHAN et QUIRKE, 1975;DYRMUNDSSON, 1978) La durée moyenne du cycle oestral varie de 15 .7 ±0 .1 à 17.1 ±0.1 jours ( ± s.e.m) , celle de l'oestrus de 39.9 ±3.7 à 52.  et al. 1969;THIMONIER et RESTALL, 1977).2) Endocrinologie du cycle oestral de la gestation et de l'anoestrus post-partum a) Evolution de la progestérone plasmatique -Pedant le cycle oestral:Le cycle oestral est conventionnellement divisé en 2 phases en rapport avec l'activité sécrétoire du corps jaune (THORBURN et al, 1969): une phase de lutéo-secrétion caractérisée par la synthèse et la libération de progestérone dans le sang et une phase de lutéolyse marquée par la disparition de progestérone plasmatique. On retrouve ces 2 phases au cours du cycle oestral chez la brebis peulh. Pour étudier les divers aspects de cette sécrétion, l'évolution du niveau de progestérone dans le sang périphérique est alors ajustée à un modèle de type logistique pendant la phase lutéale et exponentielle décroissante pendant la lutéolyse (Fig. la et 2). Le tableau 2 montre les valeurs des paramètres d'ajustement calculées sur un échantillon de 5 brebis peulhs. Au moment de l'oestrus, la concentration de progestérone (niveau de base f(0) est très faible (0.01 à 0.07 ng/ml). Elle augmente à partir du 2è -3è jour selon un taux Pi qui est maximum (0.09 à 0.27 ng/ml/jour) vers les 4è et 6è jours du cycle (Ti). La concentration de progestérone est maximale vers les 13è et 15è jours du cycle (Tr); elle est comprise entre 1.14 ±0.08 et 1.5 ng/ml. La décroissance du niveau de progestérone à partir de la concentration maximale débute 1 à 2 jours avant l'oestrus; elle se fait de façon très brutale à un taux variant entre -0.75 ±0.1 et -2.60 ±0.8 ng/ml/jour.-Pedant la gestation L'évolution de la progestérone est décrite par 2 fonctions de type logistique s'adaptant respectivement aux phases lutéale et placentaire (fig. 1b et 3). Les paramètres résumant l'ensemble des courbes sont rapportes au tableau 3. La concentration plasmatique de progestérone et sa variation au cours de 42 à 78 premiers jours de gestation sont similaires à celles de la phase lutéale du cycle oestral. Le niveau maximum (q 1 ) atteint au cours de cette phase varie entre 1.2 et 1.9 ng/ml. Ceci est en accord avec les résultats de DENAMUR et MARTINET (1955) qui montrent que le corps jaune constitue la source principale de progestérone pendant les 50 premiers jours de gestation et que l'augmentation significative de la progestérone après cette période est d'origine placentaire.La vitesse de croissance du niveau de progestérone pendant la phase placentaire est beaucoup plus faible que pendant la phase lutéale (0.08 à 0.17 ng/ml/jour contre 0.28 à 0.34 ng/ml/jour). Le niveau maximum de progestérone atteint au cours de la phase placentaire varie entre 6.3 et 10,5 ng/ml. La chute progressive de progestérone intervient 1 à 4 jours avant la mise-bas.-Pendant l'anoestrus post-partum.A partir du 4è jour post-partum, la progestérone est pratiquement indétectable dans le plasma (0 à 0.05 ng/ml jusqu'aux 28è -33è jours après la mise-bas (figure 4) . La reprise de l'activité ovarienne qui intervient à ce moment se traduit soit par un faible accroissement de progestérone pendant une courte durée (12 à 13 jours), soit par un accroissement normal mais prolonge du niveau de cette hormone (37 jours) (Tableau 4). La faible teneur en progestérone qui caractérise les premiers cycles pendant l'anoestrus post-partum peuvent être la conséquence de l'hyperprolactinemie (voir paragraphe I -2 -b) ou d'une réduction du niveau de LH préovulatoire (SCHAMS et al, 1978). La prolongation de l'activité lutéale au moment de la reprise de l'activité ovarienne peut être due soit à une endométrite et à un retard dans l'involution utérine (STUPNICKI et al. 1975;SCHAMS et al, 1978) soit à une déficience en gonadotrophine (RESTALL, 1978). Par contre le second cycle post-partum qui suit le 1 er oestrus a des paramètres similaires à ceux d'un cycle normal. TCHMITCHIAN et al (1973) observent sur des brebis ROMANOV que les saillies après un cycle court sont moins efficaces qu'après un cycle normal. On peut donc supposer que les brebis peulhs peuvent être mises en reproduction à l'apparition du premier oestrus post-partum soit environ 43 jours après la mise-bas.b) Evolution de la prolactine plasmatique -Au cours du cycle oestral.Des prélèvements sanguins biquotidiens montrent qu'au cours de la période inter-oestral, le niveau de prolactine est généralement inférieur à 100 ng/ml, tandis que pendant l'oestrus la concentration peut atteindre 350 ng/ml (Fig. 2). Au moment du proestrus (J-2 et J-1) la fréquence de nos prélèvements n'a pas permis de mettre en évidence cependant, les variations très brèves de la prolactine à la différence de KANN (1971).-Au cours de la gestation L'évolution du niveau de prolactine suit un modèle biphasique lorsque la gestation se déroule au cours de la période allant de November a Janvier. La première phase d'accroissement du niveau de prolactine se situe toujours en Mars/Avril indépendamment du stade de la gestation (Figure 3). Elle coincide donc à cette époque de l'année avec un accroissement de la durée du jour et de la température (voir paragraphe II -1), facteurs considérés comme responsables de l'évolution du niveau de prolactine (TUCKER et WETTEMANN, 1976;SHETH et al, 1978). La 2è période d'accroissement de la prolactine observée après le 120è jour de gestation peut être due à une élévation du taux des oestrogènes plasmatiques (KANN et DENAMUR, 1974). Au moment de la mise-bas, il y a une élévation très marquée du niveau de prolactine. L'élévation des oestrogènes circulants et le stress sont les facteurs qui semblent stimuler la libération de prolactine pendant la période entourant la parturition (THORBURN et al, 1972).-Au cours de l'anoestrus post-partum Le niveau plasmatique de prolactine reste élevé après la parturition (300 à 530 ng/ml (Figure 4). Ce niveau se maintien encore après l'apparition du premier cycle post-partum. Cette hyperprolactinemie est responsable en partie du retard de la reprise de l'activité ovarienne après la mise-bas, de la faible teneur en progestérone et de la brève durée de la phase lutéale qui caractérisent le premier cycle post-partum (KANN et MARTINET, 1975;BOHNET et al, 1977;ROSS et HILLIER;1978). Nous avons vu au chapitre II -1 -b que le niveau plasmatique de prolactine présente un accroissement en Mars/Avril quelque soit le stade de la gestation si celle-ci a lieu au cours de la période de Novembre à Juin. Ceci laisse supposer l'existence d'un rythme saisonnier de sécrétion de la prolactine chez la brebis peulh. Cette hypothèse est confirmée en suivant quotidiennement l'évolution du niveau plasmatique de prolactine chez 6 brebis cycliques au cours de 2 années consécutives (Fig. 5).La concentration moyenne mensuelle de la prolactine suit une variation saisonnière parallèle à la durée du jour et à la température. Les concentration maximales (>200 ng/ml) sont observées en Avril/Mai moment où la durée du jour est la plus longue et ou la température moyenne est la plus élevée. Les concentrations minimales de prolactine (<100 ng/ml) coïncident avec les jours les plus courts et les températures les plus basses en Décembre/Janvier. Cependant l'étude de la régression de la concentration de prolactine en fonction de la durée du jour et de la température montre que seule l'intervention de la photopériode est significative (P< 0.025). Il semble donc que chez la brebis peulh bicolore comme chez d'autres races ovines étudiées dans les régions tempérées et froides (MUNRO et al, 1980;THIMONIER et al, 1978), la durée du jour est le principal facteur de l'environnement qui module le rythme de sécrétion de la prolactine.chez la brebis Blackface. Ils montrent que les brebis peulhs ont un potentiel de reproduction important, mais que les dysfonctionnements observés induisent une baisse de la fertilité comparable à celle des races qui ont un anoestrus saisonnier complet.En conclusion, notre étude montre que les caractéristiques de reproduction de la brebis peulh (cycle oestral, gestation, anoestrus post-partum) ne sont pas différentes de celles des autres races tropicales et européennes connues du point de vue de leurs durées et de leurs évolutions hormonales (progestérone et prolactine). Il en est de même du taux moyen d'ovulations qui est comparable à celui de certaines races africaines, européennes ou australiennes.La variation saisonnière de l'activité sexuelle exprimée en termes de pourcentages d'oestrus et d'ovulations enregistrés au cours de l'année est également conforme à ce qui est habituellement observé dans l'hémisphère Nord: l'activité de reproduction des brebis est minimale en photopériode et température croissantes. Pourtant, l'anoestrus qui apparaît chez la brebis peulh n'est pas marqué par une inactivité totale de l'ovaire comme c'est le cas chez les races élevées dans les régions tempérées et froides; il est caractérisé par des ovulations fréquemment silencieuses et irrégulières.Une particularité de la fonction de reproduction chez la brebis peulh est l'existence de corps jeunes persistants chez des animaux cycliques Anoestrus caractérisé par des ovulations fréquentes et irrégulières et corps jaunes persistants constituent probablement des formes d'adaptation de la brebis peulh au climat sahélien. La baisse de la fertilité qu'entraîne l'apparition de ces anomalies chez la brebis peulh est comparable à celle de certaines races des régions tempérées et froides.REMERCIEMENTS: Ce travail a bénéficié de deux soutiens financiers: la FIS à Stockholm (Suède) et l'AUPELF a Montreal (Canada).    The majority of the goats are kept by peasant farmers who usually have 8-15 animals. These are tethered in the fallow land between the cropping areas or along-side the roads. In some places however, the goats are grazed in herds of 20 to 40 or more animals, usually being looked after by the elderly or children. In the 1960s with the development of Ranches large herds of goats have been kept on the ranches being allowed to roam on their own unattended and returning in the evening for housing and protection against the predators.The indigenous goats of Uganda have been classified into three breeds or types (Mason and Maule 1960). They include: -1. The East African Dwarf goat (Small East African goat).2. The Mubende goat.3. The Kigezi goat.The small East African goat is the commonest and is of variable body size, 25-30 kg live weight although some castrates may reach 45 kg. These are hardy animals with fine, short and smooth coat of any colour or a mixture of colours. The horn size and shape are variable. They have been reported to be early maturing with good management, reaching puberty by 4 months at 14-16 kg live weight, breeding through-out the year and with 5-15 percent twin births.The Mubende goat is found in the good rainfall area north and west of Lake Victoria. This is a medium sized goat 28-45 kg live weight, black or black and white in colour. The hair is short and fine and horns turned back to the nape of the neck; some are polled. With Experimental station conditions kidding rate was reported to be up to 150% with kidding intervals of 3O0 days.The Kigezi goat is a small, long-haired animal found mostly in the colder district of Kigezi in South-Western Uganda.The colour is either black or grey and live weight 20-25 kg.The 1953 estimates of goats in Uganda put them at 2,727,700 (Wilson 1960). Now 30 years latter it appears the goat population is more or less the same. All the studies on the goat in Uganda so far have been on Experimental stations often with supplementary feeding (Wilson 1960, Sacker and Trail 1966and Kakusya 1976). It was there fore decided to look at the reproductive performance of the indigenous goat in as near as possible in conditions similar to what obtains with peasant farmers. It was also decided to study the reproductive hormone profiles with a view of finding artificial treatments that could increase the reproductive rate and goat production.Seven mature does and two mature bucks of the small East African goat were bought in November 1981. They were kept at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Makerere Campus. Makerere is within the city of Kampala, 0° 20 N, 32°3 5' E and at an altitude of 1300 metres. It is only 32 Km. from the equator and 6.4 km from the northern shores of Lake Victoria. Mean daily maximum temperature vary between 25-28°C and mean daily minimum temperatures 17 to 18°C. Relative humidity is 90-100 percent in the mornings but drops during -the day and is 70-60 percent during in the drier periods. Rainfall is well distributed through out the year with peaks in March-April-May and October and November. The annual rainfall is 1524 to 1778 mm in 160-170 days per year. It is relatively dry in December to February and June to September.The goats were tethered to graze daily in the paddocks between hours of 10.00 and 18.00 hour and were allowed to water in the evening. They were regularly dosed with a combination of Tetramisole hydrochloride and Oxyclozanide (Nilzan, Welcome E.A.) to control gastrointestinal parasites and were sprayed with Dioxathion (Delnav, Welcome E.A.) to control ectoparasites.The doe displays a number of signs during oestrus which are used to determine whether she is on heat or not. These include excessive bleating, frequent shaking of the tail, frequent urination, restlessness, mucus exudation from the vulva and being mounted by other does and bucks. It is however the last sign that is taken as a positive sign of oestrus, although the buck starts paying attention to the doe during pro-oestrus. In the present study being mounted, mucus exudation and erratic shaking of the tail with bleating were used in combination to diagnose oestrus, since these were shown to be major activities of psychic oestrus in the goat (Kakusya 1976).The two male goats were vasectomized and used for detection of oestrus by daily releasing them and observing the reproductive behaviour in the morning before turning the goats to pastures and in the evening before housing them for the night. Starting in March 1982, reproductive behaviour was recorded daily with respect to each female/male goat. Some of the does came while pregnant or became pregnant before the bucks were vasectomized. The kids born were recruited into the herd and their reproductive behaviour studied.All animals were weighed once a week and blood samples were taken twice a week from adult animal and once a week from the kids. Blood plasma was kept in a deep freezer for the hormonal studies.At the beginning of the study some animals were pregnant and some of the animals became accidentally pregnant by stray bucks. Thirty (30) complete cycles have been studied in the does and pubertal kids that were recruited into the experiment. These cycles were found to fall into three categories. The first category are cycles of about three weeks (Mean 18.4 ±1.6 days). These were 14 cycles (46.7%) and were considered to be normal cycles since oestrous cycles in the goat is reported to be 18-22 days (Kakusya 1976, De Haas & Horst 1979, Kakusya 1979). Nine of the cycles (30%) were two weeks or shorter and were designated short cycles (Mean 11.9 ±2.2 days). These are likely to be due to premature regression of the copora lutea, but we shall not be certain until the hormonal studies have been done. Seven of the cycles (23.3%) were long cycles varying from 37 to 133 days. When these long cycles were divided by 18.4 days they gave nearly whole numbers. This could mean either the oestrus was missed by our observation or otherwise they were ovulatory cycles without psychic oestrus -SILENT HEAT. If indeed the cycles were missed by the observer and the bucks then this would lead to lowered fertility. Silent heat is known to occur with the first oestrus after puberty or the first oestrus in the breeding season (Kakusya 1979). Could there be a seasonal tendency in the expression of oestrus in the indigenous goat in Uganda? A number of reports have already indicated that tropical breeds are aseasonally polyoestrus (Be Haas and Horst, 1979;Peters, Deithert, Drewes, Fichtner and Moll 1981), but since we know that the plane of nutrition can influence pituitary and ovarian function, is there not the possibility that during the dry period fertility may be reduced? These questions need more research before they can be answered. The frequency of observations could not allow the duration of oestrus to be determined. The majority of oestrus period were recorded only on one day, which would indicate that oestrus never lasted more than 24 hours. On a few occasions however oestrus run continuously for 3 to 5 days. In one such a goat, after being strungled by a rope due to harassment by a male, on a post mortem she was found to have cystic ovaries with no corpus luteum. How common this condition is would need further investigation. One expects this to be due to inadequate release of LH and failure of ovulation leading to infertility. If this is the cause it can be treated after diagnosis.With regard to accepting coitus by the doe, oddly enough a number of does accepted mating during pregnancy! Of the seven pregnancies recorded during four of the pregnancies the does were frequently mated by the bucks. This is a phenomenon which was also reported by Wilson (1960) and must be fairly common. The question is whether it is the circulating hormones of pregnancy which makes the female attractive to the males and to accept coitus or is it because the bucks are hypersexual and aggressive? Whatever the cause, it makes it difficult to diagnose pregnancy in the goat on just no-return to oestrus after mating! There have been few births during the experiment for a meaningful comment to be made. Gestation period was 144-156 days averaging 150 ±4.5 days. Of the seven recorded births, 4 were single births and three twin births. The 10 kids of these births, 4 were males and 6 females. Weight of the kids at birth average 2.1 ±0.30 kg. for single kids and 1.78±0.23 for twin kids. Age at first oestrus for the female kids varied from 242-326 days at the body weight of 13 to 16.5 kg. These results would agree with earlier studies which found that weight at birth is greater in single birth kids compared to multiple birth kids and higher for male kids compared to females, (Wilson 1960;Sucker and Trail, 1966;Kakusya 1976;Harvey & Rigg, 1969). Puberty was found to be earlier in higher plane of nutrition treatment compared to low plane nutrition, and body weight rather than age of the kid was the determining factor (Wilson 1960, Mason & Maule 1960). In the small East African goat twinning was reported to be 12.7% by Wilson (1960) and was increased by plane of nutrition and parity. Sacker and Trail (1966), give figures of 30% twinning and 1.7% triplets for Mubende goats. Thus multiple births are increased by a number of factors and these could be exploited to increase goat production provided the high mortality rate of kids could be avoided by better management and hygiene. The goat needs to be given more emphasis by the planners and policy-makers so that it makes a bigger contribution in the Animal Production sector.iii) du mécanisme physiologique qui pourrait expliquer la corrélation entre le taux de prolactine et l'activité sexuelle.Il lui est répondu que: i) les caractéristiques zootechniques n'ont pas été étudiées lors de l'étude, mais que, cependant le poids des animaux utilisés variait entre 30 et 60 kgs.ii) pour minimiser l'influence du stress sur la sécrétion de prolactine, c'est toujours le même manipulateurà savoir le chercheur lui-même -qui prélève le sang à la jugulaire le matin avant l'introduction du bélier pour le contrôle des chaleurs et le soir avant la distribution des aliments concentrés.iii) l'étude n'a pas porté sur la relation prolactine -activité sexuelle. Cependant d'après des résultats récents obtenus en laboratoire, tout laisse croire que la variation de l'activité sexuelle de la Brebis Peulh tout au long de la saison, est due à une baisse de l'activité intrinsèque des centres hypophysaires de sécrétion de LH et FSH.A la question du Dr Njwe R.M. de savoir si la ration alimentaire variable au cours de l'année en régions sahéliennes ne peut influencer les résultats observés, il est répondu que le régime alimentaire utilisé tout au long de l'expérimentation était équilibré et maintenu constant. Les animaux étaient en stabulation libre. Le facteur alimentation doit par conséquent être exclu dans les périodes d'apparition des anomalies ovariennes de janvier à avril. Cependant, il est probable qu'en conditions naturelles d'élevage où les disponibilités alimentaires sont variables, l'anvestrus constaté chez la Brebis Peulh soit plus long et plus \"profond\".Le Prof. Katongole fait observer que le taux de prolactine s'élève jusqu'à la 10e semaine de gestation et que l'activité endocrine du placenta s'élève aux alentours de la même date. L'essai peut-il différencier prolactine hypophysaire et prolactine placentaire?Il est répondu que les résultats font plutôt apparaître que l'élévation du taux de prolactine est indépendant du stade de la gestation. Par contre cette élévation a toujours lieu a la même époque de l'année, à savoir en mars, quel que soit le stade de la gestation. Cette élévation du taux de prolactine est donc à mettre plus sur le compte des conditions climatiques que de l'activité placentaire à ce moment.3. La physiologie de la Reproduction chez la Chèvre locale ougandaise. Le Dr Yenikoye intervient sur les cycles anormalement longs observés par le chercheur qui n'a donné comme seule explication que la présence probable de chaleurs silencieuses. Il pense qu'il faudrait y ajouter 2 autres possibilités, à savoir la présence de corps jaunes persistants, et l'allongement des phases folliculaires, tel que ces phénomènes ont été reconnus chez la Brebis Peulh. -les grandes dominantes pathologiques tels les pneumopathies, les troubles de la reproduction et les maladies transmises par les tiques ont été très peu étudiés. Des recherches sur les agents en cause, les mécanismes pathogéniques et les phénomènes immunologiques doivet être entrepris.-en règle générale, l'impact économique et les interrelations des maladies entre elles sont sous-estimés. Pour apprécier ces facteurs, des enquêtes d'écopathologie en continu sont indispensables.Although small ruminant production is a source of considerable wealth, our knowledge of sheep and goat pathology is fragmentary since these two species having been neglected for a long time. A review of results obtained shows that there are some shortcomings:-The most important diseases such as pneumopathic diseases, reproduction disorders and tick-borne diseases have hardly been studied. Research on the agents involved, on the pathogenic mechanisms and immunological phenomena should be undertaken.-In general, the economic impact and the interrelations between diseases are underestimated. Assessment of these factors require continuous ecopathological surveys.A l'heure actuelle, l'importance primordiale de l'élevage des petits ruminants dans les pays africains, n'est plus à démontrer:-complémentarité des élevages ovin et caprin vis-à-vis de l'élevage bovin.-adaptation particulièrement réussie des races locales aux conditions climatiques souvent très dures.-utilisation de toutes les productions (lait, viande, peau) par les éleveurs.-rôle social ou religieux ... Mais si cette importance économique nous paraît évidente aujourd'hui, il faut rappeler que cela n'a pas toujours été le cas et que les moutons et les chèvres ont été, il n'y a pas encore très longtemps, particulièrement décriés et accusés de nombreux méfaits, la désertification entre autres.; C'est pourquoi pendant les périodes coloniale et post-coloniale, les travaux ont essentiellement porté sur les bovins, ainsi que sur les moyens d'amélioration des conditions d'élevage et d'intensification des productions de ces animaux.Comparées avec ce que nous savons des bovins, nos connaissances en matière de petits ruminants sont fragmentaires et incomplètes.Malgré tout, il n'est guère possible de faire le point sur un sujet aussi complexe en moins d'une heure et c'est pourquoi nous limiterons cet exposé à la pathologie des élevages traditionnels d'ovins et de caprins dans les pays au Sud du Sahara, et ceci, pour deux raisons:-les élevages modernes ne sont que rarissimes en Afrique intertropicale et, en tout état de cause, leurs maladies ne sont pas spécifiquement africaines.-les pays du Maghreb appartiennent à la zone écologique méditerranéenne et les problèmes sanitaires que l'on y rencontre sont plus ceux des autres pays du bassin méditerranéen que ceux des zones sahélienne, soudanienne et, à plus forte raison, guinéenne.Or dans ces régions, on s'aperçoit qu'en dépit d'un formidable potentiel (voir Tableau n° I), la productivité y est faible, la pathologie expliquant en partie, mais pas exclusivement bien sûr, ce phénomène comme le montre l'exemple suivant:Selon ROBINET (1971), il naît au Niger en année normale, près de 5 millions de chevreaux dont la moitié succombe avant l'âge de 1 an pour cause de malnutrition, maladies parasitaires et infectieuses, prédateurs divers. A cela doit s'ajouter la mort de près de 500.000 adultes.Il est évidemment impossible de faire la part de chacun des différents types de pathologie, car ils sont étroitement imbriqués (Schéma n° I) et nous disposons de trop peu de données.Sans s'étendre sur ce problème qui sera traité dans les communications suivantes, il faut quand même en souligner I'importance.Bien qu'il soit difficile de chiffrer l'impact économique de ce parasitisme, il est certain qu'il occasionne de très lourdes pertes tant directes par baisse des productions (retard de croissance, perte de poids, chute de la production laitière) qu'indirectes, en exacerbant les problèmes nutritionnels, en abaissant la résistance de l'animal et en créant les conditions favorables à l'apparition de diverses infections bactériennes ou virales.Au Nigeria, les pertes sont estimées (SCHILLHORN, 1978) à 11 p. 100/an de la valeur marchande du troupeau, chiffre comparable à celui trouvé auparavant au Tchad (GRABER, 1965) où les pertes se montaient à 250 millions de francs C.F.A.Que le parasitisme gastro-intestinal soit sinon le premier, tout du moins l'un des principaux obstacles à l'intensification des productions, se traduit par le fait que des inventaires ont déjà été dressés dans de nombreux pays africains: Tchad (GRABER, 1965); Sénégal (MOREL, 1959;VASSILIADES, 1978); Nigeria (FABIYI, 1973;SCHILLHORN, 1978); Ethiopie (DAYNES et GRABER, 1974); Soudan (ELBADAWI et collab., 1976); Niger (TAGER-KAGAN, 1978).Toutefois, des points obscurs demeurent encore: ce genre d'enquêtes systématiques n'a pas été réalisé pour tous les pays, et dans d'autres, les fluctuations saisonnières et/ou régionales ne sont pas encore connues. Pourtant, ces données sont nécessaires pour l'élaboration de stratégies adaptées pour les campagnes antiparasitaires. A ce sujet, les opinions divergent: faut-il ou non déparasiter? Si oui, à quelle période de l'année et à quel rythme? Autant de questions pour lesquelles les réponses varient d'un pays à l'autre et qui doivent, comme nous le verrons plus tard, être replacées dans un contexte plus vaste.A l'égal du parasitisme gastro-intestinal, ces maladies sont considérées comme faisant partie des contraintes majeures des élevages ovin et caprin.Nos connaissances actuelles nous permettent de les diviser en deux catégories:-les infections à étiologie multiple (virus -mycoplasme -bactérie), de loin les plus fréquentes, que l'on regroupe sous le vocable de \"pneumopathies\".-et les infections à étiologie univoque, beaucoup moins fréquentes, pour ne pas dire rares.  Lors de l'étude des infections pulmonaires, les laboratoires isolaient dans la majorité des cas des germes du genre Pasteurella (P. haemolytica le plus souvent, P. multocida) et l'on décrivait ainsi \"la pasteurellose des petits ruminants\", terme encore très employé dans certains pays. Pourtant, la reproduction expérimentale de la maladie, par le seul agent infectieux inoculé à des animaux réceptifs, n'était pas possible ou nécessitait des artifices trop peu naturels (HAMDY, 1958(HAMDY, , 1959;;STEVENSON, 1969et Synthèse de MEYER, 1970).Parallèlement, les techniques de laboratoires en s'affinant, permettaient la mise en évidence de nombreux autres agents comme les mycoplasmes et les virus. Toutefois, ceux-ci inoculés isolément, ne reproduisaient que rarement la maladie.En revanche, l'association de 2 ou 3 germes, entraîne en général l'apparition des symptômes et des lésions décrits dans les cas naturels.A ce jour, il ressort que les infections bactériennes et mycoplasmiques ne sont le plus souvent que secondaires à une atteinte primitive d'origine virale (Schéma n° II). Ainsi, il a été démontré (DOUTRE et PERREAU, 1981) au Sénégal, que les moutons sains étaient normalement porteurs, au niveau des sinus, de Pasteurella haemolytica ou de Pasteurella multocida, germes qui envahiraient les poumons consécutivement à une diminution des défenses locales de l'animal (trachée, bronches) due à l'infection virale.En Afrique, il semblerait que les virus les plus fréquemment incriminés soient:-le virus parainfluenza type 3, comme cela est le cas dans de nombreux pays (HORE et STEVENSON, 1969;Rapport annuel Lab. Farcha 1972-1973LEFEVRE, 1976, 1983).-les adenovirus (GIBBS et collab., 1977).-le virus de la rhinotrachéite infectieuse bovine: la présence d'anticorps chez les petits ruminants (11 p. 100 des chèvres au Nigeria, TAYLOR, 1977) et l'absence de maladie clinique permettent de penser à une infection occulte qui pourrait participer au complexe des pneumopathies.En outre, de nombreux mycoplasmes et bactéries ont été isolés sans que leur pouvoir pathogène spécifique puisse être précisé (EL MAHI et NAYIL, 1978;OJO, 1973OJO, , 1976;;SHEIBA BABIKER, 1968;WANDERA, 1967).Le schéma étio-pathogénique présenté, appelle un certain nombre de commentaires:-parmi les virus mis en cause figurent celui de la peste des petits ruminants et ceux des varioles ovine et caprine. En fait, ces virus, s'ils déterminent des maladies systémiques avec symptômes et lésions caractéristiques, possèdent aussi un authentique tropisme pulmonaire. En Afrique intertropicale, les virus de la clavelée et de la variole caprine n'entraînent, par leur seule action, que rarement des mortalités. En règle générale, ce sont les complications bactériennes secondaires qui achèvent les animaux.De même, si la peste des petits ruminants est bien connue dans certains pays, elle pose des problèmes en Afrique Centrale (PROVOST, 1972) où elle n'a jamais été cliniquement observée bien qu'un fort pourcentage d'animaux présentent des anticorps anti-peste des petits ruminants. Il est possible qu'elle évolue dans ces pays sous forme occulte initiatrice de pneumopathies.-le rôle des facteurs favorisants ne doit pas être sous-estime, notamment celui du parasitisme pulmonaire en Afrique de l'Est (Dictyocaulus filaria par exemple) ou celui de la migration des larves de strongles digestifs (Strongyloides papillosus).II.2.-Les maladies pulmonaires à étiologie univoque II s'agit essentiellement de la pleuropneumonie contagieuse caprine due à Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri (LONGLEY, 1951;LINDLEY et ABDULLAH, 1969;GONI et ONIVARAN 1975) ou à une souche encore indéterminée, la souche F.38 MAC OWAN et MINETTE, 1978;ERNØ et collab., 1979).Cette maladie est spécifique de la chèvre et présente de grandes similitudes avec la péripneumonie bovine.En Afrique intertropicale, il semble qu'elle soit économiquement importante dans les régions orientales (Soudan, Kenya), mais rarissime en Afrique occidentale.  CAMERON et collab., 1971;FALADE et collab., 1974;PERREAU, 1976;PHILPOTT, 1972;WAGHELA, 1976). ? = résultats inconnus +/-= incidence faible à modérée + = incidence modérée ++ = incidence forte +++ = incidence très forte Il ressort de ces chiffres, que la brucellose des petites ruminants ne participe que pour une faible part aux troubles de la reproduction (excepté au Niger) et que son importance tient essentiellement aux risques encourus par les populations du fait de la gravité de l'infection humaine à Brucella melitensis qui, les plus souvent révèle la maladie des moutons et de chèvres.Hormis la brucellose, très peu de renseignements sont disponibles et aucune évaluation globale de l'incidence économique des troubles de la reproduction n'a été tentée ni non plus un dénombrement des causes possibles des avortements ou des infertilités: rôle des problèmes nutritionnels, rôle de la pathologie infectieuse?Il existe bien entendu des études ponctuelles, mais elles restent très limitées:-avortements à salmonelles au Nigeria (JOHNSON, 1958).-foyer de chlamydiose abortive au Tchad (LEFEVRE et collab., 1979).-enquête sérologique sur la toxoplasmose des chèvres (FALADE, 1978) ou les rickettsioses et notamment la fièvre Q (GIDEL, 1965).Parmi les sujets qui devraient faire l'objet de recherches dans les années à venir, les maladies de la reproduction sont sans aucun doute les premières.IV.-LES MALADIES SE L'APPAREIL DIGESTIF Nous passerons très rapidement sur les affections digestives, le parasitisme gastro-intestinal étant à l'origine de la plupart des troubles. Pour autant que l'on sache, il semble que les autres maladies (salmonelloses, entérotoxémie, etc.) ne soient que sporadiques.Une observation d'entérotoxémie (MACADAM et ZWART, 1967) révèle l'importance dans l'apparition de cette maladie, des méthodes de conduite du troupeau: les moutons atteints étaient nourris à l'aide d'aliments concentrés, les pâturages étant trop pauvres pour subvenir à leurs besoins. Elle souligne aussi la résistance des chèvres qui, dans les mêmes conditions, ne présentèrent aucun trouble.De même, le portage de salmonelles par les petits ruminants est très faible:-nul pour OJO (1974; il oscille entre 3 et 5 p. 100 pour les autres auteurs (DOUTRE et BOCHE, 1976;ZWART, 1962).Il en est ainsi pour la colibacillose qui ne peut se comparer à ce que l'on connaît dans les élevages intensifs des pays occidentaux.Il est vraisemblable que les troubles observés sont dûs à des infections polybactériennes secondaires à des déséquilibres alimentaires brutaux aggravés par le parasitisme. C'est donc, comme le note BOURZAT (1979) en début de saison des pluies, qu'ils sont les plus fréquents.V.-LES TIQUES ET LES MALADIES TRANSMISES PAR CELLES-CI Le rôle pathogène direct des tiques est relativement bien connu, qu'il soit mécanique, cytolytique ou toxique.La fixation des tiques sur l'animal se traduit localement par une plaie nécrotique à évolution plus ou moins longue avec complication bactérienne et au plan général, par une déperdition non négligeable de sang, surtout quand les animaux sont littéralement recouverts de parasites (une femelle d'Amblyomma peut prélever 2 ml de sang).La répartition des tiques en fonction du genre et de l'espèce a fait l'objet de nombreuses enquêtes systématiques (HOOGSTRAAL, 1956;MOREL et FINELLE, 1961;MOREL et GRABER, 1961;MOREL, 1969).Mais c'est surtout en tant que vecteurs que les tiques représentent un réel danger. Parmi les infections qu'elles véhiculent, l'une des plus graves est la cowdriose ou heart-water transmise par le genre Amblyomma.Les petits ruminants y sont particulièrement sensibles et l'évolution chez eux y est, en général, fatale (KARRAR, 1968;EDELSTEIN, 1975).Toutefois, comme le précisent CAMUS et BARRE (1982): \"une évaluation économique des pertes dues à la cowdriose n'est pas disponible ... son importance est souvent sous-estimée, voire complètement méconnue\".Quant aux autres maladies: piroplasmose ou babésiose, theilériose, ehrlichiose, anaplasmose, si leur présence est signalée dans divers pays (FOLKER et KUIL, 1967;KUIL et collab., 1968;PABS et collab., 1974;LEEFLANG et ILEMOBADE, 1977) Par ordre décroissant du pouvoir pathogène pour les petits ruminants, les trypanosomes concernés sont: T. congolense, T. vivax, T. brucei. Ceci explique peut-être pourquoi en Afrique de l'Ouest où prédomine T. vivax, l'incidence est moindre.De même, les arboviroses telles la fièvre catarrhale (blue-tongue), la fièvre de la vallée du Rift, la maladie de Wesselsbron ou celle de Nairobi, mais il en existe d'autres, sont des infections méconnues.L'exemple de la fièvre catarrhale est caractéristique de cette situation: bien que sa présence ait été sérologiquement prouvée à peu près partout en Afrique (PILLAI, 1961;TAYLOR et MAC CAUSLAND, 1976;LEFEVRE et TAYLOR, 1985), elle n'est pas cliniquement observable. Il serait illusoire de penser que des animaux puissent être infectés sans conséquence. La blue-tongue, a-telle un rôle débilitant, abaisse-t-elle le niveau des productions? Aucune précision ne peut être apportée.Au cours de cet exposé, beaucoup de maladies n'ont pas été citées. Leur liste exhaustive ne présenterait au demeurant qu'un intérêt limité, l'essentiel étant de cerner les grandes dominantes pathologiques au nombre desquelles on trouve notamment chez les petits ruminants:• les maladies pulmonaires.• les troubles de la reproduction.• les maladies transmises par les tiques.En matière de recherche, deux attitudes complémentaires sont possibles:-soit l'étude de plus en plus approfondie des grands syndromes ou des maladies pour une meilleure connaissance de ces processus morbides en dehors du contexte dans lequel ils évoluent normalement.Dans ce cas, les travaux peuvent porter sur:• les agents en cause,• les techniques de diagnostic,• les mécanismes pathogéniques,• les phénomènes immunologiques,• la mise au point de moyens de lutte préventive ou leur simplification s'ils existent déjà, et font appel à des spécialistes qui travaillent essentiellement en laboratoire et ceci dans n'importe quel pays: une étude des phénomènes immunologiques au cours de la dermatophilose peut être réalisée aussi bien en Afrique qu'en Europe où la maladie sévit aussi. Ainsi, des travaux fondamentaux comme ceux entrepris sur les trypanosomoses et la trypanotolérance peuvent se faire dans des centres multinationaux (I.L.R.A.D. au Kenya ou C.R.T.A. en Haute-Volta).-en revanche, les études des maladies dans leur contexte, relèvent de mécanismes totalement opposés. Elles portent sur:• la répartition géographique de la maladie avec ces variations régionales et ses fluctuations saisonnières.• les interrelations des maladies entre elles.• leur impact économique.En Afrique intertropicale, en raison du réseau très faible des services de terrain, des difficultés pour l'acheminement des prélèvements, des relations difficiles à établir entre hommes de terrain et hommes de laboratoire, de telles études ne peuvent se concevoir que sous la forme d'enquêtes d'écopathologie en continu: des troupeaux soigneusement choisis pour leur représentativité sont suivis de très près par des agents et tous les paramètres sont précautionneusement enregistrés.Ces enquêtes font appel à des équipes pluridisciplinaires et sont le pendant dans le domaine de la pathologie des enquêtes sur les systèmes de productions dans le domaine socio-économique.Ces deux attitudes sont, bien entendu, indispensables et complémentaires.ANDERSON (E.C.), DOUGHTY (W.) et ANDERSON (J.  ILCA (1979), they have hitherto received the least attention in terms of increasing their production potential. Instead, they have keen ignored, at best tolerated, and viewed as destroyers of the ecology (Winrock International 1966). Attitudes are, however, changing and the important role goats have to play in supplying animal protein requirements has been recognised. Large and small scale goat production schemes are consequently in various stages of planning and, or execution in Nigeria (Ilemobade, 1982).The several decades of neglect goats suffered is, however, taken its toll, for there is a dearth of basic information on which production strategies can be based. Thus, the nutrient requirements for the various classes of goats are not yet fully documented, neither are the incidence, prevalence and seasonality of goat susceptible diseases in the various ecological zones well known.While sheep and goats may share a common susceptibility to. diseases, there are significant differences in disease resistance. In other words, much of the accumulated information on disease incidence, prevalence and seasonality in sheep, may not be entirely applicable to goats. There is therefore, a need to establish the spectrum of goat susceptible diseases in the various ecological zones of the country, so that appropriate prophylactic measures could be built into goat production schemes. The report of a survey of helminth and haematozoan parasites of the dwarf goat found in south-western Nigeria is presented as a contribution to the above objective.Three fairly large cities (Ibadan Ondo and Ilorin) within the south-western zone of Nigeria where a substantial number of goats are slaughtered daily, were selected for the survey. A total of 30 goats were surveyed during the months of February, March and April, with 10 coming from each location.The cities are situated in the rain forest (Ibadan, Ondo) or savannah (Ilorin) regions of the country.(Figure 1).The ten goats from each location were selected randomly from the total number slaughtered at a major abattoir, and as each animal was slaughtered, about 15 mls of blood was collected from the severed Jugular veins into heparinised tubes. Each animal was then split open along the median line, and the internal organs were exposed and examined for cysts, bladder worms and liver flukes.The digestive tract was then ligated at the abomasun and rectum, removed from the carcass, labelled and placed in a polythene bag. The collected tracts as well as blood samples were then transported to the laboratories for further examinations.Laboratory examinations a) Haematozoa: Three thick and three thin blood smears were made from each blood sample on pre-cleaned glass slides. The smears were fixed in alcohol and Giemsa stained. Ten fields per slide were examined for blood protozoa. The blood samples were also used to determine the packed cell volume (PCV) by the microhaematocrit method. b) Helminths. Fecal samples obtained from the rectum of each tract were examined for helminth eggs and coccidial oocysts by the modified Mc Master flotation method. The abomasal mucosa were subjected to peptic digestion at 37 °C for 10 hours. Aliquot samples of the digest were preserved in formalin and subsequently examined for inhibited nematode larvae.The results are summarised in tables 1 and 2. The fecal egg counts were low in all locations ranging from 0 to 300 e.p.g., thus indicating a low to mild worm burden. Coccidian oocysts were observed in the feces of 8 of the 30 goats with counts ranging from 0 to 13,200 oocysts per gram of feces. Bladderworms (cysticercus spp) were found in 2 goats from Ondo and 4 from Ilorin, while inhibited haemonchus larvae in the 4th developmental stage were recovered from the abomasum of goats from all locations.Stained blood smear examination revealed the presence of 3 types of protozoan parasites -Anaplasma ovis, Babesia ovis and Trypanosoma spp. No trypanosomes were observed in goats from the two locations situated in the forest zone, and only two of the goats from the savanna zone (Ilorin) were positive for trypanosomes, whose species could not be identified. About 27% of the 30 goats had mixed Anaplasma and Babesia infestations, while 10% had only Anaplasma, and 7% were positive for only Babesia ovis. Hematocrit values were not recorded for the Ibadan samples, and ranged from a low of 21 to a high of 46 in the other two locations. There was no definite relationship between the hematocrit values and parasite infestation, apparently because in general, the parasitism was low level and sub-clinical.Several surveys and case -report studies on the spectrum of parasitic diseases in Nigerian livestock have been reported in the literature. Majority of these were carried out on ether livestock species such as cattle (Lee et. al., 1960;Folkers et. al., 1970;Dipeolu, 1975), or sheep (Thomson and Hall 1933;Adewunmi, 1974;Obi and Akinboade, 1983). Others were carried out in ecological zones different from that of the present study, such as in the Northern savanna (Folkers and Kuil, 1967;Fabiyi, 1973;Saror, 1980), montane vegetation of the Jos Plateau (Ikeme, 1970 andJosua andIge, 1972), and the southeast humid zone of the country (Kramer, 1966).ILCA (1982) report on the incidence of helminth and blood parasites of dwarf goats and sheep in some villages situated in the south-western humid zone of Nigeria is the only other survey on goats we came across. Results of the ILCA survey were similar to those of the present survey, in that eggs of strongyloides, strongyles, moniezia as well as coddidia oocysts were found in fecal samples. The report also noted that 33% of the blood samples were positive for B. motasi. while only goats from the savanna zone had trypanosomes in their blood. There has been some controversy in the literature regarding the presence of B. ovis in African small ruminants. Leeflang and Ilemobade (1977) suggested that only B. motasi is present in Africa. Our result as well as those of others (Richardson and Kendall, 1963;Adewunmi, 1974;Obi and Akinboade, 1983) suggest that the two species co-exist in African small ruminants.As indicated earlier, parasite load was mild to low, and this was surprising since most of the slaughtered goats came from neighbouring small holders who keep the goats under the traditional free range system with little or no veterinary care. Perhaps, the legendary hardy resistance of the goat was responsible, or a seasonal effect was at play. The survey was carried out at the peak of the dry season when conditions were sufficiently harsh to reduce parasite survival and infectivity. As in the ILCA (1982) study, identification of the observed trypanosomes could not be made. T vivax and T. congolense have however been found in the dwarf goats of south-eastern Nigeria by Kramer (1966),Livestock disease pattern is a dynamic process with the spectrum and prevalence of disease conditions changing with location. Within the same environment or location, variations may be observed with animal species, season and over the years. These changing patterns must be monitored for effective prophylactic interventions. Periodic analyses of diagnosed disease conditions and, or periodic surveys of specific entities are two effective means of keeping tract of these chances. In other words, surveys such as the present one will not only reveal any changing pattern in the predominant livestock diseases, but also expose any new emergent ones, and are recommended.This study was funded by the International Foundation for Science, (IFS), Stockholm, Sweeden.Les helminthoses digestives du mouton s'accompagnent souvent de l'émission de fecès molles ou diarrhéiques. Cependant, les perturbations du débit et du temps de transit des digesta chez les animaux infestés ont été très peu étudiées. BAWDEN (1969) constate, chez le mouton infesté par Oesophagostomum columbianum, une augmentation du temps de transit des digesta dans tout le tractus digestif. L'infestation mixte par Chabertia ovina et Trchostrongylus axei provoque par contre une diminution du temps de transit des digesta dans l'intestin (BUENO et FIORAMONTI, 1979). Il en est de même chez le mouton infesté par Haemonchus contortus qui présente aussi une augmentation du débit des digesta dans le duodenum (BUENO, DAKKAK et FIORAMONTI, 1982). ROSEBY (1977)  Après une période d'adaptation de 9 jours, le pH du contenu duodenal, le débit duodenal, le temps de transit des digesta dans l'intestin et les taux de matières sèches dans le contenu duodenal et dans les fèces ont été déterminés 2 fois a 4 jours d'intervalle avant l'infestation puis tous les 4 jours après celle-ci. Cette infestation a été réalisée par administration a chaque animal de 150.000 larves infestantes d'Ostertagia circumcinta directement dans le rumen par une sonde naso-oesophagienne.Le pH du contenu duodenal est immédiatement déterminé après le prélèvement au niveau de la canule. Le taux de matières sèches est déterminé en pesant des échantillons avant et après un séjour de 24 h au four a 120°C.La mesure du débit duodenal est effectuée selon la technique décrite par BUENO, FIORAMONTI et RUCKEBUSCH (1975), utilisant le polyethylène glycole (PEG) comme marqueur de la phase liquide (Fig. 1). Une perfusion à débit constant (F = 1 ml/mn) d'une solution isotonique Na Cl 140 mM; D -Mannitol 16,7 mM) contenant 1 g/100 ml (C) de PEG est effectuée au niveau du Catheter inserré dans le duodenum. Après équilibration 10 cc environ du contenu duodenal sont prélevés 4 fois a 2 h d'intervalle au niveau de la canule située a 70 cm en aval du catheter de perfusion. Le débit duodenal (f) au niveau de la canule est déterminé a partir de la concentration en PEG (c) des échantillons prélevés et de la relation , f en ml/mn. Le PEG est dosé par turbidimetrie selon la méthode de Hyden (1955).Le temps de transit moyen des digesta dans l'intestin a été estimé à l'aide de la technique de BARREIRO et Collaborateurs (1968). Un bol d'un marqueur (phényl sulfone phataléine; 100 mg en solution dans 5 ml de sérum physiologique) est injecté par le catheter qui débouche dans le duodenum (Fig. 2). Un mélange homogène s'effectue dans la partie proximale avec le contenu intestinal.Des prélèvements de matières fécales (5 g) sont effectués dans 1'ampoule rectale dès le début d'apparition du marqueur puis toutes les 15 mn jusqu'à disparition de celui-ci, l'ampoule rectale étant vidée à chaque prélèvement.Le dosage colorimétrique de la P S P est effectuée selon la méthode de SMITH (1964).Au cours de la période d'étude, la consommation de fourrage (1107 ±79 g par jour) n'a pas subit de modifications significatives.Le pH subit une augmentation significative (P 0,01) a partir du 8è jour qui suit l'administration des larves (Fig. 3). Les valeurs maximales sont observées entre le 18è et le 22è jour. Une diminution progressive commence a partir du 32è jour et ramène le pH à sa valeur initiale vers le 52è jour.Une correlation positive hautement significative (r = 0,94; P<0,01) existe entre le pH et le débit des digesta dans le duodenum. Le temps de transit des digesta dans l'intestin subit une diminution significative (P<0,05) a partir du 4è jour qui suit l'infestation, passant de 7 h 15 mn a 6 h 15 mn. Cette perturbation persiste jusqu'au 16è jour a partir duquel une augmentation commence et ramène le temps de transit vers ses valeurs normales a partir du 34è jour (Fig. 4).Le taux de matières sèches dans le contenu duodenal enregistre une diminution significative (P<0,01) à partir du 6è jour. Il atteint des valeurs minimales (3,35 ±0,5 p. cent) le 8è jour et reste ainsi bas jusqu'au 26è jour a partir duquel une augmentation progressive est entamée, mais les valeurs initiales ne sont retrouvées qu'après le 48è jour (Fig. 4).D'une valeur moyenne de 350 ±34 ml/h avant l'infestation, le débit duodénal subit une augmentation significative (P 0,01) dès la première mesure qui suit l'infestation (4è jour). Les débits les plus élevés (717 ±48 à 762 ±60 ml/h) sont observés entre le 18è et le 32è jour. Le débit duodénal reste significativement supérieur a sa valeur initiale jusqu'au 52è jour.   Le débit duodenal subit une augmentation plus importante que celle observée lors de l'infestation par H. contortus, mais les valeurs les plus élevées sont atteintes plus tardivement (BUENO, DAKKAK et FIORAMONTI, 1982). Ce débit suit étroitement l'évolution du pH du contenu duodenal et la correlation est ici plus étroité (r = 0,94; P 0,01) que dans le cas de 1'infestation par H. contortus (r = 0,79; P 0,01) selon BUENO, DAKKAK et FIORAMONTI (1982). L'augmentation du pH et du débit des digesta serait en relation avec les altérations de la perméabilité de la muqueuse abomasale. Elle coïncide, en effet, avec la période où les modifications des concentrations ioniques du contenu abomasal sont importantes (DAKKAK et KHALLAAYOUNE, 1982).Contrairement aux résultats obtenus par BAWDEN (1969) chez le mouton infesté par Oe. columbianum, le temps de transit des digesta dans l'intestin diminue au cours de l'infestation par O. circumcincta comme au cours de l'infestation par Ch. ovina. et T. axei (BUENO et FIORAMONTI, 1979) ou par H. contortus (BUENO, DAKKAK et FIORAMONTI, 1982). Cette accélération du transit des digesta indique une stimulation des motricités intestinale et abomasale. Cette dernière entraîne l'accélération de l'évacuation de l'abomasum et partant celle du débit duodenal (PHILLIPSON et ASH, 1965;HUNT et KNOX, 1968). Enfin, l'hypergastrinemie observée chez le mouton infesté par O. circumcincta (ANDERSON, HANSKY et TITCHEN, 1976) contribuerait elle aussi à l'augmentation du débit duodenal (GROSSMAN, 1970;WALSH, 1975), au renforcement de la motricité intestinale (BIRKHÄUSER, 1971;RUCKEBUSCH, 1971) et à la stimulation des secrétions dans la partie proximale de l'intestin (GROSSMAN, 1970;TITCHEN et ANDERSON, 1977) qui participe alors à l'augmentation du taux d'humidité dans le contenu de cet organe et dans les fèces.The Sudan is a vast country with an area of about one million square miles, extending between latitudes 4° and 22° North; 1400 miles of the River Nile and its tributaries run within these boundaries. Hence, the country is characterized by a wide spectrum of climatic conditions ranging from a desert climate in the North to an Equatorial one in the South with different types of Savannah inbetween. Because of its enormous pastoral and agricultural potentialities, the Sudan is regarded as one of the major food reservoirs in Africa.The estimate of the animal wealth of the country is shown in Table 1. 90% of the animal population is owned by nomads (about 2 millions, 11% of the total population) who are moving with their herds in search of water and grazing; in this system of animal husbandry, chances of contracting disease are great. In a country where a wide range of helminthic, protozoal and external parasites thrive in abundance, and where it is difficult to find animals absolutely free of internal worms (Eisa, 1966) parasitic diseases undoubtedly have a significant role in adversely affecting the health and productivity of livestock, and consequently, the national economy.Among major helminthic diseases of livestock in the Sudan, fascioliasis is regarded as one of the gravest and economically the most important (Karib, 1962). The areas lying around the White Nile and its tributaries comprise the most seriously affected region in the Sudan.The numerous swamps and water bodies which remain when the river recedes after the floods of the rainy season, the shallow banks of rivers and the canals in irrigated schemes constitute ideal breeding homes for different species and genera of snails among which Lymnaea natalensis exist in abundance.During the rainy season (July to October) and for some months thereafter, the nomadic tribes graze their animals away from the river. When the rain-grown pastures are exhausted towards April, they start moving towards the wet grazing around the swamps and river banks, thus becoming exposed to infection with fascioliasis and other water borne diseases.According to Abdel Malek (1959), colonies of L. natalensis build up in October -November and infected snails and metacercariae of Fasciola gigantica are encountered in December. However, the peak of infection of L. natalensis with the parasite occurs in late February. Fascioliasis is also reported from the Gezira and Fung areas in central and Eastern Sudan.In the Southern region, the disease is reported from all areas where swamps and shallow water bodies exist all the year round in the Western region of the Sudan, fascioliasis is mainly reported from Jebel Marra area and Southern Dar Fur province where swamps are found. Some foci also. Mortality due to acute fasciolis is not commonly reported in cattle, but severe outbreaks occur in sheep.It is generally considered that F. gigantica is more pathogenic to sheep than F. hepatica (Guralp et al, 1964), the acute disease in these animals being more important than chronic infection (Hammond, 1973). Sewell and Hammond (1974) also reported that cattle generally afford a better host for F. gigantica than for F. hepatica.The degree of infectivity of the parasite and the development of the disease depend upon various factors which involve: breed, age, nutritional status, environmental conditions and management system of the host as well as the habitat of the intermediate host. Hence, there is need for studies that elucidate different aspects of fascioliasis in various hosts in the Sudan. The present study is an attempt to investigate some haematological, biochemical and pathological changes in naturally occurring ovine fascioliasis. Such a study has not been carried out in Sudanese sheep before.Regular visits were made to El Dueim town (the capital of the White Nile Province) during a period of 2 years. Material was collected from 214 sheep infected with F. gigantica and 82 fluke-free animals. Animals were of different age groups and most of them were males.Each time about 30 sheep were slaughtered and about 15% were usually found infected.In each visit 10 ml of blood were collected from each animal during slaughter, 2 ml of each blood sample were transferred into tubes containing 50 I.U. of heparin and the rest of the blood was allowed to clot for separation of serum. Samples from all infected animals were retained and some samples from the non-infected sheep were taken as controls and the rest were discarded. The heparinised blood was used for the determination of various haematological parameters and the sera was stored at -20 °C till use for measuring various biochemical parameters.The haemoglobin concentration was determined by the cyanomethaemoglobin technique using a haematoglobinmeter (Evans, Electroselenium Ltd. England).Packed cell volume was determined by a microhaematocrit (Hawksley and Sons Ltd., England).The red blood cells were counted in an improved Neubouer haemocytometer (Hawksley and Sons Ltd., England) using Hayem's solution as a diluting fluid.Wintrobe red cell indices (mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration) were calculated according to Schalm (1965).White blood cells were counted with an improved Neubouer haemocytometer (Hawksley and Sons Ltd., England).Differential leucocytes count was made using the \"battlement\" method (Schalm, 1965).Total proteins were determined by the Biuret method as described by Weichselbaum (1946) and the Bromocresol green method of Rodkey (1965) was used for the determination of serum albumin. Serum globulins levels were calculated as differences between total proteins and albumin.Sorbitol dehydrogenase (E.C. 1.1.1. 14) activity in serum was measured by the method of Ford (1967) and that of glutamate dehydrogenase (E.C. 1.4.1.3.) by the methods of Ford and Boyd (1962). Serum glutamate oxaloacetic acid transaminase (E.C. 1.2.6.1.1.) was determined using the methods described by Reitman and Frankel (1957).Total bilirubin in serum was measured as described by Dangerfield and Finlayson (1953).Careful post-mortem examinations were carried out for infected animals and selected controls. The different organs were examined separately with special attention to the liver. Representative pieces for histopathology were taken from the liver and fixed in 10% formol saline.Paraffin sections 6 um thick were prepared and stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Van Gieson's stain and Perl's Prussian blue stain.Results of the haematological and biochemical parameters are shown in Table 2 and 3 respectively.Livers were enlarged and were in many cases covered with red-brown fibrinous capsules. Gall bladders were usually distended and filled with thick bile. Bile ducts were dilated and contained liver flukes. Sometimes livers showed a mottled appearance with scattered white dots.Recent fluke tracks were seen besides healing old tracks in many cases indicating repeated infections. The former were indicated by degeneration of hepatocytes, cell debris, haemorrhages and infiltration of polymorphonuclear leucocytes. The latter, on the hand, were characterized by the presence of fibrous connective tissue with haemosiderin being deposited in some areas. Dead flukes and fluke eggs were surrounded by diffuse cellular reaction in the form of granulomata composed of cell debris, lymphocytes, macrophages and collagen fibres. In some sections bands of fibrous connective tissue were seen connecting old tracks with adjacent portal trids and liver capsule, thus giving the appearance of irregular lobulations. Oedema was observed in portal triads in recent fluke tracks and diffuse haemorrhages were occasionally seen in the hepatic parenchyma.Portal triads were thickened with fibrous tissue and contained thickened, sometimes dilated and congested portal veins. Bile duct walls were thick at places, the lining epithelium was hyperplastic and cell nuclei were vacuolated. In areas of marked fibrosis there was biliary ductule hyperplasia and formation of new capillaries. Portal areas were diffusely infiltrated with mononuclear cells, mainly lymphocytes and macrophages. Distinct granulomata were seen around flukes eggs. They were composed of macrophages, lymphocytes and fibroblasts. In few instances thickening of the walls of portal arteries and thrombosis or stenosis of portal veins were also observed.The hepatic parenchyma exhibited areas of degeneration and haemonhages with little cellular reaction. Many areas lost their normal arrangements with wide separation of hepatic cords, sinusoidal congestion and infiltration of few lymphocytes. Evidence of necrotic changes in some hepatic cell nuclei was indicated by pyknosis and karyorrhexis.In some sections there was dilatation of central veins and proliferation of Kupffer cells. In other sections there were necrotic areas composed of necrotic cord surrounded by degenerated hepatocytes and an outer zone of cellular fibrous tissue; the latter consisted mainly of round cells, fibroblasts and few polymorphs.Trichostrongylid infections often cause diarrhoea, yet changes in digesta flow and intestinal motility during the course of the infection have been little studied (Dargie, 1979). Roseby (1977) showed that moderate infections of Trichostrongylus colubriformis in sheep increase the amount of both liquid and solid material, particularly in the small intestine, but also the abomasum, caecum and proximal colon.By contrast, a slower rate of fluid passage through the entire tract has been demonstrated in nondiarrhoeic sheep infected with Oesophagostomum columbianum (Bawden, 1969). This latter result may, however, be attributed to the lower feed intake of infected animals rather than to a direct action on intestinal motility.Recently, we attempted to identify changes in gut motility in parasitized animals by use of electromyography (Bueno, Dorchies & Ruckebusch, 1975). In sheep infected simultaneously with T. axei and C. ovina, the frequency of reticular and abomasal contractions decreased by 40-60 % during the 2 days preceding the onset of diarrhoea and remained depressed throught the diarrhoeic episode. The jejunum concomitantly showed an hypermotility characterized by the disorganization of the normal cyclic pattern of migrating myoelectric complexes which were replaced by almost incessant irregular spiking activity. Since the latter induced more rapid digesta flow throughout the intestines, these findings support the evidence that gastro-intestinal nematodes alter gut motility and digesta flow in diarrhoeic sheep (Bueno & Fioramonti, 1979).The present work was undertaken to investigate the relationships between the motor and secretory changes and that of digesta flow induced by experimental infection with Haemonchus contortus in sheep. The gastric secretory changes and the related gut hormonal alterations are relatively well known for these infections (Anderson, Hansky & Titchen, 1975;Titchen & Anderson, 1977;Dakkak, Fioramonti & Bueno, 1982)Four 11 to 12 month-old Lacaune breed lambs, weighing 45-55 kg raised under worm-free conditions in concrete-floored pens were used. They were treated with Fenbendazole (5 mg/kg) and 6 days later, under thiopental anaesthesia (Nesdonal ND 20 mg/kg) an abomasal silastic cannula (external diameter 2 cm) was placed on the greater curvature of the antrum at a distance of 15 cm from the pylorus. The tip of an open catheter was then inserted into the lumen of the transverse duodenum at 30-40 cm from the pylorus and a silastic cannula (external diameter 1.5 cm) was positioned in the proximal jejunum 1 m aborally to the catheter. In addition, 6 groups of insulated Ni/Cr electrodes (0.12 mm in diameter) were inserted according to Ruckebusch (1970) into the wall of the abomasum (20 and 10 cm from the pylorus) and on the transverse duodenum and proximal jejunum at 0.4, 2, 3 and 4 m from the pylorus.Ten days after surgery, the animals were placed in metabolic cages and offered hay ad libitum; food residues were weighed and total food and water intakes were recorded daily.After an 8-day control period all the lambs were infected with 25000 third-stage H. contortus larvae, suspended in 0.9 % (w/v) saline solution, administered directly into the rumen by the nasooesophageal route. A second similar infection was performed 39 days later.Samples of abomasal and jejuna contents were taken from the cannulae and faeces collected at 2days intervals. The pH of both abomasal and intestinal juices was immediately measured. The faecal water content and the counting of nematode eggs in faeces were determined from 8 days before to 56 days after infection. Sodium and chloride concentrations of the abomasal juice were determined by atomic absorption and by automatic coulometric titration respectively.Analysis of electromyographic recordings.Recordings of the electrical activity began 1 week after surgery and continued periodically for 8-12 weeks. The electrodes were connected to an e.e.g. machine (Reega VIII Alvar, France) and a paper speed of 4 cm/min was used. Quantitative evaluation of spiking activity associated with contractions of the intestinal wall was performed 24 h/day by means of a 4-channel integrator connected to a potentiometric recorder. The percentage spike activity and the number and duration of gastrointestinal activity phases before and after infection were determined directly from the integrated record.Measurements of flow rate of digesta were performed twice a week on each animal from 4 to 6 h after food distribution using a technique described previously (Bueno, Fioramonti & Ruckebusch, 1975). During this period, a test solution containing NaCl (140 mM), D-monnitol (16.7 mM) and a 1 % (w/v) solution (concentration C) of polyethylene glycol (PEG, mol. wt 4000) was infused through the duodenal catheter at a rate of 3 ml/min. Two hours after beginning the perfusion, samples of digestive contents were obtained from the jejunal cannula at 15 min intervals for the next 2 h. The PEG concentration was determined by the method of Hyden (1955) and the flow rate of digesta (F) was calculated from the concentration of PEG in samples (c) and the rate of infusion (f) according to the following relationship F = f(C -c)/C.Motor disturbances associated with larval infection.Electrical activity of the antral part of the abomasum prior to infection was characterized by the presence of spike bursts superimposed on slow waves occurring at a mean frequency of 3.36 ±0.72/min (mean ± S.D.). This activity was organized in activity cycles lasting 84 ±13 min separated by 10-15 min quiescent periods.Both the frequency and amplitude of antral spike bursts in each cyclic phase of activity were not modified after infection with 25000 L 3 of H. contortus. By contrast, the duration of the antral motor cycle was significantly reduced from 88 min to less than 55 min from 8 to 16 days after infection (Fig. 1). Values then progressively returned to normal before the 39th day after infection. The shortening of the antral motor cycle was also observed after re-infection but to a lesser extent (26% shortening versus 38% for the 1st infection) and for a shorter duration (at least 13 days versus 24 days for the 1st infection).Electromyograms of the duodenum also exhibited both slow-waves and bursts of spikes. The spike bursts occurred cyclically on the duodenum with the same periodicity as on the antrum (Ruckebusch et Bueno, 1977). Spike bursts were organized in migrating myoelectric complexes (MMC) comprising 2 phases: one of irregular spiking activity (ISA) lasting 60-80 min, followed by a short (6-8 min) phase of regular spiking activity (RSA). Prior to infection the mean duration of each duodenal MMC was 79.4 ±4.5 min, corresponding to a daily number of 18.1 ±1.2 complexes (Fig. 2). A primary lengthening of the MMC cycle was observed during the first 6-8 h after infection. A progressive shortening of MMC duration then occurred so that the MMC frequency increased (Fig. 2). Four days after initial infection the daily number of MMC was 22.8 ±3.2 corresponding to a 26 % increase. The frequency then progressively returned in 8-12 days to pre-infection levels. This period also coincided with the restoration of normal abomasal Clconcentrations whereas those of Na + remained significantly higher than control values (Table 1). Re-infection was followed by similar changes in intestinal motility but of shorter duration. An evaluation of the magnitude of spiking activity during the phase of ISA by summation of the electrical activity at 20 sec intervals indicated that there was no significant change in the mean level of spiking activity after infection. No clinical signs of diarrhoea were seen during the 56 days after infection and daily food intake (1075 ±84 g of D.M.) was not significantly affected. The flow rate of contents through the duodenum was 215 ±22 ml/h (n = 8) during the pre-infection period and increased rapidly after infection, to reach 318 ±15 ml/h by day 4 (Fig. 2) -a 48% increase compared to the control. The rate of flow of digesta then progressively declined and by 24 days after infection was not significantly different from the pre-infection level.Similarly, but to a lesser extent, re-infection increased the duodenal flow of digesta with a maximum flow of 312 ±31 ml/h observed 8 days after the infection (Fig. 2).The abomasal pH increased significantly from 1.9 ±0.1 to 3.0 ±0.2 in the 4 days after the 1st infection, the maximal pH (4.0 ±0.3) being reached 2-6 days later (Fig. 1). Thereafter the pH progressively decreased but remained above pre-infection levels. Similarly, re-infection increased the abomasal pH to 4.0 (Fig. 1). Duodenal pH was 3.7 ±0.3 units prior to infection and increased significantly 4 days after infection (Fig. 2) to reach a maximum of 5.3 ±0.5 at days 10-12. The pH then progressively decreased to preinfection values.The frequency of the migrating myoelectric complexes but not the duration of antral motor cycles was significantly correlated with both gastric (r = 0.86, P<0.01) and duodenal (r = 0.79, P<0.05) pH over the entire period of measurements (-8 to 56 days after infection). The flow rate of digesta was also negatively correlated (r=0.75, P<0.05) to the duodenal pH but not to that of the abomasum.Post-infection increase in Na + concentration of the abomasal contents remained at a high level for at least 24 days after infection (Table 1) and was uncorrelated to both frequency of migrating myoelectric complexes and duodenal flow rate of digesta. In contrast the Clconcentration of the abomasum was minimum 8 days after infection, that is, when the duodenal flow rate of digesta was increased.After primary infection and on re-infection, there was a transient increase in water content of the faeces (Table 1) which was not correlated to the changes in the flow of digesta.The present results confirm that H. contortus infection in sheep is accompanied by both secretion and motor disturbances of the abomasum and duodenum. The main disturbance in gastro-intestinal motor cycles and transit times occurred during the 11 days after infection, before the emergence of larvae from the gastric mucosa (Malczewski, 1971); similarly, we have shown that alterations in gastric permeability occur during the histotrophic larval (Dakkak et al. 1982) . Our data support the view that it is the activities of immature rather than mature H. contortus that cause extensive damage to the abomasal mucosa (Christie, Angus & Hotson, 1975) and produce the greatest disturbances in gastro-intestinal motility and flow of digesta.Although the amount of motility, as judged by spiking activity, was unaltered, the pattern of motility changed after infection, the antral and duodenal motility cycles becoming shorter. These results can be compared with motility changes seen during the diarrhoea phase in T. axei infection (Bueno, Dorchies & Ruckebusch, 1975); again, the pattern rather than the amount of motility was altered, but in these previous experiments the motor disturbances were more marked with a 48 h disruption of the cyclic presence of the migrating myoelectric complexes.In the present experiment the decrease in the length of antral and duodenal motility cycles, the increase in gastric and duodenal pH values and the increase in duodenal flow of digesta all showed their maximum change at about 8-10 days after infection. This would suggest that the change in the length of the motility cycles is caused by either the pH changes or by the increased rate of digesta flow. However, an experimental increase in digesta flow, induced by overfeeding sheep, lengthens rather than shortens the duration of both antral activity cycles and the MMC (Bueno & Fioramonti, 1979). The hypothesis that the increase in the gastric pH and consequently the duodenal contents, is at the origin of the increase in MMC frequency, is supported by the fact that infusin of alkaline solutions into the duodenum or the intravenous infusion of secretin reduces the interval between two consecutive MMCs (Bueno & Fioramonti, 1979). In the present experiment these effects are partially counteracted by the increased flow of digesta.The increase in the flow of digesta which occurred from 2 to 12 days after infection may be related to alterations in the permeability of the abomasal mucosa (Dakkak et al. 1982). In ruminants, as well as in monogastric animals, gastric emptying is influenced by the acidity of the gastric contents (Hunt & Knox, 1968;Cook, 1975;Bueno, 1975;Bell & Webber, 1979). In our parasitized animals the increased pH may cause accelerated gastric emptying and increased duodenal digesta flow. The increased flow may also be related to changes in pancreatic, biliary and intestinal secretion as a consequence of alteration in the release of secretin and cholecystokinin which can occur in parasitized animals (Dembinski, Johnson & Castro, 1978).On behalf of the IFS I would like to thank all of you for your contributions to this workshop which I believe has been successful in presenting a picture of the current research on small ruminants in various parts of the African continent.I hope and believe that all of you have learnt something these last days and that you also have been able to disseminate the specific knowledge and interests which each of you evidently have. In addition, and most important I believe, I do hope that you have established contacts and made friends who may be of future use scientifically as well as on a personal basis.I would like to thank ILCA and specifically Mr Eddy Mukasa and his staff for the efficient and pleasant organization of this workshop. I also would like to thank Dr Trevor Wilson for his bilingual involvement in the planning and conduction of the programme as well as chairing one of the themes. Dr Devendra has devotedly engaged himself in the planning and execution of the workshop, generously providing his knowledge and ideas, for which I cordially thank him.I also specifically would like to thank Drs Branckaert, Hanelein and Lefèvre for their pleasant and competent contributions to the programme and their general personal involvement.Finally, I would like to thank our two interpreters, Mrs Tilly Gaillard and Elisabeth Benamar, for an impressingly excellent and pleasantly flavouring performance.With these words, on behalf of IFS, both Eva and I thank all of you for these interesting and pleasant workshop days.","tokenCount":"37370"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"66edb462d44f460f26325b70a85f7511","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/75a5d9a0-0ee8-4b30-8869-545db09c8276/retrieve","id":"2075161354"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"54a9932d-84a4-4ca5-a840-783f29a25a0f","pagecount":"27","content":"Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) is a research for development program designed to pilot potential interventions for the sustainable intensification of mixed crop-tree-livestock systems and provide data and information that will lead to the better design of development projects. It comprises three linked projects in West Africa (Ghana and Mali), East and Southern Africa (Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia) and Ethiopian Highlands with a separate Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact Assessment Component. Africa RISING is funded by the United States Agency for International Development and involves several research institutions, including the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Michigan State University (MSU), Wageningen University (WUR), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).The primary hypothesis of the Africa RISING Program is that sustainable intensification of mixed crop-tree-livestock systems leads to increased whole farm productivity, which in turn leads to development outcomes and better food and nutrition security for those who depend on these systems. It is further hypothesized that a combination of relevant interventions is more likely to increase whole farm productivity than single interventions. The hypothesis will be tested by implementing baskets of interventions in selected communities. 1 Within a community, interventions will be 'offered' to volunteers. The type of interventions -and delivery methods-is expected to vary across time, space, and local context, even across farms depending on the choice of the individual household. They will also vary according to the farm/household typology that will classify farm households 'sufficiently similar' in relation to the expected effects of Africa RISING. Farming systems analysis and modelling will be used to help identify and target appropriate interventions across different farm types and to perform ex-ante impact analysis. Crop modelling analysis can also be applied. This data management plan has been developed to provide guidance on data management practices and standards for research institutions and teams working on the Africa RISING program. Upon discussion and agreement among partner institutions in the program, the plan can be considered binding for all participating research teams. The rest of the document is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses open data access, Africa RISING Program data sources and types, metadata management, and data standardization. Section 3 discusses Program data management and access tools. Section 4 discusses internal and external diffusion of Program data. Section 5 discusses data storage and transmission.Managing information created using US federally funded research is important for several reasons. First, it provides verification of which activities have been undertaken and which outputs they have produced. Second, it can shed light on any information deficits that the US government faces.Within Africa RISING program, data are being produced at various points in project implementation and evaluation. During the testing of interventions for sustainable intensification, various types of experimental data will be collected, such as improved seed varieties, fertilizers, management practices, biomass, soil coverage, water retention, water use efficiency and their combinations thereof. In addition, observational data will be collected about local farming systems and farmers who rely on them. Additionally, information on plant specimens and demonstration plots are likely to be available. Prior to the dissemination of technologies and eventual distribution of inputs, socio-economic baseline data have been collected from farmers. These observational data will be used to better tailor the design of research activities. As interventions are taking place, research teams will collect additional observational data on various forms of inputs distributed (such as combination of technologies and packages, training), and on the recipient farmers.Data from Testing of Technologies and Management Practices: Africa RISING research teams are conducting a series of tests to determine which technologies and sustainable management practices perform well in controlled environments. They will observe the effects of the interventions (such as improved seed varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, inoculation, but also new agricultural and livestock practices and training, and their combinations) on a series of outcome variables (e.g., plant growth, agricultural yields). When possible, the research teams should keep digital records of test results, including where and when they were taken, which plant varieties and technologies were involved, and the outcomes of the tests. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) coordinates at different level (demonstration plots, watersheds, specific landscapes) and, when possible, of participating farmers should also be taken.Monitoring Data: Throughout the life of Africa RISING it will be necessary to capture how the project is carried out. The research and M&E teams will need to coordinate to collect information about which farmers participate in field days, trainings, demonstration plots, and other trials. In addition, they will need to keep track of which households are beneficiaries of the project, which type of technology or technologies each household receives, and where they are located. The households' location should include GIS coordinates if possible. Type of project activity  Targeted crops and/or livestock  Africa RISING team(s) involved  Number of Africa RISING participating beneficiaries and how they were selected  Geographic distribution of beneficiaries  Demographic and socio-economic characteristics of beneficiaries Socio-economic and Agricultural Household Surveys: The M&E team administered a baseline household survey to Program beneficiary households, non-beneficiary households in the same communities, and non-beneficiary households in different, but similar, communities. These data have been collected to primarily assess the impact of the research activities on agricultural performance and various socio-economic outcomes of interest, as well as to inform Africa RISING project management. This effort encompassed gathering communitylevel data in beneficiary and non-beneficiary villages to monitor research activities at a broader scale. GIS coordinates of all sampled households have also been collected. In addition to the M&E team, some of the research teams (e.g., in Zambia) have also conducted socio-economic and agricultural household surveys.Africa RISING data can be presented in various formats. See Table 1 below for some examples.  For each of the data types listed above, proper documentation (metadata) is essential.Metadata is important for identifying and understanding data sources, and it is also necessary for the proper citation and integrity of the data. Moreover, data documentation facilitates the process of finding existing data, aiding in research visibility and efficiency, and in open access thus making data more discoverable (MIT 2014). Metadata should include the data type and its source. If any of the data have been transformed in any way, the metadata should include information about how the data were created. In addition, the documentation should include any preservation requirements and sharing guidelines or restrictions (DCC 2014). A unique persistent identifier should be created in the form of digital object identifiers (DOIs) (DataCite, 2011).All filenames for Africa RISING must include the metadata information, used to describe the contents and context of data files. For all data, digital or not, the metadata file must be submitted in electronic format with the following general information:  Different elements should be reported in the metadata depending on the data type (dataset or project). Each dataset metadata should include:• Contact person All tools and data will be collected in the ILRI-CKAN web-based repository, accessible by researchers through a prominent link in the Project Mapping and Monitoring Tool (PMMT) website (see discussion in section 3). This compendium of tools used by each research team should be updated regularly and uploaded onto the ILRI-CKAN system.Africa RISING has made a significant commitment to deliver, maintain (and enhance where appropriate) an open-access data management platform, in line with the USAID and CGIAR respective Policies (see below).Open access is the barrier-free and permanent right of any global citizen to view full versions of research outputs. It requires none of the onerous permissions processes or institutional affiliations often associated with proprietary data (DFID 2013;MIT 2014). While the goal of open access is to share data to maximize its impact, it must be pursued with the protection of third parties in mind (CGIAR, 2013a).Open access to US federally funded data is a pressing priority of researchers and government officials alike. Free internet access to scientific journal articles based on federally funded research was the subject of a petition to the White House signed by 65,704 individuals (WH 2012). Dr. John Holdren of the White House's Office of Science and Technology responded to this petition, agreeing that \"Americans should have easy access to the results of research they help support.\" He issued a memorandum on February 22, 2013 directing the heads of executive departments and agencies with over $100 million in research and development expenditures to develop public access plans for their data (Holdren 2013).The simplest logic for open access for American citizens is that those who paid for the research should be able to use it (WH 2012). However, the value of data extends far beyond that of a commodity. The public sharing of research outputs has the potential to speed research, spur innovation, and generally facilitate the learning process. In the context of developing countries, open data access has the potential not just to increase innovation, but to increase the visibility of and opportunities for emerging country researchers (DFID 2013).Closed and paid access favors researchers who have the resources to pay for costly subscriptions. Unrestricted access to data allows developing country researchers to pursue research topics that are relevant to their countries and interesting to local stakeholders. It also broadens the potential impact of the research to developing country residents. Furthermore, it reduces the costs of doing research, improving the efficiency of research utilization. Finally, it is only logical and fair that data collected in a developing country be available to its citizens. In this regard, data researchers should not be viewed as data owners, but data custodians, the owners being the subjects from whom the information was collected. This the reason why, for any data collection involving human subjects, the Internal Review Board of each Institution needs to enforce the submission of an informed consent to data collection and treatment that each respondent needs to be aware of, agree upon, and sign. 2The CGIAR Open Access and Data Management Policy (\"the Policy\") was approved and adopted by the CGIAR Consortium and is effective as of October 2, 2013 with a 5-year transition implementation period with demonstrable implementation by the end of 2018. The Between the baseline and end-line household interviews, there will be an opportunity to extract and analyze data collected during the baseline survey. In this period, it is expected that descriptive statistics and analyses about individuals, households and communities in the intervention and counterfactual areas will be produced. Both the research and M&E teams may also produce articles, scholarly papers, and reports based on data collected through multiple channels. Additionally, the M&E team will produce interactive maps using spatial data from household and community surveys.At the end of the Africa RISING project, end-line household and community surveys will be conducted. Data from these surveys will be used to provide evidence about Africa RISING's performance. These data will be used to compare outcomes between intervention and nonintervention households over time. Following the collection, data will be made available for use for legitimate research purposes, including scholarly papers, provided the identification and the confidentiality of information from human subjects is respected.Conducting standardized farm/household surveys can provide essential data for characterizing the agricultural research process and informing the research agenda. At the same time, survey data can serve as baselines for monitoring research performance at the farm/household level. Baseline, mid-line and end-line surveys on identified indicators (both the common set of standards and -where necessary -custom indicators) are imperative for assessing and monitoring progress during the different project cycles. In project countries, there has been an explosion of baseline farm/household surveys, many of which are not effectively used; most only meet the needs of specific projects. Building strategic partnerships and alliances with multiple stakeholders would be an important step toward tapping into existing data and spreading information possibly helpful to other institutions. In countries where baseline surveys exist and are available, the M&E team in collaboration with the implementers conducted a gap scrutiny to identify the need for complementary baseline surveys. The team developed effective data structures and systems to cover all the identified indicators. These data structures and systems must be endorsed by the research teams at the project level before their use for data collection.All ARBES data sets must be accompanied by all data tools including survey instruments and instruction manuals. There must be a description of the sample, including how it was selected, its size and representativeness. Furthermore, the documentation should include a description of how the data collection was implemented and sample weights calculated, if the latter exist.The M&E team will also provide data sharing policies, protocols and vehicles for aggregate biophysical and technological performance data. The team has developed an open-access web-site for storing and managing project data, and it will maintain a transparent data analysis platform to serve the needs of stakeholders. The open-access web-site will be a platform of knowledge sharing system for sustainable intensification innovations and information on promising technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa among a large network of stakeholders.The Africa RISING Project Mapping and Monitoring Tool (PMMT) is ultimately intended to help users understand where and how Africa RISING activities are taking place, and improve project strategies and partnerships for greater impact in their work. Its features and functions have been designed to provide the following benefits: Inform strategic and project management decisions. The PMMT can help inform decisions by allowing users to take geographic information about AR sites into account, whether it is the location of markets, related projects and partners, travel time, annual precipitation, or maize crop yields.  Communicate programmatic projects to key stakeholders. A primary benefit to users of the PMMT is to see the spatial layout of AR activities relative to geographic context. Users have the ability to add their projects to the PMMT database and then visualize those projects in a variety of ways.  Understand how programmatic efforts relate to other projects as well as to useful agricultural information. Users have the ability to browse and map other people's projects alone and alongside their own projects. This functionality provides the framework for multiple organizations to communicate vital strategic information together in a coordinated fashion.The Africa Rising PMMT is composed of two functional modules which perform specific and complementary functions: Mapping Application -This allows users to contextualize where AR activities are taking place and view data related to them  Data Entry Application -Users with the appropriate credentials can add additional data to the PMMT through an intuitive, step-by-step interfaceThe African Rising PMMT has three types of users, each with different use cases and use privileges. A single user can fill these roles for different action sites: Viewer -A viewer has the opportunity to browse information about AR sites. Where data is available, they can generate reports based on statistics that exist in the PMMT. Editor -An editor has all the rights that a viewer does. In addition, an editor can make changes to values in reports that exist in the PMMT.Administrator -In addition to all the rights that an editor has, an administrator can create new reports and add or change other users' access rights.The PMMT contains two primary data types: program data and contextual reference data. These two types of data can be used together to create informative, interactive maps. A third type, external data, are suitable for advanced uses where existing data sources from outside the PMMT database can be \"mashed up\" onto a map, although the treatment of this type of data into the PMMT is still a matter of discussion among Africa RISING project managers due to its implementation difficulty and expected use. The intermediate solution adopted so far is to use the ILRI-CKAN web service (accessible through a prominent link on the PMMT website), although this decision still needs to be agreed upon and ratified by Africa RISING stakeholders.Initially, the PMMT will be housed at HarvestChoice, given the complexity of the functionalities involved, and in the short-term the ILRI-CKAN web repository has been identified to house researchers' data for reference and use (see Chapter 4 on \"Ownership and diffusion\").The PMMT has undergone through two waves of enhancements, based on feedback received at the 2013 annual expert M&E meeting. The tool is constantly being updated and refined, and the M&E team, through its local M&E coordinators, periodically organizes incountry PMMT training for all research teams in each mega-site. In addition, the M&E team developed a detailed PMMT training manual and video tutorial to be used at these trainings and beyond, for ease of reference.The HarvestChoice/Africa RISING M&E team is also expected to assist and manage operation, representation, data flow, and research outputs of Africa RISING. Its tasks are to: Oversee the quality and relevance of Africa RISING M&E project knowledge products, including data and tools  Organize and summarize large amounts of technical documents  Perform a range of program coordination and data management activities  Build and implement data collection plans  Develop and manage project-related presentation materials, and respond to internal as well as external project information requests.Behind the PMMT is a database that stores detailed project information. This project information describes what activities are taking place and where. The PMMT database contains information about the PMMT user's projects, other projects and external layers, so connections can be made on the ground.Project data include specific project attributes like name, description, grant amount, duration, their actions and the locations where these actions occur. Each action represents a programmatic activity of the given project. It has basic attributes similar to those of the project but specific to the action. What actions have, and projects do not, are on-the-ground field locations.Locations illustrate where actions are taking place and may represent a variety of things, ranging from training locations to chilling plants to development sites. Locations are represented as points or areas (polygons). These are drawn by the designated user or users, uploaded in batches (points only) or taken from the PMMT database of known places and administrative district boundaries. Contact and partner information are also stored as part of the project data.The PMMT contains reference data to help users put project data into context. Contextual reference data consist of reference data from international institutions involved in global development (CGIAR, FAO). The content spans a wide variety of topics, including demographics, crop suitability and market characteristics, mostly drawn from HarvestChoice. These layers are provided with descriptive metadata so that users can understand how to use the data appropriately. Additional layers and categories of data are planned based on availability and user feedback. Specific requests for reference data can be made either through the feedback tool or by a support request to the IFPRI-HarvestChoice team.In the PMMT, projects are comprised of actions. While the Project is described by basic and largely unchanging attributes, actions are described in greater detail in the dimensions of location and time. Put another way, Project details are those that were most likely provided as part of a grant application. Actions are aspects of a project that may have been described when the project was conceived but should represent the work in its current state after final implementation plans and adjustments made in response to ongoing challenges and opportunities.Again, following the USAID DRAFT Research Policy (February 2014) \"Results of research (including published and unpublished manuscripts, and their underlying data) for which 50 percent or more of its funding comes from USAID, once secured of any concerns related to privacy, security, or other principled exceptions, must be made publicly accessible online for search, retrieval, analysis, and application.[…]\" After collection, cleaning, transformation of data, and before production of relevant publication, it is acceptable that data remain in the sole custody of the data collector for a period of one year. In fact, the USAID Research Policy states that \"As noted previously, federally funded scientific research is subject to a more rigorous peer review process than other types of data before it can be made available to the public. To facilitate this review process and in recognition of time lags associated with publication in peer reviewed journals, research data may be temporarily withheld from public release (embargoed) pending completion of the review process. Specifically, research results may be embargoed for up to twelve months following the end of the award.\"As such, teams or institutions working in concert to collect data must share them in a timely manner to be set-up at the start of their collaboration. Data sharing needs to occur through electronic form and following certain standard and requirements. Minimum feature requirements for Africa RISING open-data platform were identified as follows:○ File storing: capability to host physical data files, but also links to external sources.○ Metadata management: ability to specify different types of content and to use different metadata templates according to data types (survey data, modeled data, spatial data, etc.).○ Versioning: keeping track of history of both data files and metadata with option to view/restore older versions.○ Permissioning: ability to control access to individual items based on user roles/groups; supporting OAuth for user authentication/authorization; ability for end-users to set group access to individual or collections of items.○ Openness: indexing feeds from external systems (in RDF or DDI format) and publishing resources as RDF feeds (open API and embeddable widgets desirable).○ Visualization: ability to view the data file structure (fields and field types, row count for the most common file formats -CSV, TSV, DTA, XLS, DBF-); capability to visualize the actual data as table and/or charts desirable; filtering and sorting data as well as visualization of spatial data (vector and raster) desired.○ Social features: users' ability to rate and comment on items, possibly through third-party discussion applications, such as Disqus, Facebook, Twitter.○ Performance: adequate performance over low-bandwidth connections, and on smart phones and tablet devices.○ Analytics: capability to track usage per item and file over time (views and downloads from non-authenticated users).Given the above requirements, for Africa RISING it was decided on a trial basis that, once the data have been collected and curated, they will be uploaded onto the web-based ILRI-CKAN at http://data.ilri.org/portal/ for internal diffusion and use. Data and metadata uploaded onto CKAN will be compliant to the Open Access Policy (this feature is already embedded into CKAN so there is no extra work for the user-side). Thus, data and metadata can be displayed into external platforms (like global data management platforms) or into Africa RISING Project Monitoring and Mapping Tool (PMMT).The Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) is a web-based open source data management system for the storage and distribution of data, such as spreadsheets and content of databases. Its code base is maintained by the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF), and the system is available as a publicly hosted platform at http://thedatahub.org/ or may be installed locally.The public platform at http://thedatahub.org/ is already configured and may be used to upload, distribute, and visualize data.(+)CKAN is highly customizable. Currently there are several features implemented by the CKAN community under the form of CKAN extensions; additional extensions can be built in order to implement specific features.Customizable look and feel. CKAN is easy to customize using own CSS and images.(+) Additional fields or custom vocabularies may be added either by using already built extensions or by developing custom additions depending on requirements.For example, ckanext-spatial is an extension adding geospatial capabilities to CKAN such as: ○ Spatial model for CKAN datasets and automatic geo-indexing ○ Spatial search integration and API call ○ Spatial search widget integrated on the search form ○ Dataset extent map widget showing dataset extent ○ Web Map Service (WMS) previewer ○ Basic CSW Server to server metadata from the CKAN instance ○ GEMINI Harvesters for importing INSPIRE-style metadata ○ Harvest Metadata API to view the harvested metadata XML either as a raw file or styled to view in a web browser.(+)Visualization. CKAN has previewing tools that can easily and nicely display data as tables, graphs, maps or images. Own data previewing tools can be plugged into the API to create custom visuals on the fly (see examples at http://tinyurl.com/c72xhpw). Data can also be sorted and filtered.(+) Social features. Users can add comments and discuss datasets, share and promote content using social media platforms (Google+, Twitter, Facebook), create RSS/Atom feeds, \"follow\" a dataset, flag as \"to do\" incomplete or faulty datasets.(+)Performance. The platform may be mirrored on servers located in regions with low average bandwidth for optimization. However, performance is not guaranteed if the CKAN public platform is used.(+)Analytics. CKAN Google Analytics Extension is built as a user-friendly reporting interface to display Google Analytics statistics, including file downloads.All the uploaded datasets and resources are available via a data API with powerful query support.(0)The main content type is a dataset consisting of resources (data files) and cataloging information describing the data. Within the default CKAN instance the resources are defined by: Resource (Link to a file/Link to an API/Uploaded file), Name, Description, Format; the cataloging information consists of: Title, Description, Tags, License, Visibility, Author, Maintainer, Group, tree sets of Custom Fields (key-value pair), Resource (Link to a file/Link to an API/Uploaded file, Name, Description, Format) (0)Versioning. CKAN uses the Open Knowledge Foundation's Versioned Domain Model (VDM) to keep a complete history of all edits and versions of dataset metadata. Using this feature, it is possible to look at old versions, undo changes, look at a complete history of changes to a dataset, and compare different revisions. However, it does not store history of changes of the resources (data files).(0)Permissioning. Datasets may be defined as public, private or associated to preset groups.If customization is needed, CKAN must be installed locally using managed storage resources (server, DNS hosting). The installation process is platform-restrictive (package install requires Ubuntu 10.4, but source install works with any other operating system). The process of installing, configuring and upgrading the CKAN platform in order to meet requirements needs substantial developer's time.○ http://thedatahub.org/ -CKAN open data platform ○ http://data.gov.uk/ -Open Data portal of the UK Government ○ http://publicdata.eu/ -Europe Public's Data ○ http://iatiregistry.org/ -IATI RegistryThere is no cost claimed by CKAN if the instance is to be hosted on an internally managed server. However, developer time has to be factored in order to install, configure and maintain a local CKAN instance. A customized data portal meeting requirements is available from the CKAN team starting from $2,000/month. More details at http://ckan.org/solutions/pricing/   Note: The grading above reflects the platform's level suitability to the requirements, 5 being the most suitable. It should not be considered as a qualitative evaluation of the platform itself.-Computer software: if developed internally, the associated source code must be deposited in a free/open software archive upon completion of the software development, and access may be granted subject to appropriate licenses (e.g. Copyleft);-Metadata: it must be deposited in a suitable repository before or on publication of the information product.Requests for data containing personal or geographic identifiers suitable to identify or contact any individual from whom the dataset was created must not be approved, except for AR programmatic purposes and subject to approval by the data provider, even after the embargo period. All data requests must be addressed in writing or electronically to the data provider in Africa RISING (see Appendix B for the data sharing agreement). All shared data must be accompanied with appropriate metadata and must be labeled properly, to unable the requestor to work on the data independently.The provisions above discipline data the Africa RISING program will generate in the course of its lifetime. In case of past data already collected at the date of November 30, 2014, they should be uploaded onto the CKAN web-based platform no later than April 30, 2015. A list of researchers and Institutions not complying with this provision will be kept by the PCT.Within the embargo period, data access and sharing with institutions and individuals not directly involved in the Africa RISING program will be discretionally determined by each data institution/research team provider on a case-by-case basis for legitimate research purposes and non-commercial uses, subject to the eight conditions reported in Appendix B. After the embargo period, all data are public access and must be shared under the open data access policy rules. All costs involved in making the data available shall be borne by the Requestor.8.The dataset shall not be used to identify or contact any individual from whom the dataset was created.I/We agree that all data released under this agreement are confidential and remain the property of [INSTITUTION] and USAID. I/We undertake to observe the terms and conditions specified above, knowing that if I/We default, necessary legal action may be taken against me/us. This agreement shall be effective as of [DATE] and shall continue until the agreement is terminated in accordance with the provisions made below, but in any event no later than [DATE].The [INSTITUTION] may terminate this agreement: Immediately if a finding or stipulation that the data requestor has violated any standard or requirement of any security or privacy laws is made in any administrative or civil proceeding in which the requestor has been joined;  Immediately if [INSTITUTION]  ","tokenCount":"4821"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c5cf42d9324fa6fca718608ec63bb6d9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/37637011-644e-4006-b648-9edf93474995/retrieve","id":"444932734"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1cf9bcbd-6813-43ed-9db5-5fcc0834e018","pagecount":"15","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above.The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.ISBN: 92-9146-457-0 Editing, design and layout-Sheep fattening is an increasingly important economic activity in the West African Sahel, particularly in and around Tabaski, the Islamic festival of Eid-al-Kabir (Ayantunde et al. 2008). The low level of initial investment, rapid turnover rate, the high degree of social acceptance and easy access to the market make sheep fattening extremely attractive to poor farmers, including women. It entails feeding young sheep for a short period, leading to a 30-40% increase in edible carcass yield.The main strategy is to fatten young, lean male sheep, born on-farm or, more frequently, purchased on the open market, over a two-three-month period. Fattening is increasingly providing opportunities to rural and suburban Sahelian communities to improve household food security and incomes. Sheep farmers traditionally feed their animals with whatever food that is available: feed waste when available and underfeeding in times of shortages. Consequently, growth rates in traditional sheep fattening have remained low and largely unprofitable.Many studies have been conducted to develop alternative feeding strategies to make sheep fattening profitable. This manual provides simple and tested practical guidelines for livestock farmers and extension workers on least cost ration based on locally available feed resources for sheep fattening. It contains details on feeding and management options that can be applied by small-scale producers. Other key issues addressed in the manual include housing, purchase of feed, general hygiene and the handling of animals.2 Sourcing animals for fattening Whether the animals are selected from the farmers' flock or purchased on the open market, the following criteria should be carefully considered when selecting sheep for fattening.• Animal health: Health is one of the main criteria guiding the selection of animals. In general, an animal in good health is distinguished by a wet muzzle, smooth hair and its agility. The absence of these signs indicates discomfort in animals. The incidence of pestes des petits ruminants (PPR) is quite high in the West African Sahel whenever sheep and goats from different sources are gathered together in the local markets. Animals should be observed closely to prevent infection with PPR.• Skeletal frame: The animals should have a large skeletal frame and good body condition. Lean animals fatten faster. Avoid emaciated animals as their poor condition may not entirely be due to nutritional factors. Emaciated animals often take a long time to recover.• Breed: Identify breeds for which there is the greatest growth potential and high demand in the market. Bali-Bali, Oudah, Ara-Ara and crossbred sheep are generally preferred for fattening in West African dry areas. Bali-Bali sheep are particularly popular during the Tabaski period.• Colour: Select white or bicoloured coated sheep. White coat colour is preferred during Tabaski.• Sex: Although female animals mature earlier than males, females are mostly kept for production, while males are mostly used for fattening. In terms of marketing for religious purposes, male animals are preferable.• Age: Animals can be put on intensive feeding program at any age, usually after weaning. It is advisable to select sheep between 18 and 24 months for fattening. Avoid old animals. A sheep's dentition provide a good indication of its age.3 Feeds and fattening strategiesThe major feed resources available for fattening in the Sahelian zones are:• Bush hay: Andropogon gayanus, Eragrostic tremula, Pennisetum pedicelatum, Digitaria ciliaris, Zornia glochidiata, Ctenium elegans, Schizachyrium exile, and Borreria stachydea• Crop residues: Cowpea hay, groundnut haulm, and millet, maize and sorghum stover• Cereal brans: Maize, millet, sorghum and rice bran• Browse plants shrub/tree fodder: Faidherbia albida, K. senegalensis, Piliostigma reticulatum, etc.• Agro-industrial by-products: Cottonseed cake Most of these feed resources are seasonal, particularly bush hay, crop residues and shrub/tree fodder. Available at fodder markets, their cost varies markedly depending on the season and market location. Given that feed cost accounts for at least 60% of total fattening operational costs, sourcing cheap feed resources is critical to profitable sheep fattening. Many rural households frequently use crop residues from their farms and brans from processed grains to reduce feed cost. When buying feed resources, farmers should observe the feed properly and bear the following in mind:1.Avoid mouldy feeds (bush hay, brans and cottonseed cake). It may indicate spoilage and lower quality.In case of bush hay and crop residues, select bundles with more leaves than stem. Leaves are of higher nutritional value than stems.Prominent brown rather than green, colouration in groundnut and cowpea haulms may indicate lower quality.Observe closely to detect adulteration or physical spoilage of the feeds.Green colouration shows well-preserved cowpea haulms. Brownish colour indicates poor-quality cowpea haulms.Animals should be provided with shelters, not necessarily expensive ones, to protect them from harsh environments.A simple and inexpensive shed, made from locally available materials, such as bamboo or mud with thatched roof, should be constructed for the animals.The objective in a fattening operation is to convert as much of the feed as possible into body tissue. It is, therefore, necessary to minimize the movement of animals during the fattening period, allowing them only limited exercise. The space required per animal is about 2 m 2 and the shelter should normally be open on one side. Muddy feedlots drastically reduce feed efficiency; therefore, it is necessary to keep the premises dry. Feeding and water racks should be accessible to both animals and the manager, preferably in front of the aisle.Feeding and watering troughs: Feeding and watering troughs should be strong, and easy to clean. Half-cut metal drums or aluminium bowls which cannot be easily damaged are preferred. For large-scale or continuous fattening operations, concrete-made feeders would be advisable. The fattening program should be started after the necessary feed supplies are secured. Underfeeding and incorrect timing are the most common causes of unprofitable fattening activities.This involves providing the animal with balanced cheap rations that meet its energy needs, as well as providing the protein and minerals necessary to meet its maintenance and growth requirements. Sheep fattening feed rations should generally contain about 60% forage (roughages) and 40% legume crop residues or concentrate feed. The daily feed ration of roughages, the basal feed, should be made available to the animal ad libitum, corresponding to about 3-5% of its body weight. These could be millet, sorghum straw or bush hay. The commonly used legume residues for sheep fattening in West African Sahel are cowpea hay and groundnut haulms. The period of time of profitable fattening should be between 50 to 90 days, depending on feed availability and the animal's initial weight.Feeds should be properly handled they are being weighed, served and stored in order to avoid wastage. Poor feed handling may reduce the nutritive value of feed. Hay should be stored on cool shaded-racks or in a barn to avoid exposure to heat and rain, while brans and concentrate should be properly stored to prevent termite and rodent attack, and contamination. ","tokenCount":"1162"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"515182462c19e6f34b675a116b83a283","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d5dfa023-5fcc-47ee-8964-6533b24b105e/retrieve","id":"1959633309"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"73940f32-a10d-416d-a21f-0a927055df88","pagecount":"24","content":"IPGRI and INIBAP operate under the name \"Bioversity International\", Bioversity for short. This new name echoes our new strategy, which focuses on improving people's lives through biodiversity research. Bioversity International is an autonomous international scientific organization that seeks to improve the well-being of present and future generations of people by enhancing the conservation and the deployment of agricultural biodiversity on farms and in forests. It is one of 15 centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an association of public and private members who support efforts to mobilize cutting-edge science to reduce hunger and poverty, improve human nutrition and health, and protect the environment. Bioversity has its headquarters in Maccarese, near Rome, Italy, with offices in more than 20 countries worldwide. The institute operates through four programmes: Diversity for Livelihoods, Understanding and Managing Biodiversity, Global Partnerships and Commodities for Livelihoods.The international status of Bioversity International is conferred under an Establishment Agreement which, by January 2006, had been signed by the Governments of Algeria,Traditional farming systems and conservation of local cultivars and associated indigenous knowledge are under threat and growing pressure resulting in genetic erosion of crop diversity. These systems are an essential component of sustainable crop production, household income and human nutrition for many of the poor farmers found in fragile semi-arid ecosystems of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). With the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992, in situ conservation for crops and their related genetic resources has been given prominent mention in global and national policies for biodiversity conservation. In situ strategies are an important and complementary component of the overall agrobiodiversity conservation efforts that aim to conserve not only crop genetic resources but also crop evolutionary processes. However, policy support of the science and practice of in situ conservation, lag behind CBD commitment in much of SSA.The need for activities on in situ conservation of plant genetic resources is emphasized in the CBD and in Agenda 21. Article 2 of the Convention specifically includes reference to domesticated or cultivated species. This is also anticipated in Article 8, which requires signatory Nations to \"preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity …\" Agenda 21 reflects this commitment to in situ conservation as an essential component of sustainable agriculture, and in Chapter 14, notes the need for establishing programmes and policies to strengthen in situ conservation. In its second meeting, the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP 2) identified implementation of Article 8 of the CBD as a high priority and reaffirmed the importance of regional and international cooperation for the implementation of this Article. It also stressed the importance of the exchange of relevant information and experience among all stakeholders on measures taken for its implementation (Decision II/7 of COP 2).Many national PGR programmes in SSA are unable to meet their obligations towards in situ (more specifically on-farm) conservation as stated in the CBD and the Global Plan of Action (GPA) because of ineffective enabling of national policy environments that do not support traditional farming systems and in situ conservation on-farm.In order to strengthen the capacity of countries to implement effective policy, Bioversity International and national programme partners developed a project on \"Community-based management of plant genetic resources in arid and semi-arid areas of Africa\" funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The countries involved in the project were Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Through case studies, the project analysed farming systems in semi-arid ecosystems in these countries, focussing on how these systems supported the conservation of landraces of local and global significance. The methodology described in the present publication was designed within this project to draw out 'best' practices on how landraces have been incorporated into farming systems and/or national agricultural policies and biodiversity conservation strategies. On one hand, the farmer or resource user determines what makes the practice the 'best one', and they base their choices on a survival strategy or utilitarian point of view. On the other hand, the scientists on the project primarily judged how effective the practices are in conserving agrobiodiversity at different levels. The project attempted to reconcile the two views in developing frameworks for the determination of 'best practice'.Our hope is that the lessons learnt from project experiences will be used to develop models to begin to integrate and incorporate the approaches into national decision-making strategies on PGR at policy level. This is in accordance with article 6b of the CBD of which the COP of the CBD has requested the GEF to take action thereby advancing global efforts to safeguard the world's plant genetic resources. This methodology is a product of a Bioversitycoordinated project conducted in semi-arid ecosystems in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe, with implementation support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and co financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The authors would like to thank the United Nations Environment Programme and the Global Environment Facility for their financial and technical backing.The project that generated the methodology outlined in this manual benefited enormously from the input of many experienced unnamed individuals, especially farmers and communities around Africa who provided much information of value to the project. The authors would like first to thank them and the members of the national project teams in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe, particularly their country focal persons: Mr Nasser Baco, Dr Didier Balma, Professor Edwin Gyasi, Mr Godfrey Muthamia, Dr Amadou Sidibe, Mr Kingslay Kapila, Mr John Mulumba Wasswa and Mr Claid Mujaju. We are grateful to all the participants-from farmers to development workers, researchers and government officials-who helped to shape the thoughts expressed in this report.The authors would also like to thank the following participants of a training course held at Tamale, Ghana in December 2002 for their valuable contributions to the development of the methodology outlined: Dr Kofi Dartey, Dr Essie T. Blay, Dr Carol Markwei, Dr J.A. Yidana, S.K. Boateng, Dr Moussa Sie, Dr Adam Ahanchede, Dr Paul Tanzubil, Abdoulaye Kamara, Bizoola Gandaa, Mr Alhassan Bunyaminu, Mr Mahama Afa Asumah, Janet Daaro, and Kenneth Peprah.We would also like to thank Mr Charles Nkwine, Mrs Ann Kalanzi, Dr Deborah Karamura, Mrs B.S. Male Kayiwa, Mr Stephen Iga, and Mr John Mulumba Wasswa for being allowed to use an anonymized version of their real field data for purposes of illustrating the principles of the methodology.Finally, we would like to thank Dr Bhuwon Sthapit of Bioversity Nepal, who originally introduced us to the participatory extent and distribution (or foursquare) analysis, which plays such a central role in this methodology.Genetic Diversity Scientist Diversity for Livelihoods Programme Bioversity International United Nations Avenue, Gigiri PO Box 30677 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254 20 7224505 Fax: +254 20 7224501 Email: m.grum@cgiar.orgThe challenge of developing a methodology for farmer evaluation of practices for landrace conservation lies largely in finding a systematic way of determining whether practices are likely to contribute to maintaining high levels of diversity on-farm. We have taken an approach that evaluates a practice's importance for rare landraces and the practice's contribution to the main farmer livelihood strategies: in other words, is the practice helping rare landraces survive, and is the practice sustainable?We have attempted to make the evaluation process truly participative, involving farmers not just in an extractive information gathering process, but also in a large part of the analytical process. The process aims to provide farmers as well as development agents and researchers with new insights into what keeps landraces on farms. In addition, the process attempts to be sufficiently objective (though not impersonal) to convincingly communicate this information to a broader audience of researchers and development workers.The method involves three basic steps (each constituting a different visit) with farmers:• The participatory analysis of extent and distribution of landrace diversity (also known as the four square analysis), which aims to identify the rare landraces, their traits and possible practices for landrace conservation. • The evaluation of the importance of practices for the survival or maintenance of rare landraces.• The evaluation of the contribution of these practices to three basic livelihood strategies for which farmers often use diversity: risk minimization, resource-use optimization and diverse end uses, including sale.Farmers generally manage landraces in the form of farmer-named varieties that are unequally distributed among and within farms. Two dimensions of a landrace's distribution are how many farms it is grown on, and what area it is grown on within each farm.The first step towards our objective of identifying best practices for landrace conservation uses the four-square analysis to identify varieties that are rare and possibly threatened by looking at these two dimensions; the reasons for the variety's status; and provides the initial insight into what practices help to maintain these rare varieties in the system.The study should focus on one or two major crops, conducting the exercise for one crop at a time, as it is likely to prove too time consuming to repeat for many crops.1. Objects to represent varieties: These may be some identifiable part of the plant, such as yam tubers, bean seeds, etc. Cards may represent the varieties with a variety name on each card. 2. Four squares for placing the varieties in during the four-square analysis:This may simply consist of two lines of 2 x 2 m drawn in the sand, or a flip chart or blackboard.Depending on whether the four-square analysis will be carried out on the ground or on a flip chart or blackboard, appropriate drawing tools are needed. 4. Seating for the participants. 5. Data sheets.There should preferably be a minimum of eight participating farmers for each group to be formed during the analysis, that is, if two groups are to be formed, one with older farmers and one with younger farmers, a minimum of sixteen farmers are required. In some cases it may also be of interest to have a separate group or two for women, if numbers allow.Each group requires a facilitator and two scribes. Once farmers understand the principle, the facilitator may well come from among the farmers.When organizing the event, farmers may be asked to bring a sample of each variety to use in the subsequent exercises.Farmers are split into groups as described above under \"Participants\". Farmers then create a list of varieties, including those that no longer exist in the village. The young farmers are asked to list all varieties currently grown in the village and the older farmers are asked to do the same for varieties grown 20-40 years ago (select the most appropriate time frame with farmers).For the best participatory effect, two lines measuring 2 x 2 m are drawn on the ground as shown in Figure 1. A number of houses are then drawn in the top two quadrants to indicate that varieties grown by many households are to be placed in these quadrants. One house is drawn in each of the lower quadrants to indicate that these quadrants are for varieties grown by few households. A large circle is drawn in each of the quadrants to the left and a small circle in the quadrants to the right to indicate that these quadrants are for varieties grown on large and small areas of land respectively. In case appropriate space is not available, a flipchart or blackboard may be used instead.Farmers stand or sit around the four-square design. The facilitator stands in the middle of the four-square holding up the first variety and asks whether this variety is grown by many or by few households. As farmers respond, the facilitator moves to the relevant half of the square. The facilitator then asks whether the variety is grown on large areas of land or on small areas of land. When farmers respond, the facilitator places the variety in the appropriate quadrant. The process then moves on to the next variety. The facilitator should try to get a farmer to take over the facilitation as soon as they appear to understand what is expected. In cases where a sample of each variety is not available or is impractical, other objects or cards with the variety names may be used to represent the varieties.(four-square analysis)  In many cases farmers will agree immediately on where a variety belongs, but in other cases there will be considerable discussion before deciding where to place it. Often it is useful to prompt with comparative questions such as, \"Is it grown on smaller or larger areas than variety X?\" Occasionally farmers will not know enough about what other farmers are growing to answer the question. This may be resolved through more discussion, but in a few instances has required the organization of farm visits before doing the analysis.While this is going on, the scribes do two things.One takes notes about the different varieties and comments made about them, using Table 1. The other listens for indications of practices and takes notes on these, for instance a comment about a variety being suitable for making beer leads the scribe to record the practice of brewing.When all the varieties have been placed in a square, the discussion moves back to details of each variety with the objective of completing Table 1 in the Annex for every one of the varieties. One variety is taken at a time. The facilitator asks when it was first introduced to the village and from where. If it is no longer grown in the community, the facilitator asks for the year that it was last grown. Only a very approximate answer is expected. Then the discussion moves on to positive and negative traits of the varieties and comments about them, taking particular note of personal experiences with the varieties. It is on these points that the four-square comes in really useful. Often farmers will say some very positive things about varieties in the bottom right corner or negative things about varieties in the top left corner. This gives the facilitator the opportunity to challenge what is being said, often leading to further discussion that sheds new light, not only on the variety, but also on farmers' priorities and strategies. At this point it is important that the second scribe is teasing out practices (see section 2 for definition) from the discussion.To bring all farmers into the discussion as early as possible, it is important to pick on some of the rare varieties early in the discussion and to ask the farmers that grow these varieties for comments. Once again, comparative questions come in useful, \"Does this common variety (in the top left corner) taste worse/ better than this rare variety (in the bottom right corner)?\"Patterns should be sought, for example, we have on a number of occasions seen that the varieties in the top right hand corner have high but unstable yields, so that all farmers will grow them hoping for a good season with a high yield, while they do not dare grow very much of these varieties as they may fail in bad seasons. Other patterns have been detected that will not be mentioned here to avoid biasing the research.The length of this exercise will depend very much on the number of varieties present in the community for the particular crop under study, but will often take from two to four hours. It is advisable not to rush the process as some of the most interesting information comes out of the deep probing that goes on when the facilitator is patient.If time allows, presenting a preliminary list of practices and asking farmers to comment and add additional practices can complete the day's work.Based on the day's discussion, previous project experience and the literature review, develop a preliminary list of practices for the next visit.This exercise helps determine which practices are important for the maintenance of which varieties. By looking at which practices are of specific importance to rare varieties, we get an evaluation of a practice's contribution to conservation.1. Flip chart or blackboard.2. Drawing tools: Depending on whether using a flip chart or blackboard, appropriate drawing tools are needed. 3. Seating for the participants. 4. Data sheets. 5. Camera.The participants should as far as possible be the same as in the previous exercise, and divided into the same groups.For the plenary session it is a good idea to have a facilitator and a scribe, while for the group session, one person can probably handle both tasks.The approach described in this manual was developed in a project on \"Community-based management of plant genetic resources in arid and semi-arid areas of Africa\" funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In that project the following definition of a good practice was used:Broadly conceived, a good practice for conservation of landraces is a system, organization or process that, in a given space (from the local levels of resolution through the national and regional to the global), and over time, maintains, enhances or creates crop genetic resources and ensures their availability to and from farmers and other stakeholders for improved livelihoods on a sustainable basis.The day starts with a discussion of what factors contribute to conservation, defined as the sustained use of a landrace in production systems. The participants are presented with the project definition of a practice translated into the local language and explained in terms comprehensible to the community. The definition is discussed in relation to local circumstances.Based on this definition, the participants review the list of conservation practices to complement it and to ensure that the groups are later working with the same list and the same understanding of the list. It is important to capture local systems and organizations that may contribute to the conservation of landraces, though their contribution may not at first be obvious.Table 2 in the Annex is filled out for each practice. This involves describing the practice, preferably to a degree where someone else could replicate the practice based on the description (under the heading, \"How is the practice carried out / techniques\"). The rest of the table is about the farmer's objectives with the practice, who decides the objective, who is directly involved and how, strengths of the practice and weaknesses, limitations, or difficulties with the practice. This preliminary description of the practice can be light with a substantially more in-depth description sought for the most important practices once their importance has been analyzed.The participants are then divided into the groups of the first day to discuss the merits of each practice in relation to specific varieties. Table 3 in the Annex is used for this discussion. The practices are listed down the left-hand column. The varieties for which the practice is very important are then listed in the second column. These are the varieties that might be threatened if this practice was not maintained. The third column (normal importance) is usually where most varieties would be expected to fall and if working with a large number of varieties, it may not even be necessary to fill in the column. It can be considered the default column, that is, where the varieties not appearing in the two other columns belong. The varieties for which the practice is of particularly low importance are listed in column four.When you have gone through all the practices, you can now refer to the four-square analysis to provide a score in the last column, based on the following criteria: • A score of three is given to a practice for each variety that is grown by few households on small areas of land and for which the practice is of high importance.• A score of one is given to a practice for each variety that is grown by few households on large areas of land and for which the practice is of high importance.• A score of one is given to a practice for each variety that is grown by many households on small areas of land and for which the practice is of high importance.• No score is given to a practice for varieties that are grown by many farmers on large areas of land, as these varieties are not considered threatened.• No score is given to a practice for varieties for which the practice is of normal or low importance, as the practice is not considered crucial to these varieties.The scores for each practice are then added up to have a score for the overall conservation value of the practice.This part of the exercise does not usually take very long, but it is important to keep each group's list separate to allow for some analysis of consistency among groups.If time allows, the groups can now assemble to present their results to each other and discuss differences. The scribe captures these points in freeform, which requires considerable skill.Before the next interaction with the community, the research team should organize and analyze their data. A biplot of varieties and practices as shown in Figure 2 should be drawn up on a flipchart for discussion with the community.This exercise helps determine the contribution that a practice makes to farmers' livelihood strategies based on natural resource management. As farmers are unlikely to maintain diversity simply for its own sake or the general benefit to society that conserving diversity could provide, an indication of the private value, or personal benefits, of maintaining diversity and the associated practices is a good indicator of sustainability of a practice.1. Flip chart or blackboard.2. Drawing tools: Depending on whether using a flip chart or blackboard, appropriate drawing tools are needed.Enough colours and shapes are needed for each participant in a group to have his or her own distinct shape or colour. This could, for example, be four different colours or shapes of beans, some maize seeds, some peas, some cowpeas and some sunflower seeds. 4. A large number of empty tins. One tin is needed for each practice in each group. 5. Seating for the participants. 6. Data sheets. 7. Photographic camera.The participants should as far as possible be the same as in the previous exercises, and divided into the same groups.This session starts off where the previous session ended. If the groups did not manage to present their results to each other during the previous session, the day should start with this. Otherwise go straight to the next step.The biplot of varieties and practices is presented to the participants for discussion. This is a very visual way of presenting the relationship between practices and varieties, which facilitates the discussion among farmers and between farmers and researchers.In the sample biplot in Figure 2 we see that different practices are important for the maintenance of different varieties, which essentially means that no single practice will conserve large levels of diversity and that a diversity of practices is therefore essential to maintaining high levels of diversity. The result may not be the same in all situations and if the team sees that some villages have had very different results, it may be worthwhile to show the diagrams from other villages as comparisons.This part of the exercise also serves to demonstrate the researchers' willingness to bring research results back to farmers and helps to cement a collaborative relationship between the two parties.After the review of the biplot, the participants break into the same groups as in the previous exercises. Each group participant is given a different colour or shape of seed for scoring the practices during the exercise. This later enables the scribe to record the scores given by each participant, which in turn makes it possible to carry out a statistical analysis of the scores. The groups then work on filling Table 4.The facilitator describes the process and particularly the three diversity-based livelihood strategies described below that form the criteria for the evaluation. These criteria are based on extensive prior fieldwork with farmers, and although they may not cover all possible aspects, experience shows that it is difficult to handle more criteria in practice and that the key considerations for farmers can usually be classified under these three headings. The three strategies are described below:Different varieties have a number of different uses, largely divided into: a. Products Example: Some sorghum varieties are good for producing porridge; others for boiling; others for beer production; others meet the requirements of the market; some have stalks good for fencing; others are suitable as fodder; others have sweet stalks for chewing; one variety is used as a coffee substitute.Key question: Does the practice increase the number of different ways in which the crop is used (including the creation of new niches), or does it enhance specific uses?Examples: Ecological ones, notably soil nitrogen fixation and pest control by certain plants; spiritual functions, notably the growing of special types of yam, Dioscorea sp. for the purposes of honouring God and ancestors and for heralding annual traditional festivals in Ghana, and also the reported intermixing of some black-grained cowpea varieties with other varieties for the purpose of keeping away evil spirits in Mali.Key question: Does the practice increase use of unfarmed areas within the extensive land holdings, for example, a conserved forest that harbours wild or semi-wild varieties of yam, cocoyam, and cassava?2. Optimize the use of diverse onfarm resources a. Ecological niches Different varieties make use of different ecological niches within the landscape, that is, they are adapted to different topographical and biophysical conditions and, therefore, make more effective use of the natural resources underpinning the agro-ecosystem.Key question: Does the practice increase the number of ecological niches in use (including the creation of new niches), or does it enhance the use of specific niches?b. Land Un-farmed patches within extensive agricultural holdings may be used for conserving a diversity of wild and semi-wild relatives of crops cultivated in the farmed areas.Key question: Does the practice increase use of unfarmed areas within the extensive land holdings, for example, a conserved forest that harbours wild or semi-wild varieties of yam, cocoyam, and cassava? Subsequent questions: See questionnaire.Different varieties have different seasonal labour requirements, or can be better adapted to the labour resources available, or particularly adapted to existing labour constraints. Key question: Does the mix of varieties grown make for greater and balanced use of the available labour, from the perspective of gender and age during the day and over the seasons?3. Increase resilience of the system and/or reduce riskFarmers have several strategies for maintaining the ability to recover from shocks, for example, of civil war, or avoid losses or changes in the system. They include: exploration and collection, seed exchange and markets, home gardens, seed storage methods.Key question: Does the practice increase farmers' ability to recover from, or minimize losses or adverse changes in the system? Also, farmers face many risks. They include:By growing different varieties with different susceptibilities to these risks, farmers attempt to ensure that they harvest at least something every year. For example, a farmer may grow a high-yielding variety that is susceptible to a disease hoping that the climate will be unfavorable to the disease, but then also grow a lower-yielding variety that is resistant to the disease to insure against a bad year.A market example would be a farmer growing both a red sorghum variety for sale to the breweries, and a white sorghum variety for sale at the local market.As the prices of the two do not necessarily follow each other, this provides some insurance against a collapse in the price of one of the two.Key question: Does the practice produce varieties with differential susceptibilities to known risks?Going over one practice at a time, farmers are then asked to score the practice's contribution to each of the livelihood strategies on a scale from one to five by placing one to five seeds in a tin representing the practice. Farmers are asked to consider both the relative contribution to each of the criteria and the weighting among practices. There are situations where farmers tend to say that everything is important and give the same score to all, or to score only zero or five. This situation can be avoided with careful explanation and a step-by-step approach to ensuring that everyone has understood the approach. While farmers should be able to discuss the relative merits of practices vis-à-vis the livelihood strategies, they should not openly discuss the scores that they give.The scores are counted and written up on a flipchart with Table 4. The groups get together to discuss the scoring in plenary. Results from the sustainability scoring of practices should be compared with the conservation scores and the implications for development actions discussed. What is likely to affect the continuation of these practices positively or negatively? The discussion should move on to actions that can be taken to improve landrace conservation for the long-term benefit of the entire community.The information gathered through the above exercise should be thoroughly analyzed and written up in a technical report that should include the following sections: The next step, not covered by this manual, involves the evaluation of best practices for landrace conservation by the project team. This includes a much broader range of criteria, and a more freeform evaluation based on the years of experience of project participants.The final step includes an evaluation of best practices for landrace conservation by policy and decision makers with a view to incorporating these practices into national development strategies. This step should to a large extent be led by the policy makers, to ensure ownership and commitment.Table 1.Year of introduction:Source:Year last grown (if no longer available):Positive traits:Negative traits:Comments and personal experiences:Annex 4  9 7 8 9 7 8 9 2 9 0 4 3 7 The diversity of practices that drive landrace conservation Project Background and SummaryCommunity-based management of onfarm plant genetic resources in semi-arid areas of sub-Saharan AfricaThis IPGRI coordinated project is conducted in semi-arid ecosystems in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe with implementation support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and co fi nancing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).In marginal agricultural areas where modern crop varieties and inputs are less available and less effective, resource-poor farmers continue to use traditional cultivars or landraces to contribute to stable food production and income. The use of varieties adapted to particular microniches is one of the few livelihood strategies available in semi arid areas. Farmers have, over generations, identifi ed, developed and maintained useful genetic diversity within their local agroecosystems as a means to increase or maintain production. However, in the 20 th century a wide range of plant diversity was lost as farmers abandoned their traditional cultivars as a result of pressures from increased population, poverty, land degradation, environmental change and the introduction of modern crop varieties. The project is designed to better understand why farmers -even faced with such pressures -continue to maintain and use some landraces.In general, practices are grouped into management practices that looked at the processes that contribute to the maintenance of landraces on farm, and uses that maintained particular landraces. A practice is linked to at least one landrace and that practice is essential to the survival of a specifi c landrace in a specifi c case study or environment. ","tokenCount":"5203"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"221b43a2a300635a427a3339c64a01f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/NIEVLU/F4HNI0","id":"91789538"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cb2fe7c5-71af-4f3e-a93d-d150042a6291","pagecount":"24","content":"1. Yes, read and write 2. Yes, read 0. No, cannot read and write A24 Can you read this sentence out loud? (SHOW CARD) 1. Cannot read at all 2. Can read some of it Can read whole sentence MODULE B: EXPOSURE TO PROGRAM SERVICES We would like to ask about your experiences with AWWs, ASHAs, or ANMs during the pregnancy of your wife or your daughter or your daughter in-law No Question Response AWW Response ASHA Response ANM Response code B1. Do you know if there is an …. in your village/ or who visits your village? 1. Yes 0. No B2. Have you ever been at home while the….visited your home? 1. Flipchart/videos for maternal nutrition/ health were shown 2. Received information about importance of and benefits of different food groups that need to be added to pregnant women's diet 3. Received advice to purchase diversenutritious food for pregnant women 4. Received advice to motivate his/ pregnant wife/her daughter/her daughter in-law to consume recommended quantity of diverse nutrient rich food items daily 5. Received information about the role of IFA and Calcium tablets in preventing complications during childbirth 6. Received advice to ensure adequate supply of IFA and calcium tablets at home 7. Received advice to ensure intake of one tablet of IFA daily from 4 th month of pregnancy by his wife/her daughter/daughter-in law 8. Discussed difficulties like nausea, dizziness, side effects of IFA 9. Received advice to ensure intake of 2 tablets of Calcium daily from 4 th month of pregnancy by his wife/her daughter/daughter-in law 10. Received advice on early initiation of breast feeding 11. Received advice on avoiding pre-lacteal (honey, jaggery, ghee or ghutti before breast milk comes in or breastfeeding is established) for the newborn 12. Received advice on exclusive breast feeding for first 6 months after birth 13. Received advice to ensure pregnant women to take rest at least for 2 hours after lunch and sleep for at least 8 hours at night 14. Received advice to make sure that his pregnant wife/her daughter/ her daughter in-lawdoes not do heavy work 15. Received advice to review weight chart and ensure wife's/daugher's/daughter's-in-law weight gain 16. Received advice to call health worker on mobile if wife/daughter/daughter-in law has complications 17. Quizzed on what was shown/told 18. Prize giving ceremony 19. Gavecommitments on commitment sheet 95.Others (specify) 99. Don't knowGood morning/afternoon. I am ________ from Neerman. Together with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), we are conducting an evaluation of the A&T program in this area. We want to talk with you about your wife/your daughter in-law /your daughters'nutrition and health during pregnancy. The information that you will provide us will be used to set up a good health program in this community and in similar settings in other parts of the world.We are inviting you to be a participant in this study. We value your opinion. You will only be identified through code numbers. Your identity will not be stored with other information we collect about you. Your responses will be assigned a code number, and the list connecting your name with this number will be kept in a locked room and will be destroyed once all the data has been collected and analyzed. Any information we obtain from you during the research will be kept strictly confidential. We will use approximately 40-50 mintues of your time to collect all the information.There will be no cost to you other than your time. Your participation in this research is completely voluntary. You are free to withdraw your consent and discontinue participation in this study at any time. You also have the right to refuse to answer specific questions. There will be no risk as a result of your participating in the study. Two organizations are Jointly doing this survey -International Food Policy Research Institute and Neerman. Your participation will be highly appreciated. The answers you give will help provide better information to policymakers, practitioners and program managers so that they can plan for better services that will respond to your needs.The researcher read to me orally the consent form and explained to me and I agreed to take part in this research. I understand that I am free to discontinue participation at any time if I so choose, and that the investigator will gladly answer any question that arise during the course of the interview.  Are you a member of any of the groups?(Multiple response possible) -66None 1. Yes, I am a member of Panchayat 2. Yes, I am a member of VHNSC 3. Yes, I am a member of Reproductive Health Groups 4. Yes, I am a member of Women's/Mother's groups 5. Yes, I am a member of Father's/Husband's groups 6. Yes, I am a member of men's group 7. Yes, I am a member of Self-Help Group 8. Yes, I am a member of Gram Sabha 95. Yes, I am a member of other (specify) C3.Have you participated in or attended any community group meeting in the past three months? Reminds and encourages pregnant wife/daughter/daughter in-law to consume the recommended quantity of diversified foods daily E20.Ensure that there are enough tablets of IFA at home E21.Ensure that there are enough tablets of calcium at home E22.Remind pregnant wife/daughter/daughter in-law to take one tablet of IFA daily E23.Remind pregnant wife/daughter/daughter in-law to take 2 tablets of Calcium daily E24.Remind /helps pregnant wife/daughter/daughter in-law to take rest for 2 hours/day E25.Remind pregnant wife/daughter/daughter in-law to measure weight every time she goes for ANC and record the weight in the MCP card E26.Does not let pregnant wife/daughter/daughter in-law carry out work which includes heavy lifting during pregnancy E27.Accompanies pregnant wife/your daughter/your daughter in-law to health facility for regular ANC check up E28.Call the health worker on mobile if pregnant wife/daughter/daughter in-law has any difficulties related to pregnancy E29.When frontline workers visit pregnant wife/daughter/daughter in-law at your home, join the discussions and attend the counseling session E30.Buy soap for the houseThe following questions are for husbands/Mothers/Mothers-in-law of recently delivered women No Question Response Response code E31.Were you present at the delivery of your wife/daughter/daughter-in-law?1. Yes 0. No E32.Did you do anything to help her breastfeed the baby?1. Yes 0. No  Skip to E34 E33. What did you do regarding feeding/breastfeeding? (Multiple response possible)1. Placed newborn baby on mother's chest in skin to skin contact immediately after delivering baby 2. Cleaned baby's mouth with oil, water etc 1. Helped her and told her to breastfeed the child within 1 hour of birth 2. Did not give and advised her not to give honey, jhanam ghutti, water, cow or goat's milk 3. Showed the right way of positioning and attaching the baby to the breast 4. Helped to place the baby on the breast 95. Others (specify) E34.During the first 3 days after the baby was born, did you feed the baby anything? At what age should an infant first begin eating soft or semi-solid foods?-------------Months (Range: 0-12) F38.Until about what age should a baby continue to be breastfed in addition to eating soft foods?Number of months -99. Do not know (Range: 0-36)","tokenCount":"1186"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"abf9bb96754339d35b5c399e8c797972","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a19772da-1ffe-4594-a000-6e5cb5de0a46/retrieve","id":"2139274332"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"28c4ea79-3744-4de9-91b7-53b1068de975","pagecount":"2","content":"Proper drying• Use of well ventilated and constructed storage structures.• Clean and disinfect stores at least 6 weeks before harvest. Dust with storage insecticides e.g. Actellic Super, Malathion or pyrethrum dust.Problem birds include quelea quelea, weavers and doves.• Early uniform planting of similar maturity groups in contiguous (cluster) farms.• foils, old cassette tapes. The most endemic types are Striga hermontheca (pink before it emerges.• Enhance soil fertility especially Nitrogen using either inorganic or organic sources.• Inter-crop/rotate with trap crops e.g. cowpea, cotton,• Use of herbicides e.g. Dicamba and 2,4 D  good control measure.Head Mold:mold. The colour of the mold will humid conditions during the grain will not germinate well.in such a way that your crop will mature after the end of the rainy season. Hand planting in rows and space planting (with little or no thinning) 7-8kg ha -1 . Machine planting, 8-10kg ha -1 .Dry plant just before rains or plant at the onset of rains, or when the rains are well established. Depth: Dry planting 5.0 -6.0 cm; Wet planting 2.5 -4 cm Methods: Drilling in furrows or Hill planting/space planting (in holes)Spacing: Wetter areas: 60 x 20 cm (60 cm inter-row and 20cm intra-row) Drier areas: 75x20cm or 90 x 30 cm.To raise fertility levels, a wide range of fertilizers and manure are used.or spread in bands along the planting furrows and mixed with soil before sowing. Recommended rate; 5-10 ton ha -1 . Best if applied 1 month before sowing.Basal application: Compound Fertilizer (DAP, 20:20:0, 23:23:0 etc) at rate of 20kg N per acre and ~ 20kg P 2 O 5 per acre, applied at planting time before placing in the seed.Top dressing: 20kg N as straight fertilizer (Urea, CAN) applied beside the crop. Ensure there is adequate moisture to dissolve the fertilizer.Two weedings are necessary. First weeding should be done 2-3 weeks after seedling emergence. Pre and post-emergence chemical weed control can also be done using for example Lasso or Gesaprim (pre-emergence) and 2,4 D (postemergence).This should be done 3-4 weeks after emergence depending on seedling growth rate. It should be carried out when there is adequate soil moisture to reduce stress.Drought is a major constraint to rainfed sorghum and it canThis can be addressed though early planting and use of early maturing drought tolerant cultivars and water conservation.Foliage/Stem feeders (Antherigona soccata) Damage normally occurs from 7 to 30 days after emergence. The larva feeds on the central leaf which causes deadheart symptom. Late sowing increases the likelihood of attack.This is the most important of the stem borers that affect sorghum. Symptoms appear as small windows in young whorl leaves. Larvae then bore into the stem. Young plants develop deadhearts.  ","tokenCount":"445"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cd313820f4a5ac0d7cc9a5989d8843ec","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://books.irri.org/DPS49_content.pdf","id":"358612839"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e9e9e300-b115-411d-a9b0-66b09f28855f","pagecount":"18","content":"This is an expanded version of the chapter \"Rice\" in Thornton P, Cramer L, editors. 2012. Impacts of climate change on the agricultural and aquatic systems and natural resources within the CGIAR's mandate. CCAFS Working Paper 23. CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Copenhagen, Denmark.Rice is produced in a wide range of locations and under a variety of climatic conditions, from the wettest areas in the world to the driest deserts. It is produced along Myanmar's Arakan Coast, where the growing season records an average of more than 5,100 mm of rainfall, and at Al Hasa Oasis in Saudi Arabia, where annual rainfall is less than 100 mm. World rice production is spread across at least 114 countries (FAO 2013) and rice is grown on 144 million farms worldwide-more than for any other crop. In Asia, it provides livelihoods not only for the millions of smallscale farmers and their families but also for the many landless workers who derive income from working on these farms.Rice also dominates overall crop production (as measured by the share of crop area harvested of rice) and overall food consumption (as measured by the share of rice in total caloric intake) to a much greater extent in rice-producing Asia than elsewhere in the world.Since the start of the Green Revolution, world rice production has increased markedly by almost 140% (Table 1). From 1968 to 2010, the area planted to rice increased from about 129 million hectares to about 159.4 million ha. Mean yield produced in that area almost doubled, from an average of 2.23 to 4.32 t/ha. The world's largest rice producers by far are China and India. Although its area harvested is lower than India's, China's rice production is greater because of higher yields and because nearly all of China's rice area is irrigated, whereas less than half of India's rice area is irrigated. After China and India, the next largest rice producers are Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand (Fig. 1). 1  The importance of rice for food and nutritional security These seven countries all had average production in 2008-10 of more than 30 million tons of paddy. The next highest country on the list, the Philippines, produced only a little more than half that. Collectively, the top seven countries account for more than 80% of world production. Although rice is grown worldwide, world rice production is dominated by \"rice-producing Asia\" (as thus defined by excluding Mongolia and the countries of Central Asia), which accounted for almost 91% of world rice production, on average, in 2008-10. In fact, Asia's share in global rice production has consistently remained at this high level even as early as 1961 and 1963.In Africa, production has grown rapidly. West Africa is the main producing subregion, accounting for more than 45% of African production in 2008-10. In terms of individual countries, the leading producers of paddy  are Egypt (5.7 million t), Nigeria (3.6 million t), and Madagascar (4.4 million t). In Latin America, Brazil is by far the largest producer, and it accounts for nearly half (45% in 2008-10) of paddy production in the region. After Brazil (12.0 million t), the largest producers are Peru and Colombia (2.9 and 2.7 million t, respectively, in 2008-10), followed by Ecuador (1.6 million t). Elsewhere, the most important production centers are in the United States (California and the southern states near the Mississippi River), which produced 9.0 million t of paddy on average in 2006-08. The leading European producers are Italy, Spain, and Russia. Australia used to be an important producer, but its output has declined substantially in recent years because of recurring drought. In Latin America and the Caribbean, rice was a preferred pioneer crop in the first half of the 20th century on the frontiers of the Brazilian Cerrado; the savannas of Colombia, Venezuela, and Bolivia; and in forest margins throughout the region.For most rice-producing countries where annual production exceeds 1 million t, rice is the staple food (Fig. 2). In Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, rice provides 50-80% of the total calories consumed. Notable exceptions are Egypt, Nigeria, and Pakistan, where rice contributes only 5-10% of per capita daily caloric intake. On average, each person in the world consumes around 65 kg of rice a year, but this average hides the massive variability in consumption patterns around the world. The expanded map in Figure 3 shows an unusual view of the world where each territory has been distorted based on the proportion of the world's rice that is consumed there. The coloring in the map represents consumption per capita, so the map shows two key pieces of information that affect rice consumption patterns. 2  Because rice-producing Asia is a net exporter of rice to the rest of the world, its current share in global rice consumption is slightly less, at about 87%. Irrespective of this, Asia has a large share of the world's population and has high rates of consumption; thus, China and India alone account for over 50% of the world's rice consumption (pie chart in Fig. 3), but they are by no means the highest consumers per capita (table in Fig. 3). Higher rates are found in much of South and Southeast Asia, West Africa, Madagascar, and Guyana. Several of these countries have per capita consumption rates surpassing 100 kg per year, and Brunei tops the table at over 20 kg per capita per month, compared with rates in Europe of less than 0.5 kg per month. Despite Asia's dominance in rice consumption, rice is also growing in importance in other parts of the world. In the past 50 years, per capita rice consumption has more than doubled in the rest of the world. In Africa, rice has been the main staple food (defined as the food, among the three main crops, that supplies the largest amount of calories) for at least 50 years in parts of western Africa (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone) and for some countries in the Indian Ocean (Comoros and Madagascar). In other African countries, however, rice has displaced other staple foods because of the availability of affordable imports from Asia and rice's easier preparation, which is especially important in urban areas. In Côte d'Ivoire, for instance, the share of calories from rice increased from 12% in 1961 to 23% in 2009. In Senegal, the share increased from 20% to 29% during the same time, whereas, in Nigeria, the most populous country on the continent, it increased from 1% to 8%. Today, rice is the most important source of calories in many Latin American countries, including Ecuador and Peru, Costa Rica and Panama, Guyana and Suriname, and the Caribbean nations of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. It is less dominant in consumption than in Asia, however, because of the importance of wheat, maize, and beans in regional diets.Rice consumption in the Pacific islands has increased rapidly over the past two decades. Rice, which is all imported apart from a small amount grown in Papua New Guinea, is displacing traditional starchy root crops as a major staple due to changing tastes, ease of storage and preparation, and sometimes cost. The annual national consumption of imported rice in the Solomon Islands doubled from 34 kg to 71 kg per capita during 2002-07 and tripled in Samoa (from 6 kg to 19 kg) and the Cook Islands (5 kg to 15 kg) in the same period (Rogers and Martyn 2009).As we look ahead, income growth, urbanization, and other long-term social and economic transformations are likely to influence the composition of the food basket. Normally, one would expect diversification away from rice to more high-value items such as meat, dairy products, fruits, and vegetables in the diet as income rises.Each Asian country will be unique in the way it diversifies its consumption pattern as income rises. It is reasonable to assume that diversification away from rice will be slow in many Asian countries and the minimum threshold level of rice consumption for each country will be different.Outside Asia, the current upward trend in rice consumption will continue, with sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) leading the pack. The growth in rice consumption in SSA so far has primarily come from the growing preference for rice among urban consumers with rising income. It is inevitable that the preference for rice will begin to grow among the rural population as economic growth becomes widespread and the rural population gets wealthier. If that happens, one could expect the growth in rice consumption to be even stronger than what has been witnessed in the past two decades.In addition, 2 billion more people will have to be fed in the next 30 years, when the world reaches the 9 billion mark, and the population is projected to exceed 10 billion by the end of the century. If global per capita rice consumption follows the trend it has seen in the past two decades, then total consumption will grow at the rate of population growth. Seck et al (2012) project global rice consumption to rise from 439 million t (milled rice) in 2010 to 496 million tons in 2020 and further increase to 555 million t in 2035. According to this study, Asian rice consumption is projected to account for 67% of the total increase from 388 million t in 2010 to 465 million t in 2035. As expected, Africa tops the chart in terms of percentage increase in total consumption, with an increase of 130% from 2010 rice consumption. In the Americas, total rice consumption is projected to rise by 33% during the same period.On the supply side, the annual rice yield growth rate has dropped to less than 1% in recent years compared with 2-3% during the Green Revolution period of 1967-90. Current rice area is at an all-time high and increasing rice production through area expansion in the future is highly unlikely in most parts of the world because of water scarcity and competition for land from nonagricultural uses such as industrialization and urbanization. Thus, it is prudent to assume that additional production will have to come entirely from yield growth. In that case, annual yield growth of 1.2-1.5% will be needed compared with current yield growth of less than 1% to keep rice affordable to millions of poor people in the world.Rice, with its wide geographic distribution extending from 50°N to 35°S, is expected to be the cultivated crop most vulnerable to future changing climates. Rice is sensitive to different abiotic stresses that will be exacerbated with more climate extremes under climate change:• High temperatures coinciding with critical developmental stages • Floods causing complete or partial submergence • Salinity, which is often associated with sea-water inundation • Drought spells that are highly deleterious to rainfed systems Plant breeding has a proven track record of improving tolerance of these abiotic stresses, in particular, since new molecular tools such as markerassisted backcrossing became available to speed up the introgressing of tolerance genes. Selected high-yielding rice varieties have now been further developed to cope with individual stresses-a process that is likely to be continued to cover the major mega-varieties that are affected by individual stresses. However, these climate-induced extremes often appear in combination, that is, salinity is frequently accompanied by submergence in coastal rice systems. The major bottleneck for combined tolerance of different stresses is the lack of a thorough understanding of the complex genotype × environment (G × E) interaction that may adversely affect the reciprocal development of traits.Temperatures beyond critical thresholds not only reduce the growth duration of the rice crop but also increase spikelet sterility, reduce grain-filling duration, and enhance respiratory losses, resulting in lower yield and lower quality rice grain (Fitzgerald andResurreccion 2009, Kim et al 2011). Rice is relatively more tolerant of high temperatures during the Biological vulnerability to climate change vegetative phase but is highly susceptible during the reproductive phase, particularly at the flowering stage (Jagadish et al 2010). Unlike other abiotic stresses, heat stress occurring during either the day or night has differential impacts on rice growth and production. Recently, high night temperatures having a greater negative effect on rice yield have been documented, with 1 o C above critical temperature (>24 o C) leading to a 10% reduction in both grain yield and biomass (Peng et al 2004, Welch et al 2010). With the rapid increase in the minimum (nighttime) temperature during the past two to three decades compared with the maximum (daytime) temperature, and this is predicted to continue in the same trend, the impact could be felt on a global scale, which, for now, is happening in select vulnerable regions.High day temperatures in some tropical and subtropical rice-growing regions are already close to the optimum levels, and an increase in intensity and frequency of heat waves coinciding with the sensitive reproductive stage can result in serious damage to rice production. In 2003, extreme high day temperature episodes along the Yangtze River in China resulted in an estimated 3 million ha of rice damaged, resulting in a loss of about 5.18 million t of paddy rice (Xia andQi 2004, Yang et al 2004); similar losses were recorded in 2006 and 2007 (Zou et al 2009). Japan recorded unusual temperatures of >40 °C coinciding with flowering in many areas of the Kanto and Tokai regions during the summer season of 2007, resulting in 25% yield losses (Hasegawa et al 2009). Similar reports have emerged from different hot and vulnerable regions of Asia, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.Recent research points to a significant interaction of high temperatures with relative humidity, with higher humidity accompanied by moderate to high temperatures having a more pronounced negative impact than conditions with lower relative humidity (Weerakoon et al 2008). On the basis of the interaction between high temperature and high relative humidity, rice cultivation regions in the tropics and subtropics can be classified into hot/dry or hot/humid regions. It can be confidently assumed that rice cultivation in hot/dry regions where temperatures may exceed 40 o C (e.g., Pakistan, Iran, India) has been facilitated through unintentional selection for efficient transpiration cooling (an avoidance mechanism) under a sufficient supply of water. With erratic rainfall patterns and increasing pressure on irrigation water, this adaptive trait would become less functional, hence, drastically increasing the vulnerability of rice in the most productive regions such as Egypt, Australia, etc. Therefore, developing rice varieties that can withstand both high day and night temperatures under varying amounts of humidity is vitally important.Floods are a significant problem for rice farming, especially in the lowlands of South and Southeast Asia. Since there are no alternatives, subsistence farmers in these areas depend on rice, which-in contrast to other crops-thrives under shallow flooding. However, yield losses are attributed to unpredictable flood events, which can be grouped into three damage mechanisms:• Complete submergence (often referred to as \"flash flooding\") causing plant mortality after a few days • Partial submergence over longer time spans (often referred to as \"stagnant flooding\") triggers substantial yield losses • Waterlogging in direct-seeded rice creates anaerobic conditions that impair germination Complete or partial submergence is an important abiotic stress that affects 10-15 million ha of rice fields in South and Southeast Asia, causing yield losses estimated at US$1 billion every year (Dey and Upadhyaya 1996). This number is anticipated to increase considerably in the future given the increase in sea-water level, as well as an increase in frequencies and intensities of flooding caused by extreme weather events (Bates et al 2008).Although a semiaquatic plant, rice is generally intolerant of complete submergence and plants die within a few days when completely submerged. Traditionally, flood-prone areas along the big rivers of South and Southeast Asia have been growing deepwater rice. This type of rice plant escapes complete submergence by rapid internode elongation that pushes the plants above the water surface, where they have access to oxygen and light to resume their mitochondrial oxidative pathway and photosynthesis.However, low yield potential and long maturity duration have led to the replacement of deepwater rice by short-maturity varieties grown in the seasons before and after peak flooding. Moreover, flood-tolerant rice varieties had already been identified in the 1970s (Vergara and Mazaredo 1975) and have been used as donors of tolerance by breeders, and studies have been made on tolerance mechanisms ever since. Although conventionally bred varieties were characterized by poor grain quality and poor agronomic traits, new molecular approaches brought about highyielding varieties with the SUB1 gene responsible for conveying flood tolerance (Xu et al 2006).The most common problem in flood-prone areas is \"flash flooding.\" It can completely submerge rice fields for up to 2 weeks at any time during the season and this often occurs more than once.Another type of flooding stress is stagnant flooding, which is characterized by prolonged partial flooding without submerging the plants completely (Septiningsih et al 2009, Mackill et al 2010, Singh et al 2011). In contrast to the tolerance mechanism of SUB1, stagnant flooding requires plants to have facultative elongation ability to keep up with the constant rise of the water surface. Improved breeding lines that are tolerant of submergence followed by stagnant flooding have been developed by IRRI (Mackill et al 2010) and are expected to be adopted in large areas of rainfed lowlands, where the two types of flooding coexist.Anaerobic germination is a particular problem under direct seeding, an emerging technology in both rainfed and irrigated rice ecosystems. Heavy rainfall right after sowing inevitably causes waterlogging in fields that are poorly drained and/or leveled. As a consequence, the seeds drown and are unable to germinate normally, resulting in poor crop establishment and low yield. Developing varieties with early seedling vigor in anaerobic conditions can provide a safety net for small farmers. Additionally, shallow flooding right after sowing helps suppress weed infestation, a major challenge in direct-seeding practices.Rice can be categorized as a moderately salt-sensitive crop with a threshold electrical conductivity of 3 dS/m (Maas and Hoffman 1977). Yet, growing rice is the only option for crop production in most salt-affected soils. The reason for this counterintuitive advantage of the rice crop in saline areas is that rice thrives well in standing water, which, on the other hand, helps leach salts from the root zone to lower layers. Similar to drought tolerance, salt stress response in rice is complex and varies with the stage of development. Rice is relatively more tolerant during germination, active tillering, and toward maturity but is sensitive during the early vegetative and reproductive stages (Moradi et al 2003, Singh et al 2008). Salinity tolerance seems to involve numerous traits, some of which are more or less independent (Moradi andIsmail 2007, Ismail et al 2007). Most salt-tolerant landraces are low-yielding with many undesirable traits. Hence, a precision marker-assisted breeding approach is employed to rapidly transfer tolerance genes from traditional varieties into high-yielding breeding lines (Thomson et al 2010).The increasing threat of salinity has become an essential concern linked to the consequences of climate change. As an indirect effect of increased temperature on sea-level rise, much larger areas of coastal wetlands may be affected by flooding and salinity in the next 50 to 100 years (Allen et al 1996). Sea-level rise will increase salinity encroachment in coastal and deltaic areas that have previously been favorable for rice production (Wassmann et al 2004). Furthermore, 55% of total groundwater is naturally saline (Ghassemi et al 1995). Secondary salinization, specifically due to the injudicious use of water and fertilizer in irrigated agriculture, could increase the percentage of brackish groundwater. The groundwater table, if it rises and if it is brackish in nature, becomes ruinous to most of the vegetation. Higher temperature aggravates the situation by excessive deposition of salt on the surface due to capillary action, which is extremely difficult to leach below the rooting zone.Drought stress is the most important constraint to rice production in rainfed systems, affecting 10 million ha of upland rice and over 13 million ha of rainfed lowland rice in Asia alone (Pandey et al 2007). The 2002 drought in India could be described as a catastrophic event, as it affected 55% of the country's area and 300 million people. Rice production declined by 20% from the interannual baseline trend (Pandey et al 2007). Similarly, the 2004 drought in Thailand affected more than 8 million people in almost all provinces. Severe droughts generally result in starvation and impoverishment of the affected population, resulting in production losses during years of complete crop failure, with dramatic socioeconomic consequences on human populations (Pandey et al 2007). Production losses to drought of milder intensity, although not so alarming, can be substantial. The average rice yield in rainfed eastern India during \"normal\" years still varies between 2.0 and 2.5 t/ ha, far below achievable yield potentials. Chronic dry spells of relatively short duration can often result in substantial yield losses, especially if they occur around flowering stage. In addition, drought risk reduces productivity even during favorable years in drought-prone areas because farmers avoid investing in inputs when they fear crop loss. Inherent drought is associated with the increasing problem of water scarcity, even in traditionally irrigated areas, due to rising demand and competition for water uses. This is, for instance, the case in China, where the increasing shortage of water for rice production is a major concern, although rice production is mostly irrigated (Pandey et al 2007).Water stress in rice production arises from the higher frequency of El Niño events and reductions in the number of rainy days (Tao et al 2004), but is also coupled with increasing temperatures (and higher evapotranspiration). Because of its semiaquatic phylogenetic origins and the diversity of rice ecosystems and growing conditions, current rice production systems rely on an ample water supply and thus are more vulnerable to drought stress than other cropping systems (O'Toole 2004). At the whole-plant level, soil water deficit is an important environmental constraint influencing all the physiological processes involved in plant growth and development. Drought is conceptually defined in terms of rainfall shortage vis-à-vis a normal average value in the target region. However, drought occurrence and effects on rice productivity depend more on rainfall distribution than on total seasonal rainfall. Beyond the search for global solutions to a generic \"drought,\" the precise characterization of droughts in the target population of environments is a prerequisite for better understanding their consequences for crop production (Heinemann et al 2008).In Asia, more than 80% of the developed freshwater resources are used for irrigation purposes, mostly for rice production. Thus, even a small savings of water due to a change in current practices will translate into a significant reduction in the total consumption of fresh water for rice farming. By 2025, 15-20 million ha of irrigated rice will experience some degree of water scarcity (Bouman et al 2007). Many rainfed areas are already drought-prone under present climatic conditions and are likely to experience more intense and more frequent drought events in the future.Thus, water-saving techniques are absolutely essential for sustaining-and possibly increasingfuture rice production under climate change. The period of land preparation encompasses various options to save water, namely, lining of field channels, land leveling, improved tillage, and bund preparation. Likewise, crop establishment can be optimized under water scarcity by direct seeding, which reduces the turnaround time between crops and may tap rainfall. Finally, the crop growth period offers essentially three alternative management practices to save irrigation water: saturated soil culture (SSC), alternate wetting and drying (AWD), and aerobic rice.Abiotic stresses such as heat, drought, submergence, and salinity are the major factors responsible for significant annual rice yield losses. However, they often occur in combination in farmers' fields, causing incremental crop losses (Mittler 2006). An example of successive flood/drought exposure within one season occurred in Luzon, Philippines, in 2006. During the wet-season crop, seasonal rainfall exceeded 1,000 mm, including a major typhoon (international name: Xangsane) with around 320 mm of rainfall in a single day. Yet, a short dry spell that coincided with the flowering stage resulted in a dramatic decrease in grain yield and harvest index compared to the irrigated control (Serraj et al 2009). Similarly, Wassmann et al (2009) reported that high-temperature stress during the susceptible/critical flowering to early grain-filling period coincided with drought stress in Bangladesh, eastern India, southern Myanmar, and northern Thailand. For example, in Bangladesh, rice is grown in large areas during the \"boro\" season (dry season, December to April), with temperatures ranging from 36 to 40 o C during the critical flowering stage. Hence, with the frequency of high temperatures during crop growing seasons predicted to increase in many areas, drought exacerbated by heat stress will have serious implications for future rice production in droughtprone areas (Battisti and Naylor 2009).Breeding for tolerance of abiotic stresses has typically been pursued individually. A novel \"stress combination matrix\" has illustrated the interactions between different abiotic stresses such as heat and drought, and heat and salinity (Mittler 2006). The combined stress increased the negative effect on crop production. For example, in response to heat stress, plants open their stomata to maintain a cooler canopy microclimate through transpiration, but, under combined heat and drought stress, the sensitive stomata are closed to prevent loss of water, which further increases canopy/tissue temperatures (Rizhsky et al 2002(Rizhsky et al , 2004)). A similar phenomenon occurs under combined heat and salinity stress (Moradi and Ismail 2007). It was thus concluded that the study of abiotic stress combinations involves a \"new state of abiotic stress\" rather than just a sum of two different stresses (Mittler 2006). Therefore, the need to develop crop plants with high tolerance for a combination of stresses is advocated. In support of this hypothesis, recent research has highlighted physiological, biochemical, and molecular connections between heat and drought stress (Barnabas et al 2008, Rang et al 2011).Sustainable growth in rice production worldwide is needed to ensure food security, maintain human health, and sustain the livelihoods of millions of small farmers. This is because rice is the major staple crop of nearly half of the world's population (Zeigler andBarclay 2008, Khush 2004) and more than 100 million households in Asia and Africa depend on rice cultivation as their primary source of income and employment (FAO 2004, cited by Redoña 2004). Moreover, rice is the source of 27% of dietary energy and 20% of dietary protein in the developing world (Redoña 2004). About 90% of the total rice grown in the world is produced by 200 million smallholder farmers (Tonini and Cabrera 2011). Importantly, because of the increases in population and income in major rice-consuming countries, demand for rice has been steadily increasing over the years. Mohanty (2009) estimated that the global demand for rice will increase by about 90 million t by 2020.One of the most serious long-term challenges to achieve sustainable growth in rice production is climate change (Vaghefi et al 2011, Wassmann and Dobermann 2007, Adams et al 1998, IFPRI 2010). Rice productivity and sustainability are threatened by biotic and abiotic stresses, and the effects of these stresses can be further aggravated by a dramatic change in global climate. By 2100, the mean surface temperature of the Earth is expected to rise by 1.4 to 5.8 o C and extreme events, such as floods, droughts, and cyclones, are likely to become more frequent (IPCC 2007). In delta/coastal regions, climate change is expected to raise sea levels, and this will increase the risk of flooding and salinity problems in major rice-growing areas (Wassmann et al 2004, Mackill et al 2010b).These predicted changes in climate are likely to further increase the economic vulnerability of poor rice producers, particularly in South Asia, where more than 30% of the population is extremely poor (with income of less than US$1.25 per day). For example, rice yields will be severely affected by the increase in temperature of the Earth due to the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (Peng et al 2004). Rice yield is found Socioeconomic vulnerability to climate change to be more sensitive to nighttime temperature: each 1 o C increase in nighttime temperature leads to a decline of about 10% in rice yield (Peng et al 2004, Welch et al 2010). Furthermore, droughts and floods already cause widespread rice yield losses across the globe (e.g., Pandey et al 2007, IRRI 2010, IFAD 2009, Pandey and Bhandari 2007), and the expected increase in drought and flood occurrence due to climate change would exacerbate rice production losses in the future.Drought, which is generally defined as a situation in which actual rainfall is significantly below the long-run average for the area, is a chronic problem that affects about 38% of the world's area. This area affected by drought is inhabited by nearly 70% of the total world population and produces 70% of the total agricultural output in the world (Dilley et al 2005). In Asia, approximately 34 million ha of shallow rainfed lowland rice farms and 8 million ha of upland rice farms, or one-third of the total Asian rice area (Huke and Huke 1997), are subject to occasional or frequent drought stress (Venuprasad et al 2008). The estimated economic costs of these drought events are enormous. In India, around 70% of the upland rice area is drought-prone. Drought accounts for approximately 30% of average annual upland rice yield losses, or about 1.28 million t (Widawsky and O'Toole 1990). Pandey et al (2007), using historical information, demonstrate that there is a strong link between drought and famines in Asia and Africa over the decades. In India, major droughts in 1918India, major droughts in , 1957India, major droughts in , 1958India, major droughts in , and 1965  Flood is another notorious abiotic stress that regularly causes severe rice yield damage, not only on deepwater rice farms but also on lowland rice farms. Deepwater rice and rainfed lowland rice are frequently hit by flash floods caused by monsoon rain and this results in substantial yield losses every year. Since deepwater rice and lowland rice comprise nearly 33% of the world's rice-growing area (Bailey-Serres et al 2010), flood is a major source of production losses in these important rice ecosystems. Often, transient flash flood occurs and is followed by longstanding stagnant floods. This type of flood reduces the survival chance of rice plants and causes severe damage to rice yields. For example, rice production losses in Bangladesh and India due to flash floods are estimated to be around 4 million t per year, and this lost production (had there been no floods) could have fed 30 million people (IRRI 2010). One important thing to note is that rainfed lowland rice production areas are also exposed to drought and are thus prone to the \"twin\" problems of drought and flood. Therefore, having newer varieties and technologies that can mitigate the effects of both droughts and floods is very important for these regions.Considering future changes in the global climate, Mottaleb et al (2012) examine the net economic benefit of developing and disseminating a combined drought-and flood-tolerant rice variety in South Asia using an ex ante impact assessment framework, partial equilibrium economic models, and the crop growth simulation model ORYZA2000 (Bouman et al 2001). The study shows that the new drought-and flood-tolerant variety would result in an average yield advantage that is 2.88% higher than the base case had this particular variety been developed and disseminated in South Asia (for this period). Based on the estimates from ORYZA2000, the study calculated economic surplus and obtained the return on research investment (e.g., net present value and internal rate of return). The estimated cumulative net benefits of a combined drought-and flood-tolerant variety that is released in 2016 (for the period 2011-50 and discount rate at 5%) are $1.2 billion for India, $535 million for Bangladesh, $80 million for Nepal, and $22 million for Sri Lanka. For the large open economy model considering the whole of South Asia, the estimated net benefits from research investments and dissemination of a combined drought-and flood-tolerant variety are $1.8 billion. Overall, the economic welfare of producers and consumers in South Asia is improved with the development and release of a combined drought-and flood-tolerant variety. Mottaleb et al (2012) also demonstrates that, in 2035, rice production and consumption would be higher and retail prices in South Asian countries would be lower if a drought-and flood-tolerant rice variety were developed and released in the region (as compared to the case in which the variety was not developed and released). Mottaleb et al (2012) show that the percentage increase in production (relative to the baseline) ranges from 3.01% in India to 5.38% in Nepal. It also shows that rice prices in South Asian countries will be lower if a drought-and flood-tolerant variety is developed and released as compared to the baseline case in which the new variety is not developed. Our estimates suggest that retail prices in India, for example, would be about 22% higher if the variety is not developed and released in the region. Similar price effects can also be observed for the other South Asian countries in the study, albeit the magnitudes of the price effects are somewhat smaller (compared to India). The price reduction effect observed here implies that poor rice consumers (especially in urban areas) would benefit from the release of a drought-and flood-tolerant variety in South Asia. Lower prices would make rice more affordable to poor people and could lead to improved nutritional outcomes. Finally, Mottaleb et al (2012) demonstrate that the economic benefits of a combined drought-and flood-tolerant rice variety more than outweigh the cost of developing this new variety, especially in light of global climate change. The development and release of this new variety in South Asia would provide a net economic benefit of about $1.8 billion for South Asia alone.Considering that changes in the global climate will result in more extreme events, such as floods, droughts, and cyclones, substantial economic benefits can be achieved from the development of an improved rice variety that is more resilient to climate change. This type of technology would allow rice producers to adapt to worsening global climate and allow them to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change in the future. In the long run, the returns to the investment of developing this particular \"climate change-tolerant\" variety would be high. Otherwise, poor rice farmers in the developing South Asian region might be much vulnerable and food security in the region might be at stake if a new multiple stress-tolerant variety of rice is not available in the near future.","tokenCount":"5735"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a406ab5805e3f59f113cc29bd859043","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/70f46ec7-18c0-4eb2-96e1-406e4ee0fa22/retrieve","id":"-2044599281"},"keywords":["Martínez-Moreno, F.","Ammar, K.","Solís, I. Global Changes Triticum turgidum","wheat breeding","history of crops","agricultural history"],"sieverID":"2a985d3e-9140-4ee4-b501-a388b23918ca","pagecount":"17","content":"Durum wheat is grown globally on 13.5 million ha in 2020/2021, which amounts to 6.2% of the wheat area. It is assumed that in the past it was more important, but the extent of that importance is unknown. In this work, a historical estimation of the durum wheat area globally was carried out, based on data of the main cultivating countries. Many of the data from the earliest period were based on percentage to all wheat. During the nineteenth century, the percentage of durum wheat to all wheat globally was around 14-16%. However, throughout the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, in America (USA, Canada, Argentina), Asia (Russia, China, India), and Australia, new land was sown with bread wheat, and therefore the percentage of durum wheat fell steadily to 7-9% from 1950 to 2005, and to 6-7% since then. For many years, Russia was the country with more durum wheat cultivation, with around six million ha in the period 1910-1940. Turkey, Italy, Algeria, and India were also big historical players regarding cultivation of this crop. Currently, Canada, Algeria, Italy, and Turkey have the largest durum wheat acreage. The main breeding activities and the future of durum wheat are discussed.Durum wheat (DW) (Triticum turgidum L. subsp. durum (Desf.) Husn.) is cultivated on 13.5 million ha (Mha) with a global production of 33.8 million tons in 2020/21 [1,2]. While globally minor, accounting for less than 7% of the total wheat produced worldwide, it is concentrated in relatively small geographic regions where it can be considered as a main cereal crop, contributing significantly to food production and agricultural income. Historically, it is well adapted to low and/or variable rainfall environments, with frequent terminal heat stress, such as the Mediterranean Basin. In fact, countries of the Mediterranean Basin (Algeria, Turkey, Italy, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, France, Spain, and Greece) account for approximately 50% of world acreage and production. Outside of the Mediterranean region, Canada, Mexico, the USA, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and India are large to significant DW producers, with the first three being the most important DW exporters. DW is consumed in the form of a variety of products. Pasta products in their numerous form (spaghetti, macaroni, etc.) are by far the most widely produced and industrialized end-products. However, at least one fourth of the global durum production is used in a variety of staple foods such as couscous, bulgur, frike, and different types of flat breads and sweets, some widely industrialized while other produced mostly in the household [3,4]. Adaptation to the highly variable growing conditions of the different Mediterranean micro-environments and quality profiles suitable for the production of local food allowed durum wheat landraces to outcompete their bread wheat (BW) counterparts in the region [5].However, the DW acreage has been distinguished from that of other wheat species only recently, and even nowadays, statistics on DW cultivated area are not easily accessible for many countries. The website on crop statistics worldwide FAOSTAT does not allow the specification of which type of wheat one is interested in [6]. Most historical statistics refer to all cultivated species of wheat, i.e., BW, DW, and several other species of minor importance (einkorn, emmer, rivet, spelt, Timopheev, Khorasan, etc.). A study on the historical global DW area has never been carried out. The objective of this work was to explore the historical evolution of the DW area of the most important DW growing countries from 1800 to date, deducting from this analysis the evolution of the world DW area, and the percentage of DW within the total wheat area. Major varietal changes over time and main breeding impacts in each country are also included.Several sources were consulted to get information about the historical DW acreage.1.Literature reviews. The books 'Durum wheat breeding' (Royo et al., 2005) [7] and 'World wheat book' (Volumes 1-3) (Bonjean and Angus, 2001; Bonjean et al., 2011Bonjean et al., , 2016) [8][9][10] were especially useful for information mining. In many cases, DW acreage is not mentioned as such, but a percentage from total wheat is listed. While generally useful, those percentages resulted in some cases in overestimating the actual DW acreage [11,12]. From 1998 onwards, the data used originated from IGC (International Grain Council, London, UK) Secretariat [1].Personal communication of DW experts of different countries where official statistics are not always available.Several historical periods were distinguished in the present work. In the first ones, namely, 1800, 1850, and 1870, the DW area was difficult to obtain and was generally estimated from percentages of the total wheat area. Starting in 1890, the area was reported in a period of 10 years, and, from 2000 on, in periods of 5 years. The year 1935 was included instead of 1940 due to the lack of reliable statistics from involved in World War II. The year 1961 replaced 1960 because it marked the first year that statistics on crop acreage were published by FAOSTAT [6].Many geopolitical issues had to be taken into consideration in the preparation of this manuscript. Several countries became independent from empires after World Wars I and II, others had modified borders and, finally, the USSR dissolution occurred. In the cases of Russia-USSR, the Austro-Hungarian empire and the greater India, statistics on wheat area corresponding to the years of the existence of the empire/geopolitical entity of that time were recorded. When the geopolitical entity ceased to exist as such, statistics of the newly formed countries were recorded. More importantly, the wheat acreage of Russia (and the former USSR) was not available in many reports of the world wheat situation in the period 1900-1950. The term 'world ex-Russia' was frequent in the statistics of those reports [13][14][15][16].To carry out the study, three tables were prepared (Supplementary Materials). In Table S1, the historical (all) wheat area of 37 important countries over several seasons of the period 1800-2019 was worked out. This table was used as a basis to calculate the DW area when a percentage to all wheat area was provided. The percentage of DW area in every country and season could also be estimated. The world wheat area was also added to this table. The data based on estimations (earlier periods) are in green-colored cells when the total wheat area was also estimated, and in blue-colored when at least a source of information on the total wheat area of a country in a season was available. The most reliable data on wheat and DW area are in orange-colored cells (many were official data, especially after 1961 by FAOSTAT). In some cells, the letter 'n' signified that the country that did not officially exist at that time (e.g., Azerbaijan in 1950). Table S2 includes the DW historical area in 24 countries with significant DW area (Afghanistan, Algeria, Canada, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Greece, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Russia, Khazakhstan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and the USA).The DW area of Khazakhstan, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan was included in that of Russia during the 19th century and the Soviet period. The DW area of Pakistan before 1947 was included in that of India. The sum of DW areas of those 24 countries plus 3% of the area of the remaining countries was estimated as the DW world area. The additional 3% of the remaining countries was consistent with the known percentage in the period 1998-2020 [1]. Table S3 refers to the percentage of DW to all wheat area (%) of the main historically cultivating countries. Figure S1 shows a video of an animated bar chart of the DW acreage evolution of the 15 main historically cultivating countries in 1800-2020.The global historical DW area in the different periods from the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century is provided in Table 1. Data from the 19th century are estimates based on cultivated area percentages from the beginning of the 20th century, but they can be considered as close approximation to the historical acreage of this crop. In the last two hundred years, DW area ranged between 8.4 million ha in 1800 and 19.7 Mha in 1930, with the most recent value of 13.5 Mha in 2020. The peak was reached during the 1910-1930 period with a DW area approaching the 20 Mha. From 1930 to 1950, about two Mha of DW grown worldwide were lost (from 18 to 16 Mha), but the acreage recovered to 18 Mha in the 1970s and 1980s. From the 1980s to 2000, 3 Mha were taken out of DW production, and another 2 Mha from 2000 to 2020. This relatively stable DW area contrasts with the huge growth of the total wheat area, which doubled from 1800 to 1900 (from 55 to 110 Mha). During the 20th century, the wheat area continued to increase, in order to surpass the 200 Mha in 1961. In the 1980s and 1990s, the global wheat area reached 230 Mha and then stabilized at about 220 Mha, the area of today. The percentage of DW to all wheat declined over the studied period. From 1800 to 1900, DW percentage decreased from 16.3% to 13.5%. This percentage first dropped below 10% (to 8.6%) by 1950, and, by 1990, it was 7%. Currently, DW represents 6.2% to all wheat. This percentage drop is mainly attributed to the increase in total wheat area over the period studied. The DW historical acreage and percentage to all wheat of the nine main DW-producing countries are presented in Figures 1 and 2. Details on the evolution and area of these countries (plus Spain and Ethiopia, which do not appear in the figures to facilitate a better visualization of them) are provided in the Section 4. The DW area of Russia steadily increased along the 19th century from a bit more than 1 Mha in 1800 to more than 5 Mha in 1900-1930 (Figure 1). At that time, that acreage accounted for a third of total DW globally cultivated. The area even surpassed 6 Mha in several seasons of the 1920s. After World War II, DW acreage in Russia progressively decreased to about 0.5 Mha, which is approximately the area of today. Turkey had a stable area surpassing 2 Mha until 1970, when it decreased to about 1.5 Mha in the 1980s, keeping that acreage from then on. Italy progressively increased its DW area from 1 to 1.5 Mha until the 1990s and then the area stabilized around the last figure. India has a considerable DW area (ranging between 1 and 2 Mha) until the 1940s when its acreage decreased to around 0.5 Mha, which is the current area. Algeria maintained a stable DW area over 1 Mha, which only fell in the 1990s, but recovered in the 2000s. The DW acreage of USA ranged for many seasons of the studied period between 0.5 and 1 Mha, except for two peaks: one in the 1920s and 1930s, and another in the 1980s (both with around 2 Mha). DW acreage of Morocco, Tunisia, and Syria remain fairly stable. However, the area of Syria decreased from 2005.Regarding the DW percentage to all wheat, the trend towards a slight decrease was recorded in almost all countries, except Italy (Figure 2). Russia had about 20% of DW acreage to all wheat until the 1940s when it steadily dropped to 3% in 1970, a percentage that has remained approximately the same until today. In Turkey, the percentage fell from 60% to 15% between 1950 and 1970. Then, it stabilized around 15%. Italy is the only country where the DW percentage has increased throughout the period studied, from 20% of the 19th century to 70% of today. Algeria had a large DW percentage close to 95% until the 1960s when it dropped to 67%. Then, it rose again to almost 90%, which is the percentage of today. India maintained a DW percentage of 15% to all wheat until 1940, then it fell to 3% in 1950, which has been maintained until today. In Morocco, a percentage of 70% was maintained until 1980, when it began to drop to 37% in 2000, and is 30% currently. The USA has kept a percentage ranging 4-5% in most of the studied period, except in the peaks of the 1920s-1930s and the 1980s, when it reached 7%. Tunisia has maintained in the studied period a high DW percentage ranging from 80-90%, whereas Syria kept a 70-80%, except in 2005-2015. The DW historical acreage and percentage to all wheat of the nine main DW-producing countries are presented in Figures 1 and 2. Details on the evolution and area of these countries (plus Spain and Ethiopia, which do not appear in the figures to facilitate a better visualization of them) are provided in the discussion section. The DW area of Russia steadily increased along the 19th century from a bit more than 1 Mha in 1800 to more than 5 Mha in 1900-1930 (Figure 1). At that time, that acreage accounted for a third of total DW globally cultivated. The area even surpassed 6 Mha in several seasons of the 1920s. After World War II, DW acreage in Russia progressively decreased to about 0.5 Mha, which is approximately the area of today. Turkey had a stable area surpassing 2 Mha until 1970, when it decreased to about 1.5 Mha in the 1980s, keeping that acreage from then on. Italy progressively increased its DW area from 1 to 1.5 Mha until the 1990s and then the area stabilized around the last figure. India has a considerable DW area (ranging between 1 and 2 Mha) until the 1940s when its acreage decreased to around 0.5 Mha, which is the current area. Algeria maintained a stable DW area over 1 Mha, which only fell in the 1990s, but recovered in the 2000s. The DW acreage of USA ranged for many seasons of the studied period between 0.5 and 1 Mha, except for two peaks: one in the 1920s and 1930s, and another in the 1980s (both with around 2 Mha). DW acreage of Morocco, Tunisia, and Syria remain fairly stable. However, the area of Syria decreased from 2005.Figure 1. Historical area (Mha) in the nine main durum wheat cultivating countries in 1800-2020. Sources of information: [12,13,15,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]37,39,40,89].Regarding the DW percentage to all wheat, the trend towards a slight decrease were recorded in almost all countries, except Italy (Figure 2). Russia had about 20% of DW acreage to all wheat until the 1940s when it steadily dropped to 3% in 1970, a percentage that has remained approximately the same until today. In Turkey, the percentage fell from 60% to 15% between 1950 and 1970. Then, it stabilized around 15%. Italy is the only country maintained until 1980, when it began to drop to 37% in 2000, and is 30% currently. The USA has kept a percentage ranging 4-5% in most of the studied period, except in the peaks of the 1920s-1930s and the 1980s, when it reached 7%. Tunisia has maintained in the studied period a high DW percentage ranging from 80-90%, whereas Syria kept a 70-80%, except in 2005-2015.Figure 2. Historical durum wheat area (%) to all wheat area in the nine main durum wheat-growing countries in 1800-2020. Sources of information: [14,15,17,19,20,23,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44]46,48,50].Historically, DW was cultivated in regions with mild climatic conditions, such as the Mediterranean Basin and south Black Sea Basin (with spring landraces, planting in late fall), while BW was cultivated in colder temperate zones of Europe and Asia (with winter landraces, planting in the fall) [17]. However, throughout the 18th and 19th century, there was a huge expansion of wheat cultivation by European settlers of new lands in America, Asia, and Australia [37]. Between 1850 and 1950, large areas in Russia, China, and the USA were put into wheat cultivation, and, in 1890-1920, wheat area growth was observed in Argentina, Australia, and Canada. The majority of this new wheat land was sown with BW [37].The growth of DW area was much lower and mainly attributable to an increase in the cultivation of this crop in Russia in 1870-1920. From 1930 to 1950, a decrease in the DW acreage was observed, which was associated with the decline in cultivation of this crop in Russia [39,40]. During the period 1930-1970, total wheat acreage expanded by about 80 million ha globally, but most of this expansion again involved BW [37]. This unequal expansion of the two crops is probably due, to a large extent, to the industrialization of markets that favored BW for its more suitable gluten characteristics in the industrial production of bread, with DW wheat beginning to be targeted primarily to pasta production, a much smaller market than bread. Another reason for this unequal growth may be related to the expansion of wheat into more difficult environments, those requiring high cold tolerance, winter hardiness, or tolerance to soil toxicities, where BW, thanks to the enhanced variability and adaptability provided by its D-genome (absent in DW), could be more competitive than DW [45]. As a probable consequence of these drivers, a higher investment in technology and intensification was devoted to BW, especially in terms of breeding. Since the late 18th and beginning of the 20th century, many breeding programs were initiated in the UK and France [28,46]. Soon Italy, USA, and Australia followed [47][48][49][50]. Only some Italian breeding programs focused, and partially at that, on Historically, DW was cultivated in regions with mild climatic conditions, such as the Mediterranean Basin and south Black Sea Basin (with spring landraces, planting in late fall), while BW was cultivated in colder temperate zones of Europe and Asia (with winter landraces, planting in the fall) [17]. However, throughout the 18th and 19th century, there was a huge expansion of wheat cultivation by European settlers of new lands in America, Asia, and Australia [29]. Between 1850 and 1950, large areas in Russia, China, and the USA were put into wheat cultivation, and, in 1890-1920, wheat area growth was observed in Argentina, Australia, and Canada. The majority of this new wheat land was sown with BW [29].The growth of DW area was much lower and mainly attributable to an increase in the cultivation of this crop in Russia in 1870-1920. From 1930 to 1950, a decrease in the DW acreage was observed, which was associated with the decline in cultivation of this crop in Russia [30,31]. During the period 1930-1970, total wheat acreage expanded by about 80 million ha globally, but most of this expansion again involved BW [29]. This unequal expansion of the two crops is probably due, to a large extent, to the industrialization of markets that favored BW for its more suitable gluten characteristics in the industrial production of bread, with DW wheat beginning to be targeted primarily to pasta production, a much smaller market than bread. Another reason for this unequal growth may be related to the expansion of wheat into more difficult environments, those requiring high cold tolerance, winter hardiness, or tolerance to soil toxicities, where BW, thanks to the enhanced variability and adaptability provided by its D-genome (absent in DW), could be more competitive than DW [49]. As a probable consequence of these drivers, a higher investment in technology and intensification was devoted to BW, especially in terms of breeding. Since the late 18th and beginning of the 20th century, many breeding programs were initiated in the UK and France [28,46]. Soon Italy, USA, and Australia followed [47,48,50,51]. Only some Italian breeding programs focused, and partially at that, on DW. The rest of the programs dealt primarily with BW breeding, with a substantial emphasis on winter BW, with breeding for winter hardiness and cold tolerance resulting in the expansion the crop in new cold environments. In the 1960s, new BW spring cultivars were starting to be released by the breeding program, which would later become CIMMYT (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo) or the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement, which were semi-dwarf, resistant to lodging, resistant to diseases (especially stem and leaf rust), and highly responsive to fertilizers that became very popular among farmers worldwide [52], further making BW more attractive to farmers than DW. India and the former USSR are examples of this preferential expansion of BW in that period [12,30].Based on all the information reviewed, an estimate of the proportion of DW area out of the total wheat area of 14-16% in the period 1800-1850 is realistic. This proportion decreased as total wheat acreage expanded. From the late 1960s to 1980s, a modest recovery in the DW acreage was recorded, with the percentage of DW ranging between 17 and 18 million ha. The reasons for this recovery are the following:1.New DW cultivars with traits that made them more competitive with BW (dwarfing, resistant to diseases, high yields, wide adaptation) were distributed globally by CIM-MYT to many developing countries with expanding agricultures [53], and others bred by several public institutions and companies in Italy (e.g., Stazione di Granicoltura per la Sicilia) [54].A growing demand for DW products, especially pasta (globally a trendy food product from the 1970s), but also couscous, bulgur, and frike, in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region, which are staple foods.Generally higher price of DW compared to BW in most markets. Price disparity, almost always favoring DW, is variable, generally 20% higher than the price of BW grain. In countries where DW and BW can be interchanged and markets are relatively free, either crop can be favored in any given year based on the price differential for that particular year. It should be noted that DW commercialization is more restricted due to the smaller number of end-use products, compared to BW, for which it is used [55] and the extent of household consumption.Policies encouraging farmers to grow DW. Those policies were applied in the European Union, Canada, the USA, and even in North Africa [56].Although Canada is currently the country with most DW area in the world, historically the countries with the largest cultivated area were Russia, Turkey, Italy, Algeria, and India. Other important producers from 1800 to present were Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, the USA, Spain, and Ethiopia (see Figure S1).Historically, rye has been the most important cereal in Russia [57]. However, wheat also played an important role, especially in latitudes below 50-52 • , mainly with spring wheat varieties that do not require any vernalization, sown in spring after the snow melt (79.2% from total wheat in 1883-1914, 68.4% in   [31,57]. During the 19th century, DW accompanied Russian settlers into the fertile but semiarid steppe north of the Caucasus and into western Siberia. By 1900, DW had expanded further to the east, being sown along the southern margin of the spring wheat belt, in nitrogen rich soils, and in a warm and dry climate. The presence of railway in Siberia permitted the transportation and commercialization of grain outside the region. DW landraces such as Arnautka, Kubanka, Chernokoloska, Garnovka, and Beloturka from the Caucasus and Volga region (many of them of Turkish origin [58]) were brought to the east [59]. DW was mainly cultivated in four regions (from west to east): Lower Don (north of Black Sea), Middle Volga (north of Caspian Sea), southern Urals, and Altai Krai [30]. A great share of the DW production in the European side of Russia was exported through the port of Taganrog on the Azov Sea, to Italy and France. Taganrog wheats, in fact, a mixture of different landraces from the Don and Volga regions, were famous for their pasta quality in Italy and France [31,60]. The production east of the Volga region was mostly destined to domestic consumption, especially in the form of bread. There was a small share of winter DW planted in regions with relatively mild winters (to avoid winterkill), such as the steppes of Ukraine and the Caucasus region of Russia [42]. Before 1914, the DW area was approximately 6 million ha (about a third of DW acreage globally), with an annual production of about 4.7 million tons [61]. After the 1917 Revolution, the DW area starts to slowly decrease, especially in the eastern regions. In the period 1920-1940, DW acreage fell from 28% of the spring wheat area (roughly 6 million ha) to 17% (around 4 million ha). In the Kostanai oblast (today northern Kazakhstan), DW dropped from 13.1% of the spring wheat acreage in 1939 to 4.1% in 1952 [30]. After the World War II, DW area continues to recede, being replaced by BW, with more yield, more yield stability, and better response to intensive cultivation. BW breeding programs were successful and yielded cultivars such as Saratovskaya-29 (spring BW), released in 1956 at the Station of Saratov (lower Volga region), and Bezostaya-1 (winter BW), released in 1959 at the Krasnodar Research Institute of Agriculture [31]. While DW breeding efforts existed, they were of lesser resources. The DW cultivar Melyanopus was selected in 1929 from a landrace of the Saratov region, and the cultivar Bezenchukskaya 139 was released in 1980. This latter cultivar was sown for several years on close to 1.4 million ha annually in the former USSR [31]. After the dissolution of the USSR, DW acreage has continued to decrease in Russia, and is currently maintained at approximately 0.5 Mha. Kazakhstan has a DW acreage of about 0.4 Mha, in the north of the country (Akmola and Kostanay regions) and with a tendency towards growth [43].DW in Turkey represented around 65-70% of the total wheat area during the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century (during the Ottoman Empire), which accounted for an acreage of 1.6-2 million ha, making Turkey the second largest DW-growing country after Russia. During the periods that have been looked at, Turkey was always among the world's top three countries in terms of DW area (except in 1930), reaching the top spot during several seasons in the 1970s. DW took up 80% of the wheat area in Southeast Anatolia, 60% in Thrace (European Turkey), and 40% in the coastal areas. In the central Anatolia Plateau where DW occupied 70% of the total wheat area, most landraces were of winter or facultative type [44]. A great diversity of DW landraces, and even wheat species (e.g., einkorn, emmer), was a feature of the Turkish wheat landscape, which is consisted with a long history of these species in the country. The presence of the DW ancestor, the wild emmer in the southeast (Karacada g of Diyarbakır province), also contributed to this diversity [62]. DW landraces such as Kunduru, Üveyik, Sarı Bursa, Koca Bugday, Bagacak, Sorgul, Beyaziye, Havrani, ˙Iskenderi, Karakilcik, Akbasak, and Kibris bugdayi are only some of the many sown by Turkish farmers. The total wheat area expanded from 4.4 million ha to 7 million ha from 1950 to 1960, and to 8.6 million ha by 1970. However, as in many other countries, the expansion involved mostly bread wheat, with the \"Green Revolution\" spring cultivars originating from CIMMYT, such as Penjamo-62, Mentana, Sonora 64, Lerma Rojo 64, and others from different origins such as Lancer and Bezostaya-1. The main DW national breeding programs are: CRIFC in Ankara, BDMIKHAM in Konya, ANADOLU in Eskisehir, EGE Tar. Ars. Ens. in ˙Izmir, Do gu Akdeniz Tar. Ars. Ens. in Adana, and GAP UTAEM in Diyarbakır. They were assisted by CIMMYT, ICARDA (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas), and OSU (Oregon State University) for germplasm obtention and training. Cultivars such as Kiziltan 91, Emin bey, Ege-88, Solen-2002, Fırat-93, Saricanak-98, Zuhre, Ayzer, Sarıbasak, and Kunduru 1149, were developed and grown in recent years. DW cultivars still have a lower production compared to BW, are less tolerant to cold, and many are Zn sensitive (Zn deficiency is a problem in many soils of Turkey) [44]. Currently, DW area ranges between 1.1 and 1.2 million ha, around 16% of the total national wheat area, and nearly 10% of DW acreage globally [1,2].During Roman times, DW replaced emmer as the main wheat species along the Mediterranean Basin. Wheat was named triticum in Latin, while the proper name of DW was robus. However, Romans commonly called DW triticum, their main wheat species, and Maghrebi farmers later called DW simply gamh (wheat) [27]. At the end of the Roman Empire, BW (siligo) started to penetrate from the north, to become the most important wheat species in the Italic Peninsula, with DW being displaced and restricted to the south [17,63]. During the 19th century, Italy had a stable (although slightly and steadily increasing) DW area ranging from 1.0 to 1.5 million ha, which represented around 25% of total wheat area. This proportion increased to about 70% in the late 20th century and beginning of the 21st century. The traditional regions of DW cultivation were in the south (Mezzogiorno), especially in Sicily, with more than half of the Italian acreage for many seasons, followed by Sardinia, Puglia, and Basilicata [64]. In recent years, part of its cultivation has moved to the center of the country and even to some areas of the north (Toscana, Marche, Emilia Romagna, etc.). DW is mainly used for pasta production, such as spaghetti and macaroni, a trademark of the Italian cuisine, and for which the country is the world biggest producer. For this reason, Italy needs to import significant quantities of DW grain from other countries, especially Canada and USA. Landraces such as Tumminia or Timilia, Realforte, Russello, Scorsonera, and Saragolla were examples of Italian diversity of the DW germplasm [65,66]. Relevant and innovative DW breeding programs were established, starting in 1915 with the release of the cultivar Senatore Cappelli, obtained in Puglia through genealogical selection within the North African landrace Jenah Khertifa by Nazareno Strampelli from the Stazione Sperimentale di Granicoltura (Rieti). Other popular cultivars were Capeiti 8, Appulo, Trinakria, Creso, Simeto, Duilio, and Svevo [54]. Cultivar Capeiti 8 was released at the Stazione Sperimentale di Granicoltura per la Sicilia (Sicily) in 1955 by crossing Senatore Cappelli and the syriacum DW type (shorter and earlier maturing) Eiti 6. In 1974, the cultivar Creso was released. It came from a cross between a mutant of Senatore Cappelli (Cp B144=Castelfusano) and a dwarf CIMMYT line. The cultivar Simeto was released in 1988 by the same Sicilian research station that bred Capeiti 8. This cultivar had an excellent adaptability across different environments and high yield. It has been cultivated in a large acreage in many countries of the Mediterranean basin for more than 20 years. The cultivar Svevo, released by Società Produttori Sementi (Bologna) in 1996, stands out by the high pasta-making quality, and it is cultivated exclusively for the pasta company Barilla [54,67]. A high-quality reference genome sequence of the cv. Svevo was generated in 2017 by an international consortium [68].Algeria is the largest country in Africa with more than 2 million km 2 . Most DW cultivation is in the northern side of the country (sublittoral areas), facing the Mediterranean Basin, and with a Mediterranean climate characterized by irregular rainfall ranging from 300 to 500 mm, and relatively mild temperatures compared to the south desert areas. DW has been the main wheat species in the region since before Roman times. DW acreage has historically (19th and 20th century) ranged from 1 to 1.3 Mha, about 80-90% of the total wheat area, placing the country in the top five for DW area in most of the periods considered [69]. In the mid-19th century, Algeria went from a province of the Ottoman Empire to a French colony. Landraces such as Kahla, Hamra, Adjini, and Mahmoudi were among the many cultivated in Algeria, and most of them had a West Mediterranean origin [70,71]. French colonists brought spring BW landraces from southern France (such as Touzelle), and the Balearic Islands (landrace Mahon) for making French breads. After the independence in 1962, a growing and increasingly urbanized population demanded increasing amounts of cereal grain. National grain consumption (210 kg/person/year) is among the highest in the world, with many food products, such as couscous and local bread being made out of DW [69]. Algeria is currently still one of the largest importers of DW globally. INRAA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique d'Algérie) is the institution in charge of agricultural research in Algeria. It is distributed in several stations (such as the El Harrach experimental station) and took over DW breeding activities: landrace selection (Bidi 17 and Oued Zenati 368), crossing programs, and evaluating and releasing new lines from CIMMYT and ICARDA [69].Agronomy 2022, 12, 1135 9 of 17 4.2.5. India Wheat has been an essential crop in India since antiquity. The Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa archaeological site has shown that wheat was cultivated in that region about 5000 years ago [72]. Currently, India is the world largest producer of wheat (a production of 74.25 Mt in an area of 27.2 Mha) [6]. Many landraces and wheat species are cultivated in the country, such as BW, DW, emmer, and the 'national' Indian dwarf wheat (Triticum sphaerococcum) [11]. DW cultivation is very old in the country, and certainly the Arabs contributed to the extension of the crop [12,72]. It was suitable for drought conditions and grown in different regions, including Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Bengal [73]. After the independence of the country in 1947, DW cultivation almost disappeared in northern India, due to their high susceptibility to rusts, high lodging, and low response to fertilizers, compared to BW. However, their cultivation continued in central India due to its good tolerance to abiotic stresses, such as heat and drought. Traditional dishes made with DW semolina (suji) include laddoos (sweet balls) and chapati (flat bread). Many DW wheat landraces were mixtures of several landraces, or even with other wheat species, forming populations with particular grain characteristics, such red or amber color. Bansi was a popular landrace grown in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, while Jalalia (amber type) was mainly present in Madhya Pradesh, and Gangakali in Bengal. Several selection programs started in the 1930s from landraces such as Bansi. One of the typical features of the Indian DW landraces was their susceptibility to rusts, especially stem rust. Therefore, researchers started to introduce foreign resistant varieties such as Gaza. Indian emmer wheat landraces (e.g., Khapli) were also used in crosses with DW to introduce resistance to stem rust. In the 1970s, the first DW dwarf lines from CIMMYT entered India with a resounding success, about 10 years after the arrival of the first BW lines from the same center. BW cultivars such as Kalyansona and Sonalika were high yielding due to a high response to fertilizers and water, and soon they were sown over a large area. Since the 1980s, DW has slightly recovered in some northern regions, such as Punjab, due to its higher resistance to Karnal bunt and the release of new high-yielding cultivars, such as PBW 34, obtained at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in 1982. From 2000, the area under DW cultivation is said to be around 9% of total wheat area [11], an overestimation, since the current acreage is 0.8-1.0 Mha (with a slight increasing tendency), which represents around 3-4% [1]. The main producing areas are in the central zone, especially in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, south Rajasthan, and Maharashtra [74].DW was the main historical wheat species in the country. The Romans extended the cultivated DW area along the sublittoral part of the north of Morocco, and Arabs reinforced the cultivation of this crop, bringing new landraces from the Mediterranean Levant. Interestingly, as in other countries of the Maghreb, BW wheat was restricted to oases and some mixtures present in DW fields called 'mule tail'. Zrea, Trikia, Maizza, and Asker were the most common DW landraces sown by farmers [26]. Ground grains of these cultivars were used to make couscous, the national dish. DW area was about 95% of all wheat area, which amounted to 0.4-0.6 Mha during the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. French colonists started to cultivate BW in 1912, and this crop rapidly gained ground. This expansion helped to supply grain for internal consumption, and to export grain to France [75]. By the late 1940s, DW area was around 1.0 Mha, while bread wheat acreage ranged 0.3-0.4 Mha [20]. By this time, a growing population demanded products rich in carbohydrates. Authorities supported BW cultivation in the 1980s, and BW products became an important part of the diet, especially in urban areas [26]. By 1986, both wheat species had similar acreages of a bit more than 1.0 Mha, but the production was not enough to supply to the population, and grain importation was needed to ensure food security. Currently, DW occupied around 35% of all wheat area, which amounts to approximately 0.9 Mha. DW is mostly sown in different areas of the country, but the humid and sub-humid areas of the center and north, with annual precipitations of about 450 mm, permits fair yields in rainfed conditions. In the 1980s, the cv. Karim became popular. This cv. is a CIMMYT line derived from the cross Cocorit 71/Jori 69, selected as an outstanding line in Morocco, with the first batch of commercial seed coming from Tunisia, where the same line was also released. Karim kept being broadly cultivated in the 1990s and 2000s, and it is still sown by Moroccan farmers to a significant extent. Marzak and Acsad-65 were also popular cultivars in the 1980s and 1990s. New cultivars obtained in the country are Louiza, Faraj, Nassiva, Chaoui, Amria, and Marouane. DW breeding programs are assisted by CIMMYT and ICARDA. DW is a crop with a future in the country, but the competition with BW, the DW price and availability in the international market, and the threat of climate change (with predictions of a 25% drop of precipitations in dry regions) are variables that will influence the cultivation of this crop in the future.DW has always been an important crop in Syria. The existence of wild emmer (the ancestor of cultivated tetraploid wheat species) in many parts of the country and the presence of cultivated emmer in several archaeological sites (such as Abu Hureira and Tell Aswad) have led researchers to think that DW originated in the country, or at least in the region [76]. Wheat is grown under rainfed conditions in the north, while, in the Euphrates valley in the south, it is mainly irrigated. The most important landrace in the country is Hourani, or better, the Houranis, since there are several kinds (such as Nawawi, and Auobeih). Other important landraces were Auobeih, Chehani, and Chahbaa. Most landraces belong to the syriacum type, whose plants, spikes, and awns are shorter, earlier, have more erect leaves, and show adaptation to drought and salinity [77]. The DW percentage during the 19th century was about 75%, which accounted for 0.6-0.8 Mha. In the first half of the 20th century, the acreage increased to 1 Mha. Senatore Cappelli was introduced in 1932. In 1964, a fruitful collaboration between Syrian authorities and CIMMYT was started and led to new material testing and training of young Syrian researchers. In 1968, the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD) was established in Damascus and contributed to advanced germplasm transfer and exchange of researchers for other Arab countries. The international center ICARDA, located at Tel Hadya, Alepo, was established in 1977. It was important for agricultural research, exchange of genetic material, and training of national staff [78]. In the period 1990-2017, DW acreage was 0.8-1.0 Mha (about 50-70% of the total wheat area), but in the last seasons has dropped to about 0.5 Mha (37%). At ICARDA, Hourani was crossed with the high yield Mexican cultivar Jori 69, to obtain Cham 5 (also called Om Rabiâa), released in 1994 with considerable impact in several countries. Douma 1 and Douma 3 are examples of other cultivars obtained and released in the country. As part of the wheat in Syria is irrigated, one of the main breeding objectives is to get salt-tolerant cultivars. Gamma radiation of Hourani (already with a certain level of salt tolerance) of 15 Krad were carried out to obtain several promising tolerant lines [78].Tunisia is the most northern African country. As a WANA country, the dependence of wheat products, especially DW, is very high. Although the country has several agroclimatic zones, wheat is grown primarily in the north of the country, under rainfed conditions. Drought and Septoria tritici blotch are the main constraints for wheat production in the country. DW was, by far, the main wheat species during the 19th century with acreages ranging 0.2-0.4 Mha. BW was only found in mixtures with some DW landraces [27]. From the French protectorate era (1880s), BW started to be cultivated, but always as a minor crop, with an acreage lower than 10% of total wheat. In 1910-1950, DW was about 0.5-0.6 Mha (95% of total wheat). Starting in 1951, DW acreage increased to about 0.7-0.8 Mha and remained around that level until 2000. Since then, DW area has slowly decreased to 0.4-0.5 Mha. In Tunisia, DW has withstood its ground in relation to BW and remain by far the major cereal crop, representing at least 70-80% of total wheat. The main DW landraces grown until the 1970s were Derbessi, Agini, Agili, Mekki, Hamira, and Jenah Khotifa. In the 1970s and 1980s, new cultivars from CIMMYT were introduced and rapidly displaced the old landraces with great impact on the national production and productivity. These included cultivars such as Ben Bechir, registered in 1980, but the most popular being Karim 80, rapidly reaching over 60% of the national DW area. It is still a major cultivar grown by famers 30 years after its releasing. Razzak 87 and Khiar 92 were the next two promising cultivars. They have a fair and stable yield but were susceptible to Septoria tritici blotch. Nasr 2004, selected from an ICARDA cross, was the first cultivar released for its acceptable resistance to Septoria tritici blotch [79]. However, the more recently released cultivar Maali, from a local cross and using local selection, is the only one that has finally replaced Karim 80 and is becoming the major cultivar in the country.The USA, a young country without tradition of DW cultivation, appears as one of the historically important DW-growing countries. No official data were found until 1920 [80], but since that year the percentage wheat area sown to DW has been about 5%. The first records of DW in the USA date back to 1854, and, in 1864, the landrace Arnautka (also called Nicaragua) was introduced by the USDA [47]. At that time, DW was mainly sown in Texas (where Mexican landraces were also grown) and widely used for feed [81]. The real breakthrough for the crop came in 1900 when M.A. Carleton promoted the cultivation of the Russian landrace Kubanka [47]. This variety became the leading cultivar from 1910 to 1920, and it is in the pedigree of many modern US cultivars [47]. DW production increased markedly thereafter to start the USA pasta industry. The US stem rust outbreak of 1904 did not affect much DW as it did BW [47]. In a few years, cultivation of this crop shifted northward to become a spring crop in North Dakota, which would be the main DW producing state of the country to date. According to the estimates of this study, by 1910, the country was the sixth in the world in terms of DW acreage (0.88 Mha), and fourth in 1920 (1.61 Mha). By 1930, it rose to the third place (1.87 Mha), just after Russia and India, and surpassing Turkey, a large all-time DW producer. From the 1930s to the 1970s, the acreage decreased to approximately 1 Mha. In the 1980s, the area increased again to over 2 Mha. It coincided with an increase of global pasta demand. The record seasons are 1981/1982 and 1982/1983, with about 2.3 Mha [80], earning the US the first place in DW acreage in the world. From 1998-2004, the area stayed over 1 Mha. Then, it started to slowly decrease, and currently ranges between 0.5 and 0.8 Mha. The US DW acreage is characterized, during all periods, by high fluctuations between seasons. Currently, along with North Dakota, DW is also produced in other states of the north (Montana), and the south, such as Arizona and California [82]. The first breeding efforts started in the form of line selections from the cultivar Kubanka, producing the cultivar Acme in 1909. At the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, a national DW breeding program was initiated in 1929 that produced cultivars Stewart (1943) and Langdon (1955)  [82,83]. The main current program in the USA is led by the North Dakota State University (NDSU). Grain yield, disease resistance, and quality traits are the main objectives of the breeding program. Among the main obtained cultivars are Maier (1998), Plaza (1999), Dilse (2002), and Alkabo (2005) [82].The Roman Empire first and the Arab Empire later brought DW cultivation and many landraces to the country [84]. In 1800, there were 2.9 million ha of wheat [18], and DW occupied approximately 18% of total wheat area (about 0.5 Mha), most of it in the south (Andalusia), but also in the east (Murcia, Valencia, Balearic Islands), reflecting the Mediterranean character of the crop. The main use of DW was bread (with semolina alone or mixing with BW flour), although a kind of short thin noodles (fideos) were a common food all over the country [85]. Fanfarrón, Recio, Rubio, or Raspinegro were the names of some Spanish landraces. Most of them have a clear west Mediterranean origin, especially from the Maghreb and Sicily, with names such as Moruno (Morish) or Siciliano (Sicilian) [17,70]. Wheat acreage grew during the 19th century to over 4.5 million ha, and with it that of DW, to some 0.6-0.8 Mha. However, after 1950, DW acreage fell to 0.25 Mha in 1964, and to a minimum of 0.09 Mha in 1978 [19]. DW vanished from the east and southeast, and, for a period, the crop survived only in west Andalusia (Seville and surrounding provinces). Many BW cultivars were introduced in the 1940s and 1950s of Italian (Mara, Impeto) and French origin (Florence Aurore), occupying much land previously devoted to DW. From the early 1970s, a new wave of spring semidwarf BW cultivars from CIMMYT (Cajeme, Siete Cerros, Yécora) had the same effect. During the 1990s, DW recovered due to an increase of pasta demand (national and global) and to European Union subsidies for traditional DW growing areas [56]. Acreage rose again to 0.8-0.9 Mha in 1999-2005, but when the subsidies were withdrawn in 2007, it fell but stabilized around 0.3-0.4 Mha, a bit more than the current area (70% in Andalusia, 25% in Zaragoza, 5% in other regions) [85]. The Italian Senatore Cappelli was cultivated between the 1930s and 1970s, and in the Agricultural Research Farm of Jerez de la Frontera, J.B. Camacho crossed Senatore Cappelli with some Spanish landraces to obtain cultivars Ledesma and Andalucía 344, quite popular in the 1950s and 1960s [86]. In the late 1970s and 1980s, new DW cultivars from CIMMYT (e.g., Cocorit 71, Mexa, and Yavaros C79) arrived in Spain, displacing much of the local landraces. Italian cultivars, such as Simeto, were also cultivated by Spanish farmers in the 1990s and 2000s. There have been public breeding programs, but a lack of continuity of those programs was frequent. The DW program at IRTA (Lleida) yielded cv. Euroduro, while the national program of INIA led to Hispasano. Nowadays, the most grown cultivars come from private companies like Limagrain (Athoris), Agrovegetal (Don Ricardo), and Guadalsem (Amílcar), most of them derived from CIMMYT advanced lines. In addition, the National Center of Plant Genetic Resources (CRF) preserved more than 403 accessions of Spanish landraces, and the collection has been phenotyped and genotyped in several studies [87,88].In Ethiopia, DW has been cultivated for centuries and an extraordinary diversity and uniqueness of landraces has been reported in many works, such as the one described by Nicolái Vavílov in his travel to this country in the 1920s [89]. Kabbaj et al. [58] demonstrated that Ethiopian DW landraces clustered separately from landraces derived from other areas of the world, such as the ones from the rims of the Mediterranean and Black Sea-so much so that Ethiopia is currently considered a secondary center of origin of this crop. There are not clear data before the 1960s, but all information available indicates that DW occupied 60-70% of the total wheat area until 1990, when BW (as in other countries) started to gain ground [45]. In the 1960s and 1970s, DW area was estimated in around 0.6 Mha. Thereafter, it started to decrease. The wide adaptation of BW material from the CIMMYT program displaced much of the acreage previously devoted to DW, and currently only about 15% of total wheat area is planted with this crop (about 0.27 Mha). Additionally, new DW cultivars are not easily reached by farmers, due to a problematic seed sector, the size of the country, and the low purchasing capacity of farmers. About 80% of the DW area was sown with landraces still in 2015 [32], such as Aybo, Set-Akuri, Arendeto, Loko, Kurkure, and Mengesha [90]. In tropical latitudes, DW is sown at altitudes between 1800-2700 m in the highlands black clay soils. Sowing is usually performed in August, just after the rainy season, and harvest time takes place in a dry December. Although currently the main product of DW is pasta, local bread (injera) was and is made with the flour of this wheat species. Wheat straw is also used as animal feed and as roof thatching material [91]. At present, the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI) hold a collection of more than 7000 landraces [91], and the National Durum Wheat Breeding Program is located at the Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center. The main goals of the breeding program are raising yields, lodging resistance, resistance to leaf and stem rust (Ug99 lineage), and drought and heat tolerance. In addition, a good network of multilocation yield tests is being developed to target specific adapted genotypes or to select genotypes with wide adaptation and a stable yield across the different agroecological regions of the country [45]. 4.2.12. Other T. turgidum Subspecies Other subspecies of T. turgidum appeared in the historical wheat literature along with DW, particularly rivet and emmer wheat. Rivet (or poulard) wheat (T. turgidum ssp. turgidum) is a close subspecies of DW, and according to some studies, genetically indistinguishable [92], although morphologically several differences can be detected (taller plants, glaucous leaves, later ripening, thicker stems, etc.). It was estimated that some 0.14 Mha (140,000 ha) were sown in Spain in 1898, and 110,000 ha in 1935 to these DW relative (Martínez-Moreno, unpublished data). In Italy, 70,000 ha were cultivated to this subspecies in 1927 [64]. Ethiopia, France, Greece, the Balkans, Portugal, Russia, and Turkey had also a relative important acreage of rivet wheat [81,93]. The importance of this wheat decreased during the 20th century to almost null by 1970. Something similar occurred with emmer (T. turgidum ssp. dicoccum). During the Roman period, it was mostly replaced by DW [17], but, in the 19th century, it was still of some importance in several countries, being considered more tolerant to biotic (e.g., to stem rust) and abiotic stresses (that permitted its cultivation in mountainous areas), and with a hulled grain adequate for feed. In Turkey, there were still 56,000 ha by 1927, but only 13,000 ha in 1993 [94]. In Ethiopia, 42,700 ha were still sown in 1990-1996, and India had 50,000 ha in 2000 [12]. The small acreage of these two sister subspecies of DW does not interfere with the results obtained in this study, since the percentage of DW was estimated from total wheat acreage, which included all wheat species. 4.2.13. Global DW Area in the Future It seems that DW will be cultivated approximately in the same area as today, for producing pasta, couscous, and many other products that can be made with the DW grain. The future acreage of the crop will depend on several factors, including the performance of new cultivars and their competitivity with bread wheat in different environments, their ability to withstand biotic and abiotic challenges in the future, and the existence of a price differential favoring DW over BW. The possibility of breeding hard winter BW cultivars for producing pasta in cold countries (Germany, Hungary, some regions of the USA, etc.) may slightly reduce the DW area [49]. In warmer countries of the WANA region (the core area of this crop), DW area may also decrease in favor of BW, but not so in Mediterranean European countries, since DW is considered a cereal for making premium products, such as pasta. If DW grain prices are still as high as today (around 500 €/t in 2021/22), countries with extensive cereal land such as Argentina, Australia, Russia, or Kazakhstan may increase the area of this crop. In addition, climate change must be taken also into account. In a recent study, it was estimated that global warming may reduce the world suitable potential area for DW cultivation by 19% in 2050 and by 48% in 2100. Mediterranean regions and North America accounted for the most suitable land losses. However, new opportunities for the crop may be open in central and western Europe, and Russia [95].In this article, an approximation to the historical area sown with durum wheat from 1800 to the present was provided. It was possible to monitor and discuss the evolution of the area of this crop globally and in the countries with the largest historical area. Some of these countries have preserved the cultivation of this crop (e.g., Tunisia, Algeria), others have partially lost it (e.g., Russia, India), others have increased the DW area (e.g., Italy, Greece), and some countries have incorporated this crop into their current agriculture (e.g., Canada, France). Competition with BW and the appreciation of the differentiated products to which DW gives rise (e.g., pasta and couscous) are key factors to understand the dynamics of this crop in the past, present, and future. The data from this study may help to better understand the evolution of wheat diseases with races specialized on DW (Septoria tritici blotch, leaf rust, stem rust, yellow rust, common bunt, etc.), changes in flour quality and culinary traditions in particular countries, and changes in agriculture practices in the last two centuries.","tokenCount":"9037"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b64a5b7ba77d67301f401d00f7023f4f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/857305b4-e87a-4fc1-89b7-aea00e945f6c/retrieve","id":"1849946465"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"86c70499-12cc-4e02-88e0-a2a9614b9002","pagecount":"27","content":"In 2013, the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) made significant advances in adjusting its science and research for development approach and in directing the program towards its strategic objectives.A key component of the harmonization was clearly articulating WLE's added-value within the wider set of CGIAR research programs through a stronger thematic and regional integration across its 11 partners. This exercise will culminate in the 2015-16 WLE extension plan where WLE promotes a more cohesive approach to sustainable agricultural intensification, in which the overall health of ecosystems is the entry point for sustainable natural resource management, human well-being and resilient food systems. The WLE approach adds value to the set of CGIAR Research Programs by working across scales, taking a landscape perspective and exploring land and water development scenarios which address possible negative trade-offs for ecosystem services. WLE provides evidence-based solutions and investment scenarios to different clients such as governments, development banks, private sector and regional bodies. The development of the WLE impact pathway took advantage of the successful completion of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) to build on its regional partnerships, trust and structures.To ensure a stronger thematic and regional focus, WLE initiated a strategic planning meeting of all partners, regional and thematic leaders in December 2013 in Amman, and regional planning meetings in the four priority regions. The progress was documented in 2013 through a number of success stories; the approved WLE gender strategy; a proposed monitoring, evaluation and learning strategy; a communication and knowledge management strategy; a draft ecosystem and resilience framework; and a draft partnership strategy.A major structural investment was the adoption of a focal regional approach, where increasing fund allocations in initially four regions (West Africa, East Africa, Greater Mekong and Ganges) will complement WLE's global mandate with a high level of thematic integration along clearly defined impact pathways. WLE further initiated an Innovation Fund to inspire and energize innovative research and uptake processes, which are aligned with the program's strategic goals and outcomes including those of WLE's gender strategy. Additional funds from the Consortium Office were only made available in December thus limiting the operationalization of the Focal Regions in 2013.A significant achievement in 2013 has been around the articulation of the paradigm shift in development and management of natural resources that will be required to realize the sustainability goal for agricultural intensification. WLE's framework for the agriculture-ecosystems-people relationship cuts across the WLE Strategic Research Portfolios (SRPs) and emerging regional initiatives with a strong focus on agricultural landscapes, the direct benefits that people obtain from the services provided by ecosystems and a balance between the natural and built environment. A draft framework was developed and presented at the Ecosystems Partnership Meeting in August 2013 that forms the foundation for how the ecosystems based approach will be applied across themes and regions.The framework opened the door for WLE to partner with important global players working on the ecoagri-food system, like the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP)-hosted global initiative on The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity (TEEB) and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). A memorandum of understanding was signed with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to collaborate with the Natural Capital Project (Stanford University, TNC, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and the University of Minnesota) on the application of ecosystem service mapping and modeling tools, like InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs), to assess changes in the value of ecosystem services under different agricultural development scenarios and bring this perspective into the mainstream of decision-making on water resources and agriculture planning. In collaboration with the Stockholm Resilience Center, resilience measures for Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes (SEPLs) were established to guide the development of agricultural investment scenarios in WLE's focal region work. This work is being complemented by WLE's framework for decision making under uncertainty, which explicitly quantifies uncertainties and risks associated with intervention investments.Finally, WLE's emphasis on agriculture-ecosystem linkages were demonstrated in 2013 in several benchmark publications with a variety of key partners, namely the \"Management of Water and Agroecosystems for Food Security\" with UNEP (CABI, 2013) and \"Wetland Management and Sustainable Livelihoods in Africa\" (Routledge, 2013). Through this, WLE has established a clear thematic research focus around the tight but fragile connection between natural resources management and strong ecosystems services. The Steering Committee and Management Committee have captured this new approach in a paper written in 2013 and to be prominently disseminated in 2014.A second noteworthy achievement was the reorientation of the program in designing focal regions. Here the Steering Committee set out a vision to pilot an integrated approach to achieving the paradigm shift. The WLE focal region approach seeks to identify incentives to improve how ecosystems are considered in large-scale investments and national and regional policies and how evidence based research can best support this. An example of this approach is the newly established WLE Mekong Focal Region program that builds upon the successful engagement of CPWF around the issue of sustainable hydropower in the region. With more than 150 dams in various stages of development, hydropower in the Mekong is taking place at a unique scale and is a primary driver of change to the water resource of the region with potentially significant impacts across the water-foodenergy nexus as well as ecosystem services. Building on evidence-based research, WLE (involving CPWF, the International Water Management Institute, the International Food Policy Research Institute and WorldFish) cooperated with more than 60 local partners to maximize the benefits from hydropower including for agricultural productivity, while mitigating potential negative impacts. One output was the first comprehensive and interactive open-access online map that details the location and sphere of influence of all planned, under-construction, and operating dams in the Mekong region. The map provides a sound basis for considering the opportunities from hydropower development beyond energy generation and provides a focus for wider regional stakeholders to understand the scale of dam building and add their own information. The media has used the map extensively.Hydropower development is a highly contested space and improvements in planning and implementation require a change in perception from the developers and financiers. Based on initial participation in a project comparing compensation and resettlement policies and ground reality, Sinohydro Power, one of the most influential private sector representatives in the region, has expressed interest to further cooperate with WLE including trial testing the International Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol. Likewise, another dam developer, Mega First, which is constructing the politically sensitive Don Sahong Dam, has expressed interest in collaborating with WLE on the company's fish monitoring work. A third firm, Theun Hinboun Power Co. (THPC), supported testing of a WLE recommended integrated rice-fish system as part of a compensation scheme and is now evaluating whether to scale this up to other relocated areas. These very encouraging partnerships and developments were possible through the trust that WLE's regional work can build on, symbolized by seven MOUs between CPWF and various governmental agencies and a constructive, objective and neutral collaboration with the hydropower sector.  Increased and more equitable income from agricultural and natural resource management, and ecosystem services in rural and peri-urban areas.Increased decision making power over, and benefits from, agriculture and natural resources for women and marginalized groups.Increased ability of low-income communities to adapt to environmental and economic variability, demographic shifts, shocks and long-term changes. Environment Increased resilience of communities through enhanced ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes.The WLE Theory of Change and Gender Theory of Change can be found at the embedded links.Impact pathways were developed in June for major research areas. The pathways are indicative of the output and outcomes that WLE is aiming for. Some of the main outputs include: assessment and recommendations, returns on investments, tools and models. The outcomes that WLE seeks include: national and regional policy and legislative changes, changes in investment patterns and guidelines and tools used in decision-makingall leading to livelihood improvements. In support of a new thinking on the fundamental linkages between water, land and ecosystems, a number of key outputs were published with support of WLE in 2013: A state-of-the-art review was launched on the 'Management of Water and Agro-ecosystems for Food Security', in collaboration with UNEP and CABI, with contributions from Bioversity, FAO and IWMI. Different WLE partners contributed to the Routledge publication on \"Wetland management and sustainable livelihoods in Africa\". The authors argue for a shift in the way African wetlands are considered. Current policies and wetland management are too frequently underpinned by a perspective that views agriculture simply as a threat and disregards its important contribution to livelihoods, in particular via wetland agriculture and fisheries. In a joint effort by the Ramsar Convention, FAO and IWMI, \"Wetlands and Agriculture: Partners for Growth\" was published, highlighting key opportunities for linking wetlands management with sustainable agriculture.In Land use change maps were produced based on high-resolution satellite images and other data products for the Upper Tana Basin in Kenya, as part of a partnership between the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and TNC. The project focuses on ecosystem-based approaches to mitigate sedimentation and erosion in the predominantly rural upstream watersheds, while also providing an adequate quantity and quality of water for downstream users. The maps show how land use contributes to degradation and will aid in recommendations on how to control destructive quarry chains. It is anticipated that the Kenyan government and UNEP will use the data in land management decision-making processes.A flood risk mapping and analysis tool was developed in collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) to determine flood risk areas in South Asia. The tool is being expanded to Southeast Asia as part of WLE's Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI) researchthe concept that aims to capture catastrophic floods by recharging shallow aquifersfor use for small-scale groundwater irrigation in subsequent years.The Flood Mapping tool also proved relevant for disaster response. In July 2013, heavy monsoon rains arrived early in the northern India state of Uttarakhand causing severe flooding. Researchers contributed to the relief coordination efforts through the preparation of flood inundation maps.Researchers captured and mapped the impacts of the floods using satellite images and supplied the maps to the Indian National Disaster Management Authority as well as to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) for wider dissemination.In Sudan, a service was established 2013 whereby information on extent and duration of flooding is being delivered to pilot farmers through easy-to-understand SMS text messages. More than 130 farmers in the Gash Irrigation Scheme participated and benefited using Smart-ICT platform and online portal called Fieldlook. Irrigation authorities, water users associations and agriculture extension agents were able to find out if farmer fields were inundated and their performance in crop productivity.Based on the outcomes, managers of the Gezira Irrigation Scheme in Sudan, are now interested in scaling up the results.The Water Information System for Sri Lanka was developed in 2013 and officially launched by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in January 2014. The GIS-based tool is available free online and is the first of its kind for helping scientists and policymakers in Sri Lanka to accurately monitor the dynamics of the country's water resources. It also provides a secure platform for cooperation among all the agencies involved in water management to share their data.WLE scientists developed a probabilistic decision analysis tool (Global Intervention Decision Model) for a risk-return analysis piloted across WLE's portfolio in collaboration with Hubbard Decision Research. The tool supports future decisions and provides guidance for what should be tracked in a metrics database. The analyses have had some significant impacts on recommendations for interventions. For example, the method was used to model a planned project in northern Kenya to pipe water into the Wajir County capital. The latter model engaged various stakeholders in the model building in an effort to lead to a more equitable project design. The WLE experience with decision analysis has been incorporated into Doug Hubbard's third edition of the book \"How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business\".Addressing the eminent challenges of water quality for food production and the environment, WLE supported via IWMI a joint initiative with UNEP, FAO, WHO and the UNU to build capacities on risks and risk mitigation in support of safe wastewater reuse. The program reached out to 70 countries across all WLE focal regions and resulted in 5 regional workshops with 160 nominees from various sector ministries.As CPWF is ending, an analysis was carried out of a number of its engagement platforms as they are a critical element of the research for development pathway. The WLE Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog has been one of the major communication outputs to engage scientists in debate and raise awareness about ecosystem based agricultural perspectives.The blog was established as a critical space to stimulate discussion on agriculture, poverty and environmental sustainability among development professionals, leaders and practitioners. In 2013, the blog had more than 100,000 views. The blog has gained a reputation for looking at topics in a novel way and sparking debate among readers. It has contributed to improved engagement with new partners and clients, and changed the attitudes of many researchers about the benefits of blogging.A WLE pilot project in the Mekong River basin has spurred hydropower companies and district officials to consider new options to improve the livelihoods of relocated communities in and around reservoirs in Laos and Vietnam. In each area, researchers spent time to gain the trust and cooperation of local officials and dam operators. In the Theun-Hinboun area of Laos, rice-fish farming systems were identified as a potential option for livelihood diversification from rice monoculture based on a detailed feasibility study conducted by the researchers. Theun Hinboun Power Company (THPC) supported the pilot financially and based on the results of the pilot, THPC is currently evaluating whether to promote an integrated rice-fish system in wet season rice farming areas of the THPC relocation sites. In the draw-down area of Yali Dam in Vietnam, researchers, in close collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), conducted a pilot project in 2012 and 2013 that tested other promising varieties of cassavas. Farmers reported their incomes almost doubled due to higher selling prices and higher yields, while input costs remained roughly the same.Due to the pilot's success, DARD and Yali Hydropower Co. have entered into an agreement to expand dam draw-down agriculture to other areas. Yali Hydropower also has agreed to provide local communities with a reservoir water level calendar and to compensate for labor and seedlings in the case of crop damage caused by the hydropower company.In poor countries, increasing urbanization is placing greater pressure on already strained water and land resources. Rural-urban food flows result in the degradation of farmlands, while waste accumulates in urban centers and leads to severe sanitation problems. The 'Business opportunities for resource recovery and reuse' study screened more than 150 resource recovery and reuse (RRR) success stories across Asia, Africa and Latin America for the most interesting business cases, and eventually assessed 60 of these cases comprehensively. Based on this analysis, about 20 promising business models for the safe reuse of nutrients, energy and water were developed. The feasibility of implementing these models at scale is currently being studied in 10 locations across the globe (Kampala, Hanoi, Bangalore, Lima, Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, Dhaka, Colombo and Hyderabad) and will result in production of investment briefs. So far, donors have pledged USD 4 million to test RRR business models, including a public-private partnership model to turn fecal sludge into fertilizer pellets that started in Accra in 2013. The product is in the process of been trademarked as Fortifer, and underwent field tests in northern and southern Ghana. The trials showed that cabbage and maize yields were as high with Fortifer as with the use of an inorganic fertilizer.In Zimbabwe, WLE scientists, through the CPWF Limpopo Basin Development Challenge, have demonstrated the value of investing in mixed crop-livestock systems in dryland areas to increase household incomes. The researchers, led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), used an innovation platform approach to bring farmers, the government and traders together. The platform in Gwanda has helped to create a strong local market for goats, which led to an increase in the value of one goat from USD 10 to USD 60. This has proved to be an enormous incentive for farmers to invest in their goats by growing their own stock feed, complementing it with (purchased) commercial feed and improving their rangeland management techniques, which have significant positive environmental impacts. The results are of great interest to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, as it examines new ways to targeting food security.In order for women to benefit from agriculture and natural resource management, there is a need for them to be involved in decision-making processes. In India, an IFPRI-led activity assesses how communities can better manage scarce groundwater and surface water resources. The work is taking place in both Colombia and India. Work will be scaled up through NGOs in both countries. The study explores the use of experimental games in helping communities understand, visualize and quantify the gains from collective action in groundwater and surface water management. Experimental games were held with communities (women's and men's groups separately) to simulate crop choices, resulting water use, and changes in overall resource availability. Preliminary findings indicate that women were at least as likely as men to over-extract groundwater resources; funding has been raised to further explore gender issues. NGO staff in India were trained on how to run the experimental games, and work with communities to better manage water collectively. The Indian NGO, Foundation for Ecological Security, has since explored expanding this tool to other issues, such as forests and rangelands, in Andhra Pradesh where it works with more than 5,000 villages. In Colombia, Engineers without Borders will be able to use the results of the study to determine whether they need to tailor their outreach strategies for men and women.WLE has been instrumental in influencing wetland management policies globally, through its research and involvement in the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the only global environmental treaty that deals with specific ecosystems. WLE scientists in particular have contributed to the discourse on conservation versus sustainable use of natural resources and influenced thinking about the \"wise-use\" of wetlands. Since 2008, IWMI has contributed to 10 Ramsar resolutions, which provide a framework for the convention's 168 signatory countries to manage wetlands wisely. In 2013 specifically, WLE researchers worked with FAO to influence thinking in advance of World Wetlands Day (February 2014) by producing a series of publications on wetlands and agriculture: \"Wetlands and People\" and \"Wetlands and Agriculture: Partners for Growth\" An IWMI/WLE researcher currently is coordinating the Ramsar working group on wetlands and poverty alleviation, while another is leading the working group on wetlands and agriculture.IDO 5: Environment WLE has worked in six sites of the floodplains of Bangladesh and India to strengthen communitybased organizations (CBOs), by building leadership skills, ensuring access and benefits to the poor, and increasing fish production. Pilot farmers in turn are successfully demonstrating new crops and practices, which are being adopted by other farmers. Seasonal floodplains in Bangladesh provide a diverse range of livelihood and ecosystem services, and require broad-based consultation to identify solutions for sustainable use. They are also an essential source of food for some of the poorest in the region. The seasonal floodplains are under private, public/private and public ownerships. CBOs lease an area from a land authority for three years, and pay rent to private ditch owners within the floodplains (fish are plentiful in the ditches at times). During the wet months, CBOs stock fingerlings by setting up fences in water inlets. This allows un-stocked small fish from surrounding areas free movement for breeding. Both the production of stocked fish and un-stocked small fish have increased as a result, providing benefits to fishermen, poor landless people and consumers. The floodplains under the fish culture project also make it easier to grow rice with less water and fertilizer, which is a topic that is similarly being studied in the Tonle Sap floodplains of the Mekong.Two examples are presented below of how WLE intends to move toward impact using an integrated multi-level approach. This focuses on influencing major investment decisions at different levels while still providing innovative research.Further achievements were made in Peru based on work carried out in the The Cañete River Basin.CIAT and CPWF have worked since 2005 to better understand how benefit-sharing mechanisms can be seen as an institutional innovation to improve water resources management and livelihoods in the Andes region. In a region with wealth inequities, the goal is to improve the distribution of economic benefits through a system of valuing the ecosystem services provided and sharing the benefits. It is also hoped that the program will help avert potential water-related conflicts. The Cañete River Basin, important for its water flow and biological diversity, was designated by the Ministry of Environment (Ministerio del Ambiente [MINAM]) of Peru as a pilot project to guide the development of PES and benefit-sharing mechanisms. Two significant achievements were made in 2013. First, IFAD agreed to contribute start-up capital for an ecosystem services program in the Cañete River Basin, which will allow for the benefit-sharing mechanism to be fully implemented. Second, draft legislation to catalyze such schemes was approved by a congressional committee, and is expected to be voted on by the full Congress in Peru this year. If passed, it will recognize the role of a benefit-sharing mechanism as a central element of PES schemes and the program could be replicated in as many as 53 basins along the Peruvian coast.WLE has incorporated much of the work of the multi-partner AgWater Solutions Project which has continued to be influential in helping to generate funding for programs that will benefit smallholder farmers in Africa. For example, the project influenced the USAID-funded 'Feed the Future Innovation Gender-specific research gained ground in 2013 with each of the SRPs focusing resources on a gender-specific research project. WLE developed a comprehensive gender strategy, which focuses on bringing issues related to power, equity, and roles of men and women in decision-making to the forefront. The strategy recognizes that decisions are influenced by cultural values and norms and tests the hypothesis that gender equity is a pre-requisite to achieve ecosystem-based sustainable intensification. Thus, gender is seen as a critical means to improve management of natural resources, rather than an end unto itself.Reflecting its commitment, WLE is setting aside at least 10% of its budget for gender-related work, including innovative gender research, and initial reports show that this is likely to have been exceeded in 2013. Gender audits are being undertaken to benchmark and assess the activities already being carried out within the SRPs. This is a challenging task due to the limited information available, but a framework is emerging that will enable WLE to identify gender research areas, interventions and data.WLE's gender analysis in 2013 found that four of nine of its \"flagship\" research products have explicit targets for women farmers. Three of nine flagship products, 20 percent of the tools and one of the technologies were assessed for likely gender implications (see indicators of progress). The analysis found that WLE is making good progress in doing gender analysis, so research users can make decisions that improve the livelihoods of women as well as men. WLE will be providing further support to partners in 2014 to better monitor and evaluate gender-related targets.WLE's gender component also looks at specific research gaps within the water, land and ecosystems dialogue. Knowledge generated on gender will improve WLE interventions at the policy, programming and community implementation levels.WLE held 'A Community of Practice on Gender and Water' in Sri Lanka in November 2013 to increase the gender research capacity within IWMI and WLE partners. The workshop was also used to pool and share resources, discuss indicators for gender equity in WLE, and initiate a cohesive portfolio of gender research. A conference to discuss the status of women's leadership skills in the water sector was held in early 2014 in Manila, Philippines in the lead up to a global conference to be held in South Africa later in the year.An important aspect of the gender work is to ensure that it is leading and supporting work that demonstrates how to foster approaches and data that implement WLE's mandate. For example: WLE gender funds were used to introduce more fuel-efficient cooking stoves, in efforts to reduce women's fuel collection time, and combat land degradation and climate change. Gender funds also examined the innovative use of gender-related data in hydrological modeling (Soil and Water Assessment Tool, or SWAT model, that quantifies the impacts of land management practices in large, complex watersheds) to improve watershed management in Gondar.  CPWF and Australian Aid supported Oxfam's 'Balancing the Scales' project that produced a Gender Impact Assessment Manual, which provides an analysis of the laws and regulations that protect women's rights in the Mekong, and makes recommendations for strengthening assessment tools to consider women's rights and gender.  A study of 121 integrated landscape initiatives in Latin America highlighted the need to include gender and youth in the visioning and planning stages of project management. As part of the review, WLE asked program managers to identify priorities that brought multi-stakeholder groups together to work on integrated natural resource management. Responses indicated that women and youth were typically not included in project design, and only became integrated at the project execution stage.WLE recognizes the critical role partners play in achieving its vision of sustainable and equitable agricultural intensification. WLE outcomes and theory of change depend on an effective partnership strategy. More than 340 partner organizations have been identified in the 2014 WLE workplan, amongst which government institutions and authorities, which are key partners for any policy-related impact pathway, are well represented. For example, WLE has a close relationship with key ministries in India and was asked to assist in drafting the irrigation component for the latest Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017) and is influencing the next five-year plan.Another major partner of WLE is FAO. A meeting was held in March to develop a more collaborative plan of work. Almost all WLE research themes work with FAO, and FAO national and regional offices will be used to help engage and influence decision-makers at the these levels.In WLE currently conducts capacity building, mostly on an individual project basis. In 2013, WLE facilitated short-term capacity building programs for almost 5,900 male and 2,250 female trainees, and long-term programs for 144 men and 51 women trainees. At least 22 multi-stakeholder R4D innovation platforms have been established.In 2014, WLE will conduct an assessment of the role of capacity building to reach outcomes. The discussion will include whether capacity building needs to be re-oriented with a more formalized, strategic approach linking to impact pathways.Capacity building highlights for 2013 included the following: In 2013, a major risk faced by WLE was funding uncertainty. The funding freeze in 2012 disrupted activities and the subsequent cuts in allocation of funds to WLE in 2013, although reversed at the end of 2013, led to significant delays in planning work in the focal regions. This posed a specific risk to WLE compromising its ability to capitalize on the momentum gained from 10 years of CPWF research, and partners potentially losing confidence in WLE's ability to build upon the CPWF research results.The program has attempted to address this through a concerted effort to capitalize not only on CPWF research results, but to build upon its well-placed basin-level engagement platforms and partnerships.WLE programmatic coherence is a continuing risk that the program has taken measures to mitigate. The WLE 2013 portfolio was mainly based on 'heritage activities'. Although each of these is a strong research project in its own right, some do not clearly contribute to the WLE framework. WLE has addressed the potential risk through a series of initiatives to improve alignment to programmatic goals. For example, WLE has improved communication with Science Focal Points in participating centers, and is focusing on managing results through critical feedback on annual plans and progress reports. Science Focal Points were more regularly consulted on program activities, and WLE held its first Science Focal Point meeting in December 2013, so that they could engage with SRP leaders and better understand the higher goals of WLE. As a result of this, heritage projects are starting to be replaced by new initiatives. In addition, the Innovation Fund and focal region activities that will start in 2014 have been specifically designed to meet the defined outcomes of the program. Both initiatives will ensure that proposals are directly linked to WLE IDOs.A major challenge faced by WLE is the resistance in many developing (and even developed) countries surrounding concepts such as sustainable intensification and placing ecosystem considerations centrally in decision-making. WLE has addressed this by providing evidence-based research and translating this into practical interventions that are seen as relevant by governments and others. WLE has managed this issue in a number of ways. First, its Steering Committee comprises a wide range of eminent science and development thinkers who ensure that the program is receiving input from different perspectives. WLE has also initiated a consultative process to develop its focal regions to ensure programmatic relevance at the basin level.A final challenge identified concerns WLE's monitoring and evaluation systems. After an initial unsuccessful recruitment process in February 2013, a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Coordinator was selected for the program in August 2013 but will only be able to start work in mid-2014 due to personal constraints. WLE has tackled this challenge by developing a draft Monitoring and Evaluation strategy, elements of which are already underway, namely the development of a Results Based Management system, the set-up of an appropriate Monitoring Information System (MIS) and preparations for external evaluations to be held in 2014. Within the reporting and planning process, the indicators comprising Table 1 are part of WLE's annual planning framework within which partners are asked to set targets that are then assessed during reporting at the end of each year.While precise background details are available for indicators related to publications, deliverables and other materials, as well as outreach initiatives such as stakeholder meetings and platforms (as noted in the section, Progress towards outputs), estimating and measuring data related to outcome-and impact-themed indicators has been difficult, e.g., those related to agroecosystems and their populations. Indicators for policy analysis and outcomes on the ground have been reported in detail by some partners, but have gone unreported from others; it is likely that WLE has had a higher impact in these areas than the data currently available show. WLE needs to define certain targets and indicators better to ensure that partners have the same interpretation; indicator 8 'users of databases', for example, could be measured by individuals registered to a system, or by the number of downloads, which produce different figures in terms of scale. It would be useful to reconsider what the program is trying to measure through the agroecosystem and population-related targets and potentially reformulating these: Is WLE trying to estimate the entire population in agroecosystems or direct beneficiaries of the program? Once defined, WLE will need to develop clear guidance on what is required for measuring outcome-and impact-related targets, and build capacity within its partners in order to improve on reporting against indicators in the future.Still in the early stages of the program, WLE's strength is at 'Stage 1' in terms of policy development, i.e., the analysis stage. There has been some progress into 'Stage 2' with five policies being presented to stakeholders. WLE still has work to do in ensuring women natural resource managers are targeted and gender disaggregated impacts are measured within activitiesthese aspects are not well represented in the 2013 set of indicators. WLE will need to find out whether this is not being adequately addressed or whether it is considered but not reported.A major lesson learned has been how WLE articulates its transformative agenda. In 2012, WLE explored the use of 'development trajectories', but this did not sufficiently explain the ethos of the program or incorporate the innovative work on ecosystems services. In 2013, WLE began articulating a 'paradigm shift' for how it sees the role of ecosystem service-based approaches as a means to improve sustainable intensification of agriculture, improve livelihoods and influence large-scale investments. This paradigm shift has become a central tenet of the program. In order to operationalize this, WLE has initiated the focal regions and the Innovation Fund which will develop tools and approaches to embed ESS within the focal regions. The design of the focal regions will incorporate this from the start; the Innovation Fund will also concentrate on developing tools and approaches to support the integration of ESS. The next challenge is to communicate this approach in practical ways to policymakers and others, highlighting that it is an idea worth supporting. The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) combines the resources of 11 CGIAR centers, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and numerous national, regional and international partners to provide an integrated approach to natural resource management research. WLE promotes a new approach to sustainable intensification in which a healthy functioning ecosystem is seen as a prerequisite to agricultural development, resilience of food systems and human wellbeing. This program is led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and is supported by CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food secure future.","tokenCount":"5584"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9e60ddbf8ac6c4c314589395f6b7c92f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/23e52605-1320-4ef9-afab-4a33dd8c4957/content","id":"-1357323336"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"57562e3f-1f0b-4c86-8a9e-f474f93c6b3c","pagecount":"26","content":"CIMMYT -the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center -is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.© International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) 2019. All rights reserved. The designations employed in the presentation of materials in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of CIMMYT or its contributory organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The opinions expressed are those of the author(s), and are not necessarily those of CIMMYT or our partners. CIMMYT encourages fair use of this material. Proper citation is requested.Central America has long-been recognized as a region prone to soil and land degradation (e.g., Scherr and Yadav (1996:21). The main cause of this soil degradation is twofold: much of Central America consists of steep hillsides and unequal land distribution that has forced many resource-poor farmers to farm these marginal areas (Hellin et al. 2017). The encroachment onto hillsides represents a move to an area of lower resilience (resistance to degradation) and higher sensitivity (degree to which soils degrade when subjected to degradation processes). Sloping lands are very susceptible to rapid soil degradation caused by physical, chemical and biological processes (Stocking, 1995). Central America's mountains and heavy rainfall, as well as poor land management, make much of the region particularly vulnerable to soil degradation. In addition, the widespread conversion of forests to agriculture has created serious soil erosion problems in the region. In response, there are growing efforts directed at the promotion of soil and water conservation (SWC) technologies (Hellin and Schrader, 2003).Climate change is likely to lead to increased water scarcity in the coming decades (Lobell et al. 2008) and to changes in precipitation patterns. This will lead to more short-term crop failures and long-term production declines. Farmers have a long record of adapting to the impacts of climate variability, but predicted climate change represents an enormous challenge that will test farmers' ability to adapt and improve their livelihoods (Adger et al. 2007). The fifth assessment report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for Central and South America concludes that farmers in Central America are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. An increasing body of scientific evidence points to the negative impacts on Central American agriculture of changing temperature and rainfall patterns. Lobell et al. (2008) looked at the combined outputs of 20 of the latest GCM models for 2030 under three different emission scenarios and reported median precipitation declines of approximately -5% for Central America in both the winter (December-February) and summer (June-August) seasons. This is of concern due to the fact that smallholder farming in Central America is predominantly rainfed.There is a need to work with farmers to develop climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies and to increase the countries' capacity to adapt to climate change. Thus, climate smart agricultural practices have often been promoted. These are practices that contribute to: (1) increasing global food security; (2) enhancing farmers' ability to adapt to a changing climate; and (3) mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Many of these same practices were promoted in the 1980s and 1990s under the guise of SWC, but farmer non-adoption was far too common. Much can be learned from these past endeavors to ensure that current efforts are better designed, implemented and adopted.This manual suggests new approaches to SWC in Central America and describes tools and strategies to achieve them. The new approaches include: exploring other soil conservation options besides erosion control, examining the spatial context, examining farming systems as a whole, encouraging active farmer participation, and monitoring and evaluating the effects of the adopted technologies. The Buena Milpa project in Guatemala is presented as a case study that used these approaches, described in three separate boxes showing the scaling of soil conservation practices in the study area, its agricultural innovation system, and its monitoring and evaluation strategies.For many years, soil conservation programs were based on the assumption that runoff is the main cause of erosion, and that runoff and erosion are inevitable consequences of farming and the principle causes of land degradation. The main objective of soil conservation programs was often to control runoff on agricultural lands in order to prevent loss of soil through accelerated erosion (Douglas, 1993). To combat the perceived threat to soil productivity, and backed by a large amount of field and laboratory research data, soil conservation specialists provided farmers with technical advice, assistance and technologies designed to control runoff and restrict soil losses.The conventional approach to soil conservation involved cross-slope technologies such as live barriers, rock walls, terraces, and/or earth bunds, along with other physical structures such as drainage channels and vegetated waterways. Soil erosion control methods usually combine practices that do one or more of the following:• Reduce the susceptibility of the soil surface to detachment • Reduce the application of detaching forces to erodible surfaces by providing soil cover • Reduce the ability of erosion processes to transport detached materials • Induce deposition of transported materials Erosion control measures can be divided into two categories: mechanical and biological. Mechanical protection includes all those practices that involve moving earth, including digging drains and building terraces. All other practices, such as live barriers, are known as biological methods. More attention is also being directed to the use of cover crops to protect the soil surface from the impact of high-intensity raindrops (Bunch 2012).Soil conservation initiatives have generally adopted a 'top-down' physical planning approach. Government and non-governmental organizations often implement national and regional soil conservation programs. In general, their work aims to educate and involve uninformed farming communities (Norman and Douglas, 1994:55). The focus has often been on the concept of technology transfer, where a small array of soil conservation techniques are seen as having universal application, including practices such as conservation agriculture (Thierfelder et al., 2013).The benefits of research into improved land management in Central America have often not reached the majority of poor farmers cultivating marginal lands largely because the promotion of soil conservation practices in Central America has met limited farmer response (Hellin and Schrader, 2003). For the most part, the establishment and maintenance costs of soil conservation technologies can be high. Many farmers depend both upon production from their land and offfarm income-generating activities. Based on research in Central America (including Guatemala), Hellin (2006: 54-55) documented a number of reasons for farmers' non-adoption of SWC technologies, some of which are listed in Box 1.An important factor in the non-adoption of SWC technologies has been rural labor shortages (Zimmerer, 1993). Resource-poor farmers often find that they need to divert labor that is essential for improving soils or maintaining conservation structures, to the immediate goal of primary production or off-farm activities. This has far-reaching implications for the availability of labor at different times of year and can determine farmers' acceptance, or non-acceptance, of labor-intensive soil conservation technologies such as terraces.• Farmers do not feel that they reap expected benefits because of a lack of secure access to land.• Labor costs involved in establishing and maintaining SWC technologies are too high, especially if farmers periodically work off-farm.• Farmers believe that the economic contribution of their plots to their livelihoods is so small that it is not worth investing time and money in 'improving' the plots.• Physical earthwork technologies and crossslope barriers do not, of themselves, lead to improvements in productivity, and even if they do, farmers expect low economic returns from the technologies available.• Technologies often require farmers to take land out of agricultural production.• Farmers do not rate soil erosion as a key problem that needs to be addressed and so soil conservation recommendations are seen as a waste of time and effort.• There is resistance by local peoples to 'topdown' soil conservation programs.• Technologies exacerbate other problems such as waterlogging, weeds, pests and diseases.• Due to 'transfer-of-technology' extension approaches, farmers do not feel a sense of 'ownership' over the technologies.• Technologies do not address, and may even increase, the risks inherent in agricultural production, especially if their implementation involves investment and additional debt.• Farmers do not have access to the capital necessary to establish and maintain soil conservation technologies.• Soil conservation practices require changes in farming systems that do not suit the economic or cultural realities of those systems.Another issue for farmers is that recommended soil conservation technologies often require taking land out of agricultural production. In the case of crossslope soil conservation technologies, extrapolation of the slope/horizontal spacing relationships from flatter lands to steep hillsides often results in unacceptably close spacing between the technologies and the loss of about 20% of arable land (Shaxson, 1999:87). In many parts of Central America there are severe land shortages. For farmers in the Western Highlands of Guatemala (WHG), losing land for crop cultivation in order to establish a SWC technology may not be an attractive proposition.Agricultural extension, education, and training can help many farmers maximize the potential of their productive assets by adopting conservation practices. Promotion of these practices, however, has coincided with deep cuts to publicly funded extension services in the developing world and this has meant that fewer farmers have access to important extension messages and information. Rather than repeat the 'mistakes' of the 1980s and 1990s, alternative approaches to improved land management are needed as part of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in Guatemala and the rest of Central America.Lessons from earlier soil and water conservation endeavors provide invaluable insights into new, alternative approaches to soil management and conservation that may be more successful in terms of farmer participation, adoption and adaptation. These are described below and summarized in Figure 1.Farmers are primarily concerned with attaining economic and reliable production from their land. The conventional soil conservation argument is that erosion is a threat to farmers' livelihoods and should be controlled because of the link between soil loss and productivity. There is much evidence, however, that this is not the case; often, productivity is governed more by the quality of soil Past SWC approach New SWC approachFocus on soil quality, soil coverMonitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) strategies Top down approach using technology transferExamine farming systems using typologies remaining on the land than by the quantity lost through erosion (Shaxson et al., 1989). In some cases, posterosion yields will be lower because plants are growing in poorer quality soil characterized by:• Reduced depth for rooting and moisture retention • Fewer available nutrients • Less organic matter and reduced biological activity• Poor soil structure leading to reduced porosity, slower gas exchange rates and less water available to plants However, the better the soil quality is as a rooting environment, in terms of its physical, biological and chemical status, the more productive it is, irrespective of how much has been eroded. Actual yields are determined by a complex interaction of a number of factors including soil quality, crop and land management system, and climate. Soil conservation technologies that are designed to control soil loss seldom contribute to increased productivity because they do little to improve soil quality. The quality of the remaining soil, rather than the quantity lost, is a more important determinant of subsequent yields, and hence more attention needs to be directed at maintaining and improving soil quality (Shaxson and Barber, 2003).A change in focus from the quantity of soil eroded to the quality of soil that remains in a farmer's field reaffirms that soil erosion is a consequence rather than a cause of soil and land degradation (Shaxson et al. 1989). The better the soil quality, the more organic matter it contains; this stabilizes the soil structure and improves its capacity to absorb rainfall and restrict runoff. In contrast, decreased cover on degraded soils allows high-energy rainfall to impact the soil surface directly. The damage caused by raindrops leads to reduced porosity in the surface layers, and in turn, less infiltration and more runoff. Alternative approaches must combine farmers' concerns about productivity with conservationists' concerns about reducing soil erosion, via practices that both enhance productivity and effectively conserve the soil.One of the critical variables under the land user's control is soil cover. The effect of soil cover is not linear, and relatively small amounts of cover have a disproportional effect on reducing splash erosion. Where low-level cover protects about 40% of the soil's surface, splash erosion may be reduced by as much as 90% (Shaxson et al., 1989:37). Soil surface cover, either living or dead, is the single best factor for reducing erosion. One of the most effective ways to provide additional ground cover is via the use of green manure and cover crops, including legumes that provide nitrogen to plants via nitrogen fixation. They are also of great benefit in weed control since the space, light, moisture and nutrients they need for their development reduces the growth of weeds (Erenstein, 2003).Over the last decades, numerous farmers worldwide have used different species of leguminous green manure and cover crops in their farming systems, although there are far fewer candidate species when it comes to higher elevation areas such as the Western Highlands of Guatemala. However, improvements in crop husbandry practices such as early planting and changes in crop density can reduce splash erosion and improve water infiltration by providing more soil cover. In some cases this has to be supplemented by mapping activities in the project areas, particularly in countries where GIS data are either scarce, costly or not in the public domain, or the areas of activities are too small to be properly represented in national datasets. This can be done directly in the field using GPS by digitizing maps, or by creating georeferenced layers from remote sensingbased data. These data may be from satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), plane-based or based on machine learning, such as small unpaved country roads in remote areas or field boundaries.In the biophysical domain, there is currently free access to high quality climate data with a resolution down to 1 km. There are also global elevation models with cell sizes as small as 12 m that allow for high detail targeting, for example of NRM measures like erosion control in any given country. Together with high resolution, satellite imagery-based land-use layers, this permits the definition of development domains (Harrington and Tripp, 1984;Pender et al., 1999;Alwang et al., 2005;Chamberlin et al., 2006;Omamo et al., 2006;van  Some biological options (e.g., new crop species or varieties) perform well under particular conditions of biotic and abiotic stress or introduce new specific uses into an area. Scaling out such biological options calls for geographic targeting by creating suitability maps based on basic parameters, such as temperature and rainfall (e.g., FAO Ecocrop) or minimum irrigation capacity thresholds, that represent either the optimal conditions for the biological option or indicate high risk of biotic stresses (e.g., diseases or pests).For example, Figure 2 shows the climatic aptitude or suitability for the fast growing cover crop canavalia (Canavalia ensiformis) in Guatemala based on FAO Ecocrop parameters elaborated in DIVA-GIS. Canavalia is a useful plant for erosion control, for it provides fast soil cover, improves soil through nitrogen fixation. It is also a green manure, with the additional benefit of being an animal and human food source. As the map shows, canavalia is not suitable for highland areas (gray areas) where alternatives like scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus) or vicia species would have to be considered. As a more complex example, the Buena Milpa project has made extensive use of suitability maps to scale soil conservation efforts (Box 2). A systems perspective refers to the understanding of the farm household as a whole including the crop, livestock and forestrysub-systems and their main interactions (or competition for resources) expressed explicitly terms of flows within and through the systems (i.e., flows of agricultural production for home consumption or markets, use of crop residues and of manure, the main sources of income, or the use of labor). Farming systems are complex and diverse. Multiple natural resource management activities (e.g., livestock rearing, food and cash crop production, and forestry management) are often carried out simultaneously to satisfy multiple goals.The growing importance of off-and non-farm activities for the livelihoods of small-scale farmers further adds to the complexity (Valbuena et al. 2015). Their diversity is expressed in structural determinants such as the resources available (e.g., land, labor, and capital), as well as more functional features related to the way farmersThe goal of the Buena Milpa project (http://www.cimmyt.org/project-profile/buena-milpa/) is to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition by promoting sustainable, resilient, and innovative maize-based farming systems in the WHG. Milpa refers to the traditional slash-and-burn system used in the region for food production. For the project area, the scaling of soil conservation interventions was observed by combining three maps to produce one suitability map: (1) a landuse map to identify crop production areas as opposed to other land uses such as forests or cities (Figure 3a), (2) an erosion risk map based both on soil parameters and slopes (Figure 3b), and (3) a rainfall erosion map (Figure 3c).  The three layers were combined to highlight croplands at different risk levels and to target the respective erosion control measures (Figure 4).  Additional layers, such as population density (Figure 5a) and market access (Figure 5b), can be used to further refine intervention areas or specific requirements, such as labor availability for making terraces or markets for products coming out of soil protection measures like fruit trees in living barriers  For example, an initial system proposed by Pender et al. (1999) was combined with the soil erosion risk map with classified population density and market access (Figure 6). Each layer was classified by high, medium and low, the thresholds for population density being < 300, 300-1,000 and above 1,000 people per km2. For market access, < 2 h hours to a market of 50,000 people was considered high market access potential, 2-4 h was medium, and > 4 h was low. The resulting matrix shows 17 possible combinations for development domains (Table 1). These can be used to define soil conservation measures with potential for generating marketable products, specific needs for labor inputs for each specific domain, and the mapped domains used for scaling these.    Soil conservation technologies and practices need to be adapted to the complexity and diversity of smallscale farming systems. This is often best achieved via a systems approach that includes a co-innovation process where farmers adopt and adapt specific technologies in coherence with their farming systems as a whole. One of the key factors for adoption and thus scaling up of technologies, be it crop varieties or soil conservation and other NRM measures, is to ensure that they fit a given target agroecology or the socio-economic realities of the farming communities.Typologies are often used to capture the diversity of farming systems. Typologies are groups of relatively homogeneous farmers to which the fitting of a technology or the expected impact can be assessed. A key feature of typologies is that processes are not linear; instead, they represent the circumstances of a household at a given point in time. Farmers can move from:• 'hanging in' (where farmers engage in activities to maintain current levels of wealth and ) to• 'stepping up' (where farmers engage in current activities, but make investments to expand them), or• 'stepping out' (where farmers engage in activities to accumulate assets and move into different activities) and can also fall back into a less desired state (Dorward, 2009).Typologies for socio-economic characteristics can build on GIS work (Dorward, 2009) and be linked to existing farmer typologies (Lopez-Ridaura et al., 2018). When developing and scaling alternatives for SWC, it is important to understand that farmers are all different and therefore the same technology will not necessarily be relevant or coherent for all farmers. Thus, the main concern of typology delineation in highly unstable environments (economic and environmental) is that typologies are only a 'snapshot' of the diversity of farming systems, which are highly dynamic in such environments (e.g., 'moving targets') (Valbuena et al., 2015). Understanding the diversity of farming systems is needed to make a scaling plan, identify the most likely group to adopt/adapt a given technology, and develop differentiated scaling pathways for different technologies.Typologies have been used in agricultural research for more than two decades and different techniques have been developed based, among others, on quantitative multivariate analysis, participatory approaches, or simply on expert knowledge. Each of these techniques has advantages and disadvantages and is appropriate for different purposes and scales.One of the most common techniques for making typologies is the use of multivariate analysis (MVA), more specifically principal component analysis (PCA) followed by hierarchical clustering. The PCA reduces data into dimensionless values and the hierarchical clustering defines groups in which the internal variation is less than the intergroup variation. Alvarez et al. (2014) provide a simple, yet robust guide to typologymaking through MVA. In the WHG, for example, there are several databases from the surveys that have been done. When selecting variables, two important rules need to be followed: (1) the number of variables needs to be at least four to five times lower than the number of households to be grouped, and (2) when variables are strongly correlated (e.g., land size and land sown to maize), it is important to use only one so as to not add too much weight to that specific feature. Figure 7 shows an example of farm types identified after PCAclustering analysis, that are sufficiently distinct from each other mainly in relation to land available and the share of the land sown to maize or coffee. Lopez-Ridaura et al. (2019) show the methods used for this typology, as well as the descriptions of the most important maize-based systems.Typologies with a participatory approach are commonly done on a small scale (i.e., within a village or a group of farmers) in which the main differences among farming systems can be elucidated together with farmers and technicians. A good practice when using participatory approaches to build typologies is to ask farmers and technicians what are the main features that differentiate farmers and then make a frequency analysis to highlight the most important characteristics. For example, in the WHG, a group of technicians were asked to mention the two or three most important determinants of farming systems diversity in the region. Figure 8 shows how land size, access to roads and transportation, access to credit, and livestock determine farming systems diversity.Agricultural development is a complex process characterized by a high degree of nonlinearity. Farmers participate in social change not as passive subjects, but rather as social actors. Their strategies and interactions shape the outcome of development within the limits of the information and resources available (Sumberg et al. 2003). The rule in many soil conservation programs has been to plan from the top down (Douglas, 1993); yet there is strong evidence that soil conservation projects work best when there is strong farmer participation. This should be the guiding force in future soil conservation initiatives.The success of a soil conservation program in terms of farmer adoption rests partly on the credibility of extension agents and their ability to communicate with farmers. The breakdown of classic publicly funded  agricultural research and extension services means that these services now do not address the needs of marginal farmers. In many cases, the private sector has proven incapable of replacing previous state services due to high transaction costs, dispersed clientele, and low (or nonexistent) profits (Muyanga and Jayne 2008).In the absence of relevant and competent extension provision, one can expect lower adoption of knowledgeintensive technologies.from efforts to combine technological improvements in production, processing, and distribution with organizational improvements in how various actors in these systems exchange information and knowledge, along with policy changes that create favorable incentives and institutions to promote change.The operationalization of this approach happens with the implementation of more formal schemes, such as agricultural platforms (Schut et al., 2016) and hubs (Camacho-Villa et al., 2016). It has also been operationalized with more informal schemes driven by the requirements of the innovation process, as was the case of the Buena Milpa project (Box 3).Within the participatory research and technologyscaling context, monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) strategies, including innovative data analysis methods and visualization tools, acquire significant relevance. Efficient data collection, dimensional analysis and dissemination of agri-food systems and their integrated pathways could help to overcome the challenges of the future. Since traditional MEAL systems in agricultural projects are not understood as knowledge management systems so far, they still tend to measure indicators related to increased productionIn the Buena Milpa project, strengthening the regional AIS was one of the project's lines of action. It involved different stages similar to those in the Agricultural Innovation Platforms (Nederlof, Wongtschowski, & Van Der Lee, 2011). These stages are described as follows:a. The diagnostic stageThe first stage was the diagnostic of the regional AIS and the status of the Agricultural Extension Service. It also includes the identification of key regional actors for establishing partnerships.In this stage, different types of meetings and workshops were undertaken at regional and local levels for participatory project design and implementation. An important tool used to first identify and later facilitate the strengthening of the local and regional innovation networks was network analysis. This tool was used during all project implementation. In this first stage, it was utilized for mapping key actors of the innovation networks by identifying major players who were already working in the area for more than five years and had established relationships of trust, collaboration and cooperation with local communities. The continuity of its use reflects changes in the network during the implementation of Buena Milpa. Figure 9 shows the evolution of the partners´ network. In 2015 education institutions (IE), international organizations (OI), Furthermore, high uncertainties in climate change scenarios mean that there is growing interest in improving farmers' adaptive capacity rather than focusing on the promotion of specific adaptation options per se (Eakin and Lemos, 2006) An innovation system is a network of organizations and individuals focused on bringing new products, new processes, and new forms of organization into social and economic use. It consists of a web of dynamic interactions among researchers, extension agents, equipment manufacturers, input suppliers, farmers, traders, and processors (Hall et al. 2007). The purpose of an agricultural innovation system (AIS) is to strengthen the innovative and adaptive capacity of all actors, including farmers, throughout the agricultural production and marketing system. In a vibrant innovation system, agricultural development resultsand farmers´ associations (AS) were at the center of the network. This changed in 2016 when organizations (OR) and projects (PY) took their place, and by 2017, the main actors were the OR.Of special interest to the exit strategy is the fact that international organizations (e.g. CIMMYT)have not played a central role in the network since 2017.The second stage consists of negotiating with key local actors about implementing activities in specific regions and localities by means of partnerships. In that sense, there were two types of partnerships: those formalized by agreements that imply an exchange of resources (formal partnerships), and those that defined the implementation or support of specific activities (informal partnerships). Agreed activities contribute to the five thematic lines of action of Buena Milpa:(1) milpa and maize germplasm improvement, (2) natural resource conservation in farming systems, (3) farming systems diversification, (4) AIS, and (5) social inclusion. Most of the formal collaborations focused their efforts on implementing activities related to farming systems diversification (Figure 10). However, there have been activities associated with AIS, such as training on network analysis, and more recently, exchanging experiences between Buena Milpa partners. In the third stage, partners implemented activities with backup from the Buena Milpa team. This consisted of follow-up visits and meetings, as well as assisting, participating, supporting or co-implementing specific events. It also included different types of training that aim to develop local capacities for implementing innovations focused on extension agents from partner organizations. There were various formats for these events. In 2016, Buena Milpa organized a one-year course for strengthening extension agents' technical capacities on topics related to sustainable farming practices. In 2017, the scheme changed to specialized courses on topics such as participatory plant breeding and postharvest practices. The fourth stage consisted of reflecting on advancement and performance. Reflection was carried out in different ways. One way was through consistent meetings: at the end of each year, the Buena Milpa team met with each collaborator to discuss their results and challenges, and based on this, start negotiating the following year's activities. There were also events in which all project participants (collaborators and teams) met and discussed the project and how it should move forward. In addition, there were regional workshops for bringing together different stakeholders in order to discuss their contributions to strengthening the milpa system. At some of these workshops, project results were presented as discussion inputs, as was the case for the regional level results of the network analysis that contributed to discussions on how to strengthen them. A final activity carried out as part of the reflection stage was the systematization of the Buena Milpa experience. This activity consisted of interviewing key collaborators and asking them what they obtained from their participation in Buena Milpa. Some of the answers related to AIS were:• Linkages at different levels, from internal bodies (such as different faculties within the same university) to between different actors, such as NGOs, universities, farmer organizations and government agencies.• The multiple uses of the innovation network tool for strengthening the work of agricultural extension workers and presenting their advances; undertaking technology validation and adoption studies; and monitoring advances and presenting results on AIS strengthening.• The use of collaborator networks for scaling experiences such as participatory plant breeding by interacting with other project collaborators who work in other regions or the scaling out of a bean variety for the milpa system.Although these four stages normally occur in chronological order, some of them take place continuously during project implementation. This was the case for the negotiation and implementation stages that occurred on an annual basis; however, the collaboration work plan was defined and implemented every year due to budget constraints.Box 4. MEAL strategies used in the Buena Milpa project, Guatemala.For the Buena Milpa project, CIMMYT collected defined indicators directly from 6,284 farmers and has around 4,608 registered plots with 7,037 registered field logbooks. In addition, different tools for collecting, cleaning, analyzing and visualizing data were developed and tested to monitor and evaluate project activities and support decision-making.Data collection: Farmer data describing crop management practices, yields, costs, dates and crop status were captured in CIMMYT-developed field books using an open-source data collection system, the Geographical Open Data Kit (GeoODK) Collect, which allows flexible question design, entry constraints (i.e., ranges in the answers-input), sub-structure repetitions and geo-referenced information. Data collectors were extension agents coordinated by CIMMYT's local partners who were able to work online and offline in the field, save submissions at any point and send them to CIMMYT servers. At present, GeoODK Collect uses an Android platform and supports a wide variety of question types, such as text, number, location, polygons, multimedia and barcodes.Six main digital forms were developed and deployed:• Agronomic field logbook • Participatory breeding logbook • Animal breeding logbook • Field visit report • Training report • Field day report Data cleaning and analytics: In order to manage data quality, two processes were put in place:1. Manual and dynamic data review: Several scripts have been developed in R-language (a language for statistical computing and graphics) which automatically obtain data from an Excel file, identify and separate outliers. During the dynamic process, outliers were sent back to data collectors to distinguish mistakes from exceptional results. Once the agronomic cycle was finalized, additional automatized processes were conducted to eliminate remaining outliers and correct grammar and syntax errors.2. Automatic outlier identification: several scripts have been developed in R-language (a language for statistical computing and graphics) which automatically obtain data from an Excel file, identify and separate outliers, and then make graphs, for example, of yield variation and net income per crop, region and production type.In addition, other analytics in several projects are being tested. Farmers' data describing crop management practices, yields and crop status were pooled and combined with weather records and soil data at the field level. The data were subsequently completed by thoroughly and productivity with little attention to institutional, environmental, contextual and social issues, i.e., systemic questions. Therefore, the main objective of any MEAL system in agriculture should be to bring in the latest research and technology along value chains regarding precision agriculture and conservation farming practices to farmers of all scales, and support their decision-making processes in order to achieve optimal farming systems of improved productivity, minimal use of resources and impact to the environment. The organized data could also serve donor purposes and regional decision-making for targeting public and private efforts. Box 4 lists the MEAL strategies carried out by the Buena Milpa project.There is little doubt that improved soil and water conservation and crop management practices are needed as part of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. It is very important to facilitate farmers' adoption of these technologies. However, adoption by smallholder farmers has often been limited. This guide suggests that more emphasis be directed at improving soil quality rather than capturing soil that has already been eroded. Furthermore, there is a need for new approaches to extension services that stimulate increased agricultural production, contribute to collective action, and foster the emergence of agricultural innovation systems. The development community is slowly trying to shift from a top-bottom technology transfer approach to one that fosters the emergence of AIS where farmers' needs are better identified and addressed. Presently, there is a risk that, as in the past, soil degradation in Central America will continue to be seen as a technical problem requiring a technical solution. Yet, a more nuanced approach is needed, one that recognizes that many proven soil conservation technologies are available, and that the obstacles to improved land management are as much social, economic and cultural as they are technological.This publication is possible thanks to the generous support of the people of the United States through from its Agency for International Development (USAID). The content of this is responsibility of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and not necessarily they reflect the opinions of USAID or the government of the United States of America.","tokenCount":"5809"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f7e478f93743b20d2ba7c7409a054745","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b857041f-6297-4f40-9630-df76e630f38d/retrieve","id":"538046828"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"927017e3-00d2-41d7-a0ed-c20d47ef6603","pagecount":"39","content":"CTA est financé par l'Union Européenne Le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA) a été créé en 1983 dans le cadre de la Convention de Lomé entre les États du Groupe ACP (Afrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique) et les pays membres de l'Union européenne. Depuis 2000, le CTA exerce ses activités dans le cadre de l'Accord de Cotonou ACP-CE.Le CTA a pour mission de développer et de fournir des services qui améliorent l'accès des pays ACP à l'information pour le développement agricole et rural, et de renforcer les capacités de ces pays à produire, acquérir, échanger et exploiter l'information dans ce domaine.Il s'agit de cultures qui ne constituent pas les cultures vivrières ou de rente, ordinaires, du paysan moyen mais qui peuvent lui rapporter un bon rendement car elles sont hautement spécialisées et il existe pour celles ci un marché spécifique. Elles peuvent aussi offrir une solution de rechange aux exportations de produits de base dont les cours sont en baisse. Ces cultures peuvent être cultivées pour l'exportation avec l'aide d'une organisation qui a une antenne à l'étranger ou simplement il s'agira d'un paysan ou d'un entrepreneur qui a trouvé un « créneau » que personne d'autre n'avait trouvé avant ou dont peu de personnes s'occupent.Ces cultures sont très nombreuses et couvrent des domaines très variés. On peut citer les fleurs, soit pour la vente de fleurs coupées soit pour l'industrie des parfums, les plantes utilisées dans l'industrie cosmétique comme le karité par exemple, les épices et aromates en tout genre, les légumes et fruits qui peuvent être exportés vers l'Europe hors saison comme le haricot vert ou les fraises, certains produits forestiers non ligneux comme les plantes comestibles (feuilles, écorces, sève, fruits, champignons), le miel et même certaines parties d'animaux, utilisées pour l'ornementation et la médecine traditionnelle ou encore les huiles essentielles pour l'industrie alimentaire ou pour l'industrie de la parfumerie.Poussant exclusivement en Afrique, le karité (Vitellaria paradoxa) dont les amandes fournissent de l'huile et du beurre, offre de grosses potentialités à l'exportation. Surtout depuis que l'Union européenne a autorisé les industriels à incorporer 5 % de graisse végétale dont le beurre de karité dans le chocolat à la place du beurre de cacao. Mais pour bon nombre d'intermédiaires, c'est le secteur cosmétique à l'exportation (vers l'Amérique du nord et le Japon, surtout) qui est le plus dynamique. Beurre, savon, pommade, lait de toilette, shampoing, baume pour le corps, autant de produits naturels, issus de l'amande de l'arbre à karité. Ses qualités diététiques font aussi du karité un des produits de niche les plus porteurs en Occident.L'arbre peut atteindre jusqu'à 20 m de hauteur mais n'entre en production qu'au bout de 50 à 80 ans. Il peut vivre jusqu'à 1 siècle et demi. Le rendement par arbre est de 15 à 20 kg de fruits par année. Au Mali, 85 000 t sont récoltées en moyenne par an dont près de 15 000 t exportées chaque année. Au Burkina (production de 70 000 t/an), le karité se place au 3ème rang des produits d'exportation.Malgré ses atouts, le karité souffre d'un manque d'intérêt de la part des gouvernements africains et sa non-inscription aux normes FAO freine son expansion. Essentiellement affaire de femmes jusqu'à présent, le karité était surtout transformé artisanalement dans les 16 pays africains producteurs ce qui n'excluait pas les contrôles de qualité sur l'acidité (inférieur ou égal à 6 %), l'humidité (0,5 %), l'impureté (0,5 %) Mais ces mesures ne satisfont pas les experts depuis que le karité fait une carrière internationale. Comme eux, les industriels demandent des normes plus fiables.Le Bissap est en fait le mot wolof pour l'Oseille de Guinée, carcadet ou roselle ou encore Hibiscus Sabdariffa de son nom latin. C'est un arbuste de la famille des Malvacées qui est cultivée à travers le Sahel (Sénégal, Soudan, Mali…) en Egypte ainsi qu'en Afrique centrale (Cameroun, Congo, Gabon…). On rencontre deux variétés botaniques différentes par la couleur de leurs fibres : une variété rouge et une variété verte ou blanche. Cette dernière variété est surtout cultivée pour ses feuilles utilisées comme épinards acides. Riche en vitamines C, le Bissap est bu en infusion et est réputé faciliter la digestion et faire baisser la tension artérielle. Bien que son utilisation en tant que boisson soit son usage le plus répandu aujourd'hui, l'Hibiscus sabdariffa sert aussi de colorant alimentaire se substituant aux colorants chimiques en perte de vitesse à cause de considérations biologiques. A cette fin, le marché européen importe environ 3000 tonnes de calices d'hibiscus séchés par an.Tolérant à la chaleur, le Bissap peut produire toute l'année. Mais dans bon nombre de pays du Sahel il était, jusqu'à ces dernières années, une culture marginale puisque planté en bordure des champs pour la délimitation des parcelles. Au Sénégal, la période optimale de production de calices est la saison des pluies et pour des zones de production situées au sud de l'isohyète de quatre cent (400) mm d'eau. Les cultures de contre-saison étant réservées à la production de jeunes feuilles dont le cycle de culture ne dépasse pas 45 jours et la plante entière est récoltée pour la commercialisation.Au Sénégal, le marché intérieur local reste mal connu. On constate cependant que dans le pays les vendeurs de jus de Bissap sont partout présents : dans les marchés et les gares, à l'entrée des stades des écoles et des usines. Les prix défient toute concurrence. Un sachet glacé (30 à 50 cl) coûte entre 25 et 50 F cfa, une bouteille de 1 Litre entre 1000 et 1500 F cfa. On constate le même phénomène partout en Afrique de l'Ouest : Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritanie, Bénin, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire, etc. Ce marché local reste essentiellement dominé par les commerçants du secteur \"informel\". Appelés \"bana-bana\", ces commerçants grossistes parcourent les zones de productions pour collecter les calices rouges de bissap. Tout comme pour le marché intérieur, les exportations sont aussi mal connues. Les chiffres de la douane sont de l'ordre de 59 T de calices séchés la moyenne de ces cinq dernières années. Les exportations se font essentiellement vers l'Europe notamment en France et en République d'Allemagne. Ce dernier pays constitue 80 % du marché européen qui est de l'ordre de 3000 T de calices. Le marché Nord américain est encore à explorer. La filière des exportations reste mal connue du fait aussi des bana-bana qui travaillent dans l'informel. Ces derniers réalisent en effet des exportations ponctuelles, des \"opérations\" comme ils disent, en direction de l'Europe, et parfois des Etats-Unis. Certains, ayant pignon sur rue au Port de Dakar, vendent \"en vrac\" à des équipages marins en provenance de la fédération de Russie, la Pologne, la Roumanie et l'Ukraine.En 1980, le marché des importations mondiales de fleurs coupées s'élevait à US$ 850 millions ; en 2002, il s'était presque multiplié par cinq pour atteindre US$ 4 milliards. En 1980, les pays en développement détenaient moins de 10% de ce marché ; en 2002, leur part de marché s'élevait à plus de 30%.Ce marché donc potentiellement très lucratif n'est cependant pas un marché facile car il est très réglementé et doit répondre à des normes de qualité très sévères comme par exemple d'être libres des dégâts provoqués par des parasites d'origine animale ou végétale, exemptes de matières étrangères visibles et affectant l'aspect du produit, exemptes de meurtrissures, exemptes de défauts de végétation, les tiges doivent être, selon l'espèce et la variété (cultivar), rigides et suffisamment fortes pour porter la ou les fleurs. Les produits doivent être emballés de façon à assurer leur protection. Les matériaux et notamment les papiers utilisés à l'intérieur du colis doivent être neufs, propres et de matière telle qu'ils ne puissent causer aux produits d'altérations externes ou internes.Les espèces de champignons répandues sur le marché mondial, peuvent être cultivées facilement. Il existe quatre techniques de culture :La culture en meules : C'est la technique ancienne. Le compost est rentré dans la carrière, puis étalé sur le sol. L'ensemencement se fait en pincées, sur 2 rangs disposés en quinconce tous les 20 cm, sur 5 cm de profondeur. Les meules peuvent être simples, doubles ou triples, mais sont toujours séparées par un sentier pour le passage. Elles sont toujours placées dans le sens de la ventilation. Les inconvénients de cette technique sont le besoin d'une très grande place, la difficulté de désinfection en fin de cycle. Ici il n'y a pas de fermentation dirigée contrôlée, mais une autofermentation qui achève la décomposition.La culture en caisses : C'est la technique moderne. La semence est mélangée à la masse du compost et non plus enfoncée dans la masse. On utilise de grandes caisses en bois de 2m x 1,20m x 0,33m, qui seront superposées les unes sur les autres, par 3 ou 4.La culture en sacs : Ce sont des sacs en polyéthylène, dans lesquels on met le compost après pasteurisation. Ainsi, les caisses sont libres pour éventuellement préparer un nouveau cycle. L'inconvénient majeur de cette technique est l'absence d'automatisation. Par contre, la désinfection en fin de cycle est plus facile qu'avec les autres techniques.La culture dans de nouveaux contenants de grande taille : Ce sont de grandes caisses métalliques. La technique est la même que pour la culture en caisses de bois.La composition des huiles essentielles est très complexe. Terpènes, aldhéhydes, cétones, phénol, lactones, esters, sont des composants que l'on retrouve dans les huiles essentielles. Très volatiles, les huiles essentielles ne rancissent pas, sont solubles dans l'huile et dans l'alcool, mais pas dans l'eau.Il existe plusieurs méthodes d'extraction des huiles essentielles. Le procédé le plus courant est la distillation à la vapeur d'eau. Trois cuves sont reliées entre elles par de minces tubes. La première cuve reçoit de l'eau et la seconde les plantes. L'eau est doucement chauffée et la vapeur passe dans la cuve contenant les plantes. La vapeur circule à travers les plantes et se charge des principes actifs. Puis elle s'échappe par un long tuyau fin en forme de serpentin qui baigne dans un récipient d'eau froide. La vapeur, ainsi refroidie, se condense en gouttelettes et arrive dans la troisième cuve : l'essencier. Les Huiles Essentielles étant plus légères que l'eau, il suffit de les récupérer en surface, tandis que l'eau qui se trouve en dessous sera utilisée pour créer des eaux florales et des hydrolats.Les huiles essentielles s'utilisent soit en inhalation, stimulant les centres olfactifs et répercutant ces effets sur le psychique et le physique, soit en compresse ou en friction. Il existe des pommades odorantes, très justement dosées, permettant une application aisée du produit. On trouve des huiles de massage, des bains parfumés et toutes sortes de présentation de produits aromatiques bénéfiques. Une bonne huile est forcément un peu chère. Le producteur doit renoncer aux pesticides, herbicides et aux engrais pour obtenir un produit vraiment pur, d'où regain de travail, d'attention et rendement moindre. Mais il offre ainsi la garantie d'un produit 100% naturel. Les Huiles essentielles ont un extraordinaire pouvoir de pénétration. En appliquant le produit sur la peau, il suffit de quelques heures pour en retrouver des traces dans les urines. Entre-temps, les principes de la plante auront pénétré les tissus par voie sanguine.Elles sont immensément nombreuses : Angélique, cardamome, camomille, camphrier, citronnelle, mélisse, menthe, safran etc… Mais une épice de bon rendement est le poivre. Pour se développer convenablement le poivrier a besoin d'un sol bien drainé, faiblement acide, humide et des précipitations comprises entre 1800mm et 2500mm par an, réparties de manière uniforme tout au long de l'année. Le poivrier tolère des températures comprises entre 20°C et 40°C mais pas l'ensoleillement direct. On le trouve généralement à des altitudes assez basses (moins de 1200m) et dans des climats chauds qui ne présentent pas de phénomènes trop marqués (vents violents, sécheresse, pluies violentes).Encore aujourd'hui, le séchage solaire est la principale voie de traitement des baies pour obtenir du poivre noir. Bien que le procédé soit très simple (les baies sont déposées au soleil et retournées régulièrement), plusieurs facteurs peuvent affecter la qualité finale du produit. Le premier d'entre eux est le degré de maturité du fruit au moment de la récolte. Pour cela, il existe deux écoles. La première préconise le ramassage des baies au moment où celles-ci commencent à rougir. Pour les autres producteurs, il est préférable de retarder un peu la récolte et d'attendre que les fruits soient plus mûrs. Il est important une fois la récolte effectuée, de nettoyer les baies afin que celles-ci soient débarrassées de la poussière, des pierres et autres corps étrangers qui peuvent s'y trouver. Pour cela, on tamise tout d'abord les baies, puis on les nettoie à l'eau et on les égoutte plusieurs fois.Les techniques de séchage, à l'instar de la récolte, varient d'un pays à l'autre. Traditionnellement, le séchage des baies se déroule sur une semaine et est réalisé sur de petits tapis de bambou ou sur des sols en béton réservés exclusivement à cet usage. Dans certains pays les baies sont détachées des branches avant le séchage à la main ou par piétinement alors que dans d'autres, l'ensemble de la branche est mis à sécher sans traitement préalable. Le fruit doit en outre être retourné régulièrement. De ce facteur dépend la qualité finale du produit et surtout son aspect (présence de moisissures et non uniformité de la coloration entraînant une décote sur le marché international qui peut parfois aller jusqu'à la moitié de la valeur de l'envoi). Cette opération est en principe réalisée par ratissage. Le poivre noir fini se présente sous la forme de grains ronds flétris de couleur foncée dont le taux d'humidité doit être inférieur à 10% et dont les qualités organoleptiques sont particulières, notamment du fait de son taux élevé en pipérine qui lui donne son caractère brûlant.Il existe une autre méthode, plus rarement employée, qui consiste à mettre les baies de poivre à tremper dans de l'eau bouillante pendant une dizaine de minutes puis de les déposer au soleil. Cette technique permet de noircir les baies plus rapidement et d'accélérer le séchage en améliorant simultanément l'uniformité de celui-ci.Faute de documents statistiques disponibles, il est difficile de mesurer avec précision l'évolution des cultures de fruits et légumes dans les pays africains mais c'est au début des années 80 qu'a commencé leur réel développement. Il est toutefois indéniable que l'exploitation de certains produits est en forte augmentation : haricots verts tout d'abord, mais aussi tomates, oignons, fraises, épinards, mangues... La tomate et les fraises demeurent les premières productions maraîchères mais leur développement se heurte à des contraintes de conditionnement, de stockage et de transport. Seuls le haricot vert et la mangue sont exportés vers l'Union européenne.Le maraîchage est pratiqué dans de grands périmètres mais aussi dans de petits potagers individuels. Leur exploitation génère des revenus additionnels aux agriculteurs qui ont des effets positifs sur la balance commerciale. C'est pour ces deux raisons que la filière fruits et légumes bénéficie dans de nombreux pays notamment au Burkina, de l'attention et du concours des bailleurs de fonds.Le karité : un énorme potentiel qui mérite d'être mieux exploité.Le jus de Bissap : l'amélioration des techniques de fabrication 4'28 permettra l'ouverture des marchés européens.Les fleurs coupées : un marché en pleine expansion mais qui 5'53 nécessite un investissement initial important.Les champignons : une culture facile et bon marché, à laquelle 5'01 il faut trouver de nouveaux débouchés.Les huiles essentielles : pour la parfumerie et la cosmétique 6'28 mais aussi à usage médicinal.6'00 le poivre rapporte gros et pendant longtemps.Les fraises qui ne sont pas originaires des terres africaines sont de 3'05 plus en plus prisée des consommateurs aisés.CHAPEAU L'arbre de karité, un arbre qu'on trouve dans les savanes arborées semi-arides du Sahel Ouest-africain, pousse à l'état sauvage sans pesticides ni fertilisants. Son fruit, l'amande de karité, blanchâtre et très grasse est débarrassé de sa coque, réduite en pâte par pilonnage puis plongée dans des marmites d'eau bouillante. Une fois refroidie, la graisse surnage et la pâte huileuse recueillie, est malaxée pour donner le beurre de karité. C'est un travail très pénible effectuée en quasi-totalité par les femmes. Le beurre de karité est utilisé depuis des millénaires pour faire la cuisine mais aussi en médecine traditionnelle et est de plus en plus recherché en Europe par l'industrie cosmétique et a donc une haute valeur commerciale. Pourtant les pays producteurs n'en profitent pas vraiment comme en témoigne ce reportage de Filifing Diakité au Mali, premier producteur au monde. Vous arrivez à les soutenir sur le plan technique en leur donnant la semence ?Disons que par rapport à ça, nous avons fait beaucoup puisque les semences … nous avons un laboratoire de microbiologie où nous produisons les semences, ces semences sont mises à la disposition des femmes et nous avons même beaucoup fait parce que nous subventionnions et nous continuons à subventionner ces semences pour amener les femmes effectivement à avoir des facilités pour développer l'activité. Donc les semences sont produites ici et sont mises à disposition à crédit. Vous voyez, nous mettons les semences à crédit aux femmes. Même les substrats, le matériel qui permet donc de produire … notamment les raves de palmiers à huile, nous les achetons, au niveau des usines, notamment de l'usine de Nimbi et nous mettons cela également, sous forme de crédit aux femmes. Donc je pense que nous essayons donc de faire ce qui est possible et ce qui est de notre ressort, ce qu'on peut faire réellement mais nous estimons que les femmes elles-mêmes doivent faire des efforts.Parmi les cultures a haute valeur commerciale, les plus recherchées sont les huiles essentielles. Les huiles essentielles ne contiennent pas de corps gras comme les huiles végétales obtenues par pression. L'huile essentielle est une sécrétion naturelle élaborée par le végétal et contenue dans les cellules de la plante, soit dans le calice, la tige, l'écorce ou tout autre partie de la plante et qui est extraite par la distillation de la plante en alambic. Selon l'huile désirée, on prendra tout ou partie d'une plante spécifique pour en extraire la quintessence, afin de la capturer à des fins médicales ou pour la parfumerie ou la cosmétique. Kounaso Thérèse fait cette activité depuis huit ans et en parle au micro de Euloge Aidasso.DURÉE DE LA BANDE : 6'28Bon, ça m'a plu parce que j'aime le parfum, tout ce qui est bonne odeur, j'aime ça, j'aime les fleurs, j'aime les plantes et surtout l'agriculture parce que ça donne du travail aux agriculteurs, aux paysans : je donne un peu d'argent, les paysans plantent et je leur achète les plantes et je fais mes essences.Quelle utilisation en faites-vous ?Je fais plusieurs variétés d'essence. Ces essences servent à faire du parfum dans un premier temps. Aussi ça peut servir à parfumer le yaourt, les biscuits, les bonbons …bon que sais-je encore, même la nourriture parce que c'est naturel, c'est les plantes, ce n'est pas synthétique.Quelles sont les plantes que vous utilisez ?Les feuilles de citronnelle. Il y a deux variétés de citronnelle : Il y a notre citronnelle que nous buvons à la maison et il y a une autre variété qui vient de l'extérieur et que nous plantons. C'est un peu le genre de notre citronnelle que nous buvons mais les feuilles sont plus épaisses. Donc c'est ça l'essence de citronnelle, celle qui vient de l'extérieur, celle que les gens appellent souvent l'essence de citronnelle ici à Cotonou. Pas le synthétique parce que le Nigéria fait aussi le synthétique et les odeurs ne sont pas les mêmes : l'odeur du naturel et du synthétique ne sont pas les mêmes.Vous dites que vous faites de l'extraction d'huiles essentielles qui entrent dans la parfumerie. Vous faites du parfum ou bien vous exportez ?En ce moment j'exporte. Mais je suis en train de mettre ne place une petite usine de parfumerie et comme ça je n'aurais plus à exporter mes essences mais c'est plutôt les parfums que je vais exporter Aidasso Sinon, pour le moment vous exportez les essences ?Oui.Comment vous avez découvert cette activité ? Kounasso Bon j'ai lu dans les livres ! J'ai lu, j'ai un livre qui ne parle que de plantes … de ce que font les plantes, de leurs vertus et tout ça là. Ça m'a donné l'idée de créer cette unité de production et c'est le CBDD qui m'avait aidé à mettre en place cette petite usine.Quel est le risque que vous aviez pris ? Si vous devez parler de cette entreprise, quel est le risque initial que vous aviez pris ?Bon… je fabrique les produits …bon, au départ je fabriquais sans trouver de marché donc je fabrique pour le Bénin uniquement. Ensuite j'ai commencé par participer aux foires internationales dans tous les pays du monde entier, j'ai trouvé des marchés et de plus en plus je vais à l'extérieur, je découvre encore d'autres marchés jusqu'à ce que j'aie découvert encore le marché des essences mais dans l'Afrique, les marchés de l'Afrique, ce n'est pas tellement intéressant parce qu'il faut vendre à crédit obligatoirement.Vous arrivez à vendre vos produits sur le plan international ?Oui oui, je vends bien mes produits sur le plan international. Les produits cosmétiques comme les pommades à cheveux, enfin tout ce qui concerne la beauté de la femme, je les vends bien.Et vous utilisez combien de personnes ? Kounasso J'ai au moins dix personnes à mon service.Sans compter ceux qui produisent les plantes et fleurs ?Non. Sans compter bien sûr ceux qui produisent les plantes et fleurs.Et quel contrat vous lie avec ceux qui produisent les plantes et fleurs ?Le contrat n'est pas autre chose que de leur fournir de l'argent. Ils plantent et je leur achète par kilo les plantes. Moi je m'appelle Nikiema Zalissa. Je vends les fraises.Dites-moi, Zalissa, depuis quand est ce que vous vendez les fraises ?Bon ça a un peu duré que moi je suis avec les fraises…. Six ans que je travaille les fraises.Mais vous avez commencé toute seule ou bien vous avez quelqu'un avec qui vous travaillez ?Non je travaillais avec une petite maman à moi mais maintenant je travaille pour moi-même.Mais pourquoi vous avez décidé de travailler pour vous-même ?Au commencement je ne savais pas comment faire le travail mais maintenant j'ai appris comment on fait ça le travail moi seule et je trouve si je fais seule, aussi je ne serai pas perdante, donc c'est pour cela que moi j'ai décidé de faire moi aussi. ","tokenCount":"3716"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"abf3eb38848c1987f245ddeaaa238b81","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a53db13d-3a03-46b0-abea-1a176fccd719/retrieve","id":"-2022648649"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d0c713d8-71ac-4642-a72a-70df3f252519","pagecount":"19","content":"The ILAC initiative fosters learning from experience and use of the lessons learned to improve the design and implementation of agricultural research and development programs. The mission of the ILAC Initiative is to develop, field test and introduce methods and tools that promote organizational learning and institutional change in CGIAR centres and their partners, to expand the contributions of agricultural research to achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.This paper has been reformatted to comply with the style of the ILAC Working Paper series.Throughout the world, the pace of environmental, social and technological change is accelerating, and this in turn has major implications for the poor and their development prospects. Traditional transfer-of-technology approaches to agricultural research can no longer keep pace with the complex, diverse, risk-prone and dynamic realities of poor farmers.If agricultural research organizations are to be more successful in reducing poverty and increasing the sustainability of agricultural production systems, they must become less isolated, more interconnected and more responsive. In so doing, they must transform themselves into learning organizations, more in touch with field realities and better able to learn and to change. Recent research on the poverty alleviating impacts of technology associated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has identified institutional learning and change (ILAC) as a key area for intervention if research is to be more efficient and effective in serving the poor.Problem-solving agricultural research, by its very nature, is a risky enterprise. It involves a degree of trial and error in which not all -probably not even a majority of -research paths achieve their intended goals and impact positively on the livelihoods of the poor. Outputs and outcomes cannot be predicted with certainty. ILAC is a process which can change behavior and improve performance by reflecting on and reframing the lessons learned during the research process. Within the framework of ILAC, a set of interventions is emerging which seeks to strengthen performance and encourage new modes of professional behavior associated with continuous learning and change. The process is concerned with the rules, norms and conventions that frame decision-making in agricultural research organizations. ILAC is driven by the premise that improved performance requires a spirit of deliberate and critical self-awareness among professionals and an open culture of reflective learning within organizations . a culture that encourages the identification and examination of less successful research paths to help direct changes in objectives, strategies and methods. In such an environment, errors and dead ends are recognized not as failures but as opportunities for both individual and institutional learning that can lead to improved performance.Learning and change can occur at the level of systems, organizations, groups, teams and individuals. The ability of an organization and the people within it to learn and change is affected by the external operating environment, the internal environment, and organizational capacity. Both top-down and bottom-up approaches to ILAC are needed: top-down for support, legitimization and protection, and bottom-up to allow for individual encounters and learning, augmented by monitoring and evaluation by field staff and farmers.At the system level, operational paradigms may need to be examined and networks expanded or reconfigured. At the organizational and program levels, strategic planning exercises may be useful to explore new frontiers and to assess any revisions in strategy or tactics that may be needed to identify and correct less successful research paths and to address changes in the external environment. It may also be necessary to move away from formal hierarchies towards more decentralized decision-making and operations. At the individual level, both researchers and managers need to be more open to learning and change, since ultimately, institutional change can only occur through changes in behavior, attitudes, relationships and activities, all of which depend on individual insights and decisions.Four complementary, synergistic approaches are proposed for fostering institutional learning and change and for developing learning organizations: • Developing and enhancing individuals' awareness, knowledge, and skills. This may include pilot initiatives to study innovation and learning within on-going work, training to develop new process-oriented skills and the provision of support services to allow CGIAR staff and partners to design and implement learning-oriented activities. The proposed initiatives are exploratory, pilot activities, which include learning within existing projects, documenting innovation histories, and exploiting opportunities to learn from both successes and failures. Initially, the focus will be on providing the necessary support to enable CG centres to adopt an ILAC orientation in their work. It is envisaged that successful ILAC initiatives will -indeed, must -connect with real work goals and processes. They will be focused on improving performance and will engage people who have the power to promote and protect ILAC initiatives. By balancing and combining action and learning with review and critical reflection, these initiatives will enhance and reward people's capabilities, both individually and collectively. A critical element of ILAC is reflection on the process of learning and change itself. This is a vital part of an iterative process of improvement: ILAC is not a predetermined blueprint, but an evolving approach with processes which themselves demand learning and change. Embracing the ILAC approach will help to develop a more transparent, productive and efficient CG system that can more effectively contribute to the sustainable reduction of poverty.No institution, however successful, can base its future purely on past performance. Progress and relevance come from building on past strengths and grappling with past weaknesses. CGIAR System External Review, 1998, p.1 Three major trends -climate change, economic globalization, and population growth -are exposing rural communities to greater pressures and risks than ever before. On the other hand, innovations in information, communications and biotechnology offer tremendous opportunities for the rapid advancement of the poor. If they are to keep pace with these changes, rural people must be able to exploit innovations more quickly and more effectively. Assisting them in this process is a network of organizations with mandates for fostering rural development and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals -i.e., to halve hunger and malnutrition by the year 2015. The research centers of the CGIAR and their national partners form part of this network, and represent an important international scientific resource with untapped potential for contributing to development. However, if the CG Centers are to fully contribute to this effort, individuals, teams and the Centers themselves must learn and change at unprecedented rates. Regrettably, there is a current perception among donors and other stakeholders that insufficient progress is being made, and that consequently the CG Centers are not contributing as effectively as they could to the achievement of development goals. As a result of this crisis of confidence, funding has declined and calls to restructure and reorient the work of CGIAR Centers and national research organizations have intensified; in some circles, the very notion that agricultural science is a useful tool for improving the livelihoods of the world's poor has been questioned. When the CGIAR system was formed in the early 1970s, its main goal was relatively simple: to assure food supplies in the developing world using agricultural science to increase the productivity of major food crops. The institutional model underpinning this goal involved the creation of international centers of scientific excellence to develop technologies to be transferred to national programs and onwards to farmers. Implicit in this design was the assumption that scientists could both identify research priorities and act as the central source of innovation. However, as development goals and processes have become more complex and better understood, the need for institutional change has become apparent. The research agenda of the Centers has expanded to include the triple goals of agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability, and a more explicit focus on poverty reduction that recognizes the multidimensional nature of the livelihoods of poor people (Hall et al. 2000). The Centers are struggling to address this expanded agenda with an institutional design intended for a narrower and simpler task. Another driver of institutional change is the rapid pace at which the wider development context is evolving. Features of this rapidly changing context include:• A more sophisticated understanding of how development occurs, which recognizes that innovation has multiple sources and that it results from the actions of a variety of participants • The emergence of a large number and range of organizations associated with agriculture and rural development -including NGOs, private companies, farmer-operated enterprises, and research foundations • New working practices involving partnership and grass-roots participation • Changing norms of governance and democracy such as decentralization • New patterns of knowledge ownership, particularly in the area of biotechnology• Opportunities presented by rapid developments in biotechnology and information technology • Increasingly rapid learning and diffusion rates as a result of improvements in information technology and communications infrastructure • Globalization and the increasing influence of international markets on the rate and direction of technological change • Environmental degradation and climate change • The increasingly important role of knowledge in the global economy • Rapidly shifting patterns of alliances and partnerships • The continual reassessment and reorientation of the role of the State in development issues All of these various changes suggest that the CGIAR Centers and their partners cannot continue with their current approach. Whilst restructuring is a typical response to reduced funding and flagging performance, if agricultural research centers are to cope with growing complexity and seize opportunities as they arise, they need not merely new approaches to research organization or practice, but more flexible and adaptive institutional arrangements. In this regard, it is now widely acknowledged that the CGIAR must change from a supply-led model of centers of excellence to a more responsive mode of operation in which partnership and client orientation are core principles. Major institutional change will thus be needed: although it would be wrong to suggest that the institutional arrangements of the CGIAR have not evolved over time, much remains to be done. These challenges and opportunities are addressed in this paper by outlining how CG Centers can become more effective learning organizations through \"institutional learning and change\" (ILAC). As mentioned earlier, this can be described as a process of reflecting on and reframing knowledge gained during the research process that can result in changed behavior and improved performance 1 In the following section, we describe ILAC more fully and identify some possible entry points and practical steps for implementing ILAC within agricultural research organizations. This paper is very much a .work in progress.. The ideas presented here will be clarified and refined as ILAC gains momentum and as agricultural research and development organizations gain more experience with the approach.\"It may be a good thing that (ILAC) is not currently explicitly defined, but is a conjuncture of words -Institutional, Learning, Change. Sustainable livelihoods began like this, as two words put together which then many people developed meanings for. This had the advantage that people defined and owned the evolving concepts. The same could happen with ILAC in the CGIAR system\" Robert Chambers (IFPRI, 2003) While the rapid rate of global change can generate many new opportunities, it also creates a challenging environment in which the CGIAR must make an effective contribution to poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. As stated earlier, recent advances in development theory and practice are suggesting new ways of coping with and exploiting a rapidly changing world. Throughout development practice, there is increasing emphasis on strengthening reflective and learning-orientated professional behavior. Examples of such recent shifts in the development framework are summarized in Exhibit 1. The emphasis is not on rejecting old ways of working, but on a balanced and complementary use of both old and new frameworks so as to address diverse and evolving circumstances. The new perspectives listed here emphasize empowerment, accountability, diversity, complexity and continuous learning. Such fresh perspectives can contribute much towards creating flexible, adaptive research and development capability (Clark et al. 2003) ILAC forms part of a new operating system that redefines the way in which research activities are conceived. The ILAC approach draws inspiration from a number of fields including sociology, institutional economics, action research, management science, education, systems research, innovation policy, capacity development, and participatory evaluation (Ekboir 2003;Douthwaite 2002;Douthwaite et al. 2003;Hall et al. 2003;Horton and Mackay 2003;Horton, Galleno, and Mackay 2003). ILAC responds to the need to restructure the traditional linear transfer-of-technology model of innovation into one better suited to contemporary development needs.Increasingly, this new model of innovation is being described in terms of the .innovation system. concept (Hall et al. 2001), which helps clarify the nature, role and modus operandi of CGIAR Centers as part of a larger dynamic whole, dedicated to improving the lives of the poor. At its simplest, an innovation system can be described in terms of three elements (1) the organizations and individuals involved in generating, diffusing, adapting and using new knowledge, (2) the interactive learning that occurs when organizations engage in generation, diffusion, adaptation and use of new knowledge, and the way in which this leads to innovation (i.e., new products and processes), and (3) the institutions -rules, norms and conventionsthat govern how these interactions and processes occur.The complexity of innovation processes has been highlighted by many empirical studies (Lundvall, 1992). Here, the concept of complexity refers to a characteristic of systems in which many elements interact with each other to create cumulative and unpredictable outcomes. The development of such complex systems is driven by feedback and learning, which enable them to respond to emerging needs and circumstances that cannot be fully predicted in advance. This way of viewing innovation has several important implications for research organizations and the way in which they operate:• Innovation involves not only formal scientific research and research organizations, but a range of other bodies and non-research tasks. This implies that research organizations must collaborate with other organizations in order to contribute more effectively to innovation.• Since linkages between organizations facilitate learning and information flow, making contacts and forming partnerships, alliances and coalitions are extremely important activities for all research organizations. New and closer relationships with partners and new patterns of accountability may be needed.• Innovation is a social process that involves interactive learning based on practical experience, a process that can generate new approaches, practices and opportunities. In this way, institutional innovations are often an important by-product of technological change. This implies that there is no blueprint for structuring research processes: they should instead be allowed to evolve naturally, acknowledging that this will lead to a diverse range of approaches.• Since the innovation process is influenced by institutional arrangements, research on institutional development is as important as research on technological issues. Research organizations must develop not only pro-poor technology but also pro-poor institutional arrangements. In this way, new research conventions or approaches become important international public goods.• Research organizations must be flexible: since learning creates new capabilities, the roles of different organizations are not necessarily fixed but should instead evolve gradually over time. In a similar way, partnerships and alliances need only be maintained for as long as they are useful.\"Organizational learning occurs when individuals within an organization experience a problematic situation and inquire into it on the organization's behalf\" Argyris and Schön, 1996, p.16. Although the focus of ILAC is on changing institutions, much of the operational effort occurs at the level of the organization. Following the lead of many of the world's most successful enterprises, CG Centers must attempt to become \"learning organizations\" -organizations that are open and flexible, that identify and recognize both successes and failures as opportunities to learn and improve, and that build relationships with the many and varied participants involved in agricultural development. Organizational learning begins with recognizing and admitting to problematic situations, including failures. This may be difficult in the current atmosphere of cut-backs and competition within the CG system -a situation which, ironically, is partly due to the past failure of the CG Centers to learn from experience and to initiate necessary changes. Given the current environment -in which many investors are emphasizing the need for greater accountability and evidence of impact -it is probably unrealistic to expect CG Centers or their employees to admit to \"big\" mistakes or failures. An example of a \"big\" failure is provided by Paul Starkey's book Perfected yet Rejected (Starkey, 1988), which reveals the true story behind the animal-drawn wheeled-tool-carrier that was developed through research projects in over 20 countries. The wheel-carrier \"bubble\" grew on the basis of glowing accounts of early trials in which farmers could use the machines but did not have to buy them. Few negative experiences were reported to challenge the .success. story that was being generated . but ultimately the technology was nearly always spurned by farmers and millions of dollars were wasted. Starkey's book presents the life history of an .innovation fad.. Such fads are the result of positive feedback loops and are common in many areas of endeavor. Sterman and Wittenberg (1999), for example, describe the life cycle of fads in management science, which could apply equally well to agricultural science: \"Typically, a guru proposes a new theory, tool, or process promising to address persistent problems facing business. The early adopters of the guru's methods spread the word and initiate some projects. Even in cases where the ideas of the guru have little merit, the energy and enthusiasm a team can bring to bear on a problem, coupled with placebo effects and the existence of \"low hanging fruit\" will often lead to some successes. Positive word of mouth then leads to additional adoption... Management gurus and their followers, like many scientists, develop strong personal, professional and financial stakes in the successes of their theories and are tempted to selectively present favorable and suppress unfavorable data. Positive feedback processes dominate the dynamics, leading to rapid adoption of those new ideas lucky enough to gain a sufficient initial following\". Such fads can be extremely expensive in terms of both money and time: in addition to Starkey's estimate of the several million dollars spent on the animal-drawn wheeled-tool carrier, Douthwaite et al. (2003) detailed the alley farming fad in West Africa in the 1980s, on which well over 200 publications were written despite farmers neither recommending nor adopting it. Failed fads often result in a backlash against the individuals, projects and institutions associated with them. Starkey's analysis of the animal-drawn wheeled-tool-carrier was conducted as an independent investigation only after several years of research and development had already taken place. Consequently, rather than helping agricultural engineering units to learn and improve, the study helped to increase scepticism regarding public-sector agricultural engineering research, which has now all but disappeared from the research agenda of the CG Centres. The ILAC initiative will help to break the fad, failure and backlash cycle -ironically, by encouraging people to admit to errors and to actively learn from things that are not working well. The various activities incorporated within ILAC -particularly the regular reflection on progress in order to support adaptive management -should allow problems to be identified and resolved long before they reach career-, project-or institute-threatening proportions. Learning exercises such as innovation case studies should help both donors and CG scientists to form a more realistic impression of the time needed to achieve results, and should also help to reduce the early hyperbole that can work against learning and help to create fads. In addition to the difficulty that organizations may face regarding learning from failures, many managers are finding that they are unable to predict the future with any certainty, and are realizing that their organizations will only succeed if they develop the necessary skills and capabilities for coping with change. Organizations must become much more responsive and adaptive if they are to be capable of playing a catalytic role in an increasingly complex environment. An accumulating body of practical experience related to learning organizations has revealed that such organizations have several core elements forming a continuous cycle of learning that can strengthen the organization's ability to adapt to its changing environment. These elements include the following:1. Systematically gathering information not only with regard to emerging challenges and opportunities, but also regarding feedback on previous activities 2. Making sense of the information collected, drawing on a wide range of perspectives 3. Sharing knowledge and learning throughout the organization and with partners 4. Drawing conclusions and developing guidelines for action 5. Implementing actions, the results of which lead to new learning cycles 6. Institutionalizing lessons learned in the organization's procedures, behavior and culture Institutional learning and change can be further catalyzed and supported through exploring and reflecting on questions centered around the following three areas:• Operations. Are we doing the job right? For example, are we using the most costeffective methods to achieve our goals?• Strategy. Have we got it right? For example, are our goals and strategies still relevant to our clients?• Paradigm. Are our underlying premises and mental view of the world still valid under contemporary conditions? For example, is it more useful to view agricultural development as a diffusion of innovations, or as the result of the actions of multiple participants within innovation systems? A commitment to a continuous cycle of learning that addresses all three areas would enable the CGIAR Centers to continually monitor the efficiency, usefulness and validity of their work, and to make any necessary adjustments to ensure that they remain on track . even while the .track. itself may be shifting.Introducing and nurturing ILAC in organizations requires that we stimulate, support and reward new ways of thinking and behaving at several different levels. It also calls for integrating bottom-up and top-down approaches into a coherent strategy to maximize continual learning (Exhibit 2).At the individual level, the central importance to ILAC of the orientation and commitment of all participants is so self-evident that it is easy to overlook. Processes of institutional learning and change can only occur through changes in the behavior, attitudes, relationships and activities of individuals. This applies both to those directly involved in research and development (bottom-up), and to those able to provide them with legitimacy, incentives, support and space (top-down). ILAC thus depends on individual professionals, wherever they are situated, being open to new ideas, practicing critical self-awareness, contributing to collective review and reflection, learning from positive and negative experiences, and supporting others in these practices. Individuals must hold themselves accountable for learning and change. In the early stages of introducing ILAC processes, bottom-up learning may be highly dependent on the interest and commitment of a small number of innovative staff who actively seek out alternative paradigms and practices within an innovation system. These innovators may initially require institutional support to counter their peers. resistance to change, since many individuals may have a stake in preserving the status quo and even those organizations committed to change may eventually end up restricting it to narrowly defined \"safe\" areas.Learning and change at the individual level \"spirals out\" when individuals share their learning with larger groups or teams as they move through the learning cycle. For this to happen, participation and collaborative action must become valued ways of working within the organization. Groups and teams must actively value diversity (the perspectives of diverse organizations, disciplines and cultures, as well as diversity across gender, age, hierarchy, etc.), sharing of knowledge and experience, and collaborative learning. Ideally, group members should support one another in moving through the cycle of acquiring new knowledge, applying it in practice, learning from experience, setting new goals -and ultimately, sharing this learning with the rest of the organization, influencing the behavior and performance of others as a result. At the organizational and program levels, managers may initiate \"top-down\" learning and change in the pursuit of organizational goals. Initially, they may prefer to begin with a hierarchy of objectives and a decision-making structure to ensure that efforts to learn, change and improve are initiated in response to the strategic objectives of the organization or the broader system. Strategic planning exercises may be useful for obtaining input from multiple stakeholders and to evaluate those changes in the external environment that call for revisions in strategy, tactics, and the organization's definition of its purpose and niche. New frontiers may be explored through scenario planning or technology foresight exercises and best practices of organizations in related fields may also be benchmarked 2 .Furthermore, if the organization is to move away from formal hierarchies towards more decentralized working and decision-making, then various changes in operations and authority may also be needed. At the system level, operational paradigms may need to be examined (in the CGIAR context, for example, this may involve shifting from a technology-transfer paradigm to a sustainable livelihoods and/or innovation systems paradigm). Networks of partnerships may need to be expanded and/or reconfigured. Finally, systems of accountability may need to be reconsidered so that farmers and end-users are seen as the true \"clients\" of CG research.ILAC is neither the first, nor the only current initiative to foster learning and change in the CGIAR. Organizational changes of various types have been supported and encouraged through, for example, the program on Organizational Change Management, the Gender and Diversity initiative, the Participatory Research and Gender Analysis program, and the Integrated Natural Resource Management initiative. A new initiative is currently seeking to improve the use of information technology and knowledge management. New systems and procedures for performance measurement, monitoring, and evaluation have been proposed by the Science and Executive Councils. The ILAC initiative complements these various other programs by specifically focusing on learning from experience and using the knowledge gained to change behavior and improve performance. Efforts to develop learning organizations can often benefit from external support from investors or colleagues with similar experiences in other settings. Without external support, ILAC efforts may lose momentum or be disrupted. Donors play a key role in stimulating and supporting new ways of working within the development community. Financial support from donors will be needed to initiate new activities, projects and programs that stimulate learning and innovation. Hence donor support must be sought for the idea that learning is a critical element that must be explicitly incorporated into project proposals. Furthermore, since a fundamental component of innovation is learning from both strengths and weaknesses, donors should encourage CGIAR Centers to develop monitoring processes that critically assess progress and include explicit recognition of those elements that are not working well; in this way, any necessary adjustments can be made as soon as problems are identified. Ideally, donors should also support very speculative proposals that stimulate new thinking and that may bear fruit in terms of new and innovative initiatives. Networking is another important mechanism for stimulating change, by improving the links between agricultural research organizations and external partners such as NGOs, private companies, development agencies and other research institutes. New linkages could also be established with other sectors such as health and nutrition, which focus more closely on the immediate needs of the poor and which may already have established mechanisms for engaging the poor which could be useful to agricultural research. Within the CGIAR, networks could be formed to bring together innovative scientists testing new working methods; this would both facilitate exchange of experiences and decrease the sense of isolation often felt by those experimenting with new and different ideas and practices.• Create a forum for CGIAR donors to discuss conditions for institutional learning and change, and means by which donors could stimulate learning from experience • Encourage donors to support ILAC by making it a criterion in funding decisions • Initiate learning alliances with non-traditional partners (including national and international NGOs, community based organizations, the private sector and development agencies), and other sectors (e.g. health and nutrition) • Create a forum within the CGIAR to share experiences of institutional learning and change, to document current experiences and to stimulate learning, networking and mutual support within the system. Creating a supportive internal environment and culture of innovation, learning and change• Foster an organizational culture that values information sharing, diversity, mutual respect, teamwork, risk-taking, tolerance of error and critical self-reflection • Analyze the role of research within the agricultural innovation system and its implications for project design and implementation • Promote learning and change as leadership functions by conducting management workshops on the role of management in learning organizations • Publish a series of summaries from CGIAR centers and their partners documenting practical experiences of managing change through innovation and learning Reorienting management systems• Allocate a proportion of Center funds to exploratory projects (some of which may be high-risk/high-return ventures) • Identify and implement ways in which CGIAR evaluation and assessment processes can be oriented more towards learning and performance improvement The culture of an organization is a pattern of shared basic assumptions, values, beliefs, customs, and traditions that the organization develops as it solves its problems of external adaptation and internal integration. Cultural elements are transmitted to new members as the correct way to think, feel, and do things. Innovation and learning processes will not be adopted and sustained by an organization without a supportive organizational culture. However, since organizational culture is rarely formalized (or even discussed), changing it . even understanding it . can be difficult. Nevertheless, cultural change could be promoted by increasing awareness at all levels of the need for change, by ensuring that incentives promote change (or at least do not stifle it) and by promoting and celebrating efforts in organizational learning.Other elements that can help create a supportive environment include open, enabling and nonhierarchical relationships, and support for -and facilitation of -critical reflection and review. Some authors promote the idea that up to 20% of core resources should be dedicated to promoting risk taking and innovation (Von Krogh, Ichijo and Nonaka, 2000).The creation of learning organizations may require reorienting management systems such that decision-making, planning, monitoring and evaluation, recruitment, training and reward systems all promote risk taking, innovation and learning. Monitoring and evaluation systems that encourage learning from experience and focus on improving performance should be better integrated and linked to project design and management (Mackay and Horton 2003a). Decision-making and priority setting processes should also be informed by critical review and assessment.The culture of an organization is strongly influenced by human resource practices: hence modifications of personnel practices can result in dramatic and rapid cultural changes, e.g. by recruiting staff open to learning and self-assessment, by evaluating staff on the basis of learning and innovative behavior, and by promoting staff training and development aimed at enhancing the skills needed to support new ways of working.Awareness, knowledge and capabilities must also be strengthened to support ILAC initiatives. Pilot projects could contribute to capacity building by engaging managers, scientists, farmers and other partners in learning experiments designed to analyze their own experiences, needs, and expectations as well as the strengths and weaknesses of research contributions to agriculture. Such pilot projects would provide practical experience of the ILAC approach and evidence of its benefits, as well as helping to stimulate new initiatives.Additional training may be needed to develop skills fundamental to ILAC, for example in facilitation, negotiation and partnership-building. As mentioned above, monitoring and evaluation is an area in which new skills are needed among both staff and partners if selfassessment approaches are to be used for continuous improvement. It might also be useful to hold field trips and workshops so that partners can assess their work together in a field setting. Finally, the proposed ILAC initiative would benefit greatly from the establishment of a dedicated support service that could assist CGIAR staff and their partners to design and implement learning oriented activities.Experience with the management of organizational and institutional change indicates that initiatives to promote ILAC will stand a better change of success if they (i) connect with realwork goals and processes, (ii) focus on improving performance at all levels, (iii) engage people who have the power to promote ILAC initiatives, (iv) balance and combine action, experiential learning, review and critical reflection, (v) enhance and reward people's capabilities (individually and collectively) to learn and to change, and (vi) include a focus on learning per se (Senge et al. 1999).Introducing ILAC into the CGIAR will require time, energy and resources. A core group with a vision of a new way of working and a commitment to change could lead the way, but if fundamental and lasting change is to occur, then ILAC cannot remain the domain of a single, isolated group. Profound change will require active leadership from senior managers, who may wish to consider the following checklist of ways in which to foster ILAC:• Ensure that adequate time and resources are dedicated to learning within the organization • Assume responsibility for learning and change at the level of senior management and board • Learn from weaknesses as well as strengths, and from successes as well as failures • Support training of staff in areas that will better enable them to learn from their work and to develop other skills (e.g. facilitation skills, participatory process management, monitoring and evaluation skills, diagnostic skills)• Ensure that personnel policies, decision-making and evaluation procedures promote learning and change rather than stifle it • Value diversity in all its forms (including gender, ethnic, and disciplinary) for its ability to generate fresh perspectives and stimulate innovation. Be sensitive to the ways in which cross-cultural and power dynamics can affect the ability of people to take risks, learn from experience and adopt or promote change. ILAC initiatives should include the reflective study of the process of learning and change itself. This is a vital part of an iterative process of improvement: ILAC is not a predetermined blueprint, but an evolving approach with processes which themselves demand learning and change. Embracing the ILAC approach will help to develop a more productive and efficient CG system that can more effectively contribute to the sustainable reduction of poverty.This paper has outlined conditions and actions that can support institutional learning and change. The term \"ILAC menu of options\" has been used to indicate that ILAC presents managers with a variety of ideas and choices. The emphasis is not on instituting dramatic and comprehensive changes, but rather on seizing opportunities, testing new approaches, gaining experience, and proceeding through sensible sequences. Programs and projects already exist in which varying degrees and forms of ILAC can be found. Such programs should be encouraged and new initiatives supported on a small scale, for example with a single team or group. This can be achieved without the high transaction costs associated with major structural change. Thus while in the longer term the process may be transformative (through gradual reorientation of whole organizations, their cultures and relationships), not everything can -or should -be attempted at once. A start can be made by identifying what is already being done, by supporting new initiatives, and by linking them together to facilitate mutual learning. In the long-term, only incremental and iterative learning and change will result in the sustained improved performance of the CGIAR system and its greater relevance to agricultural research and development.","tokenCount":"5796"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1859d42d286d697f8fee781fe4867bc7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/91b6adca-1373-4407-90a5-71f19fce38d5/retrieve","id":"874180842"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ecb93afc-7ea1-42af-a5af-5701fe5cca14","pagecount":"1","content":"ILRI is bound by the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets ('CGIAR IA Principles') and adheres to the principles of global access for all its R&D activities.• The exclusivity must be the minimum (duration, geographical cover, field of use) exclusivity that could be agreed;• ILRI must inform the CSO about the grounds for granting the Limited Exclusivity, known as \"Justifications\";• ILRI is required to make publicly available key information regarding the transaction;• The CSO will also make key information public, and include information in its Annual IP Report.If there are likely to be any protectable results arising out of ILRIs research with partners, the IA Principles allow for IP protection such as patents as long as the main reason for patenting is to ensure global availability of the products.","tokenCount":"131"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d2c96b5e5ff9e5679ff8f89feb51269c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/098485d3-a5c8-463f-b126-9d71680e4e1b/retrieve","id":"-1116685353"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0206d003-ba97-4cef-a477-e0f31c805152","pagecount":"32","content":"❍ Mr Isha Muzira (Uganda)❍ Dr Philip K Cherono (Kenya)❍ Dr Michel Ngarambe (Rwanda)❍ Mr Obed Ndankuu (Tanzania)• The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) through its Programme for Agricultural Policy Analysis (ECAPAPA) for funding and providing leadership to the two-phase project on Rationalisation and harmonisation of policies, standards and regulations in the dairy industry in Eastern Africa from 2002 to 2005.• The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) for collaboration through its research theme on market-oriented smallholder dairy.• Prof Lusato Kurwijila of Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania for sharing his technical expertise and knowledge of the dairy industry in Africa that was instrumental in developing the harmonised training guide and curriculum.• Dr Amos Omore (ILRI) for coordinating the work of the national resource persons and facilitating dialogue and exchange of experiences in improving the quality of milk sold in the informal sector.• Ms Tezira Lore (ILRI) for editing, proofreading and designing the layout of the guide.• Ms Lilian Ohayo for providing illustrations.• US Agency for International Development (USAID), Regional Economic Development Services Office for East and Southern Africa, for financial support.It is our desire and hope that the use of this guide in training programmes will contribute to the improvement of milk quality along the marketing chain and provide income generation opportunities for those involved. We look forward to continued collaboration with the above institutions as we strive to strengthen the dairy industry and cross-border trade in the region.As a milk collection centre operator, you know very well how the quality of the raw milk you receive from different farmers often varies widely. Thus, it is important to have adequate knowledge and skills to enable you to distinguish between poor and good quality milk. You also need to know how to handle and store good quality milk so that its quality is maintained until the time it is delivered to the cooling centre, milk processing factory or point of sale. This will help to avoid unnecessary losses of milk due to spoilage. The aim of this document is to help you acquire basic knowledge and skills in the following areas:• Hygienic milk production• Hygienic milk handling Milk from the udder of a healthy cow contains very few bacteria. Poor hygiene introduces additional bacteria that cause the milk to get spoilt very quickly. To ensure that raw milk remains fresh for a longer time, good hygiene must be observed during milking and when handling the milk afterwards.Feeding A well-fed and watered animal will produce high quantities of milk of good composition. If cows are fed a diet that is low in forages and high in starch, the butterfat content may fall below 2.5%. Thus, a good balance of forage and concentrates is important. Cows may be given feed supplements but it is important that the proper proportions be observed. Cows should not be fed with silage during milking or shortly before milking, as this will give rise to off-flavours in the milk. It is recommended that silage feed be provided two hours before milking.An unhealthy cow will feed less and produce less milk of poor quality. Cows should always be kept healthy and clean because sick animals can transmit diseases like tuberculosis and brucellosis to milk consumers. If a cow is suspected to be sick, a qualified veterinary practitioner should be contacted immediately. Milk from a cow that is being treated with antibiotics should not be sold or consumed until after the specified withdrawal period.Zoonotic diseases like tuberculosis and brucellosis can be spread to humans through milk. Cows suffering from such diseases should be referred to a qualified veterinary practitioner who will decide on the fate of the animal. Farmers are encouraged to vaccinate their animals against brucellosis. Animals should also be checked periodically for all types of contagious diseases and treated promptly in case of infections.Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary glands in the udder caused by infection with disease-causing bacteria. These bacteria can also end up in the milk and result in illness if the milk is consumed. For this reason, milk from cows suffering from mastitis should not be sold or drunk. You can control mastitis by observing general hygiene and proper milking procedures. Hair at the udder should be kept short by trimming. Cows suffering from mastitis should be treated by a qualified veterinary practitioner. Milk from animals that are undergoing antibiotic treatment should not be consumed or sold until the withdrawal period has elapsed because antibiotic residues may cause allergies and drug resistance in consumers.Good hygiene and quality control needs to be observed at all stages of milk production, handling and sale. Thus, hygienic practice must begin at the farm level. Good hygiene will ensure that the milk you collect is clean and has low levels of spoilage bacteria. Below is some advice you can give to the farmers who bring milk to your collection centre, in order to ensure good quality:• Maintain clean and healthy cows.• Keep a clean milking environment, free of dust and mud.• Do not milk cows if you are suffering from communicable diseases like diarrhoea or typhoid, but seek medical treatment and resume milking only when you have fully recovered.• Wash the udder with a clean cloth and warm water.• Dry the udder with a clean dry cloth.• Make the first draw into a strip cup to check for mastitis and throw away from the milking area even if the milk appears clean.• Use clean containers for milking.• Cows with mastitis should be milked last and their milk discarded.• Milk from cows under antibiotic treatment should not be sold or consumed until 3 days after last treatment or as advised by the veterinary practitioner.• After every milking, dip the teats into an \"antiseptic dip\". • Release the cow from the milking area as soon as milking is finished.• After milking, sieve the milk through a strainer or muslin cloth to remove solid particles that may have fallen in during milking.• Cover the milk to avoid contamination.• Move the milk to a clean and cool area.Cover the milk to avoid contaminationIt is important for you to know some of the things that can cause milk spoilage so that you can avoid unnecessary losses. Milk is very rich in nutrients. Because of this, the bacteria that cause spoilage can grow very quickly in milk. Bacteria cells grow by dividing into two. If milk is stored at high temperatures for a long time then the bacteria will grow and divide very fast and soon the milk will have a very high number of bacteria and thus get spoilt quickly. Also, if the milk had a high number of bacteria to begin with then it will get spoilt in a very short time. Poor hygiene during handling of milk and undesirable practices like addition of water and other substances can introduce the bacteria that cause milk to go bad.Here are some guidelines to follow in order to avoid milk spoilage:• Always handle milk in clean metal containers.• When transferring milk between containers, pour the milk instead of scooping. Scooping may introduce spoilage bacteria.• Do not store milk at high temperatures.• Avoid keeping milk for a long time before it is delivered to the collection point.• Do not handle milk if you are sick. Seek medical treatment and resume your work only when the doctor says you are fit to do so.Because milk spoils easily if it is left at high temperatures for long periods, you need to keep it in a cool place soon after milking. The low temperatures reduce the rate of growth of the spoilage bacteria. If you do not have a refrigerator or cooler, you can store milk in a cold-water bath or wrap the milk can with a wet sack, but ensure that the milk container is well covered to prevent dirt from entering the milk. Always use certified foodgrade containers, e.g. aluminium, stainless steel or foodgrade plastic jerry cans designed for single use only. Metal containers are preferable because these are easy to clean and sterilize.Do not store milk in plastic jerry cans that previously contained paint, herbicides and other chemicals because traces of these substances can taint your milk.There are various types of cleaning and sanitation agents that have been specially designed to clean and disinfect milk-handling equipment. You may also use foodgrade liquid soap, which is a good cleaning agent that also destroys bacteria. Always rinse your equipment properly after cleaning to prevent detergent residues from contaminating the milk.Cleaning agents should be stored properly and handled with care because some of them may be corrosive to the skin. Always follow the manufacturer's instructions for proper use of detergents.Before re-using the milk container:• Pre-rinse the container soon after use.• Thoroughly scrub the container with warm water and detergent or soap (using a stiff bristled hand brush or scouring pad).• Rinse the container in clean running water.• Dip-rinse the container in boiling water for at least one minute to kill germs. You may also rinse the container by pouring hot water into it.• Air-dry the container in inverted position on a clean rack in the open.Air-dry the container in inverted position on a clean rackThere are four simple tests for milk quality that you can carry out at the milk collection point:• Sight-and-smell (organoleptic) test• Clot-on-boiling testThese tests will help you to ensure that only milk of acceptable quality is received. Usually during testing, only a small amount (sample) of milk from each container is assessed. If the sample of milk doesn't pass the test, the milk from that container should not be accepted. Thus, it is important to advise the farmer to always carry out milking and handling in accordance with good hygienic practice.This test is performed first and involves using the senses to assess the milk with regard to its smell, appearance and colour. This test is quick and cheap to carry out, allowing for segregation of poor quality milk. No equipment is required, but you should have a good sense of sight and smell. Milk that cannot be adequately judged in this way is subjected to tests that are more objective.• Open a can of milk.• Immediately smell the milk and establish the nature and intensity of smell, if any. Do not accept the milk if it smells slightly sour or has foreign odours like paint or paraffin.• Observe the colour of milk. Deviation from the normal yellowish-white colour indicates damage to the udder (reddish-blood, or yellow-pus).• Check for any foreign bodies or physical dirt, which may indicate that the milking and handling were not done hygienically.• Touch the milk container to feel whether it is warm or cold. This indicates how long milk has taken since milking (if not chilled thereafter) and will influence the lactometer test for adulteration (see below).Abnormal appearance and smell that may cause milk to be rejected could be due to:• Type of feed or atmospheric taint• Cows in late lactation• Bacterial taints• Chemical taints or discolouring• Advanced acidification or souring Marked separation of fat may be caused by:• Milk previously chilled and subjected to excessive shaking during transportation• Adulteration with other solids (may also show as sediments or particles)• Boiling, if milk fat is hardenedThis test is quick and simple. It allows for detection of milk that has been kept for too long without cooling and has developed high acidity, or colostral milk that has a very high percentage of protein. Such milk does not withstand heat treatment hence this test could be positive at a much lower acidity.• Boil a small amount of milk for a few seconds in a spoon or other suitable container.• Observe immediately for clotting.• The milk will be rejected if there is visible clotting, coagulation or precipitation.The test is quick and simple. The specific type of alcohol used is known as \"ethanol\". This test is more sensitive to lower levels of acidity and can therefore detect bad milk that may have passed the previous two tests. It also detects milk that has kept for long without cooling, colostrum or milk from a cow with mastitis. Because this test is quite sensitive, milk that passes this test can keep for some hours (at least two hours) before it goes bad.• Use a syringe to draw equal amounts of milk and 70% alcohol solution into a small tube or glass cup (such as those used to administer medicine to children).• Mix 2 ml milk with 2 ml 70% alcohol and observe for clotting or coagulation.• If the tested milk sample coagulates, clots or precipitates, the milk will be rejected.Carrying out the clot-on-boiling testSome unscrupulous milk suppliers adulterate milk with added water to increase the volume or added solids to make it look thicker. Addition of anything to milk can introduce bacteria that will make it spoil quickly. Adulteration of milk is also illegal. The lactometer test is used to determine if the milk has been adulterated with added water or solids.This test is based on the fact that milk has a heavier weight or density (1.026-1.032 g/ml) compared to water (1.000 g/ml). When milk is adulterated with water or other solids are added, the density either decreases (if water is added) or increases (if solids are added). If milk fat (cream) is added to milk, the density decreases. The equipment used to measure milk density is called a lactometer. Most lactometers are usually marked from \"0\" (representing density of 1.000 g/ml) to \"40\" (representing density of 1.040 g/ml).• Leave the milk to cool at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and ensure its temperature is about 20°C.• Stir the milk sample and pour it gently into a 200 ml measuring cylinder or any container deeper than the length of the lactometer.• Let the lactometer sink slowly into the milk.• Take the lactometer reading just above the surface of the milk. If the temperature of the milk is different from the lactometer calibration temperature (20°C), then use this correction factor:• For each °C above the calibration temperature, add 0.2 lactometer \"degrees\" (°L) to the observed lactometer reading.• For each °C below calibration temperature, subtract 0.2 lactometer \"degrees\" (°L) from the observed lactometer reading.• Note: These calculations are done on the lactometer readings (e.g. 29 instead of the true density of 1.029 g/ml).Examples of how to calculate the true lactometer readings when the milk temperature differs from the calibration temperature of 20°C If the milk is normal, its lactometer reading will be between 26 and 32. If the lactometer reading is below 26 or above 32, the milk will be rejected because it means that it has been adulterated with added water or solids.Certain tests can be carried out to grade raw milk and hence determine the payment to be made to the farmer. These tests are done at cooling centres and processing plants before they receive the milk. Here we discuss how to carry out two of these tests: the resazurin and butterfat tests.The resazurin test is used to determine the quality of raw milk in terms of the amount of bacteria it has. Milk with high amounts of bacteria will not keep for long.Resazurin is a dye indicator that is blue in the presence of oxygen and white when oxygen levels are reduced. The dye is added to the milk and judgement is made based on the colour produced after a specified incubation time. High numbers of bacteria in the milk will remove the oxygen dissolved in the milk much faster so the dye becomes more discoloured than if the milk had only a few bacteria.• To prepare the resazurin solution, add one resazurin tablet to 50 ml of distilled water. Resazurin solution should not be exposed to sunlight or stored for more than 8 hours.• With a sanitized dipper, transfer 10 ml of milk into a clean test tube.• Add 1 ml of resazurin solution to the milk sample.• Stopper the test tube and gently mix the dye into the milk.• Mark the test tube and place it in a water bath at 37 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.• Remove the test tube from the water bath and put it in a Lovibond comparator with a resazurin disc.• Compare the colour of the sample with a test tube containing 10 ml of milk but without the dye.This test determines the fat content of milk. The fat content is then used to determine the price to be paid for milk supplied by the farmer. The test can also show whether the milk has been skimmed.• Add 10 ml of Gerber sulphuric acid into a butyrometer followed by 11 ml of milk and then 1 ml of amyl alcohol.• Close the butyrometer with a rubber stopper and shake the butyrometer carefully until the curd dissolves and no white particles can be seen.• Place the butyrometer in a water bath at 65 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes.• Centrifuge for 5 minutes at 1100 rpm. • Return the butyrometer to the water bath at 65 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes, ensuring the water level is high enough to heat the fat column.• Read the butterfat percentage off the scale. If necessary, the fat column can be adjusted by regulating the position of the stopper.Milk that is received at cooling centres or processing plants is graded based on its quality. Grading helps in deciding whether to accept or reject the milk. The quality aspect may differ from country to country or dairy to dairy, but is generally based on one or a combination of the following:• Butterfat content• Bacterial count (microbial quality)• Physical appearance (colour, smell, presence of dirt particles etc.)Once milk is accepted at the dairy or cooling centre, its weight is recorded. This must be done accurately because payment is often made per kilogram of milk delivered. Payment may also be made based on the fat content or microbial quality of the milk. Some dairies may pay a premium for good quality milk and penalize you for bad milk, so it is to your benefit if you can ensure that good hygiene is adhered to at all times when handling milk.Good hygiene practice in milk handling is the key to milk quality and safety.Cooling milk will slow down the growth of spoilage bacteria and prolong the milk's shelf life.But milk that already has many bacteria in it will not keep for long, even when cooled.Good milk quality means good prices for your business.","tokenCount":"3072"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3e6f9e41df85475dee65d6534cf521c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c0e5beb9-3d25-4069-99bf-49741648ba56/retrieve","id":"-1369331818"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2d41a11f-7f97-4f54-8b0b-fed161033414","pagecount":"6","content":"Progress in genome sequencing now enables the large-scale generation of reference genomes. Various international initiatives aim to generate reference genomes representing global biodiversity. These genomes provide unique insights into genomic diversity and architecture, thereby enabling comprehensive analyses of population and functional genomics, and are expected to revolutionize conservation genomics.In 2020 both the United Nations Biodiversity Summit and the European Environment Agency emphasized the accelerating global loss of biodiversity (https://www. un.org/pga/75/united-nations-summiton-biodiversity/; https://www.eea.europa. eu/highlights/latest-evaluation-showseuropes-nature). We are in the sixth mass extinction. Although the primary route to preserving biodiversity comprises protection of species and restoration of habitats and ecosystems, genomics provides a rapidly expanding array of novel tools to characterize biodiversity and assist such conservation efforts. The need for immediate actions that help to reverse the current biodiversity decline has prompted national and international initiatives aimed at expanding the genomic reference resources available for biodiversity research and conservation across the tree of life (Box 1). Many of these efforts collectively contribute to the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) that aims to catalog and characterize the genomes of all of Earth's eukaryotic biodiversity. A large and inclusive community of scientists has recently gathered as the European hub of the EBP to promote the generation of a European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA; www.erga-biodiversity.eu). This initiative is building a pan-European open access infrastructure to streamline ethical and legally compliant sample and metadata collection [1], sequencing and assembly (see Glossary) [2], annotation [3], and release in public archives of high-quality genomic information, thus creating reference genomes for a wide variety of eukaryotic species (Box 1).Reference genomes, by which we mean highly contiguous, accurate, and annotated genome assemblies, greatly enhance genomic studies, both experimentally and analytically [2,4]. A reference genome is a point representation of the structure and organization of the genome of a species. Similarly to type specimens in taxonomy, reference genomes serve as the standard for subsequent genomic studies [5]. To costefficiently unravel the genomic diversity of species, multiple conspecific individuals can be resequenced and aligned to available reference genomes instead of being assembled de novo. Thus, reference genomes provide a comprehensive and fundamental framework onto which genomic variation can be mapped to characterize and ultimately aid in preserving genetic diversity [4]. To this end, special attention should be paid to the origin of the individuals used as the reference because, if these are excessively divergent from the populations under study, this could compromise subsequent Glossary Assembly: a chromosome-level contiguous sequence of all chromosomes, often aided by genetic maps or other information. Evolutionary distinct and globally endangered (EDGE) species: species of high conservation priority. Genetic rescue: a mitigation strategy for restoring intraspecific genetic diversity and reducing extinction risks in small, isolated, or inbred populations through induced gene flow. Heterozygote advantage: when a heterozygous genotype has a higher relative fitness compared to a homozygous dominant or homozygous recessive genotype. Hybridization: interbreeding of individuals from genetically distinct lineages. Inbreeding depression: reduced fitness in offspring as a result of inbreedingmating between closely related individuals. Introgression: gene flow between hybridizing populations or species by backcrossing hybrids with one or both parental populations. Metagenomics and metatranscriptomics: sequencing of DNA or RNA-derived cDNA extracted from environmental and bulk samples. Outbreeding depression: reduced fitness in offspring from mating between genetically divergent individuals. Pangenome: the entire set of DNA sequences (or genes) of a species represented by the core genome and the accessory genome. Phylogenomics: the inference of the phylogenetic relationships among different lineages of organisms from genome-wide data. Reference genome: a contiguous and accurate genome assembly representative of a species in which the coordinates of genes and other important features are annotated. Current definitions of reference genome quality are given in [2] and https://www. earthbiogenome.org/assembly-standards.analyses. To overcome this issue, multiple conspecific genomes [6] can now be summarized in the pangenome of a species [7].Until recently reference genomes have only been available for a handful of model organisms. Thanks to the consolidated and standardized efforts of international genome initiatives, the situation is rapidly changing. Recent technological advances provide a general strategy for generating chromosome-scale reference genomes for all organisms across the tree of life [2]. These advances rely on a combination of single-molecule long-read sequencing [either PacBio Single Molecule Real-Time (SMRT) sequencing or Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing] and/or linked reads [(e.g., transposase enzyme linked long-read sequencing (TELL-seq) or single-tube long fragment read (stLFR) sequencing] for contig assembly, optical mapping, and/or proximity ligation followed by high-throughput sequencing (Hi-C) for scaffolding [2].Decreasing costs, improved scalability, and increasing quality of sequencing technologies, combined with better algorithms and advances in computational power [2], facilitate the establishment of reference genomes across the full spectrum of biodiversity. Importantly, reference genomes are fundamental for a comprehensive and accurate characterization of genomic information, for instance of structural features that cannot be inferred from fragmented genomes or reduced-representation sequencing approaches (Figure 1). Therefore, reference genomes coupled with resequencing data should become a standard in conservation genomics, facilitated by constantly evolving analytical methods.The full spectrum of genomic diversity Reference genomes provide a view of the architecture of the genome, comprising both genic and intergenic regions. These include repetitive regions, some of which are challenging to assemble, such as segmental duplications, centromeres and telomeres, satellites, and mobile elements. Population genomics guided by reference genomes aids the identification of classical genetic variants, such as SNPs and copy number variants (CNVs), as well as structural variants that are particularly difficult to detect in fragmented and incomplete reference genomes alone, but are potentially important in adaptation to environmental change [8].Inbreeding and deleterious mutations Assessments of inbreeding have long informed conservation and breeding programs, guiding genetic crosses and translocations of individuals. Although often estimated from a few loci, understanding the genetic architecture and accurately quantifying inbreeding and inbreeding depression require a genome-wide perspective, encompassing for example the number of genes involved, the presence of alleles with large effects, the role of deleterious recessive alleles, and heterozygote advantage [9]. Although several questions remain, multiple studies have showcased the power of population genomics guided by reference genomes to identify runs of homozygosity as a means to estimate inbreeding, as well as to reveal the dynamics and fate of deleterious variation in threatened species (e.g., [10]).Mating between individuals from genetically distinct lineages may lead to outbreeding depression due to chromosomal or genic incompatibilities, epistatic interactions, disruption of interactions between co-adapted genes, or the introduction of maladaptive variants into local populations. Population genomics guided by reference genomes greatly aids the disentanglement of these phenomena [11]. Hybridization is a common evolutionary process that, through introgression, can promote the spread of adaptive variation and speciation. Anthropogenic hybridization and introgression, however, can be major threats to biodiversity and evolutionary heritage. Reference genomes facilitate the characterization of introgression patterns and dynamics as well as of admixture proportions, particularly of introgressed tracts along individual genomes [12].International initiatives aimed at generating genomic resources, and particularly reference genomes, have flourished in recent years. Some focus on specific taxa, such as the Vertebrate Genomes Project, Bird Genome 10K Project, Bat1K Project, Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance, 10 000 Plant Genomes Project, and 1000 Fungal Genomes project. Others focus on geographic regions, such as the California Conservation Genomics Project, Darwin Tree of Life for Britain and Ireland, Catalan Initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project in the Catalan territories, Endemixit in Italy, Norwegian Earth Biogenome Project, and SciLifeLab in Sweden, on applications such as the LOEWE Translational Biodiversity Genomics in Germany, or on ecological systems such as the Aquatic Symbiosis Genomics project. Collectively part of the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), in Europe these initiatives are organized under the umbrella of the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA).ERGA is a pan-European scientific response to the current threats to biodiversity. Approximately one fifth of the ~200 000 eukaryotic species present in Europe can be inferred to be at risk of extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List classification (this estimate only considers the assessed species; https://www.iucn.org/regions/europe/our-work/biodiversity-conservation/european-red-list-threatened-species).ERGA aims to generate reference genomes of European eukaryotic species across the tree of life, including threatened, endemic, and keystone species, as well as pests and species important to agriculture, fisheries, and ecosystem function and stability. ERGA builds upon current genomic consortia in EU member states, EU Associated Countries, representatives of other countries within the European bioregion, and international collaborators. These reference genomes will address fundamental and applied questions in conservation, biology, and health. ERGA seeks to alert the EU about the potential of conservation genomics, and particularly the role of reference genomes, in biodiversity assessment, conservation strategies, and restoration efforts.Local adaptation and genetic rescue The use of reference genomes in population genomics facilitates the identification of traits under natural selection that form the basis and architecture of local adaptations, and ultimately of speciation. Reference genomes provide the functional and genomic contexts for regions influenced by selection, thereby enabling association of such loci with phenotypes important to adaptation and resilience. Identifying locally adapted variants can inform definitions of conservation units and identify optimal source populations for translocations to support genetic rescue [13].Phylogenetic diversity and phylogenomics Phylogenetic diversity is essential for ecosystem stability and resilience, and is used to delineate evolutionarily distinct components of biodiversity to guide conservation priorities [e.g., evolutionary distinct and globally endangered (EDGE) species] [14]. Genome-scale analyses based on hundreds or thousands of loci have become the gold standard for phylogenetic inference by capturing the evolutionary histories of the targeted taxa. Reference genomes serve as the basis for phylogenomic analyses because they greatly improve orthology inference at the DNA and protein levels, while also facilitating inferences based on genome organization.Reference genomes are particularly important in metagenomics and metatranscriptomics where total DNA, or complementary DNA (cDNA) derived from RNA, from entire communities is sequenced to understand community composition, abundance, function, and dynamics. Facilitated by the availability of reference genomes, metagenomics and metatranscriptomics have been mostly applied to microbial community samples. Eukaryotic reference genomes allow DNA/cDNA reads to be assigned to higher taxa within environmental samples, leading to a more complete characterization of communities from environmental DNA (eDNA) and RNA (eRNA). This approach represents a novel means to track changes in the composition, structure, and functioning of eukaryotic communities, and thus support the biomonitoring and management of taxonomic and functional diversity in entire ecosystems. A collective effort to conserve biodiversity Conservation efforts need to account for genomic diversity to optimize management strategies. Accounting for genomic diversity will aid in maintaining population viability and preserving adaptive potential to respond to environmental change. The availability of reference genomes will provide a solid, quantitative, and comparable foundation for biodiversity assessments, conservation, management, and restoration.","tokenCount":"1755"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"975e8b81ef5a645cd736272463df980f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/fb022bdd-b658-4bae-b93a-969a240643db/content","id":"-1176769265"},"keywords":["cluster","durum wheat","genetic divergence","NDVI","nitrogen efficiency","principal components"],"sieverID":"0f8b07e0-02fa-4a7d-9c06-9fe550c3fa7c","pagecount":"22","content":"Breeding for nitrogen use efficiency has become the major global concern and priority to improve agricultural sustainability. In an attempt to quantify genetic variation and identify traits for optimum and low N environments, 200 durum wheat genotypes were evaluated at three locations in the central highlands of Ethiopia during the 2020 growing season. The experiments were arranged in alpha lattice design with two replications. The results revealed significant differences among genotypes for all studied traits under both N conditions, indicating ample opportunities for genetic improvement. All traits except days to heading and maturity, grain filling period and grain protein content were higher under optimum than under low N. High values of genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variations, broad sense heritability and genetic advance as percent of the mean were observed for number of fertile tillers and number of seed per spike (NSPS) under optimum, and spike length and NSPS under low N conditions. Cluster analysis classified the durum wheat genotypes into thirteen and eight clusters under optimum and low N, respectively. Principal component analysis detected five and four components which explained 81.29% and 73.63% of the total variations under optimum and N stress conditions, respectively. The present study confirmed the existence of wide genetic variability among the durum wheat genotypes under optimum and low ABOUT THE AUTHORDurum wheat is one of the indigenous cereal species in Ethiopia. It has significant economic value and provides the raw materials for food industries in the nutrition of the global population and suitable for preparing traditional recipes in Ethiopia. However, the national productivity of the crop is far below the world average due to biotic and abiotic stresses resulted from global climate changes. Therefore, identification of genotypes performed well under the changing environmental conditions is mandatory to develop climate smart durum wheat varieties. Yield is a polygenic trait that is the result of numerous interrelated factors. Thus, understanding the relationships between traits and extent of genetic diversity in durum wheat is crucial to the success of durum wheat breeding programs in maximizing yield to feed the rapidly growing population.Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum var. durum Desf) is the oldest tetraploid (2n = 4× = 28, AABB) wheat species in the world (Royo et al., 2009). The origin of durum wheat was the result of two successful domestication events by ancient farmers; first from wild emmer to domesticated emmer, and second from cultivated naked forms of emmer to durum (Gioia et al., 2015). It is the second most important among the cultivated species of wheat grown in the world next to common wheat (Elias, 1995). Durum wheat is suitable for the preparation of traditional dishes in Ethiopia (Belay et al., 2013) and as raw material for food industries worldwide (Sissons et al., 2005).Ethiopia is a center of diversity for tetraploid wheat and more than 7000 local durum wheat accessions are available in the national gene bank of Ethiopia (Tsegaye & Berg, 2006;Mengistu & Pè, 2016), and these could be used for conservation as well as sustainable exploitation for higher grain yields to meet the nutritional demands of the growing population. Wheat grain yield is determined by genotype, environment, and their interactions, with fertilizers being one of the environmental factors influencing productivity (Asthir et al., 2017). Nitrogen (N) fertilizer is an essential nutrient used in high concentration for increasing grain yield as well as grain quality in wheat production (Koutroubas et al., 2014). However, reports indicated that crop uptake of available nitrogen was about 50% due to restrictions imposed by N losses and inefficiencies in N uptake and utilization by crop plants (Hawkesford, 2014). Furthermore, N loss in the field leads to alteration of the quality of surface and groundwater resources and air pollution, which have a negative impact on human health and agricultural sustainability (Hawkesford, 2014). Moreover, N fertilizer is the main expense of farmers, and the high costs and low returns of N fertilizer use particularly burden smallholder farmers in developing countries, forcing them to grow their crops under suboptimal N application. Consequently, this calls for the use of nitrogen-efficient crop varieties (Dethier et al., 2012).To achieve this goal, the identification of durum wheat genotypes that have exploitable variation for the traits of interest is the first step in durum wheat breeding programs. Genetic diversity contributes to the understanding of genetic relationships among populations and consequently leads to specific heterogeneous groups of parents for hybridization (Khodadadi et al., 2011) and provides an option to address the above limitation. Variability among durum wheat genotypes can be assessed based on different qualitative and quantitative traits. Estimates of genetic parameters such as variances and heritability allow understanding the nature and magnitude of genetic variability in a population (Bartaula et al., 2019), whereas cluster and principal component analysis are convenient methods for identifying homogeneous groups of genotypes and reducing variables (Azad et al., 2012). Although the presence of genetic diversity has been reported among different wheat species under varying N levels (Barraclough et al., 2014;Belay et al., 2017;Hawkesford, 2017), several studies in Ethiopia (Mengistu et al., 2015;Haile et al., 2013;Lemma et al., 2021;Letta et al., 2013;Negisho et al., 2021) described the existence of genetic variations in grain yield, adaptive traits, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses among durum wheat germplasm under optimum N conditions. However, there are no evidences on the genetic variability of durum wheat under low N conditions. Therefore, the objectives of this study were: (i) to estimate genetic variability under optimum and low N availability; and (ii) to quantify the level of variation among genotypes under both N environments; and (iii) to identify suitable traits for future breeding efforts.The experiments were carried out at Debre Zeit, Chefe Donsa and Minjar in the central highlands of Ethiopia during the main season of 2020. Descriptions of the study areas are given in Table 1.A total of 200 durum wheat genotypes were used in the study (Table S 1), and of these comprised 67 genotypes from the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI), 83 from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), 13 from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and 37 from durum wheat breeding program of Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center (DZARC). The experiments were planted on a field that was previously sown to tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter]. A composite soil sample was taken from each site before planting, and soil total nitrogen analysis was performed following standard procedure (Table 2). The fields that are low/very low in total nitrogen (TN) content were selected to establish the experiments following (Tadesse et al., 1991) soil rating based on total nitrogen (TN) content. Two sets of experiments (Set-I with recommended N fertilizer and Set-II without any N fertilizer application) were conducted at each location, and the same genotypes were used for both sets of experiments. The experiments were arranged in an alpha lattice design with two replications. The plot size was 1 m × 1 m (1 m 2 ) and the distances between rows, plots, blocks and replications were 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, and 1 meter, respectively. The Set-I experiments (Optimum N condition) received 92 kg per hectare nitrogen fertilizer in split applications at the time of sowing and as top-dressing during the tillering stage. Conversely, no N was applied to the Set-II experiments (Low N condition). A recommended (10 kg P per hectare) rate of phosphorus fertilizer in the form of TSP (Triple supper phosphate) was  applied on both sets of experimental plots to avoid the confounding effect of other nutrients. The genotypes were assigned to plots at random within each block. All other crop management practices were employed uniformly to all genotypes as per the recommendations for the crop.The genotypes were evaluated for the following 16 phenological (days to heading, days to grain filling and days to physiological maturity), agronomic (plant height, number of fertile tillers, spike length, number of spikelet per spike, number of seed per spike, biomass yield, grain yield, harvest index and thousand seed weight), physiological (normalized difference vegetative index and chlorophyll contents) and quality (protein content and hectoliter weight) traits. Days to heading (DH) was recorded by counting the number of days from sowing to the stage at which 50% of the plants heads within a plot and days to physiological maturity (DM) was recorded by counting the number of days from sowing to 90% physiological maturity on plot basis, while grain filling period (GFP) was obtained by subtracting DH from DM. Plant height (PH), number of fertile tillers per plant (NFT), spike length (SL), spikelet per spike (SPS), and number of seeds per spike (NSPS) were recorded from ten randomly sampled plants from the four central rows and their average data were taken for analysis. After plants were mechanically harvested, data on above-ground biomass yield (BM) and grain yield (GY) were collected and converted to a hectare basis. BM was measured in the field using a hanging (spring) balance during harvesting, whereas GY was calculated by weighing the threshed grain on an analytical balance and adjusting to 12.5 percent moisture content. Harvest index (HI) was determined as the ratio of GY to BM. Thousand seed weight (TSW) was obtained by counting thousand grains using seed counter and weighing on analytical balance. On the other hand, normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) was measured using a handheld green seeker optical sensor and a SPAD-502 plus chlorophyll analyzer was used to obtain chlorophyll content (CHO). Grain protein content (PC) was analyzed using Pertien protein analyzer, and hectoliter weight (HLW) was measured by a portable hectoliter test weight kit.The F-max ratio test for homogeneity of variance was carried out to determine the validity of the experiment and to combine the data over locations. Because the error variances for all traits were homogeneous, the data were pooled and analyzed across locations using different softwares. ANOVA was performed by the SAS software version 9.4 for Alpha lattice design. A liner mixed model (REML) including location, replication, block, genotype and genotype × location interaction effects was performed using the software to generate the adjusted mean as the best linear unbiased predictor (BLUPs) for all traits. The combined ANOVA model used was:where Yijk= observed value of genotype i in block k of location j; µ= grand mean; gi= effect of genotype i; Li=location effect; GLi=the interaction effect of genotype i with location j; Bk(j)=effect of block k in location j and Lijk=random error or residual effect of genotype i in block k of location j.Estimation of variance components for the data combined over locations was performed by R-software version 4. 1.3 (R Core team, 2013). Variability parameters such as genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV), broad sense heritability (H 2 ), and genetic advance (GA) and genetic advance as a percentage of mean (GAM) were estimated for the traits evaluated to assess the extent of variation, determine whether the observed variation was due to genotypes or environment, and determine the significance for selection.The multivariate hierarchical cluster analysis was performed based on the unweighted pair group with the arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering method from the Euclidean distance matrix following the average linkage method by SAS software. Genetic distances between the genotypes were estimated using the Euclidean distance calculated for the studied traits after standardization as established by (Mohammadi & Prasanna, 2003). Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed using a correlation matrix to detect traits that explained the most variability in the data set. As suggested by (Johnson et al., 2014), only principal components (PCs) with eigenvalues greater than one were considered as important, and for these PCs eigenvectors greater than half divided by the square root of the respective eigenvalues were used as a measure to identify the traits contributing to each of the selected PCs. For both the cluster and principal component analysis, the data were as pre-standardized to a mean of zero and a variance of one in order to avoid bias due to measurement units.Analysis of variance was carried out for the 16 traits and there was a significant (P < 0.01) difference among durum wheat genotypes for all characters evaluated under optimum nitrogen conditions (Table S 2). This shows the presence of conducive environment to express their genetic potential. Hence, selection would be effective for different quantitative characters and the right genotypes that meet the breeding objectives can be used for future hybridization. The finding of the study was found comparable with the work of (Yohannes & Abebe, 2020) and (Zemede et al., 2019) on durum wheat.The genotype x location interactions were significant (P < 0.01) on DH, DM, GFP, NDVI, NFT, SPS, BM, GY, HI, PC, and TSW and was significant (P < 0.05) for NDVI, HLW, and CHO, indicating that the phenotypic performance of durum wheat genotypes varied across locations (Table S 2). The genotypes variations to different environmental conditions suggest the need to select specifically adapted genotypes to diverse environments. This finding is in agreement with the results of (Alemu et al., 2019) who reported variations among bread wheat genotypes for most of the traits.The combined analysis of variance indicated that the mean squares of genotypes was highly significant (P < 0.01) for all traits except DM which showed significant variation at (P < 0.05), indicating sufficient opportunity for genetic improvement under low N. The genotype × location interactions were highly significant (P < 0.01) for DH, DM, NFT, SL, NSPS, BM, GY, TSW and CHO and NDVI, PH, SPS, and significant (P < 0.05) for HI, while significant genotype x location interactions were not observed for GFP, PC and HLW (Table S 2). Lemma et al. (2021) noted significant variation among durum wheat genotypes under drought stress except for DH and days to anthesis. In contrast, (Ayadi et al., 2012) found no significant variations among durum wheat genotypes for GY under low N condition.The extent of variability of a character is very important for the improvement of any crop through breeding. The variability of the characters were measured by range, mean, GCV and PCV. The mean and ranges of the 16 traits tested under optimum N are presented in Table 3. The results indicated that the presence of significant differences between genotypes for all traits. The values of DH, DM and GFP in that order ranged from 60-92, 107-129 and 35-49 days with the mean values of 71.6, 114.1 and 42.5 days. As such, 47.5%, 38% and 55.5% of total number of genotypes were found late and showed more days compared to the overall average number of days for DH, DM and GFP, respectively. The minimum NDVI value was 50 and the maximum was 80 with the mean value of 65.81, thus exhibiting large variations among the genotypes. The plant height (PH) varied from 51.37 to 83.67 cm with a grand mean of 63.49 cm. The ranges for NFT were 2 to 7 with a mean of 3.69. The minimum and maximum values of SL, SPS and NSPS were 3.87 and 9.6 cm, 14 and 21, and 27 and 78 with over all mean of 5.58, 17.15 and 47.41, respectively. Longer spikes produced lower numbers of seeds as the loner spikes are very lax in their spike density.The difference between the maximum and minimum values in BM, GY and HI was 8.5 t/ha, 3.37 t/ha and 0.24, respectively. GY varied from 1.83 to 5.2 t/ha with a mean of 3.83 t/ha, while BM ranged from 6.5 to 15 t/ha with a grand mean of 10.61 t/ha. Wide variation (9.4 to 14.03%) in PC was observed among genotypes with a mean of 11.13%. The minimum and maximum values for HLW, TSW and CHO ranged from 41.07 to 82.80 g, 29.93 to 51.90 g and 30 to 50, with a grand mean of 69.19 g, 35.50 g, and 40.62, respectively. In general, the highest variation was exhibited by NFT (71.4%), followed by NSPS (65.4%), GY (64.8%), SL (59.7%) and BM (56.7%), while DM (17.1%), GFP (28.6%) and DH (32.6%) showed the lowest diversity. Thus, the presence of sufficient variation among genotypes in GY and important yield components and physiological traits offers the possibility for selecting high yielding durum wheat varieties. The variations observed in mean values for traits studied were almost comparable with the values reported by (Tesfaye et al., 2016) and (Abinasa et al., 2011) but higher than the findings of (Tegenu et al., 2021), except for NDVI and PC on durum wheat. Some differences observed in values of the traits between the current study and the previous studies might be related to variations in genotypes and test environments.Ranges and mean performance values of the 200 durum wheat genotypes for the 16 response variables evaluated based on the average data over the three locations under low N conditions indicated in The variations between durum wheat genotypes in PC under low nitrogen varied from 9.53 to 13.50% with a mean of 11.28%. The lowest and highest values for HLW, TSW and CHO ranged from 35.53 to 71.17 g, 28.60 to 52.73 g and 26.20 to 45.03 with the mean values of 69.19 g, 38.58 g and 36.60. The results indicated the inherent genetic difference among the genotypes had substantial influences on traits assessed besides the effect of environments. Martre et al. (2011) reported significant variation among winter wheat genotypes for GY, PH, HI and DH under low N. Similarly, (Tegenu et al., 2021) found variation among durum wheat genotypes under high rainfall areas in Ethiopia which are characterized by low soil nitrogen. Kubota et al. (2018) also reported differential performances of spring wheat cultivars for all traits under low N.Genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation (GCV and PCV) measure the magnitude of variability present in a given population. Estimates of GCV, PCV, broad sense heritability (H 2 ), genetic advance (GA) and genetic advance as a percent of mean (GAM) estimated based on selection intensity of the best 5% of the genotypes are shown in Table 3. The PCV were slightly higher than GCV for all of the traits indicating the role of environment in the expression of characters, which also supported by the findings of (Nukasani et al., 2013). Among the traits studied, high values (>20%) of GCV and PCV were recorded for NFT and NSPS as similar findings were made by (Tesfaye et al., 2016).The traits NDVI, SL, BM, GY, and TSW had moderate GCV and PCV values (10-20%), while the remaining traits had low GCV and PCV values (<10%), with the exception of HI, which had moderate PCV under optimum nitrogen. Similar findings showing low PCV and GCV values were reported by (Muhder et al., 2020) on bread wheat and (Yohannes & Abebe, 2020) on durum wheat. In contrast, (Tegenu et al., 2021) and (Tesfaye et al., 2016) reported high GCV and PCV for GY, BM, and HI under optimum N.Heritability (H 2 ) estimates ranged from moderate to very high for all characters except HLW, which had the lowest heritability (29.70%), indicating a high environmental influence on the character's expression. The highest heritability of 95% was observed for DH followed by for SL, TSW and NSPS each with about 90%, and then DM and NDVI with 87%, indicating that these traits were governed by additive genes. High heritability values for DH and TSW reported by (Tsegaye et al., 2012) and (Bhushan et al., 2013) were found consistent with current findings. Moreover, (Tegenu et al., 2021) reported high heritability of all attributes studied with the exception of NDVI and moisture content. With estimates ranging from 61 to 75%, GFP, BM, CHO, HI, NFT, SPS and GY had moderately high heritability values (60-79%), but NDVI and PC had moderate heritability values (Table 3).Genetic advance as percentage of the mean (GAM) was 5.34 for DM and 41.66 for NSPS (Table 3). In comparison, low GAM values were in bread wheat noted for NFT and NSPS (Meles et al., 2017) and for DM (Saini, 2017), whereas (Kumar et al., 2018) observed high GAM for NSPS and NFT in wheat. The current study revealed high heritability estimates for NSPS, SL and NFT along with high GAM, demonstrating the existence of additive gene effects. Selection based on these traits would be effective in the breeding for N use efficiency under optimum N. In contrast, the heritability and GAM estimates of HLW were low standing at 29.70% and 5.93%, respectively, indicating non-additive gene action and a stronger environmental influence on this trait. On the other hand, the high heritability and low GAM estimates found for DM suggested that, this trait is primarily regulated by a combination of both genetic and environmental effects.Response to selection for quantitative traits is directly proportional to the function of its heritability, genetic advance and genotypic variance. Heritability permits to distinguish the genetic dissimilarity among traits and genetic variance reveals the potential for improvement of a particular trait. Under low N, PCV were higher than GCV for all the traits. The GCV and PCV for NFT and SL were high. Similarly, PCV was high for NSPS. Estimates of GCV and PCV were moderate for BM, GY, HI and TSW, NSPS and HLW, while both PCV and GCV were low for the other traits (Table 3). Similar findings were reported by (Hossain et al., 2021), who found moderate GCV and PCV for GY and TSW and low values for DH, DM, PH, SPS and CHO under heat stress conditions. Moderate GCV and PCV for HI and low for PC results were witnessed by (Muhder et al., 2020).Estimates of broad sense heritability and genetic advance as percentage of mean for 16 traits of durum wheat genotypes are given on Table 3. Accordingly, DH, DM, SL, NSPS and TSW showed very high heritability estimate (>80%), indicating low influences of the environment and selection based on these traits might be highly effective. Similarly, moderately high heritability values (60-79%) were recorded for GFP, PH, BM, HI and PC. On the other hand, medium heritability estimates were observed for NDVI, NFT, SPS, GY and CHO. However, HLW showed very low broad sense heritability (17.32%). The results of this study revealed high (>20%) GAM values for NFT, SL, NSPS, BM and GY. Traits such as DH, PH, HI and TSW showed moderate GAM values (10-20%). Low GAM values (<10%) were obtained for DM, GFP, NDVI, SPS, PC, CHO and HLW. In line with these findings (Gerema, 2020) reported high heritability and GAM for NSPS and low GAM for DM in durum wheat. High broad sense heritability for DH, DM, NSPS and TSW and moderately high heritability for GY and PC (Malbhage et al., 2020) was reported in durum wheat. Moderate heritability and high GAM for GY of bread wheat under drought stress condition was reported by (Milkessa et al., 2021). In order to produce good heterotic crossings, breeding programs need genetically distinct and desirable genotypes for hybridization. Cluster analysis is frequently used to determine the level of genetic variation and group genotypes based on their similarities into one cluster. Understanding of genetic relationships between genotypes offers valuable information to tackle selective breeding and germplasm resources management. The cluster and genetic divergence analysis results for each of the optimum and low N experiments are presented below.Cluster analysis using the means of the sixteen variables evaluated across three locations grouped the 200 durum wheat genotypes into 13 distinct clusters. Twelve of the thirteen clusters are actual clusters, and just one is a solitary cluster with only one genotype (Table 4 and Figure S 1). According to the distribution pattern, cluster I comprised of more than 50% of the genotypes (112), followed by clusters VII, VI, VIII, III, and II with 48, 8, 6, 5 and 4 genotypes, respectively. Each of the clusters IV, V, X, and XIII included three genotypes, whereas clusters IX and XI contained only two genotypes each. Cluster-XII contained small number of genotype (Table 4  and Figure S 1).Of the 200 durum wheat genotypes grown under optimum N conditions, about 12.5 % of the high yielding genotypes were grouped into clusters I (14), II (3), V (3), VII (3), IX (1), and X (1). Genotypes in Clusters VIII and III had medium GY values which varied from 3.85 to 3.90 t/ha. In contrast, the genotypes in cluster IV, VI, XI, XII, and XIII were low in grain yield. This indicates the possibility of producing desired recombinants for the development of high yielding varieties by crossing the superior genotypes of the aforementioned diverse cluster pairs. Several authors reported comparable and similar findings on durum wheat (Yohannes & Abebe, 2020) found 12Genotypes in the clusters 86,148,98,87,113,128,89,132,96,145,126,127,139,114,111,130,165,90,112,189,118,135,133,134,107,144,137,103,106,110,102,151,117,171,122,104,115,108,5,159,12,185,109,152,91,93,125,119,162,15,92,161,88,95,116,141,100,195,97,124,94,188,147,158,155,30,182,142,181,143,101,164,136,154,140,191,146,157,163,166,2,41,3,169,177,7,18,20,186,170,190,198,197,176,183,194,173,19,178,187,168,129,105,121,149,150,156,167,175,179   , 83, 45, 74, 35, 16, 65, 42, 73, 48, 40, 52, 44, 56, 54, 38, 79, 50, 72, 33, 60, 46, 36, 32, 70, 43, 22, 80, 62, 64, 51, 82, 49, 55, 34, 26, 81, 69, 153, 13, 53, 75, 68, 77, 63, 21, 8  cluster using a total of 64 genotypes, (Batu, 2019), obtained four cluster from 100 durum wheat genotypes, (Birkneh, 2021), reported six clusters using 45 durum wheat genotypes and the work of (Mengistu et al., 2016) showed eleven distinct clusters produced from a total of 289 durum wheat landraces in the study of genetic diversity.The cluster analysis grouped the 200 durum wheat genotypes into eight clusters using the average clustering method based on morphological, some quality, and physiological traits of durum wheat genotypes grown under low nitrogen conditions in three locations (Table 5 and Figure S 2). Of these clusters six were real clusters and two of them (Cluster V and VIII) were solitary with each comprising only one genotype. The distribution pattern of genotypes showed that cluster I had the maximum number of genotypes (117) followed by cluster IV with 62 genotypes, cluster II with seven genotypes and cluster VI having six genotypes, whereas clusters III and VII had three genotypes. Selection of durum wheat genotypes as parents from the eight clusters recognized in this study for hybridization might result in segregates with best combinations of superior alleles for various traits.In this study, the top 25 high yielding genotypes under low N conditions grouped into three clusters with 14 of them in cluster I, six in cluster IV and five in cluster II. Genotypes grouped in cluster III, VI, VII, and VIII were relatively low yielding while genotype in cluster V was medium in GY. In line with this result, (Zemede et al., 2019) grouped 64 durum wheat genotypes exposed to drought stress at anthesis in to five clusters. Zarei et al. (2013) grouped 410 durum wheat F5 lines in to four clusters under drought stress. Ahmadizadeh et al. (2011), (Naghavi & Khalili, 2017;Soleymanifard et al., 2012) and (Belete et al., 2020) classified durum wheat grown under drought stress in to three clusters. Nouri et al. (2011) categorized 14 durum wheat genotypes in to three clusters under drought. The difference in number of clusters among this finding and previous scholars could be due to the variation in source and number of genotypes, climatic and edaphic environments.The cluster means for 16 quantitative characters of durum wheat genotype grown under optimum N are given in Table 6. The results showed that advanced lines from CIMMYT, ICARDA and DZARC were grouped into clusters I, III and IV. These clusters were distinguished by high values of GFP, NSPS, BM, HI, PC, HLW, TSW, CHO, and GY compared to the average means, whereas DH, DM, PH, NFT, SL, HI and CHO had lower values. Ethiopian released varieties with greater HLW, HI, GY andGenotypes in the clusters 2,3,5,7,10,12,15,18,19,20,30,41,[86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120]151,152,[154][155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163][164][165][166][167][168][169][170][171][172][173][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185][186][187][188][189][190][191]194,195,197,198 and 200 II 7 3.5 174,175,150,196,121,105 and 14 III 3 1.5 167,192 and 193 IV 62 31 55,48,9,67,83,69,45,33,57,61,27,85,68,63,43,42,28,60,52,44,76,71,40,54,59,56,38,66,73,39,153,51,46,36,32,50,26,78,81,72,65,24,64,62,82,80,84,49,34,23,11,75,53,17,13,77,21,8,25,4,199  CHO were included in Cluster II and can be chosen for these traits. Cluster V included CIMMYT materials, released varieties, and DZARC breeding lines that were distinguished by high HI and GY as well as early heading and maturation. This suggests that genotypes in cluster V may be selected for their early maturity and high yield performance. Since most of the Ethiopian breeding lines were derived from CIMMYT, they were grouped with CIMMYT sources and released varieties into the same clusters (I, III, IV, and V) thereby indicating high gene flow from CIMMYT to the Ethiopian breeding block.The advanced lines and Ethiopian landrace genotypes grouped in cluster VI had higher means than the overall average for all traits except DH, SPS, SL, NFT, and NDVI. All genotypes in clusters VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XIII were Ethiopian landraces with the exception of genotype 153 in cluster VII, which came from CIMMYT. Genotypes in these clusters had lower mean values than the overall means for NSPS, CHO, GFP, and HI; however, the other characteristics had higher mean values above the average. These genotypes were also taller and had longer spike genotypes that matured later, suggesting that these genotypes were selected for NFT, SL, SPS, and BM. Similar results were found by (Mengistu et al., 2016), who obtained high genetic diversity among Ethiopian farmers' cultivars with significant agronomic and phenological features. Only one genotype from ICARDA was found in Cluster XII, and it characterized by low mean values for all traits except PH and SPS. The genotypes grouped under the different clusters have some special traits that could yield advantageous genetic recombinants in a hybridization program. The current study found that durum wheat genotypes examined under various environmental conditions and optimal N conditions exhibited substantial variations, which provide opportunity for genetic improvement through selection and hybridization.The cluster mean for the 200 genotypes tested at three locations are presented in Table 7. The majority of CIMMYT and ICARDA materials and few Ethiopian landraces and released varieties were grouped in cluster I. Genotypes in this cluster were characterized with lower SPS, shorter plants, short SL, early maturity and highest HI. This cluster had the second highest NSPS next to cluster III. Cluster II consisted of ICARDA and CIMMYT materials, Ethiopian released varieties and DZARC advanced lines with the highest mean values of GY, HI and HLW. The CIMMYT materials and DZARC advanced lines were contained in cluster III, and are characterized by earliest heading and maturity, high GY, NSPS, HI and CHO. The majority of Ethiopian landraces were grouped in Cluster IV with the highest means for TSW. Genotypes in this cluster showed moderate performance in most yield related traits and phenological traits compared to the remaining clusters. Cluster V comprised a single Ethiopian landrace with delayed DH and DM. It had the second earlier genotypes in GFP next to cluster VIII.The genotypes in this cluster were also characterized by high SL, SPS, NFT, PC, NDVI and BM. However, they are least in NSPS compared to the other clusters and low in CHO, HLW, TSW and HI next to cluster VIII. Clusters VI and VII consisted of Ethiopian landrace durum wheat genotypes having similar mean values for most of the traits indicating genetically close relationship among the genotypes found in these clusters. The genotypes in these clusters had the second highest PC and NDVI next to cluster V and TSW next to cluster IV. The mean values of all traits were greater than the average values of clusters except for DH, DM, GFP, SPS and PH. Genotype 6 was the single ICARDA genotype grouped in cluster VIII alone. This genotype was characterized by having lower mean values for most of the traits with the exception of DM, PH, SPS and NSPS than the overall mean. Among the eight clusters, three of them (I, II and IV) can be selected for GY and cluster V can be selected for PC. This result was in agreement with the findings of earlier studies of (Ali et al., 2021;Mohammad et al., 2013;Naghavi &Khalili, 2017 andMahpara et al., 2022). In general, the results suggested that crossing among distant genotypes from different clusters would increase the probability of getting large variability in segregating generations.Highly significant genetic diversity was found among the genotypes as illustrated by high inter-Euclidean (estimated genetic distance) cluster distances than intra-cluster genotype distances. The results of the intra-and inter-cluster distances between the 13 clusters are displayed in Table 8. The inter-cluster distance between the genotypes ranged from 18.22 to 220.99. Clusters X and XII had the largest inter-cluster distance followed by clusters IV and X, II and XI, and clusters V and XII, suggesting that these clusters were genetically more distinct from one another than any other pairs of clusters. Hybridization between genotypes using these clusters would produce high heterotic values in the F1 generation, and result in greater variability in segregating populations. The genotypes in Cluster I and II were closer to one another followed by clusters VI and VIII, indicating that hybridization between them would be unlikely to produce high variability than those genotypes found in different clusters.Note: Chi-square value=21.03 at 5% and 26.03 at P≤0.01 Intra-cluster distances ranged from 0 to 4.36 indicating that the genotypes in the cluster were homogeneous. Cluster VII has the largest intra-cluster distance followed by clusters I and VI. In contrast, the smallest intra-cluster distance was recorded for cluster XII followed by clusters II, IV, and III. The genotypes within the clusters having high intra-cluster distance were found different than the genotypes in the clusters with the smallest intra-cluster distance where selection is inefficient. Similar findings were reported by (Arya et al., 2017;Gashaw et al., 2007) and (Yohannes & Abebe, 2020) who used cluster distance (D 2 ) statistics to determine inter-and intracluster distance for the study of genetic variability in wheat.The intra-cluster average distance between genotypes varied from 0 and 4.71 indicating close relationship of genotypes within clusters. The highest intra-cluster distance was found in cluster IV followed by cluster I, while no distance was found in clusters V and VII (Table 9). The variation in intercluster distance, on the other hand, ranged from 13.79 to 241.78, indicating significant genetic divergence among genotypes in clusters. The maximum inter-cluster distance was displayed between clusters V and VIII followed by clusters III and V and clusters II and VIII, while the minimum distance was recorded between cluster I and II (Table 9).Thus, parents for hybridization can be selected from clusters V and VIII, which may provide diverse and useful recombinants in segregating generations. Rahman et al. (2013) identified diversity among spring wheat genotypes grown under drought stress using their intra-and intercluster distances.Principal components analysis (PCA) is used to construct patterns and relationships between the genotypes and their quantitative attributes, which can partially validate the findings from cluster analysis. It is useful to identify the traits contributing much to the overall diversity among the test genotypes. Under Optimum N conditions, the first five principal components (PCs) with eigenvalues greater than one explained 81.29% of the total variation. The PC1 explained about 39.63% of the variation and the PCs 2, 3, 4, and 5 explained 18.31%, 8.92%, 7.91%, and 6.51% of the gross variation, respectively (Table 10).In similar study, (Yohannes & Abebe, 2020) reported five principal components accounting for 81.58% of the overall variation among 64 durum wheat genotypes evaluated for 12 characters. Likewise, (Kandel et al., 2018) found that the first six principal components based on 17 quantitative attributes of 41 wheat genotypes accounted for 77.5% of the variability. The work of (Adilova et al., 2020) indicated that the first three principal components explained about 90.8% of the variability among 25 bread wheat genotypes evaluated for 10 traits, whereas (Devesh et al., 2019) found that seven principal components explained about 66.22% of the variability among 60 wheat genotypes assessed for 19 characters.Significant contributions to PC1 were made by DH, PH, NFT, SL, BM and NDVI where SL among others had the highest proportions. High contributors to the observed variation in PC2 were BM, GY, and HLW, whereas PC and TSW exhibited the maximum value on PC3. In PC4, DM and NSPS imposed high component loading, and the latter caused the highest fluctuation in PC5. PCA quantifies how much independent effect of a character contributes to the overall variation seen in a particular population. The primary variables observed to discriminate the genotypes were DH, DM, NDVI, SL, NFT, SPS, NDVI, GY, BM, TSW, HLW, and PC. Thus, the use of characters that showed significant contribution in each PC's might be important for selection and genetic improvement in the population. The principal components analysis (PCA) of the quantitative characters of 200 durum wheat genotypes grown under low N yielded four principal components with eigenvalue greater than one that together accounted for 73.63% of the total variations (Table 11). The first principal component explained about 40.12 % the gross variation and it was due chiefly to variations in DH, DM, PH, NFT, SL, SPS, BM, NDVI, PC and TSW where, the highest contributor trait was DH. The traits GY, HLW, BM, NDVI, HI and TSW were the most contributors to explain about 17.84% of the variation in second principal component where GY had the highest loading to PC2. The third principal component accounted for 8.39 % of the variation and it was due mainly to variations in SPS, NSPS, GY, BM and DH.The fourth principal component accounted for 7.29% of the total variation as a result of variations related to SPS and CHO. The result of PCA revealed that BM, SPS, NSPS, TSW, GFP, HI and GY were the most contributor traits to all principal components. Previously, (Mehdi & Mostafa, 2012) reported that about 69.30% of the total variation among 140 bread wheat genotypes evaluated for 15 variables under stress conditions was explained by five principal components. Mahpara et al. (2022) also found that the first four principal components accounted for 98.34% of the total variability among 40 wheat genotypes evaluated for 12 characters. Using 64 wheat genotypes evaluated for nine traits, (Ali et al., 2021) found that five principal components explained approximately 86.95% of the variability. Likewise, (Sangi et al., 2022) identified two principal components using eight physiological and yield traits of 23 durum wheat genotypes. A breeding program aimed at improving durum wheat should focus on genetic variation. The presence of significant variations among genotypes for all studied characters under both N conditions demonstrated adequate opportunity for genetic enhancement. The interaction of genotypes and locations was also significant for most of the traits except SL and NSPS under optimum N and GFP, PC and HLW under low N conditions. This implies that for traits not significantly affected by genotype by location interaction, selection can be made at any one specific environment. But for the traits on which genotype and environment interact significantly, selection must be based on diverse environmental conditions. All quantitative traits except DH, DM, GFP and PC were higher under optimum N than low N conditions which attributed to N stress.Higher GCV, PCV and heritability (H 2 ) estimates coupled with higher values of GAM were observed for NFT and NSPS under optimum N and for SL and NSPS under low N. Hence, NSPS can be used as selection criterion under both optimum and low N conditions, while NFT and SL can be used as selection criterion under optimum and low N conditions, respectively. Moreover, medium to high estimates of GCV, PCV, H 2 and GAM computed for GY under both N conditions suggested selection based on phenotypic expression of durum wheat genotypes is possible to improve the trait. The lower values of GCV, PCV, H 2 and GAM for HLW and PC under both N conditions indicated high environmental impact for the improvement of these traits by selection.In this study, nitrogen stress narrows down genetic divergence of durum wheat genotypes as confirmed by cluster and principal components analyses, demonstrating that a large number of genotypes are required to achieve significant genetic diversity under N stress marginal conditions. The cluster analysis classified the 200 durum wheat genotypes into thirteen and eight groups under optimum and low N conditions, respectively. The highest grain yield was exhibited by genotypes found in cluster V under optimum N and clusters II and III under low N environments; this implies parallel selection of genotypes under both N conditions. The highest intra-cluster distance was detected among genotypes in cluster VII and IV in optimum and low N conditions, respectively. The maximum inter-cluster distance was recorded between cluster X and XII under optimum N and between cluster V and VIII under low N condition. The principal components analysis resulted in five and four PCs which explained 81.29% and 73.63% of the total variations in optimum and N stress conditions, respectively. Under optimum N condition, phenological traits, GY and BM, TSW and PC, DM and NSPS were the highest contributor traits to the variations accounted for by PC1, PC2, PC3, PC4 and PC5, respectively. However, under low N condition, most phenological traits, BM, GY and HLW, SPS and NSPS, and CHO and SPS had more contribution to the variation explained by PC1, PC2, PC3 and PC4, respectively. Therefore, durum wheat genotypes found in distant clusters with highest contributor traits for the existing variation under both N conditions can be employed in crossing blocks to improve desired characters.In conclusion, the existence of wide range of genetic variation in the study paves high possibility for durum wheat improvement through selection and hybridization for improving grain yield and adaptation to N stress conditions. Moreover, these findings should be supported by marker assisted selection for identification of pertinent traits in durum wheat to improve nitrogen efficiency. Additionally, further studies on the physiological traits and nitrogen use efficiency components of these diverse durum wheat genotypes are paramount.","tokenCount":"6895"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a6bf3551b48f0c0e8baeab5d36b7026c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/109e1b27-fd5b-4aae-a12c-6e871cfd7413/retrieve","id":"17953244"},"keywords":["climate change","vulnerability","adaptive capacity","regional states of Ethiopia"],"sieverID":"b0facf96-4d46-45ad-83c5-51c7e51724d2","pagecount":"32","content":"was established in 1975. IFPRI is one of 15 agricultural research centers that receive principal funding from governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations, most of which are members of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).Agriculture is the dominant sector in the Ethiopian economy. It contributes about 52 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), generates more than 85 percent of foreign exchange earnings, and employs about 80 percent of the population (Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation [MEDaC] 1999). The contribution of the agricultural sector to the total economy, however, is challenged by its vulnerability to climate change.The level of vulnerability of different social groups to climate change is determined by both socioeconomic and environmental factors. The socioeconomic factors most cited in the literature include the level of technological development, infrastructure, institutions, and political setups (Kelly and Adger 2000;McCarthy et al. 2001). The environmental attributes mainly include climatic conditions, quality of soil, and availability of water for irrigation (Canadian International Development Agency [CIDA] 2003;O'Brien et al. 2004). The variations of these socioeconomic and environmental factors across different social groups are responsible for the differences in their levels of vulnerability to climate change.Given the different disciplines involved in vulnerability study, there are many conceptual and methodological approaches to vulnerability analysis. The major conceptual approaches include the socioeconomic, biophysical, and integrated approaches. The socioeconomic approach is mainly concerned with the social, economic, and political aspects of society (Adger 1999). The biophysical, or impact assessment, approach is mainly concerned with the physical impact of climate change on different attributes, such as yield and income (Füssel and Klein 2006). The integrated assessment approach combines both the socioeconomic and the biophysical attributes in vulnerability analysis (Füssel 2007).The most commonly used methodological approaches in the climate change literature include the econometric and indicator methods. The econometric method, which has its roots in the poverty and development literature, makes use of household-level socioeconomic survey data to analyze the level of vulnerability of different social groups (Hoddinott and Quisumbing 2003). The indicator method of quantifying vulnerability is based selecting some indicators from the whole set of potential indicators and of then systematically combining the selected indicators to indicate the levels of vulnerability (Cutter, Boruff, and Shirley 2003;Easter 1999;Kaly and Pratt 2000).Our study adopted the concept of integrated vulnerability assessment and the indicator method to analyze the vulnerability of seven of Ethiopia's agriculture-based regional states. Different socioeconomic and biophysical factors were collected and classified into three classes based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC 2001) definition of vulnerability, which consists of adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and exposure. We used principal component analysis to assign weights to the different indicators in creating an overall vulnerability indicator for each regional state. Knowledge of each regional state's vulnerability levels to climate change can assist in identifying the most vulnerable regions and in determining investments for adaptation to future impacts of climate change.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the literature on conceptual frameworks and methodologies employed in vulnerability analysis that are relevant for this study. Section 3 presents the conceptual framework developed to analyze the vulnerability of Ethiopian farmers to climate change. Section 4 discusses model variables and data sources. Section 5 discusses construction of vulnerability indices. Section 6 presents the results and discussion, and Section 7 gives conclusions and policy recommendations.Scholars from different fields of specialization have been conceptualizing vulnerability differently based on the objectives to be achieved and the methodologies employed. These differences limit the possibility of having a universally accepted definition and methodological approach to assessing vulnerability against which the appropriateness of a given concept or method can be judged. However, the knowledge of the existing conceptual and methodological approaches can guide the choice of one of the methods, or combinations of existing methods, in analyzing vulnerability for a specific area of interest. Literature on the conceptual and methodological approaches to vulnerability analysis is summarized in Adger (1999), Füssel andKlein (2006), andFüssel (2007). Our interest here is to review the current literature on the concepts and approaches to analyzing vulnerability to climate change in order to justify the conceptual framework and methodological approach adopted for this study.There are three major conceptual approaches to analyzing vulnerability to climate change: the socioeconomic, the biophysical (impact assessment), and the integrated assessment approaches.The socioeconomic vulnerability assessment approach mainly focuses on the socioeconomic and political status of individuals or social groups (Adger 1999;Füssel 2007). Individuals in a community often vary in terms education, gender, wealth, health status, access to credit, access to information and technology, formal and informal (social) capital, political power, and so on. These variations are responsible for the variations in vulnerability levels. In this case, vulnerability is considered to be a starting point or a state (i.e., a variable describing the internal state of a system) that exists within a system before it encounters a hazard event (Allen 2003;Kelly and Adger 2000). Thus, vulnerability is considered to be constructed by society as a result of institutional and economic changes (Adger and Kelly 1999). In general, the socioeconomic approach focuses on identifying the adaptive capacity of individuals or communities based on their internal characteristics. A study by Adger and Kelly (1999) is an example of this approach. In that study, the environmental factor in a district to coastal lowlands of Vietnam was taken as given, and vulnerability was analyzed based only on variations in socioeconomic attributes of individuals and social groups.The main limitation of the socioeconomic approach is that it focuses only on variations within society (i.e., differences among individuals or social groups). In reality, societies vary not only due to sociopolitical factors but also to environmental factors. Two social groups having similar socioeconomic characteristics but different environmental attributes can have different levels of vulnerability and vice versa. In general, this method overlooks-or takes as exogenous-the environment-based intensities, frequencies, and probabilities of environmental shocks, such as drought and flood. It also does not account for the availability of natural resource bases to potentially counteract the negative impacts of these environmental shocks-for example, areas with easily accessible underground water can better cope with drought by utilizing this resource.The biophysical approach assesses the level of damage that a given environmental stress causes on both social and biological systems. For instance, the monetary impact of climate change on agriculture can be measured by modeling the relationships between climatic variables and farm income (Mendelsohn, Nordhaus, and Shaw 1994;Polsky and Esterling, 2001;Sanghi, Mendelsohn, and Dinar 1998). Similarly, the yield impacts of climate change can be analyzed by modelling the relationships between crop yields and climatic variables (Adams 1989;Kaiser et al. 1993;Olsen, Bocher, and Jensen 2000). Other related impact assessment studies include the impact of climate change on human mortality and health terms (Martens et al. 1999), on food and water availability (Du Toit, Prinsloo, and Marthinus 2001;Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] 2005;Xiao et al. 2002), and on ecosystem damage (Forner 2006;Villers-Ruiz and Trejo-Vázquez 1997). The damage is most often estimated by taking forecasts or estimates from climate prediction models (Kurukulasuriya and Mendelsohn 2006;Martens et al. 1999) or by creating indicators of sensitivity by identifying potential or actual hazards and their frequency (Cutter, Mitchell, and Scott 2000). Füssel (2007) identified this approach as a risk-hazard approach and denoted the vulnerability relationship as a hazard-loss relationship in natural hazard research, a dose-response or exposure-effect relationship in epidemiology, and a damage function in macroeconomics. Kelly and Adger (2000) referred to the biophysical approach as an end-point analysis responding to research questions such as, \"What is the extent of the climate change problem?\" and \"Do the costs of climate change exceed the costs of greenhouse gas mitigation?\"Although very informative, the biophysical approach has its limitations. The major limitation is that the approach focuses mainly on physical damages, such as yield, income, and so on. For example, a study on the impact of climate change on yield can show the reduction in yield due to simulated climatic variables, such as increased temperature or reduced precipitation. In other words, these simulations can provide the quantities of yield reduced due to climate change, but they do not show what that particular reduction means for different people. A 50 percent reduction in yield due to climate change does not mean the same for poor farmers that it does for rich farmers. Poor farmers very often cannot cope with marginal changes in their yields or income, whereas richer farmers can buffer their loss (smoothen consumption, in technical terms) by depending on savings or sale of some of their assets.By the same token, research on climate change and malaria incidence analyzes how climate change favors or disfavors the reproduction (expansion) of main mosquito species of malaria in different geographical settings (Martens et al. 1999). But these types of research identify neither those people who have access to medication or preventive measures (such as vaccination) nor those people who do not have any access to preventive or treatment measures. In general, the biophysical approach focuses on sensitivity (change in yield, income, health) to climate change and misses much of the adaptive capacity of individuals or social groups, which is more explained by their inherent or internal characteristics or by the architecture of entitlements, as suggested by Adger (1999).The integrated assessment approach combines both socioeconomic and biophysical approaches to determine vulnerability. The hazard-of-place model (Cutter, Mitchell, and Scott 2000) is a good example of this approach, in which both biophysical and socioeconomic factors are systematically combined to determine vulnerability. The vulnerability mapping approach (O'Brien et al. 2004) is the other related example, in which both socioeconomic and biophysical factors are combined to indicate the level of vulnerability through mapping. Füssel (2007) and Füssel and Klein (2006) argued that the IPCC (2001) definition-which conceptualizes vulnerability to climate as a function of adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and exposureaccommodates the integrated approach to vulnerability analysis. According to Füssel and Klein (2006), the risk-hazard framework (biophysical approach) corresponds most closely to sensitivity in the IPCC terminology. Adaptive capacity (broader social development) is largely consistent with the socioeconomic approach (Füssel 2007). In the IPCC framework, exposure has an external dimension, whereas both sensitivity and adaptive capacity have internal dimension, which is implicitly assumed in the integrated vulnerability assessment framework (Füssel 2007).Even though the integrated assessment approach corrects the weaknesses of the other approaches, it has its limitations. The main limitation is that there is no standard method for combining the biophysical and socioeconomic indicators. This approach uses different data sets, ranging from socioeconomic data sets (e.g., race and age structures of households) to biophysical factors (e.g., frequencies of earthquakes); these data sets certainly have different and yet unknown weights. Cutter, Mitchell, and Scott (2000) explained that because this analysis provides no common metric for determining the relative importance of the social and biophysical vulnerability, nor for determining the relative importance of each individual variable, much care is required. The other weakness of this approach is that it does not account for the dynamism in vulnerability. Copying and adaptation are characterized by a continual change of strategies to take advantage of opportunities (Campbell 1999;Eriksen and Kelly 2007); thus, this dynamism is missing under the integrated assessment approach. Despite its weaknesses, however, this approach has much to offer in terms of policy decisions. Thus, we adopted this method to analyze the vulnerability of Ethiopian farmers to climate change.Based on the previously discussed approaches, there are many methods for analyzing vulnerability to climate change, especially in the biophysical or impact assessment methods. Discussions of the weaknesses and strengths of all of the methods are beyond the scope of this study. Therefore, only the most common methods employed in vulnerability literature-namely, the econometric and indicator methods-are discussed below.The econometric method has its roots in the poverty and development literature. This method use household-level socioeconomic survey data to analyze the level of vulnerability of different social groups. The method is divided into three categories: vulnerability as expected poverty (VEP), vulnerability as low expected utility (VEU), and vulnerability as uninsured exposure to risk (VER) (Hoddinott and Quisumbing 2003). All three share common characteristics in that they construct a measure of welfare loss attributed to shocks.In the expected poverty framework, vulnerability of a person is conceived as the prospect of that person becoming poor in the future if currently not poor or the prospect of that person continuing to be poor if currently poor (Christiaensen and Subbarao, 2004). Thus, vulnerability is seen as expected poverty, and consumption (income) is used as a proxy for well-being. This method is based on estimating the probability that a given shock, or set of shocks, moves consumption by households below a given minimum level (e.g., consumption poverty line) or forces the consumption level to stay below the given minimum requirement if it is already below that level (Chaudhuri, Jalan, and Suryahadi 2002).Using cross-sectional survey data of 1998, Chaudhuri, Jalan, and Suryahadi showed that although only 22 percent of the population in Indonesia was poor, as much as 45 percent of that population was vulnerable to poverty. Tesliuc and Lindert (2002) used cross-sectional survey data of 2000 in Guatemala to show that three-quarters of the total poor have a vulnerability index of 0.67, which means that two out of three of the then poor households would still be poor in the coming period. One of the disadvantages of this method is that if estimations are made using a single cross section, one must make a strong assumption that cross-sectional variability captures temporal variability (Hoddinott and Quisumbing, 2003). Ligon andSchechter (2002, 2003) defined vulnerability as the difference between the utility derived from some level of certainty-equivalent consumption at and above which the household would not be considered vulnerable and the expected utility of consumption. Ligon and Schechter (2003) applied this method to a panel data set from Bulgaria in 1994 and found that poverty and risk play roughly equal roles in reducing welfare. The disadvantage of this method is that it is difficult to account for an individual's risk preference, given that individuals are ill informed about their preferences, especially those related to uncertain events (Kanbur 1987).The VER method is based on ex post facto assessment of the extent to which a negative shock causes welfare loss (Hoddinott and Quisumbing 2003). In this method, the impact of shocks is assessed by using panel data to quantify the change in induced consumption. Skoufias (2003) employed this approach to analyze the impact of shocks on Russia. In the absence of risk-management tools, shocks impose a welfare loss that is materialized through reduction in consumption. The amount of loss incurred due to shocks equals the amount paid as insurance to keep a household as well off as before any shock occurs. The disadvantage of this method is that in the absence of panel data sets, estimates of impacts-especially from cross-sectional data-are often biased and thus inconclusive.The indicator method of quantifying vulnerability is based on selecting some indicators from the whole set of potential indicators and then systematically combining the selected indicators to indicate the levels of vulnerability. These levels of vulnerability may be analyzed at local (Adger 1999;Leon-Vasquez, West, and Finan 2003;Morrow 1999), national (O'Brien et al. 2004), regional (Leichenko and O'Brien 2001;Vincent 2004), and global (Brooks, Adger, and Kelly 2005;Moss, Brenkert, and Malone 2001) scales.Two options are available for calculating the level of vulnerability using this method at any scale. The first is assuming that all indicators of vulnerability have equal importance and thus giving them equal weights (Cutter, Mitchell, and Scott 2000). The second method is assigning different weights to avoid the uncertainty of equal weighting given the diversity of indicators used. In line with the second method, many methodological approaches have been suggested to make up for the weight differences of indicators. Some of these approaches include use of expert judgment (Kaly and Pratt 2000;Kaly et al. 1999), principal component analysis (Easter 1999;Cutter, Boruff, and Shirley 2003), correlation with past disaster events (Brooks, Adger, and Kelly 2005), and use of fuzzy logic (Eakin and Tapia 2008). Even though there are attempts in giving weights, their appropriateness is still dubious; because there is no standard weighting method against which each method is tested for precision. Luers et al. (2003) explained the weakness of the indicator approach as follows:While the indicator approach is valuable for monitoring trends and exploring conceptual frameworks, indices are limited in their application by considerable subjectivity in the selection of variables and their relative weights, by the availability of data at various scales, and by the difficulty of testing or validating the different metrics. Perhaps most importantly, the indicator approach often leads to a lack of correspondence between the conceptual definition of vulnerability and the metrics: pp 257.Table 1 shows different indicators and the scales at which they could be used. Identification of the types of indicators and attachment of the scale of analysis was done by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Center for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa (CEEPA) climate change research team. As shown in this table, level of education or literacy rate is a household characteristic (HHC) that can be analyzed at the household (HH) scale (by taking the education level of the head of a household), the district (D) scale (by taking the average of the education levels of the head of the household in the district), or the national (N) scale (by taking this average for the nation). Similarly, soil conditions are biophysical (BP) characteristics that can be seen at different scales, starting from the household level to the national level. The references listed in the fourth column of Table 1 are different studies that are based on different characteristics at different scales.  The IPCC's (2001) definition of vulnerability was adopted for this study by adapting it to the Ethiopian context. The IPCC defines vulnerability to climate change as follows:The degree to which a system is susceptible, or unable to cope with adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes, and vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude and rate of climate variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity.As indicated earlier, because the IPCC definition accommodates the integrated vulnerability assessment approach, our study is based on that approach, which considers both the biophysical and the socioeconomic indicators in assessing vulnerability. Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of vulnerability for this study.As Figure 1 shows, Ethiopian farmers are exposed to both gradual climate change (mainly temperature and precipitation) and extreme climate change (mainly drought and flood). Exposure affects sensitivity, which means that exposure to higher frequencies and intensities of climate risk highly affects outcome (e.g., yield, income, health). Exposure is also linked to adaptive capacity. For instance, higher adaptive capacity reduces the potential damage from higher exposure. Sensitivity and adaptive capacity are also linked: Given a fixed level of exposure, the adaptive capacity influences the level of sensitivity. In other words, higher adaptive capacity (socioeconomic vulnerability) results in lower sensitivity (biophysical vulnerability) and vice versa. Therefore, sensitivity and adaptive capacity add up to total vulnerability.Climate extremesSocioeconomic vulnerability Total vulnerabilityThe model variables for this study were categorized according to the study's conceptual framework (see Section 3). Adaptive capacity is the ability of a system to adjust to actual or expected climate stresses or to cope with the consequences of those stresses. According to IPCC (2001), the main features determining a community or region's adaptive capacity include economic wealth, technology, information and skills, infrastructure, institutions, and equity. For this study, adaptive capacity is represented by wealth, technology, availability of infrastructure and institutions, potential for irrigation, and literacy rate. Wealth enables communities to absorb and recover from losses more quickly due to insurance, social safety nets, and entitlement programs (Cutter, Mitchell, and Scott 2000). Number of livestock owned, ownership of a radio, and quality of residential homes are commonly used as indicators of wealth in rural African communities (Langyintuo 2005;Vyas and Kumaranayake 2006). Proximity to supplies of agricultural inputs is identified as an indicator of technology. For instance, drought-tolerant or early maturing varieties of crops as technology packages usually require access to complementary inputs, such as fertilizers or pesticides. Thus, the supplies of such inputs positively contribute to successful adaptation.The level of development and availability of institutions and infrastructure play an important role in adaptation to climate change by facilitating access to resources. For instance, all-weather roads allow for the distribution of necessary inputs to farmers, which helps them adapt to climate change. These roads also facilitate economic activity by increasing access to markets. Likewise, health services can assist in the provision of preventive treatments for diseases associated with climatic change, such as malaria. And the availability of microfinance often supports farmers by providing credits for technology packages. Smith and Lenhart (1996) indicated that countries with welldeveloped social institutions are considered to have greater adaptive capacity than those with lesseffective institutional arrangements. According to O'Brien et al. ( 2004), areas with better infrastructure are expected to have a higher capacity to adapt to climate change. In their analysis of the vulnerability of Indian agriculture to climate charge, for example, O'Brien et al. included India's infrastructure development index-which includes the availability of transportation, irrigation, banking, communication, education, and health facilities-to measure adaptive capacity.Irrigation potential and literacy rate are other important factors contributing to adaptation to climate change. Irrigation potential was selected because of the assumption that places with more potentially irrigable land are more adaptable to adverse climatic conditions (O'Brien et al. 2004). Literacy rate is often included to approximate the level of skills and education of a region. Smith and Lenhart (1996) argued that countries with higher levels of stores of human knowledge are considered to have greater adaptive capacity than are developing nations and those in transition.Sensitivity is the degree to which a system is affected, either adversely or beneficially, by climate change stimuli, whereas exposure is the nature and degree to which a system is exposed to climate variations (IPCC 2001). The agricultural sector's sensitivity to climate change is represented by the frequency of climate extremes. In our study, it is argued that in places with a greater frequency of droughts and floods, the agricultural sector responds negatively (i.e., yield is reduced). Thus, agriculture in drought-and flood-prone areas is more sensitive in terms of yield reduction.Exposure is represented by the predicted change in temperature and rainfall by 2050. This figure provides the level of climate change to which regions are exposed. It is generally agreed that increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation are both damaging to the already hot and waterscarce African agriculture. Thus, regions with increasing temperature and decreasing rainfall were identified as regions more exposed to climate change. Table 2 gives the indicators and the hypothesized direction of relationship with vulnerability. Increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation increase vulnerability.Ethiopia has 11 administrative regions (Figure 2). Data on socioeconomic and environmental factors affecting vulnerability were collected for seven of these regions. 1 Socioeconomic data include wealth, income, technology, literacy rate, infrastructure, and institutions. These data were collected from Ethiopia's Central Statistical Agency (CSA 2006). Environmental factors, including irrigation potential, frequency of drought, and flood frequency, were collected from various sources. Data on irrigation potential was taken from the International Water Management Institute (Awulachew et al. 2005). Data on drought and flood frequencies were taken from the International Disaster Data Base for 1906 to 2006 (Emergency Events Database [EM-DAT] 2006). Predicted changes in climatic variables2 (i.e., temperature and rainfall) for 2050 were taken from the hydrology component for the GEF Project: Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture in Africa (Strzepek and McCluskey, 2006).1 No data were available for the Gambella region, and Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, and Harari were excluded, because (1) they are very small in comparison with the other regions, and (2) they are not rural.2 Data from different metrological stations in different districts were aggregated over each region.This study attempts to analyze vulnerability based on the integrated approach by making use of vulnerability index. As indicated earlier, the use of indices is challenged by many ambiguities, some of which are the choices of the right indicators, directions of relationships with vulnerability, weights attached, and the optimal scale. The choice of indices was undertaken based on a review of the literature and adjusting to the context of Ethiopian agriculture. The direction of relationship in vulnerability indicators (i.e., their sign) was adopted from the procedure followed by Moss, Brenkert, and Malone (2001), who assigned a negative value to sensitivity and a positive value to adaptive capacity and then calculated the vulnerability resilience indicator. In our study, we attached a negative value to both exposure and sensitivity. The main argument for this is that areas that are highly exposed to damaging climate are more sensitive to damages, assuming constant adaptive capacity. Sensitivity could best be measured by a change in income or livelihood attributed only to climatic factors. However, it was not possible to find this type of data. Instead, we were obliged to make the simple assumption that those areas with higher frequencies of climate extremes (e.g., drought and flood) were subjected to higher sensitivity due to loss in yield and thus loss of livelihood, given that the main source of livelihood in rural Ethiopia is agriculture. In addition, exposure could best be represented by both future gradual changes in climate and the forecasted values of the probabilities of extreme events (e.g., drought and flood). Data on the forecasted probabilities of future climate extremes were not found; thus, we were forced to make the very simple assumption that areas with higher changes in temperature and precipitation are more exposed. Variables listed under adaptive capacity are given a positive value. In this study, it is assumed that people with higher adaptive capacity are less sensitive to damages from climate change, keeping the level of exposure constant. Therefore, vulnerability is calculated as the net effect of adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and exposure.(1)In this relationship, higher net value indicates lesser vulnerability and vice versa.The next step is the attachment of weights to the vulnerability indices. For this step, the method of principal components analysis (PCA) was employed. PCA is frequently used in research that is based on constructing indices for which there are no well-defined weights. The use of assetbased indices for measurements of wealth across different social groups is a good example (Filmer and Pritchett 2001;Langyintuo 2005;Sumarto, Suryadarma, and Suryahadi 2006;Vyas and Kumaranayake 2006). Our argument is that as with the asset-based indices for wealth comparison, there are no well-defined weights assigned to the vulnerability indices we chose for this study. Therefore, we let a statistical method (PCA) generate the weights.Principal components analysis is a technique for extracting from a set of variables those few orthogonal linear combinations of variables that most successfully capture the common information. Intuitively, the first principal component of a set of variables is the linear index of all the variables that captures the largest amount of information common to all the variables. For example, suppose we have a set of Z-variables (a* 1j to a* Zj ) that represents the Z-variables (attributes) of each region j. PCA starts by specifying each variable normalized by its mean and standard deviation. For instance, a 1j = (a* 1j -a* 1 )/s* 1 , where a* 1 is the mean of a* 1j across regions and s* 1 is its standard deviation. The selected variables are expressed as linear combinations of a set of underlying components for each region j:where the W's are the components and the y's are the coefficients on each component for each variable (and do not vary across regions). Because only the left side of each line is observed, the solution to the problem is indeterminate. PCA overcomes this indeterminacy by finding the linear combination of the variables with maximum variance (usually the first principal component W 1 j), then finding a second linear combination of the variables orthogonal to the first and with maximal remaining variance, and so on. Technically, the procedure solves the equations (R -λI)v n = 0 for λ n and v n , where R is the matrix of correlations between the scaled variables (the a's) and v n is the vector of coefficients on the nth component for each variable. Solving the equation yields the characteristic roots of R, λ n (also known as eigenvalues), and their associated eigenvectors, vn. The final set of estimates is produced by scaling the v n s so that the sum of their squares sums to the total varianceanother restriction imposed to achieve determinacy of the problem.The scoring factors from the model are recovered by inverting the system implied by equation ( 2). This yields a set of estimates for each of the Z-principal components:where the b's are the factor scores. Following Filmer and Pritchett (2001), the first principal component, expressed in terms of the original (unnormalized) variables is an index for each region in Ethiopia based on the following expression:The final point we considered in creating the indices was the scale of analysis. Vulnerability analysis ranges from the local or household (Adger 1999) level to the global level (Brooks, Adger, and Kelly 2005). The choice of scale is dictated by the objectives, methodologies, and data availabilities. For this study, the scale of analysis was the regional level, even though the regional level is too aggregated, and local variations are often overlooked. In fact, some pockets of the country where drought is so frequent are often masked in regional-scale studies. The most appropriate scale for this type of study is actually the lowest administrative unit, such as a district or even a village within a district. Because we were limited by the availability of data at these scales, however, we were obliged to do our research at the regional level.Preliminary analyses indicate that regions in Ethiopia vary in their socioeconomic and environmental characteristics. Tables A1 through Table A4 depict the indicators of adaptive capacity, whereas Tables A5 and A6 depict indicators of sensitivity and exposure across the seven agricultural regions. Farmers living in Amhara and Oromia are wealthier than those in the other regions in terms of the quality of the houses they own. The percentage of people owning radios is highest in Afar and lowest in Amhara. Livestock ownership is highest in Somali, due to the fact that most farmers in Somali are nomads and make their livelihoods mostly from livestock. Overall, a very small proportion of farmers in Ethiopia has access to nonagricultural income, gifts, and remittance, clearly indicating that agriculture is the main source of livelihood in the rural community. Table A1 shows the wealth distribution across the seven regional states.SNNP has the highest access to technology, as the percentage of farmers in this region are the highest in terms of proximity to insecticides, pesticides, fertilizer, and supplies of improved seeds. Farmers in Somali and Afar have the lowest access to supplies of inputs (Table A2).Afar has the highest proportion of all-weather roads and health services; whereas Somali has the lowest proportion of health services and Amhara has the lowest proportion of all-weather roads. Food market is highest in SNNP and lowest in Somali and Amhara. Primary and secondary schools are relatively equally distributed across the regions, except for Somali, in which they are very low. Telephone services are highest in rural Afar and lowest in Benishangul Gumuz. Tigray has the highest proportion of microfinance and veterinary services, whereas Somali has the lowest proportion of both microfinance and veterinary services (Table A3). Irrigation potential and literacy rates are highest in SNNP and Tigray, respectively. Irrigation potential and literacy rates are lowest in Afar and Somali, respectively (Table A4). In terms of the frequency of drought and flood, Amhara stands first (even though the figures for Oromia and Somali are closer), whereas Benishangul Gumuz and Afar experienced a lesser frequency of drought and flood over the past century (Table A5). By 2050, the predicted change in temperature (increment) is highest for Afar and Tigray and lowest for SNPP, whereas the change in precipitation3 is the highest for Somali and lowest for SNPP (Table A6).For this analysis, PCA was run on the indicators listed in Table 3 using data analysis and statistical software (STATA). The PCA of the data set on vulnerability indicators revealed three components with eigenvalues greater than 1. These three components explain 95 percent of the total variation in the data set. The first principal component explained most of the variation (56 percent), and the second principal component explained 25 percent, and the third explained the least (14 percent). Based on earlier arguments for the use of PCA in constructing indices, we take the first principal component, which explained the majority of the variation in the data set. As can be observed from the factor scores, the first PCA (our vulnerability index, in this case) was positively associated with the majority of the indicators identified under adaptive capacity and negatively associated with all the indicators categorized under exposure and sensitivity (Table 3).Thus, for the construction of our vulnerability indices, we selected indicators of adaptive capacity, which are positively associated with the first PCA, and all the indicators of sensitivity and exposure, as they are negatively associated with our PCA (remaining with a total of 15 indices). Higher values of the vulnerability index show less vulnerability and vise versa, as we are dealing with the fact that adaptive capacity is positively loading. The exposure and sensitivity indices are negatively loading to our PCA. The calculations for the rest of the regions followed the same procedure. Table A7 presents the normalized values for each variable by their means and standard deviations for all regions. Figure 3 shows the vulnerability index for each region.Figure 3 shows that the net effect of adaptation, exposure, and sensitivity is positive for SNNP and Benishangul Gumuz and negative for Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Somali, and Tigray. This indicates that SNNP and Benishangul Gumuz are relatively not vulnerable, whereas Afar, Amhara, Oromia, and Somali are vulnerable. The lesser vulnerability of SNNP is associated with its relatively higher access to technology and food market, its highest irrigation potential, and its literacy rate. Afar, Somali, Oromia, and Tigray are among the highly vulnerable regions. Vulnerability of Afar and Somali is mainly associated with lower levels of regional development. Despite the fact that these regions are less populated than the other regions, the percentage of people with access to institutions and infrastructure remains very low due to the lowest level of regional development.The vulnerability of Oromia is associated with a high frequency of drought and flood and lower access to technology, institutions, and infrastructure. Similarly, the vulnerability of Tigray is attributed to lower access to technology, health services, food markets, and telephone services and the high frequency of drought and flood. Unlike Afar and Somali, the lower access to technology, institutions, and infrastructure in Tigray and Oromia is due to their high population in proportion to what is available. This study analyzed the vulnerability of Ethiopian farmers to climate change by creating vulnerability indices and comparing these indices across regions. Seven of Ethiopia's 11 regional states were considered for this study. The vulnerability analysis followed the IPCC (2001) definition of vulnerability, which explains it as a function of adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and exposure. The socioeconomic and environmental factors of each region were included in developing the vulnerability indices. Thus, the integrated vulnerability assessment approaches were adopted to combine these biophysical and socioeconomic indicators. The socioeconomic factors include wealth, literacy rate, technology, institutions, and infrastructure. The biophysical factors include irrigation potential, frequency of climate extremes, and future changes in temperature and rainfall. These factors were again divided into three categories to reflect adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and exposure. Positive values were attached to adaptive capacity and negative values to sensitivity and exposure. The method of principal component analysis was employed to give weights to the different factors affecting vulnerability.Vulnerability was calculated as the net effect of sensitivity and exposure on adaptive capacity. Results indicate that Afar, Somali, Oromia, and Tigray are relatively more vulnerable to climate change. The vulnerability of Afar and Somali is attributed to their low level of regional development. The vulnerability of Tigray and Oromia is attributed to higher frequencies of drought and flood and lower access to technology, institutions, and infrastructure. Unlike Afar and Somali, the lower access to technology, institutions, and infrastructure in Tigray and Oromia is due to their high population in proportion to what is available.The scale of analysis for this study is at the regional level, which is highly aggregated. Each region included in this study covers a very wide area of land characterized by different biophysical and socioeconomic attributes. These variations within each region should be considered in order to target areas that are highly vulnerable and to recommend appropriate interventions. Although the results of this study indicate the general features of each included region, future research should focus on local levels, especially district or village levels, where actual dynamics of vulnerability to climate change take place.Based on the analysis, a few general policy options for decreasing the vulnerability of Ethiopian farmers to climate change can be presented. In general, vulnerability to climate change in Ethiopia is highly related to poverty (loss of copying or adaptive capacity) in most of the regions that were indicated as vulnerable. Integrated rural development schemes aimed at alleviating poverty can play the double role of reducing poverty and increasing adaptive capacity to climate change. Special emphasis on the relatively less-developed regions of the country (i.e., Afar and Somali), as well as the relatively more populated regions (e.g., Oromia and Tigray), in terms of investment in technology, institutions, and infrastructure can also play a significant role.Moreover, early warning of extreme climatic events, such as drought, can alert farmers to sell their livestock and buy food and other items. Without this warning, such events could shrink or kill livestock that would have been used to insure farmers. In addition, investment in irrigation in places with high potential for irrigation (e.g., SNNP) can increase the country's food supply. This supply could then be stored and soled out during drought events instead of depending on food aid from other nations. Strengthening the ongoing micro-level adaptation methods of governmental and nongovernmental organizations, such as water harvesting and other natural resource conservation programs, can also boost the adaptive capacities of farmers. ","tokenCount":"6393"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0d40b1010223d872700753429fe91dd0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H001718.pdf","id":"1952847365"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e74565f6-5d02-49e7-9871-afb1b60d01df","pagecount":"10","content":"System H of the Mahaweli Project is elisentially an irrigated agricultural project. Its rnain objective is the maximum u~ilization of the 2.4 acres of irrigable land that has been given to the settlers.,It was hoped to achieve this hy producing high yielding and high value crops, Maximum possible use was to he made of the irrigation water that was avai1a:ile for cultivation. In the project activities of System H, community develorsment was to he given an equal emphasis with agriculture and water management. This was in order to achieve a social cohesiveness amongst the farmers so t iat through their active participation in agriculture and water management, the hest use could be made by them of the various Mahaweli inputs and programm:~.In order to achieve these objectives, it was necessary to organize farmer groups aud to train them in the various aspects of agriculture and water management. It was also necessary to upgrade tlieir managerial and organisational skills, so that the farmer participation in group activities would make their organisation strong and less dependent on the Mahaweli Authority and the Government. The general belief that the Government and its functionaries have to do everything for the settler had to be eorrwted.Initially, it was necessary to establish ;in effective dialogue between the farmers and the officers. Once this dialoguti was established it was, hoped to make the farmers aware of their obligations. These included: 0 To assist in organizing the farmers in a :urnout to work as a group in water management and agricnltnre.Clean, maintain, and repair their field channels and drainage channels for their mutual benefit and that of the managmnent. Distribute equitably amongst themselves t i e irrigation water that is given to them without wastage.Kcep to the cultivation calendars that thciy have helped to formulate, so that maximum use is made of the water available and to ensure better yields.To make maximum use of the agricultur.11 extension and input services that are made available to them by the management.To enforce sanctions on those whu do not keep to the cultivation calendar and those who damage irrigation structures, and to resolve disputes amongst themselves. The need for a strong and effective farmer wganisation was obvious if these objectives were to be achieved.In designing the irrigation system for th: Mahaweli areas, management considerations too were an important factor. There was an emphasis on rotational water issues as opposed to the conventional practice of continuous flow. In the older irrigation projects, long distributoi y channels were a common feature and from these channels individual pipe cutlets were given to each field. This allowed little room for the collective orllanisation of farmers for water distribution.The irrigation design for System N provides for water to be ultimately released to a turnout group of 15-20 farmers, who then have to manage and usc this water by sharing it equally among themselves. The Mahaweli Authority is responsible for the delivery of this water from the reservoir via Main, Branch, Distributory, and Sub-Distributory canals to the point where the water was turned out to the Field Canal, The Field Canal has a capacity of 1 cusec. The 1 cusec canal necessarily requires irrigation at night as well, and this naturally poses problems to the farmers as well as to the officials.It was assumed by the planners that the farmers in each turnout would, on their own, organize themselves for the equilable distribution of the water allocated to them. They also assumed that the farmers would maintain their field channels and irrigation structures on their own. It was found early that, in addition to the problems of laud preparation, the farmers were not in a position to distribute and share this water equitably among themselves because they did not have any basic organisation within their turnout area. They were not maintaining the field canals nor the irrigation structures. It was evident that there was an urgent need for a farmer organisation at the field channel level.It was felt that the basic farmer organisation that was necessary, had to be at the turnout level where such an organisation would he most effective. It was easy to organize the farmers within a turnaut as they had common objectives and common problems. It was necessary th?refore, to get the farmers in each turnout area together, so that they could ,e organized for group action and trained in water management where initiallj. the farmers had the biggest problems. These problems were more acute with the farmers who were cultivating the tail-ends of the turnout areas, who did )not get sufficient water for cultivation. In some instances, this was due to ovt:r use and wastage by the head-end farmers and in some instances, due to fau1t:r construction within the irrigation system.There was no formal or informal relati,mship among the farmers in a tur. nout area which would have enabled them to work together and to discuss and solve their problems. With the organisation of the farmers at the turnout level, we hoped to develop social cohesiveness a m m g them around water management and agriculture. We also hoped to build a slrong relationship between farmers, farmer leaders, and the officers which woulj form the base on which problems could he surfaced and identified and solutims found suitable to all farmers in the group.The co-ordination that was necessary hetween agriculture, water mauagement and community development was to be emphasized when organizing the farmer group. Community Development activities that hitherto had been given little emphasis in the pre-Mahaweli settlement projects, played an important role not only in assisting the farmers to organizc themselves hut also by acting as a catalyst for all the other project activities. [t was through the active participation of all the farmers in a turnout area that maximum use could be made of the land and water given to them, This was espei:ially so with regard to the equitable distribution of the limited irrigation water that was available.It i s difficult to organize and train 24,000 f h n e r s , cach of whom has an individual land holding. Therefore in August 1979, the strategy that the Mahaweli Development Board decided to adopt in the organisation and training of farmers, was to take representatives of a turnout group for initial training.These farmer representatives (FRs) would recei1.e training in agriculture and water management and would also be given any spccial messages that the Mahaweli had for its farmers. They would in turrl disseminate this training and information to the other farmers in their group.In System H there are over 1,730 turnout areas. The Unit Manager together with the Engineering Assistant convened meetings of the farmers in each of the turnout groups and asked them to dect two farmers to represent them as the T u r n o u t g o u p Leader and the Contact Farmer.A joint team of all the field staff attached to the Range met all the farmers in that Range and explained the need and purpose of a farmer organisation. This team consisted of the Agricultural Instructor, (Al) Assistant Community Development Officer, (AO) Development Assistant, (DA) and the .IPS and KVS.It must be noted here that all FRs were elected by the farmers and not selected by the management. The Turnout 1.eader was for water management and the Contact Farmer was for agricultural extension activities.These farmer leaders were brought, once a fortnight, to the Community Development Training Centers which were locatei in various parts of System €1.Their training W d S organized by the Unit Managei. The Block Staff were engaged in the main aspects of training these farmers in water management, agriculture, marketing, credit, etc., and also in community development. The Project level staff were also involved in this training, in thai some members of the project staff visited each of these ttaining sessions and spoke to the farmer leaders. The farmer leaders could also use these sessions as a Iorum where they could surface the various problems of their group and find suitable solutions for them.After each training sessian, the Turnout Group Leaders were supposed to organize meetings in their turnout areas and to disseminate the training and information that they received at these session: to the other farmers and also inform them of the solutions to their problems.The farmer leader training programme was well organized and was held on a regular basis at a prearranged time and date so that the participants were well aware of the dates of their training programine. The farmers were given folders, pen, and paper so that they could keep a rc:cord of all their training activities together with the literature that was distributed. During these training sessions, the farmers were given instruction sheets on the different subjects in which they were trained.These instruction sheets, which were prepared by the project staff related to the particular aspects of training that was given to the farmers. Instruction sheets were issued not only on subjects relating to agriculture, irrigation, and community development, but on other relevmt topics as well. All these instruction sheets have now been put together in the form of a handbook which is being used for future training, not only in System H, but in other Mahaweli systems as well (Jayawardene 1983). The lectures at these training sessions were given mainly by the staff working in the prpject areas, but in some instances, specialists from outside were invited to deliver special lectures on important topics.The farmer leaders were paid Rs. lo/for attending each training session as partial compensation for the wages that they would loose in coming continuously to these training sessions. Their continued attendance was important as the farmer leaders were one of the major links between the Mahaweli staff and the other farmers. This payment meant that :hey did not have to make too great a sacrifice on behalf of the community. Lunch was provided on the days that the sessions were held. It was argued by some, h3wever that the continued enthusiastic attendance of the farmer leaders at these sessions was due to this payment.This theory was disproved later on when the payment of Rs. lo/was withdrawn without an effect on the attendance. It was evident that the farmer leaders attended these sessions because they saw its L'eneficial aspects.An evaluation of these training progrnmmes shows that turnout group training has had a positive effect on the farmers in enabling them to organize themselves to make maximum use of the l a d , water, and other resources available to them. The increase in productivity has meant higher income which in turn has helped them to improve their qualit], of life.These training sessions have also helped the farmer cultivate other more profitable crops like chillies, which they were not used to cultivating.Through these training sessions and turnout organisations we tried to wean the farmers away from paddy cultivation during the Yala season to adopt the cultivation of other field crops.These changcs have now proved to be beneficial in that large areas are cultivated during the Yala season with other fif!ld crops, especially in the reddish brown earths which constitute 60% of the roils in System H. In 1979, 414 acres were cultivated in other field crops, incr,:asing to 22,500 acres in 1985.The positive effects of our farmcr training proipmme can be seen broadly in the following observations: 1.A rapid reduction of the irrigation problens that beset most of the farmers in the initial stages of the project, especidly in the receipt and equitable distribution of water. This is revealed by reduction in the numher of problems listed by the respective Unit Managers before the commencement of each season.The adoption of new agricultural method3 and techniques. This is borne out by the fact that System H has been able to reach yields higher than the yields in any other district in thc country #:Table 1 System H produces over one third of thi: country's chillie requirernenls. This is reflected by the increased acreage rnder chillie each year shown in Table 2 below.The progressive reduction in water use as shown in Table 3 for the cultivation of both paddy and other field crops, can be positively related to the training of farmers in water management.Many turnout group organisations now :ake on small maintenance contracts within their turnout areas or on t l e distributory channel close by.This gives those farmers in the group an added income and ensures the proper and satisfactory maintenance of thr!ir irrigation system.   It was interesting to note that in most initances a farmer at the tail end of the turnout was elected the leader. This prohatly was due to the fact that he had problems in receiving watcr to his field which necessitated his active participation in the group's activities. In a number of other instances, it was noted that the morc affluent and the leader. It was observed latterly that the Farmer Leaders who were ekcted, represented the interest of the fellow turnout farmers as well. Each year when the farmers have an opportunity of electing new leaders, only 570 of the Ii:aders are replaced.We have found, in certain instances howerer, that the Farmer Leaders were not disseminating the information that they w :re given at the training sessions to the others in their groups. This was in tt.c region of 10% 1. 0 15% of the Farmer Leaders. We also found that in certain instances, the Farmer Leader was now considered an extension of the bureaucracy and therefore, other farmers in the group did not readily accept whatever training or information this Farmer Leader tried to impart ta them. These leaders did, however, make use of this training themselves. In these instances the eff:ct of agricultural extension was limited to the denionstration effect of the farmi ig activity of the turnout leader.Where there was no group activity or orgmisation, it was difficult for the farmers to manage their water and to solve the problems that arose with regard to its equitable distribution. This was also evid(:nt in turnouts where farm allotments had been leased out. The lessee was not at all interested in group activities. As a result the other farmers of that t u r n w t too did not show much interest in the activities of the group. These instances of leasing were sometimes difficult to detect. Though there is no clear or authentic data, it is estimated that approximately 15% to 20% of the lands a'e leased out. In such situations we have tried to change the attitudes of the lurnout group by paying special attention to the whole group at the field itself.All in all, it has been found that the turnout leader training programme has had beneficial effects in helping farmers to or6:anize themselves as a group for profitahle cultivation activity. There is now a strong relationship between the officers and the farmers in a turnout group where the Farmer Leader was the initial link. This bas contributed to the quick and effective solution of farmers' problems which was one of the main objectives in organizing the farmers at the turnout level.Group activity and the early solution to problems have also enabled the farmers to settle down quickly and to stand on iheir own feet. It has also helped to achieve high agricultural production, thereb:r justifying the large investment that has been made in developing these lands and settling the people. The higher incomes that they earned have led to an improvement in the quality of the lives they now lead.It must be recorded that these training programmes would not have been successful, if not for the positive role played hy the field staff as organizers and trainers. The strong relationship that was buil. up between the farmers and the officials was important. No effective farmer pahcipation is possible in irrigation management, especially in like Systeri H, without the initiative by officials. The field staff engaged in farmer training activities, had to be initially trained as trainers to effectively organize and train the farmer leaders. A special programme was drawn up for the training of the Mahaweli officers as trainers and this programme continues even now.Since the turnout leader training programme has been successful and its objectives met to a great extent, we decided to try the training of the whole turnout group in certain selected areas. Here all farmers in a turnout were brought together. The Mahaweli staff could t h m by way of lectures, discussions, etc., give all of them thc special messages and training that was necessary for the group.Thesc sessions were informal and were (,onducted in a location within or close to the turnout area itself. This was a depirture from the class room type of training that was conducted for the turnout lesders hitherto. Thc farmers in the turnout were now engaged in a more field-oriented training. The response to this type of training was encouraging and of ben,:fit to all the farmers in the furnonts that were chosen for this experimental training programme. However, due to logistical reasons .there are over 1,700 tnrnouts in System H .it was not possible to extend this type of training to everyone of the turnout group arcas.Thercfore, in System H, we now have turnout training in certain chosen loca. tions in each KPMs area. We also continued the farmer leader training programme as done earlier, su that we continrie to keep in touch with all the farmers either directly or through their turnout group leaders.Organising the turnout groups and training the farmers with the same objectives, has been started in the new Mahaweli project areas, System Band C as well. The experience that we have gained in System H is proving useful to our future work.In the Tambuttegama KPM's area of S:istem H , D-channel organisations were formed at the beginning of the Maha 19:35-86 season. All the Farmer Leaders of the turnout along each D-channel constituted the membership of these new organisations. The main objectives of the new D-channel organisations were:1. To estahlish a continuous dialogue hetwt:en the farmer and the officers in respect of the operation and maintenance of that D-channel.To assist in the organisation of the land Iweparation and other agricultural activities so that the water distribution programme could he carried out smoothly.To arrange for a water distribution system among the turnouts that would ensure a uniform flow in the D-channels during the periods of water issue for each cultivation season.4.To ensure that there is no wastage of watcr at the D-channel level and that there damage to structures and the D-channel.get the D-channel larmer organisation to effect necessary repairs to the D-channel and structures, to give the farmers the opportunity to earn an income and to ensure that the work woulc he done satisfactorily.The obligations of the Farmer Leader who are the mp.mhers of the D- Farmer Leaders should maintain a good relarimship with the officials of the Mahaweli and strive to assist them actively in tieir work so that they can eventually take over some of their functions.'The observations made during the last Maha season on the functioning of these D-channel organisations showed that they had started off well (Scudder and Wimaladharma 1985). It has heen decided to continue these programmes in the coming Yala season as well. At the end of the Yala season a n evaluation will be made of the performance of these organisations with a view to deciding future programmes.","tokenCount":"3233"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"429329c651b11fc176fd6373013cea9a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3b4652c1-8ae5-4ecd-b1e8-2cf276bcb2a2/content","id":"-1298185582"},"keywords":["Canola","Oilseed rape","Pollen","Pistil","Global warming","Genetic control"],"sieverID":"c2b99fd2-1a58-4328-accf-89adc999785a","pagecount":"12","content":"Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is sensitive to heat stress during the reproductive stage, but it is not clear whether the male and female reproductive organs differ in their sensitivity to heat stress. In this study, full diallel crossing experiments were conducted among four genotypes of B. napus under control, moderate and high heat stress conditions for five days immediately before and two days after crossing. General combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA) and reciprocal effects were analyzed to evaluate the genetic basis of heat stress tolerance in male and female reproductive organs. High female temperature (Tf) and high male temperature (Tm) reduced the number of fertile pods and seeds set per floret, and the significant Tf 9 Tm interaction indicated that female reproductive organs were more sensitive to heat stress than male reproductive organs. There were no overall GCA, SCA or reciprocal effects across all combinations of Tf and Tm. However, a significant reciprocal 9 Tf effect was found, suggesting that genotypes differed in their ability to set fertile pods and seeds as Tf increased. The relative heat tolerance of G1 as a female increased as Tf increased, and the relative heat tolerance of G2 as a male decreased as Tf increased. In summary, reciprocal diallel crossing has demonstrated that female reproductive organs of B. napus are more sensitive than male to transient heat stress at the early flowering stage, and genotypes differ in relative heat tolerance in the male and female reproductive organs as Tf increases.Global grain production is at risk from predicted temperature increases in the twenty-first century, with estimated decline of 10-25% by 2100 (IPCC 2014). Temperature extremes reduce crop grain yield during the reproductive stage in most crop plants (Hatfield and Prueger 2015). The frequency of extreme temperature events is expected to increase by 2050 (Battisti and Naylor 2009).Canola (Brassica napus L.), or oilseed rape, is the third most important oilseed produced globally. Brassica species are most sensitive to heat stress during the reproductive period (Gan et al. 2004;Annisa et al. 2013;Chen et al. 2019). Short periods of high temperature from the beginning of flowering reduce canola grain yields in the field (Angadi et al. 2000;Morrison and Stewart 2002) and the glasshouse (Young et al. 2004). Heat stress sensitivity in canola began at the green bud stage (BBCH 53) (Chen et al. 2020), which coincided with the beginning of meiosis. As few as three days of transient heat stress from the green bud stage to two weeks after first open flower reduced pod numbers and seed yield on the main stem (Chen et al. 2020). Short periods of heat stress for up to five weeks after first open flower on the main stem continued to reduce pod numbers and seed yield on the branches (Chen et al. 2020).Heat stress affects various stages of plant reproduction, including meiosis, pollen and ovule number and viability, pollen germination and growth in the stigma, fertilisation and early embryo and seed development. Polowick and Sawhney (1988) reported that ovule development in B. napus is abnormal under high temperatures. Transient heat stress also reduced pollen viability in B. napus, but this alone could not explain the associated reduction in seed and pod development (Young et al. 2004;Morrison et al. 2016;Chen et al. 2020). The evidence to date does not clearly define differential effects of heat stress on male and female reproductive organs immediately before and after pollination, nor does it address the question of whether heat stress tolerance is under different genetic control in male and female reproductive organs at during reproduction.Controlled crossing among genotypes in a full diallel design (Griffing 1956) is potentially useful to assess the relative impact of transient daily heat stress on male and female reproductive organs. This will permit the estimation of general combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA) and reciprocal (maternal or sex-linked) effects under different heat stress conditions. In a full diallel crossing design, heat stress would be applied independently to male and female reproductive organs prior to and immediately following hand pollination. This may reveal differences in the sensitivity of male and female reproductive organs to heat stress, and GCA, SCA and reciprocal effects for heat tolerance. Prior studies in canola (Young et al. 2004;Chen et al. 2020) indicate that the transient heat stress should be applied to male and female plants beginning at green bud stage, several days before the first flowers open on the main stem. Four days of heat stress applied to male or female plants prior to hand pollination adversely effected fertile pod and seed production of B. napus, and there was a synergistic impact when heat stress was applied to both gametophytes (Young et al. 2004). However, Young et al. (2004) only used one genotype and few replicates so it is not clear whether the heat stress affected male and female gametophytes equally, or if genotypes vary in heat stress tolerance in the male and female reproductive organs.This study investigated the relative impact of heat stress on male and female reproductive organs of four genotypes of B. napus in a full diallel hand-crossing experiment under control, moderate and high heat stress conditions. This also permitted us to assess whether the four genotypes expressed heat stress tolerance differentially in male and female reproductive organs.Two Australian canola cultivars ATR Stingray (G1) and AV-Ruby (G3) and two Chinese canola cultivars Zhongyou821 (G2) and ZY001 (G4) were used as parents in the crossing program. These four cultivars showed a range of responses to heat stress at the early flowering stage in preliminary field experiments at The University of Western Australia (UWA) (Chen et al., unpublished).A pilot experiment was conducted from April to November 2015 in a glasshouse and controlled environment rooms (CERs) at UWA, Crawley, Western Australia (31.986°S 115.822°E). The main experiment was conducted in the same months in 2016. In both experiments, seeds of the four cultivars were sown on six sowing dates one week apart with sufficient plants to permit multiple crosses on the main stem between cultivars according to the experimental plan. Seeds were sown in seedling trays in a growth chamber at 15 °C constant temperature. After 12 d, the seedling trays were transferred to a cold room (6 °C day, 2 °C night) for vernalisation for 4 wk. After vernalisation, all plants were transplanted into 90 mm square olive pot (Garden City Plastics, Australia) with one plant per pot and grown in a glasshouse before and after heat treatment in CERs. Each pot was filled with canola potting mix, comprising 50% fine composted pine bark, 20% coco peat and 30% brown river sand plus 1.0 g kg -1 of gypsum with final pH * 6.0. The average temperature in the glasshouse was 22 °C day/16 °C night, under natural daylength (10.5-12.5 h) and average light intensity at midday of 635 mmol m -2 s -1 photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). At the green bud stage, the plants were transferred to CERs for heat treatments.The diurnal temperature fluctuation in the heat treatments followed the description in previous experiments (Chen et al. 2019(Chen et al. , 2020)). The pilot study had two treatments (CERs): control (L) with transient maximum/minimum temperatures of 25 °C/15 °C, and high-temperature treatment (H) with transient maximum/minimum temperatures of 35 °C/25 °C (TC1 and TC3 in Fig. 1a, Chen et al. 2020). The main experiment had three treatments (CERs): L and H as per the pilot study, and moderate temperature treatment (M) with transient maximum/minimum temperatures of 32 °C/22 °C (TC2 in Fig. 1a, Chen et al. 2020).All CERs were set to 425 lmol m -2 s -1 PAR for 16 h and 8 h dark period each day, 65% relative humidity, with water supplied automatically by drippers to pots to maintain soil moisture at approximately 90% field capacity (Chen et al. 2020).The temperature treatment of female plants (Tf) was L or H in the pilot experiment, and L, M and H in the main experiment. Likewise, the temperature treatment of male plants (Tm) was L or H in the pilot experiment, and L, M and H in the main experiment.In the pilot study, a full diallel cross including reciprocals was executed for G1, G2, G3 and G4 in each combination of Tf (L or H) and Tm (L or H). Each cross was repeated up to five times (biological replicates) per cross/temperature combination at various times according to plant availability from multiple sowings. After crossing, female plants were fully randomised on a glasshouse bench.In the main experiment, a full diallel cross including reciprocals was executed for G1, G2, G3 and G4 in each combination of Tf (L, M or H) and Tm (L, M or H). Each cross was repeated up to five times (biological replicates) per cross/temperature combination at various times according to plant availability from multiple sowings. The full factorial of nine combinations of male and female temperatures was used in this experiment, and a full diallel crossing design among the four genotypes was established at each of the nine heat level combinations (total 16 crosses at each heat level) (Supplemental Fig. S1A). After crossing, female plants were fully randomised on a glasshouse bench (Supplemental Fig. S1B).Pairs of parent plants, one designated as male and one as female, were moved from the glasshouse to the CER of the designated heat treatment at the green bud stage following the experimental design. In the pilot study, crossing occurred in the CER after seven days of pre-treatment at L or H. In the main experiment, crossing occurred in the CER after five days of pretreatment at L, M or H. Three to five florets were emasculated on each female plant, and pollen was moved from newly opened flowers on the male parent plant to hand pollinate the emasculated female flowers. Hand-pollinated buds were covered with selfing bags to prevent contamination with pollen from other plants. After pollination, all female plants remained in their designated heat treatment for another two days, before they were moved back to the glasshouse until maturity. Any remaining florets on the main stem or branches were trimmed so that only the handpollinated florets were retained until maturity (Supplemental Fig. S1B).Pollen viability was measured on male plants using the acetocarmine method (Heslop-Harrison 1992). Plants in the glasshouse were moved to CERs (L and H) on the day that first open flowers appeared on plants.Three newly opened flowers were harvested from L and H CERs on the third, fifth and seventh days of heat treatment for pollen viability tests. Flowers were harvested between 11:00 and 12:00 h each day. One drop of 1% acetocarmine was placed on top of a microscope slide. Pollen grains were dispersed into the stain, and covered with a cover slip. After 2-3 min, viable and non-viable pollen were observed under a microscope (Olympus, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan) with 600-fold magnification. Pollen viability was recorded on 200 pollen grains per flower. Bright orange stained pollen was counted as viable, and pollen that did not absorb the stain was counted as non-viable.Pods and seeds on each hand-pollinated floret were recorded at maturity. Pods less than 2 cm in length were not counted unless they contained a seed, and only pods with at least one seed were counted as fertile. Seeds were counted if they were at least 50% fully developed. Average total pods per floret (TPF), fertile pods per floret (FPF) and seeds per floret (SPF) were calculated for each female plant. The length of the longest pod on each female plant was also measured and recorded as maximum pod length (MPL).Linear Mixed Model and Data analysis Diallel joint analyses were based on the following linear mixed model:where y is the vector of observations; f is the vector of fixed effects of female temperature (Tf); m is the vector of fixed effects of male temperature (Tm); f m is the vector of fixed effects of Tf 9 Tm interaction; g is the vector of random effects of GCA, with g $ N 0;where r 2 GCA is the variance of the GCA; s is the vector of random effects of SCA, with s $ N 0;where r 2 SCA is the variance of SCA; r is the vector of random effects of reciprocal (REC), with r $ N 0;where r 2 REC is the variance of REC; g f is the vector of random effects of GCA 9 Tf, with g f $ N 0; Ir 2where r 2 GCAxTf is the variance of GCA 9 Tf; s f is the vector of random effects of SCA 9 Tf, with s f $ N 0; Ir 2 SCAxTf where r 2 SCAxTf is the variance of SCA 9 Tf; r f is the vector of random effects of REC 9 Tf, withRECxTf is the variance of REC 9 Tf; g m is the vector of random effects of GCA 9 Tm, with g m $ N 0;GCAxTm is the variance of GCA 9 Tm; s m is the vector of random effects of SCA 9 Tm, withwhere r 2 SCAxTm is the variance of SCA 9 Tm; r m is the vector of random effects of REC 9 Tm, with r m $ N 0;RECxTm is the variance of REC 9 Tm; e is the vector of random residual effects, e $ N 0; Ir 2 e À Á where r 2 e is the residual variance; X f , X m , X fm , Z g , Z s , Z r , Z gf , Z sf , Z rf , Z gm , Z sm , and Z rm are the respective incidence matrices and I is the identity matrix of appropriate dimension denoting that the random effects have identical and independent distributions.The analyses were performed using the ASReml-R package (Butler et al. 2009). Fixed and random effects were estimated using the Restricted Maximum Likelihood/Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (REML/ BLUP) method in ASReml. The significance of fixed effects was tested using the Wald test and the significance of random effects using the likelihood ratio test in the ASRemlPlus-R package (Brien 2016).In the pilot study, 5216 seeds were harvested from 2412 florets which were hand-crossed in the 64 hybrid combinations of the diallel among G1, G2, G3 and G4 repeated across the four Tf 9 Tm combinations (L 9 L, L 9 H, H 9 L and H 9 H). On average, the control treatment (L 9 L) had 5.47 hybrid seeds per floret (SPF), L 9 H had very few seeds harvested (SPF = 0.68), and H 9 H and H 9 L did not set seed. Therefore, it was decided to add a moderate heat stress treatment (32/22 °C day/night) in the main experiment, with the duration of heat pre-treatment reduced from 7 to 5 d before crossing, to facilitate the evaluation of heat stress on male and female organs.In the main experiment, there were 144 hybrid combinations of the diallel among G1, G2, G3 and G4 repeated across the nine Tf 9 Tm combinations (L 9 L, L 9 M, L 9 H, M 9 L, M 9 M, M 9 H, H 9 L, H 9 M and H 9 H). A total of 2467 florets were hand-pollinated (Supplemental Fig. S1A), with 1086 pods collected from 516 plants. Of these 727 pods were fertile and 6722 seeds were harvested (Supplemental Fig. S1B).The Wald test of fixed effects revealed large Tf, Tm, and Tf 9 Tm effects for TPF, FPF, SPF and MPL (Table 1). Heat stress had an adverse effect on both female and male reproductive organs. The significant Tf 9 Tm interaction confirms that heat stress had a more significant impact on female reproductive organs than male reproductive organs (Fig. 1). Moderate or high heat stress on male reproductive organs resulted in higher TPF, FPF, SPF and MPL than moderate or high stress on female reproductive organs (Fig. 1).The likelihood ratio test of random effects estimated using the REML/BLUP method revealed no significant GCA, SCA or reciprocal effects overall, but significant reciprocal 9 Tf effects for TPF, FPF and SPF (Table 1). The lack of a significant GCA indicates that the four varieties had the same average response to heat stress across the nine Tf/Tm combinations, and the lack of a significant SCA indicates that no specific combinations of the four parents had a consistent heterotic response to heat stress across the nine Tf/Tm combinations. Reciprocal effects were also not significant when averaged across the whole experiment. Interaction effects of Tm or Tf by GCA and SCA were not significant; that is, there was no consistent change in GCA or SCA across the nine Tf/Tm combinations (Table 1).However, there was a significant reciprocal 9 Tf effect for TPF, FPF and SPF (Table 1), indicating that the reciprocal effects changed as Tf increased. This was observed as a change in ranking of G1, G2, G3 and G4 for TPF, FPF and SPF as males or females as Tf increased (Table 2). There was no significant reciprocal 9 Tm effect, that is, relative genotypic performance for heat stress tolerance as male or female did not change as Tm increased.Reciprocal 9 Tf effect for total pods per floret (TPF) G2 was the best-performing female for TPF across all Tf and its ranking as a male increased as Tf increased. G3 was ranked lowest as a male across all Tf and its ranking as a female decreased as Tf increased. G1 was highly ranked as a male for TPF at moderate Tf, but not as a female (Table 2).Reciprocal 9 Tf effect for fertile pods per floret (FPF) G2 was also the best-performing for FPF female across all Tf and its ranking as a male increased as Tf increased. G3 was ranked low for FPF as a male across all Tf and its ranking as a female decreased as Tf increased. G1 was also highly ranked as a male for FPF at moderate Tf, but not as a female (Table 2). In contrast to TPF and FPF, G1 was the highestranking female for SPF at moderate and high Tf, and the highest-ranking male at moderate Tf. G2 was highly ranked as a female at moderate Tf, but not as a male. The ranking of G3 as a female fell for SPF as Tf increased. G4 was ranked highly as a male for SPF across all Tf but lowest as a female across all Tf (Table 2).Correlations between traits across nine combinations of female and male temperatures TPF had a weak positive correlation with the other three traits (FPF, SPF and MPL) in the low Tm and Tf treatments, but these correlations increased as Tf increased (Fig. 2). In contrast, FPF always had a strong positive correlation with SPF, especially at high Tf (Fig. 2). MPL had a moderate to strong positive correlation with FPF and SPF in most treatments. TPF, FPF and MPL may be useful surrogates for, or complement SPF in large-scale experiments to assess heat tolerance.Flowers in most of the genotypes started showing heat stress symptoms, such as small half-opened flowers with protruding styles and small stamens, after 7 d in the H treatment; therefore, pollen viability tests were not continued beyond the seventh day. The average pollen viability of the four genotypes was [ 95% on day 0, and gradually fell to 75% after 7 d of the H treatment (Fig. 3).We conducted controlled environment experiments that separated heat stress treatments on male and female reproductive organs, in order to identify differences in the sensitivity of these organs to heat stress. The pilot study suggested that the female reproductive organs of B. napus were more sensitive to heat stress than the male reproductive organs in terms of SPF, but we were unable to detect any genotypic variation for stress tolerance in the high (H) stress treatment as very few seeds were formed. In the main The reciprocal effect is observed as a change of ranking between the use of a genotype as male or female; this ranking changes across low (Tf_L), moderate (Tf_M) and high (Tf_H) female temperature treatments experiment, we added a moderate (M) heat stress treatment with maximum transient daily heat stress of 32 °C and discovered that heat treatments on both the female and male reproductive organs prior to handpollination reduced subsequent pod and seed formation. However, the significant Tf 9 Tm interaction (Table 1) and the relatively higher impact of Tf compared to Tm on TPF, FPF, SPF and MPL (Fig. 1) confirms that the impact of heat stress is greater on the female than the male reproductive organs. Heat stress on the male reproductive organ caused a reduction in pollen viability (Fig. 3), but by itself this reduction in pollen viability could not explain the full impact of Tm on TPF, FPF, SPF and MPL.In our study, the heat treatment occurred during reproduction from 5 d before crossing to 2 d after crossing. As a result, the temperature treatment on males (Tm) occurred during meiosis and pollen development in the male reproductive organs, pollen germination on the stigma, pollen tube growth in the style, and fertilisation of the ovary. Temperature treatment on females (Tf) occurred during meiosis and ovary development in the female reproductive organs, and fertilization of the ovary. There were major differences in the impact of Tm and Tf on seed and pod set in the main experiment. The number of hybrid seeds per floret (SPF) was relatively high in the moderate temperature treatment on males (Tm_M) and control temperature on females (Tf_L) (Fig. 1c), but there were very few SPF in the moderate temperature treatment on females (Tf_M) and control temperature on males (Tm_L) (Fig. 1c). In contrast, the high temperature treatment seriously reduced SPF in both female (Tf_H) and male (Tm_H) (Fig. 1c). Similar relative results were observed for TPF, FPF, and MPL (Fig. 1). We conclude that female reproductive organs are more sensitive than male to transient daily heat stress, but that the high temperature treatment (Tm_H and Tf_H) has a large negative impact on both male and female reproductive organs and pollen tube growth and fertilisation.It was reported previously that heat stress on the male reproductive organ did not disrupt the synergidderived, pollen tube guidance system to the micropyle in B. napus (Young et al. 2004). While more research is required on the impact of heat stress on pollen tube growth and fertilisation, our results here and previously (Chen et al. 2020) support the conclusion that heat stress has its greatest impact on reducing pod and seed set in B. napus during the period from one week prior to two weeks after flowers open, and this impact is mostly observed in the female reproduction organs.The main experiment also aimed to identify any differences in heat tolerance among genotypes, if they exist. Our unique approach analysed results from a full diallel crossing experiment with selfs and reciprocals (Griffing 1956), including a complete diallel for each of the nine heat-stress treatments. No significant GCA occurred across the experiment; that is, none of the genotypes consistently contributed superior or inferior genetic values for TPF, FPF, SPF or MPL (Table 1). Also, no significant SCA or reciprocal effects occurred across the experiment.However, there were highly significant Reciprocal 9 Tf effects (Table 1), indicating that genotypes change in ranking as males and females for TPF, FPF and SPF as Tf increases (Table 2). This was observed as (i) a difference in the ability to set pods and seed when acting as a male or female, as witnessed by the high rank of G4 as a male but its low rank as a female, and (ii) a change in ranking as Tf increased, for example, G1 increased in rank as a female as Tf increased, and G2 decreased in rank as a male as Tf increased. G1 formed relatively more fertile pods and seeds as a female under heat stress than other genotypes, but relatively fewer as a male.It is important to emphasise that these experiments are specific to hand-pollination, and the results from self-pollination may differ. Canola breeders who seek improvements in heat stress tolerance will ask: do genotypes differ in heat tolerance during selfing, and are there differences in the genetics of heat tolerance in female or male reproductive organs? Our results demonstrate that differences exist in the genetics of heat tolerance in male and female reproductive organs: G1 was more tolerant in female reproductive organs and less tolerant in male reproductive organs than other genotypes, and G4 was relatively more tolerant in male reproductive organs as Tf increased. This source of heat tolerance in the female reproductive organs of G1 and male reproductive organs in G4 will not be revealed in a simple screening test based on self-pollination, where both male and female reproductive organs are exposed to heat stress.This has implications for breeding for heat tolerance. If screening is based on reproductive success during self-pollination, and genetic differences exist in heat tolerance in female and male reproductive organs, then a potential source of heat tolerance genes may be missed, as we discovered when we found no GCA for heat tolerance among the four test genotypes. A crossing program must aim to recombine heat tolerance in female and male reproductive organs from different genotypes. Cowling et al. (2019) proposed a breeding program for heat tolerance in a self-pollinating crop with rapid two-year cycles of recurrent selection, where heat tolerance was gradually recombined in the population with grain yield and other low heritability traits, based on optimal contributions selection on an index composed of all traits and with priority selection for heat tolerance index.Our experiments confirm that heat stress affects the interaction of male and female reproductive organs during the process of fertilisation, embryo formation and seed and pod development. Pollen viability was reduced by 20-25% after 7 days of exposure to the high temperature of 35 °C, but this does not account for all of the loss in subsequent TPF, FPF and SPF caused by high Tm, suggesting that pollen viability is not a good indicator of heat stress tolerance in B. napus. This is consistent with previous reports in B. napus (Young et al. 2004;Morrison et al. 2016;Chen et al. 2020). However, this is in contrast to cereal crops, in which the maintenance of pollen fertility could serve as basis for the selection of reproductive tolerance to heat stress (Dolferus et al. 2011;Thistlethwaite et al. 2020).In these experiments, the significant reciprocal 9 Tf interaction suggests that the expression of genes for tolerance differs between male and female reproductive organs, and this varies across genotypes. If heat stress tolerance has low to moderate heritability and differs across reproductive organs in different genotypes, as appears to be the case in B. napus based on this and other experiments (Chen et al. 2019(Chen et al. , 2020)), then selection for heat stress tolerance must be included along with grain yield and other economically important traits as a long-term breeding strategy. Frequent recombination will be necessary to combine unique heat stress tolerance genes expressed in the male or female reproductive organs of different genotypes in order to achieve the long-term goal of increased heat stress tolerance and high grain yield (Cowling et al. 2019).Canola F 1 hybrids are better suited to regions experiencing heat stress than open-pollinated cultivars (Pokharel et al. 2020), suggesting a shift to F 1 hybrid canola cultivation under predicted hotter climates in the future. Parental selection is critical for canola hybrid production. Using two rapeseed lines with contrasting oil content, Hua et al. (2012) found that the maternal genotype greatly affected seed oil content in the subsequent F 1 hybrid. In canola hybrids, the maternal genotype should be selected for heat tolerance to improve both F 1 seed production and subsequent heat stress tolerance of the F 1 hybrid.Previous research on heat stress tolerance in crop plants focused on heat stress tolerance in pollen and pollen pistil interactions (Snider and Oosterhuis 2011), because the male part was considered as more sensitive to heat stress than the pistil (Mascarenhas and Crone 1996). However, evidence for pistil sensitivity to heat stress is accumulating. In tomato, a hightemperature treatment after pollination prevented fertilisation and resulted in ovule abortion (Iwahori 1966). In wheat, three days of high temperature (30 °C) during meiosis did not alter pollen germination, but prevented pollen tube guidance to the ovules due to an increase in ovule abnormalities and a decrease in the proportion of functional ovules (Saini et al. 1983). In Brassica, pollen germination under heat stress does not seem to be a major issue. A heat shock treatment at 60 °C for 24 h to mature pollen grains of B. juncea did not affect pollen viability and the ability to set pods (Rao et al. 1992). Three B. napus cultivars subjected to 36 °C had good pollen germination (Morrison et al. 2016). Reproductive organs of B. napus plants are negatively affected by heat stress, resulting in reduced male and female reproductive organ viability (Polowick and Sawhney 1988); most flower buds remaining closed but having protruding stigmas, as also observed in B. rapa (Annisa et al. 2013). Stamen size decreased and the anthers had abnormal microsporogenesis. The female part of the flower, although normal in appearance, did not set seed and had aberrant ovule development (ovular abnormalities) under high temperatures (Polowick and Sawhney 1988). Heat stress disrupts ovule development, fertilisation, early embryo growth and seed development in B. napus (Young et al. 2004;Chen et al. 2020). In this paper, we show that heat stress affects both male and female reproductive organs, but with a greater impact on the female than male, and that the genetic expression of heat tolerance differs in female and male reproductive organs.Both the male and female reproductive organs of B. napus are sensitive to heat stress, but the impact of heat stress is disproportionately greater on the female than the male. Heat stress tolerance is under different genetic control in the female and male reproductive organs. Pollen viability is not a good predictor of heat stress tolerance in canola. The lack of significant GCA and SCA and significant reciprocal 9 Tf interaction in these experiments indicates that crossing will be necessary to recombine genetic tolerance in male and female reproductive organs.","tokenCount":"5042"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7b79f7a6e1626f46f7d6ca1cdeede362","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6d3e3ddd-d5e1-4ac3-be53-b784ba5280d5/retrieve","id":"635436441"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"962834b2-d6f6-446c-9abb-0fd198f4045f","pagecount":"50","content":"La traducción de este documento al español fue financiada por Global Affairs Canada (GAC), a través del Proyecto Oportunidades Rurales, implementado por Swisscontact. Las opiniones expresadas aquí pertenecen a los autores y no reflejan necesariamente las de Swisscontact, el CIAT o los donantes.Para obtener una explicación más detallada y casos de ejemplos sobre el contenido de esta guía, por favor consulte la versión completa de la Metodología LINK 2.0., disponible en http://hdl.handle.net/10568/49607 ¿Por qué la Metodología LINK y Género?La relación entre género y el acceso al mercado 1   Cada vez son más las mujeres responsables de suministrar cultivos tradicionales y de alto valor a los mercados mundiales. Sin embargo, con frecuencia su contribución pasa desapercibida y su trabajo no es remunerado, a pesar de la importante función que desempeñan. Además, la mujer agricultora y empresaria enfrenta mayores retos en comparación al hombre: fuertes limitaciones de tiempo, movilidad restringida, bajos rendimientos, menor oportunidad de afiliarse a asociaciones de productores y un acceso limitado a recursos productivos.Existe una tendencia a que, en el trayecto de un producto hacia el mercado, la mujer pierda el control de dicho producto y el ingreso respectivo. Como resultado de ello, para la mujer productora es difícil mantener un nicho de mercado rentable. Asimismo, las normas de género y la cadena de valor son tales, que el hombre puede tomar el control de la producción y comercialización en la medida en que un cultivo o producto se vuelve más lucrativo.Con respecto a la mujer empresaria, los negocios manejados por mujeres se enfrentan con mayores barreras y tienden a recibir menos servicios y apoyo que aquellos dirigidos por hombres.Dichas consideraciones afectan de manera negativa la eficacia de la mujer como agente dentro de una cadena de valor, lo cual reduce la eficacia total del mercado. Si a la mujer se le proporcionaran los mismos insumos y educación que al hombre, su producción e ingreso mejoraría considerablemente.Además de la eficacia del mercado, mejorar el acceso de la mujer al mercado es importante para alcanzar los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible. La seguridad alimentaria y el bienestar están fuertemente ligados a las oportunidades económicas de la mujer: cuando la mujer tiene control sobre los recursos e ingresos, hay una mayor probabilidad de que sean utilizados para el consumo familiar, para reducir la desnutrición infantil y para mejorar el bienestar general de la familia.Aunque la Metodología LINK se centra en la inclusión de mujeres y hombres pequeños productores dentro de los modelos de negocio, presta especial atención al empoderamiento económico de la mujer.Existe una tendencia en varios países y sociedades a que la mujer quede excluida de los mercados más rentables y lucrativos, en comparación con el hombre. Es necesario efectuar análisis e intervenciones concretas para poder incluir a la mujer en mercados lucrativos. También es importante destacar que proyectos y programas que buscan aumentar el empoderamiento económico de la mujer deben trabajar tanto con mujeres como con hombres e incluirlos como socios.1 Banco Mundial, Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación y Fondo Internacional para el Desarrollo Agrario. 2009. Manual sobre Género en Agricultura.The World Bank, Washington, D.C. Twin. 2013. Empowering Women Farmers in Agricultural Value Chains. Rep. Twin, London. Negocios Inclusivos ¿Por qué la Metodología LINK y Género?Se refiere a las funciones, responsabilidades, derechos, relaciones e identidades de hombres y mujeres que han sido definidos o les han sido atribuidos dentro de una sociedad y contexto determinados y la manera en que dichas funciones, responsabilidades, derechos, relaciones e identidades de hombres y mujeres se condicionan e influencian recíprocamente. Estos pueden cambiar con el tiempo, entre lugares y en un mismo lugar.Se refiere a la naturaleza biológica de ser hombre o mujer.Se refiere a imparcialidad entre hombres y mujeres en cuanto al acceso a los recursos de la sociedad, incluyendo bienes, retribuciones y oportunidades valorados socialmente. Esto puede incluir un trato igual o diferente que se considera como equivalente en lo que respecta a derechos, beneficios, obligaciones y oportunidades. Dentro del contexto del desarrollo, un objetivo de equidad de género con frecuencia requiere de la incorporación de medidas para compensar las desventajas históricas y sociales de la mujer.Se refiere a imparcialidad entre hombres y mujeres en cuanto al acceso a los recursos de la sociedad, incluyendo bienes, retribuciones y oportunidades valorados socialmente. Esto puede incluir un trato igual o diferente que se considera como equivalente en lo que respecta a derechos, beneficios, obligaciones y oportunidades. Dentro del contexto del desarrollo, un objetivo de equidad de género con frecuencia requiere de la incorporación de medidas para compensar las desventajas históricas y sociales de la mujer.Se refieren a diferencias sociales entre hombres y mujeres que se perciben como indeseables. Con frecuencia estas están asociadas con la desigualdad en el acceso, distribución de recursos y poder dentro de un contexto dado.Modelo de conducta social que se basa en opiniones preconcebidas que asocian valores y comportamientos con individuos, de acuerdo con su pertenencia a un grupo social (género, raza, etnia, edad, etc.).Un enfoque/estrategia/marco que incluye planificación y programación que contribuye al fomento de la igualdad de género y el cumplimiento de los derechos de la mujer. Dicho fomento implicará un cambio en las normas de género, funciones y acceso a los recursos como un componente clave de los resultados de los proyectos. • Por lo general, los días laborales de la mujer son más largos que los del hombre, debido a las exigencias de su responsabilidad en el hogar. • En comparación con el hombre, la mujer suele tener menos tiempo para participar en encuentros comunitarios y otras reuniones.Ejemplo: En la cooperativa COPRAHOR en Nicaragua, las mujeres de algunas comunidades han tenido una participación mínima en la ejecución de parcelas demostrativas, debido a sus obligaciones domésticas (VECOMA, 2016).Rum quo elus aut ingul conferet L. Scionostilis actus, modi a modelos de negocios 3• Las normas socioculturales pueden limitar quién puede viajar a dónde, ya sea solo o en grupo, a pie o en automóvil y la hora a la que pueden llegar. • Esto puede reducir las oportunidades para la participación de la mujer en diferentes redes sociales y su acceso a la información.Ejemplo: \"Las mujeres que forman parte de APROSACAO, en Honduras, tienen dificultades para viajar y asistir a las reuniones, participar en las capacitaciones y llevar a cabo los procesos necesarios para acceder a servicios financieros y no financieros que brinda la Asociación\". (FAO, CIAT y VECOMA, 2016: 16). [Traducción propia.] • Puede suceder que el intercambio de información sobre los mercados habitualmente se dé en espacios dominados por hombres y que las mujeres queden excluidas.• En comparación con los hombres, las mujeres suelen concentrarse en los trabajos poco calificados a lo largo de los procesos productivos y dentro de las propias organizaciones empresariales.• Como consecuencia de las limitaciones que las mujeres deben afrontar en cuanto a tiempo, educación y movilización, por lo regular, ellas no están lo suficientemente representadas en organizaciones de productores. • En ocasiones en que logran ocupar puestos de liderazgo dentro de la organización, estos tienden a limitarse a puestos secundarios.• La mujer suele tener menos acceso a la tierra que el hombre. Leyes formales e informales limitan el derecho a la tierra, mediante herencia o compra, y de esta manera se restringe su capacidad de expandir su producción agropecuaria. Las relaciones de género dentro del hogar limitan las áreas de responsabilidad en la toma de decisiones sobre el manejo y uso de la tierra; por consiguiente, los derechos de uso de la mujer frecuentemente se limitan a porciones o tipos de terreno.Ejemplo: En APROSACAO, Honduras, \"los derechos de acceso a la tierra son una limitación para que más productores se involucren directamente en el negocio, especialmente para las mujeres, pues en la mayoría de las familias de la región, son los hombres quienes administran la tierra y esta es legada en herencia a los hombres\" (FAO, CIAT and VECOMA, 2016: 26). [Traducción propia.] • Los derechos formales de propiedad suelen ser un requisito para formar parte de organizaciones de productores; por tanto, esto restringe la membresía de la mujer.• A pesar de su considerable participación en la producción, a menudo la mujer tiene acceso limitado a servicios de extensión en comparación con el hombre. Estudios demuestran que existen pocas mujeres extensionistas y en general, las mujeres suelen tener una interacción limitada con los extensionistas. Esta desigualdad puede restringir la adopción de nuevas prácticas y tecnologías.• Suele haber brechas en el acceso a la educación que afectan de manera negativa a la mujer. Esto, a su vez, influye en las oportunidades de trabajo que se presentan a mujeres y hombres.Por ejemplo, suele haber una baja representación de mujeres en ciencias agrícolas; ello puede limitar su acceso a cargos técnicos. En general, dichas brechas pueden debilitar la calidad del capital humano y, en consecuencia, entorpecer el crecimiento económico.*Que incluyen o tienen virtud y capacidad para incluir algo o a alguien.\"Los modelos de Negocio Inclusivo contemplan a las personas en situación de pobreza del lado de la demanda como clientes y del lado de la oferta, como empleados, productores y dueños de negocio en varios puntos de la cadena de valor\". (PNUD, 2008) [Traducción propia.] \"Fomentar la participación de las personas en situación de pobreza como empleados, proveedores, distribuidores o consumidores y ampliar sus oportunidades económicas en una diversidad de formas\". (BIF, 2011) [Traducción propia.] \"Una actividad comercial principal rentable que también amplíe de manera tangible las oportunidades de las personas en situación de pobreza y de desventaja en países en desarrollo\". (BIF, 2011) [Traducción propia.] \"Una iniciativa empresarial económicamente rentable, así como ambiental y socialmente responsable (WBCSD, SNV, 2011)\". [Traducción propia.] Sobre la base de la Metodología LINK, usted debería poder identificar dos dimensiones para mejorar el desempeño empresarial.• Aquellos problemas y oportunidades que requieren intervenciones destinadas a mejorar la inclusión dentro de una relación comercial, que es eje principal de la Metodología LINK.• Aquellos problemas y oportunidades identificados durante ejercicios previos, con soluciones que redunden en la mejora del desempeño general de una organización.¿Por qué es importante hacer esa distinción? Usualmente se estima que la inclusión y el desempeño general se fortalecen mutuamente mediante ciclos de retroalimentación positiva.Esto significa que una mayor inclusión contribuye a un mejor desempeño general y, normalmente, un mejor desempeño contribuye a una mayor inclusión.Este fortalecimiento mutuo es el resultado de un fenómeno bilateral: para el actor que desea ser incluido, un sólido desempeño general es más atractivo comercialmente, lo que a su vez aumenta sus posibilidades de ser incluido en una relación comercial. Por otra parte, para el actor que pone en práctica la inclusión, un sólido desempeño deriva en una mayor capacidad de inclusión.Estudio de casos de la Metodología LINK con perspectiva de género Sin embargo, con el fin de desarrollar un plan de acción, determinar las funciones respectivas, responsabilidades y financiamiento con respecto a una innovación, es importante tener en cuenta la distinción entre los dos términos. Dado que la inclusión es una acción bilateral que supone que ambas partes asumen responsabilidades, las intervenciones para mejorar la inclusión automáticamente implican a los dos actores en la relación comercial. En cambio, las intervenciones para mejorar el desempeño general de una organización usualmente pueden llevarse a cabo con mayor independencia del cliente/proveedor (aunque bien pueden involucrar a socios directos y otras partes interesadas, tales como ONG, consultores o entidades estatales).La Metodología LINK puede ayudar a que su negocio facilite un proceso sistemático de aprendizaje entre actores de una cadena de valor seleccionada y descubrir nuevas oportunidades de innovación, sobre la base de la aplicación de un kit de herramientas participativo, que cuenta con cuatro herramientas:1 El mapeo de la cadena de valor para entender el contexto macro donde se mueven los negocios que vinculan a los productores rurales con compradores.2 La plantilla de modelo de negocio para entender en detalle cada negocio que vincule a productores rurales con compradores.3 Los principios para modelos de negocio inclusivos para determinar si es realmente inclusivo cada negocio que vincule a productores rurales con compradores.4 El ciclo del prototipo para mejorar continuamente, en términos de inclusion, cada negocio que vincule a productores rurales con compradores.Terminado el proceso, llegará a • entender mejor la relación entre los modelos de negocio específicos de cada actor (vendedor y comprador) y el funcionamiento de la cadena de valor en general, • identificar áreas críticas para escalar procesos • diseñar, implementar, evaluar y mejorar un prototipo de innovación para el modelo de negocio que haya trabajado; además • de haber evaluado los efectos de los cambios sobre los pequeños productores y sobre el negocio en sí. Qué permite hacer• Visualizar los distintos roles y conexiones entre los actores que participan en la cadena e identificar fuentes de innovación y mejoramiento. • Obtener información sobre la situación del contexto desde una perspectiva global; proveer una mirada integral del sistema y reconocer el contexto. • Trazar los flujos de productos e información.• Desarrollar un proceso de aprendizaje visual orientado a los actores de la cadena.• Reconocer obstrucciones, cuellos de botella y distorsiones en el sistema de mercado.• Analizar las desigualdades de género en términos de roles de trabajo y beneficios percibidos.Fase 11. Los actores directos y sus roles• ¿Quiénes son los actores involucrados en cada eslabón?• ¿Dónde están ubicados geográficamente?• ¿Qué hacen dentro de la cadena?• ¿Cuáles son sus características? (p.ej. género, edad, educación)• ¿Qué actores hacen falta?2. Los actores indirectos • ¿Quién apoya la cadena en cada eslabón?• ¿Cuáles servicios de apoyo (necesarios para mejorar la competitividad de la cadena como: sistema, capacitación, crédito y asistencia técnica) y cuáles servicios operativos (necesarios para cumplir funciones operativas, como: transporte, almacenamiento y procesado) requieren las actividades en la cadena? • ¿Quiénes proveen los insumos? • ¿Qué servicios se ofrecen? • ¿Qué servicios faltan? • ¿Quién podría proveer los servicios que faltan? • ¿Entre los actores indirectos, quién es aliado, quién es neutro y quién es un opositor? • ¿Qué interés tienen los actores indirectos? • ¿Cuál es el poder relativo de los socios y cómo está siendo usado? 3. El flujo de los productos y el flujo de información Puede visualizar los flujos por medio de líneas entre los respetivos actores. También piense en las conexiones no-secuenciales, por ejemplo productor -comerciante.• ¿A quién vende cada actor sus productos?• ¿Qué tipo de información es intercambiada entre los actores?• ¿Quién brinda información a quién?• ¿Con qué frecuencia se comunican los actores entre ellos?, ¿a través de qué medios?4. La relación entre los actores clave • ¿Cómo son las relaciones entre los actores directos?• ¿Son buenas, regulares o malas? ¿Por qué?• ¿Cómo son las relaciones entre los actores indirectos?• ¿Son buenas, regulares o malas? ¿Por qué? 5. Las características de la producción • ¿Cuáles son las características del producto? (tamaño, color, apariencia, textura, presentación, etc.).Al final de cada fase, resuma las principales conclusiones de la sesión de trabajo, apoyándose en el mapeo correspondiente. Esta es una buena manera de confirmar si existe un acuerdo general sobre la información plasmada en el mapa, y de verificar si todavía hay algún vacío de información en la representación gráfica o en alguno de los participantes. Por favor, recuerde la importancia de documentar todas estas conclusiones y discusiones finales.Lo que no se puede hacer• Proveer una revisión sistemática de los trabajos internos de las organizaciones participantes.• Funcionar al máximo potencial sin la participación activa de actores clave.• Generar procesos específicos de innovación en una organización.Para facilitar la visualización de las cifras comerciales y evitar confusiones en los participantes a causa de la cantidad de información, será necesario dibujar una nueva cadena con los actores directos. Después, el facilitador inicia la discusión de grupo con las preguntas a continuación. Posteriormente, el grupo escribe los principales resultados de la discusión en tarjetas y las pega en su respectivo eslabón en el mapeo de la cadena.1. Los precios y pagos • ¿Cuál es el precio de venta en cada eslabón?• ¿En qué épocas del año aumentan o disminuyen los precios del producto?• ¿En qué forma pagan los compradores los productos? (p. ej., efectivo, cheque)2. Los volúmenes • ¿Cuál es el volumen de producto (en kg, toneladas o unidades locales) que se vende a cada comprador (por día, mes, cosecha, etc.)? • ¿Con qué frecuencia se vende el producto? • ¿Cuáles son los épocas de escasez y/o abundancia del producto? 3. Los rendimientos • ¿Cuánto cuesta producir cada unidad (p. ej., kilo, litro) del producto? • ¿Cuáles son los rendimientos? • ¿Si se transforma el producto, cuáles son los factores de conversión? (p. ej., kg de fruta para obtener un kg de pulpa).Fase 2Herramienta 1: Mapeo de la cadena de valor Fase 3Mapeo de la participación de hombres y mujeres en la cadena de valorPara este mapa, se pueden utilizar los mapas elaborados en las dos fases anteriores. El facilitador debe liderar una discusión con el grupo, con base en las preguntas enunciadas a continuación. Finalmente, el grupo debe anotar los resultados principales de la discusión en tarjetas y pegarlas en los eslabones relevantes en el mapa de la cadena.1. Participación a nivel de hogar ¿En qué actividades de la cadena están involucrados los miembros del hogar? Para cada actividad:• ¿Cuántos hombres y mujeres participan?• ¿Esta actividad/labor es ow no es remunerada?• ¿Cuáles son las condiciones de la jornada laboral/trabajo? (permanente o temporal)• ¿Hacen falta servicios reproductivos? (p. ej., clínica de maternidad, guardería durante reuniones).• ¿Quién recibe pago por ventas (número de mujeres y de hombres)?• ¿Participan hombres y mujeres en los flujos de información?Fase 4Para representar estas influencias no es necesario trabajar con los mapeos elaborados en la fase 1 y 2. De hecho, para este ejercicio se recomienda dibujar nuevamente solo la estructura básica (actores directos e indirectos, flujo de producto, flujo de información e interconexiones) de la cadena.Después, el facilitador presenta las cinco fuerzas externas, a través de las siguientes preguntas clave, y selecciona con los participantes, las áreas más relevantes para el contexto de su cadena de valor específica. La información clave se anota en tarjetas de papel y luego se pegan en la cadena de valor dibujada con antelación.1. Fuerzas económicas • ¿Qué fuerzas macroeconómicas afectan el desempeño de la cadena de valor? (por ejemplo las condiciones del mercado global o las tasas de cambio) • ¿Qué fuerzas microeconómicas afectan el desempeño de la cadena de valor? (por ejemplo el acceso a la infraestructura, al crédito, a la tenencia de tierra) • ¿Qué fuerzas socioeconómicas afectan el desempeño de la cadena de valor? (por ejemplo los ingresos, la tenencia de tierra, de casa, la asistencia sanitaria, la calidad de vida).• ¿Cómo las leyes, regulaciones, estándares o impuestos, influyen en la cadena de valor y en los mercados seleccionados? • ¿Cómo los estándares del sector privado y las prácticas de los negocios influyen en la cadena de valor y en los mercados seleccionados? • ¿Cómo afectan otras políticas a la cadena de valor? (políticas de fijación de precios, políticas del consumidor, etc.).• ¿Cuáles son las circunstancias culturales, religiosas, demográficas, educacionales y étnicas de los actores y socios de la cadena de valor? • ¿Cómo influyen los valores, las creencias, las actitudes y los estilos de vida, en las preferencias de los consumidores, las prácticas de negocio y las organizaciones de productores?4. Fuerzas ambientales • ¿ Cómo influye el cambio climático y la variabilidad a la cadena de valor ?• ¿Cómo se relaciona la cadena con las funciones ambientales (como el acceso al agua, a la salud del terreno) y cómo éstas apoyan o impiden el desarrollo de la cadena?5. Fuerzas tecnológicas • ¿Hay tecnología disponible para los actores de la cadena de valor y sus socios?• ¿Es deseable o posible el uso de tecnología?• ¿Cómo el costo y la disponibilidad de tecnología afectan a la cadena de valor?• ¿Existe tecnología desarrollada localmente que esté disponible o hay tecnología proveniente de fuentes externas?El mapeo de las influencias del entorno Herramienta 2 La plantilla del modelo de negocio Metas Preguntas clave• Analizar el funcionamiento de una organización clave de la cadena de valor con una mirada de 360 grados. • Desarrollar un lenguaje compartido para describir y evaluar el modelo de negocio.• Crear una línea de base para desarrollar innovaciones en el modelo de negocio.• Identificar hasta qué punto el modelo de negocio tiene en cuenta consideraciones de género.• ¿Cómo funciona mi organización? • ¿El modelo de negocio existente es viable? • ¿Qué cambios del modelo de negocio pueden mejorar el desempeño general? • ¿Cuáles son las fortalezas y debilidades del modelo de negocio? • ¿Qué influencias del entorno inciden positiva y negativamente en el modelo de negocio? • ¿El modelo de negocio del comprador facilita la inclusión de productores a pequeña escala como proveedores? • ¿El modelo de negocio del comprador tiene una propuesta de valor de doble vía (hacia sus clientes y hacia sus proveedores)? • ¿El modelo actual de la organización de productores la hace atractiva como socio comercial para un comprador formal?• ¿Se pueden hacer cambios al modelo de negocio para promover una mayor igualdad de género?\"Un modelo de negocio describe la lógica sobre cómo una organización crea, captura y entrega valor\".Alexander OsterwalderHerramienta 2: La plantilla del modelo de negocio Qué permite hacer• Facilitar la articulación entre agricultores y compradores para establecer relaciones comerciales formales. • Detectar oportunidades, cuellos de botella y desequilibrios financieros en el modelo de negocio.• Identificar áreas de innovación o mejora.• Presentar aspectos complejos del negocio en una forma fácil y asequible.• Fomentar el emprendimiento por parte de los productores.• Comparar el funcionamiento de distintas relaciones comerciales entre agricultores de pequeña escala y compradores formales. • Plasmar un bosquejo del modelo de negocio de la organización, que sirva para futuros análisis.• Alimentar la construcción de un plan de negocio.• Evaluate areas where gender inequality may be inhibiting a more innovative business model.• Puede complementar, pero no remplazar el trabajo existente en cadenas de valor, competitividad y análisis financiero. • El modelo de negocio constituye una herramienta adicional que puede apoyar el desarrollo agroempresarial. Sin embargo, al igual que las demás herramientas, es posible hacer mal uso de ella o aplicarla superficialmente.La plantilla del modelo de negocio • Evaluar el estado de la relación comercial en términos del grado de inclusión de productores de pequeña escala en relaciones comerciales con un comprador formal.• Definir acciones concretas para la mejora de la inclusión de productores de pequeña escala.• Evaluar en qué medida la falta de consideración de aspectos de género podrían estar inhibiendo la inclusión.• ¿Qué tanta inclusión existe en la relación comercial? • ¿Cuáles son los campos de acción para mejorar la inclusión de los productores a pequeña escala? • ¿En qué parte del modelo de negocio debemos centrar nuestros esfuerzos?• ¿Su modelo de negocio tiene en cuenta el género y otras diferencias sociales importantes entre los actores que podrían influir en su nivel de inclusión?Qué permite hacer• Enfocar el análisis del modelo de negocio en áreas que son críticas para la inclusión sostenible de los agricultores de pequeña escala. • Evaluar el desempeño de un modelo de negocio en temas que son críticos para la inclusión sostenible de los agricultores de pequeña escala. • Ayudar a identificar posibles áreas de innovación y de mejora en el modelo de negocio seleccionado.• Proveer insumos para el diseño y la mejora del modelo de negocio, de tal manera que esto ayude a que los agricultores de pequeña escala se vinculen a los mercados.• Indicar las áreas y los pasos para a seguir para mejorar la igualdad de género en el modelo de negocio.• Aportar al diseño de un modelo de negocio mejorado para que los pequeños productores puedan conectarse con los mercados.• Los principios para modelos empresariales incluyentes no son una llave mágica para lograr la inclusión de productores de pequeña escala. • Estos principios no deben ser tomados como una lista de control, sino como una guía para evaluar la mejoría de los modelos empresariales. • Los principios no le darán una respuesta específica, pero le ayudarán a evaluar y pensar soluciones relevantes para su modelo de negocio.La resolución de problemas en el área comercial y social de los modelos de negocio incluyentes, requiere que todos o la mayoría de los actores de la cadena, establezcan metas comunes para la colaboración.El desarrollo de una mirada sistemática de la relación comercial reconoce el valor de la interdependencia de los actores, pero lograr acuerdos entre ellos, a menudo implica la identificación de uno o más \"Campeones\" o líderes involucrados en el modelo de negocios.• ¿Compartimos los mismos objetivos?• ¿Intercambiamos información de manera frecuente?• ¿Hay estructuras para incentivar la colaboración o la resolución conjunta de problemas? • ¿Hay uno o más \"campeones\" para liderar el proceso de colaboración? • ¿Reconocemos la interdependencia que existe en una relación comercial?1. Colaboración entre actores Panorama de los principios del Nuevo Modelo de Negocio y preguntas clavePara los agricultores y sus organizaciones, es importante vincularse con un mercado estable, con una señalización clara de los estándares de calidad, de precio y volúmenes, pero que también les provea acceso a servicios clave (Principio 4). Estos vínculos deben contribuir a mejorar la calidad de vida de los productores.Para los compradores, estos vínculos deben proveer un suministro consistente de productos seguros, de calidad, a precios competitivos y con bajos costos de transacción.En la práctica, la integración de las metas de los productores y de los compradores requiere la creación y distribución de valor a lo largo de la cadena.• ¿Las relaciones comerciales son estables?• ¿Las relaciones comerciales son rentables?• ¿Aprovechamos las oportunidades de mercado que se presentan? • ¿La reacción ante los cambios en las necesidades del cliente se lleva a cabo rápidamente?2. Vinculación efectiva al mercadoSe refiere a la creación y aplicación de estándares claros y sólidos de calidad y compromiso al comprar y vender volúmenes en determinados momentos.También se relaciona con los procesos equitativos de manejo de riesgo.Es clave que se reconozca la interdependencia mutua entre los actores del modelo de negocio incluyente.El riesgo comercial compartido y los seguros contra cualquier eventualidad, son aspectos básicos en la consolidación de relaciones comerciales exitosas.Preguntas claveUno de los retos para los pequeños productores es el acceso a servicios financieros, a información de mercado, a Buenas Prácticas Agrícolas que podrían mejorar la calidad y cantidad de la cosecha, la seguridad alimentaria y la huella medioambiental. Soluciones exitosas permiten que los pequeños productores accedan a crédito, conocimiento, tecnología, e incentivos que los impulsen a invertir en su propia producción con base en las necesidades del mercado.• ¿Los productores pueden acceder a asistencia técnica brindada por el comprador o por un actor indirecto?• ¿Los productores pueden acceder a información de mercado actualizada brindada por el comprador o por un actor indirecto?• ¿Cómo difieren las fuentes de información de hombres y mujeres, y cómo esto afecta su acceso a la información del mercado? • ¿Los productores pueden acceder a servicios financieros brindados por el comprador o por un actor indirecto?• ¿Qué barreras podrían estar evitando que las mujeres accedan a servicios financieros y de apoyo técnico?• ¿Existen ejemplos de prestación de servicios que vayan más allá de los servicios básicos de producción, por ejemplo, servicios médicos y de guardería?Los Nuevos Modelos de Negocio promueven la innovación en productos, servicios y procesos por parte de varios actores de la cadena. Las innovaciones deben ser desarrolladas \"con\" los productores, en vez de \"para\" ellos. El desarrollo inclusivo de innovaciones provee medios para permanecer competitivos en los mercados dinámicos, construir el valor comercial de los bienes y servicios y compartir ganancias entre los socios. Todo esto influye de forma positiva en la durabilidad del negocio. Igualmente importante es que las preferencias e intereses de mujeres y hombres contribuyan al desarrollo de la información.• ¿Los procesos de innovación se llevan a cabo de una manera colaborativa? • ¿Quién participa en el proceso de innovación y por qué? • ¿Quién gana con el resultado de la innovación?• ¿Existen mecanismos para compartir las ganancias? • ¿Se promueve la innovación incluyente con los productores a pequeña escala?El axioma empresarial plantea que no se puede manejar lo que no se mide. Nuestro sexto principio para modelos de negocio incluyentes consiste en incorporar indicadores y planes de monitoreo a la medida, para evaluar el estado de salud de las relaciones comerciales de una empresa con ánimo de lucro, así como su efectividad como impulsora de desarrollo.El monitoreo constante del estado de la relación comercial reduce el riesgo de que otros problemas menores destruyan el negocio.• ¿Existen indicadores de éxito de la relación comercial?• ¿Medimos frecuentemente los resultados de la relación comercial? • ¿La retroalimentación se está incorporando en la toma de decisiones? • ¿Existen mecanismos de retroalimentación para garantizar la efectividad en el manejo de la cadena y en el proceso de toma de decisiones?Principio 1Colaboración entre actores Vinculación efectiva con el mercado  1.5 Los objetivos sociales del proveedor coinciden con los de ustedes 1.6 ¿Conocen los objetivos ambientales del proveedor?1.7 Los objetivos ambientales del proveedor coinciden con los de ustedes 1.8 Existe colaboración con el proveedor para la resolución de problemas 1.9 El proveedor reacciona rápidamente ante los problemas que se pueden presentar en la relación con ustedes 1.10 Ustedes valoran la interdependencia con el proveedor 1.11 Ustedes brindan incentivos (financieros y/o no financieros) que estimulen el comportamiento colaborativo del proveedor.1.12 Entre ustedes existen personas que lideran los procesos colaborativos con el proveedor 1.13 Ustedes usan tecnologías de información y comunicación (TIC) para colaborar con el proveedor 1.14 Trabajamos con el proveedor para promover la equidad de género 1.15 Existen iguales oportunidades para hombres y mujeres, en el liderazgo de procesos colaborativos con el proveedor  Si no es posible llegar a un consenso en la plenaria o a través de un voto directo, puede usar una matriz de decisión que incluya criterios como: implementación, costos, tiempo de implementación, dependencia de actores externos para la implementación, etc. Cuando se seleccionan los campos de acción para el modelo de negocio, se debe tener en mente:• Limitaciones de tiempo y de fondos: ser realistas sobre lo que es viable, dados los límites de tiempo y de presupuesto. • Las relaciones de poder constituyen un desafío clave para el nuevo modelo de negocio.Puede ser más fácil empezar con una innovación pequeña. Esto aumentará la confianza de los actores antes de realizar cambios más trascendentales. • Ser coherente con las metas clave ya acordadas. Por otro lado, una amenaza compartida puede propiciar más colaboración.• Aunque exista colaboración, las relaciones comerciales siempre serán un punto de tensión. Desde ahí nace la • Más importante que diseñar la solución perfecta, es empezar a moverse hacia adelante y aprender en el camino.Para obtener una explicación más detallada, por favor consulte las páginas 90-102 de la versión completa de la Metodología LINK 2.0. • Diseñar, probar y evaluar continuamente el modelo de negocio para mejorarlo.• ¿Dónde está nuestro modelo de negocio hoy en día? • ¿Dónde queremos que se encuentre nuestro modelo de negocio en el futuro? • ¿Qué tiene que cambiar? • ¿Cómo implementaremos el mejoramiento y qué haremos para medirlo? • ¿Qué funcionó del mejoramiento, qué no funcionó y cómo podemos mejorar?Qué permite hacer• Tener un marco para moverse, desde el análisis del modelo de negocios actual, hacia un proceso cíclico de diseño-prueba-evaluación que permita mejorar continuamente áreas específicas del modelo. • Facilitar ciclos de aprendizaje prácticos alrededor del modelo de negocios que permitan hacer ensayos y ajustes rápidos para lograr resultados de manera más eficiente. • Identificar formas de medir el progreso hacia un modelo de negocio mejorado, resaltar lo que funciona y no funciona y ayudar en el logro de mejoras escalables.• Identificar e incorporar formas de medir el progreso hacia la igualdad de género en el ciclo de mejoramiento del modelo de negocio. • Alentar el compromiso hacia el diálogo y las innovaciones por parte de todos los miembros del modelo de negocio.• Diseñar la solución perfecta a los problemas identificados en el modelo de negocio de forma inmediata. • El ciclo de prototipo está diseñado como un proceso de aprendizaje iterativo. El aprendizaje ocurre a medida que nos movemos hacia nuestras metas. Probar nuevas cosas siempre es arriesgado y tiene el fracaso como posibilidad. Esta herramienta no es una garantía de éxito, sino un proceso que permite \"fracasar hacia adelante\".¿Qué es el ciclo del prototipo?El ciclo del prototipo es un proceso de implementación y aprendizaje cíclico. El propósito del ciclo del prototipo es solucionar aquellos problemas que impiden llegar a un estado mejorado, a través de una rotación entre las siguientes etapas: 2La cadena de valor es el siguiente nivel, después del modelo de negocio, donde los cambios pueden ser visibles.La evolución de los costos de producción en los distintos eslabones de la cadena. ¿Los costos son estables, incrementaron o decrecieron?Cosechas por unidad La evolución de las cosechas o productividad por unidad, inversión, o empleo en la cadena de valor.Por ejemplo, la producción por hectárea plantada o cantidad de queso producido por litro de leche.Valor del producto del valor comercial (en moneda constante) del bien final en la cadena de valor. ¿El valor del producto está aumentando, decreciendo o es estable? Rentabilidad La evolución de la ganancia neta o bruta para la cadena de valor. ¿Las ganancias están aumentando, disminuyendo o son estables? Distribución de los beneficios ¿Cómo evoluciona la distribución del producto o productos finales a lo largo de la cadena de valor y entre los distintos actores? ¿Quién retiene la mayor cantidad de valor y cómo cambia la distribución a lo largo del tiempo?Indicadores en la cadena de valor 1 El modelo de negocio es la primera dimensión donde se expresan los cambios iniciados por las intervenciones. Indicadores de gestión para 4 indicadores de cambio Indicadores en el modelo de negocio 3 Indicadores en los medios de vida de los productores a pequeña escala Este nivel, que representa la utilidad de muchas intervenciones,es el último nivel que muestra cambios en relación con una intervención específica. Se estima que el tiempo de cambio de esta dimensión es a largo plazo.Diversificación de las fuentes de ingreso y estabilidad del ingreso durante el año• ¿Cómo las actividades de la cadena de valor afectan la diversidad de ingresos y la seguridad de la población objetivo durante el año? Uso de ingresos adicionales en la cadena de valor • ¿Cómo utiliza la población objetivo el ingreso adicional generado por la cadena de valor? • ¿Quién decide sobre el uso del ingreso adicional generado por la cadena de valor? Generación de empleo • ¿Cómo contribuye la cadena de valor a la generación permanente o temporal de empleo desagregado por género, etnicidad o edad? • De toda la comunidad, ¿quién gana más de estas oportunidades?Participación en la economía local• En relación con otras actividades económicas locales, ¿cómo cambia la importancia relativa de la cadena de valor a lo largo del tiempo? Participación financiera de la cadena del modelo empresarial en las estrategias de sustento de la población objetivo• Con respecto a la población beneficiaria, ¿Cómo ha evolucionado su porcentaje de ingresos originados en actividades relacionadas con el modelo empresarial? • Esta medida puede incluir la venta de productos, el número de empleos o la reducción de la compra como resultado de la estrategia de incrementar la competitividad. Mientras que las ganancias sean positivas, es crítico evitar la dependencia sobre una actividad o modelo empresarial.4 Indicadores para medir el progreso hacia la igualdad de géneroHerramienta 4: El ciclo del prototipo A nivel de modelo de negocio• Nivel de desarrollo del programa de apoyo para las mujeres (clínica de maternidad, guardería durante reuniones, capacitaciones para las mujeres)• Nivel de desarrollo de los datos de censos desagregados por sexo• Cambio en el porcentaje de mujeres que participan en reuniones de asociaciones• Cambio en el porcentaje de mujeres en cargos técnicos • Cambio en el porcentaje de mujeres en junta directiva • Cambio en el porcentaje de mujeres que obtienen préstamos a través del fondo de crédito interno de la empresa• Cambio en el porcentaje de mujeres que participan en capacitaciones de organizaciones productoras• Cambio en el porcentaje de mujeres que participan en negociaciones de contratos y toma de decisiones• Nivel de desarrollo y difusión de políticas de género • Cambio en el porcentaje de mujeres beneficiarias de proyectos El factor más importante para que una entrevista sea un éxito es la actitud del entrevistador con respecto a las personas que va a entrevistar. El entrevistador debe estar dispuesto a tomar la postura de alguien que está aprendiendo (tal y como de hecho está haciendo) de la persona a quien entrevista. Esto se refleja en el listado general de lo que se debe y no se debe hacer durante una entrevista, que se encuentra a continuación. El fin de dicho listado es fomentar un diálogo fructífero entre el entrevistador y las personas a quienes entrevista, mediante la creación de una atmósfera en la que los entrevistados se sientan en libertad de expresar su conocimiento y opiniones a voluntad y en la que se les estimule de manera activa y pasiva a hacerlo.Lo que sí se debe hacer en una entrevista Lo que no se debe hacer en una entrevista Lo que sí se debe hacer en una entrevista Lo que no se debe hacer en una entrevista• Sea flexible y permita que se dé el orden \"natural\" de discutir los temas que surja durante la entrevista, especialmente cuando se trate de entrevistas informales. En caso de estar efectuando una entrevista más estructurada, usted puede dirigir de manera sutil a la persona de regreso al eje principal de la entrevista indicándole que el tema que él/ ella está discutiendo es muy interesante y que usted le hará algunas preguntas al respecto más adelante, pero que ahora sería más fácil para usted recopilar y anotar la información si se apega al formato. • Prepárese para tener entrevistas malas: algunas personas simplemente no tienen la capacidad o, en ocasiones, el conocimiento para responder a sus preguntas. En este caso, ponga fin a la entrevista de manera cortés, agradeciendo a la persona su cooperación y retírese. • Si no anota la información durante la entrevista, hágalo inmediatamente después.(Se estima que la mitad de la información asimilada durante una entrevista se pierde en las primeras 24 horas después de haberla efectuado y bien puede ser más si se llevan a cabo varias entrevistas seguidas).• No haga preguntas \"tendenciosas\": preguntas que predispongan al entrevistado a emitir una determinada respuesta. Por ejemplo: \"La escuela de aquí es buena, ¿verdad?\" En vez de eso, pregunte: \"¿Cómo es la escuela aquí?\" o si necesita una aclaración adicional: \"¿La escuela aquí es buena o mala?\" • No \"ayude\" a una persona que está dudando con sugerencias; a lo sumo, reformule la pregunta. • No deje al margen preguntas de las cuales usted cree saber ya la respuesta porque la ha escuchado varias veces antes: ¡es posible que aún se presente un nuevo punto de vista que produzca nueva información y le lleve a recopilar más información! • No haga preguntas obvias, como, por ejemplo, si se encuentra al lado de una escuela: \"¿Aquí hay una escuela?\" Por otra parte, pregunte si no está completamente seguro (p. ej., si no es del todo claro que el edificio si es una escuela). Esta es la única ocasión en que se le permite hacer preguntas tendenciosas (\"Aquí tienen escuela. Es esta de aquí, ¿verdad?\"), con el fin de confirmar una intuición suya ¡sin pasar por despistado(a)! • No espere que todas las entrevistas sean diálogos fluidos que produzca enormes cantidades de información nueva y válida: ¡es posible que en algunas entrevistas tenga menos éxito! Cuando entreviste en equipo:• Decida con anticipación, de manera general, qué tema va a tratar cada quien. • Sin embargo, sea flexible y permita que los miembros del equipo profundicen en ciertos asuntos, aunque no sean sobre el tema que se había convenido con anticipación. ¡Ustedes conforman un equipo y deben apoyarse mutuamente en la realización de su trabajo! • Dense la oportunidad unos a otros de terminar su serie de preguntas. • Que cada uno indique cuando haya terminado de efectuar su serie de preguntas y esté listo(a) para ceder el espacio a otro miembro del equipo, por ejemplo, diciéndole a otro(a) compañero(a) \"Muy bien, puedes proceder\". • Discuta posteriormente con el grupo los resultados de las entrevistas y lleve a cabo reuniones periódicas y sesiones de lluvia de ideas.• No interrumpa la serie de preguntas de otros miembros del equipo; espere a que terminen. Interrumpa solo si siente que algún tema muy importante / interesante no está siendo cubierto o no se le está dando seguimiento y esto no sin antes haberse disculpado con el miembro del equipo al que interrumpe (\"disculpa, pero tengo más preguntas acerca de esto, por favor permíteme\"). Luego, asegúrese de devolverle la palabra, una vez que haya agotado el tema.Promoción de modelos de negocio que benefician a agricultoras y agricultoresGracias a un proyecto del Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Políticas, Instituciones y Mercados, los grupos de investigación en Vinculación de Agricultores a Mercados y Género del CIAT están trabajando en mejorar la capacidad de respuesta a las cuestiones de género y el potencial transformador de sus herramientas para desarrollar modelos de negocio inclusivos a través de la Metodología LINK. El Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Bosques, Árboles, y Agroforestería también está brindando apoyo para la integración del género en el desarrollo de las herramientas. Las herramientas se están mejorando de manera que los usuarios puedan identificar mejor las barreras y oportunidades de hombres y mujeres para ejercer una participación significativa dentro de organizaciones de productores; en el uso de mecanismos adecuados para acceder a información sobre mercados; en los procesos de toma de decisiones y en la igualdad de acceso a oportunidades de fomento de capacidades, capital y otros servicios financieros. De este modo, la versión actualizada de la Metodología LINK pretende garantizar que hombres y mujeres accedan y se beneficien equitativamente de las oportunidades que se presentan dentro de las cadenas de valor.Se puso a prueba una versión piloto en cuatro casos en Honduras y Nicaragua a través del socio VECO Mesoamérica (VECOMA) y con el apoyo de la FAO.Los resultados iniciales sugieren que las herramientas adaptadas permiten poner de manifiesto las cuestiones de género como nunca antes había sido posible. Por ejemplo, gracias a las nuevas herramientas, en los cuatro casos, los usuarios desglosan la participación en los nodos de la cadena de valor por género. Además, prestan atención a los puestos de liderazgo que ocupan hombres y mujeres dentro del modelo de negocio. Esto permite identificar en qué puntos de la cadena de valor se concentra la participación de hombres y mujeres y puede dar indicios de qué tan accesibles son los puestos de liderazgo para la mujer. Los usuarios de las herramientas LINK adaptadas también se han esforzado por abordar cuestiones relativas a la equidad de género en sus planes de acción.Los proyectos piloto se llevaron a cabo con organizaciones de productores de hortalizas y cacao en los dos países:Es un consorcio de organizaciones de productores de hortalizas en Honduras y se reportó que 7.98 % y 4.52 % de los miembros que participan en actividades productivas son mujeres y jóvenes, respectivamente.4 En el nodo de suministro, el 55.56 % de sus operadores en los centros de suministro son mujeres. Un análisis de genero a nivel poscosecha indicó que las mujeressuelen enfrentar problemas en cuanto a rechazo de producto, debido a que tienden a cultivar hortalizas que requieren menos inversión, como coliflor y brócoli, pero que son más susceptibles al ataque de plagas y enfermedades, lo cual reduce su calidad. En general, el Consorcio reconoció la necesidad de incorporar a la mujer y a la juventud de manera más significativa dentro del modelo de negocio. Por ejemplo, existe una representación mínima de mujeres dentro de la junta directiva.También en Honduras, Aprosacao, una organización de productores de cacao, halló que las mujeres participan sobre todo en actividades de cosecha y poscosecha. Sin embargo, la mayor parte de su contribución no suele ser remunerada, pues dichas actividades tienden a efectuarse en las fincas de sus esposos o padres. Menos del 15 % de los productores que reciben pagos por venta o cualquier tipo de servicio dentro de la cadena de valor son mujeres.Aprosacao reconoció que hasta ahora, no contaban con mecanismos para fomentar la participación de la mujer en actividades de la cadena de valor y en el modelo de negocio general. Para corregir estas deficiencias, la organización incorporó indicadores y actividades dentro de su plan de pasos a seguir, que toman en cuenta los obstáculos que se interponen al ingreso de la mujer, por ejemplo: monitoreo del acceso a servicios como préstamos y desarrollo de un sistema de mapeo desglosado por género.En Nicaragua, la organización de productores de hortalizas COPRAHOR observó que la presencia de la mujer se concentra más en el trabajo de procesamiento que en las actividades de los nodos de producción. Hasta entonces, no existían servicios de apoyo para facilitar una mayor participación de la mujer en actividades de la cadena de valor, pero la política de género recientemente formulada por la organización podría servir para corregir esa situación. COPRAHOR señala áreas en las que ha estado sacando adelante asuntos de género, por ejemplo: que los procesos de innovación reflejen los intereses y necesidades de hombres y mujeres; además, que exista igualdad de oportunidades para que hombres y mujeres dirijan los procesos colaborativos con los compradores. Aun así, en su plan de pasos a seguir, COPRAHOR incluye medidas para incorporar de una mejor manera a la mujer dentro del modelo de negocio, por ejemplo, mediante la divulgación de su nueva política de género y canalizando recursos financieros para iniciativas de negocio de mujeres.En los cuatro casos de estudio, se observó que son pocas las mujeres que ocupan puestos directivos en comparación con los hombres, y que su nivel de participación en capacitaciones era bajo. También se observó que son escasos los mecanismos concretos para incluir a la mujer dentro de los modelos de negocio. Sin embargo, las organizaciones de productores incluidas en el proyecto piloto demostraron interés en abordar estos desafíos con la finalidad de fortalecer el desarrollo del modelo de negocio.La evaluación de las herramientas en los cuatro casos de Honduras y Nicaragua ha servido para incorporar las consideraciones de género de manera más concreta en las herramientas. De este modo, la Caja de Herramientas recientemente desarrollada ayudará a los usuarios a exponer información más completa y relevante sobre los asuntos relacionados con equidad de género y plantear soluciones para responder a ellos.La organización de productores de cacao La Campesina de Nicaragua, con respecto a su modelo de negocio, señaló que solía haber una representación de mujeres y hombres más equitativa en términos de género entre los empleados del nodo de poscosecha. Aunque la participación de mujeres en la junta directiva de la organización era baja, se observó una participación más equitativa de hombres y mujeres entre el personal técnico.Promoción de modelos de negocio que benefician a agricultoras y agricultores Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical Desde 1967 Ciencia para cultivar el cambio Contactos para mayor información:Mark Lundy m.lundy@cgiar.org • Tatiana Gumucio t.gumucio@cgiar.org • Jhon Jairo Hurtado j.hurtado@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"7863"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3e92651f556fa8db948390127c3cc878","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/78088e4e-4cec-411e-bdb5-c4f4105fa1bb/content","id":"1077340246"},"keywords":["genomic selection","genetic gain","genomic prediction optimization","deep learning","training population optimization"],"sieverID":"865c937d-2e34-47e8-9da9-e21c87b6b756","pagecount":"27","content":"Genomic selection, the application of genomic prediction (GP) models to select candidate individuals, has significantly advanced in the past two decades, effectively accelerating genetic gains in plant breeding. This article provides a holistic overview of key factors that have influenced GP in plant breeding during this period. We delved into the pivotal roles of training population size and genetic diversity, and their relationship with the breeding population, in determining GP accuracy. Special emphasis was placed on optimizing training population size. We explored its benefits and the associated diminishing returns beyond an optimum size. This was done while considering the balance between resource allocation and maximizing prediction accuracy through current optimization algorithms. The density and distribution of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, level of linkage disequilibrium, genetic complexity, trait heritability, statistical machine-learning methods, and non-additive effects are the other vital factors. Using wheat, maize, and potato as examples, we summarize the effect of these factors on the accuracy of GP for various traits. The search for high accuracy in GP-theoretically reaching one when using the Pearson's correlation as a metric-is an active research area as yet far from optimal for various traits. We hypothesize that with ultra-high sizes of genotypic and phenotypic datasets, effective training population optimization methods and support from other omics approaches (transcriptomics, metabolomics and proteomics) coupled with deep-learning algorithms could overcome the boundaries of current limitations to achieve the highest possible prediction accuracy, making genomic selection an effective tool in plant breeding.Global population growth is likely to continue at a similar or faster pace in the coming decades. Demand for food is expected to increase by the same amount to feed the population while crop productivity has been curtailed by various biotic and abiotic stresses exacerbated by anthropogenic climate change. Plant breeding is fundamental to developing new cultivars with higher yield, improved quality, and tolerance or resistance to several abiotic and biotic stresses. For example, wheat production at the global level has increased from 200 million tons in 1961 to 775 million tons in 2023 (FAO, 2023) with no significant change in total area of wheat production (220 million hectares). This is principally due to the development and deployment of semi-dwarf high-yielding and input-responsive new wheat cultivars (Borlaug, 2002) with resistance and tolerance to major biotic and abiotic stresses, respectively, along with improved agronomic management, mechanization, favorable policies, and infrastructures across the entire wheat value chain (Tadesse et al., 2019).Genetic enhancement of crops has long relied on conventional cross-breeding methods whereby breeding and selection of genotypes are solely based on pedigree and phenotypic performance. Rigorous evaluation of parents for different traits, targeted crossing, generation advancement using the summer and winter shuttle breeding schemes to shorten the breeding cycle, key location evaluation of elite germplasms, and effective database management have played significant roles in developing improved crop cultivars. However, the expeditious emergence of DNA-sequencing technology has allowed breeders to gain comprehensive genomic information on crops, which is very valuable for selection. The development of several DNAmarker-based genotyping systems significantly increased the number of DNA markers available to plant breeders (Crossa et al., 2017). This breakthrough allowed plant breeders to select plant performance based on their genetic marker composition rather than solely on their phenotypic performance, which is prone to several limitations in selection efficiency.The application of genomic tools in the breeding practice of plants, generally termed genomic-assisted breeding, has progressed through various stages in the last four decades (Varshney et al., 2021). It started with linkage-based mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) (Soller and Plotkin-Hazan, 1977) where, with a limited number of DNA markers, those segregating with a particular trait were identified as linked to a QTL and used for marker-assisted selection (MAS). The method required a set of segregating individuals developed from biparental crosses, a time-consuming procedure, with a narrow allelic variation and poor resolution that leads to low impact in practical plant-breeding programs (Bernardo, 2008). The genome-wide association study (GWAS) approach became a popular and powerful method for identifying markers closely linked to QTLs of target traits (Zhu et al., 2008;Tibbs Cortes et al., 2021). However, the practical implementation of the method via MAS has been constrained to limited numbers of major QTLs while numerous small-effect QTLs in complex traits have remained unknown and unutilized (Jannink et al., 2010).Genomic selection (GS), when developed GP models are applied in practical selection, has emerged as a powerful tool in plant breeding, particularly after the advancement of readily available genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Besides early contributors (Lande and Thompson, 1990;Bernardo, 1994;Nejati-Javaremi et al., 1997;Haley and Visscher, 1998;Whittaker et al., 2000), GS was first elaborated two decades ago by Meuwissen et al. (2001). In this groundbreaking study, the authors paved the way to a new avenue in plant breeding, suggesting that prediction of genetic values from marker profiles could extensively increase genetic gain in plant and animal breeding, particularly if combined with reproductive techniques to shorten the generation interval. The conventional MAS approaches tend to focus solely on a limited set of markers linked with well-investigated major QTLs excluding the vast majority of minor-effect QTLs. In contrast to these methods, GP employs large number of genome-wide SNPs to quantify the comprehensive genetic merit of individual plants encompassing most contributing QTLs of a target trait (Bernardo and Yu, 2007;Heffner et al., 2009). The continued rapid advancement of next-generation sequencing technology to produce dense genome-wide SNP markers, coupled with its substantial cost reduction for genotyping in several crops, makes GS a must-implement method in most breeding programs. Empirical research has shown the advantage of GS for accelerating the genetic gains per unit of time over pedigree-based selection. GS has emerged with huge potential to reduce the cost per breeding cycle, increase selection intensity and accuracy, and significantly reduce the time required to develop a cultivar compared to phenotypic-based selection (Crossa et al., 2010(Crossa et al., , 2017;;Edwards et al., 2019).Developing statistical machine-learning models and training population optimization are the two main thematic areas actively explored in plant GP research. This is because of their potential to improve the prediction accuracy while the current achievement is far from optimal. This review begins with a simplified explanation of GP followed by an exploration of the up-to-date widely applied cross-validation (CV) methods in plant breeding. After a comprehensive overview, details of the key factors affecting GP accuracy identified over the last two decades are elaborated. Moreover, empirical research results are analyzed using wheat, maize, and potato as examples of self-pollinating, cross-pollinating, and clonally propagated crops, respectively, to illustrate the impact of the identified factors on the accuracy of GP in various traits. Finally yet importantly, the implementation of GS is highlighted in a showcase example from ongoing empirical studies from public and private breeding programs. In summary, valuable suggestions are forwarded to support the successful implementation of GS in plant-breeding programs.GP is the most recent data-driven method that has been widely accepted and used as a valuable tool to accelerate genetic gain in plant-breeding programs (Desta and Ortiz, 2014;Bassi et al., 2016;Xu et al., 2020). GP employs advanced statistical machinelearning models to select individuals within a breeding population based on breeding values estimated from genome-wide markers. This selection process relies on data from a training population, encompassing both phenotypic and genotypic information (Figure 1A). After a rigorous training procedure, these models generate predictions of breeding or phenotypic values for traits of a target population consisting only of genotypic data. However, the performance of prediction models should be first evaluated through CV before applying selection (see the next section for details of CV methods). This step in GP is critical in order to evaluate the performance of prediction models and compare different sets of statistical machine-learning models with various scenarios, such as incorporating multiple traits, known major genes and marker-trait associations (QTLs), genotype 3 environment (G3E) interaction, and other omics data such as transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics (Figure 1A).Comparisons among GP methods are evaluated through their prediction accuracy, which is directly linked to the breeder's equation (Akdemir and Isidro-Sa ´nchez, 2019). Various factors can affect GP, and the accuracy score varies significantly across experiments for a single trait. For instance, the prediction accuracy of a single trait in wheat, maize, and potato hugely varied across different experimental research due to the different setups in training population composition, applied statistical machine-learning models, and other factors (Supplemental Tables 1-3). The GP accuracy (r MG [correlation between marker predicted value with true predicted genetic value]) is measured as the Pearson's correlation between genomic estimated breeding value (GEBV) and true breeding value (Combs and Bernardo, 2013;Isidro et al., 2015), which gives an estimate of selection accuracy (Merrick et al., 2022). Selection accuracy is directly related to selection response (R), also known as genetic gain, and in the breeders' equation is calculated as R = irs A =t, where i and r are the selection intensity and accuracy, respectively; while s A is the square root of the additive genetic variance and t is the cycle time (Falconer and Mackay, 1996).GP considers the breeding values of parental average and deviation of Mendelian sampling to define GEBVs of an offspring, which allows the method to be used for: (1) rapid selection cycle with short breeding interval at early generations via prediction of the additive effects (i.e., GS at the F 2 level of a biparental cross); and (2) selection of lines at late stages of selection by predicting the genotypic values of individuals, with both additive and non-additive effects determining the final commercial value of the lines (Crossa et al., 2014;Dreisigacker et al., 2023).Numerous factors affect GP and can significantly reduce its accuracy (Figure 1B). Consequently, unless adequately addressed, they can hinder the effective utilization of GP in plant-breeding programs. The population size, genetic diversity, and genetic relatedness with the breeding population are key features to target during training population optimization. Factors such as the level of linkage disequilibrium between QTLs and markers (in both the training and breeding [testing] population), genetic complexity and heritability of target traits, quality/precision phenotyping, statistical machine-learning models, G3E interaction, and other non-additive factors are the other major features that further complicate GP in plant breeding.CV is a fundamental technique in statistical machine-learning methods that aids model evaluation, hyperparameter tuning, and ensuring robust model performance. It plays a crucial role in building models that can make accurate predictions on new, unseen data while avoiding overfitting and data-specific biases. GP models should initially be evaluated using CV methods before applying for the selection of candidate individuals in the breeding population. CV simulates the model's prediction performance by dividing the training population (training set; TRS) into calibration and validation sets.Different GP CV methods are utilized depending on various determining scenarios (Figure 2). The K-fold CV is one of the most widely applied methods, where the entire dataset is divided into an equal number of folds. In the 5-fold CV method, for example, the TRS dataset is randomly grouped into 5-folds and prediction models are trained using the 4-folds as a calibration set while the remaining fold is used as a validation set. The accuracy could be measured after either averaging multiple runs from each fold or averaging runs comprising all folds. Leave-one-out CV (LOOCV) is the other method in which a single genotype is excluded from the calibration set and used as the validation set in each single iteration. An equal number of CV iterations are required with the number of samples or genotypes in this method. Hence, LOOCV is computationally intensive and only suitable for few genotypes (samples), while the 5-fold CV method is ideal for large datasets (Cheng et al., 2017). The other CV scenario has arisen in the case of multi-environment GP analysis (Crossa et al., 2017). Cross-validation 1 (CV1) is a scenario in which the GEBVs of newly developed lines or varieties are predicted in tested environments, thus being CV1 appropriate for predicting untested lines in tested environments. CV2, also known as sparse testing, is a method for genotypes tested in some environments and predicted in other tested environments. For this reason, CV2 is a reasonable option for predicting tested lines in tested environments. The other scenarios are CV0, which arises from the prediction of tested genotypes in an untested (unobserved) environment, while CV00 is used for predicting GEBVs of untested genotypes in unobserved environment (Figure 2).A TRS is used to establish the statistical relationship between genetic markers and phenotypic data for target traits to predict the phenotypic performance of individuals from their genotypic profile. In GP, the TRS should first be optimized to enhance the prediction accuracy and efficiency in breeding programs (see ''training population optimization''). The optimized TRS can be of two types during the GP model optimization and application in the practical selection scenario. The first type is the parcel of the optimized TRS (calibration set) used to train the prediction models and estimate the GEBVs of the remaining individuals within the TRS (validation set) via CVs (Figure 1A). The second type is the overall optimized TRS applied to train the optimized GP models in aThe optimized model with the highest possible prediction accuracy is identified and applied to predict GEBV of the breeding population followed by selection of individuals based on their genetic merit for target traits. (B) Various factors affect genomic prediction accuracy in plant-breeding programs. These factors arise from diverse sources at different stages during the analysis. Population size and genetic diversity of the training population, genetic relationship (kinship) and population structure of the training population with the breeding population, and quality of the phenotypic data applied in the statistical machine-learning models are features connected with training population and should be optimized during TRS development. Other factors including density and distribution of genetic markers across chromosomes, level of linkage disequilibrium between QTL alleles and marker alleles, genetic complexity and heritability of target traits, applied statistical methods, and non-additive genetic factors such as genotype-by-environment (G3E) interactions hugely affect the final output of the GP accuracy. Molecular Plant practical breeding scenario to estimate the GEBVs of individuals in the breeding population/set (BS), which are ready for selection. Features of the TRS including the population size, genetic diversity and genetic relatedness with the BS, population structure, level of linkage disequilibrium (LD) related to the BS, and the quality of phenotypic and genotypic data significantly affect the GP accuracy (Pszczola et al., 2012;Crossa et al., 2014;Hickey et al., 2014;Zhang et al., 2017a;Edwards et al., 2019).The ultimate goal of plant breeders is to achieve highly accurate but inexpensive estimates of genetic value (Lorenz and Nice, 2017). In GP, increasing the TRS size could inflict both positive and negative consequences for successful implementation in plant breeding (Merrick et al., 2022). The size of the TRS affects the accuracy of GP models (Goddard, 2009;Daetwyler et al., 2010;Combs and Bernardo, 2013;Bassi et al., 2016) and often correlates positively with the increase in size (Lorenzana and Bernardo, 2009;Zhong et al., 2009;Albrecht et al., 2011;Bentley et al., 2014;Isidro et al., 2015). However, research has shown a plateau in prediction-accuracy increment after reaching an optimum TRS size (Arruda et al., 2015;Sverrisdo ´ttir et al., 2018;Ferna ´ndez-Gonza ´lez et al., 2023). Increasing the size of TRS demands greater effort and higher costs required for phenotyping as the genotyping cost has been significantly reduced. In addition, increasing the TRS could adversely affect the quality of collected phenotypic data, leading to reduced prediction accuracy. The TRS optimization encircles balancing to achieve the highest possible r MG with minimum resource allocation through selective phenotyping (Figure 3A) (Lorenz and Nice, 2017;Akdemir and Isidro-Sa ´nchez, 2019). Research has been conducted to identify an optimized TRS size and demonstrate the effects of numerous determining factors, such as the genetic kinship and population structure with the BS, LD extent, heritability, and genetic architecture of target traits (Isidro et al., 2015;Akdemir and Isidro-Sa ´nchez, 2019;Sarinelli et al., 2019). Broadly, to achieve a higher r MG , the size of TRS should increase when the genetic kinship with the BS decreases. Likewise, accuracy is often low for less-heritable traits, which is directly related to the complexity of the genetic architecture with several contributing small-effect QTLs and when LD between markers and QTLs is low (Habier et al., 2007;Daetwyler et al., 2010;Clark et al., 2012;Combs and Bernardo, 2013;Wientjes et al., 2013;Isidro et al., 2015). New optimization methods with the capability to automatically With the 5-fold cross-validation method, the complete population is initially allocated at random to 5-folds (F5). The 4-folds are then used as a calibration set in order to develop the GP model while retaining the remaining one as a validation set. A single genotype is excluded from the calibration set in the LOOCV, and its GEBV is predicted in every iteration. In multi-environment GP, a newly developed untested genotype can be predicted in tested environments (CV1), a genotype tested in some environments but untested in others (also known as sparse testing [CV2]), tested genotype predicted in an untested environment (CV0), and an untested genotype in an untested environment (CV00). find the optimal TRS size have been recently developed (Ferna ´ndez-Gonza ´lez et al., 2023, 2024;Wu et al., 2023). More details are available in Supplemental File 1.One of the pitfalls of GP in a practical breeding scenario is the inability to develop a dependent and effective TRS in the long term without targeting any specific BS. Because of this, breeding programs have to update and optimize the TRS at every single stage where selection is assisted with GP models (see ''training population optimization''). This is because the genetic kinship, population structure, and the extent of LD between the training and breeding populations play a huge role in the accuracy. Hence, developing a TRS targeting the candidates for selection is the most critical step in GP (Akdemir et al., 2015;Lorenz and Smith, 2015;Akdemir and Isidro-Sa ´nchez, 2019). Adding The aim of TRS optimization is to find a subset of a CS to be used as an optimal TRS to make predictions on a target population of interest. In targeted optimization, there must be a test set containing genotypes different to those in the CS, which is common when working with historical data. The target population includes this independent test set, but it may contain the genotypes in the RS as well if predicting their genotypic values is of interest. The genotypic information of the target population can then be used as an input on the optimization algorithm that allows the abstention of a training set specifically tailored for it. Conversely, in the untargeted TRS optimization scenario, there is no independent test set, which is common for selective phenotyping of new field trials. In this scenario, the target population comprises all genotypes in the CS whose genotypic values are of special interest.The target population would often be equal to the RS, but it can also be the entirety of the CS. The TRS data may be of two types: historical data and data from new field trials. When both data sources are available, their subsequent TRS can be combined to maximize model performance. It is worth noting that the steps highlighted as targeted mandate the availability of genotypic information from the test set. There may also be instances of population overlap within the process should the GEBVs of the remaining set form a prediction target; for example, RS inherently forms a part of the test set. genetically unrelated individuals in the training population adversely affects the GP models, as has been shown with a reduction in r MG (Habier et al., 2010;Clark et al., 2012;Lorenz and Smith, 2015;Alemu et al., 2023). For instance, Riedelsheimer et al. (2013) reported a huge decline (42%) in prediction accuracy when the training and breeding population was changed from within full-sib double haploid (DH) maize lines to between half-sib DH lines.A specific population having distinct allele frequency from others due to founder effects and selection processes creates population structure (Isidro et al., 2015;Norman et al., 2018). This allele frequency difference often bring association between phenotypic performances with markers, irrespective of their true linkage to the causative QTL, which causes bias on r MG unless properly accounted in the GP statistical machine-learning models (Windhausen et al., 2012;Wray et al., 2013;Albrecht et al., 2014;Guo et al., 2014). In GP, population structure can arise within the TRS or between the TRS and BS, and both affect prediction models. Research indicates an adverse impact of population structure on r MG in both self-and cross-pollinated crops (Windhausen et al., 2012;Riedelsheimer et al., 2013;Hickey et al., 2014;Isidro et al., 2015;W€ urschum et al., 2017;Werner et al., 2020). However, de Los Campos et al. ( 2015) argued that natural and artificial breeding populations always have different degrees of stratification due to differences in allele frequency and LD patterns that act as a modifier effect rather than a confounding effect. Daetwyler et al. (2012) mentioned that the key is accounting for spurious population structure, such as that originating from admixtures, but without affecting relatedness between individuals. Nevertheless, several research studies indicated a significant reduction in GP accuracy when population structure was accounted in the statistical analysis (Guo et al., 2014;Norman et al., 2018;Werner et al., 2020;Callister et al., 2022). Different strategies have been proposed to account population structure in GP.Admixing individuals from different groups during TRS optimization and phenotyping is one option to connect the different populations (Esfandyari et al., 2015;Rio et al., 2019).Accounting population structure by exploiting the mean performances of subpopulations defined through breeding origin, pedigree, or molecular markers is the other developed method (Albrecht et al., 2011;Windhausen et al., 2012;Guo et al., 2014). Another approach is incorporating principal components and admixture coefficients derived from a genomic relationship matrix as covariates in GP mixed models as fixed effects (Daetwyler et al., 2012;Crossa et al., 2016b;Edriss et al., 2017). However, this method has limitations, such as inability to account markers' effect difference across subpopulations (Lehermeier et al., 2015) and ''double counting'' of population structure (Janss et al., 2012). Different approaches have been proposed to overcome this problem, such as genomic best linear unbiased prediction (G-BLUP) re-parameterization and modeling genetic covariances between individuals from different groups by adapting multi-trait models (Janss et al., 2012;Guo et al., 2014;Lehermeier et al., 2015).Genetic diversity of the TRS is the other major contributing factor in GP (Habier et al., 2007;Lorenzana and Bernardo, 2009;Norman et al., 2018;Berro et al., 2019). Including individuals with diverse genetic backgrounds helps to capture the full spectrum of genetic variants influencing the target traits. This diversity ensures that the predictive models can accurately capture the genetic effects and make reliable predictions across a wide range of genetic backgrounds. The TRS should encompass a broad range of allelic variation for the traits of interest to capture maximum possible contributing QTLs (Norman et al., 2018). However, it has to be developed targeting the BS, since increasing the diversity with individuals genetically distant from the BS negatively affect the GP model accuracy (Crossa et al., 2014;Akdemir and Isidro-Sa ´nchez, 2019;Berro et al., 2019).The GP efficiency in practical breeding scenarios is highly dependent on the r MG of the genetic merit of candidate individuals.Extensive research supports the notion that configuring the optimal TRS is critical to determine the prediction accuracy (Lorenzana and Bernardo, 2009;Riedelsheimer et al., 2012;Isidro et al., 2015;Akdemir and Isidro-Sa ´nchez, 2019;Berro et al., 2019;Ou and Liao, 2019;Isidro y Sa ´nchez and Akdemir, 2021;Ferna ´ndez-Gonza ´lez et al., 2023). An inadequately constructed TRS substantially diminishes prediction accuracies, while optimized TRS significantly improves accuracy (see Isidro y Sa ´nchez and Akdemir, 2021). The TRS optimization aims to maximize the accuracy of the predictions made on a test or target set (TS) while minimizing the TRS size to reduce phenotyping costs (Figure 3A) (Crossa et al., 2017).The TRS optimization is key in plant-breeding programs for three main reasons. First, as predictions rely on markers or line effects determined by the TRS, there is a need to carefully curate the TRS to enhance the efficiency and efficacy of GS. Second, the substantial costs of phenotyping have driven the search for innovative alternatives to reduce expenditure (Isidro y Sa ´nchez and Akdemir, 2021). Breeding programs can allocate resources more efficiently by focusing on a smaller yet representative TRS. This not only reduces phenotyping expenditure but also enhances the quality of data applied in the GP models. This allows breeding programs to invest in advanced tools for intricate traits or increase the number of measurements for specific traits, an approach termed sparse or selective phenotyping. Third, the conventional TRS methods that rely on random sampling do not always lead to improved predictive capability due to an under-representation or overrepresentation of critical genetic information. Thus, optimization serves to streamline the sparse phenotyping process, aiming to curtail phenotyping expenses while preserving or enhancing prediction models' accuracy.There are two key aspects in TRS optimization: (1) TRS is a dynamic population that must be updated through the breeding cycle (Lorenz and Smith, 2015 Here, we review the types of populations available in breeding programs and their role during TRS optimization, the applied methodologies, and the broader implications on GP accuracy and efficiency. We offer the perspectives of TRS optimization in the context of the broader breeding landscape. We do not delve into the exhaustive details of every algorithm or methods and associated pros and cons that can be found elsewhere, such as Isidro y Sa ´nchez and Akdemir (2021). Nevertheless, a summary of the key developed algorithms for TRS optimization can be found in Supplemental Table 4.In GS-assisted breeding, the classification and utilization of different breeding population sets are crucial in streamlining the prediction process and maximizing the efficiency of the breeding pipeline. Each set plays a distinct role, and its composition can significantly influence the accuracy and effectiveness of GP. The summary of breeding population sets and their respective purposes and interrelations can be summarized as follows.(1) Candidate set (CS): collection of genotypes available to breeders. Optimization aims to identify an optimal CS subset to be used as the TRS (Figure 3B). (2) Remaining set (RS): includes genotypes from the CS not selected for the TRS. When accompanied by phenotypic data, RS enhances the evaluation of model performance.(3) Training or calibration set (TRS): basis for the GP equation, containing both genotypic and phenotypic data. The goal is to maximize accuracy on the TS with minimal phenotypic and genotypic information. (4) Test or target set (TS): a set of genotypes to be predicted.It holds only the genotypic information required to predict their GEBVs. However, genotypic information may or may not be available in time for the TRS optimization step.The TRS is often constructed with new field trials datasets. However, it can be supplemented with old historical data, and optimization can be performed on both data sources (Figure 3C).(1) (Historical data: utilizing a CS that encompasses comprehensive historical data with both genotyped and phenotyped information can enrich the TRS in terms of size and diversity, a key advantage in GS (Pszczola et   , 2024). Such inclusion could however diminish the TRS's resemblance to the TS and may adversely affect the prediction accuracy (Lorenz and Smith, 2015), prompting the need for optimization.(2) New field trials: sparse testing is suggested in cases where the CS provides only genotypic data with limited field trials preventing complete phenotyping (Crespo-Herrera et al., 2021;Montesinos-Lo ´pez et al., 2023a;Melchinger et al., 2023). In this scenario, an optimal experimental design could be designed as follows: (1) determine the subset from CS to undergo field-testing, thereby forming the TRS (TRS optimization); (2) for multi-environment trials, ascertain the ideal TRS genotype distribution across locations; and (3) define the most effective genotype distribution within the field (which genotype in which plots). Steps 2 and 3 represent ordered optimization focusing on the strategic optimal spatial arrangement of genotypes.TRS optimization is categorized as either targeted or untargeted depending on the availability of genotypic information from the TS (Figure 3B). Targeted optimization takes advantage of TS genotypic information to construct the TRS and often outperforms the untargeted approaches (Akdemir and Isidro-Sa ´nchez, 2019; Isidro y Sa ´nchez and Akdemir, 2021;Ferna ´ndez-Gonza ´lez et al., 2023). Even without TS genotype information, a detailed pedigree linking the CS with TS remains feasible in targeted optimization. However, research in this area is lacking. Unordered optimization focuses on selecting a CS subset, while ordered optimization emphasizes the spatial genotype distribution in the field. The latter may utilize data related to blocking structures, spatial influences, and environmental variables (Akdemir et al., 2021).Several design criteria have been proposed for selecting and optimizing the TRS in GP. The classical standard random or stratified sampling method is commonly applied because of its simplicity. Nevertheless, GP accuracy enhancement has been achieved using other optimization criteria, which can be classified as parametric, non-parametric, and multiple design criteria. Many of the established criteria mostly serve as evaluation metrics for the TRS, and appropriate heuristic is imperative to maximize or minimize it. Numerous R program packages have been developed and provide suitable heuristics often based on genetic algorithms. For instance, the STPGA (Akdemir, 2017), TSDFGS (Ou and Liao, 2019), and odw (Butler et al., 2013) are developed but are limited to built-in criteria. In contrast, TrainSel (Akdemir et al., 2021) supports both built-in and userdefined criteria.Parametric design criteria assume that the researcher predetermines a model prior to data collection. These criteria typically rely on a scalar function tied to the model's information matrix.In practice, it is usually derived from the prediction error variance-covariance matrix (PEV) for the additive genotypic effects in linear mixed models. The A, D, and E criteria (Laloe ¨, 1993), the coefficient of determination criterion (CD_mean), and the prediction error variance criterion (PEV_mean) are examples (Laloe ¨, 1993). Parametric criteria are a powerful approach but are computationally intensive. Attempts have been made to resolve this problem, including updating the PEV matrix in each iteration instead of calculating de novo (Butler et al., 2013) and applying principal component analysis to reduce dimensionality such as in PEV_mean ridge and CD_mean ridge methods (Akdemir et al., 2015;Heslot and Feoktistov, 2020). An in-depth discussion on computational efficiency of algorithms is available in Supplemental File 1, Note 2.Sparse selection index is a recently proposed prediction model with a built-in optimization process (Lopez-Cruz and de los Campos, 2021; Lopez-Cruz et al., 2021; Lopez-Cruz et al., 2022). Here, a selection index that specifies the TS genotypic values as a linear combination of the CS ones is defined. The regression coefficients of the linear combination are subjected to a lasso regularization (L1) penalty to enforce sparsity that is equivalent to the selection of a subset of the genotypes as a TRS. This is conceptually similar to the bandwidth parameter in the reproducing kernel Hilbert space (De Los Campos et al., 2009;Lopez-Cruz et al., 2021) but takes it one-step further. This method is suitable for historical data optimization because it makes a specific TRS for each TS individual and the phenotypic information of the CS should be available for parameter tuning.The methods of this type do not assume any predefined underlying models but often revolve around metrics of distance or similarity with the intention of uniformly distributing the TRS throughout the design landscape, a method known as spacefilling design. Such designs particularly facilitate the selection of a condensed set of candidates and minimize the computational complexity associated with the optimization of parametric design criteria. Various metrics assist in evaluating the distribution of points within this design space. For instance, the partition around medoids approach centers on identifying a series of central entities, termed medoids, within clusters based on a specific distance measure (Guo et al., 2019). In general, methods for representative subset selection in data mining could be used for training set design, which opens up many possibilities. Numerous metrics have been developed to minimize genetic relationships within the TRS (i.e., maximizing diversity) and/or maximizing its relationship to the TS, for example, the maximin and minimax (Johnson et al., 1990), Avg_GRM (Atanda et al., 2021a), OPT_MIN (Lemeunier et al., 2022), Avg_GRM self, and Avg_GRM_MinMax (Ferna ´ndez-Gonza ´lez et al., 2023). Latin hypercube sampling (Helton and Davis, 2003) involves segmenting the design space into equal cubes. The objective is to ensure that each cube hosts a single sample point, further aiming to comprehensively explore the range of each scalar input in alignment with a given probability distribution. Tails and Tails_GEBVs select genotypes with extreme phenotype or GEBVs for the TRS and discard the rest (Neyhart et al., 2017;Ferna ´ndez-Gonza ´lez et al., 2024). Adversarial selection tries to ensure that the TRS and TS are indistinguishable by a binary classifier; i.e., their similarity is maximized (Montesinos-Lo ´pez and Montesinos-Lo ´pez, 2023).This method attempts to handle the choice issue by combining the different criteria into one with some type of averaging methods such as the Pareto front approach (Akdemir et al., 2015;Isidro y Sa ´nchez and Akdemir, 2021). It is adept at evaluating multiple criteria and defining a suite of nondominated designs. The method has been effectively applied to optimize the integration of historical data balancing the TRS diversity, its association with the TS, and trial heritability with an extensive empirical dataset from an industrial breeding program (Isidro y Sa ´nchez and Akdemir, 2021;Ferna ´ndez-Gonza ´lez et al., 2024).A detailed comparison and breakdown of TRS optimization methods and algorithms can be found in Supplemental Table 4. However, the large number of available methods makes selecting a single effective method challenging. Recent research on TRS optimization offers invaluable insights into selection of appropriate methods. Ferna ´ndez-Gonza ´lez et al. ( 2023) conducted an extensive comparison of these optimization methods across various datasets and genetic architectures. In light of their findings and those of other researchers, we provided a small summary focusing on the key algorithms for each field within TRS optimization. Furthermore, an in-depth, systematic example on the implementation of CDmean and Avg_GRM_self is provided in Supplemental File 1, Note 1 and an R-script with example of implementing two algorithms on real TRS optimization scenario (Supplemental File 2). Nevertheless, it is important to note that there is no single best algorithm in all aspects, and some of the methods in Supplemental Table 4 may be more suitable for niche applications.Here, we forward our recommendation of general-purpose, effective methods that constitute a good first option for new optimization projects.( Increasing the density of SNP markers distributed across chromosomes helps to accurately capture most contributing QTL ultimately leading to an increased r MG . The number of SNP markers required to develop an optimum GP depends on the genome size, extent of LD, and complexity of the trait under investigation. A study targeting a complex trait controlled by several QTLs (e.g., yield) in a crop with a large genome size and low LD relatively requires a highly dense SNP marker distributed across chromosomes. On the contrary, a highly heritable trait controlled by fewer genes and with high LD could need a relatively low SNP marker density to reach the maximum possible r MG . In addition, LD in outcrossing crops, such as maize, decays rapidly compared to self-crossing crops (e.g., rice) (Flint-Garcia et al., 2003;Kaler et al., 2022), requiring highly dense SNP marker distribution to achieve the optimum r MG . In general, the optimum density and distribution of SNP markers relies on the most contributing QTL of a target trait being under LD with DNA markers included in prediction models (Hayes and Goddard, 2001;Kaler et al., 2022). The pattern of LD of populations particularly helps to develop GP models with cost-effective, low-density SNP markers (Bolormaa et al., 2015;Wu et al., 2016;Silva et al., 2018;Ballesta et al., 2020).Optimizing the marker density in GP could be beneficial, as most SNPs in large marker datasets are phenotypically neutral and contain only a relatively small proportion of SNPs relevant for a specific trait (Bermingham et al., 2015;Al Kalaldeh et al., 2019;Weber et al., 2023). Selecting optimal subsets of markers for specific traits has been a promising approach to increase the accuracy in GP (Bermingham et al., 2015;van den Berg et al., 2016;Filho et al., 2019;Alemu et al., 2023;Weber et al., 2023). One method for marker subsetting is selection based on previous association mapping studies. A beneficial GP accuracy improvement was observed when significant markers identified through GWAS were fitted as fixed effects (Kim et al., 2022;Anilkumar et al., 2023;Chen et al., 2023), only the top 100-10 000 markers with highest significance were used as predictors (Bermingham et al., 2015;Filho et al., 2019), or markers surrounding the significant markers were included (van den Berg et al., 2016;Filho et al., 2019). Another optimization approach is applying haplotype blocks based on marker LD in prediction models (Alemu et al., 2023;Weber et al., 2023). Predictions based on haplotype blocks, rather than single SNP markers, could efficiently capture local epistasis and better account for LD to QTLs leading to improved GP accuracy (Weber et al., 2023). Selection of marker panels can highly influence trait associations, and several research articles have demonstrated the impact of marker density on the GP accuracy (Zhang et al., 2017a(Zhang et al., , 2019;;Liu et al., 2018;Norman et al., 2018).Most crop traits of economic importance, such as yield, are multigenic and have a complex genetic architecture involving several QTLs or genes with varying levels of phenotypic effects. One of the key advantages of GP over the conventional MAS methods is its ability to efficiently evaluate genotypes for such genetically complex multigenic traits by considering the high numbers of small-effect QTLs. Generally, genetic complexity and heritability (h 2 ) are directly related to the number of QTLs and their interaction to control a trait. A trait controlled by small numbers of large-effect QTLs usually has higher heritability than those with several genes with different levels of genotypic effect. GP is affected by the complexity of traits, genetic architecture, and heritability. A trait with low h 2 should be compensated by increasing the TRS size (N) to achieve an optimum GP accuracy, since Nh 2 determines the power of GP models (Bernardo, 2016). Furthermore, machine-learning models that account for epistatic interactions have the potential to improve the prediction accuracy when epistatic interaction largely or partially contributes to the true genetic architecture of a trait (De Los Campos et al., 2010;Wang et al., 2012;Morgante et al., 2018). Several empirical investigations and simulation research have demonstrated that the r MG generally increases as the number of QTLs decreases and trait heritability increases (Hayes et al., 2009;Lorenzana and Bernardo, 2009;Zhong et al., 2009;Jannink et al., 2010;Combs and Bernardo, 2013;Zhang et al., 2017a;Jung et al., 2020).The phenotypic data recorded from the TRS is required to connect the genomic profile with the phenotype, enabling GP models to evaluate and provide weights to individual SNP markers. These markers are then used to assess individuals in the BS solely from their genomic profile and assist selection and decision making in breeding programs. High-density SNP markers combined with precision phenotyping evaluated in suitable statistical machinelearning models could link the genome with the phenome of crops, leading to GP models with high prediction accuracy. Efficiency limitations of the conventional plant phenotyping methods have been considered as the bottleneck to successfully connecting the bridge between genotype with phenotype information (Araus and Cairns, 2014;Araus et al., 2018). Hence, advanced technologies for high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) and highthroughput field phenotyping (HTFP) methods have attracted tremendous attention recently for their potential to provide comprehensive and precise phenotypic data for primary as well as secondary traits in several crops (Cabrera-Bosquet et al., 2012;Araus and Cairns, 2014;Zhang et al., 2017b;Araus et al., 2018;Moreira et al., 2020). The HTP and HTFP can be referred to collectively as the high-throughput phenotyping platform (HTPP). The HTPP allows researchers to screen massive numbers of individual plants at a very low cost. HTPP aims to produce high-density phenotypes on very large numbers of individuals or breeding lines across time and space at low cost using remote or proximal sensing. This can increase both the accuracy and intensity of selection and, therefore, the selection response while decreasing phenotyping costs. The main idea of HTPP is to use predictor traits related to grain yield, disease resistance, or end-use quality that could be advantageous in early-generation testing of lines (Rutkoski et al., 2016). Previous research has shown the potential of HTPP methods in the GP accuracy of several traits (Crain et al., 2018;Juliana et al., 2019a;Gala ´n et al., 2020;Wang et al., 2023b).GP relies on estimating the phenotypic performance of individuals from their genomic profile. The genomic profile, however, must be transcribed to RNA (tRNA, sRNA, mRNA) and then translated to protein before being expressed as a phenotype (Cobb, 2017). These results come from transcriptomics and proteomics research, respectively. The integration of this intermediate phenotype data (i.e., transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) with genomic data has demonstrated the potential to improve GP accuracy (Hu et al., 2019;Li et al., 2019;Haile et al., 2020;Martini et al., 2022;Wang et al., 2023aWang et al., , 2023b)). Multi-omics-based GP has been implemented successfully, improving prediction accuracy in several crops such as maize (Guo et al., 2016;Zenke-Philippi et al., 2016;Westhues et al., 2017;Xu et al., 2017;Schrag et al., 2018), wheat (Zhao et al., 2015), oats (Hu et al., 2021), barley (Wu et al., 2022), rice (Hu et al., 2019;Wang et al., 2019), and rapeseed (Knoch et al., 2021). Schrag et al. (2018) reported combining messenger RNA (mRNA) with pedigree and genomic datasets, resulting in beneficial improvements in r MG to estimate the breeding values of agronomic traits in untested maize hybrids. Hu et al. (2019) outlined an r MG improvement in four yield and yield-related traits of untested rice RILs through a multi-layered least absolute shrinkage and selection operator model integrating transcriptome and metabolome along with genomic profiles in a single model. Incorporating both transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles to the genomic datasets has also improved the r MG of several agronomic and seed nutritional traits of oats from multienvironment trials (Hu et al., 2021). Recently, advanced statistical machine-learning algorithms have been developed to incorporate the multi-omics intermediaries with efficient computing performance to leverage the GP models (Hu et al., 2021;Wang et al., 2023aWang et al., , 2023b)). Nonetheless, model overfitting and spatial-temporal features accompanying the intermediaries should be cautiously considered during implementation of the omics profiles of plants in GP research (Yan and Wang, 2023).Statistical methods play a central role in GP, since the effect of DNA markers is estimated by modeling the mathematical relationships between the genotypic and phenotypic data provided in the TRS. Thereafter, evaluated markers are provided with specific weights to their phenotypic effect that allow the genomic breeding values of candidate individuals in the BS to be estimated. Hence, GP is a statistical machine-learning approach that aims to train, develop, and analyze the performance of models with the data from the TRS (Tong and Nikoloski, 2021;Montesinos Lo ´pez et al., 2022a, 2022b, 2023). Meuwissen et al. (2001) by simulating the effect of approximately 50 000 marker haplotypes with a modified linear least squares regression, BLUP, and two Bayesian statistical methods (BayesA and BayesB).Several statistical machine-learning methods have been proposed for GP over the last 20 years (Figure 4). As most of the available datasets in genomics for plant and animal breeding applications try to find the relationship between the response variable (output) and thousands or even millions of SNP markers as inputs (or predictors, p), the framework for training these models is where more inputs are available than observations (observations, n), that is, p >> n, which presents a major challenge. This phenomenon leads the advent of different penalization (regularization) approaches (Meuwissen et al., 2001;De Los Campos et al., 2013). Hence, the different regularization mechanisms applied to estimate genome-wide SNP marker effects from a regression with large p with small n has led to the emergence of numerous statistical machinelearning approaches (Montesinos Lo ´pez et al., 2022aLo ´pez et al., , 2022b)). These statistical machine-learning algorithms perform differently, and their suitability and performance depend on coping with several factors that arise from the multidimensionality of genome-wide SNP markers and the genetic complexity of multi-factorial traits (De Los Campos et al., 2010). Consequently, no statistical machine-learning model can be singled out as outperforming other available algorithms and giving the highest possible GP accuracy that has been verified by numerous empirical and simulation researches and its theoretical support given by the ''no-free-lunch'' theorem (Azodi et al., 2019;Montesinos Lo ´pez et al., 2022a, 2022b). These statistical models can be grouped as parametric, semiparametric, and non-parametric models (Montesinos Lo ´pez et al., 2022aLo ´pez et al., , 2022b)).Parametric models are developed from the assumption that the independent or predictor variables take a predetermined function with the dependent or response variables. Some examples of parametric models are linear multiple regression, non-linear regression, logistic regression, multinomial regression, and Poisson regression (Montesinos Lo ´pez et al., 2022aLo ´pez et al., , 2022b)). Non-parametric models are a class of statistical and machine-learning models that do not make explicit assumptions about the functional form or distribution of the underlying data. Predictors are not predefined in this class of models but are instead crafted on the basis of insights extracted from the data (Montesinos Lo ´pez et al., 2022aLo ´pez et al., , 2022b)). Unlike parametric models, which assume specific mathematical forms for relationships between variables (e.g., linear regression), non-parametric models offer more flexibility by allowing the data to determine the structure of the model. These models are particularly useful when dealing with complex or unknown relationships, as they can adapt to various data patterns without requiring predefined parameter specifications. Non-parametric models include methods such as kernel density estimation, k-nearest neighbors, decision trees, gradient boosting machine, and random forest. A semiparametric model is a statistical machine-learning approach where a portion of the predictors is not constrained to predetermined mathematical forms, while another portion adheres to known functional relationships with the response variable. This blend of flexibility and structure is exemplified by equations such as(Equation 1)In the context of GP models, a classical example is Bayesian or mixed models with linear components for environmental effects and non-linear (Gaussian kernel, or other types of kernels) components for genotype effects (Montesinos Lo ´pez et al., 2022aLo ´pez et al., , 2022b)). Essentially, semi-parametric models represent a combination of both parametric and non-parametric modeling techniques. Most of the currently available statistical machine-learning models classified in the three mentioned groups are presented in Figure 4.In studies involving multiple environments, genetic association and prediction models are usually developed from summarized phenotypic data across environments or separate models for each environment. Another approach to account for multiple environments is using an environment index, which for example can be derived from environmental conditions such as temperature and photoperiod (Guo et al., 2020a(Guo et al., , 2020b(Guo et al., , 2020c(Guo et al., , 2020d)).Growing degree days was earlier proposed as a promising example of an environment index for capturing flowering time plasticity in rice (Guo et al. 2020a). Li et al. (2021) proposed that a carefully developed environment index can replace phenotypic means obtained through conventional measurements and can model observed phenotype and also predict phenotypic performance in new environments, and they tested their hypothesis on three different traits in wheat and oat field trials. Similarly, in sorghum, diurnal temperature range during the rapid growth period was found to be an effective environment index (Mu et al., 2022). Taken together, these studies highlight the importance of studying phenotypic All these statistical machine-learning models are classified into three major categories: parametric, semi-parametric, and non-parametric. The parametric statistical machine-learning models include modified least square regression (MLS) (Meuwissen et al., 2001), partial least square regression (PLS) (Montesinos Lo ´pez et al., 2022a;2022b), principal components regression (PCR) (Solberg et al., 2009), independent components regression (ICR) (Azevedo et al., 2013), genomic best linear unbiased prediction (G-BLUP) (Vanraden, 2008), BayesA (BA) and BayesB (BB) (Meuwissen et al., 2001), BayesC (BC) (George and McCulloch, 1993), BayesCp (BCp) and BayesDp (BDp) (Habier et al., 2011), BayesR (BR) (Erbe et al., 2012), BayesU (BU) (Pong-Wong and Woolliams, 2014), BayesHP (BHP) and BayesHE (BHE) (Shi et al., 2021), least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) (Usai et al., 2009), adaptive LASSO (ALASSO) (Zou, 2006), Bayesian LASSO (BLASSO) (Park and Casella, 2008), ridge regression best linear unbiased prediction (RR-BLUP) (Meuwissen et al., 2001), Bayesian ridge regression (BRR) (Pe ´rez et al., 2010), elastic net (EN) (Zou and Hastie, 2005), and adaptive EN (AEN) (Zou and Zhang, 2009). The semi-parametric method includes the reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) model (Gianola et al., 2006) and the mixed and Bayesian models combined with the RKHS model. The non-parametric method comprises gradient boosting machine (GBM) (Li et al., 2018), extreme gradient boosting (XgBoost) (Chen and He, 2014), support vector machine (SVM) (Maenhout et al., 2007), rankSVM (Blondel et al., 2015), Bayesian additive regression trees (BART) (Waldmann, 2016), random forest (RF) (Chen and Ishwaran, 2012), probabilistic neural network (PNN) (Gonza ´lez-Camacho et al., 2016), radial basis function (RBF) (Chen and Ishwaran, 2012), multilayer perceptron (MLP) (Gianola et al., 2011) Genomic selection in plant breedingplasticity under G3E interaction and exploring derived environmental indices for modeling and predicting phenotypes in untested environments.Multi-environment trials for assessing G3E play an important role in plant breeding for selecting high-performing and stable lines across environments. For instance, the multi-environment linear mixed models accounting for correlated environmental structures within the G-BLUP framework increased accuracy when predicting the performance of unobserved phenotypes using pedigree and molecular markers (Zhang et al., 2015). Burguen ˜o et al. ( 2012) proposed and effectively applied a marker and pedigree G-BLUP model for assessing G3E, while Heslot et al. (2014) incorporated crop modeling data on the genomic G3E prediction. Jarquı ´n et al. ( 2014) developed a reaction norm model, an extension of the G-BLUP model, where the main and interaction effects of markers and environmental covariates are introduced using highly dimensional random variancecovariance structures of markers and environmental covariables. The model has been successfully applied in GP prediction of breeding values using pedigree and genomic relationships (Pe ´rez-Rodrı ´guez et al., 2015;Velu et al., 2018).Here, the baseline model for the phenotypes (y ij ) can be described as(Equation 3)where m is the overall mean, E i (i = 1,.,I) is the random effect of the ith environment, L j is the random effect of the jth line (j = 1,.,J), EL ij is the interaction between the ith environment and the jth line, and e ij is the random error term. The assumptions are as follows:, and e ij $ iid Nð0;s 2 e Þ, with N(.,.) denoting a normal density and iid standing for independent and identically distributed. Markers can be introduced in Equation 3 such that the effect of line (L j ) can be replaced by g j defined by the regression on marker covariates (it approximates the genetic value of the jth line). The vector containing the genomic values is g $ Nð0; Gs 2 g Þ, where s 2 g is the genomic variance and G is a genomic relationship matrix (Vanraden, 2008). Furthermore, the effects of line (L j ) can be replaced by a j , with a $ Nð0; As 2 a Þ, where A is the additive relationship matrix derived from pedigree and s 2 a is the additive variance.The marker 3 environment (M3E) interaction model proposed by Lopez-Cruz et al. (2015) breaks down the marker effects into components that are common across environments (stability) and environment-specific deviations (interaction). This model borrows information across environments while allowing marker effects to change across environments. This method can be implemented using both shrinkage and variable selection methods and thus can be used to identify genomic regions with stable effect across environments and regions that are responsible for G3 E. However, it is noteworthy that the M3E model is best suited for joint analysis of positively correlated environments (Lopez-Cruz et al., 2015). Crossa et al. (2016a) successfully applied the M3 E GP model to predict untested individuals and dissect genomic regions with stable effect across environments and with environment-specific effect.There are various uses of GP in breeding crops. The first is in prebreeding, either to search for desired accessions based on their GEBVs in a gene bank (Crossa et al., 2016b;Dzievit et al., 2021;Bohra et al., 2022;El Hanafi et al., 2023) or to identify elite parents for further crossing (Gaynor et al., 2017;Chung and Liao, 2022). GP allows a cost-effective approach for selecting interesting germplasm held in gene banks (Yu et al., 2016), thus increasing the use of this germplasm-particularly those lacking pedigree information and data evaluation-in plant breeding (Jiang et al., 2021). It also speeds up the introgression of exotic germplasm into the elite breeding pool (Crossa et al., 2016b), as shown recently in wheat improvement (Schulthess et al., 2022). GP may also be used for increasing genetic gains by selecting promising germplasm at early stages (Kadam et al., 2016;Rembe et al., 2022) or for feeding them into a genomic recurrent selection (GRS) approach (Bassi et al., 2016;Biswas et al., 2023), as well as for accelerating the cultivar development pipeline (Balle ´n-Taborda et al., 2022). GRS facilitates the recycling of parents in a breeding program. The success of GP in any of these breeding stages, however, relies mainly on the trait architecture and its heritability.A challenge faced by plant breeding is to predict performance across sites over years or cropping seasons. GP may allow estimation of the robustness of desired productivity or quality traits across the target population of environments. Such an approach improves the efficiency of multi-environment testing and its further use in the cultivar development pipeline because it eliminates mediocre breeding lines in the early stages, thus saving time and resources. In this regard, as shown by Atanda et al. (2021b), sparse testing using GP may also be a valuable approach for increasing the number of trial environments without increasing costs but keeping the selection intensity in the early stages of evaluation. Montesinos- Lo ´pez et al. (2023b) showed that a significant gain in the number of new lines to be evaluated could be obtained by using sparse testing methods without a relevant increase of required resources. The authors demonstrated that with a conventional block design capacity to evaluate only 225 lines, the number could be increased to 269, 308, and 475 with a sparse testing design using 85%, 75%, and 50% as training increasing the number of lines by 19.56%, 36.89%, and 111.11%, respectively. GP has further found extensive application in predicting heterosis, encompassing both high-parent and mid-parent heterosis, across a diverse range of crops, including maize (Albrecht et al., 2011(Albrecht et al., , 2014;;Riedelsheimer et al., 2013;Beyene et al., 2015Beyene et al., , 2019;;Cantelmo et al., 2017;Zhang et al., 2022), rice (Xu et al., 2014(Xu et al., , 2018;;Huang et al., 2015;Cui et al., 2020), barley (Philipp et al., 2016;Li et al., 2017), wheat (Basnet et al., 2019;Zhao et al., 2021), sorghum (Sapkota et al., 2022;Kent et al., 2023;Maulana et al., 2023), ryegrass (Grinberg et al., 2016), and pumpkin (Wu et al., 2019). Notably, the predictive scope of GP extends beyond conventional traits such as yield and its 564 Molecular Plant 17, 552-578, April 1 2024 ª 2024 The Author.Genomic selection in plant breeding components (Grinberg et al., 2016;He et al., 2016;Philipp et al., 2016;Wu et al., 2019) to encompass a wider spectrum of characteristics, such as biotic and abiotic stress tolerances (Lorenz et al., 2012;Arojju et al., 2018), nutrient utilization efficiency (Zhao et al., 2020), and biofortification of crops with several micronutrients (Velu et al., 2016;Mageto et al., 2020;Rakotondramanana et al., 2022;Tadesse et al., 2023).The task of applying GS in breeding is to enhance genetic gains per year at a lower cost and in less time compared to the conventional breeding methods. Given a vector of true breeding values of an individual a 0 = ½a 1 a 2 . a t and the vector of economic weights w 0 = ½w 1 w 2 . w t for t traits, the net genetic merit is H = w 0 a 0 . The response to multi-trait genetic gains can be written as H = ðks H r H;I Þ=L, where k is intensity of selection (the standardized selection differential), s H is the standard deviation of H; r H;I is the correlation between H and any phenotypic or genomic index I, and L is the time required for I to complete one selection cycle (in a standard breeding program this takes several years). The selection response is the most important breeder's equation, and factors that increase the numerator or decrease the denominator of R will increase the overall genetic gains of the target traits. Simulation and empirical results have shown that GS can increase genetic gains by shortening the breeding interval cycle (L) (rapid selection cycle) or increasing testing efficiency by performing sparse field evaluation (Tessema et al., 2020;Xu et al., 2020;Atanda et al., 2022;Dreisigacker et al., 2023). To achieve a shorter interval cycle (I), the most favorable situation for GS is prediction within full-sib families, since the biparental populations have very high LD between marker alleles and QTL alleles with no pedigree, family, or group structure. Estimated prediction accuracies for biparental populations should thus be considered the maximum attainable in closed rapid-cycle marker-only selection. Several research confirmed the efficiency of GS for early-generation rapid cycling (Massman et al., 2013;Zhang et al., 2017c;Bonnett et al., 2022;Dreisigacker et al., 2023).Two showcases are provided to elucidate the ongoing empirical research facilitated by GS from public and private breeding programs.Most GS results in maize have been achieved by rapid cycling of biparental populations. For example, the F 2:3 segregating populations were crossed with a tester, usually from the opposite heterotic group. CIMMYT's Global Maize Program designed a GS rapid cycle of multi-parental crosses. Fifteen elite tropical maize lines were crossed in diallel fashion to form cycle 0 (C 0 ) comprising 1000 plants, which were genotyped with 1 000 000 genotyping-bysequencing (GBS) SNP markers and phenotyped at three locations in Mexico. The best phenotypic plants were selected to form the parents for GS cycle 1 (C 1 ). The C 1 parents were intercrossed and the progeny was genotyped with the same GBS markers as used for the C 0 population. Genomic-enabled prediction for grain yield for the individuals in the C 1 population was performed in each of the three environments; based on the predicted values, selection was made to form the parents of the C 2 population. As before, the parents were intercrossed and genotyped to form the C 2 population, and plants were selected based on the GP for grain yield. GP and GS were performed for two more cycles. Two cycles per year were performed; and at the end of the second year, seeds from cycles C 0 , C 1, C 2, C 3, and C 4 were collected, assembled, and sown at three locations in Mexico (Agua Fria, Cotaxtla, and Tlaltizapan). Fifty entries were sown per genomic cycle at each location, together with two widely used commercial tropical maize hybrids. The average genetic grain yield gains were 0.134 t ha À1 with C 0 producing 6.653 t ha À1 . Grain yield of C 1 was slightly lower (6.488), and cycles C 2, C 3, and C 4 produced means of 7.022, 6.879, and 7.126 t ha À1 , respectively. Cycles C 2 and C 4 were significantly different from the rest (least significant difference at the 0.05 probability level). Results from two other locations in Mexico are being processed, and the complete results of this multi-parental maize rapid selection cycle are yet to be published.In addition, Beyene et al. (2015) previously reported significant genetic gains in maize grain yield through GS in eight CIMMYT tropical biparental maize populations in sub-Saharan Africa under drought conditions. They revealed that the average gain from GS per cycle across the eight populations was 0.086 t ha À1 , while the C 3 -derived hybrids produced significantly higher average grain yields than C 0 -derived hybrids. However, the average gain per cycle using marker-assisted recurrent selection across 10 populations was only 0.045 t ha À1 per cycle under similar environmental conditions.Showcase 2: Two-part GS-assisted breeding at Lantm€ annen Lantbruk, SwedenThe breeding-cycle duration is arguably the single factor that has the largest effect on gain per time (Cobb et al., 2019). The genetic gain per unit time is of fundamental importance, particularly for breeding programs to maintain their competitive advantage, and is also crucial for attempting to adapt new cultivars to a rapidly changing environment (Budhlakoti et al., 2022). In a conventional breeding program of an inbred crop, such as wheat, barley, or oats, new parents are typically selected during the advanced yield trial stage, which results in a breeding cycle of around 5À8 years.In Lantm€ annen, the GS-assisted breeding program of inbred crops is split into two parts: the first part is the GS-enabled recurrent selection, also called ''population improvement''; and the second part is inbred line development, also called ''product development,'' in which selected lines undergo testing in advanced field trials. This strategy significantly reduces the breeding-cycle time by selecting new parents at an early stage based on their genomic estimated breeding values. Simulation research supports this two-part strategy, outperforming both the conventional selection as well as ''standard'' GS (i.e., GS only applied at the preliminary yield trial stage) by significantly increasing genetic gain per unit time (Gaynor et al., 2017). Meanwhile, the two-part GS-assisted breeding strategy brings challenging issues for breeding programs. First, genotyping a large number (up 100 000) of early-generation individuals for high-density SNP markers could be expensive, particularly for small breeding programs. Second, a closed-loop two-part strategy, where no new allelic variation is introduced, leads to loss of both genetic diversity and prediction accuracy over time, with a negative impact on long-term genetic gain (Gaynor et al., 2017).However, for self-pollinating crops where LD normally extends over longer genomic distances, rapid-cycling GS using a lowdensity marker set can deliver gains of similar magnitudes as high-density genotyping, even without marker imputation (A. Ceplitis, Lantm€ annen Lantbruk, Sval€ ov, Sweden, unpublished data). In addition, the negative effect on prediction accuracy that results from repeated rounds of recombination and the concomitant divergence of LD structure between the training and breeding populations can be alleviated by introducing inbred lines from the product development part as crossing parents in the population improvement part. Such a modified two-part strategy can maintain long-term genetic gain while simultaneously increasing prediction accuracy over time (A. Ceplitis, Lantm€ annen Lantbruk, Sval€ ov, Sweden, unpublished data).The two-part breeding strategy was specifically developed for inbred line crops. Extending the strategy to outcrossing population crops, such as many forage species, which are characterized by significant inbreeding depression and rapid LD decay, is an area of active research. For these types of crops, preliminary results from simulation research indicate that a two-part GS strategy is superior over conventional phenotypic selection and other alternative GS scenarios in terms of accumulated genetic gain, particularly when prediction models include dominance effects (A. Ceplitis, Lantm€ annen Lantbruk, Sval€ ov, Sweden, unpublished data).In this review, we delved into the fundamental building blocks of GP methodology and traced its evolution over more than two decades, illustrating its transformative impact on plant breeding. We elucidated how this methodology plays a pivotal role across various breeding stages, aiding in the selection of superior candidate individuals for further crossing, all while minimizing or even eliminating the need for extensive phenotyping over many consecutive breeding generations. This comprehensive review underscores the transformative impact of GP on the enhancement of crop genetic improvement, particularly in revolutionizing cross-breeding. The utilization of high-throughput genomic technology enables a thorough analysis of the entire crop genome, facilitating the identification of promising breeding germplasm associated with desirable traits for subsequent selection. By leveraging extensive sets of genomic and phenotypic data, GS methods predict breeding values for specific traits, thus circumventing the need for laborious and resource-intensive field trials. This streamlined approach speeds up the breeding process, thereby facilitating the selection of superior germplasm with coveted attributes such as increased yield, resistance to pathogens and pests, and adaptability to the dynamic environmental changes, which are often exacerbated by ongoing global warming.A pivotal strength of GP lies in its capacity to unravel the intricate genetic architecture of traits. In contrast to cross-breeding methods heavily reliant on phenotypic observations influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, GP delves directly into the genetic makeup of plants, offering a more precise and reliable evaluation of their potential performance. This not only simplifies the identification of favorable alleles but also enables plant breeders to consider gene interactions and environmental influences in the target trait(s), thus resulting in the development of more robust and resilient crop germplasm. From this improved germplasm pool, the selection and further release of desired cultivars become more targeted and effective. As GP of breeding values progresses, its integration with machine learning and artificial intelligence emerges as a promising frontier in crop genetic improvement. The synergy of extensive genomic data and advanced computational models allows for the discernment of subtle genetic patterns and interactions previously overlooked. This holistic approach opens avenues for enhancing crop productivity, sustainability, and resilience in the face of challenges such as climate change and global food and nutrition security. Ultimately, GP of breeding values stands as a cutting-edge approach empowering plant breeders to make informed decisions, thus promising a new wave of innovation in agriculture.This review explored the impact of various factors on the accuracy of GP with empirical research on wheat, maize, and potato as examples of different reproduction systems. We emphasized that GP, as a predictive tool, relies on the assurance of consistently high or, at the very least, commendable prediction accuracy. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that achieving such precision is not always feasible, owing to the myriad factors that influence its efficacy. We elucidated these factors and offered insights into how they can be optimized to enhance the practical application of GP methodology. Moreover, we expound upon how GS can harness the integration of omics and environmental data to further enhance its accuracy, broadening its scope and applicability. In conclusion, our review underscores that GS can significantly elevate genetic gains per unit of time within crop-breeding programs, but to increase its efficiency it is of paramount importance to integrate all factors that affect GP methodology to fully harness the potential of this groundbreaking predictive data-driven approach.","tokenCount":"11050"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b1f7ac80325c8a0e10893e0111ac5f83","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8e4cac1b-0380-4b93-b98e-734d2d982ff4/retrieve","id":"-1103759320"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eefd9187-ae97-4ff3-8f8c-52429c0c0192","pagecount":"16","content":"Avec un zeste d'inventivité, les fruits indigènes peuvent faire des merveilles.Plus de quinze ans après le Sommet de la Terre de 1992 à Rio, Brésil, et l'adoption de la Convention sur la diversité biologique, la question du partage des bénéfices de la biodiversité et des savoirs qui y sont associés continue de diviser. Les pays en développement, détenteurs de l'essentiel de la richesse biologique, entendent en tirer un meilleur bénéfice et s'opposent en cela aux pays du Nord. Ceux-ci sont moins gâtés par la nature, mais ont les moyens de valoriser ces ressources, y compris par les biotechnologies qui utilisent les gènes des plantes et des animaux. Pour défendre leurs droits dans les enceintes internationales, 15 pays ont formé en 2002 un \"front des pays mégadivers\" : en majorité tropicaux, ils abritent quelque 70 % de la biodiversité mondiale. De leur côté, 43 petits États insulaires en développement (PEID), riches en espèces végétales et animales souvent uniques, se sont regroupés pour faire entendre leur voix et défendre leur patrimoine naturel et intellectuel.Les enjeux économiques se chiffrent en millions d'euros. Ainsi, les ventes de la seule Vinblastine, un médicament utilisé dans le traitement des leucémies et synthétisé à partir de la pervenche de Madagascar (Cataranthus roseus), rapportent environ 65 millions € par an.L'idée que les ressources naturelles ne sont efficacement protégées que si la population concernée peut en tirer profit et améliorer ainsi son bien-être a fait son chemin ces dernières années. Parallèlement, la valeur des savoirs traditionnels, sur les plantes médicinales notamment, est de plus en plus reconnue. Sur le terrain, les communautés locales et les peuples autochtones, soutenus par des mouvements écologistes, ont pris conscience de la valeur des plantes sauvages ou cultivées qu'ils ont gérées et protégées au fil des siècles, et des connaissances dont ils sont dépositaires.De grandes entreprises des pays industrialisés sont à présent régulièrement accusées de biopiraterie pour n'avoir pas justement rétribué les savoirs traditionnels qui leur ont permis de mettre au point un nouveau produit. En mai 2008, le Centre africain de biosécurité (ACB) et la Déclaration de Berne, une ONG suisse, ont contesté, devant l'Office européen des brevets, deux brevets déposés par l'entreprise allemande Schwabe. La plainte vise un médicament contre la bronchite, obtenu à partir d'une variété de géranium (Pelargonium sidoides). Cette plante est utilisée depuis des temps immémoriaux par la communauté sud-africaine d'Alice, dans la province du Cap, et celle-ci a demandé à ACB de défendre ses droits.Réaliser un consensus international sur le partage des bénéfices qui peuvent découler de savoirs ancestraux est un exercice long et délicat. La partie se joue en effet entre de nombreux acteurs aux intérêts financiers ou moraux divergents (États, industries des secteurs pharmaceutique, agroalimentaire, cosmétique ou semencier, communautés rurales et autochtones, ONG, scientifiques). Elle se joue aussi sur plusieurs scènes et dans plusieurs cadres juridiques internationaux en même temps : la CDB, l'OMC, l'Office mondial de la propriété intellectuelle (OMPI), la FAO pour les ressources génétiques liées à l'alimentation et à l'agriculture... Issu de la CDB, un groupe a été spécialement créé sur l'Accès et le partage des avantages (APA). Ses débats interminables et pointilleux illustrent bien la difficulté de fixer des règles internationales en la matière. Dans la pratique, le partage des bénéfices économiques tirés par exemple d'un médicament issu de la pharmacopée traditionnelle soulève toutes sortes de questions. Qui est le vrai détenteur du savoir sur la plante : le guérisseur ou sa communauté ? Qui est à même de négocier des contrats avec des firmes étrangères et d'en récolter les bénéfices : les groupes euxmêmes ou les autorités du pays où ils vivent ? Comment, dans ce dernier cas, se fera la répartition ? Peu de pays se sont dotés, comme le demande la CDB, de lois spécifiques sur le partage des bénéfices. Parmi les États ACP figurent l'Afrique du Sud, l'Éthiopie, les États fédérés de Micronésie, le Guyana, le Kenya, Niue, l'Ouganda, la République centrafricaine et le Zimbabwe.De son côté, l'OMPI est chargé depuis 1997 d'étudier la question de la protection officielle des droits de propriété intellectuelle (DPI) des savoirs des collectivités locales et autochtones. Les groupes détenteurs d'un savoir doivent à la fois pouvoir se défendre contre la biopiraterie, négocier des accords équitables avec des firmes ou des centres de recherche et, plus positivement, faire breveter leurs propres inventions. Or, les DPI existants, à l'origine créés par et pour les pays occidentaux, ne sont pas juridiquement adaptés aux savoirs traditionnels. Des groupes et des ONG du Sud comme du Nord s'opposent d'ailleurs à l'idée de protéger par des brevets des savoirs qui font partie de la culture et de la vie même des communautés.Actuellement, les normes internationales sur les brevets ne permettent pas à une communauté locale d'exercer un droit collectif sur ses savoirs et de s'opposer à leur utilisation abusive ou à leur appropriation illicite. Une communauté locale aura plus de mal qu'un peuple autochtone, reconnu comme tel, à empêcher que ses connaissances soient exploitées à des fins industrielles ou commerciales sans qu'elle en perçoive un juste dédommagement. En 2000, l'Union africaine a réagi en adoptant un texte, dit loi modèle africaine, qui subordonne l'accès aux ressources biologiques à une autorisation et à l'\"accord préalable en connaissance de cause des communautés\".La transparence et l'équité distinguent la biopiraterie de la bioprospection. En l'absence de règles internationales et nationales claires sur le partage, certaines firmes et centres de recherche ont adopté leur propre code de conduite. Ainsi, l'Université de Berkeley, aux USA, et l'État de Samoa, dans le Pacifique, partageront à égalité les royalties provenant de la vente d'un médicament contre le sida obtenu à partir des gènes d'un arbre autochtone de Samoa, le mamala (Homalanthus nutans).En 2010, quand le cadre international sera fixé et que de nouveaux pays se seront dotés de lois de partage des bénéfices, la situation sera plus claire pour tous. Toutefois, ces bonnes intentions ne se concrétiseront que si les communautés locales, intéressées au premier chef, sont bien informées de leurs droits. Les conventions et lois ne peuvent donner qu'un cadre général alors que, sur le terrain, chaque situation appelle des solutions spécifiques. L'efficacité et le succès dépendront très largement de la volonté de tous les partenaires de parvenir à la justice et à l'équité.eN BreF Bourse de marchandises L'Éthiopie a ouvert une bourse de marchandises en avril, la première du genre en Afrique. La Bourse éthiopienne des marchandises (ECX) traite six produits : café, sésame, haricots, teff (céréale), blé et maïs. Elle permet aux acheteurs et aux vendeurs de se rencontrer et de s'assurer de la qualité et des conditions de livraison et de paiement. Elle dispose d'une salle des marchés à Addis Abeba, de 6 entrepôts de livraison et de 20 lieux d'affichage électronique des cours dans les principaux marchés régionaux.Une enquête de terrain réalisée dans le Nord-Cameroun par l'Institut de recherche agronomique pour le développement (IRAD) montre comment les planteurs de coton ont réagi à l'effondrement des cours. Vingt-sept pour cent d'entre eux qui ont réduit les superficies consacrées au coton ont vu leurs revenus baisser de 16 % entre 2001 et 2007. Les 42 % qui ont augmenté leurs superficies ont subi une baisse de revenus de 32 %. Les gagnants sont les 9 % qui ont abandonné le coton (revenus en hausse de 10 %) et les 22 % qui n'ont rien changé à leurs pratiques (+ 3 %).  Ces liens se sont consolidés au fil des ans\". Les éleveurs nomades demeurent de plus en plus longtemps au village, et certains se sont mariés dans la communauté agraire. Ils fournissent lait, beurre et fromage aux agriculteurs dont ils reçoivent en retour les produits agricoles. Un consortium de Singapour s'apprête à lancer en Afrique de l'Ouest un vaste programme de plantation de palmiers à huile. Fruit d'une alliance entre un négociant, Olam, et le premier transformateur mondial d'huile de palme, Wilmar International, ce consortium s'est associé avec le groupe ivoirien SIFCA, leader ouest-africain du palmier à huile. Ensemble, ils projettent d'investir pas moins de 200 millions $ US (130 millions €) dans des plantations de palmiers à huile et des unités de transformation, essentiellement en Côte d'Ivoire, ce qui fera de ce pays le pôle d'approvisionnement de l'Afrique de l'Ouest. Le consortium asiatique envisage de renouveler l'opération au Nigeria, dont la production annuelle est de 800 000 t, devant la Côte d'Ivoire (300 000 t).En Afrique, la consommation d'huile de palme augmente chaque année alors que la production stagne. Le continent dépend donc fortement de ses importations de Malaisie et d'Indonésie qui, à elles deux, totalisent plus de 75 % de la production mondiale. La facture des importations s'est beaucoup alourdie car, en deux ans, le prix de l'huile de palme sur le marché mondial a plus que doublé, passant de 500 $ US (413 €) la tonne début 2006 à 1 250 $ US (795 €) fin mars 2008.Le déficit est évalué à 500 000 t par an pour l'ensemble de la Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (CEDEAO). En Afrique centrale, même le Cameroun, le plus gros producteur d'huile de la région, doit en importer. Cette année, la consommation devrait y atteindre 250 000 t pour une production de 200 000 t.Photo : © Syfia InternationalLe NARI lance un réseau de 320 centres de ressources Les producteurs laitiers de la région Sud du Malawi ont créé la Bvumbwe Milk Bulking, une petite compagnie laitière destinée à augmenter leur capacité de vente. Ils ont franchi le pas afin de pouvoir vendre aux grandes compagnies telles que Suncrest Creameries qui fabrique fromages, glaces et yaourts. Résultat : leurs revenus sont en nette augmentation. Beaucoup n'ont qu'une ou deux vaches et n'arrivaient pas à vendre leur lait directement. La coopérative, qui compte à présent 2 000 membres et vend jusqu'à 5 000 l de lait par jour, s'est équipée pour tester le lait avant de le vendre aux fabricants de produits laitiers.Introduit au Burundi il y a cinq ans, le patchouli, plante tropicale dont on tire une huile essentielle très utilisée en parfumerie, s'est si bien acclimaté dans la province de Cibitoke que les premiers hectolitres se vendent déjà sur le marché international. La qualité du patchouli burundais est excellente. La société burundaise Rugofarm encadre des milliers de producteurs auxquels elle fournit une assistance technique et garantit l'achat de toute la production. Au Mali, dans la région de Koulikoro, la société Mali Biocarburant produit du biodiesel à partir des noix du pourghère cultivé en haies en bordure des champs et non en nouvelles plantations qui concurrenceraient les cultures alimentaires comme le mil. L'Union des sociétés coopératives des producteurs de pourghère de Koulikoro est actionnaire de Mali Biocarburant à hauteur de 20 %, le reste du capital étant détenu par des actionnaires néerlandais.Cette initiative procure des revenus aux agriculteurs qui plantent et entretiennent des haies et aux femmes qui récoltent les noix.Par ailleurs, un contrat a été passé avec une société néerlandaise pour la vente des crédits carbone issus de ces cultures, qui seront réinvestis dans la production de pourghère.La création de 20 unités est prévue au Mali dans les six prochaines années pour une production mensuelle d'un million de litres de biodiesel. Six cents entreprises agricoles rurales du Burkina Faso, du Mali et du Sénégal seront équipées d'ici quatre ans d'une plate-forme multifonctionnelle (PFM), c'està-dire d'un moteur diesel monté sur un châssis auquel peuvent être raccordés différents outils (moulins à grain, décortiqueuses, chargeurs de batterie). Ce projet, qui vise à accroître la productivité et les revenus des agricultrices par une mécanisation à moindre coût, bénéficie du soutien du Programme des Nations unies pour le développement (PNUD) et recevra près de 12,3 millions € de la Fondation Bill et Melinda Gates.Des enfants des régions isolées des îles Salomon ont reçu des ordinateurs portables pour des cours à distance. À ce jour, 33 appareils ont été distribués via des sites pilotes de PFNet (People First Network) dans les écoles primaires de Batuna, Bekabeka, et Patukae sur l'île de Gatokae. PFNet fournit un service e-mail via une connexion Internet alimentée par des panneaux solaires et ainsi facilite également l'accès des agriculteurs à des informations agricoles et à des services bancaires.Contact : David Leeming People First Network leeming@pipolfastaem.gov.sbFaso-dev, portail burkinabé d'actualité sur le développement (société civile, agriculture, environnement, TIC), présente des initiatives locales originales : création d'un centre d'alphabétisation par l'Union des productrices de beurre de karité, vulgarisation des découvertes grâce à l'Agence nationale de valorisation des résultats de la recherche (ANVAR), nuit du Web, journée internationale des musées, etc. Le site met aussi en ligne des offres et des demandes d'emplois, ainsi que des projets et des contacts de spécialistes du développement.www.faso-dev.net Pour faire revenir les pieuvres dans le lagon, EPCO a créé des récifs artificiels en recyclant des pylônes électriques en béton abandonnés dans la nature. Ces pylônes, qui sont creux, sont découpés en morceaux de 25 à 30 cm de longueur. Les morceaux sont alors bouchés d'un côté avec du béton puis déposés dans le lagon où ils s'intègrent facilement. Les ourites y vivent à l'abri des prédateurs et les pêcheurs peuvent les manipuler comme des casiers à poisson. Ils sont trop lourds pour être emportés par les courants, mais les pêcheurs arrivent à les soulever à l'aide de cordes pour les vider de leur contenu avant de les nettoyer et de les déplacer.Les pieuvres ont commencé à revenir dans le lagon et sur les étals au plus grand bonheur des pêcheurs, qui ont compris l'importance d'une bonne gestion, et des consommateurs mauriciens qui apprécient l'ourite en portion d'un kilo. En plus de procurer des revenus aux jeunes séropositifs, cette initiative vise à combattre la stigmatisation dont ils sont victimes sur le marché de l'emploi. L'activité agricole a été choisie par souci de fournir aux malades des produits sains, car une bonne alimentation renforce les défenses du corps contre le virus. \"Nous devons manger bio et équilibré et avoir une alimentation disponible en tout temps\", rappelle Éric Foula.Brazzaville, Congo renap_congobzv@yahoo.fr www.renapc.org  eN BreFLes stocks de poisson déclinent sur la rive ougandaise du lac Victoria, aussi les producteurs se sont-ils mis à élever le poisson en cage. Le plus grand lac tropical du monde souffre gravement de la pollution, de la surexploitation et de la prolifération d'algues. \"Tout cela menace la subsistance de nos communautés dont la survie dépend du poisson\", déclare Abudallah Napuru, responsable de l'alevinage à la ferme aquacole Source du Nil (SON), qui initie les paysans à la pisciculture. \"La pisciculture est la meilleure assurance contre les fluctuations et le déclin des ressources piscicoles.\"Les espèces les plus prisées sont le tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) et le dagaa, un petit cyprinidé (Rastrineobola argenteus). Les producteurs apprennent à élever un grand nombre de poissons dans l'espace limité de cages. Les enclos ne sont pas chers et sont faciles à entretenir, puisque le courant draine les déchets et que des systèmes d'alimentation flottants garantissent des pertes minimales. \"L'élevage en cage élimine les prédateurs tels la perche du Nil (Lates niloticus) et le poisson-chat (Clarias gariepinus)\", confie Godfrey Magezi, chercheur à l'Institut national de recherche sur les pêches. Autres avantages : des taux supérieurs de fécondation des oeufs et une récolte plus rapide.La ferme aquacole SON vend 320 t de poissons par an, dont la majeure partie est transformée sur place puis exportée sous forme de filets vers l'Europe et l'Asie. Le succès de l'élevage en cage offre aux communautés locales un accès à des protéines bon marché. \"Je peux acheter trois poissons élevés en cage à 500 shillings ougandais (UGX) pièce (0,19 €) pour le prix d'un poisson de la même taille capturé dans le lac et vendu 1 500 UGX (0,56 €)\", confirme Fred Kawuma, négociant de la ville de Jinja.  Cette diversification réussie est le fruit d'une démarche progressive et concertée des producteurs. Après l'évaluation des besoins avec l'huilerie, l'UCP a demandé l'appui de l'Institut national de recherche agronomique du Bénin pour obtenir des semences adaptées aux conditions agro-écologiques de la commune et aux exigences de l'usine. Puis, grâce à l'expérience des producteurs de coton, des comités se sont mis en place, prélude aux Groupements villageois de producteurs de soja (GVPS). Des multiplicateurs de semences se sont installés. La vulgarisation de la culture du soja a été menée avec l'appui de tous -producteurs, politiques, municipalité, services techniques. Enfin, les ventes de grains à l'usine se font de manière groupée. Grâce aux accords conclus avec l'huilerie, les producteurs sont payés sous 10 jours après livraison et l'usine se charge du transport dans un rayon de 15 km.Lionel Guezodje Président de l'UCP de Zogbodomè Bénin guezolionel@yahoo Photo : © Terre Nourricière  Betha appartient au groupe en expansion des fournisseurs de l'entreprise locale Kalahari Natural Oils qui fabrique des produits de soin pour la peau et les cheveux. Les fruits du mongongo occupent depuis longtemps une place importante dans l'alimentation en Afrique australe, mais leur rôle comme source de revenu est nouveau. Près de 90 % des cueilleurs sont des femmes.De nombreux fruits indigènes des pays ACP sont des cultures vivrières ou commerciales en puissance. La plupart sont peu connus en dehors de leur habitat naturel, d'autant qu'ils sont souvent négligés par les chercheurs, les décideurs politiques et les organismes de développement. Rien qu'en Afrique où la plupart des fruits locaux comestibles sont sauvages, on estime qu'il existe plus de 1 000 espèces appartenant à 85 familles botaniques. Certaines plantes à fruits sont soigneusement entretenues, mais peu ont été sélectionnées pour donner le meilleur de leurs qualités.Les variétés indigènes de fruits peuvent jouer un rôle crucial dans la lutte contre l'insécurité alimentaire, en particulier la \"famine cachée\" due à des carences en micronutriments, vitamines et minéraux. La Communauté alimentaire insulaire de Pohnpei, dans le Pacifique, encourage les mères d'enfants carencés en vitamine A à leur donner des fruits locaux qui regorgent de caroténoïdes, comme les bananes karat et daiwang.Les fruits indigènes ne sont pas seulement bénéfiques pour la santé. Ils nécessitent peu ou pas de mise de fonds ou d'intrants externes, sont parfaitement adaptés aux conditions locales et possèdent souvent des propriétés médicinales. Du Sénégal à l'Afrique du Sud, les fruits gris-vert de l'arbre à saucisses (Kigelia africana) sont depuis bien longtemps consommés ou appliqués sur la peau. Ils sont à présent étudiés dans le cadre de la recherche en soins dermatologiques naturels. Des tests confirment leurs réelles propriétés anti-inflammatoires.Ces trésors de la nature peuvent aussi servir à amortir les effets du changement climatique. Selon le Dr Hannah Jaenicke, directrice du Centre international pour les cultures sous-utilisées (ICUC), \"il est très important de se tourner vers les plantes 'oubliées' et sousexploitées, car nombre d'entre elles supportent mieux les sécheresses et les inondations que les cultures commerciales\". En Zambie, les Tonga de la vallée du Gwembe se sont remis à récolter les fruits sauvages pour se prémunir contre l'insécurité alimentaire due à la sécheresse persistante.Des douzaines de fruits tropicaux se prêtent à une transformation à petite échelle en confitures, conserves, jus et fruits secs qui peuvent être vendus sur les marchés locaux et dans les magasins et supermarchés. Certains, comme les fruits du baobab et du marula (Sclerocarya birrea), largement utilisés dans leur région d'origine, commencent à être connus ailleurs. D'autres ne sont connus que dans les cercles locaux et leur existence même est parfois menacée. Souvent, on rejette ces fruits car leur image est associée à la pauvreté. Certains ont été négligés au profit d'espèces exotiques qui ont été valorisées à leur place, ou parce qu'ils sont difficiles à transformer, bien que de nouvelles techniques aient permis de résoudre certains de ces problèmes.Dans de nombreuses régions ACP, les fruits indigènes ont un marché local ou régional. Le ndjanssang (Ricinodendron heudelotii) fournit l'un des fruits les plus importants d'Afrique de l'Ouest au plan économique. Il représente ainsi une part importante du commerce transfrontalier camerounais de produits forestiers non ligneux. Aux Caraïbes, plusieurs compagnies commercialisent des sauces de tamarin (Tamarindus indica) et de carambole (Averrhoa carambola) aux côtés de leur gamme de produits à base de piments. Les partenariats commerciaux établis avec des sociétés internationales ont ouvert des opportunités de pénétration des marchés européens pour les produits naturels. Au nord de la Namibie, les 4 800 membres de la Coopérative des femmes d'Eudafano (EWC) ont noué des liens avec The Body Shop pour vendre des produits à base de marula. Ses membres récoltent les fruits des marulas et fournissent amandes et graines à l'usine de transformation d'EWC. L'huile de marula est utilisée dans les produits cosmétiques et dermatologiques tandis que le jus est réservé au marché local. Le kiwano ou concombre cornu d'Afrique (Cucumis metuliferus) gagne du terrain sur les marchés internationaux. Le Kenya l'exporte à présent vers l'Europe, à côté de fruits plus classiques comme la mangue et l'ananas. On explore actuellement le potentiel du fruit du parinaire mobola (Parinari curatellifolia), un arbre à feuillage persistant commun en Afrique tropicale, dont les graines sont riches d'une huile qui protège les cheveux.La Réglementation UE relative aux nouveaux aliments (NFR) limite strictement les importations de produits qui n'étaient pas largement consommés en Europe avant 1997. C'est l'une des exigences sanitaires et phytosanitaires les plus contraignantes pour les producteurs ACP. Les aliments identifiés comme \"nouveaux\" sont soumis à une procédure complexe à laquelle la plupart des entreprises rurales n'ont pas les moyens de se conformer. Nombre des produits concernés sont des produits de niche potentiellement lucratifs, certes nouveaux pour les palais européens, mais consommés depuis des siècles sur leur lieu d'origine.Diverses initiatives tentent d'aider les petits producteurs à satisfaire ces exigences. En 2005, une longue campagne du Centre pour le développement de l'entreprise a aidé les membres de l'Association de producteurs de noni des îles du Pacifique à obtenir le droit d'exporter leurs produits en Europe. Grâce au soutien de PhytoTrade Africa, les producteurs qui voulaient exporter la pulpe du fruit du baobab vers l'UE ont obtenu gain de cause en mai 2008. Un rapport de 2007 de l'Institut britannique des ressources naturelles signale que le baobab a un potentiel industriel d'un milliard $ US pour l'Afrique, et des emplois pour plus de 2,5 millions de familles. les chercheurs de l'Institut national de recherche agricole (NARI) travaillent sur le clonage et la multiplication d'arbustes précoces et de petite taille de l'espèce indigène taun ou lychee du Pacifique (Pometia pinnata). Selon Mathew Pienou, agronome au NARI, D'aussi loin qu'il s'en souvienne, Wonder Dondo a grandi au milieu de grands jujubiers et, tout comme son père avant lui, il gagne sa vie grâce à la vente des fruits de ces arbres. \"Le jujubier, c'est ma culture de rente\", témoigne Dondo, qui vit dans la vallée de la Dande au nord du Zimbabwe. \"Bien que son fruit soit saisonnier, j'en tire un meilleur revenu que du maïs et de l'éleusine (Eleusine coracana) que je cultive pour ma consommation.\"Cette région proche de la frontière du Mozambique est réputée pour ses jujubiers (Ziziphus mauritiana). \"Ils poussent tout seuls ici. Nous avons mangé leurs fruits toute notre vie, confie Thomas Chimukoko. Leurs graines sont très robustes et résistantes à la sécheresse, et ils fleurissent au retour des pluies.\" Commun dans cette région chaude et sèche, le jujubier n'en est pas moins très apprécié. En plus des fruits, il procure un bel ombrage et ses feuilles nourrissent les chèvres et autres brouteurs.\"Lorsque les graines germent près de nos maisons, nous les protégeons avec des branches d'épineux ou du fil barbelé afin que les animaux domestiques ne détruisent pas les jeunes pousses\", explique Peter Chipiso, chef de village dans la région de Kamutsenzere. Une bonne partie des forêts de jujubiers sont propriété communale, mais la plupart des familles possèdent aussi leur propre parcelle où poussent ces arbres. \"Nous nous empêchons mutuellement d'abattre ces arbres pour en utiliser le bois, car nous savons tous que chaque année, de juin à novembre, leur fruit sera notre gagne-pain\", ajoute Chipiso.Le chef de village dissuade aussi commerçants et villageois d'employer des méthodes de récolte dommageables pour les arbres, par exemple secouer les branches ou jeter des objets pour faire tomber les fruits, car elles font baisser le rendement la saison suivante : \"S'ils coupent les arbres, je leur interdis de récolter les fruits et j'en informe le chef de district.\" Sur les courtes distances, les fruits sont transportés dans des sacs, des boîtes et des seaux vers les étals de bord de route ou les marchés. Camions et transports publics acheminent les fruits vers les zones urbaines. \"Nos clients aiment ce fruit et sont prêts à payer pour en avoir, surtout s'il est frais\", dit Judith Foya, l'une des femmes qui vendent le fruit sur la route reliant le Mont Darwin à Mukumbura. Le prix des jujubes atteint 20 € le sac de 50 kg à Harare, la capitale du Zimbabwe. Certains villageois du district de Dande troquent aussi les jujubes contre maïs, poulets, chèvres et vêtements.Le jujube qu'on trouve aussi dans les pays voisins -Malawi, Mozambique, Zambie -est rouge foncé et fripé, de goût sucré et légèrement aigre. Sa forme et sa texture rappellent la prune séchée. Il faut le mâcher et séparer la pulpe du noyau avec les dents. Il est riche en vitamine C et en bêtacarotène.\"Nous mangeons le fruit frais, mais nous pouvons aussi le faire sécher pour l'utiliser plus tard, ou en faire du pain ou de la confiture\", explique Forbes Chiri, chef du village de Muzarabani. Les communautés locales distillent aussi le fruit pour fabriquer un alcool nommé kachasu. La médecine traditionnelle utilise le jujube pour soigner divers maux, dont le rhume et la grippe.Les usages et bénéfices de ce fruit local ont beau être nombreux, il reste encore beaucoup à faire pour exploiter pleinement son potentiel. Selon Hendrex Phiri, chercheur en fruits africains, \"on estime la production nationale de jujubes au Zimbabwe à 200 000 t par an. Malheureusement, la majeure partie se perd après la récolte et 60 % des fruits finissent au rebut. Parmi les autres problèmes, citons un marketing médiocre, des techniques de récolte et de transformation inadaptées et l'absence de stratégie pour augmenter la valeur ajoutée du produit. Il est dommage que les producteurs locaux ne soient pas davantage encouragés à développer ce secteur très prometteur.\"Jonathan GandariPhoto : © J. GandariLa charge qui pèse sur les agriculteurs du Sud est de plus en plus lourde. Depuis 50 ans, ils sont chaque année un peu moins nombreux à assurer l'alimentation de leurs compatriotes. Auparavant, en Afrique, vingt ruraux nourrissaient un citadin, aujourd'hui ils ne sont plus que deux, voire un seul, à le faire. Mission impossible dans les conditions d'exploitation actuelles. Pour nourrir leur population croissante, la plupart des pays ACP recourent donc massivement aux importations. Mais la hausse des prix alimentaires rend aujourd'hui la situation intenable.Comment accroître fortement et rapidement la production locale ? Le soutien financier massif pour l'achat de semences et d'engrais n'est pas suffisant pour que les agriculteurs engagent des réformes structurelles et augmentent notablement leur productivité. Rien ne se fera durablement si les producteurs n'acquièrent pas de solides bases. Négligée ces dernières décennies, la formation professionnelle est plus nécessaire que jamais.L'évolution des sociétés locales et régionales, de l'économie et de l'environnement mondial oblige à revoir les objectifs et les méthodes de formation. Pendant longtemps, les vulgarisateurs agricoles étaient là pour apprendre aux agriculteurs des techniques améliorées de production. Après le démantèlement des structures de formation nationales, ce sont les ONG et les organisations de producteurs qui ont pris le relais. Les formations qu'elles proposent sont proches du terrain, mais souvent ponctuelles par manque de moyens.Aujourd'hui, les spécialistes tels ceux du réseau international Formation agricole et rurale (FAR) s'accordent sur plusieurs points. Le premier, c'est la nécessité de mettre en place des programmes de formation professionnelle de masse, qui s'adressent à l'ensemble des agriculteurs d'un pays, pour obtenir des résultats notables et rapides. Deuxièmement, pour fixer les villageois dans leur terroir et limiter les départs, il faut considérer la vie rurale dans son ensemble et non pas seulement la production agricole. Enfin, les agriculteurs doivent savoir faire valoir leurs droits et participer à l'élaboration des politiques qui les concernent.Tout commence à l'école. Les jeunes ruraux, garçons et filles, sont de plus en plus nombreux à y avoir accès dans le cadre de l'objectif du millénaire Éducation pour tous. Mais les programmes conçus pour des citadins n'apportent pas aux jeunes des campagnes les connaissances dont ils auront besoin par la suite. Pourtant, l'éducation de base, en particulier des filles, est reconnue comme étant un important facteur de développement. Lors d'une conférence à Sainte-Lucie sur l'éducation pour la population rurale dans les Caraïbes, en 2006, le constat général a été que le système éducatif conçu pour une élite et qui laisse de côté les ruraux devait être entièrement repensé.Généralement, une fois l'école primaire finie, seule une infime partie des jeunes ruraux poursuivent leurs études. Les autres sont laissés pour compte et ne peuvent qu'apprendre de leurs aînés. Un partage d'expériences certes indispensable, mais qui ne leur suffit plus pour progresser. Faute de perspectives, ils sont tentés par la ville voire l'exil. Au Mozambique, pour éviter que les enfants orphelins du sida quittent leur terroir, le programme Education and Training on Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) a formé 7 000 d'entre eux. Ils ont non seulement acquis des connaissances et des compétences agricoles, mais des capacités pour comprendre leurs problèmes et faire respecter leurs droits.  Ce livre rédigé d'une plume alerte est une invitation à voyager au coeur même de l'économie mondiale après un rapide retour sur les échanges de ces matières dites premières qui circulent depuis des siècles à la surface de la planète. Des produits agricoles aux carburants et aux déchets en passant par les métaux, c'est une histoire pleine de rebondissements, de crises et de conflits.En arrière-plan des marchés, des bourses mondiales et des courbes de croissance, les matières premières restent la cause de relations internationales compliquées ou menaçantes pour l'avenir. Le poivre et l'or noir est un recueil de petites chroniques qui en disent long sur notre monde qui n'est pas que virtuel.  Le CTA organise du 26 au 31 octobre 2008, à Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, un séminaire international sur \"Les implications du changement global du climat sur les systèmes de production agricole durables dans les pays ACP.\" L'objectif est de mieux sensibiliser les décideurs politiques et les communautés rurales à l'impact des changements climatiques sur le développement agricole et rural mais aussi de cerner les besoins d'information et de communication de ceux-ci afin de bâtir des stratégies appropriées pour répondre au défi climatique.Les conséquences sociales et environnementales des modifications du climat compromettent, en effet, très gravement les moyens de subsistance de plus de 70 % de la population des pays ACP, qui dépendent du secteur agricole. Il est plus vital que jamais de mettre en place des stratégies de gestion des ressources naturelles qui assurent l'utilisation durable des sols et de l'eau, limitent la dégradation de la biodiversité et prennent en compte des questions urgentes comme la demande croissante d'énergies renouvelables. Toutefois, une intervention efficace suppose une information de qualité et une communication fiable. L'initiative du CTA d'organiser ce séminaire s'inscrit dans cette perspective.Sont attendus à Ouagadougou, cent cinquante à deux cents personnes de provenances et d'horizons divers (six régions ACP, institutions nationales des pays de l'UE, organisations régionales et internationales) concernées par le changement climatique et ses interactions avec les systèmes de production agricoles et l'environnement.Un prochain numéro hors série de Spore sera également consacré aux changements climatiques et à leurs principaux impacts sur l'agriculture, l'élevage, les forêts et les écosystèmes marins et côtiers des pays ACP. Vous y trouverez des témoignages, parfois poignants, d'agriculteurs, d'éleveurs et de pêcheurs en butte à ces phénomènes parfois extrêmes, mais aussi des points de vue de chercheurs sur l'atténuation et les adaptations possibles.Pour en savoir plus, rendez-vous sur le site du séminaire : http://ctaseminar2008.cta.int/fr/index.htmlMieux connaître l'utilisation des produits et services du CTA ainsi que les besoins réels sur le terrain : tels étaient les deux objectifs principaux d'une récente mission qui a vu nos agents sillonner la zone ACP pendant 2 mois (mai et juin). Ces derniers se sont rendus auprès de 200 institutions et bénéficiaires pour discuter des produits et activités du CTA dans 10 pays : Afrique du Sud, Bénin, Cameroun, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Ouganda, Samoa, Trinité-et-Tobago.But de ces visites : améliorer la visibilité du CTA et de son travail, évaluer les impacts et la portée de huit de ses projets, produits et services, et identifier de nouvelles pistes de coopération. Ces missions ont été l'aboutissement de plusieurs mois de planification et de préparation par le Centre, en collaboration avec le cabinet de conseil ITAD et des consultants locaux de chacun des pays visités. Ce travail vise aussi à aider à préserver les savoirs locaux d'usage des plantes médicinales. Ces savoirs risquent en effet de se perdre parce que bon nombre d'anciens thérapeutes n'ont pas de descendants intéressés à recevoir leurs connaissances. Par exemple, Sum Pontes, un tradipraticien respecté de Sao Tomé, a donné d'importants renseignements qui ont permis l'étude de Thithonia diversifolia. Cette plante originaire du continent américain était déjà très étudiée comme anti-inflammatoire et anti-diabétique, mais Sum Pontes, lui, l'utilise pour traiter la malaria \"parce qu'elle est très amère\". Cette indication thérapeutique a été enregistrée pour la première fois au niveau mondial. Le principe actif responsable de l'activité anti-malaria (la tagitinine C), d'un énorme intérêt potentiel, a donc été ainsi scientifiquement établi et la sagesse de cet ancien reconnue. De tels exemples démontrent l'importance des données ethnopharmacologiques et de leur publication, dans ce cas-ci dans le livre Estudo etnofarmacológico de Plantas Medicinais de S. Tomé e Príncipe, résultat du travail d'une équipe de thérapeutes traditionnels et de jeunes chercheurs.La biodiversité garantit la disponibilité d'un grand nombre de composés actifs indispensables pour élaborer de nouveaux médicaments. Les forêts tropicales humides sont les zones les plus riches du monde en biodiversité, mais aussi les plus menacées. Les ethnobotanistes peuvent aider à les conserver en identifiant les espèces menacées et en partageant l'information au niveau local et national. La conservation n'a pas besoin de projets ambitieux ou à grande échelle. Elle peut commencer par l'appui et l'encouragement des ménages à cultiver quelques espèces prioritaires dans leur petit jardin potager ou sur une parcelle communautaire.Depuis une vingtaine d'années, des chercheurs, des organisations internationales, des gouvernements et des ONG portent une attention croissante à la protection des droits de propriété intellectuelle et au partage des bénéfices et des connaissances. Cependant, il a été difficile de créer des accords adéquats du point de vue transnational et transculturel. Les dispositifs législatifs sont complexes et parfois insuffisants. Il faut donc, à chaque étape, consolider les engagements qu'impose le partage de connaissances par des accords plus spécifiques et adaptés à chaque contexte culturel, afin de garantir la rémunération des capacités locales et d'assurer des compensations équitables.Dans le cas de Sao Tomé et Príncipe, tous les résultats ont d'abord été présentés au gouvernement. Les trois thérapeutes locaux, Sum Pontes, Sum Gino et Sum Costa, qui ont livré leurs savoirs à la base de l'étude sont mentionnés comme co-auteurs du livre publié. Tous les bénéfices de la vente du livre leur reviendront entièrement et serviront à améliorer leurs conditions de vie et de travail, de même que les autres avantages qui, éventuellement, pourraient résulter de futures études. Le chemin à parcourir exige de tous la reconnaissance mutuelle du rôle de chacun, de la disponibilité et de l'éthique. ","tokenCount":"5896"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7f7f7a786ef3e001dea69484e996def4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5cdb927f-e9b6-4988-86b4-e891aa2e5385/retrieve","id":"-1514718267"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"121b54d1-f047-45c0-97bd-33df81749ad8","pagecount":"8","content":"The objectives of the Pastura Development section of the Cerrado are : (1) to develop efficient systems of establishing forage legumes and grasses appropriate for representativa ecosystems in Cerrado type savannas of South America and (2) to determine establishment and maintenance fertilizer requirements for the most promising grasses and grass / legume associations for the area .The pasture development strategy adopted at the Cerrado center was presented in the CIAT 1977 Annual Report. The research activities designed to fill the technological gaps for implementation of this strategy include : (a) identifying the most important edaphic factors limiting pasture establishment. with emphasis on legumes; (b) determining establ ishment and maintenance requirements of selected grass/ legume associations for Cerrado soil conditions; (e) developing efficient systems for pasture establishment with emphasis on mínimum inputs; (d) developing renovation techniques for degraded pastures.The main nutrient deficiency in the Cerrado soils is phosphorus. Other nutrients including K, M g, Zn and Mo have been identified as limiting for sorne crops.Pasture species, especially the forage legumes, have specific nutrient needs to assure establishment, productivity and persistence. These requirements vary from soil t o soil and among species.Exploratory fertility experiments were initiated in 1978 on two important Cerrado soils. Yellow Red Latoso! (LVA) and Dark Red Latoso! (LVE). usmg Centrosema pubescens CIAT 438 and Ca/opogonium mucunoides as test forages. The expenments consisted of 2 8 factorials in a fractional rep lication design that included Ca. Mg, K. S. Cu, Zn, Mn, Mo and B. Al l pots received basal application of P equivalent to 100 kg P/ ha . The effect of levels of P and CaC0 3 were studied in a parallel experiment.Therewas a significant response to 30 kg S/ ha (CIAT Annual Report. 1978) with Centrosema in t he LVE soil. Calopogonium. which responded toS, also responded to 500 kg CaC03/ ha. Both legumes also responded t o K in both soil_s. Mg was notas important as S. Ca and K. but interactions of Mg with S and Mo were detected. Based on the greenhouse results, a field experiment including similar treatments was established .A parallel experiment with levels of 50. 1 OO. 200 , and 400 kg P/ ha and O, 100, 500. and 1000 kg CaC03/ ha, showed the importance of Ca as a nutrient.Ca and P content in Ca/opogonium plants varied w ith CaC03 and P levels, as shown in Figures 43 and 44. lt is interesting to note that when no lime was applied to the LVA soil, Calopogonium plants contained less than 1% Ca, unless more than 200 kg of P as monocalcium phosphate were applied. On the other hand, when high levels of P were applied, plants contained more than 1% Ca even without lime. Plants grown in the LVE soil followed the sama trend but seemed to require more CaC03 or phosphate to reach desirable tissue Ca values. This points out the importance of Ca and the possible need for additional Ca when a low Ca Psource, such as triple superphosphate (TSP) is used .Plant Mg content decreased with increasing levels of CaC03 in both soils but more in the LVA than in the LVE, reaching extremely low values when 1000 kg CaC0 3 / ha were applied. lt is clear that a batanead ---• _,.....-•-•---supply of both Ca and Mg is required for optimum growth.Field experiments are now under way to confirm these results and to determine optimum levels of Ca.Mg, K and S.A field experiment was initiated in 1979 to determine P requirements for establishment and early growth of A. gayanus and S. capitata and to evaluare different sources of P. Levels of O, 60, 120 and 240 kg/ ha of P20s were applied as triple superphosphate {TSP), Araxa rock phosphate and thermophosphate (a heat-treated rock phosphate). The basal application --.  consisted of 50 kg S/ ha , 100 kg K 2 0 / ha, 5 kg Zn/ ha, and 0 .5 kg of ammonium molybdate/ ha . A mixture of A. gayanus 621 and S. capitata 1078 was planted at seeding rates of 6 and 4 kg/ ha, respectively, in recently preparad virgin land.Good establishment was observad for both species as indicated by the number of plants/ U.A. in all plots, except the checks. However, initial plant groWth was very slow for all treatments. S. capitata did not produce high dry matter and by the time the pasture was cut at 15 cm height it was almost pure grass.Figure 45 shows dry matter production as a function of P levels of three sources. With no added Pthere was no measurable growth reflecting the extreme P deficiency in this soil. Maximum dry matter production was obtained with 240 kg of P20 5 / ha as thermophosphate, and the response was linear over the range of P utilizad in the experiment. lt appears that 240 kg P20s / ha was too low for maximum gro~h in . t~is soil. The TSP treatment produced less than •thermophosphate at all but the lowest level (60 kg P20s/ ha) at which production was similar. Maximum -P~oduction with this source was reached at 120 kg •P20 5 / ha with sorne decrease ata higher level. Araxa rock phosphate resultad in good response with production similar to TSP at the rate of 240 kg P20s/ ha. The rapid fixation of water soluble P and the initial low availability of P from rock phosphate may explain these differences in plant performance. However, available P was very high at the highest level of applied TSP as shown in Figure 45 . Plant analysis showed clearly that the main parameter associated w ith the higher production observad for t hermophosphate w as the Mg content in the plant tissues. Mg was considerably higher at all levels of applied thermophosphate (Table 43). Plant content of Pwas low for all treatments. However, P values w ere similar to or higher than at alllevels of TSPwhich performed poorly. These results confirm the importance of Mg for pasture species in this soil and coincide with the results of the greenhouse experiment.The effect of source and level of phosphate on P, exchangeable Ca , and Mg in the soil are shown in Figure 46 . High levels of applied phosphate of all sources resultad in increased exchangeable Ca . • Exchangeable Mg increased when thermophosphate wa s used but decreased when TSP or Araxa rock     ~ Varying levels of P and pH t l Panicum maximum var. Trichoglume is widely used in more fertile Cerrado areas or after high levels of lime and fertilizar have been applied. This high qualitygrass is known for its high productivity and drought tolerance. A. gayanus is less demanding than P. maximum and appears to be equally compatible with legumes. With the purpose of defining the optimum ! range of pH and available P for these two grasses in ~ association with legumes, a tri al was initiated on an old experimental site where a wide range of phosphate levels from different sources (0. 86. 345, and 1380 kg P205/ ha) and lime (0, 1.5 and 4 .5 t CaC03/ ha) were applied in 1973. In 1978. the soil pH ranged from 4 .1 to 5.7 and P levels from O to 130 ppm . No additiona l . • fertilizar or lime was applied.The associations P . maximum var .. • Trichog/ume / Macroptilium atropurpureum and A.. gayanus 621 / S. capitata 1078 were planted in a factorial arrangement in a split-block experimental design.The initial development of both legumes was slow wh ile the grasses generally exhibited vigorous early growth. accounting for most of the dry matter production .Figure 47 shows the effect of CaC03 and phosphate levels on dry matter production of the two grasses. A. gayanus performed well, especially when lime was also applied. At higher levels of phosphate (345 kg P20 5 / ha) no effect of lime was observed in A. gayanus production. This has been interpretad as a response to Ca rather than to lime per se. since phosphate application increased Ca in the soi l but did not modify the pH . P. maximum responded to lime at all but the highest level of phosphate ( 1380 kg P20 5 / ha) probably beca use of its lack of tolerance to high exchangeable Al levels.Detailed soil sampling has been done as a basis for determ ining the optimum available P and pH ranges for growth and grass/ legume ratio.Native pastures are an important component of farming systems in the Cerrado. They are very low in both productivity and qual ity, especially during the dry season. The introduction of legumes into native pastures could increase th eir productivity due to increased N fixation a nd improved forag e quality and consumption during the dry season.A field exper iment wa s initiated in 1978 to study establishment methods for three legume species. Establishment was better for those methods which included sorne soil disturbance like disking or sodseeding, mdependent of burning .The methods investigated included oversowing undisturbed pasture, oversow ing after light disking . and sodseeding in rows spaced 50 cm apart all with and without previous burning. Burning was done in December. Two controls, one with fertilizers alone and no tillage, and another with planting and disking plus 1 t CaC0 3 / ha, were included . Galactia striata, C. mucunoides and S . capitatawere seeded at 6, 9 and 4 kg/ ha, respectívely.when combíned with burning. Sodseedíng was as effectíve as disking in terms of established legume stand and had less effect on native pastura production. Burning did not improve legume establishment and severely decreased pasture productivity.The effects of establishment method on stand counts have been reported (CIAT Annual Report. 1978). The effect on the native pastures can be observed in Table 44. Disking reduced dry matter production, especially The initial growth of legumes was very slow. However, a reasonable number of plants survived and produced abundant seed during the first year. Growth during the second year was much more aggressive; C. mucunoides tended to domínate native vegetation and extend outside the plots. G. striata produced more harvestable dry matter due to its erect growth habit. The cuttíng height was 15 cm which missed most of the C. mununoides.In treatments which resulted in poor growth of native grasses, legumes established well and sign ificantly increased dry matter and protein produc• tion. By the end of the ra iny season, crude proteín of the grasses was as low as 4%; legumes ranged over 14%.Brachiaria decumbens has been extensively planted in the Cerrado and is presently the most important cultivated grass in the area . Once P deficiency has been corrected, productivity of this grass depends mainly on soil N availability. N fertilizers are too expensive for use in beef production under Cerrado c<tnditions.-• B. decumbens is initially an aggressive grass which is\"difficult to associate with legumes. In the absence of tegumes, organic soil N mineralization decreases with time and reaches a relatively low rate, severely limiting productivity. In addition, forage quality of grass swards decreases sharply during the dry season. The introduction of legumes into grass pasturas could contribute to improved quality and increased availability of forage throughout the year and especially during the dry sea son.An experiment was initiated early last ra iny season in a 6-year old B. decumbens pasture, in which tour methods of introducing three legumes were studied.Control plots with no legumes were fertilized w ith O, 60 and 120 kg N/ ha. The establishment methods tested were (a) oversowing with no seed bed preparation; (b) planting in 1 .5 m wide strips with complete seed bed preparation; (e) oversowing atter moderate disking; and (d) sodseeding . A basal application of 90 kg P20 5 / ha , 100 kg K 2 0 / ha, 0 .5 kg of sodium molybdate/ ha and 4 kg Zn/ ha was used. C. mucunoides. Desmodium ova/ifolium 350 and C. pubescens 438 were planted at 4, 3 and 4 kg / ha, respectively.Calopogonium establishment was good in all treatments except oversowing and competed strongly with the grass during the first year. Centrosema and Desmodium established reasonably well but growth was poor during the first year. Forage quality is being monitored throughout the year.• i lThe Pasture Utilization section conducts its research activities at CIAT-Quilichao and Carimagua. Dueto the specific conditions of each site, the more basic less location-specific studies, which require less land but intensiva observation and sophisticated methodology, are carried out at CIAT-Quilichao. Large grazing experiments are located at Carimagua. The section concentrates its efforts in ( 1) evaluating the nutritional val u e of new forage material , (2) studies on pasture grazing management, and (3) pasture evaluation measured by animal production potential.The working program of the section includes mainly studies on intake and in vivo digestibility of grasses with emphasis on Andropogon and legumes, particularly Desmodium ova/ifo/ium and Stylosanthes • capitata.. • More attention will be placed on measuring the . nutritional value of forage under grazing conditions. since it is recogn ized that results obtained w ith .confined animals are in certain cases misleading, as • in the case of D. ovalifolium, which was well accepted At Carimagua, experiments with oesophageal fistulated steers were initiated to study selectiva grazing on different Category 4 legumes in mixtures with A. gayanus. Emphasis w ill be placed on the effect of the season of the year on the qualitative diet composition as compared to botanical composition of the available forage.At CIAT-Quilichao, there are two similar sets of experiments to evaluate Centrosema pubescens (hybrid) 438 and D. ovalifolium in association w ith three grasses (A. gayanus, Brachiaria decumbens, and Pa •. icum maximum) in separate blocks within a grazing unit.Each set of experiments includes rotational grazing at 4, 6, and 8 -week intervals and two grazing pressures (6.5 and 13.0 kg dry matter/ animal/ day), as well as continuous grazing with fixed stocking rate.","tokenCount":"2323"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a23fbeea53229e5d4720953f84676824","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/25431b20-2a32-4175-b926-bbff59484faf/retrieve","id":"-1508120771"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e928fad1-4055-46ad-a6cf-ce559e383781","pagecount":"12","content":"• las desviaciones de las políticas nacionales, que se refiere a la discriminación del Estado en contra del sector del pequeño productor rural • la existencia de intermediarios abusivos, incluyendo a comerciantes, prestamistas y terratenientes. • el dualismo, o sea la existencia de dos formas paralelas de producción: las grandes fincas o latifundios con la mejor tierra y tecnología, y las fincas pequeñas generalmente con tierra insuficiente, marginal y frágil ligadas con tecnología baja. • los procesos internacionales que reflejan la actual tendencia hacia una sobre oferta de exportaciones tradicionales y el acceso restringido a mercados de países desarrollados • la insuficiencia y el deterioro de los recursos naturales, que indica que la pobreza puede ser tanto la causa como el resultado del deterioro ambiental y que los pequeños productores rurales, mayormente localizados en ecosistemas frágiles, están muy expuestos a la degradación de los recursos naturales.A pesar de esta situación, la economía de pequeños productores rurales en América Latina ha demostrado dinamismo y aún es muy importante en la producción de ciertos cultivos básicos tradicionales y, además, frutas y hortalizas. Adicionalmente, la agroindustria rural en la zona Andina cuenta con casi 800.000 unidades productivas, generando casi dos millones de empleos (Riveros y Edwardson, 1993). Por estas razones, este sector rural es muy importante para la seguridad alimentaria de América Latina.Sin embargo, muchas de estas agroempresas rurales enfrentan mercados en decrecimiento y una deficiente competitividad frente a productos modernos. Promover el vínculo sostenible de la producción del pequeño productor rural con mercados en crecimiento es cada vez más importante por estas razones:• el proceso de globalización, irreversible, incrementa la oferta de productos externos disponibles para la industria y consumidor local • se ha convertido en una estrategia clave para promover el desarrollo rural porque genera mayores ingresos a través del valor agregado, empleo, y servicios complementarios • permite responder al auge y a las crecientes demandas del comercio alternativo, actividad que se interesa de manera especial en la economía campesina • permite aprovechar las posibles ventajas comparativas del productor rural debido a su ubicación geográfica, experiencia, y contexto socioeconómico • puede estimular la adopción de prácticas de conservación de recursos naturales En muchos países de América Latina, debido a la falta de políticas estatales apropiadas y a la existencia de grandes limitantes en múltiples aspectos del medio rural, el desarrollo rural no ha obtenido los logros esperados. En la literatura de desarrollo rural se acepta que son muchos más los fracasos que los éxitos.En consecuencia, este documento estudia los casos de ocho agroempresas rurales dedicadas a la exportación y ubicadas mayormente en la zona Andina. El análisis determina cuáles han sido los factores claves de éxito de cada una de las experiencias con el fin de generalizar si es del caso.Identificar los factores claves de éxito de ocho casos de agroindustrias rurales dedicadas a la exportación en la zona Andina y sacar conclusiones y recomendaciones a manera de guía para otros proyectos comerciales similares.Las agroempresas ubicadas en Bolivia (1), Colombia (3), Chile (1), Ecuador (2) y Perú (1) se estudiaron entre Noviembre 1997 y Abril 1998 por una administradora de empresas recién egresada con la asesoría y supervisión del Proyecto de Desarrollo de Agroempresas Rurales. La metodología seguida consistió de las siguientes etapas: Se establecieron los siguientes criterios de selección para identificar una lista inicial de agroempresas sujetas de estudio:• debe estar exportando parte de sus productos de manera exitosa • debe estar dispuesta a entregar información confiable • debe ser propiedad de o tener vínculo con pequeños productores rurales • la muestra debe representar varios países de América Latina Mediante el uso de información secundaria y la consulta con informantes claves (PRODAR, REDAR Colombia, etc.), se identificaron 12 posibles agroempresas a estudiar pero se descartaron aquellas que no estaban dispuestas a entregar la información requerida.La guía de análisis tiene un doble propósito: permite definir la información necesaria para identificar los factores claves de éxito, y además sirve como instrumento o guía de entrevista que garantice que la misma información se solicite para cada caso bajo estudio.En consecuencia, se definieron los aspectos a tener en cuenta. Se acordó concentrarse en conocer el sistema de la agroempresa o agroindustria, o sea el entorno físico, social y económico de ésta, los aspectos organizativos (procesos de formación y evolución de la agroempresa y las funciones empresariales internas), y el sistema de producto o productos. Este último incluye la producción de materia prima, el manejo post-cosecha y/o tecnología de procesamiento, el mercadeo o comercialización y la organización.La guía de análisis consta de las secciones siguientes:• Entorno social y económico de la agroempresa, incluyendo una caracterización del productor rural y la disponibilidad de servicios básicos y de servicios de apoyo a la actividad económica rural.• Organización empresarial, o sea el proceso de formación de la agroempresa, liderazgo, organigrama, grado de orientación empresarial, tipo de tecnologías, apoyo institucional recibido, etc. • Análisis del producto o productos, abarcando la materia prima, tecnología post-cosecha y de procesamiento, caracterización del producto final, programas, estrategias y canales de mercadeo y ventas, requerimientos para exportación, aspectos financieros y de rentabilidad, etc.• Análisis de la competitividad, incluyendo el estudio de las fortalezas, debilidades, amenazas y oportunidades de la agroempresa y conocer las percepciones del pequeño agroempresario respecto a sus ventajas comparativas. La guía de entrevista se ensayó mediante una entrevista piloto que se efectuó con ASPROME, una agroempresa con sedes rurales y urbana (Cali), y que cumple con los criterios de selección predeterminados.La información recogida fue principalmente primaria, a través de visitas personales a cinco de las agroempresas localizadas en Colombia y Ecuador, y por correo y teléfono para los casos de Bolivia, Perú y Chile. La guía de análisis fue utilizada también como la guía de entrevista. En ocasiones se entrevistó a más de un funcionario de la agroempresa. También se tomaron fotos. Esta información se complementó con información secundaria como documentos, informes y folletos, mayormente suministrados por los contactos en las agroempresas, pero también proveniente de fuentes como PRODAR.Con la información primaria y secundaria recogida se procedió a preparar borradores de cada caso, siguiendo también la secuencia de la guía de análisis. Este ejercicio ayudó a detectar ciertos vacíos de información, los que fueron cubiertos a través de entrevistas telefónicas.Debido a lo extenso de la temática correspondiente a cada caso, se diseñaron varios formatos para facilitar el análisis de la información. Estos formatos resumen la información clave y facilitan comparar y contrastar entre casos. El uso de estos formatos es secuencial, es decir, el primer formato es un prerequisito para elaborar el segundo formato y así sucesivamente. Cada formato se va aproximando más hacia la identificación de los factores claves de éxito. Los formatos propuestos se presentan a continuación.El primer formato, el básico, es un resumen de cada estudio de caso, e incluye las siguientes variables: creación y/o apoyo, estructura de la organización, mecanismos para la toma de decisiones, perfil del productor, productos, apoyo en contactos de mercados, volumen exportado, procesos agroindustriales, principales mercados y segmentos, posicionamiento en el mercado, calidad de productos, estrategias de crecimiento (matriz Ansoff), estrategias de variables de mercado, orientación al mercado, orientación empresarial, servicios de apoyo, fortalezas y debilidades y factores claves de éxito.Este segundo formato es un resumen de las fichas resumen, en forma de una matriz que incluye todas las agroempresas de exportación estudiadas. La información para cada caso está aún más resumida que en la ficha resumen. Este formato facilita el comparar y contrastar entre casos. Este tercer formato es clave en el análisis porque resume las similitudes y diferencias entre casos para cada variable de la ficha resumen. Adicionalmente, este formato identifica la diversidad o categorías para cada variable estudiada.Se define como \"factor clave de éxito\" aquel elemento del sistema de la agroempresa rural que se considera que haya sido clave o indispensable para el éxito de ésta. A partir del análisis de cada caso y del estudio de los formatos ya mencionados, se obtiene una hipótesis sobre los factores claves de éxito. En algunas ocasiones se preguntó de antemano a los contactos de las agroempresas respecto a cuáles habían sido, según ellos, los factores claves de éxito.Al generalizar sobre los factores claves de éxito, se generan una serie de conclusiones y recomendaciones sobre el establecimiento y fortalecimiento de agroempresas rurales de exportación vinculadas con pequeños productores rurales.Surgió en 1985 al observarse pérdida de la fruta por falta de comercialización, dando paso a la transformación. La Fundación Alemana \"Misereor\" ayudó en la construcción de la primera planta. Está conformada por 9 asociaciones con 1250 familias beneficiadas. Cuenta con cinco plantas: Argelia, Patía, Cajibío, Palmira y Cali.Productos: conservas de hortalizas y frutas tropicales, mermelada, panela, tubérculos y pulpa de fruta congelados Volumen exportado: 190 toneladas al mercado solidario, orgánico y étnico de Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea (1996/1997) Fortalezas: autogestión, identidad corporativa, integración vertical, contactos con el mercado solidario, orgánico, étnico y empresa privada Debilidades: sistema financiero y contable deficientes, plantas artesanales, falta de capital de trabajoEste caso se estudió, aunque no se puede considerar un éxito, ya que actualmente no está funcionando. Fue creada en 1991 a través del DRI y FUNDECOOP. Es un organismo de segundo grado constituido por 11 cooperativas de base. Reúne una población de 1500 personas beneficiadas. Posee una moderna planta con oficinas y bodega ubicadas en el municipio del Guamo, Tolima. Productos: pulpa de fruta congelada 100% natural con certificación de la Corporación Colombia Internacional (CCI)Volumen exportado: 50 toneladas a Estados Unidos y México (1995/1996) Creada en 1993 por iniciativa de un empresario particular. Su principal actividad es la comercialización de panela biológica proveniente de 5 trapiches paneleros en Villeta, Cundinamarca.Volumen exportado: 580 toneladas hacia el mercado italiano (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998) Fortalezas: producto certificado como orgánico por la CCI y Biagrico, integración vertical , contrato de exclusividad con el mercado convencional (Italia) Debilidades: Falta de capital de trabajo, vacíos en la gestión administrativaNació en 1975 en Potosí, Bolivia con el apoyo económico de la Interamerican Foundation (IAF).Es una organización autogestionaria de segundo grado. Congrega a 13 cooperativas y alrededor de 600 familias productoras de quinua.Producto: \"Quinua real perlada orgánica\", certificada por la OCIA Internacional (EUA). Esta es una variedad única de quinua cotizada a nivel mundial.Volumen exportado: tiene una moderna planta con capacidad instalada de 20 qq./hora. El 90% de la producción está orientada hacia el mercado de exportación: 72 ton/mes hacia Alemania, Canadá, EUA, Holanda, Japón y Suiza.Fortalezas: producto diferenciado, apoyo de instituciones, mercados establecidos en la Unión Europea y EUA, asistencia técnica, préstamo de maquinaria agrícola e integración vertical Debilidades: bajo nivel de educaciónNació en la Amazonía peruana en 1990 debido al escaso apoyo a la comercialización de la castaña, y ante la necesidad de fortalecer el extractivismo y su procesamiento. Han participado entidades internacionales a través de préstamos para infraestructura, capital de trabajo y contactos con el mercado externo. Candela es una organización de comercio alternativo (OCA), no gubernamental, que promueve la organización de productores/recolectores para fortalecer la producción, comercialización y contactos con el exterior. Son 50 productores generando ingresos para 200 personas y emplea a 40 mujeres.Productos: nuez castaña y subproductos como aceite, torta y vela ecológica Volumen exportado: 75 ton de castaña, 5 ton de aceite, 1 ton de torta de castaña (1997) Fortalezas: actividad de recolección, acceso a crédito por parte de entidades internacionales, orientación al mercado y desarrollo de productos, contactos de mercado e integración vertical Debilidades: difícil organización de los llamados extractivistas, mercado altamente competitivo, el precio se determina con base al mercado internacional de nuecesSociedad conformada por 28 accionistas de la Comuna de Coelemú (VIII región de Chile), productores de uva de la variedad \"Moscatel de Alejandría\" (1993)Producto: Vino blanco \"Moscatel de Alejandría\" Volumen exportado: el principal mercado es el regional (interno), enfocado en tres segmentos de la población (alto-medio-bajo); exportó 13.200 litros hacia Alemania por medio del comercio solidario Fortalezas: apoyo del Estado con crédito y asesoría en gestión empresarial, integración vertical, mercado establecido a nivel regional Debilidades: ausencia de un plan de mercadeoNació en 1985 como una experiencia de comercialización de productos básicos en los barrios del sur de Quito. El primer apoyo lo brindó la Iglesia Católica Italiana junto con la Diócesis del Ecuador. Unifica 400 organizaciones que representan 260.000 personas a nivel nacional.Mercado nacional: productos de primera necesidad Mercado de exportación: artesanías, mermeladas, turrones de miel, panela, cacao Volumen exportado: artesanías y alimentos US$ 740.000 (1997), US$ 650.000 (1996) y US$ 600.000 (1995); hacia Australia, EUA, Canadá y el mercado solidario Fortalezas: autogestión, liderazgo de la Iglesia, estructura organizacional con enfoque gerencial, estrategias de mercado, transferencia constante de tecnología e integración vertical Debilidades: no existen registros estadísticosUbicada en la Provincia de Bolívar, Parroquia Salinas, Ecuador. En 1.971 la Misión Salesiana, los voluntarios italianos de la Organización Mato Grosso y el párroco de la zona, desarrollaron proyectos que brindaron solución a la pobreza de la región. Impulsaron un trabajo de organización comunitaria y crearon la Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Salinas. Representa 24 organizaciones de base con 1550 socios. Cuenta con plantas de quesos, embutidos, productos de lana, deshidratado de hongos, hilandería, tintorería, turronería, carpintería, chocolatería, hotel, mermeladas, confección de botones, piscicultura y panadería; generan 520 empleos.Mercado nacional: US$ 1.100.000 (1996). Mercado exportación: US$ 68.007 (1996). Fortalezas: líder religioso con visión empresarial, autogestión, formación de líderes, mercado consolidado a nivel nacional, conexión directa con el mercado solidario y apoyo de organizaciones internacionales, capacidad administrativa en evolución Debilidades: falta de gerencia en las organizaciones de base, incipiente mentalidad empresarial, tecnología artesanalLos puntos estratégicos de análisis están todos incluidos en las fichas resumen de caso. En este punto 5 se presentan las principales tendencias encontradas para cada uno de estos puntos estratégicos.Generalmente, la agroempresa contó con el apoyo, tanto económico (inversión, capital semilla) como gerencial, de la Iglesia, el Estado, o entidades internacionales. Generalmente ha existido un liderazgo de un agente externo que promueve el proceso tendiente a lograr la autogestión (participación, experiencia laboral, capacitación)Generalmente los esquemas agroempresariales se conforman por productores o cooperativas que se agremian en organizaciones de segundo grado, formando así un núcleo central que ejecuta y tiene mayor poder de negociación. El agente externo o promotor se ubica en las organizaciones de segundo grado.La tendencia son plantas y procesos artesanales con estándares internacionales de calidad, y productos con sellos orgánicos de calidad.La tendencia es hacia la toma de decisiones descentralizada, o sea que las organizaciones campesinas de base participan, pero asesoradas por la administración central.Uno de los servicios más valiosos de la Iglesia, el Estado y entidades internacionales ha sido la asistencia en contactos de mercados externos, incluyendo el comercio solidario, orgánico, étnico y convencional.Las agroempresas están desarrollando planes anuales de ventas. La información del mercado se obtiene principalmente a través de los clientes y entidades de apoyo. Falta un manejo más profesional de la función de mercadeo, incluyendo la elaboración de planes de mercadeo y mayores esfuerzos en investigación de mercados y desarrollo de productos.La mayoría de las agroempresas estudiadas se han insertado en el mercado solidario o justo, y en nichos de mercado especializados (orgánico y étnico). Sin embargo, el mercado convencional también es importante para muchas de las empresas. En este punto hay que tener en cuenta que la línea divisoria entre los canales del comercio alternativo y solidario y los del mercado convencional es cada vez más difusa o borrosa.La imagen que están proyectando muchas de estas agroempresas es que venden \"productos elaborados por campesinos e indígenas pobres latinoamericanos\". Estos productos tienen características artesanales, naturales y orgánicos. Este posicionamiento se logra mediante el diseño gráfico alusivo a temas nativos y la utilización uso de marcas en lengua indígena, como Kandú, Hunzahua, Guarilahue, Maquita Cushunchic.El apoyo institucional de la Iglesia, el Estado y las organizaciones de comercio alternativo en la contactación de mercados ha sido fundamental para estas agroempresas. También es importante la iniciativa del líder empresarial para buscar mercados, incluyendo la participación en ferias internacionales pertinentes.La matriz de crecimiento producto-mercado propuesta por Ansoff (1959) plantea estas cuatro estrategias de crecimiento para la empresa:• penetración de mercados, o sea cuando la empresa mejora la posición en el mercado mediante acciones de mercadeo, sin cambiar ni productos ni clientes actuales • desarrollo de mercados, o sea cuando la empresa amplia las ventas de sus productos tradicionales en nuevos mercados geográficos o nuevos segmentos del mercado • desarrollo de productos, o sea cuando la empresa modifica sus productos tradicionales o propone nuevos productos, sin cambiar su mercado o clientes actuales • diversificación, o sea cuando la empresa cambia tanto sus productos como sus clientes o mercados La mayoría de las agroempresas estudiadas iniciaron su actividad comercial penetrando algún mercado, generalmente el solidario. Luego crecieron a través de las estrategias de desarrollo de productos (ampliaron la línea de productos para este mismo mercado), o desarrollo de mercados (entraron con los mismos productos en otros mercados o nichos de mercado, tales como el orgánico, étnico, o convencional).Las variables de mercadeo son cuatro, a saber: precio, producto, distribución y promoción.Precio: El precio del producto se establece de acuerdo con la calidad, la competencia y el tipo de mercado. Cuando el producto se destina a nichos de mercado como el solidario y orgánico, el precio tiende a ser alto (premium price). Cuando el producto se destina al mercado convencional, su precio tiene que ser competitivo. Se venden productos orgánicos, naturales y artesanales dirigidos hacia el mercado solidario, orgánico y étnico. El nombre y empaque refuerzan el posicionamiento de que son productos naturales producidos por agricultores mestizos o indígenas pobres de América Latina. Falta más trabajo en los temas de diseño gráfico, diseño de empaques y desarrollo de productos.Promoción: La promoción de los productos se hace a través de ferias internacionales del mercado solidario y productos orgánicos, mediante la venta personal, carpetas o folletos empresariales y envío y entrega de muestras.Distribución: El sistema de distribución del producto con valor agregado tiende a ser más directo. La empresa en América Latina despacha directamente al importador o representante de la organización de comercio alternativo, quienes distribuyen a su red propia de tiendas, o a otros expendios. El comercio convencional involucra a uno o dos intermediarios más en la cadena de distribución hasta el consumidor o cliente final.Se ha promovido y alcanzado un buen nivel de autogestión. Hay organización comunitaria y un sentido de pertenencia de ésta hacia la empresa. Hay presencia de líderes empresarios con sentido social comunitario. La capacidad gerencial y administrativa está todavía en proceso de desarrollo; se están introduciendo y/o mejorando las herramientas de planeación estratégica, sistemas contables, planes de mercadeo y operación.Ante la ausencia de una institucionalidad local y nacional que brinde servicios permanentes de apoyo a la empresa rural, éstas han dependido de colaboraciones puntuales por parte del Estado, Iglesia y organizaciones internacionales. Los principales servicios de apoyo brindados han sido créditos, capital semilla, facilitar acceso a créditos, donaciones, contactos de mercado, transferencia de tecnología y asesoría y capacitación en gestión empresarial.El documento original presenta lo que se considera son los factores claves de éxito para cada caso estudiado de agroempresa de exportación. En este resumen presentamos los factores claves de éxito que se pueden generalizar para la mayoría de los casos estudiados.• Liderazgo con sentido empresarial Las agroempresas presentan un líder que es generalmente un agente externo a la comunidad, pero con sentido social y que se ha comprometido y compenetrado con la comunidad u organización rural. Este liderazgo ha promovido activamente el proceso de participación y autogestión del poblador rural.• Impulso a la autogestión Tanto la participación en la toma de decisiones de las organizaciones de base como los procesos que impulsan la autogestión del poblador rural han sido claves en las agroempresas estudiadas. El resultado ha sido un fuerte sentido de pertenencia por parte de las comunidades de base.• Disponibilidad de servicios de apoyo Las agroempresas han tenido acceso a servicios de apoyo brindados por instituciones como la Iglesia, agencias del Estado, y agencias de cooperación internacional en temas como crédito y acceso a crédito, capital semilla, organización de la comunidad, contactos de mercados, transferencia de tecnología, acceso a crédito y desarrollo de la capacidad y gestión administrativa. Ante el vacío institucional en América Latina respecto a servicios locales de apoyo para la actividad empresarial rural, esto ha sido fundamental.• Conexión con el mercado alternativo El vínculo de las agroempresas con el mercado alternativo (solidario, orgánico) ha sido fundamental para penetrar el mercado de exportación. Estos canales alternativos se adaptan a las condiciones técnicas y económicas de las agroempresas estudiadas. Varias de las agroempresas estudiadas ya han obtenido la certificación orgánica o solidaria. A su vez, las tendencias en los hábitos de consumo hacia la preferencia de productos saludables y naturales en la Unión Europea, Estados Unidos, Canadá y Japón, han favorecido a los productos propios del comercio alternativo.• Desarrollo de estrategias de mercadeo Se observan varios logros importantes respecto al manejo de las estrategias de mercadeo, a saber:(i) Los productos se posicionan como naturales, orgánicos, o de pequeños productores de escasos recursos. Este posicionamiento es pertinente para el consumidor meta y se logra mediante la marca, diseño de empaque y material promocional.(ii) Algunas agroempresas han hecho un esfuerzo por penetrar varios tipos de mercados de exportación, como el solidario, orgánico, étnico y convencional. Adicionalmente, muchas agroempresas han adoptado estrategias de desarrollo de mercados y de desarrollo de productos.• Esquemas empresariales con integración vertical Los esquemas empresariales estudiados tienen características de integración vertical porque incorporan como socios al pequeño productor rural, o sea el proveedor de materia prima, asume la labor de procesamiento y comercialización, y además exhibe fuertes vínculos con los canales de comercialización alternativos y convencionales. Estos vínculos comerciales son fuertes debido a la presencia de contratos y/o uso de sellos de calidad. Adicionalmente, el sistema de distribución de este esquema con visos de integración vertical es más directo y así evita una o dos cadenas de intermediación que puede encarecer el producto al consumidor final o reducir los márgenes de utilidad para la agroempresa.","tokenCount":"3655"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"097b415d27f5a93b4019064c8cc1c700","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e17ccfa4-9613-4163-937f-155c62574f88/retrieve","id":"529511229"},"keywords":["beef miles emissions","greenhouse gases emissions","carbon footprint","sustainability","food systems"],"sieverID":"8d439832-e544-41a6-a556-cb26478103ce","pagecount":"13","content":"Beef production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and has therefore been placed at the center of global policy and research agendas on climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, detailed quantification of the intensity of beef's contribution to emissions has mostly focused on the farm level. This research uses the calculation of a food miles emissions indicator to analyze the Colombian beef supply network from slaughterhouses to national consumption centers and its emissions between 2019 and 2022, including a network analysis and weighted average source distance (WASD) estimation. The results were compared with emissions from the transport of alternative animal proteins, specifically chicken and pork. The results show that the beef miles emissions indicator in Colombia is equivalent to 0.055330 kg CO 2 eq/ton of beef/ km, which is higher than pork and chicken. These findings highlight the need to develop comprehensive approaches and strategies to reduce emissions from beef production, recognizing the critical role that the beef supply network, transport distances, infrastructure, and technology play in beef-related emissions.Meat consumption in emerging and developing countries has seen steady growth rates over the last few decades, outpacing growth rates in developed countries (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2015). A growing middle class and associated higher household incomes have increased the preference for meat as a protein source, with many consumers considering it a superior choice to other protein sources. In many countries, meat is not only a food, but also a symbol of well-being and a fundamental pillar of nutrition and health (Cervantes et al., 2016;Blanco-Murcia and Ramos-Mejía, 2019). Globally, poultry is the meat consumed in largest quantities, accounting for 40% of the total meat consumption, closely followed by pork (34%), beef (21%), and sheep and goat (5%) (Statista, 2023). In Colombia, while there has been a recent increase in the consumption of poultry, pork, and fish, the consumption of beef has not followed the same trend. Nevertheless, beef remains the second most consumed meat in the country, with an average of 17.1 kilograms per capita (709,599 metric tons) in 2022, while poultry is the undisputed leader with 36.3 kilograms per capita (Fedegan, 2023). Overall, the upward trend in meat consumption in Colombia is expected to continue, potentially increasing by an impressive 58% by the year 2050 (FINAGRO, 2014).At the same time, the beef value chain faces several challenges that prevent it from becoming more sustainable. These include economic challenges related to increased demand and production costs, social challenges related to issues such as consumer health and animal welfare (Maia de Souza et al., 2017), and environmental challenges mainly related to the expansion of cattle farming through deforestation, with associated environmental impacts such as degradation of natural habitats, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, land degradation, soil erosion, water pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Areas Venegas, 2004). In terms of the latter, the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region emits 1.9 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO 2 eq) per year, which is the highest emission level in the world (FAO, 2022). In Colombia, 60% of deforestation has been associated with livestock farming (García, 2014) and if this trend is not halted, cattle farming will be a major obstacle to achieving international and national development goals, such as Colombia's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, specifically the unconditional target of reducing GHG emissions by 51% below business as usual in 2030 (Ministerio de Ambiente Desarrollo Sostenible, 2022;United Nations, 2015;International Energy Agency, 2022).To reduce the environmental footprint of the Colombian beef value chain and contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, several public policy instruments and multi-sectoral initiatives have been developed in recent years. These include, for example, the Green Growth Policy (DNP, 2018), the Sustainable Bovine Livestock Policy 2022-2050 (MARD, 2022), and the Sustainable Livestock Roundtable (Agrosavia, 2023). In addition, Colombia has developed its own national GHG inventory (IDEAM, 2015). Following the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2023), this inventory classifies GHG emissions into four key sectors: (1) energy, (2) industrial processes and product use (IPPU), (3) agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU), and (4) waste. While emissions associated with livestock farming are included in the AFOLU sector, transport, another emission generating activity in the beef value chain, is included in the energy sector GHG inventory.To date, numerous studies have been carried out to analyze the life cycle, GHG emissions and carbon footprint (CF) of cattle and livestock production in general (Aluwong and Wuyep, 2011;Barthelmie, 2022;Buratti et al., 2017;Caro et al., 2014;da SILVA et al., 2023;Desjardins et al., 2012;Dick et al., 2015;Garrido et al., 2022;Gaviria-Uribe et al., 2020;González-Quintero et al., 2021, 2022;Ogino et al., 2016;Place and Mitloehner, 2012;Ruviaro et al., 2015;Sandoval et al., 2023). There are also several studies on GHG emissions from food transport (Ballingall and Winchester, 2010;Bigaran Aliotte and Ramos De Oliveira, 2022;Boarnet, 2010;Caputo et al., 2013;Coley et al., 2009Coley et al., , 2011;;Striebig et al., 2019). It has, for example, been found that food transport in general accounts for 19% of food emissions and 6% of total emissions, and that emissions from food transport account for almost half of the direct emissions from road vehicles (University of Sydney, 2022). However, beef transport emissions have been studied only marginally (Kannan et al., 2016;Soysal et al., 2014;Velazco-Bedoya et al., 2013) and most studies on this topic focus mainly on animal welfare (Huertas et al., 2010;Romero-Peñuela et al., 2010). As a result, strategies to sustainably transform the cattle sector focus almost exclusively on reducing deforestation and mitigating enteric methane emissions from ruminants (FAO, 2023), while transportrelated emissions are largely ignored.In Colombia, too, there is little information on emissions from cattle transport, and existing regulations focus mainly on animal welfare and sanitary conditions (ICA, 2016;Ministerio de Transporte, 2022;Burkart et al., 2020). To narrow this knowledge gap, this study aims to quantify the GHG emissions and the CF of beef transport in the Colombian supply network and to analyze its environmental footprint compared to two alternative animal proteins, chicken and pork. To achieve this, a network analysis of the Colombian meat supply system was carried out. Based on this analysis, the weighted average source distance (WASD) was calculated, and the direct GHG emissions and CF of meat transport were quantified based on the fuel consumption of vehicles. Finally, beef was compared with two alternative animal protein sources, chicken and pork, using the CF criteria.The paper is structured as follows, section 2 presents a literature review on food miles, focusing in particular on beef transport emissions. Section 3 describes the methodology of quantitative analysis. Section 4 presents the research findings and sections 5 and 6 focus on discussion and conclusions.In 2020, global emissions from agrifood systems amounted to 16 billion tons of CO 2 eq, an increase of 9% since 2000. Studies on the CF of food products around the world suggest that beef, with emissions of 60 kg CO 2 eq/kg, has by far the highest CF of any food product (Ritchie, 2020). While it is known that farming practices and land use change are important contributors to GHG emissions in the beef supply chain, less is known about GHG emissions from beef transport, which is why this study aims to quantify these emissions for Colombia. In the following, an overview of the most recent research on GHG emissions associated with food transport in general, as well as with the emissions associated with beef transport is presented.GHG emissions and CF from food transport are generally analyzed using the food miles emissions concept. Food miles are calculated based on the distance food travels from production to consumption and are measured in tonne-kilometers (tkm), which is the transport of one ton of food over one km, or in other words, the distance travelled multiplied by the mass of the transported food item (European Commission, 2023;Schnell, 2013;Van Passel, 2013). The transport sector contributes approximately one quarter of all energy related GHG emissions. Today's transport sector is predominantly based on the combustion of fossil fuels, making it one of the largest sources of both urban and regional air pollution (UN Environment Programme, 2024). As food often travels long distances to reach consumers, transport might be expected to be the largest food-related contributor to GHG emissions. However, studies suggest that food transport has a relatively small CF when compared to the rest of the food system (Wakeland et al., 2012). It has been estimated that global food miles emissions correspond to around 3 Gt CO 2 eq, which translates into transport accounting for 19% of total food system emissions. In the United States, for example, (Weber and Matthews, 2008) found that although food is generally transported over long distances (1,640 km delivery from retailer to consumer, and 6,760 km from production to consumption on average), transport accounts for only 11% of GHG emissions, and delivery from producer to retailer accounts for only 4%.However, it is important to note that food miles emissions vary considerably depending on the food product. For example, the transport of fruit and vegetables, which is particularly emissionintensive due to the use of refrigerated vehicles (Kreier, 2022), accounts for 36% of total food miles emissions (European Commission, 2023). The refrigerated food supply chain is an energyintensive, nutritious, and high-value part of the food system, making it particularly important to consider (Wang et al., 2022). The little data that is available suggests that currently the cold-chain accounts for approximately 1% of CO 2 production in the world (James and James, 2010). Food transport refrigeration has a high impact on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. GHG emissions from conventional diesel engine driven vapor compression refrigeration systems commonly employed in food transport refrigeration can be as high as 40% of the GHG gas emissions from the vehicle's engine (Tassou et al., 2009). Furthermore, large differences exist between the food miles emissions generated in high-income countries and those associated with low-and middle-income countries. High-income countries, with only about 12.5% of the world's population, account for 52% of international food miles and 46% of associated emissions. On the other hand, low-income countries, home to around half of the world's population, account for only 20% of international food transport emissions (Kreier, 2022;Li et al., 2022). Coley et al. (2009) compared the carbon emissions of operating a large-scale vegetable box delivery system with those of a delivery system where customers travel to a local farm shop to collect the produce themselves. The authors found that if a customer travels more than 6.7 km round trip to purchase their organic vegetables, their carbon emissions are likely to be higher than the emissions from the system of cold storage, packaging, transport to a regional hub and final transport to the customer's doorstep used by large vegetable box suppliers. As a result, the authors conclude that some of the ideas behind localism in the food sector May need to be reconsidered. Striebig et al. (2019) found contrasting results when they assessed what impact getting local food instead of non-local food could make on the overall emissions of the food system. Their results suggest that carbon emissions associated with food from local produce are lower than non-local sources. On the same topic, De Cara et al. (2017) argue that \"buying local\" does not necessarily reduce transport-related GHG emissions, even if production technologies and yields are homogeneous in space, but that the ideal supply system depends on the rural-urban population distribution in each region. They develop a partial equilibrium model of rural-urban systems where the spatial distribution of food production within and across regions is endogenous. According to De Cara et al. (2017), the optimal spatial distribution of food production does not exclude the possibility that some regions should be self-sufficient, provided that their urban populations sizes are neither too large nor too small. In another study, Coley et al. (2011) tested the effectiveness of the concept of food miles emissions for assessing the sustainability of food products. The findings of the study show that there is only a poor correlation between many food products, distances travelled and emissions, which is why food miles emissions, according to the authors, are not an appropriate tool for influencing consumer behavior. Ballingall and Winchester (2010) examined the impact of changes in consumer preferences for imported agri-food commodities in several European countries. They simulated food miles emissions shocks in the UK, France, and Germany, as these are the countries where food miles campaigns are most active. The authors found that changes in consumer preferences are largest for agri-food products imported using carbon-intensive transport modes. In the same line of thought, Caputo et al. (2013) estimated the willingness to pay for CO 2 and food miles emissions. The authors found that the willingness to pay for CO 2 can be high even if the same respondents express a low willingness to pay for food miles emissions, while the reverse pattern was not observed. The results suggest that consumers tend to value the CO 2 label at least as much as, and sometimes more than, the food miles emissions label. Duarte et al. (2019) estimated the environmental impact of the road transport distance and product volume from farms to fresh food distribution centers in different regions of Brazil. The highest CO 2 emissions were found for potatoes transported from Paraná, papaya from Bahía and tomatoes from Sao Pablo. The authors suggest that one strategy to reduce the environmental impact would be to use large freight volumes when transporting food over long distances. In a study on fruit export related emissions, du Plessis et al. ( 2022) described and analyzed the emissions-generating food distribution activities that are undertaken during the international export of fresh fruit from South Africa. Based on these activities, the authors developed a distribution chain diagram tool that describes the structure of fresh fruit distribution stages and associated emissions, and which can be used to facilitate the calculation of the carbon footprint of exported fruit.In a study by Mosammam et al. (2018) a comparison of Iran's total import-related food miles and associated direct environmental costs in 1999 and 2013 is presented. Based on a customized model, the import-related \"food miles\" were calculated for 14 food groups. In 1999, products arriving in Iran's main cities were typically transported more than 15,456 km. By 2013, however, average food miles had fallen by 47%. In terms of energy use, the authors found that imported products accounted for 130,855 TJ of energy use in 1999, which was 10% less in 2013. These changes account for more than 10 and 9 million tons (Mt) of food miles emissions in 1999 and 2013, respectively. The authors conclude that there is an opportunity to re-legislate and revise policies on both imported and domestic food to continue reducing food miles emissions. Focusing on Canada, Kissinger (2012) presents a one-year snapshot of total import related food miles emissions. The author presents an analysis of the distance that imported food travels from around the world to major consumption points in Canada and documents the CO 2 eq emissions associated with these imports. The study highlights that approximately 30% of the agricultural and food products consumed in Canada are imported, resulting in food miles of over 61 billion km and annual emissions of 3.3 million metric tons of CO 2 eq. Of the various agricultural and food commodities studied, fruits and vegetables had the highest food miles related emissions. Soysal et al. (2014)  cost as well as the total amount of GHG emissions from transport operations. The authors present computational results based on an application of the model to an existing beef export supply chain with primary production in Nova Andradina, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, and consumers in the European Union. The results suggest that poor infrastructure leads to lower fuel efficiency, which in turn has a negative impact on emissions. The authors also conclude that green tax incentives such as a carbon tax can lead to improving the supply chain's economic performance while reducing its environmental footprint.In another study from Brazil, Velazco-Bedoya et al. ( 2013) calculated the CO 2 emissions from the transport of Brazilian meat to Europe, comparing commonly used transport routes with less polluting alternative routes for the transport of meat from slaughterhouses to export harbors. They considered four scenarios: (i) farm to slaughterhouse; (ii) slaughterhouse to harbor; (iii) maritime transport from Brazil to Europe and (iv) distribution from European harbors to consumers. The average emission of the common transport routes was 8.8 tons of CO 2 per container (26 tons) at an average distance of 11,633.4 km. The alternatives emitted on average 7.6 ton of CO 2 per container, at a mean distance of 11,644.2 km. Comparing the two CO 2 emissions, an average reduction of 20.47% can be achieved for transport in Brazil, and 13.85% for the entire route.GHG emissions from beef transport are also addressed in a study by Kannan et al. (2016), which describes the development and application of a model to estimates energy consumption and GHG emissions from beef transport. The animal transport model is based on the weight and number of animals, type of trailer, vehicle, and fuel used. The results show that beef is transported on average 326 km in the study region. Fuel consumption amounts to 24 L of fossil fuel per 1,000 kg of boneless beef and the corresponding GHG emission is 83 kg. The authors point out that switching from conventional fuel to biofuel could significantly reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions.The objective of this study is to quantify the GHG emissions and the CF of beef transport in the Colombian beef supply network and to evaluate its environmental efficiency compared to two alternative animal proteins, chicken and pork, using principally the meat and beef miles emissions indicator. It refers to transport emissions intensity (emissions/ton/km). To achieve this, a four-step methodological process is proposed (see Figure 1): (i) analysis of the beef supply network at the municipal level, (ii) assessment of geographical accessibility in the supply network, with distance as a key element, (iii) estimation of GHG emissions and CF from beef transport and beef miles emissions (BME), and (iv) comparison of GHG emissions, CF and food miles emissions from transport of beef, pork and chicken.As a first step, information on the volume of pork, poultry, and beef supply in the largest Colombian cities (Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cali, Cartagena, Cucuta, and Medellín) for the time period 2019-2022 was extracted from the Price and Supply Information System of the Agricultural Sector (SIPSA) (DANE, 2022). These years were chosen due to the availability of data collected by the Colombian government through the SIPSA database managed by DANE. Additionally, during this period, data collection and recording were improved, including more cities and more market centers, which enhanced the analysis of this study.The next step was to analyze the transport routes of carcass beef from the wholesale markets in the municipalities of origin to the final markets. To this end, beef-supplying municipalities of the prioritized cities were identified and road distances between them were estimated using information from DANE (2022) and Google Maps. The information corresponding to the volume of beef transported is based on information from 16 wholesale markets in 11 cities and from 23 toll stations in 5 cities. In each of these places, traders and transporters are asked for information on the daily volume of beef (DANE, 2022). To choice of vehicle type and reference fuel was based on information from the Ministry of Transport (Ministerio de Transporte, 2005), which estimates that 80% of the vehicles in Colombia are rigid motor vehicles with two and three axles, and that the fuel used for the transport of goods is mainly diesel (around 70%), according to Colombia's Mining and Energy Planning Unit (UPME) (Amell-Arrieta et al., 2016). Starting in 2022, the legally mandated fuel mixture is 90% diesel and 10% biodiesel (Ministerio de Agricultura Desarrollo Rural and Ministerio de Minas Energía, 2023); however, at the time of the calculations for this study, the methodology proposed by Nutresa and GAIA (2013) used a mixture of 93% diesel and 7% biodiesel.A Social Network Analysis (SNA) was carried out to map and analyze intermunicipal beef supply networks in Colombia (Akhtar, 2014;Asres et al., 2012;Barlow et al., 2011;Sharma and Surolia, 2013). This methodology provides metrics and a visual representation of data to analyze, among other things, the linkages between different actors (e.g., institutions and traders), products and regions. SNA helps to reveal local patterns (number of contacts (degree), position in the network, influence, and other statistics per network member-node) and global patterns (level of network compaction, density, level of centrality, association patterns, among others) in the beef supply chain (Sanz Menéndez, 2003). An example of this type of analysis is found on the platform PlaSA Colombia, which is used by different stakeholders in Colombia. This platform uses network analysis to map the flow of food, considering nodes (territories) and edges (connections and movements of food) (PlaSA Colombia, 2024). The above helps to determine the general structure of the network, the level of interaction, the local performance of each node, and the fragility between metrics. The following analytical criteria have been defined for the implementation of the SNA: I The network nodes are the municipalities of Colombia. II The network relationships analyzed, which are visualized as lines connecting the nodes, are beef supply relationships, with certain municipalities sending beef and others receiving beef.The WASD was calculated as an indicator to estimate the distance that food travels from its origin to its final destination, taking into account the volume mobilized (Blanke and Burdick, 2005;Pirog and Benjamin, 2005). The WASD is computed by multiplying the quantity of each food product transported by the distance it travels from its origin to its destination and dividing the sum of these products by the total quantity transported (see Equation 1).)where: = Distance traveled from the place of origin k to the destination for the product p g = Specific food group k = Place of origin of the product p p = Food product that belongs to the food group g Next, the GHG emissions associated with the fuel used to transport beef were estimated. The following three GHGs associated with using diesel were prioritized: Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), Nitrous oxide (N 2 O), and Methane (CH 4 ). Table 1 shows the GHG emission factors used. The estimation of the diesel CO 2 emission factor (see Equation 2) was based on Nutresa and GAIA (2013) and UPME ( 2003). Four-step methodology for analyzing GHG emissions and CF from beef transport. This information was taken to estimate the total CO 2 , N 2 O, and CH 4 emissions from beef transport in Colombia (see Equation 5), using the global warming potential over 100 years for CO 2 (1 ton CO 2 eq), N 2 O (298 ton CO 2 eq) and CH 4 (25 ton CO 2 eq) (Nutresa and GAIA, 2013). The parameters and metrics used have been validated by several studies in Colombia (Amell-Arrieta et al., 2016;Rodriguez et al., 2020;UPME, 2003).Finally, the CF from beef transport (CF bt ) and beef miles (BM) were calculated based on the GHG emissions, the quantity of beef transported (BQ) and the distance traveled (km) (see Equations 6, 7).( )This process was repeated to estimate the GHG emissions, CF and food miles of pork and chicken for the purpose of comparison.A limitation of this study is that there is no data on the distances traveled between the farm and the beef, chicken, or pork collection centers. Therefore, the estimates of GHG emissions, CF, and BF correspond to the transport of beef, chicken, and pork from the collection centers to the destination cities. Another limitation is that fuel consumption is different according to topography, type of roads, and height above sea level. There is not enough information to incorporate these variables in the study, for this reason a representative standard diesel consumption is assumed. To determine the consumption of gallons of diesel, the performance in kilometers per gallon in mountainous terrain is considered, according to the specifications of the Ministerio de Transporte (2012). This performance is 4.6 km/gallon for 2-axle trucks, 4.9 km/gallon for 3-axle trucks and 2.8 km/gallon for 4-axle trucks.Beef was the second most transported meat between 2019-2022. During this period, 189,000 tons of beef were transported by road in Colombia, an average of 47,000 tons per year. Beef is surpassed by chicken, with 201,000 tons transported in the period 2019-2022, which corresponds to an average quantity of 50,000 tons per year. Over the same period, 108,000 tons of pork were transported, an average of 27,000 tons per year. As can be seen in Figure 2, the quantity of chicken transported in Colombia surpassed beef in 2022. Furthermore, a decrease in the mobilized volume of the three types of meat can be observed between 2020 and 2021, which May be a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis.The Colombian beef supply network is characterized by a fat-tail pattern, which refers to multiple supplying regions (grey circles) sending beef to a small group of trading partners (red circles). There is also a high degree of network centrality, with a few nodes, such as Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cali, Medellín, Cucuta, and Cartagena, concentrating most of the supply links (see Figures 3-5).Bogota stands out for its high connectivity with numerous production areas, reflecting its central role in the network illustrated in Figure 3. Cali and Medellín are also important nodes due to their capacity to redistribute beef to other regions of the country. Bucaramanga and Villavicencio act as strategic points connecting various production and consumption areas, while Cartagena, being a maritime port, facilitates both the entry and exit of goods.This centrality is visually represented in Figure 3, where the red nodes concentrate most supply links. The high centrality of these nodes not only ensures efficiency in the distribution of beef but also provides resilience to the network against disruptions. The ability of these nodes to act as key intermediaries facilitates the continuous flow of supplies. The SNA results underscore the importance of these nodes in maintaining a robust and efficient supply chain in Colombia.Beef is the meat that travels the shortest distance between the market of origin and the end market. The WASD to the main cities that beef travels are 4,294 km, the least compared to chicken, 9,219 km, and pork, 7,023 km. For beef, Bogotá, the largest market in Colombia, is the city with the shortest supply routes. One of the reasons is the spatial contiguity of Bogotá. This city is connected to more than 80 municipalities through different roads and accesses, and many of these municipalities are meat producers. For pork and chicken, the city with the shortest supply routes is Barranquilla. On the other hand, the city with the longest travel distance for beef is Cali, and for pork and chicken it is Cucuta (see Table 2).The results of the transport emissions analysis are presented in Table 3, which shows the estimated GHG emissions, CF and meat miles emissions (MME) for beef, pork and chicken. Chicken is the meat with the highest GHG emissions from transport, followed by beef and pork. Although beef is the meat with the highest quantities transported until 2021, it presents the lowest WASD, which explains why beef is not shown as meat with the highest GHG emissions in Table 3. The meat with the highest CF is pork: for every kilogram of pork transported in Colombia between 2019 and 2022, an average of 0.387 kg CO 2 eq was emitted. But this ranking changes when the MME indicator is calculated. Beef transport generates the highest emissions in terms of kg transported/km traveled. While Colombia's beef miles are 0.00005533 kg CO 2 eq/kg/km between 2019 and 2022, pork miles emissions are similar with 0.000055164 kg CO 2 eq/kg/km, and chicken miles emissions are lower with 0.000037446 kg CO 2 eq/kg/km (see Table 3).The food miles emissions concept has facilitated an environmental efficiency analysis, estimating food transport emissions per kilogram transported and kilometer traveled (European Commission, 2023;Schnell, 2013;Van Passel, 2013). This is an interesting concept from which recommendations for climate change mitigation in the food transport sector can be derived. In general, food miles emissions studies have focused on international food transport, where the potential for emissions is greatest (Blanke and Burdick, 2005;Kissinger, 2012;Mosammam et al., 2018;Pirog and Benjamin, 2005;Velazco-Bedoya et al., 2013). Most studies on local food miles emissions seek to explore the benefits of local consumption by  analyzing whether it can reduce emissions associated with food transport (De Cara et al., 2017;Duarte et al., 2019;Schnell, 2013;Striebig et al., 2019;Weber and Matthews, 2008). Moreover, food miles emissions studies have mainly focused on fruit and vegetables, which are the main contributors to total food miles emissions (Bigaran Aliotte and Ramos De Oliveira, 2022; Blanke and Burdick, 2005;du Plessis et al., 2022).As the CF of beef is the highest of all food products when considering the whole life cycle, with emissions related to on-farm activities and land use change accounting for more than 90% of the beef CF (Ritchie, 2020), most CF studies of livestock value chains have focused on the farm level (Aluwong and Wuyep, 2011;Barthelmie, 2022;Buratti et al., 2017;Caro et al., 2014;da SILVA et al., 2023;Desjardins et al., 2012;Dick et al., 2015;Garrido et al., 2022;Gaviria-Uribe et al., 2020;González-Quintero et al., 2021, 2022;Ogino et al., 2016;Place and Mitloehner, 2012;Ruviaro et al., 2015;Sandoval et al., 2023) and very few on beef miles emissions (Kannan et al., 2016;Soysal et al., 2014;Velazco-Bedoya et al., 2013). This study therefore contributes to filling this knowledge gap by estimating beef miles emissions in Colombia.The results show that GHG emissions from the transport of chicken transport are higher than those from the transport of beef and pork. When looking at the CF considering the quantities transported, the highest CF is from pork transport. But when estimating the MME indicator considering quantities transported and distance, the highest MME are from beef transport. This means that the unitary emissions impact of beef production is greater than pork and chicken production not only when considering the whole supply chain (Ritchie, 2020), but also when considering only transport. Ritchie (2020) estimates that the average global CF of beef is 60 kg CO 2 eq/kg beef, of which only 0.3 kg CO 2 eq/kg beef is attributable to transport. The results of this study suggest that the BME for Colombia is 0.238 kg CO 2 eq/kg beef, which is lower but similar to this world average.A few studies have also analyzed beef miles emissions, but mostly focused on export supply chains. Soysal et al. (2014) developed a multi-objective linear programming (MOLP) model for a generic beef logistics network problem. They estimated that the GHG emissions from transport associated with beef exports from Nova Andradina, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil to Europe. The authors found that GHG emissions amount to 127 tons CO 2 eq when logistic costs are minimized and to 113 tons CO 2 eq when emissions are minimized. Velazco-Bedoya et al. (2013) also studied the GHG emissions from the transport of beef from Brazil to Europe, but their study has a broader scope as it includes more regions of origin of the meat and estimates the indicator of CF from transport. The authors calculated that beef has to travel 11,633 km to get from Brazil to Europe, generating a CF Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 09 frontiersin.org equal to 0.3382 kg CO 2 eq/kg of beef, with 11.8% of this CF corresponding to road transport within Brazil. For comparison with this study, the CF indicator associated with national beef transport was calculated to be 0.0399 kg CO 2 eq/ kg of beef, which is higher than the CF estimated in for the national transport in Colombia for this study, 0.000238 kg CO 2 eq/kg of beef. Kannan et al. (2016) applied a model to estimate energy consumption and GHG emissions from beef transport in the Southern Great Plains region, United States. Their results indicate that a truckload of beef in the study region travels on average 326 km. Fuel consumption amounts to 24 liters of fossil fuel per 1,000 kg of boneless beef, resulting in GHG emissions of 83 kg CO 2 eq. The BME indicator calculated for the Southern Great Plains region is 0.00025 kg CO 2 eq/kg of beef/km transported, which is higher than the BME indicator estimated for Colombia. These studies are presented for illustrative purposes. As can be seen, there are large differences between the results because of the particularities of each study. Among the most important differences are (a) the emission factors -our study uses emission factors calculated specifically for Colombia; and (b) the level of information -our study is more limited in terms of information; we estimate emissions from slaughterhouses to national consumption centers. Other studies with more complete information estimate emissions from farms to slaughterhouses and from slaughterhouses to national consumption centers, even to collection points for exports such as seaports and airports.The high intensity and dependence of the beef supply structure reveal potential risks and vulnerabilities in the system by facing external shocks. An intermediation of 40% shows that out of 100 cargo trips, 40 return to the same producing municipalities. This situation can be explained by the effects of public health regulations for slaughterhouses and beef markets (Ministerio de Protección Social, 2007) that led to the closure of numerous establishments. In Colombia, in order to guarantee the sanitary quality of meat production, large slaughterhouses only operate in the main cities, which implies that the animals have to travel from the municipalities to the cities to be slaughtered and that the meat has to return to the municipalities to be commercialized. This issue is currently re-emerging in the political arena, as the government is planning to issue a new amendment to the regulation decree to allow the operation of municipal slaughterhouses as a complementary strategy to reduce beef prices, which could have an impact on the transport CF. This amended decree would reduce the number of trips required to deliver meat to the commercial centers in the municipalities, but requires a strict surveillance and control process to ensure that small municipal slaughterhouses comply with all health regulations. The above policy measure aims to promote local  This study is a first approximation to the estimation of the BME indicator for national meat transport in Colombia. In Colombia the MME indicator for beef is larger than for pork and chicken. Despite the comparatively small contribution to overall GHG emissions, it is important to develop comprehensive approaches and strategies to reduce beef transport emissions, recognizing the role of the beef supply network, transport distances, infrastructure, and technology beyond emissions related to on-farm practices and land use change. The beef supply network in Colombia is characterized by the existence of several supplying regions that send beef to a small group of trading partners. In terms of supply distance, Bogotá, the largest market in Colombia, requires transport over the shortest distance to source beef. On the other hand, Cali, a city located in the southwest of the country, requires transport over the longest distance to source beef. In addition, chicken is found to generate the highest amount of GHG emissions due to transport, followed by beef and pork. These findings highlight the importance of considering supply patterns and associated GHG emissions when planning sustainability strategies for the meat industry in Colombia. Comparing the results of this study with studies from Brazil and the United States, it appears that BME in Colombia have a lower environmental impact than in these countries. However, this study is limited to the transport of beef from the slaughterhouse to the end  markets, which means that the indicator is underestimated. For future BME studies in Colombia, it would be important to also estimate emissions from transport from the farm to the slaughterhouse. Moreover, it would also be interesting to estimate the CF and BME of beef exports, as has been done in Brazil. Reducing emissions from beef transport in Colombia will require efforts from different stakeholders. The Government, particularly the Ministry of Transport, must commit to expanding and improving the country's road infrastructure to reduce the distances traveled. Stakeholders in the beef sector should, furthermore, work on strategies to bring production and consumption centers closer together, encouraging local consumption and improving the use of vehicles by utilizing all available loading capacity. These strategies would not only generate environmental benefits by reducing emissions, but also economic benefits by reducing transport costs.To expand this work, future studies are required that include information on travel distance from the farms to the collection centers, which was a limitation of our study. It would also be interesting to initiate causal inference studies that allow to identify specific points in the meat transportation chain with potential for improvement to reduce emissions.","tokenCount":"6134"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"370593282877c6744ea3d5bce9a22b1f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/39c89caf-64e7-4ab1-9127-88d45c0a864e/retrieve","id":"-576077208"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"237ccc54-0cdb-4290-adcc-a69dec3b1ef4","pagecount":"161","content":"N a era da Internet, networking se tornou algo evidente e cotidiano. No entanto, muitas vezes se esquece que a comunicação virtual não é a essência do networking, mas apenas um meio, embora enormemente facilitado pelo avanço tecnológico. E por parecer tão óbvio e fácil há uma tendência de proliferação de networks de todo tipo. A experiência mostra, porém, que só algumas dessas iniciativas realmente dão certo.A premissa deste guia é que networking não só usa tecnologia, mas que ela própria é uma tecnologia. E para reforçar esse ponto de vista, os autores deram à publicação o título \"Work the Net\", querendo expressar que networks exigem trabalho para funcionar. O guia mostra o que pode e deve ser feito para que uma rede possa cumprir a sua função e como isto pode ser alcançado, apresentando uma série de instrumentos e procedimentos. Ele foi escrito de forma didática para servir tanto de orientação, como para fins de aprendizagem.A decisão de traduzir o guia para o português se deve a dois motivos. Primeiro concordamos com a opinião dos autores de que networks representam um poderoso mecanismo para compartilhar informações e conhecimentos e, por meio da comunicação e coordenação entre seus membros, promover ações voltadas para o desenvolvimento sustentável. Sendo isto o objetivo principal da cooperação para o desenvolvimento, organizações como a GTZ deveriam se empenhar em aplicar esse mecanismo no âmbito de suas atividades junto às numerosas instituições parceiras \"all over the world\", é dizer, não só em países de língua inglesa, mas também de língua portuguesa.Em segundo lugar, há um motivo específico que explica por que a iniciativa de tradução partiu do Programa Energia e Meio Ambiente da GTZ no Brasil. É no âmbito desse Programa que, desde o ano de 2006, vem se promovendo junto com a CETESB (Companhia de Tecnologia de Saneamento Ambiental do Estado de São Paulo) a criação de uma Rede Latino-Americana de Prevenção e Controle da Contaminação do Solo e das Águas Subterrâneas. O guia original foi publicado num momento propício para fornecer importantes subsídios no processo de construção dessa rede. Gostaríamos de parabenizar os autores do guia por este valioso aporte que certamente irá enriquecer o nosso trabalho e contribuir para o sucesso desta e de outras iniciativas que venham a acontecer. \"Networks\" -mecanismos poderosos para um desenvolvimento sustentável \"Networks\", daqui em diante chamadas \"redes\", são mecanismos poderosos para o compartilhamento de informações e de conhecimento. Promovem também a comunicação e a coordenação entre os diversos partcipantes da rede, objetivando com isso a obtenção de um desenvolvimento sustentável. Tais mecanismos agem como catalisadores eficazes para a formação de relacionamentos e compromissos entre stakeholders públicos e privados em níveis local, nacional, regional e internacional. As redes ajudam a formar relacionamentos confiáveis como base para o compartilhamento de informações e de conhecimento, servindo como mecanismos de aprendizado mútuo e de desenvolvimento de capacidades.As \"Networks\" são dinâmicas e comprovam o fato de que o todo vale mais do que a soma de todas as suas partes. Elas servem não somente para juntar múltiplos stakeholders, mas também para ativar a interface entre conhecimento e ação.O projeto 'Networking e Gerenciamento de Informações e de Conhecimento por Organizações Regionais no Campo da Gestão de Recursos Naturais' (NeRO) foi concebido pelo interesse nas diversas possibilidades das redes apresentadas. Financiado pela 'Agência Alemã de Cooperação Técnica' (GTZ), o trabalho teve início com a troca de informações de como as organizações regionais de desenvolvimento utilizam as abordagens e instrumentos para o gerenciamento do conhecimento, a fim de compartilhar as informações: este compartilhamento concentrou-se na gestão dos recursos naturais no contexto asiático.O projeto tornou-se um processo de aprendizado para todas as partes envolvidas. Uma abordagem de rede foi usada para explorar como as informações e o conhecimento são compartilhados com sucesso entre as organizações regionais de desenvolvimento. Parte do processo é uma tentativa cuidadosa para compartilhar informações selecionadas sobre \"o quê\", i.e. sobre o gestão dos recursos naturais.À medida que o trabalho progredia, a equipe do projeto sentiu uma forte necessidade de explorar com maior profundidade \"o como\" a rede propicia o compartilhamento de informações e de conhecimentos. Para tal, três estudos foram realizados e seus resultados forneceram a base para o guia desta rede de contatos. Os estudos se concentraram em n planejamento, desenvolvimento e gerenciamento de mecanismos da câmara de compensação;n envolvimento dos responsáveis pelas decisões nas redes; e n comunicação, liderança e cultura nas redes.Este guia para trabalhar em redes é somente um dos vários produtos do projeto NeRO. É o resultado de um processo intensivo de investigação e foi elaborado por quem trabalha em rede para quem trabalha em rede.Este guia é baseado na firme crença de que os desafios enfrentados pelos participantes e outros usuários do projeto NeRO na gestão dos recursos naturais na Ásia podem ser mais bem tratados pelo compartilhamento das experiências e das melhores práticas através de redes.A gestão sustentável dos recursos naturais exige inovação: inovação em pensamento e estratégia. Uma condição indispensável para tal inovação são os sistemas pluralísticos e dinâmicos que catalisam as ações apropriadas. Nessas novas formas de colaboração devemos considerar não somente as dimensões externas dos recursos naturais, mas também o papel dos múltiplos stakeholders em todos os níveis, visto que um indivíduo sozinho não pode lidar com tais desafios.Há cada vez mais opiniões favoráveis ao uso de redes, tornando evidente que estas oferecem uma oportunidade para juntar governos, setor privado, sociedade civil, ONGs e organizações internacionais e multilaterais. As redes podem ajudar a coordenar as ações de vários stakeholders e possibilitar a tomada de decisões baseada em informações, através da capacitação de diferentes atores, para que estes contribuam com a resolução de problemas baseados em seus mandatos, papéis e influências.Mas será que as redes realmente podem satisfazer expectativas tão altas? É óbvio que isto dependerá do contexto no qual elas estarão funcionando, tanto quanto de uma série de outros fatores. Entretanto, de forma geral, estamos convencidos de que há espaço considerável para melhorar o gerenciamento das redes existentes.Este guia não foi planejado no início do projeto. Muitos de nós percebemos que as redes são consideradas como a panacéia para gerenciar os aspectos de comunicação dos projetos de desenvolvimento. Nossa impressão era de que muitas das decisões para o estabelecimento das redes foram tomadas de forma aleatória, e que quase não havia concepção ou planejamento, mas sim perda de tempo e de recursos.Isto foi o que nos incentivou a escrever este guia. Gostaríamos de compartilhar nossa aprendizagem com os usuários que estejam estabelecendo novas redes. Talvez eles possam aprender com as nossas experiências, as positivas e as negativas, evitando assim a reinvenção da roda!Este guia é o resultado de três anos de trabalho intenso envolvendo muitas pessoas e organizações. Primeiramente, gostaríamos de expressar nossos agradecimentos a todos aqueles que contribuíram para o projeto 'Rede e Gerenciamento de Informações / Conhecimento por Organizações Regionais no Campo da Gestão de Recursos Naturais' (NeRO).Compartilhando suas idéias e experiências práticas, eles estabeleceram a base para este guia sobre redes.Estamos particularmente agradecidos a Lucie Lamoureux da Bellanet, que esteve envolvida na primeira fase do projeto e atuou como facilitadora de oficinas, e a Layton Montgomery que conduziu o estudo sobre Comunicação, Liderança e Cultura. Os agradecimentos também vão a Zbigniew Mikolajuk (ICIMOD), Ujol Sherchan e Prashant Sharma (Mountain Forum), que fizeram valiosas contribuições aos estudos nos quais este guia está baseado.Agradecemos também às várias organizações e programas que estiveram envolvidos no projeto NeRO e que contribuíram para este processo bem-sucedido de várias formas: a Secretaria da ASEAN em nome da ASEAN, o Programa Florestal Regional ASEAN-Alemão, o Centro Internacional para o Desenvolvimento Integrado das Montanhas (ICIMOD) e a Comissão do Rio Mekong.Agradecimentos especiais à Agência Alemã de Cooperação Técnica (GTZ) pelo provimento de recursos para o projeto. Sem seu apoio, este guia não teria sido possível.Michael Glueck, Urs Karl Egger, Georg Buchholz, Greta Rana, Sagita Arhidani 1 Introdução 1.1 Sobre este guia E ste é um guia prático para construção, gerenciamento e utilização de redes formais de maneira eficiente e eficaz. Ele se concentra nos assuntos operacionais das redes e explica os aspectos mais importantes para fazê-los funcionar.O guia destina-se tanto a pessoas que trabalham em rede, quanto a outros profissionais que desejem estabelecer uma rede. Esperamos que aqueles que já estejam envolvidos em outras redes estabelecidas encontrem também algumas sugestões úteis.Cada rede é única, e este guia certamente não tem a pretensão de ser um gabarito para outras. Ele abrange aspectos que consideramos importantes para a rede, sugere métodos práticos de procedimentos e fornece idéias de como trabalhar com a rede. Tentamos usar uma linguagem simples, não-técnica que pudesse atingir um público mais amplo.O guia tem várias opções para ajudá-lo a acessar as informações.n Fluxograma: Ao final desta seção, você achará um fluxograma mostrando um processo típico para o estabelecimento e gerenciamento de uma rede. Os números indicam seções diferentes que fornecem informações específicas.n Listas de Verificação: Os aspectos mais importantes de algumas seções estão resumidos em listas de verificação.n Referências cruzadas: Muitos aspectos da rede se inter-relacionam. O guia tem referências cruzadas que levam a informações correlacionadas.n Recursos adicionais: Tendo em mente que o guia não é exaustivo, incluímos uma seção (10) sobre recursos tais como livros, publicações e websites.Por uma questão de ilustração e ênfase, por vezes citamos alguns textos diretamente de outras fontes. Todos eles são citados na seção 10, mas omitimos notas de rodapé e aspas no texto para evitar um estilo acadêmico enfadonho. De forma sincera, agradecemos a todos os autores cujos trabalhos contribuíram para este manual. Sem essas contribuições, não teríamos conseguido.Esperamos que encontre sugestões úteis para ajudá-lo a satisfazer os desafios com a rede. Para o estabelecimento e gerenciamento das redes é necessário muito mais know-how e experiência do que este guia contém. Os conselhos fornecidos aqui demandarão da parte do leitor o uso de seu próprio discernimento e habilidades em gerenciamento de projetos bem como em comunicação e, acima de tudo, exigirão paciência e persistência. A s redes podem ser definidas de maneiras diferentes. Este guia enfoca as redes formais. Esta seção fornece uma definição e apresenta três exemplos. As diferenças entre as redes, as instituições e as organizações também são resumidamente explicadas.A noção de uma rede tornou-se onipresente na cooperação para o desenvolvimento e em nossas vidas diárias. Enquanto isso, definições e categorias infinitas de redes existem e não há uma definição que se adapte a todas elas. Neste guia, três categorias básicas foram distinguidas: redes sociais, comunidades de prática e redes formais. Ao mesmo tempo em que tais definições não constituem a verdade absoluta, elas são formas úteis para se trabalhar, sendo com freqüência aplicadas na prática. Este guia enfoca principalmente as redes formais.Não é exatamente o que queríamos ... mas funciona...Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisAs redes sociais formam a base na qual as redes formais são construídas. As redes sociais são mapas de relacionamentos pessoais, de amizade ou de negócios, consistindo de relações informais individuais pessoais entre empresários ou amigos, ou entre membros de uma família maior. As redes sociais de uma forma geral não têm um propósito deliberadamente definido. Elas crescem organicamente e, em muitos casos, não são planejadas ou administradas de forma ativa. As redes sociais desempenham uma parte importante na administração do cotidiano privado e profissional: elas são recreativas, podendo produzir informações, prestar assistência em tempos de necessidade, fornecer acesso a outras pessoas ou recursos.Neste guia, as comunidades de prática são consideradas como fazendo parte das atividades das redes formais.Uma comunidade de prática (CoP -Community of Practice) se constitui em um grupo de pessoas confiando umas nas outras e compartilhando um interesse comum em uma área específica de conhecimento ou competência. Os participantes de tais grupos se juntam voluntariamente para compartilhar e desenvolver seus conhecimentos, resolver problemas comuns e apoiar uns aos outros na busca de respostas.Um exemplo de uma comunidade de prática é a de um grupo de gerentes de redes que se reúnem duas vezes ao ano e se comunicam regularmente por e-mail, apresentando e respondendo perguntas sobre o gerenciamento das redes. Desta forma, os participantes da CoP ajudam uns aos outros a fazerem um trabalho melhor.Um outro exemplo que podemos citar seria o de alguns participantes de uma rede formal (definida na próxima seção) que se reúnem regularmente e participam ativamente de um fórum eletrônico de discussão para compartilhar suas experiências sobre um determinado tema relacionado aos objetivos globais da rede.Esses exemplos mostram que as CoPs são definidas pelo conhecimento e pela experiência e não por uma tarefa específica que tem que ser completada em um certo período de tempo. Este grupo voltado para 1. Introdução 13 2. Definições de Rede uma tarefa seria denominado como uma equipe de projeto. As pessoas participam de uma CoP porque elas têm uma necessidade real de saber o que as outras sabem. As CoPs são geralmente organizadas de maneira informal, sem muita administração. Um senso comum de propósito e o valor que os participantes agregam à comunidade mantêm o grupo unido.Mais informações sobre as comunidades de prática e como são estabelecidas podem ser encontradas na seção 9.2.Neste guia, as redes formais são definidas como grupos correlacionados de várias instituições ou organizações independentes, estabelecidas de acordo com um propósito ou necessidade específica. Os participantes da rede compartilham pontos de vista, objetivos e regras comuns, executando um conjunto de atividades comuns, como eventos regulares. Uma rede formal pode até mesmo ter um formato legal.Em comparação às comunidades de prática, as redes formais não se baseiam unicamente nas necessidades de seus participantes. Em vez disso, elas também têm o objetivo de atingir mudanças em seus próprios contextos, por exemplo, a agenda política de países ou regiões.Em termos de cooperação para o desenvolvimento, as redes formais consistem de organizações não-governamentais (ONGs), organizações governamentais, e agências de desenvolvimento, tanto quanto outras organizações nacionais, regionais ou internacionais. Os membros da equipe que por sua vez estão ligados a suas redes sociais representam essas organizações na rede. As redes formais também podem produzir comunidades de prática sobre um tema ou assunto específico que seja de interesse para os participantes da rede ou outros interessados.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais Figura 1: Redes sociais, CoPs e redes formaisOs três exemplos seguintes ilustram o que é uma rede formal e como podem apresentar-se: o \"Fórum da Montanha\", a \"Rede do Rio\" e a Cap-Net.O Fórum da Montanha (http://www.mtnforum.org) é uma rede global ligando e fortalecendo pessoas, profissionais em desenvolvimento das montanhas, e aqueles interessados em montanhas no mundo todo. O Fórum da Montanha é uma rede que contém cinco redes regionais na África, Ásia, América Latina, Europa e América do Norte.O Fórum da Montanha foi estabelecido em 1995, através de um esforço internacional em conjunto de organizações não-governamentais, universidades, governos, órgãos multilaterais e do setor privado. Sua secretaria está situada em Kathmandu (Nepal). municação modernos e tradicionais, apóia o trabalho em rede e a capacitação, além de encorajar os participantes a serem proativos na defesa do desenvolvimento sustentável das áreas montanhosas.Os serviços eletrônicos de informação do Fórum da Montanha incluem listas de e-mails para discussões globais, regionais e temáticas, conferências eletrônicas específicas, um calendário de eventos e uma biblioteca on-line aumentando rapidamente as fontes de informação relacionadas às montanhas.O Fórum da Montanha consiste de milhares de pessoas, profissionais e organizações de mais de 100 países. A filiação ao Fórum da Montanha é aberta a indivíduos e organizações envolvidas no desenvolvimento e na conservação sustentável das montanhas. Não são cobradas taxas para filiação ao Fórum da Montanha, nem há a necessidade de o participante estar em permanente ligação ou e-mail com a Internet.A Rede do Rio (http://www.rivernetwork.org) é uma rede norte-americana que apóia grupos locais de conservação de rios e bacias rurais. Sua missão é ajudar as pessoas a entender, proteger e recuperar rios e bacias.A rede foi fundada em 1988, com a convicção de que as soluções contra a degradação dos rios são basicamente locais e devem ser criadas pelas ações dos cidadãos, bacia por bacia. Tendo se iniciado com apenas algumas centenas de grupos, cerca de uma década atrás, o movimento reúne hoje em dia mais de 4mil organizações. Dezenove funcionários trabalhando em três escritórios nos Estados Unidos administram a rede.A Rede do Rio trabalha estreitamente com grupos de proteção a bacias locais, organizações de conservação de rios estaduais, tribos de índios americanos, escolas, organizações e repartições. A rede administra um centro de informação sobre as fontes dos rios, fornece publicações, treinamento e consultoria, oferece um programa de bolsas, dando referências para outras organizações de serviços e oportunidades para trabalho em rede.Os sócios da Rede do Rio têm que pagar uma taxa anual de 100 dólares. Por esta pequena contribuição eles recebem uma série de serviços, Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais como um jornal trimestral, avisos para arrecadação de fundos e 20% de desconto nas publicações da Rede do Rio. Seus sócios também podem participar de oficinas (workshops) ou receber consultoria direta, solicitar bolsas, e contatar o \"River Source Center\" com um número telefônico especial grátis ou por e-mail para receber assistência. Por fim, eles têm a possibilidade de se unirem às listas de discussão regionais e nacionais através de e-mail e de obter acesso à seção dos sócios no website.A Cap-Net (http://www.cap-net.org) é uma rede internacional para estruturação da capacidade na gestão integrada dos recursos da água (IWRM). A missão da rede é aumentar o desenvolvimento dos recursos humanos para o IWRM, estabelecendo ou fortalecendo as redes regionais de capacitação. A Cap-Net tem três importantes eixos de atividades interligados: 1) Redes: apoiar o estabelecimento, facilitar o acesso a informações e trocar experiências entre as regiões; 2) Capacitação: analisar as necessidades para capacitação, melhorar os materiais relativos a essa capacitação e ajudar no desenvolvimento das estratégias para capacitação; 3) website: disseminar as informações sobre os programas e cursos de treinamento, disponibilizar os materiais de treinamento, fornecer informações sobre as redes nacionais, regionais e globais.A rede Cap-Net cresceu rapidamente e agora alcança organizações e redes envolvidas no IWRM na maioria dos países em desenvolvimento.As redes formais diferem das instituições públicas ou empresas de diversas formas. Neste guia, elas são consideradas como sistemas que ligam pessoas e organizações diferentes, conseqüentemente contribuindo para a coordenação e o compartilhamento da ação. Em comparação às companhias ou burocracias, os relacionamentos entre os membros de redes formais são significantemente menos hierárquicos. Alguns defensores de redes até clamam que as redes são caracterizadas por relacionamentos não-hierárquicos. Em nossa opinião, entretanto, isto é muito otimista e não consistente com a realidade.A associação de membros é uma característica peculiar das redes. Os membros das redes participam delas mas permanecem autônomos. Eles são prestadores de serviços para outros membros da rede e stakeholders da rede. Ao mesmo tempo eles também são usuários dos serviços oferecidos pela rede. Esta cultura de dar e receber encontra-se no cerne de todas as redes.As redes também são caracterizadas por uma marcante descentralização. Os membros das redes, em especial das redes internacionais, encontram-se espalhados pelo mundo todo. Muitas redes internacionais também têm sub-redes regionais.Por último, as redes são muito semelhantes a organismos vivos. Até certo ponto cada rede é única. O histórico de cada rede e de seus membros influencia tanto o seu estabelecimento quanto o seu gerenciamento. As redes são sistemas dinâmicos e complexos e seus resultados nem sempre são os esperados. Desta forma elas são menos controláveis do que uma organização ou instituição pública. Há uma influência mútua entre uma rede e seu ambiente contextual. Em outras palavras, a rede influencia seu ambiente e é também influenciada por ele.As redes criam uma série de benefícios para seus membros e seus stakeholders, contribuindo para a visão global do desenvolvimento mais sustentável. Alguns benefícios associados às redes encontram-se mencionados abaixo.n Acesso a informações e a know-how.n Aprender com os outros.n Melhor compreensão das necessidades e agendas (políticas).n Fortalecimento das capacidades.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais n Fusão de recursos e desenvolvimento de sinergias.n Ampliação de redes pessoais.n Agir como catalisadoras para o estabelecimento de parcerias.n Testar novas idéias e soluções inovadoras.n Dividir o trabalho e concentrar-se em pontos fortes específicos.n Comparar o próprio desempenho com outras organizações ou instituições.n Melhorar a base de informações e de conhecimento para a tomada de decisões através do acúmulo de informações e de conhecimento.n Contribuir com o aprendizado e com ciclos de aprendizado mais curtos através de trocas de informações e de conhecimento.n Ligar setores, profissões, países, regiões e culturas, contribuindo desta forma com uma maior coordenação, coerência e inovação.n Respostas mais amplamente aceitas a complexos desafios do setor público.n Atenção aumentada para certos temas na agenda de políticas.n Decisões políticas mais balanceadas.As redes podem criar uma série de benefícios, mas as pessoas precisam manter as coisas em perspectiva -as redes certamente não são a panacéia para todos os problemas de compartilhamento de informações e de conhecimento. E só veremos os resultados de tais benefícios se a rede for gerenciada de uma forma efetiva e eficiente, que, espera-se, é onde entrará este guia de forma apropriada.E stabelecer e, posteriormente, gerenciar e desenvolver uma rede é um trabalho difícil. Com freqüência, a quantidade de trabalho e tempo gasto no estabelecimento de uma rede é completamente subestimada. Muitas vezes, algumas coisas dão errado durante os primeiros passos, e muitas redes fracassam nos primeiros meses ou ano. Então, é aconselhável que você reflita bem se deseja realmente ou não criar uma rede. Esta seção descreve os passos iniciais para o estabelecimento de uma rede. Primeiramente, a concepção da rede deve ser formulada. Se neste ponto você ainda estiver convencido da necessidade de uma rede, e tendo discutido essa necessidade com possíveis participantes, então você deverá desenvolver uma proposta explicando a rede com maiores detalhes. O próximo passo é procurar o provimento de fundos. Somente quando houver recursos financeiros suficientes é que a rede poderá ser estabelecida.Toda jornada começa com uma idéia. O primeiro passo no estabelecimento de uma rede é formular a concepção e uma justificativa para averiguar a sua plausibilidade. Este passo pode ser chamado de um estudo preliminar de viabilidade. Se você formular a concepção cuidadosamente, isso lhe poupará tempo e evitará muitas armadilhas a longo prazo. Abaixo, delineamos os passos mais importantes na estruturação da concepção inicial. A seqüência não tem que ser seguida de forma rígida, visto que muitos dos passos se sobrepõem uns aos outros.Primeiramente você precisa de uma noção concreta das necessidades ou demandas com que a rede irá lidar e qual a linha de argumentação para a sua criação. A motivação para configurá-la pode vir de uma série de direções: melhorar a colaboração, evitar duplicação de esforços, melhorar a disseminação de informações e de conhecimento, aprender com experiências existentes, alcançar um melhor impacto em uma área temática específica, ou simplesmente a necessidade que certos profissionais sentem em fazer um trabalho melhor. Tente trabalhar para a concepção de rede que seja compartilhada pela sua equipe principal, estabeleça objetivos distintos e uma série de serviços e atividades essenciais. Um bom teste seria explicar a concepção a alguém que não esteja diretamente envolvido. Se ele entender aonde você quer chegar, então a concepção provavelmente estará clara o suficiente.A concepção responde às necessidades de participantes potenciais? Muitas vezes, uma necessidade individualmente percebida não corres- Uma vez que esteja certo de que existe uma demanda para a rede, você deverá então realizar um pequeno levantamento para descobrir se a sua concepção é realmente única. Já existem outras redes cobrindo os objetivos da rede planejada? Que outras organizações trabalham em áreas similares? Quais são as prioridades temáticas das principais organizações e instituições nacionais e internacionais? Do que os participantes potenciais da rede realmente precisam? Dependendo das respostas a essas questões, você talvez tenha que ajustar a concepção. Tente encontrar um nicho específico para a rede que já não esteja coberto pelas redes existentes. Se não puder achar um nicho próprio, talvez você tenha que considerar o envolvimento em uma rede já existente.O estabelecimento bem-sucedido de uma nova rede depende de se ter uma equipe principal comprometida com a sua criação, que puxe e impulsione todo o processo. A maior parte das redes formais emergiu de redes sociais que já existiam. Assim, você já deve conhecer algumas pessoas que gostariam de se juntar à rede. A equipe principal deve se manter pequena: de três a cinco pessoas. Quanto maior o grupo, mais difícil e mais cara será a coordenação -se houver a necessidade de viagens.Entretanto, para o estabelecimento real de uma rede, você precisará muito mais do que o apoio da equipe principal. Precisará não somente do apoio de seu superior, se estiver trabalhando em uma organização, mas também de um grupo maior de stakeholders potenciais da rede. Os tomadores de decisão importantes e outras pessoas-chave trabalhandoWork the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais na área da rede planejada precisam \"comprar a idéia\". Entre em contato com eles, discuta a idéia e veja o que eles acham dela.O estabelecimento de uma rede necessita não somente de apoio, mas também de recursos. Você e a equipe principal devem se certificar de ter uma parte de seu tempo reservada para a rede. Além disso, vocês precisarão também de competência técnica na área em que a rede deverá ser ativa.Finalmente, você deverá fazer uma estimativa inicial do orçamento necessário. Tente fazer isto da forma mais realista e honesta possível; depois avalie se já possui fundos suficientes. Talvez a organização para a qual você esteja trabalhando esteja disposta a conceder-lhe certa parcela de tempo para a rede ou tenha outros meios disponíveis. Mas você deve também ficar atento a outras organizações públicas e privadas que poderiam estar dispostas a apoiar a rede. Busque nos websites de tais organizações, identifique seus programas em andamento ou planejados e leia seus documentos estratégicos, para ter uma idéia do tipo de temas pelos quais eles poderiam estar interessados.Tendo coletado as informações necessárias, faça agora um resumo em um pequeno documento de cerca de três a cinco páginas em linguagem simples.Com base nas discussões e no trabalho realizado até o presente momento, faz-se necessário um tempo para uma reflexão crítica. Dê uma olhada nas 12 questões seguintes e veja se pode respondê-las com um claro SIM.  Você tem uma concepção original e objetivos de rede compartilhados por outros? Há um contexto favorável para o estabelecimento da rede específica que você tem em mente? Foi verificado se outras redes já estão cobrindo a área temática da sua rede? Você é pioneiro, cheio de energia e possui uma equipe principal totalmente comprometida de cerca de três a cinco pessoas firmemente comprometidas com o estabelecimento da rede? Você tem o apoio de seus superiores? Houve a identificação de uma série de stakeholders apoiando a sua concepção? Existem aliados que poderiam ser de valor estratégico para a rede? Foi reservada uma quantidade razoável de tempo para o estabelecimento da rede? Você possui a competência técnica necessária na equipe principal para a área na qual sua rede pretende atuar? O seu planejamento dos recursos é realista? Há fundos suficientes para o estabelecimento da rede? Há interesse de organizações públicas ou privadas em apoiar a rede?Quantas dessas questões podem ser respondidas com SIM? Se a maioria não puder ser respondida com um claro SIM, você deveria honestamente considerar se realmente faria sentido o estabelecimento desta rede. Pode ser melhor desistir da idéia e ir em busca de algo diferente, como um projeto específico ou uma comunidade informal de prática.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisVocê passou pelo teste na seção 3.1 e ainda está convencido de que estabelecer uma rede é uma excelente idéia? Caso positivo, então já deu os primeiros passos importantes para o estabelecimento de uma rede. Entretanto, ainda há um longo caminho a ser percorrido.O próximo passo será preparar uma proposta. Isto o forçará a repensar através da concepção da rede de uma forma sistemática, identificar as lacunas, tomar decisões, concentrar-se nas atividades e a avaliar a disponibilidade dos recursos. A elaboração da proposta será um processo importante na união de uma equipe principal comprometida com o projeto. Finalmente, a proposta será útil na comunicação da idéia, conquistando patrocinadores potenciais da rede e assegurando a aceitação por parte dos participantes potenciais, dos tomadores de decisão e de outros stakeholders.A seção seguinte descreve os elementos mais importantes de uma proposta de rede. Subseqüentemente são explicados os aspectos cruciais do tipo de composição necessária para construir uma proposta de rede. Haverá também mais informações detalhadas sobre todos os aspectos deste processo em outras seções deste guia.A proposta da rede deverá fornecer informações curtas e concisas sobre todos os aspectos relevantes da rede. Uma boa proposta de rede deve consistir de não mais de 15 páginas e deve incluir os elementos descritos abaixo.A maioria dos leitores da sua proposta não terá muito tempo de estudá-la. Você terá que atrair a atenção desses leitores com um resumo executivo de cerca de uma página que forneça uma visão geral curta da rede planejada e de como ela contribuirá para os objetivos dos tomadores de decisão. Nesta seção da proposta, a concepção da rede esboçada no respectivo documento deve ser apresentada com maiores detalhes. É esta seção que determinará se você conquistará o apoio para a rede ou não.Comece com uma descrição dos desafios nas áreas em que a rede estará ativa. Exemplos de tais desafios seriam a falta de coordenação entre as organizações trabalhando na mesma área temática, a duplicação de trabalho, ou a repetição de erros. Depois você deveria mostrar quais participantes potenciais e stakeholders a rede teria como alvo e quais seriam as suas demandas ou necessidades.Com base nesta análise, no objetivo geral descreva como a rede contribuirá para superar esses desafios e satisfazer tais demandas. Depois dê detalhes do objetivo geral com objetivos precisos descrevendo o que a rede gostaria de alcançar. Seja o mais específico possível.Mais adiante, isto ajudará a definir as áreas das atividades principais da rede. Os exemplos poderiam ser os seguintes: criar maiores possibilidades de interação, tais como grupos de discussões por e-mail para assistência mais específica, organizar conferências objetivando informar uma audiência mais ampla, sensibilizar os tomadores de decisão, realizar programas conjuntos de pesquisas para lidar com assuntos irresolutos, aumentar o acesso a informações técnicas e a notícias, criar um panorama melhor de especialistas trabalhando em campo, ou formar grupos para influenciar o diálogo político.Trabalhar em rede em si não é o suficiente. Nesta seção você deveria também apresentar alguns serviços e projetos concretos que a rede lançará quando começar a funcionar. Finalmente, mostre por que a rede é realmente uma idéia nova e única em sua área, e explique o valor agregado da nova rede tanto quanto o resultado e impacto esperado.Para o estabelecimento de uma rede bem-sucedida, uma equipe principal de três a cinco membros é crucial. O estabelecimento de uma rede envolve muito trabalho e, sendo assim, é preciso uma boa equipe Esta seção da proposta de rede deveria descrever resumidamente como a organização, o gerenciamento e a comunicação na rede serão realizados. Os seguintes assuntos deveriam ser abordados (F seções 5 e 6).n Estrutura internacional e sub-redes regionais (se necessário).n Organograma com presidente, diretoria, secretária executiva.n Local e organização das funções da secretaria.n Status legal da rede.n Divisão do trabalho e tomada de decisões.n Quadro de membros e membros mais importantes.n Meios mais importantes de comunicação interna (ex.: reuniões, intranet, e-mail) e comunicação externa (ex: folhetos, website, eventos). n Promoção de rede: stakeholders mais importantes.Embora os cronogramas em sua grande maioria fiquem ultrapassados tão logo estejam prontos, seria errado presumir que não sejam necessários. Pelo contrário, um cronograma é um meio importante para orientar a equipe principal durante o funcionamento da rede. Uma proposta de rede deveria incluir um cronograma realista. Primeiramente, identifique os passos mais importantes na formação da rede e faça um resumo destes em cerca de sete pacotes de trabalho. Alinhe os pacotes de trabalho de acordo com uma linha de tempo e considere o caminho crítico. Algumas atividades deverão ser realizadas antes do início de outras. Mostre a seqüência e as dependências em um diagrama e marque a finalização de cada pacote de trabalho com um marco (milestone), de forma a poder avaliar as conquistas.Estruturar redes sempre consome mais tempo do que você espera. Tente desenvolver um cronograma realista calculando o tempo necessário para cada atividade, levando em consideração longas ausências dos participantes da equipe principal, férias, prazos para entrega de propostas, ou fases de arrecadação de fundos. Um cronograma realista não somente ajudará na estruturação da rede, mas mostrará também aos contribuintes potenciais, aos tomadores de decisão e a outros stakeholders que você planejou o estabelecimento da rede de uma forma cuidadosa.Sugerimos o número \"sete\" por diversas vezes nesse guia. Basicamente, isto é apenas uma sugestão prática baseada em experiência e numa boa regra prática para estruturar planos de um projeto, atividades, listas de verificação ou apresentações.Para uma explicação mais detalhada desta sugestão, consulte o documento clássico de George Miller \"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two\", publicado em 1956. Miller descobriu que a maioria das pessoas tinha dificuldades em lidar com mais de sete, mais ou menos duas, unidades de informações.O estabelecimento de uma rede é um esforço arriscado que com muita freqüência é malsucedido. Desta forma, uma proposta de rede deve refletir suas suposições fundamentais e considerar os riscos correspondentes que envolvem tal estabelecimento, tais como: a desinte-Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais gração da equipe principal, insuficiência de recursos, esmorecimento do entusiasmo inicial, ou o estabelecimento ao mesmo tempo de uma rede similar.Uma forma prática de avaliar os riscos no estabelecimento de uma nova rede é a realização de uma simples análise de vulnerabilidade que inclua três cenários:n Cenário de melhor caso: mostrando o que pode ser alcançado se todas as oportunidades são realizadas e as expectativas positivas satisfeitas.n Cenário de caso normal: descrevendo o desenvolvimento previsto da rede sob circunstâncias normais.n Cenário de pior caso: mostrando o que poderia acontecer se os seus piores pesadelos se tornassem verdadeiros: nem mesmo as expectativas básicas são satisfeitas, não há recursos disponíveis, pessoas negligenciando suas promessas, ou sua idéia é roubada por alguém que não esteja disposto a trabalhar com você.Com base nesses cenários, a proposta de rede deveria mostrar como você planeja lidar com os riscos.Finalmente, a proposta da rede deve mostrar como ela será financiada. Este plano financeiro também servirá como uma verificação da realidade e esclarecerá o que é e o que não é possível.Em primeiro lugar, deve haver um cálculo dos recursos financeiros necessários para a rede. De forma geral, toda rede precisará de fundos básicos para sua secretaria, para a infra-estrutura, como websites ou banco de dados, e para serviços e atividades principais tais como reuniões regulares ou oficinas. Além disso, o provimento de recursos será necessário para projetos específicos ou programas iniciados pela rede e seus membros.Em segundo lugar, a proposta da rede tem que demonstrar as fontes dos provimentos de recursos: quem irá contribuir e com quanto. As despesas podem ser cobertas pelas contribuições dos participantes da rede, por taxas de filiação, ou através do apoio de organizações públicas ou patrocinadores privados.1. Introdução 29Os recursos necessários e as fontes dos provimentos de recursos devem ser resumidos em um plano financeiro que mostre como a rede financiará seus serviços e atividades durante um período de cerca de cinco anos.Lista de verificações 2: Elementos básicos de uma proposta de rede  Resumo executivo. executivo. executivo. Concepção da rede: objetivo geral, objetivos específicos, atividades e impacto. Equipe principal. principal. Organização. Cronograma. Avaliação de risco. de risco. risco. Provimento de recursos. de recursos. recursos.Em geral, redigir a proposta final da rede será somente a parte que menos consumirá tempo do processo total de elaboração! Deve-se dar muito mais importância e dedicar maior esforço na reunião das informações necessárias e a formação dos relacionamentos com participantes potenciais, patrocinadores, tomadores de decisão e outros stakeholders.Um passo muito importante que não deve ser negligenciado é o desenvolvimento e o fortalecimento da equipe principal a fim de poderem trabalhar de uma forma efetiva e eficiente. No começo, vale a pena fornecer tempo e oportunidades suficientes para socialização e para que todos se conheçam. Planeje uma reunião em um lugar agradável durante um fim de semana ou providencie almoços ou jantares para todos.Vocês deveriam aproveitar a oportunidade para discutir como gostariam de trabalhar e quais são as expectativas e limitações. O tempo dispensado para o estabelecimento de uma equipe principal dinâmica é umWork the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais bom investimento! A equipe deve ser confiável, servindo de base nas situações difíceis que com certeza terão que enfrentar enquanto estiverem elaborando a rede.Tenha em mente que você não é o primeiro a estabelecer uma nova rede e tente aprender com os outros. A forma mais eficaz de se aprender é fazer com que a equipe principal visite a secretaria ou os membros de outras redes. Na maioria dos casos, eles ficarão muito felizes em compartilhar com vocês os desafios enfrentados, em discutir como superaram os problemas e em dar conselhos importantes e outras informações úteis. Outras redes também poderão servir como modelos para a organização da rede e ajudá-los a encontrar a estrutura certa para a sua própria rede. A maior parte das redes fornece uma quantidade grande de informações pela Internet sobre suas visões, missões, metas, objetivos, estruturas organizacionais, fontes de fundos e muito mais. Não hesite em usar esta riqueza de informações.Durante o período em que os detalhes da proposta de rede serão elaborados, a equipe principal deve começar a estabelecer relacionamentos com membros potenciais da rede. Esses contatos são importantes porque ajudarão a aprender mais sobre as necessidades de tais membros potenciais e também sobre o interesse deles em se juntarem a uma rede. Além do mais, os membros potenciais são uma fonte valiosa de idéias, apoio para a rede e no estabelecimento de relacionamentos com tomadores de decisão. Com esses contatos você estará colocando os alicerces para o futuro quadro de membros.Durante a preparação da proposta, você deveria entrar em contato com os stakeholders e com os tomadores de decisão que podem apoiar a rede, abrir portas a outras pessoas ou organizações, ou até mesmo fornecer recursos para a rede. Os tomadores de decisão e outros stakeholders potencialmente úteis podem ser encontrados em administrações governamentais, organizações de desenvolvimento bilaterais e multila- Talvez você tenha a sorte de conseguir os recursos suficientes para as atividades de sua rede com as contribuições dos membros ou através das taxas de filiação. De outra forma, você necessitará de apoio financeiro adicional de organizações públicas e privadas, por exemplo, de governos locais ou regionais, outras organizações governamentais, fundações que oferecem bolsas ou fundos perdidos ou companhias privadas.Tente entender quais são as prioridades dos patrocinadores potenciais e quais seriam os valores agregados a eles. Tenha em mente que eles recebem numerosas solicitações todos os dias. Portanto, você terá que convencê-los dos benefícios da rede. Ser flexível é importante, mesmo mantendo a sua concepção e princípios. Os colaboradores públicos e privados têm seus próprios sistemas para oferecer fundos, períodos de aprovação de recursos e outras exigências. Logo, a proposta para provimento de recursos deve ser sob medida para as diferentes especificações sem a perda dos objetivos da rede. Formar e desenvolver uma equipe principal forte. Aprender com os outros. . Estabelecer relacionamentos com membros potenciais, com os tomadores de decisão e com outros stakeholders. Adaptar a proposta de acordo com os contribuintes públicos e privados potenciais, de forma a se encaixarem com os propósitos da rede.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisForam assegurados recursos suficientes para custear as atividades da rede planejada? Parabéns! Algo a ser celebrado com a equipe principal. Agora vocês podem começar a implementar as idéias desenvolvidas na proposta de rede.A promessa de recursos suficientes para o estabelecimento da rede dará a você e à sua equipe principal um impulso verdadeiro. Não espere muito com as atividades e use este entusiasmo e esta motivação inicial para começar a construir a rede. Tenha em mente que não são só vocês, mas também os membros potenciais, os patrocinadores, parceiros e outros stakeholders que estarão apresentando altas expectativas no começo. Desta forma, informe-os regularmente sobre o progresso.Uma boa idéia na construção da rede é ter uma oficina de início de atividades (F seção 6.2) juntando não somente a equipe principal, mas também membros potenciais, stakeholders e patrocinadores. O objetivo deste evento deve ser o de apresentar a concepção da rede e estabelecer um espírito para a rede. Ao mesmo tempo, esta é uma boa oportunidade para aprender mais sobre as expectativas dos participantes, para coletar feedback, para conseguir saber quais as possíveis contribuições dos participantes da rede e quais serão as suas funções, e explorar as idéias. A oficina deve servir também para desenvolver uma visão, missão e metas comumente compartilhadas.Uma base fundamental para a fase bem-sucedida de início de atividades é a comunicação, a comunicação proativa! É preciso entrar em contato com todas as pessoas relevantes individualmente em uma base regular. Especificamente, na fase de início de atividades, as pessoas gostam de saber como está sendo o progresso. Muitas perguntas têm que ser respondidas, mal-entendidos esclarecidos e expectativas gerenciadas. Tente responder aos e-mails logo que puder -se possível em um ou dois dias. Se não tiver a resposta de imediato, comunique o fato a quem fez O nível de energia e as expectativas são altos durante a fase de início de atividades. Este fato deve ser usado para se iniciar logo uma ou mais atividades concretas ou pequenos projetos, demonstrando assim que a rede está realmente fazendo alguma coisa que satisfaça as necessidades de seus membros (F seção 7.1). Mesmo que sejam mínimas, essas atividades iniciais também ajudarão a aprimorar o foco e a esclarecer o conceito da rede. E finalmente, elas ajudarão a consolidar a comunidade da rede. Aqui, nada funciona melhor do que projetos planejados e implementados em conjunto.Na fase inicial de atividades você deverá também desenvolver um plano de médio prazo, definindo as áreas de ação mais importantes e os programas que a rede irá lançar nos próximos três a cinco anos. Determine responsabilidades claras e prazos para cada atividade planejada.Finalmente, você deve tentar se tornar operacional o mais depressa possível. As atividades importantes são as seguintes:n Acordar uma estrutura de gestão (F seção 5.2)-diretoria, presidente, comitês -organizar os membros n Estabelecer serviços de apoio (F section 5.2.3).-acordar o local da secretaria -organizar a secretaria n Desenvolver um conjunto de regras e regulamentos necessários (F seção 5.2)-registrar a rede legalmente se necessário -acordar e redigir as diretrizes da rede -estabelecer os direitos autoraisWork the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais n Começar a promover a rede e a criar a conscientização (F seção 6.3) -Acordar um logotipo e desenvolver o material promocional,como folhetos -criar um website (F seção 9.1).-elaborar a base de filiação Fazer uso do entusiasmo inicial. Organizar um evento de início de atividades ou uma oficina. CCC: Comunicar, comunicar e comunicar. Começar com algumas atividades concretas. Elaborar um plano de ação de médio prazo. Tornar-se operacional. .A s redes formais buscam efetuar mudanças ou provocar impacto em uma determinada área específica. Os tomadores de decisão na administração pública e na política, em agências de desenvolvimento e em organizações internacionais, nos negócios e na sociedade civil desempenharão um papel crucial nas redes, visto que possuem o poder de tomar decisões para influenciar a agenda política e a implementação.Você disse envolvido, não completamente enrolado...Esta seção descreve quem são os tomadores de decisão, como eles trabalham, quais são os incentivos e as restrições relativas à participação deles, como devem ser abordados e como os relacionamentos são mantidos.Os tomadores de decisão podem ser encontrados em todos os tipos de organizações e instituições. A fim de envolvê-los, é preciso saber como trabalham. Algumas vezes suas equipes de apoio são até mesmo mais importantes para a rede do que eles.De forma geral, os tomadores de decisão são pessoas que trabalham em organizações em nível executivo, tendo a autoridade para tomar as decisões em suas áreas de competência. Exemplos de tomadores de decisão são os diretores administrativos, secretárias executivas, diretores executivos, secretários gerais ou altos funcionários em grandes organizações.Dependendo de suas posições e funções, gerentes operacionais e especialistas técnicos também podem atuar como importantes tomadores de decisão. Eles preparam decisões políticas, sugerem temas para ação e, em especial, fornecem bastante espaço para manobras durante a implementação.Para assegurar o envolvimento dos tomadores de decisão, temos que entender o seu ambiente de trabalho e suas operações diárias.O trabalho diário dos tomadores de decisão envolve reuniões freqüentes, trabalho em rede informal, fornecendo comentários sobre assuntos políticos, tomando ou atrasando decisões, conseguindo apoio para iniciativas ou preservando o poder. Portanto, pode ser difícil ter acesso a eles e obter uma entrevista. Os tomadores de decisão possuem um status que lhes proporciona poder e influência. Ao mesmo tempo, na maioria das vezes não podem tomar as decisões de forma independente, já que estão inseridos em uma densa rede de relacionamentos e dependências, ficando expostos às lutas para a detenção do poder. Seus superiores e grupos de interesse tentam forçar suas idéias e usar suas influências sobre eles. Os tomadores de decisão estarão interessados em mostrar resultados alcançados com o objetivo de assegurarem suas posições.Em geral, os tomadores de decisão possuem um excelente acesso às informações, um bem que eles também utilizam estrategicamente: liberarão ou reterão as informações seletivamente e de acordo com seus interesses.Além disso, as fontes de informações dos tomadores de decisão, tais como oponentes, grupos de interesse, superiores ou suas equipes podem filtrar ou reter as informações estratégicas. Desta forma, com freqüência as informações recebidas são filtradas. O que também pode influenciar negativamente os tomadores de decisão é a insegurança sobre a validade e confiabilidade das informações de oponentes.Além do mais, os tomadores de decisão muitas vezes sofrem com a sobrecarga de informações. Como muitos tomadores de decisão são generalistas ao invés de especialistas técnicos, torna-se difícil para eles selecionar informações importantes e avaliar a qualidade das mesmas. Conseqüentemente, angariar a confiança de suas equipes técnicas é de máxima importância.A equipe de apoio, a equipe júnior e os funcionários constituem uma parte importante na persuasão que exercem sobre os tomadores de decisão no que se refere a apoiarem as redes, encontrando e filtrando as informações úteis, fornecendo feedback e preparando discursos e relatórios. Eles também conhecem as agendas dos tomadores de decisão, seus pontos fortes e fracos, tanto quanto a melhor forma de abordá-los.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisAs redes devem se esforçar para estabelecer bons relacionamentos com esses pontos de abordagens valiosos relativos aos tomadores de decisão e incluí-los ativamente em seus trabalhos. Os gerentes de rede têm que estar cientes de que esses funcionários com freqüência ficam sobrecarregados, visto que estão totalmente envolvidos nas atividades febris dos tomadores de decisão.O envolvimento dos tomadores de decisão com as redes deve levar em conta o interesse das duas partes. Primeiramente, visto que elas procuram induzir mudanças de política, as redes têm que ser percebidas como atraentes e interessantes pelo tomador de decisão. Em segundo lugar, o tomador de decisão precisa que a rede ganhe acesso às informações, mas os recursos podem ser limitados, tais como tempo e financiamento, na obtenção de todas as vantagens pela sua participação.Bom gerenciamento, transparência e confiança são as características mais importantes que tornam as redes atraentes para os tomadores de decisão.O bom gerenciamento não é só importante para o sucesso da rede; é também de alta prioridade para os tomadores de decisão e seus colaboradores. Eles só participarão de redes que sejam gerenciadas de forma clara e profissional, por uma equipe comprometida (F seções 5 e 6).A transparência das redes é uma pré-condição para convencer os tomadores de decisão a se envolverem. Essas pessoas precisam ser capazes de compreender rapidamente a visão, missão e finalidade da rede. Elas também precisam saber como a rede é organizada, quem está envolvido, quem tem quais influências e quem custeia suas atividades.A confiança é o lubrificante básico para o trabalho em rede e o compartilhamento de informações. Os tomadores de decisão só se envolverão 4. Envolver os Tomadores de Decisão nas redes se puderem confiar nelas. Logo, você deve se esforçar para estabelecer relacionamentos de confiança com tais pessoas. Uma organização transparente, com gerenciamento eficiente bem como comunicações confiáveis e consistentes dará apoio a isto.Uma forma eficiente de construir a confiança é a de envolver personalidades de prestígio amplamente reconhecido que compartilhem da missão da rede. Como Membros Honorários ou como membros de um Comitê de Patronos, essas personalidades não estarão envolvidas ativamente nos negócios diários da rede, mas suas reputações contribuirão para o prestígio da rede.O que faz os tomadores de decisão participarem das redes? Primeiramente, é importante entender que há graus diferentes de envolvimento para os tomadores de decisão. Em segundo lugar, a maioria deles -ou suas equipes designadas -só se envolverão com as redes se perceberem que há benefícios pessoais para eles. Em terceiro lugar, essas pessoas e suas equipes também precisam de recursos, tais como tempo e provimento de fundos, para participarem nas redes, por exemplo, juntando-se em fóruns de debates por e-mail ou comparecendo a conferências.Os tomadores de decisão estão envolvidos nas redes de várias maneiras. Com freqüência, eles não têm ou não alocam tempo para um envolvimento direto em atividades. Eles também ficam hesitantes em se exporem, visto que suas declarações são sempre interpretadas como declarações em nome das organizações para as quais trabalham, ou seus comentários estão sempre associados com uma agenda política.No entanto, os tomadores de decisão podem indiretamente ficar envolvidos em uma rede seguindo passivamente as discussões por e-mail, participando ocasionalmente em oficinas ou conferências, ou fazendo parte das diretorias consultivas. Por último, os tomadores de decisão podem participar das redes através de suas equipes, enviando-as a reuniões e oficinas ou designando-as a participarem dos grupos de discussão, fornecendo e obtendo informações, facilitando os debates, ou até mesmo administrando a secretaria da rede.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisOs tomadores de decisão têm no recebimento de um valor agregado o mais forte incentivo para devotarem parte de seu tempo com as redes ou designar suas equipes a fazê-lo. Alguns tomadores de decisão podem participar das redes por razões altruísticas ou apenas sem nenhum interesse pessoal, mas em geral, só participarão da rede se receberem algum benefício.Para o envolvimento dos tomadores de decisão, os gerentes ou facilitadores de redes devem se esforçar para identificar um denominador comum entre os objetivos da rede e os objetivos dos tomadores de decisão bem como aproveitar as metas sobrepostas como um ponto de partida.A formação de uma rede e a geração de um retorno do investimento levam bastante tempo, e os tomadores de decisão sabem disso. Ainda assim, os gerentes e facilitadores de redes devem regularmente lembrar aos tomadores de decisão deste fato e explicar por que isto acontece.As vantagens mais importantes fornecidas pelas redes aos tomadores de decisão são: conseguir acesso a informações e a know-how, aumentar a rede pessoal de alguém e estabelecer parcerias. Outras vantagens também são evidentes embora nem sempre sejam mencionadas.Um dos mais fortes incentivos para se tornar envolvido em redes é a obtenção de acesso a informações, know-how e novas idéias que possam ser valiosas para o trabalho dos tomadores de decisão. Desta forma, as redes têm um papel importante na coleta, filtragem, validação, acessibilidade e disseminação das informações de boa qualidade para os tomadores de decisão. Dados técnicos, informações e know-how. Experiências e boas práticas. e boas práticas. práticas. Notícias, tendências e informações sobre eventos, oficinas e conferências. Informações sobre participantes da rede e peritos. Serviços da rede. da rede. da rede. rede. rede. Atividades e projetos em andamento. Adquirir uma percepção sobre o que os outros fazem e pensam.Os tomadores de decisão não vão reaver todas as informações da mesma forma. As informações técnicas serão recuperadas principalmente através da equipe de apoio. As informações mais \"suaves\", como percepção do que os outros fazem e pensam ou novas idéias e opções alternativas para ação, serão obtidas durante as oficinas ou conferências.Muitos tomadores de decisão gostariam de se envolver em redes porque isto lhes proporciona uma oportunidade única de conhecer pessoas e ampliar suas redes pessoais. Bons relacionamentos entre colegas trabalhando dentro de uma organização, tanto quanto com outros profissionais, amigos e parentes, estão entre os recursos mais valiosos para um trabalho efetivo e eficiente.Em especial, reuniões regulares ou a participação em oficinas e conferências organizadas pelas redes fornecem oportunidades excelentes para que os tomadores de decisão formem e cultivem suas próprias redes pessoais. Ao mesmo tempo, esses eventos fornecem boas ocasiões para que os gerentes da rede ou participantes da mesma entrem em contato direto com os responsáveis pelas decisões.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisAs redes são catalisadoras para a formação e a manutenção das redes pessoais. São também uma forma exclusiva e informal de colaborar ou de formar sociedades com outras organizações governamentais em nível local, nacional ou regional, com empresas privadas, com ONGs ou com academias. Na composição da rede, os tomadores de decisão das instituições governamentais podem encontrar uma plataforma que possibilite a interação com partes externas, tais como ONGs, de maneira mais informal do que em reuniões estruturadas.O acesso a informações validadas e ao conhecimento através das redes capacita os tomadores de decisão a trabalharem objetivando suas metas. Uma rede pode dar aos tomadores de decisão argumentos fortes para discussões políticas. Se eles puderem afirmar que suas opiniões não representam somente a si próprios, mas também a opinião de todos os filiados da rede, isto dará muito maior peso e poder de persuasão a seus argumentos.Um tomador de decisão está sempre procurando evidências e argumentos para justificar suas decisões e ações perante os vários stakeholders. Participando nas redes, os tomadores de decisão ficam sabendo o que os outros estão fazendo, como estão pensando e quais são suas percepções. Isto os ajuda a construírem suas estratégias de comunicação. Citando os investimentos das organizações parceiras ou apontando padrões desenvolvidos por uma rede, eles podem justificar suas ações. O efeito é bem conhecido: muitas pessoas estão mais propensas a aceitar determinada idéia se esta já tiver sido aceita por muitos outros.Em muitas redes não há a filiação formal ou os deveres e implicações formais para a filiação são limitados. Isto é uma vantagem para os tomadores de decisão, porque eles podem participar de uma rede e ao mesmo tempo se manter independentes. Tais redes não ameaçam as organizações tradicionais, mais hierárquicas e estruturadas nas quais os tomadores de decisão trabalham. Entretanto, esta independência também significa que as decisões tomadas em conjunto pelos partici-4. Envolver os Tomadores de Decisão pantes da rede não são obrigatórias para os tomadores de decisão a menos que sejam feitas por escrito em um acordo formal.As redes oferecem aos tomadores de decisão uma plataforma para discutir novas idéias ou iniciativas. Desta forma, as redes também servem como base de teste e para a realização de verificações da realidade antes de os tomadores de decisão irem a público com suas idéias.Grupos de discussão por e-mail ou e-mails bilaterais são boas formas de obter-se feedback informal de observadores em um período curto. Entretanto, é melhor testar idéias mais sensíveis em palestras informais durante as reuniões ou oficinas ou em reuniões fechadas.Os tomadores de decisão estão ligados às suas organizações e à disponibilidade de seus recursos pessoais e financeiros, muitas vezes escassos. As redes podem servir como multiplicadoras, visto que são capazes de reunir recursos de diferentes parceiros de rede para a realização de soluções comuns ou para o lançamento de projetos ou iniciativas em conjunto.Geralmente, é difícil para os tomadores de decisão saber o grau de sucesso de suas organizações, e como seus trabalhos se classificariam em eficiência e eficácia. As redes podem ajudar os tomadores de decisão a compararem seus trabalhos com o trabalho de outros de maneira informal e ver como seus esforços estão sendo percebidos. Este processo de comparação informal dá aos tomadores de decisão sugestões sobre os melhoramentos necessários.Através da participação nas redes, os tomadores de decisão podem melhorar seu prestígio. Este será especialmente o caso se uma rede tiver uma boa reputação pública.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisOs tomadores de decisão também podem receber benefícios pessoais não diretamente relacionados a seus trabalhos, através da participação nas redes. Por exemplo, eles podem desfrutar do atraente ambiente no qual uma conferência ou oficina está sendo realizada. As conferências realizadas especialmente em locais atraentes, ficam com a freqüência totalmente lotada. As reuniões e eventos da rede também são bem apreciados como uma mudança da rotina diária.Esses benefícios pessoais contribuem para a motivação não somente dos tomadores de decisão, mas também de todos os membros da rede.A criação de uma atmosfera positiva de trabalho é uma parte importante da rede, e os gerentes da rede deveriam prestar atenção a isto. Obter acesso a informações e know-how. Ampliar redes pessoais. Facilitar parcerias. Obter o poder da persuasão. Estar envolvido permanecendo independente. Testar novas idéias e soluções inovadoras. Multiplicar recursos. Comparar desempenhos com outras organizações ou instituições. Prestígio pessoal melhorado. Benefícios pessoais.Os tomadores de decisão não somente precisam distinguir os benefícios que possam obter pela participação nas redes, eles também necessitam de tempo e de fundos para participarem delas. Ambos os recursos são escassos para os tomadores de decisão. Eles só participarão se isto for percebido como uma prioridade sobre outros compromissos, o que significa que eles têm realmente que ser convencidos dos benefícios da rede.Dependendo do país e do status, o provimento de fundos da organização para participação pode também ser um fator limitador do envolvimento dos tomadores de decisão nas redes. Em alguns países, ainda é difícil levantar fundos necessários para se usar a Internet ou comparecer a reuniões, oficinas e conferências. Desta forma, as redes podem ter que cobrir uma parte das despesas para a participação dos tomadores de decisão.O envolvimento dos tomadores de decisão nas redes exige relacionamentos pessoais que sejam baseados em um bom entendimento das preferências de cada um. Uma vez que você tenha estabelecido relacionamentos confiáveis, eles devem ser continuamente cultivados.Envolver os tomadores de decisão em uma rede é uma escolha estratégica. Antes de os abordar, você tem que decidir o que quer alcançar. Eles poderão fornecer o provimento de fundos para a sua rede, abrir portas, dar conselhos temáticos ou contribuir com seus nomes para o prestígio da rede.O contato com os tomadores de decisão meramente enviando um email, geralmente não funciona. Eles recebem muitos e-mails por dia e têm que ser muito seletivos ao lê-los e respondê-los. Haverá também relutância em responder e-mails de pessoas que eles não conheçam.A melhor abordagem é entrar em contato através de uma carta formal e educada e de um telefonema posterior de acompanhamento.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisOs tomadores de decisão também podem ser contatados informalmente durante oficinas ou conferências. Às vezes pode ser apropriado encontrar um mensageiro ou um intermediário, alguém que conheça o tomador de decisão e que possa fazer as apresentações. Por último, a equipe de apoio poderá fornecer um ponto de entrada para os tomadores de decisão.Uma vez estabelecido o contato, e se o tomador de decisão estiver disposto a receber o representante da rede, uma reunião presencial deve ser realizada, se possível junto com o intermediário. Nesta primeira reunião, deverão estar presentes e se apresentarem os representantes de alto nível da rede. A missão, os objetivos, as atividades e os serviços da rede deverão ser explicados de uma forma concisa.A primeira reunião deve ser usada para explorar cuidadosamente os interesses e as necessidades do responsável pelas decisões, apresentar argumentos convincentes para o envolvimento e demonstrar o valor agregado da rede.Finalmente, você deve examinar tipos práticos de possíveis envolvimentos, por exemplo, os membros da diretoria, um comitê de patrocinadores ou um comitê consultivo. Entretanto, pode ser que o tomador de decisão prefira que somente sua equipe de apoio ou seus funcionários graduados tenham participação ativa na rede.  Saiba que tipo de contribuição para os objetivos da rede você quer para os tomadores de decisão. Estabeleça contato com o tomador de decisão considerando as exigências formais necessárias:-Escrever uma carta formal, -Entrar em contato com ele de maneira informal durante uma oficina ou conferência, -Encontrar um mediador ou um abridor de portas que conheça o tomador de decisão e que esteja disposto a apresentá-lo a você, ou -Entrar em contato com a equipe de apoio do tomador de decisão que possa atuar como abridor de portas. Providencie a primeira reunião com o tomador de decisão. Planeje cuidadosamente o follow-up.Os relacionamentos com os tomadores de decisão devem ser cultivados continuamente, a fim de que eles possam desenvolver o direito de propriedade da missão e das atividades da rede. Relacionamentos bem administrados com tais pessoas asseguram o apoio público e institucional necessário, proporcionam o acesso a relacionamentos adicionais e formam uma base mais ampla de provimento de recursos, ajudando desta forma a alcançar os objetivos da rede. Então, para as redes vale a pena administrar os relacionamentos com os tomadores de decisão de maneira sistemática e coordenada. Os sete princípios seguintes são essenciais para a manutenção dos relacionamentos.Manter bons relacionamentos com os tomadores de decisão exige uma boa compreensão de seus comportamentos, interesses, necessidades e prioridades, e de suas disponibilidades. As redes devem se aproximarWork the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais de tais pessoas com a atitude de quem quer aprender, começando um diálogo, tentando identificar suas necessidades e desenvolvendo serviços sob medida com o valor agregado real para tais tomadores de decisão. Com freqüência será mais apropriado preparar um resumo breve da política para um tomador de decisão ao invés de um relatório longo que possa terminar acumulando poeira em prateleiras ou servindo como prendedor de portas. Tenha em mente que as agendas políticas e as alianças mudam o tempo todo e que o aprendizado será contínuo.Há maior probabilidade de os tomadores de decisão sentirem seu \"ownership\" 1 de uma rede quando perceberem que estão integrados nos seus processos de tomadas de decisões e que suas idéias e sugestões são apreciadas e levadas a sério. Portanto, você deve encorajá-los a fazerem comentários e sugestões. Isto pode acontecer sob forma de consultoria ao incluí-los em um grupo de trabalho já existente ou em um comitê consultivo, ou até mesmo solicitando que eles sugiram grupos de trabalho ou outras atividades para temas específicos. Mesmo que eles não respondam -e com freqüência este pode ser o caso -eles deveriam ao menos receber os documentos e os relatórios.Redes formais bem-sucedidas trazem mudanças dentro de um setor ou região, que podem vir acompanhadas de um pouco de insegurança por parte dos membros ou de outros. As relações de poder mudam, e alguns stakeholders podem sentir a perda ou o ganho do poder. Essas mudanças muitas vezes criam medo e resistência. Somente nos melhores casos é que as redes são capazes de criar uma situação \"win-win\", de tal forma que todas as partes envolvidas se beneficiem com as mudanças.Envolver os tomadores de decisão nesses processos de mudanças logo de início, pelo menos reduzirá a probabilidade de atritos.A equipe de apoio ou os funcionários graduados desempenham papéis importantes no envolvimento dos tomadores de decisão. Em algumas 4. Envolver os Tomadores de Decisão situações pode ser apropriado posteriormente desenvolver um acordo geral para colaboração com o tomador de decisão e elaborar o modo de colaboração e os passos concretos com a equipe de apoio ou com os funcionários graduados. Entretanto, neste caso, você tem que se certificar de que os tomadores de decisão sejam mantidos atualizados com breves explicações.Os tomadores de decisão são freqüentemente generalistas e não possuem um conhecimento técnico profundo. Então os jargões técnicos ou os longos relatórios devem ser evitados. E-mails, cartas e documentos devem ser redigidos em um estilo apropriado: uma linguagem simples e concisa evitando-se abreviações e gírias técnicas tornando-a atraente para ser lida.Para que a comunicação flua bem em redes e em grupos de discussão por e-mail é necessária uma facilitação habilidosa, ativa e cuidadosa (F seção 8.3). Caso contrário, haverá a probabilidade de se tornar desestruturada, repetitiva e confusa, ou pode até vir a parar completamente. Mesmo que os tomadores de decisão não contribuam ativamente com o grupo de discussão por e-mail, eles poderão segui-las passivamente, e a forma como serão facilitadas influenciará suas impressões com relação à rede.Para a manutenção de um relacionamento confiável, você deverá se encontrar pessoalmente com os tomadores de decisão uma ou duas vezes por ano. Caso contrário, o relacionamento tenderá a enfraquecer e mais cedo ou mais tarde chegará ao fim. Esses contatos regulares com os tomadores de decisão podem consumir bastante tempo para os gerentes da rede, mas são indispensáveis.As reuniões com os tomadores de decisão serão mais bem-sucedidas se forem preparadas profissionalmente com antecedência (F seção 6.2). Reúna as informações necessárias, formule por escrito os objetivos a serem alcançados e anote os assuntos a serem tratados. Leve todos os materiais contendo as informações e mantenha-se rigidamen-Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais te ao que foi programado. Se você tiver com antecedência uma idéia clara de como será a reunião, terá grande probabilidade de conseguir o que quiser.Entre as reuniões, a informação regular, em forma de newsletters ou emails ocasionais, ajudará a manter os tomadores de decisão atualizados com a rede.Um relacionamento terá maior duração se tiver além da conotação técnica uma conotação pessoal também. Portanto, as redes devem estabelecer e cultivar os relacionamentos pessoais com os tomadores de decisão. É essencial que durante as reuniões, oficinas ou conferências haja tempo suficiente e espaço para a socialização e reuniões informais. Boas ocasiões para uma socialização são os almoços ou jantares ou a divisão das longas reuniões e oficinas durante um período de dois dias a fim de que os participantes tenham a oportunidade de se encontrar informalmente à noite. Os tomadores de decisão também apreciam cartas de agradecimento, cartões de aniversário, palavras de agradecimento em conferências ou menções a seu respeito nos relatórios anuais.Para manter e cultivar os relacionamentos com e entre os tomadores de decisão, os facilitadores ou gerentes das redes também podem criar espaços privados por duas razões: compartilhar e desenvolver idéias potencialmente conflituosas e aprender com os erros ou falhas. Isto não tem nada a ver com conspiração, mas é uma forma prática de reagir ao ambiente em que os tomadores de decisão estão vivendo. Eles têm que ser muito cuidadosos com o que dizem e pesar cada declaração. Como pequenas mudas de plantas, as novas idéias têm que ser às vezes protegidas para florescer.Na maioria dos casos, as novas idéias e iniciativas inovadoras não são desenvolvidas do início, mas seguem um processo típico. Primeiramente, as novas idéias são mencionadas casualmente em discussões informais. Se produzirem uma resposta positiva, um grupo principal de pessoas interessadas realizará reuniões fechadas e formulará as estratégias iniciais. O próximo passo será a formação de alianças com sócios e patrocinadores. Então, somente quando a aliança tiver peso suficiente, a idéia poderá ser anunciada publicamente. As redes podem desempenhar um papel importante neste processo criando espaços privados nos quais os tomadores de decisão possam compartilhar suas idéias ou desenvolver novas de uma forma confidencial sem serem citados no dia seguinte.Uma outra razão para a criação de espaços protegidos para os tomadores de decisão é a necessidade de se aprender com as falhas e com os erros: uma fonte valiosa para novas inspirações. Para isto, entretanto, os aspectos culturais devem ser considerados (F seção 8.4). A maioria das pessoas não gosta de compartilhar de experiências negativas. Em algumas culturas admitir erros significa perder a honra e pode vir a ocasionar drásticas conseqüências. Em outras culturas as pessoas raramente se sentem responsáveis por quaisquer falhas. Além disso, em especial, os tomadores de decisão ficarão relutantes em compartilhar suas falhas ou erros em público por uma questão de status. Entender os tomadores de decisão. Incluir os tomadores de decisão nos processos. Manter a comunicação curta e simples. Facilitar conversas ativamente. conversas ativamente. conversas ativamente. ativamente. ativamente. . Entrar em contato com os tomadores de decisão regularmente. Providenciar tempo suficiente para contatos sociais. Criar espaços reservados. espaços reservados. espaços reservados. reservados. reservados. .T anto a orientação estratégica quanto a estrutura de gestão fornecem à rede foco e direção clara. Esta seção descreve os elementos mais importantes na estrutura estratégica de uma rede formal. Além disso, a estrutura de gestão é descrita com detalhes: i.e. o grau de regionalização, o organograma, a secretaria, os assuntos legais e a filiação.Por favor, visite o meu WEB site...Toda rede precisa de uma orientação estratégica para guiá-la, da sintonia entre todos os participantes, para manter a união da rede ao longo do tempo. A orientação estratégica consiste da visão, da missão, da finalidade e dos objetivos.A visão da rede descreve as esperanças, os sonhos e as imagens compartilhadas dos membros da rede sobre o estado ideal de uma situação ou do mundo em geral.A visão do \"International Forum for Rural Transport and Development\" (IFRTD) é \"acessibilidade melhorada e mobilidade para as comunidades pobres na Ásia, África e América Latina\".A visão da rede \"Streams of Knowledge\" é um \"movimento dinâmico de centros de recursos trabalhando para um mundo limpo e saudável por volta de 2025\".A \"Global Knowledge Partnership\" (GKP) \"tem uma visão de um mundo de oportunidades iguais onde todas as pessoas consigam ter acesso e usar o conhecimento e as informações para melhorar suas vidas\".A declaração de missão descreve resumidamente com o que a rede gostaria de contribuir a fim de que a visão venha a se tornar realidade.A missão do \"International Forum for Rural Transport and Development\" (IFRTD) é \"facilitar e promover a aplicação bem-sucedida de políticas melhoradas, estruturas de planejamento, mecanismos de financiamento e tecnologias.\" A missão da rede \"Streams of Knowledge\" é \"mobilizar uma massa crítica de organizações concentradas no tema da água e do saneamento para acelerar melhorias eqüitativas nesta área\".A missão da \"Global Knowledge Partnership\" é \"promover acesso amplo e uso efetivo de conhecimento e informações como ferramentas do desenvolvimento sustentável eqüitativo. Ela objetiva o compartilhamento de informações, experiências e recursos para aproveitar o potencial das informações e das tecnologias de comunicação (ICT) objetivando melhorar vidas, reduzir a pobreza e conferir mais poder às pessoas\".Quanto à finalidade, a rede descreve em maiores detalhes que tipo de impacto, mudanças a longo prazo e efeitos a rede gostaria de alcançar. Não formule uma finalidade muito extensa. Um máximo entre cinco a sete propósitos é uma regra prática e dará à rede um perfil centrado.n A conscientização do gerenciamento integrado das bacias aumentou, e as bacias estão sendo administradas de uma forma mais sustentável.n A pesca é realizada de uma forma mais sustentável, e os recursos relativos à pesca estão sendo protegidos.n A renda dos habitantes em áreas montanhosas aumentou com a produção profissional e a comercialização do artesanato.Baseado na finalidade da rede você terá que estipular objetivos operacionais específicos, definindo que tipo de resultado ou benefício direto a rede gostaria de alcançar.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisObjetivo Atividades 1) Todos os sócios da rede têm A rede constrói um portal de web acesso a informações de alta poderoso. qualidade.A rede organiza conferências anuais.2) O desenvolvimento sustentável A rede participa ativamente no grupo das regiões montanhosas é o tema de trabalho para a preparação da principal da próxima conferência conferência mundial. mundial sobre sustentabilidade.A rede publica uma chamada pública para ação.3) Os padrões para a pesca Vários sócios da rede iniciam um sustentável são efetivos.projeto comum de pesquisa para a formulação de padrões. Os membros da rede participam de um grupo internacional de trabalho para o estabelecimento de padrões.Estabeleça uma clara distinção entre os objetivos (o que deseja alcançar) e as atividades (o que está realmente sendo feito). De forma clara os objetivos formulados também o ajudarão a monitorar e a avaliar sistematicamente a rede. Para a relação de atividades, produtos, resultados, objetivos, e impactos, consulte também o Quadro Lógico, na seção 6.6.1 sobre monitoramento de resultados.Enquanto formulava a idéia e a proposta da rede, você já conheceu algumas redes similares ou organizações e identificou onde a rede gostaria de causar impacto. É muito importante que o posicionamento da rede seja tão específico quanto possível.Para a formulação da sua missão e finalidade, talvez seja necessária novamente a análise do contexto. Que tipo de informação e de conhecimento é realmente necessário? O que já há de disponível e o que outras redes estão fazendo? Onde há falta de conhecimento?Os membros da rede deveriam também identificar as áreas temáticas nas quais tenham pontos fortes especiais em comparação com outras Ainda assim esta regra prática pode aprisionar as redes com paradoxos. Para serem efetivas, elas têm que se concentrar em uma área específica, mas desde o início os filiados da rede trazem uma ampla variedade de interesses. Além disso, os tomadores de decisão, os stakeholders ou contribuintes podem tentar forçar a rede a abraçar áreas temáticas mais amplas ou a adotar outros assuntos. Alguns podem até tentar desviar as redes de seus próprios objetivos. As redes podem também cair vítimas de uma compreensão errada das abordagens sustentáveis, integradas e gerais, desta forma perdendo claramente o foco e estabelecendo objetivos impossíveis de serem obtidos de uma forma significativa e prática.Encontrar o foco certo será sempre um desafio para as redes. Uma forma prática de alcançar uma melhora do foco é redigir uma lista negativa de atividades que a rede não irá realizar. Há também um teste simples para verificar se a rede está centrada o bastante: se a idéia da rede puder ser explicada em algumas frases simples, mesmo para um estranho, ela está centrada o suficiente.A estrutura de gestão é a espinha dorsal da rede, visto que ela determina seus elementos organizacionais básicos. Não há nenhum gabarito para isto e a estrutura de gestão tem que seguir a orientação estratégica da rede: a estrutura segue a estratégia! Redes internacionais formais exigem sistemas de organização que considerem as dificuldades da colaboração internacional: os membros de uma rede geralmente estão espalhados por todo o mundo, as distâncias para se viajar para reuniões presenciais são longas e estas se tornam caras, os diferentes fusos horários dificultam a comunicação e diferentes culturas com diversos estilos operacionais se encontram. Sob tais circunstâncias, é aconselhável uma estrutura de domínio que seja clara, transparente e simples.As redes formais maiores e internacionais estão espalhadas por vários países e regiões, ou são globais. Quando você criar a rede, terá que decidir qual é o melhor grau de centralização ou descentralização. Há duas opções básicas.n Uma rede centralmente organizada com uma secretaria forte. As ligações entre a secretaria e os membros são muito fortes, mas as ligações entre os membros individuais não são tão fortes.n Uma rede descentralizada com sub-redes regionais que juntas formam a rede global. As ligações dentro e entre as redes regionais são fortes, enquanto que a secretaria atua principalmente como mediadora entre as redes regionais.Entre essas duas opções básicas há muitas formas híbridas de rede. Esses são elementos organizacionais típicos e podem variar de acordo com as práticas locais, as preferências dos membros e a finalidade da rede. O melhor método de descobrir uma estrutura apropriada para sua rede é através da realização de uma oficina com a equipe principal ou com todos os membros. Uma boa maneira de se alcançar uma solução sustentável é primeiramente avaliando as várias alternativas e tomando uma decisão baseada nesta análise.A regionalização também é uma vantagem para a arrecadação de fundos (F seção 6.4.3). Se a rede estiver posicionada também em nível regional, você estará mais perto de contribuintes potenciais públicos e privados. Além do mais, as organizações de desenvolvimento bilateral e multilateral estão cada vez mais canalizando seus fundos para países do Sul. Portanto, as redes regionais terão melhor acesso a tais provimentos de fundos do que as redes globais.Um organograma mostra os elementos estruturais mais importantes de uma rede. De forma geral, uma rede tem vários elementos organizacionais com funções diferentes.Diretoria ou Comitê Diretor liderado Orientação estratégica da rede, por um Presidente controle do trabalho operacional.Fornece aconselhamento para a rede, por exemplo, apoio técnico ou sugestões práticas.Melhora o prestígio da rede.Coordenação da rede e sua administração.Tarefas operacionais eWork the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisMuitas redes internacionais possuem uma diretoria ou um comitê diretor consistindo de representantes dos membros mais importantes ou das sub-redes regionais. As funções da diretoria destinam-se a dar orientação estratégica e a aprovar os planos financeiros, relatórios e programas operacionais. Um presidente com um representante e uma função estratégica lidera a diretoria.As redes geralmente ficam tentadas a aumentar a diretoria, objetivando uma representação muito mais ampla e procurando ligações fortes com os mais importantes stakeholders. Deve-se ter em mente, entretanto, que como resultado o consenso fica mais difícil de ser atingido, as possíveis datas para as reuniões em conjunto são raras e os custos de viagens para as reuniões de diretoria são muito altos. Também, com muita freqüência, somente alguns membros da diretoria realmente participam das reuniões. Isto desvaloriza a diretoria e frustra os participantes das reuniões. Portanto, é aconselhável manter a diretoria pequena.Existem duas outras opções para incluir peritos técnicos ou pessoas com boa reputação. Algumas redes possuem algum tipo de comitê de conselheiros técnicos ou de especialistas apoiando a rede em assuntos técnicos.A fim de ficar em contato com um círculo de stakeholders importantes, um comitê de patrocinadores ou membros honorários, consistindo de pessoas com boa reputação que apóiam a idéia da rede, poderá ser estabelecido. Este comitê, entretanto, não terá função executiva. A participação deste comitê possibilita aos membros demonstrar seu apoio à rede e contribuir para seu prestígio. Eles podem atuar como \"abridores de portas\" para obter acesso a outras organizações ou para arrecadar fundos. A secretaria da rede deve ser mantida pequena, com um mínimo de funcionários. Há três razões para isto: os custos podem ser mantidos dentro de certos limites; é difícil obter recursos para a administração, visto que muitas vezes se espera que estes provenham de taxas de administração (\"overheads\"); e uma pequena secretaria torna o gerenciamento mais fácil. Se a secretaria for demasiadamente ativa, impedirá a entrada de outros membros da rede. Em uma rede, os membros devem arcar com as responsabilidades globais para suas atividades, não a secretaria. Esta é a idéia básica de uma rede! é a idéia básica de uma rede! idéia básica de uma rede! básica de uma rede! básica de uma rede! de uma rede! uma rede! rede! rede! !Tão logo a rede comece a coletar as taxas de filiação ou a arrecadar fundos, seu status legal vira uma questão importante. O provimento de fundos só é fornecido a organizações legalmente registradas. Há duas soluções básicas para isto.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais n A rede poderá ser representada por um membro que atue como o representante legal.n A rede é registrada legalmente.A representação legal por um ou vários membros é amplamente difundida e representa uma forma simples e pragmática de lidar com o registro legal. As propostas para os projetos e programas são entregues pelos membros em nome da rede. Entretanto, as desvantagens deste tipo de representação não devem ser negligenciadas. A organização representando legalmente a rede poderia começar a desempenhar um papel demasiado importante na rede, perturbando o equilíbrio entre seus membros. Os problemas podem ocorrer se a organização que representa legalmente a rede mudar sua estratégia ou entrar em dificuldades. Finalmente, a rede poderá perder recursos valiosos de informações como o banco de dados ou o website se estes pertencerem à organização que a representa legalmente.A outra opção, o registro legal, é mais exigente, visto que a rede tem que se submeter ao processo inteiro do registro legal. Dependendo da lei do país de registro, a abertura legal será aquela de uma organização, uma fundação ou uma associação sem fins lucrativos.Antes de registrar sua rede, vale a pena avaliar cuidadosamente onde as organizações públicas e privadas mais importantes estão localizadas e quais são as suas prioridades geográficas. As redes situadas em países ou regiões que não estejam no foco de contribuintes potenciais terão dificuldades de receber provimento de fundos. Por esta razão algumas redes enfrentando este desafio registraram-se a si próprias em mais de um país. As diretrizes operacionais determinam como a rede é organizada: sua estrutura administrativa, filiação e os mais importantes processos e estruturas.n Estrutura de gestão (F seção 5. Através das redes, muitas informações são coletadas, e produtos de informações, como publicações, websites ou bancos de dados com informações técnicas e registros especializados, são produzidos. A rede pode até desenvolver padrões especiais, especificações -ou criar inovações.Quem é proprietário desses produtos de informações e quem retém os direitos autorais? Essas são questões cruciais que deveriam ser tratadas desde o início da rede. Se os membros usarem esses produtos, padrões ou inovações para seus próprios propósitos sem consultar outros membros, sugirão disputas; portanto, regras claras de propriedade e direitos autorais devem ser estabelecidas.A propriedade dos produtos de informações e dos direitos autorais deve ser combinada desde o início. Em especial, as seguintes questões devem ser respondidas.n Quem é proprietário das publicações da rede? Reproduções são permitidas? Se forem, sob quais pré-condições?n Quem é proprietário do(s) website(s), dos bancos de dados relacionados e de outros bancos de dados da rede? Como as informações fornecidas podem ser usadas?n Quem deveria ter acesso às informações fornecidas no website?n O que acontece ao website, aos bancos de dados, à biblioteca da secretaria se a rede for dissolvida?n Quem é proprietário de outros produtos criados pela rede, por exemplo, software, caixas de ferramentas, mapas, especificações ou patentes?n Quem é proprietário do logotipo da rede e da identidade corporativa?1. Introdução 65As respostas a essas questões deveriam ser que, de forma geral, todas as informações, produtos ou padrões produzidos no interesse ou no nome da rede são de livre acesso para todos os membros da rede e, se possível, para todos os stakeholders. O acesso aberto às informações deve ser a missão básica das redes!No caso dos direitos autorais, você deve levar em conta os regulamentos das organizações públicas. Alguns governos ou instituições governamentais seguem o princípio de que \"dinheiro público produz bens públicos\". Outras organizações podem ter regulamentos específicos que precisam ser considerados também. Então é possível que as publicações financiadas com dinheiro público permaneçam como propriedade da organização. Esses assuntos são mais importantes do que você pensa, e a experiência de algumas redes demonstra que vale a pena clarificá-los com antecedência.Os membros constituem o coração de qualquer rede. O sucesso e a falha dependem de suas motivações e de seus envolvimentos com ela.Uma questão crucial a ser respondida quando do estabelecimento de uma rede é \"quem deverá ser o membro da rede\": indivíduos, organizações, outras redes ou uma combinação de todos os três?n Em redes formais a maioria dos membros normalmente são organizações representadas por um ou mais membros da equipe.n As redes formais também podem ter indivíduos como membros, como especialistas ou tomadores de decisão importantes.n Por último, poderia fazer sentido formar alianças com outras redes e incluí-las como membros.Em muitas redes, o status de filiação é bem livremente definido. Contanto que os membros não tenham que pagar uma taxa ou satisfazer outras exigências formais, o status de filiação não é muito importante.Work the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes FormaisEntretanto, a filiação formal tem muitas vantagens. Todo membro em potencial deve tomar a clara decisão de se filiar ou não. A filiação formal encoraja a participação ativa na rede e o compromisso do compartilhamento de informações. Finalmente, os membros da rede e o seu secretariado sabem quem está realmente fazendo parte dela. Isto facilita a coordenação e a colaboração.Uma filiação formal pode tomar a forma de uma assinatura em uma ficha de filiação, ou no caso de uma organização, um memorando de entendimento entre o membro e a rede.Muitas redes têm tipos de filiação diferentes:n membros regulares ou membros com poderes para votar que têm o direito de participar nos processos de tomadas de decisões bem como o direito a voto e a eleger os membros da diretoria. n membros associados que tomam parte nas atividades de uma rede mas sem o direito de voto. n membros informais que se inscrevem em uma lista de discussões e recebem newsletters. n membros honorários que têm especialmente contribuído para o sucesso da rede.Uma questão enfrentada por muitas redes é a do número de membros. Quantos membros deveriam constituir uma rede? Não há nenhuma resposta para esta questão.No começo a rede não deve forçar essa questão e o número de membros deve ser mantido pequeno. Isto facilitará a colaboração e possibilitará um início mais dinâmico.Posteriormente, toda rede deve considerar os prós e os contras de seu tamanho. Uma rede com numerosos membros tem um amplo alcance.Com muitos membros, entretanto, a familiaridade que cria a confiança e o compromisso poderia ficar perdida. Se uma rede for muito fechada, seu impacto pode ficar restrito e muitos podem ser excluídos do conhecimento e das informações que a rede gera.Uma possibilidade é ter tipos diferentes de filiação, como descrito acima. No final, entretanto, toda a rede tem que encontrar seu próprio equi-5. Estrutura de Gestão da Rede líbrio entre a abertura e a restrição, levando em conta seus mecanismos de gestão e sua estrutura executiva.As redes devem estabelecer critérios claros para tipos diferentes de associação. Alguns desses critérios são fornecidos abaixo:n reputação do membro potencial n contribuição que um membro possa fazer para a rede, isto é, informações e conhecimento, rede social ou provimento de fundos.n capacidade (tempo e provimento de fundos) para participar na rede n histórico da pessoa na área temática da rede n duração do envolvimento na área temática da redeA fim de regulamentar a filiação em uma rede, é aconselhável ter regras cobrindo os seguintes pontos:n deveres e responsabilidades dos membros n direitos de todo membro, por exemplo, votar e ser votado ou participação nos processos de tomadas de decisões, acesso a informações etc.n taxas de filiação (F seção 6.4.2)n sanções ou exclusão de membros em caso de conflito, comportamento insultante, traição e outros comportamentos inaceitáveis.A regra geral para todas as redes deveria ser a de que todos os membros não somente recebam informações da rede, mas que também contribuam para com as suas atividades. Isto é difícil de conseguir e a realidade na maioria das redes -tanto quanto em comunidades de prática ou comunidades eletrônicas -é que alguns dos membros serão sempre menos ativos do que outros.Um simples modelo que demonstre o compromisso dos membros e que possa ser aplicado a muitas diferentes redes e comunidades distingue três camadas. No meio, há a equipe principal, com freqüência o grupo que estabeleceu a rede e se sente responsável por seu destino. OWork the Net -Um Guia de Gerenciamento para Redes Formais próximo círculo compreende os membros que estão envolvidos nas atividades da rede de uma forma operacional e mais passiva. Os contempladores (lurkers) que ficam pairando em círculos externos. Na maioria das vezes, os lurkers não estão diretamente envolvidos nas atividades da rede, mas tenderão a observar o que a rede está fazendo.Figura 3: Grupo principal, membros e aqueles que ficam contemplando (lurkers)Embora não seja aceitável que um membro seja sempre um \"lurker\", deve-se aceitar que há níveis diferentes de compromisso e que pode haver razões para o que parece ser \"um ato de contemplação\". Um membro pode ser mais passivo pela falta de recursos, dificuldades em entender o idioma ou falta de interesse nas atividades correntes. Em uma fase posterior, entretanto, aquela mesma pessoa poderá se tornar mais propensa a fazer valiosas contribuições. A experiência também nos mostra que \"lurkers\" podem servir como importantes elos para outras redes ou organizações.Os diferentes níveis de envolvimento em uma rede, filiados mais fortes e mais fracos, membros ativos e passivos, podem resultar em disputas de poder entre os membros. Em especial, o secretariado e a equipe principal possuem mais poder do que outros membros. Embora isto não possa ser evitado, deve ser feito de forma transparente e discutido se necessário.Uma forma de reduzir a influência e o poder do secretariado ou de alguns membros da rede é o do rodízio de deveres e responsabilidades.1. Introdução 69Algumas redes praticam esse rodízio com sucesso. Outras fracassam por ser muito difícil legar as responsabilidades. O rodízio do secretariado é geralmente um passo muito ambicioso. O que se torna mais realista é o rodízio de certas tarefas como a organização de uma oficina ou conferência anual, a facilitação das comunidades on-line ou a representação da diretoria. Definir tipos de filiação: membro pleno, associado, informal ou honorário. Determinar o número de membros. Definir os critérios para a filiação. Definir as regras de filiação. Aceitar os níveis variados de compromisso. Tentar o rodízio de algumas tarefas e responsabilidades entre os membros da rede.A s redes só atingirão bons resultados se estiverem comprometidas com o gerenciamento profissional. Um gerenciamento efetivo não é complicado. Pelo contrário, tem tudo a ver com tarefas razoavelmente simples.Esta seção descreve os tópicos principais do gerenciamento, como planejamento, organização de reuniões efetivas, promoção da rede, provimento de recursos para a rede, o cultivo de relacionamentos, monitoramento e avaliação, bem como evolução e inovação contínuas.As redes necessitam de um plano operacional que decomponha sua visão, missão e metas globais em objetivos operacionais, serviços e atividades, e projetos, além da inclusão de responsabilidades e de um programa. Este plano operacional ajudará a manter uma noção geral, sendo também uma parte importante do sistema de monitoramento.Quando o plano operacional for estabelecido, é preciso evitar as armadilhas típicas. Objetivos (o que será alcançado em um certo tempo?), atividades (o que vamos fazer para atingir nossos objetivos?) e produção (quais serão os resultados das atividades?) não devem ser confundidos uns com os outros (consulte também a seção 6.6.1). Para cada atividade, um responsável deverá ser designado e uma data de conclusão fixada.Estabeleça seus objetivos, resultados e atividades de uma forma realista e alcançável. Tenha em mente o objetivo global da rede, reflita quais atividades poderiam mais contribuir com o objetivo e selecione algumas atividades essenciais a serem focadas. Concentre seus esforços e não dissipe suas energias em muitas atividades.O plano operacional deve ser atualizado regularmente e revisado por inteiro em colaboração com todos os membros da rede a cada ano.Muitas reuniões são mal preparadas e conduzidas. Isto leva a reuniões longas, resultados insatisfatórios e finalmente a mais reuniões. Aconselhamos que as reuniões da rede sejam preparadas da forma mais cuidadosa possível. Geralmente os participantes têm que voar de todas as partes do mundo, assim será preciso fazer todo o possível para que as reuniões alcancem um máximo de produtividade.Os pontos mais importantes para a preparação e execução das reuniões são resumidos na lista de verificações a seguir.n Preparando a reunião a reunião reunião -Anunciar a data da reunião com bastante antecedência.-Coletar possíveis pontos de discussão dos participantes.-Redigir uma agenda da reunião com antecedência mostrando quanto tempo disponível haverá para cada tópico.-Preparar os documentos com antecedência a fim de que todos possam lê-los antes da reunião.n Conduzindo a reunião a reunião reunião -Guiar a reunião, explicar os procedimentos e resumir as discussões.-Manter o programa. .-Planejar o follow-up para as decisões tomadas definindo tarefas, responsabilidades e datas-limite.-Combinar uma data para a próxima reunião.n Follow-up -Enviar os documentos e apresentações para todos.-Redigir as minutas de todas as reuniões, incluindo tarefas, datas-limite e responsabilidades. Enviar as minutas para cada participante até duas semanas depois da reunião.-Rever regularmente a lista de tarefas.As reuniões e as oficinas são muito mais eficientes e satisfatórias se forem usadas várias técnicas de trabalho, tais como a técnica metaplan, chuva de idéias (brainstorming), assistência ao par, revisão pós-ação, fish bowl, world café ou espaço aberto (open space). Familiarize-se com essas técnicas consultando uma das muitas caixas de ferramentas disponíveis na Internet, lendo um livro sobre os métodos para oficinas ou participando de uma oficina de treinamento (F seção de recursos 10.1).Algumas dessas técnicas são resumidamente descritas a seguir.Assistência ao par é um processo estruturado baseado no respeito mútuo. Uma equipe de pessoas que estão trabalhando em um projeto ou atividade convocam uma reunião ou oficina para procurar feedback e inspirações de pessoas de outras equipes. Primeiramente, eles apresentam o histórico para o projeto deles e suas capacidades. Depois, expressam suas necessidades específicas e exploram, em colaboração com seus pares, novas soluções ou possíveis formas de lidar com os problemas. (Consulte também a descrição de revisões de pares, uma outra técnica, na seção 7.4)A Metaplan é uma técnica para coletar, visualizar e analisar idéias e informações de uma forma participativa durante reuniões e oficinas. Os participantes anotam em fichas suas informações ou idéias de forma legível. Fichas coloridas diferentes podem ser usadas para diferentes questões. As fichas são recolhidas posteriormente e afixadas em painéis. Isto permite que todos leiam as fichas, que então poderão ser agrupadas, colocadas umas em relação às outras ou ligadas com linhas mostrando relacionamentos.Brainstorming é uma abordagem organizada para produzir e coletar idéias. Ela pode ser feita individualmente ou em grupo. Nas sessões de \"brainstorming\" em grupos os participantes são encorajados a compartilhar suas idéias de forma livre uns com os outros (Não há idéias más!). A chave para a brainstorming é não interromper o processo de pensamento com discussão. A coleta e a análise são estritamente separadas. A técnica metaplan pode ser usada para uma análise subseqüente.Uma revisão pós-ação é uma discussão estruturada que capacita as pessoas a serem informadas das atividades ou projetos recentemente completados. Desta discussão participam os stakeholders envolvidos. Eles são informados ao perguntarem o que aconteceu, por que aconteceu, o que deu certo, o que precisa ser melhorado e que lições podem ser aprendidas da experiência. O espírito de uma revisão pós-ação é o de franqueza e aprendizado, não se pretende resolver problemas ou formular críticas. O feedback deve ser construtivo e as contribuições positivas reconhecidas.World Café O World Café é um método de proporcionar a um grupo diverso de pessoas a oportunidade de compartilhar informações e inspirações de assuntos complexos. Os World Cafés podem ser conduzidos on-line ou em um espaço público. Este método é adequado para grandes grupos de pessoas. Uma série de questões são preparadas e documentadas, distribuídas em diversas mesas. Uma toalha de mesa (na qual as pessoas possam escrever) ou grandes blocos de notas são fornecidos em cada mesa. Os grupos são inicialmente direcionados a uma mesa, com certo período de tempo para responder às questões. As pessoas são convidadas a conversar em pequenos grupos particulares sobre temas de interesse. Devem, então, fazer um rodízio para outra mesa e fazer adições às respostas fornecidas pelos grupos anteriores. Quando tiver ocorrido o rodízio final, é realizada uma sessão plenária para criar um senso de ligação com o grupo maior. Isto proporciona ao grupo inteiro uma oportunidade de ligar os temas ou questões globais apresentadas e de conversar sobre a possibilidade de ações adicionais.O Espaço Aberto é um método de se organizar em reuniões, oficinas e conferências. Com o apoio de um facilitador os participantes se organizam e estabelecem e administram suas próprias agendas de sessões operacionais paralelas. O Espaço Aberto é um método apropriado e efetivo de desenvolver estratégias para lidar com conflitos, para induzir a mudança ou para incluir opiniões diversas. O método funciona em grupos de cinco a mil pessoas e pode durar de um a três dias.Fish bowl O fish bowl é uma forma especial de estruturar discussões. As perguntas para as discussões são preparadas e consideradas uma de cada vez. Os participantes do fish bowl são designados para um grupo de escuta ou para um grupo de discussão. Os dois grupos são posicionados discretamente de tal forma que o grupo que escuta ficará sentado ao redor do grupo de discussão. É dado ao primeiro grupo de discussão certo período de tempo para discutir uma questão. Durante a discussão ativa, o grupo de escuta toma notas e prepara comentários. Os grupos então trocam de posições, e o grupo de escuta fornece réplicas ou exames adicionais dos assuntos discutidos e quaisquer outros assuntos não discutidos previamente.Técnica DescriçãoPor todo o mundo, milhares de organizações e instituições, ONGs e redes estão competindo por atenção. Ao mesmo tempo, muitas pessoas estão sofrendo de uma sobrecarga de informações e de conhecimento que mal podem administrar. Alguns profissionais que gerenciam o conhecimento estão até mesmo convencidos de que 'o gerenciamento da atenção' deveria substituir o gerenciamento do conhecimento de tal forma que somente o conteúdo que comanda a atenção será percebido e tratado de acordo. Esta situação tem que ser respondida através da promoção profissional e dirigida da sua rede.Para promover sua rede, uma estratégia de promoção deve ser desenvolvida definindo os stakeholders principais da rede, identificando seus interesses, formulando as mensagens que você gostaria de transmitir e mostrando como realmente promoverá a rede.Para a estratégia de promoção, os grupos focais -membros, tomadores de decisão e stakeholders -deveriam ser listados em uma tabela. Para cada grupo focal devem ser definidas suas necessidades de informações e as ferramentas de promoção apropriadas.Desenvolva produtos de informação que sejam dirigidos às demandas dos diferentes grupos focais. Evite o envio de todas as informações a todos e assim contribuindo para a sobrecarga de informações. Os membros, por exemplo, gostam de receber informações técnicas e notícias sobre a rede. Os tomadores de decisão preferem folhetos de informações curtas resumindo casos de sucesso interessantes. Os patrocinadores da rede estão interessados no relatório anual, em números financeiros e produções atingidas. Tentem economizar usando os mesmos dados para diferentes produtos de informação.Freqüentemente faltam às redes fatos fortes ou dados estatísticos que poderiam ser usados para a promoção. Em geral, não há correlação direta entre serviços e projetos e o impacto. Um sistema de monitoração sistemático ( seção 6.6) ajudará a coletar não somente as informações básicas e dados sobre os serviços e projetos da rede, mas também estórias bem-sucedidas, descrevendo exemplos ilustrativos práticos em uma base regular. A experiência mostrou que o relato de estórias pode ser um meio muito eficaz de promoção (F seção 9.2).Uma forma muito eficaz de comunicação para as atividades da rede é oferecer sua marca a projetos, atividades e publicações dos membros com o nome da rede e o logo. Isso não constitui somente um valor agregado para os membros, visto que eles podem mostrar aos seus stakeholders que estão trabalhando de forma coordenada e em sociedade, mas acrescenta também prestígio à rede. É aconselhável, entretanto, desenvolver regras básicas relacionadas à marca entre os membros da rede, definindo o tipo, escopo e a qualidade das atividades, projetos e publicações exigidas que permitam o uso da marca.Através da mídia como a televisão, as transmissões de rádio e os jornais, grandes audiências podem ser alcançadas. É por isso que são considerados meios eficazes de promoção da rede, criando a conscientização pública e também mobilizando os tomadores de decisão.O exemplo do desastre do Tsunami Asiático, em dezembro de 2004, mostra a importância da mídia na mobilização pública. Em um período relativamente curto, o mundo inteiro foi informado sobre o evento, e as fotografias chocantes resultaram em um dos mais altos volumes de doações beneficentes recebido para um desastre. Entretanto, o outro lado da moeda é que chamar atenção para as atividades regulares da rede ou aumentar a conscientização para 'catástrofes silenciosas' é razoavelmente difícil.Para conseguir uma boa cobertura da mídia, as redes devem estabelecer relações públicas profissionais. A base para isto é um website bem apresentado e mantido, materiais informativos atraentes sobre a rede e suas atividades, e comunicados à imprensa cuidadosamente preparados. Além disso, as redes precisam formar e cultivar relacionamentos estreitos com os profissionais da mídia.Formas eficazes parra aumentar o interesse da mídia são os convites para as visitas de campo, excursões, oficinas ou conferências. Às ve-zes também é possível trazer os jornalistas para o projeto objetivando a produção de relatórios. Os jornalistas podem ajudar na colocação de artigos ou até mesmo em uma série de artigos em jornais e periódicos renomados. Esta é uma forma especialmente eficaz de atingir os tomadores de decisão.A boa cobertura de uma rede e de suas atividades nos jornais, na televisão ou no rádio não somente promove a rede, mas também se torna um incentivo para que os tomadores de decisão participem de eventos organizados pela rede, desta forma mostrando seu envolvimento para o público. Os participantes de conferências experientes sabem que a freqüência aumenta expressivamente tão logo unidades de transmissão de televisão ou rádio liguem seus holofotes e microfones.A promoção não é algo que você realize uma ou duas vezes por ano. Pelo contrário, é uma atividade contínua de todos os membros da rede e, em especial, do secretariado da rede. As redes devem aproveitar todas as oportunidades para mostrar o que estão fazendo e certificar-se de que suas realizações estejam visíveis. Há uma série de maneiras de se fazer isto: newsletter eletrônica, website, mala direta ou estandes em conferências. Desenvolver uma estratégia de promoção. Conhecer seus grupos focais. . Providenciar produtos de informação dirigidos. Incluir a promoção da rede em todas as atividades. Atividades da marca, publicações e projetos. Trabalhar com a mídia. . A promoção é uma tarefa contínua para todos os membros.O trabalho em rede envolve custos e exige o provimento de fundos. É crucial para o sucesso a longo prazo das redes o provimento de fundos confiáveis.As redes têm várias necessidades financeiras. Em primeiro lugar, a rede tem custos operacionais para infra-estrutura básica, como o secretariado e o website. É aconselhável manter esses custos operacionais tão baixos quanto possível.O trabalho em rede envolve reuniões, oficinas e também conferências.Essas reuniões presenciais são, em geral, dispendiosas, especialmente no que se refere aos custos de viagens dos participantes. Pode ser necessário para a rede custear a participação de seus membros se eles não puderem arcar com os próprios custos. Como as oficinas ou as conferências são bem dispendiosas, o provimento adicional de fundos é muitas vezes uma exigência.Por último, a maior parte dos fundos será direcionada para os projetos ou até mesmo para programas inteiros que tenham sido iniciados pela rede.Como as necessidades financeiras das redes podem ser cobertas? É aconselhável que as redes recebam ajuda financeira para seus serviços e projetos de fontes diferentes. Isto as tornará independentes e contribuirá para a sustentabilidade financeira da rede.Em muitas redes, pelo menos alguns dos serviços e das atividades são contribuições não-monetárias dos membros da rede. Organizações pertencentes à rede designam parte do tempo de seus funcionários para facilitar uma comunidade on-line, mantêm e patrocinam o website da rede de graça ou oferecem suas instalações para oficinas. Tais contribuições não-monetárias são formas eficientes de custear algumas das atividades da rede. Com freqüência, será mais fácil receber algumas contribuições desse tipo do que arrecadar fundos.Uma rede é um empreendimento comum de seus membros e é óbvio que eles também poderiam contribuir para o provimento de fundos da rede. Em geral, os membros recebem benefícios da rede. Sendo assim, porque deveriam obter tais benefícios de graça? Foi comprovado através de estudos econômicos que a maioria das pessoas dá maior valor a um produto se ele tiver um preço, então uma taxa de filiação fará todo sentido.Até agora, muitas redes renunciaram às taxas de filiação por causa dos recursos financeiros limitados de seus membros, especialmente nos países em desenvolvimento. Todavia, uma taxa de filiação não deveria ser descartada e poderia contribuir para o provimento regular de fundos da rede. Por que não começar com uma pequena taxa de filiação? Você deveria pelo menos pensar a respeito.Muitas redes também precisam do provimento adicional de fundos proveniente de fontes públicas como de autoridades públicas, organizações governamentais, órgãos de desenvolvimento bilateral e multilateral, e de fontes privadas como fundações que concedem subsídios ou companhias privadas, que também às vezes fornecem fundos para as redes.A fim de receber fundos de organizações públicas e privadas, as finalidades da rede devem estar em linha com as suas estratégias. As fundações que oferecem subsídios cada vez mais seguem uma estratégia clara, e as companhias muitas vezes só apoiarão uma rede se seus serviços e projetos estiverem alinhados com a estratégia deles.Muitas organizações públicas e privadas estão mais interessadas em custear projetos ou programas do que nos custos operacionais como os de um secretariado. Esta é também uma das razões de as companhias privadas ficarem relutantes em apoiar as redes. Através desse apoio, elas procuram adquirir o perfil de empreendedoras socialmente responsáveis assim preferindo projetos que sejam fáceis e simples de publicar. As atividades das redes são muito abstratas para elas. Contudo, se você tiver bons contatos no setor privado, use-os para assegurar o provimento de fundos.Algumas redes vendem seus serviços para outras organizações ou redes, por exemplo, a hospedagem e a facilitação de conferências on-line. Se você tiver a oportunidade de vender seus serviços, deveria fazê-lo contribuindo assim para o provimento de fundos da sua rede. Todavia, as redes nunca serão mecanismos poderosos para a venda de serviços. Existe ainda o perigo de que a venda de serviços desviaria a atenção dos serviços principais da rede.Ao invés de custear os serviços e projetos da rede através de um orçamento central, algumas redes usam uma estrutura de provimento de fundos totalmente descentralizada. Com este sistema, todo filiado contribui com serviços para a rede e também encontra fundos para as atividades da rede. Entretanto, o provimento de fundos descentralizado só funcionará se os filiados da rede forem organizações fortes com fundos suficientes ou com know-how para arrecadação de fundos.Um assunto intimamente ligado às taxas de filiação é o reembolso para os serviços prestados pelos membros para a rede como um todo e por sua participação em reuniões, oficinas ou conferências. Para membros da rede em países em desenvolvimento, a participação nos eventos da rede com freqüência é muito cara. Como este problema deveria ser tratado pelas redes?As redes internacionais às vezes têm que lidar com o fato de que os salários e o custo de vida entre os países envolvidos variam muito. As diárias pagas aos participantes em oficinas e conferências podem até ser mais altos do que seus salários. Conseqüentemente, os reembolsos podem criar um forte incentivo para a participação em oficinas e conferências, e nem sempre isto é bom para a rede.Não há solução perfeita para este problema, e cada rede tem que encontrar seu próprio meio de custear a participação de seus membros em reuniões, oficinas e conferências. As sugestões para lidar com esta situação são as seguintes:n Todos os participantes devem receber a mesma ajuda de custo, embora isto possa criar um incentivo indesejado. Neste caso, a secretaria da rede deve arrecadar fundos para a participação dos membros.n Todos os participantes devem encontrar os próprios meios de custear suas despesas. A experiência mostra que muitos participantes encontram meios de custear suas participações se estiverem realmente interessados na conferência ou na oficina e se esperam benefícios pessoais concretos para seus trabalhos.n Um modelo combinado deveria ser aplicado, de modo que a rede custearia a participação dos membros de países mais pobres enquanto aqueles de países mais ricos custeariam as próprias despesas.n A secretaria organiza uma competição. Os participantes interessados apresentam um paper e os autores das melhores propostas recebem fundos para participar.A experiência nos mostrou que a estrutura de provimento de fundos de muitas redes é muito complexa. As organizações públicas e privadas da rede têm exigências e formatos bem diferentes para seus sistemas de provimento de fundos. O provimento de fundos das redes geralmente consiste de um mix de tipos de fundos, e os orçamentos das redes são elaborados de diferentes combinações de fundos principais para projetos e programas. O provimento de fundos descentralizado é combinado com o provimento de fundos principal para a secretaria, e a duração desses tipos de fundos normalmente varia.Esta variedade leva a certa robustez financeira das redes. Uma vantagem importante é que eles não dependem do apoio de qualquer fonte, uma situação que pode ser evitada sempre que possível.O lado menos positivo é que esta complexidade torna a arrecadação de fundos e o gerenciamento da rede difícil. Essas dificuldades não deveriam ser uma desculpa para a falta de transparência ou a administração excessiva, e os membros da rede devem se esforçar para uma contabilidade consolidada, fornecendo uma visão geral clara de onde o provimento de fundos está vindo, como o dinheiro é gasto, e quem está recebendo qual quantia.A arrecadação bem-sucedida de fundos é crucial para todas as redes.A arrecadação de fundos é uma arte por si só e estaria além do escopo deste guia discuti-la aqui em detalhe. Abaixo alguns elementos importantes para a arrecadação de fundos. Familiarizar-se com as técnicas para arrecadação de fundos lendo um manual de arrecadação de fundos ou participando de um curso de treinamento para arrecadação de fundos (F seção recursos 10.1). Desenvolver declarações claras de visão, missão e finalidades para a rede que possam ser comunicadas facilmente de tal forma que contribuintes públicos e privados potenciais entendam o que você está fazendo. Conhecer as estratégias dos contribuintes potenciais e o que os motiva a prover as redes com recursos. A arrecadação de fundos é uma arrecadação de amigos, então tente estabelecer relações estreitas com contribuintes potenciais. Seja ativo e paciente. A formação de relacionamentos até que recebam fundos leva tempo. Às vezes você terá que esperar um ano ou mais. Uma vez que os relacionamentos tenham sido formados, cultive-os continuamente enviando informações regulares sobre a rede, por exemplo, relatórios anuais. Inclua os patrocinadores da rede na diretoria.Em uma rede, muitos membros diferentes e organizações ou instituições públicas se envolvem e são provenientes de várias áreas culturais. Todos eles têm interesses específicos, modos diferentes de comunicação e de trabalho, e diversas histórias.Como podem ser estabelecidos relacionamentos confiáveis dentro da rede e externamente com os stakeholders, dada tal diversidade? É uma ação de equilíbrio que tem que ser dominada pelo gerente da rede, a secretaria e os próprios membros.Os relacionamentos entre os membros são as artérias que constituem a rede, e elas deveriam ser tratadas com atenção.Uma rede só pode cuidar de seus membros se eles se conhecerem uns aos outros. Então você precisa de uma lista de afiliação ou uma seção de membros em um website, onde eles possam se registrar e fornecer suas informações. Um exemplo de perfil de afiliação é apresentado abaixo.Além disso, os membros devem ter a possibilidade de trocar suas senhas pessoais ou de selecionar outros serviços como um newsletter ou um fórum de discussão eletrônicos. Ao conhecer os membros, o relacionamento com eles tem que ser cultivado continuamente. Isto pode ser feito de diversas maneiras. .n Envolver os membros ativamente em projetos conjuntos.n Enviar newsletters mensais ou trimestrais contendo as notícias mais importantes.n Organizar oportunidades de encontros presenciais pelo menos uma vez ao ano.n Convidar os membros anualmente a darem feedback sobre suas necessidades em um levantamento eletrônico.Em toda rede, haverá aqueles que participam por razões altruísticas e outros que o fazem sem quaisquer interesses. Na maioria dos casos, entretanto, as pessoas se unirão à rede sem interesse próprio. A maioria das pessoas gosta de receber algum benefício ou valor agregado. Se as pessoas não se beneficiarem com a rede, cedo ou tarde perderão o interesse por ela.Mantendo o interesse dos membros em mente, a rede tem que se esforçar do início para instilar uma cultura de dar e receber. Isto promoverá uma situação de vantagem mútua, que é tão importante com o objetivo de manter a rede unida. Deve haver um equilíbrio entre dar e receber. Se alguns só receberem enquanto que outros só se doarem, os últimos começarão a se sentir explorados e acabarão se retirando da rede. Mesmo que a situação de vantagem mútua se torne a regra para a colaboração, na realidade sempre haverá alguns que se beneficiarão mais do que outros, o que significa que está tudo bem contanto que um certo equilíbrio seja mantido.O equilíbrio entre os membros pode ser dificultado pelos jogos de disputa pelo poder. Um membro pode até tentar levar a rede numa certa direção e usá-la para seus próprios propósitos ou até mesmo sabotá-la, por exemplo, espalhando informações negativas ou falsas.Esses jogos de poder não podem ser evitados. As pessoas que trabalham na rede podem controlá-los das seguintes formas:n Definir regras, responsabilidades e decisões claramente.n Definir com precisão a finalidade e os objetivos da rede.n Manter bons relacionamentos e contatos estreitos com os membros.n Ser proativo em termos de comunicação e gerenciamento.n Registrar um código de conduta claro para os membros.Em muitos casos, os membros ficam muito entusiasmados quando as redes são estabelecidas. Comumente, grandes promessas são feitas ao final de reuniões de planejamento e oficinas. As pessoas de forma geral ficam muito entusiasmadas com o que contribuirão, mas quando a realidade aparece, o entusiasmo reduz-se a pó. O que está acontecendo? Não é que membros estejam agindo de má-fé, apenas são muito otimistas, fantasiosos, e, em alguns casos, não totalmente honestos sobre o tempo destinado à rede. Em todos os exercícios de planejamento, vocês deve estar consciente desta ilusão de planejamento e verificar cuidadosamente com todos se suas promessas são realistas.As redes devem cuidar ativamente de seus relacionamentos externos.As pessoas importantes para a rede não são somente os tomadores de decisão (F seção 4), mas também todos os outros stakeholders.Em primeiro lugar, é preciso saber quem são os mais importantes stakeholders externos. Deve-se compilar uma lista ou desenhar um mapa dos principais stakeholders da rede trabalhando na mesma área temática ou similar e atualizações desta lista devem ser feitas regularmente.n Institutos de pesquisa, redes formais e outras organizações internacionais n Administrações públicas e políticos n Fontes de financiamento públicas e privadas n Organizações da sociedade civil e ONGs n Mídia: imprensa, televisão, rádio Uma ferramenta útil para se obter uma visão geral de todos os stakeholders relevantes é um mapa de stakeholders mostrando os stakeholders e seus relacionamentos uns com os outros (veja figura 4). A rede deve ser colocada no meio e o grupo de stakeholders ao redor da rede de acordo com a importância. Com o peso da linha entre os stakeholders a importância dos relacionamentos será mostrada. O mapa de stakeholders também pode ajudar a identificar os relacionamentos indiretos. Talvez você não tenha uma ligação direta com um tomador de decisão, mas um bom relacionamento com um instituto de pesquisa que mantenha um relacionamento estreito com este tomador de decisão.O software \"mind mapping\" é muito útil para desenhar os mapas dos stakeholders (F seção de recursos 10.1). Este software pode ser usado para outros propósitos, também, isto é, estruturar seus pensamentos, uma análise SWOT (F seção 6.6.2), ou coletar idéias.Figura 4: Exemplo de um mapa de stakeholdersOs bons relacionamentos terão que ser cultivados com seus mais importantes stakeholders. Algumas formas de fazê-lo são: cuidar para que eles recebam informações numa base regular, convidá-los para eventos e oficinas e para se unirem a discussões por e-mail. As necessidades dos stakeholders deverão ser monitoradas continuamente, por exemplo, através de oficinas regulares, audiências ou levantamentos. Igualmente as necessidades de seus stakeholders podem mudar com o tempo e sua rede deve responder e cuidar proativamente das novas demandas.Um grupo de stakeholders apresenta uma oportunidade e uma ameaça ao mesmo tempo: organizações, institutos de pesquisa e redes operando nas mesmas ou similares áreas temáticas.De um lado as organizações podem ser competidoras diretas por provimento de fundos e poderiam monopolizar temas interessantes. Mesmo sendo competidoras, um contato deve ser mantido para saber o que estão fazendo e quais os planos para o futuro. De outro, tais organizações também podem se tornar parceiras estratégicas da rede de tal forma que você possa:n demarcar as atividades principais de cada parceiro;n realizar atividades em conjunto tais como organizar oficinas ou conferências maiores; e n emitir declarações em conjunto para levantar a conscientização sobre certos temas.No caso de uma parceria estratégica, um memorando de entendimento (MOU), um acordo definindo sua colaboração, pode ajudar a administrar o relacionamento dos parceiros. Um MOU também pode ser vantajoso na arrecadação de fundos, visto que você pode mostrar aos contribuintes potenciais que tem boas ligações com outros parceiros. Conhecer os membros da rede. Cultivar continuamente os relacionamentos com os membros. Criar situações de vantagem mútua. Controlar a competição entre os membros. Ser realista. . Conhecer os mais importantes stakeholders das redes. Cuidar de seus stakeholders. . Estabelecer parcerias estratégicas.As redes devem prestar contas dos resultados alcançados a seus membros, stakeholders e patrocinadores em base regular. Ao mesmo tempo, a secretaria ou gerenciamento da rede e seus membros precisam de um sistema de monitoramento para administrar os serviços fornecidos pela rede tanto quanto os projetos ou programas planejados ou em andamento.GTZ ou o DAC recomendam um 'sistema de monitoramento baseado em resultados'. Além disso, as redes devem realizar avaliações mais abrangentes de seus trabalhos de tempos em tempos.A fim de que uma rede seja administrada de forma eficiente e eficaz e para verificar se os objetivos da rede foram atingidos, um sistema de monitoramento dos resultados deve ser estabelecido. Fornecemos um exemplo abaixo (F seção de recursos 10.1).Através do sistema de monitoramento, todos os serviços e projetos das redes e os resultados atingidos são observados continuamente. O sistema de monitoramento ajudará a secretaria da rede e seus membros a manter os resultados em mente o tempo todo e a orientar os serviços e projetos da rede de acordo.O monitoramento dos resultados leva em consideração toda a cadeia de resultados: os dados de entrada, as atividades levando aos dados de saída, e os resultados e impactos realizados. A tabela e figura 5 abaixo fornecem uma visão geral de como esses termos são definidos e como estão relacionados uns com os outros. Redigir um manual, estabelecer um banco de dados, discussões de email com sumários, preparação de uma oficina .Planos operacionais, fichas de feedback.Produtos e serviços que resultam das atividades da rede.Manual, banco de dados, workshop, número de publicações no website disponível para downloading, síntese das políticas.Web, estatísticas de publicações, relatórios anuais.Para o gerenciamento diário da rede, a monitoração sistemática e contínua dos dados de entrada, das atividades e dos dados de saída é indispensável. Mesmo se for relativamente fácil determinar os meios de verificação, a coleta de todas as informações necessárias exige disciplina.Entretanto, o que se torna mais interessante é se a rede realmente fez uma contribuição a seus objetivos e atingiu um resultado verdadeiro. Este é o tipo de informação de interesse para os tomadores de decisão e para outros stakeholders. Os resultados podem ser medidos pela coleta sistemática de histórias de sucesso (ou fracasso), pelas pesquisas de estudos de caso, pela coleta de feedback, pelas estatísticas, pelas entrevistas sistemáticas e por outros meios. Para os entrevistados ligados à Internet, os levantamentos on-line são um meio eficiente e simples de coletar feedback. Uma série de ferramentas on-line encontra-se disponível, e são baratas e simples de serem usadas (F seção de recursos 10.1).  Uma forma prática de identificação e documentação dos impactos é manter seus olhos abertos e continuamente registrar prováveis impactos, por exemplo, através da coleta sistemática de observações de membros da rede ou de histórias.Ocasionalmente toda rede precisa de uma avaliação: uma revisão abrangente e sistemática de sua organização, seus serviços e projetos, e uma avaliação para saber se seus objetivos foram atingidos. As avaliações asseguram a responsabilidade perante os membros e os stakeholders da rede, além de contribuírem para o processo de aprendizado, Normalmente, a avaliação da rede será necessária mais ou menos de três a cinco anos. Na avaliação, as seguintes questões serão tratadas:n Relevância: A missão da rede é consistente com as necessidades de seus membros e de seus stakeholders?n Significância: A rede gera impactos regionais em ampla escala ou nos setores onde atua?n Eficiência: Quão econômica é a rede na produção de resultados?n Eficácia: Até que ponto os objetivos da rede foram alcançados, levando-se em conta a importância relativa deles?n Sustentabilidade: Os resultados da atuação da rede a levaram a impactos sustentáveis? Haverá financiamento suficiente para a rede no futuro?n Organização e comunicação da rede: Como a diretoria, a gerência e a secretaria funcionam? Como funcionam a comunicação e a colaboração entre os membros?As avaliações podem ser realizadas pela secretaria da rede ou pelos próprios membros. Ao mesmo tempo em que pode ser útil repassar a responsabilidade a um consultor externo que poderá visualizar a rede de forma imparcial e facilitar todo o processo de avaliação, é também extremamente valioso conduzir uma avaliação mais informal, onde outros gerentes de rede possam avaliar você.Vários métodos podem ser usados para a avaliação, a coleta de informações e a formulação de futuras estratégias:n Levantamentos (eletrônicos ou baseados em papel) entre os membros, da rede, tomadores de decisão e outros stakeholders.n Entrevistas com o gerente, membros e stakeholders da rede.n Oficinas com membros e stakeholders da rede (F seção 6.2)n Análise de documentos, ex.: de planos operacionais, relatórios e outros documentos de monitoramento.A análise SWOT é uma forma prática de analisar a rede e identificar suas futuras direções, pontos fortes no passado e no presente bem como as fraquezas, da mesma forma que as futuras ameaças e oportunidades.No passado e no presente No futuroNegativa Pontos Fracos AmeaçasDe forma ideal, a análise SWOT é realizada de uma forma participativa para incluir membros da rede e os mais importantes stakeholders. As avaliações da rede não deveriam consistir somente de uma análise de um consultor externo, mas também deve incluir todos os membros, e se possível, os stakeholders. Desta forma, todos os membros têm a oportunidade de aprender do passado e refrescar ou ajustar suas visões do futuro.As redes devem ser vistas como sistemas dinâmicos que se desenvolvem continuamente. As redes novas devem começar pequenas e se permitirem amadurecer até o ponto no qual elas realmente funcionem eficazmente, e isto exige paciência por parte dos membros, stakeholders e patrocinadores. Geralmente leva no mínimo três anos para que uma rede comece a funcionar bem.Uma vez estabelecidas, as redes ficam expostas a um contexto continuamente em mudança. O que pode ser uma coisa certa para se fazer hoje em dia poderia ser obsoleto amanhã. As redes têm que se ajustar constantemente a circunstâncias variáveis. Isto pode ser razoavelmente desafiante, mas apenas aquelas redes que são capazes de se adaptar aos ambientes variáveis e às demandas são capazes de assegurar uma viabilidade a longo prazo.De maneira ideal, as redes se regeneram de uma forma evolutiva. Com inovações incrementais, elas podem se ajustar continuamente e melhorar sua estrutura e conteúdo, atividades e serviços. Uma mente determinada perceptiva é essencial para isto. O feedback regular de membros, dos tomadores de decisão e dos stakeholders ajudará a decidir o que tem que ser feito. Você mesmo será capaz de detectar possibilidades do dia-a-dia para melhoramentos. O monitoramento sistemático também lhe dará orientação. (F seção 6.6.1)Uma forma prática de inovar é através de uma faxina regular. O economista Joseph Schumpeter chamou isto de 'destruição criativa', porque quando você interrompe certas atividades cria espaço para novas atividades e para a inovação. A cada ano, a secretaria deveria sistematicamente rever o portfolio de serviços e atividades junto com os membros, e decidir quais serviços e atividades eles querem que continuem e quais deveriam ser descontinuados. Em muitas redes, muitas atividades são empreendidas e quando o tempo ou o provimento de fundos se torna escasso elas só são realizadas parcialmente. Interrompa essas atividades e concentre seus investimentos nas mais importantes e necessárias! Entretanto, a inovação incremental não é o suficiente. As redes só terão sucesso e permanecerão dinâmicas se tiverem a habilidade de lançar novas idéias e projetos. Isto exigirá mais energia do que a exigida pela inovação incremental. Um bom ponto de partida para novas idéias é a avaliação regular que acontece a cada três a cinco anos (F seção 6.6.2). Desenvolva estas idéias estrategicamente fazendo a seguinte pergunta: O que a rede deve fazer hoje para ser bem-sucedida no futuro? Isto ajudará a mantê-lo a par das mudanças.Para enriquecer a discussão, convide um especialista externo que não esteja diretamente ligado à rede ou ao contexto cultural e que possa pensar por outro ângulo. Tal pessoa poderá oferecer visões independentes sobre assuntos relevantes. Uma outra forma de coletar idéias novas é convidar os stakeholders da sua rede ou outros para 'assistência ao par' (F seção 6.2).Dependendo do tipo e missão da rede, pode ser necessário determinar por quanto tempo a rede criará valor, ou quais critérios deveriam ser usados para decidir quando ela deveria fechar. As redes são sistemas dinâmicos, e pode acontecer que seus objetivos sejam atingidos ou outras redes se tornem mais bem-sucedidas. Neste caso, deveria ser evitada a sua continuação, visto que seria melhor fechá-la e dirigir suas energias para novas iniciativas! Desenvolver a rede de uma forma evolutiva com inovações incrementais. Fazer faxina em atividades e planos da rede regularmente. Lançar novas atividades e projetos regularmente de uma forma estratégica. Convidar especialistas externos ou outras redes para apresentarem suas visões. Criar uma noção comum de quanto tempo a rede permanecerá valiosa.A s redes não devem somente prestar serviços baseados nas demandas de seus membros e stakeholders, mas também iniciar projetos ou programas para aumentar seus resultados e impacto.Nesta seção, você verá que é aconselhável começar com serviços ou pequenos projetos, uma vez que a rede tenha sido estabelecida. As redes estabelecidas têm que se concentrar em uma série de serviços principais e conduzir projetos ou programas específicos. Para assegurar a qualidade das atividades e dos serviços, é essencial um sistema de gestão da qualidade.É esse o nosso NET output?Durante a fase inicial você deve introduzir as atividades, prestar alguns serviços ou até mesmo realizar pequenos projetos. No começo, concentre-se em alguns serviços ou projetos que possam ser lançados rapidamente e que não absorvam muitos recursos. Não demore muito, faça algo e converse sobre isto! Exemplos de serviços ou projetos iniciais são os seguintes:n Estabelecer um espaço de trabalho eletrônico com uma lista de discussão por e-mail através do qual poderão ser enviadas informações regulares sobre os avanços da rede.n Preparar um documento conciso sobre um tema pertinente e enviá-lo a patrocinadores potenciais da rede.n Incrementar um projeto em andamento de um parceiro da rede e dar a marca da rede a ele.n Apresentar um documento em uma conferência ou oficina, introduzindo a rede ao mesmo tempo.n Tentar organizar uma seção de conferência sobre a rede.Prestar serviços e realizar pequenos projetos na fase inicial proporcionará várias vantagens.n Você pode mostrar aos membros e stakeholders que a rede não é somente uma 'oficina de conversa' mas também uma 'oficina de trabalho'.n Contribuintes públicos e privados potenciais ficarão mais interessados em uma rede ativa.n Você pode aumentar a conscientização de membros e stakeholders potenciais.n Você logo conseguirá feedback sobre os interesses das pessoas.n Os membros se consolidam em uma comunidade de rede.Redes bem-sucedidas fornecem uma série de serviços principais contínuos ou regulares baseados nas demandas de seus membros e stakeholders. Esses serviços ajudam a manter a rede viva para seus membros e stakeholders. Exemplos desses serviços principais podem ser os seguintes:n Websites com atualizações regulares das informações.n Trocas regulares de informações através de um fórum de discussões por e-mail.n Newsletters eletrônicas trimestrais informando aos membros inscritos sobre as atividades em andamento, membros da rede e outras informações relevantes.n Resumos trimestrais da política para os tomadores de decisão.n Serviços de perguntas e respostas respondendo a questões de membros e stakeholders.n Conferências eletrônicas regulares discutindo assuntos relevantes.n Bate-papos on-line com especialistas sobre temas selecionados.n Oficinas ou conferências anuais.Vários assuntos devem ser considerados no fornecimento dos serviços principais. Primeiramente, esses serviços devem responder às verdadeiras demandas de membros e stakeholders e devem agregar valor. Resumos regulares da política pouparão tempo aos stakeholders. As demandas diferem entre as redes, e elas precisam ser avaliadas regularmente através de levantamentos (eletrônicos) ou entrevistas.Alguns serviços devem acontecer regularmente, por exemplo, uma newsletter eletrônica trimestral ou uma conferência anual realizada no mesmo mês a cada ano. Isto estabelece uma estrutura de tempo confiável para todos os membros.Os serviços principais de uma rede devem também ter um ritmo correspondendo às preferências de seus membros. Se os membros tiverem a impressão de que nada está acontecendo, eles desviarão sua atenção ou esquecerão da rede. Por outro lado, se houver muitas atividades eles se sentirão sobrecarregados. Isto é visto com as listas de discussões por e-mail. Se você receber muitos e-mails na lista, não poderá ler to-dos, ficará frustrado, e deletará os e-mails. De modo inverso, se você receber poucos e-mails, haverá uma diminuição da atenção. O equilíbrio certo deve ser encontrado, mantendo um fluxo base de informações.Além dos serviços principais, as redes deveriam lançar projetos ou programas com o objetivo de alcançar um resultado planejado e um impacto sustentável no setor ou região na qual a rede é ativa. Uma outra vantagem dos projetos e dos programas é que eles podem levar a uma base mais diversa e segura para o provimento de fundos (F seção6.4)Através dos projetos, as redes pretendem alcançar objetivos específicos. A fim de lançar esses projetos, você pode ter que redigir propostas para um provimento adicional de fundos. Algumas redes agregam os projetos a programas e oferecem propostas dos programas.Três exemplos de projetos de rede são resumidamente descritos abaixo.Desenvolver e implementar projetos e programas em conjunto são tarefas essenciais para toda rede. A rede e seus membros podem mostrar competência e espírito inovador na área temática através desses meios.As agências de desenvolvimento reconhecem que o tema da rede é um dos tópicos principais de ajuda pública.Preparação de uma declaração de membros da rede.Preparação de material para um estande e prospectos.Estande em uma conferência internacional. Coquetéis oficiais em conferência onde a declaração é apresentada.Stakeholders e tomadores de decisão em certo setor recebem informações consolidadas.Estabelecimento de uma plataforma de informações eletrônicas: estrutura, design, layout e conteúdo.A plataforma de informações eletrônicas está online e está sendo usada.Mais evidências disponíveis sobre como melhorar a situação em certa área temática.Um relatório final resumindo os resultados da pesquisa e dando recomendações para ação adicional.Atividades de pesquisa são realizadas, isto é, estudos de caso, projetos piloto, ou análises de literatura.Além do mais, os projetos e programas que são planejados e implementados em conjunto unirão os membros da rede. Ao mesmo tempo, executar projetos em conjunto é um dos métodos mais eficazes de formação de capacidade e aprendizado mútuos.É de máxima importância designar responsabilidades claras para arrecadar ou distribuir fundos e implementar projetos ou programas. Se a rede tem a sua própria forma legal, ela mesma pode apresentar a proposta. Se este não for o caso, um ou mais membros deveriam apresentar a proposta juntos e se certificarem que tenha a marca de uma proposta da rede. Uma vez que o provimento de fundos é recebido, um membro da rede deveria assumir o comando. A implementação dos projetos pode ser terceirizada para consultores que os implementarão em nome da rede.Basicamente, a sobrevivência de toda rede depende da qualidade de suas atividades e serviços. Conseqüentemente, as redes precisam estabelecer um sistema garantindo atividades e serviços de alta qualidade.Em primeiro lugar, a reputação da rede e da qualidade de suas atividades e serviços depende da qualidade do trabalho entregue por seus membros. Muitas organizações adotam sistemas certificados de gestão da qualidade para assegurar que o trabalho deles seja eficiente e eficaz. Encorajando os membros a adotarem os sistemas de gestão da qualidade, as redes podem contribuir para a qualidade global das atividades.Em segundo lugar, a reputação da rede depende da qualidade de seus serviços, projetos e programas principais. Em muitos casos, é muito complicado e caro introduzir um sistema certificado de gestão da qualidade em toda uma rede, e outras formas apropriadas precisam ser descobertas para garantir a qualidade. O monitoramento sistemático e as avaliações regulares são os primeiros passos no controle da qualidade (F seção 6.6).As revisões entre pares é uma forma prática de monitorar a qualidade dos projetos e programas. Uma revisão entre pares é uma avaliação do trabalho dos membros da rede por outros membros. Esses a quem chamamos de pares devem considerar-se como estando no mesmo nível hierárquico e dar recomendações de uma forma prestativa entre colegas. A tabela abaixo delineia o propósito e as vantagens das revisões entre pares.As seguintes regras devem ser consideradas na realização das revisões entre pares.Auto-regulação dentro da rede. Reconhecimento da experiência profissional.Permissão de feedback sobre o desempenho.Fornecimento de um ambiente 'seguro' para admissão de erros.Educação em andamento. Ajuda os membros da rede a identificar seus pontos fortes e as áreas precisando de melhoramentos.Criação de conscientização para padrões e qualidade de desempenho.Encoraja o compartilhamento de informações.Promove uma abordagem profissional.Ajuda a organizar as informações.Melhoramento na colaboração. Reconhecimento da rede como recursos proporcionando perspectivas diferentes.Criação de confiança e uma atitude de apoio mútuo.Contribuição para o desempenho de uma rede.n Ter sempre um moderador, usar processos estruturados e manter o processo escolhido.n Ser cooperativo, prestativo e não crítico em suas respostas e feedback, e lembrar-se de que as pessoas darão o melhor de si próprias com os recursos que têm.Propósito Benefícios n Ser tão honesto quanto puder -você não tem que parecer competente perante o grupo. É vital aprender com os erros.n Declarar quaisquer conflitos de interesse.n Você está no controle -escolha seus próprios processos, pegue o que quiser e deixe o resto.n Ficar alerta e respeitar as diferenças de cultura, sexo e orientação profissional que possam aparecer através de diferenças de opiniões, pontos de vista ou métodos de trabalho.O s relacionamentos entre os membros e os stakeholders são as artérias da rede. A comunicação é o sangue vital correndo através dessas artérias que mantém a rede viva e ativa. O fluxo de uma boa comunicação é vital para todas as redes e merece a máxima atenção da secretaria e de seus membros.Esta seção descreve os elementos principais de uma estratégia de comunicação, os princípios mais importantes para a comunicação e a significância da facilitação especializada. A comunicação é fortemente afetada por aspectos culturais, que podem precisar de atenção específica. Além disso, as capacidades para a comunicação efetiva não podem ser tomadas como garantidas, e a formação da capacidade para a comunicação deve ser uma das tarefas principais da rede.de trabalho, não um clube de tricô Nó?Sim, um monte de nós na rede Gente, vamos focar no que importa!A comunicação nas redes é dada de uma forma ou de outra, e você pode ter a impressão de que tudo está bem. Entretanto, podem surgir conflitos, algumas pessoas podem não receber as informações que deveriam, você pode não receber feedback, ou os stakeholders podem não entender o que você está fazendo. Em tal caso, você percebe que o sistema de comunicação da rede deveria ter sido planejado mais cuidadosamente.Da mesma forma, você deveria desenvolver uma estratégia demonstrando como sua comunicação de rede é organizada: internamente entre os membros e externamente com os stakeholders.A estratégia de Comunicação deve estar em linha com a finalidade da rede para a rede e incluir o seguinte:n definições dos grupos focais -uma lista de pessoas e funções diferentes dentro da rede: diretoria, secretaria, membros etc.-uma visão geral dos stakeholders, como profissionais interessados nas atividades da rede, contribuintes, mídia, institutos de pesquisas, organizações de apoio etc.n as formas e meios de que a rede se utilizará para se comunicar com cada grupo focal (F seção 9)n como as informações dirigidas e os produtos e serviços de comunicação são desenvolvidos e usados -freqüência da comunicação -comunicação eficiente, ex.: através do uso das múltiplas finalidades das informações -as pessoas responsáveis por assegurar os fluxos suaves da comunicaçãoOs fluxos de comunicação dentro da rede e com seus stakeholders serão mais suaves se alguns princípios básicos forem considerados.O primeiro princípio são os três Cs: comunicar, comunicar e comunicar. Lembre-se de que a comunicação é a força vital da rede: ninguém saberá que a rede existe se você não comunicar ativamente suas funções e objetivos, e as pessoas não responderão se não souberem que progresso está sendo feito ou se não forem contatadas de uma forma apropriada. Se ocorrerem conflitos, eles não serão resolvidos sem a comunicação. Seja proativo em suas comunicações, procure seus contatos e dê o primeiro passo para entrar em contato com outras pessoas.Seja responsável e responda em tempo se for contatado. Por exemplo, e-mails deveriam ser respondidos em um ou dois dias.Embora uma série de ferramentas eletrônicas se encontre disponível para a comunicação, como: telefone, e-mail ou videoconferências, essas ferramentas não podem substituir a comunicação presencial, que permanece importante dada a sua natureza sincrônica e a importância da comunicação não-verbal, como o tom de voz e a linguagem corporal.As reuniões presenciais são quase sempre obrigatórias quando alguém não está familiarizado com um idioma estrangeiro, visto que a comunicação não-verbal pode ajudar a passar a mensagem. Tenha cuidado, pois os mal-entendidos e a maioria dos conflitos podem ser mais eficazmente resolvidos através da comunicação presencial.As reuniões presenciais deveriam, portanto, acontecer o mais freqüentemente possível, independentemente de outros modos de comunicação que estejam sendo usados.As regras facilitam a interação entre as pessoas e reduzem os custos das transações. Os membros deveriam, portanto concordar sobre as regras para a comunicação e designar a autoridade para lidar com os mesmos. Exemplos para tais regulamentos podem ser os seguintes:n Todos devem ter chances iguais de expressar suas opiniões.n Declarações insultantes devem ser proibidas.n Conteúdos aceitáveis e não-aceitáveis devem ser definidos, ex.: promoção comercial.n E-mails devem ser respondidos em 48 horas.Entretanto, cuidado com este assunto, visto que regras exageradas ou a padronização pode sufocar ou limitar o compartilhamento efetivo das informações.A comunicação em uma rede deveria ser atraente e objetiva -e não maçante ou incoerente. A aplicação deste princípio exige cuidado, e deve-se levar em conta a natureza ou o propósito da comunicação, a capacidade dos membros em relação ao idioma utilizado no meio de comunicação e as habilidades analíticas dos indivíduos ou grupos. Em qualquer caso, a comunicação deve ser informativa e abrangente.A melhor freqüência da comunicação deve ser avaliada para assegurar o fluxo suave da mesma. A melhor freqüência da comunicação depende de muitos fatores diferentes: as formas de comunicação, a natureza do conteúdo, a função dos membros ou a importância de certos indivíduos.A comunicação presencial entre os membros de uma rede e com os stakeholders mais importantes deve ser realizada no mínimo uma ou duas vezes ao ano. O grupo principal poderá até mesmo se encontrar com maior freqüência. Além disso, contatos semanais ou pelo menos mensais por e-mail devem ser realizados, a fim de manterem a força viva da rede. Em grupos de discussão por e-mail, pode até mesmo haver trocas diárias.Em uma rede, as vozes discordantes devem ser aceitas. A rede deve ter espaço amplo para vozes discordantes e jamais impor a conformidade em seus membros. Isto pode ser atingido pelo encorajamento de uma cultura de responsabilidades por opiniões mantidas e informações trocadas.Uma atmosfera de censura deve ser evitada a todo custo em uma rede, embora as regras de comunicação devessem claramente atestar o que é aceitável ou inaceitável em termos de tom e conteúdo.Não importa quantos \"gurus de inovação\" ou indivíduos conhecidos fizerem parte da rede, um sentido de hierarquia deve ser evitado em suas comunicações. Passos proativos devem ser empreendidos para assegurar que os membros da rede com posicionamento social ou profissional mais baixo se sintam confortáveis no compartilhamento de informações. Entre outras possibilidades, isto pode envolver discussões separadas, sessões de desabafo ou reuniões para esses membros.As pessoas compartilham de informações e de conhecimento com outros de diversas formas. Alguns compartilham dela proativamente sem serem solicitados, e outros as mantêm para si mesmos e juntam-nas como se fosse um tesouro. Muitas vezes isto acontece não por má-fé, mas por uma questão de hábito pessoal ou cultural. Em algumas culturas, por exemplo, as pessoas retêm as informações se sentirem que elas podem ser usadas para manter algum tipo de vantagem relativa sobre os outros (F seção 8.4).Toda rede deveria cultivar o compartilhamento de informações e conhecimentos proativos onde os membros recebem e dão informações e conselhos. O dar e receber devem ser equilibrados, caso contrário membros generosos gradualmente pararão de fornecer informações. A criação deste hábito é crucial para o sucesso da rede e para enriquecer seus membros com conhecimento. O compartilhamento de informações e de cultura tem que ser cultivado explicitamente entre os membros da rede. Em alguns casos, pode até fazer sentido estabelecer regras para o compartilhamento de informações. CCC -comunicar, comunicar e comunicar  A comunicação presencial permanece importante. Estabelecer regras para a comunicação. Encorajar a comunicação atraente e informativa. Avaliar a melhor freqüência da comunicação. Aceitar vozes discordantes. Evitar uma atmosfera de censura. Evitar a predominância de hierarquia. Cultivar o hábito de dar e receber.Tão logo sete ou mais pessoas estejam envolvidas na comunicação, será necessária uma facilitação cuidadosa para assegurar fluxos de comunicação eficazes e eficientes. Nas redes formais, a facilitação é exigida em certas ocasiões específicas.n facilitação de fluxos gerais de comunicação relativa a todas as atividades da rede durante o ano.n facilitação de reuniões presenciais, oficinas e conferências.n facilitação de fórum eletrônico de discussão e bate-papos on-line.Um facilitador especializado deve ser designado para cada ocasião. A facilitação é uma competência que requer treinamento cuidadoso, e a facilitação adequada dos fluxos de comunicação necessita de muita experiência. Um bom facilitador ouve e compartilha, sabe quando intervir e quando deter-se e permitir que outros interajam, é capaz de lidar com conflitos, e é sensível às personalidades dos membros a fim de administrar a comunicação entre uma variedade de indivíduos.A facilitação contínua dos fluxos gerais de comunicação na rede com os stakeholders fica a cargo da secretaria, e o sucesso da rede dependerá desta facilitação. Um bom facilitador de rede enviará, de tempos em tempos, uma newsletter a todos os membros e stakeholders, e entrará em contato regular e sistematicamente com as pessoas mais importantes da rede. Um facilitador experiente de rede também será sensível às súbitas mudanças no tom das comunicações ou estará atento ao silêncio de certos membros da rede.Às vezes, os facilitadores de rede terão também que ser persistentes caso as pessoas não respondam. A desculpa \"Eu envio um e-mail e eles não respondem. Então o que posso fazer?\" certamente não é a atitude certa. Com freqüência há boas razões por trás de falhas nas respostas. Um facilitador experiente tentará ativamente descobrir que falhas são estas.Princípios muito similares se aplicam a todas as ocasiões acima mencionadas durante as quais a facilitação é necessária. Elas estão resumidas na lista de verificações abaixo. Clarificar o histórico e o contexto da discussão. Assegurar que haja entendimento adequado e clarificar os desentendimentos. Procurar exemplos concretos e práticos ilustrando a discussão. Restringir as pessoas que falam demais e ativar os participantes silenciosos. Resumir discussões e tentar refinar assuntos essenciais. Estimular discussões fazendo perguntas. Tratar de opiniões e posições diferentes tornando as diferenças transparentes. Tentar resolver conflitos potenciais. Lembrar às pessoas sobre as regras da conversação. Clarificar os sentimentos dos participantes na discussão. Reforçar a percepção das diferenças culturais, sociais, religiosas ou políticas e promover o entendimento. Visualizar as discussões. Dar a oportunidade aos participantes de exporem suas idéias. Advertir cuidadosamente as pessoas que falam demais. Advertir cuidadosamente as pessoas que falam demais. Dar feedback aos participantes. Dar feedback aos participantes. Assegurar o bom gerenciamento do tempo. Realizar uma avaliação da oficina .Em redes formais internacionais abrangendo vários países ou até mesmo continentes, os aspectos culturais influenciam consideravelmente a comunicação tanto quanto o gerenciamento da rede em geral. Todos os membros da rede, em especial os gerentes da rede, precisam estar conscientes dos assuntos sensíveis e sujeitos a controvérsias dentro ou entre as culturas incluídas na rede, precisando saber como lidar com eles apropriadamente (F seção de recursos 0).O idioma é uma das maiores restrições para a comunicação em redes internacionais e apresenta um desafio que muitas vezes é subestimado. Basicamente, é muito importante para todos entenderem os idiomas usados. Isto não significa apenas entender o idioma operacional real da rede, mas também entender os usos culturais diferentes do mesmo idioma.Em muitas redes, entretanto, isto não é possível. Como as redes internacionais cobrem países e regiões diferentes, o maior denominador comum é escolhido e todos acabam se sentindo igualmente desconfortáveis. O idioma escolhido na maioria das vezes é o inglês, em algumas regiões o francês ou o espanhol. Só que geralmente esquecemos que esses idiomas não são os idiomas pátrios de muitos membros.O resultado pode ser de 'pouco entendimento' do todo ou muito 'mal-entendido'. As pessoas que não forem muito fluentes no idioma da rede ficarão hesitantes sobre a entrada em discussões e terão dificuldades em expressar suas opiniões claramente. Elas também evitarão escrever cartas ou e-mails, visto que não estarão dispostas a ficar desprestigiadas em público. Aqueles que não falam o idioma da rede ficarão excluídos.Não há uma forma simples de lidar com o problema do idioma. Algumas medidas poderiam ser úteis.n Um facilitador de rede poliglota: O facilitador da rede tem que estar ciente do problema do idioma e precisa contribuir para o entendimento mútuo. De maneira ideal, o facilitador deveria ser fluente em vários idiomas.n Redes regionais ou locais: As redes internacionais podem estabelecer sub-redes regionais ou locais em idiomas regionais e locais. A secretaria da rede deverá assegurar em colaboração com as redes regionais que os documentos básicos sejam traduzidos nos respectivos idiomas.n Um website com idiomas diferentes: As informações no website poderiam ser fornecidas em vários idiomas. Por exemplo, uma plataforma eletrônica de informações na Ásia foi estabelecida no idioma inglês. As visitas a esta plataforma só cresceram consideravelmente quando as informações foram fornecidas também nos idiomas nacionais. Entretanto, a tradução de todo o conteúdo de um website pode ser muito dispendiosa para algumas redes. Este problema pode ser tratado se a rede utilizar todas as suas conexões para encontrar um sócio regional que tenha os recursos necessários e que esteja disposto a traduzir os textos.n Grupos de discussão por e-mail em idiomas locais: Se as redes internacionais quiserem causar impacto em nível nacional e local, elas terão que introduzir grupos de discussão por e-mail em idiomas locais.As várias culturas representadas nas redes internacionais enriquecem seus conteúdos, contribuem para uma visão abrangente e integrada do mundo e tornam a rede muito fascinante. Há, entretanto, lados complexos da cultura que devem ser tratados também. Seria ingenuidade ignorá-los.Um aspecto que varia entre as culturas é o da senioridade e a distância do poder. Nas corporações ocidentais, por exemplo, a hierarquia tornou-se mais plana nos anos recentes, e a primazia do grupo sênior ou dos funcionários graduados seniores foi reduzida. Há até mesmo a tendência de gerentes mais jovens estarem em posições mais altas do que o grupo sênior.Ainda assim, em organizações mais hierárquicas como as burocracias governamentais e as organizações bilaterais e multilaterais, tanto quanto em alguns países, a questão da senioridade ainda é muito importante.Pessoas mais velhas nunca deveriam ser abertamente criticadas e, em especial, professores e catedráticos desfrutam de um prestígio que tem que ser respeitado.Um assunto similar é a distância do poder, e isto varia entre as culturas.Em países como a Suíça ou Suécia, ministros andam em transportes públicos e é possível encontrar um membro do governo em um espaço público. Nesses países, a distância do poder é mínima e as pessoas que detêm muito poder podem ser contatadas bem facilmente. Em outros países, entretanto, há claras demarcações entre as diferentes classes sociais. Pessoas poderosas não aparecem muito em público e as pessoas comuns têm grandes dificuldades em contatá-las. Isto pode até mesmo significar que as pessoas de uma classe social não falem ou trabalhem com pessoas de uma outra classe social.Os gerentes e membros da rede têm que estar cientes e ser capazes de lidar com a questão da senioridade e a distância do poder, tendo ainda que respeitar as diferenças culturais. Uma forma de estabelecer contato com funcionários graduados seniores é encontrar um abridor de portas ou mensageiro que apóie a rede e que possa ajudar. Para discutir novas idéias ou aprender com as falhas, a criação de espaços privados, como reuniões separadas durante conferências ou oficinas, pode também ser uma forma de lidar com a situação (F seção 4.3.2).Os usuários de redes também têm que estar cientes que podem ficar expostos ao racismo ou à discriminação social explícita ou subliminar que poderia afetar seus trabalhos consideravelmente. A conseqüência disto poderia ser que alguém negligencie ou desrespeite membros de uma rede, ou até mesmo se recuse a colaborar.Algumas redes internacionais têm tido a experiência de que a autopercepção de alguns países em relação a outros não facilita a colaboração e a troca nas redes no mesmo nível. Além disso, alguns países consideram os assuntos discutidos na rede irrelevantes para eles.Lidar com problemas de racismo, discriminação social ou uma percepção de excessiva autoconfiança é muito difícil, visto que crenças e valores percebidos encontram-se envolvidos. Os gerentes das redes e os facilitadores têm que lidar com esses assuntos de uma forma muito cuidadosa e com respeito. Eles deveriam tentar manter os canais de comunicação abertos e confiar nos fatos. O envolvimento de uma parte neutra como facilitadora às vezes ajuda. Em conflitos sérios, aconselhase o envolvimento de um mediador externo especializado.Uma situação que gerentes de mudanças e consultores enfrentam comumente é quando as pessoas dizem a eles que os melhoramentos ou as mudanças sugeridas não são possíveis ou não funcionam por não serem apropriadas ao contexto específico e aos hábitos culturais. Ainda assim, gerentes de mudanças experientes e consultores sabem que isto muitas vezes é uma desculpa para se evitar qualquer mudança de todo. A mudança sempre vem acompanhada da resistência, visto que as pessoas têm que modificar suas rotinas e seus moldes de trabalho familiares. Nesta situação, eles acham bem confortável se esconder atrás da 'cortina cultural'.Portanto, aconselha-se a quem trabalha em rede não se deixar convencer por estas desculpas. Os hábitos culturais e as tradições merecem muito respeito e são muito importantes. Entretanto, não devem ser aceitos como uma desculpa para se evitarem mudanças que terão que acontecer cedo ou tarde.Na vida diária, nos comunicamos o tempo todo e podemos ter a sensação de que sabemos como comunicar. Entretanto, a realidade em muitas redes nos conta uma história diferente. A comunicação efetiva tem que ser cuidadosamente treinada. Em especial, o uso de novas informações e das tecnologias de comunicação exige treinamento e capacitação.Em primeiro lugar, o gerente da rede, os funcionários da secretaria e os facilitadores dos fóruns de discussão por e-mail ou oficinas precisam de treinamento sobre o seguinte:n Como selecionar as ferramentas de comunicação certas.n Como usar as várias ferramentas de comunicação.n Como facilitar as discussões.n Como facilitar os fóruns de discussões por e-mail e os bate-papos on-line.n Como resolver conflitos.O treinamento da comunicação deve ser fornecido aos membros da rede também. Em especial isto se aplica ao uso das informações eletrônicas e às tecnologias de comunicação. O treinamento para os membros da rede poderia incluir o seguinte :n Como escrever e-mails concisos.n Como fazer transferências de textos, arquivos em PDF ou links para um website.n Como participar de fóruns de discussões por e-mail e bate-papos on-line.n Como fazer uma boa apresentação com o software apropriado.n Como apresentar uma declaração para um grupo de tal forma que as pessoas ouçam.n Como fazer um discurso público eficiente.n Como facilitar um grupo de trabalho em uma oficina.Para algumas redes ou membros de rede, pode ser muito dispendioso ou consumir muito tempo organizar ou freqüentar os cursos de treinamento. Ainda assim, há uma variedade de possibilidades para o treinamento dos funcionários da secretaria ou de outros membros da rede. O treinamento vai sempre exigir alguns recursos. No final, entretanto, a falta de treinamento será muito mais dispendiosa.Crie e aproveite as oportunidades para treinar os membros da rede como nos seguintes exemplos:n A secretaria da rede ou os membros poderiam escrever e publicar manuais e diretrizes simples e práticas.n De maneira ideal, os websites são estabelecidos de forma a não exigir explicações adicionais de como navegar. Seções de ajuda no website auxiliarão os visitantes menos experientes.n A secretaria da rede poderia organizar cursos de treinamento para os membros da rede. Com esses cursos, o conhecimento básico pode ser providenciado.n A secretaria da rede poderia encorajar os membros a freqüentar determinados cursos, selecionando os interessantes e dando informações sobre eles aos membros da rede.n Cursos on-line são geralmente mais baratos do que os presenciais, então, durante um período provisório, eles podem ser oferecidos sobre quase todos os temas.n Uma forma muito eficiente de fornecer treinamento é combiná-lo com eventos que aconteceriam de qualquer forma. Em oficinas, novos métodos poderiam ser introduzidos por um facilitador e testados durante a oficina. Durante as conferências, sessões de treinamento poderiam complementar a agenda.n Grupos de pares são muito eficazes para o treinamento: grupos de pessoas que gostariam de melhorar suas habilidades de comunicação e que se encontram frente a frente ou on-line. Nos grupos de pares, os membros têm uma chance de trocar experiências com os outros, apoiar uns aos outros e dar feedback.n As técnicas de comunicação também poderiam ser melhoradas através da ajuda de um profissional externo. Os membros da secretaria, em especial, poderiam se beneficiar trabalhando com um treinador externo.H oje em dia, várias ferramentas apóiam o compartilhamento da comunicação e das informações nas redes. Mais e mais novas informações e tecnologias da comunicação estão sendo usadas. Entretanto, os meios tradicionais tais como as reuniões e as oficinas permanecerão importantes.Esta seção descreve resumidamente as ferramentas eletrônicas e nãoeletrônicas mais importantes e os meios de comunicação, suas vantagens e desvantagens. A Seção 9.3 fornece algumas recomendações de como são escolhidas as ferramentas mais apropriadas. Tem ferramentas demais nesta rede...O telefone e, em especial, a tecnologia do telefone celular facilita a interação freqüente. As chamadas telefônicas são formas eficazes para comunicar, uma vez que um relacionamento é estabelecido. Elas são úteis para informações rápidas e urgentes, para discutir assuntos sensíveis que poderiam ser mal-entendidos se escritos por e-mail ou para conversar sobre assuntos confidenciais. Para mensagens e lembretes muito curtos, o SMS (serviço de mensagem curta) ou a mensagem de textos estão também sendo cada vez mais usados.Hoje em dia, a nova tecnologia 'Voice-over-Internet Protocol' (VOIP) fornece uma oportunidade de fazer chamadas telefônicas pela Internet a custo baixo, desta forma revolucionando a telecomunicação. Com serviços como o Skype, (www.skype.com) são possíveis chamadas telefônicas de graça, e as chamadas telefônicas a longa distância, caras, não mais impedem a comunicação freqüente entre os membros de rede.As conferências por telefone são uma alternativa eficiente e barata para as reuniões presenciais. Entretanto, não deve haver muitos participantes. Quando de cinco a sete participantes comparecem a uma conferência por telefone, a coordenação se torna difícil. O que é válido para as reuniões presenciais, também o é para as conferências por telefone. A preparação e a facilitação cuidadosa são cruciais.Os e-mails tornaram-se um meio de comunicação amplamente utilizado e até mesmo começaram a substituir as comunicações postais. Os emails fornecem possibilidades excelentes de interação barata e rápida, a disseminação de informações ou a coleta de feedback. Entretanto, o e-mail apresenta problemas. Por exemplo, os funcionários seniores ou tomadores de decisão ficam relutantes em usar os e-mails visto que suas declarações são escritas e podem ser enviadas muito rapidamente para uma grande audiência. Uma outra desvantagem dos e-mails é o anonimato, tanto quanto a linguagem cada vez mais informal. As pessoas ficam geralmente hesitantes em responder aos e-mails se não conhecerem o remetente.Além desses problemas, as pessoas têm cada vez mais dificuldades em lidar com o número crescente de e-mails recebidos todos os dias. O spam -e-mails de promoção -inundando as caixas postais, agrava este problema.Para uma correspondência de e-mail suave, as seguintes regras básicas da boa correspondência por e-mail deveriam ser consideradas:n Os e-mails devem ter linhas de assuntos curtos e informativos.n O texto deve ser curto e bem estruturado.n Não lide com muitos assuntos diferentes em um e-mail; é melhor escrever dois e-mails.n Nunca escreva declarações insultantes em e-mails e esteja cientes de que os e-mails podem ser espalhados facilmente.n A resolução de conflitos através de e-mails normalmente não funciona; as reuniões presenciais são necessárias.n Inclua nas assinaturas dos e-mails seus endereços e números de telefone.n Responda a seus e-mails em 48 horas. Se você não souber as respostas ou se não tiver tempo para responder, informe ao remetente e dê uma indicação de quando responderá.A newsletter eletrônica é uma forma eficiente de informar com regularidade os membros e os stakeholders da rede sobre as atividades em andamento, eventos interessantes ou outras informações relevantes.As newsletters não devem ser mais longas do que duas ou três páginas impressas. A seção de cada tópico tratado não deve ser mais longa do que 10 linhas. Inclua 'web links' com detalhes de outros contatos, mostrando onde estarão disponíveis. Toda newsletter deve conter uma renúncia e instruções sobre como se desligar ou desistir.O alcance das newsletters diminuiu devido à crescente inundação de emails spam. Isto ocasionou o uso de filtros contra spam, e as newsletters eletrônicas são bloqueadas com freqüência. Muitos dos filtros contra o spam podem ser ajustados a fim de que as newsletters não fiquem de fora, mas muitos usuários de Internet não aplicam esta facilidade. O número crescente de newsletters eletrônicas também reduziu seu alcance e muitas nem são mais lidas. Apesar desses problemas, se forem bem editadas e atraentes, as newsletters permanecem uma forma eficaz de fornecer informações regulares a um grupo amplo de pessoas.Muitas redes também usam os grupos de discussão por e-mail para se comunicarem com seus membros. Os e-mails são enviados a um servidor que distribui as mensagens a todos os membros inscritos. Desta forma todos os envolvidos na rede podem seguir as discussões. Uma desvantagem dos grupos de discussão por e-mail é que muitas vezes eles geram numerosos e-mails que não são lidos. A facilitação técnica dos grupos de discussão por e-mail assegurando discussões de alta qualidade pode resolver este dilema. Os grupos de discussão por e-mail são considerados bem comuns para somente algumas pessoas participarem ativamente. Os membros restantes -também denominados de \"lurkers\" -participam passivamente lendo as contribuições. No entanto, esses \"lurkers\" têm uma importante função a desempenhar visto que fornecem informações, por exemplo, em reuniões presenciais, sobre recentes idéias. Alguns podem até se tornar participantes ativos tão logo se familiarizem com a comunidade participante do grupo de discussão.Os tomadores de decisão são normalmente \"lurkers\" em grupos de discussão por e-mail. Eles não participam ativamente das discussões, mas delegam a tarefa às suas equipes de apoio. Uma das razões para isto é que os funcionários graduados governamentais, em especial, relutam em participar em discussões eletrônicas visto que suas posições são visíveis. No entanto, alguns deles seguem as discussões por e-mail passivamente e se mantêm atualizados desta forma. O impacto desta participação passiva não deve ser subestimado.Uma outra forma de compartilhar de informações e experiências é o bate-papo on-line. Os membros da rede se comunicam em tempo real no website da rede em uma sala de bate-papo virtual. Quando vários membros participam de um bate-papo on-line, devem estar preparados, e a conversa tem que ser facilitada cuidadosamente, senão o resultado será confuso. Em redes internacionais, as diferenças de tempo precisam ser consideradas.Os bate-papos on-line podem ser uma forma eficaz de entrar em contato com especialistas e de entrevistá-los sem incorrer em altos custos. Uma rede pode convidar um especialista para responder às perguntas dos membros sobre um tema específico.A vantagem dos bate-papos on-line em comparação com as conferências telefônicas é que tudo é escrito. As minutas são realmente registradas no processo. Entretanto, muitas pessoas não estão acostumadas a bater-papo on-line.Os websites são formas efetivas de fornecer informações a uma grande audiência. O acesso à Internet está crescendo rapidamente -nos países em desenvolvimento também -e o número de usuários da Internet cresce em nível mundial. No entanto, as redes devem estar cientes de que o acesso à Internet ainda não está disponível em muitos lugares, ou se estiver é muito lento.O que é válido para publicações impressas também é verdadeiro para os websites: as informações devem ser fornecidas de uma forma atraente. O website deve ter uma estrutura simples, e os textos devem ser escritos de forma concisa. As redes podem ajudar seus grupos focais específicos a acharem informações estruturando os websites adequadamente: com páginas desenhadas para tomadores de decisão, patrocinadores e contribuintes, profissionais, especialistas ou a mídia.Os websites devem ser atualizados regularmente, e o planejamento dos recursos para que isto seja feito é absolutamente necessário. Um website desatualizado é pior do que nenhum website. Assim, os gerentes dos websites devem manter as informações atualizadas e enviar lembretes a outros membros responsáveis pela atualização das informações. Os websites se tornaram os \"cartões de visitas\" das redes e devem ser tratados como tal.Os mecanismos de compensação (CHM) são abordagens para o compartilhamento de informações e comumente são denominados pelo jargão do gestão de recursos naturais (F seção 10.1). Os CHM usados para a implementação de acordos ambientais multilaterais como a Convenção sobre a Biodiversidade são ferramentas para coletar, validar, armazenar e disseminar dados e informações de uma forma efetiva e eficiente. Os CHM facilitam o compartilhamento de conhecimento e de idéias entre as partes envolvidas.Os mecanismos de compensação consistem de uma central de informações (hub) que facilita a troca de informações entre pontos focais nacionais e nódulos subnacionais (veja a figura 5). O hub de informações centrais mantém a plataforma para assegurar transparência, fornecer acesso mais rápido às informações e aos dados e reduzir a duplicação.Os pontos focais nacionais são responsáveis pela produção, entrega e manutenção de dados enquanto detêm total responsabilidade e propriedade das informações fornecidas.Figura 6: Hub de informações e pontos focais dos CHMHub de Informação Regional Nódulos sub-nacionais Os mecanismos de compensação têm algumas características comuns:n Os CHM criam acesso para dados consolidados e informações, capacitando os usuários a contatar diretamente as fontes de informações. Os CHM fornecem métodos de busca sofisticada, de questionamentos e de recuperação.n A organização dos CHM é descentralizada. Os vários nódulos dos CHM fornecem informações, e o hub de informações centrais é basicamente responsável pela facilitação, coordenação e controle da qualidade.n Os pontos focais são responsáveis pela produção e manutenção de dados e de informações detendo total responsabilidade e propriedade.n Os CHM têm padrões comuns para a estruturação de dados e das informações. Isto facilita a criação de mecanismos de busca eficazes e permite a comparação e análise de dados e informações.n Os CHM reúnem várias organizações com um objetivo comum e, desta forma, facilitam o trabalho na rede. Os CHM também capacitam os tomadores de decisão a tomarem decisões bem informadas pela coleta e consolidação das informações.n O sucesso dos CHM depende da visão comum de todas as organizações envolvidas de que o compartilhamento de dados e de informações cria o valor agregado.O sucesso dos CHM depende de alguns pontos cruciais:n Os CHM têm que ser baseados em acordos formais definindo a provisão, o uso e a manutenção de dados e de informações.n Os pontos focais têm que ser incluídos no estabelecimento dos CHM, e os acordos formais devem ser concluídos no início.n Os dados e as informações fornecidas pelos CHM devem satisfazer as necessidades dos usuários que precisam ser identificadas antes do estabelecimento dos CHM. Se as necessidades mudarem com o tempo, os dados e as informações fornecidas deverão ser ajustados.n Os CHM exigem recursos suficientes e um gerente de conteúdo dedicado.Uma atividade principal essencial das redes que permanece são os contatos frente a frente. Misturando-os com novas informações e com as tecnologias da comunicação sua eficácia pode ser melhorada.As publicações impressas são de um formato amplamente usado pelas redes para fornecer informações sobre suas atividades. As publicações impressas desfrutam de um alto grau de credibilidade, mas a abundância das publicações levou a uma situação na qual algumas delas já não são mais lidas. Muitas pessoas não têm tempo de ler relatórios extensos. Então as publicações devem ser escritas de uma forma concisa e compreensível, sendo que a linguagem técnica e as abreviações devem ser evitadas, e os textos devem ser ilustrados com exemplos, gráficos e figuras.Há uma ampla variedade de publicações impressas: livros, relatórios, informativos, livretos, documentações, resumos de políticas, panfletos, newsletters, manuais e diretrizes. A escolha do formato da publicação dependerá do grupo focal. Os cientistas ou especialistas preferem um livro ou um relatório que seja razoavelmente detalhado. Entretanto, os tomadores de decisão preferem documentos curtos, brochuras, resumos de políticas ou newsletters que dão a eles relatos curtos das informações. Um bom tamanho para esses documentos seria o de duas páginas. Relatórios mais longos deveriam sempre conter um resumo executivo realçando as mensagens mais importantes na publicação.Finalmente, em muitos casos, é muito útil o fornecimento de versões eletrônicas das publicações, como arquivos em PDF que estão disponíveis para transferência de dados (downloading) do website de uma rede. Esta forma de disseminação é muito barata, e os interessados podem baixar (download) as publicações a qualquer hora.Em muitas situações, fatos ou dados estatísticos sobre as organizações e as redes ficam faltando. Tais informações são úteis para promover uma idéia ou justificar um argumento. Em especial, é difícil mostrar o im-pacto das redes e o que elas conquistaram, visto que muitas vezes não há correlação direta entre as atividades de uma rede e os resultados e impactos alcançados. Uma forma prática de superar esse problema e convencer os tomadores de decisão da utilidade de uma rede é contar histórias de sucesso.O relato de histórias não é somente uma forma eficaz de convencer os tomadores de decisão; é também útil para o compartilhamento de idéias práticas e exemplos entre os membros. As redes devem coletar histórias de sucesso, anotá-las e usá-las em suas comunicações (F seção 10.1).Uma outra forma eficaz do compartilhamento de informações e de conhecimento em um ou vários temas específicos em redes formais é através das comunidades de prática (CoP). Como definido na seção 2.1, uma comunidade de prática se refere a um grupo de pessoas com um interesse comum em uma área específica de conhecimento ou competência ou que estejam dispostas a trabalhar e aprender juntas durante um período de tempo e a compartilhar seus conhecimentos, práticas e experiência.A troca entre os membros CoP acontece em reuniões e oficinas, em plataformas de discussões eletrônicas e em espaços de equipes, ou, de forma ideal, em ambos: presencial e eletrônica.As CoPs são uma forma valiosa do compartilhamento de conhecimento e de aprendizado em redes formais pelas seguintes razões:n Asseguram o acesso dos membros a informações relevantes e ao conhecimento de temas específicos.n Contribuem para o aprendizado e para a formação da capacidade dos membros.n Ajudam a melhorar a qualidade das informações e do conhecimento disponível na rede.n Melhoram a eficácia conectando os pares.n Aumentam o potencial para inovação.Antes do lançamento de uma comunidade de prática, as seguintes questões devem ser tratadas:n Qual é o propósito básico da CoP?n Que membros ou stakeholders da rede estariam interessados em participar na CoP?n Você tem um grupo principal de membros com recursos suficientes para participar ativamente na CoP?n Há uma pessoa habilidosa e com bastante conhecimento, disposta a atuar como facilitadora da CoP?Familiarize-se com as CoPs consultando os muitos recursos disponíveis ou freqüentando um curso de treinamento (F seção de recursos 10.1).Há uma série de coisas que você deve considerar quando iniciar uma CoP para aumentar as chances de sucesso. Você pode evitar armadilhas levando em conta as seguintes ações que você Deve e Não Deve fazer: n Assegurar recursos suficientes para o espaço de trabalho eletrônico, as oficinas e a facilitação ou outras atividades.n Usar as tecnologias mais apropriadas para o grupo.n Capacitar os membros a fim de que eles sejam capazes de usar a plataforma eletrônica.n Promover a facilitação de qualidade que sustentará a força viva, encorajar a participação e promover a identidade da comunidade além de construir a confiança nela.n Criar um código de conduta para evitar o mau comportamento e ajudar a formar a confiança.n Comunicar o propósito e o valor da CoP através de histórias ou anedotas.n Resumir as discussões de tempos em tempos e tentar desenvolver resultados tangíveis.n Realizar reuniões presenciais e iniciar eventos comunitários além das discussões on-line.n Tentar forçar uma CoP quando não há membros comprometidos ou interesse no tema.n Iniciar pelo estabelecimento de um espaço eletrônico para a equipe e então posteriormente tentar encorajar os membros (Este é o engano do \"construa e eles compartilharão do conhecimento\")! n Facilitação diretiva, controladora ou dominante.n Esperar resultados imediatos -CoPs precisam de tempo para crescer.n Sucumbir ao excesso de formalidades ou excesso de estruturação, que podem matar a CoP.n 'Regulamentar' a participação -as pessoas só participarão se virem o valor.A organização das oficinas e conferências é uma atividade muito importante da maioria das redes e é usada para reunir um grande número de participantes. A maioria das oficinas e conferências tem uma agenda oculta.Em geral, o propósito oficial é tratar de um tópico específico ou tema com apresentações, estudos de caso, grupos de trabalho e mesas redondas. Entretanto, a maioria das oficinas e conferências tem uma agenda oculta que comumente é mais importante do que a oficial. Elas são um meio excelente de ligação com outros membros e stakeholders da rede para compartilharem idéias e discutir projetos em andamento em reuniões separadas. Além disso, as oficinas e conferências são um modo eficaz de as redes apresentarem suas idéias aos stakeholders e envolvê-los nas discussões.As conferências servem principalmente como um meio de se obter uma visão geral sobre certos temas ou para conscientizar uma audiência maior. Para discussões mais profundas e interação intensiva as oficinas autônomas com um pequeno círculo de participantes são mais eficazes.O que é verdadeiro para as reuniões deve também ser considerado na organização das oficinas e conferências. Elas devem ser cuidadosamente planejadas e organizadas. Os melhores resultados são atingidos se métodos diferentes, inovativos de interação forem usados (F seção 6.2). Preveja tempo livre suficiente e espaço para a socialização e para contatos informais na oficina ou programa da conferência para que sejam produzidos valiosos desmembramentos.Os eventos como os concertos, exibições de arte ou tipos diferentes de desempenho realizados ao vivo são um meio eficaz de conscientizar os stakeholders e o público em geral. Na maioria das vezes, os eventos não são somente usados para transmitir uma mensagem (política), mas também para reunir apoio para certos temas ou para arrecadação de fundos. A organização desses eventos proporciona a oportunidade de convidar tomadores de decisão importantes e conscientizá-los da rede.As viagens de campo e as excursões proporcionam os meios de explorar exemplos práticos das boas práticas ou de problemas com membros da rede, stakeholders interessados e tomadores de decisão. O contato direto transmite muita informação em um curto período de tempo e faz com que os participantes fiquem cientes do que deveria ser feito ou evitado. As viagens de campo podem produzir resultados mais rápidos do que discussões ou relatórios longos.As redes deveriam tirar vantagem da mídia não somente para promover a rede (F seção 6.3) e levantar a conscientização pública, mas também para compartilhar e disseminar as informações entre uma ampla audiência.A transmissão de rádio mostrou-se um excelente mecanismo de fornecimento de informações, especialmente em áreas sem acesso à Internet.As rádios comunitárias desempenham um papel importante para alcançar o povo comum (F seção 10.1). As rádios comunitárias respondem às necessidades da comunidade à qual elas servem e contribuem para o seu desenvolvimento de maneira progressiva, promovendo a mudança social. Elas promovem a democratização da comunicação, facilitando a participação da comunidade na comunicação. Esta participação pode variar de acordo com o contexto em que a rádio está operando.Há exemplos bem-sucedidos de redes internacionais se comunicando através das rádios comunitárias, por exemplo, o projeto piloto do Fórum da Montanha e da Rádio Sagarmatha no Nepal.A variedade das ferramentas de comunicação torna difícil escolher a certa. Uma série de assuntos deve ser considerada na seleção das ferramentas de comunicação apropriadas.As pessoas pensam, compartilham, aprendem e se comunicam de formas diferentes. Algumas preferem os meios de comunicação 'tradicionais' como contatos presenciais ou escrevendo cartas, de tal forma que as declarações podem ser preparadas cuidadosamente. Outras preferem as novas técnicas de comunicação tais como as chamadas telefônicas ou via e-mails.Apesar das novas informações e das técnicas de comunicação, os contatos presenciais permanecem importantes. Tais contatos presenciais são essenciais para o estabelecimento de relacionamentos confiáveis, para as resoluções de conflitos, a discussão de temas complexos ou a exploração de questões com maior profundidade.As condições especiais dos países em desenvolvimento devem ser consideradas na seleção das ferramentas de comunicação. Muitas pessoas não estão ainda familiarizadas com as novas tecnologias de informação e de comunicação e com o estilo menos hierárquico de interação por e-mail, e isto se aplica em especial à equipe sênior e aos tomadores de decisão. Desta forma, elas ficam relutantes em usar as novas tecnologias da comunicação. Ironicamente, apenas os funcionários mais altos têm o direito ao acesso direto à Internet, e isto limita a eficiência dos funcionários juniores. Por último, o acesso à Internet ainda pode ser vagaroso, não-confiável, ou simplesmente muito caro. Alguns países em desenvolvimento estão se modernizando rapidamente, mas as áreas rurais em especial muitas vezes ficam para trás.Os custos se tornam um problema para a participação em oficinas e conferências internacionais. O comparecimento ainda é muito caro para muitas pessoas. Felizmente, de forma geral é possível obter ajuda financeira para aqueles genuinamente interessados em participar.Os meios apropriados e as ferramentas para a comunicação dependem do objetivo e da natureza do relacionamento. Quando se trata da exploração de um tema em profundidade ou do desenvolvimento de projetos complexos, as oficinas são indispensáveis. O feedback rápido e as idéias podem ser coletadas facilmente por e-mail ou em grupos de discussão por e-mail. Para estabelecer um novo relacionamento, uma carta formal é mais apropriada do que um e-mail. Uma vez que o relacionamento esteja estabelecido, uma chamada telefônica informal ou um e-mail será mais rápido e mais fácil. Entretanto, divergências ou conflitos são preferivelmente resolvidos em reuniões presenciais.Todas essas considerações sugerem que não há uma regra de ouro governando quais dessas ferramentas deveriam ser usadas. Uma combinação de ferramentas é o melhor modo de se comunicar em uma rede, e a melhor ferramenta pode ser escolhida para se encaixar aos objetivos e situações específicas. Considerar que as pessoas pensam, compartilham, aprendem e se comunicam de formas diferentes. Fazer contatos regulares presenciais com os membros principais e stakeholders-chave. Considerar que o acesso à Internet ainda é vagaroso e caro em muitos países em desenvolvimento, e alternativas deverão ser fornecidas. Fornecer ferramentas e formas de comunicação mais baratas do que as oficinas e conferências internacionais. Escolher as ferramentas apropriadas para a comunicação de acordo com o objetivo e a natureza do relacionamento. Usar uma combinação de ferramentas para informações e comunicações gerais. Informações eletrônicas e ferramentas de comunicaçãoInformações profundas sobre certos temas.Boas técnicas de escrita, edição, canais de distribuição.Exemplos práticos e histórias Para ilustrar as mensagens e convencer as pessoas.Técnicas de contar histórias, e técnicas de edição por escrito.Baixo, moderado se escrito.Compartilhamento de informações, conhecimento e prática, e aprender junto em uma área específica de conhecimento ou competência.Técnicas de facilitação muito boas; recursos suficientes para facilitação e participação.E-mails bem baixos, workshops caros.Para apresentações, discussões formais e informais, formando e mantendo os relacionamentos.Boa organização e técnicas de facilitaçãoEventos Para chamar a atenção de um público mais amplo.Boas técnicas de organização.Para visualizar problemas, para criar propriedade.Boas técnicas de organização.Mídia Para chamar a atenção de um público maior e de tomadores de decisão, disseminação e compartilhamento de informações, em especial também com o povo comum.Experiência em lidar e usar a mídia.Forma ou ferramenta Objetivo Pré-requisitos CustosPresenciais ou ferramentas combinadas e formas de informação e de comunicação 10 Fontes de Informação para Redes E sta seção cita algumas fontes de informação selecionadas para o trabalho em rede, tais como livros úteis, publicações, kits de ferramentas e websites. As fontes são separadas de acordo com os temas e citados em ordem alfabética.Para estabelecer, gerenciar ou avaliar um trabalho em rede, você pode precisar do apoio de um consultor externo. Na seção 10.2, é fornecida uma lista de verificações, contendo os mais importantes elementos de Termos de Referência para um consultor externo.Mai energia, por favor! Precisamos de mais links... Plano de negócios para a rede. Nova estratégia para a rede. Desenho e operação da rede, website ou eventos presenciais.Descrever as tarefas específicas que os consultores têm que realizar. Realizar um estudo de mercado como input para o plano de negócios. Testar a demanda e as expectativas de membros atuais e potenciais. Analisar a composição necessária e os aspectos estratégicos dos membros. Identificar e preparar o plano de gerenciamento das informações e os meios de comunicação. Definir os componentes estratégicos e operacionais da rede. Desenhar e colocar em operação o website. Desenhar esquemas de promoção e incentivos para a rede.Descrever os métodos que o consultor deveria usar.  ","tokenCount":"29413"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"03c1148afa1bae6dd92d4ad9b81d9540","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/abfc81eb-cf27-4451-aafc-888b12b0b226/retrieve","id":"-1355341881"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2af7563e-e028-4218-a1f3-41686f63ffb5","pagecount":"1","content":"The study was conducted in Africa RISING operational areas of Hadiya (SNNPR), Bale (Oromia), North Shewa (Amhara) and South Tigray zones (Tigray). Data was collected using expertise workshop and Key Informant discussion. ArcGIS was used to map the diffused innovations.We acknowledge the financial support from USAID in Washington to Africa RISING project, and funders for Mixed Farming Systems Initiative (SI-MFS). We also thank all who assisted the field study.3. Methods/approachesMost Africa RISING validated innovations are scaled and covered wider districts. Thus, all concerned public and private institutions should be engaged to sustain; and further scaling, marketing and improving the innovations for better economical, social and environmental uses.Africa RISING validated and facilitated scaling of more than 31 crop-livestock-NRM innovations in Amhara, Tigray, Oromia and SNNP regions for the last ten years. Eighty-seven (87) percent the scaled innovations could diffuse widely in different areas.The most diffused innovations:• Improved enset, avocado and potato -Hadiya.• Improved bread wheat, oat/vetch, feeding trough -North Shewa.• Bread wheat and feeding trough -South Tigray.• Bread wheat, rope and washer, and multipurpose 2-wheel tractor (only with pump modality) -Oromia region. • Driving factors for scaling: Crops-better yield, disease resistance, adaptation to wider agroecology and familiarity to the varieties; forages-better biomass, nutrition and palatability; and NRM-easy to use and multifunctionality.","tokenCount":"210"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"94594c2f974871d91881eb3aa609c005","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c9639a49-2bbe-4bff-bb69-5310b40c296b/retrieve","id":"385666514"},"keywords":["Nutrition-sensitive","in-kind transfers","food security","inflation"],"sieverID":"1681653f-9889-4506-bd9d-91cf99da9957","pagecount":"46","content":"in 1975, provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition. IFPRI's strategic research aims to foster a climate-resilient and sustainable food supply; promote healthy diets and nutrition for all; build inclusive and efficient markets, trade systems, and food industries; transform agricultural and rural economies; and strengthen institutions and governance. Gender is integrated in all the Institute's work. Partnerships, communications, capacity strengthening, and data and knowledge management are essential components to translate IFPRI's research from action to impact. The Institute's regional and country programs play a critical role in responding to demand for food policy research and in delivering holistic support for country-led development. IFPRI collaborates with partners around the world.The rise in global food prices in 2021-2023 triggered a major expansion of in-kind as well as cashbased social protection programs, and has brought additional urgency to understanding the effectiveness of in-kind transfers to support both household food security and nutritional needs. In response to the inflationary shock triggered by the Russian-Ukraine war, 178 countries announced or implemented 1,333 initiatives and responses between December 2022 and May 2023 (Gentilini et al., 2023). In-kind transfers and food distribution programs remain important components of social safety nets in both high-and low-income countries, and in-kind transfers continue to reach more people than cash transfers (Gentilini et al., 2023). In particular, during periods of high inflation, beneficiaries in inflationary environments strongly prefer the certainty of in-kind benefits (e.g., Hirvonen and Hoddinott, 2021;Berkouwer et al., 2021). Yet, economists have generally been skeptical of in-kind transfers, partly due to high administrative costs, but also because of their distortionary impact on household consumption (Currie and Gahvari, 2008;Cunha, 2014;Hidrobo et al., 2014;Gentilini, 2016;Aker, 2017;Alderman et al., 2017;Hoddinott et al., 2018;Schwab, 2020;Hirvonen and Hoddinott, 2021).Distortionary impacts caused by in-kind transfers of calorie dense staple food items are major challenges in the 38% of low-and-middle-income countries such as Egypt which suffer from a double burden of malnutrition characterized by high rate of under-nutrition (stunting, micronutrient deficiencies) coinciding with high rates of over-nutrition (Popkin et al., 2020). Indeed, previous studies suggests that diet choices in Egypt have already been distorted due to national subsidy programs for bread, rice, oil, and sugar (Ecker et al., 2016). Egypt has an estimated childhood stunting rate of 22.3% (United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) et al., 2021) and obesity rate of 29.5% in males and 49.5% in females (Aboulghate et al., 2021). Irondeficiency anemia is also a significant public health problem in Egypt, with a prevalence of 47.2% in mothers and 39.6% in preschool children (Tawfik et al., 2015). The economics consequences of lowered productivity due to the double burden of nutrition are significant (e.g., Shekar and Popkin, 2020). In Egypt, the cost of burden of obesity has been estimated at 62 billion EGP annually and the present value total cost of anemia has been estimated to be 2.4% of GDP (Horton and Ross, 2003).The degree to which in-kind transfers change household dietary quality depends on the transfer design and context. Evidence from Ecuador, Mexico and Yemen show that compared to equivalently valued cash, in-kind transfers or subsidies of staple foods result in less diverse diets (Hidrobo et al., 2014;Cunha, 2014;Schwab, 2020) while voucher programs in Niger and Bangladesh showed increases in dietary diversity and linear growth for children (Hoddinott et al., 2018;Hoddinott et al., 2020). However, evidence on optimal design of interventions to address food insecurity in the context of a double burden of malnutrition is lacking (Nunget et al., 2020).Most studies on the role of in-kind food transfers to mitigate the adverse impact of shocks come from evaluations of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the United States (e.g., Swann, 2017;Schanzenbach, 2023;Restrepo, 2023). The lack of evidence on design impacts on nutrition outcomes is particularly urgent the case in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, where in-kind food distribution and subsidies are cornerstones of the social contract between states and societies (El-Haddad, 2020;Breisinger et al., 2023).The increase in the use of in-kind benefits in inflationary contexts after the Russia-Ukraine war has also brought renewed attention to the longstanding debate on the choice between cash and in-kind transfers (e.g., Currie and Gahvari, 2008;Cunha, 2014;Hidrobo et al., 2014;Gentilini, 2016;Aker, 2017;Alderman et al., 2017;Hoddinott et al., 2018;Schwab, 2020;Hirvonen and Hoddinott, 2021). Although several countries have introduced major public policy measures in response to the inflationary shock triggered by the Russian-Ukraine war, empirical evidence on their effectiveness has yet to come (Gentilini et al., 2023).In this paper, we evaluate the absolute as well as relative impacts of direct distribution of a standard \"staple-heavy\" food basket and an updated \"nutrition-sensitive\" food basket on a range of outcomes, including household food and nutrition security, and preferences for cash versus inkind transfers. The \"nutrition sensitive\" food box responds to the micronutrient deficiencies and lack of sufficient healthy diets in Egypt (e.g., Ecker et al., 2016;MOHP, NNI, UNICEF, 2017) by including more diverse and nutrient dense food items designed to meet the individual micro and macro-nutrients including carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals.The context we implement these alternative food distribution interventions also allows us to specifically address the use of in-kind transfers in inflationary contexts to support food security.Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, food inflation in Egypt tripled from about 20 percent in February 2022 to about 63 percent in February 2023 (CBE, 2023). Besides quantifying the impact of these alternative variants of food distribution interventions on households' food and nutrition security, we also evaluate whether access to these food boxes and exposure to the inflationary shocks shape households' preferences for in-kind versus cash transfers.We implement a clustered randomized control trial approach at the village level. We randomly assigned communities to: (i) \"nutrition-sensitive\" food box, (ii) \"staple-heavy\" food box, and (iii) control group. We evaluate impacts on dietary quality and dietary intake indicators as well as perceived food insecurity experience as measured by the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). We also evaluate the impact of joint exposure to the food baskets and inflationary shocks on households' preference for in-kind and cash transfers. We finally explore potential heterogeneous impacts across various types of households.We find that the nutrition-sensitive food distribution cushions declines in dietary quality and food security observed in the control group in the inflationary context while the staple-heavy food box does not significantly protect ultra-poor households' food and nutrition security. The nutrition-sensitive food box increases household dietary diversity by about 9 percent, while also increasing energy, protein, and iron intake by 12, 13, and 19 percent, respectively. On the other hand, the staple-heavy food box does not significantly increase macro and micro-nutrient intake.We also find that experience with the food boxes increases households' preference for in-kind transfers, more so among households experiencing high inflation rates and among those households not covered by other food and cash transfer programs.Our findings have important implications for the design of interventions to cushion inflationary pressure and protect household food security. Our study provides rigorous empirical evidence that a well-designed and nutrition-sensitive in-kind food transfer can effectively cushion the adverse of impact of inflationary shock on dietary quality and food security. The lack of effectiveness of the staple-heavy food boxes suggests that the design and content of in-kind transfers are crucial when considering this policy option. Finally, our findings show that access to nutrition-sensitive in-kind transfers can shape consumers' preferences for in-kind versus cash transfers. Indeed, the results show that the nutrition-sensitive food boxes are not only more effective in improving dietary quality, but they also increased households' preference for in-kind transfers over cash transfers. These additional insights on beneficiary preferences are important inputs for designing alternative modalities to deliver social protection programs, especially in times of economic crisis.The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is particularly vulnerable to shocks to world food prices because of its heavy dependence on food imports (Abay et al., 2023;Arndt et al., 2023). Egypt is the largest wheat importer in the world, of which about 85 percent come from Russia and Ukraine (UN Comtrade, 2022). The Russian-Ukraine war triggered significant inflationary pressure on the Egyptian economy. Immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine, Egypt's domestic inflation started accelerating sharply, and deterioration in terms of trade forced the government to introduce sequential devaluation measures, resulting in weakening of the local currency by more than 100 percent since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine war (see Figure 1). These shocks have pushed Egypt to be among the top ten countries with the highest food price inflation worldwide (World Bank Group, 2023). Food inflation started with about 20 percent immediately before the war (February 2022), but it tripled to about 63 percent in February 2023.Similarly, overall national inflation started with six percent in January 2022 and soared to 34 percent in March 2023 (CBE, 2023). 1 This is the highest inflation rate in several decades, food inflation being the major driver (CAPMAS, 2023). Although the rural and urban inflation rates are comparable, food and annual inflation rates vary across food groups and governorates.In response to the unfolding inflationary pressure, the government of Egypt committed to maintaining the price of subsidized staple food items-particularly bread-unchanged, with the government bearing the additional costs. The government also increased transfer values and expanded registration for the existing cash transfer program Takaful and Karama. The Egyptian Food Bank (EFB), one of the largest philanthropic organizations in Egypt, also reacted to the inflation by scaling up their food distribution programs to support ultra-poor households. The next section describes the EFB's General Feeding Program (GFP).1 Overall national inflation reached 34 percent in March 2023 while food inflation peaked at 62 percent in March 2023.The Egyptian Food Bank (EFB) is one of the largest nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations in Egypt, which specializes on addressing food insecurity. While it receives some in-kind donations and government support, EFB primarily operates based on cash donations from individual donors. These funds are used by the EFB to buy food supplies that are then packaged in its own facilities and delivered to households through a vast network of community-based organizations (CBOs). On average, EFB distributes about 130 thousand food boxes to eligible households in all Egypt's governorates every month. 23   The General Feeding Program (GFP) is EFB's flagship and oldest program. It aims to protect the most vulnerable households from hunger and food insecurity by providing access to nutritious foods that meet their dietary needs and preferences. The program targets ultra-poor households that have fallen into extreme poverty and are unable to sustainably afford food with the required calories and dietary nutrients. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) 2020 census, this category makes up 4.5 percent of the Egyptian population. Eligible households include female headed households with no stable income, households whose breadwinner is an elderly person with no social security (pension) payments, and households whose breadwinner suffers from a chronic illness or incapacitating disability. Beneficiaries are selected using a community-based targeting, in which partner local Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) nominate deserving households who in turn are further screened by EFB's case workers. To be eligible for the program, the primary beneficiary must be either divorced, separated, widowed, abandoned, wife of a prisoner (who is serving a long sentence), and is under the age of 60. Additionally, the beneficiary must either be (i) a caregiver to children under the age of 21 and/or a person with disability regardless of his/her age; or (ii) a caregiver to an unmarried daughter above the age of 21 and other children under the age of 21; or (iii) a caregiver to children under the age of 21, has one or more child older than the age of 21, and is married and resided outside the household. A secondary preference is given to unmarried, divorced and/or widowed women (under the age of 60) who have no children, live on their own, and are unable to earn an income.Beneficiary households receive a monthly food box containing non-perishable culturally relevant food items such as rice, pasta, cooking oil, flour, lentils, tomato pasta, salt, white cheese, and fava beans. The original food box mimics the national food subsidy program in Egypt, Tamween, and hence includes energy-dense staples and can be called \"staple-heavy\" box (see Figure A1). With the objective of updating the design of this staple-heavy food box, the EFB is piloting a new food package designed to meet the individual micro and macro-nutrients including carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals. As shown in Table A1 and compared to the staple-heavy food box, the new \"nutrition-sensitive\" food box almost triples the monthly protein and quadruples the iron content per family unit.In close coordination with EFB, the research team designed a Cluster Randomized Control Trial (CRCT) at the CBO level to measure the absolute and relative impacts of the newly designed \"nutrition-sensitive\" box. Starting from the universe of all villages or urban census units in Egypt stratified by governorate and urban/ rural status, we randomly selected 250 villages (or urban census units 4 ) using sampling proportional to strata size. Since EFB uses Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) as recruiting partners, villages or census units with no partner organizations, or with very potential beneficiaries, were dropped and replaced. Within each strata, the resulting list of potential CBOs were randomly assigned to one of five (treatment) arms: (i) Nutritionsensitive box; (ii) Nutrition-sensitive box and nutrition messaging; (iii) Staple-heavy box; (iv) Nutrition-messaging only; while the last and fifth arm serves as control (see Figure 2). The items in each box and their corresponding nutrition components are given in Figure A1 and Table A5 in the Appendix. These treatment assignments lasted from the baseline survey until the midline survey, after which the control group communities and were included in the food distribution program. In each CBO, 16 households were randomly selected from the households identified as eligible to benefit from expansion of the General Feeding Program during a screening conducted simultaneously with the baseline survey, resulting in a study sample of 3,952 households.We collected baseline data in August-October 2022 immediately before the launch of the program and midline data was collected three months afterwards in March 2023. Food distribution was launched immediately after the baseline. As shown in Figure 2, in between the baseline and midline surveys, the Egyptian economy experienced major inflationary shock and successive devaluations of the Egyptian currency. This offers a unique setting to evaluate the potential of food distribution programs to cushion the adverse impacts of inflationary shocks.Here, we focus on evaluating the absolute and relative short-term impacts of the nutritionsensitive and staple-heavy food boxes, using the baseline and midline data coming from the three treatment arms: T1 (Nutrition-sensitive box), T3 (Staple-heavy box), and T5 (Control). This constitutes a planned sample of 2,352 households across 149 villages. Attrition rate is low and unsystematic, coming at a mere 3 percent in the midline, leading to an actual sample of 2,277 households.Source: AuthorsOur main outcome variables are: (1) Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS); (2) householdlevel Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES); (3) household intake of nutrient-dense foods; (4) macro and micro-nutrient intake for the primary female beneficiary; (5) preferences for cash versus in-kind transfers. In this paper, we focus on measuring the short-term absolute and relative impact of the nutrition-sensitive and staple-heavy boxes on diets and preferences for transfer modality amidst inflationary pressures.The HDDS is an indicator of economic ability of the household to access a variety of foods validated as a proxy indicator for household energy availability (e.g., Ruel, 2003;FAO, 2013;Leroy et al., 2015). Several studies have shown that an increase in dietary diversity is strongly associated with household food security (e.g., Hoddinott and Yohannes, 2002;Hatloy et al., 2000).We employ an adjusted version of the HHDS developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); with a recall period of one week. We first ask respondents about the food items consumed by all household members over the preceding week, categorized in 19 food groups. 5 Then, we re- categorize the items into 12 groups to arrive at a score which consists of a simple count of food groups consumed, ranging from 0 (no consumption of any group) to 12 (consumption of all groups). 6 We further use data obtained on specific groups (namely: nuts and seeds, milk, milk products, meat and poultry, and other Fruits) to calculate the household's intake of any nutrientdense foods as a binary variable.We also use household-level Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), a self-reported metric which captures households' difficulties in accessing adequate food due to financial or other resource constraints. The FIES is an experience-based food insecurity metric developed by the FAO, which is widely applied to measure prevalence of food insecurity (FAO, 2014;FAO, 2020).The FIES builds on an eight-question module related to respondents' experiences of difficulties to access sufficient and nutritious food in the last 30 days. 7 Using the responses to these eight questions, we generate aggregate FIES by summing the responses to the eight questions. Hence, by this definition, FIES ranges from zero to eight, zero standing for those households reporting no experience of food insecurity across all eight dimensions of food insecurity.To compute the macro and micro-nutrient intake for the female household head, we collect detailed data on all foods and beverages consumed by the respondent in the previous 24-hours along with all ingredients and their respective quantities. Reported quantities are converted to standardized weights using specific conversion factors (Table A4) which are then decomposed into nutrient components using the Food Composition able (FC ) by researchers from Egypt's National Research Center (NRC) (Table A4). In this paper, we focus on energy (kcal), protein (gm), and iron (mg) intake.Respondents' preferences for cash versus in-kind transfers is captured using direct questions in the baseline and midline surveys.  7 The FIES elicits responses based on whether a household member (1) was worried about having enough food to eat, (2) ate only a few kinds of foods, (3) unable to eat healthy and nutritious foods, (4) ate less than should have eaten, (5) had skipped a meal, (6) ran out of food, (7) was hungry but did not eat, and (8) went without eating for a whole day.variables or the observable household characteristics. 8 In terms of outcome variables, respondents consumed on average 9.7 food groups while the average FIES score came at 5.1-5.3, signalling respondents' perceived food insecurity despite a relatively diverse diet. This could be attributed to the anxiety usually experienced in inflationary environments, with many constantly fearing hunger regardless of their actual intake. Many barely consume adequate levels of nutritious food. On average, respondents get only 78-83% of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of calories, and as low as 52-57% of iron, indicating severe iron-deficiency within our sample at baseline. To identify the impact of the various treatment arms, we use the random assignment of villages to treatment arms. While random assignment generates unbiased average treatment effects using simple mean differences, the availability of baseline data enables estimation of more structured differences-in-differences or fixed effects models. We start by estimating the pooled impact of food distribution including both \"nutrition-sensitive\" and \"staple-heavy\" food boxes) using the following fixed effects specification:Where \uD835\uDC4C ℎ\uD835\uDC61 stands for outcomes variables for household h and round t, \uD835\uDEFC ℎ is a household fixed effect that captures all time-variant differences across households, and \uD835\uDC45\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC62\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC51 \uD835\uDC61 is a dummy variable that takes on a value of 1 for baseline and 2 for midline. Households in Egypt experienced significant surge in food inflation after the baseline survey, where food inflation tripled from about 20 percent immediately before the baseline to 63 percent in March 2023. The coefficient on the \uD835\uDC45\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC62\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC51 \uD835\uDC61 captures aggregate time trends including this inflation and other factors. \uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC51 \uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC65 ℎ\uD835\uDC61 is a binary indicator variable assuming a value of 1 for those households who received either of the food boxes. Note that the \uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC51 \uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC65 ℎ\uD835\uDC61 is defined as time-varying and hence assumes a value of 0 for all households in the baseline while assuming a value of 1 only for those households in treatment arms assigned to receive any of the boxes in the midline survey. Our variable of interest is \uD835\uDEFC 2 which captures the average treatment effect of food box distribution. \uD835\uDF16 ℎ\uD835\uDC61 stands for idiosyncratic unobservable factors that may affect households' food and nutrition security.Our three-arm treatment design also allows us to measure differences in impacts between the \"staple-heavy\" box and the \"nutrition-sensitive\" box. We thus expand the specification in equation ( 1) by disaggregating the overall treatment into nutrition-sensitive and staple-heavy box.Thus, our preferred empirical specification is the following:Where \uD835\uDC46\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5D\uD835\uDC59\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC65 ℎ\uD835\uDC61 and \uD835\uDC41\uD835\uDC62\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC65 ℎ\uD835\uDC61 stand for binary indicators assuming a value of 1 for households in communities assigned to distribution of the \"staple-heavy\" and updated \"nutritionsensitive boxes,\" respectively. The remaining terms are as defined in equation ( 1). Compliance with randomization was almost perfect with only five households mistakenly taking wrong treatment assignment. More than 97 percent of households report using the food items for their own consumption while 2-3 percent report they gave or sold items to someone else or discarded them. Accordingly, we interpret the estimates associated with the food boxes (\uD835\uDEFD 2 and \uD835\uDEFD 3 ) as average treatment effects associated with receiving each food box. By comparing the size of both coefficients, we can infer the relative efficacy of the staple-heavy and nutrition-sensitive food boxes. Besides quantifying the impact of the food boxes, we also evaluate whether joint exposure to the food boxes and inflationary shock affect households' preference for in-kind versus cash transfers. To explicitly explore whether inflation is associated with higher preference for in-kind food transfers, we extend the empirical specification in equation ( 2) by interacting the treatment with governorate-level food consumer price index (CPI). We estimate the following interacted empirical specification: Where all terms except \uD835\uDC36\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC3C ℎ\uD835\uDC61 are as defined in equation (2). \uD835\uDC36\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC3C ℎ\uD835\uDC61 stands for governoratelevel food consumer price index, which captures changes in food prices 9 . The interaction terms and associated coefficients, \uD835\uDEFF 5 and \uD835\uDEFF 6 , uncover whether higher food inflation moderates the impact of food boxes on households' preferences for in-kind transfers.As pre-specified in our pre-analysis plan, we also explore heterogeneity of impacts across households with varying size, education level, and access to food subsidy programs and other social protection schemes. We are particularly interested in exploring whether the food boxes have greater impacts on nutrition and food security for those households not benefiting from the national food subsidy program, Tamween, or the national cash transfer program, Takaful and Karama. To explore these heterogeneities, we split the sample across these dimensions and estimate equation ( 1) and ( 2) on a split sample.Households living in the same community face similar treatment as well as similar food markets and food environment, which can generate correlation of unobserved effects (error terms) across households from the same community. Thus, standard errors are clustered at community level, which is the level of randomization in our case and hence the usually recommended level of clustering standard errors (Abadie et al., 2017).Household dietary diversity score (HDDS) and Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) are both proxies for food accessibility at the household level, while dietary quality is measured for the female main respondent based on detailed analysis of food consumption in the 24-hour recall.Figure 3 shows changes in HDDS across the treatment and control group households as well as across the baseline and midline surveys. In the absence of any intervention, households in the control group experienced a deterioration in dietary diversity between baseline and midline (Figure 3). In less than six months, dietary diversity dropped from 9.71 to 9.07 among this group. On the other hand, households receiving food boxes were relatively protected. Indeed, for those households who received the new box dietary diversity increased from 9.74 to 9.97 food groups. Figure 4 shows the dynamics in Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) across the baseline and midline as well as across different groups of households. Households in the control group reported a significant increase in food insecurity experience in the midline survey whereas those receiving the food boxes seem protected and this effect was concentrated in the \"nutritionsensitive\" treatment arm in which FIES decreased between baseline and midline. Figure 5 shows food energy intake, protein and iron intake. 10 The first graph in Figure 5 shows that the control group households experienced significant reduction in energy intake while the treatment group households were protected or increased their energy intake. Indeed, those households receiving the nutrition-sensitive food box reported an increase in energy intake while those receiving the staple-heavy food box were mostly protected from further deterioration in energy intake. Nevertheless, all these figures point to continued food energy insufficiency, as they are below the recommended daily allowance levels. This is not surprising given that our sample mainly consists of ultra-poor households. In terms of protein and iron intake, we also see significant reduction in protein intake after the inflationary shock in both treatment and control group households, which may reflect two important patterns: First, food groups that are major source of protein such as dairy and eggs witnessed disproportionately higher increases in prices, compared to other food groups, after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war (CAPMAS, 2023).Second, although the nutrition-sensitive box fares better than the staple-heavy box and hence offers significant protection, it was probably not sufficient to absorb the total deterioration in protein intake households experienced. On the other hand, the third graph in Figure 5 shows that iron 10 Table A4 and A5 in the Appendix provides the conversion factors as well as the food composition table used for converting quantities into macro and micro-nutrient intake.intake increased during the midline, and higher increase was observed for those receiving the nutrition-sensitive food box. This is not surprising given that the nutrition-sensitive food box was designed to address micro-nutrient deficiencies such as iron. We now report results estimated using equation ( 1)-( 2). The first two columns in Table 2 report impacts on HDDS using equation ( 1) and (2), respectively. The next two columns provide impacts on consumption of selected nutrient-dense food items while the last two columns provide impacts on food insecurity experience. For all measures of food security, we observe significant deterioration in food and nutrition security, as reflected by the coefficients associated with round dummy. This is not surprising given the major inflationary shock these ultra-poor households are facing. However, the nutrition-sensitive food box distribution more than off-set these deteriorations in dietary diversity and food security. The estimates in the first column of Table 2 show that receiving any of the food boxes increases households' dietary diversity score by 0.6.The results in the second column show that the impact of the nutrition-sensitive food box on HDDS reaches 0.9 food groups (9 percent increase in dietary diversity) while the impact of the stapleheavy food box appears to be statistically insignificant. The estimates in the fourth column show the nutrition-sensitive food box increased the likelihood that households consume one or more nutrient-dense food items (milk, meat, nuts, dates, or other fruits) by 8 percentage points. This is intuitive given that these nutrient-dense food items were included in the nutrition-sensitive food box. The impacts reported in the last two columns show that access to the updated and nutritionsensitive reduces perceived food insecurity experience. Notes: Standard errors, clustered at village level, are in parentheses. * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01. HDDS stands for Household Dietary iversity Score, a qualitative measure of the household's consumption and food security, reflecting the economic ability of the household to access a variety of foods, ranging from 0 (consuming no food groups) to 12 (consuming twelve food groups). The FIES is Food Insecurity Experience Score constructed based on eight questions on food-related behaviors and experiences associated with difficulties in accessing adequate food due to financial or other resource constraints, ranging from 0 (no insecurity at all) to 8 (maximum level of food insecurity).Table 3 reports impacts on macro and micro-nutrient intake measured using total energy (calorie), protein and iron intake. These data come from the 24-hour recall module and using the procedure described in Section 3 and the conversion factors reported in the Appendix. The first two columns show overall impacts on energy intake while the next two columns provide impacts on protein intake. The last two columns report impacts on iron intake. Consistent with the previous descriptive results, in the absence of any food distribution program, households reported significant deterioration in macro and micro-nutrient intake as reflected by the coefficients associated with the round dummy. However, beneficiaries of the nutrition-sensitive food distribution program were not only sheltered, but also witnessed significant improvements in energy, protein and iron intake.Households receiving \"nutrition-sensitive\" food boxes increased their energy, protein and iron intake by 12, 13 and 19 percent, respectively. This is intuitive given that the nutrition-sensitive food box was carefully designed to address micro-nutrient deficiencies. For example, as shown in Table A1, the nutrition-sensitive food box contains four times iron content than the staple-heavy box. On the other hand, the impacts of the staple-heavy food box appears to be statistically insignificant even on energy intake. This is surprising and an important finding, which may be explained by two important features associated with the design of the food box and the context this was implemented in: (i) the staple-heavy food box fails to provide and address micro-nutrient deficiencies; (ii) although the staple-heavy food box provides reasonable energy content, most of the households in the control group may have access to similar energy-dense food items through the national food subsidy, Tameween, program. As shown in Table 1, 80 percent of the control group households have ration cards that allows them to enjoy the benefits associated with Tameween. We also evaluate whether experience with the food boxes distribution affected households' preference for in-kind versus cash transfers and the degree to which this depended on the level of local inflation. Respondents were asked a hypothetical question involving a choice between an in-kind food box or equivalent cash transfer. The two graphs in Figure 6 show that, in the baseline, preference for in-kind transfers was similar for both control and treatment groups. Among the control group, 62 percent of the households preferred in-kind food box over equivalent cash while the corresponding rate for the treatment group, those receiving one of the food boxes (staple-heavy or nutrition-sensitive food box), amounts 59 percent. However, few months later (during midline data collection), and in response to the drastic spike in food inflation, households' preference for in-kind transfer (food box) jumped significantly both for the control and treatment group households. Panel B of Figure 6 shows that preference for in-kind transfer increased from 62 to 78 percent for the control group households. On the other hand, for those households who received the \"staple-heavy\" food box, preference for in-kind transfer increased from 63 percent to 86 percent while the corresponding change for those receiving the \"nutrition-sensitive\" food box was from 55 percent to 83 percent. This shift in households' preference for in-kind transfers may be interpreted as a response to inflation or a positive experience with EFB's in-kind food distribution pressure.In Table 4, we report estimates associated with the impacts of access to the food boxes on households' preference for in-kind transfer over equivalent cash, estimated using equation ( 2) and(3). The first column results show that receiving food boxes increases preference for in-kind transfer by about 10 percentage points. The estimates in the second column show that this increases to 11 percentage points for those households who received the nutrition-sensitive food box. The results in columns three and four suggest that most of these impacts are driven by those households experiencing significant increases in food prices. For example, the coefficients associated with the interaction term between treatment and inflation (CPI) in the third column show that those households exposed to the food box and experiencing major inflationary shock exhibit stronger preference for in-kind food transfers over equivalent cash.The results in Figure 6 and Table 4 highlight two important empirical regularities with broader implications. First, exposure to food distribution programs can shape beneficiaries' preferences for in-kind versus cash transfers, and second, this is especially true in contexts where inflationary pressure threatens the purchasing power of cash transfers. This confirms evidence found in other contexts that in-kind transfers may fare better and be preferred more by beneficiaries in inflationary environments (Hirvonen and Hoddinott, 2021).  This section explores potential differential effects while also providing some robustness checks.We consider alternative observable characteristics of households to uncover potential differential effects of the food boxes. For example, we anticipate that households not benefiting from similar food subsidy programs, including the national food subsidy program Tamween, would see more substantial nutritional benefits from the food box distribution, especially if Tamween ration points can be diverted to non-food uses or other households so that the food box elements substitute for alternative sources of staple foods. 11 Results show that the control group households not benefiting from the Tamween program suffered larger deterioration in food security than those benefiting from the program: about one food group reduction in dietary diversity compared to a 0.56 reduction for those households benefiting from the program. Similar patterns are observed using food insecurity experience. In Table 5 we formally estimate these differences by splitting the sample into Tamween beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. The results generally show that nutritionsensitive food boxes are more effective and impactful for households who are not receiving other types of intervention. For example, the results in Panel A of Table 5 show that access to the nutrition-sensitive food box increases dietary diversity of Tamween beneficiary households by 0.7 food group while this almost doubles for those not benefiting from the national food subsidy program. Relative to the baseline outcome, this effect translates to 7 and 14 percent for Tamween beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, respectively. Surprisingly, the staple-heavy food box seems ineffective for both groups of households. However, although imprecisely estimated potentially because of sample size, the size of the effect for those non-beneficiary sample is almost four times of the coefficient for the beneficiary sample. Beyond asserting the protective role of the nutritionsensitive food box for nutrition outcomes, the results in Panel B of Table 5 also show that exposure to the food boxes triggered higher preference for in-kind transfer among those households not benefiting from the Tamween program. This may be because Tamween beneficiaries already benefit from the certainty of being able to afford staple food items even if prices increase, the key benefit of in-kind transfers relative to cash. HDDS stands for ousehold ietary iversity Score, a qualitative measure of the household's consumption and food security, reflecting the economic ability of the household to access a variety of foods, ranging from 0 (consuming no food groups) to 12 (consuming twelve food groups). The FIES is Food Insecurity Experience Score a self-reported metric, constructed based on eight questions associated with difficulties in accessing adequate food due to financial or other resource constraints, ranging from 0 (no insecurity at all) to 8 (maximum level of insecurity). Preference for in-kind is an indicator variable assuming a value of 1 for those households preferring in-kind transfers over equivalent cash and 0 otherwise. More broadly, our heterogeneity analysis reinforces some important patterns worth noting.First, even within the ultra-poor population proper targeting that aim to reach the most \"deprived\" may generate relatively higher treatment effects and the trade-off between targeting for deprivation versus for impact may be negligible especially for food distribution programs that require limited complementary inputs (Haushofer et al., 2022). 12 Second, the significant heterogeneity in the impact of the food distribution program corroborates previous studies arguing that relative efficacy of in-kind and cash transfers likely varies across targeted populations (Hidrobo et al., 2014;Cunha, 2014;Schwab, 2020;Hoddinott et al., 2018).We implemented a clustered Randomized Control Trial (RCT) to evaluate the potential of alternative variants of direct food distribution interventions by the Egyptian Food Bank (EFB) to cushion the adverse impact of the inflationary shock triggered by the Russian-Ukraine war. We randomly assigned communities (villages) into various treatment arms, including: (i) \"nutritionsensitive\" food box, (ii) \"staple-heavy\" food box and control group. We evaluate the absolute as well as relative short-term impacts of direct distribution of a standard \"staple-heavy\" food basket and a redesigned \"nutrition-sensitive\" food basket on a range of outcomes, including household food and nutrition security, and preferences for cash versus in-kind transfers. We also evaluate the impact of joint exposure to the food baskets and inflationary shocks on households' preference for in-kind and cash transfers. We finally explore potential heterogeneous impacts across various types of households.We find that nutrition-sensitive food distribution cushioned falls in dietary quality and food security of ultra-poor households in an inflationary context. Access to the nutrition-sensitive food box protected beneficiary households while the staple-heavy food box falls short of protecting households' food and nutrition security. his appears to be consistent for those measured and perceived dietary quality and food security indicators. The nutrition-sensitive food boxes increased household dietary diversity by about 9 percent, while also increasing energy, protein, and iron intake by 12, 13, and 19 percent, respectively. On the other hand, the staple-heavy food box does not significantly increase macro and micro-nutrient intake. We also find that experience with the food boxes increases households' preference for in-kind transfers, more so among households experiencing high inflation rates and among those households not covered by other food and cash transfer programs.Our findings have important implications for the debate on the efficacy of alternative interventions to cushion inflationary pressure and the relative efficacy of in-kind and cash transfers. Our study provides rigorous empirical evidence that a well-designed and nutritionsensitive in-kind food transfers can effectively cushion the adverse of impact of inflationary pressure on dietary quality and food security. The lack of effectiveness of the staple-heavy food boxes suggests that the design and content of in-kind transfers are crucial when considering this policy option, including compared to cash. Finally, our findings show that access to in-kind transfers can shape consumers' preferences. Indeed, the results show that the nutrition-sensitive food boxes are not only more effective in improving dietary quality, but they also increased households' preference for in-kind transfers over cash transfers. These additional insights on beneficiary preference are important inputs for designing alternative models and modalities to deliver social protection programs.  The HDDS is the Household Dietary Diversity Score, a qualitative measure of the household's consumption, reflecting the economic ability of the household to access a variety of foods, ranging from 0 (consuming no food groups) to 12 (consuming twelve food groups). The FIES is Food Insecurity Experience Score a self-reported metric, constructed of eight questions on food-related behaviors and experiences associated with difficulties in accessing adequate food due to financial or other resource constraints, ranging from 0 (no insecurity at all) to 8 (maximum level of insecurity).  ","tokenCount":"6474"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"78f3abf475d92cb6b107c5ab3bf53bca","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/98934ccb-2d82-4a16-9a88-6ff7d20c3cc1/retrieve","id":"-1896171046"},"keywords":["ISBN 978-92-9043-810-6 Bioversity International Via dei Tre Denari","472/a 00057 Maccarese Rome","Italy"],"sieverID":"4d12f193-71fb-4a5b-94ca-6e6c17f91156","pagecount":"103","content":"Bioversity International is an independent international scientific organization that seeks to improve the wellbeing of present and future generations of people by enhancing conservation and the deployment of agricultural biodiversity on farms and in forests. It is one of 15 centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an association of public and private members who support efforts to mobilize cutting-edge science to reduce hunger and poverty, improve human nutrition and health, and protect the environment. Bioversity has its headquarters in Maccarese, near Rome, Italy, with offices in more than 20 other countries worldwide. The organization operates through four programmes: Diversity for Livelihoods, Understanding and Managing Biodiversity, Global Partnerships, and Commodities for Livelihoods.The international status of Bioversity is conferred under an Establishment Agreement which, by January 2009, had been signed by the Governments of Algeria,• Benefits and constraints of commercialization of home gardens seed • Linking home gardens conservation with national systems, including ex situ activity • Self-sustainability, as opposed to dependency on subsidies The specific objectives of the workshop were then set up as follows:• Collect information on:-Home gardens composition, status and distribution in Europe -The role of home gardens for the conservation of diversity -Incentives -Policies • Define ways to bring forward research • Assess possibility of forming networks • Raising awareness Consequently, nearly fifty participants gathered in Ljubljana in October 2007, including the members of the ECPGR On-farm Conservation and Management Task Force, representatives of research institutes, universities, local administrations and NGOs. The members of the EU-funded project \"DIVERSEEDS -Networking on conservation and use of plant genetic resources in Europe and Asia\" also attended.The workshop was organized in five thematic sessions, including presentations and discussion. The international background and the state of the art in scientific research about home gardens in Europe were presented in session I. A series of local and national activities involving home gardens followed in session II, describing experiences from Austria, Italy and the UK. Session III focused on studies from Italy and Hungary on the measurement of genetic diversity in home gardens. Policy issues such as seed supply, European legislation, the role of incentives and experiences from an NGO perspective were proposed during Session IV. The last Session V was a discussion on a possible way forward in order to create a consortium that could continue collaboration for research into home gardens in Europe. This resulted in a concept note proposing to establish a research \"budget line\" in the framework of the EU Framework Programme \"Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology\" (see Appendix I).This book collects together a number of the contributions that were made in Ljubljana and intends to be a starting point demonstrating the opportunity to join efforts to understand and maintain precious resources in Europe.Pablo Eyzaguirre and Arwen Bailey Bioversity International, Maccarese, Rome, ItalyThe European network meeting for on-farm conservation and management of crop landraces held in Stegelitz, Germany (19-20 June 2006) called for action to stem the accelerating erosion of crop landrace diversity (Del Greco et al. 2007). Several points were made that require immediate attention. First, many crop landraces in Europe are being lost without our even knowing what is being lost. We do not have a clear understanding of what is under threat, nor how these losses affect future opportunities and the potential for Europe to produce crops that are adapted to new challenges such as environmental stresses including climate change, and the European public's changing and growing demand for nutritious and healthful foods with unique and novel traits. In addition, the increasing attention that European policies and consumers are placing on geographic origin, produits de terroir, biocultural heritage, and the role of crops and orchards, forages and forests in managing important landscapes adds urgency to the need to inventory, conserve and manage crop landraces. However, the attention that policymakers give to this issue is not commensurate with the potential value of these resources nor is it enough to stem the pace at which many of these crop landraces are disappearing from European agricultural systems. There is however a niche within European farming systems where crop landraces are being maintained and exchanged, namely home gardens. A focus on crop landraces in European home gardens may be an effective way to accelerate and scale up our efforts to understand and conserve crop landraces in Europe as part of a wider biodiversity conservation movement. However, we also need to understand the conditions of and threats to European home garden biodiversity. The collection of papers in this volume identify the areas of research which are key to understanding and supporting the role of home gardens in conserving and using crop genetic diversity.Research on European home gardens is part of a much larger picture of home garden management for biodiversity conservation. There is a significant body of research on tropical home gardens that has increased our understanding about the identity, dynamics and sustainable management of landrace populations and rural landscapes. Given the hegemony of large-scale standardized agricultural production systems in Europe, the need to study and conserve the agricultural biodiversity found in European home gardens is all the more urgent. Key principles from home gardens studies from all over the world can contribute to the new research agenda in Europe and heighten the impact of European home gardens.International case studies can illustrate specific methods for identifying biodiversity in home gardens and how to use them to contribute to national plant genetic resource strategies (Landauer and Brazil 1990;Eyzaguirre and Linares 2004;Kumar and Nair 2006). One of the important aspects of home gardens worldwide is their role as a place of dynamic adaptive management of a rich variety of species and varieties. The plants are actively selected and managed in ways that allow them to evolve in changing circumstances. Home gardens that are significant for biodiversity commonly occupy a small space (on average up to 0.5 ha) and are primarily found in rural environments although they can also be found in peri-urban areas. They exemplify sustainable land use systems built upon biodiversity, which can be models for low-input, small-scale farming. The crop varieties found in home gardens are often unique and have been passed from generation to generation, neighbour to neighbour, undergoing human selection and natural drift on their journey through time. Examples of this uniqueness can be seen in the papers by Negri and Polegri (this volume,, Silveri and Manzi (this volume,, and Pavia et al. (this volume,, which document the biodiversity found in three regions of Italy. The dynamic path many species and varieties follow is illustrated in the paper by Szabó (this volume,, which exemplifies how a species (Phaselous spp.) can travel and take on different use values and cultural associations over space and time. This is an example of home gardens' role in preserving cultural heritage and conserving rural landscapes.Home gardens can be part of an integrated national plant genetic resource programme complementing ex situ conservation. While individual populations of species in home gardens may be small, source-sink dynamics theory would suggest that they may be vital refuges for species that are no longer grown in larger agroecosystems nor found in the wild. Research in home gardens in Cuba (Castineiras et al. 2002) showed the value of home gardens as a viable conservation unit. Fig. 1 shows the overlap in the genes of lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus) from the lost ex situ collection and those still maintained in home gardens. This case illustrates the importance of linking home garden biodiversity to national plant genetic resources programmes. In the Cuban case, it was fortuitous that a home garden project underway was able to identify and recover the varietal diversity in beans that had been lost in the ex situ genebank due to loss of seed viability.A study on chilli peppers (Capsicum spp.) in Guatemala investigated the potential of home gardens and found that levels of diversity in home gardens were similar to that in ex situ genebanks (Table 1). Furthermore the range of types was greater in home gardens. In the Guatemalan case researchers conducting studies in three distinct agro-ecosystems in the country concluded that a sample of 30-40 home gardens was often sufficient to have a representative sample of the crop diversity present in the ecosystem. One of the countries where home gardens have been most extensively documented and studied is Nepal. Studies by Sunwar et al. (2006) offer important methodologies and lessons for home gardeners in Europe, for example in understanding the motivations behind home gardens management, and the dynamics of local seed supply systems for long term sustainability. Practices, findings and research methodologies from home gardens projects worldwide can inform home gardens projects in Europe. At the same time, however, it is important to notice what is peculiar to the European context. Home gardens contain crop varieties that are sources of current or potential global public goods in the form of unexplored traits which might be useful for breeding, for novelty, for nutritional content, or to face changing climate patterns better. Research from Hungary highlights the case of home gardens as a source of crop genetic diversity for new markets and high value crops, in addition to their traditional role in families' food security. This is particularly important as Hungarian agriculture adapts to the quality and competitive demands of EU markets. The home garden represents a potential reservoir of genetic traits that are important for European agriculture to continue to develop more nutritious, novel and quality foods while at the same time meet increasingly strict standards of environmental sustainability and reduced negative environmental impacts from agricultural production.Unlike other regions of the world, where landraces represent important crops if not the majority of the crops planted (Jarvis et al. 2007), Europe has few large areas planted with landraces. Landraces are found in small pockets and niches within European farming systems and are often grown for non-market and non-commercial purposes. Home gardens represent these types of niches par excellence. By their proximity to the home, these gardens also allow farmers to maintain those varieties that have great use or cultural value despite their relatively low commercial value.In Europe, diversity in fruit trees and vegetables is widely recognized and appreciated by farmers and consumers. Landraces of these crops continue to thrive in home gardens despite the lack of formal attention to the on-farm conservation and management of these landraces . Vegetable and fruit breeders and markets recognize the value of the traits that are contained in the genotypes grown in traditional European home gardens. These qualitative traits may assume greater importance as more attention is given to the organoleptic, nutritional, and health properties that define \"functional foods\".Landraces grown in home gardens could qualify under regulations and policies concerning geographic origin, terroir, cultural practices, and cultural history (Lopez Noriega,this volume, for an outline of current regulations and policies). Many of the varieties grown that qualify are referred to as \"heirloom\" or historic varieties and are gaining increasing attention among the public (Sherman,this volume,. Farmers can be motivated to cultivate landraces and old cultivars by highlighting certain advantages such as cultivar adaptability to local conditions, better quality of product, demand for local specific (niche) products, traditional home consumption, etc. These advantages are likely to be realized in small-scale production and will often be found in home gardens.Increased or secure cultivation of crop landraces is often constrained by the lack of seeds. Legislation often limits exchange of landrace seed to lots smaller than 10 kg. Grown in small amounts and small patches, farmers often lack seed to meet their own needs much less supply others. There are however new and emerging seed networks for farmers growing landraces that increase the levels of trust, reliability and quantity of seed supply. These networks can bring together the formal and informal sectors in order to create a shared agenda for action (see Bartha,this volume,. This is an important factor for conservation but it is in its early stages and often takes place through exchanges of seed, saplings, and root stock in home gardens.It has been noted that European farmers growing landraces are fewer, older, and not able to pass knowledge and traditions to the next generation as the number of small farms cultivating landraces declines. The macro-economic and long term trends are difficult if not impossible to reverse or attenuate. However, even people whose full time occupation may not be agriculture may continue to maintain crop landraces in home gardens and orchards precisely for those non-economic, cultural and adaptive factors that are intrinsic to many European crop landraces. Rather than try to focus on conservation and restoration of large scale production devoted to crop landraces, a focus on niches such as home gardens may be more realistic. A focus on crop landrace conservation in home gardens would bring together the sense of culture, geographic specificity and \"terroir\", the link between the culture and the crop traits that are valued, maintained and observed as they evolve, and the traditional knowledge of uses, tastes, and cultivation practices, that are the underpinnings of continued use of landraces in European agriculture. Negri (this volume, presents some insights into incentives that have been used in Umbria (Italy) to preserve home garden biodiversity and raise awareness about home garden landraces.Preliminary work on crop diversity and genetic resources in home gardens by European research partners in Hungary, Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, United Kingdom, Serbia and Montenegro among others has shown the values and cost effectiveness of a home garden approach for the inventory, conservation, and management of crop genetic resources, especially landraces of vegetable crops and fruit trees. Szabó (this volume, makes a case for long term monitoring of European home gardens biodiversity trends through a Phaseolus diversity model. Galluzzi et al. (this volume,, make it clear that there is great potential to address crop landrace conservation through a focus on home gardens. It is also clear that policies and growing public interest in the biodiversity benefits and products of home gardens in agro-ecosystems make it propitious to begin a Europewide research initiative on this topic. However, as the Galluzzi paper points out, there are still important research questions to answer and hypotheses to be tested before a range of in situ crop conservation strategies can be developed based on home gardens in agroecosytems for the varied conditions of the European network (ECPGR). This will require a set of committed partners ready to move forward seeking support to implement this agenda. Funding proposals to the EU and other donors, collaborative research arrangements, and sharing of existing information on home gardens and crop genetic resources will be among the important first steps. Below are some of the research issues that need to be addressed.European home gardens need to be defined, inventoried and understood. Key research questions are:• What are the peculiarities and characteristics of European home gardens?• What are their main motivations for conserving diversity in home gardens?• What are the socio-economic and cultural assets of European home gardens?• Which factors (biological, human and political) mainly influence the composition and persistence of home gardens in time? For example, how does commercialization impact the level of diversity and its maintenance over time? • Who are the stakeholders involved and by whom are home gardens and their managers \"represented\"?Focusing especially on the genetic diversity of crops conserved in home gardens, urgent and significant gaps in knowledge need to be identified and filled by further collaborative research at the European level:• What contribution do European home gardens make to the conservation of genetic diversity? • How much and what type of diversity do they conserve?• What is their composition in terms of crops and species?• Is such diversity undergoing genetic erosion in larger agro-ecosystems?• Is the diversity different from that conserved in ex situ collections?• Why and how could home gardens be successfully included in PGR in situ conservation strategies?Analysis is needed of the main constraints to the survival of home gardens as places for active in situ conservation of biological and cultural diversity:• How is current and future EU policy impacting on genetic resources and conservation of diversity, especially in small systems like home gardens? • What is the relevance of the current changes in the seed supply and exchange system? • What are the incentives and measures that could persuade gardeners to maintain diversity in their systems? • What could be the most effective mode of representation of home gardeners and how should we strengthen the link between them and the national/international governing bodies?The questions posed above are best addressed through a network of European partners beginning with plant genetic resource programmes in agricultural research institutes or ministries. It should also include farmer networks, regional agricultural development agencies, and organizations (NGO or non-profit) that are concerned with promoting the unique identity and quality of European agriculture and crop varieties. The papers and challenges laid out in this collection of papers are intended to stimulate and support early action for the conservation and 'mise en valeur' of European crop genetic resources maintained and nurtured in home gardens.Gea Galluzzi¹, Pablo Eyzaguirre¹, Valeria Negri² ¹ Bioversity International, Maccarese, Rome, Italy ² Department of Applied Biology, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy Home gardens have mostly been considered in their role as sustainable production systems contributing to food security, nutrition and income generation especially in developing countries. Studies on the role of home gardens in the conservation of agricultural genetic resources are not frequent, and in Europe in particular these small-scale farming systems have been neglected. Nevertheless, home gardens still exist and are especially relevant in marginal agricultural areas of the old continent. A renewed interest has recently been directed at the study of their potential for in situ conservation of agricultural biodiversity.Home gardens can generally be defined as family-managed microenvironments within larger farming systems, often displaying high levels of species diversity. In the present paper, the existing scientific data and unpublished information (for example from the internet, policy measures, ideas from NGOs etc.) regarding European home gardens were collected in an effort to produce a description of their common biological features, with special focus on their social and cultural value, the genetic diversity they harbour and the factors influencing it. The economic and policy issues relevant to the maintenance and promotion of home gardening across European countries are also discussed, and improved coordination between potential stakeholders involved in home garden studies and activities is proposed.There is a growing global concern about the loss of genetic diversity, and in particular the loss of crop diversity, which contains important resources needed for agricultural progress. Because of the limits of ex situ conservation of genetic resources, especially in the conservation of landraces, wild relatives and under-utilized crops (Hammer et al. 2003), it is generally agreed that in situ conservation of genetic resources is an indispensable complementary tool to be adopted (Altieri and Merrick 1987;FAO 1989) for genetic diversity conservation. This is mentioned explicitly in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In situ conservation is concerned with maintaining species' populations in the biotic environment they belong to, whether as uncultivated plant communities or in farmers' fields (on-farm conservation) as part of existing agroecosystems. It seeks to maintain the processes of evolution and adaptation of crops to their environments and calls for active participation by farmers (Jarvis et al. 1997).In the holistic approach required when planning in situ conservation strategies, it has been suggested that small-scale farming systems such as home gardens should be included as potential reservoirs of agricultural biodiversity. Generally until recently, home gardens have mostly been studied as production systems in projects for food security, nutrition and income generation in developing countries. Studies on the conservation value of home gardens are not as frequent, especially in developed countries, where agricultural policies are oriented towards intensification and large-scale commercialization. Nevertheless, even in Europe, the few studies available indicate the persistence of home gardens, especially in marginal areas, and document their role in securing crop genetic diversity, shaping the landscape and maintaining the traditional knowledge in communities.Home gardens can be defined as microenvironments within a larger farming system (Eyzaguirre and Watson 2002). They are usually more carefully tended and well delimited (with fences or hedges) from the neighbouring fields but nevertheless maintain a certain degree of exchange with the surroundings, in terms of natural or man-driven movement of species and of gene flow. Home gardens vary in size, structure and design, depending on the ecological, economic and cultural environments they are found in (Gliessman 1988). Although home gardens have no defined or fixed dimension, studies in different eco-zones of developing countries have described an average size of 0.1-0.5 ha (Eyzaguirre and Linares 2004), whereas in Europe they seem to be smaller, between 180 m² (Smith et al. 2006) and 500 m² (Birol et al. 2005a).Despite the variety of home gardens identified, some common features can be used to describe them. The arrangement of different species, both cultivated and wild, over the physical area of the garden and over a succession of time periods determines the occurrence of a stratified \"architecture\" that is also common to agroforestry systems. This typical spatial arrangement of different plants, together with the constant dynamic experimentation carried out by the owners seem to be more important in delivering a home garden's ecological function and maintaining its viability than the identity of the plants themselves (Smith et al. 2006). Home gardens often act as a refuge for wild fauna (Daniels and Kirkpatrick 2006) and thus constitute a bridge between more intensely managed agricultural landscapes and the natural surroundings, sometimes acting as buffer zones for wildlife. The low application of pesticides and fertilizers and the intense degree of space coverage preventing soil erosion contribute to the creation of sustainable ecosystems (Eyzaguirre and Linares 2004).Home gardens are closely connected to the social group residing in the household. The species serve multiple purposes in the household and the garden itself has multiple functions. Gardens become a culturally constructed space where indigenous knowledge is kept and transmitted through the involvement of different actors such as women or elderly farmers (Negri 2003;Eyzaguirre and Linares 2004). At the same time, home gardens can generate primary or secondary income (Eyzaguirre and Linares 2004) by producing food for subsistence or small-scale marketing. They also offer work and recreational space and protect the environment.Home gardens often contain a high degree of biodiversity (Eyzaguirre and Linares 2004) and may contain species or varieties that are different from those found in the surrounding macro-system. Horticultural crops, aromatics, trees, ornamentals and medicinal plants can be found in various combinations and to different extents depending on the households' needs. Minor, underutilized crops and landraces are common, especially in remote or mountainous regions (Vogl-Lukasser and Vogl 2004). In the same home garden both commercial cultivars and a variety of landraces can be found (Negri and Tosti 2002;Negri 2009). It is worth noting that landraces of certain crops are maintained almost exclusively in home gardens, which thus prove to be an effective refuge for those varieties that have long been abandoned in commercial fields (Negri 2003;2009;Perales et al. 2003). Landraces may be favoured because they compete successfully with new varieties; they often are better adapted to specific environmental conditions and guarantee, if not high, stable yields even in unfavourable years (Kulpa and Hanelt 1981;Negri 2003;Andonov and Ivanovska 2004).Immigration into Europe has led to the appearance of gardens managed by individuals from countries outside Europe, who have introduced their own crops, landraces and cultivating methods into the gardens (Gladis 2002), adding to the genetic diversity and overall complexity of the system.Wild forms and weeds are also likely to be found; on a household basis they are often appreciated for their colour or scent (Vogl-Lukasser and Vogl 2004), and some can be used as food. A study in Poland found that home gardens there act as a refuge for weeds, primitive forms of cultivated plants and relic crops, and are sometimes places for domestication of wild forms (Kulpa and Hanelt 1981).Intra-specific diversity in home garden crops may vary greatly with the species; it also depends on the crop's population size and the selection pressures applied. For example, native fruit trees that may be widely present in the surrounding ecosystem may not be well represented in their overall diversity in a home garden; trees require more space than herbaceous plants, have a long life cycle and in addition one or two individuals might be sufficient to provide fruit for family consumption. Therefore, the intra-specific diversity of such species might be low. Even so, the few individuals in a home garden often possess rare alleles related to an elite or prized characteristic (like the \"lemon-scented\" pear tree described by a farmer in his home garden in Southern Tuscany) allowing a specific use within the family (Guarino and Hoogendijk 2004).Recent studies based on molecular markers have allowed rapid, efficient assessments of intra-specific genetic diversity (Hammer et al. 2003) providing useful information on which to base future decisions on the management and conservation of genetic resources. With molecular markers, the diversity between home garden populations and ex situ collections of the same crop has been compared. The results obtained for Capsicum populations in Guatemala show that home gardens contain as much intraspecific diversity for that crop as that conserved in genebank collections (Guzmán et al. 2005) and strongly support the inclusion of home garden systems in on-farm conservation strategies. In addition, molecular markers have shown that home garden landraces, even when cultivated across small geographical areas, display a substantial amount of diversity at the sub-population level. In other words, each landrace (i.e. population) is made up of several distinct types, each belonging to a certain farmer or family, so that the total diversity is structured and distributed across a set of gardens (Tosti and Negri 2005;Negri et al. in press;Tiranti and Negri 2007).To study the evolution of diversity in home garden crops and to plan strategies for the conservation of intra-specific diversity, scientists stress the need to consider a basic unit which is capable of an \"independent evolutionary future\" (Perales et al. 2003). Because of the small size of home garden populations (Frese 2002) and of the structure they show (Tosti and Negri 2005), neither investigations into molecular diversity nor conservation planning can rely on a single garden, but should be based on as many different populations as possible and a certain number of home gardens within a cultural, social and ecological system.The level and persistence of diversity in home gardens are influenced by factors such as mutation, mating system of the crops, selection, genetic drift, and gene flow, but little data are available about these factors in home garden environments.The level of spatial isolation between wild and cultivated populations (Frese and Burenin 1994;Zizumbo-Villarreal et al. 2005), the number of cultivars and landraces grown on each farm, the amount of seed exchange among neighbouring farmers and of course the crop's mating system can each affect the level of gene flow and contribute to the shaping of diversity.Selection is a complex issue because it embraces both biological and social areas of investigation. Micro-environmental selective effects are reported for some crops (Tosti and Negri 2005;Negri et al. in press), however it is not easy to distinguish these effects from those caused by human selection. Selection carried out on each crop by the gardener is a particularly important factor because of its implications on conservation activities (Brush 2004). Different patterns of selection can determine profoundly different effects on population structures depending also on the crop being conserved, the population size, the adoption of either traditional or \"modern\" breeding schemes and the influence of market demand. Selection pressures applied by farmers are likely to change with time, among different farmers, across generations and under varying social dynamics. For example, seed selection practices carried out by farmers in Mexico and in Italy have been shown to maintain the desired agronomic characteristics of their varieties (Louette and Smale 2000;Pallottini 2002). Instead, families immigrating into Europe from warmer climates seek to gradually adapt their horticultural crops to the colder environment (Gladis 2002) by planting early ripening varieties.The significant role of seed exchange within the home garden system or between the latter and the larger commercial system (Fundora Mayor et al. 2004) must not be underestimated, as it is an important driving force leading to modification of the existing diversity or restoration of eroded diversity.Many different social and cultural factors affect the level of interest and decisionmaking patterns of home garden cultivators and consequently the structure and composition of their gardens.Wealth differences and ownership of the land are sometimes reflected in home garden plant diversity; farmers who do not own the land they cultivate are not usually willing to make investments in long-term improvements and diversity in their gardens is lower.Production type and market demand are the fundamental socio-economic driving forces in determining the diversity of home gardens. Farmers in depressed areas of Europe most value agricultural diversity and the food it produces. On the contrary, in richer areas, as the markets become denser and physical infrastructures improve, farmers rely less on their home produce and get more often involved in off-farm jobs, which results in an impoverishment of the biodiversity on their farms (Birol et al. 2005b). It has been observed that subsistence-oriented home gardens in remote areas usually contain greater crop diversity than gardens closer to cities, which are more oriented towards commercial production and display less diversity (Leiva et al. 2002). The impact of markets can be seen when a traditional home garden crop is taken up by the market. This can cause strong selective pressures on the garden populations of that crop, which favour only a few genetic variants carrying the traits required by consumers and determine a dramatic reduction in the diversity of the population (Portis et al. 2004).The impact of markets and the historical political situation have led to a greater persistence of home gardens in the poorer areas of the old continent. In Eastern European countries, which were ruled by collectivized state systems, families were permitted to cultivate their own gardens in small plots adjacent to their dwellings. This was crucial for their food security. Even since the transition to a market economy, weak food markets still persist in many rural communities and families still rely on their home gardens for some of the foods they consume, improving the breadth and quality of their diet while ensuring the conservation of crops and landraces (Birol et al. 2005a). In these and other marginal environments, the maintenance of home gardening, due both to cultural reasons and economic opportunities, counterbalances the general decline of agriculture, forestry and the related social and cultural activities observed across most of Europe (Vogl-Lukasser and Vogl 2004).The cultural heritage belonging to those who manage a home garden is also of paramount importance for the system's survival. Factors such as gender, age, awareness of conservation issues (Birol et al. 2005a;Smith et al. 2006) and aesthetic preferences play a role in determining selection practices, levels of material exchange and consequently the overall aspect of the gardens. Studies in which gender and age have been recorded in Europe show that women are often responsible for the introduction of and experimentation with new species in home gardens (Vogl-Lukasser and Vogl 2004) and that it is mainly elderly people who are involved in home gardening (Negri 2003;Vogl-Lukasser and Vogl 2004). Younger people living in the countryside are often employed in agriculture part-time and find it more convenient to buy commercial seed, a solution which reduces the agrobiodiversity conserved on-farm and also causes a gap in the generational transmission of knowledge related to traditional seeds.The concept of multifunctional agriculture was first embraced by the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) through the agro-environmental regulation 2078/92 on agricultural production methods compatible with the requirements of protection of the environment and maintenance of the countryside. It was then incorporated again into later regulations until the most recent reform of the CAP in 2003. Nevertheless, European agricultural policies in favour of biodiversity conservation, as they are today, provide no incentive for explicit forms of on-farm conservation and fail to recognize the role of small-scale farming or home gardening in providing public goods. Some policies (such as SAPARD2 ) have even offered direct payments to cease the production within small landholdings, which is believed to have caused a severe loss of biological diversity in the agricultural systems and landscapes of the countries involved (Birol et al. 2005a).A problem of particular relevance is that of the current seed system, which does not allow the commercialization of varieties that are not registered according to EU legislation. Such legislation requires varieties to be distinct, uniform and stable. Since the 1980s, the EU's seed marketing regulations have been widely criticized by the informal sector, consisting of civil society groups, associations of farmers who grow and exchange landraces or vintage varieties mainly for niche and local markets, and NGOs who fund (directly or indirectly) their activities through the diffusion of amateur varieties. They emphasize the importance of allowing commercial exchange of farmer seed and non-registered varieties for the maintenance of smallscale farming systems and home gardens.In response to pressures from the informal sector, in 1998 the EU adopted a directive (98/95/EC 3 ) proposing the possibility of legalizing farmer seed commercialization through a separate regulation system dedicated to \"conservation varieties\". However, no agreement on the actual conditions for marketing them has been achieved yet despite many meetings and discussions being held. On 17 April 2007, a document aimed at implementing the above-mentioned directive (paper SANCO3322/06rev12) was adopted unanimously by the Standing Committee on Seeds. Lively discussions have continued since that date, especially on the issues of geographic and quantity limitations and have caused the failure of further negotiations. The current situation is that the Standing Committee has in fact refused to modify the text that was approved in April 2007 on such points and a decision from the EC on procedures for the implementation of the directive is still forthcoming 4 . At present, it appears that the only law in Europe allowing the commercialization of conservation varieties is one in Italy (Law n.46, 6 April 2007), which is not far from being operative.Increased awareness about the multiple services home gardens can offer to the community and the environment is needed among the public and European policy makers in order to promote their maintenance and restoration. Ad hoc strategies and funding schemes should support this action. However, the policy of including home garden microenvironments in conservation strategies for a given species needs to be supported by more scientific data.There is a general consensus on the sustainability of home gardens as agricultural systems, but more data are needed on the interrelations between home gardens and the surrounding ecosystems and communities. This would clarify the benefits provided by home gardening activities and the added value of including home gardens in European conservation policies. The characteristics of European home gardens need to be investigated and the variability among different countries, which is expected to be high, should be recorded in detail. Not enough is yet known about the amount of genetic diversity in home garden crops, but precise quantification is essential, especially of intra-specific genetic variation, in order to know how viable home garden populations can be in the future. In addition, it would be useful to investigate to what extent home garden plant populations may contain unique alleles and traits that might be rare in the same species grown in different agricultural systems. As molecular tools become increasingly available, population genetics can be used to study the persistence and evolution of the diversity in home garden crops and thus plan on-farm conservation and management strategies based on sound scientific results.Some key social issues also need to be clarified at a European level in order to promote the maintenance of home gardens and to make conservation strategies effective. Motivation and willingness among owners to run a home garden is the first of these. The role of family and society in maintaining and transmitting the knowledge, traditions and cultural heritage associated with local varieties and landraces needs to be investigated as a relevant aspect of diversity maintenance.Some key issues have been identified that should be addressed in future studies on European home gardens:• Multi-functionality of home gardens in Europe • Home gardens' contribution to the maintenance of landraces and/or rare, underutilized or threatened species • Amount of genetic diversity which is maintained in home gardens, especially at the infra-specific level for individual crops • Evolutionary factors influencing (maintaining or eroding) such diversity • Nature of the benefits (direct or indirect) provided by home gardens to the ecosystem and people • Sociological studies on people and groups involved in home gardening and level of awareness about their contribution to biodiversity conservation • Local knowledge and how it is maintained, developed and transmitted over generations in the home garden systems • Economic and policy issues that influence the survival and characteristics of home gardens.Introducing home gardens into national plant genetic resource systems calls for better integration between the formal and informal sectors and the development of regional, national and European legal frameworks.Most importantly, efforts are needed to facilitate the sharing of information across Europe. Stakeholders from the different sectors that are involved in home garden studies or activities need to be more clearly identified and recognized. At present a missing link between the \"basic\" level of the home gardeners and national and European legislation is evident in many countries and appears to be a common feature across Europe. The choice of a representative group (composed of delegates from Scientific Institutions, NGOs, Farmers Associations) in each country, specifically dealing with key issues concerning home gardens and participating in discussions, might be a first step towards improved interactions between policy makers and scientists on the one side and home gardeners on the other.In conclusion, a more detailed analysis of home gardens across Europe could provide a clearer picture of home garden biodiversity and its potential role in the conservation of plant genetic resources. This would facilitate the raising of awareness among European policy makers about the importance of including home gardens in plans for the conservation of agro-biodiversity to the benefit of the ecosystems and people.Seed saving in the home garden: Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library 5Garden Organic, Ryton Organic Gardens, Coventry, UKThe English are often thought of as being a little eccentric. Certainly if you look at some of our habits, you might be justified in thinking that. One typical British passion is collecting -anything from bottle-tops and old packets to train-spotting. Fortunately for the human race it also seems to include seeds. Add to this the British love of gardening and you can begin to see why the UK charity Garden Organic can make a success of their Heritage Seed Library (HSL).Recently in the UK there has been a resurgence of interest in vegetable and fruit growing, either in the home garden or on an allotment. This has brought many new gardeners into contact with the concept of conservation and saving heirlooms. It has not been difficult to explain the principles behind the Heritage Seed Library to the public; they seem to understand the issues very quickly.One factor that has particularly boosted support is the mistrust of bureaucratic intervention, especially from Europe. There is an English adage, \"An Englishman's home is his castle\", which describes the belief that what anyone does at home is their own business and they will defend this space against any invaders. Thus an EU Directive, suggesting that gardeners can't buy and grow what they want, is not popular! The Directive never intended to affect the home gardener, but, in fact, indirectly but also directly, it has reduced the availability of seed.Many of our best ideas originate with Garden Organic's founder, Lawrence D. Hills , a visionary and true eccentric. He was greatly concerned about the EU Marketing Directive on Plants and Seeds and feared that many traditional varieties all over Europe would disappear as a result, especially those that had never been on any list or in any catalogue but were handed down from one generation to the next or to a neighbour over the fence.We have learned from Lawrence's ability to translate difficult subjects into popular language. He did not talk about genetic resources but described the old varieties as masterpieces of breeding: Rembrandts, Van Goghs and Monets of the vegetable kingdom. In 1991, a year after his death, we decided that British interest in these old masterpieces could serve to safeguard the seeds and popularize the issues. The Heritage Seed Library came into existence as a membership-based operation. In the first few years membership grew every year by between 500 and 1000 people, reaching its current total of 11 500. We started to learn skills from professionals such as Dave Astley, nearby at the national genebank that Lawrence Hills had helped into existence, and Nigel Maxted at the University of Birmingham. Eventually through a large grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund we gained proper facilities for our operations.For an annual subscription every member receives six or seven packets of seed ordered from a catalogue that is sent out in December. It offers about 200 of our 800 varieties each year and members must order by the end of March to be sure of seed. In fact only half our members order seed, showing that the other half are happy just to support our conservation work.Seed is produced by Garden Organic staff on site and by up to 250 volunteer \"Seed Guardians\", who \"adopt\" a variety for us. We are never short of volunteers, although training them in what we need in terms of quality is challenging.We further publicize the issues and our work through events, workshops, displays of growing vegetables at our two sites open to the public and through our indoor interactive exhibition called 'The Vegetable Kingdom'. This is aimed at families and children but also offers more in-depth information for keen students. It also literally provides windows onto the work of the Garden Organic HSL staff as they clean seed, packet and despatch to members.Seedy Sundays began in Canada but are now a growing phenomenon worldwide. They have caught on remarkably quickly in the UK with new venues for these seed swapping markets appearing every year. Although this bypasses the conventional economy it does fuel interest in the ideas behind saving rarities, trying something unusual, conserving heritage. The idea was born from a realization that much seed is probably wasted when it could be shared or offered to others. Seedy Sundays (or Saturdays) vary in style but generally centre round a free exchange informal market, to which you can bring surplus seed and take away someone else's spares. It is an ideal forum for promoting the principles of conservation.It is particularly beneficial that HSL does not try to stand alone as an operation. The fact that it is one of the activities of Garden Organic means that it is free from the costs of separate administration and finance.This variety had been grown by the family of our donor for more than 100 years. Originally given to her great, great grandfather as a wedding present, this ancient round pea dates back to at least Elizabethan times. Protein rich (about 25%) Carlin is a classic drying pea, still traditionally eaten in northern England on the Sunday before Palm Sunday, known regionally as Carlin Sunday. The peas are soaked in brine overnight, boiled and eaten with salt and vinegar or doused in beer or mint sauce. It is said that the tradition commemorates the arrival of a shipload of peas in besieged Newcastle in 1644, saving many from starvation. Attractive pink and lilac flowers are followed by pods of small, brown mottled seeds.The Heritage Seed Library's most well known variety, used to promote the message about our work to conserve and distribute heritage varieties. Our sample comes from seeds originally donated to the Seed Library in 1978 by Rhoda Cutbush of Kent. We do not know the age of this variety, but crimson-flowered broad beans were mentioned as long ago as 1778. A beautiful bean in flower, they have a bonus of numerous, small upright pods that are delicious picked immature and cooked whole or can be left longer on the plant for the small, tender deep green beans.The donor, Sheila Smith from Sandwich in Kent, found these seeds amongst her father's gardening clutter. Further investigation revealed that this variety was originally sold by Finneys, a Northumberland firm with nurseries and trial grounds in Newcastle. Finneys closed during the 1950s at which time Northern Queen was the main outdoor variety, popular with both amateurs and commercial growers. A large butterhead variety with soft, mild flavoured leaves, it is reported to be tolerant of both frost and damp.In the UK it is now fashionable to be seen to be green, and also people of all ages are responding to concerns about modern damaging lifestyles. Vegetable growing has become popular again and, as a result, old varieties appear to have gained a cachet to the extent that several of our seed companies have introduced 'heirloom' ranges of seeds to their catalogues.Of all Garden Organic's activities it is time and again HSL that attracts corporate interest for something to support. They can clearly see the benefits in being allied to something so unusual, and unique within the UK. They sometimes have unrealistic expectations of the possibilities and we have to be careful to explain clearly the limitations. Managers of vegetable box schemes, now growing rapidly in popularity in the UK, are beginning to see that they can add curiosity value to their range of vegetables by including our varieties. This places new pressures on us, as we are organized to look after gardeners, not professional growers.Our final contribution to publicizing and popularizing the issues in conservation of genetic resources has been to place our varieties in suitable contexts -in other words, in gardens. We have done this at our sites open to the public, one in particular adding a historic background. Audley End Organic Kitchen Garden, which the organization manages in association with English Heritage, is a 250-year-old walled garden at its peak of perfection in the late 19th century. Here we have been able to save sufficient seed to show long rows of some crops and offer the produce for sale to visitors.Due to ecogeographical and historical reasons, Italy is a country with a rich biological diversity and a very long horticultural tradition. Climatically manifold conditions, from alpine-continental to subtropical-maritime environments, in combination with mountainous, hilly and plain topography in all parts of the country allowed the introduction of a large number of tree species and successively the development of ecotypes adapted to a variety of specific environmental conditions. The introduction of species from other parts of the world through human migration and mercantilism since pre-Roman times further contributed to this development.Today, there is a profound awareness among Italians of this natural heritage at national, regional, and local levels. Examples of the strong links between the population, the territory and its products are still found today in rich local cuisines as well as in local festivals dedicated to local products.Nevertheless, increasing standardization in agricultural production severely marginalizes large parts of the traditional autochthonous plant diversity. As a result, during the last 20 years, many different initiatives for the protection, conservation and promotion of Italian germplasm have emerged, both at the governmental and the non-governmental level.Recently, Italy's adhesion to and signature of various global agreements and treaties (Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992;Global Plan of Action, 1996;FAO International Treaty, 2004) aiming at the development of strategies for the conservation and sustainable utilization of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture also stimulated the different regional governments to set up action plans to implement the several tasks emerging from the responsibility assumed.Regional laws for the safeguard and valorization of autochthonous plant and animal genetic resources, with particular attention to those which are at risk of extinction or genetic erosion, have, so far, been set up in six Italian Regions, namely Abruzzo (1997), Molise (1999), Latium (2000), Umbria (2001), the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (2001), Friuli Venezia Giulia (2002), Marche (2003)  and Tuscany  (2004).Common issues and provisions of these laws are: • the inclusion of identified autochthonous varieties and ecotypes in regional catalogues of germplasm to be protected• the institution of scientific commissions to survey and coordinate the composition of these catalogues and decide on priority measures for the protection of the single accessions • the establishment of a regional network of existing in situ and ex situ facilities for the conservation of the material identified (regional genebanks, Guardian Farmers, etc.) • the collection, conservation and propagation of this material.In 2002, the Regional Council of Latium funded a two-year-project called \"Individuation, recovery and characterization of local autochthonous fruit tree germplasm at risk of genetic erosion\". Institutions involved were the Research Institute for Fruit Trees (ISF, nowadays CRA-Centre for Fruit Tree Research) in Rome and the University of Viterbo, Department of Plant Production. In 2006, the Regional Agency for Agricultural Development and Innovation in Latium (ARSIAL) funded ISF for a two-year continuation of the activity. The main tasks of the project are:• the identification of local varieties and ecotypes of fruit tree species autochthonous to Latium • the collection and transfer of the material identified to the ex situ collections of the project partners involved • the production of mother plants • the cataloguing of the material collected • the study and characterization of the new accessions, with the aim of identifying those to be included in the regional catalogue of protected varieties • dissemination of the results.The survey, based on initial bibliographic studies and personal contacts, was carried out in fifty-four locations spread throughout the Region: in five places in the open landscape, three \"villas\" (i.e. former private gardens or parks belonging to noble people, which are nowadays open to the public, in which fruit trees were usually grown) and forty-six private home gardens. Criteria for the choice of the varieties and ecotypes were their autochthony and rarity, the rusticity of the trees, their local historical and cultural significance, and their economic and horticultural characteristics.The home gardens visited, usually up to 0.5 ha in size, were located either in the outer suburban belt of urban centres or in remote areas, often close to the surrounding agro-ecosystems. In most cases they are characterized by mixed crops (fruits and vegetables), sometimes also in combination with animal husbandry (chicken, geese, sheep). As such, the gardens are an integral part of everyday life and play a fundamental role not only in daily household activities but also in social events with friends and family. Generally, people are very much aware of rare or local varieties present in their gardens and they preserve them carefully. However, it was observed that the maintenance of these trees and related knowledge is in most cases left to older people, while younger people usually show little concern about active preservation of the local, old germplasm growing in their parents' or grandparents' gardens.One hundred and twenty-eight different fruit tree varieties or ecotypes were identified, which represent eleven different species (Table 1), apple, pear and cherry being the species richest in autochthonous varieties. As shown in Table 2, nearly 40% of all varieties were found only once. Regarding the age of the trees, a third were younger than 20 years old, 40% were younger than 60 years old, almost a quarter younger than 90 years old and 5% were estimated to be older than 90 years old. Some very old exemplars were found, with ages up to 200 years old. The trees were either grafted onto local or commercial varieties. Concerning the individual history of the trees, investigations revealed that in 70% of cases, they had been planted by the current or previous owner of the gardens, either as single trees or as part of small orchards; 15% of the trees derived from old abandoned mother trees in the open landscape of which graft sticks had been transferred to the private gardens. In the remaining 15% of cases, the origin of the trees in their current surroundings is unknown. Nearly all the fruit growing in home gardens is destined for family consumption; in about one third of cases, the fruit is also sold on local markets.The strong link between the fruits and their territory is often expressed by their names which recall the specific locations of their occurrence. For example there is a pear called \"Spadona di Castel Madama\", \"Monteporzio apricot\", \"Reginella di Moricone peach\", \"Sabina cherries\", \"Moscato di Terracina grapes\", \"Gaeta pomegranate\", and so on. The crucial role of local varieties in people's identification with their territory and its products is underlined by annual town festivals (sagre) dedicated to typical local fruit varieties, which often date back more than 50 or even 100 years. For example the festival of the grape variety \"Pizzutello di Tivoli\" has been celebrated annually since 1845. Common features of these festivals are the public exhibition of the harvested fruits, an award to the best grower in the region and the consumption of all kinds of dishes and drinks (sweets, desserts, liqueurs) prepared from the respective fruit.When it comes to the names of the varieties collected, it was found that sometimes several varieties of the same species have the same name but differ to a greater or lesser extent in their morphological and/or agronomical aspects. This is particularly true for apples (\"Mela Rosa\" 'Pink Apple'), and cherries (\"Ravenna\"). Similarly, other varieties collected are reported to be autochthonous not only in Latium but also in adjacent regions of similar ecogeographical conditions. Therefore, the same variety might be known under several different regional names. Molecular analysis will be necessary to clearly define the different accessions, the genetic variation expressed in clones or ecotypes of the same variety and to clarify cases of heteronymy and synonymy.Within a period of only two years, it has been possible to identify 128 autochthonous varieties or ecotypes of eleven of the most important European fruit tree species in home gardens in the Italian Region of Latium. These local varieties, cultivated more for traditional reasons than for commercial purposes, represent a strong link between local populations and their territories, and they are proudly being cared of. Nevertheless, cultivation of these traditional varieties is threatened by two key socio-economic aspects: firstly, large scale production for commercial cultivars has marginalized the cultivation and consumption of locally adapted varieties to private households and niche markets. At the same time, traditional knowledge about the characteristics, maintenance and use of this germplasm, and thus the germplasm itself, is at risk of being lost if future generations prove not to be interested in learning about it and neglect it.A precise risk assessment of the single accessions needs, however, clear identification both to understand the threats and to better understand the varietal dynamics and the development of ecotypes. Abruzzo is a region in central Italy characterized by mountainous and rugged territory overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Within a short distance of 40 km, the altitude ranges from sea level up to almost 3000 m asl. This peculiar orography, the diversity of the lithologic substrates and soils, together with the biogeography of the region, lead to a multitude of environments and microclimates. The regional flora is one of the richest in Italy and in the Mediterranean basin; the same applies to the agricultural biodiversity. The rich tradition of cultivation is also linked to the human history of the region in which the first evidence of agriculture dates back to 7000 years ago (Manzi 2006).Since 1996, the Regional Agency for Agricultural Development Services (ARSSA) has been collecting, preserving and studying the germplasm of species of agricultural interest. The results are encouraging: around 30 different species were surveyed for a total of 280 accessions of which 230 are herbaceous and 50 are trees species.Seeds of herbaceous crops have been stored in a semi-refrigerated seed bank in Sulmona (province of L'Aquila). The accessions of plant trees (apple, pear and almond) have been collected in three field catalogues located in Ortona dei Marsi, Capestrano (province of L'Aquila) and Scerni (province of Chieti).Among the varieties identified, many are those of particular interest from an historical point of view, their precious organoleptic characteristics, and their close ancient connection with the life of the people of Abruzzo.Among the cereals, 'Solina' common wheat should be mentioned as a variety which has been cultivated in Abruzzo since 1500. This is indicated in the notarial acts of sales from the fair at Lanciano for this period (currently kept in the local section of the national archives). This bread wheat grows in mountainous areas up to 1500-1600 m asl. The union of the flour it yields with its mother-yeast produces a unique flavour which is very much appreciated. The same flour is used to prepare homemade pasta: a simple and tasty dish.Pulses have left clear tracks of their presence among the main crops cultivated in the mountains. Lentils, chickpeas and grass peas draw, in all central Abruzzo, the map of subsistence farming systems, characterized by a high degree of sustainability, even at the highest altitudes and poorest substrates. These fragile agro-ecosystems have allowed the maintenance of human settlements even in very harsh conditions. The mountainous areas of central Abruzzo are also known for the continued cultivation of vegetables no longer in use in other regional contexts, like field peas (Pisum sativum var. arvense), chickling vetch (Lathyrus cicera), and bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia). Down at lower altitudes, the agriculture practised in valleys is richer thanks to the presence of deep soils and available water for irrigation. In some cases, such as in the Peligna Valley, Roman (or even pre-Roman) irrigation systems or terraces are still in operation. In these areas, horticulture has been recognized and celebrated since ancient times. For instance, the Latin writer and poet Ovid, described his motherland, the Peligna basin as \"... gelidis, uberrimis undis ...\" (rich in cold waters and bearer of large fruits). Nowadays, though marginal compared to local and national horticultural crops, the cultivation of local varieties is still practised, primarily for self-consumption. Beans and tomatoes are the most widely represented crops; nearly every farmer has kept their own local variety or its variants in different regional areas (the pear tomato, the smooth round tomato from Sulmona, the 'Frattura' bean also called the oil bean, the 'Cannellino' bean, and so on). Among the legumes, the presence of cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) is to be noted since it is considered to be the oldest variety cultivated in Europe even before the American beans (Phaseolus vulgaris and Ph. coccineus). The latter, introduced after Christopher Columbus, has been grown in Abruzzo since about the XVI century (Manzi 2008a). Many regional basins can be considered centres for secondary differentiation of beans of the genus Phaseolus. Furthermore, there is no valley inland that does not have its own variety (Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga 2008).Among the fruit crops, apple and pear trees are extremely diversified. Some varieties are historically linked to the land and have names that go back in history such as the following apples: 'Limoncella' (lemon-like), 'Zitella' (old maid), 'Gelata' (frozen), 'Piatta' (flat), etc. Other apple varieties, of no less value, had become completely unknown and so new names have been given to them like 'Cajine', blackberry, 'Tinella', etc. Some varieties, though beautiful and valuable in terms of taste, have already lost their true identity because they have been retrieved without recording the original name or the geographical origin. In either case the fruits were \"renamed\" according to their place of retrieval, their identified holder or their appearance: 'Mela della suocera' (Mother-in-law's apple), 'Mela rossa grande di Pettorano' (The big red apple from Pettorano), etc.Particular attention has been paid to autochthonous forage plants, in particular to alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and sainfoin (Onobrychis vicifolia). Two varieties of alfalfa have been selected on a broad genetic base and introduced into the Italian national register, and ARSSA is currently undertaking the same task for two varieties of sainfoin (Torricelli et al. 2000).The horticultural tradition of the region is ancient. During the Roman Empire for instance, the gardens around Amiternum (L'Aquila) were well known in Rome. Latin writers such as Pliny the Elder, Columella and Martial refer to various vegetables from Abruzzo which were appreciated in the cities. Among these feature the onions and turnips of Amiternum, the kales of Chieti, and the faba beans and onions of Marsica. Roman gardens were also used for producing species of vegetables with medical properties, which are rarely if ever used for human consumption today, such as elecampane (Inula helenium) and alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum).In the medieval period, gardens surrounded large and small towns, convents and hermitages. The medieval communities' by-laws list the garden management and protection rules. Some by-laws imposed an obligation on citizens to cultivate gardens or to grow specific vegetables in them, such as cabbage, which was considered vital for food security. (Di Menna and Manzi 2006;Manzi 2008b).After the discovery of America, some important vegetables reached Abruzzo including beans of the genus Phaseolus and pumpkins of the genus Cucurbita, which probably spread throughout the region during the sixteenth century. The cultivation of sweet pepper and chilli (Capsicum annuum and C. frutescens) was developed in the first half of the eighteenth century, while the first record of tomato fields is reported in the early nineteenth century. After the terrible famine of 1764 in southern Italy, political decisions imposed an obligatory cultivation of maize, replacing traditional cereals. The cultivation of potatoes, however, started only at the end of the XVIII century (Manzi 2006). Their widespread dissemination soon led to the disappearance, or scarcity, of some traditional vegetables such as parsnips (Pastinaca sativa) and black salsify (Scorzonera hispanica). During the nineteenth century, the Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), another species of American origin, was cultivated for its edible roots. Later this species became consumed less as a vegetable and was used for animal feed.The second half of the eighteenth century saw the beginning of land reclamation and deforestation of large flooded plains along the rivers Vomano, Pescara, Sangro, and Sinello Trigno. These new, fertile, irrigated, reclaimed plains were cultivated mainly with vegetables. This was the beginning of intensive horticulture for marketing. Even today the production areas for the main horticultural products are located on those fertile river plains.These gardens are usually linked to urban centres of medieval origin and are often equipped with wells or cisterns. When irrigation water is not available, they are traditionally called \"dry gardens\". Located either inside or outside the city walls, they were frequently established on terraces or on the lands of destroyed houses. They thus represent, besides their agricultural interest, an important record of local history and urban planning.These gardens are located in the countryside or near rural villages, close to springs or fountains, and situated in both hilly and mountainous areas, often on terraces and separated by stone walls. Amongst the cultivated crops, there is the giant reed (Arundo donax) whose stalks were often used for staking prevailing vegetable or fruit crops.A typical crop of these gardens is celery (Apium graveolens) and in particular the landrace \"laccie nire\" or black celery (province of Chieti). This vegetable is traditionally eaten during the celebration of the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian in the hill town of Roccascalegna and represents a convivial dish in local inns.Often enclosed with dry stone walls, these gardens are mostly dedicated to the cultivation of potatoes, maize and beans, especially those varieties requiring little watering. The gardens receive enough water from the seasonal rains, even if the short growing season restricts the type of species cultivated.Monasteries have always played an important role in the spread of both new crops and new agricultural techniques. Each convent, particularly the Benedictine convent, had its own garden for subsistence purposes. Often, next to the food crops, what was termed the \"simple garden\" (giardino dei semplici) was cultivated, with medicinal plants and aromatic herbs. The San Francesco grape, for example, was introduced into the Peligna Valley when the Franciscan monks established the convent of San Antonio of Sulmona. The monastery gardens, and those of noble or wealthy families, were often interspersed with herbaceous crops and orchards, especially apples and pears, often from external sources.These gardens are usually located 1) in alluvial plains traditionally occupied by intensive horticulture practised since the second half of the seventeenth century, 2) in areas historically dedicated to vegetable production like in the Peligna Valley, mentioned by Latin authors, 3) in the Fucino highlands, a vast flat cultivated area of 15,000 hectares obtained from colossal reclamation work started in Roman times and completed during the nineteenth century. The fluvial valley floors near the river mouths are still generally dedicated to vegetable production despite the fact that agriculture is now declining and being replaced by commercial and industrial activities.Below is a list of traditional vegetables cultivated for different purposes (food, aromatic, medicinal, etc.). These plants, in rapid decline, have already disappeared in certain locations. For the botanical nomenclature, refer to Conti et al. (2005) and Pignatti (1982). The seeds of many of these plants are kept at the headquarters of ARSSA in Sulmona or at the Regional Reserve of Lake Serranella.-Bastard dittany (Ballota pseudodictamnus (L.) Bentham) -Bottle gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris Ser.) -Caper spurge (Euphorbia. lathyris L.) -Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) -Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium (L.) Hoffm.) -Chickling vetch (Lathyrus cicera L.) -Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) -Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walpers) -Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) -Field peas (Pisum sativum L. var. arvense (L.) Gams.) -Mint-geranium (Balsamita major Desf.) -Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) -Opposite leaved saltwort (Salsola soda L.) -Parsnips (Pastinaca sativa L.) -Shallots (Allium cepa L. var. ascalonicum Back) -Snake cucumber (Cucumis flexuosus L.) -Southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum L.) -Spearmint (Mentha spicata L.) -Tree mallow (Lavatera arborea L.)A list of traditional local varieties of vegetable follows. They are often rare and their distribution is very limited. Seeds are stored 1) at the headquarters of ARSSA Sulmona, 2) in the seed banks of the regional reserve \"Lake Serranella\", in Sant' Eusanio Sangro, 3) in the botanical garden of Lama dei Peligni managed by the National Park of Majella, 4) in the flora research centre of the Apennines in Barisciano, managed by the National Park of Gran Sasso/Monti della Laga and 5) in the University of Camerino. Abruzzo possesses a large number of flower species considered to be crop wild relatives of vegetable plants. Due to its strategic bio-geographic position, the region is at the confluence of species distribution from Euro-Siberian, Mediterranean and Balkanic origins. Some species such as chives (Allium schoenoprasum) or caraway (Carum carvi) reach in Abruzzo the southern limit of their diffusion in Italy. Others, like common sage (Salvia officinalis), dwarf chicory (Cichorium endivia subsp. pumilum) or cardoons (Cynara cardunculus), in Abruzzo mark the northern limit of their diffusion in the Italian peninsula or, at least, in the Adriatic. The gullies, located on clays locally named \"varicolori\" (multi-coloured) and dating back to the Oligocene period, are of particular interest for vegetable cultivation. They house several progenitors of vegetables including cardoons (Cynara cardunculus), opposite leaved saltwort (Salsola soda), garden orache (Atriplex hortensis), and sea beet (Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima).The list that follows is of species considered to be spontaneous and indigenous. It does not include species introduced (or considered to be introduced) from outside, weeds, or species used for pharmacology, fodder, textiles or dyeing. The list takes into account the wild relatives of plants cultivated for aromatic and food purposes only.-Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum L.) -Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L. After dedicating the first years exclusively to germplasm collection inside the territory, it became evident that the collection per se did not mean saving. In the refrigerated seed banks, the material could be considered \"buried\" rather than safe, unable to evolve within a fast-changing environment. The only way to maintain the link between the seeds and their territory of origin was by encouraging their cultivation, consumption and trade. It was necessary to support the cultivation of marginal varieties which met a market demand that, however small or potential, would motivate the farmers to produce them. The approach was therefore changed. A new link between the following, till that moment unconnected, three concepts was therefore created:The word \"tipico\" (typical) is widely used in Italian to indicate 'typical of a certain region' and has connotations of authentic, unique flavours with strong links to the land. The term has become over-used and had lost its meaning since only the original varieties provide the genuine, unique flavours. The connections between these three concepts marks the end of a free and random exploitation, allowing strong policies of valorization to be embedded that can be defined as \"social agriculture\". The third notion in this approach, organic farming, provides value addition and would meet increasing demand on the part of consumers. Organic production is spreading in Abruzzo, especially in protected areas: one regional and three national parks that occupy more than 35% of the total territory. Within these areas, encouraging conventional agricultural practices would be senseless.Joint projects are currently being developed between the ARSSA and the National Park of Maiella, the National Park Gran Sasso/Monti Della Laga and the Regional Park Sirente-Velino.The project aims to collect, preserve and valorize the varieties traditionally grown in the park area. The research conducted thus far has led to the rediscovery of many traditional varieties still jealously guarded by farmers. All these varieties are surveyed and catalogued in the \"Repertoire of autochthonous agricultural varieties of the National Park of Majella\", \"which describes the distinguishing features of each. Many can also be observed in the botanical gardens of the park Lama of Peligni and in S. Eufemia a Majella.One facet of the project is to introduce elementary home gardening into the local primary school curricula, linking also to the history and culture syllabi in the explanation of the domestication of local varieties.The project aims to encourage the cultivation of landraces among the farmers who have \"preserved\" them so far, a form of dynamic conservation (on-farm conservation). This implies the identification of the custodian farmer who physically takes care of them and improves them year by year. The most important advantage of conservation carried out in this way is that the landraces continue to evolve under the joint action of environment and traditional agricultural techniques, keeping alive the link with the local cultural matrix (Di Santo and Silveri 2004).The National Park of Majella and ARSSA give subsidies to farmer custodians according to a precise schedule that includes:• cultivating local varieties (annual fee)• planting new orchards (50% of the cost of the initiative) • cultivating old orchards or particularly valuable old trees (annual fee)• purchasing machinery for small-scale processing and packaging of products from local varieties (50% of the cost estimates) • investing in conversion to organic farming and certification.A contribution, representing 70% of the expenses, has been planned for the operators of school canteens purchasing products from the parks' farmer network.For their part, farmers commit to:• joining the network of custodian farmers to maintain and increase the local varieties • exchanging seeds with other farmers in the network • obtaining organic farming certification • using food processing equipment purchased with the help of the project for the processing requirements of other members of the network • supplying school canteens and restaurants participating in the project.The project was financed under the \"Leader+\" initiative 6 and is jointly implemented by the Gran Sasso-Laga Park and ARSSA. It aims, once again, to identify, on a more detailed scale, the indigenous genetic resources still present in the territory, and the creation of a network of custodian farmers aware of the importance of biodiversity for themselves, the territory and society as a whole. Specific valorization activities were not intended for this phase of the project, although in fact the attention focussed on the crops (e.g. the 'Santo Stefano di Sessanio' lentil) and animal products ('Campotosto' mortadella, 'Farindola' pecorino) worked as a de facto valorization process. In addition to the varieties found previously by the agency and by individual researchers, 53 accessions have been identified and a network has been established to link up 29 farms representing a network of \"custodian farmers\" through which to redistribute the reproductive material identified. A small germplasm bank has been created and has been duplicated at the ARSSA bank of Sulmona. In this case, although a more stable relationship among institutions and farmers has not yet been created, farmers have received a contribution in cash in recognition of the social value of their conservation work. In any case, the valorization of products will now proceed formally and has already started for some crops, like the 'Santo Stefano di Sessanio' lentil, which has been inserted by the Park within the Slow Food presidia.This project is the most recent, approved in 2007 and started in 2008. Previous to this project, the Regional Park Sirente-Velino decided in 1999 to carry out a detailed reconnaissance of the genetic resources of agricultural interest available in the territory. Activities were implemented under the technical-scientific supervision of ARSSA with field work carried out by a consultant agronomist. This project, concluded in 2001, covered both plant and animal husbandry resources. Considerable difficulties characterized this preliminary work, particularly in establishing relationships with the farmers, who in many cases were reluctant to collaborate. Even so, a total of 26 species and / or varieties with a probable origin within the territory of the park were identified:• among the vegetable species: red garlic (one accession) and potato (five accessions). • among cereal species: wheat (six accessions), corn (two accessions), barley (five accessions). • among legumes for human consumption: chickpea (two accessions), grass pea (two accessions), lentil (three accessions).The origin is given as probably autochthonous, but it is not possible to say with certainty without coupling the identification and reference work done with morphological, agronomic and, in some cases, even molecular characterization. These studies would have the aim of clarifying unequivocally the nature of the selected varieties and would influence decisions about whether they deserve to be taken into account for further valorization efforts or not. This preliminary work set the ground for the second intervention, started in 2008, which gives particular attention to training for the farmers, who are being asked to perform a task quite different from simply producing food. Meetings and training courses have been planned, including visits to key companies or institutions representing interesting case-studies. A thorough investigation will also take place in the near future to identify all possible undocumented local varieties that may still be present in the area. Particular attention will be given to fruit species and varieties, which were neglected in the previous project; the project foresees the planting of four field catalogues: two of mixed apple and pear trees, one of almond trees and the fourth of summer fruits (plums, cherries).Phaseolus beans have a high diversity, which has evolved for millennia, first in the gardens of different Amerindian cultures then, after 1492, also in the gardens of European and other communities. Traditional, \"ethnic\" gardens (bounded by mostly symbolic but often also by real fences) served as an ecological theatre for a strange evolutionary play -that of the domestication and evolution of our vegetables. On the stage, besides the plant actors, were also human actors, or more commonly actresses: housewives who would select the most suitable taxa, the best performing plants and the best seeds for further reproduction.The \"domestication play\", based on constant observation, collection, cultivation and selection, belongs both to cultural history (names, uses, customs, beliefs etc.) and to biological history in the emergence of new varieties and better adapted plant and human populations. The scenes of the \"theatre\" were, and still are, micro-and macro-environments: landscapes and cultivation zones around the different gardens. The main actors are plants and people. Plants of different properties and uses. People of different cultures, languages, customs, tastes and needs. But not only plants and people are actors in this play; there are also animals (e.g. seed-eating insects, birds, mammals and their predators), parasitic fungi and even bacteria (e.g. legume and Rhizobium interactions). The time scale is about 10 000 years; the geographic scale -in our special Phaseolus case -is almost global and the diversity resulting from these biological and cultural interactions is enormous.What is surprising is sometimes the lack of even basic knowledge about the emergence of this exciting agro-and ethno-biodiversity. We are fairly uninformed, for example, about the evolution and early cultural significance of the spectacular seed coat genetic marker system in Phaseolus, or about the differential co-migration of co-adapted Phaseolus, Cucurbita and Zea cultivars across different human cultures during the migration and diffusion process of the taxa involved. However, even if the details are often obscure, the chain of the main events in the domestication process is essentially the same: 1. meet the plant in the wild or in cultivation (e.g. in a garden, in the market etc.); 2. try the plant (in cultivation, in nutrition etc.); 3. name the plant or variety properly (ethnotaxonomy, germplasm science); 4. collect knowledge about the plant or variety (ethnobotany); 5. use the plant regularly (economic botany); 6. cultivate the plant regularly (of special interest for agronomy, forestry); 7. study it scientifically as a botanist, geneticist etc. (scientific botany, genetics); and finally 8. protect it if needed, making inventories and protocols for monitoring the dynamics of its diversity and distribution in order to serve genetic resource science (GRS), germplasm science and conservation science, to assure its sustainable use in the future.The ethnobotanical approach followed here requires the definition of some basic concepts related to ethnobotany in its broadest sense.Ethnobotany deals with traditional, generally non-written knowledge about plants. As such, ethnobotany is a very old and traditional field of science, but it gained independence through its first printed \"research report\" (Clusius and Beythe 1583) and was given a proper name only 313 years later (Harshberger 1896). Ethnobotany, in the sense accepted in this approach, studies the interplay between traditional (non-rational, non-written) and scientific (rational, written) knowledge regarding different relations between humans and plants. Understanding the evolution of ethnobotanical knowledge is important for ethnography (cultural anthropology), (agro)botany, evolutionary genetics and genetic resource research (germplasm science) etc.A special field of ethnobotany is aedobotany, which deals with plants tolerated, used and/or cultivated in and around constructions (Szabó 1995). Consequently, aedobotany deals with the study of plants preserved or planted mostly in a fenced area around the buildings according to the needs and traditions characteristic of different cultures, ethnic groups and/or different ecological conditions in different historical periods. Aedobotany (as a part of ethnobiodiversity research) evaluates the quantity and quality of plant diversity inside and around constructions, especially in home gardens, but also in the flower-rich Central-European churchyards, along rural roadsides etc. in a given place and time. Home garden research belongs by definition to the aedobotanical approach. Home garden monitoring based on ethnobotanical/aedobotanical methods may reveal interesting differences and similarities inside and among regions, countries or even continents.Since the biological diversity found in gardens is influenced not only by ecological conditions but also by ethno-cultural traditions, by the traditional ecological (ethnobotanical, ethnozoological etc.) knowledge and experience accumulated by ethnically different human communities, a well conducted home garden research programme belongs also to the field of ethnobiodiversity studies. There is also a narrower approach, named agrobiodiversity studies, which is less interested in (mostly sensitive) ethnic issues (Hammer 2003). Accordingly, the main difference between ethnobiodiversity and agrobiodiversity studies is that although both deal with economically important biodiversity, the former links it with human genetic diversity and with language and cultural diversity components, while the latter does not. The use of the ethnobiodiversity concept is still rather limited, however, due to the fuzzy nature of the cultural and (ethno)cultural systems involved (cf. Szabó 2007).The ethnobiodiversity approach is especially relevant in human influenced plant evolution: gardens were and still are the Elementary Ethnobiodiversity Units (EEU) of this process(cf. e.g. Vogl-Lukasser 2007). The ethnobotanical method allows a comparative statistical analysis of EEUs and may reveal important similarities, but also significant differences inside and/or among different EEUs on different levels: ethnic groups, settlements, regions, countries or even whole continents.It is hard to deny that the traditional frames for plant selection and use are ethnic (language and cultural) communities. The ecologically and/or economically valuable varieties selected in and by these communities were and still are subjects of a constant interchange. Accordingly, the ethnic component is an integral part of crop evolution, which needs to be considered in in situ genetic resource conservation. Neglecting the ethnic components may be motivated by scientific, economic, methodological or other reasons, but also unfortunately by non scientific, political reasons.Continuing from previous methodological studies on genetic resource protection, nature conservation, food plant ethnobotany and island ethnobiogeography (Bullitta 2007, Macbeth and MacClancy 2004, Serwinski and Faberova 1999, Simonic 2006)   (Szabó andPéntek 1976, 1996); ethnobotanical field collections (Péntek and Szabó 1985); ethnobotanical dictionaries and monographs (Krauss 1943;Borza 1965;Butura 1979), ethnobiodiversity studies (Szabó 2007). Many of these sources were transformed by the author previously into electronic databases greatly facilitating the data search.The case studies presented in this paper originate from a multiethnic area of Eastern-Central Europe, designated by the author in earlier studies as the Alp-Balkan-Carpath-Danube (ABCD) area. Not only the geographical properties, but also many similarities in the evolution of phenomena related to ethnobiodiversity motivate the examination of this area.• Historical data regarding the trends in Phaseolus introduction and variability in the Central-European area were collected from printed and electronic sources using traditional and electronic methods. An Internet search was carried out based on Google research engines. • Field data regarding Phaseolus samples required the collection of seed samples, and where possible also pod samples, herbarium samples, and photographic samples (plant and site characteristics etc.). Ethnobotanical data were collected using structured but open-ended interviews regarding names, uses and other data such as beliefs, poetry and songs. Agronomical data were registered at the interview sites where possible: sowing and harvesting dates; cultivation methods (pure or mixed cultivation, plot situation, size); cultivation mode (monoculture, mixed culture); seed selection methods; seed production practices regarding the farmers' seed, especially if selected yearly seed by seed (in Hungarian: \"szemen szedve\"); data on informants: name, age, gender, mother language, other language(s), religion (optional), social status, school level etc. • Experimental data: the samples collected were cultivated in an experimental garden and growth type, seed and pod characteristics were verified, productivity per plant, 1000 seed mass and dates were registered. Database construction and data analysis were carried out manually and the results published in a monograph (Péntek and Szabó 1985).It is important to note that because both field scientists were Hungarians, contacting Hungarian informants was relatively easier. As a result, the quantitative data of the Romanian ethnotaxonomic diversity is likely to be under-represented in our field data, as compared with the real situation in the field.Ethnic groups included are mentioned in the text and tables either in alphabetical order, or in the chronological order of the sources cited.The main results of the different case studies will be summarized in the following passages.Phaseolus was first mentioned in Hungarian manuscripts and herbals by Lencsés 1577, Melius 1578, Clusius and Beythe 1583, Clusius 1583/84 (under the name of Phaseolus purkircherianus, with illustration, see Fig. 1), Beythe 1595 and many others not cited here, indicating a growing Hungarian interest in this taxon, which had been introduced into Europe in the early 16th century.The Transylvanian ethnohistorical data clearly reflect the bean's provenance from Turkey. Phaseolus vulgaris was first mentioned in Lencsés' pharmacobotanical manuscript (1577) under the name \"törökborsó,\" i.e. Turkish pea, in two recipes: one for enhancing facial skin and another for treating poisoning from animal bites. In the Herbarium by Melius (Colosvar 1578), Phaseolus was mentioned under the name of \"török bab\" (Turkish bean) as a purely medicinal plant used to cure testicular and nail diseases (\"…if you boil in vinegar cypress cones with Turkish bean seeds or leaves, the infusion cures testicular and nail diseases\") as well as to cure diseases of the skin (\"… mix Turkish bean flour with vinegar and salt water for treating scabious head …\") [author's translations]. It is worth noting that similar cures were cited in the twentieth century among the Romanians by Butura (1979).Turkish pea (törökborsó) was also found in Pannonia, a region corresponding to an area of the present day Western Hungary, Western Slovakia, Northern Croatia, Eastern Austria and Eastern Slovenia, in the first true printed ethnobotanical \"research report\": a booklet signed by Clusius and Beythe (1583), edited by the Slovenian typographer Manlius and printed in historical Hungary, in Németújvár (now Güssing, Austria).This historical thesaurus covers data from all kinds of written (not printed) documents created in Transylvania in the Hungarian language between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its remarkable value is reflected in the particular case of Phaseolus: even from the fraction of data available (only volumes I-XII, from A to S, have been published as yet) sound evidence emerges regarding the early \"Turkish\" route of Phaseolus migration towards Transylvania, and also the role of different ethnic groups (Romanians, Italians) as mediators in the way the crop spread, its territorial dynamics, cultivation, use and variability. The role of Romanian groups is seen in the Transylvanian historical names \"oláhborsó\" i.e. \"Romanian\", or more exactly \"Vlach bean\", indicating a southern migration route of Phaseolus from the Turkish Empire through the Romanian Countries (Oltenia, Muntenia and Moldova) towards the Carpathian Basin.The data also reflect the competition and confusion between the cultivation of and names of the autochtonous faba beans (Vicia faba) and the allochtonous, newly introduced Phaseolus beans in Transylvanian area during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries: Phaseolus is first called \"Turkish pea\". Thereafter the name \"Romanian pea\" is more frequent in Transylvanian documents from the late seventeenth and throughout the eighteenth century (cf. Szabó sen. et al. 1997). Simultaneously, from the early eighteenth century onwards, a marked direct or indirect Italian influence is reflected in the names for Phaseolus. Both the Romanian name \"fasole\" and the Hungarian \"fuszuly\" were vernacular names derived from the Italian word \"fagioli\". Different forms of \"fuszulyka\" became frequent in Transylvanian historical documents: \"kerti fuszuly\" i.e. garden bean (in Hungarian, 1729(in Hungarian, , 1732(in Hungarian, , 1744(in Hungarian, , 1835(in Hungarian, , 1834)); fuszulyborsó i.e. fagioli-pea (1738). The word \"fuszulyka\", a Hungarian diminutive form for the phaseolus bean, became common beginning with 1756. At the same time, a new Transylvanian Hungarian name for Phaseolus beans was slowly gaining general acceptance: \"paszuly\" (1727,1798,1839,1842) or in its diminutive form \"paszulyka\" (1792,1806).It is curious that in western and central Hungary the name for Vicia faba, \"bab,\" became the official Hungarian name for Phaseolus, faba beans here being called \"lóbab\" i.e. \"horse bean\". In Transylvanian Hungarian, however, the old name \"bab\" is preserved for the old crop Vicia faba in traditional, rural use even today. This fact is not generally known and has been the source of great confusion and misinterpretation. About two decades ago it even misled this author (cf. Szabó jun. 1976: endnote for the \"bab\").In Romanian the distinction between Vicia (\"bob\") and Phaseolus (\"fasole\") plant/ seed is quite regular, but the ethnobotanical term \"bob\" often denotes any plant seed as well (e.g. \"un bob de grîu\" = a caryopse of wheat).The Balkan migration route for Phaseolus is reflected in the early nineteenth century in the \"Diaria\" of Paul Kitaibel (the Pannonian Linnaeus), who observed the relative abundance of Phaseolus in the Northern Balkan area belonging to historical Hungary, situated now in Croatia and Serbia, or even in Romania, e.g. Oravita (Matskási and Lőkös 2001). In Iter slavonicum for example, on 2 July 1808 he noted in the valley near Verovtitz \"Phaseolus coccineus wird ziemlich viel gepflantzt\" [Translated: P.c. is quite often cultivated] (p. 127). Unfortunately Kitaibel was not interested in the infraspecific variability of Phaseolus beans.German ethnic group, based on the collection of Friedrich Krauss (1943) The first comprehensive ethnobotanical field survey to include bean diversity was carried out in Transylvania in 1943 by Friedrich Krauss among an ancient Northern-Transylvanian German ethnic group (Nösnerländische Sachsen) originating from the Luxembourg area, who had settled there around 1300. This \"Saxon nation\" had survived here as an autonomous group under the Hungarian Kingdom and that of the Transylvanian Hungarian Princes for eight centuries but became extinct in eight decades after 1919, after the Nösnerland were integrated into the new national state of Romania as part of the present day Bistriţa-Năsăud county.The variability of Phaseolus revealed by the ethnotaxonomic diversity preserved by the Northern-Transylvanian Germans was documented in the last minutes of the 800-year-long life of this nation (Fig. 2, Fig. 3). Krauss found in the Nösnerland two Phaseolus species (vulgaris and multiflorus recte coccineus) with an ethno-taxonomical diversity reflected in 177 bean names (cf. Tables 1a and 1b, accepting here the nomenclature used by Krauss 1943).   Because of the primarily ethnological and linguistic character of this collection, it is quite difficult to reconstruct the full biological diversity of the Phaseolus gene pool existing around 1943 in the area. This gene pool probably survived (at least in part) the extinction of the Northern-Transylvanian German ethnic community of the Nösnerland, and is probably preserved (at least in part) by the larger Romanian and the smaller Hungarian populations in the area.Working carefully with this published material, we have a good starting point for monitoring the changes in Phaseolus diversity in a well defined area and in a time scale of almost a century.Another important title used in this case study is the multilingual \"Ethnobotanical Dictionary\" by Alexandru Borza (1965), the largest comprehensive collection of Romanian and Hungarian traditional plant names published to date (Fig. 4).The dictionary lists only two named Phaseolus species from Romanian home gardens (citing here the nomenclature accepted in the dictionary):• Ph. multiflorus Lam. em. Willd. syn. Ph. coccineus L. -\"fasole mare\" with 22 names cited according to about 30 sources • Ph. vulgaris L. subsp. vulgaris and subsp. nanus -\"fasole\" with 158 Romanian names cited from more than 200 sources covering almost the whole Romanian language territory.Borza included under subsp. vulgaris (intentionally or erroneously?) all the Phaseolus vulgaris variability, including subsp. nanus, according to the vernacular names cited for this taxon.The dictionary also contains 24 Hungarian and 78 German names, including those cited by Krauss (1943). The ethnic asymmetry reflects the ethnic interest of the author rather than the real situation in the field (in the opposite way to our own case study outlined below).The ethnic interactions and the reticulate evolution of Phaseolus ethnotaxonomy among the interspersed (sympatric) ethnic communities is also reflected in this dictionary, for example by the formerly mentioned ethnic attributes in early Hungarian (e.g. oláh borsó = Romanian pea), as well as by mutual loaning and reticulate evolution of names, as for example \"fasole\" (Ro) > fuszuly/ka (Hu) > \"paszuly/ka\" (Hu) > \"păsulă\" (Ro).Joint ethnobotanical and genetic resource field studies were carried out through close cooperation between a biologist (botanist geneticist) and an ethnologist (philologist ethnographer). The studies began in Transylvania around 1970 and were realized in three phases: • General evaluation of the ethnobotanical knowledge of the Transylvanian Hungarians carried out between 1967 and 1976. Results presented in an ethnobotanical field guide with field collection methodology and new data (Szabó andPéntek 1976-1996) published both in Romania (1976) andin Hungary (1996). This methodology has been applied in further studies (e.g. Rab 2001;Péntek 2003).• Special evaluation focusing only on Phaseolus and Vicia beans carried out [1978][1979] with the aid of school teachers, their pupils and their families, but only among the Hungarian population in Romania. The project entitled \"Wonder Bean\" (see box) resulted in a large germplasm collection and an ethnotaxonomical database (results mostly unpublished). • Monographical evaluation of a well defined Transylvanian sample territory (local names: Kalotaszeg in Hungarian; Calata Area in Romanian) carried out between 1975 and 1985 looking at all the main components of ethnobiodiversity (except the animal kingdom), with special emphasis on some crops e.g. Triticinae and Phaseolinae (Péntek and Szabó 1985).This survey was carried out with the participation of a biologist (A. T. Szabó: botany and ethnobotany, genetics and genetic resources) and a philologist (j. Péntek: ethnology, ethnotaxonomy, linguistics)  The general evaluation first drew our attention to Phaseolus as a taxon of significance for ethnobiodiversity studies (although this research field was not named at that time, Szabó 1992in Polunin and Burnett 1992, Szabó 1999). This observation led to the next step: the \"Wonder Bean\" collection with the participation of volunteers.The \"Wonder Bean\" (\"Csodabab\") project was an extension of the larger ethnobotanical project, regarding the traditional botanical knowledge of Transylvanian Hungarians. Few results from this project have been published (Szabó and Dankanits 1978;Szabó 1985;Szabó et al. 1987). The \"Wonder Bean\" survey had an important educational component: raising interest in local genetic values important for in situ conservation -a practice still not named at that time. The project was organized in cooperation with institutions belonging to the Ministry of Education (schools, universities etc.), the Ministry of Culture (TV, Radio, Journals) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Unfortunately this project had no inter-ethnic components for a variety of reasons.In the context of this paper the main outcome from this project was the demonstration that it was possible to organize successfully a large, simultaneous and well coordinated collecting mission based on professional scientists and volunteers, in cooperation with universities, mass media (press, radio, television) and public education (school children, teachers and their parents) in order to collect information on Phaseolus diversity in home gardens across a middle sized European country and among the members of a well defined ethnic group.In this area the large majority of the taxa cultivated were housed in home gardens (47%), followed by ornamentals cultivated mostly in houses (30% including home, veranda, cemetery etc.), fruit gardens (4%), street and roadside (5%), arable fields (6%), hedges (4%) and other niches (4%). Varieties are not included in these statistics.Phaseolus vulgaris (and more rarely Ph. coccineus) were mostly cultivated in mixtures with other vegetables in home gardens, but also in small fields far from homes (\"distant gardens\") where Ph. vulgaris subsp. vulgaris is always mixed with one or more other species: most frequently Zea mays, intercropped with Cucurbita pepo and C. maxima, but sometimes also Zea with Solanum tuberosum and Beta vulgaris. We collected in this area altogether 653 Phaseolus accessions and 507 different local names of different taxonomical value, belonging to two species (Ph. coccineus and Ph. vulgaris), the latter with two subspecies (Ph. vulgaris subsp. vulgaris and subsp. nanus).The distribution of names in different taxonomic levels are included in Tables 2a  and 2b. The codification system used during the survey is presented in Fig. 5.   In this section we focus on home pages and online publications dealing with Phaseolus as a model taxon, in order to draw attention towards possibilities for monitoring long term trends in European home gardens with the aid of Phaseolus diversity. Phaseolus is a relatively widespread taxon and may represent a simple tool for detecting genetic diversity, genetic erosion and sedimentation, as well as collecting basic data for long term monitoring. It has been and still is a model taxon in many different fields of science.Phaseolus experiments contributed to the birth and emergence of factorial genetics. This is relevant in Central Europe, because the Alp-Balcan-Carpath-Danube (ABCD) area may be regarded as a cradle of genetics due to the works of Imre Festetics (1819), Gregor Mendel (1865), Erich von Tschermak-Seysenegg (1900) and Carl Correns (1900), the \"rediscovery papers\" (not cited in references). Even the germplasm concept emerged in Central Europe (Weismann 1885).Even before the birth of Mendel, Imre Festetics formulated some empirical laws of heredity and was among the first to name them as the \"Genetic Laws of Nature\" (\"Die genetische Gesätze der Natur\") in a series of papers published about inbreeding (Festetics 1819). This view probably influenced Mendel (1865Mendel ( -1866) ) in his hybridization experiments with inbreeding plants (Pisum and Phaseolus). It is not generally known that in the last part of Mendel's paradigmatic paper, after the mono-, di-, and trifactorial hybridization results, Mendel interpreted correctly the results of his Phaseolus hybridizations i.e. based on polifactorial inheritance of quantitative traits.The development of Phaseolus genetics shifted later toward Western Europe due to the activities of Johannsen (1903Johannsen ( , 1909)), the first person to coin the term \"gene\" in the modern sense, on inheritance of pure lines in white seeded Phaseolus beans (Változékonyság és öröklékenység n.d.).The whole Fabaceae family is rich in model plants: Trifolium repens was a model for ecological genetics and gene-ecology (Daday 1954(Daday , 1965;;Szabó 1988;Fick and Luckow 1991); Vicia faba was a model plant in cytogenetics; and Ellis et al. (n.d.) suggested lentils (Lens spp.) as model plants for comparative genetic understanding of leguminous food plants. Phaseolus emerged relatively late as a model plant for molecular genetics. Broughton et al. (2003) proposed beans (Phaseolus spp.) as model food legumes for agro-botanical studies, Estrada-Navarrete et al. (2007) examined genetic transformations in a Phaseolus and Agrobacterium model system, Choi et al. (2004) used Phaseolus for estimated genome conservation between legumes, Guzman-Maldonado et al. (2003) used common bean in the studies on inheritance of QTLs (Quantitative Trait Loci). The monograph by Velich and Unk (1995), the synthesis by Gepts (2009), Hammer (1993Hammer ( , 1998)), Krell and Hammer (2008), and Piergiovanni's richly illustrated online report on the collection of Italian landraces ( 2007), the grain legume network (see the website references at the end of this paper), the works published recently by J. Péntek (2003) all illustrate well the usefulness of the Phaseolus model in different fields of research.Looking at on-farm conservation using molecular markers, the works of Valeria Negri, for example regarding 'Fagiolo a pisello', are of general value as a model (Negri andTosti 2002a, 2002b).Models are used as simplified tools in the study of complex phenomena. Here a Phaseolus Diversity Model (PhDM) is proposed for monitoring long term trends in home garden biodiversity dynamics across Europe in different social and ethnic environments. Focusing only on a single taxon makes it possible to collect simultaneously a large amount of basic data suitable for a series of monitoring purposes in the future.• Geographic component (GGC): Global Positioning System (GPS) data for localization of the sampling site e.g. longitude, latitude, altitude; climatic data: temperature and precipitation in vegetation period (monthly average, minimum, maximum for the sampling location or area). • Human (ethnic) component (HEC): human diversity in the sampling area (ethnic, religious, cultural) and human diversity in the sampling site (location). • Garden component (EEU=European Ethnobiodiversity Unit): Garden location, size etc.; total number of taxa characteristic for the sampled garden; total number of persons cultivating and/or using the garden and its products in the \"extended family\", and/or in the market.Total number of Phaseolus taxa in the sampled garden (species, subspecies, named vs. unnamed varieties); total number of traditional names used for these taxa; number of phenotypically different Phaseolus categories by character combinations: growth type (nanus, intermedius, vulgaris); pod size (minus, intermedius, maximus); pod form and colour (tubiformis, compressus; viridis, flavus, striatus etc.); seed size (microspermus, mesospermus, macrospermus); seed form: sphaericus, ovatus, oblongus, compressus; seed coat colour (cf. numerical codifications). • Phaseolus cultivation practice (PCP): Pure or mixed; taxa included in intercropping, sowing, care, harvesting, and so on.1. Standardization of data (PhDM descriptor lists, modified) 2. Selection of sample sites and that of the collectors 3. Instruction of the participants (standardization of collection methods) 4. Data collection in home gardens 5. Evaluation of data (on local, regional, country and continental scale)1. Preliminary phase: online instructions; discussions, decisions 2. Preparatory phase: edition of a methodological guide; testing the method 3. Collection phase: simultaneous data collection in home gardens across Europe 4. Verification and evaluation 5. First monitoring (including Public Awareness activities) 6. Follow up monitoring.Landraces, reflecting people's cultural identity and harbouring a range of diversity of interest for future breeding work, as well as for developing new farming systems and new products, deserve to be preserved for future generations.On-farm and in-garden conservation can safeguard genetic resources by maintaining their ability to evolve in the face of biotic and abiotic pressures, social and cultural changes and to meet the needs of unpredictable future demands (Frankel et al. 1995). The possibility of preserving these landraces on farm is presently under study in many areas of Italy but, before interventions can be designed, prior understanding of the level of variation among them is needed. If genetically similar landraces exist in a certain area, a single farm could carry out their conservation; but if the landraces are different, several farms should be involved in their preservation.Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata subsp. unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is an important grain legume throughout the tropics and subtropics, covering Asia, Africa and Central and South America, as well as parts of southern Europe and the United States (Singh et al. 1997). In Italy, cowpea is a minor crop and its cultivation is restricted to a very limited acreage. Both V. unguiculata subsp. unguiculata cv-gr. unguiculata and cv-gr. sesquipedalis (Maréchal et al. 1978;Pasquet, 1993aPasquet, , 1993bPasquet, , 1997Pasquet, , 1999) ) are cultivated for seeds and for fresh pods (like French beans), respectively. Cowpea, domesticated in the sub-Saharan area around the second millennium BC, was cultivated by the Greeks in the third century BC and by the Romans in the first century AD as Theophrastus and Pliny affirm (Chevalier 1944;Burkhill 1953;Purseglove 1976). The plant could have been introduced well before then in Italy, since trade in the Mediterranean area had been intensive since pre-historic times. In Umbria (central Italy) the species was possibly already introduced by the Etruscans, who already dominated the area in the eighth century BC and traded intensively with several Mediterranean countries. Whenever it was introduced, by the 19th century there is historical documentation (Giunta per l'Inchiesta Agraria, 1885) that cowpea was being cultivated in the area around Lake Trasimeno.This contribution details the genetic diversity detected within a collection of cowpeas (including landraces from Lake Trasimeno and from outside the area). Actions were undertaken to rescue the cowpea population from the risk of extinction (reported elsewhere in this publication), and these led to an increase in the number of farms cultivating cowpea and in the acreage in which the crop is grown in the area.Farmers were approached in a friendly manner and the reason for the visit was explained to them. An interview followed to gather information on the farmer's family, the farm and the crops cultivated. Cowpea seed samples were finally collected (Negri and Tosti 1997). Markets in Italy were also explored and packets of seeds collected. Finally accessions from Africa and Asia were obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria. All the germplasm collected was stored in the germplasm bank of the Applied Biology Department at the University of Perugia (DBA).Thirty-two accessions were analyzed (ten landraces from around Lake Trasimeno, one landrace from another area of Umbria, five landraces from other Italian regions, four landraces from abroad, eight commercial varieties, one population of unknown status, two populations belonging to the sesquipedalis cv-group and one accession belonging to var. spontanea, the nearest wild relative of cultivated cowpea) (Fig. 1). The seed samples were analyzed for one-hundred seed weight and seed colour. Molecular characterization was performed using bulks of 20 plants for each cowpea accession and seven Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) EcoRI/ MseI primer combinations. Morphological datasets were used to perform univariate analyses: analysis of variance (ANOVA) for quantitative traits and chi-square test for qualitative traits. As for genetic traits, polymorphic AFLP fragments were used to calculate Jaccard's coefficient of genetic similarity between population pairs. The similarity matrix obtained was then used to produce a UPGMA (Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean) dendrogram.In another study, single plants from three landraces each were individually analyzed using five AFLP and five SAMPL (Selectively Amplified Microsatellite Polymorphic Locus) primer combinations (Tosti and Negri 2005).All the farmers stated that their cowpeas have been cultivated in their families for generations without exchanging seed or buying it on the market.Landraces from around Lake Trasimeno differed from the others in seed weight and seed colour pattern. Different seed colour patterns were detected in the Lake Trasimeno landrace sample (Negri et al. 2000). In addition it should be noted that while some farmers maintain uniform populations, others cultivate mixed populations (Fig. 2). Molecular analysis detected that Italian landraces were all grouped together and that the Trasimeno landraces formed a sub-group distinct from the other landraces (Fig. 3). The accessions from the Italian market were also clearly distinct from landraces. Commercial material and landraces from abroad were distantly related to Italian materials. In addition, the cowpeas from Lake Trasimeno appear to be a structured population in which a substantial differentiation is maintained at the subpopulation (i.e. farmer population) level (Fig. 4) (Tosti and Negri 2005). This reflects the results of studies into landraces of celery (Apium graveolens L.) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), which were also found to be structured populations (Castellini 2005;Tiranti and Negri 2007;Negri et al. in press). Overall, molecular investigations confirmed the farmers' statements that cowpeas had been cultivated for generations on their land and that each farmer population was a family heritage.The landraces studied in this work belong to the specific cultural identity of the human population living around Lake Trasimeno. Despite the limited territorial distribution of a few hectares, all the Trasimeno farmer populations were both morphologically and genetically clearly differentiated from each other and from other landraces and cultivars. Specific alleles or allele frequencies characterized each farmer population. These findings underline the importance of home gardens in conserving diversity.The data collected show that landraces from Lake Trasimeno have a precise identity and probably a common origin. A complex interaction of factors (drift, landrace isolation, farmer selection, migration within landraces) explains the observed pattern of diversity.Molecular data suggest that the best strategy for maintaining diversity in this area, as well as in other areas, is to preserve each of the landraces examined on the farm from which it came. On-farm and in-garden conservation take advantage of different farmers maintaining distinct gene pools and the landraces being structured populations. The fact that alleles found in a single farmer population are lacking in others is important for conservation because it counteracts losses due to random fixation at the landrace level (Crow 1986). With low or no migration between demes, any mutation that arises in a particular deme may be fixed in that deme, but cannot spread to other demes. Since no allele can ever be fixed at the landrace level, drift to fixation takes an indefinitely long time, the effective population size of the landrace becomes infinite and the landrace has more chances of survival (Whitlock and Barton 1997). Obviously, each farmer population is expected to lose some of its initial variability due to drift and selection in a particular environment, but total diversity is expected to be maintained at the population level due to genetic differentiation. At the same time, local extinction, which reduces the overall amount of genetic variation, should be prevented.Strategies that were applied to maintain cowpea diversity in the area and problems related to on-farm and in-garden conservation are described elsewhere in this publication (pp. 72-80).This paper provides an overview of current pan-European and European Union (EU) legal instruments that support the conservation and promotion of home gardens, and the creation of financial mechanisms which can be useful for their maintenance.At present, there is no legal text that focuses exclusively on home gardens, but several EU directives and regulations, as well as some pan-European legal agreements, indirectly support the conservation of home gardens as pools of biodiversity and sources of genetic diversity. Although there is a wide variety of policies that may affect the conservation of home gardens in Europe, including urban development strategies, employment and industry development policies and market regulations, we have focused on those that deal explicitly with the conservation of biodiversity and the promotion of traditional and sustainable agricultural products, since it is these that may affect the existence and maintenance of home gardens more directly.Although all the legal instruments presented below are potentially useful for the conservation of home gardens, their applicability and usefulness may vary from country to country and even from region to region, depending on a number of factors: how countries translate pan-European and EU law into concrete legal and administrative measures at the national level; the biological, cultural and socio-economic characteristics of the gardens; and the objective of the home garden production (own consumption or market sale).Finally, we must point out that these legal instruments may encourage the activity of home gardening per se, but it is not clear whether they help to maintain a high level of biodiversity in the gardens.Home garden farmers can benefit from EU financial support distributed through the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, for the protection of agricultural environment assets. According to the last reform of the CAP in 2003, and the new Rural Development Regulation for 2007-2013, biodiversity, the preservation and development of high nature value farming 7 and forestry systems, and traditional agricultural landscapes, are priority areas for defining direct support schemes. Home gardens in less-favoured areas such as mountainous regions, and those in areas where farming is restricted by the existence of specific constraints related to environmental protection, may access additional compensatory allowances in support of farming. These compensatory payments have a combination of social and environmental objectives and have the aim of increasing the profitability of farming in marginal areas under natural constraints. As such, they are potentially an effective tool for preventing abandonment of high nature value farmland, provided that they do not create incentives for intensification (European Environment Agency 2004).However, the CAP subsidy system was not designed to favour small farming systems. Small farmers in Europe account for about 40% of EU farms, but receive only 8% of available subsidies from Brussels (Jeffery 2003). Financial support distributed through the CAP is calculated according to the size of farmers' lands. The result is that, in practice, home garden farmers have access to a very small piece of the cake. Although, according to the current scheme, farmers in areas with a high level of biodiversity can apply for additional funds linked to the conservation of such diversity, the amount of funds will correspond in any case to the extent of the land, which does not offer incentives to small-scale productions such as home gardens.There are a number of market tools that could be used to add value to products originating from home gardens. Some of these market tools have been recognized and standardized at the EU level. The most important ones are those related to organic food, traditional specialties and geographical indications. In addition, each European country has generated a wide range of quality marks to promote local products, such as trademarks for agricultural products from national and regional parks, or from sites with a rich gastronomic tradition (Bérard and Marchenay 2007). The ministries of agriculture, tourism and the environment have been especially active in this field.Although quality marks have proven to be a strong incentive for the diversification of agricultural production, they do not encourage genetic diversity per se.The market for organic food constitutes a promising niche for traditional small-scale producers. Products from home gardens in Europe can be certified as organic products and be labeled as such if they meet the requirements and follow the procedures of the EU Regulation on organic production and labeling of organic products 834/2007, which substitutes the old regulation of 1991, highly criticized for the long and costly procedures required to get the certification, as well as for the very strict controls over the production systems and the products. This new regulation aims to be clearer in the definition of the objectives, principles and rules applicable to organic production, and to introduce some flexibility in terms of controls and exceptions.Organic production has traditionally focused on the sustainable use of resources (water, soil) rather than on the promotion of agrobiodiversity, and the current legislation reflects this approach. It does not require either the conservation of agrobiodiversity or the use of traditional varieties or landraces. Therefore, although the certificate of organic production is a promising instrument for home gardens with market orientation, it does not constitute a real incentive for the conservation of genetic diversity in home gardens.Through a regulation that guarantees traditional specialities (Council Regulation (EC) No 509/2006 of 20 March 2006 on agricultural products and foodstuffs as traditional specialities guaranteed), the EU has created a legal tool to add value to traditional agricultural products and foodstuffs and make them distinguishable from other similar products. This regulation substitutes a previous one, passed in 1992, on \"Certificates of Specific Character\", which was not very successful. According to the new instrument, an agricultural product intended for human consumption or foodstuff, with a traditional composition, or produced according to a traditional production method, may be certified as a guaranteed traditional speciality. Designation of traditional specialty guaranteed relates to the protection of tradition, independent of the origin of the product. However, the infrequency of such registrations throughout the EU shows that tradition is not easy to disassociate from place (Bérard and Marchenay 2007).This new legal tool might have some indirect effects on home gardens conservation, as it may encourage the cultivation of varieties involved in the preparation of traditional food products, although genetic diversity conservation is not the main purpose of the regulation. Its most relevant objective is to encourage the diversification of agricultural production and increase farmers' revenues and the rural economy in remote areas.Geographical indications and designations of origin identify an agricultural product and foodstuff as originating in a region or locality within the territory of an EU country, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the product is essentially attributable to its geographic origin. The EU regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 of 20 March 2006 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs) establishes two types of protection: protected geographical indications and protected designation of origin. The former describes foodstuffs which are produced, processed and prepared in a given geographical area using recognized know-how. Protected designation of origin indicates the area where at least one of the stages of production, processing or preparation has taken place. The use of the corresponding symbols on the product Greening European agriculture: the evolution of the CAP Since 1992, the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union (CAP) has been continually re-adapted to better serve the aim of sustainability, by means of a fundamental reform process designed to move away from a policy of price and production support to a policy of direct income aid and rural development measures.The reform of the CAP in 1999 provided for an increase in the application of agro-environmental measures. Payments would be made available to farmers who, on a voluntary basis, provided environmental services to protect the environment and maintain the countryside.The ). The Community strategic guidelines identify three priority areas for measures to improve the environment and the countryside: biodiversity and the preservation and development of high nature value farming, forestry systems and traditional agricultural landscapes; water; and climate change. Among the main new measures is the provision of more support to farmers in Natura 2000 sites and other high nature value areas. Support for areas with handicaps and for agro-environmental measures is maintained.These legal frameworks allow EU countries to include home gardens in national regimes that regulate and channel European financial support for \"greening\" European agriculture and rural development.labels provides consumers with concise information on the product's origins, and helps boost farmers' income and promote less favoured or remote areas where quality products have their origin.As in the case of organic agricultural products and traditional specialties guaranteed, geographical indications do not constitute per se an incentive for conserving and managing genetic diversity in agricultural ecosystems. They can even have negative effects on the diversity of plant species and varieties, as they might lead to an intensification of the production of those crops or varieties that have the certification, and the abandonment of others that are not considered local or traditional.The marketing of seeds and plant propagating material in the EU is subject to the conditions established in the Council Directive on the Common Catalogue of Varieties on Agricultural Plants Species (2002). According to this Directive, in order to be registered in the catalogue and commercialized, varieties must meet some minimum requirements of distinctiveness, stability and uniformity, which are checked in official examinations. The purpose of this regulation is to maintain the quality of seeds in the market.Landraces and varieties developed by farmers do not normally meet these requirements and therefore seeds of these varieties cannot be sold in the market. Another limitation for small farmers to commercialize the seeds of their varieties is that they cannot afford the costs and long procedures required by the registration process. In addition to limiting the opportunities for farmers to obtain revenues from the varieties they produce, this situation threatens the availability of landraces and exchange between farmers, decreases the genetic diversity of the seeds available in the market and, ultimately, affects the biodiversity of agriculture in situ. All these elements are relevant for the maintenance of home gardens as reserves of agricultural biodiversity.In order to address these problems, the Commission has been working on a proposal which accords especially favourable treatment to the inclusion of the socalled conservation varieties in the national catalogues of varieties of agricultural plant species, and their commercialization.8 This favourable treatment consists of: 1) a certain degree of flexibility in the level of uniformity that is required in these varieties; and 2) an exemption from official examination if the applicant can provide 8 Some months after the ECPGR Workshop on home gardens in Europe, the Commission approved the definitive text of the Directive 2008/62/EC of 20 June 2008 providing for certain derogations for acceptance of agricultural landraces and varieties which are naturally adapted to the local and regional conditions and threatened by genetic erosion and for marketing of seed and seed potatoes of those landraces and varieties.It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of 2008, the European Commission (Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection) decided to conduct an external evaluation of the EU legislation on the marketing of seed and plant propagating material, with the aim of reforming such legislation in the near future. The final report of the evaluators will be followed by an action plan early 2009. The impact of current legislation on the conservation of genetic diversity is one of the issues to be addressed by the evaluation sufficient information for the decision on the acceptance of the conservation variety through other means, namely: the description of the conservation variety and its denomination; the results of unofficial tests; and knowledge gained from practical experience during cultivation, reproduction and use.In order to be accepted as a conservation variety, the landrace or variety should be of interest for the conservation of plant genetic resources, adapted to local and regional conditions and threatened by genetic erosion. When a coun §try accepts and registers a conservation variety the seed may only be produced and marketed in the region of origin, and subject to quantitative restrictions (no more than 10% of the seed of that species used yearly in the country).The draft directive has already received some negative criticism, mainly because of the fact that only varieties threatened by genetic erosion can be accepted as conservation varieties and because these can be only distributed in the region of origin. If the directive is finally passed, EU member countries will still have a considerable amount of work to do in translating the general provisions of the directive into concrete legal and administrative measures at a national level. It is expected that some unclear issues, such as the definition of \"threatened by genetic erosion,\" will be clarified during this national implementation process.Some fear that the inclusion of traditional varieties in the formal system of seed marketing and distribution might be accompanied by stricter controls over informal seed systems, threatening traditional ways of seed exchange and related informal methods of seed quality control. This would be particularly serious for the maintenance of genetic diversity in home gardens, which is very much based on informal seed production and exchange systems.No other region in the world has been subject to human intervention to the same extent as Europe. The European landscape is the result of the interaction between humans and the environment over centuries. Unlike other parts of the world, very few sites in Europe maintain the same biotic and abiotic components that were present centuries ago. As a result of its longstanding management of the land, farming in Europe has co-evolved with its ecology, landscapes and other environmental resources. Today, many of Europe's species, their characteristic habitats and the resultant landscapes are dependent on continued management to sustain their diversity. Therefore, it is not surprising that the first international agreement focusing exclusively on the protection of the landscape, understood as a combination of human and wild components, was adopted by European countries and for the European region.The European Convention on Landscape was adopted in 2002 under the auspices of the Council of Europe, and entered into force in 2004. Today, 27 European countries are Parties to the Convention. Through the ratification of this legal instrument, these countries committed themselves to recognizing landscapes as an essential component of people's surroundings, an expression of the diversity of their shared cultural and natural heritage, and a foundation of their identity. They agreed to establish and implement policies aimed at landscape protection, management and planning through the adoption of specific measures, and to integrate landscape into their regional and town planning policies, and their cultural, environmental, agricultural, social and economic policies.The conservation of home gardens as important elements of the landscape is very much in line with the objectives of the Convention. Several countries and regions are integrating landscape as an asset in their environmental and development policies and they are expected to take home gardens into consideration in those regions where they have become elements of the culture and natural heritage. In addition, the Council of Europe constitutes a forum for the discussion and exchange of ideas on landscape protection. The role of home gardens in landscape design could be included as one of the topics of these discussions.Policy aspects related to the conservation of home gardens and their agricultural biodiversity can be analyzed from different perspectives. The following are some possible areas of work for a research agenda on European home gardens:• Explore the impacts of current European legislation on agricultural biodiversity and, in particular, small-scale systems like home gardens • Study how home gardens can benefit from national measures implementing such legislation • Identify obstacles and gaps in current legislation and analyze how this legislation can be adapted to meet the needs of small farmers • Explore and exploit the advantages for home gardeners to work together when, for example, asking for financial support from the CAP, applying for a quality mark or influencing the political agenda on the conservation of biodiversity • Identify ways to provide scientific insights to current policy discussions on biodiversity, agriculture and landscape, in order to ensure that the importance of home gardens is noted. Another issue was that the European Commission Directive on the marketing of seeds and propagating material for agriculture, horticulture and forestry currently under discussion is considered too restrictive. Article 13 (region of origin) and article 14 (quantitative restriction) prevent and do not promote the conservation of diversity as was actually planned by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and described in the Global Plan of Action in Leipzig 1996.One of the outcomes of the meeting in Halle was the decision to create a European Cooperation for Peasants Seeds (ECPS). This network was to be founded in Rome in October/November 2007.Most NGOs in the field of genetic diversity conservation are specialized in keeping diversity on farm and follow mainly on-farm strategies. They manage to maintain plant genetic resources in an agricultural or private garden environment by working in considerable networks. Béla Bartha presents the ProSpecieRara database that serves to manage and coordinate their conservation network and could be useful to other organizations also working in the field of on-farm conservation. In several regions activists can base their work on existing, traditional structures, but in other regions these structures no longer exist and new methods and incentives have to be found to reintroduce conservation varieties into a marketing system.To reactivate the propagation of traditional varieties, good quality seed production must be assured. Incentives like labelling to add value and certify the special product in order to enhance the quality of conservation work could be developed. Marketing partners must be assured of the sustainable availability of products made from traditional varieties and all kinds of promotion activities must be undertaken to raise public awareness in order to create broader demand for the products.The central task of a genebank is to conserve diversity and to provide seed of good quality. On the other hand, keeping diversity in huge informal networks on farm is a very efficient way to involve as many interested people as possible and to promote awareness of the need to conserve diversity. However, it is difficult to maintain the quality of a variety. If we want to combine the two aims of conserving diversity and providing quality seed, NGOs and the institutional sector have to cooperate.In future, greater efforts will have to be undertaken to involve NGOs already in the field of protecting biodiversity and the environment in European conservation programmes, in which they might take care of complementary tasks like the evaluation of conservation varieties for the market and developing promotional strategies for them. These complementary tasks must be an integral part of the developed project.The following is a list of European NGOs that were present at the meeting in Halle and are very active in conserving diversity on farm or in lobbying for the promotion of diversity in agriculture.Landraces are vital plant genetic resources, which are currently highly threatened. Landraces of seed-propagated crops can be defined as variable populations which are named, lack formal improvement, are characterized by specific adaptation to the environmental conditions of the area of cultivation (tolerant to the biotic and abiotic stresses of that area) and by relatively low but stable yields which are closely associated with the traditional uses, habits, dialects and celebrations of the people who developed them. They represent a subset of biodiversity that has been created through the joint action of the environment and people for human use. The tight intertwining of the biological and cultural heritage and the complexity of the system where landraces have evolved, and are still evolving, is their most unique and intriguing trait. Landraces harbour genetic diversity of interest for future breeding work, for diversification of production, and developing new farming systems and new quality products.Landraces were considered by many people to be abandoned and extinct, but a ten year collection in Central Italy showed that over 400 landraces can still be found on farm and in home gardens (Negri 2003). About a third of them provide products that are sold on the wide or local market, while two-thirds of the landraces are grown for family use only and are only found in home gardens (Negri 2003) (Fig. 2). In Umbria (central Italy), the most common species maintained in home gardens as landraces are: celery (Apium graveolens L.), rape and turnips (Brassica rapa L.), broccoli, cauliflower and kale (Brassica oleracea L.), chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.), pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima Duch. ex Lam.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.), tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum Mill.), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L and P. coccineus L.), and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.). In addition, many fruit landraces belonging to different species can be found, for example figs (Ficus carica L.), apples (Malus pumila Mill.), olives (Olea europea L.), pears (Pyrus communis L.), almonds (Prunus amygdalus Batsch), peaches (P. persica (L.) Batsch), sweet cherries (P. avium L.), plums (P. domestica L.) and apricots (P. armeniaca L.), just to mention the main species (Dalla Ragione and Dalla Ragione 1997). However, statistics about the abundance of landraces are not available. Some home gardens maintain more than one landrace for each species (Fig. 1) and up to twelve landraces belonging to different species were collected from a single farm (Negri 2003).Where garden crop landraces can be found and who grows them Farmers and farmer families are the main actors in conservation in Italy, while amateur conservation activities such as those promoted by NGOs like 'Seed Savers' and 'Civiltà Contadina' have negligible importance.Landraces of garden crops are prevalently found at lower altitudes (average elevation 512.4 m asl). They are mostly grown by elderly farmers (average age = 63.6 years), running small farms (average farm area = 11.7 ha) and under traditional farming systems, which nonetheless include the use of mechanical tools for soil preparation and the use of chemical fertilizers.A large number of publications, mostly published in Italian, document that a wide morphological and physiological diversity exists among landraces of the same species collected in Italian home gardens.The reasons why a family chooses to grow landraces, as recorded in Negri (2003) and other unpublished research findings, are the following:• They are relevant in the family context (e.g. they offer an opportunity to the elderly to feel useful to the family and to spend their time productively) • They are maintained because of family traditions and sentimental value (e.g. they are required to prepare dishes which belong to the family tradition or are simply maintained because they represent a family heritage) • They are appreciated more than commercial varieties (e.g. they have a better taste) • They perform better than commercial cultivars under limiting conditions (e.g.poor soil, extreme temperatures, scarcity of water) • They lack uniformity, which is an advantage for family production, especially as far as ripening time is concerned • Since they are reproduced almost every year and under the control of the family, there is a guarantee of perfect germinability and adherence to the standards requested by the family itself.The latter aspects, which are important for the family's local, possibly marginal growing conditions and use, are not always assured by commercial materials bought on the market where mainly hybrid cultivars are sold. Dealers may sell a variety whose indicated ripening period sometimes does not correspond to the reality under the local growing conditions. Hybrid cultivars have been developed for large scale horticultural production. Breeding aims in this case are high yield under high input conditions and uniformity, while no, or very little, attention is paid to performance under difficult environments or to taste.It appears that, although not being maintained in traditional farming systems sensu strictu, landraces survive in Italy because of traditions, especially those related to food.Focusing on example cases of landraces and incentives for maintaining them recorded in the region of Umbria in central Italy this paper describes:• how some home garden landraces were rescued from extinction • possible incentives for home garden maintenance of landraces • problems related to home garden maintenance of landraces.The cowpea from the Lake Trasimeno area, Perugia ('Fagiolina del Trasimeno') Cowpea ('fagiolina') landraces were found during a germplasm exploration and collection mission carried out in 1994 (Negri and Tosti 1997). At that time, most farms produced cowpea in home gardens for their own use and the total area under cowpea cultivation was estimated at less than a couple of hectares. Only one farm produced a few kilograms of a small white-seeded landrace for the town market in Perugia. At this market, product demand largely exceeded production because of the unique shape and colour of the seed and consumers' opinion that the landrace had a better taste than the common cowpea.Financial support was initially given by the 'Provincia di Perugia' (a body linking fifty-nine towns around the city of Perugia in the Region of Umbria) to carry out a morphological, organoleptic and genetic characterization of cowpea landraces in the area, to support the ex situ conservation of these in the genebank of the Department of Applied Biology at the University of Perugia, to conduct seed multiplication and distribution to farmers interested in reintroducing the cultivation of these cowpea landraces to their gardens, and in general to increase farmer awareness about potential benefits offered by this crop.Clearly distinguishable cowpea types were detected in the area (Negri et al. 2000;Tosti andNegri 2002, 2005), which are outlined elsewhere in this publication (Negri and Polegri,.The research results were presented to farmers and farmer associations in a series of meetings and seminars during which seed samples were also distributed. Following this initial set of rescue measures, the Lake Trasimeno Regional Park and the Region of Umbria funded other studies on these populations, aimed at increasing their distribution and promoting their commercialization. In particular, funds were provided to set up a disciplinaire for applying for a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) certification. This is a quality mark awarded by the European Union to products which have specific, certified traits. The farmers are currently evaluating the possibility of applying for the PDO.The Lake Trasimeno Fagiolina aroused the interest of various actors: the Slow Food movement, which recorded it among its Presidia; local Gourmet Academies, which organized dinners where dishes based on this bean were prepared; and private subjects, such as farmers with agro-tourism activities, chefs and hotel-keepers, who included it in their menus. In this way, the Lake Trasimeno Fagiolina became a must in many top restaurants, even outside Umbria, in a few years. In addition, it has recently been registered in the list of typical Umbrian products (the so called 'basket of typical products of Umbria') which has been prepared by the Region of Umbria.The initial promotion of research and awareness-raising among farmers triggered a virtuous process of conservation that has resulted in an increase of the area under cowpea cultivation to ten hectares and has significantly increased the income of farmers cultivating the crop. The market price of the small, white-seeded type has greatly increased in the regional capital Perugia from 6 euros/kg in 1994 to the present 20-22 euros/kg. Now other types of Fagiolina are also cultivated for the market, although sold at slightly lower prices.A consortium of Fagiolina growers has been established in order to better commercialize the crop, which now takes advantage of a registered name and a logo (Fig. 3). Also worthy of note is that some farmers have introduced the crop starting from local material to other areas of Umbria outside the Lake Trasimeno area. At present the Lake Trasimeno cowpea appears to have avoided the risk of extinction. A 'black' landrace of celery (Apium graveolens var. dulce) is grown in Umbria (Italy) near the small town of Trevi. The term 'black' refers to the wild physiological characteristic of maintaining green petioles (not self-blanching) if not subjected to an agronomic whitening treatment. The cultivated area is small (2 ha, approximately) so production is limited and mainly destined for local restaurants and families and the local 'black celery fair' held in October. During the fair, where celery is sold at an open air market, the farmer producing the best products wins an award (Fig. 4). The fair has been organized by the local association 'Pro-Trevi' with the support of the Municipality since 1965 with the purpose of re-launching production of the landrace. A study to describe the morphological and genetic diversity of this celery type and to assess if it is distinguishable from cultivars was recently funded by the Region of Umbria (Castellini 2005, Negri et al. in press). The survival of this landrace, once only cultivated in home gardens for local use, has been largely due to this initiative by the local authorities, but it can also be partly ascribed to the request for traditional, local products which consumers consider of superior quality and which are sold on the regional gastronomic circuit. For this purpose this landrace has also been registered in the list of typical local products of the region.This Phaseolus vulgaris L. landrace represents another example of survival linked to the existence of a local fair. The production is limited to a few home gardens who sell their excess production at the local fair. However in this case, support for local production is not as well organized as in the previous cases and there is little information available among ordinary people about this landrace.In summary, it can be said that all these home garden landraces have been helped to survive through the intervention of a wide cast of actors:• Local authorities (Region, Provinces, Municipalities) who provided money for:• studying them for morpho-physiological and genetic characterization and distinctness • boosting seed production and distributing the seeds among farmers • promoting the product itself • organizing local fairs • Local 'Academies of Taste' (Gourmet Academies) • Organizations such as Slow Food • Local associations of citizens, farmers, chefs and hotel-keepers, who in different ways have increased knowledge and appreciation about the crop.In the case of Fagiolina, it has allowed the crop go beyond mere survival and even be transformed into an open field crop reaching a market.It should be noted that these promotion activities have served to stimulate renewed interest and action to rescue other garden crops. Recently Lake Trasimeno Regional Park has funded a project to catalogue, multiply and distribute landrace seeds to farmers. The crops involved are tomato, brassicas, beans, chickpea, lettuce and other horticultural crops. The same project plans to set up web pages on local home garden landraces to be published on the Regional Park web site. In addition, many ordinary people have become interested in local varieties, such as farmers working in agriculture with aims other than crop income, for example those who run educational farms or employ disabled people, and an increasing number of requests for landrace seeds now come from this sector.Another result of the activities mentioned above is an incentive for home garden landrace conservation because of indirect promotion of their cultivation. Individual families are becoming aware that these landraces: • represent their heirloom • are more flavoursome • can be sold to friends or local shops at a good price if excess is produced • can make nice presents for friends at Christmas and other celebrations.As a consequence people are stimulated to maintain their own landraces or, in some cases, to reintroduce them into their home gardens. It appears then that financial incentives given by local authorities can trigger a virtuous process for the safeguard of landrace home garden diversity.However, while local promotion can help save some landraces from extinction (i.e. those that have potential for sale on local or wider markets), it is not possible to give financial support to all the landraces grown in home gardens, which represent the great majority of all landraces present in the territory. Most of them, those still confined to family home gardens, remain highly threatened. There are several interconnected reasons which underlie this threat. First of all, very few people remain in the country and/or take care of a home garden nowadays. When this is the case, it is practically only the elderly who take care of planting the home garden from home-reproduced seeds, while the younger members of the family, often only engaged in gardening activities part time, prefer to buy plantlets or seeds from the market, where mainly commercial varieties are found. In addition, loss of skills (for example seed harvesting, cleaning and preserving skills or grafting techniques) and the current loss of family traditions contribute to the threat of extinction facing home garden diversity.In other words, the modern social context appears to be the problem facing the home garden conservation of landraces. In my opinion, the most effective tool to promote much wider home garden conservation (and conservation in general) is increased public awareness about the importance of home gardens and the services that biodiverse agro-ecosystems offer.Families with home gardens, farmers and the public in general should be made aware that their lives depend on the life of all other living beings, that maintaining agro-biodiversity is important for the future, that they are the upholders and managers of a large part of it, and finally that local agro-biodiversity is also a part of their cultural heritage. We need to reinforce the links between people and their environment and plant genetic resources, to teach children about the importance of biological resources and to foster pride among young people with regard to their natural and cultural heritage. Ethical reasons justify this approach (Negri 2005).In promoting increased awareness we should appeal to the sense of belonging to the environment, 'the land', as Aldo Leopold (1949) calls it. Leopold says that: 'We abuse the land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see the land as a community [of soils, water, plants and animals] to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect'. Education at every level, but in particular that given in Agricultural Faculties, has a role to play in this context. Local Authorities, Extension Service Agencies, Farmer Associations and journalists could also contribute to waking public opinion to the importance of agro-biodiversity (see also the contribution by Silveri and Manzi,this volume,.Finally, such an increased awareness will also help in achieving freedom from a seed market which offers, at relatively high prices, materials which are not always well suited to the local growing conditions.As evidenced during an ECPGR workshop on Home gardens in Europe, held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 3-5 October 2007, a review of existing knowledge revealed that traditional crop varieties and landraces of Europe's horticultural crops, legumes, and grains are still extensively held and planted by farmers and gardeners throughout Europe, and they are found in the home gardens of rural households. From fruit trees, beans, tomatoes, peppers, celery, leafy kales, roots and tubers, even maize and wheat, there is a rich diversity of traditional varieties still available in countries where modern commercial varieties dominate the seed systems, crop fields, and commercial orchards.Scientists from national genetic resource institutes and universities concerned to maintain and use the unique genetic diversity in crop landraces for new uses and crop adaptation to changing conditions such as climate change, have been surprised and pleased to see that these invaluable crop resources are still being maintained. However, reports from researchers, gardener seed clubs, and NGOs in countries ranging from Austria, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Norway and UK, indicate that these repositories of crop diversity are at risk. European home gardens represent a small but significant niche and patches are maintained to meet the specific cultural values and needs of households concerned to keep alive their local traditions, local tastes, food quality and even food safety and health. Demographic and cultural change including continuing decline in the number of family farms and migration away from rural areas; perverse incentives, globalization and simplification of diets and tastes are threatening diversity in home gardens, both in terms of numbers of species cultivated and the diversity within local varieties that are maintained.At the same time, several features of European home gardens including their predominantly organic farming methods, the way they link local people to traditional local cultures, to association between local agro-ecosystems and natural landscapes, and the healthy properties of the traditional crops grown such as kales, fruits, beets, (that contain anti-oxidants, and other protective properties) have fostered a growing interest in home gardening among a broad range of people in Europe. Gardeners' networks, NGOs such as Garden Organic in the UK and Pro Specie Rara in Switzerland, local authorities and agricultural associations in Abruzzo, Lazio, Tuscany and Umbria in Italy have demonstrated the importance of maintaining the garden biodiversity by supporting initiatives led by farmers and gardeners themselves. Further systematic efforts are required to support home gardens as critical resource for agro-biodiversity in Europe by underpinning the link between local cultures, local crop varieties, and local products. The rising public concern with food and environmental quality and distinctive landscapes can help to reinforce a sense of pride in the diverse local cultural landscapes that European communities have shaped and maintained over thousands of years. Home gardens are also places where European farmers experiment and adapt crops to meet new conditions, needs, and tastes. This function can only become more important in the future as immigration and climate change create new markets and challenges.The workshops expert participants representing 22 European countries agreed that research is needed to elucidate the unique aspects of home gardens, how and why diversity has been maintained, and how that diversity may be related to plant genetic conservation and enhanced utilization. Specific research questions were suggested as follows:• Systematic descriptive survey of home gardens in Europe, including crops, production systems, environment features, genetic diversity, selection procedures, as well as social dynamics, seed exchange systems, etc. • Identification of potential risks/threats to home gardens • Analysis of multi-functionality of home gardens and, in particular, their role in the well being of the gardeners and their community:-Food-nutrition -Recreation -Health -Education -Landscape -Environmental benefit -Ecotourism • Study of local and cultural aspects of home gardening • Comparison of genetic diversity maintained in genebanks and managed in the public breeding sector, with home gardens diversity • Identification of socio-economic aspects of home gardening, including issues of gender, age, policy, markets, new uses/niches.It was also pointed out that home gardens existence is in line with the following elements of the European Policy:• Integrated farm management and organic agriculture • Preservation of landscape and historical features • Conservation of high-value habitats and their associated biodiversity • Protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions • Improving the quality of life in rural areas and diversifying the rural economy.In conclusion, the following lines of research are suggested: • Analysis of European home gardens and their services (diversity richness, environmental, cultural, social and economic value) • Formulation of appropriate conservation strategies to ensure that these unique diversity rich agro-ecosystems (home gardens) continue to exist in the future. • Exploration of the potential for enhanced or novel markets for home garden produce as a means of ensuring the sustainability of home garden diversity.Thus, through description, conservation and use, to ensure that the informal European seed maintenance and supply of home gardens be preserved for future generations.","tokenCount":"24405"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0f0d437c1b527f987b0cdebe725d9073","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c28e603a-167b-4407-8aff-0e1beeac5970/retrieve","id":"79722056"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"178e54c1-aada-4f36-a033-4123a6d1d2ec","pagecount":"8","content":"Esta herramienta te ayudará a responder las siguientes preguntas de investigación Ejemplos de uso Duración de la implementación Materiales Metodología Conceptos utilizados en esta guía ReferenciasMonitorear el estado de conservación de la agrobiodiversidad es una de las principales actividades que contribuyen a nuestro conocimiento sobre la dinámica y los cambios que se dan in-situ. Parte de este monitoreo consiste en conocer qué variedades son las más frecuentes o comunes y cuáles están en riesgo de perderse en un área determinada. Este monitoreo, aparte de requerir una línea de base e inventarios cuantitativos, también puede basarse en las percepciones locales y la experiencia de los mismos agricultores.Esta herramienta te ayudará a responder las siguientes preguntas de investigación:En este sentido, la herramienta del Listado Rojo Cualitativo permite identificar la frecuencia y la abundancia de las variedades. El tipo de información que se puede obtener a través de esta herramienta incluye, por ejemplo, el número y nombre de las variedades locales. Así se puede estimar la riqueza y distribución de la agrobiodiversidad y su rango de variación en el área de intervención (Sthapit et al., 2006). La información obtenida usando esta herramienta puede servir para informar sobre cambios en el estado de conservación de la diversidad varietal o para diseñar intervenciones de conservación. La herramienta del Listado Rojo Cualitativo se viene usando y adaptando hace muchos años en diferentes regiones del mundo. Ésta fue usada por Agre et al., (2017) para entender la diversidad y la preferencia de variedades de yuca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) en Benín, África. Los resultados de esa investigación mostraron que 59 variedades, de un total de 125, eran utilizadas comúnmente en la zona de estudio. Además, este estudio demostró que las características agronómicas, culinarias y tecnológicas fueron las principales razones para que los agricultores dejaran de sembrar algunas variedades.Una adaptación de esta herramienta, llamada Cinco Cuadrantes¹ fue utilizada para entender el estado de conservación de la diversidad de papa (Solanum tuberosum), el conocimiento local y las potenciales amenazas en Apurímac, Perú (Valdivia-Díaz et al., 2015). Este estudio identificó que en tres zonas del Perú existen 42 variedades de papa que tienen 71 nombres diferentes y 13 variedades que -según percepciones locales -se encuentran en riesgo de perderse (Valdivia-Díaz et al., 2015).Esta herramienta también ha sido usada para entender la preferencia de los agricultores hacia las variedades. Para mayor referencia acerca de su uso para selección de características varietales, visitar: https://tools4seedsystems.org/. Adicionalmente en el Perú es la herramienta principal para definir prioridades varietales para pagos por la conservación de la agrobiodiversidad mediante RESCA (i.e. Retribuciones por Servicios de Conservación de la Agrobiodiversidad; Drucker and Ramirez, 2020).¹ La herramienta de cinco cuadrantes se diferencia del Listado Rojo Cualitativo en que posee un cuadrante adicional. Este cuadrante sirve para identificar las variedades que se han perdido en el área de intervención.La duración de la implementación de la herramienta dependerá de los objetivos del proyecto, tamaño del área de estudio y del número de grupos focales. La planificación y recolección de datos usando esta herramienta toma alrededor de 2 a 4 horas por grupo focal. El análisis de esta información es generalmente rápido y puede tomar alrededor de una semana.Esta herramienta emplea los siguientes materiales:• Papelógrafos La herramienta del Listado rojo cualitativo generalmente se ejecuta mediante grupos focales. Por esta razón, se necesitan al menos dos personas del equipo organizador para su implementación. Una persona asumirá el rol de facilitador y la otra será responsable de registrar la información. Para hacer una investigación usando el Listado rojo cualitativo se hacen entre 8 y 10 grupos focales, cada uno con 5 a 10 participantes. Los grupos se pueden desagregar dependiendo de los objetivos del proyecto, como por ejemplo por género (Mulugo et al., 2021).2. El segundo paso es crear una lista de variedades, incluyendo aquellas que han desaparecido en la región. Esto se puede hacer de diferentes formas. Por ejemplo, durante la reunión los participantes escriben en tarjetas los nombres de las variedades que existen y las que se han perdido en la zona. A partir de esto se crea conjuntamente la lista de variedades. Otra forma es que la persona a cargo de la investigación pida a los participantes que traigan una muestra de sus variedades (plantas grandes con sus características como hojas, frutas, etc.). Los nombres de las variedades traídas por los participantes se escriben en tarjetas, y posteriormente se escriben los nombres de aquellas que se han perdido, así se crea la lista de las variedades que existen o están ausentes en la zona. Esta lista puede ser complementada a través de un estudio de transecto de la comunidad, recopilando la existencia de las diferentes variedades (Sthapit et al., 2006). Es importante que en cada tarjeta se coloque un número único (también conocido como identificador). Las tarjetas deben ser lo suficientemente grandes para que todos los participantes en la sala puedan leer sin dificultad los nombres de las variedades. En caso de que alguno de los participantes tenga limitaciones con la lectura es necesario identificar estrategias para que todos puedan ser incluidos en la discusión (por ejemplo, mencionar las variedades en voz alta). A continuación, se escribe la lista de las variedades en la Tabla 1.A continuación se describen los pasos para implementar la herramienta del Listado rojo cualitativo en los grupos focales:1. El primer paso es planificar los grupos focales. Aquí es importante identificar e invitar a los participantes, definir la agenda de la reunión, confirmar las preguntas que se van a hacer a los participantes y los roles de las personas del equipo organizativo en la reunión. A diferencia de otras herramientas, cuando se quiere implementar el Listado rojo cualitativo se debe invitar a participar a las personas que conocen mejor la agrobiodiversidad de la zona, también conocidos como sabios, guardianes o custodios. El primer paso es planificar los grupos focales.Se puede dar un estímulo a los participantes como un refrigerio o una comida compartida durante las sesiones de implementación de esta herramienta.©Vilma Hualla Figura 1. Implementación de la herramienta del Listado Rojo Cualitativo. A la izquierda, se observa un esquema de los cuatro cuadrantes usados en la herramienta del Listado Rojo Cualitativo, y un rectángulo adicional para identificar las variedades que se han perdido en la zona (adaptado de Mulugo et al., (2021) y Sthapit et al., (2006)). A la derecha vemos una fotografía de agricultores mostrando sus diferentes variedades de yuca para crear la lista de variedades antes de empezar con la herramienta del Listado Rojo Cualitativo. © Rigoberto Roblen Rivera Camañaparticipantes si muchos o pocos hogares cultivan esta variedad, si esta variedad es cultivada en grandes o pequeñas áreas o si está perdida. Cada grupo discutirá en donde colocar la tarjeta de la variedad y su respuesta será una respuesta grupal. Colocar cada una de las muestras de las variedades con sus respectivos nombres en cada uno de los cuadrantes y en el rectángulo de variedades perdidas. En caso de que existan diferentes opiniones dentro del grupo se harán preguntas adicionales para entender con más detalle por qué existe diferencia en la respuesta. Una vez que se llegue a una decisión conjunta, se coloca la tarjeta con el nombre de la variedad en el cuadrante correspondiente o en el rectángulo de variedades perdidas. Las respuestas son escritas en la Tabla 1, considerando que la información es por variedad.Cualitativo. En cada grupo focal se dibujan dos líneas: una vertical y una horizontal a manera de cruz (Figura 1). De esta manera se formarán cuatro cuadrantes (Figura 1). Estas líneas se pueden dibujar en un papelógrafo, en el suelo o sobre una manta. La línea horizontal representa el área sembrada con las variedades y la línea vertical, el número de hogares que siembran estas variedades. Adicionalmente, se puede dibujar un rectángulo o cuadrado al lado de los cuadrantes para identificar las variedades que se han perdido en la zona. Los investigadores que han implementado esta herramienta sugieren que es importante definir con los participantes el significado del área sembrada y la frecuencia de siembra en los hogares (Sthapit et al., 2006). Por ejemplo, es importante definir qué es un área sembrada grande y cómo se diferencia de una pequeña, o a qué se refieren los participantes cuando dicen que muchos hogares siembran una variedad y cómo se diferencian de aquellos hogares que siembran poco una variedad. Es importante que estas definiciones sean construidas con los participantes ya que la interpretación puede variar en cada lugar y cultivo.Área sembrada grande Lista de variedades perdidas en la zonaTabla 1. Situación de la diversidad de cultivos 5. Después de haber ubicado las tarjetas con los nombres de las variedades en la herramienta del Listado rojo cualitativo, se procederá a discutir las razones del porqué fueron ubicadas en ese cuadrante o en el rectángulo de variedades perdidas. En este paso las respuestas deben ser registradas o escritas en tarjetas para luego sintetizar la discusión del grupo. Cuando existan más de 25 variedades, se puede hacer una discusión general de los factores y las razones que determinan que las variedades se encuentren en un cuadrante Tabla 2. Valor de uso de las variedades existentes y perdidas en el área de intervención. determinado. Estos factores y razones pueden ser divididos entre aquellos que incentivan o desincentivan la conservación. Además, se puede discutir acerca de cómo los participantes ven el futuro de la conservación de la agrobiodiversidad en sus comunidades. Si existen 25 o menos variedades, se puede documentar el valor de uso de cada una de ellas para entender las razones para ubicar las variedades en cada uno de los cuadrantes. En este caso, se sugiere usar la Tabla 2 y la Tabla 3 como plantillas para completar esta información.Tabla 3. Continuación del valor de uso de las variedades existentes y perdidas en el área de intervención. *Se deben añadir filas dependiendo de las variedades que existen o que se han perdido en la zona 6. Después, se deben utilizar los resultados para conocer el estado de conservación de la agrobiodiversidad y de ser necesario tomar decisiones para conservarla. Algunas ideas que se pueden considerar son utilizar los resultados para identificar variedades que se están volviendo populares, calcular índices de agrobiodiversidad a nivel comunitario e identificar guardianes de semillas. Esto se realiza con los participantes del área de estudio y después de que se ha recolectado y procesado la información para tomar decisiones basadas en evidencia.Grupo focal: Es una metodología cualitativa usada para entrevistar a un grupo de personas acerca de un tema de discusión (Quintana, 2006;Silveira Donaduzzi et al., 2015).Cuadrante: Cada una de las regiones formadas por los ejes usados en la herramienta de cuatro cuadrantes.","tokenCount":"1773"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"52a5011855187d5f9f4c865a4aed09c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/09db4f0a-49bb-486d-b086-80aaa642f0ea/retrieve","id":"691976515"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"662ee949-5c23-48cd-a404-050b99488efc","pagecount":"101","content":"District, Eastern Zone of Tigray Region. The focus of the study was, to analyze the structure of production costs and determine profitability of the production, to analyze the determinants of honey supply in the study area, identify the major constraints and supply of the commodity to the market, to evaluate structure-conduct-performance of honey marketing. The data were generated by individual interview and group discussions using pre-tested semi structured questionnaires and checklists. This was supplemented by secondary data collected from different published and unpublished sources. Robust OLS regression econometric model was used to analyze the determinants of honey marketable supply. The results obtained from this analysis indicates that education level of the household head, price of honey in 1999 E.C. and the quantity of honey produced were found to be the most important positively significant variables influencing honey marketable supply of the District. The channel analysis of the commodity indicated a very short route. The main market participants for honey marketing of the District during the survey period were honey collectors, retailers and processors. Besides, a significant amount of honey produced is channeled directly to consumers from producers (434%). The honey marketing performance was also measured using marketing margins complemented with analysis of costs and gross profits generated by different marketing channel actors. Major problems of the production identified and prioritized by beekeepers in the study area were drought, pests and diseases of honey bee, lack of beekeeping equipments, death of colony, marketing problems, and shortage of bee forage and lack of adequate beekeeping skill.Based on the study results, interventions demanded to raise marketable supply of honey produced are recommended.The author was born in May 14, 1973  proposal write up from the very commencement. Successful accomplishment of this research would have been very difficult without his generous time devotion from the early design of the questionnaire to the final write-up of the thesis by adding valuable, constructive and ever teaching comments and thus I am indebted to him for his kind and tireless efforts that enabled me to finalize this thesis.Unreserved thanks go to my thesis research Co-Advisor Mr. Derik Hoekstra (ILRI) for his helpful comments for the betterment of the thesis. Moreover, my especial thank goes to other members of the IPMS-ILRI namely Muluhiwot and W/ro Berkie Enyew from IPMS head office, Dr. G/Medhin and Dawit W/mariam from Atsbi Wemberta IPMS-ILRI pilot learning site staff for their at ease facilitation of all logistical matters. I also wish to convey my heartfelt thanks to W/ro Bosena Tegegne who had on my achievements.Finally I extend my gratitude to my family/my wife Alganesh Kahsay, children Helen and Mulugeta, and kids Arsiema/ for their invaluable sacrifice in every perspective until I returned. ix  Africa is blessed with numerous types of wild honeybee (Adjare, 1990). Ethiopia is one of the countries of the continent which own big honey production potential. Owing to its varied ecological and climatic conditions, Ethiopia is home to some of the most diverse flora and fauna in Africa. Its forests and woodlands contain diverse plant species that provide surplus nectar and pollen to foraging bees (Girma, 1998). Beekeeping is one of the oldest farming practices in the country. There is an ancient tradition for beekeeping in Ethiopia which stretches back into the millennia of the country's early history (Girma, 1998). Of all countries in the world probably no country has a longer tradition of beekeeping than Ethiopia (Hartmann, 2004). It has been practiced traditionally. Moreover, beekeeping is an appropriate and well-accepted farming technology and it is best suited to extensive range of ecosystems of tropical Africa. To date, over 10 million of bee colonies are existing, which include both feral, and hived ones (Ayalew, 2001).Ethiopia is the largest honey producer in Africa and 10 th largest honey producer all over the world. Also considerable amount of wax is produced in the country. On a world level, Ethiopia is fourth in beeswax and tenth in honey production (Girma, 1998). Ethiopia, having the highest number of bee colonies and surplus honey sources of flora, is the leading producer of honey and beeswax in Africa. Ethiopia produces around 23.6% and 2.1% of the total Africa and World's honey, respectively.The total honey production of Ethiopia is estimated up to 24000 metric tones; only a small amount of this is marketed. Besides poor marketing conditions the main reason is that about 80% of the total Ethiopian honey production goes in to the local Tej-preparation, a honey wine, which consumed as national drink in large quantities (Hartmann, 2004).However, the products obtained from this sub sector are still low as compared to the potential of the country. Although thousands of tones of honey are produced every year it is usually poorly managed and unattractive in appearance. Because of this its place in the local market being taken by imported honey. Moreover, traditional hive honey is of good quality as long as it is in the hive. Faulty handling, from the time of its harvest until it reaches to market is responsible for its inferior quality. The type of hives used the methods of removing and storage of honey play a vital role in the quality of honey (Crane 1970, as cited by Edessa, 2005).Ethiopia's wide climatic and edaphic variability have endowed this country with diverse and unique flowering plants, thus making it highly suitable for sustaining a large number of bee colonies and the long established practice of beekeeping. Nevertheless, the bees and the plants they depend on, like all renewable natural resources, are constantly under threat from lack of knowledge and appreciation of these endowments (Girma, 1998).The principal resource base for beekeeping has, however, become seriously degraded in the course of time. The potential of the Ethiopian landscape for honey and wax production does now, certainly only constitutes a small fraction of its former wealth. Moreover, the destruction of the remaining resource-base can be observed going on at a steadily accelerating pace (Girma, 1998).Based on this facts even though Tigray region, particularly Atsbi Wemberta District is believed to have diversified types of vegetation and cultivated crops and expected to be potential for beekeeping activities so far there is no compiled and reliable information on honey production and marketing system in the area. The numbers of beekeepers, bee colonies, amount of honey, type of beekeeping practiced and marketing constraints were not known.The District has 18,567 bee colonies (Atsbi Wemberta ARDO, 2008). The entire honey production in the District is mainly for marketing and about 80-90% of the honey produced is sold by rich, middle income and poor households (IPMS, 2005). Despite the high honey production in the study area, there is no ready market attracting beekeepers. Therefore this study was conducted to collect information on potential and constraints of honey production systems of Atsbi Wemberta district in the Northern part of Ethiopia.Recognition of critical role of markets in economic development led to comprehensive market reforms across a number of developing countries. In spite of these reforms, symptoms of poorly functioning markets in much of Sub -Saharan Africa are evident in the segmentation of markets, low investment in the market infrastructure, the persistence of high margins and of the market thinness and the limited progression toward more complex arrangements (Eleni, 2001) The major constraint to increasing the welfare of smallholders is their inability to access markets. Enhancing the ability of poor smallholder farmers to reach markets and actively engage in them is one of the most pressing development challenges. Remoteness results in reduced farm-gate prices, returns to labour and capital, and increased input and transaction costs. This, in turn, reduces incentives to participate in economic transactions and results in subsistence rather than market-oriented production systems. Sparsely populated rural areas, and high transport costs are physical barriers to accessing markets; lack of negotiating skills, lack of collective organizations and lack of market information are other impediments to market access (Jones, 1972).An efficient, integrated, and responsive market mechanism, which is, marketed with good performance, is of crucial importance for optimum allocation of resources in agriculture and for stimulating farmers to increase output (Jones, 1972;FAO, 1999;Acharya and Agarwal, 1999). Without having convenient marketing conditions, the possible increment in output, rural incomes and foreign exchange resulting from the introduction of improved production technologies could not be effective. An improvement in marketing efficiency, thus, attracts the attention of many countries and viewed as an important national development strategy.Honey production in Atsbi Wemberta district is mainly with seasonality where surplus at harvest products is the main characteristics. The nature of the product on the one hand and the lack of organized market system on the other often resulted in low producers' price. No studies have been carried out to identify what the marketing systems look like and no remedial measures were taken so far. This, therefore, demanded a holistic study of the system in the form of market chain analysis.Market chain analysis is supposed to be the current approach working in studies of such type of production and marketing problems. Analysis of the system in terms of honey market structure, conduct and performance taking in to consideration the product and location specificity will, therefore, be used to identify the bottlenecks and come up with precise possible solution. Even though both honey and honey by-products are economical and socially important, no adequate study has been made in the study area to improve the sector.This study therefore, has attempted to contribute to filling the information gap by investigating the honey marketing chains and factors affecting honey supply in Atsbi Wemberta District.The over all objective of this study was to analyze honey market chains in Atsbi Wemberta District. The specific objectives were to (1) analyze the structure of production costs and determine profitability of production ( 2) analyze the determinants of honey supply in the study area (3) analyze the market structure, conduct and performance of honey market (4) identify the major constraints, opportunities of production and supply of the commodity to the marketThe area coverage of this study was limited to Atsbi Wemberta District. And it also was focused on the functioning of the market and relationship among the actors within the marketing chains, transportation, marketing information, finance, institutions involved in honey marketing and factors affecting supply of honey production in the study area. Different market levels, role of actors in the channel, and bargaining characteristics of producers, buying and selling strategies, and trades' behaviors in the whole marketing process were seen.This study would generate useful information in order to formulate honey marketing development projects and guidelines for interventions that would improve the efficiency of honey marketing system. The potential users of this finding would be farmers (producers), traders, government and non-government organizations, that have an interest to intervene in honey marketing system. Researchers who want further investigation on honey marketing would use the result from this study.The main limitation of this study was mainly related to coverage of the study area. There are a number of known Districts in honey production in the region. However, the study focused only in Atsbi Wemberta District due to budgetary and time limitations. The other limitation of the study was that, this study being the first in the District lack many detail investigations.The first chapter deals with the background, statement of the problem, objectives and significance of the study. The second chapter consists of the review of the literature.Methodology is outlined and described in the third chapter. The fourth chapter deals with the results and discussions. Conclusion and recommendations are presented in the fifth chapter.The aim of this chapter is to discuss concepts such as market, marketing, marketable supply, market chain, market structure, conduct and performance. In relation to these issues, the chapter highlights about the production and marketing of honey in the World, Africa and Ethiopia.Marketing is an institution or mechanism which brings together buyers (\"demanders\") and sellers (\"suppliers\") of particular goods and services. As a basic definition, marketing is the process of satisfying human needs by bringing products to people in the proper form and at the proper time and place. Marketing has an economic value because it gives form, time, and place utility to products and services. As products definition it is the performance of all the transactions and services associated with the flow of good from the point of initial production to the final consumer. As business firm marketing is as a complete management concept through which the company sells itself as well as its line of product. And from the view point of society, it is defined as all the process necessary to determine consumers' physical and societal needs and to conceptualize and affect their fulfillment (Barson and Norvell, 1983).The term market has got a variety of meanings. In some cases the market may mean the place where buying and selling takes place, an area in which a good is sold, a group of people carrying on buying or selling, or the commodity traded, such as the corn market, or time market (Larson, 1957).Marketing involves all activities involved in the production, flow of goods and services from point of production to consumers. Marketing includes all activities of exchange conducted by producers and middlemen in exchange for the purpose of satisfying consumer demand. It is defined as the set of human activities directed at facilitating and consummating exchange. All business activities facilitating the exchange are included in marketing (Kotler, 2003).Marketing has an intrinsic productive value, in that it adds time, form, place and possession utilities to products and commodities. Through the technical functions of storage, processing and transportation, and through exchange, marketing increases consumer satisfaction from any given quantity of output (Mendoza, 1995).As expressed by FAO (1997) food and agricultural marketing not only means the movement of agricultural produce from the farm (where it is produced) to the consumer or manufacturer but also includes the marketing of production supplies to farmers like fertilizer, pesticide, chemicals, machinery, animal feed, tools and equipments.Market chain is the term used to describe the various links that connect all the actors and transactions involved in the movement of agricultural goods from the producer to the consumer (CIAT, 2004). Commodity chain is the chain that connects smallholder farmers to technologies that they need on one side of the chain and to the product markets of the commodity on the other side (Mazula, 2006).Formally, marketing channel is a business structure of interdependent organizations that reach from the point of product origin to the consumer with the purpose of moving products to their final consumer destination (koler et al., 2003). The analysis of marketing channels is intended to provide a systematic knowledge of the flow of goods and services from their origin (producer) to their final destination (consumer). This knowledge is acquired by studying the \"participants\" in the process those who perform physical marketing functions in order to obtain economic benefits. In carrying out the functions, marketing agents achieve both personal and social goals. They add value to production and in so doing help satisfy consumer needs. This price also serves as a signal to all the actors in the marketing channel, i.e.producers, rural assemblers, transporters, wholesalers, and retailers (Mendoza, et al., 1982).Producer: It is first link in the marketing chain analysis of agricultural products. The producer harvests the products and supply to the second agent. From the movement he/she decides what to produce, how to produce, how much to produce, when to produce, and where to sale.Rural assembler: Some times also called transporter or the trader; he/she is the first link between producer and other middlemen.Marketing boards: It is a legalized single government agency charged with the responsibility of a nation's total output of a particular commodity.Wholesaler: He provides the optimum combination of functions and services for different kinds of retailers, and performs desired distribution functions for different kinds of processors. Carry a wide range of products that meet almost all the retailers' requirements and his emphasis is on a complete line of products and several major brands.Agents and brokers: They handle individual brands and sell to food chains, general wholesalers, and institutional markets on a commission or fee basis. Agents and brokers do not take title to or warehouse the products they sell. They operate under a franchise or contract agreement. Their duty is to provide a major sales effort for the brands they represent.Retailers: Middlemen, which includes supper markets and other large scale retailer who divides up large scale shipments of produce and sell it to consumers in small units. The basic function they provide is bulk breaking.The last link in the marketing chain. The participants and their respective functions often overlap. The widest spread combinations are: traders-wholesalers that collect the commodity and supply it to retailers, wholesalers-retailers (wholesalers that also sell directly to consumers and wholesalers-exporters).Marketable surplus is the quantity of the produce left out after meeting the farmer's consumption and utilization requirements for kind payment and other obligations such as gifts, donations, charity, etc. Thus, marketable surplus shows the quantity left out for sale in the market. The marketed surplus shows the quantity actually sold after accounting for losses and retention by the farmers, if any and adding the previous stock left out for sale (Thakur et al., 1997). Thus, marketed surplus may be equal to marketable surplus, it may be less if the entire marketable surplus is not sold out and the farmers retain some stock and if losses are incurred at the farm or during transit. The importance of marketed and marketable surplus has greatly increased owning to the recent changes in agricultural technology as well as social patterns. In order to maintain the balance between demand for and supply of food grains with the rapid increases in demand due to higher growth population, urbanization, industrialization and over all economic development accurate knowledge on marketed and marketable surplus is essential in the process of proper planning for the procurement, distribution, export and import of agricultural product (Malik et al., 1993).Since the 1960s, the systematic nature of markets has increasingly been emphasized in defining means of analyzing their efficiency. The S-C-P approach or industrial organization school is then developed. The approach has been used in the study of markets in many countries such as in India by Level and Harris and in West Africa by Jones among others (Magrath, 1992). The S-C-P approach focuses on the behavior of groups rather than individual firms, and looks into the influence of the horizontal relationships among these firms on market performance. Thus, it is suggested that the S-C-P model is preferable to that model which analyze the productive efficiency of individual marketing enterprises (Magrath, 1992).The most commonly used theoretical frame work (model) is the structure-conductperformance model. Social, political, economic and physical environment in different societies influence the operation of the marketing system (Kohls and Uhl, 1985). The interrelationship between the factors and their influence on firms' behavior within the society will change through time. The implicit goal of public policy has been to protect and promote setting that approaches the conditions of pure competition. Consistent performance model (S-C-P), which appears to provide significant part of the theoretical support for the policy formulation (Kohls and Uhl, 1985;Abbot;1958).Market structure shows trends in the number and size of firms relative each other and to the number of consumers and producers in particular time and place (Malhotra, 1996). It explains about Presence /absence, the levels and nature of entry barriers distribution of market information and its adequacy in sharpness of prices and quantity compositions and individual risk (Kohls and Uhl, 1985;abbot;1958). Conduct explains price policy, advertising policy, output policy, legal tactics, etc (Abbot, 1958). Performances depend on conduct of sellers and buyers which intern is strongly influenced by structure of the relevant market. It also shows a locative efficiency, technical efficiency, equality, innovation etc. (Purcel, 1979).A commonly used measure of the performance of a marketing system is the marketing margin or price spread (Abbot et al., 1990). Margin or spread can be useful descriptive statistics it used to show how the consumer's expenditure is divided among participants at different levels of the marketing system. Abbot et al., (1990) defined marketing margin as the difference between price consumers pay and product and then resell it together with specific charges for marketing services rendered. The relative share of the different market participants will be estimated using the marketing margin analysis. The total marketing margin in marketing system constitutes the marketing costs plus the profit earned. The price that is obtained by producers, or as the price of collection of marketing services, which the outcome of the demand for and supply of such services. Marketing services include such items as assembling, grading, storing, processing, packing, distribution, and transportation (Branso and Norvell, 1983). It is made of individual margins obtained by intermediaries who actually assume ownership of product and then resell it together with specific changes for marketing services rendered. The relative share of the different market participants will be estimated using the marketing margin analysis. The total marketing margin in marketing system constitutes the marketing costs plus the profit earned.Marketing conduct refers to the patterns of behavior that enterprises follow in adopting or adjusting to the markets in which they sell or buy (Bain, 1968). Such a definition shows the analysis of human behavioral patterns that are not readily identifiable, obtainable, or quantifiable. Thus, in the absence of theoretical frame work for market analysis, there is a tendency to treat conduct variables in descriptive manner. The specified structure features of homogeneous product, and free entry and exit require a form of conduct such that each firm must operate as if in isolation. Market conduct is exceedingly complex, encompassing as it does virtually all human decision masking within business organizations and, by extension, household, on top of the market structure, the legal environment and the internal organization of the business enterprise influence the market conduct (Wolday, 1994). Bain (1968) names two closely interrelated aspects of market conduct: the manner in which, the devices and mechanisms by which, the different sellers coordinate their decision and action, to each other, or succeed in marketing them mutually consistent as they react to demand for their products in a common market, and the character of pricing policies and related market policies that the sellers in the industry adopt; assessed in terms of individual or collective aims or goals that they pursue as they determine their selling prices, their sales promotion outlays, the designs and qualities of their products and so forth. By examining the relationship between the factors of the market structure and their setting practice; it may be possible to make some predictions about the consequences of these behavioral patters for performance.Market performance according to Bain refers to the composite of results that firms in the market arrive at by pursuing whatever line of conduct they espouse-end results in the dimensions of price, output, production and selling cost, product design, and so forth (Wolday, 1994). For firms acting as sellers, these results measure the character of the firm's adjustment to the effective demands for their outputs; for firms buying goods, they measure the quantity of adjustments made by firms to the supply conditions of the goods, they purchase. There are two main indicators of market performance: Net return and marketing Margin.Estimation of net returns and market margins provide indications of an exploitative nature when returns of buyers are much higher than the fair amount, that is including all marketing costs and return to management and risk, and when market margins increase not because of higher real marketing costs but because prices paid to producers are lower. The analysis of market performance using the industrial organization framework is as follows: Collusive pricing (market conduct) becomes possible if (i) market concentration is high (market structure); (ii) entry barriers are high (market structure); and (iii) market information is not available to all participants (market conduct).This results in net returns and marketing margins that are much higher than the \"fair\" amount (Pomery, 1989). Market performance refers to the impact of structure and conduct as measured in terms of variables such prices, costs, and volume of output (Bressler and King, 1970). By analyzing the level of marketing margins and their cost components, it is possible to evaluate the impact of the structure and conduct characteristics on market performance (Bain, 1968). For most countries, it is generally acknowledged that a distribution system displaying acceptable performance is one that allows technological progress, has the ability to adopt, innovate, and utilize resources efficiently and to transmit prices that reflect costs (OECD, 1982). Prices are thus viewed as a stimulus for an efficient allocation of resources.Hence, desirable market performance is directly related to the competitiveness of an industry because distortions thereof tend to impede price efficiently.Market concentration refers to the number and size of distribution of buyers and sellers in a market. The greater the degree of concentration, the higher the possibility of non competitive character, such as collusion, existing in the market. It is generally believed that higher market concentration indicates non-competitive behavior and thus inefficiency. Devine et.al. (1984) \"buyer concentration is analogous to seller concentration, and in principle a range of absolute and relative measure of buyer concentration corresponding to those seller concentration could be Constructed. However, such measures have not been constructed, to the absence of product by purchasing firms.\" The relationship between concentration and market behavior, and performance must not, be interpreted in isolation. Other factors such as the firms' objectives, barriers to entry and exit, economics of scale, and assumptions about rival firms behavior, will all relevant in determining the degree of concentration and the relationship between concentration and behavior and performance (Scherer, 1980).There are a number of measures of market concentration and the most commonly used is the market index, which measures the percent of traded volume accounted for by a given number of participants. Empirical studies in the field of industrial organization suggested certain level of at which non-competitive behavior of market participant begins in different industries. For example, Kohls and Uhl (1985) suggests that a four firms concentration ratio (CR4 ), that is, the market share of the larger four firms, of less than or equal to 33% is generally indicator of a competitive market structure, while a concentration ratio of 33% to 50% and above 50% may indicate a weak and strongly oligopolistic market structure, respectively. However, the concentration ratio of four firms is best regarded as a \"rule of thumb,\" and there are reasons why high concentration levels may be reasonable in light of small potential volumes of trade (Gebremeskel et al., 1998).\"A supply chain is a network of organizations that are involved through upstream and downstream linkages in different process and activities that produce value in the form of products and services in the hands of the ultimate user\" (Christoher, 1998in: Omta et al., 2001: 78) An important aspect of supply chain is that they consist of some associated, but distinct flows. The physical flow of the commodity and the flow of money realized from final sale back to the producer and all the firms that have been involved in processing and marketing. The efficiency and effectiveness of a practices and procedures that govern this latter flow are as important as technical efficiency with which the commodity is produced, processed and marketed (Westlake, 2005).Supply is predominantly determined by price of the commodity in question especially when there are floor and cutting prices imposed by the government or any other responsible body. If the government imposes a maximum, or ceiling prices on a good, the effect is to cause a shortage that good and frequently creates a black market (underground market) that rations that quantity available.The most important factors which determine market supply could be divided into economic factors which include product price, provision of consumer goods, production cost and market supply costs and political factors which include the level of government intervention (Maro, 1996;cited in Wolday, 1994). One of the expected important variables which influence the behavior of the market supply of producers is price. If price increases, producers will gain high revenue and would be motivated to increase the market supply (Wolday, 1994).As Branson and Norvell (1983)  price and to a lesser degree by that of the previous year. Risk is also significant in shifting the supply curve. For high-risk crops, prices are necessary to call forth a given level of production. Prices also show increased variability because production plans are not always achieved.World production of honey during the 1990s was in excess of 1.2 million metric tones (MT) per year. Beeswax production was more than 50,000 MT per year. World demand for these products is substantially in excess of these amounts and is likely to increase even further.FAO, 2005 data indicated that world trade in honey during the 1990s amounted to more than 300,000 MT per annum with Western Europe and the United States in particular being major importers at an average price of about US $1500 per MT. World trade in beeswax amounted to about 10,000 MT per annum with Western Europe accounted for about one half of total imports with the world price average about US $ 4000 per MT.In 2004 estimated world production of honey was higher than the medium term average at 1.38 million MT. Beeswax productions was also higher at 60,153 MT (FAO, 2005) In comparison to these amounts, production in sub Saharan Africa (Africa South of the Sahara but excluding the Republic of South Africa) was 135,375 MT of honey and 14,165 MT of beeswax, most of which came from a very few countries (Table 1).Much of African honey production is gathered rather than framed, private sector modern production with many movable frame hives and inputs such as winter or out of season feeding and use of disease prevention measures is largely unknown in sub Saharan Africa. The use of hives with removable top bars has been promoted intermit and often in a not very coordinated way in some countries by government extension services (Fadare, 2003). Almost all African honey and beeswax is traditionally which is almost synonymous with inefficiently. The problem with all these traditional hives is that they engender low output; in Ethiopia, for This went up to 23.58% and 2.13% for the total Africa and world honey production, respectively in the year 1983.Furthermore, there has been an increased production of honey over the period 1984-1994, i.e., from 21.480 tones in 1984to 23, 700 tones in 1994(Hartman, 2004)).The current honey production is estimated at 24,600 tones per year. The estimated is based on a 65% and 75% occupational efficiency of 7.5 million traditional hives and 20 thousand framed hives respectively.Honey is almost exclusively used (80%) for local consumption, to a very large extent for the brewing of mead, also called \"Tej\" (local beverage). Even though honey satisfies local demand it is so crude that it will not compete in the international market. However, an average of 3.05 tones per annum has been exported to neighboring countries over the years 1984-1994(ITC, 1996)). As indicated in Table 2 , on average between 1998 and 2003, 307.22 tones of honey worth 88,679 Birr has been exported yearly.  , Annual External Trade Statistics;1999-2003 Another valuable hive product obtained from honeybees is beeswax. It is largely collected from traditional hives rather than the moveable frame hives. The wax yield from traditional hives is 8-10 percent of the honey yield, compared to 0.5-2 percent from frame hives. The annual production of wax is estimated at 3,200 tones. This estimated is without considering much of the beeswax produced in remote areas where it is usually wasted. Thus, after China, Mexico and Turkey, Ethiopia is the fourth largest wax producing country with an estimated 3, 000 tones per annum.With regarding export of beeswax, Ethiopia is one of the biggest wax exporters to the world market. An average of 270 tones was exported per year over the period 1984-1994 which in turn generated over ETH Birr 2 million per annum to the national economy. Currently, the annual turn-over of the apicultural industry varies between 185 and 450 million ETH Birr, of which only 5 million Birr worth beeswax exported (EEPD, 2006). As indicated in Table 3, the on average between 1998 and 2003, 37,477.616 tones of beeswax worth 7,321,680.10 Birr the country has been exported yearly.  , Annual External Trade Statistics;1999-2003 Although the annual production of both honey and wax is large compared to other African countries, the system of production commonly exercised in the country is traditional.Productivity of honey bees is very low and only on average of 5-6 Kg of honey could be cropped per hive per year. However, in areas where improved technology has been introduced, an average of 15-20 Kg per hive per year has been recorded. The major constraints that affect apiculture in Ethiopia are lack of beekeeping knowledge, shortage of trained manpower, shortage of beekeeping equipments, pests and predators and inadequate research works to support development programs.The study was conducted in Atsbi Wemberta district, one of the pilot Learning Sites of Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS). In this study area, honey has been identified as one of the major important marketable commodities. Honey production is increasing in the study area due to the introduction of modern beehives and bee forages because of area closure.Atsbi Wemberta district is located about 65km North East of the regional State capital, Mekelle. There are sixteen Peasant Associations (PAs) and two dwellers associations in the district with a total of 41,398 household heads (IPMS, 2005). According to the information from district Agricultural and Rural Development Office (2008), the total population of the district was 112, 639 of which 55,359 (49.15%) are males and 57,280 (50.85%) are females.Urban and rural population is 9,609 and 103,030 respectively. Altitude in the area ranges from 918 to 3069 m and 75% of the district is upper highlands (2600 masl or above) and only 25% is midlands (between1500 and 2600masl). The district has a total area of about 1223 sq km.The areas of the sixteen PAs ranges from 26.5 sq.km to 209 sq.km. Generally the district has 70% and 30% Dega and Weina Dega weather condition, respectively. The current land use pattern includes 89,185ha forest and bush land, 13,059.45ha cultivated land, 8,742ha grazing land and the rest for others (ARDO, 2008).Atsbi Womberta is one among the districts in the region that border the Afar regional state shortage of rainfall is a major constraint of agricultural production in the district. Rainfall is usually intense and short duration. The annual rainfall is between 500mm to 624mm. Hence it is one of the drought prone districts in the region. The area receives bimodal rainfall belg (short rains) from November to March and Meher (long rains) from June to September.According to IPMS (2005), the district is classified into two major farming systems, pulse/livestock system (Barley, Wheat, pluses and small ruminants) and apiculture/livestock system (livestock and apiculture system). Nine of the sixteen Peasant Associations are under pulse/livestock system and are found starting from the central southern parts of the district to the tip north. Barley is the dominant crop in the area followed by wheat and pulses. The altitude of these PAs in this farming system is mostly around 2600 mals or higher and as result of this, frost is one of the major production problems in the area. The important marketable crop commodities in this area are pulses (faba been, field pean and lentils, in the order). Sheep fattening, dairy apiculture (queen rearing) and horticultural crops are also other important marketable commodities in the district.The average household land holding of the area is about 0.5 ha of which about a third of the land area could cover by the pulses (IPMS, 2005).Temperate fruits (apple, pear and plum) are also potential fruit crops that could be grown in this farming system. Bee queen rearing is also important in this farming system while honey production is more important in the escarpments to the east. The district has a long escarpment of more than 60 km adjacent to the Afar region. The apiculture/livestock farming system is where altitude is below 2600 masl and major grown in this area are wheat, teff and barley. There are 7 PAs that belong to this farming system.According ARDO (2008), honey production from local hives is on average about 8.4kg/harvest as opposed to the improved hives that can yield 20-35kg/harvest and it is possible to harvest twice a year. Price of white honey could range from 30 Birr/kg to 45 Birr/kg from the production season (surplus) to deficit season. The population of livestock in Atsbi Wemberta district is 52,482, 86,006, 12,375, 10,882 heads of cattle, sheep, goats and equines, respectively. The number of poultry is estimated at about 47,265. Out of the cattle population, the district has an estimated 16,415 drought oxen. There are 18,567 bee colonies of which 5,740 are improved box hives. There is also bee forage planting practices in the study area such as supplementary feeding which includes sugar, barley flour, peas and beans flour. In both the traditional and modern beehives supplementary feed is provided. In the study area there is also an extension activity which encourages beekeepers to grow indigenous bee forage such as (in Tigrigna) \"gribiya\" (Hypostus ariculata) and \"tebeb\" (Basium clandiforbium). These plants are herbaceous and have high contribute in to honey production of the area.In order to get the over all picture of honey producers, traders, and consumers of the honey marketing chain in the study area, the study was used both primary and secondary data. The primary data were collected using two types of questionnaires, one for farmers (honey producers) and the other for honey traders. The primary data collected from farmers focused on factors affecting honey market supply, size of output, market information, credit access, access to market, number of beehives owned, honey production cost, annual return from honey, extension service, annual income from non-honey source and demographic characteristics of the household. Moreover, the questionnaire for traders includes type of business (wholesaler, retailer, assembler, etc.), buying and selling strategies, initial capital, current working capital, source of working capital, source of market information, demographic characteristics of the traders and other related data were collected. Independent questionnaires were designed for both honey producers and traders. Enumerators who have college diploma working in the district rural area as development agents were recruited and trained on the techniques of data collection. After they were made aware of the objective of the study and content of the questionnaires, a pre-test was conducted under the supervision of the researcher. Some adjustments were made to the questionnaire and the final data used in the research were collected under continuous supervision to ensure an appropriate data collection. In addition to the questionnaire, an informal survey in the form of Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA) technique was employed using checklists for both farmers and traders to obtain additional supporting information for the study. Secondary data were collected from different published and unpublished sources, such as government institutions, the District Office of Agriculture and Rural Development (DOARD), Tigray agricultural marketing promotion agency (TAMPA), reports, bulletins, and websites were consulted to generate relevant secondary data on honey production and marketing.The sample frame of the study was the list of households in Atsbi Wemberta District and PAs, which are found in the district. A two stage sampling procedure was employed to select a specific honey producer household. First, three potential honey producer PAs from the District were selected through purposive sampling method. In the second stage, using the population list of honey producer farmers from sample PAs, the intended sample size was determined proportionally to population size of honey producer farmers. Then the 120 representative household were randomly selected using systematic random sampling technique (Table 4). The sites for the trader's survey were market towns, which were selected based on the flow of the honey produce in the study district. Three market towns (Mekelle, Wukro and Atsbi) were sampled. The sample size of honey traders were fourteen, hence, the number of permanent honey traders in the main honey marketing channel in the study area were very limited, and almost all of them were employed in the traders' survey. In this study, both descriptive and econometric methods of data analysis were employed.Descriptive statistics like mean, standard deviation and percentiles have been used to explain basic characteristics of the channel members besides econometric models. For this study, the data collected from the sampled producers and traders was first analyzed using descriptive statistics followed by determinants analysis of honey supply using econometric model.Examining the nature of horizontal relationships between similar enterprises is analogous to analyzing the structure of the market as defined by the Industrial Organizational School.Analyzing market structure entails understanding of those characteristics of the organization of the market influencing the nature of competition and pricing (Scarborough and Kydd, 1992).Structural characteristics like market concentration, industry maturity, product differentiation, government participation, barriers to entry and exit, will be some of the basis to be considered. In this regard, one can categorize markets as perfectly competitive, monopolistic, or oligopolistic (Bain, 1968;cited in Pomeroy and Trinidad, 1995). Among the major structural characteristics of a market is the degree of concentration, that is, the number of market participants and their size distribution and the relative ease or difficulty for market participants to secure an entry into the market (Gebremeskel et al., 1998).Market Concentration-Market concentration is defined as a number and size distribution of sellers and buyers in the market. Other factors, such as the firm's objectives, barriers to entry, economics of scale, and assumptions about rival firm's behavior, will all be relevant in determining the degree of concentration, the relationship between concentration and behavior and performance (Scherer, 1980).Where MS i = Market share of buyer i.V i = Amount of product handled by buyer i.Where C = concentration ratio handle S i = percentage share of i th firm r = number of largest firm for which the ratio is going to be calculatedMarket conduct refers to the behavior of firms or the strategies used by the firms in their pricing, buying and selling activities. There are no agreed up on procedures for analyzing the element of market conduct. Market conduct defines the conditions which make possible exploitative relationships between sellers and buyers. This is done via unfair price setting practices which Smith (1985) classified as collusive, predatory, or exclusionary. A systematic way to detect indication of unfair price setting practices and the condition under which practices are likely to prevail. Moreover, they cover the following topics:(i) the existence of formal and informal marketing groups that perpetuate such practice;(ii) formal and informal producer groups that affect bargaining power; (iii )the distance from the major market and its impact on prices; and (iv )the feasibility of utilizing alternative market outlets. The questions also provide an indication of the type of data needed and data collection procedures.Market performance refers to the impact of structure and conduct on prices, costs, and volume of output (Pomeroy and Trinidad, 1995). Marketing efficiency is essentially the degree of market performance. It is defined as having the following two major components: (i) the effectiveness with which a marketing service would be performed and (ii) the effect on the costs and the method of performing the service on production and consumption. These are the most important because the satisfaction of the consumer at the lowest possible cost must go hand in hand with maintenance of a high volume of farm output (Ramakumar, 2001).The two approaches to measure marketing performance are: marketing margin and the analysis of market channel efficiency.Marketing Margin-In a commodity subsystem approach, the institutional analysis is based on the identification of the marketing channels. This approach includes the analysis of marketing costs and margins (Mendoza, 1995). A marketing margin can be defined as a difference between the price paid by consumers and that obtained by producers; or as the price of a collection of marketing services that is the outcome of the demand for and supply of such services (Tomek and Robinson, 1990). It measures the share of the final selling price that is captured by a particular agent in the marketing chain (Mendoza, 1995). It, in its simplest form, can be defined as the difference between prices paid for a commodity (e.g. bread) by consumers at a retail level, and prices received by farmers when they sell their commodity (e.g. wheat) to assemblers or other first handlers. Measured in this form, the margins reflect the amount of services added to a commodity once it leaves the farm and sits on a shelf in a retail outlet in a form that is acceptable, useful, and appealing to consumers (Goetz and Weber, 1986).Marketing margin is most commonly used to refer to the difference between producer and consumer prices of an equivalent quantity and quality of a commodity. However, it may also describe price differences between other points in the marketing chain, for example between producer and wholesale, wholesale and retail, prices (Scarborough and kydd, 1992). The size of marketing margins is largely dependent upon a combination of; the quality and quantity of marketing services, and the efficiency with which they are undertaken and priced. The quality and quantity of marketing services depends on supply and demand of marketing services and/or the degree of competition in the market place. The costs of service provision depend on both exogenous and endogenous factors and the efficiency are determined by the extent of competition between marketing enterprises at each stage.According to Trotter (1992), the benchmarks to which results of marketing margin to be compared with are, the assumption of the margin to be equivalent to transfer cost as well as the constancy of margin per unit of product. Large gross margins may not express high profit but rather; increased qualities and quantities of service; low labor, capital and management productivity. Conversely, small gross margins may co-exist with inefficient use of resource; poor coordination and consumer satisfaction; and disproportionate profit elements. Thus, higher marketing margins resulting from increased services, including better coordination, may leave producers and consumers better off, and low margins may be due to low productivity. Therefore, in using market margin analyses to assess the economic performance of markets, it is always preferable to deconstruct them in to their cost and return elements (Scarborough and Kydd, 1992). However, the challenges of data availability on costs usually create a problem. Tomek and Robinson (1990) also warned that marketing margins provide only one point of reference in the evaluation of performance and should be compared with measures of profits earned by marketing firms to determine whether or the margins are excessive. All these reviewed literatures advised not to exclusively depend on marketing margin for decision making but to support with other tools. Hence, in this study four parameters are included to judge an overall market performance. When there are several participants in the marketing chain, the margin is calculated by finding the price variations at different segments and then comparing them with the final price to the consumer. Consumer price is the base or common denominator for all marketing margins (Mendoza, 1995). The relative size of various market participants' gross margins can indicate where in the marketing chain value is added and/or profits are made.Marketing costs and margin analysis is especially comparison of prices at different levels of marketing over the same period. Computing the total gross marketing margin (TGMM) is always related to the final price or the price paid by the end consumer and is expressed in percentage (Mendoza 1995). It is use full to introduce here the idea of \"producer participation\", \"producer portion\" or \"farmers portion\", or \"producers gross margin\" (GMMP) which is the proportion of the price paid by consumer that belongs to the producer. Producer that act as a middle men also receive an additional marketing margin. Another parameter related to marketing margin is the producer's share. The producer's share is the ratio of producer price (ex-vessel) to consumer price (retail) (Mudiantono, 1990). The producer's share can be expressed as The above equation tells us that a higher marketing margin diminishes the producer's share and vice-versa. It also provides an indication of welfare distribution among production and marketing agents. The magnitude of marketing cost depends on factors such as time and place of marketing, market conditions, and the market channel involved. The marketing will be composed with marketing service cost and the result will be interpreted. Margins at each stage will be computed and the share will be compared.A number of studies investigated about factors that mainly affect marketable supply of agricultural commodities. Among others, Wolday (1994) pointed out the major factors that influenced the marketable supply of teff, maize and wheat at Alaba Siraro district using crosssectional data and he investigated the relationship of farm level marketable supply of cereals to capture the influence of the independent variables on the marketable supply of food grain, he adopted multiple regression analysis with both dummy and continuous variables as explanatory variables. In his study, he found out that among the independent variable, access to market, size of output and family size had affected the marketable supply of food grain at the district. Another study by Wolelaw (2005) find out the major factors that affect the marketable supply of rice at Fogera district using multiple linear regression model. He investigated the relationship between the determinant factors of supply and the marketable supply of rice and her study revealed that the current price, lagged price, amount of rice production at farm level and consumption at household level had influenced marketable supply of rice at the district.Similar study undertaken by Kinde (2007) indicated that, the major factors that affect marketable supply of sesame in Metema district by using cross-sectional data with dummy and continuous explanatory variables. In his study he implemented multiple linear regression model to identify the relationship between the marketable supply of sesame and the hypothesized explanatory variables, hence his study acknowledged that amount of sesame productivity, use of modern inputs, number of language spoken by the household head, number of oxen owned, sesame area and time of selling of sesame influenced marketable supply of sesame positively. Another related study by Rehima (2006) identified that the key factors that affecting marketable supply of red pepper at Alaba and Siltie districts of SNNPRS using cross-sectional data with both dummy and continuous independent variables. In her study, she employed Tobit model and came up with the finding that distance to the market, frequency of contacts with extension agents, quantity of pepper produced and access to market information influenced marketable supply of pepper positively at the district. Recent studies are commonly using regression models to estimate the supply function. Likewise for this particular study, Linear multiple Regression model has been fitted to analyze and estimate supply of honey in Atsbi Wemberta district.Following Green (2003), the multiple linear regression model is specified as Y=f(price, honey output, access to market information, access to extension services, education level, experience in beekeeping, sex, access to credit, age, etc…).The econometric model specification of supply function in matrix notation is estimated byWhere Y i = honey supplied to the market = β a vector of estimated coefficient of the explanatory variables X= a vector of explanatory variables U i = disturbance term 3.4.5. Determinants of marketable supply of honey production in Atsbi Wemberta Tomek and Robinson (1985) suggested that careful definitions of terms are essential. Total supply in a specific period may depend not only on current production but also on carry over stocks and imports. It is not possible to include an exhaustive set of variables that could affect the household level of marketable supply of the product. But, in this particular study, an attempt was made to estimate determinants of marketable supply of honey production in Atsbi Wemberta district. In the course of identifying factors influencing honey supply, the main task is to analyze which factor influences and how? Hence, potential variables which are supposed to influence the quantity of honey supply need to be explained. Accordingly, the main variables expected to have influence on quantity supply of honey are explained in the following manner.Quantity Supplied (QTSUPP): It is a continuous variable that represents the dependent variable; the actual supply of honey by individual households to the market, which is measured in kilograms.The explanatory variables expected to influence the dependent variable are the following:Quantity of honey produced (QTYHP): It is a continuous variable measured in kilograms.The variable is expected to have positive contribution to the amount of honey supplied to the market. Farmers who produce more output per box beehives are associated to supply more honey to the market than those less produce.It is a continuous variable and is measured in kilometers which farmers spend time to sell their product to the market. If the farmer is located in a village or distant from the market, he is weakly accessible to the market. The closer to the market the lesser would be the transportation cost and time spent. Therefore, it is hypothesized that this variable is negatively related to marketable surplus of honey production. A similar study was conducted by Holloway et al., (1999) milk-market development in the Ethiopian highlands.His result indicates that distance-to market causes market surplus to decline. Similar issue was studied by Wolday (1994) on food grain market in the case study of Alaba indicated negative relationship between distance from the household residence to grain market and volume of marketed food grain. Further more, study conducted by Abonesh (2005) and Rehima ( 2006) indicated similar results.It is a continuous variable and is measured in Birr per kilogram. This variable is expected to influence marketable supply positively. When the price of the product is promising, farmers are motivated to take their produced to the market.This makes the supply to be directly related to the current market price.Age is demographic variable and is measured in years.The expected influence of age is assumed positive; it is a proxy measure of farming experience of household. Aged households are believed to wise and acquire skills in beekeeping hence produce much and supply more.This is dummy variable that takes a value of one if the household head is male and zero otherwise. Both men and women participate in beekeeping and production of honey. Male households have been observed to have a better tendency than female household in beekeeping and production and supply of honey due to obstacles such as lack of capital, and access to credit and extension services. Tshiunza et al., (2000) discussed the determinants of market production of cooking banana in Nigeria. In their study the male farmers tended to produce more cooking banana for market than female farmers.This is a continuous variable, it refers to the number of years the farmer engaged in beekeeping activity and is expected to influence supply of honey to the market positively. As farmers got more experience in beekeeping, the probability of increasing production and hence supply would be higher. Moreover, farmers with longer farm experience will have a cumulative knowledge of the entire farming environment. This in turn enables them to adopt the use of improved box beehives earlier than farmers with short beekeeping farm experience.This is measured as a dummy variable taking value of 1 if the producer had access to market information and zero otherwise. It has been hypothesized that to affect positively marketable honey supply of beekeeping household. The better information farmers had out is likely to supply more honey to the market. The general idea is that maintaining a competitive advantage requires a sound business plan. Again, business decisions are based on dynamic information such as consumer needs and market trends. This requires that an enterprise is managed with due attention to new market opportunities, changing needs of the consumer and how market trends influence buying (CIAT, 2004).This variable is measured as a dummy variable taking a value of one if the beekeeping household has access to honey production extension service and zero otherwise. It is expected that extension service widens the household's knowledge with regard to the use of improved box beehives technologies and has positive impact on honey volume of marketable surplus. Farmers that have frequently contact with DAs (development agents) will have better access to information and could adopt better technology that would increase their marketable supply of honey.It is a continous variable and refers to the formal schooling of a respondent during the survey period. Those household heads who had formal education determines the readiness to accept new ideas and innovations, and easy to get supply, demand and price information and this enhances farmers' willingness to produce more and increase volume of sales. Holloway et al., (1999) observed that education and visits by an extension agent had significant and positive effect on quantity of milk marketed in Ethiopian highlands.Access to credit is measured as a dummy variable taking a value of one if the household has access to credit and zero otherwise. Among other things, credit access is assumed to have a positive significant to the marketable supply of honey, because a farmer who has access to credit service can purchase improved box beehives and hence increase the production and marketable supply of honey at the district level. Hence, it is important to check the presence of multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity among the variables that affect the supply of honey in the study area. Therefore, before fitting significant variables into the model for analysis, it was necessary to test multicollinearity problem among continuous variables and check associations among discrete variables, which seriously affects the parameter estimates. As Gujarati, ( 2003) pointed out multicolliniarity refers to a situation where it becomes difficult to identify the separate effect of independent variables on the dependent variable because there exists strong relationship among them. In other words, multicollinearity is a situation where explanatory variables are highly correlated.There are two measures, which suggested testing the existence of multicollinearity. These are Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) for a continuous variables association and Contingency Coefficients (CC) for dummy variables association.To detect multicollinearity problem for continuous variables, variance inflation factor ( ), for each coefficient in a regression as a diagnostic statistic is used.Here, 2 j R represents a coefficient for determining the subsidiary or auxiliary regression of each independent continuous variable X. As a rule of thumb, if VIF value of a variable exceeds 10, which will happen if 2 j R exceeds 0.90, then, that variable is said to be highly collinear (Gujarati, 2003). Therefore, for this study, variance inflation factor ( ) VIF was employed to estimate the degree of multicollinearity among the explanatory continuous variables of supply function. On the other hand, contingency was used coefficient for dummy variables.Conversely, test for heteroscedasticity had undertaken for this study. There are a number of test statistics for the detecting heteroscedasticity; According to Guiarati (2003) there is no ground to say that one test statistics of hetroscedasticity is better than the others. Therefore, due to its simplicity, Kroenker-Bessett (KB) test of heteroscedasticity was used for this study.Similar to other test statistics of heteroscedasticity, KB test is based on the squared residuals u 2 i . However, instead of being regressed on one or more regressions, the squared residuals are regressed on the squared estimated values of the regressand. Particularly, if the original model ) 8 ...Where Ŷ i are the estimated values from the original model. The null hypothesis is 2 α = zero.If this is not rejected, then, one can conclude that there is no heteroscedasticity. The null hypothesis can be tested by the usual t-test or F-test.This section presents the results of descriptive and econometric analysis. The descriptive analysis describes the general characteristics of the sampled farm households and honey traders, and the honey marketing chains. The econometric analysis is used to identify factors that affect supply of honey in Atsbi Wemberta district.This section provides the profile of the sample respondents with regard to their age, sex, religion, marital status and education level.Almost 100 percent of the respondents were Orthodox Christian. The way people interact with each other is reflected in their social norms and their culture. About 50 percent of the households heads were in the age group of 26-44 with an average age of 36.33 and 43.3 percent of the sample respondent were in the age group of 45-62 years with an average age of 52.52 (Table 7). About 7 percent of the household heads lie in the age range of 63-80. The overall mean age of the respondents was 45.6. The average family size of the sample farmers during the survey period was 5.6 persons, with maximum and minimum family size of nine and two persons, respectively. These figures are 6.03, 5.48, and 5.2 persons for Barikaadisewha, Hayelom and Dibabakoren in that order (Table 7). Out of the total sampled households in the study area, 96 percent were male-headed (Table 8). This conforms to the common thinking that beekeeping is men's job due to labor requirements. In line with this, Hartmann (2004) reported that in Ethiopia traditionally beekeeping is men's job. Regarding the marital status, most of the household heads surveyed (97 %) were married with only 2.5 percent divorced household head. The average number of years of schooling completed was 1.92 years for the respondents.Among the sampled respondents, about 21 percent were illiterate, while a greater majority (72.5%) of them can read and write (Table 9). The rest of the respondents attended from elementary to junior School. More specifically, 4.2 and 2.5 percent of the sample respondents had attended elementary and junior schools respectively. In order to improve the quality and quantity of honey produce, the Agricultural and Rural Development (ARD) Office and different non-governmental organizations have introduced improved box hives in Atsbi Wemberta. According to the secondary data obtained from the district Office of Agriculture and Rural Development, out of the total 5740 improved box beehives found in the district, 1670 or about 30 percent of the improved box beehives was concentrated in the sampled three PAs at the time of survey.The level of beekeeping experience is taken to be the number of years that an individual was continuously engaged in beekeeping activity. Majority (79%) of the respondents had about 3-8 years of beekeeping experience (Table 11). The average years of experience for the entire sample was about 7 years, the minimum and maximum years of experience being 3 and 30 years, respectively. This shows that the activity was introduce or started in the area about many years ago. Having cumulative knowledge of how to keep bees is a prerequisite to the ability to obtain process and use information related to the practice. When asked to list the equipments they use including their prices and duration, the respondents mentioned a wide range of accessories, prices and service periods that goes hand in hand with beekeeping practices. The full ranges of accessories are the following: smokers, gloves, bee veils, boots, water sprayer, bee brush, queen lauder, knife, honey container, honey presser, and honey extractor. It was learnt during the survey that, apart from the known basic hive tools many of the materials are either non-existent or kept by quite few number of respondents. Particularly, the honey extractor was reserved at the center of the PAs for demonstration purpose.Honey is harvested in the study area from August to December (peak periods) in each year.Among the total 120 respondents 75 percent of them harvest honey twice within this period of the year, whereas 25 percent of the sample farmers respond that they harvest once in a year in the same period. It was reported that any production obtained in the remaining periods of the year would be left as food for the colony to strengthen it for the next harvest. As indicated in The annual average production of the sample respondents was 98.89 kg in the same year. On the other hand, average production/improved box beehives was 28.66 kg (Table 12). The survey result also shows that the production per households ranged from 25 kg to 415 kg, and about 35 percent of respondents reported that their annual production during the time was between 111 kg and 156 kg. In the same manner, 30 and 29.2 percent of respondents reported that their annual production was between 25-65 kg and 66-110 kg, respectively. However, only few respondents score the highest production (3.3 and 2.5) percent, in that order.Atsbi Wemberta honey is used for consumption, not for tej making. During the survey, with the given size of holding of improved box beehives, the total annual gross income of sample farmers from the sale of 11,257 kgs of honey output at an average price of 37.35 Birr/kg was estimated at Birr 420,448.95 (Table 13).Table 13.Distribution of sample farmers by annual total gross income earned from the sale of honey Income category Barika The annual gross income of respondents from the sale of honey output in the study area ranged from Birr 875 to Birr 9720. As shown in Table 13, the maximum proportion (29.2%) of sample respondents earned an annual gross income of between 4876 to 5876 Birr and about 23.3% of sample households obtained 875-1875 Birr. On the other hand, very few respondents (2.5%) obtained annual income of above 5,876 Birr. Likewise, the mean annul gross income per sample households during the survey time was about Birr 3504.Access to different services could be essential to improve production and productivity of smallholder's farmers. More specifically, access to credit, access to extension contact and market information, are the most important factors that promote production and marketing of honey production and thereby increase income of the producer are displayed below in table 14. However, from the total sample households who were asked to know whether they need credit or not, about 72 percent of the sample households pointed out that they needed credit for honey production but only 17.4 percent of them had received some amount of Birr (650-3000 Birr). The reason for the low percentages of respondents who had access to credit service was because of the high interest rate charged by private lenders (DCSI). Table 14 also indicate that, even though farmers in the study area need credit to purchase different inputs to enhance the quantity and quality of the honey production, the short repayment period as well as the high interest rate of the service was not suitable to the individual respondents.Moreover, at the time of survey it was understood that, the only private institution that deliver credit in the district is DCSI.Apiculture extension service is provided by the district Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentOffice. Each sampled PAs has three Development Agents (DAs). As a result, about 83 percent of the sample respondents had access to extension service to promote the apiculture sector and thereby increase the quantity and quality of the commodity at farm level (Table 14). With regard to access to the market information, 84.2% and 12.5% of the sampled respondents had access to the nearby market price information and at Mekelle price information of honey, respectively (Table 14). The survey result presented in Table 14 also shows that honey producers were limited to some source of market information. Accordingly, 28.5% and 59.2% of the total sampled households respond that, they obtain price information from multipurpose cooperatives and personal observation on market, respectively.The demographic characteristics of traders summarized in terms of age, sex, marital status, education level, religion and average experience in honey trading (Table15). The age of traders ranged from 26 to 42 with an average age of 30 years old. The survey result indicates that, all the sample honey traders are males and about 93 percent of them were married. With regard to religion, 85.7 percent and 14.3 percent of the sampled traders were Orthodox Christian and Muslim, respectively. About 64 percent and 21.4 percent of the sample traders were within the level of Primary and Secondary School education, respectively, and only 14.3 percent of the traders have some kind of tertiary education. Table15 also indicates that traders had 6.3 years of experience on honey trading on the average. Financial capital of sample honey traders: Table 16 shows that average initial and current working capital of honey traders during the survey period was estimated to be Birr 1381.5 and Birr 5977.8, respectively. Moreover, as it was indicated in Table 16, the current working capital of honey traders was about 5 times greater than their initial working capital and the initial and current working capital of the honey trades varies from Birr 250 to 5000 and Birr 2000 to 30000, respectively. With regard to the sources of working capital, 44.4 percent, 50 percent and 50 percent of honey traders reported that their source of current working capital was own saving and credit in Mekelle, Wukro and Atsbi, respectively. Table 16 also indicated that honey traders in Mekelle, Wukro and Atsbi, respectively reported that 44.6 percent, 50 percent and 66.7 percent of their current source of working capital was from DCSI. Only 11 percent of honey traders found in Mekelle indicated that their source of working capital was obtained as gift from their families. Beekeepers confronted with several problems related to production and marketing. Major problems in beekeeping arise from bee characteristics and environmental factors that are beyond the control of the farmers. A questionnaire was designed as part of the study with the objective of identifying the existing problems limiting development of the apiculture sector in the study district. It can be seen from Table 17 that the most serious problem faced by respondents in order of their importance were shortage of bee forage (drought), followed by absconding honey bee, disease and pests, lack of beekeeping equipments, death of colony, marketing, lack of beekeeping skill, reduction of honey bee colony and credit. Shortage of bee forage (drought) is the primary constraint in beekeeping development identifying by farmers in the study area during the survey. It affects the feed source (bee forage) and water adversely. IPMS (2005) documented that the major source of feed in the district is from the natural bush (about 70% of the requirement) and the rest are from home-prepared pulse flour and sugar. Another problem mentioned is that of rust which affects the flower, because of which the honeybee cannot get nectar and pollen. Therefore, the honeybee colony absconds to areas where resources are available for their survival. The prevalence of disease and pests also forces the colonies to abscond. In order to enable safety protective materials such as veil, glove, overall and smoker is essential for the beekeeper farmers. In the study area, though the distribution of improved box beehives was encouraging, in most cases the protective materials did not accompany them.Respondents reported that death of colonies/affected of bees by agro chemicals, due to the draining of chemicals used in the animal health center of the PAs in to water source of the area, from which honeybees use the water was another problem. Honey is produced mainly for marketing in the district. Households sell about 80-90% of the honey produced (IPMS, 2005). The increased honey production during the harvest period was found to coincide with high supply in the study area. This brings a down ward pressure on honey price in the high supply seasons mainly in Atsbi Wemberata district. Beekeepers generally supply to markets in nearby towns like Atsbi and Wukro, traveling on foot. The farmers sell the honey they produce on individual basis mainly to consumers and private traders twice a year. Among producers, on average about 10-20 kg of honey is sold per household per annum (IPMS, 2005). They are price takers and have low bargaining power. Despite the high honey, production in the district there is no ready market which attracts farmers.About 59 percent of the respondents visit their bees every day while 33.3 percent of them visit their bees at every three days and the rest visit their bees to check if the hive was occupied with bees and at least during honey harvesting seasons. Internal hive inspection is almost not practiced by most of the farmers. About 90 percent of the farmers responded that they clean the areas around the box beehives and put ash under the hives to avoid small ant and ant like insects from climbing the box beehives. While the rest 10 percent do not clean. About 65 percent of the interviewed farmers gave additional food and water for their bees in order not to lose them and hence to harvest honey in the second honey fallow seasons.During the survey period it has been also observed that some farmers who have improved box beehives do not manage it properly. This might be due to lack of adequate training and better knowledge how to manage improved beekeeping practices, lack of supervision or follow up after distribution by the district Agriculture and Rural Development Office and nongovernmental organizations and might be also be due to carelessness of the farmers. Some of the improved box beehives did not have stand but kept in inappropriate places.Table 18 summarized the basic problems identified and prioritized by sample traders. As the table indicates the basic problems faced by honey traders' during the survey were quality problem (adulteration), competition with unlicensed traders, and shortage of finance, demand and unfair tax fee. Quality problem is the priority problem identified by honey traders.Improving the quality of honey has to do with production, harvesting and storing by farmers.As farmers reported one of the reasons for quality problem could be low beekeeping skills.The other problem for the poor quality of honey that traders noted is that there are unlicensed traders/honey collectors who might be mixing honey with sugar. About 50 percent of the honey traders confirmed that they faced competition with unlicensed traders; about 22 percent of them indicated that they face financial shortage to run and expand their business. Table18 also indicated that 14 percent of the sample traders complain that they were forced to pay unfair tax and about 8 percent of the sample traders reported that they faced demand problems due to limited number of buyers, high supply of honey in other areas of the region.There are important honey production opportunities in Atsbi Wemberta district. Among the different opportunities, the existence of conducive policy framework in the agricultural sector development manifested by assigning three development agents in each PAs and infrastructure development could facilitate honey production and marketing. The existence of some development projects like IPMS-ILRI input supply/credit for honey production (supply of bee colony) and to create a link between buyers and farmers is another opportunity for Honey collector/assembler: Rural actors play an important role in honey assembly. The honey collectors found in the study area purchased the honey produce directly from farmers in a small village markets for resell to other collectors, retailers, and consumers who come from different areas of the region at the district market center.Retailers: There are supper markets and other retailers who divide large-scale shipments of produce and sell it to consumers in small units. These are the final link in the channel that delivered honey to end users. The majority of honey retailers found at the regional as well as district centers have their own stores and retail shops.Processor: This is a private enterprise recently established in Adigrat. The processor purchase honey from different areas of the region including the study area directly from farmers or from rural collectors and has a retail shop in the regional town. The processor used different packing material ranged from 1kg to 30kg.From the consumers' point of view, the shorter the marketing chain, the more likely is the retail price going to be affordable. Consumers for this particular study mean those households who bought and consume honey. They are individual households; they bought the commodity for their own consumption only.According to Mendoza (1995), marketing channel is the sequence through which the whole of honey passes from farmers to consumers. The analysis of marketing channel is intended to provide a systematic knowledge of the flow of the goods and services from their origin (produce) to the final destination (consumer). During the survey, the following honey marketing channels were identified. Lines of marketing channels are identified for honey production of the study area. They are very few honey collectors in the study area that employ solely in honey collection activities.They do not carry out trade in honey in large quantities. Channel IV is the dominant in the study area, while channel V is weak and inefficient. The honey collectors procure a significant amount of honey and store it with inappropriate storage materials and they stay for consumers to come to buy the honey, rather than supplying to the nearby markets. Channel II and VI are found to be at an initial stage and it is hopped that this will become stronger in due course of time. This optimism stems from the fact that a private company, which is recently launched at the Zonal city of the study district (in Adigrat) will be an opportunity to create a secure and consistent market in the times to come. According to the respondents, this private enterprise purchased 7.4% of the honey produce in 2006/07 production year directly from the farmers at reasonable price to test the efficiency of its processing plant. Generally, the channel analysis of honey marketing of the study area is found to be a very short route.The concentration ratio is expressed in terms of CR x which stands for the percentage of the market sector controlled by the biggest X firms. Four firms (CR 4 ) concentration ration is the most typical concentration ratio for judging the market structure (Kohls & Uhl, 1985). A CR 4 of over 50% is generally considered a tight oligopoly; CR4 between 25% and 50% is generally considered a lose oligopoly and a CR 4 of fewer than 25% is no oligopoly at all.Since the number of traders at each sample market level was few, therefore, the analysis of the degree of market concentration ratio was carried out for all traders. It was measured by the percentage share of volume of honey handled by the largest four traders (Kohls & Uhl, 1985).Here concentration ration for four traders was meant for all honey traders across the study area with largest upper volume in general (Table 20).As indicated in Table 20, the result of sample market honey traders' concentration ratio CR4 was found to be 35.82 percent. Kohls and Uhl (1985) suggested, as a rule of thumb, a four largest enterprises concentration ratio of 50 percent or more as an indication of a strongly oligopolistic industry and CR 4 between 25% and 50% is generally consider a lose oligopoly and a CR 4 of fewer than 25% is no oligopoly at all. Hence, the honey market concentration ratio in the study area was 35.82 percent suggesting a lose oligopoly market type. Market conduct refers to the patterns of behavior of firms. This implies analysis of human behavioral patterns that are not readily identifiable, obtainable, or quantifiable (Pomeroy and Trinidad, 1995). There are no agreed upon procedures for analyzing the elements of market conduct. Rather, some points are put to detect unfair price setting practices and the conditions under which such practices prevail. In this study conduct of the honey market is analyzed in terms of the traders' price setting, purchasing and selling strategies.Honey is the most important cash income generating commodity in the study district. During the survey, farmers pointed out that supply of honey to the market occurs mainly from October to February. According to the report, about 27 percent, 25 percent and 18 percent of the total yearly sale of honey was made in December, January and February, respectively. The remaining portion of the output 6 percent, 9 percent and 12 percent was sold in September, October and November, respectively. Respondents also reported that there were no significant sales in the months of March-August. During the study, it was observed that, the frequency of honey supplied to the market by most farmers (89%) was twice a year and almost 100 percent of the households' term of sale was on cash basis.In the study area, farmers organized in terms of PAs. Starting from production up to marketing, every farmer produces and sells on individual basis. This affects their bargaining power during the sale of honey. Accordingly, 97 percent of households reported that, generally, for the last five years, price of honey showed an increasing trend. One of the reasons for the increase in price was mainly the quality of honey produce due to the introduction of improved box beehives according to farmers.The survey result indicated that the transactions made on honey marketing of the study area takes place with direct contact between sellers and buyers. There were no observed operational brokers in the honey marketing channel during the survey period. The honey retailers were found to purchase honey either directly from farmers at the local/district market or from honey collectors. The method of price setting is crucial importance in honey trading activity. About 43 percent of the sample traders reported that their purchase price was set by market, about 36 percent of traders set purchase price themselves and 21.4 percent of the traders respond that purchase price was set by negotiation with suppliers. About 64 percent of sample traders set their selling price by the themselves and the rest (or 34 percent) of them respond that selling price was set by market during 2006/07.Methods employed for the analysis of honey market performance were marketing margins by taking into account associated marketing costs for key marketing channels. Hence, on the consideration of 2006/07 production year, costs and purchase prices of the channel actors, margin at farmers,' retailers,' and honey collectors' level was conducted.This section of the study focused on activities related to producing honey at farm household.This shows an indication about the performance of honey market. Average costs and sales prices of the producers were used (Table 21). interest payment shares the highest (39.29%) followed by labor cost (25.64%). This might be due to the improved hives which farmers' receive on credit basis.Ten explanatory variables were hypothesized to determine the household level marketable supply of honey. Among the hypothesized 10 variables namely sex of the household, age of the household, education level of household, experience in beekeeping, extension access, quantity honey of produce, price of honey in 1999 E.C., access to credit, distance to the nearest market and market information, only three variables were found to be significantly affecting the household marketable supply of honey at household level (  (1994), Wolelaw (2005), Rehima (2006), Kindie (2007) and Bosena (2008), found that the amount of grain, rice, red pepper, sesame and cotton respectively, produced by household affected marketable supply of each of the commodities significantly and positively.Price of honey in 1999 E.C.: The coefficient of price of honey in 1999E.C. which shows a positive relation to the quantity of honey sold or supplied to market. Producers checked the price of honey for their best benefit and this directs to the determinant to be the significance at 5% level. The positive and significant relationship between the variables indicates that as the price of honey at market rises, the quantity of honey sold at the market also rises, which in turn increases quantity of honey sold per household per year. The coefficient of the variable also confirms that a unit price increase in the honey market directs to the beekeeping household to raise yearly honey sales by 0.55 kilograms per box beehives. The study of Wolelaw (2005), on determinants marketable supply of rice found a significant positive relationship between rice sold and current price.On the other hand, age of the household, sex, experience in beekeeping, extension access, access to credit, distance to the nearest market and access to market information did not significantly influenced the quantity of honey sold in the study area as they expected.The study was conduct with the objective of understanding the marketing system of apiculture production in Atsbi Wemberta district of Tigray region with specific focus on honey. Honey has been identified in the district as a major cash income generating commodity. Honey in the district is important market oriented commodity. Atsbi Wemberta district has high potential in honey production. There are about 18,567 honey bee colonies in the district out of which 5740 are improved box beehives. The price of one honeybee colony is Birr 550 in the study area, pure and crude honey costs on average Birr 37.35 and 25 per kg respectively. The analysis was made with the help of descriptive and econometric model using SPSS and LIMDEP econometric software.The data were generated by individual interview using pre-tested questionnaires and a rapid market appraisal technique. This was supplemented by secondary data collected from different published and unpublished sources. A total of 120 beekeeper farmer respondent's (115 males and 5 females) were selected randomly from a list of 1670 beekeepers from 3 PAs in the district. Fourteen honey traders from three towns (Mekelle, Wukro and Atsbi) were also interviewed. The result of descriptive analysis of farmers' data point out that, the average honeybee colony holding size per household in the study area during the survey year were about 3.5 and the average honey productivity per box beehives was 28.66kg.Majority (79%) of the respondents had about 3-8 years of beekeeping experience and the average years of experience acquired for the entire sample was about 7 years. The result also showed that total production of honey by respondents' during the survey period was 11,867 kg and out of this total production, 11,257 kg or about 95 percent of the production were marketed through different marketing channels that were being identified during the survey period with an average price of Birr 37.35 per kg.The survey result indicated that total gross income generated by respondents from annual sale of honey was about Birr 420, 449 and the mean income of the sampled households was estimated at Birr 3503.74 at the survey period. The district Office of Agriculture and Rural Development is the center of extension providing institution with three development agents assigned in each PA to support farmers. About 84 percent of respondents had access of extension contact with different frequencies. The remaining percentage (16%) of respondents reported no extension contact.There are a number of highlighted problems that impede the further development of honey production in the study area. About 75 percent of the respondents reported that the most serious problems they faced was feed shortage (drought) followed by absconding of honeybee. Disease, pests, lack of beekeeping equipments and death of colony problems were also among the constraints which contribute for reduction of the production. The increased honey production during the harvest period was found to coincide with periods of low price.As a result 28 percent of the sampled households indicated that there were no ready markets to attract their produce. The other problem related to production and marketing problems of honey was the poor quality of the product due to improper handling which was recording about 65 percent of honey traders.Quantity of honey supplied to the market passed through different marketing agents from farmers to consumers. About 43.4% (4876 kg), 34.8% (3921 kg), 14.4% (1622 kg) and 7.4%(838 kg) of the total honey marketed were purchased by consumers directly from producers, honey collectors, retailers and processors, respectively in 2006/07. The computed four-firm concentration ratio (CR4), which is the share of the largest four traders in the total yearly volume of honey purchased, was 35.8 percent indicated a lose oligopolistic market structure.Starting from production up to marketing, every farmer produce and sold on individual basis. This affects their bargaining power during the sale of honey. About 97 percent of households reported that, generally, for the last five years price of honey in the study area showed increasing trend. The survey result also indicated that there were no observed operational brokers in the honey marketing channel during the survey period. The honey retailers were found to purchase honey either directly from farmers at the local/district market or from honey collectors. The method of price setting is crucially important in honey trading activity, about 43 percent of the sample traders reported that their purchase price was set by market, and about 36 percent of traders set purchase price themselves, and 21.4 percent of the traders respond that purchase price was set by negotiation with suppliers.The results of the marketing costs, profits and margin analysis indicated that producers incurred the highest production cost followed by retailers. During production interest payment takes the largest proportion which was 39.29 percent followed by labor cost which accounts about 26 percent of the total production costs. With regard to the marketing cost of honey retailers, without the purchase price of honey, rent for retail shop took the largest proportion.This was about 58 percent of all marketing costs. Gross profit analysis for 2006/07 production year showed that average gross profit for farmers per box beehives was estimated at Birr 604 and honey collectors gross profit was Birr 1.65 per kg, while that of retailers was about Birr 4 per kg on the average. About 17 percent of total gross marketing margin was added to honey price when it reaches to the final consumers at the regional capital of Mekelle. Out of the total gross marketing margin about 6% was gross margin of honey collectors, while 11% was that of retailers. The study pointed out that all marketing participants of the commodity operated at profit. This indicated that all the marketing agents were advantageous through the channel.Estimation of determinants of marketable supply of honey with the help of Robust OLS regression analysis was employed with ten hypothesized variables. The result of OLS regression model analysis pointed out that education level of the household, size of quantity of honey output and market price of honey in 1999 E.C. were found to be significant with the expected sings. The model result predicts that one additional formal year education level leads to the beekeeper household to increase yearly honey output by about 1.96 kg.Possible recommendations that could be given on the basis of the study so as to be considered in the future intervention strategies which are amid at the promotion of honey production and marketing of the study area were as follows:1. The result of OLS regression model analysis has shown that the most important variables influencing the quantity of honey supplied in the study area during the survey period were education level of the household head, size of honey output and price of honey in 1999 E.CAs it was indicated from the model analysis pointed out that honey marketing supply was 3. The OLS econometric model result did not happen with significant influence on market information as hypothesized, the problems related with market information lead to low-priced.Hence, market information is an important component for improving production system of the sector. The availability of timely and precise market information increases producers'bargaining capacity to negotiate with buyers of their produce. In order to obtain this advantage there is a need to improve extension system which focused on market extension linkage farmers with markets is necessary to ensure a reliable market outlet for beekeepers of the study area. This should be further strengthening by marketing organizations such as cooperatives and other honey marketing institutions to involve in communicating the honey produces and the ultimate consumers so that farmers can sell their produce at reasonable prices.4. Feed shortage (drought) is one of the major problems identified and prioritized by farmers in the study area. To reduce this problem, it is essential to integrate beekeeping activities with water harvesting to secure their livelihood. The research organization should select moisture stress tolerant potential bee forage suitable to the area and promote them widely in collaboration with bee keeping extension, NGOs, and the private sectors. Similarly, the existing indigenous bee forages such as \"gribiya\" (Hypostus ariculata) and \"tebebe\" (Basium Clandiforbium) etc, which flower even in the summer season should be promoted and also grown in area enclosures. The survey result indicated that the overall honey marketing system of the study area during the survey period was found to be traditional and under developed.Thus government actions are required to license and inspect computing honey product traders to ensure achievements of minimum hygiene and quality standards in order to facilitate the honey production and marketing process.5. Beekeeping is culturally defined as a men's occupation. This was also indicated by the result of descriptive analysis therefore, women should be encouraged to participate and receive training and intuitional support in the form of credit in improved beekeeping methods.Major problems of beekeeping identified and prioritized in the study area were feed shortage (drought), pests and disease of honey bees, lack of beekeeping materials, death of colony, marketing problems and lack adequate beekeeping management skill. Therefore, providing the necessary exposure and skills, and institutional support in the form of credit, training, experience in improved beekeeping methods and marketing linkages need to be addressed simultaneously. All the problems faced by beekeepers cannot be addressed by a single","tokenCount":"15511"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"91fa3615d9154fc6b0ca101f822d7ba0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/45a5b735-d2e3-44fb-a906-a565c74fb3a5/retrieve","id":"1350465811"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"919de052-2c87-4ead-804b-9a821f7ccbc3","pagecount":"1","content":"Little is documented on intra-household gender dynamics and locally specific gender norms that affect differential gender roles affecting: Management of cattle  Adoption breeding technologies  The choice of preferred breeds of cattle to rearParticipatory and quantitative approaches were used to collate information from different categories of farmers in Camoapa Municipality of Boaco in Central Nicaragua.Data disaggregated by the gender of the household head was collected over 8 months from 59 households on:• The main breeds of cattle used for milk production on the farms Tropentag, September 2016The male to female ration of the gender of household heads is 7:3Irrespective of the gender of the household head, Animals of all breedtypes are kept in milk beyond 365 days Average daily milk production per animal was significantly lower (P<0.01) in female headed households than in male headed households Farmers depend heavily on bulls either reared on their own farms or purchased from neighboring farms for mating. Only 10% of the households reported to have ever used Artificial Insemination. Limited access to timely AI service, no semen storage facilitiesConception rates following use of AI are lowDetection of heat in cows served using AI is very poorFew AI service providers, living long distances away from farmsService of animals by bulls is relatively \"free\" while AI costsLimited knowledge on AI procedures, no skills in heat detection. Use of AI creates dependency on external support which is undesirable There are real gender differences in access to and use of livestock breeding technologies in the farming systems of Camoapa  A gendered approach in implementing breeding improvement programs is needed for equitable progress Focus group discussion Breed diversity on a farm","tokenCount":"275"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4beeeed44bad551c1a80dd41d455cd4e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d0fc863d-eec5-4ba6-8c9d-0435e1c5473b/retrieve","id":"211835638"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9aaff6f0-a6b4-4458-baa5-453ef9ff0e55","pagecount":"180","content":"The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dashed lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO.Foreword v Acknowledgements vii Acronyms and abbreviationsx Main concepts and definitions used in this report xiiChapter 1: Framing the baseline: land-use trees and livestock in drylands 11.1 Drylands: A priority area for action 11.2 Managing trees in drylands: deforestation, afforestation and reforestation 51.3 Dealing with woody vegetation, shrubs and grassland in grazed drylands 61.4 Assessment methodology 7 vi This paper builds on previous actions taken by FAO over the years to ensure sustainable agriculture, forest management and agroforestry systems are at the forefront of preserving land while safeguarding local livelihoods. This report will guide future actions in the field and clarify existing doubts about dryland silvopastoralism.As the planet's population continues to increase, global demand for food, including terrestrial animal source food (TASF), is also forecast to increase by 1.4 percent per year over the next decade (OECD and FAO, 2022). Demand for timber and other forest products will also increase (FAO, 2017). To cope with the increased demand, it is expected that forests and pasturelands will be reduced to make way for cropland (Bahar et al., 2020). FAO has modeled different scenarios to assess this demand growth under more significant resource constraints (FAO, 2018b). Moreover, some conservation and rewilding approaches fail to consider the role of local populations in nature conservation and neglect the socioeconomic context, banning grazing and further decreasing local access to land (Perino et al., 2019). As available land decreases, sourcing and securing TASF and timber products from sustainable production systems is increasingly important (Bahar et al., 2020). In terms of economic context, the value of a hectare of pastureland with trees currently varies between USD 500 and 1 000 per year depending on the rainfall regime and contextual variation of land prices.Trees in dryland forests and wooded areas provide essential ecosystem services such as animal feed, timber, fruits, shade and regulation of soil and water cycles. They are vital for biodiversity and cultural services, linking people and trees (FAO, 2019). To illustrate this connection, early works state that about 15 percent of animal feed in the Sahel depends on trees, with this figure rising at least to 20 percent in both the Sahel and the Sudanese area during the dry season and potentially reaching 30 percent (LeHouerou, 1980). Additional feed sources including by-products and shrub leaves can also be integrated in silvopastoral systems (Amole et al., 2022). Besides, people also use non-timber forest products for food and trade, and dead wood for energy.Equally, the presence of livestock in dryland areas also delivers key services. Livestock is not only a source of income and high-quality nutrient-dense food, but also removes vegetation, including dry and flammable plants, and mobilizes stored biomass through depositions, which is partly transferred to the soil, improving fertility. Livestock is key to creating and maintaining specific habitats and green infrastructures, providing resources for other species and dispersing seeds (Tittonell et al., 2021). Livestock production, in particular pastoralism, is considered a key activity for food security, sustainable development and resilience in drylands. When both elements -livestock and trees -are combined, it results in a complementarity of agroforestry systems that can boost the local ecosystem, representing a positive transition towards an integrated perspective of livestock and forest production. Trees offer feed sources with high nutritional value that can increase productivity, especially milk production. Landscaping options using trees can also create shade for livestock and provide protection in harsh weather conditions, which is a powerful strategy for adapting to climate change.The findings of this assessment confirm the importance of agroforestry, especially silvopastoralism, as a primary pathway for forest restoration in dryland areas, as recommended by FAO (2022a). FAO has developed many agroforestry field projects in drylands, accumulating extensive knowledge on the subject. Findings from dryland regions that have introduced trees to their agropastoral systems show impressive results. For example, microclimate measurements show lower soil temperatures in pastures with trees (between 2.2 and 2.3 degrees at 5 cm from the surface). In Latin America, pasture-based cattle farms increased their forage production by over 175 percent and their milk production per hectare by over 75 percent after incorporating trees into the local environment. In India, the Jhansi dryland areas increased their production tenfold using a 10-year rotation silvopastoral plan. In Senegal, hundreds of villages have been protecting their common grazing lands over the last 30 years, transforming degraded shrubs into savannah landscapes and increasing woody cover by up to 65 percent.The paper offers a thorough assessment of the positive role that optimized extensive livestock grazing can play in the management and restoration of dryland forests and lands with trees. It provides sound evidence of the benefits of applying an integrated landscape approach and utilizing farmers' and pastoralists' knowledge to halt desertification, increase resilience and enhance food security against an everchanging background.The methodological approach adopted in the assessment reflects the innovative multidisciplinary expertise of both forest and animal science disciplines, building upon the work and lessons learned from practitioners and field experts linked to specific case studies across dryland regions. The methodological approach is based on four stages: i) knowledge assessment and literature review; ii) expert and stakeholder consultation at different levels to assess current knowledge and potential benefits and means of verification of this approach; iii) participatory analysis of field projects and initiatives to provide the assessment with case studies; and iv) expert discussions and consultations to collect evidence on the subject and formulate a roadmap for enhancing silvopastoralism in dryland forests.The paper constructs a new narrative around the relationship between forests and livestock in drylands. It explores innovations in the relationship between forests and livestock, with a view to improving positive interconnections and compiling best practices and the wide-ranging social, economic and ecological benefits of silvopastoralism. It also examines challenges and knowledge gaps, especially those linked to specific dryland features, such as improving biomass cycles, achieving land degradation neutrality, optimizing water cycle management, improving soil properties and addressing climate change impacts in drylands. Finally, it sets out a framework to provide multilevel guidance that helps transition toward this integrative model. The paper's path encourages landscape planners and decision-makers to consider livestock as allies, not enemies, and accelerate action to promote xv healthy silvopastoral and agrosilvopastoral ecosystems while restoring tree cover. The insights and guidance from this assessment are a key contribution to the International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralists scheduled for 2026. The UN-designated year will encourage everyone to join efforts towards dryland restoration through many of the pathways highlighted in this report, including the development of longer-term policies aimed at creating sustainable and green jobs in dryland areas; empowerment of local women, youth and Indigenous Peoples to take a leading role in land restoration initiatives; and awareness raising on the role of sustainable forestry in achieving both economic and environmental goals.Building sustainable food systems remains an essential solution to face a critical challenge for global development sustainability, according to the Statement of Action on the UN Food Systems Summit 2021: to feed a growing global population while protecting our planet. Although the 2020 Forest Resource Assessment survey confirms a slowdown in global deforestation, dryland forests in Africa recorded the second-highest level of deforestation in the period 2000-2018 with 49 Mha cleared, after South America with 68 Mha cleared. Cropland expansion (including oil palm plantations) is the main driver of deforestation, causing almost 50 percent of global deforestation, followed by livestock, accounting for 38.5 percent (Table 1). Livestock is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for nearly 14.5 percent of the total. However, grassland-based livestock systems are crucial for food security and livelihoods and support the resilience of almost 930 million poor Africans and South Asians in drylands.There is a need to balance the benefits of terrestrial animal source foods and the livelihoods of livestock keepers and an equally urgent need to limit GHG emissions. By adopting best production and management practices, the livestock sector can reduce its environmental impacts and become more efficient in natural resource usage while ensuring food security. FAO estimates that improved management practices alone could reduce net emissions from livestock systems by about 30 percent (FAO, 2016). Halting deforestation and maintaining forests could avoid emitting 3.6 +/-2 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO 2 e) per year between 2020 and 2050, including about 14 percent of what is needed before 2030 to keep planetary warming below 1.5 °C, while safeguarding more than half the Earth's terrestrial biodiversity (FAO, 2022a).Moving above the 1.5°C warming scenario will lead to emerging threats in drylands. Between 1982 and2015, 6 percent of the world's drylands experienced desertification driven by unsustainable land-use practices intensified by anthropogenic climate change. Despite an average global greening, anthropogenic climate change has degraded 12.6 percent (5.43 million km2) of drylands, contributing to desertification and affecting 213 million people, 93 percent of whom live in developing economies (Burrell, Evans and De Kauwe, 2020). Researchers have assessed the impact of 1.5 °C and 2 °C warming using transient warming scenarios, finding that a warming of 1.6 C° over drylands could occur in a stabilized 1.5 °C warmer world by the end of this century, which would increase to 2.3 °C in drylands under a stabilized scenario of a 2 °C increase. The warming in drier regions is higher, and hyper-arid areas would experience even higher warming. Projected increase of precipitation will not be enough to offset the increased potential evapotranspiration (PET: 88.3-101.7 mm/year) over drylands, resulting in dryland expansion, with aggravated droughts leading to desertification and threatening livelihoods and the ecosystem (Wei et al., 2019). Trends and status of dryland forests at regional levels.Northern Africa Northern Africa is mostly threatened by land degradation and deforestation. The general drivers of degradation include urbanization, demographic changes, commerce globalization and agricultural expansion.Policies driving the sedentarization of nomadic and mobile pastoralists is causing overgrazing and land degradation in some areas of the region.These regions are mostly affected by climate variability and land-use change, disrupting the amount of water available to vegetation and boosting land degradation, particularly after the expansion of agricultural land and the loss of pastoral lands. Locally, overstocking and increased livestock production have reduced pasture productivity and soil fertility.Eastern Africa Eastern Africa has suffered severe degradation of dryland forests and woodlands with high losses of biological diversity and ecosystem services.The high rate of deforestation and degradation of dryland forests is driven by population growth, land-use change towards cropland, excessive harvesting of fuelwood and other products, wildfires, climate change and policy failure. Intensification of grazing livestock is also a cause of degradation and desertification, particularly around watering points and in valleys, driven by the shift in pastoralism from traditional to more marketoriented production systems. Conservation initiatives banning pastoralists are also reducing the availability of pastures, increasing pressure on dryland ecosystems.Southern Africa Southern Africa is also suffering from a decline of forest and woodland, but at a slower pace, with drivers that are similar to other African regions. Pastoralism is still practised, but large-scale industrial livestock farming has spread, causing major land degradation.In West Asia, changes in communal tenure, privatization and state control have disrupted pastoralist rights, generated conflicts with other users, and negatively impacted nomadic and transhumant activities. Some experiences reviving communal systems are being tested with promising results in improved governance. Urbanization, industrialization, intensification of agriculture and increased wildfires severely affect West Asian drylands.These regions are susceptible to climate change and environmental degradation, and conversion from grassland to cropland is one of the major trends in the area. Also, failure in policies oriented to settlement of nomadic pastoralists have increased degradation trends (Haddad et al., 2022) Desertification is a major issue in the region, with sandstorms having an increasing impact.Southern Asia Southern Asia is also experiencing conversion of land to agriculture, unsustainable exploitation of forest resources and inadequate policies. Climate change is also threatening southern Asian drylands by increasing risks of fire and invasive species, particularly in alpine areas. The growing population is also a major force in the region.Dryland forests account for 18 percent of the world's 6.1 billion hectares of drylands, compared with 25 percent for grassland and 14 percent for cropland. Crops, forestry and livestock are key economic assets in countries hosting large dryland surfaces in their territories (see annex 2).Drylands are predominantly used as rangelands, including grasses (31 percent), other woody vegetation (covering up to 8 percent), shrubs, scattered trees, and barren lands. However, forests are key natural resources in drylands, accounting for 27 percent of the world's forest area concentrated in subhumid and semiarid lands. Crops account for 14 percent of drylands. (Figure 1)According to the 2019 FAO report on Trees, forests and land use in dryland: the first global assessment, two-thirds of dryland forests have closed tree canopy, with a cover of more than 40 percent. Most of the trees in drylands are outside of forests. Almost 30 percent of cropland and 60 percent of land occupied by settlements and infrastructures have at least some tree cover. When forests, other wooded land and trees outside forests are all taken into account, trees are present on 2 billion hectares of drylands (32 percent of the total dryland area) (FAO, 2019). Livestock production is a widespread activity in drylands, although there are no specific censuses of the livestock thriving in these lands. Accurate grazing livestock data has proven elusive to extract for drylands or any other areas. Estimates suggest that drylands host half of the world's livestock (UNCCD, 2017), and livestock production is the main socioeconomic activity of many rural people in drylands. Rainfed agriculture is restricted in drylands, since crops are difficult to grow under those conditions, while timber production is slow and focused on the long-term. Grassland-based livestock production seems to be the only primary production reliable enough to cope with most dryland conditions and environmental variability, especially in the most arid lands. Its adaptability, built upon the mobility of animals and the decision-making capacity of their caretakers, is a known component of its resilience (FAO, 2018a). Pastoralism, considered in its broad sense as extensive livestock production based on rangelands and land resources (Davies et al., 2016), is the only possible form of land use in many drylands (de Haan, 2016). Accordingly, dryland dwellers rely on it for food provision and income (Neely, Bunning and Wilkes, 2009).A geographical approach to this use can be inferred from the Rangelands Atlas (ILRI et al., 2021), specifically for the ruminant-based production systems. According to this source, ruminant production systems exclusively based on livestock occupy more than 70 percent of the world's drylands (especially in the arid lands), while an additional 7 percent of drylands host livestock systems based on trees. Besides, another 17 percent of the drylands host mixed systems with livestock feeding on croplands and crop sub-products (Figure 2). These data confirm that pastoralism is the most important productive activity in drylands and that the livelihoods of most dryland inhabitants depend on livestock production. Distribution of land uses in drylands ('000 ha)  The restoration of trees remains among one of the most effective land-based strategies for climate change mitigation (Bastin et al., 2019), although not without risks and trade-offs that need to be addressed in a long-term strategy (Hermoso et al., 2021). Trees are important in drylands for food security, livelihoods, ecosystem services (ES) and land degradation neutrality (LDN) (FAO, 2019). Nevertheless, afforestation is not always the best solution, and neither are all kinds of trees, nor all types of land suitable for tree cover. Sometimes trees are the best alternative for an adaptation or sustainability strategy. Other times, other land-use types, such as grasslands and rangelands, could bear those functions more appropriately (Rojas-Briales, 2015). Warnings have been raised that drylands could be inappropriate ecosystems for tree cover overexpansion due to the risks of biodiversity loss, water overconsumption and fire (Fagan, 2020). On the other hand, grasslandbased livestock management in lands with trees can contribute to management that simultaneously improves conditions for tree growth in selected and specific pastoral lands, while preventing wildfires and improving the provision of ES and adaptation to climate change (Herrera, 2020).Wildfires are a growing global problem linked to climate change; they are widespread in rangelands, dry forests and other dryland ecosystems, and especially affect tropical and temperate areas. Some authors consider wildfires as a major disturbance in rangelands, others see them as a key ecological factor with important ecosystem functions (Stavi, 2019). Wildfire impacts are site-specific and context-dependent. The unique characteristics of rangelands make them more resilient and better adapted to wildfires than dense forests, because of the vegetation structure and fuel distribution that lessen fire intensity and improve recovery capacity. Managing drylands, open forests and rangelands in a way that prevents the consequences and damage caused by wildfires depends mostly on grazing. Prescribed fires, clearings, vegetation removal and other methods can be applied to control fuel but eventually, all these systems need maintenance and proper management, which comes mainly from grazing and browsing. A combination of clearings and other vegetation control tools maintained with extensive livestock grazing offers good fire prevention results, although the structural causes of the problem must also be considered (Lasanta et al., 2018). Moreover, the local population is instrumental in the search for and implementation of integrated fire management solutions and must be actively involved in both the decision-making and operation of the solutions presented.Woody plant colonization has coincided with the global intensification of livestock grazing, especially in developed countries. This phenomenon threatens the maintenance of dryland savannahs and rangelands, although a single interpretation of shrub encroachment as a form of degradation is not possible, and many outcomes ranging from desertification to ecosystem enhancement may occur (Eldridge et al., 2011). On the latter, several benefits have been described, from the increment of woody plants in rangelands to increased ES. The balance often depends on appropriate response management, retaining the ability of the landscape to produce fodder for livestock, while increasing the production of wood and tree-dependent products and services. Ultimately, maintaining open landscapes with vegetation within a desirable mix of herbaceous and woody plants is a key component of rangeland ecosystem management (Archer, 2010). It is also important for rural households that depend on the many benefits of forests (fuelwood and livestock production, but also fruits, herbs, honey, nutraceuticals, etc.) (Mirzabaev et al., 2019). The trade-offs between the level of encroachment, carbon stocks, biodiversity, fire risk, provision of water and pastoral value open the door to different silvopastoral approaches, managed with tools like clearing, burning, grazing, fencing, protecting, and so on (ibid.).Shrub encroachment is linked to the abandonment of marginal areas and the intensification of livestock production in several parts of the world, increasing the combustible biomass levels and the risk and intensity of wildfires. Fuel reduction by herbivores, both grazers and browsers, is a promising management strategy to manage wildfire risk. However, its effectiveness depends on a range of factors, including herbivore type, population density and feeding patterns. In general, herbivores reduce fuel load most effectively when they are mixed species herds, and when herbivore food preferences match the local vegetation. In some cases, the combination of herbivory with other management strategies, such as prescribed fires, mechanical clearing, improved accessibility and passing through water points, is necessary to reduce wildfire damage (Rouet-Leduc et al., 2021). Those strategies also contribute to preventing land from being degraded.The global increase of woody vegetation poses a singular challenge to a grazing-based management approach to forests and lands with trees in drylands. Further expanding woody cover constitutes a clear threat for grazed lands, reduces the quality and quantity of fodder plants, increases fire risks and indicates degradation processes, therefore requiring control measures. Conversely, careful management of shrubs can contribute to the productivity and performance of dryland rangelands, by providing additional fodder with extended availability (the foundation of fodder banks), shelter for new samplings and seedlings (and wildlife), natural fencing and borders and additional ES. Shrubs are a key element of the silvopastoral approach, and their management should be positively integrated into any development plan.FAO recognizes the vulnerability of drylands and their contribution to global production systems. Drylands lie at the interface of the four sustainability domains, (social, economic, environmental and political), which in turn are aligned with the four betters (better production, better nutrition, better environment and better livelihoods) of FAO's Strategic Framework 2022-2031. This technical paper highlights the multiple contributions of forests, trees and livestock through a silvopastoral approach to sustainable agriculture and food systems, thereby enhancing FAO's cross-sectoral work. Silvopastoralism is a contributor to FAO's four betters and strategic action -responsible in terms of both the environment and production for multiple positive outcomes for both farmers and society (Yadav et al., 2019) and one of the best strategies for livestock production based on local resources. Additionally, silvopastoralism increases adaptive capacity and decreases vulnerability to climate change (Solorio et al., 2017). Several of those benefits are linked to the integration of trees and livestock and the enhanced role of trees in silvopastoral dynamics (Moreno and Rolo, 2019); while others are directly linked to improved landscape management and ES (Torres-Manso et al., 2017). However, not all benefits will be possible in every silvopastoral system: it all depends on the design, management level, external circumstances and management objectives (Soni et al., 2016).FAO defines silvopastoralism as the deliberate integration of trees and livestock (FAO, 1991). The definition has been enhanced to consider silvopastoralism as a form of agroforestry that combines grazing livestock with forestry, benefiting from the ecological relationships between animals and woody plants (Plieninger and Huntsinger, 2018;Mosquera-Losada, Rigueiro and McAdam, 2005). This integrated approach could improve food production and security, provide income to better the livelihoods of those who depend on livestock and trees, and enhance the ES that these lands provide, thus facilitating the restoration and management of lands with trees in arid and semiarid zones. Collaboration between grazing and forestry can combine economic performance with social advances and environmental benefits, generating sustainable outcomes (see definitions page 12).Accordingly, a conceptual framework (Figure 3) was proposed and validated by the Committee on Forestry (COFO) Working Group on Dryland Forest and Agrosilvopastoral Systems in its second session, hosted by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania and held virtually in November 2021. The conceptual framework, which aims at assessing the potential role of grazing livestock in restoring land and ecosystems in the world's drylands, especially in forests and trees outside forests, relies on four critical aspects of decisionmaking: institutions; knowledge and innovation; risk management; and finance and livelihoods, and takes all four into consideration, while attaching substantial importance to system analysis. Source: Elaborated by authors and the COFO WG Performance analysis of grazing livestock systems through indicators has received wide attention in research, with extensive reviews focusing on drylands (Alary et al., 2022), grassland restoration (Bardgett et al., 2021) and forest restoration (Buckingham et al., 2019). Moreover, Mitchell (2010) and Motta-Delgado et al. (2019) highlighted the importance of grazing livestock systems in sustainable management of forests and rangelands, the sustainability of pastures and other related topics. Similar efforts have been made regarding addressing the relationship between silvopastoralism and biodiversity (Rois-Díaz, et al., 2006), soil health (Ramakrishnan et al., 2020) and other sustainability criteria. The difficulties of obtaining sound data (whether addressing land use in SPS or the lack of integration of forests and rangelands) have prevented the appearance of a standardized indicator-based assessment methodology of silvopastoral land management. However, some efforts have been made by researchers and project managers working specifically on economic assessment (Francis et al., 2022), sustainability (Hanisch et al., 2019), ES (Fagerholm et al., 2016) and agroforestry approaches (Marinidou et al., 2019).This technical paper outlines four steps for collecting evidence from the ground on the contribution of silvopastoral management to sustainable grazing with trees in drylands, as well as the scientific and practical indicators for validating the conceptual framework proposed in this forestry paper.Step 1: A preliminary review of the different projects and initiatives implemented by FAO and partners in dryland regions, in addition to the literature review, which included scientific peer-reviewed articles and grey literature (reports and other documents) on the topic of grazing with trees. This step contributed to building the list with its actual configuration of potential benefits, criteria and means of verification, summarizing this information and helping to build a consistent set of indicators (Table 2). Step 2: The COFO WG advisory committee analysed those findings, categorizing the key themes for arranging the selected case studies and projects, which geographically covered the different dryland regions, namely:Theme 1: Multifunctionality of silvopastoral approach for improving the production, economics, nutrition and livelihoods of dryland communities. Theme 2: Silvopastoralism's contribution to ecosystem health, restoration and provision of ES. Theme 3: Silvopastoralism's contribution to climate change resilience and adaptation and improved governance.Accordingly, the compilation of the potential benefits and outcomes obtained by each of these themes is planned through a systematic approach, focused on dryland forests and trees outside the forest and following a logical path, as described in Figure 4 and Figure 4: The diagram shows the process for designing a specific framework for this assessment, starting from FAO mandates and general framework (the four betters), through the conceptual framework included in the concept note and some specific approaches from forest and rangelands sustainable management. The original benefits were described by Soni et al., (2016); Moreno and Rolo, (2019);and Yadav et al., (2019) among others. The main criteria to organize those benefits relate to four comprehensive works on sustainable forest and rangeland management: Linser and O'Hara, (2017); United Nations, (2007); FAO, (2010); and Mitchell, (2010).  Furthermore, the trade-offs and benefits were addressed based on the results of different case studies (activities and scenarios). However, it is important to acknowledge that some of the potential benefits may not be delivered by all projects, and even that negative outcomes could arise in their place, usually linked to unwitting mismanagement (e.g. continuous grazing of livestock on land with trees can result in preventing natural regeneration). Table 4, adapted from Bardgett et al., (2021), provides a set of indicators that have been useful in analysing potential means of verification of ES trade-offs and used in the discussion of case studies presented in this paper. Step 3: An online survey was conducted to target the field staff and practitioners with different experiences in agroforestry, forestry, livestock management and silvopastoralism. The survey aimed to evaluate the soundness of the different criteria, the relevance of the proposed indicators and the availability of data in different projects to support the development of this assessment. This step thus helped put together a prioritized list with the most suitable items for the assessment.The survey results confirmed the prioritization of the three themes agreed by the advisory committee. Annex 1 shows the survey results, including the list of criteria, benefits and means of verification that have been proposed to compile a list of codes in order to qualitatively analyse the contents of each case study, while also addressing the thematic and global approach and thus assessing the priorities and key outcomes. The quantitative coding system was based on the value of the perceived positive effects of SPS in dryland forests and lands with trees.Furthermore, participants in the survey proposed other criteria and means of verification that should be considered when assessing the outcomes of silvopastoral initiatives. These additional criteria include quantifying the diversification of silvopastoral production, tax payments, investments in silvopastoral activities, improved data on the markets and value chains of silvopastoral products, employment and daily food expenses to assess potential benefits for diets and nutrition. Regarding ES and natural capital, the focus includes:• knowledge and training of local stakeholders and technical support on biodiversity; • monitoring the evolution and regeneration of local landscapes; • addressing land capability and suitability classes; • applying zonation to land, tracking soil carbon storage; • using IUCN red lists for assessing the links with endangered species; and • applying ecosystem-based criteria to assessing the outcomes of an approach based on grazing with trees and silvopastoralism. Additional recommendations on forest regeneration and ecosystem restoration highlighted the role of species dispersion and regeneration, the use of erosion control infrastructures, and the evolution of seedlings and other restoration initiatives, with special consideration of the role of women and local communities to support the diversification and coexistence of different activities.Step 4: Analysis of the outcomes reported by the case studies was developed by linking the case studies with the list of criteria and potential outcomes. The frequency with which each of those benefits was cited in the different case studies was assessed, evaluating the importance that the different items received regarding their presence and relevance in the case studies. This analysis was achieved by coding the case studies using Atlas.Ti software and its graphic display tools to show the links between the case studies and the criteria listed.Seventeen case studies from 14 dryland countries were selected and assigned to one of the proposed three themes based on their primary focus and aims, thus ensuring the balance between themes and case studies. Table 5 shows the geographical distribution of the case studies with further details of their initiatives and projects. The distribution of case studies by theme-country landscapes. The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2021-2030 to be the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration with the primary vision to restore the relationship between humans and nature. Several studies and campaigns have called for tree planting to achieve the targeted commitments before 2030. According to a study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, an additional 0.9 billion hectares of the Earth's surface could support forests and woodlands, which if allowed to grow to maturity, could store approximately 205 gigatons of carbon.In drylands, SPS are the most common and extended agroforestry systems, with multiple combinations of management systems, practices and outcomes (ILRI et al., 2021). Despite differences in structure, the composition of trees, shrubs, grasses and livestock, geographical locations and typologies, the interactive dynamics among silvopastoral components are equally important in characterizing those systems. When local knowledge of land uses is considered, silvopastoralism emerges as the approach that best represents the intricacies of dryland agroforestry. In all of them, the vegetal elements (grasses and herbs, shrubs, trees) are integrated into the same unit of production and land management to increase the period of fodder availability and improve productivity and adaptation.It is thought that herders and livestock producers began using forests and lands with trees as key features of their production systems from the very moment they started to herd livestock (José and Dollinger, 2019). Forest grazing is a traditional activity around the world (Sharrow, 1997), from Bhutan (Norbu, 2002) and Japan, where it dates back to the thirteenth century (Adams, 1975) to the Mediterranean region and Europe (Adams, 1975).Early twentieth-century research on US National Forests shows a growing interest in the use of grazing in forest management, as a way to revegetate and improve the land (Korstian, 1921). These early works already considered rotational grazing after seed maturity to favour progressive succession, even in degraded forests and rangelands, and also the prevention of wildfires. Conversely, continuous grazing is considered to degenerate tree cover, destroy the vegetation and impair the fertility of the soil through erosion.Two different, almost contradictory visions have emerged around forest grazing. On the one hand, the European perception of forest grazing is that it is a damaging activity, harming trees and destroying samplings, compacting soils, reducing water infiltration and degrading the herbaceous vegetation by overgrazing. Livestock has been considered an enemy of the forest and classified among key degradation factors (Kissinger, Herold and Sy, 2012;Thompson et al., 2013). The negative vision of forest grazing has been often centred, though not exclusively, on the Mediterranean, where \"uncontrolled grazing\" was seen as highly undesirable and held responsible for the degradation of Mediterranean forests, neglecting the fact that some of the most successful silvopastoral approaches also originate from the Mediterranean, in response to their particular climatic conditions (Pinto-Correia et al., 2021).On the other hand, the perception in the United States of America, represented by national forest policy, was that the protection and development of forest wildlife must go hand in hand with the development and management of the range of resources for use by livestock (Korstian, 1921). Accordingly, timber production and controlled grazing were deemed compatible in forest areas and supported by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (Sharrow, 1997), including grazing planning systems and detailed instructions to make silvopasture a desirable activity in the forest (Hamilton, 2008). Moreover, in theory, forest grazing was supposed to increase the efficiency of forest production, although the conversion of this theory into successful practice has created a challenge for the future.SPS are the most common and extended agroforestry systems in the world, with multiple combinations of management systems, practices and outcomes (ILRI et al., 2021). The experience gained in tropical SPS may prove useful for temperate areas and drylands. Thus, a further integrative approach to understanding the vulnerabilities and enhancing the resilience of extensive livestock grazing is a common goal in conserving and improving SPS worldwide. (Sales-Baptista and Ferraz-de-Oliveira, 2021).Improved grazing management could fight degradation and improve conservation and restoration values (Röhrig, Hassler and Roesler, 2020), although this consideration has often been underacknowledged, neglecting grazing's constructive potential. Forest grazing as a strategy of land management is currently endorsed and promoted by forest institutions and agroecological promoters in different parts of the world According to Gabriel, (2018), Mercker andSmith, (2019), andHerden andPaulo, (2020) as shown in Figure 5, the challenge is to develop this approach in drylands at a global scale, considering not only their particular conditions but also the specificities of the structure and dynamics of their forests and trees. Silvopastoralism integrates different systems, functions and processes at each territorial level, generating rights and governance frameworks of access and use of natural resources. It also facilitates flexible frameworks involving cohabitation with other land uses, such as woodlands or crops, as well as other pastoral systems (e.g. nomadic) and forests (Davies et al., 2016). Trees and livestock establish different relationships in different areas and under different management systems.In South America, where cataloguing and systematizing SPS is most advanced, a comprehensive approach is used (Peri, Dube and Costa Varella, 2016). There the focus is often on intensive SPS with simplified structures. Those intensive SPS are mostly cattle-oriented, which demand seed investments and land preparation and are more suited for tropical and humid temperate environments (Braun, Van Dijk and Grulke, 2016), although they have also been implemented in dryland regions such as El Chaco in Argentina (Baldassini et al., 2018), where the results remain inconclusive.Livestock used in silvopastoralism includes ruminants (for example: sheep, goats, cattle, yaks, water buffaloes), camelids, horses, donkeys, pigs and poultry.Silvopastoral livestock are mobile and can be fed directly with a wide range of biomass (both wild and cultivated) that is generally not edible by humans (ILRI et al., 2021).Traditional silvopastoralism has been less studied in the dry regions of Latin America (Grünwaldt et al., 2016) and its importance has frequently been overlooked, although there are remarkable examples of traditional dryland silvopastoralism, such as the Brazilian Caívas (Hanisch et al., 2019) in the Cerrado or Caatinga region (Pinheiro and Nair, 2018), in Southern Mexico (Cancino, Nahed and Velasco, 2021), Nicaragua, Costa Rica (Ibrahim, Villanueva and Mora, 2009), Uruguay and several other cases.New Zealand is a pioneering country in the study of SPS in temperate regions. These systems were incorporated into the forestry practices of timber plantations (mainly exotic Pinus radiata plantations) in 1969 (Hawke, 1991). Subsequently, different trees of several species have been established on farms to combine livestock and timber production (Benavides et al., 2009). A similar approach to silvopastoralism can be seen in Australia, with sheep and Pinus radiata. The country, however, features a wide range of silvopastoral approaches, especially in the Queensland region, where their economic performance has been studied.Regarding East Asia, silvopastoralism in China is typically found in the semiarid northwestern areas, where different tree species have been planted in pastures to improve soil properties, protect soil from wind erosion and provide shade for animals (Zou and Sanford, 1990). However, there is less information on traditional SPS where trees have not recently been specifically planted for fodder. In India, there are several SPS adapted to different conditions, from tropic-humid to arid zones (Yadav et al., 2019), but there is less information on silvopastoral activity oriented to small ruminants or traditionally practised forest grazing. Recent studies point to the importance of silvopastoralism for ecosystem restoration (Kumar et al., 2022). However, rules banning pastoralists from grazing in forest areas could seriously affect those systems and the people behind them, even if their work is recognized. Other Asian traditional tree-based farming systems have evolved as a strategy, based on their traditional knowledge, to cope with droughts. Currently, those traditional systems are failing due to climate change, increasing human and livestock populations and higher demand for different products (Soni et al., 2016). Modern SPS with simplified designs are a sustainable alternative to increase production.Central Asia is another area where silvopastoralism has been traditionally practised, along with transhumant and nomadic pastoralism with close links to specific dryland forests and lands with trees. Outstanding examples of silvopastoralism emanate from the Turkish Mountains, such as the raising of Anatolian black goats (Geray, Özden and Sezgin, 2003). SPS such as windbreakers and hedgerows are also found in Mongolia and Central Asia (Stanturf and Mansourian, 2020). Climate conditions and water scarcity are deteriorating in Central Asia, driven by climate change and over-intensification of agriculture, which is threatening traditional livelihoods. Silvopastoralism and other agroforestry systems are also seen as a potential alternative to sustain local livestock production (Djanibekov et al., 2015).Silvopastoralism in Europe has been a subject of multidisciplinary research over the last decades.  (Mosquera-Losada, Rigueiro and McAdam, 2005).The Mediterranean is a silvopastoralism hotspot with a wide diversity of approaches, systems and governance mechanisms (Pinto-Correia et al., 2021). North African silvopastoralism on common lands has been advanced in the area through initiatives reviving traditional governance systems, such as agdals, to manage and protect production and services. These initiatives also incorporate a clear strategy to promote the values and services delivered by silvopastoral areas (see Moroccan case study).Mediterranean governance mechanisms such as hima and agdal provide key lessons around developing sound silvopastoral management tools, such as transhumance, multifunctionality, multispecies, rotation, specific silvicultural strategies, and so on, (Dominguez et al., 2012;Chebli et al., 2021;El Aayadi, Araba and Jouven, 2021). Several authors have vindicated their use and enhancement (Naghizadeh et al., 2021;Herrera, Davies and Manzano, 2013). Moreover, Near East regions partially share these conditions and boast a wide-ranging heritage of silvopastoralism in their rural areas (Uğurlu, Roleček and Bergmeier, 2012). Following this path, various North African and Near East countries are currently updating their legal instruments to include the protection and regulation of existing grazing in forest lands and silvopastoral systems and provide a framework for its sustainable development (See case study 16 on Lebanon and case study 17 on Morocco under theme 3 on pages 110 and 117 ).African drylands boast a great variety of trees, shrubs, grasses, herbs and grazing animals and demonstrate a diversity of silvopastoral practices adapted to almost all environmental and social conditions. African pastoral and silvopastoral peoples have often relied on trees and shrubs to feed their animals, especially in dry seasons. Savannahs provide fuelwood, fodder, fruits and other products. Shrubs and trees often offer better nutritional properties than grasses and constitute the primary feed input for goats and often sheep during droughts and dry seasons. Goats in the Turkana Region obtain their main feed supply (up to 98 percent in dry seasons) by browsing trees and shrubs (Rocheleau, Weber and Field-Juma, 1988). Nomadic and mobile pastoralists often plan their routes upon key forestbased resources, not only for feed but for fruits, herbs and other products. Besides this, they have shown capacity for and interest in managing savannahs and forested areas to improve their livelihoods, taking care and even planting high-value species such as Acacia tortilis, Tamarindus indica, or Balanites aegyptiaca in north Kenya.Traditional SPS store local and traditional knowledge on the organization of trees and shrubs to boost their contribution to feed during dry seasons and other services, considering species composition, production, canopies, distribution, density, phenology and other attributes when choosing and working with these species. A participatory study in the southern Guinea savannah, in Nigeria (Jamala, Oke and Fajemisin, 2016) concluded that livestock breeders had useful knowledge of fodder tree species that should be integrated into further projects. This work analysed four different grassland-based livestock systems from subsistence to semi-intensive, concluding that 48 percent of them used fodder from trees and shrubs during the dry season and 91 percent during the rainy season. Moreover, feed from trees and shrubs amounted to over 50 percent of the total intake in 70 percent of the cases during the dry season and 80 percent during the wet season.Silvopastoral and agrosilvopastoral systems are also widespread in East Africa (Jama and Zeila, 2005). A participatory experiment laboratory-field work performed in Ethiopia showed that there was no correlation between local appreciation of indigenous fodder trees or shrubs for widening their use, nor any ethnicity-based differences regarding the preferences for fodder species (Balehegn, Eik and Tesfay, 2015).A silvopastoralism approach combined with community management has proved to be a good combination to restore East African rangelands and savannahs (Reij et al., 2020) aiming to increase the number of trees and shrubs and the services they provide, not only as fodder but also to harvest fruits, fuelwood, gums and resins. Mobile pastoralism has proven to be an asset in those restoration initiatives.In southern Africa, grazing livestock is raised mostly in ranches and communal farms, over rangelands under different conditions, but little research has been carried out regarding the silvopastoral use of land (Kgosikoma, Mojeremane and Harvie, 2015).The rangelands of the Brazilian Cerrado drylands provide valuable ecosystem services, including biodiversity, recreational opportunities, water yield, erosion control, forest products, carbon sequestration, and so on. However, as global demand for soy is growing, the region accounts for 90 percent of the country's production and land prices are quite low, conversion to crops has already destroyed nearly half of the biome's native vegetation. This loss is reducing key capacities of the landscape, such as carbon storage and water regulation, as well as future food production and revenues.A study compared two options -a business as usual (BAU) scenario, which sees continued land use and conversion, with a \"land degradation neutral\" (LDN) scenario, which projects a curtailment of expanded soy cultivation avoiding the occupation of pastures, between 2021 and 2050.Despite their territorial span, many silvopastoral systems in drylands share common features and threats (Plieninger and Huntsinger, 2018). Changing fire regimes, insufficient or excessive tree regeneration, wildlife population dynamics, climate change, changing hydrologic regimes, livestock production economics, depopulation of rural areas, abandonment of traditional practices, agricultural intensification and conversion to ex-urban residences are all part of the picture (Underwood et al., 2009), as well as conflicts with other land users. Unfortunately, dependence on management can put a silvopastoral landscape under pressureThe BAU scenario that extrapolates past land cover trends into the future predicted that croplands will increase by 23 million ha, from 26.4 million ha in 2019 to 49.0 million ha. Thus, native Cerrado vegetation will decline by 17.6 million ha by 2050. This conversion to crops leads to reduced productivity of soy and jeopardizes the capacity of mitigating climate change and maintaining climate stability. Modelled data show how the loss of 86 million ha. results in a 125 mm decline in precipitation at a drop rate of 0.02 percent per million ha the following year.However, land degradation can be halted, stopping conversion of native Cerrado vegetation. The LDN scenario is evaluated against the BAU scenario using the FAO Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT) to estimate changes in carbon balance. The result is encouraging. While the BAU scenario estimates the emission of 264 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 eq) per year, the LDN model identifies savings of 372 CO 2 eq per ha. Shifting soy production to alternative systems (and silvopastoralism emerges as one of the most suitable), could in theory, produce potential benefits from carbon credits around USD 25.1-58.5 billion (in present value terms). Conversely, climaterelated damage costs and loss of native Cerrado land are expected to reach USD 133 billion by 2050 and losses to agricultural productivity will amount to a total of USD 105 billion by the same year. Besides, additional market-based instruments such as ecosystem services payments -official low-interest credit lines for low-carbon agriculture and development of ecotourism -can contribute to internalizing ecosystem service benefits.On the flip side, land ownership costs and taxes can also be used to internalize negative externalities.The LDN option would bring tangible benefits to farmers in terms of increased income. Under the BAU scenario, over the 2021-2050 period, farmers can expect an average net income of USD 409/ha/year in present value terms. Under the LDN scenario, the figure reaches USD 523/ha/year. There are already silvopastoral initiatives developing in similar regions, as illustrated by the Case study on the Espinaço region that also provides guidance to facilitate the implementation of SPS based in native vegetation. when the goals and priorities of markets and economies change (Manning, Fischer and Lindenmayer, 2006). For example, traditional management practices that once created the open woodlands of Europe and North America are lost or on the wane, putting these systems at risk (Hartel, Plieninger and Varga, 2015) as is already the case with European silvopastoral systems meant to feed working animals.At research and management levels, controversies and pending debates are ongoing, with significant impacts on the consideration of silvopastoralism as a sustainable production and management system for drylands, in addition to the support given to silvopastoral initiatives aiming to improve its role. The first debate concerns opening forests to contribute to their adaptation and to wildfire prevention. While controversial, some authors claim that the thinning of woods is a suitable strategy with clear benefits in terms of climate change (Collalti et al., 2018). On the other hand, certain challenges to this kind of management related to provision of ES need to be considered. Several projects in Europe (e.g. SUDOE \"Open to Preserve\" or LIFE \"Montserrat\") aim to identify and implement management measures to preserve open areas and the ES they provide.Forest restoration projects often try to recover dense forests using the dispersed planting of trees as the main path of restoration. This position has been contested by rangeland scientists (Vetter, 2020), arguing that this perception is rooted in persistent theories on forests and desertification that widely shaped colonial policy and practice and remain influential in today's science-policy frameworks. At the same time, rangelands and open ecosystems (including savannahs and other lands with trees) have been neglected due to insufficient understanding of the ecology of drylands and grassy biomes that encourage afforestation, grazing restriction and fire suppression, with negative impacts on hydrology, carbon storage, biodiversity, livestock production and pastoral livelihoods (ibid.).A silvopastoral approach, considering the mosaics of different land uses including open and dense forests, grasslands and other land use (all linked by sustainable grazing schemes) can resolve this debate, advocating for a more flexible and functional concept of forests and forests lands in dry areas and applying a more sensitive perspective of the role of rangelands in dryland restoration.Little information is available to assess the economic benefits of silvopastoralism. The use of forest resources as source of fodder and additional revenue is common among pastoralists, but there is scarce data available on their actual value (Wane et al., 2020). However, the research cited in this section represents sound evidence that silvopastoralism can perform better than single-crop or monospecific livestock farming systems under similar conditions.The Global Review of the Economics of Pastoralism (Hatfield and Davies, 2006) highlights the economic value of dryland complementary products, such as gum, rubber, honey and medicinal plants, especially in international markets. These are of particular value to rural communities who suffer through seasons of drought, allowing them to sell these products to generate income when traditional crops are failing. In eastern Mauritania, for example, many forestry products still grow in harsh conditions, including fruits (Ziziphus mauritiana), pods of Acacia nilotica and gum Arabic (Acacia senegal) (Shine and Dunford, 2016).In the United States of America, a comparative analysis was performed between a silvopastoral system and four different monocultures (soybeans, rice, cattle and pine plantations) including land expectation value, equivalent annual income and rate of return. The results showed that the profitability of SPS is comparable to other land-use systems under similar conditions while SPS also boasted a quality and quantity of wildlife habitat absent from other systems. This provides opportunities for additional income, incorporating wildlife-related activities such as hunting leases (Husak and Grado, 2002).In northern Nigeria, a rapid rural appraisal was used to determine the benefits of silvopastoralism. During the extended dry periods, there was a severe scarcity of feed, which prompted the use of silvopasture (Oladele, 2005). In interviews, farmers said that silvopastures increased the availability of non-timber forest products, provision of shade and shelter for animals in harsh temperatures, improved pasture feeding and the provision of fuel wood (ibid.).In Queensland, Australia, clearing the forest and woodland for grazing cattle is still common and silvopastoralism is yet to be encouraged (Francis et al., 2022). However, modelled case studies suggest that SPS in native forest environments can be financially viable (Francis et al., 2022). Research has demonstrated that the economic potential of implementing SPS in private native spotted gum regrowth forests was substantially higher than re-clearing it for cattle production (ibid., Venn, 2022). The development of this research is summarized in the Australian case study number 5 on page 51. While many of these studies highlight the potential for economic return through the use of SPS, only a few studies provide solid data to support the economic case for SPS.A study from Latin America quantified the positive benefits of silvopastoral systems on both production and productivity (Chará et al., 2017). Economic analysis of different intensified SPS in Latin America found that income generated was far higher than investment in all cases, with several of them reporting remarkable profits of USD 1 500 or more per hectare, clearly demonstrating that SPS can be financially solid (Chará et al., 2019). SPS in these cases can be simply established by adding trees or tree-forested land to a grassland-based production system, shifting from conventional cattle ranching to a cattle-based intensive silvopastoral system.A similar result was obtained in Galicia, Spain, where two types of SPS were compared to both forestry and extensive livestock production and were found to obtain a higher productive return from open forest silvopastoral system over forestry or monospecific livestock production (Fernández-Núñez, Rigueiro-Rodríguez and Mosquera-Losada, 2009). The same happened in northern India, where some Jhansi dryland areas increased their production tenfold through a ten-year silvopastoral plan rotation that improved yield and forage quality (Yadav et al., 2019).Considering the proven economic benefits of SPS and their potential for upscaling, there is a need for further studies to be carried out on the economic performance of dryland silvopastoral approaches. This will provide further evidence of the economic benefits of silvopastoralism and encourage its implementation.It is necessary to consider a few important characteristics of silvopastoralism in order to analyse SPS through an economic lens. First, silvopastoralism depends on natural resources provided by forests and rangelands. The level of external inputs is low and the level of autonomy is high, meaning that the system's economic success is highly dependent on the natural conditions of the given area.Second, silvopastoralism is multifunctional. The same production system delivers different products, often with different production cycles. Usually, this diversified production is sustained by the flexibility and short-term decisionmaking of pastoralists, which combines the specificities of animal production with the seasonal or long-term cycles of wood production. Importantly, silvopastoralism does not require exclusive access to the land, so additional and complementary uses are often possible in those lands, including recreational, hunting and nature conservation, all of which can contribute to overall system performance. While these interlinking economic activities present a real opportunity to generate income, the various cycles of each production timeline make the economic benefits hard to quantify.One of the key economic characteristics of SPS is increased biomass fluxes. Photosynthetic rates, nitrogen fixation, nutrient recycling and biomass production are all accelerated (Pérez-Lombardini et al., 2021). Biomass consumption by livestock removes a higher portion of the ecosystem's primary production. Thus, more biomass is circulating in the system, increasing production rates. This increased biomass tempers weather conditions and increases the capacity of water storage, also activating microbial soil life and increasing fertility, allowing the system to provide high-quality products (including, for example, mushrooms, berries, cork, and gums) and increasing potential income for local communities.Economic resilience is another important characteristic of SPS. This relies on diversification, market stability and developed safety nets, including risk management tools, access to financial and insurance and early warning systems. So far, participatory research on SPS in Latin America has shown a high level of economic resilience in both traditional SPS, such as Caívas in Brazil (Hanisch et al., 2019) and modern SPS (Pérez-Lombardini et al., 2021) analysed in both cases using the sustainability assessment of food and agriculture systems (SAFA) framework (FAO, 2014b).Lastly, livestock is the backbone of these production systems and its mobility is crucial to the system's success. Rotation, transhumance, or directed grazing are integral instruments of the system, removing biomass where needed and transferring fertility that can be applied to different lands. Mobility is necessary to allow land to rest and prevent overgrazing.On the other hand, silvopastoralism is a labour-intensive, specialized production system. Developed countries have a weaker capacity to adopt silvopastoralism, as the income obtained by the production system is insufficient to cover the wages of the specialized works needed to keep the system functioning. However, when key improvements can be adopted, SPS would also increase employment opportunities.In summary, silvopastoralism combines several production elements and strategies that are balanced and integrated into a production unit, each element contributing to the others: grazing removes biomass and fertilizes the soil, trees provide shade, shelter and fodder and bushes provide additional fodder, as so do agricultural residues. These interrelationships are displayed in the conceptual framework of this paper (see Figure 3 page 8) and have the potential to bring significant economic benefits to rural communities.As explained in the previous chapter, SPS in drylands vary from single-land-unitdelimited SPS to open-land mosaics. Complexity increases across this span by adding new patches of land, different value chains and new internal and external links. This complexity makes management more difficult but also contributes to developing some key properties of those systems as shown in Table 2, such as flexibility, adaptation capacity and ultimately, resilience (Cinner and Barnes, 2019;Preiser et al., 2018). As they grow in complexity, forests and trees also increase their capacity to cope with the harsh and uncertain conditions that prevail in drylands. However, the tensions between silvopastoral production and other agricultural production, unstable markets and value chains, and the pressure from food systems and policies will put a strain on the forests and trees supporting silvopastoral activities, increasing the difficulties of keeping the system up and running. Accordingly, integrated land use planning and management in drylands demand flexible and participatory management schemes. Such management must integrate several goals, multiactor interactions and uncertain environmental conditions in a comprehensive decision-making framework that is able to balance the different benefits, trade-offs, productions and services in a way that ensures both performance and sustainability.Consequently, the conceptual framework displayed in Figure 3, has been designed for this forestry paper as an attempt to understand how silvopastoralists can simultaneously manage soils and water, pastures, woody plants (including trees) and livestock. The framework also acknowledges their interlinkages and the adaptation of the whole system to different drivers and pressures, both external and internal, addressing the social-ecological interaction and the paths to build adaptive and resilient production systems. Accordingly, the conceptual framework relies on four critical aspects of decision-making: institutions, knowledge and innovation, risk management, and finance and livelihoods.Three main assertions can be drawn out of this proposed framework. First, management systems, even those with a top-down structure, require the participation of the different decision-making agents to keep all elements active and productive. Second, negotiation between parties addressing the balances and trade-offs in a given management approach is instrumental to success, such that a management system needs to provide the conditions for this negotiation to happen safely and positively. Third, in interactions between forests, trees and livestock, with different interests and negotiations at stake, conflicts are inevitable, so conflict-solving mechanisms are needed to ensure positive outcomes.There are many examples of successful silvopastoral systems all around the world, most commonly dryland-based. For instance, \"model farm\" (or \"finca modelo\" in Spanish) is a predetermined farmland where sustainable grazing is associated with ES and ecological forest restoration and protection. Integrated forest, crop and livestock production systems may increase crop diversity and resilience while providing a consistent source of animal source foods. These systems should be systematically analysed for key learnings. FAO has already developed a number of field projects addressing the relationship between pastoralism and forests and holds an extensive knowledge on the subject, as well as a wide network of partners with deep experience in the issues at hand. For example, there are many projects in Latin America and the Mediterranean, where silvopastoral systems historically include sustainable production and forest management in extensive farms. Building scientific evidence in favour of this approach can also feed discussions at the international level, in particular through the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture under the UNFCCC. Proven, low-cost, practical solutions are necessary to trigger climate finance towards the sustainable transformation of agricultural sectors, including silvopastoralism, while ensuring the preservation of natural capital and food security. This technical paper collected 17 case studies (See Table 5) with the aim of paving a way to curb deforestation and help to transform agriculture and food systems in dryland forests, woodlands and rangelands.As explained in the methodology (section 1.4), the advisory committee grouped the seventeen case studies into three themes (i) multifunctionality of silvopastoral approach for improving production, economics, nutrition and livelihoods of dryland communities; (ii) SPS' contribution to ecosystem health, restoration and provision of its services; and (iii) SPS' contribution to climate change resilience and adaptation and improved governance.The analysis of the case studies relies on the conceptual framework in order to provide innovative solutions to:• Keep dryland silvopastoral systems active and productive and contribute to livelihoods, food security and the development of people and communities depending on them. • Upscale, update and enhance those SPS to improve sustainable production in drylands, extending its benefits under a participatory framework driven by producers and local stakeholders. • Preserve and enhance the ES that are provided by dryland forests and land with trees, using the silvopastoral approach to fine-tune those services and ensure their long-term delivery. • Improve the use of silvopastoralism in land management, which already contributes to reducing environmental risks and preserving the natural values of land. • Enhance SPS' contribution to the restoration of forest and woody ecosystems in drylands, fighting desertification and contributing to land degradation neutrality and mitigation of climate change. • Improve the management of soil organic matter to increase their levels, microbial activity and their capacity for carbon storage, contributing to ecosystem restoration. • Rescue, update and implement a heritage of knowledge strategies and instruments that have allowed the survival of silvopastoralism and its adaptation since prehistoric times at a scale of work that makes a difference in today's global scenario. The next sections present the 17 case studies under three themes on how silvopastoralism: 1) is a multifunctional approach for improving production, economics, nutrition and livelihoods of dryland communities; 2) contributes to ecosystem health, restoration and provision of its services; and 3) contributes to climate change resilience and adaptation and improves governance.Chapter 4 analyses the lessons learnt from the case studies, and Chapter 5 targets landscape planners and decision-makers towards formulating different investment and resource mobilization strategies to achieve the desired impact.A: Theme 1: Silvopastoralism is a multifunctional approach for improving production, economics, nutrition and livelihoods of dryland communitiesAlthough pastoral livestock farming is subject to a debate about low productivity (output/head), grazing livestock farming systems use natural resources and generate animal production with high efficiency and mainly feeding on fibres that are unsuitable for human consumption. The agroecological interest of the silvopastoral system consists of this function of producing more with less. The efficiency of this system must be analysed in terms of production, economy, nutrition and living conditions for pastoral communities. It is important to note that the role of grazing in the global food system remains central. Half of the biomass consumed by animals in the world comes from grazed resources, that is, grass and tree leaves (Herrero et al., 2013). These resources are obtained through livestock mobility, often underestimated by public policies that generally favour intensified sedentary livestock production systems. The availability of natural resources for grazing supports the economic, social and ecological sustainability of the supply of livestock products. Moreover, pastoral and agropastoral systems develop mainly in dry regions (hot or cold) in response to the spatiotemporal variability of resource availability.In dry regions, pastures consist of two main resources for food production: herbaceous and woody biomass. These two resources could produce diversified foods, both vegetal and TASF. Pastoral livestock production is characterized by variability in climatic conditions influencing the availability of woody biomass. However, trees are a strategic resource for herders, enabling them to cope with often-difficult climatic conditions (drought, cold, etc.). Trees in dryland grazing represent an important element for ecological sustainability and mitigation of environmental impacts of livestock production. Pastoral, silvopastoral and agrosilvopastoral systems remain difficult to account for, as the different farming systems may be interrelated. Steinfeld et al., (2005) found that pasture-based systems accounted for about 30 percent of the world's livestock; about 30 percent of red meat production; and 20 percent of milk production. In mixed systems with rainfed agriculture, livestock contributes to two-thirds of red meat production and almost 95 percent of milk production. In developing countries, this production based on pasture or mixed systems is slightly higher.Silvopastoralism promotes the diversified production income of forests, trees and livestock, mainly in less productive seasons, and contributes to an improvement in the quality and variety of local diets by adding TASF. An FAO study in Argentina, Chad and Mongolia (Wane et al., 2020) showed the multifunctional contribution of livestock grazing in woods and grasslands to socioeconomic dimensions, especially in remote areas. Animals, milk, hides, and so on, represent between 38 and 74 percent of monetary income and self-consumption represents between 8 and 37 percent of additional income. At the country level, agrosilvopastoral systems contribute 10 percent of the national GDP in Chad and Mongolia and about 1 percent in Argentina. If self-consumption is included, this contribution rises to almost 20 percent in Chad and Mongolia and 1.5 percent in Argentina.Public policies that highlight silvopastoralism sometimes misunderstand the sustainable development issues of these systems and support guidelines for the investment or management of silvopastoral land that do not consider the multifunctionality of these ecosystems beyond their economic contribution. The debate between land sparing and land sharing is an example. Conservation policies aimed at only environmental objectives can severely damage the livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples who are dependent on natural resources. In a bid to preserve resources, pastoral communities may find themselves evicted or deprived of their livelihoods and their actual and potential role in natural resource management neglected. This situation can also lead to a radicalization of conflicts between pastoralists and states. On the other hand, livestock policies may not consider the vulnerability of social-ecological systems by building infrastructure that contributes direct or indirectly to ecological degradation. Some policies could better integrate the role of trees in the management of pastoral lands and promote inclusive forms of action for the sustainable management of tree pastures. The challenge of approaching silvopastoral systems is therefore essential in the socioeconomic promotion of sustainable livestock production.There are promising examples of silvopastoral schemes that were adapted to different regional conditions and show available solutions for each challenge. This chapter spotlights cases from the silvopastoral systems in Brazil, South Sudan, Kenya, Chile and Australia and their potential contribution to improving production, economics and community livelihoods with special consideration of different criteria and potential outcomes from combining trees and forests with grazing livestock as shown in Table 3.The communities of \"fundos de pasto\" have lived for centuries in their territories by exploiting and conserving the Caatinga, a semi-arid tropical vegetation in northeastern Brazil, and balancing conservation of natural resources and the ecosystem with social advancement and preserving their way of life. The Caatinga biome is one of the most diverse dryland ecosystems and consists of tropical and subtropical dry, broadleaf forests, covering most of the Brazilian Northeast. It covers an area of about 844 453 km 2 , equivalent to 10 percent of the Brazilian territory (Leal, et al., 2005). The conservationist management of the fundos de pasto is based on agroecological principles. It deals with applying agroforestry system techniques that integrate agricultural, fruit gathering, forestry and livestock production, generating diverse and productive landscapes. Traditional management favours the conservation of the Caatinga and its biodiversity, contributing to the conservation and reproduction of endemic species and the maintenance of soil coverage and functionality, as a unique system worldwide, fundamental to guaranteeing the permanence and survival of rural communities in the Brazilian semiarid (Araujo Filho, 2013;Bianchini, 2018;Carvalho et al., 2020).The fundo e fecho de pasto, better known as fundos de pasto, are traditional institutions for common land management in the Brazilian semiarid region, mainly dedicated to extensive livestock farming, crops and agroextractivism in the Caatinga. The origin of the fundos de pasto communities dates back to the seventeenth century, with the decline in both economic and political power of the large landowners who colonized the northeastern drylands. The communities of rural workers constituted a mix of Indigenous Peoples, mestizos and blacks, who occupied the borderlands of the big estates, fought for land rights, aiming to remain on those marginal lands, far from the farms' headquarters and considered the \"bottom of the pastures\", giving rise to the nomenclature of the communities of fundo de pasto (Ferraro Junior, 2008;Alcântara and Germani, 2009). These communities started their main activity -extensive goat production in the Caatinga -using fenceless common forestlands. Processing the integration of the peasant economy into the market economy began in the Northeast in the 1950s, intensifying agrarian conflicts in the region. The fundos de pasto then collectively organized themselves to defend their ownership and land rights. They also advocated for the right to communally raise their livestock, according to the traditional production systems and ways of life that had already been developing in the region for over a century (Santos, 2010;Alcântara and Germani, 2009). According to the survey conducted by the Geografar research group (2020), currently a total of 625 communities of fundo e fecho de pasto are registered, distributed across 56 municipalities in northern, western and southwestern Bahia.A fundos de pasto community is both a production system and a social reproduction system that is typical of the semiarid region of Bahia. Those communities are characterized by extensive livestock production, mainly small ruminants, complemented by gathering and processing of native fruit, timber resources, herbal medicines and honey. All these activities are usually carried out in common lands. The common rangelands used for grazing livestock constitute a central pillar of sociability in the communities of fundos de pasto, thus they cannot be appropriated for private or individual use. Social relations and solidarity among individuals were historically built based on family and friendship links (Alcântara, 2004). Water resources, such as iagarapés (streams) and barreiros (ponds), are also common goods that are collectively managed by the community, even if they are located on individual or family-managed lands.The extensive raising of goats, sheep, poultry, pigs, horses and bees constitute the main livestock production activities. These species are key for the families' livelihoods, as they need little water and food supply to thrive, while they are better adapted to the soil and climatic conditions of the Caatinga. Besides this, there is also a culture of cattle raising, even though cattle is not the most recommended species for this region, due to the high cost of management (Araújo Filho, 2013). Subsistence agriculture is also present in those communities, generally practised in lands for both individual (family) and collective use (Carvalho, 2020;Alcântara and Germani, 2009). Land tenure and access rights of both common and family lands are governed by formal and informal customary rules transmitted over generations. Communities also practice gathering activities that include fruit harvesting from the native species of Caatinga as umbu, licuri, passion fruit and araticum. Wood is also extracted for the construction of buildings, farmyards and fences and finally, families and communities also rely on picking herbs and medicinal plants. (Carvalho, 2020;Santos, 2010).Crops are mainly in individual (family) orchards, based on rainfed systems and intercropping of yields such as beans, corn, cassava, potatoes, pumpkins, fruit trees, as well as a wide range of vegetables. Those crops are mainly intended for subsistence and food security for the families, whereas the productive surplus is destined for sale, exchange, storage or donations within the community. Collective fields are intended mainly for growing fodder and commercial crops, such as sisal, palm and mandacaru (Bianchini, 2018;Santos, 2010). The agricultural activity is typically rotational, when the first signs of degradation are detected the crop area is left to fallow and the activity rotated to another area, promoting the restoration of soil fertility and the regeneration of the agroecosystem (Primavesi, 2016).The resources in fundos de pasto communities are characteristically managed as a common good. To increase and improve the provision of goods and services from sustainable management and restoration of dryland forest and agroforestry in the Caatinga Biome in Brazil, in 2016, FAO initiated a project entitled \"Reversing Desertification Process in Susceptible Areas of Brazil: Sustainable Agroforestry Practices and Biodiversity Conservation\" funded by the Global Environment Facility. The project worked closely with fundo de pasto and trained the different land users on how to monitor the limits on the use of their common goods while guaranteeing the long-term productivity of the land and improving resilience and livelihoods. The fundos de pasto communities have developed a strategy that preserves the agrobiodiversity by maintaining forest areas through multidimensional production systems and tactics, despite having certain ecological and technical limits in the management of the Caatinga (Ferraro Junior, 2008;Bianchini, 2018). Free-range livestock graze on the Caatinga, getting their feed from its great diversity of native plants. Grazing intensity is controlled by stocking rotation of animals through different woodlands. In addition, forage is also used as supplementary feed before releasing the animals, which is intended to guarantee an adequate source for the animals during the dry season, reducing the impact of animal grazing in times of senescence, when ecosystem fragility is greater. Those dry-season forages, both native and exotic, are on the community fields. This coping strategy adapts the production system to the environmental dynamics of the semiarid region. Recently, communities have developed the practice of re Caatingamento (Caatinga recovery), which consists of the environmental restoration of degraded areas.Other agroecological aspects observed in traditional systems include the use of crop rotation and intercropping in agricultural practices, recycling materials between the different production systems, promoting the rational use of local genetic diversity and germplasm seed stocks, adopting low-input social technologies and exploring the sustainability potential of the diversified range of Caatinga microenvironments.Analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that the fundos de pasto systems contribute to the conservation of natural resources in semiarid lands. They also enhance subsistence and food security of their rural communities by combining the production of diverse foods from integrated production practices (livestock, agriculture and extraction of wild fruits) with sound outputs in term of resilience and ecosystem health.According to data from Bem Diverso (2020), in six communities analysed, formed by 357 families, it is estimated that the herd of goats is 4 200 heads, 4 695 sheep, 730 cattle and 300 pigs, in addition to the productive potential of umbu fruits of 6 071.55 tons/year and, 122 tons/year of Licuri. Another work carried out estimated the total gross value of the production of the fundos de pasto in a family production unit which considered the market values for products derived from livestock, agricultural and extractive production.In total, the annual gross value of production is equivalent to BRL 17 860.00 (USD 3 299 USD) Of this total, the equivalent of BRL 4 000 (USD 739) was allocated for food and self-consumption by the families, BRL 5 360 (USD 990) was marketed and the remaining BRL 8 500 (USD 1 570 USD) was not marketed or consumed, being destined for stock formation (Fonseca, Salviano and Freitas, 2019). This diversity of production and food crops is reflected in the consumption of varied and nutritionally rich foods. Therefore, this system can produce enough quality food for all families, guaranteeing their food and nutritional security independently of external inputs. It also contributes to keeping people in the countryside. Fundos de pasto production is also an important source of income for the communities, mainly through the marketing of animal products and native fruit, either fresh or processed. The cooperative COOPERCUC is a case of success in the region. It is a cooperative of fundos de pasto communities with a production capacity of 200 tons/year of processed products of native fruits, including sweets, juices, pulps, jellies, and jams.The grasslands are well-conserved areas of Caatinga and are extremely important due to the fragility of this unique biome in the world, which is facing increasingly intense degradation and desertification processes. Compared to other products and occupation models, the grasslands are more effective in conserving the Caatinga. According to ICMBio (2022), only 48 percent of the Caatinga does not suffer any type of degradation. However, studies such as that of Bianchini (2019) point out that in areas occupied by fundos de pasto communities, the area of preserved native vegetation can exceed 85 percent. Additionally, recent studies analysed the diversity of plant species present in the fundos de pasto systems, finding high biodiversity and a high degree of endemism, reaching 57 percent, which reinforces the importance of the fundos de pasto management system for Caatinga conservation. (Bem Diverso, 2020).Despite the rational management of natural resources, some negative impacts are observed on the local agroecosystems of these communities, mainly affecting land use and governance. Land degradation is a clear threat, caused mainly by overgrazing and deforestation, often caused by external people. The strategy carried out by fundos de pasto communities to fight overgrazing and degradation of the Caatinga consists of re Caatingamento, characterized by the replanting and assisted recovery of the Caatinga biome in strategic locations, contributing to turning the tide of the Caatinga desertification process through the sustainable use of common goods (IRPAA, 2019).Moreover, the main threats to the territories of the fundos de pasto communities are mining projects, wind farms, construction of energy dams and water reservoirs for irrigated production and the expansion of large export-oriented farms. The communities are strongly organized to face these threats at different levels, from local associations to the state level. The State Articulation of Communities of fundo e fecho dbe pasto represents and politically articulates all the communities of fundos de pasto in the state of Bahia which contribute to the needed proper governance to promote the conservation and restoration of the degraded dry forest in Caatinga.https://geografar.ufba.br/sites/geografar.ufba.br/files/relatoriofinal_mapeamentoffp_vf.pdf; www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmee-Armg_8Terekeka county drylands are a dry area in an administrative division of Centra Equatoria in South Sudan, well known as the Cattle Corridor, stretching between Northern-Eastern Talli, Tindillo to Southwestern Mundari-Bura and extending to Rijong and Rego southwards of Terekeka county, encompassing about 80 000 ha. It is characterized by irregular rainfall, up to 1 350 mm per year, in its cattle corridor. A fragile natural environment, rich in biodiversity, supports the livelihoods of the Mundari communities. Pastoralism is the most widespread landuse system in these lands, which host about 50 percent of the county's livestock, mainly kept by agropastoral and pastoral peoples. Despite the large numbers of cattle, the Terekeka county drylands constitute a severe poverty hotspot.The Mundari dry land cattle corridor is a mosaic of denuded landscapes, with forest woodland and savannah grassland with scattered trees. This area is mainly used for grazing livestock and other agrosilvopastoral practices. The typology of rangelands in the area includes grasslands, woodlands and bush clusters encompassing about 87.8 percent of the total rangelands. There are some additional resources provided by valuable tree plants like gum acacias. The land holds remarkable natural value, as well as abiotic interaction. Unfortunately, this area is suffering significant changes in land use as indicated by the decreasing woodland cover, driven by fuelwood recollection for charcoal production, clearing and conversion to grazing (accompanied by extraction of valuable dry land tree species such as Vittelaria pardoxa, Tamarindus indicus, Acacia senegal and Balamitea, currently threatened with local extinction).The Mundari communities in the three sites of the cattle corridor practise a mixed land-use system combining silvopastoralism with agroparklands established around the watershed area of the TaPari basin and the Nile water catchment area. However, traditionally practised pastoralism and agrosilvopastoralism account for about one-third of the Mundari population. Up to 95 percent of pastoralists and agropastoralists use the semiarid rangelands, raising their indigenous breeds. Those SPS apply a concept of natural regeneration that has contributed to preserving its vast heritage. Traditional livestock production practices contribute to livelihoods with manure production, traction and work power, being instrumental for both livelihood safety nets and the ecological conservation of the area. The main instruments Mundari uses for land management are enclosures and individual homestead tree planting for rehabilitating grazing lands.The communities have been experiencing the effects of severe land degradation caused by multiple factors, including increasing human and animal population and the reduction of the available natural resources. In addition, climate variability, intensification of natural resource use and socioeconomic drivers, such as urbanization, mining activities, population growth and immigration, all of which have contributed to increase vulnerability.Between 2016 and 2020, FAO funded and implemented a pastoralist livelihoods project initiated by Norwegian People Aid (NPA) to support rural development, water management and forestry, along with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and women groups in South Sudan. The community support programme in Talli, Tindillo and Mundari Bura contributed to strengthening resilient pastoral livelihoods in facing the impact of climate change and conflict. NPA has introduced the agroforestry approach in the area, targeting small-scale farmers and focused on increased food security, energy security and wealth creation. The project focused on the process of mainstreaming sustainable land management (SLM) by local communities in the cattle corridor. First, it considered biodiversity conservation through integrated land-use management as a key to planning climate change adaptation and mitigation action. Second, it piloted the silvopastoralism technology to improve the communities' livelihoods and land management. The primary aim of the project was to improve local land governance in the project area. Accordingly, it promoted the diversification of income-generation activities, such as small-scale irrigation schemes, handicrafts, and so on, and built the institutional capacities for integrated land use management and planning, helping to reduce the stress on the Corridor's natural resources. Moreover, the project facilitated the introduction and development of alternative gender-sensitive energy sources, watershed management technologies and agroforestry practices, such as water harvesting, mulching and minimum tillage, in addition to awareness-raising on water and sanitation care issues.The key pillar of the project was to revive the Indigenous pastoral practices of soil and water conservation activities through protecting and resting periods and the development of afforestation actions to arrest soil erosion, taking into consideration women's empowerment and the specific conflict-solving actions in the Corridor. This silvopastoral perspective is also applied to fight the widespread loss of tree biodiversity using a land management framework to promote revegetation, land rehabilitation, soil conservation and tree planting. It also makes use of agroparkland practices, including understory grazing, promoting enclosures, night kraal (already considered by producers, who in some cases have started those practices on their own), and silvopastoral mechanisms to enhance livelihoods and the safety net during dry seasons and droughts.Although NPA has been working with 200-350 farmers for up to five years, civil wars have affected South Sudan and prevented the project from achieving more impact on the ground. Producers suffered heavy losses of livestock, food stocks of sorghum, milk and meat and access to markets. However, the evaluation conducted showed the communities' enthusiasm for their Indigenous silvopastoralism practices along with the project's capacity-building activities. Higher livestock production has also been reported as well as improved Indigenous silvopastoralism technology and food security. Up to 25 communitybased farmer groups, both female and male, were trained and supported in using better agricultural tools and improved strategies to face the loss of their natural resources due to the conflict. Local marketing techniques and capacity were also crucial in improving the communities' resilience during the conflict. Besides, the community also improved local production through an auction market and mobilizing microfinance activities.Finally, tackling challenges to ensure sustainable livelihoods in the cattle corridor includes dealing with several livestock-related management issues, for instance land clearing and overexploitation of natural resources. Farmer-to-farmer learning through exchange visits has enabled farmers to learn by doing, resulting in peer demonstrations of better agroforestry management practices, including tree plantation periods. This has been promoted in the three cattle corridor sites by supporting training actions targeting selected local communities and farmer groups. Lessons learned from this project resulted in a call for upscaling the use of watershed management activities (such as gully rehabilitation or water harvesting), alternative energy sources and forest regeneration.Analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) show that the Mundari dryland cattle corridor provides clear examples of development strategies that are appropriate for any country context. Key among the lessons learned is the emphasis on inclusive approaches that involves all programme beneficiaries, particularly women, in designing and executing SLM actions that simultaneously address livelihood improvement, ecosystem conservation, and land rehabilitation and therefore increase resilience.The conflict scenario is also threatening silvopastoralism and the ecosystems that support it. Positive action is needed to address some of the most pressing challenges. A first challenge implies the application of a holistic and comprehensive perspective, understanding the interconnectedness of the different elements of the system and contributing to a SLM model, supported by different technologies such as conservation, rotational grazing or night kraal, also generating capacity and social cohesion. The implementation of this integrated development approach may encourage agroforestry systems and scale some good practices, improving soil fertility and hydrological management.Moreover, a balance needs to be found between short-term benefits and future impacts. Any intervention project must include food security and poverty reduction through a diversified livelihoods strategy and enhance resilience of livestock and trees production systems. Community-specific action should be geared towards sustainable livelihoods and pragmatic actions.Considering social issues is also instrumental in improving this scenario. There is a need to address local people's attitudes, behaviour and perception as a means to improving their action. The attitudes of local groups shift towards building capacity and adopting innovative technology transfer to address land degradation issues. Besides, technical backstopping for community-level activities can result in the increased adoption of best practices, thus improving their well -being and livelihoods.For more information The Kenyan drylands are characterized by marginal and extreme weather conditions with low rainfall, low crop productivity and sometimes extreme failure, high poverty levels and extreme pressure on natural resources to sustain people's livelihoods. Kenya's arid and semiarid lands (ASAL) support more than 30 percent of the Kenyan population and over 50 percent of the country's livestock populations (the entire camel population, 50 percent of the cattle and some 70 percent of all sheep and goats), which accounts for 90 percent of employment and more than 95 percent of family incomes (Government of Kenya, 2003). Many households in those ASAL live in extreme poverty (Homewood, Trench and Brockington, 2012;Jane, Mwangi and Nkurumwa, 2013).Pastoralism is the main economic activity and provides food and income to 80 percent of the population in this region. Twenty percent of those pastoralists practice agropastoralism (Trench and Makee, 1994). Complementary wages and cash for buying maize, the staple food, are derived mainly from livestock sales. Pastoralism is directly influenced by two factors. First, livestock diversity, optimized by the use of varied browsing and grazing fodder types; and second, quality, achieved through livestock mobility and rights to land, livestock, grazing and browsing resources, water, trees, honey and other harvested products. It is governed by a developed system of norms, values, beliefs and practices for achieving sustainable resource use and adjustment in livestock numbers based on existing land resources. In most cases, nomadic pastoralists usually prefer to seek access to natural resources to sustain their livestock rather than reduce their herd size. The main livestock includes goats, sheep, cattle and camels.Samburu County lies within the northern parts of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya (Figure 6). The plateau hosting the Leroghi Forest rises to 2 580 m above sea level receiving an annual rainfall of between 900 and 1 500 mm. The county lies within a dryland environment and covers an area of 21 022 square kilometres with a population density of 11 inhabitants per km 2 (Samburu County Government, 2018). Eighty percent of the population depends entirely on pastoralism for livelihood. The county is ranked the second poorest in Kenya (Government of Kenya, 2009), with poverty levels at 63 percent.Closed canopy forest (Sirat), characteristic of dry zones and Juniperus-Podocarpus evergreen forest, accounts for 25 percent of the total forest cover and is an important source of dry season water (sere), pasture, fodder, food, honey and medicine. Samburu pastoralists regulate pastoral resources under a communal land tenure system among the local community, allowing access to different areas depending on rainfall and vegetation within Samburu territory. Herd mobility takes place on a regular but gradual basis; during the rainy season or in areas where pastures are abundant, the elders set certain areas aside for either settlement or grazing. Mobility may include short-distance daily circular movements of livestock around the homestead, here referred to as mobility, to large-scale movements and combinations of these. The grazing schemes were established in 1936 in Leroghi and in the entirety of Samburu in the 1950s, where various forms of grazing and stock control were practised. However, grazing remained a highly contested and controversial issue between the colonial administrators and Samburu pastoralists. People could move freely over the landscape again and there were no restrictions on the number of livestock owned by individuals (Trench, 1997). Between 1961 and1965, elders in Samburu lowlands decided to start managing settlement and grazing regimes through the customary communal regulation known as nkwe ngishu ('head of a cow'), keeping grass for cattle, (Pas, 2018).In 1972, under the Land Act of 1968, the Group Representative Officer started to demarcate land on the Lerodgi plateau for both individual and group ranches to formalize land tenure. Group ranches are similar to previous grazing schemes as they are demarcated pasture areas aimed at controlling grazing, encouraging settlement and commercializing livestock (Pas, 2018).An analysis carried out in Sanataa forest block, located in the northwest corner of Leroghi forest (Figure 9) on household characteristics, livestock production, forest use, constraints and opportunities among other issues showed that the silvopastoral land-use system is practised predominantly by the Samburu traditional pastoralists. The forest provides an important source of dry-season pasture (97 percent) and fodder (62 percent), mainly during the dry months of January to March every year. For the rest of the period (April to December), grazing is confined to the plains and high grounds. The local communities usually take refuge in the forest as a mechanism for climate risk prevention.The silvopastoralists' adaptation and survival strategies entail multiple species and diverse herd typologies, herd mobility and splitting. Their silvopastoral activity largely relies on adaptability and flexibility over managed ecosystems rather than environmental stability. Conflict around natural resources is central to the sustainable management of pasture and water, making it necessary to understand the past and present conflicts and mismanagement and the lack of sound technology. Factors influencing conflict include the pastoralists' attitudes and perceptions around grazing livestock, the economic benefits associated with forest grazing, the existing early drought warning and mitigation measures, cattle rustling practices associated with payment of bride wealth, and social status associated with large herd sizes. Lastly, the rapid increase in human and livestock populations and the consequences of environmental degradation have resulted in the breakdown of traditional authority structures for regulating access, control and management of grazing and water resources and poor livestock market access due to limited infrastructure and cultural barriers. The natural resource/man ratio has largely remained dynamic due to the rapid increase in the human population, thus necessitating a change in strategy towards natural resource use efficiency.The analysis presented in this case study led to a series of advanced recommendations that can contribute to devising an improved silvopastoral attitude for Samburu County. These recommendations rely on building and strengthening the capacity of local pastoral communities and institutions to sustainably regulate the access, control, use and disposal of forests and grazing lands while diversifying income-generating activities. Besides this, there is a clear need to invest in the rehabilitation and restoration of degraded lands and watering points through promoting natural regeneration, planting and managing fodder trees, fodder banks and leguminous species, while increasing controlled browsing for enhanced beef and milk production. It is also important to encourage local community interest in nature-based enterprises such as seedling production, herbal medicine and beekeeping. Local and traditional knowledge is key for these developments and should be mobilized and enriched with research, scientific advancement and technology. Additionally, management could be enriched by adopting better management practices, including livestock diversity and mobility, adoption of livestock breeds adapted to local conditions, and herd splitting.A forest-based grazing management plan or guidelines could be a necessary step forward, especially if locally managed, flexible and responsive enough to drive technological and socioeconomic changes in a pastoral environment. In addition, sustainable forest planning tools should reduce risks by promoting sustainable management actions, including: 1) destocking; 2) sustainable dry-season grazing; 3) pasture harvesting and storage systems; 4) minimizing incidences of fire risks; 5) arranging forestland use; 6) fining or removing squatters and abusers; and 7) observing the current presidential ban on harvesting/logging in the forest.Analysis of this case study based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that silvopastoral land use holds varied benefits and suffers from threats -and therefore demands positive collective action at different levels.The negative impacts associated with unsustainable grazing in the forest include overgrazing, browsing and lopping of the rangeland resources that result in deterioration in the quality and quantity of grass, herbage and fodder resources (ibid.). Pasture management using fire negatively affects natural regeneration, destroying seedlings and saplings of insufficient bark thickness, especially within the community forest reserve. The other consequences of grazing, especially within the Lerodgi forest, include: loss of biodiversity due to overgrazing; increased soil erosion; increased fire risks due to honey hunting and associated activities; the spread of tick-borne diseases; water catchment destruction; loss of endangered animals and plant species that are endemic to certain areas; loss of biodiversity due to frequent drought; rapid conversion of pastureland to cropland; and a shrinking resource base due to ecological degradation, episodic droughts and insecurity resulting in overgrazed and overstocked pastures, and usually leading to soil erosion and environmental degradation. Droughts, which can cause heavy losses of up to 80 percent of livestock, diseases, high stocking rates, insufficient watering points, trampling and pasture degradation and other indiscriminate and illegal human activities are also contributors to land degradation. Similarly, access to livestock markets and limited technical knowledge is poor or limited.The difficult situation of the livestock sector in Samburu County can be attributed to the low productivity of the traditional livestock breeds, poor milk handling techniques and lack of animal feeds, especially during drought. It is also affected by cattle rustling, animal diseases, incidences of insecurity, competition for water and pasture, poor livestock markets, breakdown of community cultural and traditional structures and depletion of rangeland pasture and trees (Luvanda, 2014).However, the local communities in Samburu County have consistently devised mechanisms for coping with adverse weather conditions. Some of the measures being proposed for enhanced resilience include: the use of livestock breeds that can improve production out of local resources; formulation of community by-laws aimed at enhancing environmental conservation; shifting of settlement for the degraded environment to recover; a temporary ban on dryland forest grazing; use of fines to discipline by-law breakers; diversifying the consumption of meat and milk with other foodstuffs; adoption of new approaches to farming; and diversifying sources of income from livestock production such as milk production. The silvopastoral land-use system needs to be well integrated into other land-use systems for enhanced environmental conservation.Improving an integrated land-use-governance system is crucial to sustaining ecosystem goods and services. The National Policy for the Sustainable Development of Northern Kenya and other dryland areas is recognized for its specific stipulations regarding mobile livelihoods -hence the need to develop governance and services that target mobile populations. Kenya Vision 2030 promotes the inclusion of pastoralists in national development to end perceived marginalization and make drylands equal to the rest of Kenya. The Kenyan Constitution (2010) and the Community Land Act (2016) which perceive pastoralists' livelihoods as valuable, must be operationalized. This will allow the documented rights to their land to initiate a shift in thinking about pastoral land use. Simultaneously, it will promote the use of customary institutions for managing resources and (crossborder) mobility (Pas, 2018).11-0204-Luvanda (sciencebeingjournal.com)In the mountain territories of the southern Chilean Andes, the practice of veranada-invernada (walugtuwe -pukemtuwe in Mapuzungún, or summeringwintering in English) can be considered a type of transhumance that allows patterns of land use based on local ecological knowledge to be observed. This system demonstrates the strong relationship between the Mapuche Pewenche communities and the nature they inhabit. Transhumance in the Cordillera of the Southern Andes is mainly based on the coordinated use of areas that reach complementary maximums of plant production over time, making it possible to avoid critical periods in each zone and taking advantage of the resources when they are at their highest production and quality stage. Thus, both the Andean grasslands are managed as fodder for the feeding of small livestock and forests of Araucaria (Araucaria araucana), to extract its seed, called pewen or piñón (pine nut). Araucaria is considered a \"living fossil\" (Gedda, 2010) and is classified as an endangered species.However, the practice of summering-wintering cannot be considered just a mechanism for the exploitation of natural resources -it is also a substantial part of a more complex ancestral cultural system. This practice holds an enormous territorial, economic, cultural and environmental significance for the Mapuche Pewenche communities. Applying a territorial perspective, Martínez (2015) states that this is a form of articulation that makes it possible to define spaces, develop social practices and also integrate different modes of production. Thus, these practices of \"ancestralization\" help to strengthen the territoriality and identity of such communities.Economically, the summering practices represent production areas for small producers, who carry out their small livestock production practices and harvest non-timber forest products, such as the aforementioned pine nut. Communities also collect other forest fruits and medicinal herbs or lawen. After harvesting, pine nuts are mainly sold unprocessed, in bulk, or packed in sacks, to small or medium-sized traders who act as intermediaries and resell them in fairs and supermarkets (Cortés et al., 2019). The availability of pine nuts varies from year to year (Donoso, 2006) and is strongly threatened by the effects of water scarcity and climate change (CONAF, 2016), with significant impacts on those communities. Pine nut trade is an important activity although it is an unstable source of income for the collecting families, varying depending on the annual productivity. Prices oscillate between less than USD 1 per kg of bulk pine nuts in years of abundance years up to USD 3.5 in a bad year. (Cortés et al., 2019).Besides harvesting, some families have ventured into the production of processed foods or preparations, such as pine nut flour, biscuits, coffee, muday (a fermented drink), or catutos (fried dough). Those foods are consumed at home or as part of the gastronomic displays that take place in traditional festivals, such as the Fiesta del Piñón in Pewenco Bajo, an event that takes place every year in April with horse-riding (jineteadas), country dances and other cultural manifestations.To apply a cultural perspective, the veranada is an activity that contributes to identity building and reaffirmation, knowledge-sharing and the intergenerational transmission of experience and practices among family and community members. The veranadas are symbolic areas for the development of spirituality, as they constitute places where the spirits (Ngen) of nature (Ngen Mawida Mountains; Ngen Ko, water; Ngen Lof, the community; and Ngen Pewen, araucarias) dwell. From an environmental perspective, the coordinated use of the territory, considering its natural cycles, is evidence of deeply-rooted local ecological knowledge (conocimiento ecológico local, CEL), which allows for sustainable and communal management of the available resources. This knowledge is defined as \"a cumulative body of knowledge, practices and beliefs that have evolved through adaptive processes and are transferred through generations by cultural transmission, playing a fundamental role as a strategic guideline for sustainable natural resource management\" (Berkes, Colding and Folke, 2000;Cortés et al.,2019). It can be exemplified by how the practice of harvesting is developed, identifying different types of pine nuts according to the time of year: Puyén, which is harvested from late December to early February; Yaten, from late February to early May and Guillín, which is harvested from the beginning of the snow melt, between September and November. Each of them has a particular use and way of harvesting, ranging from the direct collection on the ground, climbing the tree and even socially questioned practices such as cutting off the heads of green pine nuts, which is repudiated by the people, as it damages the tree.The Lof Pedro Currilem is a community comprised of 56 families, approximately 300 people. It is located in Pewenco Bajo, in the commune of Lonquimay, 180 kilometres from the regional capital Temuco and 25 kilometres from the Pino Hachado international pass (Marchant, 2019). The toponymy of this place comes from Mapuzungun: Pewenco means \"araucaria water\" (pewen \"araucaria\" and -co \"water\")\". In terms of the use its inhabitants make of the territory, this mountain area (mawida) can be subdivided into two: Pewenco Alto and Pewenco Bajo. In winter, the community settles in Pewenco Bajo where they have their fixed residences, as well as culturally significant landmarks such as the Epu-Pewen School, the Pewenche Kimun Cultural Centre, the cemetery (eltuwe), the field where the nguillatun is celebrated and the community's rehue (altar). Pewenco Bajo is also the place of access to wider mobility through the international route G-181, which connects with other populated centres.The beginning of the summer season does not have a fixed date. It is usually up to the Lonko of the community to set a date, after a mandatory check on the animals' status, performed by the agriculture and livestock services. In addition, they consider the climatic aspects that will influence the location of the summer posts or rukos. The rukos are a type of handmade shelter built to shelter the summer visitors during the transhumant journey, made of wood and branches from the collection of dead firewood in the vicinity. Those shelters have corrals added for better control of the livestock. The summering period lasts 4-6 months. Conversely, the beginning of the wintering season in Pewenco is marked by the first frosts of the year, and is therefore an indicator for the beginning of the transhumance to the lower parts of the valley, which takes place between the end of March and May.Transhumant routes take place on the communities' lands, originally coming from the process of handing over individual property titles in 1985. This process took place in the context of the transfer of public lands to Mapuche communities, through the land titling law promoted by Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship (Comisión Verdad Histórica y Nuevo Trato, 2008). Despite this individualized ownership, which on average amounts to half a hectare, land use for this purpose is communal, although this category of use is not yet recognized by the Chilean state. Besides, this Lof is adjacent to the Alto Bio National Reserve, managed by the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF). Reserve areas managed by state institutions are forbidden to keep livestock, which has led to conflicts with the administration of these spaces. The Lonko of the community publicly stated in 2015 the \"need for the Mapuche to be able to participate in CONAF\" (Romero, 2020).The summer season begins with the arreo herding the animals' uphill from the wintering area (specifically from sheds located around the houses and the cultural centre in Pewenco Bajo) to the summer pastures. This transhumance is carried out in different stages and moments of the year, depending on the type of livestock being moved and the distance between the wintering area and the summer pastures. The transhumance is performed using tracks or gravel roads, by groups of men, normally on horseback and without any help from mechanical means (such as vehicles), a practice observed in other veranadas in the region. Each family takes around 15-20 large animals (cattle, horses) and a larger number of smaller animals (sheep, goats) up the mountain.Piñoneo (pine nut harvesting) is the most important practice in the summer season. It is mainly carried out by children and women in the pinalerías or Araucaria forests (pewento). It starts in private family lands (bajos o pülom) and, once finished, harvesting starts on the customary common lands. Harvesting constitutes an important summer activity encompassing the aforementioned economic and sociocultural relevance with its role as the main food source for both people and livestock. The collection of timber products (dry or dead Araucaria and Ñirre -Notophagus antarctica -firewood, in low volumes) is also carried out in a complementary manner. This firewood is mainly used for the construction of the rukos and for heating homes. They also collect picoyo, a dry hook of dead araucaria that contains a high quantity of crystallized resin and is used to make handicrafts. Herbs are also collected and used by women, machis and those members of the community who know the medical use of herbs (lawentuchefe). The forms of use of these herbs vary between common preparations such as infusions, poultices, rubs or washes; they are generally kept dry and used for both human and veterinary medicine. The development of all these types of collective work fosters intergenerational cooperation and contributes to community cohesion.Finally, knowledge transfer or kimun is one of the most relevant symbolic activities of the transhumant practice. The summer camp brings together different members and generations of the community; in these facilities, local history (epew) is transmitted orally from elders to young people and children. Stories are shared to show how the world, life and the significance of the different places within the Mapuche Pewenche worldview are interpreted. In this sense, summer is an opportunity to experience nature and understand the specificity of each of its components.Transhumance opportunities and challenges in restoring the trees cover for better livelihoods Trees and their seeds, such as Araucaria araucana forests and the pewen, are closely linked to the livelihoods of communities, generating a sense of place and allowing the establishment of socioecological links between humans and nonhumans (Ibarra et al., 2022). In the veranada-invernada exercise, humans, plants, seeds and animals form a complex and dynamic socioecological system that shapes a unique landscape where the biocultural memory emerges and achieves long-term sustainability. However, in the political and cultural context, various processes and state-driven policies resulting from the fragmentation of land ownership, extractive uses of mountain territory and blocked access rights to forests in protected areas for harvesting practices, are generating stressful situations that threaten the continuity of these key activities for both communities and the landscape.Moreover, an emerging controversy between the Chilean State and the Indigenous Communities over land management and biodiversity conservation in the Pewen forests is a pending issue, which should be resolved by granting the communities that depend on these resources, a greater say in decision-making affecting their livelihoods. The International Labour Organization Convention 169 states that Indigenous Peoples have specific characteristics that differentiate them from other national societies, such as worldview, cultural values, ancestral territory, institutions and authorities. Accordingly, the governance of natural resources must be based on these local institutions and customary laws, acknowledging their legitimate rights over their ancestral territories, even if declared as protected areas. It is worth noting that Pewenche communities have adopted different mechanisms for the care of the forests, for example temporarily preventing livestock access to the gathering places, banning unsustainable harvesting practices, such as tree-shearing or beating or cutting of pine nut green hooks (Cortés, et al., 2019). This reflects the sacredness that the species holds and its valuation not only economically but also culturally and spiritually due to the protection it provides.Analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 4) show that the practice of summering and wintering exemplifies the deep connection and knowledge of these Indigenous Peoples of both mountain rangelands and forest. The series of practices and activities associated with the management of livestock and the use of forests reveal a profound link between the communities and their environment, combining transhumance with the collection of non-timber forest products from the temperate rainforest such as the Pewen of Araucaria Araucana, as well as firewood collection. These practices are embodied in a robust range of local ecological knowledge. They help generate cultural representation and exemplify how the work of human communities is embodied in their territory. They therefore transform this geographical space into a unique, living space, complete with specific meanings and values that cannot be extrapolated to other cases, which contributes to strengthening local and community identity.For more information: Marchant (2019). La práctica trashumante pehuenche en la Araucanía andina: una forma de construir y habitar los territorios de montaña del sur de Chile. http://dx.Doi.org/10.4067/S0718-34022019000300187Queensland is the second-largest state in Australia, covering 172.7 million hectares and 83 percent of its area is suitable for grazing. Queensland's red meat industry plays a key role in Australia's economy, accounting for 48.1 percent of Australian beef and veal production in 2017-2018(Meat and Livestock Australia, 2018). Not surprisingly, methane emissions from enteric fermentation are a key contributor to Queensland's GHG emissions. In 2018, Australia's total GHG emissions were 537.4 million tons (Mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 -e) and beef cattle methane emissions were responsible for 75 percent (15.5 Mt CO 2 -e) of Queensland's agricultural GHG emissions (Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, National Inventory Report 2018). The Australian red meat and livestock industry, through Meat and Livestock Australia (2018), has stated an aspiration to become carbon neutral by 2030 (CN30). Avoiding deforestation by managing vegetation for the mutual benefit of production (meat and timber) and afforestation for capturing carbon while producing timber are mechanisms that are expected to help meet the CN30 target (Mayberry et al., 2019).Queensland has 51.8 million hectares of native forest and approximately 233 000 ha of softwood plantations. Integration of trees and livestock is not a new concept; in Queensland, livestock grazing beneath forest or woodland was adopted soon after European settlement in the nineteenth century and remains a current activity over a vast area. In this case, we aimed to summarize previous research carried out on the financial performance of silvopastoral systems in Queensland, and undertake a landscape-scale analysis of the financial performance of managing native spotted gum regrowth forest as SPS, relative to re-clearing for grazing.There are large areas of privately owned commercially productive native forest in Queensland that may be suitable for SPS. Lewis et al., (2020) characterized the commercially productive private native forest within a 24.4m ha study area in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales and identified ~2.6 m ha of commercially important forest that was potentially harvestable under current vegetation legislation. Most of this private native forest is grazed by cattle and the understory pastures are considered a key forage resource. A range of native pasture species grows beneath the native forest canopy, depending on the region and land types. However, forage productivity under unmanaged native forests is inherently low, in terms of both quantity and quality. Adoption of a silvopastoral approach can improve forest stand productivity by reducing competition between trees and providing an opportunity to enhance pasture productivity through decreased competition (for light, soil water and nutrients) between trees and pasture (Schulke 2012;Peri et al., 2016).In Queensland, forest types are classified by species composition and age-class structure, such as remnant and regrowth forests. Remnant forest refers to forest that has reached 70 percent and 50 percent of undisturbed canopy height and cover, respectively. Forest management is subject to the Vegetation Management Act 1999, which regulates the clearing of vegetation in Queensland. Thinning and clearing are allowed in Category X areas of this Act, where vegetation is not regulated by vegetation management laws (thinning is also allowed in some other categories under approval from the regulatory agency). The main advantage of establishing silvopastoralism in regrowth forests is that minimal upfront costs are needed to ensure the establishment of trees compared to plantation establishment. Exclusion of fire and grazing for 1-2 years can be enough to promote the regrowth of trees from a seed bank or lignotubers with high-value regrowth species such as spotted gum, forest red gum (E. tereticornis) and various ironbark, such as narrow-leaved red ironbark (E. crebra) and grey ironbark (E. siderophloia). Regrowth forests generally grow at a faster rate than remnant forests, due to the lack of suppression from larger trees (Lewis et al., 2020) and have good productive potential when appropriately managed. However, regrowth forests can become very dense in the absence of forest thinning.In the last two decades, there have been several evaluations of the financial performance of SPS in Queensland, a summary of which is presented in Table 6. These studies spanned a range of different environments, including eucalypt woodlands (Star and Donaghy, 2010) with no timber values included, through to more productive coastal eucalypt forests (Francis et al., 2022) and hardwood plantation forests (Maraseni, Cockfield and Maroulis, 2009). Performance is reported as the net present value (NPV) of gross margins (annual revenues and fewer management costs). Consistent with the international literature (Dangerfield and Harwell, 1990;Bruck et al., 2019;Chizmar et al., 2020), the Queensland studies suggest SPS can maximize returns to grazers. Only in cases where cattle grazing occurs beneath native forest or woodland without consideration of timber or carbon values was the NPV sometimes negative (Star and Donaghy, 2010;Donaghy et al., 2010;Table 6). In the one plantation example, initially the land was more profitable when cleared for grazing. However, when the carbon price reached USD 1.725 or AUD 2.50 AUD/t CO 2 e (the numbers reported throughout this case study are in AUD except when indicated otherwise), SPS became the most profitable alternative (Maraseni and Cockfield, 2011). First, for analysis, SPS was defined as only the (i) silviculturally treated; and (ii) silviculturally treated and harvested scenarios reported by Francis et al., (2022). The NPVs for these scenarios for each case study property were collated by Francis et al., (2022) and a normal probability density function was applied to these data. Second, to accommodate cattle sale yard price volatility over the past 20 years, the financial performance of clearing regrowth spotted gum forest for grazing was assessed with three alternative real weighted mean live-weight cattle prices in 2018 Australian dollars: AUD 2.29 /kg, which was the mean real price from 2000 to 2021; AUD 2.54 /kg, which was the mean real price from 2015 to 2018 (this is also the scenario reported in Francis et al., 2022); and AUD 3.66/kg, which was the mean real price in 2021.The livestock production levels simulated by Francis et al., (2022) over 20 years were held constant, but the NPVs of gross returns per hectare were estimated for each of the three price levels with a 5 percent real discount rate. Separate probability density functions were fitted to the NPVs estimated at each price level. At the AUD 2.54/kg price, a normal probability density function fitted to the distribution of NPVs resulted in a 14 percent chance of clearing for grazing generating a negative return. The case study property NPVs and probability density function parameters are reported in Table 7. Third, a Monte Carlo simulation was applied to produce 1 000 estimates of NPV per hectare for SPS and for clearing for grazing systems at each cattle price level. This was achieved by generating 1 000 random numbers between 0 and 1 to represent a cumulative probability in the relevant cumulative probability density function and then selecting the NPV estimate associated with that cumulative probability.Fourth, the NPVs estimated for SPS and clearing for grazing in step three were added and multiplied by 217.7 to provide an estimate of NPV at the landscape scale for the 217 700 ha of spotted gum regrowth forests in southern Queensland. Fifth, steps three and four were repeated 250 times to facilitate the estimation of a 95 percent confidence interval for the NPV of SPS and clearing for grazing at the landscape scale. Figure 7 indicates that returns to SPS in southern Queensland spotted gum regrowth forest are generally expected to financially outperform clearing for grazing. Only with the 2021 mean real cattle price was clearing for grazing found to potentially exceed the median NPV of SPS, with 4.5 percent of simulated grazing operations generating an NPV greater than the median SPS value.  The simulated distribution of NPV per hectare and NPV at the landscape scale assumes the four case study properties are representative of the distribution of returns that can be expected from SPS and clearing for grazing in regrowth spotted gum forest in southern Queensland.The adoption of SPS remains low in Queensland, where re-clearing of forest and woodland for grazing cattle continues to be a common management practice. Summarizing this case upon the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that the potential for SPS in private native spotted gum regrowth forest, which was estimated to have an average net present value of AUD 356.7 million (USD 246.1 million) at the landscape scale (217 700 ha), is substantially higher than reclearing to maximize cattle production (average NPV of AUD 62-160 million 4 million], depending on cattle prices). However, these studies need to be supported by empirical research in private native forests and plantation forests. Long-term studies that address livestock, timber and pasture productivity are urgently needed in Australia for scientific and demonstration purposes to help encourage landholder adoption.In addition to the lack of knowledge actually supported by long-term research and extension, there are several governments and market failures that need to be overcome to facilitate greater uptake of SPS in Queensland. For example, landholders exhibit a severe lack of trust in the Queensland Government (Brown et al., 2021) and there have been 40 amendments to vegetation management laws since 2000 (AgForce, 2021). The uncertainty about rights has discouraged nativeforest management and caused periods of expedited planned and unplanned clearing to generate less risky income streams from cattle alone, rather than SPS (Simmons et al., 2018). Other impediments to SPS include long payback periods for timber, coupled with the opportunity cost of foregone higher annual cash flow from producing livestock on cleared land. Encouraging investment in SPS will require policies that reduce sovereign risk and provide additional revenue streams for landholders based on the broader public benefits of SPS (e.g. carbon sequestration). The combination of different land uses on silvopastoral lands, the stratified layers of vegetation (trees, shrubs and grasses) and the effect of grazing livestock, under various management and grazing parameters (e.g. stocking, seasonal use, resting, species and breeds used), create a great variety of microclimatic niches and spatial heterogeneity that boosts biodiversity (Rigueiro-Rodríguez et al., 2010). Many of these SPS constitute key global biodiversity hotspots, such as the Brazilian Cerrado or the African Miombo woodlands. Silvopastoralism can provide efficient feed conversion, high biodiversity and natural capital, enhanced connectivity between habitat patches and good animal welfare (Broom, Galindo and Murgueitio, 2013). Additionally, silvopastoralism provides a wide range of ES, including provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services vital for human well-being (Garrido et al., 2017). Grazing animals are net contributors to soil fertility and nutrient recycling, shrub encroachment control, fire prevention and control, seed dispersal, habitat provision, and preservation of knowledge systems and educational values (Sales-Baptista and Ferraz-de-Oliveira, 2021).Silvopastoralism has a long history of success in grasslands, savannahs and savannah-like areas, open forests, lands with trees and mosaic landscapes. However, while modern-designed SPS are more suitable for specific projects on the local or regional scale, it is important to actively support traditional pastoralism and silvopastoral approaches, along with any other activities contributing to multifunctional land management. There is a wide range of synergies that could be developed between mobile pastoralism and silvopastoralism, contributing to collaborative land management strategies that can maintain woody rangelands as open, rich and biodiverse areas. There are also controversies around overgrazing and the negative effects of livestock in woodlands that need to be taken into account.Silvopastoralism can be instrumental in halting and reversing forest and land degradation. The combination of carefully managed silviculture and grazing regimes can increase vegetation cover, reduce erosion, increase soil retention and improve the water cycle. The high carbon storage and large area suitable for silvopastoralism make SPS a strong potential agent to help mitigate global climate change (Hawken, 2017). SPS enhance carbon sequestration both above and below ground, more than other systems (Kay et al., 2019), but this capacity largely relies on the integration of grazing and forest management to optimize carbon storage by grass root systems while increasing tree growth. Additionally, silvopastoralism can contribute to preserving areas with a high risk of wildfires by reducing their fuel load through grazing and browsing, maintaining the accessibility of risk areas and maintaining critical firefighting infrastructures such as forest roads, water sources, or firebreaks. Sound silvopastoral management of lands leads to improvement in herbaceous fodder resources and therefore in pastoral potential (Bourgoin et al., 2019). Specific silvopastoral management tools, such as planning resting periods, are key to keeping the pastures out of degradation (Weber and Horst, 2011). Enclosures and fencing in modern SPS are also important tools to manage the herbaceous carpet and help to implement the grazing and resting cycles.In the short and medium term, silvopastoralism could be a powerful tool for land restoration. Research shows how SPS with fast-growing leguminous nitrogen-fixing trees can contribute to restoring degraded lands. Stocks of organic matter, carbon and nitrogen, enable leguminous trees to increase the efficiency of nutrient cycling while grazing accelerates this process. Besides, silvopastoralism can contribute to livestock production while compensating for GHG emissions with higher levels of carbon storage. Thus, the recovery of degraded land and sequestering of carbon dioxide at higher rates are key silvopastoral benefits (Solorio et al., 2017).However, preparing forests and lands with trees for grazing can also increase risks such as deforestation (Öllerer et al., 2019). Importantly, the lack of regulation and changes in land use (often driven by specific market demands or to introduce mechanization), can lead to degradation (FAO, 2014a) especially in traditional silvopastoral systems. Hence, it is vital to identify and manage trade-offs, while taking advantage of potential opportunities for improving silvopastoral approaches.There are promising examples that fit with conservation goals in designing, restoring and updating silvopastoral activities and using grazing livestock as a land management tool. This section spotlights cases from the silvopastoral systems in Tunisia, Senegal, Spain; Uzbekistan, Burkina Faso and Jordan and their potential contribution to enhancing the health ecosystem restoration and management with special consideration of different criteria and potential outcomes from combining trees and forests with grazing livestock as shown in Table 4.Rangelands in Tunisia cover approximately 5 566 180 ha, including 2 500 000 ha of collective land, 1 285 000 ha of private land and the remaining rangelands under state care, including 970 000 ha of forest rangelands, 743 300 ha of alfa steppes (Stipa tenacissima) and 67 880 ha of state-owned land. These ecosystems play several functions and provide various services to people but face severe climatic and anthropogenic pressures. Mismanagement of those ecosystems, conversion to farmland, exploitation through selective harvesting, fuel wood removal, charcoal production and livestock overgrazing are significant drivers of large land degradation, habitat change and biodiversity loss, which negatively impact their functions and services (Escadafal, Bacha and Delaître, 1997).Tunisia is suffering from this situation, with a high proportion of the country's land mass at risk of desertification due to the degradation of natural resources, which has resulted in a substantial decrease in plant diversity, productivity and pastoral value. Mismanagement of natural resources has also contributed to land degradation, exposing ecosystems to climate change and leading to high levels of food insecurity, conflict and reduced livelihood options for pastoralists and smallholder farmers (Harvey et al., 2014).Grazing livestock, forests and trees in Sbaihia site, Zaghouan, Tunisia Sbaihia Site is an area belonging to the Jimla sector of the governorate of Zaghouan. It suffers from a variable and fluctuating rainfall regime, with an average lower than 400 mm/year. The Jimla sector is an agricultural area, with its land divided between crops (52 percent) and forests and rangelands (48 percent). Agricultural land is mainly dedicated to growing crops that play an important role in supporting the livelihoods of the rural population, such as olive trees, forage crops, legume crops, cereals, vegetables and fruit trees, located in a semiarid region with cold and temperate winters and hot and dry summers.Sbaihia Site is a state rangeland managed under the authority of the Forestry Department. The site covers an area of around 4 700 hectares and hosts an important ecosystem across the Near East and North Africa region (a mosaic with croplands and rangelands with patches of Aleppo pine and Thuja forests) where the agrosilvopastoral production system is essential for the livelihood of the farming communities. The region is susceptible to climate change. The frequency of extreme weather events is growing and affects the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agricultural production systems, with adverse implications for dietary diversity and nutrition. Over 70 family households inhabit the area, with an average of five persons each. The primary income is generated through extensive small ruminant and olive production.According to the Regional Commissariat for Agricultural Development in Zaghouan, feed resources cover only 60 percent of the needs of the livestock herds, increasing the possibility of overgrazing the rangelands. Pastoral resources consist of fodder production from forest rangelands, natural grasslands and residues of cereal crops. The importance of the areas of land used by agriculture and the topographic configuration of these agricultural lands, combining forests and rangelands with small private land patches, show high potential for use in pastoral practices. Developing the agroforestry potential of the area also includes continuing to grow olive trees (Olea europaea) and carob trees (Ceratonia siliqua) and aromatic plants. Currently, there is a large group of women who work in the collection of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), lentisk (Pistacia lentiscus) and pennyroyal (Mentha s.p.) for the distillation of floral water and essential oil. The community-based organization (CBO) has a modern distiller it uses to process raw materials harvested by women and produce floral waters and essential oils. The CBO is also making efforts to market these products by participating in various fairs in the country.A joint project implemented in 2017-2019 by ICARDA, FAO, and the Direction General des Forêts de Tunisie -\"Sustainable Silvopastoral Restoration to Promote Ecosystem Services\" -aimed to improve the productivity and resilience of silvopastoral system. This project assessed the impact of sustainable silvopastoral practices of reseeding ecosystems with sulla (Hedysarum coronarium), a native biannual forage legume species providing feed as grazing biomass for livestock, along with services such as soil and water conservation. Regeneration of shrubs was also assessed, including different species of salt bush (Atriplex spp.), tree medic (Medicago arborea) and spineless cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica). Each year a similar amount of these plants (500 seedlings of carob tree and 500 seedlings of medic tree, 600 seedlings of salt bush and 3 200 pads of cactus pear) were transplanted to the site. Transplantation is currently ongoing: in 2021 alone over 1 000 carob trees and 250 seedlings of Rosa canina were planted. Survival rates for these species have been estimated at 85 percent at least 18-months after their transplantation. For all recorded parameters (dry matter, mineral content, organic matter, forage value, total nitrogenous matter etc.) the highest values were recorded in the sulla reseeded plots, for example in the case of dry matter yield. Under favourable conditions with good rain and deep soils, the biomass recorded at the improved site (sulla reseeding) was 10 times higher than the control, a conventional free-range practice (Figure 8). These results confirm that implementing a proper silvopastoral system improves the pastoral value of the natural ecosystems through increasing the provision of services (e.g. increased forage supply, enhanced livestock productivity, increased soil vegetation cover reducing erosion, increased species richness, etc.). For the restored pilot site, in 2019, the cost of livestock feeding dropped significantly to TND 0.35 per day per head (USD 0.12 USD) in 2019 while at the control site, the cost of feeding was estimated at TND 0.9 (USD 0.3) per day per head. Source: Elaborated by case study authorsSoil and water conservation structures were constructed to reduce soil erosion by water and increase water retention. These structures included bench terraces and stone gabions to reduce surface runoff and capture sediments. Four stone gabions were constructed, while manual bench terraces were implemented in an area of 40 ha. Based on calculations done after heavy rainfall events in October 2018, the four stone gabions and the manual benches thus far have preserved at least 4 800 Tm Ha -1 Year -1 of soil from erosion, while storing at least 280 m 3 of water to be used to water the shrub species planted on these ditches, as well as reducing runoff water loss by approximately 800 m 3 /ha. Over time, the strategy of expanding and diversifying well-adapted forage species will be fully integrated with the feeding systems of livestock, yielding more benefits from the silvopastoral approach. Planting forage legume species, such as sulla, is also expected to enhance soil fertility. Besides, Sulla is a melliferous species which allowed local communities to raise honeybee keeping and diversify their income. The 40 ha reseeded by Sulla could host up to 600 hives to be managed within the rehabilitated area.The establishment of an effective and well-managed CBO is necessary for the overall success of a silvopastoral site. The CBO ensures the implementation of a management plan and sustainable use for the whole site. To this end, an agreement between the silvopastoral community and the local authority has been developed, implementing controlled grazing based on the available forage supply and the livestock demand under an accurate estimation of carrying capacity. A small fee was paid by farmers based on the number of animals to be allowed to graze. Such an arrangement strengthened trust among all stakeholders and increased community sense of ownership. This is important, as restoration is relatively easy to accomplish, but most projects fail at managing the sites for the restoration to progress.A total of 15 capacity development events and meetings with the local community were held. As a result, 492 participants consisting of local farmers, extension staff, local authorities and students were equipped with skills and information concerning sustainable management of silvopastoral systems. From this total, at least 40 percent of the participants were women, achieving one of the targets of this project -to promote inclusiveness by empowering the participation of women in farming activities within the Sbaihia area and beyond. As part of the capacity-building activities, a new initiative aimed at increasing awareness about the conservation of natural resource base and best practices among pupils in 40 primary schools. This activity was important to introduce natural resource conservation with a focus on vegetation recovery to elementary school pupils at a young age to build their interest and involvement.Reseeding woody species as a means to recover and conserve the SPS Checking this case against the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that the Sbaihia initiative contributed to an increase in the silvopastoral production of forage and livestock through halting land degradation and erosion using silvopastoral tools, with clear outcomes in conserving the natural resource base (flora, fauna, soil and water), while improving the livelihoods and resilience of agrosilvopastoral communities, in the target area.The improvement of silvopastoralism in the site, including water harvesting interventions to alleviate soil erosion, selection and transplant of high nutritive value and palatability shrub and tree species (Carob tree and Tree Medic) and reseeding with sulla, a native herbaceous species, and improved grazing management based on estimated carrying capacity, helped in developing the linkages between seasonal fodder production and livestock husbandry and designing and implementing a silvopasture demonstration.The silvopastoral improvement accomplished in the region of Sbaihia relies on a sound participatory approach with full cooperation from the local population who contributed to the main decisions implemented onsite, such as the species to choose, the management of a site once planted and when to improve the performance of ecosystem service provision within the silvopastoral site. Also, the lessons learned from best practices for soil and water conservation, such as constructing gabions and water harvesting structures highlighted the need to combine those conservation practices with shrub and tree growing and silvopastoral management to maximize the potential of water harvested. The participation of both men and women in this initiative is considered as the main pillar to harness innovative capacities and create long-term mitigation effects of climate change while increasing production.The successful collaboration, at the national and regional level, among the Directorate-General of Forests of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Regional Commissariat of Agricultural Development of Zaghouan (represented by the forest service and the water and soils conservation service), the Higher School of Agriculture of Mateur, the National Institute for Research in Rural Engineering, Water and Forests, the CBO and the communities and farmers was a key factor in the success of the project and its sustainability.The great potential recognized so far at this pilot site has boosted the aim to outscale this system to other areas within Tunisia in order to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. As such, this pilot site would be an example for other places within Tunisia and in the Near East region.For more information Project final report (Louhaichi et al., 2019). Using native drought-tolerant forage species for enhanced dryland pasture restoration (Blog) by Mounir Louaichi (2021). Assessment of soil surface scarification and reseeding with sulla (Hedysarum coronarium L.) of degraded Mediterranean semiarid rangelands (Slim et al., 2021). Managing rangelands: promoting sustainable legume species: Hedysarum coronarium L.: a biennial herbaceous legume used for forage in the Mediterranean basin (Louhaichi, Slim and Gouider, 2018).The area of Northern Senegal known as the Ferlo, which is dominated by semiarid open rangelands with mainly annual grass and open tree-shrub covers, with a mean annual rainfall ranging from 400 mm/y to 200 mm/y, hosts a large part of the domestic ruminant population (54 percent of cattle (over 3 668 000), 59 percent of sheep (upwards of 7 152 000), and 56 percent of goats (over 6 052 000). Livestock is managed through traditional silvopastoral mobile livestock systems.Landscape in the Ferlo region is composed of undulating smooth sandy dunes in the western part and a ferruginous plateau in the eastern part. The vegetation is characterized by semiarid open tree and shrub steppes dominated by annual grasses (Aristida spp., Cenchrus spp., Schoenefeldia gracilis Kunth., Panicum spp., Brachiaria spp., etc.) (Figure 10). Dominant tree and shrub species are Balanites aegyptiaca, Boscia senegalensis, Senegalia senegal (L.) Britton, Vachellia tortilis, Vachellia nilotica (L.) P.J.H.Hurter and Mabb., Pterocarpus lucens Lepr. ex Guill. and Perr., Adansonia digitata L., Sclerocarya birrea, and so on. The average tree and shrub cover is around 15 percent. Due to low and unpredictable rainfall, cropping activities are not dominant in the southern part of the region and are almost absent in the northern part. Silvopastoral systems are the dominant land use, consisting of communal land owned by the government and managed by the local population through the status and regulations of \"pastoral units\". The mobility of the herd and part of the family can vary from 5-10 km to 15-25 km per day in the rainy season, and a total distance of over 300 km during the dry season, depending on the livestock production system and the availability of annual pasture around watering points. In a normal year, cattle are often limited to the boreholes of the northern Ferlo, while small ruminants move increasingly south. Various studies conducted in the area have shown a significant increase in the domestic ruminant population over the past few decades (Touré et al., 2012) and a decrease in the population of some woody species (Dendoncker and Vincke, 2020). Transhumant herders show a preference for routes that allow them to reach the host area as quickly as possible, under good feeding conditions for their livestock (presence and quality of pasture, availability of water, crop residues in agricultural areas) and considering the terms of trade practised in livestock markets (Garba et al 2012). The transhumance movements are thus made up of a series of stages carefully chosen based on information collected from informants and the personal experience of the herder.There is no clear evidence of the impact of livestock on woody vegetation population numbers, despite the fact that tree and shrub leaves and fruits may contribute to 20 and 80 percent of cattle and small ruminant diet, respectively, during the hot dry season when grasses are dry and rare. Among the 27 woody species mentioned by herders as used for food, fodder, firewood, construction, medicine and veterinary support, ten were cited as a source of fodder (Dendoncker, Ngom and Vincke, 2015). As another example, results from a field inventory carried at varying distances from boreholes do not show a significant influence of livestock on woody vegetation density, cover and species composition (Dendoncker and Vincke, 2020). Many attempts to improve and restore the woody population have been conducted in the area for decades with some positive results. The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative (GGW) has been operative in the area (around 10 000 hectares of afforestation since 2011), with FAO supporting processes related to the resilience of rural communities in the implementation of land restoration through the GGW programme between 2015 and 2019 (Sacande, Parfondry and Ciciatello, 2020). More than 200 plant species have been identified as useful to communities, including at least 86 tree species, mainly for human consumption (food, medicine, etc.) and fodder (Sacande and Parfondry, 2018). After a first phase when the population was not so much involved in restoration actions, the new strategy for the coming decades offers the opportunity for local stakeholders to participate in planning and operating restoration activities. Another important issue in the Ferlo is the recent development (starting 15 years ago) of local dairy value chains based on the small dairy industry collecting milk from silvopastoral livestock systems and selling products to urban centres (Corniaux, Duteurtre and Broutin, 2014;Bourgouin et al., 2019). This dynamic has the triple impact of improving income and livelihoods for pastoralists (Wane, Cadilhon and Yauck, 2017), offering local products to consumers versus imported dairy products (e.g. full milk powder) and stimulating silvopastoral ecosystem management and valuing through multistakeholder process and planning.The Ferlo comprises seven silvopastoral protected areas with old boreholes managed by pastoralist associations to provide water to livestock and human populations (Cesaro, Magrin and Ninot, 2010;Touré et al., 2012). The government has developed several public policies to promote the sustainable management of these protected areas and support livestock mobility. For many decades, numerous development and research projects conducted in this area through collaboration between the Government, CSOs (such as the Association pour la Promotion de l'Élevage au Sahel or the Réseau Billital Maroobè) and national and international research organizations pointed to an abundance of positive interactions between livestock activities and woody population management (ecosystem maintenance, feeding ruminants, biodiversity management, nutrient cycling, carbon balance, etc.) (Ickowicz and Mbaye 2001;Assouma et al., 2019;Bakhoum et al., 2020).Most recent results and synthesis of these past and present projects show that there is no clear evidence of the overarching impact of anthropogenic factors over climatic factors on tree and shrub population decrease and ecosystem degradation (Diouf 2002;Diouf et al., 2005;Assouma et al., 2019). While a decline in tree density was observed between 1965 and 2008 (14.8 trees/ha to 11.9 trees/ha; shrubs not taken into account), the following decade was marked by stabilization (12.2 trees/ha in 2018). Over the same initial period, species composition shifted, with a decrease of some tree species (e.g. Sclerocarya birrea (A.Rich.) Hochst. Combretum glutinosum Perr. ex DC.) and an increase or stabilization of shrub species and/or drought-resistant species (e.g. Vachellia tortilis (Forssk.) Galasso and Banfi, Boscia senegalensis Lam., Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Delile). As a result, the shrub-to-tree ratio increased (Dendoncker et al., 2020). A recent study on the carbon balance in silvopastoral ecosystems in the Ferlo showed that these systems are neutral, compensating emissions with storage, mainly due to positive interactions between ligneous plant species, soils and livestock (Assouma et al., 2019). This shows that Sahelian silvopastoral systems are well adapted to their environment and can contribute to sustainable development and food systems when relevant public policies and sustainable rural practices are adopted.The project: \"Carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions in (agro) silvopastoral ecosystems in the Sahelian CILSS States (CaSSECS)\" which spans from 2020 to 2023 aims at improving the assessment of the carbon footprint of Sahelian agrosilvopastoral ecosystems to better quantify their impacts on climate change for the development of livestock policies adapted to the Sahel.At the end of the second year of implementation, the project already mobilized numerous devices that allow for the acquisition of reference data that will, thereafter, offer the possibility of establishing a carbon footprint adapted to Sahelian silvopastoral zones. At the animal level, use of: (i) green feed to measure methane emissions during ingestion; (ii) experimentation in fields and on stations to evaluate the level of ingestion of ruminants; (iii) near-infrared spectrometers to estimate the chemical composition of animal feces, feeds and forages, using specific prediction equations; and (iv) GPS tags and collars to follow the demography of the herds and their mobility.For herbaceous vegetation, biomass evaluation is conducted at the plot level, followed by the calibration of drones for a larger-scale evaluation of grass growth.At the woody vegetation level, use of: (i) root and trunk growth monitoring system to assess the carbon accumulation and intra-annual variation; (ii) canopies growth and dynamics of trees monitored using drones but also terrestrial Lidar calibrated imagery; and (iii) experimentation in the field to study the dynamics of woody communities and their dendrometric characteristics.For soil and gas exchange: (i) two GHG flux towers measure daily GHG fluxes; (ii) coupled climatological towers monitor weather conditions (data available for the past few years); (iii) automatic and manual chambers calculate soil gas exchange on bare or covered soil, under trees or in open areas; and (iv) soil samples, collected from different territories and according to various grazing management, are analysed in the laboratory to estimate their carbon stock.In order to fully meet the objectives of the project and to incorporate target people, studies were conducted to understand the choices and practices of pastoralists but also the dynamics of the territories around silvopastoral systems. At the territorial level, the role of trees is linked to ES provision. A study conducted in CaSSECS is based on a better understanding of the socioeconomic importance of tree resources for pastoral households (human food, fruit marketing, animal feed, construction, energy, local medicine, etc.). The issue ahead is whether the increase in tree density (a GGW objective), possibly with multispecies composition close to natural distribution, is compatible with pastoral livestock farming or whether a compromise must be found between the two activities. The idea is to co-conceive new livestock practices to increase ES and livelihoods while promoting an adaptation of grazing systems to climate change.Finally, training on using the different devices and methods was provided during these first two years. This training aimed to strengthen the capacities of the project's technicians, researchers and Ph.D. students to facilitate the creation of references. For the next two years, training sessions will be organized for pastoralists and farmers' organizations, as well as for technicians and agents of the ministries, to make the references and tools designed accessible to those who need them.The analysis of this case, based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3), shows that the Ferlo region is quite representative of the general context all over the Sahelian region. CaSSECS has already promoted the acquisition of reference data that will, thereafter, offer the possibility of establishing a carbon footprint adapted to Sahelian silvopastoral zones. The methods used in CaSSECS focus mainly on producing evidence and reliable figures on the impact of the silvopastoral system on climate change and carbon balance. Initial assessment and studies through predictive models and field studies showed that Sahelian silvopastoral systems are significantly under the initial estimates of UNCCC and closer to a neutral GHG balance. This is due mainly to carbon storage in soils and trees and to lower GHG emissions by ruminants with a low annual average intake rate. But pathways to an ecological intensification of silvopastoral production maintaining a neutral carbon balance require a number of preconditions, including: innovative and fine-tuned agricultural practices with real measurement of carbon storage and GHG emissions (ruminant feeding, herd management, etc.); support from governments through appropriate regulations (land-use, proper carbon balance assessment system; import taxes; local value chain support; and investments (communication, rural infrastructure, etc.).The focus on positive environmental interactions between livestock and silvopastoral ecosystems, without neglecting economic and social aspects and looking at management and policy support and strategy, offers the opportunity to foster multistakeholder discussions on the sustainable development of silvopastoral landscapes and to innovate towards relevant sustainable practices. Co-building and the promotion of innovative practices, regulations and policies that allow positive interactions to be supported between livestock and forestry activities in the Sahel to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while avoiding the negatives, are among the main objectives of CaSSECS project in the Ferlo, together with many other projects taking place in this area.Livestock, trees and shrubs, grasses, soils and pastoralists are part of the Sahelian silvopastoral socioecosystem which for centuries has demonstrated its capacity to adapt to changes (climatic, social, and economic) in a relatively sustainable way, albeit with negative impacts in specific contexts. Recent studies on ecosystem maintenance, feeding ruminants, biodiversity management, nutrient cycling, Carbon balance (Ickowicz et Mbaye 2001, Danthu et al. 1996, Manlay et al. 2004, Chirat et al. 2014, Traore et al. 2016, Assouma et al. 2019, Bakhoum et al. 2020, Traore 2021) have described more accurately how positive and negative interactions can occur between these components. They showed also that to adapt better to a changing environment and remain in line with SDGs, the project needs to promote practices, regulations and policies that take into account all the components together and to have a holistic, multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach to elaborating new and innovative sustainable solutions and options. Livestock and forestry stakeholders, who are the main actors in this environment, must then collaborate and be open to other actors to design the operational context, Accordingly, the institutional and political environment for the sustainable management of the Sahelian region would be strengthened to take action against desertification impacts.For more information www.cassecs.org www.ppzs.orgAragon (Guara Natural Park) and Catalonia (Lluçanès County) in the northeastern part of Spain display important differences arising from the forest property regimes. In Guara, 40 percent of the forest land is forest commons belonging to municipalities (regional government), while in Lluçanès, more than 90 percent of the forest belongs to private forest owners and 50 percent of the forest land, that is, around 24 000 ha, has a forest management plan. Around 400 of these private forests are bigger than 10 ha and around 200 forest owners hold forest states bigger than 50 ha. A shift from sheep to cattle farming has taken place in both areas. The overall stocking rate in forest land is low due to the reduced quality of forage in forest land. Supplementary feeding is provided by cattle farmers. In the absence of management optimization, this causes an irregular distribution of stocking rates with areas under high grazing pressure while others remain unexplored.Extensive livestock farming and silviculture have experienced a significant decline in the rural areas in Spain, triggering unwanted effects on ecosystems and society. The reduction in forest management has resulted in an increase in biomass and vulnerability to wildfires jointly with habitat loss. The decrease in the number of farms and livestock (especially sheep) is linked to the decline of farming revenues and the income gap in rural areas classified as non-disadvantaged, which explains the scarcity of generational change. Frequently, these farms are located in high natural value areas, providing a broad array of ES.Forest grazing provides a strategic resource in times of scarcity (Casals et al., 2009), contributing to self-sufficiency objectives (Varela et al., 2022). Taüll (2009) found out that in half of forest states with a forest management plan, the pastoral objective is proposed either as the main or secondary objective. However, the pastoral management of these states is not detailed in the planning (i.e. pastoral calendars, stocking rates or productivity of pastoral resources are usually missing in these plans). This makes forest pastures less attractive although they may become a valuable resource for landless grazers. However, the increased labour requirements of forest grazing, the fragmentation of small properties coexisting together and the mix of public and private lands along with the lack of water points and shrub encroachment, hinder forest grazing. Innovative public and private initiatives have flourished to promote silvopastoralism as a tool to reduce vulnerability to wildfires in Catalonia and other regions in Spain.Silvopastoralism as an adaptation strategy for integrated rural development in the Mediterranean project was initiated by the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology and the University of Zaragoza, in Lluçanès region, Catalonia and Sierra de Guara Natural Park, Aragon in Spain. The main assumption underlying the whole project is that greater integration between forestry and livestock grazing would benefit both activities. Thus, the project assessed the factors contributing to or hindering the collaboration between forest owners and livestock farmers, hence reducing vulnerability while providing the services that society expects from those lands (Figure 10).The project team explored the attitudes and opinions of forest owners and livestock farmers regarding various dimensions of silvopastoral management and analysed whether those were linked to their structural characteristics and management objectives. The project team interviewed a total of 19 livestock farmers and 21 forest owners. The team was thus able to determine which profiles were more likely to engage in joint silvopastoral activities and hence contribute towards improving the sustainability and provision of ES in Mediterranean forests. Furthermore, the team analysed the contribution of silvopastoral management practices (SMP) to the provision of ES. Silvicultural treatments exhibited a multifunctional role, improving ES in bundles (provisioning and cultural ES and wildfire prevention). The study also involved regional and local administrations and technicians through in-depth interviews and workshops to discuss the integration between forest management and livestock grazing. Using semistructured questionnaires and closed questionnaires, face-to-face interviews were conducted respectively with local experts and with forest owners and pastoralists. The team applied the structured expert consultation Delphi method to assess the medium-term effect of 18 SMP on the delivery of eight ES in Mediterranean mid-mountain silvopastoral systems. 69 experts were asked to assess the positive mid-term (five-ten years) and rational use (mid-intensity) effect of each SMP over each ES at stand level in the selected combinations through a six-point Likert-type scale from none (0) to very high positive (5) contribution. The rational or moderate use of each practice (mid-intensity) is to modulate the potential negative impact of over application of some of the practices (e.g. clearing).As shown in Figure 11, the most positive synergies were found between forest owners and cattle farmers, as already signaled by Taüll et al., (2009). Farmers expressed a positive attitude towards wood pastures because of their positive economic impacts and their strategic role in periods of shortage of other resources. Grazing of wood pastures contributes to self-sufficiency in farm feed, a key element for farm sustainability.Simultaneously, they were aware of the low stocking rate allowed by these pastures in order to make sustainable use of them. Owners of small forests acknowledged the environmental functions of grazing to a greater extent and were significantly more interested in subsidies for grazing than owners of larger forests. The dimensions of mobility and accessibility offered by grazing were acknowledged by owners prioritizing wildfire protection objectives. Importantly, this wildfire protection role is frequently valued over the financial return of the pastoral activity (Taüll et al., 2009). Acknowledgement of the role of grazing in landscape maintenance was positively correlated with several objectives held by forest owners, from economic productivity to the more altruistic.Livestock production, habitats for biodiversity and wildfire prevention were the ES provided to a higher extent by the overall SMP evaluated. The SMP with the highest contribution to livestock production was reducing stand density, the conservation of water sources and the conservation of forest roads. Among grazing practices, their results indicate that grazing management regimes with more animal control, such as rotational grazing or target grazing can be more effective in meeting multiple management objectives. The type of livestock (small ruminants vs. cattle/horse) also influences the achievement of these objectives. Neither of the SMP evaluated simultaneously maximized its contribution to all ES. Nevertheless, silvicultural treatments and transversal practices (e.g. conservation of water bodies and shredding of forest residues) provided multiple ES bundles, suggesting the importance of properly managing tree cover for the delivery of ES. Multiple synergies arose among provisioning, regulating and cultural ES whereas trade-offs were especially important between erosion control and wildfire prevention. Transversal practicesIn-depth analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that silvicultural and livestock management practices can contribute to the delivery of bundles of ES including the positive acknowledgement of the role of grazing in landscape maintenance and identifying the trade-offs between SMP, e.g. free animal grazing can reduce grassland biodiversity.However, there are also potential challenges in bringing these forest owners together and integrating private (or public) land ownership with the right to graze the same place. The role of public administration is crucial for establishing the framework and rules that determine who bears the costs of the different interventions, which after all are aimed at providing benefits for farmers, forest owners and society. Compensation strategies can be designed to reward those involved with wood pasture grazing for the potential compromises they may make when pursuing certain management objectives.This case demonstrated that SMP drive the provision of a high number of ES in a synergic manner, revealing great potential for Mediterranean forests to improve their multifunctionality and support extensive livestock farming systems through better integration of both. However, the decline of SPS in the Mediterranean and the increasing application of SMP with a low multifunctional character (e.g. free animal grazing) could possibly lead to negative contributions to some ES. Hence appropriate measures would be needed to encourage SMP that lead to optimizing the provision of ES bundles, or a single ES when needed, accounting for the tradeoffs implied. The SMP study revealed multiple synergies in the overall provision of ES, reinforcing the role of SPS to reconcile production and conservation while increasing resilience in the face of climate change to ensure sustainable ES delivery.The most adequate silvicultural management practices should be determined by jointly considering management objectives, pasture type and farm systems in the area, to develop win-win scenarios for forestry, livestock farming and ecosystem service provision.Plataforma por la ganadería extensiva y el pastoralismo,, Ramats the foc, grazing to prevent wildfires, cuadernos SECF, LIFE Montserrat, Espais Test, Alberapastur.Irregular forest cover in Uzbekistan accounts for over 3.5 million ha -about 7.7 percent of its land. Desert-like forests are the most abundant, (approx. 81 percent). Mountain forests (12 percent) are on the slopes of Western Tien Shan, while the remainder -the Tugai valley forests -extends in narrow belts along the main watercourses. All existing and newly established forests in Uzbekistan have protective and land reclamation values. The State Forestry Committee handles some of these areas, while others are managed locally. Land use in Uzbekistan is usually as rangelands, which occupy over half the country's surface. They are especially abundant in the arid desert-like drylands, but they also occupy over 15 percent of foothills and plains, close to the agricultural nodes. Rangelands are key assets for the livelihoods of rural and poor pastoral communities in the country, who depend on grazing livestock for food, income and other key resources like fuel and herbs.Uzbekistani forests and rangelands are facing a severe process of degradation caused by population growth, uncontrolled harvesting of wood and non-wood productions, encroachment, expansion of agricultural lands, change in water regimes, increasing stocks of livestock grazing in forests, and climate change.Overgrazing is linked to the breakdown of the Soviet fodder provision system and the reduction of livestock mobility. This caused a serious imbalance in the use of fodder resources, which led to severe overgrazing in key pastures and underuse of others. Land degradation speeds up with overexploitation of other resources, failure in land management, lack of security in land rights, weakness in governance institutions, abandonment, industrialization of agriculture and urbanization, among other things. This scenario has become catastrophic for the Aral Sea. Climate change, extreme weather events such as droughts and decreasing precipitation are also key drivers. They contribute to degradation, reducing water reserves and availability and deteriorating production. Groundwater level and recovery capacity are decreasing. The use of water reserves is much larger than the natural recovery capacity. Water scarcity is the cornerstone of production activity in those lands, affecting rainfed crops and concentrating livestock around water points, which is also heavily degrading the surroundings of the wells.Pastoralists and other livestock producers are struggling with scarce resources. They adapt their herd size to survival, keeping small multispecies flocks of 3-5 cattle and/or 3-6 sheep and goats in a subsistence model. Bigger flocks would be difficult to raise under those conditions, while smaller ones will not be enough for the household to make a living. Smallholders use monthly grazing tickets to rent state rangelands for the nine-month grazing season. These temporary rental agreements are fragile, while grazing areas are limited and fees can be high at the district level. Increased labour migration from rural areas to cities or other countries is also limiting the traditional management and mobility of flocks and making access to remote pasturelands difficult and sporadic. Other traditional pastoralist strategies, such as pooling, are also increasingly difficult under the current economic situation. All these factors contribute to generating a complicated scenario where it is increasingly difficult to keep extensive livestock farming under sustainability parameters.The diagnostics summarized in the previous sections show that, while major impacts are traced to grazing and harvesting timber and non-timber productions, external trends such as urbanization, industrialization of agriculture, or overuse of water resources, along with the weakness of rights of access and use of the resources are preventing the activity of households and small farmers from behaving more sustainably.In an initiative to engage local stakeholders in designing innovative actions to preserve the desert ecosystems, the Central Asian Desert Initiative (CADI) -a project supporting the conservation and sustainable use of cold winter deserts in Central Asia funded by the German government within the International Climate Initiative (2017-2022) and developed by the University of Greifswald, and FAO's Subregional Office for Central Asia -conducted several participatory processes to engage local stakeholders. Among those processes, they set the focus on creating farmer field schools for the training and participation of 87 local women and 65 men farmers and smallholders. This way, training and participatory activities, designed in a gender-sensitive way, can empower and prepare local stakeholders to build the knowledge and capacity needed to improve production, maintain ecosystem integrity and reduce the long-term economic risks associated with degradation. Technical actions proposed by the project aim to improve land management, increase productivity and diversify production to reduce pressure on natural resources. Implementing these measures demands a participatory approach whereby local stakeholders should be the main beneficiaries and decision-makers of the actual measures implemented. Women play a key role in the development of these solutions, as they usually manage resources linked to household production, such as livestock raising, harvesting, or fuelwood collection. Thus, a gendersensitive approach has been deeply integrated into the project, from training to participatory decision-making.Among the different measures and recommendations implemented under the CADI umbrella, several practices aim to improve the situation of forests and rangelands. Among the forest restoration, the project distributed seeds and more than 10 500 seedlings of tree species to local farmers and smallholders to prevent sandstorms and mobilization of dunes and protective forest belts around factories, roads and pipelines. Rangeland degradation on the other hand is addressed by rotational grazing, redistribution of water sources and wells, reseeding and planting new pastures based on native species tolerant to salinity and water scarcity, improved water harvesting and management, fencing in specific areas and implementation of integrated crop-livestock systems.Knowledge building and participatory processes led by the project have given rise to several recommendations on how to address small farms and households to improve their products and their outcomes in terms of land management. These recommendations include several measures and small investments designed to improve livelihoods and create jobs and income-generating opportunities for women and men, thus improving the living standards of local communities. These recommendations address some policy issues on governance, gender balance and security in land tenure. Improved access to water for small farms and livestock is one of the key actions planned, demanding a close look at equity and gender balance. Programmes of small investments are also planned for farmers and households, including diversifying agricultural activity through beekeeping, improved seeds and seedlings for rainfed crops, aromatic plants, and so on. Project investment is being channelled to 120 smallholders to develop a milk processing value chain, support home-based handicrafts and provide small greenhouses to encourage backyard horticulture for local people. Finally, specific training and technical support are being provided to implement those advances while lowering the risks and improving the results in terms of sustainable land management and land degradation neutrality.Uzbekistan to understand the reactions of pastoralists and silvopastoralists and make recommendations focused on the role of grazing livestock. The preliminary analysis was based on a survey of 200 randomly selected households to study their baseline condition and analyse their perception of ES (Table 9). The second step was a choice experiment analysis conducted for 300 households to identify their willingness to pay for services (including water supply) of water users to produce crops. The analysis produced the following results, prioritized and graphically displayed on shown in Figure 12.  In their search for solutions, the stakeholder consultation and the ES assessment confirmed that agroforestry is an important instrumental to implement the improved land management strategies in the Central Asian Deserts and establish a sustainability framework for grazing livestock in forests and rangeland areas. First, grazing should be planned and organized considering the life cycle of pastures on forests and rangelands, establishing clear grazing and resting periods and stocking rates during the active periods and comparing this with the actual numbers of livestock and grazing regimes. This task should be performed in close collaboration with local producers with intimate knowledge of the phenology and characteristics of their pastures. There may also be additional fodder resources that were not accounted for, such as mountain pastures formerly used by transhumant shepherds, wood crops, fruit trees that could be grazed after harvesting, and so on. Those resources could be integrated with grazing management plans that would fit the load capacity of the different patches of land (Table 10). Additional grazing resources can be found using forest leaves as fodder, or grazing in stubble and fallows, which allow for crop integration and livestock activity. Recovering rotation in crops and using fodder crops and harvest residues to feed the animals during pasture resting season could also contribute to pressure release over woods and rangelands. The underlying conditions for developing ideas around pastoral mobility must be fully functional to access diverse sources and there should be a better distribution of water points for livestock. Analysis based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that integrating forests and rangelands under sound grazing management plans is a challenge for dryland forests in Uzbekistan, already under heavy pressure. This could complement plans for water management strategies in the field, increasing retention and water harvesting, building wells to distribute water points and reducing concentration and land degradation in their surroundings. Planting fodder crops around wells could reduce pressure over local rangelands. Use of leaves from trees and shrubs could also complement animal feed during drought times, mobilizing alternative feed sources from crop residues.Planting trees and shrubs with potential use as fodder is another strategy to restore forests and drylands, although this requires proper management to synchronize grazing with the development of saplings and seedlings, avoiding early degradation. Enclosures could be another strategy to restore key woody vegetation in areas where they could become key assets during drought times and to contribute to fertilizing key spots (such as home gardens). Diversification is also an adaptation strategy. Besides some alternatives and small investments already started by the project, a silvopastoral approach could be of help in this area. For instance, using small ruminants to graze and maintain orchards, fruit trees and vineyards, and maintaining woody fences and edges separating various kinds of land. The farmer field school approach helped to educate local farmers and smallholders on improved wheat and chickpea production, leading to higher yields and incomes.For more information CADI website: https://cadi.uni-greifswald.de/en/home/ Report: Integrated natural resources management worldwide and in Uzbekistan.BURKINA FASO In Burkina Faso, the farming system commonly practised is often considered one of the main causes of land degradation. The rural populations of these areas are agrosilvopastoralists. Family members (grandparents, their children and their wives and grandsons) live together, using both common and individual lands, which they clear for agriculture, and herding their own livestock in an open and free-range system, in which livestock are left to permanently wander seeking for food. Consequently, grasslands are frequently overgrazed and animals are often responsible for destroying crops and younger trees, leading to production losses and conflicts between livestock producers, farmers and woodland owners. At the pastoral level, some grass species could be disappearing and grasslands will be reduced. Land degradation includes strong deforestation of the woody ecosystem due to low rainfall and prolonged droughts, overexploitation and bush fires, which keep contributing to soil degradation and a drop in rainfall. The degradation and deforestation of local landscapes also have a negative impact on local communities, leading to heavy losses in agriculture and silvicultural productivity. Consequently, food insecurity and poverty are increasing. Women are especially affected by this phenomenon. In fact, as they usually increase their household incomes through the sale of non-timber forest products and milk, the economic impact is harder on them, contributing to inequality. Other people, such as livestock breeders, are also affected as they often need to buy additional feed on the market, increasing production costs. To fight against this problem, local populations are developing different ideas to cope with the situation, such as reforestation initiatives, stone lines and gabions, and restoring the degraded lands. This scenario also triggered the foundation of the bocage perimeter project.A bocage perimeter is an integrated system that combines trees, animals and crops. In Burkina Faso, perimeters are requested by landowners but built, by pilot farms, for the whole community, with different responsibilities distributed among owners and livestock producers. Each owner manages four fields of 0.62 ha, each one with a dug pond where livestock are watered. A rational grazing system including trees is one of the key parts of the system. Its goal is to provide grass in enough quantity and quality, but also to increase the productivity of trees and to help with ecosystem restoration. Rational grazing on bocage perimeter has been implemented in the semiarid areas (plateau central and Centre-Nord regions where the level of rain is between 600 and 900 mm per year, concentrated in 3 months) and in the arid area (the Nord region, where the amount of rain is less than 600 mm per year). Vegetation in the northern regions is characterized by steppe rangelands, while the central plateau and Centre-Nord regions are mostly occupied by savannahs. However, these lands are facing strong deforestation and increasing degradation. According to the 2019 study report of the Forest Investment Programme, the country is losing 243 450 hectares of forest per year. Deforestation and degradation are driven by agricultural expansion, overgrazing, bush fires, and excessive cutting of wood for energy and charcoal production, as well as mining and climate change.The effects of grazing in arid lands are variable and controversial; the related impacts can be serious, depending on the type of grazing, the animal load and the time of the year. In order to reduce these impacts the project is thus experimenting with the implementation of rational grazing on the bocage perimeter as a key management system for both the livestock and the mosaic of land uses providing feed for them. Since 1989, the NGO \"Terre Verte\" has been helping in resolving the conflicts between owners of wooded lands and livestock breeders through the bocage perimeter project and technically and financially providing a pilot farm created by a local intervillage association to develop bocage perimeters and wooded roads. A bocage perimeter is a set of fields protected by a network of fences and vegetal hedges, with each field delimited by bunds and hedges. At the lowest corner, a pond is dug to collect the rainfall and supply groundwater. In the middle and border of the field, trees are planted to complement the system.The pilot farm develops bocage perimeters and provides landowners and farmers with management training. Additionally, producers have also been trained in agrosilvopastoralist tools and good practices. Rational grazing is promoted in this training programme as a powerful technique for improving pasture management.Rational grazing aims to restore both forests and pastures and also to supply grass in quantity and quality to feed livestock. Terre Verte is using rational grazing to build a new landscape approach, integrating trees, grazing and livestock. This integrated system provides the farmers in a bocage perimeter with additional productions, both timber and non-timber products to complement agriculture and husbandry.The existence of national, regional and subregional markets for these products and the technical support provided by research centres have improved the opportunities for developing agrosilvopastoralism in bocage perimeters, which are becoming more profitable and creating jobs for the rural population.The implementation of rational grazing in arid areas turns out to be a challenge, as it implies setting rules for grazing that may clash with other activities (free-range or wood cutting). The bocage perimeters can contribute to solving this problem by creating protected areas where grazing lands are more controlled. It also permits the protection of trees from browsing animals and excessive logging. Additionally, rainwater is kept in the field, making the soil of the trees moister along with the trees themselves. The water is also used for watering cattle and the whole cycle is improved. When rational grazing is practised in fallow land, it also supplies the soil with nutrients in short term and improves land restoration in the long term.Concerning the rules of grazing, each year the bocage breeders helped by the pilot farm ask permission from the owners to graze their animals. The pilot farm advises on the timeline, establishing the correct time to start and end grazing and transmitting this information to both owners and breeders' groups. Outside of these periods, free-range wandering and grazing in the perimeter are forbidden. The grazing season generally starts in mid-June and lasts until the end of September. At that moment breeders mow the grass and store it for the dry season. This treatment also allows grass to grow and disperse seeds that germinate and recover the vegetation in the next rainy season and the seed bank to grow.Rational grazing in bocage perimeters is practised in both rainy and dry seasons. During the rainy season, rational grazing is practised in the fallow fields, thanks to the crop rotation system. Every year, one field is left fallow and available for grazing by each farmer, rotating the next year. These fallow fields are grazed by the animals of bocage breeders providing their feed. The fallow field to be grazed is divided into small areas according to the number of animals and the amount of grass, using electric fences. Within an area of 750 m², 20 head of cows are allowed to graze each session. The grazing time in a field is short, preventing the animals from consuming the regrowth, which often appears very quickly. This allows the animals to quickly graze the grass and not compact the soil by staying there for a long time (Figure 21).Rational grazing implies both animal and field rotation every year accelerating the biomass fluxes. Nowadays, rational grazing is implemented in the following villages: Guie, Doanghin, Konkoos-raogo (in total 368 hectares of land developed as bocages perimeters in the plateau central region); Toegin, Kamse, Goema and Lebda (410 hectares of land developed as bocages perimeters in the Centre-Nord region); and the villages of Barga, Filly and Gourbaré (261 hectares of land developed as bocages perimeters in the Nord region).Despite these advantages, this type of grazing also shows a negative effect that needs to be addressed: the water points are fixed on the field and leads to compacted soils and grass.The impact of silvopastoralism is measured through observations of the state of grass, animals and trees. The photos below show a portion of space where rational grazing has been practised for a long time and the grass continues to grow back.The rest period (the interval between two successive grazing of cattle) varies from two to three weeks depending on the climatic conditions and the speed of grass regrowth. A resting period of two weeks is applied when the rains are plentiful enough and the grass grows quickly. Water must be sufficient so that the grass can replenish its root reserves for good regrowth, thus preserving the grassy flora.In the dry season: grass becomes increasingly scarce and its quality decreases. Farmers in the bocage perimeters are advised to leave crop residues in the field for animal grazing. Additionally, the animals supplement their food needs with leaves and fruits from the trees and shrubs. Trees and hedges are also a refuge for biodiversity.In-depth analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that rational grazing in the bocage perimeter has improved the coexistence of trees and animals and the communities have been able to restore degraded lands. Animals graze in the fields without harming the trees, thanks to the electrical fence, which keeps them in a limited area. This allows trees to grow in better conditions and provide fruits and leaves for people and as additional feed for animals. Tree owners are also satisfied because rational grazing brings nutrients to the soil through animal excrement. Meanwhile, thanks to rational grazing, bocage breeders do not need to go far to graze theirWhile grazing After grazing animals. Their livestock has access to good-quality grass. Rational grazing has also improved the relationship between breeders, trees and field owners, leading to a decrease in the number of conflicts.On the environmental side, by planting trees on degraded grazed lands through the bocage perimeter, the NGO Terre Verte contributes to the fight against climate change by increasing carbon sequestration by roots, trees and soil. The association of rational grazing to a bocage perimeter has an overall positive effect. It contributes to restoring landscapes by increasing soil fertilization. Even though grazing has a negative impact on the land by trampling and the risk of grazing the re-growing seedling, the rational grazing system addresses and limits those constraints. When fields are divided into pieces according to the quantity of grass and animals, animals do not trample for a long time and also cannotBurkina Faso's socioeconomic development is largely based on agrosilvopastoral, fishing and wildlife activities. As such, the development of the agrosilvopastoral production sector is a priority for the country's Government. Following the adoption of the National Economic and Social Development Plan (PNDES), the government has undertaken to adopt policies for all planning sectors defined in this national repository including a sectoral policy \"Agrosilvopastoral production\" (PS-PASP). This policy aims to make agrosilvopastoral production by 2026, a modern, competitive, sustainable sector that drives economic growth, based on efficient family farms and agrosilvopastoral enterprises ensuring all citizens access to the food they need to lead a healthy and active life. The process of developing the PS-PASP favoured the participatory approach with the involvement of all players in the sector. Its implementation will not only be the responsibility of the ministerial departments in connection with the rural world but also to other public and private actors, as well as to the communities of base and development partners. The sector's field of action covers the value chain of agrosilvopastoral, fishery and wildlife products, as well as the services related to these activities.The PASP sector policy draws its foundations from different national and international tools, from the PNDES and the national plan for sustainable development of the land at the national level, to ECOWAP + 10 (https://www.inter-reseaux.org/ wp-content/uploads/bds_no19_ecowap_en.pdf), the African Union's Agenda 2063 or the Sustainable Development Goals.The overall objective of the policy is to develop an agrosilvopastoral production sector ensuring food security, more market-oriented and creator of decent jobs based on sustainable production and consumption patterns. Ultimately, this will involve halving the proportion of people vulnerable to food and nutritional insecurity, develop an evolving and competitive agrosilvopastoral sector able to create at least 31 200 jobs per year, reduce the incidence of poverty in rural areas below 35 percent, improve the average monetary income and reverse the trend of degradation of natural resources.graze the regrowth seedlings each year. The previously grazed fields are thus left for new patches, reducing the negative impact on the land. Additionally, rational grazing does not clear the land. Vegetation of a certain height is left untouched to allow the seedlings to re-grow and also to continue slowing down the rainwater flow. A silvopastoral approach combining rational grazing with trees in a bocage perimeter has allowed the return of animal and vegetal biodiversity.Trees are more respected when growing in a bocage perimeter. The bocage perimeter owners no longer cut down trees without planning. They ask the pilot farms for technical support. The fact that bocage perimeters are situated in common land also dissuades the population from excessive tree cutting. Communication between the different actors has improved, and land is generally better managed.For more information: FAO's Family Farming Knowledge Platform. Reclaiming life in marginal areas and fragile ecosystems through innovative solutions: The case of bocage perimeters in Burkina Faso. WÉGOUBRI, LE BOCAGE SAHELIEN: intégrer la sauvegarde de l'environnement dans l'agriculture sahélienne au Burkina Faso (French).Tell Al-Rumman area is a forest site located 25 km north of the capital city Amman and on the north-facing steep slopes overlooking the King Talal reservoir in Jordan. The forest area comprises a significant variety of soils and microclimates, several wadi systems, a perennial freshwater stream and over 300 m of elevation change within its boundaries, which make it important to conserve the native flora of Jordan through ecological restoration, research and conservation action. The Royal Botanic Garden (RBG) site is located in an open, mountainous and degraded forest area, mainly covered by pine, oak, pistachio and carob trees under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture, until the garden project was approved.Five neighbouring herders with a total number of 1 500 head of local sheep and goats used to graze on shrubs and grasses. Trees were used as shelter in summer and winter and one herder was still transhumant. However, local herders kept illegally grazing their livestock all over the site throughout the entire year. They usually accessed their herds late at night or very early in the morning for grazing and, on many occasions, cut parts of the surrounding fence around the site to allow their herds to enter. This situation presented a huge problem to the RBG management team, especially with their focus on ecological restoration -plant cover, vegetation surveys and making biomass estimates without such uncontrolled interference.This potentially conflictive scenario demanded a strategic solution to combine conserving the forest flora and satisfying the requirements of the local herders -offering them a satisfactory outcome and ensuring local community engagement in the solution. In 2008, the RBG became responsible for managing the site and conserving the Jordan Flora native species. Accordingly, the garden started to design a community-based rangeland rehabilitation programme (CBRR) to develop efficient sustainable rangeland management strategies through reviving communities' knowledge with science-based interventions.A range of scientists and veterinarians were thus engaged to work alongside RBG botanists, landscapers, foresters and the local herding community to design the management and research projects at the heart of the CBRR. Many public meetings with livestock owners and key actors in the area were held to discuss the problem, possible solutions, alternative grazing scenarios and the timing of grazing. These stakeholder dialogues and consultations also fostered cooperation and agreement on a sustainable land management approach. The first steps were patchy and only five local herding families fully cooperated with the CBRR in the first year. However, the benefits quickly became evident to the early joiners and by 2009, livestock owners who once grazed the site to bare soil were policing themselves and teaching others. The number of herding families participating has been growing steadily since then, rising to 54 families by the year 2018.The design and co-building of the site management system were performed through a participatory process involving the RGB team and the local herding community. Moreover, the CBRR project has conducted many research studies (with the participation of local herders) to secure the scientific data necessary to improve decision-making related to the grazing management system within the RBG site. To build community ownership and accountability, the CBRR considered several complementary activities such as capacity building, training sessions and knowledge-sharing, designed to organize access to and use of the RBG site, schedule the stocking rates and define the grazing scenarios for local producers. Herders who habitually grazed on the RBG site were at first offered replacement forage in exchange for the removal of grazing while vegetation surveys and biomass estimates were conducted; the site was divided into 11 rangeland sectors and the grazing system was designed. The grazing management system then granted access to these herders during late summer and early autumn, for periods collaboratively determined according to the biomass and stocking rate studies. According to this schedule, herders are permitted to enter specified sectors through RBG service gates, and only sheep herds are allowed to graze. 750 head of sheep were allowed to graze on the site for a period of four months for 2.5 hours twice a day, which is considered enough for sheep to feel full. After the determined period ends, the herds move to other sectors following the schedule. The CBRR team supervises the grazing on the site every day and evaluates the vegetation and biomass of the grazed sector. During the grazing period, when the herds graze in the lower plain areas of the site, the herders usually water their livestock from the dam, and when grazing in upper mountainous areas, the herders bring their water tanks to specific points for watering the herds.Other beneficial activities are related to the practical training and advice to the community, pastoralist-related issues such as animal health, hygiene and herd management techniques and facilitating access to veterinary care. Local women played a significant role in supporting the CBRR activities by participating in the training programme and implementing the herd management techniques. CBRR also began to establish environmentally friendly income-generating programmes that started giving families better livelihood opportunities, especially after establishing the Tal Al-Rumman Women's cooperative society in 2016. It will continue to help more families as the project grows.The grazing management approach implemented by the CBRR programme assists in improving the biodiversity and biomass productivity of the RBG site. From 2008-2011, the biomass increased by 30 percent and 10 percent per year in subsequent years.After implementing the managed grazing at the RBG site, a healthier, more diverse range of plants began to appear. When left unmanaged, open grasslands and woodlands are generally dominated by non-palatable annual grasses and herbs. Managed livestock grazing controls the growth of unpalatable grasses and herbs so that other desirable plants (wildflowers and native grasses) can regenerate and coexist with them. Many plants, including several endangered species, require grazing in order to maintain viable populations. The effects of the CBRR programme were noted as some plant species that disappeared from the region years ago have now spontaneously re-appeared. Additionally, the growth of trees within the RBG site was enhanced by limiting wood cutting, mulching the soil surface and enriching the soil properties. RBG plant surveys recorded the increase of species from 436 in the year 2008 to 602 in the year 2021. 22 plant species out of the 600 plant species are identified as endangered and critically endangered in the RBG site.Notably, there have been constraints to overcome. Pastoralists were unprepared to assume the new responsibilities and not too many were willing to do so. Moreover, the social and economic situation of the area was challenging, given the low economic status of families in the area and a lack of technical and operational capacities over questions like grazing management or animal health. This situation reduced the pastoralists' resilience and adaptation capacity, also weakening their influence in land-use decision-making and grazing management control.In-depth analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that well-managed livestock grazing increases the diversity of habitats available to wildlife species. Many species, including several endangered species, benefit from the vegetation management performed by livestock. Proper utilization of livestock grazing promotes healthier, diverse wildlife populations in rangeland.An economic study performed among the five original herders in the first stages of CBBR implementation showed how support from RBG both indirectly from pasture (a mean value of USD 513 for each herder) and directly from barley supplements (a mean value of USD 433 for herder) improved their revenue between 6 and 159 percent (Al-Khalidi et al., 2013). Additionally, benefits from targeted training and experience sharing are also available to the community. Such simple herd-management techniques contribute to optimizing the grazing management operations, as well improving overall land productivity. Applying the local knowledge to improve the science base monitoring and research has resulted in the CBRR rehabilitating 170 hectares of the total RBG site in a sustainable way compatible with traditional herding under a sustainable grazing management plan, with community participation. Since the implementation of the CBRR, the livestock owners who once grazed the site down to bare earth are policing themselves and others to protect the benefits they are reaping from the CBRR project and the rapidly reviving ecosystem.Moreover, the CBRR also helped to improve the socioeconomic status of the herders in the target area through a governance approach, which led to a more sustainable ecological restoration of the site and also empowered the local community to represent themselves as a CBO. They are now more resilient and better adapted to climate change. This knowledge and expertise has been shared and transferred to other associations, non-governmental organizations and government organizations on a national and regional scale.The management of silvopastoral systems, the shaping of their ecosystems' properties, and their adaptive capacity and resilience make them an important part of sustainable land use. The previous themes highlighted the importance of silvopastoral management in improving the key ecosystem features and enhancing both production (as seen in theme 1) and ecosystem health (theme 2), plus offering a great variety of solutions to deal with variable conditions caused by climate change and unsustainable land use. Silvopastoralist communities are key actors in helping bring about these benefits and thus improving their own livelihoods' adaptation mechanisms, and silvopastoralism demonstrates the potential to achieve climate change mitigation and adaptation synergies. For instance, optimizing carbon storage using adjusted grazing pressure, integrating forestry and livestock management or reducing emissions by diversified livestock diets also contributes to helping the system adapt to climate change (e.g. providing shade and shelter and expanded feed periods) and increases its resilience (by improving animal welfare or diversifying production). This path from multifunctionality to resilience provides a clear example for implementing agroecological strategies and adaptively managing other food production systems.By contrast, abuse of the system, unbalanced extraction of resources, broken links and pressure over key features, simplification, or abandonment will disturb the whole management system, reducing its outcomes and worsening overall conditions. External factors, such as extreme effects of climate change, fragmentation, land grabbing, overpopulation, inappropriate policies, and so on, could increase pressures on the system, generating additional threats that can reduce its performance, hence excluding people and turning the direction of the loop towards degradation and malfunctioning.Accordingly, silvopastoral management requires the collaboration of different agents in charge of different activities on the same land base, cooperating in a flexible way that allows balanced decision-making, which should keep the system at its best no matter how different the interests. Importantly, silvopastoral management systems also demand good land governance frameworks and institutions to enhance stakeholder dialogue and engagement in concrete actions. However, enhancement of the good governance and institutional frameworks is a challenge, especially when collective rights for common lands or complex mosaics are threatened by more private approaches.Silvopastoral lands also host important achievements in terms of land rights and improved flexible tenure systems for multiple resources and different land users. Innovative nature-based solutions could contribute to supporting multidisciplinary stakeholder platforms that advocate for applicable and scalable well-managed silvopastoral practices. The last case studies presented in this chapter show how the pioneers in legal developments promoting the use of silvopastoral lands under participatory, multistakeholder and sustainability approaches encapsulate this effort not only to preserve dryland silvopastoral landscapes but also to profit from all its potential to improve the resilience and adaptation capacity of forest ecosystems and the communities managing them.There are promising examples and initiatives implemented by FAO and others that show how SPS can be adapted to cope with global changes in terms of land use, climate, or technology and contribute to turning the tide on land degradation, especially at the country level. This theme spotlights cases from the silvopastoral systems in The Islamic Republic of Iran, Senegal, Lebanon, Brazil, Morocco and West African countries (the United Republic of Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya), and their potential contribution to resilient governance systems with special consideration of different criteria and potential outcomes from combining trees and forests with grazing livestock as shown in Table 4.On the policy side, some governments are currently developing silvopastoral and agrosilvopastoral approaches, combining the interventions of institutional partners with civil society and pastoral organizations to deliver a shared vision and adequate policy development frameworks. Besides the two case studies, presented, other countries as Burkina Faso have also started this path to recognize and promote silvopastoralism and agrosilvopastoralism.Fatick region located in the western centre of Senegal and characterized by its semiarid steppes is characterized by natural pastures, with low-growing grass and herbaceous perennials, thorny shrubs, acacia and baobab trees. These features make the region suitable for livestock activities, which represent the second most important source of income after crop production. Even though livestock activities are practised by almost 70 percent of the population (ANSD, 2015), Fatick region remains among the poorest in the country with a poverty index of 49.2 percent, compared to 37.8 percent nationally (ANSD, 2021a). Traditional crop-treelivestock systems are considered the main provider of food, nutrition, income and ecosystemic services. Communities in Fatick practise transhumance due to the extension of agricultural areas and the shrinking of grazing land (Robinson et al., 2011). The livestock sector in particular occupies 28 percent of the population and contributes 23.7 percent of agricultural GDP (ANSD, 2015(ANSD, , 2021b)). However, climate change and degradation of the landscape are increasingly threatening the livelihoods of the already impoverished rural population.Livestock farming in the region is mostly characterized by traditional practices dominated by pastoral transhumance and sedentary agropastoral production in rural areas. Average livestock composition in the region includes a 59 percent of small ruminants and 20 percent of cattle (ANSD, 2021b). Women, in particular, are responsible for raising sheep and goats, in addition to the milk processing and packaging. Despite these constraints, livestock farming is developing in the Fatick region, particularly with the specialization and intensification of dairy production. This sector represents a major opportunity for the sustainable development of the region through increasing productivity, income and food security and building resilient agroecosystems in the face of climate change.Understanding the different livestock systems in practice in the Fatick region is of central importance in designing and implementing sustainable solutions that reflect the local realities, especially in the face of increasingly uncertain environmental conditions. Yet it remains important to examine: (a) how these systems are managed and contribute to sustainable development; (b) what risk management strategies are adopted by producers; and (c) how to make the most of the opportunities that the sector offers while including perspectives of producers, especially women. With these issues in mind, a study was conducted in Fatick in 2019 under the FAO project \"Strengthening Agricultural Adaptation\" (SAGA) in collaboration with McGill University, the Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research and Pastoralisme et zones sèches en Afrique de l'Ouest. The main objective was to examine the livestock production in Fatick, grazing systems in particular, in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) to promote these systems in adaptation planning and national development strategies (For additional details, see Habanabakize et al., 2022).The study was guided by a participatory action-research approach, including the main stakeholders (producers, researchers and local institutions) from the very beginning to identify indicators that would reflect local realities to characterize livestock systems in Fatick. Such consultation helped the team to determine the topology of livestock systems by interviewing 100 heads of households who are engaged in livestock production across the region to analyse for example, where farmers stand on the use of trees, agroforestry practices, or grazing. Figure 13 summarizes the results of the sector's SWOT analysis in the context of climate resilience and food security against the four sustainability pillars -good governance, economic, environmental and social -of FAO's Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems (SAFA). Based on this, joint recommendations were made to improve the silvopastoral systems in Fatick region. • Diversified production systems (subsistence crops, vegetables, cattle, small ruminants, poultry, etc.)• Use animal byproducts for soil fertility.• Use of crop residues to feed animals; Land conservation practices.Low and inconsistent production. Lack of access to markets. Extension and climate information. High diseases rates. Few to no land titles. Low participation of women.• Policy promoting value chains development (e.g. theNational Program for Livestock Development (PNDE))• National Adaptation Plan for the Livestock sector.• National multi-stakeholders' engagement for increased advocacy and knowledge sharing.• High local demand for raw milk, meat and processed products.• Women entrepreneurship. • Lack of access to markets, extension and climate information and low education levels.• Little to no crop-livestock integration.• Policy promoting value chains development (e.g. PNDE)• National Adaptation Plan for the Livestock sector.• Stronger multi-stakeholders' engagement for increased advocacy.• Consultation and knowledge sharing.• High local demand for raw milk, meat and processed products. *Attributes like crop-livestock mixed systems, seasonal and low milk production and female participation are found in cluster 1 while cluster 2 is characterized by farms with bigger herd sizes, highly mobile farmers and the lowest quantities of sold milk. Cluster 3 is mainly made up of farms with stable quality and consistent milk productions, generally located in urban or peri-urban areas close to roads, markets and veterinary services infrastructures. Clusters 1 and 2 represent 72 percent of the sample, making grazing livestock systems predominant in the studied area. Except for a few producers in cluster 3, all the others have resorted to transhumance as an adaptation means to prolonged droughts, which are frequent in the region.Livestock producers have developed different practices linking livestock, trees and crops. Those practices, ranging from tree plantations, integration of legumes in crop cultivation, forestland, avoidance of tree pruning and limiting overgrazing, were compared to examine the role of farmers in ecosystem conservation. When integrating crops and trees, farmers are expected to improve soil quality and reduce land degradation. More than half of farmers in cluster 1 were implementing these practices. Statistical analysis showed no significant differences regarding the impact of each cluster on biodiversity. However, overgrazing was identified amongst the main threats for farmers in cluster 2. Developing crop-treelivestock integration could be an opportunity to promote agroforestry systems. Nevertheless, land property documents limited farmers' access to land and are key obstacles to tree planting. Farmers are reluctant to invest in long-term adaptation options on land if they do not own it. In fact, 95 percent of farmers in clusters 1 and 2 did not have proper land title documents.Collectively, all clusters faced the same challenges around the lack of access to markets, extension and information on weather/climate, feed scarcity, water access and the majority of the ageing population involved in livestock production activities. A range of policy solutions is needed to address the heterogeneity present within the sector and target groups with their specific needs. The analysis provided insight into specific recommendations towards improving the dominant grazing-based systems (clusters 1 and 2), which were also found to be the most vulnerable. Moreover, increasing support for these producers to make the shift toward more resilient production could significantly improve livelihoods and ecosystems.The need for research to inform policy decisions and tailored interventions toward inclusive, resilient and sustainable livestock systems at the farm and value chain levels. Analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that the information gathered by the project strengthened the alignment of scientific evidence with farmers' perspectives, especially smallholders, and generated insights for adaptation governance and sectoral development strategies using an inclusive approach. Further research is still needed to explore quantitative indicators to evaluate the environmental and socioeconomic implications of grazing systems and how the results can be mainstreamed in national and local interventions. The following recommendations were drawn from the study and are key to improving the silvopastoral systems' reliance and adaptation, and could thus be useful to inform national climate policy processes, more specifically the National Adaptation Plan and Nationally Determined Contribution:• Diversification of products from trees, crops and livestock could reinforce the resilience of farming systems through processes of nutrient recycling, biodiversity management and integrated pests and disease control, as well as increasing sources of food and income. This applies particularly to agropastoral systems in cluster 1. Increasing support for smallholder farmers to make the shift toward the integration of crops and trees into their livestock systems could significantly improve livelihoods and ecosystems. • Re-seedling suitable fodder species as well as introducing trees and multipurpose woody species that withstand cropping and lopping for fodder could also improve the vegetation cover of rangelands and the resilience of the grazing system to climate variability and provide animal feed. • Community-based natural resource management could be an entry point to capacity building in grazing management and good governance (rights, organizational management). There is a pressing need for pastoral systems in cluster 2 to ensure good management and sustainable use of natural resources in the fragile Fatick ecosystems. • Access to proper tenure rights would also attenuate and manage the growing tensions and conflicts between farmers over land and pastures. This is crucial in securing and balancing crop, pastoral and forestry areas within laws and regulations governing land tenure. Low perceived security ensuing from a lack of ownership over the land strongly affects the willingness and ability of producers to make long-term investments toward the sustainability of the operation. • Gender action-learning strategies could engage both women and men in the conversation by showing that empowering women means empowering the household and community. The gender lens is important to identify and address women's needs to improve their livelihoods and those of their households. However, the study highlighted that more efforts are needed to scale up initiatives in which women are more likely to be involved in livestock production, such as selling fresh milk, small-scale processing and marketing of dairy products. In addition, access to property rights can also positively affect women's control over adaptation. • Better access to reliable weather information and forecasting would help both herders and farmers, as well as local institutions, to improve their decision-making in planning their production activities.For more information: FAO project \"Strengthening Agricultural Adaptation\" (SAGA) Habanabakize et al., 2022).Oshtorankuh Protected Area is a mountainous semiarid region where remnants of the originally widespread oak-dominated woodland and the park-like pistachio and almond steppe lands can still be found. Although it is currently deforested and degraded because of overgrazing, the protected area has a high rate of biodiversityCluster 1 -Agropastoral Strengths Crop-livestock integration; diversified production systems (subsistence crops, vegetables, cattle, small ruminants, poultry, etc.); use of animal byproducts for soil fertility; use of crop residues to feed animals; land conservation practices.Low and inconsistent production; lack of access to markets, extension and climate information; high diseases rates; little to no land titles; low participation of women. and is under nature protection by the Department of Environment of the Lorestan province (Bayat Hamidreza, Henrik Majnounian, 1988, Oshtorankouh Protected Area, Department of the Environment, the Islamic Republic of Iran).According to available information, about 70 293 ha (67.3 percent of the protected area) is covered by 32 vegetation types of rangeland species, and 17 398 ha (16.6 percent) is covered by two forest stand types, including Quercus-Juniperus and Quercus-Amygdalus, in which a variety of rangeland species form the ground cover. According to the 2012 Management plan of Oshtorankuh Protected Area, more than 600 herbal species and 274 animal species have been identified in the region.These pastures with scattered trees form a comprehensive and multifunctional silvopastoral system with integrated production: pastures supply livestock fodder and medicinal plants while trees (after traditional pruning) supply part of the fodder as well as its foliage for fuel wood and making livestock shelter. Besides, oak seeds are used to make traditional bread. Unfortunately, the production of coal from oak trees, which has become very popular in recent decades, has become one of the main sources of income for the local community, degrading the local ecosystem. This project has focused one of its goals on training the local community on the ES of a tree compared to a sack of charcoal to curtail this practice.The oak forests are mostly degraded and only scattered trees form the upper story, while the lower story is highly degraded by intensive grazing or rainfed cultivation. However, pruning could be performed using the traditional methods so as not to harm the trees. However, most scientists believe that considering the stocking rates and mismanagement of rangelands, the whole ecosystem is weakening and pruning should be stopped. Additionally, other sloping and rocky areas, covered by bushes and shrubs, are not considered rangelands, but only wildlife pastures/habitats. The considerable vegetation cover in this protected area is limited to the core zone around Gahar Lake at the mountaintop, which is designated as a grazing forbidden zone. Goats have always been a big challenge for these oak forests. Grazing in the core zone is strictly forbidden but illegal grazing occurs in core zones all over the country. This lack of understanding between herders and government managers is also harming the core areas. Besides, wildfires, both intentional and natural, are and have always been one of the major problems of the Zagros oak forests and many creatures, including humans, have lost their lives in attempts to extinguish them. Accordingly, another side effect of banning livestock grazing is that the probability of fire increases, especially in tourist areas such as the shores of Lake Gohar. However, due to the lack of a codified action plan to control livestock grazing and other challenges mentioned, livestock is prohibited from entering these areas.Rangelands are also degraded in many sites. Among the causes is the destruction of customary management and governance systems and the disintegration of nomadic territories of summering and wintering grounds into a piece of land. Nomad sedentarization is driven by the loss of the sense of belonging among nomads due to nationalization of natural resources while the loss of customary ownership and land rights is also a key driver.Traditional knowledge have been neglected in the management of these areas, particularly in the hierarchy and non-participatory aspects. This means that a sense of false competition between the government and the herders arises around the use of resources, especially when these lands are rented to external stakeholders. For the local talent, this increases the stocking rate to over the grazing capacity of the lands, ultimately degrading the entire ecosystem.The Islamic Republic of Iran has one of the largest nomadic populations in the world, an estimated 1.5 million in a country of about 80 million. Tribal communities have used natural resources as their only source of livelihood for thousands of years. However, the country's tribal pastures, which mostly refer to a mixed grassland-woodland ecosystem, were nationalized during the 1960s, after which the customary management systems broke down. Traditional management units like tribal territories and in particular rangelands with scattered trees, have been divided into official management units. This is what inspired the Center for Conservation and Development of Sustainable Ecosystems to partner with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and begin a European Union (EU) funded project in 2014 entitled \"Strengthening the communal management of Rangeland around the Oshtorankuh Protected Area to improve the resilience of the community and nature\". It was to conserve the protected area in facing climate change and droughts.The activities implemented in demonstration sites in Oshtorankuh Protected area Lorestan Province (Figure 14) took into consideration the needs of women and pastoralists to secure through strengthening their customary-tribal management system. The project has used a compilation of different gender-sensitive participatorybased methodologies as a framework for the different actions taken. The basic methodology used in this project was the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology, produced by IUCN and the World Resources Institute. The team applied a participatory rangeland action planning to strengthen community ownership of restoration and other environmental activities and build planning and monitoring capacity and sustainability, as well as guide the development of a shared vision on conserving the protected areas by securing the customary rights and local governance system. Accordingly, pastoralists were encouraged to use their local and Indigenous knowledge and combine it with scientific advice to mobilize their potential local solutions. Civil society groups were trained to develop their shared vision, identify challenges and agree on actions to conserve the protected area. Moreover, the extensive internal monitoring and evaluation system designed benchmark indicators used to measure the achievement of activities' outputs and change and impact indicators to measure the achievement of results and outcomes.Analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that the project managed to restore 3720 ha (almost equally split between the three pilots) through partnership, cooperation and social solidarity in pilot areas to be scaled up in the whole protected area and later to similar situations. Rural communities who are relying on livestock as the main livelihood managed through the project's interventions to use forest and rangeland by-products (including medicinal plants, fuel wood, fodder and shelter and tree seeds for food) to generate additional income. For example, women in Oshtorankuh have improved their skills in processing livestock products, handicrafts and the collection of forest by-products.Thanks to the active participation of the tribes, the communities managed to solve the issue of early grazing, which is one of the main causes of rangeland degradation. Moreover, observing the climatic conditions and precipitation season and the phenology of plants by grazing livestock in the region indicates that the whole area is rather summer grazing ground. The communities' plans identified that the most appropriate time for livestock grazing in the area is during the three summer months, with the exception of the lower areas that can occasionally be used for spring grazing, starting as early as May. This would cause less damage to the vegetation and establish proper conditions for the regeneration of the rangeland ecosystem. Interestingly, the project also strengthened pastoralist CSOs towards improving natural resource governance and climate change resilience through various training and behavioural awareness campaigns. As a result, local communities recognized and appreciated different stakeholders involved in managing the protected areas and mainly the governmental entities.The project approach combines government woody rangeland restoration policies and strategies with visionary and management capacities of local communities, in joint dialogue and responsibility-sharing initiated measures for scaling up lessons learned. As a result, the revival and support of the customary management system known as hima and support for Indigenous Peoples and community-conserved areas and territories (ICCA) were appreciated by the different stakeholders as an attempt to bridge the policy-implementation gap in the Oshtorankuh area and have created a good opportunity for scaling up to the entire county via their integration into a national rangeland policy.Indigenous Peoples managed to express their needs and establish their voluntary ICCA consortium in 2010 to promote equity in conservation. The consortium supported the communities in the demonstration sites in establishing and enforcing rules and regulations for rangeland resources, promoting natural revegetation and recovery of soil and water cycles. Among the measures taken by the local community are the collection and cultivation of seeds of the tree and herbaceous species and their protection, seasonal and periodic ex-closure of pastures, cessation of cultivation under floors, especially in sloping lands, reduction of livestock based on the grazing capacity, small-scale watershed management operations and sustainable use of medicinal plants. The Government is also committed to providing the necessary facilities and inputs for this purpose.Under this project, the tribal territories have been discovered and the borders have been enclosed through participatory mapping and land planning. To revive the governance systems, the social structure of the tribal communities and the customary rangeland management systems have been specified with the help of community elders. The Lorestan Nomadic Union including the Zalaqi, Mamivand and Hajivand tribes, is one of the established community-based organizations in the region. All the compiled information was documented for every tribal territory to be discussed and included in the national rangeland policies.Through consortium networking and advocacy at national and subnational levels, custodian Indigenous Peoples and local communities become better connected with other communities, better recognized, defended, respected and appropriately supported locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. The consortium supported the meetings with parliamentarian representatives to voice their needs and demonstrations. This helped strengthen communities' ecological knowledge and embed it in cultural and spiritual relationships.The Espinhaço Range constitutes a wide savannah area in close contact with steppic savannahs, both of which are characterized as dryland. Those lands had been occupied for a long time by \"traditional peoples\" (the Brazilian term for Indigenous and African descendants and peasants on common lands).The \"Apanhadoras de flores sempre-vivas\" (Sempre-Vivas flower gatherers) traditional communities live in the meridional part of the Espinhaço Range in the central region of Brazil (Figure 15). The communities practise a traditional agrosilvopastoral system characterized, among other features, by the use of common lands for mobile livestock and gathering medicinal plants and native flowers. As shown in figure 16, the families use the lowlands (600 m altitude) for cultivation and animal breeding during the rainy season and the highlands (1 400 m altitude and characterized by their rupestrian grasslands with trees in savannah vegetation) to feed the cattle in the dry season of the year. During the dry season, the lowland cultivated pastures dry up drastically and stop producing food for the animals. On the other hand, the altitude condition of highlands keeps them moist and guarantees grazing opportunities for the animals on native vegetation in the dry season, while trees are very important to keep humidity in the soils and the conservancy of water resources.Accordingly, the seasonal movements express the transhumance of families and local groups with their cattle herds, overcoming agroecosystem limits and exploiting many of the region's different potentials. During the traditional transhumance, the families live in caves and simple houses built with local materials in the mountains. In general, families travel either together or even separately to \"gather\" or harvest the flowers and manage the cattle in the mountains and native pasturelands. They can stay for weeks or months, depending on the local conditions. When families from different communities meet in the native fields, it is an occasion for gatherings, parties and bonding. In this manner, the system deals with landscape verticality and horizontality that confer elasticity/flexibility to local agrifood and economic familiar strategies through cultivation, native plant collection and animal breeding.Source: Elaborated by case study authors Agro-environments for the collec�on of sempre-vivas flowers and other products of the Cerrado, grazing of animals in na�ve pastures and presence of homegardens nearby \"lapas\" and \"ranchos\" (highland homes).Agro-environments for the collec�on of edible fruits and other products of the Cerrado, set up of homegardens, vegetable gardens, crop fields, and grazing of animals in na�ve and planted pastures.Agro-environments with intensifica�on of set up of homegardens, vegetable gardens, crop fields, and grazing of animals in planted pastures, in some cases.In the Mountains Grasslands -Rupestrian, Open, Dirty and Cerrado -with presence of Thicket of trees, Forests and High mountain Semi-arid zone with lower humidity and higher temperature Al�tude fields with higher humidity and milder temperatureIn 2017, in a bid to understand the logic underlying the traditional techniques used by the flower gatherers and the system's agrarian metabolism, and in partnership with the regional commission of communities, the Commission to Defend the Rights of Sempre-Viva Flowers Gatherers' Communities, and the Research Group on Territories, Socio-biodiversity and Agricultures, São Paulo University and Federal University of Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys in the Minas Gerais State began their research on the \"Brazilian Traditional Agricultural Systems\". The research set out to quantify and qualify the agroecosystem services generated with a view to contributing to the construction of public policies aimed at traditional agricultural practices. It targeted the traditional agrosilvopastoral system managed by six communities made up of approximately 1 500 individuals in a total area of almost 100 000 hectares in those savannahs, known as \"Cerrado\" (Monteiro et al., 2019). Those communities form part of the Globally Important Heritage Agricultural System designated in 2020, the first in Brazil (FAO, 2020).The Sempre-Vivas flower gatherers' agrosilvopastoral system combines different altitudes with different moisture content in a semiarid climate zone, on predominantly acidic, sandy and dystrophic soils. It is based on the application of high-biodiversity-based tools for food and agriculture, which are already adapted to the local different edaphoclimatic characteristics. Among their main assets, there are 94 cultivated species, 16 species of domestic animals, 350 species of native flowers and 135 other non-timber forest products. The whole system depends on traditional associated knowledge for the use and sustainable management of natural resources, generating a better-conserved forest area in the region.The use of high biodiversity adapted to the different edaphoclimatic characteristics generates different agroenvironments and landscapes. In this sense, transhumance works as a mechanism for overcoming agroenvironmental limits and exploiting a great deal of the region's different potential assets. In addition, the management is centred on biomass cycling, which guarantees and improves the flow of matter and energy for agrifood production, also raising the pH and natural fertility levels of the soils. At the same time, this management ensures the conservation of natural resources through the soil-plant-water relationship.Those management practices boost natural processes and cycles (energy, nutrients, organic matter, biotic interactions), preserve renewable natural resources (soil, water, biodiversity), improve the economy and boost independence in relation to non-renewable natural resources (fossil fuels, among others) and industrial inputs, reducing consumption of external inputs and avoiding and rejecting harmful ingredients (pesticides, genetically modified crops, anabolic steroids). Thanks to transhumance and their culture and traditions, these local communities transport species from one place to another and preserve them as a family legacy, favouring adapted local genetic resources. The profound knowledge of the environment allows them to collect flowers and other wild species, preserving regeneration for the coming period of the year while spreading the seeds in other optimum places during their seasonal transhumance movements between higher pastures and lower valleys Flowers and buds are locally managed in their own habitat using conservation practices, including: i) respecting the ripening point for collection in which part of the seeds have already been expelled by the plant, ensuring new individuals; ii) the fact that during collection the families leave 30 percent of individuals without collecting and these residual individuals are also responsible for the conservancy of the species populations; and iii) the return of seeds that fall into the flower storage places to the native fields, a process known as \"enrichment\". These practices, among many others, aim to maintain and expand the populations of species managed and marketed by families. In all cases, the collection of forest products -both timber and non-timber, occurs according to the lunar calendar and vegetative cycle in order to conserve community forest resources.The presence of \"curraleiro\" cattle breeds stands out in these communities, even though other breeds have already been incorporated into the production system. Curraleiro refers to the first breed to arrive in Brazil with the colonizers, having been recognized in 2012 as a Brazilian breed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply. Cattle stocking rates are maintained in native community pastures, establishing a relationship between cattle raising and the territorial management of each community. Similarly, water and forest conservation is considered in their land management practices, including reducing the impacts of forest fires by decreasing biomass through grazing.The community lands generally have more than half of their surface occupied by forests, rocky outcrops, escarpments and high-slope soils, whose conservation, on the other hand, is necessary for the maintenance of water resources. Accordingly, cattle walk long distances in search of more palatable grasses amid native rangelands. Families can also walk long distances to reach \"spots\" of native flowers, while spots of suitable soil for cultivation can be a few kilometres from houses between slopes and valleys. All these movements are carried out by respecting the rhythms of natural cycles and optimizing their energy and nutrient flows. Therefore, the management of the landscape is closely related to the community's way of life.Understanding the food culture is important to enhancing socioecological resilience in agrosilvopastoral areas in the Cerrado Analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that the agrosilvopastoral system combines different altitudes with different moisture content in a semiarid climate zone, on predominantly acidic, sandy and dystrophic soils. It is based on the use of high biodiversity-based tools for food and agriculture, which are already adapted to the local different edaphoclimatic characteristics. The whole system depends on traditional knowledge for use and sustainable management of natural resources, generating better-conserved forest areas in the region, with women playing a key role. Their seasonal movements express the transhumance of families and local groups with their cattle herds, overcoming agroecosystem limits and exploiting many of the region's different potentials.There is also a direct relationship between agricultural biodiversity and food culture. As with other aspects of their heritage, women play a leading role in preserving this food culture and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge. All the families in these communities possess home gardens, crop fields and livestock, and gather a range of forest products. Women do most of the work in home gardens and raising small animals and a fair amount of work in collection, taking care as well of animal health and crop fields. In this way, the women play a key role in the agrobiodiversity conservation directly connected with food culture and in the family's food and nutritional security. They also hold training activities and surveys for decision-making in the communities and in the regional commission.Communities also play a key role in the management of the water cycle through adaptive techniques. Similarly, genetic resources are collectively managed through the selection, storage and distribution of locally adapted seeds and livestock breeds for agriculture and food, combining different architectures of plants in polycultures with the maintenance of mulch over the soils while observing the food culture and values.The research also highlighted that the multifunctional management systems analysed can lead to high food security, socioecological resilience, increased income generation, better managed landscapes and social reproduction of cultural diversity. The agroecosystem products and services generated serve the local communities and global society in terms of conservation of biodiversity, water resources and climate regulation in the context of climate change. In addition, they bring important knowledge to bear about sustainability in time and space through dynamic conservation and solutions based on nature.It is important to monitor the evolution of these benchmark agroecosystems, their resistance to local adversities and their resilience to climate change in dryland, in which some of the key indicators are: biodiversity, biomass and carbon, with special attention to the role, rights and economic inclusion of women. However, there are conflicts between the communities and natural parks created on their ancestral common lands. Dialogue between the regional commission of traditional communities and the government is currently aiming to guarantee their rights as provided for in federal and state law and international treaties.For more information www.fao.org/giahs/giahsaroundtheworld/designated-sites/latin-america-and-thecaribbean/semprevivas-minasgerais/annexes/en/Pastoralists are facing new challenges that require an organized and collective response, besides working with other stakeholders. Rangelands including silvopastoral lands in Africa and Asia are usually managed collectively, with complex arrangements defining users and uses at multiple scales. This management is often undertaken in a context of tenure insecurity, providing little incentive for land users including pastoralists to invest in the land to improve productivity or restore it where degradation has taken place. This is especially true in the case of forest lands and lands with trees, although these lands and the trees on them provide important local, regional and planetary ES (Coppock et al., 2017). Without tenure security and greater feelings of secure access or ownership, there are few incentives to make long-term investments, for instance, in tree planting and land management strategies. Additionally new challenges are facing pastoralists that they are ill-equipped to deal with, for example invasive species not seen before and that have spread at alarming rates. Responding to such challenges requires an organized and collective response, working with other stakeholders such as governments, private companies, or NGOs.Participatory rangeland management (PRM) is a process that was developed to address such challenges. PRM builds on and incorporates the same principles of participatory forest management, as in planning and governance terms there are many similarities between the two land types. Furthermore, as trees and shrubs are often an integral part of rangelands and livestock often graze in forests there can be a natural convergence of management objectives and instruments. PRM seeks to improve tenure security for land and resources for pastoralists, improve management and governance including at multiple levels and with multiple users, improve land productivity and livestock health, and give pastoralists greater options for adapting to climate change and/or responding to drought and other crises.As in participatory forest management, PRM follows three stages: 1) investigation; 2) planning; and 3) implementation. The stages are divided into ten or so steps, working towards defining an appropriate unit for rangeland management (such as a traditional grazing area) with the community and other stakeholders, the documentation of rangeland resources and their status and the strengthening or setting-up of a governing community association or institution. Once these are in place, a rangeland management plan is developed based on an in-depth rangeland inventory and community action planning. Access to resources is improved through the drawing up of a legally binding rangeland management agreement between a community and local government or similar agreement, with rules and regulations (by-laws) defined in order to implement the rangeland management plan. Monitoring and evaluation with feedback loops and adaptive management is an important part of the process, both in terms of assessing progress and impact of the process as a whole, as well as forming part of the rangeland management plan which should be in the hands of the community.  Piloting inclusive governance to be scalable to a different level PRM was originally piloted in several sites in Ethiopia and was then scaled up to more than a million hectares across pastoral areas in the country. A 2019 review of this implementation (Flintan et al., 2019) highlighted the positive gains of the process in strengthening inclusive governance institutions, with particular improvements in the increased participation of women, managing resources and improving the productivity of the land. PRM also contributed to stronger perceived land and resource security, willingness to invest in SLM, and opportunities for improving livelihoods. However, several areas for improvement were also highlighted. These included the need to work at multiple scales (landscape and local), the need for an enabling environment and or interventions targeting this and the importance of maintaining flexibility -PRM is not a linear process and requires adaptation to local contexts and changing conditions.With these successes and areas for improvement in mind, PRM was then adapted to and piloted in Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania. The European Union-funded Piloting of PRM Project, implemented by a group of technical and policy-oriented partners, ran from 2018 through to 2021. A recent evaluation of the project concluded similar results to the review of PRM in Ethiopia with more than 94 percent of community members interviewed stating that rangeland conditions had improved, which resulted in improved livestock condition and numbers. 90 percent described improved participation in rangelands governance and management and greater security of rights to land and resources with improved participation of women, 86 percent reported fewer conflicts and over 80 percent indicated that PRM has contributed to improved livelihoods, food security, increased incomes and an enhanced capacity to deal with drought (Waweru et al., 2021).The principles and process of PRM are familiar, building on and adapting participatory forest management. However, some fundamental differences between forests and rangelands and how they are managed have created challenges around the application of the principles and process underlying both. First, commonly rangelands are made up of patchy, heterogeneously distributed vegetation heavily influenced by water availability including highly variable and often sparse rainfall. As a result, a rangeland management unit that includes adequate land and resources for a sustainable pastoral system to function is often large and cannot be easily divided into compartments or sections while a monoculture forest can, hence the need to work at multiple scales. Those scales include the landscape level, the rangeland management unit scale and also smaller local scales working directly with people on the ground managing parts of the silvopastoral systems, ensuring linkages and interactions between the two.Second, in forest management, there is often the objective of raising income from selling timber or non-timber forest products, which can then be relatively easily divided between members of the forest management groups -often established as cooperatives to better facilitate this process. However, in rangelands raising income from the sale of rangelands products are rarely an objective: rather it is the livestock that is sold to raise income (and even here this may not be a priority). Livestock tends to be held by individuals or households and not the community, so any sales from these tend to go directly to the individual, creating less reason for establishing a rangeland cooperative.This case study has been analysed under the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) showing that PRM in a silvopastoral context provides an opportunity to improve the management of the land and resources while maintaining the flexibility that is required for optimizing the use of these mosaics and heterogeneous landscapes. At the same time, PRM can provide opportunities for raising income from non-timber forest products, increasing environmental services and producing more healthy livestock. Pastoralist communities will have a greater incentive to mobilize themselves into management groups and cooperatives and invest their own time and resources into improving land (and trees) management, raising opportunities for significant complementary payoffs, both in terms of greater income, environmental services and more healthy livestock.Silvopastoral lands generate many different uses and productions, relying on balance and controlled trade-offs between them for their sustainability. When one is prioritized over another, the system as a whole can be weakened. PRM provides an opportunity for bringing together different stakeholders and working through processes of negotiation and reaching an agreement over the use, management and governance of the land through a process of collective planning and decisionmaking. Issues such as access rights, grazing rotations, enclosures and sustainable harvesting can be discussed and agreed upon. PRM has proven to be particularly facilitating for women -creating a space where they can contribute and lead. The establishment of women's leadership forums in the United Republic of Tanzania has been one successful approach encompassed by PRM that has proven successful in building women's capacity to do so. The Ujamaa Community Resource Team has been supporting the establishment of women's rights and leadership forums for raising women's voices and raising public awareness about women's rights. They also support women in obtaining individual land titles while building their capacity to participate in land management and governance processes. Impacts include changes in perceptions toward more positivity in women taking up leadership roles, an increase in the number of women leaders in villages and improved collective income generation. Further, it has been shown that the forums strengthen women's collective ways of working, group solidarity and status and they now feel more comfortable speaking up for their rights. The incorporation of women's rights and leadership forums in PRM processes has proven a powerful platform from which to support women's empowerment (Dungumaro and Amos, 2019;Ferrari 2021).To date, PRM has been implemented in East Africa, where pastoral systems are more commonly found in grassland or shrubland-dominated rangelands rather than those with greater numbers of trees more suitable for silvopastoralism.In 2021 a review was undertaken to assess the opportunities of applying PRM in Senegal and Mali. It concluded that there is considerable potential for testing and piloting PRM in both countries which, if successful could then be scaled up. In Senegal, a key issue is to clarify how PRM can add value to already established pastoral units and contribute to improved management or rangelands outside these. Pastoral units were set up in the 1980s and have since been supported by many projects. The pastoral units were established around water points to sustainably manage resources and spaces for the benefit of local populations and the community of transhumant pastoralists. However, they have been implemented in a top-down fashion and PRM offers a more participatory approach. In Mali, there is the challenge of identifying suitable areas that are manageable, as rangeland units are vast -and how best connections between these can be maintained. PRM provides opportunities for working at landscape and local scales to ensure that the vast rangelands are kept intact together with movement across them, while supporting local land users to improve management practices.PRM can help bring a greater degree of community participation by including women and youth and in managing activities and interventions contributing to the GGW and other initiatives, where the mainly top-down approach to date has excluded communities and, in some situations, created conflict with them (Flintan, Diop and Coulibaly, 2022). PRM can provide a space for all the community and other stakeholders to discuss and agree on issues such as where best to plant trees and how to best manage grazing around this. PRM can also provide an opportunity to ensure that adequate monitoring systems are in place so that the health of the rangelands including SPS is maintained. By building the capacity and willingness of communities to play a greater part in such initiatives, implementation will have long-term beneficial impacts, including reduced costs and greater sustainability.For more information 2019 Review of PRM implementation (Flintan et al 2019). Independent Impact Assessment Report: Participatory Rangeland Management (PRM) in Kenya and Tanzania. www.greatgreenwall.org/about-great-green-wall. Reversing, reviving and regenerating. How three pastoralist women are leading rangeland restoration in Kenya, Kyrgyzstan and Spain www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eoVtpU1u5bo&t=12s.Lebanon is situated on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Near East Region. The country has a total area of 10 452 km 2 (FAO, 2005). The topography is characterized by Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon mountain chains that run parallel to the coast and are separated by the Beqaa Valley. The ecological conditions of Lebanon are largely determined by topography and vary with altitude and exposition. The climatic conditions vary from Mediterranean climate along the coast and the mid-altitudes of the mountain ranges to subalpine or mountain Mediterranean climate on the highest slopes to arid steppes in the northern Beqaa plain. Rainfall follows a Mediterranean regime, with a long dry summer. The mean annual rainfall ranges between 700-1 000 mm on the coast, 900-1 400 mm on the western slopes of Mount Lebanon and 200-1 000 mm inland.The forests cover 136 500 ha and the other woodlands cover 106 000 ha, or 13.12 percent and 10.2 percent of the surface area of the country respectively. Coniferous forests cover an area of 43 936 ha, broadleaves forests 77 230 ha and mixed forests 15 282 ha. Other lands with trees (including fruit and olive trees) cover a surface of 113 000 ha or 10.8 percent of the surface of the country. The main species of Lebanon lands with trees are Quercus calliprinos, Q. infectoria, Q. cerris, Pinus brutia, P. pinea, Juniperus excelsea, Cedrus libani, Abies cilicica, Cupressus sempervirens and Arceuthos drupacea. The bulk of the forest area consists of oak and pine stands. Planted forests cover 10 500 ha, mostly Pinus pinea and other coniferous species.Lebanon's Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) is the lead government agency entitled to the use, protection and management of forest resources. The Rural Development and Natural Resources Directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture is the national authority responsible for the development of the national strategy for the protection and management of forests and rangelands and is the key player in rangeland management on state and communal lands.Land tenure management for grazing lands has two modalities, first the public, state-owned rangelands, which are rented by the government after submission of offers, giving permits based on technical specifications and a defined headcount, within a designated area and timeline; and second the communal rangelands, owned and rented by the municipality after the approval of the MoA of a few technical and administrative specifications. Both modalities need the municipalities' permission to grant the grazing time and targeted lands.Although there are no specific laws in Lebanon regarding rangelands and their management, the Lebanese Forestry Code of 1949, which provides the MoA with the basis for forest management issues, is scattered among several laws, decrees and decisions.This Forestry Law is the sole reference regarding rangeland management. However, the lack of adequate policies results in chaotic use of the land and consequently leads to conflicts between the different stakeholders, including the local communities. Besides, it makes it difficult for the municipalities and the Directorate of Rural Development and Natural Resources at the MoA to sanction people illegally using public lands. Hence, updating the existing policies, as well as establishing new policies on pasture management, should help to regulate this situation. In this context, FAO is supporting the Directorate of Rural Development and Natural Resources to revise, amend and update the forest law to meet the challenges facing the forest sector. Furthermore, a supportive legal framework of silvopastoralism is being suggested to complement this framework.The current political strategy developed by the Ministry of Agriculture is intended to address these problems and improve the food security and livelihoods of pastoral peoples as reflected in key sections of the Forest Strategy (2020-2025), especially Pillar 2: Increasing agricultural production and productivity (including support for the adoption of good livestock practices and management) and Pillar 4: Improving climate change adaptation and sustainable management of agrifood systems and natural resources (including climate change adaptation, agrifood value chains and sustainable use of natural resources (soil, pastures, forests and fisheries).Accordingly, the mandate of the Department of Rangelands and Public Gardens at the MoA encompasses four key tasks targeting rangeland management: 1) assessment of rangelands and inventory of forage species; 2) census and assessment of number and types of animals (specifically sheep and goats); 3) defining the carrying capacity of the country's rangelands; and 4) setting management plans to improve natural rangelands and increase their productivity.Pastoralists have always existed in Lebanon but have been neglected, even considered enemies, by forest policies. The MoA has thus applied a forest policy pushing plantation and afforestation over large surfaces. This has led to conflict with pastoralists, especially those who were banned from traditional grazing areas. This approach is now changing, and policies have come to accept pastoralism as an alternative for rural people and dryland forests. Therefore, there is a need to improve rangeland management, aiming to sustain the people living around the forests, most of whom depend on livestock production.Moreover, the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism that was launched in 2014, managed to restore 1 000 ha of rangelands through participatory and gender-responsive planning, community-driven Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) investments and sustainable economic alternatives developed at a landscape level. The selected two sites were located in Jered Tannourine and Manara; targeting two different types of ecosystems: Jered Tannourine site represents a natural mountainous land with little vegetation -scarce shrubs and almost no trees, whereas the Manara site comprises a typical grassland (where the soil is covered with an assembly of native annual plants that goats and sheep graze on), next to a degraded woodland and an area covered by oak trees. Recently, the initiative managed to support the ongoing review and updating of the Lebanese Forest and Rangelands Code.Based on the success of different projects testing the new law, the MoA is also considering producing a national strategy for rangeland management aiming at sustainable large-scale rangeland management inside and outside forests -enhancing community engagement and accountability to ensure enhanced compliance with the Forest and Rangeland Law, and thus acknowledging the role of pastoralists in restoring the dryland forests and trees outside of forests.The Forestry Code (1949) lists technical and administrative mechanisms for the use of public rangelands under MoA supervision and granting grazing permission through regional forest centres. In the definition adopted by the MoA, pastoralism is referred to as a system and a mode of subsistence: \"A life system that depends on raising animals on natural pastures and nomadism, with milk and animal products being the main source of food\". Livestock production, and small ruminants in particular, plays an important role in supporting rural livelihoods in Lebanon, providing valuable products including meat, dairy and wool. Sheep and goat production relies on extensive systems making use of available range resources. The census of small ruminants counts around 930 000 head distributed all over the country, made up of 430 000 sheep and 500 000 goats (MoA strategy, 2008).Livestock production is drastically changing today towards a more sedentary system, driven by acute rural migration and loss of interest among the younger generations. Grazing has always been an integrated activity in the communities living in marginal lands, while traditional transhumance is still practised to access different landscape resources. Shepherds rely on mobility to respond to changes in water and feed resources through seasonal movements designed to reach better grazing areas and water points (Rugadya, 2013), but also as a tool for dealing with diseases, droughts and other environmental adversities. Livestock mobility can be vertical between the high mountains and the lowlands (this pattern is generally followed by goat herders) or horizontal (mainly with sheep herders) across different zones (Nori, Taylor and Semsi 2008). By sustaining such practices, the livelihoods of Lebanese pastoral communities are also sustained and subsequently, the patrimonial heritage of the rural communities is safeguarded (Chedid, 2014). Pastoralism in Lebanon is practised mainly in the semiarid and arid regions along the Lebanon-Syria borders where soil fertility is relatively low, although it is also present in forests and other wooded lands and the fertile Bekaa valley (ibid.). These grazing lands offer a wide variety of species distributed over different ecosystems and altitudes (ibid.).This pastoral system adopted by Lebanese shepherds makes it one of the oldest, most resilient and most adaptive livelihood strategies, able to withstand environmental, economic and social challenges.Legal reform is a step toward good governance Analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that updating the legal instruments can shift the restoration and management diagram from a forest policy based on afforestation, toward the realization of the importance and interest of grazing inside and outside the forests. However, efforts should be made to develop participatory rangeland and forest management processes to address the challenges and inclusivity and participation of all stakeholders including pastoralists. The current political strategy developed by the Ministry of Agriculture is intended to strengthen community engagement and pastoralists' participation while promoting sustainable management of largescale rangelands inside and outside forests.The participatory perspective will increase the engagement of communities and civil society's engagement to ensure enhanced compliance with the Forest and Rangeland Law, hence to ensure that their voices are heard.Finally, two last considerations need to be accounted for during this development. First, further coordination between Forestry and Animal departments is necessary to apply the multidisciplinary perspective and policies. Second, there is an unavoidable need for improved data, concerning not only the number of animals and their breeds, but also lands grazed, stock density, movements and grazing pressure on different lands and at different times of the year. This information is absolutely necessary for the nationwide assessment and management of rangelands. The geographical location of Morocco in the northwestern corner of the African continent and its topography explains its wide diversity of ecological conditions. The country is characterized by a variety of terrestrial ecosystems and includes four of 14 terrestrial biomes, with some critical and endangered ecoregions listed in the World Wildlife Fund Global 200 list (Dinerstein et al., 2017). It is one of the most diverse countries in the Mediterranean region in terms of vegetal species. Natural vegetation in the forest domain is diverse and covers an estimated area of 9 million ha of which 5.8 million are forests and the remaining 3.2 million are dominated by alfa grass (Stippa tenacissima). The main naturally occurring tree species are holm oak (Quercus ilex), argan (Argania spinosa), cedar (Cedrus atlantica), Berber thuya (Tetraclinis articulata), cork oak (Quercus suber), acacia (Acacia spp.), pines (Pinus spp.), woodlands and maquis. Other exotic tree species, such as Eucalyptus spp., have been planted.Moroccan forests, which are generally referred to as dryland forests and silvopastoral systems, play a crucial role in rural area development through their production of goods and ES. Such roles include supporting services (ecosystem and population processes); provisioning services (food, water, wood and so on); regulating services (regulation of climate, water, disease and disturbance regimes); and cultural services (aesthetic and spiritual benefits, cultural identity and recreation/tourism) (Croitoru and Merlo, 2005). The legal framework allowed some special entitlements for people called \"use-rights holders\" living near forest domains. The most important entitlement is the right to free graze their domestic livestock and the combination of grazing with trees.Silvopastoral in forest lands is a legacy of well-adapted practices. Indeed, in inland mountainous and nearby forest areas characterized by physical and environmental fragility, traditional production systems focused mainly on the use of natural resources. Local populations developed traditional sustainable systems to deal with resource scarcity (water and land) and regulate natural resource uses. Such systems are based on diversification, mobility and local social institution/authority in charge of customary rights application. Rights define access conditions, right holders' status, uses and/or a prohibition on common resources and social actions and against users violating rules. Social organization and rules were the main pillars for reconciling social needs and environmental requirements for the maintenance of renewable resources and biodiversity and dealing with harsh conditions.Nowadays, forests remain the main livelihood provider for rural households. The forest sector has always been an important contributor to Morocco's economy and provides a source of economic and social benefit to rural communities (ibid.). Through their leaves, fruits and associated herbaceous strata, the forest ecosystems contribute significantly to national livestock production, from which a vast majority of the rural population obtains almost all its income directly or indirectly. 30 percent of small ruminants in the country in addition to camels in southern Morocco, depend on free silvopastoral resources and graze between eight and 12 months per year within the forest domain (Bourbouze, 2006). As rangeland, the Moroccan forest produces 1.5 billion Forage Unit in year-1 (i.e. 17 percent of the national forage assessment) and provides shelter and a place to rest for livestock.Over the years, most of the customary principles underlying common resource uses (forest and silvopastoral resources) have been undermined. The right to use common resources as an attribute of social members belonging to a social group has come up against increasing individualism and a growing capitalist mentality. Furthermore, many changes in demography, urbanization and settlement instead of mobility, climate, technology, economy, society and politics have intensified a variety of natural resource crises, mainly common land resources reduction for intensive production and human settlement leading to excessive livestock grazing. Grazing has become a widespread practice affecting the forest domain and threatening the sustainability of Morocco's forest and natural ecosystems (Moukrim et al., 2019). Within such a dynamic, forests as grazing land resources have been progressively moving from a common resources pool toward openaccess spaces.Moreover, socioeconomic changes promoting sedentarization and restricting social movement have caused a shift from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles and increased the concentration of livestock for long periods and within smaller spaces. Grazing also represents an opportunity that encourages urban dwellers to invest their money in this sector by buying livestock to be kept by a tenant, neighbour or acquaintance in the countryside. In addition, climatic conditions such as the scarcity of precipitation affect also negatively the performance of Moroccan agrosilvopastoral systems.The combination of aforementioned changes, the loss of ancestral management practices, the frequent unsustainable use (i.e. open access: Hardin 1968), the lack of cooperation among users and the lack of local community involvement are leading to a grazing pressure which is at levels far beyond the forestland's carrying capacity throughout the country. Such pressure is threatening the sustainability and viability of dryland forests through a lack of forest regeneration and has been described as the main cause of vegetation loss and land degradation and a major threat to the sustainability of the country's dryland forest ecosystems as it impedes their regeneration and the efficacy of reforestation programs. Therefore, it seriously increases soil erosion (Steinfeld et al., 2006), extending siltation problems within waterways and dams. It also erodes biological diversity (Alkemade et al., 2013), threatens human life and civilization (Wodon et al., 2014) and leads to a hazardous future for forest resources (IPCC, 2014). The problem of overgrazing is multidimensional and multiactor, with a lack of common vision between the different partners. Dealing with such pressure has been based initially on disparate initiatives and pilot projects in limited areas.To find sustainable solutions to restore and manage the silvopastoral resources and to reconcile trees and grazing livestock in forest ecosystems, a silvopastoral strategy has been developed by the Moroccan Forestry Department, which is the major institutional actor of governance in forest areas, in collaboration with the partners concerned by this question (in particular: the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Interior and users of local population organizations).The development of this silvopastoral strategy has required a participatory approach (Alkemade et al, 2013). The project's stakeholders (Department of Water and Forests, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Interior, National Agencies, etc.) and several actors (user communities and civil society) were engaged in the reflection on its design and mode of implementation, involving interviews, focus groups, workshops, meetings and/or advisory committees. The work approach, which was carried out in several phases, is described as follows: i) development of a precise silvopastoral diagnosis; ii) capacity building in strategic planning to ensure a solid institutional anchoring; iii) organization of interactive workshops (with partners and civil society) for strategy formulation; iv) sharing workshop results with managers for a uniform understanding of the orientations of the new strategy; and v) formulation and restitution of the strategy in a simplified and well-structured way ensuring the visibility and readability of its content.After a long process of consultation and participation, the national silvopastoral strategy was developed in late 2016. Its vision is that silvopastoral resources are restored and managed sustainably and effectively in the long term through good governance of all the goods and services of these spaces, in the interest of: i) the socioeconomic well-being of the population; (ii) biodiversity conservation; and (iii) climate change mitigation and combating land degradation.The construction of this national silvopastoral strategy integrated the visions of the various institutional partners. Such integration can only be effective within a unifying framework within which each stakeholder will act according to their missions, resources and responsibilities by converging towards a single and harmonized objective.The strategic framework developed and validated in late 2021 will help to better manage the silvopastoral resources, matching the threshold of what the land can provide in the long term. Finally, the strategy combines the interventions of various institutional partners as well as civil society and community and pastoral organizations, developing an adequate framework for bringing together all partners in a complementary approach.The silvopastoral strategy aims to ensure that silvopastoral resources are restored and managed sustainably and effectively in the long term. This strategy deals with questions relating to the restoration of natural ecosystems in the context of climate change, governance, access to resources, the revival of pastoral practices and capacity building at the local level. The main strategic axis of this framework are: i) reconstitution of silvopastoral ecosystems; ii) improving the organization of users of silvopastoral resources; iii) support for the socioeconomic development of forest and nearby forest areas; (iv) improving the governance of silvopastoral resources; (v) promotion of holistic and dynamic research and development; and vi) strengthening the technical and organizational capacities of the Moroccan Forest Department.In-depth analysis of this case based on the conceptual framework (Figure 3) and the proposed criteria (Table 3) shows that this silvopastoral strategy deals with questions relating to the restoration of natural ecosystems, governance and access to resources, the revival of pastoral practices and capacity building at the local level in this context of global change. The development of the common vision for the management of forest rangelands between the different partners was a success. Resulting from a long participatory process, the silvopastoral strategy has a common and accepted vision to restore and sustainably manage silvopastoral resources in the long term through good governance of all goods and services provided by these spaces. As the implementation of the strategy is the responsibility of the Forest Department, piloting the strategy would benefit the evaluation and adjustment processes. In this sense and to improve efficiency during the generalization phase in the other Moroccan regions, a regional silvopastoral strategy and a first territorialized action plan were developed and validated in 2021 by the Ministry in close coordination with communities and related stakeholders to better restore ecosystems and sustainably manage the silvopastoral resources in this context of climate change.Chapter 4: Discussion: Applying a conceptual framework where grazing with trees improves dryland silvopastoralismThe case studies presented in the three themes demonstrate that silvopastoralism could be an instrumental consideration for landscape restoration, sustainable land management, and halting desertification, while protecting local livelihoods. However, it is clear that understanding the interactions between people, trees and livestock in SPS is crucial to improving their governance and multifunctionality. Hence, the discussion section exploits the synergies and trade-offs presented in the three themes to identify the key lessons learned and define the path forwards in integrating forest, trees and livestock. (Chapter 5). Lesson 1: Multifunctionality is a key property of silvopastoral schemes, generating diversified products and aspiring to high quality rather than to maximize production The case studies show that silvopastoral production plays a strategic role not only in the nutrition of pastoral households -providing an opportunity to optimize the intake of terrestrial animal food source (FAO, 2022) especially in marginalized dryland-based communities -but also in their economy and resilience. Specifically, livestock production, through its market value, allows households to access food and everyday consumer goods, while forest products become key assets for silvopastoral communities as shown in several cases (Brazilian Caatinga, Chilean transhumance). Moreover, the combination of different cycles of production with different incomes makes diversified production, hence multifunctionality, a way to stabilize production and ensure the long-term sustainability of silvopastoral producers. Silvopastoral management is thus better focused on top-quality diversified multiproduction, dealing with different resources in flexible mode, relying on high-biodiversity-based conditions and applying a variety of strategies, including pastoralism.Lesson 2: Integrated and participatory land planning and management contribute to increase the benefits from silvopastoralism, strengthening the governance structure Rising individualism, lack of cooperation and community involvement, the loss of ancestral practices and the weakness of local governing institutions are hampering the governance of silvopastoral lands. In many places, customary principles underlying the use of forests and rangelands have been undermined and group identities provided by the commons have faded as a result of globalization. However, several case studies using collaborative and participatory multistakeholder frameworks are improving silvopastoral governance, contributing to controlling degradation processes and restoring the land. Collaborative frameworks should acknowledge the role of women and other groups and be supportive of their capacity for action.Most of the case studies -and specifically the West African case on participatory rangeland management -depict local participation as the keystone for silvopastoral governance. Grassroots and civil organizations are instrumental in articulating this participation, especially when the current situation often demands hybrid solutions involving both customary and state institutions.Lesson 3: Efficiency criteria should be acknowledged at every stage of silvopastoral activity, from breeding to markets Most of the cases acknowledge the growth in livestock numbers correlated with population growth, even in conflict areas, as in the South Sudanese case, which is harming pastoral and silvopastoral livelihoods. Although livestock products are used almost exclusively for household consumption in the Chilean and South Sudanese cases, many silvopastoralists, including Brazilians and Kenyans, need their products to reach urban markets. In addition, genetic selection according to silvopastoral specificities, the availability of key infrastructures or management skills, should be taken into account to ensure production performance, as shown by the Brazilian case. The South American and African case studies show transferable examples of improving value chains, providing greater opportunity for their products, raising income from timber and NTFP and potentially giving communities more incentive to actively participate and invest in the collective management of their land base.Lesson 4: Secured mobility is at the heart of management and resilience of silvopastoralism Pastoral mobility remains one of the main adaptive strategies of pastoral and silvopastoral systems in response to the spatiotemporal variability of rainfall and resources. In addition, mobility is also the key tool for silvopastoral land management, as mobile livestock can be applied in any patch of land demanding intervention. Mobility helps livestock keepers build economic networks over a larger geographical area and therefore adapt better to climatic or economic shocks. Mobility is also the key for most of the innovations that could make silvopastoralism an asset in land restoration, such as programming grazing or managing mosaics where pastoral mobility holds a multifunctional interaction between different areas and land uses. Mobile livestock provide services to farmers through manure, traction, or participating in the dynamism of the markets, attracting traders and promoting the circulation of money. Securing mobility, therefore, contributes to the maintenance of the different functionalities of silvopastoral activities. However, agricultural land is expanding at the expense of rangelands or fallows. Urbanization and mining activities can also have a strong impact on pastoral activities. As shown in the Chilean case, transhumance and its corridors are threatened by this transformation and the same phenomena can be seen at local scale damaging ancestral paths and depriving the use of traditional grazing lands.Lesson 5: Planned and rotational grazing is an alternative to free-range grazing which leads to degradation. The effects of grazing and vegetation management on the composition and structure of dryland ecosystems species vary from site to site, demanding contextspecific assessment and interventions. Grazing can be a valuable tool to maintain and enhance dryland health, but its mismanagement can spread land degradation, driven by inappropriate policies, reduction of grazing areas, disruption of livestock mobility, reduced access to water, land encroachment, and so on. Despite the different grazing management aspects shown in the case studies, overgrazing poses a real threat and plays an active role in degradation, overriding the positive effects of trees (Lulandala et al., 2021). Conversely, undergrazing can also have strong degradation effects such as biomass accumulation in forests, reduced basal cover, inhibition of primary production and increasing climatic and fire risks.It is therefore crucial to encourage management practices that control grazing pressure and adapt it to the natural cycles of local vegetation. Thus, when the estimation of optimal stocking rates at each moment of the year is applied to local practices, it can be a step toward halting land degradation, as shown by the Tunisia case study. Sustainable grazing regimes with tight animal control and proper resting periods for each type of land managed, as depicted in the Spanish or Senegalese case studies, for instance, along with rotational and target grazing or holistic management, are more effective in providing priority ES.Lesson 6: Community-based management is crucial to identify, balance and minimize the trade-offs while optimizing the diversity of resilient production. Active management is key to ensuring the performance of SPS, and evidence from the Tunisia case study shows how key benefits result from grazing regimes, implementation of soil and water conservation measures, reseeding with legume forage species or planting shrubs and trees. Previous lessons have highlighted critical trade-offs managed by silvopastoralists, including managing tree cover with grass cover, and grazing intensity with pasture resting. A similar trade-off may need to be managed between grazing and soil organic carbon (SOC). A sound strategy for climate change mitigation consists of managed grazing regimes and intensities favouring SOC storage in soils through reduced compaction and degradation, while enhancing above and underground vegetation growth as shown in the Senegal, Tunisia and Uzbekistan cases. Grazing practices that promote soil carbon sequestration include rotation, legume additions, improved nutrient management and other silvopastoral practices (including modern silvopastoral designs).Lesson 7: Co-production and improvement of silvopastoral knowledge, a requisite for the promotion of sustainable investments in silvopastoralism. The development of silvopastoralism requires an alliance between the endogenous knowledge of producers and scientific research. Research and development projects are increasingly turning to co-learning, co-construction and co-development approaches. FAO's Pastoralism Knowledge Hub is a good example of an association between producer organizations, development actors and research organizations. This mutual support requires a rethinking of the main principles of participation in projects, incorporating empowered and capacitated grassroots organizations and making accessible quality information on the possibilities of development of the transition towards silvopastoralism.However, certain knowledge gaps need to be filled. Specifically, there is an urgent need to collect field data about the number of grazing animals, the type of lands grazed, the stock density and pressure and movement in different lands and at different times of the year. This data is vital as shown by the Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco cases. Field schools directly involving agropastoral producers are an interesting initiative to promote continuous training for populations that are often far from the decision-making circles and a way to disseminate silvopastoral knowledge and research innovations. These field schools promote inclusive knowledge, but also peer-to-peer learning, experience exchange and networking.Lesson 8: The adaptive capacity of silvopastoral lands and their communities in facing the climate change and other crisis provides a path to improved resilience. Adaptation is key for survival, and local communities use pastoralism, along with management of forests, trees, soil and water as their main adaptation tools. Silvopastoralists rely on moving, trading or exchanging their livestock when conditions become too harsh, for instance shifting from lowlands to highlands, from wet season to dry-season grounds, from grassland to forests, as a mechanism to overcome agroenvironmental constraints. Improved adaptation means improved livelihoods, enhanced resilience and a higher capacity to benefit from markets and innovation.Lesson 9: Land tenure and rights considerations are instrumental elements in the territorial dension of silvopastoral systems Silvopastoralism is often developed, at least partially, in common and state-owned marginal lands holding key assets for feed and adaptation. These lands contribute to the survival of people and communities who do not hold secure rights over them but nevertheless depend on their resources. Private property is often absent or limited to a few housing areas and fields. Thus, the idea of scaling up innovative solutions to improve the ecological, social and economic role of silvopastoralism requires addressing the question of more secure land tenure. The management and governance of rangelands often remain in conflict when formal and customary rights are differently recognized in different countries and regions.The case studies show how promoting silvopastoralism with land that is not individually owned requires the articulation of individual farming practices with collective management activities. Articulating common property and individual ownership has consequences for actors' investment strategies. Livestock remains an object of rural capitalization while pastureland and natural resources require multiactor coordination in investments.Lesson 10: Flexible, updated and ambitious policies and regulations towards supporting silvopastoralism are deeply needed to protect sustainable management and governance Forestry policies have tended to promote afforestation over large dryland surfaces and banned grazing, neglecting the key role of woody vegetation in pastoral systems. In terms of restoration, biodiversity conservation and fighting climate change, tree planting is a dilemma. Simply put, massive tree planting could be useless in restoring ecosystems or fighting climate change and may even be harmful to the environment. Bad choices about tree species, plantation site, plantation parameters and management could increase global warming, detract water from the ecosystem, exacerbate wildfire risk and devastate wildlife. Thus, afforestation is not always a good idea (Davis and Robbins, 2018), neither is the forest model used as future scenario viable in many areas, especially in drylands (Vetter, 2020).Grassland scientists and producers have defended alternative ways to address carbon storage and regenerate biodiversity based on improved management of rangelands (Veldman et al., 2015). Silvopastoralism can help to clarify the middling path as trees are needed for all functions but so are shrubs and grasses and multifunctional lands. Silvopastoralists have built and co-evolved with open forests providing key services, simultaneously managing different patches of land -both forested and treeless. Their designs and management systems can improve the way trees are selected, planted and managed in dryland upon their multifunctionality and provision of services. Such an approach can adjust tree structural parameters (such as height, cover or shape) to optimize their performance and modulate their diversity upon their expected functions and outcomes. Meanwhile, the open forests, savannahs, mosaics and even individual tree elements included in grasslands and open landscapes have proven to be extraordinary assets in regenerating ecosystem functions, while keeping those lands rich and productive. Sharing the path with silvopastoralists, new and successful tools to restore dryland ecosystem can thus be developed, though the result will not be any form of idealized dense forest.Fortunately, the tide is turning with key advances for the silvopastoral approach. Several concerned governments, such as Lebanon and Morocco, are developing silvopastoral policies and strategies, combining the interventions of the various institutional partners as well as civil society and pastoral organizations in delivering a shared vision and adequate policy development frameworks. People are allowed to graze their livestock even though pastoralism and forestry have often been considered at odds with one another.Agricultural policies are recognizing pastoralism as an alternative for rural people, while forestry policies are shifting from pure afforestation approaches towards mixed approaches, arranging for grazing inside and outside the forests. Accordingly, there are renewed efforts to gather information, collect data, assess the real potential of rangelands and land with trees, implement demonstrative projects, engage stakeholders and promote sound governance tools. Governments become key actors as the authorities responsible for the development of policies and strategies alongside municipalities, stakeholders and local communities.From the above discussion, silvopastoralism is emerging not only as a naturebased (and people-based) solution, but also as a new approach to managing land in an integrated way. This paper originally intended to integrate forestry and pastoralism, but ended up integrating productivity and regeneration, livelihoods and ES, and both local needs and global priorities. As local people's engagement, work and skills constitute the rudiments of successful silvopastoral initiatives, they should not only be consulted, but incorporated into any decision-making process.The planet's homeostasis, which makes human life viable, is being stretched to its limit. The FAO 2018b report, World Livestock: Transforming the Livestock Sector through the SDGs, shows that converting other ecosystems, especially forests, to produce fodder will have serious repercussions on people and the environment. This is especially true since approximately one-third of the world's cropland is being used to grow animal feed (FAO, 2018b;FAO 2020). While under-and overgrazing can lead to desertification, shrub encroachment and lower biodiversity levels, indeed, rehabilitating degraded lands and creating expansive agroforestry with better grazing management can boost agricultural productivity, increasing its surface by another 1 billion hectares (FAO, 2022a;HLPE, 2019).Therefore, there is -more than ever -a need to adopt an integrated holistictransition approach to better grazing with trees and improving agrifood systems. A clear example of this situation is the controversy between grazing and afforestation, as explained in this forestry paper: they are compatible under a holistic approach, but when uncoordinated they tend to cancel each other out. Similarly, when trying to address simultaneously different ES without a clear priority and management path, the result could be counterproductive, such as banning grazing to increase vegetation cover, which can increase the risk of wildfires and end up with the site being completely destroyed.The UN Food Systems Summit, held in September 2021, highlighted the importance -under Action Track 3 \"Boost nature-positive production\" -of making livestock nature-positive and more resilient to shocks and proposed innovations to halt deforestation and reduce emissions from livestock, thus mitigating climate change (United Nations, 2021).The collected pieces of evidence in this paper highlight that silvopastoralism is one of the most innovative solutions in drylands as it plays a compelling role, not only in improving productivity and income but also protecting the soil from further degradation and improving soil sustainability and other ecosystem features. Moreover, silvopastoralism has evolved in drylands and co-evolved with its ecosystems, as a climate coping and risk management system, to maintain production and natural resources even in the occurrence of droughts periods and extreme weather conditions (Soni et al., 2016).As shown in Figure 19 below, building on the collected evidence and available research has undoubtedly helped to draw the path forward towards holistic -  transition actions. Specific transition actions in this section list some of the key considerations that a sustainable, multifunctional and productive silvopastoral management initiative should take into account to generate the desired forest restoration and management outcomes. Few practical recommendations have been issued, as they tend to be dependent on local conditions and culture and have been remarked in each case study. However, some lessons emerge as a common path for developing silvopastoralism management in drylands: diversified productions and multifunctional landscapes; multi-agent and collective action; integration of forestry, agriculture and livestock farming under agroecological principles; territorialization and self-sufficiency and balanced trade-offs. The adaptation of these paths to each territory is a task that should be accomplished locally but legally, technically and politically supported by different levels of government, research and expertise.The last section of this technical report lists and summarizes some of these transition paths, recommending that they be collective, transversal and as multifunctional as the systems they try to mainstream and upscale. Those paths focus on different aspects that should be managed either sequentially or simultaneously depending on the degree of maturity that the process has reached in each territory.The interaction process from the collected evidence to the proposed holistic transition actions.Path 1: Develop forest-related legal frameworks and tools to support silvopastoralism Too often, forest regulations consider livestock and grazing activity as detrimental to forests. These activities have been limited and banned on the premise that they damage vegetation. Conversely, silvopastoralist strategies are particularly relevant in dryland areas with forests, woodlands and mosaics of different land uses and tenure schemes. These complex areas are the most suitable territories to develop silvopastoral strategies, presenting a method of unifying efforts to boost sustainability and land degradation neutrality.In summary, facilitating the transition from forest policies just focused on afforestation, toward integrating sustainable grazing management inside and outside the forests requires the following:• develop participatory silvopastoral policies and strategies at different levels, including transboundary and international agreements; • design adequate grazing strategies to incorporate into forest management; • secure and balance the use and access of crop, pastoral and forestry areas within laws and regulations governing land tenure; and ensure legal frameworks supporting pastoralism under the previous conditions.Path 2: Build social capital and capacity of communities to develop silvopastoral initiatives Silvopastoralists and agrosilvopastoralists with small herds and few land rights are often marginalized in participatory processes and policies, as they are difficult to reach and engage in standard participatory planning and management processes. The recommendations contained in this path seek to reinforce the social capital of silvopastoralists and ensure their participation in the development of silvopastoral initiatives, balancing their views alongside other local participants.In summary, facilitating the transition towards a social capital and capacities of silvopastoral communities requires the following:• improve the image and social perception of silvopastoral activity and silvopastoralists; • build awareness, capacity, engagement and social skills of silvopastoral communities and institutions through specific programmes; • facilitate, give support and assign resources to silvopastoralists' associations and institutions so they can be self-represented in any initiatives involving silvopastoralism; and • promote the constitution and functioning of specific silvopastoralist organizations: grassroots, commercial networks, women's organizations; and • prioritize marginalized groups of silvopastoralists, including no-land pastoralists, women, young people, employees and low-income individuals in silvopastoral planning, as they are often in charge of the marginal, most sensitive and degradation-prone lands being often held responsible for their degradation.Path 3: Promote good governance through stakeholder dialogue for concrete actions Policies, planning and governance are key to making desired scenarios a reality.Optimizing silvopastoral governance can be achieved through the participatory building of sound planning and governance instruments and institutions. The specific recommendations included in this section highlight the importance of silvopastoralism-oriented management plans, generated under participatory frameworks that develop multipurpose governance and land sustainability goals, which balance trade-offs, therefore addressing land degradation neutrality and enhancing ES. Participatory processes enable sound development, implementation and monitoring of legal tools and planning instruments related to sustainable land use. In the case of silvopastoralism, this means incorporating both foresters and agroand silvopastoralists into the participatory frameworks, processes and institutions ruling those initiatives. Encouraging the participation of silvopastoral communities means not only acknowledging the different roles and incorporating their players into decision-making but also adapting tools, spaces, schedules and information flows to their needs, building their capacities and applying a gender-sensitive approach. The human factor is key to the management of silvopastoral systems and a top priority when designing and implementing planning and governance instruments should be carefully mapping, incorporating, capacitating and training the different groups of people involved in their development and governance.Furthermore, restoring traditional institutions ruling pastoralism in different lands -for example, the hima and the North African agdal systems discussed in Chapter 4 -and building on them through participatory frameworks, technical skills and support and necessary resources ensures the right governance of silvopastoral systems and enables them to thrive.Good economic performance and valuable outputs for stakeholders are the keys to a long-term, sustainable system. Accordingly, a governance framework is needed where the interests of all these stakeholders and potential trade-offs are represented and could be balanced with other interests. The autonomy and capacity of action of the participatory bodies or councils holding decision-making in those initiatives along with their accountability will lead the way towards the successful management of silvopastoral dryland.In summary, facilitating the transition towards the good governance path requires the following:• introduce forest products as an incentive for restoring silvopastoral lands involving the collaboration of both foresters and livestock producers; • design and implement feed and water scarcity adaptation strategies specifically when facing droughts; • develop equitable and inclusive gender-sensitive planning and management strategies to promote silvopastoralism; • develop sound participatory grazing and silvicultural management plans to ensure the provision of ES and balance the trade-offs;• provide local communities with facilitation, conflict-solving and technical support to collectively respond to new challenges; and • build working participatory governance institutions drawing from traditional mechanisms and knowledge and complement them with technical and scientific support from government and academia.Path 4: Co-produce and mobilize silvopastoral knowledge and practice Many of the successful approaches to managing complex agroforestry landscapes come from traditional knowledge. This paper recommends that research and development projects in the areas of silvopastoralism incorporate traditional local solutions and build upon them with new and accessible technologies. Integrating both these sources of knowledge by taking into account local capacities and practices and enriching them through research, technologies and networking is essential to implementing adaptive management systems. This integration of knowledge is addressed in these recommendations through a training-experience-action sequence. Training is linked to the strengthening and dissemination of knowledge among practitioners and action to apply knowledge to the diversification of production and the other topics addressed by the by this paper. Permanent interaction between integration, training and action at the local level encourages increased innovation and further improvement of practice, complementing local knowledge with skills acquired through training, coaching and community exchange visits. This also implies the engagement of practitioners in the research, dissemination and training initiatives aiming to upscale the silvopastoral approaches. The ultimate goal of recommendations is that silvopastoral systems benefit from this integration, supported by the organization and social capital of local communities (producers' organizations; grassroots), local governments, academia, researchers and experts.This 'multiagent' co-production of knowledge, which brings together the knowledge of local communities, researchers and technical experts to devise strong silvopastoralist systems, places a heavy emphasis on participation. This echoes the previous pathway, which highlighted the need for participatory planning and policymaking in projects. However, two main challenges must be noted when adapting this approach to silvopastoralism.The first is the special conditions in which the activity develops, with mobile animals and people and a wide array of different disciplines converging in the same production unit. These particularities increase the complexity of designing and implementing good networks and platforms that are suitable and useful for silvopastoralists. The team designing the project should adapt to the conditions and needs of the practitioners and work effectively to make the different collectives involved compatible. This stage of the process can be long and fruitless, spending time and resources deeply needed for other tasks. However, a successful preliminary work of mutual engagement and co-adaptation among the different people concerned will in the end contribute greatly to the process performance.The other challenge concerns knowledge and practice. In silvopastoral systems, certain traditional skills are learned and transmitted over generations from practitioners to apprentices and are often held by elders and others who are at risk of losing this knowledge. Many of these skills are underestimated but may turn out to be invaluable when dealing with specific landscapes. It is therefore vital to involve the people with these skills in the project, encouraging them and enabling them to pass on their knowledge. Another key part of co-producing knowledge involves discovering, analysing and considering skills and collaboratively find ways to keep them useful for the future.In summary, facilitating the transition to mobilize the local and traditional knowledge path requires the following:• improve knowledge of silvopastoralism with sound data about the production, stocking rates, schedules and land use characterize silvopastoral activity around the world; • promote participatory and multiagent initiatives of co-production of knowledge engaging practitioners, academics, specialists and policymakers; • develop silvopastoral training programmes based on co-produced knowledge, experience sharing and peer-to-peer learning to acquire the skills and capacities needed to run a climate risk mitigation-a silvopastoral initiative; and • strengthen national climate and early warning information systems.Path 5: Consider the multifunctionality of silvopastoral systems to enhance the integrated management Silvopastoral management is based on agroecological principles and agroforestry techniques integrating agriculture, forestry and livestock production, generating diverse and productive landscapes. The conceptual framework (Figure 3) devised by this technical paper focuses on management as the main contribution of silvopastoralism to improved production, land degradation neutrality and ecosystem restoration. This paper has demonstrated that fine-tuned management systems lead to strengthening the multifunctionality of silvopastoral systems with the best results.Good silvopastoral management simultaneously integrates the different elements of the system and their interactions under the decision-making skills of their managers. Silvopastoral management is traditionally a collective task, even within single-owned lands (Pinto-Correia et al., 2021) meaning that communitybased instruments are necessary to guarantee its proper functioning.There are two important elements to consider when discussing the management of a silvopastoralist system. First is the efficiency of grazing, meaning the capacity of silvopastoralism to obtain from the environment and transform raw vegetal fibres into high-quality products. This is an important part of dryland management as it makes a big difference to productivity. Management plans should focus on boosting grazing efficiency by combining different tools, including optimizing schedules, stocks, herd size, species and breeds on the livestock side; and combining trees, shrubs and grasses, adjusting shapes and edges, or enriching pastures with nitrogenous-fixing plants on the forestry side. The second factor is the management of tree cover, adjusting the different vegetation layers and combining shade and light by controlling canopies and tree densities. Cover management is not only about a balance between sunlight (more production in good conditions) and tree shade (more protection in harsh conditions and additional food) but a complex trade-off affecting the whole system. Skills and experience are instrumental to make good decisions over both factors and have a great influence on the performance of the system and the services provided.On the other hand, general recommendations point to incorporating silvopastoralism as a land management tool, profiting from its integrative forestrylivestock approach and some of its main properties, listed in the previous paragraph. Under this perspective, silvopastoralism could be adopted as a mechanism to maintain and manage public and private lands s, complementing other agricultural and livestock farming initiatives and the services sector, especially under a circular economy perspective.In summary, facilitating the transition to enhance the multifunctionality of silvopastoral systems requires several management-linked measures:• diversify production by introducing forest and rangeland alternative productions in a sustainable management system; • diversify silvopastoral production by introducing different livestock species and breeds (not only ruminants but also poultry and beehives), adapted to extensive production and local conditions; • manage silvopastoral areas to generate open savannah-like and mosaic lands with a diversity of fodder resources. For example, diversify and extend in time the available feed resources for grazing animals in silvopastoral systems; • promote livestock mobility and transhumance in silvopastoral land management as a way to grant regeneration and pasture resting periods; • promote rotational grazing mechanisms granting adequate grazing livestock stocking rates at each moment and sufficient resting periods for each patch of land managed. For example, avoid free-range all-year-around grazing in forest lands by providing planned alternatives for the people depending on those resources; • promote soil and water conservation structures aiming to reduce soil erosion and improve the water cycle introduce community-led silvopastoral management practices, reducing external dependence and enhancing the benefits for the whole community; • use a silvopastoral approach to facilitate adaptation of grazing livestock to climate change, while enhancing the role of forest landscapes in mitigation; and • mobilize seed investments to support silvopastoral initiatives and reduce the stress on forest and tree biodiversity.Path 6: Incentivize and diversify value chains of silvopastoral and forest products Silvopastoralism can contribute to alleviating poverty by generating a diversified, self-sufficient and sustainable production that benefits the whole community.Silvopastoralism is often the only way to combine the provision of proteinrich high-nutrient quality food with additional resources, such as fuelwood or construction materials, in impoverished environments. While many of the previous recommendations aim to increase the positive impact of silvopastoralism in local communities in general, it is important to specifically address this issue here. The system's performance will ultimately rely on the interest, engagement and leadership of local communities, so the benefits for them should be neatly established.Value chains for silvopastoral products must be adapted to the production capacity and size of the potential market, as well as linking production and transformation to maximize the revenues for producers. Those value chains then need to be shortened and simplified, so benefits are locally gathered and reinvested.Finally, a changing world can provide new opportunities for production, which could be seized by local communities. However, silvopastoralists often do not have the time or expertise to handle product marketing and trade. Several of the case studies in the paper promote the use of external help or collective initiatives for producing, transforming, distributing and marketing their products.In summary, facilitating the transition to incentivize the diversification of silvopastoral value chains requires the following:• grant access of local participants in silvopastoral initiatives to the benefits produced, increasing their impact on food security, self-sufficiency and livelihoods; • promote alternative value chains for silvopastoral products. for example, develop small transformation collective facilities for dairy or harvested wild products to engage households, small producers, marginalized collectives; • develop logistics and support for differentiated value chains; • seek opportunities in new markets and urban environments while retaining multifunctional and balanced production; • help silvopastoral cooperatives and collective enterprises to transform, distribute and market their productions; and • promote circular economy-based production.This path includes recommendations to improve ecosystem health, achieve land degradation neutrality, or restore the dryland ecosystems using silvopastoral tools. An important consideration when discussing forest restoration is that the paths forward do not necessarily refer to continuously tree-covered lands. Instead, savannahs and savannah-like landscapes, open forests, woody rangelands, lands with scattered trees and other silvopastoral and agrosilvopastoral lands can act as fully functional forests in dryland, especially under flexible and adaptive silvopastoral management systems. A single tree, a small grove, a tree line, a bunch of shrubs, or a patch of land covered by separated trees can comply with part of what is expected of a forest in terms of ecological functions and services, protecting the land they occupy and improving the livelihoods of their keepers. Adapting the collective imagery for forests unleashes a whole set of opportunities for restoring drylands using the monitoring tools that silvopastoralist culture stores in its knowledge heritage.Monitoring efforts are recommended throughout implementation and after the restoration and rehabilitation efforts have ended, to allow for adaptive management. Silvopastoral land degradation and management information need to be obtained from different resources at the country level. For instance, countryvalidated national datasets prepared for land degradation monitoring and reporting in the context of the UNCCD national reporting process and SDG Indicator 15.3.1 reporting; country national communications including the annual GHG inventory submission to the UNFCCC and the national reporting to biodiversityrelated conventions. Examples of available tools include SEPAL, Trends, Earth and others like the good practice of FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), which is a well-established country-driven process of collection, compilation and reporting on global forest resources, their management and uses. The implementation of sound information and monitoring system demands some enabling conditions that need to be addressed at different scales. This initially consists in identifying real information needs, followed by setting up relevant methodologies, protocols, procedures and logical frameworks for monitoring (including criteria and indicators in the way used in this paper). There is also a need for a systematic database of dryland, degraded lands and or silvopastoral lands ranging from regional to national and local scales. These conditions should allow to implement a silvopastoral information system for all scales: regional, national, local, and so on, with different resources and tools assigned. In summary, strengthening monitoring and information system will support the transition towards the best results of the recommendations developed in the previous paths. a holistic and integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agriculture and food systems Agroforestry the interaction of agriculture and trees, including the agricultural use of trees. This includes trees on farms and in agricultural landscapes, farming in forests and along forest margins, tree-crop production, silvopastoralism and agrosilvopastoralism (Grebner and Boston, 2022) Agrosilvopastoralism a form of agroforestry that integrates trees with grazing animal production and crops, including woody crops and/or herbaceous crops (Pardini and Nori, 2011) Breeding controlled selection and reproduction of domestic animals in order to improve desirable qualities Browsing a type of herbivory in which an animal feeds on leaves, sprouts, or fruits of woody plants such as shrubs Clearing removing trees and other woody vegetation from an area in a wood or forest. Also a forest area from which trees and bushes have been removedCommunity-based management a bottom-up approach of organization, often externally facilitated, which aims for local stakeholder participation in the planning, research, development, management and policymaking for a community as a whole the different livestock farming systems using the natural resources of a territory, with a low use of external inputs and mainly by outdoor grazingForest grazing the use of any forest or tree plantation as a direct source of livestock feed; it has been traditionally considered just as an historical use but more recently as a land management tool and part of multifunctional SPS (Varga, 2017) Grassland a large area of land covered with grassGrassland-based livestock system the different livestock farming systems using the natural resources of the territory, with a low use of external inputs and mainly by outdoor grazingland where farm animals feed on grassthe different livestock farming systems using grasslands as main source of feed including harvested forages, pasture, and range Hedgerows a line of different types of bushes and small trees growing very close together, especially between fields or along the sides of roads in the countryside the act of planting trees in an area where there used to be a forest Rewilding restore an area of land to its natural uncultivated state (used especially with reference to the reintroduction of species of wild animal that have been driven out or exterminated)Rotational grazing a grazing system based on shifting of livestock to different pasture or range units in a planned sequence, to improve production while allowing the recovery and growth of the pasture plants after grazing Seedling a very young plant that has grown from a seedthe different livestock farming systems combining extensive production with intensive stages or feed supplementation from concentratesShelterwood cutting removing a significant portion of the mature trees in one cut from an area, with the remaining trees providing a source of seed and shelter for a new stand of treesprocessing forest residues and materials by reducing them to small pieces for fuel or soil improvers Shrub encroachment phenomenon characterized by the increase in density of woody plants, mainly bushes and shrubs, at the expense of the herbaceous layera silvopastoral agricultural production unit that integrates woody vegetation (trees and/or shrubs) with grazing animal production (Peri, Dube, and Costa Varella, 2016). For the purpose of this report, any production unit that integrates woody vegetation and grazing livestock is considered a SPS Silvopastoralism a form of agroforestry that combines grazing livestock with forestry, benefiting from the ecological relationships between animals and woody plants (Plieninger and Huntsinger, 2018;Mosquera-Losada, Rigueiro and McAdam, 2005) Small ruminants small-sized ruminant livestock including sheep and goats Social-ecological systems a coherent system of biophysical and social factors that regularly interact in a resilient, sustained mannerStand density a quantitative measure of tree cover on an area, measured usually through an index based on the number of trees per unit area and diameter at breast height Target grazing a grazing regime consistent in the application of a specific set of livestock at a determined moment, duration, and intensity to accomplish defined vegetation or landscape goalsto all food products derived from livestock production systems of any scale and from wild terrestrial animals Trees in dryland forests and wooded areas provide key ecosystem services such as animal feed, timber, fruits and, regulation of soil and water cycles. Equally, the presence of livestock in dryland woody areas can also play an important role in the local ecosystem; not only are they a source of income for local communities, but they also help vegetation and mobilise stored biomass. When both of these ecosystem elements are wisely combined -livestock and trees -it creates an integrated agricultural system that can boost the local ecosystem, representing a welcome agro-ecological transition in livestock farming. The 'Grazing with Trees' report gives a thorough assessment of the positive role that optimized extensive grazing livestock farming can play in the management and restoration of drylands' forests and lands with trees. It assesses and provides sound evidence on the benefits of applying an integrated landscape approach and utilizing farmers and pastoralists' knowledge to halt desertification, increase resilience, and enhance food security under the actual changing scenario. The report confirms the importance of agroforestry as a primary pathway for forest restoration in dryland areas as recommended by FAO's State of Forests 2022, and its recommendations encourage landscape planners and decision makers to consider livestock as allies, carefully restore tree cover and accelerate action to promote healthy ecosystems.  7 8 9 2 5 1 3 6 9 5 6 2 ","tokenCount":"48039"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3358743a94d7097bc73b32dd3715837b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6f852ae8-2e0d-4c76-b846-eada5d816124/retrieve","id":"1883084739"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a6456da5-31fe-41f4-a80c-101adabb9681","pagecount":"21","content":"The risk of spread of HPAI in Nigeria was derived by using a compartmental model to outline endemic and burn-out scenarios. Two paths, low and high mortality risks, were associated to each of the scenarios. The estimated risk parameters were then used to stochastically simulate the trajectory of the disease; without intervention and with an intervention. The intervention costs the country US$ 41 million obtained through a World Bank IDA loan of US$ 50million yearly disbursed over the 2006-2010 period. The key output variables (net social welfare gainwith incremental net benefits as proxy, disease cost, and benefit cost ratio) were estimated for each randomly drawn risk parameter. On average, the results show that such an intervention would make economic sense under the endemic scenario with high mortality. The discounted costs (12% discount rate) of the disease without intervention would have amounted to US$ 145 million in total over the 2006-2010 period. The model indicates that the intervention could possibly have generated cost savings amounting to US$ 63.7 million, incremental net benefit of US$22.2 million, and a benefit cost ratio at 1.75 over the five-year period considered.Nigeria has a poultry industry with about 160 million birds estimated at US$ 250 million. The industry contributes up to 10% to the country's agricultural GDP and accounts for 36% of total protein intake of the country. The overall sector attracts investment and yields a net worth of US$ 1.7 billion a year (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2007). Nigeria's commercial poultry sector represents 15% of its poultry population and is of significant economic importance to the country and the West Africa region. However, in spite of the sector's contribution to national and regional food security and livelihoods, infrastructure for animal health, disease surveillance, diagnosis and control are very weak. These factors exposed Nigeria to moderate to high risks of introduction and spread of trans-boundary animal diseases e.g. the highly pathogenic (H5N1) avian influenza (HPAI) as confirmed by the report of the technical committee of experts on the prevention and (eventual) control of HPAI H5N1 or bird flu in Nigeria (FDL, 2005). The necessity of this committee's work was triggered and underscored by the enormous and unprecedented social and economic impacts of bird flu in Asia where over 200 million domestic poultry had either died or been destroyed with 175 people having contracted the infection, of which, 93 had died as a direct result of HPAI infection between 2003and 2005(World Bank, 2006).Although the Government of Nigeria (GoN) had developed emergency preparedness plans for dealing with any incursion of the disease into Nigeria (FLD, 2006) because of the economic significance of poultry farming and the potential for the outbreak of becoming a pandemic with incalculable consequences, the first wave of outbreaks starting from February 2006 created panic and heightened fears of a looming disaster of international proportions. More specifically, it was feared that with similarly weak infrastructure for animal health, disease surveillance, diagnosis and control across sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), the effects of HPAI escaping the boundaries of Nigeria would be disastrous for the food security and livelihoods of millions of people (Gueye, 2007). In addition, based on the trans-boundary and zoonotic nature of HPAI H5N1, it would be catastrophic if the combined devastating and ravaging effects of an influenza pandemic and HIV/AIDS were to be unleashed on the continent. The scenarios painted above, which were seriously taken and addressed with the utmost sense of urgency and responsibility, provided the near-perfect impetus for policy makers to decide to save the world first and count costs later (precautionary principle) and/or to accept inputs from costbenefit analyses that could in other circumstances have been adjudged as unrealistic (worstcase scenario).In the immediate aftermath of the initial outbreaks, the worst of the fears became increasingly plausible. Within Nigeria, the disease spread rapidly to 97 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in a total of 25 States and the Federal Capital Territory, and some 440,000 birds were culled in the first two months; egg and chicken sales declined by 80% within two weeks following the announcement of HPAI outbreaks; there was a media frenzy and each additional report about bird flu reduced consumption to the extent that there soon was a near total boycott of poultry products in the country with all the associated negative effects of a zoonotic and transboundary disease on the industry (Tiongco, 2009;Beach et al., 2008;Akinwumi et al., 2010;Rich and Wanyioke, 2010). At the West African regional level and in quick turns, Niger, Cameroon, Benin, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire, all confirmed outbreaks of the disease (OIE, 2011).These events galvanized the international community into action with Nigeria receiving significant in-kind aid materials e.g. disinfectants, protective gears, vehicles and equipment (Perry et al., 2011).On its part, the GoN sought and received a World Bank IDA loan of US$ 50 million (World Bank, 2006) with the project development objectives being to (i) support the efforts of GoN to minimize the threats posed by H5N1 to humans and the poultry industry, (ii) prepare the necessary control measures to respond to a possible influenza pandemic and, (iii) prevent further spread of the disease to other parts of Nigeria. The project was implemented by the Avian Influenza Control Project (AICP) which had a total of four components: Animal Health (budget US$ 29.2 million), Human Health (US$ 18.25 million), Social Mobilisation and Strategic Communication (US$ 4 million), and Implementation Support/ Monitoring and Evaluation (US$ 6.8 million). In the entire event, Nigeria suffered two major waves of outbreaks in 2006 and 2007 with a small and final episode in July 2008. In all, there were 300 outbreaks that led to one human case fatality and the destruction of 1.3 million infected birds for which $5.4 million was paid in compensation to 3,037 affected poultry farms/farmers (World Bank, 2010) The AICP ran from April 2006 to May 2011 during which time US$ 41 million were disbursed by the World Bank to the project. At the tail end of the project (November, 2010) and especially given the probably weighty influences of precautionary principles in the design and approval of the facility, the World Bank commissioned the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to conduct an independent impact assessment of the project to determine, in as empirical fashion as possible, the degree to which the project outputs have contributed to the achievement of the project development objectives. The team evaluated both direct and indirect impacts, and intended and unintended impacts. The evaluation team assembled secondary data from various sources, including from the AICP, and designed and undertook selected studies to collect primary data on certain aspects of the interventions undertaken by the AICP. A 12% discount rate was applied throughout the studyThis paper presents an assessment of the economic impacts of the intervention. Additional question such as the existence of a socially optimal level of risk below which the generated net benefit would not be enough to justify the intervention are also investigated.Disease outbreaks induces cost through production and productivity losses, hence causes welfare loss. These losses could be reduced and/or eliminated using strategically targeted interventions. Theoretically, an intervention strategy against any disease seeks to minimize expected net social welfare losses (or to maximize expected incremental net benefits). To further elucidate, let us assume as in Narrod (2009) an expected social welfare function defined as follows: The incremental net benefits are the benefit netted of the incremental costs, which correspond to the World Bank's yearly disbursements between 2006 and 2010. A benefit cost ratio to gauge whether the intervention made sense economically is calculated using the benefit and the cost of the intervention.The calculation of HPAI costs follows Bennett et al. (1999) and Bennett (2003) with the difference that the composite risk is estimated from outbreak data used in the computation of the disease costs. The total cost of HPAI, which is the sum of the disease direct and indirect costs, is defined as follows:    ()The direct costs of each of the AI outbreaks refer to the monetary values of physical losses due to the disease (Bennett et al. 1999).These physical losses are the results of mortality associated with HPAI, which include chicken death and egg losses, cost of control and prevention, including culling, vaccination, and surveillance. The indirect cost is derived using a ratio derived by Diao et al. (2009). They used a dynamic CGE model to estimate the direct cost due to HPAI in Nigeria between and the indirect cost due to production and consumption linkages. Their estimated direct cost amounted to between Nigerian Naira (NGN) 20 and 61 billion (US$ 135 and 412million) and indirect cost to between NGN24 and 76 billion (US$ 162 and 514 million).In this study, the direct costs are fully accounted and assume the indirect cost as 1.24 times of the direct cost as in Diao et al. (2009).Projected mortalities were derived first using the disease risk parameters as described above.Background information on production and disease evolution are necessary. Data on outbreaks, incidence, prevalence, number of affected States, number of susceptible chickens, number of infected chickens, number of dead chickens, number of culled chickens were gathered from secondary sources. Additional data on compensation cost, cost of culling and disposal per bird were gathered from AICP. The cost of restocking for 2006 was obtained from an OIE study (OIE, 2007) then expressed in a per lost bird basis and applied throughout. The production and price data are from FAO (2010) and rapid surveys in affected States.All key output variables (disease cost, incremental benefits, incremental net benefits, and benefit cost ratio) were simultaneously derived using a spreadsheet model. The model randomly drew from the distribution of the risks of spread and the risk of a chicken in affectedStates to get infected and iteratively solved for the key output variables. The resulting outputs were a set of 500 possible solutions, which encompassed all possible scenarios with respect to the evolution of the disease.The estimation of economic impacts of HPAI outbreak in Nigeria was based on mortality/culling losses incurred in the course of the outbreak. The magnitude of these losses was assumed to depend on the risk of disease spreading between States and the risk of a bird dying from the disease following exposure in the affected States.There are at least two levels of aggregation between the data at State and farm levels that should have been considered (i.e., local government area and village) to minimize ecological fallacy. This could not be done because the outbreak dataset used had more reliable information at higher (State) than lower (village) levels.The risk of introduction of the disease is not considered in this analysis because the focus is on an outbreak that had already occurred. Though multiple introductions of the virus might have occurred over the three-year period when the outbreak was active, these introductions were not considered as being independent events since they happened at a period when HPAI epidemic was active in many parts of the world.The risk of spread of HPAI in Nigeria was analysed using a simple compartmental Susceptible-Infectious (SI) model assuming that all newly infected States were infected by indirect contact with infectious States during the same wave of the epidemic. Two scenarios were considered:(i) the outbreak burns out due to a reduction in the number of susceptible States, and (ii) the outbreak becomes endemic after a short peak. The assumption made for the first scenario was that re-stocking was done 90 days after culling and adequate biosecurity measures were put in place that protected a large proportion of the newly introduced birds from getting exposed to the virus. For the second scenario, it was assumed that restocking was done routinely after 90 days but biosecurity measures were inadequately implemented. In the latter case, the replacement stock has an equal chance of being exposed to the disease as the indigenous population.Two of the four parameters used in the model namely; i) spread and ii) the transmission coefficient were estimated using the outbreak data set. The transmission coefficient, (β = 0.02), which defines the risk of a State getting infected in a day, was estimated as described in the inset below:Duration of infectiousness, which was assumed to be equal to the duration between the dates when the outbreak was reported and when depopulation was done at the State level. A mean of 49 days was obtained. To do this, the outbreak dataset was collapsed at the State level in order to obtain one record/State/phase of the outbreak. The first phase occurred between January and August 2006 while the second occurred between November 2006 and November 2007. The incubation period of the disease, was assumed to be three days. Trajectories for these scenarios are given in Figure 1.The average deterministic risk estimates over a one-year period are 0.13 and 0.27 for burn-out scenario and endemicity, respectively. Mean proportions of poultry that died (combining case Given the high uncertainty associated with the HPAI risk estimates defined above, two risk scenarios (i.e., the best and the worst case scenarios) that are expected to enclose the plausible risk levels are provided for each risk estimate. Composite risk estimates for the various scenarios analysed are presented in Table 1.The collapsed data of infected birds at the State level were used to simulate an empirical distribution of a bird being infected. The empirical distribution is a non-parametric distribution that is flexible to accommodate all probability distributions, including the rare event types. The risk of spread was also simulated using a truncated normal distribution generated from the previously described average risk spread estimates. Both the risk of spread and the risk of a bird becoming infected were assumed to evolve stochastically around an average level from one year to the next, assuming the disease had already been introduced country. Figure 2 and 3 illustrate the distribution of the risk of spread and the risk of infection. Model estimates of average stochastic risk of spread were 0.2746 and 0.1663 under the endemicity and burn-out scenarios, respectively. Average risks of mortality were 0.0088 and 0.0174 for the low and high mortality risk scenarios, respectively.Table 2 presents a comparison between observed and expected birds' mortalities from culling and the disease itself under the four previously outlined scenarios. These estimates were based on the stochastic averages of the spread and mortality risk parameters. The results show that the incremental number of birds that would have been saved by the intervention between 2008 and 2010 under the burn-out scenario would be 46,960 and 93,794 for the high and low mortality paths. The number of birds that would have been saved would not be enough to warrant the investment from a financial standpoint. Hence, the analysis mainly dwelt on the two scenarios of endemicity. The descriptive statistics on the key output variables are provided in Table 3.If no intervention had been carried out, the average cost of HPAI to the Nigerian economy over the 5-year period (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) would have amounted to US$96 million under the low mortality path and US$ 145 million under the high mortality path. The spread of the potential cost of the disease was also evaluated. As indicated in Table 4, there was 70% chance that the disease would cause economic damage of at least US$ 145 million under the most disastrous scenario and 90% chance that it would be greater than US$ 52 million. We also derived the cost of the disease with the intervention having been implemented and found that the total cost of the disease under these circumstances would amount to US$ 81.27 million. The cost savings as the results of implementing the intervention is the incremental benefits of the intervention. They represent the amount of money that accrued to Nigeria because of the intervention. Over the five-year period, the incremental benefits added to US$ 63.7 million. When netted out of the Bank disbursements during the same period yielded US$ 22 million of incremental net benefits.This amount is the net gain of the intervention. The distribution of the generated incremental net benefits of the intervention ranged from a minimum of US$65 million to a maximum of US$700 million. The derived incremental net benefits and the amount of money invested in the project are then used to calculate the benefit cost ratio of the project. The derived BCRs range between zero and 20.75. The average benefit cost ratio amounts to 1.75 (Table 4). It indicates for the endemic scenario with high mortality path, the intervention would have made economic sense. However, there is no certainty to the economic justification, as it is determined by the magnitude of the risk of bird infection in affected State. In any case, as illustrated in Table 4, there is a less than 50% chance that the investment would not be economically justified under the endemic scenario with high mortality path.A breakeven analysis was conducted to find the minimum HPAI risks (of spread and of infection) that would justify the investment. Various combinations of risk of spread and risk of bird infection led to the threshold benefit cost ratio, as the two parameters simultaneously determine losses. Notwithstanding, our findings indicate that a risk of spread between 0.23 and 0.27 and a risk of bird infection between 0.012 and 0.017 would justify an intervention. With both estimates the disease would be prolonged and with the high mortality rates, the potential economic damage would be high enough to justify the intervention. At breakeven risk level, the disease would have caused economic damages amounting to US$ 118 million over the five-year period.Outbreak data in Nigeria were used to simulate the risk of spread of HPAI to States in Nigeria and the risk of bird infection. These risk parameters were applied to assess the potential cost of HPAI to Nigeria under four scenarios (i. burn-out with low mortality, ii. burn-out with high mortality, iii. endemic with low mortality, and iv. endemic with high mortality) had the intervention not been carried out. Our findings indicate that for both burn-out scenarios, the number of birds that would have been saved would not have been enough to warrant the investment of US$ 41 million. This conclusion, for the burn-out scenarios, is purely financial as it discounts the possibility of loss of human lives and the application of precautionary principle informed by the poor state of infrastructure and known weaknesses of the Veterinary Service in Nigeria at the time of the outbreak. From a global view point, the potential evolution of the disease to a pandemic could have been enough to warrant such an investment given concerns within the international community on the high likelihood of the disease becoming endemic in Nigeria.Nevertheless, the analyses show that under the scenario where the disease became endemic with high mortality risk, the investment would generate incremental net benefits significant enough to justify the investment. In reality, the Nigeria HPAI outbreaks claimed more than 1.3 million birds and could not be classified under any of the two burn-out scenarios explored in this paper. Similarly, the outbreaks did not persist with high mortality as the last one occurred in July 2008. If the intervention is perceived to have helped to avert the endemic and high mortality scenario, then the benefits would have by far exceeded the cost, hence the investment could been seen to have been highly justified. There also are multiple positive externalities that are difficult to account in the calculations of the benefits of the intervention.For example, the investment has helped Nigeria to improve its infrastructure for health services delivery, strengthened its public health and veterinary services capacity in biosecurity protocols and communications to deal with disease outbreaks of significant magnitude. So, the lessons learnt from this intervention including the induced behavioral changes within the populace and the knowledge of what to do when confronted with similar situations in the future are incalculable. From the financial, economic and welfare standpoints outlined also in this paper, an overall conclusion could be reached that the intervention was useful. The results presented in each column should be interpreted separately. They are based on the 500 possible solutions. The risk parameters and the benefit cost ratio are unitless while cost of inaction, benefits, and net benefits are in US$ million over five year period with 2006 as base year. A 12% discount rate was applied.  ","tokenCount":"3371"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d86b722bd2fdb378c9c213ea3d2dbf56","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/71d63c7a-4016-4f6d-85a3-727ca0248a43/retrieve","id":"1930265865"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1b9e882d-180d-4753-a852-ce304910ecb9","pagecount":"14","content":"This research note explains the results of social experiment designed with three primary objectives. These include (1) to mitigate the digital divide concerning the accessibility of forecasted weather information and crop advisories for women farmers in Bangladesh and (2) to assess the potential impact of a digital climate advisory tool on the agricultural practices of women farmers. Finally, (3) we sought to assess the potential advantages of climate-smart agriculture facilitated by digital advisory tools for stakeholders in the value chain, such as microfinance institutions offering crop loans in areas facing higher weather-related risks. 'Agvisely' is a farming systems decision support system (DSS) for Bangladesh. It serves as the digital climate advisory tool used in this experiment. The study involved 120 female farmers in Patuakhali district of coastal Bangladesh. We aimed to assess the impact of climate services on the cultivation of mung bean (Vigna radiata) and boro rice (Oryza sativa) during the winter rabi season.The southern coastal zone of Bangladesh is a hotspot for climate change related risks, where farmers grapple with weather events that lead to crop stress and often significant financial losses. Digital climate services tools like 'Agvisely' are often proposed as solution to enhance farmers' capacity to make smart farming decisions by providing crop-stagespecific advisories based on highfrequency and downscaled weather forecasts. Given the fact that digital solutions often fail to reach women and marginal farmers, empowering women lead farmers by training them to use digital climate information services can potentially enable them to become catalysts for change and improve inclusivity of climate services.There are many high-quality digital climate services emerging worldwide, several of which are related to agriculture. These services leverage advanced weather forecasting abilities combined with expertise in crop science to generate localized and crop stage-specific advisories (Simelton and McCampbell, 2021;Ganesan et al., 2020;Das et al., 2018) Agvisely generates climate advisory services for multiple crops, including rice, maize, wheat, lentil, mung bean, potato and mustard. The DSS processes gridded short-term weather forecasts (temperature, rainfall, and humidity) from BMD and downscales them for all 465 sub-districts of Bangladesh. Location-specific and customized advisories at various critical stages, from crop establishment to harvesting (Bamis, 2021;BMD, 2021), are generated using the forecasts, in combination with information on the crop-specific biological thresholds (phenological stage-specific) for rainfall and temperature stress embedded in the system.Farmers in the southern coastal zone of Bangladesh, a hotspot for climate risks, often experience extreme weather (Akter, 2015;Alamgir, 2018;Barua, 2017Barua, , 2020;;Rahman, 2015). Extreme weather can often result in crop damage and economic losses that not only affect farmers but also other stakeholders in the value chain, including microfinance, banking, input, and output dealers as well as processors (Luzardo et al., 2020).Agvisely are suggested as potential options to help prevent crop losses due to unfavorable rainfall and temperature extremes by advising on actions such as changing seeding dates, irrigation and/or nutrient management, and the timing of harvesting, among other interventions. Use of these advisories can potentially benefit both farmers and other value chain actors.To understand how a digital advisory tool that provides shortterm forecasts (with a 5-day lead time) with crop-specific advisories (Agvisely) can influence farmers' decision-making throughout a cropping season and minimize the risk of crop losses due to weather-related events.ii) Between February 2023 and June 2023, CIMMYT collaborated with the NGO, Grameen Jano Unnayan Sangstha (GJUS), to involve 120 female farm microfinance recipients in testing the Agvisely DSS. Farmers were randomly selected from the list of current or previous loan recipients of GJUS, cultivating boro rice and mung bean during the winter rabi season in four unions of the Patuakhali district in southern Bangladesh (Figure 1).a farmer borrower of microfinance experiences crop loss due to weather extremes, it poses a risk to microfinance lending. As there is no crop insurance available for micro-borrowers, forecast-based advisories can potentially help in reducing their risk of default or delays in loan repayment. In response, we collaborated with GJUS to design a preliminary study during the winter rabi season of 2022-2023.As Agvisely is a digitally-based DSS, one of the main challenges in setting up the experiment was farmers' access to smartphones, as the majority utilize feature phones. Given the documented evidence of women farmers having limited access to smartphones and weather-related information in Bangladesh (Rahman and Huq, 2023), the study was tailored for women borrowers of microcredit, focusing on two key crops including winter boro rice and mung bean.We trained GJUS staff on use of the Agvisely DSS so that their staff members could subsequently train lead women farmers, who possess smartphones with internet access. As part of the study, these lead farmers disseminated crop management advisories from Agvisely application for boro rice and mung bean to women farmers who lacked access to smartphones and who had low levels of digital literacy to interpret the information.This dissemination occurred through phone calls made twice a week during which crop management advice was verbally transferred to women farmers. Initial pre-study baseline data collection with selected women farmer beneficiaries was conducted through face-to-face interviews by GJUS's trained enumerators. Additionally, enumerators collected data from participating farmers (both Agvisely advisory users and control group) through weekly telephonic surveys, beginning on the 15th of February 2023. For this highfrequency data on crop management decisions (rice and mungbean) from farmers, CIMMYT prepared a survey questionnaire, which was implemented using Open Data Kit (ODK) software (Figure 2). METHODOLOGY 120 farmers were randomly selected from the list of past and present microcredit borrowers of GJUS to be a part of the experiment. 60 boro rice and mung bean farmers received regular calls (twice weekly) providing five-day forecast-based advisories for these crops. Calls were delivered by lead farmers trained by GJUS in using the Agvisely app. Training they received enabled them to understand and communicate effectively the management advice automatically generated by the Agvisely algorithm in response to the 5 days weather forecast. Each lead farmer conveyed the forecast and advisories for rice and mungbean to 10 farmer micro-finance borrowers once every three days through telephone calls. The remaining 60 randomly selected farmers constituted the control group, who did not receive any form of weather information or advisory service. CIMMYT collected data from the women farmers (in the treated group) every week on how they utilized the information provided by the women service providers through telephone surveys.   Data analysis and visualization were used to understand the difference between Agvisely and control farmers. A switching regression model (Equations 1-4) was applied to determine key decision variables influencing the yield of both Agvisely and control farmers, and to simulate the yields of the control group farmers if they had also followed the decision-making behavior of Agvisely group of farmers. Equations 1 through 4 are described below:(1)where F i are the regimes of crop management decisions applied by farmers using information and advice from Agvisely and Z i are determinant variables.In assessing potential yield, this leads to two regime equations:Regime 1:Collected data indicated that farmers who obtained forecasts-based advisories demonstrated a higher level of productivity compared to the control group of farmers who did not get any kind of weather forecast form any sources at all (Figure 3 shows the yield information ordered as highest to lowest for Agvisely and control group).Figure 3: Self-reported yields from farmers accessing Agvisely derived crop management advisories compared to control group farmers for boro rice.Women farmers who received advisories from lead farmers using Agvisely reported productivity of boro rice ranging from 3,787 to 8,206 Kg/ha, whereas most of the control farmers' productivity ranged from near complete crop loss at 318 kg/ha to very high yield at 7,676 Kg/ha. Note that these are farmers' self-reported yield levels. 23% of farmers in the control group lost their yield completely where 15% of Agvisely-informed farmers lost the crop. We also asked women farmers who accessed crop management information via telephone call from other lead women farmers what their perceived benefit of regular weather information and advisories for boro rice was. 65% that they perceived financial benefit, with an average of USD 537 dollars, the highest being USD 1,547 (Figure 5). Switching regression model results in Table 1 show that the decision variables contributing to the increased yield of farmers using Agvisely appears to be optimized transplanting and improved irrigation decisions during high temperatures during the 2022-2023 rabi season. We also examined the economic implications of yield differences between farmers who had received Agvisely-based information and the control group. Data suggest that losses were lower for farmers who received weather forecast information and associated crop advisories generated by Agvisely (Figure 4). Our analysis suggests that 35% the farmers using Agviselybased information still faced financial losses in the cultivation of boro rice. This suggests the challenges in growing this input intensive crop. Conversely, however, nearly double -62% -of the control group farmers had estimated production costs higher than returns from the cultivation of boro rice. Sixty-five percent of farmers self-reported an average financial benefit of USD 537 for boro rice per hectare due in part to utilization of weather information-based advisory services. Regime 1 refers to farmers who received decision support from weather forecastbased crop management advice from Agvisely while Regime 0 represents the control group (Table 1). Switching regression was performed using the 'movestay' command in Stata software. Utilizing the results from the switching regression, the yield levels of control farmers (Regime 2) were estimated assuming they had similar decision behavior to the farmers who received information based on Agvisely (Regime 1). Our preliminary estimates indicate that yields could have been increased by 1,173 kg per farmer (2,298 kg per hectare) compared to control farmers if they had received Agvisely-based information (figure 6).  Alongside boro rice, farmers in this study also cultivated mung bean, considering it a high potential profit cash crop requiring relatively low investment. Despite this, unpredictable rainfall and high temperatures during the harvesting period appeared to have contributed to yield losses among many of the farmers participating in the experiment . Figure 7 illustrates the production levels of mung bean farmers who received forecasts along with advisories five days in advance, compared to those of the control group farmers.According to farmers' perceptions, the economic benefit associated with Agvisely use to assist in mung bean management helped contribute to saving of USD 207 per farmer by averting losses and damage from weather extremes. The highest perceived saving reported was USD 635 per farmer (Figure 9). Data also showed that farmers who used advisories from Agvisely self-reported a lower percentage of yield loss from weather-induced crop damage (16%) for mung bean compared to control farmers (24%) (refer to Figure 8 According to self-reported damage information, among the 60 farmers who received Agvisely-based forecasted advisories, 34 did not experience any damage due to weather extremes or incidents during the experimental season.Women farmer borrowers associated with the NGO GJUS in southern Bangladesh perceive the 'women to women digital service provider model' of agro-meteorological advisory services as beneficial for both boro rice and mung bean cultivation. For both crops, the productivity levels of the Agvisely group of farmers were higher than those of the control farmers. Conversely, the percentage of financial losses resulting from weather induced crop damage was perceived to be lower among farmers that used Agvisely compared to the control group. Yield differences, perceived benefits from climate advisory services by the farmers who received Agvisely based advisory, difference in weather-related crop damage between the groups, and estimated benefits of Agvisely use to control group from the switching regression model provide preliminary backing to these observations. The results from the switching regression model suggested that access to information from Agvisely helped support improved decision making on irrigation timing and the time of crop establishment (transplanting). Our preliminary study suggests that this may have contributed to higher yields compared to farmers who did not receive any forecasts or management advice. For microfinance institutions, the digital advisory services offered by Agvisely could be helpful in protecting their investments (e.g. loans for inputs for boro rice or mungbean farmers) from a delay or default of repayment due to weather-related stresses. While insurance offsets the cost of weatherrelated yield losses through compensatory payments, farmers' ability to intervene in crop management with the Agvisely DSS appears to hold promise in preventing loss and damage themselves. So the advisory act as a kind of insurance. Additionally, lead women farmers displayed an interest in being information service providers as it enhances their social recognition and could act as an additional income source (the lead women farmers received honorarium to deliver their services). The experiment also shows that if powered by digital services offering high quality weather forecasts and advisories, women can take the role of information brokers for women and marginalized farmers who are not having access to such information. It can offer recognition and income to lead young women service providers and additional yield and income to women farmer beneficiaries. This requires recognition of microfinance agencies on the benefits of such a service and employment of women as digital climate service providers to protect their loan investment to crop farmer borrowers from weather related yield losses. This women-towomen digital advisory service model, has generated interest among farmers and microfinance providers in coastal Bangladesh. These preliminary results suggest promise, though further validation through multiple rounds of experimentation, and potentially a randomized control trial, are needed, especially given the fact that the value of climate service is dependent upon climate stress level each year.t.krupnik@cgiar.org; p.menon@cgiar.org The Asian Mega-Deltas (AMD) aims to create resilient, inclusive and productive deltas, which maintain socio-ecological integrity, adapt to climatic and other stressors, and support human prosperity and wellbeing, by removing systemic barriers to the scaling of transformative technologies and practices at community, national and regional levels.","tokenCount":"2282"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"debe6bef497ec81879592c1e32064092","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/241f2314-5fb0-48d1-9966-3938f1960ac1/retrieve","id":"524288320"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5db42182-db15-469b-b6ab-ec0d1719202c","pagecount":"56","content":"Therefore, CTA will continue to lobby for appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) policies in ACP countries. We need to create more awareness at the level of our authorities 1 in order for them to acknowledge CTA's experience, expertise and potential role in facilitating ACP countries' access to information. It is vital for CTA's work that infrastructure development and creation of employment are core elements of the European Commission (EC)'s Strategy for Africa 2 , which announced a signifi cant increase in the European Union (EU)'s offi cial development assistance, aiming to reach 0.57% of GDP in 2010.« We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countriesbut only if we break with business as usual. … So we must start now.And we must more than double global development assistance over the next few years » (Former UN Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan). 1 The ACP-EU Committee of Ambassadors, the European Commission (EC), the European Union (EU) Member States, in close collaboration with the ACP Secretariat, together with the Centre for the Development of Enterprise.2 Adopted in 2005 (Commissioner for Development Louis Michel).iii CTA offers a wide range of great products and services. Our vision is to make CTA even greater, and its products and services even better known. Through this strategic plan, we aim to improve CTA's effi ciency and increase its outreach by addressing the major bottleneck of diffi cult or insuffi cient ACCESS TO INFORMATION in ACP countries.CTA will not try to be everything to everyone. This is why we need to continue honing our profi le and further defi ning our niche where we have a comparative advantage. A major challenge is to transform the Centre's culture to become more business-oriented. CTA works within a constantly changing environment: ACP countries evolve and ICTs develop at a revolutionary speed. Thus, there is a continual need for CTA's staff to adapt to these changing requirements.To make this happen one decisive prerequisite is to considerably increase CTA's operational budget. I am optimistic that our Supervisory Authorities share this vision and hopefully will agree to this important change. Only by doing so will CTA be able to better respond to the huge and steadily increasing demand from ACP countries for information products and services.This strategic plan is based on feedback from our target groups, our main strategic partners and Supervisory Authorities through evaluations and needs-assessment studies. The Plan also benefi ted from the full participation of CTA's staff. I would like to express my thanks to those who have provided invaluable guidance in fi nalising this strategic plan.We hope that by using information and communication technologies as the leading resource and an innovative force in the Centre's drive to increase its outreach, we will be suffi ciently prepared to head in a new strategic direction -one that will help carve out a clear position for CTA in a fi eld where, increasingly, collaboration and competition   CTA's tasks are to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilise information in this area.CTA is funded by the European Union. » v and that there is high and increasing demand in ACP countries, especially in rural areas, for information and communication management (ICM) 4 support.On the other hand, CTA also has to cope with the following threats:• the tendency to consider the abundance and availability of information on the Internet to imply that there is enough information for everyone, and hence for policy-makers to conclude that there is no need to invest in information processing and sharing• cultural, economic and political barriers to the uptake of ICTs• limited budget and staff capacity, which are major concerns for the Centre.As an international organisation, CTA is guided by the principles of public sector governance: accountability, transparency/openness, integrity, effi ciency, effectiveness and inclusiveness. In addition, CTA strives to ensure that its programmes fulfi l the development criteria of relevance, impact and sustainability 5 .In direct response to the recommendations of the above-mentioned evaluations and audits of CTA, the Centre's strategic direction will target specifi c strategies relating to effi ciency and sustainability. In the recent past, certain topics have achieved higher priority, reflecting pressing ACP needs that CTA must address under its mandate, in particular: To ensure the systematic and timely implementation of a series of priority actions identifi ed in this strategic plan, a clearly defi ned schedule for implementation has been elaborated.By 2010, CTA is confi dent that its technical and fi nancial support for capacity building will have enabled an increased number of ACP regional, national and local networks and organisations to benefi t from its products and services, and to acquire improved skills and organisational capability in a wide range of areas, including:• planning and decision-making (priority-setting, planning, project management, monitoring and evaluation)• ICT infrastructure and use In this section CTA's external environment is described briefl y, focusing on:• the main challenges faced by ACP countries in the sphere of the Centre's remit (relating to agriculture and to information and communication)• the potential opportunities provided through various global and regional policy frameworks and ICT development at a revolutionary speed.In general, the ACP countries are far from achieving the main challenges stated in the Millennium Development The following lists highlight the main challenges relating to the ICT/ICM situation in ACP countries 8 :Poor access to agricultural information and knowledge:• very limited access to information in rural communi- Unavailability of agricultural information:• limited availability of publications that support activities by stakeholders at various levels in the agricultural and rural development chain, especially in production, processing and marketing• little fi rst-hand experience of pertinent developments in other countries and regions.Weak ICM/ICT capacity of most agricultural and rural development organisations:• weak institutional frameworks, and absence or inadequacy of appropriate national policies on information and ICTs• cultural, economic and political barriers hampering uptake of ICTs• limited ICM/ICT skills, as well as limited access to IT services and facilities• weak information infrastructure (software and hardware).   CTA applies the principles of good public sector governance: accountability, transparency/openness, integrity, effi ciency and effectiveness in all its fi nancial procedures, internal systems and processes. However, to further improve effi ciency and effectiveness, the following recommendations have been made:• CTA should undertake the necessary research, analysis and consultation to agree with its supervisory authorities a more limited and clearly defi ned set of priorities.• CTA should further develop standardised measures to track target group access to, use of and satisfaction with its products and services.• As partnerships are key for CTA outreach, CTA should formulate a corporate strategy for partnership that provides the basis for a more structured and longerterm approach to partnership development and capacity-building, which, while reducing the number of partners, would increase the volume of support provided to them. As part of this process, CTA should seek to fund a smaller number of projects and increase the average project size.• CTA should review and revise the process by which it prepares its annual programme of activities, to ensure plans are developed from an analysis of performance during the previous year, and that they provide clear indicators and milestones for monitoring and evaluation of programmes and sub-programmes.• CTA should review and streamline its procedures for project funding (logical framework analysis, project proposal preparation, contract management, reporting, monitoring and evaluation), and should provide improved information on these procedures to partners.• CTA should review its current structure and departmental responsibilities in relation to core products and services, to identify where further adjustments are required.• CTA should review its current management information systems to identify opportunities for strengthening the capture and analysis of performance and fi nancial data for its core products and services.• CTA was encouraged to increase further the participation of women and youth, and the representation of farmers' organisations, in seminars and study visits; also following these activities to encourage networking among participants via email and the website, in order to ascertain impact.• CTA was encouraged to maximise its outreach through its main website and its thematic components, and to take a more proactive stance regarding their promotion, to make the nuggets of its information goldmine more easily accessible to clients.• The Centre should continue producing regular and more harmonised reports on web (usage) statistics to 12 The recommendations in this section are drawn from the ITAD evaluation of the Strategic Plan and Framework for Action of CTA, the 'Report of Internal Meetings on CTA's Contract Management and other Aspects of the Centre's Project Cycle Management', a Survey of CTA's web portals, reports of needs-assessment studies conducted in the Caribbean and Pacifi c between 2003 and 2005, an evaluation of CTA seminars and study visits, and fi nancial and institutional audits.ensure the necessary adjustments or improvements may be made to increase access to information, particularly among ACP stakeholders and benefi ciaries.Linking the website/portals to international organisations, regional and national partners was also encouraged.• The widespread availability of radio (in particular), television (to a lesser extent), and mobile phones was seen as a key element for CTA to facilitate access to information by its main stakeholder groups. In order to respond fully to the concerns highlighted by the various evaluations, audits and needs assessment studies, CTA needs to:• fi nd solutions to organisational inconsistencies in terms of the same product/service being split across several departments• develop and implement guidelines and procedures to increase effi ciency• assess how adequately its current staff resources match future needs (as foreseen under this strategic plan), and take the necessary steps to redress any gaps.CTA should also make the diffi cult strategic choice between producing more information (increased availability) and facilitating access to information that is already available.However, the following recommendations from the ITAD report appear to contradict the Centre's future plans:• reducing the breadth of thematic coverage -there is an obvious need for CTA to extend its information coverage to new topics, such as biofuel and the risks of bird fl u• reducing the number of partners -there is a strong demand for the Centre to increase its outreach, especially towards media groups such as networks of journalists• continuing to provide information in formats adapted to CTA's target group -as opposed to challenging the status quo by reducing the quantity and complexity of information provided.With the current level of resources, CTA is able to implement most of its activities and strategies. However, only a substantial increase in the Centre's resources would allow it to further maximise outreach and increase impact.13 2006 was a transitional year, with CTA's annual programme of activities initially planned according to the 2001-2005 SP/FFA. During the year, aspects of the new (2007-2010) strategy were gradually adopted and applied.  Emphasis on increasing all aspects of CTA's outreach by:• extending the Centre's services to a signifi cantly larger number of direct and indirect benefi ciaries, while ensuring regional balanceThis strategic orientation will be underpinned by various groups of corporate strategies, including:• using ICTs as CTA's leading resource/innovative force in the Centre's drive to increase outreach, including the development of new and conventional IT-based products suitable for mass distribution• strengthening strategic partnership arrangements• increased use of local networks (in-country) and change agents at national, regional and international levels so as to multiply outreach and impact• applying economies of scale to its ICM services by increasing the numbers of direct benefi ciaries, in particular, the most needy• promoting services and products in a market-oriented and business-like fashion• reducing the complexity of information provided• monitoring the market for information services to ensure CTA maintains its comparative advantage or adapts its products and services The list of broad thematic areas and the main categories of ICM services, presented in Table 3, together describe the boundaries of CTA's operations.14 CTA systematically makes it print publications available in electronic format. • Over 80 national and regional organisations from the six ACP regions supported annually • About 32 QAS national and regional organisations (serving as nodes)* Based on classification adopted by CTA in 1996. † New classification adopted from 2006.CTA will continue to pursue two operational objecti- CTA's continuing work on food security will lead the Centre to maintain its coverage of \"agricultural production systems, productivity and processing/value-adding\"(Theme 1 in Table 3), as well as \"environmental protection and natural resource management\" (Theme 2).The themes reflect two of CTA's development objectives 3). 15 The challenges addressed through these objectives are outlined in section 2.2. 16 CTA's work on ICM concepts and practice as a cross-cutting topic dates back to the 1997 -2000 Mid-term Plan.CTA will address the themes presented in Table 4, which have emerged as pressing ACP needs within the Centre's mandate.Table 4 New Thematic Emphases 1 Agricultural diversification, value adding and differentiation strategiesGiven the long-term declining price of commodities and the continuous erosion of preferences due to multilateral trade liberalisation and the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, another critical challenge is for commodity-dependent ACP countries to move away from trading raw commodities to marketing high-value/differentiated/niche products. CTA will continue to provide information and advice aimed at helping (agricultural) commodity-dependent ACP countries. The strategies include finding more effective ways of enabling small-and medium-sized enterprises to improve their access to raw materials, packaging, new technologies and national, regional and international markets. CTA will also deal with information relating to food processing and other postharvest technologies.2 Bioenergy/biofuels CTA will provide information and advice aimed at helping ACP countries develop and implement strategies to enable them to produce and efficiently utilise bioenergies/biofuels. The benefits include the possibility of reducing their reliance on fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and contributing to economic growth and employment.Certain epidemics/pandemics can have a negative impact on both human health, and crop and livestock production. An epidemic could annihilate the entire human population in a given area over a very short time, or completely destroy agricultural and livestock enterprises. CTA will give priority to the dissemination of information on diseases such as 'bird flu'.Participatory geographic information systems (PGIS) combine a range of geospatial information management tools and methods. CTA will continue to support the dissemination of good PGIS practice to disadvantaged groups in society. The aim is to enhance their capacity to generate, manage, analyse and communicate spatial information, thus improving the quality of planning through a participatory approach and facilitating dialogue with policy decision-makers.The loss of biodiversity threatens food supplies, opportunities for recreation and tourism, and sources of wood, medicines and energy in many ACP countries. CTA will provide information on issues pertaining to biodiversity that are of special interest to ACP countries.Agricultural production in ACP countries is influenced by climate change in three major ways: shifts in geographical and temporal production zones; greater climatic variability and hence greater potential vulnerability for extreme events; and pressure to mitigate agriculture-based emission of greenhouse gases. CTA will: assist ACP countries to understand the consequences for agricultural research and development, with a view to promoting policy dialogue and legislation; examine options for the adaptation to and mitigation of adverse effects of climate change on ACP agriculture; and promote carbon-neutral CTA activities.Discussions with CTA's beneficiaries, partners and ACP ambassadors indicate that the Centre will need to continue covering conventional themes on ACP agriculture and rural development, as in the past. These are listed below.1 Food and nutrition securityCTA will facilitate dialogue and information dissemination on strategies and policies that link food security, nutrition and the fight against HIV/AIDS. The interests of vulnerable groups, in particular women and children, will receive special attention.2 Fisheries and agro-aquacultureCTA will promote access to information on production, transformation, marketing and policies.3 Water management and irrigation CTA will provide information on technologies for water harvesting and conservation; irrigation systems suitable for smallholder farmers; sharing of water resources from international rivers by riparian states; and rules and regulations.4 Biotechnology/biosafetyCTA will improve access to information aimed at helping ACP policy-makers adopt the most appropriate strategies and policies towards biotechnology and biosafety.5 Agricultural trade negotiations CTA will keep its ACP stakeholders informed of the latest developments in agricultural trade negotiations. A special effort will be made to provide ACP farmers' associations with access to information.6 Drought and desertification CTA will support initiatives aimed at policy dialogue and formulation, exchange of experiences, learning and sharing best practices in the fight against desertification and the effects of drought.CTA will focus on strengthening agricultural market institutions and tools, including market information systems, at local, national and regional levels. Emphasis will be placed on linking small farmers to markets.On selected priority themes, CTA will support the development of suitable strategies and policies to facilitate decision-making at local, national and regional levels, regarding: (i) youth; (ii) gender; (iii) HIV/AIDS, (iv) ICM concepts and practice; (v) science, technology and innovation strategies.CTA will seek to maximise the benefits of its interventions for ACP countries by ensuring systematic application of the corporate strategies listed in Table 2, to all its ICM services (listed in Table 3). This will entail, among other things, intensive and innovative use of new and conventional ICTs; and using existing or new collaborative or strategic partnership arrangements 18 .Each of the eight groups of ICM services listed in Table 3 is outlined in more detail below, indicating where possible the new areas of emphasis in the interventions planned by CTA over the next 4 years. This list is by no means exhaustive. 17 The classification of ICM services in Table 3 reflects the interests of CTA's beneficiaries, rather than the collaborative or other physical arrangements under which the Centre implements its programmes. The classification system is simplified by not including the term 'partnerships' in the names of the services. 18 The complete list of strategies is given in Table 2 and in section 4.2, which includes specific measures for improving performance.Due to scarcity of resources, shifting development paradigms and adjustment of priorities, among other factors, a number of ACP agricultural and rural development organisations have reduced support for print publishing, leaving CTA to fill the gap. Guided by its publishing policy, CTA will continue to produce its flagship bi-monthly bulletin Spore/Esporo, and will steadily add to its portfolio of books, training manuals and practical guides.CTA will make use of the opportunities offered by IT to support publishing in different formats. For instance, content in print format in one language may be repacked in a different format and disseminated in local languages much more easily, to maximise impact.This service is currently CTA's main outreach arm, with Spore/Esporo reaching over 37,000 subscribers, more than 360,000 bibliographic references being sent to about 1,500 scientists and researchers each year, as well as the distribution of non-CTA publications in bulk to over 1,500 organisations annually. CTA also distributes electronic publications, including agricultural information on CD-ROMs.CTA will continue to improve its credit point system for supplying publications to individuals, networks and organisations. This service will be guided by CTA's publishing policy.The potential for expanding this service is enormous, provided the Centre is accorded a substantial budget increase. For instance, Spore, in view of its impact, could be distributed on a much larger scale if the required additional budget were to be made available.In order to become more service-oriented and increase its outreach, in terms of attracting and retaining more users of its web resources, CTA will: (i) establish and implement clear procedures for updating its websites; (ii) intensify promotion of the numerous web resources to the wider public; and (iii) develop an identifiable corporate brand on the Internet. Once these changes have been accomplished or put in motion, CTA will consider launching new/additional web services.Mass media services (written press, radio and TV) will provide a new impetus for CTA's outreach; the Centre has, so far, made very limited use of TV and the written press as a means of disseminating its products and services. CTA will significantly increase its use of TV and the press, especially in ACP countries, as a means of increasing access to information on agriculture and rural development.CTA will continue to support the production of suitable material for rural radio broadcasting. In order to enhance sustainability, CTA will assist ACP radio stations to increase the proportion of local agricultural content in their broadcasts.CTA will also facilitate training of agricultural journalists (see ICM training below), and will intensify collaboration with networks of journalists.CTA has adopted both informal and formal approaches to networking in its efforts to address issues of pressing concern to agriculture and rural development, and to facilitate the exchange of information among its stakeholders. The Centre will continue to promote and facilitate informal networking, largely through the organisation and support of a variety of face-to-face meetings such as seminars and workshops, as well as study visits and, increasingly, whenever appropriate, make use of electronic fora.CTA will continue to support the formation and strengthening of formal networks in areas such as agricultural policy analysis, agricultural trade and the cross-cutting topics detailed in Table 3. CTA will also strive to build on the goodwill and momentum generated at its seminars, by facilitating the establishment of electronic fora for continued communication and by strengthening journalists' networks (see Media services above).CTA will continue to run or facilitate the organisation of training courses aimed at improving participants' skills in ICT applications, information management, communication techniques, and project planning and evaluation. In order to focus on strengthening ACP organisations, CTA will increasingly support training courses relating to institutional and organisational issues (needs assessment, priority-setting, strategic planning, evaluation, innovation-adoption techniques, etc).CTA will extend the outreach of its training via ICT-based facilities such as virtual libraries and e-distance learning.CTA will continue to assist ACP partner organisations and networks to develop and/or improve their ICM strategies and policies. The tools employed will include needs-assessment studies, evaluations, observatories, workshops, training, priority setting and strategic planning.CTA will use the results from these exercises to improve its own operations.The eight groups of services are strongly interrelated.For instance, CTA's print publications usually end up as web resources after the electronic versions have been placed on the Centre's main or sub-websites. Similarly, training materials (manuals, guides, etc.) may eventually become publications (in print format and on the web).Being able to manage the linkages between the different ICM services will be a major challenge to the Centre over the next 4 years. CTA will need to pay attention to its operational processes.8 Integrated ICM services In order to facilitate the full integration of ICM services into the capacities of the host ACP organisations or networks, CTA will explore ways and means to set up Multi-media Information Centres (MMICs). Such a move would require:• equipping the MMICs (IT infrastructure, IT-based information management systems, databases, etc.)• training staff working at these centres and providing them with post-training assistance• adopting a more targeted approach to collaboration with other information centres attached to universities, governments and NGOs• promoting greater use of integrated ICTs in ACP countries to reach rural communities.The possible assistance for establishing MMICs will depend on the availability of additional budgetary resources.Concerning the QAS, CTA will: (i) systematically assess how to make QAS more efficient; (ii) collaborate with key partners to create a QAS database and make it available online, and (iii) explore ways in which existing QAS nodes may be transformed into MMICs.According to the ITAD report:'The perceived impact of CTA products and services is CTA builds on these achievements and, with the anticipated expansion of its outreach, will make a more signifi cant contribution to ACP development objectives such as eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, promoting sustainable food security, and preserving the natural resource base.udging from the rapidly growing number of publications devoted to business and development management principles, methods and practice, it is easy to conclude that there is, as yet, no blueprint solution, or one universally acceptable theory, on how to manage an organisation correctly.A world-renowned business guru 21 wrote that:'It was always a myth that there is one best way to manage, but it has been a persuasive myth and a damaging one, to both individuals and organisations.The Greeks at least recognised a variety of gods, even if each had his or her favourite. We need a law of requisite variety in management as a theory of cultural propriety'.In the case of CTA, the main challenges are to:• develop a set of clear guiding principles, to ensure the Centre's staff, management and supervisory authori- CTA is managed according to the principles of public sector governance, as listed below 22 :(i) Accountability: the process whereby CTA and its staff are responsible for their decisions and actions « Recent evaluations of CTA have confi rmed that we are doing the right things.The question is: are we always doing things right? » (From the Director's welcome on the CTA website, 28 February 2006)In order to uphold these principles, CTA has identifi ed various mechanisms (comprising a mixture of approaches, tools and actions), listed below 23 , in relation to specifi c aspects of the Centre's operations.• Develop a policy that ensures staff achieve their highest potential and contribute to the attainment of the Centre's goals and objectives in an effi cient and effective manner, while advancing in their chosen careers. Most importantly this also needs to address:-review of the staff evaluation system.-assessment of the ability of staff to meet the new requirements.-improving staff skills in areas such as IT applications and utilities and project-cycle management.• Facilitate the creation of formal or informal interdepartmental teams on the basis of development themes or ICM services.• Increase the number of IT/communication specialists in CTA's skills mix.• Find innovative ways of increasing CTA's staff complement (e.g. via the services of student internships, retired experts, NGOs and through collaboration with Member States' bilateral agencies).• Introduction of a time management system.• Enhance and develop the role of the newly established ICT Innovation Team.• Adopt a demand-driven approach to CTA's internal IT systems development and improvement, based on regular feedback from users.• Establish a permanent ICT Observatory to facilitate testing and adoption of appropriate and innovative IT applications and utilities.Financial matters (including contract management)• Identify and adopt cost-saving practices in all aspects of the Centre's operations (e.g. CTA has already stream-lined and harmonised certain procedures -cf. section 4.3).• Seek ways of obtaining additional funding to complement the annual budget allocation from the European Development Fund (EDF), for example by implementing suitable ICM projects on behalf of other development programmes or agencies.• Introduce a more fl exible annual allocation of budgets among operational departments, taking into account current needs, priorities and staff resources.• Establish multi-annual contracts with strategic partners.Since • a contract-management working group has reviewed and updated all contract models and CTA has changed the modalities for signing contracts (saving time)• introduction of one-page project profiles (concise project summaries which will feed into a database)• establishment of an ICT Innovation Team, including:- • internal (written) procedures :-policies, criteria and guidelines -rules and regulations -IT system security• criteria for selecting CTA's strategic partners updated and adopted by the Centre• publishing policy finalised and adopted• contract models, procurement, elaboration guidelines and administration• contract management and financial reporting guidelines for partners• human resources assessment (including staff evaluations, review of CTA structure).In addition, consultations will be held with key CTA stakeholders and partners to provide input for the formulation of targeted strategies to achieve the priority actions stated in the list above. This includes:• review of CTA's external (market) environment and continued country needs-assessment studies for strategy development• review of CTA's internal structures for effective human resources deployment and development.This phase includes a study on the location of CTA's offi ces.CTA is inherently a risk-taking organisation, because it operates in a dynamic environment and, as a service provider, its impact depends largely on the circumstances under which its products and services are used by its benefi ciaries. The strategies and approaches described in this plan have been designed within a risk-management perspective, aiming to These tasks are consistent with the successive Lomé Conventions, which defined CTA's mission as being:'to improve access to information, research, training and innovations in agriculture and rural development for ACP states.'The Cotonou Agreement thus enables CTA to build on its past experiences and earlier achievements.CTA is mandated to assist 79 ACP countries in a collaborative framework between these countries and the 25 EU states. About 500 million people, who constitute CTA's potential beneficiaries, live in ACP rural areas. The ACP organisations at local, national and regional levels, CTA's other important stakeholders include:• its supervisory authorities in Brussels (ACP and EU Councils of Ministers, ACP-EU Committee of Ambassadors, EC AIDCO and DG Development)• its Executive Board 27• ACP-EU policy-makers (including ambassadors, MPs, ministers)• EU delegations and national/regional authorising officers• EU partner organisations and beneficiaries• general public -ACP/EU.CTA has some characteristics in common with the UN agencies (FAO, UNESCO, IFAD, etc.) and with the International Agricultural Research Centres operating under the CGIAR (IITA, IFPRI, etc.), which distinguish international agencies from the majority of national, bilateral or regional organisations, including:• a multicultural and multidisciplinary staff from developing and developed countries• established networks with a wide range of stakeholders in developing and developed countries• continuity of significant support over many years to partners and other beneficiaries• a mixture of proactive, demand-driven and participatory approaches to identifying the needs and priorities of their beneficiaries.In addition to the general characteristics listed above, CTA has the following attributes, which have been ac- The performance of agriculture in the ACP region continues to be mixed. In some countries the contribution to GDP is declining, while in others it is stagnant.However, agriculture continues to be the main source of employment and, in most cases, makes the highest contribution to export earnings. In fact, many ACP countries' economies, especially those of least-developed countries, landlocked or small island states, are still very highly dependent on agricultural commodities.The most notable agricultural and rural development challenges faced by ACP countries, originating from various sources, outside and inside the agricultural sector, include:• insuffi cient agricultural policies (including access to Coping with these challenges will require ACP states to develop policies, technologies and institutions that will CTA will continue to focus on agricultural ICM as it is a growing source of new knowledge, ideas and guidelines on how to strengthen the role of information, communication and ICTs in agricultural and rural development.CTA will cover the following topics: • Develop a policy that ensures staff achieve their highest potential and contribute to the attainment of the Centre's goals and objectives in an effi cient and effective manner, while advancing in their chosen careers. Most importantly, this also needs to address:-review of the staff evaluation system -assessment of the ability of staff to meet the new requirements -improving staff skills in areas such as IT applications and utilities and project cycle management.• Use different means progressively to improve staff capabilities in using standard IT software applications (e.g. through online tutorials, helpdesk facilities, and making available an up-to-date collection of software manuals).• Increase the number of IT/ICM specialists in CTA's skills mix.• Find innovative ways of increasing CTA's staff complement (e.g. via the services of student internships, retired experts, NGOs and collaboration with Member States and bilateral agencies).• Introduction of time management system.• Enhance and further develop the role of the newly established ICT/ICM Innovation Team.• Adopt a demand-driven approach to CTA's internal IT systems development and improvement, based on regular feedback from users.• Establish a permanent ICT Observatory to facilitate the testing and adoption of appropriate and innovative IT applications and utilities. • Improve and, where possible, integrate the different components of CTA's management information systems (BOB, NAVISION and isolated databases), as well as other IT applications and utilities.• Improve the IT skills of CTA staff.Financial matters (including contract management)• Establish multi-annual contracts with partners.• Harmonise/adapt CTA's rules and procedures to meet the requirements of its supervisory authorities, where applicable.• Prepare and distribute to partners guidelines on contract management, to assist them in respecting CTA's contractual terms.• Ensure partners and other contractual parties fully understand the agreed terms and conditions.• Maintain and keep up to date the consultants' database.• Identify and adopt cost-saving practices in all aspects of the Centre's operations.• Introduce a more flexible annual allocation of budgets among operational departments, taking into account current needs, priorities and staff resources.• Seek ways of obtaining additional funding to complement the annual budget allocation from the EDF, for example by implementing suitable ICM projects on behalf of other development programmes or agencies.• Apply the same set of criteria when selecting CTA's projects:-potential impact and outreach/replicability -stakeholder demand/least developed countries -comparative advantage -image promotion -cost-effectiveness -past performance (subject to continuous assessment of progress and updating of priorities).• Encourage the development of thematic as well as multi-annual programmes (with annual financial commitments).• Apply economies of scale to projects and services that can be expanded (e.g. seminars and networking, integrated ICM services and media services) without reducing their effectiveness.• Ensure quality control of projects via the appropriate internal committees and through improving staff skills in logical framework analysis.• Seek external advice, through a study or other means, on the most appropriate structure for the Centre.• Revise and further clarify the respective roles of the four main internal committees: the Senior Management Group, the Programmes Committee, the Information Products Committee and the Finance Committee.• Facilitate the establishment of cross-departmental teams. T -stands for technical information and hands-on activities that empower developing agrarian populations.A -stands for appreciation for the knowledge that has resulted in educational improvements ending with the power to feed hungry families.This is what CTA means to us. So, on behalf of all my people for whom your publications have brought such empowerment, we congratulate you.Dr Stella Williams, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, NigeriaThrough CTA I have been exposed to issues faced by rural women in other ACP countries. The basis for the great gender divide is similar. Women's experiences are similar and we in the Pacific can learn from others. We need to have exchange of information on problem-solving strategies and action that can improve the situation for rural women. CTA is enhancing this exchange through its work, and our Pacific experience can be shared through CTA.Cema Bolabola, University of South Pacific, Suva, Fiji I wish to add my congratulations to those of my ACP Group colleagues and at the same time to thank ... the CTA for the precious support from which the ACP Group benefited, thanks to you, for the preparations for the WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong.Hélène Fiagan, ACP Secretariat, BrusselsCongratulations on your daily newsletter on the WTO Conference in Hong Kong. It was obviously interesting, but above all simple, well written, extremely clear and comprehensible. For the inter-networks team it was the best daily newsletter. Spore and the other magazines that we receive from the CTA are not only an invaluable information tool on the subjects that they cover, but also an unparalleled technical tool. Accordingly we ensure that they are distributed as widely as possible within the framework of our action and initiatives as way of disseminating practical information to our target groups.Samuel Odjo, Manager, GRADA -Parakou (Benin)I have been a subscriber to your Spore magazine for almost 10 years […]. I now receive Spore by electronic mail.[…] I can assure you that your work is extremely useful for us and future generations.Bassirou Diarra, Inspector of Fisheries, Directorate for the Protection and Supervision of Fisheries, IUPA/UCAD, Senegal I wish to take the opportunity of this New Year to congratulate you on an impressive accomplishment in 2005, namely the excellent information and analyses provided by the CTA and GRET team, with the spotlight on agriculture, during the Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. I am convinced that your efforts helped to improve the context of the complex negotiations, in particular by correcting certain information asymmetries and consequently imbalances in terms of power between the parties. This initiative is an example that should be developed within the framework of support to be provided to WTO member countries. Once again well done and thank you.The Ministry of Agriculture's website has become an important log in our question-and-answer service (QAS).It has allowed people around the world who intend to come to Barbados to contact us and get quick response.Many of these have queries about the importing of meat and meat products into Barbados. This facility is especially important given the soon coming Cricket World Cup and the thousands who will be flocking to the region.Mark Byer, QAS Center, Barbados ","tokenCount":"6063"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c25aae0c95cb22665b9ef0ea4da1428d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c8bd8a81-14f8-4133-b8b5-fb6100a13f48/retrieve","id":"1289213513"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2bab868c-c802-48ad-9dfb-ad2304f35c50","pagecount":"11","content":"of the RBM&E TOT workshop A Training of Trainers (TOT) Workshop on Results-Based Monitoring & Evaluation was organized jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA)-Agricultural Growth Program (AGP) and ILRI-IPMS from November 28-December 03, 2011 at TOMI International Hotel, Debre Zeit. The training workshop was officially opened by Ato Keberu Belayneh, Ministry of Agriculture-Agricultural Growth Program Coordinator. In his opening speech, he underlined that these days there is a significant emphasis on results and RBM&E system and on the need to demonstrate performance. That is why MoA-AGP has paid a special attention on this training workshop. He thanked IPMS for coming forward and offering to help in this crucial capacitythat the AGP needed.The workshop was facilitated by resource persons from IPMS; Berhanu Gebremedhin (Ph.D) assisted by Aklilu Bogale. A comprehensive set of source materials, including hard and soft copies were made available by IPMS and distributed to participants. (See Annex 1 for an overview of the source materials). The workshop was attended by 54 participants drawn from the four AGP regions (Tigray, Amhara, SNNPR, and Oromia). Participants were regional AGP coordinators, M&E focal persons, members of regional AGP steering committee members, and the federal AGP M&E focal person. (See Annex 2 for list of participants).The following frequently asked questions with regard to policies, programs or projects were thrown out to the floor to generate interest in RBM&E.Have projects/programs/policies led to the desired results? Are development initiatives making a difference in people's livelihood? How will governments know whether they have made progress in bringing changes in people's livelihood? How can we tell success from failure?These are the kinds of concerns and questions being raised by internal and external stakeholders, and governments across the globe are struggling with ways of addressing and answering them, by this and other introductions the training started and went through.The participants were asked in the beginning to list their expectations from the training workshop. Accordingly, 54 participants gave their expectations which are summarized in Table 1 below. About 60% of them revealed that they expect practical application of RBM&E. The TOT program consisted of 10 different sessions of which 8 of them were with practical group exercises. Groups were formed regional (Oromia, Amhara, SNNP and Tigray). During the group presentations, real and important discussions and experience sharing between participants and regions took place. They have also got critical and supportive comments/suggestions about their presentations both from other groups and especially from the trainer (see Annex 3 for the general program).At the end of the training workshop participants evaluated the workshop on a scale of five points ( 1= very poor, 2= poor, 3= fair , 4= good, 5=Very good). Moreover, they gave their written assessment about the strength and weakness of the workshop. The results are presented below. Certificates of attendance were issued to the participants at the end of the workshop.Attendance was twice a day (in the morning and in the afternoon) to make sure that all Annex 1.The IPMS manual on 'Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation for organizations working in agricultural development: A guide for development practitioners'by Berhanu Gebremedhin, Abraham Getachew and Rebeka Amha.MoA-AGP Monitoring and Evaluation draft manual.The first IPMS working paper.Concepts and practices in agricultural extension in developing countries: A source book (one for each region)The IPMS manual ","tokenCount":"544"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"90eae460503c04a4632ea891cc37926c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b34e0b91-67ea-4237-8aed-45348b11763c/retrieve","id":"1005419931"},"keywords":["Cicer arietinum","Lens culinaris","Vicia faba","Hordeum vulgare","Triticum aestivum","Triticum durum","Lathyrus sativus","Aegilops","Medicago sativa","Pisum sativum","Trifolium","Trigonella","Vicia narbonensis","feed legumes","shrubs","fruit trees","goats","ruminants","sheep","livestock","agricultural development","dryland farming","farming systems","animal production","crop production","agronomic characters","biodiversity","biological control","disease control","pest control","pest resistance","drought resistance","genetic maps","genetic markers","genetic resistance","genetic resources","genetic variation","land races","germplasm conservation","plant collections","microsatellites","land use","pastures","grassland management","steppes","rangelands","reclamation","environmental degradation","irrigation","water harvesting","water management","harvesting","rural communities","rural development","training","human resources","development","malnutrition","nutritive quality","poverty","mechanical methods","remote sensing","research networks","research","resource conservation","resource management","seed production","stubble cleaning","Sunn pest","sustainability","temperature resistance","cold","vegetation","geographical information system","diffusion of information","agroclimatic zones","arid zones","semi-arid zones","international cooperation","Middle East","A50, A01, E10, F01, F30, H10, H20, H60, L01, U30"],"sieverID":"f4a0a761-11a5-4d16-a5c0-f5ee604dd348","pagecount":"30","content":"The year 2015 will be remembered for the waves of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region looking for a safer future in other parts of the world. While millions of people crossed into Europe, the international community looked for the roots causes of the migration, recognizing that food insecurity, unemployment, drought and environmental degradation all play a role in the uprising and coalescing of conflict.ICARDA's work in the severely food-and water-stressed MENA countries puts it in a strong position to contribute to stability in the region. The decades of research and the knowledge we have generated with our partners on drought management, agricultural productivity and natural resources will continue to bear fruit and build more resilient communities. In 2015, we have become more focused on consolidating our efforts with our stakeholders in the affected regions and beyond so we can scale out proven technologies for wider impact.2015 made history when ICARDA became the first organization ever to withdraw its seed collection from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world's backup facility for storing seeds. The mission, executed with support from the Global Crop Diversity Trust and CGIAR, drew tremendous international attention. The seed collection, originally housed in Aleppo, Syria, has been replicated amid the crisis and is now safely stored in our new state-of-the-art genebanks in Lebanon and Morocco. We extend deep gratitude to all our national partners, particularly in Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Turkey, for their extensive support in keeping the dryland's rich natural heritage alive and safe. Also, we applaud ICARDA's team of managers, researchers and technicians, and our colleagues in Syria, without whom our transition would not have been possible. ICARDA's dynamic mix of strategies based on solid science addresses crop yields, water efficiency, the management of droughts and land degradation, livestock productivity, as well as socio-economics and policy. The strategies aim to respond to the enormous challenges in setting up efficient and effective agricultural and rural production systems in the dry areas.Our outcomes in 2015 further add to the body of evidence that demonstrates a clear potential and path towards productive and climate-resilient livelihoods for smallholders and livestock producers -a road towards 'Dynamic Drylands' -the theme of ICARDA's 2015 Annual Report, which we proudly present. In Ethiopia, for example, the improved legume varieties developed as a result of our research partnership with the NARS are turning around the country's declining trend in food legumes production. Higher yields encourage farmers to plant more legumes for domestic consumption and exports to Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. In addition, heat-tolerant wheat varieties continue to transform agrarian landscapes in hot countries, such as Sudan, Nigeria, Senegal and Mauritania, where wheat was never considered as a viable major crop.And-in 2015-ICARDA took big strides in assisting women to become equal stakeholders in the burgeoning wheat value chains in these countries. Rural communities suffering from long periods of conflict is the tough reality in many places where ICARDA works. We made heartening progress in supporting rural women in Afghanistan through village-based seed enterprises -a model approach to facilitate women entrepreneurship and empowerment.In Tunisia and Ethiopia, we started new meat value chain initiatives with communities in marginal areas, which are going to be key in building their resilience as climate change worsens the scenario for farming.ICARDA's 2015 Annual Report, 'Towards Dynamic Drylands' showcases some impacts and innovations achieved in 2015 with support from our donors, global collaborators and NARS partners in different countries. We invite you to browse through the stories and see how the efforts of ICARDA and its partners are paying off.In the drylands of the developing world, smallholder livelihood challenges are huge. But so are the opportunities for impacts from agricultural research.DRYLANDS...  Ethiopia is a major lentil producer in the sub-Saharan Africa region. However, the area under lentil cultivation and production has been declining in recent years. There are several reasons for this: use of low-yielding landraces, diseases, insect pests, frost, waterlogging and poor cultural practices including late planting. An ongoing long-term research partnership between ICARDA and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) has been reaping rewards over the past decade and enabling a brighter outlook for lentil farmers and the country. Yields have increased significantly, lentil production is climbing steadily, and the cultivated area is growing. (Figure 1)The popular ' Alemaya' variety of lentil has been central to the success of the technology package.-Shiv Kumar Agrawal, Lead Lentil Breeder, ICARDA Under the ICARDA-EIAR research partnership focusing on food legumes (pulses), ICARDA has been providing improved germplasm of lentil, chickpea and faba bean to EIAR, to test for adaptability to the local environment in farmers' fields and to crossbreed with local varieties. To date, about a dozen high-yielding, disease-resistant lentil varieties have been released, ten of which were selected from ICARDA's elite germplasm by Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center (DZARC), located in the Oromia region. Research has also focused on developing beneficial agronomic practices, including optimal seeding rate, timely weeding and early planting using ridge and furrow, and broad-bed and furrow systems to tackle the excess water problem common to vertisols (soil with a high content of clay). The technology package has doubled lentil production from 54,227 tonnes in 2000-02 to 110,913 MT in 2012-14, stemming mainly from an increase in average yield from 707 kg/ha in 2000-02 to 1,286 kg/ha in 2012-14.A key factor in the scale of research impact on lentil production in Ethiopia has been the strategy to disseminate improved varieties to farmers. Those participating in the program produced seeds under DZARC's supervision, which were then distributed from farmer to farmer and promoted through field days. Some farmers went on to become the nucleus of 'farmer research groups' in different districts, further scaling up the benefits of higher yields and incomes. Several extension experts and farmers were trained in seed production and In response, the Ethiopian government with the help of ICARDA stepped up efforts to improve legume varieties using improved germplasm and varieties from ICARDA's breeding program. When the new varieties with the highest yield potential were released by the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), most farmers were reluctant to sow them as they feared the crops would suffer the same fate.Demekech was the first to step forward to sow improved varieties and managed to harvest nearly 1 tonne from just 30 kg of seeds. Her seed was bought by EIAR for multiplication and distribution to other farmers.Legumes are now becoming popular with the smallholder farmers in Ethiopia as the new improved varieties of legumes are reaping three-fold higher yields for lentils, chickpeas and faba beans on farmers› fields. Apart from boosting yields, these crops are making soils healthier and reducing expenses on fertilizers, while enriching rural diets.Watch Demekech's story on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B7yNKOi4qIA new hope and healthier diets for smallholders in Ethiopia The improved lentil varieties are not only high yielding but also more rich in iron and zinc content than traditional varieties, which is contributing to alleviating micronutrient deficiency in rural populations -a severe and common malady in developing countries.Demekech Tekleyohannes, lentil farmer in Gimbichu, Ethiopia, sows and assists in the spread of improved varieties \"We are using both formal and informal innovative approaches to ensure seed of improved varieties reach farmers and realize impact through creative partnerships. \"-Zewdie Bishaw, Head of Seed Unit, ICARDA Wheat is increasingly becoming a strategic crop grown as a subsistence and cash crop in many dryland communities in Africa. In most communities, socio-cultural and economic factors often put women and youth at a disadvantaged position in the rural households.The ICARDA-led wheat component of the Support to Agricultural Research for the Development of Strategic Crops (SARD-SC) initiative, funded by the African Development Bank, is a multinational CGIAR project working in 12 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. The project is prioritizing the needs and interests of women and youth in the wheat value chain by focusing on their roles in wheat production, value addition and post-harvest activities, to both empower them and draw on their contributions in building prosperous communities. The initiative has set a goal to increase annual household incomes by two-thirds.The SARD-SC wheat initiative is striving to ensure that newly generated transformational knowledge has a positive and equitable impact on women, men and youth. Women are growing seeds for income generation and solving seed availability issues in their communities as individuals and as groups in Sudan, Ethiopia and Nigeria -the three hub countries for the project. The project applies interventions specifically in value addition and training on reducing post-harvest losses from 30% to 15%.According to project coordinator Solomon Assefa, the most notable feature of the project is its capitalizing on women's innovations for market development. The SARD-SC wheat initiative is increasing opportunities and capacities of women to participate in wheat value addition and processing through provision of market-driven technologies, such as baking bread and cakes, and making pasta, to increase incomes and create new jobs. For example, The station in Kadawa works in close collaboration with other local actors in the wheat value chain including the flour millers, association, market service providers and public decision-makers, in order to deliver agronomic packages and develop markets for the poor through capacity building of farmers, men, women and youth on wheat value addition.The project trainedwomen in 2015 in varied activities: seed multiplication, variety selection, post-harvest handling, and value addition activities such as baking, pasta-making and machine operation.in Nigeria, women are processing wheat into pasta and the project is facilitating up-scaling of this innovation and creation of markets by providing machinery and training on pasta making.Reversing gender imbalances requires interventions in the household, technical, services and marketing domains. As women are accessing services such as microcredit and technical training in seed production and value addition through the initiative, men need to be sensitized to the new understanding of gender roles in the household. Researchers and staff are trained by the SARD-SC gender focal points in order to adopt simple gender-sensitive research steps that include organizing focus group discussions for women and men, and comparing results to design gender-and youth-specific interventions and approaches. In Nigeria, for example, at the request of women, threshing and milling machines were introduced in project sites and women were trained in post-harvest activities.The SARD-SC initiative is producing gender-disaggregated data and information related to participatory varietal selections, income generation and training, enabling gendersensitive research, and a new and transformational understanding of women and youth in agriculture for all stakeholders involved.Funded by: the African Development Bank  Smallholder farmers in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region are severely afflicted by low crop yields, recording an average cereal yield of only 2 tonnes per hectare -almost half the world average, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Virulent crop diseases/pests and weed infestations caused by changing climate patterns pose major challenges to food and nutrition security in the region. Furthermore, the increasing practice of cereal monocropping is depleting soil fertility. Sustainably intensifying cereal-based production systems using legumes is a strategic objective of ICARDA to harness the many benefits of legumes -boosting food and nutritional security, improving rural incomes, and replenishing nitrogen in soils to ensure sustainable cropping systems in drylands.A project, conducted between 2012 and 2015 across eight WANA countries -Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey -demonstrated sustainable and profitable wheat-legume cropping systems over three planting seasons through improved crop technology packages. A team of ICARDA's scientists worked with the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in project countries to introduce smallholder farmers to balanced technology packages tailored to different agroecologies in WANA so as to increase and stabilize the productivity of wheat and legume crops amid climate change.The project combined a suite of interventions using a systems approach: higher-yielding crop varieties resistant to stresses, seed systems, conservation agriculture, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and water productivity technologies. The improved technologies were collaboratively tested and validated by the project scientists and smallholder farmers on their fields as part of on-farm participatory research.Capacity building was a prominent feature of the project. Technology dissemination platforms were used in conjunction with farmer field days and schools to demonstrate and promote new technologies to large groups of farmers across neighboring communities. Further, leader farmers were invited to host these platforms and engage other farmers in the uptake and adoption of these technologies.The project introduced improved technologies to over 19,000 farmers and extension workers, enabling higher crop yields and incomes while conserving natural resources crucial to the sustainability of food production systems in drylands.A total of 136 new improved varieties of bread and durum wheat, faba bean, chickpea and lentil were introduced and promoted to farmers along with their associated production technologies. The following are examples of impact in project countries:• In Morocco, improved durum varieties of 'Louiza' and 'Faraj' almost doubled wheat yields, motivating farmers to establish village-based seed production and a women's association to produce value-added products like couscous and pasta. • In Sudan, chickpea cultivation expanded from 4,000 ha in 2012 to approximately 23,000 ha in 2015 as 91% of farmers adopted an improved technology package, seeing an average net profit of US$212 per hectare. • In Lebanon, a winter chickpea variety resistant to Ascochyta blight, drought and cold, enabled farmers to profit from a yield increase of up to 25%.In irrigated systems of Egypt and Sudan, a raised-bed planting package for faba bean that ICARDA's scientists developed with Egypt was widely adopted by farmers. The technology uses 20-25% less water while increasing yield by 22.7% as compared to flat planting.\"Our government is committed to provide continued support to field crop production. \"-Lassad Lachaal, then Minister of Agriculture, Tunisia, visiting project farmers in 2015, reaping two to three times higher yields of chickpea from improved variety packages.Project scientists established Conservation Agriculture (CA) in cropping systems, the practice of zero or minimum till to improve soil fertility and water conservation, and promoted it through 106 technology dissemination platforms, mainly where direct drill planters were available (Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Tunisia). The project demonstrated yield increases from CA of up to 128% for wheat and 133% for chickpea.The outcomes of the project continue to build on ICARDA's ongoing research in drylands to further enhance technology packages in response to new challenges emerging from climate change.  Rain water erosion of soil is a common problem in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. The resulting land degradation adversely impacts productivity and incomes of smallholder farmers in the region. The Gumara-Maksegnit rain-fed watershed near Gondar is the main research site for the ICARDA-ARARI (Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute) project aiming to reduce land degradation and farmers' vulnerability to climate change. The project operates on the premise that rural communities depend on a variety of livelihood strategies to meet their basic needs.The current level of land degradation is the result of deforestation, inappropriate farming practices, unsustainable grazing management and inefficient rainwater management. Extensive soil erosion is by far the greatest manifestation of land degradation. Even on moderate slopes, the annual soil loss during the rainy season easily exceeds 10 t/ha, and often reaches up to 20 t/ha or more.Farms in the Amhara region of Ethiopia lose 2 shovelfuls of fertile topsoil per square meter every year through soil erosion.The project engaged communities and farmers to participate in activities to mitigate soil erosion through building of stone bunds, constructing terracing, establishing permanent vegetation strips, and afforestation. Additionally, in partnership with the CGIAR Research Program on Water Land and Ecosystems, the project is currently assessing the impact of climate and land use change on watershed processes using hydrological and bio-economic models, while also developing strategies to improve livelihoods of women.Scientists are harnessing the unique set of data generated by the project to develop and calibrate models which can analyze system dynamics, productivity and constraints at the watershed scale, and also simulate the hydrological and socio-economic impacts under varying climate and land use scenarios.The final goal is to develop strategies that will reduce soil erosion and improve soil health across the watershed, improve crop and livestock productivity, increase vegetation cover, and reduce deforestation. These technology outputs from the project are directly improving the livelihoods of the over 4,000 people living in the watershed and when standardized and scaled out, benefit tens of thousands farmers across the Amhara region.The project took a bottom-up approach with the close engagement of the farmers. Having farmers adopt CA depended heavily on their perception of the technology-specific characteristics of tillage. The high price of the seeders, the lack of drills and excessive drill-rental costs were other constraints. However, demonstrating economic benefits of the approach was a major factor in influencing the farmers. In Tunisia, the benefit to cost ratio was about 2.3 in the case of CA compared to 1.7 in the conventional system. In Morocco, the adoption of CA resulted in a 12% reduction in production costs for durum wheat. In terms of profitability, the CA system showed an increase of about 58% in farmers' net benefit. In Algeria, the ratio was 3.61 in a high rainfall system compared to 2.18 and 1.30 in the medium and low rainfall systems, respectively.The economic, agronomic, environmental and social benefits of Conservation Agriculture (CA) need to be understood by all the stakeholders before it can be widely adopted.A large project, Conservation Agriculture for North Africa (CANA), implemented by ICARDA with national partners, worked across three host countries, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, aiming to increase the understanding and uptake of CA.CA involves reducing or eliminating tilling of the soil (zero tillage) and leaving behind the crop residue in the fields. This has been proven to conserve natural resources and cut production costs while reducing yield fluctuation and associated risks. Some of the key challenges in the CANA project were changing the mindset of farmers, extension workers and decision-makers toward zero tillage, making zero tillage machinery affordable and available, and integrating livestock into CA and the consequent trade-offs for residue management -a major concern for smallholders in the region. The project also identified and tested improvements in weed management, and enhanced the capacity of the national agricultural research and extension system and other stakeholders to practice and promote CA.-Taoufiq Ben Ammar (on left), farmer and livestock producer practicing conservation agriculture, Siliana district, TunisiaThe project partnered with the private sector, engaging local manufacturers to develop, test and demonstrate machinery to make zero-till drills affordable and accessible to farmers. In Tunisia and Algeria, the prototypes are ready for testing for the coming cropping season. In Algeria, a 20% CA adoption rate in Setif Wilaya alone would require 330-350 seeder units, an opportunity large agricultural equipment manufacturers like CMA and PMAT are leveraging. In Morocco, the industrial partner ATMAR is working on developing and manufacturing an eco-seeder, looking to produce 30 units for the coming cropping season. Further, two major agricultural equipment importers (Gil and Sola) have imported no-tillage tine seeders and Gil has already sold eight machines.Taoufiq Ben Ammar, a wheat farmer, lives in Chouarnia (Siliana district, Tunisia), where ICARDA and INRAT (Tunisia's national agricultural research institute) are collaborating on developing integrated crop-livestock solutions to promote conservation agriculture (CA), within the framework of the CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Systems. Taoufiq is progressively growing wheat under CA and saving fuel costs. With scanty rain, while most farmers worried about the expected wheat yield, Taoufiq had 300 well-stacked vetch hay bales inside his barn, a surprising amount for a dry year.Although vetch is an ancient crop in North Tunisia, it was reintroduced as a substitute to cereal stubble grazing under a zero-till cropping package. Keeping soil cover is a key principle of CA, which takes away a common livestock feed option from smallholders.Jamel Sahli, a neighboring farmer, is ready to buy the harvest of vetch hay. Last year, he observed that ewes grazing vetch showed a \"burst\" in the frequency of females displaying estrus, in contrast to when they were fed cereal stubble. Vetch grazing can provide a synchronous provision of energy and protein which is highly beneficial to ovarian follicular growth and oocyte quality.\"Next, we plan to set up flock monitoring and evaluation to quantify the effect of vetch grazing on sheep reproduction. The results will further enhance productivity of croplivestock systems and increase the uptake of zero-tillage packages amongst farmers, \" says Mourad Rekik, small ruminant production scientist at ICARDA.The project's strategy of growing a forage crop in rotation with other crops reduced weed populations and increased subsequent crop yields without the use of herbicides. In some cases, weed seed banks were reduced by almost 50% and weed management improved the productivity by 50-90%. Comprehensive weed management guides were produced for each platform.The project introduced forage mixtures (cereals with feed legumes) that increased forage production (up to 8 t/ha of dry matter) and resulted in high quality hay, which in turn reduced animal production costs and labor inputs in feeding livestock. In Tunisia, with a forage mixture of vetch with triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye), farmers obtained a 25% increase in milk yield from their cattle, which increased their incomes. Further, new crops tested after wheat (faba bean and triticale with vetch) increased the net return by 312% and the benefit to cost ratio by 89%.Planting faba bean and a triticale-vetch mixture after wheat increased the net return on lands under conservation agriculture by 312% in Tunisia, demonstrating income potential from integrated croplivestock systems in drylands.Around five million farmers have been direct and indirect beneficiaries of the CANA project, with 22% of them women.The involvement of a range of expertise and stakeholders in the project has led to the emergence of a North Africa Network on Conservation Agriculture, an informal coalition of partners from North Africa and Australia. Further, capacity building activities with the Australian expertise have brought together research centers and universities. CANA's innovative approach is now being used by other projects.Mohamad El Mourid, ICARDA's Regional Coordinator for North Africa, sees the next step as consolidating CA innovation platforms and multi-stakeholder networks in North Africa to establish a sustainable CA hub in the region. The project is particularly focusing on expanding machinery development through public-private partnerships, and enhancing key indicators, e.g. value of forage crops, sowing times, seed rates and weed management.Locally fabricated, low-cost zero-till seeders now on market  (Source: Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture)Rangelands are often seen as grazing lands for animals only, but they play a far wider role. They provide vital ecosystem services such as mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity in drylands with important consequences for livestock production, natural resources and socio-economic development. Managing them sustainably requires striking the right balance among their different functions, a complex challenge for communities that depend on rangelands for their livelihoods and local authorities and policymakers who regulate land use.About 34% of Tunisia's total landmass is rangeland. For centuries, sheep, goat and camel herders have relied on mobility and common use of rangelands for their livelihoods as an effective way to cope with droughts and conserve precious resources. However, Tunisia's current regulatory framework overlooks the needs of rangeland communities.Instead it responds to a sedentary agrarian land use based on rain-fed agriculture. Rainfed farming is feasible on these lands but it is not sustainable. The situation has led to uncontrolled use of the rangelands, causing encroachment of cultivation. The resulting land degradation is made worse by recurrent droughts as the climate changes.The decentralization in governance since 2011 has, however, opened the doors to new relationships -local communities are wielding greater influence over decision-making on land use issues, and the government has greater flexibility to amend the existing legislation. A team of rangeland scientists from ICARDA has leveraged this opportunity and is working closely with the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture, researchers, development agencies and local partners to design a new science-based pastoral code that can ensure the viability of rangelands while addressing the needs of the various pastoral user groups that rely on them.An in-depth analysis of existing laws and their applicability showed that the current Code on Forests -also applicable to rangelands -defined legal principles that deal with land ownership, an aspect not relevant to the traditional practice of land use by local people. The code's top-down approach focuses on the central state as main actor and has led to the dismantling of the traditional system of governance of common rangelands, which defined rangeland resting periods and regulated access for entitled user groups so that resources would be conserved. In addition to overgrazing, land users are planting olive trees in areas not suitable for orchards as a way of appropriating land.The new pastoral regulatory and governance framework proposed by the scientific team, led by Mounir Louhaichi, ICARDA's lead rangeland scientist, places the governance of the land in the hands of pastoral users. It lays down principles that are key to the viability of the pastoralists and the rangelands, such as:• The rules and laws well adapted to the local conditions, and surveyed and monitored by the local pastoral communities;• The responsibility for pasture management resting at the local level through an inclusive decision-making process involving all pastoral user groups;• Conflict-resolving mechanisms operating at the local level with the involvement of governmental stakeholders; and• The new local governance of the pastoral resources accepted at the local, regional and national levels.The outlook for the proposed pastoral code in Tunisia is promising, as the project's inclusive approach is securing support from Tunisia's policymakers and local communities alike. In June The problem is caused by a mix of factors. Officially, the smallholder livestock owners (with up to 20 animals) are only allowed to graze their animals freely around villages, while the vast rangelands are reserved for state-owned sheep cooperatives known as 'shirkats' with as many as 10,000 animals. Large livestock owners (with 600 sheep or more) can also access pastures under shirkats through contractual arrangements with the state and the shirkat itself. However, lands under shirkats lie underused mainly because their water wells are in disrepair as shirkats lack funds and maintenance costs are high.Access to the more productive pastoral lands of the shirkats is beyond the reach of smallholders as the state imposes a land tax to lease them. As a way out, smallholders either lend their animals to the shirkat herders or work as shirkat herders themselves, which also allows them to graze their own animals. They also often enter into unofficial arrangements with shirkats in return for well-maintenance services -a risky proposition as shirkats are known to renege on the arrangement once wells are repaired, causing losses to livestock owners. In one example, as much as US$11,500 was lost on well repairs.Land degradation -largely in grasslands -is estimated to have a 3% share of the national GDP in Uzbekistan, estimated at US$62.6 billion according to the World Bank. A solution could be an inclusive and locally adapted rangeland tenure system that enables balanced access to larger pasture areas by smallholders and large agro-pastoralists. Developing such a responsive tenure system requires bringing all stakeholders together for collective decisionmaking -rural communities, local administration, cooperatives and policymakers -a continued goal for ICARDA in the region. Growing 10 to 12 crops can provide a 'buffet' for pollinators to feed on and gain nectar and pollen for three seasons.-Stefanie Christmann, Environmental Governance Expert, ICARDAThe procedure is ready to use by crop breeding programs, which will progressively refine the statistical framework and put crop breeding on a more well-grounded, evidence-based path.-Murari Singh, Senior Biometrician, ICARDAThe value of pollinators is estimated at US$220 billion each year, representing 9.5% of the world's agricultural food production (Ecological Economics, 2009).Funded by: The German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and GIZ (Germany)Funded by: The Government of Italy, the CGIAR Research Programs on Dryland Cereals and Dryland SystemsWild pollinators (such as wild bees, bumblebees, flies, butterflies, midges and wasps) are known to increase agricultural yields, but their diversity is declining rapidly with climate change, monocultures and excessive use of pesticides (FAO). This situation is threatening the production of the foods we take for granted.In a first-of-its kind scientific approach, ICARDA scientists developed and introduced 'Farming with Alternative Pollinators' (FAP) in Uzbekistan, and subsequently introduced it into Morocco in 2015 with replicable results. FAP is a self-supporting way to proactively conserve pollinators' diversity. To attract many different pollinators, 25% of each plot is used to grow a variety of crops such as coriander, sunflower and pumpkin, along with locally made nesting support, while the main crop is grown on the remaining threequarters of the plot. Control fields grow the main crop in the entire area. FAP doubled the harvest of sour cherry in Uzbekistan and, in both Uzbekistan and Morocco, at least doubled yield for cucumber with the potential for even greater increase. Since Morocco hosts vastly different species to Uzbekistan, these results demonstrate the replicability of the FAP approach. The approach will be extended in Morocco to faba bean.In contrast to the method of seeding wildflower strips, which is promoted by most researchers globally, FAP makes the whole field area productive, providing a source of extra income to farmers. The results are helping scientists develop a 'blueprint' that farmers can use to enhance pollination services and boost their yields at very low costs -a win-win strategy for farmers and biodiversity (see FAP guide for smallholders). Developing improved crop varieties is a long journey for breeders -on average lasting 10 years or even more. The search for desired traits entails evaluation of varieties through a series of field trials over multiple locations and years, continually rejecting some, retaining others and adding new varieties into the mix. This process generates large volumes of data, but this wealth of information lies under-or un-utilized from a lack of a definitive method to harness existing data. Breeders use results from current trials, starting evaluations of genotypic materials afresh.In a new development, the biometrics specialists at ICARDA have applied Bayesian analysis -a statistical procedure that estimates the probability based on evidence or information available -in the brand new context of crop breeding. The framework allows for prior evidence from field trials to be infused into the iterative process of genetic selection. This capability enriches the current information in identifying the potential of a variety and predicting the genetic gain when certain genotypes are crossed to make progress toward desired traits -for example, crossing a high-yielding wheat variety with a drought-tolerant wheat variety. The framework was constructed using crop yield data on 30 barley genotypes developed at ICARDA as of 2011, and incorporating data from a series of 20 other previous trials.In 2015, the approach was successfully illustrated on sorghum breeding data from Sudan, achieving higher genetic advance and precision in heritability for yield trait. Breeders plan further application to chickpea and mung bean crops in demonstration trials in Afghanistan. ICARDA's 'Spatial Solutions for Integrated Agro-Systems' initiative is harnessing the power of geoinformatics to improve food and environmental security in the dry areas of the developing world. Scientists are delving into open-source geospatial data gathered by satellites and integrating these datasets using mathematical algorithms to develop nearreal time decision-support tools at the level of farms to agroecosystems. This capability is uniquely empowering farmers, researchers and policy-makers to make smarter, holistic decisions about land, crops, water usage, agricultural inputs and markets.One such GIS tool is augmenting pulses (grain legumes) research in India, allowing scientists to strategically tap the vast tracts of lands that are left fallow every year after the first crop harvest to grow pulses. ICARDA is targeting rice fallows in India for growing pulses. The improved early maturing and higher yielding pulses varieties being developed by the scientists in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research can fit in between two rice-cropping seasons, allowing rice farmers to gain an additional crop of pulses, which can not only supplement their income, nutrition and fodder, but also improve soil health through nitrogen fixation, a chemical process by which atmospheric nitrogen is assimilated into soils.The tool using digital interactive datasets shows fallow durations, start and end of the fallow periods, seasonality, and cropping intensity, superimposed on land cover and vegetation patterns. Analyzing these datasets identifies potential fallow areas for growing Our next step is to integrate NASA's recent advances in soil-moisture mapping to inform decisions for maximum returns from different land types, along with needed agricultural inputs, such as green manure and the extent and type of irrigation.-Chandra Biradar, Head of Geoinformatics Unit, ICARDAWe had an encouraging response on the SWAT model from various stakeholders: policy-makers, researchers, farmer groups. and even the fertilizer industry.-Usman K. Awan, Groundwater Hydrologist, ICARDAFunded by: the OCP Foundation and the Government of India's National Food Security MissionFunded by: the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and EcosystemsImproved crop technologies will allow about 3 million ha of rice fallow lands to be used to produce pulses.high-yielding, short-or long-duration pulses. Furthermore, crop breeders have developed extra early-maturing varieties (58 days), dual-purpose crops and zero-tillage practices for resource-efficient intense cropping systems in areas assessed as good fits by the spatial decision tool.India is facing an increasing dependence on expensive pulses imports, which reached 20% of all pulses consumed in 2014-15, jeopardizing the nutrition security of the millions of people who depend on them. Analysis indicates about 3 million ha of rice fallow lands can be readily used to produce pluses with improved crop technologies -a substantial opportunity to increase pulse production in India.Agricultural systems in Pakistan's Indus basin are challenged by acutely inefficient absorption of nitrogen fertilizers by crops. Cropping systems often use only 30-40% of applied nitrogen. The remainder is lost to the environment, causing both poor crop yields (far below world average) and greenhouse gas emissions. Poor access to affordable fertilizers is yet another factor preventing farmers from achieving optimal yields. All in all, a multidisciplinary approach is needed to improve the fertilizer distribution, use and management to alleviate soil nutrient loss and improve crop yields.A research collaboration of ICARDA with the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and the National University of Science and Technology, Pakistan, has used SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) modeling to map the nitrogen budget, assessing the nutrient status in space and time for the entire Indus basin. This is the first undertaking at this scale in Pakistan. The SWAT model was calibrated and validated annually over 5 years for nitrogen uptake by plants, comparing the remotely sensed crop biomass accumulated during a complete cycle of crops against the SWAT-generated biomass.The fertilizer industry has been particularly receptive in using the model to identify regions where the nitrogen losses are the largest, and is looking to finance the mapping of other soil nutrients on a yearly basis. The farmers also look forward to being able to proactively manage fertilizer applications based on a knowledge of nutrient deficiencies in time and space. Further, soil scientists in universities are already training MSc/PhD students on the SWAT model for enhanced management of soil nutrients and irrigation in the future. Rainfall-driven soil erosion is a serious problem in the Ethiopian Highlands, a consequence of rampant deforestation and land cultivation, with 90% of the country's people residing in these parts. The loss of fertile top soil is affecting the livelihoods of millions as 80% of the country's population depends on farming for livelihoods. To counteract this, several soil and water conservation (SWC) measures have been undertaken, stone bunds being one of the most common techniques. While there is some evaluation of these interventions at landscape level, the spatial response of the soil at the level of farmers' interaction is largely unknown.A novel soil tracer experiment was implemented during the rainy season in 2015 to investigate the movement of fertile soil to enable better optimization of SWC interventions with direct consequence to farmers. The experiment, conducted by a group of graduate students guided by soil scientists, made use of the magnetic susceptibility of the top soil, based on the different iron oxides in the soil (magnetite, goethite and hematite), to sample soils and identify the accumulation of the eroded soil originating from the tracer-tagged areas. The 'cascade effect' of cumulative contour measures downhill showed the relationship between hill slope length and SWC efficiency, and gave insights such as the hill slope length when erosion becomes severe. Furthermore, the allocation of erosion and accumulation zones provided feedback on the evolving spatial distribution of fertile and productive areas at the field level, helpful for more effective SWC design in the future.The work was presented at the Water Engineering Conference (Jornadas de Ingenieria del Agua) in Cordoba, Spain, October 2015; and TropiLakes Conference, Ethiopia, September 2015. The project was conducted in collaboration with Ethiopia's Gondar Agricultural Research Center and Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute; the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria; and the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, Spain. These new varieties that we are promoting under the SARD-SC project are highly adapted and disease-and stress-tolerant, yielding 4-6 t/ha even under a hot climate.-Michael Baum, Head of Biodiversity and Integrated Gene Management Program, ICARDAMany of the dryland countries in which ICARDA operates are either in conflict or postconflict zones. Long periods of strife have heightened food insecurity and weakened farmers' livelihoods with lack of quality seeds and other inputs, and limited or no access to improved agricultural technologies and know-how. The stress on limited resources has also caused further marginalization of weaker sections of society, particularly the women.ICARDA's agricultural research for development and capacity-building activities are proving to be a steady path for revitalizing rural communities, building food security and improving livelihoods that have been affected by conflict. Over the years, ICARDA's longstanding partnerships with the NARS and other national and regional actors in places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Palestine have led to a firm foundation for its programs, allowing smallholders, rural women and entire communities to benefit from improved crop and livestock productivity, new and stronger value chains, and sustainable natural resource management. Most importantly, ICARDA has earned the trust of communities and formal and informal decision-makers paving the way for socio-economic progress.Nafasgul, a woman farmer in the Parwan province of Afghanistan, is elated at her association with 'Hurra Jalali Agriculture Service and Seed Production Company' . The reason is that this Village Based Seed Enterprise (VBSE) is uniquely led by a woman. According to Ms. Frozan Darwish, ICARDA's gender expert in Afghanistan, the most challenging part of initiating a woman-led VBSE was to motivate women to get involved and take leadership in the seed business.Paving the path to gender parity, one seed enterprise at a time In Afghanistan's patriarchal society, seed production is primarily considered to be the task of men. Women farmers have few opportunities to be involved in this activity, which is further exacerbated by their limited land rights. However, ICARDA and Afghanistan's Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock are making concerted efforts to encourage greater participation of Afghan women through community-based activities. The successful implementation of VBSE in Parwan has opened the doors for replicating the model and increasing the number of VBSEs to address the huge gap between the supply and demand of certified seeds in Afghanistan.Results of a recently concluded project showed a phenomenal increase in the number of farmers that purchased certified seeds of two newly released mung bean varieties, from 5,000 to about 40,000 over a 3-year period.In a big step forward for gender parity, a number of woman-led and a mixed-gender VBSEs were formed in Parwan province. They were registered and received an investment license. Women farmers from these companies also used foundation seeds and fertilizers and are now ready with commercial seeds for distribution. This achievement has further encouraged women's participation in seed companies.A GLIMPSE OF PROGRESS AND HOPE IN CONFLICT ZONES ICARDA implements research-for-development initiatives in close partnership with the national research and extension systems (NARS), research institutes and universities, policy-and other decision-makers, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector to ensure stakeholder buy-in and holistic impact on the ground in countries, while advancing the global scientific knowledge and technologies for sustainable food production in drylands.ICARDA's regional and country programs combine research with extensive focus on capacity development and rural advisory services to foster national scientific talent, needed for self-sustained progress within the agricultural sectors of countries.With the center's decentralization in 2013, ICARDA's regional and country programs are covering over 50 countries across Africa and Asia.Parwan-Bastan was one of the companies with no women members previously. Now seven women farmers have taken membership here.-Ms. Frozan Darwish, Gender Expert, ICARDA-Afghanistan Nafasgul, a proud member of the woman-led VBSE 'Hurra Jalali Agriculture Service and Seed Production Company' Funded by the: International Fund for Agricultural DevelopmentIn a recently concluded project to provide high-yielding cereal and forage seeds, more than 75 tonnes of improved seeds of wheat, barley, vetch, clover, sorghum, corn and millet were distributed to almost 500 livestock holders in the project area. The improved wheat varieties gave 8-20% more grain yield than the farmers' commonly grown variety ('Kahatat'), with better seed quality. The improved barley, vetch and clover varieties gave 10-18%, 25% and 14% more yield respectively than the commonly grown local varieties.Formerly, around 130 seed production companies had been formed by international organizations in different provinces of Afghanistan. However, all these companies were male dominated and the presence of women was almost non-existent.\"Women had to be encouraged to accept social and security challenges and get involved in seed production, and their skills had to be upgraded to compensate for their lack of previous experience in seed production, \" explained Ms. Darwish. This was addressed by many meetings organized in collaboration with the Directorate of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, the Directorate of Women's Affairs, Community Development Councils, District Development Assemblies, and female and male members. These activities are part of 'Community-based Agriculture and Livestock Project (CLAP)' , an initiative of the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock that is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development and implemented by ICARDA to improve food and feed crops for the farmers and seed systems.In Palestine, about 40% of households depend on the agricultural sector for their livelihood. They are engaged in crop, livestock and mixed crop-livestock farming. The cultivated area in Palestine fluctuates depending on the amount of rain. This in turn affects the price of fodder, and the production of food and livestock, especially sheep and goats, which depend mainly on rangeland vegetation cover.Farmers saw an average reduction in farming costs of US$250/ha from using zero-till technology disseminated as part of the crop productivity package.A zero-till machine prototype developed with a local manufacturer A project, entitled 'Strengthening Livestock Holders' Livelihoods in the Rawasi Area' (2013-15) was funded by Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) and implemented by ICARDA along with Palestinian Agriculture Relief Committee (PARC), the Ministry of Agriculture and farmer associations. The overall objective was to strengthen the resilience and increase the income of sheep and goat herders, with a specific focus on women and Bedouins. There was also a strong emphasis on capacity building in civil society.To increase productivity in animal husbandry, farmers were introduced to silage and feed block production from agricultural byproducts and crop residues of millet and corn. Microcatchment water-harvesting systems were demonstrated in ten locations at six sites in the project target area to protect soil from erosion and control land degradation.The project also introduced and demonstrated zero tillage packages at ten sites for soil and moisture conservation and to improve crop productivity and tolerance to drought conditions. While reducing farming costs, crops grown under zero tillage gave 8-12% more yield for wheat and 3-5% for barley compared to previous farming practices. The project also engaged a local manufacturer to develop a prototype of a zero tillage machine that was used in sowing 25 ha of field crops and forage during the 2015-16 season.As part of capacity building, ICARDA conducted courses to train staff from CARE and PARC on the principles and applications of effective rangeland management and monitoring, improving agricultural water productivity and economic assessment of agricultural technologies, as well as marketing of livestock and dairy products. Women farmers were also trained on sheep milk processing in cooperation with the National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension in Jordan. Farmers' field schools were established with communitybased organizations to provide livestock holders the opportunity to observe, learn and test new and innovative technologies without risking their own limited resources.Value chain mapping and analysis was done for dairy products in selected locations and inputs were provided to community-based organizations and other small and medium social enterprises to strengthen livestock holders' access to markets and optimize their products' value chain. Lessons learned from this project are expected to help the livestock holders in effectively increasing incomes and strengthening their livelihoods.   In Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the rural people relying on natural resources to make a living face an incredible challenge. These countries consist mostly of desert and mountain pastures -only 10% of the land is arable. Yet, their populations are highly agrarian with 60% living in rural areas. The effects of climate change are immediately felt in Central Asia's fragile agroecoystems as farmers are facing more extreme temperatures, erratic precipitation and more frequent droughts. Further, the region suffers from high degrees of salinization, soil erosion and land degradation. With limited awareness, farmers continue to rely on outdated technologies and land management practices, jeopardizing their livelihoods as well as the delicate ecosystem balance in these parts.A knowledge partnership initiated in 2013 came to fruition in 2015 contributing to consolidation and up-scaling and out-scaling of a suite of proven sustainable land management (SLM) technologies and practices. These SLM technologies were developed and tested under the prior region-wide initiative of Central Asian Countries Initiative for Land Management (CACILM) (Phase I: 2007(Phase I: -2009)), funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). A knowledge platform was put in place that synthesizes and packages information, fills knowledge gaps, builds capacity and effectively communicates on SLM technologies and practices to farmers, extension workers, local development organizations and decision-makers. The resource integrates use of website, databases, advisory services, trainings, video materials and blogging, all made available in English and Russian. Demonstration sites were a major part for SLM validation and knowledge dissemination, which targets four agro-ecosystems that represent important environments for human livelihoods: rain-fed, irrigated, mountains and rangelands. Director General, ICARDA Gregor Mendel Innovation Prize Mahmoud Solh received the award on behalf of ICARDA for successfully securing ICARDA's globally important collection of crop genetic resources stored in its genebank in Tel Hadya, Syria, despite the ongoing challenges. With the dedicated team work of researchers and technicians in Syria, ICARDA was able to duplicate 100% of the 148,000 accessions in its Genebank. The collection is a unique global resource for food security with 65% of it being unique landraces and wild relatives of cereals, legumes and forages collected from the centers of biodiversity. ICARDA's Genebank distributes up to 25,000 samples yearly to collaborators and requestors around the world, particularly national programs in developing countries, to provide breeders, scientists and farmers with genetic materials with favorable traits that can improve crop yields in the face of changing climate.    ","tokenCount":"7836"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"903509a063f54c5df21f0180264475d6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9c74f794-1141-407d-8229-92eb28a8bd57/retrieve","id":"1239552682"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2b533937-6126-4c08-9616-4a9de29f3dbd","pagecount":"1","content":"•Staff from Ministry of Agriculture, IITA and ILRI registered as partners to provide technical advice.•Airtel provided ordinary cellphones on loan to farmers, which farmers paid-off at the end of cropping season.•Services offered included (i) toll-free calling and sms for technical advice on production and marketing (ii) access to Airtel microcredit (iii) electronic cash transfers.Integrating C-L along solidarity chains (S.C.)Increasing adoption of ICT services along S.C. Moving-up the livestock ladder•CLiP innovations have improved agricultural productivity at HH level by approx. 60% and the number of farmers benefiting from ICT technologies has increased (progressive total of 2025 sms's from farmers seeking expert advice).•Through digital technologies, smallholder farmers are connecting to markets and local agro-vet networks. This is promoting adoption of improved IC-L technologies.•Rabbit solidarity chains are more popular those of pigs, because of their faster turn-around time.•The most widely disseminated cropping technologies are (i) Mbili system of intercropping maize :beans or maize : soybean (ii) Cultivation of bio-fortified maize, bean and Orange Flesh sweet potato•In DRC sites, ICT marketing platforms enabled 37 poor (Type 1) farmers to change status to Medium Weath (Type 2), when each sold ave. 54 rabbits to buy pig or goat. In total 12 piglets and 16 goats were purchased.•Similarly, 18 Type 2 farmers sold each 9 pigs or 24 piglets to buy a cow, advancing them to Type 3 (Wealthy) category.Digital ICT technologies aided access to information, which contributed to increased adoption of improved innovations, productivity and marketing, leading to improved food security, nutrition, incomeand livelihood.•Mixed crop-livestock (C-L) farming systems dominate Eastern DR Congo and Burundi, where they provide food,income, draught power and employment to smallholder farmers.•However, farmers have limited knowledge on best practices for optimizing the integration of crop and livestock production at farm level.•The CLiP Project seeks to help these farmers to improve their food security, nutrition, income and resilience through adoption of locally-generated innovations that enhance productivity of integrated C-L (or IC-L) systems and thefunctioning of their respective value chains. ","tokenCount":"326"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9ef8f457241dede54871bde3ba8ca2f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/7186a9b1-5e2d-492f-b3f4-3079ce26d117/content","id":"-982870544"},"keywords":["Tanzania","Maize","Zea mays","Varieties","Plant production","Seed production","Seed industry","Production factors","Production economics","Input output analysis","Socioeconomic environment","Development policies","Marketing policies","Credit policies","Demography","Land resources","Land use","Cultivation","Cropping patterns","Cropping systems","Crop management","Mechanization","Plant breeding","Shelling","Drought resistance","Pest resistance","Inorganic fertilizers","Fertilizer application","Prices","Diffusion of research","Extension activities","Economic analysis","Economic viability","Technology transfer","Innovation adoption","Small farms","Environments","Lowland","Highlands","Research projects Central Tanzania","Agroecological zones","CIMMYT","SACCAR","Ministry of Agriculture, Research and Training Institute","Tobit analysis","Probit analysis AGRIS Category Codes: E16 Production Economics, E14 Development Economics and Policies Dewey decimal classification: 338.16"],"sieverID":"29c50b7e-3dea-4e81-9888-486cabe17fa8","pagecount":"41","content":"The views presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect policies of their respective institutions.CIMMYT is an internationally funded, nonprofit scientific research and training organization. Headquartered in Mexico, the Center works with agricultural research institutions worldwide to improve the productivity and sustainability of maize and wheat systems for poor farmers in developing countries. It is one of 16 similar centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR comprises over 50 partner countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations. It is co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).Financial support for CIMMYT's research agenda currently comes from many sources, including governments and agencies of Australia,Commercial maize varieties and their yield potential, Central Tanzania .................................. Maize provides 60% of dietary calories and more than 50% of utilizable protein to the Tanzanian population. The crop is cultivated on an average of two million hectares, which is about 45% of the cultivated area in Tanzania.Recognizing the importance of the maize crop to the lives of Tanzanians, the government has committed human and financial resources to developing the industry. A National Maize Research Programme (NMRP) was started in 1974 with the broad objective of developing cultivars suitable for major maize-producing areas. The NMRP and maize extension services have made a considerable impact in increasing food production.This report forms part of a larger study to evaluate the impact of maize research and extension in Tanzania over where extensive maize production was practiced. Land was not a limiting factor in the farming system.Farmers in the lowlands and intermediate zone recycled maize seed for five to eight years; those in the highlands recycled seed for eight to ten years. Seed was selected during the harvest or when maize was shelled for storage, and selection was based on the size of the cob. Most of the selected cobs were shelled, and the seed was treated with chemicals and/or ash and stored in gunny bags. Maize was shelled and stored in a local container called a kihenge. The majority of farmers in the three zones treated their maize before storage.The few farmers who obtained credit from the informal sector used it to purchase farm inputs such as fertilizer.No farmers obtained credit from the formal sector because they lacked knowledge (information) about formal credit and found the procedures long, cumbersome, and bureaucratic.The Training and Visit (T&V) extension system was used in all villages covered by this study. Research and extension were farmers' major sources of information on agricultural production. Most farmers had received information on improved maize varieties, planting methods, and weed management. Very few farmers had received information on disease control measures and pest management.Maize remains an important crop in the farming system. The expansion of cultivated area has gone hand-in-hand with a greater allocation of land to maize production. However, the entry of improved maize varieties into the farming system has been slow, especially in Kondoa District where extensive maize production was practiced.Some farmers have tested and rejected some improved maize varieties. Kilima, Katumani, CG4142, and Tuxpeño were rejected by some farmers in Singida, Kondoa, and Mpwapwa Districts, respectively, because of the materials' low yields, susceptibility to storage pests and diseases, and poor shelling quality.The most popular maize varieties were Kilima, TMV1, and Staha in the intermediate zone, Staha and TMV1 in the lowlands, and Staha, TMV1, and Kilima in the highlands. The reasons for these preferences were (in order of importance) high yield, drought resistance, and resistance to storage pests. However, most farmers grew CG4142 hybrid because seed was available.The adoption of recommended management practices depended on the cost of the practice. Most farmers adopted row planting, the cheapest technology, while they did not adopt control of field pests and diseases because of the high cost.The two-stage least squares analysis showed that variety characteristics, production potential of the area, and extension were the most important factors affecting the amount of land allocated to improved maize varieties and the use of inorganic fertilizer. Later maturity in a variety increased the probability that a farmer would plant improved maize by about 22%, while early and intermediate maturity varieties increased the likelihood of adoption by about 17% and 13%, respectively. Extension increased the probability of allocating land to improved maize by about 14% and increased the probability of using fertilizer by 115%. Farmers in the lowlands were less likely to use fertilizer, probably because maize varieties responded less to fertilizer in low rainfall areas.Both research and extension are important for adoption of improved maize practices. Farmers' characteristics have a limited influence on the adoption process. Technical innovation characteristics and external influence are the major factors affecting adoption. Research needs to develop varieties that fit farmers' tastes and circumstances, and extension should be involved in testing and disseminating these technologies. Flexible integrated pest management packages that combine a drought-tolerant variety with improved cultural practices can increase yields. Thus, low-cost technologies for controlling stalk borers and maize streak virus, using environmentally friendly industrial chemicals, should be developed.Most improved varieties are responsive to fertilizer and economic yields are usually obtained after fertilizer application. But use of fertilizer is constrained by high prices and farmers' lack of knowledge. An efficient marketing system for inputs and outputs will benefit farmers by providing higher prices for maize and reducing the cost of fertilizer. Such a system would require supporting policies from the government. Studies of the economics of seed and fertilizer use should be undertaken, especially now that input and output markets have been liberalized.In developing improved maize varieties, apart from increasing yields, other factors should be taken into consideration. These factors include drought resistance/tolerance, resistance to storage pests, shelling quality, and taste. For this to occur, farmers must participate in the research process. Research and extension efforts need to be linked and strengthened to increase the flow of information to farmers. In collaboration with the government and other stakeholders, the formal credit system needs to address the credit problems faced by small-scale farmers, especially their lack of knowledge (information) of formal credit systems. Cumbersome bureaucratic procedures for obtaining credit should be amended. The formation of farmer credit groups should be encouraged, because lending to groups tends to reduce transactions costs and improve the rate of loan recovery.x 1Aloyce R.M. Kaliba, Hugo Verkuijl, Wilfred Mwangi, Angello J.T. Mwilawa, Ponniah Anandajayasekeram, and Alfred J. MoshiMaize is the major cereal consumed in Tanzania. It is estimated that the annual per capita consumption of maize in Tanzania is 112.5 kg; national maize consumption is estimated to be three million tons per year. Maize contributes 60% of dietary calories to Tanzanian consumers (FSD 1992(FSD , 1996)). The cereal also contributes more than 50% of utilizable protein, while beans contribute only 38% (Due 1986). Maize is grown in all 20 regions of Tanzania. The crop is grown on an average of two million hectares or about 45% of the cultivated area in Tanzania. However, most of the maize is produced in the Southern Highlands (46%), the Lake zone, and the Northern zone. Dar es Salaam, Lindi, Singida, Coast, and Kigoma are maize-deficit regions. Dodoma is a surplus region during good growing years, and in years following a plentiful rainfall the region is the number one supplier of maize to Dar es Salaam (FSD 1992;Mdadila 1995).Maize is not only a staple crop in surplus regions but a cash crop as well. For instance, in the Lake zone, maize competes aggressively with cotton for land, labor, and farmers' cash. Realizing the importance of the maize crop to lives of Tanzanians, the government has been committing human and financial resources to develop the industry. , , , ,Figure 1 shows the location of the Central zone in Tanzania. The Central Zone comprises Dodoma and Singida administrative regions, which are part of the semi-arid zone. Rainfall in the area is erratic. About 85% of the rain falls between January and March. Rains generally fall in short intervals and average 600 mm per annum.The vegetation of the Central Zone can be categorized into four groups: bushland, woodland, wooded grassland, and grassland. Topographically, the zone is characterized by plains with scattered inselbergs, ridges, or rows of hills. The region's economy depends entirely on crop production and livestock. Agriculture is still characterized by low productivity. Although livestock production is still largely a subsistence enterprise, the Central Zone is one of the principal livestock-producing areas in the country.It is difficult to classify the zone into distinct, contiguous agroecological areas using altitude and rainfall as criteria because of the undulating topography and varying rainfall. However, four major farming systems can be identified: the maize and groundnut system; the sorghum, pearl millet, and groundnut system; the rice farming system; and the peri-urban livestock production system. Maize and groundnut farming is found in the northern and northwestern part of the zone and covers most of Iramba District, the Kondoa lowlands, and northeastern Mpwapwa District. Annual rainfall surpasses 750 mm. Major crops, in order of importance, are sorghum, pearl millet, maize, and natural pastures and forages. Minor crops, in order of importance, include oilseeds (sunflower and simsim), cassava, sweet potatoes, finger millet, and horticultural crops (mainly onions and tomatoes).The sorghum, pearl millet, and groundnut farming system covers most of the central and western part of the Central Zone. Elevation ranges from 500 masl to 1,000 masl, and annual rainfall is between 400 mm and 600 mm. Major crops, in order of importance, are maize, grain legumes, tubers (cassava and sweet potatoes), finger millet, and natural pastures and forages.Irrigated rice production is found inside the west lift valley, in some valley bottoms with black cotton soils, and along permanent rivers. Rainfall is between 500 mm and 800 mm per year. The major crops, in order of importance, are sorghum and pearl millet. Minor crops, in order of importance, are maize, grain legumes, roots, tubers (cassava and sweet potatoes), and horticultural crops (onion).Peri-urban livestock production systems are found in all peri-urban areas (around Dodoma, Singida, Kondoa, Mpwapwa, and Manyoni townships). Major crops, in order of importance, are improved pastures and forages for zero-grazing, maize, and grapes (specialty crops for Dodoma). Minor crops, in order of importance, include grain legumes, watermelons, and sunflowers.The number of farmers interviewed in the nationwide survey was determined by the importance of maize production in a given zone. About 1,000 maize farmers were interviewed nationwide. Central Zone was allocated 54 farmers, approximately 5% of the national sample.Central Zone farmers were sampled from districts that are important for maize production. Production figures from the statistical unit of the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) were used to establish the relative importance of each district for maize production. Three districts were purposively selected for the Central Zone survey, and three villages were randomly selected from these districts. The selected sites were: ♦ Ihanda Village, located in Mpwapwa District, which is characterized by relatively high rainfall and elevation, and has high potential for maize production ♦ Mudida Village, located in Singida Rural District, which is characterized by medium rainfall and medium elevation and has a medium potential for maize production ♦ Mwailanje Village, located in Kondoa District, which is characterized by low rainfall and low elevation and has low potential for maize production From each village, 18 farmers were randomly sampled from the register of households.To increase data validity and reliability, farmers were interviewed by researchers and experienced extension officers using a structural questionnaire developed by a panel of the zonal farming systems research economists, CIMMYT and SACCAR economists, and national maize breeders and agronomists. The interviews were conducted between June and November 1995. To maintain uniformity, data from all zones were compiled at Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) and then sent back to the respective zones for analysis and completion of the reports.Factors influencing the adoption of new agricultural technologies can be divided into three major categories: farm and farmers' associated attributes; attributes associated with the technology (Adesina et al. 1992;Misra et al. 1993); and the farming objective (CIMMYT 1988). Factors in the first category include a farmer's education, age, or family and farm size. The second category depends on the type of technology (e.g., the kind of characteristics a farmer likes in an improved maize variety). The third category assesses how different strategies used by the farmer, such as commercial versus subsistence farming, influence the adoption of technologies. In this study a two-stage least squares analysis is used to test factors affecting the allocation of land to improved maize varieties (intensity of adoption) and adoption of inorganic fertilizer (incidence of adoption). The basic assumption is that a farmer first tests and adopts improved seed by planting it on part of his or her land designated for maize production, and then decides to use fertilizer. The tobit (Tobin 1958) and probit (McFadden 1981) models, which test the factors affecting intensity and incidence of adoption, can be specified as: The highland zone (AEZ3) was not included in the models to avoid multicollinearity (Griffiths et al. 1993;Greene 1993). ε i and α i = error terms.Formation of the model was influenced by a number of working hypotheses. It was hypothesized that a farmer's decision to adopt or reject a new technology at any time is influenced by the combined (simultaneous) effects of a number of factors related to the farmer's objectives and constraints. The following variables were hypothesized to influence the adoption of improved maize technologies: Farmer's experience: An experienced farmer is hypothesized to be more likely to adopt an improved maize technology package.Household head received education: Exposure to education will increase a farmer's ability to obtain, process, and use information relevant to the adoption of an improved maize variety. Hence education will increase the probability that a farmer will adopt an improved maize technology package.Labor: Large households will be able to provide the labor that might be required by improved maize technologies. Thus, household size would be expected to increase the probability that a farmer will adopt an improved maize technology package.Wealth index: Wealthier farmers may have the means of buying improved maize technology, so wealth is expected to be positively associated with the decision to adopt an improved maize technology package.Extension intensity: Agricultural extension services provided by the Ministry were the major source of agricultural information in the study area. Hence, it is hypothesized that contact with extension workers will increase the likelihood that a farmer will adopt improved maize technologies.Inverse Mills ratio: Adoption of improved seed enhances the use of inorganic fertilizer.The agroecological zones can influence a farmer's decision to adopt improved maize technology package both positively and negatively. Hotland (1993) has suggested establishing a wealth index by aggregating the major wealth indicators in a study area. Numbers of livestock and farm implements owned, as well as the average amount of cultivated land, are major wealth indicators in the Central Zone. These indicators were aggregated by calculating the wealth index (WID) as follows:where:Y i = the average number of livestock units, farm implements (hand hoes, axes, cutting equipment) and cultivated land for the past three years; Y ij = the sample mean for each item; and N = the sample size.Extension services were the major source of information in the study area for improved agricultural practices. The number of recommendations with which a farmer is familiar can be used as an index of the transfer of information from extensionists to farmers. The extension index (EXT) was calculated as follows:where: n = the number of recommendations that a farmer knows from the improved technology package (i.e., improved seed, row planting, fertilizer application, ox-plowing, field pest and disease control).The PLAND equation was estimated using the tobit model (Tobin 1958). The inverse Mills ratio for equation PLAND was calculated and included as a regressor in equation FERT to correct for correlation between PLAND and FERT equation errors. Quasi-maximum likelihood was not used because of the problem of convergence (Saha and Love 1992). Both models were estimated using TSP, Version 4.3.About 85% of the maize produced in Tanzania is grown by peasants whose farms are less than 10 ha. Ten percent of maize production occurs on medium-scale commercial farms (10-100 ha), and the remaining 5% occurs on large-scale commercial farms (>100 ha). Between 1961-65 and 1985-95, national maize production is estimated to have grown by 4.6%, of which 2.4% can be attributed to growth in area and 2.2% to growth in yield. Despite this yield growth, average yields are less than 1.5 t/ha, although grain yields tend to be higher in high-potential areas such as the Southern Highlands (Moshi et al. 1990).Maize breeding and agronomy trials have been conducted in Tanzania for more than 20 years. The improved open pollinated varieties (OPVs) ICW and UCA were developed, tested, and released in the 1960s and are still widely used. During the same period, a few research stations undertook agronomy research, which later formed the basis for recommendations that were applied to the entire country.In 1974, the NMRP was launched to coordinate maize research and encourage the better utilization of some resources. The program is responsible for coordinating all phases of maize research, from varietal development and maize management research on station to verification on farmers' fields.The NMRP has divided the country into three major agroecological zones for varietal recommendations:The highlands (elevations above 1,500 masl), with a growing period of 6-8 months.The intermediate (or midalatitude) zone (900-1,500 masl), which is further subdivided into \"wet\" (>1,100 mm rainfall, with a 4-5 month growing period) and \"dry\" subzones (<1,100 mm rainfall, with a 3-4 month growing period).The lowlands (0-900 masl), with a 3-4 month growing period.To date, several breeding populations have been developed and are being improved through recurrent selection for specific traits. Since 1974, two hybrids and six OPVs have been released. In 1976, Tuxpeño was released for the lowland areas. Hybrids H6302 and H614, suitable for the highlands, were released in 1977 and 1978, respectively. In November 1983, three OPVs were released: Kito, Kilima, and Staha. Staha is characterized by its tolerance to maize streak virus (MSV) disease, whereas Kilima was recommended for the midaltitude zone. Kito is an early maturing variety adapted to both lowland and midaltitude zones. In 1987 two OPVs, TMV1 and TMV2, were released. TMV1 has white, flinty grain, is streak resistant, and has intermediate maturity. It is recommended for the lowland and midaltitude zones. TMV2 is also a white flint maize and is recommended for the high-altitude and high-potential maize-producing areas.In 1994, the NMRP released versions of Kilima, UCA, Kito, and Katumani that are resistant to MSV: Kilima-St, UCA-St, Kito-St, and Katumani-St. Around the same time, two foreign seed companies, Cargill and Pannar, introduced or released seven hybrids for commercial use. For improvement of husbandry practices, the NMRP conducted off-station agronomy trials that in 1980 resulted in maize production recommendations specific to 11 regions. The recommendations related to choice of variety, plant spacing, plant density, fertilizer rate, weeding regime, and pesticide use.The hybrids CG4141 and CG4142 are multiplied and distributed by Cargill Hybrid Seed Ltd., which is based in Arusha. About 72% of the farmers in the lowland and intermediate zones grew CG4142, whereas only 22% of the farmers in the highlands grew CG4142. The locally bred hybrids H622 and H632 are not grown by farmers in Central Tanzania, even though they have flint grain and good pounding and storage qualities, and yield as well as CG4141 and CG4142. Locally bred hybrids are marketed mainly by the Tanzania Seed Company (TANSEED), which has not done well in the newly competitive seed industry. This has contributed to the lack of adoption of locally bred hybrids in Central Tanzania. Before input markets were liberalized in 1990, locally bred varieties were almost the only improved maize seed planted in Tanzania.After market liberalization, private companies not only engaged in seed multiplication but conducted trials to evaluate the adaptability of imported varieties to the local environment. The varieties deemed suitable are subsequently released to farmers. CG4141 is competing aggressively with the locally bred cultivars multiplied and sold by TANSEED. Pannar started producing and marketing maize seed in 1995. The new companies have recruited chains of stockists who sell their seed in villages and towns, and TANSEED has followed suit. Farmers have reported that seed sold by private companies is purer, more uniform, and higher yielding than seed from TANSEED, which has reduced demand for TANSEED products.The drawbacks of the new varieties sold by Cargill and Pannar are their high price, poor storability, poor pounding quality, and unsatisfactory taste. Pounded maize is used to make a local dish prepared from grain from which the seed coat has been removed (kande). Some farmers also pound their maize before milling to make a whiter and softer dough (ugali). When pounded, maize seed with a soft seed coat breaks, and flour losses before milling are greater. This underscores the importance of the flint trait in farmers' varietal preferences.The latest development in the maize seed industry is the resumed importation of a once-famous hybrid, H511, from Kenya, by the Tanganyika Farmers' Association (TFA). H511 yields as well and matures as early as CG4141; its advantage over CG4141 is its flinty grain. The 1994/95 price for Cargill maize seed (CG4141) and Pannar seed (PAN 6481) was Tanzanian shillings (Tsh) 650/kg, while Kilima, a composite, sold at Tsh 450/kg. The high prices of maize seed have forced many farmers to recycle hybrid seed.Before market liberalization, quasi-governmental institutions and cooperative unions monopolized input marketing. These institutions were inefficient in delivering inputs to farmers. They suffered from chronic liquidity problems, because they depended on borrowing money for buying inputs. This led to delayed input supply and chronic shortages that served as a disincentive to farmers (Mbiha 1993;Nkonya 1994). Market liberalization has led to a rapid increase in the number of private businesses that engage in input marketing. Farmers could obtain inputs from village stockists who are located much closer to them than prior to 1990. Inputs have also become readily available on time in villages. As expected, the price of inputs has increased sharply, wiping out the shortages that existed before.Maize production recommendations were developed to fit the three agroecological zones described earlier. Several OPVs developed in Tanzania and Kenya have been introduced in the midaltitude and low altitude zones of central Tanzania: Staha, UCA, Katumani, TMV I, Kito, Kilima, ICW, and Tuxpeño. Three hybrids have been introduced for these zones: H522, CG4141, and CG4142.Table 1 shows the yield potential and attributes of some of the materials recommended for the Central Zone.The recommended planting time in Central Zone is after the rains begin, which usually occurs in November and December. It is recommended that maize flowering should occur when there is less moisture. Row planting is recommended to achieve the desirable plant population. Spacing depends on the maturity of the variety. Medium maturity and full-season varieties should have a spacing of 90 cm x 50 cm and two plants per hill, or 75 cm x 60 cm and two plants per hill, for a population of 44,444 plants/ha. Spacing also depends on the time to maturity of the variety grown. Early maturing varieties, such as Katumani, should be spaced like the medium maturity varieties, but farmers should have three plants per hill for a population of 66,666 plants/ha.To provide nitrogen (N) one can either use urea, calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN), or sulfate of ammonia (SA). Nitrogen may be split into two applications, with 30-50% of the total amount being applied at planting and the remainder when maize is about one meter high.  O 5 /ha. Fertilizer is normally placed 5 cm below the depth of the seed and about 5 cm to the side. This is accomplished by digging a single hole beside each seed and placing fertilizer in the hole and covering it with soil. Alternatively, a continuous furrow is made along the length of the planting row.Fertilizer is then placed in the furrow and covered with soil. The seed is then planted on top of this soil and covered properly.In all agroecological areas of the Central Zone, two weedings are recommended. The first weeding should be done two weeks after germination and the second weeding at three to four weeks after the first weeding. Weeding is usually done with a hand hoe.Important maize pests in the Central Zone include armyworms and stalk borers. Armyworms are serious when an outbreak occurs, but stalk borers are a serious problem for off-season maize production. Thiodan can be applied against all pests.The breeding programs have been releasing varieties that are resistant or tolerant to the most important maize diseases, so there is no recommendation for chemical control against maize diseases. Maize streak virus is not yet important in the Central Zone.Maize is harvested by hand immediately after it is mature and dry. Most maize is stored in gunny bags as well as the traditional storage structure (vilindo). The important storage pests are maize weevils, and Actellic Super is the recommended for controlling them. Table 3 summarizes the household characteristics of sample farmers in the Central Zone. The mean age of household heads in the study area was 43 years. Farmers in the lowlands tended to be younger than those in the other two zones, although the age difference was not significant (p = 0.05). On average farmers have lived in the sampled villages for about 23 years, and their farming experience was about 19 years. The level of education for household heads was about five years and no significant difference was found among the agroecological zones.The average size of the households was about 10 members, including three male adults, two female adults, and five children. The number of female adults in the lowlands was significantly lower (p = 0.05) than in the other two zones. At least three male adults and two female adults worked on the farm permanently, although a few respondents indicated that some household members worked off of the farm. Those who worked off of the farm were temporarily or permanently employed by the government or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The minimal number of part-time workers and off-farm activities is an indication of the limited off-farm opportunities in the study area.Farmers who did have some off-farm income used the money to purchase farm inputs and capital goods such as hand hoes and plows (75%) and to meet other family needs (25%).The average farm size in the lowlands was about 62 acres, while the intermediate zone and highlands had an average farm size of about 20 and 25 acres, respectively. Shifting cultivation was widely practiced in the lowlands, since the population density was still low. There was a significant difference (p = 0.05) between the lowland zone and the intermediate and highland zones, respectively. Cultivated area was about 41 acres in the lowlands, 18.9 acres in the intermediate zone, and 21.2 acres in the highlands. Farmers had 2.0 plots in the lowlands, 3.4 in the intermediate zone, and 3.3 in the highlands. A significant difference (p = 0.05) was found between the number of plots in the lowlands and in the intermediate and highland zones, respectively. Across all three zones, only small portions of land were rented in (2 acres) and rented out (0.8 acres). Rented land was found in valley bottoms that were wetter and suitable for growing vegetables.In all zones, more than 60% of cultivated land was allocated to maize production. Figures 2-4 show trends in total farm size and maize area over the past 20 years. In all zones, the importance of maize in the farming system has remained stable. Maize area increases have been proportional to increases in total farm size. Because of changes in tastes and preferences, maize replaced the traditional sorghum and millet crops as a major food and cash crop. In the intermediate zone, sample farmers started growing improved maize varieties in the mid-1980s. Lowland and highland zone farmers started doing so earlier, in the mid-1970s. Drought has affected maize production trends, prices, and incentives to produce the crop. The drought that occurred in the late 1970s caused maize prices to increase sharply, and more land was allocated to maize production. Farmers reduced the land allocated to maize during the mid-and late 1980s, mainly because of low maize prices and the inability of the Dodoma Region Cooperation Union to buy maize from the farmers. In the early 1990s, maize production increased sharply, perhaps as a result of trade liberalization, which occurred at that time, and as a result of the increase in the price of maize.Farmers in the intermediate zone had the highest livestock population in the Central Zone. The mean number of livestock for the sample households was 13 head of cattle, two sheep, and seven goats. Table 4 shows numbers of livestock by zone. The farmers in the intermediate zone had a significantly higher number of sheep (p = 0.05) than farmers in the lowland zone.Table 4 shows the number of farm tools owned by farmers. The number of hand hoes was highest in the highland zone. Other farm equipment, such as machetes, axes, and knives, averaged at least one per household. In all zones, few respondents owned tractors or carts, but tractor hire was reported by 5.6% of respondents in the intermediate zone and 22.2% in the lowlands. Eleven percent of the respondents in the lowlands and highlands reported hiring plows. Animal traction was more common in the intermediate zone than in the lowlands and highlands. Tractors and plows were hired mainly for land cultivation. Maize was planted mainly as a monocrop in the lowlands (78% of farmers), intermediate zone (58%), and highlands (76%). In the lowlands, maize was intercropped with beans, cowpeas, and pigeonpeas or mixed with bulrush millet to spread risk. A maize/pigeonpea cropping system was more common in this zone. In the intermediate zone, maize was mainly intercropped with cowpeas or mixed with sunflowers (the maize/sunflower cropping system was more common). In the highlands, maize was intercropped with groundnuts and cowpeas. Intercropping was practiced mainly to save labor (constrained by land scarcity) and to spread risk. Table 5 shows the various cropping systems in the three zones.In the highlands, land preparation starts in November and ends in January to take advantage of the November-January short rains. However, in the intermediate zone and the lowlands, 90% and 67% of the respondents, respectively, reported that they began land preparation in September-October and ended it in November.Table 6 shows the different methods of land preparation for all zones. Lowland and highland farmers most often used hand hoes to prepare land. Intermediate zone farmers generally relied on ox-plows to prepare their land.All farmers used flat seedbeds, a practice attributed to the type of tools used in land cultivation and farming. The use of the hand hoe and shifting cultivation does not encourage ridging because of the high labor requirements.Table 7 shows farmer's major agronomic practices. In the 1994 maize season, the majority of lowland and intermediate zone farmers planted maize in December, and the majority of highland farmers planted later, in January. Most farmers planted maize in rows, although 12% of the farmers in the highlands did not. The major reason for row planting was to ease the management of maize fields.Most farmers in the intermediate zone and lowlands used the recommended spacing between rows and hills, although only 36% of farmers in the highlands did so. On average, all households planted the recommended number of two seeds per hill. Most farmers in all zones weeded twice, as recommended. The time of weeding depended on the onset of the rains and the presence of weeds in the field. The first weeding was mostly done between January and February, while the second weeding was done between February and March.Inorganic fertilizer was used by 16.7% of lowland farmers, 76.5% of intermediate zone farmers, and 16.7% of highland farmers. Most farmers used urea or CAN. The use of inorganic fertilizer was constrained by cost and lack of knowledge. No farmer used fertilizers regularly, and fertilizer was applied only to parts of the field where maize had symptoms of N deficiency (Table 8).In the lowlands about 39% of farmers fallowed their land, while only 18.9% of intermediate zone farmers and 5.9% of highland farmers practiced fallowing (Table 9). This result is not surprising, given that farmers in the lowlands have larger farms. The major reason for leaving land fallow was to replenish soil fertility, and land shortages were the major constraint on fallowing. Maize and wheat were grown immediately after the fallow cycle because farmers felt that those crops needed more fertile soils and generated higher returns.About 59% of the farmers in the lowlands, 82.4% in the intermediate zone, and 33.3% in the highlands rotated crops to add fertility to the soil and break disease and pest cycles (Table 9). The major reason for not practicing crop rotations was farmers' lack of awareness of the potential benefits.Farmers who did not apply fertilizer or used only a small amount were advised to avoid soil mining by plowing crop residues back into the soil. About 67% of the farmers in the lowlands followed this recommendation, compared to 17.6% and 12.5% in the intermediate zone and highlands (Table 10). About 82% and 87% of farmers in the intermediate zone and highlands reported grazing their cattle on maize stover left in the field.Field pests, diseases, and control methods are summarized in highlands were vermin, cutworms, and termites. DDT was used to control field pests in all districts of the lowlands and highlands. Thiodan and local control methods were used by only a few respondents from the intermediate zone.Maize streak virus was reported in the lowlands and highlands by 5.6% and 16.7% of respondents, respectively. Cob rot was reported by about 17% and 11% of the respondents from the lowlands and intermediate zones, respectively. Only one farmer in the intermediate zone used chemicals to control diseases.The maize harvest depends on the time of sowing and the end of the rainy season, but most maize crops were harvested in June and July (Table 12). Most farmers used ox-carts to transport maize to the homestead (other methods included bicycles and pick-up trucks). About 94% of the farmers in the lowlands stored their maize in gunny bags, while the majority of farmers in the other zones (66.7% in the intermediate zone, 91.7% in the highlands) shelled the maize and stored the grain in a local container (kihenge). The majority of farmers in the three zones treated their maize before storing it.Storage losses without treatment could be substantial. Treatment with Actellic Super was the most common method of controlling storage pests (94% of lowland farmers and 88% of highland farmers).The most common control method in the intermediate zone was the use of ash or other local materials (56% of farmers).About 90% of farmers in the intermediate zone and highlands selected seed at home, while 44.4% of lowland farmers selected seed in the field (Table 13). The most important criterion for selecting seed for the next season was the size of the maize cob. Most selected seed was shelled, treated, and stored in gunny bags. Farmers said that commercial seed was also readily available, and they bought it from wither stockists or other farmers.Varying numbers of farmers in each zone said they purchased improved maize seed regularly (23% in the lowlands, 14% in the intermediate zone, and 57% in the highlands). Farmers in the lowlands reported that they recycled seed for five to eight years; intermediate zone and highland farmers said they recycled seed for eight to ten years.Table 14 presents the maize cropping calendar for the Central Zone. Labor demand peaks twice during the year, first between January and March and then between June and August. Planting and weeding were the major activities in the first period, and harvesting and postharvest processing were the major activities in the second period.  Farmers' varying preferences for improved maize across zones may be attributed to zonal differences in pest populations, disease incidence, soil fertility, and climate. The most preferred maize in the lowland and intermediate zones was CG4142, whereas it was Staha in the highlands (Table 16). The main reason for these preferences was drought resistance (Table 17).  About 12% of highland respondents and 7% of lowland respondents reported that they had access to credit. All farmers who used credit received it from the informal sector. The average loan was for 1,452.32 Tanzanian shillings (Tsh); the maximum amounts were Tsh 35,000.00 in the highlands and Tsh 13,340.00 in the lowlands. This credit was used mainly to purchase fertilizer. More than half of the respondents in the lowlands and intermediate zone said that credit was difficult to obtain from the formal sector because of the bureaucratic application process, but the main constraint to formal credit for highland farmers was their lack of knowledge of how the credit system worked (Table 19).Farmers' sources of information on improved maize technology are shown in Table 20. The three most important sources information were extension agents, other farmers, and NGOs. In all zones, extension led in disseminating knowledge to farmers for all technologies. The Training and Visit (T&V) extension system is used the study area, and most components of the technology package had been introduced to participating farmers. NGOs were the second most important source of knowledge about new technology. Most farmers received information on improved varieties, planting method, fertilizer, weeding, ox-drawn implements, and pesticide use. Information on herbicide use and disease control measures was low, however. Also, farmers in the lowlands received less information than other farmers about ox-drawn implements.  Feder et al. (1985) defined adoption as the degree of use of a new technology in a long run equilibrium when a farmer has full information about the new technology and its potential. Therefore, adoption at the farm level describes the realization of farmers' decision to apply a new technology in the production process. On the other hand, aggregate adoption is the process of spread or diffusion of a new technology within a region. Therefore a distinction exists between adoption at the individual farm level and aggregate adoption within a targeted region. If an innovation is modified periodically, however, the equilibrium level of adoption will not be achieved. This situation requires the use of econometric procedures that can capture both the rate and the process of adoption. The rate of adoption is defined as the proportion of farmers who have adopted a new technology over time. The incidence of adoption is defined as the percentage of farmers using a technology at a specific point in time (for example, the percentage of farmers using fertilizer). The intensity of adoption is defined as the level of adoption of a given technology (for instance, the number of hectares planted with improved seed or the amount of fertilizer applied per hectare).The common procedure for assessing the rate of adoption is the use of a logistic curve, which captures the historical trend of adoption over a given time and can be used to assess the effectiveness of agricultural institutions that have served the farming system over time. The logistic curve is constructed using data on the proportion of farmers who have adopted an improved technical innovation over a given period. The basic assumption is that adoption increases slowly at first but then increases rapidly to approach a maximum level (CIMMYT 1993). Mathematically, the logistic curve is given by the following formula:where: Y t = the cumulative percentage of adopters at a time t; K = the upper bound of adoption; b = a constant, related to the rate of adoption; and a = a constant, related to the time when adoption begins.Figure 5 shows the rate of adoption of improved maize varieties for the Central Zone. In 1994 about 78% of farmers were planting improved maize varieties, but the rate of adoption for improved maize over 1974-94 was 0.13, which is rather low. In recent years, the adoption rate has increased dramatically, probably because of improvements in input delivery under liberalized markets and because of increased extension efforts, such as those of Sasakawa-Global 2000.Results of the tobit model for the proportion of land allocated to improved maize are presented in Table 21. The tobit model was used because the proportion of land allocated to improved maize is a continuous variable but truncated between zero and one. The use of ordinary least squares will result in biased estimates (McDonald 1980). In Table 21, δEY/δx i shows the marginal effect of an explanatory variable on the expected value (mean proportion) of the dependent variable, δEY*/δx i shows changes in the intensity of adoption with respect to a unit change of an independent variable among adopters, and δF(Z)/δx i is the probability of change among nonadopters (e.g., the probability of adopting improved maize varieties) with a unit change of independent variable x i . The loglikelihood ratio test was significant at the 1% level. The socioeconomic household characteristics were not significant. The significant variables included the type of variety grown by the farmer, agroecological zone, and extension.A variety's characteristics had a positive and significant influence on the proportion of land allocated to improve maize. Farmers growing the long-maturing varieties UCA and Kilima were more likely to allocate more land to maize than  farmers growing materials that matured earlier. The marginal effect of the long-maturing varieties on the mean proportion of land allocated to improved maize varieties was 6%, while the marginal effect was 3% and 2% for group one and two varieties, respectively. The long-maturing varieties increased the probability adopting improved maize by about 22%, while group one and two varieties increased the probability of adoption by about 17% and 13%, respectively. The marginal effect of extension on the mean proportion of land allocated to improved maize varieties was 3%, and extension increased the probability of adoption by 14%.Farmers in the highlands were more likely to allocate land to improved maize varieties than farmers in the lowlands and the intermediate zone. The marginal effect of the lowlands and intermediate zone on the mean proportion of land allocated to improved maize varieties was less by 15% and 0.4%, respectively, compared with the highlands. The probability that farmers would allocate land to improved maize was less by 34% for the lowlands and 6% for the intermediate zone. In the lowlands, allocation of land to improved maize remained low compared to the other two zones. One reason for this might be the low rainfall in the lowlands; farmers may be unwilling to plant improved maize that performs badly under moisture stress.Results of the probit model for the use of inorganic fertilizer are presented in Table 22. The probit model was used because the response on inorganic fertilizer use was binary (= 1 if the farmer used inorganic fertilizer for the past three years and = 0 otherwise). Establishing the quantity of fertilizer used per hectare was difficult because of the lack of data. In Table 22, the change in probability (δY/δx i ) shows the change in probability that a farmer will use fertilizer, given a unit change in the independent variable. The likelihood ratio test was significant at the 1% level. The inverse Mills ratio was not significant and negative; thus fertilizer use was not influenced by adoption of improved varieties alone. The significant variable influencing the adoption of fertilizer was extension services. An increase in the intensity of extension services increased the probability of fertilizer use by 115%. The negative signs on the agroecological zones showed that farmers were less likely to use fertilizer for maize production, especially in the low rainfall areas. This could be explained by the lower response of maize varieties to fertilizer in low rainfall areas. Note: ** = significant at 5% level; * = significant at 1% level.Among the farmers sampled for the survey, the mean age of the household head was 43 years, with 19 years of farming experience. Farmers' level of education was low, averaging about four years of formal schooling. Households averaged about ten persons, with at least three permanent workers. Most farmers kept livestock and the hand hoe was their major farm tool. Animal power was used by about 30% of farmers, mainly in the intermediate zone and highlands. Hiring of tractors was relatively common in the lowlands, where farmers practiced extensive maize production. Land was not a limiting factor in the farming system.Farmers in the lowlands and intermediate zone recycled maize seed for five to eight years, while highland farmers recycled seed for a longer period (eight to ten years). Seed was selected during harvest and shelling for storage, based on the size of the cob. Most selected seed was shelled, treated against insects, and stored in gunny bags. Maize for food was shelled and stored in the kihenge. The majority of farmers in the three zones treated their maize before storage.The few farmers who obtained credit did so through the informal sector and used the money mainly to purchase farm inputs such as fertilizer. Farmers' inability to obtain credit from the formal sector was attributed to lack of knowledge about the formal credit system and the bureaucratic process for obtaining loans.Farmers' chief source of information on agriculture was the research and extension system; the T&V (Training and Visit) extension system was used throughout the study area. Most farmers had received information on improved maize varieties, planting methods, and weed management, but few knew about disease control measures and pest management.The most popular maize varieties were Kilima, TMV1, and Staha in the intermediate zone; Staha and TMV1 in the lowlands; and Staha, TMV1, and Kilima in the highlands. The reasons for farmers' preference of these varieties were, in order of importance, their high yield, drought resistance, and resistance to storage pests. Despite these stated preferences, most farmers actually planted the hybrid CG4142 because it was available.Farmers' adoption of maize crop management practices depended on their cost. Most farmers planted maize in rows (the cheapest technology), but fewer farmers used chemical pest and disease control methods because of their high cost.The two-stage least squares analysis showed that variety characteristics, production potential of the area, and extension were the most important factors affecting the amount of land allocated to improved maize and use of inorganic fertilizer. Farmers who grew long-maturing maize were about 22% more likely to allocate land to improved maize, while the use of group one and two varieties increased the likelihood of adoption by about 17% and 13%, respectively. Extension increased the probability of allocating land to improved maize at the means by about 14%, and it increased the probability of using fertilizer by 115%. Lowland farmers were less likely to use fertilizer, probably because of the lower response of maize to fertilizer in low rainfall areas.Technical innovation characteristics and external influences are the major factors affecting the adoption of improved maize practices. Research needs to develop varieties that fit farmers' tastes and circumstances, and extension should be involved in testing and disseminating these technologies. Flexible integrated pest management packages, which combine a drought tolerant variety with improved cultural practices, can increase yields. Low-cost technologies for controlling stalk borer and maize streak virus using cultural practices or environmentally friendly industrial chemicals should be developed.Most improved varieties are responsive to fertilizer, and farmers usually obtain economic yields with fertilizer. But use of fertilizer is constrained by high price and lack of knowledge. An efficient marketing system for inputs and outputs will benefit farmers by paying higher prices for maize and reducing the cost of fertilizer. Such a system cannot be established without policy support from the government, however. Studies on the economics of seed and fertilizer use should also be undertaken, especially now that input and output markets have been liberalized.In developing improved maize varieties, factors other than yield should be taken into consideration, including drought resistance/tolerance, resistance to storage pests, shelling quality, and taste. This requires farmer participation in the research process. Research and extension efforts need to be linked and strengthened to increase the flow of information to farmers. In collaboration with the government and other stakeholders, the formal credit system needs to address the credit problems faced by small-scale farmers, especially their lack of knowledge (information) about formal credit and the bureaucratic procedures for obtaining credit. The formation of farmer groups should be encouraged, because lending to groups tends to reduce transactions costs and improve the rate of loan recovery.","tokenCount":"8080"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7dfa09c18851ee60ee10522342d2b14f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c72be7d5-cd95-4fc4-a04b-4f0f3ac5a888/retrieve","id":"1698016432"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2db135e0-0602-4d6e-89a8-21d051f3569b","pagecount":"3","content":"• Rising animal to human disease transmission is driven by inter-related issues including: population growth, rise in demand for animal protein, unsustainable intensification of agriculture, land use change, urbanization, climate change, decrease in species biodiversity.• Besides COVID-19, thirteen diseases transmitted from animals to people are estimated cause 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million human deaths a year.• Foodborne diseases, many of which have an animal origin, cost poorer countries US$110bn a year in lost productivity and medical expenses.• An estimated 700,000 people die every year from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, nine out of 10 of these in poorer countries.• Strengthening human, environment and animal health capacity by the One-Health approach could result in 10%-30% cost saving in surveillance and communication costs.Complex health problems affecting people, animals and the environment are best tackled through integrated 'one health' investments and policies.One Health practices unite medical, veterinary, environment and socio-economic expertise for healthy people, animals and ecosystems. It promotes a trans-disciplinary approach working alongside people from different backgrounds, specialisms and sectors, and being prepared to do things differently.To do this, a One Health approach requires a change in outlook and action. It demands a shift from a disease-focused approach to more systems-based one. This includes refocusing from disease treatment and control to disease prevention, surveillance and preparedness.This means also rethinking new ways of working, institutional arrangements as well as technological solutions. It also requires new ways to share evidence, data and learning across disciplines and sectors. For example, One Health avoids duplication of work and services by having different stakeholders working towards a common goal, each contributing with their area of expertise, fostering synergies, and avoiding duplication.When disease outbreaks do occur, One Health minimises the lives affected and lost.A One Health approach brings all-round benefits. One dollar invested in One Health approaches can generate five dollars' worth of benefits at the country level through increased GDP and the individual level. For example, the cost of treating and controlling bird flu (avian influenza) in people is vastly outweighed by the cost of vaccinating poultry against the disease. Savings can be used to build resilience to absorb health shocks. The siloed approach Despite efforts to integrate, a disease-specific approach has been taken to disease management. Human health challenges in the past have been tackled by human health experts only, whether in government, in the private and non-governmental sectors or in the research world. Likewise, animal health and environmental health challenges have been taken up by disciplinary specialists, independent of other health sectors.The examples below highlight how One Health approaches have been used successfully in a range of contexts.Rift Valley fever (RVF) in animals shows earlier than in people and can serve as an indicator for human health specialists to take action by taking preparedness measures, for instance sensitising high-risk groups such as meat handlers. This requires good cross sectoral communication. In 1996-7, an outbreak of RVF was unexpected. In all, 27,500 people got infected and 170 died. A more widespread RVF outbreak 10 years later resulted in just 700 suspected human cases and 90 deaths. The widely different outcomes have been attributed to a more coordinated response thanks to Kenya having adopted a One Health approach. In addition, Kenya has institutionalised One Health with the establishment of the Zoonotic Disease Unit (ZDU) that bring ministries of health, agriculture, livestock and fishery to control key zoonoses.After the Avian Influenza outbreak in 2003, Vietnam was one of the first countries in Asia to adopt a multi-sectoral approach. One health is integrated into all Government plans related to infectious disease and pandemic preparedness. It helped to contain and control several diseases such as SARS, HPAI and rabies. Vietnam developed and nationalised the Vietnam One Health Partnership at governmental level that serves as platform to bring institutions and actors in human health, animal health and the environment to work together to fight zoonoses, AMR and food safety. Academic One Health related curricula were developed by the Viet Nam One Health University Network to build One Health capacities for students (future leaders), lecturers, as well as human and animal health professionals at ministries and grassroots level. They work across sectors and disciplines and apply One Health in solving the problems on the ground.In Ethiopia, approaches to participatory rangeland management are establishing One Health units to improve the health of humans, livestock and the natural environment. Better integration allows for better control of zoonotic diseases, helps to better tackle transboundary animal diseases through control programs and keeps an eye on the health of the rangelands themselves.Recognizing the need for coordinated actions against animal and wildlife crimes, law enforcement agencies, customs services, veterinary services and public health agencies are working together in a One Health approach. For example, coordination across sectors is needed to reduce the trade in wildlife products, fight pet theft, and control animal smuggling. What you can doIt is essential that cross sectoral approaches are mandated and funded at all levels of government (national, state, district). This allows for joint planning and communication across departments and ministries. This can include establishing one health task forces or centres, establishing multi-sectoral surveillance and early warning mechanisms, setting up rapid response operating procedures and capacities, requiring One Health assessments in policies and investments or raising political and public awareness.One Health approaches should be incorporated into training and education in animal, human and environment health so health is understood in a holistic sense. It is important to establish a shared goal to address to foster collaboration and resource sharing. This will incentivize inter-sectoral opportunities to share information, address shared priorities and confirm roles and responsibilities. A common goal will reduce duplication of efforts and increase efficiency and effectiveness of efforts.Countries throughout the world particularly in Africa and Asia have implemented innovative One Health approaches and strategies. There are excellent opportunities to leverage these experiences to speed up learning and implementation the sharing of learning and strengthening regional collaboration. This includes:• Implementing regional programs where experience and capacity building can be shared. For instance, a regional project on Rift Valley Fever brings together ministries from Uganda and Kenya. Expertise and knowledge are leveraged across the project. • Harmonize policies and guidelines through regional approaches. Diseases are not stopped by borders. It is essential that cross border collaboration is strengthened so that surveillance and similar approaches can be used across borders. • Invest in strengthening cross country data standardization and sharing. There is a lack of baseline data in most low in middle income countries related to various diseases as well as Anti-Microbial Resistance. Moreover, investments can be made to ensure open data standards used to ensure data sharing across sector and countries.Investing in One Health directly tackles the wicked problems facing our health and the health of the animals and planet around us. One Health integrates and guides the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment. This series of briefs provides evidence-based information on how One Health can support development efforts. ","tokenCount":"1172"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e364e1a68929941cb6be9a16ec3a2bcc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7a21b8e8-8fe2-437b-97df-f717f76d7a8b/retrieve","id":"-1523718508"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"81ad5661-cd76-46fd-8814-d2ddb5bf203d","pagecount":"22","content":"Rice and wheat are globally dominant staple cereals and supply a substantial proportion of caloric intake in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Straw byproducts from these cereals form the basal diet for ruminant livestock across much of the developing world. Work with other cereals demonstrates the value placed on cereal straws and stovers by smallholder farmers indicated by their willingness to pay a quality premium. Despite this, breeding efforts have tended to disregard straw quality. Little is known about the marketing arrangements and the price dynamics for wheat and rice straws in LMICs. This study aimed to quantify volume and price of wheat and rice straw sales in Patna markets in Northern India. A survey was conducted covering 17 trading locations in Patna and Hajipur in 2008. 24 traders were surveyed with 12 trading only wheat straw, 11 trading only rice straw and 1 trading both straws. A detailed trader characterization survey was implemented to gather information on the history and structure of the business, suppliers, processing arrangements, customers and monthly trading volumes over the previous 12 months.Traders were then visited once per month for 12 months for collection of straw samples and price information. Results showed that traders had developed a series of 5 quality classes for straws based on sensory characteristics. There was reasonable agreement between trader quality class and specific sensory traits, notably \"brightness\", \"tastiness\" and \"purity\" and quality classes also ranked similarly to prices for straws. Availability of straws of different qualities varied by month although straws of intermediate quality were available during most months and were the most prevalent straws in the markets surveyed. Taken across months, there was a price premium of 7% in both rice and wheat straw for the \"best\" quality straw compared with \"medium\" quality straw. Wheat straw traded for prices around 19% higher than rice straw on average. This price differential between wheat and rice straw was associated with higher nutritional quality. Within species, differences in nutritive value between straw quality classes were small. There were significant correlations between price and nutritional traits although these mainly related to differences between species rather than differences within species. Extrapolations from comparisons of available straw qualities in multidimensional rice and wheat improvement suggests that the value of traded rice and wheat straws could be increased by more than 60% by promotion of superior rice and wheat dual purpose cultivars.Rice is a significant contributor to global food security and provides 19% of global per capita caloric intake and 27% of the calorie intake in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC's), (Lomax, 2015).Accounting for 20% of human caloric food intake, wheat is second only to rice in the diets of LMIC consumers and is the primary source of protein (Braun et al., 2010). Rice and wheat are also major components of crop livestock systems which supply much of the world's food and support millions of small farmers globally (Herrero et al., 2009). Less known and appreciated is the fact that rice and wheat straws, which are often considered as by-products of rice and wheat production are the main basal feed source for dairy animals on the Indo-Gangetic Plane (Samireddypalle and Sampath, 2014) and are tradable commodities in their own right (Teufel et al., 2010). Anandan et al (2019) calculated that in India, rice straw contributes 21.9% to dry matter feed resources though the contribution could be as low as 0.9% in Rajasthan and as high as 58.7% in Assam. Wheat straw contributed 15.1% to feed dry matter in India with the contribution being negligible in many Southern states but reaching 43.7% and 38.9% in Haryana and Punjab, respectively. Rice straw and wheat straw are the major crop residues used for feeding ruminants in India and their combined contribution ranges from 10 to 64 % of total feed resources across the different states. At national level they constitute 37% of the total feed resources.Despite the prevalence of mixed crop livestock systems in LMIC's, crop improvement and livestock research efforts tend to proceed on parallel tracks without much interaction. The crop improvement community can remain unaware of the importance of crop by-products to farmer livelihoods. In rainfed crops such as sorghum and pearl millet it was shown that two factors can alert the crop improvement sector to the importance of crop by products: fodder market surveys (Kelley et al. 1991) and the rejection of new cultivars by farmers because of the quality and quality of the byproducts, the straws and stovers (Kelley et al., 1993 and1996).Surveys of sorghum stover trading in India in the 1980's and 1990's have revealed that the monetary value of the grains relative to the stover halved from 6:1 to 3:1 from the 1970s to 1990s (Kelley et al., 1991). In addition, Kelley et al. (1991) observed over a 4-year period (1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989) in the sorghum growing area of Maharashtra that, at the same time and place, stover quality, or at least the customers' perceptions of it, played a huge role in stover pricing. Kelley et al. (1991) reported that stover from sorghum landraces achieved on average prices that were 41% higher than those of modern cultivars. Put differently adoption of modern cultivars can be jeopardized by poor stover quality traits. The findings from these fodder market surveys directly, though with a time delay, affected sorghum improvement in that the breeders started to incorporate stover traits into breeding and selection (Lenne et al., 2003) and finally new cultivar release procedures. In summary, it is clear that (1) stover quantity matters since the value of stover relative to grain is beginning to converge and (2) stover quality matters since price premiums paid for superior stover quality at markets exceeded 40%. These two factors have convinced sorghum improvement experts that these two traits merit attention. The present work surveys the trading of wheat straw in the Eastern Gangetic Plains to explore if a similar re-orientation of rice and wheat improvement might be warranted.In early 2008, wheat and paddy straw trading locations in Patna were identified with the help of local experts. Subsequently, 17 such locations were selected in Patna and Hajipur, the twin cities straddling the river Ganges. The locations were categorised according to their accessibility into main roads (e.g. Anjanpur in Patna) and side roads (e.g. Babu Bazar in Patna). Within each location, traders were purposively selected focusing on those who trade all year round, have their own storage facilities, sell directly to livestock keepers and showed willingness to support the study.Where possible, traders offering more than one quality of straw and both wheat and paddy straw were selected, but this was only achieved with 1 trader in Patna. In addition, 12 traders trading only wheat straw (out of which 1 trader ceased trading during the survey period and was therefore excluded) and 11 traders trading only paddy straw were identified. After trader identification, characterisation data were collected from all selected traders with a short questionnaire, including basic personal and straw trading characteristics. At the end of the sample collection period, a more detailed questionnaire was applied to the traders, covering the history and structure of their straw trading business, details on their suppliers, information on any further processing and information on their customers including monthly volumes of straw traded throughout the past 12 months.During trader identification, their assessment of wheat straw deliveries was discussed in order to better understand their definitions of wheat straw quality. In particular, traders were asked to provide a list of traits which they perceived as determining overall quality in order to determine an appropriate price. The straw traits most commonly reported were: length of chopped particles, softness, degree of contamination (e.g. with dirt or weeds), colour (bright or dull) and dryness and what the traders called \"tastiness\". These were then included in subsequent data collection.From June 2008 to June 2009 each trader was visited once a month. During each visit, straw samples were taken of the two straw qualities currently being traded. If the trader was selling more than two qualities the qualities with the highest and lowest prices were selected. For each sample, 4 subsamples were collected and analysed separately. In addition, a sample characterisation sheet was filled for each sample. This included quality characteristics as perceived by the trader, information on source and variety of the straw as well as its retail price. The perceived quality characteristics included an overall quality category as well as a numerical assessment of each quality trait on a scale of 1 (best) to 5 (worst).Rice and wheat straw samples were analyzed by Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS), calibrated for this experiment against conventional wet laboratory analyses. The NIRS instrument used was a FOSS Forage Analyzer 5000 with software package WinISI II. Representative subsets of rice and wheat straw were selected based on WinISI software and were analyzed conventionally for N by Kjeldhal, NDF and ADF by Goering and Van Soest (1970) and IVOMD and ME by Menke and Steingass (1988).The agreements between NIRS predicted values and conventionally analyzed values were expressed as R 2 and standard error of prediction (SEP), see Padmakumar et al (2019) for NIRS predictions of fodder quality of rice straw and Joshi et al. (2019) for wheat straw.Numbers of rice and wheat straw trader relative to straw suppliers and straw buyers and estimated daily transactions are reported in Table 1. Trading activity was higher in rice than in wheat straw and associations of a specific variety from which a straw was obtained occurred almost twice as often in rice than in wheat (64.5 vs 34.5%).The relative importance given by traders to the sensory traits short, soft, pure, bright and dry is listed in Table 2. Brightness was ranked highest in both rice and wheat straw while softness was ranked lowest in both straw types. Dryness was ranked intermediate in rice straw but low in wheat straw while the ranking for pureness was low in in rice straw but high to intermediate in wheat straw (Table 2).Table 2 about hereThe associations between sensory straw quality traits and perceived quality classes and their respective prices are reported in Table 3. Straw traders nominated five straw quality classes in rice straw namely Best (B), Good (G), Medium (M), Low (L) and Lowest (LL) and four quality classes in wheat straw namely B, G, M and L (Table 3). Except for quality classes below M that is L and LL, which were only sold by a single trader, the ranking for sensory traits agreed with the attribution to quality classes and straw pricing was aligned with the quality classes.  4).In both rice and wheat straws, those of quality class G were also the ones most traded by volume (Figure 1). In both straws, overall traded volumes tended to decrease in February/March reaching a comparatively low point about May. straw respectively, average price differences between straw of classes B and M were about 7% in both rice and wheat straw while the average wheat straw price was about 19% higher than the average rice straw price (Table 5).Table 5 about hereMonthly pricing was sometimes inconsistent with quality classes and straws of class B could sometimes be sold at lower prices than those of class G while straws of class M could sometimes be sold at prices higher than those of class G (Figure 2). Rice and wheat straw prices were highest in the second half of 2008 declining in the first half of 2009 reaching a low in April/May.Figure 2 about hereNitrogen contents of rice and wheat straw of B, G and M classes at months of collections are presented in Table 6. Nitrogen contents ranged from 0.59 to 0.96% and from 0.58 to 0.80% in rice and wheat straw, respectively. Monthly nitrogen contents were only inconsistently associated with straw quality classes and nitrogen contents of B quality class could be lower than those the M class (Table 6).   6. Except for straw N, laboratory fodder quality was superior in wheat straw compared with rice straw. However, within crop trait differences between the quality classes were small and for example the differences in ADF and IVOMD were less than one percentage point. (Table 9). While the correlations in Table 10 were affected by the different overall quality and different prices of rice and wheat straw, ADF seems reasonably strongly associated with pricing also within rice and wheat straws (Figure 3). Rice and wheat straw trading represent a significant enterprise within the urban and peri-urban dairy production system in Patna, with the 24 fodder traders surveyed transacting between about 6and 10 tons daily of each of the straws (Table 2). In the survey, the average rice and wheat straw prices were 2.57 and 3.06 INR per kg, respectively (  (Blümmel et al., 2019a) the gross straw would be slightly more than half the grain value (18 931 vs 35 154 kg/ha). While these average gross income calculations are simplified, they nevertheless demonstrate that rice and wheat straw can contribute significantly to overall income from rice and wheat cropping in the IGP of India. Grain and straw yields are only moderately correlated in rice (Subudhi et al., 2019) and wheat (Blümmel et al., 2019a) and straw yield cannot therefore be adequately predicted by grain yield (which is routinely obtained in crop improvement). Rice and wheat improvement programmes should therefore consider including total biomass yield in their data measurements. High straw yields (along with high grain yields) would not only be advantageous for livestock feed resources but would also reduce potential competition between straw use for livestock and soil fertility improvement (Baudron et al., 2014;Duncan et al., 2016).Both rice and wheat straw fodder traders distinguished between three major quality classes -B, G and M -using sensory criteria (Table 2) and allocated price premiums for quality classes (Table 3).Distinction for quality differences had also been observed in sorghum stover trading (Kelley et al 1991(Kelley et al /1993;;Blümmel and Rao, 2006) though the observations from sorghum stover differed in several ways from the observations in rice and wheat straw trading. First, quality differences were associated with cultivar type, improved cultivars vs landraces in the case of Kelley et al 1991Kelley et al /1993, , or cultivars per se in the case of Blümmel and Rao (2006). Second, average price premiums for quality in sorghum stover ranged from 25 to more than 40% while in rice and wheat straw average price premiums were in the region of only 7%. Third, price premiums for sorghum stover remained consistent over several years (Blümmel et al., 2019b) while in the rice and wheat straw pricing seen in the current work, prices were often inconsistent with quality classes and straws of class B could sometimes be sold at lower prices than those of class G. Similarly, straws of class M could sometimes be sold at prices higher than those of class G (Figure 2). This could mean that sensory straw quality criteria are less robust than quality distinctions derived by cultivar type or cultivar per se.Price premiums for straw quality were more consistent in valuations between rice and wheat straws with an average price advantage of wheat over rice straw of close to 20%. Attributing lower fodder quality to rice than to wheat straw agrees with average sensory traits applied by the fodder traders and as weighted by the Likert scale values (Table 3). For rice straw, average Likert values for B, G and M were 1.3, 1.8 and 2.2, respectively, while the analogous values for wheat straw would be 1.2, 1.8 and 2.0, respectively (calculated from Table 3). These data suggest an overall agreement over a range of averaged observations between sensory traits and pricing in rice and wheat straw trading confirming their usefulness to traders in making straw transactions.While sensory traits assist fodder traders and their customers, they are problematic for routine straw quality assessments for logistical and normative reasons. Objective and precisely measurable laboratory traits are needed. Fodder quality is ultimately only determined by livestock production and productivity, but livestock performance trials are unsuitable for routine feed and fodder quality analysis. This is particularly the case in crop improvement programmes where many samples must be analysed, and where initially the biomass availability is low. Simple laboratory fodder quality traits are needed but these traits must be well correlated with actual livestock performance measurements. \"Simple\" here refers not only to logistical and economical laboratory demand but to the need for traits to be comprehensible to, and usable by, crop scientists, seed producers, fodder traders and development practitioners with limited background in livestock nutrition. In the present work nitrogen content, IVOMD and ME were used as positive straw quality indicators and ADF as a negative indicator, traits well correlated to livestock productivity in straw-fed livestock (Sharma et al., 2010). However, these traits did not align with pricing of monthly quality classes as seen for example in nitrogen content (Table 6), or and ADF and IVOMD (Table 7, 8). This is not unexpected since fodder traders' own quality classifications were not always consistent with pricing (Table 5).Except for nitrogen, laboratory fodder quality traits and pricing did agree when both observations were averaged across the months (Table 10 and Figure 3). These findings agree with observations for sorghum fodder trading where nitrogen was un-related to pricing while IVOMD was significantly correlated with it (Blümmel and Rao, 2006). This is likely because supplementation of nitrogendeficient straws with nitrogen supplements would be required even for straws with nitrogen content at the high end of the natural range and price premiums for higher nitrogen content for straws might be unrewarding. The significant correlation between average ADF and IVOMD and prices agree with previous findings showing strong correlations between IVOMD and pricing in sorghum stover trading (Blümmel and Rao, 2006). The findings are also consistent with the often-observed correlations between these two traits and livestock performance of straw-fed livestock. IVOMD is also a quality trait that can be easily communicated to non -livestock specialist as an indicator of the proportion an animal can use from a given feed (Sharma et al., 2010). However, in the present work the significant correlation between average ADF and IVOMD and prices were influenced by the differences in straw quality and prices between rice and wheat straw as such rather than by quality difference between classes of straw quality within a crop (Table 9). Put differently, to identify the most appropriate laboratory fodder quality trait for distinguishing rice and wheat quality in fodder market trading still requires more work.The overall average IVOMD of the traded straws were 40.0 and 46.3% in rice and wheat straw respectively with average ADF content of 52.3 and 51.1% in rice and wheat straw respectively. These values are generally similar to the average IVOMDs and ADFs content reported in a wide range of rice and wheat straws investigated as part of multidimensional crop improvement efforts. For rice straw, Subudhi et al. (2019) and Virk et al. (2019) both reported IVOMDs of 42.0%. For wheat straws Blümmel at al. (2019a) reported an average IVOMD of 48.2%. Thus, average IVOMD of traded rice and wheat straws were just about 2% units lower than in straws in a very wide range of rice and wheat cultivars used in crop improvement.While the average quality traits in rice and what straws in multidimensional crop improvement programmes were generally similar to the quality traits in traded straw the observed trait ranges in the former suggest that quality in traded straws could be increased, particularly in rice straw. s et al. kg. These estimated price responses to rice and wheat straw quality improvement appear high, however they are supported by ex-ante assessments and fodder market studies of sorghum trading. Kristjanson and Zerbini (1999) calculated that a one-percentage point increase in digestibility in sorghum stover would increase milk, meat and draught power outputs ranging from 6 to 8%. These ex-ante estimates were broadly supported by fodder market prices of sorghum stover where a difference in digestibility of 5% points was associated with price premiums of 25% and higher (Blϋmmel and Rao, 2006). Premium sorghum quality stovers are now traded in India for more than 1 000 INR / 100 kg. Above estimates of straw prices of about 500 INR / 100 kg are therefore entirely reasonable.Our results show that the monetary value from rice and wheat straw trading could significantly contribute to income from rice and wheat cropping. Rice and wheat straw traders distinguished straw within and between the two crops. Taken across months, there was a price premium of 7% in both rice and wheat straw for the \"best\" quality straw compared with \"medium\" quality straw, but wheat straw traded for prices around 19% higher than rice straw on average. Extrapolations from comparisons of available straw qualities in multidimensional rice and wheat improvement programmes suggest that the value of traded rice and wheat straws could be increased by more than 60% by promotion of superior rice and wheat dual purpose cultivars. However, further work is required to experimentally supply fodder traders with rice and wheat straws from superior quality dual purpose cultivars to verify or refute these assumptions.       ","tokenCount":"3516"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5aa69f29415e66285145b51468188a1c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9efda7f7-4e12-48ca-a516-f5f8bfc15519/retrieve","id":"1040348220"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"de36bf70-8a22-4327-91a3-232b0426a865","pagecount":"46","content":"CGIAR aims to address gaps in knowledge about climate change and food security for peace and security policies and operations through a unique multidisciplinary approach. Our main objective is to align evidence from the realms of climate, land, and food systems science with peacebuilding efforts already underway that address conflict through evidence-based environmental, political, and socio-economic solutions.In March 2014, the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, which intended to end an armed conflict that had endured for decades. As has been widely recognized, issues related to environmental resources and the management of land in Mindanao played a crucial role in driving the conflict. Political and cultural structures, both historical and present, that influence people´s access to natural resources and the benefits of economic development from land and agriculture have, under a Mindanao context, exacerbated underlying drivers of conflict. Acknowledging this, the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro integrated a focus on increasing access and representation of local populations in the management of natural resources. This crucial point is especially relevant in a context whereby most of the population directly relies on natural resources and small-scale agriculture for their livelihood. This welcomed development comes at a time when climatic stressors and shocks are altering food, land, and water systems for millions of lives, and driving important socioeconomic challenges for food security and the stability of rural livelihoods across the Philippines. Although climate change and environmental degradation affect everyone, social groups experience these effects differently, at times reinforcing patterns of marginalisation and inequality. As such, environmental and climatic threats to livelihoods and access to resources can compound existing drivers of conflict. At the same time, societal efforts to increase resilience in the face of climate threats can serve as an entry point to protect theThe workshop was carried out in person throughout 3 days of extensive engagement and dialogue. Societal stabilityThe climate hazards to which populations are exposed, such as increasing droughts, rainfall variability and extremes, flooding, among others.The socio-economic, political, cultural and environmental factors that shape population sensibility to climate impacts and their capacity to adapt.The consequences of conflict and societal instability over people's vulnerability to future climate impacts.The effects of climate impacts over people's wellbeing and societal stability, and population responses to those impacts.A framework for Climate, Peace and SecurityEnvironmental peacebuilding is a field of research and practice that investigates the multiple ways in which the management of environmental issues can support conflict prevention, mitigation, resolution, and recovery. It is premised on the notion that the sustainable management of natural resources that competing parties may come into conflict over, or the environmental risks shared by these parties, can serve as a platform for peacebuilding.  There is a clustering of conflict incidents in areas susceptible to flood and landslide around Lake Lanao, in Lanao del Sur. Overlaying conflict incidents and climate hazards can inform and guide development and policy strategies to be conflict-sensitive in the Bangsamoro and Mindanao.These mapping tools can be used to identify what threats may increase the risk of conflict in the region.Presented by Talna Lorena de la Cruz and Maureen Lacuesta, from the Council on Climate and Conflict Action -Asia.• Evacuation due to rising incidence of flooding increases the risk of violent feuds between local and displaced populations.• Decreasing availability of food due to climate-related shocks, coupled with a surge in food prices, leads to a higher incidence of petty crime and violence.The impacts of climate shocks disrupt societal stability and lead to ineffective responses from regional authorities:Presented by Talna Lorena de la Cruz and Maureen Lacuesta, from the Council on Climate and Conflict Action -Asia.• Ineffective and poorly planned interventions for the relief, recovery, and rehabilitation after climate disasters increases the risk of conflict in its multiple forms.▷ Typhoon Pablo led to conflicts between aid givers and recipients, and resource conflicts between displaced populations and settlers.▷ Deployment of military and paramilitary units in disaster rehabilitation provoked land grabbing and constant predation.▷ Relocation site of Teduray-Lambangian victims of Typhoon Paeng are placed in landslide-susceptible areas.Climate and conflict mediated by political systems • The socio-economic and cultural effects of a history of conflict and ongoing violence undermine the adaptive capacity of communities to climate impacts and ongoing sustainable peacebuilding efforts in the region.The effects and opportunities of climate change are unequally distributed and mediated by political systems, thereby increasing the risk of instability from climate hazards:• Impaired agricultural livelihoods and increasingly scarce natural resources, mediated by unclear institutions for resource entitlements and extractive practices, increase the risk of conflict over access to natural resources.• The unequal distribution of benefits from development and resilience building efforts undermine social cohesion, worsen the political legitimacy of local-level institutions, and prompt strategic exclusion from disaster recovery efforts. Climate adaptation can be beneficial for peace Case study: Land conflict in Lumbac barangayIn the Philippines, discrimination against the Muslim and the Indigenous People emanate directly from government policy ever since the Spanish colonized the country in 1521 up to the present. It is the source of a deeply rooted conflict over the ownership of agricultural land. Notably identity and religious differences are important markers in the conflict.The competing land claims of the Felizardo and Sundig family are indicative:• The Felizardo family is Christian and bases its claim on their title deeds.• The Sundig family is Muslim and justify their claim through ancestral rights.In the early 1980's, the titled land of the Laborte Family was forcefully reclaimed by the Sundig family. In 2006, Felizardo asserted his ownership of the land by showing the title secured by his father and with the assistance of the local government. Felizardo was arrested and detained for 3 years.The incarceration of Felizardo angered the Visayans who strongly felt that the government tolerated the injustice reinforcing the feeling of hopelessness of many for the resolution of the land conflict. The tension reached its peak in an incident in October 2007, when a police team accompanying the Maranaos in harvesting their claimed coconuts was attacked early morning killing one police officer and a Maranao former Lumbac Barangay Captain, and wounding two other police officers.1. The first talks between conflicting parties were difficult. Prejudices and biases were so deep that gaining the trust of the parties for the process of conflict transformation was complicated. A military detachment was established in the beginning of 2008 to provide a feeling of security to the community people. This initiative was considered an important step towards the trust-building goal of all peace-builders.2. EcoWEB intended to \"create social spaces for change\". SPACE here is meant as a crucial means for conflict transformation. Providing NEUTRAL and SAFE spaces for dialogue and reflection between all parties proved to be fundamental to enable the peace-building process. Creating social spaces also meant creating \"public spaces\" within the villages for the people to gather and organise community activities. Their aim is: Harmonious cohabitation, re-building good relationships between the Barangay inhabitants to solve the conflict in a sustainable way.Presented by Nanette Antequisa and Nikki Dapanas, Ecosystems Work For Essential Benefits (ECOWEB)3. Eventually, RESOURCES are the core issue. While natural resources are a central issue in the conflict that need to be addressed, facilitators of the peace-building process also have to find financial resources to transform the conflict. They are needed to pay the work of the facilitators but also to empower the community people and improve their livelihood. The Lumbac Land Conflict Transformation Committee and the conflicting parties for example agreed that the economic needs of the people impacted by the conflict should be addressed and that it should be done in a way thatwould contribute to rebuilding RELATIONSHIPS.Through the request of the affected Maranaos of the conflict, Mayor Bertrand Lumaque of Kolambugan requested the assistance of ECOWEB to assist the peace-building process.As the peace process went on, all shared the pain of experiencing injustice and distrust. The land conflict in Lumbac is yet to be resolved but the process of its transformation has become a symbol of hope.Entry points for peacebuilding through climate adaptation @CGIAR / IRRI• Politically-driven conflicts: These conflicts are characterized by local political elites using formal political structures and government resources for their own benefit. Violence can be either incentivized by politicians themselves as a means of constituent control and electoral battles, or by local populations in resistance of political repression by local elites.• Resource-driven conflicts: Conflicts driven by competition over access to and use of land and natural resources. They are typically mediated by natural resource management systems, both formal policy frameworks and the informal influence of political elites at multiple levels of governance.For each conflict line, participants then proposed a set of socioeconomic, environmental, political and cultural factors acting as the main drivers of conflict. The relation between conflict drivers was discussed, and these factors were then used to identify potential entry points for climate adaptation efforts to contribute to sustainable peacebuilding in Mindanao.Incorporate non-material or intangible assessments of the environment and natural resources into efforts aimed at enhancing the inclusion of local populations in the policymaking process. Numerous factors contribute to identity conflicts, including historical disenfranchisement, discontent, discrimination, and power disparities. To address these concerns, it is imperative to not only focus on achieving a more equitable distribution of economic gains derived from natural resources but also to acknowledge and consider the emotional, cultural, and identity aspects in the valuation of natural resources, in conjunction with the intangible assessment of land and territories.Use the management of natural resources and of climate threats to foster inter-group collaboration and engagement, so as to foster trust or challenge prejudices and grievances. Parties in conflict can potentially mitigate the occurrence of conflict and/or promote the establishment of culture of peace and trust by utilizing the management of environmental issues as a platform for engagement.Enhance the delivery of basic services -with a focus on former combatants, conflict-affected populations or populations at risk of being recruited-through sustainable natural resource management, agricultural extension services, and the prioritisation of local and traditional knowledges. This can increase stability and state legitimacy because constituents enhance their trust in government and the peace process to represent their preferences in terms of development.Build political legitimacy by reinforcing accountability, transparency, and representation within institutions responsible for the management of natural resources. Enhance institutional capacities to uphold good governance principles in natural resource management. This includes the incorporation of mechanisms to facilitate constituent engagement in the decision-making process and the devolution of authority for the management of ecosystems. This fortifies the foundations of governance, fostering trust, and participation in natural resource management.Increase the participation and agency of local communities in the allocation of funds and benefits designated for enhancing resilience, thereby diminishing the influence of local politicians in serving as intermediaries for development and in leveraging public resources for electoral backing. This can reduce the capacity of local elites to use resilience funds as a means for political violence and constituent control.Formalize commercial arrangements around natural resources and land. This will reduce the influence of political and customary elites in the shadow economy of natural resources in Mindanao, which could increase people´s trust in formal institutions, their willingness to pay taxes, and strengthen government capacities through higher revenues. Strengthen agrarian reform through the recognition of traditional land management systems, while undermining the influence of local elites over land distribution.Increase the equitable redistribution of and access to land, forests, minerals, and other natural resources and their revenues and indirect benefits, then the risk of new and renewed conflict is minimized because the drivers of conflict that arise from competition and grievances over scarce resources would be addressed, and the opportunity costs of future conflict would be increased. If women are provided safety, security and representation in natural resource access and management, then gender-based violence will decrease because this will reduce vulnerability to structural inequalities and the risk of them being attacked or harmed. Also, the involvement of women in resource management can increase their influence over and the effectiveness of conflict resolution processes.Enhance Natural Resource Management systems through the formulation of inclusive policy frameworks that mitigate the existence of overlapping and conflicting resource tenure mechanisms. These endeavors have the potential to prevent conflicts arising from ambiguous tenure rights over natural resources and establish the necessary frameworks for the peaceful resolution of resource-related disputes.Activities that initially guide members from the CoP towards designing environmental and resilience building programmes that contribute to peace:Environmental and climate change, human security and conflict:• Increase sectorial engagement. Convene practitioners from local communities as well as program designers, managers, and funders together to exchange on concrete methods and practices at the intersection of environment, peace and security.• Conflict assessment and environmental peacebuilding theories of change. Map the dynamics and underlying drivers of main conflict risks affecting the region and determine environmental peacebuilding theories of change that may be relevant in addressing conflict risks.• Conflict-sensitiveness assessment of environmental projects. Map ongoing and planned environmental and climate adaptation projects in the region and conduct an assessment on their conflict-sensitiveness and environmental peacebuilding potential.• Food systems diversification. Identify suitable agricultural value chains -staple crops, traditional medicines and famine foods, alternative crops like abaca-to support the development of climate-resilient, conflict-sensitive and sustainable sources of income.• Sustainable natural resource management. Identify entry points towards fostering inter-group collaboration for integrated environmental management in different regions and contexts.• Disaster risk reduction. Explore opportunities to promote linkages between community-led networks for conflict prevention and response, and disaster risk reduction through early warning and climate information systems.• Post-conflict reintegration. Explore opportunities for the management of natural resources and resilience building to tackle frustrations of former combatants over reintegration processes emerging from the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.","tokenCount":"2279"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2a09498f7b85bb6f10410855ea36f1ac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/064fdbc9-d597-4672-b59b-206c37b1ea10/retrieve","id":"1877558984"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"651dbedd-eb14-4cfa-af66-6abe7b64e1e8","pagecount":"8","content":"a b s t r a c t Silvopastoral systems are an important strategy for sustainable livestock production. However, to expand their implementation, it is crucial to identify and develop forage materials that maintain good production and quality while being tolerant to shade conditions as well as other biotic and abiotic stresses. A field trial was conducted to evaluate the morpho-anatomical and agronomic responses of two Urochloa hybrids (Camello and Talisman) under two light conditions: shade (28 % light intensity) and full exposure. The trial followed a randomised complete block design with split-plot arrangement, where each treatment corresponded to a plot with three replications. Morphological and anatomical parameters were recorded in three technical replicates of each replication. Histological leaf sections were analysed for the percentage of adaxial epidermis, abaxial epidermis, vascular tissue, colourless parenchyma, Kranz sheath, bulliform cells, sclerenchyma, and chlorenchyma. Measurements in leaf included relative chlorophyll concentration, leaf area, leaf length, and leaf width. Evaluations in plant included height and number of tillers. Agronomic parameters such as plant cover and dry biomass were recorded for each plot. Additionally, six leaf imprints were made on the leaf undersides to observe stomatal morphology, and their length was recorded. Furthermore, plants from each treatment were grown in soil-filled tubes within the same plots. Root system photographs were taken, and in three replications per treatment, root length, root diameter, root volume, root surface area, and the depth at which 95 % of roots were concentrated (D95) were determined. These data can be utilised by the scientific community and breeders to conduct analyses and meta-analyses to identify shade tolerance mechanisms and develop genetic materials tolerant to changing climatic conditions while being optimal for use in silvopastoral systems.© • Adaptation to climate change requires the development and implementation of sustainable livestock systems that minimize the negative impact of agricultural production on the environment and extreme temperatures on animal welfare and production. One of the main strategies of sustainable livestock is the establishment of silvopastoral systems, which combine tree growth with forage production for livestock. Trees, in addition to sequestering CO 2 , generate a cooler microclimate for animals and can also be used for animal feed. • Camello cultivar is a Urochloa hybrid developed by the CIAT ʼs tropical forage breeding program. It is characterized by high biomass production, thanks to its high growth rate and high leaf-to-stem ratio; it also has good nutritional quality and tolerance to drought stress, due to the architecture of its root system, which allows it to explore deep soil layers to extract water during dry periods. • Talisman cultivar is another Urochloa hybrid developed by the CIAT ʼs tropical forage breeding program. It has shown a good response in forage production and nutritional quality under shaded conditions, compared to other commercial cultivars. • Evaluating the response of improved forage hybrids to shade conditions is important for identifying materials with potential for use in silvopastoral systems. Likewise, measurements of parameters related to leaf and root anatomy and morphology are a useful tool for scientists and breeders as they allow for a better understanding of some of the mechanisms that confer tolerance to this shade condition. This understanding enables their inclusion in the selection and development processes of improved materials that are later released commercially for use by livestock farmers.Livestock contributes to global warming as one of the main emitters of methane. Additionally, it is affected by it, as high temperatures and frequent drought seasons cause stress to both forage plants and animals, reducing forage biomass production, as well as meat and milk production. Silvopastoral systems combine the growth of trees and forage for livestock production, serving as an alternative that partially offsets greenhouse gas emissions through CO 2 captured by tree component and deep-rooted grasses. Moreover, they contribute to mitigating the adverse effects of climate change by generating microclimates with less extreme conditions due to tree shading.Hybrids of Urochloa with optimal production and forage quality characteristics have been developed. Among these, Camello stands out as an adaptation response to climate change, being drought tolerant. Given the advantages of this cultivar, understanding its response to shaded conditions is important to determine its potential for use in silvopastoral systems. Talisman is another improved hybrid characterised by its shade tolerance, making it an ideal material for comparison with other materials in terms of shade tolerance.The dataset from the linked repository was compiled from a field trial conducted between July and December 2023 in the Americas hub of The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (Palmira, Colombia). The measurements correspond to three repetitions with a different number of biological replicates performed on plants of two hybrid Urochloa cultivars grown under shade and full exposure. Table 1 displays the leaf anatomical characteristics of the Urochloa hybrids Camello and Talisman under two light conditions (with shade: 28 % light intensity and without shade: 100 % light intensity). Table 2 presents morpho-agronomic characteristics of the two cultivars grown under these conditions. In Table 3 , the relative chlorophyll content and stomatal length of the two hybrids with and without shade condition are observed. Table 4 records the root characteristics of the two materials grown under shade and full exposure. Fig. 1 illustrates a cross-section of the leaf of each of the two cultivars under the two light conditions, and Fig. 2 displays a principal component analysis that includes the morpho-agronomic characteristics, leaf anatomy, and root morphology of the treatments.     The field and laboratory evaluations were carried out on the Bioversity-Alliance Campuslocated in Palmira Valle del Cauca 3 °50 38 N -76 °35 36 W. In the months of July to December 2023. A factorial combination of two hybrids (Talisman and Camello) by two shading conditions (shade: 28 % light intensity and no-shade: 100 % light intensity) in a three-replicate complete randomised block was established in the field. The trial was organised in divided plots, where the main plot was the light level, and the subplots were the hybrids. The experimental unit consisted of a plot of 2.25 m 2 containing 25 plants, with a spacing of 0.3 m between plants and 2 m between plots. The shading condition was provided by installing a shade net located 2 m above ground level. The planting material used were seedlings germinated previously in a substrate containing peat.The soil is a vertisol, loamy-sandy texture, pH 7.7, oxidizable carbon 13.74 g kg -1 , organic matter 31.20 g kg -1 , phosphorus 140.05 mg kg -1 , calcium 19.93 cmol/kg, magnesium 7.21 cmol/kg, potassium 0.75 cmol/kg. During the trial span, the average temperature was 26.4 °C, the relative humidity was 77.8 %, and the precipitation was 389.6 mm. The morphological and agronomic traits were evaluated when the plants were vegetative stage. Plant height was measured from the base to the end of the plant. For leaf length, leaf width and leaf area they were cutting the fourth leaf youngest of three plants per genotype per block and were evaluated with the software Hoja 3.6 [ 6 ]. For plant cover, a photograph was taken per each block and measured using ImageJ. The percentage forage dry matter was evaluated by cutting at 20 cm above the soil six plants per block per hybrid. The samples were weighed fresh and then were dried in a forced air oven (Memmert) at 60 °C until to obtain weight constant and dry weight was measured using a balance (Scientech -SA 210D). The dry weight was related to the fresh weight to calculate the percentage of dry matter. The tillers of three plants per hybrid per block were counted.Segments of 2 cm from the base of the third fully expanded leaf were preserved in 70 % ethanol. Samples were placed in 5 % agar. Transversal cuts were made using vibrating blade microtome (Leica VT10 0 0 S) cross sections of leaf (10 0 μm thick). Relative tissues were identified using a light microscope (Leica DMi8) and the pictures were captured at magnifications of 10 ×.Measurements were performed in three plants (three cross sections per sample). Three vascular bundles on each side of the central bundle were considered for leaf blade measurements, according to Hernández et al. [ 7 ]. Tissue proportion was measured: adaxial epidermis, abaxial epidermis, vascular tissue, sclerenchyma, bulliform cells, Kranz sheath, colourless parenchyma, chlorenchyma. Chlorenchyma was calculated by the difference between the total area and the area of the above tissues. Images were analysed using ImageJ (Image Processing and Analysis in Java) [ 8 ]. The proportions of the different types of tissue were expressed as a percentage of the transversal section.Relative chlorophyll concentration was measured using Chlorophyll Meter SPAD-502Plus (Konica Minolta). This trait was estimated of three plants by experimental unit. At the third fully expanded leaf, in the mid-section between the edge and the main nerve of the leaf. Measurement was taken at 11am to avoid reading error by water droplets on the leaf. Stoma length (SL) was measured on the fourth leaf blade of three plants (six stomas) by experimental unit in the mid-section between the edge and the main nerve of the leaf. Measurements were made using a light microscope and the pictures were captured at magnifications of 20 ×. Images were analysed using ImageJ.Transparent plastic tubes with a diameter of 3 and length of 1.1 m, sealed at the bottom, were filled with 7.7 kg of a soil-sand mixture in a 2:1 ratio. The soil used was a sandy loam vertisol with a pH of 7.5 obtained from CIAT Palmira campus. Holes were made at the bottom of each plastic tube to allow water drainage, and they were then placed inside PVC tubes to create conditions of darkness for the rhizosphere. Each tube was planted with a vegetative propagule of the corresponding hybrid according to the experimental design. The tubes were arranged in racks to maintain a vertical position. Plants were watered 2-3 times per week, maintaining field capacity, and were fertilised with two grams of a mixture containing 18.1% N, 14.5 % P 2 O, and 24.8% K.In each photograph, the rectangle corresponding to the soil with the roots was cropped and segmented using ImageJ. The resulting image was then analysed in RhizoVision Explorer [ 9 ] to obtain root length, root diameter, root volume, and root surface area data. Each root image was divided into 11 segments (0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, 80-90, 90-100, 100-110 cm) using ImageJ, and the root surface area of each segment was determined using RhizoVision Explorer. With the obtained information, the D95 was calculated as the depth at which 95 % of the roots are concentrated.With the collected data, normal distribution and homogeneity of variances were verified using residuals. For each dependent variable, a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey ʼs test for mean comparison ( P < 0.05) were conducted. R-Studio statistical software (R version 4.3.0) [ 10 ] was used for the analysis.No limitations related to the data collection or curation were encountered.","tokenCount":"1826"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5cb8154745fc3e53e8fb01ebed7dac48","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a99eb94-f2ab-4023-b036-4afe4259d306/retrieve","id":"-1534538185"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"32779c29-3f23-4ed0-8ac0-a0e23d802b84","pagecount":"11","content":"This publica:on has been prepared as an output of CGIAR Ini5a5ve on Digital Innova5on, which researches pathways to accelerate the transforma:on towards sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems by genera:ng research-based evidence and innova:ve digital solu:ons. This publica:on has not been independently peer-reviewed. Any opinions expressed here belong to the author(s) and are not necessarily representa:ve of or endorsed by CGIAR. In line with principles defined in CGIAR's Open and FAIR Data Assets Policy, this publica:on is available under a CC BY 4.0 license. © The copyright of this publica:on is held by IFPRI, in which the Ini:a:ve lead resides. We thank all funders who supported this research through their contribu:ons to CGIAR Trust Fund.The mee5ng commenced with the introductory/welcome remarks delivered by Dr. Omar Ndaw Faye, the project co-coordinator from ISRA. The primary focus of this mee5ng was to provide an overview of the RIICE technology and shed light on the broader challenges facing agriculture, with a specific emphasis on rice cul5va5on in Senegal. The opening remarks was done by Dr. Abdelbagi Ismail, who joined the mee5ng via video call. Dr. Renaud Mathieu from IRRI presented the RIICE technology experiences in other loca5ons while Dr. Francesco Holecz (sarmap) discussed the RIICE methodologies and how it works and could be link to the insurance program. Lastly, Dr. Omar Ndaw Faye presented the current situa5on of the rice produc5on system in Senegal.Dr. Abdelbagi Ismail discussed and elaborated on IRRI's ini5a5ves in digi5zing rice cul5va5on, highligh5ng key aspects of the work that was done so far:1. Establishing a geospa5al unit dedicated to crop monitoring to be located in IRRI office in Nairobi, Kenya. This aims to u5lize geospa5al technology to enhance precision and efficiency in monitoring crop condi5ons.2. Emphasis on the commitment to advancing technologies within the scope of rice cul5va5on.The focus includes the explora5on and implementa5on of innova5ve solu5ons that contribute to the digital transforma5on of the agriculture sector.3. Highlighted the importance of building partnerships with various stakeholders, fostering a network that can collec5vely contribute to the project's objec5ves and share valuable insights.4. Emphasis on enhancing geospa5al technical capabili5es and building the necessary skills and infrastructure to effec5vely u5lize geospa5al data for informed decision-making in rice cul5va5on.5. Emphasized the importance of cross-regional collabora5on by sharing experiences on geospa5al technologies. In par5cular, he men5oned the exchange of knowledge between Southeast Asian countries, highligh5ng the poten5al for mutual learning and improvement.Dr. Renaud Mathieu gave a presenta5on on the u5liza5on of the RIICE tool, with a specific focus on its applica5on in South Asian countries, par5cularly India. The presenta5on focus on deploying the RIICE tool in the Indian context, shedding light on the notable successes achieved through its implementa5on. One key aspect is the tool's ability to forecast yields, with the poten5al for extension to other crops, such as corn.During the discussion several points were explored:-The strategic ini5a5ve to extend the RIICE tool's digital plaform to Senegal and other African regions. This involves adap5ng the technology to the specific agricultural landscape and requirements of Senegal and other African countries.-Recognizing the diverse agricultural prac5ces and condi5ons in Senegal, careful planning on how the RIICE tool could be effec5vely adapted.-Collabora5on with local partners emerged as a key aspect of the RIICE adapta5on process.Iden5fying and engaging with local stakeholders and partners is crucial for a successful implementa5on, as they bring valuable insights into the intricacies of the local agricultural landscape.-Strategic planning for the implementa5on of RIICE in Senegal is necessary. This roadmap encompasses the step-by-step process of customiza5on, deployment, and integra5on into the exis5ng agricultural framework.Dr. Francesco Holecz from sarmap presented about the applica5ons of the RIICE tool in the realm of agricultural insurance.-One of the highlights of the presenta5on is about the prospect of leveraging the RIICE tool to ins5tute a na5onal insurance system that specifically caters to the protec5on of small-scale rice growers. This strategic ini5a5ve aims to mi5gate the financial risks faced by smaller agricultural en55es, contribu5ng to the overall stability and resilience of the agricultural sector.-Emphasis on the commitment to developing a reliable service using the RIICE tool in the context of agricultural insurance. The goal is to establish a robust and trustworthy mechanism that not only provides coverage for rice growers but does so with a high level of dependability, ensuring that the insurance system meets the needs of the agricultural community.Dr. Omar Ndaw Faye presented an overview of the current state of rice cul5va5on in Senegal. In this presenta5on, he provided detailed informa5on on various aspects of rice farming such as cul5va5on prac5ces, current area devoted to rice, its produc5on and yield. He also discussed the challenges currently faced by the rice sector such as climate change, pest and diseases, irriga5on infrastructure, etc. Likewise, government efforts towards self-sufficiency that includes support for small-scale farmers, investments in irriga5on infrastructure, and the dissemina5on of improved rice varie5es.During the open discussion, Mr. Diouf, from the Na5onal Program for Self-Sufficiency in Rice in Senegal (PNAR) informed the group about the challenges associated with irrigated rice cul5va5on that is related to the detrimental impact of granivorous birds. Certain percentage of the rice losses was due to these birds.Mr. Diouf also emphasized the following rela5ng to the RIICE technology:-Highligh5ng the importance of accurate data, incorpora5on of reliable data sources that are consensus-based. This ensures that the informa5on suppor5ng the RIICE system is not only accurate but also collec5vely agreed upon by relevant stakeholders.-Another key recommenda5on involved improving data transparency. There is a need for clear and accessible informa5on, fostering transparency in the u5liza5on of data within the RIICE system.-Recognizing the diverse challenges faced in both irrigated and rainfed rice produc5on, it was proposed to adapt and enhance the RIICE tool to more effec5vely address the issues encountered in these ecosystems.Eventually, the group discussion focused on how the developmental phases of the RIICE system and it was outlined as follows:1. The ini5al phase involves tes5ng, adapta5on, and valida5on processes conducted within the specific condi5ons and requirements of Senegal. This step is crucial to ensure that the RIICE system aligns seamlessly with the country's agricultural landscape and addresses its unique challenges.2. Following successful tes5ng, the next stage entails comprehensive training and con5nuous support provided by the Interna5onal Rice Research Ins5tute (IRRI) and sarmap. This ongoing assistance is essen5al to ensure that local stakeholders are well-versed in the u5liza5on and op5miza5on of the RIICE plaform.3. The final phase involves the ins5tu5onaliza5on of the RIICE plaform, integra5ng it into established frameworks and processes to ensure its sustained and effec5ve use in the long term.","tokenCount":"1082"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2f94a669d763f268a71ca918750c233d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4c6574bc-2ecc-43ce-9886-b429cc58fc8c/retrieve","id":"-1524867202"},"keywords":["leaf blight","inbred line","mid-altitude","maize","pedigree"],"sieverID":"19b9dc20-22c3-4ad0-b404-fc61f148d34c","pagecount":"18","content":"Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important staple food crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The productivity of the crop is limited partly by the leaf blight disease caused by Exserohilum turcicum. In breeding for resistance to leaf blight, the germplasm needs to be well-characterized in order to design efficient breeding programs. This study evaluated the (i) genetic variability among maize inbred lines and (ii) diversity of selected medium to late maturity tropical maize inbred lines for hybrid breeding. Plants of 50 maize inbred lines were artificially inoculated in the field during 2011 and 2012. Disease severity and incidence as well as grain yield were measured. A subset of 20 elite maize inbred lines was genotyped using 20 SSR markers. The germplasm showed significant differences in reaction to leaf blight and were classified as either resistant or intermediate or susceptible. Mean disease severity varied from 2.04 to 3.25. Seven inbred lines were identified as potential sources of resistance to leaf blight for the genetic improvement of maize. The genotyping detected 108 alleles and grouped the inbred lines into five clusters consistent with their pedigrees. The genetic grouping in the source population will be useful in the exploitation of tropical maize breeding programs.Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important staple food crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is the third most important cereal crop after wheat and rice [1]. It is used for both livestock feeds and human consumption. In SSA, maize accounts for about 70% of the human food [2]. The demand for maize is expected to increase by >90.0% in SSA by 2020 [3]. However, the productivity of the crop is limited by several abiotic and biotic stresses. Among these abiotic factors, insect pests, such as the stem borers and weevils, cause considerable economic damage on the crop [4,5]. In addition, fungal diseases such as gray leaf spot (Cercospora zeae-maydis Tehon & Daniels), common leaf rust (Puccinia sorghi Schr.), and turcicum leaf blight (TLB) (Exserohilum turcicum) often pose a serious threat to maize production [6].In particular, TLB, also known as the northern corn leaf blight, can devastate the crop in high rainfall, humid areas [6,7]. TLB reduces the seed quality, resulting in diminished germination capacity, low sugar content as well as predisposition to stalk rot [8,9]. The use of resistant varieties is an inexpensive method for combating TLB [10]. Currently, there are efforts to incorporate durable resistance into maize germplasm particularly in SSA where some commercial varieties as well as elite parental inbred lines are reportedly vulnerable to TLB [11,12]. For example, in Ethiopia, maize productivity is low (averaging about 2.5 t/ha) in the smallholder production systems partly due to TLB and other stresses. Spurred by the need to enhance maize productivity for farmers, the national maize improvement program in Ethiopia recently embarked on a breeding project aimed at developing leaf blight resistant hybrid varieties that are adapted to the major maize-growing areas of the country which are predominantly in the mid-altitude to subhumid agroecologies [13]. However, hybrid breeding for resistance to leaf blight requires knowledge of the genetic variability of the germplasm in terms of its reaction to TLB as well as its characterization into distinct genetic groups that can be hybridized in order to exploit heterosis.The variability in the host (maize) plant resistance to the disease occurs in either the qualitative or the quantitative form. The qualitative form of resistance is race specific and is governed by a single or few genes but the quantitative form of resistance is race nonspecific and polygenic [14,15]. In addition, qualitative resistance can break down due to the emergence of new virulent races of the pathogen through genetic mutation and recombination events [12,15]. The pathogen E. turcicum exhibits a wide range of variability [16], and new races are capable of overcoming previously resistant varieties [7]. For instance, the resistance conferred by the Htn gene(s) is characterized by chlorotic and necrotic lesions or lesions surrounded by a yellow-to-light-brown margin (without spore formation), which limits the growth and spread of the disease [12,14]. In contrast, the resistance conferred by Htn gene is expressed as a delay in lesion formation typically showing at the pollination stage [17,18]. Lesion size, together with area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) as well as disease severity and incidence, are commonly used in evaluating maize genotypes for resistance to TLB [19,20]. However, phenotypic evaluations in conventional breeding approaches are unable to detect the presence of favorable alleles in the germplasm. Therefore, markerassisted selection and DNA fingerprinting techniques have been effectively used to increase the efficiency of conventional breeding, particularly the time required for developing new improved varieties in maize [12].The presence of discrete genetic groups among inbred lines is attributed to increased allelic diversity which is useful in optimizing hybrid vigor. Assigning inbred lines into well-differentiated genetic clusters can reduce the creation and evaluation of many undesirable crosses [21]. Molecular markers assist in characterizing inbred lines and in establishing distinct clusters of genotypes based on genetic diversity, which is useful in maize breeding programs [22,23]. Molecular markers were applied successfully to allocate maize germplasm into heterotic groups [24][25][26]. In a study which compared different markers for their effectiveness in estimating genetic grouping among maize inbred lines, SSR markers revealed the highest level of polymorphism due to their codominant nature and high number of alleles per locus [27]. Therefore, the study reported in this chapter was designed to evaluate the (i) genetic variability in reaction to TLB among maize inbred lines under field conditions and (ii) diversity of selected medium to late maturity tropical maize inbred lines for hybrid breeding using selected SSR markers.Fifty inbred lines were used in the study. The lines were adapted to the mid-altitude agroecologies in Ethiopia and were obtained from the national maize research program and the international maize and wheat improvement center (CIMMYT). Inbred line CML-197, which was obtained from CIMMYT, served as susceptible check (Table 1). The field trial was conducted at Bako (37°09′ E; 09°06′ N; 1650 m above sea level). It receives approximately 1200 mm rainfall annually (Table 2) and is representative of the mid-altitude subhumid agroecological region in Ethiopia.Inbred lines were evaluated using the lattice design with three replications. Trials were conducted for two consecutive seasons (in 2011 and 2012) during the main rainy season (May to September) in Ethiopia. The seed of each genotype was planted manually in the field in a two-row plot 5.1 m long × 0.75 m at 30.0 cm intra-row spacing. Phosphorus (in the form of diammonium phosphate) was applied once at planting at 100.0 kg/ha. Nitrogen fertilizer (in the form of urea) was applied at 100.0 kg/ha in two splits with 50% at planting and the rest at 37 days after emergence. Standard maize trial management practices were applied throughout each season at the location.Isolates of E. turcicum were obtained from diseased maize leaf samples that were collected from fields where the disease is prevalent. The infected leaves were excised into small sections (approx. 1.0 cm 2 each) prior to surface sterilization using 2.5% Sodium hypochlorite for about 3 min and subsequently rinsed with sterile distilled water and blot-dried before plating on PDA in petri dishes for incubation at room temperature for 3-4 days. Pure cultures were prepared by subculturing from the isolation plates followed by incubation for 7-10 days in order to obtain sufficient growth. The inoculum was prepared by flooding the cultures with sterile distilled water and scrapping the surface with microscopic slides to dislodge the conidia and then filtered using cheese cloth after which the concentration of the conidia suspension was adjusted to approximately 105 conidia per milliliter using a hemocytometer [28].Maize plants growing in the field were inoculated at the four to six leaf growth stages during the middle of the main rainy season (mid-July) in Ethiopia. The inoculations were accomplished by spraying (manually, with the aid of an atomizer) the maize plant with the conidia suspension until runoff after which fine mist water was sprayed over the inoculated plants in order to create conducive conditions for disease development. This inoculation procedure was carried out during the evening when there was sufficient moisture in the air.In each season, the disease was visually assessed in the field 2-3 weeks after inoculation. Ten randomly selected plants were tagged and used for successive disease assessments. Plants were rated at 10-day intervals for percent incidence, lesion length, and lesion width. In order to determine the rate of lesion expansion, 2 lesions out of the 10 plants were measured (and marked for subsequent tracing) at 10-day intervals.Pedigree OriginThe pedigree and origin of maize inbred lines that were evaluated for diversity using SSR markers.Disease severity was scored using a scale of 1-5 where:1.0 = very slightly infected, one or two restricted lesions on lower leaves or trace.2.0 = slight-to-moderate infection on lower leaves, a few scattered lesions on lower leaves.3.0 = abundant lesions on lower leaves, a few on middle leaves.4.0 = abundant lesions on lower and middle leaves extending to upper leaves.5.0 = abundant lesions on all leaves, plant may be prematurely killed by blight.The AUDPC was determined from the disease severity scores obtained in both seasons. The AUDPC parameter was calculated using Eq. ( 1) below as described previously [29]:where n = number of observations, t i = number of days after planting for the i th disease assessment, and y i = disease severity.The parameter was used to quantify the epidemic from the beginning to the peak of the disease. The grain yield was calculated using the average shelling percentage of 80% adjusted to 12.5% moisture. Data sets of the quantitative measurements from individual trials were subjected to standard analysis of variance procedures using the GenStat release 14.2 computer software program [30]. Twenty maize inbred lines were used in the study. Eight of these inbred lines were originally developed for the mid-altitude and subhumid agroecologies at CIMMYT, whereas the remainder was developed by the local Ethiopian maize research program and was well adapted to mid-altitude areas. The local inbred lines were developed from three heterotic groups (that are commonly used in the country) namely Kitale synthetic II, Ecuador 573, and Pool 9A.DNA was collected from 3-to 4-week-old plants (tagged for identification), using Whatman FTA cards and the modified protocol of FTA paper technology [31]. Ten DNA samples from each of the 20 inbred lines were then bulked (in order to eliminate variation within each entry) and used for the diversity analysis at the INCOTEC-PROTEIOS laboratory in South Africa (Incotec, SA Pty. Ltd., South Africa) utilizing 20 SSR markers. PCR products of all of the 20 primers were fluorescently labeled and separated by capillary electrophoresis on an ABI 3130 automatic sequencer (Applied Biosystems, Johannesburg, South Africa). Analysis was performed using GeneMapper 4.1. The data matrices of the genetic distances were used to create the dendrogram using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean allocated (UPGMA). The polymorphism information content (PIC) was calculated as:where fi is the frequency of the i th allele [32].Disease ratings were significantly different among the 50 inbred lines (P < 0.001), and 11 were classified as resistant, 26 as intermediate, whereas the remainder was classified as susceptible (Tables 3 and 4). The resistant inbred lines (e.g., 136-a and 142-1-e) attained lower disease severity scores compared to the susceptible check CML-197 (Tables 3 and 4). No accession was immune to the disease. In addition, there were highly significant (P < 0.001) differences for lesion length among inbred lines in both 2011 and 2012. The inbred lines Pool9A-4-4-1-1-1, SZSYNA-99-F2-803-4-1, and CML 197 showed comparatively larger lesion lengths, whereas the lesion length of CML 202 and CML 312 showed consistently small lesion lengths over the two seasons. Resistance to E. turcicum in maize germplasm was previously associated with a reduction in percent leaf area as well as small lesions [33].The significant differences detected among genotypes in this study across the 2 years (cropping seasons) was attributable to a range of factors such as favorable climatic conditions, the inoculation method employed, and proper disease rating. In other studies, the development of NLB was attributed to pathogenic fitness and environmental conditions [34]. In Ethiopia, the disease infection and epidemics in maize occur largely during the main production season particularly in the wet and humid areas. Therefore, breeding for resistance to the disease in such areas is critical.Disease severity scores in both cropping seasons were significantly different (P < 0.01) (Tables 3 and 4). During the two seasons, the lowest severity scores were observed for the inbred lines CML 202, 144-7-b, and 142-1-e. In contrast, relatively high severity scores were  63), suggesting that they were susceptible to the disease. The final severity score and AUDPC values provided sufficient estimation of the reaction of the inbred lines to E. turcicum. The inbred lines that were classified as resistant showed significantly lower AUDPC values than the susceptible ones (Figure 1). Furthermore, susceptible inbred lines tended to show a rapid increase in severity of the disease compared with the resistant lines culminating in higher severity scores toward maturity unlike the resistant ones. The severity of the disease was slightly higher in 2011 than 2012 (Tables 3 and 4). This was likely due to the low rainfall that was received at flowering in 2012, which was not conducive for the development of the disease. Nonetheless, the environmental conditions were generally favorable for leaf blight development during the two testing seasons. Previous studies involving leaf blight showed that the dropper inoculation was efficient and minimized the chances of disease escape from evaluation [9]. In this study, the inoculation technique was easy to employ and reliable. There were clear differences between resistant and susceptible genotypes, and at the flowering stage, the later genotypes exhibited a moderate increase in diseased leaf tissue. In some cases, relatively less susceptible individual genotypes were identifiable. The selection of such less susceptible genotypes can result in the accumulations of minor genes that can elevate the level of field resistance [35][36][37].The twenty SSR primers identified 108 alleles among the 20 maize inbred lines. Between 1 to 11 alleles were scored across the SSR loci (Table 5). Two loci (Phi 037, Umc1296) each revealed only a single allele. The maximum number of alleles ( 11) was detected at the Bnlg 2190 locus. The maximum PIC estimated for all loci was 0.8028 with a mean of 0.54 (Table 5). The expected heterozygosity (He) values, as a measure of allelic diversity at a locus, varied from 0.0000 to 0.8395 with an average of 0.5774. These values were well correlated with the number of alleles. Ten SSR loci (Umc1568, Nc003, Umc2214, Umc2038, Phi085, Umc1153, Bnlg238, Phi054, Bnlg2190, and Bnlg240) attained a PIC value >0.6, which indicated their potential to detect differences between the inbred lines.The genetic diversity of the germplasm is one of the most important factors limiting the number of alleles identified per microsatellite locus during screening. However, other factors such as the number of SSR loci and repeat types as well as the methodologies employed for the detection of polymorphic markers have been reported to influence allelic differences. In this work, the mean number of alleles (5.4) was in agreement with those reported in maize [38]. Similarly, values of number of SSR loci used in this study closely agreed with the findings reported previously [13,39]. In addition, the mean PIC value determined in the present investigation was in agreement with the findings that were obtained in earlier studies that involving the use of SSR markers on maize inbred lines [40,41]. The PIC value demonstrates the usefulness of the SSR loci and their potential to detect differences among the inbred lines based on their genetic relationships. The dinucleotide SSR loci (phi054, nc003, bnlg2190) identified the largest mean number of alleles (7.67) and mean PIC (0.79), as compared to tri-, tetra-, and penta-nucleotide repeats in the study, which was in close agreement with previous observations in maize [40,42].In this study, automated analysis was used for screening the microsatellites, resolving allelic variation better than using gel electrophoretic analysis for instance. This may be particularly important for SSR loci containing dinucleotide repeats whose amplification products are between 130 and 200 bp, because PCR products differing by two base pairs cannot be resolved with agarose gel electrophoresis [40,43].The ability to measure genetic distances between the inbred lines that reflect pedigree relationship ensures a more stringent evaluation of the adequacy of marker profile data; hence, the minimum genetic distance which was revealed between CML-202 and I100E-1-9-1-1-1-1-1 (0.28) was a good indication, confirming the power of SSR markers to distinguish closely related inbred lines. Similar findings were reported for maize inbred lines using SSR markers [44][45][46].The dendrogram obtained using the UPGMA clustering algorithm based on SSR data matrices grouped the inbred lines into five categories (Figure 2). This information, in combination with the pedigree records and combining ability tests, will be valuable for selecting (or identifying) optimal crosses and assigning inbred lines into heterotic groups. The greatest distance was found between the cluster containing the inbred line CML-202 line and the cluster of the inbred line Gibe-1-91-1-1-1-1. Cluster I consisted of inbred lines that are adapted to mid-altitude as well as some originating from CIMMYT. Most of the midaltitude inbred lines in this group originated from the heterotic group Kitale Synthetic II and constitute the largest group in the cluster. In Cluster II, CIMMYT inbred lines CML312 and CML395 were grouped along with two local inbred lines, with two subdivisions in the main group. Cluster III contained two major subgroups, one containing CIMMYT inbred lines and the other containing local inbred lines. In terms of pedigree, these inbred lines are closely related and belong to the heterotic group AB, thus supporting the observation of a positive relationship between the pedigree and the SSR marker groupings in this study. In another cluster, two CIMMYT inbred lines (CML-443 and CML-197) were grouped closely, as revealed on the UPGMA dendrogram (Figure 2). These two inbred lines were also grouped in the same heterotic groups A and AB, based on their heterosis. Cluster V consisted of one CIMMYT inbred line and two locally adapted mid-altitude inbred lines. The separation of these elite mid-altitude maize inbred lines into genetically distinct groups may be associated with high heterotic response and increased combining ability useful for hybrid development.The majority of the inbred lines (60%) that were evaluated in this study were previously developed by the national maize breeding program in Ethiopia. Because of the potential of encountering genetic admixtures or incomplete pedigree records in breeding programs, discrepancies in classification of germplasm may occur when comparing molecular results with classification based on pedigree relatedness. The effects of selection, genetic drift, and mutation may contribute to these discrepancies. The technique of clustering inbred lines can create apparent discrepancies, when one inbred line that is related to two inbred lines from separate clusters is then grouped with the inbred to which it is more closely related [40,47]. Nonetheless, the SSR markers separated most of the inbred lines into distinguishable clusters, which generally agreed with the existing pedigree records and the findings that were reported previously [27,42].The inbred lines showed significant differences in reaction to the leaf blight disease and were classified into three categories namely resistant, intermediate, or susceptible. The mean disease severity and upper leaf area infection varied from 2.04 to 3.25 and 3.3% to 100% respectively. Seven inbred lines were identified as potential sources of resistance to leaf blight for the genetic improvement of maize under the mid-altitude agroecology in Ethiopia. The genotyping detected 108 alleles and grouped the inbred lines into five clusters consistent with their pedigrees. The genetic grouping present in the population as determined in this study will be useful in the exploitation of tropical germplasm for hybrid maize breeding programs.The inbred lines that were identified as resistant to leaf blight can be considered as source material for disease resistance under the mid-altitude agroecological conditions in Ethiopia. The genetic grouping of the inbred lines was valuable information for future maize breeding programs. The use of SSR markers was able to provide complimentary information regarding the relatedness of the elite inbred lines that were evaluated. The high PIC value across all loci was strong evidence confirming the potential for SSR markers to discriminate between inbred lines of diverse sources and even between closely related genotypes. A number of loci that were identified with high PIC values indicated their usefulness for diversity analysis of maize inbred lines. The approach used in the study enables clear differentiation between inbred lines and their classification into distinct groups based on genetic distance estimates generated through selected polymorphic SSR primers.There will be merit in establishing resistance breeding program aimed at developing varieties with increased adult plant resistance to TLB in Ethiopia. Such varieties offer one of the most effective and affordable ways to overcome the problem of leaf diseases of maize in the midaltitude agroecology in Ethiopia and similar environments in SSA. Therefore, further testing of the resistant germplasm identified in this study across more locations and seasons will also be merited.","tokenCount":"3504"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6f3044cb5d278b3674514ac93d8abbaa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/787a8737-ac90-43ec-9c8e-6f2fe5d61edb/content","id":"1110569524"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9b263bd3-ba73-4078-bd3e-c819c04eb6b8","pagecount":"15","content":"Analysis of climate variability and trends frequently takes place at large scale. For agricultural applications, however, highly localized climate conditions can be critically important. This certainly applies to tropical highland regions, where dissected topography and convectively dominated precipitation processes can lead to strong variability in both mean climate conditions and year-to-year climate variability. This study examines recent climate variability and trends  on Choke Mountain, located in the western Ethiopian Highlands. Through analysis of precipitation and temperature records at monitored locations, we explore observed variability in climate patterns and trends across sites and seasons. The lens for our spatial analysis is the agroecosystem (AES), defined on the basis of prevailing climate and cropping systems, which currently serve as the foundation for climate adaptation planning in the region. We find that interannual temperature variability is greatest in the hottest, driest AES, and is most pronounced in the dry season. All AES warmed significantly in all seasons over the analysis period, but the magnitude of trend was greatest in high elevation AES. Precipitation variability was also large across AES, with largest interannual variability found in the dry season. This season is frequently excluded in climate analyses, but it is a critical harvest time and irrigation period. Trends in rainfall anomaly and precipitation concentration index are less clear, but there is a tendency towards drying and increasing irregularity of rainfall. Interestingly, we find little association between the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and temperature or precipitation variability at our study sites. This suggests that even though ENSO is a widely recognized driver of large-scale rainfall variability in the region, its impacts are highly spatially variable. This has implications for applying ENSO-based precipitation outlooks to agricultural management decisions. Farmer interviews reveal that local perceptions of climate variability and trends are generally consistent with the objective observations.Climate variability has long posed a challenge to Ethiopia, affecting agricultural productivity, economic growth, and food security (Conway and Schipper, 2011;Tigchelaar et al., 2018). Subsistence farmers are particularly vulnerable to climate variability on account of their low adaptive capacity (Asfaw et al., 2018;Mekasha et al., 2014) and dependence on consistent year-to-year agricultural production (Schlenker and Lobell, 2010). Climate change is expected to exacerbate variability in rainfall and temperature in Ethiopia, potentially increasing farmer exposure to climate-related hazards (Ayanlade et al., 2018;Samy et al., 2019) and associated food insecurity (Simane et al., 2016).These projections, however, are generally made at a broad spatial scale, and refer to general patterns across a region. This study focuses on a highland region in Ethiopia. In these highlands, strong topographic contrasts lead to high spatial variability in climatic conditions. This includes differences in mean climate conditions, ranging from dry valleys to cool and wet alpine zones over distances of just tens of kilometers, and also low correlation in temporal variability in climate, particularly rainfall (Simane et al., 2012;Zaitchik et al., 2012). Given these contrasts, it is not clear how general statements about trends under climate change play out at the community or farm scale. Farmers in this region are dependent on rainfed subsistence agriculture (Simane et al., 2012) and rainfall variability can lead to significant loss of yield and food insecurity (Ashbindu, 2008;Brown et al., 2017;Eggen et al., 2019;Simane et al., 2016).Robust information is thus needed to better understand variability and trends in meteorological variables at fine spatial scale. The need for such local analysis has been recognized in Ethiopia (Hadgu et al., 2015) and in many other regions (e.g., Gocic and Trajkovic, 2013). These analyses have been applied to inform adaptation options for the agricultural sector (Alemayehu andBewket, 2017a, 2016) and as a basis for understanding climate change impacts more generally (Asfaw et al., 2018;Degefu and Bewket, 2014;Jain and Kumar, 2012;Mengistu et al., 2014;Wagesho et al., 2013). Our study focuses on the watersheds of Choke Mountain, located in the western Ethiopian Highlands at the headwaters of the Blue Nile River. While a number of studies have examined climate variability and trends at national scale in Ethiopia, or for selected regions (Alemayehu andBewket, 2017b, 2017b;Asfaw et al., 2018;Mengistu et al., 2014;Samy et al., 2019;Cheung et al., 2008), no study has examined trends in our study area in local detail. Relying on coarse analyses to inform climate adaptation in a topographically dissected and climatically diverse region such as this can lead to misconceptions about local climate exposures (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2017a;Mekasha et al., 2014), and potentially lead to introduction and implementation of ineffective technologies. Therefore, local-level analysis is required to draw context-specific climate change adaptation interventions (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2017b;De Beurs et al., 2009). In addressing local climate conditions on Choke Mountain, we recognize the need for appropriate spatial and seasonal framing for the analysis. Spatially, we want to capture local diversity, which is so significant in the area, but we also need to provide analysis at a scale that can credibly and usefully be applied to adaptation decision making. This requires some spatial generalization. Building on previous work (Simane et al., 2013), we choose the agroecosystem as the most appropriate spatial frame for analysis. The agroecosystem is defined on the basis of shared climate conditions, soil type, and cropping practices. As such, it is a more meaningful unit than an administrative boundary or river basin when considering adaptation in rainfed subsistence agriculture. Seasonally, the region receives two rainy seasons, the small belg rains in spring and the main kiremt rains in summer, both of which have significant implications for agriculture. Delay in the onset of small rain and main rain season will cause livestock feed shortage (Nardone et al., 2010) and early planted crops will be negatively affected (Asfaw et al., 2018;Eggen et al., 2019;Suryabhagavan, 2017;Viste et al., 2013). During the main rainy season, weak early season rains reduce coverage and productivity of Maize and Sorghum (Eggen et al., 2019). Timing of rain onset and cessation also have strong impacts on farm productivity (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2016), with early cessation of rain and associated high temperature leading to reduced grain filling and yield (Shah and Paulsen, 2003). The dry season is also important, as extended rain in the dry season can interfere with harvest operations and result in the loss of produce (Asfaw et al., 2018;Polsky and von Keyserlingk, 2017). To capture these three important seasons, we group months as follows: small rain season (Feb-May), main rain season (Jun-Sep), and dry season (Oct-Jan).Our study takes place on the background of contradictory results in previous studies of Ethiopian climate trends. Tabari et al. (2015) reported no trend change in annual precipitation in Northeastern Ethiopia and Conway (2000) reported the absence of trend change in annual and seasonal rainfall in the area. On the other hand, Cheung et al. (2008) reported a significant decreasing trend for main season rainfall in Southwestern and central parts of Ethiopia, and more recently, Gedefaw et al. ( 2018) reported both a significant decreasing and increasing trend in Northwestern Ethiopia. Other studies have noted the importance of considering farmer perception when evaluating the agricultural significance of climate trends (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2017a;Asfaw et al., 2018). Incorporating farmers' experience in trend analysis discourse can offer important insights that are not captured in standard analysis of recorded data alone (Asfaw et al., 2018).The present study is therefore intended to answer the following complementary research questions:� Is there any temporal and spatial difference in measured variability and trends of temperature and rainfall across agroecosystems of Choke Mountain? � Is there consistency between perceived and measured variability and trend in the area?This study focuses on the watersheds of Choke Mountain, located in the Blue Nile Highlands of northwest Ethiopia. The watersheds span an elevation range from 800 to 4200 masl and are located within the area from 9 � 45 0 to 11 � 30 0 North and 37 � 5 0 to 38 � 20' East (Fig. 1).The study area covers 19,915 km 2 and it is home of 3.1 million people, of which 90.3% live in rural areas (CSA, 2007). The population density is 161 people per km 2 . Choke Mountain is characterized by significant interannual climate variability, complex topography and associated local climate contrasts, erosive rains and erodible soils, and intense land pressure due to an increasing population and an economy that is almost entirely dependent on smallholder, low-input agriculture (Simane et al., 2012;Zaitchik et al., 2012). Agriculture is predominantly crop-livestock mixed systems, operated by independent farmers on small plots (Simane et al., 2013). Currently, Eucalyptus plantation is expanding as an alternative revenue source and competes for land that has traditionally been used for annual crops (Alemneh et al., 2019). The dominant soil types in the areas are reddish Nitisols, Vertisols, Andosols, and Acrisols (Zaitchik et al., 2012). Dry valleys, gently rolling, deep soil midland plains, and cool, wet alpine zones are found within a short distance of reach other, and complex topography makes for strong local contrasts in precipitation and temperature (Simane et al., 2012;Zaitchik et al., 2012). The topographic climate gradient allows for production crops of both tropical and temperate origins.Records of daily precipitation and minimum and maximum temperature were extracted from the Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) dataset. ENACTS is a 4 � 4 km gridded dataset reconstructed from weather stations and meteorological satellite records from 1981 to 2016 (Dinku et al., 2016(Dinku et al., , 2014)). ENACTS has been evaluated extensively and has demonstrated strong performance when evaluated at station locations across the country (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2017a;Dinku et al., 2016Dinku et al., , 2014)). For this study, the Ethiopian National Meteorological Agency provided ENACTS data for 36 locations in the Choke Mountain watersheds. We compared ENACTS estimates to station data at selected sites and found good agreement (Supplementary Table 6). ENACTS data were selected for the analysis because (1) stations over the study area are sparse (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2017a) and didn't cover all the study sites (2) station datasets have many missing values (Asfaw et al., 2018), and (3) most stations are recently established and did not have sufficient data records to support trend analysis (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2017a;Asfaw et al., 2018;Dinku et al., 2014).In addition to our quantitative analysis of meteorological records, we recorded perceptions of farmers across the study area through in-depth interviews and focus group discussion using an unstructured questionnaire. These data were collected in December 2016 and January 2017.Daily data were averaged to monthly, seasonal and annual data as required for each analysis. Homogeneity and change points were checked using the penalized maximal F test (Wang, 2008a(Wang, , 2008b)). RHtestsV3 and RHtests_dlyPrcp software packages were used for temperature and rainfall, respectively, to detect and adjust for artificial shifts in climate data series. These tests revealed no significant change points and inhomogeneities that would require mean adjustments, so the original data series was used for further analysis. Details of these tools are documented in the literature (Wang et al., 2010;Wang and Feng, 2013). Serial autocorrelation was calculated with an autocorrelation function (acf package) (Kafadar et al., 2006) using R statistical software. Detrending was performed for some analysis and was applied as a simple removal of the linear trend calculated over the full period of record.2.2.3.1. Variability analysis. Interannual variability of annual and seasonal rainfall was calculated as:Where, CV ¼ coefficient of variation σ ¼ standard deviation and μ ¼ mean. Hare (2003) classified the degree of variability of rainfall events as low (CV < 20), moderate (20 < CV < 30), and high (CV > 30). Heterogeneity of intra-annual rainfall within each year (Oliver, 1980) was calculated using the Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) (De Luis et al., 2011):Where P i ¼ rainfall amount of the ith month.The precipitation concentration index was also calculated on a seasonal scale for dry season (Oct-Jan), small rain season (Feb-May), and main rain season (June-Sep) using the following formula (De Luis et al., 2011):PCI values were categorized as uniform (�10), moderate (11-15), irregular (16-20), and strongly irregular (>20) in monthly rainfall distributions (De Luis et al., 2011;Oliver, 1980).Interannual variability of rainfall was evaluated using rainfall anomaly index (RAI) used by (Salehnia et al., 2017;Tilahun, 2006), and is calculated as follows for positive anomalies:And for negative anomalies:where RAI ¼ rainfall anomaly index, RF ¼ the actual rainfall for a given year, M RF ¼ mean annual rainfall over the full record of analysis, M H10 ¼ the mean of the 10 highest values of annual rainfall on record, and M L10 ¼ the mean of the 10 lowest values of annual rainfall on record. Years with positive and negative anomaly indicate years of high and low rainfall, respectively, compared to the mean climatology. Annual temperature anomaly was computed as the difference between a year's average temperature and the long-term mean.Trend analysis was conducted using the Mann-Kendall trend test and Sens's slope estimator (Mann, 1945;Sen, 1968), as implemented in R-package modifiedmk. All-time series were tested for serial autocorrelation. Where autocorrelation was not significant, a standard set of tests were applied (command mkktest). When serial autocorrelation was found to be significant, a trend test was performed following a method proposed by Hamed (Hamed, 2009;van Giersbergen, 2005) that applies a bias corrected prewhitening (bcpw) tool found in the same R package.The Mann-Kendall test (Mann, 1945;Sen, 1968) was applied using the formula:where n ¼ number of data points, x k and x j ¼ data values in time series k and j (j > k), and sgn(x j -x k ) is defined as:The variance of S is computed as:where q ¼ number of tied groups and t p ¼ the number of data points in the pth group.The values of S and VAR(S) are used to compute the test statistic Z s as follows:S À 1 ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi VARðSÞPositive/negative Zs indicates an upward/downward trend for the period.Sen's slope estimator (Sen, 1968) was used to estimate the slope of the trend. Sen's method can be used in cases where the trend can be assumed to be linear and is equal to:where f(t) is a continuous monotonic increasing or decreasing function of time, Q t is the slope and B is a constant. The slopes of all data value pairs were calculated to get the slope estimate Q in equation ( 8) as:Where X j and X k are the data values at times j and k (j > k). Hence we only have one datum in each period, and N is computed as:where n is the number of time periods. The N values of Q i were ranked from smallest to largest and the median of slope or Sen's estimator was computed as (Gocic and Trajkovic, 2013):Positive/negative values of Q i indicate an increasing/decreasing trend, respectively. Confidence intervals (C α ) about the time slopes were used to test significance of the trend and were computed as follows (Gilbert, 1987):ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi VarðSÞwhere Var(S) is defined in Eq. ( 8) and z 1À α=2 is obtained from the standard normal distribution table.El Niño is widely understood to be the largest driver of drought events in the western highlands of Ethiopia (Gleixner et al., 2017). For this study, we define El Niño and La Niña years using the NOAA Niño3.4 index (https://psl.noaa.gov/gcos_wgsp/Timeseries/Nino34/). El Nino (La Niña) events are defined as years in which there are 5 consecutive overlapping three-month periods in which the three-month running average of Nino 3.4 index is greater than 0.5 � C (less than À 0.5 � C). \"Weak\" events are for cases where the anomaly is between 0.5 and 0.9 � C, \"moderate\" events are for anomalies between 1.0 and 1.4 � C, \"strong\" are between 1.5 and 1.9 � C, and \"very strong\" are >1.9 � C (https://ggweather.com/enso/oni.htm).The 36 study sites were grouped into five agroecosystems (AES s ) that have been previously defined for the study region, as described in (Simane et al., 2013(Simane et al., , 2012) ) and summarized in Table 1and Fig. 2. These AES s represent the intersection of a common set of climate conditions, soil properties, and farming systems, and thus offer a unit that is relevant for analyzing and communicating impacts of climate on agriculture. For agroecosystem level analyses, climate metrics calculated at each site were averaged across sites within an agroecosystem. No site weighting was applied. For simplicity of presentation, we focus on agroecosystem averaged results for the remainder of the paper. Some site-specific results are shown to demonstrate intra-agroecosystem variability, and full results at site scale for all sites are included as Supplementary Material.The mean annual, main rain, small rain and dry season precipitation  ranges from 800 to 2000 (Fig. 3a), 600-1600 (Figs. 3b), 100-250 (Figs. 3d) and 50-200 mm (Fig. 3c), respectively, and higher elevation AES received more rain than lower and dry AES.Mean temperature for the area ranges from 14 to 22 � C and higher mean temperature is observed in lower dry AES and in the small rain season (Fig. 3a-d). Mean maximum daily temperature ranged from 21 to 29.75 � C and generally higher magnitude was recorded in small rain season and lower elevation AES. Mean minimum daily temperature ranged from 7.5 to 13.5 � C and followed a similar AES and seasonal pattern (Fig. 3e-h).We begin by examining detrended temperature records for all agroecosystems and seasons. The seasonally averaged maximum temperature (hereafter referred to as \"maximum temperature\") shows some coherent variability across agroecosystems, but with considerable differences by agroecosystem and season (Fig. 4 and Supplementary Table 7). In general, the early to mid-1980s were cold while the early to mid-1990s were warm. The 2000s are mixed, as in some agroecosystems and seasons the detrended maximum temperatures were below average for much of this period in AES 1 , while the record is more mixed in other agroecosystems and seasons. In higher elevation agroecosystems (AES 4 and AES 5 ) interannual variability in maximum temperature has a high frequency character, with temperature anomalies flipping signs at 1-3year timescales. In the drier, warmer low elevation AES, there is more evidence of coherent variability on longer timescales. The small rainy season in particular shows approximately decadal scale variability in maximum temperature, suggesting that there could be some external multi-year driver of temperature variability that is most evident in drier agroecosystems. This could be a product of covariance in temperature and precipitation variability, as periods of low precipitation in the small rain season might lead to more pronounced sunny and dry conditions in lower elevation AES than in higher AES (Fig. 4 and Supplementary Table 7), resulting in coherent temperature variability that is not seen higher on the mountain.Variability in detrended seasonally-averaged minimum temperature (hereafter: \"minimum temperature\") anomaly also showed high spatiotemporal variability (Fig. 5 and Supplementary Table 9). As with maximum temperature, high frequency variability is observed in high elevation AES while larger and more temporally coherent variability is seen in lower elevation AES. But there is strikingly low correlation between anomalies in maximum and minimum temperature (Supplementary Table 4). This suggests that daily maximum and daily minimum temperature anomalies are responding to different climate processes.Analysis of detrended temperature data is useful for characterizing interannual variability. But this variability occurred on the background of region-wide warming over the analysis period. Supplementary figures 1 and 2 present versions of the data shown in Figs. 4 and 5 prior to trend removal. As shown in those figures, there is a marked positive temperature trend for all AES in all seasons, and the linear trend is statistically significant in all cases for both maximum and minimum temperature, except in AES 1 in the main season.Agroecosystem level trend analysis for maximum and minimum temperature showed a significant warming trend with spatial and seasonal differences in magnitude except minimum temperature for AES 1 in the main rain season (Table 2). Generally, high altitude AES (5 and 4) and the lowest AES (1) showed a higher warming trend in maximum temperature, except in the dry season, which showed a higher warming trend in lower and hot AES (AES 1 and AES 2 ). A consistently higher warming trend in minimum temperature was observed in AES 3 and AES 4 , followed by AES 1 . Generally, we did not observe a direct linear relationship between the rate of warming and altitude. These differences point to the multiple processes that influence localized warming rates under a general greenhouse gas radiative forcing; elevation-dependent warming, land-atmosphere temperature feedbacks under aridification, and nighttime humidity effects can all play a role.Considering trends on a site-by-site basis, a scale that is more representative of farmer experience, we find that 81-89 percent of the sites showed a significant warming trend with spatiotemporal differences (Supplementary Table 2). No site and season showed a significant decreasing trend in maximum and minimum temperature (Table 3). The significant warming trends in maximum temperature ranges from 0.22 to 0.76, 0.29-0.89, 0.22-0.55, and 0.24-0.55 � C/decade for annual (Fig. 6a), small rain (Fig. 6d), main rain (Fig. 6b) and dry seasons (Fig. 6c) respectively. There is a tendency for more consistent temperature increases across sites at higher elevation AES (Table 3).The trend test for minimum temperature for each site revealed that 64-78 percent of the sites showed a significant warming trend, with spatial and seasonal differences (0.13-0.74 � C/decade), and no site and season showed a significant decreasing trend in minimum temperature in the study period (Supplementary Table 3). The significant warming trends in minimum temperature ranges from 0.18-0.38, 0.21-0.74, 0.10-0.35, and 0.15-0.57 � C/decade for annual (Fig. 7a), small rain season (Fig. 7d), main rain season (Fig. 7b) and dry season (Fig. 7c) respectively, with no systematic differences between agroecosystems.The present study revealed that maximum temperature showed higher warming trend than the minimum temperature in all agroecosystems and season, and the observed warming in mean daily temperature is thus dominated by the increase in maximum temperature. This phenomenon has negative implications for crop production on account of exposure to high temperature stress, increasing the evaporative demand of the atmosphere, and reducing water productivity. It will also reduce the number of chill hours that some temperate crops grown in AES 5 require to initiate flower buds. On the other hand, the number of frost-free days will be reduced in high elevation AESs, thereby increasing growing season length.Farmers participating in focus group discussion and in-depth interview also explained that temperature becomes hotter every year, which is consistent with the statistical result. Other studies conducted in the area also showed that most residents perceived that temperature has  increased over the last decades (Weldlul, 2016;Zaitchik et al., 2012). Another survey done in the area reported that farmers perceived the rise of temperature and a decline of rainfall (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2017b). All participants in the present study in all agroecosystems also reported that total rainfall is decreasing and the temperature is increasing at an alarming rate. Many previous studies in this region (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2017a;Asfaw et al., 2018;Mengistu et al., 2014) and in Ethiopia in general (Addisu et al., 2015;Gebrehiwot, 2014) also confirmed the presence of significant warming trends, with spatial variability. Some studies have shown a mix of warming and cooling trends, including a study of the Blue Nile basin, which includes our study area (Mengistu et al., 2014).Annual precipitation totals are dominated by the main rain season. For this reason, annual rainfall and main rain season rainfall show similar coefficient of variation (CV) across all AES (Fig. 8a, c). As rainfall is relatively plentiful in the main rain season in this region, the CV is generally modest across all AES: the median site CV falls near or below 20% in all cases. CV is smallest in the high elevation AES (AES 4 and AES 5 ), where mean rainfall is greatest. The small rain season and dry season have substantially less rainfall than the main rain season and show high interannual variability at all sites in all AES (Fig. 8 b, d). The high elevation AES still tend to show slightly smaller CV than the lower elevation AES, but even AES 5 has a median CV greater than 45% in the small rain season and greater than 60% in the dry season.Discussion and interview participants in the area also stated that rainfall is concentrated in some months, which causes critical water shortage for drinking and irrigation during the dry season. Heavy rainfall during main rain season interferes with agricultural practices and can cause severe erosion, landslides and waterlogging. Farmers added that irregularities in main rain season rainfall challenged teff planting, as planting that crop requires regular and sufficient moisture for land preparation and planting.   El Niño is widely understood to be the largest driver of drought events in the western highlands of Ethiopia (Gleixner et al., 2017). As such, we consider the rainfall anomaly index (RAI) over the period of record and examine its associations with ENSO (Fig. 9) and three general patterns are evident in these results.First, the Choke Mountain Watersheds tend to experience negative rainfall anomalies when the nation reports a large drought, but this is not always the case: in only four of the eight declared national droughts do we observe consistently negative RAI across all AES. This reflects the diversity of climate variability across the country and the complexity of drought diagnosis; even though Choke Mountain lies in the region of the dominant summertime rainfall regime, its droughts do not always coincide with nationally declared drought emergencies. Second, the AES have similar but not identical interannual variability. There are a number of years in the record in which AES differ in the sign of their RAI,  and others in which the magnitude of the anomaly varies across AES. Third, the general understanding that El Niño events are associated with drought in Ethiopia holds for the Choke Mountain Watersheds in most but not all cases. All AES experienced positive RAI during the very strong El Niño years of 1982 and 1997, countering the expected signal, while in the strong La Niña year of 1988, only AES 1 and AES 2 (Fig. 9a and b) showed a positive anomaly and AES 3 -AES 5 (Fig. 9c-e) showed a negative anomaly. In 2014, AES 5 showed a positive anomaly in a weak El Niño year while the other AES had negative anomalies (Fig. 9a). These inconsistencies have significant implications for agriculture early warning systems, planning decisions, and, in some contexts, climate change adaptation plans. The understanding that El Niño drives drought in northern and western Ethiopia is widely accepted, but at the scale of the agroecosystem or the scale of the farm, El Niño may be less reliable as a drought predictor, and climate information systems for farmers should be designed bearing this in mind.Beyond ENSO, the RAI also demonstrates that there is general heterogeneity in rainfall anomalies across AES, with a range of positive and negative anomalies often found in the same year. In the ENSO-neutral year of 1992, AES 2 experienced positive anomalies while the other AES experienced negative anomalies. Site-level variability was particularly notable in 1992, when some AES sites experienced severe drought (RAI as low as À 9.29 in AES 1 ) while extremely wet conditions were found in other sites (RAI as high as 11.86 in AES 2 ).The precipitation concentration index (PCI) calculated on an annual basis for monthly data shows moderate to strong irregular rainfall distribution over most of the study area (Fig. 10a). The lowest and the highest PCI values were recorded in AES 1 and AES 2 , respectively. Generally, no site was found with uniform monthly rainfall distribution in annual bases and only 3% of the sites in AES 1 , AES 2 and AES 5 showed a moderate monthly rainfall distribution. More than half of the sites in each AES showed irregular rainfall distribution, out of which 44%, 31%, 44%, 31% and 44% of the sites in AES 1 -AES 5 , respectively, showed strong irregularity. The result is as expected, given the strong seasonality of precipitation in the region. PCI analysis for seasonal rainfall showed that small rain season experienced moderate to strong irregular rainfall distribution dominates the study area (Fig. 10c). Accordingly, 3% of the years in AES 1 , AES 4 , and AES 5 and 6% of the years in AES 2 and AES 3 showed uniform rainfall distribution. 36%, 47%, 28%, 44% and 47% of the years in AES1 -AES5, respectively showed moderate distribution. Moreover, 33%, 33%, 44%, 28% and 31% of the years in AES 1 -AES 5 , respectively showed irregular rainfall distribution. To the extreme cases, 22%, 14%, 22%, 25% and 19% of the sites showed strong irregularity in monthly rainfall distribution. PCI analysis for dry season showed a stronger monthly rainfall variability is observed than other seasons or annual scale (Fig. 10b). Almost all AES showed a uniform monthly rainfall distribution for the main rain season in all years included in the study period.Trend analysis at AES level revealed that annual and main season rainfall showed a significant decreasing trend in AES 1 : annual and main rain season rainfall in AES 1 decreased by 44.4 mm and 29.4 mm/decade, respectively. In all other seasons and AES there was a mix of nonsignificant decreasing and increasing trends (Table 4).Site-by-site trend analysis for annual rainfall indicated that 20, 30, 25, and 36% of the sites showed a significant decreasing trend for AES 1 -2 and AES 4 -5 , respectively and 18% of the sites in AES 5 showed a significant increasing trend in annual rainfall (Table 5).Annual rainfall in the area showed a significant decreasing trend (ranging from 40.6 to 179.2 mm/decade) except for sites in AES 3 with higher magnitude in sites in AES 5 (Fig. 11a and Supplementary Table 1). Two sites in AES 5 showed a significant (p < 0.1) increasing trend in annual rainfall with 71.8 and 99.7 mm/decade (Supplementary Table 1).At site level, trend analysis for the small rain season revealed that 3% and 22% of the sites in the entire study area showed a significant increasing and decreasing trend, respectively (Fig. 11d and Supplementary Table 1). Accordingly, significant decreasing trend were observed only in AES 2 (19.5-28 mm/decade) and AES 5 (23.8-25.6 mm/ decade) while only one site in AES 5 showed a significant increasing trend (36.4 mm/decade) (Supplementary Table 1).Over the entire study area, 3% of sites showed a significant positive trend in main season rainfall, while 19% of sites showed a significant decline (Fig. 11b and Supplementary Table 1). This tendency towards declining rain in the main rain season showed variability across AES: statistically significant negative trends were more common than positive trends in AES 1 , AES 4 , and AES 5 , but no significant trends were found in  AES 3 , and in AES 2 there were some positive trends but no significant negative trends (Table 5). Similarly, negative trends were more common than positive trends overall in the small rain season and dry season, but prevalence of significant negative trends varied by AES, and some sites show the opposite trend. Site specific results are provided in Supplementary Table 1.Trend analysis for rainfall also showed that 17-25% of the sites from the entire area showed a significant decreasing trend (11.71-179.2 mm/ decade) with spatial and temporal/seasonal variations (Supplementary Table 1). Tabari et al. (2015) also reported that annual rainfall decreased in most stations over Ethiopia, though Mengistu et al. (2014) reported insignificant annual rainfall trends in the Upper Blue Nile (UBN). Alemayehu and Bewket (2017b) also reported that annual rainfall exhibits statistically insignificant increasing trends in most areas in the UBN basin, which includes the study area.Reduction in rainfall during the small rain season (11-22% reduction per decade) will negatively affect agriculture in all agroecosystems because of its importance for land preparation, sowing of long season crops, and rejuvenation of grazing land. This season receives very low precipitation (101-240 mm) and further reduction will negatively affect agricultural practices. Moreover, this season is characterized by very high temperature and consequently, evapotranspiration will be increased leading to agricultural drought in the season.A significant decreasing trend in areas with lower mean annual rainfall like AES 1 (928-1053 mm) and AES 2 (671-852 mm) coupled with higher temperature will limit crop production particularly during early and late growing seasons and crops that require longer growing season will be negatively affected at planting (seedling stage) and maturity (grain filling) stages and yield will significantly be affected.Reduction in dry season rainfall will facilitate harvesting operation for main season crops despite it negatively affected small scale irrigation practiced by smallholder farmers. Many farmers in the area grow vegetables for cash and domestic use using supplementary irrigation assisted by periodic rain showers in the season.There is also some evidence of trends in the seasonal distribution of rainfall across the year. Perhaps more interestingly, trend tests on PCI indicated that 20%, 44% and 36% of the sites in AES 1 , AES 2 , and AES 5 , respectively, showed a significant positive trend in PCI, whereas only 9 percent of the sites in AES 5 showed a significant decreasing trend (Supplementary Table 5). These trends indicate that there is a concentration of rainfall in only some months in dry and small rain season over much of the area, with potential implications for water management, soil and water conservation designs, and for crop management decisions that depend on the presence of some rain outside of the main rain season. Aggregated data at AES level showed that the small rain season PCI showed a significant increasing trend in all AES and only AES 1 and AES 2 PCI showed a significant increasing trend in the dry season. Other seasons showed a non-significant trend change in all AES (Table 6).Farmers also perceived the interannual variability and changes in precipitation pattern. Focus group discussion and in-depth interviewSummary for rainfall trends in the Choke Mountain Watersheds (1981Watersheds ( -2016)).participants described the frequent occurrence of rainfall deficit in April-May, and 2015 and 2012 were cited as the best evidence among the drought years. The unusual dry conditions that were experienced in AES 4 and AES 5 during the period of the interviews was also mentioned by participants as evidence of the new trend in rainfall for the area. Participants explained that a shower of rain in January and February was common in previous decades, but now these small rain events have disappeared. The participants also noted that sowing of potato in February/March in AES 4 and AES 5 is constrained because of absence of rain. Respondents detailed that small rain season rainfall is important for the farming community because of the abovementioned reasons and for the planting of long season crops like maize and sorghum. They agreed that the small rain season is becoming sporadic, unpredictable and frequent crop failure and significant yield reduction are happening in the area, as supported by the presented statistical analysis. Previous studies also stated that decrease in winter rainfall impacted agricultural practices as it affected fodder availability, land preparation and planting of early sown crops, and streamflow and irrigation (Viste et al., 2013).The present result is also supported by previous studies in the area that show flat or declining rainfall in the region, with varying degrees of statistical significance (Onyutha et al., 2016). Mengistu et al. (2014) reported insignificant trends for all rain seasons. Alemayehu and Bewket (2017a) also found insignificant increasing trends in annual and Kiremt rainfall and significant decreasing trends in Belg rainfall in the UBN basin. Taken in this context, the present study is reasonably consistent with large scale analyses of the region and the analysis highlights the local variability of these patterns and trends at AES and site scale.Results of the present analysis show that rainfall has declined and temperature is increasing at a notable rate. This higher temperature could affect basic physiological processes within a plant (Zhao et al., 2017), create a conducive environment for pest occurrence (Ochieng et al., 2016), and alter nutrient uptake and use (Bassirirad, 2000). High-temperature shocks could affect pollination, fertilization, tuberization, and other important processes, potentially leading to yield reduction (Hatfield and Prueger, 2015). Rising temperatures have also led to reduced cropping area and intensity in some regions (Iizumi and Ramankutty, 2015), particularly in dry and drought prone environments like AES 1 and AES 2 , and can cause an increase in evapotranspiration (Aber and Federer, 1992;Hargreaves and Allen, 2003) which leads to water loss and alteration of soil water regimes. This phenomenon coupled with reduced rainfall will affect irrigation capacity and water productivity. Of particular concern to our study region, warming in tropical highland environments threatens the viability of temperate fruits and vegetables currently grown at higher altitude.Reduction in rainfall and increase in temperature have many implications on adaptation strategies to variability and climate change. Reduced rainfall and rising temperature will negatively affect production and productivity of currently grown crops (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2016) and the ongoing change in temperature and rainfall pattern in the area will have serious implications for food security (Alemayehu andBewket, 2017b, 2016). In response to perceived changes, farmers have tried to make adjustments by shifting cropping calendar (Simane et al., 2012). Given the change in trends with high spatial and temporal variations, proposed climate variability and change adaptation options may not be sufficient. Farmers are not confident in their ability to identify all possible adaptation options and to select those most suitable for their practical problems. They stressed that current rainfall timing is unpredictable, making it difficult to choose crops, pick the right sowing date, and plan in-season management.The present analysis indicated that maximum and minimum temperature showed high spatiotemporal anomaly with the overall significant warming since the 2000s. Rainfall variability and anomaly also showed spatiotemporal differences and high heterogeneity, and 38-50% of the years showed below-average rainfall anomaly and positive trend change for PCI is observed. Temperature and rainfall of the area showed a significant increasing and decreasing trend respectively, with the exception of a few sites that showed significant increasing trend in rainfall. Results from the meteorological analysis are consistent with the perceptions of farmers in all agroecosystems, as farmers generally perceived a warming trend and increasingly erratic and concentrated rainfall patterns. They indicated that unpredictability of rainfall timing and distribution complicates their choice of management practices. These challenges demand a concerted effort from farmers, agricultural researchers, and extension agents. They also require localized climate trend analysis, as performed in this study, in order to characterize commonalities and differences in the climate challenges faced by farmers across agroecological setting.Survey and interview responses have been recorded and archived in a manner that maintains anonymity of respondents and protects all personally identifying information.The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.  ","tokenCount":"6475"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e59cd2eb9cf1b326727ab541731b48e2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5110d0c0-ddfa-4494-8fca-cc9b90f66480/retrieve","id":"680607793"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7a666baa-f659-4ac3-ba8c-ad79bb24a304","pagecount":"16","content":"8 aWhere convertit des données météorologiques et agronomiques en prévisions météorologiques et données historiques d'une exploitation agricole.12 Alors que s'achève la deuxième année de MUIIS, quel modèle commercial assurera la pérennité de ce projet ?14 Grâce à l'agriculture de précision, les petits exploitants appliquent les intrants au bon moment et uniquement là où ils sont nécessaires Numéro 86 Janvier 2018 http://ictupdate.cta.int L'agriculture de précision pour les petits agriculteurs ICT Update Un bulletin d'alerte pour l'agriculture ACP 2 Janvier 2018 | ICT Update | Numéro 86 Contents 2 Le projet MUIIS : fait pour durer Mark Speer 3 L'espace au service de la sécurité alimentaire Ruud Grim 6 Transformer les données satellitaires en conseils pour les petits agriculteurs Remco Dost 8 Aider les agriculteurs à prendre des décisions concrètes Hanna Camp 9 Comment la révolution des données peut aider les agriculteurs Stéphane Boyera 10 Dernière ligne droite pour le projet MUIIS Ronald Rwakigumba 12 Le partenariat et le modèle commercial à la base du projet MUIIS Ben Addom 14 Une pratique agricole nouvelle Christel Kenou 16 Organisations paysannes et services de données agricoles de précision Chris Addison et Chipo Msengezi ICT Update Cette licence s'applique uniquement au numéro 86 d'ICT Update publié en janvier 2018. ICT Update est un bulletin imprimé bimestriel, également disponible en ligne (http:// ictupdate.cta.int) et sous forme de newsletter envoyée par e-mail. À propos de l'auteur : Mark Speer travaille comme rédacteur pour ICT Update, à La Haye, aux Pays-Bas. Liens utiles : MUIIS http://muiis.cta.int G4AW goo.gl/NArGpj Twitter @MUIIS_U À propos des auteurs Chris Addison est coordinateur de programme senior du projet Data4Ag et Chipo Msengezi est chargé de projet pour GODAN Action ; tous deux travaillent au CTA.alimentaire ne sera plus suffisante compte tenu du nombre d'habitants que comptera notre planète. Les ressources, à commencer par les terres et l'eau, seront soumises à de terribles pressions face à la nécessité de nourrir 9 milliards d'habitants, sans compter le fait que ces pressions seront exacerbées par les changements climatiques. L'imprévisibilité des saisons des récoltes et des conditions météorologiques complique encore plus la vie des producteurs alimentaires. Il existe deux moyens de prévenir cette évolution : utiliser plus efficacement les ressources -comme l'eau et les intrants agricoles -et augmenter les rendements des acteurs clés de la production alimentaire mondialeles petits agriculteurs.Ces inquiétudes ont incité le ministère néerlandais des Affaires étrangères à octroyer une subvention de 4,6 millions d'euros, via le Netherlands Space Office, à un consortium de partenaires dirigé par le CTA pour l'aider à mettre en place le projet MUIIS (Market-led, User-owned ICT4Ag Enabled Information Service, services d'information ICT4AG innovants, axés vers le marché et appartenant aux utilisateurs). Ce projet poursuit des objectifs ambitieux : augmenter les rendements agricoles, les revenus des agriculteurs, l'utilisation de l'eau et des intrants agricoles, ainsi que les échanges et les investissements, et diminuer les risques liés à l'utilisation d'intrants agricoles.Ce projet a été conçu de façon à ce que chacun des six partenaires du CTA de la chaîne ait une tâche spécifique à mener à bien au cours des trois années du projet. aWhere, eLEAF et EARS-E2M sont ainsi chargés d'analyser les données satellitaires et de les transformer en conseils pratiques pour les agriculteurs. Ces conseils doivent ensuite être relayés aux agriculteurs. Sur le terrain, le CTA coopère avec l'AGRA, la Fédération des agriculteurs d'Afrique de l'Est (EAFF) et Mercy Corps Ouganda afin d'évaluer les besoins d'information des agriculteurs, de former des agents de vulgarisation agricole, de dresser le profil numérique des agriculteurs et de les former pour qu'ils puissent utiliser les informations et les conseils qu'ils reçoivent.Ce numéro d'ICT Update se compose, pour l'essentiel, d'interviews de personnes travaillant pour plusieurs de ces organisations partenaires, du NSO à Mercy Corp. Que fait exactement chaque partenaire ? Qu'est-ce qui fait la force du partenariat ? Le modèle commercial tient-il la route ? Le projet MUIIS en est à présent à sa deuxième année, et le moment est donc venu de se poser plusieurs autres questions intéressantes, à commencer par celle-ci : dans quelle mesure le forfait de services sur abonnement MUIIS a-t-il séduit les petits agriculteurs ? Toutes les personnes avec lesquelles nous nous sommes entretenus sont unanimes : ce qui rend ce projet unique, c'est qu'il a été conçu pour durer. Il arrive en effet trop souvent que les activités d'un projet s'achèvent à la fin de la période de subvention. • L'espace au service de la sécurité alimentaire ICT Update s'est entretenu avec Ruud Grim, conseiller senior pour les applications et coordinateur de Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) au Netherlands Space Office (NSO). Il nous parle du programme G4AW qui a permis au consortium MUIIS de voir le jour. base de celles-ci, souvent au niveau du gouvernement. Lors des discussions, une question a été posée : que font exactement les autorités de toutes ces connaissances ? Et comment les agriculteurs en profitent-ils ? Reçoivent-ils des conseils qui les aideront à prendre de meilleures décisions ? Nous avons conclu que cela n'était pas le cas au niveau opérationnel. Il existe certes un certain nombre de projets pilotes, de projets de recherche et de petits projets de démonstration mais ceuxci ne font généralement pas l'objet d'un véritable suivi. C'est la raison pour laquelle le ministère a décidé d'améliorer le lien entre les données satellitaires et la sécurité alimentaire.Cette question nous a occupés pendant un an environ. Nous avons discuté avec de nombreux acteurs du terrain et demandé à des étudiants d'étudier la littérature existante en rapport avec ce sujet. Au bout d'un moment, nous avons bien compris que si nous voulions réaliser notre objectif d'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire, nous allions devoir faire un certain nombre de choses essentielles, à commencer, tout simplement, par nous rapprocher des petits agriculteurs. Sans ce lien, aucune valeur ajoutée n'est en effet à Q Comment une agence spatiale en arrive-t-elle à s'occuper de sécurité alimentaire ? Le NSO a été créée en 2009, mais les Pays-Bas sont membres de l'Agence spatiale européenne depuis une trentaine d'années. À un certain moment, nous nous sommes dit que c'était bien sûr formidable d'avoir lancé dans l'espace toute une série de satellites mais nous nous sommes demandé comment les utiliser de manière optimale. Cette réflexion a amené le NSO à se donner une nouvelle mission : promouvoir l'utilisation des données satellitaires dans la société. Une autre mission est de maximaliser l'utilisation de toute l'infrastructure déjà développée, et aussi, de tenir compte des intérêts économiques du gouvernement, notamment dans le domaine de l'innovation. Autrement dit, nous voulons faire en sorte que le secteur privé ainsi que les établissements scientifiques des Pays-Bas puissent bénéficier des données satellitaires. Le NSO est en quelque sorte un moteur d'innovation, de développement économique et d'utilisation des connaissances.Le NSO a ainsi participé à des discussions avec le ministère des Affaires étrangères au cours desquelles il a été question de sécurité alimentaire et de soutien aux petits producteurs alimentaires des pays en développement. Le programme G4AW est l'aboutissement de ces discussions. Il s'agit d'un programme spécial car il relie deux mondes n'ayant jamais interagi directement l'un avec l'autre. Celui des satellites -qui représente le volet scientifique et high tech du projet -et celui de la coopération au développement -qui s'intéresse aux petits agriculteurs des pays en développement qui sont extrêmement vulnérables car ils doivent faire face aux pires difficultés en cas de mauvaises récoltes. Alors que ces deux mondes n'ont rien en commun a priori, nous nous sommes aperçus qu'ils avaient énormément de choses à s'offrir l'un l'autre.Q Comment G4AW a-t-il donc vu le jour ? Les discussions au ministère des Affaires étrangères ont permis de se pencher sur la question de la valeur ajoutée que peut offrir le secteur aérospatial. Ce secteur a incontestablement une valeur ajoutée pour les autorités et les établissements scientifiques, puisque les satellites recueillent des données de base. A partir de ces données, il est possible de créer des connaissances et d'agir sur laImage ci-dessus : Agricultrices ougandaises travaillant dans leurs champs (Laura Elizabeth Pohl).satellites fournissent différentes catégories de données. Les entreprises et les établissements scientifiques disposent d'algorithmes qui leur permettent de générer des informations à partir de ces données. Avant d'être relayées à l'entreprise de technologies, les données satellitaires font l'objet de plusieurs contrôles de qualité, réalisés par l'opérateur du satellite qui s'assure que ces données soient de bonne qualité et suffisamment fiables. La terminologie aérospatiale utilise l'expression « passage du niveau 0 -celui des données brutes -au niveau 4 », ce qui signifie que l'information et la qualité s'améliore à chaque niveau.L'opérateur procède également à une série de corrections, par exemple des corrections atmosphériques ou géographiques. L'ASE encode ces données dans une base de données dont les entreprises de technologies extrairont les données. Celles-ci ont à leur disposition des modèles leur permettant de dériver des informations à partir de ces données. Les données sont en quelque sorte un produit « semi-fini », car elles ne sont pas encore à ce stade un conseil ou un produit exploitable par les agriculteurs. Les entreprises de technologies doivent assurer le traitement primaire des données satellitaires et les regrouper dans un produit. Dans le projet MUIIS de G4AW, qui est coordonné par le CTA, eLeaf s'occupe par exemple des données relatives à l'eau et à la végétation, tandis qu'eWhere se concentre surtout sur les données espérer. Il faut comprendre leurs besoins pour pouvoir leur fournir les informations dont ils ont besoin pour agir. Le transfert de connaissances et le renforcement des capacités font partie de ce processus et ces aspects relèvent généralement du domaine de compétences des ONG et des agents de vulgarisation des ministères de l'agriculture, ou encore des entreprises. C'est là le premier prérequis.Deuxième aspect clé lorsqu'on développe un service adapté aux agriculteurs, il faut s'assurer qu'il soit économique viable, sinon, cela n'a pas de sens de le proposer. Il faut donc qu'un acteur ou une organisation développe un modèle financier pour l'offre de ces services, qui doivent être proposés à un prix abordable. Par abordable, nous entendons gratuit, ou financé par d'autres sources. Il peut par exemple s'agir d'un système dont les clientsagriculteurs ou coopératives agricolespeuvent profiter, mais moyennement paiement.Le critère essentiel était que l'initiative puisse générer un service apportant une valeur ajoutée. Nous avions constaté qu'il n'existait pas encore de véritable marché pour ce genre de services. Pourquoi ? Car il implique un certain nombre de risques et qu'il s'agit de services encore à développer. Il peut arriver que les clients ne puissent ou ne veulent pas payer pour ce service, ce qui dissuade les entreprises d'investir dans son développement. C'est pourquoi nous avons été autorisés, en tant qu'organisme gouvernemental à octroyer des subventions pour des projets comme MUIIS. Tel est le principe à la base de G4AW.Comment calculez-vous le moment à partir duquel un petit agriculteur bénéficiera réellement du service ? Supposons que le coût opérationnel de la fourniture du service s'élève à un million d'euros par an et qu'un petit agriculteur gagne 1 000 euros par an. Supposons ensuite qu'il est prêt à investir 1 % de son salaire annuel dans ce service dont la valeur ajoutée potentielle augmentera ses revenus d'au moins 10 %. En investissant 10 euros dans ce service, il gagnera ainsi 100 euros de plus par an. Tel est selon nous le montant minimum qu'il devra investir pour profiter de ce service. Au début, les acteurs du secteur nous ont dit « Dites, vous êtes dingues, nous n'arriverons jamais à convaincre 100 000 agriculteurs ! » Mais des modèles d'entreprise plus intelligents et plus inclusifs ont ensuite été proposés, notamment par des agrégateurs et le secteur public. Grâce à cela, l'objectif de 100 000 agriculteurs devient réaliste.La mission Sentinel de l'ASE est une source importante de données. La constellation de satellites européens regroupe en gros trois types de satellites, dont deux transmettent un nouveau message environ une fois par semaine et l'autre une fois par jour. Ces Image ci-dessus : Champ de maïs en Ouganda (James Anderson, Institut des ressources mondiales).Pourquoi ? Car en réalité, les partenaires ont besoin de plus d'un an pour apprendre à bien travailler ensemble et pour bien cibler les agriculteurs.Un Article de fond ICT Update s'est entretenu avec Remco Dost, chef de projet senior chez eLEAF, au sujet des activités de l'entreprise, de la façon dont elle utilise les données brutes captées depuis des satellites et de son rôle dans les services d'information ICT4AG innovants, axés vers le marché et appartenant aux utilisateurs (projet MUIIS). e LEAF se procure des images satellitaires captées par l'importante flotte de satellites mis en orbite autour de la Terre par des organisations spatiales comme l'ASE et la NASA. Il convertit ensuite ces images satellitaires en données quantifiées. « Ce processus a pour nom PiMapping, » explique Remco Dost. « Pour faire simple, nous mesurons la quantité de radiations émises par le soleil, ainsi que le pourcentage de ce rayonnement qui a été utilisé, réfléchi dans l'espace et absorbé par les sols. Nous pouvons ainsi calculer la quantité utilisée par la végétation pour la photosynthèse. » Ces données permettent à eLEAF de se faire une idée de l'état des cultures sur le terrain. Quel est la situation actuelle ? PiMapping exprime le rendement des terres en kilogrammes ou tonnes par hectare. « Il renseigne également sur l'état d'hydratation des cultures », explique Dost. « La culture est-elle assoiffée ? A-t-elle besoin d'eau ? » Cette technologie permet également d'observer les variations sur le terrain. « Elle vous montre par exemple qu'une culture pousse bien en bordure du champ mais pas en son centre, » poursuit-il. PiMapping permet aussi de comparer deux champs. « Comme nous disposons d'informations détaillées, nous pouvons déterminer si tel ou tel champ souffre de stress hydrique ou de tassement du sol. Il est ensuite possible de comparer ce champ au champ voisin et de se demander pourquoi l'un a un rendement supérieur à l'autre. Est-ce grâce à sa variété ? Sa gestion ?Tel est un des aspects de la success story d'eLEAF. L'entreprise aide les agriculteurs à assurer le suivi de leurs cultures tout au long de la saison. En cas de diminution du rendement, elle fournit aux agriculteurs des conseils pour les aider à améliorer la production. Mais eLEAF combine aussi des données. « En suivant l'état d'une culture sur plusieurs années, nous pouvons prédire sa croissance potentielle dans une région donnée. Et en combinant ces données avec des informations climatiques, nous pouvons même fournir des informations sur le type de rendement à attendre, » explique Dost. D'où une deuxième question : comment ces services sont-ils structurés et proposés de façon à pouvoir être utiles pour les agriculteurs, qui travaillent sur le terrain ? « Il existe un certain nombre d'infrastructures d'accès », explique Dost. « En effet, en soi, l'imagerie satellitaire ne fournirait aucune information utile aux agriculteurs. Nous mettons donc à leur disposition un 'produit dérivé', avec des mises à jour hebdomadaires sur l'état de la culture. Grâce à notre interface FieldLook, ces informations sont accessibles en ligne. Les agriculteurs peuvent s'y connecter pour consulter la représentation spatiale graphique de leurs champs et suivre ainsi leur évolution au fil du temps. Gezira a marqué le point de départ de la coopération entre le CTA et eLEAF et de l'utilisation de ce type de technologies par les petits agriculteurs. « Un grand nombre de ces services sont habituellement utilisés par des grandes entreprises, des entreprises commerciales qui disposent de fonds, » explique Dost. « Il en va bien sûr tout autrement pour les petits agriculteurs. Ils possèdent moins de terres, n'ont qu'un accès limité à l'information et habituellement, ils ne sont pas prêts à payer pour ce type de service, d'où la difficulté à le leur proposer ». C'est ici que les services combinés interviennent et c'est là toute la force du projet MUIIS. Ce type de projet exige un investissement et nécessite de se procurer les technologies. Il faut aussi mettre en place une équipe. Autant de difficultés Article de fond pour les petites entreprises. L'appel à projets du Netherlands Space Office, par le biais de Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) a résolu ce problème.Le financement proposé a en effet permis de créer un consortium de partenaires, chacun étant responsable d'un service au sein de la chaîne MUIIS, de la génération de données satellitaires brutes à l'offre d'une assistance aux agriculteurs. « Gezira avait fourni un soutien à l'irrigation, mais MUIIS, et c'est là un plus, propose une suite de services économiques mieux intégrée », explique Dost. « Les conseils d'irrigation sont très spécifiques, mais la plupart des agriculteurs pratiquent l'agriculture pluviale, et ils dépendent donc des conditions météorologiques. Ce que j'apprécie beaucoup dans le projet MUIIS, c'est qu'il prend en compte une grande variété de variables et de données météorologiques et agricoles ». Et nul doute que cet « outil » sophistiqué incitera à nouveau des jeunes à se lancer dans l'agriculture. « Pour résoudre le problème de la sécurité alimentaire au cours des 30 prochaines années, il faut je pense miser d'abord sur les petits agriculteurs. Y compris les jeunes. » Il n'empêche que la question de l'équipement est complexe, souligne Dost. « Si les agriculteurs ougandais avaient des smartphones, nous pourrions leur offrir davantage de services et de données et eux-mêmes pourraient nous communiquer un feedback et des données utiles. La technologie existe, nous le savons. Ce que nous faisons, c'est l'adapter de façon à pouvoir diffuser les messages. eLEAF réalise actuellement une étude de faisabilité au Ghana, où le taux d'analphabétisme est problématique. Des messages vocaux sont donc utilisés. « Mais il y a 20 ans, au début de ma carrière, les téléphones portables n'existaient pas, et les e-mails encore moins. » « Nous communiquions par fax. Nous travaillons donc déjà sur les différentes fonctionnalités que les petits agriculteurs peuvent utiliser sur un téléphone portable des plus simples comme sur un smartphone dernier cri. Je ne sais pas s'ils auront tous un ICT Update s'est entretenu avec Hanna Camp, responsable de la mobilisation des clients chez aWhere, afin de mieux comprendre le rôle de cette entreprise dans le projet MUIIS (services d'information ICT4AG innovants, axés vers le marché et appartenant aux utilisateurs). aWhere est une petite entreprise qui fournit depuis près de 20 ans des services de renseignements agricoles. Ses activités se concentrent principalement sur les données météorologiques et agricoles. « En plus des données satellitaires et de la station terrestre, nous utilisons la modélisation en 3 D pour créer une surface maillée à l'échelle mondiale », explique Hanna Camp, responsable de la mobilisation des clients chez aWhere. « La grille, d'environ 9 km 2 , couvre toutes les zones que nous définissons comme des terres agricoles. Nous disposons donc de données météorologiques modélisées pour chaque parcelle cultivée ». Ces séries de données couvrent au moins les 10 dernières années, voire, dans certains cas, les 20 dernières années. « Nous voulons avoir la certitude que tous les agriculteurs de la planète aient accès à des prévisions météorologiques et à des données vraiment historiques sur leur exploitation. Qu'ils n'aient pas uniquement accès aux données des stations terrestres les plus proches mais aussi aux données historiques vraiment spécifiques à leur exploitation et à leurs terres afin qu'ils puissent commencer à prendre des décisions concrètes en fonction de la météo,» explique Hanna Camp.Ce nouveau développement est bien sûr lié au changement climatique. Ces dernières années, le temps est devenu de plus en plus instable et imprévisible. Les agriculteurs ont donc de plus en plus de difficultés à prendre des décisions, surtout lorsqu'ils ne disposent pas d'informations météorologiques concrètes pour leur exploitation. Une entreprise comme aWhere peut donc vraiment faire la différence. Elle peut utiliser sa base de données pour avoir un aperçu en haute définition de la production et de la croissance alimentaire partout dans le monde. « Admettons, par exemple, que nous craignons de sérieuses difficultés pour le secteur du cacao d'ici un an ou deux en Afrique de l'Ouest, en raison d'une météo défavorable à la croissance des cacaoyers. Nous allons alors identifier les zones où les conditions pourraient être plus favorables. Que pouvons-nous faire pour coopérer avec des producteurs qui souhaitent se lancer dans cette culture dans des zones jusqu'ici non propices à la culture du cacaoyer ? De quels types d'outils ont-ils besoin et quel type d'analyse historique est susceptible de les convaincre ?Convertir les données en un message utile de 150 caractères aWhere privilégie une approche multiforme et travaille en partenariat avec des entreprises privées comme avec des ONG. Le projet MUIIS (Market-led, User-owned ICT4Ag-enabled Information Service, services d'information ICT4AG innovants, axés vers le marché et appartenant aux utilisateurs) avait en effet tout pour séduire aWhere : il est axé sur les agriculteurs et s'emploie à relayer en aval des informations en haute définition, jusqu'aux agriculteurs. Un autre aspect du projet a favorablement interpellé l'entreprise : l'idée de créer un modèle économique autonome et pérenne, allant au-delà du cycle de vie du projet. Il arrive en effet trop souvent qu'un projet ne puisse pas poursuivre ses activités une fois le financement épuisé, » déplore Camp.À l'instar d'eLEAF (voir pages 6-7 de ce numéro), le rôle d'aWhere dans le projet MUIIS est de regrouper les données satellitaires de façon à ce qu'elles puissent être exploitées par les agriculteurs. Les données satellitaires sont traitées une fois par jour sur le serveur d'aWhere. Les prévisions sont quant à elles actualisées toutes les quatre à six heures. Ces données sont immédiatement accessibles via l'interface de programmation d'applications (interface API) d'aWhere. « Cette interface est le principal outil que nous utilisons pour communiquer avec le terrain, » explique Camp. « Nous coopérons à ce niveau avec Ensibuuko, notre principal partenaire sur le terrain, en charge de l'exploitation des systèmes au sol. Ensibuuko peut également compter sur le soutien d'une série de développeurs locaux, avec lesquels nous collaborons pour assurer la connexion à l'interface. Ils peuvent ainsi mettre automatiquement à jour -et aussi souvent qu'ils le souhaitent -leurs données, au bénéfice de tous les agriculteurs abonnés au service MUIIS. » Les données sont filtrées par localisation de la parcelle et ensuite regroupées de façon à générer un historique récent, hebdomadaire par exemple. « Nous vérifions si les précipitations ont été inférieures ou supérieures à un seuil préalablement déterminé. Si elles ont été inférieures à ce seuil, l'agriculteur reçoit un message pré-encodé. Un message différent, lui aussi pré-encodé, sera envoyé lorsque les précipitations ont été plus importantes que prévu. » Le système procède aussi à des contrôles par rapport aux seuils de risque pour d'autres variables, comme la température. Un taux d'humidité particulièrement élevé est par exemple un facteur de risque de maladie. En cas de risques multiples, le système envoie des messages prioritaires. « Ce qu'il faut retenir, c'est que des personnes ont extrait les données de notre système et les ont converties en un message texte très simple de 150 caractères qui avertit l'agriculteur du risque et lui suggère une mesure très simple pour y faire face», explique Camp. La meilleure façon d'utiliser ces informations est d'offrir aux agriculteurs des services spécialisés, essentiellement par le biais de séries de données ouvertes améliorées. L'Agriculture Open Data Package est ici une ressource de premier plan, qui identifie les données de qualité dans diverses activités agricoles. Mais l'amélioration de ces séries de données n'est qu'une partie de l'équation.Il faut aussi, et surtout, fusionner les données mondiales (par ex. les images satellitaires, les données issues de la recherche, les bases de données d'information sur les cultures, les semences, les nuisibles et les maladies) avec des informations au niveau de l'agriculteur (dossiers de crédit et titres de propriété foncière) et du terrain (informations sur les sols, localisation géographique, état des terres/des champs et des cultures) afin de générer des informations utiles et exploitables au niveau individuel.Il est ainsi possible d'offrir aux agriculteurs de nouveaux produits au service de leur production (crédit et assurance) et des informations en temps réel pour les aider dans leur prise de décisions.Les informations au niveau de l'agriculteur ou du terrain sont des informations locales qui peuvent être utilisées pour créer des profils d'agriculteurs. Les OP et les coopératives agricoles sont les mieux placées pour les établir et les mettre à jour. En plus de permettre l'offre de services spécialisés aux agriculteurs, ces profils présentent également des avantages pour d'autres acteurs. À commencer par les coopératives et les OP. Les profils de leurs agriculteurs membres peuvent être utiles à plusieurs niveaux et pour de nombreuses activités, par exemple : Les décideurs peuvent aussi exploiter utilement ces profils. D'une manière générale, les décideurs souhaitent avoir comme interlocuteurs les organisations les plus représentatives qui disposent de données concrètes sur leurs membres. La gestion des profils est une façon de démontrer cette représentativité.L'impact est toutefois encore plus important au niveau des données. Les profils fournissent des données ventilées à un niveau hyper-local. Ces données concernent essentiellement le secteur agricole, mais vu l'importance de ce secteur dans les zones rurales, elles fournissent aussi des informations détaillées sur la plupart des ménages.Les données enregistrées dans les profils, après avoir été anonymisées et publiées en format ouvert, peuvent alimenter de nombreuses séries de données à l'échelon national : • Séries de données agricoles clés (utilisation des terres et production) ; • Mesure de l'impact des politiques publiques (portée et impact des plans de subvention) ; Mon rôle était lié aux agents responsables de la formation. J'ai aussi travaillé à la mise en place de l'infrastructure TIC. Il s'agissait, plus spécifiquement, de créer une solution de téléphonie mobile comprenant un outil de collecte de données appelé ONA permettant de numériser le profil des petits agriculteurs. Si vous vous y connaissez en outils de collecte de données mobiles, disons que l'ONA fait partie de la famille des kits de données ouvertes. Mon rôle a donc été d'initier ces agents à l'utilisation de la téléphonie mobile et de faire en sorte qu'ils maîtrisent bien les fonctions des smartphones. Certains n'en avaient en effet jamais utilisé. Lors de la phase suivante, nous leur avons présenté l'application afin qu'ils puissent commencer à établir le profil des agriculteurs. Pour leur faciliter l'apprentissage, nous avons consacré la première journée de formation à la présentation -sur papier -de l'outil de profilage. Ils ont pu ainsi se familiariser aux questions qu'ils allaient devoir poser aux agriculteurs sans devoir concentrer en même temps leur attention aux smartphones, à la connectivité et aux applications. La deuxième journée a été consacrée à l'initiation à la téléphonie mobile. Comment activer l'internet mobile par exemple, ou le GPS, car pour certaines questions, il faut pouvoir localiser les données GPS. Comment améliorer le degré de précision aussi, car de nombreux agriculteurs vivent dans des communautés rurales où des collines ou la végétation compliquent parfois la capture des signaux GPS. Tel est le genre de questions qui ont été abordées lors de la formation des agents MUIIS.L'année 2016 a surtout été consacrée à l'établissement des profils et vers la fin de l'année, nous avons commencé à développer une autre solution technologique, mais dotée cette fois-ci d'une interface-agriculteur qui permet aux agriculteurs de s'abonner euxmêmes très facilement aux services MUIIS. Les données recueillies lors du profilage nous ont montré que la majorité des agriculteurs n'avaient qu'un téléphone mobile très basique. C'est la raison pour laquelle l'application mobile que nous avons développée -une appli d'information et de banque mobile -utilise un protocole de communication USSD, qui est pris en charge par ces téléphones. La plupart des agriculteurs n'ont pas de smartphones, et ils sont encore moins nombreux à avoir accès à l'internet par téléphonie mobile.Q Dans quelle mesure les agriculteurs bénéficient-ils de ce profilage ? Une fois que leur profil numérique a été établi, leurs données sont sur notre serveur et ils peuvent alors s'abonner au forfait de services MUIIS. Nous avons aussi prévu un moyen de paiement, car l'abonnement, s'il traduit un intérêt pour le service, est aussi une transaction payante. Les agriculteurs s'acquittent ainsi en ligne de 14 000 shillings ougandais, qui sont directement transférés à MUIIS. Nous avions déjà créé un tableau de bord qui informe en temps réel les membres du consortium, y compris le CTA, sur le nombre d'abonnés. Lors du lancement en direct du forfait MUIIS pour les agriculteurs, nous avons également pu suivre en temps réel la progression du nombre d'abonnés.Q Les abonnements de groupe influencent-ils le prix payé par l'agriculteur ? Les agriculteurs membres paient toujours le même montant en cas d'abonnement de groupe mais MUIIS versera aux organisations une commission. Cette commission couvrira leurs frais de mobilisation et d'activation des agriculteurs et de diffusion du concept. Mais ces commissions seront financées à l'aide des montants utilisés jusqu'ici pour les campagnes radiodiffusées de sensibilisation des agriculteurs à MUIIS et pour les activités de marketing. L'on pourrait donc presque dire que nous avons fait des organisations paysannes des partenaires de marketing. Et de fait, nous conclurons prochainement avec elles un partenariat dans le cadre de MUIIS. Elles recevront ainsi une commission, à l'instar de celle reçue par MUIIS pour la souscription d'assurances auprès des compagnies.Q Pouvez-vous illustrer par un exemple spécifique la façon dont le forfait MUIIS a aidé les agriculteurs ? Au cours de la première saison, nous avons pu nous faire une idée de l'exposition des petits agriculteur au risque de maladies et de nuisibles s'attaquant à leurs récoltes, car nous connaissions leur localisation précise. Nous avons donc pu rapidement envoyer des SMS aux abonnés pour leur expliquer comment faire face à une grave épidémie qui sévissait à l'époque en Ouganda. Notre initiative a même été relayée par plusieurs agences de presse internationales. L'épidémie avait été provoquée par le Légionnaire d'automne qui s'attaque aux cultures de maïs. Nous avons pu conseiller les agriculteurs quant au type et aux quantités de pesticide à utiliser pour lutter contre ce nuisible. Malgré la gravité de l'épidémie, certains agriculteurs qui s'étaient abonnés au service ont ainsi pu sauver une partie de leurs récoltes.Nous avons exploité cette expérience lors de la deuxième saison, par exemple en rédigeant, sur la base de données satellitaires, différents messages pour toute la saison. Et nous les avons fait traduire, car le feedback reçu pour la première saison a montré que l'anglais ne permettait pas d'atteindre la plupart des agriculteurs. Nous avons donc demandé à des traducteurs soustraitants de traduire ces messages dans les langues locales pour pouvoir les envoyer ensuite aux agriculteurs.Je pense que cela nous aidera aussi à mieux vendre le service MUIIS. Je suis convaincu qu'il s'agit d'un service unique ; nous sommes en effet les seuls à proposer ce type de services aux agriculteurs. La plupart des informations qu'ils reçoivent en écoutant la radio sont à très court terme, les prévisions météorologiques ne couvrent pas plus d'une journée ou d'une semaine. Et même dans ce cas, les informations ne sont pas toujours utiles pour leur parcelle. La valeur ajoutée de MUIIS réside selon moi dans le fait qu'au lieu de dire simplement aux agriculteurs qu'il va pleuvoir ou qu'il va y avoir x degrés, il met davantage l'accent sur les solutions. Nous pouvons calculer le nombre de millimètres de précipitations dont la parcelle a besoin à un moment donné ou même la quantité de pluie nécessaire sur une plus longue période. Et ces informations peuvent être traduites en un service, puisque nous pouvons avertir les agriculteurs que telle quantité de précipitations ne sera pas suffisante pour leurs cultures et qu'ils devront donc envisager d'autres méthodes de conservation ou d'irrigation. Nous donnons donc davantage la priorité aux méthodes exploitables et ne nous contentons pas de transmettre l'information. • Ronald Rwakigumba est coordinateur national Agri-Fin Mobile-Ouganda pour Mercy Corps.Image ci-dessus : Les agents sont initiés à l'utilisation de la téléphonie mobile et apprennent à bien maîtriser les fonctions des smartphones (© CTA).ICT Update s'est entretenu avec Ben Addom, du CTA, responsable programme du projet MUIIS en Ouganda. Il nous en dit plus sur le partenariat et le modèle commercial qui, l'espère-t-il, en fera une entreprise pérenne et autonome.UIIS (Market-led, User-owned ICT4Ag-enabled Information Service, Services d'information ICT4AG innovants, axés vers le marché et appartenant aux utilisateurs) est un projet financé par le ministère néerlandais des Affaires étrangères par le biais du programme G4AW du Netherlands Space Office. Le projet a été financé pour une période initiale de trois ans, au terme de laquelle il est prévu qu'il puisse voler de ses propres ailes. Le consortium, qui a pour chef de file le CTA, a développé le modèle commercial à la base de MUIIS et mis en place une équipe de partenaires. La deuxième année du projet touche à sa fin et le moment où MUIIS devra opérer de manière autonome se rapproche… 'Première étape : mettre en place un partenariat solide Ben Addom, responsable du programme MUIIS au CTA, explique : « dès que nous avons entendu parler de la possibilité de recevoir une subvention, à condition de former un partenariat public-privé, nous avons réalisé que nous étions bien placés pour y être éligibles. » Cela fait en effet des années que le CTA travaille en coopération avec d'autres organisations de divers secteurs, notamment du secteur des TIC. « Dans le cas de MUIIS, nous devions pouvoir réunir un large éventail de partenaires -des entreprises de données pour traiter et convertir les données brutes dans un format exploitable par les agriculteurs, des agents de terrain pour former les agriculteurs -les utilisateurs finaux -à utiliser ce service. Nous avons commencé modestement et contacté les membres de notre réseau qui, selon nous, pourraient être intégrés dans cette longue chaîne de partenaires. Entre-temps, d'autres acteurs ont pris contact avec nous car ils avaient eu vent du fait que le CTA était en train de mettre sur pied ce consortium.» Le CTA n'a eu en effet aucun mal à dresser une liste de partenaires potentiels. Une des exigences pour le projet était en effet de travailler en synergie, et éviter de dupliquer les efforts. En d'autres termes, les partenaires sélectionnés allaient devoir se compléter mutuellement, plutôt que de réaliser les mêmes activités. Pour éviter toute duplication, nous avons dû éliminer certains des partenaires que nous avions présélectionnés, comme l'AGRA, l'EAFF et eLEAF, mais nous avons aussi commencé à coopérer avec des organisations que nous connaissions moins, comme Mercy Corps et aWhere. »Compte tenu de ce large éventail de partenaires, issus aussi bien du secteur privé que du secteur public, quel type de modèle commercial a été développé pour satisfaire à tout le monde ? « La subvention initiale devait couvrir une période de trois ans, » explique Addom. « La deuxième année s'achève et il nous reste donc une année de subvention. Dans notre proposition, nous nous étions donné comme objectif de faire en sorte que le projet atteigne son seuil de rentabilité à partir de la quatrième ou de la cinquième année. Nous savions par expérience que MUIIS ne réaliserait pas des bénéfices dès la fin de la troisième année. » Le projet devait donc trouver d'autres ressources pour combler ce déficit de financement. C'est ce qu'essaye de mobiliser le CTA pendant cette période de transition, afin de garantir que le projet puisse se poursuivre.«L'idée que nous avons défendue au départ est que MUIIS est un service qui offre une plus-value et pour lequel des gens sont prêts à payer », explique Addom. « Nous avons coopéré avec des organisations paysannes afin de pouvoir évaluer le nombre d'utilisateurs potentiels parmi les petits agriculteurs. Nous sommes arrivés à un nombre entre 4 et 4,5 millions. » Sur la base de ces estimations, le CTA a défini un groupe cible de 350 000 agriculteurs, qui sont atteints par le biais d'activités de sensibilisation. Mais l'objectif ultime du CTA -sur la base de ses calculs et de l'analyse du cashflow -était que 200 000 agriculteurs s'abonnent aux services d'information MUIIS et les utilisent pendant trois ans. Le seuil de rentabilité pourrait ainsi être atteint.Il a fallu finalement un an pour développer le produit. « Nous n'avons donc rien vendu pendant un an, » explique Addom. « La deuxième année s'est achevée et la troisième vient de commencer. Nous n'avons donc eu qu'une seule saison pour tester le produit et déterminer s'il était viable, c'est-à-dire pour évaluer si le produit MUIIS était conçu pour répondre aux besoins des premiers clients.  Dans le domaine de l'AP, la télédétection est assurée par des satellites, des avions, des ballons et des hélicoptères, des petits engins aériens sans pilote (UAS) ou drones et toute une variété de capteurs, tels que des capteurs optiques ou quasi-infrarouge, ou encore des radars.En raison de leur coût peu élevé, les drones pourraient remplacer avantageusement les satellites et les avions. Les agriculteurs peuvent en effet les utiliser pour l'épandage de pesticides, pour suivre les déplacements du cheptel ou assurer le suivi des récoltes. Parmi les autres applications possibles de la télédétection dans AP, citons l'imagerie des sols nus pour la délimitation des zones de gestion, la cartographie des adventices, la détection du stress azoté, la cartographie des rendements et la détection des nuisibles et des maladies.Les avantages de l'AP sont nombreux, qu'il s'agisse de rentabilité, de productivité, de développement durable, de qualité des cultures, de protection de l'environnement, de qualité de vie des agriculteurs, de sécurité alimentaire ou de développement économique des zones rurales. L'AP peut en effet accroître les rendements des cultures et améliorer ainsi la sécurité alimentaire. Les outils de l'AP peuvent aider les agriculteurs à économiser sur les coûts en augmentant l'efficacité des systèmes de production à grande échelle et améliorer les rendements et la rentabilité des exploitations agricoles grâce à une meilleure gestion des intrants.Alors que les nuisibles et les maladies sont à l'origine d'importantes pertes agricoles dans les pays ACP, la télédétection peut aider à identifier des zones à très petite échelle contaminées par des pathogènes. L'épandage de fongicides peut ainsi se faire au meilleur moment. En outre, lorsqu'elle est associée aux technologies GPS et SIG, la télédétection peut être utilisée dans le contrôle des mauvaises herbes spécifiques à un site.L'agriculture de précision a aussi un impact positif sur l'environnement puisqu'elle permet une utilisation plus ciblée des intrants, ce qui limite les pertes liées à l'application de doses excessives ou aux déséquilibres en nutriments, aux mauvaises herbes ou encore aux dommages provoqués par des insectes, par exemple. Des études ont en effet montré qu'une gestion des nutriments tenant compte des spécificités du site a permis de limiter l'utilisation d'engrais azotés au Vietnam et aux Philippines, de respectivement 14 % et 10 %. Les pertes d'azote au niveau du sol ont également diminué, de 25-25 %. L'épandage d'herbicides à débit variable a quant à lui réduit l'utilisation totale des herbicides et préservé ainsi la qualité des eaux de surface et souterraines. La contamination des sols et de l'eau s'en trouve ainsi minimisée.L'agriculture de précision a également un impact au niveau de la société. Elle crée en effet des emplois, dans le domaine des technologies (matériel et logiciels informatiques, guidage d'engins, capteurs au niveau des sols et des cultures, gestion de l'information, systèmes d'aide à la décision) et limite la pollution environnementale provoquée par l'épandage de quantités excessives d'engrais.En résumé, les agriculteurs qui pratiquent l'agriculture de précision peuvent réduire l'impact de leur activité sur l'environnement tout en améliorant leur productivité et leurs bénéfices. En outre, en plus de limiter les intrants grâce à une précision accrue, les informations communiquées par les technologies de l'agriculture de précision permettent aux agricultures de produire plus avec moins d'intrants.Le défi est à présent de mettre au point des approches d'AP permettant une gestion personnalisée des intrants en utilisant les données issues de l'échantillonnage des cultures, des analyses de laboratoire et des télédétecteurs et capteurs de proximité (par exemple, mesures spectrales, électriques, électromagnétiques ou radiométriques des sols ou des cultures) à des échelles temporelles et spatiales différentes.En ce qui concerne les petits agriculteurs, la quantité de données à prendre en compte pourrait limiter l'adoption de cette technologie. Pour la promouvoir dans les pays ACP, il convient dès lors de mettre davantage l'accent sur la mise en oeuvre opérationnelle de cette technologie et sur une analyse complète des coûts. Il convient aussi de ne pas négliger le rôle des services de vulgarisation et des coopératives agricoles dans la diffusion L'utilisation de ces données attire des investissements dans les big data, l'agriculture de précision, l'agronomie basée sur les données, ainsi que les services et les applications d'e-vulgarisation agricole qui, à leur tour, transforment ces données en renseignements et améliorent la prise de décision et, au final, les moyens d'existence des petits exploitants. L'amélioration de l'accès aux données augmente le nombre de produits et de services offerts par les acteurs désireux de stimuler la production agricole et de renforcer la résilience.Faire de cette ambition une réalité en Afrique, dans les Caraïbes et dans le Pacifique reste un défi. Elle exige le développement de nouveaux modèles de gestion, mieux adaptés, la conception de services et des dispositifs de mise en oeuvre. Elle nécessite de convertir les données en informations exploitables et d'élaborer et d'introduire des lignes directrices précises sur la propriété et l'utilisation des données car il faut protéger les agriculteurs contre toute exploitation déloyale de leurs données.Cartographie des services et des produits de données Lors d'un atelier organisé récemment par le CTA, les participants ont commencé par cartographier les principaux secteurs dans lesquels des services basés sur les données sont offerts. L'exercice de cartographie a permis de mettre au jour trois grandes catégories de produits et services :Les services et produits fondés sur les données qui améliorent la PRODUCTION ; les services et produits fondés sur les données qui améliorent l'accès au COMMERCE et aux MARCHÉS ; les services et produits fondés sur les données qui améliorent l'accès au FINANCEMENT. ","tokenCount":"6949"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"606f7df0ecb97bb34c48ad1f50ed482f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/142d9e77-ca25-46ca-98a2-83daaba7fa5d/retrieve","id":"-23209322"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"130e13c9-14cd-4df2-af67-f20aae1623e3","pagecount":"1","content":"In Colombia, cattle production is responsible for 31% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agricultural sector. Dairy farms account for 15% of the Colombian cattle herd. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of GHG emissions from these farms are not common, and when performed, are based on a small number of farms. LCA is important because the identification of appropriate GHG mitigation actions requires larger data sets. This study quantified the carbon footprints (CF) on 192 dairy farms in Colombia by using LCA methodology. Farms were classified according to their herd size: small (0-30 animals; n=94), medium (31-50; n=32), large (>50; n=66). Emissions were estimated using the GHG emission factors reported in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, and locally estimated emission factors. A \"cradle to farm gate\" system boundary was established, and a physical allocation method proposed by the International Dairy Federation, was used to distribute GHG emissions between co-products. The functional units were 1 kg fat and protein corrected milk (FPCM) and 1 kg live weight gain (LWG). The CF (kg CO 2-eq kg -1 FPCM/LWG) for medium (1.6 FPCM and 13.8 LWG) and large farmers (1.6 FPCM and 13.1 LWG) were the lowest among the categories. The medium and large farm categories were characterized by implementing better pasture and herd management practices, by the highest milk productivity (3240.8 and 3645.6 kgFPCM Cow -1 Year -1 ) and stocking rate (4.5 AU ha -1 ;4.4 AU ha -1 ). It is possible to improve the environmental performance of farms by increasing productivity and adopting better agricultural practices. Keywords: carbon footprint (CF), global warming potential (GWP), greenhouse gases (GHG), livestock production systems.(1) Carried out with support from CGIAR Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements and COLCIENCIAS Doctoral Study Program in Colombia (call 727 of 2015).View publication stats View publication stats","tokenCount":"304"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3a0785d80c7125d937512f3471c3ae6f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3590d449-7155-4f49-857a-4a8c0034a1a8/retrieve","id":"-24891749"},"keywords":["Smallholder","socio-economic and biophysical determinants","sustainable nutrient management","responsive heterogeneity","Burkina Faso"],"sieverID":"d979d725-751d-4db5-bbb7-655c0d234faa","pagecount":"17","content":"Sustainable soil nutrient management (SNM) is important for improving soil resources and food security in sub-Saharan African countries. Inherent livelihood diversity may lead to differences in household behavior in the adoption of SNM practices, thus challenging policy interventions uniformly implemented. This study aims at exploring the responsive heterogeneity in household behavior in the adoption of fertilizer use by farmers. Determinants of fertilizer uses were analyzed across different farm types. These farm types were identified from farm-household data collected in six villages in the South Western of Burkina Faso using the Sustainable Livelihood Framework. Using multilinear and binary logistic models, determinants of mineral, organic and combined mineral-organic fertilizer uses were analyzed. The results revealed that the determinants of SMN adoption include not only common determinants to whole sampled population (income, household size, access to roads and cereal areas), but also specific determinants to farm types (small ruminants, animal power, educational level and access to agro-training). This finding suggests that policy interventions will not be effective if the responsive heterogeneity in SNM adoption behavior is not taken into account. The study recommends the use of the presented framework, as an approach, to identify functional farm types to be considered in SNM policies.Hunger and undernourishment are still rife in Sub-Saharan Africa. For decades food insecurity affects many countries without any improvement (FAO, 2006;FAO, 1993;FAO et al., 2013;FAO et al., 2020) despite numerous interventions. In Burkina Faso, in particular, 47.7% of the total population was food insecure, while 19.2% were undernourished in 2017-2019(FAO et al., 2020)). Food insecurity fails households to ensure sustainable food production (Devereux & Maxwell, 2001;Devereux, 2009). Most cropping systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are characterized by alarming soil nutrient depletion (Stoorvogel & Smaling, 1990;Bationo et al., 1998;LAL, 1995;Cobo et al., 2010;Van Beek et al., 2016). Soil degradation affects food security through low crop yields and reduced household income (LAL, 2009;STOCKING, 2003;Pimentel & Burgess, 2013;Grote, 2014;Dzanku,Jirström, & Marstorp, 2015).Combatting food insecurity requires tackling soil nutrient mining issues while improving food productivity and profitability. Adoption of proven soil fertility management practices (e.g. mineral and organic fertilizers) can improve crop productivity (LAL, 2009;Vlek et al., 1997;Ingram et al., 2008). Indeed, mineral fertilizers are the shortest way for replenishing soil with macronutrients and avoiding widespread nutrient mining. Organic fertilizers improve soil fertility (Gaur & Singh, 1993) and smallholders are unable to purchase mineral fertilizers (Palm et al., 2001). It improves soil's physical properties through the strengthening of organic matter (Vanlauwe & Giller, 2006;Palm et al., 1996;Ding et al., 2012;Körschens et al., 2012). Organic fertilizer provides the soil with microorganisms which are vital to biological functions, allowing nutrient cycling leading to the release of nutrients (Craswell & Lefroy, 2001). Beyond macronutrients, it can contain micronutrients (Cu, B, Zn, Mn, Mo) which greatly increase soil productivity (Parr & Colacicco, 1987). The combined use of organic and mineral fertilizers reduces nitrogen losses in sole mineral fertilizer use (Neeteson, 1993). It was reported to generate better yields than the sole use of mineral fertilizers (Ding et al., 2012;Kearney et al., 2012;Kismányoky & Tóth, 2013;Mucheru-Muna et al., 2007).However, the adoption of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices by smallholders, including Sustainable Nutrient Management (SNM) practices, remains very low in SSA (Place et al., 2003;Bationo et al., 2006;Chianu et al., 2012;Chianu et al., 2012b;Anley et al., 2007). Inefficient agricultural policies (Anley et al., 2007) result in the low adoption of SNM. Indeed, interventions promoting SNM adoption often implement uniform policies while the farmers' population is characterized by inherent social and ecological diversity, as highlighted by (Ojiem et al.(2006). It is necessary to better understand factors affecting farmers' adoption and based on that to inform policy leveraging farmers' incentive to adopt.Most studies (Makokha et al., 2001;Waithaka et al., 2007;Adesina, 1996;Chianu & Tsujii, 2005;Lambrecht et al., 2014;Kassie et al., 2013) analyzed the effects of a range of different factors on nutrient adoption/use but with a uniform affecting pattern. However, given an affecting factor, its significance, affecting direction and magnitude can be different over different types of farms/farmers. This responsive heterogeneity needs to be understood.Therefore, the research questions of the present paper are (i) what are the common determinants of mineral and organic fertilizer uses? (ii) What are the farm/farmer type-specific determinants of mineral and organic fertilizer uses? We formulate the following hypotheses: (i) there are particular factors affecting mineral and organic fertilizer uses in the same patterns; (ii) different farm types (with distinct agricultural livelihood systems) can respond differently to the same affecting factor in different circumstances (significance level, affecting direction and magnitude).The study was conducted in the South-Western region of Burkina Faso in 2013-2014. The region represents 6% of the country's territory (INSD, 2009a) and 4.32% of its population in 2014 (772,973 inhabitants) according to projections by INSD (2009b). Around 88% of the population lives in rural areas. Population density in Ioba province is the highest in the region (59.0 inhabitants/km 2 )(INSD, 2009a) and is situated above the average at the country level (51.8 inhabitants/km 2 ). Annual population growth is estimated to be 1.8% and the population is dominated by females (52%) (INSD, 2009b;INSD, 2013). Due to land pressure, the use of fallow for replenishing soil fertility has considerably dropped (DREP/Sud-Ouest and PNGT, 2000). Ioba province was identified to have the most degraded lands in the southwestern region (MAHRH and GTZ, 2004). Mineral fertilizers and compost uses remain low (MAHRH, 2010;Gleisberg-gerber, 2012). These characteristics guided the choice of the province for conducting the present study. Three communes (Dano, Koper and Ouessa) were selected (Figure 1) based on land use, population, land degradation information and programmes promoting sustainable land use management. Soils are generally shallow, inherently poor and vulnerable to erosion. Washed ferruginous tropical indurated soils form dominating soil types. Livelihood activities comprise mainly rain-fed agriculture, trade, handicraft and mining. The main agricultural components are cereals, cotton (the main cash crop) and animal husbandry. The study area belongs to the South-Sudanian climatic zone with savannah vegetation and monomodal rainfall. Average annual rainfall varies between 900 and 950 mm and the province experiences erratic rainfall variability (MAHRH and GTZ, 2004).The conceptual framework of this study (Figure 2) is based on Sustainable Livelihood framework (DFID, 1999;De Sherbinin et al., 2008;Sconnes, 1998). The adoption/use of sustainable land management practices by the farmer/farm is a function of available resources (Jones, 2002). The readiness of farmers to apply soil nutrients is not just affected by the perception of soil fertility. It is also determined by farm assets (e.g. natural, physical, financial, social and human assets). In pursuing its livelihood objectives (e.g. food security and well-being), the farmer mobilizes and allocates its assets within a livelihood strategy. This strategy needs to be accounted for when analyzing soil fertility management.Given the level of asset endowment, farmers will have more or fewer options for building livelihood strategies (DFID, 1999). They will, therefore, be more or less inclined to adopt and use soil nutrients. For instance, a farm above the poverty line can still choose to use its financial resources for consumption, savings or other types of investment rather than investing in soil fertility (Reardon & Vosti, 1995). Poor endowment in physical assets (e.g. road and communication facilities) reduces farm exposition to SNM technologies and access to markets for mineral fertilizer acquisition. Farm tools and equipment are useful for composting and transportation of fertilizer to plots.Besides being an important source of cash (Murungweni et al., 2014) facilitating farm acquisition of mineral fertilizer, livestock provides draught power and manure. Also, the availability of natural assets such as land may lead to extensive farming while land constraints may compel farmers to use more fertilizer (Tittonell et al., 2005a). Social assets (e.g. networks) provide learning opportunities and improve farm access to fertilizer (e.g. credit system, remittances). Livelihood-based farm typology gives, therefore, more insight into soil fertility management (Bidogeza et al., 2009;Tittonell et al., 2005b;Tittonell et al., 2010;Oumer et al., 2013). Besides common determinants, there are farm-type-specific factors that influence the response of farms to soil degradation and, therefore, affect the adoption/use of soil nutrients. This specific responsiveness is inherent to the level of asset endowment and the farm livelihood strategy profile. It may change over time with the change in farm livelihood strategy and asset endowment.Because of limited access, farmers may apply a meaningless amount of nutrients. We assume that the applied amount of nutrients can be considered meaningful when it is more than 10% of the recommended application rate. Only farmers observing this threshold were considered users of mineral and organic fertilizers. Dependant variables and corresponding inferential statistical methods used are summarized in Table 1.The use/adoption of mineral fertilizers (NPK + Urea): NPK (14-23-14) and Urea (46N) are the commonly used mineral fertilizers in the study region. Given the previously defined threshold and recommended rates of application for mineral fertilizer (CILSS, 2012), fertilizer users apply more than 9.7 kg N-P-K ha/year. The dependent variable Mineral fertilizer use intensity (Y MinUse ) expressed the amount of mineral nutrients annually applied per unit of land (kg N-P-K ha/year). It was computed by dividing the amount of nutrients applied by the total cultivated area with and without mineral fertilizer. The variable Adoption of mineral fertilizer use (Y MinApt ) reflected the farm's choice to apply or not a mineral nutrient. Y MinApt = 1 if the farm adopts mineral fertilizer and 0, otherwise.Adoption of organic fertilizers (Y OrgApt ): the variable reflected the farm's choice to apply or not organic fertilizer (compost and animal dung). Y OrgApt = 1 if the farm adopts organic fertilizer and 0, otherwise. According to recommended application rates from the Ioba provincial directorate of Agriculture and CILSS (2012), and given the threshold defined above, organic fertilizer users apply more than 4.1 kg N-P-K ha/year and 2.7 kg N-P-K ha/year from compost and animal dung, respectively.Mineral and organic fertilizers (Y MinOrg ) are adopted. This variable expressed the combined use of mineral and organic fertilizers (Mineral-organic fertilzers). Y MinOrg = 1 if the farm applies both mineral and organic fertilizers and 0, otherwise.Multiple linear regression (MLR) was used for explaining mineral fertilizer use intensity (Y MinUse ). MLR is a common inferential statistical method for continuous  where X i is an explanatory variable, βi (i = 1, 2, 3, … , n) their weights and α is the intercept. Binary logit regressions were used for adoption analysis. Binary logit regression is a common method used for adoption analysis.With y = Y MinApt ; Y OrgApt or Y MinOrg, and p(y = 1) the probability of y = 1.In the study region, maize is the main food crop for which farmers usually apply nutrients. The number of fertilized plots of other food crops in the study sample was not high enough for conducting regression analyses. Inferential analyses were then performed only for maize plots. Three farm types out of the five farm types identified in the study area had a high enough number of fertilized maize plots for regression analyses. For each dependent variable, we estimated effects of hypothesized determinants (X i ) in the whole sample plots (n = 292 plots), and in the three main farm types (i.e. Better-off, cotton-and livestock-based farms (n = 107), Better-off, non-farm activities preference farms (n = 104) and Pro-poor, labourless-and landless farms (n = 81)).Candidate explanatory variables and their hypothesized effects are presented in Table 2. They were gathered from the literature and based on Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF).Variables of financial assets: Poverty is often a factor fuelling land degradation (Scherr, 2000;Vu et al., 2014b) and constraining the use of soil nutrients by smallholder farms. The variable Cash income per capita per year (H CashCp ) and the variable Remittance income per capita per year (H RemitCp ) increase farm income and are expected to augment the chance for farmers to adopt mineral nutrients and increase their use intensity. Amekawa (2013) highlighted that remittance can be a valuable source of income for farms. We hypothesize that these variables are common factors affecting nutrient adoption and use.Variables of natural assets: cropped land allocation within the farm contributes to determining soil management practices. Some crops (e.g. maize and rice) are more demanding in nutrients, while others (legumes) are less and even contribute to enriching the soil through biological N fixation therefore reducing the nutrient mining effect (Enyong et al., 1999). An increase in the size of maize and rice plots may reduce the adoption and use of soil nutrients because of limited access. By planting more legumes, the farm has the opportunity to save soil nutrients for other crops. Also, by cultivating The conventional cotton, cropped with important use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides is opposed to biological cotton cropped with zero use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides (organic farming); +: positive effect; -: negative effect; +/-: Unclear effect.intervention-targeted crops, farms have more chance to adopt and use nutrients due to facilitated access to fertilizers (e.g. credit system for conventional cotton). Therefore, the area of legumes per capita (H LegCp ) and the area of conventional cotton per capita (H CCotCp ) are expected to augment the chance of nutrient adoption and increase their use. However, the area of maize and rice per capita (H MzeRceCp ) will tend to reduce the adoption and use of nutrients. Through monetary income generation, the area of dry season irrigated land per capita (H IrrigCp ) is expected to augment the chance of mineral nutrient adoption and its use intensity. Livestock is an important source of nutrients through manure production (Place et al., 2003;Kassie et al., 2013) Variables of human assets: Human assets are very important for the successful use of the other assets in sustainable nutrient management (SNM). Household size (H Size ) is a source of labour necessary for applying available soil nutrients. The Age of the household head (H HAge ) may reflect the accumulated experience of the farm and compel it to adopt and use sustainable nutrient management practices (Ketema & Bauer, 2011;Mkhabela & Materechera, 2003). Both variables may also have a negative effect (Freeman & Omiti, 2003;Chianu & Tsujii, 2005). In effect, the load of large household size may limit available cash for purchasing mineral fertilizer. Ageing labour may reduce available labour for composting or recycling crop residue, for instance, and render farmers more risk-averse. Their hypothesized effects on nutrient adoption and use are unclear. These two variables, however, are expected to act as common factors affecting soil nutrient use. Educated farmers may better understand the importance and benefit of sustainable nutrient management. Training, through learning and exposure to SNM practices (e.g. Field schools and demonstration plots) may render farmers more receptive to new technologies and SNM practices, in particular. Therefore, the number of education years of the household head (H HEdu ) (Freeman & Omiti, 2003) and the number of times household members attended a training session in the last five years (H Training ) (Nkamleu, 2007) are expected to increase adoption and use intensity of soil nutrient. We hypothesized that they will be group-specific determinants: H HEdu is expected to be significant for farm types with more educated heads, while H Training is expected to be significant for farm types with less educated heads.Variables of physical assets: Animal power (H AniPowCp ) plays an important role (Kassie et al., 2013) in smallholder farms usually not or very lowly mechanized. It allows for saving time for ploughing. It also helps transportation, to distant plots, of organic fertilizer usually applied to homestead plots (Kassie et al., 2013). H AniPowCp is expected to increase the farm's chance of adopting and using more intensive soil nutrients. Farms with low access to permanent roads may also have low access to income generation opportunities and important markets. This may constrain their capabilities to purchase fertilizers or farming equipment. Therefore, the Average distance of households to the nearest paved road (H DistRoad ) is expected to reduce farm's chance of adopting and using mineral nutrients. The resulting low access to fertilizer can compel farms to turn into the adoption of organic fertilizer or not. So, the expected effect of H DistRoad on mineral nutrient adoption and use is negative but unclear for the adoption of organic nutrients.The existence of multi-collinearity was checked using Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) and contingency coefficient. There will be a risk of multi-collinearity if VIF is greater than 5 and the contingency factor is less than 0.2 (Defries et al., 2010). The performance MLR model was evaluated using F-statistics for overall performance and adjusted R-square for goodness-of-fit. A model can be considered as having good performance for R-square values around 0.5 and 0.3 (Greene, 2012). For binary logistic regressions, we used the Chi-square test to evaluate the model's overall performance. The goodness-of-fit was evaluated using the per cent of good prediction and area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve (Hosmer & Lemeshow, 2000). For values of area under ROC of 0.60-0.70, the model performance is appreciated to be poor; 0.70-0.80, acceptable; 0.80-0.90, good and 0.90-1, excellent. The partial effect of explanatory variables was appreciated using p-values.Data were collected during the dry season of 2013 from January to March. A semi-structured questionnaire guided by Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF) was used to gather information on households' livelihood assets, nutrient management and production orientation. Geographical data were also collected using a Geographical Positioning System (GIS). The survey covered 360 households randomly selected in 6 villages of the Ioba province. The typology of surveyed households yielded in five main Agricultural livelihood system (ALS) types: ALS type I: Poor, cotton-and livestock-based farms (n = 105, 31% of the sample population with an income of 94 $US/person/ yr); ALS type II: Medium, non-farm activities preference farms (n = 102, 31% of the sample population and an income of 155 $US/person/yr); ALS type III, very-poor, labourless-and landless farms (n = 71, 21% of the sample population and an income of only 55 $US/ person/yr); ALS type IV, poor, labour-rich, marketable food crop oriented and educated farms (n = 29, 9% of the sample population and an income of 104 $US/ person/yr); and ALS type V, very poor, insecure-land tenure, livestock-based farms (n = 28, 9% of the sample population and earning only 56 $US/person/ yr). A total number of 349 maize plots were identified for all farms.No multicollinearity was found between explanatory variables (VIF < 0.5 and tolerance >0.2) (See Table S1). The MLR was significant at 1% (Table 3). The prediction power of models was strong: R 2 = 0.44, R 2 = 0.36 and R 2 = 0.41 for fam-types I, II and III respectively. But it was less strong for the whole population: R 2 = 0.24. As for bi-logit models, Hosmer and Lemeshow test at 5% showed a good fit of the models to the data for mineral fertilizer adoption for the whole population, farm-types II and III (p > 0.05) but not for farm type I (p < 0.05). Values of the area under ROC showed good performance of models for the whole population, farm types I and II (0.81, 0.88 and 0.86, respectively) and excellent for ALS type III (0.91). Models for organic fertilizer adoption also had good overall performance (p > 0.05 for Hosmer and Lemeshow test). The Area under ROC varied from 0.68 to 72.6 (Table 4 and Table 5). The results of the Hosmer and Lemeshow test (Table 6) showed good performance for models of combined mineralorganic nutrient adoption too: p > 0.05. Prediction power was good (77-85%) and Area under ROC varied from 0.77 to 0.85.Explanatory variables did not affect fertilizer use and adoption in the same way (e.g. direction and amplitude) for the whole population and different farm types. We distinguished two different types of affecting factors. (i) Common factors affecting fertilizer use and adoption by the whole population and different farm types. A common factor exhibits the same direction for the whole population and across affected farm types. (ii) Farm-type-specific factor affects a particular farm type and does not appear to be an affecting factor for the whole population. This type of factor was named type specific factor of the first order. A factor may also affect a particular farm type in a direction opposite to its affecting direction for the whole population and for other affected farm types. Or, it may affect a particular farm type and only the whole population in the same direction but with lower amplitude for the whole population. This suggests that the presence of non-affected fam types in the whole population lowers coefficient amplitude. This affecting factor was called typespecific factor of second order.As expected, the variable H AniPowCp had a positive effect (Table 3). The number of draught animals increases mineral fertilizer use by farmers for the whole population, farm types I and II. H DistRoad , contrary to expectations, had a positive effect on mineral fertilizer use. It was statistically significant for the whole population, fam-type I and III. Remoteness augmented the use of mineral fertilizer. The age of household members (H Age ) reduced the use of mineral fertilizer. Aged household members may mobilize less financial resources for purchasing fertilizer. Also, old farmers may not fully understand the importance of sustainable soil nutrient management, on the contrary, young farmers are usually better educated and more open to new technologies. H Age was significant for the whole population only, not for individual farm types.Common affecting factors for mineral fertilizer adoption were Cash income per capita per year (H CashCp ), Household size (H Size ) and Average distance of household to the nearest paved road (H DistRoad ). They all had a positive effect on fertilizer adoption (Table 4). H CashCp was statistically significant at 5% for the whole population, farm types I and II. H Size and H DistRoad were significant for the whole population but not for individual farm types, at 5% and 1% respectively. Cash income per capita per year, Household size and Average distance of household to the nearest paved road increased the chance for farmers to adopt mineral fertilizer.The majority of statistically significant variables for multiple linear regression (six over nine) were farmtype-specific affecting factors (Table 3). Variables of financial assets (e.g. H CashCp and H RemitCp ) had a positive effect on mineral fertilizer use for both the whole population and only one of the three farm types. They were type-specific affecting factors of second order. H IrrigCp (Natural asset), H Training (Human asset) and H MzeRceCp were also type-specific affecting factors of  second order. H IrrigCp , and H Training had a positive effect, while H MzeRceCp had a negative effect on mineral fertilizer use intensity as expected. The amplitude of the coefficients of variables was larger for farm types than for the whole population. Only one farmtype-specific affecting factor of the first order was found: H SrumCp (financial asset). H SrumCp appeared statistically significant only for ALS type III and increased mineral fertilizer use intensity. It was not significant for the whole population.The bi-logit regression revealed more farm-typespecific affecting factors of the first order (Table 4). H RemitCp and H Training were significant only for ALS type I and ALS type II, respectively. They increase the chance for the farmer to adopt mineral fertilizer. H MzeRceCp was significant for both ALS type I and ALS type II but with opposite affecting direction and amplitude. It increases the chance of adopting mineral fertilizer for ALS type, I while reducing it for ALS type II. H IrrigCp , H SrumCp and H AniPowCp were all farm-type-specific affecting factors of the second order. In effect, in addition to the whole population, they increased the chance of adopting mineral fertilizer for only ALS type I and ALS type II, respectively. Their coefficients were larger for farm types than for the whole population.Two common affecting factors associated with the adoption of organic nutrients in the whole population were identified. Remittance income per capita per year (H RemitCp ) was positively associated with organic nutrient adoption, and the Area of maize and rice per capita (H MzeRceCp ) was negatively associated with organic nutrient adoption. H RemitCp had the opposite of the expected direction and H MzeRceCp had the expected direction. These common variables were not significant for individual farm types.The number of small ruminants per capita (H SrumCp ) and the Average distance of the household house to the nearest paved road (H DistRoad ) were positively associated with organic nutrient adoption for Farm type I. Within this farm type, the chance for farmers to adopt organic nutrient increase with an endowment in small ruminants (goat and sheep) and distance from paved roads. In ALS type II, however, the adoption of organic nutrients was positively associated with animal power per capita (H AniPowCp ). The higher the number of draught animals the farm possesses, the higher the chance of adopting organic nutrients. H AniPowCp and H SrumCp had the expected effect.The adoption of combined mineral-organic fertilizer was influenced by three common affecting factors (Table 6). Two of these factors were significant for the whole population and had no significant effect on individual farm types: H CashCp increases the adoption of combined mineral-organic fertilizer and H MzeRce reduces this adoption in the whole population. H DistRoad was statistically significant for farm types I, II and the whole population. The average distance of a household to sthe nearest paved road (H DistRoad ) increases the chance of adopting combined mineral-organic fertilizer use.Farm-type-specific affecting factors of first order included H SrumCp , H HEdu and H Training . They were all likely to increase the chance for farmers to adopt combined mineral-organic fertilizer use. H SrumCp was significant for ALS type I. As for H HEdu and H Training, they had a significant effect on ALS type III and ALS type II, respectively. Farm-type-specific affecting factors of the second order involved H IrrigCp , H Size , and H AniPowCp . An increase in the Area of dry season irrigated land per capita (H IrrigCp ) significantly increases the adoption of combined mineral-organic fertilizer use for ALS type I and for the whole population. The effect on adoption had the lowest amplitude for the whole population compared to ALS type I. The chance for adopting combined mineralorganic fertilizer use augmented with household size (H Size ) for ALS type III and the whole population with the highest effect amplitude for ALS type III. As for H AniPowCp , it positively affects the adoption of combined mineral-organic fertilizer use for ALS type III and Whole population, with the lowest effect amplitude for the Whole population.Identifying and understanding factors affecting the adoption and use of fertilizer in a region is crucial for improving sustainable soil nutrient management in that region. In using a set of thirteen socio-economic and ecological independent variables we found results consistent with findings of past studies. Farm financial assets play a significant role in soil nutrient management as noted by Nkamleu (2007Nkamleu ( ), (2007)), Marenya and Barrett (2007), (2013) and (2014). Indeed, we found that farm income components Cash income (H CashCp ) and Remittance received per capita (H RemitCp ) augment the use intensity and adoption of mineral and organic nutrients by farms. In a study conducted in another region of Burkina Faso, Somda et al. (2002) observed that farm income significantly augments the adoption of organic fertilizer. However, like in our study, they pointed out that animal power (H AniPow ) and training (H Training ) have no significant effect on organic fertilizer adoption. This suggests that income generation constitutes the main entry for interventions aiming at improving organic fertilizer adoption.The study also revealed that dry season irrigation land per capita (H IrrigCp ) had a significant effect on mineral fertilizer use and adoption, and combined mineral-organic fertilizer adoption. In rural areas where off-farm activities opportunities are often limited, dry season irrigation is a valuable source of income that can be invested in purchasing mineral fertilizer. This shows that the adoption and use of mineral fertilizer can be increased by policy interventions promoting dry season irrigation as noted by Yilma and Berger (2006). Not surprisingly, Training (H Training ) increases mineral fertilizer use and adoption. This is consistent with the findings of Martey et al.(2014) and Grabowski and Kerr (2014) who highlighted that proximity with extension services improves the adoption of mineral and organic fertilizers. Distance from paved roads (H DistRoad ) increased the use and adoption of mineral and organic fertilizers. As shown by Vu et al. (2014) distance to the road increases land degradation extent and thereby compels farmers to use more fertilizer. This effect of H DistRoad can also be seen as a sign of the declining importance of distribution constraints on fertilizer use through increased fertilizer retail outlets availability in rural areas (Freeman & Omiti, 2003). The positive effect of animal power (H AniPowerCp ) on mineral nutrient use intensity and its positive influence with a small ruminant number (H SRumCp ) on mineral fertilizer adoption (Kassie et al., 2013) demonstrate the beneficial interrelationship between livestock and cropping activities (Kristjanson et al., 2005;Marenya & Barrett, 2007). The integration of livestock agriculture needs, therefore, to be boosted for better soil nutrient management.Studies use to consider a uniform affecting pattern when analysing the adoption and use of fertilizers. Our study, on the contrary, considered that due to differences in their socio-economic and ecological characteristics, farmers/farms are not affected in the same way by determinants of fertilizer use and adoption. Besides common affecting factors, type-specific factors were found that affected only specific farm types, with different amplitude or with different directions. In other words, parameters of independent variables (β) varied across socio-ecological farm types. It demonstrated the importance of considering farm types rather than the whole population only when analysing soil nutrient management. Considering the whole population only can be misleading and cause the failure or inefficient policies and intervention measures. To the best of our knowledge, it is hard to find a study which analysed variation of affecting patterns in sustainable soil nutrient management. The work presented in this paper can, therefore, be considered as new.Although the benefits of combinational use of mineral and organic fertilizers have been recognized (e.g. reduction of N losses (Neeteson, 1993); organic matter (Vanlauwe & Giller, 2006;Palm et al., 1996;Ding et al., 2012;Körschens et al., 2012); nutrient cycling in the system (Mkhabela & Materechera, 2003), long-term soil fertility improvement (Mkhabela & Materechera, 2003), increase in soil productivity (Parr & Colacicco, 1987); generate better yields than the sole use of mineral fertilizers (Ding et al., 2012;Kearney et al., 2012;Kismányoky & Tóth, 2013;Mucheru-Muna et al., 2007)), published work analyzing factors affecting the adoption of these combinational uses are rather scarce.Also, in this study, responsive/behaviour/preference parameters (betas) are analyzed specific to different farm/household types rather than uniform/ constant to the whole population. This way of analysis allows the capture of responsive heterogeneity. The study demonstrates the relationship between structural and functional typologies and the importance of consideration of them in regional farming system studies. In addition, the results can provide an empirical framework for scaling-out studies. Responsive heterogeneity has been considered in land use choice analyses (Le, 2005), but in only a few mineral adoption analyses (Vu & Frossard, 2014). However, Vu and Frossard (2014) work is in Vietnam where the background of fertilizer uses and the social and ecological conditions are very different from Burkina Faso. So far, it is hard to find a work similar to our study in SSA or West African dry land.Burkina Faso is an agriculture-based country where more than 80% of the population relies on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood (SPCPSA, 2013). Despite numerous policies and intervention measures, food security remains an issue and land degradation is a growing threat. There is a necessity of implementing efficient policies for combating land degradation and food insecurity. The results of this study pave the way for new ways of intervention in the agricultural sector for sustainable land management.In the first instance, the study contributes to knowledge of affecting factors of sustainable nutrient management. It shows that policies need to support the development of dry-season irrigation crops as an indirect way of increasing the use and adoption of Sustainable Nutrient Management (SNM). In the second instance, policies and intervention measures need henceforth, to formulate and implement welltargeted policy following the framework presented in this study. This will help to account for responsive heterogeneity and render policies and intervention measure more successful. As hinted by Rodenburg et al. (2021) for the adoption of Conservation agriculture practices, land management can be greatly improved in Subs-Saharan Africa by taking into account smallholder conditions and constraints, which implies accounting for their heterogeneities.Despite interesting results, the study presents some limitations. First, the study used only MLR and bilogit. It is important to also use a multinomial logit to explore the responsive heterogeneity and analyze the marginal effects of the variable. Second, besides inferential methods, the responsive heterogeneity could be also examined using non-parametric methods such as Participatory Rural Appraisal tools (PRA) nd decision tree analysis which can allow the capture effect of factors having less variation in sampled data (e.g. climate, prices).Successfully improving sustainable soil nutrient management and the sustainability of agriculture in most Sub-Saharan African countries is still a challenge for governments and other rural development stakeholders. Despite the improved management practices and technologies, adoption by farmers is still low; and a better understanding of how to leverage adoption by smaller farmers is needed. The findings of this study highlight the importance of considering responsive heterogeneity in adoption interventions.It demonstrated the relationship between structural and functional typologies and the importance of considering both of them in Burkina Faso in particular and in Sub-Saharan African age ecosystems in general. The study used cross-sectional data for the analyses. Given that land management is a dynamic process, there is a need to explore the responsive heterogeneity with time series data. More biophysical data (e.g. rainfall) could then be included in the analysis. The study used only objective data. Given the influence of social settings in human-environment relations, it will be good to take second steps including perception data. ","tokenCount":"5684"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b2515385da60c7f6578e78ea52a0f77c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f5038f15-3009-4025-a463-45bc7a6b09b6/retrieve","id":"-878038083"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9d330071-ff56-46f6-832c-d6d0f21384c3","pagecount":"9","content":"From 27th September to 12th October 2013 WorldFish facilitated a mission trip to Egypt for four scientists in the Safe Food, Fair Food (SFFF) project from West Africa who had been trained in participatory risk analysis under the capacity building component of the previous phase (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011) and with expertise on fish. This mission trip was to contribute to the overall project output of SFFF 2 (2012-2015): food safety risks in milk, meat and fish value chains assessed, communicated and better managed as part of an integrated CGIAR Research program for transforming smallholder productivity (Livestock and Fish). For work in the fish value chain, Egypt and Uganda had been previously selected by the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish. WorldFish had not yet set up for the work in Uganda (SFFF fish value chain); hence we decided to develop and pilot an assessment tool for evaluating risks associated with fish value chains in Egypt and hence adopt it further afield (e.g. Uganda) at a later point. The tools have been developed during a small mission in Egypt in Cairo and Abbassa (WorldFish field center), where the mission discussed with key staff, stakeholders and partners the design of the tool and the field work required to pilot it.International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). This project was designed to develop a harmonized toolkit for the assessment of food safety risks and nutritional benefits in CGIAR Research Program value chains. This was achieved through collaboration of scientists at the Royal Veterinary College in London and ILRI. This toolkit is now being applied in all SFFF project countries (Ethiopia, Mali, Tanzania and Uganda).Constraints of the mission were the fact that the SFFF scientists had never been to Egypt before. Since the aquaculture sector in Egypt is far more advanced than in Ghana or Côte d'Ivoire, it was difficult to sufficiently prepare for the mission, i.e. develop an appropriate sampling frame. Moreover, this mission was a first attempt of collaboration between two CGIAR centres, namely WorldFish and ILRI, in the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish value chains and an attempt to integrate two projects into overall value chain work. This proved to be a challenge to some extent due to misunderstandings in roles and internal administrative procedures.Despite all constraints and challenges, the mission contributed to further developing and refining tools that are now being applied in six CRP Livestock and fish value chains (four of them are SFFF project countries): http://safefoodfairfood.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/launch_ria/ In December 2012, the decision of the WorldFish leadership was not to go ahead with aquaculture value chain research and development activities in Uganda at present, but await developments in the sector and consider opportunities for interventions in future. This recommendation was formally endorsed by the Program and Planning Management Committee of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish in December 2012. WorldFish remains committed to continuing on-going activities in Uganda; however, for the time being, WorldFish is scoping for work in fish value chains elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa or Asia. We hope to contribute to the assessment and management of food safety risks once the country is selected through the application of the toolkit that has been developed.Possible research questions that evolved from the mission's work in October 2012, preliminary findings and the follow up mission in February 2013 are: Different practices of people without freshwater access (unlicensed) and people with freshwater access (licensed) risk assessment for tradition of eating fesikh (some info is already captured during the participatory risk assessment)  Consumer perceptions/ knowledge on farmed fish/ wild fish  Re-do the consumer survey in summer months (higher gastrointestinal occurrence)  Farm-raised tilapia is said to have low levels of omega-3 fatty acids (the essential nutrient why fish is recommended in a diet) and high levels of omega-6 fatty-acids due to the amount of those acids in the feeds.  To what extend is the tilapia aquaculture value chain pro-poor? Are more jobs created for the poor if production is intensified? Can processing/ filleting create more jobs for the poor? Can the poor consumers pay for processed fish? Is there a market for processed fish products such as nuggets?  Possible research/intervention study: develop database  Feasibility/impact study on BMP training of WorldFish (are farmers using the knowledge and what effect does it have?)  Effect of slow asphyxiation of live fish at the markets on fish quality  Effect of cooling method/ fish processing/ feed preparation and impact on microbial elimination and nutritional value of food  Understanding which product (and by-product) will suit which market; losses due to lack underutilization (discarding) of by-products (edible, not edible)  Costs of fish-borne disease (loss of work-days; treatment)  Losses due to condemnation in case of enforcement of food safety standards  Willingness to pay for qualityA recent value chain analysis of the industry revealed that the farmed fish value-chain in Egypt is strongly based on the production of tilapia and mullet, with little contributions from carp and catfish. The value chain was found to be short and simple, involving no processing (no value addition). Thus, harvested farmed fish are sold as-is, mostly either fresh on ice (in summer months or if sales are made far from farms) or fresh with no ice (in winter months and/or if sales are made close to farms), or alive (as with tilapia). Post-harvest losses are estimated to be less than 1%. The report however indicates some of the reasons for an unexpected poor performance of the sector such as the poor quality of fish fry; poor quality of water; poor practices with regards to feed management, farm design and construction, fish health management, and stocking densities; consumer preference for wild fish and a distrust of processed products; and poor fish hygiene and handling practices throughout the valuechain (WorldFish 2011).Although all these factors could affect the safety of fish sold to consumers, the analysis did not cover the food safety issues of the value-chain. To provide a needed addendum to the report, a team of five researchers with experience in participatory risk analysis of animal foods in Safe Food Fair Food 1, invited by World Fish Abbassa, came to Egypt from 27 September to 12 October 2012. The team consisted of Professor Kwaku Tano-Debrah, Food Scientist, University of Ghana; Mr Kennedy Bomfeh, Food Scientist, University of Ghana; Dr Yolande Aké Assi-Datté, Veterinary Researcher, Ministry of Agriculture/CSRS, Côte d'Ivoire; Mr Sylvain G. Traoré, Food Scientist, CSRS/University Abobo-Adjamé; and Kimberly Fornace from the Royal Veterinary College, UK.The main objective of this team before going to Egypt was to conduct a rapid participatory risk assessment on farmed fish in the country. The specific objectives were:(i) to determine potential chemical and microbiological hazards associated with farmed fish in Egypt; (ii) to determine the exposure of consumers to the identified hazards; (iii) to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of stakeholders in the value chain which may influence food safety risks associated with the chain.Discussions held with WorldFish upon arrival in the country brought the following issues into focus: i.Farmed fish in Egypt is generally considered unsafe for consumption among consumers; ii.Egyptian government legislation forbids the use of fresh water in aquaculture; iii.Officially, water supply to aquaculture comes from agronomic drains, suggesting that fish could be contaminated with agrochemicals; iv.No official scientific data was available on the safety of farmed fish.WorldFish subsequently indicated that their key research questions were: i. Is farmed fish in Egypt contaminated with food hazards? ii.What (safety) quality changes occur in farmed fish post harvest?WorldFish further indicated that official permits, which could not be procured within the period allotted for the study, were required to do useful field work. Scientists with the Centre also emphasized the difficulties in conducting (especially) consumer surveys within the time available for the study.Based on the new research questions and limitations on the ground, the team modified its study objectives to focus only on hazard identification. The new specific objectives were a. to determine some potential chemical and microbiological hazards associated with farmed fish in Egypt (see Annex 1); b. to assess the knowledge and practices of fish farmers that could influence the food safety risks associated farm fish.With the facilitation of WorldFish, the team collected fish samples from four points along the value chain, conducted a focus group discussion with some farmers, and was assisted to conduct a preliminary trader interview.Researchers at WorldFish indicated that Tilapia constitutes the bulk of farmed fish in Egypt, and is the most consume, therefore it was selected for study. Fish samples were collected from Kafr El Sheikh (KFS), the predominant farming governorate in Egypt, and Cairo, a non-farming governorate. Samples were collected from fish farms in Kafr El Sheikh, and from wholesale points, retail points, and street vendors in both both governorates. The sampling methods and the justification for each are described in Table 1. One focus group discussion was held with thirteen farmers (see Annex 2). WorldFish provided personnel to simultaneously moderate the discussions in Arabic and translate into English. The discussion was recorded for transcription.WorldFish also facilitated the administration of 10 questionnaires to retailers (convenience sampling) (see Annex 3). This was done to get some preliminary information on how retailer knowledge and practices might influence the safety of farmed fish.WorldFish will decide on the laboratory to conduct the analysis, and communicate the results to the research team upon completion of the tests. Within two weeks of receiving all the results, the team prepare a draft report of the study.Annex 1: List of parameters to be tested for ","tokenCount":"1584"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e4c12c7c52fe57afc92d1cb3d36ea537","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/83cdb2ac-d8e4-408d-a3c5-92284d745cc8/retrieve","id":"671987969"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1d5def24-985d-4431-8e16-77154b3bc660","pagecount":"48","content":"Within the new structure of CGIAR, new defined Research Programs should bring together the research synergies, strengths, and resources from multiple centers to increase efficiencies and enhance impacts in achieving global development goals. The Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) is one of these initiatives; it is led by the International Potato Center (CIP) together with the research centers Bioversity International, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD).Mixed RTB cropping systems are widespread in West and Central (W&C) Africa. Estimates of low yields are often made for component crops in these systems, although total system productivity is generally not estimated. A three-day workshop was organized to bring together a selected group of plantain and cassava agronomists, economists and sociologists from W&C Africa and diverse IARCs with experience and interest in cropping systems' intensification applied to mixed cropping systems. Mixed cropping systems with plantain were proposed as a case study, although tools and approaches could serve for other RTB cropping systems. The participants identified target cropping systems and proposed activities for methods and tools development in several areas: estimates of individual crop yields and total system yields, the identification of yield gaps and causal factors, estimation of the potential for system intensification and development of intensification alternatives. Experts critically reviewed selected research approaches and results and proposed new approaches addressing shortfalls of previous system intensification attempts. The workshop will make key contributions to the formulation of an RTB-Flagship and will result in a full proposal to generate improved tools and specific technologies for gender-friendly, pro-poor cropping system intensification. The full proposal will be designed to foster collaboration with the Humidtropics CRP.Mixed cropping systems are widespread in W&C Africa. RTB crops are common in these systems. Estimates of low yields are often made for component crops in these systems. Plantain yields, for example, are often only 4-5 tons/hectare, according to country statistics, far below plantain yields in monocultures with use of external inputs. Total system productivity is generally not estimated and off-farm input use, per crop, is often low. Yield gaps have recently been employed to measure the potential contribution of research on different technologies to farm household livelihoods. This approach provides valuable perspectives on the relative importance of diverse limiting factors of the yields of individual crops. However, addressing the potential for improvement of total yield of the system, of improving returns on production inputs in the system and of comparing relative returns to alternative uses of production resources may benefit from an expanded tool kit.The estimation of yields and yield gaps in mixed crop systems presents numerous challenges: total field productivity versus component crop yield; differing cycle lengths for different crops; potential complementarity among crops which increase overall production resource efficiency; and crops in the mixed system linked differently to men and women with different interests and access to resources. In addition, yield gaps for individual crops may not capture a full understanding of system resource or the interaction potential of crop combinations, some of which are at the core of agroecological intensification. The identification of the potential for system intensification may need an improved set of tools beyond individual crop yield gap limits which also need to be taken into account.With more comprehensive information on mixed systems, including individual crop yields and total field yield and an assessment of limiting factors in yield gaps and of the potential for overall system intensification, the challenge of how to research options and choices for system intensification remains. Even if systems were simplified to allow targeting only one or a small number of crops, increased input use (labor, fertilizer, plant protection, weed control) may be also be needed to increase productivity. Past research concentrated on single crops and single or a few combined interventions and thus did not address the complexity of existing systems. Part of the low productivity of individual crops may be linked to the complexity of the systems, comprising large numbers of crops (targeting food security for different seasons, risk reduction, commercial and food needs, leveraging scarce labor or land) and limiting intensification which usually requires specific inputs for a specific crop. New approaches may be needed that better address the farm household crop yield targets and clarify the returns to alternatives in terms of resource use, crop mixtures and the sequence of management changes. Approaches which take into account livelihood systems, including the role of gender, household dynamics and household differences in resource access and use, along with other socioeconomic factors, will contribute to a more realistic assessment of the potential to increase crop and system yields.The workshop provided a forum to discuss tool development for improved research in cropping system intensification in mixed crop systems, including the estimation of yields, yield gaps and intensification potential and for improved research to clarify alternative intensification approaches. How far such approaches are realistic and how much scientific basis for such approaches exists was elucidated in the expert workshop which used mixed cropping systems with plantain in West and Central Africa as a case study.Theme 5 of RTB provides an integrating framework for bringing together appropriate germplasm, pest and disease management and seed systems with better management of abiotic factors, including light, water and nutrients. Building on these multiple themes of relevance for mixed system improvement, RTB is well placed to develop suitable tools which contribute more comprehensive research in development frameworks. The sharpened gender perspective of RTB and the link to markets and processing can add much needed dimensions to more successful technology development. The recent incorporation of CIRAD to RTB as a full partner with their plantain research group and their increasing focus on ecological intensification contributes an important new dimension to RTB.The proposed workshop builds on literature reviews funded through RTB complementary funding on yield gaps conducted in 2012 and early 2013. The proposed workshop addressing yield gap synthesis is still pending and will be addressed as a component of the new proposal.In Cameroon for instance, among the largest plantain producers, the government has determined that the regional market for plantain is about twice as large as the current production. Plantain has a positive income elasticity thus people will spend more money on plantain as incomes increase. Both legal and physical trade barriers with neighboring countries are being removed to promote regional trade in plantain and other staples (largely roots and tubers). In Nigeria the government facilitates the so called Agricultural Transformation Agenda comprising cassava, yam and plantain. International trade in starchy staple products is increasing and cereal shortages could be bridged with RTB crops. However, current research tools and results have not generated successful models for cropping system intensification. Such tools and resulting research and development outcomes are a vital contribution to marketdriven rural income improvement from RTB crops.The workshop was organized in three sections. In the first section, participating countries provided an overview of plantain production systems in their countries, limiting factors and ongoing research. In the second section, invited scientists presented overviews of different methods to characterize mixed food cropping systems and to identify limiting factors. This section culminated in three working groups which provided input into the concept note. In the third section invited scientists presented the latest advances on research approaches to cropping systems intensification. Working groups identified research questions on the important cropping systems of their region. For each section a presentation prepared by the gender focal points from IITA and Bioversity was given to demonstrate the importance of gender and social relations and research methods. The content of each workshop section is provided in the following pages. Links to presentations are given in Annex 8.1.The inaugural session was chaired by Dr Amoncho Adiko, Director of research programs and development support of CNRA -National Center of Agronomic Research -Côte d'Ivoire, and National Coordinator of the CNS-Plantain -PPAAO/WAAPP project. He also introduced the relevance of plantain research in RTB for West and Central Africa. Thierry Lescot, an agronomist of the CIRAD banana and plantain program, and Dr Charles Staver, leading the Sustainable Musa Production and Utilization Program of Bioversity, welcomed the participants and introduced the RTB program and its efforts to improve plantain cropping systems intensification in the region. Thierry Lescot presented the agenda, purpose and objectives of the workshop. This session concluded with the self-introduction of participants. A complete list of participants is available in Annex 8.2 and the program is given in Annex 8.4.Dr. Sunday Oluseyi Akinyemi, of NIHORT, presented the plantain situation in Nigeria (see Annex 8.1.1).Dr. Beloved Mensah Dzomeku of CSIR-Kumasi, presented the plantain situation in Ghana (see Annex 8.1.2).Dr. Deless Thiemele, of CNRA, presented the plantain situation in Côte d'Ivoire (see Annex 8.1.3).Simon Keleke, of General Delegation to the Scientific and Technological Research (DGRST), presented the plantain situation in Republic of Congo (see Annex 8.1.4).Mathieu Lamah, of IRAG, presented the plantain situation in Guinea (Conakry) (see Annex 8.1.5).Dr. Moïse Kwa, of CARBAP, presented the plantain situation in Cameroon (see Annex 8.1.6).Due to the late arrival for the workshop for the representative of Gabon and Democratic Republic of Congo, the presentation of the situation for these two countries was made in group work: Mesmin Ndong Niyoo, of IRAF, for Gabon, and Germaine Vangu Paka, of University of Kinshasa, for Democratic Republic of Congo.Following overview countries presentations, participants were split into three groups based on regional group of countries and languages (French and English).• Group 1 (French, zone of 2.6 million plantain production tons) : RDC, Congo, Gabon and Cameroon • Group 2 (French, zone of 2 million plantain production tons): Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea • Group 3 (English, zone of 3.9 million plantain production tons): Ghana and Nigeria Each group discussed plantain production, main cropping systems and yields, main agronomic and socio-economic constraints and research situation in countries and selection of 2 to 3 reference zones for project activity development.Simplified country profiles regarding plantain status were developed, during the first working group session, based on information shared by the participants (summarized in Table 1).Dr Lindsey Norgrove, from the University of Basel (Switzerland), Department of Environmental Sciences (Biogeography), and consultant for IITA, presented (Skype presentation from Basel) her work on yield gap review of plantain production systems in West and Central Africa, work review made in March 2013 by contract of IITA in the context of RTB and Humidtropics programs. The link to the presentation is available in Annex 8.1.7.Dr Norgrove described the concept of yield gaps, based on actual yield, attainable yield and potential yield. Her review of experimental data confirmed the conclusion from plantain producing countries that yield data are not abundant. Virtually no data are available from farmers' fields. Trial data are from first harvest with almost no data on ratoon harvests. She identified certain practices which contributed to increased yield, including boiling water sucker treatment, potassium fertilization and mulching. Experimental yields are only 3.2 -7.8 tons/ha in researcher managed trials. Many plantain growing countries in WC Africa have national yields in that range. Dr Godfrey Taulya, from IITA (Kampala, Uganda), presented (Skype presentation from Kampala) the experiences on the estimation of yields and yield gaps in East Africa, specifically on the East African Highland banana group (AAA). Link to presentation is available in Annex 8.1.8.Dr Taulya described the method and some results of studies conducted by the IITA team in East Africa to identify yield gaps and limiting factors. The method is based on one time, repeated visit and farmer collected data. A key element in their approach is an allometric equation which allows an estimate of bunch weight based on plant characteristics. This is a particular challenge when different cultivars are planted in the study zone. He illustrated the results with boundary analysis, linking yield/hectare to specific factors, and bar charts with % plots suffering specific yield limitations ranging from climate to pests and diseases to soil and plant nutrition.Dr Sylvain Dépigny, from CIRAD (CARBAP-Nyombé, Cameroon), presented (Skype presentation from Douala) a study on the evaluation of agronomic performances of multispecies cropping systems based on plantains in one important zone of plantain production in Cameroon. Link to presentation is available in Annex 8.1.9. Dr Dépigny presented methodological challenges and results of studies conducted in farmers' fields to quantify total yield and plantain yield. His presentation highlighted the challenge of working in mixed food crop systems which are much less diversified in East African Highland systems than in food crop systems with plantains in West and Central Africa. In preliminary results, bunch weights varied from 4 to 28 kg with an average of 16 kg/bunch. He also described methods to characterize nearest neighbors of other species and to estimate of potential yield in monoculture by cultivar.Dr Guy Blomme, of Bioversity International (Kampala, Uganda), presented a study made in collaboration with the University of Kisangani (UNIKIS), the Catholic University of Graben (UCG -Butembo -DRC) and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven -Belgium), on plantain collection and morphological characterization in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A link to the presentation is available in Annex 8.1.10.Dr Blomme described studies on banana and plantain diversity in farmers' fields throughout the middle and upper Congo Basin. The data collected by nine MSc students and being analyzed by a PhD student shows very high plantain diversity in certain forest margins zones of Congo, although up to five cultivars in each region can be identified with greater importance for markets and in farmer fields.Anne Rietveld, of Bioversity International (Kampala, Uganda), presented an overview about understanding gender roles in cropping systems with plantain in West and Central Africa. A link to the presentation is available in Annex 8.1.11.Anne introduced the concept of gender and social relations, then provided a few examples from studies on plantain production systems in West Africa. She noted that few studies have been published and many studies suffer the classic weaknesses of aggregating all households members as farmers, interviewing only the head of household and considering that women headed households can represent all women. She also presented some guidelines for studies to be undertaken in a new proposal on cropping systems. These included: interviews with diverse members of household, gender-disaggregated analysis for household activities, not only agriculture and production activities, studies on use of resources, decision-making powers and access to benefits. In response to Dr Staver's initial question to the plenary, about important factors for differentiating zones in terms of plantain performance, participants responded as follows: rainfall amount and distribution, temperature and soils. Participants grouped graphs of monthly rainfall, temperature and potential evapotranspiration into three main groups: lowland monomodal rainfall; lowland bimodal, and lowland year round wet. A few stations were also presented with lower temperatures due to their increased altitude. The presentation closed with a set of slides on climatic zones for West and Central Africa using global weather data bases. Zones are proposed based on total annual rainfall, the length of the dry season and annual average temperature. Use of such zoning can help to plan regional research strategies. These maps are shown in the maps in Section 4 with potential pilot sites.Dr Philippe Tixier, from CIRAD (CATIE-Turrialba, Costa Rica), presented (Skype presentation from Turrialba), a specialist on banana cropping systems modeling, elements in modeling which assist the design of plantain based systems. A link to the presentation is available in Annex 8.1.13. Dr Tixier proposed that models should be designed to explore specific questions. He illustrated the use of models for looking at different strategies for soil fertility management, and for considering how varietal differences can be explored for different production systems and how mixed systems perform. The different questions involve different types of models. He concluded that at the moment models are not very well adapted to address pest and disease questions. He also concluded that models should use existing data as much as possible and be validated frequently and regularly with field data.Dr Marc Dorel, from CIRAD (Research station of Neufchâteau, Guadeloupe -FWI), presented the experience of research studies on ecological intensification with special emphasis of accompanying plants and agro-ecological services in intensive banana cropping systems. A link to the presentation is available in Annex 8.1.14.Dr. Dorel reviewed the concept of ecological intensification and explained that service plants provide services such as Nitrogen fixation, improvement of soil organic matter and greater diversity in soil faunal communities. However, such plants may also compete with banana for water and slow growth. The plants must also be adapted to changing conditions in terms of available light from initial banana establishment to full canopy development. He illustrated the proposal for service plants in intensive export banana production in the Caribbean. A fallow period with both grass and legume would contribute to suppression of nematodes. A cover crop would then be established which tolerates shade but is not extremely competitive with banana. Such conditions would contribute to suppression of such pests as nematodes and stem weevils.Dr Charles Staver presented an overview of experience on participatory research experience on agro-ecological intensification of banana production in Latin America, with special emphasis on systems intercropping bananas with coffee and trees, prototyping agro-ecological intensification systems by farmers and scientists. A link to the presentation is available in Annex 8.1.15.Dr Staver reviewed the results of a project for the development of agroecological approaches to improving farmer management of bananas in multi-strata perennial crop systems. The approach included a formal survey, participatory farmer learning and experimentation to test prototypes for how the multi-strata perennial crop with banana system could be intensified around concepts of agroecosystem processes and formal studies which provide useful decision criteria. He illustrated how light distribution could be improved based on studies of banana cultivar response to four light levels and the need of the coffee plant for good yields. Farmers and scientists then used this basic information to propose the planting distance and management of banana mats for optimum bunch size which did not disrupt coffee yields.Anne Rietveld presented her point of view on tools and methods on participatory approaches about cropping system intensification from a gender perspective. A link to the presentation is available in Annex 8.1.16.Anne addressed the question of how to address the differential effects of alternative technologies of women's access to benefits, use of resources which they control and their role in technology choice. She referred to a baseline study being carried out that would characterize gender norms and agency under different conditions and analyze the implications in each case for agricultural development. She illustrated with tools that contrasted women's versus men's roles in different crops and how men's and women's interests might conflict or overlap.Thierry Lescot (CIRAD) proposed a project structure on cropping systems intensification in five work packages (WP) for discussion:• WP1: tools/methods for objective data: productions/zones (CS), number of household, productivity (plantain + others), yield gap (potential/current), constraints (limiting factors: biotic, abiotic, socio-economics, etc.)• WP2: global and specific surveys (including field/lab trials to objectively demonstrate some constraints) Participants were split into the same three groups (regional group by countries by French -English languages) and asked to follow a discussion format.• Group 1: DRC, Congo, Gabon and Cameroon• Group 2: Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea • Group 3:Ghana and Nigeria1. Details to develop in WP1: tools/methods for objective data: productions/zones (CS), number of household, productivity (plantain + others), yield gap (potential/current), constraints (limiting factors: biotic, abiotic, socio-economics, etc.) 2. Details to develop in WP2: global and specific surveys (including field/lab trials to objectively demonstrate some constraints) 3. Details to develop in WP 3/WP 4.Indicate the three most prevalent cropping systems with plantain for proposed work sites:For every priority cropping system, propose a question relevant to cropping systems intensification to be addressed using each of the research categories below:• Replicated field trials • Participatory experimentation/prototype development • social studies • Modeling approaches (crop growth, component interaction, pre-prototype designing) • Economic studies.  5-What is the level of access to resources (land, knowledge, etc.), extension services, market by farmers? 6-Are there structural constraints or taboos that farmers face? 7-What are the opportunities given to men / women (gender in the broad sense) in decision making during participatory meetings? 8-What is the representation of women at the district level? 9-How to ensure the representativeness of the groups involved in the project Modeling approaches 1-What is the optimal combination of crops to get the best yields in a given production context (soil, light, climate, etc.). 4-What are the effects of changes in cropping systems on the relationships Male / Female? 5-What is the level of access to resources (land, knowledge, etc.), extension services, market by farmers? 6-Are there structural constraints or taboos that farmers face? 7-What are the opportunities given to men / women (gender in the broad sense) in decision making during participatory meetings? 8-What is the representation of women at the district level? 9-How to ensure the representativeness of the groups involved in the project -Sociology and anthropologyModeling approaches 1-What is the optimal combination of crops to get the best yields in a given production context (soil, light, climate, etc.). • Content for concept note will draw on:-Country presentations -Results of working groups on the characterization of major production zones -Analysis of agroclimatic zones and participatory zone formation -Technical visits and exchanges to monitoring and mutual learning;-Intermediate workshops based on working groups around specific modeling and field testing approaches to adjust and adapt proposed protocols;• workshop to review work completed, write up compendium of improved methods to develop ecological intensification of the main cropping systems, and plan agenda for next generation of cropping system intensification research and prototyping.• content of the concept note will draw on:-country presentations -analysis of agroclimatic zones and participatory mapping -working groups on research questions by cropping system/region Field surveys and field trials offer some insight into yield gaps and possible limiting factors. However, this information is preliminary and not linked to specific cropping systems and production zones; 3.Participants in the workshop agreed that women often play an important role in cropping systems decisions, invest their labor resources and may even have some control over resources, but quantitative and site-specific characterizations of social relations and mixed cropping systems with plantain are limited; 4.A range of tools are available for both diagnostic studies of yield gaps and limiting factors and cropping systems intensification research. While certain countries have active research programs dedicated to plantain, none have currently in place a strategy and financing for building the scientific basis and practical approaches for mixed cropping systems intensification with plantain. A major opportunity exists for a multicountry approach building bringing together RTB (IITA, Bioversity, CIRAD), plantain innovation platforms facilitated by CORAF, Innovate Plantain and country programs to build capacity and develop the first generation of prototypes for cropping system agrointensification.A pilot zone approach based on cropping systems and different climate zones was visualized with up to 8 pilot sites from the forest zone of Guinea to Kisangani in DRC. These sites also coincide with emerging action sites of Humidtropics and with BBTD recovery sites for RTB. 6.The workshop participants proposed to take an 'Alliance' approach to present a research and development project on improved cropping systems intensification in mixed RTB systems with plantain in West and Central Africa. Grantees (CIRAD, Bioversity International and IITA) will develop a four-year research and development proposal for submission to RTB funding in 2014. This Alliance among RTB advanced research centers and country partners in West and Central Africa proposes to coordinate and carry out the project. ","tokenCount":"3903"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ebb95ea737fad70c6b1641126f536513","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1925fde9-d4bf-4bdd-96ab-5e751db05589/content","id":"-1521563350"},"keywords":["BLUP, Best linear unbiased prediction","cGBS, conventional genotyping-by-sequencing","CIMMYT, The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center","CML, CIMMYT Maize Line","EHH, Extended haplotype homozygosity","GWAS, Genome-wide association study","IF, Flotation index","LD, Linkage disequilibrium","MAF, Minor allele frequency","o2, opaque-2","PEV, Popping expansion volume","tGBS, tunable genotyping-by-sequencing EigenGWAS, GWAS, maize adaptation, popping traits, quality traits, tropical maize landrace"],"sieverID":"dd73d647-5190-4484-b6a9-11602bcf8808","pagecount":"14","content":"Popcorn (Zea mays L. var. Everta) is the most ancient type of cultivated maize. However, there is little known about the genetics of popping-related traits based on genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) technology. Here, we characterized the phenotypic variation for seven popping-related traits in maize kernels among 526 CIMMYT inbred lines (CMLs). In total, 155 083 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were identified by a GBS approach. Several traitassociated loci were detected by genome-wide association study for color, popping expansion volume, shape, pericarp, flotation index, floury/vitreous, and protein content, explaining a majority of the observed phenotypic variance, and these were validated by a diverse panel comprising 764 tropical landrace accessions. Sixty two of the identified loci were recognized to have undergone selection. On average, there was a 55.27% frequency for alleles that promote popping in CMLs. Our work not only pinpoints previously unknown loci for popping-related traits, but also reveals that many of these loci have undergone selection. Beyond establishing a new benchmark for the genetics of popcorn, our study provides a foundation for gene discovery and breeding. It also presents evidence to investigate the role of a gradual loss of popping ability as a by-product of diversification of culinary uses throughout the evolution of teosinte-to-modern maize.Maize originated in Mexico about 9000 years ago (Matsuoka et al., 2002;Piperno et al., 2009). Maize landraces named \"ancient indigenous\" include Chapalote, Palomero Toluqueño, Arrocillo and Nal-Tel, all originating from Mexico, directly from Teosinte (Zea species), and are known for their ability to pop (Wellhausen et al., 1952). Since the earliest wild and cultivated forms of maize are all popcorn types, popcorn (Zea mays L. var. Everta) from Mexico is considered to be the most ancient maize type, and its genome sequence should contain the most comprehensive sample of genomic variation of maize (Vielle-Calzada et al., 2009). In 2009, Mexican scientists sequenced the popcorn landrace called Palomero Toluqueño (popcorn from the Toluca area, west of Mexico City, in the state of Mexico) (Vielle-Calzada et al., 2009), but these data could not be used to study popcorn genome characteristics and structural variation, due to the short contigs generated by the sequencing technology available at that time. Therefore, to our knowledge, there has been no genomic characterization of popcorn until now.The Maize HapMap (version 2) shows that genomic structural variation is enriched near the regions associated with traits (Suo et al., 2012;Liu et al., 2016a). Thus, the discovery of quantitative trait loci (QTL) by genome-wide association analysis is not only beneficial for the analysis of the genetic structure of complex traits, but also for the in-depth study of genomic structural variation (Huang et al., 2010). Still, many questions about the process of maize domestication remain unclear because modern maize specimens do not represent the full range of past diversity. This is due to the abandonment of unproductive landraces, genetic drift, on-going natural selection, and recent breeding activities. The complex evolutionary history of maize (Zea mays L. ssp. mays; Matsuoka et al., 2002;Chia et al., 2012;Kistler et al., 2018) still needs to be clarified by studies of genetic diversity in materials that bridge the gap between teosinte and modern maize. This could include materials such as archaeological cob remains from different stages in the domestication process (Ramos-Madrigal et al., 2016), as well as the most ancient types of maize (Vielle-Calzada et al., 2009).Popcorn plays a key role in the history and spread of maize, so it is critical to understand the genetic basis of an ancestral trait such as popping, which is shared with the crop's closest common ancestor. However this trait was subsequently lost, as other kernel types were selected in Mexico during domestication, primarily for diverse culinary uses.Currently, there are several methods for phenotyping popping-related traits in popcorn, as well as other races of maize with similar properties. Popping volume, defined as the popped volume per 100 kernels, is the most important popping-related trait, which has been measured in all popping-related publications (Robbins and Ashman, 1984;Dofing et al., 1990Dofing et al., , 1991;;Daros et al., 2002;Lu et al., 2003;Babu et al., 2006;Li et al., 2007aLi et al., , 2008Li et al., , 2009)). In addition, flake size, popping rate, percentage of unpopped expansion (defined as the flake volume per popped kernel), the ratio of popped versus unpopped kernels, and the number of unpopped kernels per 200 kernels after popping, were evaluated in a few studies (Babu et al., 2006;Li et al., 2007aLi et al., , 2008Li et al., , 2009)). Even though there has been considerable work on popping characteristics, the different measurement conditions and standards have led to conflicting results and only served to increase the difficulty of further research. Some of the methods employed a specific amount of vegetable or animal oil to facilitate the cooking of the popcorn kernels in containers. Other methods utilized a microwave oven, simulating the way popcorn is cooked in small grocery stores, fast food restaurants, homes, etc. For example, different sample quantities of kernels (weights and numbers of kernels) were chosen to measure popping volume, including 40 g (Daros et al., 2002), 75 g (Robbins and Ashman, 1984;Lu et al., 2003), 100 kernels (Li et al., 2007a(Li et al., , 2008(Li et al., , 2009)), 150 g (Dofing et al., 1991), and 200 kernels (Babu et al., 2006). Different popping machines were also used, combined with different treatments: (i) Cretors 1100-W popper (Cretors Co., Chicago, IL) using 50 g of partially hydrogenated soybean oil (Dofing et al., 1990(Dofing et al., , 1991) ) or 25 ml peanut oil (Robbins and Ashman, 1984;Lu et al., 2003) to pop each sample; (ii) BZ-99 popping machine (Shanghai Duoli Food machine building company, Shanghai, China; Li et al., 2007aLi et al., , 2008Li et al., , 2009)); and (iii) microwave ovens with a variety of different powers, a 700 W Litton (Dofing et al., 1990) and 900 W power (Daros et al., 2002;Babu et al., 2006). A comprehensive dissection of popping characteristics would require that a standard and widely accepted popping measurement protocol be developed.The genetic variation of popcorn has been studied using bi-parental populations and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers (Babu et al., 2006;Li et al., 2007aLi et al., , 2007bLi et al., , 2008Li et al., , 2009;; see Supplementary Table S1 at JXB online). In these studies, both the restricted diversity of the parents and low marker density limited a comprehensive dissection of popcorn genetic variation. Current sequencing technologies are both high throughput and highly accurate, thus providing an opportunity to more thoroughly dissect the popcorn genome, and reveal the genomic variation that underlies the evolution and domestication of maize. Here we apply conventional genotypingby-sequencing (cGBS), which is a technically simple, highly multiplexed approach (Elshire et al., 2011) that has been applied to many crops (Poland et al., 2012;Lu et al., 2013;Morris et al., 2013;Schmutz et al., 2014), and used to study the genetic architectures of many phenotypic traits in maize (Riedelsheimer et al., 2012;Romay et al., 2013).A number of studies have focused on popping volume and the genetic relationship between this popping characteristic and yield (Dofing et al., 1991;Daros et al., 2002;Babu et al., 2006;Li et al., 2008). However, efforts to unravel information on the ability of quality traits to contribute towards superior popping expansion volume have been very limited. Quality traits are critical to determine the basis for popping ability in popcorn. For example, starch and protein contents have been reported to greatly influence popping ability (Brunson, 1937;Haugh et al., 1976;Robbins and Ashman, 1984;Da Silva et al., 1993;Park and Maga, 2002). Zhou et al. (2016) analyzed the relationship between quality traits and popping ability by transferring the O2 gene into two popcorn inbred lines: they found that the o2 gene reduced the crude protein content and the expansion volume. Li et al. (2020) recently reported the genome sequence and annotation of a South African QPM line K0326Y, identifying a mutation of o2 that suggests a potential role in vitreous endosperm formation. Vázquez-Carrillo et al. (2019) found a positive correlation between protein and expansion volume, a negative correlation between starch or floury/vitreous ratio and expansion volume, and a negative correlation between protein content and percentage of unpopped kernels and popped kernel size. These findings on popping quality traits are purely phenotypic correlations, and the specific genetic mechanism underlying these traits, for example, the number and map locations of the genes that affect popping quality characteristics throughout the genome, as well as the interactions among them, are still not well understood, and require further study.Therefore, in this study, to characterize the genetic basis of popping-specific traits, we performed the following: (i) conducted GWAS on seven popping-related traits in 526 CIMMYT (The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) inbred lines (CMLs) using 155 083 high-quality cGBS SNPs; (ii) validated the expansion-volume-related loci in a diverse set of 764 tropical landrace populations; and (iii) tested if the loci associated with popping-related traits had undergone selection. The results of this study create a new resource for popcorn genetics to dissect the origin and evolution of maize.A set of 529 CMLs released by CIMMYT's Maize Breeding Program from 1960 to 2017 (http://hdl.handle.net/11529/10246) was used as an association mapping panel. Field experiments were conducted at Mexico, including those at Agua Fria, El Batan, HA, Palmira, RL, and Tlaltizapan, based on the adaptation groups. Each accession was planted in a single 1 m row with 30 cm spacing between rows (Supplementary Table S2). DNA was extracted from leaf tissues for each sample using the Cetyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide (CTAB) method (Murray and Thompson, 1980). This panel was genotyped for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using conventional genotyping-by-sequencing (cGBS) at the Institute for Genomic Diversity, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA (http://hdl. handle.net/11529/10423). In total, there were 955 690 SNPs retained, and their physical coordinates were derived from the maize reference genome version B73 AGPv2 (https://www.maizegdb.org/genome/ genome_assembly/B73%20RefGen_v2). Imputation was performed with Beagle (V4.1; Browning andBrowning, 2007, 2016), using the following parameters: window=50 000, overlap=3000, iterations=5, and clusters=0.005. From this, a smaller dataset of 155 083 SNPs that met the filtering criteria of call rate (CR)≥0.4, heterozygosity≤0.1, minor allele frequency (MAF)≥0.05, and Mendelian-transmitted markers was used for GWAS; three samples (CML342, CML529, and CML539) with a missing data rate ≥90% were removed (Fig. 1). Linkage disequilibrium decay was calculated using PopLDdecay (Zhang et al., 2019) with the filtered dataset.The CMLs were planted at different locations in Mexico according to their adaptation, and the resulting seeds were harvested and deposited in the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank. For popping evaluations, the methods from two previous studies were used (Erazo-Barradas, 2009;Rangel et al., 2011). A detailed description of the procedure for popping and phenotyping popcorn seed accessions stored in CIMMYT's maize collection is available at http://hdl.handle.net/11529/10548274. The sample quantity was 30 g of kernels. Kernels with 13% moisture content were used, to promote gelatinization of the endosperm cells during the popping process, and to ensure that the maximum efficiency was obtained in expansion (Erazo-Barradas, 2009;Rangel et al., 2011). The kernels were placed in a controlled environment of a germination chamber with the following conditions: 70% relative humidity and 21.1 °C for 10 d in order to reach the 13% moisture content (Hallauer, 2000). The samples were then popped individually using a microwave oven (110 V; output power 1000 W; consumed power 1400 W) set at 70% power for a cooking time of 2 min 45 s.The predominant color of the popped kernels, denoted as color, was identified empirically and recorded as (1) cream or (2) white (Costich et al., 2020). The popping expansion volume (PEV) refers to the absolute volume of 30 g of popped kernels, and was measured using a graduated cylinder (Erazo-Barradas, 2009;Costich et al., 2020). The shape of the popped kernels, denoted as shape, was described with a qualitative 1-5 scale as follows: (1) mushroom or ball shape; (2) flake shape a little more extended (less rounded); (3) unilateral expansion; (4) bilateral expansion; and (5) multilateral or \"butterfly\"-shape (Costich et al., 2020). The degree of pericarp retention, denoted as pericarp, was measured with a quantitative 1-5 scale, as follows: (1) popped kernels retaining between 81-100% of the pericarp, (2) 61-80% pericarp retention, (3) 41-60%, (4) 21-40%, and (5) 0-20% (Costich et al., 2020) pericarp retention. Flotation index (IF) is the number of kernels that floated in a NaNO 3 solution [ρ=1.250±0.001 (1.251 to 1.249) mg ml -1 ]. Floury/Vitreous was defined as the ratio of floury to vitreous endosperm types. Six kernels per replicate were randomly selected for scanning. The resulting images were analyzed and the areas of floury and vitreous endosperm were measured by WinSEEDLE (Regent Instruments Canada Inc.). As a result, the ratio of the area of floury versus vitreous endosperm was calculated for each kernel, and the average value was used for further analyses. The percentage of protein was evaluated using a near-infrared spectrometer (NIRs) FOSS 6500 (FOSS NIRSystems, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, USA). Spectra were collected between 400 nm and 2500 nm, registering the absorbance values log(1/R) at 4 nm intervals for each sample (Rosales et al., 2011). These four popping specific traits (color, PEV, shape, and pericarp) and three quality traits (IF, floury/vitreous, and protein content) were measured at CIMMYT Headquarters (El Batán, Mexico) in the Maize Nutrition Laboratory \"Evangelina Villegas\", with two replications (Table 1).For all seven traits, best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) were calculated by fitting the following random model using the \"lme4\" package in R (De Boeck et al., 2011): where Y ij is the trait observation for entry i in replication j; Entry i is the random effect of entry i; Rep j is the random effect of replication j; and ε ij is the residual effect. The graphical display of trait correlation was done with the corrplot() function by Pearson correlation coefficient from the R package \"corrplot\" (Wei and Simko, 2013). Variance components, i.e. σ 2 G and σ 2 ε for genotype and residual effects were estimated from analysis of variance (ANOVA) with QTL IciMapping V4.2.23 (Meng et al., 2015). Broad-sense heritability (H 2 ) of each trait was estimated as:where r is the number of replications (=2 in this study).To minimize false positives and increase statistical power, population structure and cryptic relationships were considered. An iterative usage of Fixed and random model Circulating Probability Unification (FarmCPU; Liu et al., 2016b) performed by Memory-efficient, Visualization-enhanced, and Parallel-accelerated Tool (MVP; https://github.com/XiaoleiLiuBio/ MVP/), was used for the association analysis, where the first three principal component analysis (PCA) values (eigenvectors) were included as fixed effects in the mixed model to correct for stratification (Price et al., 2006). To determine the cutoff level for declaring the significance of loci, the P-value threshold was determined using permutation tests with reshuffling of the PEV trait 1000 times. After log 10 transformation, a -log 10 (P-value) threshold of 6.46 was used for an experimental type I error rate of 0.05. To balance the false positives and false negatives, the whole-genome -log 10 (P-value) significance cutoff was finally set at 5. The total phenotypic variation explained by all of the significant SNPs was estimated by the coefficient of determination R 2 from multiple linear models using the \"lm\" function in R (Chambers and Hastie, 1992). Functional annotations of the target SNPs were performed using SnpEff (Cingolani et al., 2012). The maize B73 reference V2 gene annotation was downloaded (as a gff3 file) from the Maize Genetics and Genomics Database (MaizeGDB; https://www.maizegdb.org/assembly). Based on the genome annotation, SNPs were categorized as being located in coding regions (i.e. overlapping with a coding exon), splice sites (within 2 bp of a splicing junction), 5′ UTRs and 3′ UTRs, intron, upstream and downstream regions, and intergenic regions. SNPs in coding regions were further grouped into synonymous SNPs (not causing amino acid changes) or non-synonymous SNPs (causing amino acid changes, including stop gain and stop loss). Functional enrichment analysis of the annotated genes was performed using the ClueGO plug-in for Cytoscape 3.6.1 (Bindea et al., 2009).Identification of potential selective signals during maize domestication and improvement through genome-wide association studies of eigenvectors was implemented using the bottom-up searching strategy EigenGWAS (Chen et al., 2016), which is a single-marker regression approach based on principal component analysis. EigenGWAS identifies regions of the genome underlying population genetic differentiation in any genetic data where the underlying population structure is unknown, or where the interest is in assessing divergence along a gradient. Using 155 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/72/4/1307/5929754 by guest on 03 December 2021 ten eigenvalues and their corresponding eigenvectors (i.e. Ev1 to Ev10) were calculated. SNP effects, nearly equivalent to fixation index (F st ) (Wright, 1951), could be estimated by regressing each SNP for a selected eigenvector. To exclude the effect of genetic drift in selection loci mapping, the p-value was adjusted by a genomic control factor (Devlin & Roeder, 1999), and consequently the corrected p-value, P GC , was used for detecting the loci under selection . The SNPs with the top 5% of P GC values (i.e. P GC <0.0266) were considered to have undergone selection.A total of 764 heterogeneous and heterozygous tropical landraces originating from 20 countries was used in validation (Supplementary Table S3; Li et al., 2019), all of which can be found in the CIMMYT Gemplasm Bank collection (http://mgb.cimmyt.org/gringlobal/search.aspx). The origins of these landraces represent diverse ecological regions including lowland tropical, sub-tropical/mid-altitude, and highland tropical subgroups, which were planted in Celaya and Tlaltizapan in 2016 (Table S3). Tunable genotyping-by-sequencing (tGBS ® , Ott et al., 2017) provided higher SNP calling accuracy, especially at heterozygous sites, with less missing data than conventional genotyping-by-sequencing (cGBS) with the same number of reads per sample (Ott et al., 2017). This was achieved by two strategies: (i) two restriction enzymes were used in tGBS to digest the genomic DNA with overhangs in an opposite orientation, which ensures only double-digested fragments are amplified and sequenced; and (ii) additional adjustable selective nucleotides of primers were used in PCR amplification: this offers an additional genome reduction. The 12 selfed seeds of F 1 from a single ear for each accession that was selected to be representative of the accession, were grown in the greenhouse, and the DNA from the seedlings bulked for tGBS sequencing in Data2Bio.In total, 0.31 terabases (Tb) of sequence data from 2.5 billion qualitytrimmed reads were generated via tGBS ® (Ott et al., 2017). We identified 3 713 115 SNPs after alignment to the reference genome B73 AGPv3 (https://www.maizegdb.org/). Of the 3 713 115 tGBS SNPs, 65 540 were retained after filtering for MAF and heterozygosity. The 65 540 tGBS SNPs were imputed without a reference panel using Beagle (V4.1). To further capture the genetic variation across the maize genome, the 65 540 SNPs from tGBS were also imputed to 359 618 high-quality SNPs using maize HapMap V3 as a reference panel (https://www.maizegdb. org/genome/genome_assembly/B73%20RefGen_v3). Finally, the union of the two SNP sets (N=414 124 SNPs) was filtered by MAF and heterozygosity under the same criteria as aforementioned, resulting in 355 442 high-quality SNPs which were retained for validation.To conduct tGBS, the restriction enzymes NspI and BfuCI were used to digest the genomic DNA; while the single restriction enzyme ApeKI had been used to generate the cGBS data (Elshire et al., 2011). Consequently, tGBS and cGBS identified very different sets of polymorphisms in the two datasets (CMLs versus tropical landraces). Because the CMLs were genotyped using the cGBS platform, and SNPs were called by B73 AGPv2, to validate the significant loci associated with the seven traits identified by CMLs, the physical positions of B73 AGPv2 were converted to those of B73 AGPv3 by http://ensembl.gramene.org/Oryza_sativa/ Tools/AssemblyConverter?db=core. An extended haplotype homozygosity (EHH) test was conducted for the target SNPs within a 2 Mb region, identifying long and frequent haplotypes as implemented in the R package \"rehh\" (Gautier and Vitalis, 2012). Color, PEV, shape, and pericarp for each accession were measured at CIMMYT Headquarters (El Batán, Mexico), and were used to determine the extreme phenotypes, and to validate the QTLs identified in the CML population (Supplementary Table S3).The average MAF for the final selected dataset (n=355 442 SNPs) was 0.22 and the heterozygosity was 0.02. The heterozygosity of more than 98% of the SNPs was lower than 0.05 (Fig. 1A, B). The 155 083 SNPs are relatively evenly distributed across the 10 chromosomes (Supplementary Fig. S1), and average missing rate was 0.58. (Fig. 1C). In addition, the decay of linkage disequilibrium (LD) with physical distance between SNPs occurs at only 1.5 kb (decaying to r 2 of 0.1) (Fig. S2). Principal component analysis revealed that there was a moderate population structure (Fig. S3): the panel included 30 tropical highland, 215 sub-tropical/midaltitude, and 284 tropical lowland inbred lines, three samples with high missing rate were removed (Fig. 1D). Clear clustering based on adaptation was observed, while the tropical lowland group overlapped partially with the sub-tropical/ mid-altitude group (Fig. S3). The tropical highland and tropical lowland populations were relatively scattered, indicating that there exists broad genetic variation within this set of 526 CMLs (Fig. S3). The passport information of 526 CMLs is shown in Table S2. Further information about these lines can be found at this site: https://data.cimmyt.org/dataset.xhtml? persistentId=hdl:11529/10246.The correlations of BLUP values are presented in Fig. 2. Most traits were continuously and normally distributed, and hence presumed to exhibit quantitative inheritance (Supplementary Fig. S4). A wide range of phenotypes was observed, ranging from 50 ml to 680 ml for PEV, 0.28 to 4.01 for floury/vitreous, and 8.61-16.48% for protein (Table S4). A number of significant pairwise correlations were observed. For example, PEV was consistently, significantly, and positively correlated with pericarp (r=0.50, P<0.01) and popcorn shape (r=0.48, P<0.01), and significantly and negatively correlated with IF (r=-0.35, P<0.01), Floury/Vitreous (r=-0.39, P<0.01), and protein content (r=-0.25, P<0.01), confirming previously reported correlations between PEV and kernel quality traits (Vázquez-Carrillo et al., 2019). Therefore, harder kernels, with a higher proportion of vitreous endosperm, and less protein content, will produce a greater expansion volume (PEV), more pericarp retention and a more \"butterfly\"-like shape. In addition, the broad-sense heritability (H 2 ) of the seven poppingrelated traits ranged from 0.63 for floury/vitreous to 1 for color (Fig. 2), since the two replicates for color measurements were exactly the same.Each of the inbred lines was genotyped via cGBS, and SNPs were called using standard methodologies (see Methods). Subsequently, a GWAS was performed independently for each of the seven examined traits (i.e. color, PEV, shape, pericarp, IF, floury/vitreous, and protein content) using FarmCPU based on 155 083 SNPs (Supplementary Fig. S5). There was a significant peak on chromosome 6 for color with P value of 2.25E -38 (Table 2, Table S5, Fig. S5). The top SNP, S6_82019628, is a synonymous variant in PSY1 (GRMZM2G300348), encoding a phytoene synthase. PSY1 has been previously reported to reduce the carotenoid pigment content in maize endosperm, owing to a 378 bp InDel upstream of its transcription start site, and an SNP in its fifth exon that results in a Thr-to-Asn substitution (Fu et al., 2013). This example highlights that our genotypic and phenotypic data can be analyzed via GWAS to yield functionally informative results about maize physiology. GWAS with these polymorphisms identified 162 SNPs distributed across the genome that were significantly (-log 10 P>5) associated with popping-related traits with P-values ranging from 9.88E -06 to 2.25E -38 (Supplementary Table S5). Fifteen SNPs related to PEV identified from the GWAS were found to be located within previously reported QTLs for popping expansion volume in maize (Table S5). For example, S1_55451772 was located at qPEV1-1 (Li et al., 2008), S1_253277924 and S1_253277948 were in the region of qPV1-3 (Li et al., 2007a(Li et al., , 2009)), and S3_213803780 was within qBPV3-1 (Li et al., 2009). Of the 162 significant SNPs, 15% were annotated in intergenic regions, 43% SNPs were in the upstream and downstream regions, 12% SNPs were in the intron regions, and 30% were in coding regions, splice sites, 3'UTR, and 5' UTR regions (Table S5, Fig. 3A). In total, 118 known genes were mapped by the significant SNPs. Following Gene Ontology analysis we found that most genes are involved in metabolic and biosynthetic processes (Table S5, Fig. 3B). The functions of most of these genes (n=101) have not been defined (Table S5). Therefore, the functional annotations of the remaining 17 are displayed in Table 2. For example, ZP15, related to color, is a zein-beta precursor; UWM46912 encodes a photosystem II 11 kDa protein; regulatory protein viviparous-1 (VP1) and cryptochrome 1 (CRY1) affect PEV; and UWM10642, which encodes an F-box protein, is associated with protein content (Table 2).Pleiotropic genes play important roles in understanding correlations among phenotypes (Chen and Lübberstedt, 2010), but loci simultaneously controlling multiple popping-related traits have seldom been reported (Li et al., 2008). To dissect the genetic architecture of the correlations across different traits, we analyzed the association networks among the seven examined traits. We found that floury/vitreous and pericarp shared a common significant association, SNP S7_82404867 (Supplementary Table S5). This finding was consistent with the correlation pattern of the traits, as shown in Fig. 2: a significant correlation was observed between PEV and pericarp (r=0.5, P<0.01), PEV and protein (r=-0.25, P<0.01), and floury/vitreous and pericarp (r=-0.15, P<0.01). PEV was connected to pericarp and protein content by SNPs S2_96341835 and S2_217692527. These results suggest that the popping-related traits might be genetically co-regulated.To better understand the popping-related traits, we estimated the proportion of the phenotypic variance explained by significant SNPs, which averaged 43% across the seven traits, ranging from 28-83% (Fig. 4 and Supplementary Fig. S6). For the most important trait, PEV, 58 associated signals explained 48.84% of the phenotypic variance. For color, 26 significant loci explained 83% of the phenotypic variance. For the other five traits, associated SNPs explained less than half of the total observed phenotypic variance (Fig. S6).EigenGWAS was conducted to examine the selection loci for 155 083 SNPs based on 526 CMLs for the top ten largest eigenvectors (Fig. 5). The mean of genetic relatedness across CMLs was -0.0018, indicating that the effective sample number was 547.76 for the collection, and the effective number of genome segments was 651.34. As a result, we identified 60 677 loci (top 5%) under selection, distributed on 10 chromosomes, with the highest number of significant loci (i.e. 11 211 SNPs) on chromosome 1. Of 162 popping-related loci, 62 were identified to have undergone selection . PEV had the most significant loci with 28 under selection, with six for shape and two for pericarp (Figs 6, 7). These results indicated that most of the popping-related loci had undergone selection. Distribution of the SNPs varied considerably across different traits, with PEV having the highest numbers of SNPs (n=58), and protein content, the lowest (n=12 SNPs; Figs 6, 7). Of the 48.84% of the phenotypic variation explained by QTLs controlling PEV (Fig. 4), 20.90% could be explained by SNPs associated with PEV, exhibiting evidence of selection (Supplementary Fig. S7). For color, this proportion is two-thirds (61.44% of 83.19%), around half for shape (16.09% of 27.64%), 37% for protein (12.59% of 34.13%), a quarter for IF (10.97% of 44.37%), and less than 10% for pericarp and floury/vitreous (Fig. 4, Fig. S7). To evaluate the variation for alleles that promote popping in non-popcorn CML inbreds, we calculated the accumulated frequencies of favorable alleles that promote popping for each CML. The results showed that on average, CMLs contain 55.27% of the alleles that promote popping, with 507 lines harboring over 50% of the alleles (Fig. S8).To validate the popping-related loci, EHH analysis of two PEVrelated loci (S2_93806542 and S6_63434708) was conducted in the set of 764 landrace populations. We narrowed down the candidate region on chromosome 2 to a 7 Mb region with 16 genes from 91 435 963 bp to 98 827 228 bp by linkage disequilibrium analysis (Fig. 8A). We evaluated the EHH values for 100 accessions with the largest PEV and 100 accessions with the lowest PEV (Supplementary Table S2) EHH tests showed that  the S2_93806542-A haplotypes extended further than the reference S2_93806542-T haplotypes, depicting the long-range haplotype homozygosity across the region of S2_93806542-A haplotypes. Large differences in PEV were observed between the two tails (100 accessions each) of the 764 landraces for the S2_93806542-A haplotype and the S2_93806542-T haplotype groups (Fig. 8B, C). Similarly, there were large differences in PEV between the S6_63434708-C and S6_63434708-A haplotypes in the same 100 top and bottom ranking accessions (Fig. 8D, E). These data from a separate set of populations validate the associations observed between the SNPs and PEV in the CMLs.A large scale genetic study on popping-related traits by whole genome sequencing At present, genetic studies of popping-related traits are limited to conventional SSR markers. For example, Lu et al. (2003) used 259 SSR markers and 160 selfed plants of the backcrossing families (BC 1 S 1 ) derived from popcorn and dent  (Li et al., 2007a(Li et al., , b, 2008(Li et al., , 2009; Supplementary Table S1). As we know, SSRs are normally non-genic markers, while many SNPs are intragenic (Shi et al., 2013). Therefore, the genomic loci identified by cGBS are more likely to represent variations in the causal genes of popping traits. As a result of our study, 162 popping-related loci were identified for seven poppingrelated traits by cGBS, which comprehensively incorporated most of the previously known quantitative loci for popping expansion volume (Fig. 7, Table S5). A large proportion of the phenotypic variation was explained by the identified SNPs associated with PEV (Figs 4, S6), which indicates that the additive model can accurately predict PEV. In view of this result, it is helpful to improve the accuracy of prediction and accelerate the breeding cycle by incorporating numerous small-effect QTLs in genomic selection. A synergy among popping-related traits was also uncovered, which indicates that the popping characteristic is a complex trait, determined by many factors. Due to the different sequencing platforms and versions of the reference genome employed in this study, of the 162 popping SNPs identified by the cGBS platform using B73 AGPv2 as a reference genome, only five loci could be projected to the tGBS platform using B73 AGPv3 as reference genome, and only two out of five loci could be validated in the set of 764 tropical landrace populations. The deciphered and validated genetic architecture of popping-related traits will provide  S5.   phenotypes were used to map the popping-related loci and test if they had undergone selection (Li et al., 2019). With this very limited description of phenotypic variation of popping performance, Li et al. (2019) failed to find popping-related loci under selection.To improve the analysis, in this study a comprehensive, quantitative measurement of kernel traits was performed. As a result, we were able to identify 162 SNPs associated with the kernel traits that we measured, of which 62 (38%) exhibit evidence of having been under selection. For seven traits, more than 30% of the significant SNPs exhibit evidence of selection, except for the percentage of pericarps. Those traits (and the percentage of SNPs) are color (46%), PEV (48%), shape (40%), IF (38%), protein (33%), and floury/vitreous (31%; Fig. 6). Given the effects of environmental and climate factors on maize adaptation (Li et al., 2019), a different number of selection loci has been detected on seven traits. The reason is perhaps due to the varying selection pressures presented by the environment and climate change, and different preferences of different human groups. In total, 42-66% of the alleles for kernel traits that promote popping were found across CMLs (Supplementary Fig. S8). It suggests that selection of popping characteristics was gradual, which is consistent with the findings of Ramos-Madrigal et al. (2016) for other traits.The results shown in this study, therefore, provide a foundation for further paleogenomic and molecular biology research and pinpoint the importance of environment and climate for popcorn adaptation.In this study, the 162 identified loci that we identified incorporated all of the previously known loci associated with popping-related traits. Beyond that, 147 loci were reported here for the first time. We discovered that non-popcorn inbreds (CMLs) contain variation for alleles that promote popping. Thus, our study represents a new benchmark for genetics in popcorn, and moving forward, should be helpful in dissecting both evolutionary and functional hypotheses. Specifically, it will guide efforts to determine the genetic basis of popcorn physiology, evolution, and history, assist gene discovery and breeding, and provide a more detailed understanding of the role of gradual popcorn domestication during the evolution of teosinte-to-popcorn-to-diversified modern maize. Genome sequences contain all kinds of information that control and influence biological functions. In this study, genetic variation was aligned to the B73 reference genome which has its own unique selection history. The development of the other goldstandard temperate maize genomes, Mo17 (Sun et al., 2018) and W22 (Springer et al., 2018), and especially the tropical maize genome SK (Yang et al., 2019) and quality protein maize (QPM) maize genome K0326Y (Li et al., 2020), provide valuable resources for us to increase the proportion of potentially useful genomic variation, and to characterize the phenotypic variation of popping-related traits in a more comprehensive framework in the near future.","tokenCount":"5502"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"13123e5d8cfc6d01657646735f92aeab","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/FTA/Spatial-Metadata.pdf","id":"427023689"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2e0bd6d4-ee93-4e7f-9927-b34bcd787a8b","pagecount":"8","content":"These guidelines and procedures has been developed consistent with the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets and by the CGIAR's commitment to Open Access, and explain how to implement spatial metadata practices. This document provides guidelines and procedures on developing spatial metadata -from entering metadata to providing spatial metadata documentation.This is a supplementary document and provides practical information to better understand and implement the spatial metadata profile specified in the CIFOR RDM Guidelines and Procedures (15 January 2020).Spatial metadata or geographic metadata can be defined as metadata applicable to geographic data and information. This metadata can be stored along with geospatial data (vector and raster format) or may be listed in a separate document. There are many standards for geospatial metadata, including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata standards. This document adopts (ISO) 19115-1:2014 -Geographic Information -Metadata as the standard for developing geographic information or spatial metadata. According to ISO, core elements of information that should be provided in spatial metadata are as follows:1. Spatial representation, this information supports the provision of metadata identifying the mechanism of modelling real world phenomena in a digital dataset.2. Lineage, this information supports the provision of metadata concerning the sources and production processes used in producing a dataset or resources.3. Distribution information, this record supports the provision of metadata about the distributor and options for obtaining a resource.4. Content information, this record supports the provision of metadata identifying the content of a resource.5. Constraint information, this record supports the provision of metadata concerning the legal and security constraints placed on resources and metadata about resources.Reference system information, this data supports the metadata identifying the spatial, temporal, and parametric reference system(s) used by a geographical resource.• Set the culture of practice based on guidance, and delegate specific responsibilities as appropriate;• Are accountable for ensuring that, should they leave their organization during the life of the project, the data stays with the project.• Maintain records of geospatial metadata and ensure these records and the geospatial metadata are securely stored;• Make the spatial metadata available to other researchers via open or negotiated access, as appropriate and in accordance with the requirements of research funding bodies and CGIAR Open Access and Data Management Policy;• Ensure that, where projects span several institutions, an agreement is developed at the outset covering the ownership and storage of geospatial metadata within each institution in accordance with CGIAR Open Access and Data Management Policy;• Ensure that adequate back-up, archival and monitoring strategies are in place to prevent the loss of geospatial metadata, and associated delays in completing research.• As subject specialists, must understand the technical framework underlying spatial metadata records development;• Responsible for creating and maintaining the metadata and for its quality;• Oversee and implement geospatial metadata development procedures;• Ensure overall validity of the geospatial metadata and information gathered to achieve a complete metadata profile.• Compile and validate metadata that are stored in data or separate documents to ensure metadata follow rules and metadata profiles;• Upload and generate services from data and provide information about meta-service for accessing and downloading data -(if data is approved for publishing in the geoportal).• Responsible and accountable for all data access made through their user accounts and the subsequent use and distribution of the metadata.It is mandatory for GIS specialists to create metadata for geospatial data during data production. The initial step for metadata creation is to enter information by using a Metadata Entry Tool (MET) such as ArcCatalog or CatMDedit.MET provides the ability to create, read, update and delete metadata records for the geospatial data based on the ISO metadata standard and profile. Following the rules for creating metadata (Annex 1) and core metadata profile (Annex 2), suggested spatial metadata entry procedures are as follows:a. Check the geospatial data and determine data type (standalone or time series);b. Understand the metadata profile and framework of the metadata standard, including mandatory and optional elements;c. Collect additional information that should be essential for completing the metadata profile prior to metadata entry;d. Enter metadata based on the profile and fill in information for mandatory and optional components. Mandatory elements to be filled in are as follows:• Title, abstract, and data presentation;• Date of creation and publication;• Geographical extent and reference system;• Keywords, topic, theme, flagship, priorities, and project relating to geospatial data;• Distribution, responsible person, organization, and contact information;• Data constraint, limitation, status, and maintenance information;• Sources and procedures for creating the geospatial dataset (lineage).e. Recheck metadata entry and generate metadata in xml format.In order to carry out metadata profile validation and compliance procedures, xml files are important for validation against the ISO 19115 standard.Metadata validation is the testing and checking of metadata to ensure compliance with the standard's requirements. MET provides the facility for validating metadata based on a selected scheme, such as ISO 19115. The metadata creator and/or metadata validator is responsible for conducting metadata validation. Suggested steps for validating metadata are as follows:1. Select the scheme or standard to be used for metadata validation. METs such as CatMDedit provide several schemes, but it is recommended you select ISO 19115.2. Validate the item's metadata with the metadata style's XML scheme to ensure the metadata complies with the standard.3. If any errors are reported in the tool's messages, identify the problem. If a validation error indicates there is a problem with a metadata profile (Annex 2), look up the appropriate section in the metadata standard document.4. Edit the item's metadata. Add any missing information and correct any values that have the wrong data entry.Recommendations for correcting errors can be found in Annex 3.5. Click the Save Metadata Edits button to save changes and stop editing the item's metadata.Repeat steps 1 to 5 until no validation error messages are reported.On an ongoing basis, ensure the metadata is adequately maintained and kept up to date. Documentation is required if any interventions and/or improvements are made to the geospatial metadata during maintenance processes. If the metadata is created and stored separately from the dataset, the metadata file's storage location should be documented to ensure it can be accessed and displayed together with the spatial data.To provide easily understood information for potential users of CGIAR FTA sources, free text entries are available for some metadata fields, such as abstract, lineage and description of data quality. Hence, for some data elements, such as theme and FTA's flagship, code lists are specified.Obligations for data elements are mandatory or optional. Mandatory elements must be completed, whereas doing so is not always necessary for optional elements. The optional status may be applicable for several reasons. For instance, if the element is not relevant, or if its value is unknown.Some metadata elements have a range of allowable values called domains. For example, range of elevation (positive integer).Spatial references Spatial references are the key for geographic data presentation in the FTA geoportal, and the basis for searching by location. A consistent set of spatial references enables data for searching.Dates of data, including creation and publication dates are the main information determining the data's lifecycle. City where the responsible organization is located MCountry where the responsible organization is located MTelephone number of the responsible organization using the format: + (country code) --(area code) --(number) OFacsimile number of the responsible organization using the format: + (country code) --(area code) --(number) OAgent or agency responsible for making the dataset available in the current form VName of the person in charge of publication OName of the publisher MLocation for accessing the publisher online using a Uniform Resource Locator address or similar addressing scheme OAddress of the electronic mailbox of the publisher or individual OStreet name and number or PO Box of the publisher OCity where the publisher is located MCountry where the publisher is located M Other information required to complete the citation that is not recorded elsewhere OInformation about the events, parameters and source data or technique used in constructing the dataset OBrief narrative summary of intentions with which the dataset was developed OAny other object or descriptive information that have direct or indirect relationship with the dataset ONarrative information about the status and readiness of the dataset VStatus of the dataset. Choose one of the following:In process MInformation about dataset maintenance and update frequency. Choose one of the following:3 Keyword information Description of the dataset by using formalized systemSubject matter used to group dataset into similar or its main theme MName of the formally registered thesaurus or a similar authoritative source of keywords MCommonly used word(s) or phrase(s) used to describe the dataset MTheme information of dataset OFTA flagship information about the dataset OInformation on FTA priority O Name Description ObligationAccess restrictions applied to ensure protection of privacy or intellectual property, and any special restrictions or limitations on obtaining the dataset. Choose one of the following:Brief description of limitation(s) affecting fitness for dataset use MProvide a description of the format and/or media by which the dataset can be obtained OInformation about protocol and connection for online access VConnection protocol to be used OFile name and location of the dataset for online access OInformation about offline media through which the dataset can be obtained VFile name and location of the dataset for offline access OEstimated size of the dataset in a specified transfer format. Expressed in megabytes OInformation about the dataset's spatial representation and reference system 6.1. Geographic extent Description of the geographic name or location for which data is available. Example: Asia, Borneo, etc. MInformation about the spatial reference system used for the dataset VName of the projection system and/or datum used to project the dataset into a plane MMinimum bounding rectangle within which the data is available, expressed by a set of coordinates for the polygon VThe westernmost coordinate of the limit of the dataset extent MThe easternmost coordinate of the limit of the dataset extent MThe southernmost coordinate of the limit of the dataset extent MThe northernmost coordinate of the limit of the dataset extent M Projects using the data as input for project activities. This could be obtained/ purchased from a third party or from other projects V ","tokenCount":"1679"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d9d835b29c1dfb7d1d0951d1dd7bb770","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f770fa95-6c02-47e6-b097-440050d3bb1a/retrieve","id":"-36977109"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ff14c932-e214-4944-a93d-497c7da5be1c","pagecount":"36","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Brucella spp. infects multiple animal species, including cattle, pigs, small ruminants, camels, water buffaloes and yaks. Different species of Brucella infect different animal species, but most have the potential to infect humans, with some species of the organism causing more disease than others.Brucella infection rates in some developing countries can reach greater than 10% of the human population, making it a serious public health disease. Brucella causes disease in animals, impacting production, causing abortions in pregnant females and reducing male fertility. The most common method by which humans are infected is through ingesting unprocessed milk products from infected animals. However, direct contact with infected animals and meat can also be a source. Therefore, the goal of this workshop was to work with appropriate personnel to develop improved diagnostic surveillance techniques and control strategies for livestock on a country basis. Specific topics that were covered included:• Transmission of infection from animals to humans (public health) • Epidemiology: prevalence, impacts and transmission among animals • Laboratory biosafety practices • Diagnostic assays: serology and organism identification to assist in developing surveillance programs • Vaccination strategies • PolicyIn addition, potential research collaborations for Brucella were investigated. Collaborative research will provide long-term engagement programs for improving the control of brucellosis in the various countries and provide important support to scientists working on Brucella. The workshop provided the organizers and participants with critical information on this frequent human pathogen contracted from domestic animals.The anticipated outcomes of the meeting included:• Knowledge and understanding of the status of Brucella surveillance and control in the participating African countries • Identification of gaps in surveillance, monitoring and control in animals • Potential strategies to begin implementing surveillance and possible control strategies Participants There were 69 participants including the organizing committee and invited speakers. The participants and organizers were from 16 countries, 13 of which were in Africa. The list of participants is included in Appendix 1.A copy of the workshop agenda is included in Appendix 2.The meeting was opened with welcoming remarks from Eileen Thacker as the head of the organizing committee, Azage Tegegne representing CGIAR (for ILRI), Abdelkhalik Montasser for the African Union -Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), Eileen Herrera for USDA-ARS and John Graham for USAID.The morning session included overviews covering all aspects of brucellosis that would be the topic of discussion throughout the workshop. Online links to the presentations are included in Appendix 4.Eileen Thacker gave an introductory presentation on \"Brucellosis: The bugs and the disease\". The history, clinical signs, treatment and basic control strategies were covered with the take-home message that to prevent brucellosis in humans, we must eradicate it from animal populations.Steve Hennager gave a presentation on the \"Differential diagnosis of brucellosis serological reactions\". He discussed antibody detection assays for milk and serum and the positive and negatives of each type of test.John Kaneene presented on the \"Epidemiology of brucellosis in ruminants: The basics and dynamics of the disease\". He discussed the host ruminants as well as the reservoir hosts that can maintain and transmit the infection to other species. He discussed modes of transmission, both to other animals and humans. Outbreak investigations and the steps needed to conduct a successful investigation were covered. He concluded with outbreak control and monitoring methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the control measures.Anani Adeniran Bankolé presented on \"Brucellosis risk assessment\". He discussed using risk analysis as a tool to provide decision-makers with an objective and documented assessment. Risk assessment requirements for brucellosis included imports (commodities), surveillance (also related to importation), microbiological assessment for food safety, and human infection (primarily from food).Steven Olsen gave a presentation on \"Beneficial approaches for controlling brucellosis\". In his presentation, he discussed the components of a control program which would include surveillance, vaccination, quarantine or removal of infected animals (risk reduction), sanitation, trained personnel, complete and accurate records, movement control and regionalization of the control. He noted that usually vaccination for Brucella is controlled and vaccination alone will not eradicate brucellosis. He also discussed the basics of the other control strategies listed above. He summarized brucellosis control strategies as needing to be coordinated and committed within a regulatory framework. The benefits of control include reduced human disease, greater economic returns for livestock owners and possible trade opportunities.Bassirou Bonfoh gave a presentation on the \"Economics of brucellosis\". He discussed the ongoing research on brucellosis in his institute (Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifique, CSRS) and the importance of livestock in assisting people to get out of poverty and providing protein. He covered possible methods to determine the economic considerations and the link of disease data to production and human health costs. The presentation included a very comprehensive discussion about the economic cost/benefit of controlling brucellosis.Joseph P. Kozlovac presented on \"Laboratory biosafety and biosecurity issues related to Brucella research and diagnostics\". Since brucellosis is the most common laboratory acquired infection, he discussed the types of safety techniques and equipment needed for diagnostics and research. This included defining safety risk groups and measures to control aerosol spread. He also discussed personal protective equipment, occupational health and surveillance measures that could also help minimize the risk of infection to laboratory workers.Stella Kiambi discussed \"One Health units and brucellosis in Kenya\". In her presentation, she began by describing Kenya's geographic and demographic statistics, including the number of animals in the country. She defined One Health as \"the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment\" (AVMA 2007). She went on to discuss how many diseases are zoonotic in nature and therefore, the Zoonotic Disease Unit (ZDU) has been established to collaborate on controlling these diseases. The ZDU is a joint effort by the Kenyan Ministries of Public Health and Sanitation, and Livestock Development. The ZDU has been conducting a study of brucellosis using a seroprevalence survey in animals and humans to identify the factors of infections and determine the socio-economic impact of the disease in both populations. They are currently in the first phase of the study and it is going well.Abdelkhalik M. Montasser gave a presentation on \"Background of AU-IBAR and brucellosis: Past, present and future in the Middle East and Africa\". He discussed the mission/mandate and goals of AU-IBAR in providing leadership and support in the development and utilization of animals to enhance economic growth, food and nutrition security and poverty reduction in Africa. AU-IBAR's strategic programs include reducing transboundary and zoonotic diseases, conserving and sustaining natural resources, improving investment and competitiveness of animal resources, improving knowledge management and facilitating development of policies and institutional capacities for improving animal resource utilization. He provided interesting statistics on brucellosis in Africa where 40 of 54 African countries are known or suspected to be positive, 20 countries consider it a major problem, 10 a moderate problem and 10 a minor problem. All Middle Eastern countries have brucellosis so regional control is needed. He reiterated the need for improved surveillance and control, primarily through vaccination. In conclusion, he discussed possible future control strategies that would be important to improve the overall health of animals and humans.Delia Grace provided an \"Overview to the Meeting\". She discussed how brucellosis had been identified in early skeletal remains in South Africa and has remained a problem since. Africa is an agrarian society with many farmers, livestock and consumers, and meat is a preferred source of protein. Women play an important role in livestock farming, and wildlife is uniquely important and can be a risk. Overall, there is a high level of apparent disease yet low levels of reporting. There have been over 800 studies on brucellosis in Africa with an average prevalence in animals of 10.5% and 8% in humans. Brucella has been isolated from almost every species of animal. The goal of this workshop was to begin identifying the gaps in knowledge and share experiences in strategies that work and those that haven't been successful. She hoped that the workshop would lead to plans, proposals and new investments in addressing brucellosis in Africa.After the opening session in the morning, the participants attended two breakout sessions. The first session had four breakout groups, namely,• Diagnostics: Serological screening tests;• Epidemiology: Large ruminants;• Vaccination and control for small ruminants; and • Biosafety.The second session had three breakout groups:• Diagnostics: Confirmatory tests;• Epidemiology: Small ruminants; and• Vaccination and control for large ruminants.Summary reports of the breakout sessions are included in Appendix 3.The second day started with a general session focused on research. The research plenary session was opened by Eileen Thacker who welcomed the participants back to the meeting. This was followed by presentations from a few selected speakers: Eric Fèvre and William de Glanville presented on research on zoonoses in western Kenya and surprising results from investigations on brucellosis prevalence. Fèvre discussed a study in the western Kenya where smallholder crop-livestock production systems were sampled intensively and comprehensively over a 2.5 year period. He showed a very detailed sample flow chart for collecting and recording samples from the field and slaughter houses. A cross-sectional survey was conductedsampling cattle, pigs and goats in approximately 450 households -along with a questionnaire. Full clinical examinations were performed which included collection of blood and serum and faeces along with biobanking material for genetic studies. In collaboration with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), an additional cross-sectional study of human samples was conducted from people that did and did not live with livestock. De Glanville reported on a serological study for brucellosis using a lateral flow assay as a primary screening test. In the study, 2116 people and 893 cattle were tested for Brucella antibodies. In these studies, brucellosis appeared to have a low incidence and it was suggested that the incidence of brucellosis was being over diagnosed.Edward Ssekawojwa, Uganda, presented on \"Risk factors for Brucella seropositivity in cattle, goats and humans in Mbarara\". Mbarara is a major livestock producing area with both pastoral and agropastoral types of livestock management systems. In the study, 1535 cattle and 812 goats from 98 farms were sampled. In addition, 161 humans from Brucella-positive farms and 168 individuals from Kampala were tested serologically. Animal samples were screened using the Rose Bengal assay with confirmation using a cELISA test. Human samples were tested using plate and standard tube agglutination tests and the cELISA. The percentages of positive animals and herds were reported. It was determined that several factors -including a pastoral production system, herd size and incidence of abortion -were risk factors for livestock. Consumption of raw, unboiled milk was significantly associated with seropositivity in humans. Recommendations to reduce the incidence of human brucellosis included public awareness, discouraging the consumption of raw milk and addressing the pastoral production system.Tujuba Jergefa Oncho presented on an epidemiological study of bovine brucellosis in Ethiopia. The level of brucellosis in Ethiopia is not well established due to conflicting reports. The study included three districts in Ethiopia and consisted of sampling local cattle over six months of age. The study included serum from 1238 animals and 176 households across three types of environment: lowlands, mid highlands and highlands. Rose Bengal plate and complement fixation tests were used to assay the samples. A questionnaire was included in the study. The study found that the overall seropositivity of bovine Brucella was low but varied by region. Breed and management practices were found to be important risk factors. There was low public awareness of brucellosis and clinical disease. It was recommended that a comprehensive and coordinated epidemiological study be performed in Ethiopia to formulate a policy. In addition, regular testing of animals, testing and culling practices, and increased education are needed.William Mwebembezi presented a case study on the \"Prevalence of antibodies against Brucella among breeding goats in relation to source\". The government of Uganda has a program to supply breeding goats. There has been past evidence of Brucella in the area, so it was proposed to carry out an audit and recommend animals for purchase. The objective was to screen potential breeding goats for brucellosis and to compare the prevalence of infection between goats obtained from markets and those from farms. Goats in the study were identified by ear tags and tested for Brucella by the Rose Bengal plate test. A total of 7739 goats were tested and 13.4% were positive. There was a wide range in disease prevalence and source of goats was found to influence disease status, with goats from markets having a higher percentage of seropositivity.After the plenary research session in the morning, two additional breakout session periods were held, with a repeat of the sessions held the previous day to enable participants to attend as many different sessions as possible. The reports of the breakout sessions are included in Appendix 3.On the final day, 31 January, the session was chaired by Bassirou Bonfoh from CSRS. Presentations were given by representatives of the three organizing institutes.The way forward following this workshop has to be directed by the African participants. USDA does not have a program specifically for supporting international research, but it has a program on international co-operation. Through this program, funding sources can often be identified for developing collaborations. The USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) can provide support and training. Brucellosis is very important to the USDA. From past experience, we know eradication is not easy. Participants can count on USDA support as they go forward.She thanked the participants for their energetic and enthusiastic participation in the workshop which demonstrated their serious interest as well as willingness to learn from each other and work together. USAID employs one veterinarian in headquarters in the Disaster, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance office as well as Yirgelem Gebremelski in USAID Addis, Jeffrey Austin and Andrew Clark in the East Africa Regional office, Nairobi and Connie Bacon in the West Africa regional office, Senegal.Bilateral The way forward: What are we going to do following the meeting?In the next part of the session, the facilitator asked groups by African region what they would do as the way forward.East Africa \"We will convene into groups using administrative heads to meet and develop the details on the basis of which funding can be obtained and control started. We will take forward the findings and recommendations of the meeting. We will inform decision-makers on the importance of this disease and try and bring the stakeholders together. The next time we meet we will come with progress reports.\"\"Compared to some other countries, brucellosis is relatively under control but the meeting has highlighted some possible gaps. We have taken notes and will take these forward.\"North Africa \"We will contact colleagues in veterinary services to share the information we have received. We will try and start up a preliminary study for one or two states.\"West Africa \"There is much to do on this disease. We will transfer the information we have learned and try and maintain a relation between the West African countries for working together on brucellosis.\"\"Thank you for convening this very important brucellosis meeting. It has exceeded my expectations in the level of information sharing. My take home message: RB 51 and S19 are tools that can help for diagnostics and control. I came with many questions and I go home with more confidence in applying diagnostics and control. A second point is that for control, we are at different levels. I was re-assured that targeting high prevalence levels can help control. We have a challenge: the need for a platform for sharing information and we need to think how we can use the networks we have. If USDA has succeeded in bringing us here, we can do the same for the future. We need a toolkit for economic assessment for zoonotic diseases to go alongside the epidemiological tools. Finally, we thank USDA, ILRI and USAID for this meeting.\"In conclusion, Eileen Herrera thanked the organizing committee (Eileen, Irlene, Joyce and Delia) and the ILRI staff who facilitated the meeting (Hailu, Rahel, Getachew and Isaiah). • Impress upon governments that brucellosis needs to be addressed through surveillance and control strategies • Provide adequate compensation to enable positive animals to be removed from the herds • Education to reduce consumption of raw milk and dairy products, overcoming cultural practices • Developing effective and affordable vaccine strategies at the regional level • Lack of a DIVA vaccine• Continue to develop a network of researchers/animal authorities to collaborate with research which will provide hard data for government use  4) identify other major observations. The two breakout sessions had very robust discussions and while various positive activities had been reported by participants in relation to biosafety and laboratory biosecurity, participants from both breakout sessions identified similar challenges and gaps related to general biosafety and biosecurity issues as well as those specifically related to work with the causative agents of brucellosis.• Information on current international biocontainment practices for work with Brucella• Current facilities and containment equipment for diagnostic and research laboratories• Current practices and use of personal protective equipment• Biosafety and laboratory security training needs• Current national and institutional biorisk management practices and structures• The major needs for improving biosafety or biorisk management practices in each country• Kenya/Kabete: Biosafety Level (BSL)-2 lab, diagnostic work• KEMRI/CDC: Handle rabies, flu, rickettsia, Brucella; BSL-3 and BSL-2 labs• Kenya/DVS: BSL-3 lab, RVL, avian influenza (AI), brucellosis samples• Kenya/ZDU: Public health units do no direct work in lab.• Kenya/WHO: Serves as a focal point, no lab• Kenya/ILRI: Has a BSL-2 lab. Human and animal biological samples. Routine diagnostic• Ethiopia/National Animal Health Diagnostic Lab: BSL-2 and BSL-3 labs. The Food and Agricultural Organization constructed a BSL-3 lab. Interested in developing the ability to work on zoonotic diseases. East African reference laboratory for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and Newcastle disease. Also bacterial serology lab on Brucella.• Egypt/Central Lab: Vaccine development, diagnosis, Brucella, BSL-2. Working on construction of a BSL-3 lab.• Egypt/University of Cairo: Teaching veterinary public health, culture and diagnostic lab.• Cote d'Ivoire: Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL). Diagnosis of bacterial diseases. Biosafety cabinets in labs. No lab classifications.• Tanzania: Was CVL, now an agency (Veterinary Laboratory Agency) with 20 centres. Central lab and vaccine production. Brucellosis and tuberculosis diagnostics. Centre for Infectious Diseases and Biotechnology (BSL-3).• Uganda/Makerere University: Makerere University Walter Reed Project -Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory, a BSL-2 laboratory with IsoArk, is situated within the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity. It is involved in surveillance of emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance. It also provides support to microbiology laboratories in hospitals which are the sentinel sites for antimicrobial resistance surveillance in Uganda.• Uganda/National Agricultural Research Organization: Livestock research. Culture, serology and work with zoonotic diseases. Have budgeted for Mycobacterium bovis, B. abortus, E. coli.Working to reach enhanced BSL-2 capacity. Chairs biosafety group.• Nigeria/National Veterinary Research Institute: Diagnostics, vaccine production, extension. Department of bacterial research for brucellosis, BSL-2. BSL-3 for avian influenza. A reference laboratory for avian influenza for West Africa.• Nigeria: Research: no containment/standard wet lab• Ethiopia/Addis Ababa University: Microbiology lab but does not meet international biosafety requirements.• Safety and laboratory equipment failure/part replacement/maintenance.• One common issue identified by participants was that available funding for livestock and agricultural laboratories was extremely minimal in comparison to human health. In most countries where laboratories have containment equipment like class II biological safety cabinets, it is difficult to maintain and annually certify them in accordance with internationally recognized standards.• A common identified problem related to equipment and facilities in general was power availability/disruptions. In addition to electrical grid availability, alternatives and the cost of installing, maintaining and fueling backup generators tends to be prohibitive in many cases.• Within countries or even on a regional basis, life science organizations should communicate various ideas and approaches.• Coordinate and synchronize times among institutions and within countries or regions for maintenance solutions to reduce service vendor travel costs and scheduling conflicts.• Evaluate the potential mechanisms to share certification costs such as utilizing collective bargaining (more than one institution) for contracting services with relevant vendors.• Train and develop local capacity for maintenance and certification of laboratory equipment• Train scientists to perform routine maintenance but not certify or repair equipment.• Waste management capacity varied widely among countries and facilities for both solid and liquid biohazardous waste generated as part of diagnostic and research work.• Solid biological/medical waste often needs to be transported to remote locations for treatment (typically incineration sometimes as far as 100 km away, according to Ugandan colleagues). In many countries, the government labs have capacity for solid biohazardous waste management but academic labs lack capacity. For example, in Ethiopia in the university setting, biohazardous waste is left for cleaners which causes an increased risk of occupational exposure to this category of staff who are not necessarily trained on risks and appropriate procedures. Based upon the discussion, many universities are doing research on brucellosis and other aerosol-transmitted diseases but have no facilities to adequately treat and dispose of infectious waste.• Liquid waste is a particular problem. Untreated waste water ends up draining into main water bodies. Central liquid waste treatment for a facility is an expensive investment beyond most research and diagnostic facilities.• At the lab level, evaluate the ability to use available technology for point of use decontamination (for example, under sink continual flow systems). Labs can consider collecting liquids and autoclave or chemically treat this type of waste prior to disposal into a sewage system. There are some existing systems that exist that can treat this type of waste flow that are fairly cost effective.• Kenya: Has developed legislation on biosafety which governs how waste is disposed. Typically use a coloured bin approach to segregate wastes. Each district hospital is equipped with an incinerator for solid biomedical/medical waste.• Nigeria: Has a standard means of containing waste and transporting to an incinerator. There is a well-established process for handling waste and the individuals who handle waste are trained.• Potential to utilize regional biosafety associations to raise awareness and conduct training on biohazard waste disposal issues.• Availability and cost of shipping materials is an issue as well as ensuring everyone involved in the transport is adequately trained. Maintaining chain of custody and cold chain of samples (impacts quality of samples and tissues received) is an ongoing challenge especially as it relates to ground transportation (which utilizes public transportation in some cases). Triple packaging is not utilized in many countries.• Evaluate the potential to ship samples via designated vehicles in villages. These could be operated by trained drivers/carriers on designated routes to transport samples to the laboratories.• Tanzania: Capacity of labs is challenged. Two vets and two technicians in a zone (52 districts). At district level, there are veterinary centres. The zonal lab provides packaging services for samples.• Partner with other laboratories and via biosafety associations for provision of training and support for sample transportation issues.• Need to identify core competencies needed for individuals working with Brucella species and identify what level of training is needed for each level from technicians to senior leadership.• Level of legislation/regulation/standards varies a great deal between countries and regions as does the political will to address biosafety issues related to Brucella work.• Access to appropriate personal protective equipment and the training to use it properly is needed.• There is a need to change biosafety culture within African institutions; in many cases accidents and illnesses not reported due to concerns about negative repercussions.• Ethiopia: University PhD student. Universities need training, infrastructure needed.• Establish biosafety associations in countries or encourage institutions to join the existing African Biosafety Association. These groups can serve as focal points to share information as well as educate and influence national and regional bodies with the goal of establishing national and regional policy infrastructures.• Develop competency standards for individuals working at various containment levels for biosafety.• Partner to train the trainers (internal and external)• Set up a biosafety training program for Africa: One suggested course of action was to present the issue to the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) hub at ILRI to create a biosafety training/forum as a new initiative. There was some robust discussion as to whether the BecA hub was the best fit for this initiative. Some of the participants expressed that a forum minimally at the level of East Africa was a positive idea and should allow discussion between neighbouring countries regarding biosafety activities.• Uganda: Determine the economic costs of disease in humans and animals and perform risk analysis on risks from disease; legislation to make brucellosis reportable; concrete data on human/animal disease • Côte d'Ivoire: Concrete data on the disease in humans and animals using a One Health approach • Kenya: Sensitization and awareness creation; active surveillance and information on prevalence across the entire country and then establish strategy; coordinated database • Small ruminants are often neglected • Brucellosis in goats is probably an important source of disease across East Africa • Need to involve economists, sociologists and gender specialists in evaluating economics and feasibility of control • A farmer-supported control scheme for brucellosis in small ruminants may not be viable and require subsidization based on public health concerns• The problem of brucellosis in small and large ruminants and wildlife is intimately connected and needs to be evaluated in an integrated way • There is a need for a safe, cheap and effective vaccine that does not need a cold chain storage • We need to create awareness of the disease first, then talk about control next • Surveillance and control based on prior data from multiple diseases may be the best way to develop plans to control this disease.• In most countries of Africa, there are more goats than sheep and goat meat is very popular. The husbandry can be viewed in two ways. One where goats are kept separate and the other where they are mixed with cattle and/or sheep, depending on the availability of land. Therefore, disease control strategies need to consider these differences of husbandry. • In many countries, women own most of the goats • Goats are mainly used for meat, money or festivals; a niche market for goat milk is developing• Brucellosis in small ruminants is not recognized by many as a significant disease so need studies to determine status • Prevalence of brucellosis in goats needs to be established as well as the risk to human health • Confirmation of field observations suggesting that brucellosis spills over from intensive farms to surrounding small ruminants • Role of dogs and wildlife in the transmission of the disease needs to be established • The lack of diagnostic ability to type brucellosis agent makes accurate diagnosis and control difficult• Need more epidemiology but needs to be incorporated into a strategy • Need a better understanding of transmission and health risks • Need to have greater rationale for control -human health, poverty, gender, export • USAID has a program to harmonize regulatory systems for a number of diseases • AU-IBAR is working at the regional level due to the importance of brucellosis to trade • Disease is not well known in communities, therefore there is need to raise awareness about the disease first, then design control strategies • Determine socio-economic impact of the disease so that policymakers can appreciate the disease1. There is a great need to determine the prevalence of brucellosis in both large and small ruminants. 2. Participants stressed that data on the economic and public health impacts of brucellosis are urgently needed. 3. Current surveillance systems in both animal and human populations regarding brucellosis are weak to non-existent in most African countries. 4. Awareness of the economic and public health consequences of brucellosis need to be implemented. 5. Affordable but reliable diagnostic tests need to be available so that scientists can adequately diagnose the disease in large and small ruminants, as well as humans.• Brucellosis in large ruminants needs to be addressed • Epidemiology • Vaccine and control strategies established• Regulations and policies developed• Serologic tests need to be validated in species other that bovine or porcine.• Human testing needs a more specific test than the slide agglutination test.• Can animal assays be used on human samples?• Laboratory test results need to be combined with epidemiologic evidence before a positive brucellosis diagnosis can be made.• How will a vaccination program affect the diagnostic tests used in diagnosis of the disease?• For import and export testing with low incidence of brucellosis, what serologic tests can give a specific interpretation of the disease status of the animals tested?• Develop case definitions and harmonization of test procedures, especially in areas where multiple diseases may complicate the diagnosis of brucellosis.• Quality control for diagnostic labs and tests• Camel and goat milk is homogenized so the ring test is not effective. An indirect enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test is needed for accurate testing.• Confirmatory tests must be more specific than screening tests. The fluorescent polarization assay is highly specific, simple and portable. However, it does not appear to work as well with human testing and Brucella melitensis. Other confirmatory tests, such as competitive ELISA and complement fixation test, should be investigated.• Lack of a good diagnostic test that can be used in all species of animals and humans• Lack of quality control for diagnostic tests• Reagents used for tests are often of poor quality and the technicians lack the skills to accurately perform the tests• Many false positive serologic results occur for tests on humans, and few to no confirmatory testing is performed• False positive results for animals in the export/import market from areas of low incidence of brucellosis.• PCR works best with bacteraemia and is more useful in human cases• Isolation of bacteria from serological positive animals is successful in only approximately 40% of the animals in the USA.• Treatment of humans with antibiotics needs to be continued for a full eight weeks. Treatment may be compromised if the patient becomes re-infected during the course of treatment.• Investigate combining human and animal diagnostic laboratories in the One Health Initiative.• Use the brucellosis 8% card for B. abortus and the 3% card for B. melitensis.• Increase sampling of bulk tanks with milk ring test.","tokenCount":"5037"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c26d0b8c2d45ae9c74ef2dd3e9e4c870","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d7bc8355-ba09-48fe-aa95-23dbbfe269f9/retrieve","id":"1002535659"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3de7ce7e-0abe-46d8-b097-ddf28bae72b8","pagecount":"89","content":"When AICCRA started in 2021, we envisioned 2023 would likely be the final and culminating year. However, the growth trajectory of AICCRA partnerships has been remarkable. Thanks to the accomplishments achieved through our partnerships by the end of AICCRA's second year (2022), The World Bank Group signaled a commitment to providing additional financing to AICCRA through the Bank's International Development Association, extending AICCRA's mandate, and furthering our mission to building climate resilience in Africa, especially in the project's six focus countries of Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zambia. This development not only underscores the value of AICCRA's work, but also challenges us with a renewed responsibility to advance our collective goals.The achievements of AICCRA this year demonstrate a collaborative spirit and the dedication of its team in delivering compelling outcomes with partners and stakeholders. Together, we have exceeded all the Project Development Objectives (PDOs) for 2023, surpassing the overall targets set at the beginning of the year. This success reflects a collective effort and the strong partnerships built with CGIAR research centers in Africa, African national and regional organizations, and diverse stakeholders and beneficiaries -most importantly, smallholder farmers.In 2023, AICCRA reached more than four million farmers in Africa with the tools, technologies, and practices that promote climatesmart agriculture. 1.7 million of them were women.We helped our national partners to enhance climate services by drawing on our distinctive strengths in collaboration, innovation, and knowledge exchange, with an emphasis on gender and social inclusion. Eighty-two partner organizations increasingly accessed enhanced climate information services (CIS) and validated climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies in 2023.We have worked with almost 20,000 stakeholders who engaged in capacity development activities, including training, learning workshops, study tours, and technical assistance. These activities strengthen the capacities of key regional and national institutions in anticipating climate impacts and accelerating the uptake of adaptive measures. AICCRA also facilitated 86 cases where technologies, information or services were 'paired' with other SSA countries thanks to 'spillover' activities. Of these, 48 pairings were made between AICCRA focus countries and spillover countries, while 38 pairings were made between AICCRA focus countries.Moreover, AICCRA partnerships produced 154 products, tools, and advisory services and influenced 20 policy and investment decisions.Notable examples of how AICCRA is helping to strengthen partnerships for delivering impact includes the operationalization of centralized AgData Hubs in all AICCRA focus countries. In Kenya, the first formal partnership between the principal agriculture and livestock research institute and the national meteorological service has established through such efforts.2023 has been both exciting and challenging for AICCRA, with teams committed to delivering tangible results while simultaneously commencing the process of designing the additional finance phase of AICCRA.The forthcoming additional finance phase aims not only to sustain the scaling impact seen in the initial phase of AICCRA, but also deepen partnerships to ensure the sustainability of the scaled innovations. Concerted efforts made in 2023 to outline the next five years of AICCRA will extend the project's reach to more farmers, ensuring greater access to-and critically, more use of-bundled innovations in CSA and CIS.Progress has been made in developing an operational scaling framework for AICCRA, a foundation for impact at scale in the coming years. Furthermore, we initiated a process for capturing and documenting compelling evidence of AICCRA's impact, analyzing how CIS and CSA technologies have been adopted and used by smallholder farmers.I extend my heartfelt gratitude to each member of the AICCRA team, our partners, and stakeholders for their unwavering support. The achievements highlighted in the AICCRA 2023 Annual Report reflect our collective commitment to demonstrating the impact of science-based approaches to climate-smart agricultural development in Africa.I invite you to explore this report for a deeper understanding of how AICCRA, through its partnerships and capacity building efforts, is fostering effective public-private partnerships, supporting a new generation of climate forecasters, amplifying the voices of farmers, advancing Africa's research agenda for scaling climatesmart solutions, and connecting CGIAR science with Africa's long-term aspirations.Together, we are forging a more climate-resilient and sustainable future for African agriculture.Building on strong momentum in 2022, the AICCRA project, led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, demonstrated remarkable progress in 2023, surpassing targets set at the beginning of the year. Drawing on a network of CGIAR partners at continental, regional, and national levels, AICCRA reached nearly four million people in 2023, helping them access CIS and CSA technologies. Highlights in terms of the reach of the project include activities like 'Munda Makeover' and 'Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) Farm Talk' in Zambia, which alone reached two million of these.AICCRA activities in several African countries and regions saw significant accomplishments, exceeding the Project Development Objectives (PDOs) and Intermediate Project Indicator (IPI) targets set by AICCRA's Project Management Committee (PMC). This was made possible through effective collaboration and partnerships. In promoting gender and social inclusion, a highlight was a workshop with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF) designed to enhance the leadership skills of women agriculture and climate researchers across Africa.In Mali, AICCRA empowered women through a 'Savings for Change' program and the 'Grain Quality Enhancer, Energy-Efficient and Durable Material' (GEM) parboiling technique. Under these initiatives, women were provided with specialized capacity-building sessions and logistical aspects (such as meeting schedules and venue selections) which were tailored to accommodate their particular needs.Approximately 20,000 individuals benefited from AICCRA-funded capacity building activities in 2023.In Ethiopia, significant efforts were focused on improving the understanding and uptake of digital advisory services, specifically designed to address climate risks in agricultural practices. Education in climate risk and enhanced understanding of agro-advisories was provided to 4,335 farmers, along with 84 members of farmer unions and cooperatives. Additionally, digital advisory services training was provided for 935 government extension workers and development agents, alongside 1,190 private sector agents linked to the Lersha app (led by Green Agro Solutions) and 41 agro-dealers.Under Theme 2 (Climate-Smart Technologies and Practices) several strategic capacitybuilding initiatives were launched for public and private sector stakeholders. Among these were 'hackathons' which encouraged collaboration between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), agri-corporates, researchers, and other relevant parties. These activities fostered innovation by ecosystem actors to reduce postharvest losses in Senegal and Kenya.Another important capacity building activity was the support to the African Group of Negotiators Expert Support (AGNES) climate leadership, governance, and diplomacy program which saw 711 participants in 13 cohorts and is designed to enhance the leadership skills of colleagues from African organizations in negotiation, climate science and governance.AICCRA proactively welcomed feedback from partners through two satisfaction surveys disseminated towards the end of the year. Notably, satisfaction with AICCRA's knowledge products and services (See our Intermediate Performance Indicator or 'IPI' 1.3) scored an average of 83 percent, surpassing the target of 75 percent. The effectiveness of partnerships (IPI 2.4) achieved an 84 percent average score, exceeding the 75 percent target, with high scores across various criteria including vision, leadership, accountability, communications, and collaboration and impact. Additionally, for IPI 3.3, which focused on the actual use of AICCRA's knowledge products, 77 percent of respondents reported using them, providing 439 unique examples of their usage.This section provides an overview of AICCRA management activities and developments that have taken place within the management and governance framework during 2023, reflecting AICCRA's commitment to transparency, strategic planning, and effective collaboration.The operational framework of AICCRA is structured around thematic, regional, and country-specific 'clusters', designed to streamline the implementation of project activities. Additionally, a dedicated Project Management Unit (PMU) is in place to oversee overall coordination across the entire program of work. For governance and decision-making processes, AICCRA relies on the following key entities: (i) the Independent Steering Committee (ISC); and (ii) the Project Management Committee (PMC).The ISC is the highest governing body of AICCRA, overseeing implementation progress, advising on issues, and coordinating solutions for potential performance impact. Its main roles include guiding and approving strategies, following up on the implementation of activities, taking any corrective action to achieve the goals of AICCRA, and approving the Annual Workplan and Budget (AWPB) and annual reports. Additionally, the ISC offers scientific advice by keeping abreast of developments in global climate research, fostering partnerships with climate research entities, identifying contributing scientists, and supporting the AICCRA Director in the annual assessment of activities financed by the project.In 2023, the third AICCRA ISC meeting was conducted virtually on 29-30 May, while the fourth meeting took place in a hybrid format in Addis Ababa on 19-20 October. The ISC meetings featured presentations on country progress (Zambia and Ethiopia country clusters) and updates on activities related to gender and social inclusion (GSI), safeguards, communications, and finance. A significant aspect of these ISC meetings were the technical discussions, which included a focus on metrics for adaptive capacity, strategic discussions on planned impact evaluations, and the proposed scaling framework for AICCRA.The fourth AICCRA ISC meeting in particular focused on issues critical to the implementation of AICCRA additional finance over the next five years, including impact evaluation. Scaling remains a central implementation issue, with the discussion paired with an initial overview of AICCRA's approach to capacity building activities that support these scaling approaches.Dr. Abdou Tenkouano stepped down from the ISC on 31 December 2023, due to his departure from the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF) into a new role. The ISC unanimously agreed to welcome his replacement, Dr. Abdulai Jalloh, who will join in the next ISC meeting scheduled to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 15-16 May 2024.Another entity central to AICCRA's decisionmaking is the PMC. This committee oversees the technical work program, ensuring it stays on track and is effectively coordinated among implementing entities. It also oversees monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities and consolidates and checks the quality of detailed progress reports. The PMC convenes every third Tuesday of the month to maintain oversight, provide foresight over future strategic developments, and address emerging issues.A highlight for the PMC in 2023 was the crafting of a high-level narrative on AICCRA's scaling efforts. This necessitated the demonstration of how AICCRA facilitates systemic change to tackle climate challenges within Africa's food systems. This was followed by a deep dive into the AICCRA operational scaling framework, which will be piloted under additional financing. Another topic discussed was the approach to mainstreaming country cluster feedback into the PMC decision-making process. This mechanism is expected to be implemented by the regional cluster leaders along with the country cluster leaders from early 2024.In addition to these two principle decisionmaking bodies, the AICCRA Core Team (CT) consists of a diverse group of individuals involved in AICCRA implementation including thematic leaders, regional leaders, country leaders, activity leaders, and others. They are convened regularly on the third Thursday of each month. During these meetings, members engage in discussions on thematic areas and project progress, where partners are welcomed to present their work. Other topics for discussion include monitoring, and evaluation, technical topics and essential administrative matters, informing ongoing processes such as the Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWPB).In 2023, some of the topics covered during CT meetings include the following: • Leveraging media and strategic communications networks for CSA • Implementing an early warning and rapid response system against climate-driven pests and diseases in Ghana For 2023, all partnerships that started in 2021 and at the beginning of 2022 were extended until December 31, 2023.  AICCRA continues to broaden the reach of its communications channels and deepen its dialogue with key partners in the realm of public engagement.The primary AICCRA tool for communication, its website, saw 55,000 visits in 2023. Throughout 2023, the commitment to advancing evidence-based decision-making has been fundamental to the management of research integrity in AICCRA clusters. A culture is cultivated which focuses on results in project M&E, leveraging the capabilities of the CGIAR 'Managing Agriculture Research for Learning and Outcomes' (MARLO) online platform, to streamline the planning and reporting process. This strategic approach has significantly enhanced accountability and transparency, enabling informed strategic decision-making across the project. An example of this commitment is the 'Deliverable by the Numbers' dashboard, which showcases our achievements.The MARLO infrastructure used by AICCRA was upgraded to enhance security and stability, using updated software for better performance, and providing extensive technical support. Improvements included tailored enhancements to the user experience and improvements to the homepage, updates to the administrative section, new abilities to contribute to performance indicators, and the functionalities that support deliverables.The Business Intelligence module and comprehensive online resources further underlined AICCRA's commitment to ensuring that all achievements in the project are publicly accessible and standardized among the country, regional, and global teams.For a detailed overview of project achievements throughout the year, see the complete report.AICCRA explored the ways global partners can sustainably support truly African-led research, innovation, and scaling in agriculture. This initiative supports the generation of advisories for herders using a web-based system. A private sector partner, Jokalanté, improved its business capabilities and extended its services to cover both dry and wet seasons. Additionally, two other local partners, ANCAR and ANACIM, strengthened their core competencies through the digitalization of climate agro-advisories.Through engagement with the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) and the PDO2. AICCRA beneficiaries in the project area are increasingly accessing enhanced climate information services and/or validated climate-smart agriculture technologies.AICCRA reached 4,136,488 individuals (approximately 40 percent women) by the end of 2023, for whom it had increased access to enhanced CIS and/or validated CSA technologies, exceeding the PMC target of 740,000 in 2023.In the narrative below we list the totals reached in each cluster, along with examples of some of the AICCRA focus country initiatives that helped partners reach so many smallholder farmers. These details are also captured in Table 1.2,315,737 smallholder farmers were reached in Zambia with enhanced access to CIS and/ or CSA technologies. Of these, 264,537 people (47 percent women) were directly reached by accelerator partners, while 2,051,200 (36 percent women) were reached through initiatives like the Munda Makeover 'farming reality TV show' and COMACO Farm Talk radio show. Munda Makeover dedicates 25 percent of its programming to gender-specific content that aims to challenge gender norms which limit women's participation in agricultural decisionmaking.© AICCRA / Ghana Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), over 471,000 targeted agro-climate advisories were disseminated to Kenyan farmers. This marked a significant breakthrough as KMD data was used for the first time in developing advisories, showcasing improved collaboration between two public institutions under different ministries in delivering a jointly owned public good.In terms of CSA technologies, in Ghana the influence of AICCRA's research, specifically the paper \"Determinants for deployment of climatesmart integrated pest management practices\", led to significant collaboration to enhance the nation's defences against crop pests and diseases. The Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture mobilized 11 public and private sector organizations to sign a memorandum of understanding aimed at enhancing Ghana's preparedness and response capabilities to protect its food system from pest and disease threats using innovative CSA technologies.Technical support to an SME accelerator program in Zambia focused on the dissemination of CSA technologies specific to certain value chains. This support not only strengthened the capacity of private sector actors but also increased the reach of enhanced CSA and CIS to include more farmers. Through the accelerator, bundled technologies and agro-advisories were scaled, such as bioorganic fertilizer, drought-tolerant seeds, integrated agriculture-aquaculture systems, and sustainable finance for off-grid solar irrigation.Training and technical support was provided to the Niger Office (Office du Niger), a semiautonomous government agency in Mali that administers a large irrigation scheme in the Ségou region with water from the Niger River. It is Mali's largest irrigation scheme supporting over 200,000 farmers. Through this collaboration, AICCRA promoted sustainable rice production practices, including the safe alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation method, which reduces water use and greenhouse gas emissions, alongside the introduction of drought-tolerant rice varieties, and the establishment of multi-stakeholder platforms.38 non-focus countries in Sub-Saharan Africa benefitted from AICCRA 'spillover' activities in 2023, exceeding the PMC target of 9.A total of 86 technologies, information or services were 'paired' from focus countries to these 38 spillover countries, where stakeholders have been able to access enhanced CIS and validated CSA technologies through AICCRA facilitated activities. In Ghana, AICCRA partners were able to reach 391,326 farmers (39 percent women), helping them build climate resilience through timely CIS and accompanying CSA practices. For example, a multi-channel scaling approach included community technology parks, Farm Radio International, and the local private sector telecoms partner Esoko.In Mali, a total of 400,199 farmers (43 percent women) benefited from the project during 2023. Farmers gained access to CIS through a digital platform established by AICCRA, a savings clubs that enhanced access to finance, and CSA innovations like the RiceAdvice app for tailored fertilizer application and crop management. To enhance the adoption of drought and flood tolerant rice varieties, on-farm demonstrations, farmer field days, and capacity building for seedproducing companies were provided.In Ethiopia, 229,829 farmers (32 percent women) were reached. Examples include a partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Green Agro Solutions (GAS), and the Ministry of Agriculture, which delivered bundles of CIS and climate-informed agri-advisories, inputs, and mechanization through the Lersha digital platform and app, as well as through 6,566 private sector extension agents.In Kenya, 471,000 were reached thanks to enhanced collaboration and data sharing between KMD and the KALRO in new collaborative efforts facilitated by AICCRA. CIS advisories now flow out of the Kenya Ag-Data Hub, hosted in the Kenya Agricultural Observatory Platform (KAOP), a joint initiative between KMD and KALRO.In Senegal, AICCRA supported agro-advisories reached 336,535 people, for example through radio shows, voice messages, and field visits to technology parks. Through its engagement and capacity development initiatives, AICCRA extended its reach to 18 non-focus ('spillover') countries in West and Central Africa, delivering critical advancements such as the improved NextGen approach for climate forecasting and essential tools for translating climate data into actionable insights for the agriculture and water sectors. This strategic outreach, which included countries involved in the Food Systems Resilience Programme (FSRP), was aimed at maximizing the benefits of World Bank-funded efforts by fostering synergies between AICCRA's CSA and CIS with broader regional agricultural resilience objectives. The PDO1 achievement for 2023 totaled 82, significantly above target levels, and a modest increase over 2022. Many of these achievements build upon partnerships and collaborations established in the core AICCRA countries, with a growing number of additional 'spillover' beneficiaries being reported in 2023.A sizeable number of the contributions involve the co-design and delivery of CIS and climate risk management (CRM) curricula, and the training of extension agents to better assist farmers in managing climate risk. For example, in Senegal and Zambia, a consortium of national meteorological and hydrological services, extension services, universities, and agritech partners collaborated in establishing a national curriculum, which was then deployed in training extension agents. Theme 4 (Climate Information Services) supported stakeholder dialogues, knowledge exchange, and capacity building that led to 70 institutions across all AICCRA focus countries initiating curriculum development efforts targeting public and private extension services, with three higher education institutions already officially adopting the curriculum in their programs. A related initiative in Ethiopia has resulted in the uptake of a tailored curriculum in undergraduate programs of 17 universities, to the benefit of approximately 4,500 students and 100 staff. Other highlights of PDO1 achievements in 2023 include:In Ghana, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture formalized a partnership among 11 public and private organizations to enhance the country's pest and disease preparedness and response plans to protect the national food system.A government agency in Mali that administers a large irrigation scheme (Office du Niger) was enabled to introduce and promote a set of CSA innovations and a platform for water governance, benefiting 53,000 farmers (32 percent women) resulting in increased rice production (17 to 31 percent) and income (up 16 percent) in 2023. These innovations have now been adopted in the agency's programs.In Kenya, KMD and KALRO officially partnered in the production of agro-advisories that draw on the authoritative data of both organizations. In 2023, advisories were disseminated to 471,000 smallholder farmers, with women making up 60 percent of recipients.In both East and Southern Africa and West Africa, technical assistance and capacity building in support of key regional organizations resulted in a significant set of outcomes among 'spillover' countries, including: Access of national meteorological and hydrological services to improved NextGen seasonal climate forecasts; National agricultural research and extension services accessing enhanced CSA advisories; Ministry of agriculture researchers and university researchers accessing crop production and forecasting tools, and; Universities accessing new CIS and CSA curricula.Theme 2 provided training and technical assistance enabling agribusinesses (SMEs in particular) to assess climate risks and intervention benefits, as well as establishing business cases, to attract investment.Most activities included a significant portion of women. Highlights include the Kenya agro-advisories whose audience was 60 percent women; 39 percent of the total reached through Ghana's direct extension activities were women; and 32 percent of the people reached through the work with Office du Niger in Mali were women.  In 2023, achievements in terms of new AICCRA's beneficiaries accessing enhanced CIS and/or validated CSA technologies and bundles accounted for over four million (41 percent women) significantly surpassing both the levels reached in 2022 (by 32 percent) and the projected annual target (by 66 percent).In Mali, 400,199 small-scale farmers (43 percent women) accessed CIS through: An AICCRA-established digital platform, Grain Quality Enhancer, Energy-Efficient and Durable Material (GEM) parboiling technique for improving rice quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Smart-Valleys approach for water control in inland valleys, RiceAdvice recommendations for location-specific fertilizer application, variety, and crop calendar construction, and saving clubs which enhanced access to finance and adoption of CSA innovations.In Senegal, 336,535 crop and livestock farmers (37 percent women) accessed new crop varieties evaluated in technology parks. They benefitted from CIS and/or CSA options via 52 radio programs and 23 pre-season and in-season advisories through voice messages in local languages. Farmer organizations benefited from capacity building in seed system entrepreneurship, forage crop production, and good dairy practices.In Ghana, 391,326 individuals (39 percent women) were reached with CIS and CSA technologies and practices that support 'One Health' outcomes through a multi-channel scaling approach combining 31 climate-smart technology parks, participatory farmer fields days, voice, and SMS messages through Esoko telecoms, and eight community radio extension programs produced by Farm Radio International.In Zambia, the project achieved a significant milestone by reaching a total of 2,315,737 smallholder farmers (37 percent women) who increasingly accessed enhanced CIS and CSA bundled technologies. 264,537 (47 percent women) of these farmers were directly reached by the SME accelerator partners.In Kenya, in collaboration with Kenya Agricultural Observatory Platform (KAOP) approximately 471,000 beneficiaries were reached with targeted digital agro-advisories while 37,500 households were reached with drought tolerant crops.In Ethiopia, 229,829 farmers (32 percent women) were reached. International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Green Agro Solutions (GAS), and the Ministry of Agriculture bundled CIS and climate-informed agri-advisories, inputs, mechanization, and credit and were made accessible to more than 134,000 smallholder farmers in 106 districts through the Lersha digital platform and app. Digital climate advisories were delivered to 6,566 extension workers partnering with the private sector. Climate-smart digital fertilizer recommendations were made accessible to over 50,000 smallholder farmers (30 percent women) to enhance the site-specific nutrient application for sustainable plant nutrient use efficiency and increased productivity.  The achievement for this PDO greatly exceeded the expected number, with the regional clusters contributing most of the achievements. The Mali cluster also contributed one instance of 'spillover', with the RIICE tool developed in Mali being calibrated and adopted in Côte d'Ivoire.The East and Southern Africa regional cluster had many spillover instances to report, including the automatic weather station data tool (ADT) originating from Ethiopia being made available in Mali, the crop capability prediction tool and model developed for Zimbabwe was contextualized and made accessible in ten other SADC countries, and the climate suitability for crops maproom developed for Ethiopia was made publicly available in Kenya.The West Africa cluster has achieved similar success, reaching 14 countries in West Africa and four in Central Africa with an improved NextGen approach for seasonal and sub seasonal climate forecasting, tools and methods for translating seasonal climate forecasts into actionable information for agriculture and water sectors, better communication of uncertainties in seasonal climate forecasts, and tools and methods for evaluating the 'climate-smartness' of agricultural technologies. As in previous years, AICCRA exceeded its targets within the knowledge generation and sharing component in 2023. A wide variety of knowledge products, decision support tools and advisory services were created or enhanced, often in collaboration with national and regional partners. This co-creation increases the buyin with users of these products and tools and ensures that these deliverables are demanddriven. Many of the knowledge products and tools were included in AICCRA's communications efforts to gain a wider audience. Additionally, country clusters have been using innovative and diverse means to promote and disseminate the advisory services that are being generated. For example, in Ghana, a 16-episode radio program co-produced by AICCRA and Farm Radio International reached more than 240,000 farmers with CIS and information on CSA technologies. Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) for women have been transformed into radio listening clubs to take advantage of these targeted broadcasts. In Senegal, the team has developed social media communications for climate information, including the official release of seasonal forecasting.In addition to the knowledge products, decision support tools and advisory services captured under IPI 1.1, AICCRA also produced a total of 36 peer-reviewed papers in 2023, nearly the same number as the previous year. These papers are important in building the knowledge base on CSA and CIS for African decision makers in the realm of agriculture and climate action, providing the confidence that the evidence generated is robust and passes peer review standards. They are then more confident to use such information in their decision making.Another way to ensure AICCRA products are of the highest quality is by conducting a yearly satisfaction survey focusing on the usefulness and accessibility of the products being generated. As in previous years, the target for this indicator has been exceeded, with an average satisfaction rating of 83 percent. The project exceeded this goal, with significant outputs from the West Africa region, which produced 11 peer-reviewed papers, and Ethiopia which produced eight. Many of the papers were collaborations between two or more clusters, demonstrating the integrated nature of AICCRA's efforts.Notable papers include one on CSA technologies and determinants of farmers' adoption decision in Ethiopia, and another on designing a participatory framework for prioritizing investments for CSA scaling in rice-based systems using the case study of Mali. Another publication by Theme 4 presents a methodology developed to analyse the costs and benefits of CIS packages, while another was the validation results from a case study in Ghana.    As of 2023, centralized AgData Hubs have been established and are operational in all AICCRA focus countries, and regional level platforms have been introduced in the West Africa region. In several countries, the hubs have been strengthened through additional weather/climate forecast products, and ancillary information on livestock and soils. Several have directly incorporated GSI considerations into the platform design or provided separate GSI related guidance for implementation. A toolkit has been developed drawing on AICCRA and CGIAR experience to guide integration of GSI into AgData Hubs in 2024-2025.In some countries (Senegal, Kenya, Zambia), the hubs have integrated key decision support and advisory services (specifically the Intelligent Systems Advisory Tool -iSAT) within the hub infrastructure.Ethiopia has opted to establish a series of targeted mini hubs servicing relevant clients in research, CSA and livestock management.Kenya's efforts have notably led to the establishment of the first formal partnership between the principal agriculture/livestock research institute and the national meteorological service.  Satisfaction with the effectiveness of the partnerships under AICCRA expressed by surveyed partners and stakeholders (%)A satisfaction survey was sent to project partners to assess this indicator. Respondents were asked to rate AICCRA in terms of: (i) Vision, (ii) Accountability, (iii) Communication, (iv) Collaboration, and (v) Impact. Respondents answered according to their engagement with the various clusters. The overall average score for the project was 83 percent -nearly the same as for 2022 and exceeding the target of 75 percent. Individual cluster scores ranged from 73 percent (Theme 4) to 95 percent (Theme 2). In 2023, AICCRA exceeded the annual expected targets for virtually all indicators in Component 3. A total of 24 validated CIS and CSA technology packages were disseminated and made available, 33 percent more than the target. These include packages of climate-smart inputs such as drought and flood tolerant rice varieties in Mali, advisories for millet and groundnuts in Senegal, drought tolerant high-yielding seeds in Ghana, feed and forage improved seeds in Ethiopia, participatory rangelands management in Kenya, and solar irrigation in Zambia, among many others.Women were specifically targeted through 35 customized programs, reaching the target set by the PMC for 2023. These programs build on specific technologies targeted at women and aiming to enhance income and households' diet diversity with nutrient-dense vegetable crops. They also strengthen the capacity of women's groups and cooperatives to receive and disseminate customized gender responsive climate agro-advisories, working through female service providers and entrepreneurs, and using accelerator programs as scaling mechanisms that also support women-led SMEs.AICCRA gained good traction with partners, as shown by the use or adaptation of AICCRAfunded climate-relevant knowledge products, decision-making tools and services by 78 percent of partners and stakeholders surveyed, more than triple the target.AICCRA informed 32 regional dialogues held with partners -60 percent more than targeted. These included interactions with regional economic communities, sub-regional organizations, regional climate centers, and RUFORUM, as well as those held at key events such as the Africa Food Systems Summit and Africa Climate Summit. These focused on a range of topics including regional climate outlooks, CSA technology scaling, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiation topics, climate finance, and gender and youth among others.AICCRA influenced 20 policy and investment decisions, 33 percent more than the target. Examples include support to continental, regional and national policy development, including the Nairobi Declaration of the Africa Climate Summit, and the Africa Union Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan, among others. Additionally, AICCRA influenced large investment decisions of development partners, shaping a section on youth and gender in a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) policy report that influenced USD 5 billion (USD 2.5 billion mobilized plus matching USAID funds) in funding for climate adaptation and mitigation. Nine African countries are included in the 21 USAID priority countries, including AICCRA focus countries Ethiopia, Kenya, and Senegal.During 2023, AICCRA was also able to support investment decisions in country level early warning and climate services deployment linking public sector agencies, development partners, and the private sector. As an example, through influential research that provided a climate lens, AICCRA contributed to the decision made by the executive committee of the African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) to inject USD 250,000 from the African Development Bank into their pilot Nkwanzi project focused on womenled SMEs, an engagement which leveraged commercial capital of USD 2 million. In addition, AICCRA was able to catalyze additional investment for scaling specific development innovations, including an investment of USD 3 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to scale up use of AICCRA-validated perennial rice varieties and best agronomic practices from Mali in order to increase grain yield and profitability of rice cultivation in Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, and Tanzania.AICCRA influenced 20 policy and investment decisions, 33 percent more than the target. In 2023, 24 validated CIS and CSA packages were made available surpassing the target set for the year.AICCRA's collaboration with national meteorological services and private stakeholders strengthened their capacities to use sciencebased approaches to co-produce and disseminate climate-informed agro-advisories across the six AICCRA focus countries. Digital platforms combined with radio programs, phone calls, SMS, and voice messages in local languages disseminated through WhatsApp groups and TV shows were a key mechanism to make information widely available, helping to address gender inclusion. This supported farmers' uptake of CSA technologies and practices and strengthen decision making around land preparation, pest and diseases management, crop variety selection, changing cropping patterns and planting time adjustments. Some examples of the range of validated CSA options bundled with CIS that were made accessible include:In Ghana, biofortified, drought tolerant and high yielding maize seeds with bio-control measures for priority value chains. In Senegal, preseason and in-season advisories, integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) using micro-dosing techniques and two new dual purpose peanut varieties. In Kenya and Ethiopia, improved seed varieties in pearl millet, sorghum, green gram, pigeon pea, and forages. In Mali, drought, and flood tolerant rice varieties, which increased rice yield by 1.3-1.5 tons per hectare (p/ha), income by USD 365-511 p/ha and increased food consumption scores by 3-5 points.In Zambia, AICCRA focused on scaling the validated CSA and CIS bundles including: Off-grid solar irrigation technologies, integrated aquaculture management practices, drought resistant seeds and plant catalysts, and agroforestry, for example, the use of Gliricidia sepium trees to conserve soil moisture and reduce erosion.Spillover impacts led by the East and Southern Africa regional cluster made accessible proven CSA practices (early-maturing and resilient varieties, integrated soil fertility management, improved post-harvest practices) for the production of potato, sesame, sunflower, and soybean in Uganda to agricultural extension agents, farmers, private sector partners, and value chain actors through training of trainers for farmer cooperatives and farmer groups.  In 2023, a total of 35 CIS and CSA technologies reached women through customized mechanisms put in place across the six AICCRA focus countries and through regional collaborations, including:Training women's groups and women-led, community-based organizations on:In Kenya, enhancing the utilization of improved seed varieties (pearl millet, sorghum, green gram, pigeon pea) and CSA technologies for vegetable and legumes crop production to enhance income and household diet diversity.In Mali, the fabrication and use of the GEM parboiling technique resulting in improvements in rice grain quality, reduced occurrences of burnt and chalky grain and positive impacts on farmers' income and food consumption scores, accompanied by a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions.In Senegal, the best hygiene practices, technology packages in nutrientdense yogurt for livestock keepers, and climate-smart and nutrient dense varieties to be used by agribusiness to improve seed system.Also in Senegal, co-designed advisories with women-led organizations were disseminated to livestock keepers through mobile phone using interactive voice response (IVR) technology and gender sensitive radio programs.In Ghana, the development of a business model to support women's access to CIS and CSA bundles through telecoms company Esoko's novel 'Grain for phone' initiative.The involvement of female service providers and extension agents enabled the project to promote:In Ethiopia, the customized delivery of gender-responsive small ruminant Smart-Pack (including health, productivity, breeding, nutrition, credits, digital marketing) and fertilizer recommendation advisories.In Ghana, access to customized digital platforms, gender sensitive radio programs (also in Senegal and Kenya) and women's listener groups to improve access to climate-smart cowpea production and use of CIS for post-harvest processing and storage.Also in Ghana, access to VSLAs plus interventions and sustainable agricultural mechanization (SAM) reduced drudgery associated with crop protection.In Mali, \"Savings for Change\" clubs enhanced access by women to finance and increased CSA investments (by USD 120/ha), supplementary irrigation and drought-resistant seed varieties, leading to increased net income (by USD 497/ha) and food consumption scores by 12 points.In   Discussions in Africa-wide and regional events informed by AICCRA funded project outputs (number) (gender and social inclusion dimension indicated)The target set for 2023 was exceeded, with AICCRA activities and outputs informing 32 Africa-wide discussions and regional events. All the regional clusters and themes closely engaged and joined efforts with strategic partners to support and provide technical inputs to regional dialogues. For example:The East and Southern Africa clusters supported ASARECA in organizing a policy dialogue on \"Engagement of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in enhancing regional agricultural trade and early  A side event and knowledge sharing session at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AGRF) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania contributed to building better food systems and ensuring inclusive and sustainable value chains with youth and women at the center.Participation at the AGNES pre-SB58 meeting organized in collaboration with AGNES led to specific text being included in the gender submission, relating to the need for countries to highlight how they were developing gender and climate action plans and processes in response to the Lima Work Programme on Gender (LWPG).   Over the past three years, AICCRA has built a robust internal Quality Assurance (QA) process to uphold the integrity and accuracy of reported information in MARLO. Led by the Knowledge and Data Sharing team, a meticulous review was conducted within the system to ensure all deliverables are well reported according to the minimum requirements established. For 2023, thanks to the release of a module that identifies duplicated deliverables, the team managed to reduce the number of deliverables duplicated compared with previous years. This is shown in Table 5. Since 2023 was a transition year for AICCRA, moving forward to the additional financing phase, all deliverables were either marked as completed or cancelled in the MARLO system. Those deliverables that were cancelled will be rescheduled for completion under the additional financing phase.Out of the 685 planned deliverables for 2023, a total of 552 were confirmed as complete.The variety of publications within the project was preserved, categorised into 'reports and other publications' (291), 'training materials' (59), 'outreach products' (124), 'articles and books ' (40),and 'Data,Models and Tools' (38). This diversity underscores the multifaceted nature of the project's outputs, each contributing significantly to the overarching objectives.As part of the Data Management Plan and the aim to enhance accessibility and visibility, the use of the repositories created has consistently grown within the project, with 368 out of 552 documents disseminated through the official CGIAR knowledge repositories (CGSpace and Dataverse) while 128 were published in other websites. A total of 56 publications were marked as confidential and for internal use only.    The collection of OICRs submitted showcased a diverse range of support and contributions that AICCRA provided at multiple levels.In 2023, a total of 47 OICRs were submitted by the clusters for evaluation and scoring. OICRs can be reported against three levels of maturity. The first is early observed changes.The second is next-user level. The third is a change in end-user/beneficiaries' behavior.Out of the 47 OICRs, 16 were classified under maturity level two. This classification denotes a demonstration of outcomes, the criteria necessary for advancing to maturity level three.There is a need to prioritize follow-up studies (i.e., adoption studies) under the upcoming additional financing phase.A continuation in the development of outcomes and their evolution is essential, indicating the importance of sustained efforts and monitoring of ongoing initiatives. Furthermore, it is important to note that future OICRs should demonstrate measurable improvements, the scale-up of innovations, strengthened institutional approaches, and policy changes -all with a strong focus on the quality of evidence and specific referencing to supporting documents. framing key principles for a renewed institutional approach, aligning with AUDA-NEPAD's regional integration mandate under Agenda 2063.Thanks to AICCRA, capacity building on NextGen seasonal climate forecast systems, the AGRHYMET West Africa regional climate centre has adopted an objective, traceable and reproducible seasonal forecasting procedure which enables the generation of improved seasonal forecasts. The approach is operational, with output products used to improve the AGRHYMET climate information portal. In addition, AGRHYMET has transferred/downscaled the newly acquired technical capacities to 17 national meteorological and hydrological services, enabling them to generate timely and decision-relevant climate information for agricultural sectors.Partnering with universities in East and Southern Africa has advanced climate research by integrating climate change into academic curricula through diverse approaches. The approaches were guided by gap analyses and included comprehensive curriculum overhauls, introduction of new program, specialized training, and student clubs. To date and under RUFORUM, 20 universities in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Mozambique have successfully delivered trainings to 7,694 scholars. In addition, resources were leveraged in Ethiopia, where seven universities allocated USD 383,646 to develop learning sites focusing on small-ruminant innovations.AICCRA promoted bundled climate information and site-specific climate smart one-health innovations to smallholder farmers across Ghana through Farm Radio International, Esoko, and technology parks. This enabled 390,000+ farmers (237,305 men and 153,321 women) to access and use CIS-CSA innovations. Impact studies revealed that farmers used seasonal forecasts to make informed decisions, including choosing the best times for land preparation and which crop varieties to grow. Farmers used CSA, such as stress and pest and enhanced bio-pesticides, to mitigate climate-induced risks.© AICCRA / Kgothatso Mophosho      The following section reviews the financial management of AICCRA.As agreed in the signed Financing Agreement with the World Bank, a detailed, unaudited financial report is required by the World Bank 70 days after each calendar semester.Additionally, an Audit Certification of expenses is required six months after each annual closure of accounts.These financial reports follow agreed procedures in the reporting of how grant funds are used, that were negotiated for the Disbursement and Financial Information Letter (DFIL). In the case of the unaudited financial report, the report will be sent to the World Bank by the end of March 2024, given the challenges in obtaining timely financial reports from partners.  Table 12.4 in the Annex 1 shows the distribution by project participant of all funds received via the five withdrawal applications listed above.No significant financial management issues were identified in 2023, except for the aforementioned delays in the submissions of financial reports, and one partner reporting the first semester only. Given that this a recurring issue in several projects, partners will be continually requested to send signed Confirmation of Balances letters at least twice per year for the 2021-2023 period, so that possible differences in their books against CIAT's reported and registered figures can be identified and revised.No changes have been made in 2023 to the list of the official participants of AICCRA. In 2023, the only significant change has been the reduction on final budget figure, as described above.  Additionally, the E&S team focused on pursuing some key innovations to improve the environmental and social sustainability outcomes of the project. Notable achievements in this regard include tree planting to reduce erosion induced river sedimentation in Kenya, the introduction of elephant repellant traps also in Kenya to minimize human-wildlife conflicts, and the design of a circular economy model for safe disposal of used agrochemical containers on AICCRA project sites. Further details are provided in the following sections.The AICCRA Grievance Mechanism (GM) remains functional with 43 grievances, including 19 information requests, six complaints, and 18 suggestions received in this reporting period. Details can be found in Table 10. Most of these grievances came from the AICCRA Ghana cluster, primarily consisting of feedback provided by agricultural extension officers on CSA demonstrations carried out. All grievances have been successfully managed and recorded in the grievance register. This brings the total number of complaints managed by the project's GM since its inception to 81. Importantly, there have been no reported complaints of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) or Sexual Harassment (SH) during this period. AR networks for collective learning.The project pursued various stakeholder engagement sessions to showcase innovations and facilitate adoption. These interactions were facilitated through various channels, such as workshops, conferences, community meetings, radio discussions, farmer field days, and the utilization of theater arts. In addition, the AICCRA E&S team consistently shared insights and lessons learned via blog posts and seminar presentations, highlighting valuable lessons acquired with project stakeholders and beyond.Interactions were facilitated through various channels, such as workshops, conferences, community meetings, radio discussions, farmer field days, and the utilization of theater arts.Further details of stakeholder engagements are provided in Table 11.Considerable efforts were made to sustain oversight of potential E&S risks and the impact of field-related activities. In Kenya, Senegal, and Zambia, additional new CSA demonstration sites were screened and guided with an ESMP approved by the World Bank. Farmers were sensitized on mitigation measures and the importance of adherence to these measures. Extensive stakeholder consultations were conducted with pastoralists in Baringo and Wajir counties of Kenya, to seek their buy-in and support for the implementation of climatesmart pastoralist activities.The E&S team conducted regular field monitoring visits to enforce E&S measures. During these visits, the team provided personal protection equipment (PPE) such as safety boots, coveralls, and nose masks, first aid kits, and diverse occupational health and safety (OHS) posters. The team also used this opportunity to document innovations and distill lessons learned to inform future operations. Further details on field-related activities for the country clusters can be found in Annex 3.  A critical part of AICCRA's success can be attributed to its management and governance structure working effectively and efficiently with the clusters. In 2023, some of the key lessons learned and challenges faced by the project were as follows:Managing the transition from the current phase to additional financeManaging the shift from the originally planned three-year program of work to five-years demanded deep analyses of the initial phase. These analyses influenced the design of the next phase, including considerations for the additional financing. Furthermore, aligning with the evolving needs of the donor, stakeholders, partners, and communities proved essential to ensure continuity and sustainability while expanding the focus and efforts toward increasing access to and use of enhanced CIS and validated CSA technologies.One important aspect of managing the transition to the new phase involved getting partners and stakeholders to feel ownership of the process that developed the new program of work. Conducting a series of consultation meetings at various levels-national, regional, and continental, including CGIAR centersensured inclusivity in the project design process. By actively engaging stakeholders for additional finance, the program would better align with their needs and perspectives, fostering a sense of ownership and commitment to its success.Another important lesson that emerged was the need to develop and strengthen the capacity of regional organizations, enabling them to lead the development of relevant knowledge products in the long run. As part of the priorities under the additional finance, there will be a strong emphasis on building and strengthening the capacities of African organizations, which is an important strategy for fostering long-term sustainability.During 2023, it was learned that there was a need for consolidation of activities to enhance impact. AICCRA's extensive scope, operating across 12 clusters and in six focus countries, represents a challenge for this consolidation. By continuing to address this challenge under the additional finance phase, it is expected that a more efficient allocation of resources will emerge. Moreover, it will facilitate improved communication and messaging, building stakeholders' awareness of project progress. The approach towards consolidation will foster more focus and improved prioritization, thereby enhancing overall effectiveness in achieving AICCRA's objectives.As AICCRA activities mature, the focus shifts to 'next-level' training, whereby trainings initially conducted by AICCRA teams are now conducted by partners in major programs, which have a much broader reach. This is to be expected and hoped for and will be a major feature of the additional finance phase. But in some instances, this has led to a significant mismatch between expected AICCRA targets, and the eventual results achieved.For example, in relation to IPI 2.3, in 2023 the Ethiopia cluster massively overachieved in its performance against this target. This was driven largely by a public-private partnership involving the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI)who was able to increase-and in the end, more than triple-the number of stakeholders and end-users the activity was able to benefit.As AICCRA enters its additional finance there will be a need to develop mechanisms that support the clusters in the adaptive refinement of monitoring and evaluation targets (especially when delivered by major partner programs) for the optimum allocation of AICCRA's strategic resources.In           ","tokenCount":"7915"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4be8aa50b14cacb1757ad721c6fff0b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/daebbf9f-8dd7-4c6f-b872-14594db3c906/retrieve","id":"-935661055"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0a503758-7447-4b94-9035-7ec8abf6b640","pagecount":"7","content":"FISH aims to supply improved breeds, aquafeeds, fish health plus aquaculture, and fishery management practices targeting 4.9 million households. The CRP aims to assist 3.5 million people to escape from poverty, 2.4 million malnourished people to address the lack of essential micronutrients in their diets, and 4.7 million women of reproductive age to consume adequately diverse food. Its technology and management practices will contribute to decreasing GHG emissions in small-scale fisheries (SSF) by 20%, increasing by 10% both water-and nutrient-use efficiency in 4.8 million Mt of annual farmed fish production, and restoring 3.3 million ha of ecosystems 2 .• This new CRP, led by World Fish, unites an impressive set of leading research organizations including IWMI and three advanced research institutes, namely Wageningen University, NaturalMain strengths Weaknesses/Risks Rating FP1 Sustainable aquaculture Focus: Productivity-improving technologies and management practices to increase farmed fish production.• Unites leading scientists and science organizations in fish genetics, health, nutrition, aquaculture systems and sustainable intensification.• Balance between development of additional genetic technologies and the understanding of barriers to impact at scale.Articulation of the centrality of the FP's chosen approaches to fish genetics, breeding and management research to sustainable increases in farmed fish supplies.• Magnitude of expected outcomes not supported by past impacts from fisheries R4D.• Lack of clear strategies to address unintended consequences and trade-offs inherent to proposed research focus.• Lack of clarity of local and international networking and partnership arrangements beyond research actors.Focus: Governance of SSF for food security and resilience of fishery-dependent households.• Breadth of scientific and practical leadership in SSF.• Potential to bring together relevant CRPs around the issues of water quality. • Degree of alignment with national and regional priorities and initiatives. • Partnership strategy within and without the CGIAR.• Weak articulation of the understanding the complexity of achieving systemic change. • Evidence base in this area of research is evolving rapidly. • Strategy to scale results up and out not tested.Focus: Increase the availability and consumption of safe and nutrient dense fish by poor consumers, especially women and young children.• Scientific leadership and ability to bring together a world-leading network of partners to address issues related to nutrition-sensitive aquaculture and fisheries. • Clarity of intended outcomes for target geographies with annual milestones and proposed impact pathways. • Networking and partnership arrangements at local levels clearly organized on subsidiarity and comparative advantage.• Potential inconsistency with current evidence on the greater efficacy of nutritional impact and the economic benefits of fish-based supplements.• Lack of articulation of a convincing strategy to attain indicated pervasive impact across countries/regions.  The overview of gender strategy (section 1.0.4 and Annex 3.4) revised to address explicitly the role of gender research in the FISH ToC and for individual flagships.The response partially addresses the ISPC comments. Changes made in the revised proposal provide additional detail on partner roles and their importance in achieving impact, and FISH's gender research strategy.6. The specification of time allocations to FISH by the indicated staff and availability of gender and process-related research skills among staff.Gender Annex (3.4) now includes an explanation of the gender staffing planning process, from which an outcome-based map ensued to guide staffing decisions. This Annex explains how this process led to a significant planned increase in both staff with gender research skills across the focal countries, and the level of expertise of these planned staff in focal countries, vis-à-vis ongoing AAS CRP.Senior positions added to revised Annex 3.8 (staffing list) and as noted in Annex 3.6 (results-based management), learning from implementation will guide an adaptive approach to program implementation, which includes proactive efforts to identify and fill skills gaps through both staffing and partnerships.The revised proposal deals satisfactorily with this commentary as noted in previous column. Revisions made to FP1 satisfactorily address the ISPC concerns and increase clarity, through the inclusion of additional detail and articulation of the centrality of the FP's chosen approaches to fish genetics, breeding and management research to sustainable increases in farmed fish supplies.","tokenCount":"656"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"57e6a9ba4dc719f122b0bbc659c7eb5d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fcc33f21-62af-4517-b8ec-cd78c0a2f4af/retrieve","id":"307825883"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"74571f44-665c-40eb-8d0f-fccdddb96089","pagecount":"6","content":"1. Title of project Conservation agriculture, livestock and livelihood strategies in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia: Synergies and tradeoffsThe overall project purpose is to better understand interactions and trade-offs in organic matter management in crop-livestock systems and implications for livelihood strategies, as well as R&D programs. The specific objectives are: -To better understand crop-livestock interactions (CLI) and the trade-offs farmers face in applying conservation agriculture practices in rice-wheatlivestock systems; -To assess the implications of the CLI and the trade-offs for the development of conservation agriculture in particular and of rice-wheatlivestock systems in general; -To use this understanding to realign and focus current and future R&D efforts addressing conservation agriculture practices in rice-wheatlivestock systems so as to optimize their benefits for rural livelihoods, poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability. Meanwhile, the farm Enterprise 1 questionnaire was developed and subsequent field visits were made to all nine sites to train partners for data collection. In the training program, a detailed discussion of the questionnaire was first held and then was checked in selected villages with the site enumerators. Enumerators were also trained to measure residue in the selected plots for the survey. After the completion of nine site visits, some changes were made based on site specific feedback. The revised questionnaire was subsequently sent to the site partners for data collection in January 2008. The enterprise 1 survey covered the data collection period starting from the monsoon season up to the establishment of the wheat crop during winter, 2007-2008.A common data entry form for the farm household survey was developed in Microsoft Access to avoid confusion and to streamline processing of data across nine sites. This database was sent to all nine sites and discussion was held regarding the problems faced by each site during the enterprise 1 training program.The first draft of the farm enterprise 2 questionnaire was developed during March and training for the data collection was arranged at the cluster level. Instead of going to nine sites separately, the training was conducted at one site per cluster. Three site partners along with their enumerators came and attended this training program. The main purpose of this arrangement was to avoid time taken for traveling to each site and to finalize the questionnaire before the planned time of data collection in each round. Aside from that, it was also thought that this type of visits would bring three partners together and would facilitate discussions about the similarities, contrasts and cross-cutting issues within their cluster. Besides the training for the enterprise 2 questionnaire, a detailed review of the household data entry in Access was also discussed. After incorporation of all the feedback from the site partners during training, the final Enterprise 2 questionnaire was sent to all nine sites in the second week of May. The Enterprise 2 survey covered the data collection period of the wheat season up to the establishment of the 2008 summer crop.Like the Enterprise 2 training program, Enterprise 3 was conducted on a per cluster basis. The final Enterprise 3 questionnaire was sent to site partners during the first week of July. The Enterprise 3 survey covered the data collection period from the summer season up to crop establishment of the 2008 monsoon crop. All the sites have finished the data collection of enterprise surveys 1 and 2. Enterprise 3 data collection is underway and scheduled to finish within the second week of November, 2008.During the Enterprise 2 and 3 training visits, the market survey and qualitative study were conducted. Straw market surveys at the village level, district level and in major cities of the Indo-Gangetic plain were covered (Ludhiana, Delhi, Varanasi, Patna, Kolkata, Dhaka). Along with the straw market survey, a qualitative study of farmers' perceptions of tilling, Zero Tillage adoption, residue retention, straw use and importance of livestock was conducted in two villages from each site to supplement the quantitative results from the different survey module.From the household survey database, some initial queries were developed to generate preliminary results which were subsequently sent to all nine sites. These results were presented by each partner during the progress workshop organized in New Delhi on September 22-25, 2008 (proceedings as annex).Partners from nine sites from different disciplines such as crop science, livestock, and social sciences along with enumerators and computer operators participated to share their findings and everyday experiences related to the different stages of the project.During the workshop a common access data base with the entry forms for Enterprise 1, 2 & 3 which are linked to household survey data base were introduced to nine partners. The main purpose of the workshop was to share the progress of the survey work and important preliminary findings as well as to discuss data processing and results. In addition, problems, issues, and responsibilities for the future work plan of the nine site partners were discussed. The workshop encompassed: i) A presentation and discussion of village and household survey results and a progress report from each site. ii)Cluster discussions to highlight contrasts, similarities and implications (trade-offs, Conservation Agriculture-feed links, R&D) from the presentations. iii) Some initial discussions on the qualitative study and market survey. iv)Technical issues on data processing and results. v)Group meetings with each of the three clusters to review progress, problems, methodological issues, partners and roles and work plan. Further details are listed in the workshop proceedings (attached).  N. Teufel, O. Erenstein, and A. Samaddar (2008) A study on mitigating feed scarcity for resource poor livestock keepers through improvement of fodder markets and identification of crop varieties with improved fodder characteristics in selected disadvantaged areas of India is in progress and led by ILRI. This research is also linked with the present SLP research in the Indo-Gangetic plains by offering an opportunity to enhance the scope of the current SLP research through detailed studies on fodder markets and nutritive value of fodders. In particular, the regional focus of Bihar in this study corresponds to two sites in the current SLP study. Also, the detailed investigations into fodder markets will link very well to the producer perspective found in the current SLP study.Research results will feed into the envisaged follow up SLP research grant and the soon to be funded Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA). ","tokenCount":"1038"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"32a9547a35a33badd198a735bca511f0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/65eabfd1-fafa-49bb-b6ca-5264a9c7eabd/retrieve","id":"-1807960463"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"56ee9135-d2f2-4169-b23b-34a6ec0c1c02","pagecount":"32","content":"What does Livestock feed requirement mean?• Maintenance, • Production (milk, growth/meat, power/traction, etc) and • Pregnancy Feed requirements could be expressed in many ways,• in terms of total dry matter,• or in terms of roughages, concentrate supplements, and • total mixed rations (TMR) or • all details of nutrients (protein, energy, vitamins, minerals and water)• Or in terms of Digestible nutrients, gross energies, net energies• To give highlights on the benefits of feed planning in a given farm, village or district level. It will give also the principles and the information required and the procedures to follow in planning feed requirements for a given period of timePlanning feed requirements of a given livestock farm is the main and essential activity for successful and profitable husbandry.The scope of the planning could stretch from traditional system to well-organized commercial farms.Planning feed requirements for commercial livestock farms are simpler and follows established principles and guidelines.On the other hand, traditional livestock systems, such as pastoral, agro-pastoral and crop livestock mixed systems, planning feed requirements is a usually challenging task.It is generally considered as routine practice and done through traditional way, which lacks precision and effectiveness. For example, pastoralists plan to have feed and water through moving from place to place in annual basis.This is because the basic information for planning are not available or very crude estimates, and it is common to see feed shortage as the main challenge in some months and weight loss of animals are very common.Under such circumstances the best way of planning is through experiences which is an established good practice through trial and errors.Planning feed requirements -Why?Feed planning or sometimes called feed budgeting in a given farm has the following purposes.• It ensures animals are fed properly, so we can reach the set production targets. • It ensures minimization of feed wastage.• It helps to predict feed surpluses and deficits to act accordingly.• It helps to design strategies of acquiring required feeds including roughages in time • The supplement feed requirements can be foreseen a long way in advance and therefore purchased at the lowest possible price.Information required for planning livestock feed requirements1) The animals• In planning feed requirement, the first thing to know is the details of animals in the farm.• Which type and number of animals are in the farm? (Cattle, Goats, Sheep, etc) • What is the main purpose of the animals (milk, meat, power)?• What is the level of productivity?• How many are there in the different categories (milking cows, growing animals, heifers, steers, bulls, calves, etc)? • Good if one has individual liveweights periodicallyOne can broadly categorize the management of animals as• Pastoral, agropastoral and sedentary (croplivestock mixed systems in Ethiopia) production systems.• Extensive, semi-intensive and intensive systems.• Traditional and commercial production systems.• In dairy it could also be categorized as rural, periurban and urban systems These classifications are normally based on the level of feed availability and feeding systems.It also implies the level of information / data availability 1. The estimated area and productivity of the grazing lands. it is usually challenging to estimate under communal grazing systems.2. Estimated feed from crop aftermath grazing 3. The amount of hay produced and conserved annually 4. The amount of crop residues produced annually by crop type 5. The area and total production of cultivated forages (either in cut and carry systems, conserved hay or silage)3) Available feed resources 6. The concentrate feeds (formulated feed, grains, agro-industrial by products, etc) available or to be purchased 7. Prices of roughages and concentrate supplements over the months of the year 8. Any other feed available that could be quantifiable or estimatedEstimating Feed Requirements Feed requirements could be estimated for• Individual animal• Group of animals• A herd of animals in a given farm,• Feed requirements for animals in a village• Or at District, Zone, Region and country level Depending on the production system, as the size of the herd and area coverage increases variabilities increased and estimation of feed requirements are less precise.A) For Commercial farms with all the required data such as weight of animals, product types and levels, physiological stage of animals, price of feed and other relevant informationFeed requirements for individual animals and the total herd will be prepared using established procedures of formulation (manually and computer based).Under smallholders condition the basic information required such as liveweight and production levels are not available or inadequate.Hence the different parameters are estimated 1.Liveweight -estimated by standardizing to TLU (tropical livestock units). Weight estimation using heart girth measurements is also possible.2. Estimate the daily feed requirements in terms of dry matter (DM)  How one estimate the total feed requirement in terms of dry matter (DM) for the herd in which the total weight is estimated ?Ruminants consume 1 to 4% of their live weight daily.For cattle it is usually consider 3% Therefore -A farmer who has 10.43 TLU = 2606 kg liveweight will require as follows• Daily feed requirement (TDM) = 2606 kg liveweight X 3% = 78.2 kg• Annual feed requirement (TDM) = 78.2 X 365 = 28,543 kg = 28.5 tons of TDM• Add about 20 % allowance for feeds that may be wasted as refusal and others.• Total annual feed requirement = 28.5 tons + (28.5x20%) = 34.2 tons TDMThe total annual feed requirement is = 34,200 kg (34.2 Tons)The different common feed sources• Grazing,• Crop residues,• Hay,• Cultivated forage crops,• Agro-industrial by products,• Formulated concentrates and• Others If the available feed resources are not enough to fulfill the required TDM feed, then we have to carefully plan either to purchase or produce additional feeds .the feed availabilities ?• Availability of the feeds in the area • Nutritional value of the feed in relation to the nutrient requirement and targeted product • Price of the feed if it is to be purchased • Ease of production and its productivity and quality if it is to be producedEstimating Feeds Available or to be PurchasedIn the mixed crop livestock mixed systems in Ethiopia, we can broadly categorize 3 livestock husbandry practicesProper understanding of the farming system and livestock feeding practice helps for planning more precise feed requirements .1. Livestock fully under grazing systems -is very extensive. It is usually traditional and not market oriented.2. Semi intensive in which animals are partly grazing but provided with supplement feedsEstimating Feeds Available or to be Purchased   Planning feed requirements should be done by experienced personnel. otherwise, the planning will be biased.Livestock numbers & conditions are dynamic -births, deaths, cullingThe minerals have crucial roles in the health, proper physiological functions and efficient use of feeds -need to supplement minerals Target to feed animals based on their requirements to make the farm more profitable Cultivation of forage crops is sustainable, environmentally attractive, economical and produce quality products and hence should be encouraged.The productivity of animals is remarkably affected if they don't have access to clean and adequate water. water should always be considered in planning livestock feeds• Proper planning is the means for leading a successful livestock production. The major input / expense in livestock production is feed and effective feed planning helps to keep the farm more productive and profitable.• For planning feed requirements, there is a need to have information / data on o Animal type, weight and productivity and overall production system o Available feed resources, quantity, quality and price o Apply different tools to estimate different parameters like crop residue yield• Planning of feed requirement are estimated from the daily requirements of animals and available feeds which will be extrapolated for a given period of time, farm, village, district, zone and country level.• Experience in improved management of livestock production helps practically sound in planning livestock feed requirements Mr Lemma is a farmer in the mixed crop-livestock production system. He has 7 local cows, 3 calves, 2 heifers, 4 oxen, 1 horse, 1 donkey, and 10 sheep. He also cultivates crops, including 0.5 ha of tef, 0.25 ha of barley, 0.4 ha of maize, 0.25 ha of wheat and expects grain yields of 8 quintals of tef, 5 quintals of barley, 16 quintals of maize and 7 quintals of wheat. According to Mr Lemma the contribution of the communal grazing land and other feed sources is about 40% of the feed (dry matter) requirement of his animals.• Please exercise the following questions based on Mr Lemma's farming practice 1. Convert all the animals, Mr lemma owned in to tropical livestock units (TLU) and estimated total live weights of his animals in Kgs.Use the conversion factors from the table indicated in this manual. 2. Estimate the daily feed (dry matter) requirement for Mr Lemma's total herd? What will be the annual feed requirement? (Please assume the average dry matter daily consumption of the animals is 2.5% of their liveweight)3. Estimate the total amount of crop residues Mr Lemma can produce. Use the conversion factors from the table indicated in this manual. 4. Discuss the annual feed balance for Mr Lemma's livestock farmThank You","tokenCount":"1494"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"10a7d31ae1e48490190955be02049a80","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1603271d-f847-4e26-8a2c-e7894511745e/retrieve","id":"153970008"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"69af9702-b83f-4209-b965-dfaea8ed5a05","pagecount":"18","content":"The wild relatives of crops represent a major source of valuable traits for crop improvement. These resources are threatened by habitat destruction, land use changes, and other factors, requiring their urgent collection and long-term availability for research and breeding from ex situ collections. We propose a method to identify gaps in ex situ collections (i.e. gap analysis) of crop wild relatives as a means to guide efficient and effective collecting activities.Methodology/Principal Findings: The methodology prioritizes among taxa based on a combination of sampling, geographic, and environmental gaps. We apply the gap analysis methodology to wild taxa of the Phaseolus genepool. Of 85 taxa, 48 (56.5%) are assigned high priority for collecting due to lack of, or under-representation, in genebanks, 17 taxa are given medium priority for collecting, 15 low priority, and 5 species are assessed as adequately represented in ex situ collections. Gap ''hotspots'', representing priority target areas for collecting, are concentrated in central Mexico, although the narrow endemic nature of a suite of priority species adds a number of specific additional regions to spatial collecting priorities.Conclusions/Significance: Results of the gap analysis method mostly align very well with expert opinion of gaps in ex situ collections, with only a few exceptions. A more detailed prioritization of taxa and geographic areas for collection can be achieved by including in the analysis predictive threat factors, such as climate change or habitat destruction, or by adding additional prioritization filters, such as the degree of relatedness to cultivated species (i.e. ease of use in crop breeding). Furthermore, results for multiple crop genepools may be overlaid, which would allow a global analysis of gaps in ex situ collections of the world's plant genetic resources.Crop wild relatives (CWR) are wild plant species sharing relatively recent common ancestry with cultivated plants. CWR typically possess wide diversity, much of it not found in the crop, and this diversity may be introgressed into the crop by plant breeders, with the ease of transfer of genes generally dependent on the degree of relatedness between the wild species and the domesticate [1,2]. Wild relatives have provided to crops traits such as pest and disease resistance, tolerance to abiotic stresses, increased yield, male sterility, and quality, increasing the value and sustainability of banana, barley, beans, cassava, chickpea, lettuce, maize, oats, pearl millet, potatoes, rice, sugar cane, sunflower, tomato, and wheat production, among others. In the past 20 years, there has been a steady increase in the rate of release of cultivars containing genes from CWR, and their contribution should only increase as the development of molecular technologies makes identification and utilization of diverse germplasm more efficient [2][3][4][5].Plant breeders obtain CWR material from genebanks. However, major gaps in the genetic diversity of important crop genepools remain to be filled in ex situ germplasm collections. These gaps are particularly evident for non-cereal crops (e.g. legumes, roots and tubers, vegetables), and for wild and weedy forms [6][7][8]. Maxted and Kell [7] estimated that 94% of European CWR species are completely missing from ex situ collections. At the same time, habitat destruction, invasive species, urbanization, and the shift from traditional to industrial agricultural practices, among other factors, continue to threaten PGR, and climate change is projected to impose further pressures on both wild and agricultural ecosystems [9][10][11][12][13][14][15].Clearly, much collecting of CWR diversity is still required. Unfortunately international efforts in collecting plant genetic resources in general have been in decline in recent decades [16].The recent coming into force of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is, however, expected to provide impetus for the development of an integrated, effective, efficient, global approach to conserving PGR. The development of strategic planning approaches will be necessary to prioritize PGR for collecting as part of such a rational global system.Gap analysis refers to a systematic method of analyzing the degree of conservation of taxa, in order to identify those locations, taxa, and particular traits (adaptations) un-or under-secured in conservation systems [17]. Nabhan [18] identified four ways by which gap analysis techniques may lead to better collecting and conservation: targeting localities where sets of species absent from existing collections can be obtained with least effort and cost; determining which areas are 'under-collected' or 'over-collected' for germplasm relative to the known distribution of a taxon; locating which regions have the greatest or most dissimilar species richness compared with other regions; and outlining the ecological amplitudes of each species so that a wider representation of the ecotypes or genetically adapted populations of each can be sampled.Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies have enabled a better understanding of species distributions and of the representativeness of germplasm collections, and have contributed to conservation planning of wild species, CWR, and domesticates [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Pioneering the use of these tools in conservation, Jones et al. [25] successfully predicted the location of populations of wild common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), based on climatic suitability. Significant developments have occurred in recent years in the application of GIS to PGR conservation planning, including the development and validation of various approaches to niche modeling, new analysis tools and extensions, and better access to geographic information, results and approaches [29].We propose here a gap analysis method designed to inform planning of germplasm collecting for ex situ conservation, based upon available information resources, using GIS. The distributions of ex situ collections are compared to GIS-modeled taxon distributions based on both herbarium and genebank data. The gross total number of germplasm accessions, as well as the distribution (geographical and environmental) of those accessions, are compared against modeled distributions in order to identify gaps in ex situ conservation coverage. These results form the basis for a prioritization of taxa across the genepool for collecting, and the identification of the highest priority locations (i.e. diverse and under-represented areas) for the most efficient and effective collecting, in order to further enhance ex situ holdings. Our model genepool is Phaseolus.The genus Phaseolus originated in the tropics and subtropics of the New World, and contains up to 81 species and 34 infraspecific taxa [2,[30][31][32], having undergone a series of revisions, notably in association with members of Vigna, which have included splitting some species into new genera (e.g. Strophostyles, Dysolobium, Macroptilium, Minkelersia and Alepidocalyx) [27]. The main centers of diversity for the genus are in wide Mesoamerica (from southern USA, Mexico, and Central America down to Panama), the northern Andean region (Colombia to northern Peru), and the central Andes (northern Peru, Bolivia to northwest Argentina). Of these, the Mesoamerican centre is the richest in species [30,[32][33][34].Phaseolus has five domesticated species, each a result of an independent domestication process: P. vulgaris L.-common bean; P. lunatus L.-lima bean; P. coccineus L.-runner bean; P. acutifolius A. Gray -tepary bean; and P. dumosus Macfady -year bean. The genus has been cultivated for over 7000 years, and each of the cultivated species has distinct ecological adaptations [35]. Common bean is the world's most important legume for food production and security, and represents 50% of the grain legumes consumed worldwide, reaching primary importance in the staple diet of over 500 million people, especially for its protein content [31,36]. Common bean is now grown on over 27 million hectares globally, producing over 20 million tons [37].Diversity in Phaseolus in relation to the cultivated species is organized into genepools based on phylogenetic relationships [38,39]. The primary genepool of cultivated species includes both cultivars and wild populations, hybrids of which are generally fully fertile with no major reproductive barriers. P. vulgaris also allows a measure of interspecific hybridization with species in its secondary genepool. P. lunatus and P. acutifolius appear less capable of gene exchange with related species [40].Like many important food crops, cultivars of common bean have a narrow genetic base, attributable to the genetic bottleneck accompanying the domestication process, stringent quality requirements in the market, limited past use of exotic germplasm in breeding, and conservative breeding programs for the crop [2]. Interspecific and wide intraspecific crossing have been useful strategies for crop improvement, but given the still limited genetic base, more along these lines is needed. Useful alleles for many agronomic traits deficient in common bean cultivars, including resistance to storage insects, leafhoppers, ascochyta blight, common bacterial blight, white mold, bean common mosaic virus, rust, drought, and soil fertility problems, as well as early maturity, adaptation to higher latitudes, upright plant type, pod quality, and seed yield have been identified in wild common bean and species in the secondary and tertiary genepools, and utilized in breeding programs [2,[41][42][43]. Wild common bean has also contributed high protein digestibility [44] and nodulation [45] traits. Despite the increasing utilization of CWR in common bean breeding, Singh [2] estimated as much as 90% of the genetic variability available in the primary genepool and related species as under-or not utilized. Widening of genetic diversity in the other Phaseolus crop species may also prove important. The domestication of tepary bean involved a severe genetic bottleneck event, leading to a particularly low level of genetic diversity in the crop [46][47][48].Close to 250 ex situ germplasm collections of Phaseolus, holding approximately 260,000 accessions, have been established worldwide [16]. The vast majority of these accessions are of common bean, with much smaller collections of the other cultivated species, and a small percentage of wild species. The largest collections of CWR of Phaseolus are held in the international collection managed by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), with close to 2000 accessions [49], and in the United States National Genetic Resources Program, with close to 500 accessions) [50].An eight-step gap analysis process is presented, which attempts to evaluate conservation deficiencies at three different levels: (1) taxonomic, (2) geographic and (3) environmental. The aim is to define the extent to which current genebank holdings represent total genetic diversity within a genepool. We apply the protocol to all the wild members of the genus Phaseolus.Based upon the average of overall taxonomic, geographic, and environmental coverage factors, the method produces a table outlining the high, medium and low priority species for collecting. From this table, potential collecting areas for high priority species may be highlighted, and overlapping high priority regions for the collection of multiple taxa identified. In detail, the method is as follows:1. Determination of target taxa, delineation of target area and harvesting of occurrence data:This involves five steps: a. Identification of the target cultivated species. b. Taxonomical review of all CWR related to the cultivated species, and analysis of relatedness to the domesticated species using the concept established by Maxted et al. [51]. c. Creation of a database containing as many records as possible both of genebank accessions and herbarium specimens, along with (when available) their respective passport data, specifically the names of the places of collection and coordinates (i.e. latitude and longitude). Samples listed as weedy or cultivated are not included in the database. d. Cross-check, verification, and correction of geographic references (coordinates) through thorough review of data and use of verification tools such as BioGeomancer (www. biogeomancer.org) [52], Google Earth, and high detail physical maps of localities, and strict selection only of verified geo-referenced samples for distribution modeling, as the quality of location data strongly affects the performance of niche modeling techniques [53]. e. Determine target area for the gap analysis: based upon the native (wild) distribution of the target taxa. Depending on the genepool, the area can range from a small region within a country to the entire world.A gross representativeness of genebank accessions for each taxon is calculated using the 'sampling representativeness score' (SRS, Eqn. 1), comparing total germplasm accessions to herbarium records.Ã 10 ðEqn:1ÞSRS is calculated as the number of germplasm samples (GS) divided by the total number of samples, i.e. the sum of germplasm plus herbarium samples (HS), regardless of whether samples contain location data. SRS therefore permits a general estimation of adequacy of germplasm holdings of each taxon based upon all available data. In the case that a taxon has no genebank samples, it is listed as a ''high priority species'' for collecting by setting the FPS (see step 7 below) to 0. In the rare case that for a particular taxon there is obviously deficient herbarium sample data in comparison to germplasm records, the analysis should eliminate SRS as an input for that taxon, as its inclusion would overestimate adequacy of conservation. Mapping of herbarium samples and genebank accessions can be performed (e.g. using DIVA-GIS (version 7.1.70) [29,54]) in order to provide a general geographic assessment of the available data.Potential distributions of taxa are calculated using the maximum entropy (Maxent) model [55], with a set of bioclimatic variables and species presence data as inputs. We do not consider the total number of samples with coordinates but the number of different populations represented by those samples (unique locations) [55][56][57][58]. We use Maxent due to its precision and confidence when predicting species distributions [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]. Default features are used in Maxent, in which complexity of the models (represented by the number of terms and the type of interactions between environmental variables) depend upon the number of input data points [55,59]. Background points for model training equal 10,000 random points over the distributional range of the genepool in order to avoid overfitting [63,64].As the Maxent distribution is generally broader than the real distribution of the species, the modeled distribution is further refined by selecting only known native areas and high probability zones, which generally are defined as the most climatically suitable for the taxon, thus avoiding over-estimation of the realized niche [63,65]. The potential distribution is limited to the native area reported in the literature and then thresholded using the ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve plot-based approach (point on the ROC curve [sensitivity vs. 1-specificity] which has the shortest distance to the top-left corner [0,1] in the ROC plot) [55,59,66]. We use this threshold as it provides a decent omission rate, is taxonspecific and shows better performance than other thresholds when predicting potential presence [66]. We call this thresholded modeled distribution the ''potential distribution coverage''.Based on the above, for each taxon, we report three model performance metrics: (1) the 25-fold average area under the ROC curve (AUC) [55,61,64,66] of test data (ATAUC), (2) the standard deviation of the test AUC of the 25 different folds (STAUC), and (3) the proportion of the potential distribution coverage with standard deviation above 0.15 (ASD15). Maxent models with ATAUC above 0.7 [66], STAUC below 0.15, and ASD15 below 10% can be considered ''accurate and stable'' and are thus used in further calculations. We use three measures of model accuracy as the use of AUC alone might mislead the interpretation given the sensitivity of this measure to spatial autocorrelation [67,68].For those taxa for which the Maxent model training fails or is inaccurate or unstable, we assign a priority to the taxa using the following criteria: (a) As with step (2), taxa with no genebank samples are listed as ''high priority species'' for collecting by setting the FPS (see step 5 below) to 0. (b) Taxa with genebank samples but no herbarium samples with verified location data are listed as ''high priority species'' for collecting, as more data are needed in order to perform the analysis. Taxa with such paucity of herbarium records are likely to also have limited germplasm conserved, and are therefore very likely to be ''high priority species''. However, these taxa might differ from taxa in (3a) since they already have at least one genebank accession, which certainly permits some type of analyses (e.g. genetic diversity). These taxa are thus differentiated from taxa in (3a) by a flag in the final priorities table (see results). (c) Taxa with genebank samples and one or more herbarium samples with verified location data are assessed using the area of the convex hull around all known populations (unique locations) of the taxon in lieu of potential distribution coverage. We use the convex hull since, particularly for taxa with very limited occurrence data; it provides a polygon resembling the type of area produced by the Maxent distribution model.At this point, the potential distribution coverage for all taxa (for which a niche model is possible) may be mapped together in order to display the distribution of the genus, and a richness map along with an uncertainty map (i.e. maximum standard deviation of probabilities among the species that are present in each pixel) for the genepool may be calculated from the results.The adequacy of geographic coverage of genebank accessions is calculated as a 'geographic representativeness score' (GRS, Eqn. 2), assessed by comparing the taxon potential distribution coverage with the genebank samples geographic coverage, modeled using the 'circular area statistic with a 50 km radius' (CA50) value [29].Ã 10 ðEqn:2ÞGRS is thus the geographic coverage of germplasm collections (GCG) divided by the potential distribution coverage of the taxon under analysis (PDC). The higher the GRS, the higher the representativeness of genebank collections in relation to the potential distribution of the taxon.The adequacy of environmental coverage of genebank accessions is calculated as an 'environmental representativeness score' (ERS, Eqn. 3), assessed by comparing the germplasm samples in relation to the full environmental range of the modeled taxon distribution. The same set of climatic layers used for developing the potential distribution coverage are standardized to have an average of zero and a standard deviation of 1 in order to perform a principal components analysis. The first two of these spatially explicit components (which normally account for more than 70% of the spatial variability) are reclassified into twenty equal classes.ðEqn:3ÞFor these two principal components (i = 2), ERS is calculated as the environmental coverage (i.e. number of different classes) of germplasm collections (EC) divided by the potential environmental coverage of the taxon under analysis (PED), times the weight (w) of the principal component (weights of the two components are rescaled so that the sum of their weights is 1). If the total variation explained by the first two components is too small (i.e. less than 70%), additional components can be included in the analysis, and should be weighted accordingly.All records for the genepool (i.e. GS + HS for all taxa combined) are plotted against a specific environmental variable or linear combination of variables (i.e. vector or principal component) to identify taxa with records falling in rare environmental classes (i.e. extremes of the distribution). We assume that the frequency of the data presents a normal distribution and 'environmentally rare' taxa are those located in sites where extreme environmental conditions are found (tails of the distribution -5 th [NS P5 ] and 95 th [NS P95 ] percentiles). A numeric value (environmentally rare taxa score, ERTS, Eqn. 4) is calculated for each taxon as the number of populations in rare environments divided by the total number of populations of that taxon.S P5 zNS P95 GSzHS Ã 10 ðEqn:4ÞAs this step of the gap analysis should be conducted only when there is sufficient data for all the taxa under analysis in order to avoid bias in the results (an abundant number of populations so that a histogram can be calculated), usually it will not be included in the overall assessment. We suggest that this step can be usefully included for the assessment of a specific subset of well-sampled species.All level-specific representativeness scores (SRS, GRS, ERS, and if possible ERTS) are averaged with equal weight to obtain a final score of prioritization of species. The 'final priority score' (FPS), is then used to classify taxa according to the following ranges: (1) as high priority species if the FPS is between 0 and 3, (2) as medium priority species if the FPS is between 3.01 and 5, (3) as low priority species if the FPS is between 5.01 and 7.5, and (4) as well conserved species (no need for further collection) if the FPS is between 7.51 and 10. All taxa flagged as high priority in steps ( 2) and ( 3) are included in the list of high priority taxa to be further collected.The potential collection zones for each high priority species are identified separately and then combined to highlight those zones where gaps for multiple species overlap (''collection gap richness''). This is done through the following steps: a. Identify un-collected zones for each taxon by comparing the potential distribution coverage with the current geographic coverage of germplasm collections (CA50). Areas where the taxon is potentially present but already sampled are dismissed at this stage; the remaining areas are highlighted as uncollected. b. Four products treating all mappable high priority taxa are finally produced: (1) individual maps showing potential collecting zones of all high priority taxa, (2) a map of collection gap richness: the number of different taxa that can be collected in each 2.5 arc-minutes (,5 km at the Equator) grid cell, (3) a map showing the maximum standard deviation of high priority taxa (derived from the 25-fold Maxent model training procedure) in each pixel, and (4) a map of the maximum distance of each pixel to the nearest accession (this calculation is done taxon-by-taxon and then aggregated into a single map output, by calculating the maximum of all 'high priority taxa'.The methodology relies on available data and utilizes modeling tools, and is therefore vulnerable to the quantity and quality of input data and the limitations of the modeling applied. In order to test the quality of the results, we have compared them to expert opinion, as following:1. Identify one or more experts on the target taxa (i.e. genepool) 2. Query the selected expert(s) to provide a. A ranking of taxa for importance for conservation: To achieve this, the list of taxon names under analysis is sent to the expert(s), who is asked to provide a rating from 1 to 10 for each taxon (where 1 corresponds to a very high priority [i.e. an incomplete collection], and 10 corresponds to the lowest priority [i.e. a complete collection]), without having seen the results of the gap analysis. The expert is requested to rate taxa strictly on the basis of adequacy of ex situ holdings for the taxon. b. The expert is then shown the results of the analysis and is asked to give general comments on the validity of the taxa and geographic prioritizations.3. Compare the expert and method-based prioritization of each taxon using the relative difference (RD) between the expert priority score (EPS) and the gap analysis FPS, with respect to the total maximum possible difference [Eqn. 5] RD~F PS{EPS 10 Ã 100 ðEqn:5ÞRD is calculated for each taxon and the number of taxa with very similar ratings (230,RD,30%), the number of taxa somewhat similar ratings (250%,RD,50%), and the number of taxa with very different ratings (RD ,270% and RD .70%) are then counted. We also plot the FPS and the EPS in a scattergram and calculate both the Spearman correlation coefficient and the Pvalue of the Spearman correlation coefficient. With these metrics, we aim to provide a general evaluation of the gap analysis method in identifying high priority taxa in comparison to best available expert knowledge.We conducted a literature review for the Phaseolus genus [30,32,[69][70][71], checked against genepool experts (Debouck) and created a complete list of taxonomically verified species. We used the concept established by Maxted et al. [51], including with equal weight all taxa belonging to taxon groups 1 to 4 of the genepool.According to a recent revision of the Phaseolus genepool [32], there are 81 species and 34 infra-specific taxa, totaling 115 taxa within the genepool. With various species synonyms and historical revisions [27,30,32], specimen identification and data availability issues persist. Although taxonomically verified herbarium specimens provided the bulk of the data used in the analysis, we also rely on the specimen identification performed by the individual holding institutions. Based on the recent history of Phaseolus taxonomy, we made the following changes to the determination of specimens used in the data: Any variant within P. polymorphus Wats. was considered as P. polymorphus, and the same was done for P. coccineus L. and P. leptostachyus Benth. [34]. The variants P. polystachyus subsp. smilacifolius (Pollard) Freytag and P. polystachyus subsp. sinuatus (Nuttall ex Torrey & Gray) Freytag were considered as separated species (P. smilacifolius and P. sinuatus, respectively), and the species P. pyramidalis Freytag and P. palmeri Piper were merged into P. grayanus Woot. & Standl. The only infraspecific taxa that were considered were those of wild teparies (P. acutifolius) and those of P. maculatus, for which there was not enough evidence for merging into single species. For taxa with ongoing taxonomic uncertainty (e.g. P. neglectus Hermann), we followed Debouck [32] and CIAT's Genetic Resources Unit genebank practice. After these modifications, a total of 85 taxa were finally listed, including 81 species and 4 infraspecific taxa.We gathered data from all known available sources, including primary datasets accessed directly from herbaria and genebanks, as well as online global databases, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, www.gbif.org), the System-wide Information Network for Genetic Resources (SINGER, www. singer.cgiar.org) database held by the CGIAR, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN, www.ars-grin.gov) database (Table 1).Data were available for all taxa, including the 81 species, 2 subspecies and 2 varieties. The entire dataset was carefully geographically verified and corrected using BioGeomancer, and, when possible, new geographic references (coordinates) were added to the passport data. The final dataset contained 11,442 records, of which 6,926 (60.5%) had coordinates or enough location data to obtain coordinates, and 4,516 (39.5%) samples had no location data or coordinates.The analysis was based on the native range for the genus throughout the Americas (northeastern United States to northern Argentina, including the Caribbean and the Galapagos Islands) [30,50]. Records outside the boundaries of the Americas, as well as those listed as weedy or cultivated, were deleted and a final dataset was produced for analysis. The average total number of samples per taxon was 144.8, but data was unevenly distributed. Samples were predominantly concentrated in wild progenitors of domesticated species (i.e. P. acutifolius, P. coccineus, P. dumosus, P. lunatus, P. vulgaris), comprising about 55% of the total records.Germplasm collections of the Phaseolus genepool are not distributed equally in relation to total herbarium collections (Figure 1). The number of genebank accessions in a 200 km cell ranged from 1 to 273, while that of herbarium collections ranged from 1 to 373. Observable differences in the two maps (gaps) are present in the eastern United States, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and in the north of Mexico and along its border with United States. Most of the areas in central Mexico are however well sampled and it is possible that species occurring in those areas are adequately conserved. This was also observed in some areas in South America (particularly in the Colombian, Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andes), where a greater proportion of genebank accessions have been collected, potentially indicating a better coverage of taxa in genebanks for populations from these regions.Of 85 taxa, 35 (41.2%) had no germplasm accessions, 26 taxa (30.6%) had 1-9 accessions, and 24 taxa (28.2%) had 10 or more accessions. From the 85 taxa, 61 (71.8%) taxa presented a SRS below 3, indicating poor representativeness of the number of genebank accessions in relation to herbarium collections, whilst 16 taxa (18.8%) showed SRS between 3.01 and 5, 4 (4.7%) between 5.01 and 7.5, and 4 (4.7%) greater than 7.5.The total representativeness (only in terms of the total number of samples, Figure 2 -intermittent line) is above the average representativeness of germplasm collections (continuous line), signifying that on average, species are likely to have fewer genebank accessions than herbarium specimens. P. vulgaris, P. acutifolius and P. lunatus appear well conserved in relation to both the gross number of accessions (compared to other taxa), and in proportion to their respective number of herbarium records. We used high-resolution global climatic datasets developed by Hijmans et al. [72]. WorldClim includes monthly data at 30 arcseconds resolution (approximately 1 km near the Equator) for total precipitation, and mean, maximum and minimum temperatures. Using such monthly datasets, 19 bioclimatic variables have been derived [73], representing average yearly climates, stressful and extreme conditions, and interannual seasonality (Table 2).We downloaded WorldClim data at 30 arc-seconds, calculated the bioclimatic indices and aggregated the 30 arc-seconds datasets to 2.5 arc-minutes using a bilinear interpolation in order to reduce the computational time and data storage needs. Although most of the bioclimatic indices used to develop the niche models are highly correlated (particularly in the tropics), we used the complete set of 19 bioclimatic variables in Table 2 because (1) they are useful to provide the best possible description of the climatic requirements of species during a single average year, (2) these correlations might not hold in space and time, (3) the alternative approach of dropping some variables leads to underestimation of distributions and poor performance of Maxent [62], (4) the alternative approach of reducing the set of variables to a subset of orthogonal vectors [60] might lead to loss of valuable climatic information and tends to complicate the interpretation of results of the application of the niche model, and (5) the Maxent model prevents over-fitting due to the use of a set of correlated environmental predictors by assigning weights based on the relative importance of the variable to the model [55,59,61].The geographic distributions of 51 out of the 85 taxa were considered sufficiently accurate and stable to be mapped. Potential distribution coverage was estimated via the convex hull method for 3 additional taxa (P. marechalii, P. salicifolius, and P. rotundatus). Therefore, a total of 54 taxa were assessed further.The genus was modeled to occur from the northern border of the United States through Central America, and along the Andean chain into northern Argentina (Figure 3a). Potential taxon richness ranged from 1 to 23 taxa per grid cell. Taxon diversity hotspots were mainly found in southern and western Mexico and in the southern United States, as well as some highland areas of Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica, where 6 to 11 taxa are potentially distributed in a single 5 km pixel.  Uncertainties in modeling distributional range calculated by the maximum standard deviation among any possible class (i.e. taxon) varied from 0 to 0.32 (Figure 3b), with the vast majority of the potential distribution coverage of the genus presenting a modeling uncertainty below 10%, and only very few areas presenting more than 15% variation in predicted probabilities. High uncertainty areas do not coincide with high diversity areas, confirming the reliability of the Maxent algorithm in predicting the geographic distributions of our set of taxa. These small spots are located in southwestern Mexico along the very western edge of Nayarit (municipalities of El Nayar, Rosamorada, Tepic), along the borders of Guerrero and Oaxaca, in northern Oaxaca, and in northeastern Michoaca ´n. Despite the observed uncertainties, these areas with more than 15% variability among predictions account to less than 10% of the total potential distribution coverage of the genus.The comparison between the CA50 and the size of the potential distribution showed that there are 30 taxa out of the 54 assessed (55.6%) with GRS below 3.01 (less than 30% of representativity in terms of geographic coverage), 12 taxa (22.2%) with GRS between 3.01 and 5, 4 taxa (7.1%) with GRS between 5.01 and 7.5, and 8 taxa (14.8%) with GRS greater than 7.5. The great majority of taxa have germplasm collections covering a geographic range considerably smaller than the potential geographic area in which the taxon is distributed (Figure 4), thus indicating the need for further collecting in order to fill geographic gaps.The average representativeness line (intermittent line) is above the complete representativeness line (continuous line), indicating that the representativeness of germplasm collections in comparison to the total potential distribution coverage is low on average, and relatively high only for a few species (namely the wild progenitors P. vulgaris, P. coccineus, P. acutifolius and P. lunatus).The principal components analysis showed that the first two components explained up to 81.5% of the total spatial variability among the Phaseolus genepool target area (61.2 and 20.3% for PC1 and PC2 respectively). Re-scaling of these two components' weights resulted in a weight of 75.03% for PC1 and 24.97% for PC2. Out of the 54 modeled taxa, 10 (18.5%) presented ERS below 3.01, indicating a significantly low environmental representativeness (i.e. less than 30%) in germplasm collections; 7 (13%) taxa presented an ERS between 3.01 and 5; 7 taxa (13%) between 5.01 and 7.5; and 30 taxa (55.6%) above 7.5. Notably, environmental representativeness of genebank accessions was found to predominantly fit in the two extreme classes (below 30% and above 75%) for most of the taxa.P. vulgaris and P. lunatus showed the highest coverage of potential environmental range, with 8 and 14 respectively out of the 20 classes along PC1, and 8 and 16 classes along PC2 (Figure 5). Germplasm representativeness of these environmental classes is for both species significantly high (90% or more representativeness in both classes). For wild P. vulgaris, among other cases (Figure 5), we found the environmental distribution of genebank accessions to be broader than the environmental distribution of the potential distribution coverage, which may be explained as an artifact given the use of the ROC-plot based threshold for binning the species distributions (i.e. the omission rate), the native area (i.e. one or two small localities where the taxon occurs might not be reported in literature), or the use of the CA50 around germplasm locations, which might enlarge the range towards unsuitable habitats, particularly where the landscape changes rapidly (e.g. topographically diverse regions, such as the Andes). A broad range of adaptation to climatic conditions may be covered by current germplasm collections, but it should be noted that small environmental gaps remain even for these well-sampled species.Rarity of species was not included in the analysis since there were significant sampling biases that would lead to inaccurate results. In order to produce accurate results, the weight of the ERTS was finally established at 0.05, which is practically irrelevant and thus the step was dropped. If a subset of species with reliable sampling were to be analyzed separately (e.g. the five wild progenitors of the domesticated species), however, the ERTS could be calculated and weighted equally with the other scores when calculating the FPS.Out of the 85 taxa under analysis, 48 (56.5%) are either underrepresented or not represented in any way in genebanks and therefore flagged as HPS for collecting (Table 3, Table S1). Of these taxa, 35 had no germplasm accessions, and 11 are listed as HPS due to the average of gross representativeness, geographic, and environmental gaps (FPS below 3.01). A further 2 taxa (P. sinuatus and P. altimontanus) couldn't be assessed due to uncertainties in the modeling and the data, and are included as HPS due to the need for collecting in order to provide adequate data for a gap analysis.Medium priority for further collecting was given to 17 taxa (20%), 15 taxa (17.7%) were given low priority, and only 5 taxa (P. macrolepis, P. marechalii, P. pachyrrhizoides, P. xanthotrichus and P. vulgaris) were assessed as well represented in ex situ collections.   36 priority taxa (i.e. those flagged as high priority and with sufficient location data) were mapped together, along with standard deviations on predicted Maxent probabilities (aggregated for all the taxa using the maximum value) and distances to the nearest population (also aggregated) (Figure 6). Potential collection sites have a richness of up to 7 taxa per grid (Figure 6a). Zones where gaps in ex situ collections for many Phaseolus taxa overlap are concentrated in central-western Mexico, with an extension along the Sierra Madre Occidental north to Sonora.Andean environments where Phaseolus species are likely distributed appear in general to be adequately represented in genebanks for most of the species. Note that the narrow endemic nature of many of the under-or un-sampled taxa results in a need for very finely targeted collection trips to specific regions outside of the gap richness areas identified, for example to collect from populations of P. carteri, P. novoleonensis, and P. plagiocylix in isolated regions of Mexico, and P. mollis in South America.The maximum modeling uncertainty (given by the maximum standard deviation of the 25 folds per taxon) was slightly greater than 15% in a very small area (dark blue spot in western Nayarit, Figure 6b). Interestingly, modeling uncertainties of high priority taxa had a maximum of 19%, significantly lower than uncertainties of the whole set of taxa under analysis (Figure 3b), strengthening confidence in results regarding high priority taxa. The distance to verified populations (Figure 6c) was greatest (i.e. uncertainty) in northwestern Mexico (southern Sonora, northern Sinaloa, and southwestern Chihuahua). The areas identified in these uncertainty analyses are least likely to contain target species. +Indicates that the taxon had no genebank accessions and no herbarium samples with coordinates or location data; ++indicates a taxon for which a Maxent model was not possible and for which 0-few genebank accessions were available; #indicates a taxon with some genebank accessions but no or limited herbarium samples with coordinates or location data. These taxa are listed as HPS for further collecting in order to inform the gap analysis. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013497.t003Table 3. Cont. Comparison with expert opinionThe expert authority for Phaseolus was Daniel G. Debouck (DGD), head of the Genetic Resources Unit at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), author and co-author of numerous publications on Phaseolus, including a survey of the Phaseolus genepool in North and Central America [30], who has participated in many collecting missions for the genus throughout the Americas and has extensive expertise in taxonomy (including research at 67 different herbaria in the last 32 years), ecogeographic distributions, and level of in situ and ex situ conservation of the genepool.DGD did not assess 4 taxa: P. maculatus, and P. acutifolius since he considered it enough to assess the subspecies and/or variants, and P. trifidus and P. opacus, since he considered them as doubtful taxa. All figures below are thus based on the total number of taxa assessed by DGD (81). Further taxonomic analyses of these species are needed in order to inform conservation priorities.In comparison to expert opinion, the gap analysis approach tended to underestimate priority for collecting in a considerable number of cases (30.9% of the taxa); however, scores for 28 taxa (34.6%) did align with expert opinion (with 0 as score for 24 of these). For 51 taxa (63%), the method and DGD agreed on the priority class, and from the remaining proportion, the difference was of one single class. In addition, the relative difference (RD) varied from 250% to 72.2% and the maximum difference between our approach and the expert's concept was around 7 units in the priority scale of 10 units. Moreover, 87.7% of the validated taxa (81) presented differences lower than 30% or greater than 230%, and only 2 taxa presented more than a 50% or less than 250% difference (P. salicifolius with 7.2 in EPS and 0 in FPS, P. marechalii with 8.3 in EPS and 3 in FPS). Only P. salicifolius was found to have more than 70% difference between EPS and FPS (Figure 7a).The linear trend between EPS and FPS has a Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.79 (p,0.0001, n = 79). However, as previously stated, the gap analysis approach tends to underestimate the priorities compared to expert opinion (average underestimation is 210.7%, Figure 7b).A number of taxa fall far from the linear trend (i.e. P. neglectus, P. albiflorus, P. salicifolius and P. pachyrrhizoides). Whilst for P. pachyrrhizoides this is due to a very high accuracy (ERS and FPS are equal) in comparison with the propagating error in the regression line (i.e. the underestimation error), differences for other taxa generally result from lack of geographic data for a robust gap analysis, likely taxonomic misidentifications in records, and/or difficulty in eliminating duplicates in records (e.g. P. neglectus, P. albiflorus).For species such as P. xanthotrichus and P. oligospermus, the gap analysis approach indicated little need for further collection, as germplasm has been collected throughout the most of the region of recorded herbarium collections and environments occupied by those collections. However, expert knowledge on other areas of distribution of the species, under-recorded in online herbarium data, gave the species higher priority on the EPS.Success of the gap analysis method in identifying priority taxonomic, geographic, and environmental gaps is directly dependent on the quality of input data and robustness of the modeling based upon the data. In this section we discuss uncertainties and limitations concerning the method: a. Input data availability, bias and certaintyThe quality of the input geographic information (i.e. climatic and occurrence data) directly affects the performance of species distributions models [53,57,58,60,62,74]. Geographic data for specimens is generally less than optimal and is unevenly distributed across taxa, due to the bias of collecting activities toward particular species or locations, a historically insufficient prioritization of recording and maintaining of geographic data, lack of high quality absence data for species, and limited accessibility of stored data for some collections. Many regions of the world remain un-or undersampled, particularly highly inaccessible areas, and those chronically affected by war or civil strife.Recently described and/or under-studied taxa, such as P. acinaciformis, P. juquilensis, P. longiplacentifer, P. persistentus, P. scrobiculatifolius, P. teulensis, P. albiviolaceus, P. leptophyllus, P. lignosus, P. scabrellus, and P. sinuatus, may require further taxonomic clarification, and are generally in need of further collecting, and characterization of the collected populations, in order to clarify identification and facilitate accurate prioritization.Infraspecific taxa (variants and subspecies), such as those of P. maculatus and P. acutifolius, may also be incompletely treated in the analysis due to data constraints. There are several records of these species that remain undetermined at the infraspecific level. Due to overlapping ranges of distribution for various infraspecific taxa, unassigned records cannot be easily differentiated based on collection location. In the gap analysis we have therefore assessed both the species level and the infraspecific taxa.More germplasm of Phaseolus may be conserved worldwide than the accession data used in this analysis indicate, as the data from some genebanks was not accessible. We assume that, with few exceptions, the accessions whose data was not accessible are also generally inaccessible to crop breeders and researchers worldwide. Areas where these collections were made may not represent a gap for the particular holding collection, yet they are effectively a very real gap for rest of the global community.Duplication between and within institutes might inflate the numbers of unique records for some of the taxa, leading to bias in the prioritization results. The use of different numbering systems, and lack of tracking of former records, leads to an overestimation of samples held, and difficulty in identifying duplicates, perhaps especially for the most commonly exchanged species (e.g. wild progenitors). For Phaseolus, we found that large differences can exist between the number of records and of actual populations both for genebanks (up to 83.1%) and herbaria (up to 87.5%). The data preparation phase of the analysis involved a thorough identification of duplicates in order to avoid inflation of numbers of records and therefore biases in prioritization. Further, the geographic representativeness score (GRS) takes distinctness/ uniqueness of populations into account indirectly, and the environmental representativeness score (ERS) addresses the issue by illuminating gaps in the abiotic adaptations of the sampled material (i.e. number of different climatic environments covered by the conserved material).Location data constraints may also limit the taxa for which the method may be applied, as well as lead to an underestimation of taxon distributions. From the 45 different data sources, 24 (53.3%) had more records without location data than with location data, and only 9 (20%) of the sources presented all of their records with coordinates or with detailed location data (Table 1). For genebanks, 71.1% of the data presented reliable location data and 28.9% had either no location data or location data were unreliable, whilst for herbaria, 70.2% of the data presented coordinates and 29.8% did not present any useful location data.Additional data, such as absence of the taxon, would certainly improve model-training by increasing the model's ability to discriminate between presence and absence areas. These data are unfortunately not available in conventional genetic resources databases [59,75]. Future collecting should be planned with an eye to the improvement of gap analysis approaches and should thus consider a more systematic recording of absences, geo-referencing all records, and making widely accessible data from all available germplasm and herbarium samples. These actions will improve the performance of species distribution models and any conclusions drawn from them.b. Ability of the species distribution model used (i.e. Maxent) to adequately predict the potential and realized niche of taxaThe Maxent modeling technique was chosen for its ability to handle sample bias and spatial autocorrelation of species data [57,58,64] so as to provide high confidence species distributions models even given limited or biased location data. Maxent is an algorithm known to reliably predict the potential niches of species, and has been tested by several authors under a wide range of conditions and configurations (e.g. 55, 61, 57-58, 63-65, among others); although we note that some reports [68,[76][77] consider niche modeling techniques misleading and of limited use in certain contexts. As the robustness of Maxent is considered in the publications listed above, we do not provide a full analysis here.We used the average test-data AUC, which showed that 52 species distribution models were reliable (i.e. accurate and stable, Table S1). Using the current configuration, the AUC statistic is not likely to be biased by the pseudo-absences range [63]. Discrimination between presence and absence sites was therefore considerably positive for most of the taxa (,70%). Particularly good was the performance of taxon distribution models with more than 40 data points.Moreover, the uncertainties associated with the application of a probabilistic model such as Maxent and depicted by the 25-fold cross-validated models for each of the taxa indicated that standard deviations among predictions ranged from 0 to 0.19. Collecting priorities are more uncertain in limited areas (e.g. along the western coast of Mexico), but are relatively robust across the vast majority of the distributional range of the genepool.However, there was a set of taxa (those marked with + in Table 3) for which we were not able to develop species distributions models due to either lack of samples or to the distribution of those samples. These species could benefit from other approaches, such as Bayesian techniques [78], which are able to develop probability surfaces even from a single point. Here we did not include these additional approaches, given the uncertainties involved with these models. We rather use specimen data (i.e. herbarium sampling points) to depict areas where these species can be potentially collected.To analyze the validity of geographic gap results, we have calculated the stability (standard deviation) of the Maxent models and have also provided the distance to the nearest population within the collection zone (Figure 6).Additional analyses, including threat level, can be incorporated into the methodology in order to refine conservation priorities. Possible threats that could lead to genetic erosion in wild species populations include fires, grazing pressure, invasive species, deforestation, habitat modification and degradation, urbanization, and climate change, among others [5]. Accession-level genetic data may also serve as an input in order to identify gaps in genetic diversity. Additional environmental data, such as soil type, may further define potential distributions of species. These additional inputs are currently only rarely available at high detail over large geographic areas or for all taxa in a genepool, but this may improve with the ongoing development of GIS and decreasing costs of genotyping. Taxon-specific knowledge may also be used to refine or weight priorities, giving some species higher importance in the final result (e.g. focusing on specific traits of interest, adjusting to phytosanitary/noxious weed constraints, recognizing legal constraints to access, prioritizing in order to capitalize on appropriate seasonal collecting windows, etc.)In our approach, we include all wild relatives of the crop without regard to relatedness to cultivated species, weighting them equally, with the assumption that a wide range of taxa are potentially useful to provide genes for crop improvement [11], recognizing the lack of data on relatedness. Information on relatedness and threat level can be added to the prioritization exercise by experts with specific interests or familiar with local conditions.When this is done for Phaseolus the following gaps are highlighted. Collecting a few (1-5) populations is needed for 35 taxa that currently have no genebank samples conserved. Out of the five wild progenitors of the domesticated species, P. vulgaris and P. dumosus have been relatively well sampled, and only small gaps remain to be filled. Briefly, gaps for wild P. vulgaris are present in: Oaxaca, El Salvador, Panama, western Andes of Venezuela, northern central Bolivia, and San Luis in Argentina. For wild P. dumosus: eastern Chiapas and Alta Verapaz in Guatemala. For the remaining three progenitors, the gaps are substantially more important. For P. acutifolius: Sonora, Chihuahua, many spots in western Mexico and in Guerrero. For P. coccineus: Chihuahua down to Guatemala. For P. lunatus, gaps exist throughout the very large range (from the Revillagigedo Islands, Baja California Sur and Sinaloa to Puerto Rico, and down to Salta and Formosa in Argentina.Regarding the secondary genepool of each of the five cultigens: for common bean, runner bean, and year bean, additional collecting is needed for P. albescens, P. costaricensis, and P. persistentus (if placement into Sect. Phaseoli is confirmed). For tepary, collecting is needed for P. parvifolius (all across its range from Chihuahua down into Guatemala). For Lima bean, concerted effort is required because few (if any) accessions are available for taxa within Section Paniculati, as well as P. maculatus, P. novoleonensis, P. reticulatus, P. ritensis, and P. venosus within Section Coriacei.For the remaining Phaseolus species (not highly related to any cultigen given molecular evidence available today), a few accessions exist for taxa such as P. chiapasanus, P. esperanzae, P. pluriflorus, and P. micranthus. Remaining species are in need of further collecting in order to secure germplasm ex situ.The method performed well as compared with expert knowledge on the Phaseolus genepool, 81.2% of the taxa presenting differences between 230% and 30%, and only one taxon with a difference of more than 70% between EPS and FPS. We note that although the expert will often refine the analysis by adding further insight and by qualifying data, the gap analysis also holds the potential to highlight taxonomic, geographic, and environmental gaps previously unknown to the expert.In order to provide a more robust test, multiple experts could be consulted. As GIS approaches continue to expand and improve, a more comprehensive validation procedure may be performed with a network of experts, facilitated through an online portal.Expert intervention within the gap analysis method is especially critical during (1) thorough taxonomical review of the genepool, including variants and/or subspecies changes according to the latest studies, (2) the full evaluation and georeferencing of locality names in the dataset, and (3) the further refining and correction of priorities when a data availability issue is detected.Expert taxonomic knowledge will of course also be vital in the actual field collecting, especially for understudied species (e.g. P. albinervus, P. leptophyllus, and P. purpusii). This has proven to be important in this genus, as numerous new species have been identified only during germplasm collecting missions (e.g. P. altimontanus, P. costaricensis, P. novoleonensis, P. persistentus, P. rotundatus, and P. talamancensis).This study proposes a method for the rational prioritization of taxa within a genepool for collection for ex situ conservation, using Phaseolus as a model. The method builds upon the standard comparison of herbarium samples with genebank accessions via gap analysis [17], yet aims to address sampling biases by modeling species distributions with a robust algorithm, and refining these distributions using two different criteria. Furthermore, the method identifies priorities based not only on taxonomic and geographic gaps, but also environmental gaps. Priority locations for sampling of gaps result, as well as gap richness models contributing to the identification of collection locations for maximum efficiency. The results cover the four target outcomes of gap analysis identified by Nabhan [18]. Collecting for ex situ conservation should prioritize the resulting taxa, including those not or under-sampled ex situ, as well as geographic and environmental gaps in the distribution of taxa with some degree of germplasm currently conserved.We found 48 high priority taxa (56.5%) (Table 3, Table S1), 35 (41.1% of total) of these not recorded as represented ex situ by even a single accession. Acknowledging that the results for a number of these species may potentially be affected by data availability constraints, in the most optimistic case, around half of the taxa in the genepool are highly under-represented in ex situ conservation. There is therefore a clear need for further collecting in order to cover the full range of taxonomic, geographic and environmental diversity.The greatest priority regions for further collecting are located in northern Central America (i.e. Mexico and Guatemala), with a maximum potential sampling richness of 7 species per 5 km cell. However, there are a number of species that require individually targeted efforts in other areas (e.g. P. mollis, in the Galapagos Islands).Additional criteria, such as threats to taxa, and degree of relatedness of taxa to cultivated species, may also be included in the analysis, when data is sufficiently available. In order to include a more complete picture of conservation, the method should ideally be coupled with in situ gap analysis results [e.g. 15], i.e. comparison of distributions with the extent of protected areas. In general, the high priority taxa identified in the analysis are likely to be those also most highly prioritized for in situ conservation, although this was not explored in the current analysis.The method is applicable to any set of related taxa, given adequate geographic data and a thorough taxonomic and geographic referencing process. Genepools whose taxonomy has not received sufficient attention (e.g. Oryza in the Americas), or which have not been well sampled for herbarium specimens, will present particular challenges in producing reliable results. As each genepool is different, the analysis must be adapted according to data availability, and tested against expert knowledge, preferably repeatedly. Once the method has been applied to a number of crop genepools, the prioritization of taxa and ''gap richness'' mapping may be applied for these genepools together, potentially facilitating the identification of priority regions (''plant genetic resource gap megacenters'') for the efficient and effective collecting of CWR diversity on a global scale.Table S1 Complete set of metrics used for the assessment of species distributions and ex-situ conservation status. Prioritization of taxa is done as follows: HPS: High priority species, MPS: Medium priority species, LPS: Low priority species, NFCR: No further urgent conservation required. FPS indicates the result of the method proposed in this paper, and EPS indicates the prioritization given by expert knowledge (based on Daniel G. Debouck's expertise in Phaseolus). +Indicates that the taxon had no genebank accessions and no herbarium samples with coordinates or location data; ++indicates a taxon for which a Maxent model was not possible and for which 0-few genebank accessions were available; #indicates a taxon with some genebank accessions but no or limited herbarium samples with coordinates or location data. These taxa are listed as HPS for further collecting in order to inform the gap analysis. Found at: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013497.s001 (0.03 MB XLS)","tokenCount":"9163"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"56c6b8eb7e052fd36a0378ce35d7a1a8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5503c077-9ccd-45c0-806b-69921a75d0eb/retrieve","id":"-1114355139"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7bdf9319-33af-4303-aef3-e1001b8df42c","pagecount":"28","content":"National Agriculture Research Systems (NARS) (31%), the rest being sent to the commercial sector, NGOs, farmers and others (Annex Figure 3). 76% of the samples distributed were traditional cultivars or crop wild relatives (Annex Figure 4). Table 1 lists the top country recipients of germplasm from CGIAR genebanks (not including materials transferred within or between CGIAR Centers).By the end of 2019, CGIAR genebanks were managing 760,467 accessions, including 25,811 in vitro accessions and 32,995 accessions held as plants or trees in the screenhouse and field. Approximately 78% of total accessions are immediately available for international distribution (Figure 3).Of the seed accessions, 60% is secured in safety duplication at two levels and 73% is duplicated at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV). 72% of clonal crop collections is safety duplicated in the form of cryopreserved or in vitro cultures (Figure 3).An update of the current accession numbers of the aggregate collection under CGIAR management is provided in Table 2. Table 3 presents the achievement of milestones.The activities of the Genebank Platform are targeted specifically to bring about increased conservation and use of crop and tree genetic resources with the aim of achieving CGIAR System Level Outcomes (Sub-IDO 1.4) and UN Sustainable Development Goals (Target 2.5). The annual distribution of germplasm from CGIAR genebanks provides a rough indicator for the demand for crop and tree genetic resources in any one year. For the third year in a row, germplasm distribution to requesters outside the CGIAR exceeded that inside the CGIAR. In 2019, a total of 79,633 germplasm samples (67,864 accessions) were distributed by the CGIAR genebanks to users (Figure 1). 33,692 samples (42%) were provided to CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) and 45,941 (58%) were distributed to recipients outside the CGIAR in 97 countries. As in previous years, developing countries received the largest proportion of germplasm in 2019 (83%) (Figure 2). Annex Figures 1 and 2 provide more details of the distribution of germplasm to countries from individual Centers and by crop.Of the external distributions in 2019, samples were sent to universities or research institutes (38%), and  The ICRAF genebank, under the management of Alice Muchugi, works in partnership with NARS to conserve nearly 10,000 priority tree accessions in 15 sites in 10 countries. Photo: Shawn Landersz   ces in Lebanon and Tajikistan and ICRISAT collected more than 3,000 accessions of indigenous grains and legume crops in Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Kenya. In addition, Alliance-CIAT collaborated with EMBRAPA to rescue threatened wild cassava materials and IITA is working with the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) and partners in Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi to rescue 163 accessions of unique cassava diversity not currently represented in ex situ conservation.The community of practice (CoP) of CGIAR scientists working on seed quality management shared results and developed new collaborations at a 2019 meeting held in IRRI. New findings suggest that high-temperature drying treatment applied in certain instances to rice seeds at IRRI also results in improved seed longevity for Bambara groundnut andGaps in collection coverage for 22 crop genepools have been identified using a combination of taxonomic, geographic and trait-based analyses, involving consultations with more than 60 experts and of 375 scientific papers. Preliminary assessments highlight where global coverage in collections managed by the CGIAR is good and where crops or countries are significantly under-represented (Figure 5).   soybean accessions at IITA. ILRI, working with ICRAF and CIAT, improved dormancy breaking techniques for 12 forage and tree species; ICRISAT explored post-harvest changes in dormancy in foxtail and finger millets; and ICARDA evaluated the effects of different harvesting protocols on subsequent seed quality for wild and cultivated wheat accessions.In 2019, the GHUs health-tested 152,469 samples (Table 5), facilitating 2,004 exchanges of materials with 141 countries. CRPs account for 52% of the exchange events. A core part of the GHU activities under the Genebank Platform is to remove bottlenecks slowing the rate of health testing. Specific examples include efforts to develop and validate a method using small RNA sequencing and assembly (sRSA) for virus indexing of clonally propagated crops by Alliance-Bioversity & CIAT, CIP and IITA. In the three Centers that do not have dedicated GHUs (AfricaRice, ICRAF, ILRI), the genebanks are carrying out health testing instead. ILRI has converted an existing tissue culture room into a seed incubation facility to increase its capacity to process seed samples for pathogen testing and a mycology lab has been set up for the identification of various seedborne fungi.Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for key genebank operations were systematically audited for conformity to FAO genebank standards, continuing a process initiated in 2017. In 2019, SOPs for safety duplication and germplasm acquisition were audited. For these two SOPs, 187 findings were identified and addressed. So far, 169 SOPs have been drafted by CGIAR genebanks and germplasm health units (GHUs). In addition to the document audit, SOPs for key genebank operations (acquisition, distribution, safety duplication, conservation and regeneration and characterization) are being externally validated through on-site reviews. In 2019, external reviews took place in six genebanks and in two regional stations. The reviews also validated the reported status of collections with regard to performance targets and subsequent recommendations have impacted on reported figures in 2019.Using genotypic data to manage collections Two collaborative projects are using genotypic data to answer challenging questions influencing the management of ex situ collections. CIP and CIMMYT are analyzing genotypic data derived from Diversity Arrays Technology (DArTseq) from 15,000 samples of 865 accessions from seven genebanks. The analyses will begin to illustrate the levels of genetic diversity within accessions as well as among accessions for specific crops and help guide improved sampling of genebank materials and their prioritization for specific conservation actions and use. DArTseq profiling has been deployed more extensively for studying the cassava collections under IITA and CIAT's management. A preliminary analysis (not including wild species) produced more than 55,000 SNPs and 68,000 Sili-coDArT markers, which seem to reveal surprising levels of distinction between the accessions of African and American origin (Figure 6).Genesys, the online portal for accession data for genebanks worldwide, is part of the Plant Treaty's Global Information System (GLIS).By the end of 2019, the passport data of four million accessions were searchable from Genesys, including accessions from the 11 CGIAR genebanks and the networks of European and USDA genebanks. The Passport Data Completeness Index (PDCI) continues to improve in CGIAR genebanks (Table 6). A major initiative on publishing trait and subset data has resulted in more than 100 subsets now being available, with the aim of encouraging breeders and other users to explore the diversity in the collections. Several additional activities continue to improve the interconnectivity of Genesys with other databases and tools, for example with the online portal to agricultural research data, GARDIAN, and with GRIN-Global, an accession data management software increasingly being adopted by genebanks worldwide, including the CGIAR.  All genebanks continue to develop and characterize user-focused subsets of genebank accessions to help facilitate the selection of useful material, based on published research or by carrying out characterization studies. New subsets developed and made available online are listed in Table 7. In 2019, Alliance-CIAT and ICARDA started to develop a tool that will allow users to customize subsets based on criteria that can be determined from passport and characterization data available in Genesys or elsewhere such as climate conditions and likely presence of a trait. Users will be able to filter accessions based on single or multiple variables, constructing their own core collections that maximize environmental and/or phenotypic diversity. The tool will be developed in consultation with a wide range of users.   8).The Genebank Platform and individual genebanks undertake numerous capacity building activities thanks to funding via the Platform and from bilateral donors. In 2019, 12 Platform-level capacity building events took place involving 300 participants from 11 CGIAR Centers plus national partners (Table 9). The participants of the listed capacity building events gained knowledge and skills in a wide range of thematic areas involving genetic resources management, phytosanitary health and international policy.CGIAR genebanks and GHUs carry out services to CRPs and national partners to conserve, test, clean and distribute germplasm. They also serve as knowledge hubs for phytosanitary health, taxonomy, genetic diversity, seed conservation science, cryopreservation, genebank operation, etc. and they act as hosts for safety duplicated materials for NARS partners. In 2019, more than 700 capacity building events took place across the genebanks. The activities involved more than 8,000 participants (5,952 male, 2,682 female) from 73 countries (Table 10 and Annex 2), including 606 genebank tours to promote the importance of crop diversity and the work of CGIAR.The Genebank Platform activities follow a relatively fixed program of work focused on the essential operations of the genebanks and germplasm health units.There are no areas of variance from the planned program to report.The There have been no changes to governance arrangements.The primary partners of the genebanks and GHUs are the wide range of users from many countries who requested germplasm, advice and information in 2019 (Table 11). The exchange of germplasm takes place within a policy framework that demands close partnership with the Plant Treaty, the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is an essential partner in long-term conservation, as well as in communicating to the wider world the importance of crop diversity and the organizations that conserve it. CGIAR genebanks provide more than germplasm to users. Individual genebanks provide a range of services (including hosting safety duplicates), information, advice, capacity building, and other support to national partners. The services rendered involved working with 53 institutes in 31 countries.The most significant cross-CGIAR exchange occurring within the framework of the Genebank Platform concerns the movement of germplasm and associated data: the acquisition of materials from CGIAR breeding programs by genebanks and the distribution of germplasm from genebanks to research and breeding programs, and the phytosanitary testing of materials by GHUs. In 2019, 1,768 samples were acquired from CGIAR breeding programs and 33,692 samples were sent to breeding programs. In addition, many exchanges occurred between genebanks and Platforms or CRPs, some of which are captured in Table 12. The collections, and the germplasm contained within them, remain publicly available and no patents or plant variety protection rights are sought on the germplasm.(c) List any critical issues or challenges encountered in the management of intellectual assets in the context of the Platform Critical issues and challenges involving the CGIAR genebanks are addressed and reported under the Policy Module. on individual genebanks. 3 A \"Sourcebook\" on the economics of conserving plant genetic resources has been developed to summarize the state of knowledge and help tackle research questions related to genebank impact evaluation, including sections on cost analysis and diversity representation in collections.The seven fellows conducted short impact research projects that highlighted not only the value and use of crop diversity managed by genebanks but also a range of genebank functions. The studies were interdisciplinary in nature, employing quantitative and qualitative methods with the aim of providing evidence to enhance the understanding of the role and value of genebanks. Several studies were able to trace the ancestry in modern varieties adopted by farmers directly to specific genebank accessions and apportion benefits by drawing from extensive information on pedigrees.3 See https://www.genebanks.org/resources/impactsThe Genebank Platform continues to be monitored through the Crop Trust online reporting tool using agreed performance targets, which are applied to multiple international and national genebanks (Table 13). The targets are based on FAO genebank standards and determine the eligibility of all genebanks seeking long-term funding from the endowment mechanism of the Crop Trust. Germplasm distribution, the status of collections and other indicators relating to CGIAR genebanks and breeding programs are reported to international instruments such as the Global Plan of Action of the CGRFA and to the Governing Body of the Plant Treaty.In 2018, a special initiative was set up to study some of the diverse impacts of CGIAR genebanks through a fellowship scheme overseen by the Crop Trust and Michigan State University. In a first phase, seven fellows were recruited to conduct impact studies Donald Villanueva's study revealed that one in five of the improved varieties cultivated on 95% of the rice area in Eastern India (10.8 million hectares) had at least one parent supplied directly by the genebank at IRRI and 45 to 77% of the genetic composition of the improved varieties in the area is derived from genes from genebank accessions. Estimated coefficients indicate that a 10% increase in the genetic contribution from genebank accessions is associated with a 27% increase in yield.Vivian Bernal estimated the gross benefit of potato cultivar, Victoria, in Uganda at USD $1.04 billion (2016 value). Victoria (DOI:10.18730/P5MW4) was developed by CIP breeders using genebank materials. According to her study, 72% of the economic benefits can be attributed to the CIP genebank.  15).The Genebank Platform works on building efficiencies at different levels (Table 14). Every genebank pursues an objective of reaching performance targets while also addressing users' requests for germplasm, data and support. Once at performance targets, the collection will be largely in good health so theoretically there should be no backlogs or bottlenecks causing inefficiency or loss of accessions. Furthermore, each genebank has a fixed annual budget to carry out essential routine operations based on precisely costed and defined activities. There is no scope for expanding or over-spending. Instead the budgets are periodically reviewed and, where relevant, costs compared or benchmarked against other genebanks. A costing review process is currently under way and will culminate in a system level review in 2020.At an individual genebank level, many small efficiencies are being made. • Adoption of good practices across Centers• System level actions to address recommendations• Shared policy and technical framework for strategic curation of collections (including archiving)• Consolidation & rationalization of roles, activities and collections required of an international Center and according to their Headquarter Agreements.Institutional risks: Institutional financial management practices continue to constrain the management of genebank budgets and the pursuit of cost efficiencies. Several genebank budget holders appear to have access only to limited up-to-date information on expenditures and minor inputs into the attribution and reporting of expenditures. Challenges revolve around general financial management practices, attribution of full-cost recoveries, effectiveness of data management tools, procurement practices and the effects of unexpected and last-minute changes in institutional income. The unexpected shortfall in funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in 2019 has added to the difficulty of dealing with these vagaries despite all the efforts to provide guaranteed fixed funding for essential genebank operation. It also restricts the incentives and the capacity of managers to pursue efficiencies.In 2019, 37% of the Genebank Platform costs was funded by the Crop Trust and the remaining for 63% was funded by W1/2 funding. Nine of the 11 genebanks have long-term grants with the Crop Trust and the costs of the essential operations and the other activities of these genebanks are split between the Crop Trust and W1/2 funding. The remaining two genebanks, are funded entirely by W1/2. The Crop Trust funding includes the funds raised by Crop Trust from the European Commission and Finland.Programmatic risks: The Crop Trust is currently raising funds for both the Genebank Platform and its endowment fund to ensure the long-term support of the CGIAR genebanks. Without assured funding from both CGIAR and the Crop Trust, the essential operations and activities of the genebanks, and their pro gress towards performance targets, would be heavily impacted.  ","tokenCount":"2577"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"64e8289c8c577a45755757a5343e59ce","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cc49393e-821b-479d-a533-ede654d527bf/retrieve","id":"2047474186"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"85f39588-b0aa-48b5-bdca-0e037e30f9af","pagecount":"5","content":"It is important for scientists engaged in genome editing to appreciate that the international community is currently engaged in highly dynamic negotiations to develop new rules for sharing benefits derived from the use of digital sequence information/ genomic sequence data (DSI/GSD). Over the course of 10 years, this issue has grown in importance to the point where it is a key sticking point in at least four different United Nations fora. This paper examines why benefit-sharing from the use of DSI/GSD has become such an important topic, provides and overview of the current state of negotiations in key UN fora, and considers different potential outcomes.In the recent past, due to rapid adoption of genome editing technology and its variants, several genome-edited crop products have been commercialized, including soybean with high oleic acid, pungency-free mustard greens, high-GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) tomato, and waxy corn with high amylopectin [11]. Many more genome-edited crops with improved traits are in the pipeline [4]. It is important for scientists engaged in genome editing to appreciate that the international community is currently engaged in highly dynamic negotiations to develop new rules for sharing benefits derived from the use of digital sequence information/ genomic sequence data (DSI/GSD). Over the course of the past 10 years, this issue has grown in importance to the point where it is a key sticking point in negotiations taking place under the frameworks of four different United Nations fora. This short paper will briefly review why DSI benefit-sharing has gained so much attention in recent years, summarize the current state of international negotiations across four UN fora, and end with some consideration of the potential impact of the outcome of these negotiating processes.At the risk of oversimplification, benefit sharing from the use of DSI became a hot issue as a result of five interrelated factors. The first baseline contributing factor is the fact that most of the world's biodiversity has evolved in the global south. This is particularly true for crops [5] as illustrated in Fig. 1 and livestock [12].The second contributing factor, is that, long before DSI had entered the scene, developing countries were concerned that developed countries had an unequal, technological advantage to exploit genetic diversity for commercial advantage and economic development.The third contributing factor is that the international access and benefit-sharing agreements that were negotiated in the 1990s and early 2000s to address this inequity-by redirecting benefits derived from the use of genetic diversity to developing countries-have generally not lived up to expectations. Particularly relevant in this regard are the Convention on Biological Diversity, 1993 (CBD) and its Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing, 2010 (Nagoya Protocol), and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food Agriculture, 2004 (Plant Treaty). These international laws have not led to significant redirection of monetary benefit sharing to developing countries. So, ABS-related tensions were already there; the emergence of DSI has been like pouring gas on the fire.The fourth factor of course, is the relatively recent, and extraordinary, scientific and technological advances in genome sequencing, genome manipulation/editing and gene synthesis. New generation sequencing technologies have dramatically increased the speed and lowered the cost of generating genetic sequence information. Genome editing and gene synthesis are creating unprecedented ways of using DSI as part of discovery research and crop and animal breeding [1,8,10].Again, as in the case of biotechnologies in the 1990s, subject to a number of remarkable exceptions (e.g. China, India, Brazil) many developing countries lack capacity to fully exploit these new scientific and technological breakthroughs. There is widespread concern that DSI will contribute to widening, not closing, of the technology gap between north and south, and the ability of countries to exploit digital sequence information (and material genetic resources) for commercial benefit and economic development.Finally, the CBD, its Nagoya Protocol and Plant Treaty were not built with DSI in mind. They regulate access to genetic resources [defined as 'genetic material' containing functional units of heredity (emphasis added)], not information derived from those resources. Under the Plant Treaty, monetary benefit sharing is triggered when accessed 'genetic material' is 'incorporated' in new, commercialized products. Under the Nagoya Protocol, access providers can potentially limit uses of data derived from genetic materials, but only as a condition that they set when they are making agreements to provide access to the genetic material in the first place.Consequently, DSI has opened up the possibility that research and development organizations can benefit commercially from being able to access genetic sequence data on line which is free from the benefit sharing obligations that would otherwise apply to the underlying genetic material from which that data was derived [5]. They can use research leads based on that accessed DSI to synthesize genetic constructs, or edit genetic materials they already have, or which they can obtain from unregulated sources, to continue their product development [2].In the end, as a result of these five combined factors, many countries-almost entirely from the global Fig. 1 Primary regions of diversity of major agricultural crops worldwide. Reproduced from Khoury et al. [5] south-since the early 2010s have been calling for policy reforms, to close the gap in access and benefit sharing rules that has been opened up by the emergence of DSI.DSI first got meaningfully forced onto the agenda of 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (CBD/COP 13) in Mexico in 2013 when a group of contracting parties refused to adopt any other decisions during that meeting, unless there was an agreement to convene an intersessional process looking at how DSI affects conservation, sustainable use of genetic resources and benefit sharing. Since then, the issue has come to dominate the agendas of the CBD, Plant Treaty, UN WHO, and BBNJ.Despite attracting so much attention, there is still no internationally agreed definition of digital sequence information. All of the countries involved in negotiations to create new benefit sharing rules for DSI under the four UN fora mentioned above have agreed, for the time being, to use 'digital sequence information' or 'DSI' as a place holder term until they can agree on (a) whether they actually need a definition, and (b) if they need a definition, what kinds of information should be included within its scope.To help negotiators think-through what kinds of information could possibly be included within the scope of a definition of DSI, the CBD Secretariat published a very useful background paper setting out a framework for consideration options.The paper presents a sliding scale of options as illustrated in Fig. 2. Here we see group 1 includes DNA and RNA. This is the narrowest range of information to include in the definition. Group 2 includes DNA, RNA and proteins. Group 3 includes DNA, RNA, proteins and metabolites. Group 4 includes all the forgoing, plus associated Traditional knowledge.As highlighted in the next section, negotiators have been able to make some very significant interim decisions concerning DSI despite not having a definitionIn December 2022, the CBD/COP 15 adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The COP also decided to establish, as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, including a global fund. This decision is very significant because it recognizes, for the first time in an international agreement, that there should be an equitable redistribution and sharing of benefits, worldwide, from commercial benefits derived from the use of DSI. However, the COP 15 decision left a lot of questions unanswered, for example, who should pay, under what circumstances, how money would be distributed from the fund and to whom. COP 15 launched a 2-year process for countries to negotiate/develop such terms by CBD/COP 16 in October 2024. The COP set out criteria for the development of the multilateral mechanism, stating that it must, among other things, generate more benefits than it costs; provide legal certainty; not hinder research and innovation and be consistent with open access to data. The COP also encouraged depositing DSI in public data bases. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) was adopted in June 2023. One of its objectives is \"fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from activities with respect to marine genetic resources and digital sequence information …\" (emphasis added). So, within 6 months of the COP 15 decision, a second international agreement recognized the need to share benefits from the use of DSI. However, the BBNJ also does not actually include details on who should share benefits, and how benefit sharing obligations should be calculated. That was left to be workedout in the future. In the meantime, contracting parties agree to make annual contributions to a central fund, calculated at 50% of their \"assessed contribution to the budget adopted by the Conference of the Parties\" (Article 14.6).In October 2022, the Governing Body of the Plant Treaty relaunched a process to renegotiate the terms of the Plant Treaty's multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing. (There had been an earlier round of negotiations from 2013 to 2019, but they were suspended without any agreement, Fig. 2 Framework of analysis for considering the scope of what is meant by 'DSI' [3] partly because contracting parties disagreed so fervently over DSI). One of the 'hot issues' contracting parties have agreed needs to be addressed in the current round of negotiations is benefit-sharing from DSI (in addition to benefit-sharing from plant genetic resources, and expansion of the scope of crops and forages included in the scope of the multilateral system). It is hoped that the process will be wrapped up in November 2025, with the 11th Session of the Governing Body adopting/endorsing a revised package of measures to improve the effectiveness of the multilateral system.The World Health Organizations (WHO) is currently hosting to two negotiations wherein new rules for benefit sharing from DSI are under consideration: (one) to develop WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, and (two) to address/discuss amendments to the 'International Health Regulations (2005)'. These two processes are scheduled to be finalized in May 2024. Some higher-level outstanding issues concerning which there is still substantial disagreement between negotiating parties under the CBD, Plant Treaty, BBNJ and (to a lesser extent) WHO include the following:• Triggers for payments and the basis for calculating amounts to be paid. In this context fundamental decisions need to be made about whether payment obligations should be limited to commercializers of particular products that were developed through direct use of accessed DSI, or whether payments should be calculated on the basis of entire portfolios of products at the the end of R&D chains that are generally DSI-dependent regardless of whether the commercializer made direct use of DSI. • Whether in some exceptional cases, benefit-sharing payments should be directed to individual providers/sources of DSI, or must always be made to a centralized international benefit-sharing fund • Criteria for distributing payments from the international benefit-sharing funds created under the four UN fora • Whether it is necessary to develop a definition of DSI • Whether there needs to be some positive identificationand listing of open access data bases that are 'included' in the new arrangements and if they should adopt some standardized governance arrangements • How legal certainty for DSI users and providers can be promoted or guaranteed • How to ensure that the DSI-related norms adopted by the four UN fora can be harmonized so that they are mutually supportive, and do not end up creating obstacles to open access to, and interoperability of, DSI data bases • How to effectively promote non-monetary benefit sharing in the forms of information exchange, capacity building and technology transfer to ensure that low-income coun-tries are able to benefit from the use of DSI for economic development.• What to do about DSI users located in countries that decide not to participate in new benefit sharing arrangementsIn light of these outstanding issues, the scheduled deadlines for adopting new DSI benefit sharing rules in all these fora are very ambitious. It is possible-likely even-that most, if not all, of these processes will need to be extended.It is well established that countries are interdependent upon plant genetic resources for food and agriculture [9]. Indeed, that interdependence was one of the primary reasons for the creation of the Plant Treaty's multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing [7]. DSI increases countries' interdependence in all areas of research and development precisely because it increases our collective ability to compare information about genetic resources-regardless of where they are situated-at scales that were unimaginable before the emergence of new generation sequencing, phenotyping, gene synthesis and bioinformatics. As such, the stewardship of DSI as a collective common resource for use in R&D for sustainable development is becoming increasingly important.The outcome of all these negotiations could profoundly affect, positively or negatively, how scientists are able to generate, access, use and share digital sequence information in the course of their work, and how benefits associated with that work is distributed. High tech breakthroughs can end up exacerbating the gaps in relative economic prosperity between high-and low-income countries. Consequently, benefit sharing systems need to be designed to ensure capacity sharing, so that resource poor countries are able to engage in, and take advantage of, the burgeoning fields of research that depend on DSI. At the same time, it is clear that open access digital infrastructures are essential for exploiting the power of DSI. So, it is critical that new benefit sharing systems are not set up in ways that interrupt or undermine open access [9]. In this context, it is important to underscore that DSI can be copied and sent anywhere in the world in seconds; as such, it is an even more challenging 'object' for ABS regulation than genetic material. Ultimately, a new form of benefit-sharing regulation is needed. This will require backing away from the sector-separated, transaction-based ABS systems we have had until now for genetic materials, and instead, developing a system (or systems) that calculate, collect and redistribute benefits at much higher (and much larger), aggregate levels [6]. The international community has an opportunity to develop such a harmonized system (or systems) across the four UN fora; to do so, negotiators will need to be creative, courageous, and willing and empowered to compromise.Conflict of interest The author declares no conflicts of interest.Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.","tokenCount":"2522"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0c91956fe0043fa78d346bfb05a32ca5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/afc6eac3-2686-48e1-b220-7182447c0d4c/retrieve","id":"-1351339400"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b80ea904-45e8-4f9a-b08a-e50edcc97e32","pagecount":"1","content":"Soil erosion is a serious problem for agricultural production in Ethiopia. To tackle it, communities are engaged in various soil and water conservation (SWC) and water harvesting practices. Our study aimed to evaluate the impacts of activities to manage the watershed -specifically by measuring discharge and sediment yield at plot and watershed levels.To measure runoff and sediment yield (Fig. 3) hydrological stations were installed at two sub-watersheds: one treated with SWC measures and the other without.  Our results from three-month's discharge show that the total suspended sediment yield of the unmanaged sub-watershed was about three-fold compared with the managed one. Sediment yield also reduced by about 70 % due to implementation of SWC and water harvesting measures at the watershed scale.Our results show that the soil and water conservation mobilization program achieved the intended target to reduce soil erosion and increase retention capacity of the watersheds.Integrating physical measures with biological options and supplementing these with water harvesting structures can promote their adoption. Further analysis is being done to estimate the impacts of the various interventions of soil nutrient loss and crop productivity.  From 15 runoff events, the highest average runoff (345 mm) was observed on grazing land (Figure 4). Terrace with trench on cropland has reduced runoff and soil loss by 44 % and 52%, respectively (Figure 4 & 5).Figure 5. Effects of land use and management on soil loss at Gudoberet Kebele, central Ethiopia  In 2014, we set up runoff plots to evaluate the effect of different land uses and SWC practices on runoff and soil loss.We evaluated three major land use/cover types (cultivated, grazing and eucalyptus woodlots) and different SWC practices (soil bunds, trenches, grass strips). Hydrologically bounded runoff plots of 22m length and 4m width were installed for each treatment (Figure 2). Tankers were fitted mid-slope to receive runoff and eroded soil collected from each plot. We measured the depth of water in both tanks every day in the morning to determine the volume of runoff. We took 500ml suspended sediment samples, oven dried at 105 0 C for 24 hours, to determine sediment concentration.This research was undertaken with support from Africa RISING, a program financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the United States Government's Feed the Future Initiative.","tokenCount":"379"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2e92159b58cc7c16f6699528eda986f9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7bc5d08f-0144-4405-820e-2e894483e13a/retrieve","id":"-1659858038"},"keywords":["Dairy","gender","Kenya","sustainable intensification","greenhouse gas emissions"],"sieverID":"b1e50ac3-7311-46aa-8ed6-ed77f10e4dcc","pagecount":"35","content":"This literature review serves as a background document to better understand gender roles and dynamics in the dairy sector in Kenya and thus aims to inform research activities on the gender dimensions of mitigation options, such as sustainable dairy intensification.Technology change has strong gender and labor implications, as it typically involves renegotiation, reassignment, or deepening of roles and responsibilities within households. It can also alter traditional patterns of access to resources such as milk, land, and income.Clarifying gender issues is critical to inform programs and policies for effective design and delivery of mitigation technologies among smallholder households, and to ensure that the benefits of mitigation technologies reach women and men fairly, and thus contribute to both poverty reduction and sustainability.Ambra Gallina 1 is a social anthropologist specializing in gender and social inclusion issues in rural and agricultural development. She has a Master's degree in social anthropology of development from SOAS, University of London. She has experience in the sector with Romebased agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. She has also worked with the Italian Cooperation, the Swedish International Development Agency, and the Overseas Agronomic Institute. She has field experience in many countries across Latin America and Africa.1 E-mail author at Ambra.Gallina@fao.org. Food and Agriculture OrganizationThis literature review aims to increase understanding of the gender roles and dynamics in the dairy sector in Kenya, and should complement field research on the gender dimensions of existing climate change mitigation options in the sector. Clarifying gender issues is critical to inform programs and policies for effective design and delivery of mitigation technologies among smallholder households, and to ensure that the benefits of mitigation technologies reach women and men fairly, and thus contribute to both poverty reduction and sustainability.In Kenya, as in many developing countries, the government has elaborated livestock sector development strategies that aim to conserve natural resources, raise productivity, expand production, and optimize the allocation of resources (van Dijk, Tennigkeit, and Wilkes 2015).Climate change mitigation practices in the livestock sector can lead to multiple benefits, such as conservation of natural resources, management of livestock waste, improved resource efficiency, and income generation for smallholder farmers, thereby contributing to both sustainability and productivity goals.Progress in implementation of climate change mitigation actions has been slow in Kenya.Several constraints continue to hinder the dissemination and adoption of proposed technologies, including weak extension systems and poor access to productive resources among smallholder farmers, especially women, who make up the majority of Kenya's dairy producers. There is also limited information on emerging experiences, barriers to adoption for some practices, limited means to address barriers, and an under-investigated gender dimension for some recommended practices.Gender relationships and dynamics can influence the way mitigation technologies are designed and delivered (Edmunds, Sasser, and Wollenberg 2013). Specific roles and interests vary for women and men and across different production systems and geographical areas, leading to different responses to mitigation technologies. Thus, given existing structural gender inequalities, the outcomes of mitigation initiatives might not benefit women and men equally. In addition, valuing-and utilizing-women's knowledge can also lead to the development of new technologies, management practices, organizational forms, and political strategies that are effective in encouraging sustainable, low emission agricultural development (ibid.).Hence, to improve our understanding of how gender dynamics shape the development of the sector, this literature review focuses on the following issues: the gender division of labor;ownership and decision-making patterns; how technology changes toward dairy intensification impact women and men producers differently; key challenges faced by women along the dairy value chain; good practices and promising approaches to promoting women's access to services, technologies, and assets; and the potential gender implications of mitigation technologies.The review is based on the analysis of several peer-reviewed articles and gray literature on gender and dairy production in Kenya. The most recent articles, especially those focusing on the analysis of dairy intensification, have been privileged and were not yet available to the public at the time of the literature review.In smallholder households across Kenya, as in many other African countries, dairy production is a family operation in which all family members-men, women, and children-contribute to production, processing, and marketing activities. Dairy production can be especially important for women, for whom it may provide a regular income stream, and thus contributes to household food security. Women are generally involved in several activities along the dairy value chain (e.g., collection, processing, and marketing of milk and other dairy products).Studies assessing the gender division of labor in dairy farming indicate that women farmers play a predominant role in milking, watering, cleaning out the pens, and feeding the animals (Flintan 2008(Flintan , 2011;;World Bank, FAO, and IFAD 2009;Kristjansen et al. 2010). Traditionally, women also do the marketing of milk and other dairy products. Men tend to have a larger role in activities related to animal health, such as artificial insemination and seeking veterinary treatment, and in marketing of live animals and meat.A study of dairy farming in seven districts of Western Kenya (Waithaka et al. 2002) reports that, in 35% of all households surveyed, a female adult-not the male household headplayed a key role in taking care of and feeding the cattle, including grazing and/or cutting and carrying feed, depending on whether the production system was based on grazing or stallfeeding. In 48% of dairy farms, women took primary responsibility for fetching water or watering the animals. Women were responsible for milking in 56% of the farms, and for milk marketing in 60% of households. Other activities (e.g., spraying, dipping, and contacting veterinary services) were carried out primarily by the head of household, whether a male or a female. Children and hired labor, both long term and casual, were found to play only a secondary role in dairy farming.In Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands, women pastoralists typically manage sheep and goats.Because these animals tend to remain closer to the homestead, their care is perceived to be an extension of women's domestic activities. Gender roles and dynamics in dairy production in the dry lands present specific features based on the socio-cultural setting and type of production system, which is still largely based on extensive grazing. Management of bigger animals, such as cattle and camels, is usually a male domain (Flintan 2011). However, recent changes in land use and pastoral livelihood systems are having a profound impact on the roles and labor responsibilities of men and women. Traditionally, men have a prominent role in livestock management, while women engage mostly in household-based activities and childcare. Recently, there has been a shift toward more arable crop-based production, so women are taking up extra agricultural activities, while men remain responsible for the herds of larger animals (Flintan 2008(Flintan , 2011)). At the same time, increased male out-migration in search of wage labor and other livelihood diversification opportunities is resulting in women who remain at the homestead responsible for the home herd of cattle and camels (Bruce 1996;Flintan 2011). Among the Keyo, for example, it was found that when men are absent from home, women, young males, and persons aged 65 years and older spend considerable time in livestock production. In such situations, women also tend to acquire a greater role in decisionmaking, especially concerning milk marketing (Bruce 1996). Flintan (2011) shows that the roles of pastoral women in livestock management, including of large livestock like cattle, should not be underestimated. Their knowledge of livestock and of grazing areas, migration routes, and water points is often extremely rich. As keepers of indigenous technical knowledge, both women and men contribute to the enhancement of gene flow and domestic animal diversity as well as prevention and treatment of livestock illness (World Bank, FAO, and IFAD 2009). Indigenous technical knowledge often varies by age and gender: men, women, and children tend to have specific knowledge and skills relating to livestock, depending on their roles, authorities, and responsibilities in animal husbandry. Odongo (2015) reports that gendered division of roles and responsibilities in cattle management has resulted in women and men having different but complementary knowledge on Contagious Bovine Pleuro Pneumonia. Odongo found that women appear to know more about the clinical signs of the early onset of the disease manifested by individual animals, whereas men appear to be more knowledgeable about signs associated with its later stages.As a consequence of gendered roles, responsibilities, and interests regarding cattle, women's and men's priorities concerning investments in new technologies, as well as their understanding of how food and livelihood security can be attained, are often different. Heffernan and Misturelli (2000) show that women often consider livestock as primarily contributing to food security, whereas men often consider livestock a source of long-term investments.Women often have a preference for dairy goats and local chickens over dairy cows for several reasons (Njuki and Sanginga 2013). Goats and chickens do not require land ownership. They are also easier to manage, as goats can be zero-grazed under the cut and carry fodder system, and chickens can survive with minimum supplementation. Both species are also favored because of their market values. Goat milk and chickens can be marketed easily by women in the village because market channels for these products are mostly informal and easy to access by women. Men's preference for dairy cattle is related to the high monetary value of both cattle and cow milk. Conversely, women complained that cattle are too costly, less resistant to disease, and very labor demanding.According to the \"traditional\" cattle culture in Kenya, as well as in the broader East African cultural belt, milk is seen as a female product because it is a key subsistence product. Cattle (meat and marketing of live animals), on the other hand, tend to be associated with men. Milk marketing in the northern part of Kenya is exclusively the responsibility of women. A study of women's marketing of milk and small ruminants in Mandera Triangle (WABEKBON Development Consultants 2009) shows that pastoralist women generally travel to towns to sell the milk. The trips typically involve waking up before dawn, carrying some share of the milk collected the prior evening from the household herd in a small plastic or traditional woven container, and walking to a town where they sell the milk themselves. They then use the income generated by these milk sales to make purchases before returning on foot to the household before nightfall.Despite the important role women play in milk production and marketing, and despite the increasing opportunities for commercialization of dairy products in the country, some cultural aspects in the livestock sector remain unchallenged, including that cattle are predominantly seen as a \"male domain.\"Livestock are an important asset for women, as women can own livestock more easily than other productive assets, most notably land. Livestock are not bound by complex property rights, which disfavor women's ownership (Kristjanson et al. 2010;Flintan 2011;Njuki and Sanginga 2013). In pastoral societies, women frequently own fewer animals than men; however, livestock are generally more equitably distributed between men and women than are other assets like land (Flintan 2011). In Kenya, as well as in Uganda and Nigeria, most urban cattle farmers are women (Grace 2007). In Kenya and Rwanda, the percentage of women ownership of local cattle is higher than for ownership of exotic cattle. Men are more likely to own exotic cattle, which are usually more productive than the local breeds but also require more inputs (ILRI 2009).Typically, women are more likely to own small animals such as poultry, sheep, and goats than larger ones such as cattle, buffaloes, and camels. The study on livestock ownership and marketing in Kenya by Njuki and Sanginga (2013) shows that men own 10 times more cattle and four times more goats than do women. The only livestock that were mostly owned by women were chickens, usually the local variety. This reinforces the finding that traditional \"cattle culture\" depicts men as the main owners and managers of cattle. Although decisions in both female-and male-headed households are \"jointly\" made, men have the dominant influence on decisions, particularly on the sale of livestock and use of income. This is particularly evident in male-headed households, where there is a higher frequency of livestock sales than found in female-headed households (ILRI 2009).Ownership of livestock does not necessarily mean that women have ultimate control over the animals (and thus a say about selling or slaughtering them). Many women acquire animals through different channels, such as the market, inheritance, or gifts; but they may not have decision-making power over such livestock. It is not uncommon in Kenya for husbands to sell women-owned dairy cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs without having to consult their wives (Njuki and Sanginga 2013). Among the Luo, for example, a woman can buy a cow, but if the couple separates the animal remains with the man (Chavangi 1983).In pastoral societies, customary norms regulate access and ownership of clan assets, including livestock. Women and men are entitled to access livestock either as owners or users. Some of the factors that influence women's ability to access livestock are marital status, age, and the overall production system in place. Key decisions are generally made jointly with their husbands; large sales of livestock are usually controlled by the clan elders. Women tend to have greater control over livestock given to them through dowry or gifts. Patterns of ownership and decision-making are complex and vary depending on the local culture. For example, it has been reported that among Maasai, women livestock owners generally have very little say in decision-making concerning the animals they own (Flintan 2011). Conversely, among the Nandi, women might have a say even though they do not own livestock (Flintan 2011).As previously discussed, milk and dairy products are particularly important for women since they tend to exercise greater control over those products than over the animals themselves.Traditionally, pastoral women determine what proportion of milk is to go to the children and calves, and therefore they balance between household food security and herd growth (Nunow 2010). Pastoral women also have the right to market the milk. In many traditional pastoral societies, women's priority is child nutrition, whereas men's priority is herd growth. Much of this division in gender roles is affected by the commercialization of livestock production (Njuki and Sanginga 2013).Dairy intensification is a practice that has been identified to have climate change mitigation potential. In 50% of the zero-grazing dairy units studied in five districts (Kiambu, Meru, Migori, Nandi, and Vihiga) of Kenya, husbands were found to be the main decision-makers in relation to land use for fodder and crop production (Maarse 1995). Decisions concerning dairy management-including watering, feeding, milking, cleaning animal sheds, spraying, hiring employees, selling, and using dairy income-are made by women. Men make more decisions in the selling and buying of cows and land. In 66% of the households studied, women made decisions regarding use and appropriation of milk. Husbands and wives were found to receive 33% and 45% of income from milk, respectively.Where and how much milk is sold influence women's ability to control and make decisions regarding income earned. Very often, women have greater control over the evening milk than morning milk, and greater decision-making authority over milk sold in local and informal markets (Kristjanson et al. 2010). Njuki et al. (2016), in an analysis of the impact of dairy intensification on gender dynamics, find that although women tend to have greater control over decisions about evening milk sales, men seem to be increasing the control of total dairy income.In many cases, milk is a contested commodity: it has many functions and is thus in demand for calf-rearing (mainly by men), feeding the household (mainly by women), and generating income (mainly by women). Decision-making dynamics around milk marketing can devolve into tensions and conflicts.A study investigating intra-household production decisions on milk sales among the Gabra, a nomadic society in northern Kenya, shows that men in some families were using their authority to decide where the household should camp, with the strategy to weaken women's ability to sell milk independently (McPeak and Doss 2006). According to traditional Gabra culture, once the animals have been milked and the milk has been inspected by the husband, the container is passed to the wife, who becomes the primary milk manager and can make key decisions on how much milk to use for each meal, how much to conserve as fermented milk, and how much to give to other households. Gabra women also may decide how much milk to take to the market: they can go to the town and sell the milk independently and make autonomous decisions on how to spend the income from sales before returning home. Since greater distance to town translates into fewer marketing opportunities, some men opt for migration routes that interfere with women's sales opportunities.The emergence of new markets in dairy products is opening up important income-generating opportunities for women, thereby contributing to strengthening their autonomy and decisionmaking power. In some cases, however, men are resisting this development.The livestock sector in Kenya is dominated by smallholders. It is estimated that milk producers account for 1.8 million farm households, of which 70% are smallholder farmers and mostly women and youth (Makoni et al. 2014) The rapid growth in milk consumption across the developing world has generated new opportunities for smallholder, market-oriented dairy production (Delgado et al. 1999). As a consequence, interest in technologies to sustainably intensify smallholder-led dairy production has also increased. Overall, intensification involves the introduction of highyielding cows and complementary feed production and feeding strategies, including growing and cutting fodder, improved fodder, management of disease control measures, and improved recordkeeping, for the production of dairy products, fresh milk for sale in particular (Nicholson, Thornton, and Muinga 2004). Intensification of dairy production also involves a shift to zero-grazing, a labor-intensive operation that consists of stall-feeding, using cultivated fodder and crop residues, and bringing water to the animals.Zero-grazing dairy livestock production has grown considerably in popularity for several reasons, such as the reduced availability of grazing land and emerging opportunities in dairy markets. There is evidence that exotic, stall-fed production generates employment opportunities in the small-scale farming sector and improves household incomes (Bwonya Orodho 2006).Farmers who adopt improved technology generally get higher yields and profit margins (ibid.). In Kenya, the sustainable intensification of dairy farming is associated with both increased incomes and improved nutritional outcomes for the rural poor (van Dijk, Tennigkeit, and Wilkes 2015).Dairy intensification has strong gender and labor implications, as it typically involves a renegotiation, reassignment, or deepening of roles and responsibilities within the household, which can also alter traditional patterns of access to resources. Studies focusing on the gender dimension of intensified dairy farming in mixed farming systems indicate that women's labor demand is more likely to increase with zero-grazing (Chavangi and Hansen 1985;Mullins et al. 1996;Mwangi n.d.). Women's already prominent role in milking, processing, feeding, watering, and cleaning animals tends to increase (Tangka in Kristjanson et al. 2010).Women's traditional crop responsibilities also tend to increase because of the shift in cropping patterns to accommodate fodder cultivation. Conversely, intensification requires less labor for herding and grazing, which are traditionally carried out by men. Chavangi and Hansen (1985) report that women contributed up to 85% of the total labor to zero-grazing units on smallholder farms in Kenya. In a gender-differentiated impact analysis of intensified dairy farming in five districts (Kiambo, Meru, Migori, Nandi, and Vigha), Maarse (1995) found that women were contributing 32% of all labor. Activities such as cutting grass, applying manure, feeding animals, cleaning, milking, fetching water, heat detection, and milk sales were carried out mostly by women. Maarse found that men contributed about 23% of total dairying labor and played a major role in activities such as planting Napier and fodder trees, buying dairy inputs, and spraying animals. Hired workers handled 33% of the overall dairy-farming activities, whereas children contributed about 5% of total labor, mostly through assisting in water collection, milk marketing, and application of manure. Mullins et al. (1996) reported similar findings from the Coast Province of Kenya, where women supplied 48% of the total labor inputs in dairy farms. These studies raise concerns about equity in the distribution of costs and benefits of more intensive dairying and the potential negative impacts on female-dominated activities such as child care.The results of these studies are not conclusive, however. A more recent study in coastal Kenya (Nicholson, Thornton, and Muinga 2004) suggests that ownership of dairy cows and intensified dairy production lead to positive outcomes for smallholder households, especially in terms of higher incomes associated with increased milk production and sales. The study also found positive impact on household welfare through increased milk consumption, which apparently was not challenged by the increases in milk sales. Further, little evidence was found to suggest that dairy cows result in additional time burdens on household members.According to the study, hired laborers conduct much of the additional labor required, with clear positive effects on employment generation. Taken as a whole, these results suggest that more intensive dairying has a number of benefits and few negative outcomes from the households' perspective (Nicholson, Thornton, and Muinga 2004) The importance of hired labor in dairy production is highlighted in a further study focusing on peri-urban areas of Machakos and Wote (Njarui et al. 2012). All household members have high participation in dairy production, whereby women mostly contribute to daily tasks and men engage mainly in weekly or seasonal tasks. For example, forage is planted during the wet season, spraying is done weekly, and milking is carried out daily. However, household labor is not sufficient to run the dairy units: a significant amount of labor must be sourced from elsewhere. Overall, hired labor contributes about two-thirds of total labor required in running the dairy enterprises studied, indicating that external labor is important for the success of dairy farming in the peri-urban areas of semi-arid regions. Similar arrangements are reported by Njarui et al. (2009), who found that hired employees contributed about 50% of the entire labor requirement of dairy units in the rural areas of semi-arid Kenya.These studies argue that intensification does not add an extra-burden on women, as dairy producers opt for hiring extra labor. Njuki et al. (2016), however, also suggest that different levels of intensification can lead to differentiated impact on women's work burden. Women from medium-intensity households reported spending more time on dairy activities than women from high-intensity households. This also might indicate that poorer households, living in more remote locations and with more limited financial and business management capacities, might not necessarily be able to sustainably move to dairy intensification without inadvertently compromising women's already difficult work balance. For livestock intensification to be sustainable and gender sensitive, it must be accompanied by special measures to reduce women's workloads in other areas and help them to secure their rights to produce (WABEKBON Development Consultants 2009).Women and men often have different objectives for keeping animals, different rights to their animals' products, and differing abilities to access new information and improved technologies, depending on their roles and whether they are targeted by the extension services. A study on gender differentials in adoption of soil nutrient replenishment technologies under mixed croplivestock systems in Kenya's Meru District found that women-headed households were less likely to use cattle manure than those headed by men because of women-headed households' limited ownership of animals and pasture land. Hence, they were barely targeted by extension officers (Kirumba et al. 2011).Limited access to knowledge and information on dairy production, processing, and marketing is a critical constraint faced by both women and men farmers. Informal channels of dissemination, such as farmer-to-farmer interaction, are the most common source of information for all farmers, irrespective of their gender (Njuki and Sanginga 2013).Conversely, formal government extension had very limited outreach. Njuki and Sanginga, however, also found that generally more men than women in male-headed households were targeted for training activities, whether from government or other institutions. Also, the range of topics covered by trainings was broader for men than for women. And although men were more likely to receive training on multiple technical subjects such as livestock health, breeding, and marketing, women were mostly trained on generic livestock management issues. It appears that the actual roles and responsibilities of women and men in cattle production tend to be systematically overlooked in the delivery of extension services, and dissemination of innovative livestock practices and technologies rarely targets women.Training opportunities for upgrading skills in dairy processing and marketing are scant, though these are areas that can open up important income-generating opportunities for women farmers. In a study analyzing the constraints faced by women in milk micro-enterprises in Kenya, it was found that only 18.6% of women entrepreneurs had received formal training in dairy processing before starting the venture (Odero-Wanga, Mulu-Mutuku, and Ali-Olubandwa 2009). The majority of women acquired value-addition skills primarily through informal channels (e.g., from relatives, friends, or previous employment). Women most often acquired the technical knowledge through passive observation rather than active participation.After setting up the milk-processing enterprises, relatives and friends remained the most common source of information (40%), immediately followed by customers and competitors (8%). The most critical constraints to upgrading skills mentioned by the women interviewed were, in order of importance, lack of knowledge on sources of information, lack of time to look at this information, and the high cost of acquiring this information.The location of training may also be a constraint for women, especially in strong patriarchal settings. It has been broadly recognized that in order to improve outreach to women, extension services should be delivered at times and in places where women can easily convene. Cultural and time constraints are powerful disincentives to women's participation.For instance, Maasai women face restrictions in accessing extension services mainly because of workload and mobility constraints (Flintan 2011). In many pastoral societies, local gender norms discourage women from attending public meetings, as these are seen as male spaces.As a consequence, women mostly rely on their husbands to acquire technical information. Flintan (2008) found that pastoral women were unable to access information on dairy production and marketing since extension messages were usually made in public, maledominated forums. Similarly, Njuki and Sanginga (2013) found that most of the trainings attended by women were held within the village.The gender of the extension agent also matters. A study on the impact of intensive dairy production on smallholder farms in coastal Kenya found that women performed the major part of the work on all farms; however, women on female-contact farms were spending their dairy income on food for the household and children's schooling more often than their counterparts on male-contact farms (Mullins et al. 1996). On the basis of these and other findings, the gender of the extension contact, dairy operator, and farm owner are determinants of the intrahousehold impacts of intensive dairying on smallholder farms.Intensification increases the need for technical knowledge and services (e.g., veterinary care, fodder cultivation, artificial insemination, etc.), which are often not directly available to women.It is also clear that since intensification requires additional labor from women, which is often not compensated, they have less incentive to adopt new technologies (Kristjanson et al. 2014).Many projects in East Africa that have experimented with training villagers to be animal health workers have not directly targeted and trained women to become service providers in their own community (Kristjanson et al. 2010). Odongo (2015) argues that recognizing and valuing gender-specific roles and knowledge in the management of cattle disease can help to prevent the spread of the disease more effectively. Hence, attention to gender should inform the way veterinary and other extension services are designed and delivered.Finally, a further constraint is that dairy marketing cooperatives tend to be heavily dominated by men (Flintan 2011). This hinders women from accessing training and technologies related to sustainable intensification, which are usually channeled through these organizations.Conversely, many researchers have noticed that when women dairy producers form their own groups, their capacity to access and effectively use new technical knowledge and information tends to be higher. This finding has profound implications for the dissemination of sustainable intensification technologies in the dairy sector.As previously discussed, the considerable increase in milk consumption in Kenya has opened up new employment and income-generating opportunities for milk producers along the livestock value chain. It is estimated that smallholder dairy farmers produce up to 56% of all milk produced in the country and market about 70% of the milk they produce (Njuki and Sanginga 2013). Most milk surplus (about 55%) is sold to individual consumers, 38% to milkmarketing cooperatives and middlemen, and the other 5% is marketed directly to processors.Although women traditionally have the right to sell milk and milk products to earn small amounts of income, limited production and distant geographical locations in pastoral areas limit their possibility to access distant, but more profitable, markets, especially due to high transaction costs arising mostly from transportation. Producers and consumers are spatially separated, whereby producers live in very remote rural areas and consumers are found in urban centers (WABEKBON Development Consultants 2009).Given these constraints, women tend to focus on and dominate informal markets. They are rarely members of marketing cooperatives, and very often the organizations do not deal with marketing activities. Hence, they engage in milk marketing on a small scale and rarely bring their product directly to processors (ibid.). In 2009 the East Africa Dairy Development project surveyed households in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. It shows that women receive dairy income in 35% of the households selling to individual traders but in only 16% of households that bring milk to collection centers (ILRI 2009). Women generally have to struggle with unpredictable and insecure markets. Milk is highly perishable, so the lack of milk-processing and storage facilities means that the milk that cannot be sold is wasted if not returned to the household, which is only possible in some cases (Gemtessa, Emana, and Tiki 2005).A further constraint is that the reduction in livestock numbers-due to the current shift to agricultural production in many pastoral societies, the loss or degradation of grazing areas, and/or increased drought-has meant that there might not be a surplus of milk to sell. Limited production may exacerbate gendered conflicts over access to the milk. Men may prefer to use the milk for the herd rather than sell it (McPeak and Doss 2006). Several studies have documented that men may keep the livestock away from the town or household to maximize herd productivity and let calves consume the milk rather than reserving it for human consumption (ibid; WABEKBON Development Consultants 2009). Research in northern Kenya showed that men deliberately resisted increased marketing activities by their wives by moving further away from towns (McPeak and Doss 2006). This can also undermine women's status, which is determined by their ability to provide milk for the family and the community.The daily trade-off between marketing and food consumption has clear gender and food security implications. As milk levels have reduced, women may compromise the health of calves to ensure that there is enough milk left for their children (Bruggeman 1994). Researchanalyzing the relationships between commercial livestock production, nutrition, and intrahousehold dynamics in Uasin Gishu District clearly shows that the move toward commercialization has deepened male control over milk, with negative consequence on family nutrition and health (Huss-Ashmore 1996). Further research reveals that settled Rendille and Ariaal populations in Marsabit District, northern Kenya, had far poorer growth patterns for children relative to same-aged children from the pastoral community (Fratkin, Roth, and Nathan 2004). Furthermore, since protein is an indispensable nutrient for pregnant and lactating women, infants, and growing children (ibid.), the potential protein loss associated with agricultural settling may have a negative impact on maternal nutritional health.Hence it is clear that, although market development can provide opportunities for both women and men producers, it also bears gendered risks and challenges. Women tend to experience greater difficulties than men in accessing and benefitting from formal and more profitable markets because of the structural disadvantages they experience in the society as women (Flintan 2011). Flintan argues that an increase in the value of a resource that has been customarily accessed by many people, including both women and men, might result in the alienation of the resource to only a few.Increased demand for higher value fodder and improved breeds, along with the development of roads and market-related infrastructures, negatively affects those with more insecure rights to livestock and other productive resources-namely poorer pastoralists and women. Many studies recognize that women engaged in commercial dairy production tend to receive little if any remuneration for their work (Chavangi 1983;ILRI 2009;Farnworth et al. 2012). Any strategy for commercialization should be based on a careful gender-sensitive value chain analysis that also considers customary norms and values (Flintan 2008).Women dairy farmers tend to be heavily disadvantaged in access to and control over productive assets. Specifically, they have more insecure rights over livestock and land; limited access to labor, credit, and technical support; and less control over incomes from sales.Even when women are directly targeted by extension programs, women might find it more difficult than men to adopt the proposed practice due to gender-specific constraints in access to assets. This is especially true for women who are heads of households. A study on the factors that hinder uptake of mitigation technologies (including agroforestry, improved fodder production, tree nurseries, manure management, composting, and biogas generation) among dairy farmers of Kaptumo in Nandi County found that more female than male heads of households faced problems in using new practices due to a number of barriers. These include lack of labor to carry out agronomic activities, limited access to information on suitable fodders and planting materials, lack of initial capital for establishment, lack of space on the small land holdings, and insecure rights over land (Mutoko, Rioux, and Kiru 2015).Women heads of households practiced composting at less than half the rate of male heads of households, mainly due to labor shortages. The commonly used paddocking system requires extra labor to collect the scattered fresh cow dung. Similarly, feed conservation strategies to ensure that livestock feed is available during both dry and wet seasons, such as making silage, require hired labor and were more often adopted by men. Finally, many more women heads of households found it difficult to plant fodder trees because of lack of land ownership and limited user rights. The women reported that since men are the custodians of land title deeds, planting fodder trees is seen in the community as \"marking own farm boundary,\" which is perceived to be inappropriate for women (ibid.).Limited access to credit is often identified as one of the most critical challenges to women milk producers. Female dairy farmers in Kiambu, Kenya, reported that their enterprises would have been more productive had they had access to financial resources to purchase more feed and feed supplements and more land on which to grow forage (Kristjanson et al. 2010). Considering that women play a critical role in dairy operations in Kenya, their inability to access credit and other financial resources is a key constraint to the development of the country's small-scale milk production. High rate of illiteracy among Kenyan dairy women represents a further obstacle to their engagement with formal institutions.Odero-Wanga, Mulu-Mutuku, and Ali-Olubandwa ( 2009) argue that lack of finance and problems accessing credit facilities due to high interest rates represent the major obstacles to acquiring appropriate technology for value addition for micro-enterprises led by women in the dairy sector. A critical finding from the study is that 92.9% of the women interviewed could not acquire equipment because of its high cost. Additionally, 56.5% of women interviewed reported problems linked to the high interest rates of credit; 34.9% reported lack of collateral as the main challenge. The authors (ibid.) identify improved access to credit facilities and the provision of technical assistance as the main measures needed to support women to upgrade their enterprises.A survey carried out in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda as part of the East Africa Dairy Development project (ILRI 2009) showed that significantly more men than women had applied for loans from financial institutions or local cooperatives. Lack of secure titles to property impede women dairy operators in Kenya from obtaining credit from formal financial institutions. This represents a major constraint to expanding the country's small-scale milk production (Kristjanson et al. 2010).Since lack of access to credit limits women's opportunities to develop commercial enterprises, the formation and strengthening of women savings and credit groups are critical steps toward the creation of women-owned dairy enterprises. Schemes supported by nongovernmental organizations offer important alternatives (Flintan 2011).Fodder and feed scarcity is one of the major bottlenecks for livestock sector development.Under the Livestock Development Program, a study was carried out to determine the relationship between fodder production practices and current dairy production among dairy farmers in Homa Bay and Ndhiwa districts. The study shows that age, gender, and marital status did not influence daily milk yield because the young, elderly, men, women, single, and married people were all provided with equal opportunities to increase daily milk yield (Mulwale, Munyua, and Olubandwa 2014). The program made a conscious effort to target and reach out to women of different age groups and marital status. Indeed, women comprised the majority of project beneficiaries and received intensive training on improved methods of production and fodder varieties. This resulted in women allocating more land for fodder production and growing more varieties. The study also found that those who had smaller pieces of land either leased land to grow adequate fodder or bought extra to supplement what they grew.Other studies (Kristjanson et al. 2010;Flintan 2011;WABEKBON Development Consultants 2009) reveal that strong, women-led producer organizations can play an important role in delivering extension services to poor women livestock keepers. The Kenya Women's Veterinary Association has partnered with the government to develop the country's semi-arid and arid areas through improvements in animal husbandry (Kristjanson et al. 2010). By building the capacity of organized women in livestock and disease management, the association has contributed to improve women's capacity to control and reduce the incidence and costs of tick-borne diseases in cattle and Newcastle disease in poultry. An impact studyshows that the formation of women's groups has helped to improve control of livestock diseases, particularly transboundary diseases (Kimani and Ngethe 2007).According to Flintan (2008), clusters and networks of women can access resources more cheaply and easily than can individuals. When extension messages are delivered through women's groups, these tend to be more effective (Kimani and Ngethe 2007). Hence, supporting organized women's groups for the delivery of livestock support services targeting poor female farmers seems to be the most effective way to target poor female livestock keepers.The vibrancy of organized women groups in pastoral areas is further demonstrated by the experience of a TechnoServe-supported project (http://www.technoserve.org/our-work/ stories/maasai-women-launch-successful-dairy-business) that has promoted the formation of a women-only dairy cooperative among the Maasai. The women in this area face several challenges in milk production and marketing, principally due to limited access to more productive cows and fodder and lack of transport. They also face a scarce supply of water.TechnoServe trained a group of women on business management and effective dairy farming techniques, as part of the Agribusiness Development Program. The program supports more than 19,000 small-scale dairy farmers and helps them establish dairy business hubs, including the Maasai Women Dairy, the first dairy plant in Kenya owned almost entirely by Maasai women.Maasai women had formed a business group in 2003 that collected milk from members to sell in neighboring towns. The proceeds were meager until August 2011, when TechnoServe began working with the women. The firm helped establish the Maasai Women Dairy as a formal cooperative and educated its farmers on the benefits of collective milk marketing.Through the program, TechnoServe also introduced innovative mitigation practices by training the Maasai women in natural resource management, including soil and water conservation, renewable energy, and tree planting. The women learned that milk production can be increased by improving cattle management, and some women began conserving grass around their homestead and feeding cows through rotational grazing. The Maasai Women Dairy has grown to more than 3,200 active members and nearly quadrupled its sales recently.As of 2015, the women were collecting a peak of more than 7,100 gal. of milk per day.A pilot project under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture program also provides a good example of a successful women-owned enterprise. Initiated in Kenya in September 2011, the project focused on small-scale female and male dairy farmers, with the aim of integrating climatesmart agriculture into the farming system and improving farm and milk productivity, income, and livelihoods. A group of women in the Kamotony area were trained on various climate-smart agricultural practices. As a result of the training, they decided to establish a groupmanaged tree nursery, which is providing them with income from the sales of indigenous tree seedlings, tea leaves, ornamental trees, and garden flowers. The income gained was used as a financial stepping-stone for investing in dairy production. The adoption of improved fodder production and dairy cattle management led to a sustainable increase in milk productivity, in turn enabling them to access credit for investing in their dairy enterprise. The women can now pay their children's school fees and make monthly contributions to the National Health Insurance Fund for their family members. In addition, the application of composted manure to their home gardens and passion fruits has contributed to improved household nutrition. The success of their enterprise has enabled them to overcome some of the cultural constraints to tree planting, which has also helped to free up the time they used to spend collecting firewood.The Most important, the project team involved both women and men as couples in training activities meant to prepare farmers for a move toward commercial production. In this way, the specific roles and responsibilities of both women and men in dairy production were taken into account and addressed. This also enabled all household members to better assess the amount of time and money it would take to produce for the market. Women felt particularly unhappy at the low returns to their hard work. This represented a strong disincentive for women, who were required to increase their labor contribution without being adequately compensated.Hence, promoting intra-family collaboration and joint decision-making regarding the planning of the investment, as well as a more balanced trade-off between labor contribution and economic benefits, was key to increase the economic incentives for women so they could commit additional labor from their already demanding work schedules.Cold chain investments in some communities benefitted men much more than women because it allowed evening milk, which was traditionally controlled by women, to be sold into the chain by men. Evening milk is typically used by women for home consumption, as well as for sale within the community and for payment in kind for work provided by neighbors (Farnworth et al. 2012). The team sensitized women on how to influence spouses with regard to decisionmaking in technical key intervention areas, including breed improvement, fodder establishment and management, linkages to markets and services, and participation in farmer field schools and exchange visits.Another important activity implemented by the project was the formation of gender-balanced dairy cooperatives (women had to form at least 30% of cooperative membership). To specifically support poor, and female-headed, households, the project suggested that (1) a clause be added to cooperative membership agreements that funds for shares could be raised over time, (2) the cooperative pay the same amount per liter, regardless of delivery size, and(3) it sell all inputs at the same price regardless of size of order. To prevent male capture of income, the program encouraged the creation of a cooperative store to enable payment in kind for milk. Goods for exchange included school books, basic food items, seedlings, and inputs.To ensure men's agreement, they received some cash for each sale. Men were also encouraged to allow women to apply for women-friendly loans at lower interest rates.An important success factor was that the program adopted a flexible gender strategy, based on the diversity of local gender norms. The project team avoided openly challenging cultural norms. Rather, they ensured that men and women were trained together, and gave successful couples a role as change agents (ibid.).Given the critical role women play in the dairy sector across Kenya and throughout different production systems, addressing gender issues in the development and delivery of innovative mitigation technologies can definitely lead to more effective uptake and impact of promoted practices among smallholder farmers, thereby contributing to both sustainability and productivity goals. Women dairy producers represent an untapped potential. If they are not adequately considered and targeted, it could hinder the sustainability and impact of emerging mitigation practices, and have negative spill-over effects on natural resource conservation, productivity, and overall household food security.Despite this premise, it is clear from this review that women's specific roles and responsibilities in dairy production systems are still largely overlooked in the design and implementation of dairy development strategies and programs. There is an urgent need to unveil how gender dynamics and customary norms influence the development of the sector. This requires more in-depth understanding of how livelihood and technology changes, often as a response to both environmental degradation and emerging marketing opportunities in the dairy sector, can lead to differentiated outcomes for women and men dairy producers.For example, in extensive grazing systems that are prominent in dry land areas, managing grazing land and improving its productivity would be vital to its sustainable use. Loss or degradation of grazing land as a result of drought and changing livelihood systems has led to a reduction in milk production, with negative spill-over effects on the livelihoods of both women and men producers. Resource scarcity has particularly affected women because they tend to have more insecure rights to livestock and other productive resources. In some cases, women have lost access to the milk surplus they usually bring to the market, due to pressure from men to keep the milk for the herd.The gender blindness of many interventions promoting smallholder dairy intensification is also related to the fact that, although dairy is important to the livelihoods of poor women and men in Kenya, the factors that limit or promote opportunities for women livestock keepers have received very little empirical analysis. In particular, it would be important to further explore the linkages between sustainable dairy intensification and intra-household gender dynamics, including division of labor and decision-making patterns.Far from being a gender-neutral process, sustainable dairy intensification often involves the deepening of roles and activities that are usually associated with women, thereby increasing women's work burden and further constraining their access to resources and income. Given its nutritional and market values, milk can be a highly contested commodity, more so in the context of emerging opportunities for commercialization of dairy products in the country.Changes in intra-household gender dynamics as a result of intensification might unwittingly compromise or limit the adoption of new production practices because women might not be willing to engage in costlier and labor-intensive technologies without receiving adequate benefits in terms of access to markets, income, and decision-making. Hence, such analysis would be critical to understand how to convert existing gendered barriers into incentives for successful adoption of sustainable intensification practices by farm households.The shift to sustainable intensification requires access to complex technical knowledge and a range of services (e.g., extension, credit, veterinary, etc.). However, this review reveals that these services are often unavailable to women, since they are rarely targeted by extension and dairy development programs. Conversely, when women are effectively targeted by extension services and programs, and their awareness and knowledge of intensification practices and benefits increase, they are more willing to switch to sustainable management practices and to find effective solutions to constraints they typically face, such as renting land for producing more and additional fodder varieties.In some contexts, especially in pastoral areas, empowering women-only groups by targeting them as direct recipients of extension services, processing technologies, and market linkages might be the most effective strategy to successfully promote the adoption of mitigation technologies. Alternative approaches to service delivery, which are based on peer-to-peer training, could potentially enhance women's access to those services that are traditionally targeted at men, such as veterinary services.Both the TechnoServe and FAO projects demonstrated how the promotion of women-owned enterprises creates an enabling environment for the adoption of mitigation practices, such as soil and water conservation, renewable energy, and tree planting. The women's groups targeted by both programs have learned that improved cattle management contributes to increased productivity and efficiency of resources. However, it is only when women are empowered as business actors, and thus can access and control productive resources, income, and benefits, that they can upgrade to new technologies.Women's decisions about whether to invest in new practices depend greatly on the availability of targeted support and services that address their specific needs and constraints (World Bank, FAO, and IFAD 2015). As demonstrated by the FAO experience, adoption of mitigation technologies was higher among men although the project targeted both female and male dairy farmers. Weak and insecure access to land, shortage of labor, and limited financial resources for initiating the investments or acquiring new breeds are some women-specific constraints that remained unchallenged.Working on gender relations and addressing intra-household dynamics can also lead to improved uptake and impact of climate-smart agriculture technologies by farm households.Promoting intra-household planning and decision-making around dairy intensification and commercial development has the potential to stimulate a positive family environment. This involves engaging all family members to develop a common vision, renegotiate the division of labor to meet the demand for increased labor, and share the incentives and economic benefits of enhanced productivity and sustainable natural resource management.Last but not least, given that women usually have less control over dairy cows than do men, it is important to explore opportunities for promoting alternative value chains, such as dairy goats, which are usually controlled by women.","tokenCount":"8312"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"50e72d698a82a23b2bf3d9e16f73e02a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ba0a55e2-d4dd-45c5-8285-af96134a9483/retrieve","id":"529578735"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b8a079a2-4345-4f25-a688-170eda2824ac","pagecount":"24","content":"plant growth, corm yield, corm crisping quality and mineral content of three taro landraces. Taro is grown at different subsistence farming locations in South Africa. Comparison of performances at the two locations was of interest to the researchers to assist with their advice to farmers and extension officers. In a second study corms of the three landraces, harvested from one of the locations and the first two planting dates, were packaged in three different ways and stored at two different temperatures to assess their quality after storage for four months. A third study was included to study the performance of first generation corms on their emergence and stand establishment.Methods of study design are described for each of these studies and methods of factorial statistical analysis and reporting demonstrated for one of the field trials.Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) is a traditional crop that has a potential to alleviate food insecurity, reduce poverty and create employment in the developing world. Taro is grown in a range of subtropical coastal areas in South Africa, starting at Bizana district in the Eastern Cape and as far as the coastal area of KwaZulu-Natal. The crop is also cultivated in the subtropical and tropical parts of Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. However, Umbumbulu, an area close to the KwaZulu-Natal coast, where farmers are members of EFO (Ezemvelo Farmers Organisation), is the only area in South Africa where subsistence farmers have been able to grow certified organic taro for the formal market. Woolworths and Pick'n Pay sell the taro that the farmers produce in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg.There is now an interest in processing taro into crisps, and this would provide more opportunities for the marketing of taro. Farmers from inland areas are also becoming interested in growing taro in view of the increasing popularity of taro as a cash crop. One problem is that 'dryland' or 'rainfed' taro (i.e. grown without irrigation) does not grow in winter; consequently it is available for harvesting only from late February to early July. An additional problem is that taro has a short shelf-life.There are different landraces of taro. A participatory study was done for a Masters degree (Mare, 2006) to investigate the landraces that were most preferred among farmers in Umbumbulu, and the three, namely, Dumbe-Dumbe, Mgingqeni and Pitshi, most favoured for marketing, were identified. These taro landraces have different agronomic, nutritional and morphological characteristics (Mare, 2006), and so producers and marketers need to know which landrace is best in terms of yield, corm crisping quality, food quality and storability. It is also possible that different landraces differ in terms of climatic requirements and so may vary in terms of optimal planting dates and fertiliser requirement.Before developing a research strategy one needs first to consider the agronomic, nutritional, morphological and quality characteristics that subsistence farmers, processors and consumers look for:Farmers need taro landraces that produce high yields and can be stored as long as possible (the crop tends to have a short shelf life). Processors prefer large corm taro landraces of superior quality for crisping (high specific gravity, high starch content, low reducing sugar content, low alpha amylase activity and high calcium content). Consumers need to benefit from a nutritious product based on the extent to which minerals provided by taro landraces contribute to the human diet.A series of experiments were thus planned to compare taro landraces in terms of yield, mineral content, suitability for crisp making and length of storage. The research process was set out as three consecutive studies. The flow chart alongside also includes the participatory study already mentioned that was necessary to establish the three landraces to be used in the study. The other three studies will be described as Studies 1, 2 and 3.The first step was to carry out field trials to determine planting date and organic fertiliser effects on plant growth, yield, mineral content and corm crisping quality of taro corms. It was of interest to compare performance across different locations in order to advise farmers and extension officers of the suitability of different landraces in different environments. The experiment was therefore replicated in two locations to provide indications of potential genotype x environment interactions.Two field studies were plannedone at Umbumbulu (29 0 36'S 30 0 25'E) and one at Ukulinga (University of KwaZulu-Natal Research Farm) (29 0 37'S 30 0 16'E). Ukulinga was chosen as the second site in order to represent an inland area where increasing interest in the growing of taro is being shown by farmers. Each trial was planned as a split-plot design. The crops were to be planted on different dates as main plots with factorial arrangements of fertiliser and landrace as subplots randomised within planting date.Using corms harvested from the first study a second study was then to be undertaken under laboratory conditions to compare storage qualities for the three landraces under different temperature regimes (12 0 C in a cold room or ambient temperature in a store room) and alternative methods of packaging (polyethylene bag, box or mesh bag). Samples of corms would be selected from those grown in Study 1 with each level of fertiliser to see whether organic fertiliser influenced storage quality under the different temperatures and packaging methods.Finally, a third study would be needed to see how well first generation corms perform in terms of shoot emergence and subsequent plant development: plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, number of suckers and overall above ground biomass. Again corms would be selected from each landrace x fertiliser level combination in Study 1.The objective for the whole study was formulated after consideratio n of the research strategy. It was:To assess the qualities of three taro landraces, namely Dumbe-Dumbe, Mgingqeni and Pitshi, in terms of plant growth, yield, mineral content, suitability for crisp making and storage, and to recommend the landrace that is most suitable for the formal market.Each study had its own separate objective: Study 1: To determine effects of date of planting and level of organic fertiliser on plant growth, yield, corm crisping quality and mineral content of taro corms from three landraces: Dumbe-Dumbe, Mgingqeni and Pitshi.Study 2: To determine effects of temperature and packaging on storage quality of corms from three landraces (Dumbe-Dumbe, Mgingqeni and Pitshi) in terms of level of carbohydrate (sucrose, glucose, fructose and starch concentration) and also on any emergence of new shoots or roots.Study 3: To determine the performance of first generation corms from three landraces (Dumbe-Dumbe, Mgingqeni and Pitshi) in terms of shoot emergence and plant development (plant height, leaf number, leaf area, number of suckers and overall above ground biomass).By confining ourselves to just two yield measurements (dry corm weight and number of corms) recorded in Study 1 we shall determine the best month for planting each of the three landraces decide which one is the most suitable landrace to be grown by farmers for the formal market and determine the optimum level of fertiliser for growing this landrace.We shall discover that delaying planting until January resulted in several plots with zero growth. We shall discuss how these missing values should be treated.Finally, the design of Study 1 provides an example of a split-plot factorial experiment. We shall show how to analyse and report the results from such an experiment how to evaluate the basic assumptions for analysis of varianceA split-plot field experiment was designed at each site (Umbumbulu and Ukulinga) to compare the effects of planting date and organic fertiliser level on growth, yield, corm crisping quality and mineral content of the three taro landraces. The landraces were planted on four dates: October 2007, November 2007, December 2007 and January 2008, randomised across main plots. Each experiment had three replicates of main plots. Factorial combinations of landraces (Dumbe-Dumbe, Mgingqeni and Pitshi) and levels of organic fertiliser (Gromor Accelerator) (0, 5330 and 10660 kg ha -1 ) were randomised across sub-plots. Gromor Accelerator nutritional composition is as follows:Soil samples were collected and analysed before the start of the experiment and the amount of organic fertiliser to be applied in each experiment was calculated based on these results. The soil was sampled from the top 30 cm to represent the zone that contains the roots of the plant and a grid was used to collect a set of representative samples. Some of the results of analyses are shown below.Rainfall and temperature data were obtained from Weather South Africa for the duration of the experiments.The field plan is now shown.The letters D, M and P refer to Landraces Dumbe-Dumbe, Mgingqeni and Pitshi, respectively and are followed by 0,1 and 2 referring to the level of fertilizer.The same plan was used at each site. Plot size was 4m2 and each plot contained 16 plants planted 4 x 4 and spaced 0.5m apart. Plots were separated by 0.5m. Block 2Note how the plot numbers are arranged: from left to right in one row and in the reverse direction in the next row. This is discussed under Data Management.The skeleton ANOVA table is as shown.The trial at Umbumbulu was run under the conditions in which the farmers were already engaged. Sowing was done by hand on ploughed and harrowed fields. A hand-hoe was used to make each hole, organic fertiliser was mixed with the soil and one corm was planted in the hole. Weeds were controlled by hand hoeing once a month. Farmers were involved throughout the study from soil preparation to harvesting. The numbers of plants that emerged per plot were counted and emergence percentages calculated at monthly intervals until no other plants emerged.Data on plant height, leaf number and leaf area were collected every month for four months from the four innermost plants in the plots. These data were averaged to calculate mean plant height, number of leaves per plant and total leaf area per plant. Leaf area was determined according to Modi (2007). When one or more of the four central plants did not emerge any four plants were selected from the plot. Should fewer than four plants emerge in the whole plot then the average of those that had emerged was recorded.Yield at maturity was determined by harvesting all corms from the four innermost plants, weighing the total fresh weight, counting the total number of corms and calculating the average to determine the total number of corms and total fresh weight per plant. Fresh corms were also weighed individually, classified into different weight classes and their mean specific gravity and dry corm weight recorded. Corms were freeze-dried at harvest for starch content, sugar content, alpha amylase activity and mineral content determination.The crop planted first (in October) was considered mature when all above ground biomass had died off for the first planting; maturity was subsequently defined at four week intervals for the subsequent plantings.The second study was undertaken as a split-split-plot design to determine effects of temperature and packaging on the storage quality of the corms. One cold room (12 0 C) and one store room (ambient temperature) were available for the experiment. Corms harvested from the planting in October at Ukulinga were used.Twenty four corms were collected from each sub-plot in Study 1 and the three replicated subplots for the same landrace x fertiliser level combined together to give a total of 72 corms per group. Eighteen boxes were obtained in order to provide three replicates for the experiment. Polyethylene bags were put into six of them, mesh bags put into six others and the remaining six were left empty. Groups of four corms from each landrace x fertiliser level combination were laid in each box in a predetermined factorial design for each of the six boxes (as shown for replicate 1) and the group labeled. Nine boxes (three with a polyethylene bag, three with a mesh bag and three without either) were placed in the cold room. The other nine boxes were put into the store room.One corm from each group within each box was removed each month over a period of four months. The corm was cut in half; one half was peeled and freeze dried for starch and sugar analysis while the other half was used for determination of specific gravity and dry matter content.The numbers of corms that showed signs of shoots or roots sprouting were also counted each month.Cold room (12 o C) and store room (ambient temperature) can be considered as main plots, packaging methods (polyethylene bag, mesh bag or box alone) as sub-plots and factorial combinations of organic fertiliser and landrace as sub-sub plots. Within each of the cool and store rooms packaging method was replicated three times.The skeleton analysis of variance table is shown here for each monthly sampling time. Strictly speaking the replication term should appear at the subplot level. We cheat slightly by pretending that we used three separate cold rooms and three separate store rooms. In this way the replication term is represented at the main plot level.Additional corms from each of the three fertiliser x landrace groups grown at Ukulinga were stored in the 12 0 C cold room polythene bags for four months (the duration of Study 2). These were used in this study to assess the performance of first generation corms. Corms were planted in pots, one corm per pot, in a shade house and placed in a randomised block design with nine landrace x fertiliser level combinations replicated three times (nine pots per replicate) to account for environmental variations within the shade house.Seed corms were weighed before planting. Pots were examined daily and the day when shoot emergence occurred recorded. Plant height, leaf number, leaf area, number of suckers and above ground biomass (both fresh and dried) were recorded 33 days after planting when first plants reached the three leaf stage.This study is not considered further in this case study.A number of data sets are provided to accompany this case study. CS16Data1a contains final crop yield and mineral composition data etc. collected in the Ukulinga field experiment and CS16Data1b data for the Umbumbulu field experiment (Study 1). CS16Data1c and CS16Data1d contain monthly data on plant performance respectively at the two sites. Data collected during the storage experiment (Study 2) are stored in CS16Data2.Only the data set CS16Data1a will be used to illustrate the methods of analysis. The other data sets are provided for use in some of the Study questions. Some of the variables originally recorded in the experiments have been excluded to simplify the data sets for the purposes of this case study. Thus, several of the mineral composition variables are omitted from CS16Data1a and CS16Data1b. CS16Data2 contains just measurements for specific gravity.CS16Doc1ab and CS16Doc1cd describe the factors and variables contained in CS16Data1a, CS16Data1b and CS16Data1c and CS16Data1d, respectively. CS16Doc2 describes the contents of C16Data2.GenStat can be used to design the experimental layout for Study 1 and produce a corresponding recording sheet by using Stats → Design → Generate a Standard Design... and putting appropriate numbers for blocks (or replicates) (namely 3) and whole plot and subplot treatments (namely 4 for dates of planting and 9 for the nine landrace x fertiliser levels.By clicking the Options button on the right hand side and making 'plot labels' sequential numbers a spread sheet similar to that below with 'treatments' randomised to plots can be obtained. Now select the first nine rows (Block 1 W_Plots 1), click Spread → Sort... and sort PlotNo into ascending order, ticking the box to 'Place sorted rows at bottom of sheet'. This simply has the effect of moving these rows to the bottom. The nine rows for Block 1, W_Plots 2 are now at the top. Select these but this time sort PlotNo into descending order so that PlotNo is in reverse order 18,17,16,15,14,13,12,11,10. These rows again appear at the bottom of the file. Continue throughout the file until PlotNo 1 is back at the top.The reason for doing this is discussed on the next page.By right clicking S_Treat and then clicking Factor → Labels... we can change S_Treat levels to D0, D1, D2, M0 etc. to describe the factorial nature of the treatments. This modified spreadsheet can now be used for laying out the experiment and for data collection and recording (see alongside). (Note that the actual placement of treatments that was used in the experiment (as shown below) is naturally different from that resulting from the treatment randomisation produced alongside to demonstrate the method.)So why go through the process described on the previous pages? When a recorder works across the plots he/she will start at plot 1, move along the row, plot by plot, until he/she reaches the end of the row. Rather than walk back to the beginning of the second row he/she can simply turn around and work backwards. So the preparation of the spreadsheet in this way simplifies the task of data collection.This spreadsheet can now be used for data collection and, with slight further modification, for data analysis. For example, one needs to right click the factor S_Treat and twice apply Spread → Factor → Recode... to enter in additional columns factors for Landrace and Fertiliser. Note that there is absolutely no need to sort the file to put treatments into ascending order. GenStat can handle data presented in any order; this was not appreciated when analysis was commenced for this study and, as can be seen, CS16Data1a has been sorted into treatment order. As will be seen under Exploration and Description it then becomes a little difficult to check individual data values against their plot numbers.Rainfall and temperature data were obtained from Weather South Africa for the duration of the experiments. These are summarised here. Such data are important to collect as they can help in interpreting the experimental results.For the purpose of this case study only Study 1 at Ukulinga will be used to demonstrate methods of analysis. Two variables, dry corm weight per plant and number of corms per plant, are chosen for further analysis. We shall start with dry corm weight.During field work it was noted that growth was particularly poor for the 4th planting date with zero growth in some plots. Using Stats → Summary Statistics → Summarized Contents of Variates ... it can be seen that half the observations for the 4th planting date have been recorded as missing .A missing value represents a value that could not be recorded. For several of the variables, such as the mineral determinations, there was no plant material available for analysis. These observations are clearly missing. However, when a variable reflects a zero response (e.g. dry corm weight or number of corms) such data, on reflection, would have been more meaningfully recorded as zero.Growth was also poor for the 3rd planting date and so one might decide just to analyse the data for the first two plantings. However, for the purposes of this case study, we shall just omit the 4th planting date with its many zeros. This can be achieved by Spread → Restrict/Filter → To groups (factor levels) ... and selecting levels 1-3 for Planting_date.Before proceeding with the statistical analysis of the data we should just check for any extreme data values. By carrying out a preliminary analysis of variance (Stats → Analysis of Variance ...) and selecting 'Split-plot Design' (see alongside) we find the message below contained within the output. These residual values are over four times their standard errors and hence outliers.The entries on the recording sheets matched the values entered into the spreadsheet and no explanation could be given for these unusual values. They were therefore replaced by the * missing value code and a copy of this sheet saved in a separate spreadsheet 'Edited data' in With the large difference in variation among observations when comparing planting dates 1 and 2 with planting date 3 one might consider a transformation to logarithms. Such a transformation depends on means of observations being approximately proportional to the variances of the observations. Dividing the means in the above table by their corresponding variances we obtain ratios of 7.5, 11 and 8.5 for planting dates 1, 2 and 3, respectively. This suggests that a logarithmic transformation could be appropriate. Applying a transformation can complicate the presentation of results. Since analysis of variance is a robust technique we shall first see what happens if we proceed without transforming dry corm weight.We need to check other analysis of variance assumptions.By rerunning the analysis of variance and then clicking Options on the GenStat screen and then Residual Plots... we obtain the graphs alongside.We can see that the distribution is a little scattered, though essentially normal and that the residual values tend to increase with increasing size of observation. This reflects the differences in variation between planting dates 1 and 2 and planting date 3 observed earlier.However, the normal plots are reasonably linear at 45 o , and so we shall show the results of analysis of variance based on the raw data.Applying similar methods of analysis to measurements of numbers of corms per plot we find that the number recorded for subplot 55 is four times its standard error. Three other observations are also listed but their deviations are smaller. Again no reason could be found for this anomaly and so this measurement was replaced by an * in the 'Edited data' spreadsheet in CS16Data1a.Running the analysis of variance again and producing the residual plots we see that the histogram shows signs of skewness to the right and that the normal plots are slightly curved and deviate from the 45 0 line. Measurements of counts, such as in this case, number of corms tend to follow a Poisson distribution. A square root transformation is likely to produce a distribution closer to normality.Calculating the variable sqrt_corms (Spread → Calculate → Column... and rerunning the analysis of variance we can see that the transformed data fit better the assumption of normality.For number of corms we shall therefore analyse the transformed values.We are now ready to carry out analyses of variance (Stats → Analysis of Variance ...). By clicking Options and adding a tick for %CV we find at the end of the output that the coefficient of variation for dry corm weight is 30.4%. This is rather large and possibly influenced by the conditions under which the experiment was conducted. Normally one would expect a value closer to 15% for a field experiment.The output includes the analysis of variance which shows that there are no overall differences among landraces, nor does level of fertiliser have any effect on dry corm weight. However, date of planting has not only a highly significant effect overall but more importantly also a highly significant interaction with Landrace.From the section of the table of means shown alongside it can be seen that the highest yields for Landrace 2 (Mgingqeni) and 3 (Pitshi) occurred when planted in October. In contrast, Landrace 1 (Dumbe-Dumbe) performed better when planting was delayed until November (Planting date 2). Its yield then was similar to that of Pitshi planted in October.We can compare these mean values using standard errors of differences to form a t-test. As the 95% value of t is approximately 2 we can multiply the s.e.d.s by 2 to get a close idea of the statistical significance of individual differences. Thus, 2 x 9.17 = 18.34 gives a measure of the least significant difference (L.S.D) that needs to occur between two landrace means planted on the same date for them to be significantly different (P<0.05).When planted in October the yield for Pitshi is 27.6 and 17.0 g higher than the yields for the other two landraces. We can thus say that the yield for Pitshi. when planted in October, is significantly higher than that for Dumbe-Dumbe (P<0.05) but not for Mgingqeni. By using the 99% t-value we can similarly calculate the L.S.D. at the P<0.01 level of significance. Note that the s.e.d and d.f. for comparing means within the table at different levels of planting date are different from those used for the same planting date. The d.f. value of 10.18 is calculated by a formula that takes into account the two residual degrees of freedom (namely 4 and 44) form the different strata in the analysis of variance.The following table shows results for corm numbers. Since the statistical analysis has been carried out on the square roots of corm numbers an extra value is included in parentheses. This is the square of the mean square root value. One could alternatively calculate 95% confidence limits for each mean on the square root scale and then present squared limits to give indications of the likely ranges on the original scale. Statistical comparisons, however, need to be applied to the square roots. Note that on this occasion (since whole-plot and sub-plot mean squares were similar -see earlier analysis of variance table) calculated values for the two S.E.D.s for comparisons within the table are the same to two decimal places. Therefore, the S.E.D. value of 0.11 as shown can be used for any comparison within the body of the table.General conclusions from the Ukulinga field trial are:All landraces can be planted in October without additional fertiliser. Planting in December or January is too late to achieve good yields. Of the three landraces Dumbe-Dumbe is the best since it produces a smaller number of corms with a similar dry corm weight to the other two. This means that it produces larger corms which are easier to handle compared to the other landraces.From a research strategy perspective the case study demonstrates the importance of setting out a plan at the beginning of a project. However, there are lessons to be learned.Plans do not necessarily have to be set in stone. If an early study in the research process can be analysed promptly this can guide the design of a subsequent study. This may be difficult to achieve under the constraints of a PhD programme (such as in this case study) but it is likely, as illustrated by question 8 under Study questions, that Study 2 could have been simplified if data analysis of Study 1 had been done more quickly. Efficient and timely data management and analysis is important. Formal statistical analysis can wait until later in the research process but simple descriptive methods used early on can often provide an adequate summary of an experiment that helps to lead the way forward and revise, where appropriate, earlier plans. Researchers must not forget the importance of setting out procedures for data collection and computer entry as part of the research strategy, and ensuring that there is adequate time a for this component of the work to be done in a timely way.In terms of data collection the case study has demonstrated how GenStat can be used to lay out the design of an experiment, randomise treatments to plots and prepare the recording sheet, how plot numbers were rearranged in alternate rows to allow the recorder to traverse the field experiment more easily.From a statistical design and analysis point of view the case study has described the use and analysis of a factorial split-plot design and shown how different standard errors are calculated to compare means at different strata levels.Split-plot designs have their place when it is difficult or impossible to apply all treatments at the same plot level. Thus, in this example, it would have been impracticable to plant landraces on different dates to individual plots within different rows.Nevertheless, it is important to note that, with the larger whole plot size, whole-plot treatments will usually be estimated with a higher variance than sub-plot treatments. This needs to be taken into account in the experimental design.1. Use CS16Data1b and follow the methods used in this case study to analyse dry corm weight and number of corms at the field site Umbumbulu. Compare your results with those of Ukulinga and interpret any differences that you find.2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a split-plot design compared with that of a randomised block. You can use the examples in this case study to support your arguments. Discuss the possibilities of arranging the samples in Study 2 as a randomised block rather than a split-plot within each of the rooms.3. Carry out analyses of variance for variables Ca, Mg and K in CS16Data1a. Based on the results for these minerals what can you say about the nutritional benefits of each of the three landraces? This is one of the requirements set out in the Research strategy.Similarly analyse specific gravity. High specific gravity is one of the qualities needed for crisp making. What do the results tell you?4. We have seen that yields are reduced when planting is later than November and that this affects not only the mean yield but also the experimental error. An alternative would be to analyse data for the first two planting dates only. Do this for dry corm yield and number of corms and compare with the analysis based on the three planting dates. Which method would you recommend for dealing with these data?5. In reporting the results of this case study it is decided to present the mean results for dry corm weight and number of corms in the forms of bar charts rather than tables. Display the mean values shown in the tables under Reporting in bar charts. Would it be better to list landrace means within planting date or vice versa?6. Carry out a split-split-plot analysis of variance on the data for specific gravity contained in CS16Data2. Compare the structure of the analysis of variance with that shown under ","tokenCount":"4909"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d310f840e6f2e9c399a5282f612a39b5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c2c16993-262e-439c-9206-7331640cdb82/retrieve","id":"-136973041"},"keywords":["Design","layout","photo editing","production Eric Ouma Debabrata Basu","Michael Blümmel","Rameswar Deka","Arun Pal","Arindam Samaddar","Jai Pal Singh (Tata Trust)","Nils Teufel","Markets That Work: Making a Living from"],"sieverID":"628bad31-c5e9-4ab0-a789-75e24e853446","pagecount":"172","content":"This is a time of intense change, with volatile food prices, a near meltdown of financial markets and the continuing growing threats of climate change and emerging diseases. Research by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and its partners is helping to address these issues by working at the intersection of small-scale livestock production systems with these new global forces. We see strong growth in demand for research into dynamic markets for livestock products; the growing competing demands for human food, animal feed and biofuels; the growing environmental concerns about the expansion of livestock production; bird flu and other emerging zoonotic diseases; and the impact of climate change on animal agriculture in developing countries.Livestock is one of the fastest growing sub-sectors in developing countries, where it already accounts for a third of GDP and is predicted to become the most important agricultural sub-sector by 2020 in terms of added value. We view market-led pro-poor growth, the topic of this year's annual report, not as a silver bullet that will solve all the ills of the livestock sector in poor countries but rather as one of several pillars of livestock development. The livestock markets and trading systems of developing countries are as yet remarkably poorly studied and understood. What we do know is that they are far more complex and dynamic and have far higher through-put than is commonly assumed.We present this year's annual report for the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) primarily in web rather than printed format for greater cost-effectiveness and ease of use by most of our stakeholders. We have also designed the report to be printed easily in whole or in part, as needed. The weblinks embedded throughout the electronic text will take you to reference and other related materials that may be of interest to you. We welcome your comments on how well this format meets your needs. You will find a place to comment on our website. Because ILRI's research covers all systems in which livestock are important, our mandate is uncommonly broad and diverse; for this reason we take a thematic rather than programmatic approach to our annual report. A disadvantage of this approach is that we are able to cover a given major topic only once in every several years. For this reason, we have also departed this year from a strict coverage of just one year's research work (2007). We include key events in the first half of 2008, particularly matters pertaining to the continuing global food price crisis, while our financial and other institutional information found in the appendices covers 2007 alone. This flexibility allows us to provide more timely and complete information on our chosen topic-what livestock markets can do for the poor.The increasing demand for livestock products is creating opportunities for improving the welfare of millions of poor people who depend on livestock for their livelihoods, but changes in production, procurement, processing and retailing of food, along with environmental and food safety concerns, erosion of animal genetic resources and the threat of emerging infectious diseases, threaten the potential of the poor to benefit from the on-going livestock revolution. With these new challenges, we believe livestock researchers must find new ways of working, including adopting innovation systems and valuechain approaches to their work.The role of research is never greater than during times of change. With our research investors and partners, we continue to look for ways to adapt ourselves to continual change while seeking technical, institutional and policy solutions to complex problems. We continue to support national work to build indigenous livestock research capacity and to develop institutional arrangements that encourage continual learning. And we continue to look for effective ways to integrate research results and share research-based knowledge with those who need it most. We thank those investors and partners who continued to make this all possible in 2007.Uwe Werblow, Carlos Seré, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Director GeneralWho we are: International Livestock Research InstituteThe International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works at the crossroads of livestock and poverty, bringing high-quality science and capacity-building to bear on poverty reduction and sustainable development. ILRI works in Africa and Asia, with offices in eastern (Nairobi, Addis Ababa), western (Ibadan, Bamako) and southern (Maputo) Africa, South Asia (New Delhi, Hyderabad, Guwahati), Southeast Asia (Bangkok, Jakarta, Hanoi) and East Asia (Beijing).ILRI is a non-profit-making and non-governmental organization with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, and a second principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We employ nearly 700 staff from about 34 countries. About 80 staff are recruited through international competitions and represent some 30 disciplines. Around 600 staff are nationally recruited, largely from Kenya and Ethiopia.All ILRI work is conducted in extensive and strategic partnerships that facilitate and add value to the contribution of many other players in livestock research for development work. ILRI employs an innovation systems approach to enhance the effectiveness of its research. We believe fundamental change in culture and process must complement changes in technologies to support innovations at all levels, from individual livestock keepers to national and international decision-makers.WHY LIVESTOCK RESEARCH FOR THE POOR? Farm animals are an ancient, vital and renewable natural resource. Throughout the developing world, they are means for hundreds of millions of people to escape absolute poverty. Livestock in developing countries contribute up to 80 percent of agricultural gross domestic product; nearly 1 billion rural poor people rely on livestock for their livelihoods. Globally, livestock are becoming agriculture's most economically important subsector, with demand in developing countries for animal foods projected to double over the next 20 years. The ongoing 'livestock revolution' offers many of the world's poor a pathway out of poverty.With the rising prices of staple foods, many poor people in developing countries face an immediate crisis, as nutritional foods from livestock and other sources are now largely out of their reach. As the politics of food grow ever more complicated, the danger exists that the globe's poorer South will be pitted against the relatively wealthy North.New results of research conducted by ILRI and four of its partners in the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme (IFPRI, CIMMYT, IWMI and ICRISAT; see their 2008 draft report on 'Drivers of Change in Crop-Livestock Systems and their Potential Impacts on Agro-ecosystems Services and Human Wellbeing to 2030') shows that the increasing diversion of grains and oilseeds to produce ethanol and biodiesel, a promising first step toward reducing the world's dependence on petroleum, will raise the price of food grains globally, directly causing greater human malnutrition in the South.Africa is-and will continue to be-the region hardest hit by rising food prices. It therefore deserves special attention. There are no simple solutions; addressing these threats depends on collective will and action.Dramatically rising consumption of milk and meat in developing countries is a major factor in global food price rises. The price of milk has more than doubled in just a few months in some countries. The price of meat has risen less dramatically but will continue to increase. A surge in demand for livestock products in China and India is driving the increase in livestock prices. Other factors include rising oil prices, diversion of agricultural resources to produce biofuels and bad weather that hurt cropping, particularly in Australia and New Zealand.Some of the negative implications on the poor of the rising prices of milk and meat are explored in the joint ILRI-IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) article 'Do higher meat and milk prices adversely affect poor people? ' (id21 insights, 2008). The key finding of the study reported on, which produced new projections for global food demand using IFPRI's 'IMPACT' model linked to ILRI's 'SLAM' livestock allocation model, is that although higher prices can benefit agricultural producers, a larger number of poor consumers will have reduced access to food.As the growth in food consumption shifts from developed to developing countries, the model (see figure below) projects that under a 'business-asusual' scenario:• annual meat demand will increase by 6 to 23 kilograms per person worldwide by 2050• the absolute increase will be fastest in Latin America, East and South Asia and the Pacific, with demand doubling in sub-Saharan Africa• the demand for maize and other coarse grains for animal feed will increase global cereal demand by 553 million metric tons between 2000 and 2050-nearly half of the total increase in demand for that period. With this strong demand, the model projects that livestock populations will also increase rapidly. Between 2000 and 2050:• the global cattle population will increase from 1.5 billion to 2.6 billion• the global goat and sheep population will increase from 1.7 billion to 2.7 billion.These changes will progressively constrain food production, causing adverse impacts on food security and the environment. The rising demand for meat and milk is expected to contribute to increased prices for maize and other coarse grains and meals used for animal feed.The expected growth in demand and supply will also mean profound changes for livestock production systems. Expanded market activity could threaten food safety and increase the risk of animal disease transmission. Declining resource availability could lead to the degradation of land, water and animal genetic resources in livestock systems.Considerable opportunities for livestock growth exist, but there is a danger that smallholder producers and other poor livestock-dependent people may be unable to take advantage because of their lack of access to markets and technologies. Long-term policies will be necessary to ensure that the development of livestock systems plays a role in reducing poverty, as well as mitigating negative environmental impacts, encouraging income equality and supporting progress in reducing malnutrition.18SPECIAL SECTION Record-high food prices 5 Focus on producing more livestock products for regional trade, which is less susceptible than wider international trade to the impacts of global food prices.Five other livestock-based options for better food security can be viewed as being primarily about new kinds of 'human integration' in one form or another:6 Exploit among new philanthropists and other aid organizations the fact that the new prices make many livestock technologies developed over the last 30 years financially feasible.7 Develop public-private partnerships to supply poor farmers with improved animal feeds and breeding and health services.8 Improve market access by the poor and thereby help rural people get their perishable, high-value livestock products sold in dynamic urban livestock markets.9 Interconnect markets and supply systems so that these respond efficiently and flexibly to price signals and put new money into the pockets of the poor.10 Harmonize trade policies within regions by removing trade barriers and reducing transaction costs so that regions with food deficits are closely linked to those with food surpluses.whole is estimated at $1.7 billion a year. This excludes the 34% of the region's milk that is consumed on-farm, which is an important source of household nutrition.Researchers pointed out that higher prices, paired with surplus supplies of milk in Kenya, also could make Kenya a significant player in a growing second market-for ultra-heat treated milk (UHT), which needs no refrigeration until the packages are opened.Machira Gichohi, Managing Director of the Kenya Dairy Board (KDB), notes that Kenya is the only country in the region with exportable quantities of milk available.'This year we have seen significant increases in exports from Kenya,' Gichohi said. 'Buyers include major food manufacturers, such as Cadbury. We're already exporting milk powder to other sub-Saharan African countries, including South Africa, as well as to Asia and the Middle East. In addition, the UHT milk market is opening up and we're now exporting long-life milk to Mauritius and South Africa. Private processors are considering building two new processing plants to respond to the increased opportunities.'The impacts of higher global milk prices on poor consumers 'While the strong demand in the international markets presents new opportunities for producers, we must be cognizant of potential impacts on poor consumers in the region who depend on milk, and who may in time face higher local prices,' said Staal. 'Innovations in packaging to provide low-cost products and to support the improved functioning of the traditional market, which typically provides the lowest cost products, may ameliorate impacts of higher prices on the poor.'As global milk prices continue to rise, Kenyan small-scale farmers are poised to become major players in the market for milk. In the past, highquality standards of global producers have prevented countries like Kenya from competing with major exporters. But the steep rise in milk prices worldwide could give smallholder producers an edge in the global market, which is estimated at US$48 billion a year.In the last 12 months, the world market price for milk has more than doubled from some $28 per 100kg to over $60. In the past, distorted markets and high standards in the international milk market have stopped Kenya from competing with powdered-milk-exporting countries. Today's high dairy prices are forcing some manufacturers to find alternative, less expensive, milk, which is allowing Kenya to enter the export markets at significant levels for the first time.Small-scale milk producers are big milk producers Kenya has about 1.8 million rural households keeping some 6.7 million dairy cows. These smallscale farmers and traders handle more than 80% of all the milk marketed in the country. Despite their size, they are prepared to compete with the industrialized world's biggest dairy producers, according to ILRI agricultural economist Steve Staal.'The small farmers make use of family and other cheap labour and grass, crop stalks and other residues, to feed their cattle, rather than costly grain,' Staal says.In East Africa, milk production and consumption has always been big business, and in Kenya the dairy industry is the single largest agricultural subsector-larger in value than horticulture or tea.Kenyans are amongst the highest milk consumers in the developing world, consuming an estimated 145 litres per person per year on average. Among all developing countries, only Mongolians and Mauritanians consume more milk per dollar earned than do Kenyans. The milk market in East Africa as aMedium-to long-term responses • Develop markets for pro-poor growth that improve equitable access of the rural poor to markets; buffer the impact of 'thin' international markets on food prices/security; expand the numbers of small-to medium-sized enterprises; better inter-connect markets; and tailor supply systems so that they respond to price signals more efficiently and effectively.• Alleviate infrastructure, capacity and poverty traps (after Collier's 'Bottom Billion') on food security and poverty alleviation.• Develop institutional frameworks to buffer climate and other risks, including agricultural insurance and payments for ecosystem services.• Accelerate breeding of more productive and robust varieties of crops, animals and trees.• Inform high-level policy dialogues to resolve the energy vs. food dichotomy as well as (global and regional) trade distortions and barriers for developing-country agricultural produce.• Improved resilience of agricultural production systems and rural livelihoods through targeted development of vaccines and control of new and emerging diseases in crop-, livestock-, fisheriesand tree-based smallholder production systems.• Adopt innovative approaches to provide smallholders with access to capital.• Improve use of water resources.• Select and domesticate new species of trees, aquatic resources, fungi, etc. From an ILRI statement developed for the CGIAR, 16 May 2008 Africa is going to be hardest hit by the food crisis and deserves special attention. Success is contingent on collective action among all key players, and especially new African sub-regional and other organizations; regional frameworks such as the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme; and private-sector, new philanthropy and other new actors, with CGIAR Centres embedded and playing a critical 'boundary spanning' role to deal successfully with Africa's heterogeneity and capacity constraints.There are no simple solutions, the search for silver bullets is counter-productive Short-term responses (roughly 1-2 growing seasons)• Remove distorting policy and institutional constraints.• Promote approaches to target smart subsidies.• Speed up transfer of existing technology and information for immediate productivity gains, such as use of ensiled sweet potato vines and leaves and other non-cereal feeds to expand animal production.• Focus on increasing areas where regional trade in local products such as roots and tubers is important; in the short term these commodities will remain less sensitive than globally traded staple grains to the global food price increases.• Speed up post-crisis recovery with collective engagement of CGIAR centres and relevant humanitarian, international and regional organizations to deliver appropriate information and technology.New research showing how the global food price crisis is playing out in 17 countries of eastern and central Africa was presented at a roundtable discussion in Nairobi on 22 July 2008.The research results show that the regional food situation differs significantly from the global one, largely because of this region's exceptional diversity. That regional diversity provides these countries with opportunities to turn the volatile global and local food situations to their advantage.By integrating markets and simplifying trade within the region, policymakers can efficiently link areas with food deficits to areas with food surpluses. This integration will help the region's small farmers get better prices for their crops and livestock while also helping the region's urban consumers get reliable year-round access to staple food items.The July Roundtable on the Global Food Crisis was organized by ILRI and the Kenya country offices of the World Bank and World Food Program. Fifty key decision-makers in agricultural and rural development met on ILRI's Nairobi campus to discuss interventions that governments, development agencies, research organizations and nongovernmental organizations could make to help poor people cope with the rising prices of staple foods.Joseph Karugia, a Kenyan agricultural economist, provided an overview of the regional food situation. Karugia coordinates an ILRI-hosted Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System for Eastern and Central Africa (ReSAKSS-ECA). His review was based on a study led by the region's leading agricultural research group, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA). Under pressure by policymakers needing to take action to address the food price crisis, a team of 26 researchers within ASARECA and several centres supported by the CGIAR that work in this region, including ILRI, with study activities coordinated by ReSAKSS-ECA, conceived and executed the, 'Responding to the food price crisis in eastern and southern Africa: Policy options for national and regional trade' (draft of August 2008), together and with speed.Collective action on the food crisis: Food needs to move across borders SPECIAL SECTION on the Record-High Food Prices 'Our regional food prices have generally risen much slower than global ones,' Karugia said. Even the countries within the region are being affected differently by the global food prices, largely because of their different 'food baskets'. Kenya's main staple is maize, but in Uganda it's plantain, in Ethiopia it's teff and in Rwanda it's beans. Those countries that deal in non-traded commodities are buffered from the rising prices of globally traded staples. 'Rice and wheat,' Karugia said, 'two hugely important staples globally, are relatively trivial in this region. Moreover, most of the region's maize needs are met outside the global markets because most people in the region obtain their maize in locally, in informal as well as formal markets.' One result is that while the food price index (FPI) of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which captures trends in major food commodities, rose by 56% between March 2007 and March 2008, the FPI increases in this region were all below 40% and in most cases significantly lower. The FPI increased by 39% in Ethiopia, 20% in Burundi and Kenya, and just 11% in Tanzania. In several other countries in the region, including Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia, the increase was less than 10%.It's not only the staples of these neighbouring countries that differ. Their climate and rainfall patterns differ, and consequently their planting and harvest times differ, too. These within-region variations give policymakers a powerful lever for transforming a global food crisis into a regional opportunity for farm producers and urban consumers alike.The spatial and temporal distribution of production and staggered harvesting in the countries of eastern and southern Africa offer large opportunities for trade.By integrating the region's food markets and simplifying its food trade regulations, Karugia said, the region could link up food-deficit to food-surplus areas and thus provide its citizens with staples in an given season. A truly integrated regional market would provide farmers with remunerative prices and alternative reliable markets for their produce while also providing urban consumers and rural net buyers of food with a variety of reasonably priced food staples throughout the year.Most of the trade in food in this region is informal. It is wasteful not because it is informal but rather because of the many obstacles the informal traders have to face. Karugia explains: 'At the border between Kenya and Uganda, trucks laden with sacks of grain and other food staples are unloaded, reloaded onto bicycles, bicycled across the border to be reloaded onto trucks on the other side. This is not an efficient way to move food!'It would be a shame, Karugia said, quoting the economist Paul Romer, for the eastern and southern Africa region 'to waste a good crisis'. 'This global food price crisis provides the 19 countries of eastern and southern Africa with a golden opportunity to promote agricultural-led development through increased domestic production, regional trade and integration.'The ASARECA research presented at this roundtable discussion was a demonstration of this new networked science. Diverse scientists from ReSAKSS-ECA, ASARECA and the CGIAR worked together for months amassing data from country and regional organizations and consulting with key experts and partners within governments, policy think tanks, research institutions, emergency relief agencies and the private sector. Although their individual perspectives on, and interpretations of, the data they collected vary considerably, the research group reached consensus on several points.1 The poor in this region are spending 40 to 70% of their income on buying food.2 The poor are being hit hardest by the rise in food prices, especially the rural net buyers of food.3 Contrary to popular belief, most of the farming households in the rural areas are net buyers rather than net producers of food if price rather than volume of food is considered. Poverty forces them to sell their grain and other crops at harvest time, when prices are at their lowest, and to buy grain again, several months later, when the households run out of the staple, often at two to three times the price at which they sold their grain.4 Prices of agricultural inputs are increasing across the 17 countries of the region. (The price of fertilizer rose 200% in Kenya in the last year.)5 Yields of staple food crops are stagnating or decreasing in 17 of the 19 countries of Eastern and Central Africa (only Egypt and Mauritius are increasing their yields) because farming is moving onto increasingly marginal agricultural lands, causing yield aggregates to fall.One other salient fact leaped out of the data-the region cannot continue to spend less than 10% (and in some cases as low as 2%) of its national budgets in a sector that provides 25% of the region's gross domestic product, 75% of its citizen's livelihoods, and food for 100% of its people. 'We have neglected our agriculture, our farmers and our food markets for decades,' says Karugia. 'This is the result.'Karugia and his many colleagues in this multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary, and multi-commodity project asked themselves one central question: What levers can we pull to take advantage of the higher food prices? The two conventional answers-increase farm production and control consumer demand-were deemed by the group to be too slow to be useful. This regional group of scientists concluded that a SPECIAL SECTION on the Record-High Food Prices regional strategy for exploiting the food price hikes offered the best opportunities for the most numbers of people: 'Exploit the regional diversity by facilitating regional trade'.Priority actions for such a regional strategy would include the following. Markets: Remove export bans, eliminate non-trade barriers, simplify trade regulations and upgrade infrastructure along the region's main trade corridors. Farmers: Reduce the high cost of fertilizer and other agricultural inputs and facilitate their trade, widen use of best-bet agricultural technologies, pilot innovative risk-management strategies such as index-based insurance schemes. Institutions: Strengthen market information and intelligence as well as frameworks for preparedness, response and learning.Addressing these issues in these ways, with evidence-based policy options, is thus feasible, say the study team, and should lead to lowering the prices of food staples while also raising farm productivity and agricultural livelihoods.In summing up the day's roundtable discussion, host Carlos Seré, who is ILRI's director general, said that it's not only food we should be moving within the region but also the agricultural technologies that allow greater and more sustainable food production. The current food price crisis also has that silver lining: 'When you have high food prices, you can move those technologies for improved food production. And you can get attention for neglected alternative crops, such as cassava chips for livestock feed, which become viable as the price of grain staples rise.' 'This is something happening now,' Seré said. 'We need smart interventions that target the region's poor consumers and farmers alike. We need to get fertilizers into the region's high potential farming areas. The key thing is to work with markets-to arbitrage across countries and across the region. We must reduce trade barriers within the region, which will greatly improve the efficiency of its markets.' 'We must also think through new crop portfolios for this region,' he continued. 'How, for example, could we continue to support maize production in Kenya without penalizing those farmers pursuing a more diversified system that includes sorghum or millet?' Seré concluded: 'Climate and other fast-evolving changes affecting developing-country food production will make our problems worse in future. Finding the institutional frameworks for addressing these problems in collective action is our challenge.'In welcoming participants to the roundtable forum, ILRI director general Carlos Seré said: 'Global analysis of the food situation is relatively simple. We need to bring the discussion and analysis down to regional levels to increase the specificity, the granularity, of our information.' 'We're in a fast-paced world,' he said. 'One year ago the hot topic here as everywhere was bird flu. Last December it was climate change. Today it's food prices.' Science, Seré said, is just one input in the complex decision-making processes addressing these and other global threats. With the goalposts changing so quickly and often, the old model of doing science for development-spend years researching an issue, publish the results in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and then transfer the research knowledge and other products to the agricultural development agencies that need them-isn't working.'We need a much more interactive engagement with all stakeholders in development,' Seré said, 'to constantly assess where we are. We need to comanage and jointly navigate the future together. We need nimble frameworks and diverse perspectives and nuanced understanding, not scientific silver bullets, to address the complex issues of our profoundly inter-related modern world.' 'New science is networked science,' the ILRI director general said. 'We bring that to the development discourse.' Interview with Ravi Prabhu, a member of the study team and coordinator of a CGIAR initiative called Collective Action for Eastern and Southern Africa Let's take a look at what we heard today from Joseph Karugia and his ASARECA, ReSAKSS-ECG and CGIAR team.We heard that we have opportunities to exploit regional food heterogeneity, capacities and systems that we are not doing a good job of exploiting. We heard that the way to do this is by integrating markets, infrastructure, trade systems and removing policy barriers and distortions. If I were Bill Clinton, I would be tempted to say, \"It's the markets, stupid!\"--national, regional and, of lesser interest WELCOME ADDRESS BY ILRI DIRECTOR GENERAL CARLOS SERÉ SPECIAL SECTION on the Record-High Food Pricesto us today, global markets. We need to integrate these markets so that products flow along demand and price gradients.What is damaging are not just the rising prices; it is the volatility and unpredictability of the spikes and troughs. Smoothing these out will require focus on markets, trade and policies. It will also require collective action beyond districts and nations to the region as a whole and the world. Otherwise maize will continue to sell for 50 Kenya shillings in Kenya's northern Turkana lowlands and less than half that in its Eldoret highlands. All evidence indicates that volatility-sudden spikes and troughs in food prices-will increase and intensify as a result of increasing climate change and variability, which means we're going to face many more such crises and probably much severer ones in future. So we had better not waste the opportunity presented by this one.As Mr Sanjivi Rajasingham, World Bank Country Director for Kenya, Mr Burkard Oberle, World Food Program Country Director for Kenya, and Dr Ephraim Mukisira, Director of the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute, all pointed out, we need to keep our eye firmly on the rising numbers of food insecure people. Our solutions must be attuned to their response time frames; their survival depends on this. We need palliative measures for the poorest and most vulnerable people as well as measures to enhance our regional food productivity and markets.Clearly, agriculture in this region is underperforming; indeed, it is sub-optimal. We hear of maize being planted in regions where it should not be; we saw yields for maize stagnating as people inappropriately take new maize technologies into low-maize-yield areas. Increasing investments in agriculture are clearly one part of the solution; appropriate technologies, policies and frameworks are another part.Because agriculture in this region is intimately linked to other parts of the economy, a focus only on agriculture-crops, livestock, fish, trees-is unlikely to succeed if we do not also address other parts of the economy. It's not just agricultural and food markets that are important, but also labour, finance and other markets.What we have heard and seen today begins to outline how we might solve the food price rise problem and reduce the number of victims of this global as well as regional phenomenon. But we won't get this done unless we work collectively and share our strengths and resources. The roundtable discussion today is an excellent example of how we might move forward, with regional, national and international organizations and different sectors sharing fragmented information and exploiting their diverse skills and resources.We shall need to much more of this kind of sharing before we can say we have developed the institutional frameworks necessary for preparing for and responding to increasingly complex and rapidly changing problems. Complex systems such as the small farming and food systems of this region are characterized by uncertainty, which we experience as surprises of the kind we have been discussing today. These surprises have their origins in lag effects, such as the delayed impacts of a long period of low investment in agriculture and agricultural research. They are also caused by multiple interconnections, such as the combined effects of global fuel, financial and food markets.Our response must follow the advice of Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine, which is to improve our collective 'adaptive possibilities'. That is the main resource that allows societies 'to survive in the long term, to innovate of themselves, and to produce originality.' The ILRI director general spoke today of trying to 'co-manage' our collective present; I would add that we must do this with a clear idea of our collective future.I think today's meeting has taken us several steps forward towards outlining several possible course of action. What remains now is to begin to act, using our adaptive possibilities, and to improve as we move ahead by learning together as we act together.Collective Action News: main article in the July 2008 issue: Food price rises: Is regional trade the answer? The developing world's rapidly growing and changing livestock markets offer poor farmers real opportunities as well as real challenges. The rapid demandled growth in livestock product consumption in developing countries presents opportunities but current policies, institutions and structures unfairly favour large-scale livestock farming and poor livestock keepers may be driven out of this expanding business. The problems smallholders face include the increasing integration and complexity of livestock product markets; the increasing demand for food quality, safety and convenience; and, at the producer level, lack of technology, inputs, resources and information. ILRI's theme on improving market opportunities addresses a range of issues around smallholder participation in markets, from productivity and access to inputs at the farm level to the policies in animal trade and disease control at the international level.The international public goods generated by this theme emanate from the basic approach applied throughout:• Analyzing livestock value chains in their entirety (technical, institutional and policy elements).From that analysis, identifying sectors and regions with greatest opportunities for the poor to benefit from markets either as input suppliers, producers or market agents.Evaluating and demonstrating the transferability of policy approaches learned or innovations developed.Influencing the international agenda to embrace pro-poor market approaches that apply risk-based systems with a variety of options for the poor to succeed. Some consumer segments in developing countries, particularly in Asia, are clearly demonstrating higher demand for Western-style product quality and safety attributes and markets now offer an increasingly integrated modern market chain that places value on food safety, high and uniform quality and increased production volumes to capture economies of scale in collection Introduction to ILRI's 'Improving Market Opportunities' Theme INTRODUCTION TO ILRI'S 'Improving Market Opportunities' Theme and processing. These higher end markets, part of what's known as the 'supermarket revolution', will play an increasingly important role even in poor countries. However, due to demand for cheap products with traditional characteristics, markets for traditionally processed, or unprocessed and informal, products continue to predominate in most developing countries, even while demand for higher quality increases at the higher income end of the market. Because traditional and indigenous products are not easily supplied by larger-scale formal markets, or substituted for by imports, they create unique opportunities for small-scale producers and market agents, many of whom are poor.The research program encompassed by this theme builds on those unique opportunities, whether in the form of 'raw', or unpasteurized, milk, fresh pork, indigenous poultry or range-fed and organically raised small stock, and across a range of markets, from local to international. In both informal and formal market chains food safety is a concern in terms of the health and nutrition of producers, consumers and market actors and because it is a potential barrier for smallholder access to higher end markets. This research program addresses the dualistic nature (traditional and modern) of livestock product markets and works to help bridge the gap, supporting the role of smallholders in the transition process by providing research support to assist these actors and processes to provide opportunities for the poor.Because livestock market chains are long and complex, they provide many opportunities for the poor to participate through input and service supply and in myriad ways in the marketing and processing of livestock products. ILRI thus assesses livestock value chains (including inputs and services supply) for pro-poor opportunities, then targets sectorally and regionally the best systems and components where the poor can benefit, with a focus on dairy, small ruminants, pigs and poultry.Although research shows that many smallholder livestock products remain competitive with output from large-scale farms and with imports, there is considerable scope for helping the poor who might otherwise be left behind to join a market-driven pathway to improving their livelihoods through livestock, hence a focus on smallholder competitiveness. This requires not just improved output market linkages, but also support to increased farm productivity through access to improved technologies and appropriate and reliable livestock services and inputs.A key area of attention for ILRI's Improving Market Opportunities Theme is the application of risk-based approaches to understanding food safety and the animal disease implications of livestock and livestock product markets. Such approaches are required to go beyond simple rule-based, no-risk policies to understand potential tradeoffs in risk vs. livelihoods among various participants in market chains, from consumers to livestock producers themselves. This work is generating international public goods in several areas, including methodology innovation to adapt the approach to INTRODUCTION TO ILRI'S 'Improving Market Opportunities' Theme developing-country settings, new institutional and regulatory options to best balance risks and livelihoods and, in the future, new understanding of policies to allow poor countries to apply equivalent risk-control measures to meet sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards in livestock exports. This theme is also developing the use of participatory techniques to better adapt epidemiological surveillance and research methodologies to the realities of developing countries and smallholder communities. These tools are also being developed as more sustainable methods for use by national governments to comply with SPS requirements and enhance access to markets.Smallholder competitiveness in changing markets ILRI's project on 'Smallholder competitiveness in changing markets' identifies, tests and adapts technical, institutional and policy options that enable smallholder livestock producers to remain competitive in the face of changing market requirements and increased competition from imports. The initial focus of this work has been on smallholder dairy systems in Africa and Asia. ILRI is now increasing emphasis on smallholder poultry and pig enterprises in Asia and Africa.This project works to enhance competitiveness of poor producers through research on mechanisms that improve farmer access to the inputs, services and knowledge products needed to increase productivity and profitability of their livestock activities as well as to improve their ability to capture better value for their marketed livestock products. Market-oriented production relies not only on feeds, breeds and drugs but also on information and knowledge regarding appropriate technologies and market opportunities. Emphasis is placed on identifying technologies, institutions and policies that will sustainably support market-oriented production by smallholder farmers. The focus is farm-level and action-oriented and recognizes the complex, multiobjective nature of poor farm households and the particular constraints that they face in gaining access to the relevant public services and private-sector markets. The work typically involves low-income livestock keepers, service and input suppliers, development actors in smallholder settings, and buyers and integrators in mixed crop-livestock systems and intensifying peri-urban systems.There are two main areas of attention: institutions and strategies to support sustained uptake of improved production technologies and contractual and organizational arrangements to support smallholder participation in markets. Even the most competitive small farms, however, may not be viable if they cannot respond to the challenges of changing demand for food safety, quality and standardization. Design of better marketing institutions and strategies would allow smallholders to meet new requirements, hence ILRI's focus on INTRODUCTION TO ILRI'S 'Improving Market Opportunities' Theme changing demand structures that motivate the need for new institutions. These need to be implemented in the context of the continued dominance of the traditional, informal markets that resource-poor producers and consumers chiefly rely on, so that bridging the gap between formal and informal markets, in terms of quality and safety, must be one objective.The purpose of ILRI's project on 'Changing demand and market institutions' is to better understand the nature of demand for livestock products in the developing world in terms of quality, safety and convenience and to identify appropriate market institutions that allow smallholders to access markets for livestock inputs and outputs that meet consumer needs. This project focuses on the changing nature of demand for livestock products in major urban markets of developing countries. ILRI pays particular attention to the changes in demand for product uniformity, convenience, quality and safety as well as changes in the prices that consumers are willing to pay for livestock products.The project on changing demand and market institutions addresses the drivers of change in livestock markets supplied by the poor, including potential changes in demand for better quality, increased safety and higher levels of processing. It considers private sector and collective responses to new market opportunities and requirements, the impact of changes in industrial organization through the supply chain on small-scale producers and the means for helping the latter and small-scale market agents to respond. It also assesses the impact of these changes on access by poor urban consumers to low-cost livestock-source foods. This project increasingly examines the actual safety characteristics of livestock products in alternative market channels and applies a quantitative risk analysis approach to understand potential food safety livelihood synergies or trade-offs to inform decision makers.The primary targets are institutional options for smallholder livestock producers and the supply chains that serve them. A secondary target is options for appropriate levels of food safety and enhanced risk mitigation strategies in local markets. Some of the work is action-oriented and includes pilot testing technical and institutional options where appropriate with development partners. The project incorporates the public health dimensions of food safety and risk analysis to complement the existing focus on market standards related to food safety. Some of the new work within this project focuses on new and innovative tools for diagnosing livestock value chains and guiding development interventions within those.Beyond these domestic markets, global procedures for control of animal disease face major challenges from changes in the global configuration of livestock production and consumption and from significant changes in technology options for disease control. Because the costs of compliance with these standards are often too high for small-scale operators in developing countries to meet, this project focuses on animal health for trade.Animal health and food safety for trade ILRI's project on 'Animal health and food safety for trade' combines risk analysis, from veterinary epidemiology, with cost-benefit analysis to identify, test and adapt options for animal disease control and food safety assurances appropriate to developing countries. The project focuses on assessing the costs of compliance with safety standards for livestock product export to developing countries and examines equivalence of standards as well as options that help small-scale producers meet those standards.This animal health for market access and trade project addresses the animalhealth related barriers to the access of poor and small stakeholders to local, national, regional and/or international markets. Through the identification, development and evaluation of animal disease control, surveillance or livestock and livestock commodity certification methods, this project helps stakeholders meet animal health and food safety standards restricting their access to various markets. This work draws attention to the high costs of compliance with existing SPS and other standards facing producers in developing countries who wish to sell into rising export markets. It also evaluates in selected cases the costs and benefits of alternative procedures for equivalent levels of animal disease control proposed for developing countries. Risk analysis from veterinary epidemiology is combined with analysis of the costs and benefits of different options and policies, including the implications for both direct and indirect impacts on the incomes of the poor. Such methods further provide the basis for improved pro-poor decision-and policymaking through assessment of cost-effective animal health alternatives and means allowing stakeholders to respond effectively to zoonotic and emerging diseases that could reduce market opportunities, such as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and Rift Valley fever. The increasing attention to emerging diseases is a result not only of immediate threats to human health from avian flu, but also the awareness of longer term strategies to mitigate ongoing risks of these 'public bads' that are tied to intensifying production and marketing systems. This area will be a key focus over the medium term and is expected to grow.ILRI's Markets Theme is one of the institute's most geographically diverse, with staff based in several regions of sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Mirroring the variety of locations, the range of partners that this theme works with is similarly diverse. A key focus of this theme is building on the strengths of partners who offer development-outcome platforms for generating strategic learning and international public goods. In Indonesia, ILRI is coordinating a project evaluating a suite of interventions against highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) in backyard poultry production systems, including preventive mass vaccination and culling with compensation fully provided. Collaborators include the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), FAO, John Snow Inc. and the Community-Based Avian Influenza Control Project. ILRI is developing the study design as well as systems for monitoring and evaluating levels of uptake/coverage of interventions and their impact on AI incidence. The MoA, in collaboration with FAO, is implementing the vaccination campaigns and developing culling compensation systems. JSI Deliver provides logistical support for vaccines and equipment.CBAIC conducts community mobilization and tracks AI outbreaks in the target areas. ILRI expects this and related work to expand in Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia, given the strong demand for options to address emerging infectious diseases in the region. In a multi-country project focused mainly on sub-Saharan Africa but including Indonesia, ILRI is collaborating with IFPRI and FAO on an actionoriented, multi-disciplinary research project on avian flu (HPAI) control and prevention strategies. The aim is to aid decision-makers in developing pro-poor HPAI control and prevention strategies that are not only cost-effective and efficient but also livelihood enhancing. The project is being The theme's work in southern Africa continues to expand, building on a core project on market participation of smallholder livestock producers funded by the EU that is being implemented jointly by ILRI and ICRISAT in collaboration with national partners in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The work includes diagnostic studies on constraints for smallholder participation in livestock markets using a value chain approach and identifying and testing alternative input delivery and output marketing systems for enhancing smallholder participation in markets.In West Africa, ILRI is leading a project on drug resistance that allies two German universities, two regional research centres (CIRDES and ITC) A study was conducted to help improve livestock trade and marketing in Somalia through rural institutional support for effective and efficient marketing support services. Key findings of the study were published in April 2008 in a report, 'Improvement and diversification of Somalia livestock trade and marketing'. This study of issues within Somalia should be complemented by information of the demand for livestock in the importing countries.Somalia is one of the great livestock keeping nations of the world. The livestock sector has huge impact on food security and poverty and is an important source of foreign exchange, much of which is used to finance imports of food and basic necessities (about 80% of foreign exchange earning from livestock export is used to import food staples). In the East Africa region as a whole, trade in livestock and livestock products is of considerable social and economic importance. The share of livestock in the agricultural gross domestic product of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya in 2000 was found to be 88.2%, 32.5%, and 52.4%, respectively.The Somali livestock sector is principally export oriented, with exports going mainly to the Middle East and neighbouring Kenya. Remarkably, even after the collapse of the Somali central government in the early 1990s due to civil war, the livestock trade was continued by traders with support from local authorities and informal institutions. Indeed, stateless Somalia is one of the largest exporters of live animal in the world. Although the trade mainly involves live animals, export of chilled meat to some Middle East countries has been gaining importance. But there is as yet underexploited potential for Somalia's livestock sector.Somali livestock and livestock product marketing chains Four types of traders were mainly involved in the value chains being considered in this study: export traders, agents of exporters, petty traders (Gaadley, Gedisley, and Jeeble) and brokers (Dallaal).Improving livestock export services in Somalia Types of Somali livestock traders A Gaadley is a small-scale livestock trader who buys animals at low cost in a market and then sells them latter at a profit in the same market, usually a district market. A Gaadley may also try to add value to the purchased animals through supplementary grazing and feeding or by offering treatment for health problems.A Gedisley is a small-scale livestock trader who buys animals at low cost in one place/market and then sells them latter in a different market(s) so as to exploit price differences between the two.A Jeeble is a petty trader operating at a village level. He/she gathers animals from local villages and sells them later at a profit in satellite markets. He/she is usually the supplier for the Gedisley in the rural areas. The terminology is commonly used in Somaliland and the areas of Puntland bordering it.Brokers, Dillaal, are central features of livestock trade throughout Somali. They play a role in virtually all transactions that are concluded in markets as well as outside markets. They help sellers find buyers and also play an active role in negotiating the price. There is always a broker involved in a transaction. If buyer and seller have each engaged a broker, then two brokers are involved. Brokers are paid a fee for their services, which is usually a fixed amount for each livestock in the transaction. The fee in any marketplace appears to be uniform, differing only according to species.Many Gulf countries including UAE, Yemen and Egypt demand an animal health certificate by the government of the exporting country stating that the animals are free from disease before they are imported to these countries. All of the exporters operating in Bossaso and Berbera chains are aware of the government health certificate while none of the exporters in Garissa market chain mention any health requirement for export, perhaps because none is required or enforced in the porous border. (Officially there is no cross-border trade between Kenya and Somalia. All animals traded in Garissa are considered of Kenyan origin.) All of the exporters indicated that they do not buy any sick animals. Many say they do not buy cattle from disease areas. The cattle traders use different ways to ascertain health and quality of animals purchased but there is no wellestablished formal means to ascertain the quality of animals for export that meets the OIE requirements for global livestock trade.Somalia livestock marketing constraints • Lack of veterinary services/ limited vigilance on veterinary inspection and clinical examination/trans-boundary diseases.• Lack of systems for formal quality assurance, traceability, internationally recognized animal health certification, animal welfare standards.• Limited provision of services and infrastructure by local authorities.Poor condition export facilities.• Unregulated brokerage services, excessive export charges and little awareness and enforcement of animal welfare standards and regulations.• Unstable prices, especially for the export-quality livestock, lack of banking and insurance institutions, poor access to market information, delay of payments by the buyers, poor grading of animals by traders.• Drought that caused the closure of near markets, lack of grazing schemes, water shortages.• Provide market information services • Develop a system of certification for health and quality assurance In January 2004, ILRI and ICARDA started a project to assess the animal health situation in countries in the Near East and North Africa region. They then identified ways to help solve the major problems. The project, called 'Small Ruminant Health-Improved Livelihoods and Market Opportunities for Poor Farmers in the NENA Region', worked to improve the health of small ruminant animals to increase farmer productivity and improve their access to local, national and regional livestock markets. This partnership, conducted with national agricultural research systems in Jordan, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia, determined how health problems constrain market access by owners of sheep and goats and what can be done to overcome these constraints. Diseases that afflict the ubiquitous herds of small ruminants in these countries hurt the livelihoods and development prospects of millions of livestock farmers, whose biggest constraints are ineffective disease control and surveillance, poor access to veterinary services and a high cost of veterinary drugs. The project assessed ways to improve animal health and marketing services throughout the market chain, from farm/flock to export points.A lack of effective disease control, poor access to veterinary services, high cost of drugs, and a lack of skills in mounting effective disease surveillance complicate matters for these farmers. Small-scale farmers are also unable to effectively compete against the more market-oriented medium-to large-scale livestock entrepreneurs, who are able to successfully capitalize on the growing demand for meat and animal products.Surveys assessed farm-level constraints to small ruminant health that impede access to markets, health constraints in the market chain from farm to local consumers, and the organizational structure and regulatory environment of health delivery systems. At the national and regional levels, the project worked to increase market efficiencies and access by the poor through new policy options. The project supported capacity at all levels to improve disease diagnosis and control, including epidemiological and socioeconomic analyses to determine disease risks. A total of 58 staff members of national organizations were trained in livestock marketing, survey techniques or the principles of disease surveillance. Improving small ruminant health and market opportunities for smallholders in the Near East and North Africa Global beef markets are dynamic and constantly evolving, with new and emerging actors participating in export markets, including several countries in Africa such as Botswana, Ethiopia, Namibia and South Africa. Much of this market access has been sparked by the promise of high prices engendered by preferential trade arrangements, particularly from the European Union, as well as growth opportunities in emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East. Ethiopia has set its sights on becoming an important player in international beef markets in the future.Data of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reveal that Ethiopia maintains sizable and growing stocks of cattle, estimated at over 38 million head in 2005. Through the assistance of an ongoing project funded by the United States Agency for International Development, Ethiopia is in the process of developing a credible sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) system for disease-free meat that it hopes, within the next 10 to 20 years, will allow it access to high value markets in North America and the European Union. This focus on investments in meat exports echoes the findings of recent research conducted by the World Bank and IFPRI that highlights the strong economic growth and poverty reduction implications from higher beef exports. At present, Ethiopia primarily exports live animals (beef, sheep and goats) to regional markets in the Middle East and in 2005 exported approximately 10,000 metric tons of meat products to the Middle East and North Africa in the form of sheep and goat carcasses. However, the government has set a target to triple meat exports to 30,000 tons by 2008.Given resource constraints on available sheep and goat stocks, such an increase in exports would need to come from beef products and imply the processing of approximately 140,000 head of cattle for beef export. The nearterm plan is to first improve access into the Middle East and North Africa, with target export markets including the GCC countries of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, as well as Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen. Special attention is to be given to the Saudi market because it has the most stringent requirements of all GCC countries, The emerging exporter's dilemma: Beef exports from EthiopiaThe emerging exporter's dilemma and the demand for Borana cattle from southern Ethiopia is very high.While the export focus taken by Ethiopia is in line with its potential competitive advantage in beef products, a key question that arises from this plan is whether Ethiopia is correctly targeting markets in its quest to expand exports. Middle Eastern markets for beef are highly competitive, with significant inroads already made by India, Brazil, Australia and Argentina. While Ethiopia has a price advantage in some markets (e.g., Dubai), in many cases, Ethiopian beef must be marketed as Indian or Pakistani meat to be successfully sold. Moreover, as Middle Eastern SPS requirements increase and become more formalized, particularly with the recent accession of a number of Middle Eastern countries to the World Trade Organisation, the demands and potential costs of these markets may increase relative to alternatives.To assess this question, a 2007 paper by ILRI scientists Karl Rich and Simeon Kaitibie, 'The emerging exporter's dilemma: A model and case study of strategic product innovation for beef exports from Ethiopia', looks at the potential for Ethiopian beef exports through the lens of the 'innovator´s dilemma' framework, which illustrates how new innovators can potentially enter and flourish in markets in which the current product offerings of existing firms have overshot the market needs of consumers for specific attributes or performance of a product. (See Clayton M Christensen, 1997, The Innovator´s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press).In such cases, this allows innovators to capture specific consumer segments that are unwilling to pay premium prices for specific attributes and are willing to accept lower quality products that meet their needs in other areas. New entrants may develop product offerings that may lack the performance of existing models but are 'good enough' and may offer additional attributes that are attractive to this segment of consumers. Moreover, existing firms tend to eschew such opportunities since the pressure to continually add value drives them towards increasing the performance of existing products rather than developing new ones. However, as the performance of these new products improves, existing firms find it difficult to compete in this new sector and are forced to try to catch-up with such entrants.Viewed from this perspective, Ethiopian beef products could find a niche by meeting certain attributes of particular lower-income consumer segments (or markets) that are unwilling to pay higher prices for beef from other sources. One such attribute could be in the form of food safety standards: lowerincome segments may be satisfied with buying meat from sources that are 'good enough' from the standpoint of SPS standards, but unwilling to pay premium prices for certified beef from Australia or Brazil, for example. This suggests that a potential marketing strategy for Ethiopia is to target the underserved lower end of the market rather than try to compete in high-value, highstandard ones.This paper develops a conceptual model to demonstrate the mechanics of this argument. Preliminary results from the analysis show some potential for Ethiopian exports into the Middle East among specific market segments that are less willing to pay price premiums for higher quality beef. However, one should be cautious with this recommendation, particularly as standards and demand for higher quality beef rise in such markets. Indeed, Ethiopia will need to weigh the increased costs with trying to match market needs with the potential volumes it expects to sell. On the other hand, the analysis also shows considerable potential in other under-served markets within Africa in which demand is growing and quality standards are less stringent than those elsewhere. The paper suggests that Ethiopia pursue such markets as a precursor to raising its own SPS standards aimed at tackling other export destinations in the future.ILRI scientists Asfaw Negassa and Mohammad Jabbar made a final report in 2008 on 'Livestock ownership, commercial off-take rates and their determinants in Ethiopia'. A major challenge facing the meat export abattoirs in Ethiopia has been the inadequate supply of quality live animals for meat processing, resulting in the existing meat processing facilities operating at less than 50% of their operational capacities. This has increased the fixed costs of operations, thereby decreasing the export abattoirs competitiveness in the domestic and export markets. This study was conducted to assess the commercial off-take rates for cattle and shoats in the highland and pastoral areas of Ethiopia.The study found very low commercial off-take rates of cattle and shoats among smallholder Ethiopian farmers and pastoralists. Furthermore, a large proportion of the few animals sold are also of such age and body conditions that many of them are unlikely to meet the needs of meat export abattoirs. The low commercial off-take rate and market participation is likely due to small herd and flock sizes, low fertility and high mortality rates, and poor nutrition and weight gain. Thus, even though there are large livestock populations in Ethiopia, the size of livestock holdings at the household level is very small and does not support stable and sufficient commercial off-take. About 80% of the smallholder farmers in Ethiopia own cattle while only about 31% to 38% and 21% to33% of them own sheep and goats, respectively. Smallholder farmers own only few heads (usually 3 or less) of cattle and shoats while the pastoralists on average own 13, 5, and 2 heads of cattle, goats, and sheep, respectively. The livestock holdings of smallholder farmers and pastoralists both are barely self sustaining.Few farmers and pastoralists participate in the livestock market and among those that do, the size of transaction (sale or purchase of cattle or shoats) is very small. For example, in 1999/2000, about 61% of the smallholder farmers in the highland areas of Amhara, Oromia and Tigray neither sold nor bought cattle while only 23% sold cattle. In the case of shoats, about 49% and 55%The emerging exporter's dilemma of the smallholder farmers neither sold nor bought sheep and goats, respectively. The main purpose of keeping cattle in the highland areas of Ethiopia is for draft purposes.National consumption absorbs a large share of the already observed overall low net commercial off-take rates or market supply from smallholder farmers and pastoralists, leaving a small share of marketed supply for the live animal and meat export activities. Significant livestock transaction is among the livestock producers themselves for breeding, replacement and draft purpose. With growing domestic supermarkets and increased demand for high-quality meat, the demand for high-quality live animals for domestic consumption is expected to increase, which increases the competitive pressure on export abattoirs.Is Uganda outgrowing its popular zero-grazing dairy model? Reports from a 2007 ILRI research study, 'Dairy farming in Uganda: Production efficiency and soil nutrients under different farming systems', suggest that Ugandan policymakers may want to revisit their policies supporting the country's booming dairy sector to sustain increasing yields of smallholder mixed cropand-dairy production over the long term.Before the 1980s, milk production in Uganda occurred largely in two contrasting production systems. There were the large, mostly governmentowned, commercial dairy farms located in the wetter parts of the country on which exotic and cross-bred dairy cattle were kept and grazed on natural pastures. Then there were the pastoralists, who kept large numbers of local cattle under traditional management systems in the drier eastern and northeastern parts of the country.From the mid-1980s, development agencies in Uganda began introducing zero-grazing systems, in which high-yielding genetically improved cows (pure or cross-bred with local cattle) are kept in stalls and fed with fodder cut and carried to them daily. These more 'intensive' dairy systems were promoted among Ugandan farmers along with training on managing dairy breeds and growing fodder. This gave many smallholders an incentive to buy exotic dairy cows or to upgrade their indigenous cows by cross-breeding them with exotic stock. Some of Uganda's small farmers adopted strict zero-grazing practices while others combined grazing paddocks with stall feeding, a hybrid dairy production system that came to be known as 'semi-intensive'.As a result, the numbers of improved dairy cows in Uganda's national herd have steadily increased over the last two decades, with concomitant increases in national milk production yields, smallholder contributions to national milk production, dairy's contribution to the national economy, and per capita milk consumption.Evolution of Uganda's dairy systems: Popular 'zero-grazing' dairying doesn't suit all Other methods may make better use of cow manure to fertilize the country's impoverished soils.Ugandan dairy support Sixteen years ago, in 1992, the government launched a Milk Master Plan to improve (simultaneously) rural incomes, farm living standards, national selfsufficiency in milk production and yields of surplus milk for export. With the liberation of the sub-sector in 1993, when the government's monopoly on milk processing was broken, many medium and small-scale private milk processors emerged on the scene. To realize the objectives of its Milk Master Plan, Uganda in 1998 established a Dairy Development Authority.With the rapid rise of dairying among smallholder farmers, people began to question whether intensification was the best option for Ugandan farmers and whether these mixed dairy-crop production systems could be sustained.The study, conducted from 2001 to 2005 and focusing on dairy economics and nutrient cycling, was carried out in three districts-Mbarara, in southwestern of Uganda; Masaka, in southern Uganda; and Jinja, in the southeast, which is much smaller than the other two districts but with the highest human population.Results of the research study indicate that Uganda may be 'outgrowing' its successful, and ever popular, zero-grazing model. The results show that Uganda's booming dairy farming is profitable regardless of the level of intensification that farmers employ through use of feeds and other inputs. This finding suggests is that a high-input / highly intensified production system such as Uganda's heavily policy-supported 'zero grazing' system is not necessarily the best option for all of the country's small-scale crop-and-dairy farmers. Even the country's most progressive dairy farmers, who have adopted zero-grazing en masse, may want to revisit their choice of production system to sustain their crop as well as dairy production over the long term.Another finding of the study is that all of Uganda's dairy farmers, whether intensive, semi-intensive or agro-pastoral, tend to under-use their animal manure as organic fertilizer for their crop fields. The study found the quality of the soils on Uganda's mixed dairy-crop farms already below a level considered critical for crop production and continuing to drop. This deteriorating situation is fast eroding the long-term sustainability of these farming systems; if nothing is done, food insecurity and poverty in the country are likely to worsen. This is despite these farmers having adequate amounts of manure from their dairy cows to use as fertilizing soil amendments. It is likely that Uganda's dairy farmers are under-using their livestock manure to fertilize their crop soils because they lack the labour needed to save, transport and apply the manure.Future research needs This study revealed how surprisingly little research can yet tell us about the advantages and disadvantages of African farmers applying livestock manure as fertilizer on their mixed-production farms. We still lack, for example, sufficient comparative data on its effects on small-farm economics, nutrient cycling, practicability and labour trade-offs.We don't yet know enough about these matters to recommend best-practice manure management and application methods for Uganda's many small dairy producers. We ought to. We need to research manure management in the context of Africa's complex small farming systems so that we can offer the continent's farmers recommendations validated by research. Livestock are the highest valued agricultural commodity in intra-regional trade in West Africa. Livestock trade historically links Sahelian countries, such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in the arid and semi-arid parts of the region, as exporters of livestock to the humid coastal countries in the south, such as Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, as net importers. It is a thriving intraregional trade in live animals in which the value of traded cattle increased in real value terms from US$13 million in 1970 to $150 million in 2000; the cattle population in the region has grown from 29 million in 1970 to 47 million in 2000. Within this period, three major factors impacted livestock marketing and trade in West Africa. First, the severe droughts of the late 1960s, early 1970s and early 1980s significantly disrupted the flow of animals from the Sahel to the coastal countries, opening up the regional markets to substantial extraregional imports of frozen meat from Argentina and the European Union. Second, inappropriate policies pursued by countries in the region, including currency overvaluation, price controls, restraints on private-sector involvement in processing and an array of tariff and non-tariff barriers that hurt intra-regional trade, caused rapid declines in incomes of importing countries and consequent falls in meat demand. In two major importing countries, Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria, consumption fell from 12.2 and 8.4 kg per capita in 1990s to 11.0 and 4.2 kg, respectively, by 2000. Third was the availability in the West African coastal markets of subsidized imports of meat and dairy products from the European Union. The price ratio between Sahelian beef and imports from Europe rose from about 0.5 in the early 1980s to 2.0 by the end of the decade as import prices for European Union beef fell by about 29%. Consequently, livestock exports from Sahelian countries to coastal countries, particularly to Côte d'Ivoire, dropped significantly and imports of frozen beef from countries outside the region, mainly from the European Union, increased three-fold from a low of 16% in the mid 1970s to 44% by the end of 1980.Beginning in the mid-1980s, most countries in West Africa implemented macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment programs, including Improving livestock marketing and regional trade in West Africa Improving livestock marketing and regional trade in West Africa currency devaluation, abolition of commodity marketing boards, lifting controls on livestock markets and reducing trade taxes. These changes initially made Sahelian beef more competitive in coastal countries and promoted expansion of intra-regional trade in livestock. At the same time, the sharp decline in intervention stocks enabled the European Union to reduce subsidies on beef exports to West Africa by as much as one-third between 1993 and 1995. However, recent increases in meat imports indicate that the situation is dynamic and countries in the region need to establish policies that take into account changes in terms of trade and supply and demand. In this regard, Côte d'Ivoire introduced an import tax (compensatory duties) on European beef to cushion the effects of subsidies by EU on domestic economy.Most of the livestock are produced by smallholder pastoralists and farmers and marketed by private entrepreneurs operating a marketing chain involving collection, regrouping and terminal markets. Although the marketing chain is well-known, the economic and institutional barriers to livestock marketing are often underrated, at considerable cost to livestock-sector development and the welfare of the large population of smallholder producers and others who depend on the livestock sector for their livelihoods. For example, this study estimated that transportation and handling costs for cross-border livestock trade are three times higher than costs for equivalent transfers within West African countries and trans-Atlantic shipments.Lack of credit to livestock traders and risks and disappearances associated with cross-border livestock trade raised marketing margins by up to $11.9 million per annum (for cattle exports from Burkina Faso and Mali alone, in 2001) compared to domestic livestock trade. Inadequate and uncoordinated livestock market information systems to empower producers with knowledge of buyers' preferences also take a toll on the economy. In this case, producers are denied the premium attracted by high-grade finishing while the incremental beef that could have accrued from greater attention being paid to breeding and finishing is lost. These latter losses are estimated to amount to more than $50 million annually for export cattle trade alone. The potential, therefore, exists for improving rural livelihoods and economic development by overcoming economic and institutional barriers to well-functioning markets and intra-regional trade.To enable smallholder livestock producers to benefit more from regional trade, Comité Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sechèresse dan le Sahel (CILSS) and ILRI started a project in 1999 with national and local-level organizations. The study involved six countries: Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger as examples of livestock-exporting countries and Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria as net importers of livestock.Improving livestock marketing and regional trade in West Africa market efficiency and intra-regional livestock trade, specifically to:• use three frontier markets as case studies to identify the sources and magnitudes of inefficiencies and measures to reduce them • determine policy strategies to reduce the sectoral and trade policy constraints to intra-regional livestock trade• develop and disseminate an appropriate framework to streamline livestock trade policies among participating countries.With livestock trade in West Africa being based on live animals, the major value-added activity of collectors, intermediaries, market associations, small and big traders and other participants in the livestock marketing channel is to facilitate the transfer of live animals from one location or owner to another. Within Sahelian-producing countries, this usually involves trekking trade animals from farm gates and collection markets to major frontier markets by smaller traders. The cross-border segment mostly entails trucking animals from frontier livestock markets to terminal markets by big livestock traders capable of sponsoring at least a truckload of about 35 cattle per trip. Each trip costs from $7,300 to $9,100, which bars entry to smaller livestock traders and lowers competition. The high transportation and handling costs are exacerbated by official and unofficial taxes and other transactions costs.Private entrepreneurs operating through a marketing chain involving collection, regrouping and terminal markets carry out the trade in live animals. While all traders (small, medium and large) participated in the domestic segment of the marketing chain, only large-scale traders were involved in the export segment. The capital investment of small-scale traders ranged from $835 to $2,730, whereas large-scale traders invested between $4,732 and $14,000. These sums enabled small-scale traders to purchase 6-8 cattle, medium-scale traders 11-16 cattle and large-scale traders 25 to 37 cattle during each trip. Road transportation by truck is the most important mode of transporting trade cattle across borders in West Africa.The markets encountered in this study are similar to other markets for live animals in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Typically, information on market prices, sources, demand and objective standards for selling and buying animals are unavailable. Livestock pricing is characteristically highly personalized and is not based on formal, pre-established standards. This compels traders to travel long distances to transact business at higher costs than would have been necessary in a standardized pricing/marketing system. Moreover, the search for animals with qualities that appeal to the buyer, the negotiations, payment and transfer of ownership are time consuming and there are many cases of failed transactions because the transactions costs are so high.Traders also identified as constraints cumbersome formalities, exorbitant fees and taxes (both legal and illegal) collected along the trade routes, lack of well-demarcated cattle corridors for trekking animals to frontier markets, occasional shortage of trucks for moving animals to terminal markets, a system of selling on credit (particularly to butchers) and lack of market information. When transactions costs are high, brokers, market associations, social networks and other market institutions emerge to lower costs and facilitate exchange, such as, in recent years, local-level COBAS in Mali and UNACEB in Burkina Faso. Members of these market associations find the associations most valuable for arranging transport and credit and for administering the markets. Organized transport reduces the time traders spend searching for trucks, thus giving them more time for bargaining, and lowers costs incurred in feeding and caring for animals whose shipments are delayed.A source of strength of the West African livestock marketing system is the lack of regulations compelling producers to sell or buy from particular markets (farm gate, collection or frontier) or through particular participants (e.g. the small itinerant trader, agent, broker or big export trader). The volume of livestock flows through the various channels reflects attempts by smallholder producers to get the most for their animals and competitive efforts on the part of traders to secure the best possible deals.Although the large number of producers, intermediaries, traders and buyers in the domestic segment of the livestock marketing channel create a near-perfect market condition that allows this segment to function reasonably well, better price transmission and market information systems are needed.• A premium for animals in excellent body condition is emerging; livestock producers could therefore increase their earnings by marketing animals in excellent condition rather than selling all grades of animals. Fattening and properly finishing animals before presenting them for sale would increase returns to the producers as well as help produce an exportable surplus and increase the value of livestock trade.• Provision of credit facilities for cross-border trade would enable aspiring traders overcome market-entry limitations posed by lack of own-capital and thus increase the number of traders and volume of trade, especially in the export segment.The uneven pace of policy reforms aimed at liberalizing livestock trade in the participating countries continues to hamper intra-regional trade.Strengthen market institutions such as livestock producers' associations, livestock traders' associations and farmer-pastoralist associations to enable them to support their members and provide them with services such as facilitating access to credit (e.g. by acting as guarantors of bank loans), Improving livestock marketing and regional trade in West Africa advocating better marketing conditions (e.g. ending illicit taxation), adjudicating conflicts between farmers and pastoralists over the use of grazing resources, and promoting sustainable use of natural resources.Reduce high transportation and handling costs incurred in cross-border trade and eliminate illicit taxation. Maintain well-demarcated stock routes to facilitate the movement of animals from the farm gates to the collection markets in a cost-effective way and minimize conflicts between farmers and pastoralists.Provide well-functioning market information systems capable of reaching the widely dispersed producer populations with information on buyer preferences, animal prices, livestock supply and demand levels in the region.• Help producers engage in fattening schemes to produce animals in excellent body condition; this should benefit regional trade and pave the way for regional participation in the expanding global red (tender) meat market.ILRI published these recommendations in four policy briefs in English and French:• Brief 1. Regulatory and administrative issues and options for livestock marketing in West Africa Poverty remains widespread in most of the Mekong Delta of Indo-China, where the per capita gross domestic product remains just one dollar a day. Despite rapid economic growth in some countries in the region, rural poverty here, especially among women, remains high. Agriculture is still the main source of rural livelihoods and small-scale mixed farming dominates the sector. Most smallholders raise pigs and poultry for home consumption as well as a source of cash to meet family needs. Many of these producers are not yet market oriented and sell their products as and when they have a need for cash.Most of the region's smallholders have failed to exploit the expanding markets for livestock and livestock products. Market infrastructure in the region generally provides inadequate information and signals to producers through the marketing chain regarding the types of products in high demand or fetching premium prices. An increasing length of food chains, growing concerns about food safety and economies of scale in intensive production systems are threatening the participation of small livestock farmers in the increasingly complex markets for livestock.Both Vietnam and Cambodia have been making a transition from central planning towards a market orientation. High rates of economic growth are creating increased demand for high-quality foods and increasing diversification of farm activities towards livestock. Livestock production activities are still undertaken predominantly by smallholders not well connected to markets. The supply of domestic pig meat is still largely dependent on small and medium-sized farms, although the commercial sectors around larger cities are expanding.Pigs are raised throughout Vietnam and Cambodia on small farms mixing crop and livestock production. Nearly all households in Cambodia have at least one pig. Livestock marketing in Cambodia and Vietnam, especially in North Vietnam, is highly fragmented, with many marketers operating. Small traders typically buy one or more animals direct from farmers, transport the pigs in cages attached to the backs of motorcycles or bicycles to sell them to otherImproving pig and pig meat marketing in Vietnam farmers and/or traders or to supply the urban markets or abattoirs. Both product quality and producer returns are severely constrained by this informal transportation, which stresses the pigs and often leads to diseases, which either reduce the quality of the animals or kill them outright. With scarce storage facilities available, pigs are commonly slaughtered in the early morning on the day their meat is sold. Although high-income urban consumers in the region are beginning to demand better quality, leaner and safer pig meat, the market mechanisms transmit this demand information inefficiently to producers, who therefore fail to respond. Even so, small amounts of chilled and frozen meat, mostly imported, have begun to appear in the urban supermarkets of the region.The demand for pork has increased faster than poultry meat during the recent past as a result of the highly pathogenic avian influenza crisis in Southeast Asia. This caused the retail prices for pork to rise by 15%. The farm-gate price of pigs, however, has remained low because it is heavily dependent on negotiations that fail to reflect demand and supply conditions in the urban markets. With small farmers having little information on market prices and little knowledge about animal diseases, traders and middlemen are able to squeeze the profit margins of the small producers. This project linked smallholder pig producers with consumers through market channels. It provided small producers and processors and their rural communities with ways to become more competitive and better able to benefit from emerging commercial opportunities. It helped market-oriented farmers and rural meat processors to identify appropriate markets, to supply market demand and to access inputs, services and raw materials. As a result, small producers and sellers were able to negotiate for better input and output prices and other services, to access information on prices and technologies, and to cost-effectively process their produce to meet market demands. The project also explored ways to enhance market participation by women.Pig meat accounts for three-quarters of the total meat produced and consumed in Vietnam and Cambodia, where a dual market structure is emerging-a small commercial sector consisting of large-scale production and processing enterprises operating side-by-side with a large sector comprising many small-scale producers raising pigs in mixed farming systems. The large farmers and processors are capturing the high-end market that can pay a premium price for high-quality products while small farmers and processors have little access to this market. While government agricultural extension services have provided improved technology in the form of higher yielding cross-bred pigs and feed packages, these intervention programs have not addressed the problem of how to give smallholders and women better access to markets. Strategies to improve market access for small producers are essential to complement such technology interventions.This project set out to answer the following questions:• What existing and potential market opportunities can be accessed by smallholder pig farmers and what are the conditions for their participation?• How can we ensure the active and remunerative participation of small operators in these markets?• What demand aspects of these markets can be addressed through interventions in technology, institutions and policy?• What innovations can be employed to develop sustainable pig commodity chains that help link smallholders to markets?• How can we stimulate new market opportunities for smallholders?The project helped generate better incomes and jobs, especially for women, in Cambodia and the Red River Delta in North Vietnam. It enhanced livelihood opportunities and improved rural income through diversification of household activities into production and marketing of pigs as a high-value commodity. The project built capacity and strengthened institutions serving women. It improved the competitiveness of local enterprises. And it established information sharing mechanisms between Cambodia and Vietnam that are facilitating cross-country learning and trading opportunities and enhancing stakeholder dialogues within and between the two countries.An ILRI project to enhance beef trade for the poor in Central America ended in 2007 after five years. Focusing on beef value chains in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras, the project supported the integration of small farmers into formal beef markets through increased farm productivity, improved animal health systems, improved institutions and regulations dealing with food safety, quality and trade promotion.• Public knowledge goods addressing key aspects of beef value chains.• Improved technologies that increased the quantity and quality of animal feeds within the reach of small producers.• Methods to control cattle diseases.Methods to analyze investment alternatives for cattle production farms.• Institutional systems for marketing cattle through auctions.Application of innovative technologies in beef processing and handling.Restructuring of the small-scale beef industry in rural areas.• Information on prices, cattle trade and international trade of beef.Strategies to ensure quality, safety and marketing for the supermarket sector.The project pilot-tested approaches to increasing the uptake of improved pastures that employ mixed grass and legume systems. Adoption of the improved forages increased beef production by 15% in collaborating farms in Nicaragua, 46% in Honduras and 74% in Costa Rica; milk production rose by similar ratios. This led to lower costs of production of both milk and beef in the participating farms. Milk production costs decreased by 16% in Guatemala, 42% in Honduras, 7% in Nicaragua and 31% in Costa Rica. Beef production costs decreased by 7% in Guatemala, 46% in Honduras, 9% in Nicaragua and 23% in Costa Rica.Partially as a result, along with increased milk and beef prices during the period, the interventions generated extraordinary increases in income. From Enhancing beef productivity, quality, safety and trade in Central America 2003, when the project started, to the project's close in 2007, family net income increased by 32% in Guatemala, notwithstanding the damage caused by Hurricane Stan, and by 288% in Honduras, 177% in Nicaragua and 238% in Costa Rica.Information system for herd management and sanitary control The project introduced software, 'Veterinary Automated Management Production Program' (VAMPP), adapted to the Central American conditions by a local university to manage dairy, dual-purpose and beef herds. This program is based on analysis of registered data on standards of security, reliability and information quality. The VAMPP is easy to apply and is sufficiently flexible to be adjusted to the broad range of management systems in the region. Project staff trained more than 50 individuals in use of VAMPP, which is now being used by trained technical staff within the producer associations and on most of the farms where this project's research was conducted. This work underscored the need for entrepreneurial vision and high-quality, as well as systematic access to, information.Other outputs of the project include development and dissemination of cattle price information systems, development of guidelines and systems for better management of rural slaughterhouses disseminated through the Central American Agriculture Council, and development and dissemination of practical strategies to increase interregional beef trade, to link smallholder beef supply to the growing supermarket sector, and systems for carcass grading and the promotion of quality with the supply chain to tap into high end markets.Guatemala: MAGA-ICTA (Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Alimentación, Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria) ASOBrahman (Asociación Guatemalteca de Criadores de Ganado Brahman y Derivados) FEGAGUATE (Federación de Ganaderos de Guatemala)Costa Rica: CORFOGA (Corporación Ganadera)The great differences in the different milk markets in the developing world are generally underappreciated. For example, whereas most milk is consumed in the form of fresh milk in East Africa, 40 to 50% of India's milk goes into production of added-value products such as 'dairy sweets', ghee (clarified butter) and lassi (soured milk). Approaches to improving the dairy value chain must differ for each region. For this reason, ILRI conducted a study for the Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative (PPLPI) of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to examine dairy development in two key regions in the developing world: East Africa and South Asia. The study identified key determinants in dairy development in these two regions, assessed the impact of policy interventions on those trends and identified impacts of dairy development on the poor.The study was reported in three parts: Part 1 presents a conceptual framework for dairy development, followed by a section presenting a regional analysis of dairy development trends across all the countries in the two regions and a synthesis of the outcomes of the case study analyses, highlighting implications for policy interventions and investment, including proposing a model for propoor dairy development. The second two parts consist of in-depth case studies and analyses of dairy development trends, determinants and outcomes in Kenya and Ethiopia (Part 2) and India and Pakistan (Part 3).Two stylized representations of dairy systems are used. The 'traditional system', also known as the small-scale subsistence or Southern tropical model, reflects the farm-household milk production and informal market systems that predominate in most developing countries. The 'commercial system', also known as the large-scale industrial or Northern cold-chain model, represents the industrialized production and integrated marketing observed in developed countries. Elements of both models often occur simultaneously in both high-and low-income country settings. The characteristics of these models are described below and reflect both farm and market differences.The following definitions are helpful. PRODUCTION Characteristics of 'traditional' milk production systems include: At the heart of this process of dairy development is a shift from a multiobjective farm-household activity to a focused objective enterprise activity. The conceptual framework postulates factors that drive this shift. These include:• Demand levels and consumption patterns, which are closely associated with income and urbanization and with local consumption traditions.• Opportunity costs of labour and land, which tend to bring about a substitution of capital for both of these factors and a general shift towards commercial systems.• Market access, infrastructure and institutional development, which condition the structure and performance of production systems for a highly perishable product.• Technology and policy interventions, which can alter the opportunities and incentives for dairy system change and development. Generally, improved technology will reduce production costs and induce shifts towards more commercial systems. Policies can partially determine the winners and losers of structural changes in the sector, determine market participation of smallholders versus larger producers and employment generation and incomes at both farm and market level.ILRI's conceptual framework has at its core the shift from labour-intensive practices towards more capital-intensive practices, both on farm and in market, due to increased opportunity costs of labour. That shift also implies Dairy development higher productivity of labour. The stages of change between traditional and commercial systems can thus be measured in terms of labour productivity; if we equate that change with 'dairy development', we can use labour productivity as a general proxy for dairy development, reflecting changes in all parts of dairy systems.IMPACTS OF DAIRY DEVELOPMENT ON THE POOR While 'development', meaning a shift towards commercial systems, of the dairy sector is favourably viewed by policymakers, it should be understood in the context of the contribution of livestock production to livelihoods and income generation for smallholder farmers through the production of higher value products compared to most crops.Elements of the outcomes for the poor include income and employment generation, which includes not only self-employment of farmers and market agents but also hired labour on farm and in the market. Less tangible returns to milk production include the value of livestock assets for finance and insurance functions.Dairy development is also linked to better nutrition not only for farm families and resource-poor consumers of dairy products but also for farm soils. Consumption of even small amounts of milk can have dramatic effects on improving the nutritional status of poor people, especially for children and nursing and expectant mothers. Further, as long as infertile soils remain a major constraint to agriculture in most developing countries, manure from dairy cows can provide a critical source of organic matter and nutrients, boosting smallholder crop yields on farms with little access to chemical fertilizers or with little money to purchase them.Policy interventions, as well as market forces, can help to determine whether dairy development follows more or less equitable development paths.East Africa and South Asia represent some of the most important dairy development zones among poorer countries globally. Within them occur countries where dairy production and consumption has a long historical tradition and has been an important part of agricultural systems. In other countries in the same regions, however, dairy production has been a less significant enterprise, often for cultural reasons but also due to limited potential for dairying. These regions thus present an excellent choice for understanding both the driving factors and the pro-poor implications of dairy development and of related policies and interventions. Data used from five South Asian countries and ten East African countries, based on FAOSTAT and the World Bank's World Development Indicators database, is used in a regional analysis of comparative trends in milk production. Milk production is used as a proxy for dairy development. Explanatory variables include proxies Dairy development for various aspects of demand and market development, inputs and labour markets, technology and human capital, infrastructure and transaction costs and policy. RESULTS OF REGIONAL ANALYSES East Africa. Demand-related factors play a key role in explaining development of the dairy sector in East Africa, as shown by the significant contribution to growth of demand-related factors in the three countries with the fastest growth in milk production (Sudan, Kenya and Uganda). Development of formal milk markets, input markets, technologies and policies do not explain the differences between fast-growing countries and the rest. This suggests that expanding demand by reducing consumer prices and reducing transaction costs should be a necessary condition to expand the dairy sector in East Africa.South Asia. The dairy sector in South Asia is following a different path. Consumption of dairy products is higher on average than in East Africa and demand-related factors have been contributing to growth in the dairy sector for the past 30 years in all countries. Differences in growth are more related to the possibility of expanding supply to match the growing demand of dairy products. India and Pakistan were able to link the transformation in agriculture originated in the Green Revolution to successfully expand production and output; this is reflected in the contribution of input markets and technology to growth in milk production. In the case of countries with slow growth in milk production, such as Bangladesh and Nepal, development of cereal production, feed markets and a growing demand did not translate into technical change in the dairy sector, as was the case in India and Pakistan. The policy environment in these countries is also less favourable than in the fast-growing countries. Sri Lanka's constraints to growth in the dairy sector appear to be mainly on the supply side. As in East Africa, development of formal milk markets in South Asia is not associated with increased growth rates.COUNTRY CASE STUDIES FROM SOUTH ASIA AND EAST AFRICA -Kenya, Ethiopia, Pakistan and India Kenya, Ethiopia, Pakistan and India represent a range of production conditions, histories and policy environments related to dairy development. While India and Kenya are also held up as examples of 'successful' dairy development, the results exhibit more similarities than differences. Of importance to dairy development in all cases are the roles of demand growth, the traditional market and availability of improved dairy animals. Policies related to investment and trade show mixed results.Demand for dairy products: The analyses highlight the importance of growth in consumption and demand, brought about either through growth in GDP per capita or exports or through increased urbanization.• A clear understanding of potential market trends and opportunities is needed for policy and planning in the dairy sub-sector. Because demand is highly conditioned by local perceptions and traditions regarding dairy consumption, this understanding should be pragmatic and based on local realities, not on assumed replication of trends observed elsewhere.Where poor people play a large role in the consumption of dairy products, interventions to support the provision of low-cost products are likely to simulate dairy development.The Indian milk revolution, for example, may be largely a result of demand-side forces, although the technical and agricultural-sector factors discussed below played a key role as well. Unless these facts are understood, there may be overemphasis on supply-side interventions that have not been demonstrated to bring about development.Improved dairy animals and other farm technology. A consistent and clear result of the analysis, both at the regional and country-case levels, is that nearly all strong dairy development growth scenarios are associated with technical change in terms of yield per animal. Genetic improvement has obviously had dramatic impact on development and growth.• Clearly, use of exotic cattle genetics is a rapid and potentially sustainable path to higher productivity, even among small-scale and resource-poor farmers and in warm, semi-arid or humid climates. At the same time, failures caused by importing high-grade animals should be noted and avoided.• National and local breeding strategies need to address the realities of climate and disease risk. Given appropriate breeding strategies and disease-control measures, however, it is possible to develop and sustain cross-bred dairy production systems; such systems have often played a key role in dairy development.• Although it is difficult to capture the role of fodder technology in the aggregate analyses in this study, for the Kenya case it was possible to demonstrate that planted fodder technology played a key role in growth in dairy productivity.Research has shown that the 'appropriateness' of intensive fodder production is much more likely to depend on availability of cheap labour, scarcity of land and good access to milk markets, than it is on agro-climatic setting. Where labour is scarce, evidence shows that intensive fodder cultivation practices and feeding of crop residues to cattle, unless mechanized, are unlikely to be taken up. Interventions to promote those should pay very close attention to labour opportunity costs.Where relative land and labour values constrain uptake of specialized fodder technologies, a potential avenue for increased productivity is through improved 'food-fodder' crop varieties, bred to increase the fodder quality and digestibility of the straws and stovers they produce.Agricultural sector growth. In some regions and countries, general agricultural sector growth and transformation was shown to play a role in dairy development; for example, India and Pakistan were able to link the transformation in agriculture originated in the Green Revolution to expand milk production. The link with the agricultural sector is not as evident in some other South Asian countries or in East Africa. Productivity change in those cases may continue to rely on fodder technology, given the low opportunity costs of labour.Traditional milk and dairy product markets. One of the key findings of the study is that traditional/informal milk markets have apparently played a key role in dairy development in both regions and in most countries. In countries with the strongest growth, such as Pakistan, India, Sudan and Uganda, traditional small-scale markets control over 80% of marketed milk; there is no evidence that this basic structure will change significantly in the next few decades. These facts, which are often overlooked because traditional markets are generally not reflected in national dairy industry statistics, pose several important implications for dairy policy and development.• All the evidence suggests that the traditional market dominance is not a result of lack of investment in formal market channels or of non-enforcement of national milk standards; rather, they are the result of continued strong demand for the products and services that they offer. As a consequence, in many cases investment in formal dairy processing facilities, both in the private and public sectors, have failed, leading to underutilized capacity surviving on subsidies or abandoned milk processing plants and cooling facilities.In some cases there is strong demand for traditional products by high-income consumers as well as the resource poor; growth in disposable income may not necessarily significantly reduce demand for traditional products.The analysis in this study does not support the view that formal market structures are required to stimulate dairy development. One of the countries in this study with the strongest growth, Pakistan, displays a negligible formal market share. In East Africa, the analysis suggests a negative association between formal market share and dairy development, as measured. This is likely to be because formal market share in that region was less a result of market forces than public investment decisions. Also, poorly managed formal market institutions provided a much less effective link between farmers and consumers than the traditional informal market.• Traditional informal markets have clearly provided an effective, functional link between farmers and consumers that responds to consumer demand: they should not be regarded as market failures. Moreover, such markets are generally those most often serving the needs of small-scale farmers and resource-poor consumers. The analysis has also demonstrated the large and positive employment implications of such markets.• Public policymakers should engage constructively with traditional markets rather than oppose them directly, particularly as demand for food safety may grow with increases in disposable income. Policies that allow the continued functioning of such markets while also supporting increased quality and food safety are likely to be pro-poor in nature. Policies that simply oppose and attempt to police such markets are likely to hurt poor consumers and small-scale farmers and market agents.Dairy co-operative development. Mixed messages emerge from the analysis of the two countries where cooperatives have played a significant role in dairy development: Kenya and India. In Kenya, evidence suggests that dairy cooperatives played a significant role in fostering dairy development, primarily by providing a stable market environment and delivering services to farmers. In India, there was no empirical evidence that cooperative development was associated locally with dairy development as measured, although it was found to be associated with genetic improvement in dairy animals.• Dairy co-operatives may play an important role in providing a base for service delivery to farmers, stable agricultural knowledge systems for uptake of improved technology and increased management skills among farmers.There is no empirical evidence that dairy co-operatives are more effective than other market channels in linking poor farmers to output markets. Pakistan illustrates dramatically that strong market growth can occur in the absence of dairy co-operatives.The mixed experience suggests that dairy co-operative development is heavily dependent on good cooperative management, honest and effective investment of resources and accountability to the interests of the farmer members. Political and governmental influence in cooperatives needs to be minimized.• Further, many dairy cooperatives cannot easily tap into the strong demand for traditional products and raw milk and generally remain tied to demand for formally processed products. While traditional demand remains the driving force, dairy cooperatives face the same growth impediments as the formal private sector.• Investment in dairy cooperative development can be effective and pro-poor when well managed, placed outside strong political forces and linked to strong demand. Because of these constraints, dairy cooperative development should not be the primary focus of dairy development efforts; rather, it should be part of a mix of market channels, including formal private sector and small-scale traditional.• Other less formal forms of farmer groups, such as self-help groups, could play important roles in some local cases.Smallholder competitiveness. There is ample evidence to suggest that smallholder dairy producers are generally competitive and are likely to endure for some time, particularly where the opportunity costs of family labour and wages remain low. The most compelling evidence towards this is the continued dominance of smallholders in all the countries studied, even where there is steady economic growth. Furthermore, dairy as an enterprise is an option available to landless and socially marginalized groups.• Policymakers and development investors should resist the often-heard assumption that the role of smallholders is ending and that efforts should now be made to support larger scale, 'more efficient' milk production to meet growing consumer demand. Instead, that growing demand should be used as a mechanism to help continue and sustain smallholder dairy enterprises.• Smallholders may, in some cases, face increased barriers to participating in changing markets; alternative options, such as contract farming, should be explored and promoted where appropriate.Public investment. While the analysis was unable to show a link between agricultural R&D and growth in dairy development, due to data limitations, it is reasonable to assume that investment in dairy R&D and provision of appropriate credit to smallholder producers will grow in importance, particularly as producers shift towards greater commercial orientation, increasing their demand for improved technologies and investment.Trade policy. Imports and exports, as well as macro policy and levels of openness of the economy, show mixed results and cannot be demonstrated to play a consistent role in the pace of dairy-sector development.• Exports, as demonstrated in South Asia, may play a role in dairy development. Export opportunities might increase if, for example, EU export subsidies are Dairy development curtailed as is expected, although barriers to entry remain significant.• Countries with no strong tradition of milk production and consumption, such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, are particularly susceptible to import competition. Supporting the development of traditional markets takes on the added feature of helping buffer domestic producers from imports.• Even though trade in dairy products tends to receive a disproportionate amount of attention, perhaps because of issues of national pride and self-sufficiency, little evidence exists that trade issues are of major importance for the welfare of the large majority of producers, market agents or even consumers. Projections for the Livestock Revolution show that the demand growth and opportunities in milk are going to happen domestically rather than across borders.• Policymakers and planners should focus their attention on the much larger and more dynamic domestic markets rather than on the smaller and less welcoming international markets.AN AGENDA FOR PRO-POOR DAIRY POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT The lessons learned from this and other analyses suggest the following elements of an 'agenda for pro-poor dairy policy and development'. Implementation of such a model would incorporate the lessons and recommendations outlined above and include the following main elements.• Build on traditional dairy-product consumption habits and preferences at the same time as promoting demand for new products.• Support development and evolution of traditional domestic markets for milk and dairy products at the same time as promoting appropriate formal market development.• Emphasize and support the role of smallholder dairy production as primary means of generating rural incomes and sustaining the intensification of mixed crop-andlivestock systems through:(1) appropriate improved animals and the systems required to deliver these to smallholders( Integrated analyses of the epidemiology and economics of disease are of critical importance to capture the behavioural implications of proposed animal health interventions. The proposed methodology simultaneously captures responses to a disease outbreak from both the standpoint of the disease itself and the responses to it made by producers and markets. This adds value to previous analyses that viewed either the epidemiology or the economics of the disease as an exogenous 'shock' to the other and failed to realize the feedbacks between each that have policy ramifications.Economic analysis plays an increasingly important role in animal disease control models. To date, the most sophisticated assessments of animal diseases have combined a form of benefit-cost analysis with epidemiological models of disease spread to assess the costs and benefits of alternative control strategies. These tools have become increasingly sophisticated over the past several years, particularly on the economics side, with models evolving from relatively simple accounting frameworks towards analyses utilizing social accounting matrices, computable general equilibrium models, multi-market approaches and spatial analysis. Consequently, such approaches have increased the diversity of information available to decision-makers, incorporating spatial, dynamic and poverty impacts for example, and allowed for a greater tailoring of analyses to meet the needs of diverse stakeholders.While the integration of epidemiology and economics is becoming recognized as an increasingly important approach in conducting economic impact assessments of animal disease, several important methodological New methods for integrated models of animal disease control considerations remain under-researched. In particular, the true integration of epidemiology and economics requires the incorporation of actual feedbacks between economic and disease spread models in a manner that captures how the evolution of disease affects behaviour and incentives and vice versa. Consider, for example, the implementation of a stamping-out policy in which diseased animals are slaughtered to prevent the further spread of disease. In most analyses, shocks from an epidemiological model, such as the number of animals culled, are translated into an economic model to assess its impact. However, at each period of time, policies to control disease will influence economic incentives to control and producer behaviour, which subsequently will affect the evolution of disease over time. Such incentives will differ on the basis of the production system as well. These feedbacks have potentially important (and overlooked) implications, particularly in terms of assessing the impact of alternative control programs and in the design of appropriate compensation programs to promote compliance with control measures.Relatively few models in the animal health economics literature, however, have considered these feedbacks. The simulation models cited above, for example, only highlight the one-way impact of disease on the economy (production, etc.) without considering how changes in production decisions engendered by the disease might influence how the disease itself evolves and is eventually controlled. This is particularly important in dynamic analyses where the evolution and outcome of an outbreak will have both short-and long-run impacts on future production decisions and second-round effects on feed and input demand. An exception to this is another paper, by Rich and colleague Winter-Nelson, 'An integrated epidemiological-economic analysis of foot and mouth disease: Applications to the Southern Cone of South America', 2007, that addresses dynamic economic feedbacks based on the outcome of a footand-mouth disease outbreak in cattle in South America, but do not analyze discrete changes in production choices while the outbreak is taking place. The latter point is especially salient in the context of poultry and pig systems, where marketing and re-stocking decisions take place at more frequent time intervals that correspond directly with the evolution of the disease.A second category of models in the literature utilizes linear programming and optimal control theory to characterize producer decisions to market, test and screen animals for disease subject to the dynamics of animal stocks and the process of disease evolution. Linear programming approaches generally come from the animal health economics applications found in the veterinary epidemiology literature. While the optimal control framework better characterizes the interactions between producer incentives and animal disease, four limitations are inherent in these present approaches. First, current models do not fully characterize the dynamics of livestock production itself, in terms of the progression of animals from gestation to maturity and producer decisions to hold back inventories for breeding, for example. These complex interactions are an important consideration in the development of policies that induce producer compliance with disease control measures. Second, the models do not endogenize price changes that would occur during an animal health outbreak, considering how producer incentives might change in the wake of a price change in the steady state as well as the process of price changes that both the disease itself and producer responses to it might cause. Third, optimal control programs assume that producers operate with full knowledge about the environment they operate in, especially in terms of the evolution of disease. In reality, however, and particularly among resource-constrained smallholders in developing countries, agents may instead make their decisions and expectations on the basis of past actions and those of agents around them, with incomplete knowledge of how the disease may evolve. Finally, optimal control approaches focus primarily on the steady state rather than the evolution of either the disease or its response, which might be of importance to policymakers in the design of control measures.This paper develops a novel modeling framework that embodies and integrates both the evolution of disease and the production behaviour of producers over time. The conceptual framework of the model is rooted in a system dynamics simulation approach to fully and explicitly model the dynamics and interactions between disease and livestock production. The evolution and impacts of disease are directly linked to production and demand in a manner that allows for the analysis of the impacts of disease and strategies to control it. The framework is applied in the context of poultry production and a hypothetical disease outbreak, though the principles can be broadly generalized to other types of animal diseases. Preliminary simulations are conducted to demonstrate proof-of-concept of the approach, with the discussion and conclusions motivating extensions in future settings.The preliminary results from this integrated framework illustrate both the multi-faceted impacts of animal disease and the need to understand the close synergies between economic behaviour and disease evolution. Future research and extensions of this approach will enrich this platform and provide greater insights on the relative importance of specific parameters that might have policy relevance during disease outbreaks.The presented model was necessarily simplistic and would be augmented by a number of important extensions and calibrated to actual outbreaks. Most critical among these extensions is to model household production systems with more precision and in a manner that recognizes the multi-faceted contributions of livestock to livelihoods and behavioural responses of household shocks to income. For instance, one could conceive extending this system in a manner that looks at the asset decision patterns of households and that takes into account the production dynamics of livestock, market relationships and feedbacks, and the evolution of specific diseases on these decisions. The interaction of household systems with industrial production could likewise be included. Additional extensions would look into the interactions in livestock production with other goods, including feed, and the substitutability of diseased livestock products with other non-impacted meat products, such as substituting beef for poultry during an avian flu outbreak.Are there opportunities for greater trade of livestock products from developing countries without increasing the risk of spreading animal diseases? An ILRI study suggests that there are and lays out a series of recommendations as to how they might be achieved.In today's globalized, highly competitive and stringently regulated markets, exporters of livestock products must meet animal health standards imposed by importing countries and guided by the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Fulfilling an increasingly stringent array of veterinary requirements will be difficult for many developing countries that don't yet meet the standards of quality described in the International Animal Health Code of the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE)Many developing countries still harbour animal diseases that present a risk to the West, which protects itself against re-introduction of diseases such as footand-mouth disease and classical swine fever, which in recent years have had disastrous economic and environmental consequences.So how can developing countries make better use of their livestock resources through greater market access in the world without putting developed countries at greater risk? This topic was the subject of a study undertaken by ILRI on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The report, 'An appropriate level of risk: Balancing the need for safe livestock products with fair market access for the poor', questions some of the ground rules for safe international trade in livestock commodities while also identifying specific capacity building needed to safeguard the animal health and food safety integrity of livestock commodity value chains. The study analyzes market successes and failures, drawing from them lessons of global significance.Generally speaking, the higher and larger the market scale, the greater the technical barriers to accessing those markets, particularly in terms of meeting the demanding SPS standards set by OIE, WTO and other organizations. TheseFood trade-fair trade: Food and safety regulations and tradeFood trade-fair trade regulations present a barrier to developing countries in general and poor livestock keepers within them in particular.This project sought policy options and institutional changes that would promote greater participation by poor countries and poor livestock keepers in global markets while ensuring high-quality livestock products and minimal risk of disease transmission. The study recommends various mechanisms to increase international livestock trade safely.Case studies were carried out in four regions: Southeast Asia, the Horn of Africa, southern Africa and Latin America. The study evaluated SPS rules and regulations and other non-tariff trade barrier regulations on different strata of livestock producers and poor consumers. SPS issues were evaluated on three main market categories: export, domestic (divided as appropriate into premium and standard) and local/backyard domestic markets.The project reviewed and identified current WTO rules, SPS regulations and other non-tariff trade barrier regulations relating to trade in livestock and livestock products. It determined the effects of changes in international trade rules on domestic policies, livestock development and trade, and consumer access to livestock products. It also assessed impacts of particular issues on market participation, income, vulnerability and livelihood diversification opportunities. It proposed policy options and institutional changes at domestic and international levels that support pro-poor outcomes of globalizing livestock markets and international trade rules. And it identified suitable entry points for interventions leading to the adoption and implementation of the policy and institutional changes identified.The animal health standards within the SPS agreement are determined by OIE, whose delegates include the chief veterinary officers of developing as well as developed countries. Food safety standards are determined by the Codex Alimentarius, which is jointly managed by the FAO and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The OIE until recently has emphasized national or regional eradication of a list of serious transboundary animal diseases, or disease-free zones or production compartments (such as a poultry unit). All this requires high-quality and highly expensive disease surveillance and veterinary services. In May 2008, ILRI scientist Jeff Mariner presented at the 76th General Session of the OIE, in Paris, a technical brief on 'The role of small farmers in animal health'. This OIE-commissioned survey of all membercountry veterinary services led to the drafting of a resolution by a working group, subsequently passed by the general session. The resolution recommends, among other things, that 'the OIE review international standards, definitions and guidelines to identify opportunities to encourage small farmer participation, under the supervision of veterinary services, and enhance equity and efficiency in animal health and trade'.Other ILRI research is looking into what is known as 'commodity-based' livestock trade. Selling processed livestock products is far less risky than selling live animals. Low-value cooked canned meat presents few food safety risks as long as basic hygiene requirements have been met. Higher quality cuts of meat have replaced the ubiquitous tins of corned beef that were the staple of the meat trade 50 years ago. Such commodities can be completely safe for consumption, even if coming from areas where endemic diseases are still prevalent, as long as certain processing procedures are followed. Those at the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and elsewhere proposing a commodity-based approach to trade argue that safe trade does not require (expensive) disease eradication but rather sanitary guarantees and risk mitigation strategies. Such an approach would improve developingcountry access to international markets while also usefully encouraging commodity processing in those countries and therefore local capture of valueadded benefits, all while reducing the risk of transmitting disease pathogens. 2007East Africa Among the research results SDP used as evidence to support policy change are the following data (recalculated by SDP in 2005).• 1.8 million smallholder households in Kenya depend on dairy livelihoods.• Some 86% of the milk marketed in Kenya is sold through the informal sector as raw, unpasteurized, milk.The informal market pays significantly higher prices to farmers than dairy companies and sells milk to consumers at half the price of processed milk.• Kenya has about 40,000 people earning their living as milk hawkers.• Kenya has a dairy herd of about 6.7 million, with total annual milk production reaching 4 billion litres.• Kenyans drink on average 145 litres of milk each year.• Kenyans typically boil milk before drinking it, usually in the form of tea, a national habit that significantly reduces public health concerns over the sale of raw milk.•The milk quality of Kenya's licensed milk traders and outlets differs insignificantly from that of its unlicensed traders.• Kenya's informal dairy sector generates over 70% of the 40,000 jobs in the country's dairy marketing and processing sectors.• Kenya's smallholder dairy farming also supports over 350,000 full-time wage positions in the wider economy.It is safe to licence the operations of Kenya's small-scale milk vendors after they have been trained in milk handling and hygiene.In 2007/8 ILRI assessed the impacts of Kenya's research-based dairy policy change on the country's economy and determined the following.The overall decline in market margin attributed to the policy change is about US$0.01 per litre of milk (equivalent to a 9% decline in market margin after the policy came into effect).• While the cost of the research that led to the change in Kenya's dairy policy was about $0.6 million per year between 1997 and 2005, the benefits the dairy policy change is providing the Kenyan economy amount to at least $33.5 million each year, with nearly half of that going to producers and the remainder to consumers ($8 million), small-scale milk vendors ($4.1 million) and input suppliers ($5.1 million). Less conservative estimates put annual benefits to Kenya as high as $131 million.Overall, these research findings showing the high dependence of farmers and consumers on informal milk marketing and the jobs it creates proved crucial in influencing behavioural and policy change in the Kenyan dairy sector. The findings on employment generation, for example, attracted the interest of government agencies and people involved in designing Kenya's poverty reduction strategy paper, some of whom, as a result, later became strong advocates for legalization of the country's small-scale milk vendors.THE PROBLEM Although most milk produced in Kenya is bought and sold informally, government policies since colonial times had inadequately addressed the concerns of the farmers, traders and consumers who make up the country's informal market channels. Informal milk markets dominate Kenya's dairy sector for three main reasons: (1) farmers get higher prices for their milk in informal markets than they do in formal markets, (2) the raw milk they sell reaches and satisfies the traditional tastes of poor consumers and (3) consumers pay less for the raw milk than they pay for commercial packages of pasteurized milk.Before 2004, Kenya's small-scale dairy producers and traders were regularly harassed by officials. Small-scale milk vendors found themselves in a 'catch-22' situation: they could not trade in milk unless licensed and the existing regulations made no provisions for licensing or engaging them. The country's The 'high milk density' area of Nairobi is dominated by small-scale milk producers and a large collection of trader groups, some of whom, particularly transporters and mobile traders, travel from as far as 100 km away. The Thika area supplies parts of Nairobi and Machakos and is dominated by milk bars and small-scale mobile traders. These traders supply a competitive, urban and relatively sophisticated market. Milk is collected in the morning before 0600 hours and transported by public vehicles, arriving at the market by 0900 hours. Some of the traders act as middlemen, selling their milk to other traders who then transport their consignment to the market. Women make up a large proportion of small-scale milk traders serving the Nairobi market.Nakuru town, on the other hand, situated two hours drive northwest of Nairobi in one of Kenya's most agriculturally productive regions, is surrounded by large-scale farmers who deliver their milk directly to processors. Small-scale milk traders are left to collect milk from as far as 40 km away from the town. The area is dominated by small-scale milk bars and mobile milk traders, most of them men, who transport milk by bicycle.In workshops, seminars, conferences and meetings with policymakers, SDP advocacy partners used the project's research evidence of the import of smallscale dairying for Kenyan livelihoods, the domination of Kenya's milk sectorImpacts of Kenya's Smallholder Dairy Project by informal markets, and the significant number of jobs the informal milk sector create jobs to reform policy, which began to change in September 2004, when subsidiary legislation was published that allowed small-scale milk vendors to be trained and licensed.Although the Kenyan dairy policy and bill have been in a parliamentary process for more than a decade, written ministerial subsidiary regulation plus reorganization by the Kenya Dairy Board has provided ample regulatory authority for engaging small-scale milk vendors, which helped shift dairy regulation beginning in 2004. The study found that significant behavioural change occurring among regulators and small-scale milk vendors led to significant economic benefits across Kenya.Results show that, overall, milk marketing margins in Nairobi declined by 9%-equivalent to 0.54 Kenya shillings per litre (Kshs65 = US$1.00)-when the revised policy came into effect, reflecting reduced costs in the supply chain, and a significant number of small-scale milk vendors are now operating under licence.Welfare benefits arising from the policy change were high and captured by consumers as well as producers. A cost-benefit analysis revealed that the policy change was highly profitable, with a high positive net present value and all costs being quickly recouped. The very high internal rate of return value suggests that many actors in the dairy sector will continue to gain positive net benefits for years to come.For small-scale milk vendors operating in local markets, milk trade channels had been severely limited by non-tariff trade barriers and high transaction costs. SDP research and development activities lowered market entry barriers through training and licensing. The effect of the new policy was to lower transaction costs and reduce overall costs of marketing services, particularly to poor dairy producers and consumers.Before the new policy, untrained and unlicensed vendors were regularly arrested and made to appear in court; today, these vendors get advice on how to obtain training and a license. And legalization of activities of small-scale milk vendors has made political rents and other illegal payments less likely.ADDRESSING PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERNS FOR SAFE MILK Kenyan consumers tend to boil milk before they drink it-whether they purchase it raw or pasteurized-thereby significantly reducing public health concerns. SDP research found that the quality of processed milk from largescale processors differed little from milk from unlicensed traders; both, in fact, were failing to meet quality standards set by the Kenya Bureau of Standards. Training the small-scale traders in testing and handling of milk and use of appropriate containers led to improved milk quality.THE ROLE OF ADVOCACY Analyses conducted during the initial research phase of SDP (1997SDP ( -2000) ) provided a comprehensive overview of the Kenyan dairy sector at that time and raised the profile of SDP as an informed contributor to on-going discussions to influence changes in the Kenyan dairy policy. One of SDP's major findings was just how important the informal milk sector was to milk producers, traders and consumers alike.In the final phase of SDP (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005), project members engaged policymakers directly and produced policy friendly outputs. A 'snapshot review' in 2000 recommended that SDP develop a strategy for the reform of dairy policy using evidence-based research findings. The Kenyan dairy policy, because it prohibited milk sales through the informal sector into urban areas, was actively discouraging the predominant section of the market, which hurt all those whose livelihoods depended on the informal sector. To tackle some of the identified informal market issues, SDP piloted the training of small-scale milk vendors in basic milk testing, hygiene and handling.Part of SDP's policy-influencing strategy was to foster links with civil society organizations and to have them advocate support of small-scale traders and farmers. Together with the KDB, these civil society organizations partnered ILRI in organizing a high-level dairy policy forum held in Nairobi in May 2004 to present the project's research results and their policy implications. While they were all updated versions of sub-sections of the revised 1958 Act, the most pertinent one was Legal Notice 102, also known as the Dairy Industry (Sales by Producers) Regulations, 2004. These regulations streamlined the license application processes and, more importantly, clearly enumerated the types of licenses that were now available in the dairy sector (e.g. primary producer, processor, mini dairy, cottage industry, milk bar and cooling plant), some of which clearly focused on activities compatible with small-scale informal operations. Kenya Dairy Board officials used the impetus provided by the issuance of these regulations to engage and institute training, certification and licensing requirements for small-scale milk vendors.Since the policy change, the Kenya Dairy Board has worked to train and certify these vendors while licensing their milk outlets and premises that meet requirements in milk handling, hygiene and quality control. In addition, the Board has trained and employed business development service providers to train and certify vendors whose businesses would then be licensed by the Board. While progress is being made on these fronts, more service providers are needed to train, certify and license all the vendors requesting this. The Kenya Dairy Board is also working with non-governmental organizations such as SITE Enterprise Promotion to encourage milk consumption on the premise that quality is being greatly improved by training and licensing. The Board has also started branding milk outlets and premises to improve consumer confidence and promote recognition by regulatory authorities. Anecdotal evidence suggests that milk sales are increasing in these branded outlets and premises. Kenya's dairy sector today is moving ahead with the training and licensing of small-scale milk vendors so that they become fully engaged in the formal sector. Although reform of Kenya's dairy policy is still in parliamentary process, much progress toward that reform has already been made and Kenya now leads a noteworthy regional effort to harmonize dairy policies and liberalize trade in dairy products among countries in East Africa.In January 2008, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos a four-year grant of US$42.8 million to Heifer International for an East Africa Dairy Development project. The goal of the project is to help one million people-179,000 families living on small 1-5-acre farms-lift themselves out of poverty through more profitable production and marketing of milk. The project will develop 30 strategically located milk-collection points as the means for small farmers to join the growing dairy industry in East Africa. The project targets women and includes training for 10,000 farmers to become growers of nutritious animal fodder to sell to dairy farmers as supplementary livestock feed.The project is working in districts in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda with the goal of doubling the incomes of the participating families by enabling them to increase their milk production and to gain access to markets to sell their surplus. By connecting small farmers-most of whom are women-to more formal markets where they can sell their milk, this project has the potential to dramatically increase incomes and improve lives. In addition, the 'dairy value chain' approach the project is taking aims at expanding opportunities for farmers, traders, transporters, processors and consumers alike.ILRI is a partner in this project. ILRI is helping to identify suitable hub sites and is responsible for the research aspects of the project and its monitoring and evaluation. ILRI is interested in gleaning lessons learnt across the many sites of this project, identifying, for example, the feeding options and breeding services most appropriate for which circumstances. ILRI is doing the baseline research needed to ensure that the impacts of the project can be monitored and lessons learned. ILRI staff will interview both participating and non-participating partners.Other partners in this project are ILRI's sister CGIAR centre, the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Centre, which is providing expertise on fodder tree species; TechnoServe, a U.S.-based nonprofit that fights poverty by encouraging business development, which is providing expertise in marketing and chilling plant operations; and the American Breeders Service, which is overseeing artificial insemination work of the project.East Africa Dairy Development ProjectAlthough demand for dairy products in developing countries is projected to double by 2020, East African dairy farmers who would like to tap into this growth face several constraints. First, because they don't have access to the latest agricultural methods, their cows don't generate as much milk as they could. Second, to prevent their milk from spoiling, they must sell it within a few hours.Cross-bred cows can produce up to 17 times more milk than local breeds, and with better fodder and other interventions, even the local breeds can produce almost twice the amounts of milk they are currently producing. In addition, if farmers have access to chilling plants where their milk can be preserved, they can sell more of their product in the growing formal market. These chilling plants can also be designed to become hubs of business activity where farmers can get training and services for their cows, including artificial insemination and veterinary health care.The project is also focusing on improving milk quality through better animal nutrition and health care. And it will provide extensive training in the animal agriculture and business practices needed for farmers to be successful in the business of producing and storing raw milk.The project will develop 30 milk collection hubs, including chilling plants (with their own backup power generators) for bulking and holding milk for pickup by refrigerated commercial dairy delivery trucks. Project staff will work with farmer groups to form farmer business associations that will own and manage the plants and develop hubs of dairy business services.Farmer groups will be organized into associations of at least 2,000 farmers from the local areas around each chilling plant. The participants will be trained in managing the chilling plants and other hub-related businesses as well as in dairy farming. The chilling plants are expected to become hubs of activities linking input (feeds, semen) and output (liquid milk) markets, places where farmers not only deliver their fresh milk but also conduct other farm-related businesses. Envisioned as 'innovation platforms', these hubs are being designed to provide a nexus of knowledge inputs and information providers for farmers to access-a place where feed salesmen, micro-credit lenders and milk buyers all come together.Animal breeding can help small farmers exploit the growing milk markets Dairy productivity per cow will be increased through use of artificial insemination services that upgrade the dairy herds in terms of milk yields. ILRI director general Carlos Seré says the project must be careful to conserveEast Africa Dairy Development Project valuable local breeds, which are better able to survive harsh conditions than are high-producing cattle imported from industrialized nations. 'In Kenya, for example, the familiar black-and-white Holstein dairy cow is a status symbol among smallholders, who want to own this high-milk-producing exotic animal. Smart and sustainable breeding strategies that conserve local breeds can bring about higher smallholder milk production without sacrificing hardiness.' He noted that new science-based breeding technologies and policies will help raise smallholder dairy yields in sustainable ways, pulling millions out of poverty while conserving valuable local cattle breeds.ILRI economist Steve Staal says these 'smart' breeding strategies for the region need to be two-pronged. 'The agriculturally high-potential highlands of Kenya, for example, are already \"densely dairied\". One out of four households here already owns at least one cross-bred dairy cow. But dairy cattle in East Africa are currently low milk producers, averaging about 7 litres per day. We expect dairy expansion thus to happen on two fronts. We need higher-producing cross-breeds for the high-potential areas as well as hardier cross-breeds for less-favourable agricultural areas, particularly the region's vast drylands where water, feed and veterinary services are scarce.'For ten years scientists at ILRI's Nairobi-headquarters worked with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, the Kenyan Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, and civil society groups in a Smallholder Dairy Project that is helping transform the country's 39,000 informal 'raw' milk sellers into legitimate milk marketers. This has led to gains for Kenyan dairy producers and consumers-through improved market efficiency-of an estimated $33.5 million per year. This research also helped to deliver improved livestock technologies, including breeding strategies designed for poor farmers.Farmers participating in the new East African Dairy Development project who receive breeding services will be asked to follow Heifer's signature practice of 'Passing on the Gift' by paying for insemination services for other farmers' cows, spreading the benefits throughout the project regions.Because women perform most dairy-related work and many female-headed households are involved in smallholder dairy production, reaching and interacting with women is critical to impact. This project targets women. It is working to ensure that women share in the direct benefits of the project and that the burden of work required to care for the livestock and to collect the milk is distributed equitably among men, women and youth. Both women and younger people will be brought into dairy production and business activities and promoted as leaders within dairy farmer associations.By expanding dairy markets and increasing market access for small farmers, the project should help improve both modern and traditional markets and market suppliers, increase profit participation by smallholders in the dairy value chain, increase milk quality and demand, and maintain price levels asEast Africa Dairy Development Project production volumes increase, all the while building the business skills and confidence of the farmers to undertake additional income-generating activities.This project should, in this way, establish a competitive environment that positions East Africa as a major player in the global dairy industry.The inception workshop for this project was held in Nairobi 28 April-2 May 2008. Fifty project participants based in seven countries worked closely together for a week on joint strategies and approaches for achieving the project vision of transforming the lives of 1 million people by doubling household dairy income over the next 10 years through integrated interventions in dairy production, market access and knowledge application.A key strategy fleshed out at this workshop was that of building the business skills of female as well as male farmers within local 'business hubs' where farmers' milk is bulked and cooled and farmers can access credit, knowledge and inputs through farmer-owned enterprises. The partners chose Kenya's northern remote Marsabit District for their pilot study. Running the preliminary models built gives encouraging results, which show strong correlations between a function of the climate/forage variables and livestock deaths, with a high degree of accuracy using only readily available and continuous satellite-based data. Importantly, the actuarially fair premiums that such contracts generate are reasonable-ranging from 2-5% of the insured value.One of the challenges of this project is to introduce the idea of index-insurance to clients generally unfamiliar with the concept of traditional Western-style insurance schemes and to ensure that they understand the value and limitations of the insurance contract. The project partners thus introduced the idea to Marsabit communities by way of a game structured on pastoral production systems common in these communities. The game illustrates how index insurance works and how it could benefit the players. Participants came away from the game (which takes a whole day to play and requires two facilitators per game) with relatively clear understanding of key aspects of an index insurance product: they would have to pay for the insurance before the season began and for each season of expected coverage, the insurance would not cover non-drought-related livestock losses, indemnity payments were triggered as a result of covariate climate response, and if climate response did not trigger payments, the premium was not returned.As both an extension and a marketing tool, the game was hard to beat. Community members enjoyed as well as understood the game and were eager to have the product introduced.ILRI and its project partners conducted a workshop in March 2008 for both technical and private-sector representatives to plan the next two years of work. Potential opportunities were assessed from a technical standpoint and matched against the market demand that exists among farmers, banks, micro-finance institutions, insurers, technical service providers and other agencies. Participants identified opportunities for piloting index insurance products and discussed the interest that exists among the institutions positioned to implement them. All parties were acquainted with the technical resources that exist to support the development of such products.The dairy sub-sector in Kenya is dominated by smallholder farmers, who are estimated to produce an astonishing 80% of all the milk marketed in the country. These are family farms keeping 1 to 2 milking animals on a small piece (about 1 hectare) of land. Dairy production is especially important to women because milk and other dairy products make up one of their primary sources of both personal income and nutrition for their children. An ILRI survey conducted in 2002 in Central Kenya, where 73% of agricultural households had dairy cattle, found that in most districts dairy households ranked dairy as the most important source of income (75% in Nairobi district). Even where annual income from crops and other enterprises is greater, farmers value the even distribution of income offered by dairying, the capital asset represented by the animal and the manure produced, the latter of critical importance in smallholder production of vegetables, maize and other crops.The principal source of livestock feed on about half a million of Kenya's smallholder dairy farms is Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum), commonly known as elephant grass. Napier is highly nutritious, grows well, even in poor soils, and produces seven times more herbage biomass than traditional grasses. This among other factors makes it a favourite of dairy farmers.In some parts of the region, Napier takes up as much acreage as that planted with maize, Kenya's staple food crop. Napier is generally higher yielding than other cut fodders and is also easier to propagate and manage.In East Africa, Napier is threatened by two diseases: smut and stunt.Head smut attacks elephant grass in Kenya Although Napier grass is high yielding and can withstand frequent and repeated harvesting, a fungal disease called Napier head smut is now threatening the livelihoods of smallholder dairy farmers. When the disease attacks the plant, biomass yield is drastically reduced, resulting in less feed for cattle. In a production system where feed shortage is a major constraint to production, and with no alternative crops with such high biomass potential, this is devastating the dairy industry and the livelihoods of the resource-poor households which depend on it.A Elephant stunt attacks Napier in Uganda Elephant stunt, a new disease of Napier, has been confirmed in over 90% of Napier grass fields in Uganda, most of whose zero-grazing dairy farmers rely on Napier grass for animal feed. The disease is spread by phyto-plasma bacteria transmitted by leaf hoppers. This disease retards the growth of the plant and curls the leaves, progressively turning them yellow and drying them out. The disease cuts herbage biomass by more than half, creating a feeding gap that is not only hurting dairy farmers but also compromising the quality and quantity of milk and meat products.The first sighting of this infection was in Uganda's Masaka District. Many fields since then have been wiped out. As most Ugandan dairy farmers have tiny plots of land on which they have room only to practice 'zero-grazing', in which they daily hand cut and carry feed to cows kept in stalls, the country's smallholder dairying could decline drastically.Farmers have been reduced to harvesting much larger portions of their Napier fields to get enough grass daily to feed their milk cows. The quality of the herbage is poor and where, as common, farmers fail to get supplementary feeds, milk yields have been reduced by almost half.This feed shortage has led to the price of a bundle of Napier more than doubling in districts badly affected by stunt. Unless controlled, both smut and stunt will continue to undermine efforts to develop East Africa's smallholder dairy industry, putting economic as well as food security at risk in the region.Research to combat smut and stunt Scientists from several institutions have been working together to halt the spread of these diseases of elephant grass. They are raising awareness of the diseases, providing information on how best to control them and determining clones of Napier that are genetically resistant to the diseases.Because the main source of infection of both diseases is believed to be through distribution of infected planting material, the project is working to ensure that only clean planting material is multiplied. It is also training farmers of the need to inspect their Napier crop regularly to remove diseased plants and to keep the crop healthy by regular weeding and manuring.A longer term disease-control strategy is to identify Napier clones able to resist the diseases.The researchers have identified two such clones resistant to smut: Kakamega 1 and 2. But because these are less productive than the local varieties, scientists continue to look for high-yielding disease-resistant clones.Knowledge sharing is key to the success of this project, whose partners are working to ensure that most farmers in the region become knowledgeable about the diseases, share with each other the best ways to keep their Napier plots disease free, and know when diseaseresistant clones have been identified and how to get hold of them. This argument concludes that there is an urgent need to reduce the number of people dependent on pastoralism, with an 'exit' from pastoralism a good option for some and diversified incomegenerating activities needed by many to make at least some part of their livelihoods independent of rainfall.While in some purely pastoral systems there may be a minimum viable herd or flock size, says Scoones, this assumes a closed, isolated system; in reality, pastoral viability depends on wider economic and livelihood conditions, as well as mobility patterns. Today, many pastoralists across the Horn of Africa combine livestock keeping with agriculture and trade, and many also receive money from relatives living overseas. Assessments of 'viability' based simply on people to livestock ratios are therefore inappropriate.Alternative options to 'traditional' semi-nomadic pastoral livelihoods include commercialization (making more money from their existing herds, for example by exploiting local trade and export opportunities) and diversification of their livelihoods by, for example, trading in livestock by-products or selling clothes or charcoal.The future for pastoralism Revitalizing pastoral economies requires further support to encourage commercialization and diversification.Dave Watson and Joop van Binsbergen in an ILRI research report published in 2008, 'Livelihood diversification opportunities for pastoralists in Turkana, Kenya', describe such pastoral livelihood diversification in Turkana, the largest yet least developed district in Kenya. This lack of development can be partly explained by Turkana's harsh arid and semi-arid northern lands. Livelihoods in Turkana are primarily based on extensive livestock production, with some 70% of the people being nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists. However, the impact of drought, increasing insecurity and famine has led to a growing emergence of sedentary Turkana and experimentation with alternative livelihoods. Unfortunately, the poor transportation and communication infrastructure in Turkana restricts trade and opportunities for generating incomes.This study, which characterized the extent of livelihood diversification in Turkana, illustrates through a case study approach the strengths and weaknesses of existing activities and the opportunities and problems of expanding them.How have pastoralists in Turkana diversified? Among the activities the Turkana people employ to supplement their pastoralism are sedentary agriculture, particularly along the Turkwel River, where settled farmers and agro-pastoralists grow maize, sorghum, sukuma (kale), oranges, mangoes, bananas and vegetables. Fishing in Lake Turkana is another, long-standing, form of diversification. Fishermen along Lake Turkana migrate to follow fish movements. The pastoralists also supplement their livelihoods by selling the fish. Many pastoralists have also taken up weaving mats and baskets, particularly near the lake, where weaving material is readily available from the doum palm. Other natural resource-based livelihood diversification activities includeCombating elephant grass diseases collecting and selling aloe, gum arabic, honey, wild fruits and firewood and making and selling charcoal and alcohol. There is also increasing emphasis on processing and selling animal skins and hides. Attempts have also been made to diversify into chicken production, gold mining and kiosk-based trade. While there is considerable debate over the importance of the market in pastoral diversification, with some condemning and others applauding it, most pastoralists have attempted to tap into, or even create, markets for their products. There is little evidence that pastoralists have diversified into service provision.• Assess the whole commodity system / value chain associated with the selected livelihood option, particularly for aloe, gum arabic and charcoal production, irrigated agriculture, basket-making, fishing, honey and poultry production, and the hides and skins sector.• Improve marketing and opportunities for adding value. Focus on developing links with national markets in Kenya as well as export markets. Explore the potential for fair trade opportunities for the European markets.• Organize exposure visits and promotional events/craft fairs.• Improve access to credit for organized groups interested in investing in alternative livelihood activities.Provide training in both business and technical skills and develop innovative capacity / entrepreneurship.Investigate the viability of a wider range of alternative livelihoods, including production and selling of vanilla and healthy and nutritious camel's milk.• Investigate ways to reduce the arduous and tedious nature of some of the work, particularly in basket-making and irrigated agriculture.• Consider piloting grants to facilitate entry by extremely poor pastoralists into alternative livelihood activities.Located in India's remote mountainous northeastern region, Assam shares its borders with six Indian states and two countries (Bangladesh and Bhutan). Cut off from the rest of the subcontinent by all but a narrow strip of land and ethnically more closely related to Tibetan, Burmese and Mon-Khmer cultures (the latter brought the earliest known civilization to southeast Asia) than to Indian Hindu and Moslem (Assam has large Christian and animist populations), Assam to this day maintains elements of its rebellious frontier Himalayan heritage. Historically, tea has been the most important agricultural factor in the development of Assam.Dairying is not a practice of the indigenous (tribal) peoples of Assam but rather has been imported over many decades by land-starved peasants immigrating here from other states and cultures. In recent years, an insufficient supply of local milk and dairy products to meet local demand has led Assam to import dairy products from other states of India.Only 2% of Assam's dairy markets today are classified as 'formal'. Almost all Assamese are thus depending on traditional 'raw' milk markets, although insufficient hygiene is a problem in these informal markets (common quality problems within the formal milk markets are less well known.) This lack of indigenous dairy production is notwithstanding Assam's favourable setting for dairy, including plentiful rainfall (Assam has the highest rainfall in the world) and adequate land and fodder resources to support a vibrant dairy industry.The percentage of poor people in Assam is the highest among the seven sister states of the northeast: 36% of Assam's population continues to live below the poverty line, a figure considerably above the national average of 26% (1999)(2000). Most of the poor live in rural areas.To understand the full dimensions of this supply gap, its determinants and the opportunities at hand so as to develop a strategy to exploit this opportunity to improve rural development and livelihoods of the Increasing farm-level production and productivity will require more improved animals as well as improved fodder/feed technology and access to livestock services and reliable markets to absorb more milk at remunerative prices. Organized milk marketing in Assam remains relatively insignificant, despite past efforts to develop and promote collective market mechanisms. The traditional markets for fresh liquid milk and traditional dairy products such as sweets account for most of the market opportunities for farmers.According to ILRI director Steve Staal, who heads the institute's theme on Improving Market Access, no dairy development is possible in Assam unless it addresses the problems facing the traditional dairy sector. 'Any development plan that focuses mostly on pasteurized milk is unlikely to be successful,' he says. 'Our idea is not to set up a parallel system to compete with, and maybe beat, the traditional sector, but rather to strengthen the predominant existing dairy system and help it to evolve into a system that blends modern practices with the best traditional practices.'The comprehensive study on the dairy sector in Assam, begun in 2005 by ILRI and Assam's Directorate of Dairy Development, aimed to generate sufficient information and joint learning to allow subsequent preparation of a pro-poor dairy development action plan.The specific objectives of the study were to find ways to:• improve performance of the traditional market in terms of milk and dairy quality and marketing services and access for small producers • contribute to the evolution of the traditional market towards the more formal milk market and create conditions for convergence of the two THE APPROACH A three-pronged approach is being used in the project to address demand for milk, supply of milk and quality of milk. The approach aims at both boosting the image of marketed milk generally as a healthy product and assuring its quality, thus promoting milk consumption and economic benefits to suppliers. The project aims to benefit dairy farmers, traders, vendors and consumers. The rest of this article provides an overview of the Assam Study and Action Plan, which have laid the foundation for the new project.Local fresh (raw) milk forms the most important part of dairy product consumption and is supplied to consumers either directly from producers or through vendors.Any dairy development plan must, therefore, constructively address the local fresh milk market.• Urban consumers are particularly concerned about the quality of local fresh milk, especially that sold by producers and vendors and so buy milk only from wellknown suppliers. Any plan to increase consumption of milk must, therefore, address local fresh milk quality in a standardized manner that builds consumer confidence in suppliers. Quality will have to be addressed to raise consumption of fresh milk among existing and new consumers.• Pasteurized milk forms a small proportion of total milk consumption and is limited almost entirely to the urban areas, making it unlikely that a development plan focusing on pasteurized milk supply will benefit many producers and consumers.• Urban households that buy pasteurized milk depend on it significantly, which suggests that if awareness of, and preference for, pasteurized milk is developed, demand will grow substantially.• Urban consumers spend significantly more money on milk and dairy products, particularly on milk sweets and other high-value products, than on other foods. This indicates good opportunities for value-addition and associated quality and safety assurance in small-scale dairy processing of these traditional products. Such initiatives would also help generate small-scale employment opportunities.The returns from milk and dairy product trading (either fresh or processed) appeared high compared to the alternatives. On average, the surveyed milk traders earned a profit of Rs.259 per day. The returns per unit of milk handled from fresh milk trade were significantly lower than those from value-added traditional products, but the latter require a higher capital investment and management of greater risks. Small traders turned out to be the most efficient raw milk marketers in terms of profit per unit of output but their household income was meagre because of the small scale of their businesses.Assam's formal dairy processing units have made insignificant impact on the marketing of milk and milk products despite several attempts by the state government. The dependence of consumers on the informal sector is likely to continue for the foreseeable future because of factors such as tastes / preferences, costs and prices. However, as consumer awareness about milk quality and safety issues increases, quality assurance measures through branding, labelling, licensing, regulation and monitoring should be considered to link these traditional milk market agents with their formal market counterparts. Such an approach would enhance the credibility of the milk market agents by assuring customers of the quality of their milk and milk products as well as dispelling the generally perceived notion that these agents exploit dairy farmers and are bad business practitioners.Marketing through the formal milk sector Since 1963, eight dairy processing plants have been established in different parts of Assam with a total installed capacity of 109,000 litres of milk per day. Of these processing plants, seven are functional, though not operating at full capacity. Two more plants with combined capacity of 55,000 litres per day are under construction. Nearly all of 15 chilling plants established in the state, with total installed capacity of over 30,000 litres per day, are nonfunctional. Three more are under construction.Among the functional processing plants, capacity utilization varies from just 4 to 34% and there is a long-term decline in overall capacity utilization. Moreover, there are significant losses due to handling and curdling. Market returns of packaged products range from 10-27%. All these problems lead to high costs per unit output, low labour productivity and large overall losses subsidized by the government.Any plan to continue operation of these plants or establish new plants under any kind of reorganized ownership and management (private, public-private partnership or cooperative) should address these issues and consider alternative low-cost and reliable institutional and infrastructure arrangements.The study confirmed the predominance of traditional market agents in Assam, who form the key link between local milk producers and consumers and focus nearly exclusively on local milk products. Any dairy development plan to address the needs of the producers, market agents and consumers should fully address the traditional sector, particularly if the aim is to increase the share of demand that is supplied by local production as opposed to imports from other states and regions.• Most traditional traders operate on a small scale (handling less than 60 litres per day), have been in business for an average of 12 years and rely solely on their dairy market activities for income. This implies important small-scale employment opportunities along the dairy value chain, indicating that dairy development activities can be highly pro-poor if they focus on small-scale traditional agents.• Few traditional milk market agents have received any type of training; poor hygiene and milk adulteration are commonly encountered in the informal milk market. Training milk market agents in proper hygiene, milk quality and best business practices should be an essential part of a dairy development plan, to be linked with a branding system that would be easily recognized by consumers.• Average returns to labour in raw milk trading are Rs.3.3 per litre of raw milk and Rs.14 per litre of milk in traditional processing (sweets, channa, etc.), showing strong value addition in traditional processing. However, poor people experience barriers to entering the local traditional processing business due to their generally low levels of education and poor access to credit. Access to formal micro-or small-scale credit may alleviate this problem.Cattle are an integral part of the livelihoods of most rural Assamese households. Of the households surveyed, 1,910 (64%) kept cattle, 126 (4%) buffalo and 65 (3.4 %) cross-bred cattle. There is an emerging dairy industry based on milk produced by low-yielding local (desi) cattle and increasingly by high-Comprehensive study of the Assam dairy sector yielding dairy cross-breds, which are currently managed by only a few cattlekeeping households. In response to the increasing demand for milk in Assam, expanding the dairy cross-bred herd, improving the productivity of local dairy cows and putting in place good access to input and output markets are the major challenges for sustainable pro-poor dairy development in the state.About 23% of the households ranked dairy as their first or second source of farm income, with food crops generally being the most important source of farm income.• There is demonstrated strong potential and incentive for increased milk production across rural areas of Assam, although with significant spatial variation. Many farmers reported a desire to increase marketed milk production and indicated that market opportunities were not the most critical of their constraints. Thus at a basic level, the outlook for investment in dairy production is positive.• Dairy production was demonstrated to be a feasible option for increased income and improved livelihoods across Assam's communities.• Lack of access to improved, mainly cross-bred, dairy cattle was the main barrier to increasing the marketed milk surplus on smallholder farms. Farmers with crossbred cattle demonstrated ability to generate much higher levels of milk sales. However, there was systematic under-use of artificial insemination. Farmers also reported limited access to credit to procure improved cattle. Improving access to improved cattle must be a primary aim in the dairy development plan. More indepth analysis of semen production and AI delivery systems will be required to identify bottlenecks to effective services.• Selection of best-performing local breed cows is another route to increase milk productivity, especially in areas where there is high demand for dual-purpose cattle.• While feeding systems appeared to present no major constraints, common grazing and grasslands are getting scarcer. Interventions will need to focus on enhancing producer ability to intensify fodder production.• Insufficient milk markets may not be a major constraint in many areas, except in pockets where milk production is high or where the road network to urban markets is still poor.Cooperatives and SHGs play a small role in Assam's dairy systems; alternative milk collection and marketing options should be explored, including links to private market agents.Recent dairy development strategies in Assam have focused on two main tracks: (a) increasing productivity through improved cattle produced under government-run semen production and artificial insemination schemes and (b) increasing milk collection through dairy cooperative societies and SHGs, mainly linked to formal processing channels. This study showed that these efforts have met with little success. Assam's dairy systems may be too diverse to have a singular policy thrust.The real challenges are the following.• Increase the intensity of smallholder dairy activity among poor households by providing access to improved production means and associated support systems centered, though not exclusively, around improved cattle.Bring the low-level surplus generated by poor households to the market.• Boost demand for milk through improved hygiene and quality of local products and diversified dairy products made from local milk.• Recognize the traditional system in place, which incorporates milk collectors and many other small actors, and build a more modern and professional system around it.The proposed action plan covered the key areas where the analysis identified constraints and opportunities to development of the dairy industry in Assam.These key areas are: milk consumption, milk marketing, milk quality and milk production.The current level of per capita consumption of milk of less than 1 litre a week is still far below the national average of about 1.57 litres per capita per week but there are indications of strong demand, although consumers are not able to judge milk quality accurately. Recommendation: Invest in a state-level campaign to increase demand for fresh milk and dairy products derived from local production.Variable milk quality and product mix in formal milk processing Nearly half of urban consumers and about one-quarter of rural consumers are generally unsatisfied with the present level of hygiene and quality of milk available in the market. Locally processed milk was the main problem and was generally of inferior quality to milk and dairy products from outside the state.Recommendation: Support local dairy processors in improving the quality and mix of their products.High levels of adulteration with water and low bacteriological quality Urban consumers appear willing to pay a premium for milk that is guaranteed to be safe and hygienic, presenting opportunities for market agents who can deliver what these consumers want. Priority should be given to the 99% of informal milk agent respondents who indicated they had not had any training in milk processing and handling.Recommendation: ILRI has demonstrated in East Africa and Kenya in particulr, that a program to address small-scale traditional milk market agents through a combination of training in hygiene and small enterprise skills leading to certification, combined with development and enforcement of appropriate standards, can improve milk quality and market performance. It is recommended that this approach be tested and applied in Assam.Capturing opportunities in traditional value addition (processing) There appears to be increasing demand for local traditional milk sweets, with households in urban areas spending on average some 3 of every 10 rupees spent on milk on these sweets (this is about 25% higher than what rural consumers spend on milk-based sweets). Rising demand for these products will generate new employment opportunities but some sweets producers and vendors do not follow good hygiene practices. Recommendation: Design and implement a program of basic training in hygiene and processing for traditional milk sweet manufacturers and vendors, with attention also given to innovation in product packaging and presentation to increase preservation, quality and consumer satisfaction.Insufficient coordinating and information gathering and sharing mechanisms in the Assam dairy industry to support private-sector investment The complex involvement of many departments, agencies and organizations in dairy development in Assam is ineffective in harnessing the complementarities. While there are many players, both small and large, in Assam's dairy industry, there exists no effective coordinating mechanism or central repository of information or mechanism for regularly updating that information. Existing coordinating agencies are focused on public and cooperative actors, with less attention paid to the private sector, which will be critical in driving dairy development in the state. Small-scale agents have little voice and no clear support in the form of services such as micro-credit and other kinds of business support. Recommendation: Invest in the resources and organizational mechanisms required to support greater information sharing and private-sector investment in Assam dairy.The areas identified as priorities for support to pro-poor dairy development, which the Action Plan will ensure are addressed, include:• improved access to milk markets• availability of more cross-bred dairy cows• increased capacity of milk producers to manage the breeding, feeding and health of their dairy cows• public and private support services better equipped to satisfy the needs of their small-scale dairy producer clientsA key ingredient for success for all of the recommended activities below is the active participation of a key national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with significant experience in smallholder dairy development. The experience in Assam suggests that interventions driven by public agencies alone are unlikely to achieve the desired outcomes, and so an experienced NGO or consortium of NGOs with experience from other parts of India will be needed to serve as the lead agency in all the cluster development efforts described below.Increase the availability of dairy cross-bred cows Recommendation: Simple crosses of dairy breeds (Jersey or Holstein-Friesian) with local desi cattle are recommended, as opposed to more complex mixes involving a third breed, which has sometimes been proposed. The organizational requirement for delivering in a sustained manner 3-way crossbreeds are high and may be beyond the capacity of existing services.Help resource-poor producers better manage their dairy animals Recommendation: Staff in dairy and rural development departments, their NGO counterparts and partners and the members of interested households should work together to improve current feeding and health management practices.Support small-scale milk market development As production increases, markets for milk will be critically important. Because the formal processed milk market is so small, the largest opportunities over the medium term are likely to occur in traditional markets serving urban areas and even small rural market centres. Recommendation: Each cluster group should determine the best among many market development options for their own needs. Northeast India consists of 'seven sister states' that are home to 38 million people. The region is linguistically and culturally distinct from the other states of India and officially recognized as such. ILRI is working in two of these states-Assam and Nagaland-where poverty is extreme and common. More than half a million of Assam's 27 million people and some 400,000 of Nagaland's 2 million people live below the poverty line. (In India as a whole, more than 300 million people live below the poverty line.)Both Assam and Nagaland counter India's vegetarian reputation. 'These are meat-eating states,' says Steve Staal, director of ILRI's Enhancing Markets Theme. 'Fresh pork is a major part of people's diets here, especially among the \"tribal\" peoples, who are traditional pig keepers.'Pig keeping is an integral way of life to most people living in these remote northeastern states. Over a quarter of all India's pigs are found in this region. Nagaland has 700,000 pigs, the highest density of pigs per capita on the subcontinent. Pig production in the northeast is invariably a backyard, marketoriented enterprise that uses home-produced forages and tubers for pig feed rather than expensive grains. Pigs are raised and sold to generate household incomes, accumulate capital and fulfill socio-cultural obligations.This small-scale pig production is practiced mainly by people belonging to what is known in official government terminology as 'Scheduled Tribes', 'Scheduled Castes' and 'Other Backward Classes'. These people tend to be not only India's poorest but also its most severely marginalized society, with little access to government and other services and the lowest levels of literacy in the country. Sustainable ways of generating an income using local resources and skills are critically important in raising human welfare here. With a rapidly growing demand for animal-source foods in this as well as all regions of India, pig keeping could be an important pathway out of poverty for many in these communities.The low productivity of pig production in India's northeastern region, matched with an increasing demand for pork and other animal-source foods in that region and India generally, suggests that interventions to improve pig production in the northeast could significantly improve the livelihoods of the region's tribal and other marginalized peoples.Local demand for pork and piglets until recently was so great that it was profitable for local businessmen to import large numbers of commercial white pigs from producers in India's grain states-some two to three thousand kilometres to the west-at a transport cost of almost US$2000, or up to $40 per pig. As feed and transport costs both recently escalated, people in Assam and Nagaland began finding the costs of these imported white pigs prohibitive. A new market is growing fast for the local black and cross-bred pigs. Because these native animals can be fed mostly on low-cost feed crops and crop wastes, they are an ideal solution to filling the new pork and piglet supply gap.This short-term opportunity is ready-made for success. The pigs are here, the demand is here and the farmers ambitious to grow their pig enterprises are here. What is missing is knowledge about how to produce and feed increasing numbers of local pigs on small farms, how to access local and regional livestock markets and how to market meat hygienically. All this is preventing small-scale pig-rearers from benefiting from the new markets. Without such knowledge, these poor farmers will be left behind as big producers step in. If the small farmers can be given appropriate knowledge and training quickly, up to 80 or 90% of all tribal households could raise their incomes substantially over the next 5-10 years.ILRI's representative for Asia, Iain Wright, says, 'We are working with national partners to gain support for helping poor people seize this big pig marketing opportunity in Nagaland, Assam and other northeastern states. In mid-2008 we started a project with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the School of Agricultural Science and Rural Development, in Nagaland University, to implement a program of research to improve the production and marketing of pigs in selected villages in the Mon District of Nagaland. We're also looking at working on similar projects with national partners in other northeastern states.'Although the current opportunities for smallholder pig systems in northeastern India are huge, they won't last long, perhaps only 5 more years or so. If the smallholder sector doesn't take advantage of these new opportunities, largescale industrial systems will step in and take over. The solutions ILRI can help develop now are a response to specific outside forces working on the market at the moment; some poor pig keepers could generate enough money from their enterprises to leave agriculture altogether in future.PIG SYSTEMS APPRAISAL ILRI and other organizations conducted a Pig Systems Appraisal in several districts in Assam and Nagaland towards the end of 2006. The Appraisal examined the entire value chain in pig production and so interacted with consumers, market agents and services providers as well as producer households and district-and village-level key informants.The study found that pig production is gaining a foothold in communities with no tradition for rearing pigs. Despite being small in scale-households typically keep no more than one to five cross-breds-pig production in these states contributes significantly to the livelihoods of most of the pig-rearing households. The income from pig sales meets essential household and farming expenses and provides some financial independence to the women in the family, who play a large role in household pig production.The study found that demand for slaughter pigs and fresh pork had increased greatly over the last five years, causing a 20% increase in the price of pork in real terms, an increase that is expected only to continue. The appraisal also found, however, that small producers attempting to tap into this expanding demand for pig and pork had problems producing sufficient feed, obtaining piglets and, perhaps most importantly, accessing credit. The appraisal recommended ways to address each of these constraints in smallholder pig production.To leverage action for interventions that would help poor producers capture the new opportunities in pig production and marketing, the appraisal team took a first step of raising awareness of the study results among local and regional stakeholders, decision-makers and investors. Knowledge was shared right from the start of the project, during its design and through its implementation. Project members worked closely with local authorities, NGOs and researchers. In 2007, the project team supported the local authorities in convening workshops involving a range of players in pig production and marketing to discuss what the appraisal team had learned and what interventions were most likely to be successful.Employing strategic communications with stakeholders in all parts of the pig value and marketing chains helped bring about the following useful outcomes.The Government of Assam committed new funds to smallholder pig development.• Rastriya Gramin Vikash Nidhi (RGVN), a national NGO, is using the results of the appraisal in its development programs, which will be funded by Government of Assam.Assam's Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department is using the report of the appraisal as a foundation for designing piggery development projects under the World Bank-sponsored Assam Agricultural Competitiveness Project.The study attracted the attention of major funding agencies such as the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Research and the InternationalFertilizer Corporation, which expressed interest in financing implementation of the study's recommendations.• The appraisal's findings are guiding the design of interventions in Nagaland's pig sub-sector in Mon District in a National Agriculture Innovation Project launched by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research Complex for Eastern Region.The Assam and Nagaland governments agreed to jointly organize a Northeastern India regional workshop on pigs in April 2008, at which participants designed a regional policy for pig sub-sector development based on the needs and interests of the people of the region.MARKET CHANGES Given that there has been an increased demand for slaughter pigs from both within and outside the states, small-scale low-external-input production must have been expanding during recent years to satisfy the increased demand for pork. These changes have resulted not only in more pigs being produced from the hundreds of thousands of small-scale units, with benefits to the livelihoods of the producer households, but also in many more people earning a living from the marketing of pigs, piglets and pork.Although pig producers were happy with the income they generated, they said that they were unable to increase the size of their pig systems because of a paucity of household feed and financial resources. Hence the conundrum: the market continues to demand more pork but the input constraints faced by most producers-the hundreds of thousands of resource-poor households-limit their capacity to respond.The results of the appraisal show that some guiding principles will be critical for making successful interventions in the pig sub-sector in this region. First, improved efficiency and profitability of production should be achieved by incremental changes to better utilize existing resources through innovative community-based programs implemented by client-oriented staff. Second, participatory methods to identify and target high-priority problems and to develop and test interventions for specific locations will be essential to ensuring ownership and acceptability among the communities. And third, a key element will be to identify and promote current best practices of the most successful community members.Work addressing the new pig-based production and marketing constraints and opportunities in these two states should have a strong component of capacity building in participatory methods for local institutions and the target producer groups through hands-on training and exposure visits. Services should be provided only on a paid-for basis; program components that are free or highly subsidized should be avoided and any subsidy provided should be reduced in a phased and scheduled manner over a short period. At the same time, all public interventions should build in staff incentives for pro-poor pig systems work. Lastly, projects should establish ways of objectively monitoring and evaluating their results.The base of locally relevant knowledge should be substantially increased through regular and high-quality information sharing within local pig-keeping communities and between those groups and their R&D partners. Processes employed in projects in this area should explicitly work to strengthen institutional links and, in this way, R&D effectiveness. Organizations that will be key to the success of this work are the agencies within the region giving credit; without credit, it is unlikely that most of the region's smallholder producers and marketers will be able to take advantage of technical innovations to scale up their pig businesses to take advantage of the new market opportunities.Pig producers reported that agricultural extension programs were ineffective and limited in their reach and thus unable to help the producers make more effective use of available feed resources, maintain their pigs in good health and breed productive crosses. Milk quality in the traditional dairy systems of Assam, India Food-borne disease is an emerging health problem and contaminated milk and dairy products are important contributors to the associated health burden. Most surveys of informally milk marketed show unacceptable levels of hazards. Pasteurization is an effective mitigation but has been effective only where farmers are few, large, concentrated and well linked to milk plants; in the developing world, more than 90% of milk continues to be sold raw.For some years, ILRI has been addressing the triple challenge of ensuring the safety of milk and milk products while promoting small-scale traditional dairying as a pathway out of poverty and protecting the natural resources that make such dairy production possible.ILRI learned lessons about balancing such societal objectives (health, wealth and social and environmental sustainability) during the design of a project to better manage milk-borne disease that started in Assam, India, in June 2008. This work involved evaluating the impacts of improving milk safety in the traditional dairy sector on excluded groups and on the ecosystem. Based on the results, ILRI developed strategies to mitigate unwanted effects.A cross-sectional survey that covered six administrative areas (wards) in Assam's capital, Guwahati, and three types of milk vendor (shops, distribution points and traders) revealed the following.Most milk, both raw and pasteurized, did not meet standards of milk quality. None of the milk samples, including those of very poor bacteriological quality, had visible or olfactory abnormalities. Raw milk had substantially more added water while UHT (ultra-heat treated) milk had higher bacteriological quality (because of the method of processing) and higher fat (presumably because it originates from states with a higher proportion of dairy buffaloes).Most adulteration occurs in milk bought from hawkers.• Milk sold from an insulated van was sold at a premium price compared to milk from the same dairy sold from a pickup: presumably customers had more confidence in its quality. Surprisingly, it was actually of poorer bacteriological quality, indicating a perception-reality gap in this van's clients.• Milk from local dairies contained significantly less fat and significantly higher levels of total bacteria and coliforms than milk from dairies outside Assam.• But among dairies producing pasteurized milk, milk from local dairies had substantially better bacteriological quality than the pasteurized milk from dairies outside Assam.• All raw, pasteurized and UHT milk samples were unsatisfactory according to the relevant standards for composition and bacteriological quality.• Organoleptic properties of milk (clots, colour and smell) were not a good indicator of quality.• Perceptions that certain products are of higher quality than others are often misperceptions.The quality of pasteurized milk from different dairies varies widely.Results of the study suggest that consumers are poor judges of milk adulteration, over-estimate their ability to detect adulteration and have little insight into their own ability to detect adulteration. That said, consumer concerns over the quality of milk and milk sweets are justified. Most samples do not meet bacteriological standards, and so are a potential risk to human health. Further studies are needed to identify and quantify specific health risks so as to better target interventions. This can be done through 'participatory risk assessments' and other methods adapted to the context of developing countries.There is already enough evidence to warrant interventions to improve milk quality. These should address both the raw and pasteurized milk sectors. In particular, UHT milk (produced elsewhere in India) is generally of much higher quality than local pasteurized milk. Development of demand for locally processed milk will depend heavily on the quality of local formal processing.The high level of coliform bacteria in both pasteurized and raw milk as well as milk sweets is worrying. Coliform bacteria are found only in the intestines of humans and animals and their presence indicates faecal contamination. Some coliforms cause serious and sometimes fatal disease and their presence, moreover, is an indicator of the many human and zoonotic pathogens spread via the faecal-oral route (such as bacteria, viruses and intestinal parasites). Further bacteriological testing is needed to identify the origin of coliforms (human or animal) and identify critical control points for coliforms. Pathway analysis suggested that problems of raw milk quality could be attributed to two main causes: poor hygiene along the chain and delays between production and consumption.Interventions and training packages should address both hygiene and distribution systems.Adulteration with milk is widespread and appears to be standard among some actors in Assam dairying. Some pathways are free of adulteration, but not the predominant private-sector model. However, adulteration with water does not seem to represent a major health risk in terms of adding bacteria.Consumers are poor judges of adulteration and have unfounded confidence in their ability to judge milk quality, creating a market failure in antibiotics, hydrogen peroxidase, caustic soda and other substances to 'correct spoilage'.• Dairy products are an important cause of food-borne disease, causing at least 10% of all food-borne disease.• Many diseases are also spread by contact or aerosol and can affect those who work with cattle or handle raw milk.• Many diseases also cause sickness, death and lowered production in cattle.• Other risks to human health commonly found in milk include veterinary drug residues (e.g. antibiotics, de-wormers), fungal toxins (e.g. aflatoxin), pesticide residues (e.g. DDT) and heavy metals (e.g. lead, cadmium).• High cell counts cause lowered yields of curds and cheese for milk; it is also an indicator of mastitis, which decreases milk production.• Early lactation milk (colostrum) has a high bio-burden that reduces processing efficiency and dairy-product quality.Off-flavours and tastes may be due to cattle feeds, chemicals in the farm environment or bacterial contaminants.Will boiling or pasteurizing milk make it safe?• Boiling or pasteurizing is effective at killing most germs (bacteria and viruses); boiling is more effective than pasteurization.• Heat treatment does not destroy all bacterial toxins; toxins from Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus arueus and Clostridium perfringens are important causes of food poisoning and dairy products have often been identified as the source.• Heat treatment will inactivate some antibiotic residues, such as penicillin, but not others, such as sulpha drugs.• Heat treatment will not remove heavy metals, such as arsenic and lead.• Heat treatment will not destroy aflatoxins.We currently have no information on the presence of these problems in Assam or their effects on human health, but we know they cause serious problems in many developing countries.Milk quality in the traditional dairy systems of Assam, India the provision of pure milk. The same applies to bacteriological quality, which was often poor but indiscernible to consumers. Customer willingness to pay for quality is obviously contingent on ability to detect quality. Some systems seem to be better at self-regulation but not the traditional private-sector model that predominates. Consumers need to be better informed about the quality problems of milk, both raw and pasteurized, and their own inability to assess these. Simple tests for quality and institutional mechanisms for their adoption need to be developed and disseminated.The manufacture of milk sweets can reduce the health risk of poor-quality raw milk, but only if sweet-shop hygiene is adequate. The quality of Assam's milk sweets correlates strongly with hygienic practices. This study (which was small, non-random and looked at only one type of sweet) identified the practices leading to higher quality milk sweets. The checklists developed for this study are a tool for improving quality and monitoring change. These should be incorporated into training programs for traditional processors and sweet-shop-keepers.Milk quality in Assam:What are the quality problems with milk? What is their relevance to Assam?Adulteration with water and other substancesCustomers lose money when they pay for water instead of milk.• Customers who distrust the quality of a product will buy less of it: increasing the quality of milk will increase demand.• Some adulterants are harmful to health; adulterants commonly found in milk in India include dirty water, urea and soap: all substances not fit for human consumption.• 20% of milk in developing countries is lost due to wastage and spoilage; this corresponds to 85 million litres of milk a year lost in Assam.• Decreasing spoilage opens new markets because milk can be transported over longer distances and times.• Decreased spoilage reduces temptation to add Does processing milk into cheese, butter, yoghurt or fermented drinks make milk safe? Processing that involves cooking at high temperature does eliminate bacteria; fermenting milk to yoghurt or lassi and processing into soft or hard cheese, curds or butter does not remove all bacteria; processing is not as effective as boiling or pasteurizing in making milk safe.What is the best way to manage milk-quality problems?The first step to better managing problems in quality is to diagnose the problem; this is done by a pathway analysis, which starts at milk production on the farm and follows the movement of milk along the transport chain to the consumer; the solution is then tailored to the problem, which might be one of the following.• Simple, inexpensive tests can detect adulteration in milk; if these are widely available, consumers and traders can refuse to accept adulterated milk.• Quality schemes allow farmers and traders who have received training and who follow good practices to indicate this by using a special brand or sign.• Providing information to consumers on the extent and harmful effects of adulteration will increase demand for pure milk.• Good agricultural and manufacturing practices decrease losses from spoilage, spillage and waste.• Secondary contamination of milk can be avoided or controlled through implementation of modern Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) systems; in difficult situations of traditional or semi-traditional systems of husbandry and milk production, applying the HACCP systems can considerably help improve milk production and processing conditions.• Technologies such as refrigerated containers and lacto-peroxidase can help preserve milk.Milk quality in the traditional dairy systems of Assam, India• Food-borne pathogens that cause widespread disease in dairy animals, such as Mycobacterium bovis, Brucella abortus and Brucella melitensis, require eradication efforts based on testing and aimed at removing infected animals from the human food chain.• Non-obligate animal pathogens represent most food-borne pathogens and are frequently excreted by healthy cattle (E. coli 0157, Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Staph. aureus). They are best identified and eliminated by a quality milk program that addresses animal health in association with the environment to reduce the pathogen burden on the farm and in foods off the farm.• Special monitoring programs are required to detect less common infections in milk with severe human health implications; these include Streptococcus zooepidemicus, Cryptosporidium, Coxiella burnetti and Toxoplasma gondii.• Treating milk through pasteurizing, boiling or processing into other products often reduces risks to health. However, it does not remove all risk and may introduce other risks (bacteria grow more rapidly in pasteurized milk, for example, and handlers may introduce pathogens to milk sweets). Treated milk should be assessed for hazards and an HACCP system put in place to ensure safety and quality.Throughout the tropics, inadequate feed keeps farm animals underweight and underproductive. What's stopping some 600 million poor farmers from meeting a fast-rising global demand for milk and meat is mostly lack of feed. Small producers simply lack sufficient amounts and quality of grass, browse and crop wastes to feed their animals throughout the year. Access to more, and more nutritious, feeds would enable smallholders to build their livestock and other assets by exploiting the livestock revolution.The single most important ruminant feed resource on many of the small crop-livestock farms of Asia and Africa is no longer grass but rather the stalks, leaves and other remains of crop plants after harvesting, referred to collectively as 'crop residues'. In India, for example, 44% of the feed annually sustaining all the sub-continent's cattle, buffalo, goats, sheep and camel populations is made up of such crop 'wastes'. The rest comes from planted forages or shrinking pastures and other common lands. Expensive concentratesthe mainstay of livestock production in rich countries-are used only very occasionally.While crop residues, or 'stover', have become a main feed for farm animals of the South, crop breeders until recently continued to focus solely on increasing grain yields. A research partnership ILRI has been leading has redressed this oversight in India's all-important sorghum crop, grown on nearly 10,000,000 hectares on the sub-continent. The partners incorporated fodder quality traits in India's crop breeding trials. Doing so led breeders to identify sorghum varieties with high yields of both grain and stover as well as improved stover quality.This partnership needed three things to succeed. First, it required biological variation that could be exploited. The quality and quantity of the nongrain parts of the sorghum plant needed to vary among different cultivars, the fodder and grain characteristics needed to be independent of each other so that improving the quantity or quality of one did not jeopardize that of the other, and both traits needed to be under genetic control and sufficiently independent to enable breeding and selection work to improve them.Second, success depended on developing simple means of assessing the effects of stover variation on livestock growth. Using conventional feeding trials to determine the livestock productivity effects of stover from many thousands of lines of sorghum was out of the question.Third, success depended on including the potential fodder benefits of different cultivars in criteria of agencies releasing the cultivars, which would allow farmers to choose sorghum varieties based on their stover as well as grain characteristics.This partnership began by assessing the potential impacts on India's smallholder livestock productivity of planting sorghum and millet varieties with genetically enhanced stover fodder quality and quantity. Remarkably, this indicated that a 1% increase in just one livestock productivity-related parameter-stover digestibility-would result in increases in milk, meat and draught power outputs ranging from 6 to 8%. The net present value of the research was estimated to range from US$42 to 208 million, with predicted high rates of return to the research investment of 28 to 43% and corresponding high benefit:cost ratios of 15 to 69:1. With prices at record levels for both dairy outputs (milk) and inputs (feeds, energy costs), fixed and administered prices tend to hold back big as well as small dairy producers from responding quickly to the changing price signals.Price controls particularly hurt dispersed smallholders, who often lack social networks to help them find and sell to milk collectors offering the highest prices. On the other hand, equitable and remunerative prices for farm-gate milk encourages smallholders to adopt improved and sustainable technologies and management systems that improve their milk quality as well as quantity.The recent and rapid escalation of commodity prices is the perfect environment in which to test what policies are most conducive to the development of the agricultural sector. Low food prices over the past 20 years led to an underinvestment in agriculture, particularly in smallholder dairying, which, unlike rice and other staples of food security, has been a neglected and relatively unsupported area of research and development.The sudden rise in dairy prices that took the market by surprise in late 2006 was due to the elimination by the European Union of subsidized dairy exports as well as to drought in many large dairy-product exporting countries and higher feed prices worldwide. Throughout 2007, prices for dairy products rose faster than those for any other agricultural commodity group, finally reaching a plateau in late 2007 and abating only in early 2008.This recent increase in dairy prices potentially offers an opportunity for hundreds of millions of poor, and in many cases, landless, smallholder dairy producers to benefit from these structural, or permanent, shifts in the global demand and supply of dairy products. This is particularly true for Asia, where growth in both milk production and consumption has been the strongest in the world; nearly 80% of the 238 million tonnes of milk produced in 2007 was supplied by farmers with 1 to 5 cows.While developing countries in Asia and elsewhere consume only 40% of global milk production, these countries import nearly threequarters of global shipments of dairy products, including 80% of milk powder exports from developed countries. With the world's largest net trade milk deficit, Asia is projected to increase its milk production by 3% a year over the next decade, slower than the previous decade but still double annual global growth rates. This is supported by expectations that, although dairy product prices have been easing in the first half of 2008, increased prices are here to stay. Commodity projections by both FAO and the Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute indicate that milk prices over the next decade will remain 50% higher than historical averages.Smallholder farmers have the capacity to respond quickly to higher milk prices because of their ample scope for rapid yield increases. Current average milk yields in developing countries are just one-fifth that in developed countries because most smallholder farmers feed their dairy animals well below their potential.With enabling pricing policies and technical support to producers on improved feeding, onfarm management and reducing spoilage, milk yields in poor countries could increase dramatically to meet the rising global demand, bringing millions out of poverty in the process.How policymakers in region have responded to higher commodity prices To date, most of the policy responses in Asia to escalating food prices have focused on rice, maize, wheat and other food staples. Some countries, such as India in 2007, briefly limited dairy product exports to ensure domestic price stability. Many importing countries reduced import tariffs on both livestock products and feed inputs and many put in place price caps on milk and other dairy products.At a time of record-high international dairy prices, the workshop dairy experts agreed that Asia needs concerted regional collaboration to enable its tens of millions of small dairy producers to derive the full benefits from the dairy value chain through greater productivity, better milk quality and maximum market access.To help unleash dairy's potential to transform rural economies in Asia, workshop members and government and private-sector representatives pledged to:• Strengthen the ability of smallholders, who currently account for 70% of regional milk production, to supply and market quality milk to the region.Actively participate in a regional dairy information and exchange network serving as a channel of best practices on smallholder dairy development.• Support the development of national action plans that build on the pillars of the regional strategy.In response to the outcome of the workshop, FAO committed itself, under the umbrella of APHCA, to the immediate development of a knowledge networking system on small-scale dairy development, addressing such issues as production, marketing, and processing. Southern AfricaRepresentative by facilitating ILRI's engagement in the region through identification of opportunities, development of partnerships and coordination of activities. The first step of ILRI's relatively new regional office and staff has been to define appropriate areas of ILRI focus in the region for a subsequent research agenda driven by national and regional priorities and determined by stakeholders in pro-poor livestock development within southern Africa. To achieve this, ILRI has been holding ongoing consultations with its national and international partners to better understand the priorities of the region regarding livestock information gaps, challenges and opportunities. With this information and in continued consultation, ILRI is identifying regionally important constraints in southern Africa's livestock sector that it may begin to address with other organizations.    Policymakers are still emphasizing livestock exports when demand growth and evolving markets suggest that domestic markets may offer greater opportunities, particularly for smallholders. Moreover, while market policies pursue commercialization (strengthening the formal market), most livestock trade occurs between rural households in small transactions in the rapidly developing informal sector. We need to know how these informal livestock markets operate, what opportunities exist in them for the growth of smallscale producers, whether this market can absorb higher numbers of livestock, and, if so, what interventions could stimulate further growth of this market, and how informal markets can be strengthened to complement the formal livestock markets.Most farming systems in the region are mixed crop-andlivestock enterprises. Growth of the livestock sector will require growth of feed resources. Most of southern Africa already suffers from over-use of natural rangelands. At the same time, land devoted to crop fields is increasing at the cost of grazing. The increased grazing pressure in the remaining rangelands results in further degradation and accelerates livestock feed shortages. The shortages are highest during the late dry season, leading to high rates of livestock mortalities and low-quality livestock products. Southern Africa's feed resources in crop-livestock systems will have to be improved significantly to reduce grazing pressure on rangelands and the subsequent erosion of land, water and biodiversity. We also need to better understand feed / fodder markets so that these may be used more strategically and cost-effectively to maintain livestock productivity throughout the dry season and in times of drought. And we need to understand how feed use trends are influenced by factors such as drought, land degradation, population growth and human population density. While these markets are poorly developed in the small-scale sector of southern Africa, they will become increasingly important as livestock production expands.Southern Africa 'champions' One of the approaches ILRI is taking is to obtain the support of individuals agreeing to serve as 'champions' by contributing their different kinds of expertise to an ILRI-Partner Working Group for the region. This group met for the first time with ILRI directors in Gaborone, Botswana, in March 2008 to help identify priorities and opportunities for ILRI's engagement in the region.Champions Serving in an ILRI/Partner Working Group for Southern Africa  Strategic objective 1: Decrease vulnerability and enhance resilience of people, communities and systems, especially in marginal areas: e.g. develop and introduce local-level decision-making systems, rehabilitate degraded rangelands, promote the use and conservation of adapted indigenous breeds where appropriate, develop and test coping strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change, and facilitate access to markets.Strategic objective 2: Develop and promote market-oriented smallholder intensification: e.g. promote specialization of selected enterprises such as smallholder dairying where there is comparative advantage, support agribusiness development, promote value addition to primary products, and promote mixed crop-and-livestock production systems, exploring the potential use of dual-purpose food-feed crops.Strategic objective 3: Improve animal health: e.g. strengthen capacities within animal health institutions, develop infrastructure for improved animal health service delivery (diagnoses, surveillance, control, etc.), support where appropriate any of several on-going initiatives addressing transboundary animal diseases in the region, enhance compatibility between livestock / animal and transfrontier parks, and increase access to markets by promoting food-safety standards.Cross-cutting Issue 4: Consolidate, maintain and promote use of livestock information systems at local to national to regional levels: e.g. investigate and test the capture and exchange of information and best practices and promote coordination and synergies among different actors in the region while addressing issues of poor access, illiteracy and innumeracy. ILRI's present portfolio and medium-term plans ILRI is pursuing two focal research areas. The first area of focus is improving market opportunities. This encompasses smallholder competitiveness, institutional analysis and food safety standards. Issues of input supply chains, particularly for animal breeding, feeding and health, will be integrated through this entry point.The second area of focus is vulnerability and sustainability. The region is exposed to a wide range of climatic, economic and disease shocks and also faces global problems such as climate change and emerging diseases. ILRI is partnering other research and development organizations to help identify cost-effective risk-management options that enable poor livestock households to cope with these shocks and enhance their resilience. ILRI also plans to work on conservation and use of animal genetic resources in the region.Operating principles ILRI's regional strategy draws from the institute's strategies on key global livestock issues, adapting them to priorities and capacities of the region. The regional agenda is thus an instrument for implementing projects in ILRI's four thematic areas: Targeting and innovation, Enhancing market access, Biotechnology to secure assets, and People, livestock and the environment.Collaborative mode of operations ILRI is implementing its research agenda for southern Africa in extensive and on-going consultations and jointly with a wide range of partners, including national research and extension systems, other CGIAR centres, the private sector, NGOs, farmer organizations, universities and regional organizations. ILRI's aim is to develop a livestock research agenda driven by national and regional priorities and determined by stakeholders in the region. The regional agenda is helping advance ILRI's work to fulfill its overarching mission, which is to enhance livestock pathways out of poverty for significant numbers of people. At the regional level, the Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate in the SADC Secretariat coordinates activities in food security, environment and natural resources management with an overall goal of achieving sustainable access to safe and adequate food at all times by all people in the SADC region. ILRI will continue to facilitate SADC's initiative of developing the region's livestock research and development strategy, following the recommendations of the Livestock Technical Committee in Gaborone, Botswana in April 2008.In 2006 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), under guidance by staff in its Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division, commissioned ILRI to conduct an assessment of the vulnerability of livestock livelihoods in three countries of southern Africa. The report, Livestock, Livelihoods and Vulnerability in Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia: Designing Livestock Interventions for Emergency Situations, was finalized in January 2007.The study identifies drought, animal diseases and declining access to livestock services as key factors contributing to increasing vulnerability to food insecurity in the study areas. These findings are likely to apply to large sections of the population in southern Africa. The study concluded that emergency interventions that help households preserve their livestock assets would have significant payoffs in addressing chronic poverty and vulnerability in southern Africa.Vulnerability and poverty are key factors in the deepening crisis in food security in many countries in southern Africa. A continuing food crisis in the region, apparent since the early 1990s, underscores southern Africa's food insecurity. A 2005 estimate indicated that more than 10 million people in the region were food insecure. The vulnerability of households to hunger and malnutrition, particularly among the rural poor, is attributed mainly to worsening economic conditions; policy failures; natural disasters such as droughts, floods and crop or livestock disease pandemics; and the devastating high incidence and impact of HIV/AIDS in the region. The cumulative impacts of these shocks threaten the livelihoods of millions of people and reduce the ability of households, communities and governments to manage risks and cope when such shocks occur.Two things stand out regarding emergency responses to shocks that cause widespread food insecurity. First is that these responses have largely focused on food aid. While distributing food to poor people in crisis is critical in saving lives and reducing suffering, food aid alone provides no long-term development solutions that support the livelihoods of poor people. Second is that donor and Reducing the vulnerability of livestock peoples of southern Africa: Saving lives and livelihoodsReducing the vulnerability of livestock peoples of southern Africa government responses to famines have focused on cropping interventions, often ignoring livestock. This is despite the fact that livestock are crucial to the livelihoods of some 60% of the households in southern Africa. Households that apply negative coping strategies, such as distress sales of livestock assets, to survive a disaster can end up trapping themselves in chronic poverty for years and decades thereafter. Clearly the many central roles livestock play in food security and emergency response have not been fully exploited.Two factors contribute to the neglect of livestock interventions in emergency response mechanisms. First, there is little systematic research on the role of livestock in household livelihoods, risk management and coping strategies. Consequently, there is little information on the impact of livestock losses on household food security and livelihoods. Second, there remain large gaps between our current understanding of the roles livestock play in livelihoods of the poor and the design of projects and programs to address emergencies.The ILRI study for FAO aimed to help fill those gaps by assessing the contribution livestock keeping makes to risk management and coping strategies and then identifying livestock interventions that have great potential to save lives and livelihoods in crisis and emergency situations in the selected countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), where vulnerability to food insecurity appears to be growing with dwindling food stocks and rising prices of staple food.In assessing the role of livestock in risk management and coping strategies in three countries of southern Africa, this study employed a livelihoods concept that links livestock and other assets to livelihood activities, contexts and outcomes. The study used the widely accepted definition of food security as physical and economic access by all people, at all times to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for an active and healthy life. The study found that livestock play a major role in the livelihood strategies of poor households in the study areas and went on to identify promising livestock-related interventions for emergency situations in southern Africa.The concept of vulnerability refers to the relationship between poverty, risk and how risk is managed. A household is considered vulnerable if it faces an unacceptability high probability of falling below a socially acceptable benchmark value of welfare such as food consumption or income. Vulnerability depends on household conditions and exposure to risky events. A household's or individual's level of vulnerability is determined by the characteristic of the shock or risk they are facing and their ability to respond to risk over time. Rising vulnerability arises from a combination of increasing occurrence of risky events and diminished ability to cope with adverse trends and shocks. In this study, the vulnerability concept refers to vulnerability to food insecurity, defined as exposure to shocks that undermine access to food.In many instances, shocks at household level are linked to community-wide shocks, such as when a drought causes widespread crop failure and distress sales of livestock that result in higher food prices and lower livestock prices that turn the terms of trade against rural households. Risk management Reducing the vulnerability of livestock peoples of southern Africa activities, such as building livestock herds, growing drought resistant crops or diversifying livelihood activities, can reduce risk or lower exposure to risk. Risk coping activities deal with the losses arising from a shock such as selling livestock, migration and eating fewer meals. The combination of risk and household response leads to outcomes that determine whether an individual or household can succeed or fail to deal with an emergency-induced crisis in food security.Close connections between household asset positions, their attempts to manage and cope with risks and the resulting outcomes provide the links between a 'livelihoods framework' and emergency response. This conceptual framework is used to identify emergency response options for vulnerable households in emergency situations, drawing largely from case studies in Southern Africa.One of the hotspot districts of Lesotho in this study, Thaba Tseka, lies in the mountains where 80-100% of the population faced income or food deficits of 13-18%. This densely populated area is usually isolated from markets and other services. However, the level of livestock holdings is very high, with less vulnerable households holding fairly large stocks of livestock. Up to 60% of the population is poor, whereas 16% are better off. Lesotho's other hotspot district, Mohale's Hoek, and much of the nonhotspot district of Leribe are located in the foothills, where 80-100% of the population faced food deficit of 8-26% of annual food needs. The area has a higher population density than the mountain regions, and livestock holdings are relatively high, with food-secure households holding large stocks of sheep and goats. Approximately 58% of the population is described by the communities as poor, with nearly 11% considered better off. This area has higher agricultural potential and market access than the mountains.Approximately 348,000 people in the hotspot of Malawi's district of Chikwawa were at risk of having insufficient food to meet their needs from July to September of 2005. At 175,000, the numbers were slightly lower for Nsanje District, the other hotspot district. In the non-hotspot district of Kasungu, the number of people at risk was much lower, at 143,000. In the Lower Shire area, where the hotspot districts are located, land holdings for the 'poor' and 'middle' groups amount to a mere 3-4 acres, with only about 1-3 acres being cultivated. In 2005, household income in this area ranged between Malawi kwacha 10,600 and 11,960. The 'poor' lack farm inputs and they normally subsist on their own farm production through from the harvest in April/May to August.The proportion of household income spent on buying food in Zambia is on the rise, making it increasingly difficult for households to feed themselves. Some 45-47% of the rural population is stunted, while malnutrition affects about 6% of rural households. In 2000, the gross domestic product grew by 3.5%, the agriculture sector by 1.8% and population by 2.9%. In much of the study area, road infrastructure and veterinary infrastructure and services were poor. The poor communications usually constrain access to markets for many of the vulnerable households and communities in this study area.Who are vulnerable and why?In southern Africa as elsewhere, some groups are more vulnerable to risks than others. What usually makes the difference are differences in ownership of livestock and other critical assets and differences in the inherent capacity of households, peoples and communities to manage risk. More women than men are vulnerable to food insecurity. Women, particularly the elderly, widowed and divorced women, and female-headed households, were disproportionately represented among vulnerable groups in this study due to lack of key assets such as land and livestock, labour constraints to cultivate their fields, and non-existent or loss of supplementary income from a partner. Such marked gendered differences in asset ownership, asset productivity and livelihood strategies often increase the vulnerability of women to a range of shocks that forces them into chronic poverty. Targeted interventions that provide safety nets and productive fall-back options for such vulnerable groups would enhance the robustness of their livelihoods.Main sources of risk Community-wide shocks such as drought, floods, widespread crop failure and animal diseases were ranked highly by households across all locations and in all food security groups.The main source of shock facing the sample households is drought. It can be characterized as a slow onset shock with cumulative impacts on household assets and activities that are manifested over time. Community-wide shocks such as crop failure induced by drought can reduce the quantity of assets and productivity. Several countries in southern Africa have set up early warning systems and are now coordinated as a regional system (FEWSNET) under SADC to mitigate the impact of drought. However, taking action or following up on data and information coming out of early warning systems in a timely manner and with the urgency it deserves still remains a challenge in preventing widespread disaster when droughts occur in the region.The increasing incidence of animal diseases is an important cause of livestock losses and declining productivity from livestock assets. In each of the three countries studied animal diseases are a big constraint to livestock enterprises, but they often do it in different ways. There are firstly those diseases that affect the fundamental livestock assets of the poor, and some of these can be the cause of shocks while others may exacerbate vulnerability to non-disease shocks. Of particular importance in this category are those diseases that cause high levels of mortality in species of critical importance to livelihoods. This includes, for example, Newcastle disease in poultry: epidemic waves of the disease can wipe out household stocks of poultry. Secondly, there are those that affect market access for livestock products and these fall into two categories: those diseases in which human disease can be caused by consumption of meat or milk products (such as cysticercosis of pigs) and those spread by movement of animals or livestock products, such as foot-andmouth disease of ruminants and pigs. Thirdly, there are the diseases that constrain improvements in productivity and these include those that are more pathogenic in non-indigenous breeds of livestock increasingly used to Reducing the vulnerability of livestock peoples of southern Africa improve performance (such as the tick-borne disease East Coast fever of cattle in Zambia and Malawi).Institutional weaknesses in service delivery are a third source of increasing vulnerabilities in southern Africa. In all the case study countries, there was declining public support for livestock advisory and veterinary services and production support for animal husbandry. Where they existed, these services faced serious funding and human resource constraints that reduced their efficacy and accelerated their decline. Limited market opportunity and high transaction costs also meant that private veterinary services were concentrated in areas where risks were low and the returns to investments were high. This uneven delivery of animal health services and production support contributes to the rising vulnerability of large groups of people when there are serious livestock disease outbreaks. What's urgently needed are innovative service delivery instruments that will reduce the cost of access to basic services such as veterinary and animal production services for vulnerable groups. Institutional innovations involving the public and private sector and civil society can provide alternative cost-effective mechanisms for delivering services to vulnerable people. These initiatives, however, should not undermine private-sector response but rather aim at promoting development of private enterprise.How poor households attempt to recover from shocks Most households recover from shocks by building up and selling the assets they own and by using their social networks. Households frequently resort to coping strategies that deplete household assets, such as livestock, with severe consequences on their existing and future livelihood. Such negative coping strategies include the distress sale of livestock when a drought hits and the associated loss of access to meat and milk. Distress livestock sales often cause a steep decline in livestock prices and a collapse in household incomes. Food prices also soar because of widespread livestock sales to purchase food. Many households are unable to recover from shocks through replenishing their herds in the aftermath of a drought because livestock prices increase sharply. Female-headed households with limited asset holdings are most likely to suffer from the consequences of negative coping strategies.Response options to help reduce risk and improve management of vulnerability Results of the ILRI study indicate that responses made in emergency situations should aim explicitly to help households preserve their livestock assets and avoid coping strategies that deplete critical assets such as livestock. The following more specific recommendations follow from the study findings.Those designing emergency interventions should consider possible livestock interventions from the perspective of a broad livelihoods framework. This is because households and household members differ in the types of livestock Reducing the vulnerability of livestock peoples of southern Africa assets they own or have access to, in how they use their livestock to pursue their diverse livelihood strategies, and in how they use given livestock species to manage risks and cope with crises. Poorer households, for example, rely on chickens to help them cope with disasters while richer households tend to invest in a more diversified livestock portfolio, including small ruminants and cattle to manage risks before shocks occur. Households that depend on migration to cope with emergencies are unlikely to be able to invest in intensive livestock keeping. The design of livestock-based interventions in emergency situations therefore needs to pay detailed attention to household behaviour as well as assets.Linking livelihood analysis to program design Specific livestock objectives in emergency situations may include:• Minimize the selling of livestock assets in a slow onset shock, such as drought.• Reduce household costs of veterinary and other livestock services.• Promote commercial destocking and other private-sector responses that help maintain the real value of livestock and stabilize livestock/food prices.In a slow onset shock such as drought, markets are still functioning in the early drought phase but households are experiencing declining incomes and returns to assets; a primary goal in this phase is to ensure that markets continue functioning effectively with appropriate incentive to the private sector to drive commercial destocking activities at relatively stable prices. During the acute phase of a drought emergency, response goals should focus on directly minimizing the risk of distress livestock sales and loss of livestock assets and avoiding irreversible depletion of household assets. In a rapid onset emergency, the primary goal is timely response to minimize the risk of distress livestock sales and loss of livestock assets.The study concluded that the following actions would help FAO and its partners strengthen their efforts in responding effectively to food emergencies.Preserve livestock assets during emergencies and promote livestock in targeted safety net programs and poverty reduction strategies.• Institutionalize use of early warning systems to improve the timing and effectiveness of interventions and investigate the feasibility of a weather-based livestock insurance scheme for the region.• Integrate findings from this analysis into emergency needs assessments; indicators of distress livestock sales and staple food and livestock prices may provide early warnings as to when certain populations are slipping into chronic vulnerability. The following interventions should enable FAO and its partners to improve livestock interventions to save lives and livelihoods in emergencies.1. Establish index-based livestock insurance to mitigate the impacts of drought High livestock mortality from drought is a major cause of food insecurity. Traditional mechanisms for ensuring oneself against climatic shocks have collapsed in the face of increasingly frequent and intense climatic shocks. It is expected that climate change will exacerbate these shocks, with severe harm to poorer countries and peoples. Traditional livestock insurance mechanisms can and should be complemented with more robust mechanisms that effectively insure the poor against drought. The creation of insurance markets for events such as drought, the likelihood of which can be precisely calculated and associated to a well-defined index, is increasingly being promoted as a way to offer the benefits of insurance to poor communities. Though index-based insurance is not a novel idea, several attempts have been made recently to design and offer such products in developing countries. Index-based livestock insurance programs have been tried in Mongolia and the World Food Program is testing their feasibility in Ethiopia. The lessons from the Ethiopia pilot study are instructive for gauging the utility of index insurance in protecting vulnerable African populations against disaster. A first step in southern African would be to pilot-test index-based livestock insurance in one of the case study countries.Development of a more functional classification and prioritization of animal diseases is essential for all three countries surveyed in this study. This classification should be made on the basis of the three major ways animal diseases impact the very poor. These are:• Diseases that affect the fundamental assets and vulnerability of poor households; these diseases cause either high mortality in species of particular importance to the poor or illness in their keepers.• Diseases that constrain improvements in livestock productivity or performance.• Diseases that constrain market access for livestock products; these include diseases that cause human disease through consumption of unhealthy meat or milk and diseases spread by the movement of animals or livestock products.Alternative ways of delivering animal health services to poor households is needed because the traditional veterinary service infrastructure fails to meet the needs of vulnerable households. The study proposes development and pilot-testing of voucher systems that would make vulnerable households eligible for free delivery of certain services, such as vaccination to prevent diseases such as Newcastle disease, advice on management and nutrition, and therapeutic treatments for ecto-and endoparasites.When do livestock enterprises become sustainable pathways out of poverty and when do they trap people in impoverished conditions? That is what a group of scientists set out to learn in an 'integrated assessment' of coping strategies in livestock dependent households in eastern and southern Africa. Integrated assessment combines models to test the likely impacts of different future scenarios on ecological functioning as well as household well-being.The ILRI and partner authors of this study, 'Coping strategies in livestockdependent households in East and southern Africa: A synthesis of four case studies', published in Human Ecology in 2007, synthesized results of work undertaken in four livestock systems in eastern and southern Africa: pastoralist communities in northern Tanzania, agro-pastoralists in southern Kenya, communal and commercial ranchers in South Africa, and mixed crop-andlivestock farmers in western Kenya.The results of this study confirm that household capacity to adapt to increasing external stresses is governed by the flexibility the householders exercise in livelihood options. Such options include intensifying one's crop and animal production, diversifying the kinds of plant and animal products one produces on the farm, and working for wages in a job found off the farm. The researchers quantified the likely impacts on households and ecosystems of people taking up such options. The results are being used to better target interventions designed to help poor people manage increasing change and risk. This paper synthesizes lessons learnt from these case studies and outlines future research needs.The four case studies used in this synthesis indicate that households can partially offset the impacts of external stresses by increasing the size of cultivated plots (as pastoral communities are doing in northern Tanzania and agro-pastoral communities in southern Kenya), by diversifying their activities into other agricultural and nonagricultural activities (agro-pastoral communitiesCoping strategies and endgames in southern Kenya), by using climate forecasts to make stocking decisions (communal and commercial ranchers in drought-prone regions of South Africa), and by intensifying and/or diversifying agricultural production (mixed crop-livestock farmers in western Kenya).Although households are able to offset impacts of increasing stress to some degree through diversification and intensification, implementing these options generates costs such as reduced tourism due to increased cultivation in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of northern Tanzania, crashing wildlife populations in Kenya's Kajiado District, decreasing grassland productivity in both the commercial and communal sectors of South Africa's Northwest Province, and declining soil fertility in Kenya's Vihiga District.'What this simply means', says ILRI's Philip Thornton, ILRI systems analyst and lead author of the synthesis, 'is that there are thresholds in these systems beyond which it is unlikely that management options alone can offset increasing system stresses.'Thornton says the integrated assessment framework is useful in identifying not only what is desirable, in terms of possible impacts on different groups of stakeholders, but also what is feasible. 'Given increasing system stresses,' he says, 'the point may well be reached at which natural-resource-based livelihood options are simply no longer feasible.' Indeed, a key use of integrated assessment is identifying situations where households are unlikely to be able to sustain current livelihood options based on exploitation of natural resources. In such cases, appropriate livelihood options will likely involve making radical rather than incremental shifts in agricultural and/or livestock productivity, finding off-farm employment, and exiting farming enterprises altogether.All four case studies analyzed in this synthesis have substantial implications for policymaking. Among these are the following.(1) The new options that poor households need to consider when adapting to change do not impinge merely on one or two economic sectors but rather strike at the heart of national policies for food security, self-sufficiency and the role of agriculture in economic growth and development in general. Such policy debates can be enhanced by research.(2) Policymakers can profit from demanding, supporting and using broad integrated assessments that apply new approaches to development. Such approaches include those based on the principles of 'integrated natural resources management', 'adaptive resource management' and 'adaptive governance of resilience'.(3) Poorer people have the most to gain from implementing options that increase household ability to cope with change. Investments in developing and disseminating coping strategies and risk management options thus can help alleviate poverty in substantial ways.(4) Householders' objectives and their attitudes about, and access to, natural resources vary greatly. The type of household model best suited to each case will thus often differ, requiring that integrated assessments be done on a caseby-case basis. As Thornton says, 'So-called \"recommendation domains\" for targeting technology and policy interventions are probably smaller than we thought.' Acknowledging that, contrary to conventional wisdom, research impacts cannot easily be generalized across large areas has considerable implications for the way in which research for development can most effectively be carried out.(5) We need to employ a dynamic framework to assess the ecological impacts of changes, together with their major feedbacks to livelihood systems, over the medium term at the least. There are lags and dampers in the system that need to be elucidated in any even partially integrated assessment.(6) The assessment framework has to allow the quantification of major tradeoffs so that decision-makers and stakeholders can visualize impacts of different actions on different parties.(7) Although the integrated assessments employed in these case studies have limitations that should be addressed in further work, such assessments have a key role to play not only in quantifying trade-offs but also in identifying what is both desirable and feasible in highly complex systems. Integrated assessments, in other words, can help establish the outer limits within which agricultural research can reasonably be expected to contribute to improving and sustaining livelihoods in given situations. Sub-Saharan Africa has been called the food crisis epicentre of the world. Global change is likely to add to the burdens of many millions of poor and vulnerable people on the continent. Equipping policymakers and donor agents with tools and information with which to identify the 'bounds of the possible' in natural resource use is likely to become crucial in the fight to help hundreds of millions of Africans dependent on diminishing natural resources escape poverty, hunger and environmental degradation. 'Livestock and livelihoods: Improving market participation by small-scale livestock producers' is a collaborative project to improve the incomes and livelihoods of small-scale farmers in the ubiquitous drought-prone mixed crop-and-livestock systems of southern Africa. In these southern drylands, livestock keeping conducted in tandem with crop production is more ecologically suitable and offers better opportunities for poverty alleviation than crop farming alone. This project works to help governments and agencies determine and implement the market incentives that enable subsistence cattle and goat producers to move to a more commercial orientation, with better management of their crop-livestock systems, resulting in higher production and livestock off-take rates.The project works with farmers, traders and other service providers to encourage such commercialization. It conducts diagnostic surveys to identify the potential for, and constraints to, increasing livestock production in each area. It evaluates alternative systems for livestock marketing and input delivery and selects, refines and disseminates best-bet interventions. Pilot activities are targeting three countries: Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe. This project is being implemented by a consortium of partners including national research and extension services, farmers, NGOs, the private sector, and ICRISAT and ILRI.Over 60% of the region within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is semi-arid and prone to drought. Although the drier areas are most suited to livestock production, food security is defined largely in terms of crop yields and research and extension focuses on crops rather than livestock. This project works to strengthen food security and income growth among smallholder farmers through the commercialization of the livestock production within their crop-livestock farming systems.The project focuses on drought-prone areas with high poverty levels. Crop production is important in these areas and contributes to food security. However, crops have limited potential to alleviate poverty in these dry ecosystems; livestock have greater potential to generate andCommercializing livestock markets in drought-prone southern Africa diversify income, but that has not been fully exploited. Project outputs will feed directly into the investment strategies of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers in the target countries and can also be adapted and applied to several other SADC countries with similar agro-ecologies. The project agenda complements the agendas of SADC-RISPD 1 (Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan) and PRINT 2 (Promotion of Regional Integration in the SADC Livestock Sector).Traders and market intermediaries: Traders and other market intermediaries are crucial in facilitating increased livestock off-take. In the absence of effective public-sector infrastructure and services, they provide critical services to small-scale livestock producers. For example, traders often reduce transaction costs and thus increase farmers' incomes and profits; they reduce uncertainty and risk by offering market channels. Input suppliers provide information on animal health and nutrition as well as inputs. Traders provide information on standards/grades, price and demand. Increasing the institutional and technical capacity of traders will thus directly benefit farmers and the local economy.Policymakers: Appropriate, supportive policies are essential to mainstream livestock production in the national and regional development agendas of southern Africa. The project will provide information, technical and capacitybuilding support to policymakers to assist the development of an enabling policy environment for smallholder livestock producers. This 'Livestock Livelihoods' project, dubbed 'LiLi by its members, is working to find ways to encourage small-scale livestock producers to shift from extensive production practices towards more commercially oriented intensive practices. What helps make this happen are more direct links between extension and input delivery and marketing strategies. Project staff will match the best available technologies with a series of pilot marketing efforts targeting the commercialization of low-input systems. In the process, they will help empower farmers to choose and find technology options for improving the productivity of their crop-livestock systems while pursuing better prices based on high-quality grades. Public investments in research and extension will be matched with private investments in market expansion. This project is beginning with experimental 'market-led technology change' programs in three SADC countries: Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Two pilot activities linking production technologies and product markets are being implemented in each country by a team of national scientists, NGOs, private traders and international research centres. Continuous and systematic monitoring and evaluation will ensure that the lessons learned during the pilot phase are discussed in a regional forum for potential wider application in other SADC countries.The following are the specific objectives of the Lili project.1. Evaluate constraints to, and opportunities for, commercializing smallholder production of goats and cattle A series of inter-linked diagnostic surveys are being made to identify the constraints and opportunities of commercializing smallholder goat and cattle production in the three target countries. The surveys are measuring current and potential levels of livestock productivity and off-take and identifying the socio-economic and biophysical factors limiting commercialization. They are also helping project staff to identify key stakeholders in selected livestock value chains and to understand their methods of operation, their differing needs, and their demands for information. This will provide a better understanding of the institutional linkages influencing technology flows and marketing decisions. In this work and dialogue, project staff are working explicitly to engage different stakeholders, promote interest in the project, and engender a sense of 'ownership' among farmers, extension agents and traders. Finally, the surveys will create a baseline for measuring the impacts of the project.2. Test and evaluate alternative product marketing systems Six pilot programs are being evaluated, two in each target country. The planning, design and implementation of these pilot programs are building on the analysis of institutional relationships to understand mechanisms for engaging different types of stakeholders. Each pilot project is testing strategies for increasing the number and quality of animals sold by improving technology dissemination and product marketing. There will be planned interventions on product markets. Each of the case studies will be facilitated, monitored and evaluated using a value chain approach.Technical and organizational constraints for each segment of the value chain in these market systems is being analyzed using the framework below.• Production: farmers' livestock assets, off-take and investment in livestock production (including feed and fodder), accessibility of livestock markets and information, comparative advantages of formal and informal market channels and feed systems.• Transportation and intermediary services: transfer and marketing costs, transport facilities, types of organization and activities (supply of credit, information, contacts, transport, moderate negotiations, advocacy, linkages to regional/crossborder markets).• Processing: abattoir standards and capacity, distribution and utilization, links to direct production and sale.• Wholesaling: establishment of private sector, development of market channels, competitiveness in international markets.• Retailing: establishment of private companies, development of market channels, information on market trends.• Consumption: consumer demands (product quality, diversity, service); impact of income, urbanization and population growth; willingness to pay for product development.Commercializing livestock markets in drought-prone southern Africa 3. Evaluate the impact of market-led technology change on incomes and poverty Input delivery systems are limited in all three target countries. Public and private investments concentrate on farmers who are already relatively commercialized. The costs of reaching the more numerous smallholder community are high and budgets are tight. This project is addressing this constraint by more closely linking extension advice and input delivery with selected product market interventions.The project is conducting an initial inventory of the range of technologies being promoted for smallholder production systems in each country and then identifying a subset of proven technologies for more intensive promotion. The inventory takes the following under consideration.• Feed supply, including technologies for drought mitigation: improving quality of rangeland, improving the use and quality of crop residues, dual-purpose crops, fodder crops, agro-industrial byproducts, bio-processing feeds, and the availability and cost of manufactured feeds.• Animal health: control of diseases that endanger household subsistence, limit market opportunities or limit livestock-based intensification of farming systems.• Animal genetic resources: conservation of adapted breeds, especially in terms of disease resistance and drought tolerance, as well as improved milk production and meat quality.• Access to information and know-how: biological processes, management practices (feed and fodder processing, animal husbandry), new technology, markets and prices, institutional processes and requirements. The final choice of 'best-bet' technologies will be derived from the analysis and dialogue, especially with farmers and traders, but it is expected that the technologies will include a cross-section of feed and veterinary options. There may also be scope for improving genetic stock and strengthening community institutions.4. Test and evaluate alternative input delivery systems Two types of impact assessment will be conducted.• Direct impacts of project interventions on household welfare, institutional arrangements, and the environment will be measured.• Policy implications of broader commercialization of smallholder livestock systems will be explored with a multi-market trade model.Household welfare gains will be measured using a range of criteria relating to income growth, food security and equity. Surveys will be conducted to assess the adoption of new technologies and the effect on the level and quantity of animal off-take. Enterprise budget analysis will be used to assess the profitability of the technologies being adopted. The analysis of direct income gains will be linked with assessment of food security benefits. In particular, the distributive impacts of these interventions will be assessed to determine if most of the gains are being captured by a few wealthier farmers or if farmers Commercializing livestock markets in drought-prone southern Africa with smallholdings are also benefiting. This project is ambitious to target the most gains to the poorer and more vulnerable households and to the women in them.LiLi's measurement of environmental benefits will consider how the technologies and market interventions contribute to the levels and quality of soil and water resources. The project will determine whether and which farmers respond to improved markets by holding larger numbers of animals in limited areas or whether they make investments to improve their land and water resources.The project will test two sets of communication strategies-one for improving communication with farmers on technology and market opportunities and a second one for improving the quality of policy analysis in government livestock units. These will be developed in collaboration with the SADC Communication for Development Center and other partners. Africa is likely to be particularly badly affected by climate change. Nearly a third of the planet's 1.3 billion poor people live there and 60% of these poor people are dependent on livestock for some part of their livelihoods. Most of these people practice forms of 'agro-pastoralism', small-scale rain-fed mixed crop-and-livestock production or pastoralism. Climate change is likely to have major impacts on poor livestock keepers and on the ecosystems on which they depend. These impacts include changes in the productivity of rain-fed crops and forages, reduced water availability and more widespread water shortages, and changing severity and distribution of important human, livestock and crop diseases.Overall, warming and drying may reduce crop yields by 10 to 20% to 2050, but there are places where losses in yield and net primary productivity may be much more severe. In addition, increasing frequencies of heat stress, drought and flooding events will hurt crop and livestock productivity over and above the impacts due to changes in mean variables alone. Many African countries are more vulnerable to climate change impacts than developed countries because of the more limited capacity of developing countries to adapt to change. And climate change is but one driver of change: human population will increase in Africa by nearly 1 billion people to 2050; rapid urbanization is expected to continue throughout the continent; and the global demand for livestock products is expected to continue to increase significantly in the coming decades. The development challenges that Africa faces are already considerable; climate change simply, and importantly, adds to these.Livestock are a crucial coping mechanism in variable environments, so as climate variability increases, our domesticated animals become more important. Despite the central role that livestock play in coping with risk and providing livelihood options, there is surprisingly little knowledge about the interactions of climate with other drivers of change in livestock-based systems. There is much more information available on cropping systems' responses. The outputs of this project will help redress this imbalance. Given the rapid spread of HPAI across the globe, and the potential for the disease to transform into a pandemic through transmission from person to person as well as between animals and from animals to humans, a quick response was needed. Identification of HPAI in African poultry flocks was a wake-up call for both veterinary and public health services in the region about the importance of functional animal health surveillance systems. Only these systems can detect transboundary livestock diseases early enough for governments to mount rapid and effective responses. And only these systems can protect the public from zoonotic diseases, which can be transmitted between people and animals.In response to the global spread of HPAI, several projects were put in place quickly by both international organizations and donors. The Office of Global Health of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) developed a portfolio of projects to address various issues associated with a potential pandemic. For example, in response to the unclear but increasingly alarming scenario in Indonesia, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with the assistance of experts from Tufts University, put into place a program in participatory disease surveillance (PDS) for avian influenza, starting in January 2006. Within months, the PDS Indonesia program brought to light the extensive and endemic nature of HPAI in the country.ILRI's first response as a research institute was to engage global experts to identify key research needs related to HPAI and to analyze the potential livelihood impacts of disease-control measures in the developing world. Based on these findings, ILRI brought together a multidisciplinary team for tackling emerging and transboundary diseases. The team takes advantage of ILRI's available expertise in epidemiology, economics and risk assessment. In addition, ILRI brought in new expertise in the area of participatory epidemiology with direct experience in its application to HPAI in Indonesia.The ILRI team has identified key lessons from experiences with PDS in Indonesia, in the context of over 15 years of application of participatory epidemiology to several transboundary diseases in multiple socio-political contexts. First, it is recognized that PDS has proven to be a useful tool for diagnosing and tracing HPAI outbreaks. Second, the rapid implementation of any approach to disease surveillance without the full participation of national stakeholders can lead to a parallel system of report management. Third, where disease control options are unidentified and unavailable, surveillance systems are ineffective. (And when the system becomes an exercise in disease documentation, leading to no action to control the disease, surveillance practitioners quickly become demoralized.)In response to these findings, and with USAID Indonesia support, ILRI has implemented a program in operational research with two objectives: to evaluate the feasibility and impact of the implementation of alternative control strategies for HPAI in the context of Indonesia, and to assess risk factors for Indonesian HPAI outbreaks and collect information on transmission dynamics through targeted research.This project is contributing to USAID's avian influenza program in southern Africa by supporting surveillance practitioners and by mapping risk factors potentially associated with HPAI.There is a dearth of information regarding the epidemiology of HPAI in Africa. Risk factors for disease introduction and spread are hypothesized based on experience from Asia. Yet research is calling into question the conventional wisdom on which these assumptions are based and indicating that knowledge about risk factors for HPAI in Asia is not directly transferable to Africa. Detailed epidemiological intelligence on disease outbreaks and prevalence is scant. An epidemiological understanding of potential sanitary weak links along the poultry value chain will allow for targeted surveillance designed for early disease detection and reporting to local and international animal health systems. Some of the most urgent other knowledge gaps include how best to reduce disease risk, manage disease and reach with communications all stakeholders / decision-makers, from farmers to heads of states.When HPAI outbreaks occurred in the late 1990s in Asia, it was predicted that it could spread across the world to the Middle East, Europe and to Africa via migrations of susceptible wild birds and/or movements of poultry. In 2003 outbreaks became widespread in Southeast Asia and spread across South Asia into Europe. In early 2006, theThe impacts of HPAI on the poultry sector are not only direct, in the form of poultry deaths, but also indirect, such as when an outbreak lowers demand and thus prices of birds or when farmers must abide by movement restrictions and biosecurity measures implemented by control programs. The disease has hit poorer smallholder poultry keepers hardest, particularly those keeping 50 or more birds, for whom income from poultry is an important part of their livelihood; women dependent on sales of eggs and birds for their survival strategies; and children and sick people who need and don't get the essential nutrients poultry provide. It has been difficult to establish the mode of introduction of the virus to Africa because of limited capacity in some countries to investigate disease, limited information on illegal movements of poultry or poultry products and delays in disease reporting of initial outbreaks. International trade in live poultry has been implicated as the source of the virus, but recent research suggests that there have been many introductions into Nigeria of strains more common in wild than domestic birds, so the possibility of introduction by migrating wild birds cannot be ruled out. The mode of spread within countries and within regions is most likely to be through formal and informal trade in live poultry and poultry products. The common practice of open live bird (wet) markets is likely to be a major route of spread.Remarkably, more than 85% of the rural households in sub-Saharan Africa keep one or more poultry species, usually in extensive backyard systems. Unlike other livestock species, poultry are commonly the domain of women. The relative importance of intensive poultry production versus extensive backyard production varies between countries depending on the level of development of the poultry industry. In Nigeria 40% of production is commercial and 60% backyard. For small-scale farmers, poultry are a source of income from sales of birds and eggs and a vital source of protein (20% of meat consumed in sub-Saharan Africa is from poultry), especially for children, pregnant or lactating women and people affected by HIV/AIDs, as well as key to major social and cultural practices. Many actors are involved in the poultry sector along the value chain, from breeders to sellers of roasted poultry meat.limited, the same very limited set of veterinarians from target countries attend the different training programs. Often, the same individuals will be trained in conflicting methods and approaches by different organizations. Laboratory capacity, in both human and resource terms, is similarly limited, calling into question capacity and timeliness in terms of sample analysis. Regional animal health organizations and institutions, led by the African Union-Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), are a primary gateway to working with national institutions and must be a partner in any program focused on HPAI surveillance and response. However, as representative organizations of developing countries, their limited resources must also be recognized and supported.In Western countries there exist public and private monitoring systems for animal, feed and food product quality and safety attributes that might be employed in HPAI detection. This is not the case in Africa, where value chains are more diffuse, generate far less information and do not feature enforceable accountability through mechanisms such as traceability. Moreover, many African animal product handling procedures may pre-dispose to cross-contamination and other problems. In these regards, Asia may be considered an intermediate case. Similarly, border controls, particularly for the poultry and poultry product value chain, are not easily enforced, while capacity and enforcement for sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures in private industry are weak.This transformational project addresses this problem by using risk-based approaches (risk mapping, value chain analysis, risk assessment) to create tools and train decision-makers in their use to achieve national, sub-regional and regional targeting of scarce surveillance resources to areas of greatest risk for HPAI introduction, establishment of endemicity and livelihood impact.At the national level, ILRI will partner with a range of national, sub-national, academic, community, and/or business organizations. By using a value chain approach, ILRI will work with local partners to strengthen surveillance systems that integrate conventional and participatory methods to provide information usable to a diversity of stakeholders, to inform decision-A new strategy for Asian smallholder dairy makers about effective entry points for interventions, and to identify and target high-risk areas for disease control. Since poultry products do not necessarily enter the marketing system, particularly when most owners run backyard operations for family consumption, active surveillance techniques (including participatory disease surveillance approaches) are particularly important.Using evidence-based risk assessment approaches for targeting surveillance resources is unique and transformational to this project. Risk-based approaches to resource targeting (such as surveillance resources or disease-control resources) allow decisions to be made on the basis of the impact and likelihood of disease rather than fear of disease.ILRI and its partners are focusing on the following.To improve capacity for risk-based approaches to targeting surveillance resources for rapid response to HPAI.To improve national surveillance and reporting capacity in general, with a focus on Nigeria and Uganda.To enable sub-regional cooperation and coordination, and regional support, to undertake HPAI investigations, report disease and manage HPAI relevant information. Developmental strategies for control and eradication of FMD-including improving existing conventional vaccines and diagnostics for their quality and efficacy-will pave the way for the improved growth and productivity of livestock, especially in small-farm production systems, and for ensuring their participation and access to global markets.'While the economic losses associated with major outbreaks of FMD in industrial countries, notably in Europe in 2001, grabbed world headlines, the disease continues to cause enormous, recurrent losses across large swathes of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America.'The direct losses alone due to FMD in India are estimated to be more than US$4.5 billion per year; indirect production losses could be much more', says Dr R Venkataramanan, principal scientist at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, in Bangalore.The roadmap report recognizes that vaccines currently available for the control of FMD are not ideal for use in many developing countries. To remain effective, they must be kept under constant refrigeration, so the protection they offer is better suited to the needs of FMD-free countries rather than countries where the disease is a constant and daily threat. It will take considerable time to develop and make available new improved vaccines suitable for developing countryconditions. In the meantime, much can be done with current vaccines and diagnostics, especially if their use is complemented with sound epidemiological and economic decision-support tools to guide and facilitate their effective use.The Global Roadmap workshop in Agra focused on four areas:• science needs of novel FMD vaccines ","tokenCount":"41137"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a935e1d5bf248186ade877c602af0ce7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8582aa06-7125-42a5-a862-3f675f8ba420/retrieve","id":"626926528"},"keywords":["Natural Language Processing","Plant Ontology","Plant Trait Ontology","taxonomic descriptions","flagellate plants","phenotypic traits","matrices","phylogeny"],"sieverID":"8985282a-f38e-4aff-aab5-910109c43996","pagecount":"4","content":"Assembling large-scale phenotypic datasets for evolutionary and biodiversity studies of plants can be extremely difficult and time consuming. New semi-automated Natural Language Processing (NLP) pipelines can extract phenotypic data from taxonomic descriptions, and their performance can be enhanced by incorporating information from ontologies, like the Plant Ontology (PO) and the Plant Trait Ontology (TO). These ontologies are powerful tools for comparing phenotypes across taxa for large-scale evolutionary and ecological analyses, but they are largely focused on terms associated with flowering plants. We describe a bottom-up approach to identify terms from flagellate plants (including bryophytes, lycophytes, ferns, and gymnosperms) that can be added to existing plant ontologies. We first parsed a large corpus of electronic taxonomic descriptions using the Explorer of Taxon Concepts tool (http://taxonconceptexplorer.org/) and identified flagellate plant specific terms that were missing from the existing ontologies. We extracted new structure and trait terms, and we are currently incorporating the missing structure terms to the PO and modifying the definitions of existing terms to expand their coverage to flagellate plants. We will incorporate trait terms to the TO in the near future.Assembling phenotypic datasets is a major bottleneck for many studies in evolutionary biology and biodiversity science [1]. New computer-mediated methods facilitate and expedite the assembly of plant trait datasets from digital images and the natural history literature [1][2][3]. For example, Natural Language Processing (NLP) approaches can be used to extract phenotypic data from formal taxonomic descriptions [4,5].The phenotypic characters can be organized quickly and inexpensively into character x taxon matrices that can be used for tasks such as phylogenetic inference, ancestral state reconstruction, or key building.Ontologies, structured vocabularies of standardized terms and the logical relationships between those terms [6], can enhance NLP approaches for assembling phenotypic datasets by increasing the precision of the data extracted and consequently the number of usable characters. For example, into parsing analyses, ontologies can establish complex relationships among plant parts. For example, 'apicula' is_part of 'apex', and 'apex' is part of 'leaf'. In this example, this representation of knowledge enables the system to extract the qualifiers of the apicula (e.g., vestigial/prominent, length of the apicula), relate them to the leaf, and distinguish this information from apicula present in other structures (e.g., petals)There has been much recent work to develop ontologies and controlled vocabularies for botanical terms, such as the Plant Ontology (PO) and the Plant Trait Ontology (TO) [6][7][8][9][10]. However, these efforts have largely focused on terms associated with flowering plants. There is a need to enrich plant ontologies with terms from 'flagellate plants', land plants including bryophytes, lycophytes, ferns, and gymnosperms that mostly have flagellated sperm and lack flowers.Many of the terms that are used to describe plant structures and traits in flagellate plants have not been formalized in controlled vocabularies and ontologies. Additionally, other terms included in the ontologies have definitions that do not encompass the usage found in descriptions of flagellate plants. The lack of terms in existing plant ontologies for flagellate plants limits the effectiveness of NLP approaches to generate comparative phenotypic datasets.In this study, we demonstrate a bottom-up approach to extract structures and traits that can be used to enrich the available ontologies. We used a semi-automatic Natural Language Processing (NLP) pipeline to extract terms from plant taxonomic descriptions. We then evaluated whether these terms were represented in the PO and TO, and if they should be added to the ontologies, or if the definitions of existing terms should be expanded to accommodate all the uses of the term. This bottom-up approach can identify candidate terms for plant ontologies and capture the diversity of semantic usage of the terms. By considering this variation in the use of a term, we can develop ontologies with broader phylogenetic coverage and thus improve the efficiency of assembling character matrices across plants.We gathered 3978 taxonomic descriptions of flagellate plant taxa from electronic versions of seven floras and monographic treatments (Table 1). These descriptions were written in the telegraphic syntax (i.e., abbreviated English language; Fig. 1). Only the text in the body of descriptions was used, and we removed the parenthetical remarks and extended descriptions, which often violate the rules of telegraphic syntax.We input the formatted descriptions into the Explorer of Taxon Concepts pipeline (ETC) [4], an online application that uses an unsupervised machine learning model to analyze the formulaic sentences used in descriptions. These sentences consist of a structure followed by a string of qualifiers separated by commas (i.e., Structure (noun), qualifier1, qualifier2, …qualifier n;). The ETC pipeline is composed of five tools. However, to extract terms from the descriptions, we used only the 'Text Capture Tool', which transforms the input text into XML format, identifies sentences and the terms within them (i.e., parsing), and semantically annotates the components of each sentence (Fig. 1). This step of the analysis is facilitated by built-in reference glossaries specific for each group of organisms. To parse the flagellate plant dataset, we used the \"Plant Glossary\" [8].During the initial phases of the parsing analysis, the Text Capture Tool recognizes terms based on the reference glossaries and places them into discrete, predefined categories. It also presents the user with unrecognized terms, along with the corresponding context sentences, to facilitate the evaluation of terms (Fig. 2). The context sentences enable the user to see all the ways in which a term has been used throughout the descriptions, and the user can manually categorize any terms which were not automatically assigned a category. Using the context sentences, we categorized terms that were unrecognized by the system, and we also verified the categorizations performed by the software. We downloaded all the categorized terms extracted by the system for each of the seven datasets (Table 1) using the 'File Download' function of the Review step of the Text Capture tool (Fig. 2). The files downloaded in this step were in comma separated values (csv) format and contained the terms extracted by the ETC and their corresponding categories. For example, the term blue would be associated with the coloration category, whereas leaf would be with assigned to the structure category. Cycads [11] 312 170Ferns of Australia [12] 463 334Ferns of China [13] 422 159Ferns of Mexico [14] 950 51Ferns of North America [15] 649 23Gymnosperms, exc. Cycads [16] 646 101Moss Flora of China-Vol. I, II [17] 536 174Total Number: 3978 1012 (575-unique terms)Although we extracted terms describing both structures and traits, we are first focusing on evaluating and adding structure terms to the Plant Ontology only. We extracted 1012 plant structure terms from across flagellate plants (Table 1), 575 of which were unique. Because structure terms are defined differently in ETC and the PO, our first effort was to distinguish structure terms that can be added to the PO. The nature of the difference is that structure terms extracted by ETC include external and internal anatomical entities, as well as terms that refer to parts, spaces, lines, scars, constrictions, and derived products. In contrast, PO structures are defined more strictly as parts of a plant (i.e. anatomical structure). We evaluated the terms extracted (575 unique terms) and separated terms that refer to anatomical structures (494) from non-specific nouns like aperture, border, or center (81 terms). We mapped the extracted candidate terms to the existing Plant and Trait Ontologies based on string similarity and ontology design patterns using an in-house script (https://github.com/Planteome/common-files-for-refontologies/tree/master/scripts). A total of 222 structure terms were mapped to the Plant Ontology using this method, but they still required a curator to review. For many of the extracted candidate terms that were not mapped automatically to PO terms, we used the context sentences (Fig. 2), and manually matched the term to an ontology term based on the human-readable definition. The many terms that were not mapped (272 terms) are good candidates terms that can be submitted to the existing ontology, either as new terms or as synonyms of existing terms. The context sentences can be helpful for building the definitions.Once we identified a term for addition to the PO, we opened an issue on the Plant Ontology GitHub repository (https://github.com/Planteome/plant-ontology/issues).The proposed definitions for the terms were determined by flagellate plant experts, working with the ontology curators. For example, we recently added the term gametophore coma to the PO: Issue tracker: https://github.com/Planteome/plantontology/issues/682 gametophore coma (PO:0028005): A collective plant organ structure (PO:0025007) which is a cluster of gametophore branches (PO:0030021) or nonvascular leaves (PO:0025075) at the top of the gametophore axis (PO:0030020), forming a tuft.Our bottom-up approach of using ETC to parse flagellate plant descriptions has produced a wealth of candidate terms for inclusion in existing plant ontologies. These efforts have the potential to greatly enhance the phylogenetic breadth of terminology in plant ontologies. We have parsed descriptions from all the genera and species of conifers and cycads, most of the genera and some species of ferns, and some of the gnetales. Although we have parsed descriptions of the Moss Flora of China (Table 1), our sampling of the diversity of bryophytes (i.e., mosses, liverworts and hornworts) and lycophytes is still low. We are focusing our efforts to gather descriptions of the main lineages of bryophytes and lycophytes. Other future efforts will include adding the additional new terms to the Plant Ontology and extending this effort to incorporate terms to the TO. From the corpus of descriptions detailed in Table 1, we have currently extracted 2162 trait terms from which only 503 are represented in Phenotypic Quality Ontology (PATO).","tokenCount":"1565"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"21e064ab710b9bd0ea9c3a66dfd8ed0d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fc1af7fc-fdfb-47fd-9551-92b09be36a98/retrieve","id":"-1841875955"},"keywords":["Proj ect Overview Narrative Summary Region Responsible Measurable indicators M eans of Verification lmporta nt A ssumptions Output 2","2","2"],"sieverID":"d0e95d73-0b57-49dc-ac16-5450b848b2a3","pagecount":"158","content":"Integrating improved germplasm and resourse management for enhanced crop and livestock production systems ' \"¡ 2.2.3 Forage-based systems for dry season supplementation in tropical LA 2 .2.4 Forage species evaluated for intensive rnixed-systems for beef and rnilk production in the Piedmont, Llanos 2.2.5 Irnproved feed supplies for smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia 2.2.6 Legumes and grasses adopted by farmers for multiple uses 2.2.7. New' technology options for cassava in AsiaRecording and analysis ofthe kinetic energy ofmore than 140 rainfall events will allow a more reliable assessment of the rainfall erosivity factor for predicting soilloss risk in the Andean zone.• Data from > 1 O years of rainfall events and soil eros ion have be en integrated with the C1AT GIS databas e for the Hillsides.• Turbidimetry measurement of soil dispersed from aggregates has potential for being used as an indicator of soil health in relation to the resistance of soil erosion to erosion.Selected sites from this project are now being managed by PE-2.e) Characterization of on-farrn sites for forage evaluation in Southeast Asia characterized (p29)The Forage for Smallholders Project works at 18 sites in Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines and Thailand. Si tes ha ve been characterized so that the impact of new forage technology can be monitored.• Collected and summarized environmental andfarming system site characterization informationfor 18 on-farm sites of the Forages for Smallholders ProjectThis characterization provides basic data for an irnpact assessment study that is planned next year (see 2.4.4)Potential of new technologies and management options in the forest margins. Pucallpa Cp34)An economic optimization and feasibility analysis of smallholder farming systems is being carried out at the Pucallpa in association with the participatory technology development project, DEPAM• Existing economic data available in Pucallpa has been summarized and development offarm budgets for different commodities commencedThe initial ex-ante evaluations of alternative technologies will be completed next year. It is planned to develop a generalized model that can be used for evaluating technology alternatives in the future.b) Ex-ante evaluatíon of potential for improved feed technologies for dual-pur¡>ase cattle farms Cp36)• New forage altematives of Cratylia+sugarcane for dry season supplementation and Brachiaria-Arachis pastures to replace existing pastures allow purchased supplementation to be reduced or eliminated, and steep land reallocated for reforestation in Costa Rica• New forage altematives offer a large increase in productivity and decrease in cost of production of milk if used in conjunction with the credit scheme that is being offered to small farmers in Nicaragua• In contrast, in Pucallpa, Peru, new forage altematives do not offer a viable option to farmers in a situation where there is abundant existing pasture and a low market potential An outcome of this analysis is a decision to move sorne Tropileche activities to a forest margin si te at Moyobamba, also in Peru, where there is greater need and opportunity for improved forage technologies.Another outcome has been training CORPOICA staff in the use model for ex-ante evaluation of forage technologies in different regions in Colombia.a) DEPAM Consortium. Aguaytia watershed, Pucallpa. Peru Cp.47)CIAT with IDRC and CODESU is facilitating the development of a multi-institutional and participatory approach to technology development in the forest margins reference site, Pucallpa.• Program coordinator and agro-industry and market specialist appointedThis is an on-going process in developing a model for applied and adaptive research led by local partners.b) TROPILECHE Consortium. Latín America and the Caribbean CLAC) (p.48) This has a focus on intensifying livestock production through improved forage technologies.• Publication of a book on methodologies for on-farm research• New partnerships with organizations in Nicaragua and HondurasTropileche was initially an acronym coined for a project submitted to the SLP. lt has becorne a platform for moving new germplasm and forage technologies and communication between researchers working on dual-purpose cattle systems in Latín Arnerica.e) Forages for Srnallholders Project CFSP) and SEAFRAD network, Southeast Asia Cp.49)This project is using a farmer participatory approach to introduce germplasm and develop forage technologies through national organizations in Indonesia, Lao PRD, Philippines and Vietnam, and which also networks with China, Malaysia and Thailand.• A project review in 1998 showed a high rate of adoption of new forage materials by farmersThe outputs of the 5-year project will be presented at an intemational conference to be held in Cagayan de Oro, Mindano, Philippines, in October 1999.d) Asían Cassava Research and Development Network (p.50) This is a network of researchers involved in improvement and management of cassava in Asia.• Proceedings ofthe 5th Regional Workshop, held in Danzhou, Hainan, China, Nov 3-8, 1996, were published in April1998.A Regional Stakeholders Consultation Meeting to define a new cassava strategy and to set priorities for future research in Asia, has been organized for November 1998.New funding was obtained for the DEP AM project in Pucallpa, Peru, and for the Tropileche project from BID and the Systemwide Livestock Program.New projects ha ve been submitted for component technology development of forages and cassava in Southeast Asia, for impact assessment in Asia and for funding from the Systemwide Altematives to Slash and Bum Program.a) Forest margins site-Pucallpa. Peru (p.53) Research within CIAT and with other organizations has been consolidated through development of:• A common visionfor 1ARC research• A consolidated work planfor research in the reference site CIAT, CIFOR and ICRAF will hold a planing workshop in May 1999.b) PE-5-Sustainable Systems for Smallholders project (p.54)The main focus has been on developing a research program at the landscape level at the forest margins site in Pucallpa, Peru. This included a consultation with stakeholders, project development (DEP AM) and recruitment of scientists in resource economics and participatory research. Visits were made to Asia and with input into reviews for the forage and cassava related projects.• Systems research consolidated in forest margins site, PucallpaIt is suggested that future coordination efforts need to be concentrated on consolidating agroecosystem and regional teams rather than to coordination of project activities per se.1 1 1 1Project Overview e) Tropileche (p.54)The main coordination activities were:• A participatory workshop was held in Costa Rica during February of 1998 with all partners to review current research and planning of new activities• Research programs in Peru and Costa Rica are now well established and being developed in Nicaragua and Honduras• Discussions were held with Venezuela to become active partners in Tropileche• Databas e on livestock research results in LA C expanded and made available on the intemet There are plans to hold a meeting with national partners in 1999 to review the areas in which Tropileche can best interact with national partners and to plan future projects and activities.d) Forages for Srnallholders Project (p.55)Coordination is achieved througb the annual meeting and regular site visits.• Third Annual Regional Meeting of the F orages for Smallholders Project in Samarinda, Indonesia from 22-27 March 1998• Mid-term externa[ review ofthe Foragesfor Smallholders Projectfrom 19 March to 8 April1998• Feature article in December 1998 issue of In Focus, in-house magazine of AusAJD.The next annual planning meeting will be held in Vietnam in January1999.e) Integrated Cassava-based Cropping Systems in Asia Cp.57)Coordination was maintained through regular visits to collaborators in the different countries.• End-of-Project review which stated that the project had met its objectives and that the outcomes formed a sound basis for a new project.The review included a strong recommendation from partners that funds be sought to continue the coordination of cassava research activities and the network by CIAT staff.This output airns to increase the efficiency of utilization of forages and feeds for milk production from dual-purpose cattle. Tbe following are highlights of individual experirnents conducted during the year.a) Supplementation with Cratylia argentea and sugarcane (p.56)• Response in milk yield to legume supplementation of sugarcane anda basal grass diet was greater in the dry than wet season b) Supplernentation with Cratylia argentea and sugarcane during the wet season C p.59)• Cratylia argentea increased milk production in cows with a high potentialfor milk production when fed as 100% of the supplement 13 -Project Overview e) Use of Cratylia argentea for dry season supplementation of sugarcane supplementation (p.60)• lt was shown that Cratylia argentea can be used to replace purchased protein supplements for cows of medium-high potential for milk production.d) Use of Stylosanthes guianensis hay as a supplement for increasing milk yield Cp.61)• Low quality legumes cannot make a contribution to increasing milk yield.e) Legumes as protein sources for supplementing sugarcane in feed rations for milking cows (p.62)• Legumes with crude protein composition of < 12% are not an appropriate substitution for chicken manure for milking cows D Milk urea nitrogen as an indicator for devising feeciing strategies for milk production (p .64)• Milk urea nitrogen (MUN) concentration is a good indicator ofthe protein to energy ratio in the diet, responses to protein supplementation being expected below <10 mgldl M UN.This research has highlighted the important role that a relatively new shrub legume, Cratlylia argentea, might play in providing a protein supplement for milk production during the dry season. It also demonstrates that tropicallegumes per se are not a useful feed source when mature and low in protein.There is need for more emphasis on managing legumes (and processing in the case of hay) to ensure that a high quality product is obtained.The use of MUN as an indicator of protein to energy status will be evaluated under on-farm conditions. This could improve the precision of on-farm research for milk production.We planto continue this research on optimizing efficiency of utilization of forages and feeding stuffs as it provides a sound basis for devising potential feed technologies that can be further developed on farm.These are initial results from the on-farm trials conducted under Tropileche a) Use of an Arachis pintoi-Brachiaria decumbens association for milk production, Atenas, Costa Rica ~• Arachis pintoi associated with Brachiaria decumbens increased milk production from 9. 7 to 1 O. 7 /Id even when concentrares were being fed.b) Use of grass legume mixtures to increase milk production in the forest margins of Peru (p.67)• !ni tia/ results of the role of legumes in increasing milk production are inconclusive e) Stylosanthes guianensis for strategic supplementation of pre-weaned calves (p.68)• Use of a legume to feed pre-weaned calves increased the collection of milkfrom dual-purpose calves with the potential to iftcrease fa rmer cash incomeThese results demonstrate a potential for legumes where tbere is a high level of fann management. These on-fann trials will be continued for another two years in order to measure associated effects on soil fertility as well as on milk production .This research aims to overcome feed limitations during the 6 months dry season in Central America. • L. leucocephala is an altemative optionfor supplementing pre-weaned calves on higher fertility soils during the dry season.The on-fann trials will be conducted for another two years to allow time for the technologies to be adapted by fanners to their particular needs.Renovation of degraded pastures usingArachis pintoi (p.72}• Four new accessions of Arachis pintoi are being evaluated under grazing onfour farms Tbe on-fann trials were only planted in August 1998 and will be continued for another 3 years.• Established 18 on-farm sites in Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, where the F orages of Smal/h(J/ders Project is developing forage technologies with farmers are beginning to utilize significant areas offorage At sites that have been established 3 years, there is considerable spontaneous adoption occurring. This special project will termínate in December 1999. It is expected that outputs (at least 40 fanners using improved forages at each site) will be met. We are seeking funds to continue this research beyond 2000, so that participatory adaptation of forages can be facilitated beyond the initial adoption stage.Forages are promoted as contributing to improved resource management as well as feeding livestock. This output aims to better assess this multiple use in different agroecosysterns.a) Participator:y evaluation and strategic targeting multipumose germplasm in the hillsides of Central America (p.77)• In 1998, sites were selected andforage germplasm nurseries established atfour sites in Honduras where legumes will be ,evaluated with farmers for multiple uses.Project Overview b) Legumes as green manures in cassava-based systems in Asia (p.78)• Short-term use of green manure (2-4 mths) increased cassava yields but notas high as the yield obtained with high rates offertilizer• Long-term green manuring ( 18 mths) resulted in very high yields of cassava.Green manures have a role where there is no shortage of land and/or labour.e) Grasses for use as contour barriers to control erosion in cassava-based systems C p.81)• Paspalum atratum was the most promising hedgerow species, as it is less competitive than other grasses and is highly drought tolerant.d) Multiple use of forage legumes and grasses in smallholder systerns in Asia CFSP project) (p.82)•In on-farm sites in Southeast Asia where farmers are selecting forages for feed improvement, they also select themfor resource management such as erosion control and soil improvement.These results illustrate the wider impact of grasses and legumes than for livestock feed. This work will be continued in various cross-project activities and in special projects.a) New varieties of cassava C p.84)• Improved varieties serve asan entrance pointfor NRM research b) The nutrient reguirements of cassava (p.84)• High yields of 20-30 t/ha can be maintained during continuous cropping for 6-1 O years with annual applications of 80-100 kglha N, 17-20 kglha P and 60-80 kg/ha K.e) The effect o(planting date on cassava production and on erosion (p.88)• Under the soil and climatic conditions of Rayong Research Center in Thailand the best time for planting cassava is in December; this resulted in the highest root and starch yield, as well as the lowest level of erosion.This output provides inputs for the FPR research (2.3.4).a) Farmer participatory testing of new rice varieties (p.92)• Farmers tested new rice varieties. Yields oftwo introduced varieties were equal or slightly superior to farmers' varieties; and yields ofthree introduced varieties matched or were slightly lower than the lowest yielding farmer variety. The growing season was subject to severe drought stress. F armers are enthusiastic to continue testing.• Participatory research methods involve farmers in a new relationship with researchers in the technology development process.• Local institutions are testing new methods to work with farmers.1 1 1 1 1 Project Overview b) Inputs into the design of inter-institutional farmer participatory research projects (p.93)• CIAT is providing inputs into multi-institutional projects proposedfor DEPAMjunding. Inputs contribute to the nature of research (as opposed to extension), farmer participation, and interinstitutional collaboration.It is expected that there will be a need to continue this activity for at least 5 years as part of the process of developing a multi-institutional and participatory model for developing new technologies.Case studies of evaluation of technologies for soil conservation Cp.96)• Adoption of soil conservation technology sharply increased when short-term value could be added to the conservation components• Partiña grass, a local source ofraw materialfor broomsfabrication and blackberry-grass strips, a technology based on market opportunities, were evaluated and identified as new technology options for soil conservation in Cauca, Colombia.• An interdisciplinary project on the introduction of blackberry-a market opportunity selectedfor better soil conservation was set up in CIAT's pilot watershed in southem Colombia.This project has terrninated and results are being promulgated widely.• Cassava yields are heavily affected by undersowing and intercropping.• Additional soil cover and biomass production by the intercrops are not suf.ficient to compensate for the loss in total cassava biomass, either biologically or economically.• Farmer's reactions to on-farm trials indicate that short-term economic benefits are ofhigher priority than long term sustainability considerations.These outputs are from research for a PhD thesis which will be completed this year.Demonstrations on farmers fields and FPR trials ( 0 .106)• During 1997198 105 farmers conducted FPR trials on erosion control, varieties,fertilization and intercropping practice at nine pilot sites infour countries.• Many farmers at the FPR pilot sites have adopted new cassava varieties, better fertilization practices (i.e. higher levels of N and K and lower levels of P, in combination withfarmyard manure), intercropping with peanut or maize, and contour ridges hedgerows of sugarcane, vetiver, Tepbrosia candida or Gliricidia sepium This project terminates this year. New funding is being sought to further develop improved NRM practices with fanners and to develop methodology for dissemination of the results.• DSSAT linked to the soil-organic-matter and crop-residue module of CENTURY.These are initial activities'in adapting the DSSAT or other process model for simulating mixed crop and lívestock production on small farms.An indicator frarnework for impact analysis in tbe Forest Margins,Pucallpa,Perú (p.118) • Set in place a plan to develop indicators for different research issues that are being undertaken by the Eco regional Center for the forest margins, PucallpaThis research has a mucb wider perspective than the issue of FPR. We will work witb all scientists in Pucallpa to develop indicators for different issues under a common frarnework. This is an iterative process it is expected to ha ve a initial framework for majar issues being researched by 1999.nc benefits mth altemative land use ~!====----...-.._ ....No activity in 1998. More focus will be devoted to this area as initial studies at the farm level are expanded to the landscape and agroecosystem levels and additional funding is obtained.Ear!y adoption of Arachis pintoi in the humid tropics, Cagueta, Colombia (p.l21)• 85% ofthe 68 producers using Arachis pintoifrom the 229 interviewed expression satisfaction of growing the legume in association with a grass. Advantages were given as stocldng rate, milk yield, and/or increased weight gain.• Concurrent economic analysis during the process of adoption or adaptation of a new technology is useful to identify constraints that might be addressed.• Adoption will be enhanced by a reduction in the cost of seed or planting material, management practices that increase the rate of establishment and providing more information to farmers.This analysis was made towards the final stages of a project funded by Nestle. It will serve as input for future projects in the area or as a model that might be followed for other projects.Developing a framework for on-going impact analysis of forages-FPR in Asia Cp.l26)      • The majar opportunity is to develop land use systems that do not involve annual buming of primary and secondary jorest • Colonist farmers identified constraints in their slash-and-bum system as diseases in rice and banana, andfallow management • Non-forest land uses increase presence of weeds and de creases the number of farmer-named useful species (P.22) Technology Development:• Facilitated an inter-institutional team among national and international organizations to conduct adaptive research using participatory approaches (Depam) (P.47) There has not been any activity in 1998. Data has been collected but still needs to be summarized and written up.Highlights 1• Although continuing to have high plant species counts, non-forest land uses in Pucallpa have greater densities of weeds and a decline in counts of farmer-named useful species than forest.Purpose: To determine patterns of plant community and species numbers changes accompanying changes in land use from forest to cropping, fallow , re-cropping, and conversion to pasture.Rationale: There is a need to quantify and analyze changes in forest biodiversity, losses of plants useful to local settlers, increases in weeds and weediness, and the implications of such changes for land use in slash-and-burn systems.Methods: We sampled vegetation in fields at the following stages: forest; first year of cropping after forest clearing; second year of cropping; fallows of 1 to 2 years; fallows of 3 to 5 years; fallows of more than 5 years; first year of cropping after fallow; and second year of cropping after fallow. We sampled six transects per land use. In each transect we sampled ten 4 m 2 plots with a 5 m distance between each, and identified species and recorded number of individuals per species. Each land use, as a result, provided a total of 240 m 2 of sample area.In order to understand the plant cornmunity changes, we used published sources to evaluate forest species not continuing in other uses and each of the most frequently appearing species per land use in terrns of habitat and seed size, production, and means of dispersion.We interviewed a sample of 71 farmers--including 19 practicing slash-and-burn agriculture in the selva alta (higher forested area) away from the river, 19 slash-and-burn farmers who had also planted oil palm, 18 settlers along the Rio Aguaytia (where lands are seasonally flooded and soils are lighter and rícher), and 15 colonists with small cattle ranches along the Lima-Pucallpa highway.Respondents were asked about desirable forest plant species not slashed and allowed to grow in their crop fields, worst crop ~eeds, and desirable and undesirable species in fallows.Outputs: Slash-and-burn agriculture represents a sequence of interactions between colonist farmers and the forest ecosystem. Plant species and frequencies were determined for land uses which spanned forest, cropping, fallows, and cropping after fallows . Two hundred and thirty-five species were encountered in the forest, of which 143 were not found in any successive land use. Plants not found in the forest, however, colonized fields and fallows such that a total of 580 species were identified across treatments (  Comprehensive databas es for model calibration and evaluation of indicators of soil health• Turbidimetry (the photometric quantification of soil dispersed from aggregates in a defined water volume) has a high potential for being u sed as an indicator of soil health in relation to its resistance to soil erosion.• Continued use of legume components in rotations led to higher presence of mycorrhiza in these soils.• Recording and analysis of the kinetic energy of more than 140 rainfall events will allow a more reliable assessment of the rainfall erosivity factor for predicting soilloss risk in the Andean zone.Purpose: i) To continue research towards calibration of the Universal Soil Loss Equation model for tropical conditions, and ii) to evaluate physical and biological parameters as indicators of soil health.Rationale: Predicting levels and quantities of soil erosion or soil loss per unit of land under a given scenario of climate and land use, is a difficult task. This is especially true for the Andean hillsides in southern Colombia where soil spatial variability is very high. Long term evaluations in CIAT's soil conservation project over the last years have shown, that the Universal Soil Loss Equation model (USLE) overestimates soil losses on Andean Inceptisols and fails to detect major short term changes in the soil' s susceptibility to eros ion due to effects of management. It was considered that further progress in model development would be facilitated by obtaining more information on rainfall events and linking this information with other data on soil erosion to the GIS databases in CIAT.Complementary to the development and testing of mathematical models for prediction of soil erosion, simpler tools, e.g. aggregate stability, can be developed to relate the risk of erosion to specific management practices. Therefore research was also carried to evaluate predictive tools that can be used by farmers and technicians as indicators of soil health.Output:Records of over ten years of soil loss from more than 40 plots under different management were collected and compiled in a central database in collaboration with the CIAT's GIS unit. The database can be used in an interactive GIS decision support system. Sorne intermediate products already have been developed (see below). Though the existing soilloss models are still not predicting soilloss with a high degree of accuracy, it can be assumed, that with more data available, models can be modified to better predict the magnitude of risk of soil loss under different management séenarios. They then can be used to inform farmers and planners of the 1 1 1Constraints and opportunities constraints and opportunities that can be expected under different management systems to improve resource use in the highly populated mountain areas of tropical South America.Soil erosion can be related to high intensity rainfall, in addition to inherent soil properties and land use. The energy of raindrops on an open soil surface, e.g. at planting, breaks the soil aggregates at the surface into smaller particles. These particles close the soil pores impeding water infiltration, leading to excessive water runoff and topsoil erosion.In order to revise the equations that exist for the relationship between rainfall intensity and kinetic energy for the tropical Andean zone, more than 140 rainfall events were recorded over the last 18 months. We used a Distromet Disdrometer which characterizes rainfall by counting the raindrops that fall on a 50cm 2 Styrofoam cone and dividing them by size into 20 different channels, thus providing inforrnation about kinetic energy, rainfall intensity and other parameters (Figure 1). Severa! rainstorrns with intensities higher than 70mm per hour were registered, even though rainfall in 1997/98 was affected by \"el Niño\" and below the long-terrn average precipitation.Combined with the rainfall intensity data collected over 10 years on two trial sites in the Cauca department and additional data obtained from the Colombian coffee federation , we now have the most complete database on rainfall characteristics in the Andean zone.Whereas soil erosion has long terrn effects on soil productivity, soil water dynamics have a more immediate effect on crop yields. The available water retained in the soil profile after rainfall is an important factor influencing crop yields. Soil texture is the most important determinant of available water but management practices that affect soil physical properties and, most important in hillsides, infiltration and runoff, can also be important in water retention. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements were collected for four management practices over a period of 14 months at five depths up to 1,2 m. Compared to neutron probes, TDR devices are save to handle and allow a permanent monitoring of soil moisture in different layers of the soil profile. By June 1998 more than 26 000 records, have been obtained. Data will be analyzed and evaluated in 1998/99 for differences in soil water dynamics.Research has been undertak:en to identify parameters of soil quality that are correlated with a soil's susceptibility to erosion and measured soillosses in the field under different soil-crop management practices. Parameters with such characteristics can be applied immediately as indicators for the sustainability of land use. More specifically they can assist farrners and extension agents to monitor and predict if a certain practice is leading to more or less soil erosion. When they are developed in conjunction with the users they provide immediate feedback on management strategies and existing opportunities to restore favorable soil conditions. The simpler and cheaper the procedure, the easier it is to apply the indicators in the field. More sophisticated indicators are limited in their applicability, but can be used by scientists to better characterize and understand the influence of cultural practices on soil properties and for deriving technical recommendations.In 1997, we reported that proportions of certain soil aggregate classes (following wet sieving)and aggregate size distribution patterns were highly correlated with a soil's resistance to erosion and also reported on the use of \"hot water extractable carbohydrates\" asan indicator. This year we have focussed on the use of \"turbidimetry\" and sorne biological parameters.Turbidimetry is a simple method, where a sample of soil aggregates is added to a tu be of water and shak:en for a defmed time period to partially disperse the soil aggregates. The leve] of dispersion or turbidity is determined by measuring the degree of light extinction. Experiments . were conducted with soil samples from runoff plots under different soil/crop management practices. Dispersion of soil aggregates of sizes 1-2 mm and 2-4 mm (Table 2) reflected changesc. in soil structural stability due to organic amendments and different rotation pattems. Small aggregates led to more particles in suspension than the larger soil aggregates. Readings tak.en after two minutes and after two hours gave consistent results. The results suggest that secondary products of manure break down to enhance soil dispersion. Similar results with higher dispersion values were observed in samples from the Mondomo soil erosion tria! site.Biological parameters were evaluated in relation to response to soil-crop management practices and tests. The study was also designed to leam about the importance of soil organisms; how they improve soil physical properties and how they respond to soil-crop manag_ ement practices to assess whether they can be used as indicators of soil health.Prelirninary results show that abundance of soil fungi (determined after adding a soil suspension to petri dishes) was highest after grassland and lowest after cassava mono-cropping (Figure 3). Highest abundance of mycorrhiza spores was found where legumes were undersown or intercropped with cassava. Mites were most abundant among the mesofauna of the soils but there was no clear interaction with the treatments and structural soil properties.  lmpact: Research on basic processes that effect erosion such as rainfall intensity form a basis for improving models that can be used for decision support in applied research and in implementing polices that may affect soil conservation. The availability of data from more than 150 rainfall events will mak.e it possible to validate relationships between rainfall and energy for the Andean zone. Combined with the database on rainfall intensities for Colombia, there is a basis to develop more precise maps of erosion hazard in the Andes. The larger database of results on soilloss and crop yield under different management practices coupled to the GIS databases in CIA T, will enable better predictions to be made of which agricultura! systems lead to sustainable land use in the long terrn. •The \"turbidimetric\" method of diagnosing a soils resistance to erosion by comparing dispersion of granules in a test soil relative to values in undegraded adjacent grassland can be used to express soil health with respect to its susceptibility to erosion. The method is simple and cheap enough to be used by most laboratories. It is thus a tool that can contribute to orienting farrners to manage their soils in a more sustainable manner.Contributors: Karl M. Müller-Samann, Jesus A. • Collected and summarized environmental and farming system site characterization informati.on for 18 on-farm sites of the Forages for Smal1holders Project (FSP)• Participatory diagnosis conducted at 18 sites Purpose: To provide a basis for assessing the extent and impact of adoption and adaptation of forage technologies at Forages• for Smallholders Project si tes in Southeast Asia:Rationale: The FSP selected 18 on-farm si tes for participatory developmeryt of forage technologies covering the range of environmental and farming systerns commonly encountered in the region. Characterization of the environmental conditions at si tes is needed for GxE analysis of forage species performance. Characterization of the farming systems and their constraints is needed for a better understanding of adoption and adaptation of forage technologies by farmers, and the identification of indicators for monitoring progress towards impact. lt is hoped that this analysis will facilitate extrapolation of site-specific results.Methods: Information sources for site characterization included data and maps from govemment offices, key information from discussions with government officers, village heads and key farmers, personal observations, and participatory diagnosis with farmer groups. Direct measurements include soil analyses and climatic data at project sites. Methods for site characterization were described in detail in the 1997 Annual Report.Outputs: Site characterizations have been summarized and were presented by national partners at the Third Regional Meeting of the FSP in Samarinda, Indonesia from 22-27 March 1998. The papers containing the site characterization will be included in the proceedings of the meeting which will be published as a Technical Report of the FSP. Missing information on site characterization has been identified from these papers and will be collected. A brief summary is presented in Table l.Participatory diagnosis (PD) has been conducted in >18 sites, resulting in the selection of 18 onfarm sites where the FSP reached an agreement with farmers to work together to develop forage technologies. PD is only a first step to initiate the process of participatory technology development. Problems identified by farmers during participatory diagnosis at the different sites showed that several of these problems were common to many sites, despite contrasting farming systems (Table 2). Feed shortages, either general or specific to certain parts of the year, ranked high on the list at most sites. Weed invasion, often Imperata cylindrica or Cromolaena odorata, was also recognized by farmers as a major problem. While labour shortage was only mentioned as a problem at two sites at the time of the PD, farmers at many sites are now expressing that labour-saving is one of the most important benefits of planting forages.The site characterisations are providing the baseline information for impact assessments to be conducted in 1999, partly in collaboration with a project sponsored by ACIAR.   Purpose: To provide a comprehensive agro-economic decision support system (DSS) to fanners, researchers and policymakers working in the Pucallpa region.Rationale: The adoption of land use altematives developed by national and intemational institutions in the Peruvian Amazon has been modest at best. The PE-5 program recognized this shortcoming and has taken action to develop a multi-disciplinary tearn of scientists in the Forest Margin Eco-Regional Benchmark site. One member of the CIAT team is a natural resource economist who duties include investigation of agro-economic and environmental issues.Since fanners base their land use decisions upon a variety of agricultura!, environmental and economic factors, land use alternatives need to take into account these multiple criteria in order to improve adoption rates and in tum improve impact. The agro-economic analysis incorporales earlier agronomic research results within a larger framework of economic opportunities and limit~tions facing smallholder farrners.Relevant agro-economic inforrnation remains dispersed amongst the various institutions of Pucallpa (DRAU, INEI, INIA, llAP, CODESU, CIA T, ICRAF, CIFOR). By compiling the data and providing a comprehensive DSS, the relative merits of improved land use systems can be ascertained. The required inputs of land use altematives such as land quality, labor, and capital inputs can then be easily related to fanner constraints. By using participatory approaches researchers and policymakers can work along with farrners to identify both opportunities and restricting factors. With the insights gleaned from the DSS, technologies can be developed and refined in an ex-ante manner, thus improving the probability of adoption of altemative land use systems.Methods: The first steps required to elaborate the agro-economic DSS are an extensive literature review of the Pucallpa region and a compilation of existing information frorn associated Pucallpa institutions. Land use activities included in the DSS will range from traditional agricultura! crops to perennials and ex o tic species (Table 1 ) .1Constraints and opportunities Impact: With the realization that multiple farm-level surveys have been and continue to be conducted (CIAT-1996, CIFOR-1997, ICRAF -1998) the initial plans to conduct an extensive survey were altered. Rather a synthesis of existing information was deemed a more efficient data gathering method. Additional information can be acquired with specific topic inquiries. Future surveys are planned to provide both time-series and cross-sectional information.With the development of the agro-econornic DSS, communication has increased amongst the researchers, both national and international. This trend will also include other stakeholders (farmers, policymakers) to gather more insights regarding the feasibility of alternative land use systems.Contributors: CIAT-Douglas White,Ricardo Labarta,Sam Fujisaka, Carlos Ostertag (SN-1) Collaborators: Keneth Reategui (DEP AM), David Y anggen (ICRAF), Héctor Campos (INIA), Javier Soto (DRAU), Alfredo Riesco (CODESU). Arachis pastures to replace existing pastures allow purchased supplementation to be reduced or eliminated, and steep land reallocated for reforestation in Costa Rica New forage altematives offer a large increase in productivity and decrease in cost of production of milk, in particular, if used in conjunction with the credit scheme that is being offered to small farmers in Nicaragua In contrast, in Pucallpa, Peru, new forage altematives do not offer a viable option to farrners in a situation where there is abundant existing pasture and a low market potential Purpose: To carry out an ex-ante economic evaluation of new forage altematives for dual-purpose cattle producers in the lowland tropics of Latin Arnerica using, as case studies, collaborating producers of the Tropileche Consortia in the humid forest margins, Pucallpa, Peru, and in the subhumid hillside areas of Esparza, Costa Rica, and Esquipulas, Nicaragua.Rationale: One of the objectives of Tropileche is the development of new feeding alternatives based on improved grasses and legumes. New germplasm selected by CIA T researchers is evaluated with producers at different agroecosystem sites to assess whether it overcomes sorne seasonal or other feed limitation. Ex-ante economic analysis are performed to estímate the potential impact of these new technologies and the possible constraints to adoption .Methods: Data for this stlidy was obtained through interviews with each collaborating producer. lnformation was collected on the type of production systems, resource use, inputs, outputs, product prices, and technologies utilized. Secondary information was collected about the watersheds where farms were located. The analysis was carried out using a farm linear programming farrn model that had been developed at CIAT. Outputs: Table 1 shows mean data for livestock inventory, rnilk production, land use, and labor productivity in dual purpose farms in Peru, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. As observed, larger herds are found in Costa Rica ( 47 cows and 72 AU) followed by Peru (31 cows and 50 A U) and Nicaragua (29 cows and 48 AU). The average milk production was greater in Costa Rica (5.0 kg/cow/d) than Nicaragua (3.7 kg/cow/d) and Peru (3.0 kg/cow/d). The lower milk production in Peru appears to be dueto (a) market milk restrictions (which will be discussed in detaillater) and (b) the low percentage of cows in milk, 42% in Peru compared with 60% in Costa Rica and 58% in Nicaragua, rather than differences in animal genotype per se. The majority of farm area is pasture, ranging from 75% for Peru up to 95% for Nicaragua. The greater proportion offorest area!farm is in Peru (23%) while in Nicaragua this area is very low (4%). The agricultura! area in Peru and Nicaragua is small (0.7 to 1.5 ha/farm) and limited to subsistence crops such as rice, beans and com while in Costa Rica the crop area is larger, 4.6 ha, and more diversified with crops such as rice, com, beans, sugarcane, mango, cashew, and melon.Most of the pasture area is covered with native or with naturalized species ( e.g. Hyparrhenia rufa in Costa Rica and Nicaragua) with a small proportion of improved pastures (11 % in Costa Rica, 15% in Peru, and 24% in Nicaragua). Pasture land is in different states of degradation, no rútrogen fertilizer is used, and this results in a low, and similar, stocking rate (0.9 AU/ha for all countries).  Table 3 contains an estímate of direct costs (variable+ cash costs) of production, gross income, net cash flow, and current profitability on invested capital during 1997. Labor contributes most to the cost of production in Peru (43%) and Costa Rica (63%), and is second most important in Nicaragua (32%). This assumes that farnily labor is valued at the mínimum wage. The second highest cost is for supplementation, i.e. for concentrates, mineral salts, etc., except in Nicaragua, where it was the highest cost. The total cost of production of rnilk is significan ti y different in the three countries, ranging from $0.20/kg in Esquipulas, Nicaragua, $0.23/kg in Esparza, Costa Rica, and reaching $0.29/kg in Pucallpa, Peru. The principal reason for the low cost of production in Nicaragua is due to the labor cost being 5 times lower than in Costa Rica and 2.5 times lower in Peru.The cost of production in Pucallpa, Peru, is high and above the intemational price of milk (US$2,000/tm or $0.26/kg fluid rnilk, assuming 130 gr of powdered milk!liter of fluid milk,), dueto the low yield of milk/cow (3.0 1/cow/day) and the small proportion of cows in milk, 45%. The value of gross sales is mostly from milk (60% in Peru, 76% in Costa Rica, and 74% in Nicaragua). The rest of the income comes from the sale of weaned calves and culled cows.Estimated family income was $270/month for Pucallpa, Peru, $586/month for Esparza, Costa Rica, and $14 7 /month for Nicaragua. This in come is approximately double the minimum wage in Peru and Costa Rica and almost 3 times greater in Nicaragua.The profitability on invested capital during 1997 was very low in Costa Rica (1,37%), followed by Nicaragua (2,53% ), and greater in Peru (2,87% ). Tbe reason for low profitability in Costa Rica was, that despite having the greatest farnily income and return for labor retribution, the high commercial value ($280,000/farm).Figure 1 shows the cost of production per kilogram of milk for the different forage options. The cost of production on the naturalized pasture found in Esparza (i.e. Hyparrhemia rufa) makes it necessary for producers to supplement their milking herd during the 5-month dry season. With an average lactation of 1,350 kg/1, the cost of production of milk is $0.3 1/kg while the rnilk price received is $0.28/kg. That is, with the sale of weaned calves farmers break even if it is assumed they receive a salary similar to the rrummum wage.The cost of production is reduced as the productivity per cow increases. At 1,350 kgllactation (5 kg/cow/day) it is $0.31/kg. at 1,500 kgllactation (5.55 kg/day) it is $0.29/kg and at 2,000 kgllactation it is only $0.23/kg for cows grazing on H. rufa and supplemented throughout the year with sufficient chicken manure and molasses to overcome the nutritionallimitations of H. rufa.Using a combination of Cratylia with. sugarcane, it is possible to eliminate the need for purchasing concentrated food, molasses, or chicken manure during the dry period. This forage option is capable of maintaining production during the dry period e ven with cows producing 2,000 kgllactation (7 .4kg/day). The cost of productionlkg of milk would be reduced by 13% at 2000 kgllactation and 9% at 1 ,500 kgllactation compared to feeding with H. rufa and supplements. The investment required to implement this option in a farm with a herd of 47 cows in Esparza is $6,000 (for planting 8.9 ha of Cratylia, 1.8 ha of sugarcane and purchasing a cane-chopper). Figure 2 shows that at real interest rates, it would only be possible to pay for this investment assurning a production of 2000 kg!lactation and if the producer allocates 50% of the marginal income to pay back the loan. The real interest rate in Costa Rica is currently set at 13% (24% nominal interest--11 % inflation rate) and the available credit is for a 5-year term with a one year grace period. With a productivity of 1,500 kg!lactation it would only be possible if the real interest rates were lower (between 5-l 0%) or with longer payback period. Constraints and opportunities credits with real interest rates that reflect the opportunity cost of money at the intemationallevel, which is currently at 5-7% in real terrns and with 15 years to pay back the loan.Other forage altematives analyzed, e.g. establishing Brachiaria brizantha with or without Arachis pintoi, provided similar results. Moreover, the establishment of these options release fragile lands which could be put to other alternative uses, such as reforestation. Figure 3 shows the percentage of livestock area which could be released to other uses in Costa Rica with various forage options. The situation in Esquipulas, Nicaragua is similar to that in Costa Rica in the sense that the forage alternatives evaluated in this study reduce significantly the costs of production. Figure 4 shows the cost of producing rnilk with different forage options according to the productivity of the•cow. Under the current scenario, the cost of production of milk is $0.26/kg while the price received is $0.22/kg. That is, with the income obtained from the sale of weaned male calves, the producers obtain a total income similar to that of the rninimum wage.However, profitability would increase if the productivity of cows were greater. Feed of the quality of H. rufa is capable of maintaining cows producing up to 1,500 kgllactation without additional supplementation during the rain y season and of 2,000 kgllactation, with supplementation of energy and protein throughout the year. It is also possible with H. rufa pasture to reduce the cost of producing rnilk $0.20/kg with improved grazing management through control of weeds, rotation, provision of shade, increasing water available for grazing animals.Using the forage.option of Cratylia with sugarcane it is possible to elirninate completely the need for supplementation during the dry season, as is the case in Costa Rica. The cost of production can be reduced by 31% (from $0.26/kg to $0.18/kg) with a productivity of 1000 kg/lactation, to $0.14/kg with a productivity of1,500 ~gllactation, and to $0.12/kg with a cow productivity 2,000 kg/lactation. The investrnent required to establish this forage option for an average farm of 29 cows is approximatelyConstraints and opportunities $4,600. This investment consists of establishing 5 ha of Cratylia argentea, 2.4 ha of sugarcane, and purchasing a cane chopper and engine since there is.no rural electrification as in Costa RicaFigure 5 shows the real interest rates under which it would be possible to pay for this investment dependent on the productivity of the cow and assuming that the producer allocates 50% of the marginal income to pay back a loan with respect to the base scenario (H. rufa+ feed concentrates). At present, the Nicaraguan financia! system offers a real interest rate of 18% for agricultura! and livestock credits with a 5-yr payback period. Under this situation and with the current milk productivity it would not be possible to adopt this forage altemative since it is not viable fmancially. However, with a productivity 1,500 kgllactation it is a viable since it is possible to paya real interest rate of up to 22% with a payback period of 5 years. With levels of production of 2,000 kgllactation, the situation is even more viable.The MAG-WFP dairy development project in Nicaragua offers credits to small milk producers at a real interest rate of 10% with a 5-yr payback period up toa maximum loan of $3,000/fann. This provides an excellent opportunity for small producers to adopt these new forage options since it improves their competitiveness and income through a reduction in the costs of production.Constraints and opportunitiesReal interest rate which could be possible to pay by adopting Cratylia + sugarcane based on altemative milk yields in Nicaragua.The case of Pucallpa, Peru, is different from that in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Annual precipitation is greater (2,000 mm vs 1,200 mm in Costa Rica and Nicaragua) and more evenly distributed with a dry season in only 3 months compared to 6 months in Esparza and Esquipulas. There is pasture growth throughout the year. Another characteristic in Pucallpa is that the production per cow is very low (3 kg/cow/d, Table 2). This may be dueto several factors: (a) low genetic potential for milk production, (b) low nutrient value in grasses dueto constant leaching of low fertility soils, and/or (e) a very limited market for raw milk.With regard to the last point, the daily production of fresh milk in the area of Pucallpa is only about 2,500 kg and the cattle population was reduced from 82,000 head in 1986 to 26,000 at present as a consequence of terrorist activities of the Shining Path and cattle rustling. The city of Pucallpa, with a population of 300,000 inhabitants, does not have a milk plant. As a result, consumption of milk in Pucallpa is for the most part in the form of evaporated milk imported from outside the region. As a result, the market for raw milk is very small. Four of the nine producers who collaborate with the Tropileche Consortia considered that they would ha ve a problem marketing the additional milk if they increased milk production. The other five producers sell their milk to the School Milk Program, a public-funded project to provide fluid milk to children.Another factor that limits the potential to increase the milk market is the low price of fish in in Pucallpa. A the kilogram of dry matter of crude protein of fish from the Ucayali river is sold for $2.90 while milk costs $8.80/k.g. That is, protein from rnilk is 303% more expensive than protein from fish. As a result, the market for raw milk in Pucallpa is limited to the upper-class population and possibilities for growth are very limited, that is, unless a milk plant can be established in Pucallpa to supply the demand for evaporated milk which now comes from Lima.1 1Figure 6 shows the cost of production of milk under different forage altematives. Unlike the results from Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the most profitable option for Pucallpa under the current situation is the existing base scenario now found on farms. The most competitive option is to maintain the herd on ex.isting pastures and supplement milking cows with brewers yeast during the short dry season. Brewers yeast is a viable option since it is abundant and inexpensive ($0.15/k.g DM, 22% CP and 65% digestibility). With this altemative the cost of production of milk is $0.33/k.g while the price received is $0.32/kg. That is, it is the income from male calves that allows the farmer to receive an income a little above the minimum wage, while milk pays for the variable costs. This altemative is also the most attractive with milk production of 1 ,500 and 2,000 kgllactation. In no scenario did the forage altematives evaluated in this study (i.e. Brachiaria + Arachis or Brachiaria + Cratylia) reduce the cost of production of milk to levels below that of the naturalized pastures supplemented with brewer' s yeast.Under the assumption that brewer's yeast ceases to be a viable option for supplementation, another option evaluated was com at $0.23/kg. In order for the option of Brachiaria with Arachis and/or Cratylia to be viable, and with the current levels of production of milk of 800 kg/1, the price of com would have to increase to $0.38/kg. Thus, it seems unlikely that producers will adopt the altemative of Brachiaria with Arachis and/or Cratylia having as altematives brewer's yeast and or com at $0.23/kg. E ven with rnilking cows producing 1,500 kgllactation, the price of com would have to increase to $0.25 in order to make the improved forage options viable.The reason that none of the improved forage options were economically better that the current management practice of-naturalized/native pastures + brewer's yeast is the high capital investrnent required per milking cow. The low current proportion of cows in mil.k increases fixed costs/milking cow. In Pucallpa the percentage of cows in rnilk is 41% while in Costa Rica and Nicaragua this figure is clase to 60%. Thus, in arder to invest in these improved forage altematives, it would be necessary to increase this percentage of cows in rnilk through the year toa mínimum of 53%, or increase the stocking rate of 0.9 A U/ha at present to 1.3 A U/ha through the introduction of more animals. Under this new scenario, the forage options would be viable.From the financia) point of view, Figure 7 shows the real interest rates it would be possible to pay if a producer in Pucallpa invests in the establishment of Brachiaria decumbens associated with Arachis pintoi. Peru has the highest real interest rate of 34% (44% nominal -10% of annual inflation rate) of the three countries considered in this study. Thus, even if the investment in these new forage options were economically superior, the high real interest rate currently available in Peru would not attract producers to adopt these technologies. Therefore, under the current financia) scenario, producers in Pucallpa have no option for intensification, (not even with productivity per cow of 2,000 kg/1 and payback periods of 10 years) because it is not possible to paya real interest rate of 34% (the best possible scenario is 15%). It has been argued that another advantage of establishing these forage altematives in Pucallpa is that they would allow freeing up a large proportion of the area currently under grazing which could then be allocated for alternative uses such as reforestation, conservation or other crops. The area liberated is calculated at 35% (i.e. 20 ha/farrn) in the case of Brachiaria + Cratylia, and 48% (i.e. 27 ha/farrn) in the case of Brachiaria + Arachis. However, as land is plentiful in Pucallpa, it is unlikely that this will be a viable option.Contributor: Federico Holmann, CIAT-ILRI, Colombia Further, if the research and development efforts are to be sustained after the conclusion of a project, then it is imperative to involve local and national partners. The solution is to form collaborative partnerships in which all contribute actively. towards the outcome of a particular research project.Program coordinator and agro-industry and market specialist appointedMulti-institutional teams have commenced farmer participatory research on specific problems identified by the farrning community.Purpose: To facilitate the formation of a multi-institutional team to develop appropriate technologies together with farmers to increase productivity and conserve the natural resource base.Rationale: There was a need to link strategic and applied research being conducted by the intemational Centers more closely to issues identified by local stakeholders, which include both the farmers and local R & D organizations and to introduce a more participatory approach to solution of problems. There was also an opportunity to facilitate closer collaboration between all organizations working in Pucallpa, which is needed to ensure efficient use of scarce resources.In collaboration with a donor, IDRC, anda local NGO, CODESU, CIAT is facilitating the formation of a multi-institutional team to carry out participatory technology development to improve farm productivity and natural resource use, in particular, to maintain/improve soil fertility and reduce gas emissions.Priorities Outputs: Considerable progress has been made in establishing the Participatory Technology Development ( or DEP AM) team. A stakeholder consultation has been held, the project coordinator and agroindustry specialist were appointed, institutions have given their support to developing joint projects and the initial research grants have been made. A course in farmer participatory research will be held in October.lmpact: It is too early in the process to measure impact. We can report that farmers have responded positively in working in participatory approach with researchers. Most individuals from organizations involved in developing joint research proposals ha ve seen where they can contribute to other groups' proposals. The DEPAM team now needs to be allowed space to develop its own mode of operation, independent of the sponsors, CODESU and CIA T.Collaborators: DRAU/MAG, INIA, IIAP, UNU, AIDER, CODESU, CIAT, ICRAF, Keneth Reategui, Coordinator-DEP AM. \"Improved legume-based feeding systems for smallholder dual-purpose cattle production in tropical Latín America\"-CIAT-led consortia that operates in association with the Systemwide Livestock Program (SLP) convened by ILRI.Highlights:• Publication of a book on methodologies for on-farm researchNew partnerships with organizations in Nicaragua and HondurasPurpose: To develop an on-going mechanism to work with national programs in LAC for evaluating new forage germplasm and developing sustainable forage technologies that provided solutions to feed limitations faced by small holder farmers involved in milk and meat production.Rationale: The livestock industry has a poor image in Latín America in relation to resource degradation, such as deforestation, degraded soils and equity issues. Contrary to popular opinion, a large segment of the industry is in the hands of resource poor farmers.Approximately 75% of the livestock population of 330 million head owned by small farmers with dual-purpose cattle that produce milk and beef. Dual-purpose cattle account for 41 % of the milk produced in the region. Nevertheless, half of the 590 million ha under pasture is considered to be in an advanced stage of degradation.The initial concept of Tropileche was developed around finding solutions of low livestock productivity and resource degradation. Initial sites were selected in Esparza, Costa Rica, to represent steep and seasonally dry hillsides, and Pucallpa, Pero, to representa humid forest margins site. The hillsides and forest margins are priority agroecosystems within CIA T' s natural resource program.A consultation was held with representatives of national organizations working in each of the si tes. Priori ti es were set a joint workplan developed. It was agreed that strategic research at CIA T would be complemented by on-farm research by national partners at the selected si tes. A coordinator was jointly by CIAT and IT...Rf He has developed a common research database on dual-purpose cattle production in ALC and maintains the network. The Consortia receives funding from the Inter-american Development Bank (IDB) to execute on-farrn research .and from the SLP to carry strategic research.The research outputs are provided in detail in following sections.Tropileche is developing into a platform that will accommodate needs of other countries in the region. Nicaragua and Honduras used the concepts developed in Tropileche to source their own funds and become active partners. Tropileche has become a vehicle for evaluating and developing forage and feeding technologies to meet specific needs, such as dry season supplementation, using new forage germplasm developed by the CIA T Forage Project (IP-5). It is an appropriate time to call a planning meeting of all interested parties to review current experience and seek input into how they visualize Tropileche as a platform for regional research collaboration.Collaborators: CIAT, ll...RI, Comell University, Perú (IVITA, CODESU, INIA), Costa Rica (MAG, ECAG, CATIE, UCR), Nicaragua (MAG) , and Honduras (DICTA).• A project review in 1998 showed that there was a high rate of adoption of new forage materials by farmersPurpose: To introduce improved forage germplasm into small holder systems in Southeast Asia to increase livestock productivity and contribute to soil conservation through a farrner participatory approach.Rationale: There had been a long history of introduction of new forages materials into Southeast Asia with little impact in terms of farmer adoption of these materials. It was argued that early research had not been directed at overcoming feed problems identified by farrners andina context where livestock are only a small component in the small farming systerns and where farmer resources were lirnited. Hence a project was developed that would carry out all research on evaluatíon and technology deve1opment on-farm through national institutions using an FPR approach.Outputs: The Southeast Asían Forages for Smallholders Project, which commenced in 1995, has developed an effective partnership with govemment and non-government organizations in Indonesia, Laos, Philippines and Vietnam. Research is coordinated by a country coordinator from the relevant govemment organization who coordinates FSP activities with a wide range of govemment and non-govemment organizations at three to six sites in each country. IDRC also provided US $120,000 to CIAT for a post doctorate fellow in the area of agronomy and participatory research to work closely with the DEP AM team.• Tropileche. Improved legume-based feeding systems for smallholder dual-purpose cattle production in tropical Latín AmericaThe Coordination has in volved coordination of CIA T Activities at the agro-ecoregional si te for the forest margins in Pucallpa, Peru, activities of project PE-5 and of partnerships within PE-5.• A Participatory Planning by Objectives workshop was held with all stakeholders• A multi-institutional project for participatory technology development (DEPAM) was commenced• A joint workplan was developed for activities of CIA T, CIFOR and ICRAF• New staff ha ve been recruited and will be situated in an Ecoregional Center building together with ICRAF and CIFOR Outputs: This year there has been a process of developing closer working relationships with our intemational and national partners based in Pucallpa. The main achievements have been:-a work plan developed at a planning workshop to establish priorities for applied and adaptive research in the Aguaytia watershed.-this work plan was then used as a basis for a proposal to IDRC for support in establishing a multi-institutional mechanism for adaptive research -this resulted in the establishment of an adaptive systems project -DEPAM, which has been referred to earlier -Office space was renovated in a common building occupied by CIAT, ICRAF and CIFOR and new office and computer equipment and vehicles purchased -the house owned by CIAT was converted into a guest house for visitors or short-term staff -workplans of CIA T, CIFOR and ICRAF were consolidated into one document.-this will be the basis for a si te workshop to be held in M ay 1999.-a resource econornist and an agronornist with participatory research experience have been recruited and will be based in Pucallpa.l mpact: CIA T now has a firm presence in Pucallpa and can con tribute on an equal footing with other Centers.Coordinator : P. Kerridge (for CIAT); R. Labarta (CIAT-Pucallpa)Highlights:• Systems research consolidated in forest margins site, PucallpaOutputs: The project workplan was revised, individual workplans developed and assessed rnidyear, andan annual report prepared. The Project Manager visited with scientists at sites in Asia (Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam) and Latín America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru).Most effort was spent on facilitating the establishment of an adaptive systems project at the forest margins reference site near Pucallpa, Peru. workshop will be distributed at the end of this year to researchers in Tropileche and will be made available to other researchers when requested.Outcomes of the meeting were:-reports from the benchmark si tes (Costa Rica and Peru) and extrapolation sites (Nicaragua and Honduras) to inform about progress and difficulties encountered to meet objectives during 1997 -new activities defined for 1998 -field visit view research in Costa Rica -revisions of strategic and participatory research in relation to needs -suggestions for new forms of collaboration with other institutions and other countries.Venezuela has shown interest for a long-term partnership with Tropileche. Two trips were made to Venezuela this year to discuss a common research agenda.Four joumal articles were completed and subrnitted for publication this year. In addtion, two newsletters were produced and distributed to inform of progress on research activities being executed in all benchmark sites. A database on livestock research results in LAC continued to be expanded. It now contains more than 2,000 entries (65% of them with English and Spanish abstracts). The coordination also developed six project proposals/concept notes to expand and consolidate the research activities in various sites.Impact: Tropileche has become a vehicle for evaluating and developing forage and feeding technologies to meet specific needs, such as dry season supplementation, using new forage germplasm, and application of farm-level simulation models todo ex-ante and ex-post analysis of new technologies.• Third Annual Regional Meeting of the Forages for Smallholders Project in Samarinda, Indonesia from 22-27 March 1998  ). The review team visited 10 project sites in Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos and attended the project's Regional meeting in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. This enabled the review team to meet also the coordinators from Malaysia, Thailand and China who only participare in the network component of the FSP. Si te visits and discussions with govemment authorities, project staff, staff from related projects and farmers provided the review team with the opportunity to appraise the site-specific conditions and problems and to experience the achievements and opportunities of the project.The review report was very positive. The reviewers concluded that tbe project is ahead of schedule in achieving the targets or outputs set out in the PID. Useful new varieties of grasses and legumes have been identified and there is already considerable impact from the introduction of forages at the household level at severa! of the sites visited. The FSP is also commended for its approach and contribution to development of training materials, especially on the participatory approach. The use of the participatory approach was considered to be the key that enabled the FSP to 'bring forages to farmers'. The reviewers notes: \"The enthusiasm for forage development, the understanding of FPR and the professionalism in forage agronomy displayed by the contact persons, which included researchers, extensionists and farmers was very encouraging and a strong testimony to the high standards in project management and execution\". They suggested that the experience of the FSP be incorporated into design and implementation of other projects that are under consideration. They concluded that the FSP had built up an excellent base for fruitful forage research and development activities in all the participating countries. The reviewers suggested that it will be critica! to continue the participatory technology development process with farmers and local technicians. This applies to the full process of forage technology development, from forage introduction through to the stage where improved forages are being more widely adopted and new problems may arise. They concluded that, to get the benefit from the capacity, the trust and the expectations that have been built up across the various sites, it is important that the project be expanded beyond 1999. They al so concluded that the regional1 lntegrated technology and management options character of the project has been highly effective in use of resources, and sharing of experience and information.Attention to coordination has contributed to effective collaboration by national partners. The project is highly regarded in Southeast Asia and this will heighten chances of funding a follow on project.Coordination : Asia W.W. Stur (CIAT), P.M. Home (CSIRO); Overall P.C. Kerridge (CIAT), J.B. Hacker (CSIRO).Highlights:• End of Project Review wbicb stated that the project had met its objectives and that the outcomes formed a sound basis for a new project.O utputs: A review was undertaken by an externa! review panel, consisting of Dr. John Lynam, agricultura! econornist of the Rockefeller Foundation in Nairobi, Kenya; and Dr. Keith Ingram, agronornist at the University of Georgia, USA. They visited all but one of the FPR pilot sites in four countries from June 28 to July 19, 1998, after which they wrote a Project Evaluation Report.The report the review panel endorsed the accomplishments of the present project and strongly recommended that a second phase be supported. They made many useful suggestions to enhance the effectiveness of the new project which were incorporated into the new project proposal mentioned above.The CIA T agronornist visited all FPR si tes during the year to provide support to national partners.I mpact: The coordinator was honored by the Govemment of the PR China in September for this contribution to development of .Public recognition had previously been received from the Govemment of Vietnam.Coordination: R. Howeler Rationale: Results from short-term grazing experiments with milking cows indicate that milk yield response to legumes in association with grasses is greater in the dry than wet season. Sugar cane is widely used as a feed supplement for dairy cows. It is high in energy but low in protein.Thus, in developing feeding strategies where sugar cane is used as a supplement, it is important to know when there is an advantage of feeding a legume supplement.The experiment was set up using a 4x4 latin square design. All feed was fed ad lib. There were two breed groups of four cows each (Brahman and Holstein x Brahman crossbred). Each of the four feeding periods lasted 14 days (7 days to adjust feed ration and 7 days of measurements). Milk yields were recorded daily during the 7-day measurement period.Outputs: Table 1 contains the fat corrected milk of crossbred cows supplemented with different protein to energy ratios from forage sources and biomass availability, digestibility, and crude protein content of Brachiaria decumbens used as basal grass during the dry and rainy season at Quilichao experiment station, Cali, Colombia. There was no response in milk production to legume supplementation by the Brahman cows.As observed, milk yield increased as supplementation with the legume Cratylia argentea was proportionately increased with respect to sugarcane during the dry season when the basal grass was limiting (i.e. lower biomass availability) and lower quality (i.e. lower digestibility and crude protein). On the contrary, when the treatment was run during the rainy season, there was no significant effect on milk yield due to legume supplementation, which suggests that basal grass was supplying enough energy and protein to maintain milk production.lmpact: These results suggest that legume supplementation should be used strategically, especially during the dry season when basal grass is limiting and of lower quality with respect to the rainy season. lt is only likely to be successful with crossbred cows. Nevertheless, this technology has excellent potential for adoption given the fact that the capital investment required to establish it is low. There remains a need to evaluate legume supplementation with cows with even higher genetic potential for milk production and to test the results under on-farm conditions.1 1lntegrated technology and management options • Cratylia argentea increased milk production in cows with a high potential for milk production when fed as 100% of the supplement Purpose: To investigate the effect of supplementation with Cratylia argentea during the wet season.Rationale: During the dry season milk yields of grazing cows are drastically reduced because biomass availability and quality of grass is reduced due to lack of rainfall. Producers have been adopting the use of sugarcane as a supplementary feed. However, sugarcane is a poor source of protein, which is also needed to increase milk yield. Most research has investigated the effect of supplementing cows in the dry season when both quantity and quality of pastures are limiting. Thus, we were interested in examining milk yield responses to increasing levels of Cratylia argentea fed as a forage-based supplement fed to cows grazing pasture in the wet season.Methodology: A 4x4 latin square design was used to estímate milk yield from legum e supplementation using 7 days of adjustment to treatment, and 7 days of measurement with crossbred cows. Treatments were: TI = 100% Cratylia; T2 = 75% Cratylia and 25% sugarcane; T3 = 25 % Cratylia and 75 % sugarcane; and T4 = 100% sugarcane. Basal diet consisted of Brachiaria decumbens which was grazed. Legume and sugarcane were supplemented at 1.5% of BW.Outputs: Table 2 contains milk yield, fat content, and biomass availability of basal grass used for all treatments in Quilichao, Colombia. As observed, there was no difference in milk yields or fat content when Cratylja was fed with sugarcane, but milk yield and fat content were significan ti y increased when Cratylia was fed as a 100% supplement./ntegrated technology and management oprions lmpact: These results suggest that supplementing with C. argentea may be an altemative for fanners in the wet season when using cows of high genetic potential and thus, high protein requirements. This is interesting because it provides an option to use this legume during the wet season in a cut-and-carry system in addition to ensiling which has been an option put forward by sorne producers in Costa Rica. Purpose: To determine the effect of replacing comrnercial protein supplements with Cratylia argentea.Rationale: Concentrate feeds in Costa Rica and other countries are often very expensive in relation to rnilk price. It is important to find feeding altematives with the potential for substituting for purchased concentrates without sacrificing rnilk yield or income.Methodology: Two experiments of 3x3 latin square design were run simultaneously to evaluate rnilk yield and composition to substitution of a protein source from commercial concentrates to a protein source from the shrub legume Cratylia argentea using sugarcane as basal diet.Treatments were: TI= Sugarcane (0.6% BW) +Rice bran (0.5% BW) + Concentrate (1.5% BW) +Urea (0.017%); T2 = Sugarcane (0.6% BW) +Rice bran (0.5% BW) + Concentrate (0.975% BW) + Cratylia (0.525% BW); and T3 = Sugarcane (0.6% BW) + Rice bran (0.5% BW) + Concentrate (0.45% BW) + Cratylia (1 .05% BW). The estimated daily dry matter consumption was 2.6% of body weight.Outputs: Table 3 shows dry matter intake, rnilk yield, and total solid contents for all treatments. During the experiment there was an increase in dry matter intake greater than estimated for all treatments (i.e. 3.5%, 3.7%, and 3.4% vs 2.6% estimated). Thus, it was necessary to increase the amount of supplements offered. The dry matter intake was similar for all treatments, which suggests that Cratylia argentea has good palatability and acceptability. Milk yields were similar for the first two treatments but significantly lower when Cratylia was substituted 70% for the concentrate.  lmpact: These results suggest the shrub legume Cratylia argentea can be used to substitute up to 35% the use of purchased concentrates without sacrificing rnilk yield. A greater substitution leve] may result in a lower milk yield than with purchased concentrates but this needs to be balanced with the lower cost of purchasing concentrates. It is planned to develop an appropriate economic model to allow farmers and technicians to determine if the reduction in feeding costs is greater than the reduction in milk income.• Low quality legumes make cannot make a contribution to increasing milk yield.Purpose: To evaluate the effect of feeding increasing levels of hay made from the Iegume Stylosanthes guianensis with sugarca,ne on milk yield.One of the objectives of on-station research at ECAG in Atenas, Costa Rica, is to generate information of milk yield responses to different forage resources to calibrate the Comell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System model under tropical grazing conditions. Hence a series of experiments are being planned with different forage supplements.Methods: Treatments consisted of a basic ration of B. decumbens hay at 1% of body weight (BW, dry matter basis) plus 1.7% of BW of supplement. (Tl = 75% sugarcane + 25% stylo; T2 = 50% sugarcane +50% stylo; and T3 = 25% sugarcane + 75 % stylo). In addition, all cows received 0.3% of BW of a commercial concentrate feed (14% CP with 2.7 Mcal ME).The chernical composition of offered feeds is shown in Table 4. Table 5 shows dry matter consumption, and rnilk yield of cows under the different treatments. There were no significant differences in milk yield among treatments. Average daily means for milk yield/cow and total solids were 7.5 kg/cow/d and 12.75%, respectively. Dry matter consumption per cow was 9.31, 8.66, and 7.93 for treatments 1, 2, and 3, respectively. These figures indicate a reduction in dry matter iptake as the proportion of Stylo supplemented increased. Impact: The Jack of difference among treatments was dueto the poor quality of the legume hay, both low protein and low digestibility. There was a similar amount of crude protein consumed in the different treatments because dry matter consumption was reduced with increasing amounts of stylo hay. Poor quality legumes will not increase dry matter consumption and may reduce the efficiency of utilization of energy in the ration. It is necessary to ensure that there is both a high protein content and digestibility, for legumes or legume hay to increase milk yield.Contributors: Francisco Romero and Jesús Gonzalez, ECAG, Costa Rica.• Legumes with crude protein composition of <12% are notan appropriate substitution for chicken manure for milking cows Purpose: To investigate the use of tropicallegumes as a protein source for feeding rnilking cowsRationale: During the dry season, milk production under grazing conditions is reduced significantly due to a shortage of feed. The quality of grass is lower where the forage is wet and dried interrnittently. Thus, supplementing milking cows with other feed resources is essential in order to maintain milk production and income. The most common protein supplement used in Costa Rica during the dry season is chicken manure, but its availability is limited and its cost in real terms is increasing. Legumes could be an important to substitute for chicken manure.Methods: An experiment to compare the feeding value of two legumes was set up using a 3 x 3 latin square design with three Jersey cows and three dual-purpose crossbred cows. The three treatments were: T1= sugarcane (0.9% ofBW as DM) + molasses (0.6% ofBW) + chicken manure (1.5% of BW); T2 = sugarcane (0.9% of BW) + Stylosanthes guianensis (1 .8% of BW) + chicken manure (0.3% ofBW); and T3 = sugarcane (0.9% ofBW) + Centrosema spp (1.8% of BW) + chicken manure (0.3 % of BW). The feed rations were offered after each rnilking in individual pens in confinement.Outputs: Table 6 contains the chernical composition from the different feeds offered in the experiment in Atenas, Costa Rica. The legumes had similar eructe protein content, 12. 1% and 11.2% CP, with digestibility of 44.2% and 44.7%, for Stylosanthes and Centrosema, respectively. Thus, both legumes offered in the diet were inferior in quality to chicken manure, 2 1.5% CP and 67.2% digestibility, which was used as control. Table 7 shows that when the protein source was chicken m~ure, rnilk yield was significantly higher than that obtained with legume supplementation. There were no observed differences in total solid content with treatrnents. On the other hand, rnilk yield from the diet containing Centrosema was higher than with stylo. This could be due to a lower degradability of protein from Centrosema compared to stylo (Table 8). The legumes used in this study were inferior in quality ( <12% CP and <45% digestibility) to most legumes and to chicken manure and therefore, the response in rnilk yield was low. It is necessary to improve the management conditions of legume production in order to improve its quality to as a substitute feed for protein sources such as chicken manure.Contributors: Francisco Romero and Jesús Gonzalez, ECAG, Costa Rica. lmpact: These results suggest a urea level in milk of about 1 O mg/dl could be used as a critica! value below which there is a high probability that there will be a response in milk produced to protein supplementation by cows with a high genetic potential for milk production. While crossbred cows respond to legume supplementation at <10 mg/dllevels, this is not the case for most Brahman or Zebu-type of cows. • Arachis pintoi associated with Brachiaria decumbens increased milk production from 9.7 to 10.7 lid even when concentrates were being fed.Purpose: To evaluate the production and composition of milk from cows grazing Brachiaria decumbens vs. B. decumbens associated with the legume Arachis pintoi.Rationale: Tropical grasses during the rainy season have adequate amounts of energy but the protein content is usually low, especially in unfertilized pastores. Legumes, on the other hand, are tropical forages with a high protein content when in the young stage of growth. Thus, providing a diet of tropical grasses in association with legumes should lead to increases in milk yield.Methods: Two paddocks of B. decumbens and B. decumbens associated with Arachis pintoi were subdivided in two paddocks of 1.25 ha each. In each paddock, there was a 7-day grazing period to adjust to cows to the treatment, and then milk yield was measured over the next 7 days.A resting period of 35 days was followed between grazings. Chernical composition, biomass availability, and forage quality were also measured.Outputs: Table 1 shows the availability and quality of the forage under evaluation during 1997.As observed, the grass-legume association produced 8% more biomass and 15.5% more crude protein content than B. decumbens alone with no significant difference in digestibility.Table 2 shows milk yields under two levels of supplementation with concentrate feeds (i.e.a high and low leve!). Tthe grass-legume association with Arachis pintoi produced 9 % and 11.4% more milk than the B. decumbens alone pasture. Impact: These results show that milking cows under grazing showed.a response in rnilk yield to legume supplementation even when concentrates were fed. This technology would be most useful during the rainy season as the legume Arachis pintoi is not as tolerant to water stress as shrub legumes. This 9-11% increase in rnilk yield is consistent with results from other sites, e.g. the forest margins. However, the genetic potential for milk production will be a key factor in deterrnining the feasibility of this technology. A 10% in crease when cows are onl y producing 3 kg/day will not pay for itself, but if cows are producing 8 kg/day, a 10% increase will result in profits from investing in this technology.Francisco Romero and Jesús Gonzalez, ECAG, Costa Rica• Initial results of the role of legumes in increasing rnilk production are inconclusive Purpose: To evaluate the role for legume-grass associations for rnilk production in the forest margins, Ucayali, Peru.Rationale: There is little management input of pastures in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon. They are often degraded in terms of weed ingress and loss of planted species. Livestock productivity is low. As more pressure is exerted towards conserving natural forest resource in this agricultura} frontier, there is a need to find altematives to intensify livestock production and release marginal areas for forest regrowth.Methods: Five dual-purpose farms were selected for this study. In each farm, 5 ha of Brachiaria decumbens were established (2.5 ha as the control treatment and 2.5 ha associated with a legume cocktail containing Stylosanthes guianensis + Arachis pintoi + Desmodium ovalifolium). Milk production was recorded of cows were grazing both paddocks altematively during a one-year period, from August 1997 to August 1998.Outputs: Table 3 shows the average rnilk yield obtained in each of the five farms in the control and legume-rnixture pastures in comparison with the milk yield obtained from the naturalized grasslands found in each farm. As observed, milk yields were, on average, 10.5% higher in grass-legume mix than B. decumbens alone and 14.5% than naturalized grasslands. However, the additional increase in rnilk yield (0.40 kglcow/day) compared to naturalized grasslands does notjustify the investment in the grass-legume mix (see Activity 3.1 , ex-ante analysis of new forage altematives in dual purpose farms in Peru, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua). 2.8 lmpact: Improved grasses and legumes appear to have potential to increase milk production. However, their use will only be econornic where rnilk yield response to legume supplementation is in the order of 0.75-1 .0 kg milk/cow/day. Additional information on the role of legumes in relation to carrying capacity and pasture persistence is needed before their role in intensification can be assessed. Complementary research is also needed on the interaction between response to legume association by cows of different genetic potential for rnilk production. There is potential to increase milk production by improving generallivestock management in the Ucayali region.Collaborators: Keneth Reategui (DEP AM) and Geiner Romero (CIA T)• Use of a legume to feed pre-weaned calves increased the collection of rnilk from dualpurpose calves with the potential to increase farmer cash incomePurpose: To evaluate the use of Stylosanthes guianensis for feeding pre-weaned calves in dualpurpose cattle systems Rationale: Pre-weaned calves consume about 15-20% of rnilk production from dam (the residual milk after hand rnilking). Therefore, developing a legume supplement for calves that would reduce the amount of residual milk consumed could ha ve an impact on milk collected by the farmer. Preliminary results were presented in the Annual Report for 1997. The results are now reported in an econornic context.Treatments were: TI =calves on native grass 8 hours/day with dam, the remainder grazing a paddock of Stylosanthes guianensis +residual rnilk; T2 = calves on native grass 8 hours/day with dam, the remainder grazing a paddock of Stylosanthes guianensis + residual milk + concentrates; and T3 =control (calves grazing native grass 24 hrs/day +residual milk).Outputs: Table 4 shows milk yield and income, weight gain and beef value, and total value from milk and beef for all treatments. Average daily gain of calves grazing stylo were similar to 1 1 lntegrated technology and management options the traditional system, but milk sales increased by 23% (0.89 kg additional milk/cow/day). This was reflected in a 25% increase in income. The treatment with stylo + concentrate had a similar quantity of milk for sale as stylo without concentrate, but higher daily weight gains. However, the variable cost was also higher, resulting in similar total net income as the treatment of stylo without concentrate.  Rationale: During the dry season rnilk yield is significantly reduced dueto lower quantity and quality of forage on offer. Producers overcome this constraint by feeding agro-industrial byproducts. Among them, the cheapest feed source available in the dry hillsides region of Costa Rica is chicken manure. However, its availability is lirnited and its cost in real terms is increasing. lt is urgent to identify a low cost altemative. Cratylia argentea has been shown to be a well-adapted and persistent shrub legume that maintains its leaf under the dry season conditions experienced in the Pacific zone of Central America. lt is know to have a high feeding value.We are working with a number of farmers in Costa Rica and Nicaragua to evaluate Cratylia argentea as a dry season supplement. lt has been established on a number of farms in large blocks (or fodder banks). lt will usually be fed in conjunction with sugar cane. The following are sorne initial results from one farm. We comrnenced the investigation by gradually replacing the chicken manure supplement with Cratylia argentea over a six week period. Milk yield from seven dual-purpose cows was determined during six weeks at the farm of Fernando Castro, a producer collaborating with Tropileche in Esparza, Costa Rica. During the first two weeks cows received a daily feed ration containing 12 kg of súgarcane, 6 kg of Cratylia, and 3 kg chicken manure (as fed basis). During weeks 3 and 4 the amount of chicken manure fed was reduced by half, to 1.5 kg/cow/day. During the last two weeks chicken manure was totally elirninated. Cows were grazing a Hyparrhenia rufa pasture.Outputs: Table 1 shows the average daily milk yield during the six weeks of the experiment. Milk yield/cow was maintained despite the reduction and then elimination of the chicken manure supplement. As the feeding cost per cow was reduced as a result of the substitution, the benefit/cost ratio increased from 1.57 to 2.14. Thus, the producer was better off because bis cash flow would improve.Cratylia argentea shows great potential as a legume-based feeding altemative for the dry season since it can reduce or eliminate the need to buy feed by-products for Jocally produced feed resources. Milk production was not increased but because the feed is produced on the farm, the benefit/cost ratio is increased. Results are needed over the longer-term. However, it is likely to become an attractive in~estment for producers. These are the first on-farm results of feeding Cratylia and it is likely that technology will be further modified and adapted by farmers. One example, is conservation of wet season production as silage for subsequent feeding back in the dry season. • L. leucocephala is an altemative option for supplementing pre-weaned calves on higher fertility soils during the dry season.Purpose: To evaluate L. leucocephala for supplementing calves Rationale: During the dry season, weight gains of pre-weaned calves are reduced due to low quality of forage and a low milk supply from the dams. Thus, finding a low-cost altemative to supplement calves during the dry period would improve their nutritional status and weight gain.Methods: Two groups of 1 O pre-weaned calves each were selected at a farm in Esparza, Costa Rica. The first group average 132•kg/calf and the second group 128 kg/calf. The fust group was traditionally managed, consisting of consuming the dam's residual milk plus ad libitum consumption of Digitaria decumbens hay. The second group grazed Leucaena leucocephala for two hours a da y during 22 days, as a supplement to the traditional feeding management.The group consuming leucaena obtained greater weight gains, from 128 to 138 kg, than the group under the traditional system, from 132 to 139 kg. Calves consuming L. leucocephala gained 109 gr/day more than the control group.The use of legume supplementation to feed pre-weaned calves during the dry season appears to be a beneficia! option for small milk producers. It' s adoption would be limited to medium-higher fertility soils.Collaborators: Marco Lobo and Vida! Acuña, MAG, Costa Rica Objective: To evaluate four accessions of Arachis pintoi planted at low seeding rates in degraded brachiaria pastures for their contribution to restoration of the pasture.Rationale: Large areas of improved brachiara pastures have be~n sown in the eastern plains (Llanos Orientales) of Colombia but there has been little adoption of brachiaria -Arachis pintoi associations even though such associations have been shown to be more productive and persistent in experiments on research stations. This is partly because there is a 15-fold increase in productivity with pure brachiaria pasture sown alone over the that of the native pasture and in part because of the high cost of seed and slow establishment of Arachis pintoi. Nevertheless, pure grass brachiaria pastures degrade over time due to no or low fertilizer input and heavy grazing pressure. There are now sorne new accessions of Arachis pintoi available that establish more rapidly and have better dry season tolerance. Further, the rate of establishment might be increased with application of sorne fertilizer.Metbods: During 1998, four farrns were selected on the basis of interest of the farrner in contributing financially as well as participating in an evaluation, the farrn had degraded pastures, and there was good access. Four A. pinoti accessions (CIAT 17434-the released variety Mani Forrajero, CIAT 18744, CIAT 18748 and CIAT 22160) were planted ata seeding rate of either 3 or 6 kglha in two replications on each farrn in August 1998. Plot size is 0.5 ha. On three farrns there was still a high frequency of B. decumbens, the fourth was planted with B. humidicola because of the absence of improved grasses.Outputs: There has been good germination but on one farrn there has been considerable damage to young seedlings by goats. This experiment will need to run for at least 3 years to obtain sorne idea of the contribution of the legume. It is planned to fence off additional paddocks of the qegraded control, with and without the basal fertilizer treatment.Contributors: Camilo Plazas, Carlos Lascano 1 1 1• Established 18 on-fann sites in Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, where the Forages of Smallholders Project is developing forage technologies with farmers and national partners• Forage technology development is in transition at the more-advanced sites. Farmers are adapting the technologies they initially selected (frequently, productive species used for cut & carry feeding) to suit their individual needs •• At the more-advanced sites, fanners are beginning to utilize significant areas of forage Purpose: To develop forage technology options for smallholder upland farms in Southeast Asia to improve feed resources and resource management Rationale: In addition to providing food products, livestock are often essential for cash flow and capital accumulation of households in upland areas of SE Asia. Larger animals can be walked long distances to market and, unlike most crops, can be converted to cash at any time. They also provide draught power and contribute substantially to nutrient cycling through manure.Productive animals are essential components of productive, diversified farming systems in the uplands.Traditionally, farmers have used freely available local feed resources for their Iivestock, such as residues from crop fields and communal grasslands, forests and roadsides. With increasing human and animal populations, the communal feed resources are becorning scarcer, and, degraded by over-use. This is stimulating a high and increasing demand for planted forages in resource-poor upland areas.Outputs: Planted forages (grasses, herbaceous legumes and tree legumes) h_ave a strong role to play in improved livestock production systems for the uplands. They improve feed supply for animals (and thus animal production) and produce other significant benefits. These include:-controlling soil erosion (eg. contour hedgerows, gully stabilisation) -improving soil fertility through manure and nitrogen fixation (eg. protein banks of legumes), -controlling weeds (legurninous cover crops) -reducing labour requirements for tending animals (eg. cut & carry plots near barns), and -improving animal control (forage tree legumes as living fences).A summary of the forage technologies that are either existing or emerging at each si te is presented in Table l. At most sites farmers chose to evaluate more than one technology. Intensively managed grass plots near houses or animal sheds are being evaluated at almost all sites. Often farmers identified a lack of labour as a limitation and they see intensively managed plots as an attractive way of reducing the demand on labour of keeping livestock. In many cases farmers intend to use these intensively managed plots only at specific times. Examples are days when they have to go to' the market, sorne family members are sick, or during periods of peak labour demand by other agricultura! activities.The range of technologies tested by farmers increases as they become familiar with forages and they see more opportunities on their farms. Sorne technologies aimed at better resource management are emerging at several sites (in particular, forages in contour hedgerows, grasses for stabilising gully erosion and forages in fencelines)A list of the main forage species evaluated by farmers is presented in Table 2. Severa! other Brachiaria lines are now being tried on-farm at Pakchong but it is still only a very small activity (18 farmers with small plots).Impact: Forage technology development is an on-going process not a one-off injection of species into farming systems. At the first stage of this process, farmers almost always plant small areas for cut & carry feeding to simply observe the new species without taking major risks. Once farmers become convinced by the potential of the species and have built up confidence in the FSP, they are adapting the species and management systems to suit their specific needs. The initial selection of forages on the basis of their value for cut & carry feeding is being superseded at many si tes by subsequent selection of species to fit other needs (both feeding and resource management needs).Contributors: Werner Stür (CIAT, Philippines), Peter Horne (CSIR.O, Laos), Francisco Gabunada (FSP-Philippines), Phonepaseuth Phengsavanh (FSP-Laos), Maimunah Tuhulele (DGLS, Indonesia), Ed Magboo (PCARRD, Philippines), Viengsavanh Phimphachanhvongsod (DLF, Laos), Le Hoa Binh (NIAH, Vietnam).Integrated technology and management options   • In 1998, sites were selected and forage germplasm nurseries established at four sites in Honduras where legumes will be evaluated with farmers for multiple uses.Purpose: To evaluate forage legumes with farmers to better ascertain how they might be utilised on diversified farms in the hillsides.Rationale: Forage germplasm in its multiple uses -for example as feed, for the suppression of weeds, for maintenance and improvement of soil fertility, for erosion control can play an important role in improving the farm productivity of the small and medium size farmers in the Central American hillsides. In addition, it is likely that such germplasm will have also a positive effect on the conservation of natural resources and the environment in general. However, adoption, particular! y of forage legumes, has been limited, possibly dueto lack of direct interaction with the farmers.Therefore it is necessary to develop forage germplasm technologies with the farmers, using a participatory approach. The work will also contribute to the development of an overall strategy to i) guide future research and ii) aid in the diffusion and finally adoption of forage based technology. The interaction with interested national partners, working with farmers, will be of paramount importance to the success of the approach.Results from this study are expected to be useful for strategic targeting of forage germplasm using GIS tools (see section 3. 2), targeting both environmental as well as socio-economic parameters. The initial primary focus will be on hillsides in Y oro, Honduras, but an extension to si tes in the O lancho and Atlantida regions of Honduras is planned.Methods: A combination of agronomic evaluation techniques, participatory technologies, soil indicators, socio-economic studies and GIS tools will be employed. The work links closely with the Tropileche project, using sorne of the same germplasm and potential germplasm originating from this project for studies on early adoption of technologies and linking to Tropileche for dissemination.Outputs: Germplasm nurseries have been established at four sites in Honduras and a strong collaboration within CIAT staff in Central A.merica and with DICTA (Dirreccion de Ciencia y Technologiá Agropecuaria) Honduras formed. Staff are being trained in farmer participatory research and techniques selected for participatory evaluation.Impact: It is aimed to have a list of accessions selected by farmers according to their needs and methodology for furtheLstudies available by 2000. GIS tools will be used to integrate and disseminate results .Contributors: M. Peters (IP-5) and P. Argel (PE-5)Collaborators: Ann Braun (SN-3), Glen Hyman (PE-4), Miguel Ayarza/Richard Tbomas/Edmundo Barrios (PE-2), and Carlos Lascano (IP-5), Peter Kerridge, Federico Holmann (PE-5)• Short-term use of green manure (2-4 mths) increased cassava yields but notas high as the yield obtained with high rates of fertilizer• Long-term green manuring (18 mths) resulted in very high yields of cassava.• Green manures have a role where there is no shortage of land and/or labour.Purpose: To maintain or improve long-term soil productivity through the use of various legumes as intercrops, green manures or alley crops, and to determine the most effective way of combining these legurnes with cassava, so as to maxirnize totalland productivity.Method: Soil fertility maintenance through the use of green manures. On rather fertile soil at Hung Loe Research Center in south Vietnam an experiment was initiated in 1992 to study the long-term effect of intercropping and alley cropping on cassava yield and soil fertility.Output: In 1998, after six consecutive cassava cropping cycles, there was still no significant effect of any treatment on cassava yield (Table 1). In~rcropping of cassava with Canavalia ensiformis, which was pulled up and mulched at 2 months after planting (MAP), or alley cropping with Gliricidia sepium, slightly increased cassava yields over the control. Method: Another green manure trial was initiated at Rayong Research Center in Thailand in 1994, using Crotalaria juncea, Canavalia ensiformis, pigeon pea and cowpea as the green manures. Three methods of green manure management were tested: MI) green manures were intercropped with cassava, pulled out at 2 months after planting (MAP), and mulched between cassava rows; M2) green manures were interplanted into a rnature cassava stand at 7 MAP; they were pulled up and mulched at the time of next cassava planting; or M3) green manures were grown as a conventional green manure crop befare being pulled up at 3-4 MAP and mulched, after which cassava was planted without further land preparation and left to grow for 18 months. The last method resulted in a two-year crop cycle.Output: The results in Table 2 indicate that Crotalaria juncea usual! y produced the highest DM production, followed by pigeon pea or cowpea. Pigeon pea was particular! y productive as a green manure crop when interplanted at 7 MAP, in which case the green manure rernained in the field during the dry season. Because of their high DM production, Crotalaria and pigeon pea were the most effective in recycling nutrients.In the frrst cycle almost all green manure treatments increased cassava yields compared with the check without green manure (T 1 ) ; however, these yields were still below those obtained with a higher fertilization rate (T 2 ) . In the second cycle, intercropping or interplanting of the green manures had no significant effect on cassava yields, which were again considerably below that obtained with a higher rate of fertilization (T 2 ) . Leaving cassava grow for 18 months after a conventional green manure crop (T 11 -T 14 ) resulted in very high yields while having little effect on root starch content. This may be an effective way for farmers to reduce production costs, since land preparation, weeding and harvesting is done only every two years, while total production from one 2-year cycle was only slightly lower than that of two 1-year cycles.There was no consistent effect of any of the green manure treatments on soil pH, organic matter (OM), available P or exchangeable K. Thus, while green manuring may have long-term benefits in terms of soil productivity and yield, these effects are not clear in the short-term. Whenever labor is scarce or expensive, such as in Thailand, farmers will prefer to maximize their yields through the use of chemical fertilizers instead of green manures.lmpact: The results so far obtained with green manures have not been too prornising.Nevertheless, in areas where animal manures are not available or are used on other crops, or where fertilizers are too costly or too difficult to obtain, farmers can improve soil fertility and increase crop yields by the use of green manures. This is of interest mainly for subsistence farmers with either abundant land or labor resources. A detailed econornic analysis is still needed to determine whether the benefits are greater from intercropping (with incorporation of crop residues), from green manuring, or from alley cropping.  -12.6 -3 1.0 38.86 46.32•> In T3-Tl4 cassava received 156 kg 13-13-21/ha (like TI).In T3-T6 cassava is intercropped wit11 1 row of green ma.nure, which is pulled out and mulched at 2 MAP; cassava is ha.rvested at 11 months for a total crop cycle of 12 months. In T7-Tl O the green manures are interpla.nted in the cassava stand at 7 MAP; they rema.in after the cassava harvest a.nd a re pulled up and mulched at time of next cassava pla.nting; cassava is harvested at JI months for a total crop cycle of 12 months. In T11-14 the green ma.nures are pla.nted, pulled out a.nd mulc hed at 3-4 montltS, a.fter which cassava is planted a.nd rema.ins in tl1e field for 18 montltS for a total crop cycle of 24 montilS. In tite first cycle, T6, TlO a.nd Tl4 had Mucuna pruriens as tl1e green ma.nure, but tltis species did not germinate well and was replaced by cowpea in the 2d cycle.• Paspalum atratum was the most promising hedgerow species, as it is less competitive than other grasses and is highly drought tolerant.Purpose: To evaluate various grass species for their efficiency as contour barriers to control erosion when cassava is grown on hillsides.Rationale: Numerous erosion control trials have shown that planting contour hedgerows of vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) at about 1 m vertical distance between hedgerows is one of the most effective ways to•reduce erosion when cassava is grown on slopes. These barriers also conserve soil, water and fertilizers through natural terrace formation. However, few farmers have adopted this technology because vetiver grass has no commercial value or altemative uses (as green manure or animal feed), it is difficult to find planting material and it is expensive to establish, as it can be propagated only vegetatively. Thus, other grass species were cornpared with vetiver grass with the aim of identifying species that are equally effective in controlling erosion, but that are easier to establish, more useful to farmers, and that do not compete with neighboring cassava plants or becorne a weed.A trial was established to determine the competitive effect of 12 grass species, in comparison with three ecotypes of vetiver grass, on cassava yield when these grasses were grown as contour hedgerows between every third cassava row, planted along the contour on about 5% slope.Outputs: Figure 1 shows the effect of various grass species planted as contour hedgerows on cassava yield during the second year in Khaw Hin Som, Thailand. Since 1997/98 was an exceptionally dry year, there was strong competition for water between the grass hedgerows and the neighboring cassava plants. This was particular! y noticeable during the early growth stage when cassava still lacked a good root system, and when the hedgerows were already well established. Thus, many cassava plants next to the hedgerows died or produced very low yields. For very aggressive grass species, such as sugarcane, dwarf or normal elephant grass (Pennisetum purpurium) or king grass (Saccarum sinense), this competitive effect extended evento the center cassava row, 1.5 m away from the grass. However, in case of Paspalum atratum, the center cassava row actually produced a higher yield than in the check plot without an adjacent hedgerow, while the yields of the two cassava rows bordering the grass were reduced less than in the case of most other grasses. Thus, it appears that P. atratum has a vertical and deep root system, which results in good drought tolerance and little competition with neighboring crop plants. Moreover, this species has an erect growth habit and good tillering capacity, which makes it very effective in trapping eroded soil particles. lt is also very suitable as an animal feed (see Section 2.2.5 and below) and can be propagated either from vegetative planting material or from seed, which makes establishment easier and cheaper than in case of vetiver grass. As long as the grass is cut before flowering and seed set, it will not become a weed problem. A similar tria! has been established at CATAS in Hainan, China, to corroborate these results. lmpact: If the prornising results obtained so far with Paspalum atratum are confirmed in other locations, this could greatly enhance the adoption of contour hedgerows for controlling erosion. The cost of establishment would be significantly reduced, while those farmers having cattle would benefit from the grass as a high quality animal feed , which is much less competitive than the currently used elephant grass. Contributors: Dr. Somjet Jantawat, Kasetsart University, Thailand; Reinhardt Howeler and Wemer Stur, CIAT. see also section 2.2.5In on-farm sites in Southeast Asia where farmers are selecting forages for feed improvement, they also select thern for resource rnanagernent such as erosion control and soil improvernent. lmpact: There was no new activity to that reported last year, except that there is more widespread use of grasses and legurnes by farmers for rnultiple purposes.Forage technologies often have more than one benefit and it is difficult and, in many cases irnpossible, to separate forages grown for NRM purposes frorn those grown for irnproved feed supply. Farmers growing, for example, contour hedgerows are looking to obtain feed for their anirnals in the sarne way as intensively-managed plots, as well as limiting erosion. The relative irnportance of the two benefits varíes from farm to farm, but no farrners at FSP sites are growing contour hedges purely for erosion control. The use of legurnes and grasses in farm resource management is covered in Section 2.2.5. Cassava varietal improvement in Asia is coord.inated by project IP-3, but new varieties and prornising breeding lines, developed by national cassava breeding programs in collaboration with CIAT, are further tested, evaluated and dissern.inated as part of the farrner participatory research (FPR) variety trials of the Nippon Foundation Project (see Section 2.3.4).• High yields of 20-30 tlha can be maintained during continuous cropping for 6-1 O years with annual applications of 80-100 kg!ha N, 17-20 kglha P and 60-80 kglha K.Purpose: To maintain or improve soil productivity in cassava-based cropping systems to optirn.ize the efficiency of fertilizer inputs and obtain high cassava root and starch yields.Rationale: While cassava is well adapted to grow on acid and infertile soils, continued production of the crop on these soils without adequate inputs of nutrients willlead to nutrient depletion anda deterioration of the soil's productive capacity. Thus, it is important to establish which nutrients are removed and how to replenish these nutrients most efficiently.Since 1987, 19long-term fertility trials have been conducted in seven countries in Asia. Of these, 11 trials were conducted for four or more years; in 1998 only four of these trials are being continued. These trials use a fairly uniform incomplete factorial design with 3-4 replications to study the effect of four.levels of N, P and K in various combinations on cassava yield and starch content. Soil and tissue analyses results of several trials are combined to determine the relation between yield response to a given nutrient and the concentration of that nutrient in the soil or in leaf tissue, so as to enable the diagnosis of nutritional problems from soil or tissue analyses.Outputs: Figure 1 shows an exarnple of the response of two cassava varieties to annual applications of combinations of N, P and K during the sixth year of continuous cropping at CATAS in Danzhou, Hainan, China. In this experiment there was a significant yield response to N for both varieties, no significant response to P, anda highly significant response to K only for SC205. Both varieties showed a highly significant response to the combined application of NPK, which increased the yield from 16.9 to 44.3 t/ha. The response in terms of starch content was not statistically significant, but the trend was negative toN with a positive response to K.Figure 2 shows the change in yield response toN, P and K during six consecutive cropping cycles in another experiment conducted in Tarnanbogo, Lampung, Indonesia. In this case, cassava was intercropped with upland rice and maize. The response to application of all three nutrients increased over'time, but during the sixth cycle there were highly significant responses to N and K , while there was only a significant response to P. Figure 2. Effect of annual applications of N, P and K on cassava root yield, relative y ield (yield witho,ut the nutrient over the highest yield with the nutrient) and the exchangeable K and available P (Bray 2) content of the soil during six years of éontinuous cropping in Tamanbogo, Lampung, Indonesia.The exchangeable K content of the soil was far below the criticallevel and decreased over time if no K was applied. Tbe soil available P content rernained around the critical level due to a relatively low removal of P in the annual root harvest.Table 1 shows a summary of the responses to each nutrient after continuous cropping for 4-1 O years in 11 locations. There was a significant response to N in eight, to P in four, and to K in seven of the eleven sites. This indicates that in rnost cassava growing areas of Asia, cassava responds mainly to applications ofN and K, while a response to Pis much less likely, dueto the crop's effective association with native mycorrhiza in the soil.  Purpose: To determine whether planting time has a significant effect on cassava productivity and on soil losses due to erosion.Rationale: Among the many agronomic practices that help reduce erosion, changing the date of planting may be one of the simplest. Nevertheless, this has seldom been studied. Many experiments have shown that in cassava cultivation, most erosion occurs during the first 3-4 months after planting (MAP) when the crop canopy has not yet fully covered the soil. Thus, if we can plant and establish a canopy during the dry season, befare the onset of heavy rains, erosion is likely to be lower than when we plant at the beginning of the rain y season, as is usually done. The question in that case is: is soil moisture adequate for good plant establishment and yield?Methods: Cassava, cv. Rayong 90, was planted at bimonthly intervals in plots on 4.2% slope at Rayong Research Center in Thailand. Eacb plot was harvested at 11 months and prepared again for replanting. Soilloss dueto erosion was determined monthly by weighing the sediments collected in plastic-covered channels which had been established along tbe bottom end of each plot. The experiment was continued for three complete cropping cycles for each planting date treatment.Outputs: Table 2 shows the average over 3 cycles of the effect of planting date on total rainfall received during the 11 month crop cycles, the erosion losses, and various plant growth and yield parameters, as well as gross income. Total rainfall received was highest when the crop was planted in December and harvested in November of the following year; it was lowest when planting in October. When planting in December, i.e. in the middle of the dry season, the final plant stand was still 90%, indicating that soil moisture was generally adequate for germination. This planting date also resulted in the highest root yield, a rather high starch content, highest starch yield and lowest level of erosion. Altematively, planting in February and harvesting in January resulted in a slightly lower plant stand and yield, but in the highest starch content and starch yield, as well as a slightly higher level of erosion. These data indicate that planting during the dry season (Nov-April) has clear advantages, both in terms of yield and income and in terms of reducing erosion. lt also allows the harvest during the dry season when starch content is highest, drying is quickest and labor is more available. In most sandy loam or sandy clay loam soils, land preparation and planting is possible in the dry season since soils do not barden excessively. Planting during the dry season is now a common practice in cassava growing regions of Thailand, with March being the most popular month for planting in the southeastern region.Correlating root yield, starch content, starch yield and erosion losses with rainfall received during certain periods of the cropping cycle (Table 3), reveals that both root and starch yield were bestIntegrated technology and management options correlated with the amount of rainfall received during the 4th to 11th month. Starch content was best correlated with rainfall during the 6th to 9th rnonth and was negatively, but not significantly, correlated with rainfall during the last two months befare harvest. As rnight be expected, sail loss was best correlated with rainfall during the first three rnonths of planting. These relationships are shawn in Figure 3.Fram these results it can be cancluded that cassava is best planted 3-4 manths befare the anset af heavy rains and harvested 2-3 manths after the anset af the dry seasan, when starch cantent is highest.  Highlights:• Farmers tested new rice varieties. Yields of two introduced varieties were equal or slightly superior to farrners' varieties; and yields of three introduced varieties rnatched or were slightly lower than the lowest yielding farrner variety. The growing season was subject to severe drought stress. Farrners are enthusiastic to continue testing.• Participatory research rnethods involve farrners in a new relationship with researchers in the technology developrnent process.• Local institutions are testing new rnethods to work with farrners.Purpose: To respond to farrners' expressed concems about low and declining rice yields as a rnajor problem; to introduce farmer participatory research to collaborating institutions in Pucallpa; to determine farmers ' levels of interest in participatory research; to identify rice varieties superior to those now sown by farmers.Rationale: Farrners in Pucallpa face a range of problems. They identified rice as a major, important crop for consumption and sales of surplus, and prioritized rice problems as very high.The project started work with farmers on rice because of that interest, but with the intention of later continuing in FPR to other crops, to improved land and fallow rnanagement, and eventual} y to more integrated land and resource management systems.Technology development in the past was based on researchers' perceptions about farmers' problems and on technology altematives developed on-station. Adoption and impact were low without farrners' inputs. Participatory research is expected to improve problem-solving impacts.Methods: Eighteen individual farrners in four comrnunities were interested in upland rice varietal testing. Each decided on respective experimental design: farmers establi shed simple trials totaling 400 to 1400 m 2 testing from two to seven varieties including farrners' varieties. Most frequently, each variety was sown on a 1 O x 1 O m plot. Twelve of the trials were replicated. Crop managernent matched each farrners' normal slash-and-bum rice cultivation practices. Researchers visited farmers and field trials over the growing season to discuss progress, problems, concems, and observations. Yield corrected to 14% moisture and yield parameters were rneasured and discussed with farrners at harvest.Table 1 shows the rice yields from the farrner participatory trials.  We conducted a rapid survey of participating farmers to capture their perceptions and suggestions to improve the methodology:• 80% thought that the methods were very good • 87% saw that they could apply the methodology to other crops and systems  Uses include integrated production of fish and pigs, fish production, and no use. Data needs to include surface areas, reasons for current production or no production, management practices, costs and benefits, and comparison of cases.Sistemas de producción con manejo de especies forestales de bosques secundarios proposed by INIA with collaboration by IIAP, IVITA, and CNF would benefit from collaboration by ICRAF and CIFOR. DEP AM funding would be best utilized in the farmer participatory selection, management and testing of multi-purpose tree species in their secondary forest areas. The project needs to closely coordinate with the project on soiVfallow management and the agroforestry project proposed for the Von Humbolt area. Evaluación participativa del manejo adecuado de suelos en campos de pequeños agricultores de la regían Ucayali proposed by ICRAF, CIAT, and INIA with collaboration by DRAU and CNF should first include DRAU and CNF as proponents. This FPR project can be improved by encouraging farmer \"rnixing and matching\" of the fallow species tested and in greater farmer choice in how such species might be managed.Rehabilitación de ecosistemas degradados por efectos de corte y quema y conservación de suelos con sistemas agrofroestales con participacion de agricultores de la zona Alexander von Humbolt-Macuya proposed by INIA, DRAU, and CRP needs to work with 20-30 interested • farmers in the proposed multi-strata systems. Although it appears that the project intends to directly support the establishment of multistrata systems, it would better fit the goals of participatory research if farmers were supported in terms of information and sorne planting materials, but not in land preparation and planting.Contributors: Sam Fujisaka, CIA T, as member of the Comite Asesor that advises DEP AMHighlights:• Adoption of soil conservation technology shruply increased when short-tenn value could be added to the conservation components • Partiña grass, a local source of raw material for brooms fabrication and blackberry-grass strips, a technology based on market opportunities, were evaluated and identified as new technology options for soil conservation in Cauca, Colombia.An interdisciplinary project on the introduction of blackberry -a market opportunity selected for better soil conservation was set up in CIA T' s pilot watershed in southem Colombia.Purpose: To evaluate component cropping technologies that willlead to the adoption of erosion control barriers by farrners Rationale: Work on soil conservation in the northem Cauca Department of Colombia has focused on alleviating the problems associated with growing of cassava on marginal, low fertility hillsides. Local cassava starch processing units created an incentive for fanners to expand cassava cropping in a fragile environment. There are few other altematives for fanners to diversify land use and to make it more sustainable, other than growing beans on slightly more fertile soils and extensive cattle grazing. Over the past years, work on technology options for soil conservation concentrated on better crop management, forage legume inter-cropping, grass barriers, cut-and-carry fodder barriers and on rotations with improved grassland, with and without mínimum tillage. The last two options showed the most prornise in tenns of potential area impacted and conservation effectiveness (see reports from previous years).Nevertheless, there was poor adoption of these technologies, except for úse of improved varieties. This can be attributed to the fact that the benefits of adopting soil conservation technologies are not imrnediate, only becorning obvious after one or two decades. This is too long a period to be of importance to a small farrner in his planning and decision making which is oriented towards satisfying the most urgent needs. But there were also technical reasons impeding adoption, e.g. lirnited promotion of participatory technology development with only two or three farrner groups, lack of legume seed and appropriate sowing equipment. Lack of dairy cattle and markets for milk. and rnilk-derived products were reasons for limited adoption of cut-and-carry fodder and grasslegume ley rotations. This was especially the case in typical cassava growing areas.On the other hand, recommendations of the project team to plant barriers of Citronella grass (Cymbopogon nardus) on low fertility hillsides were readily accepted by farrners, when an effort was undertaken to combine it with a local processing unit for the extraction of essential oils. Complementary funds for this activity were provided by GTZ, the Gennan Agency for Technical Cooperation. Technical cooperation and support from FIDAR an NGO working in applied research and rural deve}opment was essential for the planting of grass barriers and for establishing the oil extraction plant with the rural community. Today more than 27 ha in the harnlet of \"El Pital'' are protected with Citronella barriers and a group of \"Campesinas\" (AMCAPD is generating local employment anda moderate additíonal income by running the extraction plant and selling pure essential oil and derived products like scented candles and floor cleaners.Based on these experiences further efforts have been undertaken to identify and evaluate new technology options for soil conservation which have a high technícal and economic feasibility.Developing a soil consávation technology based on a local opportunity.-the case of Partiña grass.In Buenos Aires, a munícipality in the northern Cauca Department of Colombia (1000-1200 m.a.s.l.), soils in the lower part of the municipality are of low fertility, degraded by soil erosion and high in aluminum content. Cassava is the main crop grown in the area. Lirnited scope exists for introducing conservation components dueto constraints like poverty, lack of infrastructure, limited access to markets, lack of farm diversity and very few and extensive cattle raising.The use of \"Partiña\" (Leptocoryphium lanatum (H.B.K.) Nees), a grass readily growing on fallow land of recently burned and degraded hillsides offers an opportuníty for combining a local resource with soil conservation, generating environmental and economic benefits. This grass is harvested on fallow land, dried, packed and sold to craftsmen for manufacturing brooms.Growing the grass in contour hedgerows or strips would allow farmers to increase labor productivity in the collection process at the same time protecting their cassava fields from severe erosion. An effort was, therefore, undertaken by the project team to develop a conservation technology based on this local opportunity.In trials done with a farmers group over three years, it was demonstrated, that the grass is easy to transplant, regrowth is rapid after being cutting, it resists fire and tolerates periods of competition by surrounding weed fallow. Biomass production per ha is 1-1.5 t/ha when planted in double rows. As a consequence little competition to the cassava crop is likely and transportation requirementlha is low compared to other barrier grasses (Table 1).Once the technical requirements and the design for its application in soil conservation were determined, an ex-ante assessment of the economic viability at the farm level was made.According to the analysis, farmers would have to invest 145 $ US/ha to plant 1000 mofa double row barrier and could make a net benefit of 47 $ per cut(l-2 times year) or 11.5 $USa day, which is about twice the salary of a day laborer. In other words, soil conservation with Partiña barriers allows the farmer to pay his labor and earn extra money.With respect to the broom manufacturing, ex-ante analysis also suggested very promising results.In small processing units costing USD500, 4-5 good quality, biodegradable \"Partiña\" brooms can be produced per hour (6750 units per year). After expenses for raw material and salaries are deducted, a net gain of 3.300 $ US can be obtained if brooms can be sold at USDl.lO per unit. Nevertheless limitation& exist with respect to actual market volumes and hence the applicability of the technology to larger areas. Parallel to the planting and processing of Partiña, an activity presently undertaken with the collaboration of two NGOs , (CETEC; FIDAR) and the farmer association \"La Lucha, a campaign has been started to promote the \"green brooms\" in schools and in public to in crease the poten ti al impact of the area protected by \"Partiña\". As pointed out above, greater adoption of conservation technology is feasible if conservation technology can be successfully combined with income generation.Using this rationale, research was initiated in 1996 by an MSc student. From biophysical and socioeconomic studies in the CIA T pilot watershed \"Rio Cabuya!\" in the Cauca Department (contribution of CIAT project PE-3), market opportunities for agricultura! crops and products were identified, discussed and selected with farmers. After this process, selected options were subject toa more detailed ex-ante analysis of market risks, profitability and to sorne extent agronornic risks (contributions made from project SN-1 on Rural Agroenterprise Development). In a further step data were fed into a linear prograrnming model for individual farm households, including environmental parameters such as slope steepness to optimize economic and environmental benefits.As a result of these preliminary studies, Blackberry (Rubus glaucus) was selected for the upper part of the watershed with mean slopes of 30%, 1700-2200 m altitude anda population density of 56-97 people per km 2• (There are now al so opportunities for milk and mil k products, after a small dairy was installed in the lower part of the watershed.)In the next step, two districts in the upper part of the watershed with relatively high levels of poverty, steep lands anda small percentage of coffee area were identified and selected for evaluating this market opportunity with potentially high economic and environmental benefits.A farmer with a reputation as a local \"opinion Jeader\" and sorne experience in blackberry cultivation and marketing was identified. The project idea was discussed and further developed with him to obtain bis support in promoting a project of \"Soil conservation through market opportunities\" among the poorest farmers in the district. An incentive for this leading farmer to participate was the prospect of obtaining a 10 percent share of the profits from his neighbors and being able to offer larger quantities for sale in the market.Meetings were held with a group of 26 farrners to explain the reasons for the selection of blackberry, the procedures for financing the plantations, the modus operandi of the reimbursement of the \"credits\" (20% of gross income from planted blackberries for 3 years) and the technical designs for conservation farming.Farmers interested in participating in the project were visited and their farrns analyzed for the potential of obtaining environmental benefits (sloping fields with annual crops, high erosion risks) and social benefits (poor, underemployed family labor). Finally, an agreement was reached with 12 farmers stratified in three well-being groups (Table 2). In May/June 1997 the planting of blackberry was organized and coordinated in close collaboration with Pedro Herrera, the leader of the group. Inputs such as chicken manure, plastic bags, fertilizer, and capital for layers was provided together with 500 plants. Farmers were expected to plant the blackberry in \"Productive and protective contour strips (PPS)\", consisting of one row of blackberry and a double row of Imperial grass (Figure 1 ).----- Compared to the traditional way of planting blackberry as asole crop in small plantations and then only protecting a small area with a perennial crop, where weed is managed with \"machete\", an arrangement in \"productive and protective strips\" leads toa five-to eight-fold increase in the area protected against erosion and excessive water runoff. The double row of Imperial grass was recommended to reinforce the conservation properties of the blackberry con tour rows at the sarne time producing mulch for the blackberry rows (yield and quality enhancement) and providing cut-and-carry fodder for rnilking cows.Nevertheless when tearn members visited the farmers in mid June all farrners had planted blackberry, but none of the farmers had implemented the contour technology exactly as it was discussed and proposed in the previous meetings.The reasons for not implementing the blackberry conservation strips were the following:-Not all farrners had understood the relatively complex design.-Preparing land for a contour strip arrangement would have needed 4-6 times more labor for land cleaning in a period of relative labor shortage. -In addition, the opening of more land between the con tour strips would ha ve required inputs for the planting of annual crops which were not available.1 1Integrated technology and management options -Most farmers had only prepared a small piece of land and wanted to plantas much blackberry as possible to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the project within a Iimited time period. -Sorne farmers (3) were willing to plant in the strip arrangement but were put under pressure by neighbors not to do it, so all would have a unified concept and position. -Sorne of them felt insecure in adopting a new, unknown planting arrangement and wanted to avoid risks related with the new cropping design.In order to meet the expectations of the project team and fulfill their commitments, nearly all farmers had introduced double-row barriers of Imperial grass in their plantations at the suggested distance. However, in doing this they created a risk of causing too m u eh competition and complicating work in the blackberry plantation which already is quite sustainable by itself and does not require additional soil conservation technology.It was concluded, that the unknown , the lack of time to prepare more land, the pressing time schedule of scientists, anda traditional preference for concentrating perennial crops such as blackberry on a small piece of land were the main reasons for onl y partial adoption of this conservation technology.In response to farmer reactions and in order to give farmers more time to decide and to evaluate the hypothesi s of economic and environmental benefits, that come with the strip arrangement, it was decided to establish runoff plots on five farms. Three treatrnents a) blackberry alone, b) annual crop alone, ande) annual crop with blackberry grass strip were selected. Farmers will be given the ability to decide on the adoption of the conservation technology on the basis of their own experiments and experience.Evaluation of the various systems by farmers has been in process since October 1997. Farmers take data on labor requirements, yield, fruit quality, erosion and maintenance needs and will evaluate them together with project staff. In addition sorne farmers are planning to implement the protective strips by extending thé grass barriers and planting blackberry at the top when preparing land for annual crops on adjacent fields in the next season and when more time is available for planning and implementing the proposed technology.As an interrnediate step towards optimizing the environmental impact of introducing and promoting blackberry cultivation and as a reaction to farmer attitudes a strip farming approach is also under consideration. In this arrangement annual crops and blackberry are cultivated as sole crops in contour strips of 10 to 20 m across the slope thus allowing farmers to manage the plant stands as asole crop but reducing soillosses by a1temating erosive and non erosive strips. On slopes of more than 15 %, the planting of a grass hedgerow at the lower end of the annual crop separating the two strips is strip is recommended.Besides showing the need for participating with farmers and not trying to lead them, this example also shows that the promotion of soil conservation technology via the introduction of a market opportunity is not a valid option if a sustainable system depends on the adoption of a specific arrangement or planting system. The market opportunity or newly introduced crop itself should contribute to a more sustainable system. The planting arrangements and other management practices area only likely to have an influence on the area planted.lmpact: The case studies presented of integrated approaches to soil conservation in hillside agriculture have been implemented and practiced, at this stage by a lirnited number of farrners, because they have been developed in collaboration with locally active NGOs and farrner groups.The extent to which they will further expand depends toa high degree on markets, further development and refinement of technologies with farmers and the inputs from the NGOs actually engaged in implementing these technologies with farrners. Irrespective of this development, the principies associated with these cases are of general applicability and can be applied in many situations . The three principies of: (a) adding value toan introduced component (Citronella), b) developing an existing opportunity toa soil conservation option (Broom grass), and (e) . implementing a market opportunity in a way that it optimizes environmental benefits will be published in order to stimulate similar activities at other sites. This should increase the impact and outreach of these local experiences. Hopefully, it will contribute to multiple local solutions to a global problem of soil erosion.Contributors: K. Müller-Samann, Luis E. Girón, Kai Sonder Collaboration: Jose Restrepo,F(IDAR), M. E. Morales y G. Romero (CETEC); , Ruben D.Estrada, Project PE-3 Comrnunity development of watersheds, Carlos Ostertag, Project SN-1 Rural Agroenterprises, G. Caravali (farrner); P. Herrera (farrner) ; \"La Lucha\", farrner association, J.A. Castillo, C. Gallego, L. E. Mina, J. L. Adarve, D. Peña, (CIAT).1Tbe PbD project described here is part of the Cassava Priority Programme of the Center for Intemational Agriculture (ZIL) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland. It has been developed in collaboration with the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIA T) in Colombia.• Cassava yields are heavily affected by undersowing and intercropping.• Additional soil cover and biomass production by the intercrops are not suffícient to compensate for the loss in total cassava biomass, either biologicalJy or economically.• Farmer' s reactions to on-farm trials indicate that short-term economic benefits are of higher priority than long term sustainability consideraüons.Purpose: To develop sustainable cassava production systems for use by farmers in the Andean hillsides through on-station and on-farm field trials to assess the potential of varietal and species mixtures with cassava for improved resource use and erosion control.Rationale: Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is the most important root crop in the tropics. In marginal areas, many farmers depend on its ability to produce reasonable yields on poor soils. Often planted on steep slopes, cassava cultivation contributes to erosion and depletion of soil fertility because of its slow initial growth and poor soil cover. Cassava cultivation under these circumstances can start a vicious cycle which leaves further cassava planting as the only option.In the Colombian hillsides, poverty prevents testing and application of strategies that would malee cassava production more sustainable.The project aims to identify ways to break the vicious cycle of continuous c\"assava cultivation.Over the last three years, I have studied potentially more sustainable production systems for use by farmers in the Colombian Hillsides. The main objectives are: i) to improve of erosion control and soil fertility with low externa] inputs and through diversification and ii) to identify constraints and opportunities for the local application of diversified cassava production systems.Starting in 1995, on-station field trials were carried out over three seasons to investigate the effects of two levels of cassava cropping system diversification: varietal and species mixtures with and without additional undersowing. I tested the performance of different cassava varieties complementary in plant architecture and disease resistance in pure stands and mixtures with and without undersowing the legume Chamaechrista rotundifolia. The work included various soil preparation methods, planting pattems, strategies of soil cover management and mixing ratíos. In species mixture trials, sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), bush bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) antl the legume Canavalia brasiliensis CIAT 17009 were tested as intercrops for cassava.Outputs: Though there are differences among varieties, cassava appears to be a generally weak competitor and yields of the cassava variety mixtures only were rarely significantly higher than the mean of the respective pure stands. Cassava yields were severely reduced by undersowing and intercropping green cover legumes. For example C. rotundifolia caused yield losses between 26% and 42 %, while C. brasiliensis caused a 64% reduction of root production three months after planting. Of all the legumes tested, only C. brasiliensis significantly enhanced soil cover during the critica] phase at the beginning of the cassava cultivation cycle. Additional soil cover and biomass production by the green covers were not sufficient to compensate for the Joss in total cassava biomass, either biologically or economically. Only in the cassava-cowpea mixture total biomass production was higher compared to the cassava pure stand.All the abo ve trials were carried out on the CIA T experimental station in Santander de Quilichao where soil fertility is high and slopes are moderate. Such conditions are not representative for the target group of hillside farms. It is also well known that the outcome of competí ti ve interaction depends on environmental conditions, thus, it is impossible to predict the effects of diversified cropping systems from the on-station trials. Therefore in 1996 a series of on-farrn trials were established in typical hill side environments in the Río Cabuyal watershed with slopes up to 45 %. The trial setup in Rio Cabuyal offers the possibility to investigate the potential for erosion control and yield stabilization of varietal and species mixtures over a range of environments relevant to small farmers. Involving farmer participation is a main objective of the project and a key factor for successful development of sustainable systems. I active] y sought farmers' participation by working together with them in the experimental plots and spending time with them on their farms.Two cassava varieties, CG 402-11 and SM 526-3 were grown in a randomized complete block design as pure stands, as variety mixture and inter-cropped either with upland rice or with the forage Jegume Cana valía brasiliensis CIA T 17009. The tri al was replicated twice at each of four farms. The trial sites vary greatly in plot history, pest proneness, soil fertility and stability of soil structure. Depending on these factors, performance of the two cassava varieties and the intercrops also vary widely across the trial sites. Investigating the effects of site conditions on the interactions among partners in mixed cropping systems is a relevant new perspective is made possible through the on-farm trials.Outputs: While greatly reducing cassava growth and yield, C. brasiliensis produces a large amount of biomass, protecting the soil. In cassava pure stands, soil protection depends on the degree of branching. Rice performed well under good growing conditions and had no significant competí ti ve effect on cassava. The ears could be harvested 100-120 days after planting. Despite dying off after harvest, the rice plants visibly reduce levelling-in of the furrows left by ploughing, which may indicate reduced soil erosion. Under less favourable conditions, rice suffers from competition by cassava. Feed-back from farmers was positive, but indicated that short-term benefits of the intercrops such as additional income or availability of food are of higher priority than long term sustainability effects. More work will be needed for the development of rice and C.brasiliensis as potenti' al intercrops in cassava production systems.Impact: Results from the on-farm trials in Rio Cabuya} indicate a high degree of variability across sites and even replications. In temperare zones, varietal and species mixtures are well known for producing stable yields over non-uniform environments. Investigating their potential for yield stabilization in the Rio Cabuya! environment is highly relevant as the watershed has characteristics representative for the Andean hillsides region. Rio Cabuya! is actually a focus of interest of different CIAT programs oriented to strategic research and of severa! govemmental organizations and NGOs supported intemationally. This provides an excellent opportunity to disserninate results from the site specific field trials carried out in this project applicable and valuable over a wider area.Contributors: Georg Daellenbach, CIAT, Colombia, Edilberto Bonilla (field work Qulichao), Luis Eduardo Guastumal, Merardo Muñoz (field work Rio Cabuya!).lntegrated technology and management options a) Demonstration plots. Table 1 shows an example of demonstration plots conducted at Agro-forestry College in Thai N guyen, Vietnam, in 1997. Tbe demonstrated crop/soil management practices had a marked effect on cassava and intercrop yield, on gross and net income, as well as on erosion. Farmers selected four treatments they considered most useful, including contour hedges of Tephrosia candida and vetiver or contour ridging; applying a combination of fertilizers and manures; intercropping with peanut ancllor closer plant spacing. These practices resulted in a higher net income and lower levels of erosion. b) FPR trials on farmers fields.During 1997/98 a total of 105 FPR trials were conducted in eight pilot si tes of the four participating countries, i.e. China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Tables 2-5 are examples of FPR trials on erosion control, varieties, intercropping and fertilization practices conducted by farmers on their own fields.Table 2 shows that farmers in Kieu Tung village in Phu Tho province of Vietnam selected treatment six, i.e. intercropping cassava with peanut, applying 1 O t/ha of pig manure plus 60 kg N, 40 P 2 0 5 and 120 K 2 0/ha, and planting contour hedgerows of vetiver grass. This treatment has consistently produced the highest net income and lowest levels of erosion during three years of FPR trials on the same plots. In 1997, in this treatment net income was almost double, and soil losses were about one third of those obtained with the fanners' traditional practices. While many fanners in the village have now adopted intercropping with peanut and better fertilization practices, few have adopted the new varieties or vetiver hedgerows, mainly due to lack of planting material.Table 3 shows average results from four FPR variety trials conducted in Kongba village of Hainan province, China. Because of lack of planting material not all varieties could be tested by all four fanners. Fanners in the village clearly preferred SC8013 over their own local variety, SC205, because of its higher yield and typhoon resistance. They did not like SC8002, a preferred variety in Guangdong province, because of its tall growth habit and susceptibility to typhoons.Table 4 shows the average results of ten FPR intercropping trials, using peanut as the intercrop, in Pho Yen district, Thai Nguyen, Vietnam. Intercropping cassava with either one or two rows of peanut were the options preferred by fanners, as these treatments resulted in high yields of both cassava and peanut, and thus a higher gross and net income. Still, their local practice of planting short peanut rows across the cassava ridge produced the highest peanut yields anda relatively high net income; this treatment, however, requires a higher input due to the higher peanut seed requirement. In the same district, fanners experimented with four fertilizer practices. Table 5 shows that a combination of 1 O tlha of pig manure with 120 kg N, 40 P20s and 120 K20iha produced the highest yield and net income. Nevertheless, a majority of fanners preferred a somewhat lower rate of fertilizers (80N+40P 2 0 5 +80K20) because of the reduced cost and the lower risk involved.Tnblcl. Eflcct ufvarious soiUcrop man agcment tren tmcnl~ 011 cassava yicld, g ross amlnct incomc ns wcllas on dl1' soilluss duc to crosion whcn ca. ~snv n, n • Vinb Phu, was grown 011 18-24°/• slope in the FPR dcmonstration plots at Agro-forestry CoUege ofll1 ai Nguyen Univ., Tbai Nguycn, Vietnam in 1997. 7,000/kg seed in pods black bean seed: 7,000/kg seed cassava stake: 50/stake 2 >Percent of farmers (out of 35) considering the treatment as \"good\". . . 08 ------------------ <--------------Cassava yield (tlha)-------------------> A In 1997 and 1998 many farmers participatíng in the FPR project started to try out sorne of the selected practices on their production fields. Table 6 shows that the new cassava varieties were the first and most widely adopted componen!. In the two pilot sites in Thailand, the new higheryielding varieties have now completely replaced the local variety, Rayong l. In China and Vietnam participating farmers are changing to their newly selected varieties as rapidly as they are able to multiply the planting material. In Indonesia, however, most farmers still prefer their traditional varieties, as these are well adapted to the local conditions and taste preferences, while the new varieties were only marginally better in yield and starch content.Better fertilization practices were readily adopted after participating farmers saw their econornic benefits. Unfortunately, in Indonesia chernical fertilizers have become extremely expensive, while KCl has practically disappeared from the market.Intercropping with peanut has been readily accepted by farmers in the three pilot sites in Vietnam. In Indonesia, intercropping with maize and upland rice, followed by peanut or soybean is already a traditional practice; this was improved, however, by the introduction of new maize hybrids and soybean varieties. In China and Thailand intercropping treatments with peanut, pumpkin, mungbean or sweet com were less successful, due to frequent periods of drought or excess water, as well as rat damage of peanuts in China. In Thailand, dueto labor scarcity, it is not likely that intercropping will be widely adopted.Adaption of soil conservation practices per seis still rather limited, partially because planting material or seed of hedgerow species, such as vetiver grass and Tephrosia candida, were not readily available, while the setting out of contour lines, as well as the planting and maintenance of these hedgerows is still rather difficult and expensive. Moreover, these hedgerows permanently occupy sorne space (often 10% or more) in the field, while they also compete with neighboring cassava plants, resulting in a reduction in yield. Table 7 shows that when vetiver (or sugarcane) hedgerows were tríed out by five farmers on small areas (1600 m 2 ) of their production fields in Thailand, the cassava yields decreased on average 18% while gross income declined about 15% compared with nearby fields without hedgerows. Only in case sugarcane was used in alternate hedgerows with vetiver grass by Mrs. Charnpaa, did the additional íncome from the sale of sugarcane stalks (for chewing) compensate for the reduced productíon of cassava. Thus, it is very importan! for farmers that the hedgerows used for erosion control either have cornmercial value (like sugarcane) or have an altemative usage, such as green manure (Tephrosia candida and Gliridicia sepium) or animal feed (Gliricidia sepium, elephant grass and Paspalum atratum) . Altematively, the use of contour hedgerows to control erosion should be combined with other income-enhancing practices, such as intercropping, better fertilization, and hígher yielding varieties, so that the total \"irnproved\" crop/soil management package produces a higher net income than the fariners' traditional practices. An example of this would be treatment 6 in Table 2, where the combination of various management components nearly doubled net income compared with the traditional practice.   Another constraint to the adoption of contour hedgerows is that they may interfere with other practices, especially with mechanized land preparation, weeding and harvesting, which, in general, are more conveniently done in straight lines and parallel to the longest side of the field. Thus, in Thailand contour hedgerows established by farmers were sometimes damaged or plowed under by tractor drivers preparing tbe land under contract. In addition, curved contour hedgerows make it impossible to plant cassava in straight lines using a tight string as a guide. In Thailand this work is often done under contract, so efficiency in p1anting is an important consideration. In that case, planting hedgerows in straight lines approximately across the slope may be a necessary compromise.Impact: Farmers who have participated in the FPR project are now adopting several technology components (Table 6). During the project evaluation conducted in June/July 1998 (see. Project Evaluation Report), many farmers indicated that the use of these practices had resulted in higher yields and income and less erosion. So far, however, adoption has been limited mainly to the eight pilot sites. The proposed second phase aims to extend the project to many more pilot sites, especially in Thailand and Vietnam, and to develop an efficient and participatory methodology for the dissemination of the best results to other farmers, so as to greatly enhance the impact of the project.  To analyze smallholder systems in Honduras through biophysical-model analysis, in order to better understand their strengths and weaknesses, and to identify opportunities for improvement. This holds particularly for the maize-mucuna rotational system.Rationale: Agronomic simulation models can play an important role in analyzing a wide range of agricultural management options (e.g. crop rotations, scheduling fertilization or irrigation, etc.) in relation to environmental conditions. For smallholder systems in Central America-beginning with Honduras-such a model may help in analyzing different options of land use and farm management. This involves aspects of [i] the production of maize-based crop rotations, as they vary with weather and soil conditions, [ii] system sustainability, and [iii] an economic analysis of different management options. It will result in a better understanding of how crop production varíes with environmental conditions (weather, soil), and of which management strategies (e.g. fertilization, green manure) are best under different conditions. This will allow the designing of management strategies at the plot or whole-farm leve! that pay maximum care at the biophysical sustainability of the agricultura! system and its economic viability.The maize-mucuna system is widely used in the Atlantic zone of Honduras, where farmers see it as something close to a \"miracle solution\" to many problems: it results in an up to a 100% increase in maize yield, improved soil condition and strong erosion control, drastic reduction or complete elimination of N-fertilizer use, less labour demand, and weed control. Talking to the farmers in the area and looking at complete hill slopes covered with mucuna, one is impressed and wonders why this system is so successful and widely accepted here but not in other areas of Honduras. Earlier research from others raises a number of questions that are not easily dealt with in field studies but are very suitable for model approach: e.g. aspects of N cycling though mucuna litter, optimizing management to limit mucuna-maize water/light competition, environmental ranges where the system can be used.The Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) is a widely used agronomic model, which allows to evaluate germplasm-by-environment interactions without the need to do expensive and time-consuming multi-site, multi-treatment experiments. Experimental data from one site can thus be extrapolated to other areas, having a different soil type or climate, or where farmers use other crop varieties. For the application of DSSAT to low-input agricultura] systems of Central America, sorne modifications are needed, that will be addressed in this project: i) Many crop rotations in Central America involve a legume green-manure 1 cover crop phase. Presently, such crops are not included in DSSAT. However, because the model has options for various legumes (dry bean, soya, peanut), amplifying this to other legumes does not involve much new model development. Mucuna pruriens and Arachis pintoi are being added. ii) Similarly, many crop rotational systems involve a ley pasture phase. Presently the model includes a Babia grass option, which, however, is not the most common grass species used in the area. The model has been modified to include a Brachiaria decumbens grass option.iii) In low-input agricultura! systems, plant nutrients mainly come from soil-organic-matter (SOM) decomposition. DSSAT does have a module for the simulation of SOM dynamics, but, since the model was developed in countries with high-input agriculture where SOM is not considered of great importance for the nutrient supply to a crop, this module cannot be considered very detailed; there are better modules available from otber models. The principal candidate for this is the CENTURY model, which already has proven its great value. The CENTURY SOM module has now been incorporated into DSSAT.Outputs: DSSAT has successfully been expanded with a new option for the perennial tropical forage grass Brachiaria decumbens, a species of major importance in the South/Central-American savannas and hillsides. The new model option was calibrated with four data sets from different si tes in Colombia that were part of the International Network for the Evaluation of Tropical Pastures (RIEPT; see Figure 1), and then validated with two additional data sets from other sites in tbe RIEPT network.The simulated dry-matter production of the pasture with cutting intervals of 3, 6, 9, or 12 weeks, was on average between 96 and 1 O 1% of the observed val u es for one of the validation experiments, and between 82 and 100% for the other. However, excluding the data from the first cutting at the latter site, which relates to pasture establishment during a period of drought stress when the observed dry-matter production stayed far behind the simulated production, would result in a tight validation range of 98-101 % for this experiment al so.It is concluded that the new model option accurately estimates the pasture production of B. decumbens with grass-cutting management under different soil and climate conditions. Further calibration for higher-latitude sites may be needed for obtaining a more general validity for the area where this species is commonly grown. The study has demonstrated that DSSAT can be developed as a decision support tool for management of B. decumbens pastures, provided that the model is calibrated under conditions of grazing.\"\"' llDO llDOOoys ..,. pltnllng 1 LaRcmeha 1 \"\"'\"\"' CIO llDO 600Figure 1 Result of model calibration at four experimental stations, showing lhe simulated grass yield (kglha) at cutting intervals of 6 weeks (continuous line) and 9 weeks (discontinuous line), compared to the observed values (points). For Carimagua., the simulated results refer to cutting intervals of 9 and 12 weeks . The lower part of the graphs indicates the daily rainfall (mm).With the modifications that have been made already orare under way, the DSSAT m odel will be ready to be applied to low-input smallholder systems where most nutrients come from N 2 fixation by legumes or plant residue decomposition. It will first be applied to the maize-mucuna rotational system in the north coast of Honduras in order to understand the basis of its success, its limitations, and the potential for application of mucuna systerns to other areas. This may result in recommendations how system management might be modified in areas where, particularly, rainfall is more limiting. Other cropping systems will follow in the analysis. yields under various environmental and management conditions, which will be input for evaluating farm-level management strategies and doing economic analyses . ../ CIAT project PE-4 (various): Interfacing DSSAT with GIS-georeferenced data on soil and weather conditions . ../ CIAT project IP-5 (I.M. Rao): Identifying parameters needed for adding the grass Brachiaria decumbens and the legume Arachis pintoi to DSSAT. ../ CIA T project IP-5 (Michael Peters): Carrying out an experiment in Honduras for measuring parameters needed to add new legumes to DSSAT.1lntegrated technology and management optionsThe P-S-I-R framework will be integrated with the Best Bet framework of the CG Systemwide Alternative to Slash and Burn Program (Vosti, et al.l998, Tomich et al. 1998). The Best Bet procedure ernploys a framework with which to examine profitability, food security, labor availability and agronomic sustainability of individuals along with global concerns of climate change, biodiversity and carbon stocks and greenhouse gas absorption. It is an approach to balance both prívate rural household concerns at a farm-leveVlocal scale with and public concerns at a global scale. Vosti et al. (1997) have identified the need for information at the midor landscape level as •an area for further research. They consider this landscape leve! of data and analysis as one of the rnost important facing developing country policyrnakers. For example the policy issues of incorne/wealth equity of a cornrnunity can only be well defined at the landscape level. The P-S-I-R indicator framework for irnpact analysis contains this previously omitted rnid-level dirnension.Definition of issues will be carried out within the context of the Inter-Center Workplan developed for the Eco-Regional site, Pucallpa. There will be individual consultations with those who will use the framework to seek their input on particular issues. Informal workshops will be then be arranged. Priority issues will then be finalized ata Working Group Meeting during the Inter-Center Planning Workshop 10-14 May 1999. The frarnework and its developrnent can serve as a rnodel for use at other Eco-Regional sites in planning, prioritizing, rnonitoring and assessing research. National partners will be involved in the developrnent and validation of the frarnework and receive training in its use. Furthermore, dissernination of baseline data regarding particular issues of policy rnakers and researchers will be cornpleted within the first year.  Advantages were given as stocking rate, milk yield, and/or increased weight gain.• Concurrent econornic analysis during the process of adoption or adaptation of a new technology is useful to identify constraints that might be addressed.• Adoption will be enhanced by a reduction in the cost of seed or planting material, management practices that increase the rate of establishment and providing more information to farmers.Purpose: To identify possible limitations to adoption of a new grass-legume technology and to facilitate the design of strategies for the acceleration of the adoption process.Rationale: The region of Caguetá, Colombia, is representative of the prevailing environmental and economic situation to a great extent of the Colombian Amazon region. The development of Caguetá dates from the beginning of the century and has gone through various phases up to the present mix of agricultura! and cattle productíon systems. These remain extensive, but there is tendency towards intensification.CIAT, associated with Nestlé, has been monitoring the evolution of livestock systems in Cagueta in two areas of cornmon interest for both institutions: 1) the adoption of forage technologies and 2) the production and productivity of current livestock systems. CIAT has been investigating the transfer and adaptation of grass-legume association technology by farmers with focus on the forage legurne Arachis pintoi, or perennial forage peanut. A. pinoti was released comrnercíally by the govemment of Colombia in 1992.The processes of adoption and transfer of new forage technologies, in particular legume-based technologies are complex and slow. The decision to adoptan improved pasture involves the investment of capital of considerable magnitude, not only in the establishment of the pasture, but also in greater reguirements of livestock, since forage technologies of this type increase the stocking rate. This is a critical point for small and medium farmers which predominate in Caguetá, with little capital and limited access to financia! institutions. The present study was designed to analyze the early adoption of A. pintoi that is being prometed by CIAT and Nestle.Methodology: Data was collected through surveys taking the set of supplier rnilk farms to the Nestle plant in Cagueta as the basis for the sarnple. Two sampling strategies were utilized: (a) a random sample whose size was estimated utilizing the conventional statistical methods, and (b) an additional sample of 52 farrns of producers who are using the new material. This makes it possible to generate sufficient information with regard to the experiences, difficulties, and prospects of those producers who are experimenting with Arachis.Results: A vailable information shows a great dynamism in land use pattems in Caqueta. This can be seen when comparing the results of a study conducted in 1986 by Ramírez and Sere (1990) with results observed in the present work. Tables 1 and 2 show this comparative analysis.The most relevant aspects are: (i) reduction of the relative importance of natural grasses of low productivity observed in 1986 and a greater use of improved pasture in 997, (ii) greater diversification of the forage germplasm used, resulting in a lower relative importance for Brachiaria decumbens cv Basilisk, for other varieties of Brachiaria, and (iii) the presence of associations of grasses with legumes as a new forage altemative in comparison with the absence of this in 1986. Of a total of 226 producers interviewed, most of them (179) ha ve heard about the existence of this new forage altemative in the region. Of this group, 171 have seen the material (76% of total producers). At the time of the interview, 68 of them (30% of the total) were using it. Two types of pastures with Arachis are in use: i) seed banks with an average area of 1.3 ha/farm and ii) pastures of grasse-Arachis associations with an average area of 9.6 ha/farm. About 82% (57 livestock owners) of those who are experimenting with Arachis are using it in association with grasses.Out of a total of 68 early adopters, 21 of them (31%) have had problems with the establishment of peanut. The main problems are related to the low germination rate of the grass (8) and the slow establishment of the peanut (7). The degree of satisfaction with theexperience of the Arachis can be regarded as high. About 82% declared they were satisfied with the obtained results so far. It is significant the fact that more than half of the adopters (55%) have been grazing the Iegume.Producers who are grazing Arachis have identified its capacity to increase the productivity of the pasture as important attribute. About 63% of them have detected one or more of the Other positive attributes of the peanut identified by producers were: weed control, and better palatability. Table 3 summarizes the assessment by producers of their experience of grazing Arachis.   A greater effort on dissernination of ínforrnation on the use, managernent, and potential of Arachis as well as a reduction in the seed cost to reduce the establishment cost is needed in arder to accelerate the adoption. This is particularl y true in the current circumstances of reduced economic activity in Colombia, and lirnited knowledge of producers in other regions of this new forage legume. The survey instrument: a)Elicits key descriptive data at the family level on farm size and land use allocations, present and one-year-ago animal numbers, and animal feeding systems;b)In eludes individual farmer participatory rankings, weightings, and matrix evaluations of different income sources, of production for household consumption, of different labor demands, and of problems associated with animal production; and6' e) Asks farmers for information to be able to analyse individual forage/livestock budgets and simple costs and returns to different factors. Categories of information included labor use for cattle production, cash expenses for cattle production, and gross returns. Retums above variable costs and to factors such as labor and cash were calculated.We also tested group-level farmer participatory calendars, rankings, and matrices to be used as monitoring tools over the project life.The team had difficulties in conducting the interviews due to lack of experience. With additional practice, interviewers should be able to make the interviews \"flow\" as a conversation lasting no more than one and a half hours. Interviewers need a good understanding of the questions and an ability to note responses while discussing issues with farmer respondents.The study at M'Drak also demonstrated that the impact assessment methods need further modification to make them sufficiently focused and straightforward to monitor impact of forages on smallholder farms. Local staff will need to be trained in the use of the methodology. .Results of the workshop at CIAT on participatory and systems research has been edited into book form and is being published by CIAT Highlights:• CIA T. researchers ha ve contributed to participatory and systems research in Latin America, Asia, and Africa and to the development and evolution of such approaches from on-site characterization through development of ways to facilitate new inter-institutional and crossstakeholder relationships.Purpose: The workshop served to analyse, present, and discuss experiences. The book serves to synthesize experiences, reflect upon trends in participatory and systems research, and share results with a wider audience.Rationale: CIAT researchers in partnerships with farrners, NARS, and NGOs have been on the forefront of participatory and systems research in agriculture--currently both in germplasm improvement and natural resource management. There was a need to analyse individual projects, share results, to examine progress or evolution of concepts and approaches, and to discuss future directions.Outputs: Scientists working for CIAT in Latin America, Asia, and Africa are increasingly conducting research which combines natural resource management and germplasm improvement. In  The CNCPS simulates the effects of nutrient intake, rurninal fermentation, intestinal digestion, absorption, and metabolism on nutrient utilization and cattle performance. Specific uses of the modelare:(1) To predict the effects of feed composition and quantity on cattle performance, (2)To predict the effects of digestive and metabolic modifiers on cattle performance, (3)To evaluate and balance rations for the host animal and rumen bacteria, ( 4)To adjust cattle requirements and estimates of performance for environmental conditions, and (5)To illustrate and predict the effects of gastrointestinal parameters on feed utilization.Thus, this model is about nutrient requirements and nutrient pool sizes interacting with changing diet composition available to animals.Ouputs: Federico Holmann visited Comell University for training in the use of the CNCPS model and developed a collaborative project proposal with colleagues at Comell for subrnission to the Systemwide Livestock P.rogram to seek additional funding for the validation and calibration of the model for tropical grazing conditions. Analysis was also made of data from CIAT..1 1Results from the data obtained in feeding trials at Quilichao, Colombia Data consisted in several grazing trials on Brachiaria decumbens at three stocking rates (2, 3, and 4 AU/ha) with crossbred cows being supplemented with sugarcane and varying Ievels of Cratylia argente a.Chemical composition included NDF, CP, lignin, DIVMS, and DM for B. decumbens, sugarcane, and Cratylia for all trials. However, it was not possíble to perform two important analysis that are also required by the model: solubility of protein (solP) and NPN (as % of the soluble protein). Thus, without these values it was not possible to calculate the protein and carbohydrate fractions. Therefore, 1 utilized values of B. decumbens generated by a PhD student at Cornell (Francisco Juarez) for the gulf coast ofMexico. In addition, 1 used solP and NPN data for Gliricidia sepium to emulate Cratylia and for sugarcane available in the feed library from Brazil in order to run the model.Other data from Patricia Avila's thesis included environmental (mean temperature, wind velocity, and relative humidity), and management variables (stage of lactation, body weight, age, breed, milk yield, and level of supplementation).Table 1 shows chemical data from Quilicaho and Tables 2 and 3 predicted dry matter intake from grazing and supplements consumed, and the actual milk yields (in kg milk/cow/day) vs the milk yields predicted by the CNCPS model.The CNCPS predicts milk yield from three different sources: allowable milk from metabolizible energy (ME), from metabolizible protein (MP), and from amino acid availability (AA). However, 1 will discuss the results obtained from the first two sources since no information existed on the amino acid composition of the forages used at Quilichao. As can be observed, the CNCPS model predicted the observed rnilk yields in both the low and high stocking rate trials, but failed to predict the observed rnilk yields for the medium stocking rate trials. This under prediction carne from both the energy and protein portions, but the bias was larger in predicting the MP (metabolizable protein) allowable milk.The probable cause of the low MP allowable for milk from the medium stocking rate runs is the indigestible dry matter which is causing low rnicrobial growth dueto high levels of NDF from both Brachiaria decumbens (69-70%) and Cratylia argentea (63-66%). Based on Dr. Alice Pell 's comments, the high lignin content found in Cratylia could be the reason why the CNCPS model underpredicted observed milk yield. Based on her experience, lignin content of Cratylia leaves and stems should have been around 7-8% but not the 16-17% reported in the lab analysis. Thus, she argues that secondary compounds may be confounded with lignin, masking the overall effect of diet.1 1Based on the runs from the Quilichao data, severa! hypotheses can be drawn: a. Cows were eating (selecting) B. decumbens with a higher CP content than actuallab results b. Digestion rates for carbhodydrate and protein fractions used were wrong, or c. lnformation about the pool sizes is inadequateTable 5 contains the level of urea nitrogen found in milk (MUN) as well as the level predicted by the model. The reason for such a difference could be due to the soluble protein leve] in the diet, which was higher than the CNCPS prediction.At present, because of the slow digestion rates associated with the B 3 protein fraction, the CNCPS predicts that the NDIP makes little contribution to the rumen N pool. However, Juarez et al. (1998) reported that tropical grasses' NDIP contribution to rumen N balance may be higher than the CNCPS predicts. Thus, hypotheses (b) and (e) are probably valid.Increasing the crude protein content in the diet does not increase the MP allowable for milk in the same proportion because the diet is deficient in energy from high levels of NDF (in both B. decumbens and Cratylia). However, the model was very sensitive when the degradation rate of fiber (B2 carbohydrate fraction) was changed. To better understand the reason why the model is not adequately predicting the medium stocking rate trials at Quilichao, we would need the following additional information: ív.V.It ís important to take samples from forage during grazing time simulating what the cow is eating by observing the cow to get estimates of composition of consumption every 2 weeks.Weekly milk yield throughout the various trials VI.Composite milk composition every two weeks VIL Body condition score every two weeks lmpact: Tropileche can benefit from a close collaboration with Cornell by developing a tropical feed library and calibrating the model for tropical grazing conditions. Potential benefits of the CNCPS for Tropileche include:1.. This tool may help our efforts to identify feeding alternatives with potential to increase productivity by identifying limiting nutritional factors (i.e.dietary and farm leve! \"best bets\")11.It could be the basis for systemwide evaluation of whole farm nutrient management and farm-level \"best bet\" portfolios of practices, m.It compliments the CIAT farm-level model developed by Ruben Dario Estrada for ex-ante and ex-post analysis at the farm and watershed levels, iv.It increases Tropileche's menu of options to support and complement the activities of NARS partners and producer's organizations which could finance forage research, and v.Give a high return on investment because Tropileche will invest marginally to complement more than one decade of research to develop the CNCPS at its current state.Collaborative Proj ect Proposal : An important objective was to develop with colleagues at Cornell a concept note to establish a collaborative research agenda to complement the efforts of Tropileche and Cornell in LAC. This concept note is being submitted to the SLP for consideration.Contributors: Federico Holmann (CIAT-ILRI, Colombia) and Robert Blake, Cornell University) utilized in the RIEPT, is not suitable for the development of the GIS system and work has been initiated for a different description of the ecosystems based on existing data base information.The systems being developed will increase availability of information on the agroecological and socio-economic adaptation of forage germplasm for multiple uses, improve targeting of forage germplasm to farmer's needs, and enhance dissemination and adoption.Contributors (to be amplified according to progress): Glen Graham Hyman, Luz Amira Clavijo, Alexander Gladkov (PE-4), Luis-Horacio Franco (PE-5), Manuel Arturo Franco, Gerardo Ramirez, Bellisario Hincapié, Carlos Lascano, Michael Peters (IP-5)• Linkage of livestock inventory data from LACto the CIAT GIS database Rationale: Information on the livestock inventory in LAC may facilitare the selection of new sites with potential for adoption of improved germplasm.Methods: Locate the herd inventory for each country in LAC at the state leve] ( -375 states in LAC), and then sub-divide them by animal production system (beef, dairy, and dual-purpose). The breakdown of the cattle population figure into production system for each state will be estimated based on contacts with LAC cattle systems experts. Since this relies somewhat on the good will of outside experts, we can only guarantee that we will attempt to make a complete inventory.The GIS laboratory has sorne data from agricultura] census and annual reports for sorne countries, but not all the available data. Detailed activities to collect information to construct the GIS map for livestock population are:1.Conduct Web or library search for the information needed n.Find census volumes and other information on the spatial distribution of animal production systems in Latin America (FAO, CIAT, etc) m.Error checking tv.Positioning of data with respect to land cover. This will involve using the GRID land cover data sets (based on A VHRR) to locate cattle populations within administrative units.The development of this map has commenced. A draft is expected to be completed by the end of 1998.lmpact: This database will be useful for many purposes in planning livestock-related issues in addition to linking it with the forage database.Collaborators: Glenn Hyman (PE-4); Federico Holmann (PE-5)• a training manual for in-country courses on \"Developing forage technologies with smallholder farmers\" was produced in English, Indonesian, Lao and VietnamesePurpose: To provide a basis for in-country courses on participatory development of technologies.Rationale: Participatory technology development is a decentralized approach conducted by local devel opment workers. It is these development workers who need training in participatory approaches as well as in the technical aspects of relevant technologies. Also, in-country training courses in Southeast Asia have to be conducted in locallanguages. Sustained impact of training can only be achieved when countries have developed a capacity to train a large number of their own staff. This manual was designed as a basis for such in-country training courses.The FSP held a workshop with key partners from national organizations to decide on the form and content of the training manual. A draft was produced in English and tested in an incountry course in the Philippines. It was then revised and translated into Indonesia, Lao and Vietnarnese. Several training courses have since been held using the manual as the basis for the course.The manual has been used by other projects in addition to the FSP. The course provides tools and exercises for participatory diagnosis, rapid rural appraisal, participatory evaluation, participatory planning, and participatory technology development. Tools included mapping, calendars, weightings and rankings, and matrix evaluations. Particípants worked as teams witb each tool presented in a novel or fun fashion in the classroom; and then in the field with project farmers. Analysis of results and feedback on processes followed each session (includíng through use of cartoons made after field visits and depicting course participants and farmers). Additional sessions cover farmer participatory experimental techniques and agronomy trials.Participants finish the course with the development--by teams--of concept notes for future FPR projects or project components.Fórage for Smallholders ProjectTraining courses on 'Developing Forage Technologies with Farmers' were held at Hue, Vietnam from 16-22 February (20 participants), Nam Suang, Lao PDR from 1-12 April (21 participants), Samarinda, Indonesia from 1-10 May 1998 (15 participants) and Aceh, Indonesia (20 participants). These courses were organised and taught by FSP partners who were trained in a regional TOT course in 1996, and are actively working with farmers in the FSP. Twelve development workers from Luang Phabang and Xieng Khouang provinces, Lao PDR participated in a course on 'Evaluating Forages with Farmers' in Luang Phabang from 26-28 January 1998. The hands-on course was designed for local col1aborators such as district livestock officers and extension personnel to help them work more effectively with farmers and to obtain feedback from farmers about their experiences. The course clearly achieved its objective and we are planning to hold further courses in other areas.On-site training in Indonesia was provided for Mr. Willie Nacalaban (Philíppines), Mr. Soulivanh Novaha (Lao PDR) and Mr. Ghozali (Indonesia) from 22 March to 8 April 1998. The trainees were attached to FSP sites in Makroman and Sepaku (East Kalimantan), and Marenu and Pulau Gambar (North Sumatra) where they worked with local partners at these sites. They assisted with participatory diagnoses, farm visits and farmer evaluations. Visiting and working at other sites provides a good opportunity for our partners to leam from each other and to share experiences and ideas.During 1997, 28 Thai and 27 Vietnamese researchers and extentionists were trained in FPR methodologies, while in 1998 another 31 Indonesians and 27 Chinese were sirnilarly trained. While many of these people had no previous knowledge of, or experience with, the FPR approach, and many were inítially doubtful of its usefulness , most people participated in the course with great enthusiasm and left with a better understanding of the approach and with greater sensitivity for farmers' needs and perspectives. Many also expressed their desire to use this approach in their future work.lmpact: Increased capacity of researchers and extension staff to apply FPR approaches. Externa! reviews of both the forage and cassava projects applauded the FPR approach. In the case of forages, there has been a breakthrough in the introduction of new gerrnplasm to farrners in the region. In the case of cassava, improved varieties were an attraction for farrners to adapt new methods of soil management. Both reviews pointed out the need to reinforce the FPR approach both for key individuals and in the national organizations.FSP The database includes results generated since 1960 in tropical Latin America on dual-purpose cattle.Themes include nutrition and feeding, forages (grasses and legumes), genetic improvement and reproduction, animal health, economics, and extension, transfer, and adoption of technology.There are more than 1,900 references and about 100 additional ones are added each month. All references include basic descriptors and 71% of them in elude an abstract. This database was developed in micro CD!ISIS and follows the normative of the information system AGRIS-CARIS from FAO. This database is available through the Tropileche HómePage on the Internet or can be supplied on diskette. The average number of users consulting the database is about 3.8 per day.The Tropileche Consortia has developed its own HomePage on the Web, which contains the newsletters that have been produced as well as the database containing research results generated in tropical Latin America. This HomePage can be accesed through the CIA T HomePage (http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/tropileche/start.htm) either through the \"Soil and System\" icon or through the \"lnformation and Documentation Unit\". The HomePage contains a list of researchers and contact addresses from LAC with interests in research on dual-purpose cattle in LAC. Thus, researchers can access Tropileche from anywhere in the world and consult the database, solicit information, and communicate and interact with other colleagues.lmpact: Outputs and activities of the Tropileche project are well documented.Contributors: Federico Holmann and Anderson Medina, CIAT-ILRI, Colombia","tokenCount":"29144"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ee5714082dcacea00411ab094fb04ade","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/417b6ff8-8fa2-47b6-b2c0-aa3cc19f4dc6/retrieve","id":"784542764"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"46172636-e665-4362-844c-1e504ff27068","pagecount":"22","content":"Phaseoli includes wild P. vulgaris, weedy P. coccineus and P. dumosus, and the wild species P. costaricensis (Debouck 2015d; Zamora 2010).The number and location of populations to be sampled is given preferentially by the study of Herbaria holding Neotropical Phaseoleae (Annex 1), out of which identity and site are confirmed to the extent possible. This approach is complemented by the study of collections existing in genebanks. Indeed, the risk in explorations of areas from which germplasm already exists in genebanks, is to collect the same material one more time. Plant explorers should thus be well aware of what has been already collected and increased by genebanks, and thus take good note of geographic coordinates of previous populations (Table 2). Table 2 -Populations known and present in genebanks for the taxa of interest. Species No. populations known No. populations in CIAT genebank and available P. costaricensis 51 20 P. lunatus (wild) 86 18 P. vulgaris (wild) 25 23In the context of the Crop Wild Relatives project, given current and future needs of bean breeding, the 'Crop Trust' (GCDT) logically stresses the importance of the wild forms of the five cultivated species and the wild species of their secondary genepools. Such taxa have useful diversity for the breeders, namely in relation to resistance to diseases (for example white mold: Schwartz et   & Debouck 2002), answering this question means priority on the wild forms of P. acutifolius, P. coccineus, P. dumosus, P. lunatus and P. vulgaris, and then the wild species of their secondary genepools. When considering Costa Rica, one should note that the number of Phaseolus sensu stricto species has doubled over the last twenty years because of field work (Araya-Villalobos et al. 2015), and it would be premature to conclude that the current number of species (Table 1) is the final count. Under the current knowledge, the section Acutifolii would be represented only by P. acutifolius and as cultivated form in the NW Guanacaste Province (Zamora 2010), being its southernmost extension in traditional Mesoamerica. The section Paniculati would be represented only by P. lunatus, even though its wild form is relatively common throughout the country (Debouck 2015c; Zamora 2010). The section data mean the kind and number of populations with potential germplasm worth collecting if the population still exists at the time of the visit.During the field work, the methodology is the one of transects through vegetation/ topographic gradients (Debouck 1988), including the sites and populations already identified by herbarium voucher specimens. A combination of topographic (Instituto Geográfico Nacional 1988) and vegetation maps (Bolaños & Watson 1993;Tosi 1969) were used, even though both kinds of maps are out of date. A GIS approach could be used too, although in many cases we do not have the minimum number (ten/ twelve) of populations to build the statistical model (Jones et al. 1997;Ramírez-Villegas et al. 2010). The priority is to collect seed for germplasm conservation; if the state of the material in the field is appropriate herbarium voucher specimens is collected too for museums of natural history such as CR and USJ. This methodology does not imply any risk of loss for the population; in case of scarcity only one sample is taken, and with digital images of reproductive parts the identification of taxa is possible in most cases. This methodology may imply two visits: the first one to identify populations of the different species and take note of their phenology, and the second one to harvest some seed. Appropriate timing may be October for the early species (e.g. leptostachyus, xanthotrichus), December for the intermediate (e.g. vulgaris), and February-March for the late species (e.g. costaricensis, lunatus, tuerckheimii). It is important to note that in 2015 because of the climatic oscillation 'El Niño' affecting the Pacific eastern shore side from California down to Peru rainfalls came later and in reduced amounts. Collectors might thus find nothing, or fewer plants (if the rains were insufficient for a normal germination), or late flowering plants (because the rains came later than normal).A total of 18 populations for six species were found during this exploration (Annex 2: Tables 3 and 4). Out of these, as compared to previous records documented in 83 Herbaria (Annex 1), 17 can be considered as novel populations and thus new records for Costa Rica. Herbarium voucher specimens were made for all populations (only one for #3258 given the scarcity of plant material) and remitted to the National Herbarium of Costa Rica (CR). The exploration extended from December 7-12, and the routes (for a total of 1,187 km) were as follows:Two populations (#3259, 3268) were found during this exploration. As compared to the previous records, they can be considered as additions to the flora of Costa Rica, although population #3268 is close to #3122 found in 1998. Once established on fertile soils derived from old volcanic ashes plants can be big lianas reaching heights superior to 8 meters (Fig. 1  This species is less common in Herbaria for Costa Rica as compared to Mexico (Debouck 2015a) perhaps because it reaches there its southernmost distribution. Two novel populations (#3255 and 3261) were disclosed, because for the former the known populations growing close by were from Monterrey and Acosta, and for the latter the previously known populations were found in the vicinity of Cañas and Bagaces (Debouck 2015a). In contrast to population # 3255 with regular pods for the species, the population # 3261 displayed short wide and 3-seeded pods. Population # 3261 (Fig. 2  We added nine more populations to the number known for the country. Being a late flowering species, several populations were found at early flowering stage, and due to the lower amount of rain with low plant density per population. It is a rather common species found in many climatic variants of the premontane and lower montane levels with a dry season of 3 to 6 months, if the land is free of grazing, wild fires and vegetation change (in that sense Figure 3 is for the record in order to check presence in 2025). Is a 6-month dry season the limit? Our brief visit to Punta Morales with a tropical forest with no understory may say so. Our attempts to locate wild Lima bean on beaches did not succeed so far in Costa Rica in contrast to the population of Montelimar, Managua, in Nicaragua. It seems not present in the immediate surrounding of mangroves (as verified in Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio) or (coral derived) sand beaches (as verified in Punta Coralillo), where it is replaced by Leptospron adenanthum.  The population that we found (#3263) was at 511 masl and with different coordinates (Lat. 10º 10' 33.0\"N. Long. 85º 37' 22.8\"W), and could thus be considered as the second population known for Costa Rica, confirming the presence of this species in the country. It was found at pod filling stage and some plants were already at seed dispersal stage (Fig. 4) (in sharp contrast with the population disclosed by B. Hammel & I. Pérez: see above). In contrast to many populations found in Nicaragua, this one (#3263) did not display lobed leaflets. This population was found in a relatively intact track of humid transition forest on the northern slope of Cerro Brujo. According to Tosi (1969) and Bolaños & Watson (1993), the site matches with a bmh-P (premontane wet forest), while for Herrera-Soto & Gómez-Pignataro (1993) it corresponds to biotic unit 41 (humid subtropical with a 5-month dry season). The distinction is worth making because the former ecological zone is relatively large in Costa Rica, while the latter is quite limited (namely three spots in Nicoya Peninsula and W of Cordillera de Guanacaste and Cordillera de Tilarán), perhaps explaining the absence of this species in Herbaria up to 2008.  We were able to add one more population (#3253) from the southern Tarrazú area (new for the area apparently: Debouck 2014), namely from coffee plantations near San Cayetano, where the species is at risk because of the spray of herbicides. The population displayed symptoms of Cercospora infection (Schwartz 1980), while the coffee plantation had symptoms of leaf spot ojo de gallo (Mycena citricolor) (Boucher 1983). In contrast with many wild bean species, P. xanthotrichus thrives well in the shade. The ecology matches with that of bmh-MB (lower montane wet forest: Bolaños & Watson 1993). The afore-mentioned results elicit the following points for discussion. The first point relates to an indicator set by the Crop Trust, namely the number of novel populations in relation to the number of populations already known and those sampled. In this regard, the coverage of P. costaricensis and wild P. vulgaris seems to approach the limit for the country, while many populations of wild Lima bean are still to be disclosed de novo. For the former we added two populations to a total of 51 known for the country (Table 2) (Debouck 2015d), while for the latter we added three more populations to a total of 25 known. The reason seems to be in the number of land areas with the appropriate climate/ vegetation type and still occupied by that kind of vegetation in 2015. For wild P. vulgaris the bh-MB with adequate soil fertility yields theoretically three areas (Tosi 1969 andBolaños &Watson 1993) and seven according to Herrera-Soto & Gómez-Pignataro (1993). In contrast, wild P. lunatus seems to be a more robust species with a broader adaptation, occupying the bh-T up to the bh-MB (Araya-Villalobos et al. 2001; Baudoin et al. 2004), and therefore with many more populations still to be disclosed and sampled. The soil fertility factor seems important because the area NE of Sarchi Norte although appropriate from climate/ altitude viewpoints seems of too low fertility due to past eruptive products of Poás Volcano. A second point worth mentioning is the confirmation of presence of P. microcarpus in Costa Rica, and with it our claim that the list of bean species might not be closed yet. Starting as far north as Durango in Mexico (Debouck 2015b), this species does extend its range from the Pacific departments of León, Managua and Masaya in Nicaragua (Debouck 2015b; Delgado-Salinas 2001) into Guanacaste. Its presence might be an additional indication that the Nicaraguan Corridor has been in place for 2.6 mi years (Graham 2010). Not being a big plant with conspicuous flowers and pods, it is not easy to spot in drying vegetation, and it could well have escaped attention of former collectors. Further field work will tell whether it is widespread in NW Costa Rica or restricted to the Vista del Mar mountainous range. In this regard, the altitude range of the two populations (i.e. B Hammel et al. 24516 and DGD et al. 3263) of 200 and 511 masl, respectively, is a very valuable information to start with. Third, outside protected areas the landscape is still green, even lush and colorful with Cordyline (dracaena), Codiaeum (croton), Alpinia (antorcha) as in the surroundings of Parque Manuel Antonio (province of Puntarenas, cantón Aguirre, distrito Quepos). Much of the original flora is gone however, for example significant land of the Parrita or Tusubres (province of Puntarenas, cantón Garabito, distrito Jacó) valleys has been converted into plantations of African oil palm, lowlands of Coyote into teak plantations, and soil is bare in the coffee plantations of Tarrazú! (province of San José, cantón Tarrazú) Given the importance of the population perspective afore-mentioned, the Crop Trust initiative is timely. Zamora, N. 2010. Fabaceae. In: \"Manual de plantas de   ","tokenCount":"1904"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"10897c59d723e5f12825c5cdfc914306","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/40c8745c-1795-4447-afe2-0520dea19e8e/retrieve","id":"-1980521945"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5c4abd4a-9c97-42c0-88db-821d15234de3","pagecount":"12","content":"D 'après le United States Institute of Peace, il y aurait aujourd'hui une centaine de conflits dans le monde. Cette violence armée fait non seulement des milliers de morts chaque année, mais aussi des centaines de milliers de personnes déplacées, handicapées et traumatisées à vie. Sans parler des infrastructures détruites, dont la reconstruction prend des années. Les routes et voies ferrées impraticables laissent les zones rurales coupées des grands centres administratifs et limitent la distribution des produits agricoles. Ceux qui vivent en dehors des centres urbains perdent souvent l'accès à l'eau potable, à électricité et aux services de télécommunications.Pourquoi diable introduire les TIC dans des zones rurales en conflit, déjà privées des services les plus élémentaires ? Pour l'équipe de BOSCO Ouganda, la réponse est simple : donner aux communautés l'occasion de communiquer, c'est leur donner l'occasion d'exprimer leurs besoins. Elles peuvent déterminer leurs priorités et se servir de la technologie pour influencer le travail des organisations internationales d'urgence présentes dans leur secteur.BOSCO Ouganda a installé un réseau téléphonique et Internet sans fil de longue portée qui couvre sept camps de personnes déplacées dans le nord de l'Ouganda. Ces populations ont déjà élaboré des propositions afin de faire subventionner des projets éducatifs et agricoles. BOSCO a également songé à l'avenir, en élaborant un système qui pourra être facilement étendu aux villes et villages de la région une fois la paix rétablie.Sa très faible consommation est un autre atout du réseau BOSCO. Les systèmes basse consommation sont précieux en période de conflit lorsque le réseau électrique est endommagé. C'est pourquoi la radio est si importante dans les situations d'urgence. Pendant le génocide rwandais, beaucoup ont fui leur maison en n'emportant que quelques vivres et leur poste de radio. Des émissions les tenaient régulièrement informés de ce qui se passait dans le reste du pays. Mais la radio peut aussi inciter à la haine et à la violence : deux cadres de Radio Mille Collines ont été jugés coupables de génocide par la Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda.Aujourd'hui, les émissions sont de nature plus positive. Radio La Benevlolencija travaille avec des psychologues spécialisés dans les questions de génocide et de réconciliation afin de réaliser des programmes qui aident les Rwandais à surmonter le traumatisme engendré par la violence.Les organisations de droits de l'homme ont reproché à la communauté internationale d'avoir ignoré les meurtres au Rwanda. Ces mêmes organisations militent aujourd'hui pour qu'on n'oublie pas le Darfour. Alors que les grands médias évitent les chroniques régulières sur la question de peur de perdre leur audience, les militants des droits de l'homme allument des contre-feux grâce à Internet et aux applications web 2.0. Amnesty International et le United States Holocaust Memorial Museum se servent régulièrement d'images satellite actualisées pour montrer les destructions dans les villes et villages du Darfour. D'autres militants réalisent des jeux en ligne, des blogues, des podcasts, des applications composites, des reportages vidéo et se servent des réseaux sociaux pour toucher un large auditoire et l'informer des exactions commises dans cette partie du Soudan occidental.La plupart de ces technologies n'existaient pas à l'époque du génocide rwandais (1994). Les applications web 2.0, en particulier, sont devenues des outils d'information précieux en cas de conflit. Les zones rurales sont souvent les premières à être enclavées lorsqu'une guerre éclate, et les dernières à être reconnectées une fois la paix rétablie. Préserver un lien entre ces communautés et le reste du monde en période de conflit leur permet de déterminer et d'exprimer leurs besoins et leurs priorités. Plus elles auront de possibilités de contact, plus elles auront de chances de trouver une oreille attentive. ■ En 2003, j'ai décidé avec trois autres personnes de transformer les relations politiques, économiques et sociales de communautés victimes de violence grâce aux TIC. Tous quatre sri-lankais, nés après le conflit opposant le gouvernement à l'Armée de libération empêcher la diffusion de l'information et de la connaissance. Il suffit d'une photo bouleversante prise avec un portable pour abattre un tyran, une dictature ou un gouvernement peu soucieux de la démocratie.Pourquoi rester au Sri Lanka ? J'avoue ne pas avoir de réponse toute faite. Peut-être parce que c'est et ce sera toujours ma patrie. Parce que je voudrais que mon fils, aujourd'hui âgé de 15 mois, se dise un jour que ceux qui pouvaient changer le cours de cette époque sanglante ne se sont pas recroquevillés face à une intimidation et à une violence croissantes. Cerné par les conflits, je me suis souvent demandé pourquoi je restais au Sri Lanka et si je pouvais vraiment changer les choses. Les journaux égrènent les violences dans le pays. La presse mondiale qui relate des attaques suicide, une victoire, une défaite, une disparition ou une défection oublie souvent de reconnaître la nature complexe de la consolidation de la paix. Les germes de la paix sont pourtant là, même dans les pires conflits. L'impact de Groundviews, un site primé de journalisme citoyen, laisse à penser que les articles rédigés par de simples citoyens peuvent être de puissants catalyseurs de changement. Sans les TIC, ces récits n'existeraient pas, ne seraient pas conservés pour la postérité et n'apparaîtraient pas sur les radars des médias locaux et mondiaux.Les TIC sont le parfait complément virtuel des processus engagés dans le réel pour soutenir la consolidation de la paix, la dissidence non violente et la démocratie. Si les photos de l'homme arrêtant des chars sur la place Tiananmen ou des moines défilant silencieusement contre la répression au Myanmar nous hantent et nous inspirent, c'est que les régimes répressifs ont désormais plus de mal àRaviver la paix L orsqu'un vieil ami, Gus Zuehlke, m'a pour la première fois parlé d'un conflit dans le nord de l'Ouganda, j'avoue ne lui avoir guère prêté attention. Je ne parvenais pas à établir de lien avec ma culture générale ou l'actualité que je dévore. Les    Bien que la guerre des Balkans se soit achevée voici plus de dix ans, comme au Rwanda, il reste encore beaucoup à faire, dit Weiss. « On sous-estime le temps qu'il faut à un pays et à sa population pour se remettre d'une guerre. Le meilleur exemple est celui de l'Europe occidentale, où la réconciliation après la Seconde Guerre mondiale a pris 50 ou 60 ans. Et il y a des gens qui, aujourd'hui encore, associent l'Allemagne au nazisme. Comme on l'a vu au Rwanda, la haine peut détruire un pays en quelques mois, mais il faut souvent deux générations pour qu'une nation et une population se remettent totalement d'un conflit. » ■ outil d'exaltation de la haine durant la phase préparatoire du génocide rwandais, la radio diffuse aujourd'hui des messages de réconciliation et de paix à ceux qui ont été traumatisés par les violences.George Weiss (info@labenevolencija.org) est fondateur et directeur de Radio La Benevolencija/Humanitarian Tools Foundation (www.labenevolencija.org) Étude de cas L orsque l'avion est venu, j'étais enceinte de cinq mois. J'ai perdu mon bébé à cause du bombardement. Lorsque l'avion a largué sa bombe, j'étais hors de la maison et j'ai vu mon mari à l'intérieur. J'ai couru jusque là. La fumée de la bombe m'a fait tousser, puis j'ai perdu du sang, puis mon bébé. J'ai mal partout et mon ventre reste gros bien que j'aie perdu le bébé. Alors que les campagnes d'Amnesty et de l'USHMM présentent la dure réalité du conflit du Darfour, mtvU, un site et une chaîne de télé destinés à des étudiants des universités américaines, tente de montrer à quoi ressemble la vie dans un camp de populations déplacées au travers d'un jeu en ligne baptisé Darfur is Dying. Les joueurs ont le choix entre huit personnages -deux adultes et six enfants -pour s'aventurer dans un Darfour virtuel. Au début du jeu, le personnage doit aller chercher de l'eau dans un puits situé en dehors du camp. En route, il risque de croiser les milices armées janjawids.Si le personnage est capturé par les Janjawids, le message suivant s'affiche : « Vous avez été capturé par la milicevous allez probablement rejoindre les centaines de milliers de personnes disparues dans cette crise humanitaire... les garçons sont souvent battus et parfois tués lorsqu'ils sont pris par les Janjawids ». Le joueur « qui ne risque rien de là où il est » se voit offrir la possibilité de rejouer et de choisir un autre personnage pour aller chercher l'eau. Celui qui vit au Soudan, poursuit le message, n'a pas cette seconde chance.Les personnages filles, bien que moins rapides que les garçons, peuvent rapporter plus d'eau au camp. Mais si elles sont prises, le joueur voit s'afficher un message disant que « Les filles sont battues, violées et enlevées par les Janjawids. » Le joueur peut aussi choisir le personnage de Sittina, une femme adulte, qui se rend au puits avec un seau jaune vif sur la tête. La femme, explique le jeu, va souvent chercher l'eau car elle peut en transporter plus que les enfants, mais elle est lente et court davantage le risque d'être battue et violée si elle est capturée par les miliciens. Le but du jeu est de choisir un personnage qui peut aller chercher l'eau au puits et revenir sain et sauf au camp.Le jeu tente de montrer les dangers et les choix que les réfugiés doivent faire au quotidien pour survivre dans les camps. Ils n'ont pas seulement besoin d'eau pour boire, mais aussi pour irriguer les potagers et fabriquer des briques afin de réparer les habitations que les miliciens détruisent lors de leurs attaques. Une fois l'eau épuisée, le réfugié doit retourner en chercher au puits situé dans le désert.Ces projets, comme tant d'autres programmes radio, blogues et autres témoignages audio et vidéo, utilisent les TIC pour mener campagne contre la violence au Darfour. Ils essaient de toucher divers auditoires, de l'étudiant au militant des droits de l'homme, du décideur politique aux membres de la communauté internationale, pour que l'on n'oublie pas cette violence et pour que l'on s'emploie à trouver rapidement une solution. Mais au bout de cinq années de combats, ce conflit qui gangrène une partie du Soudan n'est sans doute pas près de s'arrêter. Faut-il en conclure que tous les efforts déployés en faveur de la paix ont été vains ? Seule la population du Darfour pourrait sans doute répondre à cette question. ■ Grâce aux images satellite, aux informations géospatiales et aux données fournies par des logiciels d'analyse des SIG (système d'information géographique), nous pouvons définir précisément l'emplacement des infrastructures détruites -bâtiments, ponts et routeset estimer l'étendue des dégâts provoqués par les glissements de terrain ou les ondes de tempête. Nous pouvons rapidement définir les zones prioritaires et diriger les équipes de secours vers des endroits précis.Après analyse, nous mettons les cartes et les données en ligne, à la disposition du public. LesPlus l'information est précise, plus les décisions sont rapides et efficaces. UNOSAT analyse les données satellite pour livrer des informations précieuses aux gestionnaires de catastrophes. Einar Bjorgo (info@unosat.org) est directeur de Rapid Mapping, Applications and User Relations ; Francesco Pisano est responsable des questions institutionnelles chez UNOSAT, le programme des applications satellite opérationnelles de l'UNITAR (Institut des Nations unies pour la recherche et la formation) www.unosat.org organisations qui opèrent sur place peuvent y ajouter les éléments qu'elles ont recueillis pour brosser un tableau plus exact de la situation.Suivant le type et l'étendue de la catastrophe, nous recourons à divers types de détecteurs à bord des satellites. Les images radar, par exemple, conviendront mieux pour cerner l'étendue d'une zone inondée ; mais pour évaluer les dommages d'un séisme, on a besoin de données optiques en très haute résolution. Les images satellite dernier cri sont précises à l'échelle de 50 cm, au point de pouvoir compter le nombre de personnes (voir photo).Les images satellite ont été utilisées comme outil de gestion intégrée de l'information lors de grandes catastrophes telles que le séisme Si vous n'en avez pas encore, créez un compte sur Twitter (www.twitter.com)   Les technologies utilisées pour la consolidation de la paix ont-elles évolué au fil du temps et, si oui, comment ? ➜ Les technologies ont complètement chamboulé notre approche de la consolidation de la paix. Le virage s'est amorcé dans les années 1990, avec l'arrivée de projets associant des éléments vidéo, radio et télé ; ce fut notamment le cas du célèbre projet Video Letters qui permettait de s'envoyer des messages vidéo d'un bord à l'autre du conflit. Depuis la fin des années 1990, la diffusion d'Internet et des réseaux de téléphonie mobile a accéléré le mouvement, améliorant non seulement l'accès mais aussi la polyvalence des communications. L'emploi des textos Q&R Paul Currion (paul@currion.net) est un consultant spécialisé dans la gestion de l'information liée aux opérations humanitaires. Pour en savoir plus sur ses activités, voyez www.humanitarian.infoSveN torfINN / hollaNDSe hoogte","tokenCount":"2118"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"278b68204c6e044ca0b6fe0d815d9aca","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7d1f4172-fadd-4701-864c-fbf7c9aa15b1/retrieve","id":"1650746931"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2877fbbf-45b4-456c-aede-f67150ad9b12","pagecount":"4","content":" Training materials, the dissemination of knowledge and producers' associations can contribute significantly in agricultural technology transfer.The research was intended to analyze the problems, knowledge and needs of producerspotential beneficiaries of the projectin order to define interventions that meet their needs and contribute to the better management of climatic risk and improving their livelihood resilience and their capacity to adapt to climate change. Identify the information, knowledge and agricultural technology gaps (agriculture, livestock and natural resources) in the district of Chicualacuala communities that hamper a better response to the effects of climate change. Describe the potential barriers that may prevent the participation of beneficiaries in interventions of technologies dissemination, access and utilization of knowledge to be disseminated. Identify intervention strategies to address the information, knowledge and agricultural technologies gaps identified.The research data collection was based on three strategies: (i) household questionnaires; (ii) focus group discussions with clusters of members of farmers' associations (iii) semi-structured interviews targeted at community leaders, leaders of farmers' associations and extension agents working in the villages studied. In total,163 households in 8 villages were surveyed, 7 focus groups discussion consisting of 5 to 13 people were organized and 11 key informants interviewed.The main constraints affecting productivity and agricultural production in Chicualacuala are cyclical droughts, irregular rainfall and field pests that attack crops of maize (corn borer, birds and beetles), tomato (red mite), cassava (mealybug, mites and termites) and sorghum (birds). Other pests which attack almost all crops in the field include rats, threads, caterpillars and grasshoppers. Stored products, especially maize and cowpea, are attacked by rats and weevils.Diseases are another factor affecting agricultural production; the leaf blight disease is the most serious disease in beans and peanuts.Use of poor agricultural management practices also affects agricultural performance: less than 14% of producers apply fertilizers, manure, compost, natural pesticides and irrigation. Few farmers apply crop rotation, recommended crops densities, varieties of droughttolerant crops and mulching.The most important animals reared in Chicualacuala district households are poultry (63%), cattle (47%), goats (47%), pigs (17%) and sheep (10%).Animal production is affected by a multitude of factors. In general, livestock production is affected by a lack of pasture and water (especially in the dry season), diseases, pests and injuries. In addition, rearing cattle is affected by parasites (ticks) and hoof injuries, especially in winter; goats suffer from a lack of pasture, diseases (diarrhea and rickettsial disease), and hoof injuries; sheep farming is more affected by a lack of pasture and hoof injuries; pig farming by scabies and external parasites (lice); chickens are affected by Newcastle disease, and ducks have had outbreaks of viral hepatitis.With regard to livestock, producers showed limited knowledge of feeding and health management practices for cattle, goats, sheep and poultry. Hay production, isolation of sick animals, conservation and treatment of agricultural waste, fodder tree cultivation, which are resistant to drought, use of supplemental feeding in ruminants and rainwater harvesting for livestock watering are farming practices that are applied by less than 11% of households.In general, the majority of households do not cultivate fruit trees. The main fruit crops grown in the district are cashew and mango. Fruit production is severely limited by inadequate soil and climatic conditions (especially rainfall) and pests (termites, black beetles and borers).The limited availability of water resources for irrigation in many parts of the district, the lack of suppliers of seedlings and the lack of experience in their production affect the development of the cultivation of fruit trees.Despite these limiting factors, local producers show considerable interest in improving their knowledge and abilities to grow citrus, mango and cashew. One aspect of particular importance to the production of these fruits is the availability of seedlings.The Chicualacuala district has a wide variety of wild fruits used for food by locals, especially during food shortage periods of the year. The fruits are eaten fresh or processed using traditional methodsespecially for obtaining juices and alcoholic beverages.There is a complementarity between the harvesting time of annual crops and the time of wild fruits maturation in the district. In general, the harvesting of annual crops occurs from March to July and the maturation of most berries occurs from September to February. This highlights the importance of native fruits for the survival of local populations, suggesting that there is a need for valuation of these fruits and the promotion of appropriate conservation and processing methods that will add value to them, ensuring the availability of by-products throughout the year.There are also other products that are obtained from the forest. These products include building materials, wood fuel (firewood and charcoal) and the materials for handcraft production. Other exploits in the forest include hunting and beekeeping, which are still in early stages.The main products that are processed in the communities include vegetables (cabbage), cassava, sweet potatoes, cow's milk and berries. The processing of vegetables and wild fruits is based on drying methods.The processing of cassava, sweet potato and cow's milk was introduced to the communities, in recent years, by various organizations. Several producers learned to produce juices, biscuits and cakes from orange-fleshed sweet potato.Producers were trained by the District Service of the Economic Activities of Chicualacuala, the National Union of Farmers and the United Nations Fund for Food and Agriculture in the use of a modern processing method of cow's milk to produce yogurt, previously processed using a traditional method. However, the farmers continue to use the traditional method of milk processing and the processing of sweet potato is done by limited number of households.The main reason given by farmers for the low adoption of the new methods of milk and sweet potato processing is their high requirements in terms of ingredients -an additional financial burden-and the limited market for the processed products. This situation discourages processing the products both on a largescale and on a regular basis. A lot of wild fruits are lost because they can just be used when fresh, and no adequate processing methods are locally known.The preservation of maize and cowpea, the two most important crops for food and family income in the district, is a main concern for producers. Products stored suffer attacks from weevils and rats, reducing the availability of maize and cowpea, especially during the food shortage period of the year.The following needs in terms of information and agricultural technologies were identified to cope with the challenges of climate change: Knowledge of pests and diseases control in corn, cassava, cowpea and vegetables, sorghum, millet, squash, and peanuts,  Knowledge of production and conservation of sweet potato and cassava planting materials,  Techniques for improving soil fertility with emphasis on the application of fertilizers and manure and fallowing,  Knowledge on the advantages of agro-forestry systems,  Improved varieties tolerant to drought,  Techniques for soil moisture conservation,  Information on sowing periods for all crops. For livestock husbandry, the following needs were identified: Knowledge of health management of cattle, goats, pigs, poultry (chickens and ducks), Knowledge of feeding management including cultivation of fodder trees and use of agricultural waste to feed the animals,  Knowledge of construction of improved corrals for animals. The following needs were identified for fruit production: Knowledge of pest and disease control in citrus, cashew and mango,  Knowledge of soil moisture conservation strategies,  Production of citrus, cashew and mango tree seedlings. For forest resources management, needs identified are: Valorization of wild fruits (berries are regarded as food in famine),  Knowledge of forest management including reforestation with native species,  The practice of beekeeping,  Knowledge of medicinal plant production. In regard to processing and storage of agricultural products, the following needs were identified: Processing of fruits, vegetables and sweet potato,  Butter production from almond of canhu fruit and other products,  Wild fruits processing and conservation,  Preservation of maize and cowpea in barns (preventing the attack of weevils and rats).Considering the characteristics of Chicualacuala farmers, the following methods and instruments of communication are recommended to be used in the dissemination and technology transfer process by the project and its partners:  Américo Humulane (americo.humulane@gmail.com), Carlos Filimone (cfilimone@gmail.com), Alcino Fabião (alcinofabiao@gmail.com) and Beatriz Dimande (nelia_dimande@yahoo.com.br) are researchers at the Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique (IIAM).","tokenCount":"1356"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"281f2632ff7e908f46263bea42271c44","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_16008i.pdf","id":"1057765957"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b0a036bd-b027-4b02-acc6-78ef196dc835","pagecount":"68","content":"resource inventories in Lamjung and Dang cistricts were conducted jointly by Hydro-Engineering Services and NepalConsult (P) Ltd. IlMl wishes to thank the district engineers in Lamjung and Dang districts; the district development committee members at Tanahun, Lamjung and Dang districts; the staff of the Decentralization ProjecWUnled Nations Development Programme (UNDP), other concerned staff of the Department of Irrigation and, last but not least, the farmers of northeastern Tanahun, Lamjung and Dang districts, without whom this methodology could not have been developed. xv Irrigation Resource Inventory: A Methodology and Decision Support Tool for Assisting Farmer-Managed Irrigation Systems Collaboriattvely prepared by the irrigation Managlement Systems Study Group, Hydro-Eingtneering Services, NepalConsult (P) Ltd., and IIMI-Nepal' CHAPTER 1 The Methods and Its Uses CHAPTER 2 Inventory and Needs Assessment of Irrigation Systems in Northetast Tanahun DistrictIn the case of water resources developrnent, combining biophysical and socioeconomic dimensions in collecting data has been a significant component of development efforts in many developing countries. Particularly in irrigation resource inventory, the socioeconomic dimensions are very important without taking for granted the physical resource bsise. This becomes more prominent when farmer-managed irrigation systems (FMIS) are involved.The large number of these systems dug? to the scattered and limited land resource being cultivated makes FMlS a formidable developmental c'lallenge to donors as well as governments. Assisting\"tt?ese FMlS is also not an attractive proposition and most often taken for granted vis-a-vis the large irrigation schemes in the plains. However, given the increase in population and depletion of resources where these FMlS are located, attention has b w n focussed towards their sustainable development. In countries where FMlS is of significance, like Nepal, the first step is to determine their location and status. An irrigation resource inventory is necess;iry to find out what is out there and where it is (they are), before rational planning and development activities can be undertaken. Similarly at the local level, resource allocation and mobilization for new construction and rehabilitation of irrigation systems even for minor schemes need basic information antl data before rational decisions can be made.The use of inventory ranges from the generation of preliminary information for the existing plan for water resource development for irrigation ir an area or region, to project identification for development. The methodology development for irrigation resource inventory as applied in the case of Nepal has been initiated by various agencies. From the district-wide water resource inventoly of the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS) covering 65 districts to date, to the very detailed inventory of a district as carried out by the Dhading District Dev2lopment Project funded by GTZ (DDDPIGTZ) are the recent experiences in conducting irrigation resource inventory (Tuladhar et al. 1992). Purposive irrigation inventory has also been undertaken as in t i e case of the WECS/IIMi project in the lndrawati River Basin, where FMlS projects were identified and iirioriiized for rehabilitation assistance (Yoder and Upadhyay 1988; WECS/IIMI 1990).The methodologies developed in thtrse foregoing projects have established sets of data and information that need to be collected and also effective means of collection. Two more irrigation resource inventories were carried out based on these earlier experiences. The Mechi Hill Irrigation and Related Development Program started its activities and is still going on in 3 eastern districts of Nepal. This project made a survey of FMlS in these districts and identified the potential irrigation projects from the zonal irrigation profiles.The project used the WECSIllMl approach in conducting the inventory of irrigation systems in these 3 districts. This project is being carried out with the Department of Irrigation and SNV-Nepal (SNV-Nepal 1992).The other inventory was undertaken by the institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS) in the eastern part of the Chitwan District (Shukls et al. 1993b). This inventoly made full use of the foregoing experiences, particularly from that of the WECS/IIMI project. This activity was part of the effort in building up the Nepal Institutions and Irrigiition Systems (NIIS) data base. This data base documents 176 irrigation systems in Nepal, describing ,..he institutional, physical and agricultural dimensions of these systems. About 42 of these systems are managed by the Department of Irrigation or agency-managed irrigation systems (AMIS) and the rest are FMIS.The inventory of the Chitwan Valley is also a documentation of 88 FMIS. The features of this inventory are the use of an inventory checklist translated into Nepali and Tharu languages; group interviews: \"walk-through\" in the systems (\"alking with informants from the intake to the tail-end of the system); translation of irrigation terms to or glossary of irrigation terms in the local dialect: use of microcomputers for data processing, storage and analysis and use of PRA. The documentation of these systems covered the history, physical chaiacteristics, operation, management, agricultural, social and institutional characteristics (Shukla 1993b), Not withstanding the utility of the irrigation resource inventory for documentation and project identification, improvements can still be made in the methodology to include data collection for emerging issues on gender, environment and water rights. Furthermore, the collection techniques also need further refinement and improvement appropriate to the capabilities of the institutions and professionals available in the country. With limited resotirces and competing demands for development assistance, the need for prioritizing irrigation development assistance becomes urgent. The purpose of this report is to preseni a methodology for irrigation resource inventory which can also be used as a decision support tool for assisting farmer-managed irrigation systems. Appropriate assistance in this case will be from exti?rnal resources mostly from government projects andlor international donors. This methodology utilizes the recent experiences and also incorporates new additions to the data and information collecti?d, and procedural innovations for improving the data quality and utility.The succeeding sections of the report will be dealing with methodology development, methodology testing, assessment of methodology and conclusions and recommendations. The final section on conclusions and recommendations include the lessons learned and issues for furlher improvement Of the methodology.In developing the irrigation resource inventory, the underlying objective was to arrive at a methodology that will provide the necessary data and irformation to enable informed or rational decision making to occur in assisting FMIS. The data to be collected should be instrumental in identifying and prioritizing appropriate assistance to FMIS.The checklist used in the WECSlllMl Project was the starting documentation in developing this methodology (WECSIIIMI 1990). The chectlist used in the inventory of east Chitwan Valley by the IAAS group was not used, since it did not directly address the need for identifying and prioritizing for assisting FMlS (Shukla 1993). The areas of concern that were in the WECS/IIMI checklist are as follows:1. 2. Among the foregoing topics in the checklist. the water rights topic was not covered thoroughly by the inventory undertaken in the WECSlllMl Project. This checklist was further examined in terms of the questions asked and the manner in which they were asked. In surveys or inventories, the questions and how they are asked are as important as the data or information being collected.The methodology can be divided into three stages or phases, two of which were field work surveys.The first one is the reconnaissance survey. This involved the use of a checklist covering the foregoing topics. These topics were reviewed and streamline,q, Redundant questions were deleted although selected cross-checking questions were retained 'to determine consistency of answers from the respondents. The data variables were furlher screened to only about 100. The rationale behind the limiting of the number of variables was to expedite data collection and analysis without jeopardizing the necessary amount and quality of data bein3 gathered.The existing areas of concern were retained but improved and additional topics were added to address the issues of environment and gentler. The water rights questions were modified to have better indications of inter-and intra-systems water use conditions. These additional topics and questions were then added to the reconnaissance checklist for inventory. This checklist was msant to provide initial ,. evaluation of all systems in a demarcated area of a river basin. This evaluation will lead to a shorter list of systems where a PRA will be applied thsreafter.The basis for short-listing the target systems for PRA are the water resource, land resource and institutional capability potential. These three' major criteria are the main points in evaluating the surveyed systems in the target area.To determine the effectiveness of this checklist, pre-testing of this checklist was undeltaken. With the pre-testing of the checklist, improvemenls were made on the terms used and on the manner in which the questions were asked. The improved checklist was then ready for use in the target area. A copy of this checklist can be found in Annex 1.The procedural improvement made in this methodology was the inclusion or participation of a farmer, from a water user association (WUA) based nongovernmental organization (NGO), who was knowledgeable about FMIS irrigation management and development. The inclusion of this farmer/NGO in the survey was a learning experience for both the university-trained surveyors and the farmer. The . ., objective in including the farmer/NGO in th,? inventory team was to improve the quality of data gathered. This quality improvement is based on the fiimiliarity of the farmedNG0 regarding the idiosyncracies and proclivities of his fellow farmers, particulariy in terms of irrigation-related activities.With a farmerING0 as a member of the inventory team, credibility is also enhanced in terms of farmers' willingness to respond candidly to the questions asked of them regarding irrigation and their agricultural activities. Subtle nuances and sttitudinal responses are most often missed in straight-forward questions asked by university-trained intewiewers. On the other hand, the farmer/NGO also learns how to interview farmers and in the process learns to become member(s) of a professional team in undertaking a survey.With the inclusion of gender issues, it is difficult to raise questions about female activities in connection with irrigation activities, particularly in a highly patriarchal society. Female members of farming villages are reluctant to answer questions asked by male outsiders. Females interviewers were included in the team composition of the invf?ntory team. However, their participation was only limited to the PRA portion of the inventory.The second stage of the methodology i :; the PRA of the short-listed or potential FMlS for assist.ance.The main concern in this PRA is to asses:. the most promising system in order of priority, for greater productivity with the improvement of the irrigation system. This improvement can be brought about either through physical assistance or institutional and organizational improvements among the fewer number of potential systems.A set of questionnaires was prepared u:>ing the checklist, but adding more detailed questions under each of the topics. Additional questions rfjgarding external assistance for improving FMlS were also asked. In particular, questions about specific: irrigation practices on operation and maintenance, resource mobilization, organizational aspects of the irrigation systems and interlintra-water use conflicts, if any, and reasons behind the conflicts were asked.The participation of farmer/NGO as a m,?mber of the inventory team for the PRA was still necessary at this stage of methodology development. Furthermore, the participation of farmer informants becomes more important at this stage of the PRA. Walk-through with farmer informant from both head and tail portions of the system was carried out. l'he involvement of female interviewers also proved to be effective, particularly in the collection of the gender-related issues in irrigation activities.The last stage of the methodology was the reporting or reconciliation of results to the users Of information for decision support. The inventi~ry results only become useful if the users of the information are able to have access to the data and info,mation generated by the inventory. This inventory In effect becomes a decision support tool. With this information, decisions regarding which irrigation System needs to be assisted with the highest possitile potential for increased productivity can be made both at the local as well as the national level with donor support. Informed decision making is one outcome of this methodology when it comes to choosincl alternatives for irrigation development. The prioritized list as provided by this inventory facilitates the effort in identifying which system needs to be investigated for a formal feasibility study for improvement or rehabilitation assistance.The final step in this methodology devel3pment was the establishment of a data base whereby the data and information collected in this inventory will be formatted and stored in a \"user-friendly\" computer program that can be accessed and updated by concerned and interested users.This methodology becomes only effective if its results lead to the fulfillment of the objective in that, effective assistance to FMlS will be undertaken.The methodology was tested in two project!; implemented in Nepal. In one project, the decentralization project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Planning Commission (NPC), and IAAS tested this methodology, The decentralization project was basically premised on devolution of powers, particularly in the development sector. This project was piloted in 5 districts. Each district had a district development comniittee, whose function was to coordinate and decide on development activities to be carried out in each district.IIMI-Nepal with a grant from the BMi!-IFAD awarded a contract to the Irrigation Management Systems Study Group (IMSSG) of the IAAS to use the foregoing methodology in carrying out complementary activities with the decentrallzation project. With the experience of iAAS in carrying out the inventory in east Chitwan Valley, they were qualified to undertake this methodology testing. The district selected for methodology testing was Tanahu which is about 150 kilometers (km) west of Kathmandu.The other project was \"District Strengttiening,\" whose the objective was to enhance the capability of district irrigation agency (Department of Irrigation [Doll) staff in assisting FMIS. This project is a joint Research and'Technology Branch (RTB/D(3I) and IlMl activity. There were 2 districts piloted for this project-Lamjung and Dang districts-represanting one hill and one plain (terai) district. The DO1 'District staff was involved in drafling the terms of reference, and selecting and supervising the local consultants who carried out the irrigation resource inventory in these districts. The selected consultants were Hydro-Engineering Services for Lamjung District m d NepalConsuit for Dang District. IIMI-Nepal with a grant from Ford Foundation and partly from BMZ-IFAD, provided the funds for these two consulting firms to undertake the irrigation resource inventory.The IMSSGllAAS group consisted of faculty members, students and a farmer/NGO. The faculty members had an interdisciplinary background in agriculture engineering, agronomy and sociology. Tanahu District was selected upon the recommendation of the Decentralization Project UNDP project staff. The district development committee (DDC) chairman at Tanahu was very active in soliciting new ideas as well as funds to support the develorment efforts in this district. The decentralization project was conducting surveys in other aspects of dcvelopment except irrigation. This provided a very good opportunity to test the methodology.The only other inventory made covering the entire Tanahu District was made by WECS as part of the nationwide inventory for water resources development (WECS/SILT 1991). The major shortfall of this inventory was that it only looked into the water aspects for irrigation and hydro power utilizations. Irrigation operation, maintenance, and agricuttural aspects were not included in this inventory. Moreover, systems with a command area of 5 hectart?s (ha) or less was not included in the inventory. Thus, a mwe thorough inventory that can be used for development activities was really needed in this district.The IMSSG/IAAS group undertook the (preparatory activities effectively. The development of the checklist for the reconnaissance survey was undertaken in consultation with the IIMI-Nepal staff. Collection of secondary materials pertinerit to the Tanahu District was also conducted by visiting the different of f i ces in the district capital. Thf! DDC chairman was briefed and he also visited IIMI-Nepal office to discuss the inventory study.With limited resources in terms oftime ,dnd funds, only the northeastern portion ofthe Tanahu District was covered by the IMSSGIIAAS inventor/--approximately 400 square kilometers (km') (IMSSGAAAS A report on the completion of the recoiinaissance survey was prepared by the IMSSGllAAS group and submitted to IIMI-Nepal. This report was discussed regarding the results and also the forthcoming Stage 2 PRA. A summary version translatr!d into Nepali was also prepared by the IMSSGIIAAS. which was submitted to the DOC chairman.These 35 systems were then visited aJain by the IMSSGllAAS group for PRA. In the 2nd stage, female enumerators (students) participated in the data collection, mainly in obtaining responses to questions on gender issues in irrigation.The use of geographic information system (GIS) to generate a more accurate map indicating the location of these FMlS was attempted. Hcrmver, due to the delay in the availability of GIS equipment, particularly the global positioning device, or ly a couple of FMlS sites were documented. The use of GIS would have improved the accuracy and ah,^ updated the location of these FMlS in conjunction with the other data and information that were incliided as part of the decentralization project to indicate the baseline information for district developmelit.Adequacy of water at the source ciuring the winter and spring seasons.Potential for crop intensification arid diversification. Willingness of water users to mobilize resources for system improvement. Severiiy of environmental threats l o the system.Only the highlights of the inventory at Tznahu will be discussed in this section. In particular, the additional sections on gender, water rights and environment will be presented.In the role of women in irrigation activitios, about 15 to 43 percent of these activities were conducted by women. Only in 2 systems were there women members in the executive committee and only in 6 systems were the women attending the geni'ral assembly meetings of the water users organization. The minimal participation of women in irrigation ;activities was attributed to male dominance in Nepali society.Customary water rights prevailed amon${ the systems inventoried. In particular, inter-and intra-water conflicts were limited to 12 systems. Wattw use conflicts were used as an indication of water rights status in these 35 systems. In 2 systems alone, there were intra-system conflicts reported along the canal, while in 10 systems, the conflicts wert? inter-system at the source and between canals. It appears that with the proliferation of irrigation systeins in the river basin, more and more conflicts are observed due to the absence of clear-cut policies on water rights.On the environmental issues, mostly orily physical deterioration was observed as brought about by landslides, floods, seepage, breaching of canals and deforestation. No data on chemical, sociallcultural, health, and environmental impacts by and upon the irrigation systems were collected.The significance of these emerging issues in natural resource management is not very obvious at the moment. But these additional informalion does provide us with some sense or indication of the situation regarding these important areas csf natural resource management.The IMSSGllAAS group made use of a scoring system to rank the 35 systems in accordance with their priority for assistance. This system of scoring enabled them to prioritize these systems accordingly. The criteria was based on 3 major group: of factors, namely, positive factors, negative factors and potential factors for external assistance ne?ds Fable 1.1). In cases where ties occur in the resulting rank, other variables were considered calkd passive variables. These variables consist more of the qualitative characteristics ofthe systems under consideration in terms of potential for crop diversification, irrigation management capability, soil and service or command area characteristics and other related factors like market accessibility (IMSSG/IAAS 1994:87-88).Upon completion of the drafl report, providing the ranked FMlS for assistance, a workshop or meeting was convened to present these results. The participants in this meeting were the chairmen of the 12 village development committees (JDCs), the executive officers of the district development committee and the representatives of the ccncerned agencies for development like the District Irrigation Office, District Branch of the Agricultural Development Bank, District Officer for the Department of Agriculture and Development, and the Disti'ict Development Officer.The draft report was summarized and translated into Nepali language for presentation. The presentation disappointed some participant:;, since the FMlS in their respective VDCs were not on the priority list. This is one drawback of the invi?ntory. Interviewing and discussing irrigation-related issues with farmers in these FMlS inevitably raises the expectations of farmers. No matter how much explanation is provided regarding the purpose of the inventory. farmers will tend to expect assistance in terms of a project in their FMIS.Moreover, the inventory covered only a quarter ofthe entire district. The chairman of the DDC raised the issue of covering the entire district. FLrthermore, the assistance to the prioritized FMlS was also raised by the DDC chairman. This again is another level of expectation from the users of the inventory.It was explained that the main purpose 01 the inventory was only to provide information, to enable rational and informed decision making in assisting FMIS. At least in the northeastern part of the district, assistance to FMlS will be based more oil physical and economic rationale rather than on political considerations. These inventory results will also provide the justification for not supporting inappropriate assistance to less deserving FMIS.The other participants from the district cevelopment offices were more understanding of the results and were appreciative of the prioritized list of FMlS for assistance. In particular, the District Irrigation Office, welcomed the results. This will facilitate the implementation of their ongoing assistance to FMIS, financed.by the World Bank under the Irrigation Line of Credit (ILC). This project assists FMlS through rehabilitation of existing systems and also construction of new ones. The procedure for obtaining assistance is on \"demand\" basis. The water users groups or associations have to be formally organized and registered with the Chief District Officer (CDO)., .  With the results of this inventory, the p-oject will be facilitated in this part of the district. Although most of the FMlS in the list need to be formally organized. The ILC project has some facilities to assist FMlS to be formally organized and registered with the CDO. These inventory results will definitely improved the procedure on identifying FMIS which are appropriate for assistance.For smaller levels of assistance, the 4DWN can provide this through their community surface irrigation program, Loans for irrigation-relaled activities will be provided by ADB/N. With the result of this inventory, the ADBlN can use this prioritif list to attract potential borrowers for irrigation development. The ADB/N also welcomed this information tiut was non-committal in using the methodology forthe other DortionS of the district. a In this instance, the methodology for irrigation resource inventory was considered effective. This effectiveness was in terms of providing infclrmation for decision making regarding assistance to FMIS. Although there was unanimity among the u!iers of the information generated by the inventory regarding the utility of the results, there was no explicit endorsement of adopting the methodology for further use in the other parts of the district.The project on District Strengthening provid8d another opportunity to test the methodology on irrigation resource inventory. DO1 required that the implementing consultants go through a tendering process.There were about 20 tenderdproposals for the inventory for each district. The Hydro-Engineering Services (Hydro) group was awarded the contract for the Lamjung District while the NepalConsull group won the contract for the Dang District. Actually, Hydro and NepalConsult submitted joint proposals and only differentiated on the lead contractor. Thus for Lamjung District the lead was Hydro, and for Dang the lead was NepalConsult. The instruments (procedures and questionnaires) used were the same except the inventory team members: one sf?t of inventory team members for Lamjung, and another set for Dang, but using the same questionnaire (Annex 2).Hydro-Engineering Services has a very good track record when it comes to inventory. This was the group that undertook the WECSlllMl Project in Sindhupalchok (Yoder and Upadhyay 1988) and also the inventory of other districts in Nepal. The inventory team for each district consisted of an engineer, agronomist, sociologist, farmer/NGO and an environmentalist. The environmentalist was only present during the reconnaissance survey. During the RRAIPRA. this team member was not available anymore.The inventory at Lamjung District covered more than a third of the district (540 km'), representing the densely settled portions of the Marsyangdi River Catchment. A total of 239 FMlS were visited in the Stage I of the inventory. Out of these, only 30 were found suitable for RRA based on:Length of main canal. 7.Size of command area.Potential of expansion of irrigati?d area. Potential of increasing cropping intensity. Availability of water in the source. Number and degree of risk factws.Water users' interest in the sys.em.With these criteria the list of FMlS was narrowed down to 30 (HydrolNepalConsuk 1994). For Dang District, about 4/5 of the district was covered by the inventory (900 km'). A total of 162 FMlS were visited by the inventory team. This district being in the plains, the systems were more accessible compared to the hill districts like -amjung. Out of these, only 24 were found suitable for RRA or Stage II of the inventory. In addition to the above criteria, two more were added in the case of Dang. These were the presence of organized watw users and inclusion of a system to represent as much as possible all of the villages in the catchment .area of the inventory. In this district, two major donors have been operating forthe past decade in terms of providing development assistance. These are the U'nited'States Agency for International Development (USAID) and CAREINepal. In terms of irrigation, only CAREINepal has been actively involved, particularly in assisting FMIS.  Dang District, May 1994 [pp. 25-29].In Lamjung Dishict, a total of 30 irrigation systems were studied while in Dang District, a total of 23 irrigation systems were inventoried.Cropping-Notes:The major crop irrigated is rice during monsoon while a few portions are irrigated during spring.Other crops such as wht!at, lentil and legume are aiso irrigated but on a very limited scale. These other orops are pianted in the Same field as that of rice, during winter but very seldom irrigated.The cropping intensity is much higher in Dang District compared with that of Lamjung. The land tenure pattern also, to a large extent, cortributes to the institutional differences between these two districts (Table 1.3). In Lamjung, tenancy i!; rare and landowners usually operate or cultivate their own land, In Dang, there are 5 categories of lald tenure. This is also the case in the other districts in the plains or the terai area of Nepal. The issue of water rights is more acute in Dang District. Conflict over prior use of water led to the statutory legalization of water riihts for 2 systems. In addition to this, another system was legalized in terms of water rights during the previous Rana regime. The rest of the FMlS in Dang. still have customary water rights as handed down to them from the generations of water users.In the case of Lamjung, conflicts arise but are settled amicably by the water users themselves. No formally legalized water rights have been established in this part of Lamjung yet. However, competing usage among systems have been reported. Several cases have been cited by water users where conflicts have risen but were settled. In ternis of water rights, the information generated by the inventory does reflect significant emerging issues that need to be addressed both locally and nationally given the dwindling water resources and increasing demand.In terms of male and female participation in irrigated agriculture, the hill district appears to be more participatory compared to the Dang District in the terai (Table 1.4). Although Nepal ,is .predominantly a patriarchal society, the responses from Dan!) District reflects a very traditional pattern. However, for both districts, decision making is still a prerogative of the male member of the farming household. Yet female participation, particularly in the agricultural (other than irrigation) activities, is very much evident. This additional insight into the characteristics of FMlS is helpful in defining developmental plans for effective assistance.The environmental information obtainrid was very general and mostly confined to the physical observations affecting the physical features of the FMIS. The concerns raised in Lamjung District were landslides, embankment erosion, seepage from canals, and floods. Similarly, in Dang District, siltation of the command area was raised in several systems as well as seepage, embankment erosion and also floods. Although these physical effects on tt e system were noted, significant yield reductions attributable to these has not yet been determined. In the Lamjung District not all of the selectell systems responded. The responses ranged from 22-30 systems. In the case of Dang District, only for the agricultural activities were the responses complete. For the irrigation-related activities. only about 1-5 systems responded.These are all significant emerging issues worth covering in the inventory. Other indicators should be sought to improve on the quality of d8ta and information. This will then provide enough initial information to warrant succeeding activities based on the valid inferences that can be drawn from these data and information.To prioritize these systems for assistance or intervention, a scoring system was developed for these 2 districts. The basis of scoring and ranking of these systems are as follows:Percentage Points (Maximum)1. Demand for external assistance 10 2. Water rights and conflicts 10 3. Resource (water and land) potential For each item, another scoring systeni was done to evaluate the specific concerns of the criteria listed above. For example, the score for demand ranges from 0 to 10, with poor demand getting the minimum score and high demand with potential improvement on the system getting 10 points maximum (HydrolNepalConsult 1994: 45-48 and NellalConsult/Hydro, 1994: 39-42). With this scoring system, the FMlS in Lamjung and Dang were ranked. There were ties (systems with the same rank) and these were not resolved unlike in the IMSSGllAAS inventory of northeast Tanahu. Additional qualitative measures were not taken to avoid ties. However, since the recommendation for a follow-up feasibilit)' stage was proposed, the occurrence of ties is not that important, particularly since they are in the bottom part of the list (i.e., for Lamjung starting only in rank 17 and for Dang in rank 13).The results of this inventory were presented at an informal seminar. The participants in this seminar were the Director-General With an ongoing program to assist FMIS within the DOI, the Director-General was very interested in this activity. The seminar was held in the conference room of DOI. Interest was expressed to extend the inventory beyond the 2 districts and also to try it out in other districts as well where assistance to FMlS by DO1 is being provided. This is a clear indication of the effectiveness of the methodology for its adoption by DO1 in improving assistance ti] FMlS in other districts of Nepal.The testing of the methodology provided the opportunity for evaluating the methodology using two different sets of inventory teams (IMSSGIIPAS and HydrolNepaiConsult), Both teams utilized the core topics to be included and also added the is6ues on gender, water rights and environment. Procedurally, a farmerlNG0 was included in the inventory teams. However, only in the IMSSGllAAS team was a female team member was included. This enabled the effective collection of gender-related data and information in northeastern Tanahu District. Table 1.5 summarizes the features of this methodology as comparing the WECSIllMl inventory and ttie two teams.In terms of methodological improvements, the additional contents, membership of the inventory teams and sharing the inventoty results with the users (both local and national) were the main features of the methodology as validated by both IMSSG/IAAS and HydrolNepalConsuH. The IMSSGllAAS inventory team had the complete membership and also provided a female interviewer which is an innovation in itself.In terms of outcome, the iMSSGllAAS rcport provided more detailed information and data particularly on the agricultural and management/insti:utional aspects of the FMIS. However, data on water resources, particularly on the available flowti from the sources/rivers were not collected completely. The report is a reflection of the academic bias ttiat is expected from this team, and there were shortcomings with regard to water flow data.The Hydro/NepalConsult report on the ,other hand provided a standard consultants report, with 1855 detail but direct to the point of prioritizing t i e systems according to the data and information gathered as specified by the criteria for ranking. Although the inventory team did not have the full complement of \"expertise\" in its membership, the presenl capability of national consultants in caving out an irrigation resource inventory was shown, Furthermore, this team demonstrated the replicable practicality of the methodology in terms of present government procedures, use of available talent and resources to conduct the inventory The workshop or seminar to share the iiiventory results with the users is also another methodological improvement which both teams have achieved. The main advantage of the WECS/I\\MI inventoiy was that it had the resources to follow through the prioritization made based on the inventory. Assistance to the prioritized FMIS (a total of 19) was provided through a grant from the Ford Foundation to the WECS. This mechanism of assistance is riot replicable since present procedures for assisting FMIS is much more complicated and difficult to streiimline. There are at least 10 projects that assist FMIS. Only 2 of them have used the inventory techiiique to rationalize their project (Mechi Hill Development PrograrnlSNV and Dhading District Development PrograrnlGTZ).One major drawback ofthis methodology is the raising of expectations among the surveyed famWS in these FMIS. By asking questions about the irrigation system the farmers, despite the presence Of a farmer/NGO, will instinctively have expectations that these outsiders will somehow provide funds or materials for improving their system. In all of the 3 districts studied, the majority of farmers had expectations that their system will somehow receive assistance in one form or another.Wdh a validated methodology, it is erivisaged that more projects will adapt this methodology in improving the assistance to FMIS. The IM:;SG/IAAS effort is not easy or not practical to replicate. This is due to the unavailability of the full complement of expertise for the inventory team. However, their attempts to improve on the methodology, Farticularly on the use of female interviewen and application of GIs, are noteworthy for future improvenlents of the methodology.The information generated was appreciated by the users and the skills which are needed to undertake the inventory were found to be available. The final arbiter of ts effectiveness will be when the methodology will be used in other parts of Nepal or even in other countries where irrigation resource inventory will be a useful tool for decision making for assisting FMIS.Overall, the methodology as tested and validated was found to be effective.The methodology developed had improvements relative to previous inventory methodology in terms of content and procedural innovations. Specifically, the methodology:1. Provided additional information on gender, water rights and environmental issues that are significant to the assistance of FMIS.2. Showed that the contents of the existing inventory methodology can be improved, in terms of collecting only directly relevant information for making prioritization of assistance based on water and land resources, institutional capability, potential for increased productivity and need for external assistance.3. Led to the development of a decision support tool for informed decision making through the prioritized listing of FMIS.Provided the opportunity for the iisers of data and information generated by the inventory activities to discuss and decide on development assistance for FMIS at the local and national levels.5. Demonstrated actual feasibility for the inclusion of female members in inventory team to improve on the quality of data and information collected for the gender-related issues in irrigation development, in a highly patriarchal society.6. Showed that involving farmer/NGO in the inventory activities improved the overall quality of data gathered from the water users through better rapport with fellow farmers and credibility of the inventory teams.Led to the examination of other areas of improvement such as the use of GIS right at the reconnaissance stage and to the integration of these data and information in the data base generated for the district.8. Showed that there is capability on the part of the national consultants to carry out inventory and still conform to the government procedures.9. Contributed to a limited extent to ihe institutional development of research institutions such as IAAS, farrner/NGOs, national consultants and DOI, for carrying out inventory of irrigation systems in the catchment areas of selected rivers in the districts.Notwithstanding the overall positive results and improvements made in the inventory methodology, the following recommendations are forwarded to s e w as the next starting stage for further improving the methodology and thus, assist FMIS more effectively:1. The use of the 3 stages in the inventory methodology should be retained. Reconnaissance, RRAlPRA for short-listed systems and finally, the reporting of results to the users of data and information locally and nationally.2. The use of GIs, particularly the use of the global-positioning device should be incorporated in the reconnaissance stage of the mothodology. This will significantly improve the accuracy of the information on the location of these FMIS. Inclusion of this information to the data base will complement the other data sets thE8t will be useful for effective development assistance to FMIS.In a patriarchal society, the use of female members in the inventory team should be considered in order to improve on the quality i f data collected, particularly on gender issues.Indicators for environmental interactions with irrigation development should be included or even established. This will facilitate the icollection of environment-related data and information for the inventory. Training of inventory team members to ask the appropriate questions in varying environment should also be part of this improvement effort. Besides physical environmental impacts, other areas of concern should be included such as chemical (ia, fertilizer and pesticide use, salinity), economic, social, cuitural and health aspects.5. To reduce or minimize the negative side-effects of inventory in terms of unwarranted expectations of external assistance, respondents or water users should be thoroughly informed of the purpose of the inventory. Iiiformation explicitly indicating the purpose of the inventory activity should be relayed to all of the respondents. This entails a more careful approach, to respect the sensitivities of farmers regarding assistance from the government.6 . The incorporation of this methodology in the planning stage of 'assistance to the FMIS development program will improve the effectiveness of assistance. There are costs attributable to the inclusion ofthis methodology. However, the long-term benefits will outweigh the costs that will be incurred in incorporating this methodology in assistance programs for FMIS.There are other specific details for recommendations that can be made. Some of them can be found in the reports submitted by IAAS and Hydro/NepalConsult.These are worth considering to comprehensively improve the methodOlOQy as presented in this report. IMSSG ofthe IAAS, Rampur had carried out an \"Irrigation Resource Inventory of Northeast Tanahun District.\" Funding support for this study was made available by IIMIlNepal. The study was accomplished in two phases. Phase I of the study was bssically limited to conducting a brief overview of the irrigation systems from within the northeastern part of Tanahun District. Phase II of the study was carried out in more detail in a very limited number of irrigation systems having possibilities of expanding the irrigated area, having adequate water at the source during scarce periods, and potentialities of crop intensification and/or diversification and considerable environmental threats. This report has been prepared to present the findings of the study. The methodology for IRI carried out by different institutions may differ due to the set objectives of the study. The major objective of this study was to develop an appropriate methodology for IRI in the hills of Nepal.No AMlS exist in the study area, though few systems have received external assistance for initial construction and rehabilitation. Major concentration of the irrigation systems in the study area fall in the river basin of streams like Chundi Khola, Kalesti Khola. Risti Khola, Phaundi Khola, Chitti Khola, Buldi Khola and Naudi Khola. The Water Use Inventory Study of Tanahun District (WECSlSlLT 1991) reported a total of 149 FMIS and 8 agency-assisted/sponsored irrigation systems in northeastern Tanahun.Major findings presented in this report ,and the implications derived herein are based on an analysis of 160 FMIS in the study area.The irrigation systems of the study area included in this report have been coded according to their subwatershed regions or river basins in alphanumeric characters. For instance, a system tapping water from a tributary of'the Risti River will have a code of \"Rn\" where n = 1,2.3,4 ... etc., depending upon the location of a particular system starting from upstream side of the major river or the tributaries (Table 2.1). This chapter has seven sections. Section one discusses background information, report outline, rationale and objectives of the study. Scction two presents the methodology. It also includes an overview of the study area with more emphasis on agricultural and irrigation development. Section two also describes the methodology used in the study. Section three presents the results and discussion about the inventory of irrigation resources of northeast Tanahun which includes: hydrology of water resources; types, location, accessibility anNl size of the irrigation systems; physical characteristics and environmental issues of the irrigation sysiems; organization for operation and management; gender issues; water rights as well as the characieristics and performance of the agricultural systems in the study area. Application of the Geographc Information System (GIS) for spatial inventory of water resources and other infrastructures is also discussed in this section. Section four presents the evaluation of irrigation systems for external assessment. It includes the analysis of the irrigation systems inventoried during the second phase of the study to evaluate them for seeking external assistance. Section f i ve deals with the summary, implications and suggestions about the study. The lessons learned from this study are presented in Section si>:. The last or the seventh section offers some guidelines for implementing irrigation resource inventories.Irrigation development has always been an area of high priority for His Majesty's Government of Nepal (HMG/N). Despite continuing efforts in the past the cultivated area with some form of irrigation is only 943 thousand ha out of 2,641 thousand ha of arable land in Nepal (FA0 1991). There is undue population pressure on agricultural land to meet the increasing demand for food crops. It is therefore mandatory that irrigation development be intensified to bring changes in cropping pattern to attain potentially anticipated productivity of arable land and water resources. Realizing the food situation and the importance of irrigation as an importent production input for agriculture, the government's new irrigation policy emphasizes better management of irrigation resources in association with farmers, to In most cases, only marginal improvement in agricultural production in the project area over that of neighboring rainfed areas have been reported (WECS 1981). The actually irrigated area of many schemes have been found to be far short of projected service area. This can be attributed to: ill conceived planning; poorly designed, incoinplete and unsound construction; deficient operation; and negligible and untimely maintenance (Pradhan 1983, APROSC 1982and WECS 1981). Lack of water users' participation at the time of project formulation and its implementation can be another reason;' Some of the world's oldest irrigation systems built and operated by farmers themselves exist in Nepal and these constitute more than half of the total irrigated area (IIMI 1991). These systems referred to as FMlS have a substantial contribution in the irrigation development of Nepal. Large schemes such as those on the west Rapti River (Deukhuri Valley), Karnali River (Bardiya and Kailali districts) and Solah-Chhattis-Mauja Kulo from Tinau River in Rtipandehi District ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 ha are some of the typical examples of FMlS (Bhatt 19Ell). It is estimated that there are over 17,000 FMlS under surface irrigation covering around 611,000 ha and more than 16,000 farmer-owned shallow tubewells commanding around 64,000 ha, as against 275,000 ha being operated and managed by the government through DO1 (Ansari and Pradhan 1991). Foughly, 70 percent of irrigated area in the terai and over 90 percent in the hills are being initiated and managed by the farmers themselves (WECS 1981).The role played by FMlS to meet the basic needs of the farming community in Nepal while sustaining the peasant economy and its impact on the national economy, is extremely important (Ansari and Pradhan 1991;Ansari 1989;Yoder andUpadhyay 1988 andWECS 1981). Due to this fact, FMlS have been recognized as a potential and cost-lrffective alternative to expanding and intensifying irrigation development in the country, and thus improving the performance of irrigated agriculture.The Water Use Inventory Study of Tariahun District conducted by Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS 1991) provides an ovcwiew of water resources and their exploitation in Tanahun District in a general manner. However, the report does not adequately present the agricultural, economic, social and organizational aspe<:ts apart from physical and hydrologic aspects of irrigation systems and, hence, fails to evaluate the ir'igation potentials, constraints, strengths and weaknesses of individual systems, Thus, this study intends to gain a brief knowledge of the physical, sociallorganizational and agricultural aspects of irrigation systems in :he northeastern part of Tanahun District in collaboration with IIMIlNepai. Such information is valuable ti) evaluate the potentiality of the irrigation systems and help assess the need for external assistance. However, the potentiality of the systems cannot be judged without knowing the present status of systN?m performance. Keeping this in view, a detailed inventory on sociallorganizational, physical and agricultural aspects was undertaken in all the irrigation systems within the study area.Information related to physical and social factors such as the production, distribution and appropriation of resources of the irrigation systems and the agricultural status within the service areas is of vital importance. This also covers the information on: source characteristics; canal systems; distribution and allocation of structures; physical problems along the canal; organization of institutions for system management; service area and the number of households: crop production, intensification and diversification; soil characteristics within the system; local agriculture and market facilities, and so on. Such studies help us find out the nature an3 magnitude of potentialities and constraints of the irrigation systems. It generates ideas for assessing the needs of the systems for external assistance. The study also explores possibilities of acceptancelnoriacceptance of farmers of new water users in their respective water users organizations when there is a possibility of expansion of irrigable area.The evaluation of a limited number of.irrigation systems in the study area which have the scope for expansion of irrigable area and potentialities for crop intensification or diversification was also undertaken in this study with a view to assessing the needs for external assistance, and prioritization of the irrigation systems for the same. Finally,.this study intents to develop a methodology to be adopted for assessing the needs of the irrigation systems so thal it could be used as a guideline for maximum utilization Of scarce resources with maximum output.To develop and test a methodology for i'rigation resource inventory that will assess the needs of irrigation systems for external assistance. Due to the significant variation in topograpt y within the district, mainly two types of climate--suD-tropical in the lower river valleys and warm temperate steadily changing to cool temperate in the middle hills--are seen. The provision of rainfall recording facilities at four stations, viz., Khairenitar, Byas Nagar Bandipur and Kunchha Bhanjyang represent the amaunt and distribution of annual rainfall for both sub-tropical and temperate zones of Tanahun. Although climatic parameters fluctuate significantly within a short stretch of vertical zonation, the annual average raiifall IS around 2,000 millimeters (mm). more than 76 percent of which occurs during monsoon months starting from June to September (WECS 1991). The The soils of the study area have been forned primarily by the flowing of rivers (i.e., Marsyangdi and Madl), streams (Risti, Chundi, Kalesti) and their tributaries, through the dissected valleys. According to Land Resource Mapping Project (LRMP) ('986). these soils are categorized as the land form of alluvial plains and fans (depositional) and relativell old and dissected gently sloping terraces (Tars). Shallow profiles with weakly expressed horizons can be observed in alluvial plains and fans probably due to frequenffoccasional floods. By contrast, old river terraces (Tars) can be characterized by well-developed deep and red soils that indicated more weathered, oxidized and stabilized land systems.  Tanahun District falls within the river basin ofthe Sapta Gandaki River. The majority of the geographical area falls within the sloping lands (84.3%) and valley floors (13.9%) of the middle mountains, and the rest (1.8%) falls within the Siwalik range (WECS 1991).Most of the irrigated lands in the study area are river valleys formed by major riverslstreamsltributaries such as Chundi, Kalesti, Buldi, Phaundi, Chitti, Naudi-Paundi and Risti Khola. Many streams flow into the river valleys oricinating from the Mahabharat hills which are either perennial or seasonallephemeral in nature, and the volume of water declines significantly during the dry season. All the major streams from the study area either join the Madi River in the west or the Marsyangdi River in the east, and ultimately the Narayani Rivw System in the south. Approximately half of the study area falls within the sub-watershed of Madi River, while the remaining half falls within the sub-watershed of Marsyangdi River.Tanahun District is one of the hilly districts of Nepal comprising of mainly hills, sloping lands and river valleys. Earlier, the people of Tanahun used to live on the hill top, but with the introduction of the Malaria Eradication Program of HMGlN and due to the existence of potential agricultural land in the river valleys, they gradually started shifting their homestead down to the valley floor. In 1981, the total population of Tanahun District was estimatc,d to be 223,438, with an annual growth rate of 4.12 percent for the period between 1971 to 1981 (CBS 1981). In 1991, the total population had risen to 268,073The population of Tanahun is multiethric in character. Brahmin, Chhetri, Gurung, Magar, Newar, the occupational castes (Damai, Karni, Sharki, Sunar), Kumal and Darai are the major ethnic groups in the study area. Nepali is the dominant language spoken (63.0%) followed by the Magar (17.3%) and Gurung (9.6%) languages (CBS 1991).(CBS 1993).The study area of the Tanahun District repi'esents the typical mid-hill area of the country with levelled, nearly levelled flat lands and land with viirious level of slopes. Climate and soils vary over short distances because of topography and this has resulted in numerous micro-climatic pockets.The economy of Tanahun is dominated by agriculture which provides employment to more than 80 percent of the working population. Crop prc'duction contributes about 60 percent of the total agricultural output, livestock 30 percent and forestry 10 percent (CBS 1991). Fisheries is limited to river valleys and streams, but at the same time, micro-levei fish farming was also observed in places like Chambas. Bhanu VDC and Deurali in Ghashikuwa VDC.The river terraces, alluvial plains and fails together occupy only 13.9 percent ofthe land area (LRMP 1986). The area and productivity of major crops in Tanahum District (1980/81 and 1989/90) have been presented in the Table 2.5. It shows that tlie total area under major crops during 1989/90 was 46,060 ha, out of which maize, rice, millet, wheat and oilseed occupied 44, 29, 16, 8 and one percent area, respectively. Area under potato, barley ard sugarcane was less than one percent. During the same year, productivity of major crops such as rice maize, millet, wheat, and oilseed was estimated to be 2.29, 1.77, 1.23, 1.48 and 0.72 metric tonnes/ht!ctare (mtlha). respectively: while it was 7.1 1, 0.85 and 17 mt/ha in the case of potato, barley and su(larcane, respectively.  The productivity of rice, maize and millet was estimated to have decreased, on an average, by 2.23, 4.37 and 4.7 percent, respectively, whereas the productivity ofwheat, barley, pulses, oilseeds and potato increased by 4.32, 3.47, 3.10, 2.98 and 2.3Ei percent, respectively, during the period 1980/81 to 1989/90 (CBS 1991). Thus, it indicates that over the period of one decade, yield increase of major food grains has been more or less static. However, the total productivity of major food grains during 1989/90 increased by about 1.5 times the total productivity during 1980/81, which might have been a result of area expansion.The major market outlets for agricultural products in northeast Tanahun are Byas Nagar and Dumre, both located on the Prithvi Highway. Thesfi markets are linked to Pokhara and Narayangarh by an allweather road. Surplus food grains from Taiiahun are usually supplied to Pokhara, a growing urban city of Nepal. Food grains and other agricultuial products arrive in Dumre and Byas Nagar through fairweather motorable roads. However, to sell the agricultural products in a smaller scale, market outlets such as Turture Bazar in Dumre-Beshisahai' link road, Chandrawati in Bhanu Marga and Kalesti Dovan and Sotipasal in Vyas Marga are popular within the study area.The Agricultural Development Office (ADO) at the district headquarters is the principal government office for technical supports to the farmers ihrough its subcenters at Chandrawati, Purkot, Kyamin and Satiswara villages in the study area. They provide services to the farmers by introducing new crop varieties and their cultivation practices as well as conduct farmers' field trials, and perform process and result demonstrations, agricultural exhibiticns and other relevant technical services. Livestock subcenters also provide primary treatment ancl services on animal health care. Besides, the Agricultural Input Depots at Sepa Bagaincha, Bais Jang,are and Chandrawati supply seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to the farmers. Similarly, the credit instiiutiois such as the Small Farmer Development Program (SFDP) under ADWN provide loans to farmers from Barbhanjyang and Purkot.Many farmers have expressed the opinion that the inputs supply centers and private dealers have not so far been able to fuMII the input requiri?ments of the farmers, both in required quantity and in time.In the river basin of Naudi, the farmers from Manechauka reported that they were facing problems in the procurement of fertilizers from the AIC sub..centers, Sundarbazar and Lamjung, which are the nearest centers for the farmers of Tanahun living in the surrounding area. Such situations have hindered their regular activities related to the crop calendar.Support services for rural development in the study area are also directly or indirectly geared up by the development of infrastructures such as niassive construction of motorable tracks that link different villages to the district headquarters. This has enabled the farmers to transport agricultural produce and other inputs even to or from the very interior points. This has also facilitated the farmers with timely communication with the concerned agricultural agencies in the district headquarters. Numerous schools, particularly comprising of lower grades, have been concentrated in this area. In some places there are primary health centers and post oftices although they are not yet provided with the facility of electrification.On top of the involvement of several go'rernment and semi-government agencies, the UNDP Project for Supporting Decentralization in Nepal (UhDPlNPClNepaIl88/009) is also underway in Tanahun District. This project is working in close collaboratiori with the District Development Council (DDC). Tanahun, for various development activities in the district. Furthermore, the DDC also fixes the priorities of the development projects and coordinates various developmental activities taking place in the district.The major aims and objectives of this xoject are: -Hill Food Production Project (HFPF').* Department of Roads.The above-mentioned offices have beer contributing in various ways to the development of irrigation systems in Tanahun District.The principal agency for irrigation developrient in Tanahun is the DIO which was established in 2026 B.S. (1969 A.D.) with the then name as \"Canal Subdivision Office\" (Mishra 1988). Numerous demands such as requests for canal extension, new construction, and rehabilitation and system improvement, from different corners of the study area have reached the DIO through the farmers. DiO provides Some assistance to those irrigation systems which have approached it either on an individual or group basis I byproviding gabion wires for rehabilitation and system improvement under the recommendation of DDC office. The group should represent the water users organization (WUO), the members of which, ,are nominated or elected from among the water users. A delegation of one or two persons can also approach DIO to file'their demands or proposals in favor of the water users organization WUO). However, the delegation should have the evidence to prove that it is representative of the WUO. Once the application from the farmers is filed, DIO arranges for a detailed survey of the proposed plans and estimates fhe costs. Once the proposed plan is found feasible, it is forwarded along with all the documents and recommendations to the Rclgional Directorate of Irrigation (RDI) for f i nal approval. it is the RDI that decides whether to approve oi'disapprove of the plan. Each VDC has its own Advisory Council. Every developmental plan is, first, discussed in the villagelevel Advisory Council. Then, it is passed through the concerned VDC. Afler approval by VDC, the proposal is tiled to DDC. Primarily, the Development Committee of DDC discusses the proposal. Then it is forwarded to DDCC which, in tum, fomfar'ds it to the concerned line agency for implementation.This process applies to all types of district-level projects including irrigation. But small grants in the form of cash or material (cement, gabion boxes or wire, etc.) are approved and supplied by the DDC itself.The District Watershed Management Office (DWMO) also has provision to support irrigation development by providing construction material and technical help. It provides 60 percent of the project cost to the registered water users committee, whereas the fanners have to contribute their labor equival@flt,to 40 percent of the total cost. However, the DWhlO poky does not allow for the support of new construction of the system and thus, confines itself only lo the repair and maintenance of the canal.. , .Contribution of ADB/N is mostly through its Small Farmer Development Program (SFDP) in the form Of grants/subsidies and loans for irrigation. ACIB/N supports only those projects where the demand comes from at least five households having 100 ropani (five ha) of land. The proposed program should also have a perennial source of water. It provides 60 percent of the total cost in the form of a granUsubsidy which should be reimbursed by the government through some development project or through the government budget. Out of the remaining 40 percent, a 10 percent equivalent cost is to be borne by farmers in the form of labor contribution, w?ile 30 percent is given by ADB/N as a loan to the farmers at 18 percent interest per annum to be paid back in 3 to 7 years. ADBlN sanctions cash in favor of the construction committee formed by the benef'ciaries themselves. Dhakre Dihi KO Kulo (BI) is an example of an ADEIN-SFDP-assisted irrigation sy:;tem within the study area. ADBIN, however, is mainly interested to invest in sprinkler irrigation. However presently, ADBIN has stopped subsidizing irrigation loans.At present, HFPP is not working in Tanahuii. Therefore, it cannot be listed as an irrigation assistance agency any more. The Department of F!oads has never had any direct involvement in irrigation development, both for construction and rehabilitation. It only improves the parts of canals that are damaged at the time of road construction Find makes culverts at the road passes.This study commenced in June 1993. The field data collection was completed in November 1993.The The irrigation resource inventory and needs assessment was completed in two phases. The Phase \\was mainly concerned with system identification, preparation of the irrigation inventory and selection of some systems for the Phase II study. ,The needs. assessment and ranking of irrigation systems for external assistance were carried out in detail in the selected systems during'the Phase II study.Training of Research Assistants Before assigning jobs, the research assistaiits were briefed about their jobs and were given a few days training by the concerned faculty members. They were also informed about the objectives and courses of action to be followed in the project. Prolessional training was also given for data collection. Major emphasis was placed on identification ofthe key informants, interaction with the farmers and noting down of necessary data.W i h a view to finding out the total numbti. of irngation systems, their location, type, size, number of beneficiaries, level of assistance and other relevant information, the following district-level offices were consulted at the district headquarters, Bya!; Nagar: A reconnaissance of the study area was conducted to update the list of irrigation systems along with their preliminary information. A large number of imgation systems with their size varying from 0.3 to 40 ha were identified during the reconnaissance. Therefore, keeping in view the existence of an unlimited number of very small-sized systems, a general criteria was made to include only those systems into the inventory study which have at least 1 ha of service area and 5 households. Accordingly, the final list of irrigation Systems existing in the study area was worked out along with their location, size, households and other relevant information Thus, a total of 160 irrigation systems were selected for the Phase I study. The systems with less than 1 ha of service area and 5 households were not inventoried using the checklists, but a bnef information profilo of and a total of 104 such systems were prepared Preparation and Testing of Inventory Checklists for Primary Data CollectionThe proposed study was planned to be carried out in two different phases. A brief inventory checklist I (Annex II) and a more detailed inventory checklist Ii (Annex Ill) to be used separately for the first and second phases of the study, respectively, were developed. The checklist I was primarily designed to identify the total number of those systems which have a potentiality of area expansion, have adequacy of water at the source, are in genuine need of external assistance for physical impmwment, reflect willingness of allowing new comers to their water users organization and indicate possiblliiy of Crop intensification/diversification, on top of other general attnbutes of the system These two checklists were pre-tested wih the joint effort of IIMi-Nepal and IMSSG, Rampur, in five irrigation systems in Nuwakot District separately assuming that the terrain type, nature of water resources and agricultural practices in Nuwakot and the proposed study area in Tanahun are more or less the same Upon fieid testing, few amendments were made in the initial checklists.In checklist I, based on the field experieirce, it was found essential to incorporate the information On peak-flood flow and lean-season flow in the riverdstreams based on farmers' judgement; present Canal discharge and its relative variation over seasons; amount, time and gender mies in repair and maintenance work; and farmers' perceptions of external assistance needsIn checklist II, many topics were restNdured with a view to capture information more effectively. Issues pertaining to environment, water rights, gender, and evaluation of the systems for the provision of external assistance needs were given due consideration while restructuring the checklist.District Soil and Watershed Conservation Office.The total number of team members for prinlary data collection was eight consisting of faculty members, RA and the representative from farmers' NGO. The team was divided into two groups. Each group had faculties representing social science and plant science and was accompanied by a RA. Since the team has only one agriculture engineer, both R.4s were trained on the techniques of measuring the water discharge in the canal and at the source.The first job of inventory groups was to idsntify and call on the key informants in each system. The secondary data collected in the district headquarters helped a lot in accomplishing this step. Both groups gave priority to seeing the members of the \\VUO wherever possible. The local leaders among the water users were consulted in many systems where there were no formal WUOs. Depending upon the situation(s) and time available, four-to-sewn key farmers were consulted in each irrigation system.The team members walked from the head to the tail of the system along with the respondents before conducting .group interviews. The observalions during the system walk-through included:. .i The nature of the source and iitake point; diversion structure; adjacent upstream and downstream systems; characteristic:; of canal including length, landslide zones, seepagelleakage zones, stream bank cutting zones, etc.; network of canal systems; and shape ofthe service area.ii Cropping System. agricultural actibities, soil types and water availability at different section$ within the service area.iii Structures for water allocation, dist'ibution, cross drainage, head control and erosion control.iv Conditions of natural forestry and trees grown in and around the system area.The team members had enough time to record valuable information during the system walk-through., . , , . , , ~. .It also helped in validating some of the information obtained during the group interview.For each irrigation system, a map showing the network of canals, system boundary and distinct land marks within the command area was prepai'ed with the help of key informants. Information on cropped and fallow land, different soil types, uplalid and lowland, present irrigated area, possible area for expansion, distance between upstream and downstream systems, etc.. could be gathered more effectively using the system map.Before initiating any discussion, the respondents and team members were introduced to each other in order to develop mutual respect for each other. The importance and the objectives i of the i,Quentory study were also clearly explained. Group discussi~~ns were conducted in each irrigation system using,checklist I and checklist II during Phase I and Phaie II studies, respectively. The respondents included key informants among the water users, functionaries of the Water Users Organization and local leaders.Elderly persons from the system were (consulted to correct and validate data on the history of development. Attempts were also made to make the interview as participatory and iterative as possible.One of the team members led the discussion, focussed on the checklist and moderated/facilitated the respondents if they happened to deviate from the main topic, and other members recorded the information.Capturing Local Dialect Some of the agricultural and irrigation activties are instantly understood by the respondents if asked in their local dialect. Many such terms were noted and used during the discussion. A list of such terms in local dialect obtained from the study area is presented in Table 2.6.One representative from a farmer NGO basically involved in irrigation management and improvement activities was invited to participate during t 'le field data collection through the inventoly technique.One of the objectives of such a joint enort of inventorying of the irrigation systems was to tacilltate discussion between the team and the frirmers by narrowing down the gap between the way of understanding of farmers' problems by academicians and the farmers. Apart from learning and sharing each others' experiences, lt also created a congenial atmosphere for the farmers to gain a substantial level of information regarding physical, organizational, agricultural and managerial issues of irrigation systems. It was also felt from such a joint pagram that, discussion and interaction between the farmers and a representative of farmer NGO who ha E several years of experience in resource mobilization, water allocation, and recordkeeping, is a better tocl than providing farmers with training and lectures. However, with regard to physical. environmental arid agricultural characteristics of the irrigation systems, a technical back stopping is a must to make them aware of the consequences and record the information on relevant issues.As farmers are both the targeted beneficiariits as well as the agents of development, location-and timespecific information on their resource base is of paramount importance for sound planning. GIS being a participatory approach to resource informa tion systems, synthesizes all information about farmers, their fields and various development-conservatioii interfaces (K. C. 1993) To facilitate the study, a digital map of l'anahun District based on aerial photographs was prepared using PC ARCANFO 3.4 D version of GIS soflware The facility was made available from the UNDP Project for supporting decentralizatlon in Nepal. The map was carned to the field to locate the most appropriate point of consideration of the irrigation systems inventoried as well as validate the boundaries of the VDCs with the help of local people. F!ivers/streams not appearing on the map were also inserted as per their occurrence on the ground.  It was succeeded by a joint effort of the JNDP Project for Supporting Decentralization in Nepal, IIMI-Nepal and IMSSG, Rampur, in which a field work project was undertaken to relocate on the map some crucial features such as the points of water rights dispute intakes within the study area, using a Global Positioning System (GPS) Receiver. The GPS Receiver is a tool with the principle that it receives signals from a number of satellites (Rusziian-constellation of GLONASS, American-constellation of NAVSTAR) to determine any point on earth by providing the latitude, longitude and altitude above mean sea level. In the field, the receiver was takc!n to points where the earth coordinates were desired. This way, any point, line or arealpolygon feature could be surveyed very quickly as compared to conventional survey techniques. The recorded coordinal,es in the receiver were later on downloaded to a computer to post-process and transfer to a GIS sofiware. Other associated attributes of the system recorded in the field are automatically linked with the GIs by means of unique identifiers.The attributes-physical or social-under consideration were incorporated in to the digital file through digitization and annotation processes of GIs. The final map that was prepared through the GIS technique will be of greater use for policy maken, researchers, fiefd workers, project implementing agencies and ultimately to farmer users for irrigation development.Dummy tables were prepared fo compile the datalinformation obtained from the field work. Information was synthesized to compute the frequency of variables. To evaluate the performance and assess the need for external assistance to irrigation sy!items, scores were assigned to different variables based on the subjective judgement of the study team after thorough discussion.Based on the information collected from 160 irrigation systems, certain criteria were fixed for selection of the Irrigation systems for the Phase II study (Table 2.7). As a resun, only 35 systems fulfilled the criteria. The detailed procedures for system selection IS dealt with under a separate tile, \"Evaluation of Irrigation Systems for External Assistance\" in this chapter.A detailed semi-structured inventory checklizt was prepared to prioritize the selected systems for external assistance (Annex Ill), based on their diffeiences in terms of performance and potentialities.Since the objective and the model of inventory checklist were separate for Phase I and Phase II studies, RAs were trained again to prepare for the '=base II study.  As in Phase I, the study team split into two groups and moved to study the selected 35 systems in more detail as per fixed plan. This time, the group visited the key informants who were identified in the Phase I study. System walk-through was done tci some of the selected systems again depending upon the need felt by the study groups and the interest of the respondents. A detailed system map was also prepared in this phase in order to avoid any confusion about the physiography, landmarks and land use of each system. Other procedures for infoimation collection were same as in Phase I., .The Need for external assistance mainly depends on the: present performance status and future potentiality of each irrigation system. Thus the study team evaluated the performance and judged the potentiality of each system, the details of which are presented later. On the basis of this information, the irrigation systems have been ranked in the order of priority for external assistance (Table 2.37).Each ofthe irrigation systems has positive and negative factors affecting the performance of the System.In this study, bath factors were identified and scores were assigned to evaluate those factors individually.The score assignment and scoring were done according to the consensus of the study team based on the available data regarding each system aiid the subjective judgement of the members based on their field observation and experiences, To fi nd ihe present status of performance of each irrigation System, the negative score hindering system performance was suMracted from the positive score. Out of the 35 irrigation systems selected for the Phase I 1 study, the study team decided to combine MD7 and MD8, and M3 and M5 as a single system (Table 2.36). Improvement in MD7 and M3 systems can serve all the present as well as potential sewice area and farmers equally in MD8 and M5, respectively. Thus, the total number of irrigation systems selected for needs assessment comes out to be only 33.The major factors influencing external assisi ance for irrigation system improvement considered were the potential service area, crop productivity ard cropping intensity. Relative scoring of the systems was done based on the projected data on these variables. The present status of the systems in respect of these factors were taken into account while scoring for their potentialities.Needs Assessment and Prioritizing Irrigation Systems for External Assistance Undoubtedly, the system potentialities are ttNe major factors determining the need for assistance to FMIS. But, at the same time, factors contributing negatively to system performance should also be considered and need to be corrected, thus enhancing the performance of the systems still further. Hence, the summation score of potential factors as wifll as positive and negative factors to system performance determines the magnitude of the external a:ssistance needs. Keeping this in view, 33 selected systems have been ranked in order of priority for erternal assistance (Table 2.37).After preparing a drafl report of the study, the report was presented in a workshop arranged at the district Madi River, which originates from the Himalayas, flows from the north to the south before it joins the Seti River So, it is a perennial river with a relatibely deep bed level but does not possess any big river valley along its banks. The classification of irrigation Systems i ntcs seasonal or perennial type indicated a total of 86 irrigation systems to be perennial and 74 irrigation systems to be seasonal in nature. The classification of the irrigation systems into perennial and seasoiial types is based on whether or not a system obtains a water supply during spring (March-May) and monsoon (June-Sep) seasons. A system is considered perennial if irrigation water is available both in spririg and monsoon and considered seasonal if available only during monsoon. Another basis for this claissification has been the number of rice crops grown per year.In perennial irrigation systems, it is possible to grow two rice crops due to the availability of irrigation water during spring season as well as, while only one rice crop (monsoon rice) can be grown in seasonal irrigation systems. Winter irrigation is not extensively practiced in the study area as the farmers grow wheat, potato and vegetables in a smaller scale     (1964 A.D.). Jaiuwa Biruwa Kulo (C26), guessed to be more than 100 years old, was constructed by employing labors @ NRs 0.02/person/day (present wage rate within that locality is NRs 50,00/personlday). Prior to 1951 during the Rana regime in Nepal, the first poet to tiave written in the Nepali language, BhanubhaMa Acharya. was sentenced to imprisonment for initiating the construction of Bhanu Baraha Kulo (C16) as ail developmental works in the villages wew restrlcted. The Pokhrel Phant Sinchai Yojana (K16) was started in 1978 at an approximate cost of NI% 200 thousand, afler getting external assistance from the Hill Food Production Project (HFPP).The rehabilitation and system improvement works carried out in the irrigation systems of northeast Tanahun revealed that in 72 (45%) systems no record of rehabiliationlsystem improvement was found; 40 (25%) systems had mobilized their own iiternal resources and the rest of the 48 (30%) had received some external assistance and mobilized th sir own resources too, In such activities, the beneficiaries contribute their labor significantly, and only in a few cases do they hire paid labor for such work, The labor contribution is based on the housohold in a majority of irrigation systems. The nature of rehabilitationlsystem improvement works .nclude further extension of the canal, lining of the canal, headworks improvement by placing gabion boxes filled with stones across the flowing stream to channelize the water into the canal, construction of spurs to protect the canal as well as the service area from stream-bank erosion, construction of iiermanent headworks, erection of dry stone walls across the erosion-prone zones to stabilize the bank of the canal, shifling of the diversion weir upstream, provision of pipe culverts for cross-drainage work and water allocation and distribution structures, etc.A number of agencies providing assistalice for improvement and rehabilitation work identified during the field visit includes DIO (specially under the ILC Program of World Bank), SFDP of ADB/N, HFPP, Watershed Management Offi ce, DDC, and the Department of Roads. The District Irrigation Office was found to be the major agency providing assistance for rehabilitation and improvement of the irrigation systems.The amount of labor mobilized for annual cr emergency repair and maintenance of the systems by the internal sources are analyzed and presenkd in more detail under a separate section discussing repair and maintenance. The types of works tcs be performed in annual repair and maintenance include desilting of canal, repair of diversion weir ard strengthening of canal banks at vulnerable zones. In case of emergency repair and maintenance, major works to be performed are repair of damaged headworks, protection of canal bank by making spurs across the stream, and strengthening of canal banks. The desilting of canal was found to be done twice a year, once before the spring rice season during Feb-March and the next before the monsoon rico season during May-June, in most of the perennial irrigation systems. In seasonal irrigation systems, however, cleaning of canal network is done only before the start of monsoon season during ApriCMay.Resource mobilization for repair and niaintenance includes cash and labor resources to carry out repair of diversion weir, cleaning of canal, strengthening of canal bank and cross-drainage works. The labor resource mobilization for regular repair and maintenance is based on the size of landholding and the number of households 74 (46%) irrigation systems while, 12 (8%) irrigation systems have another basis for resource mobilization. In the ci mse of emergency repair and maintenance, only 37 (23%) systems follow the size of landholding as the basis, while 102 (64%) systems follow the number of households as the basis, and the rest of ttie 21 systems (13%) follow some other basis (Table 2.10 Users residing near the system intitke contributing more labor. Those who want to transplant rice earlier having to acquire water. Male member@) of the househod being preferred for contributing labor for repair and maintenance, etc. Some systems not cleaning canal -egularly.Among the irrigation systems where the size of landholding is the basis for resource mobilization during repair and maintenance, variation was observed with regard to labor contribution per unit area.The size of landhoMiog that a laborer should serve varied from 0.021 to 0.1875 ha, depending upon the specific rules and regulations of the systenis. The major types of headworks in the irrigation systems of the study area include temporary brushwood check dams, gabion boxes treated as se mipermanent diversion structures and permanent cement concrete diversion weirs. The brushwood (check dams are constructed for temporary purposes using a variety of local materials such as bushes, wooden stakes, stones, gravel, earth slices. mud, etc., whereas the semipermanent diversion weix contain the whole or part of the diversion to be of gabion boxes filled with stones while the rest of th,? portion is made of other locally available materials. As far as permanent headworks are concerned, the intakes of such systems are made of cement concrete with or without the provision of a head regulato-.The distribution of irrigation systems by type of headworks presented in Table 2.12 indicates that three irrigation systems (i.e., B I , N8 and M4) have permanent intake structures. Among them B1 had received extemal.assistance from ADBIN, N8 from DOlIDlO and M4 from HFPP for making the intake permanent. The irrigation systems having ijemipermanent types of headworks were mostly assisted by DIO or DDC. The majority of the irrigatioii systems (130 or 81%) in the study area have temporary brushwood check dams designed and mainlained by the farmers themselves. In three irrigation systems there is no headworks as'such but they get the water supply from springs o r other means (Table 2.12). The main and secondary canals in almost ;3ll the irrigation systems reported are unlined. A total of 12 systems out of 160 have partial lining in theii. main and secondary canals. The magnitude of lining varies from a minimum of 10 m in Sinuwa Khet KO Kulo (MD1) to as high as 1,700 m in the main canal and 400 m in the branch canal of Thulotar Sinchai Yojana (N8). An assessment of the distribution of the irrigation system by main canal length shows'that out of 158 systems, the main canal length is more than 3 km in three systems, 2.6 to 3 km in five systems, 2.1 to 2.5 km in eight systems, 1.6 to 2 km in '15 systems, 1.1 to 1.5 km in 28 systems, 0.5 to 1 km in 70 systems (44.3 percent) and less than 0.5 km in 29 systems (Table 2.13). The irrigation systems with the largest main canal length of 3.5 km each are Birta Gairi Malebagar Bhunbhunge Kulo (827). Gairi Kulo (R5) and KaRari Simaltari KO Kulo (C2r). The smallest main canal length of 20 m is only observed in Dhaka1 Kulo (C9).In the majority of the irrigation system:;, the length of secondary canal is found to be very small, ranging from a few meters to as high as 400 m in a single case. The distributionldelivery of water from the main canal Is usually performed througn direct outlets.  Provision of wooden proportional weirs for water allocation in secondary canals are found only in three irrigation systems, namely, Patal Kulo (R'IO), Shera Kulo (M34) and Muhane KO Kulo (M35). An interesting example of water allocation through direct outlets using wooden stakes, bushes and stones is found in Gairi Kulo (R5). Users of that system have established a set rule that afler transplantation of rice in the fi el dAand, each outlet is entiled to receive a specific width of water flow through the outlet (i.e., one ha of land is entitled to receive a :'hare of 16 inches of water flow irrespective of depth of flow in the supply canal) using wooden stakes. I I Thulotar Sinchai Yojana (N8) and Sangrale Phant KO Kulo (M4), permanent outlets of a specific size are found receiving a specific share of water. In the majority of the systems, temporary outlets and secoridary canals are the structures for allocation and distribution of irrigation water. The general practice of the farmers to ensure near proportional allocation of water is through erection of temporary structures of wooden stakes, bushes, stones and earthen materials across the main canal.Tunnels and rock cliffs along and across ttle canal network are some of the distinguishing features of hill irrigation systems, Tunnels. rock cliffs and large boulders along the route of the canals sometimes create difficulties in constructing new canals and bring hinderance to the smooth operation and maintenance of irrigation systems necessitating skilled manpower and technology.In 91 irrigation systems, there is no rocky terrain along the canal route. However, in 67 irrigation systems, the length of the rocky terrain along the canal varies from a minimum of 5 m to a maximum of 300 to 400 m. The indigenous, technology to break rocks for making canals or tunnels are of two types.The most common technology is the use 8 , f a boiled solution of horsegram on the rock surface and the heating of the same surface on a wooden fire. Finally, the heated surface is broken by hammering on it. The second method is to only hammer son the rocky surface. The first method is used in cases where the rock is very hard to break. The types of rocks encountered along the canal route are sedimentary, conglomerate, hard limestone and other lock outcrops.Users have made provisions for openiigs along tunnel sections at definite intervals for cleaning the tunnel when foreign materials get depositell. In some cases, these tunnels have served as leakage proof zones along the canals. However, the users have experienced difficulties while cleaning the canal through such sections.In order to control and regulate the flow oi'water in the canal, especially during high floods, permanent head regulators have been provided at the intake in a few irrigation systems. The systems with permanent head regulators are Thulotar Sinchai Yojana (N8) and Sangrale Phant KO Kulo (M4).Provision of spurs made up of gabion boxes filled with stones to protect the canal and service area from stream bank erosion and landslides have been observed in a substantial number of irrigation systems. Lining of canals on both or either side of the canal at several sections, super-passage structures to safely dispose surface runolf water over the canal, and escape structures to safeguard canals during high floods are some of the permanent structures observed in a few irrigation systems. In the absence of permanent structures u6;ers have erected dry stone walls to raise the bed level of the canal at required places and strengthened the canal bed by making retaining walls. Users have also employed the technology of Bio Engineering through the plantation oftrees along the side of Tune Khola to stabilize the slope of the canal in Sangrametar Bhaluwa Kulo (Rl).Most of the land under rice cultivation in 1 he hills are terraced. The width of the terraces vary from a minimum of one meter to as high as ten meters depending upon the existing slope/topography of the area. The smallest terraces where it is v?ry difficult to operate bullocks for plowing are locally called Sufka. A significant portion of land in sleep sloped terraces is taken by rise-and bonds, thereby reducing the effective area for cultivation. However, in the case of river-valley irrigation systems where the service area is more or less flat, the: width and length of terraces are relatively larger in size.Generally, two major types of land systems. viz., lower terrace system (alluvial flood plain) and upper terrace systemflars (Older terraces orolder flood plains) are found in Tanahun. Such terraces are made only where water is available and it can take upto 5-to-10 years to complete the terracing for rice cultivation in an irrigation system (Pradhaii 1989).An interesting feature of terraced cultivation is that the lower terraces (which are at a lower elevation) are always more benefitted with regard to water allocation and distribution, as the contribution through sub-surface flow is more significant, thus rt!sulting in nonequitable distribution of water within the service area. Some of the lowlying areas, genei'ally encountered within the service area of the river-valley irrigation systems, also suffer from waterlogging problem and remain fallow during winter (October-February). The discharge of the canal was measured with respect to maximum anticipated supply, employing the velocity-area method. To estimate the velocity of the water flow, the float method was used. The discharge so measured could not show an'/ logical comparison with the size of the service area as in many systems, the maximum anticipated discharge could not be measured due to one reason or another. All discharge measurement was done during July 1993.The irrigation systems in the study area of Tanahun exist over a wide range of environmental conditions. The systems have water sources originating from small creeks to big ephemeral streams. In many cases, earthen channels pass through long porous rocky and loose soil materials. The fragile nature of the hills, lack of incentives with the local resource users and erratic rainfall pattern are some of the major factors stressing the performance of irrigation systems. Although the majority of the irrigation systems face similar types of environmental problems, the magnitude of problems vary a lot. These irrigation systems spreading over about 1,400 ha acr'3ss two agro-climatic zones (valley floor and hills) are prone to multidimensional problems as described later.It is apparent that the ravages caused by heavy monsoon rainfall are the most serious type of soil erosion in Tanahun. It is very much influenc:ed by the land topography such as slopes and vegetation.The canal sections across the slopes which lie in shady and moist condition are easily affected by landslide, thus causing occasional blockade to water supply and resulting in the huge conveyance loss of water.Seepage and leakage have also posed conskierable environmental threats to several systems. It is quite common for hill irrigation systems to use marginal lands wherever convenient for making canals. The shallow and loose soil profile with an abundant occurrence of gravel and stones at sub-surface level is found contributing to the seepage and leakiige of water. Soil animals such as crabs and snakes along the anal, rats and field crickets (locally ternied as Birale Kira) in the field, as well as frequent movement of livestock and humans in the canal are not less important factors to add to this problem. There is a heavy burden on the farmers of plugging the holes, especially during the transplanting of rice.There are instances where the sub-surface flow of water passes through cavities and tunnels, probably formed by soil animals from, the head to the tail reach of the same system and thus becomes a problem in water distribution among the irrigators. Cement-lined canals, although few in'number; put farmers in a dilemma once there is the formation of holes and water starts' leaking out. The farmers express that it is beyond their capacity to tilug the holes.The latest and the most devastating flood occurred 21 years ago in 1973. As a result, Chundi. Kalesti, Buldi, Risti and Naudi streams changed their courses. This compelled the farmers to shifl the Site of the headworks and to dig out tunnels in the canals, Since then, occasional flash floods in these Streams were also noted by the farmers that destrc'yed out-diversion and canal structures, claiming the bulk of resources for the repair and maintenance of the systems. Similarly, a large number of tributaries of seasonal streams crossed the canals vatically. Depending upon the slope and the area of the watersheds of these streams, they destroy canals and off-load various quantities of sediments both in the canals and the cultivated lands. The systems with relatively longer conveyance lengths suffer more and the situation becomes worse if a small number of households are to manage such canals. Unprecedented floods and the changing nature of the stream course have not been helpful for the farmers in sticking to their set crop calendar. On the contrary. this has created problems related to water rights.During heavy floods these streams pose serious problems such as the bank cutting of productive land. However, the land systems away from the streams and upper terraces are relatively safe. The systems surrounding the district headquart'm have easy access to acquire gabion wires from the DIO for making spurs. However, this is not the case with other systems. Hence, measures such as riverlstream training works are of great concern to the water users in the study area. At the same time, efforts should be directed towards controlling landslides and soil erosion through different practices of soil and water conservation.Canal breaching has also been considerecl as important as other problems. Several factors such as coarse soil type, high frequency of livestock and human movement, activities of soil animals, heavy flood influx, road construction either along or across the canal, close alignment of two or more canals running across the slope, are some of the noticeable causes of the breaching of canals. Furthermore, the irrigators cannot avoid the movement of wallowing buffalos along the canal route because this has served farmers for generations in taking tieir animals for watering and grazing. Another similar old tradition is that the farmers use canal routos to go to the forest, streams and croplands as well.The middle mountain range of Nepal represents one of the most intensively utilized landscapes in the Himalayas. There is virtually no detailed quantitative information available on land use dynamics and resource degradation. processes in this part of Nepal (Shah and Screwier 1991). However, from the interactive resource inventory approach wilh the farmers of Tanahun District, some qualitative data on forest and grass land status have been gathered. The farmers have reported that although population pressure has led to the rapid crop intensilication and conversion of several public sloppy lands into terraces, forest firing by unidentified persons and forest clearing by human or animal encroachment have been reduced significantly because of the reinforcement of the government's ComrnunIty Forest Act.There have been some official reforestation efforts in the area as well. The farmers also seem to have been equally aware and planted various species of trees in their areas through the initiative of the respective village development committees. The dominant species planted are pines and sissoo on the up hill and down hill, respectively. Tree plaitation is also observed in the banks of irrigation canals and on terrace rises to reinforce stone walls, t'lereby helping in the stabilizing of the soil.This section describes the ethnicity, the number of households of the water users, their landholding pattern, common trends of tenurial status within the study area, off-farm employment and the nature Of water users organizations. With regard to tenurial status of the farmers, not much variation, with some exception, is seen in the study area. Most of them cultivate their f a r m themselves. Small farmers, in addition to their own, also take land on lease for share cropping from the farmers with larger landholdings. There are a few cases on lease and contract. Shera Kulo (M34) of Dhawadi Khola in Bhanu VDC has exceptionally 13 Zamindafs (landlords). They were the businessmen of Bharatpur. Damauli and other towns of Nepal. Originally, they were the inhabitants of neighboring Bandipur, a trade center and ex-capital of Tanahun District. Mostly, they come from the Newar community and constitute more than 50 percent of the total water users in Shera Kulo. Since 13 of them are absentee landlords, they do not have any contribution in system management.  Family members of about 45 percent of the total water users' household are involved in off-farm employment (Table 2.17). All of them have farming as the main occupation. In addition to farming, some members of the household am alSO involved in nonfarm activities such as government or nongovemment services, business and teaching. It is mainly because of their smaller landholding size that farming alone cannot support their livelihood. More than 90 percent of the water users' household along Chundi Phant am involved in off-farm employment. This area is the birth place of lhe late poet Bhanu Bhakta Aacharya, the first poet of Nepal.He came from a Brahmin family. More than 50 percent of the water users of this locality fall under the ethnic category of Brahman-Chhetry (Table 2.14). During the period of the late poet Acharya. the Brahmins of this area were mostly invoked in civil services and this is true even today. They are also relatively more educated than the other famiers of the study area. On the other hand, in spite of the fact that about 80 percent of the total water useis in Risti Khola are Bfahmin-Chhetry (Table 2.14), they are less than in Chundi Phant, and most of them are still involved in agriculture as a main occupation (Table 2.17). The involvement of a relatively hlgh percentage of households in off-farm employment in Naudl sMe could be due to the pmsence of the highest percentage (8.6%) of occupational castes. By tradition, they are involved in specific occupations such as tool making, shoe making, tailoring and jewelry making. These occupations have better prospects clue to better economic incentives than in agriculture.   2.18). Irrigation systems with formal water users organizations also do not abide by their norms. The constraints behind these reasons will be dealt with later.Almost one-fi fth (21%) of the total systems do not have any organization (Table 2.18). Fifteen percent of them have loose or ad hoc institutions. About half (46.88%) of the systems are informally organized. Only 26 systems (16%) are formally organized.General criteria have been adopted for the classification of irrigation organizations into various categories. The formal organizations are those which are registered under the District Administrative Olfice (Office of the Chief District Orricer) with all formalities. They have set norms and a number of functionaries that make the executive body of the water users organization. Those organizations which do have written norms but are not registerell officially are also categorized under formal organizations.Informal organizations, on the other hand, do not have any distinctly organized group of water users. One or a few water users take care of water management activities in the system. In most of the cases, such farmers are either opinion leaders or among those who have the largest farms or, reside near the service area, or have contributed much to system construction, or are progressive in nature. They generally call meetings, coordinate activities associated with water management and resource mobilization but do not keep any written dcicuments about their system management. Although such institutions do not have sanctioned rules, regulations and rights the duties assigned to such leader farmers are such that they can exercise thtt social norms as per situation(s) encountered.","tokenCount":"16101"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a2f8a29145bf7539d8c0b9ee45ade6d5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5ee7602a-09da-44de-9f36-2ae7ab5a6617/retrieve","id":"-1940774795"},"keywords":["Sohail, Q.","Erginbas-Orakci, G.","Ozdemir, F.","Jighly, A.","Dreisigacker, S.","Bektas, H.","Birisik, N.","Ozkan, H.","Dababat, A.A. Genome-Wide Association Study of Root-Lesion Nematodes Fusarium","genome-wide association","marker-trait association","Pratylenchus","wheat"],"sieverID":"fe2f904e-3992-4064-b55a-83e53b6064de","pagecount":"15","content":"Triticum aestivum L., also known as common wheat, is affected by many biotic stresses. Root diseases are the most difficult to tackle due to the complexity of phenotypic evaluation and the lack of resistant sources compared to other biotic stress factors. Soil-borne pathogens such as the root-lesion nematodes caused by the Pratylenchus species and crown rot caused by various Fusarium species are major wheat root diseases, causing substantial yield losses globally. A set of 189 advanced spring bread wheat lines obtained from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) were genotyped with 4056 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) markers and screened for root-lesion nematodes and crown rot resistance. Population structure revealed that the genotypes could be divided into five subpopulations. Genome-Wide Association Studies were carried out for both resistances to Pratylenchus and Fusarium species. Based on our results, 11 different SNPs on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5B, and 5D were significantly associated with root-lesion nematode resistance. Seven markers demonstrated association with P. neglectus, while the remaining four were linked to P. thornei resistance. In the case of crown rot, eight different markers on chromosomes 1A, 2B, 3A, 4B, 5B, and 7D were associated with Fusarium crown rot resistance. Identification and screening of root diseases is a challenging task; therefore, the newly identified resistant sources/genotypes could be exploited by breeders to be incorporated in breeding programs. The use of the identified markers in marker-assisted selection could enhance the selection process and cultivar development with root-lesion nematode and crown rot resistance.Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most important cereal crops for human consumption around the world. Wheat provides around 20% of human daily caloric intake. It is the main source of carbohydrates and is a significant source of proteins, inorganic ions, and vitamins [1]. Wheat is used to make flatbread, raised bread, cookies, cakes, porridges, noodles, muffins, pastries, sweets, pasta, etc. Wheat production is limited by many abiotic and biotic stress factors. Among them, various wheat root diseases and pathogens cause significant yield losses [2,3]. Biotic stresses affecting the root system are extremely difficult to deal with, as phenotyping for resistance is a challenging task. Early detection of root diseases is a big challenge, and many farmers do not even know that their wheat fields are exposed to such diseases [3].Based on economic impact, parasitic nematodes and Fusarium are among the main soilborne pathogens attacking plant roots. The root-lesion nematodes (RLN) Pratylenchus sp. (P. neglectus and P. thornei) are plant-parasitic nematodes that feed on wheat roots [4,5]. These nematodes usually pierce the root cell walls, which consequently limits the nutrient and water uptake. This reduction in nutrient uptake, in turn, causes drought-like or nutrient deficiency symptoms, eventually resulting in yield loss and also damaging grain quality [6,7]. The two Pratylenchus species are the most common RLN species in wheat and usually coexist in fields [8]. They cause the most damage in temperate and dry regions of the U.S., Northern Canada, Latin America, Australia, the Middle East, etc. [9].Another economically important wheat root disease is Fusarium crown rot (CR), which is caused by various Fusarium species [10][11][12]. The occurrence of this disease has become more common with the application of minimum tillage because Fusarium species survives on crop residue and infect following seasons wheat crop [13]. The Fusarium species initiates infection of wheat plants and colonizes the lower internodes causing root crowns, subsequently developing necrosis in the crowns in the lowest part of the stem and the root tissues resulting in the crown rot disease [14]. The range of options is quite limited to control CR and RLNs. Chemical control is somehow effective but neither economically feasible nor environmentally sustainable [6,7,15].Identifying genetic resistance in wheat could provide a valuable alternative to the conventional control methods. Genetic approaches are potentially the most important strategies to effectively control CR and nematodes [4,[16][17][18][19]. Genetic resistance is the best strategy of control, especially in developing countries where farmers have limited recourses to invest in crop protection [20]. However, detecting the disease occurrence, effective screening, and breeding for resistant genotypes is challenging. Bioassays providing reliable, accurate, and rapid screening results are quite limited, and screening facilities are not widely available. Large variation of the pathogen in the soil, evolving pathogen populations, and the environmental conditions that affect the disease make screening a big challenge [13]. The biggest problem, however, is the limited number of genetic resources that show high levels of resistance for both CR and RLN.One way to screen large numbers of genetic resources is to take advantage of molecular markers. Marker-trait associations (MTAs) can be discovered using genome-wide association study (GWAS) [21,22]. In GWAS, a panel of genotypes is screened with a large number of genome-wide markers for detecting associations with important morphological, agronomic, or disease-resistance traits. An important advantage of GWAS is that it does not require the development of specific genetic mapping populations [23], and it can be conducted on breeding material or natural populations, allowing direct inference for data analysis to a breeding program. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed the association of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers with resistance responses of a panel of spring bread wheat accessions against RLN (P. neglectus and P. thornei) and CR (F. culmorum) diseases to identify novel sources of resistance to soil-borne diseases.The results of the variance analysis (ANOVA) revealed significant differences among all experiments and growth conditions (Table 1). Accordingly, broad-sense heritability values of the means (H 2 ) ranged between 0.79 (CR_Y) and 0.98 (PN2). The results suggest a high level of heritability for the evaluated traits in wheat. Two consecutive GR experiments were conducted with Pratylenchus sp. (P. neglectus and P. thornei) for resistance assessment (Table S2 and Figure 1). The screening of wheat lines and checks revealed significant genetic variation in response to the nematode infection (Table S2). In the first experiment for P. thornei (PT1), the nematode count (nematodes/plant) ranged from 25 (GID6176558) to 1925 (GID6181747), with a mean value of 506.56 while in the second experiment (PT2), the range of nematodes/plant were 92 (GID6176334) to 3104 (GID6624543), and the mean value was 849.75. Among the checks, the cultivar 'Seri' had the highest nematode count (890 and 944) while the line Croc_1/Ae.squarrosa(224)//Opata had the lowest nematode count (247 and 264) in the PT1 and PT2 trials, respectively. The number of P. neglectus nematodes in PN1 and PN2 ranged from 25 (GID6176409) to 3149 (GID6417653) and 75 (GID6280393) to 3653 (GID6417653), respectively. The mean values for PN1 and PN2 were 789.95 and 948.05, respectively. The lines with the lowest PN count according to GR1 and GR2 mean values were GID6278849 (82.5 plant −1 ), GID6176409 (85 plant −1 ), and GID61781747 (90 plant −1 ). For the resistance against PT, the lines with the lowest mean nematode counts in GR1 and GR2 were GID6176334 (77 plant −1 ), GID6174858 (93.5 plant −1 ), and GID6174847 (97.5 plant −1 ). Overall means for PN were higher than for PT. Out of the 189 lines tested, 113 (59.8%) and 115 (60.8%) had nematode counts below average in PN1 and PN2, respectively. For the PT experiments, 104 (55%) and 105 (55.6%) lines had nematode counts below the average. The range for PN and PT counts is given in Figure 1, and the highest nematode count was obtained in the PN2 experiment (Figure 1). The check cultivar 'Croc_1/Ae.squarrosa(224)//Opata had the lowest nematode count for both PN1-2 and PT1-2 experiments (Table S3). Accordingly, 57 (30%), 40 (21%), 42 (22%) and 51 (27%) lines had lower nematode counts in PT1, PT2, PN1 and PN2, respectively, compared to Croc_1/Ae.squarrosa(224)//Opata. Overall, out of the panel we evaluated for CR, PN, and PT resistance, six genotypes were resistant against CR, PT, and PN. Genotypes GID6181748, GID6278812, GID6279005, GID6424861, GID6424874 and GID6487731 showed moderate to complete resistance against crown-rot and root-lesion nematodes.the CR_GH experiment, the CR score ranged from 1.0 to 4.3. In the field experiment in Yozgat (CR_Y) and Konya (CR_K), the CR scores range between 1.67 and 4.0 and 1.0 and 4.3, respectively. For CR_GH, the check genotype 2-49, Sunco and Suzen had the lowest score (2.3). Based on overall data, out of the 189 genotypes, around 31% were resistant to CR, 15% were moderately resistant, 15% were moderately susceptible, and 38% were very susceptible.  Crown rot scoring for seedling resistance was conducted in two growth room experiments (CR1 and CR2), and scores ranged from 1.2 (GID6175213) to 4.4 (GID6417653) in CR1 and between 1.1 (GID6279632) and 4.6 (GID6174901) in CR2 (Table S2 and Figure 1). The checks '2-49' and 'Suzen' had the lowest scores, i.e., 2.2 for CR1 and 2.4 for CR2. In the CR_GH experiment, the CR score ranged from 1.0 to 4.3. In the field experiment in Yozgat (CR_Y) and Konya (CR_K), the CR scores range between 1.67 and 4.0 and 1.0 and 4.3, respectively. For CR_GH, the check genotype 2-49, Sunco and Suzen had the lowest score (2.3). Based on overall data, out of the 189 genotypes, around 31% were resistant to CR, 15% were moderately resistant, 15% were moderately susceptible, and 38% were very susceptible.Correlation analysis was performed to observe similarities between GR, GH, and field experiments and between different seasons. Thus, we carried out a correlation analysis between CR, PN, and PT experiments (Table 2). Based on correlation analysis, the highest correlations were observed between PN1 and PN2 (0.9) and between CR1 and CR2 (0.72). There were also, moderate correlations between PT1 and PT2 (0.290), PN1 (0.309), PN2 (0.219); between PT2 and PN1 (0.341) and PN2 (0.323). On the other hand, significant negative correlations were observed between CR_K and PT2 (−0.213) and PN2 (−0.232). CR_K and CR_Y had significant positive correlations (0.532). According to correlation results, field values from Konya and Yozgat were in close association, and the results for PN and PT were all correlated. However, when field and controlled conditions (GR and GH) results were compared for CR, there was no clear correlation. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) yielded a total of 4056 SNP markers after initial filtering for missing data. The distribution of markers was the highest in the B genome with 2013 SNPs, followed by the A genome with 1518 SNPs and the D genome with 429 SNPs. The highest marker density was observed in B, and the lowest was observed in the D genomes, as expected in wheat. This is due to the recent addition of the D genome to the bread wheat genome compared to A and B genomes, and relatively lower marker information is available in the GBS databases. A total of 96 SNPs out of 4056 were not assigned into any genome, and they were classified as unknown. Of the 21 linkage groups, chromosome 2B had the highest number of markers (434 SNPs), while 4D had the least number of markers (17 SNPs).The kinship matrix of the 189 bread wheat lines, excluding the checks, is shown in Figure 2. Lines clustered into two main groups, group 1 consisted of 17, and group 2 of 172 lines. Overall, the lines could be divided into six major subgroups (Figure 2). Over the 100 replicates of ADMIXTURE runs, the CV values had a minimal average at K = 5. Thus, the most probable number of ancestral subpopulations was K = 5 (Figure 3).   Linkage disequilibrium was estimated between the mapped SNPs on each chromosome. The pairwise r 2 values were plotted to the physical distance in the base pair (bp) to infer the extent of LD decay. LD decayed with genetic distance, and it reached 50% of its initial value at just below the 5Mb. The statistically significant threshold for R 2 for the whole genome LD was kept at 0.2 (data not shown).Association analysis was carried out using the mixed linear model (MLM). Nineteen different SNPs were significantly associated with CR, PT, and PN resistance (Table 3). Nine SNPs (eight unique) were associated with CR, which were located on chromosomes 1A, 2B, 3A, 4B, 5B, and 7D. Two SNPs were detected for CR1 while four for CR2. Only one marker, S7D_579535886, was associated in the CR_K experiment, S2B_549201894 was associated in the CR_GH, and S2B_708689405 in the CR_Y experiment. Marker 'S4B_539004405' was significant in both the CR1 and CR2 experiments. For PT and PN, 12 SNPs (Eleven unique) were detected, seven of which were associated with P. neglectus and remaining with P. thornei resistance. One marker, 'S5B_84880275', showed significant association in the PN1 and PN2 experiment, located on chromosome 5B. Chromosome 5B had the highest number of markers associated with PT1, CR1, CR2, PN1, and PN2. Only one marker (S3A_501892003) was identified for PT2.  Linkage disequilibrium was estimated between the mapped SNPs on each chromosome. The pairwise r 2 values were plotted to the physical distance in the base pair (bp) to infer the extent of LD decay. LD decayed with genetic distance, and it reached 50% of its initial value at just below the 5 Mb. The statistically significant threshold for R 2 for the whole genome LD was kept at 0.2 (data not shown).Association analysis was carried out using the mixed linear model (MLM). Nineteen different SNPs were significantly associated with CR, PT, and PN resistance (Table 3). Nine SNPs (eight unique) were associated with CR, which were located on chromosomes 1A, 2B, 3A, 4B, 5B, and 7D. Two SNPs were detected for CR1 while four for CR2. Only one marker, S7D_579535886, was associated in the CR_K experiment, S2B_549201894 was associated in the CR_GH, and S2B_708689405 in the CR_Y experiment. Marker 'S4B_539004405' was significant in both the CR1 and CR2 experiments. For PT and PN, 12 SNPs (Eleven unique) were detected, seven of which were associated with P. neglectus and remaining with P. thornei resistance. One marker, 'S5B_84880275', showed significant association in the PN1 and PN2 experiment, located on chromosome 5B. Chromosome 5B had the highest number of markers associated with PT1, CR1, CR2, PN1, and PN2. Only one marker (S3A_501892003) was identified for PT2. #: the SNP name includes the chromosome and its position, MAF: minor allele frequency, R 2 : coefficient of determination.Wheat is one of the main crops grown globally as a staple food and source of income for many people. A decrease in wheat yields could result in global food security issues and may lead to hunger in some cases. Wheat production is limited by several abiotic and biotic stresses. Biotic stress factors are a continuous thread to crop production. Although considerable efforts have been undertaken in many breeding programs to increase biotic stress tolerance/resistance, with the newly evolving strains, the race for releasing new cultivars with resistance to biotic stresses should be elevated. Despite the importance of root diseases such as crown rot and root-lesion nematodes, they have received little attention in most breeding programs. Therefore, the knowledge in resistance or tolerance sources against such diseases and molecular understanding is quite limited. In many cases, root diseases are mistakenly recorded as nutrient deficiencies, and proper control measures are not applied.The development of nematode-resistant wheat was first carried out by Brown and Ellis [24]. Resistant cultivars are the most effective approach to combat root diseases; however, screening and discovering resistance against these diseases is complex. High-throughput and reliable screening methods to speed up the process are needed. In our study, a large panel of CIMMYT wheat lines was evaluated for CR, PN, and PT resistance. The results for growth room, greenhouse, and field evaluations provide a deeper understanding of the type of resistance and correlations between different species and growth conditions. Significant correlations obtained between controlled (GR and GH) and field conditions could speed up the evaluation, screening, and selection processes for root diseases. The three different growth conditions were compared for disease screening, and some levels of correlation were obtained (Table 2). Significant correlations were revealed between CR1 and CR_GH, CR_Y and CR_K, CR1-2, and PN1-2. The resistance of a disease having a significant correlation to another disease could provide indirect selection to that (correlated)Life 2022, 12, 372 9 of 15 resistance/disease. Additionally, heritability was high. Our results suggest moderate-level correlations between different growth conditions. Further studies will be needed to clarify and extend this knowledge to enhance the selection process. Erginbas-Orakci et al. [19] reported similar correlation values for the crown rot disease assessment in a growth room, greenhouse, and field conditions.A panel of 198 elite spring wheat accessions, including checks, were evaluated against CR, PT, and PN, and significant genetic variation for resistance was obtained. The panel was well balanced, with 31.2% of the lines resistant, 15.3% moderately resistant, 14.8% moderately susceptible, and 38.6% susceptible to CR (Table S2). In total, 30% the genotypes had similar or higher resistance levels compared to the best check genotype (Croc_1/Ae. squarrosa (224)//Opata) in the PT1 experiment, 21% in the PT2, 22% in the PN1, and around 27% PN2 experiment. Similarly, for Fusarium culmorum, the GR1 and GR2 experiments had 17%, and 24% of genotypes had lower CR scores compared to the best checks. In the case of the CR_GH experiment, about 11% of genotypes demonstrated a lower CR score, for the field experiment in Yozgat (CR_Y), 18% and Konya (CR_K), 21% of the total germplasm had a lower CR score compared to the best checks.GWAS is an efficient approach for identifying molecular markers linked to important agronomic traits and disease resistance in bread wheat [4,19,20,23,[25][26][27][28]. LD decay is an important factor in GWAS as it gives an idea about the precision of the detected MTAs as well as the number of markers required to cover the genome [29]. More precise MTAs can be detected using populations with fast LD decay. In this study, the LD decayed approximately at 5 Mb, which is much smaller than previously reported in CIMMYT wheat [30,31]. The D genome had fewer markers and thus had comparatively rapid decay compared to A and B genomes, which has also been reported in multiple studies [32][33][34]. These results also show similarity with the results of the wheat association mapping initiative (WAMI) panel [27]. The result of the Chinese winter wheat collection [32,33] has reported genome-specific LD patterns in the wheat genomes reporting that the D genome decayed two to three times slower compared to A and B genomes.We identified 19 significant MTAs with the root disease resistance on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 4A, 4B, 5B, 5D, and 7D. Of the 19 markers, 8 markers showed association with CR resistance and 11 with PT and PN resistance (Table 3). There were seven different markers associated with the P. neglectus resistance, while four markers were associated with PT resistance. There were several reports of crown rot and root-lesion nematode resistance. Collard et al. [35] reported two QTL on chromosome 1A for CR in a doubled haploid (DH) mapping population derived from a cross between cultivars 2-49 (MR) and Janz. Bovill et al. [36] reported QTL linked with CR resistance on chromosome 2B. Here, two QTL were found on chromosome 2B under CR_GH and CR-Y conditions. Wallwork et al. [37] reported QTL for CR resistance (F. pseudograminearum and F. culmorum) in Kukri (moderately resistant, MR) and Janz (susceptible, S) DH mapping population. They identified a QTL on chromosome 4B, linked to the dwarfing gene Rht-B1. However, the dwarfing gene Rht-B1 is very much fixed in the CIMMYT germplasm. Therefore, the QTL identified in this study on chromosome 4B is most likely not linked to the dwarfing gene. Several reports [38,39] identified CR resistance QTL on chromosomes 3A, 4B, and 5B, which are on the same chromosomes we identified. This similarity is worth further in-depth comparison for the locations of the QTL. The other MTA on chromosome 7D has been reported for the first time, showing association with CR resistance. One marker called S5B_84880275 was significant for PN in both PN1 and PN2 experiments. The seven identified markers being associated with PN resistance were located on five different chromosomes. Of these, the ones on chromosomes 4A and 5B were previously reported by Mulki et al. [20]. In a similar study, Kumar et al. [40] reported significant MTAs, on chromosomes 1B, 1D, 3B, and 6B, explaining 23% to 26% of the total phenotypic variation. The SNP marker S4B_539004405 was obtained in both repeats of CR under growth room conditions. Therefore, chromosomes 4B and 5B look promising since several previous reports and our results highlighted these chromosomes as a resource for CR, PT, and PN resistance alleles.The most effective way to manage root diseases is to develop resistant wheat germplasm. So, the first step is identifying resistant sources, which can be performed by screening or by taking advantage of marker-assisted selection (if significant large effect QTL are known). In both cases, phenotyping is very important. Results from our study could help to expand our knowledge of the source of resistance in germplasm and genomic regions controlling resistance against crown rot and root-lesion nematodes in wheat. Of the SNPs associated with resistance against CR, PT, and PN, two were consistent across experiments or seasons. The SNP marker S5B_84880275 (R 2 mean 8.36) was associated with resistance against P. neglectus (PN1 and PN2), and S4B_539004405 (R 2 mean 5.1) was associated with resistance to CR (CR1 and CR2). These two markers were consistently observed across the two different experiments. The favorable allele at S5B_84880275 and S4B_539004405 were found in 36 and 24 lines, respectively. Consistency in these two markers with the acceptable R 2 values (Table 3) suggests the possibility of use marker-assisted selection (MAS).Markers associated with certain genomic regions controlling the resistances can improve our understanding of the overall genetic architecture and ability to plan future crosses for the improvement of root traits. Our study showed that 21 SNP markers were significantly associated with the CR, PT, and PN resistance. Genotypes GID6181748, GID6278812, GID6279005, GID6424861, GID6424874, and GID6487731 with S5B_84880275 and S4B_539004405 markers showed moderate to complete resistance against CR, PT and PN. However, there is a need for the validation of these markers before conducting MAS studies. Nevertheless, these genotypes can be considered promising for the transfer of disease-resistance genes into elite material or cultivars. Similar studies need to be carried out on root diseases to enhance the progress of breeding for root diseases and extend the pool of resistance alleles for sustainability in plant protection and environmental safety.A total of 198 CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) spring bread wheat lines, including nine check varieties, were evaluated in this study (Table S1). The lines were selected based on their diverse genetic background and were further purified applying two generations of single-seed descent. The lines were evaluated in multiple experiments. For resistance to root-lesion nematodes (RLN), Pratylenchus neglectus (PN) and P. thornei (PT), 189 lines and 4 check cultivars were evaluated under growth room (GR) conditions, while for resistance to F. culmorum (CR), 189 lines and 5 checks were phenotyped in the GR, greenhouse (GH), and under field conditions. Wheat cultivars \"2-49\", \"Sunco\", and \"Altay\" were used as resistant checks, whereas the lines \"Seri\" and \"Suzen\" were used as susceptible checks for F. culmorum. In addition, the lines \"Croc_1/Ae. squarrosa (224)//Opata\" and \"Gs50a\" were used as a moderate resistant check for P. thornei, whereas the cultivars \"Gatcher\" and \"Suzen\" were used as susceptible checks for both P. thornei and P. neglectus (Table S1) while the line Croc_1/Ae. squarrosa (224)//Opata\" was used as moderately resistant for both nematodes species.Resistance against P. thornei and P. neglectus were evaluated under GR conditions with two consecutive independent experiments (PN1-2, PT1-2). A single pre-germinated seed was planted in a standard small tube (2.5 cm in diam × 16 cm in length) filled with a sterilized mixture of sand, field soil, and organic matter (70:29:1; v/v/v). The field soil and sand were sieved and sterilized at 110 • C for two h on two consecutive days, whereas the organic matter was sterilized at 70 • C for 5 h. One week after planting, each plant was inoculated with 400 nematodes of either P. thornei or P. neglectus originating from nematodes reared on carrot discs as described by Dababat et al. [4] and Moody et al. [41]. Trials were performed in 3 replicates and repeated twice. Plants were grown under a day/night photoperiod of 16/8 h at 23 ± 1 • C, and relative humidity of 60%/80% (±5%). The plants were harvested nine weeks after nematode inoculation, shoots were removed, and P. thornei and P. neglectus individuals were extracted from the roots and soil using the modified Baermann funnel [42]. The total number of P. thornei and P. neglectus nematodes per plant was calculated based on the number of nematodes in 1 mL suspension multiplied by the total volume and counted under a microscope. Genotypes were divided into five groups based on the number of nematodes per plant, considering the reaction of check varieties used with their known resistant responses to both nematodes species. The F. culmorum isolate was obtained from an infected wheat plant in Kırşehir, Turkey (39 • 39 709 N, 34 • 25 515 E). A monosporic isolate was transferred to nutrient agar and cultured at 23 ± 1 • C with a 12 h photoperiod for 10 days for spore formation. Bags (35 × 48 cm) filled with wheat bran were moistured and sealed with cotton and then autoclaved at 121 • C for 20 min for three consecutive days. The spore suspension was prepared by adding sterilized distilled water to each Petri dish containing F. culmorum culture. The autoclaved bags filled with wheat bran were inoculated with spore suspension under sterilized conditions and were incubated for 2-3 weeks with a 12 h photoperiod and 23 ± 1 • C by shaking until the bran was sufficiently colonized by the fungus [12,19]. The fungus-colonized wheat bran was dried at room temperature and used for GR, GH, and field experiments.Resistance against F. culmorum was evaluated in the GR with two consecutive experiments (CR1 and CR2). Fungus inoculated wheat bran was suspended with distilled water and filtered using two layers of cheesecloth. Spore concentration was adjusted to 1 × 10 6 spores mL −1 , and methylcellulose (0.1%) was added to the spore suspension prior to use. A total of ten seeds per accession were placed on moist blotting papers in sterilized Petri dishes and left to germinate at 22 • C for 2-3 days to obtain similar phenological development. Each seedling was sown in a separate plastic tube (2.5 cm in diam × 16 cm in height) (Ray Leach Cone-tainer TM , Stuewe & Sons, Inc., Corvallis, OR, USA) filled with (62 g) potting mix of sterilized sand, soil, and organic manure (50:40:10; v/v/v) and covered with the same substrate. After one week of growth, each seedling (0.5-1 cm above the soil level, including the coleoptile) was inoculated from the base of the stem with F. culmorum spore suspension. Tubes inoculated with F. culmorum were kept at 23 ± 1 • C for 48 h under high humidity (80-90%) by covering them with plastic sheeting. Following incubation, seedlings were kept in the GR for 42 days (early tillering, until Zadoks growth stage 14 (62)), with a day/night photoperiod of 16/8 h, at 23 ± 1 • C, and relative humidity of 60%/80% (±5%). The plants per each experiment were placed in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with five replications (1 plant per replicate), and each experiment was repeated twice.To evaluate the resistance in the spring wheat panel against F. culmorum in the CR_GH, two seeds of each wheat line were planted in one plastic tube (3.8 cm in diam. × 21 cm in length) (Ray Leach Cone-tainer, Stuewe & Sons, Inc., Corvallis, OR, USA) using the same potting mix as described above, along with 0.5 g fungus-colonized wheat bran (as an inoculum source). Tubes were then put in a stand (RL98; Ray Leach stand, Stuewe & Sons, Inc., Corvallis, OR, USA) placed on the sand to facilitate root growth. Experiments were sufficiently irrigated during the growing season. Plants were exposed to drought stress at maturity to promote disease development. The experiment was set up using RCBD with six replications and two plants per replicate.Field experiments were conducted at Yozgat (CR_Y) and Bahri Da gdaş International Agricultural Research Institute in Konya (CR_K), Turkey, under naturally infested field conditions during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 growing seasons (October to June). For each line, 5 g of seeds were sown in 1 m rows and infested with an addition of 2 g of funguscolonized wheat bran. Experiments were arranged in RCBD with three replications. Disease symptoms were scored by randomly picking up 15 individual tillers from each row at the full maturity stage.Seedling resistance (Zadoks growth stage 14) was evaluated from the GR experiments, while for GH and field experiments, plants were evaluated for adult plant resistance. When the diseases were scored, crown rot was scored by one person. While root-lesion nematode scoring was performed by three well-trained people using binoculars. Plants were harvested at the end of each experiment, after 7 weeks in GR, and at full maturity in GH and field experiments, following common practices. Disease scoring was carried out using a modified method of Wildermuth and McNamara [10], following the browning percentage on the crown and the main stem using a numeric scale of 1 to 5 [12,19]. Accordingly, plants were classified as resistant (1: 1-9%), moderately resistant (2: 10-29%), moderately susceptible (3: 30-69%), susceptible (4: 70-89%), and highly susceptible (5: 90-99%) based on % disease ratios.Data analyses were performed using QTL Icimapping software [43]. Experiments were conducted under growth room (GR), greenhouse (GH), and field conditions (CR_K and CR_Y) following completely randomized design and randomized complete block design (RCBD) with five replications in the growth room, six replications in the greenhouse, and three replications under field conditions. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to evaluate the main phenotypic effect of genotype under GR, GH, and field conditions for all disease scores. The broad-sense heritability (H 2 ) for all environments was estimated according to Lewien et al. [44]. Descriptive stats for mean, min, and max values were evaluated using JASP software (JASP v. 0.16, JASP Team 2021). Correlation coefficients between GR, GH, and field experiments for CR and RLN were estimated with Pearson's correlation analysis using JASP software. 4.6. Genome-Wide Association Mapping 4.6.1. DNA Extraction and Genotyping Genomic DNA was extracted from bulked leaves of 10 two-week-old seedlings leaves using a cetyltrimethylammonium bromide procedure [45] modified according to CIMMYT protocols [46]. Lines were genotyped using genotyping-by-sequencing as described in Poland et al. [47]. After cleaning the raw data sets by removing the markers having more than 20% missing data and the minor allele frequency (MAF) < 5%, 4056 SNP markers were used for further analyses.Population structure was assessed using ADMIXTURE software with 10 cross-validations and k ranging between 2 and 20 [48]. Overall, 100 repeats were conducted, and the crossvalidation values were averaged across these repeats for each k. The most probable k value was defined as the k that had the lowest cross-validation average value. As ADMIXTURE analysis assumes SNPs to be unlinked or under linkage equilibrium, SNPs were pruned at an R 2 value equal to 0.5 using PLINK [49].","tokenCount":"5188"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f954a8fce72cbf7bdfd2fe2c09e2c2cc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1db63fdf-3c28-4aff-8628-3ad98f20d389/retrieve","id":"-1204760719"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a2aca7c9-4296-437e-a207-129baeda4d99","pagecount":"1","content":"In the context of animal health and food safety, economic impact assessment tools are increasingly important to quantify the probable impacts of risks and to aid in decision making in times of increasingly tight budget constraints (Rich and Niemi 2017). However, the risks and impacts associated with both food safety and animal health can take place at multiple parts of the food value chain, and have di erent short-term and long-term e ects. This suggests a need for better impact assessment tools that take the impacts at the whole chain-level into account. This paper applies a quantitative value chain approach to assess the impacts of interventions in selected pig value chains in Viet Nam, highlighting both short-term and long-term dynamic e ects.For GAP to play a positive role in the value chain depends crucially on its cost of implementation. Identifying cost-e ective solutions, such as a \"VietGAHP lite\" could positively influence adoption in the smallholder pig systems context in Viet Nam. These could include improved feeding practices in pigpens, simple ventilation systems, drinking water through taps, and regular cleaning and disinfection. The role of extension to create awareness is critical. The food safety scenarios highlight the potential role of the public sector in supporting value chain upgrading, especially if income gains associated with better public health do not provide adequate consumer incentives for buying safe pork. This public support could include assistance with finance and training programs to improve slaughter practices. Better capacity in the regulatory arena, in terms of inspection and compliance with standards, could further increase the returns to private sector investments in food safety.System approaches provides a template for decision making in value chains that could be applied in a variety of di erent agricultural and livestock contexts, including those in mountainous regions of Viet Nam. This approach can help to overcome policy resistance that biases decision making towards immediate solutions that overlook the unintended consequences of those decisions in the future.The system dynamics approach used maps out the complex interactions between actors and processes in value chains. They show how such structure a ects system behavior, which can be influenced by external shocks. This paper also highlights food safety issues within the value chain. The model is based on a value chain survey of 420 pig farmers, 22 processors, 74 retailers, and 416 pork consumers in Nghe An and Hung Yen provinces in Viet Nam.Two scenarios were analysed: (1) applying Good Agricultural Practices (GAP, which the VietGAHP guidelines are derived from) whereby farm costs increase 10%, leading to productivity gains of 20% and mortality losses reduced by 50% and (2) a food safety scenario where slaughterhouse margins rise 20% to cover food safety infrastructure and there is a 20% rise in consumer income due to positive health e ects. Sensitivity analyses were conducted on reduced costs in scenario (1) and lowered increases in consumer income in scenario (2).Applying GAP in the high cost scenario was not beneficial for farmers in mixed systems that combine farrow-wean and fattening activities. On the other hand, the low-cost scenario led to positive benefits in all systems. Food safety scenarios revealed higher demand for safe pork, o seting the higher prices paid in the baseline. However, in the lower income increase scenario, income and health gains by consumers are not enough to cover the higher margins and prices for safe pork.  ","tokenCount":"560"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/5284468271.json b/data/part_3/5284468271.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c40d98a89b2af610a3c0d94957e3007cd263b79c
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6f7c826449b76b589334d7aa0374a5c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a0637c10-1633-4f58-9216-56884f964f34/retrieve","id":"-275592749"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a715e651-ad7e-4a1d-b2ab-8a9a60f016e3","pagecount":"4","content":"Drone-companies are using CIMMYT project generated data to assess crop N needs. These companies are providing nutrient recommendations to farmers based on drone-captured NDVI reading which increases NUE by 20% and saves N by 40-70 kg/ha. We feel that public policy that wold provide incentives to drone companies should enhance the adoption of these technology by farmers. The potential area of adoption is ca. 180,000 ha.CIMMYT is signed formal MoU with three drone companies such that they can use CIMMYT developed algorithm to derived N recommendation to farmers based on real-time NDVI readings. The discussion is going on with fourth company with which we will have similar agreement. These four companies have agreed to provide service to farmers in Southern Sonora. The potential market for these companies including the wheat area in Baja California and Guanajuato is ca. 300,000 ha.In 2018, CIMMYT scientists held several meeting with National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC) in Mexico and they have shown their interest to further test and promote these mitigation options as their agricultural mitigation initiatives in agricultural sector.There has been several email exchange between CIMMYT scientist and private drone companies and government partners regarding this. The email communications with drone companies and scanned copy of MoU between CIMMYT and drone companies are provided under deliverable 12793.1. Between the CEO of Rotopixle (Jose Salido) and CIMMYT staff providing advice on N recommendations for wheat based on the NDVI values provided by the drone company. He also wants to use a camera different from the one we have tested before, the Sequoia. He would like to use a different camera in the future for a number of reasons so we are trying to generate data with the type of camera that he is using.2. From: Ing. Javier Miranda [mailto:jamiranda@gpssa.com.mx] Subject: Re[2]: Contactos reuni�n y presentaci�n Greenseeker/drones 3. From: Jose Alfonso Salido Palomares [mailto:jasalido@rotopixels.com] Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 7:05 PM To: Ortiz-Monasterio, Ivan (CIMMYT) Subject: Email exchange about the idea of developing an agreement between drone companies and CIMMYT as well as the ?carta intencion? which is the step previous to de agreement. There is also the email from one of the drone companies saying how many N rich strip hectares they have where they are planning to use the drone.• https://tinyurl.com/yyrzbq6c ","tokenCount":"381"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/5296478350.json b/data/part_3/5296478350.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7d16a8b00aa0336f7b6f26306018d8e5a81f2f45
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c7e4c0001ece2519ac3b1ba44df3d757","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/45544994-5876-40d2-968e-ea0d9ee93cf7/retrieve","id":"-435226480"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"84d01ec7-4533-4687-9e61-02ce14894da9","pagecount":"54","content":"Budget SupportIt is important to establish that there is no universal definition of \"fragility\", and periodic advances in the understanding of fragility have led to changes in the way that this issue is addressed by the international community.Confusion still reigns among international actors over how to define \"state fragility\" and what distinguishes fragile states from general conditions of underdevelopment and poverty as underlined. 1 Perhaps the most widely used definition is that of the OECD which characterises fragility as \"the accumulation and combination of risks combined with insufficient capacity by the State, system, and/ or communities to manage it, absorb it, or mitigate its consequences\". Fragility can lead to negative outcomes including violence, the breakdown of institutions, displacement, humanitarian crises or other emergencies. 2 Fragility is evaluated over five dimensions: political, societal, economic, environmental and security.\" 3 There are alternative definitions of fragility, which are used by the African Development Bank 4 , the World Bank 5 , The Fund for Peace and other international actors, and approaches to the definition of this subject have developed over the decades. Although they are not synonymous, violence, conflict, poverty and fragility are intertwined, and feature heavily in the literature on fragile states, and as factors having the most detrimental effects on a country's development.Fragility results from the complex interplay of weak societal institutions confronted with internal and external stresses. Fragility has many dimensions and exists along a spectrum that ranges from fragility to resilience (stability). It commonly refers to situations in which the state is not able to perform basic staterelated functions, such as securing control over territory, enforcing national laws and regulations, ensuring citizens' security, providing basic public goods such as access to justice. Symptoms of state fragility include: (i) high poverty rates; (ii) large numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs); (iii) low levels of internal tax revenue generation; (iv) dependence on external resources (ODA, FDI, and remittances); (v) high indebtedness;(vi) strong reliance on primary products; (vii) low degree of export diversification; (viii) low human development; (ix) endemic corruption, and (x) poor soft and hard infrastructure. 6 The OECD defines fragility as The combination of exposure to risk and insufficient coping capacity of the state, system and/or communities to manage, absorb or mitigate those risks. Fragility can lead to negative outcomes including violence, the breakdown of institutions, displacement, humanitarian crises or other emergencies. 7 States of Fragility 2016 characterises fragility as the combination of exposure to risk and insufficient coping capacity of the state, system and/or communities to manage, absorb or mitigate those risks. Fragility can lead to negative outcomes including violence, the breakdown of institutions, displacement, humanitarian crises or other emergencies. The OECD's fragility framework provides a comprehensive picture of fragility around the world. The calculations reflect a systems-based conceptualisation of fragility. Risks and capacities are measured in five dimensions: economic, environmental, political, security and societal. In addition, capacities are measured at state level, as well as incorporating the various formal and informal mechanisms societies can draw upon to cope with negative events and shocks. The choice of these dimensions, and the decision to take a whole of society approach to fragility, is based on expert judgement. It is one of the key outcomes of the consultation process underlying the new OECD fragility framework.An alternative approach looks at fragility as a measure of the extent to which the actual practices and capacities of states differ from its idealized image (Carment, Prest  and Samy 2009, 2008), with the methodology often found in political sciences literature focusing on elements of fragility represented by Authority (A), Legitimacy (L), and Capacity (C). 8 Other definitions of fragility, such as that of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), which accordingly uses a results-based measure of fragility, whereby \"fragile countries are best thought of as those where poverty prevalence is high and where the rate of improvement is slow. This definition mostly overlaps with the OECD one, but is simpler to measure and is more directly operational for aid agencies.\"(ODI, 2017).Fragilities impose large costs and hardships on local populations that can spill over to neighbouring countries-directly through conflict, crime, and disease, but also through economic linkages. Those countries also face a heavy reliance on development aid. In 2017, almost 124 million people across 51 countries and territories faced crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse and required urgent humanitarian action. In 2016 the population in need of urgent action was estimated at 108 million across 48 countries. Prolonged drought conditions also resulted in consecutive poor harvests in countries already facing high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in eastern and southern Africa. North-east states of Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen have experienced significant acute food insecurity and malnutrition. Famine was declared in February 2017 in two counties of South Sudan.Agriculture as an engine of economic reconstruction and development in fragile countriesIn terms of the scope of fragility, the OECD identifies 56 countries as having fragile situations -which are home to over 1.6 billion people or 22% of the global population. 9 There is no single characteristic of a fragile country and the fluidity or evolution of fragility in a temporal dimension raises challenges of its own in terms of quantifying the numbers of people affected by fragility, its impact on communities and populations, as well as in the development of responses to fragile situations. This creates further difficulties when it comes to monitoring and evaluation of fragile situations, and the literature on fragility frequently refers to limitations in availability of data and information.The Fragile States Index (FSI) 10 is an annual ranking of 178 countries based on the different pressures they face that impact their levels of fragility. The Index is based on The Fund for Peace's proprietary Conflict Assessment System Tool (CAST) analytical approach. Based on comprehensive social science methodology, three primary streams of data -quantitative, qualitative, and expert validationare triangulated and subjected to critical review to obtain final scores for the FSI. Millions of documents are analyzed every year, and by applying highly specialized search parameters, scores are apportioned for every country based on 12 key political, social and economic indicators and over 100 sub-indicators that are the result of years of expert social science research. Agriculture as an engine of economic reconstruction and development in fragile countriesUnderstanding fragility and resilience in states and cities is critical to bring the support that is needed. The whole problem of \"state fragility\" is to understand why some poor countries are unstable and have been particularly subject to violence and warfare, while others have achieved long periods of peace even in conditions of poverty and low economic growth (Gutiérrez et al.  2011, Gutíerrez 2011). By suggesting that fragile states are those without the will or capacity to function in ways that reduce poverty, ensure development or safeguard human rights, the reigning definitions of state fragility in the policy community fail to distinguish between the particular conditions of \"fragility\" and the general conditions of \"underdevelopment\" .By definition all of the least developed countries demonstrate a lack of capacity to reduce poverty or promote development. Many low-income and even middle-income countries are a long way from ensuring the protection of human rights. A definition of \"state fragility\" that is useful both analytically and for policy intervention needs to highlight what distinguishes fragile states from the rest of low-income developing countries. Clearly, Afghanistan (Giustozzi 2008a) and the DRC (Hesselbein 2007) -like Somalia and Haiti, where state organisations hardly function and where wave upon wave of violent conflict or war have prevented a modicum of state consolidation -pose a very different set of challenges than Tanzania or Zambia, or Malawi, where poverty remains profound, human rights imperfectly protected, but people generally live in peace.Fragility is an issue of pressing concern, as it contributes to widereaching consequences and spill over effects, often affecting acutely the most vulnerable members of society, namely women, children, the sick and elderly. By many estimates, the state of fragility worldwide has become a leading matter of concern for development actors and institutions. On the one hand, globalisation has led to the wider reach of risks and their repercussions -including the recognition of fragility as a concern in middle-income countries. 12 On the other hand, the overall global poverty/development gap lessened in the last decades has led to a marked shift in focus towards those countries that can be characterised as \"fragile\", where it is estimated that poverty will be concentrated in the future. 13 At local and national levels, fragility leads to widespread internal displacement of communities and villages, with rural areas facing the most significant challenges as livelihoods of are dependent on access to land, markets and labour.  14 The concentration of poverty in fragile contexts follows from three facts. Their annual economic growth is usually low, so there are few opportunities to escape poverty. Even when growth is rapid for a few years, it is not sustained, so the long-term average growth rate remains low; annual growth tends to be volatile, with any gains in one year offset by setbacks later, either due to conflict, natural disaster or other economic and political shocks. Long-term growth forecasts, therefore, either extrapolating from a decade of growth from IMF sources or using the shared socio-economic pathways developed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the OECD for climate modelling, are also low. In addition, overall population growth in fragile states is higher than in non-fragile contexts, reinforcing the poverty dynamics. The number of extreme poor living in fragile states is rising and will soon exceed the number living in non-fragile states.Promoting development -or progress towards accelerated growth and poverty reduction -requires both transcendence of basic fragility and the creation of further state capacity to promote an intensification of economic integration within a state's territory and a step-change in productivity in agriculture, manufacturing, wider industry, trade and key service delivery.The way \"state fragility\" is defined in the policy community loses sight of the huge distance that must be traversed from both conditions of fragility and stagnant resilience to a situation where the state is presiding over accelerated growth and poverty reduction.A \"developmental\" or \"transformational\" state has to be able to create incentives and conditions for the holders of wealth to invest in productivity raising economic ventures, and incentives and conditions for labouring people to work for wages.The OECD describes resilience as \"the ability of households, communities and nations to absorb and recover from shocks, whilst positively adapting and transforming their structures and means for living in the face of long-term stresses, change and uncertainty\" (OECD, 2014). Perspectives on how to address fragility have evolved in recent decades, much like the understanding on the topic itself. For the first half of the 20th century, the focus was much more on peacebuilding and bolstering security, with a progression towards institution building and governance as the focus of the late 20th century. Current approaches are 2. Policy engagement in favour of resilience more dynamic, looking at fragility beyond a binary nature where the characterisation of all the factors related to a situation of fragility as \"bad\" or \"good\". The same goes when it comes to resilience and its relationship with fragility. \"Early research in the resilience field conceptualised fragility and resilience as \"opposite ends of a spectrum\". However, more recent work has emphasised that fragility and resilience actually \"co-exist\" and their relationship is complex and dynamic, with changes in one not necessarily leading to a commensurate change in the other (de Boer, 2015b Greater attention is being placed on identifying local solutions and approaches to fragility, in recognition of the limitations presented by externally funded interventions and programmes, which are contingent on the availability of funding and resources, the degree of political will to act, and the level of priority that the situation presents. This point is especially advocated by the LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, which was launched in March 2017 to guide policy to address state fragility. 17 The Commission cautions against transplanting models from developed, OECD countries into fragile states, and then expecting these to resolve the issue; rather action should be framed around the promotion of solutions that are relevant to the situation of fragility experienced in any individual country or region. 18 Perhaps the most critical policy development in the support towards fragile countries has been the move away from a staggered or sequential approach towards engagement in situations of fragility. In practice, this has meant that international donors and partners begin their engagement with efforts towards stabilisation (political, environmental, etc.), and only when progress has been advanced or achieved in this regard, will support begin towards working with the private sector and promoting economic activity. Given the restrictions in funding and implementing long-term support in fragile countries, private sector development often gets neglected, and as a result, populations and communities ultimately remain trapped in a cycle of dependence on external finance or aid.Greater attention is being placed on identifying local solutions and approaches to fragility, in recognition of the limitations presented by externally funded interventions and programmes, which are contingent on the availability of funding and resources, the degree of political will to act, and the level of priority that the situation presents. This point is especially advocated by the LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, which was launched in March 2017 to guide policy to address state fragility. The Commission cautions against transplanting models from developed, OECD countries into fragile states, and then expecting these to resolve the issue; rather action should be framed around the promotion of solutions that are relevant to the situation of fragility experienced in any individual country or region.Perhaps the most critical policy development in the support towards fragile countries has been the move away from a staggered or sequential approach towards engagement in situations of fragility. In practice, this has meant that international donors and partners begin their engagement with efforts towards stabilisation (political, environmental, etc.), and only when progress has been advanced or achieved in this regard, will support begin towards working with the private sector and promoting economic activity. Given the restrictions in funding and implementing long-term support in fragile countries, private sector development often gets neglected, and as a result, populations and communities ultimately remain trapped in a cycle of dependence on external finance or aid.In most post-conflict countries, assistance includes disarmament, demobilization, reinsertion, and reintegration (DDRR or DDR) programs for ex-combatants to discourage them from rejoining militias. These programs generally combine temporary job creation and training, although employment per se is generally secondary to the primary objectives of reintegrating excombatants and reducing the risk of renewed conflict. In part because of their complexity, these programs have at times drawn criticism for inadequate financing, poor administration, corruption, and resentment generated by the targeting of perceived instigators of conflict. Evaluations have pointed out that training and economic opportunities to youth and/or women need to be accompanied by interventions that increase their access to important assets such as land and stronger legal rights. For women, successful interventions must help them enter the cash economy by reducing their domestic burden. Moreover, training programs-although a frequent component of programming in fragile environments-do not always address actual market demand or specific employment opportunities.Post-conflict economic performance apparently significantly affects the likelihood that post-conflict countries will maintain peace. Collier's data shows that in the first decade after peace, a stagnant economy gives a country a 42.1% risk of relapse, while a 10 percent growth rate reduces the risk to 26.9%.A better understanding of fragility and resilience building has led international and donor organisation to move towards a more balanced approach, which recognises the importance of promoting economic activity and functional markets, even during situations of fragility and concurrent with emergency support and interventions. Communities affected by fragility therefore have greater opportunities to resume their livelihoods or undertake new economic activities, during and especially after levels of stability have increased. According to USAID (2009), 'The purpose of economic growth programming in post-conflict countries is both to reduce the risk of a return to conflict and to accelerate the improvement of well-being for everyone, particularly the conflictaffected population.' This is not to minimise the importance of emergency and disaster management interventions, which are critical to stemming the deepening of fragility within a country. Rather, actions that promote resilience across many domains, including economic, should be seen as complementary, because they ultimately address some of the underlying issues that contribute towards fragility, such as unemployment and lack of opportunities.return to conflict and to accelerate the improvement of well-being for everyone, particularly the conflictaffected population.' This is not to minimise the importance of emergency and disaster management interventions, which are critical to stemming the deepening of fragility within a country. Rather, actions that promote resilience across many domains, including economic, should be seen as complementary, because they ultimately address some of the underlying issues that contribute towards fragility, such as unemployment and lack of opportunities.International understanding of fragility has evolved and is recasting the framework of development assistance. Key insights that are calling for a revised engagement of the international community in these environments are the following: (i) the importance of adopting a state-building approach focused on inclusive politics, citizen security, and justice-in addition to more traditional human and economic development needs; (ii) the need to allow a long time, perhaps a generation, to build the necessary capable and legitimate institutions that can effectively manage the challenges of fragility; and (iii) the need for sustainable employment generation and improved livelihoods through private sector development.Fragile states showed also slow progress in achieving the majority of the MDGs 20 (OECD). In this context, the international community is developing forms of engagement that stress peacebuilding, social cohesion, and statebuilding. They incorporate recognition of the need for sustained engagement, a willingness to take calculated risks in uncertain environments, fuller attention to the political economy of reforms and capacity constraints, and coordination of donor efforts.The 2008 Third High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, marked an important step towards a new approach to fragile states. Donors and fragile and conflict-affected states launched the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS), which for the first time gave fragile states an equal voice. The emergence of the g7+, in the wake of the 2008 High-level Forum in Accra, a group of seven of the world's most fragile and conflict-affected developing countries -Afghanistan, the Central African Republic (CAR), Côte d'Ivoire, the DRC, Haiti, Sierra Leone and Timor Leste -started to advocate for a major change in the way donors engage with them and called for support to country-led and country-owned pathways for their transition from fragility to resilience.The international framework for assistance has been evolving with the adoption of the \"New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States\" in 2011. The international community endorsed an innovative approach for engagement in fragile situations at the Fourth High Level Forum in Busan. The \"New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States\" focuses on peace-and statebuilding, new ways of engaging by supporting inclusive, country led transitions out of fragility and placing trust in a new set of commitments to provide aid and manage reforms for better results. In addition, the Busan document articulates the goal of \"resilience\" against a spectrum of possible \"shocks\" wider than violence and conflict, and that include health pandemics, the effects of climate change, economic downturns, food and fuel price crises and natural disasters. This broad consensus onengaging in fragile situations lays the foundations for a new development partnership. Since its principles were formulated with active participation of the recipient-self-declared \"fragile\"-countries through the G7+, it is considered more promising than previous approaches. This consensus has become part of the discussions in Africa and elsewhere on the development of the Post-2015 agenda The purpose of the New Deal is to improve current development policy and practice in situations of fragility and conflict, in line with basic aid effectiveness principles. It commits its signatories to support inclusive country-led and country-owned transition out of fragility. The New Deal has three pillars: the 5 Peacebuilding and Statebuilding Goals (PSGs) and the FOCUS and TRUST principles, which refer to the way of engagement and the way of working together for results respectively.It is at the global level, where the IDPS has been most successful and the g7+ has established itself as a group on the international scene. In terms of policy advocacy and making the link between peace and security and development, the IDPS was instrumental for the inclusion of SDG 16 for peaceful, just and equitable societies in the Agenda 2030. After an independent review of the New Deal and a more inward-looking period of reflection, leading to the adoption of the above-mentioned Stockholm Declaration and a new Strategy in March 2017 (also in FR), the IDPS is now gearing up to reboot its engagement in-country and in international fora using the New Deal to support SDG implementation on the ground in fragile contexts. The strengthened focus on country implementation is motivated by the recognition that Agenda 2030 will fail the world's poorest people by 2030 without concerted action to apply the partnership principles of the New Deal.Starting in 2017, the EU has taken over the Co-chairmanship of the Implementation Working Group (IWG) of the IDPS for a 2 year period, along-side the Central African Republic for the g7+ and the CSPPS (represented through CORDAID). The EU seems well equipped for the new focus on country level implementation given the wide network of Delegations, the directions provided in the new European Consensus for Development and the policy proposal for enhanced support to state and societal resilience in partner countries, as well as the established practice of using country systems, in particular through Budget Support and State-Building Contracts. The core instruments used for funding resilience to food crisis in the Sahel and Horn of Africa regions include the European Development Fund (EDF) and DCI-Food for DEVCO, and ECHO Humanitarian Implementation Plans (HIPs).CDEVCO and ECHO commitments related to the EU resilience approach in the Horn and Sahel totalled about five billion Euro over the period 2007-2015: 2.2 billion by DEVCO (excl. ¤687m GBS) and 2.6 billion by ECHO. DEVCO commitments varied considerably on a yearly basis, with peaks in 2009 (launch of the Facility for rapid response to soaring food prices) and in 2013 (just after the EU Communication on Resilience was issued). Two thirds of total commitments related to Agriculture (36%) and Food and nutrition assistance (32%). Nine out of the 25 countries accounted for 83%: Burkina Faso, Kenya, Somalia, Niger, Mali, Ethiopia, Chad, South-Sudan and Senegal. More in-depth analysis on those nine countries shows that resiliencerelated decisions were focused in about 75% of cases on sudden onset climate shocks and less on longerterm changes. It also shows that a high number of decisions related to agricultural production (70%), followed by food and nutrition assistance (26%) and health and nutrition (22%). ECHO resiliencerelated contracts grew slowly from 2007 with a peak in 2012. The share of humanitarian aid directed to the Sahel has grown significantly and consistently over the period. This is associated with a strategic decision to invest in addressing chronic malnutrition and vulnerability, as outlined in the 2010-2014 ECHO Sahel strategy. This has aligned ECHO programming in this region to a resilience objective. Over the Agriculture as an engine of economic reconstruction and development in fragile countries entire evaluation period, aid directed to the Sahel region amount to almost a third (31%) of the 2.6 billion contracted by ECHO; more than 60% related to the Horn of Africa region. The pattern of expenditure appears to broadly follow patterns of humanitarian needs. The two main sectors supported were Food and nutrition assistance and Health and nutrition. The World Food Program, UNICEF and Save the Children are the three most important partners, accounting for 64% of the total contracted amount. The share of NGOs increased in recent years. In terms of countries, the top-10 beneficiary countries are largely the same for DEVCO and ECHO, albeit with differences in order. Ethiopia received by far the most funding from DEVCO with ¤422m, followed by Niger with ¤151m and Kenya with ¤148m. For ECHO, Sudan was the largest beneficiary with ¤537m, followed by Ethiopia with ¤326m; Somalia, Niger and South Sudan also received more than ¤250m each.Alliance Globale pour l'Initiative Résilience-Sahel (AGIR) and Supporting the Horn of Africa's Resilience (SHARE) AGIR is the EU's regional resilience programme in the Sahel and West Africa. It supports 14 countries in strengthening the resilience of the most vulnerable. It is a policy tool that aims at bringing together regional and international stakeholders to coordinate on a common results framework. It was launched in 2012 at the initiative of the EU, with the support of the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC/ OECD). It is now (2016) under the technical and political leadership of the Permanent Interstates Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), ECOWAS, and the West African Economic and Monetary Union. The EU leads the group of Technical and Financial Partners, composed of key donors and UN agencies. AGIR aims to achieve 'Zero Hunger' by 2032, through a focus on four strategic pillars: (i) livelihoods and social protection for the most vulnerable; (ii) health and nutrition of vulnerable households; (iii) agricultural and food productivity, access to food of vulnerable households; (iv) better governance for food and nutrition security. The Regional Roadmap adopted in 2013 sets indicators for monitoring progress with a view to reducing chronic malnutrition by more than half, reducing acute malnutrition by more than two-thirds, generalizing access to basic social services, and decreasing the child mortality rate. AGIR is also used as a framework for designing Country Resilience Priorities (CRP). Since the adoption of the Regional Roadmap all 17 countries in Sahel and West Africa have launched the process of discussing and designing their CRP. By 2016 eight countries had adopted a CRP (Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Mali, Niger, and Togo) and three were in the process of adopting it (Guinea  The Panel was initiated by the Bank as part of its efforts to gain a better understanding on fragility in Africa and advise the international community on the way forward to end conflict and build peace. The HLPFS identified five drivers of fragility on the continent: poverty and exclusion, the youth bulge, urbanization and spreading informality, extractive industries, climate disruption and resource conflicts. It recommended a twopronged strategic approach that addresses (emerging) drivers of fragility and builds resilience. New partnerships for building resilience are an integral part of this approach, recognizing that issues of fragility are too broad and too challenging to be tackled by any single institution. Therefore, joint work with partners, building alliances and combining different mandates and sources of expertise are key to effective action. The findings of the HLPFS were endorsed at the 22nd African Union summit in January 2014. The outcomes of the discussion of the report by Heads of State and Bank Governors during the 2014 Annual Meetings in Kigali confirm the Bank's new approach to addressing fragility and building resilience in Africa and provide a platform for the Bank's future engagement.Guided by its development mandate, the Bank will put the twin objectives of inclusive growth and the transition to green growth at the heart of its engagement in fragile situations. Tackling demographic changes and inequalities through a focus on inclusive growth and meeting the environmental pressures through the promotion of a green growth agenda are highly relevant strategies to address drivers of fragility and build resilience on the continent, with important linkages to peaceand state-building and longer-term prevention of conflict. Based on the Bank's understanding of the key drivers of fragility, three areas of particular strategic importance for building resilience stand out where the Bank should focus its engagement. These are the need to (i) strengthen state capacity and support effective institutions; (ii) promote resilient societies through inclusive and equitable access to employment, basic services and shared benefits from natural resource endowments; and (iii) enhance the Bank's convening role for a deeper policy dialogue, partnerships and advocacy around issues of fragility.Natural hazards, such as floods, drought, earthquakes, tsunamis and epidemics, have had an increasing impact on humans due to population growth, urbanization, rising poverty and the onset of global environmental changes, including climate change, land degradation and deforestation. Compounding the situation, poor planning, poverty and a range of other underlying factors create conditions of vulnerability that result in insufficient capacity or measures to reduce the potentially negative consequences of natural hazards and disasters. Thus, vulnerability contributes as much to the magnitude of the disaster impacts as do the natural hazards themselves. Action to reduce risk has grown in importance on the international agenda and is seen by many as essential to safeguard sustainable development efforts and for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). to address disaster prevention in the context of a range of hazards, including earthquakes, windstorms, tsunamis, floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, grasshopper and locust infestations, and drought and desertification.Yokohama strategy and plan of action One of the main outcomes of the IDNDR was the Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World and its Plan of Action, adopted in 1994 at the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction held in Yokohama, Japan. The Yokohama Strategy set guidelines for action on prevention, preparedness and mitigation of disaster risk. These guidelines were based on a set of principles that stress the importance of risk assessment, disaster prevention and preparedness, the capacity to prevent, reduce and mitigate disasters, and early warning. The principles also stated that the international community should share technology to prevent, reduce and mitigate disasters, and demonstrate a strong political determination in the field of disaster reduction.International strategy for disaster reduction At its 54th session in 1999, the UN General Assembly decided to continue the activities on disaster prevention and vulnerability reduction carried out during the IDNDR through the establishment of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR). An Inter-Agency Secretariat and an Inter-Agency Task Force for Disaster Reduction (IATF/DR) for the implementation of the ISDR were also established (Resolutions 54/219 and 56/195, respectively). Among its mandated tasks, the IATF/DR was to convene ad hoc expert meetings on issues related to disaster reduction.The World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) was held from 18-22 January 2005 in Kobe, Japan. The aim of the conference was to increase the international profile of DRR, promote its integration into development planning and practice, and strengthen local and national capacities to address the causes of disasters that hamper development. For many of the world's poor people, four trends threaten to further increase their vulnerability 26 :-there are many more people living in urban slums built on precarious land.-the increasing pressure on farmland, caused by drought, population density, and increasing demand for meat and dairy products in emerging economies, means that more people will find it difficult to get enough to eat.-climate change, environmental degradation, and conflict are likely to drive more people from their homes, stripping them of their livelihoods, assets, and the networks of family and communities that can support them. Some estimates suggest that up to one billion people will be forced from their homes by 2050.-the global economic crisis is increasing unemployment and undermining social safety nets.Unlike emergencies following natural catastrophes, protracted crises are often the result of failed institutions and conflicts over resources. They are characterized by poor or non-existent public services, high susceptibility to violence, and the absence of regulation in the productive and trade sectors.As countries become less able to protect their citizens, widespread hunger is a common consequence.  The relationship between fragility and agriculture is a complex one, presenting many challenges for governments and policymakers to address. Agriculture systems can suffer significantly because of fragility, whilst also contributing to the conditions for a fragility to emerge and persist. Defining fragility, understanding the agricultural economy in fragile countries, establishing the role to be played by different actors and stakeholders in responding to fragility, capturing lessons from successful or unsuccessful approaches -these are all issues to be addressed with respect to the promotion of agriculture in the context of fragility.Agriculture plays an important contribution towards economies of fragile countries, in building resilience and offering prospects for income generation, livelihoods and wider social benefits in some of the most vulnerable communities. 28 The role of agriculture and food has a particular resonance in fragile and conflict states, where conflict results in often sharp rises in food insecurity, and where smallholder farming can, in the right circumstances, form the basis of peacebuilding and economic recovery. 29 Improvements can be driven by resilient food system approaches to ensure better utilization of food and dietary diversity and quality  Successful cases 33 i. Great Lakes RegionThe name 'Great Lakes Region' was derived from the freshwater lakes and river basins within the central and eastern part of Africa, and is generally defined within the context of the regional entity known as the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).In the ICGLR context, the area of focus is therefore the countries located in the east and central Africa -namely Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic (CAR), South Sudan, Kenya and Sudan. Thus, the Great Lakes Region constitutes a complex network of political and economic interactions with significant implications for peace, security and governance. It is also a region with interlinked conflicts and common fundamental problems that emanate from post-colonial challenges to state-building and nation-building. 34 According to the Global Hunger Report, Burundi is the country with the lowest food security score, with levels worrying even when compared to the situation in the 1990s. 35 Over the period covering from October to December 20017 2,6 million people are living a humanitarian crisis. Burundi has a level of malnutrition against the worst in the world: 6 out of 10 childrenaged less than 5 years old (56%) are suffering from slow growth. In 2016 alone, more than 50,000 people have been displaced in the country due to flooding. In the absence of a viable solution to the problem, malnutrition will cost Burundi an estimated 92 million euro per year, double the entire budget of the Burundian Health Ministry in 2012 36 . Importantly, the important population density coupled with the very low number of skilled youth creates significant pockets of unemployed youth. Burundi is also highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change because in the small and often poorly managed farmlands, extreme weather quickly leads to lower crop production and higher food prices.The agricultural sector still accounts for nearly 40% of GDP and the level of urbanization is one of the lowest in Africa (12%). Approximately 1.2 million households farm on small plots (on average 0.5 ha per household) and mostly for subsistence, due to lack of alternatives. They produce little for the market, and yields are often not enough to meet their own needs.However, research in Burundi shows that production of many crops can be tripled with efficient and wellintegrated farming methods. Crucial here is that farmers -and especially women farmers -are encouraged to invest through mutual cooperation and knowledge-sharing in sustainable land management and higher-value food crops. For this, it is first necessary to improve access to fertilizer, improved seeds, (market) information and micro-financing, and support the formation of cooperatives. 37 Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2018) 38 Agriculture as an engine of economic reconstruction and development in fragile countries a. Impact Initiatives from Civil Society Dutch Relief Alliance Response -Central African Republic 39 The Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) responds to major international crises in a timely and effective manner. The Alliance is a cooperation of 14  CAR-JR's food security program provided adequate, vital assistance by ensuring access to food to 63,600 individuals. This was done by providing basic and supplementary food to school children and vulnerable households. These households also received staple crop, vegetable seeds and farming tools, as well as assistance on vegetable gardening and production chain management. Awareness raising activities and trainings were also provided on topics such as child feeding practices, agricultural techniques, efficient dry season gardening and conflict management. In addition to the continued provision of emergency food supplies, or food vouchers, to vulnerable households, CAR-JR2 organized cash for work and cash grant activities to cover at least 2 months of the hunger gap. Livelihoods were supported via the distribution of seeds or seed vouchers, garden tools, small poultry (for improved breeding), compost kits. CAR-JR2 also provided technical (crop production, postharvest processes, marketing skills) and vocational/life skill trainings, income generating and cash for work activities to farmer groups and the youth. Finally, functional community gardens were set up with rain harvesting, irrigation systems and fencing. To restore the livelihoods of those affected by the crisis, the CAR-JR program provided emergency cash to 150 food insecure households, and restored, in kind or in cash, those productive assets for income generating activities to 500 more vulnerable households.Availability of inputs is an important factor in determining the potential success of a value chain. Low input usage leads to lower yield and less quality. In conflict-affected areas formal markets for inputs can be disrupted or credit in the form of input supplies has become too risky.In Burundi the state historically provided inputs. Now that the markets are being privatised the privately owned washing station provides inputs to the farmers on credit. In DR Congo the tools needed for honey collection and production, like smokers and outfits, are available on the market. The bee colonies are collected from the wild.In Kono, one of Sierra Leone's remote and poorest districts, the NGO Cordaid supports food security solutions that promote high-value and quick-impact crop harvesting. The support has allowed 35  Smallholders have difficulty becoming part of upgraded value chains, often because few upgraded value chains exist in fragile states or because the farmers do not have access to these chains. Conflict increases the likelihood of this problem, even if food deficiencies exist in nearby regions.TIn Eastern Congo, cooperatives and organizations of rice producers in the region received encouragement from Cordaid to create a new and stable market for farmers and to help increase trust among former warring parties. Since local breweries have started to locally source rice for producing beer, tens of thousands of smallholders were helped to a higher income and increased food security. In the North Kivu province, Cordaid began working with an organized group of female farmers who supply rice to the brewery Brasimba in Beni, by helping to establish contact between LOFEPACO and the agricultural research institute INERA in Yangambi. They provided the women farmers with higher quality seeds, which helped them to increase production levels from 2 ton to 4,5 tons per hectare. Cordaid also supported the women farmers with the building of storage facilities that comply with the technical standards required by the breweries. Thanks to the improved quality of the rice and the fact that the women of LOFEPACO are able to deliver bigger volumes, buyers these days are eager to do business with them.As a result of prolonged conflict, poverty rates in Burundi increased from 33% in 1990 to 68% in 2002. More than 90% of the population is engaged in agriculture, and agriculture constitutes 40% of the country's gross domestic product. In 2004, the Government of Burundi partnered with the Bank to launch a project to improve livelihoods by (1) equipping professional development centres, (2) helping cooperative groups launch income generating activities in areas such as valueadded transformation of agricultural products, and (3) providing shortterm employment through labourbased infrastructure reconstruction.The Government of Burundi partnered with Twitezimbéré, a Burundian nongovernmental organization, to rehabilitate three professional development centres in rural Burundi to increase the proportion of agricultural crops preserved before they spoil, to broaden the variety of locally produced goods, and diversify the economy beyond the agricultural sector. The centres were reequipped with tools and materials, and Twitezimbéré worked with a Canadian firm to develop tailored business skills curricula for different trades, including auto mechanics, clerical work, machining, masonry, metallurgy, and the transformation of agricultural products.To support some of the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the Burundian population, the project identified community-based cooperative groups interested in launching income-generating activities. Twitezimbéré and the Government of Burundi helped the cooperative groups learn basic business skills, develop business plans, and obtain small amounts of start-up capital and equipment. Income generating activities included trash collection in Bujumbura and the value-added transformation of agricultural products into palm oil, jams, cheese, fruit juices, honey, dried gari from cassava, and soap.The projects for community-based cooperative groups aimed to support the livelihoods of approximately 500 Burundian women. For one project, a cooperative including former refugees, internally displaced persons, and ex-combatants started a small enterprise for the decortication of rice. Twitezimbéré worked with the leaders of the cooperative to develop a plan that included a feasibility study with a projection of annual profits, a work plan, provisions for group members to receive training from Twitezimbéré, and a budget outlining key project costs. The cooperative contributed about 12% to the costs.The project successfully rehabilitated the professional development centres and trained the cooperative groups. While the project was a success in these respects, insufficient resources were planned for follow-up support, monitoring, and evaluation after the initial trainings. Future projects of this type would benefit from additional resources to provide technical support to cooperative groups during the first year as they start to implement their business plans. • To support 60% of its participants in increasing their income by up to 25% through agricultural activities and increased production.• To apply improved agricultural production and management techniques for 40% of the farmer associations and the state service providers.• To confirm for at least 40% of the population (residents and returnees) that there have been improvements in social cohesion in the communities.• To have 40% of handicapped people that took part in project activities increase their participation in the peace process.During the period of the project 22,000 people in the territory of Uvira were reached (11,660 women and 10,340 men), and there were 6,275 people that directly benefitted from the seed multipliers that were organized in 124 different production associations (GIZ 2013).Assessments of project performance state a number of achievements. Firstly, seed multipliers increased household incomes by US$12 (i.e. 21%) in 2011, with poor rural households doing so by US$22 (i.e. 39%). Consequently, school fees could be paid, health services could be used and houses could be renovated. For the ESÜH-project, this meant the successful achievement of a stated target of 60% of the supported men and women having increased their income by up to 25% through agricultural activities and increased production. However, it is not clear what is meant by 'poor' households in these instances.Secondly, the project set a target of at least 40% of the farmer associations and the state service providers applying improved agricultural production and management techniques. Project data suggests rural households have increased the application of increased agricultural techniques from 12% in 2010 to 50% in 2012, with households now eating more meals per day with a wider range of foods on offer. Seed providers now function relatively well in decentralized manner and are 'close' to the population.Thirdly, the project also set a target of at least 40% of the population (residents and returnees) estimating that social cohesion in the communities was positive by the end of the project. In the project's view this goal has been partially reached though this has not yet been sufficiently quantified. However, it appears that parties previously in conflict are now undertaking activities together. Finally, the project set a target of 40% of handicapped people who partook in project activities to consequently increase their participation in the peace process. However, actual progress has not been measured at present.Youth Entrepreneurship in DRC \"Coopérative Agroalimentaire et Pastorale des Jeunes du Congo\" 40 Frank Kakel Mbumb, aged 31, is from the city of Lubumbashi in Katanga province in the DRC, and after studying Computer Science at the city university he subsequently trained in Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, which laid the foundations for his current business, the CAAPJECO cooperative. The business currently processes around four hundred chickens a month for meat and the plans are to increase this number, by integrating more farmers into the cooperative with a shared vision of turning the coop into a regional leader which will also export to other African countries. Kakel currently runs the co-op together with his business partner Gualthier whom he met during the PAEJK1 project with the ILO in 2013. After presenting his project and winning one of the three micro-finance loans available to winners of the competition, he was available to get his business off the ground. The company currently employs three people and is available to give temporary work to around ten staff who help with slaughtering and packaging of the chicken meat. It is likely that they will have to soon employ another permanent member of staff as business is rapidly growing. About 80% of the production costs of the coop are currently spent on chicken feed, which is imported from Zambia and is thus more expensive than locally produced chickenfeed would be. Kakel is currently developing his own feed from maize and soya, which has already been analysed by chemists who have judged it reliable. This development in the way he is running his business will create more opportunities for youth employment in the region and help the co-op to flourish without having to rely on expensive imports. On a wider scale, Kakel is promoting youth entrepreneurship in the DRC as Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce for Young Entrepreneurs in Lubumbashi, Katanga Province. He passionately believes in the sharing of knowledge accrued by young businessmen and women and his vision is to see the forming of business innovation hubs throughout his region and the country as a whole.ii. Lake Chad Basin and SahelThe Lake Chad Basin is grappling with a complex humanitarian emergency across northeastern Nigeria, Cameroon's Far North, western Chad and southeastern Niger. In the most affected areas of these four countries, conflict and displacement are adding to other structural factors that are undermining the livelihoods of the population, increasing food insecurity and poverty and diminishing access to basic and social services (water, sanitation, health and education). 41 Around 17 million people live in the affected areas across the four Lake Map 2: Population movement and violent incidents in the most affected areas Source: OCHA, Lake Chad Basin: Crisis Overview (as of 22 January 2018) https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse. info/files/documents/files/lac_chad_snapshot_22_jan_2018_1.pdfChad basin countries. More than 2.3 million people remain displaced. Most of the displaced families are sheltered by communities that count among the world's poorest and most vulnerable. Food insecurity and malnutrition have reached critical levels. Some 7 million people risk suffering from severe hunger in the Lake Chad Basin, which incorporates parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and northeastern Nigeria. In the latter, some 50,000 people are facing famine. While fighting and violence have caused much of the suffering, the impact of environmental degradation and climate change including repeated droughts, are exacerbating the situation.food and what sustains the livelihoods of about 90 % of the region's population.In addition to providing an immediate response to the acute needs of affected populations, it is crucial to promote and support longer-term sustainable agriculture practices and policies to adapt to climate change and the increasing scarcity of natural resources.While considerable progress has been made following decades of internal conflict, through efforts to improve economic stability, political dialogue, human rights, and social services, Chad is once again facing significant external and internal pressures, which add to its fragility. Surrounded by countries in crisis, Chad hosts over 750,000 people who fled violence in Sudan, Central African Republic, Libya and the Lake Chad Basin. This places a significant burden on national and community resources -Chad itself situated 184th on the Human Development Index. Chad also remains extremely vulnerable to climactic variations, with natural disasters affecting some 1 million people annually, and an estimated 2.4 million people suffering from food insecurity in 2015. A landlocked country, Chad's economic development suffers from its geographic remoteness, lack of infrastructure and industrial underdevelopment: about 85% of the population still depends on subsistence agriculture.A combination of factors including, the 2011 drought, high food prices, low agricultural production, as well as the inability of affected households to recover from the 2010 food and nutrition crisis, exacerbated the sub-region's vulnerability in 2012. Moreover, the 2010-2011 crises in Cote d'Ivoire and Libya also contributed to increasing the vulnerability of hundreds of thousands of households that were deprived of the remittances of migrant workers who had fled these conflicts. Their return has also placed additional strain on their communities of return, notably in Chad, Niger and Mali. In 2012, approximately 18.7 million people were estimated to be food insecure and over one million children were at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition. (OCHA, 17 Dec 2012)In 2012, and for the third time in ten years, the Sahel region was hit by a major drought which further weakened vulnerable communities. The scale of the resulting food and nutrition crisis required all actors to join forces to save the lives of the 24 million people affected. A threeyear regional plan was developed in 2013 aiming to deliver coordinated and integrated life-saving assistance to people affected by emergencies while shaping the response to chronic needs in nine countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and The Gambia. (OCHA, 30 Aug 2017)Mali: Needs remain high with more than 3.5 million people being food insecure and some 852,000 people in need of nutrition assistance. More than 37,000 people remain internally displaced. The majority of those in need of assistance are in Mali's northern region. In April 2017, the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2017 for $293 million was only 11.6% funded. OCHA warned of destabilizing consequences, as the humanitarian situation is quickly deteriorating as a direct result of the conflict. (OCHA, 28 Apr 2017)In Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, nearly 6 million people are struggling to meet their daily food needs. Severe malnutrition threatens the lives of 1.6 million children. These are levels unseen since the crisis of 2012, and the most critical months are still ahead. The crisis was triggered by scarce and erratic rainfall in 2017, resulting in water, crop and pasture shortages and livestock losses. Pastoralists had to undertake the earliest seasonal movement of livestock in 30 years -four months earlier and much further than usual. This has also increased the likelihood of conflict with farmer communities over scarce resources, water and land.Food security across the region has deteriorated. Food stocks have already run out for millions of people. Families are cutting down on meals, withdrawing children from school and going without essential health treatment to save money for food.Severe acute malnutrition rates in the six countries have increased by 50% since last year. One child in six under the age of five now needs urgent lifesaving treatment to survive.In a severe lean season, anticipated to last until September, the number of people who need food and livelihood support may increase to 6.5 million.In Burkina Faso, the number of people facing food insecurity has already jumped nearly threefold since last year. In Mali, the number of people in 'emergency' conditions have increased by 120%. In Mauritania, severe acute malnutrition rates are at their highest since 2008. 42The Sahel and Lake Chad region of the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa comprises of twelve countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ivory Coast, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, along with neighbouring countries. These countries all have a considerable number of challenges that can be addressed by the EUTF, complementing other EU instruments.In the Sahel and Lake Chad region, challenges linked to extreme poverty, lack of stability, economic fragility and low resilience remain acute. This is exacerbated by climate change in a region where more than 80% of the population relies essentially on agriculture and pastoral activities. Irregular migration and related crimes such as trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants, corruption, illicit trafficking and transnational organised crime are thriving particularly where there is an insufficient presence of governmental authority and public administration. These security challenges have been increasingly linked to terrorist groups and illicit trafficking of all kinds.The region also faces growing challenges related to demographic pressure, institutional weaknesses and governance, weak social and economic infrastructures, environmental stress and insufficient resilience to food and nutrition crises. All of these factors are root causes of forced displacement and make people flee conflict, seek protection from persecution or serious harm, or seek new economic opportunities to build a better life. As a consequence, migration pressure is mounting, with serious implication both for the countries in the region and the EU.Given the proximity of the Sahel to the EU and its immediate neighbourhood, the EU is working closely with the countries of the Sahel and Lake Chad region to support their efforts to achieve peace, security and development.The measures were adopted under the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa and supplement the 68 measures approved since December 2015 for a total of EUR 1 billion. All the measures are designed to address the urgent and multiple crises in Africa by providing a flexible, rapid and integrated response.The eight measures approved tackle the challenges of stability by adopting an integrated approach to the chronic conflicts and crises affecting the Sahel and Lake Chad regions with a view to helping all groups -indigenous groups, returnees and refugees -regardless of status.EUR 71 million has been allocated for four measures in Burkina Faso. The aim of the measures is to strengthen the State's presence to ensure it can fulfil its role of safeguarding the safety of goods and people, and combat violent extremism and religious radicalisation.• 'Budgetary support for the implementation of the Sahel Emergency Fund for Burkina Faso' will help improve the security of people and property and reduce vulnerability by bolstering the presence of the State. This measure underpins the implementation of the Emergency Programme for the Sahel -an initiative of the Burkina Faso government adopted in July 2017 to step up the implementation of the National Plan for Economic and Social Development (PNDES) in the North and the Sahel, a troubled region with a high level of insecurity. Without a strong presence and increased action by the State, the area risks falling into the hands of terrorists and traffickers, as in the case of the North of Mali and Nigeria.• The programme 'Prevention of radicalisation of young people in high-risk areas in Burkina Faso through education and dialogue' will focus on education as a means to improve the social and economic life of young people with a view to reducing the risks of radicalisation in the country. The measure will help improve the quality of education in Franco-Arab schools, improve conditions in Koranic schools and provide for dialogue between communities, with religious and customary leaders and with state authorities.• The programme 'Prevention of violent extremism and the deterioration of social cohesion in Burkina Faso' will primarily target the rural and urban populations of sensitive areas of Burkina Faso (Mali and Niger border areas) to combat violent extremism through increased monitoring of radicalisation and promoting and strengthening of social cohesion and dialogue within and between communities and religions in Burkina Faso. High-risk areas and sites of radical rhetoric will be monitored with a view to promoting social cohesion and strengthening dialogue between religions and communities as well as with the State and the security forces, using pastoralism as a vehicle for peace and resilience.• An amendment to the 'Integrated border management programme for Burkina Faso (ProGEF)' was also been adopted, worth EUR 5 million. This budgetary reinforcement will enhance the connectivity and interoperability of agencies involved in the monitoring and securing of borders in Burkina Faso in coordination with the neighbouring countries. It will enhance data transmission and extension of the 'IRAPOL' network (internal security forces' data management system) and provide strengthened support for the infrastructure of the internal security forces.In Mali, the programme 'Youth and Stabilisation in the central regions of Mali (PROJES)' worth EUR 30 million was adopted to foster socioeconomic stabilisation and recovery by strengthening the supply of, and access to, basic services considered locally as most urgent, and by revitalising the regional and local economic fabric, with central importance being given to the training and professional integration of young people.For Mauritania, the 'Programme for strengthening the resilience of vulnerable urban and rural communities in Mauritania' was approved. This measure, worth EUR 10 million, aims to strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable population sections, in particular young people and women. It targets the structural causes of food insecurity and malnutrition, supporting opportunities connected with migratory trends and strengthening capacities to adapt to climate hazards. Based on an integrated and complementary approach, the measure will support diversification of livelihoods through a strategy of risk reduction in rural areas and of economic integration in both rural and urban areas. It will promote the social and professional integration of young people and reduce radicalisation and emigration risks.In Niger, to complement the emergency activities already conducted in the area, the 'Integrated project to support the resilience of vulnerable population groups of refugees, displaced persons, returnees and hosts in the Diffa region, Niger' was adopted for an amount of EUR 10 million. The aim of the programme is to create economic and employment opportunities and facilitate returns in an area characterised by population displacements stemming from Boko Haram violence. Targeting both displaced people (refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees) and host communities, the programme will provide specific support for the most vulnerable groups and will invest in the potential of young people and women in particular. The measure will address basic needs through the construction/ renovation of social and community infrastructure and the provision of access to basic social services(water, health, education). It will also build development capacity through activities focusing on food security, nutrition, livelihoods and vocational training.For Chad, the 'Programme of inclusive development in host areas (DIZA)', worth EUR 15 million, was adopted and will help strengthen the inclusive local development of areas in which there are many refugees and returnees. These areas are particularly sensitive to economic, social, community and environmental tensions. The measure will focus on improving access to basic services, creating economic opportunities, strengthening local governance, and managing local investment, natural resources and peaceful coexistence.Five measures adopted today seek to promote safe and orderly migration conditions, combat forced displacement and trafficking in human beings, and create economic conditions favourable to local development.For Guinea, a 'Support programme for the socio-economic integration of young people (INTEGRA)' was approved to the tune of EUR 65 million. This measure will contribute to the prevention and limitation of irregular migration by supporting the economic development of Guinea so as to enhance the socioprofessional integration of young Guineans and the reintegration of returnees. The programme has high visibility, with very strong ownership by the authorities. It aims to create sustainable jobs through labourintensive activities for supporting local development plans, to provide better training and vocational guidance for young people, and to strengthen several key value chains at national level.In Niger, the programme 'Creation of jobs and economic opportunities through sustainable environmental management in transit and departure areas in Niger' has been adopted at a cost of EUR 30 million. Designed to meet the significant changes in the political and socio-economic balances in the North created by the authorities' commitment to combating trafficking, it will promote the employment and inclusion of the most economically vulnerable groups (young people, women, the unemployed, rural households) by developing a sustainable local economy adapted to climate changes in transit, departure and refugee areas in Agadez, Tahouda, Zinder and Diffa.Lastly, three regional measures were approved at a total cost of EUR 43.2 million. These measures aim to strengthen the fight against trafficking and smuggling of human beings and to promote academic mobility and the economic development of the region.• The programme 'Support for the fight against trafficking in human beings in Gulf of Guinea countries' is designed to combat trafficking and smuggling of human beings in Gulf of Guinea countries (Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria). The measure supplements the work undertaken in transit countries, particularly in Niger, based on a regional approach in the countries of origin with a view to supporting national structures, strengthening the link with the still weak criminal justice system, boosting regional cooperation between these structures, and developing services for victims.• The programme 'Erasmus + in West Africa' will support the mobility of 2 200 students and academic staff between Europe and Africa. This measure will contribute to improving the quality of higher education in the partner countries, strengthening the skills of young people and consolidating their technical and academic backgrounds to better equip them for the labour market.• Lastly, the programme 'IPDEV2: Support for entrepreneurs and small SMEs in West Africa' addresses the financing problems faced by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Mali and Mauritania through the creation of dedicated investment funds for each country so as to offer structured and stable financial support to micro-and SMEs that generate jobs and added value.Française de Développement 44 The Lake Chad Development and Climate Resilience Action Plan (LCDAP) was developed by the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) and its six member states; Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Niger and Nigeria, with support from the World Bank and French Development Agency. The plan is part of the World Bank's $16 billion Africa Climate Business Plan, which was recently presented at the COP21 conference in Paris.As Lake Chad communities face urgent development challenges that are exacerbated by the future impact of climate change on the lake, the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) developed a new Action Plan that will assist people living around the Lake in Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria. The Plan outlines engagements that will empower local communities to build resilience to climate change and increase Agriculture as an engine of economic reconstruction and development in fragile countries regional development in the area. It focuses on securing livelihoods of communities living around the lake, increasing the lake's role in regional food security and addressing acute poverty in the area.The plan reflects the LCBC and countries' shared belief in a need to support the existing capacities of the lake's communities to adapt to and thrive in the highly-variable environment. The objective of the LCDAP is to turn Lake Chad into a pole of regional rural development by sustainably improving:• the living conditions of the populations settled on the lake's banks and islands, and• the resilience of the lake's socio-ecosystem, which faces strong demographic growth, high hydrological variability, and climate uncertainty.Building on LCBC's water charter and other national and regional strategic planning documents, the LCDAP proposes a total of seven priority themes grouping 173 activities. The percentages indicated below reflect the preliminary planned allocation of the total investment, estimated to be $1 billion (¤916 million).• Priority Theme #1: Supporting producers and their value chains (13%)• Priority Theme #2: Securing access to natural resources and managing conflicts (8%)• Priority Theme #3: Improving living conditions through public investments (27%)• Priority Theme #4: Facilitating Transport and Trade (38%)• Priority Theme #5: Preserving the environmental capital of the Lake and its basin (4%)• Priority Theme #6: Better managing the water resources of the basin (5%)• Priority Theme #7: Disseminating information, improving knowledge, and monitoring of the environment (5%)The majority of investments (53%) would go toward the immediate lake area, including its islands and banks, and the rest to the lake's hinterlands where its commercial relations take place (36%) and its conventional basin (11%). The LCBC, its member states, and local governments and civil society organizations would be responsible for the implementation of the plan.Drought in East Africa damaged already strained livelihoods, destroyed crops and pushed up food prices, particularly in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. Lack of rain in 2016 in Uganda led to increased food insecurity in early 2017, at a time when the country was already facing high food insecurity due to an influx of refugees.In the wake of the multiple droughts that hit the Horn of Africa over the past year, countries in the region will face rise in hunger and further decline of local livelihoods in the coming months, while also dealing with the growing number of refugees (FAO). East Africa and the Horn of Africa are confronting a humanitarian crisis that may worsen in 2018. Armed conflict and severe drought are causing extreme levels of hunger. Up to 35 million people are in need of urgent food assistance across the region.In the Greater Horn of Africa, competition over water and pasture is a constant cause for localized conflict between pastoralists and farmers in the region. Water, forests, land and minerals are declining Map 3: Greater Horn of Africa Source: FDFA / https://www.eda.admin.ch/deza/en/home/countries/ horn-africa.htmlowing to degradation, overuse and climate change threats, particularly the increase in temperatures. Conflicts among communities in many parts occur as communities compete for increasingly scarce resources, while desertification in the region has resulted in less availability of land suitable for agriculture and pasture.Consequently, competition has become fierce, particularly in drought years when pastoralists are forced to use non-traditional migration routes to find water for their herds. The most recent poor rainfall seasons of 2015/16/17 have meant pastoralists have had to take their herds to natural reserves and farmland in Kenya, where they have clashed with local populations.August 2012 saw the establishment of Somalia's first permanent central government since the start of the decades-long civil war, paving the way for the IMF's reengagement with the country the following year. Somalia has received strong international support and, in February 2017, it experienced a peaceful transfer of power for the second time following elections. Even so, political stability remains fragile amid continued fighting among competing clan-based factions. Poverty is rampant, and Somalia's institutional capacity is ranked among the lowest in Africa.Nearly 12 million people across Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia face harsh food conditions, and are in need of emergency assistance. Families in the region also experience rising debt, low cereal and seed stocks, and low milk and meat production. Farmers need urgent support to recover from consecutive lost harvests and to keep their breeding livestock healthy and productive.Poor rains, livestock losses and people abandoning their homes to escape drought and conflict have wrecked livelihoods and created widespread food insecurity in Somalia. Following warnings of the risk of famine in early 2017, emergency food assistance has reached roughly 2.5 million people a month since April 2017, greatly mitigating food consumption gaps. However, despite the challenges the country has faced over the last 30 years, livestock and crops remain key sources of economic activity, employment and exports. Agriculture makes up 75% of the country's GDP and 93% of total exports. Around half (49%) of Somalia's population lives in rural areas and 46% of employed people work in agriculture. There is an increasing demand and a broader opportunity to invest in agriculture, and stimulate a private agribusiness sector in Somalia.Political instability, war, and dry weather has pushed food production systems to the breaking point in several countries in the Greater Horn of Africa. With tens of millions of people already facing serious food shortages in eastern Africa, aid organizations and governments warned in February 2017 that widespread famine could emerge in the coming months. Already, the United Nations has declared a famine in part of war-torn South Sudan. Somalia and Yemen-both wracked by civil war-are on the verge of famine as well.While food shortages are relatively common in this part of the world, the formal declaration of famine is unusual. The technical definition requires that one in five households in a given area face extreme food shortages; that 30 percent of the population be malnourished; and that the death rate exceed 2 people per 10,000 per day.The Horn of Africa region faces challenges that go beyond country borders: climate change, forced displacement, demographic pressures, environmental stresses, various forms of conflict, trafficking of human beings and smuggling of migrants, as well as organised crime and violent extremism. The EU's approach to address these challenges is geographically comprehensive and holistic, putting the region at the centre of its response. On some projects, the EU is working with the regional organisation IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), building on areas of work in which IGAD is active, such as durable solutions for refugees, peace and security and resilience building, and harmonisation of national policies and strategies. Of the previously adopted actions for the Horn of Africa, over ¤410 million have already been contracted. Among these are national projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, and regional projects in support of the Khartoum Process.• The programme \"Durable solutions for host populations, refugees and vulnerable migrants\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤15 million) aims at supporting the government to help manage the effects of increased mixed migration flows. Support will be provided in the sectors particularly affected, such as social security, healthcare and sanitation, as well as to protect all vulnerable children, and to enable the national office for refugees to better respond to the needs of refugees and vulnerable migrants. This includes protection and legal aid, hence supporting Djibouti in the implementation of the pledges made for the Common Refugee Response Framework (CRRF). The programme will be implemented by the World Food Programme and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with other partners. and by a partnership of national and international non-governmental organisations.• The programme \"Stimulating economic opportunities and job creation for refugees and host communities in Ethiopia in support of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in Ethiopia\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤20 million) aims at supporting the implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) to shift from a 'care and maintenance' or camp-based model of refugee assistance to an approach, which emphasises refugee self-reliance, refugee mobility in-country and the integration of refugees into regional and national development processes. The programme will be implemented by UNHCR, the World Bank and organisations with experience in private sector development.• The programme \"Shire Alliance: Energy Access for Host Communities and Refugees in Ethiopia\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤3.05 million) aims atimproving the living conditions in host and refugee communities by creating livelihood opportunities, enhancing local capacity building and improving access to energy services. The beneficiaries are around 40 000 members of the host and refugee communities in and around Adi-Harush, Mai Aini and Hitsats refugee camps. The programme will be implemented by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID).• The programme \"Building Resilience in Northern Somalia -RESTORE 2\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: EUR 13.5 million) aims at addressing the impact of the severe drought affecting northern Somalia and to strengthen the resilience of the most affected communities in northern Somalia. This project will achieve this by scaling-upthe current RESTOREproject through cash transfers, construction of productive infrastructure and assets and capacity building of local authorities and communities. The programme will be implemented by NGOs and the FAO.• The programme \"Enhancing security and the rule of law in Somalia\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤40 million) aims at increasing the presence and efficacy of police throughout the Federal Member States whilst at the same time connecting this increased law enforcement to a more accessible, reliable and competent justice provision. The primary beneficiaries will be those individuals who are or who will become police officers and/or judiciary personnel as well as those who will benefit from the increased law enforcement and access to justice. The programme will be implemented by the UN's multi-partner trust fund office and/or other UN agencies.• The programme \"Education in Emergency Programme in Four Former States in South Sudan\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤22.4 million) will focus on school-age children attending primary schools in South Sudan (aged 6-18), primary school teachers, school staff, Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and the education system in general in the former four states Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBEG), Western Bahr el Ghazal (WBeG), Warrap and Eastern Equatoria. It aims at improving access to quality learning opportunities for 75 000 children, including by providing them with daily school meals throughout the academic year. The programme will be implemented by UNICEF and the World Food Programme.• The programme \"South Sudan Rural Development: Strengthening Smallholders' Resilience -SORUDEV SSR\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤7 million) aims at contributing to strengthening resilience of communities, improving governance and conflict prevention and reducing forced displacement due to loss of livelihoods. Its specific objectives are to improve food security of rural smallholders in Greater Bahr el Ghazal and to empower them to cope with environmental volatility and insecurity. The programme will be implemented by FAO.• The \"Technical Cooperation Facility for South Sudan 2018-2020\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤2 million) aims at contributing to an efficient and effective use of the development funds the EU implements in South Sudan, focusing also on the transition and/ or complementarity between the humanitarian response and the medium-long term development response.• The programme \"Fostering Smallholder Capacities and Access to Markets in Food Insecure Areas of Darfur\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤8 million) aims at enhancing the food and income security of smallholder farming households in Darfur. Its specific objectives are to: i) Increase household food availability by reducing pre-farm gate losses; ii) Empower smallholders to sell surplus grain at higher prices; iii) Strengthen capacity of smallholders and farmer's groups to access markets and value chains. Approximately 65 000 farmers are to be reached by theAction, which will target South, West and Central Darfur States. It aims to develop and test a model that can be amended and replicated across the range of contexts that exist for smallholder farmers in Darfur. The programme will be implemented by the World Food Programme.• The programme \"Integrated Measures to promote rural-urban value addition and Employment (IMPROVE-EU)\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤8 million) aims at contributing to improved livelihoods of refugees, migrant workers and host communities in Eastern Sudan. Its specific objectives are (1) to increase farmers' incomes; (2) to provide viable solutions to adapt farming systems to markets and to climate variability; (3) to provide farmers with new techniques to increase their production. The action will address 1,600 farmer households and around 30 high potential small and medium local enterprises working in the selected value chains will be engaged in project activities. The project will be implemented by GIZ, the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GmbH).• The programme \"PROTECT -Protection of Persons of Concern and vulnerable migrants along migratory routes in Sudan\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤4 million) aims at contributing to improve the management of mixed migration flows in Sudan. Its specific objective is to improve the protection of Persons of Concern, including refugees, returnees, stateless people, internally displaced people and asylum-seekers, and other vulnerable migrants along the Northern migration route through 1) improved access to assistance and protection, 2) enhancing the capacity of police and judiciary to respond to the needs of Persons of Concern (PoC), including asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants and 3) the improvement of the referral system. The project will be implemented by Danish Red Cross and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).• The programme \"RISE -Response to increased demand on Government Service and creation of economic opportunities in Uganda\" (EU Trust Fund contribution: ¤20 million) aims at strengthening the abilities of local authorities to cater for refugee populations in planning social service provision in their areas (e.g. access to water services and education), hence supporting Uganda in implementing the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) and supporting Refugee and Host Population Empowerment (ReHope). Its specific objectives are 1) to strengthen local authorities' coordination and development & contingency planning, as well as local authorityled service delivery to refugees and the host populations and 2) to increase economic self-reliance of refugees and host populations. The programme will be implemented by GIZ and civil society organisations.Enhancing Food Security in the Horn of Africa through Diaspora Investment in Agriculture \"Somali AgriFood Fund\" 45  The AgriFood Fund supports investment projects that can range from US$20,000 toUS$250,000 through a 40%contribution. The remaining 60% are financed by the business owner cash or in-kind contribution (20%) and by external capital, of which at least one third (or 20%of the total project cost) is to be financed by the diaspora. Theleverage ratio of the US$673,000 fund is expected to be 3.4 to 1, or a total investment of US$2.28 million. Shuraako is the Fund Manager and is responsible for advertising the fund, screening applications, carrying out due diligence on eligible businesses prior to submission to the Investment Committee, channelling funds to recipients and monitoring implementation.By January 2016, 199 candidates had applied to the AgriFood Fund and six business owners had been awarded financing for a total of US $435,600. The approved business plans involve 8 diaspora investors, of which 2 are women. These are all originating from the region they invest in and are contributing 40% to 60% of investment. The 6 awarded agri-businesses are expected to generate 196 new jobs and to open new market outlets for about 15,000 small-scale producers in the agriculture and fisheries sectors. In the third investment round, the AgriFood Fund, contribution was brought down to 20% and applicants were Putin contact with partner Somali banks to complete financing. The project has demonstrated that it is possible to attract diaspora investment into Somali agribusinesses and to generate employment and revenues through diaspora resources. Furthermore, it has raised interest from the national financial sector (local banks and micro-finance institutions) to develop activities aiming at diaspora investment into the local economy. This will however require improved banks 'compliance with international banking standards. The creation of the Somali Banking Association, which was facilitated by Shuraako, constitutes a first step in this direction. Diaspora's interest in contributing to the Somali economy was further confirmed by the online Somali Investment Survey, which was carried out by Shuraako in2015. It was responded by close to 1,000 participants in 33 countries. Most respondents regard investment as a way to prepare their return to Somalia. The survey provides useful information as to factors that would facilitate diaspora investment, including evidence of profitability, a transparent and enforceable contract and risk mitigation. IFAD is now planning to finance a follow-up phase, which will aim at upscaling good achievements by building the capacities of Somali public and private institutions to provide the diaspora with the services they need to invest into Somali SMEs Working with the national government, Oxfam's Fisheries Project strengthened the fisheries sector in Somaliland and Puntland, and influenced improvement of policies, legislation, and institutional structures and processes to support the fisheries sector at national and local levels, alongside the private sector. The project has implemented a quality system for the fisheries sector called FIQAEC (Fish Inspection, Quality Assurance & Export Certification) to govern fish handling, transportation, industrial processing, storage and export of fish and fisheries products.Oxfam and partners supported farmers through capacity-building on good agronomic and livestock management practices, provision of improved seeds, extending irrigation systems to new areas, rehabilitation of degraded landscapes and supporting community animal health workers.Farmer Field Schools were established to train 1,031 crop and livestock farmers (pastoralists) on soil and water management, rainwater harvesting for plant use, yields assessments, post-harvest management, land-use planning and range and infrastructure management. 120 community animal health workers (CAHWs) were also trained on management and treatment of livestock diseases. Provision of improved seeds: 21 communities in Afgoye and husamareb were supported with high-quality seeds for crop and forage production. Each of the targeted 600 farmers (360 female and 240 men) in Afgoye received 12kg of maize. The forage seeds were sown on communal range lands where water-harvesting structures had been established, which helped to improve the ground cover by 70%. Extension of irrigation system to new areas: This involved the rehabilitation of 14 canals in Afgoye, increasing the irrigable area by 15,458 hectares which, in turn, is expected to increase crop production by 300%. This activity benefited 14,180 people through cash for work and was deliberately scheduled during the lean season in order to additionally support the farmers to access basic household needs.All work norms were based on a minimum expenditure basket.Rehabilitation of roads and degraded landscapes: Oxfam also supported the rehabilitation of 10km of strategic feeder roads and the clearance of invasive weed through lean-season cash for work, benefiting 764 people (207 women and 557 men). This opened up land for forage establishment. The communities were encouraged to use the weed for cooking purposes as a way of controlling it and reducing pressure on other useful tree species.Rehabilitation of Markets: This activity was identified as one of the priorities by the community and local authorities due to its economic significance to the local population. This was done in two markets, Burao and Adaado. This included construction of market sheds, market information boards, and watering troughs for animals. A fence was also erected to control and manage safe movement of animals.Strategic road rehabilitation: The clearance and rehabilitation of strategic roads that connect villages to markets was completed, thus improving access and lowering transport costs of moving goods and services to and from the markets.Oxfam is working with communities in South Sudan to find innovative ways to address the root causes of livelihood insecurity, by enabling people to meet their basic needs, and to sustainably improve their quality of life.Increased food production and access to markets: Oxfam has distributed farming tools and seeds to promote cultivation, and worked with farmers to ensure that efficient farming methods are used and that markets are accessible. Oxfam has also supported farmer group meetings, and used the time and space to not only discuss produce, but also issues that affect the community on a daily basis, such as peace, the economy and governance.Microfinance: We have conducted business training and provided cash grants to community members as capital to start businesses and cooperatives. They include fishing and farming groups, as well as entrepreneurs. Oxfam has supported five fishing groups with capital and business training to set up cooperative models that are still being used today and seven women's farming groups in Terekeka.Cordaid approach in South Sudan -PRO-ACT 47 Since December 2015, Cordaid has been implementing the EU funded PRO-ACT project with the aim of enhancing food security and resilience of communities in selected counties of Upper Nile region (Malakal, Fashoda, Manyo counties).Understanding the volatile and unstable situation in Upper Nile, one of the key implementation strategies of Cordaid is adaptive management of interventions and projects by ensuring linkage between relief, rehabilitation and development (LRRD), whilst most agencies including donors and international organizations in South Sudan are focusing on emergency response as stand-alone and neglect the need for development and resilience support for the people.As long as disaster risks, related to both natural hazards and conflicts, are not being addressed through resilience building programming, it will be difficult to achieve poverty reduction, social equity, and sustainable development. However, resilience and development achievements from support provided to the most vulnerable people can also be (partly) destroyed again by a natural or human induced disaster, like the conflict of early 2017.People had to run without their belongings, except the cash savings from their Village Saving and Lending Associations. Cordaid Of the targeted households 1,522 were PRO-ACT project beneficiary households. They received unconditional or conditional cash transfers to increase their income sources and reduce negative coping mechanisms such as selling livelihood assets and cutting trees for charcoal production. With the conditional cash transfer, beneficiaries engaged in rehabilitation and reconstruction of community assets that were destroyed by the conflict. Their activities included restoring basic infrastructure and local market places, cleaning feeder roads, cleaning a hospital, health centres, schools and airstrips, repairing water points and removing conflict debris. Moreover, the most vulnerable households have received fishing kits for immediate access to nutritious food consumption and agricultural inputs such as tools and seeds to begin crop cultivation.About 50% of the PRO-ACT beneficiaries in Malakal (Lelo and Ogot payams) and Fashoda counties (Kodok town, Kodok rural, Lul and Dethwok payams) have benefited from LRRD activities, whilst also in Manyo county 400 households participated in the cash for work programme. The LRRD approach has greatly supported the target communities to bounce back to normality and smoothly participate again in the PRO-ACT project, without worrying for daily income and reverting to negative coping strategies.Addressing fragility is not just a matter of responding to political or economic pressures -it is central to the achievement of the global Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasise the risks of violence to human security as well as to global peace and security. Understanding the role of violence and fragility is crucial to realisation of the SDGs. SDG 16 in particular aims to course-correct for the evidence that a far greater number of people are exposed to violence than ever before and, as a foundation for all other SDGs, that sustainable development can only thrive where there is security. 48 In addition to risk factors arising from conflict or violence, rural producers and smallholder farmers are additionally vulnerable to economic shocks and market fluctuations, as well as to environmental risks related to climate, pollution, and proximity and exposure to natural disasters. Beyond the national boundaries, the effects of fragility have increasingly spread regionally and internationally, notably in respect to migration and refugee flows moving away from areas affected by conflict, violence and other factors of fragility. \"Population movements not only demonstrate the complex risk landscape in conflictaffected areas, they have also created new dynamics, including deepening fragility, with global political repercussions\". 49 This has been felt in Europe over the last couple of years, where the political landscape has been significantly affected by the influx of populations from countries affected by conflict, violence, or other characteristics of fragility.Working effectively in fragile states requires a long-term, context-specific approach. Agriculture must play a central part in boosting fragile countries' economies and alleviating poverty (World Bank and FAO). Many factors (weak institutions, insecurity, a persistent insurgency, destroyed infrastructure, environmental degradation and climate change) contribute to severe decrease in crop yields. Investing more in agriculture 50 would ensure moving from emergency to resilience and long-term development.There is a need to mitigate risks to the population by investing in local capacities for early warning, preparedness and response. Coherence between humanitarian and development strategic frameworks as well as donor's coordination still needs improvement. 51 Development partners need to agree on approaches driven by national strategies and based on harmonized needs assessment and planning. Linked to this is the need to identify funding solutions that will enable flexible, rapid and predictable funding for countries emerging from crisis.Smallholder farmers are among the most vulnerable to climate shocks and weather-related disasters, poor governance, conflicts and market fluctuations. Access to inputs and knowledge, ICTs to quickly share information and extension/advisory services will contribute to the resilience of agricultural livelihoods. Appropriate and enabling policies, institutional structures, capacities and finances for disaster risk reduction and crisis management must be in place at local, national, regional and global levels to reduce increasing levels of threats from multiple types of shocks affecting the agriculture sectors and related food security. It is also important to monitor and to predict crisis and disaster risks and their likelihood of occurrence and effects as much as possible on agriculture sectors. Such risk monitoring must be coupled with timely alerts to trigger accurate decision-making at institutional and community levels.Reducing the root causes of vulnerabilities of individuals and communities with livelihoods depending on crop, livestock, fish, trees and other renewable resources is fundamental. Crisis and disaster risk protection, prevention and impact mitigation through the application of risk sensitive technologies and good practices, risk transfer and social protection are crucial to strengthen agriculture livelihoods and lessen, or even cancel the effects of a potential shock on them and enable them to bounce back better. 52 National ownership and international commitment are needed to reduce fragility fragile states have untapped opportunities to pursue development. Capitalising on them will require national ownership, international commitment and innovation. 53 Donor coordination remains necessary (ODI). A big part of the problem with donor coordination in fragile states contexts is that foreign, military, and political objectives coexist with developmental ones, which makes it much more difficult for donors to agree on a common platform or set of interventions. Despite the fact that, over time, there has been a considerable accumulation of lessons regarding state-building interventions, very often these lessons are simply not learned or shared across countries and among donors.Accountability. The ability of institutions to be responsive to citizens, including abiding by their aggregated preferences, disclosing necessary information, permitting citizen participation in decisionmaking, and allowing for citizen sanction of public officials on the basis of publicly recognized norms and procedures.Anthropometry. Use of human body measurements to obtain information about nutritional status.The ratio of weight for height, measured as the weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in metres.Capacity. The ability of institutions to carry out their core functions efficiently and effectively.When states lack this capacity, they cannot mitigate stresses that might induce organized violence.Citizen security. Both freedom from physical violence and freedom from fear of violence. Applied to the lives of all members of a society (whether nationals of the country or otherwise), it encompasses security at home, in the workplace, and in political, social, and economic interactions with the state and other members of society. Similar to human security, \"citizen security\" places people at the centre of efforts to prevent and recover from violence.Collaborative, inclusive-enough coalitions. Unlike elite pacts, these coalitions involve broader segments of society-local governments, business, labour, civil society movements, in some cases opposition parties. Coalitions are \"inclusive enough\" when they involve the parties necessary to restore confidence and transform institutions and help create continued momentum for positive change; and when there is local legitimacy for excluding some groups-for example because of electoral gains, or because groups or individuals have been involved in abuses.Ways to persuade stakeholders that intentions to break with past policies will not be reversed, including creating independent functions for implementing or monitoring agreements.Confidence. Trust between groups of citizens who have been divided by violence, between citizens and the state, and between the state and other stakeholders (neighbours, international partners, investors).Conflict. Conflict as used in this report is defined as struggles between interdependent groups that have either actual or perceived incompatibilities with respect to needs, values, goals, resources or intentions. This definition includes (but is broader than) armed conflict -that is organized collective violent confrontations between at least two groups, either state or non-state actors Conflict sensitivity. Conflict sensitivity means to study the profile, causes, actors and dynamics of conflict and the interaction between these and the proposed intervention. In the context of sustaining peace, this means maximizing positive impacts toward peace while minimizing negative impacts, including potentially creating so-called future hazards.Dietary energy intake. The energy content of food consumed.Food available for human consumption, expressed in kilocalories per person per day (kcal/person/day). At country level, it is calculated as the food remaining for human use after deduction of all non-food utilizations (i.e. food = production + imports + stock withdrawals -exportsindustrial use -animal feed -seed -wastage -additions to stock). Wastage includes loss of usable products occurring along distribution chains from farm gate (or port of import) up to retail level.Expectations. The way people make judgments about the future and how it will affect them, their families, and their communities. In situations where a track record of violence has created low trust, both excessively low and excessively high expectations can create problems for government policy.Elite pacts. Formal or informal agreements by the holders of political, military, or economic power. These agreements, often enforced through coercion and patronage, are typically \"personalized,\" based on individual agreements. Throughout history the key motivating factor in forming an elite pact has been the wish to contain violence and to secure the property and economic interests and opportunities of pact members. The Report argues that elite pacts can provide short term security but that violence often recurs unless the pact broadens and is accompanied by institutional transformation.Food insecurity. A situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. It may be caused by unavailability of food, insufficient purchasing power, inappropriate distribution or inadequate use of food at the household level. Food insecurity, poor conditions of health and sanitation and inappropriate care and feeding practices are the major causes of poor nutritional status. Food insecurity may be chronic, seasonal or transitory. Food security. A situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Based on this definition, four food security dimensions can be identified: food availability, economic and physical access to food, food utilization and stability over time.Fragility. Fragility is defined as the combination of exposure to risk and insufficient coping capacities of the state, system and/or communities to manage absorb or mitigate those risks. The new OECD fragility framework is built on five dimensions of fragility -economic, environmental, political, societal, and security -and measures each through the accumulation and combination of risks and capacity. See OECD. 2016. States of Fragility 2016: Understanding Violence. Paris. Available at www.oecd. org/dac/states-of-fragility-2016-9789264267213-en.htm Fragility and fragile situations. Periods when states or institutions lack the capacity, accountability, or legitimacy to mediate relations between citizen groups and between citizens and the state, making them vulnerable to violence. Research for the Report reinforces the close link between institutional fragility and the risk of conflict.Hunger. In this report, the term hunger is synonymous with chronic undernourishment.Institutions. The formal and informal \"rules of the game.\" They include formal rules, written laws, organizations, informal norms of behaviour and shared beliefs-and the organizational forms that exist to implement and enforce these norms (both state and non-state organizations). Institutions shape the interests, incentives, and behaviours that can facilitate violence. Unlike elite pacts, institutions are impersonalthey continue to function irrespective of the presence of particular leaders, and thus provide greater guarantees of sustained resilience to violence. Institutions operate at all levels of society-local, national, regional, and global.A unit of measurement of energy. One kilocalorie equals 1 000 calories. In the International System of Units (SI), the universal unit of energy is the joule (J). One kilocalorie = 4.184 kilojoules (kJ).Legitimacy. Normatively, this term denotes a broad-based belief that social, economic, or political arrangements and outcomes are proper and just. The concept is typically applied to institutions. Legitimacy is acquired by building trust and confidence among various parties. Forms of legitimacy include process legitimacy (which relates to the way in which decisions are made), performance legitimacy (which relates to action, including the delivery of public goods), and international legitimacy (which relates to the discharge of values and responsibilities that international law view as the responsibility of states).Here refers to the proteins, carbohydrates and fats available to be used for energy; measured in grams.Malnutrition. An abnormal physiological condition caused by inadequate, unbalanced or excessive consumption of macronutrients and/or micronutrients. Malnutrition includes undernutrition and over nutrition as well as micronutrient deficiencies.Micronutrients. Vitamins, minerals and other substances that are required by the body in small amounts; measured in milligrams or micrograms. Nutrition security. A situation that exists when secure access to an appropriately nutritious diet is coupled with a sanitary environment, adequate health services and care, in order to ensure a healthy and active life for all household members. Nutrition security differs from food security in that it also considers the aspects of adequate caring practices, health and hygiene in addition to dietary adequacy.Interventions designed to address the underlying determinants of nutrition (which include household food security, care for mothers and children and primary healthcare services and sanitation) but not necessarily having nutrition as the predominant goal.Nutritional status. The physiological state of an individual that results from the relationship between nutrient intake and requirements and from the body's ability to digest, absorb and use these nutrients.Organized violence. The use or threat of physical force by groups. Includes state actions against other states or against civilians, civil wars, electoral violence between opposing sides, communal conflicts based on regional, ethnic, religious or other group identities or competing economic interests, gang-based violence and organized crime and international non-state armed movements with ideological aims. While an important topic for development, we do not cover domestic or interpersonal violence. At times we refer to violence or conflict as a short-hand for organized violence, understood in these terms. Many countries address certain forms of violence, such as terrorist attacks by non-state armed movements, as matters that are subject to their criminal laws.Over nutrition. A result of excessive food intake relative to dietary nutrient requirements.Overweight and obesity. Body weight that is above normal for height as a result of an excessive accumulation of fat. It is usually a manifestation of expending fewer calories than are consumed. In adults, overweight is defined as a BMI of more than 25 but less than 30, and obesity as a BMI of 30 or more. In children under five years of age, overweight is defined weightfor-height greater than 2 standard deviations above the WHO Child Growth Standards median, and obesity as weight-for-height greater than 3 standard deviations above the WHO Child Growth Standards median.Programs, institutions and reforms that are not technically the lowestcost option for achieving outcomes, but are adapted to local political, security, and institutional realities.Countries or subnational areas that have seen more than one episode of organized violence for 20-30 years.Sequencing and prioritizing reforms. Deciding on the type and scope of changes societies will make first, those that will be addressed later, and the timeframes for achieving change.Stresses. The political, social, security, or economic risks that correlate with organized violence. Violence is more likely when a combination of stresses operate in an environment characterized by weak institutions. Stresses can be internal-within the potential capacity of an individual state to control-or external, emanating from regional or global dynamics.Stunting. Low height for age, reflecting a past episode or episodes of sustained undernutrition. In children under five years of age, stunting is defined heightfor-age less than -2 standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median. Undernourishment. A state, lasting for at least one year, of inability to acquire enough food, defined as a level of food intake insufficient to meet dietary energy requirements. For the purposes of this report, hunger was defined as being synonymous with chronic undernourishment.Developing over time \"rules of the game\" that increase resilience to risks of violence, including laws, organizations, norms of behaviour, and shared beliefs that ensure that the benefits from individuals choosing to act peacefully and lawfully exceed the costs.Transition moments. Events that make new efforts to prevent or recover from violence possible. These can involve space for deep and wide-ranging change (for example, the end of a war, a deep national crisis, a change in government after one party has been in power many years) or more limited change (a new governmental reform plan or shift in key appointments, negotiations or coalition-building between different actors in society, events that spur reflection in society such as riots, military defeats, natural disasters, or key political anniversaries).Undernutrition. The outcome of poor nutritional intake in terms of quantity and/or quality and/or poor absorption and/or poor biological use of nutrients consumed as a result of repeated disease. It includes being underweight for one's age, too short for one's age (stunted), dangerously thin for one's height (wasted) and deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrient malnutrition).Underweight. In adults, underweight is defined as a BMI of less than 18.5, reflecting a current condition resulting from inadequate food intake, past episodes of undernutrition or poor health conditions. In children under five years of age, underweight is defined as weight-for-age less than -2 standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median, and is thus a manifestation of low height for age and/or low weight for height.Wasting. Low weight for height, generally the result of weight loss associated with a recent period of inadequate caloric intake and/or disease. In children under five years of age, wasting is defined as weightfor-height less than -2 standard deviations below the WHO Child. Growth Standards median. ","tokenCount":"16770"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c1c823a57f9d20e03f433b7c46674d1f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4ec3d699-535f-4811-a773-f5880bf26577/content","id":"-1314812157"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"db60b5d9-7963-4bf5-8de5-319c7fcdcad6","pagecount":"11","content":"The use of plant growth-promoting bacteria as bioinoculants is a powerful tool to increase crop yield and quality and to improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) from fertilizers in plants. This study aimed to bioprospecting a native bacterial consortium (Bacillus cabrialesii subsp. cabrialesii TE3 T , Priestia megaterium TRQ8, and Bacillus paralicheniformis TRQ65), through bioinformatic analysis, and to quantify the impact of its inoculation on NUE (measured through 15 N-isotopic techniques), grain yield, and grain quality of durum wheat variety CIRNO C2008 grown under three doses of urea (0, 120, and 240 kg N ha − 1 ) during two consecutive agricultural cycles in the Yaqui Valley, Mexico. The inoculation of the bacterial consortium (BC) to the wheat crop, at a total N concentration of 123-225 kg N ha − 1 increased crop productivity and maintained grain quality, resulting in a yield increase of 1.1 ton ha − 1 (6.0 vs. 7.1 ton ha − 1 , 0 kg N ha − 1 added, 123 kg N ha − 1 in the soil) and of 2.0 ton ha − 1 (5.9 vs. 7.9 ton ha − 1 , 120 kg N ha − 1 added, 104 kg N ha − 1 in the soil) compared to the uninoculated controls at the same doses of N. The genomic bioinformatic analysis of the studied strains showed a great number of biofertilization-related genes regarding N and Fe acquisition, P assimilation, CO 2 fixation, Fe, P, and K solubilization, with important roles in agroecosystems, as well as genes related to the production of siderophores and stress response. A positive effect of the BC on NUE at the studied initial N content (123 and 104 kg N ha − 1 ) was not observed. Nevertheless, increases of 14 % and 12.5 % on NUE (whole plant) were observed when 120 kg N ha − 1 was applied compared to when wheat was fully fertilized (240 kg N ha − 1 ). This work represents a link between bioinformatic approaches of a native bacterial inoculant and the quantification of its impact on durum wheat.At present, wheat is the most extensively grown crop worldwide and it has become the most important source of food, as it provides about 20 % of all protein and calories consumed worldwide (Igrejas and Branlard, 2020;Reynolds and Braun, 2022). In Mexico, wheat is the second most-produced cereal, and this country is the third exporter of durum wheat in the world (SIAP, 2023a).This region served as the origin of the Green Revolution with the scientific works led by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, where the wheat yield increased from 1.4 ton ha − 1 in 1950 to 5 ton ha − 1 in 1980 (Fischer et al., 2014). This increment (or yield change) was possible due to the development of high-yielding and pest-resistant varieties, but also to higher rates of chemical fertilizer applications, which have doubled since 1980 in the Yaqui Valley, and currently ~300 kg N ha − 1 are applied to the wheat production (Millar et al., 2018). Currently, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) by crops is less than 40 % and has been reported in 31 % for the wheat crop in the Yaqui Valley (Ortiz-Monasterio and Raun, 2007), which means that the rest is lost from the agroecosystems by surface runoff and leaching, as well as by volatilization and denitrification (IAEA, 2017). That situation leads to economic losses associated with agricultural production, adverse health, and environmental effects, such as nitrous oxide N 2 O emissions, eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems, and groundwater nitrate contamination which is used for human consumption (Beman et al., 2005;Lares-Orozco et al., 2016;Millar et al., 2018;Wongsanit et al., 2015). Thus, to increase NUE, there are two main approaches: crop breeding and/or agronomic management (Ortiz-Monasterio, 1998).In this sense, for tracing nitrogen in the agroecosystem the use of 15 Nenriched fertilizers is a feasible strategy, to precisely quantify the actual recovery of this nutrient by crops (Kennedy et al., 2008). This 15 N-isotopic technique is based on the fact that the sources of the N taken up by a non-nitrogen-fixing plant are only the soil and the fertilizers; therefore, nitrogen fertilizers can be artificially isotopically enriched in 15 N atoms above the natural abundance (0.3663 atom % 15 N) and then applied to the crop of interest. Any enrichment in 15 N atoms found in the plant tissues is then attributed to the applied synthetic fertilizer.Besides, to increase the NUE in plants, the use of beneficial microorganisms is a suitable strategy. Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) have shown the ability to improve the acquisition of nutrients by plants, protecting crops from pests, diseases, and various types of stress (Montoya-Martínez et al., 2022).Thus, studies combining PGPB and chemical fertilizers have demonstrated increases in nutrient absorption and efficiency by the crops, improving quality and yield, being a promising strategy to address actual and future agricultural challenges (Kumar et al., 2016;Goicoechea andAntolín, 2017, 2017;García-Montelongo et al., 2023). However, the bioprospection stage for identifying promising PGPB is a key step for developing bacterial inoculants, due to several known or unknown action modes found, and the expression of their metabolic potential under variable conditions in the field (Cordova-Albores et al., 2021). In this context, genomic approaches -based on mining-can be successfully used for designing promising inoculants, from their compatibility to ecological functions in the agroecosystem. For example, in the research carried out by Ortega-Urquieta et al. (2022), wheat plants showed significant (p < 0.05) increments in the leaf number (68.3 %) and the stem diameter (87.9 %) when plants were inoculated with Priestia sp. TSO9. The genome of this strain showed the presence of genes related to auxin biosynthesis, siderophore production, growth, adaptability, and colonization, which could be associated with wheat growth promotion.For years, extensive work has been carried out by Laboratorio de Biotecnologia del Recurso Microbiano (LBRM) in Mexico to bioprospect native PGPB to increase wheat yield and quality. Among the studied strains, Bacillus cabrialesii subsp. cabrialesii TE3 T , Priestia megaterium TRQ8, and Bacillus paralicheniformis TRQ65, have shown several plantgrowth-promoting traits. For example, Rojas-Padilla et al. (2020) demonstrated that these strains can produce indoles (from 8.21 to 39.29 µg/mL), as well as possess the ability to solubilize phosphorus (solubilization index from 1.37 to 1.43). In addition, P. megaterium TRQ8 showed a siderophore production index of 8.17. Additionally, these strains can tolerate thermal (43.5 • C), hydric [polyethylene glycol (PEG), 10 %, − 0.84 mPa)], saline (NaCl, 5 %, 6.8 dS m − 1 ), and chemical stress (Chlorothalonil) (Robles-Monoya et al., 2020). Also, Rojas-Padilla et al. (2022) synthesized calcium alginate microbeads containing strain TRQ8, TRQ65, and TE3 T , where their co-inoculation to wheat plants (strain TRQ8 + TRQ65 and TRQ8 + TE3 T ) under greenhouse conditions, increased several biometric parameters, such as root length (increase of 7.9 % to 19.2 %), stem length (from 8.4 % to 11.7 %), stem dry weight (up to 30.5 % more than the control), root dry weight (up to 12.8-77.3 % more than the control), and chlorophyll content (increasing ~7 % in SPAD units compared to the control).On the other hand, Chaparro-Encinas et al. ( 2022) carried out a transcriptomic analysis of wheat seedlings inoculated with strain TRQ65. This strain stimulated cell growth and plant biomass via reprogramming the gene expression patterns associated with systemic response in wheat (induced systemic resistance, ISR, and systemic acquired resistance, SAR). Also, a morphometrical assay confirmed wheat growth promotion. A significant (p < 0.05) increase in shoot length (93.48 %), root dry weight (48.33 %), and shoot dry weight (117.02 %) was observed in inoculated plants.The biological control potential of strains TRQ65 and TE3 T through the production of antifungal metabolites has been studied and they showed inhibition against Bipolaris sorokiniana TPQ3, the causal agent of spot blotch in wheat (Villa-Rodríguez et al., 2019;Valenzuela-Ruiz et al., 2019). However, they did not show antagonistic action among them, when they were inoculated as a consortium (TRQ65 + TRQ8 + TE3 T ) in wheat; on the contrary, they showed a synergistic effect with positive impacts in the studied morphometric variables in the early stages of development (Rojas-Padilla et al., 2020).Despite the promising in vitro or greenhouse results of these strains on wheat plants, an insight into their genomic background associated with the above-mentioned traits, as well as their beneficial effects on wheat under commercial field conditions, at different doses of N fertilizer to quantify the NUE, have not been studied. Thus, this work further studies the inoculation of these strains in interaction with the biotic and abiotic factors of the agro-system in the field. Besides, understanding their genomic potential may help comprehend the complex plant, microorganism, and soil interactions, and how these may improve plant growth through different mechanisms. These of which the genomic profile will evidence and aid in generating strategies to optimize their function and efficacy in the field.Thus, this study aimed to bioprospecting a native bacterial consortium (B. cabrialesii subsp. cabrialesii TE3 T , P. megaterium TRQ8, and B. paralicheniformis TRQ65), based on the first approach of the genomic analysis and evaluation under three doses of urea (0, 120, and 240 kg N ha − 1 ), for exploring its impact on NUE -through 15 N-isotopic techniques-, yield, and quality of durum wheat (CIRNO C2008), under two initial N concentrations in the soil (two consecutive agricultural cycles) in the Yaqui Valley, Mexico.The native bacterial consortium (BC) consisted of three strains: B. cabrialesii subsp. cabrialesii TE3 T , P. megaterium TRQ8, and B. paralicheniformis TRQ65. The bacterial strains TRQ8 (Robles-Montoya et al., 2019) andTRQ65 (Valenzuela-Ruiz et al., 2019) were isolated from rhizospheric soil from commercial wheat fields located in the Yaqui, Valley, Mexico (27.3692 • , 110.3886 • ), while TE3 T was isolated as an endophytic bacterial strain from wheat leaf tissue in the Yaqui Valley (de los Santos-Villalobos et al., 2019). These strains are cryopreserved at − 80 • C in nutrient broth (NB) culture medium with glycerol (30 %), in the Colección de Microorganismos Edáficos y Endófitos Nativos (COLMENA, www.itson.mx/COLMENA) (de los Santos-Villalobos et al., 2021).The bacterial strains were characterized and taxonomically identified through a polyphasic approach (Robles-Montoya et al., 2020;Morales Sandoval et al., 2021). Thus, after obtaining raw reads from LANGEBIO (Institute of Genomic Services \"LANGEBIO -CINVESTAV\", Irapuato Guanajuato, Mexico), who sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq platform (2 × 300 bp) (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA) raw read quality was assessed using FastQC version 0.11.5 (Andrews, 2010). Then, adapter sequences and low-quality bases were eliminated using Trimmomatic version 0.32 (Bolger et al., 2014), using a sliding window of 4:24, headcrop of 12, and a minlen of 50. The previous parameters will ensure that raw read quality is above 24 on a Phred scale. Following this, a de novo assembly was created utilizing SPAdes version 3.14.1 (Bankevich et al., 2012), implementing the \"-careful\" parameter to enhance error correction in reads. The resulting contigs from the assembly were then arranged by Mauve Contig Mover 2.4.0 (Darling et al., 2004), using reference genomes Bacillus paralicheniformis KJ-16 T (GCA_001042485.2) for strain TRQ65 (Valenzuela-Ruiz et al., 2019), Bacillus megaterium 15, 308 (GCA_001591525.1) for strain TRQ8 (Robles-Montoya et al., 2019), and Bacillus inaquosorum KCTC 13429 T (GCA_003148415.1) for strain TE3 T (de los Santos-Villalobos et al., 2019;Valenzuela-Ruiz et al., 2023). Furthermore, genome annotation was conducted using the Rapid Annotation Using Subsystem Technology (RAST) server version 2.0 (Overbeek et al., 2014) with the RASTtk pipeline, relying on The PathoSystems Resource Integration Center (PATRIC) under standard default parameters (Davis et al., 2020), where genes related to plant growth promotion were identified concerning interest subsystems (secondary metabolism). To further complement these findings, another annotation was carried out in the plant-associated bacteria web resource (PLaBAse) v1.01 PGPT-Pred annotation of bacterial plant growth promoting traits (PGPT), using the blast+hmmer algorithm to depict PGPT ontology (Patz et al., 2021). Lastly, InteractiVenn (Heberle et al., 2015) was used to compare PGPT-related genes. The results generated were visualized with Krona (Ondov et al., 2011).First, the frozen glycerol (− 80 • C) bacterial strains were pre-cultured on Petri dishes containing Nutrient Agar (MCD Lab, Cat. 7141) as a culture medium and incubated for 24 h at 28 • C. Each PGPB strain was separately inoculated in 20 mL of a sterile minimal salt medium [composed of 10 g L − 1 of glucose, 4 g L − 1 of (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 , 5.32 g Lincubated at 28 • C, and 180 rpm during 24-48 h, until obtaining an optical density (630 nm) of ~1.0. Then, 20 mL PGPB strains culture medium were individually inoculated in 500 mL of the above-mentioned culture medium at the same conditions for 48 h. The number of viable bacterial cells was quantified as colony-forming units per milliliter (CFU mL − 1 ). Once a density of 1 × 10 7 CFU mL − 1 was obtained for each strain, they were combined equitably to obtain the BC, which was applied manually directly to the soil (1 × 10 6 cells plant − 1 ), at sowing, at 45 days after sowing (tillering stage) with the first irrigation, and 80 days after sowing (wheat grain filling) with the second irrigation.The study was conducted during the winter crop season (December to May) 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 at the Experimental Technology Transfer Center (CETT-910) of the Instituto Tecnologico de Sonora (ITSON) in the Yaqui Valley, Mexico (Latitude: 27 • 21′57.74″ N, Longitude: 109 • 54′55.91″ W). Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. subsp. durum, CIRNO C2008 variety) was sown under field conditions (seed density 120 kg ha − 1 ), with conventional crop management (primary tillage, flood irrigation, integrated weed management) on a vertisol soil (Wilding et al., 1983).Durum is a tetraploid species of wheat, and the main grain used for making pasta. It is adapted to more diverse environments than bread wheat, and it performs in semiarid regions, such as the Yaqui Valley, in Sonora, where 84 % of the national production of durum wheat is grown (SIAP, 2023b).The soil in this site (CETT-910) has been monitored for its climatic and edaphic properties and only wheat has been sown there for the past 10 years (no crop rotation is practiced). Furthermore, this experimental center is located within the Yaqui Valley, where wheat has been conventionally cultivated in the surroundings for decades. Soil properties were determined according to specifications of the Official Mexican Standard NOM-021-SEMARNAT-2000, and are shown in Table 1 along with climatic conditions.Both sown dates were on the same day each year (December 20th, 2018, andDecember 20th, 2019). The source of phosphate fertilizer was mono-ammonium phosphate (100 kg ha − 1 ), and urea was used as nitrogen fertilizer (according to each treatment) which was fractionated equally at pre-planting (33 %), at the first irrigation event (33 %), and at the second (33 %) irrigation. The harvest date was 140 days after sowing.The experiment consisted of a split-plot arrangement, 6 treatments, and 4 replicates: with and without the inoculation of the BC, under three nitrogen fertilization doses (0, 120, 240 kg N (urea) ha − 1 ; the last is the recommended N dose for wheat production in the region). Thus, the experimental design was: i) 0 kg N ha − 1 ; ii) 0 kg N ha − 1 + BC; iii) 120 kg N ha − 1 ; iv) 120 kg N ha − 1 + BC; v) 240 kg N ha − 1 , and vi) 240 kg N ha − + BC. Each plot contained an internal microplot for the application of 15 N-isotopically enriched urea at 1 atom % 15 N (Shanghai Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co.; provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency), according to the dosage of 120 and 240 kg N ha − (Fig. 1). The original enrichment of the labeled urea was 5.09 atom % 15 N, and it was diluted with conventional urea (natural abundance of 15 N) to obtain an enrichment of 1 atom % 15 N following Zapata & Axman's (1990) equation and procedure.Grain yield was obtained at the ripening stage (after harvest) and expressed at 14 % moisture. The number of spikes m − 2 was recorded before harvest. At harvest, from the 6 central furrows, spike length, the number of grains per spike, and straw yield were measured. The harvest index was estimated by dividing grain yield by above-ground biomass.Each sample was analyzed for hectoliter weight and 1000-grain weight using a SeedCount digital image system SC5000 (Next Instruments, Australia). The percentage of grain protein at 12.5 % humidity (%) was estimated by near-infrared spectroscopy (DA 7200 NIR, Perten Instruments, Sweden), whose calibration was based on official methods AACC 39-10.01 and 46-11.02 (AACC, 2021); whole meal yellowness (b*) was measured using a colorimeter (Konica Minolta, Japan); sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) sedimentation volume test was performed according to Peña et al. (1990). Additionally, the SDS sedimentation index obtained by measuring the ratio between the SDS sedimentation volume and the sample protein content was calculated.Soil, straw, and grain samples were collected at harvest, from the central furrow of the 15 N-microplots (an internal area of 0.8 m x 1 m)  (Zapata and Axmann, 1990). The soil was collected at 30 cm depth, dried at room temperature, and sifted with a No. 100 mesh sieve (a particle size of 0.149 mm). Straw and grain were milled and filtered with a strainer, to obtain smaller sample sizes (straw particle size: <2 mm, grain particle size: <0.3 mm).All 15 N-enriched samples were processed with a continuous flow Elemental Analyzer coupled with an Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (EA-IRMS), at the Stable Isotope Facility (SIF) in the Department of Plant Sciences of the University of California. The equipment determined the percentage of 15 N atoms on all samples (soil, straw, and grain; a 15 Nenriched urea sample was a control). Then, the NUE in the samples was calculated according to Zapata & Axmann (1990). Nitrogen losses from the agroecosystem (% N losses) were calculated by subtracting from the total of N applied as urea (100 %) the sum of nitrogen use efficiency (% NUEplant) of the whole plant plus the percentage of N applied as fertilizer that remained in the soil profile (0-30 cm) [% N losses = 100 % -% NUEplant + % Nremaining in the soil)].Data components (quantitative traits for wheat yield: spikes m − 2 , grains spike − 1 , spike size, grain yield, straw yield, and harvest index; quality traits: hectolitre weight, 1000 grain weight, SDS sedimentation test, SDS/Protein index, and wholemeal yellowness; nitrogen use efficiency of 15 N labeled urea in grain, straw and the whole plant, 15 N losses, and 15 N remnant in the soil) were analyzed in an analysis of variance (ANOVA) in Statgraphics Plus v 5.1. Statistical results were validated with a significance level of p < 0.05. Differences between the parameters' means were assessed using Duncan's Multiple Range Test at a 95 % confidence level.Post-genome quality processing, assembly, and annotation of the results may be observed in Table 2. Genome size ranged from 4125,766 to 5454,548 base pairs (bp), and %GC content ranged from 37.7 to 45.5 %. The number of coding DNA sequences (CDS) ranged from 4282 to 5882; these were classified into 334-340 subsystem features identified by RAST (Overbeek et al., 2014). The annotated genomes may be found under the GenBank accession numbers GCA_004124315, SAZD00000000, and RYZX00000000 for strain TE3 T , TRQ65, and TRQ8, respectively.Furthermore, the genome annotation revealed genes related to PGPT (Table 3), including 4 CDS (in all three strains evaluated) related to auxin biosynthesis, specifically to the production of indole acetic acid. Auxins, particularly indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), play a pivotal role in the growth and development of wheat plants. Indole-3-acetic acid is a type of auxin that functions as a key plant hormone, influencing various aspects of wheat growth and development (Tan et al., 2021), including the promotion of root development and enhancement of the formation of lateral roots in wheat (Lv et al., 2021), reproductive growth, callus formation and regeneration (Kazan, 2013), the alleviation of biotic and abiotic stress (Egamberdieva, 2009), and improved efficiency in nutrient and water absorption. Indoles also stimulate the germination process, Fig. 1. Experimental design consisting of 6 treatments and 4 replicates with and without the inoculation of the BC on the wheat crop, under the three nitrogen doses (0, 120, 240 kg N ha − 1 ). An application of 1 % 15 N-labeled urea was carried out in internal microplots.  2020) reported that these strains can solubilize phosphorus (solubilization index from 1.37 to 1.43), where genomic annotation presented from 11 to 20 CDS relating to phosphorus metabolism in the genome of the studied bacterial strains (Table 3). Thus, these bacteria convert insoluble phosphorus in the soil into a soluble form, making it more accessible to wheat plants, consequently improving nutrient uptake and utilization critical for energy transfer, photosynthesis, and nutrient storage (El Mazlouzi et al., 2020). Genes related to the solubilization of phosphorus were found on all three strains (Supplementary Table 1), such as ackA, acyP, yccX, lpd, pdhd, maeA, sfcA, poxL, pta, actP, among others. However, strain-specific genes regarding phosphorus solubilization were also identified for each strain (Supplementary Table 1), such as for strain TE3 T : fdhA; for strain TRQ65: ybhC, pflD, dml, and kdpA-D; and for strain TRQ8: frc, nagK, dkgA, kgtP, Ira6, lldP, fumA, among others.In addition, all three strains presented genes related to the production of siderophores ranging from 15 to 33 CDS (Table 3) (troA-D, bmr, fur, fmnA, feuD, narX, eutH, urtB among others) (Supplementary Table 1), these related to the production of anthrachelin and bacillibactin. Siderophores, as iron-chelating compounds, play a crucial role in enhancing wheat growth and production by facilitating iron uptake and utilization (Srivastava, 2023). Iron is an essential micronutrient for plants, including wheat, and is vital for various physiological processes, including photosynthesis, respiration, and DNA synthesis (Villarreal--Delgado et al., 2018). As we indicated above, Priestia megaterium TRQ8 has shown the ability to produce siderophores (production index of 8.17) (Rojas-Padilla et al., 2020). While TRQ65 and TE3 T do present putative genes related to this bioactivity, further research is necessary to quantify this ability.Stress response mechanisms in PGPB are crucial adaptations that enable these microorganisms to thrive in challenging environments, encompassing both biotic and abiotic stress factors. The genome of the studied strains presents genes related to stress response (mainly osmotic and oxidative stress), ranging from 41 to 66 CDS. These characteristics are invaluable for bioprospection, as stress-tolerant PGPB have great potential for developing sustainable agricultural solutions that enhance plant growth, productivity, and resilience in challenging environmental conditions.To complement these findings, the PLaBAse v1.01 web source was used under the annotation of bacterial plant growth-promoting traits (proteins) (PGPTs) (Patz et al., 2021), where the results obtained showed that for both strains TRQ8 and TRQ65, 12 % of their genes and 11 % for strain TE3 T are related to biofertilization traits (Table 4).Among the mentioned PGPT predicted through Rast 2.0, PLaBAse also elucidates nitrogen acquisition mechanisms ranging from 13 to 14 % of the total genes, from 64 to 102 CDS identified (Table 4). This includes atmospheric N fixation (8 % for all three strains) including genes nifS and nifU; which are involved in transforming atmospheric N to ammonia (a usable form of nitrogen for plants), contributing to wheat growth by providing a direct source of nitrogen for enhancing plant vigor, tillering, and overall biomass (Gul et al., 2023). Also, the number of genes identified in the studied strains involved in urea usage ranged from 7 to 16 %, for denitrification ranged from 13 to 25 %; these processes play an important role in the nitrogen cycle and soil fertility (Mahapatra et al., 2022).Thus, more than 50 % of the biofertilization-related genes are shared among Bacillus cabrialesii subsp. cabrialesii TE3 T , Priestia megaterium TRQ8, and Bacillus paralicheniformis TRQ65, which are related to nitrogen acquisition, phosphorus assimilation, carbon dioxide fixation, iron acquisition, phosphate, and potassium solubilization (Fig. 2; and Supplementary Table 1). The analyzed strains also presented strainspecific genes associated with PGP traits. The results showed that TE3 T presented genes related to iron uptake (troA, troB, troC among others), bacillibatin transport (bmr), siderophore export (macA), urea acquisition (urtA-D) and phosphorus solubilization (fdhA); TRQ65 presented genes related to rhizobactin metabolism (rhbE) among others and TRQ8 presented the most strain-specific genes related to iron uptake, P solubilization S metabolism, and others (Supplementary Table 1).The genomic bioinformatic analysis involves the systematic analysis of bacterial genomes to identify and apply their potential for various purposes, including enhancing plant growth and agricultural sustainability. Thus, the application of these as a consortium may optimize their PGP traits together. In the case of wheat, the studied PGPB have a great genomic diversity that can positively influence wheat growth by enhancing nutrient availability, disease resistance, and stress tolerance. Thus, to quantify the genomic background of the studied strains (in a consortium, BC) as wheat growth promoters, commercial field assays were carried out under two amounts of initial N in the soil and three N fertilizers doses, as follows.In 2018-2019, the effect of the inoculation of the BC at 0 kg N ha − 1 in the number of spikes per square meter resulted in an increment of 28 % compared to its uninoculated control (337 inoculated vs. 264 uninoculated) (Table 5), as well as an increase of 26 % compared to the treatment of the complete N fertilization (268). This parameter showed no significant difference between both treatments at 120 kg N ha − 1 (inoculated, 317 vs. uninoculated, 315). A similar impact occurred during the succeeding cycle (2019-2020), where the treatment of 0 kg N ha − 1 + BC had an increment of 37 % concerning its uninoculated control (207 vs. 151), and resulted in no significant difference among the rest of the treatments comparing the control vs. the inoculated treatment. The treatments that received the complete fertilizer dose (240 kg N ha − 1 ) showed no significant difference among them in the number of spikes per square meter (268, uninoculated vs. 288, inoculated). It has been reported that N contributes to plant and spike generation by increasing vegetative growth (Sonkurt and Çig, 2019); moreover, the number of spikes m − 2 is the result of earlier dynamics from the start of stem elongation to anthesis (Slafer et al., 2022), which are the stages of maximum nitrogen absorption. That would indicate that the treatments with higher values of spikes m − 2 have a balance in the optimal conditions, such as radiation, temperature, photoperiod, water, and nutrients (especially N) needed for the spikes to grow, which could have been facilitated by the studied BC considering that the beneficial effects were observed under treatments without N fertilization.In the case of the number of grains per spike (Table 5), a tendency of higher values with higher doses of N was found only in 2019-2020, but the inoculation did not have a significant effect compared to their controls, as well as in the parameter of spike size at both cycles.On the other hand, the impact of the inoculation of the BC on grain yield in 2018-2019 (an initial N content of 123 kg N ha − 1 in the soil) was observed when no fertilization was added to the wheat crop (0 kg N ha − 1 + BC), obtaining an increment of 1 ton ha − 1 more than the uninoculated treatment (Table 5). The following year (an initial N content of 104 kg N ha − 1 in the soil), significant differences (p < 0.05) were obtained when 120 and 240 kg N ha − 1 were applied to the crop, resulting in 2.0 and 0.5 ton ha − 1 more grain yields, respectively, compared to the uninoculated controls at the same doses of N fertilization.It has been reported in the literature that bacteria promoting plant growth do not represent benefits to the plant if large doses of chemical fertilizers are applied to the crops (Glick, 2012). That phenomenon could be attributed to nutrient imbalances in the soil (da Silva Freitas et al., 2023), modulating the positive effects of the studied BC.Thereby, in this study, the positive effect of the inoculation is the result of the plant growth promotion mechanisms of the bacterial consortium. As previously mentioned, B. cabrialesii subsp. cabrialesii TE3 T , P. megaterium TRQ8, and B. paralicheniformis TRQ65 solubilize P (Robles-Montoya et al., 2019;Rojas Padilla et al., 2020;Valenzuela-Aragon et al., 2018;Valenzuela-Ruiz et al., 2019), where in their genomes 33-34 % of the total genes related to biofertilization traits were related to P solubilization (Table 4). This nutrient is indispensable for vegetative development, as it is a constituent of DNA and RNA nucleic acids, essential for protein reproduction and synthesis; as well as for the development at every phenological stage. Also, P stimulates germination, seed formation, root and stem development, yield, and quality, among other important processes (Malhotra et al., 2018). Alongside IAA production, N fixation, K and S assimilation, and iron acquisition mechanisms are involved in plant growth promotion.IAA and P assimilation-related genes found in these strains have been associated with the plant's photosynthetic ability, where PGPB can stimulate photosynthesis in wheat plants by improving chlorophyll content, increasing the efficiency of photosystem II, and enhancing stomatal conductance (Spaepen and Vanderleyden, 2011;El Mazlouzi et al., 2020). This leads to higher rates of photosynthesis, resulting in increased production of glucose and fructose, the primary products of photosynthesis.The above-mentioned can also be explained by the impact observed in the harvest index, which resulted in significant increments in 2018-2019 for the three different doses of N applied when the BC was inoculated, and in the medium dose in the following year (Table 5), compared to the uninoculated treatments. Harvest index is the ratio of grain to total shoot dry matter or a measure of the efficiency of the plant to produce grains, it depends on a combination of factors such as the genotype, the environment, and crop management (Porker et al., 2020); Fig. 2. Biofertilization-related genes (nitrogen acquisition, phosphorus assimilation, carbon dioxide fixation, iron acquisition, phosphate, and potassium solubilization) among Bacillus cabrialesii subsp. cabrialesii TE3 T , Priestia megaterium TRQ8, and Bacillus paralicheniformis TRQ65. This comparison was generated through InteractiVenn (Heberle et al., 2015), where a total of 1080 genes were input and analyzed.  thus, during the last decades, increasing the harvest index has been a tool for increasing crop productivity (Camargo-Alvarez et al., 2023).Other studies have reported increases in yields due to the inoculation of microorganisms at similar N doses as the initial N contents (123 and 104 kg per hectare) reported in this study. Diosnel et al. (2019) and Galindo et al. (2019) reported an increase in wheat yields inoculating Azospirillum brasilense along with 130 and 140 kg N ha − 1 , respectively. Kumar et al. (2017) applying 120 kg N ha − 1 obtained higher wheat grain yield (6-22 % more, according to the inoculated microorganism), and higher straw yield (6-28 % more) due to the inoculation of bacteria (single strain or in consortium) in comparison with the control treatment.Besides, Ibarra-Villarreal et al. ( 2023) also obtained wheat grain yield increases of about ~1 ton ha − 1 (on average, under nitrogen fertilization rates of 0, 130, and 250 kg N ha − 1 ) compared to the uninoculated controls, for two consecutive agricultural cycles, when they inoculated a consortium composed of B. subtilis TSO9, B. cabrialesii subsp. tritici TSO2 T , B. subtilis TSO22, B. paralicheniformis TRQ65, and Priestia megaterium TRQ8, with an initial N content of 32 kg N ha − 1 in the soil. The inoculated treatments fertilized with half of the recommended dose of N, resulted in 1 ton ha − 1 more, compared to treatments that received the total recommended nitrogen dose of 250 kg N ha − 1 . Consequently, the authors conclude that the application of the studied bacterial consortium, in combination with a diminished amount of N fertilizer represents a sustainable alternative to increase wheat yield.In 2018-2019, the treatment with the highest yield (0 kg N ha − 1 + BC, 7.1 ton ha − 1 ) showed the lowest grain protein content (13.4 %); and the lowest value in the SDS sedimentation test (14.0 mL) (Table 6). However, all the values of protein obtained in the different treatments for that crop cycle surpassed the minimal protein content required for this variety (between 12.8 and 15.6 %) (Félix-Fuentes et al., 2010;Figueroa-López et al., 2010).Neither the increase in the dose of fertilizer nor the application of BC had a significant effect on 1000-grain weight and hectolitre weight (Table 6), except in the treatments with 0 kg N ha − 1 , where the BC increased both traits in the 2018-2019 crop cycle (38.1 g vs. 32.4 g). That year, the treatments of 0 kg N ha − 1 + BC, 120 kg N ha − 1 , and 120 kg N ha − 1 + BC had the highest values and did not show a significant difference between them (38.1 g, 36.2 g, and 35.8 g, respectively).Nonetheless, all values of hectolitre weight in this study (74.4-76.8 kg/hL, in 2018-2019) turned out slightly lower than the values reported in the literature for this wheat variety, which are between 78 and 84 kg/ hL (Felix-Fuentes et al., 2010;Guzman et al., 2016a). Besides, hectolitre weight and 1000-grain weight for the first cycle are negatively associated with the protein content and the SDS-sedimentation volume.In 2019-2020, hectolitre weight and 1000-grain weight resulted in higher values than the previous cycle (81.7-82.2 kg/hL, and 53.8-59.7 g, respectively). On the contrary, in the 2019-2020 cycle, grain protein content, as well as wholemeal flour yellowness, SDS-sedimentation test, and the SDS/protein index remained lower than in the previous crop cycle. These results suggest that the composition of the grain could have been less protein content compared to other components (e.g. starch, lipids, or water). The SDS-sedimentation volume determines the hydration and expansion of gluten proteins in a slightly acidic medium, giving a general idea of the quality of gluten and its extensibility, thus making a suitable flour to make pasta (Guzman et al., 2016b).Further, elevated protein content and a high value of wholemeal yellowness are required for high-quality durum wheat crops (Zarco--Hernandez et al., 2005). In the wholemeal yellowness analysis, no significant differences between the studied treatments in 2018-2019 (16.28-16.50, Table 6) (16.28-16.50, Table 6) were observed. The increased b values (wholemeal yellowness) recorded in the first cycle are likely determined by the reduced grain size of the samples and, therefore, a greater concentration of the pigments. In both cycles, however, neither the N treatment nor the addition of the CB is associated with this trait which is expected (mostly genetically determined). Tabbita et al. (2023) observed that this trait was the most stable (among yield and quality traits) across management conditions, as observed in this study; thereby, all obtained values met the requirements for this trait on CIRNO C2008 (Guzman et al., 2016a). Similarly, all percentages of protein content obtained (13.4-15.3 %, Table 6) exceeded the minimal requirement for this variety that year (between 12.8 and 15.6 %) (Félix-Fuentes et al., 2010;Figueroa-López et al., 2010).Quality traits of protein content and SDS sedimentation test value obtained in 2018-2019 indicate that plants that did not receive nitrogen fertilization and were inoculated with the BC, improved residual soil N absorption, and produced the highest yield with desired quality traits. Some studies with the inoculation of PGPR have reported increases in protein content. Rana et al. (2012) reported an increment of 18.6 % of protein, as well as an increase of 11.4 % in grain yield concerning the inoculated control (NPK 60:60:60), due to the inoculation of Providencia sp. PW5 at the same NPK doses. In summary, the inoculation of the CB does not cause significant differences in the analyzed quality traits (the only exception is for the first cycle, at 0 kg N ha − 1 addition, where the inoculation causes an increase in both hectolitre weight and 1000-grain weight values), as quality traits tend to be more stable than yield parameters, and are more dependant on the wheat genotype; while yield shows fluctuations in different agricultural cycles, which depend to a large extent on the availability of nutrients and water (Figueroa-López et al., 2010). Thus, the improvement in yields due to the inoculation of the BC did not compromise the quality traits of the wheat production.In 2018-2019, NUE (Table 7) increased from 25.3 % (240 kg N ha − 1 applied) up to 39.3 %, when 120 kg N ha − 1 was applied, where 30.8 % of the applied N was detected in the grains; on the other hand, in 2019-2020, NUE increased from 34.4 % (240 kg N ha − 1 applied) up to 46.9 %, when half of the fertilization was added to wheat.NUE for the wheat crop under the complete N dose conventionally applied in the Yaqui Valley (240 kg N ha − 1 ) in 2018-2019 (25.3 %) and 2019-2020 (34.4 %) turned out similar to what was reported by Ortiz-Monasterio and Raun (2007), which was 31 % for the same crop and region. While two decades ago, globally, the NUE of cereal crops was reported at 33 %; and in 2015 it was 35 % for the world, 41 % in the United States, 30 % in China, and 21 % for the cereals of India (Omara et al., 2019).Furthermore, in 2018-2019, with the complete N fertilization dose, only 12.6 % remained in the superficial part of the soil (30 cm depth) after the harvest, which suggests that 62.1 % (Table 7) of the applied N is lost in the environment through leaching or volatilization, which causes adverse effects on the environment and represents economic losses to the farmers of the Yaqui Valley. The losses of N for that treatment in the following crop season were 63.2 %.In both cycles, it was clear that the increase in NUE was attributable more to the reduction of the fertilization by half, than to the inoculation of the BC, even when there were notable and significant impacts on crop grain yield. Those findings showed that metabolic processes involved in N accumulation cannot be completely associated with wheat growth promotion mechanisms used by these PGPB strains. The above mentioned, suggests that these strains would impact and metabolize the N that is already uptaken. Also, the genomic annotation presented here highlights that 13-14 % of the reported genes related to biofertilization growth-promoting traits are involved in N acquisition, including N fixation and N transformation to ammonia which may be a direct source of N for the wheat plant; although, there is not experimental evidence of nitrogen fixation by these strains.In this sense, it is important to coordinate wheat stages of high nitrogen demand with the applications of N (amount, ratio, and type of N fertilizer), as well as sustainable alternatives (e. g. bacterial inoculants) according to the requirements of N during the growth period. Also, adequate fractionation of N fertilization is necessary to improve N assimilation rates and grain quality (González-Figueroa et al., 2022). For example, at post-anthesis carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis contributes 60-90 % to the final single-spike yield; on the other hand, flag-leaf photosynthesis contributes 30-50 % of grain-filling assimilation in wheat (DING et al., 2022). On the other hand, N uptake efficiency is mostly determined by N accumulation at pre-anthesis, because strong root physiological activities promote N acquisition from the soil during the vegetative period, and these activities limit N uptake during the reproductive period (DING et al., 2022).Additionally, it has been reported that higher doses of N cause higher loss and less use of N by the wheat crop, since it exists a limit in the nutritional demand of the plant, where it can absorb a certain amount of nutrients for a certain time, and the N that is not absorbed, get lost in the environment; which means that fertilization use efficiency diminishes at higher doses of applied N (Galindo et al., 2016(Galindo et al., , 2019)). Besides, the beneficial effect of the inoculation of PGPB is lost with higher doses of N (Glick, 2012). For these reasons, the positive effect of the BC on NUE at the studied doses concerning their uninoculated controls was not observed, possibly due to the elevated residual soil N content (123 and 104 kg N ha − 1 ).Grageda Cabrera et al. (2018), in their work of inoculation of mycorrhizae on wheat, obtained increases in grain yield of up to 1.29 ton ha − 1 , increased the amount of N derived from the fertilizer to up to 15 kg, and enhanced nitrogen fertilizer utilization up to 11 %, compared to the uninoculated plants, using 120 kg of ammonium sulfate. On the other hand, Serret et al. (2008) found that NUE decreased by ~ half when nitrogen fertilizer increased from 50 to 100 kg ha − 1 , and continued diminishing less abruptly with higher N doses because N utilization and absorption decreased when N doses increased from 50 to ≥100 kg ha -1 .The remnant N in the first 30 cm of the soil with 100 % N (240 kg N ha − 1 ) was the same in both inoculated and uninoculated treatments (12.6 %, Table 7), which decreased until 6.3 % when the dose of N applied was reduced by half, and decreased until 2.5 % when that N dosage was combined with the inoculation of the BC (in 2018-2019). On the other hand, slightly fewer N losses were observed at the treatments of 120 kg N ha − 1 than at 240 kg N ha − 1 applied in both cycles (Table 7).Thereby, based on yield results (Table 5), the higher value in 2018-2019 was obtained in the treatment where the BC was inoculated without the input of N fertilization (7.1 ± 0.6 ton ha − 1 ), and in 2019-2020 the positive effect was observed under 0 and 120 kg N ha − 1 , it can be inferred that NUE could be even higher at lower doses of N applied on this study (120 kg N ha − 1 ). Hence, studying intermediate doses between 0 and 120 kg N is recommended to fully explain the BC effect.The inoculation of the studied native bacterial consortium (B. cabrialesii subsp. cabrialesii TE3 T , P. megaterium TRQ8, and B. paralicheniformis TRQ65) to the wheat crop, in the presence of a total N concentration (soil N content + fertilization) of 123-225 kg N ha − 1 increases crop yield and maintains an adequate grain quality for this cereal under the edaphoclimatic conditions of the Yaqui Valley. A positive effect of the inoculum on NUE at rates of 120 and 240 kg N ha − 1 under soils with 123 kg of N ha − 1 and 104 kg of N ha − 1 , was not observed, but increases of 14 % and 12.5 % of NUE of the total plant were observed when the fertilization was diminished by half (120 kg N ha − 1 ).In general, positive effects on wheat yield, quality, and nitrogen use efficiency were more dependent on nitrogen fertilization rates, rather than the inoculation of the BC: more NUE, with less N fertilization; better grain quality traits with more N fertilization; and the yield parameters were less homogeneous, with significant positive effects on wheat grain yield between 123 and 225 kg N ha − 1 in the soil.Before their massive application in the field, it is important to keep working on the study and selection of potential strains with a genomic background that has a greater number of biofertilization-related genes to improve nitrogen acquisition, phosphorus assimilation, carbon dioxide fixation, iron acquisition, phosphate and potassium solubilization, as well as genes related to the production of siderophores (anthrachelin and bacillibactin), and stress response (mainly osmotic and oxidative stress), prioritizing native microorganisms, and their interaction with the plant, to design efficient strategies concerning an appropriate agricultural managementThe results obtained in this study highlight the importance of carrying out a physicochemical analysis of the soil to acknowledge the initial nutritional status of the soil (with a special focus on N content), to establish the nitrogen fertilization recommendation that the crop requires at which the inoculation of the BC would keep having the desired positive effect and increasing productivity.","tokenCount":"7411"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bd0c38195296269b3087b51ffc274411","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f7dbbae5-ebcf-4386-b7a3-2d87d48d3c85/retrieve","id":"-408980399"},"keywords":["Plant nutrition Nutrients Nutrient use efficiency Fertilizer Sustainable intensification Circular economy GHG, greenhouse gas emissions","NuUE, nutrient use efficiency","NUE, nitrogen use efficiency","SDG, Sustainable Development Goal"],"sieverID":"b0a408ca-e0ef-4290-9bda-7f03b81a31f2","pagecount":"13","content":"The coming 10-20 years will be most critical for making the transition to a global food system in which mineral nutrients in agriculture must be managed in a more holistic manner. Fertilizers play a particular role in that because they are among the key drivers for securing global food security and improving human nutrition through increased crop yields and nutritional quality. A new paradigm for responsible plant nutrition follows a food systems and circular economy approach to achieve multiple socioeconomic, environmental and health objectives. Achieving that requires utilizing all available organic and inorganic nutrient sources with high efficiency, tailored to the specific features of food systems and agroecosystems in different world regions. Critical actions include: (i) sustainability-driven nutrient roadmaps, (ii) digital crop nutrition solutions, (iii) nutritious crops, (iv) nutrient recovery and recycling, (v) climate-smart fertilizers, and (vi) accelerated innovation. The outcome of this transformation will be a new societal plant nutrition optimum rather than a purely economic optimum. New partnerships and sustainability-focused business models will create added value for all actors in the nutrient chain and benefit farmers as well as consumers. Research needs to become more problem-driven and merge excellent science with entrepreneurial innovation approaches in order to develop robust solutions faster and at larger scale. Evidence-based policies should focus on creating and supporting the necessary nutrient stewardship roadmaps, including realistic national targets, progressive regulation and incentives that support technology and business innovation.consumption. During the Green Revolution, except for much of the African continent, the prevailing mode of agricultural production growth has been through increasing yields and efficiency of inputs (Fuglie, 2018), but including periods of regional land expansion in response to food security concerns or global market opportunities. A major concern is that for all of the world's most important cropsrice, wheat, maize and soybeanthe relative contribution of cropland expansion to total production increase was larger during 2002-2014 than during the 1980-2002 period (Cassman and Grassini, 2020). Just in the past two decades, global cropland area has increased by another 63 million ha, whereas forest land declined by 94 million ha (FAO, 2021).However, significant intensification and expansion of agricultural production both had wide-ranging social, economic and environmental impacts. On one hand, higher crop yields and more productive animals have saved billions of people from starvation and millions of hectares of natural ecosystems from being converted to agriculture since the 1960s (Pingali, 2012;Stevenson et al., 2013). On the other hand, intensive animal and crop production to support the emerging food consumption patterns have caused externalities that are difficult to manage. Of great concern are losses of reactive forms of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) into the environment, impacting water quality, biodiversity, air quality and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It has been suggested that anthropogenic perturbation levels of global N and P flows may already exceed limits that are deemed to be a safe operating space for humanity (Steffen et al., 2015), although the validity of such \"Planetary Boundaries\" remains under debate (Biermann and Kim, 2020). Furthermore, while hunger and malnutrition have significantly declined in recent decades, they have stubbornly persisted in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other regions (Pingali et al., 2017), including micronutrient-related deficiencies that particularly affect women and children.Food security through increased crop yields will remain hugely important in light of an expected population of about 9.5 billion by 2050 (Vollset et al., 2020), but future yield increases should go hand-in-hand with improvements in environmental and socio-economic outcomes. The coming 10-20 years will be critical for making the transition to a global food system in which we produce and consume food in a more sustainable manner (Willett et al., 2019;Herrero et al., 2020), mitigating much of the estimated $12 trillion hidden health, environmental and socio-economic costs of it (FOLU, 2019). Over 20 different mineral elements are known to be critical for plant, animal and/or human health (Zoroddu et al., 2019;Brown et al., 2021) and many of them enter the food system through crops and grasslands, i.e. from soil, fertilizers, organic manures, biological N fixation and few other sources. Hence, plant nutrients are at the core of the food system transformation because they drive both primary food production and many of the externalities caused by it.Here we present a new paradigm for managing plant nutrients throughout their life cycle, but we also point out that the priorities and specific solutions for that will vary widely. We present this new paradigm mainly from the perspective of the fertilizer industry and the new roles it should play in the food system, recognizing, however, that many other stakeholders have to make big changes as well.Future plant nutrition solutions will have to address multiple global and regional challenges related to nutrients in the food system. In that context, below we discuss ten higher-level, interconnected questions that need to be tackled with urgency.(1) How can future growth in primary crop production be decoupled from growth in fertilizer consumption? How can we overcome the current global nutrient imbalance?For many decades, rising crop production was closely coupled with increasing input of N and other nutrients, mostly from fertilizer.Although estimates vary widely, the global N surplus on croplandcalculated as N inputs from fertilizer, manure, biological N fixation and other sources minus N removed with harvested productshas increased from less than 20 million t N yr − 1 in 1961 to roughly 90 million t N yr − 1 in 2010 (Zhang et al., 2021b). Of even greater concern is the global divide, ranging from large nutrient surpluses in some regions to nutrient deficits in others (Fig. 1).When interpreting Fig. 1 it should be noted that environmental pollution only starts to increase when the N surplus is well above zero (McLellan et al., 2018;Quemada et al., 2020). Likewise, a small N surplus or a neutral N balance may already indicate the presence of soil N mining over time, which is also not desirable. In recent decades, regional differences have become further aggravated by transnational nutrient transfers associated with global trade of feed and food (Grote et al., 2005;Parviainen and Helenius, 2020). Many high-income countries thus outsource a significant amount of the pressure on natural resources to lower-income countries (Sun et al., 2020), but they also have to face the consequences of nutrient excess caused by imports of nutrients.On a global scale, future growth in primary crop production needs to be decoupled from growth in fertilizer consumption, while also accounting for the huge differences among regions and countries in terms of historical levels of fertilizer use and future needs. Hence, national nutrient roadmaps and solutions for improving nutrient use efficiency (NuUE) will require defining specific NuUE targets for the key agricultural sub-sectors, and carefully crafted regulatory and supporting policies that also take into account the needs of farmers and the agro-food industry as a whole. Encouraging progress has been made in increasing NuUE in regions such as North America, Western and Central Europe in the past 30 years, and more recently also in China (Zhang et al., 2015). What further improvements are feasible and realistic in different parts of the world? What would be the best possible nutrient use efficiencies that ensure high crop yields and avoid excessive surpluses as well as long-term depletion of soil nutrient stocks over time? How can this be implemented across the world, including regions in which subsistence farming remains dominant?(2) What are the key measures to double or triple crop yields in Africa with increasing and balanced nutrient inputs?Crop yields in most African countries have risen very slowly, causing the land area under cultivation to more than double in size, whereas agricultural growth in Asia has been largely driven by yield increases on existing land (Fig. 2).Africa has massive nutrient deficits that must be overcome to increase crop yields and achieve higher levels of food security within the next few decades (van Ittersum et al., 2016;Berge et al., 2019). Annual average nutrient balances in sub-Saharan Africa were estimated to be about − 26 kg N ha − 1 , -3 kg P ha − 1 , and -19 kg K ha − 1 in 2000 (Stoorvogel et al., 1993). Although fertilizer use has increased somewhat since then, crop yields have increased somewhat too. Hence, in most countries, net nutrient input-output balances have not improved at all. In reality, there are widespread and unsustainable levels of soil nutrient depletion in most of sub-Saharan Africa, which has been known for a long time. .In 2006, at a historic Africa Fertilizer Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, heads of state and government declared that \"Given the strategic importance of fertilizer in achieving the African Green Revolution to end hunger, the African Union Member States resolve to increase the level of use of fertilizer from the current average of 8 kg per hectare to an average of at least 50 kg per hectare by 2015\". However, excluding South Africa, average fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019 was only about 15 kg N + P 2 O 5 +K 2 O ha − 1 (Source: IFASTAT). Only two countries have achieved the 50 kg ha − 1 target (Kenya and Botswana), whereas six have at least moved to the 30-50 kg ha − 1 range (Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Benin and Mali), or have much higher fertilizer rates in specific crops already, such as maize in Ethiopia (Assefa et al., 2021). Fertilizer alone will not be sufficient to lift crop yields, but it is the key ingredient to trigger a uniquely African Green Revolution in areas that are favorable for intensification (Vanlauwe and Dobermann, 2020). This must be based on good information, incentives for efficient use of nutrients to avoid environmental harm, and specific measures to tackle the still persistent forms of malnutrition.(3) What data-driven technologies, business solutions and policies will accelerate the adoption of more precise nutrient management solutions by farmers?In many countries, farmers apply too much fertilizers because they are affordable and they do not want to risk losses of yield. In other situations, farmers may not apply sufficient nutrients or apply them in the wrong ways because of lack of access, affordability, or information and knowledge. Many good examples exist worldwide for how to overcome this through more precise management of nutrients (Chen et al., 2014;Chivenge et al., 2021), but only few have found wider adoption, even in high-income countries with sophisticated policies and technologies (Silva et al., 2021;Cassman and Dobermann, 2022). Understanding and overcoming that will be of particular importance for increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in crop production from currently about 50% to at least 70% within the next two decades, a level that is entire feasible if many of the available, known measures could be implemented widely (Hutchings et al., 2020). The potential benefits could be large. A recent analysis for China suggests that the simultaneous implementation of just four measures -improved farm management practices with nitrogen use reductions; machine deep placement of fertilizer; enhanced-efficiency fertilizer use; and improved manure managementwould increase crop yields and NUE, reduce N losses to water and massively improve air quality (Guo et al., 2020). Total benefits of US$30 billion per year would exceed the estimated US$18 billion per year in costs.(4) Can nutrient losses and waste along the whole agri-food chain be halved?Although accurate data are not available, estimates suggest that at global scale only around 16-20% of nitrogen compounds entering the food system may reach useful products, with up to 80% lost to the environment in different forms (Sutton et al., 2012;Zhang et al., 2020). However, there are huge variations in full-chain NUE among countries, and such estimates also do not account for N that contributes to net increases in soil organic matter, which may also be a desirable outcome with regard to soil health and GHG mitigation. In Europe, due to structural differences of the agricultural sector, full-chain NUE ranges from 10% in Ireland to 40% in Italy (Erisman et al., 2018). Global supply chains are needed to ensure adequate and stable food supply, but potential also exists for more local food production and reduced food movement (Kinnunen et al., 2020). Whether that would also reduce nutrient losses and GHG emissions is not yet fully clear.Reducing food waste and shifting to healthier diets would positively impact NuUE, nutrient losses and fertilizer requirements in national food systems, but the best outcomes can be achieved in combination with other measures that enhance crop and animal productivity (Ma et al., 2019). Besides, transitions to more plant-based diets may also create additional wastewater P burdens and treatment requirements (Forber et al., 2020). New technologies will likely increase the recovery of nutrients from different organic wastes in the food system in forms that allow safe recycling back to crop production, thus enabling a more circular nutrient economy. What levels of reductions in full-chain nutrient losses and increases in nutrient recovery and recycling can realistically be achieved and at what cost?(5) How can nutrient cycles in crop and livestock farming be closed? About 25 billion poultry birds, 2.2 billion sheep and goats, 1.7 billion cattle and buffaloes, and 1 billion pigs are now raised and consumed by humans. In many countries, globally operating production and consumption drivers and supply chains (Sun et al., 2020) have caused a separation and concentration of crop and livestock farming, resulting in spatially disconnected, leaky nutrient cycles. The massive growth of the livestock sector has led to low NuUE in the whole food chain, increased  waste and large GHG emissions (Erisman et al., 2018;Uwizeye et al., 2020). Farmed animals consume more than one-third of the world's cereal grain, as well as about a quarter of all pulses and starchy roots and tubers grown. Global livestock supply chains currently emit 65 Tg N yr − 1 to air and water in the form of NO 3 (29 Tg N yr − 1 ), NH 3 (26 Tg N yr − 1 ), NO x (8 Tg N yr − 1 ) and N 2 O (2 Tg N yr − 1 ), which is equivalent to one-third of the human-induced N emissions (Uwizeye et al., 2020).Sustainable livestock production involves many steps (Eisler et al., 2014), including more pasture-based systems and re-integration of crop and livestock farming. If used for what they are good at -converting by-products from the food system and forage resources into valuable food and manure -farm animals can play a huge role in future, more circular farming and food systems (van Zanten et al., 2019). Moreover, optimized micronutrient strategies are required for pasture-based livestock systems because inadequate micronutrients in soils and pasture can affect micronutrient absorption and hence animal health and production, while animal excreta can also be the major input of micronutrients to pasture (Kao et al., 2020). Besides healthier diets with reduced meat consumption, recoupling livestock and cropping systems offers a major path to sustainable agriculture (Herrero et al., 2010), but mixed crop-livestock systems often require higher capital to establish and are also more difficult to manage (Thornton and Herrero, 2015). What future farm structures, technologies and supply chains will enable a better crop-livestock integration? (6) How can we sustain and improve soil health? Soils are a growing medium for crops, but they also support other essential ecosystem services, such as: water purification, carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling and the provision of habitats for biodiversity (Bünemann et al., 2018). Translating these multiple functions into practical indicators and approaches for soil and nutrient management remains challenging (Bünemann et al., 2018;Rinot et al., 2019). Incentivizing multi-objective management is also difficult when current management focuses on a single primary function, such as crop production. There is no ideal soil for everything, but purpose-driven evaluation of specific soil functions offers a more pragmatic route to soil health management (Vogel et al., 2019).Carbon and nutrient inputs are important triggers for sustaining and improving soil health in crop production, which also increases the resilience of crop production systems to climate warming (Deng et al., 2020). Whereas in the past the emphasis in plant nutrition has been on soil fertility, i.e. the nutrient supplying capacity of soils, a new paradigm has to contribute to broader aspects of soil health. For example, sequestration of atmospheric CO 2 in soils can potentially contribute to reducing global warming and improving soil health, but it requires continuous inputs of organic material and nutrients (particularly N and P) to form stable soil organic matter, and having these nutrients available in the right places (van Groenigen et al., 2017;Spohn, 2020;Martin et al., 2021). How can a holistic plant nutrition approach manage macroand micro-nutrients for high crop productivity and NuUE, but also utilize biological N fixation, optimize carbon storage and turnover, increase soil biodiversity, and avoid soil acidification or other forms of degradation?(7) How will mineral nutrition of crops change in changing climates?Mineral nutrients in soils and crops have important and still difficult to predict positive as well as negative interactions with global climate change (Lynch and Clair, 2004;Soares et al., 2019), although negative impacts of climate change appear to outweigh positive ones (St.Clair and Lynch, 2010). Rising atmospheric CO 2 may increase crop yields, but it may also cause declining nutritional quality, particularly in crops that rely on C3-photosynthesis, such as wheat, barley, rice, soybean and others (Brouder and Volenec, 2017;Soares et al., 2019;Ebi et al., 2021). The mineral status of plants will become even more important under climate change-linked stress conditions. Balanced plant nutrition has particular roles in increasing the tolerance to drought (Waraich et al., 2011), heat (Mengutay et al., 2013;Sarwar et al., 2019) or high radiation (Marschner and Cakmak, 1989), and can thus be an important tool for managing climatic risks. Several nutrients are also directly involved in reducing pathogenic infection and increasing disease resistance of crop plants (Wang et al., 2013;Elmer and Datnoff, 2014;Cabot et al., 2019), mainly by improving cell wall stability and increasing the pool of defense metabolites against pathogen attack (Marschner, 2012). Changes in seasonality, precipitation and extreme weather events will affect the timing and efficiency of nutrient uptake, requiring integration of nutrient advisories with early warning and climate information systems.(8) What are realistic options and targets for reducing fertilizerrelated greenhouse gas emissions?In 2015, annual food-system GHG emissions amounted to 18 Gt CO 2 equivalent, representing 34% of total global GHG emissions (Crippa et al., 2021). About 71% of that came from agricultural production and land use. Therefore, all pathways that limit global warming to well below 2 • C require land-based mitigation and land-use change (IPCC, 2019). Improvements in the efficiency of agricultural production processes and reductions in land conversions have led to fairly stable levels of total GHG emissions from agriculture production and land use over the last 30 years, resulting in a 35% decrease on a per capita basis (Crippa et al., 2021). At issue is, what more can be done across the entire nutrient chain to reduce agricultural GHG emissions, including fertilizer production (Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions), farm management of nutrients (Scope 3 emissions) and nutrient recycling. At present, energy use in ammonia synthesis alone accounts for more than 1% of global GHG emissions (measured in carbon dioxide equivalents).Besides decarbonizing the industrial production of fertilizers, farm gate emissions of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) from mineral and organic fertilizers are of particular interest because they amount to about 0.6 GtCO 2 e and 1.0 GtCO 2 e, which together comprises nearly 10% of total food and land use GHG emissions (based on FAO data released in 2021). They can be reduced through a range of interventions, including novel fertilizer products and improved agronomic practices (Maaz et al., 2021), and addressing them may have greater leverage than soil carbon gains achievable from agricultural practice changes (Lawrence et al., 2021). Farmer awareness is however low and often limited by critical barriers (Gomes and Reidsma, 2021). Sequestration of atmospheric CO 2 in soils can also contribute to reducing global warming and improving soil health. However, the mitigation potential of practices such as conservation agriculture or crop residue incorporation has often been overstated (Poulton et al., 2018;Corbeels et al., 2020). The process would require increased biomass production for continuous organic matter inputs, balanced nutrient inputs of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur (Kirkby et al., 2016;Huang et al., 2020;Spohn, 2020), reducing soil disturbance and preventing erosion to form stable soil organic matter. Social, economic, and verification impediments would also need to be overcome (Amundson and Biardeau, 2018). Besides wanting to sequester more carbon from the atmosphere, an immediate need is to actually prevent further soil carbon losses because global warming may further accelerate the decomposition of soil organic matter (Nottingham et al., 2020).(9) How can cropping systems deliver high quality, more nutritious food?More than 2 billion people in the world are affected by various forms of micronutrient malnutrition (e.g. iron, zinc, iodine, selenium), which increases child mortality, childhood stunting, anemia and susceptibility to many infectious diseases, but also affects many cognitive functions. In Africa, correlations can be found between soil nutrients and child mortality, stunting, wasting and underweight (Berkhout et al., 2019). In 2011 3.5 billion people were at risk of calcium (Ca) deficiency due to inadequate dietary supply, mostly in Africa and Asia (Kumssa et al., 2015). Current agricultural practices have also contributed to a decline in dietary potassium (K) intake and rise in hypokalemia prevalence in the US population (Sun and Weaver, 2020).Cereals alone are grown on half of the world's cropland and they also consume half of the world's fertilizer. They are hugely important for human nutrition as major sources of dietary energy, essential proteins, mineral elements, and diverse bioactive food components (Poole et al., 2020). However, mineral nutrient concentrations of cereal crops appear to have declined in recent decades due to higher yields, narrower crop genetics, and/or soil nutrient depletion (Fan et al., 2008). Thus far, at global scale the benefits of increased yield to supply more food for expanding populations appear to outweigh such nutrient dilution effects (Marles, 2017). On the other hand, increasing cereal grain food processing results in Mg loss and reduced dietary Mg intake worldwide (Rosanoff and Kumssa, 2020). A handful of micronutrient-poor crops dominate the global food and feed chains and have often also decreased crop diversity or displaced traditional crops with higher nutrient density, such as pulses (Welch et al., 2013). What plant nutrition solutions can be effectively deployed at large scales to improve human nutrition through more nutritious crops and cropping systems? Who should pay for that? (10) How can we better monitor nutrients and implement nutrient stewardship?Numerous efforts have been made in recent years to develop and evaluate indicators for nutrient performance in fields and farms (Quemada et al., 2020), at national (Karimi et al., 2020) and at global scale (Zhang et al., 2015). Assessing nutrient footprints (Einarsson and Cederberg, 2019) or GHG emissions (Walling and Vaneeckhaute, 2020) and life cycles (Hasler et al., 2015) of different types of fertilizers have also become more common, including in industry. Governments have increasing requirements for monitoring progress against Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including nutrient-related targets and indicators in SDG 2 (Gil et al., 2019) and others. At global level, an International Code of Conduct for the Sustainable Use and Management of Fertilizers has recently been published by FAO (22). In industry, companies have increasing requirements for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) monitoring and reporting to demonstrate higher levels of transparency, traceability, quality control, accountability and sustainability throughout all business areas.At issue is how all these diverse efforts can be made more coherent and operational, and how the underlying data can be improved to reduce the huge uncertainties associated with even basic information on nutrient use and NuUE (Zhang et al., 2021b). Of particular importance are efforts to benchmark NuUE for individual fields because those are often more useful than looking at average balances for whole farms or aggregated over larger spatial scales. Field-level indicators are most useful for farmers to diagnose their fields in relation to the level of yield for a given level of nutrient input and management practice (and vice versa), serving as a concrete starting point to identify pathways for improvement (Tenorio et al., 2020).Digital technologies offer great potential for better monitoring, analysis, benchmarking, reporting and certification of sustainability efforts across the entire nutrient chain, including tracking the impact of better practices, technologies and policies. This will become critical for business transformation, evidence-based policy making, and stakeholder communication.Mineral nutrients play a central role in agricultural production as well as natural ecosystems. Impressive progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms of nutrient cycling and their functions in microbial and plant metabolism (Marschner, 2012). Human requirements and mass balance principles also make it clear that fertilizers will continue to be major ingredients of more sustainable food systems. However, future plant nutrition must meet multiple objectives that directly and indirectly contribute to many of the SDGs that now guide humanity (Ladha et al., 2020). Integrated, tailored plant nutrition strategies and practices need to minimize tradeoffs between productivity and the environment, and they need to be viable in the farming and business systems of different nations and localities. Integration in this context has several dimensions: a multi-nutrient food system approach, greater recycling and utilization of all available nutrient sources, alignment with agronomic and stewardship practices, and compliance with high sustainability standards.Therefore, as a key element of sustainable intensification of crop production, the new paradigm for responsible plant nutrition encompasses a broad array of scientific and engineering know-how, technologies, agronomic practices, business models and policies that directly or indirectly affect the production, utilization and recycling of mineral nutrients in agri-food systems. Following a food systems and circular economy approach, responsible plant nutrition aims to (Fig. 3):• Improve income, productivity, nutrient efficiency and resilience of farmers and businesses supporting them • Increase nutrient recovery and recycling from waste and other under-utilized resources • Lift and sustain soil health, including soil carbon • Enhance human health through nutrition-sensitive agriculture • Minimize greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient pollution and biodiversity lossBesides applying nutrients in the right manner, it also entails other measures that contribute to optimizing nutrient flows. Crop genetic improvement, better crop rotations, legumes, soil tillage, liming, residue management, water management, pests and diseases management, livestock, nutrient recycling from waste streams, data and effective information transfer are all important measures for reducing nutrient losses and increasing NuUE. Responsible plant nutrition will contribute much to a more nature-positive approach of food production and consumption that has recently been proposed. We note, however, that the latter requires a much clearer definition and that it should not aim to blindly copy nature because nature has not been optimized for human food production. On the other hand, many proven, good agronomic practices are not that different from commonly proposed agroecological principles (FAO, 2018;Wezel et al., 2020), and should therefore be adapted more widely.Below we elaborate on six key actions required to implement responsible plant nutrition worldwide. We also refer to several specific examples, which are described in greater detail in the Supplementary Information document.We define nutrient roadmaps as a combination of sustainabilitydriven policies, technologies and business models that aim to optimize nutrient use and NuUE in agriculture within each country in the next 10-20 years. They by and large don't exist yet. They must be linked to the SDGs and tailored to the specific food systems and natural endowments in every country, with ambitious but realistic targets for NuUE as the key driver for productivity and reduced nutrient losses. For nitrogen, for example, spatially explicit boundaries can be defined to meet air and water quality targets, while also having to meet minimum production requirements (Vries et al., 2021). Nutrient monitoring, nutrient stewardship principles (International Plant Nutrition Institute, 2016) and new sustainability standards (e.g. sustainable sourcing and certification schemes) will increasingly guide policy making, business innovation and farming practices.Specific targets and priorities for designing such nutrient roadmaps and managing nutrients will vary, depending on each country's agricultural sectors, natural capital, nutrient use history and sustainable development priorities. Once fertilizers become readily available and other technologies enable a better crop yield response, farms and countries typically move along a common trajectory over many decades, but at varying speed (Fig. 4). The current position of several countries or world regions is shown for illustrative purposes.At the early stages of economic development (Phase A in Fig. 4), fertilizer use, often done through blanket applications, rises from a very low level and drives crop yields and farming profits. Hence, starting from very high NuUE levels that actually represent a situation of soil mining, NuUE declines and nutrient surplus starts to grow (Fig. 4). Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are still at the upper left end of this trajectory. Their first priority must be to increase fertilizer use in order to jump-start crop yield growth (Vanlauwe and Dobermann, 2020), but do it as part of an integrated soil fertility management approach that utilizes all available resources and focuses on local adaptation of agronomic interventions (see SI Example 1).Historically, this then leads to a longer intensification period (Phase B in Fig. 4) during which fertilizer use and crop yields rise further, but NuUE declines even more and nutrient surpluses may become excessive. Often this is also caused by sustained fertilizer subsidies, which provide little incentive for balanced fertilizer use and optimizing NuUE. India is a good example for that, where numerous fertilizer price regulating and subsidy schemes have played a major role in driving fertilizer consumption since the 1970s (see SI Example 2.) As a result, N and P fertilizer use on cropland in India more than doubled, but the use efficiency of these nutrients declined to about 30-40% and has remained virtually unchanged at that low level. In that situation the top priority is a shift towards smarter policies that provide clear incentives to increase NuUE.Towards the end of Phase B, due to rising environmental and public health concerns, the political pressure increases and countries begin to take mitigation measures, including stricter regulation to limit nutrient use. China has entered this phase in recent years through its new green development priorities (see SI Example 3). The new policies now limit fertilizer use and focus on better technologies and agronomic practices. Consequently, NuUE has started to increase again in China in recent years (Fig. 4). That is when farms and countries start moving into phase C, which is characterized by a mix of mandatory regulation, voluntary schemes, new technologies and precision nutrient management practices becoming more widely adopted by farmers. Nutrient stewardship schemes play an increasing role in all that, which, for example, have been successfully promoted by the fertilizer industry and other stakeholders in North America (see SI Example 4).The emphasis in phase C is on enabling continued growth of crop yields and profitability through rising NuUE, while decreasing the nutrient surplus. In practice, this may result in stagnating or even declining fertilizer consumption, as has been the case for most of Western Europe and North America in recent decades. But there are limits for the NuUE and nutrient surpluses that can be achieved, i.e. farms and countries will slowly but steadily approach biophysical and socioeconomic limits (Fig. 4). Countries, businesses and farmers can do much to move faster towards those limits. The latter also represent ambitious but realistic targets to aim for in a particular mix of farming  systems. The NUE indicator developed by the European Nitrogen Expert Panel is an excellent analytical tool for monitoring the performance of a farm (or a country) relative to an optimal zone in which high N output (crop yield) is achieved with high NUE and low N surplus (see SI Example 5). It provides a sound basis for setting targets, benchmarking farms or regions, and monitoring progress over time. Besides improving NuUE at the field and farm level, it is important to recognize that nutrient pollution for a region (e.g., indicated by a large nutrient surplus shown in Fig. 1) is also affected by the nutrient application rate and the extent of crop production in the region, as well as the legacy effect of nutrient applications in previous years and decades (Quan et al., 2021). For example, even though the USA has made significant progress in improving NUE, the N surplus level for the Corn Belt is still high. Therefore, further reduction in regional nutrient pollution may require efforts beyond field-level NUE improvement and may take time to become tangible.In summary, targets, roadmaps and specific solutions for nutrients will differ among regions and countries. In many (Zone C in Fig. 4), decoupling of agricultural productivity growth from growth in fertilizer use is already ongoing and NuUE has been increasing substantially (e.g. North America, Western Europe, Japan), but there is still a gap to close. In others (Zone B), decoupling must accelerate to close large NuUE gaps and reduce nutrient pollution faster. In yet others (Zone A), coupling is needed to increase crop yields and improve soil health through increasing nutrient inputs, but doing so in a sustainable manner. Differentiated nutrient roadmaps will thus also lead to regional shifts in fertilizer use, reducing nutrient surpluses in countries in some countries while ensuring that more nutrients are moved to where they are most lacking (Fig. 1), particularly to many parts of Africa (Zhang, 2017). A critical issue to resolve is how to develop context-specific targets and roadmaps for responsible nutrient use in a country or agricultural sector. Participatory backcasting approaches may be of particular interest for such purposes (Kanter et al., 2016).On their own, smart phones or other digital tools cannot achieve good crop nutrition in the field because the latter will always depend on farmers making the right decisions. However, data-and knowledgedriven digital solutions and technologies will increasingly allow tailoring nutrient applications to local needs in a more precise manner, and reaching many more farmers than a few agronomists could do on their own. New soil and crop diagnostic tools and sensors, highresolution soil, crop and climate data, mechanistic real-time prediction models, and artificial intelligence-based decision support are all expected to play an increasing role in responsible plant nutrition, provided that they are robust in performance and of real benefit to farmers.Of particular promise are approaches that harness data to accelerate the process of optimizing crop and soil management practices that govern both yields and nutrient use efficiency at production scale (Cassman and Grassini, 2020;Mulders et al., 2021). Artificial intelligence approaches will play an increasing role in developing self-learning fertilizer advisory solutions, particularly once it becomes possible to move seamlessly from data to prescriptive analytics and automated decision making with less human interference (Smith, 2020).Besides high-tech solutions for commercial farming, 'low-tech' sitespecific nutrient management (SSNM) approaches have shown consistent, large increases in crop yields and profits and NUE in many crops grown by smallholder farmers in Asia and Africa (see SI Example 6). Across a wide range of countries and environments, relative to the farmer practice, SSNM in rice, wheat and maize increased grain yield by 12% and profitability by 15% with 10% less fertilizer nitrogen applied (Chivenge et al., 2021). Upscaling this to millions of farmers requires digitally supported advisory systems and viable business solutions.Worldwide, only 24-37% of farms of <1 ha in size are served by third generation (3G) or 4G services, compared to 74-80% of farms of >200 ha in size, and croplands with severe yield gaps, climate-stressed locations and food-insecure populations often have poor service coverage (Mehrabi et al., 2020). This gap needs to be overcome for more knowledge-based, digital information, advisory and market integration solutions to reach impact at large scale. A lot can also be gained by working at scales above fields and farms, i.e. at landscape and national levels in terms of targeting better fertilizer specific formulations and crop specific application recommendations, particularly in smallholder farming (Xu et al., 2019).Food systems and circular economy strategies require actions at different stages and scales to optimize NuUE for the full nutrient chain (from soil to plate and back to soil). Hence, better crop-livestock integration, less food (nutrient) waste and increased nutrient recovery and recycling for higher nutrient use efficiency will play increasing role in the responsible plant nutrition paradigm (Fig. 5). This is an area of exciting developments, including numerous researchers and startup companies working on specific technologies and business solutions. Political incentives, novel technologies and shifts in behavior will drive even greater efforts on nutrient recovery and recycling from multiple waste streams, as a key contribution to circular bio-based economies (see SI Example 7 for a more detailed discussion).Such circular systems need to be safe and healthy for animals, humans and the environment, and also allow the creation of sustainable business models. System designs that fit into practice will have to meet numerous principles and criteria (Cordell et al., 2011;Muscat et al., 2021), also to facilitate decision-making by different stakeholders involved (Vaneeckhaute, 2021). While a circular bio-economy requires connected sectors, examples of single sector circularity are major first steps. Such examples include the reuse of side-streams within the agricultural sector and up-cycling of materials, which are relevant in the context of responsible plant nutrition.Besides tighter integration of crop and livestock production, closing nutrient cycles will also require recovering more nutrients from human excreta and waste, particularly also in developing countries. Good potential exists for this through new technologies, but there are also significant sociocultural, infrastructure and other challenges to overcome (van der Hoek et al., 2018;Lohman et al., 2020;van der Kooij et al., 2020). Another concern is how to minimize contamination risks that may be associated with such waste streams, including heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd). Manure or sewage sludge tend to add more Cd over smaller areas of land compared to mineral or recycled granular fertilizers that add smaller amounts over much larger land areas. Significant advances have been made in understanding the behavior of Cd in agricultural systems and a range of management options are now available for farmers to minimize Cd uptake into crops and forages. (McLaughlin et al., 2021). It has also been proposed that the use of recycled fertilizers should be regulated based on their pollutant-to-nutrient ratio (Weissengruber et al., 2018). Composts, for example, may present a greater risk due to low nutrient contents, i.e. higher application rates to achieve the same nutrient input.Overall, this will lead to a more diversified, more decentralized production of recycled fertilizers that are expected to meet the standards of 'normal' mineral fertilizers, including having equivalent agronomic performance (Huygens and Saveyn, 2018;Huygens et al., 2020). Significant opportunities also exist for more microbial and other bio-based solutions to enhance nutrient supply, efficiency or recycling, as part of the growing bioeconomy. Improved full-chain nutrient flow monitoring, benchmarking and life-cycle analysis need to support the development of such solutions, along with certification and supporting as well as regulating policies. At present, government regulations are often too outdated and inconsistent among countries in order to properly enable these new developments. This presents a huge barrier for accelerating investment and upscaling.Fertilizer programs implemented in the past mainly focused on improving soil fertility and crop yields as well as farm incomes, with main emphasis given to N, P and K fertilizers. Little or no priority has been given to nutritional outcomes for human health. Responsible plant nutrition solutions must also consider the whole nutritional contribution of food crops, towards addressing the triple burden of undernutrition, micronutrient malnutrition, overweight/obesity and noncommunicable diseases (Poole et al., 2020).In principle, the choice of what to eat and how much lies with consumers, which would then also create market demands to be met by growing different crops, including crops with better nutritional value. Depending on the local context, nutrition-sensitive crop production may include more diverse crop rotations, enhancing protein and micronutrient contents through N, P and K fertilizer management (Singh et al., 2018;Zhang et al., 2021a), as well as biofortification of staple crops with micronutrients through breeding and/or fertilizers (Cakmak and Kutman, 2018;Garg et al., 2018). The latter involves the targeted use of fertilizer products that deliver micronutrients of importance to crops, animals and humans, which is of particular relevance in regions where much of the food is grown and consumed locally. Enriching these crops with certain minerals has a direct impact on human health without any change in actual consumer behavior. Besides essential plant nutrients such as iron or zinc, this should increasingly include nutrients that are of particular importance to animals and humans, such as iodine (Fuge and Johnson, 2015) or selenium (Alfthan et al., 2015). End-to-end connectivity and traceability will be important elements of such a strategy.Biofortification of staple crops with micronutrients offers costeffective opportunities for combating micronutrient malnutrition (Meenakshi et al., 2010). At issue is where will this be most effective, and how it can be mainstreamed into agriculture, particularly if farmers do not get paid for such additional food quality value. Finland, for example, is the only country in the world in which all crop fertilizers must contain 10-15 mg selenium kg − 1 (Alfthan et al., 2015). This mandatory practice was introduced in 1985 because Finnish soils were low in available Se and so was the Se concentration in the blood plasma of Finns. This fertilizer enrichment practice has led to a 15-fold increase in selenium concentration of spring cereals, resulting in effective and safe increases in selenium intake and health of the whole population (Fig. 6). Similar results have been obtained through fertilizer-based fortification of maize in Malawi (Chilimba et al., 2012), and in many other crop-nutrient combinations (see SI Example 8).An important issue is to also update regulatory approaches for fertilizers in order to justify and encourage more investments in nutritionally enhanced fertilizers solutions. Current definitions of essential or beneficial elements for plant growth are partially outdated and even compromise fertilizer regulation and practice. A new definition has recently been proposed, which is better aligned with nutrients deemed essential or beneficial for crops, animal and humans, thus following a more holistic 'one nutrition' concept (Brown et al., 2021).At the same time it is vital that impurities in fertilizers do not adversely affect soil or food quality, with cadmium being the element requiring most careful management in mineral fertilizers (Chaney, 2012). For fertilizers manufactured from recycle or waste streams, there are a range of contaminants that must be considered and managed to ensure the production of clean food and to avoid soil pollution. Improving micronutrient concentrations in food crops would also be useful in reducing intestinal absorption and retention of heavy metals such as cadmium in the body (Reeves and Chaney, 2008). Fig. 5. Major nutrient flows in circular croplivestock-human systems. Red arrows indicate fertilizer inputs into the system. Fertile land is primarily used to produce food for humans and some supplementary feed for livestock, also from crop residues (orange arrows). Grassland is primarily used for livestock, including grazing. By-products and waste are recycled back to agriculture or used for making new bio-based products (brown arrows). Leakages out of the circular system are minimized. Source: Redrawn and modified from (van Zanten et al., 2019). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)Fertilizers will increasingly be produced in an environmentally friendly manner and they will embody greater amounts of knowledge to control the release of nutrients to the plant (see SI Example 9). Across the plant nutrition sector, low-emission fertilizer production and transportation technologies, novel fertilizer formulations or inhibitors, as well as more precise nutrient application and agronomic field management (van Loon et al., 2019;Maaz et al., 2021) offer opportunities to directly and indirectly reduce fertilizer-related emissions of CO 2 and N 2 O, provided that the surrounding market conditions and policies enable that. Significant reductions in pre-farm GHG emissions can be achieved by utilizing renewable energy in fertilizer production. Decarbonizing ammonia production has become a particular necessity and opportunity in the fertilizer industry (IEA, 2021), with various new technologies being piloted to produce 'green ammonia' from carbon-neutral energy sources, but also use ammonia for energy storage and transport. Such a new ammonia economy has the potential to feed and power the world in a whole new and perhaps even more decentralized manner (Rouwenhorst et al., 2019).Innovation in fertilizer technology and formulation will lead to environmentally-friendly fertilizers that maximize nutrient capture by the crop and minimize losses of nutrients (see SI Example 9). Important innovation areas include bio-based coatings (Chen et al., 2018), 'smart fertilizers' where nutrients are released from granules on contact with plant roots (Zhang et al., 2013), and a whole range of new materials (e.g. nanomaterials, graphene, metal-organic frameworks, etc.) offering pathways for tailoring nutrient release to be more in synchrony with plant demand. Progress is also being made in other innovation areas that could lead to specific improvements in NuUE, for example through new microbial formulations that are based on a deeper understanding of the soil-plant microbiome (Fierer, 2017), or the use of biostimulants (Rouphael and Colla, 2020). As with all new technologies, the challenge is to introduce these innovations into the market so that they can be manufactured easily, are cost and quality competitive at farm level, perform reliably and will be safe. Risks and benefits need to be evaluated thoroughly and independently in field studies, particularly with regard to environmental or health risks that may be associated with technologies such as nano-fertilizers (Dimkpa and Bindraban, 2018;Hofmann et al., 2020). Robust, evidence-based regulatory approaches have to be developed to enable safe and wider use of many of these new products.Future plant nutrition research and innovation needs to foster cocreation and sharing of knowledge for more rapid development and deployment of new technologies and better practices at scale. There are major knowledge gaps that require re-orienting research investments at global and regional scales towards issues that are most critical for developing the right nutrient roadmaps and solutions. For example, proper benchmarking of the main cropping systems at global level is an important innovation area to identify priority areas and suitable solutions for increasing yields and nutrient use efficiency in parallel. Unfortunately, examples of this type of field-based assessments with the required level of granularity and agronomic context are still scarce (Yuan et al., 2021).Besides more investment by both public and private sector, accelerating innovation also requires more openness, sharing of data and other resources, and coordinated action of public and private sector players in agricultural innovation (Berthet et al., 2018). A massive culture change is needed in science and science funding, towards a problem-focused and leaner science approach, transdisciplinary collaborations, use of digital tools, entrepreneurship, and early and frequent engagement with key stakeholders and end users, including farmers in particular (Karp et al., 2015;Herrero et al., 2020).Responsible plant nutrition is a complex and global challenge which can only be tackled through concrete action by all those directly involved in the nutrient cycle, and those influencing it (Fig. 7).Policy makers at all levels need to create clear, science-based and harmonized regulatory frameworks for nutrients, but also dynamic policies that incentivize innovation in technologies, practices and business models. They must set out a clear vision for national or regional roadmaps with sound targets for nutrients, nutrition and environmental indicators. This is particularly important as many farmers currently perceive the continuous change of laws and regulations as one of their main challenges (Paas et al., 2021). Policy makers can drive changes in food consumption, as well as provide progressive incentives for the adoption of better practices by farmers. Policies need to properly balance food production and environmental goals. Technical assistance and extension services must be supported adequately to promote sustainable practices. Policy makers also need to ensure that farmers all over the world have affordable access to the internet and digital services.The global fertilizer industry has recently recognized the need for a sustainability-and innovation-driven plant nutrition approach as its core business strategy (International Fertilizer Association, 2018). Fertilizer companies will have to increasingly become providers of integrated plant nutrition solutions that are based on new business models that do what is right for people and the planet. Sustainability and innovation, including transparent monitoring and reporting, will drive the transformation strategy for the entire industry, for every product and solution sold. Revenue growth primarily needs to be driven by growth in performance value offered to farmers and society, not volume of fertilizers sold.Farmers, farm advisers and service providers carry the primary responsibility for improving nutrient use efficiency, reducing nutrient losses, recycling nutrients and promoting soil health at the farm scale, which has huge implications at larger scales. They need to be able to fully adapt and adopt new knowledge, technology, and services, and they need to be rewarded for good practices. Many farmers are entrepreneurs and willing to change, and they are also aware of their role as stewards of land, water, climate and biodiversity. But doing things differently requires lowering risks and other adoption barriers for them.Food traders, processors and retailers have enormous power to influence nutrient cycles, both through influencing what consumers eat or drink and how it is being produced. Vertically integrated, data-driven Fig. 6. Changes in wheat grain and blood selenium in healthy Finns since Seenrichment of NPK fertilizers was introduced in 1985. Source: re-drawn from (Alfthan et al., 2015). and more transparent supply chains that meet sustainable production standards and reduce production losses will become more widespread, including more direct sourcing from farmers. These developments offer numerous opportunities for implementing more holistic approaches to nutrient management. Monetizing such sustainable production practices is both a key challenge and an opportunity.Consumers will drive significant changes in plant nutrition through changes towards healthier diets as well as an increasing emphasis on food that is produced in a more sustainable manner. Specific trends will differ among regions and income groups. On a global scale, changes in food behavior may be relatively slow and will also be partly compensated by growing food consumption due to rising populations and income growth in low and middle income countries. However, an immediate responsibility of consumers is to reduce excessive meat consumption, waste less food and ensure recycling of waste that does occur.Utility services providers and waste processors are an important and relatively new category of actors in the nutrient cycle, but their role will increase substantially in the coming years. Particularly in densely populated areas their needs and actions will increasingly co-define how farming and nutrient management will be done. This requires deepening the collaboration with other groups of actors and jointly developing a common understanding as well as common standards to meet.Investors: Investment in plant nutrition research and innovation will need to increase massively to meet the complex plant nutrition challenges we face. Public, private and philanthropic investors should increasingly invest in technologies, businesses and organizations that support key elements of the new paradigm, including creating a growing ecosystem of startup companies and other enterprises. Use of blended public and private capital can de-risk and leverage more private investment.Scientists: Science and engineering will underpin all efforts to achieve the multiple objectives of the new plant nutrition paradigm, but the entire science culture must change too, towards new ways of working that stimulate new discoveries and achieve faster translation into practice. Greater focus on explicit pathways to agronomic applications, reality checks and rigor in claims of utility are needed, as well as more sharing of know-how and critical resources, more open innovation and entrepreneurship.Civil society organizations play significant roles for the new paradigm through informing the public, grassroots mobilization, monitoring, alerting and influencing, and inclusive dissemination of new technologies and practices. This is a big responsibility, which should follow an evidence-based approach. Co-developing concrete solutions in partnership with government, industry, science and farmers should replace the often found emphasis on single issues or controversial debates.The coming 10-20 years will be of major importance for transforming the world's nutrient cycles and management systems, across the entire nutrient and fertilizer value chain. The primary change will be a new societal plant nutrition optimum rather than a purely economic optimum, which, most importantly must also benefit farmers and all other primary actors in the nutrient chain. The implication is that society as a whole will need to share more of the cost of achieving the desired societal (environmental) outcomes, but the mechanisms for that are far from clear. In any case, the new nutrient economy will have to become an integral component of a low carbon emission, nature-positive and circular food system that supports a rising global population. Compared to where we are in 2020, concrete outcomes that can be achieved within one generation, by 2040, include:1. Widely accepted standards for quantifying and monitoring nutrients along the food supply chain inspire solutions for improving overall nutrient use efficiency, increasing recycling and reducing nutrient waste across the whole agri-food system. Ambitious targets, policies and investments stimulate collective actions by governments, businesses, farmers and other stakeholders towards sustainable, integrated, and tailored plant nutrition solutions. 2. On a global scale, crop yield growth meets food, feed and bioindustry demand and outpaces growth in mineral fertilizer consumption, while cropland expansion and deforestation have been halted. Global crop NUEthe nitrogen output in products harvested from cropland as a proportion of nitrogen inputhas increased to 70%. 3. Through responsible consumption, increased recycling, and better management practices nutrient waste along the food system has been halved. Nitrogen and P surpluses in hotspots have been reduced to safe levels which minimize eutrophication and other environmental harm. 4. Soil nutrient depletion and carbon loss have been halted. Forwardlooking policies and investments have triggered changes in farming systems and management practices that increase soil health, including soil organic matter. Regional soil nutrient deficits have been reduced substantially, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where fertilizer use has tripled and crop yield has at least doubled, including improved nutritional outputs. Millions of hectares of degraded agricultural land have been restored, including through the use of mineral and organic fertilizers and nutrient-containing waste or by-products. 5. Extreme forms of chronic hunger and nutrient-related malnutrition have been eradicated through integrated strategies that include the targeted use of micronutrient-enriched fertilizers and nutrient- biofortified crops. A new generation of more nutritious cereals and other staple crops is increasingly grown by farmers, driven by consumer and market demand. Policy and decision makers support mineral fertilization strategies for meeting specific human nutritional needs where markets do not provide the needed incentives. 6. The fertilizer industry follows rigorous and transparent sustainability standards for the entire life cycle of its products and business operations. Greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer production and use have been reduced by at least 30% through increased energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage and other novel technologies and products. At least 10% of the world's fertilizer-N is produced from green ammonia with very low or zero carbon emission. 7. Investments in plant nutrition research and innovation by public and private sector have tripled compared to present levels. Many companies spend 5% or more of their gross revenue on research and innovation. Collaborative, open innovation approaches allow for scientific discoveries to become quickly translated into practical solutions and knowledge. Innovative, value-oriented business models drive growth throughout the industry. 8. Consumers appreciate the benefits of plant nutrients, including mineral fertilizers as a primary nutrient source. A nutrient footprint standard with high visual recognition informs consumer choices. Information on improvement of soil health and nutrient balances is widely available, and their linkage to the mitigation of air, water and climate issues will be broadly acknowledged. 9. Farmers all over the world have access to affordable, diverse and appropriate plant nutrition solutions, and they are being rewarded for implementing better nutrient management and stewardship practices that increase their prosperity and enable them to exit poverty traps. Customized crop nutrition products and solutions account for at least 30% of the global crop nutrition market value.Such outcomes can be best met through strategies that integrate more efficient food production practices with healthier diets, wasting less, recycling more and appropriate level of trade. Achieving them now, within one human generation, will require significant investments and a far more concerted effort by everyone involved, from the fertilizer industry to farmers and consumers of food and other agricultural products.","tokenCount":"9336"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8021e6bea341e27c762ccbc29dd26754","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fab177cd-86ed-465b-a244-98058fe891fe/retrieve","id":"622308535"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9c6d9b0b-cd86-4d3f-9eff-ddb1678cff0a","pagecount":"9","content":"Climate change is destabilizing agrifood systems globally, disproportionately afflicting rural populations in low-and middleincome countries (LMICs) and leading to escalating food insecurity and disrupted livelihoods. Alongside mitigation efforts, large-scale measures are needed to support climate-vulnerable people. Social assistance (SA) programssuch as cash transfers, in-kind transfers, public works, food assistance for assets programs, and school feedingare increasingly recognized as promising scalable approaches (Costella et al., 2023;IPCC, 2023). Moreover, if properly designed, these programs have the potential to address the disproportionate climate risks that women and girls (WGs) face (Nesbitt-Ahmed, 2023). WGs have important roles in making agrifood systems more climate-resilient, given that they represent almost 40 percent of the workforce (50 percent in sub-Saharan Africa) (FAO, 2023) and have gender-differentiated roles and knowledge (Dhir, 2017). Yet they are more limited in their opportunities to adapt to climate change, due to systemic inequalities in their access to resources, technologies, information, services, and networks, and due to restrictive social norms (Bryan et al., 2024;FAO, 2024).Conceptually, SA has potential to increase WGs' climate resilience by addressing their constraints at the household, individual, and community levels (Costella et al., 2023;Nesbitt-Ahmed, 2023). At the household level, SA can relax constraints on financial resources (for example, through cash or food transfers), thereby improving food access and stability during climate hazards. Moreover, relaxing financial constraints can allow for investment in adaptation (such as income diversification or climatesmart practices) or mitigation behaviors (such as use of cleaner fuels). At the individual level, SA can reduce constraints WGs face in their ability to access and benefit from resources, technologies, information, and services that are essential for strengthening their capacities to adapt to climate change (for example, by targeting transfers to women, linking them to other services, and bundling other intervention components such as group-based trainings). At the community level, SA can shift gender-inequitable norms, build the needed infrastructure for WGs' climate adaptation and mitigation (through public works or food assistance for assets), and promote WGs' civic engagement and social cohesion. However, the potential for SA to relax these household, individual, and community constraints depends crucially on the design.We reflect on emerging evidence to highlight SA's potential and limitations to strengthen WGs' climate resilience, recommend promising program designs, and note important considerations for programming.Households use a variety of coping strategies to address income losses during and after climate hazards. When poor households have limited access to risk management instruments (such as insurance, credit, savings, or SA), they often use sub-optimal strategies that especially harm WGs. These maladaptive strategies include disproportionately depleting women's assets (Quisumbing et al., 2018), reducing WGs' caloric intake (Algur et al., 2021), removing girls from school (Sims, 2021), choosing child marriage (Corno et al., 2020), increasing transactional sex (Treibich et al., 2022), forcefully extracting dowry payments (Sekhri & Storeygard, 2014), or choosing sex-selective abortion (Chatterjee & Merfeld, 2021).Several studies show that SA strengthens households' coping responses by protecting household food consumption and food security (Asfaw et al., 2017;Christian et al., 2019;Hou, 2010;Knippenberg & Hoddinott, 2017;Lawlor et al., 2019;Pople et al., 2023;Premand & Stoeffler, 2020), and livelihoods or assets during climate hazards (Premand & Stoeffler, 2022). Two longer-term studies suggest that SA can offset negative long-run impacts of rainfall shocks experienced during childbirth (Adhvaryu et al. 2018;Freund et al. 2023). Some studies disaggregate effects by gender and show that SA diminishes the adverse effects of climate hazards on (i) girls' schooling (De Janvry et al. 2006;Staffieri et al., 2023); (ii) girls' engagement in paid labor (Fitz & League, 2021); (iii) sex-selected abortions (Chatterjee & Merfeld, 2021); (iv) women's nutritional status (Hirvonen et al., 2023); and (iv) women's experience of domestic violence (Sarma 2022). These findings generally show that SA can offset losses during climate hazards and prevent maladaptive actions that compromise the well-being of WGs.A large body of evidence demonstrates that SA can support building women's livelihoodsincreasing their productive work and labor force participation, as well as their investment in productive assets (Perera et al., 2022;Peterman et al., 2024). Improved livelihoods and income diversification because of SA, in turn, may reduce the losses from future climate hazards. However, only a few studies explicitly make this link, and even fewer focus on WGs 2 . Similarly, many studies document that public works or food assistance for assets programs lead to improved climate-resilient infrastructure; however, few show that this improved infrastructure strengthens households' climate resilience, and fewer investigate gender-differentiated impacts. 3There is also limited research on whether SA supports WGs' uptake specifically of \"climate-smart\" practicesin part because few SA studies frame impacts around climate adaptation, and even fewer disaggregate by gender. In-kind food aid and public works were found to encourage household-level adoption of soil and water conservation structures in Ethiopia and Malawi (Scognamillo & Sitko, 2021;Sitko et al., 2021). However, one study suggests that liquidity might not be the only constraint to adopting climate-smart practices (Aker & Jack, 2023).Recent household-level studies on \"anticipatory\" cash transfers explicitly linked to early warning of disaster risk show promise to promote disaster preparation, increase pre-emptive climate adaptive actions, and reduce loss of productive assets in the aftermath of climate hazards (Balana et al., 2023;Pople et al., 2023).SA can play a role in shifting energy demand, which is strongly connected to income (Gertler et al., 2016). Yet, findings on the effect of SA on the adoption of cleaner fuels is mixed (Chakrabarti & Handa, 2023;Gelo et al., 2023;Hanna & Oliva, 2015). Additional constraints may need to be addressed to encourage adoption of cleaner fuels, particularly among women, such as perceptions of benefits (Afridi et al., 2021;Mobarak et al., 2012) and supply constraints (Puzzolo et al., 2019).Increased income from SA can also reduce the need to engage in extractive practices (such as cutting trees for charcoal), or conversely, it can increase consumption of land-intensive goods, increasing deforestation. The limited evidence on how SA affects forestation is mixed (Alix-Garcia et al., 2019;Ferraro & Simorangkir, 2020;Hirvonen et al., 2022;Malerba, 2020). Moreover, although WGs hold distinct roles in and are distinctly affected by forest management (Pouliot & Treue, 2013), existing studies on SA and forestation do not distinguish by gender.A handful of studies show that SA can improve civic engagement, social cohesion, and/or norms (Koehler, 2021). However, no studies to our knowledge show that these community-level improvements from SA translate into improved natural resource management or climate policy action, nor whether such changes would better account for WGs' preferences in transitioning to a more sustainable agrifood system.Design of SA programs is critical for successfully improving WG's climate resilience. While little rigorous research demonstrates design features that effectively strengthen WGs' climate resilience, existing evidence suggests promising directions. We highlight several recommendations. Overarching across all recommendations is the requirement that SA program design intentionally includes WGs' voices around their climate adaptation preferences and needs in the local context.Implementers should prioritize expanding SA coverage to WGs, households, and communities at high risk of adverse effects from climate change, considering community-level risk of climate hazards (Costella et al., 2023) in addition to socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Within households, targeting women can be promising. While women generally benefit from SA regardless of whether they are specifically targeted as the main beneficiary (for example, through reduced maladaptive practices that harm WGs), recent studies show that targeting transfers to women instead of men or depositing wages from public works programs in women's bank accounts instead of their male spouses' accounts increases women's empowerment and labor force participation (Almås et al., 2018;Field et al., 2021;Haushofer & Shapiro, 2016), which can strengthen their adaptive capacity. Targeting women should be accompanied by efforts to sensitize households and communities to accept women's program participation and support their expanded roles.Transfer amount must cover households' needs over the intended duration and be predictable in frequency, as insufficient or unpredictable transfers can increase maladaptive responses (Bastagli et al., 2016;Camilletti, 2020). The optimal frequency of transfers may depend on program objectives. Smaller and more frequent transfers tend to support food consumption and may better protect WGs' diets, while larger less frequent transfers may encourage investment (Haushofer & Shapiro, 2016) and livelihood diversification. Timing may also matter. A study in Niger found that an anticipatory cash transfer distributed before a weather shock reduced maladaptive coping and improved long-term adaptation strategies more than those distributed after a weather shock, although in the short term there were no differences in consumption (Balana et al., 2023).Implementing SA through public works or food assistance for assets can be promising for building community infrastructure and promoting forestation. But the assets must be responsive to localized climate risks, and the infrastructure must have sufficient quality and maintenance (World Food Programme, 2016). Moreover, for WGs to benefit, WGs should be actively engaged in choosing the infrastructure project, and barriers to their participation should be alleviatedincluding time, mobility, and childcare constraints, as well as normative constraints (Chopra, 2014;Jordan et al., 2021).Under normal climate conditions and with sufficient market access, cash transfers may be more costeffective at improving WGs' consumption and investments than equal-value in-kind transfers (Hidrobo et al., 2014;Schwab, 2019). However, in the immediate aftermath of climate hazards, particularly if market access is limited or prices are fluctuating, in-kind transfers (such as food or inputs) may better help households cope in the short-term and protect their food security.Many SA programs bundle resource transfers with complementary \"plus\" components or linkages to services. Increasingly there is also interest in bundled multi-faceted \"graduation\" programs, aimed at addressing the multiple barriers constraining households' exit from poverty. Even if not explicitly focused on climate, these additional components may improve WG's adaptive capacity. For example, complementary \"plus\" components often include trainings on topics such as nutrition, health, livelihoods, savings, or financial literacy; they often target women, sometimes with other household members and sometimes in group-based formats. SA linkages to services often include referrals or support to engage with health services, psychosocial support, or financial services. Graduation programs often include lump sum savings, and trainings. These additional components and linkages may provide WGs with information, resources, agency, and networks that can improve their adaptive response to climate change.However, certain adjustments to trainings and service linkages may more directly promote longer-term adaptation or mitigation responses among WGs. Complementary trainings could focus on adopting climate-resilient technologies and practices (Aker & Jack, 2023), include vocational training for off-farm activities (Macours et al., 2022), or promote the benefits of clean energy and a greener future. In women's group-based trainings, topics could include collective approaches to adaptation or natural resource management. Linking SA to climate information services such as early warning systems is also promising for improving coping and adaptive responses (Balana et al., 2023;Pople et al., 2023). Although \"payments for ecosystem services\" schemes (Salzman et al., 2018) have traditionally been considered outside SA, as they generally do not target the poor, they suggest that linking innovative mitigation programs to SA could also be promising.SA shows significant potential as a large-scale approach to strengthen WGs' responses to climate hazards and make agrifood systems more climate-resilient. However, more explicitly considering gender and climate risk in SA design will likely lead to more transformational adaptation or mitigation responses and more effectively benefit and empower WGs. While emerging evidence points to several lessons and promising designs outlined above, much also remains to be learned. We highlight several considerations for programming in light of these knowledge gaps.First, while we have some knowledge of SA's effects on WGs' resilience against climate hazards such as droughts and rainfall shocks, we know less about slow-onset climate hazards such as sea level rise and soil salinization. Optimal SA design to support the wellbeing of WGs' and their households and promote the sustainability of agrifood systems will likely differ across different types of hazards. Second, while bundling SA with complementary plus components is promising, feasibility will be context-specific and constrained by program resources and capacity. Collaboration across sectors will be necessary for successful implementation. Third, we know little about context-specific tradeoffs across economic development, environmental sustainability, and gender equality, and what these imply for designing SA.To align poverty reduction (SA's primary objective) with strengthening WGs' climate resilience, it is important to understand whether short-term poverty-reducing behaviors facilitated by SA run counter to longer-term adaptation or mitigation in the local context. For example, SA could facilitate livelihood opportunities that increase WGs' food security and income in the short-term but hinder longer-term climate resilience; SA could allow WGs to stay in a climate-affected setting over the short term, while migrating would better serve them over the longer term; SA could lead to increased consumption of landand energy-intensive goods, making agrifood systems more unsustainable. Recognizing that the agrifood system in its current form is unsustainable, thus needs to transform, we must carefully design SA to ensure it accelerates rather than slows this systems transformation. ","tokenCount":"2117"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"20fcdb17bc3ef5b679277fe55df4d42d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4d5bfdbb-655f-4d94-8bae-ad6c8e17fd72/retrieve","id":"-47025029"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2ac5fe65-ead5-4406-aecb-a6f7a4739bd9","pagecount":"20","content":"This model was developed to simulate low-input dairy systems in Senegal to determine the profit and cost: benefit ratios of different types of household dairy enterprise, under the Senegal dairy genetics project (Marshall et al. 2016). The model is flexible and thus likely to be suitable for simulating low-input dairy systems located in other parts of Africa and elsewhere.The cost: benefit model accounts for all revenue (benefits) and costs associated with keeping of dairy cattle in lowinput dairy systems typical of developing countries. Revenue and costs are calculated on a per cow per annum basis, where a cow is considered a breeding female attached to followers (her progeny). Economies of scale (on labour, animal housing and water) are taken into account by setting a herd size as the number of breeding cows in the herd. The currency of the revenue and costs is that used for the inputted economic parameters.It is assumed that all animals are born in the herd (except in relation to breeding bulls under a specific reproductive scenario, see below). For parameter estimation and modelling, animals are grouped into age-classes as: calf, less than 12 months of age; young, 12 or more and less than 36 months of age; and mature, 36 or more months of age, with the maximum age of mature animals allowed to differ between mature males and mature females. The fate of male animals born into the herd is death (which occurs over all age-classes) or sale as calves, young or mature. The fate of female animals born into the herd is death (which occurs over age-classes, calf and young), sale at the end of the young period, or kept as replacement breeding animals followed by sale as cull for age cows.Three reproductive scenarios are considered in relation to the breeding bulls: (1) the breeding bull is used for free (e.g. male in own herd used for breeding, borrowed at no cost), (2) the breeding bull is purchased at the start of the time-period and used for breeding, and then sold at the end of the time-period and used for breeding (as a cull for age bull), and (3) the bull is used at a cost (e.g. artificial insemination, hire), but no breeding bull is kept.See Figure 1 for the overall schema of the model (for the reproductive scenario of breeding bulls used for free). See Figure 2 for an example lifecycle of a cow retained as a breeding animal.Note that opportunity costs (loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen) are not included in this model, but the model could easily be modified to incorporate opportunity costs if required, The overall model for revenue is: where:• R is revenue and the subscript pcpa per cow per annum;• R total,pcpa is the total revenue (per cow per annum) over all revenue sources;• R milk,pcpa is the revenue (per cow per annum) from milk, included milk sold, milk consumed in the home, milk wasted and milk suckled by calves (all valued at milk sale price);• R male calves,pcpa, R young male,pcpa, R mature male,pcpa is the revenue (per cow per annum) from the sale of male calves, young male animals and mature male animals, respectively. It was assumed that male calves, young males and mature males sold uniformly across the time period were in that category;• R cull for age purchased breeding bull is the revenue (per cow per annum) from the sale of a breeding bull that is now being culled for age. Only applied in reproductive scenarios where the breeding bull is purchased; and• R young females,pcpa, Rc ull for age females,pcpa is the revenue from the sale of young females not required as replacement breeders and the sale of cull for age cows, respectively (per cow per annum). Note that it is assumed that all females not required as replacement breeders were sold as at the end of the young period. It was further assumed that the remaining females were raised to be breeders (i.e. there were no sales for emergency reasons, or mortalities, of the breeding females).The overall model for costs is:where:• C is cost and the subscript pcpa per cow per annum;• C health-care,pcpa, C feed,pcpa is the cost (per cow per annum) of health care and feed, respectively. Calculated as sum of the costs of health care, or feed, for male calves, young males, mature males, purchased breeding bulls (when used), female calves, young female and mature females;• C water,pcpa, C animal housing, pcpa, C labour,pcpa is the cost (per cow per annum) of water, animal housing and labour, respectively. Calculated as the cost of the particular item (water, animal housing, or labour) for the whole herd, and then divided by the number of cows (herd size);• C female reproduction,pcpa is the cost (per cow per annum) of female reproduction. Only applied in reproductive scenarios where artificial insemination is used;• C purchased breeding bull,pcpa is the cost (per cow per annum) of a breeding bull. Only applied in reproductive scenarios where the breeding bull is purchased; and• C marketing and transport,pcpa is the cost (per cow per annum) associated with the marketing and transport of milk and animals sold.Terms commonly used in the description of the model• NFC,NFY,NFM,NMC,NMY,NMM are used for the number of female calves, female young, mature females, male calves, male young, and mature males, respectively.• NFC born,pcpa and NMC born,pcpa and is the number of female and male calves born, respectively, (per cow per annum), calculated as:assuming an equal sex ratio of progeny born and where 0.5 accounts for the equal sex ratio of progeny, the calving interval is in years (not necessarily a whole number) and '1/calving interval' gives the number of calvings per year, the calving rate is the number of progeny born (alive or dead) per calving, and the stillbirth rate is the number of progeny born dead (or who died within 24 hours after birth) per calving; and• M female calves, M young female, M mature,females M male calves, M young males, M mature males is mortality rate per annum of female calves, young females, mature females, male calves, young males and mature males, respectively.Revenue component calculations 1.where:• milk of f take pcpa is the milk offtake (per cow per annum) in litres, calculated as:where milk of f take per lactation per cow is in litres and calculated as the weighted mean milk offtake per lactation over the first and later parities, per cow; and where calving interval is the time between two calving events in years.• milk suckled by claves pcpa is the amount of milk suckled by calves (per cow per annum) in litres, calculated as:where daily milk suckled by female/male calves is the daily milk intake, in litres, of female or male calves averaged over the suckling period; andwhere days female calves are suckling pcpa is the number of days that female calves are suckling (per cow per annum), calculated as:• where NFC pre-weaning mortality,pcpa is the number of female calves lost to pre-weaning mortality (per cow per annum), calculated as:• where the term accounts for the weaning period comprising part of the year,• where the 0.5 in the term accounts for the pre-weaning mortalities occurring uniformly over the time of the pre-weaning period,• where milk sale price is the sale price of milk per litre (also applied to milk consumed in the home, given away etc.).• where months birth to weaning is the number of months between birth and weaning (i.e. the calf suckling period), and 30.42 is the average number of days per month.• where days male calves are suckling pcpa is the number of days that male calves are suckling (per cow per annum), calculated as:• which is analogous to days female calves are suckling pcpa except for males instead of females, but with the additional term• where is the number of calves lost to pre-weaning sales (per cow per annum), calculated as:• where NMC sold,pcpa is the number of male animals sold as calves (per cow per annum) explained in further detail below and where the term accounts for the weaning period comprising part of the year• where the 0.5 used in the term accounts for the pre-weaning sales occurring uniformly over the time of the pre-weaning period• where milk sale price is the sale price of milk per litre (also applied to milk consumed in the home, given away etc.).where:2. where • NMC sold,pcpa is the number of male animals sold as calves (per cow per annum), calculated empirically for age class 0 such that the proportion sold for the age-groups (calf, young and mature) is as specified by the user, and taking into account animal exits via mortalities (see • the male calf sale price is the sale price of a single male calf.where:• NMY sold,pcpa is the number of male animals sold as young (per cow per annum), calculated empirically for age classes 1 and 2 such that the proportion sold for the age-groups (calf, young and mature) is as specified by the user, and taking into account animal exits via mortalities (see Table 1 for an example); and• the young male sale price is the sale price of a single young male.4.where:• NMY sold,pcpa is the number of male animals sold mature (per cow per annum), calculated empirically for age classes 3 onwards (until last male sale age) such that the proportion sold for the age-groups (calf, young and mature) is as specified by the user, and taking into account animal exits via mortalities (see Table 1 for an example); and• the mature male sale price is the sale price of a single mature male.5. only applied for the reproductive scenario where breeding bulls are purchased.where:• NFY sold,pcpa is the number of young female sold at the end of the young period (per cow per annum), calculated as:• where the term accounts for loss of female animals due to mortalities over the calf period (of one year) and young period (of two years). where NFC kept as breders,pcpa is the number of female calves kept as replacement breeders (per cow per annum) calculated as:where the productive lifetime of females is calculated in years as:• the young female sale price is the sale price of a single young female 7.where:• NFM cull for age,pcpa is the number of mature females (cows) culled for age (per cow per annum): the same as NFC kept as breeders,pcpa• the cull for age cow sale price is the sale price of a single cull for age cow.Cost component calculations 1.where:• C health-care,male calves,pcpa is the cost of health care of male calves (per cow per annum), calculated as:where NMC calf,pcpa is the average number of male calves (per cow per annum) over the calf time period of one year, calculated as:where the 0.5 terms account for male calf mortalities and sales occurring uniformly over the year; andwhere the male calf health-care cost is the annual health-care cost for a single male calf.• C health-care,young males,pcpa is the cost of health care of young males (per cow per annum), calculated as:where NMY young1,pcpa is the average number of young males (per cow per annum) over the first year of the young time period (of two years), calculated as:where NMC sur. is the number of male calves surviving the calf period to become young (per cow per annum), calculated as:where the 0.5 terms account for young male mortalities and sales occurring uniformly over the year• where NMY young2,pcpa is the average number of young males (per cow per annum) over the second year of the young time period (of two years), calculated as:where NMY sur.young1 is the number of young males surviving the first year of the young time period to enter the second year of the young time period (per cow per annum), calculated as:where the 0.5 terms account for male calf mortalities and sales occurring uniformly over the year where the young male health-care cost is the annual health-care cost for a single young male• C health-care,mature males,pcpa is the cost of health care of mature males (per cow per annum), calculated analogous to the above (cost of health care of young males), but for mature males rather than young males, and for the number of years of the mature time period for male animals (i.e. the maximum age at sale-age at start of mature period, in years) rather than the number of years of the young time period.• C health-care,purchased bulls,pcpa only applied for the reproductive scenario where breeding bulls are purchased, is the cost of health care of bulls purchased for breeding purposes (per cow per annum), calculated as:where the mature male health-care cost is the annual health-care cost for a single mature male.• C health-care,female calves,pcpa is the cost of health care of female calves (per cow per annum), calculated as:where NFC calf,pcpa is the average number of female calves (per cow per annum) over the calf time period of one year, calculated as:where the 0.5 term account for female calf mortalities occurring uniformly over the year where the female calf health-care cost is the annual health-care cost for a single female calf.• C health-care,young females,pcpa is the cost of health care of young females (per cow per annum), calculated as:where NFY young1,pcpa is the average number of young females (per cow per annum) over the first year of the young time period (of two years), calculated as:where NFC sur. is the number of female calves surviving the calf period to become young, calculated as: where NFY young2,pcpa is the average number of young females over the second year of the young time period (of two years), calculated as:where NMY sur.young1 is the number of young females surviving the first year of the young time period to enter the second year of the young time period, calculated as:where the young female health-care cost is the annual health-care cost for a single young female.• C health-care,mature female,pcpa is the cost of health care of mature females per annum, calculated as:where C health-care females 36 months to AFC is the cost of health-care of female animals (kept as breeder replacements) from 36 months of age (the start of the mature period) to age at first calving calculated as:where months 36 to AFC is the number of months between 36 and age at first calving (AFC) where mature female health-care cost is the annual health-care cost of a single mature female where C health-care cow per annum is the cost of health-care of a cow (a female animal in her productive life) per annum, equal to mature female health-care cost.where:• C feed,male calves,pcpa is the cost of feed of male calves (per cow per annum), calculated as:4.where the annual cost of animal housing per herd includes all costs associated with animal housing (e.g. the annual depreciation cost of the building/structure/fence; annual maintenance costs).where the annual cost of labour per herd includes all costs associated with labour (e.g. hired labour, family labour).C female reproduction,pcpa = 0 if natural mating is used. if artificial insemination is used where:• the cost of AI is the cost of artificial insemination per cow per pregnancy, inclusive of all associated costs (hormones, semen, payment to the service provider etc.);• the term 'cost of AI/calving interval' is the reproductive cost of a cow per annum; and• the term 'cost of AI/productive lifetime of females' accounts for the reproductive cost of heifers.only applied for the reproductive scenario where breeding bulls are purchased and where the breeding bull purchase price is inclusive of the buying price and any other costs involved in acquiring the bull.where:• C mt is the cost of marketing and transport for the various products indicated; and• N purchased breeding bulls sold,pcpa is the number of purchased breed bulls sold (per cow per annum) and applies only if purchased breeding bulls are used. ","tokenCount":"2643"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"67add0104bbbf29e35c3fe3583537642","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aa78804e-0e57-4d5e-a23f-115a4b74d04a/retrieve","id":"1420183072"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"446f8ad1-0ebb-4d94-a3c3-61e2ba329b44","pagecount":"88","content":"Tropical (CIAT) -miembro del Consorcio CGIAR-desarrolla tecnologías, métodos innovadores y nuevos conocimientos que contribuyen a que los agricultores, en especial los de escasos recursos, logren una agricultura eco-eficiente -es decir, competitiva y rentable así como sostenible y resiliente. Con su sede principal cerca de Cali, Colombia, el CIAT realiza investigación orientada al desarrollo en las regiones tropicales de América Latina, África y Asia. www.ciat.cgiar.org CGIAR es una alianza mundial de investigación para un futuro sin hambre. Su labor científica la llevan a cabo los 15 centros de investigación que integran el Consorcio CGIAR, en colaboración con cientos de organizaciones socias.La construcción de este documento se logró gracias al interés y participación activa de los diferentes actores municipales que se involucraron en este proceso. Estos agradecimientos son en especial para Mónica Gómez, Profesional de la UMATA, quien amablemente apoyó y promovió la realización de las actividades programadas; y a todas las instituciones que asistieron a los diferentes espacios, por su valiosa asesoría y acompañamiento en el ejercicio metodológico proporcionado para obtener resultados claros y ordenados en este proceso de adaptación a la variabilidad y al cambio climático.Los actores municipales representaron una fuente invaluable de información para identificar los posibles proyectos municipales de adaptación que aquí se presentan. El cambio climático es uno de los problemas más complejos a los que se enfrentan las comunidades actualmente. Por lo tanto, hacerle frente implica acciones que involucren el conocimiento de los actores desde el nivel local hasta el nacional. En ese sentido, la gestión del Cambio Climático se convierte en un proceso continuo de largo plazo, que debe abarcar de manera transversal los territorios, los sectores productivos e institucionales y a los grupos humanos, considerando como prioridad la adaptación, ya que de no actuar hoy los impactos económicos, sociales y ambientales serán mayores a futuro.Teniendo en cuenta que todo proceso de gestión y adaptación al cambio climático debe entenderse como un proceso de planificación local para que se convierta en una alternativa de adaptación efectiva, tal como lo señala el Plan Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático (PNACC) en su documento \"ABC: Adaptación Bases Conceptuales\" (DNP, 2012), \"es fundamental contar con información local, dado que cada territorio enfrenta retos particulares debido al cambio y la variabilidad climática. Asimismo, es indispensable vincular la participación comunitaria en el proceso de planificación y definición de medidas de adaptación para lograr una adaptación más efectiva y duradera, ya que son las comunidades las que mejor conocen sus características y necesidades\".Por todo lo anterior, la Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca (CVC) y el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) vienen desarrollando Portafolios de Estrategias para la Mitigación y Adaptación al Cambio Climático, los cuales tienen como principal objetivo hacer de los municipios, territorios más resilientes y con mayor capacidad adaptativa, lo cual permitirá que los efectos del cambio climático se reduzcan generando un mayor desarrollo y progreso en las comunidades.Municipio de Dagua -Valle del CaucaEl calentamiento en el clima es inequívoco. Desde 1950 se han observado cambios en el sistema climático que no tienen precedente, tanto si se comparan con registros históricos observacionales que datan de mediados del siglo XIX, como si se comparan con registros paleoclimáticos referidos a los últimos milenios. La atmósfera y los océanos se han calentado, la cantidad de extensión de las masas de hielo y nieve han disminuido, el nivel del mar ha subido y las concentraciones de gases de efecto invernadero han aumentado (IPCC, 2014).Por lo anterior, según resultados del Grupo Intergubernamental de Expertos sobre el Cambio Climático (IPCC, por sus siglas en inglés), se prevé que en 2100 el mundo pueda llegar a tener dos grados más de temperatura, bajo un escenario de conservación, en donde todos actuemos responsablemente con el medio ambiente.Las profundas consecuencias ambientales, económicas y sociales, y las secuelas que puede dejar el cambio climático, se presentarán en mayor medida si los territorios no actúan de manera planificada. La adopción oportuna de medidas apropiadas para reducir los impactos de este fenómeno es un aspecto estratégico, pues cada vez será más difícil enfrentar sus consecuencias, y la capacidad de recuperación ante escenarios de desastre será menor.Los portafolios de adaptación municipales surgen por esa necesidad de adaptación desde \"lo local\", que permita establecer acciones y estrategias enmarcadas en el contexto específico de cada territorio, que a su vez permita dar respuesta a las problemáticas propias que presenta cada comunidad, dada su exposición, amenazas y vulnerabilidad.El municipio de Dagua se encuentra ubicado al occidente del departamento del Valle del Cauca, a 3° 39' 37\" de latitud norte y 76° 41' 34\" de longitud  Es uno de los tres municipios más grandes del Valle del Cauca, junto con Buenaventura y Calima; el territorio en su mayoría es montañoso y su relieve corresponde a oeste entre los municipios de Buenaventura, Restrepo, La Cumbre, Calima -Darién y Santiago de Cali.la cordillera occidental de los Andes, condiciones que favorecen las siguientes características hidroclimáticas.Municipio de Dagua -Valle del CaucaCuadro 2. División político-administrativa y extensión territorial.La división político-administrativa del municipio está distribuida de la siguiente manera: 27 corregimientos, 101 veredas y 20 barrios en la cabecera municipal. AFuente: Plan Básico de Ordenamiento Territorial 2001-2009.continuación se presenta de manera más detallada cada una de las divisiones.  En el municipio de Dagua se distinguen dos grandes unidades climáticas: la primera, que es enmarcada por la cuenca hidrográfica del río Dagua, y la segunda, referida a la cuenca del río Anchicayá.Gran parte de la cuenca del río Dagua presenta características climáticas propias de la franja tropical, con gran influencia del Océano Pacífico, por lo cual circulan corrientes de aire en dos direcciones: del mar hacia el continente provenientes del Océano Pacífico con dirección sudoeste y noreste, que son transportadoras de humedad y que son descargadas, según el relieve, en forma de precipitaciones fuertes en la parte baja más cercana al mar y en forma de vapor de agua en las partes más altas de la cordillera occidental de la cuenca, de acuerdo con la fisiografía del terreno.Por otra parte, en la zona del río Anchicayá el clima se enmarca dentro de las características de la Costa Pacífica vallecaucana, es decir, de tipo tropical, que corresponden a altas temperaturas, aunque no excesivas y aire húmedo, debido al alto nivel de la humedad relativa y abundantes lluvias, siendo ésta la característica más sobresaliente.La red hidrográfica principal del municipio está comprendida por los ríos Dagua y Anchicayá. En consecuencia, alrededor de 59.000 hectáreas, el 61% de la extensión territorial, corresponden a la parte alta de la cuenca del río Dagua, y el 31% restante pertenece a la zona media de la cuenca del río Anchicayá. Según esto, la distribución del sistema hídrico se representa así: El municipio presenta un régimen climático con una distribución bimodal de la precipitación con dos períodos de valores máximos relativos y dos de mínimos relativos, influenciado ese tipo de distribución por los desplazamientos de la zona de Confluencia Intertropical; el primer período lluvioso se presenta entre los meses de marzo y mayo; el segundo sucede entre los meses de septiembre y noviembre. De igual forma, los períodos secos se presentan entre los meses de enero y febrero y julio y agosto.Fuente: Elaboración propia basada en cartografía CVC (2010).  El municipio de Dagua presenta dos formaciones geológicas: la formación Cisneros, compuesta por intercalaciones sedimentarias metamorfizadas, y la formación Espinal, conformada por rocas sedimentarias. Las formaciones volcánicas diabasicas están compuestas por diabasas, lavas basálticas y lavas almohadilladas, incluyendo silos de dolerita y con numerosos horizontales de rocas sedimentarias.El municipio presenta un complejo sistema de fallas interconectadas de orientación nororientesuroccidente (NE-SW) que forman una red densa de bloques litológicos de formas romboidales orientadas.Las principales fallas que atraviesan la cuenca del río Dagua son: falla Dagua -Calima, falla del río Bravo y falla río Blanco -El Naranjo; sin embargo, se presentan numerosas fallas menores que confluyen entre sí a manera de cuñas según la dirección general noreste-sudoeste.  Distrito de conservación de suelos Cañón de Cuadro 5. Uso potencial del suelo en el municipio de Dagua.Fuente: Elaboración propia, datos tomados de cartografía CVC (2010).Figura 5. Uso potencial del suelo en el municipio de Dagua.Fuente: Elaboración propia basada en cartografía CVC (2010).  Teniendo en cuenta la información cartográfica de la CVC del año 2010, el municipio presenta las siguientes coberturas:Cuadro 7. Coberturas del municipio de Dagua.Figura 7. Cobertura del suelo en el municipio de Dagua.Fuente: Elaboración propia basada en cartografía CVC (2010). El municipio de Dagua presenta 10 ecosistemas y 5 biomas, descritos en la cartografía regional de la CVC  El sector agrícola es el eje más importante de la economía dagueña y se sustenta en cultivos de Cuadro 9. Área sembrada, area cosechada y rendimiento de cultivos perennes.Fuente: Agronet (2013).Cuadro 10. Área sembrada, area cosechada y rendimiento de cultivos transitorios para los dos semestres del año 2013.a. AS: área sembrada; AC: área cosechada; Pr: producción; Rto: rendimiento.Fuente: Agronet (2013). Es importante resaltar que la piña se ha convertido en un producto de gran importancia económica. Muestra de ello es el aumento de hectáreas sembradas (Figura 9) desde 2007 a 2013. Además de los beneficios económicos que genera este cultivo, Dagua cuenta con excelentes suelos, los cuales junto con su clima son los más adecuados para realizar esta actividad agrícola, convirtiéndose en uno de los municipios que más producen piña en el país, que ha llevado a ganar un reconocimiento por la calidad de este producto.Fuente: Elaboración propia, datos tomados de Agronet (2013). La ganadería, la explotación forestal, la avicultura, la producción de leche y sus derivados también son actividades económicas importantes para el municipio. En el Cuadro 11 se presenta la composición productiva animal de Dagua para 2013.Existen cuatro problemas específicos de manejo que afectan la productividad futura de la industria, aunque ninguno de ellos ha llegado aún a ser muy importante en magnitud; estos son: la erosión, compactación y el deterioro en la actividad microbiológica del suelo y la producción como monocultivo. La alta erosión se ve ocasionada por varios factores, entre los cuales los más importantes son la mala escogencia del área de siembra y las prácticas de preparación de los terrenos para siembra (Quijandría et al., 1997).La vía Cali-Buenaventura genera beneficios para Dagua por ser paso obligado de los viajeros generando importantes ingresos económicos para las personas que laboran en restaurantes, puestos de venta de comidas rápidas y talleres de automóviles, que están ubicados a la orilla de la carretera. Gran parte de los impactos sociales y las pérdidas económicas asociados a eventos climáticos están relacionados con la exposición y la vulnerabilidad; ambas son determinantes claves del riesgo.El riesgo depende del tipo de amenaza, del nivel de exposición y de las condiciones de vulnerabilidadEl riesgo climático está dado en función de tres factores:• Amenaza/Peligros (eventos climáticos)• Exposición Este manual hace referencia a que los PNA (programa nacional de adaptación) deben prepararse mediante un proceso participativo que incluya, en particular, a las comunidades locales.Con ese fin, las directrices proponen que se establezca un equipo nacional para el PNA, compuesto por un organismo principal y por representantes de las partes interesadas, incluidos organismos gubernamentales y la sociedad civil. El equipo nacional para el PNA designará un equipo más amplio y multidisciplinario al que encomendará la mayoría de las tareas.En Colombia, la adaptación es una prioridad en la política ambiental nacional. La principal herramienta de política pública sobre cambio climático en Colombia es el CONPES 3700 de 2011, en el cual se originan cuatro estrategias para hacer frente a la problemática del cambio climático:• La Estrategia de Desarrollo Bajo en Carbono (mitigación)• El Plan Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático (Adaptación).• La Estrategia Nacional REDD (Reducción de Emisiones por Deforestación y Degradación Forestal Evitada)• La Estrategia Nacional de Reducción del Riesgo Financiero del Estado ante la Ocurrencia de Desastres Naturales.(Continúa)http://bit.ly/1PsXw6MCONPES 3700: Estrategia institucional para la articulación de políticas y acciones en materia de cambio climático en Colombia La mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático requieren del desarrollo de estrategias de articulación, tanto a nivel sectorial como en los ámbitos nacional y territorial, con el fin de generar una gestión compartida y coordinada, y de la información pertinente y oportuna para la toma de decisiones, para así contrarrestar de manera efectiva los problemas subyacentes.A Busca incidir en los procesos de planificación ambiental, territorial y sectorial, de tal manera que se tomen decisiones de manera informada, teniendo en cuenta los determinantes y proyecciones climáticos, reduciendo así efectivamente la vulnerabilidad tanto en poblaciones, ecosistemas y sectores productivos a este fenómeno, y aumentando la capacidad social, económica y ecosistémica para responder ante eventos y desastres climáticos.Estrategia Colombiana de Desarrollo Bajo en Carbono (ECDBC)Es un programa de planeación del desarrollo a corto, mediano y largo plazo que busca desligar el crecimiento de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) del crecimiento económico nacional. Esto se hará a través del diseño y la implementación de planes, proyectos y políticas que tiendan a la mitigación de GEI y simultáneamente fortalezcan el crecimiento social y económico del país, dando cumplimiento a los estándares mundiales de eficiencia, competitividad y desempeño ambiental. Climático es la herramienta mediante la cual se va a poder medir el riesgo a los eventos hidrometeorológicos extremos y definir las acciones y proyectos que deberán implementar los diferentes actores a nivel regional para reducir la vulnerabilidad ante estos fenómenos.En cuanto a los programas y subprogramas del plan, 4 de 31 programas incorporan de alguna forma actividades tendientes a la gestión del cambio y la variabilidad climática, y 5 de 98 subprogramas de los programas relacionados incorporan en las metas de producto actividades tendientes a la gestión del cambio y la variabilidad climática.Análisis de vulnerabilidad para los Nodos Regionales de Cambio Climático (NRCC) 2011El Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales (IDEAM) presenta en el año 2011 el documento sobre análisis de vulnerabilidad para los Nodos Regionales de Cambio Climático, en donde hace relación al Nodo Regional del Eje Cafetero, específicamente en el apartado sobre vulnerabilidad, que establece lo siguiente:3 En este nodo, los climas muy húmedos y húmedos se reducirán para el período 2011-2040, dando paso a la ampliación de climas semihúmedos y semiáridos.3 El índice de sensibilidad permite ver que predomina una categoría de sensibilidad media en el territorio, lo que genera, después de asumir la capacidad que tiene la región cafetera para adaptarse, una predominancia de alta vulnerabilidad en las diferentes corporaciones que la conforman.3 El Nodo Regional de Cambio Climático del Eje Cafetero en general tenderá a una disminución leve de la escorrentía para el período 2011-2040 (entre -30 a -10%), excepto la Sub Zona Hidrográfica del Río San Juan en la jurisdicción de la CARDER, donde la afectación al rendimiento hídrico podría ser aún más leve (-10 a 10%).Análisis de vulnerabilidad para la cuenca alta del río Cauca -AVA. \"Desarrollo compatible con el clima en el sector agrícola del Alto Cauca colombiano\" (CDKN et al., 2013) Reconociendo el deterioro ambiental y la importancia de la seguridad alimentaria en un entorno cambiante, se crea la iniciativa AVA -\"Agricultura, Vulnerabilidad y Adaptación\", de la mano del Sector Agropecuario y Ambiental, trabajando con las gobernaciones, municipios, corporaciones autónomas regionales, academia y centros de investigación. AVA tuvo como objetivo desarrollar una metodología que permitiera cuantificar y analizar la vulnerabilidad del territorio y de los sistemas productivos, para apoyar la planificación integral de los procesos productivos, la sostenibilidad y la conservación de la cuenca alta del río Cauca.Por medio de la metodología de AVA se midió la Vulnerabilidad del Sector Agrícola para los sistemas productivos de café, cacao, papa, plátano, frijol y caña de azúcar en 99 municipios que conforman la cuenca alta del río Cauca de los departamentos de Caldas, Risaralda, Quindío, Valle del Cauca y Cauca. En el Valle del Cauca se realizó en 33 municipios, entre ellos Alcalá, presentándose en éste un índice de vulnerabilidad muy bajo de 0,9 en caña azúcar, bajo de 2,6-5,39 y 9,29 en plátano, papa y fríjol, respectivamente, medio de 27,5 en café, y muy alto de 9,63 en cacao.Plan de desarrollo de Dagua \"Mi Dagua con visión de futuro y libre de pobreza extrema\" 2012-2015El Plan de desarrollo de Dagua \"Mi Dagua con visión de futuro y libre de pobreza extrema\" 2012-2015, plantea algunas acciones en el marco de la adaptación al cambio climático, tales como: 3 Al terminar el cuatrenio se ha implementado un programa para contribuir a la sostenibilidad del desarrollo a través de la reducción del impacto del cambio climático en la población y su entorno mediante acciones de conservación de recursos hídricos.3 Al terminar el cuatrenio se ha reducido la vulnerabilidad al cambio climático mediante la inclusión de un programa que integre las consideraciones de riesgo en el desarrollo municipal.Municipio de Dagua -Valle del CaucaEl principal objetivo del portafolio es entregar información verídica, actualizada y útil en torno a las problemáticas del cambio climático no solo a los tomadores de decisiones locales, sino a toda la comunidad. Esta información contenida en el portafolio permitirá incluir acciones de adaptación en los procesos de planificación local, lo cual generará hacer de los municipios, territorios más resilientes y con mayor capacidad de adaptación ante los efectos del cambio climático.El presente documento busca generar un conjunto de acciones de adaptación priorizadas teniendo en cuenta los criterios de adaptación previamente identificados como relevantes según los actores del municipio. Dichas acciones de adaptación, como se planteó anteriormente en la metodología, tienen en cuenta las características biofísicas, sociales, económicas, políticas, entre otras, del municipio, lo cual permite que dichas acciones respondan a necesidades específicas del municipio. Estas acciones deben ser implementadas en conjunto por los diferentes actores del municipio, lo cual implica que la articulación institucional es determinante en el proceso de adaptación.Al igual que en el proceso de adaptación nacional liderado por el Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales (IDEAM) y el Ministerio del Ambiente, compilado en el Plan Nacional de Adaptación de 2012, y en el CONPES 3700 de 2011, este portafolio pretende generar lineamientos conceptuales y acciones específicas que respondan a las necesidades puntuales del territorio.Es así como la Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca (CVC), preocupada y comprometida con la planificación y gestión del cambio climático local, ha venido desarrollando una serie de ejercicios tendientes a la construcción participativa de \"portafolios de adaptación al cambio climático\" en diferentes municipios del Valle del Cauca.Este proceso inició en el año 2013 con la construcción de los portafolios de Tuluá y Guadalajara de Buga, mediante convenio con la Unidad Central del Valle del Cauca (UCEVA) y, más recientemente, mediante convenio interadministrativo No. 033 de 2014 con el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), el cual tiene como objeto aunar esfuerzos y recursos humanos, económicos y técnicos para realizar acciones en el marco de la mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático en el Valle del Cauca. Se han realizado los portafolios para Cartago y Alcalá, Cali, Jamundí, Dagua, Restrepo y Buenaventura.También es importante recalcar que el portafolio de adaptación debe ser actualizado conforme se vayan modificando las necesidades ambientales, sociales, económicas y políticas del municipio, en aras de que el proceso sea continuo y ayude a evaluar los avances y logros obtenidos, y de esta manera se puedan incorporar nuevas iniciativas en función de las modificaciones reales del clima y los pronósticos de cambio climático.En este punto se presenta de forma general el procedimiento metodológico usado para la construcción del portafolio de adaptación a la variabilidad y cambio climático del municipio de Dagua, Valle del Cauca.El proceso constó de nueve fases. En la fase 1 se llevó a cabo una reunión inicial que permitió recolectar información municipal relacionada con procesos y políticas de adaptación. En la fase 2 se desarrolló un taller participativo con el fin de recopilar información primaria a través de dos métodos, tales como la cartografía social y la prospectiva territorial. Posteriormente en una tercera fase se cruzó la información generada en el taller participativo con cartografía oficial obtenida de la CVC, el IGAC, el IDEAM, etc. En la fase 4 se generaron escenarios de cambio climático a nivel municipal, pasando a la fase 5, la cual consiste en la identificación de principales amenazas y riesgos climáticos por municipio. La etapa o fase 6 es la más importante, la cual consiste en generar y priorizar las acciones de adaptación con base en toda la información anteriormente evaluada y analizada. Posteriormente se realiza una socialización de los resultados con los actores del municipio (fase 7), lo cual es el insumo principal para realizar la retroalimentación del portafolio (fase 8), y finalmente se genera el portafolio de estrategias de adaptación al cambio climático para el municipio (fase 9). En la Figura 12, se presenta un resumen del procedimiento metodológico. 7. Socialización con los actores del municipio.6. Generación y priorización de acciones de adaptación al cambio climático. • Análisis jerárquico.a través del taller participativo que involucró dos metodologías: • Cartografía social.• Prospectiva territorial.en las consideraciones de los actores del municipio.5. Identificación de principales amenazas y riesgos climáticos por municipio.3. Análisis de la información generada y cruce con información geográfica oficial.9. Generación del Portafolio de Estrategías de Adaptación a Nivel Municipal.4. Generación de escenarios de cambio climático a nivel municipal.Municipio de Dagua -Valle del CaucaPara el desarrollo de dicho proceso en cuanto a la prospectiva territorial se utilizaron siete instrumentos metodológicos, los cuales se explican a continuación. Sin embargo, dicha información fue complementaria a la cartografía social, la cual permitió identificar zonas de riesgo y zonas donde podrían llevarse a cabo procesos de adaptación.Formato 1. Análisis de actores, con el objetivo de realizar la identificación de los actores del proceso, su modo de participación y capacidades en la construcción del portafolio de medidas de adaptación. (Para mayor información consultar el Anexo 1. Formato 1: Análisis de actores).Formato 2. Identificación de acciones/proyectos, el cual tiene como objetivo obtener la información necesaria acerca de los proyectos conocidos. (Para mayor información consultar el Anexo 2. Formato 2: Identificación de acciones/proyectos). Formato 3. Cambios esperados para el futuro (tecnológicos, económicos, sociales, ambientales, institucionales y organizacionales), con el objetivo de identificar los cambios en el municipio relacionados con el cambio climático y la variabilidad climática. (Para mayor información consultar el Anexo 3. Formato 3: Cambios esperados para el futuro). Formato 5. Ideas/factores más importantes, con el objetivo de identificar, según el conocimiento sobre el tema, cuáles eran las ideas más importantes en las que se deben enfocar las acciones y/o proyectos en cambio climático. (Para mayor información consultar el Anexo 5. Formato 5: Ideas/factores más importantes). Formato 6. Propuesta de acciones, el cual tiene como objetivo identificar las acciones y/o proyectos que aportarían al manejo o solución del factor establecido. (Para mayor información consultar el Anexo 6. Formato 6: Propuesta de acciones).Formato 7. Formato de valoración de criterios para la selección de medidas y proyectos de adaptación al cambio y variabilidad climática. Metodología de Análisis Jerárquico (AHP), el cual consiste en establecer la importancia de cada uno de los criterios que se han definido para la calificación y selección de medidas y proyectos de adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática en su municipio. (Para mayor información consultar el Anexo 7. Formato 7: Análisis Jerárquico, AHP).De acuerdo con la evaluación general de la percepción de los actores sobre la realidad municipal frente a la variabilidad y al cambio climático, se presentan entonces los cambios presentidos, anhelados y temidos percibidos por los actores para el municipio.• Desabastecimiento de agua en el municipio por aumento de la deforestación en la quebrada El Cogollo.• Presencia de minería.• Vendavales en corregimientos del municipio.• Pérdida de biodiversidad.• Disminución del caudal y socavamiento de los ríos.• Desbordamiento de fuentes hídricas.• Aumento de incendios forestales.• Intensificación de la contaminación por vertimientos y residuos sólidos.• Afectaciones a sistemas productivos agrícolas y pecuarios.• Pérdida de cobertura vegetal.• Escasez de agua.• Cambio de uso del suelo.• Deterioro de la economía local.• Formulación y ejecución de los planes de manejo y ordenación de cuencas hidrográficas (POMCA's).• Planes de conservación y protección para la Reserva Forestal del Pacífico y el Parque Nacional Natural Farallones de Cali.• Actualización del plan básico de ordenamiento territorial.• Renovación del plan de gestión integral de residuos sólidos.• Programas de reforestación en áreas cercanas a las fuentes hídricas.• Establecer la protección de predios civiles.• Fomentar la cooperación interinstitucional.• Control y aplicación de la normatividad vigente.• Disminución drástica de la oferta hídrica.• Contaminación y pérdida de ecosistemas.• Aumento de las plantaciones forestales.• Deslizamientos.• Deterioro de la calidad de vida.• Aumento de la temperatura.• Extinción de especies vegetales y animales.• Conflictos sociales ocasionados por la distribución y manejo del agua potable.• Capacitar y sensibilizar a la población acerca del uso racional de los recursos energéticos renovables.Municipio de Dagua -Valle del CaucaEl perfil POAM elaborado permite analizar el entorno municipal frente a aspectos externos. La síntesis de estos y la especialización de las amenazas se presenta a continuación:• Vinculación de la academia y centros de investigación para desarrollar proyectos encaminados a la adaptación al cambio climático.• Inclusión de los jóvenes de la comunidad en los procesos ambientales.• Alta riqueza en recursos hídricos, especies animales y vegetales.• Promover el ecoturismo en la región.• Establecer sistemas productivos sostenibles.• Fortalecimiento de las organizaciones comunitarias.• Participación en el nodo regional de cambio climático para articularse con los otros municipios.• Implementar sistemas alternativos para producción de energía.• Potenciar nuevos productos agrícolas aprovechando la variabilidad climática.• Vinculación de los sectores público y privado del municipio para el desarrollo de iniciativas de adaptación y mitigación.• Deficiente participación de la autoridad ambiental en el municipio.• Desabastecimiento de agua en el municipio por aumento de la deforestación en la quebrada El Cogollo.• Desarrollo de minería a gran escala en la zona alta del río Dagua y baja del río Anchicayá; que genere contaminación de los ecosistemas, socavamientos y pérdida de biodiversidad.• Incremento de la contaminación de los ríos y suelos a causa de vertimientos, residuos sólidos y uso indiscriminado de agroquímicos.• Eventos extremos de precipitación que ocasionan escasez de agua o desbordamientos.• Incremento de cultivos en laderas y ganadería extensiva.• Parcelación de predios y cambio de uso del suelo con fines agrícolas.• Manejo y disposición final inadecuada de residuos sólidos.• Impactos ambientales y sociales graves ocasionados por un posible desequilibrio de la falla geológica en el municipio.• Disminución del caudal de los ríos ocasionado por el incremento de monocultivos de pino y eucalipto.• Aumento de la erosión en el municipio generada por la poca cobertura vegetal, los eventos naturales y las prácticas agrícolas inadecuadas.• Bajo interés social en los procesos ambientales que conciernen al municipio.• Extensión de la frontera agrícola y pecuaria.• Deficiente implementación de sistemas adecuados de riego debido a la baja capacitación y formación de las personas encargadas.• Pérdida de suelo, cobertura y biodiversidad a causa de la construcción de la vía doble calzada.• Incremento de incendios forestales.• Alteraciones antrópicas en las zonas protectoras de las quebradas Ambichita y La Clorinda.Figura 13. Amenazas identificadas para el municipio de Dagua.Fuente: Elaboración propia basada en cartografía CVC (2010). El perfil de capacidad interna (PCI) permite tener una visión global de la situación interna del municipio paraPartiendo del hecho que el cambio climático es un fenómeno que afectará toda la población, es necesario resaltar la participación y el compromiso interinstitucional de todos los actores presentes en el municipio de Dagua; y así desarrollar e implementar acciones y medidas de adaptación al cambio climático en forma integral y localizada.Teniendo en cuenta esto se presentan a continuación los diferentes actores que participaron en la construcción del portafolio de adaptación al cambio climático: Empresa de Energía del Pacífico (EPSA), Asociación de Productores y Comercializadores de Atuncela (ASOPROCAT), Asociación de Usuarios de Servicio de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado de El Queremal (ASUAQ), Unidad Ejecutora de Saneamiento (UES), Unidad Municipal de Asistencia Técnica Agropecuaria (UMATA), y las presentadas en la Figura 14. Figura 14. Mapa de participación de actores en la construcción del portafolio para el municipio de Dagua.hacer frente al cambio climático, ya que facilita la identificación de las medidas apropiadas para la adaptación.• Condiciones climáticas y ubicación geográfica estratégica del municipio para el desarrollo de proyectos de adaptación.• Presencia de parques nacionales naturales.• Implementación de nuevas tecnologías productivas.• Compromiso interinstitucional.• Implementación de buenas prácticas agrícolas.• Promoción de la cultura ambiental desde las instituciones educativas.• Presencia del comité técnico interinstitucional de educación ambiental (CIDEA).• Investigación por parte de universidades y organizaciones sociales para el aprovechamiento y desarrollo sostenible de los recursos del municipio.• Manejo inadecuado del uso del suelo.• Ganadería extensiva.• Bajo financiamiento para el control de políticas ambientales.• Ausencia de planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales.• Desarticulación de iniciativas ambientales en el municipio.• No hay planes de respuesta y contingencia ante fenómenos naturales.• Baja continuidad en los procesos que se desarrollan.• Poco reconocimiento de la importancia de los impactos asociados con el cambio climático.• Poco interés social para el trabajo colectivo en acciones para la adaptación y la mitigación. El análisis de la participación de los actores mostró que el 72% de los asistentes pertenece a organizaciones públicas, el 21% a organizaciones privadas y el 7% a organizaciones sociales, quedando excluidos los sectores academia, organizaciones no gubernamentales y sociedad civil. Cabe entonces resaltar la necesidad de promover la participación amplia de estos últimos para garantizar que los procesos se desarrollen de manera íntegra y conjunta. La Figura 17 representa el porcentaje de recursos ofertados por los actores para el proceso de implementación del portafolio, obteniendo el mayor aporte el de recursos humanos con un 80%, seguido de los recursos físicos con un 13% y por último los recursos económicos con un 7%. Lo anterior evidencia que existe una amplia disposición de participar en el proceso. Sin embargo, es necesario buscar fuentes económicas que puedan soportar la implementación del portafolio con los tomadores de decisión y la participación de las instituciones presentes en el municipio.En cuanto al análisis de la participación en las fases del proceso de gestión del cambio climático a escala local, se encontró que el mayor interés se encuentra en las fases de formulación e implementación, representadas con un 42% cada una; la fase de seguimiento, representada con un 11%, y finalmente la fase de evaluación, con un 5%. Es importante resaltar el compromiso de los actores en las primeras fases. Sin embargo, sería ideal que se asignara el mismo interés en todas las fases para así darle continuidad al proceso. En este capítulo se realiza una revisión y análisis de los reportes relacionados con la variabilidad y el cambio climático en el departamento del Valle del Cauca y el municipio de Dagua durante el último quinquenio.Las amenazas climáticas de mayor frecuencia en la actualidad para el departamento, en lo que respecta al último quinquenio son, de mayor a menor: las En comparación con otros municipios del departamento, Dagua se ubica en el sexto lugar en materia de concentración de desastres por eventos relacionados con variabilidad y cambio climático en el Valle del Cauca. Este nivel de afectación es superado por los municipios de Buenaventura y Jamundí, con un número de personas afectadas que puede llegar a ser hasta 10 veces mayor que el que se presenta en el municipio de Dagua.  17% 17%Estos eventos climáticos sin duda configuran un riesgo en la medida en que afectan a los sistemas naturales y sociales.El total de personas afectadas entre 2010 y 2015 por las amenazas climáticas identificadas fue de 5.485, a septiembre del último año, según datos reportados ante la UNGRD (2015). El análisis de esta información antes descrita nos lleva a concluir que es necesario que se realicen acciones en torno a los problemas más importantes a nivel climático en el municipio, tales como los incendios forestales, los deslizamientos, las inundaciones y los vendavales, para así reducir la cifra de personas afectadas (5.485) en el último quinquenio. Sin duda, este portafolio se convierte en una herramienta fundamental para hacerle frente a estos fenómenos, teniendo en cuenta las amenazas particulares y las características del territorio. ejemplo, se espera que para el 27% del territorio nacional disminuya entre 20% y 30% en las zonas de Amazonas, Vaupés, sur del Caquetá, San Andrés y Providencia, Bolívar, Magdalena, Sucre y norte del Cesar, y aumente entre 10% y 30% en zonas como Nariño, Cauca, Huila, Tolima, Eje Cafetero, occidente de Antioquia, norte de Cundinamarca, Bogotá y centro de Boyacá.A continuación se muestran el cambio de temperatura y precipitación proyectados por el IDEAM en 2015 en la Tercera Comunicación Nacional de Cambio Climático (IDEAM et al., 2015). Este análisis tiene en cuenta diferentes horizontes temporales (entre 2011 y 2100). Se espera que la temperatura entre 2071 y 2100 aumente, en promedio, en 2.   Para fin de siglo, el departamento podrá aumentar en 2,4 °C la temperatura promedio. En particular, el municipio de Buenaventura será el de mayor aumento, con valores de 2,6 °C adicionales a los valores de referencia actual (IDEAM et al., 2015).En general, el departamento podrá aumentar en 6% las precipitaciones sobre el valor actual. Particularmente, las provincias de occidente, sur y centro serán aquellas que presentan mayores aumentos, con valores hasta de un 20%, al igual que los municipios de Cartago, Ulloa, El Águila, Ansermanuevo y Alcalá (IDEAM et al., 2015).Las estimaciones de cambio climático también se realizaron a nivel de municipio desde el equipo de modelación climática del CIAT, y los resultados para Dagua, con el ensamble de modelos globales de cambio climático (GCMs, por sus siglas en inglés) son los siguientes: La temperatura del municipio de Dagua en la mayor parte del territorio se encuentra entre 20 y 25 °C. Sin embargo, la zona de la parte occidental en el límite con el municipio de Buenaventura presenta una temperatura promedio anual de 27 °C. Algo similar ocurre con las precipitaciones, las cuales son mayores en la parte sur y occidental.El cambio climático para el municipio de Dagua muestra aumentos en temperatura y precipitación, tanto en 2030 como en 2050. Para 2030 se estiman aumentos de temperatura de 1,3 °C y 9% en precipitaciones, mientras que para 2050 los aumentos serían de 1,8 °C en temperatura y de 11,8% en precipitaciones.En términos relativos (cambios %) se espera que la zona con mayores aumentos en precipitación sea la zona oriental del municipio que limita con La Cumbre. Dicha zona se ha caracterizado por bajas precipitaciones; sin embargo, se espera que a futuro en esta zona aumente la precipitación con respecto al valor actual.De acuerdo con estos cambios en temperatura y precipitación, se concluye que el municipio de Dagua tiene una gran exposición al cambio climático, lo cual hace necesario establecer medidas de adaptación que ayuden al municipio a mejorar su capacidad de adaptación y resiliencia. Figura 27. Esquema de organización y gestión para la implementación de medidas de adaptación en el marco del portafolio.El esquema anterior plantea la conformación de un grupo interinstitucional e intersectorial coordinador, asesor y gestor, encargado de la parte técnica, administrativa y toma de decisiones, en el marco de la promoción y desarrollo de las acciones para la adaptación al cambio climático.Dicho grupo optimizará los esfuerzos y recursos existentes, con el fin de evitar la duplicidad en las labores desempeñadas por los actores involucrados. Asimismo, es necesario establecer un mecanismo de retroalimentación entre ellos y los componentes que establecen el grupo de concertación. Es importante resaltar la necesidad de establecer una dirección administrativa que se encargue de apoyar los temas de comunicación, educación para el desarrollo y coordinación de las diferentes actividades, con el ánimo de llevar a cabo el buen funcionamiento del proceso.En síntesis, este esquema se presenta como una alternativa de organización y gestión para la implementación de medidas de adaptación al cambio climático, que busca facilitar la armonización de los procesos y realizar acciones interinstitucionales y sociales desde una orientación colectiva.Con el objetivo de implementar las acciones contenidas en el portafolio de adaptación y promover los mecanismos de administración, gestión y seguimiento, se sugiere el siguiente esquema de organización, que contempla la articulación institucional y la optimización de los recursos. A partir de los talleres realizados y de las indagaciones sobre información secundaria relacionada con medidas y proyectos formulados, en ejecución o en fase de formulación para la adaptación al cambio climático, y con el propósito de generar una priorización de aquellos identificados, se planteó la necesidad de asignar una importancia a los criterios de selección, que permitiera relacionar niveles de preferencia sobre los aspectos más relevantes en materia de adaptación para el municipio de Dagua. Todo ello desde el conocimiento local representado por los actores sociales y participantes del municipio.La metodología empleada para facilitar el proceso de toma de decisión frente a la configuración de un portafolio de adaptación fue el proceso analítico jerárquico (AHP). El AHP es un método de evaluación y decisión multicriterio, desarrollado por el matemático Thomas Saaty que consiste en formalizar la comprensión intuitiva de problemas complejos mediante la construcción de un modelo jerárquico. El propósito del método es permitir que el agente decisor pueda estructurar un problema multicriterio en forma visual, mediante la construcción de un modelo jerárquico que contiene tres niveles: meta u objetivo, criterios y alternativas (Hurtado y Bruno, 2005).El AHP se fundamenta en: • La estructuración de un modelo jerárquico (representación del problema mediante identificación de meta, criterios, subcriterios y alternativas).• Priorización de los elementos del modelo jerárquico.• Comparaciones binarias entre los elementos.• Evaluación de los elementos mediante asignación de \"pesos\".• Clasificación de las alternativas de acuerdo con los pesos dados.• Síntesis y análisis de resultados.El AHP hace posible la toma de decisiones grupal mediante el agregado de opiniones, de tal manera que satisfaga la relación recíproca al comparar dos elementos; luego toma el promedio geométrico de las opiniones. Cuando el grupo de expertos genera cada uno su propia jerarquía, el AHP combina los resultados por el promedio geométrico de las mismas (Saaty, 1997).Según esto, se presenta a continuación el desarrollo de este esquema metodológico para las medidas y proyectos identificados, así como los resultados de este proceso para el municipio de Dagua.La estructuración del modelo jerárquico para la priorización de las medidas y proyectos identificados se desarrolla a través de los siguientes componentes metodológicos, que configuran un proceso confiable para la toma de decisiones ante las actuales medidas o proyectos, y los futuros.En materia de adaptación al cambio climático son importantes los esfuerzos, recursos e inversiones sociales, que hacen parte de los contenidos programáticos de los instrumentos de planificación territorial; las agendas institucionales, los programas locales y las apuestas comunitarias. Todos estos de gran relevancia bajo un contexto general de adaptación. Sin embargo, no todas estas iniciativas responden en igual medida a las prioridades que para el municipio de Dagua puede representar el contexto sociocultural, ambiental y económico-político desde el cual busca una adaptación exitosa al cambio climático.Estas condiciones particulares, identificadas en la fase prospectiva de este ejercicio, contienen amenazas y vulnerabilidades que generan escenarios únicos ante los cuales adaptarse. Por tal motivo, resulta de interés la priorización de medidas y proyectos que respondan a criterios o componentes de mayor importancia para los autores del proceso de adaptación en el municipio, de tal manera que dichos esfuerzos generen impactos positivos para este en el corto y mediano plazo.El objetivo del AHP en este estudio es el de \"seleccionar las medidas o proyectos con mayor impacto potencial sobre las prioridades de mitigación y adaptación del municipio de Dagua\".Dichas alternativas responden a problemáticas relacionadas con el cambio y la variabilidad climática y configuran un portafolio de medidas y proyectos que responden a este propósito.El departamento del Valle del Cauca ha venido desarrollando en diferentes municipios portafolios de estrategias, medidas y proyectos de adaptación y mitigación, planteando con esto un referente para el abordaje de la temática desde un enfoque articulador y coherente con las perspectivas de los vallecaucanos.Fruto de estos procesos, y como resultado de diagnósticos participativos en los diferentes municipios, se evaluaron y validaron en Dagua siete (7) criterios por parte de los agentes claves involucrados en los talleres.Estos criterios fueron empleados para la calificación y selección de un número limitado de medidas y proyectos, los cuales conformarán el marco decisorio para la configuración del portafolio.En este sentido se muestra a continuación una pregunta clave y una breve descripción de cada uno de los criterios. El listado de los siete criterios se enuncia en un consecutivo desde el literal A hasta el G; el orden de estos es aleatorio y no corresponde a su importancia o jerarquía para la toma de la decisión.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto involucra procesos de adaptación relacionados con la soberanía y seguridad alimentaria ante la variabilidad y el cambio climático?Por medio de este criterio se busca priorizar proyectos y medidas relacionadas con la adaptación ecológica y cultural de los agroecosistemas a la variabilidad y al cambio climático, el reconocimiento y recuperación de saberes y prácticas productivas ancestrales que garanticen la soberanía y seguridad alimentaria ante el cambio climático.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto contempla adaptaciones, manejo o mitigación de riesgos relacionados con variabilidad y cambio climático?A través de este criterio se busca priorizar aquellas medidas y proyectos que involucran posibles adaptaciones desde la gestión del riesgo ante el cambio climático, involucrando obras de manejo y mitigación de riesgos por escenarios de variabilidad y cambio climático, como vendavales, incendios forestales, inundaciones urbanas, avenidas torrenciales, el manejo de procesos erosivos en zonas de ladera, entre otros.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto representa posibles adaptaciones para la gestión integral del agua ante escenarios de variabilidad y cambio climático?Este criterio prioriza medidas y proyectos que involucran procesos de gestión del agua a escala de cuenca hidrográfica; desde aspectos ecológicos y culturales relacionados con la oferta-demanda y calidad del recurso, como la protección y recuperación de fuentes abastecedoras, el ahorro y uso eficiente del agua y la salud ambiental.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto busca la conservación de ecosistemas estratégicos para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática?Este criterio busca entregar una mayor prioridad a las medidas y proyectos relacionados con la conectividad ecosistémica, la gestión ambiental en áreas naturales protegidas y la conservación y regulación de fuentesMunicipio de Dagua -Valle del Cauca Figura 28. Modelo jerárquico para la toma de decisiones con el AHP.Fuente: Elaboración propia con base en CVC (2014).Medidas con mayor impacto potencial en el proceso de adaptación Proyectos con mayor impacto potencial en el proceso de adaptación hídricas y de los bosques del departamento. Involucra además proyectos que contemplan procesos de conservación en el marco de esquemas de pago por servicios ambientales y/o exenciones tributarias por conservación de áreas ambientales estratégicas.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto plantea la incorporación de prácticas y procesos sostenibles en los sistemas productivos como respuesta al cambio y la variabilidad climática?Este criterio entrega una mayor prioridad a las medidas o proyectos que incorporan prácticas de manejo ecológicas en los sistemas productivos del municipio con el fin de hacerlos más resilientes y/o adaptativos ante el cambio y la variabilidad climática.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto proporciona escenarios para la investigación, formación de capacidades y/o apropiación de conocimientos en torno a la gestión y adaptación ante el cambio climático?Este criterio entrega una mayor prioridad a las medidas o proyectos relacionados con procesos de investigación, generación de información, formación de capacidades humanas para la gestión del cambio climático, así como la apropiación social, institucional y sectorial de su conocimiento, la proyección de procesos de educación ambiental enfocados a temas relacionados con el cambio climático y el reconocimiento de las vulnerabilidades e identidades culturales locales.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto implica el desarrollo o transferencia de tecnologías ambientalmente apropiadas para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática?Por medio de este criterio se otorga mayor prioridad a las medidas o proyectos que plantean procesos de apropiación de tecnologías (tradicionales y de punta) que sirven a posibles adaptaciones al cambio y la variabilidad climática, aplicables en el sector agropecuario, en los sistemas urbanos, o en los sistemas de información para la toma de decisiones, apropiadas en términos de viabilidad socioeconómica, ambiental y cultural.Con el ánimo de determinar las medidas y proyectos idóneos en el proceso de adaptación al cambio climático para el municipio, se compararon los siete criterios descritos anteriormente, usando la media absoluta, sabiendo que esta permite el manejo de un bajo número de alternativas.Posteriormente se realizó este proceso por pares para conocer las preferencias o pesos entre diferentes los criterios y, de esta forma, establecer una jerarquía que permitiera la evaluación en forma independiente de cada una de las medidas y proyectos.En esta etapa del estudio se examinaron los elementos del problema aisladamente por medio de comparaciones por pares. Las evaluaciones o juicios fueron emitidos por los actores claves interesados, que a su vez hicieron parte del desarrollo de los talleres.Para el desarrollo de la valoración de criterios, se empleó una escala ajustada a la planteada por Saaty (1997), donde se establece una serie de medidas que varían en un rango de 1 a 5, relacionadas con juicios verbales de tipo cualitativo, los cuales a su vez establecen un grado de preferencia sobre los elementos comparados.Valor numéricoModeradamente más importante 2Muy poderosamente más importante 4Extremadamente más importante 5Cuadro 13. Escala de valoración de Saaty.Fuente: Esquema propuesto por Morales et al. (2011).El objetivo de este ejercicio consistió en establecer la importancia de cada uno de los criterios que se han definido para la calificación y selección de medidas y proyectos de adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática en el municipio de Dagua. Los resultados de este ejercicio constituirán el insumo base para la realización de un análisis de jerarquías por medio de la metodología AHP, lo que permitirá establecer la importancia de los diferentes criterios.Para el desarrollo del ejercicio, los actores claves respondieron las preguntas que se encuentran en las columnas dos y tres del Cuadro 14, con base en la información contenida en cada una de las filas. Para el caso de la pregunta ¿En qué grado considera Ud. que es más importante?, el grado de importancia se calificó con base en la escala de valoración planteada por Saaty, colocando en el espacio del cuadro el valor numérico correspondiente al juicio realizado sobre la importancia.¿En qué grado considera Ud. que es más importante?3. Gestión Integral del Recurso Hídrico 6. Generación de Capacidades para la Gestión y Adaptación ante el Cambio Climático Cuadro 14. Formato utilizado para la calificación de criterios por pares.Fuente: Esquema propuesto por Morales et al. (2011).Municipio de Dagua -Valle del CaucaCuadro 15. Ponderación de pesos asignados para cada criterio.Como resultado de la ponderación, los actores definieron una jerarquía para los criterios, de acuerdo Cuadro 16. Jerarquía final de criterios.con los pesos establecidos en las calificaciones. Esta jerarquía puede apreciarse en el siguiente cuadro.Una vez realizada la comparación y asignación de pesos con base en la preferencia individual de cada actor involucrado, se procedió a la obtención de una preferencia colectiva, a partir de la ponderación de los valores otorgados individualmente. En este proceso se promediaron las valoraciones realizadas por los actores claves.La preferencia resultante constituyó la jerarquía final otorgada para cada criterio en comparación.Posteriormente, esta fue relacionada con un valor numérico que finalmente permitiría la evaluación de las medidas y proyectos, a partir de la sumatoria de los valores relacionados con el cumplimiento o no de cada uno de los criterios.La ponderación efectuada representa la medida absoluta del peso asignado a cada criterio por todos los actores, y puede apreciarse con mayor detalle en el siguiente cuadro. El resultado de este ejercicio plantea como el criterio de mayor importancia para el colectivo de participantes en materia de mitigación y adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática, los \"Procesos y sistemas productivos ambientalmente sostenibles\", la \"Conservación de ecosistemas y áreas de interés ambiental\" y la \"Gestión integral del recurso hídrico\". Estos tres criterios configuran el grupo de mayor relevancia para las prioridades del municipio, evidenciando una perspectiva en la que medidas y proyectos con estos alcances podrían representar un mayor impacto en el proceso de adaptación.El segundo grupo de criterios, con pesos que oscilan entre 0.15 y 0.13, está constituido por el \"Desarrollo y transferencia de tecnologías ambientalmente apropiadas para la adaptación al cambio y variabilidad climática\" y la \"Generación de capacidades para la gestión y adaptación ante el cambio climático\". Estos representan criterios que, si bien son relevantes, no son considerados los de mayor importancia.Finalmente, la \"Gestión del riesgo asociado a la variabilidad y cambio climático\" y la \"Soberanía y seguridad alimentaria ante el cambio climático\" recibieron la menor calificación en el proceso de priorización. Este resultado no significa que estos criterios carezcan de relevancia, sino más bien que en estos aspectos desde la percepción de los participantes ya se cuenta con avances significativos, y/o no se percibe una vulnerabilidad considerable.Es importante aclarar que todos los criterios resultan importantes para los procesos de adaptación y mitigación, y que estas jerarquías deben ser interpretadas desde la complementariedad de las temáticas que debe abordar una estrategia, proyecto o medida, de tal forma que involucre más de un criterio y, en mayor medida, aquellos identificados como prioritarios.Consecuentemente, estos pesos y jerarquías serán de utilidad en el momento de evaluar cada proyecto o medida de adaptación y mitigación, en función de los criterios que resultan prioritarios para las particularidades que afronta el municipio, desde la perspectiva de sus habitantes.Contando con este resultado, a continuación se describen las medidas y proyectos identificados, y se presenta su respectiva evaluación desde las prioridades establecidas anteriormente.Municipio de Dagua -Valle del Cauca Cuadro 17. Sistema de cualificación de medidas y proyectos.Fuente: Elaboración propia adaptada de CVC (2014).De acuerdo con la aplicación del sistema de cualificación y priorización de criterios a través de las comparaciones entre ellos, se obtuvo como resultado final el ordenamiento de las medidas y proyectos. Este proceso se desarrolló a partir de la evaluación o calificación bajo un esquema de pregunta clave con única respuesta, donde cada alternativa fue sometida al cumplimiento de cada criterio de evaluación. A continuación se presenta el formato utilizado.Se identificaron un total de 23 proyectos con impacto potencial sobre la adaptación. Estos constituyen las alternativas evaluadas desde los criterios de sostenibilidad aplicados en el marco de la metodología AHP.Para facilitar la comprensión de los resultados obtenidos, se plantea un sistema de cualificación de las medidas y proyectos, basado en los umbrales determinados para cada componente o criterio en el proceso de priorización descrito anteriormente. Estos umbrales determinan un grado de aporte a las prioridades del municipio en términos de adaptación para cada proyecto o medida evaluada, donde se presentan mayores aportes en aquellos proyectos que responden de manera integral a más de un componente o criterio priorizado. El Cuadro16 presenta el sistema de cualificación utilizado en el proceso de priorización de medidas y proyectos.Valoración (grado de aporte a las prioridades de adaptación)Hasta el 25%Proyectos identificados que por sus características son importantes para el municipio, pero constituyen respuestas puntuales a temáticas o criterios concretos de adaptación; no obstante podrían ser desarrollados si las condiciones de gobernabilidád son favorables / Proyectos que pueden ser objeto de revisión para ampliar su impacto sobre los componentes prioritarios. Su implementación debe desarrollarse en el largo plazo.Proyectos identificados que, a pesar de su mediano impacto asociado, pueden empezar a implementarse a mediano plazo, toda vez que las condiciones para su desarrollo sean adecuadas.Proyectos identificados que, por sus características y potencial de impacto, deben ser desarrollados de forma inmediata o a corto plazo, representando estrategias integrales que aportan a diferentes componentes de adaptación de importancia para el municipio; no obstante podrían ser abordadas en un horizonte superior, en caso de que sea necesario crear condiciones, para su óptimo desarrollo.Cuadro 18. Formato para la evaluación de medidas, acciones o proyectos en función del grado de aporte a las prioridades de adaptación al cambio climático y la variabilidad climática en el municipio.Fuente: Elaboración propia adaptada de CVC ( 2014). Se presentan entonces los resultados de la priorización de acuerdo con la valoración de impacto en los componentes de adaptación, presentándose según los resultados proyectos de carácter prioritario, necesario y de impacto puntual, como se describe en el siguiente cuadro.Cuadro 19. Clasificación de los proyectos de acuerdo con la valoración de impactos en los componentes para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática.Responsables Clasificación Como resultado del análisis de los cambios presentidos, anhelados y temidos, el perfil de capacidad interna, el perfil de oportunidades y amenazas del medio, y las ideas estratégica resultantes, se proponen una serie de estrategias que complementan las expectativas de los actores claves participantes y responden a las necesidades locales del municipio en materia de adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática.Es importante resaltar la necesidad de planear un proceso de adaptación para el municipio de Dagua, prefiriendo las medidas enfocadas a la prevención de los riesgos y no aquellas que buscan enfrentarlos. Siguiendo este orden de ideas se presentan a continuación las iniciativas de adaptación, organizadas de acuerdo con la importancia establecida en la priorización de criterios para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática.Se presenta entonces una ficha por cada iniciativa establecida, las cuales están conformadas por una descripción de objetivos y metodología para su desarrollo, y un mapa con la espacialización de los proyectos más relevantes. Estas iniciativas constituyen una propuesta complementaria desde la prospectiva territorial desarrollada, que refleja en sus plazos los resultados del ejercicio de priorización, constituyendo un insumo desde lo local, para la futura articulación de todos estos en el marco de los contenidos programáticos Figura 30. Proyectos identificados en el marco de la adaptación para el municipio de Dagua. que conformarán los planes de adaptación al cambio climático a escala regional.Municipio de Dagua -Valle del Cauca Componente Estratégico: Conservación de Ecosistemas y Áreas de Interés AmbientalEstablecer acciones de manejo, protección y conservación en zonas aledañas a los ríos afectadas por actividades antropogénicasPreservar la diversidad biológica existente en este ecosistema, de tal forma que las actividades desarrolladas en el municipio no la afectenCon el ánimo de determinar las acciones a desarrollar en las áreas más deterioradas a causa de las actividades antropogénicas, se describe a continuación una zonificación ambiental que puede determinar su uso y manejo.Las unidades de zonificación se pueden describir así:Zonas prioritarias de conservación: Son las áreas en las que existen ecosistemas o zonas que han permanecido inalteradas y rodeadas de áreas con agroecosistemas o tierras modificadas.Zonas de protección forestal: Son las que deben conservar su cobertura boscosa natural, con el fin de proteger los recursos naturales y brindar otros servicios ambientales.Zonas de protección hídrica: Son aquellas donde se identifican los nacimientos de los ríos principales y secundarios, especialmente los nodos que dan origen a las corrientes de agua.Zonas de restauración: Son áreas que presentan un grado de deterioro ambiental, pero que propician o admiten la continuidad de los procesos naturales.Zonas a sustraer de la reserva: Son áreas con obras de infraestructura que han sido construidas al interior de la Reserva Forestal del Pacífico y el Enclave Subxerofítico y que hacen parte del desarrollo de la región o tienen alguna importancia local o regional (Henao et al., 2008). Componente Estratégico: Conservación de Ecosistemas y Áreas de Interés Ambiental Programa Fortalecimiento a la consolidación de áreas de reserva natural de la sociedad civilDefinir las reservas naturales de la sociedad civil como una iniciativa de conservación de la biodiversidad y los recursos naturales en predios de propiedad privadaEl apoyo y promoción del establecimiento de áreas de reserva natural de la sociedad civil se enmarca en el ámbito de contribuir y consolidar con las iniciativas de la sociedad civil en su aporte a la conservación de los recursos naturales, en la búsqueda del desarrollo sostenible.Para el desarrollo del proceso de registro es necesario describir detalladamente los servicios ambientales y sociales que cada predio ofrece; algunas de las características que debe contener son: localización del predio, zonificación de los tipos de uso y hectáreas (conservación, agrosistemas, amortiguación y manejo especial e infraestructura); lo anterior descrito en un mapa. De igual forma se deben detallar los instrumentos de planificación de la reserva y los objetivos de manejo (PNNC, 2005). Conocer la distribución espacial de los servicios ecosistémicos para diseñar estrategias que garanticen el buen uso y la preservación de estos, en beneficio a los distintos sectores de la poblaciónEl concepto de Servicios Ecosistémicos permite entender de qué manera las poblaciones humanas dependen de la biodiversidad. Su cuantificación y valoración permite informar de manera apropiada a los tomadores de decisiones, y permite que los desarrolladores de políticas tengan en cuenta los costos y beneficios relacionados de intervenir en los recursos naturales.En este sentido, un inventario de servicios ecosistémicos permite conocer y establecer las relaciones entre biodiversidad, servicios ambientales y las reservas de carbono que estos poseen.De igual forma sirven como herramienta para el análisis de investigadores, y de comunicación para los planificadores y el público en general sobre dónde se encuentran las áreas con mayor prioridad de conservación (Álvarez, sf).Componente Estratégico: Procesos y Sistemas Productivos Ambientalmente Sostenibles Programa Implementación de sistemas agroforestalesIncrementar la productividad en un sistema diversificado, establecer un sistema resiliente y promover el aprovechamiento sustentable de productos agrícolas y forestalesEste sistema compone una serie de técnicas que aprovechan los multiestratos de un ecosistema.Son idóneos para sitios con vocación agrícola o forestal en estado degradado para recuperar zonas boscosas, sin sacrificar la producción. Su desarrollo se compone de los siguientes pasos:1. Diseñar el sistema con apoyo de un técnico y de acuerdo con las características particulares del sitio (suelo, clima, topografía, cultivos y especies potenciales, acceso a mercados).2. Seleccionar las especies a incluir en el sistema (arbóreas maderables y comestibles; arbustivas y rastreras comestibles y medicinales; herbáceas comestibles para abonos verdes y control de plagas).3. Limpiar y trazar tomando en cuenta curvas de nivel y elementos topográficos distintivos.4. Obtener especies leñosas en viveros, y trasplantar.5. Sembrar en los estratos establecidos en el diseño.6. Dar mantenimiento general según el plan de manejo (PNUMA y Frankfurt School, 2013).Municipal, UMATAComponente Estratégico: Procesos y Sistemas Productivos Ambientalmente Sostenibles Programa Implementar sistemas agrosilvopastoriles en zonas degradadas por ganadería extensivaDesarrollar un sistema de producción diversificado con un enfoque de conservación e iniciar con este un proceso de restauración del suelo y revegetación forestalEl sistema agrosilvopastoril agrupa un conjunto de técnicas para asociar especies arbóreas con ganadería y cultivos en el mismo terreno, con el fin de lograr interacciones ecológicas y económicas significativas.En este sentido, la metodología de implementación es la siguiente:1. Identificar las características físicas del terreno (topografía, suelos, drenaje) que ayuden a determinar la selección, manejo y productividad potencial de los elementos del sistema.2. Realizar un plan de manejo que establezca las áreas destinadas a ganadería, producción agrícola y vegetación arbórea, con base en la capacidad de carga del sitio y el consumo de forraje requerido.3. Seleccionar las especies leñosas, arbustivas, rastreras y herbáceas a sembrar, incluyendo pastos para ganado y cultivos anuales.4. Limpiar, trazar, sembrar y trasplantar los estratos de acuerdo con el plan establecido y cuidando de proteger las áreas productivas de los animales.5. Dar mantenimiento general según el plan de manejo (PNUMA y Frankfurt School, 2013).Municipio de Dagua -Valle del CaucaDifusión e instauración de la política nacional para la gestión de los residuos sólidosFacilitar la aplicación, el desarrollo y posterior seguimiento de los lineamientos de la política, con el fin de iniciar procesos de cambio cultural, técnicos y económicosLa política nacional para la gestión de los residuos sólidos se fundamenta principalmente en la constitución política, las leyes 99 de 1993 y 142 de 1994 y el documento CONPES 2750.La política está orientada a proporcionar a las autoridades ambientales municipales los instrumentos para el apoyo en la gestión y manejo integral de los residuos sólidos.Algunas estrategias mediante las cuales se pueden cumplir los objetivos establecidos en la Política Nacional para la Gestión de Residuos Sólidos se presentan a continuación: Educación y participación ciudadana: Se producen importantes reducciones en las cantidades generadas de residuos sólidos y en el manejo adecuado de estos cuando la gente está dispuesta a cambiar por su propia voluntad sus hábitos y estilos de vida para conservar los recursos naturales y reducir las cargas económicas asociadas a la gestión de estos.Consolidar dentro del sistema nacional de información ambiental un subsistema de información de residuos sólidos que sirva de apoyo para la toma de decisiones en las diversas instancias y niveles que conforman el sector.Constituir una instancia enfocada a consolidar el sector de residuos sólidos capaz de liderar el desarrollo del sector, coordinando las acciones de los diferentes organismos e instituciones involucrados.Ciencia y tecnología: Estructurar y consolidar la red de investigación, innovación y transferencia de tecnología en residuos sólidos; y consolidar las unidades de apoyo tecnológico adscritas a la red, en el nivel municipal para apoyo a los avances en el tema en cuestión (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente, 1998).Componente Estratégico: Procesos y Sistemas Productivos Ambientalmente Sostenibles Programa Implementación de sistemas agrícolas ecológicos (agricultura de conservación)Aumentar la resiliencia de las zonas agrícolas productivas a condiciones cambiantes en el mercado y clima, diversificando e incrementando las sinergias entre los componentes del sistema, minimizando o eliminando la dependencia de insumos químicosÁmbito Responsables Plazo Rural Urbano• Determinar las prácticas adecuadas en las zonas de interés de acuerdo con las condiciones físicas, vocación productiva, recursos locales y conocimiento tradicional presentes en el sitio.• Implementar las prácticas considerando la interacción de las mismas para establecer sinergias en el agroecosistema.• Monitorear la presencia de indicadores biológicos benéficos y antagónicos para promover las interacciones deseadas.X UMATA, Alcaldía Municipal, Asociación de productoresImplementación del plan de gestión integral de residuos sólidosDar a conocer los criterios a tener en cuenta en la gestión integrada de residuos sólidos en el municipio y así mejorar la calidad de vida de la población y las condiciones ambientales del municipioEl plan de gestión integral de residuos sólidos debe actualizarse para así optimizar esta herramienta de planeación, evitar y disminuir los riesgos de salubridad y deterioro del medio ambiente.Esto se puede llevar a cabo por medio del fortalecimiento institucional, promocionando la separación en la fuente en viviendas e industrias, y el ajuste teniendo en cuenta los planes y programas de orden regional y nacional. Todo esto, en aras de que desde la academia se pueda generar el fundamento científico y técnico para la formulación de políticas y acciones que ayuden a la mitigación y adaptación frente a los cambios esperados.En este sentido se resalta una herramienta metodológica que sirve para transversalizar el cambio climático en la planificación: la Adaptación basada en ecosistemas EbA, que asocia la conservación de la biodiversidad como una forma de abordar el cambio climático, proporcionando al mismo tiempo beneficios de bienestar social y conservación de los servicios ambientales que prestan los ecosistemas (Vejarano, 2013) Participar en el seguimiento del proceso de elaboración de la Estrategia Local de Cambio Climático, colaborar en la recogida de información y su análisis, hacer propuestas concretas de mejora y debatir soluciones a partir de la recogida de información, plantear actividades de divulgación, y cooperar en el proceso de seguimiento de aplicación de la citada Estrategia (Futurelx, 2009) Coordinación interinstitucional para la gestión eficiente: Esta línea fomenta los procesos de articulación y coordinación entre las entidades relacionadas con el sector minero, en aspectos técnicos, ambientales, económicos y sociales, asociados a la actividad minera, buscando mecanismos, esquemas y herramientas que permitirán la formalización y control de la actividad minera en Colombia.Formación para el trabajo minero: Esta línea hace énfasis en formar capacidades de capital humano para el desarrollo de la actividad minera, pero sobre todo en adelantar un proceso de acompañamiento continuo a los mineros en procesos productivos y empresariales.Inclusión diferencial y desarrollo social: Esta línea se enfoca en definir herramientas, estrategias y acciones que permitan trasladar los beneficios de la minería a la población.Información para la formalización: Esta línea se enfoca en generar herramientas, instrumentos y sistemas que brinden información confiable, oportuna, pertinente y actualizada del sector minero y de las variables existentes en torno a la formalización de la minería en Colombia.Fortalecimiento técnico, asociativo y empresarial: Esta línea apunta a promover la innovación y el desarrollo tecnológico de la actividad minera, con el propósito de lograr mayores niveles de productividad y competitividad.Recursos e incentivos para la formalización: Esta línea se enfoca en establecer programas de apoyo económico al minero informal, de pequeña y mediana escala, y facilitar su acceso al crédito, mediante la asignación de recursos financieros.Minería bajo el amparo de un título: Genera condiciones para que el desarrollo de las actividades mineras se realicen en el marco de la legalidad.Normatividad y lineamientos para la formalización minera: Esta línea se enfoca en definir los instrumentos normativos y legales necesarios para la formalización de la actividad minera en Colombia (MinMinas, 2014 Este sistema de tratamiento debe contar con los siguientes componentes: Cámara de rejas: Ubicada antes del dispositivo de ingreso, impide el paso de elementos gruesos o de dimensiones considerables presentes en las aguas residuales. Dispositivo de ingreso: La tubería PVC del emisor ingresa al tanque mediante una Tee, alargada en la parte inferior, permitiendo verter los desagües debajo del nivel de agua del tanque séptico.Tanque séptico: Es una estructura de concreto armado de forma rectangular, con dimensiones determinadas en función de los caudales producidos en el sistema de alcantarillado. Pueden ser de una o dos cámaras.Dispositivo salida: está compuesta por una Tee de PVC, en un nivel más bajo que el dispositivo de ingreso. Permite la conducción de la fracción líquida hacia pozos de infiltración o campos de percolación.Lecho de secado: Son pequeñas pozas a donde es trasladado el lodo acumulado en el fondo del tanque séptico luego de un período predeterminado para que se deshidraten por drenaje y evaporación.Cabe resaltar que son sistemas de menor costo en comparación al alcantarillado tradicional (OPS y COSUDE, 2005 Todo esto en aras de que desde la academia se pueda generar el fundamento científico y técnico para la formulación de políticas y acciones que ayuden a la mitigación y adaptación frente a los cambios esperados.En este sentido se resalta una herramienta metodológica que sirve para transversalizar el cambio climático en la planificación: la Adaptación basada en ecosistemas EbA, que asocia la conservación de la biodiversidad como una forma de abordar el cambio climático, proporcionando al mismo tiempo beneficios de bienestar social y conservación de los servicios ambientales que prestan los ecosistemas (Vejarano, 2013) La formulación e implementación de los planes de ordenación y manejo de cuencas hidrográficas requieren de seis fases:Aprestamiento: Se definen el plan de trabajo, la identificación, caracterización y priorización de actores, la estrategia de participación, la revisión y consolidación de información existente, el análisis de la situación inicial y el plan operativo.Diagnóstico: Se consolida el Consejo de Cuenca y se determinará el estado actual de la cuenca en sus componentes: físico-biótico, socioeconómico y cultural, político administrativo, funcional y de gestión del riesgo.Prospectiva y zonificación ambiental: Se diseñan los escenarios futuros del uso coordinado y sostenible del suelo, de las aguas, de la flora y de la fauna presente de la cuenca, y se define, en un horizonte no menor a 10 años, el modelo de ordenación de la cuenca.Formulación: Se define el componente programático, las medidas para la administración de los recursos naturales renovables y el componente de gestión del riesgo.Ejecución y seguimiento: Se establecen las acciones de coordinación que deben adelantar las Corporaciones Autónomas Regionales y de Desarrollo Sostenible competentes para la ejecución del plan de ordenación y manejo de la cuenca hidrográfica.Evaluación: Se aplican los mecanismos definidos en el respectivo plan de seguimiento y evaluación definido en la fase de formulación (MADS, 2014). La reforestación se presenta como una alternativa para conservar y mantener los cursos de agua, mejorar el paisaje y controlar la erosión de los suelos.Los planes de reforestación deben estar articulados a la situación específica de la zona; es por ello que se debe realizar un estudio del bosque natural y del suelo para identificar las especies de flora nativa y así realizar un acondicionamiento de estas.Posteriormente se adecúa la zona para la plantación de las especies, se realiza una demarcación de los lugares donde estos van a ser ubicados, se excavan los hoyos y se trasplantan las plántulas, dejando el suelo firme.Es necesario tener en cuenta el mantenimiento que demanda dicha plantación durante los 2 o 3 primeros años (fertilizaciones, podas, entre otros) y los costos asociados a esto para ser incluidos en el inicio del plan de reforestación (Miranda y Torres, 2010 El tratamiento de las aguas residuales se convierte en un factor muy importante a la hora de establecer el desarrollo social y económico en una comunidad, ya que permite tener una mejor calidad de vida.Es por eso que para el municipio de Dagua se propone un estudio de viabilidad, no solo financiera, sino también social, productiva y ambiental.Según el Centro Panamericano de Ingeniería Sanitaria y Ciencias del Ambiente, en el texto denominado Guía para la Formulación de Proyectos de Sistemas Integrados de Tratamiento y Uso de Aguas Residuales Domésticas en 2002, esta iniciativa debe considerar aspectos como:1. Conceptualización del sistema que se desea implementar.2. Ubicación del estudio en el contexto del municipio.3. Identificación del contexto social del área de estudio.4. Identificación del contexto legal.5. Diagnóstico ambiental.6. Identificación de actores involucrados.7. Evaluación de los suelos y el agua del municipio.8. Definición de la propuesta de un sistema integrado. 9. Socialización de la propuesta con actores involucrados. La estrategia para la respuesta a emergencias es el marco de actuación de las entidades del Sistema Nacional de Gestión del Riesgo para la reacción y atención de emergencias.Se refiere a todos los aspectos que deben activarse por las entidades en forma individual y colectiva, con el propósito de ejecutar la respuesta a emergencias de manera oportuna y efectiva. Dentro de las acciones de coordinación establecidas en la estrategia de respuesta a emergencias se deben definir los siguientes aspectos: Objetivos, servicios, actores, participación de los actores, niveles de emergencia, estructura de actuación, y procedimientos operativos.Dicha estrategia y sus actualizaciones deben ser adoptadas mediante decreto expedido por el gobernador o alcalde (Vargas, sf) En este sentido, el IPCC plantea un esquema metodológico basado en el cálculo de emisiones a partir de datos de actividad y factores de emisión para cada país. Este proceso metodológico abarca las siguientes etapas:Identificación del propósito del inventario. Selección de la técnica de medición. Establece el método de cuantificación de las emisiones de GEI y contaminantes criterio a partir del nivel de profundización seleccionado.Identificación de fuentes de emisión. Mediante información suministrada por diferentes entidades públicas y privadas, tales como cámara de comercio, autoridades ambientales, empresas de transporte y bases de datos electrónicas.Recopilación de datos de actividad. Se realizará en función de las fuentes de emisión identificadas.Selección de factores de emisión. Se seleccionan teniendo en cuenta: i) datos de actividad de las fuentes de emisión que apliquen para el municipio, y ii) recomendaciones de la metodología IPCC.Cálculo de emisiones y reporte final. Teniendo en cuenta las etapas anteriores, se determinan las emisiones de GEI y contaminantes criterio para finalmente consolidar la información en un reporte final (IPCC, 2006) La fiscalización de la conservación de los recursos naturales no solo es tarea de la autoridad ambiental legalmente definida (CVC), sino que también debe incorporar la participación de toda la comunidad y todo los actores que están involucrados en la misma, lo cual permite que la formulación de políticas municipales que controlen y penalicen el uso inadecuado de recursos naturales sea un proceso concertado y participativo. En ese sentido se debe propender por establecer lineamientos claros de política ambiental en el municipio que busquen conservar los recursos naturales. Este proceso debe contener al menos estas etapas:1. Establecimiento del equipo de trabajo.2. Diagnóstico del estado ambiental del municipio, ecosistemas, coberturas, conflicto de uso del suelo, zonas de deforestación, entre otras.3. Definición de acciones de protección y control.4. Ejecución de acciones de protección y control.5. Seguimiento y evaluación del control y la fiscalización ambiental. Municipio de Dagua -Valle del Cauca Instrucción 1. Nombre del proyecto/acción. 2. Objeto del proyecto/acción. 3. Criterio. 4. Nombre de la institución y de la persona directamente responsable del proyecto/acción. 5. Datos de contacto de la persona responsable (email y teléfono). 6. Estado del proyecto: En formulación (EF), Formulado y sin recursos (FSR), Formulado y con recursos (FCR), En ejecución (E) 7. Fecha en que fue/será desarrollado el proyecto. Escriba el número del criterio: 1. Soberanía y seguridad alimentaria ante el cambio climático 2. Gestión del riesgo asociado a la variabilidad y cambio climático 3. Gestión integral del recurso hídrico 4. Conservación de ecosistemas y áreas de interés ambiental 5. Procesos y sistemas Productivos ambientalmente sostenibles 6. Generación de capacidades para la gestión y adaptación ante el cambio climático 7. Desarrollo y transferencia de tecnologías ambientalmente apropiadas para la adaptación al cambio y variabilidad climática. Formato de valoración de criterios para la selección de medidas y proyectos de adaptación al cambio y variabilidad climática en el municipio de Dagua, de acuerdo con la metodología de Análisis Jerárquico (AHP)El objetivo del siguiente ejercicio consiste en establecer la importancia de cada uno de los criterios que se han definido para la calificación y selección de medidas y proyectos de adaptación al cambio y variabilidad climática en el municipio de Dagua. Los resultados de este ejercicio constituirán el insumo base para la realización de un análisis de jerarquías por medio de la metodología AHP, lo que permitirá establecer la importancia de los diferentes criterios.Para el desarrollo del ejercicio, se procederá a responder las preguntas que se encuentran en la segunda y tercera columna del Cuadro A2, con base en la información contenida en cada una de las filas. Para el caso de la pregunta ¿En qué grado considera usted que es más importante? (Tercera columna en el Cuadro A2), el grado de importancia se calificará con base en el Cuadro A1, colocando en el espacio respectivo del cuadro, el valor numérico que corresponda al juicio que se realice sobre la importancia. La escala definida para esta valoración (de 1 a 5) ha sido diseñada con base en la metodología de Análisis Jerárquico AHP. Ejemplo de aplicación:En el anterior ejemplo, la valoración efectuada asignó una preferencia al criterio número 6, por encima del criterio número 3; y el grado o valoración de la importancia que se otorgó es de 4, conforme a la escala planteada en el Cuadro A1.A continuación se presenta el formato vacío (Cuadro A2) donde podrá usted efectuar las calificaciones. Recuerde consultar, al final del presente documento, la explicación de cada criterio si tiene alguna duda en el proceso de comparación y calificación. Por favor evite realizar comparaciones cuyo valor de preferencia sea 1 (igualmente importante); reserve dicha opción para casos extremos en que no le sea posible tener una preferencia. Por medio de este criterio, se busca priorizar proyectos y medidas relacionadas con la adaptación ecológica y cultural de los agroecosistemas a la variabilidad y el cambio climático, el reconocimiento y recuperación de saberes y prácticas productivas ancestrales que garanticen la soberanía y seguridad alimentaria ante el cambio climático.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto contempla adaptaciones, manejo o mitigación de riesgos relacionados con variabilidad y cambio climático?A través de este criterio, se busca priorizar aquellas medidas y proyectos que involucran posibles adaptaciones desde la gestión del riesgo ante el cambio climático, involucrando obras de manejo y mitigación de riesgos por escenarios de variabilidad y cambio climático, como vendavales, incendios forestales, inundaciones urbanas, avenidas torrenciales, el manejo de procesos erosivos en zonas de ladera, entre otros.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto representa posibles adaptaciones para la gestión integral del agua ante escenarios de variabilidad y cambio climático?Este criterio prioriza medidas y proyectos que involucran procesos de gestión del agua a escala de cuenca hidrográfica; desde aspectos ecológicos y culturales relacionados con la oferta -demanda y calidad del recurso, como la protección y recuperación de fuentes abastecedoras, el ahorro y uso eficiente del agua y la salud ambiental.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto busca la conservación de ecosistemas estratégicos para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática?Este criterio busca otorgar una mayor prioridad a las medidas y proyectos relacionados con la conectividad ecosistémica, la gestión ambiental en áreas naturales protegidas y la conservación y regulación de fuentes hídricas y de los bosques del departamento. Involucra además proyectos que contemplan procesos de conservación en el marco de esquemas de pago por servicios ambientales y/o exenciones tributarias por conservación de áreas ambientales estratégicas.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto plantea la incorporación de prácticas y procesos sostenibles en los sistemas productivos como respuesta al cambio y la variabilidad climática?Este criterio brinda una mayor prioridad a las medidas o proyectos que incorporan prácticas de manejo ecológicas en los sistemas productivos del municipio con el fin de hacerlos más resilientes y/o adaptativos ante el cambio y variabilidad climática.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto proporciona escenarios para la investigación, formación de capacidades y/o apropiación de conocimientos en torno a la gestión y adaptación ante el cambio climático?Este criterio entrega una mayor prioridad a medidas o proyectos relacionados con procesos de investigación, generación de información, formación de capacidades humanas para la gestión del cambio climático, así como la apropiación social, institucional y sectorial de su conocimiento, la proyección de procesos de educación ambiental enfocados en temas relacionados con el cambio climático y el reconocimiento de las vulnerabilidades e identidades culturales locales.Por medio de este criterio, se otorga mayor prioridad a las medidas o proyectos que plantean procesos de apropiación de tecnologías (tradicionales y de punta) que sirven a posibles adaptaciones al cambio y variabilidad climática, aplicables en el sector agropecuario, en los sistemas urbanos o en los sistemas de información para la toma de decisiones, apropiadas en términos de viabilidad socioeconómica, ambiental y cultural.","tokenCount":"12889"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e893e259ebce35403f4965473b6b6621","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://old.icraf.org/sea/Publications/files/manual/MN0068-15.pdf","id":"1969093780"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ed0996b1-c91f-428d-830d-75d3739a5820","pagecount":"12","content":"Thu hái và gieo hạt -Cây mẹ thu hái quả: Là những cây trội hình thái tán cân đối, thân thẳng, sai quả, hình dạng quả đẹp, vỏ sáng bóng.-Thời vụ thu hái: Tháng 9-11.-Quả thu về phải được tách để lấy hạt ngay, chọn những hạt mẩy, hạt sau khi tách phải được rửa bằng nước sạch rồi hong nơi râm mát cho đến khi khô vỏ hạt là được.-Xử lý hạt giống chuẩn bị gieo ươm: Ngâm hạt trong nước ấm (3 sôi, 2 lạnh) trong 8 giờ.Làm giàn che nắng -Khung giàn che bằng tre hoặc bằng cọc bê tông, chiều cao của giàn che từ 2-2,5m.-Giàn che bằng lưới đen có độ che sáng 75% để che luống trước khi cấy cây mầm vào bầu. Trong trường hợp không có lưới thì làm giàn che bằng vật liệu có sẵn ở địa phương.Đóng bầu -Đất đóng bầu là hỗn hợp đất tầng mặt được đập và sàng nhỏ (chiếm 89%), trộn với phân chuồng hoai mục (chiếm 10%) và phân NPK (chiếm 1%).-Bầu cây được xếp theo luống trong vườn ươm, rộng 1m, dài tùy từng hình dạng của vườn ươm. Các luống cách nhau 50-60cm.Dùng que tròn chọc một lỗ nhỏ ở giữa bầu rồi đặt 1-2 hạt đã nẩy mầm vào lỗ, sau đó lấp lên bề mặt hạt một lớp đất dầy từ 0,5-1cm.Sau khi cấy hạt -Tưới nước: Trong 30 ngày đầu, tưới 2 lần/ ngày, lượng nước tưới 4-5 lít/m2; cây sau khi cấy từ 30 ngày trở lên nên tưới 1 lần/ngày, lượng nước tưới từ 6-8 lít nước/m2. -Nhổ cỏ, phá váng: Định kì 10-15 ngày/lần.-Khoảng 1 tháng sau khi gieo hạt, tiến hành phá váng mặt bầu và tưới nước phân lân pha loãng (1%) cho cây.-Sau khi cấy từ 7 đến 10 ngày, hạt bắt đầu sinh trưởng thành cây con. Tiếp tục chăm sóc, tưới ẩm thường xuyên, bắt và diệt sâu bệnh hại nếu có.-Sau 3 đến 4 tháng gieo ươm, cây con có chiều cao trung bình 40-50cm. Lúc này túi bầu đã hết chất dinh dưỡng, ta tiến hành chuyển cây sang bầu to hơn, kích thước bầu rộng khoảng 15-18cm, dài khoảng 20-22cm.-Cây từ 12-14 tháng tuổi chiều cao đạt từ 0,8-1m, đường kính gốc 0,6-0,8cm là đủ tuổi ghép. Cành ghép sau khi mang về vườn ươm, được cắt ra từng đoạn ngắn chiều dài 7-10cm, trên đó chứa 2-4 mắt ngủ.Dùng kéo cắt ngang cây con, chỉ để thân cây cao 25-30cm tính từ mặt bầu. Duy trì các cành cây trên thân gốc ghép để cây quang hợp nuôi mắt ghép.Dùng kéo cắt ngang cây con, chỉ để thân cây cao 25-30cm tính từ mặt bầu. Duy trì các cành cây trên thân gốc ghép để cây quang hợp nuôi mắt ghép.Dùng dao thật sắc cắt vát đầu trên của thân cây và cắt vát một đầu của cành ghép, độ dài vết cắt vát 4-7cm.Chú ý: Lựa sao cho vết cắt vát của gốc ghép và cành ghép tương đối bằng nhau, để vết ghép khít vào nhau. Tránh vết cắt bị dập nát.Áp sát vết cắt của cành ghép vào vết cắt của gốc ghép.Các bước ghép (tiếp)(Áp dụng được đại trà) Dùng dây ni lông quấn chặt mối ghép từ dưới lên trên sao cho các lớp chồng lên nhau.Vết ghép sau khi được quấn chặt bằng ni lông. Tưới nước giữ ẩm thường xuyên. Tưới nước bằng vòi ô doa vào gốc cây, không tưới vào vị trí tiếp xúc giữa cành ghép và gốc ghép.Khi mắt ghép sinh trưởng tốt, chiều cao mắt ghép 30-50cm, là có thể đem cây ghép đi trồng. Trước khi trồng 1 tháng, tiến hành đảo bầu và dỡ bỏ hoàn toàn giàn che nắng để cây quen với ánh sáng tự nhiên.Sau khi trồng 1 tháng, dùng dao nhẹ nhàng cắt, tháo dây ni lông quấn quanh mắt ghép.Thường xuyên tỉa, loại bỏ các cành dưới mắt ghép, chỉ để các cành cây của cành ghép sinh trưởng.AFLI là dự án Nông lâm kết hợp cho sinh kế của nông hộ nhỏ tại khu vực Tây Bắc Việt Nam. Dự án có mục đích cải thiện hiệu suất của các hệ thống nông nghiệp hộ gia đình ở khu vực Tây Bắc Việt Nam thông qua nông lâm kế hợp. Bốn mục tiêu của dự án bao gồm: 1) phát triển các hệ thống nông lâm kết hợp tốt nhất cho ba vùng sinh thái nông nghiệp; 2) cải thiện khả năng cung ứng giống cây chất lượng cao nhằm mở rộng các hệ thống nông lâm kết hợp; 3) tăng cường cơ hội làm tăng giá trị và thị trường cho các sản phẩm từ hệ thống nông lâm kết hợp; 4) cải thiện các phương pháp khuyến nông và đối thoại chính sách để tuyên truyền về các hệ thống nông lâm kết hợp. Tiến sỹ La Nguyễn Quản lý dự án Email: l.nguyen@cgiar.org Địa chỉ văn phòng: Số 17A, đường Nguyễn Khang Phường Yên Hòa, Quận Cầu Giấy, Hà Nội Điện thoại: +84 4 3784 4644/45","tokenCount":"861"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0e0ae0a19d1a221b98fcc567f4c48120","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/02102dcc-233a-4588-977e-e6f582b38c1d/retrieve","id":"1465761405"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d14a5a07-f319-4771-9d30-4ff27cb86bc7","pagecount":"7","content":"Authors: Grazia Pacillo, Harold Achicanoy, Julian Ramirez-Villegas, Alessandro Craparo, Ashleigh Basel, Victor Villa, Frans Schapendonk, Bia Carneiro, Giuliano Resce, Giosue Ruscica, Theresa Liebig and Peter Läderach For more information please contact p.laderach@cgiar.org peter.laderach@wfp.orgEthiopia is extremely exposed to the impacts of climate change and variability. Almost 90% of its surface is vulnerable to severe or extreme climate stresses (Figure 1). Extensive periods of droughts have become more frequent in the past decade and caused significant economic losses, primarily through their impact on agricultural productivity. With more than 16 % of the population being severley food insecure, and 67 % of the population being employed in the agricultural sector, climate change and variability impacts on the most vulnerable are extremely concerning. At the same time, the country has been affected by conflicts since decades. Border conflicts and internal fighting have displaced hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians over several decades, affecting already vulnerable communities. ACLED data  shows that battles, especially armed clashes, and protests have been the dominant type of conflict in the past five decades with a rate of fatalities compared to other conflict events (Figure 2).  With a high proportion of the Ethiopian population relying on rainfed agriculture and pastoralism, climate change and variability exacerbates existing household level insecurities that are correlated with a higher likelihood and intensity of conflict. Climate variability is a threat multiplier. Drought and high temperature extremes are the main drivers hindering crop and livestock productivity, increasing household level food and nutrition insecurity, poverty and inequality and decreasing agricultural employment, which in turn are correlated with a higher likelihood and intensity of conflicts. For example, we find that an increase of ten days in the year with high temperature (>37 degree Celsius) increases the number of food insecure households, on average, by 3% and that the increase of one food insecure household is correlated with a 3% increase of the likelihood of future conflicts at woreda level.Similarly, high temperatures are positively correlated with the number of poor people in the woreda and that an additional household falling into poverty is positively correlated with the likelihood of conflict (on average +2%) and insurgence of more battles (on average an increase by fifty of the number of poor households is correlated with an additional local battle) in the woreda.The impact of climate on food insecurity can cascade in multiple, wider security risks Our analyses also show that the impact of the climate variability on food security and poverty will result in the increase of multiple additional socio-economic risks that are connected to food insecurity and poverty (Figure 3). Using network analysis we are able to show that that there exists a clear interconnection between several key socioeconomic dimensions (green), climate (purple) and conflicts (yellow). Figure 3 shows that the strongest nodes are between aridity (ecological system), food and nutrition insecurity, high population pressure, years of education, agricultural productivity, number of people in a crisis and intensity (events and fatalities) and diversity (richness) of conflicts. This suggests that an increase exposure to climate impacts of a part of this system, such as food security and poverty, can generate in increasing risks and insecurities across multiple dimensions of the network, such as inequality, agricultural productivity, and crisis exposure.Afar, Somali and Tigray regions are currently the most exposed to climate security risks Climate security risks are not the same everywhere in Ethiopia. Using spatial analysis, we can identify hotspots of climate insecurities (Figure 4). In Ethiopia, areas where persistent dry-hot climate conditions, chronic food insecurity and different socioeconomic vulnerabilities converge present a moderate to severe conflict incidence.  Factsheet Climate Security in EthiopiaIn addition, for the period 1980 -2020, there exist a number of hotspots where harsh climate conditions and conflicts co-occurred with other insecurities, such as high prevalence of malnourished children, education levels, and low agricultural productivity. These hotspots are in black in Figure 4 (left map) and cover the regions of Amhara, Benshangul -Gumuz, Gambela and SNNP in areas bordering Sudan and South Sudan and areas in the Oromia region bordering north-east Kenya. In the harshest climate conditions (dry-hot weather), there exist highly localized hotspots for each of these insecurities. For instance, hotspots of dry-hot climate, moderate conflict intensity and highest rates of stunting, wasting and underweight are mostly located in the Afar zone 2 and in the Gode and Degehabur woredas in the Somali region (dark brown -top right map, Figure 5). On the other hand, hotspots of climate security risks and inequality are in the coastal areas of Degehabur and Warder woredas in the Somali region, in the Borena and Bale woredas in the Oromia region and in the centra parts of the Afar regions (dark red -bottom left map, Figure 5). Finally, hotspots of climate security risks and low agricultural productivity in the dryhot climate areas are in the Shinile Dire Dawa, Karahe, Worder, Liben and After woredas in the Somali region (dark blue -bottom right map, Figure 5).https://www.climatesecurity.cgiar.org Factsheet Climate Security in Ethiopia ","tokenCount":"826"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9a644cd59cba76dc7789df5e8ec91769","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7751ff7a-73d8-4665-9454-076f72e857b0/retrieve","id":"637792909"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0e9b4593-cad5-4ac2-802e-84931e551d81","pagecount":"3","content":"Climate change adaptation is a multidisciplinary undertaking, requiring collaboration from diverse actors who operate in different sectors. This makes it critical to share information and share it well. Informed by a forum organized by the Global Adaptation Network (GAN) that was attended by nearly one hundred participants, this brief looks at tools, activities, and techniques for effective knowledge sharing through adaptation networks.The knowledge exchange among the GAN Forum participants aimed at learning from the region's most successful activities: those that have reached the most diverse actors and were considered most effective in terms of supporting policymaking. Based on a discussion around the success factors (\"Why was the activity useful?\" and \"What were the outcomes\"?) as well as a subsequent analysis with participants, GAN found that three activities wereThe GAN's mission is to help build climate resilience of vulnerable communities, ecosystems, and economies through the mobilization of knowledge for adaptation. The GAN works globally to influence policy, while its regional networks work to aid policy nationally and regionally. The GAN comprises four regional networks: the Regional Gateway for Technology Transfer and Climate Change Action (REGATTA) in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN), the West Asia Regional Network on Climate Change (WARN-CC), and the Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network (AAKNet). The GAN Forum, held in Panama City in March 2015, brought together experts and government officials from the various adaptation knowledge networks. It provided a unique opportunity for dialogue and learning between adaptation actors and networks inter-regionally and globally. the most successful: REGATTA's \"webinars and communities of practice, \" APAN's \"Finance Forum, \" and the \"Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative. \" Each activity was successful for distinct, and sometimes unexpected, reasons, as discussed in this brief on \"Climate Change Adaptation: Tips for effective information sharing and networking, \" which is aimed at policymakers, practitioners, and network leaders working in the field of climate change adaptation. However, developing a collaborative approach in and between knowledge networks is not always easy and can, for example, be hindered by.A lack of incentives to share or use new knowledge.Poor coordination.Differences in cultural norms and languages.Limited resources and technological access.In the context of climate change adaptation, it is important to spread information through effective networking as the mobilization of knowledge for adaptation is needed in order to build climate resilience around the globe. Although the recent 1. 2007 Report of the Australian Public Service Commission. rise of online adaptation knowledge networks has led to knowledge innovations, reduced costs of engagement, and widened audiences, the human dimension remains essential. The following chapter presents three examples of effective networking from the regional GAN networks.REGATTA offers access to communities of practice (CoP) and online seminars or \"webinars\" through its online platform. The online CoP focus on climate change adaptation organized around either a particular ecosystem (e.g., the Andes) or theme (e.g., health). Currently, REGATTA facilitates eight active online communities of practice that have a total of more than 4,000 registered users, and it offered 73 virtual webinars. 2 Why was the activity useful?The CoP provide targeted information produced by experts in the field.They are maintained by an expert content manager so they are constantly updated.The REGATTA platform provides a \"one-stop shop\" with access to specific fields of expertise so that professionals have to look at only one site to find extremely precise information for all their needs It offers tailored and specific support from a reliable community.What were the outcomes? Through the online webinars and CoP, REGATTA was able to target specific topics of current relevance and at the same time engage simultaneously with di verse actors across the region, from producers to users of knowledge. The capacity of practitioners and policymakers was built. For example, in the case of CoP Andes, approximately 2,000 persons subscribed to the community, in which the 11 organized webinars attracted 1,150 participants.One of APAN's most innovative activities has been to go beyond traditional environmental policymakers and work with policymakers from ministries of finance, planning, and development. Adaptation is a long-term, multi-sectorial investment that requires attention well beyond the traditional environmental sector. APAN has reached out to engage these communities of policymakers through training activities and workshops. APAN has hosted five workshops on the topic of climate finance, in addition to discussing finance in sessions devoted to the topic during the third and fourth APAN forums. A recent workshop on climate change adaptation finance was held in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum 2014, offering 30 participants from 11 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific opportunities for high-quality learning and knowledge exchange. APAN has also conducted research on climate finance. 3 3. \"Gap analysis related to adaptation finance\" 2013 − In order to provide the necessary support and enhance the adaptive capacity of developing and least developed countries, various adaptation funding mechanisms have been set in place to provide resources for adaptation and adaptation-related projects as created and prioritized by the UNFCCC Adaptation Fund. This report is a study on existing climate adaptation funds to assess gaps in accessing adaptation finance.Why was the activity useful?The Finance workshops brought together diverse communities of policymakers to bridge the usual gaps and help them prioritize mutually beneficial activities.The workshops demonstrated to countries how to access climate funds in order to implement the programs and projects of their National Adaptation Programs of Action, National Action Plans, etc.Through mock exercises, the workshops also demonstrated how to develop proposals, donor pitches, and how to engage in faceto-face interaction with donors such as Adaptation Fund, GIZ, AusAID, GCF, CTCN, etc.The workshops enabled the participants to recognize the importance of taking a multidisciplinary approach and the need to involve different stakeholders as well as different line ministers while formulating and implementing programs and projects such as the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Planning, etc.Although no analysis of spending has been undertaken, presumably the activities have increased investment in adaptation by the targeted ministries. Furthermore, investments in infrastructure, development, or planning may now be more \"climate-resilient\" or \"climate-proof. \"The Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative GAN and REGATTA together with UNFCCC developed and piloted an activity in the Andes that is already on its way across the globe to West Asia. The Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative or \"LAKI\" was developed with the understanding that knowledge 5Climate Change Adaptation: Tips for effective information sharing and networking gaps are a barrier to widespread and successful adaptation, and that prioritizing such gaps is essential to effectively addressing and fulfilling them.The LAKI methodology a variation of the Delphi method to identify knowledge gaps, identify prioritization criteria, evaluate and prioritize knowledge gaps, and identify and prioritize responses. Although workshop participants have different opinions and select different criteria, the LAKI methodology is a means for a diverse group to optimize group thinking, and potentially result in agreement. The outcome of the Andean pilot was a list of the top 10 climate change adaptation knowledge gaps. Further action is being taken to indicate which organizations or entities could lead in finding solutions to the identified gaps.The LAKI brought together diverse actors and produced a universally agreed-upon road map for addressing knowledge gaps that crossed knowledge sectors. It provided an opportunity to bring to light the various adaptation gaps across the region, and to prioritize ideas for solutions.It also gave diverse actors a common reference point for collaboration and a common platform (agenda) for advocacy.What were the outcomes?The main outcomes of the LAKI were a list of the top 10 universally agreed-upon adaptation knowledge gaps, and the establishment of closer connections and optimized group thinking among the participants.Based on presentations and discussions that took place during the GAN Forum, seven best practices for adaptation knowledge networks for upscaling activities could be identified: Know your audience Be aware and remain aware of your audience, who are you trying to reach, which information is useful for your audience, and in what shape and at what pace do they need it? Take into account limitations of virtual interaction for local communities and choose adequate media for your audience. For example, when working with local communities in developing countries, showing a short movie in the local language is likely to create more effect than promoting a high-tech phone application.It is important to create bonds among participants and foster sense making, for example, through the co-creation of a common vocabulary. Network activities must focus on the creation of a feeling of ownership of the knowledge that is produced together by the network members, and engagement within the regional communities is a prerequisite for sustainable and effective regional engagement.Create success online or face to face Several regional GAN networks are (co-) organizing annual conferences and fora in the field of climate change adaptation. This is an excellent way to provide knowledge-sharing opportunities for the research community, policymakers, and decision makers on the ground, and to link your network's activities to a higher policy level. At the same time, other networks were successful in engaging exclusively online through a combination of webinars and online discussions. In both cases, it is vital to have a list of high-quality contacts and experts right from the beginning.Connect with both ends While focusing your network activities to attract the interest of policymakers, remain connected to regional and local NGOs that work with people on the ground. Their wants and needs should be clearly communicated at the higher policy level, and local traditions and adaptive practices must be taken into account in problem-solving processes.Add value to the network As users tend to become lost in the huge amounts of information available online, aim to prevent duplication by bringing existing information into context or linking your users to highly relevant information sources. The climate change adaptation space is highly complex, and it is important for all networks to find a way to clearly capture and communicate information. Bring in experts and facilitate dialogues that are context-specific, and, based on specific needs of your members, you could create new knowledge.Try to define and measure the added value and effectiveness of your network. Stay in touch with your members and listen to their feedback to improve your activities. Develop clear targets so you can define concrete indicators of success.The importance of sustainability to grow incrementally and evolve over time cannot be underestimated. Ensure your network's future activities by building a solid financial base, est ablishing strategic partnerships, and forming a core group of committed community champions. When possible, collaborate and integrate with others rather than compete.","tokenCount":"1747"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9d1c9d7159f014a38e56b7c2c9e7b909","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b916dfae-23d8-42cd-9427-5ea0b48a36b1/retrieve","id":"1781314503"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"893a2f90-8fbe-4c69-a418-dbccc3ea2da4","pagecount":"23","content":"CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food-secure future. The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock provides research-based solutions to help smallholder farmers, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists transition to sustainable, resilient livelihoods and to productive enterprises that will help feed future generations. It aims to increase the productivity and profitability of livestock agri-food systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and eggs more available and affordable across the developing world. The Program brings together five core partners: the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with a mandate on livestock; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which works on forages; the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), which works on small ruminants and dryland systems; the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) with expertise particularly in animal health and genetics and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) which connects research into development and innovation and scaling processes.The Program thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust FundThe ILRI and ICARDA gender team with the support of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock Strategic Investment Fund piloted a community-based gender transformative approach called 'Community Conversations'. The community conversations aimed to engage a cross-section of community members and local partners in dialogues around gender, women's livestock ownership and zoonotic diseases.In addition to the gender and zoonoses module, the team expanded community conversations to include animal welfare and antimicrobial use and resistance. ILRI in partnership with the University of Melbourne developed an animal welfare community conversation module. To test the module and learn about animal welfare issues in the field, we made a visit to one of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock sites, Doyogena district, Ethiopia, on 5-7 March 2019.With the aid of an interview checklist, we had discussions with local partners, participated in the closing and sharing of previous community conversations, and interviewed some households at their homesteads or farm, giving us the opportunity to observe resource situations and some of their animals. We also talked to a group of school-age children to understand how they perceive animal welfare. This report collates the most important points about farmers' and veterinary service providers' perceptions of animal care, the farming system in Doyogena and the animal production and welfare issues faced by farmers.Detailed notes from a discussion with the Ancha Sadicha community conversation group, eight farmer interviews at Hawora Arara community (two of the respondents were female), and a meeting with the Livestock and Fisheries Resources Development Office (LFRDO) that form the basis of these summaries are also included.The report concludes with a table (Table 2) of recommended animal welfare issues that can be the focus of the community conversation animal welfare module.When asked about what makes their animals happy or sad, the respondents' focus was strongly on feed. Happy animals were those that had full bellies and good feed. Animals were sad when they didn't receive these things. All of the people we spoke to, including children, readily described situations when animals were happy and sad. This reflected a belief that animals could experience these feelings. When describing animal conditions, all of the respondents recognized that providing adequate feed and water, and good health were critical for happy animals, which matches a definition of welfare based on biological functioning. A number of respondents also described some behavioural needs for animals to be happy (such as freedom to graze, play and interact, calmness, gentle touch during handling, routine and movement) which relates to a natural behaviour definition of welfare, and there were a few descriptions, particularly when further prompted through discussion, of situations relating to negative affective states of animals.Providing adequate feed to animals was the primary concern of all respondents. Water was also a consistently mentioned challenge. The discussions occurred during a particularly difficult time in the production calendar (dry season), which influenced the participants responses. Families do not have a large number of animals, and all grow their own wheat and Enset, which they use for animal feed along with grazing. Quantifying the nutrition available for animals throughout the year by reviewing the literature or doing an assessment would give a more thorough picture of available feed and water, and the animals' nutritional status overall.At the time of our visit, many of the cows were dry (not producing milk). Traditionally, milking and cleaning are women's jobs and feeding/collecting feed are men's jobs. However, interviews and community conversations indicated that women and men sometimes share these responsibilities.Farmers reported that veterinary support came from government veterinarians/service providers and this was not often described as a key constraint.• Farmers described government veterinarians as their primary source of assistance. However, the district government group indicated that farmers often try to treat their animals first, before turning to government veterinarians. District veterinarians were present during farmer discussions, which might have influenced farmers' responses. -Overall, farmers did not describe general or specific animal health issues as being major constraints.• LFRDO veterinarians described health and capacity as the key constraints, with the majority of the conversation focusing on capacity and the impacts of this on farming in the region (Figure 1; full details page 12). Farmers, however, described feed as the major constraint. These conflicting responses reflect the challenges and focus of each group-farmers and veterinarians-in their daily activities. Characterizing the farming system Typical households in this area have two cows, up to four sheep and one donkey (Figure 2). Animals are kept in the house or stabled nearby overnight and then let into the house block during the day (Figure 3). While housed and fed at the home, relying on a cut-and-carry system (Figure 4), animals are also let out for grazing. The timing of our interviews made it difficult to observe the animals. According to the farmers, free grazing is particularly common at this time of year when crops are not planted and feed is scarce. This time of year (December-March, pre-rainy season) is when farmers experience the biggest feed shortages. The best time of year for animal feed supply is October.  At the end of the gender and zoonoses community conversations closing and sharing event in Ancha Sadicha, parallel to the field visit, we asked the group (54 men and 25 women) some questions regarding animal welfare. The questions and answers are summarized below.What are your priority issues/constraints when caring for your animals?1. FeedHealth support/access to services 3. Water 4. ShelterWhen prompted, mortality and lameness were not described as issues; however, 20% mortality for sheep has been reported in this region.Which of your animals are the most important?Cattle are the most important: cows provide nutrition to the household, and birth of young animals is important for growing the herd or for sale. Males are used for field ploughing and so are a critical tool for agricultural production. Sheep are the next important, but they are not a focus of this region.What is the most time consuming livestock activity affecting you every day?Feed preparation and cleaning is the biggest job. Men usually collect and prepare the feed. Women help prepare and clean the animal pen.'We care more for our animals than for people. We take a lot of time and resources for our animals: cleaning daily, feeding and providing water.' Stock Cattle adult male 0; adult female 1; young 0 (0:1:0) Sheep 2:2:1 -males either bred or purchased, aiming to sell as rams to the village's community-based breeding cooperative or will sell after fattening Donkey 1 (sex not identified in any interviews)The cow is the most valuable asset for the family. It provides daily nutrition, breeding for oxen for ploughing or sale for significant cash. Milk is used by the household daily, but sometimes butter or cheese can be sold for cash as well.Sheep are also important because they provide a good cash source when needed.Feed shortage is the major constraint to keeping animals and income. To fatten sheep, they will buy a commercial mix from the market and give with some Enset leaves.Stock Cattle 0:4:4 -one adult female with growth on eye (Figure 8) Sheep 0:1:0 -4 sold recently. Has a fattening system when they buy young animals Donkey 1This was not a traditional farm or farmer. The man we interviewed is a farm manager for a larger landowner (female), who is a relative. When it comes to decision-making, he makes recommendations for treatment/sales/purchases etc. to the owner who then takes these actions. As the farm manager, he did most of the work on the farm, but was assisted by a woman. Because of his role, he believed that men and women can do all livestock related jobs on the farm equally (Figure 9).This farm was resource rich, so feed restrictions weren't significant. They had a very large plantation of Enset and dedicated a plot of land to desho grass. Collecting feed is the most time-consuming part of his day, taking between 4-6 hours. Despite having the largest plot of desho grass we observed, the animals were not allowed to free graze. This farm was also well resourced for water, with a water harvesting system and water tank connected to the roof of the large shed. When assessing feed, he does so by evaluating the available biomass and buying concentrates if needed.For the cow with the eye issue, they consulted with a government service provider who said that they will treat further after the cow has calved. The farmer disagreed with the statement, 'I need to beat my animals to get them to do what I want', responding that he did need to push/tap them to move where he wanted them to go. This was sometimes difficult because animals prefer being outside and sometimes resist being moved elsewhere/inside. At times, he visually monitors the growth and weights of the animals.According to the manager, hunger, thirst and anger all make the animals sad. The manager described animals as being happy when the conditions were good. He also mentioned that mating was a positive experience that made the animals happy. It was the manager's belief that being in heat is a sign of a healthy and well-managed animal. When animals are well taken care of, they are productive. All animals were out grazing at the time of our visit. Along with the common feed types listed in Table 1, this farmer also grew maize and barley.Livestock husbandry takes most of his time each day. Specifically, this involves feed collection and preparation, which takes approximately 3-4 hours and his wife helps with this role. He is the one who milks the animals.Feed, health and water were the main constraints he faces. In the dry season, water is particularly scarce. It takes approximately 30 minutes to travel to the local water source. The dry season, occurring at the time of the interview (December-March), is when there are feed and water shortages. He stated that farmers in the area do not have a yearround feeding system and sometimes he needs to buy Enset to feed the animals at ETB250/stand. The family uses natural plants to alleviate 'wind' (bloat, causing gas), but will use government veterinarians when needed. He indicated that he is satisfied with and trusting of the services he receives from the government veterinarians. When asked to elaborate about self-directed treatment of animals, he said that he would give tablets to them when needed but does not inject animals.Concerning cattle and sheep management, seasonal diseases affect both. The priority for care and feed in times of shortage is directed to cattle because of their importance to the household. He also stated that it is easier to care for sheep. Children in the family help with feeding and feed collection.When asked what makes his animals happy or sad, he agreed that animals do experience these feelings. Good feed makes animals happy; hunger and illness make them sad and hitting them makes them angry.By the end of our interview, a large number of local children had joined in (Figure 10). When we asked the children about how animals feel, they agreed that animals can experience emotions and that their treatment affects their feelings. The children expressed that being outside, having the chance to play and being well fed made animals happy. Animals were sad when sick and hungry, and hitting animals made them angry and sad. The farmer feeds Enset leaves, stems and roots to his animals.Dairy cows are the most important animals but sheep are important too. The farmer stated that he would like breeding support for sheep. He described using government veterinary services twice a year for vaccinations. He didn't recall any times when he has needed a veterinarian to treat a sick animal.The dry season is bad for him and his animals. Feed and water shortages are a challenge during this time. October is the best time for feed and so is the best time for animals. Feed preparation and bedding cleaning are the two big daily tasks for the family.Stock Cattle 2:1:1 -young animal is female, males were elsewhere when we visited Donkey 1All of the family prepare feed together and they give their animals Enset three times daily. The total time to prepare feed is about one hour. Animals are kept outside for a large part of the day but brought inside overnight and for morning feedings. Their land was fenced, so the cow and calf were able to move freely in the yard. On land without fencing, animals are tethered when let out. They use their donkey to collect water; it takes about 30 minutes to walk to their water source.The teenager we spoke with has some experience caring for animals, but she is still in school so primarily helps with the housework. They feed Enset regularly and occasionally purchase by-products (frushka) to give to their animals, but not often. Feed and water are the biggest issues. They cannot grow grasses because they have limited land.They recently purchased potatoes for planting during the rainy season. Children help with planting and fertilizer spreading. Concerning daily tasks, the husband and wife prepare feed together and the older children collect water.The biggest tasks are cleaning and feed preparation, which can take six hours daily.The farmer stated that he uses health services when his animals are sick, recalling that the last time he required veterinary services was for a donkey that was coughing and off its feed.The farmer's wife said that animals are happiest in the good season of October when there is plenty of feed and sad during the dry season (time of interview).Stock Cattle 0:2:0 -neither animals are milking now, but both are pregnant; milk from these animals is largely used for household consumption Donkey 1At the time of our visit, the farmer's children had taken the animals off for grazing. His wife was sick in bed and his daughters were outside in the front of the house washing and sweeping.The farmer stated that the most important aspect of keeping animals is having 'a good place' with adequate feed and shelter, which makes the animals happy and fat. The dry season is the most difficult time to provide animal care.During good seasons, Enset is not used as feed because there is a wide option of grasses that for both cut and carry and grazing. Feeding takes less time during the good seasons. The farmer indicated that the dry season makes animals sad and that animals are also sad when they age and cannot produce as much as before. The farmer 'can tell when my animal is happy because it is producing well. If an animal produces enough milk and is in good condition, I know my animal is good.'Stock Cattle 0:2:1 -no milk, but cows were pregnant Donkey 1The farmer cares for her animals by providing them with feed and water. She and her family have a reasonable sized plantation of Enset with a little bit of desho grass and a sizeable pile of wheat straw stored in the yard. said the farmer stated that they don't have a problem providing feed for their animals because they have local breeds, not improved breeds: 'We have enough Enset, we have enough wheat. It is not a problem.'The farmer indicated that it is important to give animals good feed and concentrate, which promotes good body condition and makes the animals happy. 'I can tell when my animal is happy because its stomach is fill [sic] and it has good body condition. They are also happy when they are outside roaming.'A recent concern was that the young animal would become sick because it ate some household items. The farmer and her family previously had a number of sheep but had a bad experience: \"In the past, we had a lot of sheep. There was [sic] diseases and bad conditions. Six animals died. We have not tried again, and we do not want to buy sheep. This was about four years ago.'Most of the work responsibilities in her household fell to her daughter because she was sick, as was her husband., her other children had moved away and did not want to farm. Previously, all family members supported each other.In spite of the labour division in her own household, the farmer indicated that ideally, women's jobs included cleaning, milking and taking care of the house, while men's jobs are looking after the crops and collecting fodder. • Gebriel Binchamo (male), poultry expert and extension provider• Genet Tilahun (female), vice head of the Livestock and Fisheries Resources Development Office• Tafese Desalegn (male), group's finance expert, providing information for the question, 'What does animal welfare mean to you?'• Belay Elias (male), veterinarian assisting us with the community conversations and interviewsOver the course of two hours, we held a discussion with four members of the LFRDO. The aim was to:1.Understand constraints and opportunities in the region, and 2.Obtain their perspective on animal welfare and gain their insight regarding farmers' perspectivesThe main concern from the group centred around poor capacity in local service providers (people they work with). This was viewed as the root cause for a variety of problems, ranging from farmers providing inadequate care for their animals, misuse of antibiotics, poor welfare outcomes and productivity limitations.Detailed notes regarding our conversation are provided below.What are the constraints for farmers in your region?• Village-level poultry is a challenge. Currently, dual-purpose birds are delivered from the hatchery at oneday of age, along with feed, to a local distributor who then grows birds until 45 days of age. Health services are provided by the veterinary officers. Poultry is then bought by villagers. There is little knowledge and resources at the village level to care for these improved breeds (improved genetics, but not improved husbandry). This creates risk for families. Specifically, for poultry production, in addition to lack of knowledge and farmers' skill regarding improved poultry husbandry, there is also lack of improved feed and health service delivery.• Crop production is traditionally seen as more important than livestock. Livestock also requires more inputs and initial cash to establish.• Livestock is also an important livelihood source in the area, but health service provision is challenging with no/ limited inputs.• Feed supply options are limited. Shortage of grazing land and feed are the biggest constraints for small ruminants. The only available improved grass is desho. When asked about water provision, this was not regarded as an issue.• Women are constrained to buy livestock (small ruminants) for themselves. Labour division is usually men working with cattle and women working with small ruminants and poultry. Women are not in a position for decision-making power over livestock. For example, a household may be male led, and so he will make decisions about buying poultry, but it is the woman's responsibility to care for the poultry. This is not because women lack opportunities to buy poultry but because of the cultural norms that favour men. Men control livestock and household expenditures. Men are traditionally the household heads; men represent the household even in activities that involve the knowledge and roles of women e.g. chicken production. Therefore, service providers distribute poultry and give advisory services to men rather than to women. This represents a gender blindness of service providers driven by deeply embedded traditions However, some women can buy and sell poultry in the local market.• Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) is perceived to be a limitation with farmers 'not sensitive to animal's needs'. Hoof overgrowth was the associated example given.• There is a disconnect between service providers and farmers that creates issues with animal productivity, welfare and antimicrobial stewardship. Service providers aren't informed of issues by farmers. Rather, farmers contact drug suppliers directly to treat their own animals. This fosters the perception among service providers that farmers provide inadequate care to their animals. The discussion also revealed a perception among service providers that farmers devalue their services, including a belief among farmers that service providers often misdiagnose animals. However, further discussion led to staff acknowledgment that farmers who treat their own animals are concerned with the welfare of their animals. This break down of trust between service providers and farmers extends to crop support to a degree.• Farmers have a stepwise approach to treating sick livestock: 1) traditional medicines, 2) buy medicines and treat themselves and 3) call service providers who treat without asking about history or diagnosing. If/when this doesn't have an immediate effect, farmers will call multiple service providers, potentially seeing three in a day. When it comes to self-directed treatment, men provide injections, usually reserved for cattle. Women give tablets, usually reserved for small ruminants. When it comes to investing in animals, the priorities in order of importance are: 1) cattle/oxen, 2) small ruminants and 3) poultry.• It was recognized that self-directed treatment, low trust in veterinarians and a low capacity of veterinarians are all contributing to AMR issues.• The lack of capacity of the service providers contributes to bad practices with antibiotics and animal welfare. Farmers only see service providers deliver drugs, so they go straight to the source (local drug suppliers). Farmers also see service providers performing procedures with no anaesthetic/pain relief, leading to a perception that animal pain is not important or non-existent.• Antimicrobial stewardship is very poor among farmers and service providers. Farmers have no concept of a withhold period and will treat with whatever they have/are provided with.• There was a perception that traditionally (historically), farmers have kept livestock but not recognized the animals' contribution to their livelihoods. Crops are viewed as having priority over livestock. Crops are the immediate food supply for the family, while livestock (particularly small ruminants) are the cash. This is reiterated with agriculture extension support that has historically focused on crops. There is now a shift to consider livestock as a clear asset.• It is possible that severity dictates action. When symptoms are not life threatening, farmers with self-diagnose and treat the animals using local knowledge. As conditions worsen, farmers are prompted to consult veterinary service providers.• Access to knowledge is a major limitation, as is knowledge sharing. Service providers need access to good information in a user-friendly way to facilitate knowledge sharing.• At the community level, there is a plan for one community animal leader for health and one for productivity. This can be a man or a woman, although it is expected that mostly men will take on these roles. Of the 12 community animal health agents, four are female. When asked if there are difficulties sharing knowledge with the opposite gender, they said no. Upon further discussion, however, this became a clear issue. As an example, the male poultry extension officer will speak to the household head-a man-about poultry production issues. However, poultry care is predominantly performed by women. Part of the issue stemmed from the belief that it is not appropriate to speak with a woman when the male head of the household is at home. Gender awareness training could change this perception.• The gender capacity of service providers is a major issue in serving women farmers. Service providers treat the household as a single unit while failing to acknowledge household dynamics.What does animal welfare mean to you?Responses include:1. Refers to production, income and consumption.2. This is the rights of the animal to live and to be treated like they have rights, be treated like human beings.Animal welfare is good because farmers benefit when meeting these needs as it leads to yield/productivity improvements.Animal welfare means pain, comfort and feelings. This is a gap in farmer practices. They beat animals, or overload carts because they don't think that the animal feels pain.There was a consensus that farmers know they own the animals and depend on them for their livelihoods, but they do not treat them well. They have a disconnect between their reliance and care (selfish or trade-off approach-'animal is surviving so that is ok').How would you describe animal welfare?• Michot (comfort)• Dehenanat (well being)• Kibikabe (giving care) -this was favoured term as it is familiar and has meaning to communities Do you think animal welfare is important?• It is critically needed and a major knowledge and practice gap.• It is important from the production perspective because it helps teach farmers how to give good care and then what is good for the animals is good for the farmers.• Animal welfare is in line with their work. They focus on breeding, health, feed, shelter, marketing and zoonotic disease. This good care means good animal welfare.What opportunities do you see, or what successes do you see?• Good knowledge and demand from farmers on breeding: a government artificial insemination program for dairy that is/has been extended to small ruminants has had good uptake.• Forage growing is now commonplace in this region. Also, the result of a targeted intervention.• Almost all villages use improved poultry breeds now. They buy birds for ETB65 and sell for >ETB300, so they can see the value of investment.• The conclusion from the group is that farmers will willingly adapt clear opportunities when they are well supported by knowledgeable service providers.Recommended focus points for the animal welfare community conversation moduleBased on the discussion with local partners and farmer interviews, we suggest potential KAP developments for welfare community conversations (Table 2). All interviewees spoke about providing good nutrition and housing when it came to giving care for their animals. Only some of them identified handling/hitting as a part of this. Hitting and aggressive animal handling were common (observed by the team during current and previous visits).Interviewees also tended to focus on cattle when describing care giving. Including all animals in discussions of animal care, welfare and lower-stress animal handling techniques can be positive for both farming families and animals.Understanding the concept of animal welfare, and that it includes handling and fear for all animals in their care, not just the highestvalue animals.All animals can experience pain and fear.Use lower-stress handling practices.Free access to water was not common practice. While some of the feed provided to animals has a high-water content (Enset), providing more of this may limit feed intake. In Doyogena, water access was limited and water collection was one of the key activities for family members daily. Increasing water availability for some animals may lead to better animal outcomes. This would be targeted to cows, which are the most important animal both in terms of the household's assets and nutrition.Animals can experience thirst and water provision increases milk production (focus on large ruminants).Animals, especially lactating cows, get thirsty and increasing water access is a valuable practice.Increase the amount of water access animals have, particularly in dry season.Farmers described feed as their greatest production limitation, that their animals were the happiest in the high feed periods, and that they had often had to purchase supplementary feed for their animals. However, monitoring animal condition did not often surface in discussions. Encouraging collective action to improve constrained resources is challenging. Discussing monitoring of animal condition (for cattle, small ruminants and donkeys) and strategic feeding may be a good approach for addressing this issue and giving families a few tools to feel more in control of resource constraints. In terms of animal welfare, monitoring and effective feeding may be a useful strategy to encourage farmers to be proactive with improved nutrition that is linked to animal health and survival. Furthermore, condition scoring is how middlemen value animals for sale in Ethiopia (discussion with traders, April 2018), so making farmers aware of this could empower them during animal sales.Body condition influences dam reproductive efficiency, neonatal mortality and price at sale, and increases the likelihood that farmers are using supplementary resources effectively.Monitoring animal condition is a useful tool.Perform bodycondition scoring of animals.Castration and injuries were not discussed during the interviews, but according to regional veterinarians (not recorded in this report), castration is common practice (using rudimentary practices) while wound care is not.Castrating later increases pain, risk of disease(infection) and long recovery.Clean wounds and revise castration practices.","tokenCount":"4811"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ad4cefc648fc919b9879bab37c870765","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f95444b5-fbdc-4c2b-9a35-506bf3402e7d/retrieve","id":"-443725040"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4e43df87-e583-4293-a795-75ba60c360b6","pagecount":"47","content":"The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of CIFOR-ICRAF, its partners and donor agencies concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.iiiWith global challenges like food security, climate change and environmental degradation, there is a rational call for action that could contribute to halting the situation. There is also increasing environmental awareness of public calls for reliable methods to assess ecological systems (natural and man-made), and that such methods should provide quantitative details about the impacts of human activities. At the same time, improved reporting standards are frequently being called for.As the world transitions to becoming a global bioeconomy, agricultural, forestry and agroforestry systems are greatly important for human and economic development. Yet, they are also at risk of environmental degradation -especially as food security is still a major global challenge. Human activities that cause deforestation and emissions are equally a threat to the long-term sustenance of some forest ecosystems and their biodiversity. Assessing agricultural, forestry and agroforestry systems is therefore critical so that these resources can be used wisely, and so that these systems are both efficient and sustainable. This guidebook was developed based on empirical studies carried out as part of the BiomassWeb Project. These studies serve as evidence-based research on the development and applicability of the emergy-data envelopment analysis (EM-DEA) approach. The approach is an innovative tool for assessing resource-and energy-use efficiency (RUE and EUE), as well as the sustainability of agroecological systems. It could also be applied to other similar systems. The approach was developed by coupling emergy accounting (EMA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to form a holistic assessment framework, before integrating the concept of eco-efficiency into the framework, to develop the final EM-DEA approach. While EMA offers a way to account for various resources and land-use characteristics that might be involved in biomass production in such systems, DEA offers a way to compare the performance of multiple production systems that use similar inputs to produce similar outputs. Using this combination to assess a system provides quantitative analysis on environmental and economic accounting, measured using a common reference unit -the solar emjoule (sej).This handbook is about using the EM-DEA approach as a tool that could have useful applications in forestry and agroforestry systems, and hence in the work of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and World Agroforestry (ICRAF). Illustrations and detailed explanations make this handbook easy-to-use and self-explanatory, providing basic background for the concepts and theories that were used to frame the EM-DEA approach. The handbook provides step-by-step instructions on how to use the approach to assess RUE, EUE and sustainability of agroecosystems.The handbook is organized into eight chapters. Definitions of terminologies and abbreviations are provided in the glossary and list of abbreviations at the front, so that users can become familiar with them before diving into the main chapters that follow. Expected learning outcomes are listed as a checklist at the end of each chapter. In this way, users can track their understanding of the EM-DEA approach as they progress. Links to online resources and suggested supplementary materials for further reading are included in the toolbox in Chapter 7. This provides extra support to users so they can develop a deeper understanding of the EM-DEA approach. These online materials demonstrate how the EM-DEA approach has been applied in empirical studies and how to manage data when using the EM-DEA approach. Users can therefore develop both a theoretical background and hands-on understanding to enable them to apply the EM-DEA approach effectively when analysing forestry and agroforestry systems.Executive summary 1Since the industrial revolution, the rate of environmental degradation occurring globally, especially in agriculture, forestry and other land uses (AFOLU), has accelerated with global population growth. More people means more demand for products and services to meet development needs. This exerts pressure on the earth's already scarce resources (i.e., non-renewable resources). The complex interactions between natural and man-made phenomena (e.g., climate change, population pressure, land use and natural resource extraction) occurring within AFOLU only worsen the situation. Considering how fragile most of our planet's ecosystems currently are, and yet how resilient nature is, there is a compelling reason for rational and strategic thinking to ensure an adequate and timely intervention (WCED 1987;IPCC 2018).The coronavirus pandemic of 2019  has further complicated the challenge of environmental degradation in many ways (UNEP 2020; United Nations 2020; UNCDP 2021). With global economic activities curtailed, sustainable development gains in some sectors deteriorated, while increased human pressure on the environment was seen as humans struggled for survival (Helm 2020;World Bank Group 2020). The advent of post-Covid-19 has been identified as an ideal time to build back better (OECD 2020), presenting an opportunity to strategically rethink on ways to foster resilience.More than ever before, organizations need to build new capabilities at scale and make rational changes that could enable them to effectively contribute to resilience (Heldeweg 2021). For post-Covid economic recovery to be durable and resilient, a return to 'business-as-usual' means avoiding environmentally-destructive investment patterns and activities. A more resilient economy depends on shifting to more sustainable practices that can better contribute to sustainable development. For example, ensuring a food supply that uses fewer resources while causing fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For such a paradigm shift to be effective, decision making needs to be based on reliable methods and approaches that support the intended outcome. This requires detailed environmental and economic accounting to improve reporting standards, human action and environmental impacts 1,2 . One example of this is the United Nations' recently-launched System of Environmental Economic Accounting -Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA), which aims to integrate nature's contribution into the economy during the accounting process in a more structured way (UNSD 2021).Biomass -organic material that comes from living organisms such as plants and animals or parts of what were living organisms in the recent past. Biomass is suitable for the provision of food, feed and fibre, and is a better substitute for most of the industrial feedstock needed for human and economic development. The concept of circular bioeconomy (herein defined as the \"economic space where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and the generation of waste minimized\") 3 is therefore an alternative pathway to linear economy. This could also be a means to decouple economic growth from fossil fuel-driven industries and eventually couples it to the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations. In this way, it is being widely adopted as a pathway which could 1 Introduction contribute to solutions to environmental challenges such as waste reduction (Tan and Lamers 2021;Nagarajan et al. 2021;OECD 2020).As two major sectors for the supply of food and other raw materials needed to sustain a bio-based economy, the world relies on its agricultural and forestry systems. To effectively manage the risk of environmental degradation in agriculture and forestry, it is fundamental to assess the efficiency and sustainability of these systems. Measuring the sustainability of these systems is complex, however, and limited methods exist to analyse the resourceand energy-use efficiency (RUE and EUE) of agricultural systems, in particular the small-scale systems that are commonly practiced in developing countries (Jones 1989;FAO 1995;Hayati et al. 2010;Schindler et al. 2015).Considering the transition to bioeconomy, global environmental challenges like land degradation, and increased public awareness around environmental reporting standards, there is a need for reliable assessment methods which provide more detailed information. This level of detail could better inform decisions around sustainable development, minimizing environmental impacts without compromising productivity in agricultural and forestry systems.The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and World Agroforestry (ICRAF)the world's leading research and development organizations focused on forestry and agroforestry -are learning organizations committed to sustainable development through the prudent use of the earth's limited natural resources. In particular, forests, arable land, and their associated ecosystem goods and services. The emergy-data envelopment analysis (EM-DEA) approach could therefore be a key tool for the organizations in addressing their strategic goals for 2020-2030 4 . This handbook presents the recently-developed EM-DEA approach, and how it could be applied to assess resource-use efficiency (RUE), energyuse efficiency (EUE) and the sustainability of agricultural, forestry and agroforestry systems. The EM-DEA approach is the innovative coupling of emergy accounting (EMA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods to form an assessment 4 https://www.cifor.org/our-work/cifor-icraf-strategy/ framework (Mwambo and Fürst 2014), while integrating the concept of 'eco-efficiency' into the framework allows users to assess resource-and energy-use efficiency (RUE and EUE) as well as the sustainability of agricultural production systems (Mwambo and Fürst 2019). This approach provides a flexibility to account for diverse resources, including nature, materials, energy, resource generation time, labour, economic and societal infrastructures, as well as other resources whose market values are too ambiguous to monetize (Odum 1996;Brown andUlgiati 2011, 2016a;Campbell and Tilley 2014;Campbell et al. 2014). This approach has the capacity to assess multiple peer systems of production in a batch, and to provide assessment information obtained by means of quantitative measures on a common basis -i.e., the solar emjoule (sej). This provides an opportunity to explore this novel approach for assessing RUE, EUE and the overall sustainability of agricultural, agroforestry and forestry systems, in order to benchmark efficient and sustainable systems or to achieve a detailed life cycle assessment of these systems.This stand-alone self-explanatory handbook provides a step-by-step guide on how to assess resource-use efficiency (RUE), energy-use efficiency (EUE) and the sustainability of agricultural, agroforestry and forestry systems using the emergy-data envelopment analysis (EM-DEA) approach. For a user to make the most out of this handbook, it is advisable that this handbook is explored alongside the following supplementary materials: i. the sample Microsoft Excel file, which provides an example of the structure of basic data in spreadsheet form (Section 7.2 provides a link to this online data file, see Mwambo 2021a). ii. the link to the open-source data envelopment analysis (OSDEA) file (https://opensourcedea. org/dea/). This is an executable file for the DEA, which can also be accessed through the CIFOR DataVerse or Toolbox site.At the end of this handbook, readers will have learned:When assessing the efficiency and sustainability of a production system, it is key to access information that could help avoid compromises in productivity and minimize the impacts a production system could have on the resource base. Agricultural, forestry and agroforestry systems are multiple input and multiple output systems. Existing methods are limited in analysing energy efficiency in agricultural systems, because some inputs are difficult to measure (Jones 1989;FAO 1995;Blancard andMartin 2012, 2014). Until now most assessments of agricultural systems have been incomplete (Alvarenga et al. 2013), due to the challenge of analysing the input energy of humans and animals in small-scale agricultural systems, for example:\"Human and animal labour requirements fall outside the traditional boundaries of energy sector planning, and their dynamics are far more complex than those of fuel and electricity supply. However, since human labour remains the predominant source of energy for agricultural production in much of Africa, and transitions to animal traction and fuel using machinery are important for the social and economic effects, human and animal labour requirements and trade-offs remains an important area for research\" (FAO 1995, 59).It is also complex and challenging to measure the sustainability of agricultural systems (Hayati et al. 2010;Schindler et al. 2015). It was this backdrop -where existing methods were unable to account for certain input resources in agricultural systems, and the complexity of measuring agricultural systems' sustainability presented similar challenges -that motivated the development of a holistic assessment approach for analysing agricultural systems as a whole.Having considered various concepts and theories (summarized in Table 1), emergy accounting (EMA), data envelopment analysis (DEA), and economic-ecological efficiency (eco-efficiency) emerged as prospective methods and concepts that could be helpful for developing a solution to the challenge stated in Section 2.1.Emergy accounting (EMA) accounts for various material and energy flows in closed systems.EMA is therefore helpful in accounting for the fluxes of the various sources that contribute to production processes. This flexibility is useful in valorising nature and assessing environmental impacts in term of resource use. Accounted resources are measured using a common unitsolar emjoule (sej). This makes EMA suitable for quantifying various input and output resources; obtained assessment information also has a common base which makes it easier to compare different systems.Data envelopment analysis (DEA) offers the means to compare the performance of multiinput and multi-output production entities in a batch. This makes it possible to compare the productive performance of multiple production systems using similar inputs to produce similar outputs. This makes DEA suitable for comparing different agricultural land-use production systems.The EM-DEA approach was developed by coupling EMA and DEA methods to form an assessment framework (Mwambo and Fürst 2014), before the concept of eco-efficiency was integrated into this framework. The concept of eco-efficiency is based on the management strategy of doing more with less, combining attributes of efficiency and sustainability. The EM-DEA approach thus pools together the Energetics is applied in ecological systems on the basis of accounting the flow of energy in food production systems. Energy efficiency ratio (E) is given as the ratio of energy of the edible yield to the energy invested to produce the given yield.EMA was adopted as a conceptual tool for accounting environmental resources (both inputs and biologically-produced outputs) in agricultural systems. EMA provides a means to define system boundaries, and flexibility to quantify all resources based on their measured exergy (available energy). By assumption of energy memory, the emergy of a resource is calculated as the multiplicative product of exergy and unit emergy value (UEV). Exergy is useful for obtaining information on the energy content of resources -all measured in solar emjoule (sej) as the reference unit.Emergy (Odum 1983(Odum , 1996) ) The concept of energy memory (emergy) was founded by Odum in the 1980s after combining energetics and systems ecology. emergy accounting (EMA)'s first presentation in 1983 was used on the basis of embodied energy.Economic-ecological efficiency (eco-efficiency) (Jollands 2003;Kortelainen and Kuosmanen 2004; Beltrán-Esteve 2012)The eco-efficiency concept was developed in the 1980s and presented as an approach which reckons environmental sustainability and economic performance on the basis of \"producing more goods and services using fewer resources while causing minimal environmental impacts in the long term\".The concept of eco-efficiency is adopted and applied for calculating resource-use efficiency (RUE), i.e., the eco-efficiency ratio is equated to unit emergy value (UEV) of product. Efficiency is further split into two sub-efficiencies in order to calculate (i) UEV in terms of resource use (UEV R ), and (ii) UEV in terms of exergy use (UEV E ).Emergy indicators (Ulgiati and Brown 1998;Brown and Ulgiati 2004;Ulgiati et al. 2011;Dong et al. 2014;Viglia et al. 2017) The cited studies present emergy indicators, and their usefulness in providing sustainability-related information is illustrated. The studies provided a reliable basis upon which selected indicators were adopted into the EM-DEA method.Absolute sustainability is assessed using the following indicators (i) unit emergy value (UEV), (ii) total emergy (U), (iii) emergy yield ratio (EYR), (iv) environmental loading ratio (ELR), (v) percentage renewability (%REN), and (vi) emergy sustainability index (ESI).Data envelopment analysis (Farrell 1957;Charnes et al. 1978;Banker et al. 1984) Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was first introduced by Farrell in 1957 as a method for estimating the relative efficiency of peer units (generally referred to as decisionmaking units, DMUs) of production, with multiple performance criteria.DEA was adopted as a method of assessing the relative technical efficiency (rTE). Resources accounted for using EMA were quantified into emergies. The data were imported into opensource DEA (OSDEA). The non-parametric treatment of data, compatibility between a production system's emergetic data, and importation into DEA, mean it is possible to manage multiple inputs and multiple output data as a batch. The proportional correlation between TE and SE justifies the use of rTE as a proxy for assessing relative sustainability.DEA applications (De Koeijer et al. 2002;Gomes et al. 2009) Empirical application of DEA in assessing technical efficiency (TE), on the basis that the agronomic efficiency of a system is equivalent to the TE under a constant return to scale model (TE CRS ). TE has a direct correlation with sustainability efficiency (SE). The TE is a suitable proxy for assessing relative sustainability.The studies present concepts of agricultural land-use systems including energy fluxes in mixed and livestock/dairy production systems.Inclusive consideration of land-use systems and energy fluxes in agricultural production. Systems theory was applied in building the EM-DEA method to make it more synergistic for integrated assessments.Source: Mwambo (2021b) capabilities of EMA, DEA and eco-efficiency, with its overall strength being a synergetic, holistic assessment of RUE, EUE and the overall sustainability of agricultural systems (Mwambo and Fürst 2019). Chapter 3 goes into detail around the viability of the EM-DEA approach, covering both methodology and parameters to demonstrate how the EM-DEA approach is applicable as a method to assess RUE, EUE and sustainability using mathematical expressions to evaluate the various indicators involved in the evaluation process.Learning outcome: The basic concepts and theories used to frame the EM-DEA approach.The reader has learned the following:9 The limitations of existing methods.9The motivation for developing the EM-DEA approach.9The concepts and theories used to frame the EM-DEA approach.9The development of the EM-DEA approach.DEA is based on econometric analysis. DEA was originally developed as a technique for measuring the relative efficiency of a set of production entities (i.e., decision-making units -DMUs), when the price data for inputs and outputs are either unavailable or unknown (Farrell 1957). DEA is a non-parametric linear programming-based technique for estimating the relative performance of multiple production systems that use similar inputs to produce similar outputs (Toloo and Nalchigar 2009;Wen 2015). This is useful for comparing the relative efficiency of multi-input and multi-output production systems. Efficiency is calculated as the ratio of output to the observed input. Given a set of peer DMUs, the productive efficiency (E P ) is the ratio of the weighted sum of outputs to the weighted sum of inputs. The linear programming function in DEA reduces the ratio of weighted sum of outputs to inputs into a single virtual output as the numerator and a single virtual input as the denominator, as stated in Equation 2.The ratio of the single virtual output to the single virtual input for each DMU, relative to that of the most performing DMU, gives the relative technical efficiency (rTE) scores (Hartwich and Kyi 1999).In EM-DEA approach, these scores are considered the proxy indicator for expressing the relative sustainability of a set of DMUs. DEA is herein applied using the EM-DEA approach (Mwambo and Fürst 2019).where The EMA method is based on thermodynamics and systems theory. The concept of energy memory (emergy) is useful for environmental and economic accounting, because it provides the means to evaluate resources on the basis of the environmental work required to generate and make resources available in a system (Bonilla et al. 2016). EMA offers the flexibility to account for various resources in a system through the quantification of material and energy flows as emergy. Emergy is defined as \"the energy of one type previously used up directly and indirectly to make a product or deliver a service\", and it is measured in solar emjoule (sej) (Odum 1996). The concept of emergy means that the available energy (i.e., exergy or available energy content) of diverse resource types can be accounted for on the basis of their embodied energy (Scienceman 1987;Brown and Herendeen 1996). This enables accounting of all natural and socioeconomic inputs on a common metric (Bonilla et al. 2016). The emergy of a given resource is calculated as the mathematical product of the exergy and the unit emergy value (UEV) of a given resource, as stated in Equation 1. In this methodology, EMA is implemented using the EM-DEA approach (Mwambo and Fürst 2019). The following emergy baseline was used, as the most recent baseline for emergy-based calculations, i.e., 12.0E+24 sej/yr (Brown and Ulgiati 2016a).where, The concept of eco-efficiency is then integrated into the framework, leading to the EM-DEA approach which provides detailed and holistic assessment of RUE, EUE and sustainability (Mwambo and Fürst 2019). This constitutes the methodological background on which the assessment will be based.Eco-efficiency is defined as the ratio of environmental impact to the economic value added to agricultural produce (Kortelainen and Kuosmanen 2004;Pang et al. 2016). In EM-DEA approach, this ratio is equated to the unit emergy value (UEV) of product that is obtainable by a decision-making unit (DMU), as stated in Equation 3. The indicators for resource-use efficiency (RUE) and energy-use efficiency (EUE) are mathematically expressed in Equations 4-7. Equations 4 and 5 apply to RUE, while 6 and 7 apply to EUE.Absolute sustainability focuses on the environmental impacts of a particular system irrespective of its peers. Absolute sustainability is evaluated using the following emergy-based indicators: Total emergy (U), percentage renewability (%REN), emergy yield ratio (EYR), environmental loading ratio (ELR), and emergy sustainability index (ESI) (Brown and Ulgiati 2004;Ulgiati et al. 2011;Dong et al. 2014;Viglia et al. 2017). How these indicators are evaluated based on input materials from nature can be seen in Equations 9-13; while how these indicators are evaluated based on raw materials from nature, including labour and services from the human economy, is stated in Equations 14-18.Relative sustainability focuses on relative ability of peer systems to convert inputs into outputs (Equations 2 and 8). Relative technical efficiency (rTE), which is the proxy for relative sustainability, is calculated by DEA after you run the model (Figure 10). Each indicator measures a specific parameter. Compiling the results of these indicators into a table of matrix as illustrated in What data is needed to assess RUE, EUE and the sustainability of an ecosystem varies, depending on the ecosystem type (e.g., agricultural, forestry or agroforestry) and what the objective of analysis is.As an example of what data might be useful, raw primary field survey data -collated to assess RUE, EUE and the sustainability of manually-cultivated maize systems in Ghana (Mwambo 2020). This can be accessed via the link provided in Section 7.2. In general, this empirical data are described as follows:• production data: these include the input materials (preferably an exhaustive list of inputs) including the land-use practices, farmer's practices (manual or mechanised labour input), and purchased services (e.g., farm implements). • output and yield data: this includes ecosystem goods and services measured in quantitative units (preferably in metric units).For illustrative purpose, the structural format for your data is shown in Microsoft Excel is a simple, user-friendly tool for processing statistical data, so that it can be input into the EM-DEA approach. Data needs to be quantitative in order to be useful for analysis using the EM-DEA approach. If raw data is qualitative by default, this data can be converted into classes, Boolean or binary data to render it quantitative and compatible. Table 2 presents a hypothetical dataset with a structure and format, to illustrate compatible input data using the EM-DEA approach.By combining primary data as exemplified in Mwambo (2020; for a link to this data, see Section 7.2) with secondary data, like unit emergy values obtained from secondary sources (e.g., the national environmental accounting database, the Center for Environmental Policy, University of Florida; for the link to this data, see Section 7.1), the user can produce composite data, like that seen in Mwambo (2021a). Total Emergy without L&S (Equation 19)Total Emergy with L&S (Equation 20)continued on next pageThe emergy-data envelopment analysis (EM-DEA) approach handbook | 13 where, A, ..., Z resources estimated in their physical unit of measurement (e.g., grams) A exe exergy of the resource \"A\" A UEV UEV of the resource \"A\" [a] reference of the UEV for resource \"A\" (L) human labour, i.e., all forms of physical labour that contribute directly towards production e.g., sowing seeds/ seedlings (S) services, i.e., purchased inputs that come from outside the system and contribute towards production e. The reader has learned the following:9 How to acquire some data types that could be useful.9 Few data types that may be required for assessments in the area agroecosystems.9 An illustration of the structural format the emergy worksheet in Excel.9 How to complement raw data with other data to form a dataset.To apply the emergy-data envelopment analysis (EM-DEA) approach to account for resource use efficiency when given a set of peer production systems that you wish to analyse and compare, you need to adopt emergy accounting (EMA) methodology (Section 3.1.1). You begin by representing the given peer systems graphically, using energy systems language and symbols (for the link to this support, see Section 7.1) (Odum 1994). To do this, you may use Microsoft Visio or Edraw as a diagramming software. This graphical representation of each system, also called an emergy diagram, helps you to visualize each system in graphics. This will also help you in the process of representing material and energy flows (fluxes) in each system, as illustrated in Figure 1.  The emergy-data envelopment analysis (EM-DEA) approach handbook | 15Next, create a database in Microsoft Excel (Table 3-Table 8). Use this Excel file to manage and process your data. Quantify the annual input and output resources for each of your peer systems that has to be analysed and compared. Measure resources in their standard units of measurement. Organise the worksheets of your Excel workbook as follows:• User interface:Itemise the inputs and outputs. Provide the basic data that you would need for quantifying the inputs and outputs. Present the basic data worksheet as exemplified in Table 3.• Calculation: Do the calculation to quantify the inputs and outputs by importing basic data from the user interface worksheet of your workbook. Present the calculation worksheet as exemplified in Table 4.Quote the unit emergy values (UEVs) of inputs and outputs that are involved in the given systems. You may have to calculate a UEV, if there is no existing value that can be assigned to a given input or output. In this case, you may calculate it on another worksheet (e.g., UEVs based on this study) of the workbook. Present the UEV worksheet as exemplified in Table 5.Calculate the emergies (see Equation 1), by importing data from the user interface, calculation, and unit emergy value worksheets of your workbook. To avoid double counting of multiple resources from the same source, retain only the resource with the greatest emergy in the final calculation of emergies. This is based on the application of the refined procedure of emergy accounting (Brown and Ulgiati 2016a). For instance, manure and draft animal labour are from the same source, farm animal. The emergy of animal labour will be retained (see Table 6). Next, you group the itemised inputs and outputs into the follows categories: renewable sources (R), non-renewable sources (N), imported sources (F), yield (Y), labour and services (L&S) (for the definition of the categories, see the glossary). Then, sum up the emergies of the primary sources (e.g., sun, deep heat, and gravitational potential), and call this: \"SUM of primary sources\". Next, compare the magnitude of the emergies of the secondary sources (e.g., rain, and wind which are both from a common source, the sun). Retain the secondary source that has the greatest emergy, and call this: \"maximum of secondary sources\". Next, compare the magnitude of the \"SUM of primary sources\" and \"maximum of secondary\", and retain the one that is greater, and call this: \"Maximum of renewable sources (R)\". Present the emergy worksheet as exemplified in Table 6.Calculate the emergy-based indicators using Equations 4 -7, 9 -18, by importing the necessary data required for this calculation from the user interface, calculation, UEV, and emergy worksheets of your workbook. Present your indicators worksheet as exemplified in Table 7. You will learn more about how to interpret these indicators in Chapter 6: Interpretation of assessment results.• References: Provide a complete list of bibliography that you used in compiling this database as exemplified in Table 8.Source: Mwambo (2021a). See Section 7.2 for the full reference and link to access the complete sheet.Source: Mwambo (2021a). See Section 7.2 for the full reference and link to access the complete sheet.Source: Mwambo (2021a). See Section 7.2 for the full reference and link to access the complete sheet.Source: Mwambo (2021a). See Section 7.2 for the full reference and link to access the complete sheet.Next, create another spreadsheet. Make a summary of the retained outputs and inputs emergies of the peer systems by copying the values from the emergy worksheet. Call the peer systems: decision making units (DMUs). Have this spreadsheet saved in comma-separated values (CSV) format, in order to make it compatible for importation into data envelopment analysis (DEA) model (Section 5.1.2). Present this summary as exemplified in Table 9. This will lead to the homepage (Figure 2).Depending on the operating system of your computer, download and install the OSDEA model that is appropriate with your computer by clicking and selecting from the OSDEA GUI button (Figure 3).After downloading and installing OSDEA, click on the executable Java Archive (JAR) file (Figure 4). This will enable the graphical user interface (GUI) of OSDEA to be displayed (Figure 5). This will provide you the means to navigate and manipulate the OSDEA model.Next, you configure the OSDEA model by doing the following:• Import the summary of outputs-inputs emergies Click on the import button (Figure 6), to import the summary of outputs-inputs emergies of the DMUs which you had earlier created in Section 5.1.1 and step (iii) above.• Configure the OSDEA model Configure the OSDEA model by clicking and selecting the appropriate options from the dropdown button provided on your displayed GUI of OSDEA model. You may select Charnes Table 9. An example of an empirical output-output data table of peer DMUs, ready to be imported into an executable OSDEA model Source: Mwambo et al. (2020Mwambo et al. ( , 2021) ) Cooper Rhodes input-oriented model (CCR_I) or Charnes Cooper Rhodes output-oriented model (CCR_O); this step will help to configure DEA. While the input-oriented model (CCR_I) minimizes the inputs to achieve a desired level of output, alternatively the output-oriented model (CCR_O) maximizes outputs while keeping input at a constant level, respectively. What both input-and output-oriented models have in common is that they both seek to maximize the outputs and minimize the inputs, in an effort to maximize the efficiency. Figure 7 provides an illustration of this step. By selecting \"CCR_I\" from the dropdown button; your OSDEA model will be configured to input-oriented model type and will calculate the technical efficiency and assume constants.After you have imported the data and configured the OSDEA model correctly, the GUI will appear as illustrated in Figure 8. Your DEA model is now set to calculate the technical efficiency of the peer DMUs.Next, click on the \"Solve the DEA Problem\" button on the GUI of OSDEA model to calculate the technical efficiency as illustrated in Figure 9. DEA will use the configuration that you entered and apply Pareto efficiency to select the appropriate 'weights' for the variables contained in imported data. The optimization function in DEA will assume the multiple ordinary least square regression, as stated in Equation 8. Using the imported variables, DEA will then apply Equation 2 to calculate the technical efficiency scores of the peer DMUs. Call this the relative technical efficiency (rTE).   The emergy-data envelopment analysis (EM-DEA) approach handbook | 23After DEA has calculated the technical efficiency, you may call this the relative technical efficiency (rTE), the GUI of OSDEA will appear as illustrated  Next, you compile the results that you obtain from the emergy-based evaluations and the DEA model into a table as illustrated in Table 11. You obtain a value for the emergy-basedTable 10. Generalized relative technical efficiency scores calculated using data envelopment analysis (DEA) indicators by applying the mathematical formulae (Equations 4 -7, 9 -18) on the data in Excel (see Section 5.1.1). You obtain a value for the rTE by following the steps in Section 5.1.2. The technical efficiency value that you obtain with DEA is illustrated in Table 10.The results that you get after following the steps in Chapter 5, then, you follow the steps in Section 6.1 and compile your results into an assessment matrix. Table 11 gives an idea of the compiled results that can be obtained using EM-DEA approach. For a comparison with empirical results, see Table 12 which has identical formatting but is based on real data. The original sources of Table 12 (Mwambo et al. 2020(Mwambo et al. , 2021) ) present EM-DEA approach results obtained while analysing manually-cultivated maize systems in Ghana.Table 11. An illustration of an assessment matrix of the assessment results using an EM-DEA approach  The total environmental support that a system needs from the biosphere. The less resources a given system demands, the more efficient and sustainable a system is relative to its peer systems, because fewer resources are needed to sustain production.For example, the efficiency and sustainability with respect to total emergy of the systems from high to low, and if material resources only were considered (without L&S): Extension0, Intercrop20, Extension12, Intensive50, and Intensive100. If both material resources and contribution from the human economy were considered (with L&S): Intercrop20, Extensive0, Extensive12, Intensive50, and Intensive100 (Table 7).Unit emergy value in terms of resource useThe efficiency of a given system in terms of transforming allocated input material resources into output products. The smaller the value of UEV R is, the more efficient that system is -fewer input resources are used to produce more output products.For example, the efficiency with respect to unit emergy value in terms of resource use of the systems from high to low, and if material resources only were considered (without L&S): Intercrop20, Intensive50, Extension0, Intensive100 and Extension12. When both material resources and contribution from the human economy were considered (with L&S): Intercrop20, Intensive50, Intensive100, Extensive0, and Extensive12 (Table 7).Unit emergy value in terms of exergy use (UEV E ) sej/JThe UEV E is the ratio of environmental impact to economic value added in terms of exergy use. It is the measure of efficiency of a given system based on the use of the allocated input resources, expressed in terms of exergy (i.e., available energy) in the output products. The smaller the value of UEV E is, the more efficient that system is -fewer exergy is used up to produce the given output products.For example, the efficiency with respect to unit emergy value in terms of exergy use of the systems from high to low, and if material resources only were considered (without L&S): Intercrop20, Intensive50, Extension0, Intensive100, and Extension12, and. If both material resources and contribution from the human economy were considered (with L&S): Intercrop20, Intensive50, Intensive100, Extensive0, and Extensive12 (Table 7).Emergy yield ratio (EYR) unit less, i.e., ratioThe EYR is the reliance on local resources. It is the ratio of the total emergy (local and imported) driving a production process or system compared to the emergy imported. This ratio is a measure of the potential contribution of the process to the main economy, due to the exploitation of local resources. A greater EYR value implies that a given system is reliant on local resources. A system which is reliant on local resources will be more resilient compared to a system reliant on resources imported from outside a system.For example, the sustainability with respect to EYR of the systems from high to low, and if material resources only were considered (without L&S): Extension0, Intercrop20, Extension12, Intensive50, and Intensive100. If both material resources and contribution from the human economy are considered (with L&S): Intercrop20, Extensive0, Extensive12, Intensive50, and Intensive100.Table 13 shows the indicators that are measured when assessing RUE and sustainability using EM-DEA approach, and their significance when interpreting the assessment results. These implications can support informed decision making.continued on next page The ELR is the ratio of non-renewable and imported emergy use to renewable emergy use. This indicator measures the pressure of a transformation process on the environment, and can be considered a measure of ecosystem stress due to a production or transformation activity. The ELR signifies the distance from equilibrium, i.e., excess pressure from outside the system.For example, the sustainability with respect to ELR of the systems from high to low, and if material resources only were considered (without L&S): Extension0, Intercrop20, Extension12, Intensive50, and Intensive100. If both material resources and contribution from the human economy are considered (with L&S): Intercrop20, Extensive0, Extensive12, Intensive50, and Intensive100.unit less, i.e., ratioThe ESI is the ratio of the EYR to the ELR. It measures the potential contribution of a resource or process to the economy, per unit of environmental loading. The ESI highlights environmental sustainability i.e., higher yield per unit of environmental loading. The greater the ESI, the better the sustainability of a given system.For example, the sustainability with respect to ESI of the systems from high to low, and if material resources only were considered (without L&S): Extension0, Intercrop20, Extension12, Intensive50, and Intensive100. If both material resources and contribution from the human economy are considered (with L&S): Intercrop20, Extensive0, Extensive12, Intensive50, and Intensive100.The % REN is the ratio of renewable emergy to total emergy use, in other words, the fraction of the product which originated from renewable input resources.Greater %REN signifies that a product was produced using more renewable resources, and thus points to more sustainable systems. In the long term, only processes with high %REN will be sustainable.For example, the sustainability with respect to %REN of the systems from high to low, and if material resources only were considered (without L&S): Extension0, Intercrop20, Extension12, Intensive50, and Intensive100. If both material resources and contribution from the human economy are considered (with L&S): Intercrop20, Extensive0, Extensive12, Intensive50, and Intensive100.Relative technical efficiency (rTE) scalar, i.e., ratioThe rTE is the scalar indicator that expresses the performance of a system relative to its peers. It is therefore the proxy indicator for expressing the relative sustainability.For example, Extension0, Intercrop20, Intensive50, and Intensive100 were equally efficient and more efficient at converting input resources into outputs compared with Extension12 which was only 64.7 as good as the other systems.Unit emergy value to currency, i.e., emergy to money (UEV C )This is the emergy to money ratio. It is the amount of economic activity that can be supported by a given emergy flow or storage in a given country and given year. The UEV C indicates the buying power of money in the given economy. The UEV C is also a used as an estimator of the average value of human service.Overall, if all the indicators are considered under the two situations of resource use accounting i.e., input material resources only as well as material resources and contribution from the human economy, Intercrop20 emerges as the most efficient and sustainable system comparatively. It provides the most benefits such as outputs (grain yield) including other benefits (e.g., reduced soil erosion) at the least environmental costs i.e., inputs resources. In this light, Intensive50 was the runner-up system. More so, Extensive12 was less competitive in converting inputs into outputs, while Intensive100 was the most demanding in terms of input material resources when compared with the other systems.In general, the peer systems are called the decision making units (DMUs) in data envelopment analysis (DEA). The process of resource accounting was on the basis of emergy accounting. The combination of both emergy accounting and DEA methodologies to form the emergy-data envelopment (EM-DEA) approach is innovative for the assessment of efficiency and sustainability of peer systems, which you may want to analyse and compare. This provides a decision maker the means to quantify diverse inputs and outputs of peer production systems, as well as the opportunity to compare multiple systems in terms of their productivity and impact on the environment. With such information, a decision maker can make smart decisions. For example, considering optimal efficiency and longterm sustainability as the goal of a decision maker, Intercrop20 and Intensive50 would be considered the benchmark systems for low-input (e.g. Extensive0, Extensive12) and high-input (e.g. Intensive100) categories of maize production systems, respectively.The following links provide access to helpful online resources for users applying emergy for environmental and economic accounting. These include an accessible repository at the Center for Environmental Policy, University of Florida: https://cep.ees.ufl.edu/emergy/index.shtml, from where a user can access various online resources, as illustrated in Figure 12.From here, users have access to various resources, including: i. Symbols and energy systems language: https://cep.ees.ufl.edu/emergy/resources/ symbols_diagrams.shtml. https://www.emergysociety.com/esl-symbols/, (for symbols accessible at the emergy society). ii. The national environmental accounting database (NEAD): https://cep.ees.ufl.edu/emergy/nead.shtml.To access the NEAD, select the country and year of interest from the drop-down arrows, as illustrated in Figure 13. i. Unit Emergy Values (UEVs) https://cep.ees.ufl.edu/nead/data.php# ii. To access UEV resources, select the country and year of interest using the drop-down arrows, as illustrated in Figure 14. iii. Open-source data envelopment analysis (OSDEA) model, which is downloadable using the following link: https://opensourcedea.org/dea/.7 User support This handbook provides the background concepts and theories used to develop the emergy-data envelopment analysis (EM-DEA) approach, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to use the approach to assess resource-use efficiency (RUE), energy-use efficiency (EUE) and the overall sustainability of peer ecosystems. The approach was developed by linking the emergy accounting (EMA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods to form an assessment framework, before integrating the concept of eco-efficiency. While EMA's flexibility allows us to account for various input and output fluxes, DEA offers a means to compare the performance of different production systems that use similar inputs to produce similar outputs. The linking of these two methods and the integrating of eco-efficiency makes for a synergistic, detailed and holistic assessment of RUE, EUE and overall ecosystem sustainability, especially suited to agricultural, forestry and agroforestry systems. This far, the EM-DEA approach has been empirically tested and applied in agricultural systems; specifically to evaluate the environmental impacts of manually-cultivated maize systems in Africa (Mwambo et al. 2020(Mwambo et al. , 2021) ) a study which provided detailed, quantitative assessment outcomes.In future, the EM-DEA approach could be useful to CIFOR-ICRAF in addressing global environmental challenges that involve forests, agroforest systems and people whose livelihoods depend on these systems. This handbook provides the basics to support the learning of users who may want to apply the EM-DEA approach to analyse forestry and agroforestry systems.Given that improved reporting is frequently called for, it is essential to explore alternative methods and approaches to obtaining detailed accounting of material and energy flows. The EM-DEA approach offers a flexible, complete and holistic approach for assessing RUE, EUE and sustainability of forestry and agroforestry systems. Organizations and sectors that take stock and make key improvements now will gain a competitive advantage in the future. As well as improving environmental outcomes, exploring the EM-DEA approach in the forestry and agroforestry sectors could offer an opportunity to build back better.Emergy-Data Envelopment Analysis (EM-DEA) is a methodological approach for achieving complete environmental-economic accounting of different production systems. In an age when resources are scarcer than ever before, and the environmental impact of humanly designed systems of production is a major concern when deciding which system could better contribute to human and economic development without compromising the future of the global environment, using a reliable method for the comparative assessment of the efficiency and sustainability of different production systems is critical when making smart decisions. This handbook provides a step-by-step instruction to help users apply the EM-DEA approach to simultaneously assess the resource and energy use efficiencies, and sustainability of agricultural and forestry ecosystems as a whole. This approach was developed to address the lack of a singular method to assess complete environmental accounting and compare the sustainability performance of agro-ecosystems. The EM-DEA approach does so by combining emergy analysis (EMA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods. By offering flexibility to account for various natural, human and economic resources such as land or input contributions from farm animals, it provides a means to do a comprehensive environmental accounting throughout the lifetime of agricultural and forestry systems. This approach was empirically tested with a comparative analysis of five maize production systems in Ghana, Africa. The results demonstrated that the application of the EM-DEA approach leads to complete environmental-economic accounting. Thus, EM-DEA is an innovative approach that could be used to support decision making when comparing different production systems as a whole. ","tokenCount":"7360"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"59edb3c975fe48c107daaf61e9c2b3e2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4da7fae4-a1e0-4c57-b01b-3efffc7897f1/retrieve","id":"-1284227169"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9d235574-371f-4995-9615-620da157dce6","pagecount":"14","content":"En el evento que hoy se celebra deseamos hacer un cálido reconOCimiento a dos grupos de personas que han tenido activa parti cipación en el desarrollo y organización del CIAT: a) aquellas personas cuya clara visión y abnegáda consagración fueron factore s que contr ibuyeron a plasmar el concepto filosófico global sobre el cual re fundament a la instituci ón . y b) aquellas persona , cuya cooperación , colaboración o participación activa ayudó a acelerar el desarrollo del eIAT, tanto en la estructura de sus program as de acción como en la construcción de su sede. Al primer grupo se le ha designado como Fundadores y al segundo, como Colaboradores .Aunque ninguna persona contabilizó las innumerables horas de ardua labor que varias docenas de personas dedicaron a la cristalización del CIAT, ofrecemos en la página siguiente una nómina de los hechos fundamentales que ocurrieron a lo largo del proceso de cristalización, y sus correspondientes fechas, así como algunos nombres de personas que están asociadas con tales hechos.Seven yea rs ago this October, af te r months of delibe ration, collaboration Asignación de fondos por parte de la Fundación Ford con los cuales fue posible hacer estudios de factibili• dad e integrar equipos de especialistas para el diseño de programas de trabajo. Se escogió el terreno para establecer la sede del CIAT.La República de Colombi'a otorgó franquicia adua-  -. - ","tokenCount":"230"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ceacb15701d6808e7415d6553782438c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/dbc57b64-b997-4dab-8288-f0497a82daf3/content","id":"-638952295"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3d53f1f0-dc89-4855-b2e1-513f83a7301b","pagecount":"2","content":"La agricultura de conservación reduce los costos de producción y la mano de obra; aumenta la competitividad de los agricultores y los ingresos de éstos en los sistemas de producción de maíz; y representa una excelente opción para conservar los recursos naturales, dado que:• Mejora la textura y la estructura del terreno.• Favorece la infiltración del agua y la retención de la humedad. • Retiene por más tiempo la humedad del suelo en zonas de temporal o de riego, promueve el uso eficiente del agua y genera ahorros en su consumo durante el riego. • Mejora las propiedades químicas y biológicas del suelo. • Aumenta el nivel de materia orgánica.• Reduce la erosión.• Disminuye la quema del rastrojo.• Al reducirse el uso de maquinaria agrícola, se ahorra combustible; hay menos emisiones de contaminantes y menor compactación del suelo, que se asocia al exceso de pases de maquinaria.Los beneficios finales para los agricultores serán una agricultura sostenible y más rentable y la reducción de costos, que se traducen en mayores ingresos. La agricultura de conservación tiene gran potencial en México. A continuación se ilustra la gran diferencia en el comportamiento de una variedad de maíz o de trigo, con la misma cantidad de fertilizante y el mismo control de herbicidas, pero bajo distintos sistemas de manejo.Más de 10 años con agricultura de conservación.Más de 10 años con una práctica agronómica no apropiada.Un manejo diferente da como resultado rendimientos muy diferentes.Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT • b.govaerts@cgiar.org Los agricultores mexicanos, como casi todos los agricultores en el mundo, se enfrentan hoy día principalmente a tres retos:• Los acontecimientos recientes a nivel mundial, que han ocasionado incrementos en los costos, sobre todo de combustible, fertilizantes y otros insumas para la producción de cultivos agrícolas.• La rápida degradación de la estructura del suelo, que afecta desfavorablemente su composición química, ya que produce considerables reducciones del carbono orgánico del suelo y reduce la abundancia biológica.La escasez de agua, para producción tanto de riego como de temporal, es un factor limitante para los agricultores, ya que no les permite generar ni mantener grandes volúmenes de productos que satisfagan las demandas de alimentos para consumo de los habitantes de numerosos países en desarrollo, entre ellos, México.El maíz es el principal cu lti vo básico y estratégico  ","tokenCount":"377"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"23753a7f674ddb2f544e6a060c4dbbc7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9274bc53-2a18-4d51-86ee-6811c4dea001/retrieve","id":"-80101362"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fe637068-d29d-458b-a71d-8b7a6151ef2d","pagecount":"25","content":"This sweetpotato silage manual is made to benefit farmers and business entrepreneurs that would want to engage in sweetpotato silage making, marketing and use. It is based on practical experiences that were gained from studies and experiments conducted in Uganda by the International Potato Centre (CIP) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in collaboration with other partners between 2014 and 2016. The manual focused on the piggery enterprise and covers five key aspects: Importance of sweetpotato in small-scale farming systems  Sweetpotato establishment and management  Pig production in Uganda  Sweetpotato as a feed resource for pigs  Sweetpotato silage production.It is expected that the manual will give the reader incites for sweetpotato production and making sweetpotato silage to address feeding constraints.Sweetpotato is considered a priority crop and its importance in Uganda has increased significantly over the years. It is the third most important food crop after cassava and bananas in the country. In Africa, Uganda is the leading producer of sweetpotato (about 2.2 million tons/year) and second only to China in the world. Increased production has been driven more by expanded area under cultivation than from higher yields, which over the past decade have remained consistent at a national average of approximately 4.5 t ha -1 .Women, generally play a dominant role in the production and utilization of sweetpotato in Uganda, from cultivation (vine selection, planting, weeding, and harvesting) through processing (washing, peeling, slicing and drying) to food preparation (cooking). Men are typically more involved in land preparation, transportation and sale of sweetpotato roots.Sweetpotato offers several benefits to poor farming households and urban consumers:(a) Life-saving nutrition Sweetpotato roots are a good source of carbohydrates, calcium, ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Sweetpotato provides more edible energy per hectare per day than wheat, rice, or cassava. Its ability to produce good root yields under marginal environments, short production cycle and limited labour requirements makes sweetpotato to be particularly suitable for food insecure and micronutrient deficient households as well as those threatened by civil unrest, migration, or diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The Orange Fleshed Sweetpotato (OFSP) varieties have been developed to address vitamin A deficiency. These varieties contain particularly high levels of carotenoids and are equalled only by carrot as a source of pro-vitamin A. If consumed, OFSP can reduce the risk of vitamin A deficiency: just one ice-cream scoop of OFSP (150 g) meets a child's full daily body requirement for vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency is a major risk factor for children, pregnant and lactating women. It is one of the most serious health and nutrition problems in Uganda with approximately 50% of the children of Uganda affected. Symptoms including visual impairment, as well as greater susceptibility to deadly diseases such as measles, malaria, and diarrhoea.The fresh leaves can are an important source of crude protein, vitamins A, C and B (riboflavin) and minerals.Sweetpotato is an important staple food crop for subsistence and small-scale farmers in Uganda. Sweetpotato roots have saved millions of people in Uganda from starvation when other crops were unavailable during prolonged dry seasons because its drought tolerant. Sweetpotato roots may be eaten boiled, steamed or processed into simple products such as chips, bread, local brew/drink, juice, pancakes and composite flour (mixed with maize, millet and soya flour).(c) Income generation Sale of sweetpotato roots, vines and their products contribute to household income. Sweetpotato vines are sold as a source of planting materials while the same vines can be sold as feed for livestock. Sweetpotato roots may be processed into simple products such as chips, bread, local brew/drink, juice, pancakes and composite flour (mixed with maize, millet and soya flour). Sweetpotato is used in industrial processes to produce alcohol and starch.Some of the products from sweetpotato (d) Source of livestock feed A large amount of sweetpotato harvest is comprised of vines, non-marketable roots and peels. Part of vines are used as planting material, fed to livestock in fresh form and some of the non-marketable roots are used for household consumption. Nevertheless, a large amount of these by-products are wasted due to their high perishability. However, all these are potential livestock feed resources. Sweetpotato vines have a high crude protein (19-22%). They can therefore provide high quality feed for pigs, cattle, sheep, poultry and goats. Farmers feeding sweetpotato vines to their chicken, report that they produce more and better quality eggs. Studies show that dairy cows fed with high-protein sweetpotato vines produce less methane gas than when fed on other feed, potentially helping reduce harmful Green House Gases (GHG) global emissions. Silage made from sweetpotato vines and noncommercial roots provide an excellent low cost feed for pigs, cattle, goats and sheep. Feeding sweetpotato roots to pigs offers a good opportunity to convert an undesirable and often unmarketable crop into a high-value commodity -pork. Sweetpotato residues can also be dried, ground and mixed with molasses to make pellets for livestock. Studies conducted at the National Livestock Resources Research Institute (NaLIRRI) have shown that sweetpotato vine-based partial milk diets can be used as substitutes to reduce the cost of rearing a calf without adversely affecting its health and yet save more milk for sale and processing.Because of the important role sweetpotato plays in the nutrition, food and income security, the Government of Uganda, through the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) and the International Potato Centre (CIP) has given high priority to research on this crop. Many sweetpotato varieties (orange fleshed and non-orange fleshed) have been released in Uganda. White-and yellow-fleshed sweetpotato varieties, unlike OFSP, have little or no beta-carotene content (the precursor for vitamin A). Table 1 shows key characteristics of some of the released sweetpotato varieties. Some sweetpotato varieties are suitable for dual purpose uses, i.e. they produce good volumes of vines without compromising root yield, thus meeting livestock and human food needs. These are the varieties that are suitable for the silage technology in the Ugandan setting. Table 2 shows average root/vine yield ratio of four common sweetpotato varieties. It should be noted that a root/vine ratio between 1 and 2 indicates the variety's suitability for dual purpose use (above 2 is primarily for root production). NASPOT 11 variety, is therefore most suitable for dual-purpose use. Furthermore, NASPOT 11 was also less affected by detopping, i.e. partial vine harvesting at 85 days after planting (Table 3).  High yields of good quality sweetpotatoes depend on many factors which include: soil type, climate, sweetpotato varieties, planting methods, pests and diseases levels. Sandy loam soils with a pH range of 5.5-7.0 generally produce better yields than heavy-textured soils. The site should be at least 50 m away from old sweetpotato crop to minimize spread of pests and diseases from old to new crop. A well distributed rainfall of 750-1000 mm per year is considered most suitable for the crop.Deep cultivation (at least 15 cm) improves the oxygen supply in the soil, thus favouring the growth of bacteria that help in decomposing organic matter. Sweetpotato is grown from vines which are normally cut from a sweetpotato garden or sprouts from old sweetpotato gardens. Planting material should be selected from healthy and vigorous fields (2-3 months old), vines from old fields produce a less vigorous crop and contribute to poor yield. Sweetpotato is either planted on mounds or on ridges. A mound should be 100 cm wide and 60 cm high, the distance between mounds should be 1 m. Ridges are spaced at 0.5 m from each other. Organic fertilizers (composted manure, poultry and green manure) release nutrients slowly and therefore should be applied as a basal fertilizer (incorporated when making mounds or ridges).Planting on moundsThe field should be kept free from weeds. After about two months, the canopy of the crop is normally big enough, covering the ground and this helps to keep weeds away. Pests and viral diseases cause yield reductions, potentially from 50 to 70 percent. The major pests are: sweetpotato weevils (Cylas spp.) which feed on the epidermis of vines and leaves and sweetpotato hornworm which feed on the leaf blades, causing irregular holes, and may eat the entire blade, leaving only the petiole.Several viral diseases such as black rot; ring rot disease; fusarium root and stem rot are significant constraints to sweetpotato in Uganda.Cultural control practices have proved to be effective against sweetpotato pests and diseases and should be the main basis of control. These include: g) Applying sufficient irrigation to prevent or reduce soil cracking.Sweetpotatoes mature between 4-7 months after planting, depending on the variety and location (altitude). Usually, sweetpotatoes are ready to harvest when the leaves and ends of the vines have started turning to yellow. Harvesting the roots in piecemeal (removing big roots and creating room for small ones) can start at 3 to 4 months. Complete or total harvesting takes place when the crop is mature.Sweetpotato is generally consumed in fresh form. But in places with high infestation rates of weevils, roots cannot be left in the soil or field for long. Here, mature roots are normally harvested, chipped, and sun-dried to make products such as inginyo and amukek (Iteso).Sweetpotatoes can be baked, roasted and processed into dry chips, pounded into powder to make other delicacies like cakes, cookies, pancakes, etc. Sweetpotato roots can also be stored for several months using various storage methods.Sweetpotato roots are frequently damaged during storage mainly by storage weevils and vermin (rats, moles and domestic and wild animals). The most important control measures to reduce the damage is the re-drying of the traditionally processed sweetpotato products and the use of biological control methods and natural pesticides (for example the Neem tree leaves and chilli) to control storage weevils and vermin.Pig production has increasingly become an important activity, especially among small-scale farmers as evidenced by a dramatic rise in pig population from 0.19 million in 1980 to 1.7 million in 2002 and 3.2 million in 2008. About 1.1 million households keep pigs. Per capita annual consumption of pork in Uganda is 3.5 kilograms, making Uganda the largest consumer of pork in Africa. However, while the pigs sub-sector is growing by leaps and bounds, it is facing several challenges including poor quality and quantity of local feeds and high cost of commercial feeds.A variety of feeds are available to pig producers, ranging from commercial concentrates, agro-industrial by products, restaurant leftovers, home-grown and wild forages (Figure 1). However, their utilization by farmers is largely dependent on cost, availability and knowledge on how to properly utilize them. Figure 1 below, shows how important sweetpotato vines are in pig production systems in Kamuli and Masaka districts. In addition, sweetpotato vines and other products have high levels of crude protein and dry matter (Table 4).Source: Lukuyu and Lule ( 2016)  Source: Lukuyu and Lule (2016) Sweetpotato residues (peels, vines and non-commercial roots) are a major feed resource for pigs in Uganda and are a cheap source of energy (roots) and protein (vines). Sweetpotato residues may be fed fresh, dried or ensiled. Proper conservation of sweetpotato residues can help address the scarcity of nutrient feeds during periods of scarcity in prolonged dry seasons.Sweetpotato residues are highly perishable. There are times after harvesting that farmers have a large amount of residues which are left in the fields. Yet the very same farmers often have pigs and other livestock which would feed on these vines and roots. Research conducted by CIP in Kamuli and Masaka districts identified how farmers use different components of sweetpotatoes (Table 5). Farmers waste an average of 24% and 22% of the vines and non-marketable roots, respectively. Source: Asindu (2016) During times of scarcity, particularly in the dry season, farmers have little to feed the pigs and sometimes have to reduce their herd. Silage technology would allow to conserve sweetpotato residues for several months and therefore has the potential to mitigate seasonal feed shortages and assist in coping with seasonal feed prices fluctuations that many smallholder livestock farmers experience.Silage is fermented high moisture stored fodder to be fed to livestock. Forage which has been grown while still green and nutritious can be conserved through a natural 'pickling' process. Lactic acid is produced when the sugars in the forage plants are fermented by bacteria in a sealed airtight container ('silo'). Forage conserved this way is known as 'silage' and will keep for up to three years without deteriorating.(a) Limits wastage of valuable feed resources;(b) Ensures stable composition of the diet for a longer period;(c) Represents a convenient and inexpensive method of providing a range of nutrients required by the animal, which may be deficient in the diet;(d) Its protein content and digestibility makes it an excellent complement to grass feeds (Table 6);(e) Reduces methane gas which is responsible for global warming;(f) Provides a business opportunity for investment to unemployed youth who loathe agriculture as a direct employment option.  Lutwama and Sentambi (2016) Napier was harvested at 7weeks of age, SPV-Napier was mixed at a ratio of 1:1Small-scale livestock farmers can store silage in various ways such as:1. Polythene tube silosTrench silo is another option but this is most suitable for larger scale production and therefore is not covered in this manual.Tube silage making technology is simple, cost effective and ideal for smallholder livestock farmers. Some innovative youths such as Bavubuka Twekembe group in Wakiso district have identified the technology as a business opportunity and, in addition to selling, are providing the service of making sweetpotato tube silage at a fee.The major advantages of tube silage making technology are:  Ensures a consistent supply of high quality animal feeds, leading to good returns from the enterprise; Limits wastage by conserving excess residues; It is easier to ration the silage at the time of feeding if it is in small batches of known quantity; It is affordable for small-scale farmers who make and use small quantities of silage at a time; It is environmentally friendly since it does not release effluent, and the sack can be reused.Material requirements for the tube silo technology includes:- The following steps should be followed very carefully to make quality silage.1. Harvest or purchase sweetpotato residues.2. Spread the residues for at least half a day to reduce the moisture content (wilting)3. Chop the residues into to 2.5 cm length pieces using a forage chopper or a panga (machete).A farmer chopping sweetpotato vines using a motorized forage chopper 4. Spread well chopped residues on the tarpaulin.The chopped material is spread on the tarpaulin 5. To make 100 kg of silage (one tube) mix 5 kg of maize bran with 95 kg of chopped sweetpotato residues and mix thoroughly. Sweetpotato silage can also be made by mixing 1 L molasses with 3 L of water and sprinkle the mixture over the material. However, maize bran produces better silage because it reduces the quantity of effluent from the silage. If non-marketable sweetpotato roots are available, a ratio of 75 kg of vines, 20 kg of non-marketable roots and 5 kg of maize bran can be used.Mixing chopped sweetpotato residues with maize bran 6. Pleat the black polythene tube (about 1.5 m long, gauge of 600-800 mm) lengthwise, tie firmly with the sisal twine at 30cm distance from the cut edge, fold back the edge and tie once again to exclude the air.7. Turn the polythene bag inside out.8. Roll down or fold back the top of the polythene tube and place the tube into another synthetic sack used for packing sugar, salt, rice and maize flour. The sack protects the polythene tube from being damaged by rodents and hot weather.9. Put the material in the polythene tube. You can also use plastic drums to make silage.A polythene tube is placed into a synthetic sac to protect the tube from being damaged Plastic drums can be used for silage production 10. Compress the mixture firmly to exclude all the air. You can stand inside the bag and compress the mixture down thoroughly using the feet.You can stand inside the bag and compress the mixture down thoroughly using the feet 11. Repeat the steps until the polythene tube is full.12. Add the mixture to the polythene tube in small quantities and compress until it is full.13. Hold the top of the polythene bag firmly excluding the air. Tie the bag firmly with a sisal twine excluding the air to encourage the growth of fermentation bacteria.A farmer ties the polythene tube containing silage 14. Place a weight at the top to exclude the air which if allowed will make the mixture to rot due to activity of rotting bacteria.15. Sweetpotato tube silage should be stored under a shade, for example in a store or under a shelter. Rodents like rats that could tear the tube need to be controlled.A simple structure for storing silageBelow (Table 7) are some of the estimated costs for production of 500 kg of silage. The cost can go down if one does not hire a forage chopper and uses a panga (machete). Also the cost of the tarpaulin is a one off payment since it can be used several times. The steps are very similar to the ones described for the tube silo. A plastic sheet (about 0.1 mm thick) is spread over the ground. The material (sweetpotato residues) for making silage is chopped using a forage chopper or a panga and placed on the sheet or cemented floor.The material is entirely covered with a plastic sheet. Proper tread pressure should be applied, and complete sealing is required. The size of a silo depends on the number of animals.Important note on stack silo  The size of a silo can vary. However, stack silo is more suitable for larger pig farms or if large volume of sales is ensured. It is necessary to make steps to prevent damages on the plastic sheet by field mice or birds. Once exposed to air the silage degrades very quickly. Therefore, if sold, buyers will also need to consume it quickly and come back frequently (so either large pig farmers or likely repeatedly purchase small amounts each time). Wait for 21 to 30 days until the fermentation process is complete before use. Well-prepared sweetpotato silage is bright or light yellow-green in color, has a strong sweet smell like that of fermented milk and has a firm texture. Poor quality silage tends to smell like rancid butter or ammonia. The amount of silage to be fed per animal will depend on the age and weight of the animal. In general, silage should be used not in excess of 5 kg for pigs. Silage is best fed to pigs that are 3 months or older and weigh more than 25 kg. After feeding, the feed troughs must be cleaned to ensure that any remaining silage is removed as it will spoil and contaminate the next feed. When feeding, open the tube and after removing the amount needed, remember to re-tie without trapping air inside.Feeding pigs on sweetpotato silage alone does not support optimum levels of weight gain of pigs. Research conducted by the RTB-ENDURE team provided evidence that sweetpotato vine silage should be ideally supplementied at a level of 40% with a pig concentrate (Table 8) in order to improve pig growth performance (Table 9).   Mutetikka et al. (2016) ","tokenCount":"3190"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fc454c3e12799fe2db48853e1daa24c5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.foreststreesagroforestry.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/From-Tree-to-Fork-Araza.pdf","id":"-1314314305"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f2104180-86ac-4cd7-9884-d6f85f4b53c0","pagecount":"1","content":"Amazon pear, aracá, aracá-boi. Found throughout South America, especially in Amazon countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador.per 100g EP Energy:Arazá is part of the guava family. Its fruit is sweet, but very acidic with a pH similar to that of lemons. The sour taste means few people enjoy eating raw arazá, but it is used to make many products. A serving of its fruit has 2x as much vitamin C as the same serving of oranges.Although typically harvested from the wild, there is increasing interest in scaling up commercial production. In agroforestry systems, the plant's size, shape and shade tolerance allow it to integrate well with other fruit-tree crops. Medicinally, the fruit is sometimes taken as a treatment for parasites.Maturity before yieldsProductivity lifetime 20 years good species for land restoration due to its ability to adapt to poor and acidic soils. This is especially true in the Amazon because the species requires little phosphorus, which is often low in these soils.Once the seeds are removed, the mesocarp, or pulp, can be used for juices, jams, ice-creams, liquors and even hot sauce.Arazá also has a potential to be used for dehydrated fruit and essential oil production. ","tokenCount":"196"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c3b878473a27108519ec53c85331fe91","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/76e89023-8733-4bef-80a4-b68170f18a49/retrieve","id":"-967271791"},"keywords":["Agriculture","Climate-Smart Agriculture","Adaptation","Technology","Indigenous Knowledge","Ghana"],"sieverID":"8b42b898-6e45-4020-85bf-95f305018e07","pagecount":"99","content":"which is beside the pot is a creeping plant that serves as a CSA cover crop to protect the surface of the soil and to enhance water conservation and microbial activities.(Cucurbitae sp.) The local name in Dagaare is Yoggvaar.There is an increasing wave of human migration from north to south with corresponding anthropogenic effects on the ecology. For example, the Fulani herder groups are driving their cattle into Ghana more now than previously. The Savannah-Forest Transition and Forest zones have become habitable for cattle production due to opening up of vegetation and the eradication of the tsetse fly, which is the vector of African trypanosomiasis.Increasing population is resulting in new settlements and expansion of old ones. These come along with increased level of socio-economic activities including crop farming and charcoal production which all increasing pressure on the already fragile ecology of the savannah zones.  Ghana's population distribution varies across the 10 administrative regions and ecological zones of the country. Currently a majority of50.1 percent of Ghana's population lives in urban areas with populations of 5,000 and above. A minority of 49.1 percent of the population lives in the rural communities (GSS, 2012). The urbanized nature of the population of Ghana has implications for value agricultural chain activities.Generally, human population growth is a key driving force for increased agricultural production to feed the growing population. Ghana's population by 2010 almost quadrupled from 6.653 million in 1960 to 24.26 million (GSS, 2012).Agriculture contributes 22 percent of Ghana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with GDP growth of 5.7 percent (ISSER, 2015). It accounts for over 40 percent of export earnings while at the same time providing over 90 percent of the food needs of the country. Ghana's agriculture is predominantly smallholder, traditional and rain-fed.About 50.6 percent of the labour force is engaged in agriculture. It is estimated that women constitute about 52 percent of the total labour force in agriculture and produce about 70 percent of the food crops (Duncan, 2004).Domestic food production available for human consumption is 15,842,000Mt while the estimated national consumption is 9,518,000Mt leaving a surplus of 6,325,000Mt (SRID, 2007). It seems to suggest that there is a fairly reasonable level of food sufficiency.However, the increase in the food imports indicates the decrease in food sufficiency in the subsequent years. For example, in 2007 only 596 Mt of maize was imported into Ghana. However, in 2012 a total of 113,343 Mt of maize was imported into the country (SRID, 2013). The situation with livestock production and consumption even more exposes the vulnerability of the country of food and nutrition security. In 2007, a total of the total livestock and poultry products imported was 111,248.9 Mt as against a total domestic production of 96,740Mt. However, in 2012, the total livestock and poultry products imported were 122,447.0 Mt as against a total production of 127,038Mt (SRID, 2012). From the data, there appears to be an increasing demand for livestock and poultry products. On the whole, there is the fundamental challenge of achieving food and nutrition security, which against the backdrop of the climate change impacts has become more complex.Agriculture remains a major contributor to the economy although with a reducing rate over the years. For example, from about 39% in the 1990s contribution slides to about 22% in 2015 and with the services sector of the economy contributing almost 49.6% and industry 28.4% (ISSER, 2015;NDPC, 2014). In terms of employment, the sector is the most important; employing about 65% of the population, it has great impact on the key development goal of poverty reduction. Given its importance, every effort needs to be made to enhance productivity to ensure sustainability in the sector. as the best case scenario in terms of population growth whilst the higher variant depicts the worst case scenario. In all cases, the growth rates could be viewed as issues of concern. Even in the best case scenario, Ghana's population is depicted as doubling within a 40 year period. The implications of such a population growth rate for overall national development could be huge (Nutsukpo, et al 2013).   1.2b these crops were ranked higher (2 nd and 3 rd ) because of the value of their production. Cocoa which ranked first in terms of the area harvested, is ranked 4 th in terms of value of production. Cassava maintains its position of importance ranking 1 st in terms of value of production. Cassava continued to maintain its 1 st position on Table 1.2c in terms of quantity consumed (4,537,000 tonnes), followed by yams(2,433,000 tonnes) and plantain (2,250,000 tonnes) in the 2 nd and 3 rd positions respectively. The three crops were followed by a combination of other root and tuber crops. Maize features 5 th on Table 3c with a total 899,000 tonnes and followed by rice with 513 thousand tones. The classification of food commodities based on quantities consumed is an indication of the importance of the food commodities in diets of Ghanaians. Using the information presented by the three tables, cassava, yam, plantain, maize, and rice come up as the five most important crops produced and consumed in Ghana. In terms of the individual crop's contribution to medium to long term food security, maize and rice comes top because of their storability potential. In summary, the analysis of the growth in population as against the trends in food production and consumption point to the need for more scientific and technological approach to addressing food and nutrition security tied to more strategic policy initiatives especially under climate uncertainties. An important element in this is to ensure climate smartness in agricultural practices.Climate variability and change effects are in most cases site specific. Technologies and practices to address climate variability and change must therefore aim to address site specificities and not one size fits all. The farming systems in a given agro-ecology therefore become important. The objective of this study was first, to create awareness, identify existing \"climate smart\" technologies and practices in the guinea savannah and forest zones of Ghana and rank them for ease of reference by extension workers reaching out to farmers and also to guide policy decision makers in agricultural investment decisions at local and national levels in response to detailed actions in the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) under the Agriculture and Food Security Focus Area. In general, the output will contribute to CSA as an approach to developing the technical, policy and investment conditions to achieve sustainable agricultural development for food security under climate change in Ghana.The document is composed of five main chapters of which the first two provide the introduction and methodology used in assembling the data for analysis. Chapters 3 and 4 cover the existing knowledge, technologies and practices on CSA in the Guinea Savannah and Forest zones respectively and a general discussion of the findings. Chapter 5 presents the conclusions and some recommendations.Various literature sources were consulted to gain a broader understanding of the CSA concept. For example, the FAO Sourcebook, 2011 was found useful. Materials from the 3 rd Global Conference on Agriculture Food Security and climate change held in Johannesburg, 2013 (African Alliance for CSA, 2013) and the Climate smart agriculture orientation and scaling up workshop in Nairobi, 2014 provided some insight in the design of the tools for this study.A multi-disciplinary team of 4 members composed of animal scientist, range ecologist, agribusiness and monitoring and evaluation experts from the core team of the Climate change, agriculture and food security platform of Ghana was tasked to develop a participatory profiling tool for the purpose. This was preceded by a presentation made to  Sustainability regarding technology application 2.3 Regional Zonal WorkshopsTwo separate one-day workshops were held in the Wa (guinea Savannah) and Kumasi (Forest) regional capitals of the Upper West and Ashanti respectively. The workshop participants were selected from stakeholders of different backgrounds. They cut acrossPolicy and Decision makers, Traditional Authorities, Academia, Research Institutions, Civil Society including; NGOs, Farmer-Based Organisations, and Farmer Groups, and Individual Farmers whose activities are directly related to agriculture and the climate.From the districts 2 male and 2 female farmers, the District/Municipal/Metropolitan Directors of Agriculture and the District Chief Executives were specifically invited to participate. The Traditional Authorities who participated included the male chiefs and female chiefs (Pognaa-mine 1 ) in order to address gender inclusiveness. Over 140 participants attended the two workshops.Resource The technical presentations were followed by group breakout sessions to identify and profile both indigenous and scientific CSA technologies and practices employing the tools that were developed and described in section 2.2 above.1 Dagaare word for female cheifsFour groups were formed to reflect the diversity of actors within agricultural value chains in the zones and present at the workshop. Generally, the participants were grouped in the following categories: The same task assignment was given to each of the groups in order to elicit diversity in outputs and provide space for comparative analysis across groups. This design further helped to bring out the technical, policy and institutional constraints pertinent to CSA in these functional groupings in the system. Each group was also tasked to list constraints and challenges associated with the application of the CSA technologies and practices identified and propose actions/solutions to address them. The group sessions were followed by plenary sessions during which results were shared, triangulated by groups and validated based on consensus building.The CSA identification and matrix ranking tools provided the needed data for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Data on practices listed were first cleaned from double counting to arrive at the real number of practices enumerated by the various categories of stakeholders per zone in the study. There was analysis of the data to determine the proportions of the sources and users of the CSA practices. Simple arithmetic average values scored for the various CSA technologies and practices were used in the ranking to determine the order of most preferred visualized in tabular forms.Agriculture in developing countries must undergo significant transformation if it is to meet the growing and interconnected challenges of food insecurity and climate change (FAO, 2010). Global population however is expected to increase from 7 billion to more than 9 billion people in 2050 according to UNESCO, 2012. As a result, food production needs to be increased by at least 60% to ensure food security for everyone. In order to feed the continent's 900 million people, Africa needs its own food security and this can only be achieved through a uniquely African Green Revolution that recognizes that smallholder farmers are the key to increasing production, promotes change across the entire agricultural system, and puts fairness and the environment at its heart\" (Kofi. A.Annan, 2010).Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is defined as \"agriculture that sustainably increases The World population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 and majority of the increases is expected to come from least and developing countries especially sub-Saharan Africa.There is the need to increase food production by 70 per cent above current levels and this cannot achieved through business as usual. Vulnerability of agriculture and food systems is most intense in countries where higher population increases are expected and the impacts of climate change are expected to further reduce productivity and lead to greater instability in the agricultural and food sectors in vulnerable countries. Climate change is exerting increasing pressure on natural resources resulting in environmental degradation hence the need for steps to cope with these conditions.The agriculture sector is directly responsible for 14 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions (23 per cent in Ghana) and a key driver of deforestation and land degradation (EPA, 2015). Sustainability of agriculture and food systems therefore require actions that will help cope with threats whilst limiting contributions to future climatic effects. The sector therefore has the potential of being an important part of the needed solutions.Capturing synergies that exist among technologies will ensure robust food systems and resilient production base.The Concept of CSA seeks to increase sustainably productivity, strengthen farmers' resilience, reduce agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration and also strengthens food security and delivers environmental benefits.CSA ii. The concept recognizes that these options will be shaped by specific country contexts and capacities as well as socio-economic and environmental situations.iii       To avoid solving a problem while exacerbating another, policy leaders should take an integrated approach to food security, poverty reduction and climate change.Climate-smart agriculture is not a new agricultural system, nor a set of practices. It is a new approach, a way to guide the needed changes of agricultural systems, given the necessity to jointly address food security and climate change. CSA therefore brings together practices, policies and institutions that are not necessarily new but are used in the context of climatic changes. It addresses multiple challenges faced by agriculture and food systems simultaneously and holistically and helps avoid counterproductive policies, legislation or financing.In the global context while climate change has become one of the defining contemporary international development issues, far less attention has been given to food security and climate change at the international level. Yet, these challenges are increasingly seen as being interdependent, shaped by a confluence of different pressures that converge within the agriculture sector such as population size and commensurate food demand are increasing, competition for food, land, water, energy, as well as carbon storage, is intensifying, degradation of natural resources is expanding. This makes solutions for climate change to become more urgent. At the UNFCCC COP16 in December 2010, the draft text on agriculture was not incorporated into the Cancun Agreements. Agriculture, however, already figured prominently in National Adaptation Programmes of Action  The effect of these climatic variables on key sectors is summarized in Table 3.2.2. The vision of the NCCP is to ensure a climateresilient and climatecompatible  The NCCP policy has a number of specific programmes for addressing the critical sector policy actions necessary to achieve the desired objectives. These policy objectives can be achieved through the development of specific strategies and actions. The MDAs are expected to develop detailed time bound and budgeted implementation plans that would be linked to their operating strategies and work plans. As a strategy for the Agriculture and Food Security, sectoral policy objectives could be achieved through the development of specific strategies and actions that aim at mainstreaming climate change adaptation into sectoral policy planning and budgeting processes. There is the need as a country to develop and promote Climate Resilient Cropping Systems with the objective to enhance sustainable production and reduce climate related disasters. This is necessary on grounds that the sector is responsible for over 70% of the food needs of Ghana but our agriculture and food systems are rudimentary in nature, and climate dependent. In addition, in recent years, extreme climate events and climate variability have resulted in yield loses at farm and community level.There is therefore the need to adapt to future climatic effects, define new cropping systems, new farming systems and improvement of existing ones etc. Proposed actions of for consideration as a nation include:     Projection of future climate in Ghana reveals that mean annual temperatures could increase by 1.0 to 3.0°C by the 2060, and 1.5 to 5.2°C by the 2090. The projected rate of warming is expected to be most rapid in the northern regions (interior savannah zones) of Ghana than the coastal regions. Projections of mean annual rainfall averaged over the country from different models (in the ensemble) project a wide range of changes in precipitation for Ghana. There is however no unanimity among the projections as to the direction (decrease or increase) of the expected changes. About half of the models project increases and half project decreases. Sea-levels in the coastal regions of Ghana is projected by climate models to rise by 0.13 to 0.43m under SRES B1, 0.16 to 0.53m under SRES A1B and 0.18 to 0.56m under SRES A2 by the 2090s, relative to 1980-1999 sea-level.Productivity of major staple crops including maize, cassava and cocoyam are projected to decrease under future climatic change impacts. Yields of maize and other cereals are projected to reduce by 2.4% in 2020 and by 7% by 2050 whilst cassava production will decrease by 43% by 2080. Cocoyam production will decrease from 65.2% to 52.8% in 2080 (Mensah Bonsu, 2003). Table 3.3.1 shows some agriculture and non-agriculture climate-change impacts. Severe warming, floods, and drought may reduce Crop yields and can harm crops -Yield losses ii.Livestock may be at risk, both directly from heat stress and indirectly from reduced quality of their food supply. iii.Fisheries will be affected by changes in water temperature that shift species ranges, make waters more hospitable to invasive species, and change lifecycle timing. iv.Moderate warming and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may help plants to grow faster v.Climate change is already affecting diversity and productivity of forests and trees on farms through its impact on growing seasons, pest and disease outbreaks and tree population size & distribution.i.A warmer climate is expected to increase both the risk of heat-related illnesses and death and worsen conditions for air quality. ii.Climate change will likely increase the frequency and strength of extreme events (such as floods, droughts, and storms) that threaten human safety and health. iii.Climate changes may allow some diseases to spread more easily and emergence of diseases and vectors. iv.Increased water stress will impact land areas twice the size of those areas that will experience decreased water stress.vi.Weeds, pests and fungi thrive under warmer temperatures, wetter climates, and increased CO2 levels. vii.Crop yields are expected to decline due to long-term changes in temperature and rainfall and increased climate variability. viii.The outcome may be higher food prices, along with chronic poverty and under-nutrition for farming households already battered by climate extremes such as drought and flood.Northern Several institutions in Ghana have for the past 54 years creditably discharged their mandate by generating research findings and technologies of relevance to climate change.CSIR-CRI in focus.The following are list of some selected CSA technologies developed by CSIR-CRI:i. Development and promotion of high yielding, good quality crop varieties and traits (Micronutrients -e.g., Vitamin A, Iron, Zinc, Phosphorous).ii  iii. Fertilizer management technologies -Type, required amounts of fertilizer, time of application iv. Zero-tillage, Conservation tillage -Zero tillage is an agriculture technique which encourages planting in mulch instead of \"slash and burn\" and increases the amount of water and organic matter (nutrients) in the soil and decreases erosion v. Sprinkler and drip irrigation vi.Methane mitigation (Rice) using reduced tillage.Climate smart technologies for ensuring the achievement of food security and the Millennium Development goals for poverty reduction include:i. Development of the seed industry (e.g., QPM -Obatampa, cowpea, rice, etc.) has provided increased job opportunities and incomes for millions of farmers, seed growers, seed distributors, and grain sellers ii. Enhancement of the nutritional status of farm households and the general public, particularly children, through the utilization of high and stable yielding, nutritionally superior and consumer-preferred varieties.iii. Promotion of community-based seed production that allows farmers to borrow and pay back seeds to a common seed pool at affordable prices.iv. Cowpea with high Zinc, Iron and Calcium.v. Orange flesh sweet potato high in vitamin A.vi. Bio-fortification of maize, rice and sweet potato with high lysine and tryptophan.The adoption rate of some of the improved varieties by farmers not significant for some crops.Climate change impact is increasingly becoming severe. Long-term projections indicate that crop yields could fall by up to 50% by 2020. Net revenues from crops could drop by as much as 90% by 2100. It is envisaged that small-scale farmers will be mostly affected.There is therefore the need to develop more CSA technologies to increase productivity, adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure national food security.Though faced with challenges like funding, poor research-policy linkages among others, there is the need to continue to sustain agricultural production by employing science and innovation to boost productivity, reduce poverty and address climate change in Ghana by developing climate-smart agriculture technologies. There is the need for integrated efforts to ensure achievement of goals. Strong policy instruments to empower research and development are also key.Relating to Livestock ProductionIt has been estimated that World food requirement by the year 2050 will be double that of 2010. A significant part of this requirement will emanate from the developing countries, on account of increased human populations, disposable incomes and urbanization. Meat consumption is also expected to increase by 26kg and 32kg in 2030 and 2050 respectively. A marked gap will continue to exist between developed and developing countries. Global production levels will more than double 580 -1043 Million tonnes (FAO, 2006). Livestock make a necessary and important contribution to global calorie and protein supplies. These however need to be managed carefully to maximise this contribution. Livestock are valued and will continue be consumed in increasing amounts. Meat, milk and eggs are valuable sources of easily digestible protein and essential micronutrients. The choice of production systems and good management practices are important for optimizing the protein output from livestock. Buffer against economic shocks and natural disasters are equally important.The impacts of climate change on livestock are difficult to quantify due to the sector's uncertain and complex interactions between agriculture, climate, the surrounding environment and the economy. Increased temperatures, shifts in rainfall distribution and increased frequency of extreme weather events are expected to adversely affect livestock production and productivity around the world. Adverse impacts are reflected in Table 3.4.1. The table shows the direct result of increased heat stress and reduced water availability on livestock. Indirect impacts on livestock include reduced quality and availability of feed and fodder, the emergence of livestock disease and greater competition for resources with other sectors. CSA strategies for dominant livestock production systems CSA strategies for dominant livestock production systems can be classified as land based systems, mixed systems and landless systems.The main mitigation options could be reduction in enteric CH4 emissions and CO2 removals through soil carbon sequestration and manure management options. Figure 3.4.1 shows the schematic presentation on the production of methane.Grazing management and benefits could be optimized by balancing and adapting grazing pressures on land, increasing grassland productivity and delivering adaptation and mitigation benefits. The influence of optimal grazing is variable and is highly dependent on baseline grazing practices, plant species soils and climatic conditions (smith et al., 2008). Carbon sequestration stemming from reduced grazing pressure according to Conant and Paustian, 2002 stops land degradation and rehabilitates degraded lands. The intensities of enteric emissions are also lowered and give wider choice of forage for animals to select more nutritious forages. This will lead to more rapid rates of live weight gains, restored degraded grassland, improved soil health, better water retention, increased resilience of the grazing system to climate variability and reduced pressure stemming from reduced number of animals.As a strategy for grazing management, rotational grazing can be practiced. This can be adjusted to the frequency and timing of livestock grazing needs and better matches needs with availability of pasture resources. It allows for maintenance of forages at a relatively earlier growth stage, enhances the quality and digestibility and improves productivity of the system. It also reduces CH4 emissions per LWG (Eagle et al 2012). It is more suited to manage pasture systems but investments are required for fencing, watering points and it is also labour intensive. Typically, there is the replacement of native grasses with higher yielding and more digestible forages, including perennial fodders, pastures and legumes. It leads to carbon sequestration, improves farm productivity and reduces enteric emissions. As benefits and tradeoffs, fertilization, cutting regimes and irrigation practices may enhance productivity, improve soil carbon, pasture quality and animal performance. Fertilization may involve trade-offs between lower CH4 and higher N2O emissions (Bannink et al 2010). Net effect of GHG emissions here may be negative on grazing lands (Eagle et al. 2012). Forage quality may be improved by chemical and/or mechanical treatments and ensiling. With increasing variability of climatic conditions there may be increase in periods where forage quality falls short of animal demand; supplementary feeding becomes essential.Breeding to select more productive animals, enhances productivity and lower CH4 emissions intensities. There is evidence that cross-breeding programmes can deliver simultaneous, adaptation, food security and mitigation benefits. Cross Breeds developed with local breeds can be tolerant to heat stress, adapted to poor nutrition, disease & parasite resistance. Adaptation to climate change may involve switching livestock species. Making use of locally adapted breeds and crossing them with more productive breeds, while selecting desired traits is one of the breeding strategies.In all livestock production systems, there are number of animal and herd management options that can enhance productivity, improve feed conversion efficiency and reduce enteric emissions intensities. Better nutrition, improved animal husbandry, the regular maintenance of animal health and the responsible use of antibiotics can improve reproduction rates, reduce mortality and reduce the slaughter age. These measures would therefore have an effect on output produced for a given level of emission. Management of disease risks is important in the era of climate change, as there may be an increase in the emergence of gastrointestinal parasites due to climate change (Wall & Morgan, 2009). Breeding more disease resilient animals is one approach to addressing this issue.Even for low-input extensive systems with little human intervention, vaccines for methanogens (microorganisms that produce methane as a metabolic by-product in lowoxygen conditions) in the rumen are a potentially useful mitigation option for ruminants in land-based grazing systems. More research and development is however needed in this area before it can be ready for wide spread adoption.Increasing the organic content of the soil through conservation tillage, the soil's water holding capacity increases, and make yields more sustainable and reduces erosion.-Minimum or zero tillage;-Erosion control;-The use of crop residues (mulching) to conserve soil moisture; and improved soil cover through cover crops By increasing water infiltration, reducing evaporation and increasing storage of rainwater in soils, many crop management practices (e.g. mulching, green manures, conservation tillage and conservation agriculture) will help land users in areas projected to receive lower levels of precipitation adapt to climate change.Promoting the capture of carbon in the soil also mitigates climate change. Soil management practices that limit soil compaction, reduce tillage and retain crop residues, lower the potential for N2O losses, and increase soil carbon. In addition, managing pests including weeds, and diseases using technologies such as the 'pull-and-push technology' can contribute to improving the availability of food and improve animal feed in croplivestock systems (Lenné and Thomas, 2005).In coming decades, water management will be a critical component for of adapting to climate change as well as socio-economic changes. Practices that increase the productivity of water use (crop output per unit water) may have significant climate change adaptation potential for all land production systems Some adaptation techniques and approaches proposed by FAO, 2011 include cultivation of crop varieties with increased resistance to extreme conditions; irrigation techniques that maximize water use; adoption of supplementary irrigation in rain-fed systems and water-efficient technologies to harvest water; and the modification of cropping calendars (timing or location). Strategies for improving livestock-water productivity in mixed Crop-Livestock systems include feed management (e.g. improving feed quality, increasing feed-water productivity, enhancing feed selection, strengthening grazing management); water management; and animal management (e.g. increasing animal productivity and health).Carbon sequestration in soils has the potential to mitigate climate change and bolster climate change adaptation (Pascal and Socolow, 2004). As a climate-smart strategy it involves creating a positive carbon budget in soils and ecosystems by using residues as mulch in combination with no-till farming and integrated nutrient management (i.e. the appropriate application of both synthetic and organic fertilizer). Soil carbon sequestration delivers numerous ancillary benefits by improving soil quality and other ecosystem services. These benefits include:• Restoration of degraded soils, through increases in soil organic carbon pools,Improves productivity which helps foster food security and improves nutrition,Improves efficiency in the use of nitrogen and potassium, • Improves water quality through a greater control of non-point source pollution (Lal, 2009).Crop residues can represent up to 50% of ruminant diets in mixed farming systems (Herrero et al., 2008). These are inexpensive feed sources but have low digestibility, deficient in crude protein, minerals and vitamins. They limit productivity and increase CH4 emissions. Increasing digestibility of rations (improving quality, or supplementing with concentrates) reduce emissions.This involves the use of improved grass species and forage legumes. Animal productivity can be improved by using a multidimensional approach for improving the quality and thereby the utilization of food-feed crops. This can also lead to a reduction in animal numbers, lower feed requirements and reduced GHG emissions (Blümmel et al., 2009).The better we feed cow the less methane per kg of milk they produce.The diversification of sensitive production systems can enhance adaptation to the shortand medium-term impacts from climate change. In parts of southern Africa, reductions in length of growing period and increased rainfall variability are leading to conversions from mixed crop-livestock systems to rangeland-based systems, as farmers find growing crops too risky in marginal environments (Thornton et al., 2009). Changing the mix of farm products (e.g. Proportion of crops to pastures) is an example of a farm-level adaptation option. Farmers may reassess the crops and varieties they grow, and shift from growing crops to raising livestock, which can serve as marketable insurance in times of drought. They may also introduce heat-tolerant breeds that are more resistant to drought.In most cases, these practices in mixed farming systems deliver multiple benefits.However, before long-term benefits can be reaped, there are some trade-offs that need to be made in the short term with respect to emissions, productivity and food security.Despite the long-term benefits, poor subsistence farmers may not be willing or able to accept the short-term losses associated with some of these practices.  Energy-saving practices have also been demonstrated to be effective in reducing the dependence of intensive systems on fossil fuels.Carbon dioxide emissions associated with feed production, especially soybean, are significant (FAO, 2006). Improved feed conversion ratios have already greatly reduced the amount of feed required per unit of animal product. However, there is significant variation between production units and countries. Further progress is expected to be made in this area through improvements in feed management and livestock breeding. Reducing the amount of feed required per unit of output (e.g. beef, milk) has the potential to both reduce GHG emissions and increase farm profits.Increased feed efficiency can be achieved by developing breeds that grow faster, more hardy, gain weight more quickly, or produce more milk, and improved herd health. Better veterinary services, preventive health programmes and improved water quality can also increase feed efficiency.Shifting to feed resources with a low-carbon footprint is another way to reduce emissions, especially for concentrated pig and poultry production systems. Examples include feed crops that have been produced through conservation agriculture practices or feed grown in cropping areas that have not been recently extended into forested land or natural pastures. The use of AIBPs as feed is also important. Resilience can be achieved either by allowing chains to overcome the crisis or by creating the conditions for quick recovery after the crisis. There is little experience developed in this area however, greater coordination among the different stakeholders involved in the supply chain, insurance schemes, buffers and stocks may contribute to a greater resilience of supply chains that rely on landless livestock systems.Livestock can make a large contribution to climate-smart food supply systems. The sector offers substantial potential for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation options are available along the entire supply chain and are mostly associated with feed production, enteric fermentation and manure management. Mitigation strategies in the fishponds; 2,500 fish cages and 76 pens. The challenges are that fish stocks are under intensive pressure and are rapidly declining. According FAO, about 84 % of world's fisheries are over-exploited, fully exploited, or depleted and this presents a major concern for all stakeholders. In Ghana, our weak wild fish cannot meet demand and therefore aquaculture is the hope to bridge the gap. Trending the fisheries sub-sector's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), its contribution between 2008 and 2013 were 2.7%, 2.5%, 2.3%, 1.7%, 1.6% and 1.5% respectively. The clear indication therefore is that the subsector has been experiencing a progressive decline in its contribution to agricultural GDP over the past six years. The decline could be attributed to low value fish catch by fishermen, consistent unfavorable climatic conditions (such as higher sea-surface temperature, lower salinity and lower upwelling index), human factors (such as light fishing, use of unapproved fishing gears, use of dynamite in fishing etc.). Table 3.5.1shows some of the important indicators and performance of the sub-sector. The impacts of the accumulation of Green House Gas (GHG) in the atmosphere and water relate to a number of physical phenomena. Gradual changes in water temperature, acidification of water bodies, changes in ocean currents, rising sea levels are some physical changes that affect ecological functions within aquatic systems/ecologies.Changes in rainfall causes a spectrum of changes in water availability ranging from droughts and shortages, floods, reduce water quality, saline water further upstream in rivers, rising sea level threatens inland freshwater and aquaculture. Changing rainfall patterns and water scarcity impact on river and lake fisheries and aquaculture production.   Ensure that fisheries' interests, including the need for conservation of resources, are taken into account in the multiple uses of coastal zones and are integrated into coastal area management, planning and development. Conduct climate change risk assessments for native fisheries to identify species and populations that are at risk, and include potential economic losses and the costs of adaptation measures. Ensure that land and water resource managers at the state and local levels integrate adaptation options into planning, programs and practices.Reducing the impact of invasive species is one of the options. There is the need to promote the health of native populations, which gives them a better chance to compete successfully. Strengthening rules for cleaning and transporting boats and fishing gears to reduce invasive species outbreaks, increase research into new techniques for controlling/managing invasive species and increase monitoring and control of invasive plant and aquatic species are important options for consideration. There is also the need to develop regulations aimed at preventing future incursions of exotic and invasive species.The construction of floating cages is important since it can adapt to changing water resource opportunities.The introduction of saline or shock tolerant fish species and the use of quality fingerling and brood stock are important. The use of indigenous species, short duration and fast growing species that can combat seasonal variations in livelihood returns is important.The use of efficient feed conversion species is also important.Enhancing the adaptive capacity in terms of productive livelihood (new income opportunity) option for fish farmers, women and poor households, will lead to better nutrition (livelihood diversification). There is the need to also to implement insurance scheme in this sub-sector.   shows an example of trees and crop integration approaches in Ghana.  Modernization is the application of Technology (Hard or processes) in Agriculture for higher production or productivity. Modernized agriculture can be defined as maximizing production from a minimum input of resources. In crop production, the resources are land, labour, plant material and post-harvest management of produce. Livestock is also linked to breeds, feed, health and post-harvest management of livestock products. The major and common denominator of the above systems of production is engineering and for that matter mechanization. This is supported by the fact that Countries that are said to be modernized have a great input of engineering.Agricultural Mechanization in any Country is assessed with the number of tractors employed in production or technology used in the entire production line of commodities in that country. The intended objectives of agricultural mechanization here, are thus not confined to land and labour productivity alone, but include its consequent impact on poverty reduction and human development.It is on record (MOFA-FASDEP -2002) that Ghana has a total land area of approximately 24 million hectares of which 57% (13.7 million hectares) is suitable for agriculture and 8 million hectares convenient for mechanical powered machines. Less than 20 % of this area is cultivated. The Ghanaian agricultural sector consists of food crops, livestock and fisheries. Without significant improvement in agriculture's performance, the long-term goal of the country cannot be achieved as projected in national Vision documents. To achieve this target on a sustainable basis, the additional growth in agriculture has to be derived from rapid increases in production and productivity of farm labour through the interplay of all the agricultural technologies such as Agricultural Mechanization activities.The climatic conditions such as temperature, pressure, humidity and many others have great influence on the effectiveness of the performance of the internal combustion engine of a tractor. Some researchers (Kuznesov 1987) have come out with some ranges on the temperature and pressure influence on power development as stated in Table 3.8.1. This means any specification output power of a diesel engine will reduce by 2.2% if there is a temperature change at every 10 ºC. Pressure changes accounts for some similar changes in output power of engines. Dust in the air affects the work of automobiles and others with internal combustion system for different purposes due to wear of machine aggregates and machine parts.Dusty conditions depend on so many factors like the season, type of road or soil, weather, wind direction, movement intensity, etc. Dusty air is characterized by the weight of dust in a cubic meter of air. Generally, air with less than 1mg/m 3 is accepted technically as clean air. European roads have reduced soil dust to about 0.00025 -0.001 g/m 3 . On rough roads the condition of dust in the air ranges 0.4 -0.45 g/m 3 but when crawlers are moving in a convoy the soil dust ranges 1.25 -2.0 g/m 3 (Kuznesov 1987). Research have proven that where dust ranges 0.8 -1.2 g/m 3 then clarity is lost. Averagely for different conditions of automobiles exploitation it should not exceed 1.4 and for crawlers it should not be more than 2g/m 3 . In the big cities dust should not exceed 0.00025 -0.0084 g/m 3 .As seen from the references above it is very important to avoid using or working under dusty condition. But one cannot avoid dusty conditions at work, it is necessary to take the following recommendation as a corrective measure in maintenance schedule. The servicing here is mainly referred to as change of oil. Smart servicing is recommended in  It is the process of the working of the soil loose to provide favourable conditions for agricultural purposes. Tillage is further classified into two main groups namely: Primary and Secondary Tillage. There are certain groups of implement that fall in the various tillage classes but it can be found out that sometimes some of the secondary tillage equipment is used for primary tillage purpose.The Mouldboard plough and the Disc plough are among the implements mostly used for tillage. The disc plough does the same activity as the mouldboard but they are different in construction. The disc plough mostly three concave disc that work the soil whiles the mouldboard plough has its main parts as the mouldboard component for handling the soil and the share for cutting the soil.Whiles the disc plough can work so well on virgin fields full of stumps and rocks, the mouldboard plough cannot work well under such conditions. But it has the advantage of wider options of depth of cut for ploughing, optional ploughing objectives and does not dilute the top soil. Studies conducted by Mahama (1997) on the tubular fixed bottom disc plough shows it can leave unploughed land when used (Figure 3.8.1).Table 3.8.3 shows the various depths of cuts and the percentage of profile left unploughed.Maximum depth of cut for disc diameters of 66 cm and 55 are calculated as 22cm and 18cm respectively. The more a disc will be worn, the greater the unploughed land. Ahn (1977) reported that the average topsoil depth of West Africa sub-region is around 15 cm. This suggests that the disc plough works beyond the top soil hence burying the productive topsoil after ploughing.  mm was said to be erosive power with a load of 24.18 J /m 2 . Highly erosive rain of this vegetation. It is reported that about 70% of available vegetation can be eaten by livestock when grazing on the field in a free range system. Continuous effect of free range is loss of vegetation which in-turn affects the climate.Another important but ignored component is soil compaction on the fields with free range systems. It is estimated (Mahama, 1994) that the average pressure under the feet of a cow is 6 -13 t/m 2 . This will create serious compaction issues for wet soils when livestock is allowed to graze on such a field. To put this in perspective, the average pressure under the tracks of a pick-up truck is about 35 t/m 2 whiles the acceptable compaction pressure is about 2.8 t/m 2 (Daum, 2015). As such the provision of adequate housing for large ruminants will seriously help conserve the environment.Watering has been very vital in livestock production for poultry and ruminants. However, the most critical is that of the ruminants. The practice in Ghana is mainly free range of feeding which normally starts in the morning to evening. Water source have not been located to the convenience of the herdsmen and therefore the greater part of the fodder eaten by the ruminants is expended in the search for water or to water sources. This could have been directed to the growth and maintenance of the ruminants. Another smart watering system is the use of wind pumps for lifting water from boreholes on farms or grazing fields and for livestock watering systems. This provides regular water supply and a renewable energy source. Use of Solar Inverter power for lighting in poultry houses and ruminants  Taking advantage of solar energy for dryingLight in the pens of birds will increase feeding time and will influence greatly the growth rate of the birds and prepare them for market early. This is evident with the broiler production. Here, the Agricultural electrical engineers have their role to play in promotion of production.Solar drying technology will offer an alternative source of energy for processing agricultural produce (root and tubers, fruits and vegetables) in clean, hygienic and sanitary conditions to national and international standards at very low cost. It saves energy, time and occupies less area, improves product quality, makes processing more efficient and protects the environment. Solar drying technology can be used in small-scale food processing industries to produce hygienic, good quality food products. At the same time, this can be used to promote renewable energy sources as an incomegenerating option. Further, this solar technology will ideally be suited for women since they can place the load in the dryer and then get on with their other numerous household tasks (Seidu et al, 2008). Solar drying which takes place in an enclosed ventilated area is able to do away with all the problems associated with the traditional open sun drying and bring about sustainable income and food security. The matrix shown in Fig. 3.8.3illustrates the policy being implemented through a category of farmers with access to the appropriate power sources in mechanization systems, institutions and other infrastructure to achieve the appropriate results. Improving or building up the systems, institutions and infrastructure will have to filter through the conservative practices and economics to get results that will be sustainable with growth. It is clear from the estimates that Ghana is still far from modernising Agriculture. Climate change involves issues related to temperature, humidity, pressure, rainfall, solar, wind, dust, etc. To be smart about the changes of these in any geographical area is to adapt and avoid making such factors of climate change further affect negatively.Agricultural Mechanization has been one of the main pillars of any accelerated agricultural growth and has a direct correlation with the kind of energy used in agriculture. The analyses showed that Ghana is still far from modernized agricultural production. Measures of climate change that need to be taken to ensure that farmers also have access to a level of mechanization technology appropriate to their circumstances for agricultural production are also discussed for policy makers and professionals. For Smart Agricultural Modernization to take its rightful place in the development of agriculture in The use of CSA technologies and practices in the guinea savannah area was found to be largely 86.6% smallholder farm types compared to medium and or large (Table 4.1.3).However, DT Maize was patronised by all the farm type enterprises. Gill netting practice was found to be practised by men. It was revealed by the stakeholder categories in the study that all the CSA technologies and practices were patronised by both men and women in the zone.   Bulleted below are some of the constraints enumerated to be associated with the climate smart technologies and practices: It is composed of three main pillars namely: Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; Adapting and building resilience to climate change; Reducing and/or removing greenhouse gases emissions, where possible.However, the fundamentals are in the way the technical/technology, Institutions and Policy are blended creating the congenial environment for the practice to deliver the desired outcomes.Policies and laws need strengthening to deal appropriately with climate change issues e.g. Bush fires, migrant herders and other conflicts. Strengthening of CCA platforms at all levels (local assembly, regional and national) for science-policy dialogue could prove rewarding from the institutional innovation end point. Indeed, this calls for concerted action by actors and stakeholders including; producers, marketers, and input dealers/service providers, associations and other influential individuals along a given value chain. The need for partnerships and (north-south and south-south) Alliances for CSA to bridge knowledge gaps and mobilize resources to improve the financial investments for climate-smart agriculture research and development without which our producers may remain at high risk of being uncompetitive cannot be over-emphasized. Support private sector participation in the delivery and funding of climate smart agriculture extension services to farmers ensuring inclusiveness of smallholder men and women farmers.  Develop framework for CSA research prioritization, co-ordination, networking, monitoring, evaluation and learning. Over haul the research-extension-farmer-input dealers' linkage systems for greater delivery of extension on CSA technologies and practices. Formulate policy on regionalization of climate smart agriculture technologies and practices by ecological zones in the country  Conduct more in-depth case studies of the identified and prioritized technologies, integrated systems practices for scaling up and out. Policy environment creating needed incentives for business investments in CSA, enhancing markets and trade across borders (south-south and north-south). Institutions creating awareness; aligning CSA technologies and practices in agricultural sector action plans to respond appropriately to the national climate change policy (NCCP) document.The following recommendations were made in connection with the promotion of CSA in Ghana: Current efforts by Forestry sector to replant degraded forest reserves should include Farmer managed natural regeneration of trees enhancing natural biodiversity capacities of identified protected areas towards increasing their ecotourism potentials. Weather/climate information is important in enabling farmers adapt to current weather events; the food and agriculture sector operators should consider forging closer relations with the Meteorological Agency to make weather information more relevant and useful (timeliness and scale of forecast) to farmers. The scaling up of CSA practices on landscape is recommended for the studied zones.The transfer of some practices such as cover cropping, conservation agriculture across zones could be direct. However, others may require test validation to adapt. Formal and informal institutions may need to go into alliances to promote climate smart agriculture. Unfavorable policies observed by stakeholders limiting CSA practices should be addressed to promote adoption and adequate investments  More profiling activities of CSA will be needed to cover the country to unearth indigenous knowledge for scientific fine tuning by research. Targeting agricultural mechanization for CSA is required.","tokenCount":"7943"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bc3c1093716ecae7343b59fd80361163","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/887bd490-7878-46dc-abb8-9a1eaf236e3f/retrieve","id":"-365436031"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"28556093-ea2d-419d-8e3c-69be4e8018f4","pagecount":"91","content":"Bioversity International est un organisme mondial de recherche au service du développement. Nous avons la vision d'une biodiversité agricole nourrissant la planète, tout en la sauvegardant. Nous fournissons les preuves scientifiques, les options et pratiques de gestion pour exploiter et sauvegarder la biodiversité agricole et la biodiversité sylvicole afin de parvenir à la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle et ce, de manière durable, à l'échelle du globe. Nous travaillons en coopération avec des partenaires situés dans des pays à faibles revenus et dans différentes régions où la biodiversité agricole et la biodiversité sylvicole sont susceptibles de contribuer à l'amélioration de la nourriture, de la résilience, de la productivité et de l'adaptation aux changements climatiques. Bioversity International est membre du consortium du Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale (GCRAI) -un partenariat mondial de recherche agricole pour un futur sans faim. www.bioversityinternational.org Le programme de recherche du GCRAI sur le changement climatique, l'agriculture et la sécurité alimentaire (CCAFS) est un partenariat stratégique du GCRAI et de Future Earth, mené par le Centre international d'agriculture tropicale. CCAFS rassemble les meilleurs chercheurs du monde issus des sciences agronomiques, climatiques et du développement avec ceux provenant des sciences du système terrestre, de façon à identifier et à tenir compte des interactions, synergies et équilibres entre le changement climatique, l'agriculture et la sécurité alimentaire. www.ccafs.cgiar.org L'Initiative de renforcement des capacités en matière d'APA a pour objet de contribuer à la réduction de la pauvreté, au renforcement de la sécurité alimentaire, au transfert technologique, au développement social y compris droits et équité mais aussi à la conservation de la biodiversité, au travers de la mise en oeuvre du Protocole de Nagoya sur l'accès aux ressources génétiques et le partage juste et équitable des avantages découlant de leur utilisation et du troisième objectif de la Convention sur la diversité biologique (CDB). Établie en 2006, l'Initiative de renforcement des capacités en matière d'APA est organisée par le Ministère fédéral de la coopération économique et du développement de l'Allemagne (BMZ), mise en oeuvre par l'Agence de coopération internationale allemande pour le développement (GIZ) et financée par les gouvernements allemand, norvégien et danois, l'Institut de la Francophonie pour le développement durable (IFDD) et l'Union européenne (UE). www.abs-initiative.info/ Le Traité international sur les ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture est un instrument crucial dans la lutte contre la faim et la pauvreté, en ces temps de changement climatique et de crise alimentaire. En matière de ressources phytogénétiques, aucun pays n'est autosuffisant ; tous dépendent de la diversité génétique des cultures provenant d'autres pays et régions. C'est la raison pour laquelle la coopération internationale et le libre échange des ressources génétiques sont essentiels pour assurer la sécurité alimentaire. Pour la première fois, le partage équitable des avantages résultant de l'exploitation de ces ressources a pratiquement été mis en place à l'échelle internationale, au travers du Traité international, de son Accord type de transfert de matériel (ATTM) et de son Fonds de partage des avantages (FPA).Les objectifs de la Convention sur la diversité biologique (CDB) sont sensiblement identiques à ceux du Traité international sur les ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (TI-RPGAA) : conservation et utilisation durable des ressources génétiques et partage équitable des avantages découlant de leur utilisation. 2 Néanmoins, les systèmes d'accès et de partage des avantages (APA) que ces traités demandent à ses pays membres de mettre en oeuvre varient profondément quant à leur orientation. TI-RPGAA a créé un système multilatéral d'accès et de partage des avantages (SML ou MLS en anglais) dans lequel les pays membres s'engagent à regrouper virtuellement et à partager les ressources génétiques de 64 espèces cultivées et fourrages figurant dans l'Appendice I dudit traité, aux fins de l'alimentation et de l'agriculture. La CDB et son Protocole de Nagoya sur l'accès aux ressources génétiques et le partage juste et équitable des avantages découlant de leur utilisation (PN) ont créé des mécanismes pour la négociation et la mise en vigueur d'accords APA bilatéraux. 3 Le PN/CDB et le SML/TI-RPGAA sont censés être mis en oeuvre pour se renforcer mutuellement. Cependant, de nombreuses instances chargées des politiques nationales ne savent pas trop en fait comment mettre en oeuvre ces accords, de sorte qu'elles dépendent réellement du soutien mutuel. Un des facteurs contribuant à cette incertitude est le fait que dans la plupart des pays, il existe différents organismes directeurs qui sont responsables de la mise en oeuvre des accords respectifs et ces organismes n'ont pas eu suffisamment d'occasions pour coordonner leurs activités entre eux. Souvent, l'agence chargée de la mise en oeuvre du PN/CDB ne connaît pas trop bien le TI-RPGAA. Les instances sont nombreuses à percevoir des « zones d'ombre », où il est parfois difficile de déterminer quelle réglementation on doit appliquer dans tel et tel cas. De plus, les organismes directeurs ne disposent d'aucun mécanisme pour faciliter l'interaction et l'échange 2 Convention sur la diversité biologique, 31 ILM 818 (1992). Voir http://www.cbd.int/convention/text/ (site accédé le 28 février 2015). Traité international sur les ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture, 29 juin 2004, http://www.planttreaty.org/texts_en.htm> (site accédé le 28 février 2015). 3 Protocole de Nagoya sur l'accès aux ressources génétiques et le partage juste et équitable des avantages découlant de leur utilisation (APA) de la Convention sur la diversité biologique (Le Protocole de Nagoya), 29 octobre 2012, http://www.cbd.int/abs/text/> (site accédé le 28 février 2015). d'informations de manière à s'occuper et à clarifier ces « zones d'ombre » dans la mise en place au quotidien du PN/CDB et du SML/TI-RPGAA.L'objectif global de ce rapport -et de l'enquête, l'atelier et l'analyse de suivi qui ont servi de base à l'atelier -est de fournir aux instances chargées des politiques nationales un outil pour accroître leurs capacités et renforcer leur confiance dans la mise en oeuvre concertée et solidaire du PN/CDB et du SML/TI-RPGAA.Visant les points focaux nationaux, l'atelier en tandem qui s'est tenu du 3 au 6 juin 2014 a permis la rencontre de chargés de la mise en oeuvre du PN/CDB et du TI-RPGAA en provenance de 20 pays, de représentants des secrétariats de ces deux instruments, d'experts indépendants et de représentants des différentes parties prenantes dont les activités quotidiennes consistent à conserver, fournir, accéder et à utiliser des ressources génétiques, activités qui transcendent souvent le partage des réglementations entre le PN/CBD et le SML/TI-RPGAA. L'atelier avait pour objet de démystifier l'appréhension des « problèmes de zones d'ombre » en fournissant aux points focaux nationaux l'occasion de travailler sur des questions pratiques en liaison avec ces problèmes pour pouvoir arriver à des solutions claires et praticables. Il avait également pour objet de donner aux participants l'occasion de découvrir d'autres mécanismes et pratiques de coordination susceptibles d'être ramenés sur le terrain pour pouvoir résoudre ces problèmes au quotidien. L'atelier s'est déroulé en gros comme suit : Des experts ont présenté le PN/CBD et le TI-RPGAA en décrivant leurs objectifs, mécanismes, l'avancement de leur mise en oeuvre ainsi que les défis à relever. Des représentants des différentes parties prenantes (semenciers, organismes de conservation, organisations paysannes, organisations de recherche publique et génothèques nationales et internationales) ont fait part de leurs expériences avec le PN/CDB et le SML/TI-RPGAA. Lorsque cela était pertinent, les intervenants ont mis en avant leurs expériences « à l'interface » de ces deux régimes. Ces présentations avaient pour objet de renforcer la sensibilisation des points focaux nationaux aux conséquences pratiques résultant du mode de mise en oeuvre (ou, dans de nombreux cas, de la non application) du PN/CDB et du TI-RPGAA.Ensuite, les « tandems » (regroupant les points focaux nationaux du PN/CDB et du TI-Prière d'envoyer vos commentaires à Michael Halewood, rédacteur correspondant (m.halewood@cgiar.org) 11 RPGAA venant d'un même pays et travaillant en équipe) de quelques pays ont fait part de leurs expériences faites à ce jour dans la mise en oeuvre de ces deux instruments.Ces présentations ont été complétées par celles de la Commission de l'Union africaine et du Secrétariat de la Communauté du Pacifique concernant leurs efforts aux niveaux régionaux pour soutenir la mise en oeuvre de ces deux instruments.Le tableau ainsi dressé, les participants ont ensuite passé un jour et demi à travailler en petits groupes sur des études de cas fictifs (scénarios) mettant en valeur des questions techniques susceptibles de prêter à confusion aux interfaces des stratégies/mécanismes nationaux dans la mise en oeuvre du PN/CDB et du SML/TI-RPGAA. Ces scénarios reposaient sur des questions soulevées dans la littérature appropriée, dans les projets de mise en oeuvre des politiques nationales APA, dans les questions adressées directement aux organisateurs de l'atelier ces dernières années et dans une enquête menée auprès de tous les participants avant la tenue de l'atelier.Le dernier jour de l'atelier, les participants se sont penchés sur des exercices à haute participation pour identifier les bonnes pratiques pour les organismes directeurs responsables de la mise en oeuvre du PN/CDB et du TI-RPGAA afin qu'ils puissent se coordonner non seulement entre eux mais aussi avec les autres parties prenantes qui jouent un rôle important dans le déploiement et la mise en oeuvre au quotidien de ces deux instruments.Même si l'atelier a eu des effets bénéfiques immédiats pour certains participants, l'intention des organisateurs était/est de tenir compte de leur rétroaction lors des sessions participatives afin de développer un jeu de  Dans cette notification, on demandait des informations sur des exemples de mise en oeuvre réussie mais aussi sur les défis que le candidat rencontrait dans son pays et pourquoi il pensait qu'une participation à cet atelier pourrait avoir des effets bénéfiques sur les efforts de mise en oeuvre dans son pays. Les mêmes invitations à manifester leur intérêt ont été envoyées aux points focaux nationaux de pays situés en Asie, en Amérique centrale et en Amérique du Sud et dont nous savions qu'ils étaient en train de traiter des questions similaires. Pour finir, les organisateurs ont reçu plus de demandes qu'il n'y avait de places pour l'atelier, de sorte qu'ils ont du faire des choix difficiles quant aux équipes à inviter et ce, sur la base des intérêts exprimés.Pour que l'atelier puisse répondre aux attentes des participants, les organisateurs ont demandé aux participants de répondre aux questions d'une enquête menée en ligne afin d'obtenir un retour d'informations quant aux défis mais aussi aux succès rencontrés durant la mise en oeuvre, aux mécanismes de coordination, aux facteurs contribuant à l'état actuel de la coordination dans les pays concernés, etc. Les résultats de cette enquête ont servi à développer des études de cas fictifs et à concevoir la nature même de l'atelier. Ces résultats ont été présentés aux participants durant la séance d'ouverture. Les enquêtes ont permis d'élaborer une base de référence qui sera utile par la suite pour suivre l'avancement dans les différents pays la diversité biologique (CDB) et le Secrétariat du Traité international sur les ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (TI-RPGAA). Le rapport sur l'atelier est disponible sur Internet <http://www.abs-initiative.info/629.html> (site accédé le 28 février 2015).concernés. Pour qu'ils arrivent à l'atelier avec le même niveau de connaissance quant aux questions à aborder, les participants ont reçu, un mois avant l'atelier, une documentation préliminaire ainsi que deux documents déjà publiés traitant de questions d'interface. 5 Pour que tous les participants puissent participer à la rencontre de manière équitable, un service d'interprétation français/anglais a été assuré.Le texte qui suit a pour objet de mettre en valeur les contributions individuelles et collectives des participants, qui sont directement reliées à la promotion de la mise en oeuvre du PN/CDB et du SML/TI-RPGAA à l'échelle nationale, sous forme de soutien mutuel. Par manque de temps et d'espace, les présentations ainsi que les discussions qui n'étaient pas directement reliées au thème central de l'atelier n'ont pas été reproduites dans ce rapport, même si elles sont intéressantes en soi. (Pour consulter ces présentations, voir les liens figurant dans l'annexe 3 de ce rapport). De cette manière, nous espérons que ce rapport pourra servir de guide d'usage facile à comprendre aux instances compétentes et ce, dans tous les pays à la recherche d'options pour la mise en oeuvre du PN/CDB et du SML/TI-RPGAA à l'échelle nationale. 5 Parmi les documents envoyés, l'un était celui de Cabrera Medaglia, J, WalløeTvedt, M, Perron-Welch, F, Jørem, A and Phllips, F-K. 2013. L'interaction entre le Protocole de Nagoya sur l'APA et le TI-RPGAA au niveau international : les difficultés pouvant survenir de la complémentarité réciproque dans l'application de ces instruments au niveau national, FNI Report 1/2013 (Lysaker, Norvège : Institut Fridtjof Nansen). Disponible sur <http://www.abs-initiative.info/629.html> (site accédé le 28 février 2015). L'autre était de Halewood, M; Andrieux, E; Crisson, L; Gapusi, JR; Wasswa Mulumba, J; Koffi, EK; Yangzome Dorji, T; Bhatta, MR; Balma, D. 2013 'Mise en oeuvre de façon 'synergique' des mécanismes d'accès et de partage des avantages dans le cadre du Traité sur les ressources phytogénétiques, de la Convention sur la diversité biologique et du Protocole de Nagoya' Law, Environment and Development Journal 9(1) (2013): 68-97 (également disponible sur le même site en français et en espagnol).[disponible sur http://www.lead-journal.org/content/13068.pdf] (site accédé le 28 février 2015).   Présentation par Hannes Dempewolf, Fonds fiduciaire mondial pour la diversité végétale (GCDT) Le Fonds fiduciaire mondial pour la diversité végétale (GCDT) est une organisation internationale indépendante, fondée par la FAO et le GCRAI en 2004. Ce fonds a signé un accord régissant les relations avec l'Organe directeur du TI-RPGAA, accord dans lequel ce fonds est reconnu comme élément essentiel de la stratégie de financement du TI-RPGAA. Le GCDT abrite un fonds de dotation pour assurer à long terme la conservation ex-situ et la disponibilité des collections de RPAA destinées à la sécurité alimentaire. Récemment, le GCDT a soutenu la régénération de 80 000 entrées de RPGAA menacées d'espèces cultivées énumérées dans l'Appendice I, situées dans 78 pays ; 48 000 reproductions de ces entrées régénérées (en provenance de 58 pays) ont été envoyées pour assurer des copies de sauvegarde pour d'autres collections, sachant que celles-ci pourraient être mises ultérieurement à disposition des bénéficiaires au travers du Système multilatéral. Certains pays n'étaient pas membres du TI-RPGAA et il y a beaucoup de pays membres du TI-RPGAA qui n'ont toujours pas mis en place des systèmes pour mettre en oeuvre le Traité. Néanmoins, dans les deux cas, les pays ont exercé leur souveraineté conformément aux lois nationales applicables et ont décidé d'autoriser les bénéficiaires de ces copies de sauvegarde de continuer de les distribuer au travers du Système multilatéral. Pour finir, le respect des procédures phytosanitaires ainsi que les formalités d'importation et d'exportation se sont avérées plus exigeantes que celles qui règlementent les questions APA.Le GCDT soutient actuellement différents pays pour qu'ils collectent des espèces cultivées sauvages figurant dans l'Appendice I, les conservent dans des génothèques nationales et les mettent à disposition pour la recherche et la sélection. Le projet est mené par différentes organisations partenaires nationales qui sont responsables de la collection et de la disponibilité du germoplasme. Le GCDT saisit bien la complexité des problèmes que rencontrent parfois les organisations partenaires lorsqu'elles doivent résoudre des questions de réglementation et donc l'importance de tenir des ateliers tels que celui-ci pour sensibiliser et développer des capacités et des outils, afin de faciliter la tâche des homologues nationaux dans les projets de recherche et de conservation.     Les bénéficiaires de matériels couverts par le Système multilatéral qui les conservent de manière volontaire sont requis de fournir un accès facilité aux dits matériels dans les conditions stipulées dans le TI-RPGAA (soumis à la condition qu'il y ait suffisamment de matériels « en stock » pour pouvoir partager des échantillons, etc.).Vu le nom que porte la partie requérante -Biofuels Solutions Incorporated -le fournisseur, dans le cas présent, devra tenir compte des problèmes abordés dans le cas fictif A.1 concernant les utilisations potentielles des matériels de la part des bénéficiaires.Vous êtes responsable de l'office national des variétés végétales qui a été nommé point de contrôle pour les fins de la stratégie nationale de mise en oeuvre du Protocole    consulter ces rapports publiés par ce comité de manière à avoir quelques orientations quant à ces questions. 17 .Conformément à ces interprétations, le gestionnaire de la génothèque a besoin de tenir compte, pour chaque entrée, sur laquelle il a des doutes pour voir si la génothèque exploitée sous l'autorité d'un gouvernement national ou d'une de ses antennes, a le droit de déterminer comment l'entrée doit être traitée ou si la question doit être adressée à quelqu'un d'autre au niveau de la décision à prendre. Le gestionnaire de la génothèque peut consulter les conditions dans lesquelles les matériels ont été introduits dans la génothèque. Dans la plupart des cas, vu l'histoire et les fonctions des génothèques nationales, il est probable qu'elles auront acquis les matériels à condition qu'elles puissent les gérer et les redistribuer. Cependant s'il y a certaines incertitudes, le gestionnaire de la génothèque devra enquêter dans un esprit d'anticipation pour vérifier qu'il a bien les pouvoirs de fournir cet accès à ces entrées particulières ou de transférer des échantillons de ces entrées particulières.À défaut, certaines génothèques passent parfois des accords pour détenir des matériels dans des conditions dites de « boîtes noires » -c'est-à-dire qu'elles les conservent pour le compte de déposants mais à condition de ne pas les distribuer ou de les utiliser pour leurs propres recherches. Il est clair que de tels matériels ne sont pas « gérées et administrées » par la génothèque au sens du TI-RPGAA. Certains pays ont des régimes APA qui exigent que les collections de RPGAA issues des communautés autochtones et locales soient soumises à des consentements préalables en connaissance de cause (en anglais PIC) et à des conditions convenues d'un commun accord (en anglais MAT) issus des autorités nationales et/ou de la communauté autochtone et locale concernées. Si une RPGAA répertoriée dans la génothèque a été recueillie d'une communauté locale après l'entrée en vigueur d'une telle loi, et que l'accord relatif à la collecte n'inclut pas la permission de transférer le matériel à des tiers, on pourrait penser, une fois de plus, que le gestionnaire de la génothèque/la partie contractante n'administre pas le matériel en question. Ainsi, l'accès à ces matériels nécessiterait tout d'abord une négociation avec ceux qui ont fourni ces matériels à l'origine à la génothèque, conformément aux conventions APA développées sous l'autorité responsable de la mise en oeuvre de la CDB et du Protocole de Nagoya. Le gestionnaire de la génothèque aura besoin de communiquer ce message à celui qui souhaite l'accès et/ou transmettre la requête au fournisseur initial et à l'autorité nationale compétente.Si le gestionnaire de la génothèque constate que le matériel est géré et administré par le gouvernement national, le gestionnaire devra toujours vérifier si ledit matériel est soumis aux droits de propriété intellectuelle (DPI). En revanche, dans une génothèque nationale, le pourcentage de RPGAA soumis aux droits de propriété intellectuelle est généralement relativement faible. En principe, un gestionnaire de génothèque sait si une entrée est soumise à des droits de propriété intellectuelle. Si le gestionnaire a des doutes, il pourra vérifier avec le bureau chargé des variétés végétales ou avec l'office des brevets pour s'en assurer.Pour vérifier le statut des RPGAA vis-à-vis du Système multilatéral, il existe un autre moyen, c'est de consulter les notifications envoyées par le gouvernement au pays de la génothèque à l'Organe directeur du TI-RPGAA concernant les RPGAA du pays incluses dans le Système multilatéral. Alors que de telles notifications ne sont pas forcément mises à jour et n'incluent pas toutes les RPGAA d'un pays qui sont dans le Système multilatéral, le gestionnaire de la génothèque peut se sentir en sécurité lorsqu'il met de tels matériels à disposition dans le cadre de l'ATTM, si la collection ou l'entrée en question est mentionnée dans une telle notification.Concernant F.12 : Ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture non énumérées à l'Appendice I Les parties contractantes au TI-RPGAA ne sont pas obligées de fournir un accès facilité aux matériels non énumérés à l'Appendice I. Elles disposent d'un droit discrétionnaire/légal pour dresser des accords APA en tant que bénéficiaire et fournisseur de tels matériels conformément aux lois nationales destinées à mettre en oeuvre le Protocole de Nagoya. Cependant, il peut y avoir des cas -comme ici dans ce scénario -où il pourrait être logique que ce soit l'autorité compétente qui use de ce pouvoir que lui confère le Protocole de Nagoya pour autoriser le gestionnaire à mettre à disposition les matériels non énumérés à l'Appendice I au travers de l'ATTM. (Ceci suppose que la loi nationale en matière d'APA lui en donne la possibilité, ce qui n'est Prière d'envoyer vos commentaires à Michael Halewood, rédacteur correspondant (m.halewood@cgiar.org) 55 peut-être pas le cas dans tous les pays). Finalement, l'autorité compétente en vertu du Protocole de Nagoya, en tenant compte des informations fournies par le gestionnaire de génothèque, le correspondant TI-RPGAA et autres, aura besoin de décider partiellement sur la base des coûts/avantages, s'il convient de mettre les matériels à disposition dans le cadre de l'ATTM. Y a-t-il des avantages supplémentaires importants dont le pays pourrait profiter dans le contexte du projet au-delà de ceux qui sont déjà encouragés/captés dans la structure globale du projet ? Ces avantages peuvent-ils être captés au travers d'accords APA novateurs pour le transfert de matériel non énuméré à l'Appendice I ? Les coûts de transaction liés au développement de nouveaux accords APA différents pour des matériels non énumérés à l'Appendice I avec des partenaires de recherche risquent-ils d'avoir des effets dissuasifs pour eux ainsi que sur les coûts de transaction sur la génothèque également ? Les demandes d'avantages supplémentaires -allant au-delà de ce qui a été convenu dans le projet -vont-ils décourager les partenaires de recherche ? Les avantages pour le pays qui participera au projet seront-ils plus importants ou moins importants que ceux qu'il obtiendrait avec d'autres accords APA (autres que l'ATTM) ?Une telle analyse pourrait aboutir à conclure qu'il serait judicieux d'utiliser l'ATTM pour des matériels non énumérés à l'Appendice I pour la durée du projet ou pour des projets similaires dans l'avenir. Il y a des pays qui ont décidé d'utiliser l'ATTM à chaque fois qu'ils mettraient à disposition des espèces cultivées et des fourrages non énumérés dans l'Appendice I. Un certain nombre de pays européens ont pris cette décision. Dans notre cas, on supposera que le gestionnaire de la génothèque ne se trouve pas dans cette situation puisque sinon la question ne se poserait pas. Pour l'analyse, on supposera que l'agriculteur réside dans un tel pays. 19 Il en résulte que les trois scénarios sont régis aux lois qui mettent en oeuvre le Protocole de Nagoya.Si, comme beaucoup de pays européens, le pays de l'agriculteur a opté de ne pas mettre en place des systèmes pour les demandes d'accès requérant l'autorisation d'une autorité nationale compétente, les agriculteurs peuvent convenir de fournir les matériels dans les conditions qui leur conviendront (en supposant bien sûr qu'ils détiennent en premier lieu le droit de fournir). Si, au contraire, la loi spécifie que d'autres autorités doivent être impliquées dans le développement et l'approbation d'accords APA, alors l'agriculteur et les demandeurs d'accès dans les trois exemples auront besoin de suivre les procédures connexes. Il est possible que la loi requiert des consentements préalables en connaissance de cause (en anglais PIC) et des conditions convenues d'un commun accord (en anglais MAT) de la part de l'ensemble de la communauté dont fait partie l'agriculteur et non pas de quelques agriculteurs seulement. Si tel est le cas, alors et l'agriculteur et les demandeurs d'accès devront 19 Si de telles RPGAA sont considérées comme étant gérées et administrées par le gouvernement national, alors dans cet exemple les espèces cultivées énumérées dans l'Appendice I (maïs, haricot commun, banane) seraient dans le Système multilatéral et l'accès facilité serait finalement fourni soit par les agriculteurs directement (cf. cas fictif G, point 1) soit par une génothèque dans laquelle ils déposent le matériel (G point 3), ou au-travers de nouvelles collections de conditions in situ (thème déjà abordé dans le cas fictif D). Les demandes de matériels non énumérés à l'Appendice I seraient traitées conformément aux lois nationales/arrêtés associés au PN/CDB.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7. Choisissez un des mots suivants pour décrire le niveau de coordination entre les organismes chargés de la mise en oeuvre nationale de l'ITPGRFA et la CDB/PN:  très faible  faible  suffisante  étroite  très étroite 8. Veuillez brièvement décrire les facteurs qui ont contribué au niveau de coordination que vous avez indiqué à la question 7:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------","tokenCount":"4048"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"262f57f5a4a1040fdefca9180e4713b0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8a7e99d4-d752-4b68-b7c5-d8f538dd3a5d/retrieve","id":"803707482"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"24957286-677c-4700-af80-b8e2b9dff968","pagecount":"1","content":"The Genetic Resources Unit (GRU) of CIAT was established as such in late 1978, and inherited the bean collections from the breeders. In 1978-79, collections of tropical pastures were progressively passed to the GRU for their conservation and study. With world mandates for Phaseolus beans and lowland tropical forages, the GRU conserves mostly as seed collections 35,898 and 23,140 accessions of these crops, respectively (CIAT, 2008). Because germplasm activities -namely distribution -have been on since 1973 (surely on a formal basis since 1980) to date, some analysis of trends is possible.The signing of an agreement in October 1994 between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and CIAT confirms further the curatorship role of GRU. Since 1995, distribution of germplasm to external users has been systematically done under the acceptance of a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA). In 1995-1996 the first designation to FAO (i.e. the sending of an electronic file about all accessions maintained in-trust by CIAT) took place, with subsequent updates every two years since.As per the last update in 2008, GRU has received bean accessions from 111 countries and has distributed 102,447 samples to 103 countries (Figure 1). A total of 76 countries have provided and received bean accessions, in many cases more than twice (Table 1). As well known, bean gene pools originated in the American tropics. Countries like Guatemala has provided Meso-American accessions, and has introduced more Andean accessions to improve traits such as seed size and disease resistances thanks to complementary alleles found in the other region. Table 1 shows the 30 main providers of bean accessions to CIAT.GRU also has received forage accessions from 72 countries, and has distributed 44,263 samples of forage germplasm to 105 countries. A total of 58 countries have been both providers and recipients (Figure 2). Table 2 shows the 30 main providers of forage germplasm to CIAT. As a general observation, neotropical countries have provided legume germplasm to African countries through CIAT GRU, while African countries have provided grass germplasm to South America again through CIAT GRU.    ","tokenCount":"341"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/5459117797.json b/data/part_3/5459117797.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3c79c7e373746f3272b3343248c94bcb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f2664c60-48a4-4ce1-9fec-e24c4f521ce5/retrieve","id":"2070242340"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"83b45d25-5259-412f-803c-29bd339dd119","pagecount":"7","content":"Nepal's agrifood systems remained largely stable with moderately higher year-on-year inflation of 7.5 percent in August 2023 against the target of 6.5 percent. Year-on-year inflation in food prices (8.9 percent) and the depreciation of the Nepali currency against the USD have generally put pressure on consumers.Cereal prices continue to remain high: Annual inflation in cereal grains and their products' prices increased by 13.2 percenta large jumpin August 2023. Such rises in prices may be partially attributed to speculation resulting from global paddy supply challenges followed by India's restrictions on rice exports, worsening the issue of already declining domestic supply in 2022 compared to the previous year. The rising price of cereals will affect poor households who spend a relatively greater share of their budget on cereals.Laborers experienced marginal decline in their real wage rate: Year-on-year growth in wages was 6.7 percent in August 2023, somewhat less than the inflation rate of 7.5 percent. A similar trend was noticed for agricultural laborers for the same period. The lower wage rate compared to inflation can directly hit the daily paid laborers to afford sufficient food.The Consumer Price Index (CPI) of Nepal was projected to be 7.5 percent for August 2023. The increase in year-on-year inflation was the highest in mountain districts with 11.5 percent, whereas the Kathmandu Valley recorded an 8.5 percent increase. In contrast, The CPIs in the midhills and terai districts were less than the national average. The inflation of food and beverages at the national level is higher than non-food items resulting in an increase in food basket cost for poor people.  provinces showed a higher increase of 38.1 percent during the same period (see Annex 1). Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative on 17 th July, as well as subsequent targeting of trade vessels and routes by the military, put upward pressure on the wheat price globally as well as in Nepal. 2 However, in the monthly comparison, a marginal decline in the price of wheat flour can be observed in both national as well as in the western provinces in July 2023.Key messages: Because storage of horticultural products is costly or impossible in much of Nepal, their prices tend to be volatile and varied across provinces. After the bumper production and price collapse of tomatoes in June 2023, the farmers that could access markets and/or store tomato for later sale benefitted from the price surge in July 2023. Further removal of tomato import restrictions by India has benefitted Nepali farmers. As expected, the price of bananas decreased in the Nepali market because of the bulk seasonal production, their perishability, and the difficulty in long-distance transport.Fruits: Year-on-year average prices of apples and oranges increased significantly at the national level and western provinces during July 2023. The highest increases in the prices of apples and oranges by 13.8 and 19.4 percent were observed at national level during July 2023 compared to one year before. However, banana prices declined at both western province and national level during the same period.The price of tomato in Nepal and the western provinces increased by 17.0 percent during July 2023 compared to a year before. Tomato prices surged by 69.8 percent at national level during the month of July 2023 compared to previous month. The sharp increase in the monthly tomato price was result of the price rebound which plummeted by 41.2 percent in June 2023 at national level. In June, media reported that some farmers had allegedly destroyed over tomatoes in the Kalimati Fruits and Vegetables Market in Kathmandu as a sign of protest over not receiving fair prices 3 . Between In the past, Nepali vegetables did not find easy entry into Indian markets on the pretext of various sanitary and phytosanitary barriers. Nepal's lab tests were not recognized by their Indian counterparts and difficulty in accessing the lab facilities close to Indian customs points were identified as main issues in preventing formal export from Nepal. Informal flows of tomatoes from Nepal to India have been noticed amid the shortage on the Indian side 4 . Based on interaction with local traders, about 10-20 tomato trucks were directly exported to India at NPR 250 per kg from Rolpa, Salyan and Rukum districts (i.e., Western region) in the last month when local price was reported to be NPR 180. ","tokenCount":"718"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/5473204594.json b/data/part_3/5473204594.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ff10f5f6aa1a7f10de887f629b75bfb46fcc425b
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fd8ca1b9d6d9a70c836bd3654f6b444a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e6ac762e-f379-4a66-98b3-a267b0e83030/retrieve","id":"-627107745"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cf7856f7-129c-488d-a35b-5db95c966e3e","pagecount":"26","content":"Maíze production ís the maín souree oflívelihood forthe farmers ofthe western hills ofNepaL However, farmers have very límited access to improved varieties nf maize, suítable to theír local reqmr.ments. They cultivat. a number of maize varieties maintained locally tbrough continuous selection forpreferred !raíts. An Írutial survey oftne two project sites in the Gulmi distrlct of westem Nepal suggests that farmers apply a number of criteria to the soleelion of a partícular maize populalíon to suito their productíon environmenl and lO meet Iheir family requirements for difierent uses of maize. However, Ihe survey results show Ihal Ihe differences among farmers in the preference for and seleclion oi a particular maize varjety are no! very s!rong. Tlle repor! discusses the ways these differences have becn analyzed and íncorporated ínto Ihe design of participatory planl breeding for Ihe imprQvement oflocal maíze varieties by lbe farmers.Maize is the firsl mos! important food crop in the hílls ofNepal in terms ofboth area and its eontribution to household food security. It occupies about 0.8 million hectares (about 35% ofthe total cultiva!ed area); 78% ofthis is in terraced hill fanning, which produces over 1.3 million lonnes per annurn (CBS 1999). The productivity of maize, however, is quite low (L 7 lonneslhectare) and, as a result, there lS high incidence offood-deficit households in the hills ofNepa!. One of the major contributing factors lo this low yield is the poor perfonnance of fanner-mamtained maíze varieties. Fanners' access to new seeds and varieties is extremely poor and, al the same time, a majority of farmers tend lO keep their own seed without replacing it for years. It ís estimated that nearly 90% of the total seed requirements for eereals and other food crops in the country is met by the traditional seed-supply system (Cromwell et al. 1993;Joshi 1995). Sinee maíze is an open-pollinated crop, even new varieties rapidly get contaminated with the undesired traits oflocal varieties. On the other hand, most of the new varieties developed so far neither fit well with local environments nor meet farmers' diverse needs. Therefore, it lS increasingly being realized that breeding must be carried out in the target envirournent with the full participation of farmers so that the users' perspective is well reflected in the new varieties developed.-The environments where maíze is produced in the hills ofNepal are very diverse in tenns oftopography, soil types, and use of production resources. There are also differences between fanners and fanning cornmunities in terrns of aecess to resources (Le., wealth) and food culture, whích is govemed largely by ethnicity. These dífferences exist no! only between wider agroecological zones bu! also between fanning famílies in the same víllage. F or these reasons, fanners require a large number of varietal options to fit into diverse production ni ches and to meet the varied consumption reqllÍrements ofthe flrnning families. Simílarly, becallse of differences in gender roles and gender needs, lhere are al50 reqllirement5 for different maíze varietíes within lhe same hOllsehold. Previolls stlldies (Acharya and Bennet 1981;Bajracharya 1994;Shrestha 1998) sllggest lhat women play important roles in agricultural activities and are responsible for major farming decisions. Because of these gender differences, different family members llsually have differenl varietal needs and behave differently toward new crop varieties. The consideration of llsers' and gender perspectives in the process of variety development, therefore, is vital.Local Initiatives for Biodiversity Research and Development (LI-BIRD), in collaboration wilh lhe Systemwide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA), is conducting research on a farmer-Ied participatory maíze-breeding approach tha! incorporales llsers' and gender pcrspectives in dcveloping farmers' preferred maize varieties. The two research siles, namely Darwar Devisthan and Simichallr, are located in the Gulmi district ofthe westem hills ofNepal.Ihis paper draws upon the work and experience of researchers in this collaborative project and dis-CllsseS lhe firidings regarding the analysis ofthis research and its subsequent incorporation into lhe research process.Various sources of ínformatíon have been used in lhe reporto These include focus-group discussions (FGDs) conducted during particípatory rural appraisals, particípatory gender analysis, and household baseline surveys undertaken at the Darwar Devísthan and Simichaur research sites at lhe inceptíon of the project. Separate FGD sessíons were held wilh different groups of furmers, categorized by gender, wealth, and ethnicity. Ihere were two categories under gender-male and female; three categories under wealth-rich, average, and poor; and three categories under ethnicíty-BrahminlChhetri/Jogi (BCJ), GurungIMagarlNewar (GMN), and KamiIDamai/Sarki (KDS). The categorízation of farming-household weallh was done by lhe farmers themselves, using their own perceptions and knowledge of wealth of lhese households. The ethnic categorization was done by researchers on the basis of sociocultural similarities.The participatory gender analysis involved lhe analysis of gender roles and decision-making pattems in lhe production and utilization system for maize. A sample of 30 selected households was facilítated in doing lheir own gender anaIysis by using a pictorial set of aman, woman, and child, and maize grains, to indicate their roles. Similarly, a detailed household baseline survey was conducted to colleet detailed and widely representative information, which al50 served as a major source of information for this reporto It involved a questionnaire survey of 100 households (40 at Darwar Devisthan and 60 at Simichaur) selected using a stratified random sampling technique.Users' perspectives in maize production and utilizationThe perspective of users in maize production and utilization was analyzed u5ing two socioeconomic variables: ethnicity and the weallh categories derived from participatory wealth ranking. The analysis of gender perspectives, on lhe other hand, utilized inforrnation from male-and female-headed sample households lhat were included in lhe household baseline survey. Ofthe total sample households surveyed, 19% were female headed. These are mostly de jacto household heads, Le., women have taken charge of managing the farm while men work off-farm away from home for several months, mostly in India.The characteristics of the heads of maize-growing households are presented in table l. The family members who make major farming deeisions are mature, with an average age of 50 yeara. Their literaey rate is much higher (81 %) compared to the nationalliteracy rate (39.6%). However, a majority ofthem (47%) are either barely literate or have a primary-Ievel school education. The family member making tbe main farming decisions is younger and more iIIiterate in the average and poor wealth eategories, in tbe KDS and GMN ethnie households, and in female-headed households.The charaeteristics of the maize-growing households are presented in table 1. The maize-farming families are relatively larger than nonfarming families, with an average of seven members per faroily. The family size is, however, relatively smaller in the average and poor wea1th categories and in tbe KDS and GMN ethnic households than in other households. Thi, implies that the family labor availabJe to these households is less than in other households. Though farming is the major oceuparion for tbe households of tbe two research sites, fami Iy members of72% ofthe farming households are engaged in off-farm activiries to earn additional cash ¡ncome for the family. The percentage distribution oftbese households across wealth categories and male-and female-headed households is similar. The percentage ofhouseholds with farnily members engaged in off-farm acrivities, however, is slightly higher in the GMN and KDS households than in the BC] households.Maize is the main livelihood crop fo. tbe farmera of the research sites. The maize production in the area is subsistence-oriented and production is largely for self-consumption. The self-produced food, however, is not adequate to mee! household food requirements. About 86% of tbe farming household experiences food deficits from less than one to 1I months of the year, and the average length of food self-sufficiency ís only about seven months. The degree of food deficiency varies among the different household categories. The average time of food self-sufficiency is lower in average and poor households, in BCJ and KDS ethnic households, and in female-headed households. Only a small proportion ofthe households (10.4%) sell maize. The proportion ofhouseholds selling maize is similar across households of different ethnic eategories but is lower in the average and poor households and in male-headed households. A high proportion of the households (61 %) purchase maize to offset theÍf food-grain deficit. The differences in the proportion of households purchasing maize is highJy significant (p < .0001) across'wealth categories but no! significant across ethnic categories and across male-and female-headed households. There is virtually no market influence on farmera' choice ofmaize varieties.In general, farmera are smallholders witb an average maize-growing harí land holding ofO.4 hectare, scattered over an average number of 2.3 parcels (table 1). (Bari represents rainfed upland where amaize-based cropping system is dominant.) The average holding size and tbe number of parcels of barí land decrease with the wealth ofthe farming household. The differences in barí land holdings are highJy significant across wealth categories (p < .0001). Simílarly, the variation in number of parcels of barí land per household is also significant (p < .05) across wealth categories. These differences in harí land holdings and the number of harí parcels per household are not statistically significant across either ethnic categories or male-and female-headed households.  ----------No/e: Elhnicity 1, l'epresented as BCl BrahminlChhetrillogi; GMN = GurunglMag.rlNewar; KDS = KamilDamaílS.rki.Livestock fonns an important and integral part of the fanning system and, among other things, provides a major source of nutrients (Le., manure) for plants. Buffalo, cattle, goats, and chickens are the main kínds oflivestock in the area, wíth an average lívestock unít of2.8 per household. The average livestock unít ís highest among households in the rich and BeJ categories and lowest in poor and KDS households. This difference is significant across wealth (p < .0001) and ethnic (p < .01) categories. Simílarly, the female•headed households have lower livestock units per household than the male-headed households, but this dífference is not statistícaI1y significant. The resource analysis thus indícates that BeJ households have the most resources, followed by GMN households, while KDS households have the fewest resources. Similarly, female-headed households have comparatívely fewer resources than rnale-headed households.The access farmers have to improved maize varieties suitable to local environments and their own needs ís quite límited (table 1). Only 13% ofthe fanners reported growing improved varieties of maize; however, they know the value of changing theír old seeds. Ahout 39% ofthe households reported exchanging their seeds during last five years with other fanners. The users' and gender analysis showed that access to new maíze seeds is similar across al! wealth categories. However, GMN and KDS households have a complete lack of access to new maíze seeds, and a lower proportion of rnale-headed households reported cultívating improved varieties than díd female-headed households. The proportíon of households changing seeds over the last five years, however, ís greater in the poor wealth category, suggesting that farmers in t1ús category change seed more frequently than do the others. Since these households are also híghly food deficit, they may be consuming the seed and, therefore, bOITowing seeds from other farmers. The proportion ofhouseholds changing maize seeds ¡s, however, similar across ethnic categories and between male and female-headed households.Símilarly, fanners' access to teclurical services and inforrnation on technology is also poor. On1y about 3% of the maize-growing households reported participating in agriculture-related training, and on1y 6% participated in educational tours. Likewise, about 15% of the households reported receiving infonnation on improved technology for rnaize production. This reveals that externa! technica! support to farrners in their attempts to develop better maize varieties is quite limited. The proportion ofhouseholds particípatíng in agricultura! training and tours is lower in the average and poor households than in rich households. A chi-square analysis shows significant dífferences (p < .05) in access to infonnation on ímproved technology for maize production across wealth categories. Similarly, on1y BeJ households reported having participated in agricultural training and tours or receiving ínfonnation on improved maize production. The proportíon of ferna!e-headed households particípating in agricultural training and tours and receiving infonnation on improved maize production is lower than male-headed households.Farmers have been found to grow about eight dífferent types ofmaize varieties, which they broadly categorize into two maize types: one is a large type (Thulo makai) with taU plants, big cobs, large grains and long rnaturity, while the other is a srnall type (Sano makai) with short plants, small cobs and grains, and short maturity. A majority ofthe farmers grow large-type maize, and it covers about 87.7% of lhe total maíze area. Among the large varieties, Thulo pyanlo alone covers about 80% of the area planted to this type, which reflects that, although farmers grow a large numberofvarieties, a large portion ofthe maize-growing area is covered by a relatively small number ofvarietíes.A majority ofthe households grow one to two varieties ofmaize (46.5% to 45.5%, respectively) in a season (table 2). Onlyabout 8% ofthe total maize-growing households grow more than tbree varieties per season. The varietal diversity maintained at household level, therefore, is low (figure 1). The ANOVA result shows that the difference in the number of maize varieties grown at household level is significant (p < .05) across wealth categories but not significant across ethnic categories and between male-and female-headed households. A higher proportion of poor households grows one variety of rnaize, compared to rich and average households. This is contrary to !he currently held view that small farmers maintain significant amounts of crop genetic diversity (Jarvis et al. 1997) and agrees with the fmdings of other studies (Rana and Kadayat 1999). Similarly, though no! significant, a very high proportion ofKDS households (90%) grows only one variety of maize.' \" 100% 'tl 90%\"O 80%.c: ., 70%' \" Farmers who grow more tban one variety mentioned various reasons fur this (table2): to prepare different food items, to harvest at different times, to suit dífferent land types, to use as animal feed, and to meet fodder requirements. However, a majority ofthe farmers (67.9%) grow to suit dífferent types of land, and this is true across all wealfu and ethnic categories and between male-and fernale-headed households. Ihe ANOVA result suggests that fue number ofmaíze varieties grown at household leve! is not signifieantly related to the size of the hari land but is highly signifieantly related to the number ofparcels of bari land the farmer is planting to maize (p < .0001). This indicates tbat with the increase in the number of parcels of bari land, the number of maize varieties grown at household level also increases. This also confirms ¡he PRA finding that farmers in the area grow large-type maize on more fertile land while small-type maize is grown on less fertile soil. The number of bari pareels, therefore, appears to be the strongest determining factor in deciding the number of maíze varieties to be grown per season. It is, however, true tbat farmers use multiple eriteria to select maize varieties for their household production.The gender differences in the use of sorne eriteria to choose maize varieties are striking. A large proportion of fernale-headed households (more than tbree times !he number of male-headed households) mentioned growing more than one variety to meet fodder requirernents for their livestock.Ihis is also confirmed by the PRA findíngs. During the focus-group díscussions, women farmers 5.0 3,1 7,0 0.9 13,3Note; Elhnicity is represented as BCi = BrahminlChhelrilJogi; GMN = Gurung/MagarlNewar; KDS = KamiIDam.i!Sarki.strongly expressed their preference for tall varieties ofmaize Iike their local varieties because taller varielies produce more fodder than short varíeties. Women appear 10 be more concemed with this issue because managing livestock fodder is largely theír responsibility. Similarly, women fanners are very particular aboul Ihe suitability of maize varieties for inlercropping, especíally wíth legumes (cowpeas and beans), because these help them meel the vegetable and pulse requirements of their families. The latter sometimes leads to conflicts with their male counterparts because intercropping with cowpeas and beans makes maize plants vulnerable to lodging and can cause big 105ses in the maize yield.Maize is the staple food for fanning households in the study area. Different preparations of maize are made for household consumption, ofwhich steamed grit (makai ka bhat) i5 the mos! common preparation, reported by 77% oftotal production (table 2). Farmers, therefore, prefer maize varíeties thal have high grit recovery. They perceive that ye!low (colored) maize has higher grit recovery and, therefore, prefer colored varieties over the white ones. The food preparation ofmaize is similar across households of different wealth, elhnic, and gender categories, and a majority ofhouseholds use it in grit formo Users' and genderdifferences in the choice ofvariety, Iherefore, do not appear lo be influenced by differences in the use of maize.The analysis díscussed aboye indicates that fanners' choíces for maíze varíeties are not greatly influenced by theír differences in weallh, ethnicity, and gender, Le., different categories of fanners have preferences for similar types of maize varietíes. F anners across all wealth, ethnic, and gender categories grow only one or two maize varieties per household and, therefore, their varíetal needs are not very diverse. However, farmers use multíple criteria ín selectíng the varietíes they grow.They prefer to have as many traits oftheír preference as possíble ín one lo two maize varietíes. InIhis way, they are able to maintaín and manage the variety of their-preference fora long•duration. Since maize ís an open-pollinated crop, a large number of varieties is difficult lo maintain and manage. Thi5 analysis ís also confirmed by the findings of the PRA conducted al the project research siles. The participatory breeding program, therefore, should focus on developing fewer maize varíelies with multíple traits lhat reflect fanners' preferences. Priority should be given lo the maize varieties Ihat have higher grit recovery, grow welI under different land conditions, produce high biomass for use as fodder, and alIow good intercropping with legumes.The informalÍon on gender roles in maize production and utilization is based on a participatory gender analysis done with 30 maize-growing households selected for lhat purpose. The results show that there are distinct gender roles for men, women, and children in the production and utilizalÍon of maize in lhe hilIs ofNepaL Women supersede men in their involvement in all three major functions ofmaize production and utilization: namely, (1) production, (2) household utilization and marketing, and (3) seed managemen! (table 3). Their involvement is particularly high in the application of compost and farmyard manure lo the maize fie1d; seed processing, treatment, storage, and preparation for sowing in the next season; and intercroppíng of maize with beans, cowpeas, pumpkins, and other crops.The results ofthe gender analysis show lhat women are also the prime decision makers in the family and lheir contribution to decision making in actívities related to maize production and utilization is higher than that their male counterparts in the fumily (table 4). Their contribution to decisions is particularly high in the selection of crops fOT intercropping with maize, deciding on date and time of weeding and earthing-up in the maize fields, and in most ofthe activities relaled lo utilizatíon and marketing and seed management The gender analysis thus suggests that women have important roles and a stake in the varietal-improvement programs designed to develop farmers' preferred varieties. Their particípation in the whole process of variety development should be ensured and properly utilized.Particípatoryplant breeding seeks to use the knowledge and experiences farmers have accwnulated over generations. It al so creates an environment for mutual learning and sharing, which closes the knowledge gap and sets the stage for a working partnership between the farmers and researchers.al Users' and Gender Perspective in Farm Quantity 01 grilslflour lo be milled al a limeWhen lo carry maíze grains lo the mili (tor milling)Food ítems lo be cooked daily 5. Whelher lo sale maize or nolQuantity 01 maize grains to sold 7. Facilitating and supporting farmers in their plant-hreeding activities then becomes easy and smooth. Based on this understanding, farmers' breeding knowledge was assessed by surveying a sample of 113 households selected randomly. An analysis of the influence of gender, wealth, and ethnicity on the distribution of such knowledge was also done and ís presented in table 5.Ibe majority ofthe households (more than 90%) separate seed and graín in advance, but the seed selection is almost entírely done from the cobs, and generally righ! after the barvest Farmers virtually do no! practice seed selection on standing crops. Ibe majority of the households select big, good-Iooking cobs with big, bold grains for seed. Similarly, almos! all farmers follow tbe practice of discarding grains on the tips ofthe cob when the cobs are shelled for seed. Only about a quarter of the farmers are knowledgeable about the role ofseed replacement in maintaining varietal purity and vigor. Farmers' knowledge on the more technical side ofbreeding, such as identification ofmale  ----------------. -------------------------1----Weallh .alellori ., On standing ClOp 0,1 10,0 0,0 0,0 1,0 0,0 0,0 1,0 0,0 No/e: Ethnicíty is represeoled as BeJ = BrahminlChhetri/Jogi; GMN = Guruog/Magar/Newar; KDS = Kami/DamaiISarki, lncorparation al Users' and Gender_FerspecthJe in Fan and femate plants and theír functions, was found te be very pOOL Similarly, a majority ofthe farmers also do not know the actual mechanism tha! causes new maize varieties to rapidly deteriorate, compared to other cereal crops like rice and wheat. The survey thus revealed that there is good scope and a need for sharing scientífic breedíng knowledge prior to the inception of a partícipatory plant breedíng program in order to enhance farmers' confidenee and thereby inerease theír ínterest and participation,The project on fanner-Ied participatory plant breeding of maize has just completed one season of work. A number of consíderations have be en made, as suggested by the analysis of the users' and genderperspeetive ofmaize produetion and utilization. These are briefly discussed below.The breeding objective has been redefined to ímprove the production performance of a widely grown maíze variety, Thulo pyanlo, rather than creating a large díversity of maize varieties in order to improve the productivity ofthe niche envíronment. This variety has all the traits preferred by the farmers except one, i.e., lodging resistance, Reducing lodging in this variety is now the maín objective of the breeding program. In addition, the selection of improved maize varieties to be used as one ofthe parents for crossing with Thulo pyanlo was done in a way that ensured that they met most ofthe farmers' preferences for different traits, These included relatively taller, stout plant varieties like Ganesh I and 2, Rampur composit, Rampur 1, Khumal yellow, and Pop 22. This would help to combine good traits from a large number of varieties into a few fanners' preferred maize varieties. At the same time, attention has also been gíven to meeting the specific needs of the niche environment through a participatory variety-selection program, which provides farmers with a choice from a large number of maize varieties.Farmers have fonned their own research cornmíttee at both the research sites to ensure their partieipation in and influence on the ｾ ･ ｳ ･ ｡ ｲ ｣ ｨ ＠ process, These research cornmittees are well represented by different categories offarmers and 41% ofits members are women, The Farmers' Research Committee. in consultation with the farmers at large, decide the breeding objectives and the research process. They also select research farmers to participate in the farmer-led maize breeding prograrns implemented at the research sites, Since farmers themselves select research farmers, it is envísaged that this wílllead to the development of maize varieties preferred by a large number of fanners. Similarly, under participalory variety-selection program, care is taken to distribute the seed of new maize varieties to different categories of frmners.Based on the findings ofthe survey on the distribution of maize-breeding knowledge among farmers, field-based training was provided lo the research farmers in order lo supplement farmers' knowledge with practical scientific breeding knowledge, Attentíon was given to representation of different categories of farmers, inc\\uding women. Forty-five percent of the total trainees were women. This consideration will also be made in future farmers' training programs.The initial survey indicated that farmers use multiple eritería for the selection of a particular maize variety. Farmers may give different weights to these eritería to suite their individual needs and resources. Wíth this in mind, the colleetion and analysis of users' and gender-differentiated data have been built into the research process to ensure Ihat users' and gender perspectives are incorporated into the partícipatory breedíng programo Data are collected in a form that allows users' and gender-differentiated data to be anaIyzed, which will facilitate the drawing of inferences about whether users' and gender differences make a significant difference in the process and product of participatory plant breeding in open-pollinated crops like maize.The users' and gender analysis indicates tha! the differences among maize-growing households in regard to wealth, ethnicity, and gender do not have any significant influence on their choices for dífferent maize varieties. Similarly, farmers across aH wealth, ethnic, and gender categories grow only one 10 two maize varieties per household; therefore, their varietal needs are not very diverse. This is contradictory to what has been found in the case of self-pollínated crops. This appears to be largely because a large number of varieties is díffieult to maintain and manage in open-pollinated crops like maize. Farmers, however, use multiple cnterí,a in selecting the maize varieties they grow and prefer to have as many traits oftheÍr preference as possible in one to two varieties. It is, therefore, important for the particípatory breeding program to focus on developing fewer maize varieties with tbe multiple traits that farmers prefer. Women farmers have strong preferences about the quantity and qualíty of the fodder by-products of maíze and the suitability of new maize varíeties for intercropping with legumes. The research process should allow farmers of different categoríes to use their eritería in developing and selecting new maize vaneties, Farmers of a!l categories generally lack adequate practical breeding knowledge, and they are specifieally poor in scientific reasoníng, regardless of whatever breedíng knowledge they have. Supplementing farmers' knowledge with practica! scientific breeding knowledge is, therefore, necessary to empower farmers to sustain theÍr breedíng ínítiatives. Rice is the principal crop grown during the wet season (June-October) and i5 the staple food in Madhya Pradesh, eastero India. In this regíon, rice is cultivated on 5.35 million hectares, wíth an annual production of 6.46 millíon tons. This state contributes 9% to the national production from 12.8% of ¡he national acreage. Eastem Madhya Pradesh, k:nown as Chhattisgarh 18 considered the rice bowl ofthe state. Ofthe total rice area, 80% is rainfed, and drought, which occurs every two years, i5 a major constraint ín íncreasing rice productívity in the regíon. The rice yield in the regíon ís low (abon! 2.3 tons per hectare) and ís below the national average. Because of the frequent droughts, the majority offarmers are not willing to risk investíng in farm inputs to inerease productívity. Sustainabílity and yield stabilíty are the most important considerations of farmers in the management of their farming systems. Rural poverty still persísts in this regíon, and about one-thírd of the total poor in Madhya Pradesh depend on rice production as the basic source of Iivelihood. Thel'efore, improving rice pl'oduction and productivity could directIy lead to a substantial reduction in the rural poverty in the regíon (Janiah et al. 20(0).F or the last four decades, a total of 512 modero rice varieties have been released in Indía. Howevel', hardly 10 to 20 ofthe released varieties are in the seed-productíon channel. For example, the average age of cultivars for which there i5 a demand fol' breeder seed is 11 years. The average age of cultivars in certified seed production ranges fiom 12 to 17 years in the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan (Virk, Packwood, and Witcombe 1996). Only a few modero varieties have been successfu11y adopted in the irrigated ecosystem. One of the main reasons for low adoption of released varieties in the rainfed environments is lhat farmers have inadequate exposure to new cultivars. If adoption rates are to be improved, farmers need to try a wide range of novel cultivars in their fields in partícipatory varietal-selection (PVS) programs. The cultívars should include prereleased cultivars, advanced hnes, and already released cultivars from other regíons or countries (Whitcombe et al. 1996). This would give farmers a 'basket of choices' of varied genetic material (Chambers 1989). Another reason for low adoption of modern varietíes is that the breeding process does not meet fanners' diverse needs. Released rice varieties are not suited to the complex and heterogeneous rainfed agroecologícal environment or to the diverse uses and needs of dífferent socioeconomíc groups of fanners. In Uttar Pradesh, India, Maurya et al. (1988) tested advanced Hnes of rice in villages and successfully identified superior material that was preferred by fanners. Understanding farmers' preferences and needs is crucial for successful adoption and dissemination of improved rice cultivars.In 1997, a fanner participatory breeding projecl was initiated at the Intemational Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and conducted in castem India (Courtois et al. 2000). This is a collaborative project among plant breeders and social scientists from IRRI and six national agricultural research institutions located in eastern India. The Indira Oandhi Agricultural University (IOAU) in Raípur, Madhya Pradesh, is one of Ihe collaborating cenlers. The main objeclives for pursuing fanner participation in plant breeding are as follows:• lo test the hypothesis that farmer participation in raínfed rice breeding can help develop suílable varieties more efficiently• to identify stages along the breeding process where faImers' participation has the most impact and to develop and test a methodology for effectively involving fanners in the breedíng program• 10 improve understanding of male and female criteria for selecting specific rice varieties• to differentiate between the influence of fanner participation and decentralizatíon of the breedíng program• to develop rice varietíes suítable for heterogeneous rainfed environments and which meet fanners' preferences Thís paper focuses on methúdologies for improvíng our understanding of fanners' (including women farmers') criteria for seleeting specífic rice varieties and how these eriteria were considered in participatory breeding strategies for rainfed lowland conditions in Madhya Pradesh, eastem India.This study ís based on a sample survey of75 rice-fanning households in Ihree villages oflhe Raipur district, Madhya Pradesh. Surveys were conducted to characterize fanners' cropping/fanning systeros, rice varietal diversity, degree of market orientation, gender roles, as well as soeioeconomic differences, and lo relate these to farmers' rice varietal preferences. Farmers were interviewed in regard lo the positive and negative attributes of the traditional and improved varieties they grow and other seed-related information. A method of particípatory weighted ranking was uscd to elicit male and female farmers' eritena for selecting rice varielies accordíng to specific land elevations and information on how they trade offbetween traits. Basic informatíon (name, age, sex, caste, size oflandholding, elevation ofrice plots, etc.) was colIected from male and female heads ofseparate households who are actively involved in rice farming. Twenty cards that iIIustrate traits of rice cultivars were shown and explained to lhe farmers. Referring to a particular land elevation (upland, for example), each farmer was asked what traits he/she considered when selecting rice varieties for lha! elevatíon. The traits that the farmer did not consider important were discarded. Wilh lhe remaining cards representing the chosen traits, the farmer was lhen asked how much weight he/she gave to each trait out of 16 ana (16 ana= 100 paise, 100 paise = 1 Rs). F or this process, a total of 16 pieces of stone were provided to the respondent to assign the weights according to hislher choice. An average weight was then computed by getting the sum of all lhe values assigned per trait, divided by lhe number of respondents, afier which lhe proportion of each trait to all traits was calculated. This melhodology in eliciting farmers' perceptíons also provides room for trading off between traits (Sharma el aL 1998; Paris et aL 1999)F armer participatory approaches for lhe identification or breeding of improved crop cultivars can be usefully categorized into participatory varietal selection (PVS) and participatory plant breeding (PPB). PVS is a more rapid and cost-effective way ofidentifying farmer-preferred cultivars, if a suitable choice of cultivars exists. A successful PVS program has four phases: (1) a means ofidentifying farmers' needs in a cultivar, (2) a search for suitable material to test with farmers, (3) experimentatíon on its acceptability in farmers' fields, and (4) wider dissemination of farmer-preferred cultivars (Whitcombe et al. 1996). In all ofthese phases, understanding farmers' local knowledge, perceptions, and criteria for varietal selection ís important in ímprovíng rice varieties for rainfed ecosystems.Two approaches were used to strengthen farmers' involvement in the project: (1) farmers were invited to lhe research statiDn to view a broad range of genetic materials, and (2) farmers were asked to grow a set of diverse materials in their own fields using their own level of management and inputs. Two farmers in each village volunteered to evaluate 16 rice genotypes on lheir fields using lheir own labor and level of management. Two sets of medium-duration rice genotypes were planted in two farmers' fields in Tarpongi, which has comparatively lighter soils. One set each of late-duratíon varieties was planted in Saguni and Khairknt villages, which have heavy-textured soíls. The set of rice genotypes include prereleased genotypes (F7-F8), advanced lines from lhe Shuttle Breeding Project, and a local check. During specific phenotypic stages of rice production, farmers and plant breeders, using a visual melhod, evaluated and ranked the same set ofrice genotypes on lhe station and on farmers' fields. Kendall' s coefficient of agreement was used to measure the agreement among farmers, among plant breeders, and between farmers and breeders. Farmers recorded lhe reasons for their ranking in lheir diaries. This was done for consecutive years from 1997 to 1999. In 2000, lhe number ofrice genotypes was reduced to five choices (plant breeder, farmer, one common, and a local check). These genotypes will be evaluated before harvesting, bolh at lhe station and on farmers' fields by pIant breeders and farmers.Characteristics 01 the research sites and the larm households This research is being conducted in three villages in lhe Raipur district located on lhe Chhattisgarh plains ofMadhya Pradesh. On lhe Chhatisgarh plains, rice is grown mostly in the lowlands in a drought-prone ecosystem. Drought is a major climatic constraint for rice crops in lhis region. The general c1ímate of the region is dry sub-humíd, where annual potential evapotranspirationallosses are higher than the annual raínfall, whích is about \\300 mm. Over 90% ofthe rainfall is reeeived during the period from June to October. The monsoon sets in by 15 June and withdraws around 15 September. Winter conditions set in by mid-November, when the average minimum temperature reaches around ¡5°C. Hence, the rice erop should mature before this time. Sometimes winter conditíons set in early-by the thírd week ofOetober--and thís results in íncreased sterilíty and, thereby, low productivity. Under such fragíle eondítions, the identificatíon of suitable genotypes should be based both on climatic and edaphíc eharacteristies (IRRI-IGAU 2000).The research sites are located in tbree villages: Tarpongi, Saguní, and Khairkut in the Raipur distriet. Tarpongi is 29 km in the north of Raipur; Saguni and Kharkut are 5 km to the west of Tarpongí. These villages are located within 50 km ofIGAU. There are 200 to 250 households in each village. More than 90% ofthe farming households in these villages belong to the other backward caste with small and margínallandholdings (owning less than a hectare), ofwhich the majority are Hindus. Male heads of households have an average of four years in school, while the majority of the women have lower levels of education and did not go to schooL AH ofthe farmers interviewed owned their own land. In eaeh village, 25 farmers were interviewed with regards to their fanníng and eropping systems, rice díversíty, and their eriteria for varietal selection. The survey was conducted in 1997 and 1998.The areas for rice production in these representatíve villages are heterogeneous. Farmers in these villages classify their land according to the topography/slope, such as upland, midland, and lowland. The light so¡ls in the uplands are cIassified by farmers as bhata (entisols), while the sandy loam in the midlands are referred to matasi (ínceptisols). The heavy-textured soils in the lowlands are referred to as kanhar (vertisols). Most of the drought-prone areas have light-textured soíls, whereas the more favorable arcas have heavy-structured soils. Tarpongí has líght-textured soils while the other two villages have heavy-structured soils. The length of the rice-growing season is primarily dependen! on moisture availabilíty, whích ís dependent on slope and soiJ type.Rice ís grown mainly in the rainy season (kharif) in a biasi system. Land preparatíon is done by bulJocks and rice is dry-seeded at the beginning ofthe rainy season in June. When enough rain has accumulated in the field, 25-to 30-day-old seedlin[s are wet-plowed, laddered, and redistributed. This traditional practice, ca1led beushening or biasi, is common in many rainfed areas of eastem India, particularly in Madhya Pradesh. Farmers continue tms practice with the beliefthat ít helps to control weeds and stímulate root growth (Fujísaka el aL 1993;Singh, Singh, and Singh 1994).Farmers grow purple-colored rice varieties as a strategy to identífy and eradicate wild rice (which is prevalent in this region) at an early stage of crop growth.F amily members provide the major source oflabor for rice cultivation. While maJe family members do most of the land preparatíon, rice broadeasting, and applícation of chemicals, females are predominantly responsible for weeding, applying farmyard manure, harvesting, threshing by band, winnowing, and managing seeds for storage. Seed selectíon ís done by both husband and wífe.Other post-harvest activities, such sun drying, dehusking, and parboiling are exclusively done by women. Caring for livestock and, consequently, daiJy collection of green fodder for the livestock is done mostly by women (Sharma et aL 1997). Thus, women's criteria for rice varietal choices may be influenced by their roles and responsibilíties in farming and their social and relígíous obligations, and may differ from those ofmen. The majority ofthe farmers obtain new seeds from their neighbors and from extension workers. Only 24% obtain new seeds from IGAU. This indicates a lack of awareness among farmers about the new technologies developed at the university. Weeds are prevalen! in farmers' fields, and roguing the rice fields to protect the purity of seeds is not cornmonly practiced ín these villages. Rice mixtures and weed seeds are commonly found in the seed stocked for the next season.The cropping intensity in these villages is low because ofthe lack of supplementary irrigation water during the rabi season. The cropping systems in the villages are rice-fallow, rice-lathyrus, or rice-chíckpea (table 1). The chickpea and lathyrus crops are grown as relay crops (locally called utera in rice).  A high díversity ofrice varíeties exists in these villages. The names of the varíeties grown by farmers in these villages are shown in table 2. Ofthe total area grown to rice in the lowlands ofTarpongi, 73% is grown with traditional varieties, while the rest (27%) has modem varíeties. Twenty years ago, there were about 20 traditional varíeties; however, this number has declined. In contrast, in the uplands of Saguni and Kharkut, the adoption of modem varíeties is slightly higher than thethe adoption of traditional ones. Traditional varíeties such as Safri-17 and Chepti gurmatia are popular in the lowlands. The main reason for adoption of traditional varieties in the lowlands with heavy soíls is because aH the traditional varíeties are tall and can sustain even late biasi operations.According to the rainfall pattem and soíl types of Chhattisgarh, farmers grow varieties according to the land elevation, hydrology, and soils. Rice varieties with a growth duration ofless than 110 days are grown on the upper (undulating) portion ofuplands with loamy to sandy Boíl bhata (entisols). Rice varíeties with a growth duratíon of 110 to 130 days are allocated mainly to the midland (gently undulating) sandy loam matasi (inceptisols). Varieties with a growth duration ofup to 140 days are best suited for light soils, such as those found in Tarpongi village. Late-maturing varíeties (140 to 155 days) are ideal for low-lying, heavy-textured dorasa andkanhar soil types, such as those found in Saguni and Khairkut. Crops are grown chronologically wífu fue lowland fields planted first and the upland helds planted last. Lowland fields are submergence-prone and need to be sown early so fuat seedlings are already establíshed before fue fields are flooded.Afier identifyíng the modern and traditional varieties fanners grew, questions were asked about positive and negative attributes. These questions were open-ended and no attempt was made to ¡mpose a priori categories of answers, Table 3 shows the list of positive traits of popular traditional varieties such as Safrí-17 (late duratíon) and Chepti gurmatia (medium duration). Alfuough fuese traditíonal varieties have !ower yields, fanners prefer fuem because of fueir combined positíve  .lI\"'q;::ua:::n.::I\"'IIy<-_____ -'-_Mahamaya was only released in 1997. Both Swarna and Mahamaya were released for irrigated rice ecosystems, but because oftheir perceived ability to tolerate drought and theÍr high market demand by traders, these two varieties have become ver)' popular, Millers and traders prefer Mahamaya for making beaten rice and puffed rice. Poor farmers and agriculturallabarers who are paid in terms af rice prefer Mahamaya because they feel that it satisfies their hunger. Mahamaya has bold, coarse grains that they believe last longer in the stomach. F armers also prefer Swama for basi (Ieftover rice from dínner, dipped in water with a little salt and eaten the following day for breakfast or lunch).Despite the active involvement of women in rice production, post-harvest, and seed-management activities, scientists, who are mastly men, aften talk with male farmers only. Ignoring women's knowledge and preferences for rice varieties may be an obstacle lo adoption of improved varieties, particularly in areas with gender-specific tasks and in farm aetivities where women have considerable influence. Far example, a released variety such as Pant-4 is high yielding but is rejected by wamen farmers because it is difficult to thresh by hand. In contrast, traditional varieties that are low yielders are still grown because of their desirable taste and their eating and cooking qualities that make them well-suited forrice produets that women prepare. Knowing men's and women's eriteria in rice varietal selection and access to and control of new seeds, information, etc., willlead lo more efficient dissemination ofimproved rice varieties for rainfed conditions and their subsequent adoption. Thus, in 1998, a team of scientists from the Directorate of Extension, ¡GAU, conducted focused research in the same villages. Our objeetive was to test and develop a methodology for eliciting male and fernale farmers' eriteria and to determine whether there are gender differences in these criteria in rice varietal choice.The majority of the women farmers are illiterate and are less exposed to household surveys; therefore, we used a simple participatory method of elicíting their perceptions regarding the useful traits they consider when selecting rice varieties. Men and women were separately involved in this activity. This method, which is like a game of cards (see methodology section), gave the farmers more time to think as weil as to elljoy the process. Tables 5 to 7 show the important traits thatmale and female farmers eonsider when selectíng rice varieties according lo land elevation and size of landholdíng. The results show that grain yield was the most important eriterion for both men and women farmers in selecting rice varieties for allland types and sizes oflandholding. Both men and women gave more value to eating quality (laste) and durationlmarurity for rice varieties grown on upland fields. However, women were more concemed with market price, drought tolerance, pes! and insect resistance, and competítiveness to weeds. On the other hand, men gave more importance to graín size and shape than women did. For midland conditions, women gave higher values lo eating quality and market price, while men gave more importance lo duration and marurity. For lowlands, eating quality and market price were considerations for both men and women. Women consistently gave higher values to the multiple use of straw for varieties grown in allland types.We also assessed whether there were differences in eriteria between men and women from marginal and large farms. Table 6 shows that there is not much difference between the eriteria across size oflandholdíng. Both men and women wíth large farms gave the highest value lo grain yield. Aside from grain yield, both men and women from the same economic category gave more importance to eatíng quality and market price. Duratíonlmarurity was more importan! to male farmers from large farrns than to women ofthe same category, similar to marginal farmers. Women from both large and small farms gave a higher value lo the multiple use of straw than men did.In summary, the most importan! traits tha! both men and women value in selecting rice varieties are grain yield, eatíng quality (taste), marke! price, durationlmarurity, drought tolerance, and resistance to pests and diseases. Women placed higher weights on multiple uses of straw aeross allland types and for both large and small landholdings. Men did not consider this as important, obvíously because women are more responsible than men in caring for the livestock. Rice straw is used as feed for the livestock and also mixed with cowdung to make a cake for household fue!. Thus, women consider both grain yield and rice biomass in selecting rice varieties according to their specific environments. A rice variety that has high grain yields but low quantity and quality of rice straw has a lower chance of adoption by women farmers. Men gave more importance to grain size and shape for varieties grown on the uplands. Men owning smaIl farms considered adaptation ofthe variety to specific soil conditions as being extremely important (second to yield) but were the only group to rank this highly. This may be because poorer farmers cultivate more marginalland (explaining the need for adaptation ofthe variety to soil type). Women did not rank this characteristic highly, probably because oftheir role in production (men tend to choose the varieties and cIear the land).LogicaIly, drought tolerance was more important for upland and midland areas than for lowland areas. Women weighted this more highly than meno While the participatory ranking method was use fui in assessing the trade-offs between traits valued by farmers, this method could be improved by incIuding traits mentioned in the open-ended","tokenCount":"7631"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"30c7eeb37c73353641c7560d6eb1681d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/80c966c6-bfc8-4249-adb2-9d7b9545d3ad/retrieve","id":"1597500962"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8d87f370-ca2a-48cd-8ba9-ed1f4ea9cd84","pagecount":"26","content":"Phaseolus dumosus Macfady. Zea mays subsp. parviglumis Capsicum annuum var. gabriusculum Acervo genético 1 silvestres cultivadas AG 2✓ la mejora es un proceso cumulativo, por ciclos que duran ~ 10 años, se intenta acortarlos ✓ se usó primero variedades tradicionales más cercanas, material lejano si necesario 3/26 ✓ la selección asistida por marcadores y el mapeo genómico comparativo cambian la visión de RFGAA El concepto de acervos genéticos pero hay que volver para examinar y saber cuál especie de Zea es maicillo (Chihuahua), maíz de coyote (Michoacán), maíz de pájaro (Guerrero), milpilla (Jalisco) milpilla de rata (Jalisco), teocinte (Guatemala), teosinte (Jutiapa), teosinto (Chinandega)12/26La clasificación de la UICN• al inicio, muy pocas poblaciones y distribución pequeña → deficiencia en datos• pero área pequeña + alguna amenaza → principio de precaución → NTR o VUL Hacia los criterios de la UICN (1) [preocupación = extinción = pérdida de opciones para sociedades humanas, en el tiempo]El riesgo de extinción se concreta cuando muerte de individuos es >>> nascimiento de individuos → UICN se interesa a tamaño de poblaciones (número de individuos con capacidad reproductiva) Hacia los criterios de la UICN (2) -Plantas• la degradación del Hábitat (hasta su remplazo por otro) El riesgo de extinción aumenta con . . .• la introducción de plantas invasoras• la modificación severa de relaciones entre especies (p.ej. desaparición de especie 'clave')[preocupación = identificación de factores de riesgo, para eliminarlos/ minimizarlos]• según los tipos de formas de vida y sistemas reproductivos 15/26 Lecturas adicionales: Lande 1999, Mace et al. 2008, Keith et al. 2017, IUCN 2004, 2022 plantas de larga vida (e.g. Bambusoideae) más vulnerables que herbáceas anuales (e.g. Taraxacum)árboles con semilla recalcitrante (e.g. Persea) más vulnerables que ortodoxas (e.g. Delonix)• la imposibilidad de constituir un banco de semillas en el suelo• la introducción de un factor mayor como el fuego donde la flora ha sido poco/ jamás expuesta • los riesgos \"recientes\" antropogénicos tales como la contaminación y las altas temperaturas Los criterios de la UICN (3) -Plantas fuentes: IUCN 2012, 2022, Mace et al. 2008, Murray et al. 2017 El número de todas las poblaciones de una especie (= metapoblación) se reduce A.problema de definir una línea base, ¿es el requisito de 10 hasta 100 años realista/ factible? El área total donde una especie ocurre es pequeña y se está reduciendoriesgos de extinción ligados a áreas pequeñas (sequía, fuego) área donde efectivamente está presente es medida por 2 variables: EOO y AOO el riesgo de extinción se evalua contra una escala de tiempo (5, 10, 20 años) El análisis cuantitativo de riesgos es desfavorable E. Observaciones finales el fitomejoramiento (10 años) y la gestión de RFGAA (50 años+) tienen marcos de tiempo diferentes los productos del fitomejoramiento podrían probablemente repetirse, los RFGAA no, son únicos los métodos y tecnologías del fitomejoramiento cambian, pero seguirán necesitando la variación para Zea y Phaseolus (¡comida centroamericana!) en 2023 aún no sabemos cuántas especies tienen aunque, y pese a las adversidades, después de 2000, los botánicos aportaron más de 1/3 para ambos para Zea y Phaseolus las últimas especies encontradas tienen un rango limitado (¿< 200 km 2 ?) y probablemente lo tendrán: las especies comunes/ extendidas ya fueron encontradas (1750-1880) nos dirá esto, para ambos géneros, las futuras especies se encontrarán sólo gracias al trabajo de campo porque probablemente la compilación de todas las colecciones jamás encontradas tardará años y para ambos géneros las futuras especies tendrán probabilidad de caer en VUL, END, CR de la UICN desde allí el papel de los bancos de germoplasma: conocimiento y conservación","tokenCount":"590"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"12040752f31c006902616af7b68a32de","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7f5eb477-dda7-46da-8df7-3ed45a89b97c/retrieve","id":"-1237995664"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8450b71c-f7ab-4aa9-af51-e19fa0ab7826","pagecount":"34","content":"The Board of the CGIAR System Organization took a decision in October 2019 to move to One CGIAR as a more integrated vision for CGIAR stakeholders, while maintaining the legal personality of each of CGIAR's legal entities, including the CGIAR System Organization. As one of five key pillars of One CGIAR, 11 1 of CGIAR's Centers and Alliances adopted unified governance from October 2020, whereby their respective Boards of Trustees/Governing Boards appointed the same eight voting members of the CGIAR System Board to their boards. Following these decisions, those members represent a two-thirds majority of voting membership on each Center/Alliance Board. In their respective roles on Center/Alliance Boards, each member serves in their personal capacity and not as a representative of the CGIAR System Board or any other body. CGIAR obtained an external Legal Opinion on Delivering Unified Governance under One CGIAR from Lalive Law, which advised, inter alia, that 'the 2/3rd common voting membership across the Centers' Boards would maintain decisional and executive organs within each Center; it has no bearing on Centers' autonomy and independence from a legal standpoint, i.e. in terms of their legal personality and statutory organs.'In its 50 th year, CGIAR reflected on how achievements from the past five decades can inform future contributions to some of today's most pressing challenges. An impressive collection of innovations since CGIAR's inception showcases how CGIAR has delivered impact over the years, and how these constitute a solid foundation for CGIAR's new portfolio. CGIAR's portfolio was set out in the System Board-recommended 2022-2024 Investment Prospectus, which was approved by the System Council in June 2021. The prospectus outlines 33 new Initiatives that will deliver the CGIAR 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy. The Initiatives are a set of promising areas of investment that are aligned with CGIAR's Action Areas -systems transformation, resilient agrifood systems and genetic innovation -which are set to address important nutrition, health, equality, climate and environmental challenges.In December 2021, the System Council approved the first group of 19 CGIAR Initiatives to launch from January 2022 and the 2022-2024 Portfolio and Designated Financing Plan (\"FINPLAN\"). The FINPLAN sets out a three-year outlook financing plan to deliver the strategy through pooled funding over 2022 to 2024. It is an essential component of the first integrated CGIAR budget.Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the targets set out in the 2021 CGIAR Research Financing Plan were fully achieved. This demonstration of confidence in CGIAR and the transition to operating as One CGIAR among its Funders was further evidenced by funding pledges of more than US$1 billion made during the year. Substantial pledges were made by funders at COP26, including a pledge by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of USD 315 million for the next three years, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) of USD 215 million for the next five years. A significant pledge of USD 256 million was also made by the European Commission, the Netherlands and Belgium at the Global Citizen Live event in September. Another significant step in the transition toward One CGIAR in 2021 was the endorsement by the System Council of a new operational structure encompassing research delivery and impact, global engagement and innovation, and institutional strategy and systems. Managerial appointments for the functioning of this operational structure were made, with Global, Regional, and Science Group Directors appointed throughout the year.The COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately continued unabated in 2021, with ongoing health, economic and food system impacts and implications. CGIAR continued to inform science-driven responses to the pandemic, and its interrelated causes and impacts, for stakeholders in many low-and middleincome countries through research and activities conducted by CGIAR Research Centers, with partners, and through coordination by the CGIAR COVID-19 Hub.The structure and resources of the CGIAR System Organization were strategically utilized throughout 2021 to support the transition toward One CGIAR, including the hiring of One CGIAR Global Directors and consultants, which led to the increase of nearly 50% in transition-related expenses in 2021. This trend will continue in 2022 as other key One CGIAR senior roles are recruited.The Board recognizes the compassion, commitment and resourcefulness of our staff during the period of adversity that we have gone through. Our unique mix of dedicated and passionate people is the drive to continue advancing CGIAR's vision and mission for a more impactful CGIAR as the new portfolio of Initiatives begin their important work in 2022. Our approach to risk CGIAR recognizes that taking and managing risks is an integral part of delivering on its strategy and that effective risk management is critical to its success and key element of good governance. The CGIAR System Organization, being one constituent part of the CGIAR System, cannot deliver on its mission without collective awareness of the evolving risks faced as opportunities are pursued.The CGIAR System Board has the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the CGIAR System Organization has in place appropriate risk management and internal control systems and practices, and for determining the nature and extent of risk it is willing to take for the organization to achieve its strategic objectives. The schedule of periodic System Board meetings ensures that timely information on risk is provided for the System Board to discharge its responsibilities.Based on the CGIAR System Risk Management Framework, the CGIAR System Organization collaborates on risk management across CGIAR according to the following principles.In 2021, CGIAR System Organization continued to take actions to strengthen risk management capabilities across CGIAR while the transition towards One CGIAR continues. Focus was placed on moving towards unified governance, strengthening the ethics culture, and managing research and transition risks and opportunities. The organization continued to face challenges arising from COVID-19 pandemic and IT security incidents stemming from a global increase in broadbased cyber-attacks. The System Organization contributed to developing a common CGIAR-wide approach and response to these challenges and risks (as set out in the table below), recognizing that these impact not only the System Organization but also all of CGIAR, of which the System Organization is a constituent part. ¡ One CGIAR transition ▪ The risk management process for the transition to One CGIAR was enhanced with the establishment of a bi-weekly progress and risks meeting with the Executive Management Team and project team to review progress, risks moving forward and actions▪ Established a cross-CGIAR COVID-19 Response Team with the Executive Management Team and representative members from across CGIAR to improve information sharing and support coordination Outlook and developments for 20222022 will continue to bring significant change, opportunities and risks as to how the CGIAR staff (including staff of the System Organization) are organized, and how the work they deliver will be aligned to the planned One CGIAR organizational structure.We anticipate that COVID-19 will continue to impact staff and operations through 2022 as additional variants are predicted to emerge. As countries change their COVID-19 posture, restrictions for work and travel will vary in countries where CGIAR operates. The safety of staff will remain a priority while we aim to minimize impact on continuity of operations.The risk management function of the System Organization will continue to support work towards an aligned approach to risk management across CGIAR, with a CGIAR Institutional Risk Team being established to take this work forward in the longer term.The Audit, Finance and Risk Committee will continue to operate with strongly qualified members, including experienced practitioners in risk management, and report to the CGIAR System Board at every meeting.The CGIAR System Management Office has the direct responsibility for the accounting of all CGIAR System Organization expenditures and has maintained a system of internal controls designed to provide reasonable assurance that assets are safeguarded and that the financial records of the System Organization are properly kept. For the years ended 31 December 2021 and 2020  For the years ended 31 December 2021 and 2020(all figures expressed in thousands of US dollars)For the years ended 31 December 2021 and 2020(all figures expressed in thousands of US dollars)As defined in the Charter of the CGIAR System Organization ('Charter'), the purpose of the System Organization is to provide support to the CGIAR System. Led by the Executive Director, the CGIAR System Management Office manages the day-to-day operations of the System Organization, the System Board and the System Council, and facilitates collaboration within the CGIAR System.The CGIAR System Organization is an independent international organization with such international legal personality as may be necessary for the exercise of its functions and powers, and the fulfilment of its purposes, including without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the legal capacity:(a) to enter into treaties, agreements, arrangements and contracts; (b) to acquire and dispose of movable and immovable property;(c) to institute and respond to legal proceedings.The System Organization is not subject to statutory laws and regulations which would require the entity to prepare a full set of annual financial statements. However, due to decisions taken by the CGIAR System Council and the then-titled System Management Board in July 2016, the System Organization continued to operate pursuant to the Joint Agreement entered into between the CGIAR Consortium and the Fund Council of the CGIAR Fund represented by the World Bank 3 . Pursuant to article 19.3 of the Joint Agreement, the System Organization is required to present a full set of annual financial statements to provide all its stakeholders with a comprehensive annual review of its business performance and financial positions. CGIAR's vision is a world with sustainable and resilient food, land and water systems that deliver diverse, healthy, safe, sufficient and affordable diets, and ensure improved livelihoods and greater social equality, within planetary and regional environmental boundaries.CGIAR's mission is to deliver science and innovation that advance the transformation of food, land and water systems in a climate crisis.This note provides a list of the significant accounting policies adopted in the preparation of these financial statements. These policies have been consistently applied to all the years presented, unless otherwise stated.The Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). IFRS also cover all International Accounting Standards (IAS) and all interpretations of the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee, previously called the Standard Interpretation Committee (SIC).The financial statements as of and for the year ended 31 December 2021 (Financial Statements), have been prepared on a going concern basis. The approach adopted by the System Organization for the management of financial risks is discussed in Note 4 'Management of Financial Risks' below.Financial statement formats and related classification criteria adopted by the CGIAR System Organization, in accordance with IAS 1 -Presentation of Financial Statements, are as follows:Statement of Financial Position has been prepared using the current/non-current distinction;Cash Flow statement presents the cash flows generated by operating activities using the 'indirect method.'A brief description of the accounting policies and principles adopted in preparing the Financial Statements is provided in the following pages.Items included in the Financial Statements are measured in US dollars, the currency of the primary economic environment in which the CGIAR System Organization operates (the 'functional currency'). Assets and liabilities denominated in other currencies are converted at the exchange rate in effect at the end of each fiscal year. Grants received in currencies other than US dollars are recorded at market exchange rates in effect at the time the grant is received or, if outstanding as of 31 December, revalued at the market exchange rate in effect on that day.Transactions denominated in foreign currency are translated into the functional currency using the prevailing exchange rate on the date of the transactions. Foreign exchange gains and losses resulting from the settlement of such transactions and from the translation of monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies at year end exchange rates are generally recognized in the income statement.Most of the revenue is derived through restricted grants.Restricted grants are those that are received from a transfer of resources, including Window 1 funds transferred from the CGIAR Trust Fund, in return for past or future compliance with specific conditions. These grants are recognized as revenue once there is reasonable assurance that the CGIAR System Organization has complied with the funder's conditions. Restricted grants are recognized as revenue to the extent of expenses for that grant are incurred.Grants revenues are segregated into:Restricted Portfolio:Window 1 funds received from CGIAR Research Programs or Platforms that is recognized as revenue only as expenses are incurred in support of the specific activities supported by the CGIAR Research Programs or Platform.Restricted Non-portfolio:Window 1 funds received from the CGIAR Trust Fund that is recognized as revenue only as expenses are incurred in support of the operations of the System Organization.Other revenue is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable. The CGIAR System Organization recognizes revenue when the amount of revenue can be reliably measured, it is probable that future economic benefits will flow to the System Organization and risks and rewards of the underlying goods or services have been transferred.Cash and cash equivalents are defined as cash on hand, demand deposits with financial institutions, other short-term and highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash and which are subject to an insignificant risk of changes in value.Receivables are recognized initially at fair value and subsequently measured at amortized cost using the effective interest method less provision for impairment.Receivables are generally defined as claims held against others for the future receipt of money, goods or services, and include claims from Funders, advances to employees and advances to CGIAR Research Centers and claims against third parties for services rendered.Accounts receivable from Funders consist of claims from Funders for grants pledged in accordance with the terms specified by the Funder. It also pertains to claims for expenses paid on behalf of projects more than cash received from Funders. • Are held by the System Organization for the delivery of its mission;• Are expected to be used for more than one year; and• Have an individual purchase price of USD 5,000 or greater including VAT, freight and installation costs.All acquisitions that do not meet these criteria will be defined as 'controllable assets' and expensed in the period of purchase.Depreciation is the systematic allocation of the depreciable amount of an individual asset over its useful life. The System Organization will recognize depreciation on a linear basis as follows: An item of property, plant and equipment and any significant part is derecognized upon disposal or when no future economic benefits are expected to arise from the continued use of the asset.Any gain or loss arising on the disposal or retirement of an item of property, plant and equipment is determined as the difference between the sales proceeds and the carrying amount of the asset and is recognized in the statement of activities and other comprehensive income.The proceeds from the sale of controllable assets are recognized as 'other unrestricted revenue' in the statement of activities and other comprehensive income.These amounts represent liabilities for goods and services provided to the System Organization which are unpaid. Trade and other payables constitute current liabilities unless payment is not due within 12 months after the reporting period. They are recognized initially at their fair value and subsequently measured at amortized cost using the effective interest method.Provisions are recognized when the System Organization has a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of past events, it is probable that an outflow of resources will be required to settle the obligation, and the amount can be reliably estimated. Provisions are not recognized for future operating costs.Provisions are measured at the present value of management's best estimate of the transfer of resources required to settle the present obligation at the end of the reporting period. The discount rate used to determine the present value is a rate that reflects current market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the liability. The increase in the provision due to the passage of time is recognized as interest expense.When the System Organization expects some or all of a provision to be reimbursed, the reimbursement is recognized as a separate asset, but only when the reimbursement is certain.The expense relating to a provision is presented in the statement of financial activity net of any reimbursement.h) Employee benefits i. Short-term employee benefits Liabilities for wages and salaries, including bonuses (if any) that are expected to be settled wholly within 12 months after the end of the period in which the employees render the related service, are recognized in respect of employees' services up to the end of the reporting period and are measured at the amounts expected to be paid when the liabilities are settled. The liabilities are presented as current employee benefit obligations in the balance sheet.The System Organization contributes to a defined contribution retirement benefit plan for all qualifying employees. The contribution is 16% of gross salary. Contributions to the defined contribution plan are recorded as expenses as incurred. The assets of the defined contribution plan are held separately from those of the organization in the name of the Trustees.Net assets include general undesignated reserves in their utilization.All amounts disclosed in the Financial Statements and notes have been rounded off to the nearest thousand unless otherwise stated.The System Organization adopts an accrual basis of accounting. Under the accrual basis of accounting, transactions and events are recognized when they occur (and not when cash or its cash equivalent is received or paid) and these are recorded in the accounting records and reported in the Financial Statements during the periods to which they relate. Expenses are recognized in the Statement of Activities and Other Comprehensive Income based on direct association between the costs incurred and the earnings of specific items of revenue.Pursuant to the Headquarters Agreement with the French Government (see Note 1), the organization is exempt from income taxes. Consequently, the organization does not account for income tax in its financial statements.The CGIAR System Organization has set out below the accounting standards, amendments or interpretation as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).a) New standards, amendments and interpretation issued effective as of 2021: None of the above standards, amendments and interpretations had a significant impact on the System Organization's financial statements.The System Organization has considered the new standards, amendments and interpretations as detailed in the above table and does not plan early adoption of these standards. The application of all these standards, amendments or interpretations will be considered in detail in advance of a confirmed effective date by the organization.The System Organization has not adopted any other new standards or interpretations that are not mandatory. The organization anticipate that the adoption of those standards or interpretations will have no material impact of the financial statements of the organization in the period of initial application.The activities of the CGIAR System Organization are exposed to the following financial risks: market risk (including exchange rate risk), credit risk and liquidity risk.Management of the System Organization identifies, evaluates and hedges financial risks in accordance with the CGIAR System Organization Risk Management Policy 5 , Risk Management Framework of the CGIAR System 6 , and the accompanying Risk Management Guidelines of the CGIAR System. 7The CGIAR System Organization is exposed to market risks associated with exchange rates.The System Organization operates internationally and is exposed to foreign exchange risk arising when its business transactions are in currencies other than US dollars, the latter being the currency with which the organization predominantly operates. The sensitivity of the Statement of Activities and Other Comprehensive Income to changes in the exchange rate rises mainly from euro denominated cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable and payables.The System Organization monitors the exposure to foreign currency risk arising from operating activities and reduces its exposure to euro fluctuations by maintaining cash inflows and outflows in the same currency to the maximum extent possible. Based on the limited transactions in foreign currencies, the organization does not use derivative financial instruments to hedge its foreign exchange exposure in relation to investments or cash flows.The impact on the net surplus (deficit) of the organization of a reasonably possible change in the US dollar exchange rate in comparison to the euro can be determined by considering the impact of a 10% shift in the exchange rate:The System Organization does not hold any financial instruments subject to price risk.The System Organization is not subject to any significant interest rate risk as the only maturing interest rates are on the funds held in the bank accounts.The CGIAR System Organization's credit risk represents the exposure of the organization to potential losses due to counterparty inability to discharge the obligations undertaken. This exposure mainly relates to trade receivables deriving from claims for grants promised or pledged or for expenses paid on behalf of its operation or projects more than cash received from Funders.The credit risk for the System Organization's operation is considered low since its primary function is that of a secretariat and not an implementer of projects. In addition, Funders consist primarily of large international organizations, and governments. In the ordinary course of business, the System Organization faces the risk that receivables from CGIAR Research Centers may not be paid on the due date leading then to an increase in their age.To mitigate the credit risk associated with its counterparties, CGIAR System Organization Management constantly reviews its credit exposure and monitors the collection of receivables on the contractually agreed due dates. The assets are reported gross of impairment losses calculated based on the default risk of the counterparties, considering the information available on solvency as well as historical data. Credit risk also arises from cash and cash equivalents and deposits with banks and financial institutions. The organization mitigates this risk by ensuring that funds are maintained only in reputable well-established financial institutions.For trade receivables: Reviews of aging reports are carried out monthly and provisions for doubtful amounts made for any potentially unrecoverable amounts. A provision will be included in the accounts made for all receivables that are past due, and not supported with an agreed upon settlement plan, on the following basis:• 10% provision for receivables or services outstanding between 6 months and 9 months • 50% provision for receivables or services outstanding between 9 months and 12 months; • 100% provision for receivables outstanding more than 12 months.If a payment is received for a debt that was previously provisioned, the payment is recorded in the receivables sub-ledger and the provision is reversed.Advances to partners and hosted CGIAR Research Centers are subject to the System Organization's internal requirements to limit losses arising from funds advanced by the System Organization.Liquidity risk takes place when the System Organization has insufficient financial resources available to meet its financial obligations and commitments when due. The System Organization's management of liquidity risk in the ordinary course of business involves maintaining a sufficient level of cash to maximize the efficiency of management of financial resources.Cash flows required to settle other financial liabilities do not differ significantly from the recognized carrying amount. In this regard, it is noted that there is no significant concentration of liquidity risk, either in relation to financial assets or in relation to the sources of finance due to short-term period:Preparation of financial statements requires that accounting standards and methods be applied, which in certain cases depend on subjective measurements and estimates based on past experience as well as assumptions which, on a case-by-case basis, are considered reasonable and realistic in the specific circumstances. The use of such estimates and assumptions influences the amounts reported in the statement of financial position, the comprehensive statement of activities and other comprehensive income, the statement of cash flows and the explanatory notes. Actual results for such items may differ from the amounts reported in the Financial Statements due to the uncertainties that characterize the assumptions and conditions on which such estimates were made.The following table sets forth a breakdown of cash and cash equivalents:(i) The following Certificates of Deposit ('CoD') with maturity dates in the year 2021 were made with BNP Paribas with the objective to preserve the System Organization operating funds. All receivable balances are valued at their net realizable value, that is, the gross amount of receivable minus, if applicable, allowances provided for doubtful accounts.'Accounts receivables -Funders' consist of Window 1 funds spent on System Organization activities in 2021 and receivable from the CGIAR Trust Fund.'Accounts receivables -CGIAR Centers' mainly consist of receivables for hosting arrangements and shared services. (i) Advances to a third-party supplier (AIARC -the Association of International Agricultural Research Centers, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) membership corporation, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, USA), for processing the monthly payroll, pension contributions and health insurance premiums for the System Organization personnel. The following table sets forth a breakdown of property, plant and equipment:There were no additions in the year 2021.12. Accounts payable (i) Advance to cover the costs of ILRI staff hosted by System Organization.12.4 Accounts payable -Others The revenue of USD 1.1 million consists of grant received from the Big Data Platform designated for the Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) activities administered by the CGIAR Advisory Services in 2021.The revenue of USD 22.9 million consists of Window 1 funds received from the CGIAR Trust Fund for the implementation of the System Entities activities in 2021.(i) The System Organization has a policy that an internal tax of 5.5% of gross salaries is applied to all staff members. The following tables sets forth a breakdown of Operating Expenses. In 2021, significant steps towards the transition to One CGIAR were achieved thanks to additional support received from CGIAR Funders, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, European Commission, Norway, Sweden, Belgium and the UK.The following table sets forth a breakdown of expenses incurred with the transition to One CGIAR:Represent realized and unrealized exchange gains and losses during the year, interest earned on short-term investments and all bank charges.Although the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the world economy, the targets set out in the 2021 CGIAR Research Financing Plan were fully achieved, demonstrating confidence in CGIAR and the transition to One CGIAR among Funders.This was also evidenced by specific support for the transition received from CGIAR Funders, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, European Commission, Norway, Sweden, Belgium and the UK.Total revenue of USD 30 million increased by 45.2% compared with 2020, and the outlook for 2022 is a further increase of 50% (USD 61 million). Additionally, the CGIAR 2022-2024 Investment Prospectus (funded from pooled funding) is growing by 58% (to USD 302 million), with 83% of the funding target received, confirmed or formally designated by Funders as of March 2022.Management also assessed the impact on System Organization future operations due to the conflict in Ukraine and sanctions imposed on Russia and identified the following:• Staff Security -the System Organization does not have any staff in the conflict area.• Suppliers -the System Organization does not work with any suppliers from Russia.• Inflation -there is a higher inflation rate outlook due to the sanctions and expected food and supplies shortages. This will impact the supply chain and cost of services (mostly consultancy) but is not likely to affect the System Organization's and One CGIAR deliverables.  • Exchange rate -the current exchange rate movements have not been extreme so far but will be monitored closely. • Debt -the System Organization has no debt, so there is no interest rate exposure.• Opportunity -with a potential food crisis caused by the conflict there is good reason to anticipate continued high demand for solutions that CGIAR can deliver.As a result of these developments, management is confident in the System Organization's ability to continue operating for the foreseeable future and realize its assets and discharge its liabilities and commitments in the ordinary course of business. ","tokenCount":"4607"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e043cc0654a45a2d67f9a2233ee00ffc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a9593667-46c2-4354-88bb-b2dac059a6f4/retrieve","id":"-1297075791"},"keywords":["Latin America","policy","climate change","gender"],"sieverID":"13ef748b-63be-4074-92a4-84ad8687dab3","pagecount":"20","content":"This paper provides an overview of the state of gender inclusion in national policies related to climate change in seven target countries of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in Latin America. A rubric for evaluating policies' levels of gender integration was developed based on guidelines and methods for gender inclusion. Preliminary findings suggest that gender-sensitive consultation processes and increased efforts at cross-sectoral coordination can lead to successful gender integration in climate change planning.Latin America is currently preparing for the impacts of climate change, and many governments and influential sectors are in the process of developing mitigation and adaptation strategies. As gender influences men's and women's experiences of climate change, associated vulnerabilities, and adaptation capacities, it is important that national policies on climate change adaptation incorporate gender concerns.The following analysis provides an overview of the state of gender inclusion in policy and policy instruments related to climate change and agriculture in the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) target countries in Latin America. This desk review focuses on policymaking processes and does not address the impacts of the various policies reviewed; however, the analysis provides important baseline information on the state of climate change-related policies with respect to gender, and constitutes a critical first step in identifying the ideal political-institutional foundation for the promotion of gender-inclusive climate change planning.We first provide a conceptual framework for understanding the importance of gender-inclusive policymaking. Next, we describe existing international mandates on gender equality as they pertain to climate change and sustainable development. Subsequently, we discuss the mechanics of integrating gender into a policy or program, in the process elaborating the method of evaluation used in our policy analysis. The results of the analysis follow, and we conclude with recommendations for policymakers.Policies and institutions are products of socially constructed norms and consequently are not impervious to biases regarding gender and other aspects of social differentiation (Elson, 1999;Farah, 2010). Yet, many policies are designed to be \"gender blind\" (Burns and Patouris, 2014;UNDP, 2000;RECOFTC, 2015;Kabeer and Subrahmanian, 1996), making no distinction between male and female actors. A gender blind approach fails to take into account the socially ascribed roles, responsibilities, and relations that vary between men and women, and in so doing tends to perceive men as the primary beneficiaries of policies. Contrastingly, \"gender aware\" approaches differentiate men and women actors, recognizing that they have different needs and interests that may often conflict (UNDP, 2000;Brugere, 2014).Gender aware approaches can be sub-categorized as gender neutral, gender specific, or gender transformative (Kabeer and Subrahmanian, 1996;RECOFTC, 2015;UNDP, 2000). Gender neutral policy design takes into account gender differentiated needs and responsibilities; while it does not seek to address any gender specific need, it is careful not to cause any unintended harm to one gender. A gender specific approach meanwhile aims to meet a need specific to either men or women; however, this type of policy design does not seek to address existing gender divisions of resources and responsibilities. A gender transformative approach is distinct from the previous two in that it focuses on effecting a change in gender roles or relations in order to promote gender equality.In addition, a gender aware policy approach may seek to answer either gender-specific practical needs or strategic needs (Molyneux, 1985). A focus on practical needs seeks to answer the needs that men's and women's roles and obligations require; in comparison, when strategic gender needs are targeted, the intent is to change certain practices or institutions that structure the distribution of benefits between men and women. The two foci are not mutually exclusive; a policy may respond to both. Wisborg (2015) similarly distinguishes between a utilitarian vs. a human rights approach to gender equality in policy. A utilitarian approach focuses on the maximization of the common good via attention to gender considerations, while the human rights orientation prioritizes the promotion of gender equality.The various frameworks highlight the importance of the processes underlying policy development and the extent to which actors involved in the policymaking process are committed to achieving gender goals. For example, Kabeer and Subrahmanian (1996) note that participatory processes can be key to ensuring that marginalized groups have the opportunity to represent their needs and priorities in policymaking. Molyneux (1985) emphasizes the importance of distinguishing among different approaches to gender inclusion and their corresponding policy consequences; certain approaches may result in gender interests being integrated throughout the policy, while others may result in an addressing of gender interests that are viewed as subordinate to \"principal\" policy objectives.Our analysis makes recommendations for developing gender transformative policy approaches.There exist important international mandates on gender equality for development policies, including climate change initiatives. We provide a summary below of the primary instruments that relate to rural development and environmental issues, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action, the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (DECRIPS). We also discuss references to gender made by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). All countries analyzed in this study have approved these instruments.The United Nations adopted CEDAW in 1979, and an additional protocol on implementation was adopted in 1999. With regards to rural development, CEDAW posits that parties must take into account specific problems faced by rural women and develop measures to ensure that rural women are not prevented from participating in and benefiting from rural development. To this end, parties must ensure women's meaningful participation in decision-making in rural planning and guarantee their access to trainings, extension services, agricultural credit, loans, and technology (Aguilar, 2009).The Beijing Platform for Action of 1995 developed detailed action plans for promoting gender equality and for ending discrimination against women. In its strategic objectives, it specifically addresses gender and the environment. For example, it states that women should be actively involved in environmental decision-making; emphasizes that gender issues should be integrated into policies and programs on sustainable development; and calls for evaluations of the impacts of development policies on women.The Millennium Declaration calls for equal rights for all, independent of race, sex, language, or religion. Furthermore, it identifies specific values as fundamental to international relations in the 21 st century, such as: equal rights between men and women; gender equity as an effective means of combatting poverty and promoting sustainable development; and the ability for all to benefit from new technologies. Several of the target countries analyzed below make reference to the Millennium Declaration and Development Goals. DECRIPS, adopted in 2007, mandates the just application of the declaration to both men and women. Of particular consequence, DECRIPS posits that indigenous people have the right to participate in decision-making that affects their rights. It also highlights that indigenous peoples have the right to determine their priorities and strategies for the development of their territories.While the UNFCCC makes no explicit references to gender, subsequent decisions of the UNFCCC do (Burns and Patouris, 2014). Decisions treating gender equality specifically highlight the need for gender balance in UNFCCC bodies (Decision 36/CP.7, Decision 23/CP.18). Furthermore, subsequent decisions call for workshops on gender and climate change policy within the UNFCCC for capacity-building purposes and for monitoring the implementation of gender-sensitive policies (FCCC/SBI/2013/L.16). One decision has additionally highlighted how gender equality is essential to effective climate change action (Decision 1/CP.16).These decisions highlight the significance of gender considerations for adaptation; fewer decisions address gender's role in mitigation. While ten decisions on adaptation integrate gender references, with several stating that national adaptation planning must be based on gendersensitive considerations (Decision 28/CP.7, Decision 5/CP.17, Decision 12/CP.18, Decision 18/CP.19), only three decisions on mitigation refer to gender. One calls for the investigation of the repercussions of implementation measures on vulnerable groups, including women (Decision 1/CP.16).Other decisions make reference to gender. Decisions on finance mechanisms emphasize that they must contribute to gender-sensitive funding approaches. Those on technology transfer specify that these initiatives must address gender considerations. Capacity-building must take into account gender considerations, and with regards to damages and losses, there is a need for gender-disaggregated data to assess impacts on vulnerable sectors. A decision pertaining to agricultural sectors notes the importance of developing adaptation measures that take gender into consideration. Despite the multiple references in existence, the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) notes that gender-related language is still not robust enough to promote the implementation of gender-sensitive policymaking and actions (Burns and Patouris, 2014).Historically, research and policymaking have significantly favored technical approaches to addressing climate change problems; in the process, they have neglected to consider social concerns. While recent policy solutions have attempted to address this gap, they often fail to consider gender equity aspects in a meaningful way, and many prioritize market-based solutions that could disadvantage women (due to women's relative lack of access to resources like land, credit, and capital).The analytical framework developed by CCAFS for climate change policymaking disaggregates national adaptation planning into various stages and processes for examination, although the approach does not take into account gender equality considerations (Kissinger et al., 2013;2014). Risk assessment and ranking: Risks are identified using varying means (such as modeling and scenarios analysis) and then are ranked according to urgency.  Design of strategy and measures: This involves developing a strategy or action plan that prioritizes processes and results desired, and also identifies the institutional structures needed to accomplish this.  Implementation: A concrete plan is constructed, including a system of monitoring and evaluation.The framework also highlights that funding and capacity building, consultation and stakeholder engagement are integral to the above stages. Furthermore, the political economy context is critical to understanding the processes that are unique to each country's situation.In comparison to the CCAFS framework, considerations for gender integration in climate change policymaking developed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Global Gender Climate Alliance (GGCA) member organizations use similar stages and processes; however, the guidelines direct themselves to earlier points in the policymaking process than those considered by the CCAFS framework (IUCN, 2011;Reyes, 2014). The latter guidelines also incorporate an analytical focus that is sensitive to social differentiation.In general, gender considerations inform all stages of policy-from pre-planning through implementation-in order for meaningful gender integration to occur. Parallel or even prior to risk assessment activities, it is critical that a diagnostic phase focusing on gender differences take place. This diagnostic phase consists of a review of the available data that identifies existing gender inequalities. The review should allow for an understanding of the differential situations of men and women, and should involve sex-disaggregated data (when possible). After the completion of the data analysis, it becomes possible to evaluate the existence of inequalities between male and female groups.While the CCAFS framework identifies consultation and stakeholder engagement as important to efficient adaptation planning, meaningful gender integration requires consultation activities that ensure equal representation of men's and women's issues. Gender equality should be emphasized as a crosscutting issue during consultations, and men's and women's equal participation in consultative workshops and meetings should be established. Additionally, it is important to identify stakeholder groups that represent women's interests and provide capacity building to women's groups so that they can participate meaningfully in consultations.In the drafting and design of the document, it is critical that gender equality be highlighted in the priorities and objectives. The strategy or plan should make use of the sex-disaggregated data reviewed in the diagnostic phase and, correspondingly, address gender inequalities. In its content, the document should also recognize existing policies on women's rights.Policy implementation and associated budgeting should also be based on gender equality goals. Gender indicators should exist for budgeting purposes. Gender equality goals should furthermore be critically considered in monitoring and evaluation.Taking these considerations into account, the following rubric for evaluating the degree of gender integration in policy instruments related to climate change, agriculture, and food security has been developed (Table 1).This rubric resonates with other frameworks and evaluative instruments for gender mainstreaming, such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development's (IFAD) Prerequisites for Gender-sensitive Design, developed for IFAD projects and programs (IFAD, 2003;IFAD, 2008a;IFAD, 2008b). It is important to highlight that the rubric is not meant to measure the mere mention of gender but rather enhance the capacity of policy instruments to comprehensively address gender considerations (IUCN, 2012). Methodology 105 national-level policy documents related to climate change, agriculture, and food security from seven CCAFS target countries in Latin America were reviewed for their degree of gender integration. The seven countries were Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru. Central American regional documents were also included. Critical policy documents were identified via: the CCAFS Climate-Smart Agriculture Country Profiles for Latin America and the Caribbean; CCAFS Latin America country briefs on \"The State of the Art in Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security\"; discussions with policymakers from the target countries; and grey literature. The documents were furthermore categorized according to thematic area of focus: climate change; agriculture and food security; forest ecosystems and biodiversity; risk management; water and marine resources; and development planning. Climate change documents pertaining to the food and agricultural sector were categorized separately. National communications to the UNFCCC were also studied as a separate category of documents, due to the specificity of their purpose. The CONPES documents specific to Colombia's national policymaking processes were also categorized separately.Table 2 summarizes the number of policies included in the review, by country and by thematic area of focus.The policies, strategies, plans, and other instruments reviewed are meant to represent the countries' regulatory frameworks on climate change, agriculture, and food security. Despite the review's methodological objective, it is important to note that particular instruments were not included, notwithstanding their informative and influential value. For example, information on monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems were not included, due to the sole technical purpose of these documents.GUMUCIO & RUEDA -48- In addition to the baseline policy analysis, four case studies of specific policy-making processes were carried out to provide further details on the processes underlying the development of the policies, strategies, plans, and other instruments studied. Where possible, supplementary information for the case studies was collected through semi-structured interviews with one to two functionaries from each of the government agencies or ministries primarily responsible for the policy. Accordingly, five key contacts in total were interviewed. The interview instrument used was based on the \"Guidelines for Gender Integration in Agricultural and Climate Change Policies in Latin America,\" developed by CCAFS Latin America and the CIAT Gender and Policy research group (Tafur et al., 2015).Colombia Out of ten policy documents reviewed, two make reference to gender, scoring a grade of 2 (See Figure 1).  El Salvador Of the six policy instruments reviewed, a policy from the agriculture and food security sector clearly indicated gender as key to its objectives, scoring a 3 (See Figure 1). This is the Family Agriculture Plan of 2012. All others, including those targeting climate change, made no reference to gender. As noted in other country highlights, increased cross-sectoral involvement in climate change policymaking would be advantageous in order to promote gender-sensitive planning. Whereas particular sectors-like food security, in this case-have made efforts to integrate gender in policies, this could spur more effective planning if the sector were to include climate change in its focus.In Guatemala the food security sector makes notable efforts to include gender in its policies. In general, there exist a significant number of policies targeting food security (seven total) and forest ecosystems and biodiversity (five total); more importantly for this analysis, all the food security policies except one make efforts to integrate gender. It is worth highlighting that the majority of these food security policies focus on nutrition. Furthermore, of the three highestscoring policies, two pertain to the food security sector while one pertains to development planning. Three climate change policies, four food security policies, one forest ecosystem policy, and one risk management policy make mention of gender. Of the three climate change policies, one-the Strategic Climate Change Plan of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food of 2012-pertains to the agricultural and food security sector.In Honduras, the food security sector also makes significant efforts to integrate gender into its policies. All food security policies make an effort to integrate gender to a certain extent. For example, out of ten food security policies, three surpass a level 3 score, meaning that they incorporate gender into their action plans. Climate change policies make no reference to gender. None of the food and agricultural sector's policies address climate change, either. In this case, it would be beneficial for the sector to include climate change in its policymaking. Furthermore, increased cross-sectoral climate change planning that includes the agricultural sector could be helpful, in order to promote more effective, gender sensitive planning.In Nicaragua, the agriculture and food security sector makes notable efforts to integrate gender into its policy instruments. Of the policies that score a 4, one is from the food security sector and the other is from the forest ecosystems sector. All food security policies except one include gender to a certain extent. No climate change policies make reference to gender except for one, which comes from the agriculture and food security sector. This is the Climate Change and Variability Adaptation Plan of the Agriculture, Livestock, Forest and Fish Sector of 2013, scoring a 3. Increased cross-sectoral coordination with the agriculture and food security sector could be beneficial for climate change planning in this case, as well.Peru has several policy instruments focused on climate change, including strategies, plans, and national communications; however, these either make no reference to gender or cursorily refer to gender, scoring a 1 or 2 (See Figure 1). One policy on development planning, the Bicentennial Plan of 2012-2021, scored a 3. The plan includes a focus on climate change, although it does not incorporate gender in this section. Increased efforts to include gender and climate change in national development planning could prove beneficial here.Central American Region Policies concerning development planning, food security, and climate change exist at the regional level in Central America. In particular, the Regional Strategy on Climate Change of 2010 provides a helpful example and resource for integrating gender in climate change policy. This scores a 4, and can be drawn upon by countries in the region for climate change planning.The results demonstrate that policies from the food security and agricultural sector make the most significant efforts to integrate gender (See Figure 2). These policies are found in Central American countries or the Central American region. Over half of the policies from this sector score a 3 or higher. All policies, except for three, at least refer to gender in their texts. Policies from the sectors of development planning, forest ecosystems, and risk management make notable attempts to integrate gender, although not to the same extent as those from the food security sector (See Figures 3-5, respectively). These range mostly between scores of 1 and 3. All policies except for one from the development planning sector score above a 1. One-third of policies from the forest ecosystems and biodiversity sector at least make reference to gender. Also, one policy-Nicaragua's National Forest Program for Citizen Power of 2008-scored a 4. For risk management, three out of seven policies at least make reference to gender.  Colombia's CONPES documents, due to their specificity, were reviewed separately. Most of these (except for two which scored a 2) made no reference to gender. While a category for the water and marine resources sector was also included, the number of policies available and pertinent to the analysis was low. Furthermore, these policies addressed gender aspects minimally: one out of the three policies reviewed referenced gender, scoring a 2. With regards to climate change policies, these tend to not integrate gender significantly, at least not in comparison to those from the food security and agricultural sector (See Figure 6). Slightly over half of national level climate change policies do not include gender to any extent. Of those that do, the majority make cursory reference to gender, scoring a 2. The one policy that scored a 4 is the Central American Regional Strategy on Climate Change. Additionally, the majority of the national communications to the UNFCCC do not reference gender (See Figure 7).   The following case studies allow for a more nuanced analysis of the institutional arrangements that promote gender integration. One to two cases were chosen from three primary categories of documents, with a preference for cases that specifically address climate change or agriculture: 1) national communications to the UNFCCC, 2) national climate change strategies/plans/policies, and 3) agricultural and food security sector. Accordingly, the first and second national communications to the UNFCCC of Colombia and the National Climate Change Strategy of Peru and its updated version were chosen due to the positive change in the level of gender integration they demonstrated. The 2004-2021 State Policy for the Agri-Food Sector and Rural Areas of Honduras was chosen due to the country's seemingly gender-sensitive agricultural sector: in terms of high-scoring policies, strategies, and plans, Honduras was one of the leaders in comparison to other countries' agricultural sectors. Additionally, analysis of the Honduras policy provides information on the processes underlying the development of a more long-term instrument. That policy is also one of the few agricultural sector policies in the study to have been developed with a gender equity policy already in existence. Another agricultural sector that has a gender equity policy is that of Guatemala, with its Ministry of Agriculture's Institutional Policy for Gender Equality and Strategic Framework for Implementation 2014-2023, which came out just as the research for this article was being finalized; however, the Policy has yet to serve as an input for the development of new agricultural and related sectoral policy instruments.A case study of the Central American Regional Climate Change Strategy is also included because of its significantly high level of gender integration, although it was not possible to carry out semi-structured interviews with key contacts for the Strategy (as we did in the other cases).While the case studies provide additional details on policymaking processes, it is important to emphasize that the information gathered is preliminary and warrants additional research.First and Second National Communications to the UNFCCC of Colombia National communications are reports on implementation progress of the UNFCCC that signatories submit on a regular basis. While these are not policies per se, they constitute strategic country diagnostics that aim to provide foundational information and guidance for the development of national and sectoral policy.Colombia's First National Communication to the UNFCCC (issued in 2001) made no reference to gender; however, its Second National Communication to the UNFCCC (2010) made notable efforts to include gender, addressing gender in its overall objectives, although not incorporating it into concrete steps of action, giving it a score of 2. In Colombia, national communications are led by the Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies Institute (IDEAM).Incentives to include gender: Leading up to 2001, there were few existing guidelines from the UNFCCC on how to develop a National Communication. But by the time the Second National Communication was being prepared, there was more detailed guidance, a more substantial budget, and more time to thoroughly develop the Communication. Additionally, the process for the Second Communication was carried out across a greater institutional scale than what was organized for the first.Mechanisms for including gender: For both the first and second communications, no support from a gender specialist, gender focal point from a government ministry, or organization with gender experience was sought. However, in comparison to the first, the second relied upon a more extensive participatory process for its elaboration. This process included Inter-Institutional Round Tables in which international aid agencies and public and private institutions participated, as well as workshops to socialize results. This participatory process permitted the inclusion of diverse institutions and, consequently, the inclusion of gender in the Second National Communication.Information sources: Neither the First nor the Second National Communication relied significantly on sex-disaggregated data or research specifically focused on identifying gender gaps. Incentives to include gender: The motivation to include gender in the Policy stemmed from a multi-stakeholder consultation process initiated at the beginning of the Policy's development. The government at the time (led by President Ricardo Maduro) instated a \"Round Table on Honduran Agriculture\" made up of diverse stakeholders (e.g. small and medium-holder producers, women, representatives of the agricultural industry, banking, and government sectors). The Round Table was divided into sub-groups: sugarcane, basic grains, African palm, vegetables, peasant agriculture, and gender. The Round Table established that it was necessary to recognize women's role as agriculturalists in the policy. The various sub-groups identified the need to adopt measures that recognized the needs and interests of rural women.Mechanisms for including gender: As suggested above, participatory processes served as important mechanisms for the inclusion of gender in the policy. Rural women participated in all of the sub-groups of the Round Table, and a sub-group focusing on gender was formed, as well.In addition to these participatory mechanisms and tools, expert guidance was sought from international consultants.Information sources: The policymaking process did not rely on sex-disaggregated data or other research to identify gender gaps. (Policymakers fault a lack of updated rural census data.)Finance and monitoring and evaluation: Specific funds were not designated for gender inclusion in the policy; however, funds were allocated for the consultative processes associated with the Round Table and all its sub-groups, including that on gender. Primary institutions that provided funding for the policy's development were the Inter-American Development Bank and the United States Department of Agriculture. With regards to monitoring and evaluation of the policy, gender equality was not considered. Central American Regional Climate Change Strategy The Central American Regional Climate Change Strategy was the only climate change policy, law, plan, or strategy to score a 4. Gender equality is clearly identified among the strategy's cross-cutting strategic priorities, and it is applied coherently and effectively across sectors in the strategy's plan of action; however, the strategy lacks a clear identification of resources to carry out the measures and actions proposed, and consequently is not robust enough for the grade of 5. The System for Central American Integration (SICA) and the Central American Commission for the Environment and Development (CCAD) were primarily responsible for the Strategy; however, the level of gender integration in the strategy was largely a result of a process facilitated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and civil society organizations (IUCN, 2012).Incentives to include gender: Interest in including gender in the strategy stemmed from an initiative coordinated through the Women's Forum for Central American Integration (FMICA), the Regional Unit for Technical Assistance (RUTA), and civil society organizations like (CoopeSoliDar) to carry out consultations with local men and women in four areas of Central America where women are most affected by the impacts of climate change. The consultations generated information on local level effects of climate change, as well as recommendations for climate change policy. The gender concerns that arose from the consultations helped to generate Mechanisms for including gender: The IUCN served as a primary institutional actor with gender expertise that helped facilitate the integration of gender into the strategy. The IUCN provided capacity building in gender and climate change themes to the strategy's regional technical committee. The IUCN credits the Strategy's level of gender sensitivity not only to the bottom-up processes underlying its development, but also to working partnerships among Central American governments, the women's movement, and civil society organizations.Information sources: The information and recommendations generated by the consultations noted above served as important inputs.Finance and monitoring and evaluation: Information related to finance and monitoring and evaluation was not available for this case study.This analysis suggests that, across countries, a lack of articulation among policy instruments may hinder the development of a political-institutional framework that promotes gender inclusion in climate change planning. Correspondingly, increased cross-sectoral coordination could improve gender inclusion. Often, policies that effectively include gender in themes related to, for example, development planning or the agricultural sector, are largely overlooked when it comes to climate change policymaking. Additionally, policies from the agriculture and food security sector include a particularly high integration of gender concerns, in comparison to other sectors and themes across countries; in several instances, however, these do not extend to climate change planning. Accordingly, the inclusion of climate change in agricultural sector policymaking would also promote more effective gender-sensitive climate change planning. Although more countries from Central America than from South America were included in this analysis, the Central American region-particularly the agricultural and food security sectors of Nicaragua and Honduras-demonstrated significantly higher levels of gender integration compared to the other countries and sectors/themes. A closer investigation of the processes underlying policymaking in these countries-particularly in their food and agricultural sectors-would provide useful information on how to include gender in climate change policymaking.Participatory processes can help promote the inclusion of gender in policymaking. Additionally, national policies on gender and social inclusion, as well as international legal instruments that effectively highlight gender equality as a crosscutting objective, can all provide important guidance and motivation for including gender. Alliances that include the state and civil society can introduce valuable gender expertise into the policymaking process, as well as promote a greater commitment to gender inclusion at the institutional level.Our findings show that gender considerations must be taken into account from the beginning of a policy's formulation-from the setting-out of a policy's objectives to the design of its action plan to the construction of a supporting budget for implementation. In order for effective gender inclusion in policymaking to take place, our study found that policies must rely on: data and research that specifically identifies gender differences and trends; inclusive consultation processes with diverse stakeholders; and specific funds allocated for the implementation of gender-sensitive policies and the monitoring and evaluation of same.Such elements are important in order to ensure that gender is included in a meaningful way in climate change policymaking. It is critical that policies on climate change adaptation and mitigation be gender-aware; moreover, it is important that climate change policymaking recognize men's and women's differential needs and priorities as these relate to climate change adaptation. Increased research to identify mechanisms and processes that promote gender transformative policies are key to ensuring that climate change policies do not exacerbate gender inequalities, but rather reduce them.","tokenCount":"5048"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c247158ca887a1334b30be349f22e0c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b08d3df0-dd75-4c08-9fbb-ec71e3c040c4/retrieve","id":"1070523646"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"526d9a4b-b00f-432e-a588-aa87fbd01b99","pagecount":"2","content":"Regulation of fertilizers in Ethiopia is implemented by the Plant Health Regulatory Directorate (PHRD) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The country has a fertilizer policy that was established in 1993, and revised in 2014, whose final version is yet to be approved; and a Fertilizer proclamation No. 137/1998 of 1998, that is currently under revision. Both the above proclamation and the policy did not have provisions for biofertilizers, but are currently under review to incorporate them. In addition, there are personnel capacity limitations and lack of dedicated laboratory for biofertilizer quality control.Quality agricultural products guarantee protection of farmers and other people from potential risks of use of commercial agricultural input and minimization of health and environmental hazards. At the same time, they enhance food security and economic advancement. During the past 10 years, new bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides and chemical agro-inputs have been locally manufactured, imported and commercialized, but these products were often insufficiently evaluated for quality and efficacy due to insufficient regulatory mechanisms.Therefore, there is a need to build or strengthen the system in order to have the capacity to evaluate, register and perform quality control of such products to ensure that farmers only utilize products that are safe and effective and can result in profitable yield increases.In The fertilizer policy and proclamation revision to include biofertilizer are not completed, and this continues to hinder effective implementation of the developed registration guidelines and standards.There is no mandated lab for quality control of biofertilizers by the ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources.1.The ministry of Agriculture and Natural resources to ensure that the fertilizer policy is approved, and the proclamation is approved and passed by parliament.The draft biofertilizer registration guidelines to be approved and implemented by the ministry of Agriculture and Natural resources.The draft biofertilizer standards to be approved by Ethiopian Standards Agency. 4.Establishment of laboratory for biofertilizer quality control for regulatory enforcement. 5.Continuous training of enforcement personnel. 6.Establishment of a sustainable financing mechanism for enforcement of the regulatory frameworks for biofertilizers.","tokenCount":"332"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"24b88239f58e3173d93c838f13b8e61f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H05341.pdf","id":"1875997211"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"71aa704d-d70c-45bc-8f6d-03cfc9d4cf20","pagecount":"122","content":"Depuis Novembre 1991, le Projet IIMI a mis en oeuvre un programme de recherche developpement pluridisciplinaire au niger sur un dchantillon de trois ( 3 ) PerimGtres.C e programme comprend trois ( 3 ) grandes &tapes initiales a savoir: 1) Effectuer l o r s d'une phase de diagnostic, une analyse de fonctionnement pluridisciplinaire des perimetres r e t e n u s .Au cours de l'enqugte, nous nous sommes aperCus que le redevancier de la campagne rizicole 1993 fourni par la cooperative, sur lequel nous avions compose cet echantillon ne refletait pas en realite les effectifs exacts par criteres si bien q u e nous ne disposons toujours pas a ce jour d'un recensement fiable des exploitants de Saga. En e f f e t , sur le perirnetre les mutations de parcelles sont constantes p a r ailleurs tous les exploitants maraichers ne sont pas systematiquement recensgs par la coopeiative. Compte tenu des moyens du projet, i l n'a pas et& possible Be proceder a ce recensement total (1525 exploitants). Les zesultats issus du traitement statistique de cet &chantillon ne sont pas par consequent, extrapolables a 1 'ensemble du perimetre.A a s entretiens, i l faut ajouter ceux ef mernbre B e la cooperative de Saga, de f'8nc elevant de 1 I envi ronnement a h i n i s t r rtmetre ( 4 1 entxetiens). Parallel wlement realis& auprbs de la tretiens). Enfin, les enqueteurs 1 engu&te ont recueilli des donne Oorrnel lee par themes ( commerci a1 isa 'oeuvre, approvisionnement en eau, utes ces donnees ont B t B dbpouill atistique a b t B realis6 en France.Le depouillernent des donnbes qualitatives a une identification des differents cas de f f .4,ee exploitants et le denombrement de methode de l'analyse strategique. L e s traitkes sous le logiciel DESTIN (sous t r i s crois6s. C e t amenagement e s t l'un des p l u s anciens du bord du Niger. I1 a 8t& construit h la limite Sud du village de Saga dont il a pris le nom, sur les terres a sorgho et a riz des villages de Gueriguinde, E3-qnigoungou, Libor& et Saga. L e s habitants de ces villages pratiquaient essentiellement l'agricurture de type traditionnel (sorgho, mil, niebe, riz flottant) et lielevage. On y notait aussi l'existence de la peche, de l'artisanat et du jardinage (maralchageverger). La coop&rative de Saga est une institution autonome qui regroupent plusieurs categories d'acteurs notamment : les coopbrateurs, les d&l&gues GMP, le comite de dkveluppement, le comitd de g e s t i o n , 1'organe d e contr6le et 7 salaries de la coopkxative.Tout exploitant est membre de la cooperative a laquelle il est li& par un contrat d'exploitation.A u niveau de chaque GMP, les exploitants se rkunissent pour & l i r e 7 de1kguk.s du bureau du GMP qui doivent les representer au niveau de la coopkrative.L e s 4 9 d&legues des GMP (7 par GMP) f o m e n t le cornit& de developpement, organe de decision de la coopkrative. 11 & l i t en son sein l e comite de gestion ou bureau de la cooperative compose d'un Prksident, un Tresorier, un Secrktaire. C'est 1 ' organe d'exCcution de la coopt5rative. La derniere election du bureau de la coop&rative date de 1992. E l l e a B t C faite par vote des delegues GMP et s'est soldke par la reelection de Mr Harouna Djibo a la Prksidence de l a coopkrative pour un 4 \" mandat. Les membres du bureau de la COOP&ratiVe sont choisis s@lOn leur SCrieux, leur bOnRe rnoralite, leur ardeur au travail et leur devouernent pour la defense des inter5ts des paysans.Le comite de developpement met aussi en place un organe de contrble compose de 3 commissaires aux comptes charges de l a verification de la gestion cooperative, En o u t r e , la cooperative emploie 2 camptables, 2 gardiens, 2 pompistes et I magasinier pour l'aider dans ses activites.De par le contrat d'exploitation, la cooperative s'engage a fournir certaines prestations de service a ses exploitants, notamment la fourniture a temps et a credit de tous les moyens nkcessaires a la production (intrants, materiels agricoles). Elle intervient aussi pour assurer la commercialisation de la production paysanne.Des comites sont mis en place pour permettre une amelioration de la mise en oeuvre du pbrimetre.: comite engrais, camite labour, cornite pepiniere et comit8. irrigation. Dans la realite, ces comites n'existent que de noms.Neanrnoins au sein de chaque GMP sont elUS des delkgues responsables du s u i v i labour, responsables du suivi pepiniere, responsables des . engrais et s&'mePlces et responsables du suivi irrigation.Le labour des pepinieres  -La coordination des operations de production.-. -Le respect du calendrier cultural.-La supervision des travaux.-L'appui aux coop&rateurs dans l e u r s relations avec d'autres services pouvant intervenir sur le p&rirn&tre ou les fournisseurs.  11.3 L'incertitude de la qestion fonciere 14,9% des exploitants interroggs ne s o n t pas les proprihtaires officiels de la parcelle. 11s font partie de la categorie des exploitants a qui le proprietaire a confie l'exploitation de la parcelle soit contre le paiement d e s arrieres soit contre une partie de la produc-tion ou m@me gratuitement pour ne pas perdre sa parcelle. le nouvel exploitant. Celui-ci n'est pas propriktaire de la parcelle mais beneficie d'un droit d'exploitation d'une duree de trois ans. A l'issue de ce terme, si le remboursement de l'ancien proprietaire au nouvel arrivant n'est toujours pas realis@, le nouvel exploitant devient alors l'attributaire legal. D ' a p r e s le president de la cooperative, les criteres de reattribution de parcelle sont : & t r e chef de menage, avoir une famille nombreuse, Gtre non proprietaire de parcelle. Notons que les attributaires maraichers sont majoritairement proprietaires de leur parcelle irriguee ( 9 1 , 4 % ) , ce qui confirme l'anciennetk de cette categorie d'exploitants sur l e perimetre et aussi sa proximite avec le bureau de la cooperative.L e s r e p o n s e s des exploitants a la question :\"Quels sont les criteres de reattribution des parcelles?\" sont par ordre d'importance :1-Avoir une charge de Eamille ou etre dans      utilisation de la main d'oeuvre salariee durant la periode du sarclage pour debuter la campagne rizicole et revenir ensuite sur les champs dunaires.Durant la recolte, l'ensemble de la famille est presente, le pourcentage d'exploitants utilisant de l a main d'oeuvre a cette periode est plus faible ( 2 7 , 6 % ) . Les autres activit6s des champs dunaires pour lesquelles les salaries peuvent G t r e utilis&s s o n t la confection des greniers lors de la recolte, mais cela reste assez marginal (6,9% des exploitants).Pour les champs dunaires, Les t a r i f s pratiquhs sont p l u s variables mais les salaries s o n t egalement rernun&r@s par opkration et le paiement s'effectue en especes apres chaque operation. La main d'oeuvre est toujours nourrie par l'exploitant.Le recours l'entraide sur les champs dunaires et sur le perimetre permet d'eviter l'embauche des manoeuvres m a i s c e t t e pratique tend a disparaftre. 52.83 des exploitants declarent organiser des travaux d'entraide. D'apres le tableau XI1 ci-dessous, le fait d'utiliser de la main d'oeuvre pour toute .la campagne et le recours a l'entraide sont deux variables correlees. L e s attributaires qui nlutilisent la main d'oeuvre que ponctuellement sur le pkrimetre s o n t p l u s nombreux que les autres a faire recours a l'entraide.C'est dlailleurs gkneralernent pour le sarclage et la confection des greniers sur les champs dunaires et pour le repiquage et la rkcolte de la parcelle irriguee que c e s travaux collectifs sont organis8s. Ceux qui refusent l'entraide avancent plusieurs raisons :la pratique e s t consideree come ancienne et perimee l'entraide exige aussi des moyens financiers.la surface des champs est trop reduite La presence de 1 'ouvrier agricole En general, le manoeuvre 'est engage regulierement par 16% m&me employeur et des relations de confiance se sont installbes, si bien que le contrdle de la main d'oeuvre est p l u s 16ger gue suf les autres exploitations et s'effectue lors d'une visite quatidienne. D'autre part, le traiternent du manoeuvre diffgre de celui des autres s a l a r i e s . Celui-ci est la plupart du temps nourri et log& chez l'exploitant. S i ce n'est pas le cas, sa r4muneration sera Galors superieure A 25 000 FCFA, Enfin, le manoeuvre n'est pay& qu'en fin de campagne maraTchere lors de la recolte ou m&m@ lors <de la commercialisation. . I %., 7, . -Aussi, la plupart prefhrent B t r e presents sur le pkrimbtre lors des grandes operations (repiquage, rbcolte) -pour surveiller la realisation des travaux. Certains aussi utilisent les enfants comme un moyen de contr6le de la main d'oeuvre salari8e. Les propric5taires de champs dunaires sont g6neralement presents l'apr&s-midi sur le perimhtre pour travailler sur leurs champs le m a t i n durant l'hivernage, alors que l e s autres sont p l u t b t sur leur parcelle It? matin. Les exploitants salaries ne sont sur le p6rimetre que le soir apres l e u r travail ou l e s jours non ouvrables (le week-end et jours feries). 11s organisent les grands travaux Lors de ces pkriodes. E e s plus aises emploient un superviseur de main d'oeuvre et effectuent des visites hebdomadaires sur leur parcelle.Le contrdle de la main d'oeuvre a lieu &galeluent apres l'execution de l'op&ration, l'exploitant faisant recommencer la tache en cas de ma1 faqon. Ceux qui ont leur jardin maraicher a l'exterieur du perimgtre obtiennent l'eau a partir d'une buse souterraine traversant la route de Kollo e t alirnentee par le canal secondaire 2. A u depart ce conduit etait destinee a abreuver les animaux. Les superficies waraicheres irriguees grsce a ce systeme s'etendent de l a fin du village de Saga jusqu'apres le village de Gueriguinde, ce qui represente une d i s t a n c e d'environ trois kilometres. Alimente par ce conduit, toutun systeme de canaux en terre a e t e construit par l e s exploitants pour pouvoir remplir leurs retenues d'eau. Neanmoins, l'approvisionnement en egu de c e s maraichers est contr6le par le responsable d'irrigation du GMP2 q u i ouvre et ferme une vanne s i t u e e s u r le secondaire les jours du tour d'eau de son GMP. semences = 1125 FCFA par parcelle de 0,25 ha gardiennage pepinieres : 500 FCFA par parcelle de 0,25 ha labour = 4250 FCFA par parcelle de 0,25 ha fongicide = 200 FCFA par parcelle de 0 , 2 5 ha.A ce t o t a l , i l faut ajouter le coQt de l'eau et les engrais s'ils sont fournis par la cooperative. Pour une parcelle de 0,25 ha, la rnoyenne de la redevance e s t de 20156,85 FCFA pour la saison seche et d e 21305,21 FCFA pour l a c a m p a g n e hivernale. Ce qui'laisse supposer que le coQt de l'eau repr6sente p l u s de la moitig du montant de la redevance. Les depenses en engrais sont relativement equivalentes quelquesoit la saison. L e s moyennss sont de 11704,45 FCFA en saison seche et de 11597, 26 pour la carnpagne hivernale pour 0'34 ha. Les, caleuls effectues pour les titulaires de parcelle de 0,25 ha sont de 8431,91 FCFA pour la saison seche et de 8912 FCFA pour la campagne hivernale. Ce qui equivaut d'apres les prix moyens des sacs d'uree et de 15/15/15 a p l u s d'un sac de chaque type d'enqrais par parcelle. D'apres les entretiens, les investissements en engrais varient de 1 3 sacs d'engrais d'uree ou de 15/15/15 par parcelle. Certains exploitants enrichissent eqalement les sols de leur parcelle par des apports en fumure orqanique ( environ 5 sacs a150 FCFA le sac).En reponse a la question \"Pensez-vous que la parce1l.e est rentable?\" 77% des exploitants estiment que la parcelle est rentable. Cependant le t e r m e rentable n'a pas toujours ete bien campris. Les exploitants entendent par rentable, le fait que l'exploitation de la parcelle est satisfaisante ou pas. Le rnaraichage est l'activite la plus avantageuse. En effet, en depit des charges de l a main droeuvre salarike que cette exploitation implique, les revenus de la vente des produits maraichers permettent de degager une marge plus avantageuse que celles i s s u e s de l'exploitation du perimetre irrigue. Les charges du maraichage sont egalement moins lourdes. Elles cornprennent generalement en plus de La main d'oeuvre salariee, le coQt de l'eau de 2 0 0 0 FCFA par exploitant, lrapport variable en engrais et en fumier, les semences et les p r o d u i t s phytosanitaires. La cornparaison des pourcentages representant chaque tyQe de d'activite montre bien que chacune se complete dans le systeme de production de l'attributaire.rnais aussi que l'exploitation de la parcelle se situe dans les memes proportions que celle des champs dunaires, IV.4 -Due fait-on des rPlcoltes ? D'apres le tableau ci-dessus, la recolte rizicole est surtout autoconsommee. En second lieu , la recolte est destinbe 2i la vente que ce soit a la cooperative ou sur les marches ou a domicile. La proportion de riz vendue est faible et ddpasse a peine celle destinee au remboursement de la redevance. Si on ajoute les quantitks donnees","tokenCount":"2266"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1053413e5131c828a28860442159b483","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ee15733b-b43d-43e7-9fa2-eb553188b557/retrieve","id":"-220537264"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"be2f8db0-2ee8-4345-9261-ef820f740de2","pagecount":"35","content":"Climate variability and extreme weather events have been affecting people, livelihoods, and ecosystems in many regions, especially coastal areas, in the world (IPCC, 2021). Providing climate services, defined by the World Meteorological Organization as a decision aide derived from climate information that assists individuals and organizations in society to make improved ex-ante decisionmaking, can increase adaptive capacity and improve agricultural production in regions vulnerable to climate variability impacts (Tesfaye et al., 2019).The Agro-Climatic Bulletin (ACB) is a climate service product of the project \"Applying seasonal forecasting and innovative insurance solutions to climate risk management in the agriculture sector in Southeast Asia\" (DeRISK SE Asia), a regional project led by the World Meteorological Organization -To what extent do people adopt the information and recommendations provided by the ACB? -How do households that adopted ACB recommendations perform as compared to households that did not adopt these?Results of the study are expected to contribute to further improvement of agroclimatic advisory among small holder farmers within the context of DeRISK SE Asia and the CGIAR initative on Asian Mega-Deltas.We use the equation suggested by Cochran (1963) to calculate sample size for large population:(1.96 2 ). (0.5). (0.5) (0.07) 2 = 196Where \uD835\uDC5B \uD835\uDC5C is the sample size, Z is the abscissa of the normal curve that represents level of confidence, p is the percentage of a sample having the attribution, q is 1-p, and e is margin of error. Z-squared is equal to 1.96 with the confidence level of 95%. As suggested by the literature, the adoption level p of 0.5 and the sampling error e of 0.07 are applied (Kotrlik & Higgins, 2001). Thus, the calculated sample size is 196, we allow over-population to 242 rice-farming households to increase the power of the analysis.Households were selected in four stages. Based on agricultural area and advice from the provincial DARD, we first chose six out of districts in Tien Giang based on agricultural area and in consultation with provincial DARD, i.e.: Go Cong Dong, Go Cong Tay, Tan Phuoc, Cai Be, Cai Lay, and Chau Thanh.Second, 2 communes were randomly selected from each district among these 6 districts. Third, we randomly drew 2 villages in each commune. Finally, ten rice-farming households from each village were randomly chosen. If the selected community or village did not grow rice, we selected another one based on the advice of the local authority. Besides, some villages did not have 10 rice-farming households, so the survey team interviewed more households in the next village to compensate. Based on 6 districts in Tien Giang province, the total sample included 12 communes, 24 villages and 242households. The study ensured the participation of both farmers that adopted ACBs and farmers that did not adopt ACBs in the survey with support from the local authority who was asked to invite approximately 50 percent of each category to participate. In addition, participation of both male and female respondents in the survey was encouraged.For the analysis, we limited our sample to 5 districts: Cai Be, Cai Lay, Go Cong Dong, and Tan Phuoc.Chau Thanh was removed since the ACBs were not implemented in Chau Thanh during the Winter-Spring season of 2021-2022, which meant that there were no households in the district that had adopted the ACB. Hence, the final sample for analysis was 202 rice-farming households from 5 districts. Winter-Spring season (Duyen et al., 2016). Other sections were kept similar to the endline survey tool to ensure that results can be compared with other project areas, but also because the enumerators were already familiar with the tool. We also developed a semi-structured questionnaire at village level to interview a person or small group of people who are knowledgeable about the ACB and agricultural production in the community (e.g., community leaders, village head, farmer union, elders, etc.). The household and village questionnaire are provided in Annex 1 and Annex 2 respectively.The survey was implemented in August 2022 with the ethical approval from the Institutional Review Board at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. Data collection started with training enumerators and piloting surveys early August. A survey team of 5 enumerators and 1 supervisor was mobilized to implement the survey. The supervisor was also in charge of conducting a questionnaire at the village level to collect the ACB adoption and price information at village level. All interviews were conducted with tablets using KOBO software. The data was synchronized to the server at the end of each interview day and randomly checked by the lead author/consultant to ensure the data collection quality. Data cleaning and analysis were conducted using STATA 15.Descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations, and frequencies are applied to provide general household information and ACB application for the whole sample, as well as ACB-adopted and non-adopted samples. We also use t-test to compare the mean difference of different variables between adopters and non-adopters.We employed a multivariate model to estimate the determinants of ACB adoptions in rice production at farm level. The need for economic analyses of technology adoption has been highlighted in the literature (Paik et al., 2020).Following Greene (2003), we model the decision to adopt ACB weather forecast and recommendations using a random utility framework. A farmer i adopts ACB recommendations when her utility of adoption (\uD835\uDC48 1 ) exceeds her utility of non-adoption (\uD835\uDC48 0 ). The linear random utility model is formulated as:Where w denotes a vector of observable characteristics of the individual farm household; \uD835\uDC67 1 and \uD835\uDC67 0 denote attributes of the two choices; \uD835\uDF16 1 and \uD835\uDF16 0 denote unobservable shocks to farmer utilities when using each type of variety.Then, the adoption decision could be defined as:which leads to:where \uD835\uDC65 ′ \uD835\uDEFD collects all the observable characteristics of the difference between the two utility functions and ε represents the difference between the two random elements.Then, we use a linear probability model (LPM), assuming normal distribution of random elements, and a logit model, assuming logistic distribution of random elements, to estimate the determinant of ACB adoption. Robust standard errors are estimated to deal with heteroskedasticity problem in LPM.LPM:Observable characteristics in our model include respondent age, gender, education, off-farm income, rice income contribution in total income and rice area.We also use multivariate regression to explore the linkage between ACB adoption status and different outcomes of rice production at farm level.Cost and return analysis (CRA) was used to study rice production cost, revenue, and profit at farm level during Winter-Spring 2021-2022 season. CRA is among the common economic methods to determine and compare the cost and profitability of different farm management practices (Suwanmaneepong et al., 2020;Duyen et al., 2016). The analysis allows using farm survey data to construct gross income, different cost items, gross margin, and net profit. Gross income is not only income from rice but also income from other byproducts. In our case, the byproduct of rice production is the income from selling rice straws. Production cost items can be classified into variable costs (including seed, fertilizer, agrochemicals, service costs, and labor costs) and fixed costs (including land rent, machinery depreciation, and maintenance). These figures are computed using the monetary value on a per hectare basis (1000 VND/ha) to allow for comparability.Both gross margin and net profit are indicators of farm's profitability. Gross margin is the difference between gross income and total variable cost, while net profit also considers fixed cost.Net profit = Gross income -(Total variable cost + Total fixed cost)The study also employs the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) to compare the performance of adopters and nonadopters. The benefit cost ratio also allows us to capture the relationship between cost and benefit for each farming system. The ratio is calculated by dividing the net profit by the total cost. The higher the BCR, the better performing the farming system is. BCR = Net profit / Total costThe demographic characteristics of surveyed respondents and their respective households are provided for the total sample and for households adopting and non-adopting ACBs for the Winter-Spring rice season in 2021-2022 (Table 1). Mean comparisons of different characteristics between the two groups are also presented.During the data collection, the survey team invited interviewees that are knowledgeable about household farming activities and more particularly rice production. The average respondent's age is 56 years. We asked local coordinators to invite both men and women farmers to ensure gender balance in the survey, however, female farmers only account for 29% of the total respondents, which reflects previous findings that male farmers are the dominant managers of agricultural production in the region (Loc et al., 2018). Besides, the majority of the respondents are household heads with a rate of 74% in the full sample. Regarding education, we define respondents with high education as farmers finishing high school and above, while low education as farmers finishing primary school and below.The base category here is farmers finishing secondary school. We found significant differences in the education level of non-adopted and adopted farmers; 7% and 14% of farmers completed high school and post high school in non-adopter and adopter households, respectively. Also, the rate of farmers only finishing primary school or below are lower in adopter households (27%) than that in nonadopting households (39%).When asking about income sources, we find that almost half of the total sample has off-farm income sources. Nevertheless, rice production still plays an important part in the total income of the household with a contribution of 62% in the full sample. The rate of rice income contribution to total household income is significantly higher in adopter households (66%) than in non-adopter households (57%). The average rice area in our sample is approximately 0.84 hectares. Source of ACB in term of channel production. The reason for not applying ACB of the 2 remaining households includes \"I need to see if these recommendations are effective or appropriate\", \"The information is not specific enough to use or apply\", and \"Information too late\". For those who adopt ACB's recommendation, the majority adopts not only one but several recommendations. The highest adopted recommendation is \"Visit the field regularly\" with 83% of adopters, followed by \"sowing calendar\", and \"pest management recommendations based on weather conditions\" with respectively 81% and 78% of farmers stating that they applied the recommendation. Details are presented in Figure 4.All adopters stated that they found ACB recommendations on agriculture very beneficial for their production. Among these farmers, 89% expressed the need to have more technical assistance and training on how to use recommendations or training on how to use weather forecasting for rice cultivation.Apart from rice production, farmers reported that the ACB provides information that can be beneficial to other crops and animals.As the survey was designed to assess the costs and benefits of ACB adoption for rice production, we intentionally selected a balanced sample of ACB adopters and non-adopters. Therefore, we could not use the farmer survey to calculate the adoption rate of ACB. Instead, we conducted several keyinformant interviews by using a semi-structure questionnaire (see Annex 2) and collected ACB adoption information at village level. These interviews targeted a person or small group of people who are knowledgeable about the ACB and agricultural production in the community (e.g., community leaders, farmer union, elders, etc.). In total, the study conducted 19 interviews in different villages in the 5 surveyed districts of Tien Giang province. The average ACB awareness rate of these districts is  To understand farmers' perception on the use of ACB recommendations, we included a questionnaire section on 'Attitude toward climate risk and the value received from climate forecast'. In this section, adopters were asked to evaluate the differences on salinity impacts, yields and input costs before and after using ACB weather forecast and recommendations. The result shows that the majority of farmers considered salinity impacts in the Winter-Spring 2021-2022 season as rather decreased or not affected;8 out of 111 ACB-adopters reported lower salinity impacts in Winter-Spring 2021-2022 thanks to ACB application, with 12 out of 111 farmers reporting increased yields thanks to ACB adoption.In term of input cost, a greater number of farmers (41/111) saved their pesticide use in rice production based on ACB adoption. On average, these farmers saved 1.364 million Vietnam Dong (VND) per hectare for pesticide costs. Only a few farmers reported a decrease in the use of herbicides (3/111) and Nitro-fertilizer (5/111) application; the reduction in chemical inputs is not only economically beneficial at the farm level but may also have long-lasting benefits for the environment. To understand how the adoption of ACB recommendations affects production outcomes, we ran the multivariate linear regression models of different production outcomes on the adoption status and other controlled variables. Our dependent variables included yield, revenue per hectare, total production cost per hectare, and profit per hectare. Explanatory variables included adoption status, respondent age, gender, education levels, households having off-farm income, rice income contribution in total income, and rice area.The regression results are presented in Table 7. The results show significant and positive association between ACB adoption and yield as well as revenue per hectare. On average, adopting ACB recommendations is associated with a (statistically significant) yield increase of 266 kilogram and revenue of VND 1,834,000 (equivalent to USD 78) per hectare, ceteris paribus. We did not find evidence of the impact of ACB adoption on total cost and profit per hectare. In term of control variables, education level seems to have strong influence on production outcomes, including increased yield, revenue, and profit and reduced fertilizer cost and total cost. This is in line with other studies investigating impacts on production (Mills et al., 2022). Additional regression results for different cost items are provided in Annex 3.It is important to note that the result is a correlation between ACB adoption and production outcomes, rather than robust evidence of ACB adoption impact on production. In order to measure the impact, one will need to have either panel data or better control for selection bias at the beginning (Shahidur et al., 2010;Yorobe et al., 2016). Main rice production outcomes of non-adopter and adopter households in Winter-Spring 2021-2022 are provided in Table 8.The results suggest that on average, ACB adopters perform significantly better than non-adopters in term of yield, revenues, fixed cost, and net profit. Specifically, ACB adopter households reported yields of 7,178 kg/ha on average, while non-adopter household yields were on average 322 kg lower (p<0.1).Income from rice production, including from rice and rice straw, of adopter households is approximately VND 2,001,299 per hectare higher than that of non-adopter households. In term of costs, there are no significant differences for variable cost and total cost, however, adopter households can save on fixed-cost better than non-adopters. As a result, adopter households have a higher net profit than non-adopters with VND 2,751,512 difference. Gross margin and Benefit-cost Ratio indicators of adopter households are also better than that of non-adopter households, but the results are not statistically significant.  9 provides detailed comparative costs and returns from rice production of ACB adopter and nonadopter households. In both tables, the result only considers labor costs from hired laborers (not family laborers). However, the main conclusion that adopters perform better than non-adopters still holds in when including family labor (see Annex 4). We conducted a study in Tien Giang province to analyze the adoption and cost and benefit of the ACB application at farm level during the rice production Winter-Spring 2021-2022 season. The study used multivariate regressions and ex-post costs and returns analyses to explore farmers' adoption decisionsand their production outcomes. The result demonstrates a significant share of rice-farming households in Tien Giang has adopted the recommendations of the ACB. In addition, ACB-adopters perform better than non-adopters in several production indicators. We summarize some key results as follows:-Average awareness rate of ACB is 79.5% and adoption rate of ACB is 62.2%. High education, rice income contribution, and rice area matters for ACB uptake.-Famer's reported costs saved on production: 41/111 ACB adopters (39.6%) reported that they can reduce pesticide use and costs (reducing 1.36 million VND per hectare on average for Winter-Spring season) thanks to ACB, while 3/111 (2.7%) and 5/111 (4.5%) ACB adopters reported that they can save on herbicide and Nitrogen fertilizer costs, respectively.-Farmers reported that ACB is not only beneficial to rice production but also helpful to other crops and livestock production -ACB adoption is associated with a significant increase in rice yield and revenue. ACB adopters had an increased average rice yield of 266 kilograms per hectare, and an average rice revenue increase of 1.834 million VND (USD 78) per hectare.-Fixed cost: ACB adopters have lower a fixed cost of 578 thousand VND (USD 25) per hectare -Net profit per hectare: average net profit of ACB adopters is 22 million VND (or USD 936) which is significantly higher than that of non-adopters (19.24 million VND or USD 819). However, regression analysis shows no significant effect of adoption status on net profit.As the 2021-2022 Winter-Spring season was considered as a good year for agricultural production with a low level of salinity intrusion, the ACB is expected to bring even greater benefits to farmers in years with more irregular and impactful weather events. Benefits may also further increase over time, with more training and technical guidance. However, the real impact needs to be taken with some caution.While ACB adoption is strongly associated with positive production outcomes, further research is needed to exclude the role of confounding variables, such as education level. To provide strong evidence of the ACB's impact on farm yield and income, highly rigorous measurement methods such as randomized control trials should be employed in the future. Besides, other impact evaluation methods such as propensity score matching, difference-in-difference, instrumental variable approach, and regression discontinuity can be applied with careful consideration of data and analysis assumption.Annex 1. Household questionnaire Seasonal weather forecasting is a forecast of weather and climate trends for a period of 3-6 months. For example, if today is April 5, 2022, there is a forecast for the period from 5 -8/2022 (3 months) or May -11/2022 (6 months). For example, on April 5, your provincial hydro-meteorological station predicted that from March to May, 2022, the rainfall will be approximately the average of many years compared to the same period. However, from May to November, rainstorms are likely to increase compared to the same period, especially from June to August, the common rainfall is 15-30% higher than the average of many years compared to the same period. a. Information about daily water salinity at commune/village (can be via Zalo/Viber/WhatsApp Group) b. Forecast of saline intrusion in the coming week c. Forecast of saline intrusion in the next month d. Forecast of saline intrusion for the whole rice crop e. Forecast of saline intrusion for the whole crop (time of salinity intrusion, highest salinity in the whole crop) f. Forecast of saline intrusion for the whole region. g. Other, specify_________ 24a.1.1 Among the above forecast, what forecast information did you receive from the Agro. Climatic Bulletin? (write down the letters a, b, c.. above if the respondent chose):. . .   ","tokenCount":"3159"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1296bf9335f67ac3ea7aea7f3ede7270","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0dbd6415-5ce6-4c1a-945f-0075674506f9/retrieve","id":"1183455418"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d46bed1a-47c2-43a2-a037-eba3bfb4fe88","pagecount":"8","content":"The rising costs of healthy diets -December 2021 survey round Key findings ▪ Between December 2020 and December 2021, the cost of an average healthy diet increased by about 20 percent at the national level and increased slightly more in urban areas (22 percent) than in rural areas (19 percent).▪ Healthy diets are more expensive than diets commonly consumed in Myanmar. It is estimated that the average common diet costs approximately two-thirds of the cost of a diet consistent with healthy diets recommended in food-based dietary guidelines.▪ The cost of a healthy diet is highest in the Hills and Mountains agro-ecological region and lowest in the Dry Zone. The fastest rise of the cost of healthy diets was seen in the Coastal areas, where the cost increased by nearly 30 percent in 2021.▪ Between September 2021 and December 2021, we observed a 21 percent increase in the price of vegetables.▪ Between December 2020 and December 2021, inflation in micronutrient-rich food groups ranged from about 15 percent (vegetables, fruits, and animal source foods) to 24 percent (pulses). However, there is considerable variation between regions.▪ The high and increasing cost of a healthy diet over the last year is worrisome, especially given the declining incomes seen in Myanmar. The rise in cost does not bode well for nutritional outcomes in the country this year.This Research Note presents the results from ten rounds of a telephone survey with food vendors conducted in rural and urban zones throughout Myanmar and focuses on the results from the latest round completed in December 2021. The purpose of the survey is to provide data and insights on Myanmar's food markets to interested stakeholders to foster better understanding of the effects of shocks related to COVID-19 and the ongoing political crisis. In particular, the note explores changes in food prices and their impact on the cost of common and healthy diets.We conducted ten rounds of food vendor phone surveys between June/July 2020 and December 2021. The areas in which the surveyed food vendors operate are shown in Table 1. In the most recent round, 187 food vendors were interviewed. Food vendors in urban areas make up 15 percent of the sample, with the remaining 85 percent in rural areas. The vendors selected for the survey sample were those that are well informed on food markets overall; they deal regularly with food traders such as suppliers and wholesalers, are highly numerate, and are knowledgeable about food prices. Table 1 shows the basic characteristics of the food vendors in our sample. More than half of the vendors are women, their average age is 42 years, and almost all vendors operate out of their own general stores. The survey was designed to collect information on foods from a diversity of food groups. Specifically, we use vendor-reported current prices of the cheapest commonly consumed varieties of rice, potatoes, pulses, bananas, dark green leafy vegetables, chicken, pork, fresh and dried fish, and oil.In this analysis, we estimate the evolving cost of two food baskets: 1) average reported quantities of foods representative of those included in the in the vendor survey consumed by households surveyed in the 2015 Myanmar Poverty and Living Conditions Survey (MPLCS); and 2) quantities of foods associated with a recommended healthy diet. Presenting dietary costs based on reported common consumption patterns alongside the cost of a healthy diet allows us to compare changes in costs that households face with a common consumption pattern compared to the cost of acquiring a recommended healthy diet. We evaluate the cost of these two diets using ten types of food with the aim of tracking changes in healthy diet costs, rather than providing a nuanced estimate of costs faced by households of varying compositions.Food inflation is calculated by comparing the cost of a basket of foods in a base period to the cost of that same basket in subsequent periods, where the basket is derived from average food consumption reported in the national household survey. We estimate an analogous measure of recommended healthy food inflation, where the basket is realigned to be consistent with food group quantities recommended in food based dietary guidelines. 1 Table 2 shows national average per capita daily quantities consumed, by each of the six food groups and area of analysis. It is to be noted that average common diet quantities are not representative of all foods consumed by households, but of types of foods collected in the vendor survey. 2In the absence of food-based dietary guidelines for the general population in Myanmar, guidelines from Bangladesh provide parameters for the recommended healthy diet, modified for ten types of foods collected in the vendor survey (Table 2). Both baskets are scaled to meet the average per capita energy requirement of individuals living in households surveyed in the MPLCS-2167 calories. For both the average and healthy diets, food group costs equal mean food group prices multiplied by dietary quantities. Source: Bangladesh Food Based Dietary Guidelines, 2015 MPLCS, and authors' calculations Note: Average diet quantities are presented in food group equivalent quantities. 3 The healthy diet guidelines adhere to average number of servings in the Bangladesh food base dietary guidelines. The absence of dairy products in the vendor survey is accommodated by increasing the average number of servings of the meat/fish/egg food group. The vendor survey collects prices for multiple items within the starchy staple and animal source food groups. For these food groups, the average diet food group costs equal the sum of the item level costs; the healthy diet food group costs equal the average quantity weighed cost of each item using weights based on average MPLCS consumption.Table 2 illustrates important differences in the common average household consumption relative to the recommended healthy diet. 4 Households over-consume starchy staples (rice and tubers), consume appropriate quantities of oils, and under-consume animal source foods (meat and fish), vegetables, fruits, and pulses.Overall, the average diet reported by households surveyed in the 2015 MPLCS costs approximately two-thirds of the cost of a diet consistent with recommended healthy diet guidelines (971 MMK and 1,413 MMK in December 2021, respectively) (Figure 1). This cost margin is lower in urban areas (23 percent) compared to rural areas (34 percent). The costs of a healthy diet are highest in the Hills and Mountains agro-ecological region.  Oils and starchy staples make up nearly half the cost of the average common diet-44 percent compared to 26 percent of the healthy diet. Thirty percent of the cost of the healthy diet can be attributed to fruits, vegetables, and pulses compared to a fifth of the average common diet (Figure 2). The costs of both the average diet and the healthy diet were relatively high in the first survey round (June/July 2020), followed by a period of gradual decline or stagnation. Costs spiked in May 2021, dipped, and then peaked in December 2021 (Table 3). These patterns are present in the costs of both diets in rural and urban areas and in most agro-ecological regions (Figure 3). Coastal areas (Rakhine and Tanintharyi) are the exception, where prices spiked in the July 2021 survey round rather than May 2021. Overall, costs of average common and healthy diets have risen at similar rates. Figures 4 and 5 show changes in the cost of diets in December 2021 compared to one year prior and compared to the previous survey (September 2021). In the past year, the cost of average common and healthy diets increased by about 20 percent in rural areas and by 22 percent in urban areas. The cost of healthy diets in Coastal areas rose by nearly 30 percent in 2021. 5 The cost of rural diets increased by about 8 percent between September 2021 and December 2021, whereas average urban diet costs increased by 10 percent and healthy diet costs increased by 13 percent-a significant jump over a three-month period. Similarly large increases are seen in the Dry Zone and in the healthy diets in Coastal areas.5 Some caution is warranted though given the relatively low number of observations ( 7) in the Coastal areas.  Though overall costs of average common diets and healthy diets have increased at similar rates in December 2021 relative to December 2020 and September 2021, the food groups driving rising costs differ between diets and between time periods. Table 4 shows average food group inflation over one-year and three-month periods. Source: Food vendor survey-September 2021, December 2021. Note: The vendor survey collects prices for multiple items within the starchy staple and animal source food groups. For these food groups, inflation is based on average quantity weighed food group prices per edible gram using weights based on average MPLCS consumption.While potatoes comprise a relatively small share of starchy staple consumption (less than 2 percent), large increases in potato prices (86 percent relative to December 2020 and 64 percent relative to September 2021) drove up the average cost of starchy staples.Between December 2020 and December 2021, oil price inflation was exceedingly high in every area (84-105 percent). Overall, inflation of all other food groups ranged between about 15-16 percent (starchy staples, animal source foods, vegetables, and fruits) and 24 percent (pulses). However, there was considerable variation between food groups at the regional level. For example, in the Coastal areas, animal source foods, vegetable, and fruit group prices increased by 28, 37, and 46 percent, respectively. In the Hills and Mountains region, the vegetable group price did not change at all. In the last quarter of 2021 (September to December), the vegetable and oil food groups had the largest price increases in most areas (21 and 25 percent overall). Inflation in the fruit group was also high in urban and Coastal areas.Average common diet costs are dominated by staples, animal source foods, and oils, and these food groups drove increased diet costs over the past year (Figure 6). In contrast, healthy diets are dominated by animal source foods with remaining costs more equally distributed between other food groups. As a result, the impact of large increases in oil prices was dampened while fruit and vegetable price inflation had a greater influence on the cost of healthy diets. Similar patterns are observed between September and December 2021. Focusing on healthy diets, food group contributions to rising diet costs are fairly consistent between regions (Figure 7). A notable exception is the Coastal areas, where rice prices were stagnant over the one-year period and where rice and dried fish prices decreased over the threemonth period preceding December 2021.  Figure 7 highlights drivers of particularly large increases in healthy diet costs in Coastal areas (Figures 4 and 5). Animal source foods were the largest driver of this increase relative to the previous year, particularly increases in fresh fish prices, while large increases in fruit and vegetable prices had the biggest impact on costs in Coastal areas relative to three months prior.","tokenCount":"1806"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"052513116a5912094fc0c4aced0585c7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8a33ce17-be5d-4200-963b-0477398157bf/retrieve","id":"-2010886811"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5960b8ee-afb6-49e6-956b-287ac8e3aa16","pagecount":"181","content":"The lavae of an insect pest Spodopptera spp. The larvae feed forociously on cereal crops consuming the upper portions of the plant. The leaf midribs and stems are not attacked.Fragrance, usually a pleasing smell of plant parts or of cooked food. The term is used in cooking quality tests e.g. in rice.Without involving sex or two dissimilar gametes.The pri m ary pur pose of t hi s book i s t o ma ke the duties of a sc i en t i st less fr ustrating. He will f ind i n th is book defin i t ions of commonly used resea r ch terms in hi s di sc ipline and ou tside i t . Thi s gl ossary is also i ntroduced to se rve the needs of under-graduates, gradua t e students , translato rs , interp re ters, specialists, trainees , agr i cult ura l administrators, and extensi on worker s .An attemp t ha s been made not on l y to defi ne the some inf orma tion and examples of many of t he terms.as main examples with mai n emphasis on ri ce.words but to include Ce real s are used I claimed no original i ty for most of t he terms described . Al l literature cons ulted i s cited in the bibliography . Often when words are direc t l y quoted, the reference so urces are immedi at el y ackn owl edged in the t ext. I sincerel y acknowledge the se aut hors. Ju l y, 1984 I would l ike to express my gratitude t o the ma ny authors whose books and articl es I have use d i n t his gl ossary . Special gratitude goes t o Dr T. T. Chang of IRR I i n t he Ph ilippines f or his thoroug h review and suggestions ; Dr. J . Neil Rutge r of Davi s Ca lifornia; Mr. Jibade Oyekan; Dr. S.V . S. Shas try; Dr. V.T. John of the International Ins t i tute of Tropica l Agricu lture (I ITA) Ibadan, Nigeria; Dr. O.A. Ojomo of the National Ce rea ls Research Inst i t ute, Ibadan, Ni ge ria; Drs M.A. Choudhury, B.A. C. Enyi, O. K. Das Gupta, E.A. Akinsola, A.K. Ko roma, V.A. Awoderu , Dr. Botchey, Mr. T. Asongwede, Mr. N. Bangu ra of the West Africa Ri ce Development Association (WA RDA) who have co ntri buted i n various ways i n edi t i ng thi s glossary . Spec ia l gratitude i s also espressed to Prof. You deowei of Ibada n University for his encou ra geme nt and suggest ions.I wou ld also li ke t o thank the International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Laguna, Phi lippines and Departme nt of Agronomy and Range Sc i ence, University of California, Davis, Cal ifornia for prov i din g me with t he facilities that made the initial attempt to prepare this gl ossa ry possib le during my sabbatical leave there in 1976 to 1977 .I am gra t eful to many private typists. Mr. E.K . Apet i, Mr. L. Kamara, Mr. J . O. Larbi, Miss. C. Y. Ogu ndiya and my dau ghter Miss. O. A. Abifarin wh o he lped at vari ous stages of the ma nuscri pt.I am gratef ul to WARD~ for assistance in mi meog raphing the f inal draft and ~l so g ra~efu l to the Dlrector Ge neral of the International Instit ut e of Troplcal Agr lcult ure who granted m e the sabba t ical l ea ve.Acquired qualitative or po1igenic characters: Phynotypic changes produced on a plant by the environment during development. Such characters (defined) are uninheritab1e.The potent portion of a chemical such as fertilizer, insecticide or herbicide that is applied on the soil or plant on which the estimation of the chemical effect is based.Active vegetative stage: Adapt:The stage when there is a profuse or rapid development of leaves, tillers branches or stem elongation of a plant.Fit or adju~t to or suit a given environment or set of conditions (see adaptability) .The ability of a plant to change, adjust to or fit into different environments by modifications in the plant's structure or physiological responses.The process by which parts of a plant, a whole plant, a species or population reacts to or fits into new or different environmental conditions by change in form or function. The plant grows and produces satisfactorily despite unfavourable factors that would have made growth and development otherwise impossible. A variety with wide adaptation is one that performs satisfactorily under a wide range of environments.Research conducted to determine whether a given research result will be suitable in a given area or for a given procedure on a larger scale than when the experiment or research was conducted (see basic and applied research). Example is varietal trial on farmer's field (see on-farm trial).This is the strength, intensity or degree of being adapted to a certain environment or environmental conditions.Additive effects of genes:These are the effects produced by the sum of more th an one pair of genes. The characters or the effects controlled by the ge nes are prodcued by the addition of relatively very small amounts to impart or improve desirable characters or suppress undesirable characters of a plant . There is faste r improvement by selection when dealing with variables controlled by additive gene action than by non-additive actions such as epistasis.Genes that have an additive effect and show no dominance.To use another research findi ng.A generation (see Filian gene ration) later than the f ou rth or fifth (F 4 or F ) in a pedigree systems , i.e. F4 -Fg will be regarded as ad?anced generations. In genera l , most of t he major genes are fixed at the advanced ge neration.Ari s ing from abnormal positi on ; of roots developing f rom the part of a plant other than roots, e.g. f rom stem or leaf ~u tt i ng and buds, sai d of leaf or branch tha t develops from ~ar t of pl ant other than in axil of leaf e . g. from root .Aeri a 1 r oots:(See noda l roots).Ae robi c:(See noda l ti ll ers).(1) Havin g mo lecula r oxygen as a part of the enviro nm ent.(2 ) Grow i ng on ly in t he presence of molecular oxygen , as aerobic organisms.(3 ) Occ urr i ng only i n the presence of mol ecular oxygen, said of certa i n chemi cal , bi ochemi ca l or mi crobi olog i cal processes such as aerobic decomposition and aerobic respiration (Foth,19 78) .African r i ce:The After r ipening:Agar :Bioch emical processes or physical changes that take place in physiologically ma ture fr uit s, seeds, bulbs, tubers, etc., essential in some spec ies for susequent germination (See Dormancy).Mucilage derived from a seaw• eed. It forms a gel wi th wa ter . It i s used t o solidify culture media on wh ich mi cro organis ms are grown.Agriculture:Ag ronom y:The sc i ence or the practice of cul tivati on, fa rm ing, tillage and horticulture, plant and animal production. It i s app l ied bi ology.The science in ag riculture that deals with the relationship of soi ls an d plants, their developm ent and improvement f or crop pro ducti on and field ma nageme nt . It is the study of t he management of the land an d the sc i entific cultivation of crops on the la nd .In a broad sense , pl ant breedin g and soil sc i ence are incl uded but it includes cultural practices an d weed control mainly.Ag r onomic characters:Al bin o:Impo rtant plant characters re l ated to crop processing and product ion usually observed during t he pl ant growth e.g. height, maturity, tiller number, pan icle s ize, qua l ity fa ctors , etc.A pl ant which l acks chlorophyll; • a de ficiency in norma l pigment.The lea ves of such plants are yellowish or white and usually the plants die wi t hin a few days of emergence. It occurs when the gene for albinism which is normally recessive is present i n homozygous condition.Ale urone layer:The ou t side layer of endosperm i n a grain below the seed coat. It i s rich in oil, vitamins and protein but lacks starch. It is removed in rice during milling .This is a soil that contains among other chemical compounds sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate. The soil has a very high PH (defined) ranging from 6.5-9.0. An alkaline soil induces zinc and iron defficiencies in rice fields.In Mendelian inheritance, one of a pair of alternative contrasting forms of a gene, fn which one may be dominant and the other recessive. The pair occupies the same site or locus in a pair of homologous chromosomes.A series of alleles (more than 2) which affect the development of a character. But only one pair of the series will occur at the same locus on a particular pair of chromosomes of an individual.A 11 ogamous:Allogamy:Genes that act phonotypically such as mUltiple alleles but are distinguished from one another by crossing over or by independent mutability (Clapper, 1960).Capable of cross fertili zation.Cross-fertilization; oppo site of autogamy.A plant having more than two sets of non-identical chromosomes in its body cells of each set derived from a different species.Alluvial soil:Soil that has been deposited by any from of running water.Alte rnate host: Amino acids:An individual upon which a parasite (or its spores, eggs, larvae, etc,) lives for a period of time before it finally lives on the main host on which it causes varying levels of damage.Carboxylic acids that contain the amino group -NH 2 . These acids are the units that link together into polypeptide chains to form proteins. There are twenty different amino acids in nature. There are eight essential ones. Some of these are limited in cereals and very important in nutrition. Some of the aminoacids of importance are lysine, leucine, Iso-leucine and tryptophan.Amphiploid or Amphidiploid:Amylose:A m ylopectin:Anaerobic :Analogous:Said of plant resulting from a cross between two different species and having the total chromosome complement of the parent species. It is also usually produced by doubling the chromosome number of the Fl plant.In the cereal endosperm, it is the starch fraction in which the molecules or residues are made up of straight short chains (see non-waxy endosperm). The non glutinous or non-waxy rice endosperm range from 8-30% in amylose content. Most are 20-25% Low-amylose rice variaties are moist, sticky and glossy after cooking and readily split and break up when over-cooked. But rice with a high-amylose content cooks dry and fluffy and depending on the gel-consistency, it may become hard when cool.The type of starch in which the molecules or residues are made up of branched long chains (see waxy-endosperm).(1) The absence of molecular oxygen.(2) Growing in the absence of molecular oxygen (such as anaerobic bacteria).(3) Occurin9 in the absence of molecular oxygen (as a biochemical process) (Forth, 1978) .Similar, e.g. analogous chromosome.Anatomy:Aneuploids:The analysis carried out in statistics that enables one to test the significance of variable sources.Study of the internal structure of plant parts, e.g. the xylem and phloem.A plant having a chromosome number that is not an exact multiple of the haploid chromosome complement, e.g. X + 1 or X -1.Several genes that have one directional, cummu1ative, but unequal1 effects. Their expressivity and ,heritability are intermediate between those of major genes and polygenes.Yearly; used for plants that complete their life cycle (from seed to seed production and death) within a year or single season e.g. cultivated rice.Nameless; used in scientific publications when the author's name is not given .Anth esi s:A symbiotic (see symbiosis) association which i s disadvantageous or de structive to one of the symbionts or partners involved in the association.The period when floral pa rts open and pollen is dispersed f rom the anthers The time when fertilization takes place.Anthocyanin:Purple orred pigmentation of different shade in one or more parts of a plant, particularly in rice.A chemical substance produced by one species of organism that in l ow concentration, will kill or inhibit growth of certain other organisms.Antibiosis:Apiculus:An antagonistic assoc ia t ion between two organisms producing detrimental effects on one of them. It co uld also mean an association between one organism and a metabolic product of another. An example i s the phonomenon in which a virus-carrying insect which feeds on a resistant variety of rice has its life span shortened. This adverse effect reduces the insect population density. This also means that there are fewer insects in the rice field to spread the virus the insect i s hosting. Thus t he variety has less infect ion.A small extension of the lemma and pal ea. It is often coloured in rice.Apomixis:Apparatus:\"Reproduction in which sexual organ or related structures take part but fertilization does not occur, so that the resulting seed is vegetatively produced\" (Allard, 1960). In other words, reproduction from an unfertilized egg or from somatic cells associated with the female parent.Equipment, device or instrument for carryihg out an operation e.g. in rice, clipping to emasu1ate the simple apparatus required consists of a forceps and a pair of scissors.Application rate:The amount applied per unit area or volume of an input in experiments or commercial production, e.g. 60kg of nitrogen per hectare.Applied research:This is the research carried out making use of already available scientific findings in such a way that the results can be used immediately by the consumer in crops or by the farmer. Applied research adapts the results of basic research to the peculiar problems of a country or a region within each country. The research can be focussed from the beginning on meeting particular needs known to be critical now (Mosher, This is a water fern found in warm, temperate and tropical regions.It is also known as water velvet and mosquito fern. There are over 50 strains of Azolla. Some of the species are Azo11a pinnata, A. fi1iculoides, A. mexicana, A. caro1iniana and A. microphylla TWatanabe, et ~,-1981).-The importance of Azo11a is due to the association of the blue-green algae, Anoba~na azo11ae (see Blue-green algae) which lives permanently on Azolla s life cycle . In an intensive cropping of Azolla (6 times within 121 days) up to 104 kg of N/ha was produced by the Azolla-Anabaene complex (Watanabe et~, 1981)Phosphorus is essential for good growth and deve l opment of Azolla.Bl, B2 (BC 1 , BC 2 ) :The first and second backcro sses or bac kcros s generations.The first backcross is made by crossing a hybrid with one of its parents; t he second backcross is made by crossing Bl individuals with one of the pa rents, referred to as a recurrent parent whi ch is usually the prefe rred cultivar or line.A cross of a hyb rid or hete rozygote or an F with one of its parents (recurrent parent) done with th~ aim of transferring a simply inherited trait into an imp roved variety whi ch lac ks the trait.This is a me t hod for dev eloping a new variety in which a s i mply inher i ted trait is transferred usually fr om an unimproved variety (non-recu rren t or do nor parent) into an imp roved variety which lacks the character from the don or pa rent. Several backcrosses are made to the recurrent parent until the new line resembles the recurrent pa rent except that it has t he new character or cha racter s from the donor parent.Bac kcross pa rent:One of the parents of a hybrid with which the hybrid is repeatedly crossed. It is also known as a recurrent parent. The recu rrent parent has most of the desi rable characters, but l acks one or two trai ts t hat a donor or non-recurre nt parent posse sses.Backcross ratio:Bac teria:Th e proportion of heterozygotes to bottom rnce ssives expected in a backcros s ; this is given by calculat i ng 2 where n i s the nu mber of factor s involved, e .g. when n = 1, i t is 1:1 with 2 factors, 2 n = 4 and the expected rat i o is 3:1 with 3 f actors, 2n = 8 and t he expected ratio is 7:1, etc.Single-celled microscopic organisms. They grow, multiply and may double their number within an hou r under optimal conditions. They are incapable of photosynthesis and depend on various substrates for food. They exist both in the soil and on plants.They affect plants in various ways, e . g. as pathogens of economic diseases such as bacterial wilt of cassava and as non-pathogens fixing molecular nitrogen in various ways, e. g. module-living Rhizobium spp., blue-green bacteria, Anabaena spp., free-living Azotobacter spp.A disease caused by bacteria. In rice it is bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae. Lesions may start anywhere on the leaf but usually they start at edges near the tip or leaf margins. The lesions then enlarge and expand downwards in straight lines. Lesions are first pale-green to grayish-green . Later they turn bronze to gray and the leaf tissues die. In very susceptible varieties, lesions may extend over the entire leaf length into the leaf sheath.Bacterial leaf strea k:In rice the causal agent is Xanthomonas translucens f. sp.oryzae.Infection is usually only on the leaf blade. Lesions first appear as water-soa ked streaks between veins gradually turning yellow or orange. The lesions may develo p side by side, but remain more or les s linear. Hi gh humidity favors i nfection which does no t get trasmitted t o unaffected leaves.Baggin g:The act of covering a plant, especially the reproductive parts to prevent cross pollination or pest damage. This is an important process in cereal breeding.A fungal disease in rice caused by Gibberal l a fuji kuroi (Sawada) Ito (Fusarium moni l i f orme shiel d). The m ost cons picuous symptom is the abnormal l eaf elongat i on of affected pla nts which produce tall thin plants in t he seed bed. The young plants are yellowish-green. The disease is seed-borne. In the fiel d, infected pl ants produce ta l l lanky tillers bearing pale-green f l ag l eav es above the general level of the crop. Such plants produce few tillers an d the leaves die one after another. Whitish or pi nk fungal growth may appear on the lower portion of the dying plants.\"Banta faro\". :Bar:A local term in the Gambia describing traditional swamp or hydromorphic rice cultivation.A unit or press ure equal to 1 million dynes per square centimetre.Basal dressing or basal application of a chemical:Base:Fertilizer or chemical applied and incorporated into the soil during or before planting.The lowest portion of the plant to the ground. Height measurement is usually taken from the base of the plant to the tip of the panicle of a mature cereal plant.Bias:Bimodal:Research that deals with fundamental principles of things and organisms. Examples of basic research are: finding the location of a gene on a given chromosome of rice, the replication pattern of DNA of a yellow mottle virus or the mutation frequency of a blast conidium.Prejudice, favouring one treatment over another or treating a treatment worse or better than others.A frequency distribution having 2 modes of rainfall, having two peaks in the year.Biology:Controlling crop pests by using living organisms harmless to the plants but which destroy or reduce the number of the harmful pests. In this process, no chemical is used.The study or science of living t hings. Main branches are botany and zoology . Other branches are cytology, histology, morphology, physiology, embryology, ecology, genetics and microbiology. Agricultu re is applied biology.The science that deals with the use of statistics to explain biological data or observations.Biotype:The insect pests, pl ant pathogens, weeds, other crop plants, small animals and human beings in a habitat make up the biotic environment.A groupof individuals, e.g . insects with the same or identical phenotype, but having different physiological or bahavioural effects on plants.Bisexual:Bivalent:Blast:Hermaphroditic possessing both organs in a single individual. pistils in a flower .male and female reproducti ve The presence of both stamens and A pair of homologous chromosomes united i n the first mitotic division.A fungal disease caused by Pyricularia oryzae. A serious disease of rice that may attack one or more of the f ollowing parts of the r ice plant : leaves , ligules neck, nodes, pa nicle, rachi s or in div i dual spi kelets .Bl i ght:Block :Bl oom :A specially pre pared nursery or seedbed where seve r al vari et i es or lines are grown to determine thei r rel ative suscept i bility or resis t an ce to bl ast. The nursery co ns is t s of one or mo re kno wn suscepti ble en t ries t o serve as inocu lum spreade r.Any age nt cau s in g wi despread bl ac kening necro sis of l eaves and shoo ts. The onl y val i d use i n pl ant pathol ogy is in commo n names of certain di seases charac t er i zed by poten tia ll y ca t as trop hic ep i demic spre ad e.g. pota t o bli ght, f i re bl igh t , bacter ia l l eaf bl ig ht.In expe riments a bloc k is a grou p of i tems unde r t rea t ment or observat i on. In f i el d experi men t s, it co nsists of a grou p of co ntiguo us plots ass i gned to a pi ece of land. In expe r ime nt al des igns f or stat i st i cal analyses, t here are usu al ly two or ~ore blocks , often cal led rep l icat i ons . Blocking helps remove heterogenei t y. The pl ots or items in a bl ock are suppo sed to be more homoge neous than these in ot her bl ocks.A f l owe r or flo wers of a seed pl ant; t he powdery coat i ng on cer t ai n parts and f l owers. To produse bl ossom or f l ower (Clappe r , 1960 ) .Bl ue -green algae:These are al gae th at have bee n reported t o have contr i buted to t he m ain t enanc e of so il fer t ili ty espeC i al ly i n r i ce pa ddy field s . They can f ix fr om 15-45 kg N/ ha (De Datta,198 1) in unfer tili zed ri ce fi elds.There are in the Tropics many species belonging to the genera Tolypothrix, Nostoc, Schizothrix, Ca lothrix, AnoboenoasiS and Plectonema. Application of phosphatic fertilizers an line -<~ .. L< __ algal growth and nitrogen fixati on (De Datta, 1981) .Grain as in rice that is broad in shape (see Table 1 under grain characteristics).\"Boliland\" rice: Booting:A local term is Sierra Leone for the type of rice under an ecology where the land is poorly drained and in depressions which may be flooded for 2-4 months. The soil here is l oW phos phorus.The characteristic swelling or enlargement at the ba se of the flag sheath in most graminaccous plants pr ior to heading or flowering. In 130-day maturing rice varieti es, about 45 days prior to m aturity . Booting stage becomes visible at 10-15 days before flowering.The growth period when the booting is visible.Bran:In experiments, especially fie l d ex periments, the better or worse performance of treatments at the edges or borders of a plot when compared with others not on the border.A product of milling in cereals. It is made up of the pericarp, tegmen or testa, embryo, aleurone layer, and some portion of the endosperm in rice. It is used f or livestock feeding.To provide offspring, to propagate, to bring about a new type of plant.Breeder's seed: Th i sis the seed produced by the breeder or hi s agents or association. It is the purest seed.The seed is used for producing the foundation seed (defined). It is also the source of other certified seed classes.This term is used often interchangeably as breeder's seed. However, here it refers to the supply of breeder's seed of a given variety that is available in his store under the breeders or his institution ' s custody. It can be parents.THis term is also very close to the breeder's seed except here it means that it is the seed harvested from the breeder's seed multiplication under the breeder's supervision. It can also be described as the grain harvested from a nucleus of breeder's seed stock.These are sets of goals to be achieved in a breeding program. Examples of breeding objectives: ' (1) High grain yield.(2 ) Resistance to important diseases and insect pests.(3) Resistance to drought . (4) Acceptable grain qualities.(5) Short or medium growth duration.The act of planting by spreading seeds or fertilizer or insecticide at random. Seeds are not usually covered or are incompletely covered by soil.An important insect of rice especially in Asia. Its scientific name is Ni1aparvata lugens. It causes serious damage, when in large numbers, on the lower portions of the plant. It sucks sap and the leaves turn yellow followed by rapid drying of the whole plant. The term hopper burn is used to describe the resulting damage. The insect also transmits grassy stunt virus and ragged stunt in rice.Rice grain with its hulls removed but not polished. It is also called dehul1ed rice, husked grain, or husked rice. The brown colour is due to pigments in the peri carp and aleurone layer. A common name for the parasitic fungus Helminthosporium oryzae that damages rice leaves. Typical symptoms are small, oval or circular and dark brown lesions. M os t spots have a light yellow hal o around the outer edge.A term loo sely used for insects. St r ictly refers t o the members of the order Hemi ptera. The order i nc ludes winged and wingless species. The most characteristic feature is the very l ong probos i s adapted for pierc i ng and sucking. The majority bel ong to the sub-order Heteroptera in which most of the plant suckers be l ong. They are very i mporta nt field and storage pests of cereals and ot her crops.A mod ified shoo t with a muc h shortend stem enclosed by fleshy scale-like leaves usually un de rgro und, e . g. onion.Noun: A mix ture of different var i et i es of seed s of the same crop species.Verb: To harvest and mix toge ther seeds from F2 or l ater gen era t i ons for planting the following generation without identify i ng or i so lating individu al plants in the mixt ure. To grow and ma intain genetically differe nt pl ants, usuall y of same species in a population without separating them into pure lines or app lying selection effort.Bu l k densi ty , soil:The mass of dry soil per unit bulk volume. The bulk vo lum e is determined before drying to constant weight at 105°e. (Forth,197B).Growing genetically diverse population of self-pollinated crops in a bulk plot with or without selection for 3-7 generations after which single-plant selection is made.A plant substance obtained incidentally during the manufacture of some other substance of more economic importance. The substance mayor may not be as important as the main substance Hself, e.g. bran is a by-product of milled rice.CO, Cl, C2 .... Cn :In an open pollinated crop such as corn when selection is done on a cycle basis, the cycles are designated by CO, C1, C2 .... Cn. CO denotes the initial population, Cl denotes the population from CO + C2 population derived from Cl, etc. A cycle in corn may cover several seasons and may last several •years (Le Conte, 1973).Soil containing sufficient free calcium carbonate or calcium-magnesium carbonate to effervesce visibly when treated with cold O.l~ hydrochloric acid (Foth, 1978).Carbohyrate:A chemical compound (CH 2 0) accumulated by plants e.g. sugar, starch, ce llulose. It 1 S essential in the complex chemical grO\\~th and deve10pemnt activities of a 1 iving organism.The rat i o of the we i ght of organ i c carbon to the weight of tota l ni trogen (mineral plus organic fo rms) in soil or organic materi al (Foth, 1978) .Casewo rm:A mature fruit , as in grasses, in which the seed coat is f irmly attached to the endosperm. Brown rice is an example of a caryops is. This is the insect Nymphu1a depuncta1is whose larva feeds on leaf tissue leaving only the papery upper epide rmis. The larva has the habit of wrapping itself in a section of the leaf and feeds on another portion of the leaf. It is an important insect pest of rice.This is a crop planted usually very early in the cropping season. It matures early or earlier than the main crop to produce some food before the main crop matures. A catch crop could be a short duration crop grown in between two croppings of a main crop.Causal organism:Cell:The organism that produ ces a given plant disease.The unit of life, a discrete mass of protoplasm bounded by a plasma membrane and a cellulose ,ell wall in plants.The cell consists of two forms of protoplasm: the nucleus and the cytoplasm. The nucleus contains the nucleic acid which produces the cell's enzymes and the chromosomes. Cytoplasm contains the enzymes that control the cell's metabolism.Celsius temperature: Centigrade temperature:Cereal:Temperature measured on a scale origina' l1y devised by Anders Celsius (1701-44) in which the melting point of ice 0° and the boiling point of water is 100°. To convert degree Celsius (OC ) to degree fahrenheit (OF) (defined), multiply by 9, divide by 5 then add 32 to the result. The formula is 9°C + 32.Most scientific reports are presented in Celsius or previously Centegrade.Flowering plants in the grass family (Graminaceae) cultivated mostly for food ' value of their grains e.g. rice, wheat, sorghum, corn, oats, barley, rye and millet.Certified seed:Seed that has met various quality specifications. It is distributed or sold to farmers for food production. It is produced from foundation, registered, or even from certified seed by an approved agency. It could also come from breeder seed.Character, characteristic, trait:Check:A distinctive differentiating mark, feature or attribute such as colour, size or behaviour that makes a plant or a group of plants recognizable. It is the phonotypic result of the interaction of one or more genes with the environment. It is the expression of a gene or genes as revealed in the phonotype (see acqui red , discontinous characters ).A row or plot of a well known variety included in a nursery or test plot for comparison with new introdu ctions, selections or hybrids (see control) (Harrinston, 1952).Chi -square (good ness of fit ):X 2 -Chi-square is the sum of square of normally distributed independent, variables with zero means and unit vari~nce (Steel and Torrie, 1960). In general a simplified X2 formula used is:Chlorosis:Chromatid:A condition in a plant caused by disease or phisio-chemica1 factors in which the normally green parts of the plant are pale-green or yellow. The condition is due to inhibited chlorophyll formation.One of the two threadlike structures found during the duplication of a chromosome to form daughter chromosomes.Microscopic threadlike bodies consisting mostly of DNA and proteins in the cell nuclei. They bear the genes. Their numbers are usually constant in each species and they occur in pairs. They are concerned with the transmission of genetic information from cell to cell and generation to generation. They also control the release of this information to control cellular foundation and deve < lopment. They duplicate themselves easily.In rice a ring-like structure at the base of panicle (see panicle base).Classify:Clay:Clay loam:Clone:The systematic arrangement of plants into groups usually based on natural relationships. In botanical classification, the common categories in diminishing rank are: phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, and variety.To arrange orderly and systematically into groups.Fine partici1es of soil less than 0.002 millimeter in diameter m ade up mostly of hydrous aluminium silicates in combination with other minerals. It holds a lot of water. It forms a barrier for water percolation or leaching. A clay soil is referred to as a heavy-textured soil.A loam soil that consists of 20-30 per cent clay and 20-45 per cent sand.A name given to progenies resulting from a sexual or vegetative propagation.Also a group of plants vegetatively produced from the same original stock. Members of a clone are usually the same genetically unless there is mutation among them.Clipping:Fertilization taking place in an unopened flower.To cut of f briskly (with a pair of scissors or ~haverl, the margins, ends, or a sma ll portion of an object, e.g. clipping method of emasculation.Said of a plant able to grow and develop under cold conditions (air, water and soil I under which other plants without tolerance cannot survive well.A quantity that is used to indicate how precise an experiment i s . It is usually calculated after analysis of variance has been done and found underneath the analysis of variance CV is used to determine the rel iability of an experiment.. When a C.V. is very high, e. g. over 20% for upland rice yield trial in West Africa, the experiment may be considered unreliable. However, how high or low a CV is depends on the type of experiment and the character being observed. For example, insecticide or herbicide trials will have a higher CV than a yield trial. Al so, the CV for t he number of ti ll ers will be much higher than that for plant height which varies less than til ler number.The first leaf of a monocotyledon forming a protect ive sheath round the plumule or the embryonic young stem.Coleorhiza:Collar:The sheath or covering of the embryonic roots through which the roots burst.The place or area where especially in grasses. the leaf sheath and the the leaf sheath and leaf blade are joined, It usually differs in pigmentation from blade.Collection:A gathering of different strains, varieties or species. Such a collection is stored in a cold place for preservation until evaluated or multiplied.Combining ability:General -the \"average performance of a line in hybrid combination\" in contrast to specific combining ability used to indicate \"those cases in which certain combinations do relatively better or worse than would be expected on the basis of the average performance of the lines involved\" (Sprague and Tatum, 1942).A research focused on a given agricultural product or a crop. It usually involves a multi-disciplinary effort.Compatible:Of plants whose morphologic and genetic traits enable them to cross-pollinate, bud or graft easily and to produce useful progenies.In plant breeding, e.g. in maize, a population developed by putting together several individuals with distinct genotypes.In ecology, genetics and evolution, the endeavour (which may take various forms and have various direct or indirect, deleterious results) of two (or more) organisms of the same or different species to .gain the same particular factor or thing, or to gain the measure each wants from the supply of any factor or thin~ when that supply is not sufficient for both (or all) (Milne, 1961).In field crops competition occurs when adjacent plots are planted to varieties differing in plant height, tillering ability, vigour and growth duration.The success of one species or a variety in a mixture which is generally attributed either to the ability of that species or plant varieties to produce a greater proportion of offspring in the next generation at the expense of other(s} or to its ability to reduce the numbers of the other species without itself changing (the success of one component of the mi xture may depend on its ability to avoid the other (s) without necessarily having any effect on it) (Rieger et ~, 1976).Complementary:(1) Of two structures, each of which defines the other, e.g., the two strands of DNA double helix.(2) Of four-strand double crossing-over.(3 ) Of genes which by interaction produce an effect qualitatively di stinct from the effects of any of them separately (Rieger et ~, 1976).A variety consisting of a m or e or less high nu mber (over 4) of components, such as inbred lines, all types of hybrids, populations, etc., aimed at obtaining a very diversified pl ant to form a basis for selection. It generally forms a stage in the process of creating new varieties, but the composite varie t y is sometimes suitable for extensio ns.(I ) In some cases, the components may have common characters, such as similar growth period, similar degrees of resistance to lodging or a pathogenic agent, etc. These composites have specific characters.(2) With a fa i rl y 1 a rge gene poo 1, the stabil ity of the compos H e variety is limitless.( 3) It is advisable to use the term \"composite\" whenever the plant involved is not to be extended; but when it is to be grown commercially, \"composite variety\" would be preferable. (Le Conte, 1973) (see synthetic variety ) .COn C1IJS1 QI):The decision, deducti on or resol ution of an experiment or a report.Any factor influencing an experiment, e.g. weather, soil, t emperature, site, etc.Conduct:Confirm:To put into practice or to carry out, e. g. an experiment or special operation such as measurementTo verify, strengthen,substantiate, already known fact or a theory e.g. of an experiment.uphold or to prove an to confirm the resultAn accession, cultivar or a portion of or subdivision of it e.g. strains or pure lines selected for maintaining the accession in a national or international agricultural centEr. Consistent:Constant:Of a result or performance of a treatment. It means reconciliable, regular, coherent, compatible , e.g. a variety is said to be consistent if it yields highly at all the locations where it has been tested under similar conditions.Something that does not change, e.g. in various calculations a figure that has been determined and used to solve a particular problem where other factors change.Constraint:Of yield or growth, that factor that adversely affects or prevents the full yield or growth expression. It is also the impediment, factor, pressure, stress, etc. that prevents the expression of the full potential of a crop or a program.Herbicide (defined) that is effective mostly when it touches the plant surface.Insecticide (defined) that kills insects only when it touches directly the insects.Touching, near, as contiguous plots.Contribution:(1) The role played by an environmental f ac tor or other treatments on a treatment in an experiwent to give the observed or measured result.(2) A writing for publication especially in a journal or periodical.(See variation).Noun: It i s a determined or known check or standard with which other treatments are compared.Ve rb : To prevent or mlnlmlse the danger of establishment or attack by pests, diseases or weeds.Convergent im p rov~;r.ent:Improvement (see improve) brought about by concent ra ting in bo t h pa rents of a cross, favourable domi nan t genes available i n the lines, and across the two parents together.This i s a trial m~de up of same treatme nts in an expe r iment conducted in ma ny places in and outside of the originating country. Such trials are usually organized by research inst i tutes, associations or other agricultural agencies, e. g. WARDA coordinated trial s.A measure of the deg ree to which variables vary to ae ther or a measure of the i nten s ity of associ ation (Steel ahd•. Torrie 1960 ) , e. g. genoty pi c correlation. Correlation can be \"simple\" when there is only one indepe ndent variable and \"multiple\" when there is more than one independent variable.Co uplin g:A numerical value used to describe the rela tio nsh ip Detween two va ryi ng observations. The value varies from -1 to 1. A ze ro coefficient m eans t ha t there i s no correlation.Linked recessive alleles occurring in one homologous chromosome and their dominant alternatives occurring in the other homologous chromosome (see repulsion).Similar to correlation ; measure in statistics of the interrelationship of two variables.A crop planted to prevent soil erosioll and to provide humus . These are generally leguminous crops.Covered smut:Crinkle:Crop:A smut disease of grains in which the spore masses are held together by the persistent grain membrane and glumes, e.g. Sphaceolotheca cruentia in Sorghum bicolor.This is a disease whose causal agent is yet unkn own. It causes stunting and chlorotic streaks on rice.A plant or group of plants that can be grown and harvested for food or other economic purpose. The yield or product from planted plant.Cropping pattern:The yearly sequence and spatial ~rangementof crops or alternating crops and fa ll ow on a given area. The fallow crop may be natural or planted (Ok igbo, 1978).Cropping system:An organized cropping procedure established fo r a given loca ti on .It involves the number of different crops to grow at a time, time of planting, number of crops per year or per season, the rotational scheme and various cultural practices.Crop rotation:(See rotation).To affect cross fertilization by the introduction of a male gamete or pollen grains from a different variety or species (usually different genotypes) of plant onto a female part of another plant. The term is also used t o refer to a hy brid or a plant resulting from such a process.The following types of crosses are possible:(1) Backcross (defined)(2) Diallel cross (defined)(3) Double cross (double cross hybrid):The crossing of two different hybrids (F 1 S) (4 ) Multiple cross:The crossing of a hybrid with one or more cultivars of diffe re nt origin.(5) Sing l e cross: (defined) cross involv ing only two parents.(6) Top cross : A t hree -way cross; a cross between an F] and ano ther parent. A male parent used on many female parents is also called a top cross or tester parent or lin e .Cross deSig na t ion s :These are the ways that the crosses made are ident i fi ed. Standard practice i s to first list t he fe m ale or pi stillat e pa rent fo llowed by t he male or staminate paren t in a cross .Examples of various designations are given below: The CIMMYT system i s easy to read and wri te wh 11 e the USDA sy~. tem is more compatible with computers (Jennings et ~. 1979) .Cross-fertilization:(See f ertilization).Cross numbering:This is the consecutiv e numbering that is used to identify a cross. Th e number continues over the years and it is not dup l icated. Therefore, in a given stat i on two or more cro sses never carry the same number. Usua l ly, all cross numbers are preceeded by one or more capital letters identifying t he stat i on, prog ramme or th e crop. For example, IITA uses the pref i x TOX and IRR I , IR f or their rice hybridizati on programme .Cross-polli na tion:The act of pl ac ing on a s tig ma of a flower the po ll en grains f rom a flowe r of a di ff ere nt pl ant.Cross ing over (X-over ) :An interchange or segment s or port i ons between the chrom atids of two ho~o l og ou s chromoso m es at m eio sis. Crossin g over can be si ngle or multip l e. The poi nt s of exchange ar e call ed chi asm ata .Crossover va l ue:Culm:Culm l engt h: Cult i vat\" :Cult i vate:The percentag e of cros s i ng ove r in a hybrid populati on, used m ostl y in chromosome ma pping .Sten of grass es , espec i all y r i ce and wheat . It i s r ound and smooth and us uall y i t i s th e upr ight axis of the shoo t .Thi s i s the di s t an ce of t he cul m (de f i ned ) fro m gro und l evel t o t he base of t ne pani c le .A gener al t erm for a ve ri ety , line or cl on e tha t i s widely culti vat ed. It i s now t aken as the interna tional t erm fo r var iety . I t i s said t o be an abb reviated term f or culti va ted var i ety . It i s now use d ge nera lly for a var i ety resulting f rom sel ection work .( 1) To prepare the l and in a special way for planti ng or sowin g.Experiment al growth conducted in the laboratory, the med ium for growi ng plant s experimentally or artific i all y . Also the cult i vation and tillage practices.CuI tural pract i ces:These are the activ itie s or operations that are usually carried out i n raising field crops. Exampl es are pla nting, weed ing, app li cation of chemica l s, irrigat i on , drai ning, tillage, crop rotation, harvesting, etc.Cummu l ative selection:Cur rent: Cut icle:A s i mple method of rec urrent select i on in corn with ou t a tester, so that no top-cross is i nvolved.(a) In i ts s imp l e form {two crops per cycle}, t his met hod may be described as a succession of cycles in which each cyc l e consists of a f irst se l f -ferti li zed crop from which pl ants are selected (according to certain criteria, e. g. r es istance to a patho ge nic agent) and a second crop in which the se l ected sel f-fer ti liz ed progeny i s recoclbined.{b} In a more complex for m, the cycles have three stages (three crors) :1. Pl ants self fertilized without any selection afte r harvesti ng.2. Ear -to-row sowing with remma nt seed preserved.3. Recomb in ing t he remma nt seed of the best line s .Th e effect of cummulative se l ection, therefore, i s to i ncrease over success ive cycles, the occ urrence of favourable alleles on dis ti nct loci for a desired character, e. g. re s i stance to a pathogenic agent (Le Conte, 1973).Of variety, that which is prevalent or bei ng present l y planted.The superficia l no n-cel lul ar l ayer coveri ng secreted by epide rmis. In most plants, it forms a conti nu ous cover over aerial parts except where there are stomata and lenticels. Functi ons are protecting against injury and preventing excessive water l oss .A section of plant capable of developing into a new plant e.g. cassava or sweet potato cutting.Cy togenetics:Cytology :Cytoplasm :A branch of biology that deals with the study of heredity and variation by cytology and genetics.A branch of biology that deals with the structure, contents funct ion and mu ltiplicati on of cells.The protoplasm of a living cell excluding the nucleus.Damage:Extrachromosomal inheritance and plastid inheritance. Non-mendelian inheritance. It is the transmission of hereditary characters through components in the cytoplasm rather t han by chromosomes.Injury or harm, caused or done by weather, chemical, animals or other plants to a plant.Data:A method of ra i s ing seedl in gs i n which pre-germinated seeds are put together on a sheet or other smooth mater i al in a small area . The young seedlings from such a method are lifted li ke a roll of sod and transplanted when they are two weeks old.Mea sured statistics or col lection of facts usually from experimental treatments.This refers to the number of hours there are between sunrise and sunset.Days to heading, flowering and maturity: A condition of progressive deterioration, e.g. productivity of a variety.To make less, smaller, to reduce, shrink or substract from e.g. to decrease yield or height.Dee p water or deep flooded:Def i ciency:Rice that grows under a water level of 60-100 cm for most parts of its growing period.(1 ) The absence or deletion of a segment of a chromosom e.(2) The lack of or inadequacy of a chemical nutrient e.g. Nitrogen, Pho sphorus and Potassium in the soil or plant. It is.~lS? the presence of the chemical in its ynaval ab e form, e.g. ferric form of iron in iron deficiency under uplandwhere iron is in unavailable ferric form.Dehull, De ~usk (see hull and husk):Dehumidify:Demonstrate:To remove the hulls or husk from a grain.To remove moisture fro m the air as in a cold storage room for seeds.To show clearly, to prove or make clear to a large audience by reasoning, evidence, or experiment as in demonstration trial of a new variety.In cereals especially in rice, it is a panicle that contains a high nu mber of grains per unit area.Th is type of kernel has a central core of floury st arch, which extends to the apex of the caryopsis and is surrounde d by horny starch. On r i peni ng, th i s floury starch dries and contracts producing a depression at the apex of the kernel, the characteristic indentation of this category of ma ize. Nost of the hybrids in the Co rn Belt (U nited States) are dent corns (Le Conte, 1973).Denitrification:The release of or escape of nitrogen f rom the soil, organic matter or fertilizer into the air mak ing it unavailable to the growing pl ant.Deoxyribonucleic (desoxyr ibo senucleic) acid DNA:Descriptors:Long thread-like molecules found in chromosomes and some viruses, consisting of two interwound helical chains of polynucleQtide s. . The sugar of all the nucleotides i s 2-deoxy-D-ribose, but each nucleotic is characterized by one of the four following nitrogenous bases, adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine. DNA molecules are reponsible for storing the genetic code by the order of the arrangement of their nitrogenous bases, three bases coding for one amino acid. The st ructure of a DNA molecule has been likened to a twisted rope-ladder, the sides of which consist of sugarphosphate chains, the rungs of linked nitroge nous bases. The rungs consist of complementary base pairs linked by hydrogen bonds (Varov et ~ 1979 ).These are t he geographical, mo rphological or agronomical features for identi fy ing, characterizing or distinguishing cultivars collected in germplasm programmes. There could be up to 50 or more of these features and detail s on whe re collected. Th e descriptors should adeq uately characterize a cultivar.Des i rab 1 e:Detassel:In cultivar characterization in germplasm work, those features or details under the descriptor, e.g . code s such as 0, 1,2 ... 9.Of a plant or plant character, that which is preferred, wanted, needed or being sought after e.g. high yield, good grain, hig her protein or sugar content.To remove the male inflorescence or tassel, as in maize to prevent self-pollination.Determi na te :Deve l op m ent:Deviation:Of a flower in wh ich t he terminal flower ope ns f i rst. Thi s of t en prevents the elongat i on of other f l oral axi s , e.g. i n some l eg uminous plant s .A process of growth an d differen t iati on. It i s a regulated ser i es of pheno typic chan ge s under t emporal , sp at ial and qua nt itative co ntrol whi ch is irreversib l e or re versi bl e wit h difficulty under ordina ry env i ronm ent al condi t i ons. There are fo ur major processes in teracting wit h one another to make up t he comp lex process of deve l opemnt:( I ) Genetic rep l i cation, mitosi s and duplicati on of genet ic informat ion.(2) Growth whic h is increa se i n the m ass of an orga ni sm as a result of vario us cell ul ar metabo li c act i vit ies.{3} Ce llul ar differentiation wh i ch is t he process by which cel l s of common orig in and ge ne tica ll y i dentica l change and i sola te themselves in stru cture an d fun ct i on. They con seq uen t ly give ri se t o morpho l ogica ll y and phys i ologi ca ll y di st ingui shable cell s .{ 4} Tis sue f orma ti ons res ul t ing f r om t he ag gregation of differ enti ated cell s to f orm a uni tary f unc tion. The t i ssue assoc i ate to fo rm orga ns {adapt ed fro m Rieger et ~, 1976} .In stati s ti cs it i 5 t he amoun t by which an observation depa r t s fr om the mean , in other words , t he di fference between one set of values and the mean of the set .Di a11 e1 cross i ng :Di bble:H ybr i di zing or crossi ng different va r i eties or l ines togethe r in all poss i bl e combinati ons. With 6 cult i vars, 15 pairs of crosses are possible wit ho ut reci proca l crosse s. The formu l a i s n{n-I } with r eciprocal crosses of the complete se t, and n(n-I }/2 whe re n = the num ber of cu lt ivars when r eciproca l crosses are not involved i n the half dia 11 e1. Thi s method compares t he combini ng ab il i ty of the l ines or va riet i es used for ge net ic studies.To sow one or more seeds per hole whi ch is ei t her eve nl y or unev enl y spaced fro m t he other.To distinguish between two plants or group of plants, or between characters of plants.Differentiation:Dihybrid:Dioecious:Diopsis fly:Dipl oid:The act or process of characterizing or making different.Changing from general to special characters, e.g. plant cells.A cross resulting from two parents which are different with respect to two known genes.A species that has female and male sex organs on different plants, e.g . Carica papaya and some species of Discorea.Commonly known as stalk-eyed fly, is an insect producing larvae which cause dead heart especially in young ri ce tillers. Three major species are Diopsis (thoracica) macrophthalma Diopsis apicalis Diopsis collarisPossessing twice the number of gametic numbers of chromosomes.The somati c number of chromosomes (2n ) . The gametic number is usual ly half the diploid number.Direct sowing:Sowing of seed directly or \"permanently\" not having to t ransplant, by drilling, broadcase ordibbling.Di scard:(see glume discoloration)A plant, plants or portion of a whole plot in a scientific trial that will not be used for data collection.Discipline:A field of study, e.g. Pathology, Genetics, Agronomy, Entomology that deals in depth only on subjects specific to that particular study.A change to different colour, a stain, e.g. in rice grain caused by insect pests, diseases or weather.Character controlled by relatively few major genes. Each of the genes has a large contribution to the development of the character as compared to the environmental factors. Exampl es are colour of flower and smoothness of leaves.Discrete:Disagreement or inconsistency, e.g. of a measurement of a character such as plant height that is unusually different from one replication to another for the same variety.Distinct, discontinuous (see variation).Discussion:Disease:In reporting writing or experimental results, this is a formal treatment of the experiment, explanation of results in a logical manner leading to conclusions of the trial.An abnormal condition in which a plant does not function, grow or develop as expected because of fungi, bacteria, viruses, other parasites, or a deficiency or excess of nutrients in the soil.Disease control:The prevention, limiting or eradication of disease on crops. Plant resistance is an economic disease control method.Disease resistance:Ability of a plant to grow and develop relatively well in the presence of a disease with little or no symptoms of the disease.Dissect:To sp lit ope n i n a ca reful manne r for investigation of the co ntent as it is done by the sc ientist looki ng for or study i ng stembo re rs in cereal pla nt s uch as rice or so rghum.Distribution:Divergent:Diversity:DNA : Domina nce :( 1) The act or process of spreading out, e.g. a roo t .(2) The position, arrangement or frequency, of occurenc e over an area or throug hout a space or unit of time, e.g. characters of a pl an t i n a give n study.(3) The natural geographic range of plants, e.g. wide di st r ibution of Oryza glaberri ma in Wes t Africa.A se l ection (de fin ed) whi ch is m ade from a single initial pop ul ation or a cross and to produce varieties or lines that greatly differ in character, e .g . late and early maturity, hi gh and l ow prote in conte nt.The condition of be ing different or having differen ces, variations or varieties, e,g. the great diversity in the sat iva speci es of rice . Plant breeders make use of diversity to produ ce new or improved varieties.(See deoxy r i bonuc l ei c acid).Expre ssion of a chara ct er by one alle le wh i ch completely suppresses expression of the other . For i ns tance, Fl character resemble s that of one dominant pa r ent wit hout any trace of the second recessive parent used i n the cross. Different forms of dominance are:(1 ) Incomplete or partial dominance. This i s a case of dominance that i s usually half-way between the characters of t he two parents in the cro ss .(2 ) Over-dom inance. The character expressed exceeds that of either of the parents, e.g. an Fl plant may be taller or earl i er than the talle r parent or the earlier parent i n the cross.D onor Pa rent: Dormancy:In grafting it i s the indi vid ual from which tissu es is take n to transfer to another plant. In Geneti cs it is the parent from which one or more gene s were transferred at th e initial cros s of a backcross to the recurrent parent . On ly on e or two cha racters are desirable from a donor parent. The r ecurrent parent which l ack s this character is otherwise an acceptabl e variety (see bac kcross).Physiologica l rest or i nac t i ve growth in so me ma t ured seed s buds, bu l bs , etc., that delays germi nat i on or growt h f or some ti me even though there is physiological maturity, e.g. m os t tropical rice var ieties have a dormant per iod of 15 days . The rest period is determined largely by internal factors, certain chemical (oxydiz in g age nts) and phys ical change s (heati ng) whic h are used to brea k dorma ncy.Having two crops of the same or differen t var i ety in sequenc e in the same pl ace within a year or cro ppi ng seas on, e .g. tran sp la nt i ng or seeding one after the harvest of the f ormer.(See cross).Th i s i s the ri pen i ng stage when the grains of a cereal crop ranges from soft to hard.Dress:Dr ift:A fungal disease of cerea l s e.g. corn and mill et in whi ch the leaves and stems are attacked. Growth is retarded and often the II I ants di e before reaching t he f lower i ng st age de pending on t i me of inf ection and its severity . Some of the causal agents are Sclerospera macrospora and Sclerophthora macrospora.Of seeds to apply a chemical such as an i nsec tic ide or fungicide on the seed before pl anting , sending out or st orage.(see g r \" ~tic drift).Drill sowing:Droopy :Drought:To sow seed in shallow furrows or trenches. The seeds are in a continous row and are relatively closed to each other. There may and may not be predetermined spacing wi thin the row .(Of l eaves) sagging, hangin g or inclining downward, e.g. rice l eaves. Improved variet ie s usually have non-droopy leaves especially i rr i ga ted va r i eties .A prolonged per i od of drynes s during a crop season. Dependi ng on the variety, soil and other environmental conditions, and minimum of five days of no rain could be ragarded as a drought per iod . Upland rice and floating rice during the early stage in some pla ces do suffer from drought.Adaption t o prevent excessi ve water l oss , e.g. ro ll i ng of leaves, stoppage of ac t i ve growth, thick cuti cle, or t o ab sorb more moi sture from the soi l longer and more prolific root sysytem .Comp l eting a pla nt's essential growth cycle during the period of adeq uate mo i sture. The common escape me chani sm is through ear liness or pho to peri odi c sens itivity.Resumption of norma l pl ant growth following growth retardation due to drought .The pressure or the undesi r able environmenta l conditions caus ed by l ack of or i nsufficient moisture in the soil.Ability of a plant to withstand drough t stress by mea ns of physi olog ical characteristics , e.g. less evapora t ion from pl ants and osmo tic regulation.Crop that i s grown where there is free wat er drai nage of t he soi l and the cro p depends mainly on the rains. The crop under this condition is rarely or neve r f looded, e. g. dry land or upla nd rice wh ere i rrigatio n is done only under special conditi ons .Weight of any part of plant after its moisture content has been removed by any method of drying, e.g. dry weight of rice straw.Du ncan's mUltilpe-range test:This is a test that enables one to m ake valid comparisons between more than two means.Two or more pairs of genes that produce identical effects, whether alone or together.Collected samples from d~fferent sources whi ch belong to the same variety as indicated by name, site of collection or origin and morpho-agronomic charactel-s (Chang, 1976a ).Duplex:A segment of a chromosome occu r ring twice in the haploid act.A case i n which a polyploid in recessive in all chromosomes except two loci in respct of a particular gene.A resistance to disease, insect, physico-chemical factors that lasts throug h the li fe of a plant. The resistance has to be maintained throughout the length of period the variety is used for extensive crop production.Genes that are responsible for the small stature of plant parts, especially t he stem internodes. In rice, they are recessive genes:dr'In most cereals, they often the panicles or ears.Dwarf variety:affect only the internodes below A variety that is shorter or smaller than other varieties of the same genus, e.g. in rice, a dwarf variety is about 50 cm in height (see Semi-dwarf).The f ruiting sp i ke of a cereal such as ma ize. It is t he conbination of the seed and the fruit i ng structures.Ear l y m aturing variety:One which completes it s l i fe cyc l e in a shorte r period compared to other va rieties in a given l oca l ity. For example, a rice variety ma turi ng in l ess than 100 days after sowing i s regarded as earl y.\"Ear-to-row\" select ion (see head-to-row):Selection method ba sed on choosing mother plants and then pl an t ing the harvested seed. Sowing may be repeated severa l times on the same site or in different places. A mixt ure of t he original plants is us ed as a check . No artific i al cros sing or s~lfing i s used.A mixture of remnant seed of the best lines, the check, nay be us ed, or a second choice can be made fro m the best lines observed .This selection meth od consists of several cycles . It is espec iall y effective for improv in g characters such as rate of maturity, s i ze, colour of the ke r nels, position of t he ear, type of plant, etc. (Le Conte, 1973 ) . In mod ification f orms, it i s used in seed prod uction.Earl y generat ion materials:These are the F -F4 lines. In pl ant breeding, especially in the pedigree l sys tem, t he lines that are still segregating for most of their characters are regarded as early generation materilas.Early yiel d testing:Ecology :Ecosystem:This is estimati ng yi elding abi l ity of lines at F3 or F 4 • The l i nes with hi gher yiel ds are retained for further se l ection or purification.The science that deals with the rel ation of plants to their environment and to each other.A collection or community of organism interacting with one another, plus t he environment in which toey live and with which they also interact. A system may consist of green pl ants, ani mals bacteria, fungi, cl imatic and soil conditions and the producers of the crop.Ecotype, Ecospec i es , Eco-strains:Distinct individual s within a species , subspec ies or variety in a given environment that are di ffer en t mo r phologi cally and phys iologi call from others of the same species i n another envi ronment . They cross f reely with other ecot ypes of the same spec i es. They us ually ar i se from re~ea t ed planting and se l ection in disti nc t environment.Effe ct :Environmental factors caused by the physical, chemical and bi ol ogica l characteristi cs of the soil .In fl uence produced by an environmental fac tor, a plant or plant produ ct that accounts for a cause or a result, e. g. the eff ect of drought i s low yie ld, the effect of heavy or application on a very tall rice plant (150 cm) is lodging. In statist ics, that whi ch i s measured, and analysed e.g. treatment ef fect.Eli te lines: Supe r ior l i nes t ha t possess most of the characters being sought for.Germpla sm consiting of improved breeding stock i ncluding cultivars and breeding li nes (strains) of hybrids and compos i t e populations.These are genes responsible for the unusually rapid in crease in height mostly in rice as water lev el ri ses rapidly in ri ce fields. Th i s rapid growth does not occur where there is no rapid rise i n water level.The process of removing anthers from a hermaphrodite flore t , e.g. ri ce or sorghum before t he anthe rs shed thei r pollen grains on the floret stigma. The plant thus emasculated becomes the f emale parent in hybridization work. There are ma ny met hod s for carrying out emasculation. In self-pollinated cereals t he pop ular methods are (1 ) Clipping of the glumes to remove t he an thers and the air and ho t water methods to force ope n the f loret s to make the remova l of anthers possible or to kil l the pollen grains.Emergence: 42 A young non-self-supporting plant arlslng from the union ,of a female and male gametes after fertilization, sometimes without fertil ization.The act of a germinated seed or the plant parts coming i nto view above the ground surface after sowing or planting. Also other plant parts coming into view from flag leaf, buds, etc. e.g. panicles.Thes e are sterile rudimentary lemmas found at the lowest part of a sp i kelet (defined).Endemi c: Endosperm: Entry :A spikelet not filled or has no grain at maturity. Some of the factors that cause empty spikelets are lack of starch due to disease, lodging or the leaf drying up, lack of fertiliza t ion due to various weather factors or too much nitrogen applied at panicle f ormation stage. Empty spikelets will float when placed in water and can be blown away.Native to a certain region, indi genous. Said of a disease or plant that is always found in an area (see exotic).The nutritive tissue in the seed or fruits of most seed-bearing plants. It is for nutrition and development of the embryo. It is made up of starch, sugar, protein and fats. It is triploid a product of fertilization of two polar nuclei in the embryo sac by one sperm nucleus. It is the food portion of the cereal plant. In rice, it is divided up into non-glutinous (non waxy) glutinous (waxy) and intemediate. In corn, it could be waxy, non-waxy or sugary.A treatment referring especially to the varieties or lines in an experiment. It also refers to stocking a collection, top cross, multiple cross or comparitive trial.The collection of factors around a plant that affect its growth and development. Some of these are soil, moisture, light, temperature and other plants and animals. One-c~led layer covering of a plant below the cuticle, e.g. leaf epidermal cells that form the guard cells. This is the action of a nonallelic gene on another gene on a different locus. Epistasis in general terms refers to all non-allelic interaction (see hypostatic).Erect growth habit: This is the phenomenon in which the culms are straight and closely grouped.Esca pe:Leaves that are straight up witnout drooping e.g. many of the improved rice varieties.(1) The wearing away of the land surface by running water, wind, ice, or other geological agents including processes such as gravitational creep.(2) Detachment and movement of soil or rock by water, ,lind, ice, or gravity (Foth, 1978).To avoid an undesirable growth condition through early maturity or late maturity.Essential elements (Essential nutrient elements):These are elements that are necessary for growth, development and proper completion of its life cycle. The elements cannot be substituted by another element and are used directly in the plants' nutrition. They are grouped into macro or major (defined) micro. minor or trace elements (de~ined).Essential elements are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen,phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, iron, silica, manganese, boron, molybodenum, copper, zinc and chloride.Etiolation:Etiology:The phenomenon shown by green plants when grown in dar kness or reduced li ght. The plants become pale-yellow because chlorophyl i s absent, stems are excessively elongated and thin and the leaves are sma ller than normal.The study of the reasons and explanations for the cause of a symptom, tra it of a disease.Evapotranspiration:Loss of water usually from the soil both directly by changing into vapour or invisible minute particules and by transp iration from plants growing on the soils or in water.Exchange capacity:The total ionic charge of the soil absorption complex that ca n be exchanged. The two types are anion-exchange capac ity and cation-exchange capacity.Evaporation:Exotic:The conversion of a li quid into vapo ur without necessarily reaching t he boiling point. An example i s the conversion of soil water to vapour.Said of variety t hat is introduced from another country.Expressivity:Experiment:The deg ree or extent of expression of a given gene. A gene that has low expressivity will not prod uce t he same phenotype under various conditio ns but those that always produce the same pheno type have 100 per cent expressivity (see penetrance).A systematic test, or trial specially carried out or a controlled procedure or operation to discove r an unknown effect or to confirm a previous result.These are carefully prepared field plots with or without provIsIon for irrigation control, well la id ou t plots of known measu rements and uniform growing conditions.This is a place where various facilities are available for scientific experiments. Some of these facilities are laboratories, green and screen houses, experimental farms, scientific equipment, offices, library, stores, etc.A deviation from the true value. The difference between an observed value and true value i . e. Difference due to sampling, management or inherent variability etc. In analysis of variace, the experi mental error is the last undefinable source of variation used to test treatments and rep rese nt differences .This is the location of the piece of land on which field experiments are conducted. The land has met certain criteria, e.g. appropriate size, representative of the environment that the experiment i s aimed tc test, uniformity of land gradient, uniformity or suitabil ity of soil (texture, depth, fertil ity, etc.), accessibility, lack of environmental hazards.[ xpe ri menta 1 unit:A sample (see plot).Exploration:Exs ert i on:Extension:The act of searching or loo ki ng for something, such as is done in plant collection.(See panicle exs~r tion).The agricultural activities that deal with popularizing or spreading the value of or any agricultural technology, e.g. varieties, chemical inputs, dates of fa rm operation, special training, etc. to a relatively l arge number of farmers or associated agricultural workers or agents.Extrachromo somal inheritance:(see cytopl asmic inh eritance).F2 ratio:The first hybrid generation after a cross, us ually unli ke the parents. In a sample or single cross with dominance of ma j or characters, F plants are all uniform except when maternal cy toplas mic etfects are involved. Maximum hetorosis i s expresse d at Fl'The second generation selfing of F 1 plants. occu rs in F 2' following a cross. This is the resu lt of M ajor segregating or maxi m um variabil i ty This usually refers t o ratio of the different phenomenon (dominant homozygous, heterozygous, homozygous recessive ) that are ob ta i nable in the F? segregation. It i s determi ned by the number of genes or factor s where there is complete dominance, it is found by calculatinq 4n. Where n = 1, the expected phenotype ratio = 1:2:1 (paren t A; intermedia te ; parent B) or 3:1, three plants will have the dominant character and one will be homozygous recessive. Where n = 2 the expected phenotypic ratio i s 15:1. Where n = 3, the expected phenotypic ratio is 63:1, etc. (see Genotypic number).F-test:This is the assemblance of the F offsprings. In many selections, work begins with F2 ~spec iall y in rice; F Z population is very important. Fai lure or success of breedi ng depends on it. Strict adherence to selection criteria shou ld be followed with the plants in this pop ulat i on. In rice, many characters are fi xed at the F ge nerati on; therefore, any loss may not be recovered in fater generations. Populati on size (defined) i s very critical too in F2 generation.Progeny obtained by self or sib-fertilization of F2 pl ants.It is a test used to determine the s i gnificance of a treatment in an experiment. It is essentially a variance r atio . It i s computed by dividing a treatment mean square by erro r mean square calculated in the analysis of variance. Factor :Factorial:After the observed or calculated F value, one obtai ns the tabular F-val ues from an F table using the degree of freedom for treatment and that of the error. The tabular values for 5% and 1% level of significance is compared with the calculated F-value. If the latter is as large or larger than the former, then the treatment differences are significant at both the 5% and 1% levels of significance.Thi s is an agent, component, element, part, constituent or condition, e.g. environmental factor which may be tempe ra ture, or another plant that influences the plant.Said of experiment in which there are two or more treatments at two or more levels producing different interactions. In Mathematics and Statistics, it is the product of a number and all the Consecutive positive whole numbers below it down to 1. Fo r example, factorial 4 written 4! = 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24.Facultative saprophyte:\"Fadama\" :An organ ism ordinarily living on other living organisms and may also live on dean tissues of its host. It may live on the dead tis sues during part of its life cycle but not complete its cycle away from a host (see parasite, obligate).A loca l term used in Nigeria for the naturally flooded plains where rice or other crops are grown.Fahrenheit scale of temperature:Fa llow:The temperature scale in which the melting point of water is taken as 32 °F and the boiling point of water under standard atmosphere pressure (760 mm) as 212°F. 9 Fahrenhei t degrees = 5 Celsi us degrees. To convert degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Ce lsius, substract 32 from F. value, multiply by 5, and divide by 9; to conver t degrees C. to degrees F., mu ltiply by 9, divide by 5, then add 32 to the result. Named after G.D. Fahrenhei t (1686 -1736 ) .(Uvarov et~, 1979 ) (See Celsi us).The period during wh i ch land not cropped, is left to recover its productivity (reduced by cropping) main ly through accummulation of water, nutrients, attrition of pathogens. Probab ly a combination of all these. During thi s per i od, the land may be bare or covered by natural or planted vegetation. The term fallow may be applied to the land itself or to the crop growin g on it (Okigbo, 1978) .False sm ut:Family:Farm:A grain disease such as in rice caused by Ustilaginoidea virens.The grains are transformed into yellow-greenish or greenish-black spore balls of velvety appearance.(1) A group of genera, a taxonomic unity.(2) All closely related lines arising from the same parents.Their pedigree can be traced to a female line.(See classification).A piece of land • specially prepared and devoted for ralslng agricultural products. Food crops, plants used for industries and animals could be found on a farm. A farm m ay have sorghum, maize, cotton, fibre plants and cattle.Farming system:An agricultural enteprise, .activity or business consisting of a combination inputs (e.g. crop varieties, land, farm practices etc) in numbers, am ounts, sequence and timing to satisfy speci fic objectives of the farmer under a specified environmental setting (Okigbo, 1978).Female parent:Fe rtile:The plant that bears the fruit, with seeds; the plant that possesses the fruiting elements of pistil (ovary, style and stigma).Reproductive, can produce fruit or viable seed, can germinate or contain germinable spores or pollen grains. Used also for soil or land that is capable of supporting abundant or luxurious plant growth.F~rtil i zation:The fusion or union of male and female gametes to form a zygote or embryo.Fertilizers:Organic and inorganic substances containing important mineral nutrients needed by the plant used to enrich the soil to increase its productivity. Organic ones are manures, non-organic ones are substance s like sulphate of ammonia, super phosphate etc., which provide nitrogen and phosphorus respectively.Fertilizer responsiveness;This is the trait of a crop for making use of t he applied fertilizer to develop and produce profitable increased yields .The yield thus produced is much more than it would have been if the fertilizer were not applied. The increase should be more than the cost for the fertilizer.Field:Adventitious roots which arise from the base of the stem, bulb, or corn, e.g. in rice or sorghum (see tap root system).A piece of cleared land for tillage, pastures, or raislng any economic plant, e.g. food crop or for experimental purposes.Field/laboratory assistant:They are persons with no scientific skill s, they ca r ry ou t routine instructions on field and labo ratory exper iments, e.g. supervi sion of weeding and harves ting of expe ri me nt s and preparation of distilled water or washing of petri-dishes in the laboratory.Field/laboratory technicians:They are persons with some technical skills or training which are much less than the scientists. They carry out instruct i ons fro m the scientists but they are sk ilfu l enough t o carry out their duties with little or no supervision by the scientist,e.g. emasculation and pollination, analysis of nit rog en in crop products etc.Filament :This is t he term used to desc r ibe the soil condition when it wi ll no longer absorb moisture. The point whe re the soil ha s been sa turated, additional moisture or water will run off, leach, or accumulate on the so il surface.The threadlike structure at the end of which an anther i s borne on a flower.Any generation or offspring following the parental generat i on.A generation resulting from a cross of tloJO parents is called the first filial generation or Fl.  In cooking, the quality of the food that affects the taste and smell. It is usually a sense produced in the mouth through a combination of both taste and smell.In maize i n which the endosperm consists almost entirely of hard starch. The starch granules are cemented together into a more or less translucent brittle mass by a very thin layer of protein.Rice that grows in a water level of over one metre dee p. The rice plant looks as if it is floating with between one and three leaves usually above the water. The F12 dominance (flint) is not complete and there is also a dosage effect by which 2 fl doses are superior to an fl dose. As a result, the recessive homozygous lines for f12 cannot show xenia as opposed to the phenomenon that occurs in lines homozygous for the opaque-2 gene (02/02).There is another floury gene (fl 10 on chromosome 1, ) which also controls t he floury character of the kernel but has no effect on the lysine content. As with the f12 gene, a dosage effect is involved (Le Co nte, 1973) .The soft or floury albumen occurs in the form of large starch granules that can easily be separated. This starch is always opaque. The Inca maize from the Cuzco region with very large chalky textured kernels, belong to this category (Le Conte, 1973). Of leaves, e.g. foliar application of chemical is one applied on the leaves.Any substance or material having or made up of cabohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, taken in by an organism to maintain growth, repair, carry out vital processes and to supply energy. Inorganic substances absorbed by plants in gaseous form or in water solution are also food.The growing and making availa~e these agricultural products that are used for food (defined). The number of occurrence of a given type of event, or the number of members of a population falling into a specified class (Kendall and Buckland, 1971).The fertilized (sometimes not) ripened ovary with seeds (which may be absent). Usually, many parts of the flower are attached to other structures, e.g. grain of rice is a fruit with the glumes. A trench or groove made by plough or hoe between two ridges. The space between two rows of crops is often also referred to as furrow although no ridging was done.The union of gametes or reproductive cells to form a new cell or an individual, e.g.zygote.An excessive or monstrous growth on or in a plant often caused by an insect and in some cases by nematodes. This is the common name of an insect, Orseolia oryzae,formerly known as (Pachydiplisis oryzae) that causes symptoms referred to as onion leaf or silver shoot in rice. The larva of the rice gall midge feeds at the growing point. The feeding results in gall development. Such tillers produce no panicle.A reproductive cell, usually haploid and sexually differentiated. It is one of the cells produced from meiosis or reduction divis ion. Its ro le is i n fertilization. The female gamete unites with the ma le gamete during fertilization to produce a zygote which develops into an individual plant.The tempera ture ra ng e in which starch granules start to swell irrevers ibly in hot water. The three general classifications in rice are:(1) l ow, 69°C;(2) inte rmedia te, 70-74°C;(3) high, 75 °C or above.Gel consistency test: Gene :Used to determine which lin e or varieties of rice will remain ha rd or soft on cooli ng after be i ng cooked. In gene ral, rice .Iith le ss than 24 :~ amylose has so ftge1 consistency, i.e . it rema ins soft when cold after cooking. The test is used to differentiate cooki ng behaviour among varieties or li ne s with hig h amylose content.The scale used for separating hi gh amylose rice into five ca tegor i es are (IRRI, 1980) :Gel consistency type: The unit of inheritance passed on to progenies from parents. It i s responsible for expression of heritable characters. The site it occupies on ch romosome is called a locus. A character may be controlled by one or several genes.This is growing varieties with several genes for vertical resistance in different geographical regions where the crops is widely grown. The idea is that in case of a breakdown of the resistance yield loss will not be great in all the locations.The manifestation of a gene in a uniform and predictable manne r .The proportion of a given type of an alternative allele to the total of all alleles at the genetic locus in a population of plants. It is also defined as the probability of identifying or locating a given gene when it is chosen randomly from the population.Gene pools:Modification of effects of gene action by a nona l leli c ge ne or genes.Gen~ complexes in a genetically diverse populations (Chang, 1976a ) .Generat i on :Ge petics:(see combining ability)An assemblage or group of plants constituting a single step i n the line of descent from an ancestor. Also a single set of progeny in the succession of natural descent. Such set of progeny originated at the same time. It is used t o refer to the average period of ti me between the formation or or i gin of t he parents and that of their offspring. It i s also the act or process of coming into being.The science which studies and explain s he redi tary changes , similarities and differences in plant and anima l s. It deal s with the mechanism of passing the characters from parents to pregeny.Determined in selection by the formula:selection differential phenotypic S.D. of mean heri tability.Available genetic variability among widely grown cultivars in relationship to total variability in a crop species. A cultivar which has a broad genetic base can adapt more readily to changing environments than a narrowly based one.A group of genotypes with varying characters or resources based on the available number of alleles in the plants considered on a given locus. There is a better chance of selection improvement when there is a wide genetic base, as in composite varieties or complex hybrids.This refers to the make-up and proportion of genetically different individuals in a population.Collection, maintenance and preservation of all types of germplasm in a crop species and its wild relatives.The state of being genetically different. This is what plant breeders make use of in their selection work. Farmers depend on genetic diversity to minimize pest damage.Changes in the gene frequencies of a population when the size of sample chosen for rejuvenation is small. Genetic drift leads to a less of certain genotypes in the population.Genetic equilibrium:Constant nature of phynotype, same frequencies generation after generation in a randomly mating population.The possibility of genetic material (improved or unimproved cultivar or lines) producing many new combinations (following hybridization) from available variability.A collection of plants in a species that includes the entire array of cultivars, related wild species in the genes and their various hybrids.A place, agent, institution or association having a strong programme of overrall conservation of one or more crops.A variety or strain known to possess one or more specific traits.The genettc inheritance or such traits may not be clearly understood unlike those of a genetic tester.A plant known to carry one or more genes clearly expressing themselves in morphological or physiological features. The mode of inheritance of such traits is known by previous genetic experiments.The act of being different or changeable genetically.Genetics:It is used to refer to the potential danger of disease and pest epidemics on a crop which is currently resistant to such a disease or insect pest. This is recently used to emphasize the incidents of breaking down of a genetic resistance to a disease or an insect pest.The science which studies and explains hereditary changes, similarities and differences in plants and animals. It deals with the mechanism of passing the characters from parents to pregeny.Genotype:The genetic constitution on make-up of a plantl It may be expressed or unexpressed, depending on environmental effects on the plant in a given location. Also refers to a group of plants having a common or specific make-up.Genotype, number of:Genus:The number of different types of genetypes that can be obtained in an F2 population. It is calculated by using the formular 3nwhere n 2 = number of genes involved. In a backcross where n = 2, e.g. in an F2 resulting from a cross with two different pairs of alleles there will be 9 g~notypes. The backcross will have four genotypes.A taxonomic group comprlslng one or more species that are of common origin and are different from other taxonomic groups. Similar genera (plr of genus) are grouped in a family. It is a group above the species. In binominal nomenclature, it is the first word of the scientific name and it begins with a capital. The second word is the trivial or specific name and it does not begin with a capital (see classification).Germination:Initial growth of the embryo from a seed or spore in which the radicle and shoot or hypha protrude from the seed or spore.Germinator:Equipment used for seed germination inside which temperature is usually controlled Germplasm:A collection of many different varieties or lines which represent the diverse genotypes of the species.It is a bearer of all hereditary factors in a species. It is sometimes referred to as the gene bank of the species or the sum total of genetic material in a species.A special building where germp1asm is carefully kept and preserved for a period of time. The tempe rature, and often the relative humidity also, i s controlled. Cold seed storage is another commonly used ex pression. The three types of co l d seed storage are:Short-term with temperature at 18°-21°C, 45 -75% R.H. or uncontrolled. Seed can be conserved he re fore 2-5 years.Medium-term-temperature 0°_5 °C, 20-70% R.H., seed can be co nse rved 25-30 years.Long-term-temperature -20 to -lO ce, 15-30% R. H. or controlled. Seed can be conserved \"p to 50 years or more.Gibberel1ins:A grou p of plant hormones that promotes stem elongation of certain plants and growth of fruits and other beneficial effects.Glaberrima rice:Glabrous:(see Oryza glaberrima and African rice).A plant or plant part that is smooth or divoid of hai rs or any projection. Sometimes some hairs may be found and not have to be completely absent to be described as ql ab rous.G1ume:A long, narrow envelope made of thin transparent paper and opening at one end. It is frequently used for bagg lng in hybridasation work or sometimes for seed storage.The two chaffy structures in the inflorescence of grasses. It is made up of the lemma and palea which usually cover the floret before blooming and often remain attached to the ripened \"fruit\" or grain of some cereals, e.g. rice.Glume discoloration (Grain discoloration, dirty panicles):This is the result of staining or masking the original • colour of the glumes. The glumes dark giving a dirty and unattrative appearance. In rice and other cereals, discoloration is caused either by sucking insects or one or more fungi species such as Pyricularia, He1minthos orium, Corcos ora, Rh nchos orium, ternar1a, crocy 1n r1um, usar1um, oma and curvularia. The discoloration may and may not affect the grain endosperm.(See grain discoloration).(See waxy endosperm) .Grade:Grain:(See Chi-square test).The separation of milled or unmilled grains into different sizes or categories, e.g. broken and whole grain, short and long .Botanically a caryopsis with its hulls, a \"fruit\" of grasses. It is the receptacle in which the single embryo and endosperm are found. The peri carp or ovary wall and testa or seed coat are often fused. In some cereals the testa may be absent. The grain's main components are the hull and caryopsis coat, (pericarp, seed coat, nucleus). Endosperm and embryo: In rice, the lemma, pa1ea, rachi11a, sterile lemma and the awn if present, firmly adhere to the grain. In some cereals, e.g. maize, the lemma and palea are not present and in sorghu, they are not firmly attached.This is the proportion of various important chemical compounds or elements usually of nutritional importance, e.g. protein and its ac; ds.The se are the various di mens ion s , s ha pes, weight, seed coat colour endosperm type, scent, amylose content, t ran slucency. chalkiness, milling yields, gelatinization temperature. gel co nsistency, brown rice protein, lysine content. elongation ratio and sensory factors of the grain s . Most of these characteristics have been described under different heading in the glossary. Table 1 shows t he three desc r i pt ive sca les widely used fo r rice length and shape.Tab le 1:Three decriptive scales widely used for r i ce len gth and sha pe (adapted from IBPGR -IRRI, 1980). This is the longitudinal distance in mil li metres from the base of the lowermost sterile lemma to the ti p or spiculus of the lemma or palea whichever is longer. disregarding awns. Long grains in I'ice are over 6.6 mm and short grains are less than 5.5 mm.In rice, charactristics or status of grain on milling. In determination of the milling quality the following constituents or t erms are considered:Brown rice (per cent) -weight of dehul1ed (brown) rice to weight of grain in the sample at 14% moisture; expressed in per cent to one decimal pl ace. The complement of br own rice pe rcen tage i s t he percentage hulls.Total milled r ice (per cent ) -weight of mill ed ri ce (who le and broken kernels) to wei ght of grain in the sample.Head ti ce (per cent) -weight of whole ke rnel s of mi 11 ed rice to weight of grain in the sample; sepa ration of head r i ce from broken kernels is done by a sizing device often refe rred t o as grading.Gr a in number:Th i s i n cereals ref ers t o quantity of grain s per cob or panicle.In rice this nu m ber var ies from 80 -170 depending on the intera cti on of various environme nt al factors with var ietal characteris tics.Grain sha pe:Grain size:This refers to how the grain looks like phys icall y . The grain length-width (LjW) r atio influences the shape . The descriptive terms f or grain shape ana t he L/W are: slender L/W = 3.04; med ium L/W = 2.1 -3.0; bold L/W = 1. 1-2. 0, round = -1. 1 (See table 1).The proport ionate dimension of the grai n, grain size is re l ated to gra in weight.Grain/St raw rat i o:Propo rtion of grain weig ht to straw weight recorded in rice from 6 plants or 2 sq . metres for broadcast rice, ou t at grou nd level and dried to the same moisture co ntent. Also see ha rves t i nde x.Grain translucency:In rice, t he property of grain that after dehul1 i ng or mill ing l ig ht can pass throu gh the endos pe r m.The grain is devoid of a chalky spot (white centre, white belly or ~Ihite back ) .Grain weight:This is the heaviness of grain. Usually given per number of grain, e.g. in rice it is on the basis of one thousand grain. The weight ranges from 16 to 50 g, with 25-35g being common. It is an important yield component of most cereal crops.Grain width:The dorsi ventral (underneath to top) diameter ~easurement from 10 grains. In rice it is the distance across the lemma and the palea at the widest pOi nt.Grain yield:The harvested grain per unit area often expressed in kilogram per hectare and at a given seed moisture content. In rice, yields are calculated at a moisture content of 14%.Gras s cutter:(see rodent).Greenhouse:A virus disease in rice generally in Asia in which the plants are strikingly shortened and tiller profusely. The vector is Nilaparvata lugens.A construction (usually roofed with glass) in which pla nts are grown under controlled humid •and temperature conditions. The plants are th us protected from rain and a few other environme ntal ha~rds. Glasshouse is the term used in Great Britain for greenhouse.Green 1 ea fhoPJ:€ r:Green smut :An important rice pest especially in Asia. It is known as Nephotettix.-m.. It causes partial to pronounced yellOl•ling and increas i ng severity of stunting which may kill the plants. It also transmits the yellow dwarf diseas e of rice. The insect i s found mostly on the leaves.(See false smut).This i s a t er m coined f oll owi ng the success of IRRI wi t h r i ce and CI MMYT with whea t when the newl y de veloped hi gh-yieldi ng var i eties ma de big str i ki ng changes in cro p production in it s var i ous ra mi fication s . There \\;ere cha nge s in res earch pr i nci pl es production practices an d other agro economic and socia-political decis i ons on food crop . Cu rrently the express i on i s use d to r efer to bi g Go vernmen t campai gns for food product ion.Gro und hog (Grass cutter or cutti ng gra ss) :In West Africa , an ani ma l (T hryonornys sViinderianus) that causes a l ot of damag e to ce r ea l crop s es pec ially rice, by che wi ng t he s t em .Grow:Th e port ion of t he total preci pitation tha t at any pa rticula r ti me is ei ther passi ng t hrou gh or standing i n t he so il and t he under lying strata and is free to mo ve under t he i nflu ence of gra vi ty ( Fot h, 1978) . This gro und water l eve l or table is important f or hydromo rphic r i ce . The higher t he water t able the les s t he rice Vl i ll suffer f rom drought.To come t o life or t o become l arger may al so l ead to deve l opme nt of complex and simple st ructures.Gr owth:A per iod i n the year wh en t emperature , 1 i ght , rainf all, et c . ena bles a crop t o grow well and prod uce economic yields. In general term s , i t is an i ncrease in size and us ua l ly in mos t plants include s di fferen t iati on of ce lls. It i s an irreversible change in a pl ant which is foll owed by ut ili za t ion of mat eria l and usually result in increased vo l ume, dry weight or pro t ei n content. It may re sult in in crease in popu l atio n or colony of a cu l ture of micro-organi sm .Gene rally, the length of ti me the crop takes t o mature, i. E. days fro m planting till it pro duces m ature seeds or other product s . In ri ce this varies from 100-140.(see habi t).Hormones or chemicals that suppress growth, e.g. abscisic acid, morphactins and maleic hydrazide.Chemicals that control growth.These are chemicals that delay or slow down growth, e.g. chlormequat, daminozide, gametocides and a11e10pathin.Distinct periods in the life cycle of a plant, e.g. seedling, ti11ering, reproductive stages.Hormones or chemicals that promote or accelerate the rate of growth, e.g. auxins, Gibbere11ins, Cytokinins and ethylene. The general appearance of a plant, the way it grows, whether erect, prostrate, climbing, twin i ng, spreading, etc. or annual vs. perennial.Plants having only one common pa rent. A group of half sibs is obtained by fertilizing a series of ears or panicles with po l len from the same panicle or by fertilizing an ear or panicle of a line with a mixture of pollen.Having the basic numbe r of chromosomes in a somat ic cell, e.g. in gametes or reproductive cells. A plant with gametic chromosome number (n).The reproductive stage when the grain filling stage has been completed and the grain is almost fully ripe It is hard to dent but not as hard as a fully ripe grain . The hard dough stage in rice, on the average, is about 7 days to full maturity or 21 days after anthesis of a fertilized spikelet.A hardened soil layer below a soft upper layer. It is caused by cementation of soil pa rticles with organic matter or with materials such as silica or calcium carbonate. An example of hard pan is the hard layer beneath a puddled rice paddy soil.Plant being able to endure severe climatic conditions although unprotected.(1) A special farm implement or device for breaking up soil during land preparation for planting or sowing.(2) The process of using such device or implement.The removal or ga thering (or that which is removed) of the economic parts of the plant for food or for other products.The person or machine that harvests.Harvest index:Head:The percentage of grain to whole plant at harvest given by the formula:where g = dry grain weight and G= grain weight plus dry weight of plant at harvest.The higher the index the greater the efficiency of the plant to produce grain.An inflorescence, e.g. the capitulum of composites. It also refers to panicles of cereals such as sorghum and rice.Head i ng:Hea'd ri ce:Br ing out the rep rodu ctive part s or infloresce nce of a plant. Used m ainl y for grami naceous crops . Also defi ned as the emergence of the panicl e out of the fla g l eaf sheath.(see gra in milli ng) .H eadi ng stage:The growth per iod when heading beings, Head-to -row :Hectare:H erbici de :Heredity :Heritable:The proces s of growing seed from a pa ni cle or ea r t o one or more rows , This i s done to determ i ne or main ta in seed purity of a var iety bei ng st udu ed or multi pli ed. In maiz e i t is a spec ial breeding procedure called ear-to-rO\\; method (defi ned ) .In r i ce , th i s method i s used to devel op a homogeneo us varie ty from a heterogeneous var iety .A metr i c unit (see Table 2) of area measurement t ha t which is 10,000 squa re meters of land or 2. 47105 acres. In sc i en t i fic repo rting yie l ds are usuall y expressed in weight per hectare.A chemical used for killing weeds or retarding their growth. Herbi cides can be applied in solution or granular form. They may be app lied before weeds germinate (pre-emergence herbicide ) or after ge rminat i on (post-emet'gence herbicides. Selective herbicides affect only a partic1 Jl ar plant type withou t damage on others, It is the pro cess by which similarity i s brought about be tween parents an d pregeny . Transmission of genetic characters of parents t o t he ir progeny.The passi ng on or transmission t o progeny of genetic characters of parents (expre ssed or unex pressed ).A plant that has six sets (genomes) of chromosomes, i.e. chromosome number of 6n.High-yielding variety:Hi 11 :Hill rice:Hoeing:A variety that produces relatively more yields than traditional varieties of same crop in a given area.A heap or mound of earth so prepared for planting. of plants growing closely together, separated by a from another group.Upland r ice grown on steep sl opes usually in areas with high rainf all.In general, it is the act of removing weeds with a hoe.Similar in kind, qualities or nature. and similar in genetic composition due common ancester.Hom ologous chromosome:Homozygote:Hormones:Chromosomes that are alike and synapse or pair at the first division (prephase) in meiosis. In a pair of homo l ogous chromosomes, each member has a corresponding sequence of gene lo ci and is derived from a different parent.Having one or more genes that are al ike at correspond ing lo ci on homologous chromosomes.In plants, these are growth regulatory chemical substances su ch as gibberellic acid, auxin (defi ned), kinins produced by plants for vari ous physiological processes (see growth i nhibit ors, stimulators etc.).Horizontal resistance:A moderate .~. ~l of stable resistance controlled by many minor Host plant:genes. It is also referred to as field resistance. It is polygenic, non-specific to any type of a given strain of pathogen and it is generally graded in expression, only exceptionaliy approaching immUnity. It is expressed as varying combinations of restriction of infection and/or reproduction of pathogen. It is said to be responsible for durable disease resistance of many crops.This is a plant which nourishes or supports a pest or disease.Host resistance:The mechanism in which a plant or animal having a given parasite on it is able to avoid, tolerate or recover from attacks of the parasites or pathogens. They are able to do this by evolving morphological and physiological modifications.Hot air emasculation:In cereal using hot air to open by force a floret to remove the anther. The air temperature for such an operation is between 30-40°C and the time of exposure co uld vary from two t o five minutes.Hot water emasc ulation:As in hot air masculation, but the panicle is ammersed in hot water. In thi s method, pollen grains can get killed in some plants.Hot water treatment:Steeping bulbs, seeds and other plant parts in a wa t er bath at a temperature lethal to the infecting nematodes, fungi, insects, etc. without damaging plant material.In general hull and husk are used interchangeably. It is the dry or membraneous ou t er covering of seed or fruit, e.g. rice hull or corn husk. In r ice and sorQhum for example, it is made up of the lemma and palae .Hulling (huski ng):The process of removing husks or hulls from the grain.Humus:Hybri d:Dark-brown colloidal matter present in soil as a result of animal and vegetable decomposition. It is an important source of mineral nutrients for plants. Also described by Foth (1978) as: That more or less stable fraction of the soil organic matter remaining after the major portion of added plant and animal residues have decomposed. Usually, it is dark coloured.A product of crossing two genetically dissimilar parents. The first generation offspring of a cross between two plants differing in one or more genes.Hybrid maize, hybrid rice:Fl hybrids of single (maize and rice) or double crosses (maize).Hybridisation:Crossing individuals that differ in genetic constitution. A method of breeding new varieties which utilize crossing to obtain genetic recombination.A block or a piece of land set aside for making crosses. The parents for these crosses are usually planted in a hybridisation block.In general, a variety derived by hybridization; developed from repeated crossing, having male sterile and restorer genes. It is generally higher yielder due to hybrid vigour, e.g. in maize, sugarbeet, onion etc. Formerly, a variety developed by hybridization was referred to as a hybrid variety.Hybrid vigour:(see heterosis).The number of grams of hydrogen ions per litre of solution.It is useful as a measure of acidity of a solution and in this context is usually expressed in terms of pH = 1091Bl/10[H+],where [H+] is the hydrogen ion concentration. As ure water at ordinary temperatures dissociates slightly into hydrogen ions and hydroxyl ions (H 0 = H+ + OH-), the concentration of each type of ion 6eing 10-7 mole per litre, the pH of pure water will be 109101/10-7 = 7; this figure is accordingly taken to represent neutrality on the pH scale.If acid is added to water, its hydrogen ion concentration will increase and its pH will therefore, decrease. Thus a pH in excess of 7 indicates alkalinity (Uuarov et ~ 1979).Hydromorphic rice:Rice grown where the water table is very near the soil surface.Water may even 1 ie on the soil surface for 2-6 weeks during the growing period. Rice grown under this condition usually suffers from drought only when it does not rain for 4-8 weeks during the growing season. Many so-called upland rice areas are ecologically under hydromorphic conditions in Africa.Hydroponic:Hypostatic:Hypothesis:Ideotype:Soil that can be permanently or periodically flooded.A method of ra151ng a crop e.g. vegetables by supplying all the nutrients the plant needs through a nutrient solution.A gene that is suppressed by a nonallelic dominant gene. This is a theory or postulate that is yet to be proven. An unproven bel i ef.13 etc:Symbols used to designate the first, second, third inbred generations etc.A new plant model which assumes that when such a plant is produced and grown, it will be more efficient in the utilization of light, water, and chemical unputs, more resistant to In1' lune:unfavourab l e envi ro nme ntal fac t ors. The features of such an ideotype ar e those that are used as guide for selection work and related to plant type characters, e.g. height, s i ze and angle of leaves, ty pe, shape and position of pa ni cl es or ears etc .Fr ee of or comp letely resis tant t o a disea se or a pes t that i s in the enviro nmen t of a plant .A fl oVie r devoid of either pi stil or stamen, i .e. it i s un i sexua 1.To make better, rectify or co rrect, e. g. i m proved seed or i mproved va ri ety i s one t hat i s better in one or more characte rs than t he prev ious ly used ones.Inbred:A plant ty pe (def ined ) who se morpho -phys iol og i cal fe at ur es have been changed or m odified in such a way t hat has produce d more eff i c i en t or higher yielding pl an t. In r i ce it means shorter pl ant height, wit h a stiff and sturdy culm res i stant to l odging, erect leaves more eff ic ient for photosynthe s is, heav i er ti l leri~g , nit r ogen fertilizer respo ns ive and sometimes photope r i od in se nsi tive . IR 8 wa s the first rel eased variety to m eet t hese qua l it ies .The progeny afte r cross ing two re l ated plants .Inbreed ing: Any l ine whic h is m ore or l ess homo zygous deri ved from a cross pop ul ation by repeated (a t l east for five success ive generat 'o ns) inbreed i ng (se lf-fertil i zat i on, s ibi ng cross ing. etc.) of an individual and it s proge ny . A population i n whic h i nbreed ing i s i nevi table beca use of the li mited po pulation s i ze (bree ding size) t he reby forcing relatives to i nterc r oss i s equ i valent to an inbreeding line.A fertilizat io n system whi ch. in co ntras t to o ut or cross breedi ng i nvolves the breeding together of i ndiv i dual s. more cl ose ly I'e l ated than pa re nts at ran dom from a populatlOn .The closest form of inbreeding is sefl-fertilization, other forms are sib crossing and half-sib crossing.A 11 forms of inbreed i ng result in an increase of homozygos ity, i.e. lead to genetic fi xa tion. When inbreeding i s imposed on a normally outbreeding population, the population i s broken up into smaller groups accompanied by a decrease in total heterozygosi ty as fixation occurs in t he sub-groups. If no selection for particular homozyqotes occurs, genetic variance as a whole is increased in t he population (transformation of potential into free genetic variation). Inbreedi ng in normall y outbreeding populations generally leads to a loss of fitness referred to as i nbreeding depression.In plants, morphological and phisiological mechanism favouring inbreed ing are common, e. g. fai l ure of flowers to open (cleistqgamy ) or opening of flowers only after the pollen has been shed. The relative restriction of outbreeding mediated by these and other mechanisms ranges from facultative self-pollination to obligate self-fertilization.Unable to set seed or units when se1fed, crossed or grafted because of structural, physiological, or o ~t oge nic reaso ns .Two different alleles (e .g. a dominant and reces s i ve gene ) producing an intermediate effect compared to the effect of the domi nant alleles.Incubation:A flower that lacks one or more of the acce ss orial parts, e.g. corolla or the calyx.The process of keeping plants, disease pathogens or seed under a cel'tain temperature to hasten growth. In seed incubation, e.g. rice after soaking for 24 hours, water is removed and the seeds are washed, placed on a clean surface, e.g. floor and covered with sack for 24 hours. Incubation keeps the seeds \\•!arm to increase the embryo growth for uniform germi nat ion.The assortment of rearrangements of two or more pairs of segregating genes to the gametes that is due only to chance. The distribution of the genes to the gametes is not influenced by each other, i.e. not linked.A variable not influenced or affected by another variable. A suitable suscept plant used to signify the survival or reproduction of plant parasitic nematodes. (Caveness, 1974).Infect: Infection: Infest:(See Japonica and Javanica or Bulbus). A subspecies of rice varieties based on geographical distribution, plant and grain morphology, hybrid sterility and serological reaction. The indica rice varieties are those from Ceylon, Southern and Central China, India, Java, Pakistan, Phillippines, most African countries and other tropical areas. They are characterized by having broad, light-green leaves, slender and somewhat flat grains, profuse tillering and tall plant stature, and amylose content above 20%.To contaminate with a pathogen or disease-producing substance. To invade and establish a parasitic relationship within the host.The result of affecting injuriously. The process of establishment of a pathogen in its host after invasion. The state produced by the establishment of an infective agent in or on a suitable host.To attack externally, e.g. insect pests, attack on a plant's part such as grain of rice. Also to contain the parasite.Influence:Inherit:A flowering shoot on which flowers are arranged on the floral axis, e.g. as in sorghum or rice.To control, dominate, affect, induce or modify the growth and development of a plant in any way.To receive genes form parents.The transmission of genetic information (characters, triats, chromosomes genes) from parents and ancestors to progeny.The gene that prevents or inhibits the expression of another gene.This is a first stage trial conducted to determine which of the several varieties or lines (100-400) could be retained either for future detailed trial or for hybridization.Inoculate: Inoculum: Inorganic:These are swamps or poorly drained land found in the interior, far from the coast in any country.To introduce micro-organisms into another organism or a medium. Spores, bacteria, eggs of insects or fragments of mycelium of pathogens which can infect plants.Of mineral orlgln not a carbon compound or not from living tissue or compounds.Materials provided to the soil or plant or both to support or improve plant production. Examples are fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides (defined).In situ:Inspection:A substance used to kill insect pests.In natural or original position, not removing a plant from its original position for study or for any other operation.The act of examlnlng thoroughly with the idea of discovering someting unsual or substandard as in field inspection of seed fields.This is a term used to describe crop pest (insects, diseases, weeds and animals) control techniques that include the use of one or more of the following, biological control, physical and mechanical control, autocidal insect control, chernical behavioural insect control and selective chemical control (Bottrell,19BO). The techniques involved are to be cheap and easily adaptable and free from environmental hazards.The act of two or more variables affecting the expression or performance of each other. At different levels or locations, e.g. a trial involving different plant populations at different nitrogen levels. The populations will behave differently under the various levels of nitrogen (Steel and Torrie, 1960).Between two different alleles of a gene, e.g. interallellic action is one which is influenced by two different alleles.Said of plants that are capable of actual or potential gene exchange by hybridization.Growing more than one crop in a rield at the same time.The restriction or influence of a crossover on another probable crossover close to it.A triat or character falling between the level of two different plants or two groups of plants. In rice the intermediate height is lOO-140cm.The host in which the sexual stages of a parasitic life cycle of an organism take place.Internode:A rice testing programme in which several countries participate in the nomination of entries and conduct of the field trials. In the case of rice, the programme is being coordinated by IRRI founded by UNDP. There are many types of nurseries in the programme.The part of a plant stem or culm between two successive nodes. There are normally four to six elongated (more than lcm) internodes in a mature rice (Vergara, 1979).Between two different species. An interspecific cross for example in rice will be one between Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima.The procedure of bringing into a location a cultivar or mixture of cultivars that is not normally available there. Such cultivar may be from another part of the country though often it is from another country. The cultivar is used directly as a variety, assessed for its potentials or utilized in hybridization work contributing a character or genes not available in the local or existing cultivars. This is the incorporation of a slightly different character from a very related plant by repeated crossing or backcrossing, e.g. introgressive hybridization may occur when similar parents hybridize.To get flooded or put under water.Growth or movement of an infectious agent into a host with its susequent establishment as a disease.The arrangement of a piece or segment of a chromosome so that its genes are no\\, in reversed 1 inear order as compared to how they were before the rearrangement.Examining, searching, probing or looking with the idea of proving a theory or making a discovery as in an experiment.It means in glass by deviation. The general use refers to biological or biochemical processes or experiments that occur or that are carried out in a laboratory container after which the cells or tissues in which the cells or process occur are isolated from the whole living organisms, e.g. the growing or culturing of anthers into a plant in a special culture medium. Biological process occuring in the body of a living organism.High soil pH is one of the causal factors of iron deficiency in soil. The symptom on the plant, e.g. in rice is yellowing of newly emerged leaf. The next leaf becomes more yellow or chlorotic, then turns white if conditions are not improved.The symptoms are di st i nguishab l e f rom t hose of ni troge n de fi ci ency (def ined) in that , i n ni t ro aen defic i ency. the new leave~ are pa e green f i rst an d t urn ye l low later on. The older l eaves are more ye ll Ol•lish . In i ron def i ci ency as explained above, all l eaves are yellOl-l both youn g and old. Iro n def i ciency is more cOllno n in up l and r ice t han i n irrigated rice. [t can be correc ted by fo l iar applicat i on of a so l ut ion conta i ninq i ron (Kang et aI, 1974) and al so by so il appl i cation of fe r r ous su l pha t e.Thi s is the prob l e~ bro ug llt abo ut whe n there is too much of iron i n the soil. This occurs e.g. in rise paddies or other soil unde r redu ced condi t ion wi th l ow pH . There are varieties of r i ce symp t oms on affected plants . Leaves may have fel\" sma ll brOl-In spots on the green l eaves sta r t i ng f rom the tips and spreading to the leaf base . If cond i t i on i s severe, the whol e l eaf m ay become pur pl e , brown or bronze. Leaves of some var i eti es become ye ll ow. These sy~ptoms are most ly seen on t he leaves betv/ee n t he i r veins. High iron con t ent is as soc iated wi th def i ciency of other element s . e.g . po t assi um or phosp horus. Proper drai nage, time ly ap plication on some so il us i ng urea i nstead of sulphate of ammo nia fertil i zer apply i ng potassium or phosp horus wi ll r emo ve or reduce iron tox i ci ty pr ob l em .Irr i ga ted : Expos ure of pl ants or t hei r parts t o mutagens or agents such as X-rays, gamma rays or chemi ca 1 mutage ns t o cause i ncreased mutation .To ap ply v/ater ar tificia ll y other than by rain or river for t he be nefit of grow i ng crops.Ri ce grown under ar t i f ic ial ly wate re d co ndit i ons i n wh i ch t he so il i s usua ll y l eve l led and pU dd l ed wi t h bunds or l eeves that give sorne water contro l. Irr i gated r i ce us uall y does not suffer frorn l ack of or too much of water as water control i s best under this condi ti on. Up l and rice can be irr i gated too under certa i n c;o ndi t ion s . All el es occu py i ng a l ocus that ca nnot be different i ated from eac h othe r exce pt by specia l test.Gametes or sexual cell s t ha t are the same in size and app earance but they conj uga te and produce a zy gote.The fus i on of gametes or sexual cel l s that are simi lar i n size.Of pla nt s that possess the same genotype and differ in only one gene controlli ng a given cha rac ter.Isol ate : Two or more lines that are ge neticall y different at only a si ngle 1 oeus .To sepa r at e a group of plants or i ndividual pl ants from other group s or plan t s with which th ey could othe rw i se f r eely i nterc ross . This i s to prevent cro ss -f ertiliza t i on between the .;epara ted plants or groups of pl ants , e . q. ma i ze va r i et\"i es or fungal or bac terial cu lture .A sub-speci es of O. sat i va,group of rice variet i es from northern and ea stern Ch ina: Japan and Korea. In gen era l, most of the mo rph ol og ic al and phys i ological var i ations of these gro ups of r i ce are al so fou nd in ot he r group s of rice such as Indi ca and Ja vani ca . However, the Ja ponica vari eties are chara cter ized by havi ng narrow, dark-gr ee n leaves , short ro und is h grains, mediu m til l er in g, short pl ant natu r e and low amy lose content. A mo re appropri ate t erm i s Sinica r i ce si nc e t he Japanese acquired t heir rices f rom China.A gro up of rice var i etie s from Indone si a; also a sub -species of O. sat iva. They are the bulu and gundil va r i et i es . They have broad thic k grains, l ow t ill ering , ta ll plant stature and long panic l es.Juven il e stage: Period of immaturity or young growth; or the immature or young growth period. This is a stage in most crops before flowering or active accummulation of carbohydrates in parts that are harvestable.Kerne I : This is an important characteristics of a deep-water variety with elongation ability. This is the capability of some cereals especially rice to be able to raise the panicles up after lodging following flood water receding. This occurs after a deep-water variety has elongated during appreciable rise in water level.In rice, it generally refers to milled rice.Kil ogram: Kresek:Labe I ;A smut or fungus disease that affects the kernel, e.g. in rice, Tilletia barclayana or Nevossia horrida.A metric weight unit equivalent to 2.2046 pounds. It is 1,000 grams, used commonly in experimental measurements. This is the Indonesia name given to a stage of the systemic disease called bacterial blight (defined). The bacteria attacks the young rice plant through wounds on the roots or leaves, and the leaves wilt and die rapidly as the pathogen becomes systemic. Symptoms resembles those from dead heart, iron deficiency, cricket or rat damage when the affected leaves are out and squeezed, a yellowish to yellow-white, shiny, bacterial fluid oozes from the vascular bundles. This oozing is absent in other sources of plant damage.Any written or a piece of material for identification purposes.In field trial, it is a tag or a piece of cardboard, stakes, etc. giving the identity of entry with its row or plot number.Genes that are unsteady (always mutating).Land ri ce:Vegetative stage of a plant in a photoperiod-sensitive genotype.A locally grOlvn cultivar or an unimproved traditional variety in a given location. It is always found in the area in pure or mixed types and it is well adapted to the environmental conditions there.Latent:A stage in the life cycle of most insects. The larva hatches out of the egg. In some insects, it is also known as a caterpillar, maggot, grub or worm.An unexpressed condition of a gene or disease even though present in a plant.Latin square (LS) design:An experimental design used mostly in field experiments where there is a bi-directiona1 fertility gradient. In this design the number of replications is equal to the number of treatments. It is generally used for 4-8 treatments.Lattice designs:Special designs used in incomplete block designs. Treatments in lattice designs are large' 2 Balance lattice -number of treatments is a square number, e.g. K , number of replication is K + 1, K ~ number of plots per block. Partially ba1an 2 ed latticenumber of treatments is a square number, e.g. K , number of replication is possible. Number of plots per block is K.Leaching:A panicle with few lateral spike1ets on the branches. is open or loose.branches and sparsely distributed It also refers to a panicle thatThe removal of useful chemicals or other materials in solution from the soil through percolation.Leaf:Leaf angle:A lateral organ borne on the stem or axis of most plants. It is the major organ used for photosynthesis by plant to accumulate carbohydrates and for many other physiological processes such as respiration and transpiration.In cereal crops, it refers to the distance of the leaf blade from the stem. It determines the openess or closeness of the leaf. The general descriptive terms often used are erect (angle of 0-30°) intermediate (31-60°), horizontal (61-90 0) , descending (over 91°). In rice, the angle of the flag leaf is important. Erect flag leaf discourages the attack of birds as the grains on the panicles are less showy and more difficult to reach.Leaf blade:Leaf blast:The area of the leaf surface per unit of land surface. It is the total leaf surface to the area of land it covers. A general formula is: LAI = Sum of leaf area of all plants in an area Area of land covered by the plants Generally, the thin, flattened, conspicuous portion of the leaf (see lamina) joined to the leaf sheath, leaf petiole or directly to the stem in some plants. It is the major part of the plant responsible for photosynthesis. It may be simple (one piece) as in rice or compound (divided into separate parts or leaflets) as in cassava.The blast disease that affects the leaf as differentiated from other forms of blast.The characteristic rollinq of leaves due to control water loss.An important insect on cereal especially rice. The insect is Caphalecrosis medinalis. The larva which causes the damage creates a leafy tube as it gets bigger and feeds within the tube consuming the leaf tissues except the epidermis.Leaf rolling:Leaf scald:The moving of leaf by revolving inwardly or outwordly due to decrease in the leaf tissue water potential as affected by atmospheric moisture content and soil moisture supply.A type of leaf disease by a fun9us in rice known as Rhynchosporium oryzae. The lesion occurs very often on the tip of the leaf. It may also start at the margin of leaf blade. The typical lesions form characteristic zonations or bands as they spread and enlarge on leaves of susceptible varieties. The lesions thus develop into large ellipsoid areas encircled by grayish dark brown bands, accompanied by light-brown halo. Rice varieties with broad leaves appear to be more susceptible to leaf scald.Leaf senescence:(See senescence).Leaf sheath:The lower part of the leaf which is modified to invest, enclose or wrap around the stem and young leaves in grasses or sedges.A good basal wrapping of the leaf sheath is an important feature for lodging resistance in cereal crops such as rice.Least significant difference (LSD):Legume:Lemma:A computed value used for comparing p1anned paired means arising from analysis of variance. Any two means whose difference exceeds this value are declared significantly different. A 5% or 1% probability level is often used.The pod produced by a group of plants in the order Leguminosae (peas, beans, etc.) The term is used for a particular group of plants that produce these pods. They are important in cropping system for their ability to enrich the soil with their high nitrogen content. Most of them fix nitrogen in association with bacteria in root nodules.One of the two members (lemma and palea) of the parts referred to collectively as glumes in the flower of a grass.Lesi on:Le vee :86In rice, it is bigger th an palea. The al'in ex tends from lema i n r i ce. It encloses the palea ( See sterile l emma ) .An unusual change in form, colour s truc t ure and devel opme nt of a ce ll, tissue, org an or any part of a plant due t o i njury or di sease .A paddy bund or the hig h side of a main irr i gation channel.Life cycle :Ligu l e:Life cyc l e : Line :Gene whose effec t is suf fic i ent ly dra st i c t o ki l l t he bearer of cer ta i n genotypes .The success i ve se ri es of changes t hrough wh i ch an orga ni sm oasses in t he cou r se of it s developeme nt.p, po inted 1 eafy st ru cture that proj ects upward fro m the t op of the l eaf shea th, cl ose ly pressed t o the culm in m ost grasses. It i s red uced Dr abse nt i n some grasses . It i s used a l so to cesc r i be some pa rts of a fl ower. O. sa t iva has l ong 1 i gu l e , Q. gl abeni ma, s hort , Progressive se r ies of cha nges und e rgone by a pl ant from fe rtil izat i on to death or t o the per i od when the pl ant al so produces gametes whi ch begi n an i denti ca l series of chan ges. It i s also agro -nomi ca l ly r eferred to as the per i od from seeding t o m atur i ty of the crop .A fa mi ly of pl ants or i gi nat i ng fr om a commo n cross or pa rents.A pl an t t ha t i s st ill undergoin g se l ect i on, i mproveme nt, or unrecommended indi vidu al s. After severa l generati ons and de sc r i ptions, a lin e becomes a var i ety and i s given a varieta l name .The line or proge ny derived from usually self-pollinating homozy go us plants.Line sowing:To sow in line rather than broadcasting or ha pzard dibbling.Linear model:A model with linear equations for the varia~e s invol ved.Linear regre ss i on:Lin kage :(See regress ion ).The associat i on of one or more genes on a chrom osome . They are found almost always toge t her unless the linkages ane broken in me i os is . The closer the gen es are , t he t ig hter the lin kage and more diff icult their separation.A group of genes arra nged i n a linear order on a chromo some.Lin kage ma p:Litre :Loam:A diagram of linkage groups showing th e rel at ive positi on of the genes on a gi ven chromosome.Unit of volume i n met ric sys tem. It i s equa l to 1000 ml. A place or site where a plant is found or an experiment is carried out.Lodge:Lodicule:Long smut:Loose smut:The site or position on a chromosome where a gene is located.Of plants, to fall over due to wind, rain, and pest damage or due to the character of the plant which is too tall or weak to stand erect, especially after or during the grain-filling stage.Lodging often causes yield loss. Lodging is increased by high soil fertility and poor leaf sheath wrapping. Potassium unlike nitrogen prevents or reduces lodging in rice.A small structure, scaly or hairy, often associated with the stamens in the flowers of grasses.A common name for a sorghum grain smut called Tolyposporium erhenbergii.A fungus disease in cereals such as wheat or barley of genus Ust ilace.Lowland r i ce:Lys i ne:Rice grown i n swamps and in deep and shallow f l ooded conditlon or irrigated cond ition. In contras t to up land r ice , the so il is i nundated duri ng a cons i de rab l e pa r t of rice growt h.One of the es senti al amino acids in seed protein.li mitin g i n m any ce real s such as sorghu m or mai ze.Vel\"y impo rtant nutritionall y .It is oftenFirs t , second and thi rd ge nera t i ons follOloJin g exposure to d mutagenic age nt.The average effect of t he majo r factor in f ac t oria l experiments.Major elements, mac r o el ements or mac ronutrient s :These are chemical elements essential for hi gher pl ant growth and deve l opemnt in relatively la rge amounts (usual l y ove r 500 parts per mill ion in the plant) see essential el ements ) . The re are nine of these nut r ient elements. The three mostly f rom air and wate r are Carbon, Hyd rogen and Oxyge n. Ot he rs from the so il are Nitrogen , Phospho rus, Potas s ium, Ca l sium, 1 1agnesi um and Sulphur .Mendelian ge nes t ha t contro l di scont i nuous character ( see character) . They operate in fewer nu mbe rs , e. g. one or two pairs. They indi vi dua ll y produ ce pronoun ced phenoty pe effec ts . They segrega te clearl y an d can be analysed as mendel ian rat i os .I~a 1 e pa rent;The pl ant t hat possesses the stame ns from whi ch po llen i s gathered f or crossing .A pl ant de void of pollen grains or wit h inv iab l e po ll en and therefo re un ab le t o fer t ili se the female, e.g . non-dehl scence of antller and genic or cytoplasmic male sterility.Mangrnve swa~~s:'o10/d::,P5 \"hc\"e ilI:ln9rove trees, e.g. Rhizllphol'J racenlosa or .c;viccennic, nitlda grow. c1angrove S'>'IdlllpS-arc typified by salir,Jcyan-d--il-cidity. The soil contJins sulfur and sulfur C[lII:~ounds \"Ich as ferrous sulfide (FRS) dnd pyrite (FeS 2 ).Groljing I icp on land generally cleared of mangrove forest. (see mangrove sllamp).~1a rker gene:A qene of known function and usually also of a known location o~ Vie chr'olfosomes; used in genetic studies.~ldSS selection:A form of breeding in which the new variety to be bred consists of selecting several single plants and bulking them together. This selection method is used mainly to preserve genetic purity of already established variety of land variety. The new variety is a mixture of different but rather homogeneous or uniform for most of the plant characters.Maturi ty:Mean:The stage when individual grain is mature, fully developed in size and is hard. In rice, it is clear and free from green tint. It is when the grain has reached maximum dry weight.A growing stage when seeds are ripe, or capable of being harvested or util ized in other ways. In crop such as rice \"days to maturity\" is the number of days from seeding to ripening of more than 85 per cent of the grains on the panicle. During this stage most of the grains have turned yellow or straw colour. Also refers to the growth duration, e.g. maturity groups.Average; the total of observations, measurements, scores, etc., being divided by the number of such observations.Mean square:The sum of the squares of a set of treatments or replications divided by its degree of freedom.Measure~ent:Mediu~:Meiocyte:Meiosis:The determining of the quantity, size, length, value or amount of a treatment or a plant (various units are used for this operation (see Table 2).The value of the variable on each side of which there is an equal number of larger and smaller variables.Statistically, the figure that represents the middle position of 2 or more sets of figures, it is a mean or average. In general term, it is in between two things or extremes, e.g. medium height, medium duration. The surrounding or environment in which a plant grows, especially in the laboratory or other controlled places.Diploid cell to undergo meiosis.It is also referred to as reduction division. Meiosis is genetically controlled and genetical changes take place during the process. It is the process responsible for heredity and a basis for sexuality of higher plants. It serves two major functions:(1) Provision for the random assortment of paired chromosomes and halving of the somatic or diploid chromosome number.(2) Determination of accurate segregation of different alleles and random recombination of unlinked genes and non random recombination of linked genes (Rieger et al, 1976).Mendelian Character:Expressed character (defined) due to one or few pairs of genes which have major effect. The expressed character can be dominant or recessive or intermediate. The following table shows factors for coverting non-S1 units to acceptab SI units. Parenthetic reference to SI base units does not mean that onl base units can be used, but shows the equivalent base unit. All units in this column are acceptable. Metabolism:Mi crobe:The summation of the building-up and breaking down processes that take place in a living organism in maintaining growth, development and reproduction. Both physical and chemical processes are involved.A small organism, usually used to describe a bacterium, fungus, virus, etc.Microcl imate:(1) The climatic condition of a small area resulting from the modification of the general climatic conditions by local differences in elevation or exposure.(2) The sequence of atmosphere changes within a very small region, e.g. a plant (Foth, 1978).Micro elements, micronutrients, trace elements:These are important or essential nutrient elements (defined) that are required in the plant for proper growth and development in only very small amount; less than 50 parts per million in the plant. The seven elements which make up this group are found mostly in the soil. They are Iron, 5il ica, Boron, Mo1ybodenum, Copper, Zinc and Chloride.A small organism that is often visible only through microscopes.In rice, the process of removing the glumes or hull and removal of testa or seed coat, the embryo, the aleurone often some portion of the endosperm of the rice grain. milled or polished rice is mainly the starchy endosperm kerne 1 . further 1 ayer, and Thus, of the ri ceMilling recovery:This refers to the percenta~e of the actual amount of milled rice obtained after the milling process. It usually refers to total milled rice, i.e. broken and whole kernel. Recovery varies from 50-80 per cent depending on the grain quality and whether or not the rice is parboiled, the harvest and storage conditions, etc. (see grain milling quality).Milk stage or milk grain stage:The reproductive phase when the grains are just being filled with carbohydrates.Mineralization:The conversion of an element from an organic form to an inorganic state as a result of microbial decomposition.Genes which individually produce very little effect but in combination may produce a marked effect (see polygenes).A trial in which the entries are small in number and in plot unit. The entries with all the inputs per plot are put in a small container or a box.A reduced or limited land preparation. There are many variation~ depending on soil type or crop involved. In a light textured soil, it may mean ploughing plus one harrowing or one of these operations before planting. It could mean only one rotavating without ploughing. Full tillage is a full or deep ploughing with at least two harrowirg before planting, e.g. for upland rice cultivation.Missing data:Data that are not available, lost or cannot be used because of some reasons, e.g. mechanical errors, loss of sample after harvest, removal by theft, destruction by rodent, bird or insects, drought, etc.In rice, when over 20% of hills are unavailable due to any of the above reasons, the plot yield is treated as missing data in statistical analysis (Gomez and Chang).In transplanted rice it is the spot where transplanted seedlings died before maturing.Mitosis:In field experiment when an experimental unit is completely absent at maturity due to lack of germination, disease, animal damage, drought etc.A process of somatic cell division which produces daughter nuclei which are identical genetically with one another and to the parent nucleus. They contain same number of chromosomes.Mitosis produces genetically equivalent cells in the growing somatic region of organisms. It is a process by which the diploid stage of a cell is maintained, i.e. there is no reduction of the chromosome number. The five main staqes are prophase, prometaphase, metaphase,anaphase and telophase.Mixed cropping:A farming system in which more than one crop is grown concurrently on a piece of land.Mixture:Mode:involving growing of crops associated with rearinq work or other purposes. In short, it is an of crop and animal production (Okiqbo, 1978).Seeds made up of more than one variety.In observation or sets of data, the value which is most frequent.(1) A formalized expression of theory or the causal situation which is regarded as having generated observed data (Kendall and Buckland, 1971).(2) In statistics, it is a set of symbols in the form of equation on which interpretation of the analysis is based. The model expresses a linear additive of the components. There are fixed random or mixed models in statistics. Fixed means that the interpretation will be valid only for the treatment in the given experiments, random means that it will be good for similar treatments not used in the particular experiment.Genes whose main role is to influence the expression of other genets) or nonallelic genes. They affect phynotipic expression of those genes being modified even though nonallelic. They may enhance or reduce the expression of the characters.~1oi sture content:The amount of water in a plant or soil. Grain yield in rice is usually reported on 13-14 per cent moisture content basis.Said of plant when it is suffering from lack of soil moisture for good growth and developement.An instrument for testing the moisture content of any part of the plant, especially the seed.Monoculture:Monocious:The repetitive growing of the same crop (annual, biennual or perennial) crop on the same land (Okigbo, 1978).Having flowers with only one sex, i.e. either female or male flowers on different parts of the same plant. An example is Zea mays.Having a type of inheritance on which the difference between the genotypic difference between two cultivars is due to only a difference of one pair of alleles (1 gene).A cross resulting from two parents differing in pne gene.The type of rainfall in which there is only one peak a year.A plant or organism having only one set of chromosome (n) Monosonic:Lacking one chromosome of the normal chromosone complement, thus it has 2n-l.Mosaic:Mould:Mulch:Study of the form and structure of organismsThe way leaves arranged so that upper leaves do not shade those below. The characteristic patchy or mottled yellowing of leaves usually caused by a virus.Applied to microscopic saprophitic fungi that affect grains or fruits, e.g. Aspergillus f1avus and Pennicillum spp. etc.Spread on the soil surface straw sawdust, leaves, plastic film, loose soil etc to protect the soil and plant roots from effects of raindrops, soil crushing, freezing, evaporation, etc. Any material used for such a protection. Mulch also adds organic matter and mineral nutrients into the soil.Consisting of more than one cell. Most plants are made up of millions of cLi's(5 ) Relay intercropping: Growing two (or more) crops in sequence, seeding or transplanting the succeeding one before the harvest but several weeks after the emergence of the former.A cross involving an Fl and another parent other than either of its parents. A cross between two or more F s or two or more different hybrids. Two or more selfed varieti~s crossed with an open pollinated variety.Multiple-range test:(See Duncan's).M ult i pl i cat i on:Mutagen:The proces s of increasing the planting material of a plant such as seed or cutting for wide di stribution for increased planting at a given site.A substance used to induce mutation.Mutant: Ca using mutations.A plant which has acquired a heritable chara cter or variation as a result of mutation.Mutation:A variant that is relatively different from the normal or parental type and it is inherited in a simple Mendelian manner. The mutant traits are variants of a mo re extreme nature than those commonly observed in a small grou p of cultivated varieties.A sudden heritable change in chromosomal DNA. This may be a change in form, number of genes, or chromosomes. It could be natural or artificial in origin. Natural mutation is a normally infrequent event, though it is happening all the time Muton:Mycelium:102 its effects are masked by heterozygosity, lethality and so are unobserved. It is speeded up artificially through irradiation with X-rays, gamma-rays, neutrons , etc. and by some chemicals.Collective term for a mass of hyphae that ma ke up the vegetative pa r t of a fungus N 2n: , 103The notations for the ganetic and zygotic (diploid) or somatic chromosome number of a plant, e.g. 2n = 24 in rice.Narrow brown leaf spo t :A fungal disease caused in rice by Cercospo ra oryzae. The symptoms on the leaves are very narrow, short, redish-brown spots. The long axis of the spots are parallel with the veins of the leaf. The linear appearance differentiates these spo ts from those of the oval brown spots of Helmintho sperium oryzae.A cross between two parents that differ only in a few genes. They have many genes in common.Cross pollination occurring without m an's effort. Pollination could be by insect, wi nd or floral parts making di rect contact with each other.Natural selection:Neck:The retention or survival of a plant in a given locality under natural conditions and not influenced by human action.In panicles, it refers to the upermost internode just below the panicle base.Nematode:Nitrogen:Blast attacking the neck of panicles, e.g. in rice.A term for any individual of the phylum nematoda. A member of a group of minute worms with long cylindrical unsegm ented bodies. The parasitic forms adversely affect plant growth and development in various ways.A gaseous element which makes up about 4/5th of the air. The chemical symbol is N.It is one of the major or essential elements for plant growth and supplied to the plant in various nitrogenous fertilizers.Nitrogen defficiency symptoms:These are signs that a plant exhibits to show that nitrogen is absent or insufficient. In rice, the indications are stunted growth, reduced ti1lering erect and yellow leaves. When there is inadequate nitrogen in the early growth stage, generally yellowing occurs first on the older leaves and later extends to the young leaves which first turn pale green starting from the tip. This is a distinguished feature between nitrogen deficiency and iron deficiency (defined).Nitrogen fixation:Biological conversion of molecular dinitrogen (N2) to organic combinations or to forms utilizable by plants.Nitrogen response:Modal roots:Nitrogen response of a cu1tivar refers to:(1) The general increased growth of the plant due to nitrogen intake.(2) The rate of increase in crop yield per unit measure of nitrogen fertilizer.(3) In economic terms, the ratio of crop value from increase in yield to the cost of the nitrogen fertilizer.Roots formed on the upper nodes when deep-water rice is flooded.Noda 1 t i 11 e rs :Node:Tillers formed on the upper nodes at the end of flooding deep water rice .Relatively hardened and sometimes bulging part of a cereal culm where one or more leaves, tillers, branches or adventitious roots may arise. A node separates two internodes. Branches or spike1ets arise from panicle nodes.Node blast:Nodules:Bl ast t hat attacks the nodes.These are swe llings or pounded lumps on most l eguminous roots. They contain bacteria, e.g. Rhizob i um spp which l ive on t he root s. They f i x molec ular air ni trogen i n this nodules. The nitrogen fixed is available for the plant and enr iches the so il for t he following crops as the nodules get incorporated i nto the soil at the end of t he ho st plant's life cyc l e and deat h (see Symbios i s) .No n-alle li c interact i on:Interaction that is be tween different genes (see epistasis).Non -recurrent pa rent:The donor parent in a backc ross . It i s used on ly once in a backc ross (see backcross).Non -waxy endosperm: (non glu tinous) :A common no n-glutinous endosperm, e .g. in rice. The starch fraction of the endosperm ha s both amylose and amy l opectin. A characteristic of non-wa xy endosperm is i t s dark -blue sta i ni ng with we ak potassium i odi de-iodine sol ution. In rice, the non -waxy endosperm is popul ar among peopl e who prefer to eat a dry or non sticky and fluffy r i ce (see amy l ose).Nuc l eus:The sp r ead of data assumed t o be a continous frequency dis tribut i on of in f i nite range. \"hen such data are rep r esented by grap h, th e graph is called a normal curve, laplacian or gaussian curve.The curve is bel l-shaped.The chromat ic and the most constant part of a ce ll, found in the ce ll cytopl asm. It has its own membrane. Chromosomes are i n the nucleu s.A class of pure seed produced by a breeder f or raising breeder ' s seed.Null hypothesis:Nullipla.x:In statistics, it is a hypothesis stating that there is no difference between observed information or measured data and those expected. This hypothesis is the basis for significance tests.The condition in which a polyploid is recessive in all chromosomes in respect to a particular qene (Allard, 1960).Null i somi c: Nursery:The condition in which a pair of chromosomes is absent resulting in a chromosome number of 2n-2.A piece of prepared land ~/here crop seedl ings are raised for a short time pending their planting in permanent sites. A place where a large number of introduced or breedin~ varieties or lines are first looked at or screened under field conditions. Such 1urseries consist of plots of 1-4 rows, unreplicated . In some countries, nursery refers to coordinated trials sent to various locations and involving 1 arge numbers with or ~/ithout repl ication.Nutritional disorders:These are irregular or abnormal growth and development in plants due to inbalanced availability of one or more of the essential elements (defined) . The elements may be lacking or excessive causing deficiency, toxicity or salt injury symptoms . The disorders occur under various soil conditions . (see al so physiological di seases).Obligate:A set of goals or aims to be achived The main purpose of the experiment. objectives (defined). in carrying out an experiment .The characteristics of an organism or parasite that enable it to survive only under certain conditions, e.g. an obligate parasite can live only on living things in contrast to an obligate saprophyte which lives only on dead materials.Information for scientific studies collected by noting facts or occurrences. One measurement or count constitutes one observation.A preliminary yield trial that has several entries ~tth small plots. It may have 1-3 replications.Varieties that used to be very important but are at present little or no longer used for cultivation.Off-shoot:Off-type:Crop that is planted outside the regular period or main season of planting.A lateral young growing branch which mayor may not be used for propagation.A plant havi ng a di fferent phonotype among many others. It mi ght have arisen from unpurified seed from volunteer plants or seeds from prev ious crops.A m ajor gene of good expressivity and high heritabil ity. Mendel ia:n analysis of discontinuous traits generally involves major genes.This is a trial of va r ieties, of chemicals, operational methods or a package of these evaluated under the farmers' conditions to assess the local adaptability of the applied research results. It helps also to find additional areas where experi rrent station results would be useful. In on-farm trials, non-uniformity of land, weedy plots and untimely operations have to be accepted.In corn, it is the gene located on chromosome 7, which has great effect on the amino acid distribution in the endosperm especially lysine and tripto phen.In the homozygous recessive state, lysine content varies from 3.8-5.0% protein in contrast to that of a normal corn which varies from 2.4 to 3%. The endosperm of kernels with the Opaque-2 gene has a floury texture. The weight of the kernel is reduced by about 10% which leads to a similar drop in yield (Le Conte, 1973).Optimum: Organ: Organic:(see cross pollination).A condition that deve 1 opment. is most satisfactory for a plant's growth and A group of one or more tissues on a plant specialized for performing a particular function, e.g. leaf.Originating from living substances, chemicals containing carbon.Oryza:A soil that contains a high percentage (15 or 20 per cent) of organic matter.The generic name for rice. There are several species in the genus. (see Table 3). The two cultivated species are Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima. The former is of Asian origin while the later is of African origin. Their characteristics overlap but the two major distinguishing characters are the reduced ligule and the lack of secondary panicle branches of glaberrima as compared to sativa. Osmosis:The tendency of two solutions to be equalized by diffusion through a selectively permeable or semipermeable membrane.Osmotic pressure:Pressure exerted in living bodies as a result of unequal concentration of salts separated by a cell wall or membrane.Out-breeding:A breeding system that involves relatively unrelated parents.Ovary:A cross of unrelated plants or of different genotypes, usually under natural conditions.In seed-bearing plants, the relatively enlarged bottom portion of the pistil containing the ovules. The ovary becomes the fruit.Overdominance:The act of heterezygote expressing a character more than when the dominant genes are in homozygous state.The structure containing the developed or developing egg or female gamete. It develops into a seed upon successful fertilization and maturity.Unfertilized egg cell containing a haploid nucleus.Often used to designate the parental generation from which breeding begins. Used also to designate the parent or parents of crosses. PI = female parent; P2 = male parent.An irrigated field that is bunded, puddled and wet for rice growing.The rough rice is also called paddy .The smaller or inner member of bracts that forms the glumes of grass florests (see lemma) .Panic le:This is a disease in rice caused by pale yellow mottle virus. Symptoms are light-green to pale yellow streak on the lea f blade and sheath. The typical mottling is present. Chloro sis sets at a later stage. Stunting may occur, panicle and grain develo pment are adversely affected causing steri lity .A branched raceme with each branch bearing a stalked flower. The harvested portion containing grains of most economic cereal crops. e.g. rice and sorghum.Pan icle axis:The main axis of the panicle. It is often distinctively grooved extending from the base to the apex.Pani c1 e base:The nearly solid node between the uppermost in cereal and the main axis of the panicle. panicle branches originate from this node.internode of the culm The first primary Panicle exsertion:The extension of the panicle above the flag leaf of a cereal plant. A well exserted panicle is one in which panicle base is clearly above the flag leaf sheath, partly exserted panicle is one in which the panicle base appears at the same level as the top of the flag leaf sheath.A growth stage when the panicle primordium is formed. It is the stage when the young panicle starts its development. In rice, it OCGurs 30-35 days before heading.Panicle length:The length of the panicle from the panicle base to its tip in rice.Pani c1 e type:This term is used in rice and sorghum to describe the mode of panicle branching, angle of primary branches and spikelet density. Three general classifications are compact, intermediate and open.In rice, this is the act of grain shedding from the panicle.Parameter:This is the ease or difficulty of removing grain from a mature panicle. (see characters).A numerical quantity which specifies a population in respect to some characters.A relatively smaller organism living in or on another bigger organism. The parasite ob ta i ns its f ood from its host wholly or in part. Facultative parasite is a parasite that can live on both dead and living organism. Obligate parasite is one that can live only on other living plants. Parasite s mayor may not be harmfu l to the host.Parent :Rough rice or ~illed rice subjected to steaming or hotwater treatme nt before milling. The rough rice may be soaked in cold or ~/arm water for a given ti me and put in boil ina Vlater f or another period, e.g. soaking at 70°C for two hours and putting in boiling water for 5-10 minutes and dryi ng first ra pidly to 20 per cent m oi sture content and slowly to about 14 per cent before mill ing There i s a higher milling recovery and higher proport ion of head rice or whole kernel to broken rice in parboiled than unparboiled rice. Parboiling also increases the vitamin content of milled rice and improves its storage ability.One of the two sexually opposite individuals involved in fertili za tion. Th e female is denoted by ~ and a male by d'. In hermaphrodite (defined) plants, one plant is called a ma le parent when only the male gametes or pollen grains are used in a given cross. Similarly a female parent is one in which the male parts have been removed during emasculation and the stigma is fertilized by pollen from another plant.Pa rthenoca rpy:Formation of an organism from a sex cell or a qamete but without the f usi on of another di ssimil ar gamete, e.g. no fertilization.Pathogen:When dominance is incomplete. The F or hybrid is intermediate betVleen the two parents; one which i~ partially dominant and the other t'eces s ive for the charac ter in question (see incomplete doiminance).A microorganisln which lives and feeds parasitically on or in a la rge organism (its host) and causes disease ( Van den Bosch and Mensenger, 1973 ). The ability of an organism to start or cause a disease.An organic soil containing more than 50 per cent organic matter. Used in the United States to refer to the stage of decomposition of the organic matter. \"peat\" referring to the slightly decomposed or undecomposed deposits and \"muck\" to the highly decomposed materials (Foth, 1978).ancestors in a linear form to show the sequential aline. A record of the ancestry of an individual plant, strain.A breeding method in which individual plants are selected in the segregating generations from a cross ba5ed on their individual desirability and on the basis of a pedigree record. Selection usually commences at F generation when there would be 3000-10,000 seqregatiohs to choose from. T~e most desirable plant meeting one's objectives are selected. During the F -F generation, selection is based on characters controlled b § ofigogenes or few major genes. The seeds from F?, plants selected are grown in separate progeny rows. Selection are none among progenies and within progenies. The procedures continue for 5 or more generations until the desirable line becomes fixed or uniform in most of the major characters. Yield trials usually follow after F~ generation -could be later or earlier. In this system, pedigree name and numbers record (defined) are important.A set or numbers assigned to a line that gives ancestral numbers and often its own generation or the generation reached when the number is assigned, e.g. TOX 7-2-4-5 is the 5th plant selection in a F population. Its ancestor of the F3 plant was the 2nd selectad plant in an F2 population which originated from the 7th cross of F1 of that station.A series of notes which give the relationships amonq the families that are grown. The records also show distinguishing characters of the families.Selection carried on by obtaining lines and families of lines from which the best desirable ones are chosen (see pedigree breeding).Pentap l oid:Peri carp:The ability or frequency of a gene to be expressed in an individual that carried the gene. For instance, a dominant penetrant gene in homozyg~us condition produce the expected phe notype -100 per cent of the plants in a given population, weaker penetrance gives a lower percentage .Said of a plant that has five sets of chromosomes .Wall of an ovary after it has matured into a fruit; m ay be dry, membraneous, or hard.A f l ower possessing both stamens and pistils.Pest:A hybrid or heterozygous plant that breeds true to type or fixed heterozygotes which do not segregate because some letha l genes prevent expression of other types in the offspring. In some cases, the condit ion is maintained by vegetative propagation.In the narrow sense, any insect that destroys crops. In the broad sense, any insect, rode nt, weed, bacterium, or f un gus that is damagi ng to a crop . Pests unlike parasite mayor may no t be smaller than the plant being attacked. Pest association with the plant is usually relatively shorter than that of pal-asite which may live on the hos t throughout its l ife cyc l e . Limiting the population of pest, or their damage eradication of the pest or preventing them from damaging the crop.Chemical or any agent used to kill a pest, especially insect pest.A shallow flat-bottomed circular glass dish, which may have a fitting cover used in laboratories for various purposes.The visible characteristics (structural and functional) of a plant as opposed to its genotype or genetic make-up. The phenotype of an individual is the sum total of the interaction between various environmental factors and the effect of the genes.(see hydrogen ion concentration)..llcceptabil ity based on visible characters. Phenotipic acceptability score (acceptability score): Score 1-9 or other scale used to assess in the field the general traits of a plant based on its phenotype and on the set objectives for the selection or trial. The score is visual and subjective; it is a quick way to compare many lines or varieties before weights are taken.Phenotypic ratio: Phosphorus:(see F2 ratio).An element occurring in many forms. plant growth and proper development. many forms as a salt.It is appl ied to soil in Photoperiodism :Flowering response of a plant to photoperiod or length of sunlight hours with 24 hours period. Plant reaction s to a defi nite numbe r of hours of day-light per day for flowering. Some f l ower only when days are shorter than nights. These are called shortday-length plants.Pho toper iod i c sens it ivity:Thi s is a state where some plants are insens iti ve; others are strongly sensitive, and there are many intermedi ate react ion s .Thi s i s a proce ss by which gree n plants manufacture organic comp ou nds, e.g. car bo hydra t~s from water and carbon dio xide using energy absorbed from sunlight. By-product is oxygen and water.Phys i ol ogical disea ses :Physiology:These are di sea ses (defined) t hat occur as a result of nutritional disorders (defined) caused by submerged soil conditions . The essential elem ent s (defi ned), inbalance causing these diseases are asso ci ated to reduced or anaerobic (defined) soil conditi on s .The sc ience that deals with how living things function, thei r life processes, and developme nt of the individual or parts of them.Pathogen s of the same species that are inse parabl e morphologically but differ in their attack, virulence, development, etc. on their hosts .Regulations imposed on importation and exportation of plant material. These regulations deal with the health or presence or absence of certain pathogen on or in the plant materials, e.g. seed, cuttings, tubers, bulbs etc. Dista nc e i n centimetres from the ground l evel to t he top of the panic l e of a mature plant.Pl ant i ng board:~his is a piece of wood marked at a given di st ance often with nails or peg s for sowing or transplanting i n a regular pattern. It m ay al so mean a board with spaced ho l es for dropping seeds i nto the soil .Date when a crop is sown.A group of plants i nh ab iti ng a particular area or grown from one sample .Pl ant quarantine:The process of restricting a foreign plant or any of its parts into direct entry in a country, in order to in spect or observe the pla nt part to determine whether or not it possesses any i nsec t or disease pathogen that i s not already in the country. This is to prevent the spread os diseases or pests. Quarantine process can be asshort as two wee ks or as long as a year when growth of the plant material is done un der special conditions for careful observation.A silvery-white soft highly reactive alkali me tal element.It is essenti al to plant growth and proper development.Potassium is applied to soil in various salt f orms of potassium fertilizer.Preda tor :Theoretical ly, a poss ibl e yield based either on t heoretical calcul ations or previous performance under same or di fferent condit i ons.An animal which feeds upon other anima ls (its prey) which are smaller or weaker than itself. A predator may feed on the egg, larva, nymph of its prey with or witho ut harming the adult prey.Pre-emergen ce:Before emergence; the period after sowing or planting until emergence, e .g . pre-emergence herbicide is one applied before emergence (see emergence).Seeds that have germinated or sprouted before sowing or broadcast.Preliminary trial or experiment:Prepotency:Primary:A trial or experiment that is f irst ca n' ied out to find out initial information that will be used in more detailed or critical expe r iments later on.The capacity of a parent to impress characteristics on its offspring so that they are more alike than they would have been.First form or the most important plant, tiller, objectives, leaves etc.Primary leaf (\"Second leaf\"):In cereals, the first seedling leaf without a blade that emerges next to the coleoptile.Pr imitive forms:Pl ants having primit ive f ea tures I,hi ch are akin to its wild relatives in ri ce, pigmented pl ant pa rts, long awns, la x panicles, extreme shattering and perennia l growth habit are pri mitive traits (Chang, 1976a).Primitive ge rmp lasm:Probability:Progeny:A germplasm made up of unimproved stock (land races) often consisting of a mi xture of related genotypes. Primitive variety is a similar term used to de scr ibe the unimproved variety.The proportion of times in .which an event occurs i n an infinitely large and hypothetical series of cases, each capable of producing the event (Allard, 1960) . A mathema tical definition is given below: P = Number of success or occurrence Total number of even t s (Su ccess or occurrence + failure or no n-occur rence .An offspring or descendant.Selection based on progeny performance.Propagate:To determine the genetic characters or to evaluate the genotype of a var i ety or parent based on the performa nce of i ts progeny un der a controlled condition.To continue or multipl y by sexual and asexual reprod uct i on through seeds, cuttings, etc.Protoqy ny:Prote in s:125 Any part of a plant, sexua l or asexual that ca n be used to ?~opagate the plant, e.g. seed , cuttin~, buds, tube rs, bUlbs.Matu~ation of the pistils before the stamen.A comp l ex nitrogenous organic compo und of high mo le cu lar weight. It is composed of numerous amino acids. There are 20 different kinds of amino acids common ly f ou nd in proteins.Proteins are of great importance to all 1ivinq matters. Prote in s conta in nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen and usually su lfur.Protein content:Protop la sm:Pubescence:Puddling:Pure line:The amou nt of protei n in any part of the plant, e.q. in seeds. In r i ce, it ranges from 7-1 5%. Most are however, between 8-10%.The basic substance of which all li ving matter i s made .Being covered with hairs which may be fine, soft and short or hard and l ong.The act of land preparat ion of a water•saturated soi l for rice transplanting or direct seeding. The soi l agqregates are destroyed during puddling. The process enhances formation of a traffi c or p 1 ClNpa n. I t reduces water los ses tha t may occur by water percolation (Moorma n and Van Breemen, 1978). Chemical inputs are made more ava il ab le to the rice crop and in efficie nt amount .A line or strain that i s completely or almost completely homozygous at all loci. It is genetica lly pure.It is derived by repeated self pollination and selection of a specific type from a single individual (or by the removal of off-types). A pure line should breed true except for occasional mutation or environmental varieties. However, there is no absolute pure line existing in nature when all loci are considered.Pure seed:This is a method of breeding in which individual plants are selected from a land variety or other cultivar. The grains from selected plants are planted separately unlike in mass selection (defined) where all grains from desirable plants are bulked. The single plant progeny are assessed for their qualities. The best progeny are retained, multiplied, and beconle a pure 1 i ne vari ety. Thus, in pure 1 i ne breedi ng the bred variety consists of the progeny of a single pure line which is homozygous and uniform, its descendants are genetically similar.Seed that possesses a high level of purity, it has little or no contaminants or seed of other varieties of the same or different species.Pyramiding ge nes :Transfering several major genes known to control vertical resistance into a single variety. It is assumed by so doing having all these major genes in same background, they will produce stable resi stance to a given disease, e.g. rice blast.Quadriplex:Qual itative:A fungus causing an economic disease of rice (see bla st).(see Nulliplex).Dealing with the nature, and not the amounts of a given substance.A shoot or stem that g'rows from either the base or roots of a stump whose main stems from a previous growth have been out as when harvested, e.g. rice or sorghum ratoons.Raw rice:Receptive:Recess i ve:Regrowth from stumps following a harvest not necessarily for grain, e.g. sugarcane, sorghum, rice, mi llet, etc. (Okigbo, 1978).Rice mil led without having been steamed or parboiled .(see parboil).A stage in a plant organ, e.g. stigma, when it is physiologically and physically mature or ripe to allow the entrance or growth of a foreig\" body e.g. pollen grain on it.The gene that is not expressed in the character of the plant even though present in the genotype, because of the presence of the other allele that is dominant. It is expressed only when both alleles are present (homozygous).A set of crosses involving two pa rents in which either is used as male and female parents, e.g. A x Band B x A. In other words, the sources of male and female gametes are reversed. With similar cytoplasm, the F! phenotype will be the same irrespective of which parent 1S used as the male or female.The occurrence of new gene combinations in the offsprin g of a cross.A variety that possesses some attributes which make it more desirable than others; it i s officia lly approved for commercial planting.Recovery:Red ,ice:130 That which i s go t back again after a certain process, or experiment (s ee grain milling recovery or milling recovery). Also the ability of pl ants to surv ive in spite of unfavourable physical, chemical, pathogenical co ndi tjons, e.g. pl ants recovering from drou gh t or bla st effect.Any r i ce kerne l having red seed coat. Red rice i s f reque ntly found in \"African r ice\" (defined), Oryzae ala be r r ima and some Oryzae sa ti va cultivars .Recu rren t pa ren t:The parent to which successi ve backcrosses are ma de in backcross br eeding (def i ned) .Recurrent selection:A breeding system used to increase th e fr eq uency of favour able or des ired genes for yield or other cha r ac te r s. The se lection i s done among the progeny produced by cros sin g art i fi cially or naturally of the selected i ndi vidua ls (or t hei r se l fed progeny) of t he previous generation . There are several repeated cycl es of such crossing and selection. The different forms ar e:(a) Simple recurrent se lection (of cummu l ative selection) without using a tester or t op cros s.(b) Recu rrent se l ection for speci fic combi ning abiTity, ba sed on crossing a series of lines with a tester with a narrow genetic bas e (pure li ne or sing l e cros s hy brid ) fo ll owed by test ing the top crosses (single or three-way crosses) obtained in this way , and r ecombining the best line s .(c ) Recurrent sel ection for gene ra l combinin~ abil ity based on crossing a serie s of lines with a tes t er wi th a wide genetic base (e.g . a synthetic variety) foll owed by tes ting the top crosses obtained, and recombi nin a the best l i nes.(d) Reciprocal recurrent selection wit h two sources, A and B whi ch m ay be hybrids, varieties or pop ulat i ons, with source B used as t he tester for A, and vice versa. Two new strains, Al and S1, are obtained which, when crossed, sho uld give better result t han A x B. Thi s type of select i on ma kes use of the effects of both specific and genera l combining ab ility )Le Conte, 1973).Regional conservation centre:A national or international centre located in broad georaphic area that assumes the responsibility for conserving germplasm in that area through collection, rejuvenation, and storage. The regional centre also handles the distribution of conserved stocks. It cooperates with the genetic resources centre in overall preservation of a crop or crops (Chang, 1976a).Regional trials (zonal trials):These are trials usually of improved varieties and also sometimes of cultural practices developed in a given region in one or more countries. Average number of entries varies from 10-15 with one or two check varieties. Sites are at experiment stations and farmers' fields. The objective of regional trial is mainly to evaluate the potential of new varieties or a newly developed package of cultural practices. Zonal trials are used interchangeably with regional trial in some countries.Registration:The act of entering into an officially recognised record the existence of a line, variety, clone or seed stock in a given area. The character and qualities of such a plant are usually recorded.A nuclear division in which the chromosomes are reduced from the diploid to the haploid number (see meiosis).Registered seed:Regress ion:Seed which has met a set of standards and purity. It is produced in a clearly defined manner and usually from a foundation seed stock. It is normally grown to produce certified seed.In general, a situation in which the offspring of two different parents (tall or short) appear to be average. In biometrics, it is the dependance crf a variable called dependent on another variable called independednt variable or variate.The numerical measure of the rate of change of the independent variable on the dependent variable.Re production:The sex ual Ot' asex ua l process or mecha ni sm by which an indiv idual mu l tipl i es and ma intains its species.Repro ductive system:All the organs and s t ructures in vo lved i n the product i on of and delivery of ga metes or re productive cel ls.Reproduct i ve pha se :Rep ul s i on:Resea rch:The stage when the reproductive parts start to deve l op , e.g . i n r i ce , it is fr om panicle initiation to flowering (see ri pe ni ng stage ).Linked genes i n whi ch one domina nt and one r ecessive are l inked in each m ember of the pair of homo l ogo us chromosomes .As in sc i entifi c researc ~ I~ean s a carefu l an d thorough systema ti c investiga t io n, a diligent investigatio n, inquiry or experimen t ation ai med at the di scovery, i nterpretation of fact s , revisi on of accepted theories or laws in t he l ig ht of ne w fac ts or for pract ical ap pli cation as in produc i ng new plant var i etie s whic h ar e more productive or devel opment of new operat i ng procedure s which are IIlore efficient Dr cheape r .Research eq ui pment:Residue:The se are different types of scienti fic equipment t hat are essent i al for sc i enti f ic invest igat i ons. Exampl es are we ighing inst ru ments , microscopes, data proce ss ing machi nes , weath er an d su nl i ght mo nitor ing instruments, t hermometers, re l ative humidity instrument s, ca l cu lators, l ength an d height measur ing tapes and rul e rs etc.In plan t , t he part t ha t remai ns aft er t he eco nomi ca ll y useful par t or pa r t s have been takenRemainder after some quantity has been subtracted from the original quantity. In statistics, e.g. in analysis of variance when all true values are subtracted from observed or calculated values or values due to known sources of variation the remainder is called residual (frequency called an error).Residual effect:Respiration:Response:Resistance:Effect of chemical, e.g. fertilizers, herbicides, in secticides, whose effect or action is still noticeable in the following crop season without fresh application of the chemical.The act of taking oxygen (sometimes no oxygen is involved) from the environment, using the oxygen in a chemical reaction i n the body to re lease needed energy from substrates, e.g. glucose Carbon dioxide is a by-product of more respiration.The reaction of a plant or group of plants to some form of treatment or stimulus, e.g. reaction of plants to the application of nitrogen fertilizer.Refer s gene rally to the physiologic, structural and morphologic, conditions of a plant that allow it to tolerate, avoid, be immune to, or recover from an adverse effect of a pathogen , weather or soi l problem. A resistant variety suppresses or reta rds the development of a pa thogen or other injurious factors. Development of resistant varieties is the most economic method for controlling disease, insect and other undesirable environmental factors.A gene, when present, restores fertility to an indi vi dual th at is otherwise sterile.This is a heritable change in a mutant gene or chromosome. It i s a process whereby the ori gi nal state is res tored.Rotation:Rough rice:Row:Row marker:Sma 11 s~/e 11 i ng on roots of 1 egumi nous plants (pea, bean, etc.) produced as a result of infection by nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These nodules are rich in notrogen which is made available either to the plant carrying the nodules or the plant that succeeds the leguminous plant.A cropping system in which the same plant species is not planted continously on a given piece of land. In a rotational system, a piece of land may be divided up into 3 or more parts each part having a different crop gro~m. The following year each crop changes position. This continues for 3 or more cycles . It may take up to 4 or more years before a given plant species returns to its original site. It is also defined as systematic growing of different kinds of crops in recurrent succession on the same piece of land (Okigbo, 1978).The harvested threshed unmilled grains or caryopsis. It is also called paddy rice.A number of plants in orderly sequence or series. A continous prepared strip of land or opening on the soil running horizontal or parallel to a base line.Any device for marking the soil surface for seeding in rows.It could be hand or tractor-drawn. The marking spikes or boards are spaced to correspond to the desired row space. In upland rice work, the rOl'ls are 30-40 cm in most breeding plots.Rudimentary:To sow seed in a rOl'/ as opposed to a haphazard sO~/ing or broadcasting.Development on a primitive level or development which was stopped or arrested at an early stage. In general, said of part of a plant that is imperfectly developed, underdeveloped or so deficient in size or structure as to entirely prevent its performing its normal function when compared to non-rudimentary ones, e.g. rudimentary glumes in cereals. Verb; To sow seed, to bear or shed seed.Noun: The fertilized and matured ovule. It is made up of embryo, testa, or seed coat formed from the integument(s) and endosperm which mayor may not contain food reserves.Seed is frequently the vehicle to perpetuate a genotype.Raised tilled flat-topped soil prepared specially for planting seed or raising cuttings. There is usually a shallow drainage trench around the piece of land so prepared.Seed-borne disease:Seed box:Seed coat:A disease whose pathogen is already present in or on the seed or its associated structures.A specially constructed box usually rectangular with an open top filled with soil for germinating seeds, the seedlings of which are later transplanted into the field.The outer protective covering of the seed derived from the integument(s). In rice, the seed coat or testa is firmly adhered to the maternal peri carp.A chemical for seed treatment protecting seed from parasites or pathogens that can establish themselves on the seed or in the soil to cause some damage on the seed or seedling. Generally, seed dressing substances are various types of fungicides which could be systemic or non-systemic.Seed emergence:(see emergence).percentage, shape, purity (defined) etc. of the seed.Seeding rate:A quantity or amount of seed planted in a unit area of land, e.g. 60 kg of rice per 1 hectare.Seed setting:Seed source:The process of a fertilized ovule developing into seed, the development and enlargement of young seed, seed formation.The source supplying the seed.Segregant:(see viable).Any plant derived from a segregating population, e. g. in the F2 or F4 generations.Selection:The separation of allele pairs and homologous chromosomes from one another an• -j their distribution to the resulting different cells usually at meiosis. On the field, the actual phenotypic separation of plant characters wherever population of F 2 , F 3 , F4 etc. of disimilar parents are grown.Any natural or artificial process which permits an increase in the proportion of certain genotypes or groups of genotypes in succeeding generation in preference to the other genotypes, The process involves retention (select;ng) and discarding (elimination). Often, the selected plants possess desirable traits.A choice among plants, as made or influenced by man.This is a disease caused by a fungus especially in rice. The fungus is Pyrenochaeta orfzae. Symptoms are grayish brown to brown blotches on theeaf sheath. They may be found also on the leaf blade and glumes. With age the lesion turns gray dotted with black fruiting bodies and the margins usually remain brown. Infected stems become light and shrivelled.Sheath rot; Shed:It is the swelling at the base of the leaf sheath just above the node; it is frequently mistermed the node in rice (Chang & Bardenas, 1964).A fungus disease caused by Acrocylindrium oryzae in rice.The symptoms are oblong or irregular brown to grey lesions the lipper part of the leaf sheath near panicle. The lesions may coalesce to cover the entire leaf sheath. Panicle emergence is often impeded or completely chocked without panicle exsertion.To distribute, disperse, disconnect from the main body, e.g. pollen grains and unharvested rice grains.Shoot:A farming system in which crops are planted on a piece of land for two or more years and the land is left fallow for several years to regain soil fertility while farming is continued on another piece of land at a different location.A young growing branch or usually above the ground. plumule of the embryo.twig. The part of the plant that is The part that develops from the Short-day plant:Shrub:(see photoperiodism).A woody perennial tree with no main trunk on smaller structure than a tree. There are usually many well developed side shoots, Sibs:usually not taller than 10 metres.Progeny from same parents, i.e. they have two common parents.Half-sibs have only one parent in common.Sib-crossing,sibbing:Crossing lines derived from the same two parents (sister-brother mating).Sign:To apply an input usually fertilizer near, or beside or in-between the planted seed or plants in bands or continous application.Something that serves to indicate the presence or existence of another thing in a plant, e.g. dead heart in rice shows the presence of stemborer, blast lesions indicate the presence of blast pathogen, the swelling of the flag leaf base indicates the development of the panicle.Significance:The reliability (or otherwise) of a difference between that observe and that expected.A difference which is statistically real. The statistics usea for determining whether or not differences between or among two or more planned comparisons are real or large enough to accept that the means are different. The difference is usually expressed as having a certain level of probability of being wrong or due to chance. (see least significant difference).A soil separate consisting of particles between 0.05 and 0.002 millimetres in equivalent diameter. Soil of the textural class silt contains 80 per cent or more silt and less than 12 per cent clay.Silver Shoot:(See gall midge).Single cropping:The growing (planting to harvest) of only one crop in a given piece of land in one year (Okigbo, 1978).Sister cell:A cross (defined) involving a variety or line and another variety ,or line. Only two different genotypes are involved.One of the cells formed from an original or pre-existin9 cell.Slow-release fertil izer: Smut:Soak:Soil :Fertilizer (defined) that give up its wanted element, e.g. nitrogen at a slow rate.The name given to a disease especially in cereals caused by a fungus of the order Ustilagnales . Individual grain or the ~Ihole panicle is replaced by black masses of spores.To place in water which completely cover the seed for a determined length of time. Rice is usually soaked in ~Iater for about 24 hours before incubating for seed bed planting.The upper layer of the earth. The medium which upholds majority of plants. The surface is tilled or cultivated to produce loose aggregates for plant growth and development.It is also the place where numerous microorganisms are found. Its physical nature is made up of its texture, structure, water content and atmosphere. The chemical nature are the soil mineral solutions.The use of chemical that kill mainly nematodes to disinfest soil for plant parasitic nematodes.Soil map: This is the case where soil in a relatively small area varies greatly in texture, fertility, topography, moisture content and drainage. It contributes to experimental error and lowers the precision of experimental results in field experiments.It introduces a degree of uncertainty into conclusions made from crop yield data.A map showing the distribution of soil types or other soil mapping units in relation to the prominent physical and cultural features of the earth's surface (Foth, 1978).Soil moisture:Soi 1 pores: This is the term that describes the state of water in the soil. It may be in saturation condition or completely absent. Osmotic and capillary effect are the two forces that are responsible for the holding and movement of water in the soil. Soil moisture may contain plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium.These are spaces between the assemblage of soil aggregates. The spores are filled by air and soil water or solution of minerals the proportion of air and water depending on various biological and environmental and tillage conditions. Microorganisms can be found in the pore spaces and withing the aggregates.Soil science:The science dealing with soils as a natural resource on the surface of the earth, including soil formation, classification and mapping. and the physical, chemical, biological and fertility properties of soils, per se; and these properties in relation to their management for crop production (Foth, 1978).Soil structure:This is the visible arrangement of soil particles or aggregates that make up the granular or crumb formations that are suitable for plant growth. The aggregates vary in size and make up a system with soil pores (defined).Soil texture: This is the term which describes the particles of varying sizes that constitute the soil. The sizes of the particles vary from gravel, coarse sand, fine sand and silt down to clay. These in varying proportion form the mechanical aspect of the soil.A body cell that has a 2n chromosome complement. It is different from a germ cell that has In. The somatic cell divides to form tissues, organs, etc.The fusion of non-germ cells in cell culture under certain other treatments and the formation of viable hybrid cells.SO~/:Sowing date:Spacing:A botamical name for a cereal crop commonly called sorghum or guinea corn which is a drought tolerant crop.To plant or scatter seed.The time or day in the month when sowing occurs.A fixed distance between plants or seed planted or between two rO~/s • Species (pl. Species):In taxonomy a unit below the genus; a group of plants that interbreed freely or can interbreed. They possess similar characters that differentiate them from other species in the same genus.Spike:Spikelet:(see combining ability).An inflorescence with a fairly elongated axis along which the flowers are sessile or nearly so, e.g. a wheat spike.A unit of inflorescence (e.g. in rice) consisting of the two sterile lemmas, the rachilla and the floret. The two rudimentary glumes are considered to be part of the spikelet. Spikelet is commonly taken to be synonymous with floret.The condition in which there is no grain within the glumes (see sterile and sterility).Said of chemical, e.g. fertili zer when the whole rate per unit area is divided into two or more doses and applied at two or more given intervals .Split-plot design:Spore:Spreader:Design used for factorial experiments, involving at least two factors not equally important and divided into main and subplots.Single-celled or several celled reproductive body (e.g. seed) that becomes detached from the parent and gives rise either directly or indirectly to a new individual.An implement that is used to disperse seed, straw, etc, on the field. Susceptible plants that are used to propagate and extend over other plant disease inoculum, pathogen or insects into test line.A shoot or germinated seed. To gro~1 from a seed or other plant parts.Stable resistance:Stable line:Resistance (defined) that holds up under various conditions for an appreciable length of time (see durable resistance).(See fixed line).The planting of some varieties or lines at different planting days, e.g. every two weeks. Usual for hybridization, agronomic studies, storage or marketing purposes.Stake :Staple crop:Stamen:Stand:(See grain discoloration).A wooden or metal marker placed at the end of a row or plot and bearing the identity of the material, or having an identifying label attached to it (Harrington, 1978).A term used for a crop that is used, enjoyed or needed constantly by many people in a given area or country. It is provided or imported in large quantity into the area, examples are corn in Kenya and rice in Liberia.The part of the flower conslslng of the filament and anther. It is the pollen-bearing organ in the flower.A group of plants growing together in a given area.A measure of variability. It gives in mJthematical terms how much an observation differs from the means of the set of observations. It could also be defined as the square root of the average of the squares of the differences from their mean of a number, n of observations. A branch of mathematics which deals with the analysis and interpretation of numerical data. An orderly arrangement of facts collection for study or general information.The main axis or shaft of a plant, may be creeping, underground or upright. It possesses the ability to produce buds either Stemborers:for vegetative or reproductive parts and usually, adventitious roots.Insects whose larvae cause economic damage to plants, e.g. in rice, sorghum and maize by boring into their stem, feeding on the soft tissues of the stem and the plants' growing points.This is a fungus disease found in most cereal crops such as corn, rice and sorghum. Infection •occurs through a break or injury on the stem. The fungus having penetrated into the stem causes • dark:•lesions which gradually enlarge depending on the susceptibility of the plant. The inner plant tissues and leaf .sheath become rotten and the weakened plant lodges usuallY,before maturity. Burning the straw and stubble helps to reduce the level of viable fungus in the field. Stem or stalk rot is caused by many pathogens. The most common are fungi belonging to the genera Fusarium, Diplodia and Macrophomina.Sterile:Steril ity:In cereals, it is the rapid increase in length of the internodes• In rice, the stem elongation starts between the latter part of tillering stage and panicle initiation stage.Absence of micro-organisms, incapable of producing spores as in some fungi. In flowers, unproductive for lack of or a defect in the ovules or stamen, with no viable pollen, also due to adverse environmental factors.The act of possessing no fruit, or grain in a plant.Sterile glumes (Sterile lemmas):Stigma:One pair of the glumes, e.g. in grass, a spikelet (as in rice) which does not subtend a flower.In f1o~ters, of a style. etc.the pollen receptive structure, usually at the end It may be bifurcated, lobular, This is the act of a stigma capable or allowing the germination of pollen on its surface. The period of receptivity may vary from two days to over two weeks depending on the crop and environmental condition •The main stem of a plant. The rooted stem on which a scion is grafted. Cultivated plants grown for profit. Special purified seed in storage for future multiplication. An available amount of seed . This is the seed which forms the nucleus for all future seed increase or large multiplication. It is the seed from the breeder's plot. It is often referred to as breeder's seed.In general terms, stock seed sometimes means any type of seed e.g. foundation seed that is from a recommended variety and has met a certain standard purity.A horizontally growing stem, runner or creeping stem that can produce adventitious roots and scale leaves . It can also produce new upright shoots or tubers.Strain:Straw:Pores in the epidermis of plants, present in large numbers, especially on leaves, through which gaseous excha~ge takes place. Guard cells regulate the opening and closlng of a stoma.A group of plants within a variety or species which differ from related groups mostly in physiological rather than morphological characteristics, as having exceptional productivity, disease resistant, or other quality. A group of individuals from a common origin or progeny of a single plant• Strain may include several lines with similar features.Dried stems along with some leaves. Remnants of a small grain crop after threshing. The likelihood that a plant will be affected adversely in development or growth by micro-organisms, insects, or environmental conditions.Rice grown under usually continous wet or flooded soil conditions without water control. Under normal rainfall, it does not suffer from drought. The soil is usually poorly drained, which mayor may not be toxic, and usually high in organic matter content.This maize is a recessive mutation from field corn. Two genes are known for this character. \"su 1\" on chromosome 4 and \"su 2\" on chromosome 6. The sugar content of the kernel increases right from the milky stage. On maturing, the sweet kernel shrinks and becomes wrinkled, so that its appearance is very different from that of ordinary kernels.This food crop must be harvested at the milky stage (Le Conte, 1973) .Parasitic association for mutually benefit association of dissimilar organisms to their mutual advantage, e.g . association of nitrogen fixing bacteria ~Iith leguminous plants. The bacteri.a inhabiting nodules on roots manufacture nitrogen compounds from nitrogen of the air which become available to the plant. The bacteria obtain carbohydrates and other food materials from the plant .The clue, sign or evidence which leads to the detection of a disease or a physiochemical disorder on a plant.Conjugation at pachytene and zygotene of homologous chromosomes.Synchronization:Syngamy:Simultaneous occurence of two or more events, e.g. the follo~Jing of two different varieties at the same time.Union of gametes or sex cells to form a zygote.Systemic:A variety developed (usually in an open-pollinated crop) by first crossing, in all possible combinations, many (at least five) genotypes or lines that have good combining ability, then all are mixed together and the variety is maintained by open poll ination.Common to a plant system, generally distributed throughout an organism.It is a substance that is absorbed by the plant and remains within the developing plant tissues harmless to the plant and yet protects the entire plant against fungus attack for a reasonable length of time.The general presence of pathogen within the plant tissues.The pathogen multiplies rapidly throughout the plant structures favourable for its establishment. Such pathogen causes devastating damage to the plant in contrast to that of local infection.Tag:A substance which is absorbed by the plant tissues and affording protection for a reasonable length of time against insect pests without any appreciable harm to the plant.A cardboard, plastic, paper or metal marker used for identification or classification of a plot, varieties, treatments or collection.Tassel:Tensiometer:Tertiary:Testa:Test cross:159The terminal male inflorescence of some plants, e.g. corn.An apparatus for measuring soil moisture.Third rank produced by the plant, e.g. tartiary tillers are the third group of tillers.Seed coat, formed from the integuments, a protective covering of embryo of seed plants, it is usually dry, could be hard or leathery.In general, a cross between a plant dominant for a character and another recessove for the character. It refers also to a cross between a double or multiple heterozygote to a corr\"esponding double or multiple recessive. It is used for determinning I\"hether the dominant character is homozygous. It is used also to study gene linkages.Tester strain:Tetraploid:Thallus:A strain with a dominant gene whose ~xpression is unaffected in the progeny of a particular parent that is being progeny-tested (lush, 1943). Its contribution to the offspring ~'ill not hide the inheritance being received from the parent being progenytested . A common parent (generally male) used in crosses ~lith a series of lines in order to analyse the combining ability of the lines.An organism with four sets (genomes) of chromosome. The act of reducing the number of plants, especially at seedling stage. To reduce the plant number per stand or per unit area of land. Also of fruits on a tree.Three-way cross:(see cross, top cross).Thresh:The act of removing grains from panicles or ears of cereal crops.Threshability:Thresholds: Tillage:Tiller:The relative ease of removing grains from the panicles or ears of cereal crops.Phenomenon that can obscure the gene-character relationship.Also economically, safe level as in the case of insect attack.The act of preparing the soil by mechanical manipulations for crop production.A side shoot produced at the base of a stem of grasses, e.g. rice tillers. It is a shoot which includes the roots, stem and leaves with or without panicle.Tiller number: This is the quantity of tillers as in rice produced by a rice plant. The number os affected by spacing , season and soil fertility. Under irrigated condition, tiller number varies from 3-33 per plant with a spacing of 10 x 10 cm, there will be 3 tillers per plant, 100 plants per sq. metre or 300 tillers per sq. metre. When plants are spaced 50 x 50 em, these are 33 tillers per plant, 4 plants per sq. metre and 122 tillers per sq. metre (Vergara, 1979).Tolerance:Topcross:The capacity to produce tillers. In rice the full number capacity can be obtained by wide spacing of about 50 by 30 cm in rich soil.The ability of a plant to withstand adverse environmental factors without excessive damage. The ability of plant to grow and develop relatively well without showing serious symptoms or damage from diseases or insect pests which have attacked it.A three-way cross or a cross of an F to a variety or line A cross between a selection, line, c~one, etc., and a common pollen parent which may be a variety, inbred line, single cross, etc. (Allard, 1960). The common pollen parent is called the top-cross or tester parent. In maize, a topcross is commonly an inbred variety cross.To dressing:As in chemical application, especially nitr0genous fertilizer, when a dose in applied by braodcasting on top of the sailor water surface where the crop is being grown, rather than by incorporating into the soil.Toposcequence:Top soil:A continous or connected series of related soils that differ one from the other primarily because of their relative height from a given base level, e.g. a stream. The water table of the different series will vary and so will the crops react to this water table. In rice, it i.s used for studing drought tolerance and effect of nutrients, e.g. nitrogen at different level.The layer of soil nearest to the soil surface. The superficial layer. It is usually the richest in organic matter. It is the soil that is moved in cultivation.Total milled rice:(See grain quality and milling quality).Toxicity:Trait:162The presence of a toxic or poison in a level that can adversely affect plants that are not tolerant to the toxin in the •plants' growing environment, e.g. iron toxicity.A character or distinguishing quality of a plant (see character).Transgressive segregation:Possession by an individual segregant of a more extreme development of a character than either of the parents involved in the cross. This can be found in the F? later generations of a cross, e.g. PI = 10 cm, P 2 = 15 cm segregant = 20•cm.Translocation:Translucent:Transfer of part of a chromosome into a different part of a homologous, or a non-homologous chromosome. Also the transfer of food from the site of manufacture (leaves) to the site of storage (roots\"grains, etc.).(see grain translucency).Transpiration:Transplant:Trap crop:Treatment:Loss of water by plants, mainly through leaves.To remove a plant from a temporary site (e.g. seedlings from nursery) and establish it in an area where they will complete the rest or more of its life cycle .A crop planted to attract pests, rodents, nematodes and birds before the main crop reaches the sensitive stage for attack.In experiment, that ~Ihich is given to an experimental unit (plot or variety) whose effect will be determined or measured and compared with other. treatments, e.g. a level of fertilizer Tree:Trial:Trihybrid: 163 or herbicides or variety.A perennial wood plant with an evident trunk.A test or an experiment, e.g. field trial to determine or test the quality, value, performance or usefulness of given varieties, lines, chemicals, date and time of planting, spacing and populations, etc.A hybrid resulting from a cross between parents differing in three specific genes .Triple crossing:Triplex:Triploid :Trisomic :Tuber:Sequential crossing of three cultivars, e.g. A, Band C: A x B, AB x C, ABC x A, ABCA x B, etc (Rice et~, 1953).A polyploid recessive of all loci except three in respect to a particular gene.A plant with three basic sets of chromosomes, 3n.A cell or a plant with one of the chromosomes represented three times (2n + 1). The rest of the chromosomes are duplicates.A swollen underground stem and root specialized for storing food reserve. Moist stem tubers can give rise to a new plant, e .g. the common or Irish potato.A disease 1n rice caused by Ephelis pallida Pat. in which the panicles emerge as small cylinders covered with white mycelium.Unfi 11 ed grain:Uniform:A grain that is either completely devoid of endosperm or it is very much-developed due to adverse environmental factors.Variety or line in which the main characters vary little or none from one plant to another.Uniformity trial (blank test):An experiment in which all the operations and treatments are the same but different sampling sizes are taken to evaluate soil heterogeneity.Unimproved plant type:Univalent:Upland rice:This is a traditional plant type (defined) that has not been changed or affected by the process of breeding to produce more efficient plant. The plant is very close to th~ wild form having many undesirable characters deterimental to yeild increases, e.g . too tall, low til1ering, lodging, non nitrogen fertilizer responsive, 10~1 yield, etc.An unpaired chromosome in meiosis.Rice grown in an unpudd1ed and unbunded soil condition, depending only on rain ~/ater. The soil is under an aerobic or the crop is directly seeded, mostly without bunds, nonreduced condition for the greater part of the grol1ing season . The term \"upland\", defined as above, would cover \"rainfed\", \"pluvial\", \"dry1and\", and \"hydromorphic\" rice (defined).Varietal improvement:Variety:Improvement or desirable changes made within a given species that have resulted in a new or improved variety.A group of strains or a single strain or like which is morphologically or physiologically different from another group within the species. It is described as an agronomic unit familiar to breeders and farmers alike. (Pcehlman, 1959) A described and released clone or line of plants resulting from direct or indirect breeding work (see cultivar).Variety group:In rice germplasm work, this is the classification of accessions into groups based mainly on the morphological features of the adult plant and on grain appearance to some extent. The four major groups are indica, sinica, (Japonica), Javanica and intermediates (hybrids) (IBPGR-IRRI, 1980).Vector:A trial or experiment in which treatments are only different in varieties and all other factors are uniform.In biology, a carrier of a pathogen, e.g. an insect transmitting a viral bacterial or fungal disease from one host to another.Vegetative vigour:In general, refer to the vigour (defined) expressed during the vegetative phase (defined) of a plant. In rice, it refers to the combination of various factors such as rapid seedling emer~ence and development, early and high tillering, moderately, long and initially droopy leaves and early and rapid increase in seedling height. It refers to that ability of plants to rapidly fill in the space between plants and rows (Jennings et ~, 1979) Vernalisation:Exposure of germinated seedlings to conditions (usually cold) which slow down growth. Later grown under normal conditions they ~Jill flower earl ier than unvernal ised plants.A plant growing from an unintentionally included seed, e.g. seed shed or dropped by a previous crop .Water control:Water table:Weathering:The management of water in such a way that water can be applied to and removed from the field. Partial water control could be inability to drain the field or insufficient water in the field .The upper .surface of ground water or that level below which the soil is saturated with water.All physical and chemical changes produced in rocks, at or near the earth's surface by atmospheric agents.~Jeeds :The portion of the endosperm in which the starch fraction is composed mainly of amylopectin. It is stained, reddish-brown by a weak potassium iodide-iodine solution; has an opaque appearance; is glutinous in rice, i.e. becomes pasty anJ sticky when cooked. In rice, the waxy type of endosperm does not contain gluten,. Rice pastries and high quality rice wine are made from milled waxy rice (Chang and Bardemas, 1965).Any plant growing in an unwanted place. A foreign variety or a wild relative is also a weed. Weeds are injurious to food crops in that they compete for space, light, nutrients and moisture. They are reservoirs for pests and diseases. They cause yield loss if uncontrolled and expensive to control mechanically, manually or chemically.Heed control (weedin~):Prevention of or limiting the effect of weeds, eradication of weeds or their removal or limiting their growth by mechanical or chemical means or by hand .Weedicide:Weight: 169 (See herbicide).The standard for determining how heavy a substance is. The standar~or established amount that has been acertained for the heaviness of any plant produce or parts, e.g. grain, straw, lOOO-grain, ear, panicle, etc. In most scientific experiments, metric (defined) measurements are used. (See Table 2). Weight units commonly used are grams (gm) and kilograms (defined) abbreviated as kg.White belly (White Core):In rice, the white or chalky layer found in the ventral part of the rice caryopsis.White core:In rice, the white or chalky portion in the centre of the caryopsis. It may also extend to the edge of the central side of the caryopsis.White tip:Wide cross:In cereals, especially in rice, the characteristic white panicle as it dries due to stemborer damage at flowering. Rat damage can also produce white head.A nematode symptom on rice leaves, caused by the nematode Aphelenchoides besseyi . Leaf tips become white.A cross in which parental varieties differ greatly in their g:nes. The pa~ents may belong to the same species or to dlfferent specles of t~e same chromosome number. If the pare~ts belong to specles of different genera the cross is consldered to be very wide (Harrington, 1978).","tokenCount":"35360"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"938fd9cd797dfd58cb1b307853e10b57","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5d7a21e0-3e48-4b13-8748-78d3b46ce4b7/retrieve","id":"1431020274"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5582c0f5-6d41-4e26-bfef-0aa92d776aba","pagecount":"9","content":"ISFM interventions are built on the premises of increasing productivity and profitability for smallholder farming systems. Practising ISFM has further shown to enhance the stability of yields under adverse rainfall oscillations. Lastly, important reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can be made through ISFM owing to greater uptake of N fertilizers by crops and soil C sequestration.2 A number of ISFM practices have been successfully brought to scale, each of which leading to major improvements of livelihoods and land use. What's more, these programs illustrated that access of farmers to quality inputs, information, off-takers and credit is of huge importance to achieve effective adoption of ISFM.Field trials with ISFM-based maize and soybean rotations at 6 weeks after planting. The taller crops have received fertilizers micro-dosing while the shorter crops have not.More than thirty years of research on soil fertility, crop nutrition and socioeconomics in smallholder farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa has shown that combined interventions on fertilizer and organic inputs are prerequisite for achieving sustainable intensification. Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) builds on this notion and is originally defined as: 'A set of soil fertility management practices that necessarily include the use of fertilizer, organic inputs, and improved germplasm combined with the knowledge on how to adapt these practices to local conditions in aim of maximizing the agronomic use efficiency of the applied nutrients and improving crop productivity. ISFM seeks that all inputs are managed following sound agronomic practices' (Vanlauwe et al. 2010). Any of the interventions is required to increase the efficiency and profitability of food production as related to use of land, labour, fertilizer inputs and financial investments.The first entry point of ISFM is focusing on the agronomy of crops and inorganic fertilizers. Interventions on germplasm involve the selection of varieties, spacing and planting date. Interventions on fertilizer use respectively target the formulation, placement, rate and timing of inorganic nutrient inputs. The second entry point of ISFM targets interventions on organic resource management, including the return of crop residues, manure, compost and other types of organic wastes, next to rotation or intercropping with legumes and use of plant growth promoting micro-organisms. The third and last entry point of ISFM deals with any other amendments that may be needed to lift limitations to productivity such as soil acidity, micronutrient deficiency, erosion, soil compaction or pests and diseases.By definition, ISFM prescribes that interventions have to be aligned with prevalent biophysical and socio-economic conditions at farm and plot level (Vanlauwe et al. 2014). Figure 1 gives a conceptual illustration of the responses in crop production and input use efficiency to different interventions for soils with contrasting fertility status. Pathway A on the graph represents healthy soils where interventions on germplasm and fertilizer immediately cause the agronomic efficiency to increase. Pathway B, on the other hand, serves as example for degraded soils where organic resource management and other amendments or practices are required before production can be intensified. By adapting practices to the myriad of farming conditions ISFM warrants short and long term increases in production of food crops. The comprehensive features of the ISFM framework make it of great use for various actors ranging from farmers, extension agents and policy makers. The top panel in Figure 2 presents the average maize grain productivity that was achieved under different input of N-rich organic residues and/or nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) fertilizers. When NPK fertilizers and organic inputs were combined maize grain yields were between 0.26 and 2.4 ton ha -1 greater as compared to when the same inputs were applied separately. In the ISFM system maize grain yields remained well above 2 ton ha -1 after 10 years of cultivation and with a reduced rate of N input whereas the maize productivity dropped to 1 ton ha -1 in trials where exclusively fertilizers were used. Rotated cowpea crops, on the other hand, produced on average 1.2 ton ha -1 in the ISFM system as *International Institute of Tropical Agriculture PRACTICE BRIEF | CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE compared to 0.7 ton ha -1 when fertilizers or organic inputs were applied separately. These results attest that practising ISFM generates sustainable increases of crop productivity and input use efficiency which ultimately benefit the livelihood of farmers. The middle panel in Figure 2 displays the proportional variability in maize grain yield that is ascribed to climate oscillations as calculated from the residuals of the regression in maize grain yields across all 20 growing seasons. In trials where fertilizers and organic inputs were combined the production of maize crops were significantly less impacted by oscillations in weather conditions as compared to when exclusively fertilizers were applied. Especially the organic inputs showed to play an important role in reducing the climate sensitivity of maize crops. The higher productivity and yield stability achieved in the ISFM system prove that the practices significantly strengthen the resilience of crops to climate change impacts. The bottom panel of Figure 2 summarizes the content of organic C in the top 5cm of soil at the end of the 20 year trials for different input practices.The dashed line in the graph depicts the soil organic C (SOC) content at the onset of the trials. When fertilizers and organic inputs were combined the SOC content was significantly greater as compared to when exclusively fertilizers or organic were applied. These results demonstrate that ISFM practices mitigate CO2 emissions from soils whereby making important contributions to diminishing the GHG footprint of agricultural systems.Despite the significant benefits of ISFM for food security, household income and environmental protection, the adoption of practices by farmers is usually low and incomplete, especially in African smallholder systems. The most important factors curtailing adoption are related to: i) high transaction costs of input and produce trading (Alene et al. 2008), ii) low awareness and common disbeliefs about the benefits of soil fertility management (Lambrecht et al. 2015), iii) shortage of credit facilities for making initial investments (Dercon & Krishnan 1996), iv) aversion to risks surrounding the profitability of inputs (Wik et al. 2004), v) cost and availability of labour (Roumasset & Lee 2007), vi) land size and property rights (Goldesten & Udry 2008), vii) weak social networks and pervasive distrust (Wossen et al. 2015), viii) lack of information about soil fertility and rainfall forecasts (Maro et al. 2013), and ix) scarcity of organic residues and competition for residues with livestock (Rufino et al. 2011).In order to scale out ISFM across African smallholder farming systems there is a need to strengthen research on and dissemination of practices at local, national and international levels. At the same time there is great need for high-resolution information on soil fertility to customize practices and maximize the benefits of ISFM, as well as decision-support tools that consider resource endowments and production objectives of farm households.Where can ISFM be practised?The  (Pypers et al. 2011;Shiferaw et al. 2008). On top of this, ISFM embeds different fertilizer practices that have been proven to enhance nutrient uptake and productivity of crops such as micro-dosing, deep placement, banding, and harmonizing of inputs with rainfall and nutrient demands (Aune & Bationo 2008). Throughout all of the ISFM interventions on germplasm and fertilizers a lot of attention is being paid to the cost and profitability of external inputs as well as related market risks.A study of 10 years on millet cropping at the research station of ICRISAT* in the semi-arid belt of Niger has demonstrated that mulching of stover residues along with input of NPK fertilizers generated a total biomass productivity that was between 2 and 7 times larger than when the same inputs were applied separately (Bationo et al. 1996). It was further found that the ISFM practice gave rise to major improvements of soil acidity, nutrient export and water productivity. Figure 3, in turn, is summarizing the benefits of common bean rotations, NPK fertilizers and farmyard manure on the productivity of maize crops (Vanlauwe et al. 2012). The third entry point of ISFM respectively involves practices to tackle further limitations to crop production, for instance liming to address soil acidity, input of sulphur, calcium, zinc and other nutrients to counteract deficiencies, deep tillage to resolve soil compaction, and use of pesticides or herbicides to combat severe insect and weed infestations. Monitoring of a large-scale pilot program across the moist savannas in Nigeria calculated that an ISFM system of maize and soybean rotations along with strategic use of N and P fertilizers gave a net return of 539 USD ha -1 as compared to 422 USD ha -1 for maize mono-cropping with similar rates of fertilizer inputs (Akinola 2009).The greater profitability of the ISFM system is attributed to lower production costs and better retail prices for soybean. It was further shown that the gains in food production and income from practising ISFM significantly benefited the intake of calories and proteins by farmers. How does ISFM help adapt to and increase resilience to climate change impacts?Interventions under each of the three ISFM entry points make different contributions to strengthening the resilience of crop production to climate impacts. Practices on germplasm and crops respectively involve tactical decisions such as use of early maturing and drought tolerant varieties, or harmonizing of planting time with rainfall predictions. At the same time, the first ISFM entry point is disseminating strategic fertilizer practices that minimize the risk of input loss to adverse weather. Such interventions for instance exist of interspersing N fertilizer inputs across periods when soils have optimal water content what significantly benefits N uptake by crops under a large range of climates (Piha 1993).The ISFM principle of combining organic inputs and fertilizers makes important contributions to reducing the sensitivity of crop production to climate impacts. Figure 4 gives the proportional variability in total millet production that was exhibited under different input practices as calculated from the residuals of the regression in yields over the 10 growing seasons from the study at ICIRISAT mentioned in the previous section (Bationo et al. 1995). In trials where fertilizers and organic inputs were combined production of millet crops was significantly less impacted by oscillations in weather conditions as compared to when exclusively fertilizers or organic inputs were applied. Next to this, diversifying crops through intercropping and rotation as promoted by ISFM is decreasing the risk of crop failure on food security (Lin 2011). The third entry point of ISFM contributes to increasing the climate resilience of agricultural systems by disseminating practices that enhance water harvesting and prevent soil erosion such as tied ridging, contour ridging, stone row alignment and growing crops in zaï pits or basins (Nicol et al. 2015). By including a variety of practices and aligning them with the assets and objectives of farmers, the ISFM framework is able to provide effective solutions for reducing the sensitivity of crop production to climate impacts over the short and long term. Lastly, the increases in crop productivity achieved by practising ISFM provide more fodder for rearing livestock which helps bridging periods of food scarcity and hence strengthens the resilience of farming households to climate change impacts (Weindl et al. 2015).How does ISFM mitigate greenhouse gas emissions?Practising ISFM offers different benefits to mitigate GHG emissions from agricultural systems. Fertilizer micro-dosing, disseminated under the first ISFM entry point, has been shown to significantly increase the recovery of N by crops (Sime & Aune 2014;Kisinyo et al. 2015). Greater recovery of N fertilizers by crops, and retention of nitrate in soils, are two of the most important indicators for reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides in tropical farming systems (Hickman 2011). Combining fertilizers and organic inputs also enhances fertilizer uptake and retention by balancing immobilization and release processes (Chivenge et al. 2009). A study in moist savannas of Tanzania demonstrated that maize crops retrieved between 16 and 25 kg N ha -1 from rotated greengram, pigeonpea and cowpea crops (Marandu et al. 2010). Substituting a urea input of 10 kg N ha -1 cuts emission from manufacturing by 20 kg CO2 (Bernstein et al. 2007). Based on default emission factors decreasing N fertilizer inputs by 10 kg ha -1 is expected to mitigate N2O emissions from soils by 60 kg CO2 equivalent ha -1 (Smith et al. 1997).Combining fertilizers and organic inputs benefits the conservation and build-up of soil C stocks, hence mitigating CO2 emissions from soils. A study in Zimbabwe demonstrated that the practice of incorporating stover from maize crops reduced soil C losses by 10 to 20 tonnes of C per hectare over a period of 20 years (Zingore et al. 2005). Figure 5 presents results from 10 year trials across a range of soil types in Kenya showing that the soil organic C content was between 0.2 and 0.5% higher when fertilizers and manure were combined as compared to when exclusively fertilizers were used. Input of stover conversely didn't sequester as much C in all of the soil types. By aligning organic resource management with soil type, fertility level, climatic conditions and availability of resources the ISFM framework seeks to reach sustainable solutions for crop production at landscape farm and plot level.The financing of ISFM practices by farmer households relies largely on their individual capital, assets and availability of labour. Improved varieties and mineral fertilizers require a significant investment with quality germplasm costing between 20 and 100 USD per hectare per season for annual crops.Fertilizer inputs of ISFM systems range from 30 to 300 kg, costing between 50 to 300 USD per hectare per season. ISFM interventions on organic input and other practices increase labour costs by 5 to 20% in annual cropping systems.The higher net return of ISFM practices is benefiting further investments of farmers into agricultural technologies. At the same time, various measures can be taken along the value chain to address bottlenecks in the financing of ISFM: i) support business incentives from agro-dealers, credit agencies and other actors who provide ISFM services, ii) provide loans to intermediary traders with in-built strategies avoid default, iii) offer kick-start subsidy programs that address seasonal credit and cash constraints, iv) enable duty-free importation of fertilizers and agro-minerals, and v) in state tax benefits for the multiplication of legume seed and production of organic inputs. Case study: \"Enabling adoption of ISFM practices in Malawi\"Since 2012 the Clinton Development Initiative (CDI) and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) have been running a program to scale up ISFM in Malawi. The system combines maize-soybean rotations with strategic use of inorganic NPK fertilizers and inoculation of legumes with N-fixing bacteria. An out-grower contractual model is used in which commercial farms act as anchors for enabling better access of smallholder farmers to information, seed, fertilizer, credit and output markets (Figure 6). The anchor farms provide training of master farmers on ISFM practices and help in farmer organization. Three years into the program a monitoring and evaluation has recorded the following achievements: Maize grain yields have increased from an average of 2.0 to 4.6 ton ha -1 , and soybean yields from 0.7 to 1.3 ton ha -1  More than 18,000 smallholder farmers have adopted the ISFM practice with about 50% of the beneficiaries being women  A total of 9,906 hectares of land have been converted to the ISFM system  Training of more than 30,000 farmers on ISFM practices of whom nearly 50% are women One of the most important lessons learnt from the program is the need for enabling partnerships with credit providers to avoid inefficient borrowing schemes and improve loan repayment policies. The high rate of adoption that was achieved by the program illustrates the anchor farm model has a great potential for scaling up ISFM practices owed it bringing together the different actors in the value chain. Some public financing is needed to support and accelerate activities like farmer organization, extension and outreach. This is where most of AGRA's financial support has been strategically invested.","tokenCount":"2630"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b3098710d694ce157c2576937a4fcf37","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/26a0df82-8f05-4055-81b9-9b017b07973f/retrieve","id":"809977802"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9a01274d-0109-41ae-91fe-3eee7c63a92a","pagecount":"6","content":"At that time the Punjab agricultural sector was suffering from a negative growth, which, combined with a steep decline in prices of certain commodities, created discontent among farmers. To get out of the crisis, the Provincial and Federal leaderships decided to reform the province's agricultural sector. The Secretary of the Punjab Agriculture Department brought the IFPRI Pakistan Office and the consulting firm Innovative Development Solutions together to assist Punjab Agricultural Department staff and other stakeholders in formulating a new policy that would foster public and private investments in agriculture.Based in part on commissioned background papers and other IFPRI publications [2] [3], the provincial government led a process of consultations with many stakeholders and formulated the Punjab Agricultural Policy [4], which was passed by the provincial Cabinet in June 2018 and notified in The Punjab Gazette as the official agricultural policy of the province. Subsequently, the policy was also approved by the newly elected provincial administration. The province's framework for reform in agriculture described in the policy places emphasis on improved inputs, productivity, use of technology, agricultural markets, diversification to high-value agriculture, adaptation to climate change, and women's empowerment. Recent media coverage of some aspects of the policy (including seed policies) [5] demonstrate its role in shaping the debate around some of the province's key issues.The Pakistan National Food Security Policy [6] was approved by the Cabinet in March 2018. It calls for increased attention to agricultural research and development and to provision of advisory services to farmers -a component of the policy that benefited from significant inputs from the IFPRI/PIM team.Both policies acknowledge the contributions of IFPRI.• 219 -Pakistan National Food Security Policy (https://tinyurl.com/2qcmswe8) • 121 -Punjab Agricultural Policy (Pakistan) (https://tinyurl.com/2ntclkw5)","tokenCount":"281"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/5641012451.json b/data/part_3/5641012451.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b9057a9fafd0bca0266b8f3644a2335b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a73aa722-f8b9-416d-a1d4-5912bb39ea47/retrieve","id":"1475923129"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b4c5be38-a316-4aaf-8d10-870a45a04f40","pagecount":"10","content":"This submission has been prepared in response to a request from the Secretary of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (ITPGRFA), Dr Kent Nnadozie, to the eleven CGIAR Centers that signed Article 15 agreements with the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA. In his letter, the Secretary referred to a request from the Scientific Advisory Committee on the Global Information System (SAC-GLIS), to the Secretariat to: \"gather information from GLIS users, including CGIAR Centers and other institutions managing crop germplasm repositories, on the current application of DOIs to crop germplasm in the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-Sharing for which DSI/GSD are available in compatible information systems\" He asked the Centers if they \"could provide the Secretariat with information pertinent to the request of the SAC-GLIS\". In preparing this submission, the management team of the Policy Module of the CGIAR Genebank Platform conducted a survey among the eleven Article 15 Centers. All Centers responded to the questionnaire. The following sections provide a summary of their responses. It includes illustrative examples of Centers' practices using DOIs to date.As of May 21, 2019, GLIS reported that 834,252 DOIs have been minted. Approximately 94% of those DOIs are for materials hosted by CGIAR Centers. CGIAR Centers made it a priority in 2018 to 'mint' DOIs for materials in the international collections that they host. The ITPGRFA Secretariat provided excellent technical support. Table 1 below provides an overall summary of the numbers of DOIs minted, per Center, as of February 25, 2019.All of these DOIs have been assigned to materials that are accessioned in the concerned Center's Genebank, including landraces, wild relatives, and breeding and elite lines resulting from the Centers' breeding programmes when the decision has been made to conserve those materials long term and make them available through the Multilateral System. Datasource: GLIS, May 21, 2019 CGIAR Centers are not currently minting GLIS DOIs for breeding materials in a systematic manner (apart from those which are accessioned in the Genebank as just mentioned). That said, some Centers are experimenting with minting DOIs with some materials directly from their breeding programs. CIP will pilot minting DOIs for some improved materials being developed in a potato breeding program in Africa. Over the course of 2019, ICARDA breeders will work in collaboration with genebank managers to apply DOIs to 400 advanced breeding lines of faba bean and chickpea.In addition, some Centers (AfricaRice, CIP) have organized seminars on the advantages of assigning GLIS DOIs for breeders' materials, and discussions are ongoing on how to best integrate DOIs in breeders' work. Some Centers (e.g., IITA) are making efforts to link the genebanks' databases (which have already integrated DOIs) with the breeders' databases.Most Centers already include, or are in the process of putting systems in place to include, GLIS DOIs of germplasm in Annex 1 of the SMTA when transferring PGRFA samples from the genebanks to requestors. By the end of 2019, nine out of the eleven Centers which signed agreements under Article 15 of the ITPGRFA will be routinely providing GLIS DOIs with the SMTA. See image 1 below for an example of how Centers include this information.In addition to including DOIs in SMTAs, CIP includes the accession DOI on each of its labels on seed packages and cryogenic vials and tubes containing germplasm for distribution (Image 2) and CIAT is modifying its software to also print DOIs on seed envelops.Image 1: Annex 1 of SMTAs sent by CIP (potato) and Bioversity (Musa), including DOIs for transferred materials:Inclusion of GLIS DOIs in public databases with passport, characterization, evaluation and genomic sequence information GLIS DOIs are displayed on the websites of all eleven Centers when users search for and order germplasm conserved in the genebanks 1 . GLIS DOIs are also included in Genesys (https://www.genesys-pgr.org/welcome) for all the CGIAR genebank accessions which have been assigned DOIs. These online public databases (i.e. the ones hosted by individual Centers' websites, and Genesys' database) include passport information and, when available, characterization and evaluation data, and images for accessions conserved in the genebanks. .In addition, GLIS DOIs of Musa accessions maintained by Bioversity International are included in the databases of the Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS, https://www.cropdiversity.org/mgis/).CIMMYT has included DOIs of all wheat accessions maintained in CIMMYT genebank in the databases of Germinate, which will be publicly available shortly. An example (not yet published) of the Germinate Wheat Database is provided in Image 3 below. CIMMYT is also in the process of including DOIs of maize accessions (https://ics.hutton.ac.uk/get-germinate/).Image 3: Screenshot of Germinate Webpages showing information (including DOI) for a wheat accession maintained by CIMMYT.In addition to passport information and evaluation data, these public databases (MGIS, IRIC and Germinate) provide phenotypic and genotypic data when they are available. For wheat genetic resources at ICARDA, the genotyping information is also included in Germinate along with CIMMYT data. CIMMYT and CIP have plans to include DOIs in public datasets they maintain at Dataverse (https://dataverse.org/). ICARDA is also planning to include the available genotyping data of its genetic resources in GIGWA.Some Centers have started to include GLIS DOIs online platforms that focus primarily on genomic sequence information: Bioversity has included accession DOIs in the Banana Genome Hub (https://banana-genome-hub.southgreen.fr/) when sequenced genomes come from Bioversity Musa genebank. An example is provided in Image 4 below.IRRI is working towards extending the use of DOIs to the rice-specific platform SNP-Seek (http://snpseek.irri.org/). AfricaRice is preparing a new website where genetic information about 3000 rice accessions maintained in the genebank (with GLIS DOIs) will be made publicly available, and linked to the GLIS. It appears that GenBank, GigaDB, EMBL-EBI and other online platforms which are widely used for uploading big data in biology and genetics are not equipped to handle GLIS DOIs. They would likely need to adjust their databases to include this information for the GLIS and GLIS DOIs to facilitate the linking and layering of genomic sequence data associated with materials from CGIAR Genbanks (and any/all other sources of sequenced germplasm for that matter).Given that DOIs were minted only recently, in 2018, there has not been much time for scientists to include them in papers submitted to journals for publication. That said, scientists from a few Centers have already published peer reviewed journal articles which include GLIS DOIs of the germplasm involved in the work described in the articles. Two of those articles include genetic information (Seed Box 1 below). Additional papers including DOIs have been submitted to journals and are being reviewed. There are significant challenges -described in the next section --to including DOIs in journal articles, and having them 'findable' by GLIS. This article describes the work and results of fingerprinting two hundred and fifty accessions from the cultivated potato collection at the CIP, using the Infinium 12K V2 Potato Array, and with the purposes to confirm genetic identity of the accessions and evaluate genetic diversity of the potato collection.Whitehouse KJ, Owoborode OF, Adebayo OO, Oyatomi OA, Olaniyan AB, Abberton MT, Hay F. ( 2018). Further evidence that the Genebank Standards for drying orthodox seeds may not be pptimal for subsequent seed longevity. Biopreservation and Biobanking, 16 (5).The aim of the study described in the article was to test the effects of drying freshly harvested seed at a higher temperature (40°C-60°C) than the temperature recommended by the current genebank standards (5°C-20°C) on the longevity of the seed. Seeds of five cowpea accessions and four soya bean accessions were used in the tests.Challenges involved in minting DOIs for genebank accessions and breeding lines include identifying the best timing and manner. Centers have faced technical questions such as how many different DOIs should be assigned to an accession: Should each regeneration have its own DOI? Should the same material conserved under different conditions and forms be given different DOIs based on the location and type of conservation (seed, cryopreservation, DNA, herbarium)? In addition, some Centers have found practical problems of minor nature and able to be overcome, for example missing information required by GLIS to generate DOIs, such as date of acquisition.As alluded to in the previous section, Centers (and likely all other DOI users) are encountering challenges referencing GLIS DOIs in journal articles. A major attraction of the DOI system is the potential to associate GLIS DOIs for PGRFA with DOIs for associated information, such as DOIs for publications and online datasets, thus bringing associated information within the scope of GLIS and ensuring that it does in fact remain associated with the PGRFA it describes. However, the technology to do so automatically is currently unable to retrieve DOIs that are embedded in the main body of a publication, including text, tables, figures and supplementary information. Currently, to enable GLIS to automatically discover the GLIS DOIs referred to in a publication, all those GLIS DOIs must be listed in the reference section. However, listing PGRFA in the reference section is not standard practice, so journal editors need to develop and implement appropriate new standards. CGIAR scientists are working closely with journal editors and with the ITPGRFA Secretariat to implement appropriate standards for listing GLIS DOIs in references; and in the longer term to seek an improved solution. Of course, in the meantime, users can easily upload to GLIS links to associated information in any of the ways developed by the ITPGRFA Secretariat.One challenge to linking germplasm accession DOIs and genetic sequence information arises from the fact that there is considerable genetic heterogeneity of material within accessions, particularly for outcrossing and inbred crops (less so with clonally propagated crops) or even for landraces of self-pollinated crops (composed of multilines). To address this complexity, it is necessary to purify single lines (via selfing and single seed descent) to develop materials for genomic sequencing. The purified line is not representative of the entire accession and likely needs to be handled as a unique accession with a specific purified genotype. The good practice to address this reality is to assign a new accession number and DOI for the purified line, and then associate the genetic sequence data with that line via the new accessions number and DOI. GLIS DOIs will forge a traceable connection between the purified line and the original accession. The sampling procedure for DNA extraction and the way genetic sequence information is reported (missing data imputed or not, etc.) are not necessarily straightforward and require considerable expertise and resources to address. Seed from that same purified accession should therefore be used for phenotyping for association analyses and could use the assigned DOI as a common reference.Just as it is important for CGIAR Centers to follow this practice, it is equally important for recipients of materials from CGIAR Centers to assign new DOIs to purified lines that they sequence. If they do not, and they only refer to the DOI of the accession transferred to them by the Center, they will lose the value of a direct connection between sequence information and underlying genetic material (i.e. the purified line).Some Centers have made efforts to raise awareness about DOIs and their value among different users beyond CGIAR. For example, when Bioversity released an updated version of the MGIS website, in March 2018, the website informed the visitors about the introduction of DOI in the passport data (https://tinyurl.com/y9a3otpj). Since February 2019, there is a dedicated webpage explaining DOIs (https://tinyurl.com/y6ch3oa9). This page is accessible from any page of the MGIS web site through a little clickable DOI logo visible at the bottom left of all web pages. All users of MGIS are encouraged to use the DOIs when citing germplasm from the MGIS database. Other Centers like ICRAF are considering this approach for the databases they maintain. All shipments of PGRFA from CIP include information for users about DOIs.Once the value of DOIs is demonstrated and realized, and the communities working with genetic resources and genomic data integrate DOIs in their work, journal editors may be more willing to consider the possibility of facilitating the inclusion of DOIs within journal articles, in a way that makes the searches and linkages with the GLIS easier.Over the course of 2019, the eleven CGIAR Centers that have signed agreements with the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA under Article 15 will receive support from the CGIAR Genebank Platform to focus on full integration of DOIs into genebank activities. During 2019, each genebank will develop, document, and implement a protocol for the routine assignment and use of GLIS DOIs for genebank materials, to: Assign DOIs to new accessions, as a routine element of the standard operating procedures to process incoming samples;  Determine whether and when to assign GLIS DOIs to parts of accessions such as individual harvests, seed lots or tissue samples, as appropriate for the genebank;  Ensure that the list of PGRFA given in Annex 1 of outgoing SMTAs specifies GLIS DOIs for the material shipped  If the genebank opts to identify material shipped out with an SMTA by individual harvests or seed lots, ensure that the SMTA and the shipping standard operating procedures accommodate minting of new GLIS DOIs where appropriate  Ensure that all future publications and online databases and datasets on genebank accessions refer to the accessions by their GLIS DOI, preferably in a form that enables GLIS to discover those online resources automatically  To the extent possible, identify online information resources (e.g. datasets, pages of databases, or publications) relating to existing genebank accessions with GLIS DOIs but not correctly referenced by GLIS DOIs, and associate GLIS DOIs and add them to GLIS  Encourage the use of original GLIS DOIs (and minting of GLIS DOIs for distribution) beyond the genebank Centers will collect best practices linked to implementing Digital Object Identifiers for food crops -Descriptors and guidelines of the Global Information System, which was developed and published by the ITPGRFA Secretariat in 2018, and will make suggestions for further revisions of that document.The Centers will act collectively to request GLIS to approach journals to make the publication of DOIs mandatory in articles relating to genebank accessions.","tokenCount":"2326"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"78bcf4f50109dd51c4cc223b1da31991","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b80b17d6-e4e0-4062-b709-a298c06467d8/retrieve","id":"-1679806769"},"keywords":["ICT Update Mostert & van Onderen","Leiden","the Netherlands"],"sieverID":"fb8a92da-c92e-4ed4-b395-a5d73400d24a","pagecount":"8","content":"The status of rural connectivity F ive years ago, expectations regarding new opportunities offered by the Internet to developing countries were high. Privatization of national telecoms and a glut of (international) bandwidth would drive the costs of Internet use down to almost zero. Mega satellite projects would solve all rural connectivity problems in developing countries by creating an 'Internet-in-the-sky', instantly lifting farmers from their economic isolation. Most of these optimistic predictions did not materialize because the underlying causes of the lack of rural connectivity have been difficult to tacklethey are of an institutional rather than technical nature. Many early efforts to bring the Internet to rural communities turned out to be expensive fiascos due to their 'techno-push' approach and insufficient focus on the actual information needs of farmers. However, the past five years do not represent 'lost Internet time'. Valuable lessons have been learned, and many practical initiatives to improve rural connectivity have been taken up.In this edition of ICT Update, Gaston Zongo takes stock of lessons learned in the many multipurpose community telecentre projects that have been implemented in Africa. David Leeming describes how People First Network has ingeniously applied high-frequency radio technology to overcome the seemingly insoluble connectivity problems of Pacific Island states. Tobias Eigen shows that email offers underutilized potential for rural areas that face poor connectivity conditions. Michiel Hegener focuses on recent, promising developments in satellite technology that could bring wireless connectivity within affordable reach of any development organization or small enterprise in rural areas. Mike Jensen looks into the future and outlines the rural connectivity challenges that lie ahead in the next five years. Ingo Mackintosh has compiled a comprehensive list of annotated web resources on promising projects and informative articles, representing the current state of rural connectivity in ACP countries. If you face rural connectivity problems yourself, the column on the right explains how you can access these web resources by email.ICT Update is a bimonthly printed bulletin, a web magazine (http:// ictupdate.cta.int), and an accompanying email newsletter. Each issue focuses on a specific theme relevant to ICTs for agricultural and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, and features four commissioned articles. The printed bulletin also contains a selection of relevant links and projects and a 'Question and Answer' section, taken from the website. Readers are invited to contribute to the site by adding links to online resources on a particular theme. Simply log on to the ICT Update website, and click on one of the 'submit' options in the right-hand column.The next issue of ICT Update will be available on 1 May 2003.People First Network: Radio email for the Solomon Islands I magine the amazement of farmers who are able to receive technical advice on how to deal with a poultry disease. Or of the residents of remote rural villages who can find out about job opportunities and submit their applications well before the deadline. All thanks to radio email.When it comes to rural connectivity in the Pacific, one project proves that there is an alternative to solutions that depend on continued government support and donor subsidies. In the Solomon Islands, People First Network (PFnet) is pioneering a communications model based on radio email technology and community ownership.Focused on facilitating communications, networking and information sharing for rural development and peace building, the project has established a highfrequency (HF) radio email network, a central Internet cafe in the capital Honiara as the revenue-earning base, and a development web portal, www.peoplefirst.net.sb.The project's strategy is to establish many basic email-only, operator-assisted access sites across the country, and to allow them to evolve into email cafés or even full telecentres in response to community demand. The access sites are managed by village committees, who identify the operators and are involved in the ongoing operations. They work with PFnet to raise awareness of the facility among the entire community, including women, businesses, schools, health workers and farmers. This has created a 'development dynamic' that is now driving the demand in rural communities for more ICTs to facilitate services such as telemedicine, distance education, e-commerce and e-finance.The large distances between islands and villages prescribe the use of the HF band for the email stations. HF is long range (thousands of kilometres) and does not rely on the use of repeater stations, which are vulnerable to vandalism arising from disputes associated with customary ownership of land. Each HF station can also act as a hub, using much cheaper very high frequency (VHF) technology to connect nearby villages. Technical performance is acceptable, with secure data transmission at 2 Kbps and no per-minute charges. The technology is proving very reliable and simple to useoperators are usually able to manage by themselves after only one week's training.Using PFnet for popular applications has proven a key success factor. So far, the project has supported rural networking for health clinics, an indigenous business development service, and the reinforcement of traditional agriculture. In 2002, PFnet even conducted trials with the University of the South Pacific to offer formal education over its email system. By enabling the exchange of daily news between grassroots communities, PFnet is helping to break down the barriers caused by mistrust and misinformation. The project supports the efforts of rural communities to press for constitutional reform, and allows them to lobby for their interests either directly or through the media. All in all, the impact of PFnet on the Solomon Islands has been truly staggering.  Mike Jensen N ew telecommunication systems using wireless and satellite technologies have recently become available that will radically reduce the cost of connectivity. They will also make access possible from virtually anywhere on the planet, without the need for traditional cables. Because these systems can use the Internet, which allows you to share your connection with anyone, even small organizations and individuals in rural areas in developing countries can now afford relatively cheap access, especially where there is no existing telecom infrastructure.Radio transmitters for broadband 'line of sight' connections now cost less than €100. As a result, hundreds of user groups around the world are setting up their own local wireless infrastructure for Internet sharing. Long-distance links using terrestrial HF radio and Kuband satellite transmitters now cost only €1000-€2000.In addition, satellite companies like Hughes, Panamsat, Intelsat and Ipstar are providing connectivity superior to any dialup system in the developing world for less than €200 per month. When these two systems are combined, connectivity can be affordably brought to remote rural areas via satellite, with the cost of the terrestrial radio connections being shared among users.Unfortunately, most developing countries do not yet allow people to set up their own telecom links in this fashion -either through outright prohibition, or by levying unaffordable licence fees. The pace of technological change in this area has been so rapid that most policy makers are unaware of the implications, and still conform to traditional models of telecommunication development in which market access is restricted to a few licensed telecom operators. Consequently, the most important challenge for rural connectivity is no longer technological, but centres on building awareness among national policy makers of these new models of accessThe African Internet by Mike Jensen is a key source on all African connectivity matters: www3.sn.apc.org/africa/. It includes a status report on the Internet in Africa as of July 2002: www3.sn.apc.org/ africa/afstat.htm. The French translation is available from www.africanti.org/resultats/documents/afstatfr.htmThe Africa Computing website offers detailed connectivity statistics on French-speaking Africa: www.africacomputing.org/ The Communication Initiative Survey, March 2002 gives a detailed overview of Internet infrastructure and e-governance in provision and the benefits of owner-deployed and owner-financed infrastructure.Restrictions on the number of licensed operators are usually justified by the need to ensure that the operators are able to generate sufficient income to roll out infrastructure in under-served areas without the funds being siphoned off by too many competitors. However, experience since the breakup of AT&T has shown that the only way to ensure efficient service delivery is to bring self-interest fully into play by opening up markets and using competition to do much of the regulating.In practical terms, while greater competition and more owner provisioning in the telecom industry may indeed result in some overlap and duplication of resources by the different competitors, the overall operation of the sector is more efficient than when only a few licensed operators have access to the market.It has long been assumed that provision of rural connectivity in developing countries is unprofitable. This assumption has bolstered the arguments of those who favour limiting market access, and who believe that revenues from the more profitable urban areas are needed to cross-subsidize access in rural areas.However, the plummeting cost of bandwidth and the increasing value of telecoms links that can carry not only voice calls, but also valuable Internet data and ecommerce transactions, mean that this assumption must be seriously re-examined. When these new dynamics are considered alongside the often underestimated levels of rural wealth (bolstered by remittances from the Diaspora) and the potential of owner-financed, ownerdeployed wireless and satellite infrastructure, it is clear that policy makers need to rethink their traditional approaches to achieving rural connectivity. Instead, subscribers click on links and go online directly with their web browser. This is a marketing problem. As opposed to web-based services, email delivery services are not widely known and are rarely explained in workshops and training materials. An additional problem is that, in their current shape, many (such as www4mail) are not particularly easy for non-technical users to adopt, especially in Africa, where the Internet is still relatively new and most people use cybercafes to get online.To encourage web-oriented people in poor countries to make better use of their precious connection through web-to-email services, it will be necessary to improve the design of existing websites and email newsletters with them in mind. Meanwhile, products like www4mail will also need to be made slicker so that they can compete with the glamour of inefficient websites like Yahoo. I n spite of poor phone connections and electricity supplies, people in poor countries are using the Internet in greater numbers than ever before. It is inspiring to observe the great lengths to which theyand development professionals and civil society activists in particular-will go to get online once they have discovered what the Internet can do for them.What is remarkable is that many of these people are now using the Internet in much the way as people in rich countries are using it. Why is this remarkable? Because beyond the web there is also email.A long-time precursor to the web, email is in fact a more appropriate tool for sending and receiving information, especially in poor countries where access to the Internet can be unreliable and expensive. Unlike the web, which requires your presence as you download information to your computer screen, information requested by email can travel at night, when rates are low, and comparatively slowly, yet it still arrives in your mailbox for you to read at leisure.Although it can indeed be convenient to go on the web to read the latest news from around the world or find a phone number, it is often frustratingly time-consuming and expensive for people in poor countries to search online databases or find and download full-text documents from the web. The reason for this is that content-rich websites on the Internet tend to be created by and for people in rich countries. If they had been designed with poor countries in mind, they would be set up to allow people to use email as the delivery mechanism for information.ICT Update, issue 10, March 2003Michiel Hegener T oo difficult, too expensive, too far fetched-there have been many objections to satellite as a means to link up small offices, schools, Internet cafes or even individual households to the Internet.In response to some of these objections, during the mid-1990s dozens of plans were put forward (mainly by satellite builders) to design, build and launch satellites for the specific purpose of bringing cheap and easy connectivity to Internet users in areas without cables. This applies to most of Africa. Lack of money meant that most of these plans for Internet-bysatellite had to be shelved, and they were replaced by new technologies for end user equipment. Companies such as Armstrong Electronics in Ireland and Hughes Network Systems in the US soon developed systems such as WebSat and DirecWay, which use run-of-the-mill satellites, some of which have been in orbit for many years. All the innovation resides in the software and hardware on the ground-partly in the large terrestial stations of the satellite service providers, partly in the equipment on the premises of the end users.What you get at home is basically a kit consisting of a dish antenna and some hardware, to be linked to a PC. Normally, the dish is only 60 cm in diameter, unless you are near the periphery of the 'footprint' of the satellite that's being used, or in tropical areas with a lot of rainfall. Dishes of up to 1.2 metres in diameter may be needed in such cases. The rest of the hardware consists of either two cards to be plugged into your PC, or two boxes, each the size of an external modem, between the PC and the dish.So what's so attractive about these new satellite systems? First, their price is falling rapidly. Small satellite links have been available for decades, but they could easily cost between $10,000 and $25,000. The current prices of hardware range from $1,000 to $2,000.Second, the systems are 'demand assigned' and you 'pay as you go'. For instance, WebSat-which is available Systems like DirecWay, WebSat, Tachyon and others are becoming more popular in Europe and the US, and they are now being expanded towards Africa and other under-served parts of the world. To offer such services in Africa, however, providers will first have to overcome a number of hurdles. For example, a billing system must be in place. Staff will be required on the spot to help install the dish, which must be trained at the satellite very accurately (much more so than a TV dish). If the dish is just one degree out of alignment, the data transfer speeds will drop drastically. Finally, and most importantly, the service providers must hire capacity on a satellite targeting Africa-where the would-be users are-as well as the North, in order to link up those users to the Internet backbone. solution for quickly implementing communication infrastructures to link rural areas to the rest of the world. www.gvf.orgmembers_directory/documents/rural_telephony.pdf Case study: GILAT has supported Telkom South Africa in implementing a 3000-site telephone network to serve tens of thousands of rural customers. More than 1600 satellite sites were successfully deployed in the first two months, perhaps the quickest deployment on record. The project enabled Telkom SA to provide a large number of rural sites -mostly schools and village grocerieswith basic telephone services, where none had existed before. www.gilat.com/About_ProfileAf.asp?Sbj=390Michiel Hegener is a journalist who frequently writes about Internet developments Africa and satellite communications (email: mh@nrc.nl).undertakes technology research/architecture design and offers evaluation services. www.cids.org.za www.csir.co.za/ Pan-African: Africa Computing is a French-language association that aims to exchange and transfer practical ICT skills throughout Africa. It offers free Internet access, hosting services and courses. www.africacomputing.org/ CARIBBEAN Dominican Republic: El Limon, a remote mountain village, is a key rural Internet access project in the Dominican Republic. EcoPartners have donated laptop computers to the community, ADESJO (a regional NGO) has contributed a solar power system, and Cornell University students teach basic computer skills. Several residents carried the project on, and were eventually able to install a wireless internet connection. FreeWave 900 mHz digital radios connect Limon to its modem six miles away in Ocoa, via a hilltop repeater station. www.sas.cornell.edu/cresp/ecopartners/comp/NetCur.htm Pan-Caribbean: FUNREDES is a non-governmental organization dedicated to the dissemination of new information and communication technologies in developing countries, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. In collaboration with other NGOs, and public and private institutions, it aims to contribute to regional development by supporting networking and connectivity projects. http://funredes.org/The PAN-APCC Coconut Information Network provides email and Internet access for member institutions of the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC), and assists national programmes by providing training for coconut information specialists. Coconut-related information is packaged for publication on the web, and a pilot programme of electronic publishing and online access to the APCC databases is being developed. The project also aims to test email and Internet connectivity with stakeholders (researchers, producers, policy makers, processors, etc.) to determine future needs. www.apcc.org.sg/ India: The N-LOGUE rural connectivity project links village IT kiosks to central nodes using a low-cost wireless infrastructure. The nodes are then linked to the Internet and the phone system. Shared access at the kiosks and shared spectrum at the central node concentrates digital traffic and ensures high levels of usage and low costs. The result is a phone and Internet service at prices villagers can afford, and a business model that looks very robust. www.digitaldividend.org/pdf/nlogue.pdf India: The Pravara Village IT Project (PRAGATI) aims to connect 100 villages in Ahmednagar with a wireless MAN solution (WMAN). The programme will help the villages to establish local IT centres to disseminate information on government schemes, agricultural market prices, health care, education, agro-processing, etc. The villagers will be able to contact agricultural experts at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (a knowledge centre for farmers) for information on ways to improve agricultural production, and storing and packing their produce. www. networkmagazineindia.com/200209/tech3.shtml India: The TARAhaat project is bringing the Internet and its benefits directly into the lives of the rural poor in the remotest villages of India by covering all three components of rural connectivity: content, access and fulfilment. Content is provided by the TARAhaat.com portal, a growing repository of information on issues of sustainable development. Access is provided through a network of franchised local enterprises. Information, goods and services are provided by local courier services. www.tarahaat.com/tara/home ICT Update, issue 10, March 2003 Gaston Zongo, former Executive Director of the Acacia Initiative (email: gzongo@sentoo.sn), explains why multipurpose community telecentres (MCTs) have succeeded or failed, and where they are headed.MCTs are shared information and communication facilities for people in rural and isolated areas. They usually offer basic communication services such as telephone, fax, typing, photocopying, printing, training in the use of computers, email and electronic networking.MCTs are key strategic interventions by international donors to help bridge Africa's digital divide. The main programme in this area is a joint initiative co-funded by ITU, IDRC/Acacia and UNESCO, in partnership with local NGOs and the national telecommunication operators.The countries that have benefited from the programme's pilot phase include Benin, Mali, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Many other international aid agencies have joined the movement, including USAID-Leland, the I-Earn-supported Songhai Centre in Benin, the francophone Multimedia Centres, and the WorldLinks for Development initiative in Zimbabwe.It's a commonly shared vision by researchers that integrating rural development and universal access to ICT tools can empower disadvantaged communities and address sustainable development issues. That's why evaluating the impact of MCTs on the social and economic development of communities is so important. The Evaluation and Learning System for Acacia (ELSA) has been instrumental in this respect, leading to the definition of various indicators and evaluation guidelines, the organization of seminars and workshops, and ongoing online discussions and forums.Many pilot MCT projects have failed because of common problems such as illiteracy, language barriers, low incomes, and the lack of or expensive power supplies. Another key problem has been that various projects have focused on the technology and infrastructure rather than on the content. This is not surprising considering the selected areas are usually under-served by national telecommunication networks and require an investment of more than €500,000 per MCT. That's way above the annual GDP of the MCT's service area -and beyond the management capability of the targeted community.Also, using a philanthropic rather than maket-oriented approach, developers have not paid enough attention to the scalability and cost-recovery aspects of MCTs. It would have been better to apply the 'village bakery' model, in which investors from African villages build local, scalable bakeries and set a price for the bread that local people can afford. MCTs that have been designed to deliver specific services to a given community, and are operated by the community, have proven to be the most successful. Examples include ENDA-Ecopole's Cyberpop projects, in which community access is designed to help women with their fishing business.A final stumbling block has been African governments. Contributions from governments have rarely gone beyond the provision of premises, and no important long-term measures have been taken to support MCT initiatives. The sustainability of MCTs has also been dramatically jeopardized by the recent reforms of the telecommunication sector. They have reduced the financial capacity of the incumbent operators to invest in rural areas or to do something about the high costs of line subscriptions and connection charges.Where have MCTs succeeded? They have helped raise awareness at various levels, resulting in a greater commitment of African governments to bridge the digital divide. Africa is strongly backed by donor agencies and the international private sector. There is a clear global trend to enhance community access to ICT tools through software with low access costs. The Indian Simputer, a low-cost, hand-held computer based on Open Source software, is a good example. It is an alternative to the PC that allows people to use simple icons to get information via the Internet, and thus overcomes problems such as language barriers and illiteracy. Many African countries have already indicated their interest in introducing the Simputer for disadvantaged communities.In countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda, private cybercafé owners are moving into the rural areas because of the fierce competition in urban centres. Meanwhile, many post office companies are planning to transform their rural premises into cybercafés, emulating countries like Brazil and China. These positive developments are supported by continuing World Bank funding for rural telecommunications and new services like Uganda Telecom's Freenet, which makes every landline an Internet line without the need for subscription fees or registration.In short, there are tremendous opportunities for the development of sustainable community access in Africa. The African governments are starting to define their e-government, e-governance, e-democracy and e-education strategies. And to ensure that most people will fully participate in these initiatives, the governments have started to draft new, nationwide telecentre programmes to be implemented in partnership with the private sector, or at least using business-oriented models.","tokenCount":"3735"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8a4f2ffd7f3277b399bce26934fc6878","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/52b710ee-4a81-49f9-bf77-e08fee20fbb3/retrieve","id":"-1908465412"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"affe3b98-cfb2-4de4-b485-66a8d68359c2","pagecount":"42","content":"The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) -a CGIAR Research Center -develops technologies, innovative methods, and new knowledge that better enable farmers, especially smallholders, to make agriculture eco-efficient -that is, competitive and profitable as well as sustainable and resilient. Headquartered near Cali, Colombia, CIAT conducts research for development in tropical regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia.Figure 1.  Tables Table 1. Household size, land sizes and management per farm type. Burkina Faso is a landlocked Sahelian country challenged by low and variable rainfall and low agricultural potential. Historically, agriculture has been dominated by cotton production, the key cash crop. The non-cotton agricultural sector remains characterized by low yields, almost exclusive dependence on rainfall, and generalized underuse of modern production technologies (AGRA, 2014). So far, Burkina Faso's economic development is largely dependent on agriculture, with cotton being the main export product. The agricultural sector is a fundamental part of the economy, contributing about 30% to the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and occupying approximately 86% of active population (Burkina Faso, 2013). The sector provides 61.5% of agricultural households' cash revenues. About 67% of these revenues come from crop production, 31% from livestock and 2% from environmental products (Burkina Faso, 2011).Globally, agriculture is a principal source of climate change, directly contributing 14% of anthropogenic GHG emissions, and another 17% through land use change; the latter mostly in developing countries. The majority of future increase in agricultural emissions is expected to take place in low-to middle-income countries (Smith et al., 2007). While industrialized countries must dramatically reduce current levels of GHG emissions, developing countries face the challenge of finding alternative, low carbon or green growth development pathways. In this sense, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) aims at transforming agricultural systems to sustain food security under climate change while also limiting GHG emissions.CSA is complementary to sustainable intensification (SI), aiming at increasing agricultural productivity from existing agricultural land while lowering the environmental impact. SI's focus on resource use efficiency and CSA's pillar on mitigation both focus on achieving lower emissions per unit output. Increased resource use efficiency contributes to adaptation and mitigation through increased productivity and reduced GHG per unit output (Campbell et al., 2014). Both, CSA and SI underline the importance of potential trade-offs between agricultural production and environmental degradation. In fact smallholder farmers are confronted with trade-offs almost on a daily basis. They have to weigh short-term production objectives against ensuring long-term sustainability and global goods such as climate change mitigation (Klapwijk et al., 2014). Although CSA aims at improving food security, adaptation and mitigation, it does not imply that every recommended practice should necessarily be a 'triple win'. Mitigation in developing countries is often seen as a co-benefit, while food security and adaptation are main priority. Low emission growth paths might have more associated costs than the conventional high emission pathways, thus monitoring can open opportunities for climate finance funds (Lipper et al., 2014). This report focuses on the results from the first activity of the project. The objective of the rapid assessment of climate-smartness of GIZ endorsed soil rehabilitation and protection technologies in Burkina Faso, is to evaluate these technologies in terms of their potential impact on productivity, nitrogen (N) balances, erosion, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These are suitable (rapid) indicators representing the three CSA pillars -food security, adaptation and mitigation.During a participatory workshop in Bobo-Dioulasso, 4 distinct farming types were identified in the Burkinabe provinces Tuy and Houet (Kalčić and Birnholz, 2016). Subsequently, household interviews were conducted in farm households that were deemed representative of the 4 farm types identified during the workshop. The data collected on these farms forms the basis of the baseline calculations for the indicators mentioned above. The soil technology scenarios were derived during workshop discussions, and complemented by data from technical documents of GIZ and implementing partners, so as to reflect practices promoted in Tuy and Houet as closely as possible. In sections 2 and 3 we provide more details about the methodology and the sampled farms. Descriptions of the implemented soil rehabilitation scenarios are described in section 4, while results are presented in section 5, and conclusions/ recommendations in section 6.Following the participatory workshop that identified 4-6 farming system types per country, potential representative farms were jointly identified by CIAT, GIZ and ministry staff for a rapid assessment. The rapid assessment is based on a case study approach thus only one farm per type was selected and sampled. The head of the household was interviewed and household data collected using a questionnaire similar to that used within IMPACTlite (http://bit.ly/2h3KAZf). Information about crops and livestock was collected including data about plot sizes, yields, use of crop products and crop residues, labour activities and inputs. Similar information was gathered for the livestock activities if any. In some cases, soil samples were taken from different plots.The data collected served as input for the model used for the rapid assessment. The rapid assessment model, named Kalkulator, calculates the following indicators according to different methodologies:Productivity: Farm productivity was calculated based on the energy (calories) produced on farm -crop and livestock products -and compared to the energy requirement of an adult male equivalent of 2500 k cal per day (AME). Energy from potential direct consumption of on-farm produce was calculated by multiplying the energy content of every crop and livestock product with the produced amount. It is thus important to note that the indicator simply represents on-farm food/energy production, not the actual consumption, which should be taking into account additional food purchases and subtract the produce that is sold. Energy contents were based on a standard product list developed by the US Department of Agriculture USDA (source: http://bit.ly/1g33Puqt). The total amount of energy produced on the farm was then divided by 2500 kcal to obtain the number of days for which 1 AME is secured. For the sake of cross-farm comparability, these data were then also expressed on a per-hectare basis.Soil Nitrogen balance: This balance was calculated at the plot level following the empirical approach of NUTMON as described in Van den Bosch et al. (1998).The following soil N-inputs were considered i) mineral fertilizers, ii) manure, iii) symbiotic fixation by legume crops, iv) non-symbiotic fixation, and v) atmospheric deposition. The N-outputs are i) crops and residues exported off the field, ii) leaching of nitrate, iii) gaseous loss of nitrogen (NH3 and N2O) and iv) soil erosion.For calculating N inputs from manure and fertilizer, and N outputs from crop and residues, farmer reported data on quantities from the household survey was used. For N inputs from N fixation and deposition as well as N outputs from leaching, gaseous losses and soil erosion, transfer functions were used that are based on the rainfall and soil clay content of the specific site.The N balance is calculated for each plot (kg N/plot) and then summed to obtain the farm-field balance expressed in kg N per farm. These results are then, again, converted into kg N per ha.Soil erosion: Soil erosion is calculated at plot individual field level following the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE; Renard et al., 1991;Amdihun et al., 2014). Further information on each factor can be found at: www.iwr.msu.edu/rusle/factors.htmThe GHG emissions are calculated at farm level following the guidelines of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2006). Emissions from livestock (methane from enteric fermentation), manure (methane and nitrous oxide), and field emissions (nitrous oxide) are taken into account as illustrated in the graph below. Household survey data on livestock feed, livestock numbers and whereabouts, manure and fertilizer use, crop areas, and residue allocation was used as input data for the calculations.Most of the calculations follow IPCC Tier 1 methods, while Tier 2 calculations were performed for enteric fermentation and manure production (Figure 1).  A participatory workshop was organised in Bobo-Dioulasso to describe and classify the farms of the ProSOL intervention sites (Kalčić and Birnholz, 2016). (1) large-scale/modern farms, (2) mediumscale/semi-modern farms, (3) small-scale/traditional/ manual farms and (4) small-scale/traditional/manual farms managed by a woman or a young man. Kalčić and Birnholz (2016) provide a detailed description of these four farm types. Reference maps produced for the workshop mapping soil and climate characteristics of the study sites can be found in Appendix III. It should be noted that the debate on percentage of households that fall within each type was not concluded. In regards to distribution of different farming systems in the two provinces, participants agreed that the percentage of households that fall within each type is the same. There was a consensus that large farms are less numerous. However, participants did not reach a common understanding on the percentage of small-and medium-scale farms, but agreed that the medium-sized farms are the most numerous among farm households.After the workshop -and with the help of GOPA/ AFC ProSOL consulting group and extension officers from the MARHASA Provincial Extension Servicesone representative case study farm was selected for each of the farm types. The case study farmer for the small scale was selected in the commune of Lena (Houet), the medium-scale farmer was selected in Karankasso-Vigué (Houet) while a large-scale farm and a small-scale female-headed farm representative were selected in the commune of Koumbia (Tuy; Figure 2). These farms were visited and detailed information was collected for the use as input data to model GHG emissions, nitrogen balance, erosion and farm production.One case study farm was selected for each of the farm types. The farms chosen were typical farms that could be used as a representative of the farmers within each farm type. These farms were visited and detailed information was collected for the use as input data to model GHG emissions, nitrogen balance, erosion and farm production.1. Large-scale / Modern farm: This farm has 24 ha, of which 20.5 is cultivated. The farmer has good financial assets and therefore access to draught power. He has about 17 local cattle, some sheep, pigs and poultry. Crop production is market-oriented, with maize and cotton as main crops. Other crops grown are rice, cowpea and groundnut. Cotton production dominates, and is rotated with the other crops. Input use is relatively high on this farm.The total land area of the farm, 7 ha, is cultivated. Crops grown include maize, sorghum, cotton, cowpea and groundnut. Household production in this farm has a dual purpose, i.e. for home consumption and for sale. The input use is slightly lower than on the large-scale farm. Also yields for maize and groundnut are lower than yields at large-scale farms; yields of cotton and cowpea, on the other hand, are higher. The farmer has a quite big herd of cattle and sheep, and also keeps some poultry.   The following scenarios represent soil rehabilitation interventions that are currently promoted by GIZ in Burkina Faso or that are under discussion for future promotion. All assumptions are described according to impact dimensions and summarized in Appendix II Scenario Assumptions.Stone bunds: This intervention is promoted to reduce soil erosion resulting from poor soil structure (insufficient rainwater infiltration) and intensive rains during the cropping season. This technology has been put in place in selected watersheds at landscape level.The bunds require space, namely approximately 10% of the land where they are implemented. This loss in crop area is, however, fully compensated by an increase in yield in response to better water capturing and reduced soil erosion/loss of topsoil fertility.Composting with manure: Producing compost from crop residues and amending with manure is promoted to improve soil fertility. It is assumed that compost should be applied at a recommended rate of 5 t DM/ha. As compost is usually a limited good, only maize plots are fertilized with compost.Intercropping a cereal with cowpea is assumed to increase the overall productivity on the plot although yields of both crops are slightly lower in comparison to a mono-cropped stand, due to competition.Intercropping also reduces soil erosion because of improved soil cover.Relay cropping with mucuna: On all farms but the female-headed one, mucuna is planted in relay in the maize plots providing N inputs to the soil for cotton that is cropped in the following season. At the same time the mucuna crop provides good soil cover to reduce erosion while also providing an extra source of feed for livestock, improving both the quantity and the quality of feed during the dry season resulting in higher milk yields.Farm productivity was calculated by summing up all the calories from crop and livestock products (except meat) 1 produced on farm and dividing this by the calorie requirements of an average adult (AME = Adult Male Equivalent) which is 2500 k cal/day. Productivity is thus expressed in numbers of AME days. Note that such productivity excludes food that is purchased as well as the possibility that produced food is sold and not consumed on-farm. As such, this indicator is not referring to the household's ultimate own food security but rather to its contribution to the overall food security.Productivity is highest on the medium-and the largescale farms with maize being the largest contributor to calories (Figure 3). Expressed on per ha basis, these farms have similar productivity providing enough kcal for about 2000 AME days. For these farms it is important to note that the production of cotton, which occupies a large area on the farms, does not produce directly consumable calories. Cotton production is, however, an important income earner. Legumes are the largest contributors to productivity on the two small-scale farms. The female-headed smallscale farm has a slightly higher productivity on a per hectare basis. Production of milk from livestock, as well as eggs do not contribute significantly to farm productivity, because livestock is raised extensively. However livestock is known to be an important means of resilience for farming households in Sub-Saharan Africa and thus must not be underappreciated towards contributing to household livelihoods. On the larger farms, cattle also contribute draught power, thus allowing farmers to cultivate larger tracts of land.1 To be able to calculate production of meat from livestock, data on herd dynamics (offtake of animals per year) and impact of animal feed on livestock productivity are required, which were not available for this report. In most cases, introducing the various technologies described earlier (chapter 3) is projected to increase productivity across all farm types (Figure 4). This is mainly due to the increases in yields and in animal productivity that result from additional inputs of N, intercropping or from increasing the area of legumes (which have a high calorie content).Stone bunds remove space available for cultivation but retain soil fertility thus we expect neither an increase nor decrease in productivity from this intervention.Composting with manure at the recommended rate of 5 t DM/ha is expected the have most impact on productivity across all farm types. Maize productivity increases because of the additional N-inputs from the compost. It is important to note that no limitation to compost availability was assumed as far as the area under maize is concerned. However, in reality, the availability of compost from the own farm will be limited and therefore the required additional compost must be purchased/imported. Intercropping cereals (sorghum and maize) with cowpea is expected to increase productivity even though crop yields of the two individual crops are reduced in comparison to mono-cropped conditions. This is the case in the female-headed small-scale farm. As the farm was already cropping cowpea, the intercropping scenario meant introducing sorghum to that field. The decrease in cowpea yields are compensated by the introduction of the new crop. On the other three farms, the introduction of cowpea to either the sorghum or maize plots increased productivity only little. Here, the anticipated reduction in the cereal yields (-20%) is barely compensated by the introduction of the legume crop. Yet, intercropping is beneficial, as far as crop and diet diversification is concerned. Planting mucuna as a green manure cover crop in relay with maize is done to improve soil fertility, as well as to provide soil cover. This results in an increase in cotton production, as cotton is planted after maize-mucuna. However, cotton production adds no calories. Yet, on the medium-and large-scale farms, mucuna crop residues are assumed to be grazed by livestock thus increasing livestock productivity. However since milk production contributes so little to the total farm calories, the increase in livestock productivity seems negligible at farm level.  Two parameters were selected as indicators to describe the resilience pillar of CSA: Nitrogen balance at field level, and erosion. The N balance is calculated for each of the fields found on the farm. The per-farm N balance is thus the sum of the N balances of all individual plots. Soil erosion is also calculated at individual field level and summed up for the whole farm. Reference is made to the appendix for further details on the calculations.A negative N balance was calculated for all farms except the medium-scale farm (Figure 5). On the medium-scale farm, the positive N balance is due to inputs of N fertilizer to the maize fields. On all other farms N being exported from the fields in harvested crop products represent the biggest loss of N, as N inputs in the form of inorganic fertilizer, manure or compost are absent or too little to compensate for these withdrawals. Apart from maize and cotton production, all other crops are grown in an extensive manner (low input, low output). Therefore, the overall N-fluxes are comparably small, and the N balance per ha is close to 0 (ranging from -10 kg to +14 kg/ha). Nevertheless, this does not oppose the need for long term measures to increase the amount of N over time to counteract soil N depletion. Implementing the different technologies affects the N balance differently across farms (Figure 6). The N balance improves the least across interventions in the medium-scale farm because here N inputs through the interventions are not sufficient to replace the assumed decrease in the use of inorganic fertilizer. It is only the introduction of mucuna that overall will improve the N balance on the medium-scale farm. The addition of compost and manure impacts the N balance the most on the other farms, making it positive. This effect is expected to be largest on the female-headed small-scale farm, where yields remain relatively low and thus also the associated removal of N. However, it should be reiterated that this farm type has no livestock other than poultry, and that thus large quantities of manure or compost are not easily available. Intercropping with cowpea has a large negative effect on the N balance on both the medium-and large-scale farm despite the atmospheric N fixed by this legume. This is because this scenario simultaneously assumed a reduction in N-fertilizer application, while most of the fixed N is also exported via the harvested cowpeas. Relay cropping with mucuna improves the N balance across the three farms where it was implemented, mainly through the N fixation and the retention (part of) the crop from the fields.Soil erosion is negligible with less than 5 t/ha/year across all farms (Figure 7), which is not surprising as all farms sampled were located on rather flat land.The difference in rainfall is what explains most of the difference in erosion rates apart from the different crop rotations on each farm. Indeed, rainfall is 170 mm less in the area where the medium-scale farm is located. All interventions reduce soil erosion except for the compost/manure scenario (Figure 8). As expected, stone bunds impact soil erosion the most, not only because of the characteristics of the intervention, but also because of its scale (applied to all fields). Intercropping and relay cropping, if implemented, reduce erosion as well, but comparably less. Figure 9. Baseline GHG emissions across farm types. Emission sources include enteric fermentation, manure management, burning, rice production, off-farm livestock and soil emissions across farm types.The total GHG balance comprises emissions from enteric fermentation (methane), manure management (methane and nitrous oxide), soils (nitrous oxide and methane), and burning residues (carbon dioxide and methane). For easy comparison, these are converted into equivalents of carbon dioxide (CO 2 e) and expressed per ha.Both small-scale farms have very low GHG emissions because of low input levels and little to no livestock production (Figure 9). On the medium and large-scale farms, emissions from livestock and from residue burning are the major contributors to the farm GHG emissions. Indeed, on both farm close to 40% of the area is under cotton cultivation, the crop residues of which are all burned. Per ha, the medium-scale farm has the highest GHG intensity, because of the higher livestock density compared to the large-scale farm. GHG emissions are affected by the interventions differently across the farm type (Figure 10).On the two small-scale farms, compost and manure application increase GHG emissions the most because of the extra nitrous oxide emissions from soils. Across the other interventions on the small-scale farms the GHG emissions increase only little because of the low level of inputs. Unlike on the small farms, the compost and manure intervention is associated with a decrease in GHG emissions on the medium-and large-scale farms. Although there is an input in N from additional compost/manure, there is also a reduction in the nitrous oxide emissions from soils due to reduced inorganic fertilizers. However, since most of the compost/manure has to be imported (to provide for the recommended application rates), the emissions from the production of this compost (elsewhere) are not counted for, while this is the case for compost produced on-farm. Thus, if the idea is to eventually produce all compost on-farm, it must be expected that emissions would increase above baseline levels, because of the amount of manure, and thus animals, required, as well as the GHG emissions during the composting process. Stone bunds reduce GHG emission the most on the large-scale farm. This is rather an artefact of the reduction of the maize plots (10 ha to 9 ha), which entails a reduction in mineral fertilizer required. There is a slight increase in GHG emissions in the mucuna relay scenarios. This is due to the increase in N coming from the crop residues on the fields. And the increased livestock productivity (more manure production) from better feeding. Truly triple-win climate-smart solutions, i.e. interventions that increase productivity, improve resilience and reduce GHG emissions, are rare. Instead, implementing soil conservation and rehabilitation measures often has a positive impact on just one or two of the CSA pillars but a negative effect on the remainder(s); i.e. trade-offs have to be made. Plotting changes in productivity against changes in N balance allows for a few insights (Figure 11). Firstly, composting with manure is the only clear win-win intervention, increasing productivity and N balance on most farms.The only exception is the medium-scale farm, where the notable productivity increase associated with compost application goes hand in hand with a small decrease in N balance. The N balance, however, remains positive on this farm too. Secondly, intercropping shows the biggest increases in productivity (except on the smallscale farm). This positive impact, however, needs to be traded off with decreases in N balance. Thirdly, relay cropping on the medium-and large-scale farms has a positive impact on the N balance with barely any trade-off observed in terms of productivity. Also within only one pillar, trade-offs can be observed (Figure 12). Comparing the impact of the interventions on soil erosion and N balance, shows that firstly, intercropping has a positive effect on soil erosion but shows a clear trade-off in terms of reducing the N balance on all farm types. Secondly, relay cropping represents a win-win solution, be it with small positive impacts in general and hardly any on the small farm.As for synergies and trade-offs between productivity and GHG emissions (Figure 13), the impact of the compost with manure intervention varies considerably between farm types. On medium-to large-scale farms, it represents a win-win solution. On the small farms, the increase in productivity comes with an increase in GHG emission intensity too. Finally, comparing soil erosion Thirdly, stone bunds show a positive impact on soil erosion with small but positive interaction with the N balance on the small female-headed and medium farm.On the small and large farms, on the other hand, the gains in terms of soil erosion come with a small tradeoff in terms of N balance. Lastly, the loss in N balance caused by intercropping is compensated by small reductions in erosion.reduction with GHG emission intensity impacts (Figure 14), shows that a reduction in soil erosion is possible without big trade-offs in terms of GHG emission intensities, through e.g. stone bunds. Relay cropping also reduces soil erosion on the medium-and large-scale farms, but puts a trade-off, namely a higher GHG emission intensity. - In this report a fairly simple set of four indicators was used for assessing the climate-smartness of farm types and soil protection and rehabilitation measures in Burkina Faso. This allowed for a truly rapid assessment that can feed into decision-making processes in the ongoing GIZ Soil Program.The choice of indicators has its limitations. The use of a calorie-based production of crops, milk and eggs as a productivity indicator disadvantages farms with higher importance of livestock production as compared to staple crops. The livestock farms are first of all disadvantaged by the exclusion of meat, secondly by the low calorie content of milk and eggs. The high protein content of livestock products renders them however very important for nutrition security, especially so for young children and pregnant women. This should be kept in mind when evaluating production. In other words: \"It is not only about calories produced\". Adding up calories produced from the various crops and livestock products and comparing business-asusual with best-bets, is however a simple and easy-tograsp way of indicating changes.Focusing on soil fertility and erosion as the resilience indicator excludes a large number of important issues that contribute to farmers' resilience to climate change, such as income stability, access to skills, finances and information, crop/livestock diversity, etc. The list of indicators taken into account in this rapid assessment will therefore be expanded in the next stage of the project during the in-depth assessment. Indeed soil organic carbon could not be modelled in the rapid assessment. SOC has the potential to offset GHG emissions through carbon sequestration.Despite the shortcomings of the indicators used, the rapid assessment clearly shows that there is a huge variation in the baseline climate-smartness across different farm types. In these case study farms, the small farms show a very low productivity, negative N balance, but also a very low GHG emission intensity. The higher input use in the medium-to large-scale farms increases their productivity and N balance, but comes with a trade-off in higher GHG emission intensities. Increasing the input use on the small farms through compost with manure increases their productivity as well as N balance without increasing soil erosion. And even as GHG emissions increase, their intensity would still remain very low. Increasing the productivity on the medium-and large-scale farms e.g. through compost or intercropping are expected to come with GHG emission intensity reductions but reductions in N balance, if these are sought to be implemented as a way of reducing the need to purchase and apply mineral N-fertilizer. The assessment thus shows that the impact of the interventions varies across the farm types. This points to the importance of targeting not only to bio-physical/agro-ecological environments but also taking into account the socioeconomic context and associated farming practices. Table 4. Livestock herd composition (no.) and total TLU.Table 5. Crop residue management for the main crops (fraction removed from the fields 0-1). Cotton branches are burned directly in the field after being piled up.Table 6. Whereabouts of ruminants (fraction of the day 0-1) and manure collection and use (%). * Draft bulls spent 0.5 in yard and 0.5 off-farm.Table 7. Whereabouts of non-ruminants (fraction of the day 0-1). ","tokenCount":"4619"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5446521365b9bc4467c99cee044ed5b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b3196d01-2a32-4b29-8c5c-24093fb932ae/retrieve","id":"-53203535"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6b0e1d10-7c5d-4bba-99d2-5d7e648036db","pagecount":"1","content":"Le Centre International de la Pomme de terre (CIP) voudrait remercier tous les bailleurs de fonds et organisations qui lui apportent un appui global à travers leurs contributions au CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders © Janvier 2022. Cette publication est enregistrée par le Centre International de la Pomme de terre (CIP). Il est autorisé à utiliser sous la licence internationale Creative Commons Attribution 4.0• Une semence de première génération (SPG) est un matériel de plantation produit dans les laboratoires de culture de tissus (p. ex., les vitroplants, les microtubercules) ou sous des structures protectrices, comme les serres (p. ex., les boutures, les minitubercules) par des entités spécialisées. • Les multiplicateurs de semences utilisent les SPG pour produire des semences certifiées ou de qualité déclarée pour l'utilisation agricole.• La pomme de terre, comme d'autres cultures à multiplication végétative, est sensible à une multitude de maladies qui réduisent les rendements et la qualité des tubercules. • Les pathogènes s'accumulent pendant les multiplications successives de tubercules et dans le sol.• La production durable de pommes de terre dépend donc d'un approvisionnement constamment renouvelé en matériel de plantation sain.Techniques de multiplication au laboratoire:• Au laboratoire, la multiplication peut se faire par culture de tissus ou micropropagation.• Ce travail est réalisé dans un environnement contrôlé dans des conditions aseptiques et suit deux étapes: Élimination des virus par l'utilisation de germes provenant de tubercules infectés par la culture de méristème; et Multiplication rapide de vitroplants sans virus à travers la culture nodale pour produire de grands stocks de matériel végétale.Techniques de multiplication rapide dans la serre: ","tokenCount":"259"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"45cc687127477b9681e2afb79f7d6e5d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/207eb545-cb23-4b8c-8cd6-e4b0320bc74d/retrieve","id":"499787441"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"70fb03b9-399f-406a-9ce3-70fcb434baa5","pagecount":"10","content":"ISBN 978 94 6022 433 1O nen Okello was puzzled: the family's five pigs were huddled together, ignoring the food waste and kitchen scraps he had brought them that evening. The teenager told his mother, who checked up on the animals the next morning. She found three of them lying dead, their ears and belly covered with red sores. She checked with her neighbours: one had already lost all five of their pigs with similar symptoms. In the following week; several others found their animals had died. The villagers started to panic; they quickly sold off their pigs cheaply to visiting traders.Normally, it is her husband who deals with the vet. But he was away at the time, and Mrs Okello decided she couldn't wait for him. She called the area vet, who confirmed an outbreak of African swine fever -a serious viral disease. But it was too late for the Okello family's pigs: they had all died.The Okellos are one of more than 1.1 million families in Uganda that keep pigs. Most are smallholders in peri-urban and urban areas who raise pigs in their backyards to sell (FAOSTAT 2010). They use the income to pay for school fees and health care (Ouma et al. 2015). An outbreak of African swine fever is bad news: when the virus infects a farm, large numbers of animals can die within a few days. The entire herd can be wiped out.Pigs can become infected in various ways: through direct contact with sick pigs, through infected feed, manure, meat and other products, by tick bites, or mechanically (for example by a person or vehicle going from one farm to another) (FAO 2010). There is as yet no vaccine, and no cure. The only way to control the disease is through quarantine and on-farm \"biosecurity\": preventing transmission and eliminating the virus on the farm. Biosecurity measures include keeping the pigsty clean, disinfecting equipment, and preventing animals from coming into contact with other herds, heating the swill to kill the virus, controlling visits to the farm, and disposing promptly of dead animals. Controlling the disease requires knowledge, skills, money to buy disinfectant, and the ability to make the right decisions.Applying such measures is difficult enough for large pig farms with well-trained staff and money to invest. It is much harder for smallholders, and especially for the women who do most of the pig husbandry in Uganda. Men are usually the ones who make most decisions, control the family's cash, attend trainings, and get in touch with the veterinary services. Because the women work more closely with the animals, they are likely to detect the disease or symptoms more quickly, but they lack the skills and resources to control it. This makes for a weak link in the pig health system.Interventions to encourage farmers to use better husbandry practices and diseasecontrol measures are urgently needed. For these interventions to be effective, we need to understand how women and men perceive the disease and the factors that affect what they do about it.We conducted a study focusing on gender dynamics in pig husbandry and the control of African swine fever in Uganda. This study covered 32 villages in two pigfarming districts where the disease is a big problem: Masaka in central Uganda, and Lira in the north of the country. The study consisted of three parts:• A review of the literature and interviews with key informants to ascertain the attitudes, norms and behavioural aspects that affect how men and women manage pigs and control diseases.• Focus-group discussions in 19 of the villages, where we interviewed groups of women and men separately.• Intra-household surveys in all 32 villages, where we questioned 339 men and the same number of women individually in each household on pig husbandry and disease control.An animal health scientist worked closely with gender specialists to design the study.The focus groups covered four topics:• Division of tasks. Who does what type of work in pig husbandry and disease control, and why?• Attitudes. What attitudes influence the tasks of women and men in pig-raising and disease control? Box 11.1 shows the guide statements we used for this topic.What did women and men do to control the disease 10 years ago? How has this changed today? Why? How has this affected pig production?• Stakeholder relations. Which organizations are involved in controlling disease, and what do they do? How do men and women perceive these organizations? Are they successful?The intra-household survey focused on the following:• Ownership and decision making. Who owns the animals and farm equipment, and who decides to buy farm inputs and to sell animals? Which male or female household member has the final say on pighusbandry activities?• Knowledge. What do male and female household members know about the disease (cause, transmission and control)?• Attitudes and perceptions. What attitudes influence the tasks of women and men in pig-raising and disease control? How do men and women think or feel about the disease?• Practices. What actions do men and women household members take if there is a disease outbreak?• Capacities. Do men and women household members have ability to implement proper biosecurity measures?• Incentives. What incentives do men and women farmers need to start using techniques that will control the disease? (We did not ask this directly, but posed a series of questions to tease the incentives out.)In each household, we interviewed both the head of the household and his (or her) partner separately.We pre-tested the survey tools in two villages and adjusted them in the light of the findings. We trained local enumerators and note-takers who spoke Luganda and Luo, the local languages in the two districts. The note-takers captured the group discussions; their notes were then translated into English. The intrahousehold questionnaires were written and answered in English.Below we present some preliminary results from a qualitative analysis of the focus-group discussions only.We found a clear division of roles and responsibilities in times when there is no outbreak of African swine fever. Women largely carry out traditional household tasks such as cleaning the pigsties and water troughs, preparing swill, collecting the animals' urine and waste for use as manure in gardens, and feeding and watering the pigs. Men do tasks such as building pig pens and burying animals that have died, as well as off-farm activities such as marketing, buying feeds, and arranging veterinary services and inputs. Women may also take on non-traditional roles that require a certain level of knowledge, such as spraying to control parasites, treating pigs against disease, and heat detection.The women do more of such tasks if they own the pigs.During an outbreak of African swine fever, however, this gender division of labour is diluted or disappears completely. Women and men both said that during such an emergency, it was okay to share roles: men could do work normally done by women, and vice-versa. For example, men said they prepared swill and cleaned the pigsties and troughs, while women would bury dead animals, build pigsties or report disease to the vet. Making rules to restrict the movement of pigs during an outbreak, however, was still a male task according Box 11.1 What men and women do and think: Guide questions on attitudes towards gender roles in animal health \"It is not acceptable to attend training when the husband is around. The husband should be the one to attend.\"\"Women are more concerned about biosecurity.\"\"In our community, only men are allowed to bury dead pigs.\"\"It is not acceptable for women to report to veterinary officers in case of disease outbreak.\"to both men and women. There was little controversy over the shift in tasks and roles in order to control the disease: sharing roles seems acceptable during an outbreak. The disease appears to be a driver of change in the gender division of labour and related gender norms. It demonstrates the fluidity of what appear in normal times to be quite rigid gender divisions of labour.Generally, men know more than women about pig husbandry. They have more ties to outside organizations, interact more often with veterinary services (whose staff are mostly men), are offered more training, and have greater access to the media and so to messages about the disease. Men are free to attend trainings, and they do not need their wives' permission to take part. In the words of one man we interviewed, \"Authority lies in the hands of the man; a woman should always seek for permission from her husband before going for training\".Women may not only need their husbands' permission; they also have many other demands on their time, and tend to be less mobile than men. That means they miss opportunities to learn about how to control African swine fever, even though they do most of the work in pig management and are in a better position to apply biosecurity measures. The chances of women to attending training are higher if they own pigs. As one woman put it, \"Maybe if the animal belongs to the woman and the man is not concerned at all, there he can allow you to go\".Men and women had different viewpoints on the pig business. Women said their housework left them with no time to attend training, go to meetings or take care of marketing. They knew of the need for hygiene measures but said did not have the money or other resources needed, such as cleaning materials, gloves and gumboots; they also did not know how to use disinfectants correctly.Men were more concerned with the lack of money to invest in pig-raising, access to buyers for their pigs, and getting quality feeds. For those in and around towns, big problems were the lack of land and the difficulty in finding wood to make pigsties.Because they did most of the tasks in the household and in pig management, women were at greater risk than men of problems associated with these tasks. They (along with children) were at risk of zoonotic diseases and pests (such as jigger, a parasitic insect) and respiratory infections (from exposure to dust when cleaning the compound and smoke from cooking food or pig swill). They were at risk of injury during routine farm work such as collecting feed and water and cleaning of the sty. They were also more exposed to chemicals used for cleaning and disinfecting the sty and house.Before this study, we offered training for the owners of pig farms without paying attention as to whether they were men or women. In fact, the owners -and thus our trainees -were almost exclusively the male heads of households. This created a weak link in African swine fever control. This study made us realize that we need to make our target group explicitly both men and women in the same household (and for single parents, the older son or daughter too) in order to effectively combat the disease. As we have observed, during an outbreak of the disease, both men and women are involved in the search for solutions. This broader outreach will help spread knowledge about pig husbandry among household members and ensure prompt action during an outbreak, even when the owner of the pig farm is absent.Training messages and how we deliver them should take women's needs, specific work related to pig husbandry and time constraints into account. They should cover occupational hazards such as jiggers, chemicals and dust that women face in caring for their pigs. We may have to further develop certain aspects of the training specifically for women who are more at risk for exposure to zoonotic diseases.We also need to find ways to reinforce the value of the knowledge women and men gain from the training, and to encourage them and other people in their household to share and use it. For example, we could give attendees a certificate or information materials to take home with them. For women, this would also strengthen their status vis-à-vis their husbands. Many husbands are suspicious if their wives go out of the house for an extended time; providing them with a certificate would help allay their suspicions and reduce the risk of a jealous man beating his wife.Finally, from a broader perspective, we should promote interventions that enable women to participate in the market and access financial resources. We hope that such inclusive training methods can be taken up by other projects and by national extension services in Uganda and elsewhere.This project focused on the questions on how gender relations affect African Swine Fever protocols and biosecurity measures. It looks at the male-focused current approach, which overlooks women's critical roles in pig husbandry. The project did not look at the second (overall) research question in the gender research agenda -how African Swine Fever biosecurity measures and protocols affect gender relations.• Women and men were separately interviewed in focus-group discussions, and intra-household surveys were done where men and women in each household were questioned individually.• say on pig-related activities. The study also looks at how organizations involved in disease control perceive women farmers as well as access to participation in these organizations.• The project revealed that gender roles are dynamic and changing, for example, from everyday routines in the gender division of labor to unfixed roles when an outbreak of African Swine Fever occurs. The project also studied changes in men and women's disease-control tasks and knowledge over time comparing current practices to those of 10 years ago.","tokenCount":"2228"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5bfaf5ca48b301302f2e5ae469ce54a0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ee0d2d95-1b21-4150-9eae-e363bbe473cb/content","id":"-670872112"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9339512f-93d1-4175-a13c-6eceb4c3a1be","pagecount":"51","content":"Breeders defined the TRN and TST for the prediction problem to be assessed   • Simple descriptive statistics done using STAD-R to check the quality of the phenotypic data   • rAmpSeq (RepGen)• Nanopore• rhAmpSeq (IDT) • Still under active development The key challenge in parsing pedigree strings and data merging across systems  Linking system IDs in the hybrid phenotypic data with the unique GID in the inbred marker data for matching samples and germplasm  Consistently employ the GID unique identifier for lines and testers and establish connections between phenotypic trial hybrid entries and genotypic inbred samples. Ensure accurate pedigree data management for germplasm used in the breeding program to enable pedigree prediction, coefficient of parentage (COP) calculation. Include parental lines in new sequencing experiments and PHG analysis. Optimize process of merging the phenotype and genotype data. Implementing BrAPI calls will streamline importing and exporting data across systems. Translate step-wise users' workflows into BrAPI calls to merge data across systems. Proactive GS project planning for what go to training datasets and prediction datasets for genotyping experiment and yield trial planning. Optimize training and prediction populations/datasets selection process and implement it during trial planning and experiment design stage. Proactive GS project management planning and communication for all parties involved from field to labs, from hybrid trial data availability to next generation nursery planting. Capacity building for sampling, DNA extraction, permit approval, and sample shipping through HTPG. Reduce time from shipping samples to DNA extraction, from DNA extraction to sample PCR processing by shipping smaller (such as 16 plates) batches more frequently.• The 2017 Maize genomic selection represents a major milestone in the evolution of CIMMYT's approach to maize breeding.• It involves multi-disciplinary teams to test and implement genomic selection at scale in field breeding programs.• Successful coordination and communication across multi-disciplinary teams, geographies, and organizations played a key role to enable delivery results against tight deadlines from field to lab and back to the field.• This was a sizeable, real-time GS application in public sector breeding programs serving low and middle income countries.• Learnings from this project will impact not only Maize breeding programs but also many more crop breeding programs through the Excellence in Breeding Platform (EiB).","tokenCount":"367"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"84c6db637315473e20275495d9d211ab","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/772952b2-151e-4bf9-8758-ed4b209682b9/retrieve","id":"-1474059349"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"88fa27b5-e380-40b2-afef-8ecf6907e237","pagecount":"2","content":"Youth livelihoods and food systems are increasingly becoming the focus of development institutions and agendas amid growing concerns about the apparent increase in the out-migration of rural youth and the future of smallholder food production and global food security. This trend has brought the aspirations of rural youth into focus. Increasing access to formal education and connectivity to non-rural employment opportunities have suggested a \"generational break\" 1 in the aspirations of rural young people to engage with food systems for their livelihoods.The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and WorldFish conducted a study with young people from a fishing community in the Ayeyarwady Delta of Myanmar. The study sought to understand the livelihood aspirations of these young people and how they were connected to eventual livelihood realities.In the water-rich Ayeyarwady Delta of Myanmar, fishing and wage labor have traditionally been the main sources of livelihoods available to landless households. Despite this centrality, small-scale fisheries have frequently been marginalized under nationallevel priorities, severely diminishing fish yields over time. Today, the fishing community includes some of the poorest and most socially excluded households in its village.The youth from the fisher households were among the first generations to \"come of age\" during the past decade in Myanmar, marked by political transitions and rapid economic growth. These young people considered themselves as being part of a \"nonrural\" generation, to whom an increase in access to schooling and rural-urban mobilities were associated with the promise of new and expanded livelihood opportunities, and aspirations of new livelihood identities beyond those associated with poverty and social marginalization.Easy access to these livelihood opportunities, however, remained limited for many of these young people due to the continuing influence of their socioeconomic status. Livelihood realities were also deeply gendered. Although temporary, the young women were able to find employment in the expanding garment sector around Yangon. Although urban employment had its own risks and challenges with an uncertain future, it was found to be less labor intensive and more prestigious when compared to the alternatives available in the village for females. While moving to Yangon also featured heavily in the aspirations of many of the male youth, their livelihood realities continued to remain rural, and increasingly in a neighboring ocean fishery that carried with it significant risk and danger.This study shows how any meaningful attempt to improve youth livelihoods within the fisheries sector in Myanmar must recognize the importance of small-scale fisheries to the poor or landless, and the intergenerational exclusions that continue to shape whether young people can build profitable and dignified livelihoods in this sector in the Ayeyarwady Delta.The findings of this study highlight the need to be cautious when attempting to connect the \"generational break\" in the aspirations of young people with a straightforward disengagement from agrarian livelihoods. With aspirations of \"non-rural\" livelihoods, which were not readily realized, for many of these young people, any livelihood engagement, whether within rural food systems or out of them, was marked by a sense of temporariness, as they remained open to the possibility that new opportunities may emerge in the future that were more aligned with their desired futures. The findings align with an increasing number of studies that suggest that the livelihood engagements of young people today should be understood as being marked by a high degree of mobility between localities and sectors.1 Leavy J and Hossain N. 2014. Who wants to farm? Youth aspirations, opportunities and rising food prices. IDS Working Papers (Vol. 2014). doi: 10.1111/j.2040-0209.2014.00439.x ","tokenCount":"577"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6044c70910268ad1d75b69cdab10e40a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/486ecddb-c505-4f6a-9e4c-07b5a6029067/retrieve","id":"1799391609"},"keywords":["Planning","Climate services","Rwanda"],"sieverID":"d12f2840-6b30-4a0c-8773-c226224bf676","pagecount":"20","content":"CCAFS Workshop Reports aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Gloriose Nsengiyumva is the CCAFS Rwanda Climate Services for Agriculture project -Outcome 1 coordinator based at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Kigali, Rwanda. Contact: g.nsengiyumva@cgiar.org  This report presents two days' workshop planning meeting with the Rwanda Climate Services for Agriculture project team. The purpose of this meeting was to bring together the implementing institutions and core project team, in order to revise the project's activities especially for year one planning and work on the monitoring and evaluation strategy. Thisworkshop brought together all project implementation team members, and key partners such as Twigire muhinzi through which the services will be disseminated to farmers as the biggest stakeholders of the project. Nineteen participants (21% women) from the above-mentioned institutions attended the planning meeting (Appendix 2).The This presentation was done by Dr. James Hansen, CCAFS Flagship 2 Leader and Rwanda Climate Services for Agriculture (CSA) project's Principal Investigator. James explained the meaning of climate services within the context of the project, the requirements for climate services to benefit farmers, the intended innovations within the project and the actual design of the project. He continued with a brief outline of the year one provisional plan, since the detailed plan was going to be discussed later.James noted key challenges to making climate services work for smallholder farmers, namely: credibility, salience, legitimacy, access, equity, and integration. He explained that the project would focus on the following: building capacity to communicate, understand and act on climate information; capacity to provide action oriented information; balance services at scale with context specific needs; and increase institutional capacity for sustainability.James mentioned that the project will run for four years (2015 -2019) and is funded by Outcome 1, climate services for farmers, is the largest outcome in terms of project resources.It will reach a large number of farmers across all 30 of Rwanda's districts by the end of the project. The Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) approach will be used to train intermediaries to bring climate information into their face-to-face interactions with farmers. Communication channels through interactive radio and mobile phones to complement group interaction with trained intermediaries. Listener groups and gender sensitive programming will also be crucial within this outcome.Outcome 3, climate information provision, focuses on Meteo Rwanda expanding its provision of the right information to end-users. Gaps in availability of historical information, especially for the decade following 1994, make it difficult to provide useful climate information and to address uncertainty. The ENACTS program of Meteo Rwanda is helping to fill this gap. The current set of online ENACTS Maprooms tool will be greatly expanded within the project, and will aid production and dissemination of derived products tailored to what agricultural decision-makers need.For the design phase, the following activities have been completed: James reviewed the Year-1 provisional plan (Table 1). He noted that this planning workshop marks the transition from the design phase to the implementation phase.  Desire also explained the process used for the farmer and institutional stakeholder consultation workshops, and insights about their climate service needs. A draft report from these consultations is available with the CSA team.This presentation was done by Moussa Senge, national level Twigire Muhinzi coordination team. Moussa mentioned that this model is a \"home-grown solution\" to ensure that all farmers in Rwanda have access to advisory services. Moussa discussed the background of the model, objectives and outputs, coordination within the country and planning processes, and main activities undertaken within the extension model.Several comments came out of the presentation and discussion. The PICSA approach is designed for extension agents; hence twigire muhinzi fits in quite well in this project. There is a need for planning and training sessions with intermediaries. Since the twigire model is seen as the best channel to reach targeted farmers within the project, activities need to fit into the twigire model. Timing is important in order to get information into the twigire activities.Twigiri Muhinzi needs information about what tools and formats will be used. Issues to address include information on e.g., seasonal forecasts and start of rains. While SMS could contribute to communicating seasonal forecasts with farmers, it is not enough. Farmers must receive information about the uncertainty of forecasts and what it means for their decisions.They should be advised about planting time, use of organic matter, agroforestry options, rainwater harvesting, and other smart practices that may help them deal with climate-related risks. A WhatsApp group for local authorities and ministry representatives could be used to provide information on rainfall. A review of the number of women farmers involved (as per the constitution) should be done regularlyThe presentation was done by Dr. Peter Dorward. Peter explained that the PICSA approach entails providing information and services to smallholders, ahead of and during the season, mainly by extension and NGO field staff, complimented by radio and SMS. He mentioned that the approach was developed in Zimbabwe in 2011, and later on piloted and improved in Tanzania and Kenya, and it went to greater scale in Ghana and Malawi. He said that the approach continues to adapt and improve in different locations and countries. He highlighted that PICSA approach comprises of climate information, agricultural management options and participatory decision-making tool. The exercise is done through 12 steps, which he presented.The presentations were done by Gloriose Nsengiyumva, CSA Project Outcome 1 Coordinator.Gloriose showed the key objectives of the two outcomes and what has been done so far, planned activities and planned methodologies to achieve the objectives. After the presentations, discussions took place on the presented activities and proposed timeline.Moussa from the National Twigire Muhinzi extension model gave an example of how they work with their model. He gave an example with season A (starting from September to January). The extension materials start being designed in April, then field-tested and refined before they are rolled out in mid-August. These materials need to be officially distributed by the Rwandan Agriculture Board (RAB). After distribution of materials, trainings are scheduled at sector level. The trainings are done in classrooms and on the field. The materials include M&E strategy in order to assess impact, scalability and sustainability.Peter said that PICSA could fit well within the Twigire model, since it already involves discussions with groups of farmers. Same combination of classroom and practicum is crucial for PICSA which makes it fit with the model. Timing ahead of season is useful and is also practiced within the PICSA approach. Peter said that PICSA would have to move schedule forward if it would fit with TWIGIRE time line (this will be further discussed on to check its feasibility).Participants raised questions about farmer feedback within the Twirigi model, how Meteo Rwanda can engage farmers through Twigire, and what \"tools\" are planned within Outcome 1. Moussa addressed the issue of farmers' engagement through Twigire by Meteo Rwanda by saying that there is a free hotline of Meteo Rwanda that was given to farmers and farmers are encouraged to call to request for any information about the weather. Meteo could use the same messaging system to reach farmers. It was noted that farmers ask for more information than Meteo can provide, or information that is available in the media.James asked if there could be an opportunity to automate answers to common questions, with a menu system. Meteo-Rwanda does not yet have such a system, nor does Twigire. They mentioned that Twigire does not yet have a budget to set up a call center. James suggested the need to consider different channels for different types and time scales of information. Meteo-Rwanda replied that SMS/phone can be used for any time scale of information. The discussion considered whether short statements on seasonal forecasts are sufficient, and how Meteo Rwanda maprooms could be exploited.Moussa mentioned that the fact that farmers cannot get location-specific information is frustrating. He would need a mechanism to provide information to farmer promoters. Meteo-Rwanda mentioned that farmers need to learn how to use probabilistic information. Moussa pointed out that climate risk and the role of diversification e.g., through intercropping is in conflict with the national monocropping policy. The project would do well if it informs this policy.A participant from the University of Rwanda noted that project targets for women were low, and suggested that the service should reach more women than men. Someone noted that the project followed the Rwandan policy on the percentage of women (30%).Peter It was agreed that further discussion with the twigire muhinzi team is needed to develop a clear picture of how the model will be used within the project.Tufa asked if the available government tools could be customized for use by the project. He suggested that the project might not be able to come up with its own tools during the first This discussion noted the need to strengthen the capacity of Meteo Rwanda to deliver operational climate services for agriculture and food security. Meteo Rwanda should develop demand driven climate services. A suggestion for doing this is to put in place a steering committee to provide guidance on how to select project-supported MSc students from Meteo Rwanda, ensuring that their research topics align with the objectives of the project.Planning meeting participants agreed on the following summary and action points.Under Outcome 1: climate services for farmers:• Schedule training, engagement and M&E to fit into the existing extension model• Include a process to capture farmer feedback.• Roll out PICSA into the existing Twigiri Muhinzi extension model, including development and translation of materials.• Explore opportunities for introducing other communication channels while planning for • Look at categories of institutional users.• Conduct a systematic study covering: what information decision-makers currently use; what decisions could be improved with better use of improved information; government decisions that might constrain farmers' risk management decisions, and the methodology CCAFS has applied in Ethiopia.• Prioritize which decisions to focus on for information and capacity development.• Inform government stakeholder about farmer preferences.• Explore engagement opportunities through ENACTs launch and Meteo Rwanda government contacts.","tokenCount":"1672"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ec3e50a5373a9e610e5f77e7dfb74df3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5d2d7074-205a-4bb3-ace6-f60c5815c08f/retrieve","id":"20204033"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e59b2a0a-1df4-4631-9c23-1701419ee50c","pagecount":"28","content":"Cette section décrit les résultats des discussions de focus groupes à Jendouba et Sidi Bouzid sur les pratiques actuelles de production de cultures (fourragères) et l'alimentation animale. Les systèmes d'élevage sont traduits dans les caractéristiques productrices suivantes pour Jendouba (Tableau 3) et Sidi Bouzid (Tableau 4). Vu les niveaux relativement élevés de production laitière dans la situation actuelle, on propose de ne pas augmenter la productivité pour les scénarios Bonnes Pratiques, sauf dans le cas du système Extensif-Jendouba.    • Fourrage vert (herbes, légumineuses comme luzerne, bersim, Sulla, fourrage de sorgho)• Résidus de récolte (paille de blé)Les impacts des scénarios BP sont, sauf la réduction de la proportion de concentrés :• Augmentation de la proportion de foin dans les systèmes II, HS et EX • Augmentation de la proportion de fourrage vert dans les systèmes intégrés Pour les détails sur les doses de fumier et engrais azotés voir les tableaux 5 et 6.  Les émissions du système extensif (Jendouba) sont beaucoup plus élevées à cause de la productivité beaucoup plus basse (Figure 12).Surtout dans ce système, et dans une moindre mesure dans les systèmes de Sidi Bouzid, les options fourragères (légumineux) qui augmentent la qualité de l'alimentation animale en combinaison avec le remplacement de quelques vaches de basse productivité, réduisent l'intensité des émissions GES.Un autre indicateur environnemental important concerne le besoin en eau pour la production animale. Les estimations de l'intensité de la consommation d'eau dans le scénario LB reflètent une consommation moyenne entre 1,5 et 2,5 m3/kg de lait produit (sans compter le lait laissé pour la consommation des veaux). La mise en oeuvre des « Bonnes Pratiques » réduit le besoin en eau de 20 à 25% dans les systèmes intégrés de Jendouba et Sidi Bouzid. Comme montre le cas du système extensif de Jendouba, la combinaison de BP avec un remplacement partiel du bétail de basse productivité peut entraîner une réduction de presque 50% (Figure 13).   Le besoin de terre Les proportions de concentrés importés dans les paniers d'aliments sont diminuées ce qui mène à une réduction en besoin de terre de 10 à 20%, sauf pour les systèmes Hors Sol.Pour Jendouba au niveau « ferme » une réduction de l'érosion pour le système Intégré en Sec et une légère augmentation pour le système Extensif.L'objectif des Bonnes Pratiques est un bilan d'azote neutre ou légèrement positif. Pour atteindre cet objectif les scénarios BP incluent :• Niveau ferme: réduction de doses d'engrais azotés et quelquefois du fumier.• Aliments grossiers hors ferme: augmentation doses engrais chimique.• Concentrés hors ferme: réduction doses d'engrais chimique.• Les Bonnes Pratiques réduisent le besoin en eau de 20 à 25% dans les systèmes intégrés de Jendouba et Sidi Bouzid. • Système extensif de Jendouba: Les Bonnes Pratiques combinées avec un remplacement partiel du bétail de basse productivité peut entraîner une réduction de presque 50%.Les options fourragères (légumineux) qui augmentent la qualité de l'alimentation animale en combinaison avec le remplacement de quelques vaches de basse productivité réduisent l'intensité des émissions GES dans le Système Extensif de Jendouba (40%) et les Systèmes Intégré et Hors Sol de Sidi Bouzid (25%).La mise en oeuvre de « Bonnes Pratiques » peut réduire la fraction de protéine importée avec jusqu'à 50%.• La valeur totale de la production demeure la même, sauf dans système Extensif de Jendouba. • Dans les systèmes intégrés, le remplacement partiel de concentrés importés par des aliments produits à la ferme diminue les coûts et améliore la marge brute. • Les systèmes hors sol restent pour presque 100% dépendants des aliments importés ou produits hors ferme ; • Quelques mesures d'intensification pour le système extensif augmentent les coûts (mais aussi les revenus).• Simulation des autres scénarios avec autres cultures fourrages, autres races de bétail (con autres niveaux de production), autres façons de gestion (cultures, bétail, fumier), données economiques. ","tokenCount":"631"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/5718688922.json b/data/part_3/5718688922.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3928a310cda64bf29a097291fc3159802ce93ec6
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4d7af87aab60faccf6cc95f8a9c51971","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2db97051-fd0a-4a03-8961-1751d80994f3/retrieve","id":"-1074820747"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c1c73e37-7a9f-4a95-85ba-65df505d3e7a","pagecount":"4","content":"Table 1 6. Germplasm o! !o:-age specics in the three hig heat categories o! promise !or t he t ropical well-drained, hype rthermic and thermic sav anna ecosyatems, a s oí N ovember 1, 1979. Hype r therm ic savannas (Carimagua-Llan os) No. of access ions i n catego ry oí p romise Thermic savannaa (CPAC -Ce r rad o) No. of accessions in catego ry o í promise Species Ill IV V lll IV V Andropogon gayanus B rac hia r ia decumbe ns B. hu m idicola Stylosan the s c apitata S. bracteata S . cuiancnsis \"tardío\" S. aíf. leioca rpa S. h a m.-. ta S. scabra Zo r r.ia S?P• Dcsmod~um ova.liíotium Q. gy r oide s p. hc te rophvllum P•.le r a r ia E_haseoloides Aesd.y:\"lo:\":1ene spp . G;\\hctia st ri ala Ce:-~t r oser.: a S?P• Ca!vpogonium mucunoides Tentative classiíication.The objective is to develop screening methods, evaluate germplasm accessions. create new and desirable genetic recombinations. and stabilize these desirable characteristics in superior plants suitable for grazed pasturas within the target area. Research is centered mainly on species of Stylosanthes. Centrosema and Leucaena. In addition to this, preliminary information from the first regional trial conducted at a series of sites in humid ecosystems in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, indicates that B. decumbens, D. ovalifo/ium and P. phaseoloides are well adaptad to tropical forest ecosystems. Al so, the performance of A.ga yanus under humid conditions seems to be considerably lower than under savanna conditions.,----:-.\\ While most accessions of S. capitata have appeared resistant to anthracnose, significant damage has been observad in certain accessions at both Carimagua and the CPAC in Brazil. The w ide distribution of the causal agent. Colletotrichum. w ithin the target area suggests that a thorough knowledge of the genetic basis of resistance is requ ired.A greenhouse screening of S. capitata collection for seedling resistanc& to five isol?.'es of anthracnose has been started by the Plant Pathology Section. These results will be used in conjunction with field observations of the anthracnose reactions of the S. capitata collection at Carimagua. Brasilia and elsewhere to plan future breeding for resistance. In mid-1979, a space planted nursery was established in Carimagua, 1 containing 9000 F2 progeny of the crosses S. capitata 1078 x 1019 (late x early), 1097 x 1078 (late x late), and 1019 x 1097 (early x late); subsequently it was ' oversown with Andropogon gayanus. This nursery is being used to select superior F 2 plants combining high dry matter yield and prolific seed production with drought resistance. lt will also provide an indication of the range of variation which can be expected from crosses between distinct S. capitata types.While common S. C. pubescens is widely distributed throughout South America and exhibits an extensive range of variation. Commercial ecotypes of this species are not well adapted to growth in acid, infertile soils, and tend to be susceptible to anthracnose. A preliminary breeding program has been started with the goal of adapting C. pubescens for use in the target area. Specitic objectives include (1) tolerance to high levels of Al in the soil and low pH; (2) vigorous early growth and nodulation; (3) anthracnose tolerance; and (4) commercially acceptable seed yields.Eight C. pubescens ecotypes selected for vigor in pots of Carimagua soil were intercrossed, and several F2 populations produced. F 2 seedling populations. as well as new ecotypes are firstscreened in sand culture (pH 4 .2. high Al), and the selectíons then screened in Carimagua soil, to isolate genotypes with higher acid tolerance. Progeny of selected plants will be evaluated under field conditions at Carimagua.The L. leucocephala breeding program is based on hybrids between L. leucocephala and L. pulverulenta which have been backcrossed several times to L. leucocephala cv. Cunningham to produce fertile lines. The aim of this program continues to be the development of productiva lines with (1) tolerance to high Al and low soil pH, and (2)Jower levelsoffoliar mímosíne. A procedure has been developed to screen progeny of the originallines previously selected for good growth in Carimagua soil. This involves (1) growth of large numbers of seedlings in sand culture (pH 4 .2. high Al) and selection of those wíth best root and top growth; (2) selected seedlíngs are transferred to 15 cm-diameter pots of Carimagua soil and given a restricted nutrient supply. An acid-tolerant rhizobium culture is used t o inoculate the selections.Varíous screeníngs, each involving 5440 plants. have been completad. The average percentage of plants finally selected for seed production and further study varied from 1.8 to 5% in the various lines. Selected hybrid Leucaena plants showed at least tour times as much top growth in Carimagua soil as the Cunningham controls. Acid-tolerant selections are grown at CIAT -Palmira for mimosine analysis and seed multiplication. Superior lines will be field tested first at Carimagua .A. gayanus has considerable potential as a pioneer grass for the acid soils of the tropics. While present experience is almost exclusively confined to accession CIAT 621, the species shows a high adaptatíon capacity as it is able to grow in soils with a low fertility status but responds significantly to applied phosphorus and other minerals.A range of accessions has been assembled from different sources so that desírable characteristics in these can be sought and compared toA. gayanus CIAT 621 . Objectives for the improvement of this crosspollinating \"species are being formulated. In addition to the evaluation of new accessions. quantification of genetic variabiiity and seiection within CIAT 621 is planned. CIAT 621 is very variable for plant type, ieafiness. time of flowering, and other characteristics. A recurrent selection prog ram is being developed with initial seiection for later, leafier types which can flower and ser seed during a more restricted period. This should improve both seed production as well as forage quantity and quality.Several cultivars of P. maximum arewidelygrown in South America and have proved to give better animal production than most other tropical grasses. However, commonly grown cultivars are generally observed to have higher nutrient requirements and lower drought tolerance than other forage grass species. The aim of improvement work with this species is to identify or develop lines with lower nutrient requirements and better dry season production than those commonly grown .A collection of some 90 P. maximum accessions is available. Fourteen of these have already been observed at Carimagua and preliminary data on two cuts in the rainy season show significant differences among the accessions for dry matter production. Additional accessions will be evaluated under Carimagua conditions to identify genotypes which show promise under nutrient and drought stress conditíons on acíd soils. l Most P. maximum clones are highly apomictic. A 1 crossing technique has been designed, using an apomictic clone as the male parent anda sexual clone (obtained from the Coastal Plan Research Station. Tifton, Georgia, USA) as the female parent. Preliminary observations of hybrid progenies at CIAT-Palmira show a considerable range of varíability for grass plant morphology both between and within progenies. As observations on the accessions under Carimagua conditions accumulate, a breeding program may be develop utilizing the better adapted apomictic clones as parental material.8 . decumbens and B. humidicola are promising forage grass species in the target area. 8oth species are tetraploid apomictics so that a breeding program is impossible. unless sexual types can be found orproduced . An attempt is being made to produce tetraploid material by colchicine treatment of B. ruziziensi s. a sexual. diploid species. The goal is to produce a sexual tetraploid which m ight be crossed with the tetraploid Brachiaria spp., to overcome the barrier imposed by their oblígate apomixis. In the meantime, efforts will be made to expand the germplasm collection of species and ecotypes of this genus.In 1979, the Plant Pathology sectíon continued to detect. identify and assess diseases of tropical forages within the target area. Studies were initiated on the most important diseases including anthracnose. blight, root-knot. nematode. Camptomeris leaf spot and Cercospora leaf spot. False-rust. Rhynchosporium leaf spot and Sphaceloma scab wera detectad as naw diseasas requiring further study.Forage diseases were evaluated at the 20 dífferent sites of the Regional Trials Network. Twenty-two pathogens affecting grasses and legumes were identified (Tabla 17). The most important finding is the existence of different pathogens at different sites. Surveys will continua at these sites and at new ones within the target area. The accumulating results, however, strongly suggest further decentralization of screeni ng for disease resistance, to expose forage toas many potential pathogens as possible.Surveys on the occurrence of anthracnose continued to show the wide-spread distribution and extensiva host range of Colletotrichum spp. (CIAT Annual Report, 1978). In CIAT-Ouilichao. new hosts idantified included accessions of Aeschynomene, Ca/opogonium, Desmodium, Galactia, Zornia, Pueraria phaseoloides, and Stylosanthes. In Carímagua, extensiva surveys detectad other accessions of previously reportad legume hosts (CIAT Annual Report, 1978). Other hosts found were native savanna legumes Aeschynomene. Desmodium. Eriosema and Zornia spp., native savanna non-legumes. and a saprophytic phase of the fungi in Desmodium ovalifolium CIAT 350 and many grasses. Although S. capitata CIAT 1019. 1315 and 1405 were resistant to anthracnose in Colombia. they were susceptible at CPAC-Brasilía. Similarly, S. guianensis accessions destroyed by","tokenCount":"1528"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"929b74bf108d1c5be217c13dc25c0e19","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ce6b4398-ac6b-46ae-9736-85ec6d0a23c5/retrieve","id":"1217346255"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"71a1d095-4fa1-4542-a9ba-c7a28484e066","pagecount":"48","content":"The increasing capabilities of Artificial Intelligence-augmented data analytics present significant opportunities for agricultural extension organizations operating in the Global South. In this project, we supported Farm Radio International (FRI) in investigating the possibility of automating the process of translating and analyzing farmers' voice message data. This report reviews several approaches to overcoming technical constraints and then presents a cutting-edge approach that utilizes innovations in unsupervised learning to deliver highly accurate speech recognition and machine translation in a diverse set of languages.The increasing capabilities of information communication technologies and big data analytics present significant opportunities for agricultural extension organizations operating in the Global South. Existing trajectories, however, are toward large, highly productive farms in the Global North. There is a need for work in AI to expand the application of tools for smallholder farmers in the South while remaining conscious of the implications of the digital divide, to which many have limited access.Farm Radio International (FRI), a Canadian NGO, has hosted over 700 talk-radio shows in 40 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Not only do they broadcast discussions between experts on local problems, but they also receive and answer questions from farmers about their practices and demands.Unfortunately, a significant portion of these responses goes unanswered. It is the intention of this report to investigate the possibility of automating the process of translating and analyzing this data, to propose a tool to seamlessly collect rich information from a broad pool of farmers, and subsequently design better-suited and longer-lasting interventions.Many of Africa's 2000 languages, however, remain what is called 'low-resource' or those with limited training data upon which to build and train AI models. In this report, we review several approaches to overcoming these constraints, including transfer learning and crowdsourcing data. We then present a cutting-edge approach that utilizes innovations in unsupervised learning to deliver highly accurate speech recognition and machine translation in a diverse set of languages.We then evidence this through a series of experiments using real-world examples of FRI data in Swahili and Hausa and include a corpus linguistics method for gaining insight from this data at scale. The Common Voice project employs crowdsourcing for both data collection and data validation, becoming one of the largest corpora in the public domain for SR, both in terms of the number of hours and the number of languages. A team of researchers from some of the largest NLP groups, including Google AI and Hugging Face-built XLS-R. It is a tool based on 436K hours of speech in 128 different languages, using data from across the largest open-source repositories, including Common Voice. These data are 'pre-trained,' allowing the model to recognize patterns in the unlabeled data, then they are fine-tuned for a specific task using a limited set of labeled data. To the best of their knowledge, they state, 'this is the largest effort to date in making speech technology accessible for many more languages using publicly available data, with the largest contribution being toward low and medium source languages.The increasing capabilities of information communication technologies and big data analytics present significant opportunities for agricultural extension organizations operating in the Global South [1]. Their goal is to improve sustainability, boost economic growth, reduce food insecurity, inequality, and poverty, and increase resilience in poorer communities with minimal cost to biodiversity and the planet [2,3]. These have historically been constrained, however, by the practical challenges of accurately gaining insight into farmer demands and providing effective and useful knowledge accordingly [4]. This is of particular concern as a new wave of young, educated farmers enter the industry, who may be motivated by sustainability but lack practical skills. Significant work is being conducted in Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to support farmers whilst mitigating their challenges [5][6][7]. This includes machine learning for the prediction of extreme weather events, leading to early warning systems [8]. Precision agriculture is allowing farmers to process immense amounts of data to deliver highly granular treatments to crops, reducing costs and environmental damage [9]. Existing trajectories are, however, toward large, highly productive farms in the Global North [10]. Lowder et al. [11] established that 95% of farmers are smallholders operating on less than 2 hectares of land, 70% of which are based in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Latin America, and South Asia. There is a need for work in AI to expand the application of tools for smallholder farmers in the South whilst remaining conscious of the implications of the digital divide, where many have limited access [12].According to Heldert [7], of particular concern is the need to build diverse literacies and multiple languages. Audio and visual tools may help in providing information to users with different levels of literacy, limited time, resources, or lack of travel opportunities to gather information elsewhere. It is suggested that there is only one agricultural extension agent per 3000 clients in SSA [13]. Radio operates as a vital lifeline for Africa's vast rural populations, providing a variety of services, including information sharing, discussion, advocacy, and capacity building. It is also a space for public discourse, garnering significant information for development agencies regarding the perception of their interventions [14]. The advancement of AI for smallholder farmers was a significant theme in the UN's recent report on data governance for food and nutrition [15], and several scholars and development professionals have come to understand analog radio technologies as the vehicle for change [14,16,17].Farm Radio International (FRI), a Canadian NGO, has hosted over 700 talk-radio shows in 40 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. They work on the principle that 'Farmers have a lot to say', and 'as nations, organizations, and individuals, we all must commit to listening and taking action together' [18]. As such, not only do they broadcast discussions between experts on local problems, but they also receive and answer questions from farmers about their practices and demands. In a recent project, FRI partnered with six radio stations in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda, to ask small-scale farmers, vendors, processors, marketers, and others how the food system should be changed to meet their needs and the needs of their communities. Nearly 12,000 responses were recorded [18]. Unfortunately, a significant portion of these responses goes unanswered, as without the staff to manually translate each phone call, the information remains inaccessible. This presents a vast and rich dataset, speaking directly to the needs and desires of smallholders. It is the intention of this report to investigate the possibility of automating the process of translating and analyzing this data and to propose a tool to seamlessly collect rich information from a broad pool of farmers, leading to better-suited and longer-lasting interventions.Africa alone has over 2000 languages [19], with 75 having at least 1 million speakers [20]. In the development of natural language processing (NLP) for African languages, the AI domain focused on issues of speech and translation, but this has been slow predominantly due to a lack of training data from which the machine can learn. Other problems include limited funding, challenges of discovery and access to existing tools and data, absence of benchmarks, and poor reproducibility of ongoing studies [19]. In tackling these, developing further datasets and working in collaboration with local language experts may speak to the diverse needs of multiple literacies, languages, and cultures [7]. Significant opportunities have arisen in recent years due to the development of unsupervised pretraining techniques [21].In the following sections, this report will detail ongoing research in speech recognition, machine translation, and computational linguistics before describing and testing an approach to processing and analyzing farmer telephone calls at scale. Swahili and Hausa were selected as test languages, with details included on how to expand this into other under-resourced African languages. It is hoped that this report will serve as a proof of concept for the implementation of the tool by FRI and the potential for a larger research project on the needs of farmers across Africa.The two languages selected for this proof of concept were Swahili and Hausa. These represent the largest languages in the East and West of Africa, respectively, and are sufficiently large that they can be tested using the best and most reliable data and models.Swahili has 100 to 150 million speakers [22]. It is a Bantu language that serves as both a first and second language to various groups and incorporates Arabic, Persian, German, Portuguese, English, and French vocabulary [23]. It is spoken in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique, Somalia, and the DRC, each having its own dialect that differs in both vocabulary and structure [22].Hausa is from the Chadic language family [24] and has more first-language speakers than any other Sub-Saharan African language [25]. It is spoken by 100 million people in Nigeria, the Republic of Niger, Cameroon, Togo, Chad, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Ghana [24]. One-quarter of the vocabulary is drawn from Arabic with English and French influences [24]. It is widely considered to be the Lingua Franca in West Africa [25]. It has its own Latin-based alphabet, known as Boko, and distinguishes between short and long vowels, which can also affect word meaning but cannot be written [24], presenting a problem for NLP interpretation.Speech recognition (SR) is the first and foremost process in designing the FRI tool.SR can account for specific words, be focused on identifying specific traits of the speaker, or be used to translate entire conversations into text infinitely [26]. The goal of this report is to take the audio data and transcribe it in the respective language. This presents a challenge as, while more widely spoken western languages have received significant investment in the production of different training datasets, there are limited resources for less spoken languages, including those from the global South. SR has received increased attention in recent years, however, as voice is expected to overtake keyboards in order to overcome issues of illiteracy and blindness [26]. The best voice recognition software can reportedly achieve as high as 97% accuracy in English, while Google, Microsoft, and IBM Watson are all disclosing accuracy of around 95% and increasing [27].The process of building an SR model tends to be broken down into 1) preprocessing, 2) feature extraction, and 3) modeling [26], which are explained in detail below.1. Preprocessing relates to the current form of the data. In the case of audio, this will be the sampling rate, the bit depth, the number of channels it is recorded in, and the overall noise level of the recording. Each of these contributes to the quality of the audio file and, therefore, the accuracy of the resultant model. The sample rate specifies the number of samples to take from an audio source material per second. A high sample rate increases the ability of digital audio to faithfully represent high frequencies. Standard telephone calls are transmitted at 8khz (8000 samples per second), whereas the minimum for effective speech recognition is 16khz, and this can go up to 44.1khz for a good-quality audio sample. Bit depth affects the dynamic range of a given audio sample. A higher bit depth allows the representation of more precise amplitudes. With a mix of loud and soft sounds within the same audio sample, a higher bit depth is necessary to represent those sounds correctly. Channels refer to mono (1) or stereo (2), and modeling requires a single input. Noise refers literally to background noise in the recording [28]. Each of the currently available processors has several options for resampling the files, increasing or reducing bit depth, changing the number of channels, and reducing noise. Depending on the file encoding (WMA, Mp3), however, these processes can introduce more or less a 'loss' of quality from the original file [28,29].2. Feature extraction refers to the process of obtaining different features such as power, pitch, and vocal tract configuration from the speech signal. These are then transformed into parameters that allow the model to differentiate one utterance from another [26,30]. This begins by digitally representing the audio in its waveform, as shown in Figure 1. Sample rate and bit depth are crucial here to ensure the waveforms represent the proper amplitude across the sound sample [28]. These are then converted into a Mel Spectrogram, an image form based on signal strength or 'loudness,' whilst color becomes the indicator of amplitude [28]. This is based on the Mel scale, a perceptual scale of pitches judged by listeners. For human speech, it is common to take an additional step and convert the Mel Spectrogram into an MFCC (Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients). MFCCs produce a compressed representation of the Mel Spectrogram by extracting only the most essential frequency coefficients, which correspond to the frequency ranges at which humans speak [29]. Thus, they are more efficient for training [33].3. Finally, modeling has grown rapidly since the late 2000s with the introduction of deep learning alongside the advancement of computing power and hardware, allowing researchers to make the neural networks deeper and more powerful, and providing availability and storage of more training data [31]. Examples of models include CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) and RNN (Recurrent Neural Network). Moving forward from traditional machine learning using artificial neural networks, these models allow several layers, each of which can fulfill different functions to handle the data and learn with greater accuracy, more efficiently. They continue to rely upon labeled training data, however, requiring hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of audio files for their transcription to be effective [32]. The accuracy of the model is then measured using the WER or Word Error Rate (Substitutions + Deletions + Insertions) / Number of Words Spoken), comparing the input with the output of the test set [33].Figure 1 Early stages of the SR model, modified from [29] A serious problem in the SR technique is code-switching, which occurs when speakers switch to a different language during a conversation, borrowing words, phrases, or sentences [34]. Intonation is very difficult to pick up; the sound of each character could be of a different duration, or there could be gaps and pauses between these characters. Several characters could be merged together or repeated, leading to a lack of clarity in the final transcription. These issues are exacerbated as the models are usually trained and tested on high-resource languages, which means little is known about how they will function in the real world or on smaller data sets [35] Attempts to build approaches and overcome these problems for SR in lessresourced languages include Woldemariam [33], who attempts to apply transfer learning. This entails training a model on another, similar language to the one that is in view, then using that insight to make deductions about the target language. In the case of Amharic, processors learn from English and Mandarin to aid in setting the correct parameters for learning that language before removing outside layers of the model and fine-tuning it to the target. This has been seen to produce a WER reduction from 38.72 percent to 24.50 percent.More often than not, however, attempts have been made to increase the amount of training data available. In the case of Swahili, early efforts to produce SR data and models looked to crowdsourcing data [36]. Efforts to develop open-source datasets include Kencorpus for Swahili, Dholuo, and Luhya, which have a collection of 5,594 items, being 4,442 texts of 5.6 million words and 1,152 speech files worth 177 hours of audio [37]. The Lacuna fund has delivered several openly accessible text and speech resources for NLP research in a range of African languages. By far, the most impactful seems to be the Common Voice project [38] and the AI-sharing community Hugging Face [39].The Common Voice project employs crowdsourcing for both data collection and data validation, becoming one of the largest corpora in the public domain for SR, both in terms of the number of hours and the number of languages [38]. In March of 2022, the Mozilla Foundation, the group behind Common Voice and the Firefox browser, awarded eight projects, each USD $50,000, for leveraging the Swahili language and voice technology to increase social and economic opportunities for marginalized groups in Kenya, Tanzania, and the DRC. These include:• Kiazi Bora, or \"Quality Potatoes\" in Swahili, uses a voice-enabled application that advises vulnerable women living in rural areas and marginalized communities of Tanzania on the nutritional values of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (OFSP), farming skills for better yields, and detailed market availability for raw or processed OFSP food products, all through a voice data set app.• LivHealth, a group that aims to correctly identify livestock syndromes and get timely interventions from qualified livestock practitioners. The project will build Kiswahili text-to-speech models for disseminating disease information to marginalized communities. They work closely with their partner, One Health Center in Africa (OHRECA), based at ILRI.• Imarika, a conversational chatbot offering digital climate advisory services in English and Swahili that will support smallholder farmers to adapt to changing weather patterns.• Duniacom Group, developers of a text and voice-based platform made available in the language of the underserved to provide wide access, adoption, and usage of digital agricultural advisory and financial services in Tanzania.In September of 2022, Common Voice announced that their 100th language would be Twi of Ghana, the first language of 18 million Africans, demonstrating their commitment to bringing the benefits of NLP to those outside of the default European-colonial languages, stating even Google and Wikipedia \"exclude almost half the African population on the basis of primary language\" [20].Examples of those taking advantage of the site include Babirye [17], who looked to expand SR into some of the less spoken Ugandan indigenous languages, including Runyankore-Rukiga, Acholi, and Lumasaaba, citing monitoring of local radio and dissemination of information for smallholder farmers among their primary motivations. They used available media on a text basis and Common Voice as their starting point for speech. They then described their process of attempting to gather more data by incentivizing communities within their universities to contribute to the existing data sets on Common Voice, creating monetary rewards for top speakers. The communities curated over 200,000 Swahili sentences and 100 hours of voice contributions from 80 participants in Kenya and 90 in Tanzania. For Luganada, they actually reached a state of 'over contribution,' where there was insufficient text data to satisfy the number of hours of recorded speech.Even more significant innovations are coming from within Hugging Face, which has revolutionized SR through Wav2vec [32] and XLS-R [39]. Traditionally, supervised machine learning is defined by its use of labeled datasets to train algorithms to classify data or predict outcomes accurately according to its label, as opposed to unsupervised methods, which look to discover hidden patterns or data groupings in unlabeled data. Wav2vec takes advantage of unsupervised pretraining, essentially allowing a model to learn from and recognize patterns in unlabeled data. To achieve specific 'downstream' tasks, such as SR of a new dataset, then is simply a matter of fine-tuning the model to the specific language or context under examination using this limited labeled dataset. In this case, Baevski et al. [32] use a linear labeled layer on top of the original model, establishing a method for achieving highly accurate language transcription with as little as ten minutes of labeled data, achieving a word error rate of 4.8/8.2.A team of researchers from some of the largest NLP groups, including Google AI and Hugging Face has built XLS-R [21,39] on top of Wav2Vec models, as demonstrated in Figure 2. It is a tool based on 436K hours of speech in 128 different languages, using data from across the largest open-source repositories, including Common Voice [38]. These data are 'pre-trained,' allowing the Wav2vec model to recognize patterns in the unlabeled data via several CNNs. Then they are fine-tuned for a specific task using a limited set of labeled data. To the best of their knowledge, they state, 'this is the largest effort to date, in making speech technology accessible for many more languages using publicly available data,' with the largest contribution being toward low and medium source languages. BABEL is of particular interest as it incorporates noisy telephone conversational data.Examples of applications include Le [40] and Zanon Boito [35]. Le[4 0] used the XLS-R to account for dialectical differences between Coastal and Congolese and Central Swahili and their translation to English and French, achieving a WER of 36.75% and 31.25%, respectively. Denisov [41], in the same competition, achieved 12.5/17.6%.Figure 2 XLS-R model [39] Applications of SR are wide. Wu [42] show how it can be used in the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease due to the distinct effect on the way sufferers talk, although the study was heavily dependent on the quality of sampling.In Agriculture, significant attention has been paid to chatbots or question-andanswer systems for farmers that simulate a real conversation. Mostaço [43] developed AgronomoBot, a Telegram-based app for Brazilian farmers, using both text and speech to rapidly and efficiently deliver farmers' data on field conditions, such as air and soil temperature, air relative humidity, soil moisture, rainfall and wind speed. Kung [44] had a similar project for the pig industry in Taiwan and [45] for Malaysian farmers to improve disease diagnosis. In a study with the World Food Program, [46] collect nutritional information in Ethiopia and Kenya using an app with a voice function to record each user's shopping list. They have been able to achieve a WER of 18% for Swahili audio transcription, dramatically reducing the effort necessary for participants to input their data.Machine translation (MT) is the use of computer-aided software to translate speech or text from one language to another. It allows communication at scale, with information being shared between different language groups with ease [22]. This is a significant need in Africa as news concerning the continent is almost exclusively published in English, French, or Arabic and is thereby inaccessible for speakers of only native African languages [47]. Like with SR, however, MT is similarly restricted in appropriate data sets. While the process of data acquisition is slightly easier, there are significant considerations and opportunities to introduce bias.Languages have different origins, vocabularies, dialects, structures, slang, and sociolect, all factors which affect the accuracy of any machine translation approach [22,48]. Challenges for NLP also include the range of different data types (audio or text, utterances, phrases, related words) and the different requirements for modeling, ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of sentences [49].Underrepresentation of certain groups and languages in training corpora, which often disproportionately affects communities that are marginalized, excluded, or less frequently recorded or cultures where the educated are multilingual [48], is a major factor for the lack of engagement. Swahili, however, has been the subject of machine translation research for over 50 years and is purportedly well supported by mainstream language processing software like Google and Microsoft Translate [22], as is Hausa. Much of the research in MT is toward producing effective models to translate under-resourced languages using available datasets, that is, those that are not already used by Google or other popular translation services. The disadvantages met by speakers of languages outside of those covered by these services are stated as motivators for such research, especially in terms of exclusion from education resources and the dissemination of science [19].In this regard, Inuwa-Dutse [25], in their collection of Hausa datasets, identified serious problems with Google Translate, suggesting insufficient data on colloquialisms and local dialects. This can only be remedied by picking up on some of the informal or day-to-day terms used in the language obtained via online social media, not news websites or religious texts. They also provide a framework for obtaining further data. De Pauw's [50] early efforts to match Google's translation for Swahili found they were able to outperform them in translating from English, taking a deconstructed approach to Swahili vocabulary. The morphology of Swahili is quite complex, a single word representing a sentence of English. By breaking down the Swahili words into 'morphemes,' the machine may better interpret them. However, in the case of more obscure and difficult dialects, it has been shown that transfer learning and the creation of synthetic learning data is an effective strategy for developing translation models [22]. Massively multilingual models such as mBERT [51], XLM-R [21], or mT5 [52] use Wikipedia for pretraining and then fine-tuning downstream NLP tasks [49,51].Whilst transfer learning has made great leaps, there remain problems when using high-resource European languages to learn low-resource African languages.Improved results have been shown using different African languages to learn from each other. Thus [53] develop MMTAfrica, the first many-to-many translation system for six African languages. It uses a system of back-translation and reconstruction to train each language of the other.These models continue to be dependent either on the amount of labeled data or unlabeled content online. Those languages with neither have very little hope of soon becoming the subject of effective computational linguistics [49]. While in their taxonomy of successful NLP languages, [49] Swahili is listed as a 'rising star,' having benefited greatly from unsupervised learning in recent years and having a large online presence, low-resource languages often have little written history, with few language experts or those familiar with NLP. Thus, those attempting to develop MT tools often cannot speak the language they are working with [54].Nekoto et al. [54] demonstrate the efficiency of a participatory approach for sourcing data in low-resourced African languages. This entails ensuring that the speakers in the MT process originate from the countries where the low-resourced languages are spoken, involving lay persons in crowdsourcing data. However, they suggest citizen science projects involving participants in all stages of research are necessary for achieving quality evaluation, especially in languages unfamiliar to the NLP scientist. In their study, they employed 400 participants from at least 20 countries, enabling them to conduct a human evaluation study of model outputs, which has been one of the key limitations of previous approaches.Examples of these models applied in the real world include Translators Without Borders, a group that uses machine translation for humanitarian aid, ensuring that local communities with language restrictions have access to the best information.They have been instrumental during the outbreak of the Ebola virus in the DRC in 2019 and across Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their approach allows users to ask questions and receive answers in their own language [22].Wefarm is a platform to connect farmers to each other for the purpose of knowledge sharing through SMS without the need for internet access. The farmerto-farmer digital network connects farmers' questions and answers both online and through SMS. Wefarm intermediates the network, using machine learning to understand the request for information and patch it through to the right response.Founded in 2015, it exceeded 2.6 million users by 2020. It operates in collaboration with Amazon Web services (AWS), which offers a variety of services compatible with public and private cloud services and their open-source software base [55].Corpus linguistics is the study of language based on large collections of \"real life\" language use stored in corpora (or corpuses)-computerized databases created for linguistic research [56,57]. Corpus linguistics encompasses a number of analysis techniques that can be applied as needed rather than according to a particular protocol [58]. These include Key-word-in-context or concordance, collocations, word distribution, and corpus comparisons. A concordance displays all instances of a given the word in its immediate textual surroundings and helps the researcher to connect words of potential interest to the context [57].Collocations denote the co-occurrence of two or more words, uncovering the meaning imbued in words by those words they collocate with. The strength of collocation between two words can be measured and represented statistically by the mutual information score of these two words, or 'faithfulness ' [56,57,59]. Word dispersion measures the distribution of words over a number of texts rather than just one. Corpus comparison involves standing one's own text against a very large reference corpus to establish what is 'normal' and what is not, identifying the 'keyness' of certain words. A common comparison is the Brown Corpus [59].In this regard, while corpus linguistics is largely reliant on machines for analysis, it differs from traditional computer-aided text analysis in that it focuses on lexical patterns rather than on categories and always involves a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis [58]. It is, therefore, better suited for this analysis, demanding attention and participation from different stakeholders in interpreting and acting upon patterns in the data rather than simply monitoring answers and outputting statistics.For a full review of linguistic analyses in agriculture, see [60]. To briefly summarize their article, they reviewed applications of text mining in agriculture or to 'extract, organize and classify information from text data… [that] can be presented to the user in a manner in which they can make informed decisions'. They emphasize the lack of development in corpus linguistics for agriculture due to the absence of open data and the continued use of the intellectual property to restrict access to insights gained. Key themes were Information Retrieval, Information Extraction, and Sentiment Analysis. The most common application is disease monitoring, while Information Retrieval/Question-Answering is also prolific, but the systems surveyed fall short of their promise. Of interest to this study, they cite that knowledge discovery has been used in bio-medicine to discover previously unknown treatments, capitalizing on the knowledge of users. Therefore, perhaps similar discoveries should be possible in agriculture using similar techniques. It is not unreasonable to expect to see advances in areas such as herbicide and pesticide development from knowledge extracted from large collections like the FRI data repository. Specific examples include [61], who analyzed the sentiment of Twitter posts by farmers in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS). They were able to show that positive sentiment was shared among these countries when discussing agricultural policy and even when discussing the implementation of digital innovations such as blockchain. [62] suggest using linguistic corpora for improving the accessibility of ongoing trends in agricultural sciences to academic staff, for whom English is their second language, thus allowing more efficient dissemination of knowledge.Combining each of the tools mentioned here, the UN Global Pulse (2016, 2017) has funded and developed, in collaboration with Ugandan country and university partners, a tool for analyzing public radio. They were able to identify local farmers' priorities, how they reflected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as health, education, or employment, and to link them to time and location. Their aims were to improve reporting of natural disasters, monitoring and tracking of the effectiveness of campaigns and early warning systems in \"Ugandan English,\" Luganda, and Acholi.The richest of all data sources was shown to be talk-show radio or discussion programs. UN Global Pulse (2016, 2017) noted, however, that the approach is difficult to scale, as their model required a separate configuration for each show they analyzed, in particular, what questions were asked and how the discussion was framed, suggesting the full impact of the project may not be fully accomplished.They achieved a word error rate of 50% for Luganda and 60% for Acholi. The speech was more easily recognized during news broadcasts, where presenters are trained to articulate clearly, and is less recognized during call-ins, where the quality of the audio is poorer, and the speech is a rapid conversational style. In human analysis and transcription, they revealed that the results were rarely relevant due to a series of biases, largely related to a misunderstanding of context. For example, 23% of identified words were part of a commercial. They found men largely dominated the conversation, whereas women were rarely heard. Finally, they focused on topic modeling and word filtering, seeking out issues specifically related to the UN's priorities rather than those stated by farmers.In this study, we suggest that by working directly with the radio stations and using a more qualitative corpus linguistics approach, we might be able to gain a fuller and truer-to-life idea vision of farmers' voices. Not only a form of co-design, working with the organization to design a tool that best suits their needs, but also accessing a broader swath of farmers beyond the framing of experts.The overall objective of this project was to make an efficient and easy-to-use tool for FRI based on free and open-source software. As such, all analysis was completed using Python programming software, implementing several modules and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).Google's speech recognition and translation served as the baseline for this study.They have several different APIs that can be implemented in Python. Those used include SpeechRecognition [64] and Google Cloud [28]. The second is a paid service with a free starter pack, used mainly for their increased parameter tuning and to explore potentially improved tools. For SR, the details of the models are not shared, but they claim to have hundreds of thousands of hours worth of training data and can achieve upwards of 95% accuracy. They provide a measure of accuracy for each piece of data processed. It is assumed that these models also incorporate much of the open data sets used to train the other tools in this study. Both models allow for a specific Tanzanian or Kenyan version of Swahili. For MT, Google Translate was the only tool used, assuming this is by far the most advanced tool in this regard.However, other tools may be considered in the future, pending human evaluation of translations.As described above, the XLR-S claims to be the largest attempt to incorporate open data for SR. It is trained on 75 hours of spoken Hausa and 91 hours of Swahili. It has similar accuracy levels as Google and offers other African languages, such as Amharic, Arabic, Ganda, Kabyle, Kinyarwanda, Lingala, Shona, Somali, Twi, Yoruba, and Zulu [39].SpeechBrain is an open-source and all-in-one speech toolkit designed to integrate well with Python, also based on Common Voice for SR. It was designed, however, to comprise a series of different tools for NLP, including speech recognition and detection. It is foremostly built on Pytorch, with emphasis on accessibility, ease of use, and replicability [65].The phases of analysis drew from [57,59,66]. The analysis began by generating a word frequency list to demonstrate which words occurred the most throughout the corpus. This involved tokenization, reducing sentences to strings of raw data, and lemmatization, the grouping of words based on their inflicted form so that they can be analyzed as one item (e.g., destroyed, destroys = destroy) [57]. In addition, stop words were removed, both common connectives and those unique to this corpus that would affect results. Finally, a quantified list was generated.Of those most frequently occurring words, a concordance sample was produced, indicating how they appear in context. In a larger corpus, a random sample of 25 combinations is usually provided for each word of interest, however, in this case, a selection of the more meaningful words was used, and all combinations were revealed, providing the context of 5 words to the left and right of the selected 'node words.' Next, a collocation analysis was conducted to calculate statistics that provide information about the strength of association (SOA) between lexical items. One key term was used ('farm') to measure 'faithfulness', or the probability of seeing the collocate given the presence of the target item. This goes for both the likelihood to occur when the target term is used and the likelihood the target term will appear given the collocate.Keyness was calculated using the Brown Corpus, testing the percentage difference between the FRI data and that of a 'normal' corpus. Finally, an n-gram analysis was conducted, connecting words together in a series to view which are most influential in a corpus. Noun phrases were identified, or a concordance that will show a repeated phraseology where the verb occurs followed by a noun group [57]. These were produced and visualized using Textblob and Wordcloud, respectively.Data was collected by the FRI using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system called Uliza to present listeners with questions. The radio stations broadcasting the talk shows advertise a telephone number that farmers can call if they have something to comment on. Uliza will then return the call to the farmer such that they do not incur any cost. Callers are then asked a series of multiple-choice questions, which they answer using the dial pad before they answer an open-ended question with their voice.In past surveys, polls were able to gather stakeholder opinions on nutrition. For example, a higher percentage of women than men said that those in need should eat first, whereas many participants identified moving away from chemical pesticides and fertilizers as a key priority. These findings are contentious and fall outside the general conception or trajectory of conventional agriculture. They reveal a human side to agricultural development, based on local values and desires; over 90% of participants were willing to act to reverse the effects of climate change, whereas 1 in 12 said that the only way to cope would be to move to another place.They even spoke about the little-discussed issue of shrinking villages and changing occupations of farmers in the face of difficult conditions.The focus of the current work, however, is the voice reply. Questions are related to nutrition, food scarcity, climate change, information access, and how farmers felt they were at risk in each aspect. Answers are aggregated based on country, gender, and age. In general, one-third of calls are from women, while the majority appear to be over 30 years old. The potential audience is reported as 12,339,739 people [18].Each audio signal was either recorded in 8khz or 22khz and so was resampled to 16khz, the ideal for SR. They were also converted to a single channel, mono-output. This was a hindrance to SR, however, as the low quality of the recordings will not fare as well when converted to a spectrogram. Noise reduction was attempted, but this reduced the quality of the audio until it was unrecognizable. Each of the models described above was applied to each audio file.The linguistic analysis was performed on a human-transcribed Tanzanian Swahili dataset, as there was much more available data due to ethical and permission constraints.Swahili: What is the biggest threat to your family eating enough safe and nutritious food? Table 1 displays the same Tanzanian Swahili transcription for each model and its translation to English using Google Translate. The final row shows the actual human translation. Google SR is surprisingly superior to Google Cloud, its conscriptionbased counterpart. XLS-R by Akashpb13 seems to be the most accurate. The Swahili transcription has 65% accurate, according to WER. This can be improved through further fine-tuning and using higher-quality audio in the next iteration of this study; however, if this is to be executed on a large scale, such errors will be lost in aggregated data, as will be shown in the next section.Google SR (confidence: 0.83117056) hakuna bora na bora ni kupeleka pingamizi kujenga mwili na vipindi vya kulinda mwili wake kutoka kilimanjaro there is nothing better and the best is to send objections to build the body and periods to protect his body from kilimanjaro Google Cloud (confidence: 0.7421932) hakuna bora maboga nikapeleka player mwili kujenga mwili lavington yule mwizi funny mzee yusufu kutoka kilimanjaro there is no better pumpkin, I sent the player body to build the body, Lavington, the thief funny old man Yusufu from Kilimanjaro SpeechBrain uorauaborani haua kuilinda mwili aenga mwili nchainnaitani ya kulinda mwiliapani a fefu kutoka klimanjaro uorauaborani does not kill to protect the body, he protects the body, the body protects the body, apani a fefu from the beginningpa kule cha kula boro chakula bora ni chakulecha kulinda mwizi cha gujenga mwizi na cha trupin na vitani ya kulinda mwizi hafani mzea hivyo sefu kutoka kile majaro where to eat, the best food is the food to protect the thief, to protect the thief and to protect the thief in the war, he is not old, so safe from the old age.heutaka kula chakula borchakula bora ni chakula cha kulinda mwili cha kujenga mwili na chaprotimi na vita iya kulinda mwilihapani kimzeijosefu kutoka kilimanjaro a you don't want to eat bad food, the best food is food that protects the body, builds the body, and chaprotimi and war that protect the body.Nataka kula chakula bora, chakula bora ni chakula cha kujenga mwili (cha kujenga mwili) na cha protini na vitamini za kujenga mwili. Hapa ni mzee Joseph kutoka Kilimanjaro I want to eat good food, good food is body building food (body building) and protein and body building vitamins.Hausa: What is the biggest threat to your family eating enough safe and nutritious food?Table 2 displays the Hausa transcription for each model, and it is translated to English using Google Translate. SpeechBrain and Google Cloud were not tested due to their poor performance with Swahili. Hausa has received significantly less development as an SR language. The Google model is only a 'preview' which is reflected in its output. The XLS-R by Mofe seems to be the most meaningful output.Again, human evaluation is necessary for future fine-tuning. Google SR to barka madara haka sunana raira suna tabarauTo give good milk so saana sing lambsoburƙa murorhaƙaɗunarywon otɗa adaɗuna'maƙuron wanan i a ƙashir an pidapiloiluƙaɗuɗaƙonƙuaɗodumbard nuƙito hine ayon vi oɓoroicoviarcewdo'a wanciwocoɗalurorparcon'ƙ rauny unaeamun maƙal li na maɗara loloroidolunacare alurocovnitan'lpa mota muɗavaubutaƙiamagodeƙutalai It's important to have a good relationship with the country.cobarka mudor hakasunanrayn motsolemanandaga kaduna nakuro wanan cil a kashar ancibarbinitaɗada uƙuɗuguaganguɗatentambar da nukiditahine nayonjin rabara cobilitar cewa idan mutunada waniciwo otal lurartfagurcolta rauni yana i samunmatala ulina da matsalaraloreilanjinakarɗia lurar cbinancin hatan barfn ramota wtaba tabudatackenana goden gutalefiaTry to think like this, the Muslim man from Kaduna, I have a lot of problems with the development of the city and the city.Table 3 shows the most frequently used words in the corpus. The farm is an expected top return, whereas the minister and government show to whom the callers are looking in order to make their lives better. Support, plant, assistance, and money seem to be the most telling in how that change might take place, and thus were used in the proceeding analysis to put this in context.Table 4 demonstrates the concordance or 'key-word-in-context' of four of the most frequent words from Table 3. Using 'assist,' respondents appear to be seeking help accessing fertilizers or agrochemicals. Using 'plant,' they want both quality seeds and markets to sell their produce. 'Support' refers to loans and finance, while 'money' seems to tie each of these themes together, what the users seem to see as the bedrock of their activities.Looking at all the derivatives of the most commonly occurring root word 'farm,'Tables 5 and 6 indicate the level of probability that collocates will occur. Table 5 shows that when the word 'aid' appears in the corpus, there is more than a 150% chance that 'farm' will appear. This is because the farm may appear multiple times in each utterance. 'Materials' appears here for the first time, indicating its significance as a need of farmers.Table 6 indicates that the word 'to' will appear 67% of the time when the word 'farm 'appears. These words are large to be expected; however, 'support' and 'aid' occur again.  Other 'out of the ordinary' terms include 'fertilizers,' 'cocoa,' and 'mosquito.' The results in Table 8 indicate that 'there' has an 89% lower frequency in the FRI corpus than in the Brown Corpus. Again, while these are mostly to be expected, it is interesting that 'years' stands out as an absent theme. In the future, this tool could be more usefully applied, comparing new data with the existing FRI corpus.   IV. Malicious uses; this is an intentional use of language modeling to spread disinformation, fraud, or malware.V. Human-Computer Interaction Harms; this refers to 'conversational agents' or, as commonly proposed for farmers, chatbots and the difficulties incurred in user interactions, potential biases they generate, and the power they have in nudging, deception and manipulation.VI. Environmental and Socioeconomic harms; this includes both the use of energy in building and operating language models and the environmental cost incurred and of exacerbating social inequalities by delivering uneven benefits or undermining and removing career opportunities.Points I, III, and VI must play a significant role in how the current project moves forward. The work must remain reflexive to opinions stated by callers, in the understanding that certain ways of thinking may be overrepresented due to the biases already present in those who have access to the radio or can call in. Ensuring that all incoming data is of the best quality is essential, perhaps exploring how to get callers to speak slowly and clearly, so as not to fall into the old principle of 'garbage in, garbage out.' The intention of the work is to listen to farmers and deliver benefits equally. Agricultural extension has a long history of elite capture and damaging residual effects on local communities. Thus, the work should strive to be inclusive of and complementary to a wide range of actors.Finally, reflecting on efforts by the UN Global Pulse [63], FRI has been successful in designing a system that incurs no cost for the user, allowing even the poorest members of a community to contribute to a discussion. There remain considerations, however, as to how talk show hosts frame the discussion and how this might affect chosen topics and useful answers. Some topics are less likely to be discussed on the radio because of social stigma or fear of retribution, adding to selection bias. It is unclear how FRI chooses topics, so they may be missing rarely discussed topics or those that they are not already aware of.If building a more diverse voice training dataset, it is important that we keep track of the metrics around the voice contributors, such as age group and gender, whilst also remaining respectful of their privacy [17].It is hoped that these thoughts will form the basis for future farmer-centered design, putting the voice of farmers first and foremost in the design of further Interaction, i.e., what are the lives they aspire to live [67] and how do they constitute success beyond yield [68]? -These are critical questions if we want to build lasting sustainability and complementary rather than coercive AI tools [7].Gender inequality continues to threaten food security in several African countries, restricting women's access to land, their participation in decision-making, and their ability to benefit from profits. FRI has provided examples of its approach to and impact on these issues. They aspire to respond to the communication and information needs of women, engaging in capacity building with local radio stations to ensure the production of programs that are aimed at both men and women and facilitating radio listening and participation by women.The Her Farm Radio project, which finished in 2017, partnered with 13 radio stations, providing them with 49 days of training, and provided wind-up radios to 134 community listening groupsThe ongoing Scaling Her Voice on Air project has reportedly been broadcast on 73 radio stations and reached 15 million people. They have made and broadcasted almost 700 radio shows that discuss women's rights, decision-making, and sharing the workload within the household. They also broadcast radio dramas that carry a positive message. Impact surveys suggested that 90% of participants found reduced violence and an increase in decision-making and access to land.FRI's newest project, which is about to launch, is named On-Air for Gender-InclusiveNature-based Solutions. The focus is on developing climate adaptation strategies according to the needs of women and youth. FRI intends to develop a series of 200 radio documentaries, aiming to shift inequitable social norms at household, community, and national levels, as well as the systems and structure that (re)produce them. It is here that the audio analytic tool comes into play; not only can it be used to more easily and efficiently gather insights on what topics are most useful to listeners and how that should be framed, but also learning from that data, how it compares to previous, male-dominated data sets, leading to a truly usercentered design of the radio show.","tokenCount":"7954"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1e3fc9c7f2f5901039373a7c80f4b218","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c2bd83e1-a2ed-4a03-afe4-910818036e8b/retrieve","id":"-220542984"},"keywords":["aquatic foods","food system","environmental impact","nutrition","diversity"],"sieverID":"ea18f582-878f-440a-b3da-428977e72eda","pagecount":"11","content":"Recent discussions of healthy and sustainable diets encourage increased consumption of plants and decreased consumption of animal-source foods (ASFs) for both human and environmental health. Seafood is often peripheral in these discussions. This paper examines the relative environmental costs of sourcing key nutrients from different kinds of seafood, other ASFs, and a range of plant-based foods. We linked a nutrient richness index for different foods to life cycle assessments of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the production of these foods to evaluate nutritional benefits relative to this key indicator of environmental impacts. The lowest GHG emissions to meet average nutrient requirement values were found in grains, tubers, roots, seeds, wild-caught small pelagic fish, farmed carp and bivalve shellfish. The highest GHG emissions per nutrient supply are in beef, lamb, wild-caught prawns, farmed crustaceans, and pork. Among ASFs, some fish and shellfish have GHG emissions at least as low as plants and merit inclusion in food systems policymaking for their potential to support a healthy, sustainable diet. However, other aquatic species and production methods deliver nutrition to diets at environmental costs at least as high as land-based meat production. It is important to disaggregate seafood by species and production method in 'planetary health diet' advice.As global human populations grow and become wealthier, demand rises on terrestrial and ocean environments as sources of foods and providers of other ecosystem services (Springmann et al 2018). Continued growth and development also places additional strain on our climate, and the resulting climatic changes will in turn influence regional food productivity (Godfray et al 2010). Our food systems primarily rely on land-based production of plants and animals, but wild capture fisheries and, increasingly, inland and marine aquaculture-the farming of fish shellfish and aquatic plants-are an important source of micronutrient rich foods (Seto and Fiorella 2017). Nevertheless, aquatic contributors to the global food system are often seen as peripheral, despite global fish production ranked between poultry and beef (Troell et al 2014, Edwards et al 2019). A recent review finds that seafood is often excluded from food security and food systems research, and when included, seafood consumption is viewed as a tradeoff between positive health outcomes and overfishing concerns (Farmery et al 2017). When included in global assessments, all seafood-both wild capture and aquacultureis often included as a single commodity despite the widely varying nutrient compositions (Hicks et al 2019) and environmental impacts of catching or rearing different seafood species and bringing them to market (Hilborn et al 2018). This is, in part, due to the fact that the research and policy agenda for fishery policy and food, nutrition and health policy run 'on independent tracks, with only loose and superficial links between them' (Hall et al 2013, p 8398). To bring a more complete understanding of the potential role of seafood in healthy, sustainable diets, here we compare nutrient content and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions-as a key indicator of environmental impacts-of major seafood species and production methods with land-based food production systems.While most research and policy debate on the nutritional benefits of fish and shellfish has centered on protein and omega-3 fatty acids, many fish and shellfish may play a critical role in addressing deficiencies in other micronutrients such as vitamin A, calcium, vitamin B12, iron and zinc (Kawarazuka 2010, Golden et al 2016). These nutrients are often found in more bioavailable forms in fish and shellfish than they are in many vegetables, fortified staples, and food supplements (Bogard et al 2015, Thilsted et al 2016). For many countries facing nutrient deficiencies, finfish catches alone could provide all dietary micronutrient requirements for all people living within 100 km of the coast in those countries (Hicks et al 2019). Potential nutritional benefits of fish and other aquatic animals are not limited to coastal communities: inland capture fisheries production has increased each year, with most recent data indicating a 11.6 million metric tons (mmt) in 2018, and inland aquaculture is much larger that either marine aquaculture (30.8 mmt) or freshwater capture fisheries (12 mmt), producing 51.3 mmt in the same year (FAO 2020).Given growing interest in the environmental sustainability of food production, and the known nutrient richness of seafood, a key question is then whether seafood provides an environmentally efficient way to supply essential micronutrients: does it have a place in 'planetary health diets' (Willett et al 2019)? This question can be addressed using life cycle assessments (LCAs), which provide a means to track inputs and outputs associated with different food commodities and production systems to compare the environmental cost, in this case, of supplying micronutrients to human diets (Garnett 2013). A 2017 metaanalysis of 369 published LCA studies across plant and animal-source foods (ASFs) found that plantbased foods had the lowest impact whereas ruminant meat had the highest, and seafood species ranged from moderately low (e.g. herring) to high (e.g. lobster) (Clune et al 2017). In 2018, Poore and Nemecek used existing LCA data to create a model to predict multiple environmental impacts at each node in the food supply chain, relying on thousands of datapoints from farms, processors, packaging firms, and retailers; it also found plant-based foods have impacts lower than the lowest impacts among ASFs (Poore and Nemecek 2018). A recent commission by the Lancet found a 'planetary health' diet consisting of raw plant-source foods a low to moderate amount of seafood and poultry, and no or a low quantity of red meat, processed foods, and starchy vegetables is needed to achieve nutrition requirements and minimize a range of environmental impacts including GHG emissions, land use, and acidification (Willett et al 2019). Similar to Poore and Nemecek (2018) and unlike the more species-specific study by Clune et al (2017)-the Lancet Commission chose to report 'fish' and 'crustaceans' as broad categories. These three studies analyzed environmental impact in terms of overall volume (e.g. kg of food produced), and not in terms of specific nutrients. While aggregation may be necessary at a high level, results from seafood-specific LCAs suggest much information is lost by such grouping. Aggregation is also problematic given that seafoods are diverse in terms of production and in terms of micronutrient richness (Thilsted et al 2016, Golden et al 2021b). A meta-analysis of animal proteins finds wild-capture small pelagic fisheries performed best while industrial beef and catfish aquaculture performed worse (Hilborn et al 2018).This research extends the work of Hilborn et al (2018) and Hallstrom et al (2019) to include products from land and marine ASFs as well as a selection of plants that have yet to be compared with the ASF literature. This work establishes a connection between nutrient content and environmental footprints to determine which animal-source protein most efficiently supply nutrients relative to their GHG emissions (mentioned throughout as 'environmental impacts'). This work evaluates environmental tradeoffs in the production of macro-and micronutrients to improve decision-making toward more nutrient-dense food outputs that minimize environmental impact.We created an environmental impacts database including 1784 observations for 160 plant-and animal-based food products, originating from 415 databases and studies (table A1 available online at stacks.iop.org/ERL/17/035003/mmedia-see individual databases and studies in supplementary material). Environmental impact observations (which are exclusively represented via GHG emissions in this research) originated from two synthesis studies. Hilborn et al (2018) was the sole source of data, for all ASFs (terrestrial and aquatic), with the exception explained in Section 2.2, but only included a few major plant-based commodities (i.e. corn, rice, soy, tubers, and wheat). Because we wanted to compare across all major food groups, we sourced food impact data for plant products from Clune et al (2017). The Hilborn et al data did include some plant information for major plant-based commodities, which presented us with an opportunity to compare GHG emissions for raw products to ensure similarity in how the observations were collected and processed in these two synthesis studies (see appendix figure A1).Data included in this analysis can be primarily classified as large-scale production systems embedded within the Western diet. This excluded smaller-scale food production systems that are either developing or may be commonly consumed elsewhere, many of which may be nutrient rich nutrition and have lower environmental impact (Hadjikakou et al 2019). A few of these transformative systems include insect-based proteins, seaweed aquaculture, and plant or lab-based protein alternatives. Products included in this analysis do not represent all traditionally consumed foods or those that are culturally appropriate. They also do not include all consumed foods; of special note they do not include highly processed foods.Individual products were aggregated into 35 food groups to summarize impacts across broad food production sectors. These food groups were assigned general market categories (e.g. small pelagics constitute the small fish category which includes herring, sardines and anchovy). These food groups correspond to data available in global trade and commodity production statistics, rather than by sample size or taxonomy. For example, we separated corn from other seeds because it is a major commodity. In one case, this aggregation strategy led to three categories with observations representing many individual food products: fruit (n = 37), seeds and whitefishes (both n = 12). This also led to these groups having greater variation in nutrient richness and in their resulting environment-nutrition ratios at the food group level. The products within each of the food groups are specified in table A3. All methods related to standardizing environmental impact information, nutrient richness and the environment-nutrition ratio were all conducted at the individual product level. However, the optimization was run only on the 33 food groups. Please see the subsections below for further methodological details on these calculations.For animal-based foods we converted all impacts to grams of edible product using conversion tables from Hilborn et al (2018). All environmental impacts were standardized to the farm gate/fish dock-including all impacts through to the end of production but not including impacts associated with transportation or consumption. It was also important to consider that some impacts were allocated to products on a mass-, economic-or energy-basis, and this may change how the environmental burdens associated with the creation of each product or its co-products (e.g. fish heads and fillets) were distributed. Observations originating in Clune et al (2017) only included massbased allocation of impacts for raw product. Hilborn et al was not clear on how it treated mass versus economic-or energy-based allocation, so we returned to the Hilborn et al database and removed 24 studies that specified that the estimates were based on economic-or energy-based allocation. The remaining studies either specified that the estimates were massbased allocation based or were assumed to be so. In removing the information that was not mass-based, we also removed all data from two major commodified species: tilapia and pangasius catfish. In order to compare across all major terrestrial and aquatic groups, we added two additional sets of data that include tilapia and pangasius catfish estimates (Henriksson et al 2015(Henriksson et al , 2017)). If there were co-products (e.g. the inedible parts of food used in fishmeal production) the impacts were either allocated by value of the co-products or all were assigned to the functional mass unit. If the system boundaries in the LCA extended beyond the farm gate/fish dock, we subtracted the post farm gate contribution estimated by Clune et al (2017).A nutrient richness index was used to capture nutrient concentrations across a diversity of critical nutrients. This builds upon environmental impact research focusing on impacts related to single nutrients (e.g. Hilborn et al 2018), by recognizing that the value of many foods is in their portfolio of multiple nutrients (e.g. FAO et al 2020). The nutrient richness index for a food product was calculated as the proportion of daily requirements for a nutrient met by a 100 g serving (Drewnowski 2009). We modified Drewnowski's method of calculating the nutrient richness index in two ways. The first was to add a combined value of DHA and EPA Omega-3 fatty acids-marine-based and often discussed as important contributors to maternal and childhood health-to the 'NR15' nutrient group calculated by Drewnowski (2009) using 15 nutrients. Nutrient composition profiles were downloaded from the USDA Food Composition database, including information on 43 nutrients across 213 food products (United States Department of Agriculture and Agricultural Research Service 2019). The only nutrient data that was not sourced from USDA was for pangasius catfish because it is not in the USDA database. This data was sourced from the Aquatic Food Composition Database (Golden et al 2021a). The second was to make these calculations focus exclusively on the nutrients 'to encourage' in Drewnowski et al (2009) and not the nutrients 'to limit': saturated fats, sodium or added sugar. In total, 12 beneficial nutrients were used (table A4). To calculate the nutrient richness index, we determined the individual richness of each nutrient in terms of 100 g servings (equation (1))where nutrient richness N p,n is the proportion of the daily requirement of a given nutrient n per 100 g of edible product p met by that product's concentration of a given nutrient per 100 g. C is the concentration of a given nutrient n per 100 g of edible product p, and D is the daily requirement required by adults for each nutrient n.Once the nutrient richness scores were calculated for each individual nutrient, the scores were averaged across all 12 nutrients to create the nutrient richness composite index R p for each individual food product (equation ( 2))(2)Calculating the environmental impacts of nutrient production required the construction of a ratio of impacts to nutrient concentrations for each food. Environment-nutrition ratios were calculated as both impacts per nutrient richness composite index (equation ( 3)) and per individual nutrients (equation ( 4))G p is the composite nutrient index for each product p, which is calculated by the impact of each product p divided by the composite nutrient richness index for that product. One environment-nutrition ratio was calculated for each combination of environmental impact and nutrient concentration for each product (e.g. three observations of GHG impacts per nutrient for corn meant three environment-nutrition ratios). Because the composite nutrient richness is an average of the 12 nutrient values, this ratio can be thought of as the environmental impacts required to meet the average daily recommendation across all included nutrients.Environment-nutrition ratios were also calculated for specific nutrients where there are remaining concerns from the public health community regarding their deficiencies in diets around the world, namely zinc, iron, folate and vitamin A (Bailey et al 2015). We calculated individual environmentnutrition ratios for these nutrients and the others making up the composite index using equation (4).S p,n is the environment-nutrition ratio for each product I p and each product's individual nutrient richness value N p,n , calculated as the ratio of impact per 100 g of edible product to nutrient richness value.Alongside the consideration of the nutrient richness in individual foods, we also considered what selection of food groups would meet daily dietary requirements while minimizing GHG emissions. Note that we are only focused on the same set of nutrients used to create the nutrient richness index. These results do not recommend a comprehensive healthy diet but may inform the design of diets that meet the dual objectives of providing healthy and environmentally low impact nutrition. We used the GRG nonlinear function minimization routine in Microsoft Excel to find the combination of foods that would meet the daily requirements with minimum GHG impact. Three scenarios were included that reflect constraints in the model. Scenario 1 was unconstrained, allowing for any combination of food groups to determine which foods could meet dietary requirements while minimizing GHG emissions regardless of the quantity consumed or the number of calories. Scenario 2 placed a 2500 calorie constraint on the summed total of food groups to align with average energy intake needed for a 30 year old man (70 kg) or a woman (60 kg) with a moderate to high level of physical activity (See Willet et al 2019). Scenario 3 added a maximum of 200 g per day to each of the food groups in addition to the calorie constraint, in order to limit the consumption of any one food group to a reasonable intake.Finally, we compared these results to the 'planetary health diet' (PH diet) that supports human health and sustainable food production to evaluate how a reference diet with only a single category for aquatic food (i.e. fish including shellfish) compares with the more disaggregated aquatic food groups used in this research (Willet et al 2019). The PH diet has simplified categories compared with the market-based categorizations of the food groups included in this research. As a result, we distributed the PH diet intake values evenly across the food groups used in this research For example, 232 g of whole grain intake are recommended in the PH diet, which encompasses the food groups of grain, wheat, corn and rice in this research. We distributed the 232 g per day evenly across the four food groups, with a recommended intake of 58 g per day for each of grain, wheat, corn and rice. There were two food groups in this research that were more disaggregated in the PH diet-fowl and nuts. For fowl, we summed up the intake for chicken (29 g per day) and eggs (13 g per day). For nuts, we summed up the intake for peanuts (25 g per day) and tree nuts (25 g per day). For a detailed summary of how we distributed their food groups within the food groups used in this research, and for the file used to implement the optimizations, please see supplemental file 'food_group_optimization.xlsx' .The nutrient richness index (equation ( 1)) reveals a considerable difference across food production groups. Among the most nutrient rich food product groups, salmon and small pelagic fish (e.g. anchovy, herring, pilchards) rated highest, along with bivalves (e.g. mussels) and cephalopods (e.g. octopus). Some plant products-particularly nuts, rice and grainwere also nutrient-rich (figure 1). Beef, lamb and fowl (e.g. chicken) were the most nutrient-rich of the land-based ASFs. The lowest nutrient richness were prawns, catfish (pangasius), whitefishes, tilapia, plant flowers, bulbs, pork, dairy products, corn, stems tubers and fruits.Plant-based foods had generally lower GHG footprint (i.e. GHG emissions needed to meet average nutrient requirements) compared to most ASFs (figure 2). But there were significant exceptions. Small pelagic fish (sardines, anchovies, herrings, mackerels) are the most abundant type of fish in global wild fish catches (FAO 2020) and are the most nutrient rich across all food groups. When considering GHG emissions associated with their production, only the median level of emissions for select plants (i.e. roots, grain, wheat, soy, nuts) is lower than for small pelagic fish.Small pelagic fish, bivalves and carps all had GHG footprints much lower than land-based ASFs, where dairy and fowl had the lowest GHG footprint and pork, lamb and beef had the highest. Other than dairy and fowl, land-based ASFs had much higher median GHG footprints than most marine and aquatic ASFs. The GHG footprints of wild-capture small pelagic fish was 60-fold less than beef and 130-fold less than wild capture prawns, which had the highest environment-nutrition ratio. While prawn production generally had very high GHG footprints, it varied depending on production sector: prawn capture fisheries had lower GHG footprints compared to prawn aquaculture.Higher environment-nutrition ratios were driven either by high environmental impacts, low nutrient richness scores or a combination of the two. For example, dairy and pangasius catfish had lower average nutrient richness than many other ASFs. However, the environment-nutrition ratio for pangasius catfish is much higher because the food group's GHG emissions to produce 100 g of product is comparatively higher than dairy.When considering the GHG footprint across individual nutrients for a selection of two of the terrestrial and aquatic food groups with environment-nutrition ratios that were the lowest (i.e. roots, small pelagics), and highest (i.e. beef, prawns), we see the importance of specific environment-nutrition ratios that drive the nutrient richness indicator (Figure 3). For some nutrients, the lowest and the highest have equal impacts to meet the daily requirement for some nutrients (e.g. Magnesium), but for others, there are considerable differences (e.g. Vitamin A RAE is approximately 150× higher for small pelagics than for roots). In still other cases, nutrients are not available for  The x-axis is on a logarithmic scale. Groups selected from the aquatic (darker shade) and terrestrial (lighter shade) food groups with the highest and lowest GHG footprints need to meet the daily requirement for each of the 12 nutrients included in the nutrient richness index. Missing data indicates no data for any food products within that species food group in the USDA nutrition database at the time it was pulled. some food groups (e.g. dietary fiber is only found in plants and Omega 3 s DHA + EPA originate in marine sources, either in the wild or as part of feed formulations).To meet daily dietary requirements for all 12 nutrients included in this research, the optimization revealed that a select group of foods minimize GHG emissions (table A2). In the unconstrained solution soy, plant leaves, wheat, and small pelagics make up the solution of meeting dietary requirements and minimizing GHG emissions without considering any constraints. Under Scenario 1, these food groups produced 451 g of CO 2 equivalents and only 1654 calories. When the calorie constraint was added in Scenario 2 to reflect daily consumption guidelines of 2500 calories, small pelagics, and plant leaves remained, but soy reduced in favor of grains and a large portion of bulbs, with a higher GHG impact of 488 g of CO 2 equivalents. When a limit is set on the volume of individual food groups that can be consumed per day to approximately two servings for each individual food group in Scenario 3, a still higher GHG impact of 578 g of CO 2 equivalents was reached by reductions in bulbs, grain, and the addition of nuts, dairy and roots. Finally, when distributing the scientific targets of the planetary health diet reference for the food groups in this data, we found a much higher GHG emissions than any of the 3 scenarios (1893 g of CO 2 equivalents), and only 1888 calories.Planning for our future requires a food system that produces enough to address malnutrition for growing populations while minimizing its global and regional environmental impacts. Decisions made on how food is produced, processed and distributed creates environmental impacts with consequences that range from exacerbating global climate change and its effects to finer-scale impacts on the surrounding environment like eutrophication. The results make clear that not all seafood is equal with respect to their environmental impacts and nutrient richness. Diversity with respect to species groups and production systems should be further recognized in future research and decisionmaking on the selection of food production systems that minimize environmental impacts and maximize contributions to food security and nutrition outcomes.Across the development spectrum, nutrient-rich foods play an important role in addressing diet-based diseases and health risks caused by a transition to calorie-rich nutrient poor foods, a concern voiced in FAO's most recent State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report (FAO et al 2020). A recent global study on environmentally sustainable diets found that vegetable availability is insufficient to meet recommended consumption levels and this gap is only expected to widen (Mason-D'Croz et al 2019). As food production systems continue to reconcile their contributions to global environmental change, they also need to recognize the impact that these changes have throughout supply chains from decreasing nutritional quality of crops to increasing the need for additional cold storage infrastructure (Fanzo et al 2018). If regional supply solutions are not found, sustainable food systems in these areas will have to find alternative sources of comparably low environmental impact foods. Our results indicate that alongside some nutrient rich aquatic and marine foodswith much higher nutrient richness than many landbased ASF production systems-can help to meet this shortfall where production and/or supply is feasible. Any proposal to increase the supply of such healthful and low environmental impact seafood requires careful consideration for the governance and value chains of seafood provisioning. While there are substantial gains to be made by improved management (Hilborn and Costello 2018), wild fishery stocks will not alone meet growing, global demand for seafood. While farm-raised bivalves have high potential to contribute nutrient rich food at lower environmental impact than many other animals, but their production depends on regional growth potential and strong governance that guides financial and regulatory backing to support development (Davies et al 2019). Regulation can become an obstacle, as is the case for US aquaculture where environmental concerns can delay or stop permitting approval at federal, state or local levels (Knapp and Rubino 2016).Our results also suggest that small pelagic capture fisheries hold promise as a component of 'planetary health diets' . One challenge limiting availability of small pelagic fish in the food system is the focus on conserving small pelagic fish for their predators; there is unclear evidence whether reductions in directed fishing of small pelagic fish has such benefit because of the variability in their abundanceeven without fishing (Knapp and Rubino 2016). There are opportunities to direct more of the existing harvest of small fish towards human consumption; a large portion of the global harvest of small pelagic fish is converted into fishmeal and fish oil for use in aquaculture (Cashion et al 2017). Technical changes in aquaculture feeds such as insects, agricultural waste, and algae indicate that in the future more small pelagic fishes may be used directly as human foods (Costello et al 2019). A combination of supply chain interventions and marketing to increase consumer awareness and demand are likely required.There were some limitations to this research that require discussion. While the environment-nutrition ratio approach is useful for comparison, it must be stated that these ratios will change as more LCAs are published and as more nutrition information on species becomes available. The composite nutrient richness index, rather than the individual nutrient concentrations, is a useful summary metric when thinking of overall healthfulness of each food. However, from a public health nutrition standpoint an important consideration might be to find low impact foods that meet deficiencies in specific nutrients for a specific context. Here the preferred metric might be to focus on an individual nutrient exemplified in figure 3. Averaging across the 12 nutrients can hide low concentrations of nutrients within each food. For example, if dietary fiber is the concern, ASFs with high nutrient richness indices still will not be useful in meeting this need as fiber is found in plants. Relatedly, the focus of this research was on beneficial nutrients, and did not cover food safety concerns that exist among land and aquatic animal source foods. For example, toxins like methylmercury concentrate at higher trophic levels and in particular aquatic environments with adverse health outcomes particularly for pregnant women (Beckers and Rinklebe 2017). GHG emissions were the sole environmental impact in focus for this study, and it is important to note that these results may be cast in different light if other impacts are considered. For terrestrial systems, land use impacts may be similarly high for beef (Poore and Nemecek 2018). However, some plant-based foods that performed well in our analysis may have much higher impacts under metrics associated with land use. For example, land use for soy production may not only have high land use but has led to further biodiversity and deforestation impacts in Brasil (Garrett and Rausch 2016). This work was limited to impacts at the farm-gate or dock-side. Subsequent research should also consider impacts as these products move through the food chain, where we know that changes to processing, packaging, transport and food waste mitigation may have varied additional impacts (Poore and Nemecek 2018), but also present an opportunity for innovation. More research is required to extend the evaluation to these foods with respect to different types of environmental impacts, their use across the supply chain and whether scaling their production would provide a sustainable contribution to a more healthful food system.Defining sustainable diets has received increased attention from the research and policy communities. The food combinations this analysis finds to deliver the lowest environmental cost per unit nutrient richness do not suggest a diet, but they do suggest a constellation of foods that contribute towards the creation of scenarios that may help shift consumers towards higher quality, nutritious plant-based food systems that can maintain a safe operating space across a suite of environmental impacts for aquatic and terrestrial foods. The environment-nutrition ratios for terrestrial foods largely uphold existing research by Poore and Nemacek (2018), namely that plant-based foods have among the lowest GHG footprints across all foods. This work builds on those conclusions: with the exception of a few aquatic foods, plant-based foods perform better than ASFs when considering their impact relative to nutrient richness as well. This result also affirms the general conclusion that dietary guidelines recommending diets focused on plant-based foods and some fish are among the most healthful and sustainable (Springmann et al 2020), but takes a different approach that focuses more on malnutrition than on diet-based disease. Our results also support the general conclusions of EAT-Lancet Commission (Willett et al 2019); a majority of plant-based foods tend to have some of the lowest environmental impacts given their nutrient richness. Results of this research build upon the EAT-Lancet report by taking a finer resolution look at the fishery and aquaculture sector relative to livestock and plant-based agriculture. While the EAT-Lancet report does recommend fish generally, our more detailed analysis indicates that some capture fisheries and farmed shellfish have environmental impacts at least as low as many plants, and lower than most animal-source proteins. The optimization results further affirm this, and also reveal that theoretical optima will sometimes be challenging or impossible to apply in practice. True diet-based solutions must be affordable, diverse and culturally acceptable (Tuomisto 2019). It is our hope that wider recognition of the contribution of fish and shellfish to the food system will help drive fishery reform where overexploitation remains a concern in some parts of the world. In doing so, fisheries and aquaculture products that are nutrient rich and low in environmental impact can further contribute to food system planning that meets the objectives of the planetary health agenda.Food production varies in terms of its environmental impact and its capacity to meet nutritional needs; this research combines these two factors, comparing products across plants and ASFs from terrestrial, capture fishery and aquaculture production systems, to identify foods and production system that provide nutrition at lower environmental impact. Foods sourced from plants as well as bivalve and carp aquaculture and small pelagic fisheries tended to have the lowest environmental impact given their nutrient richness to meet dietary requirements across a diversity of nutrients. In contrast, beef, pork, crustaceans, prawns and pangasius catfish had the highest environmental impacts given their nutrient richness. The contribution of plant-based foods discussed here supports the existing literature, but the potential role that certain species of fish can play in meeting dietary guidelines provides a novel insight to identify nutrient-rich sources that not only combat malnutrition but also reduce environmental impacts of the entire food system.","tokenCount":"5180"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"23fb78ac5f435f46993418065c6c0e74","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8099edf3-b097-472c-92a1-b3a0924358a7/retrieve","id":"403201611"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"37b853c8-0413-4bf6-8afc-a195ceaa3f33","pagecount":"23","content":"Producción de tubérculos-semilla de papa calidad prebásica y básica. Procedimiento Operativo Estándar (POE).La semilla de alta calidad, tanto fitosanitaria como fisiológica, constituye el principal elemento para el desarrollo de cultivos exitosos y la consecución de una productividad óptima. En los países de bajos ingresos, una parte significativa de la brecha de rendimiento actual se atribuye a la calidad deficiente de las semillas. Por lo tanto, el desarrollo del sector de semillas se posiciona como una preocupación central para gobiernos, investigadores, agencias de desarrollo y organizaciones de productores de semillas.Para el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP), la producción de tubérculos semilla emerge como un factor crucial para facilitar la diseminación de nuevas variedades y obtener datos pertinentes vinculadas con la adaptación, rendimiento, resistencia a factores bióticos y abióticos, así como características destinadas al procesamiento y almacenamiento de las futuras variedades de papa desarrolladas por sus investigadores.Este documento presenta las especificaciones que deben tenerse en cuenta para la producción de semilla de papa en el CIP en Perú, las cuales están alineadas con las reglamentaciones oficiales de Perú y las políticas institucionales.Normar la producción en el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) en Perú de tubérculos-semilla de papa:1. De calidad prebásica.3. De materiales de mejoramiento genético y de conservación de germoplasma (variedades nativas de papa y especies silvestres del género Solanum).Este procedimiento debe ser cumplido por el personal que produzca tubérculos-semilla en campo, invernadero o casa malla a partir de plántulas in vitro libres de patógenos, semilla prebásica, tubérculos o semilla botánica, de variedades mejoradas, variedades nativas, clones de mejoramiento, o especies silvestres del género Solanum.Este procedimiento se aplica a Perú y podrá ser validado para otros países en donde CIP tiene actividades.4 Normas para tener en consideración a. Políticas operacionales 2.1.2 (Procedimientos de conservación de recursos genéticos, adquisición y distribución de germoplasma) y 2.1.7 (Uso de plaguicidas)El investigador principal a cargo del estudio será responsable de la producción y manejo del cultivo de acuerdo con los lineamientos del CIP (ver políticas operacionales 2.1.2 y 2.1.7). El científico delegará las actividades a los asistentes de investigación según las actividades a realizar, junto con el supervisor de la estación experimental.El oficial de cuarentena será responsable de la inspección periódica de los invernaderos, campos de propagación y bodegas, en coordinación con el superintendente de la estación experimental y el científico encargado del proyecto.El oficial de cuarentena debe llevar a cada inspección los formatos de inspección, bisturí, pala de mano, cuchillo, bolsas de plástico y papel para la toma de muestras, cámara fotográfica, caja térmica, lapiceros y marcadores.Únicamente el personal capacitado en aplicación de plaguicidas estará a cargo de esta actividad (ver política operacional No. 2.1.7).Se describen 5 procedimientos:1) Producción de tubérculos-semilla de calidad prebásica2) Producción de tubérculos-semilla de calidad básica3) Producción de tubérculos-semilla de materiales de mejoramiento y de conservación de germoplasma 4) Manejo integrado de plagas y enfermedades 5) Producción de tubérculos-semilla de calidad prebásica o básica bajo contrato 6) Movimiento de semilla y otras regulaciones 6.1 Producción de tubérculos-semilla de calidad prebásica g. La producción de semilla prebásica se hará mediante técnicas que hayan sido reportadas previamente en artículos, manuales o reportes técnicos:i. Producción convencional: Hidalgo et al. (1999).ii. Semihidroponía: Muro et al. (1999), Ranalli (1997), Ritter et al., 2001. iii. Hidroponía: Chuquillanqui et al. (2008). Otras técnicas, como raíz flotante (KOPIA 2012), microtuberización por estrés hídrico (INIA s/a), etc. también podrán ser usadas, aunque en este caso se recomienda una fase previa de validación a las condiciones locales.a. El material de siembra será plántulas in vitro. En caso de necesitar mayor cantidad de material de siembra, se pueden usar técnicas de propagación rápida como el sistema autotrófico hidropónico (Rigato et al, 2001), o esquejes apicales, esquejes laterales, esquejes de tallo adulto, etc. (Hidalgo et al., 1999) provenientes de plantas madre obtenidas a su vez de plántulas in vitro. Se podrá usar brotes de tubérculos, siempre y cuando los tubérculos sean de categoría prebásica.b. En el caso de técnicas que usen sustrato, éste deberá tener características de porosidad (80-85%), baja densidad aparente (0,7 a 1), estructura granular o fibrilar estable, tamaño de gránulos intermedia, baja capacidad de intercambio catiónico, pH constante, adecuado nivel de nutrientes asimilables, fácil esterilización y fácil de mezclar. Se prohíbe el uso de sustratos provenientes de ecosistemas frágiles o de uso restringido según normas medioambientales locales.c. En el caso de sustratos en base a suelo, éste debe ser de tipo franco arenoso, previamente esterilizado al vapor o con fumigantes aprobados por la legislación local, preferentemente de baja toxicidad.d. En el caso de sustratos a base de arena o de otros materiales inertes, se recomienda que provengan de zonas alejadas de áreas mineras. De acuerdo con los requerimientos de trabajo, el sustrato puede ser lavado con hipoclorito de sodio (0,35% de cloro) con al menos 4 enjuagues con agua corriente, esterilizado al vapor o solarizado (CIP 2008). Se puede usar arena proveniente de la intemperización de las rocas, la cual es de fácil de uso, por el tamaño de los gránulos y porque proporciona buen drenaje al mezclarse con otros componentes del sustrato.e. La esterilización por vapor de cada componente del sustrato debe seguir las normas establecidas por la estación experimental. Debe tenerse en consideración las características fisicoquímicas de cada sustrato para evitar problemas de fitotoxicidad.f. La fertilización del cultivo se hará considerando el nivel de nutrientes de cada componente del sustrato y la técnica a usar. Los fertilizantes elegidos deberán estar aprobados por la legislación local. En el caso de producción convencional Hidalgo et al. (1999), al momento de la siembra se recomienda utilizar fertilizantes granulados y, durante el cultivo, fertilizantes líquidos.g. El trasplante de las plántulas in vitro o de otro material de siembra, como esquejes, debe realizarse cuando las plántulas enraizadas tienen un tamaño o número de foliolos adecuado para ser manipuladas. Utilizando pinzas de acero inoxidable, las plántulas serán extraídas del tubo de prueba o contenedor de plástico. Se retirará el medio de cultivo adherido a las raíces por inmersión en agua destilada estéril o desionizada y luego colocarse en el sustrato o en discos de sustrato prensado previamente hidratados.h. En el caso de producción convencional, los riegos deben ser ligeros y frecuentes para evitar pudriciones radiculares. La humedad debe estar a capacidad de campo. Como medida preventiva puede aplicarse fungicidas al cuello de la planta o ser agregados al sistema de fertiirrigación. El aporque de las plantas debe realizarse en el momento adecuado de acuerdo con la variedad o genotipo en propagación. El objetivo es darle mayor anclaje a la planta, proteger a los tubérculos de la radiación solar y evitar el ataque de patógenos.i. El manejo de plagas y enfermedades se describe en la sección 4. j. Control de calidad en follaje. La primera inspección se realizará al 100% de las plantas, cuando estas tengan entre 10 y 15 cm de altura (antes de floración), de manera visual. En caso de encontrarse plantas con síntomas de virus (mosaicos, moteados, enrollamiento de hojas, etc.), atípicas, deformes, o con marchitez ocasionada por pudriciones o estrangulamientos del cuello, las plantas deben ser eliminadas inmediatamente, almacenándolas en bolsas plásticas y desechándolas en sitios autorizados por el supervisor de la estación experimental.Durante la primera evaluación visual se tomarán muestras al azar de cada genotipo, ya sea muestras de plantas individuales o muestras compuestas (entre 2 y 5 plantas por muestra). El número de muestras se determinará usando la metodología descrita por García (1999). La fórmula y resultado deberá mencionarse en el registro de inspecciones visuales y pruebas virológicas.Las muestras serán sometidas a pruebas de Ensayo por inmunoadsorción ligado a enzimas (ELISA), Hibridación de ácidos nucleicos (NASH), Reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR), o cualquier otra técnica recomendada por HQU, para cualquiera de los virus de la Tabla 1:Tabla 1. Viruses y viroide que pueden ser probados para producción de semilla prebásica.Andean Los virus para diagnosticar se seleccionarán de acuerdo con el destino de la semilla:• Si la semilla va a ser usada para producir semilla básica entonces se deben probar los virus PVY, PVX, PVS, PLRV y el viroide PSTVd. En caso de sospechar la presencia de otro virus mencionado en la Tabla 1, se realizará la prueba correspondiente.• Si la semilla se usará en ensayos que finalizan después de la cosecha (no se obtendrá semilla), las inspecciones solo serán visuales, con eliminación de plantas atípicas o síntomas de enfermedad.La tolerancia máxima para incidencia de virus en semilla prebásica es 0%. Si se usan muestran compuestas, y si las pruebas virológicas son positivas para cualquiera de los virus, se debe hacer una prueba individual de las plantas que conformaron la muestra compuesta. Si estas plantas resultan infectadas deben ser eliminadas.En caso los resultados indiquen la presencia de patógenos cuarentenarios (como PSTVd), se eliminarán todas las plantas.Luego de la primera inspección visual y de la toma de muestras, se harán evaluaciones visuales para enfermedades fungosas, virales y bacterianas de manera constante (una vez por semana). En cualquiera de estas evaluaciones, si se encuentran plantas con síntomas de marchitez bacteriana, éstas deben ser sometidas a pruebas de laboratorio (flujo bacteriano y aislamiento en medio de cultivo) y, en caso de confirmar la presencia de Ralstonia solanacerum, se descartarán todas las plantas del invernadero o casa malla.a. Antes de la cosecha y dependiendo de la técnica de multiplicación que se esté utilizando, se recomienda la aplicación de un desecante para eliminar la parte aérea de la planta y facilitar la cosecha. La aplicación debe realizarse por lo menos 15 días antes de la cosecha.b. La cosecha de los genotipos debe realizarse cuando las plantas han completado su madurez fisiológica.La cosecha será manual, luego de la cual se lavan los tubérculos con agua corriente, sobre todo en el caso de técnicas en las que el tubérculo está en contacto con una solución nutritiva (como en la aeroponía).c. Los tubérculos prebásicos serán clasificados en las siguientes categorías:Gruesa: Tubérculos mayores de 40 gramos.Primera: Tubérculos entre 30 y 39 gramos.Segunda: Tubérculos entre 20 y 29 gramos.Tercera: Tubérculos entre 10 y 19 gramos.Cuarta: Tubérculos entre 1 y 9 gramos.• Durante las labores de cosecha y clasificación se eliminarán tubérculos que sean deformes, que tengan daños físicos, o que tengan síntomas de enfermedades o de ataques de plagas.• Antes del almacenaje, los tubérculos prebásicos pueden ser tratados con fungicidas e insecticidas aprobados para su uso en papa.• Dependiendo del uso que se les quiera dar, los tubérculos pueden ser conservados en cámara fría a 4°C, a 90% de humedad relativa y sin luz; sometidos a un proceso para romper la dormancia (Marca e Hidalgo, 1999); o directamente almacenados en sitios con luz difusa con una temperatura entre 12 y 18°C y una humedad relativa de 60 a 70%, para que la brotación ocurra de manera natural.• El almacén de luz difusa debe ser largo y angosto, para el mejor aprovechamiento de la luz natural. Las paredes deben tener malla anti áfida, con cortinas de plástico transparentes que puedan ser enrolladas en época de calor. El almacén debe tener en lo posible pisos lisos e impermeables. Se recomienda colocar trampas de luz, amarillas o bandejas de plástico con agua y detergente para evitar la infestación de insectos. La estructura y capacidad del almacén debe estar de acuerdo con la demanda de semillas, a normas de seguridad de la institución y a las consideraciones incluidas en las Buenas Prácticas Agrícolas.• Los tubérculos deben ser almacenados en jabas de madera o plástico, las que deben ser apilables, fáciles de limpiar y desinfestar. La profundidad de las jabas no debe ser superior al equivalente a 3 o 4 tubérculos sobrepuestos, pues impediría que la luz alcance a todos los tubérculos. Cada jaba debe tener la información del genotipo, fecha de cosecha, fecha de almacenamiento, categoría y tratamientos realizados a la semilla. Se recomienda el uso de código de barras. Pueden construirse camas con listones de madera a lo largo del almacén con una altura de 40 cm del suelo y separadas verticalmente unas de otras por al menos 30 cm.6.2 Producción de tubérculos-semilla de calidad básica a. La producción de tubérculos-semilla de calidad básica se hará en campos dentro o fuera de CIP. El investigador principal del proyecto debe solicitar antes el campo de propagación dentro o fuera del CIP, en coordinación con el supervisor de la estación experimental, según el cronograma dispuesto por la estación experimental, y todos los materiales e insumos necesarios para producir tubérculos de papa.Los pedidos deben registrarse en el sistema web del CIP.b. El campo de cultivo no se debió cultivar con papa al menos 3 campañas agrícolas.c. Se sugiere seleccionar campos con buen drenaje, baja compactación, alta disponibilidad de nutrientes, de preferencia franco a franco arenosos, con pH entre 5.5 a 7.5. Debe realizarse análisis de suelo del terreno elegido para determinar las características físicas (estructura, textura) y químicas (pH, CIC) del suelo y luego seleccionar los fertilizantes o enmiendas adecuadas.d. La preparación del terreno debe realizarse en forma oportuna y con los implementos agrícolas pertinentes, para evitar la erosión del suelo. Las características del suelo preparado deben asegurar una adecuada germinación y posterior desarrollo de las plantas.e. La producción de semilla básica debe realizarse en terrenos ubicados en zonas aptas para producción de semilla definidas por la legislación local. De no existir esta legislación, se conseguirán lotes en zonas frías (para reducir la presencia de insectos vectores de virus) y con historial de baja o ninguna ocurrencia de enfermedades críticas para producción de semilla, como marchitez bacteriana (Ralstonia solanacearum), verruga de la papa (Synchitrium endobioticum) y PSTVd. Para el caso del Perú, se recomienda producir semilla básica en lotes ubicados sobre 3500 m.s.n.m. Los lotes de producción de semilla deben estar separados por los menos de 200 m de lotes comerciales de papa.f. La producción de tubérculos-semilla de calidad básica se hará a partir de tubérculos prebásicos, con brotes vigorosos y múltiples. De acuerdo con el objetivo de la siembra y a las características de cada variedad, se establecerán los distanciamientos entre plantas y entre surcos.g. Los tubérculos-semilla deben transportarse en jabas de plástico o madera, con su correspondiente identificación, para evitar daños en los brotes.h. Los fertilizantes por usar deberán ser aprobados por la legislación local. Antes de la siembra se deben distribuir a chorro continuo en el fondo del surco y cubrir con una ligera capa de tierra para evitar quemar brotes.i. Los tubérculos-semilla se colocan en el fondo del surco teniendo cuidado de colocar los brotes hacia arriba. Deben taparse con una capa de tierra que corresponde a un tercio del tamaño del tubérculo semilla.j. Los riegos deben ser frecuentes procurándose que el suelo logre tener la humedad a capacidad de campo.k. El deshierbo debe ser realizado en forma manual o pueden usarse herbicidas selectivos aprobados para uso en papa.l. El aporque debe ser oportuno, preferentemente antes de la floración. El número de aporques dependerá de la variedad que se está propagando.m. El manejo de plagas y enfermedades se hará de acuerdo con lo descrito en la sección 5.4.n. Control de calidad en follaje. Se realizarán dos evaluaciones visuales: 1) cuando las plantas estén en estado de prefloración, y 2) después de la floración.o. Unos días antes de las inspecciones se deben realizar descartes de plantas con características no deseables (\"roguing\"), sean estas de carácter varietal o sanitaria. Las plantas descartadas deben ser colocadas en bolsas de plástico y desechadas en sitios autorizados por el superintendente de la estación experimental.p. Las tolerancias máximas permitidas de limitantes de calidad en campo serán las que indiquen la normativa local. Si no existe esta normativa, se usarán las tolerancias descritas en la Tabla 2.Tabla 2. Tolerancias máximas permitidas (%) en follaje para producción de tubérculos-semilla de calidad básica. Marchitez bacteriana, amarillamiento de venas 0,0 0,0 Mezcla varietal 0,0 0,0 Polilla Guatemalteca 0,0 0,0 Punta morada 0,0 0,0 El número de muestras que se evaluará se determinará usando la metodología descrita por García (1999). La fórmula y resultado deberá mencionarse en el registro de inspecciones visuales.a. Se recomienda la aplicación de un desecante para eliminar la parte aérea de la planta y facilitar la cosecha. La aplicación debe realizarse por lo menos 15 días antes de la cosecha.b. La cosecha de los genotipos debe realizarse cuando las plantas han completado su madurez fisiológica.La cosecha será manual o mecánica.c. Los tubérculos-semilla básicos serán clasificados en las siguientes categorías:Primera: Tubérculos entre 70 a 120 g Segunda: Tubérculos entre 40 a 69 g Tercera: Tubérculos menores de 39 g Al momento de la clasificación se deben descartar todos aquellos tubérculos enfermos, con deformaciones, daños por insectos, mezclas varietales, etc.d. Control de calidad en tubérculos. Una vez clasificados los tubérculos se debe tomar una muestra representativa de cada categoría, usando la metodología descrita por García (1999).Se realizarán inspecciones visuales sobre la incidencia (%) de enfermedades, plagas, enfermedades y otros problemas. Las tolerancias máximas permitidas (%) serán las de que indiquen la normativa local. En caso de no existir esta normativa se usarán las tolerancias descritas en la Tabla 3. Estas tolerancias podrán modificarse según las condiciones de cada país.Tabla 3. Tolerancias máximas permitidas (%) en tubérculos-semilla de calidad básica.Thecaphora solani 0Papa manchada (\"Zebra chip\") 0Viroide (Potato spindle tuber viroid) 0Fusarium solani 1Pectobacterium spp. 1Nematodos (Globodera, Meloidogyne) 1 Fuera de tamaño, rajados, inmaduros (\"pelones\") o deformes 1Daños por insectos y/o presencia de larvas (por ejemplo Premnotrypes spp., Phthorimaea operculella, Symmetrischema tangolias) 2 e. La identificación y almacenaje de tubérculos-semilla de calidad básica se hará siguiendo los procedimientos descritos para tubérculos-semilla de calidad prebásica.Para materiales provenientes de plantas in vitro, se seguirán las normas descritas en la sección 1, y para materiales provenientes de tubérculos-semilla o semilla botánica de calidad indeterminada, se seguirán las descritas en la sección 2, excepto el control de calidad, descrito a continuación.a. Para materiales de mejoramiento (Anexo 1):• Los parentales usados para los cruzamientos serán evaluados para PSTVd y PVT.• Entre las familias de tubérculos y la quinta . generación clonal se realizarán inspecciones visuales de síntomas de patógenos en invernadero y campo.• Antes de la introducción a condiciones in vitro, se realizarán pruebas para APLV, APMoV, AVB-O, PLRV, PSTVd, PVS, PVT, PVX, PVY y PYVV.b. Para materiales de conservación:i. Para variedades nativas (Anexo 2): Se realizarán inspecciones visuales de síntomas de patógenos durante la multiplicación y evaluación de materiales en invernadero y campo.ii. Para especies silvestres (Anexo 3): Plántulas provenientes de semilla botánica o usadas para producir semilla botánica serán probadas para PSTVd y PVT. También se realizarán inspecciones visuales de síntomas de patógenos en invernadero y campo.Se seguirán las indicaciones de Unidad de Cuarentena vegetal (HQU) en todos los casos en los que se requieran hacer pruebas virológicas.Plantas con síntomas de patógenos serán eliminadas, o sometidas a técnicas que permitan eliminar a los patógenos.En cualquiera de las inspecciones visuales, si se identifica un síntoma fuera de lo común, el oficial de cuarentena puede pedir que se haga una prueba de laboratorio específica. f. La preparación, aplicación y eliminación de residuos de caldo de plaguicidas debe ser monitoreado por los supervisores inmediatos del aplicador, siguiendo la norma N° 2.1.7 (ver Política Operacional para aplicación de plaguicidas).g. El almacenaje de los plaguicidas debe ser de acuerdo con las normas establecidas por el CIP (Norma N° 2.1.7 Política Operacional para aplicación de plaguicidas).6.5 Producción de tubérculos-semilla de calidad prebásica o básica bajo contrato a. Seleccionar a empresas o productores con antecedentes reconocidos de producción de semilla y que sean de acreditados por la autoridad competente (en caso de existir normativa para producción de semilla de papa).b. Verificar las técnicas de multiplicación, las medidas de higiene, el estado de la infraestructura, el historial de los campos, la capacidad administrativa, etc. mediante una visita a sus instalaciones y pidiendo referencias a otros clientes.c. Firmar un contrato especificando las características del material de siembra a usar y de la semilla que se recibirá: pureza genética, calidad sanitaria, edad fisiológica, estado físico, peso, cantidad, precio de venta, fecha de entrega, registros (ver sección 7.).d. Incluir una cláusula de penalidades en caso de incumplimiento del contrato.e. Si es la primera vez que se contrata a una empresa o a un productor de semilla, considerar planes de contingencia en la eventualidad que no se cumpla el contrato. Prever fondos adicionales para cubrir los costos de estos planes de contingencia o considerarlos en las penalidades del contrato.f. Las inspecciones y pruebas virológicas deben realizarse por técnicos de CIP e idealmente también por la entidad competente. Si se hace solo con técnicos de CIP, indicar en el contrato quién cubrirá los costos de movilización y análisis.g. Asegurar que la empresa disponga de material de siembra en la cantidad, calidad y fecha adecuada. De ser necesario, proveer de material inicial a la empresa (plantas in vitro o minitubérculos) y detallar su costo en el contrato.h. Elaborar e iniciar el contrato entre 12 y 18 meses antes de la fecha estimada de siembra.7 Movimiento de semilla y otras regulaciones a. Está prohibido el movimiento y uso de tubérculos-semilla de origen indeterminado o sin la certificación sanitaria correspondiente de HQU o de la autoridad competente, así como aquellos producidos en campos de costa y selva, salvo en experimentos que tengan como fin la evaluación de la calidad de semilla producida en estas condiciones, u otros fines experimentales debidamente aprobados por la Dirección de Investigación.b. El material de siembra para uso en parcelas experimentales debe provenir de campos ubicados a más de 3500 m.s.n.m. y que cuente con la certificación sanitaria de la Unidad de Cuarentena Vegetal (HQU) o de la autoridad competente.c. El material de siembra para uso en invernaderos y casas de malla debe ser de categoría prebásica. En el caso de materiales de mejoramiento o de conservación de germoplasma, el material de siembra debe tener la misma calidad sanitaria que la semilla prebásica o deberán realizarse los análisis sanitarios respectivos de acuerdo con lo requerido por el oficial de cuarentena del CIP.El personal debe usar los equipos de seguridad personal de acuerdo con las actividades a realizar y de acuerdo con los procedimientos operativos estándar (POE) disponibles en la Estación Experimental.El personal local contratado para realizar trabajos de multiplicación de semilla fuera de estación experimental debe cumplir las normas de seguridad y salud dispuestas por el CIP y la normativa nacional.Para tubérculos-semilla de calidad prebásica y básica producidos por CIP:a. Datos de identificación del material vegetal.b. Informe del estado sanitario del material de siembra, expedido por la Unidad de Cuarentena Vegetal (HQU) o por la autoridad competente.c. Plano de ubicación del campo e historial de uso (en el caso de semilla básica).d. Análisis de sustrato o suelo, e interpretación.e. Actividades agronómicas (preparación de sustrato o de suelo, fertilización, fecha de siembra, fecha de aporque, aporque, deshierbo, cosecha y almacenamiento).f. Aplicación de plaguicidas (nombre comercial, ingrediente activo, dosis, forma de aplicación, volumen).g. Datos del personal capacitado y certificado para realizar aplicaciones de plaguicidas.h. Resultados de inspecciones visuales y pruebas virológicas (incluyendo fórmula y resultados para tamaño de muestra).Para producción de semilla bajo contrato:a. Contrato para producción de semilla. En el contrato se debe indicar que la empresa o productor está obligada a llevar los registros descritos arriba.b. En caso de existir normativa para producción de semilla de papa: registro como productor de semilla de la empresa o productor por la autoridad competente del país.","tokenCount":"3879"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"342de33f6add127270c8301ba4175bc6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a52ca851-9580-404c-bd94-f5c32dc4dd7e/retrieve","id":"-1908377507"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"05aa3ab5-8adc-4559-84ad-c075668cc92b","pagecount":"21","content":"The computerl.zatl.on of the survey data as a data bank, shou1d prov2de an ongolng faClll.ty for both sC2ent2sts and econom2sts a12keha weLe well draLnea savannas, and 20 m~llLon ha were seasonal1y flooded savannas 3 Whl1st one sOL1 type often predOmlnated ln any one land system. there were Lnvar~ably s~ghlfLcant m~nor sOl.l l.ntrus~ons \\ü th defferences both l.n terms of mOLsture relatLonshlps and natlve fertl.ll.ty The lack of so11 m02sture dur2ng the dry season on the \\.¡el1 dral.ned lands wou1d l.ndl.cate a need for a more vlgorous search for drought to1erant forages Al tOX2C2ty was common l.n the savanna s021s A new equatl.on was deve10ped to enable farmers app1y 12me more sCl.ent2fl.ca11y to overcome th2S problem ThlS shou1d save farmers many ml11lons of do11ars ln the years to come SOll mlneral deflclencles were reg2on, espec2ally phosphorus cornmon throughout the Relat2ve1y small appllcatlons of P appear to be suff2clent to t~e satlsfactory growth of many current1y used forages The products of the survey were speclfled as   The collated data for the land systems has been recorded on magnet~c tape to prov~de a fac~l~ty for potentLal users of the study Apart from mak~ng deta~led ~nformat~on ava~lable for any part of the reg~on, selected data may be compared and correlatedAdd~t~onally, a map pr~nt-out system has been de-v~sed to enable the automat~c comp~lat~on of maps accordLng to gLven crLterLaThe system can be updated as new  The varlab111ty of s011s w1th1n landscape unlts, ln so far as chemlcal propert1es are concerned, has been 111ustrated by Lepsch et al(1977) 1n the1r study of the Occldental Plateau, Sao Paulo A mlnor calcareous lntrus10n descrlbed was clearly very s1gnlflcant to cattle nutr1t10nAs a general trend, there 1S a fert111ty gradlent between the savannas and adJacent forests The Sru~e lS true W1thln the savannas, as already noted, Table 3, those \"nth a hlgher h10mass generally have a hlgher fert111ty status.of In assesslng sOll fertlllty, the approach followed was that a) The ldent1f1catlon of tOX1C1ty problems, part1cularlyAl, ~!n and Fe b) Tne subsequent 1dent1f1cat10n of defeClency problems Throughout much of the savanna reg10n, s01l Al saturatlon levels were found to be hlqh Further, lt was noted that many farmers were spendlng large suros of money an maSSlve llme app11catlons ln attemptlng to overcome Al tOX1Clty problems based on the neutrallzatlon of Al However, crops and foraqes vary ln the~r tolerance to Al, the degree of wh~ch may be expressed  As seen from Tab1e 3, the poss1b111ty of ~m and, or Fe tox1c1t1es can not be d1scounted However, 1t was not poss1ble to obta1n suff1c1ent geograph1cal1y spec1f1C data to est1ffiate the extent of these tox1c1t1esApart from n~trogen, phosphorus was the most common m~neral def~cHmcy be~ng cultlvated of P20S' 50kg or However, for many of the foraqe spec~es ln the reg~on, relat~vely small appllcat~ons less, appear to glve satlsfactory responses once Al tox~c~ty problems are overcomeZ~nc def~c~ency has been reported, but only ~n the context of over-l~m~ng, although 5011 levels are often low,as are ~!g, K and S levels ~lcClung and de Fre~tas{l959) have reported a sulphur def~c~ency B, Mo and even ~m levels may prove to be def~c~ent ~n sorne so~ls for sorne crops So~l Na levels are very low ln the Cerrados so~ls, and th~s undoubtedly ~ndlcates the need for the use of common salt ~n helplng to lmprove beef cattle nutrltlon ln those reglonsThe Land Systems Map and the Data Bank Flg 4 prov~des an example of tlJ.e Land Systerns Map of Tocantls, one of 9 maps coverlna the reg~on, wh~ch has been produced as an over-lay to the topographlcal maps of Brazll. These same maps have been stored on magnetlc tape for cornputer reproductlon The computer prlnt-out w~ll enable not one, but rnany d~fferent maps to be made accord~ng to spec~flc and requested crlterla.Flnally, ~t should be emphaslzed that all the baS1C data collected for the survey has been collated and sto red on magnetlc tape, and ~s now avallable to faCll~tate a multltude of estlmatlons relevant to any glven factor, a~d to enable lntelllgent correlat~ons to be made between characterlst~cs both by SClent~sts and econom~sts al~ke  1 c=J E1/:IO? \"\"\",, 5<:lM c.-lId r _ _ &c::J -... _ '\"\"'\"\"\" ~ ~ ~~ \"\"\"\"\" '\" er--:J A.:> $\"\" F\"\"\"\", Ct»\"IlM re:: \"\"\"\"''''10 '\" _ _ 6 ,_2ftc=J ~ <Io>~<W \"<:l<o.., [-.:JO-p ..,....\"\" V<t(N1 wn ac:.:J C.o(l~ \"\"\"'\" , ,..EJ.g.J.. _ The Campos Cerrados Vegetat:LOn","tokenCount":"725"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/5750563298.json b/data/part_3/5750563298.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d2486e813f3968729fd2962877be6401","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/WPapers/WP273Bhomia.pdf","id":"-877530285"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3168fefa-8f5b-487c-9858-aaaf3b037f4c","pagecount":"31","content":"Gambar 1 Pendekatan langkah demi langkah dalam restorasi lahan gambut, seperti yang dilakukan oleh Badan Restorasi Gambut Indonesia (Wardhana, 2016) 2 Beberapa parameter utama yang harus dipantau untuk mencapai restorasi lahan gambut holistik (FAO 2020) 3 Organisasi prinsip, kriteria, dan indikator secara hierarkis (Pokorny dan Adams 2003) 4 Empat bagian organisasi dari rangkaian webinar untuk mengidentifikasi prinsip, kriteria, dan indikator restorasi lahan gambut 5 Sintesis seri webinar restorasi lahan gambut dan beberapa poin pembelajaran utama Tabel 1 Kriteria dan indikator yang teridentifikasi terkait aspek biofisik lahan gambut 2 Kriteria dan indikator yang teridentifikasi terkait dengan aspek ekonomi lahan gambut 3 Kriteria dan indikator yang teridentifikasi terkait aspek sosial lahan gambut 4 Kriteria dan indikator yang teridentifikasi terkait aspek tatakelola lahan gambut Kotak 1 Pendekatan berbasis kebutuhan untuk mengidentifikasi prinsip, kriteria, dan indikator pemantauan lahan gambut vDengan pemikiran ini, antara bulan September dan Desember 2020, CIFOR menyelenggarakan serangkaian lokakarya daring untuk mencari prinsip, kriteria dan indikator (P, K & I) untuk restorasi lahan gambut tropis di Indonesia. Empat lokakarya telah berlangsung, di mana perwakilan dari tingkat nasional dan internasional yang mewakili pemerintah, universitas, organisasi non-pemerintah dan lembaga penelitian membahas berbagai aspek kunci dari restorasi lahan gambut dan membahas cara praktis untuk memantau keberhasilan restorasi. Secara keseluruhan, webinar ini terdiri atas 20 sesi, dengan 50 pembicara dan 18 moderator yang memfasilitasi 11 diskusi, dan dihadiri oleh 827 peserta dari berbagai negara. Pesan utama yang dihasilkan dari lokakarya ini adalah perlunya penekanan yang lebih besar pada 'lima R' -rewetting (membasahi ulang ) lahan gambut yang dikeringkan, reducing (mengurangi) risiko kebakaran, revegetasi (menanam kembali) bentang alam, reinforcing (memperkuat) struktur tatakelola lokal, dan revitalizing (merevitalisasi) kondisi sosialekonomi masyarakat lokal.Sejumlah kriteria dan indikator biofisik, sosial, ekonomi dan tatakelola juga muncul dari 20 sesi tersebut. Kriteria dan indikator ini perlu diterapkan dan diuji dalam kondisi lapangan yang sesungguhnya sebelum diadopsi dan diimplementasikan secara lebih luas. Indikator tersebut meliputi: indikator biofisik -terkait dengan sejumlah aspek ekologi, hidrologis dan kebakaran lahan gambut -sehingga para pemangku kepentingan dapat memantau restorasi dan memelihara keutuhan kesatuan hidrologis gambut, serta pengurangan risiko kebakaran; indikator sosial -terkait dengan jejaring sosial, kesetaraan, kepercayaan dan keadilan -sehingga pemangku kepentingan dapat menentukan sejauh mana proses dan partisipasi demokrasi, resolusi konflik dan kesukarelaan, yang penting untuk solidaritas sosial; indikator ekonomi, terutama untuk memantau insentif yang ada dan beberapa pilihan mata pencaharian baru di bentang alam lahan gambut; dan indikator tatakelola, untuk mencari kebijakan apa yang dibutuhkan dan sesuai di tingkat lokal, provinsi dan nasional untuk keberhasilan implementasi. Mengambil pendekatan yang seimbang untuk pemantauan yang mencakup keempat aspek tersebut akan berarti bahwa target restorasi dapat diukur secara memadai, dan keberhasilan dapat diukur secara menyeluruh. Adopsi P, K & I oleh instansi terkait akan membantu dalam proses pengelolaan yang adaptif dan pengambilan keputusan menuju restorasi lahan gambut, baik di Indonesia maupun di sejumlah negara lainnya.Working Paper ini serta rangkaian lokakarya daring yang mendasarinya, terselenggara berkat dukungan keuangan dari United States Agency for International Development (USAID) untuk Pusat Penelitian Kehutanan Internasional (CIFOR). CIFOR juga menghargai dukungan yang besar dari Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan (KLHK), Badan Restorasi Gambut (BRG) dan International Tropical Peatlands Center (ITPC). CIFOR berterima-kasih kepada Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) dan Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI) atas kontribusi mereka yang berharga. Dan yang terakhir, CIFOR mengucapkan terima kasih kepada semua pakar yang mewakili para praktisi, para peneliti, dan para pejabat pemerintah yang telah berkontribusi dengan berbagi informasi dan pengalaman lapangan praktis mereka.vii Kontributor Keluaran yang dihasilkan dari rangkaian lokakarya daring ini merupakan kontribusi besar yang diberikan oleh komunitas peneliti, praktisi, akademisi, dan pejabat pemerintah, yang mewakili berbagai organisasi dan sektor. Tabel berikut menggambarkan keragaman para pakar yang memberikan masukan penting dalam membentuk empat webinar yang mengarah pada Working Paper ini.Posisi Secara keseluruhan, luas lahan gambut tropis dan hutan rawa gambut relatif kecil, namun ekosistem ini memainkan peran penting dalam siklus karbon global. Lahan gambut hanya menutupi 3% dari permukaan bumi tetapi menjadi tempat penyimpanan karbon dalam jumlah besar; area yang relatif kecil ini menyimpan karbon sebanyak dua kali lipat dari seluruh hutan dunia. Karbon yang tersimpan di lahan gambut sama besarnya dengan karbon yang tersimpan di semua vegetasi di permukaan bumi, atau lebih dari setengah karbon yang tersimpan di atmosfer (Yu et al. 2010, Page et al. 2011, Dargie et al. 2017).Lahan gambut ditemukan di seluruh daerah tropis, dengan luas antara 33,4 dan 57,8 juta hektar.Lahan gambut menyediakan berbagai jasa ekosistem, mulai dari pengaturan iklim, pengurangan banjir dan polusi; menyediakan makanan, serat, air dan sumber daya genetik; mendukung keanekaragaman hayati, produksi primer dan siklus nutrisi; untuk kegunaan sosial-budaya, termasuk rekreasi dan pendidikan (Bonn et al. 2016).Meskipun laju akumulasi gambut kecil (~0,2-2,0 mm/tahun), endapan gambut dapat berkembang hingga beberapa meter tebalnya selama ribuan tahun. Lapisan gambut terdiri dari bahan organik yang telah distabilkan oleh kondisi anoksik yang tergenang air. Gambut yang dihasilkan dapat memiliki simpanan karbon lebih dari 1000 Mg karbon per hektar, dengan nilai melebihi 7500 Mg karbon per hektar untuk lapisan gambut yang luar biasa tebal (yaitu, lebih dari 12 m) (Jaenicke et al. 2008).Oleh karena itu, ekosistem ini menyimpan cadangan karbon terbesar per satuan luas dari ekosistem terestrial lainnya di bumi.Meskipun penting, lahan gambut terancam oleh aktivitas antropogenik, dan dalam beberapa dekade terakhir lahan gambut telah terdegradasi, dikeringkan, dan dibakar, terutama untuk tujuan pertanian dan kehutanan, menyumbangkan sekitar 2 miliar metrik ton karbon dioksida per tahun ke atmosfer. Tingkat degradasi yang tinggi, yang disebabkan oleh drainase dan penghilangan vegetasi, telah mengubah lahan gambut tersebut dari penyerap karbon menjadi sumber gas rumah kaca (GRK).Degradasi lahan gambut juga dapat mengurangi kemampuan gambut untuk menyediakan barang dan jasa ekologis; lahan gambut memberikan berbagai jasa ekosistem yang berkontribusi pada kesejahteraan manusia, termasuk pengaturan iklim, pemurnian air, peluang rekreasi dan pendidikan, dan pariwisata. Mengenali atribut penting ini -penyediaan jasa ekosistem dan kemampuan luar biasa untuk secara perlahan menyerap dan menyimpan karbon -berbagai negara mengambil sejumlah tindakan untuk mencegah degradasi dan menetapkan tujuan untuk memulihkan lahan gambut yang terdegradasi.Lahan gambut dan hutan rawa gambut Indonesia mencakup area seluas 21 juta hektar, mewakili sekitar 36% dari lahan gambut tropis dunia. Namun, sebagian besar lahan gambut tropis Indonesia telah terdegradasi sejak tahun 1980-an melalui deforestasi dan drainase, terutama untuk tujuan kehutanan dan pertanian (Warren et al. 2017) Tanggung jawab keseluruhan untuk mengatur restorasi lahan gambut berada di Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan Indonesia, sedangkan tugas restorasi dikoordinasikan oleh Badan Restorasi Gambut (BRG). Perencanaan aksi restorasi di Indonesia seringkali mencakup pemetaan luas lahan gambut, kedalaman gambut, hidrologi, status lahan (kepemilikan lahan, kawasan lindung), keanekaragaman hayati, kondisi habitat, status pengelolaan dan tutupan vegetasi, termasuk tingkat degradasi (saluran drainase, bekas kebakaran, sejarah insiden kebakaran), serta menentukan karakteristik penting lainnya dalam menentukan tindakan restorasi (misalnya kemiringan).Area prioritas untuk kegiatan restorasi meliputi: (a) area yang terbakar pada tahun 2015, (b) kubah gambut, dan (c) lahan gambut dengan sistem drainase (kanal). Dipandu oleh berbagai upaya holistik yang mencakup rewetting (membasahi ulang), revegetasi dan revitalisasi (3R), Badan Restorasi Gambut telah mengembangkan serangkaian langkah khusus untuk restorasi gambut, termasuk perencanaan dan pemantauan (Gambar 1). Langkah ini didukung oleh strategi yang menargetkan pemanfaatan dan pengelolaan lahan berkelanjutan di masa depan, keadilan sosial, mata pencaharian, tatakelola dan resolusi konflik.Badan Restorasi Gambut (BRG) telah melakukan restorasi di tujuh provinsi: Riau, Jambi, Sumatera Selatan, Kalimantan Barat, Kalimantan Tengah, Kalimantan Selatan dan Papua. Intervensi yang dilakukan ditujukan untuk memulihkan dan mempertahankan fungsi dan jasa lahan gambut. Kegiatan tersebut meliputi membasahi ulang lahan gambut yang telah dikeringkan (dengan menonaktifkan sistem drainase melalui penimbunan kembali dan peyekatan kanal), revegetasi (menanam kembali) bentang alam (penanaman vegetasi asli yang sesuai), dan Pembukaan Lahan Tanpa Bakar (PLTB). Badan tersebut mengawasi, memfasilitasi, membantu dan mengoordinasikan pembasahan ulang gambut baik di dalam maupun di luar area konsesi.Menurut Badan Restorasi Gambut, kriteria berguna untuk memberikan informasi yang relevan dan mengukur kemajuan restorasi dari waktu ke waktu, sementara indikator berguna untuk mengukur dampak proyek, hasil , keluaran dan masukan selama pelaksanaan, serta untuk menilai kemajuan yang mengarah pada tujuan proyek. Badan Restorasi Gambut juga menyoroti tantangan tertentu yang terkait dengan pemantauan, termasuk biaya, metode, waktu, kegunaan, keandalan, dan efektivitas penyesuaian dan tindakan korektif.Melalui komitmen dan kolaborasi yang kuat, BRG telah melakukan berbagai kegiatan restorasi dengan dukungan dan partisipasi para pemangku kepentingan seperti universitas, organisasi masyarakat sipil, pemerintah daerah dan masyarakat. Intervensi tersebut meliputi perbaikan pengelolaan air, telah berkontribusi terhadap pengurangan emisi sekitar 285 juta ton CO 2 eq sebagaimana yang ditentukan oleh pangkalan data pemantauan ketinggian air (SiMATAG-0.4m). Untuk mempertahankan pencapaian tersebut, seperangkat kriteria dan indikator yang andal dan praktis untuk memantau dan menilai restorasi lahan gambut akan sangat berguna.Badan Restorasi Gambut berpendapat bahwa restorasi bekerja paling baik ketika dilaksanakan dengan mempertimbangkan Kesatuan Hidrologis Gambut (KHG), atau mengikuti pendekatan bentang alam. Perwakilan dari BRG juga percaya bahwa pengembangan komoditas lokal ramah gambut dan insentif dapat menciptakan kondisi kehidupan yang harmonis di berbagai kawasan lahan gambut; contohnya adalah sistem pertanian basah (paludikultur), yang memungkinkan mata pencaharian berkelanjutan tanpa merusak lahan gambut. Secara praktis, kriteria dan indikator penting untuk mendefinisikan, memahami, dan membagikan apa itu restorasi lahan gambut yang baik; menilai, mengukur dan memantau kemajuan; dan mengomunikasikan serta melaporkan kemajuan tersebut. Seperti halnya restorasi ekosistem lainnya, restorasi lahan gambut perlu didukung oleh upaya penilaian dan pemantauan yang memungkinkan suatu pendekatan adaptif. Pendekatan adaptif ini berdasarkan pada proses pembelajaran berulang dari berbagai tindakan sebelumnya dan memungkinkan perbaikan jika/ketika intervensi tidak mengarah pada hasil yang diharapkan (Herrick et al. 2006). Penilaian dan pemantauan restorasi (Gambar 2) dapat memberikan informasi mengenai desain, strategi, pemilihan lokasi dan pendekatan pengelolaan, dan meningkatkan upaya restorasi melalui beberapa penyesuaian (FAO 2020). Pemantauan lahan gambut yang kuat dan mengikuti praktik berbasis sains yang baik, juga akan meningkatkan transparansi dan akuntabilitas di bawah kerangka kerja UNFCCC, untuk memenuhi persyaratan pelaporan dan memungkinkan akses ke sumber pendanaan tambahan.Metode pemantauan lahan gambut dapat berbeda tergantung pada luasan lahan gambut, sifat gangguan antropogenik, intervensi restorasi yang direncanakan, tujuan, aksesibilitas, sumber daya yang tersedia, dan parameter target lingkungan. Pendekatan yang ideal akan memastikan bahwa emisi dan pengurangan emisi dapat diukur, dilaporkan dan diverifikasi, serta memberikan informasi tentang penyampaian jasa ekosistem lahan gambut lainnya. Idealnya, pemantauan lahan gambut akan menjadi bagian dari sistem pemantauan dan pelaporan lahan nasional dan dibangun berdasarkan hal tersebut.Di Indonesia, perangkat, pendekatan, dan pengalaman pemantauan lahan gambut telah berkembang pesat dalam beberapa tahun terakhir. Untuk mendukung pemantauan, Badan Restorasi Gambut telah mengembangkan Pranata Informasi Restorasi Ekosistem Gambut (PRIMS) dan Sistem Pemantauan Air Lahan Gambut (SIPALAGA) untuk memperbarui dan melaporkan kemajuan kegiatan restorasi gambut secara transparan dan dapat dipercaya, untuk memberikan umpan balik yang tepat waktu kepada pengelola lahan dan pembuat kebijakan, dan untuk memfasilitasi koordinasi lintas provinsi dan lembaga. PRIMS adalah prototipe sistem pemetaan berbasis web. Meskipun masih dalam pengembangan, PRIMS memiliki fitur utama yang dapat memberikan gambaran tentang kegiatan restorasi, indeks degradasi gambut, emisi gambut dan pemantauan titik api, serta dapat membantu penilaian upaya restorasi seperti penyekatan kanal dan penimbunan kembali, revegetasi dan revitalisasi ekonomi masyarakat. Pendekatan dan mekanisme pemantauan untuk mengukur keberhasilan restorasi gambut di Indonesia mencakup dua sistem terintegrasi:1. Sistem Informasi Muka Air Tanah Gambut 0,4 m (SiMATAG-0,4 m) yang memantau ketinggian air tanah di lahan gambut (hanya wilayah konsesi) dan berfungsi sebagai tempat penyimpanan data. 2. Sistem untuk Akses, Pengolahan, dan Analisis Data Observasi Bumi untuk Pemantauan Lahan (The System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing, and Analysis for Land Monitoring -SEPAL), yang memantau perubahan vegetasi dan kelembapan tanah, dan merekam kapan perubahan tersebut terjadi (berdasarkan tanggal, bulan dan tahun).Beberapa kesenjangan dalam pengelolaan dan restorasi lahan gambut Indonesia terlihat dengan jelas. Hal ini termasuk kebutuhan untuk: mengembangkan sistem pemantauan terpadu restorasi lahan gambut; meningkatkan sistem berbagi informasi; mengambil pendekatan beruntun (cascading), dari umum ke khusus; dan memastikan metodologi yang terpercaya untuk memverifikasi kelembapan tanah dan memantau emisi GRK. Untuk mengatasi kesenjangan tersebut, Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan dan mitra telah menerapkan beberapa strategi, termasuk upaya untuk menyelesaikan inventarisasi ekosistem lahan gambut dan membangun sistem pemantauan air tanah di wilayah non-konsesi. Upaya ini akan didukung oleh sistem informasi untuk perlindungan, pengelolaan, dan pendukung keputusan lahan gambut (disebut SiPPEG). Di samping berbagai upaya ini, masyarakat sipil dan organisasi non-pemerintah juga mengembangkan pendekatan akar rumput (misalnya Pantau Gambut) dan berbasis masyarakat (misalnya, CO-PROMISE oleh CIFOR).Terlepas dari semua upaya ini, masih terdapat beberapa kesenjangan data. Pemantauan parameter biofisik, untuk memahami aspek hidrologis lahan gambut, terbukti sangat menantang. Demikian pula di bidang sosial-ekonomi, penelitian kelayakan, peningkatan dan perluasan ekonomi ramah lahan gambut serta peluang untuk menetapkan pembayaran yang berasal dari lahan gambut untuk jasa ekosistem, sangat mendesak. Penelitian pengembangan partisipatif yang melibatkan berbagai pihakkhususnya untuk mengatasi kesenjangan informasi seputar aspek sosial dan tatakelola pemanfaatan dan restorasi lahan gambut -juga diperlukan.Para praktisi dan institusi yang berfokus pada lahan gambut memerlukan protokol yang teruji untuk menentukan keberhasilan atau kegagalan restorasi gambut secara objektif. Hal ini membutuhkan indikator progresif untuk memantau kelanjutan upaya restorasi, serta berfungsi sebagai fondasi di mana tindakan restorasi oleh pemangku kepentingan, dibangun pada seluruh tingkatan. Empat pilar penting harus diperhatikan ketika mengembangkan kriteria dan indikator untuk restorasi lahan gambut tropis -biofisik, sosial, ekonomi dan tatakelola. Kriteria dan indikator yang saat ini digunakan oleh Badan Restorasi Gambut terkonsentrasi pada aspek biofisik, dan mengabaikan beberapa pilar kunci lainnya. Hal ini dapat terjadi karena sulitnya menentukan indikator yang berhubungan dengan aspek lainnya, namun, tanpa tinjauan menyeluruh tidak mungkin memastikan lahan gambut yang direstorasi menjadi ekosistem yang sehat dan berfungsi dengan baik, serta mendukung mata pencaharian masyarakat lokal.Indikator biofisik -terkait dengan aspek ekologi, hidrologi dan kebakaran lahan gambutmemungkinkan para pemangku kepentingan untuk memantau restorasi dan pemeliharaan integritas kesatuan hidrologis gambut, serta pengurangan risiko kebakaran; indikator sosial -tekait dengan jejaring sosial, kesetaraan, kepercayaan, dan keadilan -memungkinkan para pemangku kepentingan untuk menentukan sejauh mana proses dan partisipasi demokrasi, resolusi konflik dan kesukarelaan, yang semuanya penting untuk solidaritas sosial; indikator ekonomi memungkinkan pemantauan insentif yang ada dan pilihan mata pencaharian baru di bentang alam lahan gambut; dan indikator tatakelola yang berarti para pemangku kepentingan dapat mencari kebijakan apa yang dibutuhkan dan sesuai di tingkat lokal, provinsi, dan nasional untuk keberhasilan implementasi.Mengambil pendekatan yang seimbang yang mencakup keempat aspek ini berarti target restorasi dapat dikuantifikasi secara memadai dan keberhasilan dapat diukur secara holistik. Dengan pemikiran ini, CIFOR dan Badan Restorasi Gambut, dengan dukungan dari berbagai mitra, menyelenggarakan serangkaian webinar 1 untuk mencari dan mengidentifikasi kriteria dan indikator yang kuat secara ilmiah, terpercaya dan praktis untuk pemantauan restorasi gambut di bawah empat pilar ini. Seri webinar dirancang untuk lebih mengembangkan kapasitas personel teknis dan kebijakan kunci dari berbagai lembaga dan departemen pemerintah Indonesia dengan mandat untuk melindungi dan memulihkan lahan gambut sambil memastikan kesejahteraan masyarakat yang bergantung pada lahan gambut. Serangkaian lokakarya daring tersebut memfasilitasi konsultasi antara para pemangku kepentingan utama untuk mengidentifikasi seperangkat kriteria dan indikator awal yang dapat menilai keberhasilan restorasi, sekaligus relevan secara kontekstual dengan area penerapannya.Pada akhir pelaksanaan kegiatan ini (diharapkan akan selesai pada akhir tahun 2021), keluaran utamanya adalah:• Kerangka kerja dan serangkaian prinsip, kriteria, dan indikator restorasi.• Kejelasan indikator kunci dan panduan untuk praktisi dalam menerapkan pendekatan K dan I terhadap pemantauan restorasi gambut. • Peran dan tanggung jawab ditentukan untuk semua lembaga dan pakar yang berpartisipasi dalam mengidentifikasi, menguji, dan menerapkan berbagai kriteria dan indikator. • Sumber pendanaan diidentifikasi untuk menjamin kegiatan pemantauan dari waktu ke waktu.• Peningkatan kapasitas dari personel teknis dan kebijakan kunci di lembaga dan badan pemerintah Indonesia terkait.1 Informasi dan dokumen-dokumen yang relevan dari rangkaian lokakarya tersedia di: https://www2.cifor.org/swamp/ exploring-criteria-and-indicators-for-tropical-peatland-restoration/ Proses identifikasi kriteria dan indikator harus menggambarkan realitas hasil restorasi. Proses partisipatif konsultatif membantu untuk memuluskan setiap perbedaan konteks yang spesifik antara manusia-lokasi ekologi, dan memungkinkan pengambil keputusan untuk mempertanyakan legitimasi, keberlanjutan, dan keinginan aspirasi lokal untuk lokasi tersebut, serta menentukan dan memodifikasi intervensi yang direncanakan .Dasar dari konsep ini adalah kaidah bahwa tidak ada satupun kriteria atau indikator yang dengan sendirinya merupakan ukuran lengkap dari restorasi. Kriteria atau indikator individual perlu dipertimbangkan dalam konteks kriteria dan indikator lain dalam sistem tersebut. Sangat membantu untuk menganggap kriteria dan indikator ini sebagai simpul informasi mengenai area yang menjadi perhatian, yang secara bersamaan memberikan gambaran lengkap tentang keadaan lahan gambut dan tren keberhasilan restorasi pada tingkat hierarki (Gambar 3).Dalam hierarki ini, prinsip adalah kebenaran mendasar, dijabarkan melalui kriteria, yang merupakan titik antara di mana informasi (disediakan oleh indikator) dapat diintegrasikan, dan penilaian dapat dibentuk. Indikator dan pemverifikasi menentukan informasi apa yang disampaikan untuk mengevaluasi kriteria tersebut. Sementara indikator adalah berbagai komponen variabel yang digunakan untuk menyimpulkan status kriteria tertentu, pemverifikasi berisikan data atau informasi yang meningkatkan kekhasan atau kemudahan penilaian suatu indikator. Selain struktur hierarki pendekatan tersebut, perlu juga mempertimbangkan sejumlah isu praktis berikut ketika mengembangkan prinsip, kriteria dan indikator:• Prinsip, kriteria dan indikator adalah seperangkat alat, oleh karena itu tidak tetap atau kaku • Semua pemangku kepentingan dalam bentang alam tersebut harus dianggap sebagai pengguna prinsip, kriteria, dan indikator • Informasi akan dikumpulkan dari seluruh bentang alam tersebut, sehingga penting untuk mempertimbangkan bagaimana informasi ini akan bernilai bagi beragam pemangku kepentingan • Pendekatan prinsip, kriteria dan indikator bisa mahal untuk diterapkan, jadi penting untuk mempertimbangkan biaya. CIFOR menyelenggarakan serangkaian lokakarya daring mengundang berbagai kelompok pemangku kepentingan, termasuk pembuat kebijakan, praktisi dan akademisi, untuk mencari kriteria dan indikator restorasi lahan gambut tropis. Empat lokakarya tersebut telah berlangsung, di mana para perwakilan nasional dan internasional yang mewakili pemerintah, universitas , organisasi nonpemerintah dan lembaga penelitian membahas berbagai aspek kunci dari restorasi lahan gambut dan mempertimbangkan berbagai cara praktis untuk memantau keberhasilan restorasi. Secara keseluruhan, webinar ini terdiri dari 20 sesi dengan 50 pembicara, 18 moderator yang memfasilitasi 11 diskusi, dan 827 peserta dari berbagai negara. Seri webinar disusun menjadi empat bagian (Gambar 4) untuk mencakup semua aspek penting yang mendukung kelestarian lahan gambut jangka-panjang dan yang sangat penting untuk keberhasilan restorasi. Setelah mengeksplorasi keadaan umum 'bentang alam gambut', berbagai isu yang ada dan aktor yang relevan, empat pilar utama menjadi dasar penyelengaraan webinar yang dilaksanakan secara terpisah sebelum berbagai diskusi dipadukan.Proses identifikasi prinsip, kriteria dan indikator restorasi gambut dimulai dari aspek terbesarbiofisik -yang meliputi vegetasi, sifat gambut, hidrologi, emisi gas rumah kaca dan kebakaran. Banyaknya informasi yang tersedia mengenai berbagai aspek tersebut memerlukan pengelompokann atau klasifikasi. Aspek ekonomi, sosial dan tatakelola -yang lebih sulit diukur -kemudian diidentifikasi berdasarkan pengalaman pada tingkat proyek dan program. Pada bab ini, kami menyajikan ringkasan diskusi yang terjadi dalam beberapa lokakarya konsultatif, sebagai titik awal dalam mengembangkan prinsip, kriteria, dan indikator untuk restorasi gambut.Dipandu oleh prinsip menyeluruh 'Lahan gambut basah dan bervegetasi tanpa risiko drainase atau deforestasi', yang diterima secara umum oleh seluruh pemangku kepentingan terlepas dari latar belakang dan peran mereka, tiga kriteria dan indikator terkait diidentifikasi oleh para peserta/ pemangku kepentingan yang hadir. Indikator ini didasarkan pada data berkualitas tinggi, data dan bukti resmi dan ilmiah, dan berbagai sumber informasi yang dapat dipercaya. Kriteria dan indikator yang diidentifikasi melalui diskusi webinar disajikan pada Tabel 1.Dari indikator yang diusulkan, indikator hidrologi dianggap paling mendasar, karena cara mereka mengatur aspek iklim dan keanekaragaman hayati. Kerentanan kebakaran juga diidentifikasi sebagai risiko respon langsung ketika hidrologi gambut diubah. Kebutuhan untuk secara jelas mendefinisikan dan mengukur muka air tanah dengan pendekatan yang tidak terlalu rentan terhadap kesalahan atau salah-tafsir juga ditonjolkani oleh para pemangku kepentingan dalam rangkaian webinar tersebut. Secara umum para pemangku kepentingan dalam webinar menerima bahwa indikator akan berbeda untuk lahan gambut yang terdegradasi dan yang direstorasi, oleh karena itu, indikator harus disesuaikan secara berkala sesuai dengan tingkat degradasi dan keberhasilan restorasi. Indikator juga bergantung pada cuaca, sehubungan dengan pola musim. Dalam banyak kasus, penting dan diperlukan untuk melibatkan masyarakat lokal dalam pengambilan data; beberapa data yang akan dikumpulkan membutuhkan distribusi spasial dan teknologi yang luas. Masyarakat lokal dapat dilibatkan dalam validasi dengan mengintegrasikan sains dan pengetahuan lokal. Indikator ekonomi untuk restorasi lahan gambut didukung oleh prinsip menyeluruh 'Ekonomi berbasis lahan gambut yang layak dan berkelanjutan'. Berdasarkan prinsip ini, para peserta mengidentifikasi lima kriteria dan beberapa indikator untuk setiap kriteria untuk menangkap aspek ekonomi restorasi lahan gambut.Agar upaya restorasi berhasil, diperlukan pendekatan ekonomi yang dapat mengurangi tekanan antropogenik dan mempromosikan beberapa alternatif mata pencaharian yang berkelanjutan. Oleh karena itu, monetisasi jasa lingkungan yang diberikan oleh lahan gambut yang dilindungi dan direstorasi dapat menjadi cara untuk meyakinkan masyarakat bahwa restorasi lahan gambut layak secara ekonomi; hal ini memberikan manfaat yang jauh lebih besar daripada bagaimana lahan gambut diakui atau dihargai pada saat ini. Pertimbangan ini diperhitungkan saat mengidentifikasi indikator ekonomi (Tabel 2), dan penekanan diberikan pada pentingnya menjaga kesesuaian analitis dan keterukuran dari indikator. Kriteria dan indikator juga ditentukan dengan melihat hubungannya dengan berbagai kebijakan yang dapat mendukung hasil ekonomi yang menguntungkan bagi masyarakat di mana intervensi restorasi lahan gambut dilakukan. Para pemangku kepentingan menyoroti butuhnya kepekaan seputar permasalahan terkait mata pencaharian, dan menyelaraskan upaya restorasi dengan potensi nilai tambah dari pengembangan bisnis baru yang berkelanjutan bagi masyarakat lokal. Dengan demikian, metode penilaian ekonomi yang kuat untuk jasa lingkungan, skema keuangan dan kebijakan terpadu, semuanya memainkan peran penting ketika ketersediaan sumber daya, mata pencaharian dan kesejahteraan masyarakat harus diintegrasikan ke dalam kebijakan lokal yang mengatur akses dan pemanfaatan sumber daya. Dalam kasus restorasi gambut, kriteria dan indikator yang teridentifikasi dimaksudkan untuk menyediakan metode untuk mengukur situasi yang ada dan menentukan kemajuan dari penilaian awal tersebut. 'Kesejahteraan dan kesetaraan masyarakat didemonstrasikan secara luas' adalah prinsip menyeluruh bagi para pemangku kepentingan pada saat webinar untuk mengidentifikasi tiga kriteria aspek sosial restorasi lahan gambut. Para pemangku kepentingan mengamati bahwa akses yang tepat dan ketersediaan data/informasi sosial sangat penting untuk mengurai kompleksnya isu sosial seputar restorasi lahan gambut, dan oleh karena itu berbagai upaya yang tepat harus dilakukan oleh masingmasing aktor, meskipun ada tantangan untuk mendapatkan data yang baik dan dapat diandalkan.Peran dan keterlibatan masyarakat lokal dalam pelaksanaan kegiatan restorasi dipandang sangat penting oleh semua peserta. Namun, keterlibatan masyarakat dalam kegiatan restorasi gambut juga dianggap sebagai tantangan, karena kegiatan tersebut terkadang bertentangan dengan kegiatan ekonomi pada lahan gambut yang melibatkan anggota masyarakat tersebut. Oleh karena itu, pengembangan kriteria dan indikator sosial yang bermakna (Tabel 3) melibatkan pemetaan modal sosial, kesejahteraan dan keterpaduan, dan mengidentifikasi indikator seputar elemen seperti kesetaraan gender, pembagian kekuasaan, jejaring sosial, dan lain-lain.Serangkaian diskusi selama webinar juga mengakui pentingnya kriteria dan indikator proksi untuk menggambarkan kompleksitas seputar norma-norma sosial, budaya, keyakinan agama, dan preferensi masyarakat -aspek yang mungkin penting untuk intervensi restorasi lahan gambut. Proksi yang baik didasarkan pada data yang kuat dan terpercaya, dan seringkali menggabungkan data lapangan dengan data yang sudah ada dari dokumen pemerintah. Peran lembaga pemerintah daerah, serta berbagai organisasi akar rumput yang terlibat dengan masyarakat lokal juga dirasakan menjadi unsur penting untuk keberhasilan restorasi gambut.Prinsip menyeluruh yang diusulkan untuk tatakelola adalah 'Tatakelola yang adil, terbuka, dan kuat di semua tingkatan'. Tiga kriteria diidentifikasi berdasarkan prinsip ini, dengan beberapa indikator terkait. Tatakelola adalah topik luas yang melihat lebih dari aspek sosial-politik dan mencakup keuangan dan ekonomi, bersamaan dengan lingkungan, tatakelola politik, dan juga tatakelola di tingkat bentang alam dan yurisdiksi. Dengan demikian, kriteria dan indikator terkait tatakelola (Tabel 4) tidak hanya mempertimbangkan hasil, tetapi juga berupaya menangkap prosesnya.Para pemangku kepentingan pada webinar menyoroti bahwa transparansi dan konsultasi adalah dua prinsip penting dalam tatakelola; Oleh karena itu, menggunakan pendekatan prinsip, kriteria, dan indikator merupakan salah satu metode komunikasi pemangku kepentingan untuk mencapai tatakelola yang baik. Karena setiap kelompok pemangku kepentingan berbeda, dengan berbagai ide, prioritas, dan kebutuhan yang berbeda, mencapai pemahaman bersama antara pemangku kepentingan tidaklah mudah. Kelompok-pemangku kepentingan perlu memiliki posisi yang setara selama proses pengambilan keputusan. Titik awal untuk ini jelas, yaitu hak-hak yang diberikan pemerintah untuk semua kelompok pemangku kepentingan, termasuk masyarakat lokal. Partisipasi dan keterlibatan sosial juga merupakan kunci untuk tatakelola yang baik. Keterlibatan sosial dalam restorasi gambut sangat penting, karena selain nilai konservasi, restorasi juga memiliki nilai sosial-ekonomi, termasuk nilai budaya. Para peserta lokakarya membahas kemungkinan kriteria dan indikator terkait tatakelola yang mencakup profitabilitas dan produktivitas dalam rantai pasokan, pengurangan konflik sosial dan perlindungan hak asasi manusia, termasuk hak atas tanah adat. Beberapa di antaranya sudah termasuk dalam di daftar kriteria dan indikator sosial (Tabel 3).Setelah sintesis dan analisis semua prinsip, kriteria, dan indikator yang diidentifikasi melalui rangkaian webinar, tahap proses selanjutnya adalah verifikasi. Ini termasuk mengidentifikasi pemverifikasi (verifier) yang relevan dan uji lapangan, dengan dukungan dari lembaga dan organisasi terkait yang bekerja di bentang alam gambut. Verifikasi harus hemat biaya dan terjangkau; cepat, sederhana dan dapat dimengerti (ini adalah kunci agar para tim evaluasi yang berbeda dapat secara efektif menerapkan dan memberikan hasil yang konsisten); dan transparan serta masuk akal, sehingga hasilnya dapat diterima dan direproduksi. Semua prinsip, kriteria, dan indikator perlu diuji, dan perlu adanya pemahaman bersama tentang perbedaan antara beberapa istilah seperti input, proses, keluaran, hasil, dan dampak.Setelah proses verifikasi selesai dan kriteria serta indikator telah difinalisasi, pemantauan dan penilaian harus dilanjutkan secara kontinu untuk memastikan keseragaman penerapan di seluruh bentang alam, dan di berbagai lokasi dan masyarakat tempat restorasi lahan gambut berlangsung. Para peserta lokakarya menyoroti beberapa poin penting yang harus diingat selama fase pemantauan dan penilaian:• Analisis multi-kriteria penting agar kemajuan dapat diukur terhadap tujuannya: indikator perlu diintegrasikan ke dalam kriteria dan kemudian prinsip dengan menghasilkan skor keseluruhan yang disepakati bersama untuk setiap tujuan • Diperlukan standar /norma yang jelas dan pengetahuan akan pemantauan • Keterwakilan penting dalam menentukan skor dan penilaian, begitu juga dengan kesadaran bahwa keberlanjutan pun ditentukan secara lokal dan dengan adat istiadat • Transparansi tetap terjaga • Penilaian adalah bagian dari evaluasi, dan penting untuk pengelolaan bersama yang adaptif (pembelajaran untuk perbaikan)Pendekatan prinsip, kriteria dan indikator menyajikan cara praktis untuk mendefinisikan, menilai, memantau dan mengomunikasikan berbagai upaya restorasi lahan gambut. Peserta lokakarya (Gambar 5) menganggap penting untuk mencapai keseimbangan yang berkelanjutan pada berbagai dimensi yang berbeda (dimensi ekonomi, sosial, lingkungan, dan tatakelola). Kriteria dan indikator yang mereka identifikasi dimaksudkan untuk berorientasi pada target audiens, sehingga tetap relevan dan bermakna bagi para aktor kunci yang terlibat di semua tingkat restorasi lahan gambut, termasuk badan pemerintah, organisasi masyarakat, dan lain-lain.Saat mendiskusikan aspek biofisik, para pemangku kepentingan pada webinar mengidentifikasi tradeoff antara kelayakan pendekatan prinsip, kriteria dan indikator dan kebutuhan akan data yang sangat akurat. Pengukuran beberapa indikator memerlukan peralatan yang mahal, sedangkan indikator lainnya, seperti tinggi muka air tanah dan kadar air, mudah diukur oleh masyarakat setempat. Para pemangku kepentingan mendiskusikan kemungkinan metode cepat dan mudah untuk mengukur kelembapan tanah sehingga di masa depan masyarakat lokal dapat mengukurnya.Aspek ekonomi restorasi lahan gambut sebagian besar melekat pada barang dan jasa lingkungan yang disediakan oleh lahan gambut. Dengan demikian, penilaian manfaat yang diberikan oleh lahan gambut dianggap sangat penting. Banyak dari kriteria dan indikator yang diusulkan terkait dengan penghematan biaya dan nilai dari bencana lingkungan dan emisi yang dapat dihindari, serta nilai jasa ekosistem, pertumbuhan berkelanjutan dan jangka panjang, pengembalian modal investasi, keamanan ekonomi, infrastruktur, kesejahteraan masyarakat, industri, akses pasar dan teknologi. Pendidikan dan kesadaran juga dianggap sebagai faktor penting; para pemangku kepentingan sepakat bahwa pendekatan dari bawah ke atas diperlukan untuk menyelesaikan tantangan lahan gambut yang membutuhkan kerja sama yang erat dengan masyarakat lokal, dan bahwa kolaborasi yang terkoordinasi dengan dan antar masyarakat lokal akan memberikan hasil. Tujuan utamanya adalah untuk memastikan masyarakat yang terhubung dengan lahan gambut memiliki mata Dari perspektif pengembangan kriteria dan indikator tatakelola, terlihat sangat penting untuk memiliki pemahaman yang sama tentang apa tujuan akhir dan bagaimana jalan menuju tujuan tersebut. Peserta webinar menyoroti bahwa ini harus melibatkan proses yang partisipatif dan melibatkan berbagai pemangku kepentingan untuk mendorong kerja sama dan kolaborasi semua aktor. Kriteria dan indikator tatakelola meliputi aspek transparansi, akuntabilitas dan komitmen publik, pengakuan hak asasi manusia, kearifan lokal serta hak masyarakat adat dan lokal.Selama proses konsultatif, beberapa poin penting dan ide lintas sektor terkait dengan prinsip, kriteria dan indikator juga muncul. Beberapa poin ini perlu diingat untuk keberhasilan penerapan kriteria dan indikator dalam pemantauan restorasi gambut. Misalnya, para pemangku kepentingan pada webinar secara umum menerima bahwa kesetaraan gender terlibat di semua aspek, seperti ketika melihat peran perempuan dalam menghasilkan pendapatan rumah tangga atau tingkat partisipasi mereka dalam sejumlah diskusi publik. Oleh karena itu, indikator harus diverifikasi di seluruh pilar yang berbeda, serta dalam satu rangkaian tertentu.Selain itu, praktik restorasi lahan gambut dapat dimodifikasi di seluruh lokasi geografis tergantung pada tantangan biofisik dan konteks sosial tertentu. Dalam hal ini, rangkaian kriteria dan indikator mungkin perlu dimodifikasi, dan pengujian mungkin diperlukan dalam kasus tersebut untuk mengoptimalkan efektivitas kriteria dan indikator. Para pemangku kepentingan yang memiliki definisi yang sama untuk berbagai istilah dalam restorasi gambut juga merupakan kunci dalam mengembangkan kriteria dan indikator, seperti definisi untuk 'pembasahan penuh' dan 'pembasahan sebagian'. Komitmen jangka panjang dari semua pemangku kepentingan restorasi lahan gambut sangat penting, terutama dalam hal komitmen keuangan jangka panjang.Restorasi membutuhkan dukungan sosial sehingga proyek restorasi -dengan manfaat pentingnya bagi ekosistem dan masyarakat -dapat dilaksanakan. Keterlibatan sosial, dalam bentuk pendidikan dan penyebaran informasi, sama pentingnya untuk menjelaskan manfaat timbal-balik antara ekosistem dan masyarakat; keterlibatan tersebut perlu mencakup pendekatan formal dan informal untuk melibatkan para pemangku kepentingan dari berbagai tingkat dan latar belakang.Peningkatan suatu indikator untuk kriteria tertentu juga mungkin dapat merugikan indikator lain di kriteria yang berbeda. Salah satu contohnya adalah bahwa pemanenan produk dari spesies yang bernilai ekonomi tinggi dapat meningkatkan pendapatan rumah tangga, sekaligus juga dapat mengurangi kapasitas penyerapan karbon.Selama konsultasi bersama para ahli, pentingnya menetapkan kriteria transisi juga muncul sebagai hal yang krusial bagi keberlanjutan suatu kawasan, terutama setelah intervensi 'eksternal' untuk akhir restorasi lahan gambut. Misalnya, setelah suatu program berakhir di suatu tempat tertentu, penetapan kriteria seperti 'desa akan mengadopsi atau mengintegrasikan program yang ada ke dalam peraturan desa' memastikan kesinambungan untuk program yang telah diselesaikan. Penting juga untuk mempertimbangkan keberlanjutan pendanaan sebagai bagian dari kriteria transisi, untuk memastikan kelanjutan program. Dukungan pendanaan berkelanjutan ini dapat datang melalui sistem pasar, atau melalui penciptaan pasar baru untuk mata pencaharian alternatif, dukungan pendanaan berkelanjutan dari para pemangku kepentingan, atau aktor lokal yang mengambil tanggung jawab finansial untuk kegiatan restorasi.Ke depannya, berbagai rangkaian prinsip, kriteria dan indikator akan diselesaikan melalui konsultasi lebih lanjut dan pertukaran informasi, sebelum pemverifikasi (verifier) yang sesuai diidentifikasi untuk masing-masing rangkaian kriteria dan indikator ini. Selanjutnya, prinsip, kriteria dan indikator akan diuji di lapangan, dengan dukungan dari para praktisi terkait dan berbagai instansi pemerintah yang diberikan kepercayaan untuk melakukan restorasi lahan gambut. Setelah diuji relevansinya, prinsip, kriteria, dan indikator yang telah difinalisasi akan diadopsi dan diimplementasikan secara lebih luas. Keterlibatan Tim Restorasi Gambut Daerah (TRGD) akan dipertimbangkan, terutama yang terkait dengan program Desa Peduli Gambut (DPG).Restorasi lahan gambut adalah proses kompleks yang memerlukan pemantauan terus menerus untuk memungkinkan pendekatan bentang alam yang adaptif dan berulang yang memenuhi kondisi, kebutuhan, dan aspirasi lokal. Pemantauan restorasi gambut dapat menginformasikan desain, strategi, pemilihan lokasi dan pendekatan pengelolaan, serta meningkatkan hasil restorasi melalui penyesuaian. Protokol teruji yang menilai nasib ekosistem yang direstorasi bermanfaat sehingga praktisi dan institusi dapat menentukan keberhasilan dan kegagalan restorasi gambut secara objektif. Khususnya indikator sederhana yang mudah dikenali, diukur, dan dipantau dari waktu ke waktu. Serangkaian kriteria dan indikator yang kuat secara ilmiah, andal, dan praktis dapat membantu pemangku kepentingan kunci dalam menilai kemajuan dan hasil upaya restorasi, sehingga mereka dapat mengevaluasi kemajuan dan apakah restorasi menuju ke arah yang benar.Dengan pemikiran ini, CIFOR menyelenggarakan serangkaian lokakarya daring antara September dan Desember 2020, untuk mencari dan mengidentifikasi kriteria dan indikator restorasi lahan gambut tropis melalui proses konsultatif yang melibatkan praktisi, lembaga pemerintah, peneliti, dan anggota masyarakat. Dari proses ini ternyata kriteria dan indikator yang efektif untuk restorasi gambut harus menangkap berbagai aspek yang berkaitan dengan pembasahan ulang lahan gambut yang dikeringkan, pengurangan risiko kebakaran, revegetasi bentang alam, penguatan struktur tatakelola lokal, dan revitalisasi kondisi sosial ekonomi masyarakat lokal (lima R). Kriteria dan indikator yang teridentifikasi mencakup empat aspek restorasi lahan gambut -biofisik, sosial, ekonomi dan tatakelola -untuk menangkap berbagai topik dan isu yang berdampak pada lahan gambut. Kriteria dan indikator ini sekarang siap untuk pengujian lapangan, dan ketika telah berhasil divalidasi, dapat diadaptasi dan diadopsi oleh instansi terkait untuk pemantauan restorasi di masa mendatang. ","tokenCount":"5231"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"79aa0c4a8de093ba983c69d8b9bbe71c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/abf1476e-5574-4215-b04e-14ce3952c8c2/retrieve","id":"393222255"},"keywords":["~m¡llj","H1:'","'rtt~","ln","ffl , ) . -~"],"sieverID":"16bb4a47-9298-4624-9185-87a46be423e0","pagecount":"18","content":"Con el ánimo de estimular la discusión, se ofrecerán algunas líneas de guía para el diseño experimental, la selección de lotes y la obtención de datos además de su análisis y presentación en forma concisa. Se presentarán algunos ejemplos de las dificultades que surgen durante el análisis de los ensayos a nivel de finca. Se pondrá énfasis en las decisiones necesarias durante el análisis a través de localidades de ensayos del mismo o diferente diseño experimental.Rec:omendecionas que funcionan eeonomlcemente en toda la zona cuales están predeterminadas por la ubicación de las estaciones experimentales. En este aspecto es quizás donde más han fallado los programas que tienen alguna orientación para trabajar en fincas, por lo menos según la experiencia del programa de frijol del CIAT en América Latina. Es frecuente que se siembre un solo ensayo por \"zona\" (que quizás debería incluir más de un dominio de recomendación por ser muy heterogéneo) y luego se extrapolen los resultados a toda la zona. A veces, el lote es seleccionado de tal forma, que no es representativo de los suelos o del manejo del agricultor en la zona.Realmente los cuano puntos arriba mencionados están interrelacionados. El número de tratamientos depende del número de factores y de la complejidad de las interacciones que se desea estudiar. Ellos a su vez dependen de cuál etapa de la investigación en fincas se encuentra bajo ejecución. La etapa determina en cuántas repeticiones por finca se debe hacer la investigación. El cuadro 1 indica las combinaciones que se están usando en el CIAT en este momento. Es útil mencionar la advertencia de Mead y Stern (comunicación personal) que un ensayo a nivel de finca que tenga muchos tratamientos y muchas repeticiones por dominio de recomendación, probablemente tiene sus hipótesis formuladas en componentes tecnológicos y sus interacciones (hasta un máximo de 16 quizás), en suficientes repeticiones (distribuidas entre 3 a 6 fincas) o se puede investigar un grupo más reducido de componentes, o grupos de componentes en mayor número de repeticiones por dominio (quizás de 8 a 30 repeticiones distribuidas entre 6 a 15 fincas). Se puede notar que los tipos de ensayos detallados en el cuadro 1 siguen esta meta.Muchas veces se desea detectar la variabilidad en las respuestas de finca a finca (puede ser simplemente, la diferencia entre dos tratamientos, o una interacción más compleja) . Otras veces, es suficiente tener resultados para un grupo de ensayos en un dominio de recomendación y estimaciones de la variabilidad y esta respuesta de finca en finca. En términos 'estadísticos, es la diferencia entre poder calcular errores estándares para los tratamientos en cada finca o un error estándar solamente a nivel de un grupo de ensayos. En caso de requerirse la información sobre cada finca es necesario tener: a) Repeticiones convencionales a nivel de cada finca, o b) Repeticiones escondidas, las que se representan en arreglos factoriales de tratamientos, para los factores e interacciones cuya estabilidad de finca a finca se desea investigar, o c) Si no hay repeticiones a nivel de finca, un número de fincas muy grande que permita, por análisis de conglomerados (\"cluster analysis\") estratificarlas en grupos distintos. Este último método no permite comparar fincas individuales, sino únicamente entre grupos de fincas. En análisis de conglomerados es útil para determinar si un dominio de recomendación debe subdividirse. Sin embargo, no es conveniente ejecutar este tipo de análisis con menos de 15 a 20 fincas, lo cual no es un método de mucha utilidad en la práctica de la investigación a nivel de finca.La selección de lotes como prec!';-¡dición para una evaluación válíd:lLa selección de lotes representativos para conducir un grupo de ensayos, es quizás el punto de mayor importancia en el diseño de la investigación a nivel de finca. Es especialmente crucial en los ensayos de parcela pequeña (de variedades, exploratorios, de niveles económicos) porque en este caso el número de fincas es menor, y la selección de'una o dos fincas no representativas puede perjudicar mucho la utilidad de las estimaciones agronómicas y económicas para el dominio. Después de varias experiencias en CIAT se prefieren. no menos de tres lotes para un ensayo de parcela pequeña, aunque normalmente se emplean cuatro.BEST,¿qV,L'./LACLE copv CUADRO 1: Diseños de ensayos de finca usados actualmente por el Programa de Frijol del CIAT Antes de elegir el lote, se selecciona el agricultor, éste debe ser dedicado principalmente a la agricultura (excepto que no sea la norma para los agricultores de la zona) y estar muy interesado en el trabajo que se va a ejecutar. Es conveniente evitar la selección de una proporción alta de agricultores \"líderes\" por no ser ellos típicos de la zona, más bien se ha presentado el caso de no ser los más colaboradores ni los mejores agricultores, si no que su condición de líder está dada por sus actividades políticas .. El lote debe ser aquél en donde se pensaba sembrar el sistema de cultivos que se está estudiando, es decir, que se encuentre el momento cronológico correcto en relación con la rotación de cultivos. Si los agricultores usan varias rotaciones en la zona de trabajo, hay que considerar si esto requiere la consideración de más de un dominio de recomendación. El grupo de lotes seleccionados debe cubrir el rango de pendientes, texturas de suelo, colores de suelo y pedregosidad que desea mostrar como \"típicos de la zona\". Si existe la posibilidad de tener el resultado de los análisis de suelos de los lotes disponibles antes de asignarles ensayos de diferentes clases, es de gran ayuda, pero normalmente los servicios de laboratorio disponibles no pueden ofrecer tanta agilidad. El lote debe tener cierto grado de uniformidad, pero ciertos tipos de dominio (p. e. laderas) son por definición no uniformes. Es poco frecuente que todos los criterios se puedan satisfacer en un solo lote que sea, además, de acceso suficientemente fácil para economizar el tiempo de los investigadores.Se presentan tres tópicos para discusión.Número de variables experimentales. Varían mucho las prácticas sobre la cantidad de datos que se obtienen. Por un lado extremo, existe la consideración que propone que si se sembr6 el experimento, deben obtenerse todos los datos posibles. Este autor pertenece a otra tendencia quizás también un poco extrema. Normalmente recomienda, entre los datos agron6micos experimentales sobre frijol, obtener sólo las observaciones necesarias para calcular el rendimiento en grano al grado acostumbrado de humedad, el número de plantas establecidas después de germinar, y el número de plantas cosechadas. Los conteos de plantas normalmente no se procesan ni se reportan (con excepción de aquellos ensayos que involucran el tratamiento de semilla o cambios de densidad) , pero permiten explicar después de la cosecha, cualquier rendimiento que parece extrañamente bajo o alto. Se ha llegado a esta posición simple debido a que: a) Las observaciones de datos como altura de planta y componentes de rendimiento rara vez se usan en los informes.b) La decisión de obtener muchos datos acerca de un experimento en finca, trae como consecuencia la necesaria reducción en el número de fincas en que se experimenta, ello puede afectar la representatividad de los resultados.Por supuesto que hay excepciones a esta posición simple:• Las mediciones de incidencia y severidad del ataque de patógenos o insectos, voIcamiento de plantas, tiempo de madurez y sincronización de cosechas, y de vigor, pueden ser de mucha importancia, especialmente en ensayos de variedades.• Notas sencillas sobre el croquis de campo para indicar parcelas infértiles, inundadas o sujetas a sequía y daños por animales domésticos u otros, ayudan mucho para explicar posibles inconsistencias en los resultados.• Datos a nivel de cada finca, que ayudan a estratificar y a explicar las diferencias entre fincas. De ellos el análisis de suelos y pendiente deben tomarse para orientar la selección de lotes representativos (ver los comentarios en \"selección de lotes\"). La precipitación es importante, pero más difícil para medir. Necesita la colaboración del agricultor o un hijo y por ende su factibilidad varía mucho de zona a zona. De posible ayuda, pero de menor prioridad, serían aquellas observaciones sobre el manejo general del ensayo por el agricultor incluyendo el cultivo anterior.Evaluación por los agricultores. Existe quizás la tendencia a considerar que la evaluación de un ensayo por el agricultor es parte de una evaluación socioeconómica, y por lo tanto que viene a considerarse, tal como se hace en este taller, después del análisis agronómico. Esto no es siempre cierto. Al cosechar lo experimentado, y ojalá en otras oportunidades durante su desarrollo, debe solicitarse la opinión del agricultor sobre los diferentes tratamientos. En general, existe una relación inversa entre la complejidad del diseño y la capacidad del agricultor para opinar acerca del ensayo. Para un número fijo de tratamientos es mucho más fáciIpara el agricultor evaluar un ensayo de arreglo sencillo que uno de arreglo factorial. Además un tamaño pequeño de parcela puede causar mayor desconcierto al agricultor que un número grande de tratamientos. Sin embargo el CIAT ha tenido buenas experiencias en la evaluación por agricultores de hasta 16 variedades en parcelas de apenas 7 a 16m 2 •Estimaciones del rendimiento testigo de los agricultores. Hay por lo menos tres diferentes formas de estimar dentro de un ensayo, el rendimiento obtenido por los agricultores de la zona en la época durante la cual éstos se manejan:a) El rendimiento obtenido en el ensayo mismo bajo manejo del agricultor, pero con la dirección del investigador usando las prácÜcas promedias de agricultores de la zona.b) El rendimiento obtenido dentro del ensayo usando la práctica del agricultor con quien se siembre el ensayo. c) El rendimiento obtenido por el agricultor en un lote típico suyo de fin comercial.El testigo (a) tiene el peligro de sobreestimar el rendimiento que verdaderamente obtienen los agricultores de la zona pero es muy práctico su uso en ensayos de parcelas pequeñas que se manejan en pocos lotes por dominio de recomendaci6n. La confiabilldad (b) depende de que los agricultores seleccionados usan prácticas típicas de la zona. Por eso, es más apropiado para ensayos que se repiten en un número grande de lotes. La ventajadel testigo (b) es que provee el mecanismo para obtener la participaci6n directa del agricultor en la siembra de un ensayo. Permite también la prueba de tecnología bajo condiciones de manejo real de una poblaci6n variable de agricultores en lugar de un manejo fijo estimado como promedio. Por estas razones se ha usado en el CIAT para estimar el rendimiento testigo en ensayos de verificaci6n. La presencia de un testigo variable de finca a finca requiere cuidado al interpretar los datos de una serie de ensayos.Hay investigadores en finca que recomiendan el uso tanto del testigo (a) cqmo del (b) en cada ensayo, lo cual aumellta el número de tratamientos para evaluar'. Adicional al rendimiento testigo (a) y/o (b) , debe tomarse el testigo (c) en un lote vecino de cada ensayo. Hacerlo en la práctica requiere buena organiza-ci6n para marcar de antemano el área y pedirle al agricultor su colaboraci6n en cosecharlo aparte o dejarlo para los investigadores. Si no se hace, es común llegar a una cosecha y descubrir que los agricultores ya han terminado la p~imeraen todos sus lotes. ' Además de los testigos medidos en un s6lo momento en el tiempo, existen las estimaciones de rendimiento de los agricultores encontrados en fuentes secundarias o hechas por eIJos mismos durante las encuestas. Pueden ser de confiabilidad muy variable de zona a zona, pero es importante su compa-raci6n con las estimaciones directas hechas en los ensayos de cada año.Este autor cree que vale la pena un análIsis de varianza de los datos obtenidos, aun cuando sea de los resultados de ensayos en etapas tardías como aquéllos de' verificaci6n o bajo manejo del agricultor. Sin embargo, en estos casos el análisis estadístico no debe ser el análisis más importante. El primér anáHsis y el que d8 mayor informaci6n, es una sencilla inspecci6n de los promedios y de las diferencias entre eIJos.Hay instituciones en donde el procesamiento central de datos está lejos del sitio donde se planearon y mane;aron los ensayos, y llega a ser una excusa para no disponer de prontos resultacios después de una cosecha. La clave del éxito en un programa de investigación a nivel de finca es poder tener a mano los resultados de un año, tanto agronómi~f)!,\" como económicos al planificar las actividades para el año siguiente. Es deseubie que donde se realiza el análisis centralizado de los da-.tos, los mismos encargados locales calculen por lo menos un cuadro de promedios. El análisis estadístico únicamente asigna confianza a los promedio~y a sus diferencias ¡no los cambia! (con excepci6n de diseños látice que no son apropiados a nivel de finca). Es conveniente también que los grupos locales de investigación a nivel de finca, dispongan de una calculadora o computador de bolsillo que les permita hacer su propio análisis de varianza.Otros comentarios sobre el análisis de varianza son: Hay que decidir cuándo el dato de una parcela está tan distorsionado por las circunstancias que debe considerarse como \"faltante\". Este problema se presenta con mayor frecuencia en la investigación en fincas que en las estaciones experimentales debido a la mayor variabilidad que se encuentra típicamente en un lote experimental y al grado menor de control que se puede ejercer. Se sugiere el uso de los conteos de plantas es-t:240 tablecidas o Gosechadas para detectar parcelas afectadas por factores de extrema uniformidad del lote, y no tienen que ver directamente con el tratamiento aplicado. Sin embargo, hay que recordar que a veces el mismo tratamiento pu'ede afectar el número de plantas (p.e. es un ensayo de tratamiento de semillas o uno de competencia entre genotipos de diferentes especies). Se dice \"extrema\" desigualdad porque cualquier lote en fincas tendrá alguna desuniformidad que no es posible controlar totalmente con las repeticiones. No es posible eliminar todas las partes no uniformes del ensayo, pues quedarían pocos dat9s. Más bien se controla la desigualdad, por medio de las repeticiones entre fincas.-Un diseño experimental de bloques completos al azar, puede tener estructuras factoriales que abarcan todos o uno de los tratamientos. Cuando el subconjunto de tratamientos esté decidido antes de hacer ,el análisis, es permisible extraer los sub-conjuntos para repetir el análisis de varianza y determinar la significancia de los efectos factoriales.-Por su naturaleza, los ensayos en fincas que tienen repeticiones en cada una, deben también efectuarse en varias fincas por cada ciclo de siembras. Esto proporciona la posibilidad de realizar un análisis de varianza combinado a través de localidades. Hay diferencias de opinión sobre la utilidad y necesidad de tales análisis. Un análisis de varianza combinado, indica si en general los efectos (efectos sencillos o interacciones), cambian significativamente de localidad a localidad. Este análisis combinado es demasiado resumido para indicar todas las diferencias que existen a veces en las respuestas entre un grupo de localidades. Es análogo el caso que puede presentarse a nivel de una sola localidad cuando el valor F indique que no existen diferencias significativas entre tratamientos en general, pero la prueba de rangos múltiples de Duncan detecta diferencias entre aquellos tratamientos con valores extremos.. Hay varias condiciones de heterogeneidad de errores entre localid~des (Cochran y Cox, 1965) que pueden invalidar un análisis combinado. Además, cuando hay interacciones factoriales a nivel de cada localidad, es bastante complejo para los ingenieros agrónomos encargados de una zona obtener con calculadora de bolsillo los términos en un análisis de varianza combinado. Sin embargo, al existir la capacidad para ejecutarlo, interacciones que varían de finca a finca.El análisis de varianza combinado debe verse entonces como una herramienta suplementaria. Es más importante desarrollar primero, en los integrantes de un equipo de investigación a nivel de finca, la habilidad para realizar comparaciones descriptivas de los promedios entre localidades, y los efectos en el análisis de varianza de cada localidad por s e p a r a d o . ' . Por supuesto, el problema no se da en ensayos que no tienen repe'ticiones a nivel de cada finca; en este caso las fincas son sinónimos de repeticiones.Presentación de resultados: consideraciones generales ti La habilidad para presentar los resultados en una forma fácilmente comprensible para el lector es al menos tan importante como la habilidad para hacer un análisis estadístico. A veces falta de tiempo disponible por parte del lector y del autor, implica que unos cuadros bien diseñados sean consultados con mucho más frecuencia que el texto que les acompaña.Los tratamientos deben pres,entarse en orden de rendimientos (promedio de todos los ensayos) decrecientes o en otro orden lógico. En un ensayo de varieda-.• ; , , i-...des es poco útil presentar los tratamientos en orden de número de (mtrada, excepto que éste sea un orden constante de época a época.El cuadro debe poder entenderse solo, sin el texto. Para ensayos anivel de finca, preferiblemente debe identificarse cada localidad por el nombre del agricultor o de la finca, nombre de la aldea y altura sobre el nivel del mar. En el cuadro mismo, si hay espacio, oen otra hoja, deben especificarse detalles de las prácticas en cada finca.Se debe hacer alguna indicación sobre la significancia• estadística. Convencionalmente se recomienda error estándar (EE), diferencia mínima significativa (DMS) o letras para indicar rangos múltiples de significancia (p.e. prueba de Duncan), pero únicamente uno de ellos.. -Letras de rangos múltiples aportan buena información pero llenan mucho el cuadro. La DMS es .más conCisa y en la •práctica los errores de significación debidos a la no aplicación de factores de rangos múltiples, son de relativamente poca importancia para el número de tratamientos y el grado de precisión necesaria a nivel de finca. La decisión de incluir la DMS, y no solamente letras de rangos múltiples, se puede justificar a veces, si hubiera interés del lector en calcular valores de la DMS para otros niveles de significación.¿Qué nivel de significación debe usarse? El 10% o hasta el 20% puede justificarse en lugar del 5% convencional para estaciones experimentales, especialmente cuando se presentan datos con solamente dos repeticiones por finca como parte de un ensayo manejado en varias de éstas.Todos los tratamientos con excepción del último, son con la variedad Ancash 66. El método de ampliación es abajo de la semilla en la siembra cuando no está nótado al contrario. To?os los tratamientos con excepción del último son con la variedad ICAL-23. El'método de aplicación es abajo de la semilla en la siembra..\"Rendim~entos en la misma finca seguidos por la misma letra no difieren significativamente al 5% segun la prueba de Duncan. Un grupo de tratamientos adicionales con diferentes métodos de aplicación, elementos secundarios y elementos menores no se reporta para propósitos del ejemplo.-\" Muchos ensayos a nivel de finca se hacen en sistemas de cultivos múltiples. Si es un sistema en el cual los cultivos se afectan mutuamente. se deben presentar a nivel de tratamiento los rendimientos de todos los cultivos. Si es un sistema donde un\" cultivo se siembra cerca de la madurez fisiol6gica de otro (p.e. los relevos de maíz-frijol arbustivo y semi-voluble en Centroamérica) se debe presentar el rendimiento del primer cultivo por lo menos en forma global. quizás se necesitará para el análisis econ6mico. Los gráficos de adaptabilidad a través de localidades. son una forma bien resumida e interpretable de presentar datos a través de localidades con rendimientos promedios difenmtes. Convencionalmente se usan para ensayos de variedades. pero se sugiere igualmente para evaluar el comportamiento de tratamientos que incluyen otras prácticas agron6micas. \" \" -Se puede ilustrar la utilidad de este tipo de presentación. con el ejemplo de un ensayo de variedades de frijol manejado en monocultivo en 12 fincas de Honduras en 19H2. En promedio. las' ' 7 variedades nuevas pueden diferir muy poco entr<? ellas y del testigo local (cuadro 2). Un análisis gráfico de regresión lineal Sl~ gtm el método de Eberhart y Russell (1966) indica sin embargo. diferencias en la reacci6n de las Ifneas en localidades poco favorecidas, a pesar de tener promedios muy similares (figura 3). La lfnea Copan se recomendana para fincas Que caen en e150% menos favorecidas. mientras la Ifnea Yojoa servirfa en las 3 (25%) más fa-\"vorecidas. Si se buscara una sola variedad bien adaptada, sena atractiva la lfnea de Acacias 4. La gráfica de adaptabilidad demuestra mucho mejor Que el cuadro. las ventajas de \"Acacias 4\"    Al diseñar los tratamientos, los arreglos factoriales son muy útiles para investigar la complejidad de los cambios que los nuevos componentes tecnol6gicos pueden causar en un sistema de cultivos. Sin embargo, implican a su vez mayor complejidad en el análisis agron6mico y cierta dificultad para derivar datos para el análisis econ6mico. Se sugieren los siguientes pasos para la presentaci6n de resultados de un diseño con arreglo factorial.a) Presentar un cuadro con los promedios y con el nivel de significancia de las diferencias entre tratamientos, sin combinar los que tienen el mismo factor presente.b) Presentar el resumen de la slgnlficancia de los efectos en el análisis de varianza finca por finca, yen el análisis combinado si se ha hecho. En arreglos de únicamente dos factores. esta informaci6n normalmente se puede incorporar al cuadro del pr6ximo paso c. c) Eliminar los factores que en el análisis combinado (o en la mayoría de las fincas si no se hace el análisis combinado) no resultaron significativos. ni esta-CUADRO 3: Rendimiento de frijol (kg/ha) del ensayo regional de finca SRN-CIAT. Honduras 1982. ban presentes en interacciones significativas, haciendo un cuadro con un número reducido de células. Habrá que decidir qué nivel de significancia tomar en cuenta: típicamente en ensayos de 6 repeticiones por dominio de recomendación se usa el 10% en el CIAT..En la presentación de datos agronómicos, no causa problemas el concepto de presentar rendimientos como promedio de todos los tratamientos que tienen un factor a cierto nivel. Sin embargo causa dificultades de cálculo de costos en el análisis estadístico. Como ejemplo se considera el cuadro 3 que resultó de un ensayo exploratorio 2 4 en dos repeticiones por no ser significativo ni entrar en interacciones significativas, como se describe en el paso (c). Los valores que aparecen en el cuadro son el promedio de rendimientos a densidades alta y baja. Sin embargo, las dos densidades tienen diferentes costos de establecimiento (en este caso, cantidad de semilla usada). En el , CIAT, se acostumbra entonces, hacer una corrección de rendimientos'hacia el nivel bajo de los factores eliminados, antes de hacer el análisis económico con los costos del nivel bajo. La corrección se explica abajo del cuadro 4. Otra discusión de este problema se encuentra en Harrington (1982).e) Las interacciones de primer o segundo orden (2 o 3 factores juntos) que muestran significación, se pueden analizar por medio de cuadros o gráficas desde el punto de vista agronómico si no se ha hecho ya como parte de los cuadros en el paso (c).La eliminación de una localidad de un grupo de ensayos, para un dominio de recomendación debe hacerse solamente en casos extremos. Si se hace para cualquier localidad con rendimientos bajos hay peligro de sobreestimar los rendimientos promedios, o el efecto de nuevos componentes tecnológicos, que podría perjudicar mucho el valor del análisis económico.. Unicamente debe hacerse la eliminación: (a) si los efectos están totalmente distorsionados por una desuniformidad exagerada del lote. Sin embargo debe recordarse, que no se deben eliminar localidades simplemente porque no muestran diferencias entre tratamientos. Puede ser Rendimiento calculado de Limoneño, sin fertilización, sin control de enfermedades, 33.3 semillas/m 2 . ::: 696 + 10 ::: 706 kg/ha. En ausencia de datos completos sobre maíz, asumir ren'dimiento constante de 916 kg/ ha en todos los tratamientos. Rendimiento promedio frijol de los agricultores quienes manejaron este ensayo::: 697 kg/ha. una evaluación válida de los prospectos de una'nueva tecnología, encontrar que cause respuesta en unas fincas, pero no en otras; o (b) si el rendlmiento promedio de una localidad está tan bajo (o tan altof que indica que el muestreo de fincas se hizo incorrectamente. La necesidad de practicar este tipo de eliminación se reduce, en ensayos que se repiten en varias fincas.. Los puntos (a) y (b) se ilustran en el ejemplo del cuadro 4. Un investigador entrenado en estación experimental quizás se inclinaría a eliminar el cálculo de los promedios en el cuadro 4A, la finca de S.C. Lasso por tener rendimientos bajos con pequeñas diferencias (no significativas) entre ellos. Sin embargo esta finca no está fuera del rango rendimientos obtenidos en la zona, más bien modera los ren-dimi~mtosaltos de las otras localidades. Debe entonces incluirse al calcular el promedió. En el cuadro 48 de otra zona de trabajo, la finca de N. Córdoba muestra diferenci'as significativas entre tratamientos, que parecen tener alguna relación explicable con los tratamientos aplicados. Sin embargo, cae fuera del rango de rendimientos típicos de la zona (el lote se inundÓ, problema que pasó a muy pocos lotes en aquella época') y debe eliminarse del cálculo del promedlo. , ., .~..... ,..,.~11\"''''''' ....1'(. t La decisión de hacer la eliminación por razón (b) requiere un conocimiento previo del rendimiento típico de la zona. Como un ejemplo: en un grupo de cuatro ensayos de variedades, uno produjo rendimientos nulos debido a condiciones muy adversas de suelo. De una inspección de los campos de los agricultores de la zona, se not6 que aproximadamente un lote en cada cuatro se había perdido totalmente en aquel año y época. Entonces no debe eliminarse el ensayo al calcular los promedios para la zona.Sin embargo, si el ensayo de rendimientos nulos hubiera sido uno de dos apenas, así se hubiese debido eliminar.Si se elige establecer a la vez ensayos en diferentes etapas del marco metodológico, como se propone en la discusi6n de estrategias, es posible obtener de diferentes ensayos, una estimación del efecto del mismo componente tecnológico. Por ejemplo, el efecto de cambiar la variedad de agricultor por una nueva línea promisoria, podría medirse en las mismas siembras (a) en un ensayo de variedades manejado bajo condiciones del agricultor, (b) en un experimento exploratorio de arreglo 2 4 donde los tratamientos asignados a cada variedad son todas las ocho posibles combinaciones de tres factores agronómicos a dos niveles cada uno, y (c) en un experimento de niveles económicos para evaluar fertilizantes donde el experimento se ejecute principalmente con la línea nueva, pero éste se compara con la variedad tradicional mediante la presencia de un testigo del agricultor.Es posible también que los mismos efectos se midan en diferentes años, épocas de siembra o zonas, los cuales hay que combinar o comparar.Se ha encontrado que una forma de hacerlo muy resumida y fácilmente comparable entre años y ensayos es usar un cuadro de efectos principales (cuadro 5 es un ejemplo). Al hacer estos cuadros, ~os valores de un efecto, medido en diferentes tipos de ensayo en el mismoaño, se suman ponderando por el número de fincas en el cual se ejecutó cada tipo de ensayo. En contraste, los promedios entre años, épocas o zonas se hacen dando igual peso a cada observación. El resumen de efectos principales es especialmente útil cuando existen pocas interacciones entre factores, como general y curiosamente ha sido el caso hasta el momento en la investigación del programa de frijol de CIAT a nivel de finca en Colombia. El cuadro debe incluir una línea para anotar las interacciones que estén presentes.Pocas personas son capaces de memorizar los rendimientos de varios tratamientos en diferentes ensayos. El cuadro de efectos, sin embargo, permite al agrónomo recordar el rendimiento actual de los agricultores, y el aumento que cada componente tecnológico puede ofrecer. Permite hasta predecir rendimientos con diferentes combinaciones de componentes, aunque la interacción de componentes siempre reduce la efectividad de la predicción.Los efectos se expresan en rendimientos numéricos y no en \"porcentaje de aumento\". Así son sumables, y además se evitan las distorsiones y confusiones que resultan del uso de diferentes bases al calcular porcentajes. Un agricultor aumenta su rendimiento de 100 kg/ha. a 400 kg/ha. y ha experimentado \"un aumento del 300% \", pero su aumento en ingreso bruto es igual al que lo aumenta solamente en 30%, de 1000 kg/ha a 1300 kg/ha. Conservar los rendimientos numéricos equivale a la práctica de la mayoría de agrónomos, de no hacer transformaciones en los rendimientos antes del análisis de varianza, aun si varían mucho. Los cuadros de efectos permiten también calcular el retorno marginal factor por factor, que puede servir como un primer tamizado económico de componente, y es válido como un análisis final cuando no hay interacciones significativas. Se termina esta discusión presentando un problema que ha causado preocupación entre los investigadores a nivel de finca en el CIAT. La agilidad y rapidez de un proceso de investigaci6n en fincas que pasa por etapas, depende de poder confiar en los resultados de un solo año para poder progresar a etapas más avanzadas el siguiente año. El proceso en esta forma depende de la repetibilidad de año a año de los efectos medios. El hecho de tener varias fincas en cada año de las de las investigaciones tiende a reducir el problema, pero el sentido común dice que los Iimitantes a la producción de un cierto sistema de cultivos en una zona, pueden cambiar de año a año. Los Iimitantes cambian de sequía a enfermedades, de inundación a heladas, especialmente en las condiciones marginales y variables en que cultivan los clientes la investigaci6n a nivel de finca.El problema es análogo al interno de predecir la estabilidad de una variedad (es decir, su rendimiento de año con año en el mismo lugar), a través de medir su adaptabilidad (su rendimiento en un solo año a través de ensayos multilocacionales) . Por la experiencia de los fitomejoradores parece que estabilidad yadaptabilidad no son fenómenos iguales (Everson et al., 1978).En el cuadro 5 se comparan datos de dos años de experimentación en dos épocas de siembra en una zona de altura media de Colombia donde el frijol arbustivo se produce en asociación intercalada con maíz. El segundo semestre (época lB') tiene lluvias más confiables que el primero (época lA') y por ende, mayor producción de frijol. Con base en los efectos en 10 ensayos manejados en 19828, sobre una nueva línea (lCA L-23), fertilización química (el paso más atractivo en las prácticas culturales) y sobre una tecnología completa (que incluía todos los factores agronómicos y económicamente efectivos en 19828) con la inclusión de fertilización además del control de enfermedades e insectos foliares, y del tratamiento de la semilla con un fungicida. Los promedios de los efectos en 19838 fueron totalmente diferentes a los de 19828 (cuadro 5). El efecto de la nueva variedad cambió unos 340 kg/ha. en relación al cultivo local, de positivo a negativo. El efecto de fertilización era ton poco como para ser considerado antieconómico, y el grupo de tres prácticas fitosanitarias también fracasaron. Unicamente una nueva variedad de maíz se mostró promisoria con un efecto similar en los dos años aunque en un solo ensayo por año hubo poca oportunidad para investigar sobre maíz en esta zona por una restricción de número de fincas disponibles.Curiosamente, a pesar de que 1983A y 19838 fueron diferentes en cuanto a condiciones climáticas y por lo tanto de rendimiento, la magnitud de los efectos observados fue ~nás uniforme entre estas épocas que entre las épocas 19828 y 19838.Por ser un dominio de recomendación relativamente limitado con relación al área geográfica, se ha establecido un máximo de 10 a 12 ensayos por año. También la pérdida de ensayos (10%) ha sido mayor que en otras zonas de Colombia. Los problemas entonces no son típicos como los que se han encontrado en todas las zonas de trabajo CIAT-ICA en Colombia.Los resultados se presentan aquí como un ejemplo, de lo peor que podría encontrar un programa nacional con recursos limitados para investigación a nivel de finca. Comparaciones preliminares entre afios en tres otras zonas de Colombia, indican un problema de repetición menos grave en una zona, y pocos problemas de este tipo en las otras dos. Cuando están cosechados estos ensayos se espera reportar el problema en más detalle.--_. . _----- Una solución parcial cuando no se detecta una repetición podría ser la de repetir una etapa mientras se entra a la siguiente. Comúnmente se hace ya'con los ensayos de variedades, quizás los ensayos exploratorios también necesiten dos años de datos. Repetición entre años implica sin embargo, una mayor división de recursos entre etapas, y una pérdida de rapidez en el proceso de investigación a nivel de finca.Agradezco a mis colegas el Dr. Douglas Pachico y los ingenieros Oscar Herrera, Jorge Alonso Beltrán, Carlos Adolfo Luna, y Silvia Hugo Orozco su ayuda en desarrollar los conceptos y ejecutar los ensayos aquí descritos. Los doctores Raúl Moreno y Oswaldo Voysest dieron un valioso consejo para clarificar la presentación en castellano. '","tokenCount":"5437"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b9ddf6727091cf40658666bbdab0a344","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/169ec7db-b496-496d-9d8b-6a22836d4b50/retrieve","id":"-1075554320"},"keywords":["APSIM, Agricultural Production Systems Simulator","CGE, Computable General Equilibrium","CSA, climate-smart agriculture","DREAM, Dynamic Research EvaluAtion for Management","DSSAT, Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer","GFSF, Global Futures and Strategic Foresight","IGRM, International Rice Research Institute Global Rice Model","IMPACT, International Model for Policy Analysis of agricultural Commodities and Trade","IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change","RCP, Representative Concentration Pathway","RT&B, root, tuber, and banana","TOA-MD, Tradeoff Analysis Model for Multidimensional Impact Assessment"],"sieverID":"e331a4bd-7ae2-4ea6-9d4b-92fcdf4ad67d","pagecount":"14","content":"International crop-related research as conducted by the CGIAR uses crop modeling for a variety of purposes. By linking crop models with economic models and approaches, crop model outputs can be effectively used as inputs into socioeconomic modeling efforts for priority setting and policy advice using ex-ante impact assessment of technologies and scenario analysis. This requires interdisciplinary collaboration and very often collaboration across a variety of research organizations. This study highlights the key topics, purposes, and approaches of socioeconomic analysis within the CGIAR related to cropping systems. Although each CGIAR center has a different mission, all CGIAR centers share a common strategy of striving toward a world free of hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation. This means research is mostly focused toward resource-constrained smallholder farmers. The review covers global modeling efforts using the IMPACT model to farm household bio-economic models for assessing the potential impact of new technologies on farming systems and livelihoods. Although the CGIAR addresses all aspects of food systems, the focus of this review is on crop commodities and the economic analysis linked to crop-growth model results. This study, while not a comprehensive review, provides insights into the richness of the socioeconomic modeling endeavors within the CGIAR. The study highlights the need for interdisciplinary approaches to address the challenges this type of modeling faces.International agricultural research for development through the CGIAR focuses on achieving and maintaining globalfood and nutrition security (CGIAR, 2015). The CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources (CGIAR, 2015). This is a daunting task because changes in climate, population, income, and food distribution, among others, make the efforts to achieve food security solutions challenging (Burke & Lobell, 2010;Grassini, Eskridge, & Cassman, 2013;Islam et al., 2016;Robinson et al., 2014). Contributing to the transformation of dynamic complex agri-food systems requires a close collaboration between the different actors to assess these threats and weighing possible solutions using either multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approaches as appropriate.Generating new technologies takes time, whether this refers to new varieties of key crops or management practices that improve the sustainability and resilience of farming systems. Typically, the development of new technologies takes at least five to seven years, but can easily take much longer when the issues addressed are more challenging (Li et al., 2018;Voss-Fels, Stahl, & Hickey, 2019;Watson et al., 2018;Yigezu et al., 2018). Example of challenging technologies to develop are C4 rice (Oryza sativa L.) (Lin, Coe, Quick, & Bandyopadhyay, 2019) and incorporating biological nitrification inhibition traits in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (Subbarao et al., 2007), research that is currently a topic of socioeconomic ex-ante impact assessment studies.Agri-food systems evaluated by the different CGIAR centers produce a range of products that generate positive environmental, social, and economic impacts at different scales (Bobojonov & Aw-Hassan, 2014;CGIAR Independent Science and Partnership Council, 2011). The socioeconomic impacts of CGIAR-generated activities can be evaluated and predicted using different socioeconomic modeling tools such as foresight analysis of agricultural systems under global change scenarios and the consequences of potential food system and farming system shocks, among others (Godfray et al., 2016;Komarek, Thurlow, Koo, & De Pinto, 2019;Komarek et al., 2019;Komarek & Msangi, 2019;Boussios et al., 2019;Yigezu, Aw-Hassan, Shideed, Sommer, & El-Shater, 2014;Ates et al., 2018;Frija & Telleria, 2016;Reynolds et al., 2018). Simulation and scenario analysis (IPCC, 2019;Riahi et al., 2017) either focus on what the future has in store for humanity to identify research priorities today or look at (potential) emerging technologies to assess how they fit into dynamic complex agri-food systems including the analysis of the appropriateness of technology for farming systems and livelihood strategies (Rosegrant et al., 2017).The objective of this review is to present an overview of the main modeling activities and the outcomes generated by different CGIAR centers that combine socioeconomic analysis, models, and tools with crop modeling or crop modeling results. In this overview, which is not a systematic review, we present some key examples and their impacts. Big-picture modeling goals that could have a positive impact across research areas, cropping systems, and rural communities, among others, are presented together with the needs and next steps to be taken to ensure global food security.The scope of the work we discuss in this review relates to modeling efforts related to crops in terms of varieties and management practices and related policies, interventions, and institutional change. While we address models that combine crops and livestock, we purposely ignore models that are focused exclusively on livestock systems, aquaculture, and fisheries. We also ignore studies that focus exclusively on either forestry or plantations.Very often, strategic foresight and ex-ante impact assessment are used interchangeably. However, we make a clear distinction between the two concepts. We define these concepts in the context of international agricultural research for development.• Strategic foresight looks at the future and determines what that means for the type of action we need to take today in terms of policy making, research priority setting, and other actions. • Ex-ante impact assessment looks at how technologies in the research and development continuum fit into farming systems, livelihood strategies, and agri-food systems in general.The former concept starts in the future and looks back at the present, whereas the latter projects from the present into the future. Both approaches involve the definition and use of scenarios for the assumptions about the future based on major drivers of change such as population growth, economic developments, and climate change.Foresight and ex-ante research within the CGIAR use a range of interdisciplinary modeling approaches to guide the technology improvement process in each center. Foresight evaluation looks at potential system performance, using both qualitative and quantitative data, in a way that facilitates the examination of different potential future scenarios because of major drivers of change and their interactions leading to rural transformation, urbanization, and food system transformation. For example, foresight models look at the association between past and current income and consumption patternsand make projections on what to expect in the future under various policy, institutional, technological, and climate change scenarios. Ex-ante impact assessment starts from the present and analyzes the potential futures mainly using modeling tools. One example of ex-ante assessment can be the evaluation of how technological and policy changes can influence the future income of smallholder farmers. Within the CGIAR the focus is on the farming systems producing main food crops of resource poor farmers in low-and middle-income countries where food security is of concern.Global Futures and Strategic Foresight (GFSF, http://global futures.cgiar.org/) is a CGIAR-wide initiative led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in which all 15 CGIAR centers are working together to improve the understanding of future challenges to agricultural productivity, food security, and environmental sustainability especially in developing countries and to explore options to address these future challenges. At its inception in 2010, GFSF was funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for five years. Then, the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security have been funding the initiative for the past five years. Using various quantitative modeling techniques, the GFSF focuses on evaluating the economic viability and biophysical sustainability of promising technologies in their recommendation domains globally as well as the associated research investments and policy reforms. Much of the foresight work carried out in the context of GFSF is based on a structural modeling approach since the suite of tools consists of different interlinked models (more information in Section 3). As of 2019, the collaborative effort is being renamed the CGIAR foresight team.The main policy and socioeconomic modeling activities performed within CGIAR centers are focused on issues such as scenario development, policy analysis, decision support, and assessment of potential impacts in general and potential economic returns in particular. Specific examples, drawing on the work of the different CGIAR centers, are presented in the next sections.As mentioned earlier, the purpose of doing specific research is crucial for understanding model choices. The purposes for using crop modeling in a socioeconomic research context are varied and include, among other possibilities, research priority setting, policy analysis, decision support with the scaling of new technologies, and determining the economic returns of new technologies. One reason crop models are needed for the above purposes is that we often do not have enough observation data from agronomic field trials or farmer surveys of crop yields under a range of technologies and across a range of biophysical environments (with heterogenous soils and weather, among others), therefore, models allow for a convenient way to explore a range of scenarios related to crop yields accounting for spatial and temporal variability.Research priority setting draws heavily on foresight analysis and builds on a long history of studying science under scarcity especially where it concerns the mid-and long-term projections that guide decisions concerning prebreeding strategies and trait discovery decisions. The obvious example is climate change. By adding an economic component to the analysis of climate change, the economic and biophysical effects of climate change on specific crops and technologies in specific geographies can be assessed. In fact, Petsakos, Hareau, Kleinwechter, Wiebe, and Sulser (2018) argue that foresight modeling can add substantial value when setting priorities for international agricultural research, as it can quantify the effect of uncertainty on the performance of the agricultural sector especially related to climate change and socioeconomic variables such as income and population. The analysis of climate-resilient crops includes drought-tolerant rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties (Mottaleb, Rejesus, Murty, Mohanty, & Li, 2017), drought-tolerant common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) varieties (Álvarez et al., 2016), drought-tolerant sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] (Nedumaran, Bantilan, Abinaya, Mason-D 'Croz, & Kumar, 2014), drought-and heat-tolerant maize (Zea mays L.) varieties (Tesfaye et al., 2018). Bobojonov and Aw-Hassan (2014) analyzed the effect of climate change on farm income in central Asia, finding that impact can be either positive or negative depending on situations especially when risk is increased because of biophysical constraints including climate change.The effect of potential adoption of new technologies under climate change is a key topic, which has become even more relevant with the publication of the latest IPCC report (IPCC, 2019). Examples include the analysis of how climate change may affect world supply of agricultural commodities and thus the prices of commodities and therefore also the ability of consumers to afford food (Rosegrant et al., 2014). Other examples relate to crop yields and food security impact under different scenarios of climate change (Islam et al., 2016;Komarek, Thurlow, et al., 2019;Tesfaye et al., 2018;Chung et al., 2014;Gbegbelegbe, Chung, Shiferaw, Msangi, & Tesfaye, 2014).Another purpose for using crop models in socioeconomic research is to design scenarios to study crop demand, supply, and trade and is served by coupling economic decision tools with results from crop models (mainly crop yields). An example is the analysis of potato supply in India by 2030 by Scott, Petsakos, and Juarez (2019). Given the predominantly vegetarian diets in India, the authors show that potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production in the country can even double compared with 2010 under a foresight scenario that posits rapid economic and technological growth and milderclimate change assumptions (RCP 4.5 vs. RCP 8.5). Another study by Hoang and Meyers (2015) analyzed price stabilization and impacts of trade liberalization in Southeast Asia rice markets. The simulation results suggested that the removal of state trading enterprises in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines would lower their domestic prices by as much as 34% but increase the world prices by ∼20%. Seck et al. (2013) simulated future rice supply and demand at the global level. The authors projected that by 2035, an additional 116 million t of rice will be required to meet the growing global demand, of which, around one-quarter demand will be from Africa. Therefore, to meet this global demand, ∼0.6 t ha −1 more rice will be required to produce annually without any expansion of the rice area. Closing yield gaps and expanding mechanization in rice farming could help achieve this goal (Seck et al., 2013).Policy analysis is another major purpose for models that combine biophysical relationships or results of crop models and economic optimization (bio-economic models). Some of the policies that can be analyzed are closely related to management practices such as use of water for irrigation (Yigezu et al., 2014). Crop modeling combined with economic analysis can be used to determine of intraseasonal policy actions related to weather changes needed to induce changes in management practices within the cropping season (Boussios et al., 2019) to enhance the effectiveness of the watershed approach (Nedumaran, Shiferaw, Bantilan, Palanisami, & Wani, 2014) and for resolving land ownership disputes to reduce deforestation rates and forest-based carbon emissions in armed-conflict areas (Castro-Nunez, Mertz, Buritica, Sosa, & Lee, 2017).Bio-economic modeling is also a useful tool for the ex-ante impact assessment of planned or contemplated policies. It allows the analysis of key technological and policy interventions on for instance the socioeconomic wellbeing of rural households and the natural resources (Nedumaran, Shiferaw, et al., 2014). It is also used to assess changes in the price of mineral fertilizer on different household indicators like mineral fertilizer demand, land use, crop yield and production, total calories consumed, household income for smallholder farmers in central Malawi (Komarek et al., 2017), and subsidizing crop production costs on land use and household caloric intake in Sierra Leone (Chenoune et al., 2017).Bio-economic modeling is also used for food security assessment. The International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT) model (Rosegrant et al., 2014), which is a partial equilibrium bioeconomic model has also been used for analysis of changes in food systems and impacts on producers, consumers, and the environment at different scales (CIAT, 2017). Food security has four dimensions: availability, access, use, and stability. Though they have the potential for application at larger scales, most past applications of bio-economic models were farm-scale scenario simulations using mathematical programming like the ones discussed in several reviews (Janssen & Van Ittersum, 2007;Brown, 2000;Oriade & Dillon, 1997;Castro et al., 2018).Another key purpose of bio-economic modeling is determining the economic returns of new technologies. The wide range of cases include the following: (a) the analysis of gains in productivity and economic effects of conservation agriculture in Zambia (Komarek et al., 2019); (b) household welfare and poverty distribution when relaxing cash constraints and increasing the off-farm income opportunities in the White-Volta Basin of Ghana (Nedumaran & Berger, 2009); (c) developing and disseminating drought-tolerant rice in southern Asia (Mottaleb et al., 2017); (d) use of biomass-enhancing technologies {conservation agriculture, maize-mucuna [Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC.] rotation} in the context of mixed farming systems in semi-arid Zimbabwe (Homann-Kee Tui et al., 2015); (e) preparing a payment for environmental services schemes in the Andes identifying watersheds biophysically critical areas and compare services for current land uses under changing scenarios (Quintero, Wunder, & Estrada, 2009); and (f) restoring degraded land in Latin America through, for instance, the WRI 20 × 20 Initiative (https://www.wri.org/our-work/project/initiative-20%20%EF %82%B4%2020) also requires ex-ante impact assessment (Vergara et al., 2016).Socioeconomic pressures, such as population growth, changes in income, changes in preferences for food, market access, availability, and access to technology and development, clearly affect crop production and productivity. How these current and projected trends in socioeconomic factors will affect agricultural productivity and food security remains unclear and is being widely studied by different research groups within the CGIAR centers using a combination of tools and methodologies. For example, Petsakos et al. (2019), in a joint study by multiple CGIAR centers, examine how climate and socioeconomic changes could affect root, tuber, and banana (RT&B) crops by 2050. Based on the analysis by Rosegrant et al. (2017), the authors conclude that the diet contribution of RT&Bs in terms of calorie intake is likely to increase in developing countries in the future. Petsakos et al. (2019) also argue that targeted investments on productivity improvements can further strengthen the role of RT&Bs in global food systems.Forecasting of plausible and probable upcoming events is a crucial step to avoid or reduce the magnitude of future problems, thus enabling better decision making on strategic issues. A good way of examining potential future scenarios is by using agronomic and socioeconomic modeling approaches (Reynolds et al., 2018;Rosegrant et al., 2017). Modelingsocioeconomic factors may help provide information for supporting decisions and policies that are beyond the information available only from crop models. This is because, for example, socioeconomic modeling considers the suitability of technologies to different contexts and goes beyond the field or laboratory where technologies were initially innovated and tested.The key topics addressed by CGIAR economic models, ranging from global integrated assessment models to socioeconomic and bio-economic models at the farm scale, that are informed by crop models depend in part on the scope and purpose. They include economic aspects of climate change and weather variability (including extreme weather events), new and emerging pests and diseases, besides the longstanding analysis of how different farm management practices and genotype affect crop productivity and farm income (Archontoulis et al., 2020;Cooper et al., 2020;Hammer et al., 2020).Climate change is a key topic for which foresight modeling that combines economic and crop growth models is especially suitable. Crop models, such as Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) (Hoogenboom et al., 2019;Jones et al., 2003), ORYZA (Li et al., 2017), and Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) (Holzworth et al., 2014) are able to calculate likely productivity outcomes under a variety of climate scenarios (Hammer et al., 2020). The impact in the use of new technologies and agronomic practices for adapting to climate change has been widely evaluated among CGIAR centers as a decision support tool (Li, Angeles, Radanielson, Marcaida, & Manalo, 2015a;Li et al., 2015b). Different research groups have evaluated the ex-ante economic benefits of developing and disseminating droughttolerant crops under different climate scenarios. Some examples include the evaluation of the development of droughttolerant crops such as rice in South Asia (Mottaleb et al., 2012(Mottaleb et al., , 2017)), bean varieties on the Latin America and the Caribbean region and Africa (Álvarez et al., 2016), sorghum in target countries of Asia and Africa (Nedumaran, Bantilan, et al., 2014) and maize in Africa (La Rovere et al., 2014;Setimela et al., 2018;Steward, Thierfelder, Dougill, & Ligowe, 2019). All the analyses show that the development and adoption of new drought-tolerant crop varieties would help to increase crop production and reduce consumer prices, outweighing the research investment needed to develop a new variety (Evenson & Gollin, 2003;Raitzer & Kelley, 2008;Renkow & Byerlee, 2010). The high returns to investment in wheat are well-documented (Lantican et al., 2016). Some studies also suggest combining this varietal replacement with changing crop water and fertilizer management (Komarek et al., 2017;La Rovere et al., 2014) or rotations (Yigezu et al., 2019).Moreover, there is research focusing on the effect of climate change on crop commodity quality. For example, investigating how carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) affects global nutrition via effects on agricultural productivity and nutrient content of food crops, Beach et al. (2019) found that the effect of increasing CO 2 concentrations will slow progress in decreasing global nutrient deficiencies.An array of tools are used within the CGIAR to do the types of analyses discussed above. These tools range from simple trend analysis to complex dynamic integrated assessment modeling using a variety of interlinked process-based models. In trend analysis, the main focus is to forecast the most likely outcome extrapolating from historical data. This strategy is losing its applicability because of its limitations, as it offers a rather simplified vision and ignores the nonlinearities inherently present in complex systems (Tilman, Balzer, Hill, & Befort, 2011).The economic models we discuss here are more complicated than simple trend analysis, although some do make use of trend analysis as part of model parametrization procedures. Before we discuss some of the models and model types in more detail, we need to clarify that many models are fit for specific purposes and also for specific temporal and spatial scales. The temporal scales are related to the time frames mentioned earlier when discussing the difference between foresight and ex-ante impact assessment. The spatial scales range from the basic socioeconomic unit of a farm enterprise through all the intermediate levels to the global level.Special attention needs to be placed on spatial scales. Very often with bio-economic models and interlinked process models from different scientific domains, models are combined that may not be completely compatible in terms of their scales. While this is not necessarily a major problem, it is important to assess the consequences of using models that are optimized for different scales. We recognize that this assessment of scale difference between biophysical and socioeconomic is often missing.In our brief model discussion, we start with the integrated assessment models. These include the IFPRI-led IMPACT model and other integrated assessment models at the global level. These models make use of crop modeling results for future scenarios.The IMPACT is a global partial equilibrium model that was first developed in the early 1990s to consider the longterm challenges facing policymakers in reducing hunger and poverty in a sustainable fashion. The IMPACT model has been expanded and improved repeatedly to respond to increasingly complex policy questions and state-of-the-art modeling (Robinson et al., 2015). The current version of IMPACT is a suite of models including a multimarket economic model; a gridded crop model, the DSSAT; climate models; and a water model. The IMPACT model can calculate the direct effects of and indirect interaction effects of agricultural productivity change under different economic, climatic, and demographic scenarios. The partial equilibrium effects capture the interactions between different commodities in terms of supply, demand and trade, and market clearing prices. Figure 1  Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between scenario assumptions, technical coefficients related to crop production that are used in crop growth models, and model outputs. While crop production is calculated at a gridded level, the overall outcomes are presented at a higher level of aggregation, the food production unit, and there are 320 food production units in the current version of IMPACT.The IMPACT model has been used for policy analysis with respect to many commodity systems including but not limited to oil palm (Wiebe et al., 2019), fish (Chan et al., 2019), live-stock products (Enahoro et al., 2019), rice (Pradesha et al., 2019), and roots and tubers (Petsakos et al., 2019), to name a few recent studies. IMPACT model results have been used to inform policy decisions in, for instance, the Philippines (Rosegrant & Sombilla, 2018).Other global models have been developed focusing on a specific crop such as the International Rice Research Institute Global Rice Model (IGRM) and the ORYZA model. The IGRM is a multicountry partial equilibrium model, which can be used for rice-related policy and technology foresight analysis (Hoang & Meyers, 2015;Mottaleb et al., 2017;Seck, Diagne, Mohanty, & Wopereis, 2012). Figure 2 illustrates how the IGRM works.Another group of models is the economy-wide models at national level. Capturing general equilibrium effects of   2019) found that increased investments, US$15 billion yr −1 between 2015 and 2030, may boost crop and livestock productivity by 50% in Africa vs. 2010 productivity levels. As a result, food prices will decline and household incomes will increase; therefore, the large share and number of hungry people in Africa could decline by 2030 under increased investment.Several other studies also used CGE models to study the general equilibrium effect of maize and wheat technology change in different settings. For instance, using a dynamic CGE model along with a microsimulation model, impacts of promising maize and wheat varieties are evaluated on future food security and poverty and economic performance by Sahoo, Shiferaw, and Gbegbelegbe (2016) in Kenya, Beyene, Shiferaw, Sahoo, and Gbegbelegbe (2016) in Ethiopia, and Ghosh, Shiferaw, Sahoo, and Gbegbelegbe (2016) in India.All of these studies found positive impacts of introducing promising wheat and maize technologies on the respective country's gross domestic product growth and poverty reduction. Lastly, Komarek, Thurlow, et al. (2019) simulated the effects of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in Ethiopia linking a crop model with a CGE model. The authors found that CSA is more effective than doubling fertilizer use on the same area. Adopting CSA in Ethiopia, the national gross domestic product could increase by US$33 million and, importantly, it could assist >75,000 people out of poverty. Therefore, to capture general equilibrium effects of technology change, as predicted by partial equilibrium economic models such as the IMPACT or assumed using expert opinion, integrating partial and general equilibrium models is crucial.In 1995, IFPRI researchers developed DREAM (Dynamic Research EvaluAtion for Management), a software to evaluate agricultural research and development projects based on an economic surplus partial equilibrium model. Over the years, this menu-driven software package has been widely used in the evaluation and priority setting of agricultural projects (https://www.ifpri.org/publication/dreampy-evaluation-andpriority-setting-agricultural-research-and-development-proj ects). Being a partial equilibrium model, a feature ofDREAM is its ability to capture the output price effect of technology adoption, which is often missing in farm-scale models that assume farmers are price takers. Several studies used DREAM to assess technology adoption. For example, Shiferaw, Kebede, and You (2008) evaluated the adoption and impact of disease-resistant pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Huth) varieties that were developed and disseminated in Tanzania. Komarek, Koo, Wood-Sichra, and You (2018) used DREAM to examine the effects of adopting improved maize seed cultivars and increasing mineral fertilizer application rates in Tanzania. The authors found that maize farmers' benefits could be US$697 million over five years with a 39% adoption rate.The Tradeoff Analysis Model for Multidimensional Impact Assessment (TOA-MD) is a generic model for adaptation strategies related to technology adoption; impact assessment of, for instance, climate change; and ecosystem services analysis. The TOA-MD model simulates technology adoption and its impact in a population of heterogeneous farms (Antle, 2011;Stoorvogel & Antle, 2001). The TOA-MD model has been employed within the CGIAR to analyze the trade-offs at local scale related to potential new technologies (Claessens et al., 2012;Homann-Kee Tui et al., 2015).To capture the effects of productivity change and changes in input requirements of different technologies, partial budget analysis is commonly conducted to show the cost-benefit ratio of a technology package. The foresight team at CIM-MYT advocates the use of an expanded version of partial budget analysis. The expanded partial budget analysis looks at the intrinsic risk of different technology packages instead of just the average case. Using subjective time preferences, the approach calculates how well new technology packages fit into risk management strategies of farm households (Tesfaye et al., 2018).Farm household-level bio-economic modeling often combines information from biophysical process models with socioeconomic models that capture farm household decision making including goals and aspirations, risk management, and preferences. This is a powerful tool for ex-ante impact assessment of pipeline technologies that can readily capture climate change and weather variability scenarios to see how pipeline technologies fit into present and future farming systems and livelihood strategies.Within this domain there are two strands of work. The first is focused on farming systems research and its link with liveli-hood strategies, and much of this research within the CGIAR is led by the scientists in the Sustainable Intensification Program at CIMMYT. The second is bio-economic household modeling focused on household decision making processes (Kruseman & Bade, 1998;Kruseman, 2000Kruseman, , 2007) ) and lead by a range of researchers throughout the CGIAR; this includes the Dynamic Agricultural Household Bio-economic Simulator (DAHBSIM) model (Komarek et al., 2017) and earlier work both within the CGIAR and with partners linked to the CGIAR (Reynolds et al., 2018). Both approaches have synergies with each other and only differ in where the primary focus is. A specific strand of modeling relevant in this setting is agent-based modeling (Berger et al., 2017).Especially for bio-economic models and partial budget analysis models, they are used for very specific purposes and geographies, and therefore do not have specific dedicated model names. Models from different domains are often soft coupled, this includes passing yield simulations from DSSAT to DREAM or IMPACT or other purpose-built models.Different models have different data sources. The integrated assessment models use aggregate open-source data such as those available from FAO's FAOstat and the World Bank Indicators, amongst others. Important sources of data are the results taken from various climate models and the Shared Economic Pathway scenarios that are widely used as benchmarks for future developments (Riahi et al., 2017).Many farm household-level and landscape or communitylevel models make use of farm household surveys to calibrate, evaluate, and validate the model parameters and outputs. The data sources can be both primary data collected by the research teams or secondary household data. The World Bank LSMS-ISA datasets (http://surveys.worldbank.org/lsms/ programs/integrated-surveys-agriculture-ISA) and the data available through Africa Rising (https://africa-rising.net/) are examples of widely used secondary farm household data.The crop models used in the bio-economic modeling frameworks depend critically on the advancement of crop science; the CGIAR centers have a demonstrated record of significant contributions. These models also use a variety of climate model outputs as model parameters to simulate productivity under climate change and weather variability.The higher aggregation-level models often require gridded information about cropping patterns. Using a variety of inputs, the Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM, http://mapspam.info/) uses a cross-entropy approach to make plausible estimates of crop distribution within disaggregated units. Moving the data from coarser units, such as countries and subnational provinces, to finer units, such as grid cells, reveals spatial patterns of crop performance, creating a globalgridscape at the confluence between geography and agricultural production systems.As mentioned before, the GFSF project is an excellent platform of CGIAR research centers that focuses on evaluating promising technologies, investments, and policy reforms with various quantitative methods for strategic foresight to inform policy decisions (http://globalfutures.cgiar.org/). Since linking crop modeling and economic modeling is complicated and requires an interdisciplinary approach, more impact can be achieved through such collaboration than through the sum of individual modeling activities. Another example of effective collaboration is the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture (https://bigdata.cgiar.org/) hosting two relevant communities of practice in the context of the current review: one on crop modeling and one on socioeconomic data. The community of practice on socioeconomic data supports increasing availability of interoperable data sets at farm household level based on surveys (Van Wijk et al., 2019).There are significant benefits of modeling collaboration. For instance, keep updating the bio-economic household models to ensure that they fit into the changing farming systems and livelihood strategies and making them accessible so that the models can readily be applicable for assessing pipeline technologies. This includes combining efforts of economists and agronomists regarding farming systems and bio-economic modeling at the household, community, and landscape levels. As far as we are aware, within the CGIAR there is capacity for household-level bio-economic modeling in order to assess pipeline technologies in terms of how they fit into farming systems and livelihood strategies at different centers. ICRISAT, for example, continues using the calibrated and validated models to evaluate the competitiveness of alternative productivity enhancing technologies and management practices and the socioeconomic processes that can facilitate sustainable intensification of mixed crop-livestock systems particularly in semi-arid environments. At CIMMYT, the Far-mDesign model developed by Wageningen University (Groot, Oomen, & Rossing, 2012), which is deployed by researchers to analyse the potential impacts of new technology packages linked to farm typologies (Ditzler et al., 2018(Ditzler et al., , 2019;;Estrada Carmona, 2019). Both ICARDA and CIMMYT are currently engaged in research projects related to using bio-economic household models.Across the different CGIAR centers, there is a clear willingness for continued deployment of the IMPACT model, while there is also an interest to actively pursue collaboration with other advanced research institutes and academia regarding alternate integrated assessment models, for example, through Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) (https://agmip.org/). Various centers foster interdisciplinary approaches. At CIMMYT, for instance, crop modelers and economists are working in a dedicated team on ex-ante impact assessment. To foster the link between the structural models' outcomes with the crop improvement programs to better target the technologies to achieve greater impacts, ICRISAT encourages more multidisciplinary collaboration among modelers, crop physiologists, and key stakeholders. These efforts offer clear opportunities to build up cross-discipline collaborations and experiment with soft and hard coupling of different tools and methods. Bringing together modelers, economists and people from other disciplines and across organizations to work synergistically offers an opportunity to leverage diversity of thought and skills to accelerate progress. However, participatory approaches have not always been incorporated into the economic simulation models. Moreover, many of the higher aggregation levels models have difficulty capturing key components of the economy such as the labor market. Market imperfections are usually not represented adequately. Labor demand for specific technologies or practices, while a major issue for sustainable development is difficult to address because of poor data, among others, inadequate data on quantity of labor used in crop production, price of labor, and gender disaggregation.Modeling the risk of new and emerging pests and diseases on production, productivity, and food security is an important topic that is getting more attention (Duku, Sparks, & Zwart, 2016;Mottaleb, Loladze, Sonder, Kruseman, & San Vicente, 2019;Mottaleb et al., 2018;Yigezu et al., 2010;Yigezu & Sanders, 2012). However, for most crops, there is a lack of integrated crop-pest models or even data on the effect of pests and diseases on yields to calibrate and evaluate models. Therefore, the impact of pests and diseases on crop production cannot be easily quantified with current modeling capacities. It is crucial to bring together pathologists, entomologists, and agronomists to understand and model the interrelation between the pest and disease lifecycle and the growth of its host plant. This effort could be based on the integrated crop-pest model for rice (Duku et al., 2016). Coupling two spatial models, EPIRICE and RICEPEST, the authors quantified the rice yield losses from two important diseases (leaf blast and bacterial leaf blight) under a changing climate in Tanzania. Linking the integrated crop-pest disease models with the economic models will provide foresight of emerging pests and diseases and its impact on crop production. Therefore, policymakers can take necessary actions to avoid such future uncertainties.There is an opportunity to take advantage of a new data paradigm in traditionally data-poor regions. This ranges from georeferenced household surveys to remotely sensed satellite imagery and scenario modeling analyses. Better data allowsCGIAR centers to better bridge the divide between research output and policy guidance and decision making. Finding alternatives to costly and time-consuming household surveys can enhance the use of bio-economic models especially at lower aggregation levels. Through the communities of practice of the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, efforts are underway to enhance data findability, accessibility, and interoperability to enhance the reuse of data, essential for the type of modeling discussed in this review. Some of this work is done in close collaboration with the Excellence in Breeding Platform of the CGIAR ensuring more synergies.The combination of crop modeling and economic modeling offers scope and opportunity for both foresight analysis and ex-ante impact assessment. For complex dynamic agri-food systems, various models provide insights into key parts of the system under various scenarios. Bio-economic models are used for exploratory studies to understand the potential impacts of drivers, for instance climate change and alternative crop management practices. The information can be used for priority setting within international agricultural research, for a better understanding of agricultural households, and agri-food systems outcomes under changing circumstances and uncertain conditions. This can be used for policy advice and decision support for various stakeholders. The increasing availability of interoperable data sets at farm household level based on surveys offers scope to use existing tools with these data sets in combination of more readily available crop modeling results.The value of crop model outputs, and underpinning crop science knowledge and data, is greatly enhanced by adding the socioeconomic context irrespective of the scale at which this occurs. As our study highlights, there is a clear distinction between foresight and ex-ante impact assessment even though the terms are often used interchangeably in the literature. Amongst the wide variety of topics that can be addressed with bio-economic modeling approaches, climate change is arguably the most noteworthy. Bio-economic modeling approaches tackle complex challenges and hence can benefit tremendously from interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaboration.The possibility of smart phones for getting GPS coordinates and the feasibility of using Google Maps to locate villages, obtain their GPS coordinates, and linking them to global soil and historical weather data are now advantages that bio-economic modeling work can use. We can now use this information for various purpose, for example, yield gap analysis using data that was collected a few years ago that did not contain weather and soil data that is now available. We are in the middle of a data revolution, with new data sources coming available regularly, the use of new data sources, and new techniques to enhance data operability offer scope for using existing models in new and exciting ways. This includes but is not limited to reusing models in new locations, on larger sets of information, and allowing the results to be analyzed with big data analytics tools. Enhanced data interoperability also allows multiple models to be used on the same data set.","tokenCount":"6166"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"88b9cbf24084962995b099ed50a705aa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/42d8a845-dfa6-4e62-9421-a0fea7751164/retrieve","id":"335786489"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"717689ea-c36b-4b05-a33a-5da7cf888237","pagecount":"6","content":"El banano es el cuarto cultivo alimentario más importante del mundo, después del arroz, el trigo y el maíz, en términos del valor bruto de producción. El plátano, por otro lado, es uno de los alimentos que conforman la dieta base de varios países en ALC. La región de ALC produce el 26% de banano y plátano del mundo, siendo Brasil, Ecuador,cultivos perennes, como las Musáceas (plátanos y bananos). La rápida expansión de una nueva raza de Foc, llamada raza 4 tropical (R4T) constituye actualmente la mayor amenaza de estos cultivos para ALC. A diferencia de otros patógenos de las Musáceas, que causan daños en hojas y frutos y pueden ser controlados con productos químicos, el Foc R4T causa la muerte de la planta y su control químico no es viable. Además, no se cuenta con opciones de variedades resistentes que serían el mejor método de control.Una vez que Foc R4T ingresa a una finca, se disemina rápidamente a través del suelo, agua, material vegetal, maquinaria, etc., causando la muerte progresiva de las plantas e inviabilizando el cultivo de musáceas.Los impactos de esta enfermedad en ALC ya son conocidos. A mediados del siglo pasado, la raza 1 (Foc R1) provocó la desaparición de la mayoría de las plantaciones comerciales de la variedad Gros Michel (Stover, 1990) con un impacto económico superior a US $2,300 millones. La solución fue sustituir la variedad Gros Michel por variedades del subgrupo Cavendish resistentes a Foc R1, pero altamente susceptibles a Foc R4T. 1. Realizar un análisis de riesgos regional y armonizar los procedimientos generales de cuarentena a nivel regional.1. Fortalecer acciones de comunicación: Fortalecer los canales de comunicación y divulgación de información para prevenir la propagación del Foc R4T.temprana: Fortalecer infraestructura de alerta temprana que incluya estaciones de monitoreo, protocolos para relevo de información, digitalización de información, creación de comités o grupos de técnicos para vigilancia de Foc R4T, implementación de un sistema de denuncias digital y con mecanismos en campo para la vigilancia de la entrada de la plaga.3. Fomentar el uso de TICs: Diseñar e implementar una plataforma de vigilancia y alerta temprana a nivel regional. 1. Armonización de protocolos de bioseguridad en aeropuertos, puertos marítimos y puertos de frontera estándar y homogenizado a nivel de región.2. Establecer estándares de calidad y seguridad fitosanitaria para la producción y propagación de semilla a nivel regional.1. Desarrollar un sistema de viveros con trazabilidad: Establecer un programa para el registro de viveros y trazabilidad de material de propagación para asegurar la calidad de las plantaciones.siembra y resiembra de material vegetativo: Diseñar e implementar una normativa para que se tramiten permisos únicos de siembra con la autoridad respectiva.Diseñar, implementar y diseminar regulaciones y protocolos para el uso de desinfectantes como el amonio cuaternario, así como evaluaciones sobre la calidad de estos.Igualmente, promover el desarrollo de otras opciones de desinfectantes y análisis para investigar la resistencia del patógeno a las opciones de desinfectantes que existen actualmente.1. Diseño e implementación de un simulacro regional.  1. Evaluación de germoplasma de musáceas: Mapeo de cultivares con potencial de resistencia y evaluación de su comportamiento a nivel de invernadero y campo frente a Foc R4T; evaluación de variedades locales de plátano para la resistencia y comportamiento a Foc R4T y estandarización de protocolos. Desarrollo y validación de protocolos para la importación de variedades de interés a nivel regional.Prácticas agronómicas adaptadas a condiciones de presencia de la enfermedad en cada país.3. Diagnóstico: Desarrollo de métodos de diagnóstico costo-efectivos para el caso de las plantas de musáceas, así como para muestras ambientales (agua y suelo, etc.).contención): Análisis de factores predisponentes de la enfermedad (caracterización física, química y biológica de suelos para el mapeo y caracterización), identificación de microorganismos con potencial para suprimir Foc R4T, recomendación de enmiendas, rotación de cultivos y rediseño de sistemas de producción de banano a mediano y largo plazo.Análisis de la efectividad de amonios cuaternarios disponibles por país para el control de Foc R4T como medida de bioseguridad y prevención.6. Epidemiología: Entendimiento de la estructura de poblaciones de Foc en cada país, reconocimiento y análisis de cultivos hospederos alternos, identificación de factores de dispersión del patógeno, identificación de genes efectores y de resistencia en aislados del hongo y genotipos de musáceas evaluados.7. Semilla sana: Oferta y acceso de semillas in vitro para cada país con condiciones de calidad genética y sanitaria que garantice calidad y sanidad; protocolos para la producción in vitro y escalonamiento a nivel regional, mapeo de proveedores de semilla limpia a nivel regional. Con la confirmación de la presencia de Foc R4T en Colombia, las ONPFs, las instituciones de investigación agropecuaria y el sector privado de la región han priorizado una serie de acciones para el manejo integral a la problemática, prevaleciendo la implementación de protocolos de prevención y bioseguridad con el acompañamiento de una agenda de investigación que presenta ejes de trabajo coincidentes con las propuestas priorizadas de los diferentes países de la región. ","tokenCount":"819"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"68cd40fc0e0feb70d4b2c42afc86a186","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/73a7e87a-ee24-4045-ba45-36afe5e2efe2/retrieve","id":"1998411298"},"keywords":["organic farming","shoot biomass","root biomass","root:shoot ratio","allometric root estimation"],"sieverID":"25a12700-872f-4636-a478-db3908366a8e","pagecount":"26","content":"The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.Soil fertility in agricultural systems is sustained through inputs of organic matter from plant residues and from applied manure and compost (Lal, 2004a, b). These inputs contribute to carbon (C) storage and sequestration in soils, which in some cases may help to mitigate other greenhouse gas emissions (Powlson et al., 2011). The plant inputs of C from both aboveground and belowground components are generally calculated from their plant biomass by multiplying with specific transfer (humification) coefficients (Chirinda et al., 2012;Kätterer et al., 2011). However, unlike aboveground plant biomass, root biomass is difficult to sample and quantify. The C originating from roots can represent an important source for soil C storage (Warembourg and Paul, 1977), not least because they may contribute more to stable soil organic C (SOC) pools than aboveground inputs (Kätterer et al., 2011). Such considerations suffer from the fact that the amount of belowground C inputs is mostly not well quantified under field conditions (Smucker, 1984;Taylor, 1986). The difficulties in measuring belowground C inputs means that other approaches have to be taken to estimate this component. Therefore, simple estimation methods have been proposed for estimating belowground C inputs, and these are used for accounting purposes and in many cases also for soil C modelling (Keel et al., 2017).Allometric estimation of root C inputs, where a certain (often constant) proportion of plant dry biomass is allocated to the root, is a commonly used method, for instance in national inventories of soil C changes (Johnson et al., 2006). Estimating root biomass using fixed allometric ratios is based on the assumption that for specific species and environmental conditions, growth of roots and shoots are closely associated (Pearsall, 1927;Poorter and Nagel, 2000). This assumes that the biomass allocated to roots is proportional to shoot biomass with a ratio determined by plant species and environmental conditions. As a consequence, the proportion is often a key parameter to estimate root biomass of crops under similar conditions. However, the ratio between the root and aboveground biomass varies between species and depends on environmental conditions (Bolinder et al., 1997;Campbell et al., 2000;Bolinder et al., 2007).Many studies have shown that the proportion of the net primary productivity that is allocated to the belowground part is sensitive to the environmental conditions, e.g. nutrient and water availability and tillage (Hodge et al., 2000;Muñoz-Romero et al., 2009). Increasing N application will increase the growth of shoots, while N fertilisation has little effect on root biomass (Jenkinson, 1981;Anderson, 1988;Huggins and Fuchs, 1997). Thus shoots and roots respond differently to particular environmental conditions. Even though the allometric ratio has been shown to vary considerably (Johnson et al., 2006;Gyldenkaerne et al., 2007), it is widely used to estimate root biomass, e.g. in models of soil carbon inputs (Kätterer et al., 2011;Berti et al., 2016). Although there is some evidence showing that root biomass seem to be constant for a certain species in a particular environment rather than varying if estimated from shoot biomass using a fixed allometric relationship (Chirinda et al., 2012), this assumption has not been thoroughly tested.Given the large uncertainties in current methods for estimating root C inputs, our objective was to compare methods for root biomass estimation, in particular the fixed allometric functions versus fixed root biomass. In this analysis we also explore which environmental and management factors affected shoot and root biomass of cereals, catch crops and weeds.Published and unpublished shoot and root biomass data from several field experiments in Denmark were collected. Mean values of each treatment were used to obtain statistically equal weight between treatments, and the data covered both cereal crops (Table 1) and catch crops and weeds (Table 2).Data for cereal crops (winter and spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)) was collected from studies conducted at Foulum (56°30′N, 09°35′E) in western Denmark. Organic and conventional farming systems at Foulum showed no overall differences in topsoil (0-25 cm) properties, which was loamy sand soil (Typic Hapludult) with clay content of 88 g kg -1 . The soil pH was 6.5. Organic matter content was 38 g kg -1 . Soil bulk density was 1.42 g cm -3 . Average annual temperature and precipitation during 1961-1990 were 7.3 °C and 704 mm. More information on soil properties was provided by Olesen et al. (2000).Data from 2008 and 2010 were sampled in a long-term crop rotation experiment initiated in 1997 (Olesen et al., 2000). Briefly, the experiment included two rotation systems, one inorganic fertiliserbased conventional system and one organically managed system in two replicates. All treatments were ploughed (Table 1). More information on field management is given in Chirinda et al. (2012).Data from 2013 and 2014 were sampled in a field experiment established in 2002 under conventional management with four replicates. Generally, there were two factors: nitrogen fertiliser rates and tillage (ploughing and no tillage) (Table 1). In 2013, nitrogen rates were 50 and 250 kg N ha -1 , while in 2014 they were 65 and 265 kg N ha -1 for the same sub-plots. More details on the experiment are given in Munkholm et al. (2008) and Hansen et al. (2011).The mean climatic conditions during the spring period (March to May) are shown for these experimental years in Table 3. The potential evapotranspiration was calculated using a modified Makkink method (Hansen, 1984) using temperature and global radiation as determining variables.Shoot biomass was sampled at maturity, and root biomass was sampled at anthesis as this is the growth stage expected to have maximum root biomass. Plant samples of aboveground biomass were taken by cutting plants at 1-2 cm height within two 0.5 m 2 frames. Samples were oven dried at 60 °C for 48 hours for dry matter (DM). Three soil cores (5 cm diameter) were collected within the rows and three between the rows for root biomass. Root sampling reached 30 cm depth in 2008 and 2010, and 20 cm in 2013 and 2014. Samples to 60 cm depth were also taken in 2008, 2013 and 2014. The root samples were washed out using tap water and collected on a sieve with a mesh size of 0.425 mm. Samples were oven dried at 70 °C for 48 hours and weighed for dry matter. A part of the root sample was heated at 650 °C for five hours to determine the ash content, and final root dry matter was expressed as ash-free dry matter (Chirinda et al., 2012).Data on catch crops (fodder radish (Raphanus sativus L.), perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), white clover (Trifolium repens L.), winter vetch (Vicia villosa Roth.), winter rape (Brassica napus L.), phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth.), rye (Secale cereale L.), oats (Avena sativa L.), Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.), Malva sylvestris L., Agrostemma githago L. and chicory (Cichorium intybus L.)) were collected from Mutegi et al. (2011) in four replicates, Chirinda et al. (2012) in two replicates, Li et al. (2015) in three replicates sampled at Foulum (56°30′N, 09°35′E), from Thorup-Kristensen et al. (2001) in three replicates at Aarslev (55°18′N, 10°27′E), and from Wahlström et al. (2015) in four replicates at Flakkebjerg (55°19′N, 11°23′E) (Table 2). Topsoil (0-25 cm depth) at Foulum is described above for cereals crops. Topsoil of the same depth at Aarslev and Flakkebjerg were both classified as sandy loam (Typic Agrudalf) with clay content of 147 g kg -1 at both sites, and pH 7.0 and 7.4, respectively (Thorup-Kristensen et al., 2001;Olesen et al., 2000). The average annual temperature and precipitation were 8.1 °C and 719 mm (during 1986-1998) at Aarslev (Mueller and Thorup-Kristensen, 2001), and 7.8 °C and 626 mm (during 1961-1990) at Flakkebjerg (Olesen et al., 2000).Published data from Foulum (Chirinda et al., 2012;Li et al., 2015) was sampled from cropping systems under organic farming, except for weeds sampled in the inorganic fertiliser-based rotation system in Chirinda et al. (2012). The data from Li et al. (2015) included two legume-based catch crops. Data from Aarslev was from a cropping system with vegetables under organic farming, where catch crops were sown after the harvest of green pea crops. Two of the treatments included legume-based catch crops with winter vetch (Thorup-Kristensen., 2001). The data from Flakkebjerg were from fodder radish sown after the harvest of spring barley in a conventionally managed cropping system (Wahlström et al., 2015).At Foulum, Mutegi et al. (2011) sampled fodder radish in December by clipping the aboveground biomass at the soil surface from four subplots of 0.64 m 2 , and by extracting root from three soil cores in each replicate to 100 cm depth. Samples were then sub-divided at 20 cm, 35 cm and 60 cm depths. Chirinda et al. (2012) used the method for cereal crops also to measure catch crops in early November. Li et al. (2015) sampled catch crop roots in small frames (35×24 cm) down to 18 cm. The area covered two rows of catch crops. The root washing procedure was the same as in Chirinda et al. (2012). At Aarslev, aboveground parts of catch crops were sampled in 1 m 2 just below ground level, and roots were washed out from two excavated soil blocks of 30×12 cm 2 area and 20 cm depth in November (Thorup-Kristensen., 2001). Only visibly live roots were retained. At Flakkebjerg, aboveground parts of catch crops were sampled at soil surface in two 0.25 m 2 areas in November, and roots were sampled from three soil cores (8.6 cm diameter) vertically down to 100 cm depth, and subdivided at 20 cm, 35 cm, 55 cm and 80 cm depths (Wahlström et al., 2015).To supplement these data, additional data were collected from catch crops and weeds sampled in December 2014 in the aforementioned long-term organic crop rotation experiment at Foulum (Olesen et al., 2000) in two replicates. Three types of catch crops following potato and spring wheat were sampled for shoot and root biomass. These catch crops were mixtures of species, i.e. fodder radish + rye, fodder radish + rye + vetch, chicory + perennial ryegrass + red clover + white clover.Also sampling was made in plots without catch crops, but with weeds. Shoots were separated on the basis of species, while roots were analysed as a pooled sample. A square of 0.5 m 2 was used for sampling of aboveground material in each plot. Inside the 0.5 m 2 square, an area of 35×24 cm 2 was chosen from within and from midway between crop rows. Aboveground plants inside the 35×24 cm 2 area were cut with scissors at the soil surface and collected in a plastic bag, whilst the remaining sample inside the 0.5 m 2 was collected in a second bag. Each samples was separated according to species groups and dry matter was determined after oven drying at 60 °C for 42 h.Belowground biomass was determined for the 35×24 cm 2 area to a depth of 20 cm in each plot. The soil samples were stored at 2 °C before root washing.The roots were first separated from the soil by passing through a 1-cm sieve. Large visible roots and those retained on the 1-cm sieve were collected, termed 'large roots'. The bulk soil passing the 1cm sieve was mixed and subdivided into a subsample of 350-450 g, which was washed on a 0.425 mm sieve. The roots collected on this sieve are termed 'small roots' (Rasmussen et al., 2010). Roots were further washed with tap water to remove minerals and collected on a set of sieves with mesh sizes of 2 mm, 1 mm and 0.425 mm. Subsequently, the collected roots and debris were placed in a tray, where white living roots were separated from dead organic matter (including decayed roots) based on colour and physical appearance (Muñoz-Romero et al., 2009). Living roots were ovendried at 60 °C for 42 h and weighed. A part of each root sample was heated at 650 °C for five hours to determine the ash content, and final root dry matter was expressed as ash-free dry matter (Chirinda et al., 2012).Different farming systems and N managements showed little impact on vertical root biomass distribution of either cereal crops or catch crops and weeds (Supplementary Materials Table S1), and similar results were also reported in Hirte et al. (2017). Since roots were sampled to different depths in the various studies, we applied two different functions for the depth correction, one for cereals (equation ( 1)) and another for catch crops and weeds (equation ( 2)). This choice was based on previous studies and on available data. This was as far as possible validated against root biomass data from different depths reported in Supplementary Material. Root dry matter measurements of cereal crops were converted to 25 cm depth according to the Michaelis-Menten function of root distribution with depth (z; cm) as used in Kätterer et al. (2011) for root depth distribution of small-grain cereals in southern Sweden.(1)Rm(z) is the fraction of total root mass to the soil depth of z (cm), zr is maximum root depth (zr was set at 150 cm), z50 is the depth of 50 % of the root mass (z50 was for cereals in Sweden set at 10 cm). This means that 76, 80 and 91 % of the roots are allocated to 25 cm, 30 cm and 60 cm soil depth, respectively. In this function, 88 % of root biomass in 0-60 cm depth was estimated for 0-30 depth, which was close to the root vertical distribution of cereals in years 2008 and 2014 (Table S1).Roots of fodder radish sampled in Flakkebjerg were classified into 5 depths: 0-20, 20-35, 35-55, 55-80 and 80-100 cm (Wahlström et al., 2015). Within 100 cm depth, recoverable root dry matter of catch crops in different depths was well described as (Fig. S1):According to equation ( 2), in soil depths of 25, 30 and 60 cm, root dry matter accounted for 62, 66 and 86 %, respectively, of total root biomass in the upper 100 cm soil. This meant that 78 % of the root present in 0-60 cm depth was recovered in 0-30 cm layer. This corresponded well to the root distribution observed for catch crops (with mainly ryegrass) and weeds, where the proportion of recoverable root biomass from 0-30 cm depth compared to biomass in 0-60 cm was between 68-77 % (Chirinda et al., 2012). Thus, the equation was assumed suitable and was used to convert root dry matter of catch crops and weeds from the measured depths to 0-25cm depth.The MIXED procedure of SAS (SAS Institute, 1996) was used to test which factors influence crop shoot, root and the allometric ratios (root/shoot, shoot/root, shoot/(shoot+root) and root/(shoot+root) ratio): year, species (wheat or barley), seeding time (spring or autumn), tillage (ploughing or no tillage), farming system (organic or conventional management) and nitrogen fertilisation rate, where shoot biomass, root biomass and nitrogen fertilisation rate were used as continuous variables and other variables were categorical. We thus assumed that allometric ratios would depend on plant type and management. These allometric functions essentially assume linear relations of root biomass to either shoot or total biomass. For catch crops and weeds the following factors were considered: location, catch crops or weeds, legume based or non-legume based catch crops, undersowing catch crops or sowing these after harvest of the main crop, and farming system.A manual procedure with backward elimination was used to remove variables that did not contribute significantly based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). The best model was thus selected according to the lowest AIC and significant (P < 0.05) effect of independent variables.Different approaches (allometric functions and various determining factors) for estimating root biomass were tested by leave one out cross validation (LOOCV) based on mean bias error (MBE)and root mean squared error (RMSE). The models chosen for testing were based on the selected models using the stepwise procedure described above. Specific equations are shown as below:where MBEP and RMSEP means MBE and RMSE of prediction for the selected models for LOOCV with total population of samples as n, Pi is the predicted root dry biomass of sample i through the selected model trained by all other samples, and Oi is the observed root dry biomass of sample i.Shoot biomass of cereals was strongly influenced by the quantity of nitrogen applied in mineral fertiliser or manure. The shoot biomass varied between spring and winter cereals, while root biomass varied between years and depended on farming system (organic or conventional) and cereal crop species (Table 4). Thus shoot and root dry biomass was not closely associated, but influenced by different factors. In addition, the different allometric ratios responded differently to determining factors. Root/shoot ratio was sensitive to the type of farming system, while shoot/root ratio, shoot/all and root/all were influenced by several factors, i.e. year, species, sowing time, farming system and nitrogen rate. Therefore, the most reliable estimates of root biomass depend on farming system and species with higher root biomass in organic compared with conventional systems (Table 5).When pooling data over all years and cereal species, the root biomass only responded significantly to farming system, whereas shoot/root ratio as well as shoot/all and root/all ratios depended mostly on farming system and nitrogen rate.There were significant differences between catch crops and weeds for both shoot and root biomass (Table 6). Root biomass was affected by type of farming system. Root/shoot ratio depended on location and farming system, while shoot/root ratio varied between catch crops and weeds. Shoot/all or root/all ratios were not significantly affected by any factors.Different methods for estimating root biomass were tested by cross validation and evaluated in terms of MBEP and RMSEP using cross validation (Table 4). The most reliable predictions of soil root biomass were obtained for cereals using fixed root amount with mean biomass values depending on year, farming system and species giving an RMSEP of only 33 g m -2 (Table 4). The second best method was using fixed root biomass depending on farming system and cereal species with RMSEP of 38 g m -2 . Fixed root estimation which only considered farming system provided the simplest estimation, but with a RMSEP of 40 g m -2 . Grouping data according to species, or species and sowing time (autumn or spring) reduced the performance of root biomass prediction (i.e. higher RMSEP of the cross-validation). Estimation of root biomass based on shoot biomass with allometric relations according to root/shoot, shoot/root or even shoot/all (root/all) ratio showed either poorer prediction performance and/or was more complex than using fixed root biomass.The most reliable estimates of root biomass in catch crops and weeds were obtained by using fixed root biomass for catch crops and weeds separately for different farming systems (Table 6). Adding factors such as catch crop characteristics (e.g. legume based) did not improve predictions. Similar to the cereal crops, using allometric relationships reduced the prediction accuracy for root biomass in catch crops and weeds.According to the results above, we suggest using fixed root biomass classified by farming systems and species for cereals, and by farming systems for catch crops and weeds (Table 5). Table 7 shows the estimated root biomass by least square means taking into account the most influential factors for cereals (farming systems, species and year), and for catch crops and weeds (farming systems, catch crops or weeds). The root biomass of wheat and barley varied between years from 118-199 g m -2 ; however, there was consistently higher root biomass in wheat compared with barley (Tables 5 and   7). The difference in cereal root biomass between organic and conventional farming was 79 g m -2(Table 5) and 58 g m -2 (Table 7). Considering the small difference between the arithmetic means (Table 5) and the least square means (Table 7) for catch crops and weeds, the unbalanced data collected did not appear to have caused much difference to the estimated root biomass.Root biomass of cereal crops, catch crops and weeds was affected by both environmental and management factors (Tables 4 and 6). The results showed significant effects of year, species and farming systems on root biomass in cereal crops. For catch crops and weeds, significant differences in root biomass were observed between catch crops and weeds and also between organic and conventional farming systems. We acknowledge the existence of confounding data, which with imbalanced data could lead to biased estimates of influential factors on root biomass. However, the analyses clearly pointed to differences in root biomass between farming systems, where data from the same site and year was included for both farming systems.The reason for the observed factors influencing root biomass may be found in how photosynthesized products are allocated between shoots and roots. During the growing period, shoots and roots interact closely to allocate the photosynthesized material from shoots and the absorbed nutrients from roots (Thornley, 1972). The relative allocation between shoots and roots changes over time in response to the relative need of photosynthesized material and nutrients (Thornley, 1972;Poorter and Nagel, 2000). Less below-ground resources (e.g. nutrients and water)supply would induce allocation of more photosynthates to roots, while less aboveground resources (e.g. less light) could cause more allocation to shoots (Thornley, 1972;Poorter and Nagel, 2000).Thus for any given species, it is the environment and the soil conditions that determines how much can be photosynthesized and how much is allocated to shoots or roots. The ratio between shoot and root biomass is therefore the result of changing allocation patterns during the growing period. The dynamic association between shoots and roots means that allometric ratios are not well suited for calculating root biomass, since the final allometric ratios can be quite variable, especially under stressed environmental and soil nutritional conditions.Environmental conditions (e.g., radiation, precipitation and temperature) varied between the experimental years (Table 3). Therefore, the total carbon assimilation, the fraction allocated to roots and root distributions within the soil profile could also differ between years. In our data, the lowest root biomass for cereals in 0-25 cm was observed in 2013, whereas a higher level of root biomass was found for the other years. The spring of 2013 was characterized by drier conditions than for the other years, which may have caused plants to develop deeper roots and less dense roots in the upper soil layer in 2013. This was also indicated by the observed root biomass (data not shown) that showed less difference in root biomass between 2013 and 2014 for the depth 0-60 cm than for 0-20 cm. Genotypic variation between species could cause different specific allocation strategies (Fakhri et al., 1987;Clark et al., 2003), and thus cause root biomass differences among species. From the aspects of species, catch crops were also different from weeds, because catch crop species were chosen to fit the growing conditions after main crops (Snapp et al., 2005).As to farming systems, nutrients, especially nitrogen, in organic farming are less readily available, even though the total input is not always less than in the conventional systems (Stockdale et al., 2002). This lower availability of nutrients is one of the major causes of relatively higher allocation of photosynthates to roots (Poorter and Nagel, 2000;Lonhienne et al., 2014).The main objective of this work was to compare root biomass estimation methods, particularly the use of fixed allometric relations versus fixed root biomass. The results showed that using fixed root biomass based on the most influential factors provided the most robust estimation with MBEP close to 0, and generally the lowest RMSEP. Using allometric relations for estimating root biomass resulted in higher MBEP and RMSEP than using fixed root biomass, in terms of both most influential factors and commonly used factors (factors in brackets in Tables 4 and 6). Generally, shoot/root ratios provided negative MBEP and lower RMSEP than other ratios. Shoot/all or root/all ratios generally provided positive MBEP and higher RMSEP. Root/shoot ratios generally had a higher positive MBEP and the highest RMSEP.As discussed above, root biomass of a certain species depends on environmental and management factors. A robust and unbiased estimate of root biomass requires that the MBEP is close to zero and the RMSEP from cross validation is as small as possible. In root/shoot, shoot/root, root/(shoot+root)or shoot/(root+shoot) ratios, either one part (shoot or root) or the total biomass appears as the denominator. The allometric ratios for individual measures may vary greatly due to the variation in either above-or belowground biomass, which may cause biases in the estimation of the mean allometric ratio. Furthermore, with allometric ratios root biomass will be estimated only from observed shoot biomass, and any uncertainty in observed shoot biomass will be translated to uncertainty in root biomass amplified by the uncertainty in the allometric relationship.Generally, we observed the following relations between organic farming and conventional farming:1) more shoot biomass associated with less root biomass was found in conventional farming, and the opposite in organic farming; 2) more total (shoot+root) biomass associated with less root biomass in conventional farming, and a relatively more equal distribution between shoots and roots in organic farming; 3) the difference in root biomass between the two farming systems (highest root biomass in organic farming) is generally smaller than that in shoot biomass (highest shoot biomass in conventional farming). If we estimated root biomass with the existence of all these three relations, root biomass would be highly overestimated when using root/shoot ratios, less underestimated when using shoot/root ratios, and less overestimated using root/(root+shoot) ratios.Thus, the highly dynamic relations between shoot and root biomass is affected by the type of farming systems as well as by the actual management. Therefore, root biomass can for the climatic conditions of northern Europe more reliably be estimated using fixed values depending on farming system and plant species rather than assuming a dependency on shoot biomass.Our results from Denmark show that the most practical and accurate estimates of root biomass are obtained by using fixed root amounts that depend on farming system and species ( As corrected by equation ( 1) to a depth of 0-25 cm: Van Noordwijk et al. (1994) in the Netherlands measured root of winter wheat as 133-154 g m -2 ; Kätterer et al. (1993) reported winter wheat root biomass in Sweden of 79-90 g m -2 ; Braim (1992) reported barley root biomass in Britain of around 107-116 g m -2 ; Pietola et al. (2005) reported root biomass for barley and oats at anthesis in Finland of 98 and 215 g m -2 , respectively; Głąb (2014) reported triticale root biomass of 94-160 g m -2 .These values are comparable with our results of 142±30 g m -2 for wheat, 129 ± 19 g m -2 for barley.In other parts of the world, we would also recommend use of fixed root amounts for estimation for root biomass, because estimate root biomass with allometric ratios from our results are not only inaccurate, but also biased (Tables 4 and 6). However, there are also limitations for fixed root estimation, because roots are inadequately sampled across the world. Therefore, in cases where no root biomass observations are available and where climate and soil conditions differ substantially from reference sites, the use of allometric ratios may become inevitable. In such situations, we would recommend use of shoot to root ratio for root biomass estimation (Tables 4 and 6), even though shoot to root ratio may induce underestimation of root biomass. In any case, our results clearly point to the need for improving the globally available data on root biomass, and ideally these data should be made available in an open repository for use by both experimentalists and modellers.Soil carbon sequestration plays a potential role in mitigation of climate change and root biomass contributes with a significant carbon input (Gattinger et al., 2012). Our results indicate that roots in organic farming systems may contribute more to soil carbon sequestration than in conventional systems. Taghizadeh-Toosi et al. (2016) similarly reported that the root carbon input can be considered constant across different nitrogen fertiliser rates. The estimates of fixed root amount (Table 5) can be used to improve calculations of belowground carbon input in modelling. Assuming the percentage of carbon in roots as 45 % (Chirinda et al., 2012), organic farming would then bring in roughly 0.6 Mg ha -1 more C input than conventional farming from both cereals and catch crops.A statistical analysis of root biomass data from field experiments in Denmark showed that the use of fixed root biomass provided lower error of prediction for estimation of root biomass than the use of fixed allometric ratios. The most robust estimation of root biomass was found with fixed root biomass depending on farming system and plant type. However, there was some variation between years in root biomass of cereals. There was consistently greater root biomass of cereal crops in organic compared to conventional systems, and there was greater root biomass in wheat compared to barley. The results also showed greater root biomass in catch crops compared with weeds. ","tokenCount":"4869"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bd007383e3939de749d10c08b2f43ae1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/08fdb165-e13e-40ed-ace2-fd0ba5967460/content","id":"1918791387"},"keywords":["genomic selection","plant breeding","environmental covariates","feature engineering","feature selection"],"sieverID":"d48788e1-cdc1-4c2f-9c06-aeb9374e43c0","pagecount":"31","content":"Introduction: Because Genomic selection (GS) is a predictive methodology, it needs to guarantee high-prediction accuracies for practical implementations. However, since many factors affect the prediction performance of this methodology, its practical implementation still needs to be improved in many breeding programs. For this reason, many strategies have been explored to improve the prediction performance of this methodology.Methods: When environmental covariates are incorporated as inputs in the genomic prediction models, this information only sometimes helps increase prediction performance. For this reason, this investigation explores the use of feature engineering on the environmental covariates to enhance the prediction performance of genomic prediction models.The global population's rapid growth is increasing food demand, but climate change impacts crop productivity. Plant breeding is essential for high-yield, quality cultivars. Wheat production soared from 200 million tons in 1961 to 775 million tons in 2023 without expanding cultivation, thanks to improved cultivars and agricultural practices (FAO, 2023). Traditional methods used pedigree and observable traits, but DNA sequencing introduced genomic insights. Genomic selection (GS) relies on DNA markers, offering advantages over traditional methods (Crossa et al., 2017).Numerous studies have investigated the efficacy of GS compared to traditional phenotypic selection across various crops and livestock. Butoto et al. (2022) observed that both GS and phenotypic selection were equally effective in enhancing resistance to Fusarium ear rot and reducing feminizing contamination in maize. Similarly, Sallam and Smith (2016) demonstrated that integrating GS into barley breeding programs targeting yield and Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance yielded comparable gains in selection response to traditional phenotypic methods. Moreover, GS offered the added benefits of shorter breeding cycles and reduced costs. In contrast, research in maize breeding conducted by Beyene et al. (2015) and Gesteiro et al. (2023) revealed that GS outperformed phenotypic selection, resulting in superior genetic gains. These comparative findings underscore the considerable advantages of GS in optimizing breeding outcomes across diverse agricultural settings.GS revolutionizes plant and animal breeding by leveraging high-density markers across the genome. It operates on the principle that at least one genetic marker is in linkage disequilibrium with a causative QTL (Quantitative Trait Locus) for the desired trait (Meuwissen et al., 2001). This method transforms breeding in several ways: a) Identifying promising genotypes before planting; b) Improving precision in selecting superior individuals; c) Saving resources by reducing extensive phenotyping; d) Accelerating variety development by shortening breeding cycles; e) Intensifying selection efforts; f) Facilitating the selection of traits difficult to measure; g) Enhancing the accuracy of the selection process (Bernardo and Yu, 2007;Heffner et al., 2009;Desta and Ortiz, 2014;Abed et al., 2018;Budhlakoti et al., 2022).The GS methodology, embraced widely, expedites genetic improvements in plant breeding programs (Desta and Ortiz, 2014;Bassi et al., 2016;Xu et al., 2020). Utilizing advanced statistical and machine learning models (Montesinos-Loṕez et al., 2022), GS efficiently selects individuals within breeding populations. Deep learning, a subset of machine learning, has also shown promise in GS (Montesinos-Loṕez et al., 2021;Wang et al., 2023). This selection process relies on data from a training population, encompassing both phenotypic and genotypic information (Crossa et al., 2017).The Deep Neural Network Genomic Prediction (DNNGP) method of Wang et al. (2023) represents a novel advanced on deep-learning genomic predictive approach. The authors compared the DNNGP with other genomic prediction methods for various traits using genotypic and transcriptomics on maize data. They demonstrated that DNNGP outperformed GBLUP in most datasets. For instance, for maize days to anthesis (DTA) trait, DNNGP showed superiority over GBLUP by 619.840% and 16.420% using gene expression and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) data, respectively. When utilizing genotypic data, DNNGP achieved a prediction accuracy of 0.720 for DTA, while GBLUP reached 0.580. However, the study found varied patterns in prediction accuracy for other traits.Following rigorous training, these models utilize genotypic data to predict breeding or phenotypic values for traits within a target population (Budhlakoti et al., 2022). The GS methodology is versatile, accommodating various scenarios including multi-trait considerations (Calus and Veerkamp, 2011), known major genes and marker-trait associations, Genotype × Environment interaction (GE) (Crossa et al., 2017), and integration of other omics data (Hu et al., 2021;Wu et al., 2022) such as transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics. GE influences phenotypic trait values across diverse environments, underscoring its importance in association and prediction models. Jarquin et al. (2014) introduced a framework significantly improving prediction accuracy in the presence of GE, yet without considering environmental covariates. To enhance accuracy further, recent studies are integrating environmental information into genomic prediction models. Jarquin et al. (2014) framework lacks consideration of environmental covariates, prompting recent studies to integrate such information to enhance prediction accuracy. For instance, Montesinos-Loṕez et al. (2023) and Costa-Neto et al. (2021a, 2021b) demonstrated significant improvements. Conversely, studies by Monteverde et al. (2019); Jarquin et al. (2020), and Rogers et al. (2021) showed modest or negligible enhancements, revealing the ongoing challenge of effectively integrating environmental data into genomic prediction models.Achieving high prediction accuracy in GS faces significant challenges due to genetic complexities, environmental variations, and data constraints (Juliana et al., 2018). Complex traits involve multiple gene influences, while environmental conditions can alter trait expression (Desta and Ortiz, 2014;Crossa et al., 2017). Phenotyping and marker data quality are critical, and issues like overfitting and population structure can compromise prediction precision (Budhlakoti et al., 2022). Ongoing research focuses on improving models, increasing marker density, and enhancing data quality to refine genomic prediction accuracy (Crossa et al., 2017;Budhlakoti et al., 2022).Ongoing efforts focus on refining GS accuracy through various optimizations. This includes fine-tuning training and testing sets for improved precision (Rincent et al., 2012;Akdemir et al., 2015). Researchers are also evaluating diverse statistical machine learning methods to develop robust models with minimal fine-tuning yet high accuracy (Montesinos-López et al., 2022). Moreover, integrating additional omics data, such as phenomics and transcriptomics, aims to bolster GS accuracy and identify potent predictors for target traits (Montesinos-Loṕez et al., 2017;Krause et al., 2019;Monteverde et al., 2019;Hu et al., 2021;Costa-Neto et al., 2021a, b;Rogers and Holland, 2022;Wu et al., 2022). These endeavors seek to enhance GS predictive capabilities by leveraging diverse information sources.Feature engineering (FE) is crucial in improving machine learning model performance by selecting, modifying, or creating new features from raw data. It transforms input data into a more representative and informative format, capturing relevant patterns and relationships, and enhancing the model's generalization ability. FE involves various tasks like selecting optimal features, generating new features, normalization/scaling, handling missing values, and encoding categorical variables. For instance, techniques like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) can transform correlated features into uncorrelated ones (Lam et al., 2017;Dong and Liu, 2018;Khurana et al., 2018). FE's popularity is rising due to its ability to enhance model performance, extract meaningful information from complex data, improve interpretability, and boost efficiency. Successful implementations include sentiment analysis, image recognition, and predictive maintenance, showcasing FE's effectiveness across domains (Nargesian et al., 2017;Carrillo-de-Albornoz et al., 2018;Yurek and Birant, 2019). In genomic prediction, FE has also been successful, as demonstrated by Bermingham et al. (2015) and Afshar and Usefi (2020). These examples underscore FE critical role in various domains, leading to more accurate machine learning applications (Dong and Liu, 2018).The impact of feature engineering (FE) on reducing prediction error varies depending on the dataset, problem, and quality of FE. Well-crafted features can notably minimize prediction error in some cases, but the exact improvement is context-specific and not guaranteed. Effective FE can enhance model performance significantly, albeit its extent varies case by case (Heaton, 2016;Dong and Liu, 2018).To optimize genomic selection's predictive accuracy, it's vital to adopt innovative methodologies that account for its multifaceted influences. FE in genomic prediction offers a promising approach by enhancing prediction quality, uncovering genetic insights, customizing models to specific needs, improving interpretability, and minimizing data noise. In this paper, we investigate FE applied to environmental covariates to assess its potential in enhancing prediction performance within the context of genomic selection.The University of São Paulo (USP) Maize, Zea mays L., dataset is sourced from germplasm developed by the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. An experiment was conducted between 2016 and 2017 involving 49 inbred lines, yielding a total of 906 F1 hybrids, of which 570 were assessed across eight diverse environments for grain yield (GY). These environments were created by combining two locations, two years, and two nitrogen levels. However, we specifically used data from four distinct environments for this research, each containing 100 hybrids. It's important to note that these environments had varying soil types and climatic conditions, and the study integrated data from 248 covariates related to these environmental factors. The parent lines underwent genotyping through the Affymetrix Axiom Maize Genotyping Array, resulting in a dataset of 54,113 highquality SNPs after applying stringent quality control procedures. Please refer to Costa-Neto et al. (2021a) for further comprehensive information on this dataset.The Japonica dataset comprises 320 rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes drawn from the Japonica tropical rice population. This dataset underwent evaluations for the same four traits (GY, PHR: percentage of head rice, GC: percentage of chalky grains, PH: plant height) as the Indica population, but in this case, it was conducted across five distinct environments spanning from 2009 to 2013. Covariates were meticulously measured three times a year, covering three developmental stages (maturation, reproductive, and vegetative). This dataset comprises a non-balanced set of 1,051 assessments recorded across these five diverse environments. Additionally, each genotype within this dataset was meticulously evaluated for 16,383 SNP markers that remained after rigorous quality control procedures, with each marker being represented as 0, 1, or 2. For more comprehensive information on this dataset, please refer to Monteverde et al. (2019).These three distinct datasets correspond to the Maize Crop, Zea mays L., for years 2014 (G2F_2014), 2015 (G2F_2015), and 2016 (G2F_2016) from the Genomes to Fields maize project (Lawrence-Dill, 2017), as outlined by Rogers and Holland (2022). These datasets collectively encompass a wealth of phenotypic, genotypic, and environmental information. To narrow the focus, our analysis primarily includes four specific traits: Grain_Moisture_BLUE (GM_BLUE), Grain_Moisture_weight (GM_Weight) , Yield_Mg_ha_BLUE (YM_BLUE), and Yield_Mg_ha_weight (YM_Weight), carefully selected from a larger pool of traits detailed by Rogers and Holland (2022). Across these three years, the study involves 18, 12, and 18 distinct environments for the years 2014 (G2F_2014), 2015 (G2F_2015) and 2016 (G2F_2016), respectively. Regarding genotype numbers, the dataset for 2014 consisted of 781 genotypes, the dataset for 2015 featured 1,011 genotypes, and the dataset for 2016 comprised 456 genotypes. The analysis relies on 20,373 SNP markers that have already undergone imputation and filtering, following the methodology outlined by Rogers et al. (2021) and Rogers and Holland (2022). Additive allele calls are documented as minor allele counts, represented as 0, 1, or 2. For more detailed insights into these datasets, we recommend consulting the comprehensive description provided in Lawrence-Dill (2017) and Rogers and Holland (2022).It is worth noting that each data set presents unique sets of environments. However, concerning traits, the G2F_2014, G2F_2015, and G2F_2016 datasets share identical traits, as do the Japonica dataset.The four predictors under a genomic best linear unbiased predictor (GBLUP; Habier et al., 2007;VanRaden, 2008) model are described below.This predictor is represented aswhere Y ij denotes the response variable in environment i and genotype j. m denotes the population mean; E i are the random effects of environments, g j , j = 1, …, J, denotes the random effects of lines, and ϵ ij denotes the random error components in the model assumed to be independent normal random variables with mean 0 and variance s 2 . In the context of this predictor E+G, X, denotes the matrix of markers and M the matrix of centered and standardized markers. Then G= MM T p (VanRaden, 2008), where p is the number of markers. Z g is the design matrix of genotypes (lines) of order n  J, G is the genomic relationship-matrix computed using markers (VanRaden, 2008). Therefore, the random effect of lines is distributed as ɡ = (g 1 , …, g J ) T ∼ N J (0, s 2 g Z g GZ T g ). This model (1) was implemented in the BGLR library of Peŕez and de los Campos (2014). Therefore, the linear kernel matrix for the genotype effect was determined by calculating the \"covariance\" structure of the genotype predictor (Z g g) as K g = Z g GZ T g . On the other hand, the linear kernel matrix for the Environment effect was computed using three different techniques: not using environmental covariates (NoEC), with environmental covariates (EC), and with environmental covariates with FE.∘ NoEC: Under this NoEC technique, the resulting linear kernel of environments was computed as K E =X E X T E =I, where I denotes the number of environments and X E the design matrix of environments with zeros and ones, with ones in positions of specific environments. ∘ The resulting set of selected EC's was then used to compute an environmental linear kernel, denoted as K EC of order I  I. After using this kernel, the expanded environmental kernel was computed as K E EC = X E K EC X T E =I, which was used in the Bayesian model. The scaling of each environmental covariate was done by subtracting its respective mean and dividing by its corresponding standard deviation.∘ FE: The Feature Engineering (FE) technique involved computing various mathematical transformations between all possible pairs of ECs, including addition, difference, product, and ratio, as well as other commonly used transformations such as inverses, square powers, root squares, logarithms, and some Box-Cox transformations for each EC. These transformations were used to generate new variables through FE. The transformation of addition, difference, product and ratio were implemented for each pair of environmental covariates, that is, there were built a total the n_cov choose two new covariates, with n_cov denoting the number of environmental covariates in each data set. While with transformations such as inverses (1=x), square powers (x 2 ), root squares ( ffiffi ffi x p), natural logarithms [ln(x)], and Box-Cox transformations for each environmental covariate was created only one new environmental covariate. Then the original and new environmental covariates were concatenated in a matrix and then were submitted to the selection process explained above. Then under the FE approach these resulting covariates are used to compute the new environmental kernel matrix (K E FE ).The E+G+GE predictor is similar to P1 (Equation 1) but also accounts for the differential response of cultivars in environments, that is GE. This is achieved by taking the product of the kernel matrices of the genotype (G) and environment (E) predictors, that is, they were computed as K g °KE NoEC (for NoEC), K g °KE EC (for EC) or K g °KE FE (for FE), which serves as the kernel matrix for the GE. In general, adding the GE interaction to the statistical machine learning model increases the genomic prediction accuracy (Jarquin et al., 2014;Crossa et al., 2017). Also, it is important to point out that under this predictor (P2) variance components and heritability of each trait in each data set were obtained under a Bayesian framework using the complete data set (i.e., no missing values allowed). For this computation all the terms were entered as random effects into the model but without taking into account the environmental covariates.The E+G+BRR predictor is similar to P1 (Equation 1), but incorporating the ECs as fixed effects in a Bayesian Ridge Regression (BRR) framework, that is, regression coefficients are assigned normal independent and identically distributed normal distributions, with mean zero and variance s 2 b . See details of BRR in Peŕez and de los Campos (2014).The E+G+GE+BRR predictor is similar to P2, but also incorporates ECs as fixed effects in a Bayesian Ridge Regression (BRR) framework (see Appendix for brief details on Bayesian Ridge Regression). The priors used for GBLUP and BRR in BGLR are those default settings which are given with details in Peŕez and de los Campos (2014). In this study, we found these default settings to be suitable, as we experimented with various configurations of the prior hyperparameters for the GBLUP and BRR models on the USP and G2F_2014 datasets. Remarkably, all configurations yielded identical predictions. Consequently, for the remaining datasets, we opted to utilize only the default settings.The cross-validation approach used in this study involved leaving one environment out. In each iteration, the data from a single-environment served as the testing set, while the data from all other families constituted the training set (Montesinos-Loṕez et al., 2022). The number of iterations was equal to the number of environments to ensure that each environment was used as the testing set exactly one time. This method was employed to assess the model's ability to predict information from a complete environment using data from other environments.To evaluate the predictive performance we used the Mean Square Error (MSE) that quantifies the prediction error by measuring the squared deviation between observed and predicted values on the testing set. The MSE was computed for each scenario evaluated (NoEC, EC and FE) and then for comparing these three scenarios was computed the relative efficiencies as:RE NoEC _ vs _ EC compares the prediction performance of EC vs NoEC, RE NoEC _ vs _ FE compares the prediction performance of FE vs NoEC and RE EC _ vs _ FE compares the prediction performance of FE vs EC. When RE NoEC _ vs _ EC > 1 the best prediction performance was obtained by the EC strategy, while when RE NoEC _ vs _ EC < 1 the strategy NoEC was the best. While when the relative efficiencies are equal to 1 means that both methods had equal prediction performance. The same interpretation applies for the other comparisons in terms of RE.The results are given in three sections for three datasets (Japonica, USP and G2F_2016). For each section we provided the results for the four predictor models under study (E+G, E+G+GE, E+G+BRR, E+G +GE+BRR) and under each predictor we compared three strategies for the use of the environmental covariates: NoEC, using environmental covariables (EC) and using environmental covariables with FE. Additionally, Appendix A contains comprehensive details of the BRR model utilized in this study. Furthermore, Appendix B offers extensive information on the outcomes for Japonica, USP, and G2F_2016 datasets, which are outlined in Table B1-Table B2, Table B3, Table B4, Table B4-Table B5 respectively. Additionally, Table B7 in this appendix presents the variance components and heritability of each trait within every dataset. For the results pertaining to datasets G2F_2014 and G2F_2015, please refer to the Supplementary Materials section.Predictor: E+G   (2011), and 197.980% (2013), with an average RE of 1.604. These findings indicate that using EC and FE surpassed NoEC in 61.390% and 60.460% of cases, respectively. The computations for these results were based on the findings presented in Table B2. The three relative efficiencies, considering EC_vs_FE, NoEC_vs_EC, and NoEC_vs_FE, for Japonica dataset, for predictors (A) E+G, (B) E+G+GE, (C) E+G+BRR and (D) E+G+GE+BRR in terms of mean squared error (MSE) for each Environment across traits.Predictor: E+G  B3 provide the results of our comparison between the NoEC and FE techniques using the RE metric. FE outperformed the NoEC technique only in Env1 (1.107), displaying an improvement of 10.670%. However, in Env2 (0.910), Env3 (0.8123), and Env4 (0.989), the NoEC technique surpassed FE, resulting in an average RE of 0.955. This average RE indicates a general loss of 4.520% when using FE compared to NoEC (see Table B3).  B3 provide the results of our comparison between the NoEC and FE techniques based on the RE metric, including the fact that the use of FE outperformed the use of NoEC in environments Env1 (1.167), Env2 (1.016), and Env4 (1.064), resulting in respective improvements of 16.670%, 1.550%, and 6.390%. However, in Env3 (0.912), the NoEC technique outperformed FE, resulting in an average RE of 1.040. This average RE indicates a general improvement of 4.000% of the FE technique regarding the NoEC method. For more detailed information, see Table B3.Based on Figure 2C and Table B4, our comparison between the NoEC and FE techniques using the RE metric reveals that FE outperformed the NoEC technique in environments Env1 (1.216), Env3 (1.189), and Env4 (1.435), displaying improvements of 21.580%, 18.890%, and 43.500%, respectively. However, in Env2 (0.768), the NoEC technique outperformed using FE. In general, FE outperformed NoEC by 15.200% since an average RE of 1.152 was observed (see Table B4).Finally, based on the analysis presented in Figure 2D and Table B4, we compared the NoEC and FE techniques using the RE metric. The results indicate that FE outperformed NoEC in Env1 (1.231), Env3 (1.368), and Env4 (1.491), displaying improvements of 23.090%, 36.760%, and 49.080%, respectively. However, in Env2 (0.901), the NoEC technique outperformed FE, although, FE outperformed the NoEC in general terms, since an average RE of 1.248 was observed (see Table B4).Predictor: E+G  improvements of 63.960% (Grain_Moisture_BLUE), 1682.340% (Grain_Moisture_weight), and 52.860% (Yield_Mg_ha_weight), yielding an average RE of 5.497. Additionally, FE surpassed NoEC in all traits, with enhancements of 119.370% (Grain_Moisture_BLUE), 245.980% (Grain_Moisture_weight), 1.400% (Yield_Mg_ha_BLUE), and 22.630% (Yield_Mg_ha_weight), resulting in an average RE of 1.974. These findings indicate that both EC and FE techniques outperformed NoEC by 449.740% and 97.350%, respectively. The computations are based on the results presented in Table 5B. B5 shows that for the Yield_Mg_ha_weight trait, the NoEC technique achieved the best performance in most environments, as shown by the MSE values (DEH1_2016 OHH1_2016 [1.202]). On average, there were slight losses of 2.210% and 2.570% when comparing EC versus NoEC and FE versus NoEC, respectively. This suggests that EC and FE techniques could have performed more adequately than the conventional NoEC technique. However, comparing EC and FE techniques based on RE showed that FE outperformed EC in most environments under NoEC, resulting in an average RE of 1.339, indicating a superiority of 33.930% for FE (see Table 5B).  B6 across environments for each trait. It shows that FE outperformed EC in all characteristics, with improvements of 67.090% (Grain_Moisture_BLUE), 167.270% (Grain_Moisture_weight), 10.650% (Yield_Mg_ha_BLUE), and 3.960% (Yield_Mg_ha_weight), resulting in an average RE of 1.622. Additionally, EC outperformed NoEC in all traits, with improvements of 84.880% (Grain_Moisture_BLUE), 249.510% (Grain_Moisture_weight), 3.780% (Yield_Mg_ha_BLUE), and 51.630% (Grain_Moisture_weight), resulting in an average RE of 1.975. Furthermore, FE outperformed NoEC only in the traits Grain_Moisture_BLUE (129.850%) and Grain_Moisture_weight (25.410%), with an average RE of 1.360. These results indicate that EC and FE techniques outperformed the conventional NoEC technique in 62.240% and 36.020% of cases, respectively. These calculations are derived from the results presented in Table B6.Figure 3D summarizes the results from Table B6 across different traits. It shows that FE outperformed EC in the majority of traits, specifically by 29.090% for Grain_Moisture_BLUE, 689.960% for Grain_Moisture_weight, and 38.420% for Yield_Mg_ha_weight. This leads to an average RE of 2.893. On the other hand, EC outperformed NoEC in all traits, with improvements of 65.180% for Grain_Moisture_BLUE, 408.510% for Grain_Moisture_weight, 11 . 6 9 0 % f o r Y i e l d _ M g _ h a _ B L U E , a n d 2 2 . 2 0 0 % f o r Yield_Mg_ha_weight. The average RE for EC compared to NoEC is 2.269. Furthermore, FE outperformed NoEC in all traits, with improvements of 125.150% for Grain_Moisture_BLUE, 240.900% for Grain_Moisture_weight, 9.490% for Yield_Mg_ha_BLUE, and 11.380% for Yield_Mg_ha_weight. The average RE for FE compared to NoEC is 1.967. These results indicate that using EC and FE outperformed NoEC by 126.890% and 96.730%, respectively. These computations are derived from the outcomes of Table B6.In Table 1 we can observe that in any of the four predictors using environmental covariates improve prediction accuracy at least 61.400% regarding of not using the environmental covariates (NoEC_vs_EC). Also, we can see in this same table that using FE improves the prediction performance in the four predictors regarding of using the original environmental covariates (EC_vs_FE) in at least 347.300%. Regarding using FE and not using environmental covariates (NoEC_vs_FE) we can observe that also in the four predictors using FE outperform by at least 113.100% not using the environmental covariates. Also, we observed that in many cases adding directly the environmental covariates (EC) not improve (and even reduce) the prediction performance and for this reason, we observe that the gain in terms of prediction performance of NoEC_vs_FE is less pronounced regarding comparing EC_vs_FE.Due to the fact, that still the practical implementation of the GS methodology is challenging since not always is possible to guarantee high genomic-enabled prediction accuracy, many strategies had been developed to improve the machine learning genomic prediction ability (Sallam and Smith, 2016). For this reason, since the GS methodology is still not optimal, this investigation explored FE on the environmental covariates. FE is a crucial step in machine learning and data science that involves creating new features or modifying existing ones to improve the performance of a model. FE is a creative and essential aspect of the machine learning workflow, and it can significantly impact the success of one's models. It is a skill that improves with experience and a deep understanding of the data and problem. For this reason, FE has been applied successfully in solving natural language processing, computer vision, time series and other issues. FE is not new in the context of GS, since some studies had been conducted exploring feature engineering techniques from the feature selection point of view. For example, Long et al. (2011) used dimension reduction and variable selection for genomic selection to predict milk yield in Holsteins. Tadist et al. (2019) present a systematic and structured literature review of the feature-selection techniques used in studies related to big genomic data analytics. While Meuwissen et al. (2017) proposed variable selection models for genomic selection using whole-genome sequence data and singular value decomposition. More recently Montesinos-Loṕez et al. (2023) proposed feature selection methods for selecting environmental covariables to enhance genomic prediction accuracy. However, these studies are only focused on feature selection and not create new features from the original inputs.From our results across traits and data sets, we can state that including environmental covariates significantly improves the prediction performance, since comparing no environmental covariates (NoEC) vs adding environmental covariates (EC), the resulting improvement was of 167.900% (RE=2.679 of NoEC_vs_EC), 142.100 (RE=2.242 of NoEC_vs_EC), 56.100% (RE=1.561 of NoEC_vs_EC) and 421.300% (RE=5.213 of NoEC_vs_EC) under predictor E+G, E+G+GE, E+G+BRR and E+G+GE+BRR respectively. However, it is very interesting to point out that the prediction performance can be even improved when the covariates are included but using FE. We found that the improvement of the prediction performance using FE only including only the EC was of 816.600% (RE=9.166 of EC_vs_FE), 372.900% (RE=4.729 of EC_vs_FE), 616.100% (RE=716.100 of EC_vs_FE) and 1240.900% (RE=13.409% of EC_vs_FE) under predictors E+G, E+G+GE, E+G +BRR and E+G+GE+BRR respectively. The larger gain in prediction performance was observed under the most complex predictor (E+G +GE+BRR), while the lowest gain was observed under predictor E+G +GE. Our results show that FE in genomic prediction holds tremendous potential for advancing our understanding of genetics and improving predictions related to various aspects of genomics. For this reason, FE should be considered an important tool to unlock the potential of genomic data for research and practical applications of genomic prediction.Although our results are very promising for the use of FE, its practical implementation is very challenging, since we observed a significant improvement in some data sets but not in all, and for practical implementations, we need to be able to identify with a high degree of accuracy when the use of FE will be beneficial and when the use of this approach will not be successful. Also, it is important to point out that we have opted against utilizing the Pearson's correlation coefficient as a performance metric for predicting outcomes. This decision is principally rooted in the lack of substantial improvement linked to this measure we observed. The marginal benefits observed with this metric can be partly ascribed to our exclusive focus on feature selection within the realm of environmental covariates. Additionally, this can be attributed to the assessment of environmental covariates not at the genotype level but rather at the environmental (location) level.Three reasons why the FE works well for some data but not very well for others are: (1) that those data sets with low efficiency with The results of this study demonstrate that the feature engineering strategy for incorporating environmental covariates effectively enhances genomic prediction accuracy. However, further research is warranted to refine the methodology for integrating environmental covariates into genomic prediction models, particularly in the context of modeling genotype-environment interactions (GE). For instance, employing the factor analytic (FA) multiplicative operator to describe cultivar effects in different environments has shown promise as a robust and efficient machine learning approach for analyzing multienvironment breeding trials (Piepho, 1998;Smith et al., 2005). Factor analysis offers solutions for modeling GE with heterogeneous variances and covariances, either alongside the numerical relationship matrix (based on pedigree information) (Crossa et al., 2006) or utilizing the genomic similarity matrix to assess GE (Burgueño et al., 2012). Further research is needed to comprehensively explore the application of the FA approach for feature engineering of environmental covariates within the framework of genomic prediction.This study delved into the impact of feature engineering on environmental covariates to enhance the predictive capabilities of genomic models. Our findings demonstrate a consistent improvement in prediction performance, as measured by MSE, across most datasets when employing feature engineering techniques compared to models without such enhancements. While some datasets showed no significant gains, others exhibited notably substantial improvements. These results underscore the potential of feature engineering to bolster prediction accuracy in genomic studies. However, it's imperative to acknowledge the inherent complexity and challenges associated with practical implementation, as various factors can influence its efficacy. Therefore, we advocate for further exploration and adoption of feature engineering methodologies within the scientific community to accumulate more empirical evidence and harness its full potential in genomic prediction. which generated the CIMMYT data analyzed in this study. We are also thankful for the financial support provided by the Foundation for Research Levy on Agricultural Products (FFL) and the Agricultural Agreement Research Fund (JA) through the Research Council of Norway for grants 301835 (Sustainable Management of Rust Diseases in Wheat) and 320090 (Phenotyping for Healthier and more Productive Wheat Crops). We acknowledge the support of the Window 1 and 2 funders to the Accelerated Breeding Initiative (ABI).Bayesian Ridge Regression (BRR) is a probabilistic approach to linear regression that incorporates Bayesian principles. It is a regularized regression method that extends traditional linear regression by introducing a prior distribution over the regression coefficients. This approach provides a way to express uncertainty in the model parameters and helps prevent overfitting by introducing regularization.The model assumptions assumes a traditional linear regression, with a linear relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The BRR assumes that the coefficients of the regression model follow a Gaussian (normal) distribution. This introduces a regularization term that penalizes large coefficients, helping to prevent overfitting.The model formulation assumes that X is an independent variables with and a dependent variable y, such that the BRR can be written aswhere y is the dependent variable. X is the matrix of independent variables, b is the vector of regression coefficients and ϵ is the residual (error) term. From a Bayesian perspective, the prior distribution for b is assumed to be Gaussian (normal) b ∼ N(0, a −1 I) with a being a hyperparameter controlling the strength of the regularization and I is the identity matrix. The goal is to estimate the posterior distribution of b given the data. The posterior distribution is proportional to the product of the likelihood and the prior P(b | X, y) ∝ P(y | X, b) • P(b) . Once the posterior distribution is obtained, Bayesian inference can be performed with. point estimates (mean or mode) of the posterior distribution can be used as the regression coefficients. additionally, credible intervals can be computed to quantify uncertainty.Predictor: E+G Concerning the GY trait, Table B1 shows that the use of EC led to a superior performance in most environments based on MSE (796,963 [2009], 2,488,872 [2010] and 1,157,280 [2012]). However, the exceptions occurred in 2011 and 2013, when FE achieved the best MSE values of 2,615,758 and 377,719, respectively. By contrast, when comparing NoEC versus EC and NoEC versus FE using RE, most RE values were greater than 1. On average, the EC technique displayed an improvement of 105.610% (NoEC_vs_EC) regarding the NoEC method, and an improvement of 77.570% (NoEC_vs_FE) was observed with the use of FE compared to the conventional NoEC technique. Nonetheless, when assessing the performance of EC and FE techniques based on RE, FE only outperformed EC in 2011 (RE = 1.091) and 2013 (RE = 1.087). EC, on the other hand, outperformed FE in 2009 (RE = 0.777), 2010 (RE = 0.817), and 2012 (RE = 0.806), resulting in an average RE of 0.916. This indicates an overall performance loss of 8.450% when using FE compared to EC. Table B1 provides further details.In terms MSE for the PH trait, Table B1 shows that the use of FE achieved the best performance in most environments (15.872 [2009], 10.959 [2010], and 164.039 [2012]). However, there were exceptions in 2011 and 2013, where the best MSE values were 28.573 (EC) and 18.363 (NoEC), respectively. On the other hand, when comparing NoEC versus EC and NoEC versus FE techniques using RE, most RE values were greater than 1. On average, the use of EC and FE displayed improvements of 61.570% and 70.210%, respectively, compared to the use of NoEC. Furthermore, when comparing the performance of EC and FE techniques based on RE, FE outperformed EC in all environments, resulting in an average RE of 1.0389. This indicates that using FE surpassed EC by 3.88% (Table B1).In terms of MSE for the PHR trait, Table B1 indicates that the use of FE yielded the best performance in most environments (0.001 [2009], 0.001 [2010], and 0.001 [2013]). However, exceptions were found in 2011 and 2012, when the best MSE values were 0.001 (EC) and 0.006 (NoEC), respectively. On the other hand, when comparing EC versus FE and NoEC versus FE techniques using Relative Efficiency (RE), most RE values were at least 1. On average, the use of FE displayed a general improvement of 22.790%, compared to EC and 7.020% compared to the conventional NoEC technique. However, evaluating the performance of EC versus NoEC techniques based on RE showed that NoEC outperformed EC in most environments, resulting in an average RE of 0.938. This indicates a general accuracy loss of 6.200% when using EC compared to the conventional NoEC technique (Table B1).   B1).Concerning the PH trait, the analysis of MSE values from Table B1 reveals that the use of FE yielded the best performance in most environments (17.631 [2009] and 23.544 [2012]). However, exceptions were observed in 2010, 2011, and 2013, where the best MSE values were 12.954 (EC), 44.689 (NoEC), and 164.891 (NoEC), respectively. On the other hand, comparing NoEC versus EC and NoEC versus FE techniques using RE showed that most RE values were greater than 1. The average RE for NoEC versus EC and NoEC versus FE was 1.618 and 1.700, respectively, indicating general improvements of 61.810% and 70.000% compared to the conventional NoEC technique. Furthermore, when evaluating the performance of EC and FE techniques based on RE, FE consistently outperformed EC in most environments. The average RE for EC versus FE was 1.047, indicating a 4.710% advantage in favor of FE (Table B1).Moreover, in the case of the PHR trait, the analysis of MSE values from Table B1 shows that the use of FE yielded the best performance in most environments (0.001 [2009], 0.002 [2010], and 0.001 [2013]). However, there were exceptions in 2011 and 2012, where the best MSE values were 0.001 (EC) and 0.005 (NoEC), respectively. Furthermore, when comparing the RE values between NoEC versus EC and NoEC versus FE techniques, the average RE values of 0.966 and 1.168 indicate a slight loss of 3.440% and an improvement of 16.800%, respectively, for the use of EC and FE compared to the conventional NoEC technique. Nevertheless, when evaluating the performance of FE versus EC techniques based on RE, FE consistently outperformed EC in most environments. The average RE for FE versus EC was 1.282, indicating a significant improvement of 28.240% in accuracy for using FE compared to (Table B1).    B2).For the PH trait, Table B2 shows that FE yielded the best performance in environments 2009 (15.281) and 2012 (159.312), while EC led to superior performances in environments 2010 (22.962) and 2013 (10.981). Most notably, when comparing the RE values for NoEC_vs_EC and NoEC_vs_FE, values exceeding 1 were observed. The average RE values of 1.634 (NoEC_vs_EC) and 1.5434 (NoEC_vs_FE) indicated substantial improvements of 63.350% and 54.350% respectively for using EC and FE, compared to the conventional NoEC technique. However, in evaluating the performance of EC and FE based on RE, FE exhibited a superior performance in most environments, but still resulting in an average RE of 0.954. This suggests that EC marginally outperformed FE by 4.650%. For further details, see Table B2.Additionally, for the PHR trait, using FE displayed a superior performance in most environments, as indicated in Table B2. The best MSE values were observed in 2009 (0.001), 2010 (0.001), and 2013 (0.001). However, exceptions were noted in 2011 and 2012, where the use of EC and NoEC resulted in the best MSE values of 8e-04 and 0.0055, respectively. Furthermore, most RE values comparing NoEC_vs_EC and NoEC_vs_FE techniques were greater than 1. The average RE values of 1.535 (NoEC_vs_EC) and 1.449 (NoEC_vs_FE) indicate significant improvements of 53.530% and 44.930% respectively, compared to the conventional NoEC technique. However, when comparing the performance of the EC versus the FE techniques, the RE values were lower than 1 in most environments, resulting in an average RE of 0.9212. This suggests a general accuracy loss of 7.820% in for using FE compared to using the EC technique (Table B2).  EC and FE techniques based on RE, EC outperformed FE in most environments, resulting in an average RE of 0.909. This indicates that using EC achieved a 9.100% improvement compared to using FE. For more detailed information, refer to Table 2. Table B2 displays that using EC yielded the best performance for the PHR trait in most environments, as indicated by the MSE. Specifically, the MSE values were as follows: 2009 (0.001), 2010 (0.001), 2011 (0.001), and 2013 (0.001). However, in 2012, the best MSE values were 0.005, achieved using both EC and NoEC. Comparing NoEC_vs_EC and NoEC_vs_FE techniques, most RE values were at least 1, with average improvements of 60.350% and 48.570% when using EC and FE, respectively, compared to NoEC. Conversely, when comparing EC versus FE techniques, most environments resulted in an average RE of 0.877, indicating a 12.260% decrease in accuracy when using FE compared to EC (Table B2).Predictor: E+G Upon examining Table B3, it becomes apparent that the conventional NoEC technique achieved the best performance in terms of MSE in environments Env2 (4.073) and Env3 (5.246). However, exceptions were found in Env1 and Env4, where the optimal MSE values were 3.141 (FE) and 7.814 (EC), respectively. For further detail, refer to Table B3.Table B3 present our comparison results between the NoEC and EC techniques, assessed through the RE metric. The EC technique displayed its best performance in environments Env1 (1.059) and Env4 (1.046), showcasing improvements of 5.920% and 4.610% over the NoEC technique, respectively. However, NoEC outperformed EC in environments Env2 (0.869) and Env3 (0.831), resulting in an average RE of 0.951. This average RE indicates a general loss of 4.890% in accuracy when using EC compared to NoEC (see Table B3).In terms MSE for the PH trait, Table B1 shows that the use of FE achieved the best performance in most environments (15.872 [2009], 10.959 [2010], and 164.039 [2012]). However, there were exceptions in 2011 and 2013, where the best MSE values were 28.573 (EC) and 18.363 (NoEC), respectively. On the other hand, when comparing NoEC versus EC and NoEC versus FE techniques using RE, most RE values were greater than 1. On average, the use of EC and FE displayed improvements of 61.570% and 70.210%, respectively, compared to the use of NoEC. Furthermore, when comparing the performance of EC and FE techniques based on RE, FE outperformed EC in all environments, resulting in an average RE of 1.0389. This indicates that using FE surpassed EC by 3.88% (Table B1).The EC and FE techniques were compared, using the RE metric to assess their performance. The findings indicate that the FE technique achieved its best performance in environments Env1 (1.045) and Env2 (1.048), displaying improvements of 4.480% and 4.790% over EC. However, EC exhibited a slightly better performance in environments Env3 (0.979) and Env4 (0.946), resulting in an average RE of 1.004. This average RE suggests a modest improvement of 0.430% when using FE compared to EC (see Table B3).Table B3 reveals the performance of the FE technique in terms of MSE across different environments. The FE technique achieved its best performance in environments Env1 (2.789) and Env2 (4.636), although exceptions were found in Env3 and Env4, where the optimal MSE values were 5.833 (NoEC) and 7.792 (EC), respectively (see Table 3).Table B3 present our comparison results between the NoEC and EC techniques, based on the RE metric. The EC technique displayed its best performance in environments Env1 (1.107) and Env4 (1.120), showing improvements of 10.72% and 12.040% over the NoEC technique. However, the NoEC technique outperformed EC in environments Env2 (0.961) and Env3 (0.925), resulting in an average RE of 1.028. This average RE indicates a general improvement of 2.840% of the EC method regarding the NoEC technique (see Table B3). The EC and FE techniques were compared, using the RE metric to assess their performance. The findings indicate that the FE technique achieved its best performance in environments Env1 (1.054) and Env2 (1.057), displaying improvements of 5.380% and 5.650% over EC. However, using EC exhibited a better performance in environments Env3 (0.986) and Env4 (0.949), resulting in an average RE of 1.012. This average RE indicates a 1.150% improvement of the FE technique over EC (see Table B3).Table B4 presents the results of our analysis regarding the MSE about the FE technique. The FE technique performed best in Env1 (2.859) and Env3 (4.413) environments. However, exceptions were observed in Env2 and Env4, where the optimal MSE values were 4.073 (NoEC) and 5.638 (EC), respectively. For further details, see Table B4.The results of our comparison between the NoEC and EC techniques, based on the RE metric, are presented in Table B4. The EC technique exhibited its best performance in environments Env1 (1.171) and Env4 (1.450), suggesting improvements of 17.1000% and 45.000%, respectively, compared to the NoEC technique. However, the NoEC technique outperformed EC in environments Env2 (0.823) and Env3 (0.836), resulting in an average RE of 1.070. This average RE indicates a general improvement of 7.000% of the EC regarding the NoEC technique (see Table B4).We compared the EC and FE techniques, evaluating their performance with the RE metric. The findings indicate that the FE technique achieved its best performance in environments Env1 (1.038) and Env3 (1.423), displaying respective improvements of 3.840% and 42.290% over EC. However, EC performed better in environments Env2 (0.934) and Env4 (0.990), resulting in an average RE of 1.096. This average RE indicates a 9.600% better performance of the FE technique over EC (see Table B4).  Env3 (4.265),and Env4 (5.856). The only exception was Env2, where the optimal MSE value was 4.708, achieved using NoEC. For further information, see Table B4.Based on the RE metric, the results of our comparison between the NoEC and EC techniques are presented in Table B4. EC performed best in environments Env1 (1.175) and Env4 (1.465), with improvements of 17.510% and 46.530%, respectively, compared to the NoEC technique. However, the NoEC technique outperformed EC in environments Env2 (0.958) and Env3 (0.915), resulting in an average RE of 1.128. This average RE indicates a general improvement of 12.830% of EC regarding NoEC. For more specific information, see Table B4.We compared the EC and FE techniques based on the RE metric. The analysis revealed that the FE technique displayed its best performance in Env1 (1.047), Env3 (1.494), and Env4 (1.017). These results indicate improvements of 4.740%, 49.430%, and 1.740%, respectively, when compared to using EC. However, EC displayed a better performance in Env2 (0.941), but in general, the FE technique outperformed EC by 12.500%, since an average RE of 1.125 was observed (see Table B4).Predictor: E+G   B4 The prediction performance and the relative efficiency (RE) for USP dataset in terms of mean squared error (MSE) for each Environment and for each trait, for the predictors E+G+BRR and E+G+GE+BRR under three different techniques to compute the Kernel for the effect of the Environment: without Environmental Covariates (NoEC), using Environmental covariates (EC) and using Environmental Covariates with Feature Engineering (FE). Table B5 shows that FE yielded the best performance for the Grain_Moisture_BLUE trait in the majority of environments, with MSE values ranging from 0.519 to 5.813 (IAH4_2016, ILH1_2016, MNH1_2016, NEH1_2016, NYH2_2016, OHH1_2016 and WIH1_2016). Comparing RE values, using FE outperformed EC and NoEC techniques by 42.480% and 114.740%, respectively. Additionally, EC outperformed NoEC with an average RE of 1.552, indicating a superiority of 55.210% for EC. For further details, see Table B5.For the Grain_Moisture_weight trait, Table B5    B5 The prediction performance and the relative efficiency (RE) for G2F_2016 dataset in terms of mean squared error (MSE) for each Environment and for each trait, for the predictors E+G and E+G+GE under three different techniques to compute the Kernel for the effect of the Environment: without Environmental Covariates (NoEC), using Environmental covariates (EC) and using Environmental Covariates with Feature Engineering (FE).        ","tokenCount":"7618"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5e831710b21c6df6545d91bf0a47042d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8f62366d-2943-4d3c-ab07-7f349c37d41d/retrieve","id":"-642545327"},"keywords":["banana","data management","digital genebank","high-density markers","plant conservation"],"sieverID":"daf0c4df-b2ed-4432-8cb8-7ce36e4d4a45","pagecount":"7","content":"Global production of bananas, among the top 10 food crops worldwide, is under threat. Increasing the use of germplasm conserved in genebanks is crucial. However, the lack of or difficult access to genetic diversity information limits the efficient utilization of these valuable resources. Here, we present a digital catalog of high-density markers for banana germplasm conserved at the international banana collection. By facilitating access to subsets of genetic diversity information, the catalog has potential to maximize conservation and use of climate-ready varieties and to optimize breeding strategies. The catalog is extendable with data from any banana collection and the software is easily deployable in other crop genebanks.Crop plant diversity managed by genebanks is of great value in the context of the changing needs of agriculture (Smale & Jamora, 2020), but genetic and phenotypic information on this diversity is insufficiently available for most genebanks (McCouch et al., 2013(McCouch et al., , 2020)).The advent of Next Generation Sequencing has enabled-at an ever-decreasing cost-the sequencing of reference genomes of many crops as well as high-density genotyping for large numbers of samples per crop. Genotyping is a powerful tool to help identify gaps or redundancies in germplasm collections, and when combined with phenotyping data, can be used to detect correlations between genome regions and agronomic traits. For some crops, massive sequencing and data processing have been undertaken, as shown in the rice, wheat and barley germplasm collections (Milner et al., 2019;Sansaloni et al., 2020;Wang et al., 2018). These approaches represent increasingly reachable targets for many genebanks worldwide, including the CGIAR international collections (Halewood, Lopez Noriega et al., 2018).For bananas (Musa spp.), the largest ex situ collection is maintained in vitro at one of the CGIAR international genebanks, the International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre (ITC), comprised of more than 1,600 accessions ( Van den houwe et al., 2020). Then, over 60 national collections worldwide conserve banana diversity and conduct-related research (Figure 1). Bananas (including Plantains) are arguably the world's most important fresh fruit and are a major staple food for hundreds of millions of people in low-income countries. With an estimated world production of 158 million tons annually, the volume of gross banana exports is worth US$12.8 billion to exporting countries (FAOSTAT 2019). Furthermore, most of the global production is by smallholders for their own consumption or for local trade, making it the fourth-most important food crop in the least developed countries (LDCs) as defined by the United Nations, ranked by total production and food consumption.In order to increase understanding of its complex genetics so as to boost crop improvement, the first whole banana genome sequence was released in 2012, for an accession belonging to the Musa acuminata species (D'Hont et al., 2012) (Table 1). This original reference has recently been supplemented with of a number of other Musa species (Rouard et al., 2018;Wang et al., 2019;Wu et al., 2016).In parallel, high-throughput genotyping methods (i.e., genotypingby-sequencing (GBS) (Elshire et al., 2011) and restriction-site associated DNA markers (RADSeq) (Davey et al., 2010)) have been used to investigate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on various panels of accessions available at the ITC genebank (Cenci et al., 2020;Sardos et al., 2016). In addition, other SNP datasets have been generated from gene expression and proteomics experiments for subsets related to drought tolerance (Cenci et al., 2019;van Wesemael et al., 2019).While genetic variant information is being produced at a fast pace through various projects and is increasingly processed via standardized bioinformatics workflows, one of the main challenges is the management of an increasing volume of raw and intermediate files that are difficult to handle for many applications. Bioinformatics workflows can produce millions of markers but need to be filtered in multiple ways according to analysis type or user perspective, and working with these data often presents challenges to those without capacity in bioinformatics. Online information systems coping with big data linked to germplasm collections are scarce (König et al., 2020;Mansueto et al., 2017;Raubach et al., 2020;Ruas et al., 2017). Moreover, lack of access to phenotypic information continues to be an additional factor limiting the use of plant genetic resources. Phenotypic data are complex-information on the context under which they were collected is indispensable, and the domain is continuously evolving (Germeier & Unger, 2019). Recognizing these challenges, the availability of easy-to-use, interoperable and flexible solutions to navigate high-density genotyping and phenotyping data online continues to be a key aim for genebanks' delivery of their mission of germplasm documentation and utilization.In this study, we present an approach used to generate, store and disseminate a catalog of genetic variants of banana and plantain TA B L E 1 An overview of banana maintained in the ITC, which is available at https://www.crop-diver sity.org/mgis/gigwa and is embedded in the genebank information system through which users can order available germplasm. The diversity of edible bananas has been classified using genome groups according to the relative contribution of their ancestral Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) (Martin, Baurens, et al., 2020) PRJNA667853 for selected subsets of accessions (Table 2). It offers access to datasets with sizes ranging from 245,285 to more than 7 million SNPs depending on the study.While the system is optimized to explore a large volume of data, it enables efficient filtering options based on a full range of parameters, mostly genetics (e.g., chromosome location, missing data percentage, minor allele frequency, gene mutation effect) but not only. Accession details can be enriched with metadata such as passport data or agronomic traits (e.g., control vs. stress on gene expression analyses), which then become elements which can be filtered. The interface is designed to work with one or two groups of samples, a feature which, when the latter case is used in conjunction with genotype pattern filters, makes it straightforward to identify SNPs discriminating the groups (Figure 2). This is particularly useful to filter by taxonomy or a certain trait between contrasted genotypes to reveal unique alleles held by some accessions. From the user interface, genetic variants of the catalog can be exported in various popular formats (e.g., VCF, BED)for further analyses, or directly imported in other software for genetics analyses. Alternately, content can be programmatically accessed with the Breeding API (BrAPI), a computer-computer programming interface following standard plant specifications (Selby et al., 2019).This solution facilitates essential connections with other information systems (e.g., as implemented in Musabase, the database for banana breeding data https://musab ase.org and Genesys, a global information system on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) https://www.genes ys-pgr.org).With regard to types of use of the catalog, it can support various types of research analyses from genetic diversity studies to gene trait association. Of particular interest, a set of SNP markers for a panel of 105 accessions were investigated to provide genebank users with genetic datasets ready for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) once phenotyping data are obtained (Sardos et al., 2016).The concern that such high levels of genotypic and phenotypic information, associated with germplasm accessions, would enable new breeding techniques (NBTs) that would bypass the access and benefitsharing (ABS) arrangements linked currently to the distribution of physical material has generated much recent attention (Aubry, 2019;Halewood, Chiurugwi et al., 2018;Smyth et al., 2020). At the moment, any genebank user (e.g., researcher, breeder) can order plants and sequence them without further obligations, and many organizations have already made publicly available such datasets for a wide range of crops. As potential solutions are elaborated (Scholz et al., 2020), an important and challenging crop to breed such as banana should not be ignored, as access to its genetic and phenotypic data may contribute significantly to its progress as a crop (Gaffney et al., 2020).This catalog intends to provide open access to genomic resources in an equitable way, ultimately benefiting all, including those in low-income countries (Halewood et al., 2017). It should be noted that it does not include gene functions, but is linked to a genome browser from the banana genome hub which contains gene annotation for references banana genomes (Droc Moreover, given the polyploid genome background of numerous banana cultivars, it may be expected that many agronomic traits are under complex genetic regulation control, necessitating innovative approaches to investigate the role of apparent gene redundancy (Cenci et al., 2019;D'Hont et al., 2012). We have not yet reached the stage where one can easily pick up a gene variant coding for a specific trait and select material of interest to conduct crop improvement. Significant research is still needed to better understand the physiology and genetic architecture of traits in banana. Phenotyping experiments for various traits, including fruit quality, are also still missing, which may inhibit adoption of improved hybrids (Thiele et al., 2020). Furthermore, new plant breeding techniques such as gene editing will have to be fine-tuned for banana, even if some encouraging perspectives have been recently published (Tripathi et al., 2019;Zorrilla-Fontanesi et al., 2020). Finally, regulation frameworks of edited crops are still to be legislated in many countries (Schmidt et al., 2020). While waiting for future policy options, training on the use of such catalogs should be strengthened, particularly for breeders in national programs in those low-income countries with supportive funding schemes.A digital catalog of genetic variants is available for banana and is directly linked to the diversity held in the ITC genebank. It is accessible online as a proof of concept for exploration and export of SNP datasets. We adapted the system with the objective of keeping the genetic information connected to the physical material maintained in the genebank. Users can browse genetic information, identify interesting material and order it online for further investigation and use in breeding programs. While many genebanks are wondering if managing high-density markers is in their scope, the GIGWA web application offers a simple and elegant solution. With a reasonable transaction cost, its framework can be extrapolated to any germplasm collection.Challenges still need to be addressed. First, on a technical side, ","tokenCount":"1637"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"577400496973ed5c67bf05bf38c5140c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5ec2191a-4bd0-4713-8d24-6784bfc67842/retrieve","id":"1011053752"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c2756e36-a436-42fa-8b13-c8922ac30cfa","pagecount":"5","content":"Parkia biglobosa (Fabaceae-Mimosoideae) is one of the most important and widespread trees in agroforestry systems from Senegal to Uganda. The National Tree Seed Center (CNSF) of Burkina Faso has developed a breeding and improvement program for this multipurpose tree. To better conserve and promote the best reproductive materials for domestication, it is important to understand how farmers perceive and manage the species in their fields. Farmers appear to have an active role in shaping tree species diversity and richness, affecting also the overall spatial distribution, density, and structure of tree populations. We examined some choices made by farmers with regard to species and individuals to be maintained, and practices used to conserve trees.To understand farmers' tree management practices in their fields, particularly with regards to P. biglobosa, a survey was conducted in Neboun and Cassou, two villages located in southern Burkina Faso. A total of 150 people representing a balanced sample categorized by gender, ethnic group and status of residence, were interviewed in the 2 villages (Table 1). Characterization by a) ethnicity, b) gender, c) status of residence, d) status of residence and village, e) status of residence and ethnicity, f) status of residence and gender, g) status of residence and livelihood.Trees spared when land is cleared for agriculture A total of eight tree species were mentioned by at least 5% of the farmers interviewed, as being spared during clearing (Table 2). Between 99% and 100% of farmers left standing Vitellaria paradoxa and P. biglobosa trees during land clearing for agriculture. These two species are protected by law and cannot be removed when the vegetation is cleared to make space for crops. Trees most planted by farmers, and their uses More than 40% of farmers reported planting P. biglobosa. It was the most frequently planted of native species, behind only mango and cashew, which were planted by more than half of farmers. Farmers prefer multipurpose species. P. biglobosa is used for medicine, commercial purposes, and food (human consumption) (Table 3). The seeds and pulp are the most used parts for commercial purposes either directly or processed into other products. Multiple tree species are commonly combined. Migrant villagers were significantly less likely to plant trees in their fields than native villagers, probably due to their different access rights to the land and the trees. Native inherit land and have almost all the rights as migrants who land are generally loaned does not have the right to plant trees. The choice of species planted was also influenced by status of residence.The most important benefits from planting P. biglobosa, according to the villagers, is their consumption of \"soumbala\", a condiment made from the fermented seeds of P. biglobosa, and of the pulp. (Figure 1). The most important products and benefits of tree planting differed by gender. Women named food products, income generation and medicinal uses; male farmers indicated a greater number of expected benefits from tree planting like consumption of \"soumbala\" and pulp, sale of seeds, sale of pulp, sale of \"soumbala\", forage and shade…. Management by women and men of trees in farmers' fields Women are most involved in tending trees that are spared or planted in farmers' fields, mainly by: a) protecting seedlings with mechanical barriers; b) watering and c) weeding. Men are involved less in these tasks, but carry out a wider range of activities to favour the establishment of trees on farms (Figure 2). Men are more likely than women to think that trees on farms have negative effects (primarily through competition with crops). ","tokenCount":"585"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/5824764795.json b/data/part_3/5824764795.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aadfef20a9cb669e218224e4c63061a8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e18064b1-6309-46ef-ac32-37a190e15e1f/retrieve","id":"-1866612202"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c024b98a-a065-40ac-aada-e6071480947a","pagecount":"207","content":"Child undernutrition remains one of the health challenge among rural farming households in Malawi particularly during the first two years of life. Appropriate complementary feeding practice is essential for proper growth and development of infant and young children. To effectively promote child nutrition, it is important to understand the effect of gender roles, access to and control of resources on child feeding practices. A research study was conducted in Dedza and Ntcheu with legume farming households with children aged 6-23 months who were part of the Africa RISING ‗mother trial' or ‗baby trials' for two seasons (2014/2015 to 2015/2016). The key objective of the research was to understand and assess the effect of gender roles on infant and young child feeding practices. The research targeted 291 households with children 6-23 months. Eight focus group discussions (FGDs)    for in-depth qualitative data were conducted to understand the social, economic and cultural aspects of gender roles in infant and young child feeding.Two 24-hour recalls and food frequency questionnaire were used to collect data on infant and young child feeding practices while women empowerment in agriculture index (WEAI) and Harvard analysis framework were used to collect data on gender roles, activity profile, access and control over resources at household level.A high proportion of children (76.3%) from legume growing households where women had control over resources were provided with a diversified diet compared with only 23.7% of children where men had control over household resources. In addition control over use of income by women had a positive association with regards to minimum meal frequency (P < 0.05) and minimum acceptable diets (P < 0.05) among the children. Involvement of women in partial processing, budgeting and marketing, increased dietary intake of their children as it ensured availability of legumes for a long time. Children from households where women were actively involved in partial processing and vi budgeting received a diversified diet. Women farmers were more knowledgeable about legumes and played an important role in seed selection, storage and processing; however, the findings indicate that men would appropriate the crop if access to profitable markets is improved, which signals an opportunity to increase women's income by involving them in market information. It was also found that the practice of individuals selling small quantities, frequent price fluctuations, and the tendency for vendors and buyers to offer low prices to farmers (especially women) acted as a disincentive to expanding production of the legume as a means of improving child nutrition. In conclusion, efforts to scale multipurpose legumes to improve the food security, nutrition, and poverty situations of poor households in Malawi must consider intra-household dynamics and gender relations that give men the privilege to control income from legume sales and shape whether or not expansion in legume production could contribute to improved child nuturition within the household. Empowering women economically was essential for harvesting the potential food security and poverty reduction benefits of legume expansion and commercialization.Table 2.1: Household groundnut sales in Malawi ......................................................................... 32 Table 2.2: Pigeonpea production trend in Malawi ........................................................................ 34    Tackling malnutrition is a major global health priority, as underscored by its inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN, 2015). In Malawi, child under nutrition continues to be a major public health challenge as evidenced by high prevalence of stunting (37.2%), underweight (11.75%), and wasting (2.75%) (NSO, 2017). Similarly, micronutrient deficiencies of zinc (60%), iron (21.7%) and vitamin A (4%) and 57% inflammation as indicated by elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), among pre-school going children (NSO, 2017). Poor infant and young child feeding practices, usually using thin maize flour porridge made up of 7% maize flour and providing about 105 kJ/100g is common in Malawi (Hotz and Gibson, 2001). The proportin of children 6-23 months old (both breastfed and non-breastfed) who received minimum acceptable diets, minimum dietary diversity and minimum meal frequency in Malawi was 8.1%, 25.1% and 29.2% respectively (NSO, 2017). Thus, a high proportion of children are subjected to poor infant and young child feeding practices that contribute to persistent high prevalence of wasting, underweight and stunting in Malawi.Malnutrition is attributable to both inadequate quantities of food and poor dietary quality of the existing food basket particularly in developing countries (Hotz and Gibson, 2007). Grain legumes that are high in protein, have been used in several studies to improve the nutrition status of children and chronically ill patients. Grain legume mixes are an acceptable substitute for meeting protein requirements for children in Malawi. Similar trends were also observed in Burkina Faso by Simpore, et al., (2006) where a mixture of millet (60%), soya (20%), peanut kernel (10%), sugar (9%) and salt (1%), considerably improved growth and weight gain in underweight under five children (HAZ <-3) than a traditional meal composed of 100% millet. In Ghana, a mixture of extruded maize and cowpea improved weight and length gain in infants who were likely to be malnourished (Obatolu, 2003). The recommended legume ratio in Malawian diets is at least 35% (Government of Malawi, 2008) to achieve optimal health among the populations.Nutrition -sensitive agriculture is a food-based approach to agricultural development that puts nutritionally rich foods, dietary diversity and food fortification at the heart of overcoming malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. In rural Malawi, a participatory action research intervention that promoted intercropping with legumes and nutrition education improved the nutrition status of the children (Bezner-Kerr, et al., 2010). It is worth noting that Malawi through the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Irrigation and other non-governmental organizations, promotes legume production for household use (Ministry of Agriculture, water and irrigation, 2012). Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (RISING) project also encourages smallholder farmers to grow legumes namely; groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) and soya bean (Glycin max) as one way of improving the wellbeing of smallholder farmers. However, there are many socio-economic factors that smallholder farmers from adopting legume production. Some of these factors include; limited and uncertain market access unstable and highly variable prices for legume products, insufficient attention by researchers to the multifunctionality of legumes and women empowerment in terms of control of resources, decision making and more equitable workloads (Bezner-Kerr, et al., 2007;Phiri, et al., 1999;Zeller, et al., 1998;Sraboni, et al., 2014). On the other hand, men tend to dominate cereal and cash crop production in many societies and women are more likely to take a major role in the growing of legumes, especially in Africa. It is hypothesized that value chains (can) play a key role in determining food availability, affordability, quality and acceptability and provide opportunities to promote nutrition of a household including children (Hawkes and Ruel, 2011).Inequities in access to and control of resources have severe consequences for women's ability to provide food, care, health and sanitation services to themselves, their husbands and children (Oniang'o and Mukudi, 2002). Substantial evidence demonstrates that more equal access to and control over assets raises agricultural output, increases investment in child education, improves visits to health facilities for infants, raises household food security, and accelerates child growth and development (Oniang'o and Mukudi, 2002).Smallholder farming is a major component of the economy in Malawi, with crops including maize, cassava, beans, groundnuts, cowpea, sweet potatoes, soybeans, several green leafy vegetables, and tobacco as a major cash crop. However, the nutrition and food security requirements of women and children are often ignored at household level due to social, cultural, and economic disparities between males and females (Bridge, 2014). Gender integration in agriculture has not always been successful especially among rural smallholder farming women.The main problem is that various social and economic factors limit women to have access to and control of household resources which help provide best nutrition practices to infants and young children.Malawi ranks 140 out of 155 of Gender Inequality Index reflecting inequality in women empowerment, decision making and control of resources (UNDP, 2014). Gender inequality is a major driver of vulnerability to malnutrition and food security. Hence, it is recommended that both men and women in legume production and utilization areas, understand the impact of gender roles on infant and young child feeding.Currently, high production and sale of soybeans (83% and 93% respectively), pigeon pea (97% and 98% respectively) is rampant from central and southern regions of Malawi respectively (IHS 3, 2011). There is only one known research study in Northern Malawi that looked at the impact of nutrition education and gender roles on child. Therefore, there is a need to understand gender roles (in regards to access and control of resources) within households, legume production and utilization and infant and young child feeding practices in Dedza and Ntcheu districts of Malawi.The sults of the study can provide scope for understanding the impact of household gender roles and complementary feeding practices in legume utilization, which in turn has implications for improving child and maternal nutrition.Do gender roles have any effects on household utilization of legumes for complementary feeding?The main aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of gender roles on household utilization of legumes for complementary feeding.The study addressed the following objectives: i.To assess the effect of gender roles on infant and young child feeding practices (6-23 months) using a holistic WEAI and Harvard Analysis Framework among legume growing households ii.To examine how gender roles affect legume production (soybeans, groundnuts, pigeon peas and cowpeas)iii.To assess the effect of gender roles on legume utilization (soybeans, groundnuts, pigeon peas and cowpeas) on complementary feeding CHAPTER 22.0 LITERATURE REVIEWGender refers to the social identity and roles associated with being a man or woman that are usually learned through early socialization and reinforced by social norms (UNDP, 2014). On the other hand, food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious foods to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (FAO, 2001). Along the food security chain, gender manifests itself as a discriminating ground in several ways. Traditionally, subsistence crops grown for consumption fall in women's domain, while commercial crops fall into men's domain (Krishnaraj, 2005).Women, in their gendered role, as primary providers and food processors, the importance of labour done by women in the fields and at home is difficult to underestimate. As increasing number of men in rural areas migrate to urban locales or take up wage labour (sometimes in other countries), agricultural responsibilities progressively fall on the shoulders of women. The phenomenon of women's increasing responsibilities in agriculture has been termed the -feminization‖ of agriculture. Although there is insufficient data, and inconsistent figures depending on the geographical context, women supply a large proportion of the agricultural labor and in some societies, produce up to 80% of the food crops (FAO 2007;World Bank, 2017).Several studies have confirmed that when unpaid labour is factored into the equation, women work longer hours than men, both in general terms and in terms of food production and preparation (Osman and Ibnouf, 2009;Mikalista, 2010). Access to food, rather than a shortage of food availability, is the central problem for food security in households. A study conducted in Malawi by Riley and Dodson (2014) demonstrated the importance of linking gender and urban food security.The study results showed that female headed households had the lowest proportion (14%) in the food secure category, only slightly lower than the extended households (15%), nuclear households (18%) and male headed households (19%). Although female headed and extended households showed a similar proportion of food-secure households, far more female headed households were severely food insecure (62%) relative to extended households (53%).Some reasons for this unevenness lie in the composition and size of the households. Female headed households had fewer adult members to earn money, procure food and perform domestic chores, which often creates an inherent economic disadvantage for the household (Dodson, et al., 2012).Achievement of household food security is not only influenced by total household income but also the proportion of the income that is controlled by women (Peters and Kennedy, 1992;Engle, 1993;Glik, 2002;Kabubo-Mariana, et al., 2008;Abuya, et al., 2012). Findings from Kenya and Malawi suggested that food security and pre-schooler nutritional status were influenced by the interaction of income and gender of the head of household rather than simply one or the other (Peters and Kennedy, 1992).Similarly, women play an important role in ensuring food and nutrition security at household level.Women transform agricultural products into forms edible by the whole household.Women are often the sub farmers who grow food crops and at the same time produce commercial crops alongside men in their households as a source of income (Quisumbing, 1995). Substantial evidence shows that income given to women is more likely to be spent on food, health and children's needs (Hodnott and Haddad, 1995;Smith, 2003;De-Schutter, 2013). Women are generally responsible for the care and feeding of children, food selection and preparation thus they are the key to food security for their households (Quisumbing, 1995).Harvard Analytical Framework also known as Gender Roles Framework or Gender AnalysisFramework is one of the earliest gender analysis and planning frameworks (March, et al., 1999).It aims to demonstrate that there is an economic rationale for investing in women as well men, to assist planners to design more efficient projects and improve overall productivity, to emphasize the importance of better information as the basis for meeting the equity goal and to map the work of men and women in the community and highlight key differences. Harvard Analytical Framework also includes collecting data at household and community level. Specifically, the Framework has four components which include; Activity profile (which answers the question,-who does what?‖, including gender, age and location of activity), access and control profile (which identifies the resources used to carry out work being done, access to and control over use by gender), the analysis of influencing factors and the project cycle analysis (which examines a project or intervention considering genderdisaggregated information) (March, et al., 1999).Harvard Analytical Framework is a useful tool in starting discussion on genderrelated issues with professionals who otherwise resist thinking about the balance of power between men and women. It is also useful in presenting information to people who tend to deepen decisions in economic terms (March, et al., 1999). The framework applies best to projects addressing agricultural or rural based communities through implementing a sustainable livelihood project (World Bank, 1996).However, the Harvard Analytical Framework focuses on projects rather than programs and on efficiency rather than effectiveness. HAF does not help identify strategic gender needs and gives no guidance on changing gender inequalities (New Zealand Aid Programme, 2011). The framework assumes that gender needs should be addressed for the sake of economic efficiency and gives less importance to the concepts of equity, power relations or decision-making process (World Bank, 2011).Calorine Moser developed one of the most popular gender framework which was based on her concepts of gender roles and gender needs, and policy approaches to gender and development planning (March, et al., 1999). Moser Framework aims to set up 'gender planning' as a type of planning in its own right from policies to projects. The goal of gender planning is the freedom of women from their subordination, and their achievement of equality, equity, and empowerment.The three components of Moser Framework include; Women's triple role, Practical and strategic gender needs and Categories of Women in Development (WID) policy approaches (March, et al., 1999).Moser Framework moves beyond technical elements of planning, recognizing its political elements and assuming conflict of interests in the planning process. Moser Framework recognizes the transformative potential of gender planning. Futher, the Framework conceptualizes planning as aiming to challenge unequal gender relations and support women's empowerment.The framework also makes all work visible and valuable to planners, through the concept of triple roles (March, et al., 1999).The idea of gender roles obscures the notion of gender relationships and can give false impression of natural order and equality. The framework does not mention other forms of inequality, such as class, race or ethnicity. Moser Framework is also static and does not examine change over time as a variable.In addition, as (March, et al., 1999) argues, the Framework emphasizes what women and men do and the resources available to them, rather than focusing on the relationship between them, which determines how activities come to be performed by women or men, and the complex dynamics by which decisions are madeThe Gender Analysis Matrix is an analytical tool that uses participatory methodology to facilitate the definition and analysis of gender issues by the communities that are affected by them (March, et al., 1999). GAM provides a unique articulation of issues as well as develop gender analysis capacity from grassroots level. The GAM includes men as one of its four categories of analysis and can, therefore, be used for projects which target men. GAM can also accommodate the constraints imposed by shortage of funding and time, illiteracy, and insufficient or non-existent quantitative data on gender roles. The GAM aims to help determine the different impact that development interventions have on women and men, by providing a community-based technique for identifying and analyzing gender differences. This supports March, et al., (1999) who says GAM encouarges the community to identify and constructively challenge their assumptions about gender roles. As such GAM is a transformatory tool, in that its use is intended to initiate a process of analysis by community members themselves.GAM gives room in which different stakeholders define program objectives and different categories for analysis. The matrix is helpful for contextually mapping power relations and identifying sources of inequality, which strengthens background understanding of gender roles, status and resources in a particular community. GAM does not rely on external experts or complicate evaluation logic, making it adaptable to a variety of settings (March, et al., 1999).However, GAM does not track program progress and limits ability to create learning channels to monitor strategies and outcomes. GAM does not explicitly differentiate which men, and which women, are most likely to experience negative or positive impacts. The matrix also poses a risk of misleading outcomes, because community members may resist discussing all issues freely; for example, negative aspects of the project may not be discussed for fear of funding being refused (March, et al., 1999).Social Relations Approach (SRA) infuses a strong sense of social feminism. SRA analyzes existing gender inequalities with regards to resources and allocation of responsibilities (March, et al., 1999). The framework adopts concepts rather than tools to analyze relations between people and people, people and resources and people and activities. SRA can be used for many purposes, including project planning and policy development. The framework can also be used at many levels, even at the international level.The Social Relations Approach emphasizes that institutional analysis is an important part of an organizational commitment to gender, and enables an organization to translate an analysis into action (March, et al., 1999).The SRA reframes the analysis from individual experiences of inequality and power differentials to understanding the systemic causes and structures of gender inequalities. The focus on identifying spaces where inequalities are constructed and reproduced allows for a dynamic analysis of gender relations. SRA map actors involved in gender power dynamics and analyzes the fundamental importance of social relations to systematic inequalities. The potential of exploring laces where structural catalysts to inequality can be disrupted offers new possibilities for development interventions (March, et al., 1999).However, SRA does not include multiple voices and experiences in the analysis because of its structural bias. For example, this approach uses an institutional lens to assess and improve policies which may not fully account for grassroots experiences or the contextual specificies of a particular minority group for development interventions. Participation of grassroot actors and voices is limited compared to organizational staff or others with the formal skills required to use this approach (March, et al., 1999).Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) is a survey-based index comprised of five domains of empowerment in agriculture to monitor the progress in women empowerment because of a food security interventions (IFPRI, 2012). The five domains of women empowerment in agriculture index which are production, resources, income, leadership and time were used when developing the questionnaire. The five domains include the production domain which indicates the decisions over agricultural production, and indicating individual or joint decision-making over food and cash-crop farming and livestock and the autonomy in agricultural production of women.The second domain is resource, which refers to ownership, access to and decision-making power over productive resources such as land, livestock, agricultural equipment, consumer durables, and credit. The third WEAI domain is income which concerns control over the use of income and expenditures. The fourth domain is leadership which measures women's social involvement as a group member and whether she feels comfortable speaking in public or not. The last domain is time which concerns the allocation of time to productive and domestic tasks, and to leisure activities.The WEAI indicators have been used in legume based studies. For example, Lee (2014) used WEAI in the study of assessment of changes in households' food availability, access, utilization and stability using farm stratification associated with the introduction of legume technology in Salima district, Malawi. Lee, (2014) found that increased women's access to size of legume field is dependent on access to land in the household. WEAI has been criticized for being too femalecentred and so subjective to women than men. WEAI has also being criticized as been Westernoriented.A combination of WEAI and gender analysis framework enable researchers to carry out a participatory assessment of household assets, risks and vulnerabilities, and social-economic characteristics in the communities where Africa RISING was working. For this reason, HarvardAnalysis Framework was used in this study, to validate the results obtained from WEAI. The Harvard Analysis Framework, which is silent on power relations, provides a clear picture of gender division of labour. The choice of WEAI in this study was so relevant as the study was conducted in areas where legume production was being promoted.Two main theoretical angles govern household labour literature in clarifying reasons for the gendered division of household work (Lachance-Grzela and Bouchard, 2010;Booth and Van-Ours, 2009). The first is a micro-level perspective which includes relative resource theory, demand response theory and gender ideology/construction theory. The assumption of relative resource theory is that the partner with more socio-economic resources is expected to do less household work than the one with fewer or no resources (Knudsen and Waerness, 2008). This theory is grounded in a bargaining model of the household, which indicates that social and economic resources offer the breadwinner in the family more power to bargain his or her way out of carrying out -boring‖ domestic work. The demand-response theory, in contrast, proposes that fathers can do more childcare and house work activities if there is a need to do so and they have time to do the work (Davis, et al., 2007). The last set of micro-level theories are the gender ideology and gender construction theories. These assume that individuals are socialized in such a way that they perceive a set of roles, rights and responsibilities of women and men in society (Kroska and Elman, 2009). In this case, the division of domestic work depends on the gender role orientation of the married couples. This means that if the couples have a stronger endorsement of traditional gender roles, they usually demonstrate unequal involvement in household tasks (Fulcher and Coyle, 2011;Davis et al., 2007).Another prominent household theory is a macro-level perspective, which considers structural, historical and socio-cultural forces that shape individuals' behaviour towards engagement in domestic work. In this case, scholars hypothesize that communal and national context such as politics, economics and cultural factors shape the division of housework amongst cohabiting couples (Agarwal, 1997;Bezner-Kerr, 2005). In Malawi, Riley andDodson (2014), andBezner Kerr, et al., (2016), endorsed both gender theories in their studies.This study applies both sets of household theories to find out which ones explain reasons for the gendered division of domestic work in Dedza and Ntcheu districts of Malawi. In this study, an understanding of household labour theories and their contextual application will not only help policy makers come up with programs that can address household gender inequality which would potentially improve the welfare of family members especially children 6-23 months but also will contribute insights to nutrition, gender, agriculture and development studies in general.In most societies men's roles in agricultural activities is understood to be direct and clear, while women's role in agriculture is not clearly recognized. Hence a clear picture of women's involvement in agriculture is needed. Women play important roles to help their family in particular and their community in general in providing food demand (Tegegne, 2012). But the most surprising thing is that the community has not significantly understood the effort that farming women exert. Women are involved in agricultural and rural development representing more than half of the labour required to produce food consumed in developing countries (Etenesh, 2005). Tsehai (1991) reported that female farmers are perceived (by researchers, extension and development scientists) as co-farmers or marginal players in agricultural development.In Ethiopia, 80% of the population resides in rural areas and women provides the majority of the agricultural labour in the communities. However, women's access to resources and community participation are usually mediated through men (fathers or husbands) (Rahmeto, 1994;Tegegne, 2012). In contrast, most rural women in Ethiopia have no independent budget, but depend on their husband's income even though they participate in different income generating activities (Mayoux, 2005). After husbands gives them the monthly budget for the family, the women use the little amount of money to fulfill other family needs that could not be covered with what was given by the husbands like buying clothes and school fees. Therefore, women rarely spend on themselves or on their children without the approval of the partner (Pausewang, et al., 1990).What is surprising is that although women do a great job in the triple roles of production, reproduction and community management, they do not have the right to make a decision and even the husbands do not consult the wives on the allocation of the produce.Although there is an overall agreement on the notion that men and women experience poverty differently, linking gender and poverty is a complex matter that has increasingly become the focus of analysis. The growing literature on poverty has helped to broaden the definition of poverty and generated greater recognition on the multidimensionality of poverty. The literature on gender has provided a better understanding of poverty not only in terms of income and expenditure, but also in the broader sense of human poverty as a state of deprivation in capabilities such as education, health and nutrition (Cagatay, 1998). Experts (Klassen, 2005;Cagatay 1998;Quisumbing, et al., 1995) argue that the household expenditure measures, (while they are important and provide comparative analysis of incidences of poverty between male headed and female headed households), do not show the level of poverty experienced by women and men within the households. The gender dimension of poverty emerge more clearly through approaches of social indicators and those that capture the intra-household processes underlying resource allocation (DAI, 2005). Cagatay, (1998) argues that from a human poverty or capabilities (education and health) perspective, women are poorer in most societies.There are fundamental gender inequalities in access to and control over productive assets such as land, labor and credits, earned income as well as gender biases in the labor market that form the ground for women's enhanced vulnerability to poverty. Women's high illiteracy rate, lack of decision making power over their fertility and early marriages of girls limit their chances of coming out of poverty. In addition, due to the disproportionate gender division of labor in the household and their increased responsibilities for domestic and productive work, women tend to be poor.Rural women are usually employed in the informal sector that provide low income (USAID, 2005) when considered the time wasted, efforts and labor utilization. In sub-Sahara Africa about 84% of women were employed in the informal business sectors. On the other hand, in rural areas of developing countries in general, and in Malawi in particular, the micro credit support and micro-enterprise is expanding significantly through village savings and loan associations (Malawi Government, 2015). Since rural women are responsible for household management such as cooking, collection of fuel, feeding of large families, caring and supporting of children's, etc. they have no time to engage in other businesses. The income earned and profit gained from informal employment of women are not only to support the family in the feeding and other consumption but also contributes for poverty reduction (Mayoux, 2005). Women engaged in informal employment contribute 75% of the household consumption globally (UNDP, 2006). In Malawi, women and men in urban versus rural settings are more likely to use a bank account, own a mobile phone, and, if they owned a mobile phone, to use the phone for financial transactions (NSO, 2017). For example, 28% of urban women use a bank account compared with 5% of rural women; 64% own a mobile phone compared with 26%; and 39% use their phone for transactions compared with 21% of rural women (NSO, 2017). Use of a bank account, mobile phone ownership, and use for financial transactions increases with education among both women and men. However, the magnitude of increase is greatest for individuals with secondary education or higher (NSO, 2017). For example, 25% of women with primary education own a mobile phone compared with 57% of women with secondary education and 97% of women with more than secondary education (NSO, 2017). Similarly, 40% of men with primary education own a mobile phone compared with 71% of men with secondary education and 96% of men with more than secondary education (NSO, 2017).These three indicators of empowerment are also associated with wealth. With increases in wealth, the likelihood that women and men will use a bank account, own a mobile phone and use the phone for finances also increase. The increase is greatest for the highest wealth quintile. For example, 29% of women and 44% of men in the highest wealth quintile use a bank account compared with 7% of women and 18% of men in the fourth highest quintile (NSO, 2017).Many farming households in Malawi are engaged in crop production. Some food crops meant for household consumption can also be sold for the household to obtain other necessities of life.In Malawi, farmers produce groundnuts for both consumption and sale. Groundnuts production has been increasing significantly for the previous two decades  and the crop has become the second income earner for smallholder farmers (Tsusaka, et al., 2016).  In southern Africa, groundnuts are regarded as a ‗women's crop' primarily because much of the labour is provided by women, especially during the labour intensive post-harvest handling such as harvesting, stripping, and shelling (Tsusaka et al., 2016). This results in women perceiving greater control and decision making power over groundnut production than men, at various steps in production (Tsusaka, et al., 2016). This agrees with another study by Doss (2011) that ‗women's crops' are defined not only by who controls the output but also by who makes the management decisions.It is widely argued that mechanization and commercialization of ‗women's crops' leads to disempowering women (Forsythe, et al., 2016;Kapalasa, et al., 2015). In a study conducted in Dedza and Ntcheu, (Me-Nsope and Larkins, 2015), it was observed that men sell legumes when the household has harvested a lot of legumes and that men join legume production when they fetch more profits at the market. Qualitative data in Zambia (Curtis, et al., 2015) suggest that women more often handle sales at the homestead while men handle sales that occur away from the homestead due to transport issues.Many studies show that men and women have different preferences and criteria for choosing among crops and varieties and performing such activities as selecting seed, cultivating, harvesting, and processing (Howard, 2003;Bourdillion et al., 2007;Love, et al., 2014). Since groundnuts are regarded as a ‗woman's crop and its production in Malawi is increasing (Figure 2.1), it shows that more women are involved in groundnuts production activities from land clearing to storage as more men are migrating to town and cities searching for employment. This might be because groundnuts were estimated to provide more than a quarter of small-scale farmers' income (Minde, 2008).Most societies believes that women are primary caregivers for children (Jacobs and Michelle, 2006). However, older siblings and other relatives also assist the mother in child care. A study conducted in Northern Malawi found out that fathers spend less time in child care activities such as basic care, holding, reading and verbal interaction than mothers in the first two years of child life (Chilanga, 2014). Penny, et al., (2005) and Lamb (2004) reported that father involvement in child care was positively associated with improved emotional, intellectual and social development. Although, fathers in developed countries have increased involvement in child care than developing countries, the percentage of childcare that men perform is seldom proportionate to that of their wives (Pleck and Masciadrelli, 2004).In Latin America, it was found that care practices of young children contribute significantly to child nutritional outcomes and that women's workloads were a major factor in affecting women's ability to provide high quality child care (Ruel, 2000). Therefore, to successfully tackle child malnutrition, there is a need to address issues of gender equity and care practices during the complementary feeding period (Engle et al., 1998). Most child nutrition intervention programs focus their educational energies on women (Rasanen, et al., 2003). Since mothers already have multiple roles in the households, these intervention programs can negatively affect their workload (Osmani and Sen, 2003). Benfica and Kilic, (2016) found that controlling for wealth and region specific factors, a 10% increase in total income from farm income leads to 2.9% increase in food consumption, 2.7% increase in calorie intake per day and a lower share of calories from roots/tubers, vegetables/fruits, oils/fats and meat/fish/milk (Figure 2.2). In Benin, it was observed that women who were in groups (associations), increased consumption of fruits and vegetables three times as compared to those women not in groups (Alaofe, et al, 2016). In Ethiopia, households receiving cash had better household dietary diversity scores (Baye, et al., 2014). In Malawi (Figure 2.2), increases in share of total income from farm income resulted in reduction of food consumption and calorie consumption per capita per day (IHS3, 2011). The reduction in food consumption and calorie consumption per capita could explain the priorities that households had when using farm income. Households prefer buying non-food items like motorcycles, bicycles, cellphones and others while total food consumption reduced. Furthermore, when viewing at the diverse calorie sources, it was observed that the share of cereals/grains (mostly sourced from own production) increased with the levels of agricultural involvement, while the shares of calories from nuts and pulses, oils/fats, meats/milk/eggs and sugars fall (Figure 2.2). This reflects the degree of difficulty that households increasingly specialized in agriculture have to acguire calories from market sources, especially non-crop protein sources such as meat/fish/milk and oils/fats (Benfica and Kilic, 2014).In Malawi legume production is considered as a woman's crop (Kanesathasan, 2012) and therefore egume processing and utilization is a responsibility of women. Interestingly, legume based programs offers women tremendous employment opportunities and enables smallholder women farmers to contribute equally in decision making process (CGIAR 2013). Farmers grow legumes for different reasons (ranging from culture to markeing). Different markets, household needs and cropping system niches should be identified and options developed for both marketoriented and subsistence production (Bezner-Kerr, et al., 2007). Productive capital is a valuable resource in a family that has a potential to produce something that is economically desirable (Kataria, et al., 2012) establish experiments that were termed mother trials and in turn farmers used components of the mother trials to establish their own baby trials which were easy to follow. This mother and baby approach accelerated knowledge gains for agronomic sustainable technologies. Farmers are given seeds to be used in their baby trial fields. Africa RISING was selecting farmers who had been growing legumes and have at least 0.6 hectares of land for legume production through government extension officers.A study conducted in India show that older infants who consumed more rice, vegetables, pulses, fruits, oils and livestock products in a week achieved higher nutritional status than children who depended mostly on rice and vegetables (Hossain and Naher, 2005). A participatory nutrition education program therefore, emphasized the importance of giving children a variety of locally available foods. Review of literature concerning gender and feeding practices found that women have high labour demands and limited time to care and feed young children but when men are involved in infant and young child feeding, the nutritional status is improved (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2005). Involving men to care for and feed young children have shown to improve child nutrition status through their supportive role, with a focus on providing food and resources to meet family needs (IYCN, 2012). In Mexico, feeding practices performed by both mothers and fathers were related to improved children's weight status, underscoring the importance of including fathers in research on parental feeding practices and child obesity (Tschann, et al., 2015). However, if women were empowered to take a leading role in decision making and control over resources, the nutritional status of children and women would increase (Smith, et al., 2003). In rural Nepal, low empowerment of women was found to be positively associated with underweight (Adjusted Odds Ratio=5.070; 95% CI: 1.885-13.638), stunting (Adjusted Odds Ratio =3.031; 95% CI: 1.281-7.141) and wasting (Adjusted Odds Ratio =10.056; 95% CI: 1.127-89.693) of their children. Women with low empowerment in rural Nepal had children that were more underweight, stunted and wasted (Shiwakoti, et al., 2017). This could be explained in that empowered women have high decision-making autonomy regarding obtaining health care for the children than women who are not empowered (Shroff, et al., 2011).The ability of women to make decisions is not the only factor affecting improved nutrition status, household leadership also has effect on access to and allocation of resources for child health.Kennedy and Peters (1992) reported that household headship influences access to and allocation of resources for child health. Although women may allocate a greater proportion of the income they control to children, the benefits of this to child health outcomes may be reduced due to women's access to relatively lower levels of income. For example, in a study of parental characteristics and child nutrition in married households in Western Kenya, mothers' income was only weakly significant in influencing children's height for age z-scores as compared to fathers' income (Marinda, 2006). While mothers spent up to 52% of their income on food commodities as opposed to fathers, who spent only 38% of their income, in absolute monetary terms expenditure on food by fathers was higher (Marinda, 2006).Poverty and hostile circumstances restrict quantity and variety of food, and this is aggravated by disease and lack of health care leading to malnutrition. In Africa, agriculture is the primary source of calories and essential nutrients and is a major source of income for 80% of the world's poor. Often agricultural interventions which focus on increased agricultural productivity assume (implicitly) that improved production will trickle down to improved nutrition and health of household members (Hoddinott, 2011). The effect of income increase on nutritional status is well known and is often found to be small because households tend to spend their additional income in tastier and less nutritious food (Deaton, 1997). Smith and Haddad (2000) reported that higher food intake (from increased food availability) does not immediately translate into improved nutritional status, as food intake is only one of the main determinants of nutritional status together with caring practices and healthy environment.Studies have been conducted concerning legume production and nutrition. In rural Malawi, a participatory action research intervention that promoted intercropping with legumes and nutrition education was implemented (Bezner-Kerr, et al., 2010). In northern Malawi, there was an improvement over baseline assessments of up to 60% in weight for-age Z-score (WAZ; from -0.4 to 0.3) for children in the longest involved villages, and an improvement over initial conditions of 80% in WAZ for children in the most intensely involved villages (from -0.6 to 0.2). In Bangladesh, Kumar and Quisumbing (2011)  extraction) commonly used flours for infant porridges in Malawi (Kalimbira and Mtimuni, 1998).The Government of Malawi's national objective for soybeans is to encourage the growing and utilization of the crop and increase yields towards the potential to meet the prevailing high demand in both domestic and export markets (Ministry of Agriculture, 2012). However, the current average production for soybean is 53,319 metric tonnes per annum. Demand is growing on the back of increased consumer acceptance and reasonable protein price points (Gunashekar, 2013). A far greater use of soy bean for human consumption is through Corn Soya Blend (CSB) which is driven by UNICEF and World Food Programme (WFP). CSB normally forms part of supplementary feeding programs and is supplied to vulnerable groups such as children, lactating women and the infirm. The living standards of many farmers have improved because of soy production (Feed the Future, 2013).Marketing of soybean seeds does not only depends on the class but also market forces. The advantage of seed over corn grain is that the prices are significantly higher than those of grain.The prevailing mean selling prices (MK/Kg) of soybeans at farm gate, vendor, wholesale-retailer and retailer levels were K76.26, K129.44, K166.79 and K216.82 respectively (Techno Serve,). An average Malawian farmer would allocate more land for soy production based on the volume of soybean sold in the previous (last) growing season (Nzima and Dzanja, 2015). An increase in the volume of soybean sold in the previous year makes the farmer allocate more resources to that crop to increase production in the following year and vice versa (Nzima and Dzanja, 2015).Groundnuts (Arachis hypogea) is a leading legume crop grown in Malawi. Groundnuts perform well almost in all parts of Malawi according to variety. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (2012), groundnuts production on average was 185,831 metric tonnes per year which is high among all legumes grown in Malawi.Between 1998 and 2009, less than 5000 metric tonnes of groundnuts (all varieties) was exported to other countries, while in 2009, over 20,000 metric tonnes was exported. The increase however, was not significant enough to boost the export market (Makoka, 2012). Groundnuts contain 49.9g of total fat/100g and are used by the Ministry of Health in the management of severely malnourished children and very sick adults in the developing world (Kunyanga, et al., 2011). However, the total fat is more susceptible to oxidation, and the oxidized products are known to cause unpleasant odour and taste and promote atherosclerosis (Misra, 2004).Groundnuts have several value chains which range from production, processing and marketing.For the groundnuts value chains to be efficient, they need several supporting and advisory activities which include finances, business, regulatory, input and export services and legislations.Processing of groundnuts which include harvesting, drying and shelling is mainly carried out by women in Malawi. Men usually prefer taking the groundnuts to the market than shelling and drying. Ngwira (2012) reported that groundnut production in Malawi has not kept up with the demands of both local and export markets due to low yields and high levels of aflatoxin.Aflatoxins are toxic substances produced by certain fungi called Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Consumption of aflatoxin contaminated food may result in aflatoxin poisoning (aflatoxicosis). Matumba (2016) reported that acute or chronic aflatoxin poisoning can lead to liver damage or cancer, enlargement of organs such as liver, kidney and spleen, edema, blindness, lowering immunity, difficulties in digestion, reduced nutrient absorption, infertility, low birth weight and stunting in children. Aflatoxins causes marked deterioration in groundnuts seeds because of fugal growth hence can be rejected by buyers. The use of high yielding groundnuts varieties with best agronomical practices would increase yield and increase exports which would result into farmers making more profits.Groundnuts are grown on about 16% of arable land in Malawi. Slightly more rural plots (17%) in the 2009/10 season were cultivated with groundnuts compared to urban plots (13%). However, the proportion of plots cultivating groundnuts is increasing with increased consumption quintiles from about 13% to 17% (IHS 3, 2011). Table 2.1 shows trend for groundnuts sales at household level in Malawi for a period of five years as reported by Fitzgerald (2015). The study by Fitzgerald (2015) also found that as the quantity of groundnuts harvested increased, the quantity of groundnuts being sold increased as shown in Table 2.1. Pigeon pea contains high amounts of vitamin B, carotene, and ascorbic acid, which are deficient in cereals, therefore, pigeon pea has a good supplemental value of cereal-based diet. Pigeon pea is a rich source of lysine but deficient in the sulfur-containing amino acids (methionine and cysteine). Saxena, et. al., (2010) reported that pigeon peas improve the amino acid score for lysine in rice-and wheat-based diets, and for threonine, leucine, and isoleucine in wheat-based diet when used in a 70:30 cereals: pigeon pea ratio.Pigeon pea is mainly grown in the Southern Region of Malawi mainly, Blantyre and MachingaADDs. Farmers may intercrop or mono-crop pigeon pea as a means of providing food to the household when harvested (Monyo and Gowda, 2014). The average yields in kg/ha and production in metric tons ranged from 410 to 987 and 63883 to 159367, in a ten-year period (MoAFS, 2012) as shown in Table 2.2. Pigeon pea is included in the Malawi Government's input subsidy scheme and is also in the Presidential initiative on poverty and hunger reduction.It is considered a strategic crop that can contribute towards the economic recovery plan of the Malawi government (Tropical Legumes II project, 2013). Cowpea is an important legume crop in Malawi and has been adapted to a wide variety of local conditions, especially Lower Shire valley, Bwanje valley, Lakeshore, Phalombe plains and Machinga (Nkongolo, et al., 2009). Over the past decade, cowpea production in Malawi has followed a downward trend, with total production over the 2000-2013 period decreasing by close to 7% per annum, yield decreasing by about 3% per annum and the area harvested also contracting by close to 4% per annum (FAOSTAT, 2013). In 2012 the average yield per farmer averaged 378 kg/ha on a total planted area of about 61,082 hactares (Kabambe, et al., 2014). The main factors explaining the depression of the cowpea sector in Malawi are insect pests, diseases, and lack of adequate varieties (Kabambe et al., 2014). While low nutrient levels in soils (especially phosphorous) have also been suggested as a possible cause for the downward trend (Kamanga et al., 2010), policy factors may also account for this trend. Cowpea is generally not According to the Crop Trust (2015), Malawi is the main cowpea importer in Africa.Malawian women in particular value cowpeas because its green pods and leaves are the earliest food available during ‗the hunger months' prior to the main grain harvest and, as stated earlier, the crop can play an important role as a weaning food for infants (Lungu undated). Research conducted in 2010 found that slightly more women (10% of respondents) reported growing cowpea than men (8% of respondents) (Programme for Africa's Seed Systems, 2010).Most cowpea is consumed where it is grown and both seeds and leaves are used. The most common form of consuming cowpeas in Malawi and other parts of southern Africa entails stewig the seeds. The long cooking and limited variety of cowpea-based products is reported to limit the wider use of dry whole cowpea seeds. The most important culinary traits associated with cowpea were rated by farmers as faster cooking times, ease of mashing the cooked seed and the colour of the seed (Nkongolo et al., 2009).In Malawi cowpea has been found to be an important potential weaning food for infants and young children in the form of biscuits or porridge (Lungu undated).In Malawi cowpea farming takes place on fragmented small parcels of customary land (Gamula et al., 2013) and, depending on the source, farmers are said to farm an average of 0.28 hactare (IFAD 2002) to 1 hactare (World Bank 2003). Forty percent of smallholders reported cultivating less than 0.5 hactare (IFAD 2002).The nutritional profile of cowpeas contains about 22-24g of protein per 100g which is higher than pigeon pea although the difference is not significant. However, cowpea hay contains about 11.3g of fat which is extremely high compared to cowpea seeds which contains about 1.3-1.5g of fat. Most frequently, cowpeas are cooked together with spices and oil to produce a thick soup which is either eaten alone or as relish with maize or rice.Cowpeas are also decorticated, ground into a flour and mixed with chopped onions and spices and made into cakes which are either deep fried or steamed (Phillip and McWatters, 1991).As of 2010, energy foods (cereals, roots and tubers) contributed about 86% to the total calorie intake of the national population. Legumes supplied 11%, while the contribution of oils, animal foods, fruits and vegetables was at 3% on average (MNNPS, 2009). This is against the recommended ratio of at least 35% for legumes or at least 35% for oils, animal foods, fruits and vegetables together (MNNPS, 2009). Following this poor diet diversity, the prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting in Malawi is 37.2%, 11.75% and 2.55% respectively (NSO, 2017). Figure 2.4 shows that stunting and underweight prevalence increases from the age of 6 -23 months when the children are being introduced to complementary feeding. NSO ( 2016) showed that during the 6-23 month period, meal frequency and dietary diversity for the children were low. The effects of poor feeding practices during the 6-23 month period were stunting, underweight and wasting as shown on Figure 2.4. Figure 2.4 shows that stunting and underweight trends were higher for children less than 24 months old.There is a wide variety of foods available for people to decide on what to eat, when to eat, and quantities to eat. This is often based on behavioral or social-economic motives rather than on awareness of nutrition's importance to health (Whitney, 2011). A variety of food choices can support good health, and an understanding of human nutrition can help to influence food selection. Some of the causes of poor food selection are habit, ethnic or tradition, social interaction, availability, convenience, emotions, nutritional and health benefits and purchasing power of food (Whitney, 2011).There was missing data on the effect of gender roles on household utilization of legumes for complementary feeding about children 6-23 months in Malawi.The impact that legume production and utilization and gender roles have on infant and young child feeding practices was missing in the literature. This research assessed the effect of gender roles on infant and young child feeding practices. Specifically, it looked at feeding practices among the 6-23 months old children. Intra-household gender roles influence infant and young child feeding practices as it positively contributes to the social and behaviour change in nutrition that help in improving the nutrition status of children. On the other hand, behavioural change communication on infant and young child feeding practices is necessary but not enough. Key issues in infant feeding are early introduction of foods other than breast milk, low feeding frequency and low nutrient density of foods used as complementary foods. Figure 2.5 shows that gender roles and household social cohesion contribute to malnutrition. Women's lack of control over household resources, lack of men's involvement in child feeding practices, men's increasing alcoholism and reduced responsibilities result into low food intake and health care of children.Women have the daunting task of balancing the competing duties of producing food and incomes, bearing and rearing children, and other domestic responsibilities. This results in less time and capability to provide optimum care to each of their children. Women also lack access to and control over resources and control over their fertility. It's therefore, recommended that approaches to address child malnutrition, must carefully consider women's time and control over household resources and try to identify means of relieving women's burdens. Male involvement in childcare and household productive activities is a critical element in the prevention and control of malnutrition. Level 4 of Figure 2.5 shows that rising food prices on the market results into household food insecurity. Generally, smallholder farmers have fragmented land which they are allocated by a family member. In cases such as these, crop yields cannot equal the caloric requirements for a bigger family. This results into a cycle of hunger and chronic malnutrition for young children.Level 4 also shows that increased cost of living and rising food prices affect child nutrition status.The current economic and food price crisis, likely, has considerable impact on child mortality unless urgent action is taken by the global health community and governments. Decreases in dietary intake (both due to eating less and fewer meals) and poorer dietary quality and micronutrient content can result in increased morbidity and mortality in children. Decline in maternal nutritional status may result in poor birth outcomes such as fetal growth restriction and preterm birth, which are linked with infant and child mortality. Economic crises experienced in the past 2-3 decades provide examples of the impact they can have on child mortality.Surveillance data can be used to estimate the impact of the present crisis but may not be available in many settings. The current crisis needs urgent attention but should also trigger a broader response to the need of a large segment of the world's population facing a situation of chronic food insecurity.The study was conducted in the rural areas of Linthipe and Golomoti Extension Planning Areas Improved crop varieties and innovative crop combinations are tested at mother trial sites and baby trial sites. Africa RISING worked with extension officers and farmers to establish experiments that were termed mother trials and in turn farmers used components of the mother trials to establish their own baby trials which were easy to follow. This mother and baby approach accelerated knowledge gains for agronomic sustainable technologies. Farmers are given seeds to be used in their baby trial fields. Africa RISING was selecting through extension officers farmers who had been growing legumes and have at least 0.6 hectares of land for legume production.The sample size (\uD835\uDC5B) was calculated using the formula; \uD835\uDC5B = (\uD835\uDC67 × by the government extension officer to participate in the study and they consented to do so.Both purposive and simple random sampling were used in the study. Purposive sampling was used to identify households with children 6-23 months amongst the list of Africa RISING beneficiaries while simple random sampling was used to select a household for interview to collect data on gender roles on household utilization for complementary feeding.In all the four EPAs where the study was conducted participants were mobilized to participate in the FGDs. To minimize selection bias, a simple random sampling as a means of selecting participants for the FGDs.Gender differences in both male and female headed households was compared to investigate its The inclusion criteria were male and female headed households who had been with Africa RISING for two growing seasons (2014/2015 to 2015/2016). The inclusion of both men and women in the focus group discussions in this research, made it possible to ask questions to identify the gender roles, understand why the gender roles exist, and how the roles influence legume utilization, child care and feeding practices. This means that in addition to understanding gender roles, questions on -who owns and controls what resources (time, income, knowledge/skills, and capital) that were relevant for health, nutrition, food utilization and child care practices were also asked. Households that had been growing legumes for two or more growing seasons were also included. The exclusion criteria included households that were not members of Africa RISING project and those not willing to participate.Data was collected through direct observations, interviews and focus group discussions. These data collection tools were pretested for validation. Face to face interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire (Appendix A) was administered to women (from eligible male and female headed households) in the project area. Only women were interviewed because they provided critical information on child feeding practices. Focus group discussions were conducted with men separately from women to gather necessary data on the gender dimensions about child caring practices and gender roles. Separating women and men during the focus group discussions created a conducive environment for more vital information affecting men and women during legume production.Objective 1: To explore the effect of gender roles on feeding practices for children 6-23 months oldA two 24-hour dietary recall and Food Frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to collect data on minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diets per WHO (2008,2005). The FFQ includes questions regarding the usual frequency of consumption of 53 food items during a six-month period from the day data collection commerced. The possible answers in six categories ranged from -never‖ to -twice a day‖. The FFQA was administered in the form of a personal interview at a single point in time (the same period as the second 24hR).The second 24hR was administered within a period of seven days while the FFQ was for a period of six months. Gender roles for men in male or female-headed households was investigated to find out if they influence child feeding practices. Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index and Harvard Analysis Frameworks were used to capture data on access and control to household resources for complementary feeding and legume utilization. Decisions on legume production, utilization and control of income generated from sales of legumes were also investigated. Questions covered participation on budgeting, partial processing; selling, and storage of legumes for household consumption were also investigated.Distance was calculated based on time used to walk. For example, less than five kilometers distance was equated to a walking time of less than sixty minutes, ten kilometers was a walking time of more than sixty to less than 120 minutes.To find the effect of gender on child feeding practices, the following regression equation was developed:where y ijk is child feeding practices (exclusive breastfeeding), dietary diversity, meal frequency and acceptable diets), μ is the overall mean, b i is the effect due to gender on decision making at household level, s j is the sex of the child, (bs ij ) is the interaction between gender roles and sex of the child while e ikj is the error term.During the household questionnaire administration on the first day, men and women were asked to list down all child caring and feeding practices. Secondly, eight men and eight women were separately involved in focus group discussions.During focus group discussions, men and women used a pile and sort questionnaire to collect data on child caring practices. Men and women independently sorted out the caring practices at household level as used by Bezner-Kerr, (2016). The data was also segregated by sex of child to see if child's sex had an influence on caring practices by men and women. The idea behind understanding gender roles on child caring practices was to enhance legume utilization through allocating more resources for production and utilization of legumes used for complementary feeding. There were two focus group discussions per EPA and in total there were eight focus group discussions involving eight men and eight women.To collect data on how gender roles influence legume production and utilization for complementary feeding for children 6-23 months old, a combination of gender frameworks was used. The gender analysis frameworks used in this research were Harvard analysis framework and Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI). WEAI measures the empowerment, agency, and inclusion of women in the agricultural sector in an effort to identify ways to overcome obstacles and constraints. WEAI also measures women's empowerment relative to to men within their households thereby providing a more robust understanding of gender dynamics within households and communities. On the other hand, Harvard Analytical Framework (HAF) which answers the question, -who does what?‖, including gender, age and location of activity, access and control profile (which identifies the resources used to carry out work being done, access to and control over use by gender), the analysis of influencing factors and the project cycle analysis (which examines a project or intervention considering genderdisaggregated information). HAF applies best to projects addressing agricultural or rural based communities through implementing a sustainable livelihood (World Bank, 1996). On how gender roles affect legume utilization for complementary feeding, a questionnaire was administered to gather data on decisionmaking around utilization of legumes for complementary feeding. In this section, 291 research participants were asked how much input they make regarding legume utilization for complementary feeding and who usually benefits more from the decision made and provided responses. Access and control towards productive capital, agricultural and health information and decision making towards income generation at household level were investigated. Legume production activities such as land clearing, land preparation, seed selection, planting, weeding, applying pesticides, harvesting, transporting, storage and processing were generated.Data on child feeding practices were entered and analysed using Statistical package for social scientists version 20 where percentages were generated. Data on gender roles regarding child caring practices were also analysed using SPSS where percentages were generated. For example, data on access to and control of legumes for complementary feeding by women were reported in percentages. To show the effect of gender roles on child feeding practices, legume production and utilization, data was naturally log transformed because raw data was not normally distributed.In statistics, a log transformation is mainly used to meet two assumptions inherent in parametric statistical tests such as 2-sample T-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The first assumption is that the sample data are randomly selected from a normally distributed population. When the distribution of data is right-skewed (there are many small values and rare large values), it can make its shape close to a normal distribution by a log transformation. The second assumption is that the variances of each group are the same. A log transformation gives the homogeneity of variances when the standard deviation in the original scale varies directly as the mean. Statistical significance of Pearson correlations was also tested to make meaningful conclusions.Qualitative data from the focus group discussions was used in explaining, understanding and interpreting some concepts and situations being investigated. Themes on access to and control of resources as well as activity profile for male and female farmers were developed and explained.Data from the focus groups and in-depth interviews were transcribed verbatim by the researcher.Data analysis was guided by the grounded theory approach outlined by Strauss and Corbin (1998) to identify emerging themes and scrutinize the data for discrete ideas from both FGDs and KII.By identifying emerging themes and discrete ideas, the researcher reduced the material and began to analyze, interpret and make meaning of the data (as shown in Table 3.2). Line-by-line and paragraph-by-paragraph, the researcher began to identify concepts, code and develop theory.Patterns in the data obtained from FGDs, began to emerge through identifying properties and dimensions. This process resulted in reduction of large amounts of data to smaller, more manageable pieces (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). Concepts were grouped into categories based on properties and dimensions.Theoretical saturation was reached when no new properties or dimensions emerged from the data, and the analysis was appeared to account for most of the potential variability of the theory. To  properties and dimensions of categories discovered.Categories are related to their subcategories by their properties and dimensions; a central phenomenon, conditions, strategies and outcomes are identified, and a visual model developed.3. Selective coding Theory is integrated and refined: major categories are related to the central phenomenon through explanatory statements of relationships.Poorly developed categories are saturated through further theoretical sampling, theory is validated by comparing it to raw data.It was expected that gender roles have an implication on legume production and utilization and on complementary feeding practices. A household with equitable division of household labour was expected to have an improved child feeding practices since the family had more time to care for the children. It was also expected that households that have equal access to and control of factors of production and food resources had infants and young children with high dietary diversity, acceptable diets and high meal frequency.Informed consent was obtained from the study participants during the survey period. Since there was already an existing project in the study area, consent was also sort from the village chief and other influential people in the area. Respondents were also informed of the purpose of the research and any other information that was required by them before being interviewed. This was also stated clearly in the front page of the questionnaire.Findings of this study will be disseminated through journal publication, oral presentation at LUANAR and print through Bunda Campus Library.The study was conducted (January 2016) when a lot of households had little food reserves from their food baskets. Another study could be conducted to compare gender roles among household members during pre-harvest and post-harvest periods and their effects on child feeding practices.A total of 291 households who participated in growing legumes under Africa RISING and had children aged between 6-23 months participated in the study. The mean age of the women was 29 ± 7.3 years, ranging from 16 to 65 years. This showed that, women in that area got married while still younger (16 years) which is lower than Malawian age at first marriage of 18.2 years (NSO, 2017). About 74% of the women had attended some primary education but did not complete primary education while only 3.4% had completed secondary education (Table 4.1).Educational attainment in Malawi at the household level has increased since 1992. Among women, the median number of years of schooling has increased from 0 years in 1992 to 2.5 years in 2010 and 3.1 years in 2015-16 (NSO, 2017)). This, however, affects the type of food consumed in the home as reported by Patrick and Nicklas (2005) who argued that higher parental education was associated with health consciousness in food choices.Farming was the primary occupation of the caregiver in the study area (Table 4.1). Table 4.1 shows that 7.9% of caregivers were involved in small and medium businesses. Children born to mothers who are doing business or working are well taken care of because resources are available to ensure that the child lives a health life. For farmers, food is grown at the household but at a very small scale since these farmers are small holder so may lack food for infant feeding to ensure a child has diversified diet. Table 4.2 shows that a total of 64 farmers were interviewed with the aim of understanding the gender dimensions with regards to demographic information of our respondents such as age, sex, marital status and years of schooling that would be taken into account when interpreting their responses. The study results are presented in two interdependent formats. The first is a theme-count table (Table 4.3), which shows the relative prominence of each emerging theme, as well as the number of participants who articulated in a particular theme. The second is the use of exemplary quotations to show how participants attached meaning to each emerging theme (Table 4.3).These quotations have been selected using the following criteria: (1) the ability to represent divergent perspectives;(2) typical views expressed by many respondents; and (3) the depth or clarity with which the ideas were conveyed. To protect confidentiality, no name was included in the report.The results revealed a number of barriers that undermine the quality of child care among Africa RISING communities (Table 4.3). Several factors mentioned were associated with gender constructions and norms on suitable roles for women and men. Hegemonic masculinity in this setting includes a concept that men are not supposed to take care of children under two years.Both men and women who were interviewed during the study period said that it was awkward for a man to be involved in child care, as it threatened their masculinity and brought feelings of shame and embarrassment as a result. Hence, men mostly do not prioritize or feel the need to engage in child care, thus leading to women being solely responsible. The results from the FGDs in Dedza and Ntcheu districts discovered a number of barriers that weaken the quality of child care. Table 4.3 shows that most of the factors mentioned were associated with gender constructions and norms on appropriate roles for women and men in a society. Hegemonic masculinity in this context includes a notion that men are not supposed to take care of children and other household chores. According to men who were interviewed during the survey period, it was considered as awkward for a man to be involved in child care, as it threatened their masculinity and brought shame and discomfort. Hence, men mostly do not prioritize or feel the need to engage in child care, thus leading to women being solely responsible.A 100% of the respondents reported that child feeding and baby sitting activities were entirely done by women as men felt that it was difficult to feed young children. During the FGDs with women, it was reported that women felt happy to be able to call their husbands for help with respect to childcare. Both women and men said there that there is a need for comprehensive understanding of child health and nutrition, including the importance of breastfeeding and complementary feeding so that men can fully participate. Besides limited involvements of men in child care, participants mentioned increased decision making and a shift in control of household resources towards women as they would properly allocate resources for child health.Women's lack of access to food resources has often been a major problem affecting food preparation, meal content and child feeding in rural Malawi (NSO, 2017).The study participants during the FGDS highlighted the potential for success when interventionswere carefully designed to meet local needs. Both men and women expressed gratitude for community ownership of nutritional interventions through cooking demonstrations. The cooking demonstrations enabled both men and women to fully understand the importance of legumes to child nuttition.Objective 1: To assess effect of gender roles on young child feeding practicesThe recommendation from WHO (2008) on infant and young feeding practices illustrates that children aged 6-23 months should be given other complementary foods to meet their nutrition demands and improve their health. The common foods provided to the children in Dedza andNtcheu comprised of thin porridge, solid food (nsima, cassava), plain water and vegetables.Although the households in Dedza and Ntcheu were involved in legume production, only 13.1%of children (6-23 months) received legume based foods in the form of nsinjiro, roasted groundnuts, corn soy blend flour or as relish ( The use of infant formula in Dedza and Ntcheu was also low (13.1%) as shown on Table 4.4.Women were not providing infant formula because of the cost associated with the infant formula and that breastfeeding was culturally acceptable as infant formula would be regarded as an abomination in the community. The cost and availability of infant formula also proved to be a barrier for mothers in Sub-Saharan Africa (Raman, et al., 2010). One woman in Dedza said,-milk tins are way too expensive for my child and I do feel that it is better and cheap to breastfeed. In our villages, where can we get infant formula for our babies? Its better not to provide infant formula for us villagers to avoid feeding our children poisonous substances‖ (Golomoti, FGD, Female, 06/01/2016).Typically, commonly consumed food groups by children ( 6   , 2008). Nutrition interventions focusing on promotion of exclusive breast-feeding should be emphasized in Malawi. For example, creating a safe and conducive environment for women to practice exclusive breastfeeding in work places, communities and households. Women should be given enough time to breast feed their young children by reducing the work load that the women face daily.Failure to practice exclusive breastfeeding in Malawi was also reported by Vaahtera (2001) and Bezner-Kerr, et al., (2007), where women provided water alone to newborns and light porridge to children as low as two months old. Similarly, in Zambia, less than 40% of children were exclusively breastfed (National Food and Nutrition Impact Survey, 2013). Earlier research by Bezner-Kerr, et al., (2007) indicated that there were four primary foods/liquids introduced to infants prior to 6 months (presented in order of introduction): mzuwula (a type of herbal infusion), water, dawale (another herbal infusion) and porridge.In a study by Bezner-Kerr (2007), grandmothers decided to introduce porridge in 21% of the 230 cases where it was introduced prior to 6 months (Bezner-Kerr, et al., 2007). The same findings were also reported in Table 4.5 where spouses and grandparents were involved in deciding when the children should start complementary feeding as evidenced by about 9.6% and 9.3% respectively. Health workers (67.3%) were also observed to encourage exclusive breastfeeding.Hospitals in Malawi became a registered ‗Baby Friendly Hospital' (MoH, 2000) by the WHO and UNICEF to promote exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of baby's life. Exclusive breastfeeding in Malawian hospitals is normally promoted through posters, murals and signs throughout the hospital. Table 4.5 shows only 25.9% of grandparents promoted exclusive breastfeeding. This agrees with another study conducted by Bezner-Kerr, et al., (2008) where it was reported by nurses that grandparents and mother-in-laws were main barriers to improvement of exclusive breastfeeding rates. A FGD with some young mothers said that grandparents and mother-in-laws were influential people who have much experience and authority towards child upbringing. This resulted in a lot of young mothers listening to their mother-in-laws and other elders in the community more than they get right information from hospitals.In addition, Table 4.5 also shows that 48.8% of children (6-23 months) were exclusively breastfed when the children were below 6 months which is lower than a national figure of 61.2% of children (0-5 months) reported by NSO (2017). The trends of exclusive breastfeeding among children under 6 months increased from 4% in 1992 to 44% in 2000 and 72% in 2010 in Malawi (both rural and urban) while between 2010 and 2015-16, the percentage of exclusive breastfeeding fell by 11 percentage points (61%) according to NSO (2017). The reason why many rural women didn't practice exclusive breastfeeding was because of early initiation of solid food (liquids) to the baby. Women introduced watery porridge and herbal water to babies as young as one month but at the same time, women thought exclusive breastfeeding was for women living in wealthier households. During a FGD, women said it was difficult to practice exclusive breastfeeding in villages because children take more milk and a breastfeeding woman needs to eat a lot of foods to stay health and that it was difficult to procure all the six food groups being preached in different media platforms. The implication in areas where Africa RISING is implementing nutrition program to teach women to prepare high density complementary foods for the children so that children's dietary needs should be met with urgency.The study also found out that 42.9% of spouses (husbands) were decision makers for their children to start complementary feeding at four months as shown in Table 4.5. This means that spouses (husbands) do not fully understand the importance of exclusive breastfeeding since they don't usually attend nutrition education session offered at the health centre during growth monitoring and promotion. Aubel, et al., (2004), Lee and Garvin, (2003) found out that the prototype for spouses (husbands) to have little nutrition knowledge is that most nutrition and health educational approaches focus on the individual caregiver, and assume that as mothers receive new information about childcare, they will modify their behavior. It is therefore very important that nutrition education messages in Dedza and Ntcheu districts should be stimulating for husbands to grasp the importance of exclusive breastfeeding. From the FGDs, men said that they always talk to their wives to breastfeed the babies when the babies are crying terribly. One male said:-We ensure women eat a more diversified diet by buying small fish or eggs at the nearest grocery. We do this because women complain that there is little milk in their breasts to satisfy increasing child nutrition needs‖. (Linthipe Male FGD, 4/01/2016).All people need a variety of foods to meet requirements for essential nutrients, and the value of a diverse diet has long been recognised. Lack of diversity is a severe problem among the poor populations in developing world, where diets are based on starchy and often no or few animal products and only seasonal fruits and vegetables (Arimond and Ruel, 2004). The foods consumed by children in Dedza and Ntcheu were also categorized according to the six food groups (Government of Malawi, 2009). Low diversity diet is comprised of less than two food groups, medium dietary diversity diets comprise of three food groups while high dietary diversity comprise of food from four or more food groups (Government of Malawi, 2009). Traditionally, many Malawian families with little children eat from the same plate as the rest of the members of the household (Hotz and Gibson, 2007). When children eat from the same plate as the rest of household members, it implies that children follow same meal frequency and dietary diversity.The implication is that poor nutrition status of children reflects hunger and poverty in the household. In Dedza and Ntcheu, a higher percentage (69.6%) of children from the female headed households had low dietary diversity score (consumed meals comprised of two or less food groups) as compared to 59% of children from the male headed households (Figure 4.1). Minimum dietary diversity is a standard and universal indicator set by WHO (2008) for ensuring that children 6-23 months are consuming and meeting their dietary recommendations. Table 4.6shows that 76.6% of 13-23 months old from male-headed households did not meet their minimum dietary diversity. A higher proportional (92.9%) of children (6-8 months) from unmarried women did not meet their minimum dietary diversity as compared to children (6-8 months) from male headed households. During FGD, it was discussed that:-This could be the result of low crop yields and low purchasing power that female farmers (from Although slightly more children from female headed households were not meeting their minimum dietary diversity as compared to children from male headed households, the contribution of women in providing a diversified diet children was enormous. Females from female headed households would strive to make ends meet in providing for the children. This was agreed during the focus group discussions that females from female headed households provided a diversified diet to their children.provide for the family. (KII, Male, Nsipe, 13/01/2016)The major area of concern for women from female headed households was the amount of time dedicated to caring for the little children when they have gone for business. Unmarried women reported that children were left in the care of older siblings or adults who did not provide the best child care.Meeting dietary diversity is a global concern since as observed in children from eleven DHS reports in developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America where the minimum dietary diversity was found to be 10.8% (Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey, 2011). This may be due to poor food production and consumption as well purchasing power of smallholder farmers in Malawi. Recent increment on price of consumable goods in Malawi and poor knowledge of preparation of complementary food have also contributed to inadequate dietary diversity in Malawian children.In this study, a market was defined as an area where buyers and sellers of a product were spread and were in direct competition with one another (Chapman, 2014). An analysis of the role of markets for minimum dietary diversity of children 6-23 months by estimating the regression models.To find the effect of market proximity on child feeding practices, the following regression equation was used:m m where y ijk is child feeding practices (dietary diversity, meal frequency and acceptable diets), μ is the overall mean, m i is the effect due to proximity to markets, s j is the age of the child, (bs ij ) is the interaction between market Farm households use markets to sell agricultural produce and to buy foods that they do not or cannot produce themselves. Even foods that are produced on the farm may not always be stored for the entire year; issues of seasonality are important to achieve minimum dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diets for children 6-23 months old in Dedza and Ntcheu. Previous studies have shown that foods purchased from the market contribute considerably to farm household diets also in subsistence-oriented settings (Sibhatu, et al., 2015;Luckett, et al., 2015) Children (6-23 months) in farming households of Dedza and Ntcheu, living close to the market (less than 5 km) benefited from legume production as shown by 37.1% meeting their dietary diversity index (Table 4.8). Dietary diversity is a proxy indicator that children were likely to meet their energy and protein demands.Households living near markets had access to numerous social and health services ranging from extension services to food price competetions from large scale farmers and companies. For example, agricultural extension and development officers (AEDOs) who provided best agronomic and extension education practices were easily accessible near the market. Health surveillance assistants (HSAs) responsible for growth monitoring and immunization of the children (under five years) were also easily accessible near the market. Private and large scale legume traders who provided high profits to the legume growing farmers were also available near the market. This implies that households living near the markets had children (6-23 months) who met the nutritional demands through diversified diets (Table 4.8) since the women and men had access to resources. Closer proximity to markets does not only contribute to higher dietary diversity among the households, but also tends to reduce the effect of farm production diversity. Farm households in Malawi, use markets to sell agricultural produce and to buy foods that they do not or cannot produce themselves (Benfica and Kilic, 2014). Previous studies have shown that foods purchased from the market contribute considerably to farm household diets also in subsistenceoriented settings (Luckett, et al., 2015).Households staying the furthest from the market have about 27.5% of children (6-23 months)meeting their dietary diversity recommendation (Table 4.8). Households staying over fifteen kilometers away from a market were involved in village savings and loans associations (VSLAs)and could buy and sell foods, thus children (6-23 months) benefited from a diversified diet (Table 4.8). Witoelar (2005) also observed that inter-household resource allocation had a positive effect on consumption pattern. In the rural communities, consumption pattern was influenced by characteristics of other families in the same extended family. From the focus group discussion with the women in Dedza (Golomoti EPA), it was observed that women would just walk to the market, sell commodities with or without their folk's permission and buy household assets such as small fish, eggs and groceries for household use. Similar discussions from FGDs were reported by women in Nsipe EPA where farming households formed village groups and small businesses to solve problems arising from the communities.The total energy and nutrient intake of breastfed infants is related to both energy density and meal frequency, as has been reported previously for non-breastfed children (Brown, et al., 1995).Results from the 24-hour dietary recall (Table 4.9), shows that out of 291 children (6-23 months) who were enrolled in the survey, 264 (90.7%) children had at least a meal the previous day while 27 (9.3%) didn't take any food. Dietary diversity and meal frequency practices among children less than five years were also inadequate in Ethiopia from a study conducted by Aemro, et al., (2013). Table 4.9 shows that out of 264 children who were given meals the previous day, 200 (75.6%) children were still breastfed while 64 (24.4%) children were not breastfeeding. The WHO (2005), recommends that non-breastfeeding children (6-23 months) should have a meal frequency of 4 -5 meals each day to meet their recommended dietary intake.During the 24-hour dietary recall which revealed that 45.5% (20 out of 45) breastfeeding children aged 6-8 months ate two times per day which was significantly lower than the proportion (4.5%) of children consuming 4-5 times per day (P< 0.05) (Table 4.9). This finding agrees with what Katungwe, et al., (2015) found that over 80% of school going children in Malawi consumed less than three meals per day. Each superscript letter denotes a subset of meal frequency categories whose column proportions do not differ significantly from each other at the 0.05 level.In addition, the share of legumes sold at a market positively affected child meal frequency where 36.5% of children (6-23 months) living near the market met their minimum meal frequency (Table 4.10) . The positive effect of markets to the children is that their increased nutrition demands will be met as recommended (WHO, 2008). Living close to the market was more likely associated with food availability and exposure to the media (both print and electronic) where health and nutrition messages were normally promoted. During a focus group discussions, it was reported that households living near the market would easily walk to a video show room, or listen to radios. -We can go to listen to radios, music or videos at the trading centres while charting with fellow men and playing bawo‖. (Golomoti, FGD, Male 8/01/2016). In a subsistence setting such as rural Malawi, an important role of markets for dietary diversity was established. Closer proximity to markets does not only contribute to higher dietary diversity, but also tends to reduce the effect of farm production diversity. From the FGDs, it was discussed that farm households use markets to sell agricultural produce and to buy foods that they do not or cannot produce themselves. This agrees with another study conducted in Ethiopia where it was observed that media exposure was positively associated with children meal frequency (Beyene, et al., 2015).The indicator minimum acceptable diet is based on percentage of breastfed children aged 6-23 months who had at least the minimum dietary diversity and the minimum meal frequency during the previous day or percentage of non-breastfed children age 6-23 months who received at least two milk feedings and had at least the minimum dietary diversity not including milk feeds and the minimum meal frequency during the previous day. Table 4.8 shows that 98.6% of breastfeeding children did not receive a minimum acceptable diet to meet their nutrient demands. Only 1.4% of breastfed child received a minimum acceptable diet (Table 4.11). A regression analysis established a weak and insignificant association between log-transformed gender dimensions and exclusive breastfeeding for children aged 6-23 months old (Table 4.12).During the focus group discussions, it was reported that women who had control over use of income were involved in small businesses and the amount of care given to children (below two years) reduced. One woman said: -when I go to the trading center to do some businesses like selling tomato, fritters, wrappers or gardening, the amount of time spent on breastfeeding young child reduces because I am extremely busy. I normally buy a tube of fizz juice for the child to stop crying.‖ (Kandeu FGD, Female 11/01/2016). The results agree with another study conducted in Nigeria which revealed that mothers' involvement in earning cash had no effect on exclusive breastfeeding (Fawole and Adeoye, 2015). In summary, no gender dimension influenced exclusive breastfeeding of children in Dedza and Ntcheu districts of Malawi. However, gender dimensions alone could not improve exclusive breastfeeding practices by women but a combination of settings by involving health systems, home and community environment concurrently. Similar findings were also reported by Sinha, et al., (2015), that interventions delivery in combination of settings seems to have higher improvements in breastfeeding rates.Greatest improvements in early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding and continued breastfeeding rates, were seen when counselling or education were provided concurrently in home and community, health systems and community, health systems and home settings, respectively (Sinha, et al 2015).Table 4.12 shows that the log transformed control in productive capital by women had a positive and significant correlation for the children. In this study, productive capital referred to access and control to agricultural land, large and small livestock, house, cellphone and means of transport. Children from women with log transformed control to productive capital could meet their minimum dietary diversity (Table 4.12). It was noted during FGD, that when women had control of productive capital, they performed more responsibilities than their spouses and viceversa. -Women were supposed to care for small livestock, legume crops and arable land while adopting agricultural technologies and teaching others‖ (FGD, Female, Linthipe, 07/01/2016).Similar results were obtained by Bezner Kerr ‗s ( 2005) who elaborated that labour patterns within households were socially arbitrated and involved trading of workloads between male and female members where women had more workloads than men in both reproductive and agricultural activities.The log transformed control of resources by women benefited children in Dedza and Ntcheu districts in Malawi (Table 4.12). Women's ability to control productive capital and finances and make decisions that affect their families was positively associated with increased number of children meeting the minimum meal frequency according to Table 4.12. Women having control to productive capital could provide food to their children a required number of frequencies.Children from households where women had control over finances received a recommended number of meals per day. During a FGD it was elaborated that women with control over finances could buy foodstuffs like small fish, eggs, soy flour that complemented children's diets.-My child's health improved when I had some control over finances in the household as compared to the past when children were frequently sick. I am able to prepare nutritious food enriched with animal products that I learned during a cooking demonstration held last year.(Nsipe FGD, female, 10/01/16).According to WHO (2008), children who meet the minimum meal frequency have a high chance of meeting their energy requirement. In another study conducted in Bangladeshi, it was also found that minimum meal frequency was directed associated with children meeting their energy density (Islam, et al., 2008). In families where women are key decision-makers, the proportion of food resources devoted to children 6-23 months in Dedza and Ntcheu district was significantly different (p < 0.05) than those in which women have a less decisive role (Table 4.12).Empowering women to have autonomy in decision making and control to productive capital (agricultural land, small and large livestock, bicycles, cell phones) would enable children (6-23 months) meet their recommended meal frequencies.Appropriate feeding of children 6-23 months is multidimensional. Children aged 6-23 months in Dedza and Ntcheu districts met their acceptable diets significantly when decision making on credit was made by the woman at 95% confidence interval (Table 4.12). There was a positive significant correlation between log transformed control of income by women and minimum acceptable diets among boy and girl children aged 6-23 months in Dedza and Ntcheu districts (Table 4.12). Courtenay, (2000) observed that women frequently engage in far more healthpromoting behaviour than men and have healthier lifestyle patterns while men regard eating as routine and as a means of getting energy.During the focus group discussion in Dedza and Ntcheu, women explained that they allocated most of their monetary resources for child feeding and household utilization while men preferred procuring agricultural resources like fertilizer.Men were also accused of mismanaging revenues obtained from the sale of agricultural harvests by excessive drinking of alcohol. (Golomoti FGD, female, 8/01/2016)Children aged 6-23 months in Dedza and Ntcheu met their minimum acceptable diets because these children are always with their mothers. In-depth interviews aimed at understanding more about women's economic influences to households and how these contributions were associated with child feeding practices were also done during the study. It was observed that as the children grew older than two years, they were left in the care of a grandparent or an older sibling to look after them. This reduced the amount of food and diets the child was receiving. Riley and Dodson, (2013) also observed that women's childcare in Blantyre, Malawi was one of the factors restricting women's mobility to engage in business activities which limit children's access to meeting acceptable diets.In summary, children in Dedza and Ntcheu districts were able to meet their minimum dietary diverrsity, minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diets when their mothers had control on productive capital, credit decisions and use of income from legume sales. The differences in findings between the gender roles and various indicators of child feeding practices suggest that policies and programs designed to improve children nutritional status need to be based on understanding of specific gender domains of women's empowerment matter.This study utilized feminist activism research which considers the needs, interests and experiences of both men and women with an aim of improving the wellbeing of family members.In this case, the research collaborated with caregivers to examine factors that perpetuate household gender inequality and later discussed during a focus group discussion. To understand the effect of gender roles on child feeding and caring practices, focus group discussions with 64 married people (21 males and 43 females) were involved in pile and sort activity. The purpose for understanding the effect of gender on child caring activities at household level was to recognize division of labour activities and time constraints that women with children 6-23 months in legume producing areas experience. The pile and sort cards were specifically designed to include husbands and wives to ensure that farm households view Africa RISING project as owners of the project. This was also reported by MacKinnon (2011) whi noted that, involvement of research participants and informants throughout the study with an aim of finding solutions to the problems that affect the lives of children was one way of building community capacity.Table 4.13, shows that 100% (64) of participants revealed that women were responsible for feeding children 6-23 months because they breastfeed and were more knowledgeable of dietary requirements of the child. Men explained that they support their wives during child feeding.Support includes playing with the child or engaging the wife in conversation to motivate her.-Sometimes young children are difficult to be fed by us men since we do not have a lot of experiences on child development. Occasionally, we cook and feed the baby when they have stopped breastfeeding since they can eat nsima without problems‖ (Kandeu FGD, male, 7/01/16) Key: GMP = Growth Monitoring and Promotion About 25% of the people involved in pile and sort activity said that both wife and husband participate in taking the child to under-five growth monitoring and promotion (Table 4.13). For example, husbands would escort their wives on a bicycle to the nearest village clinic site.However, when they escorted their wives for growth monitoring, men shunned the activities that took place during growth monitoring. One participant said:-I don't like the songs that are sang during growth monitoring because they degrade my value as a man. The songs and the atmosphere at under-five clinics favours women and it's not conducive for men (Kandeu FGD, Male, 12/012016)‖.When children aged 6-23 months were critically ill, 75% of participants said that both husband and wife took the child for medical attention (Table 4.13). Men said they normally source extra resources and allocate them for child's health and well-being.However, majority of child care practices (70%) were under the supervision of the woman (Table 4.13). This gender inequality in child caring practices resulted into heavy workload as women were supposed to complete the triple roles (productive, reproductive and community roles) in their day to day life as compared to men. Gender roles influence household's labour constraints and affects the odds of adopting best food and agricultural technologies which would increase legume yields and improve nutrition status of the household. The results agree with Me-Nsope and Larkins (2015), who reported that data on the division of agricultural roles/labour associated with pigeon pea cultivation revealed that it is women who provide much of the required labour and that women were more likely to oversee seed selection, seed storage, harvesting, transport, and cooking of the legumes at household level.Men normally would not involve and associate themselves in childcare activities for fear of being labelled inferior in the society or community. Normally, common characteristics of a husband who is labelled inferior to his wife includes spending more hours at home, actively taking part in child and household chores, and consulting his wife before making any decisions. During the focus group discussions with both men and women, there was a consensus that some wives feed their husbands love charms known as ‗love-me' (kondaine) to prevent the man from marrying another woman. Morris (1998) reported that the love potion is made by mixing the tail of a lizard with other herbs which are then concealed in food that is given to the husband. In most cases, husbands reported that they were mindful and careful of their child caring roles so that they should not be categorized as being under the spell of love potion. The nutrition implication is that men were not aware of child feeding practices and therefore rests all the responsibility to the woman. Women have the burden of feeding young children, preparing food for the entire family, engaging in household chores, participating in community development activities, engaging in farming activities and finally satisfying the demands of their husbands so that he doesn't look elsewhere for satisfaction. Evidence from Maharashtra indicated that India successfully reduced stunting levels from 36.5% to 24% in ten years by increasing women's decision-making status inside and outside the home and reducing their work load (Haddad, et al., 2014).During a focus group discussion with caregivers (women) in Dedza and Ntcheu district, it transpired that most men prefer feeding a male child than a female child when the wife is away and women prefer to walk and carry girl children than boy children. One respondent said that:Boy children who are above twelve months can be left with the husband because the boy children need more care and time with their fathers. Father and son relationship need to be strengthened and so the two needs more time together. (Golomoti FGD, female, 14/01/2016) Women believed that sons need more time with fathers than daughters for guidance and life experiences and that only a father could provide explaining the reasons why more boys than girls are stunted in Malawi (NSO, 2017). Similar trend was reported by Lundberg and Rose (2003) in USA who reported that 42% of unmarried mothers were more likely to marry the biological father of her child if the child was a boy.In another study Lundeberg and Rose (2007) in USA established that fathers would work longer hours and find ways to earn more money per hour following the birth of a boy. This is because of social traditions that men and boys are favoured and fed better than women and girls in the same household. In general women and girls in the society may face constraints in accessing humanitarian services, including food, because of insecurity, cultural discrimination and limited mobility unlike their men and boys (Satyavathi, et al., 2010). This gendered inequality in providing child care to girl and boy children may result into reduced food intake and poor nutrition status more especially among the girl child.About 48.4% of research participants said that both men and women in a household fetch money for the family (Table 4.13). When a man is hired to work in someone's garden (maize field), they normally tell their wives to assist and vice versa. Money generated from the hired labour was normally used in buying food for the family.Men were responsible for herding livestock especially cattle, goats and pigs. The results agree with another study in Botswana, where men reap the associated benefits of social status (whereby having more cattle is a sign of authority), resource access (whereby cattle can be sold for profit) and food security (whereby cattle are used as agricultural draught power) (Horvoka, 2014).However, women also participated in feeding pigs and chickens in the household (Table 4.13).Table 4.13 shows the household activities that men and women performed at a household where 48.4% of both men and women, were involved in fetching money for the household. This means that women (from male and female headed households) were actively providing for the households. However, women were always transparent and accountable on usage of their money while most men abused the money by drinking local brewed alcohol. An in-depth group discussions illustrated that men did not disclose how much they earn for fear of losing authority in the household.One responded in Ntcheu said, -I cannot tell my wife how much money I make each day because a strong man should be a hunter and a wife should just be a recipient of the resources obtained from the income I make. Women should only be concerned with the money they get from the village savings and loan associations (VSLAs) but should tell me as a head of household, how much money she has obtained to avoid her being involved in prostitution.‖ (Kandeu FGD, Male, 12/01/2016).The explanation from the focus group discussion imply that married women do not have control over money eaned. Interventions to change men's orientation towards women in the community should be emphasized through extension education and entrepreneurship. Men should be able to take part in income generating activities as this would improve economic power and at the same time observing women's rights. Doepke, et al., (2011) found that women's rights and economic development are highly correlated. As can be observed today, the discrepancy between the legal rights of women and men is much larger in developing countries compared to developed countries (Duflo,2005 andSinha, et al., 2007).In this study, level of male involvement was measured using individual male involvement descriptive variables and, furthermore, a regression analysis was performed to establish association between male involvement and IYCF. Overall score (from the pile and sort activity) was 14, where male respondent scored 1 in all variables considered (Table 4.14). Logistic regression models were run to determine the extent to which child caring practices by men were associated with child feeding practices Probability values ( values) were calculated at the 0.05 level of significance (Table 4.15). The FGDs and in depth interviews were conducted in the local language (Chichewa) and the sessions lasted one to two hours. The data was transcribed, coded, and summarized into themes as shown in Table 4.3.Results from Table 4.14 shows that majority of men (above 75%) were not involved in decisions regarding infant and young child feeding practices. The activity that the males least participated in was decision-making in infant and young child feeding, in particular males did not participate in decision making on when to exclusively breastfeed, time to start complementary foods, type of food to start complementary feeding, and order of serving food during meal times. This finding can be attributed to the cultural norm that the responsibility of child feeding is the mother's and young children spend most of the time with their mothers. A literature review of several studies by Wells (2016) found a positive association between fathers' involvement in parenting and positive cognitive, developmental, and sociobehavioral child outcomes such as improved weight gain in preterm infants, improved breastfeeding rates, higher receptive language skills, and higher academic achievement. Provide appropriate information about breastfeeding 0 100To buy food for the child 61.9 38.1To buy food for lactating mother 76.2 23.8Transport money to child health clinic 88 12Promoting optimal child feeding practicesProvide appropriate information about young child feeding 0 100.0More than half of male respondents interviewed did not know or give any appropriate message about young child feeding and breast feeding to pass on to the mothers. During the FGDs with men, it was explained that men lack skills about child feeding due to low number of male respondents who accompany mothers to the child health clinics. Attending child health clinics and growth monitoring and promotion together, gave an opportunity for both the mother and father to access appropriate messages about child feeding from trained health workers. Also male focus group discussions expressed the desire to know more about feeding of their children.In agreement with this finding, other studies in Nepal, UK, and Uganda which are related to maternal health issues have found that limited knowledge of male partners about maternal health issues has been a significant barrier to attending skilled antenatal care, where health talks about appropriate infant and young child feeding are usually given (Tweheyo, et al., 2010).Male respondents reported providing physical support with over 75% participating in farming and 88% providing money to buy food (Table 4.14). This was further illustrated by both female and male participants during the FGDs.-Men who make sure that there is enough maize flour to make the children's porridge to me are responsible in the society. Many women will agree, that a man should make sure his family members do not sleep without eating anything or that his children are not the ones that marasmus all the time.‖ (Female and Male FDG, Linthipe, 10/1/2016).Table 4.15 shows that the regression analysis between male involvement in child care with IYCF.The results demonstrates that providing money for transport to child health clinics and growth monitoring was significantly associated (\uD835\uDC5D < 0.05) with minimum meal frequency, minimum dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diets in Dedza and Ntcheu districts of Malawi. The implication here is that attending child health clinics gave mothers the opportunity to get appropriate information on infant and young child feeding during health/nutrition education and counseling sessions. Similar results were found by Tweheyo (2010) that mothers who attended child health clinics for growth promotion and monitoring practiceed optimal infant feeding practices.4.2.8.3 Association of male involvement in promoting optimal child feeding practices withThe involvement of men in promoting optimal child feeding practices in Dedza and Ntcheu was weakly associated with exclusive breastfeeding, minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diets (Table 4.15). During the FGDs with both men and women in Dedza and Ntcheu, it was evident that men didn't not have correct messages about infant and young child feeding. A male respondent in Nsipe EPA said that:- what decisions they can make. This is associated with infant and young child feeding practices and care as discussed in the thesis. Women's discretionary income has a greater impact on child nutrition and food security than men's. Women's increased control over income and assets can affect child nutrition status, which in turn is based on their spending decisions and the social networks and cultural norms that influence those decisions. However, cultural norms that affect women's spending decisions may change in the process of women's empowerment, which may also affect women's preferences on how to use their income. The level of male involvement in IYCF was high in the provision of physical and financial support; however a lower percentage of men were involved in decision making for IYCF, providing information on child feeding and accompanying mothers to child health clinics.Table 4.16 shows the activity profile for relevant productive, reproductive and community involvement tasks and answers the question: who does what in legume production? The results from Table 4.16 were generated from the focus group discussions and key informant interviews in Dedza and Ntcheu districts. The Harvard Analysis Framework activity profile is for legume production that Africa RISING was intensifying in Dedza and Ntcheu districts. Women, girls and aunties performed a lot of agricultural activities ranging from land clearing to processing the final product as compared to men and boys in Dedza and Ntcheu districts (Table 4.16).Men, boys and uncles also participated in land preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, storage and marketing legume products. One male responded said:-Legume production is a tedious activity and if all members of the household were busy taking care of legume production, then the whole household will die of hunger. When women and girls are busy harvesting legumes, men should look for food and money for survival of the household.‖ (Kandeu FGD, male, 14/01/ 2016) Interestingly, more men, boys and uncles participated in marketing of legume products in Dedza and Ntcheu districts than women, girls and aunties. During FGDs, it came out that: the amount of legumes being sold by men and women differed depending on distances to the market. Women preferred selling legumes in small quantities to nearby markets while men sold legumes in large quantities to far markets (FGD, Golomoti, male, 8/01/2016). Contrary to the findings in Dedza and Ntcheu, in Nigeria, marketing of agricultural produce was the work of women and so the responsibility of taking the crop to the market was left for the women (Ajadi, et al., 2015). Fafchamps and Quisumbing (2005) noted that gender division of agricultural activities constrained women's access to extension services.This agrees with macro-level household theory which says that structural, historical and sociocultural forces shape individual's behaviour towards engagement in household work (Bezner-Kerr, 2005). Women in Ntcheu also collaborated with the findings that when men were engaged in marketing of legume crops, they find better markets very far where women could not afford to go.During key informant interviews, it was explained that, girls were involved in household work from an early age alongside their mothers. At age six, they helped carrying water, gathering fuel wood and cleaning dishes. By ten years old, girls were helping planting and harvesting legumes, cooking for their brothers and uncles, taking care of young children and washing clothes. This explains why many girls drop out of school at an early age in most rural villages in Malawi.During the focus group discussions, it was also observed that men and women participated in most of the communal activities such as attending village meetings, organizing funerals and weddings. Older girls and boys responsibility was to take care of the household such as washing dishes, herding small livestock and caring younger children. The involvement of farmers at small scale in legume production was significantly influenced by the benefits derived from production and utilization of the specific legume. Decisions to grow legumes either came from the male alone, female alone, joint male and females or someone in the household or community and that the benefits outweighed the risks (Kandeu FGD, 14/01/2016).Both men and women in a household were able to make a decision on growing groundnuts and soybeans (Figure 4.2). Agricultural extension and development officers (AEDOs) in the Ministry of Agriculture also encouraged farmers to grow cowpeas for improved legume yield. Women in Dedza and Ntcheu districts led in deciding growing of soybeans and groundnuts. This agrees with other researchers who observed that legume production is a woman's task (Akibode, 2011). From the focus group discussions, it was argued that legumes provided quick income for buying groceries and food stuff at the household. Table 4.17 shows that 36.9% and 21.9% of women grew soybeans and groundnuts for consumption respectively. However, 38.6% (30.5% men, 8.1% women) in Dedza and Ntcheu districts grew soybeans for sale (Table 4.17). This is contrary to what Moyo and Kananji (2013) found that over 85% of soybeans produced in Malawi was for sale. However, consumption of soybean in Malawi, is mainly through corn soy blend (CSB), driven by UNICEF and WFP. Corn soy blend normally forms part of the feeding From the focus group discussions, it was observed that males decided on selling soybeans in large quantities and invested the money in buying more agricultural inputs, clothes and animal based foods such as goat meat while the rest of the money was used to drink alcohol (kachasu). On the other hand, female farmers sold soybeans and in small quantities to buy salt, cooking oil, jigs and kamba for the child. Unhealthy snack food consumption by young children is of concern for several reasons. Sugary and salty snack foods are usually low in nutritional value but often high in energy content, added sugar or salt (Moodie, et al., 2013). Thus, they may meet the child's energy needs but not other nutrient needs exposing the young child to malnutrition. High sugar intake increases the risk of high blood triglycerides in children (Niinikoski and Ruottinen, 2012) and is associated with a higher incidence of dental caries (Feldens, et al., 2007). Salt intake in infancy is directly associated with blood pressure in childhood (Strazzullo, et al., 2012) and increased preference for salt at 36-48 months children (Stein, et al., 2012). A greater preference for salt is associated with higher blood pressure in young children in the presence of a positive family history of hypertension (Stein, et al., 2012). Therefore, Jigs and kamba are snacks that do not have any nutrition benefit and must not be recommended to children. In a study conducted by Me-Nsope and Larkins (2015), it was observed that men sell legumes when the household has harvested a lot of legumes and that men join legume production when they fetch more profits at the market. A report by Nzima and Dzanja (2015) indicated that the prevailing mean selling prices (MK/Kg) at farm gate, vendor, wholesale-retailer and retailer levels were K76.26, K129.44, K166.79 and K216.82 respectively. Since most households in Dedza and Ntcheu sell their soy harvests to nearby vendors, they received low prices at either farm gate or vendor level.What this implies is that both men and women had different orientation for soybean and groundnut production. Men viewed legume production as a source of income and were taking legume production as business while on the other side, women viewed legume production as a source of achieving food security at household level. (KII, male, Golomoti, 14/01/2016) of soybeans as seed. During the focus group discussions, women revealed that a small portion of soybeans was kept at household level for emergency. For example, when a child was sick, women would exchange soybean seeds for money to pay transporting the sick child to a nearby health facility. However, a focus group discussions with the men proved that the responsibility for keeping seeds rests with the wife. A large share of groundnuts (84.9% ) grown in Dedza and Ntcheu under Africa RISING were sold (Figure 4.3). Me-Nsope et al (2015) found that women's poor negotiation skills (linked to their need to do business as quickly as possible to return to their families) put them at a risk of selling at lower prices. The implication was that women were unable to fetch good prices from large-scale buyers which consequently reduces the overall profitability of their business. Figure 4.3 shows that the average ground nuts harvested was 134.57kg unshelled of which 114.38kgwere sold representing 85%. Only 13.42kg was consumed as either roasted or ‗nsinjiro' (Figure 4.3). Figure 4.3 also shows that a lot of women (50.55%) sold groundnuts as compared to women (26.43%) who sold soybeans. One factor contributing to low proportion of women selling soybeans could be access to markets. Table 4.17 agrees with Figure 4.3 because more women sold groundnuts for them to buy relish and other children's food like jigs for the children.On the other hand, Figure 4.3 shows that 4.12% households with children 6-23 months in Dedza and Ntcheu grew pigeon peas. On average 9.99kg of pigeon peas was harvested while 7.07kg was sold (Figure 4.3). Much (70.7%) of the pigeon peas was sold while they were still green to avoid goats feeding them. Goats and other domestic animals are normally grazed on fields where yields have been recently harvested. Pigeon peas is ready to harvest when majority of crops have already been harvested and therefore pigeon pea was eaten by domestic animals.Many households did not grow pigeon peas because goats and other domestic animals destroyed the crop before maturity. About 75% of pigeon peas grown was sold for necessities like clothes and food (Table 4.17). Contrary to low production of pigeon peas in Dedza and Ntcheu, in a study in Northern Malawi, 43% of farmers grew exclusively grew pigeon peas since it was associated with improved food security (Snapp, et al., 2013).Figure 4.4 shows that 62.3% of households with children 6-23 months had a shared responsibility in owning and controlling major household resources like bicycles, phones, land and finances.This had a positive impact on women's accessibility in using the household assets for the wellbeing of the children. For example, during the focus group discussion with the women, it was observed that women would listen to educative radio programs such as proper nutrition for the children through radio jingles, drama and music. Most of the items that women participated in decision making at household level together with the husbands included building a house, renting land for agriculture production, buying fertilizer and seeds and school fees for children. For household utensils like plates, cups, pots, it was the responsibility of the women to find them. It was also the responsibility of women to fetch for vegetables while men were required to provide meat and meat products to the household for consumption. Focus group discussion with men revealed that men need to source animal based foods because they engage in income generating activities more than women while women could easily go in the field and fetch fresh vegetables or use stored preserved vegetables (chafutsa) for meal preparations. Another reason why men mostly buy meat and meat products was because the meat market was too far away for women to walk. Since women do not walk long distances (little mobility) because they have a lot of household responsibilities, they were limited to access market information. Instead, men were buying meat and meat products while women were busy performing household chores. On the other hand, little mobility of married women manifested individual freedom of action which gave women individual freedom to select and apply the knowledge for doing something. Married women in the study areas expressed that they feared their spouses of accusing them of infidelity when they walk long distances. During a focus group discussion with the women in Dedza, it was also discussed that:-Women cannot buy meat without men's authority as it can result in physical, verbal or intimate violence with their spouses. Men are prone to suspsicion if women buy costly foods such as meat. Such suspicion arouses jealousy which may lead to domestic violence‖. (FGD, Linthipe, 07/01/2016)The results from the focus group discussions agrees with a relative resource theory which says that a partner with more social economic power has the authority of commanding allocation of resources (Knudsen and Waerness, 2008). Husbands direct which crops to grow on how much land. This resulted in allocating a small hectarage of land for legume production leading to low legume yields. The implication is that when land is totally controlled by men (regardless of who owns the land), the men were the ones on the forefront learning and participating in legume production technologies and adopt those best agronomic practices way much better than women (FGD, Nsipe, Male, 15/01/2016).Figure 4.4 also shows that men (41.8%) were the dominant ones in deciding whether to buy, sell or transfer household assets. Although 62.3% of household assets (bicycles, radio, livestock, land) were owned by both men and women in the male headed households, few women (23.4%)did not have control on selling, buying or transferring household assets (Figure 4.4). This agrees with Mathiassen, et al., (2007) who argue that despite women owning land within matrilineal settings, control over decisions regarding that land were often made by men. So, the men would decide to rent out or sell the household assets and the duty of the woman would be to give support and agree.Women's lack of control on use of income and expenditure and low involvement on input in decision making on household resources are evidence of unequal gender relations in rural areas of Malawi. NSO (2017) reported that younger women, women without higher than secondary school education, and women in the lower wealth quintiles were least likely to have control over their earnings as husbands were more likely to be the sole decision maker. Among both men and women, rural residence was also associated with the husband having greater control over his earnings (NSO, 2017).As has been discussed above, female farmers in Dedza and Ntcheu considered food security as of significance because they have been subjected to take care of the home. This is in contrast to male farmers whose priority is marketability of technology because males are interested in cash, which they use to buy assets and for drinking beer.Women from male headed households had little control on usage of finances at household level than men which affected legume production activities and adoption of best agronomic practices.This was associated with low legume yields which significantly affected amount of legumes kept for consumption and storage as seed. A gender lens helps us to consider at community and household levels the roles men and women play in agricultural production and consumption, behaviours or other influences. It should also be noted that the time women spend on different tasks, as well as the lack of recognition for these tasks, influences women's capacity to care for the conditions in which food is prepared (i.e. availability of clean water) which influences their role in nutrition security.In this research, legumes in Dedza and Ntcheu were utilized by processing into consumable products for the households including children below two years. One such method was partial processing which entailed boiling soybeans, cowpeas, or pigeon peas, remove and discard the chaff, dry the cotyledons and store them for future use. The stored cotyledons could be used as relish by adding tomato and salt or they could be further processed into flour which was also used for complementary feeding. When legumes like groundnuts were stored as seeds, they were also roasted and eaten as a snack or processed into peanut butter. During a FGD with the women in Dedza and Ntcheu, it was also reported that cowpeas were soaked or fermented in water overnight to quicken cooking.Table 4.18 shows involvement in decision making by married and unmarried women as it regarding legume processing and utilization. Legume budgeting is one way of ensuring continuous availability of legumes throughout the year for the whole household.A need to develop efficient legume budgeting arises when allocating procedures and resources that can assist in influencing child-feeding practices to the best advantage of the child. Over 70% of women in male headed households, had no or very little input into soybean budgeting decisions unlike 100% of women in female headed households who had input in all decisions regarding soybean budgeting (Table 4.18). Failure of married women to practice soybean budgeting, signifies lack in control of household resources used for complementary feeding. About 13% of women in male headed households in Dedza and Ntcheu districts, could budget soybeans for annual availability because some women were trained on legume budgeting in another project activity (Table 4.18). In this study, women who were household heads were more autonomous and had more control over resources by their position than women who are not household heads.However, by virtue of their position, female heads of household like their male counterparts may be the sole or main providers for their own needs and their dependents. Several studies have revealed that resources under the control of women are more likely to be allocated for productive purposes that promote family welfare as compared to resource allocation under the control of men (Khan and Khalid, 2010).In terms of partial processing of legumes (soybeans, groundnuts, pigeon pea and cowpeas) for storage, over half of women from male headed households (56.9%) had input in some and most decisions about partial processing of legumes for storage (Table 4.18). The most common form of processing legumes for storage included groundnut flour, soy flour and peanut butter. An indepth discussion with the women (from male and female headed households), revealed that women did not store peanut as they feared spoilage from microorganisms. It was also observed that some women had the knowledge in partial processing of legumes like peanut, pigeon pea dhal and cowpea dhal.The only limitation they had in full use of the partially processed legume products was because the quantity of legumes harvested was few and yet they were still selling to obtain other basic food stuffs (Table 4.18). The research found that women would boil soybeans, cowpeas or pigeon peas and dry them as cotyledons. The dried cotyledons could be packaged in polythene bags and stored to sometime before being used as relish or flour.On the other hand, men were ignorant on partial processing of legumes for storage or complementary feeding. During in-depth interview with ten men, it was observed that men left food processing for women since women are the ones who take care of the household. One respondent said that gender inequality in partial processing of legumes resulted into married men discouraging spouses to process legumes for storage as it there are no markets for such processed products. Riley and Dodson (2015) reported that the term -gender‖ is a term that most men don't like to hear since they feel that any activities related to gender favours women. In Dedza and Ntcheu districts of Malawi, men did not participate in many legume processing activities since they consider it a woman's job and if a man in the rural areas of Dedza and Ntcheu was found cooking while the wife was available, that man was regarded as socially incapable, unloving and irresponsible.On the other hand, the benefits that men had when women in male headed households store legumes as seed, was that they could save money to buy legume seed. The men were also consuming the seeds stored by their wives. When both male and females benefited from legume utilization, it meant everyone in the household benefited including children. When women were saying, they benefited from legume utilization, it meant women were diversifying the diets and providing for the household. Similarly, men said they benefited from legume utilization because they were consuming the legumes and selling the legumes later when legume prices increases to make more profits.During the focus group discussions, it came out clearly that traditional legume utilization in Dedza and Ntcheu was a woman's show. Women, girls, aunties and grand women in Dedza and Ntcheu were responsible for transforming legumes into edible products for the whole household (Table 4.19).Cooking demonstrations, which were organized by Africa RISING, exposed women to different traditional processing activities for legumes. For example, women learnt oil extraction from groundnuts and making fritters from legumes like soybeans, cowpeas and pigeon peas. During the FGDs, women said cooking demonstrations were a sure way of motivating women to grow legumes since the products from legumes were preferred by their young children. Chilanga (2014), found that cooking recipe days in Northern Malawi improved nutrition status of children.  (2003) studied effect of soaking and dehulling on cow pea (Vigna unguiculata) and reported that the phytic acid content decreased by 16.3% and 30.1% in soaked and dehulled pulses.In terms of minimum meal frequency, children aged 6-23 months significantly (P-value = 0.000) benefited from log transformed decisions to budget legumes for annual requirements (Table 4.20).Knowledge in legume budgeting and women's autonomy in ensuring availability and preparation of legume in the household ensured that legumes were available for household use for quite a long time than households that did not budget.On the other hand, Table 4.20 also shows that partial processing of legumes was positively associated with increased meal frequency of children in Dedza and Ntcheu significantly (P=0.03).As discussed earlier, partial processing of groundnuts, soybeans, pigeon peas and cowpeas increased food consumption which helped children meet their minimum meal frequency. CHAPTER 5The results of the present study revelead that gender affect infant and young child feeding practices among legume growing farmers in Malawi. This research also found that although infants and young children's dietary practice was poor during the survey period, women's control over resources had a positive and significant association with minimum meal frequency, minimum dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diets. This is one gender gap that if properly monitored would have greater impact in improving the diets of children in Dedza and Ntcheu.Input in decisions regarding what, when and how to produce legumes in Dedza and Ntcheu were gender sensitive. Although majority of women under Africa RISING had access to land, control over the use of the land was dominated by men. Women were involved in legume production activities ranging from land preparation, seed selection, weeding, harvesting, transportation and storage to processing activities such as drying, sorting, cooking, flour preparation, fermenting, oil extraction and partial processing. The involvement of men in legume production and utilization was to find better market, transport to markets or help in some legume production and utilization activities which captured their attention.Similarly, access to and control over income, credit decisions, access to agricultural extension trainings, autonomy in agricultural production influenced child feeding practices in Dedza and Ntcheu districts. Women who had control over income and credit decisions ensured their children meet their nutritional demands for a healthy wellbeing. Women still had to carry their young children on their back to manage business transanctions and whatever the woman ate, so the child.It should be emphasized that recognizing and recommending appropriate areas of empowering women and examining how these correlate with indicators of child nutrition, may be an important first step toward evidence-based and culture-sensitive programs. Closing these empowerment gaps can then be an explicit target for food policy to empower women and improve child nutrition and at the same time empowering households to invest more in legume production and utilization.Women's autonomy has long been a central concern for researchers examining the social position of women in developing countries. In this example, the autonomy indicator measured the extent to which a woman's motivation for her behaviour in legume production and utilization was not only independent but also affected her own psychological well-being. Thus, interventions to increase women's work and capability to make decisions in agriculture may not only provide another opportunity to engage them more visibly in agriculture, an area where they have traditionally been undercounted but also work to improve child nutrition as well as their own well-being.This study found that women in Dedza and Ntcheu performed much of domestic work and child care activities. The household activities that women performed were critical for the sustainability of life of all family members as they involve household sanitation and food preparation. One of the factors that men attributed as a burden was lack of time to perform domestic work. In addition, people reported a social obligation, in that community members consider domestic work as the responsibility of women. The gender gap enlarges due to lack of fathers' childcare skills such as cooking all contributes. These factors support various household theories such as gender role ideology and gender construction model that explain factors that determine the division of domestic work amongst couples.The level of male involvement in IYCF in Dedza and Ntcheu, was high in the provision of physical and financial support; however a lower percentage of men were involved in decisionmaking for IYCF as well as providing information on child feeding and accompanying mothers to growth monitoring and promotion. Providing transport and financial support for child health clinics was positively associated with minmum acceptable diets, minimum dietary diversity and minimum meal frequency, since attending growth monitoring and child health clinincs provided an opportunity for women to acquire appropriate knowledge on IYCF for better feeding habits and practices among children. This study was conducted during the lean period when a lot of households had run out of foods and using the coping mechanisms to food shortage. Another study could be conducted with results obtained when households have harvested their produce.Comparing the gender roles in IYCF during pre and post harvest period could be necessary to fully understand gender dynamics in IYCF. The holistic use of WEAI and Harvard Analytical Framework tools as a measure of gender roles in child nutrition among farm households can help in involving men in legume production and utilization activities for improved diets. Men's involvement in legume utilization such as partial processing for complementary feeding of infants and ","tokenCount":"21950"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7f165f0fe5ae4ad98e7373f60dacf96a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9f8eea29-f286-4736-b613-c31dcc36dd00/retrieve","id":"362662134"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4a495f3e-e638-490d-864e-8d09cff6d760","pagecount":"11","content":"Phenotypical and biochemical evidence regarding Mesoamerican introgression into the germplasm of kidney-beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) cultivated in secondary domestication centres Adriana Tofiño 1 , Cesar Humberto Ocampo 2 y Orlando Toro 2Resumen: A fin de establecer posibles relaciones entre las variaciones morfológicas y el tipo de faseolina (proteína de almacenamiento) con los centros de domesticación y origen de Phaseolus vulgaris con características de habichuela, se estudiaron 116 accesiones conservadas en el Banco de Germoplasma de la URG-CIAT: 26 de los genotipos eran comerciales, 5 líneas endocriadas y 85 variedades tradicionales. Para caracterizar las vainas y las semillas de las plantas cultivadas en una sola localidad, y en un único ciclo de desarrollo del cultivo, se utilizaron 18 descriptores morfológicos. Como resultado del análisis de las proteínas de semilla mediante SDS-PAGE se establecieron 7 tipos diferentes de faseolinas agrupadas como andinas (T, C y H) y mesoamericanas [S, Sb, H(S+1) y CH)]. La mayor diversidad de faseolinas se encontró en las habichuelas procedentes de Europa. La faseolina S se encontró en 62 genotipos, 47 de los cuales son variedades tradicionales (39% del total). Este resultado difiere de los encontrados por otros investigadores en cuanto a la contribución del germoplasma mesoamericano al acervo genético de la habichuela. En todos los genotipos, excepto en aquellos que contenían faseolina S, se encontró correlación entre el tipo de faseolina, el tipo de vaina y la semilla. Los 22 genotipos con faseolina S se pueden clasificar en dos grupos: (1) los que exhiben fenotipos mesoamericanos; y (2) los que exhiben tamaños y colores de tipo andino. Los genotipos con características morfológicas y bioquímicas contrastantes correspondieron a variedades tradicionales procedentes en su totalidad de los centros secundarios de domesticación. Las posibles contaminaciones se descartaron luego de la evaluación (según color, tamaño y tipo de faseolina) de isotipos regenerados a partir de las semillas originales; Abstract: 116 Phaseolus vulgaris kidney-bean accessions from 25 different countries kept in the URG-CIAT Germplasm Bank were studied for establishing possible relationships between morphological variations and types of phaseolin. Twenty-six genotypes were commercial, five genotypes were inbred lines and eighty-five were traditional varieties. Eighteen (18) morphological descriptors were used for characterising pods and seeds from plants growing in a single locality and over a single crop-development cycle. Seven (7) different types of phaseolins, grouped as Andean (T, C, H) and Mesoamerican [S, Sb, H(S+1) and CH)] were established after SDS-PAGE analysis of seed proteins. Most phaseolin diversity was found in kidney-beans from Europe. \"S\" phaseolin was found into 62 genotypes, 47 of them being traditional varieties (39% of the total). This result is different from those of other works regarding Mesoamerican germplasm contribution to the kidney-bean genetic pool. Except for the \"S\" phaseolin genotypes, a degree of correlation was found between other phaseolin types and pods and seed types. \"S\" phaseolin genotypes (22) can be classified into two groups: those having the Mesoamerican phenotypes and those presenting Andean colour and size. Genotypes having contrasting morphological and biochemical characteristics were traditional varieties from all the secondary domestication centres included in this work. Possible contamination was discarded after examining regenerated isotypes from the original seeds (colour, size and phaseolin type). The results obtained in this control confirm those previously ... ... los resultados de este control confirmaron aquellos obtenidos en el presente trabajo. Las evidencias fenotípicas y bioquímicas halladas sugieren que ocurre un alto grado de introgresión de genes derivados del acervo genético mesoamericano en los genotipos de habichuela procedentes de los centros secundarios de domesticación. Los genotipos seleccionados por sus características de habichuela, procedentes de dichos centros, se originaron y dispersaron en las mismas zonas de colección en forma diferente a como lo hizo el fríjol común.Variabilidad, descriptores morfológicos, marcadores bioquímicos, acervo genético.obtained. Phenotypical and biochemical evidence suggests that a high degree of introgression of genes from the Mesoamerican gene pool occurs in the genotype of kidney-beans from secondary domestication centres. Kidney-bean-like selected genotypes from some secondary centres were originated and dispersed differently from ordinary beans from the same areas.Key words: Variability, morphological descriptors, biochemical markers, genetic pool.LA HABICHUELA ES UNA HORTALIZA de importancia económica en las regiones montañosas del Valle del Cauca (Colombia); allí es un cultivo que beneficia a gran cantidad de familias de pequeños productores.El sistema actual de cultivo requiere grandes cantidades de insumos para garantizar la producción, condición asociada con la estrecha base genética de la semilla que se cultiva actualmente, la cual no tiene características apropiadas de resistencia o tolerancia a los principales factores limitantes bióticos y abióticos. Este el caso de la variedad Blue Lake, la más cultivada por los agricultores colombianos, que es muy susceptible a la roya (Uromyces phaseolii), a la bacteriosis (Xanthomonas campestris) y a otros limitantes lesivos para los rendimientos y la calidad de la cosecha (Agudelo y Montes de Oca, 1988).Es necesario ampliar la base genética del cultivo con el fin de desarrollar programas de mejoramiento que eleven la resistencia a los factores limitantes bióticos y abióticos, y para disminuir las aplicaciones de agroquímicos (insecticidas, fungicidas y herbicidas) que afectan la calidad del producto y deterioran el ambiente. Por otro lado, para lograr un proceso adecuado de premejoramiento es esencial contar con información acerca de la variabilidad genética de los materiales básicos (Ramírez, 1982;Silbernagel et al., 1991).Los estudios sobre la evolución del cultivo indican que la mayor parte de los materiales introducidos a Europa Occidental, el noreste de los Estados Unidos, África y la cuenca mediterránea, son originarios de los Andes, y que sólo una baja proporción de los materiales de fríjol común introducidos en estos países son originarios de Mesoamérica. La procedencia andina parece estar relacionada con características de la vaina que facilitaron la selección para el consumo en verde (Gepts, 1988;Gepts y Bliss, 1988;Mc Clean et al., 1993;Rodiño et al., 2001).El objetivo de este trabajo fue estimar la variabilidad genética general mediante un estudio descriptivo. La mayoría de los descriptores utilizados son de tipo cualitativo y, por tanto, estables bajo las diferentes condiciones ambientales (heterogeneidad del suelo, temperatura ambiental, suministro hídrico, etc). Como estimadores cuantitativos de la variabilidad genética se utilizaron el peso de 100 semillas, el número de semillas por vaina y la longitud de la vaina. En el proceso de selección incluido en los estudios de premejoramiento debe minimizarse la influencia ambiental evaluando los materiales en diferentes épocas de siembra y realizando pruebas regionales (Traka-Mavrona et al., 2002).El presente trabajo hace parte de un estudio de premejoramiento del Programa de Hortalizas de la Universidad Nacional, sede Palmira. Para contribuir a la consecución de este objetivo se evaluó la variabilidad de una muestra de los materiales básicos conservados en la Unidad de Recursos Genéticos del CIAT, mediante descriptores morfológicos y análisis de proteínas de almacenamiento en la semilla.Los genotipos que se seleccionaron se evaluaron utilizando como marcador genético la faseolina, una proteína de almacenamiento propia de la semilla. Los extractos crudos de proteína se obtuvieron a partir de semilla seleccionada, en los materiales heterogéneos, según el color, la forma y el tamaño, escogiendo aquellas semillas con las características más frecuentes. Los extractos de proteína de semilla para el estudio de faseolinas mediante SDS-PAGE (Laemli, 1970;modificado por Ma y Bliss, 1978) se obtuvieron siguiendo la metodología de Lareo et al. (1993). Las electroforesis se realizaron en equipos Miniprotean II® de BioRad (minigeles de 5 cm, 12% de acrilamida, 80 V, 80-100 mA a 8° C durante 1 hora) y Protean II® de BioRad (geles de 16 cm, 15 % de acrilamida, 70 V, 80-100mA a 13° C durante 16 h). Los genotipos con bandas de faseolinas similares en los minigeles se agruparon y luego se compararon en geles de 16 cm contra patrones de faseolina conocidos.La relación entre las características fenotípicas de la semilla y la presencia de faseolina se determinó siguiendo la metodología de Gepts (1988) y Singh (1989) para fríjol común, que consiste en camparar las características de semilla de habichuela (color, forma y tamaño) y las características de semilla registradas como típicas para cada grupo de faseolina a partir de estudios de miles de accesiones de fríjol. Paredes y Gepts (1985), siguieron paso a paso esta misma metodología para determinar la introgresión o hibridación entre acervos, pero en el presente estudio se incluyeron las características de la vaina.Se identificaron los caracteres más frecuentes de 10 vainas por genotipo. Para descartar posibles contaminaciones durante el experimento, se realizó un análisis de isotipos [técnica mediante la cual se analiza la faseolina (proteína de almacenamiento en la semilla) por prueba no destructiva y posterior regeneración; la descendencia o progenie presentará un tipo de faseolina igual al inicial] en las accesiones colectadas originalmente de los atípicos (dos semillas por genotipo). En estos genotipos (tipo de semilla andino y faseolina mesoamericana), las semillas y tipo de faseolina no se ajustaban a la descripción de Gepts (1988). En los tres materiales de los cuales no se disponía de semilla original, se probaron 5 semillas de cada regeneración (10 semillas por genotipo). Se consultaron los datos de pasaporte de los genotipos para establecer su regeneración y tipo de polinización, encontrándose que la fertilizaciónSe utilizaron 116 genotipos con características de habichuela de la colección mundial de fríjol de la Unidad de Recursos Genéticos del Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (URG-CIAT). Estos materiales fueron colectados en centros secundarios de domesticación ubicadops en 25 países de Europa, Asia, África y América. La evaluación morfoagronómica se realizó en el Centro Experimental de la Universidad Nacional, sede Palmira (CEUNP). Como controles se utilizaron seis genotipos de habichuela: dos materiales comerciales, Blue Lake (Ferry) y UNAPAL Milenio (G 51158); dos materiales de fríjol común representantes de diferentes acervos genéticos [G4494 de origen andino (Diacol Calima) y G5733 originario de Mesoamérica (ICA Pijao)], además de dos materiales silvestres (G23725 de origen ecuatoriano y G21117, colombiano). Dentro del grupo de materiales evaluados hay 87 variedades tradicionales, 26 variedades comerciales y 5 líneas endocriadas. Las inferencias sobre aspectos evolutivos y origen de los materiales se hicieron con base en las características de las variedades tradicionales. Como descriptores morfológicos se utilizaron varias características de la vaina, la semilla, la floración, así como el hábito de crecimiento y el contenido de fibra total en la vaina seca (15% de humedad) (Muñoz et al., 1993).Como descriptores morfológicos de la vaina, la semilla y la planta se utilizaron 18 características cualitativas y cuantitativas, así: como características cualitativas de la vaina se evaluaron el color, la forma, la presencia de hilo, la forma del pico, la cantidad de aristas en la superficie de la sección transversal y el nivel de fibra en las paredes; las características cuantitativas de la vaina fueron la longitud, la forma de la sección transversal, el peso de las valvas secas y el número de semillas. Para las semillas, las características cualitativas evaluadas fueron la forma y el color, mientras que las caracerísticas cuantitativas fueron la producción (10 plantas accesión -1 ) y el peso de 100 semillas (con 15 % de humedad). Las características cualitativas consideradas para la planta fueron la floración y el hábito de crecimiento (Muñoz et al., 1993). Como patrones se utilizaron los genotipos comerciales de habichuela Blue Lake (Ferry) y UNAPAL Milenio (G 51158). Las características de las vainas se definieron, establecieron y estandarizaron para los propósitos de este trabajo y no se encontraron antecedentes reportados de trabajos previos.autógama puede darse en condiciones de cleistogamia o de casmogamia.Los datos morfológicos cualitativos y cuantitativos se calificaron en escalas categóricas, se transformaron en una matriz de presencia y ausencia con características binarias (0 y 1) para analizarlos mediante clasificación jerárquica (cluster analysis) utilizando el programa NTSYS® (Adams et al., 2000) que calcula los datos UPG-MA siguiendo el método de agrupamiento. Finalmente, se elaboró un dendrograma mediante el coeficiente de similaridad de DICE.De acuerdo con la comparación de los patrones de bandas de faseolina obtenidos por electroforesis, 53% de los genotipos poseen la configuración \"S\", 19% la forma \"C\", 17% la forma \"T\", 6,9% la forma \"CH\", 2% la forma \"Sb\", 0,86% la forma \"H1\" y 0,86% la forma \"H(S+1)\" (Figura 1).La mayor frecuencia del tipo S se encuentra en los genotipos procedentes de Estados Unidos, seguidos por los materiales de China, Portugal y Hungría. Estos resultados concuerdan con los registrados por Tofiño y Ocampo (2003) y están en desacuerdo con los registrados para fríjol común por Gepts (1988), McClean et al. (1993) y Rodiño et al. (2001), quienes encontraron proporciones mayoritarias de genotipos andinos en las zonas centro, este y atlántica de Europa (tipos C y T) (Tabla 1). En el resto de Europa predominan los tipos andinos, lo cual está de acuerdo con lo registrado para el fríjol común cultivado en Europa (Gepts, 1988) y particularmente en España (Ocampo et al., 2002) (Tabla 1). Europa es el continente con mayor diversidad de faseolinas (seis tipos), seguido por Asia con cinco, América con cuatro y África con uno (Tabla 1, Figura 1).No se registró asociación entre las características morfológicas relacionadas con cada tipo de faseolina y el país o zona geográfica de procedencia, ya que no se observaron categorías exclusivas por descriptor en los genotipos procedentes de alguna zona geográfica en particular. Estos resultados son similares a los obtenidos por Paredes y Gepts (1995) en variedades tradicionales de fríjol en Chile.En cada grupo se observó asociación entre el fenotipo y el tipo de faseolina (75% de la muestra) con excepción de los genotipos S atípicos (Tabla 2). Sinembargo, se encontró una baja asociación entre la faseolina y los demás descriptores (Tabla 4). Singh et al. (1991a, b) encontraron una alta correlación (>95%) entre los rasgos morfoagronómicos de materiales andinos o mesoamericanos y el tipo de faseolina en fríjol común. La comparación del tamaño, la forma y el color de la semilla en los cultivares tradicionales con faseolina tipo S, indica que 25% de estos genotipos son atípicos (Gepts, 1988) (Tabla 2). Veintidós de las variedades tradicionales S tienen características fenotípicas de tipo andino (peso y/o color de la semilla) diferentes de las asociadas con los genotipos mesoamericanos con faseolina S (Tabla 3).De acuerdo con los resultados de la comparación de las faseolinas y las características de las semillas se puede establecer que 25% de las variedades tradicionales registran flujo de genes del acervo mesoamericano hacia el acervo andino. Este efecto también fue observado en variedades tradicionales de germoplasma chileno de fríjol. En este estudio se encontró una introgresión o hibridación de 65% entre los acervos andino y mesoamericano. Dentro del grupo de materiales introgresados se encontraron semillas grandes con faseolina S y genotipos andinos con patrones isoenzimáticos mesoamericanos (Paredes y Gepts, 1995). Además, se encontró el heterocigoto H(S+1) que es una faseolina híbrida entre acervos descubierta recientemente (Ocampo et al., 2000). De los 63 materiales con faseolina tipo S, 46 (84%) son variedades tradicionales, resultado que sugiere que el aporte de los tipos mesoamericanos al acervo genético de la habichuela cultivada es mayor que el aceptado actualmente.Los países asiáticos (China, Rusia, Turquía e India) contribuyen con el 45,45% de los genotipos atípicos S. Portugal es el país de Europa con la mayor contribución de genotipos híbridos (18,18%), mientras el resto de Europa aporta un 22,72% de los materiales atípicos.El 9,1% de la muestra corresponde a accesiones de México y Brasil. Zambia contribuye con el 4,54% de los materiales atípicos S. Según Gepts (1988), la dispersión del fríjol en África se originó en Brasil. No obstante, aún cuando los materiales brasileros son S, en África no se observó este tipo de faseolina en el fríjol común. En este estudio el 100% de la muestra proveniente de este continente es mesoamericana.Las características contrastantes se observaron solamente en las variedades tradicionales. A pesar de que la muestra proveniente de Estados Unidos es la más numerosa y con la mayor proporción de genotipos S, las accesiones provenientes de este país no mostraron características híbridas entre los dos centros de origen (77,8% de las accesiones originarias de Estados Unidos son comerciales). Este hecho puede ser suficiente para inferir introgresión entre los genotipos estudiados. Los materiales híbridos se sometieron a una prueba de isotipos, por lo que todos los genotipos utilizados para este análisis se regeneraron previamente en diferentes localidades. Quince (15) de ellos mostraron fertilización autógama abierta, siete parecen presentar condiciones tanto de cleistogamia como de casmogamia, y ninguno de los materiales atípicos mostró fertilización estrictamente cleistogámica (Tabla 5). En materiales cultivados de fríjol se han registrado porcentajes promedio de alogamia entre 4,41 y 28,5%, e incluso valores extremos del 70%. En fríjol silvestre se registran porcentajes inferiores al 5% (Piedrahita, 1993;Wells et al., 1988;Ibarra et al.,1997) (Tabla 4).El análisis de las semillas colectadas originalmente mediante la metodología de regeneración de semilla y de isotipos hizo evidente que hay diferencias en la coloración entre regeneraciones, aunque los genotipos no variaron de tamaño. El tipo de faseolina es el mismo de las muestras iniciales. Tanto el fenotipo como los patrones electroforéticos son similares en los isotipos y en los muestreos realizados para cada genotipo.La discriminación morfológica de los genotipos atípicos sólo permite distinguir los materiales con semillas grandes, redondeadas y con colores crema, y los de semilla pequeña con colores negro, blanco y café (Figura 2). Con el análisis simultáneo de los caracteres de semilla y las bandas de faseolina se generan cuatro grupos, así: (1) Materiales con semillas grandes y redondeadas, de colores crema o café claro y faseolina andina (carriles 2 a 5); (2) materiales con semillas pequeñas y alarga-Tabla 3. Características morfológicas de variedades tradicionales que presentan propiedades de semilla atípicas con respecto al tipo de faseolina S.Color  (2000). La combinación de la descripción morfológica con los patrones de bandas de las faseolinas hizo posible una clasificación detallada de los materiales estudiados en seis grupos de faseolinas diferentes y un subgrupo dentro de las faseolinas S.Se agruparon los genotipos en nueve (9) grupos con tipos de faseolina procedentes de ambos acervos. El cri-Tabla 5. Datos de pasaporte de los materiales con tipo de semilla andino y con faseolina mesoamericana. El número de entrada significa el número de regeneraciones que ha tenido el material. En el cuadro se tiene en cuenta la última regeneración que aparece en la base de datos del Banco de germoplasma URG-CIAT. Los datos de polinización con calificaciones contrastantes en un mismo genotipo se deben a las diferencias ocurridas durante las regeneraciones (CIAT, 2002). terio para seleccionar el coeficiente de similaridad utilizado para la partición de los grupos (0.53) se estableció con base en las características de la vaina que resultaron discriminantes entre grupos (Tabla 6). Las características de la vaina son las de mayor importancia dentro de la variabilidad genética de la habichuela (Myers y Baggett, 1999). Los testigos Milenio y Blue Lake corresponden al grupo H, conjuntamente con otros 14 genotipos. Las mejores características para el mercado en fresco colombiano las presentaron las accesiones G9069 y G3946.Algunas características morfológicas (forma de la sección transversal de la vaina, fibrosidad, tamaño de la semilla y longitud de la vaina) son comunes a las accesiones provenientes de la misma zona geográfica, lo cual está relacionado con el hábito de consumo de las zonas de procedencia (Tabla 7); este resultado también fue registrado por Tofiño (2004). Se observó heterogeneidad en la fibrosidad de los genotipos dentro de la mayoría de los grupos, excepto en los grupos B, C, D, F (Tabla 6). La descripción morfológica en Phaseolus ha sido clave para la determinación de los acervos (Singh, 1989), las razas (Singh et al., 1991a), la variabilidad genética, (Singh et al., 1991b) y para estimar las tasas de alogamia (Piedrahita, 1993). Tabla 6. Características morfológicas y bioquímicas comunes a los genotipos de habichuela agrupados por UPGMA de acuerdo con su similaridad morfológica.Faseolina Accesión Características morfológicas Alelos comunes A C, T, S.G211, G634, G3747, G217, G18848, G373, G621, G587, G50633, G10165, G15778, G10181, G50636, G18220, G20132, G50634, G50635, G9218, G15854, G371, G1727, G8822, G5760, G10264 G1610, G11286, G19093, G15660, G19268, G18215, G18874, G9604, G16831, G18894, G20120, G20401, G20066, G13450, G15913, G14577, G16421, G17420, G50796, G10214, G19279, G24543, G24542, G50638. G11269, G18708, G14836, G15779, G1014, G3736, G4205, G4225, G50637, G15300, G14722, G9180, G9194, G9353, G17769, G17861, G10134, G10220.Índice de similaridad (< 0.55), presentan características morfológicas menos frecuentes de la muestra y con alta variación por genotipo. Tamaño de vaina mediano, vainas elípticas, fibrosidad variable, número de semillas/vaina similar a los testigos (6-9). PRX (98), ACP2(100), 6PGDH(100), PGI1(100)*, MDH1(100)*, MDH2(100).Los alelos indicados en cada grupo son comunes a todas las accesiones que lo componen, excepto aquellos señalados con *: éstos presentan alelos diferentes a los que aparecen indicados en uno o más genotipos.Se han reportado niveles entre bajos y moderados de polinización cruzada en diferentes especies del género Phaseolus. Parece que las hibridaciones y recombinaciones producidas en las progenies de cruzamientos entre genotipos con faseolina S y T originaron la aparición de la faseolina C. Este tipo de hibridación pudo haber ocurrido gracias al contacto entre grupos humanos suramericanos y mesoamericanos que se estima ocurrió entre 3.500 y 5.000 años A. C. (Koening et al., 1990).La hibridación natural de los materiales de fríjol y habichuela sugiere que este proceso no se llevó a cabo únicamente en los centros secundarios de domesticación. Los materiales híbridos se han observado en estudios de variedades tradicionales de fríjol común en diversas regiones. Posiblemente algún porcentaje del material fenotípicamente andino, introducido desde América a Europa, portaba genes mesoamericanos producto de hibridaciones entre acervos. Se han encontrado híbridos con morfología andina y faseolina mesoamericana, así como materiales con morfología mesoamericana y faseolina andina (Singh et al.,1991a, b;Paredes et al., 1995).Los resultados indican la ocurrencia de introgresión de genes del acervo mesoamericano en los materiales desarrollados en los centros secundarios de domesticación; en cada uno de los centros estudiados se encontraron genotipos híbridos. Además, se encontró un aporte importante del acervo mesoamericano al germoplasma de habichuela. Se sugiere hacia el futuoro que se estudien las accesiones de cada centro secundario de domesticación, pues existen muy pocos registros filogenéticos exclusivos de la habichuela. Los resultados de este trabajo discrepan de los obtenidos para el fríjol común por otros autores. Es necesario verificar si los materiales seleccionados como habichuela en algunos centros secundarios de domesticación experimentaron procesos de origen y dispersión diferentes a los del fríjol común.Los autores agradecen al proyecto Bancos Genéticos de Hortalizas -DINAIN 2000-por la financiación del proyecto, y a los profesores Sara Mejía de Tafur y Yamel López de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, sede Palmira, por la revisión del manuscrito. ","tokenCount":"3727"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8224dbec07a0ed71aefe4be4495f17d2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c7f5304f-e6da-404e-bdad-c16aa5ae1066/retrieve","id":"-603857149"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2cd53742-9fb3-4922-ae77-f19a9eaca499","pagecount":"88","content":"Tropical (CIAT) -miembro del Consorcio CGIAR-desarrolla tecnologías, métodos innovadores y nuevos conocimientos que contribuyen a que los agricultores, en especial los de escasos recursos, logren una agricultura eco-eficiente -es decir, competitiva y rentable así como sostenible y resiliente. Con su sede principal cerca de Cali, Colombia, el CIAT realiza investigación orientada al desarrollo en las regiones tropicales de América Latina, África y Asia. www.ciat.cgiar.org CGIAR es una alianza mundial de investigación para un futuro sin hambre. Su labor científica la llevan a cabo los 15 centros de investigación que integran el Consorcio CGIAR, en colaboración con cientos de organizaciones socias. www.cgiar.org CVC La Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca es la entidad encargada de administrar los recursos naturales renovables y el medio ambiente del Valle del Cauca, que como máxima autoridad ambiental y en alianza con actores sociales propende por un ambiente sano, contribuyendo al mejoramientoUna de las cuestiones más importantes para la sociedad hoy, y en el futuro cercano, será su capacidad de adaptación ante los posibles efectos del cambio climático.El cambio climático es un fenómeno de profundas consecuencias ambientales, económicas y sociales; y las peores secuelas se presentarán en los territorios menos preparados. La adopción oportuna de medidas apropiadas para reducir los impactos de este fenómeno es un aspecto estratégico, pues cada vez será más difícil enfrentar sus consecuencias, y la capacidad de recuperación ante escenarios de desastre será menor.La gestión del cambio climático requiere de la participación de todos. Todo proceso de adaptación es local, tiene lugar en el territorio y se materializa a través de la población, sus comunidades e instituciones, su gobernanza y sus visiones compartidas. Se trata de un desafío sin precedentes en la historia moderna de nuestras sociedades.Este reto demanda de la mayor creatividad humana y de la construcción colectiva de estrategias de adaptación viables y oportunas, buscando el fortalecimiento de capacidades de los diferentes actores territoriales, para responder ante eventos climáticos y ante sus consecuencias, a partir de la planificación y de esfuerzos institucionales y sociales coordinados.Por lo anterior, la Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca (CVC), a través de la Dirección Técnica Ambiental, celebró el Convenio Interadministrativo No. 033 de 2014, con el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), para \"realizar acciones en el marco de la mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático en el Valle del Cauca\", dentro de las que se encuentran el presente portafolio de medidas de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático para el municipio de Jamundí.Fuente: http://bit.ly/1lwumsDA partir de información secundaria y de carácter oficial, se presentan a continuación datos relevantes para el territorio en materia de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático. Esta información recopila una descripción general de variables determinantes a escala municipal, una ficha síntesis del perfil actual y proyectado frente al clima para el municipio de Jamundí, así como un análisis de la estabilidad de los bosques y procesos de regeneración y deforestación para la adaptación desde el enfoque de ecosistemas y el potencial de mitigación al cambio climático.El municipio de Jamundí se encuentra ubicado en el sur del departamento del Valle del Cauca, dentro del área metropolitana de Cali. Se sitúa en la ribera occidental del río Cauca, entre las cordilleras Occidental y Central, en cuya área cuenta con una importante participación dentro del Parque Nacional Natural Los Farallones. Sus principales ríos son; Cauca, Claro, Guachinte, Jamundí, Jordán, Pital y Timba.Limita oficialmente al norte con el municipio de Santiago de Cali, al sur con el departamento del Cauca (municipios de Buenos Aires y Santander de Quilichao), al oriente con el departamento del Cauca (municipios de Puerto Tejada y Villa Rica) y al occidente con el municipio de Buenaventura (Parque Nacional Natural Los Farallones).Figura 1. Ubicación espacial del municipio de Jamundí.   Fuente: Elaborado con base en capas del SIGOT IGAC y Google Maps Data 2015 (http://sigotn.igac.gov.co/sigotn/frames_pagina.aspx y www.google.com.co/maps). Su centro urbano puede ubicarse en las coordenadas latitud 3°15'39\" N y longitud 76°32'22\" O.El rango altitudinal del municipio varía entre los 975 metros sobre el nivel del mar (msnm) en su zona de valle y urbana, hasta los 4080 msnm en su región montañosa (Farallones de Cali) (Alcaldía de Jamundí, 2015).La extensión total del municipio es de 577 km 2 , con un área urbana de 42 km 2 (IGAC, 2015), donde cuenta con una población estimada al año 2015 de 119.516 habitantes (DANE, 2005).El municipio cuenta con dos regiones naturales:De una parte está el valle físico entre las zonas de cordillera y de otra parte está la región montañosa, correspondiente a las laderas y cimas de la zona de cordillera (IDEAM et al., 2015). En estas regiones naturales, cuenta con la presencia de selva andina, subandina y selva seca.La temperatura promedio del municipio es 23,8 o C y su precipitación promedio anual es de 1706 mm (IDEAM et al., 2015).A continuación se presentan algunas generalidades socioeconómicas del municipio de Jamundí. Fuente: DANE (2015).Según el DANE (2005), del total de la población de Jamundí, el 70% pertenece al sector urbano y el 30% al sector rural.Cuadro 2. Necesidades básicas insatisfechas de Jamundí.Resto Total 8,49 % 32,02% 15,63%Fuente: DANE (2012).El índice total de necesidades básicas insatisfechas de Jamundí es uno de los más bajos del departamento del Valle del Cauca, teniendo el índice más bajo en el caso de la población urbana; no obstante, en la zona rural presenta el séptimo índice más alto del departamento.Según la figura anterior, se evidencia que en Jamundí los índices de cobertura de servicios públicos están sujetos a mejoras toda vez que solo uno de ellos (energía eléctrica) es cercano al 100% con un 96,9%; no obstante, para los demás servicios básicos como acueducto y alcantarillado existen brechas importantes. El 37,1% de la población residente en Jamundí ha alcanzado únicamente el nivel de básica primaria y el 34,5% el de secundaria; mientras que solo el 5,8% ha alcanzado el nivel profesional y el 0,9% ha realizado estudios de especialización, maestría o doctorado. La población residente sin ningún nivel educativo es el 6,3%.En cuanto a la estructura económica del municipio, la Figura 4 presenta un resumen de las generalidades de la economía de Jamundí. Según la figura anterior, en Jamundí el mayor porcentaje de los establecimientos se dedican al comercio con un 52,1% seguido por el sector de servicios con un 31,5%, industria con 15,5% y otras actividades 1%.El porcentaje de viviendas rurales ocupadas con personas presentes el día del censo y que tenían actividad agropecuaria se distribuye de la siguiente forma: actividades agrícolas 24,7%, pecuarias 93,5%, piscícolas 2,6%. La mayoría de las viviendas tiene simultáneamente 2 o 3 tipos de actividades. Del total de cultivos asociados a la vivienda rural, el 34,1% corresponde a transitorios solos, el 8,8% a transitorios asociados, el 37,3% a permanentes solos y el 19,8% a permanentes asociados.Amenazas climáticas manifiestas en el último quinquenio (fenómenos de El Niño y La Niña)Revisión y análisis de reportes de desastres relacionados con cambio y variabilidad climática en el municipio durante el último quinquenio.En comparación con otros municipios del departamento, Jamundí se ubica en el segundo lugar en materia de concentración de desastres con afectación a personas por eventos relacionados con variabilidad y cambio climático en el Valle del Cauca, siendo superado solo por el municipio de Buenaventura por un margen muy bajo, y ubicándose por encima del municipio de Santiago de Cali, con afectaciones casi dos veces por encima de las reportadas por este último.Las amenazas climáticas de mayor frecuencia en la actualidad para el municipio de Jamundí, en lo que respecta al último quinquenio, son de acuerdo a su frecuencia de ocurrencia de mayor a menor: incendios forestales, vendavales, inundaciones, deslizamientos, granizadas, avalanchas y sequías.Figura 7. Amenazas climáticas de mayor frecuencia en el municipio para el período 2010-2015.Fuente: Elaborado con base en datos de la UNGRD (2015).Granizada 3%Avalancha 1%Sequía 1% Fuente. Elaborado con base en datos de la UNGRD (2015). Disponible en: https://goo.gl/FxcVVR 30 de agosto del año actual, según datos reportados ante la UNGRD (2015).B u e n a v e n t u r a El fenómeno de variabilidad climática que mayor cantidad de personas afectadas generó en el municipio, fue el de La Niña, que para el análisis corresponde al período transcurrido entre inicios de 2010 y comienzos de 2012. El actual fenómeno de El Niño aún no Figura 10. Personas afectadas en Jamundí para cada uno de los años de análisis 2010-2015.Fuente: Elaborado con base en datos de la UNGRD (2015). Disponible en: https://goo.gl/2ECcaxA partir de las proyecciones realizadas en los escenarios de cambio climático en el marco de la tercera comunicación nacional (IDEAM et al., 2015) para las variables de precipitación y temperatura, se interpretan a escala local los cambios progresivos planteados para el municipio de Jamundí.Para el caso de la precipitación media anual, representan en el período 2011-2040 aumentos de hasta el 30% en la zona oriental (valle físico) del municipio, sin que involucre su área urbana esta proyección. En su zona occidental (región de montaña), se proyectan aumentos entre 10 y 20%, incluyendo su área urbana. Este escenario permanece sin mayores cambios para el período 2041-2070.Para el período 2071-2100, se proyecta un aumento en el área que contempla proyecciones de incrementos hasta del 30% en las precipitaciones, involucrando su área urbana. Las proyecciones realizadas implican en todos los casos para el municipio de Jamundí aumentos en el régimen de precipitaciones media anual. La mayor proyección planteada involucra el área urbana del municipio para el final de siglo.A partir del análisis de la información presentada sobre los escenarios de cambio climático por IDEAM et al. (2015), se pueden inferir cambios en la temperatura media del municipio de Jamundí, lo que implica un aumento para el período 2011-2040 de hasta 0,5 °C en su región montañosa de mayor altitud, 0,8 °C en su región de piedemonte, (área occidental del municipio), y entre 0,8 y 1 °C en su valle físico (área oriental).Esta proyección aumenta para el período 2041-2070, implicando un aumento de hasta 1,8 °C en sus zonas de valle y urbana, de hasta 1,6 °C en su piedemonte y entre 0,5 y 1,2 °C en sus zonas de montaña.El escenario de mayores implicaciones lo representa el período 2071-2100, con aumentos proyectados de hasta 2,3 °C en sus zonas de valle y urbana, la región central del municipio, correspondiente al Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Los Farallones, con aumentos proyectados de 1,8 °C. Para final de siglo, sus zonas de montaña presentarán un aumento en la temperatura media que se incrementa en la medida que pierden altura sobre el nivel del mar, pasando por aumentos proyectados en sus zonas más altas desde 1,2 °C hasta 1,8 °C. Las proyecciones realizadas implican en todos los casos para el municipio de Jamundí aumentos en la temperatura media anual. La mayor proyección de temperatura en todos los casos involucra el área urbana del municipio, siendo importante resaltar un aumento considerable para el período 2071-2100 en la región montañosa que contempla el PNN Los Farallones de Cali.Figura 13. Resumen de los cambios proyectados en el clima para Jamundí 2011Jamundí -2040Jamundí , 2041Jamundí -2070Jamundí y 2071Jamundí -2100. . Fuente: Elaborado con base en datos de Coberturas 2015: IDEAM (http://modelos.ideam.gov.co/escenarios/) y SIGOT (http://sigotn.igac.gov.co/sigotn/frames_pagina.aspx). Interpretación de los escenarios de cambio climático a escala local para el municipio de JamundíEscenarios AVA -\"Agricultura, Vulnerabilidad y Adaptación\" para JamundíA partir del análisis realizado en el estudio de \"Agricultura, Vulnerabilidad y Adaptación (AVA): Desarrollo compatible con el clima en el sector agrícola del alto Cauca colombiano\" CDKN (2013), con proyecciones para el 2030 y 2050, se plantean cambios de aptitud climática y su efecto sobre las áreas que presentan rangos climáticos aptos o con un margen de adaptabilidad para los cultivos.Para el caso de Jamundí, se identificó un alto nivel de vulnerabilidad para el cultivo del plátano. Adicionalmente, se pudo determinar que a futuro el cultivo de cacao ganará áreas aptas para el mismo en la mayoría de los municipios del Valle del Cauca, a excepción del municipio de Jamundí.Asimismo, para 2030 y 2050 se espera un aumento de la aptitud climática para la siembra de la caña de azúcar en todos los municipios del Valle del Cauca, excepto en Jamundí pues se estima una disminución del 3,9% del área apta en este municipio.Se estima que el cultivo de fríjol a futuro perderá áreas aptas para su siembra en todos los municipios del departamento del Valle del Cauca.A continuación, se presentan los cambios proyectados para los dos cultivos con mayor impacto en el municipio de Jamundí de acuerdo a la metodología AVA -caña de azúcar y cacao.Estas proyecciones representan afectaciones significativas en la productividad del municipio, dado que su economía está enmarcada en el cultivo de caña de azúcar, arroz, cítricos, plátano y café principalmente (Alcaldía de Jamundí, 2015).Cuadro 3. Cambio de aptitud climática para los cultivos estudiados en el municipio de Jamundí.% cambio de aptitud climática (pérdida de área en aptitud climática)Caña de azúcar 7,6 -0,6 -3,9Cacao 47,4 -2,5 -6,6Fuente: Elaborado con base en CDKN (2013).• Afectaciones al sector agrícola y pecuario. Las altas temperaturas pueden poner en riesgo cultivos de pancoger y sistemas pecuarios de las poblaciones con menor capacidad de adaptación.• Aumento en las afectaciones a coberturas vegetales por incendios forestales, principalmente en el mediano y largo plazo.• Afectaciones a la salud humana, animal y vegetal por olas de calor y estrés térmico, principalmente en el mediano y largo plazo.• Aumento en el nivel de afectación por frecuencia e intensidad de vendavales.• Gradual retroceso y pérdida de biomas y ecosistemas presentes en el municipio.• Aumento en la intensidad de los períodos de sequía que generan menor disponibilidad de agua y posible desabastecimiento hídrico, principalmente a largo plazo.• Disminución de la seguridad alimentaria.Los principales efectos de acuerdo al reconocimiento de los desastres presentados en el último quinquenio y la interpretación de los escenarios de cambio climático a nivel municipal son los siguientes:• Afectaciones al sector agrícola y pecuario (particularmente con monocultivos y sistemas extensivos debido a los aumentos de precipitación que podrían aumentar plagas y enfermedades).• Afectaciones al sector agrícola y drenaje urbano por el aumento en la frecuencia e intensidad de las granizadas.• Afectación a infraestructuras habitacionales y equipamientos colectivos por inundaciones más frecuentes en el valle físico del municipio.• Aumento en la frecuencia de ocurrencia de deslizamientos y avalanchas en la región montañosa del municipio.• Cambio de aptitud climática que implica pérdidas en el área adecuada para el desarrollo de cultivos como caña de azúcar, cacao, fríjol y plátano.• Pérdida de productividad (afectaciones económicas generalizadas).• Aprovechamiento de fuentes alternativas de energía relacionadas con el aumento de la radiación solar y la energía eólica en el municipio.• Aprovechamiento de recursos hídricos no convencionales relacionados con el aumento en los regímenes de precipitaciones.• Aprovechamiento de nuevas aptitudes y potenciales climáticos para el cultivo y producción agrícola.Una de las variables determinantes de los procesos de adaptación y mitigación basada en ecosistemas es el comportamiento de la cobertura de bosque en el área municipal.El municipio de Jamundí presenta una ventaja comparativa que comparte con el municipio de Santiago de Cali en el Valle del Cauca, dada la presencia del PNN Farallones de Cali. No obstante, los procesos que determinan la estabilidad de sus coberturas boscosas no siempre son estables. Una representación de esto se expone en el mapa de cobertura bosque-no bosque a escala municipal, donde existe una predominancia de bosque no estable para el área de valle físico, que predomina en el área montañosa de amortiguación del PNN ubicada dentro de los límites del municipio, con escasos procesos identificados como en fase de regeneración.Figura 14. Cobertura de bosque-no bosque. Jamundí.Fuente: MADS (2015).Es importante resaltar la existencia de bosque estable en la zona montañosa de mayor altura; sin embargo, puede apreciarse la existencia de áreas identificadas con procesos de deforestación dentro de la zona boscosa.El desarrollo de estrategias de reforestación controlada en las zonas de bosque no estable puede aportar en los procesos de mitigación del cambio climático, así como a la adaptación basada en la conservación de bienes y servicios ecosistémicos.Se reconoce en este proceso una importante estrategia para la adaptación al largo plazo ante los aumentos proyectados en temperatura y precipitación, e igualmente la fijación de los GEI en coberturas vegetales y suelos. Este panorama conceptual presenta inicialmente la definición de cambio climático, sus causas, los fenómenos asociados, y seguidamente la descripción general del significado de impacto, vulnerabilidad y exposición en términos de riesgo climático, así como el de adaptación y mitigación.El cambio climático es definido como la variación del estado del clima, identificable en las variaciones del valor medio o en la variabilidad de sus propiedades, que persiste durante largos períodos de tiempo, generalmente decenios o períodos más largos (IPCC, 2014).El cambio climático puede deberse a procesos internos naturales o a forzamientos externos tales como modulaciones de los ciclos solares, erupciones volcánicas o cambios antropógenos persistentes de la composición de la atmósfera o del uso del suelo (IPCC, 2014).La Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC), en su Artículo 1, define el cambio climático como \"cambio de clima atribuido directa o indirectamente a la actividad humana que altera la composición de la atmósfera global y que se suma a la variabilidad natural del clima observada durante períodos de tiempo comparables\". La CMNUCC diferencia, pues, entre el cambio climático atribuible a las actividades humanas que alteran la composición atmosférica y la variabilidad climática atribuible a causas naturales (IPCC, 2014).En relación a esas actividades humanas, se encuentra la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero.Componentes gaseosos de la atmósfera, naturales y antropogénicos, que absorben y emiten radiaciones a longitudes de ondas específicas dentro del espectro de la radiación infrarroja emitida por la superficie de la Tierra, la atmósfera y las nubes. Estas propiedades originan el efecto invernadero. El vapor de agua (H 2 O), dióxido de carbono (CO 2 ), óxido nitroso (N 2 O), metano (CH 4 ) y ozono (O 3 ) son los principales gases de efecto invernadero de la atmósfera terrestre. Sin embargo, existe en la atmósfera una cantidad de gases de efecto invernadero creados íntegramente por la acción del hombre, tales como los halocarbonos y otras sustancias que contienen cloro y bromo, tratadas en el Protocolo de Montreal. El Protocolo de Kyoto, además del dióxido de carbono, el óxido nitroso y el metano, trató los siguientes gases de efecto invernadero: hexafloururo de azufre, hidrofluorocarbonos y perfluorocarbonos (IPCC, 2007).El aumento desmedido de estos gases en la atmósfera es la causa principal del calentamiento global.El calentamiento global hace referencia al aumento gradual, observado o previsto de la temperatura mundial en superficie, como una de las consecuencias del forzamiento radiativo provocado por las emisiones antropogénicas (IPCC, 2007).Al igual que el calentamiento global, existen otros fenómenos asociados al cambio climático, algunos relacionados con la variabilidad climática.La variabilidad climática se refiere a las variaciones en el estado medio y otros datos estadísticos (como las desviaciones típicas, la ocurrencia de fenómenos extremos, etc.) del clima en todas las escalas temporales y espaciales, más allá de fenómenos meteorológicos determinados. La variabilidad se puede deber a procesos internos naturales dentro del sistema climático (variabilidad interna) o a variaciones en los forzamientos externos antropogénicos (variabilidad externa) (IPCC, 2001). Dentro de los fenómenos asociados a la variabilidad climática, se encuentra el ENOS (El Niño/Oscilación del Sur).Dentro de la escala de variabilidad interanual en el océano Pacífico tropical, son posibles tres condiciones: El Niño (calentamiento extremo), condiciones normales y La Niña (enfriamiento extremo). El ciclo conocido como El Niño-La Niña-Oscilación del Sur (ENOS) es la causa de la mayor señal de variabilidad climática en la franja tropical del océano Pacífico, en la escala interanual (IDEAM, 2014).El ENOS es un fenómeno oceánico-atmosférico que consiste en la interacción de las aguas superficiales del océano Pacífico tropical con la atmósfera circundante. Además, el ENOS está relacionado con trastornos climáticos en muchas partes del mundo, así como con alteraciones significativas en diversos tipos de ecosistemas tanto terrestres como marinos (COENOS, 2010).Dicho fenómeno presenta en su componente oceánico un contraste importante relacionado con las temperaturas superficiales del océano Pacífico tropical. Dicho contraste establece la aparición de dos eventos dependiendo de estos valores de temperatura, los cuales son: El Niño, que se presenta al tener anomalías cálidas; y La Niña, que se presenta al tener anomalías frías de temperatura, ambos en el océano Pacífico tropical (COENOS, 2010).Es una de las fases extremas dentro del ciclo ENOS, que es la causa de la mayor señal de la variabilidad climática interanual en la zona tropical. El Niño está asociado con la aparición y permanencia por varios meses de aguas superficiales relativamente más cálidas que lo normal desde el Pacífico tropical central hasta las costas del norte de Perú, Ecuador y sur de Colombia. Este calentamiento de la superficie del océano Pacífico cubre grandes extensiones, y por su magnitud afecta el clima en diferentes regiones del planeta (CVC, 2014a).Es la fase extrema contraria al fenómeno El Niño en la oscilación del sur. Se manifiesta con temperaturas másEl riesgo en relación a los impactos climáticos se refiere al potencial de consecuencias en que algo de valor está en peligro con un desenlace incierto, reconociendo la diversidad de valores. A menudo, el riesgo se representa como la probabilidad de acaecimiento de sucesos o tendencias peligrosos multiplicada por los impactos en caso de que ocurran tales sucesos o tendencias (IPCC, 2014).Los riesgos resultan de la interacción de la vulnerabilidad, la exposición y el peligro.Suceso o tendencia físico de origen natural o humano, o un impacto físico, que puede causar pérdidas de vidas, lesiones u otros efectos negativos sobre la salud, así como daños y pérdidas en propiedades, infraestructuras, medios de subsistencia, prestaciones de servicios, ecosistemas y recursos ambientales. En el presente informe, el término peligro se refiere generalmente a sucesos o tendencias físicos relacionados con el clima o sus impactos físicos (IPCC, 2014). Adaptación e interacciones con la mitigaciónFigura 15. Principales consideraciones de la gestión de riesgos conexos al cambio climático.Fuente. IPCC (2014).Propensión o predisposición a ser afectado negativamente. La vulnerabilidad comprende una variedad de conceptos y elementos que incluyen la sensibilidad o susceptibilidad al daño y la capacidad de adaptación (IPCC, 2014).Predisposición física del ser humano, la infraestructura o un ecosistema de ser afectados por una amenaza, debido a las condiciones de contexto (IPCC, 2014).Capacidad de un sistema para ajustarse al cambio climático (incluida la variabilidad climática y los cambios extremos) a fin de moderar los daños potenciales, aprovechar las consecuencias positivas, o soportar las consecuencias negativas (IPCC, 2001).Ante el panorama de riesgo climático, es necesaria la gestión del cambio climático a través de la adaptación y la mitigación.relacionados con la variabilidad y el cambio climático (Gobernación de Risaralda/CARDER, 2013). En la siguiente figura, se explica con más detalle el concepto integrado de gestión del cambio climático.Proceso de ajuste al clima real o proyectado y sus efectos. En los sistemas humanos, la adaptación trata de moderar o evitar los daños o aprovechar las Figura 16. Proceso de gestión del cambio climático.Fuente. Gobernación de Risaralda/CARDER (2013).oportunidades beneficiosas. En algunos sistemas naturales, la intervención humana puede facilitar el ajuste al clima proyectado y a sus efectos (IPCC, 2014).Intervención antropogénica para reducir las fuentes o mejorar los sumideros de gases de efecto invernadero (IPCC, 2001). Promover la adecuada adaptabilidad y resiliencia de los sistemas territoriales (ecológicos y culturales), así como la implementación de medidas pertinentes de la mitigación, con el fin de atender oportuna y eficientemente los procesos relacionados con la variabilidad y el cambio climático.¿Qué es?El cambio y la variabilidad climática son temas de creciente preocupación entre los actores gubernamentales encargados de conducir la política nacional ya que este es un problema que no solo afecta al sector ambiental, sino el desarrollo de todos los sectores del territorio.Con respecto a lo anterior, a partir de la entrada en vigor de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMUNCC) en 1994, se han venido generando lineamientos que guían las acciones en materia de adaptación al cambio climático y que Colombia ha tenido en cuenta desde que aprobó dicha Convención mediante la expedición de la Ley 164 de 1994.En este sentido, se presenta a continuación el contexto general de los instrumentos más relevantes y su relación con la adaptación local.La CMNUCC sirve de base para la concertación de medidas internacionales para la mitigación del cambio climático y la adaptación a sus efectos.Este manual se divide en dos partes. La primera parte se centra en el proceso de las negociaciones internacionales sobre el cambio climático; y la segunda parte ofrece una visión general de las actividades relativas a los distintos aspectos de la aplicación de la Convención, como la adaptación a los efectos del clima, la mitigación del cambio climático, los recursos financieros, la transferencia de tecnología, el fomento de la capacidad y la presentación de informes, así como los debates en curso acerca de las medidas futuras sobre el cambio climático (CMNUCC, 2006, p. 17).En cuanto a la adaptación, se aborda en el Capítulo 12, en donde se presentan las directrices para la preparación de los programas nacionales de adaptación (PNA) en donde se recomienda que estos deben prepararse mediante un proceso participativo que incluya, en particular, a las comunidades locales. Con ese fin, las directrices proponen que se establezca un equipo nacional para el PNA, compuesto por un organismo principal y por representantes de las partes interesadas, incluidos organismos gubernamentales y la sociedad civil (CMNUCC, 2006, p. 112).La estrategia institucional para la articulación de políticas y acciones en materia de cambio climático en Colombia -CONPES 3700 -presenta la necesidad del país de comprender y actuar frente a este fenómeno como una problemática de desarrollo económico y social.La estrategia reconoce la necesidad urgente de emprender medidas adecuadas de adaptación y mitigación y de la articulación tanto a nivel sectorial como en los ámbitos nacional y territorial, con el fin de generar una gestión compartida y coordinada para hacer frente al cambio climático. El Plan Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático (PNACC) busca incidir en los procesos de planificación ambiental, territorial y sectorial, de tal manera que se tomen decisiones de manera informada, teniendo en cuenta las proyecciones climáticas, reduciendo efectivamente la vulnerabilidad tanto en poblaciones, ecosistemas y sectores productivos, y aumentando la capacidad social, económica y ecosistémica para responder ante eventos y desastres climáticos (DNP, 2012, p. 19).La finalidad del PNACC es reducir la vulnerabilidad del país e incrementar su capacidad de respuesta frente a las amenazas e impactos del cambio climático. Para ello, propone unos principios fundamentales a los cuales el país debe apostarle para lograr adecuados procesos de adaptación planificada (DNP, 2012, p.19). Dentro de estos procesos, se resalta la Gestión del Cambio Climático como un proceso de planificación continuo a lo largo del tiempo, que abarca de manera transversal a los territorios, los sectores productivos e institucionales y los grupos humanos. Estas apuestas constituyen lineamientos para desarrollar los procesos de adaptación en sectores y territorios, dentro de los que se encuentra \"Toda adaptación es local, debe ser participativa y enfocarse en las prioridades de los territorios\" (DNP, 2012, p. 18), el cual expresa entre otros aspectos lo siguiente: \"En la medida que los impactos de la variabilidad climática se manifiestan territorialmente, es claro que la adaptación al cambio climático siempre será un problema local. Cada territorio enfrenta retos diferentes asociados a la variabilidad climática. El incremento de la probabilidad de ocurrencia de heladas, incendios, deslizamientos, inundaciones y sequías se manifiesta de forma diferencial en el territorio. Esto hace que para la adecuada planificación de la adaptación, lo más importante sea contar con información local para la toma de decisiones (DNP, 2012, p. 48).Asimismo, siendo la adaptación una actividad local, con el fin de garantizar el éxito de los proyectos, es crítico que se vincule a las comunidades en el proceso de planificación territorial y en la definición de las medidas de adaptación\".En la medida en que los impactos asociados a la variabilidad climática afecten al territorio, se hará más evidente que la adaptación a la variabilidad y al cambio climático es un proceso local, entendiendo que cada territorio enfrenta retos diferentes asociados a la variabilidad climática.En el marco de lo presentado hasta este punto y con el fin de mostrar un panorama municipal para abordar las medidas de adaptación en el municipio, se presentan aspectos sobre cambio climático incluidos en el plan de acción de la CVC y en los planes de desarrollo departamental y municipal. Contribuir con medidas apropiadas a la disminución de riesgos por fenómenos de amenazas naturales y a la vulnerabilidad de los ecosistemas naturales y la población, trabajando en conjunto con los sectores, las regiones y subregiones en el diseño de estrategias de prevención, adaptación y mitigación al cambio climático y en el desarrollo con bajo carbono. Este programa incluye acciones orientadas a conocer, evaluar, prevenir y mitigar los efectos que puedan derivarse del fenómeno del cambio climático, a las personas, bienes e infraestructuras y ecosistemas regionales.Prevención y recuperación de afectación por incendios forestales 370 ha afectadas por incendios forestales en recuperación 720 actores municipales capacitados en prevención de incendios forestalesApoyo a formulación de planes territoriales de adaptación al cambio climático 125.100 ha de cuencas evaluadas y zonificadas por amenazas por movimientos en masa, avenidas torrenciales e inundaciones 2.155 ha de cabeceras municipales evaluadas y zonificadas por amenazas por movimiento en masa, avenidas torrenciales e inundaciones 42 municipios asesorados en ajustes al Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial (POT) Mitigación de áreas afectadas por inundaciones o avenidas torrenciales 3 obras de mitigación en cabeceras municipales Recursos de cofinanciación de obras de mitigación por $2.568 millones Fondo de atención de emergencias ambientales por $1.505 millones Fuente: CVC/CIAT (2014).Este programa contempla el proyecto número 1712: \"Desarrollo de una estrategia para mejorar la capacidad adaptativa de los sistemas ecológicos y sociales del Valle del Cauca frente al escenario de cambio climático\". Dentro de este proyecto, se incluyen las siguientes acciones:3 Sectores productivos con análisis de vulnerabilidad frente a los posibles efectos del cambio climático.3 Diseño de portafolios de estrategias de adaptación.3 Fortalecimiento de instancias de trabajo interinstitucional para el cambio climático.3 Inventarios municipales de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero.3 Estudios de identificación de energías alternativas de potencial aplicación en el Valle del Cauca.3 Acompañamiento a la Estrategia de Desarrollo Bajo en Carbono a nivel regional en alianza con los gremios.3 Proyectos piloto para la recuperación de la calidad del agua como medida de adaptación al cambio climático. La estructura del Plan de Desarrollo Departamental 2012-2015 \"El Valle Vale\" se compone de 5 ejes estratégicos, 16 objetivos específicos, 31 programas a ejecutar mediante subprogramas que den cuenta de 186 metas de resultado, y 98 subprogramas a desarrollar mediante proyectos que aporten al cumplimiento de 470 metas de producto. Además de esta estructura, el Plan cuenta con una parte que contiene capítulos denominados transversales de atención o impacto especial en el contexto del Plan de Desarrollo dentro de los que se encuentra: \"Ola invernal y adaptación al cambio climático\".En el Artículo 12 del Plan, Lineamientos de Política se propone implementar varias políticas, dentro de las que se encuentra \"Cambio Climático: En este ámbito, el reto del departamento desde sus funciones y competencias es contribuir a la reducción de la vulnerabilidad y a preparar al territorio departamental para la adaptación al cambio, fortaleciendo la gestión y la ejecución de proyectos y el trabajo conjunto con los sectores y regiones para el diseño de estrategias de mitigación y adaptación, participando en la implementación de la estrategia nacional de cambio climático, reducción de la vulnerabilidad y adaptación y desarrollo bajo en carbono\".El Capítulo IV: Ola invernal y adaptación al cambio climático tiene como objetivos:• Identificar y gestionar proyectos de gran magnitud (de prevención, de infraestructura y ambientales), en las zonas y comunidades del departamento que aún se encuentran en riesgo y son vulnerables a futuras olas invernales.• Postular ante el Fondo de Adaptación -Colombia Humanitaria anteproyectos para la reconstrucción, adaptación, rehabilitación y mitigación de la infraestructura de transporte, telecomunicaciones, agricultura, servicios públicos, vivienda, educación, salud, acueductos y alcantarillados y sectores agropecuarios ya afectados y en riesgo por las olas invernales.Dentro de los proyectos postulados al Fondo de Adaptación Colombia, se encuentra para el Municipio de Jamundí:• Proyecto 17: Construcción de las obras para el control de inundaciones en el subproyecto zanjón Tinajas-río Claro en el municipio de Jamundí, departamento del Valle del Cauca.• Proyecto 18: Construcción de las obras para el control de inundaciones en el subproyecto río Clarocanal Navarro en los municipios de Jamundí y Cali, departamento del Valle del Cauca.• Proyecto 33: Diseño y estudios para la construcción del embalse de regulación río Timba en el municipio de Jamundí, Valle del Cauca y Cauca.• Proyecto 35: Zonificación de amenazas, vulnerabilidad y escenarios de afectación y daño en ocho (8) cabeceras municipales por movimientos en masa, crecientes torrenciales e inundaciones y zonificación de amenaza por movimientos en masa en tres (3) cuencas hidrográficas del Valle del Cauca.• Proyecto 36: Diseño y estudios para la construcción del embalse de regulación río Jamundí en el municipio de Jamundí, Valle del Cauca.En el Capítulo IV. Armonización del plan departamental con las políticas nacionales, el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo incorpora las políticas existentes en cambio climático en el eje 4: Gestión territorial y ambiental con sostenibilidad, con un capítulo especial sobre el tema, en donde se hace énfasis en que para el departamento del Valle, el Plan Territorial de Adaptación al Cambio Climático es la herramienta mediante la cual se va a poder medir el riesgo a los eventos hidrometeorológicos extremos y definir las acciones y proyectos que deberán implementar los diferentes actores a nivel regional para reducir la vulnerabilidad ante estos fenómenos.En cuanto a los programas y subprogramas del plan, cuatro (4) de treinta y un (31) programas incorporan de alguna forma actividades tendientes a la gestión del cambio y la variabilidad climática y cinco (5) de noventa y ocho (98) subprogramas de los programas relacionados incorporan en las metas de producto actividades tendientes a la gestión del cambio y la variabilidad climática (NRCCEEC, 2014).A continuación, se presentan las generalidades del Plan de Desarrollo de Jamundí para el período 2012-2015 en lo que tiene que ver con asuntos relacionados con la gestión del cambio climático.Según la evaluación realizada al Plan de Desarrollo, se encontró que las temáticas relacionadas con la gestión del cambio climático se incorporan de la siguiente manera.En el Plan de Desarrollo del municipio de Jamundí, se encuentra presente el componente de cambio climático, en el cual están inmersos algunos componentes específicos como son el de la salud, con varios programas como el Programa de Salud Pública en el Subprograma de Seguridad Sanitaria y del Ambiente; el Programa de Promoción Social con el Subprograma de Promoción de la Salud y Prevención de Riesgos que Atentan contra la Salud de las Poblaciones Vulnerables; y el Programa de Emergencias y Desastres con el Subprograma de Respuesta Territorial ante las Situaciones de Emergencias y Desastres.En el componente de Vivienda, aparece el Programa de Impulso a Nuevos Proyectos Habitacionales con el Subprograma de Apoyo a la Construcción de Vivienda Nueva VIP -lotes urbanizados (hogares estratos 1 y 2, damnificados ola invernal, población vulnerable, reubicados y desplazados).En el componente Agropecuario y Minero, se evidencia el Programa Jamundí con Desarrollo Agrícola y Pecuario, el cual contiene el Subprograma de Fortalecimiento de la Seguridad Alimentaria.En el componente de Medio Ambiente Natural, se plantearon los siguiente programas relacionados: Programa de Sistema del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales Renovables con los Subprogramas de Formular el Sistema Integral Medioambiental y actualizar el Plan de Gestión Ambiental, apoyando la funcionalidad del Comité Técnico Interinstitucional de Educación Ambiental (CIDEA); Programa de Defensa del Patrimonio Ecológico con los Subprogramas de Proteger los Predios Destinados a Salvaguardar las Cuencas Hidrográficas y Áreas de Biodiversidad, Parques Nacionales y desarrollar capacitaciones en defensa del medio ambiente, y patrimonio ecológico; Programa de Manejo de Cuencas Hidrográficas con el Subprograma de Manejo de la Cuenca Hidrográfica del río Jamundí; Programa para Mantener el Ambiente Sano con los Subprogramas de Adquirir Predios de Fuentes de Aguas y Reforestar Zonas Afectadas por Tala y Quema de Árboles y con presencia de procesos erosivos (especies nativas), controlar las emisiones contaminantes del aire por quemas de cañaduzales y otros, fertilizantes, industria, vehículos y monitorear el uso del suelo en las cuencas estratégicas del municipio.Finalmente, en el componente de atención de desastres aparece el Programa de Gestión de Riesgos con el Subprograma de Implementación del Plan de Gestión del Riesgo del Municipio de Jamundí y apoyar la reubicación de familias en situación de riesgos naturales.Para cada uno de estos programas y subprogramas, se identifican metas de producto y metas de resultado, las cuales se encuentran debidamente presupuestadas con fuentes de financiación para su ejecución.No obstante, en la mayoría de casos, se encuentran estrategias y proyectos generales que podrían responder a enfoques de desarrollo y gestión del territorio desde enfoques convencionales, no necesariamente concebidos de forma explícita en materia de gestión del cambio climático.Esta situación podría poner en riesgo la adecuada gestión del cambio climático en el municipio, toda vez que si bien la gestión del cambio climático involucra procesos generales que no son innovadores en lo relacionado a las dimensiones de planificación y gestión del territorio, sí existen particularidades y enfoques específicos que deben orientar los proyectos relacionados con la gestión del cambio climático a escala territorial.Otro de los referentes de planificación local, abordado como insumo base para el análisis de riesgos asociados al cambio climático fue el Plan Básico de Ordenamiento Territorial del municipio de Jamundí.Al respecto, el Subcapítulo 7. Artículo 83. \"Delimitación de zonas de amenaza\" propone para el municipio contar con un Plan de Mitigación de riesgo por avenida torrencial en el casco urbano, teniendo en cuenta aspectos como la restitución de áreas ocupadas en las riberas urbanas de los zanjones. En los artículos 84, 85 y 86, se plantean acciones con respecto a la dotación de servicios públicos en las zonas que se encuentren en amenaza y/o riesgo no mitigable, y se describen los sectores que requieren procesos de reubicación (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002, p. 31):Cabecera corregimiento de Timba. Caserío de la Guaira, invasión sur y la escuela José María Córdoba. Por lo tanto, se deben realizar los estudios técnicos necesarios para determinar las medidas a tomar y reubicar a 30 familias del sector invasión sur (Figura No. 1 Amenazas Casco Urbano Timba, Documento soporte, Formulación) (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002).Cabecera corregimiento de La Meseta. El caserío se encuentra ubicado en un deslizamiento antiguo, posiblemente generado por la falla de Jamundí que pasa al occidente. Este deslizamiento corresponde a depósitos de vertiente (coluvión), los cuales están constituidos por materiales altamente porosos y permeables que son alimentados por las aguas de escorrentía, fugas de los sistemas de acueducto y aguas residuales, que han generado una serie de grietas en dicho coluvión, desestabilizando a numerosas viviendas (Fig. No. 1 Fenómenos de remoción en masa casco urbano La Meseta Documento soporte, Formulación, p. 209. Plano R36-A) (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002).Cabecera corregimiento de Puente Vélez. Se encuentran bajo amenaza por inundación 13 familias cuyas viviendas se encuentran localizadas dentro de la llanura de inundación del río Jamundí, las cuales las hacen susceptibles tanto por avalanchas o posibles represamientos del río Jamundí como de la quebrada Guerrero, de acuerdo a los datos históricos que se tienen del lugar. Esta zona ha sido categorizada como de amenaza alta; por lo tanto, dichas familias deberán ser reubicadas en el corto plazo y la zona deberá ser declarada como área de protección (Fig No . 1 Zonificación amenazas naturales casco urbano Puente Vélez. pp. 221 a 223) (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002, p. 32).En el Artículo 88, se establece como suelo de protección las zonas de amenaza y/o riesgo no mitigable.El Capítulo 1 \"Amenaza por avenida Torrencial\" plantea en su Artículo 89 que el municipio deberá contratar o realizar el estudio de zonificación de amenazas por inundación que se presenten en la zona plana, teniendo en cuenta su severidad y definiendo si son o no mitigables. Estos estudios deberán contribuir a definir la potencialidad de urbanización y en qué condiciones (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002, p. 33).El Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial (POT) define áreas para la reubicación de población asentada en zona de amenaza y riesgo alto, como es el caso de la cabecera del corregimiento de Puente Vélez, señaladas en el plano No. R38-A (Artículo 92). Asimismo propone identificar y condicionar áreas para una eventual utilización como refugios temporales en casos de desastre, en los corregimientos de Puente Vélez, Timba, La Meseta, Bocas del Palo y Robles (Artículo 100) (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002, p. 35).El municipio presenta una clara delimitación de zonas de amenaza y riesgo alto frente a fenómenos meteorológicos, hidrometeorológicos y climatológicos, lo que ha llevado a plantear medidas de mitigación, como las que propone en el Artículo 96, para mitigar el fenómeno de deslizamiento en el sector La Granja, planteando las siguientes obras:• Construcción de un canal interceptor.• Sellamiento de grietas con material impermeable (arcilloso).• Construcción de espolones en la pata del talud.• Restablecer el perfil natural del terreno.• Siembra de especies nativas.Para la mitigación de la erosión marginal presentada en el sector de Playa Amarilla, del corregimiento de Quinamayó, producida por el río Cauca, el Artículo 97 propone que se deben construir canales o zanjas colectoras para la escorrentía de aguas lluvias en todo el sector urbano y así mitigar el problema que se presenta por la inundación de las calles Asimismo, el Artículo 99 propone la construcción de cunetas colectoras para mitigar la amenaza presente en el casco urbano del corregimiento de Robles, por avenidas torrenciales en períodos de fuertes lluvias, generando inundaciones en las calles y en algunas viviendas.El Capítulo 2 del POT hace referencia a la amenaza por remoción en masa, para lo cual, en el Artículo 105, p. 36, se plantea realizar un mapa de zonificación de amenazas por remoción en masa, deslizamientos, independiente de otras amenazas, abarcando toda el área de montaña, con la categorización de áreas de acuerdo a la intensidad con que se pueda presentar el evento, definiendo si son mitigables o no, y en los casos que así lo amerite, su expectativa de urbanización y en qué condiciones. En sus Artículos 106 y 107, propone el traslado de las familias que se encuentran en situación de amenaza alta por este fenómeno como la cabecera del corregimiento de La Meseta y viviendas localizadas en la vereda Alto Río Claro, corregimiento de Ampudia.Con respecto a la amenaza por inundación del río Jamundí, el Artículo 108 (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002, p. 37) se dispone trasladar las familias que se encuentran localizadas dentro de la llanura de inundación del río, por la susceptibilidad tanto por avalanchas o posibles represamientos del río, como la quebrada Guerrero.Otras zonas que se encuentran en situación de riesgo por inundaciones son las localizadas en la ribera de Los Zanjones, Barrancas, Medio y El Rosario según lo planteado en el Artículo 220 (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002, p. 76).El Zanjón Barrancas afecta los barrios: La Aurora, Portal de Jamundí, Belalcázar, Popular, Acacias, Piloto.El Zanjón Rosario afecta los barrios: La Lucha, Ciro Velasco y La Morada.En el Capítulo 3 \"Riesgo de incendios forestales\", se propone la conformación de brigadas de prevención frente a este fenómeno y la formulación y activación del plan de contingencia (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002, Art. 109, p. 37). Las zonas de muy alta probabilidad de ocurrencia de este fenómeno son los corregimientos de La Meseta, Villa Colombia, San Antonio, Puente Vélez, San Vicente, Timba, Robles y Guachinte; y con amenaza media, Potrerito, La Liberia, otras áreas de La Meseta, Villa Colombia y Guachinte (plano No. R15). Asimismo, el Artículo 112, p. 38, propone solicitar un protocolo de actuación a las entidades privadas y públicas, que defina las acciones de prevención y operación, para atender los incendios relacionados con la quema de caña de azúcar.Asimismo, establece en el Artículo 114 (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002, p. 38) la necesidad de una actualización con periodicidad de 6 meses del inventario de recursos (maquinaria y equipo) por institución, para atender emergencias relacionadas con este fenómeno, con la coordinación del Comité Local de Prevención y Atención de Desastres (CLOPAD). También el municipio deberá actualizar la información relacionada con la adecuación y construcción de vías rurales de la zona de ladera y aptitud forestal como insumos básicos para desarrollar actividades de prevención y mitigación de incendios forestales (Art. 116) (Concejo Municipal de Jamundí, 2002, p. 38).Por su parte, el municipio de Jamundí cuenta con el Concejo Municipal para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres que, en cumplimiento de los artículos 12, 14, 28 y 37 de la Ley 1523 de 2012, diseñó la Estrategia Municipal para la Respuesta a Emergencias como herramienta derivada y concordante con el Plan Municipal para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (PMGRD), la cual define los procesos y procedimientos para la atención inmediata y futura de las emergencias que se puedan presentar con base en los escenarios de riesgo priorizados para este municipio, los cuales se mencionan a continuación (Alcaldía de Jamundí, 2012b):En el PMGRD, se encuentran caracterizados cada uno de los escenarios de riesgo, los cuales describen las situaciones de desastre o emergencia según los antecedentes, la descripción del escenario, el análisis futuro e identificación de medidas de intervención, observaciones y limitaciones, y referencias y fuentes de información utilizadas (Alcaldía de Jamundí, 2012b).Cada uno de los escenarios que se proyectaron para el municipio de Jamundí se efectuaron sobre la base de información obtenida de las amenazas y el análisis de la vulnerabilidad municipal, igualmente en el PMGRD se elaboraron escenarios de riesgo tomando en consideración la información histórica disponible sobre eventos ocurridos y los efectos que estos tuvieron sobre la población, infraestructura y servicios. Para cada escenario priorizado, se establecieron las áreas afectadas, indicadores de afectación, cantidad o efecto estimado y nivel de riesgo (Alcaldía de Jamundí, 2012b).Identificados los diferentes escenarios posibles de afectación en el municipio de Jamundí, el objetivo de la Estrategia Municipal para la Respuesta a Emergencias es fijar el marco normativo procedimental y de actuación para la efectiva y eficaz atención de emergencias (Alcaldía de Jamundí, 2012b).Como se ha intentado señalar en el presente documento, existen una serie de evidencias científicas que muestran que el cambio climático es un proceso real y que tiene y tendrá múltiples impactos en diferentes sistemas del territorio.En este sentido, Colombia ha venido avanzando en la generación de políticas y lineamientos para la adaptación planificada frente a la variabilidad y el cambio climático a través de documentos orientadores como el CONPES 3700 y el Plan Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático (PNACC); no obstante, estos ejercicios deben ser materializados en escalas regionales y sobre todo locales.Es así como la CVC, preocupada y comprometida con la planificación y gestión del cambio climático local, ha venido desarrollando una serie de ejercicios tendientes a la construcción participativa de \"portafolios de adaptación al cambio climático\" en diferentes municipios del Valle del Cauca.Este proceso inició en el año 2013 con la construcción de los portafolios de Tuluá y Guadalajara de Buga mediante Convenio con la Unidad Central del Valle del Cauca (UCEVA) y más recientemente mediante Convenio Interadministrativo No. 033 de 2014 con el CIAT, el cual tiene como objeto aunar esfuerzos y recursos humanos, económicos y técnicos para realizar acciones en el marco de la mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático en el Valle del Cauca, se han realizado los portafolios para Cartago y Alcalá y actualmente se están construyendo los portafolios de los municipios de Santiago de Cali, Jamundí y otros municipios del Valle del Cauca.El portafolio de medidas de adaptación al cambio climático es un proceso de construcción colectiva de medidas de adaptación mediante la coordinación, articulación y asesoría en la gestión, aplicación y desarrollo de políticas y estrategias relacionadas con el cambio climático a escala municipal, el cual servirá como herramienta para la toma de decisiones en los procesos de planificación y gestión ambiental territorial que permita disminuir la vulnerabilidad y aumentar la capacidad de respuesta ante impactos asociados a la variabilidad y el cambio climático, así como avanzar en procesos de mitigación del cambio climático.El presente portafolio servirá como instrumento para la toma de decisiones para una adaptación planificada frente al cambio climático. En este sentido, contiene una serie de acciones estratégicas que deben ser armonizadas en el territorio y desarrolladas entre los diferentes actores del mismo.Asimismo, el portafolio incluye la priorización de estas medidas y una herramienta para la selección objetiva de rutas operativas para el desarrollo de futuros proyectos en función de las prioridades por área temática identificadas de forma participativa en el proceso de construcción de este portafolio.Finalmente, es conveniente que este documento sea revisado de forma periódica con el fin de evaluar los avances y logros obtenidos, así como para incorporar nuevas iniciativas en función de las modificaciones reales del clima y el ajuste de los escenarios de cambio climático proyectados con base en nueva información.En este punto, se presenta de forma general el procedimiento metodológico usado para la construcción del portafolio de adaptación a la variabilidad y el cambio climático del municipio de Cali, Valle del Cauca.El proceso constó de cuatro fases. En la fase 1, se desarrolló el aprestamiento y creación de condiciones para la construcción del portafolio. En la fase 2, se realizó el análisis del contexto global-nacional y el análisis del contexto territorial local, el cual consistió en la revisión de información sectorial, identificación de cambios a futuro y análisis de debilidades, oportunidades, fortalezas y amenazas (DOFA). En la fase 3, se realizó la construcción del marco estratégico y programático del portafolio con la identificación de alternativas y acciones estratégicas y el análisis multicriterio (AHP). Y finalmente en la fase 4, se procedió a realizar la consolidación del portafolio de medidas de mitigación y adaptación y al cambio climático.A continuación, se presenta un resumen del procedimiento metodológico. Para el desarrollo de dicho proceso, se utilizaron siete instrumentos metodológicos, los cuales se explican a continuación. Formato 1. Análisis de actores, con el objetivo de realizar la identificación de los actores del proceso, su modo de participación y capacidades en la construcción del portafolio de medidas de adaptación. (Para mayor información, consultar el Anexo 1. Formato 1: Análisis de Actores).Formato 2. Identificación de acciones/proyectos, el cual tiene como objetivo obtener la información necesaria acerca de los proyectos conocidos. (Para mayor información, consultar el Anexo 2. Formato 2: Identificación de acciones/proyectos). Formato 3. Cambios esperados para el futuro (Tecnológico, económico, social, ambiental, institucional y organizacional), con el objetivo de identificar los cambios en el municipio relacionados con el cambio climático y la variabilidad climática. (ParaA continuación, se presentan los resultados del ejercicio de análisis-síntesis de la información primaria recolectada a partir de las percepciones de los actores del territorio sobre la variabilidad y el cambio climático a escala municipal.En este punto, se consolidan los resultados relacionados con la percepción de los actores frente a los cambios presentidos (se tienen evidencias de su ocurrencia), anhelados (se desea que ocurran) y temidos (preocupa que puedan ocurrir) relacionados con el cambio y la variabilidad climática a escala local.Estos cambios se resumen en seis categorías: ecosistemas, capacidades locales, riesgo, recurso hídrico, tecnología, y sistemas productivos y seguridad alimentaria.mayor información, consultar el Anexo 3. Formato 3: Cambios esperados para el futuro). Formato 7. Formato de valoración de criterios para la selección de medidas y proyectos de adaptación al cambio y variabilidad climática. Metodología de Análisis Jerárquico (AHP), el cual consiste en establecer la importancia de cada uno de los criterios que se han definido para la calificación y selección de medidas y proyectos de adaptación al cambio y variabilidad climática en su municipio. (Para mayor información, consultar el Anexo 7. Formato 7: Análisis Jerárquico AHP).Cuadro 5. Cambios presentidos, anhelados y temidos relacionados con los ecosistemas.• Reducción de la cobertura forestal• Promoción de procesos de capacitación y sensibilización sobre el tema• Implementación de actividades de restauración ecológica• Promoción de procesos de reforestación en áreas estratégicas• Mejoramiento de los procesos de control a la tala ilegal y de expansión de la frontera agrícola y minera en el PNN Los Farallones de Cali• Implementación de procesos de conservación de suelos en zonas de ladera A partir de la identificación de las fortalezas y debilidades en los talleres participativos de construcción del portafolio, se consolidó el perfil de capacidad interna(PCI), en el cual se resumen todas aquellas situaciones en las que existen ciertos márgenes de gobernabilidad territorial local.Dentro del análisis de actores realizado, se encontró que los sectores que más participaron en la construcción del portafolio de adaptación a la variabilidad y el cambio climático en el municipio de Jamundí fueron el sector público con 67%, seguido por las organizaciones de la sociedad civil con el 12%, la sociedad civil y las entidades privadas con el 7% cada una, y finalmente la academia con el 5% y las ONG con el 2%.Figura 18. Participación de actores en la construcción del portafolio.Los actores participantes también fueron consultados respecto a su disposición de participar en las diferentes fases del proceso de gestión del cambio climático a escala local, los resultados fueron los siguientes. Según la figura anterior, se evidencia que el interés de participación en la construcción del portafolio en Jamundí en cada una de sus etapas es de 26% en la formulación, 27% en la implementación, 28% en el seguimiento y 19% en la evaluación.Los datos anteriores evidencian la necesidad de fortalecer la participación de todos los actores del Figura 20. Recursos que los actores están dispuestos a suministrar para la implementación del portafolio.El porcentaje de recursos ofertados para el proceso de implementación del portafolio por parte de los participantes fue del 69% en recursos humanos, seguido por los recursos físicos con el 24%, para otros recursos 7% y finalmente para los económicos no se ofertaron recursos.Lo anterior evidencia que existe una amplia disposición de participar en el proceso; no obstante, la intención de disponer recursos financieros para el desarrollo del portafolio es nula, lo que puede denotar que es necesario socializar estos insumos con los tomadores de decisión, que en muchos casos no asisten a este tipo de ejercicios.Con el fin de promover mecanismos de administración, gestión y seguimiento del portafolio de medidas de adaptación, se propone el siguiente esquema de organización y gestión, el cual busca facilitar la armonización de acciones sectoriales en función de objetivos generales o estratégicos y en un escenario de complementariedad y subsidiariedad desde el nivel nacional hasta el local.Otros 7% Económicos 0% territorio relacionados en los procesos de ejecución de las medidas del presente portafolio, lo que puede lograrse en función de proyectos concretos y específicos de alcance interinstitucional e intersectorial que promuevan la articulación de acciones en función de objetivos o propósitos conjuntos.Transferencia de información e insumos El esquema anterior básicamente plantea la conformación de una serie de mesas temáticas o sectoriales con la presencia de los actores relacionados y competentes, pero buscando siempre que en estos escenarios estén presentes los cuatros tipos de actores del territorio: instituciones públicas, academia, sectores productivos y sociedad civil. Asimismo, es recomendable que estas mesas establezcan un mecanismo de retroalimentación con el Nodo Regional de Cambio Climático y que entre ellas haya un flujo permanente de información e insumos, toda vez que algunas instituciones como la Alcaldía y la CVC, por sus competencias, tendrán asiento en más de una mesa.Finalmente y previendo el panorama organizacional del orden nacional, es recomendable -además de necesario -articular acciones, enfoques y proyectos con los diferentes organismos del nivel nacional en el marco del sistema nacional de cambio climático al que hace referencia el CONPES 3700.Esta sección sustenta la revisión de proyectos existentes y la propuesta de otros que pudieran aportar soluciones viables para la adaptación al cambio climático en el municipio de Jamundí.La adopción de medidas y proyectos que generen un alto impacto sobre los procesos de adaptación es importante, toda vez que contribuyen a reducir las posibles implicaciones negativas del cambio climático sobre el bienestar humano y los medios de vida, teniendo en cuenta que deben ser utilizados de forma realista y aplicada a lo que se puede lograr en un tiempo cercano.En el caso del cambio climático, es necesario desarrollar estrategias prontas para responder a los desafíos que trae consigo este fenómeno y realizar acciones orientadas a la adaptación, asociadas a diferentes componentes que pueden verse desestabilizados por dicho fenómeno o paradójicamente ayudar a minimizar los impactos que trae consigo la variabilidad climática, cuando se encuentran fortalecidos.Para este ejercicio en particular, y con el propósito de elaborar un portafolio que facilite la toma de decisiones, se priorizaron siete criterios que representan componentes fundamentales en el proceso de adaptación social al cambio climático en el municipio de Jamundí. Posteriormente, bajo la metodología multicriterio del proceso analítico jerárquico, se identificaron las medidas y proyectos que representan un mayor impacto potencial en el proceso de adaptación, configurando un contenido programático que será insumo importante en su planificación territorial. Finalmente, se proponen iniciativas marco para la formulación de proyectos de adaptación, a partir de los resultados obtenidos en la fase de prospectiva territorial descrita anteriormente.A continuación, se presenta en los siguientes apartes el proceso metodológico abordado para la priorización y selección de medidas y proyectos, así como sus resultados.A partir de los talleres realizados y de las indagaciones sobre información secundaria relacionada con medidas y proyectos formulados, en ejecución o en fase de formulación para la adaptación al cambio climático, y con el propósito de generar una priorización de aquellos identificados, se planteó la necesidad de asignar una importancia a los criterios de selección, que permitiera relacionar niveles de preferencia sobre los aspectos más relevantes en materia de adaptación para el municipio de Jamundí. Todo ello desde el conocimiento local representado por los actores sociales y participantes del municipio.La metodología implementada para facilitar el proceso de toma de decisión frente a la configuración de un portafolio de adaptación fue el Proceso Analítico Jerárquico (AHP, por sus siglas en inglés). El AHP es un método de evaluación y decisión multicriterio, desarrollado por el matemático Thomas Saaty, que consiste en formalizar la compresión intuitiva de problemas complejos mediante la construcción de un modelo jerárquico. El propósito del método es permitir que el agente decisor pueda estructurar un problema multicriterio en forma visual, mediante la construcción de un modelo jerárquico que contiene tres niveles: meta u objetivo, criterios y alternativas.El AHP se fundamenta en:• La estructuración de un modelo jerárquico (representación del problema mediante identificación de meta, criterios, subcriterios y alternativas).• Priorización de los elementos del modelo jerárquico.• Comparaciones binarias entre los elementos.• Evaluación de los elementos mediante asignación de \"pesos\".• Clasificación de las alternativas de acuerdo con los pesos dados.• Síntesis y análisis de resultados.El AHP hace posible la toma de decisiones grupal mediante el agregado de opiniones, de tal manera que satisfaga la relación recíproca al comparar dos elementos, luego toma el promedio geométrico de las opiniones. Cuando el grupo de expertos genera cada uno su propia jerarquía, el AHP combina los resultados por el promedio geométrico de las mismas (Saaty, 1997).A continuación, se plantea el desarrollo de este esquema metodológico para las medidas y proyectos identificados, así como los resultados de este proceso incluyente para la toma de decisiones ante nuevos proyectos o medidas de adaptación para el municipio de Jamundí.La estructuración del modelo jerárquico para la priorización de las medidas y proyectos identificados se desarrolla a través de los siguientes componentes metodológicos, que configuran un proceso confiable para la toma de decisiones ante las actuales medidas o proyectos, y los futuros.Actualmente, en materia de adaptación al cambio climático, son importantes los esfuerzos, recursos e inversiones sociales que hacen parte de los contenidos programáticos de los instrumentos de planificación territorial: las agendas institucionales, los programas locales y las apuestas comunitarias. Todos estos de gran relevancia bajo un contexto general de adaptación; sin embargo, no todas estas iniciativas responden en igual medida a las prioridades que para el municipio de Jamundí puede representar el contexto sociocultural, ambiental y económico-político desde el cual busca una adaptación exitosa al cambio climático.Estas condiciones particulares, identificadas en la fase prospectiva de este ejercicio, contienen amenazas y vulnerabilidades que generan escenarios únicos ante los cuales adaptarse. Por tal motivo, resulta de interés la priorización de medidas y proyectos que respondan a criterios o componentes de mayor importancia para los autores del proceso de adaptación en el municipio, de tal manera que dichos esfuerzos generen impactos positivos para el municipio al corto y mediano plazo.El objetivo del AHP en este estudio es el de \"seleccionar las medidas o proyectos con mayor impacto potencial sobre las prioridades de adaptación y mitigación del municipio de Jamundí\".Dichas alternativas responden a problemáticas relacionadas con el cambio y la variabilidad climática y configuran un portafolio de medidas y proyectos que responden a este propósito.El departamento del Valle del Cauca ha venido desarrollando en diferentes municipios portafolios de estrategias, medidas y proyectos de adaptación y mitigación, planteando con esto un referente para el abordaje de la temática desde un enfoque articulador y coherente con las perspectivas de los vallecaucanos.Fruto de estos procesos y como resultado de diagnósticos participativos en los municipios de Cartago, Guadalajara de Buga, Tuluá, Alcalá y Santiago de Cali, se evaluaron y validaron en Jamundí siete (7) criterios por parte de los agentes claves involucrados en los talleres.Estos siete criterios fueron empleados para la calificación y selección de un número limitado de medidas y proyectos, los cuales conformarán el marco decisorio para la configuración del portafolio.Para cada criterio, se presenta su nombre, una pregunta clave (que corresponde a la pregunta que debe plantearse quien realice la calificación de una medida o proyecto) y una breve descripción de la intención que se tiene con la aplicación del criterio. El listado de los 7 criterios se enuncia en un consecutivo desde el literal A hasta el G, donde estos no se encuentran ordenados de acuerdo a su importancia o jerarquía para la toma de la decisiones.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto involucra procesos de adaptación relacionados con la soberanía y seguridad alimentaria ante la variabilidad y el cambio climático?Por medio de este criterio, se busca priorizar proyectos y medidas relacionadas con la adaptación ecológica y cultural de los agroecosistemas a la variabilidad y el cambio climático, el reconocimiento y recuperación de saberes y prácticas productivas ancestrales que garanticen la soberanía y seguridad alimentaria ante el cambio climático.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto contempla adaptaciones, manejo o mitigación de riesgos relacionados con variabilidad y cambio climático?A través de este criteriom se busca priorizar aquellas medidas y proyectos que involucran posibles adaptaciones desde la gestión del riesgo ante el cambio climático, involucrando obras de manejo y mitigación de riesgos por escenarios de variabilidad y cambio climático, como vendavales, incendios forestales, inundaciones urbanas, avenidas torrenciales, el manejo de procesos erosivos en zonas de ladera, entre otros.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto representa posibles adaptaciones para la gestión integral del agua ante escenarios de variabilidad y cambio climático?Este criterio prioriza medidas y proyectos que involucran procesos de gestión del agua a escala de cuenca hidrográfica, desde aspectos ecológicos y culturales relacionados con la oferta-demanda y calidad del recurso, como la protección y recuperación de fuentes abastecedoras, el ahorro y uso eficiente del agua y la salud ambiental.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto busca la conservación de ecosistemas estratégicos para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática?Este criterio busca entregar una mayor prioridad a las medidas y proyectos relacionados con la conectividad ecosistémica, la gestión ambiental en áreas naturales protegidas y la conservación y regulación de fuentes hídricas y de los bosques del Departamento. Involucra además proyectos que contemplan procesos de conservación en el marco de esquemas de pago por servicios ambientales y/o exenciones tributarias por conservación de áreas ambientales estratégicas.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto plantea la incorporación de prácticas y procesos sostenibles en los sistemas productivos como respuesta al cambio y la variabilidad climática?Este criterio otorga una mayor prioridad a las medidas o proyectos que incorporan de prácticas de manejo ecológicas en los sistemas productivos del municipio con el fin de hacerlos más resilientes y/o adaptativos ante el cambio y la variabilidad climática.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto proporciona escenarios para la investigación, formación de capacidades y/o apropiación de conocimientos en torno a la gestión y adaptación ante el cambio climático?Este criterio confiere una mayor prioridad a medidas o proyectos relacionados con procesos de investigación, generación de información, formación de capacidades humanas para la gestión del cambio climático, así como la apropiación social, institucional y sectorial de su conocimiento, la proyección de procesos de educación ambiental enfocados en temas relacionados con el cambio climático y el reconocimiento de las vulnerabilidades e identidades culturales locales.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto implica el desarrollo o transferencia de tecnologías ambientalmente apropiadas para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática?Por medio de este criterio, se otorga mayor prioridad a las medidas o proyectos que plantean procesos de apropiación de tecnologías (tradicionales y de punta) que sirven a posibles adaptaciones al cambio y la variabilidad climática, aplicables en el sector agropecuario, en los sistemas urbanos, o en los sistemas de información para la toma de decisiones, apropiadas en términos de viabilidad socio-económica, ambiental y cultural.Con el fin de desglosar el problema en sus componentes relevantes, se plantea conforme a la metodología AHP la estructuración de la jerarquía del problema objeto de decisión, a través de la cual se pretende alcanzar el objetivo planteado. Los criterios ya mencionados y alternativas, constituidas por las medidas y proyectos identificados en función del objetivo, permitirán la materialización de un portafolio priorizado que atienda en mayor medida las perspectivas que en cuanto a adaptación se tienen en el municipio de Jamundí.Figura 22. Modelo jerárquico para la toma de decisiones con AHP.\"Priorizar las medidas y proyectos con mayor impacto potencial sobre las prioridades de adaptación del municipio de Jamundí Debido a la existencia de un número de siete criterios (alternativas), los cuales conforman la línea de decisión desde la cual se realizará la selección de las medidas y proyectos, el método utilizado para la comparación de criterios fue la medida absoluta, dado que este método permite el manejo de un bajo número de alternativas.Una vez definido el método de comparación, se realizó este proceso por pares para conocer las preferencias o pesos entre los diferentes criterios. De esa forma, se obtuvo una jerarquía, que contrastada con el cumplimiento o no de cada criterio, permitió la evaluación en forma independiente de cada una de las medidas y proyectos.En esta etapa del estudio, se examinaron los elementos del problema aisladamente por medio de comparaciones por pares. Las evaluaciones o juicios fueron emitidos por los analistas o agentes claves interesados, que a su vez hicieron parte del desarrollo de los talleres. La inclusión de estos grupos de interés o decisores, los cuales se vieron representados en el modelo construido, les permitirá a la luz de lo resultados evaluar el modelo consensuado de acuerdo con sus intereses y necesidades particulares.Para el desarrollo de la valoración de criterios, se empleó una escala ajustada a la planteada por Saaty (1997), donde se establece una serie de medidas que varían en un rango de 1 a 5, relacionadas con juicios verbales de tipo cualitativo, los cuales a su vez establecen un grado de preferencia sobre los elementos comparados.Cuadro 13. Escala de valoración de Saaty.Moderadamente más importante 2Muy poderosamente más importante 4Fuente: Esquema propuesto por Morales et al. (2011).El objetivo de este ejercicio consistió en establecer la importancia de cada uno de los criterios que se han definido para la calificación y selección de medidas y proyectos de adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática en el municipio de Jamundí. Los resultados de este ejercicio constituirán el insumo base para la realización de un análisis de jerarquías por medio de la metodología AHP, lo que permitirá establecer la importancia de los diferentes criterios.Para el desarrollo del ejercicio, se procedió por parte de los actores involucrados y decisores a responder las preguntas que se encuentran en las columnas dos y tres del Cuadro 14 con base en la información contenida en cada una de las filas. Para el caso de la pregunta ¿En qué grado considera usted que es más importante?, el grado de importancia se calificó con base en la escala de valoración planteada por Saaty, colocando en el espacio correspondiente del cuadro el valor numérico que correspondió al juicio realizado sobre la importancia. Cuadro 14. Formato utilizado para la calificación de criterios por pares.¿En qué grado considera usted que es más importante?Recurso HídricoFuente: Esquema propuesto por Morales et al. (2011).El formato completo puede consultarse en el Anexo 7.Una vez realizada la comparación y asignación de pesos con base en la preferencia individual de cada actor involucrado, se procedió a la obtención de una preferencia colectiva, a partir de la ponderación de los valores otorgados individualmente. En este proceso, se promediaron las valoraciones realizadas por agentes interesados y decisores del municipio de Jamundí.La preferencia resultante constituyó la jerarquía final otorgada para cada criterio, con relación a los otros, jerarquía relacionada con un valor numérico que posteriormente permitirá la evaluación de las medidas y proyectos, a partir de la sumatoria de los valores relacionados con el cumplimiento o no de cada uno de los criterios.La ponderación efectuada representa la medida absoluta del peso asignado a cada criterio por todos los actores, y puede apreciarse con mayor detalle en el siguiente cuadro, así como sus respectivas razones de consistencia, las cuales según la metodología demuestran coherencia en las calificaciones realizadas si este índice obtiene un valor igual o menor a 0,1.  Razón de consistencia (consistencia si es <0,1) 0,04 0,09 0,09 0,03 0,03 0,07 0,1 0,04 0,08 0,06 0,09 0,04Cuadro 15. Ponderación de pesos asignados para cada criterio.El índice de inconsistencia para cada una de las valoraciones efectuadas, fue en todos los casos menor o igual a 0,10, lo cual representa una calificación coherente y aceptable bajo el enfoque multicriterio del AHP.Como resultado de la ponderación, los actores definieron una jerarquía para los criterios, de acuerdo a los pesos establecidos en las calificaciones. Esta jerarquía puede apreciarse en el Cuadro 16.El número final de escalas jerárquicas obtenidas fue de 7 para los criterios comparados.El resultado de este ejercicio plantea como el criterio de mayor importancia para el colectivo de participantes, en materia de mitigación y adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática, la \"Gestión integral del recurso hídrico\", seguido por la \"Conservación de ecosistemas y áreas de interés ambiental\". Estos dos criterios configuran el grupo de mayor relevancia para las prioridades del municipio, evidenciando una perspectiva en la que medidas y proyectos con estos alcances podrían representar un mayor impacto en el proceso de adaptación.Un segundo grupo de tres criterios, con pesos que oscilan entre 0,167 y 0,13, lo construye la \"Generación de Capacidades para la Gestión y Adaptación ante el Cuadro 16. Jerarquía final de criterios.Criterios para la selección de acciones medidas y proyectos de adaptación Medida absoluta El \"Desarrollo y Transferencia de Tecnologías Ambientalmente Apropiadas para la adaptación\" y la \"Soberanía y Seguridad Alimentaria ante el Cambio Climático\", recibieron la menor calificación en el proceso de priorización. Este resultado no significa que estos criterios carezcan de relevancia; significa más bien que en estos aspectos, desde la percepción de los participantes, ya se cuenta con avances significativos y/o no se percibe una vulnerabilidad considerable. Es importante aclarar que todos los criterios resultan importantes para los procesos de adaptación y mitigación, y que estas jerarquías deben ser interpretadas desde la complementariedad de las temáticas que debe abordar una estrategia, proyecto o medida, de tal forma que involucre más de un criterio y en mayor medida aquellas identificadas como prioritarias.Por consiguiente, estos pesos y jerarquías serán de utilidad en el momento de evaluar cada proyecto o medida de adaptación y mitigación, en función de los criterios que resultan prioritarios para las particularidades que afronta el municipio, desde la perspectiva de sus habitantes.Contando con este resultado, a continuación se describen las medidas y proyectos identificados, y se presenta su respectiva evaluación desde las prioridades establecidas anteriormente.Identificación y cualificación de medidas y proyectos.Como resultado de las consultas realizadas, se identificaron un total de 45 diferentes medidas y proyectos con impacto potencial sobre la adaptación. Estas constituyen las alternativas evaluadas desde los criterios de sostenibilidad, aplicados en el marco de la metodología AHP.Para facilitar la comprensión de los resultados obtenidos, se plantea un sistema de cualificación de las medidas y proyectos, basado en los umbrales determinados para cada componente o criterio en el proceso de priorización descrito anteriormente. Estos umbrales determinan un grado de aporte a las prioridades del municipio en términos de adaptación para cada proyecto o medida evaluada, donde se presentarán mayores aportes en aquellos proyectos que responden de manera integral a más de un componente o criterio priorizado. El Cuadro 17 presenta el sistema de cualificación utilizado en el proceso de priorización de medidas y proyectos.Cuadro 17. Sistema de cualificación de medidas y proyectos.Valoración (grado de aporte a las prioridades de adaptación)Hasta el 13% Proyectos de impacto puntual Proyectos identificados que por sus características son importantes para el municipio, pero constituyen respuestas puntuales a temáticas o criterios concretos de adaptación, no obstante podrían ser desarrollados si las condiciones de gobernabilidad son favorables/Proyectos que pueden ser objeto de revisión para ampliar su impacto sobre los componentes prioritarios Hasta el 16,7%Proyectos relevantesHasta el 42,1% Proyectos necesarios Proyectos identificados que a pesar de su mediano impacto asociado pueden empezar a implementarse en el corto y mediano plazo, toda vez que las condiciones para su desarrollo sean adecuadas.Proyectos identificados que por sus características y potencial de impacto deben ser desarrollados de forma inmediata; representando estrategias integrales que aportan a diferentes componentes de adaptación de importancia para el municipio; no obstante, podrían ser abordadas en un horizonte superior en caso de que sea necesario crear condiciones, o no existentes aún, para su óptimo desarrollo.A continuación, se presenta el resultado de la aplicación del sistema de cualificación y la priorización de criterios o componentes de la adaptación a los proyectos y medidas identificadas.Una vez realizada la totalidad de comparaciones, se obtuvo como resultado final consensuado el ordenamiento de las medidas y proyectos, con base en las prioridades, en la emisión de juicios y evaluación hecha a través de las comparaciones de los componentes del modelo jerárquico, llevada a cabo por los actores. Este proceso se desarrolló a partir de la evaluación o calificación bajo un esquema de pregunta clave con única respuesta, donde cada alternativa fue sometida al cumplimiento de cada criterio de evaluación. El formato utilizado se presenta en el Anexo 7.Los resultados de este ejercicio pueden consultarse en mayor detalle en el Anexo 8. Clasificación de medidas y proyectos a partir del cumplimiento de los criterios.Cabe mencionar que el portafolio contempla la generación de herramientas que permitan replicar el ejercicio realizado. Por tal motivo, se ha creado una hoja de cálculo con el diseño adecuado para su uso por los diferentes actores e instituciones que hacen parte del proceso de adaptación en el municipio. A través de su uso, podrán evaluarse futuros proyectos y medidas, así como incorporar los criterios o componentes de la adaptación al cambio climático considerados en este ejercicio al proceso de planificación de cada usuario de la herramienta. La hoja de cálculo puede encontrarse adjunta a este documento como Anexo 9. Hoja de cálculo para la clasificación y priorización de futuras medidas o proyectos según valoración del impacto en los componentes para la adaptación al cambio y variabilidad climática.A cada medida o proyecto le correspondió un puntaje, lo cual generó finalmente un ranking para el total de ellos, mostrando una secuencia organizada que responde a las cualificaciones mencionadas anteriormente, lo que constituye un insumo base para su análisis en función de las prioridades que en materia de adaptación al cambio climático han sido percibidas en el municipio de Jamundí.La siguiente clasificación de proyectos (Cuadros 18, 19 y 20) presenta los resultados priorizados según la valoración de impacto en los componentes para la adaptación, presentándose -según los resultados -proyectos de carácter prioritario y proyectos considerados como necesarios, relevantes o de impacto puntual.En total, diez medidas, acciones o proyectos de adaptación/mitigación fueron identificados como prioritario, representando intervenciones que se perciben como determinantes para el oportuno ajuste de los sistemas sociales, económicos y ambientales ante los escenarios de cambio climático proyectados en el territorio de Jamundí.Estos diez referentes representan aquellas medidas que superaron aportes a las prioridades definidas en el proceso participativo, establecidas en el 41,7%, proyectos identificados que por sus características y potencial de impacto deben ser desarrollados de forma inmediata, representando estrategias integrales que aportan a diferentes componentes de adaptación de importancia para el municipio. No obstante, podrían ser abordadas en un horizonte superior, en caso de que sea necesario crear condiciones para su óptimo desarrollo (Cuadro 18).Cuadro 18. Medidas y proyectos prioritarios según la valoración de impactos en los componentes para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática.Aporte a prioridades de adaptación/ mitigación Cualificación 1 Establecimiento de un SAT (sistema de alertas tempranas) para fenómenos meteorológicos a través del fortalecimiento tecnológico y la participación comunitaria, como herramienta para la planificación de acciones en el sector agropecuario y en el ordenamiento territorial2 Diseño e implementación por fases de un proyecto para la adaptación planificada del sector agropecuario del municipio, mediante el modelo de \"agricultura de precisión\". Para la implementación de este proyecto, se requiere conocer las clases agrológicas del municipio mínimo a escala 1:25000 real, así como mejorar el flujo de información hidrometeorológica en tiempo real o en intervalos de tiempo que varíen de semanas a meses, al igual que un proceso de capacitación a los agricultores y el diseño de una plataforma virtual para el manejo de la información con recomendaciones de cultivo y cosecha específicas según las condiciones actuales y proyectadas del clima 82%3 Diseño e implementación de un proyecto para el aprovechamiento de las aguas lluvias como fuente alterna de abastecimiento para ciertas actividades en los diferentes equipamientos, establecimientos y viviendas del municipio 79% 4 Determinar la vulnerabilidad municipal del recurso hídrico frente a los escenarios de cambio climático proyectados hasta el año 2100 e implementación de las recomendaciones del estudio en los planes de ordenamiento territorial, planes de desarrollo y plan maestro de acueducto y alcantarillado 67% 5 Evaluación detallada de la vulnerabilidad de los principales agroecosistemas del municipio frente a la variabilidad y el cambio climático en función de la batería de indicadores de AVA (CDKN, 2013) 58% 6 Desarrollo de un proyecto para la adaptación de sistemas productivos rurales, mediante procesos de mejoramiento de prácticas productivas, conservación de suelos y producción más limpia con prioridad en predios medianos y pequeños 58% 7 Diseño de un programa de restauración ecológica en zonas afectadas por incendios forestales y que sean parte de las áreas estratégicas para el recurso hídrico 55% 8 Conservación de las áreas forestales protectoras de los ríos y demás drenajes del municipio, mediante actividades de recuperación, delimitación y reforestación de estas franjas. Para este fin, estas zonas deben quedar delimitadas en el POT y hacer parte de la estructura ecológica municipal 55% 9 Adquisición, restauración y mantenimiento de áreas estratégicas para la conservación y regulación del recurso hídrico, de conformidad a lo dispuesto en la normatividad colombiana 55% 10 Realización de un análisis de vulnerabilidad de los socio-ecosistemas estratégicos del municipio frente a la variabilidad y el cambio climático 47%Realización de un estudio para la identificación de tecnologías ambientalmente apropiadas disponibles en la región o el país que permita la construcción de un portafolio con dichas tecnologías y la evaluación de su factibilidad para ser transferidas al sector agropecuario e industrial del municipio como medidas de adaptaciónDiseño e implementación de un plan municipal de movilidad alternativa que promueva el uso de medios de transporte públicos eco-eficientes y medios de transporte individuales como la bicicleta y vehículos motorizados de bajas emisionesRealización de un estudio integral en las zonas del municipio, sobre la vulnerabilidad de su infraestructura física, social y económica frente al cambio climático para facilitar la priorización de opciones de adaptación.Desarrollo de procesos de educación y sensibilización para todos los públicos en pro del ahorro y uso eficiente del recurso hídrico, mediante la implementación de dispositivos ahorradores con el fin de mejorar los índices de consumo sostenible del recurso hídrico 41% Financiación de proyectos comunitarios de educación ambiental en temas relacionados con el fortalecimiento de capacidades y la adaptación al cambio climático 41% Desarrollo de un proceso para la generación de competencias y saberes necesarios para la planificación y formulación de proyectos, mediante el estudio de metodologías como planeación estratégica, prospectiva estratégica, entre otros, dirigido a actores institucionales, académicos, productivos y comunitarios 41% Consolidación de las medidas de adaptación del presente portafolio para la adopción e implementación de las mismas a nivel sectorial, a partir del empoderamiento de los actores correspondientes 41% Diseño e incorporación al POT de un proyecto enfocado en la generación de incentivos para la construcción de infraestructuras (institucionales y habitacionales) que utilicen \"arquitectura bioclimática\" 38% Formular un plan de gestión de la biodiversidad y los ecosistemas estratégicos del municipio que contenga medidas de conservación, restauración y aprovechamiento sostenible 31% Implementación de un instrumento económico enfocado en el pago por servicios ambientales (PSA) por plantación y conservación forestal para la captura de carbono y la protección del recurso hídrico. 31% Estructuración y ejecución de un plan para la conservación de la biodiversidad con énfasis en la reducción de impactos asociados a la variabilidad y el cambio climático 31% Fomento de un proyecto de forestación urbana municipal, de acuerdo a la planificación de espacios de la ciudad, sus necesidades y con miras a complementar la estructura ecológica del municipio, como medida para promover un ecosistema sostenible y la captura de carbonoEn cuanto a las medidas que presentan un aporte a las prioridades de adaptación inferior a 41,7%, denominadas como de carácter \"necesario\", las cuales Cuadro 19. Medidas y proyectos clasificados como necesarios según la valoración de impacto en los componentes para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática.representan un horizonte de ejecución del mediano plazo, se presentaron 26 alternativas, cuya evaluación se presenta en el Cuadro 19.Medida, acción o proyecto de adaptación/mitigación Aporte a prioridades de adaptación/ mitigación Cualificación (continúa)Incorporación del cambio climático en los Proyectos Ambientales Escolares (PRAES) de las instituciones educativas, en las que a partir de la lectura del contexto presenten condiciones o problemáticas relacionadas con impactos del cambio climático en la comunidad a la que pertenecen 28% Mejoramiento, optimización y adaptación organizacional e infraestructural de los sistemas de acueducto del municipio, incluyendo los comunitarios y con base en un estudio detallado de cada uno de ellos 24% Evaluación de la vulnerabilidad municipal del sistema alimentario que tenga en cuenta los flujos de alimentos y en función de indicadores de suficiencia y dependencia frente a la capacidad de abastecimiento del municipio de aquellos productos alimentarios de la canasta familiar que podrían verse afectados por el cambio climático a escala local o global 20% Realizar un estudio en el que se defina la estructura ecológica principal del municipio con fundamento en los bienes y servicios ecosistémicos e incorporación de los resultados en el POT del municipio 18% Implementación de un proyecto de reforestación con especies nativas en las áreas de interés ambiental del municipio 18% Implementación de un proyecto de agricultura familiar para pequeños y medianos productores, que promueva el uso de especies alimentarias locales y fortalezca la soberanía alimentaria de estas familias 18%Aporte a prioridades de adaptación/ mitigación Cualificación Fortalecimiento de las instituciones y comunidades del municipio, en materia administrativa y operativa, mediante la consolidación del fondo local para la atención de desastres y la adecuada capacitación de los actores relacionados, así como la dotación de los organismos de respuesta, con el fin de mejorar la capacidad de respuesta frente a eventos como incendios forestales, lluvias torrenciales, inundaciones y vendavalesPromoción y gestión de la participación de actores relevantes del municipio en el Nodo Regional Pacífico Sur o las instancias de coordinación regional para el fortalecimiento de procesos de adaptación y mitigación 28% Socialización y publicación del presente portafolio de proyectos, con el objeto de promover el empoderamiento del mismo para su implementación por parte de los actores institucionales y sociales 28% Implementación de un plan de educación, formación, capacitación, sensibilización y difusión de información sobre cambio climático, en el marco de la estrategia nacional y los lineamientos regionales 28% Diseño de un programa de capacitación virtual sobre cambio y variabilidad climática para diferentes tipos de públicos 28%Puesta en marcha de un programa de beneficios e incentivos para la capacitación y formación en temas de cambio climático, para funcionarios de las instituciones municipales que tengan competencias al respecto 28% Estudio y análisis sobre enfermedades emergentes y reemergentes asociadas a cambios en el clima, como insumo para la planificación territorial y el desarrollo municipal 30%Actualización y ejecución del Plan Local de Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres en función de las amenazas e impactos por eventos climáticos extremos y/o de larga duración, el cual deberá contener por lo menos las medidas de infraestructura necesarias para la minimización del riesgo por inundaciones al interior del casco urbano producto de lluvias, avenidas torrenciales o incrementos en el nivel de los ríos que atraviesan el municipio, al igual que las medidas de mitigación de riesgos por incendios forestales y por proliferación de enfermedades, así como la culminación y mantenimiento de las obras ejecutadas en el municipio en el marco del fondo de adaptación y como respuesta al anterior fenómeno \"La Niña\" 30%Un tercer grupo de medidas, acciones o proyectos, lo conforman aquellos que presentan calificaciones menores a 17%, cualificadas como relevantes; y en el caso de presentar valores inferiores a 13%, definidas como de impacto puntual en alguna de las estrategias de menor prioridad percibida. El Cuadro 20 relaciona estas medidas, que si bien presentan una menor cualificación, representan iniciativas identificadas en el desarrollo del proceso participativo que pueden ser determinantes de adaptaciones puntuales ante el cambio climático en el municipio de Jamundí.Cuadro 20. Medidas y proyectos clasificados como relevantes y de impacto puntual según la valoración de impacto en los componentes para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática.Aporte a prioridades de adaptación/ mitigación Cualificación 37 Consolidación de una red interinstitucional para la armonización, coordinación y seguimiento de proyectos locales de adaptación y mitigación acordes a las necesidades del territorio 17%38 Definición e implementación de un modelo de gestión institucional para los temas relacionados con cambio climático, a partir de la revisión de las funciones de cada una de las dependencias de la administración municipal, en concordancia con las competencias municipales y el principio de complementariedad y subsidiariedad en la gestión pública territorial de la dimensión ambiental del desarrollo 17% 39 Sistematización de las iniciativas de adaptación y mitigación ejecutadas, en ejecución y por ejecutar en un \"banco de proyectos\" que permita hacer seguimiento e identificar oportunidades para la ejecución conjunta de proyectos y así optimizar el impacto y la inversión público-privada 17% 40Identificación y priorización de temáticas de acuerdo a las necesidades y a vacíos de información en el municipio, como soporte para generar lineamientos para la investigación frente a la variabilidad y el cambio climático 17% 41 Identificación y caracterización de fuentes de financiación (internas y externas, y públicas y privadas) para la implementación de los proyectos prioritarios de adaptación y mitigación del municipio 17% 42 Incorporación de las medidas de adaptación propuestas en el presente portafolio en el plan de desarrollo municipal, con el propósito de asegurar el presupuesto para su respectiva implementación 17% 43 Actualización de la \"Agenda Ambiental\" del municipio, mediante la incorporación de los referentes de cambio climático en el \"Perfil Ambiental\" del municipio, así como las acciones contenidas en el presente portafolio en el \"Plan de Acción Ambiental Local\" 17% 44 Incorporación de las variables relacionadas con la adaptación al cambio climático en las diferentes agendas ambientales sectoriales que en la actualidad se encuentren en desarrollo y concertación de nuevas agendas para los sectores productivos más vulnerables, en función del análisis de vulnerabilidad de los sectores productivos del municipio 13% 45 Desarrollo de un programa de huertas caseras y comunitarias urbanas en predios liberados y en viviendas que tengan las condiciones físicas necesarias, utilizando las herramientas y modelos de agricultura urbana existentes y más apropiados a la cultura localEl AHP permitió así deducir los pesos que reflejan las percepciones y valores propuestos, las prioridades deducidas para cada faceta del complejo problema que en este estudio fueron sintetizadas para obtener prioridades generales y una ordenación de las alternativas de acuerdo a su ranking, agrupadas luego por semejanza de valores.Como producto de la valoración, se obtuvo un listado priorizado de los proyectos identificados que aportan al fortalecimiento de los componentes para la adaptación y mitigación elegidos para este proceso en particular, en donde los proyectos valorados como prioritarios están relacionados con el desarrollo de sistemas de alertas tempranas para el sector agropecuario y el ordenamiento territorial, con aplicaciones en enfoques de adaptación como la agricultura de precisión. También recibieron una alta calificación acorde a las prioridades del municipio, medidas relacionadas con el futuro aprovechamiento de fuentes alternativas de agua, los estudios de vulnerabilidad ante diversos riesgos y otras relacionadas con procesos de conservación de ecosistemas estratégicos.Aquellos diez (10) proyectos que recibieron cualificaciones de \"Prioritarios\" deben ser desarrollados en el más inmediato plazo, donde su aporte a un mayor número de criterios o componentes permitiría lograr un mayor impacto, ya que representan una estrategia integral para la adaptación al cambio climático. En este orden de ideas, acorde a los resultados obtenidos, se identificaron 26 proyectos cualificados como necesarios, los cuales a pesar de su mediano impacto pueden empezar a implementarse en el corto y mediano plazo toda vez que las condiciones para su desarrollo sean adecuadas. Aquí vale la pena mencionar que estos proyectos pueden empezar a contemplar la incorporación en sus fases de formulación de criterios complementarios que les permitan aportar en mayor medida a su impacto potencial en la adaptación al cambio climático.Por otro lado, se identificaron 8 proyectos relevantes y 1 proyecto de impacto puntual, que por sus características son importantes para el municipio, pero constituyen respuestas puntuales a temáticas o criterios concretos de adaptación. No obstante, su desarrollo es pertinente si las condiciones de gobernabilidad son favorables. Sin embargo, estos proyectos deben ser objeto de revisión para ampliar su impacto sobre los componentes prioritarios, demandando en ellos la integración de otros criterios que les permitan configurarse como estrategias adaptativas exitosas en el futuro cercano.Desde otra perspectiva, la Figura 23Figura 23. Grado de aporte a los componentes de adaptación desde las medidas y proyectos identificados.\" representa el grado de aporte que recibe cada uno de los componentes o criterios de adaptación al cambio climático, evaluados a partir del número de proyectos que los consideran en sus títulos y objetivos.Figura 23. Grado de aporte a los componentes de adaptación desde las medidas y proyectos identificados. La Generación de Capacidades para la Gestión y Adaptación ante el Cambio Climático y la Conservación de Ecosistemas y Áreas de Interés Ambiental constituyen los componentes con mayores apuestas desde las perspectivas de los actores involucrados, seguidos de la Gestión del Riesgo Asociado a la Variabilidad y al Cambio Climático, los Procesos y Sistemas Productivos Ambientalmente Sostenibles y la Gestión Integral del Recurso Hídrico.El Desarrollo y la Transferencia de Tecnologías Ambientalmente Apropiadas para la Adaptación y la Soberanía y Seguridad Alimentaria ante el Cambio Climático son los dos componentes estratégicos que menor cantidad de iniciativas presentaron desde el proceso de prospectiva territorial.Fruto de los análisis realizados en la fase de prospectiva territorial, y sus resultados en cuanto a los cambios presentidos, anhelados y temidos, al perfil de capacidad interna, el perfil de oportunidades y amenazas en el medio, y las ideas estratégicas resultantes, se configuran una serie de estrategias que responden a diferentes componentes para la adaptación al cambio y la variabilidad climática, y complementan las expectativas planteadas desde las medidas y proyectos evaluados anteriormente.Estas iniciativas configuran posibles enfoques para la formulación de medidas y proyectos, que atiendan aspectos estratégicos para la adaptación exitosa del municipio de Jamundí al cambio climático.Cabe resaltar que, en el proceso de adaptación, siempre serán preferibles las medidas que van en dirección hacia la reducción del riesgo, que aquellas que buscan enfrentarlo. Desde este punto de vista y en el marco de una adaptación planificada, se presentan en el siguiente punto las iniciativas identificadas, organizadas por los componentes definidos estratégicamente para la adaptación y mitigación.En este sentido, se presenta un compendio de programas ajustados a cada uno de los siete componentes estratégicos de adaptación, a través de fichas con su respectiva descripción de objetivos y medidas. Estas constituyen una propuesta complementaria desde la prospectiva territorial desarrollada, que refleja en sus plazos los resultados del ejercicio de priorización, constituyendo un insumo desde lo local, para la futura articulación de todos estos en el marco de los contenidos programáticos que conformarán los planes de adaptación al cambio climático a escala regional.Este componente está relacionado con la necesidad de iniciar y fortalecer procesos de adaptación basada en ecosistemas, así como la implementación de medidas de mitigación relacionadas con la reducción de la deforestación y el aumento de sumideros naturales de CO 2 .Los ecosistemas están altamente expuestos y dependen de las condiciones climáticas locales, regionales y globales. Esta condición hace que los ecosistemas sean uno de los elementos estratégicos en la gestión del cambio climático, toda vez que forman parte integral de las dinámicas territoriales y son el soporte o la plataforma que hace posible la mayoría de actividades económicas y, en general, humanas pues garantizan las mínimas condiciones necesarias para la existencia de asentamientos poblacionales que demandan servicios, algunos de ellos provistos de forma directa e indirecta por los ecosistemas.A continuación, se presentan dos programas desde los cuales se enmarca un total de ocho (8) medidas de gestión para la mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático desde este componente estratégico.Cuadro 21. Programa: Conservación de ecosistemas como estrategia de adaptación.Conservación de ecosistemas como estrategia de adaptaciónFavorecer condiciones para la conservación de ecosistemas estratégicos en función de los servicios prestados por los mismos Este componente está relacionado con la necesidad de iniciar y fortalecer procesos de adaptación basada en comunidades, así como la implementación de medidas de mitigación relacionadas con cambios en los patrones de comportamiento, capacidades y conocimientos en torno a la reducción de las emisiones de GEI y fijación de las ya generadas.El conocimiento y capacidades sociales son elementos decisivos del éxito que representan las medidas o proyectos de adaptación en el futuro. Es así como acciones concretas relacionadas con procesos de investigación, generación de información y formación de capacidades humanas para la gestión del cambio climático, así como la apropiación social, institucional y sectorial de su conocimiento, la proyección de procesos de educación ambiental enfocados en temas relacionados con el cambio climático y el reconocimiento de las vulnerabilidades e identidades culturales locales, son consideradas determinantes de la capacidad de adaptación.Este componente estratégico desarrolla un total de cinco (5) programas, los cuales se describen a continuación.Cuadro 23. Programa: Producción de información para la gestión del cambio climático. Estimular el manejo adecuado de los sistemas de producción se visualiza como una alternativa de adaptación importante para los medios de vida en cuanto a la reducción del impacto sobre el entorno, siendo esta iniciativa enfocada en la caracterización de dichos sistemas y su fortalecimiento a través de la incorporación de prácticas de manejo ecológicas en los sistemas productivos del municipio, con el fin de hacerlos más resilientes y/o adaptativos ante el cambio y la variabilidad climática.Este componente desarrolla dos programas estratégicos, a través de los cuales se articulan las medidas de gestión para la mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático.Cuadro 31. Programa: Reducción de la vulnerabilidad en los agroecosistemas.Reducción La seguridad alimentaria se constituye como un factor relevante para la subsistencia de las poblaciones, la cual puede verse gravemente afectada por los impactos asociados al cambio climático. Sin embargo, existen soluciones para responder a la vulnerabilidad con medidas adecuadas de adaptación. En este sentido, esta iniciativa propone minimizar los riesgos a través de acciones como la conservación de semillas, la capacitación comunitaria, el reconocimiento y recuperación de saberes y prácticas productivas ancestrales, y la reducción de la dependencia a la oferta de alimentos de otros territorios. A continuación, se desarrolla el programa y medidas de gestión correspondientes a este componente estratégico para la adaptación al cambio climático.La variabilidad y el cambio climático exige medidas o proyectos que planteen procesos de apropiación de tecnologías (tradicionales y de punta) que sirvan a posibles adaptaciones ante este fenómeno, aplicables en el sector agropecuario, en los sistemas urbanos o en los sistemas de información para la toma de decisiones, apropiadas en términos de viabilidad socio-económica, ambiental y cultural.Este componente desarrolla dos programas estratégicos, a través de los cuales se articulan las medidas de gestión para la mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático.Cuadro 36. Programa: Desarrollo urbano en la gestión del cambio climático.  El objetivo del siguiente ejercicio consiste en establecer la importancia de cada uno de los criterios que se han definido para la calificación y selección de medidas y proyectos de adaptación al cambio y variabilidad climática en el municipio de Jamundí. Los resultados de este ejercicio constituirán el insumo base para la realización de un análisis de jerarquías por medio de la metodología AHP, lo que permitirá establecer la importancia de los diferentes criterios.Para el desarrollo del ejercicio, se procederá a responder las preguntas que se encuentran en la segunda y tercera columna del Cuadro A2, con base en la información contenida en cada una de las filas. Para el caso de la pregunta ¿En qué grado considera usted que es más importante? (Tercera columna en el Cuadro A2), el grado de importancia se calificará con base en el Cuadro A1, colocando en el espacio respectivo del cuadro, el valor numérico que corresponda al juicio que se realice sobre la importancia. La escala definida para esta valoración (de 1 a 5) ha sido diseñada con base en la metodología de Análisis Jerárquico AHP. Ejemplo de aplicación:En el anterior ejemplo, la valoración efectuada asignó una preferencia al criterio número 6, por encima del criterio número 3; y el grado o valoración de la importancia que se otorgó es de 4, conforme a la escala planteada en el Cuadro A1.A continuación se presenta el formato vacío (Cuadro A2) donde podrá usted efectuar las calificaciones. Recuerde consultar, al final del presente documento, la explicación de cada criterio si tiene alguna duda en el proceso de comparación y calificación. Por favor evite realizar comparaciones cuyo valor de preferencia sea 1 (igualmente importante), reserve dicha opción para casos extremos en que no le sea posible tener una preferencia. Por medio de este criterio, se busca priorizar proyectos y medidas relacionadas con la adaptación ecológica y cultural de los agroecosistemas a la variabilidad y el cambio climático, el reconocimiento y recuperación de saberes y prácticas productivas ancestrales que garanticen la soberanía y seguridad alimentaria ante el cambio climático.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto contempla adaptaciones, manejo o mitigación de riesgos relacionados con variabilidad y cambio climático?A través de este criterio, se busca priorizar aquellas medidas y proyectos que involucran posibles adaptaciones desde la gestión del riesgo ante el cambio climático, involucrando obras de manejo y mitigación de riesgos por escenarios de variabilidad y cambio climático, como vendavales, incendios forestales, inundaciones urbanas, avenidas torrenciales, el manejo de procesos erosivos en zonas de ladera, entre otros.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto representa posibles adaptaciones para la gestión integral del agua ante escenarios de variabilidad y cambio climático?Este criterio prioriza medidas y proyectos que involucran procesos de gestión del agua a escala de cuenca hidrográfica; desde aspectos ecológicos y culturales relacionados con la oferta -demanda y calidad del recurso, como la protección y recuperación de fuentes abastecedoras, el ahorro y uso eficiente del agua y la salud ambiental.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto busca la conservación de ecosistemas estratégicos para la adaptación al cambio y variabilidad climática?Este criterio busca otorgar una mayor prioridad a las medidas y proyectos relacionados con la conectividad ecosistémica, la gestión ambiental en áreas naturales protegidas y la conservación y regulación de fuentes hídricas y de los bosques del departamento. Involucra además proyectos que contemplan procesos de conservación en el marco de esquemas de pago por servicios ambientales y/o exenciones tributarias por conservación de áreas ambientales estratégicas.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto plantea la incorporación de prácticas y procesos sostenibles en los sistemas productivos como respuesta al cambio y variabilidad climática?Este criterio brinda una mayor prioridad a las medidas o proyectos que incorporan prácticas de manejo ecológicas en los sistemas productivos del municipio con el fin de hacerlos más resilientes y/o adaptativos ante el cambio y variabilidad climática.Pregunta clave: ¿La medida o proyecto proporciona escenarios para la investigación, formación de capacidades y/o apropiación de conocimientos en torno a la gestión y adaptación ante el cambio climático?Este criterio entrega una mayor prioridad a medidas o proyectos relacionados con procesos de investigación, generación de información, formación de capacidades humanas para la gestión del cambio climático, así como la apropiación social, institucional y sectorial de su conocimiento, la proyección de procesos de educación ambiental enfocados en temas relacionados con el cambio climático y el reconocimiento de las vulnerabilidades e identidades culturales locales.Por medio de este criterio, se otorga mayor prioridad a las medidas o proyectos que plantean procesos de apropiación de tecnologías (tradicionales y de punta) que sirven a posibles adaptaciones al cambio y variabilidad climática, aplicables en el sector agropecuario, en los sistemas urbanos o en los sistemas de información para la toma de decisiones, apropiadas en términos de viabilidad socioeconómica, ambiental y cultural. 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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f1cd579638ae4f9fb219ba9b124580f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/76185473-2887-4d18-a898-24f0d358e0c0/retrieve","id":"-1275479924"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"be0edd47-8bd3-4765-96b6-0ea5923bd4db","pagecount":"2","content":"Another group might want to learn about how gender roles influence adaptation responses. To pursue their research questions, they also need some of the same basic information. Many other studies of agricultural development have a similar starting point.If each group separately creates a survey to get this type of data, they duplicate efforts and end up with nonstandardized results that are hard to compare and synthesize. Standard survey tools exist, but most zoom in on a single element -perhaps cropping choices or household food securityinstead of taking in the whole system of crops, livestock, socioeconomics and environmental influences.The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) recently backed an effort to streamline and update this tool, making it much quicker to implement and more useful for modelling and agricultural development studies. The new version, IMPACTlite, has now been rolled out at 13 CCAFS research sites in 12 countries, and other research programs are also starting to use IMPACTLite as a foundation for their own studies. \"This sort of data is extremely hard to come by, so it's high value and there are many areas where it can be used,\" says Mariana Rufino, who led the project at ILRI.IMPACT aimed to collect all the information needed to build basic agricultural and economic models, down to the level of month-by-month farming activities and how many calories each child in a household was eating. The downside of its thoroughness was that the survey proved very cumbersome in the field. With 30 pages of questions, an interview might last 1 or 2 whole days.Fast facts CCAFS wanted to use IMPACT to characterize and compare farming communities around the globe. Could the approach be simplified for better results, while also putting less strain on households who agree to interviews?ILRI was therefore commissioned in 2011 to update their tool. They switched from monthly to seasonal reporting, removed or broadened many questions, and added new features such as gender-specific questions about men's and women's resources and activities. An IMPACTLite interview now takes only around 2 hours. That lowers the cost of research, and the information may even be more accurate because farmers are less drained by the process.A database to build on  The results point to context-specific adaptation strategies. Farmers can expand dairy production only if there is plenty of land to plant fodder, for example. If farms are shrinking, they need to diversify into cash crops.Not many other studies have connected decisions on individual farms to the larger-scale forces that are shaping agriculture nationally and regionally. IMPACT and IMPACTLite surveys provide a strong underpinning for such multi-level assessments.and partners returned to sites in Bangladesh, Kenya, Senegal and Uganda to gather more data on gender differences. Jumping off from the earlier surveys, they explored how women and men are experiencing climate change and adopting climate-smart agriculture practices. ","tokenCount":"473"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1dcc7c36341957f0564cc78e23686c20","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ce18f1c5-c12f-456f-adbe-339804ad8a4f/retrieve","id":"399289391"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3a526fe8-5087-4807-9564-5b25726e2112","pagecount":"7","content":"MAIZE and WHEAT researchers, together with colleagues within and beyond, published findings based on gender-transformative research and methods with clear policy implications for three countries Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania and contributed to policy impacts and practices in Morocco. Researchers also influenced policy-making, with potentially longer-term social change impacts in Nepal and Zambia. From a CGIAR-internal perspective, researchers expanded the reach of gender-transformative research and proposed innovations in gender-intentional maize breeding in sub-Saharan Africa.Outcome story for communications use: MAIZE and WHEAT researchers and their partners have been applying gender-transformative research and methods to unravel the complex dynamics of gender and social norms that play a part in agricultural innovation pathways. Much of this work was informed by GENNOVATE (Enabling Gender Equality in Agricultural and Environmental Innovation Initiative; 2014-2018), which received major funding support from WHEAT and MAIZE. GENNOVATE scientists developed 16 tools and resources by engaging 27 partner organizations. These tools and resources have been promoted by FAO.Significant outcomes of gender research uptake (1: Lopez et al. 2021), as well as their application to inform policy changes, were: -Looking at zero tillage users and subsequent herbicide applications in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, scientists observed that zero tillage does not reinforce existing inequalities within households (4: Brown et al. 2021). MAIZE & WHEAT researchers provided policy recommendations to those governments, underlining the significant gender gaps associated with agricultural technologies' adoption. For example, Paudel (5: 2020) estimated that with similar access to productive resources, many more women would likely adopt mini tillers in Nepal. Gartaula (7: 2020)  -In Southern Ethiopia, Gebre et al. (6: 2021) called for policies that not only ensure equal levels of productive resources, but also help households to build their capacity. These recommendations aim to improve both transitory and chronically food-insecure situations.-Based on a representative Zambian household study, Simtowe and De Groote (11: 2021) recommend policies that promote equitable access to production resources, such as land, to reduce the gaps in market participation between men and women -and to help women take advantage of the inter-seasonal maize price movements.-In gender-intentional maize breeding in sub-Saharan Africa (12: 2021, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00307270211058208), researchers found that evidence for gender-differentiated preferences for maize varieties remains inconclusive. They proposed changes in research approaches and priorities: A more nuanced understanding of gender relations in maize production and seed decision-making, new gender-responsive approaches to measuring farmer preferences and seed demand, and research to address operational challenges in breeding.•  In Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, researchers (5: 2021) observed significant challenges associated with technology adoption, such as metal maize storage silos; adoption may switch storage ownership and associated benefits to men, because women have less scope for bargaining over their rights. For Zambia, MAIZE scientists (6: 2021) recommended policies that promote equitable access to production resources (e.g. land) to reduce gender gaps in market participation. Based on a holistic approach (8: 2021), other researchers argued for more targeted policy interventions to address the unique needs of women in Malawi and Tanzania, who have different capacities to participate and realize technology adoption benefits (7: 2021).For Southern Ethiopia, MAIZE and WHEAT scientists (9: 2021) called for policies that not only ensure equal levels of productive resources, but also help households to build their capacity to deal with food-insecure situations. Going beyond the dichotomy of male vs. female-headed households in Ethiopia, gender researchers looked at married women within male-headed households and women heading their own households, observing that customary norms often hamper women's effective use of productive resources and their ability to innovate (10: 2020).In sub-Saharan Africa (13: 2021, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00307270211058208), researchers reviewed the evidence on gender-differentiated traits and proposed changes to research approaches and priorities, including new gender-responsive approaches for measuring farmer preferences and seed demand and research to address operational challenges in breeding.In South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal), scientists observed that zero tillage does not deepen existing inequalities within households (11: 2021). WHEAT and partner researchers provided policy recommendations to those governments, underlining the significant gender gaps in adoption.Collaborating scientists (12: 2020; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101250) estimated that with similar access to productive resources as men, women would much more likely adopt mini-tillers in Nepal. In a related study in India, scientists (13: 2020; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02941-w) proposed policy options to promote climate-smart, GHG emission-reducing technologies that could reduce women's labour drudgery, whilst cautioning about possible negative implications for specific vulnerable groups.","tokenCount":"716"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f573d8e8ba64e0389841dad208cddba8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/afe1dc06-bdcf-4684-81b0-49e7fca87c40/retrieve","id":"-1870853404"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9fbb9ee7-302b-4186-b740-69b212751dbe","pagecount":"259","content":"There is increasing evidence that manipulation of microbiological activities in the rumen and bioengineering of rumen organisms could lead to the development of technologies to improve animal productivity from the available feed resources.The merging of the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) and the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) expertise in animal nutrition, physiology and animal biotechnology open to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) a new perspective in developing a research agenda on rumen ecology.However, there is a need to assess the possible uses of available technology, identify applications of direct relevance to ILRI research, define areas where ILRI would have a comparative advantage, and identify partners for collaborative research projects.The planning workshop is proposed to bring together experts from the rapidly advancing field of rumen microbiology to assist ILRI staff to identify these opportunities and set priorities.H. A. Fitzhugh Director General, International Livestock Research Institute On behalf of the Institute, Dr Lahlou-Kassi, who organised this workshop, and all ILRI staff, I welcome you who have come such long distances to help us develop a plan for research in rumen ecology.I would like to start by introducing you to this new international research institute: the International Livestock Research Institute. The buildings may not be new, but that is because this new institute is something of a chimera, being built on the foundation of two international livestock research institutes.The International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases was established in 1973 with a global mandate to develop effective control measures for livestock diseases that seriously limit world food production. ILRAD's research programme focused on animal trypanosomiasis and tick-borne diseases, particularly theileriosis (East Coast fever).The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) was established in 1974 with a mandate to focus on livestock production systems in Africa. ILCA followed an interdisciplinary approach combining social and environmental sciences with the animal sciences. The founders of ILCA believed that technologies to improve traditional animal production systems were available from the laboratories and research stations of Australia, Japan, North America and Europe and that an understanding of those livestock production systems and their constraints would reveal how modern technologies might be best fitted to meet the needs for improving livestock production in the developing world. However, those traditional farming systems were evolving very rapidly, especially during the 1980s, along with social, political and cultural changes throughout Africa. Technologies available off the shelf from stations and laboratories elsewhere were often not suitable, and were sometimes inappropriate, for livestock producers in sub-Saharan Africa. The special characteristics of livestock production in tropical environments provided new challenges to research.ILRAD and ILCA were supported by a consortium of donors known as the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, or the CGIAR. This Group was established in the early 1970s. The number of CGIAR institutes increased through the 1970s and more were added in the early 1990s. A few years ago, this consortium, which had increased in funding from 20 or so million dollars to about 300 million dollars, went through a crisis of confidence that all of us involved in research felt. Many donors lacked confidence that research was the way toward solving important development environmental problems. The CGIAR, therefore, began to reassess whether international agricultural research was worth supporting. Fortunately the answer was 'yes'. In 1995 we believe that we have regained the confidence of the donors. But during this time of reassessment some changes were made within the system. One was the establishment of the International Livestock Research Institute to combine animal health and production research.Both ILRAD and ILCA were focusing on African problems. Studies conducted by the donor community that supported these international research institutes indicate that there is a strong demand and need for livestock research in Asia and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in Latin America, West Asia and North Africa or the Mediterranean region. One priority for livestock research in Asia are the major economic developmental and environmental problems that have arisen due to intensification of agriculture.Because of the location of our campuses and our access to the problems of developing countries, ILRI is able to serve as a transfer agent, not only by transferring technologies but also by providing access and contacts between the laboratories of developed countries, which are substantially better endowed, and the laboratories and research centres of developing countries. Perhaps more important is the research-based information and knowledge that are being transferred and the increasing opportunities to apply this knowledge and experience to the problems of developing countries.International research centres make up only a small component in the whole spectrum of research on problems of agriculture in developing countries. The largest players are the national research institutes in the developing countries the world over. Many of these institutes are underfunded but their scientists are increasingly well trained. Through collaborative research, we can employ the large scientific capacity in the national institutes.Most research at ILRI is done in collaboration with other scientists and institutes in both developing and developed countries. We plan to expand our collaborative activities and that is one of the reasons why we brought you here, so that we can become better acquainted. This will help us to identify useful collaborations. This institute has a very broad set of programme activities ranging from work in the laboratories in molecular biology to work in the field. We are able to cover this very broad base of research activities only because of our ability to work and collaborate with a host of other scientists and institutions.I remind you that the appropriate type of research for an international institute lies at the upper end of the applied spectrum rather than that of adapting technologies to meet the needs of farmers and their livestock. Our research must be development-oriented. We must be clear as to how our research will serve development needs. Ninety-eight percent of our funding comes from the development vote. And so even though our research is fundamental in character, we must be able to articulate a clear use of the research products to further development.One of our research areas is utilisation of feed resources. Any analysis of the constraints to livestock production in developing countries consistently identifies feed resources as a primary constraint. The primary constraint to livestock production may be the production of feed resources or their utilisation, depending on the specific production system and the particular environment.The goal of the feed utilisation programme is to improve efficiency of use of feed resources by tropical ruminants. We look to our sister centres to focus their work on production which leaves us to focus on utilisation. It is usually the intersection between production and utilisation that is the major problem. Forage production, for example, will often be facilitated by genes that promote within the plant characteristics that protect it from pests or predators. Sometimes selecting for rapid growth rate will generate qualities that are anti-nutritional in character. There is, therefore, need to match what is good for production of the plant with what is good for utilisation of the products of plant growth.There were opportunities for real synergies in the types of research conducted in Nairobi and Addis Ababa. ILCA was carrying on some work in the area of rumen ecology while ILRAD was carrying on work at the microbial and molecular level. So we felt that there would be good opportunities for synergisms by putting these two institutions together and we quite deliberately delayed having this workshop until we could have scientists from both former ILCA and former ILRAD working together.The objectives of this workshop are very straightforward. We will look for a very specific recommendation coming out of this workshop as to whether or not ILRI as an international institute has a comparative advantage in conducting research in this broad field of rumen ecology. If at the end of the week you decide ILRI does have a comparative advantage for this type of research, we will ask that you be specific as to exactly where this comparative advantage lies. While doing this, we ask you not to think of ILRI as just a new institute, but as a set of resources and opportunities that can be developed as part of a much larger global network of institutes, many of which you yourselves represent.Inadequate year round nutrition is a major smallholder production constraint. Ruminants owned by smallholders in all ILRI mandate regions will continue to subsist, for the foreseeable future, on unimproved native pastures and crop residues. These poor quality roughages are bulky, high in fibre, poorly degraded in the rumen, low in nitrogen and minerals (Table 1) resulting in very low intakes. Population pressure and urbanisation, particularly in Africa, will limit the quantity of grain available for animal feeding. However, these deficiencies could be corrected by the addition of fodder trees, herbaceous legumes or multipurpose trees (MPTs) (Tables 2 and 3).Several factors affect the utilisation of poor quality roughages by ruminants. These include rumen environment (where conditions should be pH > 6.2, NH 3 > 3.5 mmol/l), microbial adhesion, particle size reduction, passage rates of both particulate and liquid digesta, roughage degradation rate and volatile fatty acid production, adequate supply of iso-acids for microbial protein production and the availability of by-pass protein.ILRI nutrition research has focused on how to enhance fibre degradation and microbial protein supply by rumen manipulation aimed at optimising the above conditions. The use of MPTs as a means to correct nutrient imbalances and improve the conditions in the rumen has been a priority area of research (ILCA 1995;Osuji 1994). This paper describes some of the nutrition research work done at ILRI. First, results obtained in the use of fodder or multipurpose trees (MPTs) and herbaceous legumes in animal feeds are presented. Research aimed at identifying and overcoming constraints to rumen function in grazing animals is discussed. The selection of crops and trees for improved feeding value is addressed. Finally, research plans on rumen ecology are presented.Ruminants depend on microbial protein production to meet their N requirements. In ruminant production systems where poor quality roughages constitute the principal source of feed there are two major objectives aimed at optimising their use. There is need to enhance the fermentation of the roughage to ensure adequate energy supply, mainly as VFA. Secondly, given the scarcity of protein in such systems, there is a need to maximise the supply of microbial protein. Several strategies are available to manipulate the rumen. The strategy of choice depends on the desired output. One strategy that has often been used, particularly when poor quality forages are fed, is supplementation. The principal objective of supplementation is to increase the supply of nutrients, mainly energy and protein, such as to create favourable conditions in the rumen which result in better fermentation and microbial protein supply (Figure 1). Supplementation with MPTs can do this in several ways-MPTs can increase the amount of energy supplied by the basal feed by: 1. Alleviating a deficiency hampering microbial fermentation of the basal feed e.g. N or S.  Substitution rate (g/g)2. Improving the rumen environment (e.g. pH, rumen NH 3 or rumen-degradable protein) to ensure increased fermentation of the basal roughage diet. For example, increased numbers of cellulolytic bacteria will increase the invasion of and adhesion onto the fibrous feed. 3. Improving the rate and extent of particle size reduction and thus increasing the passage rates of both liquid and particulate matter, leading to increased feed intake. 4. Supplements such as MPTs are themselves sources of energy. In fact some MPTs are fed at certain times of the year as the sole feed. Thus MPTs, as supplements, can increase protein supply to the host animal by increasing the supply of both degradable and undegradable protein, and by creating a favourable rumen environment resulting in enhanced fermentation of the basal roughage and thus increased microbial protein synthesis.Nutrition research at ILRI has involved in vivo, in sacco and in vitro studies. In vivo work has looked into the effects of various factors on microbial protein supply. In one trial (Abule 1994), supplementation of teff straw with graded levels of cowpea or lablab significantly increased microbial N supply in calves. The type of supplement had no significant effect on microbial N supply but the level of inclusion did (Table 4). When sheep were given a basal diet of maize stover supplemented with oilseed cakes, total microbial protein flow into the intestine was significantly affected (P < 0.01) and was increased further by maize supplementation (Osuji et al 1993). When poor quality roughages were supplemented with MPTs, the rate of degradation of the basal feed, the fractional outflow rate of liquid matter from the rumen and the efficiency of microbial protein supply were increased (Figure 2). Rapidly degraded MPTs like Sesbania increased passage rate and the efficiency of microbial protein supply and are better supplements. The feeding of rapidly degraded MTPs has resulted in reduced substitution of the basal roughage diet (Bonsi et al 1995).In another set of trials sheep were given a basal diet of teff straw supplemented with 0, 175, 245 or 315 g of Sesbania to create different rumen environments. Dry matter degradation and liquid passage rates were estimated. Figure 2 shows clearly that both dry matter degradation and liquid passage rates increased with increasing level of Sesbania up to 245 g/head per day and then declined. Improved or faster liquid outflow rate may result in increased intake of the basal roughage as new material is eaten to replace what has left the rumen (Bonsi et al 1995). Microbial N (g/kg LW) (g/day) 0 4.6 5 12.4 10 20.4 15 24.9 † No differences were observed between cowpea and lablab.With most MPTs there is the choice of feeding the leaves alone or the leaves plus the fruits or the fruits alone. Sesbania sesban 10865 leaves were compared with Acacia albida pods. The rate of degradation of fresh leaves was much higher than that for the albida pods. Bulkiness of the MPT seems to be an important additional factor affecting the intake of fibrous feeds (Osuji 1994).In sacco degradation techniques (Ørskov and MacDonald 1979) have been used at ILRI to study factors which affect the interaction of MPTs with rumen microbes. The results of these studies indicate that several factors affect the interaction of the MPT with the rumen microbes. The type of MPT, its form and the quantity fed affect roughage utilisation. When MPTs of the genera Sesbania, Leucaena, Chamaecytisus and Vernonia were evaluated using the in sacco method, the rates of both DM and N degradation varied significantly among the four MPTs (Figure 3). Sesbania was degraded most rapidly while Vernonia was degraded relatively more slowly. It has been found that the rate of degradation of MPTs varies with the basal diet (Figure 4). Results from several trials, where different MPTs were incubated in the rumens of sheep, showed that the form of the MPT affected the rate of DM degradation. Fresh forms of the MPTs were degraded much faster than the dry forms (Figure 5). Both the fast-degrading and the slow-degrading MPTs could be harnessed to nutritional advantage (Bonsi et al 1995;Nsahlai et al 1994;Siaw et al 1993;Umunna et al 1995).For roughages of different N content supplemented with MPTs, the degradation rate of the unsupplemented basal roughage increased with the N content and the effect of the MPT supplement on roughage degradation rate was most marked in the basal roughage with the lowest N content. This clearly demonstrates that smallholders who depend on poor quality roughages (native pastures and crop residues) will benefit most by supplementing their animals with fodder trees. Therefore a farmer with limited MPT supplement would be better off feeding it to animals on maize stover or teff straw rather than to animals fed better quality Napier grass.MPTs could also contribute to creating an unfavourable rumen environment, e.g. by lowering rumen pH which would result in a reduction in the number of rumen fibrolytic organisms and thus reduce cellulolysis (Table 5).There is a wide range of anti-nutritional factors found in MPTs (Table 5) though the phytochemistry and mode of action of these anti-nutritional factors are not fully understood. There are indications, however, that some of them have defaunation qualities, some are bactericidal, others bacteriostatic. Furthermore, poisons from MPTs can act either on the rumen microbes or on the host animal itself. This makes the evaluation of MPTs rather difficult. Figure 6 demonstrates the effect of anti-nutritional factors on dry matter intake. A. angustissima is very high in proanthocyanidins compared to S. sesban 10865. Dry matter intake was depressed to such an extent in sheep fed A. angustissima that many of the animals died (Kurdi 1994).Attempts have been made to harness anti-nutritional factors (e.g. tannins) to nutritional advantage. In this regard, oilseed cakes were fed in association with tanniferous browses (1994). Only minor depressions in the rate of fermentation of oilseed cake were observed. The changes due to this associative feeding of oilseed cakes and browses on growth rate were equally small. Attempts to match roughages with protein supplements have not demonstrated any benefits that could be attributed to the interaction between the tannin content of sorghum stovers and the oilseed cakes (Osafo 1993). What is clear is that cottonseed cake promoted better gains than noug cake.The consumption of tannins caused a shift in the paths of nitrogen excretion from the urine to faeces. In addition, there was an increase in the insoluble fraction of faecal nitrogen. These effects of tannins can lead to decreased volatilisation losses and mineralisation rates, which may have important effects in the process of nutrient cycling and crop production (Powell et al 1994).The effects of MPTs on rumen microbes have been studied at ILRI using the gas production technique (Menke et al 1979). The effects of MPTs on mixed rumen microbes seem to be different from their effects on pure cultures (El Hassan 1994). In vitro trials suggested that S. sesban reduced the number of protozoa, suggesting that S. sesban 10865 may have defaunating properties. However this was not confirmed in an in vivo trial where S. sesban 10865 was compared to Medicago sativa (El Hassan 1994). No particular efforts were made in this trial to isolate the animals used as the numbers of rumen microbes were similar for both treatments. Cross contamination might have taken place.Mueller-Harvey et al (1988) found that extracts of Ethiopian browses increased the lag time and reduced the growth rate of Streptococcus bovis. They found that extracts from Acacia nilotica were particularly detrimental to rumen bacteria. Alternatively, the rumen population may have adapted to metabolise the anti-protozoal agent.The effects of extracts of Vernonia amygdalina, C. palmensis, S. sesban 10865 and A. angustissima on the growth of pure cultures of Fibrobacter succinogenes, Ruminococcus flavefaciens and R. albus were investigated (El Hassan 1994). Vernonia amygdalina, C. palmensis and S. sesbania 10865 extracts affected the growth of only R. albus by prolonging the lag phase. On the other hand A. angustissima at lower Table 5. Toxic substances found in some MPTs inclusion rates greatly reduced the growth of Ruminococcus species and slowed the growth of F. succinogenes. Extracts of L. leucocephala prolonged the lag phase of cellulolytic bacteria. Ruminococcus flavefaciens and R. albus are very important for fibre digestion.  Using the gas production technique, it was found that gas production rates decreased substantially when some MPTs were incubated with rumen fluid in vitro. Acacia angustissima suppressed fermentation and the extent of suppression depended on the amount of MPT included (El Hassan 1994) (Figure 7). The reverse was true for leucaena. These effects were illustrated in vivo when animals fed A. angustissima died and those fed Tephrosia had massive rumen stasis.More work on the utilisation of fodder trees as livestock feed is needed. This should aim at refining rapid methods of evaluation, expansion of the work on (1) anti-nutrition factors to other compounds other than tannins and (2) the effects of various fodder trees on specific rumen microbes. These would add to the tools needed to use fodder trees effectively in rumen manipulation aimed at enhancing ruminant production.Fibre digestion and microbial protein synthesis in the rumen are greatly affected by the conditions that prevail in the rumen. In general, when low quality forages are consumed, the conditions needed for efficient digestion of fibrous feeds and microbial growth are not met. In addition, the ingestion of feeds containing anti-nutritional factors is associated with decreased microbial activity. Studies on the environmental conditions in the rumen in traditional feeding systems can help identify the nature of the constraints to rumen function. Their alleviation can result in substantial improvement in the efficiency of use of the feed resources available. If nutrient imbalances are also overcome, the economic response to supplementation can be improved.Studies on environmental conditions in the rumen of grazing animals are under way at the zonal programmes of ILRI in Niger and Nigeria. In these studies, the nylon bag technique is used to evaluate the quality of the ruminal conditions as judged by the disappearance rate of a standard forage. Some results obtained with cattle, sheep and goats in Niger (Fernández-Rivera 1994) are presented here. Six intact females, four ruminally fistulated males and four oesophageally fistulated males of each species were used in the study. All animals grazed pearl millet residue fields (December 1992to March 1993) and Sahelian rangelands (March 1993to December 1993). A standard forage (pearl millet stover leaves) was incubated monthly in the rumens of the fistulated animals to determine the rate and extent of disappearance of organic matter (OMD). Rumen fluid samples were taken monthly (mean of am and pm values) from the intact animals and analysed for NH 3 -N. Extrusa samples were collected monthly from the oesophageally fistulated animals and analysed for crude protein (CP) and OMD.All variables were influenced by species and month of measurement. During most of the year, sheep and goats selected a diet with similar CP, but the NH 3 -N concentration in the ruminal fluid was lower in goats than in sheep, which reflects differences in solubility of the nitrogen consumed by these species (Figure 8). Cattle selected a diet lower in CP and had a lower concentration of NH 3 -N in the rumen than small ruminants. The concentration of NH 3 -N in the rumen fluid of cattle was less than 70 mg/l for most of the dry season, whereas in small ruminants NH 3 -N did not appear to limit rumen function at any of the sampling times. In spite of the lower concentration of NH 3 -N in the rumen fluid of cattle, the potentially digestible insoluble fraction of the standard forage was higher and less variable than in small ruminants (Figure 9). Large seasonal variations in the magnitude of the potentially digestible insoluble fraction were observed. The rate of OM digestion and the lag time were affected by month of measurement but not by species (P = 0.08). The lag time was longer in the dry season, whereas no clear trends were observed for the monthly variation in digestion rate. The reduction in potentially degradable fraction (B) with advancing dry season probably reflects increasing cell wall and thus decreased soluble carbohydrates. However, it is not clear to what extent the reduction in the B fraction may have been compensated by the increased rate of degradation of this fraction resulting from increased N supply from browses available at this time.These results suggest that the environmental conditions and the digestive microbial activity in the rumen of cattle, goats and sheep grazing year-round on crop residue fields and Sahelian rangelands vary seasonally. This variation appears to be associated with the dietary selectivity of the three species. The potentially digestible fraction is generally thought to depend on the nature of the feed. However, these results suggest that anti-nutritional factors may decrease the potential extent of digestion of fibrous feeds. Since the different animal species differ in dietary selectivity, the constraints to rumen function appear to be different across species. The variation in the ruminal environment observed under traditional feeding regimes in the tropics must be considered when attempting to manipulate the rumen microbial population. Special consideration should be given to the influence of toxic substances and the competition among microbes or their ability to tolerate periods of starvation.These results also have implications for defining supplementation priorities. For instance, during crop residue grazing, high levels of intake and diet quality were observed only during the first three or four weeks of the season, when the amount of above-ground leaf exceeded 400 kg/ha (ILCA 1993). After the first month of grazing the amounts of protein-and energy-yielding nutrient appears to be insufficient for efficient microbial activity and the maintenance of the animals. Therefore a response to rumen degradable (RDP) and undegradable (RUDP) protein and energy could be expected. In a supplementation experiment, the response to metabolisable energy (ME) followed a diminishing return pattern and decreased as the initial live weight of the animals increased. The sheep grew faster when supplemented with RUDP and this response rose as ME intake increased, which suggests that the microbial protein synthesis was not sufficient to meet sheep protein requirements. Similarly, the influence of ME was also dependent on the consumption of RUDP. Further studies should determine the economically optimum levels of supplementation.Fibre digestion in the rumen is constrained by retention time, digestion rate and the magnitude of the indigestible fraction (Allen and Mertens 1988;Ørskov 1991). These constraints could be alleviated by increasing rumen volume, improving the environmental conditions in the rumen or increasing the fibrolytic capacity of the rumen microbes. The constraints to fibre digestion in the rumen are determined by the chemical and physical nature of the fibre, which in turn depends on the genetic make-up of the plant and the environment where it grows. Therefore the selection of cultivars that produce high levels of grain and better quality residues offer possibilities for improving fibre breakdown in the rumen (Bartle and Klopfenstein 1988;Ørskov 1991).Three different avenues for improving fibre digestion through plant selection have been followed by ILCA/ILRI, in collaboration with crop-oriented institutions. The first is the exploitation of variation across varieties in cereal crops (sorghum and millet) and forage legumes (cowpea and groundnut). The second is the introduction of genetically controlled quality related traits, as the low-lignin brown mid-rib (bmr) and trichomeless (tr) traits in pearl millet. The third is the identification of geographic locations in the semi-arid zone that could produce higher quality trees. In the last approach, studies are under way in Niger to evaluate the variation in feed potential of several species.Bird-resistant and non-bird-resistant varieties of sorghum grown in Ethiopia did not differ in neutral detergent fibre (NDF) concentration of leaves (Reed et al 1987(Reed et al , 1988)). However, leaves from non-bird-resistant varieties were more digestible. Most of the variation in leaf NDF digestibility was accounted for by differences in lignin or insoluble proanthocyanidins. Further studies by Osafo (1993) showed that varieties differed only in the potentially degradable fraction (Ørskov 1991) of leaves but not in the readily soluble fraction. Since no differences were observed in other plant parts, the degradation rates and the potential degradation of the whole stover were similar across varieties.In 12 millet varieties grown in Niger, Reed et al (1988) found differences in NDF and lignin of leaf and stem, although the range in variation appeared to be smaller than the inter-varietal differences that they had observed for sorghum. However, these differences do not appear to be consistent over the years. In a three-year collaborative study with the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the forage quality of the stover from nine pearl millet varieties grown under three phosphorus fertiliser levels (0, 30, 60 kg P 2 O 5 /ha) was evaluated. In the three years of the study, the millet varieties differed (P < 0.01) in stover yield. These differences were not affected by phosphorus fertiliser and were consistent across years. The concentration of NDF in leaf and stem was affected by variety in two of the three years, whereas digestibility of leaf was influenced by variety (P < 0.01) in one year and that of stem (P < 0.01) in two years. The annual means of OM digestibility of leaf were 442, 447 and 490 g/kg and those of stem were only 235, 227 and 217 g/kg. Digestibility was lowest in the highest grain yielding year, but no correlation between grain yield and digestibility was detected within years. This study indicated that differences among varieties are large for residue yield, but small for quality traits. Grain yield is highly positively correlated with stover yield but appears not to be correlated with digestibility or NDF of the stover.In another collaborative study with ICRISAT, the effects of the brown mid-rib (bmr) and trichomeless (tr) traits on the quality of millet stover were studied (ILCA 1994a). At grain harvest, stover leaves and stems from 120 progenies of either bmr or normal millet and 20 progenies of either tr or normal millets were collected and sequentially analysed for ashless NDF, ADF and lignin, as well as for organic matter (OM) and in sacco OM disappearance. Leaf from bmr millet had less lignin (31 versus 44 g/kg DM, standard error of the mean, sem = 2.0) and was more digestible than normal millet. Digestible OM (g/kg DM, i.e. D value) was 602 for bmr and 572 for normal millet (sem = 3.8). Similarly, millet bearing the bmr trait produced stems with less lignin (62 versus 87 g/kg DM, sem = 5.5) and a higher D value (479 versus 419 g/kg, sem = 4.9) than their normal counterparts. Although leaf yield (g DM/plant) was not different between genotypes (88.8 g for bmr and 85.2 g for normal millet, sem = 3.9), bmr millet produced less stem than normal millet (85.6 versus 102.1 g DM/plant, sem = 4.4).Pearl millet plants bearing the tr trait tended (P = 0.09) to produce more leaf (123.0 versus 95.3 g DM/plant, sem = 12.2) and stem (191.7 versus 152.4 g DM/plant, sem = 16.4) than their normal counterparts. No differences were observed in fibre constituents of leaves from both millet types, but tr millet leaves had a higher OM concentration (918 versus 902, sem = 3.8, P < 0.01) possibly owing to the chemical nature of the trichomes, and a higher OMD (670 versus 645 g/kg, sem = 6.1, P < 0.01) than normal millet leaves. Stems from tr millet had less (P < 0.01) NDF (667 versus 726 g/kg DM, sem = 17.6), ADF (463, versus 537 g/kg DM, sem = 19.8) and lignin (87 versus 103 g/kg, sem = 5.4) and a higher OMD (521 versus 441 g/kg, sem = 9.1) than stems from normal millet.These results confirmed that the effects of the bmr trait on lignin and digestibility of residues from millet grown for grain production and harvested at advanced stages of maturity are similar to those found in forage millet. An increased residue quality of bmr genotypes could be obtained at the expense of decreased stem yield. They also suggest that the tr trait might improve the feed quality of millet stover without compromising stover yield.In summary, in the semi-arid zone the differences in feeding value of the stover among sorghum and pearl millet varieties appear to be small and variable over the years. However, there are possibilities for introducing quality-related genes that can modify the composition of the fibre and increase digestibility. Further studies must evaluate the influence of such traits on the adaptability, grain yield and disease resistance of the crops. Preliminary data suggest that the bmr trait reduces grain yield and promotes lodging in pearl millet. However, these effects appear to vary across parent lines (A. Kumar, personal communication), which offer additional possibilities for selection.In collaboration with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and ICRISAT, the differences in feed quality of hay from cowpea varieties grown as sole crop (20 entries) or inter-cropped with millet (16 entries) were studied.Varieties grown as sole crops differed in leaf yield (range = 134 to 1115, sem = 145 kg DM/ha), stem yield (range = 157 to 1131, sem = 177 kg DM/ha) and litter leaf as proportion of leaf produced (range = 0.221 to 0.772, sem = 0.09). No differences were observed in OMD (mean = 720 g digestible OM/kg DM, P > 0.48) or in crude protein (mean = 197 g/kg DM, P > 0.16) of leaf. However, high variation among varieties was observed in OMD (range = 459 to 611, sem = 20 g/kg) and CP concentration of stems (range = 108 to 190, sem = 6.6 g/kg DM). Similar trends were observed in the study with varieties grown intercropped with millet, but in this experiment differences among entries were also observed for CP of leaf.Similar on-going trials with groundnut varieties show large differences across varieties in feed value of the stem but little or no differences in feed quality of the leaf. In summary, these studies suggest that the selection of cowpea and groundnut varieties for feed quality and yield of hay is promising. This may result in important income or production benefits, since these are the most important cash crops of the semi-arid zone and are used widely in the more intensive feeding systems.In a collaborative study with the International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) the genetic variation in fodder quality of Combretum aculeatum, among other species, was studied in 60 half-sib families. Seeds were collected in a 100 km long and 20 km wide area along the Niger River. The collection zone was divided into provenances. From each provenance several half-sib families were collected, grown in the nursery and transplanted to the fields (J. Weber, personal communication).During the dry season, the concentration (g/kg DM) of N in C. aculeatum foliage varied from 15.7 to 36.2 (mean = 22.4, SD = 3.1), that of phosphorus from 0.7 to 2.7 (mean = 1.5, SD = 0.4), and that of organic matter from 798 to 994 (mean = 918, SD = 29). Although the samples were taken in early physiological stages, the results suggest that C. aculeatum is a valuable source of protein for dry season feeding. Preliminary analyses suggested that variation exists among families of C. aculeatum for concentration of N, P and OM. Nitrogen concentration was positively correlated with that of P (r = 0.41, P < 0.01) and OM (r = 0.25, P < 0.01). Digestibility data are not yet available. Although preliminary, these results support the hypothesis that geographical areas that produce superior genotypes of trees could be selected for fodder yield and quality. Studies with other species of importance in the semi-arid zone are on-going.Based on the results of ILRI research summarised above, future ILRI rumen ecology work is planned: 1. To evaluate other in vitro methods (Odenyo et al 1991;Theodorou et al 1994) as procedures for early assessment of MPTs for negative effects. 2. To extract and partially purify anti-nutrients from MPTs. These semi-purified extracts will be used to isolate microbes that can degrade such substances. 3. To eventually identify MPTs that are not toxic to the rumen microbes and may be safely used as supplements when basal roughage diets are fed. Both classical and molecular methods will be used to evaluate effects of MPTs on rumen microbes. 4. To follow the microbial population dynamics according to seasonal variations. 5. To identify and characterise microbes from indigenous ruminants that effectively degrade fibre, and those that can tolerate or degrade anti-nutrients from fodder trees by classical and molecular methods. These microbes may be transferred to ruminants not adapted to such diets. It is also possible to manipulate these microbes using recombinant DNA technology to enhance fibre-degrading capabilities of already established rumen microbes.A collaborative programme among ILRI, Australia and Indonesian scientists is planned. The work will focus mainly on isolation of tannin tolerant or degrading microbes from indigenous ruminants. The microbes will also be characterised genetically to make it possible to develop nucleic acid probes for future persistence studies in the new host.Results of ILRI work summarised above strongly suggest that the focus of future work should include attempts to explain the role of rumen microbes in the utilisation of high fibre feeds supplemented with multipurpose trees. Furthermore it is important to explain the biochemical basis of the interactions between rumen microbes and the chemicals contained in MPTs, especially anti-nutritional factors. There is need to do more research on the seasonal variations of microbial populations in various ruminants across agro-ecological zones. Improving fibre digestion through genetic selection of crops and trees is another promising area of research.Feedstuffs consumed by ruminants are all initially exposed to the fermentative activity in the rumen prior to gastric and intestinal digestion. Dietary polysaccharides and protein are generally degraded by the ruminal microorganisms into characteristic end products, which in turn provide nutrients for metabolism by the host animal. The extent and type of transformation of feedstuffs thus determines the productive performance of the host. Fermentation of feedstuffs in the rumen yields short-chain volatile fatty acids (VFA) (primarily acetic, propionic and butyric acids), carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia and occasionally lactic acid. Some of the change in free energy (∆G 0 ′) is used to drive microbial growth, but heat also is evolved. Ruminants use the organic acids and microbial protein as sources of energy and amino acids, respectively, but methane, heat and ammonia can cause a loss of energy and nitrogen (N). The quality and quantity of rumen fermentation products is dependent on the types and activities of the microorganisms in the rumen. This, in turn, will have an enormous potential impact on nutrient output and performance of ruminant animals. It is only with a thorough understanding of the mechanisms involved that this system can by successfully manipulated and fully exploited (Mackie and White 1990).Ammonia plays a central role as an intermediate in the degradation and assimilation of dietary nitrogen by rumen bacteria. Ammonia is the major end-product of digestion of dietary protein and non-protein nitrogen (urea and amino acids) as well as the major source of nitrogen for synthesis by ruminal bacteria. A comparison of peptide and amino acid utilisation showed that peptides were more effectively incorporated into bacterial protein while a greater proportion of amino acids were fermented to VFA. Ruminal digestion results in the production of VFA and bacterial cells which are used as the major energy and protein sources, respectively, for metabolism by the host animal. As a result, nitrogen metabolism in the rumen is intimately related to the metabolism and utilisation of nitrogen by ruminant tissues. Growth and production in ruminants is dependent on bacterial protein synthesised in the rumen and ammonia is of central importance in this process. The integration of metabolism demands that consideration be given to protein and energy interactions in the rumen in order to achieve a balanced supply of nutrients at the duodenum. For the ruminant animal, the quantity of microbial plus undegraded dietary protein arriving at the duodenum has a great influence on productivity. The potential of enhancing the productivity and lean tissue growth of ruminants by growth promotants and hormone manipulations is determined by a balanced supply of protein and energy to the animal (MacRae and Lobley 1986).In ruminants, the amino acid requirements are provided by microbes synthesised in the rumen and from dietary protein that is not degraded in the rumen but is intestinally digestible (bypass or escape protein). A large but variable proportion (60% to 90%) of the dietary protein is degraded by rumen microorganisms and it is the rate at which the different proteins can be hydrolysed that controls the extent of their degradation before they pass out of the rumen (Leng and Nolan 1984;Mackie and Kistner 1985;Tamminga 1979). This has an important influence on the proportions of undegraded dietary protein and microbial protein that are presented to the small intestine for digestion by the host animal. Furthermore, this forms the basis of all modern systems for evaluating and predicting protein utilisation by ruminants. Although much attention has been focused on physical and chemical methods of controlling the rate of protein degradation in the rumen, little research has been done on the factors influencing the proteolytic activity of ruminal bacteria despite the nutritional significance of this activity.For ruminants receiving diets containing protein, the change in quantity and pattern of amino acids, which results from the conversion to microbial protein in the rumen, can be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on the composition of the food protein. If the latter is of good quality, biological value is reduced because the microbial protein is of lower digestibility and is accompanied by nucleic acids. Under these conditions, it would be advantageous to limit degradation of dietary protein, provided this does not lead to a reduction of the microbial population and their activities, such as fibre digestion and VFA production (Smith 1979). However, proteolysis during ruminal fermentation may benefit the host animal if the microbial protein synthesised from the products is of higher biological value than the feed proteins (Tamminga 1979).Recent work confirms that the proteolytic activity in the rumen is almost entirely associated with bacterial cells and that cell-free rumen fluid and protozoa have little activity toward soluble proteins (Nugent and Mangan 1981). However, the protozoa play an important role in the engulfment of bacteria and particulate matter and hence degradation of insoluble proteins (Coleman 1979). Proteolytic activity in the rumen is not confined to a single bacterium but is a variable property possessed by many different bacteria that may be active in the degradation of other feed constituents, mainly carbohydrates. Furthermore, the predominant proteolytic bacteria will differ depending on diet (Mackie 1982). Although extracellular enzymes are usually produced by Grampositive bacteria, the most important protease-producing bacteria in the rumen are Gram-negative, including species of Prevotella, Selenomonas, and Butyrivibrio (Cotta and Hespell 1986). Other species, probably of less significance, are Megasphaera elsdenii, Streptococcus bovis, Clostridium spp., Eubacterium spp., Lachnospira multiparus, Succinivibrio dextrinosolvens, and the Spirochaetes (Allison 1970). Russell et al (1981) demonstrated that the Gram-positive S. bovis played a predominant role in ruminal proteolysis, especially on high concentrate diets.Rumen microbial proteolytic activity has a broad optimum in the neutral range (Blackburn and Hobson 1960;Brock et al 1982;Kopecny and Wallace 1982). In general, rumen bacteria have a mixture of proteases based on the chemistry of their active site and the specificity of their hydrolytic activity (Brock et al 1982;Kopecny and Wallace 1982;Prins et al 1983;Wallace 1983;Wallace and Brammall 1985). This activity is predominantly of the cysteine protease type with large contributions from the serineand metallo-protease type. Aspartic acid proteases were of minor importance in rumen bacteria. Protozoal proteases were mainly of the cysteine type and aspartic activity was significant (Forsberg et al 1984). In contrast, the proteases of Neocallimastix frontalis, a prominent member of the anaerobic rumen fungi, had significant metallo-protease activity with trypsin-like specificity (Wallace and Joblin 1985).Proteases have been studied in few pure cultures of rumen bacteria. Prevotella ruminicola, which can utilise peptide N instead of ammonia, had proteolytic activity in batch culture that was maximal and mostly (>90%) cell-associated during the midexponential phase of growth (Hazlewood and Edwards 1981;Hazlewood et al 1981). The proteolytic activity comprised a mixture of serine, cysteine and aspartic acid proteinases with the possibility that some of the activity is dependent on the presence of metal ions (Mg 2+ ). Ruminobacter amylophilus produces both cell-bound and cell-free proteolytic activity, which consistently amounts to 80 and 20%, respectively, of the total activity during exponential growth, but the proportion of cell-free activity increases in stationary phase cultures (Blackburn 1968). This cell-free activity may be truly extracellular or it might indicate that a proportion of bacteria are lysing during growth.In contrast, proteolytic activity of Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens was essentially all extracellular, regardless of stage of growth. The number and approximate molecular weight (MW) of extracellular proteases produced by Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens H17c were determined by gelatin-PAGE. Nine bands of protease activity with apparent MW of approximately 101,000,95,000,87,000,80,000,76,000,68,000,63,000,54,000 and 42,000 were found in supernatants from exponential phase sultures (Strydom et al 1986). The proteases were stable and survived unchanged in stationary phase cultures. The activity of all 10 exoproteases was optimal between pH 6.0 and 7.5 and a temperature of 55°C. The activities of all 10 protease fragments were inhibited by the serine protease inhibitor phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF). Their activities were not affected by inhibitors of trypsin-like enzymes or metallo-, sulfhydryl-and carboxylproteases, thus confirming that they are all serine proteases. Production of the 10 exoproteases was not subject either to nitrogen or carbohydrate catabolite repression, and all 10 exoproteases were produced under conditions of nitrogen and carbohydrate excess. Production of serine exoproteases by Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens H17c did not require a specific inducer and exoproteases were constitutively produced in various media. Production of exoproteases was positively correlated with growth and would therefore be growth-rate dependent.However, additional strains of these organisms and other proteolytic species require urgent examination before a clear understanding of the proteolytic activity in the rumen will be achieved.Proteolysis results in oligopeptide production. These oligopeptides then undergo degradation to smaller peptides and amino acids. A comparison of peptide and amino acid used showed that peptides were more effectively incorporated into bacterial protein while a greater proportion of amino acids were fermented to VFA (Cotta and Hespell 1986;Wright 1967). Thus, free amino acids are not incorporated into microbial protein per se but undergo rapid deamination providing ammonia for bacterial growth. The deamination and degradation of specific amino acids are of special relevance to bacterial growth in the rumen. The most important of these is the conversion of leucine, isoleucine and valine to isovalerate, 2-methylbutyrate and isobutyrate, respectively. These branched-chain fatty acids are either required or highly stimulatory to the growth of many ruminal bacteria, particularly the fibrolytic species (Bryant andRobinson 1962, 1963).It has been well documented that many rumen bacteria can utilise peptides as a source of amino acids; for several bacterial systems, peptide transport into the cell followed by intracellular cleavage has been demonstrated. Because transport mechanisms for free acids appear to be absent in many rumen bacteria, the transport of peptides into the cell represents an important means of obtaining N for the synthesis of cellular components, especially those lacking the ability to utilise ammonia. Pittman and Bryant (1964) showed that Prevotella ruminicola was able to utilise peptide and ammonia N but not amino N for growth. In further studies, Pittman et al (1967) showed that the same strain of Prevotella ruminicola did not transport [ 14 C]proline or glutamic acid and very little valine, whereas peptides of MW up to 2000 were transported. Russell (1983) also showed that the addition of Trypticase to cultures of Prevotella ruminicola B 1 4 significantly improved growth yields, although peptides alone could not support the growth of this organism. However, the actual transport of peptides by rumen bacteria has only been demonstrated using a radiolabelling technique that is unable to distinguish between possible extracellular hydrolysis of labelled proteins, or possible efflux of labelled amino acids from the intracellular pool.Studies on the transport of peptides of varying chain length and amino acid composition were carried out with Streptococcus bovis using a dansylation procedure (Westlake and Mackie 1990;Westlake et al 1987). Under these conditions the transport of the majority of components of Trypticase, Leu-Trp-Met-Arg-Phe, and Phe-Arg has been demonstrated, although the defined structure peptides were completely hydrolysed by extracellular peptidases to smaller units before transport. The pentapeptide was hydrolysed to eight different components in the transport buffer and all were present within the cell after 2 min of incubation. The Phe-Arg was hydrolysed extracellularly to phenylalanine and a second compound, but not alanine. However, both alanine and phenylalanine were present within the cell after 2 min of incubation. These studies emphasise the limitations in the use of 14 C-labelled substrates in transport experiments and the need to account for possible extracellular hydrolysis of labelled compounds, which in the case of Streptococcus bovis appears to be considerable. Streptococcus bovis, a Gram-positive organism, has been shown to play a major role in ruminal proteolysis on high concentrate diets (Russell et al 1981).Depending upon the diet, 60-90% of the daily nitrogen intake by the ruminant is converted to ammonia and 60-80% of bacterial N is derived from ammonia, with the balance derived from N-containing compounds (peptides mainly) which do not equilibrate with the NH 3 -N pool (Pilgrim et al 1970;Mathison and Milligan 1971;Nolan and Leng 1972). Bryant and Robinson (1961, 1962, 1963) found that 92% of ruminal bacterial isolates could utilise ammonia as the main source of N, while it was essential for the growth of 25% of all isolates tested. Little amino acid-nitrogen is available for microbial growth and amino acids are rapidly deaminated to ammonia, VFA and CO 2 before being utilised for microbial protein synthesis. The deamination and degradation of specific amino acids are of special relevance to bacterial growth in the rumen. The most important of these is the conversion of leucine, isoleucine and valine to isovalerate, 2-methylbutyrate and isobutyrate, respectively. These branched-chain fatty acids are either required or highly stimulatory to the growth of many ruminal bacteria, particularly the fibrolytic species (Bryant and Robinson 1961, 1962, 1963). Although our knowledge about other mammalian gastrointestinal ecosystems is not as extensive or definitive as that of the rumen, results indicate that ammonia is the major N source supporting bacterial growth in the cecum and colon of pigs, horses and humans (Allison et al 1979;Herbeck and Bryant 1974;Maczulak et al 1985;Robinson et al 1981;Takahashi et al 1980;Varel and Bryant 1974;Wozny et al 1977). Thus, the rumen provides an ideal model for the study of these processes since it has been extensively characterised. Ammonia produced in the rumen that is not incorporated into microbial cells is largely absorbed through the wall of the reticulo-rumen and converted into urea by the liver. This is excreted in the urine leading to environmental pollution in the vicinity of intensive animal production operations. Between 60 and 75% of the N in excreted manure is converted into NH 3 , of which 25 to 40% is lost during storage, and an additional 20 to 60% is lost during spreading (Tamminga and Verstegen 1992).The concentration of ammonia in the rumen varies widely ranging from 2-40 mM. Satter and Slyter (1974) found that when the concentration of NH 3 -N is lower than 3.5 mM, microbial growth decreased significantly. Levels of ammonia in dairy cows were found to range from 7-13.5 mM (Wohlt et al 1976). Thus, under adequate feeding regimens, prevailing ammonia concentrations should always be adequate for optimal growth of rumen bacteria. Earlier research with sheep fed low-protein (2.9% CP) Eragrostis tef hay showed NH 3 -N concentrations of 1.8 mM immediately after feeding which went down to 0.05 mM 8 h after feeding (Schwartz and Gilchrist, Internal Progress Report, Digestion and Metabolism in the Ruminant Unit, Veterinary Research Institute, Onderstepoort, South Africa). Grazing ruminants could be expected to have similar low ammonia levels during winter or dry periods not only in the USA but elsewhere in the world. It is worth noting that most of the world's ruminant population live and produce under grazing conditions that exist in the subtropics and tropics (Gilchrist and Mackie 1984). When environmental ammonia concentrations are greater than 1 mM, the glutamate dehydrogenase pathway of ammonia assimilation predominates, whereas when concentrations of ammonia are less than 0.5 mM the high affinity glutamine synthetase pathway is more important. Schaefer et al (1980) reported ammonia saturation constants for 10 species of predominant ruminal bacteria which ranged from 5 to 50 uM which suggests that these organisms could attain 95% of their maximal growth rate in the presence of 1.0 mM ammonia and an unlimited energy supply. Although many species of ruminal bacteria are efficient scavengers of ammonia, both pathways may be used simultaneously in different microorganisms. Thus, irrespective of the prevailing environmental ammonia concentration, enzymes of ammonia assimilation are critical in procuring this essential nutrient for bacterial cell growth.Theoretically, optimal ruminal NH 3 concentrations required for maximal microbial growth are in the range of 2-3 mM; a concentration below 1 mM is limiting. However, this assumes that there is no other limiting nutrient and is an oversimplification since many other factors need to be considered. Thus bacteria adherent on surfaces may be exposed to environmental NH 3 concentrations that are less than optimal. Additionally, NH 3 concentrations that facilitate maximal levels of fibre degradation may be lower than those that maximise microbial protein synthesis and feed intake. It is also possible that, in grazing ruminants consuming low protein forages where ruminal microbes are dependent mainly on recycled NPN sources, fermentation uncoupled from bacterial growth may occur. This area of research needs further focus.Since ammonia is the preferred source of N for most rumen bacteria, enzymes of ammonia assimilation are essential to the growth of most rumen microorganisms. Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) and the dual enzyme system glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamate synthase (GOGAT) are the two most important routes by which ammonia may be assimilated.Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH; EC 1.4.1.2 and 1.4.1.4) catalyses the following reaction: GDH 2-Ketoglutarate + NH 3 + NAD(P)H + H + ← → Glutamate + NAD(P) + High levels of both NADH-and NADPH-linked GDH activity have been observed in ruminal contents (Chalupa et al 1970) and in continuous culture of mixed ruminal bacteria (Erfle et al 1977). NADH-linked GDH has been reported in Ruminococcus albus and Megasphaera elsdenii, whereas most other ruminal bacteria possess NADPHlinked activity (Joyner and Baldwin 1966). Selenomonas ruminantium was shown to possess both types of activity in a relatively constant activity ratio (0.25-0.35) under both glucose-and ammonia-limited growth conditions (Smith et al 1980). In general, NADP-linked GDH is assumed to have a biosynthetic role and functions efficiently at high ammonia concentrations as evidenced by its high K m for ammonia. The NADlinked enzyme has a catabolic function associated with limiting levels of ammonia and growth on amino acids (glutamate) (Brown 1980;Dalton 1979). Smith et al (1980) showed that NADP-linked GDH activity was optimal at ca 400 mM monovalent salt concentration (Na + , K + or NH 4 + ) in S. ruminantium. Apparent K m values for this enzyme of 6.7 and 23 mM were estimated from a double-reciprocal plot of the enzyme activity as a function of NH 4 Cl concentration. It is also of interest that GDH activity in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron was influenced by salt concentration. NADP-linked activity increased by 73% and NAD-linked activity decreased by 50% in the presence of 0.1 M NaCl (Glass and Hylemon 1980).The second major pathway for ammonia assimilation in ruminal bacteria is mediated by the concerted action of two enzymes. Glutamine synthetase (GS; EC 6.3.1.2) fixes ammonia in the amide of glutamine by an ATP-dependent reaction. Then glutamate synthase (GOGAT; EC 1.4.1.13), the second enzyme of this system, catalyses the reductive transfer of the glutamine amide to 2-ketoglutarate (Meers et al 1970).Glutamate + ATP + NH 3 → Glutamine + ADP + P GOGAT 2-Ketoglutarate + Glutamine + NADPH + H + → 2 Glutamate + NADP + Glutamine synthetase activity can be assayed by several different methods (Hespell 1984) which makes the observation of GS activity in whole rumen contents (Chalupa et al 1970) and during continuous culture of mixed ruminal bacteria (Erfle et al 1977) difficult to interpret since each organism has different conditions for optimal enzyme activity. In S. ruminantium, GS activity was measured using the biosynthetic assay since γ-glutamyltransferase activity was absent (Smith et al 1980). Furthermore, GS activity was not under covalent control by the adenylylation-deadenylylation reaction and feedback inhibition commonly found in other bacteria. In contrast, both Ruminobacter (Bacteroides) amylophilus (Jenkinson et al 1979) and Succinivibrio dextrinosolvens (Patterson and Hespell 1985) contain γ-glutamyltransferase activity which was under control of adenylylation-deadenylylation Escherichia coli type of regulation for GS.Glutamate synthase activity has been demonstrated in only one strain of the gut anaerobe S. ruminantium strain D (Smith et al 1981) and was unusual in that neither NADPH or NADH were suitable as electron donors for the reaction. The enzyme was reductant-dependent and used dithionite-reduced methyl viologen as the electron carrier system in the assay. Thus some unidentified low-potential electron carrier is required and may help to explain problems involved in measuring GOGAT activities in other species of rumen bacteria.The Ruminococci are mesophilic, Gram-positive bacteria which play an important role in ruminal cellulose digestion. Ruminococcus albus and R. flavefaciens are among the predominant cellulolytic bacteria isolated from the rumen of animals fed a variety of diets and ammonia is essential for their growth since they are unable to utilise nitrogen from amino acids or peptides (Bryant and Robinson 1961, 1962, 1963). Reports of GDH activity in Ruminococci are scarce. Joyner and Baldwin (1966) reported the presence of NADH-linked GDH activity in R. albus. This was confirmed in R. albus 7 grown under glucose limitation in chemostat (Kistner and Kotze 1973). Cell associated NADP-linked GDH activity in R. flavefaciens 67 was approximately three-fold higher in cells grown under ammonia limitation and was independent of growth rate (D = 0.06-0.15 h -1 ) (Pettipher and Latham 1979).We have focused our studies on ammonia assimilation by R. flavefaciens FD-1 in both batch and continuous culture (Duncan and Mackie 1989;Duncan et al 1991Duncan et al , 1992)). Initially the principal routes of ammonia assimilation and the activities of the corresponding enzymes were examined. Results from batch culture confirm that GS and GDH are active routes of NH 3 assimilation and that their relative activities depend on the concentration of NH 3 in the growth medium. GS activity increased under N-limiting conditions but activity was inhibited 50% by NH 3 shocking. The adenylylation form of GS modification common in many bacteria (Magasanik 1982;Merrick 1988) does not occur in R. flavefaciens (Duncan et al 1992).All GS and most of the GDH activity present in whole cells was sedimented by ultracentrifugation (328,000 × g; 37 min; 4°C). Streicher and Tyler (1980) reported a rapid purification of GS from a variety of bacteria based on differential centrifugation which depends on the integrity of the GS-DNA complex in cell extracts. However, in contrast to their findings, prior treatment of the cell extracts of R. flavefaciens with DNAse or RNAse had no effect on sedimentation. However, harvesting and fractionation of cells in the presence of a detergent (CTAB) reduced the amount of sedimentable activity of both GS and GDH and the balance was recovered in the supernatant. This provides preliminary evidence that GS and some of the GDH activity may be membrane-associated. The nature of the interaction with the membrane fraction is being studied using different detergents and salt washes combined with PAGE and activity gel assays to locate activity of GS and GDH.Reaction kinetics of NADP-linked GDH were assayed in cell fractions (membrane pellet and supernatant) to address the possible existence of multiple forms of GDH with different physiological roles and kinetic characteristics. Michaelis-Menten kinetics were demonstrated and Lineweaver-Burk plots were linear for the substrate concentration range (1-50 mM). The affinity for ammonia was higher in the membrane pellet fraction (K m = 14.2mM) than supernatant (K m = 47.9 mM). Further research is required to determine if these are different enzymes or different forms (isozymes) of the same enzyme.Glutamate dehydrogenase (L-glutamate: NADP + oxidoreductase, deaminating, E.C. 1.4.1.4; GDH) from R. flavefaciens FD-1 has been purified and characterised in our laboratory (Duncan et al 1992). The native enzyme and subunits are 280 and 48 kDa, respectively, suggesting that the native enzyme is a hexamer. This is characteristic of bacterial and fungal NADP-linked GDHs (Britton et al 1992). The enzyme requires 0.5 M KCl for optimal activity, and has a pH optimum of 6.9-7.0. The K m 's for ammonia, α-ketoglutarate and glutamate are 19, 0.41 and 62 mM, respectively. The sigmoidal NADPH saturation curve revealed positive cooperativity for the binding of this coenzyme. The first residue in the N-terminal sequence was alanine, suggesting that the protein may be modified post-translationally. Comparison of the N-terminal sequence with those of E. coli, S. typhimurium and Clostridium symbiosum revealed only 39% amino acid homologies. Sequence comparisons for GDHs from a diverse range of sources show that the hexameric enzymes are structurally similar. However, the similarity is poor for the N-terminal 50 residues and then rises significantly with long stretches of highly similar sequences over the next 350 residues (Britton et al 1992).A thorough understanding of the process of ammonia assimilation by bacteria requires identification of the possible pathways of assimilation for different N sources in different organisms and characterisation of the enzymes involved in these pathways. This knowledge must then be integrated with information on the physiological state of cells growing under different conditions. Finally, a genetic analysis is required both of the structural genes which encode the enzymes of ammonia assimilation and of the regulatory genes which are essential in the control and coordination of the level of these enzymes in the cell. Such a complete description has been achieved in very few systems but the most comprehensive description available thus far is in the enteric bacteria, namely E. coli, S. typhimurium, Klebsiella pneumoniae and K. aerogenes (Kustu et al 1986;Magasanik 1982Magasanik , 1988;;Merrick 1988). However, in rumen bacteria we have no information on the mechanisms controlling expression of the primary ammonia assimilation enzymes (GS, GOGAT and GDH). Rapid developments in these systems can be expected due to the availability of gene probes and promoter sequence information from the enterics.Of the three primary enzymes of ammonia assimilation only GS expression is markedly regulated in response to changes in the availability of ammonia. GS from enteric bacteria is comprised of 12 identical subunits each with 50 kDa molecular weight. In E. coli, GS activity is regulated by covalent modification involving reversible adenylylation of a specific tyrosine residue on each subunit. Maximum biosynthetic activity is obtained when the enzyme is completely unadenylated. The adenylation of GS is carried out by an adenylyl transferase (ATase) encoded by the glnE gene. ATase can act in reverse to deadenylate GS and the activity of ATase is determined by its interaction with a small regulatory protein P II . If ammonia is abundant, ATase acts to adenylylate GS and reduces its activity, while under ammonia limitation GS is deadenylated by ATase. The regulatory protein P II is the product of the glnB gene. The unmodified P II stimulates adenylylation of GS by ATase while uridylylated P II enhances the deadenylylation reaction. The covalent attachment of a UMP residue to P II is caused by uridylyl transferase (UTase), the product of the glnD gene. Regulation of GS activity is therefore achieved by a complex cascade of events which are ultimately controlled by the relative levels of glutamine and 2-ketoglutarate inside the cell. A high glutamine:2-ketoglutarate ratio causes UTase to deuridylylate P II which in turn stimulates adenylylation of GS by ATase. The reverse sequence occurs when the ratio is low. GS levels are also regulated transcriptionally such that in ammonia-limited cultures, the level of GS is higher than that measured in cells grown with excess ammonia. The system which mediates this control is known as the nitrogen regulation (ntr) system. The gene which encodes GS (glnA) has been cloned from the enterics as well as several other bacteria (Merrick 1988;Southern et al 1986;Usdin et al 1986).In contrast GOGAT and GDH are apparently subject to far less control and even in the enterics, the precise nature of their regulation is presently unknown (Merrick 1988). However, recent research on the nac gene suggests a second tier of nitrogen regulation which intercedes between ntr and nitrogen-controlled systems including GOGAT and GDH. It is possible that nac is specifically involved in the regulation of systems which can provide the cell with carbon as well as nitrogen (Bender 1991). Cloning and sequencing of nac and the analysis of promoters under nac control have recently been published (Maculuso et al 1990). This type of system may be important in rumen bacteria where catabolite regulatory mechanisms appear to be involved in regulation (Russell and Baldwin 1978;Russell et al 1990).With few exceptions, the metabolism of a compound starts with its transport across the cell membrane, mediated in most cases by specific transport proteins or carriers. This uptake is frequently strictly regulated. However, regulation of transport is almost impossible if a compound crosses the membrane by non-specific diffusion. With respect to bacterial membranes, there is ample evidence that transport systems for most ions and large polar molecules (M r approx >100) exist. If the cell membrane was not basically impermeable, it would be difficult for cells to retain ionic nutrients as these could also diffuse out into the surrounding dilute aqueous environment. However, the exception may be those ions that are in equilibrium with a non-ionic, relatively lipid soluble form such as the NH 4 + -NH 3 pair. The important question is which form of ammonia passes across the membrane, since the pKa for the dissociation NH 4 + ↔NH 3 + H + is 9.25 at 24°C. It is obvious that at physiological pH, the vast bulk of substrate is present as NH 4 + . However, it is possible that under conditions of high substrate repression and inhibition of scavenging active transport systems, passive diffusion across the cell membrane could still occur. A case could also be made for a facilitated diffusion mechanism, although net flux would only occur if the solute passes down a concentration gradient.The occurrence of NH 4 + transport systems is widely distributed amongst many species of bacteria with varying physiology and ecology. In general, the affinity of the NH 4 + carriers is high, with K m values of 5-50 µM (Kleiner 1985). Most of the ammonium transport systems have been detected with 14 CH 3 NH 3 + . With the exception of the cyanobacteria, the NH 4 + gradient is similar to the methylamine gradient and ranges from 50 to 200 fold. The cyanobacteria are able to generate NH 4 + gradients as high as 3000 fold (Boussiba et al 1984). Another important feature apart from concentrative uptake is energy dependence. Energy dependent NH 4 + transport has been inferred from studies which demonstrate dependence on an energy source such as ATP, inhibition by inhibitors of energy metabolism, and inhibition by compounds which decrease PMF. Taken together, the available evidence favours a component of the PMF, the membrane potential (∆Ψ), as the driving force for NH 4 + transport in most bacterial carriers (Kleiner 1985).The synthesis of the bacterial NH 4 + carriers is repressed when grown in media with high levels of NH 4 + . This is similar to the high affinity GS enzyme system for ammonia assimilation described earlier. These enzymes are under the nitrogen control (ntr) regulatory system (Magasanik 1982;Merrick 1988) which comprises three regulatory genes ntrA (or glnF), ntrB (glnL) and ntrC (glnG). The first indication that the ntr system may also regulate ammonium transport (Amt) was derived from a regulatory mutant of Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kleiner 1982) which was unable to transport methylamine. This mutant was also defective in glutamine synthetase (Gln -), nitrogenase (Nif -) and histidine utilisation (Hut -). A more detailed study carried out with E. coli strains containing mutations in different ntr genes showed that both the ntr A (glnF) and the ntrC (glnG) gene products were required to activate synthesis of the NH 4 + carrier, while the ntrB (glnL) gene product played a role in its repression (Servin-Gonzalez and Bastarrachea 1984). Similar effects were observed on the synthesis of GS so that the Glnphenotype also was always Amt -.Under conditions of derepression (synthesis) of the NH 4 + carrier, bacteria generally assimilate NH 4 + via the GS/GOGAT pathway (Magasanik 1982;Merrick 1988). The putative regulator of NH 4 + transport is thought to be glutamine since intracellular levels respond rapidly to external NH 4 + concentrations (Kleiner 1976(Kleiner , 1979;;Kleinschmidt and Kleiner 1981). It serves as a feedback inhibitor of several enzymes strongly affecting the modification of GS (Kleiner et al 1981;Tyler 1978) and acts as a key regulator of the ntr system (Magasanik 1982;Merrick 1988) . Recently, the regulatory effect of glutamine on Amt was studied in glnL mutants of E. coli which constitutively express Amt (Castroph and Kleiner 1984;Jayakumar et al 1987). These results showed that Amt was regulated by the internal glutamine pool via feedback inhibition. Both CH 3 NH 3 + and NH 4 + transport of many bacterial strains is strongly inhibited by methionine sulfoximine, a potent inhibitor of GS, indicating the existence of a regulatory glutamine binding site at the carrier (Kleiner 1985). Recent cloning and sequencing of the E. coli amtA gene, which codes for one of the soluble components of the ammonium transport system, should lead to rapid progress in the field (Fabiny et al 1991).However, repeated attempts in our laboratory to demonstrate active transport of NH 4 + using 14 CH 3 NH 3 + as the probe have been unsuccessful in Ruminococcus flavefaciens FD-1. These experiments involved cells grown under N-limitation from both batch and chemostat grown cultures (P.A. Duncan and R.I. Mackie, unpublished results). Validation of the transport assay showed that R. flavefaciens exhibited energy dependent, concentrative uptake of 14 C-labelled 2-deoxyglucose. Further experiments with 14 CH 3 NH 3 + showed that E. coli actively transported this ammonium probe. We have had most success monitoring NH 4 + depletion from the external medium over time in 30-min assays with R. flavefaciens but this technique lacks sensitivity and is unsuitable for determining bioenergetic aspects of ammonium transport. However, initial rates of ammonia depletion were clearly different between cells grown under ammonium-limited as compared to carbon-limited growth (11.2 versus 0.8 nmol/min/mg cell protein, respectively). This is consistent with the higher specific activity or GDH and GS found for this organism when grown under ammonium limitation.Protein and peptide metabolism have been studied extensively and proteolytic enzymes from bacteria, fungi and protozoa have been demonstrated. However, our knowledge and understanding of the biochemistry and regulation of proteinase, peptidase and deaminase enzymes which are involved in the sequential catabolism of protein in the rumen is superficial. This process is complicated by the wide distribution of these activities between the different microbial groups and also that activities are predominantly cell associated. Much attention has been focussed on the association of rumen microbes with plant surfaces and cereal grains mainly from the standpoint of fibre degradation or carbohydrate utilisation but not from the protein utilisation and degradation standpoint. Similarly, our understanding of the molecular basis for recognition and adhesion to specific sites remains largely unknown although these studies have been initiated in relation to cellulose binding by fibre degrading bacteria. This microbial association with surfaces is a logical ecological adaptation and could possibly be exploited to manipulate the kinetics of protein degradation in the rumen.Quantitative estimates of intraruminal recycling indicate that as much as 30 to 50% of the daily N intake may be recycled. These values may be underestimates since turnover of peptide-N independent of the NH 3 -N pool may not be accounted for by this technique. Further studies of this nature are warranted under a variety of feeding conditions which are known to provide different ruminal microbial populations. An obvious target is protozoal activity which is thought to be a major contributing factor to intraruminal N recycling. Defaunation invariably results in improved protein flow from the rumen although most protocols for this procedure are suitable experimentally but not practically. Novel approaches to control protozoal activity using the 'smugglin' concept, secretion of antiprotozoal antibodies or delivery of such compounds by bacteria specifically engineered for this purpose using recombinant DNA technology are potential methods. Further ecological studies which describe bacterial and fungal population changes accompanying defaunation are an integral component of this approach.It has long been recognised that a diverse population of bacteriophage is maintained in the rumen and some research has been carried out on this neglected group of microbes. However, our knowledge of their biology and molecular bases of infection, lysogeny and lysis are limited. Studies on quantitating phage DNA to estimate fluctuations in phage populations will provide useful information relating to intraruminal nitrogen recycling and also to bacterial population changes associated with phage blooms. Bacteria also produce a range of antibacterial compounds which are active in the gastrointestinal tract. The first report of a bacteriocin-like compound produced by Ruminococcus albus 8 has recently been published. Documentation of these intimate relationships is dependent on utilisation of modern molecular ecology techniques.Although methods exist for controlling protein degradation, most of these strategies are applicable to dietary supplements and intensive production systems but probably have little current application to extensive, forage-based production systems. Ionophores such as monensin increase peptide and amino-N flow from the rumen but its inhibitory spectrum is probably too broad for application in grazing and forage fed ruminants. Pretreatment of protein sources, and more recently amino acids, have provided improvements in protein supply to the animal but are expensive and require increased management inputs. The interaction between dietary tannins, particularly in browse species, and protein requires further study. Most improvements with high tannin levels have been documented in temperate, highly degradable forages where protein degradation is retarded by this association.Future research efforts should focus on highly selective and specific methods for inhibiting microorganisms responsible for proteinase, peptidase and deaminase activity in the rumen.Two quotes from pioneers in the field of rumen microbial ecology and metabolism are still pertinent today. In 1960, Hungate proposed that an analysis of an ecological habit required elaboration of the numbers and kinds of microorganisms present, an analysis of the activities of these microbes (in vitro), and finally examination of the extent to which these activities are expressed (in vivo). Allison (1970) concluded his review on nitrogen metabolism of ruminal microorganisms as follows: 'Exciting possibilities for improving the nitrogen economy of the ruminant may be ahead if measures for protecting protein and amino acids from degradation in the rumen are perfected. It may be, however, that more will be done towards alleviation of the protein shortages in the world by imaginative exploitation of the ability of ruminants to employ ruminal microbes for synthesis of good quality protein from non-protein nitrogen.'Modern analytical, biochemical and molecular techniques applied at both the organismal and whole animal level will afford scientists an excellent opportunity to provide the first complete description of this system and not only an extension of our knowledge and understanding. Further improvements in ruminant nitrogen metabolism will require innovative approaches to manipulate the degradative and bisynthetic activities of the rumen microorganisms.In order to meet the increasing demand for animal products in Africa, it is necessary to enhance the utilisation of available fodder and agricultural byproducts and also to look for alternative feed resources. Multipurpose trees (MPT) and shrubs may help in this respect and in addition may provide other benefits, in terms of increasing soil fertility by nitrogen fixation (Woodward and Reed 1989), providing green manure and mulch (McKell 1980), protecting soil from erosion by stabilising surface soil, control of desert encroachment (McKell 1980;Woodward and Reed 1989) and providing fuel and shelter (McKell 1980;Woodward 1988). MPT are a rich source of protein, carotenoid precursors of vitamin A and many minerals, but generally have a low phosphorus content (Le Houérou 1980;Kumar and Vaithiyanathon 1990;Olasson and Welin-Berger 1991). In many areas of Africa they provide an available supplement to grasses in the dry season (Le Houérou 1980), lessening the dependence on expensive protein supplements. However, the presence of antinutritional compounds in MPT limits their utilisation as feedstuffs.Plants produce a large number of chemicals, arbitrarily categorised as primary or secondary metabolites, that are essentially defence mechanisms for the plant against animal and insect predators and microbial infection (Deshhande et al 1986;Feeny 1970). Several deleterious compounds have been identified in forages and fodder trees, including alkaloids, non-protein amino acids, mycotoxins, terpenoids, steroids, lectins and protease inhibitors (Cheeke and Shull 1985;Lowry 1990;D'Mello 1992). Many of the African browse species contain high levels of polyphenolics and insoluble condensed tannins (proanthocyanidins) that bind to neutral detergent fibre (El Hassan 1994;Reed 1986;Reed et al 1990;Woodward and Reed 1989). Some phenolic compounds are toxic to rumen bacteria (Akin 1982;Borneman et al 1986;Chesson et al 1982;Martin and Akin 1988), rumen fungi (Akin and Rigsby 1987) and rumen protozoa (Akin 1982).Oxalate and the alkaloid perloline inhibited cellulose degradation by the rumen microbial population (Hemken et al 1984;James et al 1967). Thus MPT may have components that are toxic to the micro-organisms of the rumen as well as to the host animal.The aim of the work described here was to determine if seven potentially useful MPT contained factors that were antimicrobial and therefore detrimental to rumen fermentation. One particular MPT, A. aneura, proved toxic to rumen bacteria and therefore inhibitory; however, S. sesban contained an antiprotozoal factor that may be useful in enhancing rumen productivity by suppressing wasteful breakdown of bacterial protein by rumen protozoa.Protozoa are responsible for over 90% of bacterial protein turnover in the rumen (Wallace and McPherson 1987). Thus they cause a major decrease in the microbial protein flowing from the rumen (Weller and Pilgrim 1974). The degradation of labelled bacterial protein by protozoa can be used as a measure of protozoal activity (Wallace and McPherson 1987). This method was used here as an assay of the antiprotozoal activity of MPT, using samples of rumen fluid taken from sheep in Aberdeen, UK, which received a mixed grass hay/concentrate diet, and from sheep in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, receiving teff straw.The breakdown of the rumen bacterium Selenomonas ruminantium, in the presence and absence of added MPT, was measured in rumen fluid taken from sheep in Aberdeen (Table 1). The rate of breakdown of S. ruminantium was measured on different samples of rumen fluid, each with a slightly different protozoal population, thus accounting for the variation in the rate of breakdown in the absence of MPT, which ranged from 7.3 to 13.3% h -1 . All of the MPT caused a progressive decrease in the observed rate of release of 14 C-leucine from S. ruminantium, most likely due to a physical interference with the predatory activity of the protozoa as well as a degree of toxicity. However, the effect with S. sesban was particularly pronounced, causing a 59% decrease at 6 mg ml -1 and complete abolition of predatory activity at 24 mg ml -1 (Table 1).All of the MPT species contained phenolics (El Hassan 1994), so the possibility that tannins or phenolics were responsible for the antiprotozoal effect of S. sesban was tested.Tannins can be removed from solution by polyethylene glycol or polyvinyl pyrrolidine (PVP; Garrido et al 1991). When PVP was added to the incubation containing S. sesban and 14 C-labelled S. ruminantium, the precipitation of tannins had no effect on the antiprotozoal property of S. sesban (Figure 1). Thus it was concluded that tannins were not responsible for the observed antiprotozoal property of S. sesban.Butanol extraction of plant material causes the removal of saponins (Headon et al 1991;Wall et al 1952). When an aqueous extract of S. sesban was extracted with n-butanol and the butanol extract and remaining aqueous phase were tested for their effects on the degradation of S. ruminantium, the antiprotozoal activity was removed to the butanol phase (Figure 2; Newbold et al 1994). The remaining aqueous extract had no effect (Figure 2).The effects of S. sesban were compared in rumen liquor obtained from sheep in Aberdeen, UK, and rumen liquor collected from sheep at ILRI's Debre Zeit Research Station, Ethiopia. It is not known if the latter group had previously been exposed to S. sesban. As before, the degradation of 14 C-labelled S. ruminantium by rumen protozoa from Aberdeen sheep was completely inhibited in the presence of S. sesban, but S. sesban had no effect on the activity of the lower numbers of protozoa in the Ethiopian sheep (Figure 3). Either the protozoa in Ethiopian sheep were intrinsically resistant to the toxic material, or the bacterial population had adapted to metabolise the material and thus remove its toxicity.It can be concluded that the component of S. sesban toxic to rumen protozoa is butanol extractable and therefore likely to be part of the saponin fraction. Wallace et al (1994) showed that other sources of saponins were toxic, but less so than extract from S. sesban, suggesting that it is a specific type of saponin or saponin-like substance in S. sesban that is responsible for antiprotozoal effect. The observation that saponins are toxic to  1994). Other antiprotozoal factors in plants have been known for a long time. Eadie et al (1956) showed that certain terpenes and other substances present in plant material had marked toxic properties toward rumen protozoa. Warner (1962) found that minor plant constituents such as terpenes or alkaloids may have specific effects on individual species of rumen micro-organisms. It is unlikely that terpenes or alkaloids would be extracted into butanol by the method used here. Akin (1982) observed that p-coumaric acid reduced the motility of entodiniomorphid protozoa, but again it is unlikely that phenolic acids would be extracted from S. sesban into butanol. Thus the indications are that it is the saponin fraction of S. sesban that is toxic to rumen protozoa, although more work is required to identify the precise component. Selective elimination of protozoa, if it were to persist, would enhance the flow of microbial protein from the rumen and improve the nutrition of the animal. Defaunation has been reported to increase microbial outflow (Leng et al 1981) and increase the efficiency of feed utilisation and hence growth rate of cattle on diets low in bypass Figure 1. Influence of removal of tannins from S. sesban on breakdown of Selenomonas ruminantium by rumen protozoa. The rumen bacterium, S. ruminantium, was labelled with 14 C-leucine and incubated with rumen liquor removed from sheep in Aberdeen as described previously (Wallace and McPherson 1987). The radioactivity released into acid-soluble material gives a measure of protozoal activity. S. sesban was present at a concentration of 20 mg ml -1 . PVP, which precipitates tannins, was added to the incubation mixture at a concentration of 20 mg ml -1 . protein (Bird and Leng 1978). Similarly, the rate of wool growth was increased in defaunated lambs (Bird et al 1979). Provided the loss of protozoa does not compromise fibre breakdown, which can occur under some circumstances (Ushida et al 1991), the antiprotozoal effects of some MPT maybe useful in enhancing feed utilisation over and above the nutrient content of the feed. There may even be scope for exporting appropriate plant extracts for use in other countries. Possible problems in the use of these materials must be investigated. Indications are that toxicity to the host animal will not be a problem (El Hassan 1994;Navas-Camacho et al 1994), but more work is required. The finding that Ethiopian sheep were resistant may mean that the method has limited applicability in regions where the MPT are indigenous species. It also has implications for their use elsewhere, depending on the nature and time-scale of the development of resistance. These factors should be investigated.In contrast to rumen protozoa, there is no assay that can be applied specifically to rumen bacteria. To give a broad view of the effects of MPT on mixed rumen bacteria, rumen liquor from which protozoa had been removed by centrifugation was assayed for adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) as an indication of live biomass (Wallace and West 1982). Individual species of rumen bacteria were then examined to determine if the toxicity of MPT was selective with respect to different species of bacteria.The effect of MPT on the mixed bacterial population were investigated in protozoa-free rumen liquor (PFRL) prepared from sheep in Aberdeen. ATP was analysed in acid extracts as described by Wallace and West (1982) after 4 and 24 h incubation in vitro of a mixture of PFRL with MPT and wheat straw. The ATP pools of the different samples of PFRL without addition of MPT were variable and tended to decline between 4 and 24 h, presumably reflecting some cell death over the longer incubation (Table 2). Toxic effects of MPT were seen at 24 h, but not 4 h. Indeed, C. palmensis increased ATP at 4 h, most likely because it contained fermentable substrate, giving rise to a greater bacterial biomass. The only evidence of toxicity was after 24 h, when the ATP pool was significantly decreased by A. aneura, S. sesban and V. amyedalina (Table 2). These effects of MPT on bacterial ATP are indicative only, because they represent a balance between ATP increases caused by fermentable materials in the MPT and decreases resulting from toxicity. Nevertheless, some indication of toxicity was obtained, which was greatest with A. aneura.The influence of MPT on the growth of nine major species of rumen bacteria was examined by adding aqueous extracts of the plants to pure cultures of bacteria and determining the effects on growth by monitoring optical density. Only two examples are given here, illustrating typical differences between effects observed with cellulolytic and non-cellulolytic species. Full details are given elsewhere (El Hassan 1994).A. angustissima and L. leucocephala were most toxic to non-cellulolytic bacteria, with the other species having little or no effect; the effect was relatively minor, however, as illustrated here with Streptococcus bovis (Figure 4). Relatively minor effects were seen with cellulolytic bacteria as well, except for A. angustissima, which abolished growth of Ruminococcus flavefaciens (Figure 5) and R. albus. The third major cellulolytic species commonly found in the rumen, Fibrobacter succinogenes, was much less sensitive to A. angustissima, and responded more like the other non-cellulolytic species (data not shown).A toxic effect of A. angustissima against two of the three cellulolytic rumen bacteria would be expected to have major consequences for fibre breakdown in ruminants consuming this MPT. The results presented here were consistent with results obtained with the Menke gas production technique, in which A. angustissima produced the most pronounced effect on gas production among the MPT examined (El Hassan 1994).Mueller-Harvey et al (1988) noted that all extracts from Ethiopian browse increased the lag time and reduced biomass yields of S. bovis and they observed differences in the extent of these antimicrobial effects that were consistent with the concentration of phenolics from browse. The toxicity of phenolics has been demonstrated in a wide range of bacteria, including cellulolytic and xylanolytic species (Akin 1982;Chesson et al 1982;Stack and Hungate 1984). However, no species specificity in the antibacterial effects were noted previously. The cause of the inhibition of Ruminococcus species caused by A. angustissima is not clear. They may have been due to soluble polyphenolics, which may contain simple phenolics and proanthocyanidins (Reed 1986). A. angustissima contained the highest content of soluble polyphenolics among MPT examined (El Hassan 1994). However, much work remains to be done to identify the anti-Ruminococcus factor present in A. angustissima. Foliage from the MPT (5 g) was extracted with 70% aqueous acetone and the residue after drying resuspended in 50 ml of water, filtered, sterilised, and 0.3 ml was added to 10 ml of culture medium. Growth was determined turbidimetrically.Some MPT, such as S. sesban, may be useful as protein supplements and as defaunating agents in ruminants in sub-Saharan Africa. These MPT may have some commercial value as defaunating agents in other regions, including Europe and North America.Other MPT had relatively minor effects on rumen micro-organisms, except for A. angustissima, which had a specific toxic effect on Ruminococcus species. Unless a means can be found of removing the toxic factor from A. angustissima, its use is not recommended due to likely detrimental effects on fibre breakdown. Foliage from the MPT (5 g) was extracted with 70% aqueous acetone and the residue after drying resuspended in 50 ml of water, filtered, sterilised, and 0.3 ml (or 0.2 or 0.1 ml of A. angustissima) was added to 10 ml of culture medium. Growth was determined turbidimetrically.The  In 1988In /1989, the corporation decided to take a more pro-active approach to R&D, and established its 'key programme' methodology for identifying, commissioning and managing large, integrated programmes of R&D to address agreed industry priorities. Now more than half of our annual A$50 million (US$38 m) budget is used in key programmes, as opposed to supporting single research proposals submitted by individual research groups.In 1989, MRC had been supporting Dr K. Gregg, University of New England, for five years to improve the cellulolytic capacity of rumen bacteria, and Dr J. Brooker, University of Adelaide, to improve nitrogen efficiency in rumen bacteria. The University of New England work included limited screening of rumen microflora in other species (camel, buffalo etc.) for highly cellulolytic, naturally occurring bacteria that could be readily transferred to cattle but this was unsuccessful. Given the complexity of the science involved and the perception that technological developments were beginning to accelerate, MRC decided to draw together the major research groups involved in Australia to establish a 'critical mass' across the necessary disciplines to address the issue of improved fibre digestion in grazing ruminants.Over 90% of Australia's pastoral industry relies on moderate-poor quality native grasslands which are unlikely to be improved other than by broadcasting low-phosphorus tolerant legumes on better soil types and by seasonal supplementation of energy, protein and minerals.With highly variable rainfall, and pronounced wet/dry seasons in the tropical north, vast areas of grassland are too low in nutritive value to support animal liveweight for a significant part of each year, unless supplemented with nitrogen and phosphorus. Animals can literally lose weight and die in a 'sea' of dry feed. Even in more favoured temperate zones, with improved pasture species, livestock traditionally only maintain or lose weight over summer/autumn, and extensive use is made of crop stubbles and conserved hay. In assessing the economic benefits of an R&D programme to increase fibre digestion in grazing ruminants by up to about 5 percentage units, a conservative benefit cost analysis indicated maximum annual net benefits of up to A$180 million (US$135 m) per year. This analysis assumed a technology that was low cost to graziers, based on local experience with the naturally occurring rumen bacteria that was imported into Australia to detoxify mimosine ingested by cattle grazing the tropical legume, leucaena.The major factors in the decision to establish the key programme were: • Low-cost of final 'product' to end user. • Unsophisticated, robust product (cf highly sophisticated research).• Likely to be compatible with current management systems.• Potential for rapid adoption by target end-users.• Potentially applicable to a large proportion of the production sector.• 'Enabling' technology with potentially useful spin-offs e.g., nitrogen efficiency, detoxification of plant toxins etc. Major concerns were, and still are: • Can genetically modified bacteria thrive in the rumen (are they advantaged or disadvantaged by carrying novel genes)? • Can we identify and manipulate, spatially and temporally, the key enzymes that are limiting within the complex of enzymes responsible for cellulolysis? • If the modified host bacteria can spread between animals, will they colonise feral pest species (camels, goats, horses, rabbits etc.) and increase environmental impact? • Will increased fibre digestion in ruminants lead to increased over-grazing and 'desertification'? • Will the Australian public allow the release of genetically-modified rumen bacteria?Alternative technologies were examined but rejected for the following reasons: • Genetic engineering of pasture plants: relatively more complex, much slower and far less total adoption in the target sector. In 1990, MRC contracted four research teams to examine various methodologies to develop rumen bacteria with enhanced cellulolytic activity. The methodologies were proposed by the team leaders, and the plan was to fund four 'competing' methodologies for three years to 1993, and to then choose the most promising for optimisation and field testing in years 4 and 5. The overall programme objective was 'to obtain a sustainable increase in fibre digestibility of at least 5 percentage points by establishing modified bacteria in the rumens of sheep and cattle grazed under controlled conditions by June 1995'. Two subprogramme objectives and the major thrust of each research team are shown in Figure 1. After an external review in December 1992, a more integrated programme structure was adopted, with greater emphasis on sharing of knowledge, pooling of ideas and exchanging components of transformation systems. Although the 1993 target deadline was obviously not going to be achieved, the MRC agreed to support the research phase for an additional two years.In addition to the core projects, two ancillary projects which will impact on the progress have also been supported by MRC and are shown in Figure 1. At UNE, a team led by Dr K. Production, a new project will screen 'exotic' ruminants (particularly antelope and deer species, such as oryx, addax, gemsbok) for novel strains of rumen bacteria. These animals are being run under rangeland conditions at the Tipperary Sanctuary for Endangered Wildlife in the Northern Territory.Project UA.013 (Dr J. Brooker) attempted to develop highly cellulolytic bacteria by transposon-mediated mutagenesis of naturally cellulolytic bacteria. This proved unsuccessful, although transposon-marking of specific strains (Tn 916 in B. fibrisolvens E14) was initially useful to track populations in the rumen. A naturally occurring Streptococcus spp. with some ability to degrade plant tannins was isolated from feral goats and work was initiated on the cloning and enzymology of Clostridium spp. with the hope of providing useful cellulase genes. This project was not extended after the mid-term review.Project UNE.034 (Dr K. Gregg) continued previous work to introduce cellulase genes from highly cellulolytic rumen bacteria into other predominant, but poorly-cellulolytic rumen bacteria. Major progress has been:• The cloning and sequencing of genes from Ruminococcus albus AR67 (Gregg et al 1993). • Transformation achieved for Prevotella ruminicola AR20 to reasonable efficiency (K.Gregg, personal communication). • Transformation achieved for Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens OB156 (Beard et al 1994).• Development of qualitative and quantitative PCR systems to track B. fibrisolvens and P. ruminicola strains in cattle and sheep (K. Gregg, personal communication). • Demonstration of long-term persistence of introduced laboratory-grown strains of B. fibrisolvens (E14, AR10) and P. ruminicola (AR20, AR29) in the rumens of sheep or cattle, and of their ability to transfer naturally between hosts in some cases. Project CS.143 (Dr J. Aylward) aimed to transfer genes for highly active fungal cellulases secreted by N. patriciarum to cellulolytic rumen bacteria to enhance their capacity to degrade cellulose. Major progress has been:• Cloning of five genes of varying activities from N. patriciarum (celA, celB, celC and celD, plus xynA), after preparation of a comprehensive gene library. (Xue et al 1992;Orpin and Xue 1993). • Development of a transformation system for five strains of B. fibrisolvens (K.S.Gobius, personal communication). • Quantification of relative activities of various enzymes in vitro, alone and in combination, using standard forage substrates (J. Aylward and P. Kennedy, personal communication).Project CS.147 (Dr P. Kennedy) aimed to find enzymes which are capable, under anaerobic conditions, of at least partial hydrolysis of ligno-cellulose bonds. Significant progress has been:• The development of a range of model substrates for assaying enzymes which cleave various linkages.• Demonstration of higher lignin content in tropical grasses than indicated by the traditional acid detergent lignin technique, and of higher lignin digestion than previously recognised (Lowry et al 1994) The most significant breakthroughs with regard to the attainment of the programme goal have occurred in the last 12 months: • In a closely related MRC-funded project, K. Gregg at UNE developed the first potentially useful recombinant rumen bacterium, B. fibrisolvens OB156 expressing a dehalogenase enzyme which degrades toxic fluoroacetate (Gregg et al 1994). This recombinant strain has been shown to persist for at least five months in penned sheep, and its efficacy in vivo is currently being tested. On the basis of these results, the MRC is likely to contribute further funding to take the research through to 'proof of concept', namely the demonstration of an increase of at least 5 percentage units in digestion of poor quality grasses in ruminants inoculated with at least one genetically-modified bacterial strain, when assessed in containment facilities. This should be achieved by December 1995, most probably using a suite of modified bacterial strains, each expressing one of a range of novel enzymes of bacterial or fungal origin.Subsequent molecular biology research could then be undertaken to optimise expression, stability (is chromosomal integration essential?) and persistence, to explore combinations of recombinant genes in the one host strain and to extend the library of useful genes and candidate hosts, in addition to the detailed rumen microbiology and nutrition studies needed to quantify the commercial value of the modified strains in diverse commercial grazing situations. One can thus envisage 'waves' of new recombinants being produced for animal evaluation as the scientists involved become more experienced in the manipulation of rumen bacterial species and find new sources of novel enzymes.However, from an industry viewpoint, this research is of no value if Australian society decides not to condone release of these recombinants for commercial use. Thus a priority for the MRC programme, once the concept is proven, will be to assess the likely environmental impact of highly cellulolytic recombinant bacteria, in terms of transfer to non-target species (feral rabbits, horses, camels and goats, in particular, as well as native macropods) and of effects on grazing animal intake, and therefore grazing pressure, on fragile landscapes.The ultimate decision will be made on the basis of risk assessment, based on an evaluation of the benefits and risks. Thus comprehensive efficacy data will be essential, probably across a range of management systems. If the concerns regarding feral animal competitiveness can be addressed, it seems likely that approval will be granted, given that the ultimate outcome is similar to the impact of increasing stocking rate, changing from Bos taurus to B. indicus cattle (with consequently higher survival rates) in tropical areas or changing from a smaller breed to a larger breed of cattle. In these cases, changes in grazing management practices have been required to ensure sustainable land use, and these new practices are being increasingly adopted by Australian pastoralists.Ruminants and rumen microorganisms in tropical countries H. Kudo1, S. Imai2, S. Jalaludin3, K. Fukuta4 and K.-J. Cheng5 Crop residues and by-products can be utilised for animal production. Some by-products contain toxic components and may require supplementation or modification to reduce the toxicity. Mimosine/DHP poisoning by Leucaena may be reduced by introducing rumen bacteria that can degrade mimosine and DHP. The comparative study on ciliate fauna strongly indicated the presence of geographical distribution. For example, Eudiplodinium giganteum, Eudiplodinium kenyense, Enoploplastron stokyi, Diplodinium africanum, Diplodinium nanum and Ostracodinium iwawoi have been found only in Africa. In the percentage composition of genera, the numbers of Entodinium, which normally predominate in rumen in other areas, were very low in African ruminants. The presence of Metadinium ypsilon and Ostracodinium trivesiculatum is characteristic of Malaysian cattle and water buffaloes. The level of Metadinium and Eudiplodinium, considered to be fermenters of cellulosic materials, was higher in Malaysian cattle and water buffaloes. Cellulolytic bacteria isolated from water buffaloes possess a higher ability to degrade cellulose than those from cattle.From the viewpoint of rumen microbiology, rumen flora and fauna of lesser mousedeer (Tragulus javanicus), the smallest ruminant (1.3 to 1.7 kg at adult size), are unique and very interesting. Fairly large motile bacteria, similar to Oval and Oscillispira, are present in large numbers, contributing to a higher microbial mass. The natural occurrence of mono-fauna protozoa or the total absence of protozoa have also been observed. So far, no fungus has been detected or isolated from the rumen contents. For the successful development of rumen microbiology in the field of biotechnology, it is important to study and include more basic characteristics of rumen microorganisms, including some ecosystems which have so far not received attention.Today's ruminants receive an increasing variety of feeds. In extreme cases, farmers feed ruminants like non-ruminant animals, ignoring the fact that they are ruminants, because of the availability of feed and the adaptability of the animals. As the human population increases, we produce a greater variety and quantity of waste products which can be consumed by animals but consequently the land available for both housing and agriculture is reduced. The nutrient energy in most of these by-products is not readily available and is not sufficient, even for the ruminant digestive system. This is especially the case for cellulosic materials which have slower rates of digestion because the cellulose is in a highly organised and complex form, and because this kind of feed generally lacks the nitrogen necessary to balance the large amounts of available carbon. We are now trying to manipulate the rate of digestion of various feeds to favour both humans and ruminants. We are trying to accelerate those rates that are slow, while delaying those with a high initial rate of nutrient release which can cause digestive disturbances, such as acidosis, bloat and liver abscesses (Cheng et al 1991). The former objective is more interesting and more important to tropical countries. Theoretically it is conceivable that up to 90% of ruminant feed could be made up of by-products which have been modified to improve digestibility.In practical terms, the benefits from the successful attainment of the objectives would be (1) to make underutilised by-products available as ruminant feed, ( 2) to improve the digestibility and efficiency of utilisation of these by-products for animal feed, and (3) to reduce the requirement for hay and animal feed products-thus freeing land for more valuable crops. In Asia, ruminants are kept by small farmers on a small scale and the production systems are closely integrated with farming systems. One of the limiting factors for the expansion of production is the available feed resources, as under such farming systems the farmers do not have adequate feed resources or the capacity to increase available feed. Usually agricultural by-products are utilised for feeding domestic ruminants. Given the present decline in the area available for forage production, ruminants will have to depend more and more on fibrous residues and by-products for their energy sources. These by-products still have problems to be solved and many of them cannot be used without some detoxifying treatments. However, considering the quantities of the by-products and the fact that tropical ruminants are better converters of low quality feed into milk and meat (Abdullah 1987), the by-products are likely to play an important role as potential feed sources in ruminant nutrition.Southeast Asia is rapidly expanding its manufacturing industry but agriculture continues to be the mainstay of the rural economy. Agriculture in Southeast Asian is crop-based, producing abundant feedstuffs (conventional and non-conventional) which can be utilised for animal production. Demand for animal products has increased due to rapid urbanisation and improved living standards and local production is inadequate.The slow growth of ruminant production in Southeast Asia, in spite of readily available resources (especially feeds), may be attributed to the inefficiencies in their utilisation-the consequence of inappropriate technological development and application (Jalaludin et al 1992).The lesser mousedeer is the smallest ruminant, weighing 1.3 to 1.8 kg, and is considered a 'living fossil' which escaped from extinction and remains in its original morphology after 25 million years. The lesser mousedeer is found in Southeast Asia and all the Sunda Islands. The family Tragulidae comprises the three Asian species of mousedeer or chevrotain, genus Tragulus and the water chevrotain of Africa, Hyaemoschus aquaticus (Anderson and Jones 1967).The study of the nutritional physiology of herbivorous domestic animals such as the ruminant is very important in the field of veterinary and zootechnical sciences (Goto and Hashizume 1978;Kudo and Oki 1981, 1982, 1984). However, small herbivorous laboratory animals are still not established for comparative purposes. From the viewpoint of conservation and protection of wildlife, it is also very important to establish a breeding colony. With permission from the Department of Protected Wild Life and National Park, Malaysia, August 1990 the rumen microbiology laboratory of Universiti Pertanian Malaysia has started to establish a breeding colony of mousedeer and has initiated some studies on the reproduction, nutrition and microbial population and activity in the rumen of mousedeer. Ten (five males and five females) mousedeer were introduced from the jungles of Selangor and Pahang, Malaysia. We feed them with rabbit pellets, sweet potatoes, carrots, kangkong (Ipomoae aquatica) and long beans. Hand feeding, mainly on sweet potato, is used for better reproductive results. Despite the fact that they are all from the wild, they take feed from hands on the same day they are introduced into the laboratory. Foster nursed mousedeer can be toilet trained like dogs and cats. We kept a pair of mousedeer in half of a stainless steel cage of 46 Hÿ×ÿ116Wÿ ×ÿ45 cm D with a divider.Mortality of captured lesser mousedeer is usually quite high (60-70%; National Zoo, Malaysia, and Institute of Medical Research, Malaysia, personal communication). We recorded about 10% mortality in our laboratory. The behaviour of the tragulids is of particular interest because of the remarkable convergence in morphology and ecology between the tragulids and the caviomorph rodents of South America. There are many features that differ from the ruminants (Fukuta et al 1991;Ralls et al 1975). It ruminates while standing, does not use its tongue for eating but instead uses it for drinking (like a dog or a cat), sits dog-like and can scratch its head with the hind leg. Rabbit-like stamping is often observed. Thus, they behave more like dogs and cats rather than like ruminants. Males do not have antlers but instead they have well-developed canines which extend beyond the upper lip. Their feeding style and habit are very selective, very often eating only particular parts of plants. Therefore, this animal may not be suitablefor feeding experiments. On the other hand, this feeding style may have protected the animals from plant poisoning. For example, they like lundai leaf (Sapium baccatum, a tropical shrub tree) very much but the appetite for this leaves is not consistent. The lundai leaf is thought to be one of the important components of the diet of the Malaysian mousedeer in its natural rain forest habitat but it contains a very high level of a toxic substance, mimosine. Their small mouths permit them to select parts of plants in a way that the larger ungulates are not able to do. The teeth type is not particularly suited for grinding (Vidyadaran et al 1981). The rumen of the adult lesser mousedeer is fairly large (¾ of the total abdominal cavity) and the ratio of reticulo-rumen volume is larger than that of cattle and sheep (Vidyadaran et al 1982). The omasum is vestigial.Mousedeer reach sexual maturity at about four to five months of age and adult size at five months. The earliest age of the first parturition in our laboratory was 258 days. The canines of the young male do not extend beyond the upper lip until they are about nine to ten months old. Sexual cycle of female lesser mousedeer is estimated to be 16 days from mounting action, the duration of mating season is two days where copulation occurs several times and they resume estrus unless they are pregnant. In mousedeer, pregnancy is not apparent but females tend to sit all the time for a few days before parturition. The female mousedeer are known to have a postpartum estrus (Cadigan 1972;Davis 1965) and copulation is observed often after 30 min to a few hours after the parturition. There is no breeding season in the laboratory. All five pairs from jungles and the subsequent offspring reproduce well and gave relatively regular continuous parturition which may compensate for their relatively long gestation period. Although there are numerous reports that the gestation period of mousedeer is 140 to 177 days (Anderson and Jones 1967; Lekagul and McNeely 1977;Tubb 1966), we observed a shorter gestation period. The apparent gestation period is 136 to 164 days, but actual gestation is estimated to be 134 (SEÿ=ÿ2)days,judgingfromtheintervalsofcontinuousparturitions.Adelayinimplantation due to lactation probably occurs. It was believed that reproduction in the laboratory was quite difficult but we did not have a major problem, unlike other wild animals introduced into the laboratory. The size of new offspring is fairly large (120 to 190 g) in relation to the mother animal (about 10%). Infant mortality among the mousedeer at the zoo was unusually high (¾; Ralls et al 1975). Infant mortality at our laboratory was about 14% (6/43, until weaning). Our reproductive data at Universiti Pertanian Malaysia for 3½ years is summarised in Table 1.Rumen content of mousedeer is very much like a thick slurry with a pH range of 5.5 to 6.5. From the viewpoint of rumen microbiology, the rumen flora and fauna of mousedeer are unique and very interesting in that they differ totally from other domestic ruminants. A number of bacterial isolates (e.g. Fibrobacter succinogenes, Ruminococcus albus and R. flavefaciens) are highly cellulolytic. Fairly large motile bacteria, similar to Oval and Oscillospira, are present in large numbers, hence contributing to a higher microbial biomass. The occurrence of mono-fauna protozoa or a total absence of protozoa have also been observed. The reasons for these phenomena are not known. Six species of protozoa belonging to two genera were detected in our laboratory (Table 2). Ciliate composition is poor as compared with other domestic ruminants (Table 3) but the total counts are comparable (4.6ÿ×ÿ105/g of rumen contents) to other domestic ruminants (Imai et al 1995). So far, no fungus has been detected and isolated from the rumen contents.The standard of feeding should be improved along with the increase of the genetic potential of the ruminants in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia has a sizeable land area covered with natural pastures, especially in Indonesia where it is more than twice the area under cropping systems. Fresh fodder is also produced at a rate of 5-10 ton/ha from land under crops. A major part of the roughage intake for ruminants in Southeast Asia is provided by about 20ÿ×ÿ106 ha of permanent pastures. A conservative yield estimate of 5 ton dry matter per year would be sufficient to supply the requirements of all large ruminants in the region. There are at least 60 species of naturally grown forages, of which 70% are palatable. Due to poor soil quality and rapid maturity, tropical forages are low in nutritive value. However, with phosphorus dressing, a stocking rate of four zebu cattle per ha is possible. Individual liveweight gain ranges from 281-448 g/day but in terms of annual liveweight gain per ha, the highest yield, at 855 kg, was obtained on mixed grass-Leucaena pasture with a stocking rate of 7.3 animals per ha. The grazing intensity can be raised to ten animals per ha on fertilised grass pasture, yielding 1100 kg/ha per year, if accompanied by moderate supplementation of concentrate (Jalaludin et al 1992).Non-conventional feeds, such as crop residues and by-products, are fast emerging as an alternative source of nutrients for intensive ruminant production. In Southeast Asia, rice cultivation and oil palm production produce the largest quality of residues and by-products. The total quantity of fibrous crop residues available in Malaysia is more than 300ÿ ×ÿ103 tons (comprising mainly rice straw and palm press fibre (PPF). Rice straw utilisation has been widely reported but information on the potential use of oil palm by-products as animal feed is lacking.In Malaysia, research to promote a viable, low cost ruminant production system based on oil palm by-products as the main source of nutrients is being undertaken. By-products such as PPF, oil palm trunk (OPT) and oil palm fronds (OPF) are very fibrous but potentially rich in energy, while palm kernel cake (PKC) contains high protein. The fibrous residues, e.g. PPF and OPT, are characterised by poor digestibility due to a high lignin content. They are also low in crude protein. Treatment of PPF with 8% sodium hydroxide increased the dry matter digestibility from 43.2 to 58.0%. Physical treatment with steam at 12 kg/cm2 for 5-10 min increased the digestibility from 26 to 28% (Oshio et al 1990). The response of OPT to chemical and physical treatment is similar to that obtained for PPF.Palm kernel cake is widely used as animal feed in Malaysia and can be a good feed. However, its high concentration of copper and imbalance of Ca/P cannot be over- looked. Table 4 shows the mineral composition of PKC. Although few negative papers regarding PKC as animal feed have been published, the author (H.K.) has observed abnormalities of rumen flora and fauna of ruminants fed on PKC. Feeding less than 30% PKC showed no effect. Palm oil is the major agricultural industry in Malaysia and the residues are usually burned. As oil palm bunch ash (OPBA) is strongly alkaline, Murayama and Zahari (1993) studied OPBA as a correctant for soil acidity. Low germination rate and abnormal growth were observed in corn grown on OPBA-applied soil.Forages differ greatly in their composition and structure. Temperate and tropical forages are covered on the outer surface by a thin waxy cuticle, which contains a tough basal polyester layer. Immediately below this is the plant cell, in which the cell walls account for the bulk of the aerial portion of the plant. The cell wall is composed primarily of cellulose and hemicellulose, with a small portion of lignin (van Soest 1982).The cuticular surface layer presents a formidable barrier to invasion by rumen microorganisms. The cutin layer appears to be totally resistant to microbial digestion within the rumen, except for some rumen fungi which may penetrate it (Ho et al 1988a). Cutin forms the structural component of the plant cuticle and is a polyester C-16 and C-18 hydroxy-and hydroxyepoxy fatty acid. The cutin fraction ranges from 0.2% of the cell wall of wheat straw to 2.4% for mature alfalfa (van Soest 1982). The ester A dash (-) represents values below detectable limits; NT not tested.PKC 5-1 and 5-2 were duplicates, as were 6-1 and 6-2; PKC 1 to 4 were analysed by Dr M. Ivan, Agriculture Canada; PKC 5 and 6 were analysed by Dr T. Kawashima, Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences.linkage of cutin is hydrolysed by some pathogenic fungi and some aerobic bacteria.Most of the usable plant nutrients are internal. External plant tissues are only poorly colonised by rumen microorganisms while the inner tissues are heavily colonised. However physical disruption (e.g. chewing) is necessary to allow optimal microbial access to the inner tissues which are then avidly colonised (the inside-out digestion concept; Cheng et al 1990b).Ruminants posses a complex stomach system, in which the stomach is divided into three or four compartments, the first and the largest of which is the rumen. It is here that continuous anaerobic fermentation takes place by a complex community of microorganisms. The rumen is an extremely complex community of many microorganisms, protozoa, bacteria, fungi and probably other unknown microorganisms (Figure 1). When ruminants are born their rumen is germ-free, the unique flora and fauna start to establish after birth. Once established, the rumen microbial community is very stable and will change only when the nutrients are changed (Cheng and Costerton 1980). This may be the reason that feed efficiency in ruminants has stayed the same in recent decades with the exception of some success using feed additives such as the ionophores, monensin and lasalocid while that of pigs and chickens has greatly improved. Although a definite reason has not been found, it is known that some ruminants, notably the buffalo and the yak, can utilise poor quality feed more efficiently. Our experimental results indicated that the cellulolytic bacteria, Fibrobacter succinogenes (formerly Bacteroides succinogenes; Montgomery, 1988) and Ruminococcus flavefaciens strains isolated from water the buffalo possess a more active cellulase activity than strains isolated from cattle (Tables 5 and 6). This is probably because these animals have been kept on low quality roughage feeds for a long time. There was no difference in numbers of cellulolytic bacteria between water buffaloes and KK cattle in Malaysia. We often detected and isolated antibiotic-resistant strains of rumen bacteria from Indonesian and Malaysian domestic ruminants.Tropical countries are known to have a wider diversity of flora and fauna, including many toxic plants and highly active microorganisms. As it is known that the ciliate composition varies according to the feeding, geographical distribution and/or physical condition of the host, ciliate composition has been used as an index of the conditions in the rumen. However, the classification of these ciliates is not easy when we study tropical ruminants, because the taxonomy of these ciliates is still inconsistent and furthermore most reports on rumen ciliates have described only those of the ruminants in temperate zones. Tropical ruminants have many characteristics and varieties of ciliates.From the comparative study of ciliate fauna, the presence of a geographical distribution was strongly indicated. For example, Eudiplodinium giganteum, Eudiplodinium kenyense, Enoploplastron stokyi, Diplodinium africanum, Diplodinium nanum and Ostracodinium iwawoi have been found only in Africa (Imai et al 1992). In the percentage composition of genera, the numbers of Entodinium, which normally predominates in the rumen in other areas, were very low in African ruminants. In contrast, the values of the genera belonging to the subfamily Diplodiniinae, such as Eudiplodinium, Ostracodinium and Diplodinium, were high in African ruminants. The ratio of genera is affected by the diet of the host (Hungate 1966). The Diplodiniinae were observed to ingest many fragments of plants. These ciliates have been considered  to possess cellulolytic activity (Hungate 1978). Thus, the ratio of ciliate genera obtained in African study may reflect the fact that the zebu cattle examined had been fed roughage. The very low ratio of Entodinium might indicate the low amount of starch in the ration since it is known that the entodinia principally utilise starch grains as their energy source (Abou-Akkada and Howard 1960). When comparing the ciliate compositions in East African zebu cattle with those in India (Banerjee 1955;Kofoid and MacLennan 1930, 1932, 1933) and Sri Lanka (Imai 1986;Kofoid and MacLennan 1930, 1932, 1933), a high similarity is found, suggesting a close phylogenetic relationship between East African zebu cattle and Indian zebu cattle (Imai 1988). A similar relation has been found in the distribution of haemoglobin-beta alleles (Namikawa 1980).The ciliate fauna of zebu cattle and water buffaloes in Thailand resembled that of zebu cattle and water buffaloes in Malaysia and the Philippines rather than that of zebu cattle in the Indian area. Although most of the protozoan species detected from water buffaloes and KK cattle in Malaysia have been detected from domestic ruminants and temperate areas, the presence of Metadinium ypsilon and Ostracodinium trivesiculatum is characteristic of Malaysian cattle and water buffaloes (Imai et al 1995). The level of Metadinium and Eudiplodinium, considered to be fermenters of cellulosic materials, was higher in Malaysian cattle and water buffaloes. This suggests that Malaysian cattle and water buffaloes possess a ciliate protozoal composition favourable for digestion of cellulosic feedstuffs. Of the species which had low incidence, Entodinium longinucleatum spinolobum, E. parvum monospinosum, E. tsunodai, E. bubalum, E. fujitai and E. javanicum have been reported only from ruminants in Southeast Asia (Imai 1985).All the species of rumen fungi so far isolated are capable of fermenting structural carbohydrates of plant cell walls. Rumen fungi in the rumen also contribute significantly to the prime function of the rumen, which is the digestion of plant cell walls to provide fermentation products for the nutrition of the host animal (Orpin and Ho 1991). One of the characteristics of fungi is their penetration into the plant material. Microscopic study indicates that the rhizoid penetrates the tissue, colonising the schlerenchyma and vascular tissues, eventually degrading the schlerenchyma (Ho et al 1988a). The rhizoidal system attaches to the more recalcitrant vascular tissue, resulting in the fungus remaining attached to this tissue despite the degradation of surrounding cells. In this way, the fungus remains attached to the tissue and is not washed out of the rumen with the liquid phase of the rumen contents. Attachment to plant cell walls within the digesta fragments is, in some species, by way of appressoria (Ho et al 1988b).Comparison of fungal strains between those from temperate areas and tropical areas has been difficult, as the practical transportation of fungal strains has not yet been established. Although we do not yet have a reliable method to determine fungal numbers, in general, the higher the fibre content of the diet, the is higher the population density of rumen fungi (Orpin and Ho 1991). It is interesting that as the digestibility decreased and lignin content increased, fungal populations increased (Orpin 1977).Leucaena is widely grown in tropical and subtropical countries. The plant is potentially an excellent source of crude protein. However, its use as a feed has been limited because it contains mimosine, a toxic amino acid that causes many undesirable problems (low weight gains, poor health condition and hair loss, etc.) in both ruminants and non-ruminants. Mimosine toxicity is more acute in non-ruminants owing to the absence of endogenous microorganisms capable of enzymatic detoxification. Mimosine is hydrolysed in the rumen by microbial enzymes to 3,4 DHP, a potent goitrogen, and sometimes to 2-hydroxy-3-(1H)-pyridone (2,3 DHP), a structural isomer of 3,4 DHP which is probably as goitrogenic as 3,4 DHP.Previous Canadian (Kudo et al 1984(Kudo et al , 1986) ) and Malaysian (Kudo et al 1989b(Kudo et al , 1989c) studies on the in vitro metabolism of mimosine showed that degradation occurred in the microbial fraction and that concentrate diets increased the microbial population that degraded mimosine, but probably not sufficient to completely escape from mimosine poisoning. When we examined the rate of mimosine degradation in the rumen fluid of cattle fed five different diets, significant (Pÿ<ÿ0.01) differences were seen between the highest rate on a blue grass-molasses diet and the lowest rate on corn silage. The highest rate obtained with bluegrass (Poa prantensis)-molasses suggests that high rates of metabolism can also be associated with inocula from diets other than concentrates. Intermediate rates were obtained with alfalfa hay, fresh alfalfa herbage and orchard grass hay (Dactylis glomerata) but these rates were not significantly different. In vitro rates for mimosine and DHP degradation using ruminal contents were conducted in Malaysia during 1988 (Kudo et al 1989b). All rumen samples from cattle, sheep and water buffaloes produced no disruption of the heterocyclic ring, suggesting a complete absence of DHP detoxification. In 1989, the active rumen fluid from Indonesian goats fed on and adapted to Leucaena was infused into one of these cattle. Not only the infused animal but also the untreated neighbouring animals gained the ability to detoxify DHP (Kudo et al 1989c(Kudo et al , 1990c)). During this study, we established that the ability to detoxify DHP is very rapidly passed from treated to untreated neighbouring animals. To date, only the rumen microorganisms in Hawaii (Henke 1958;Jones 1981) and Indonesia (Kraneveld and Djaenoedin 1947) have been shown to detoxify mimosine in vivo and protect the animals from any ill effects caused by the plants. Thus, ruminants in some parts of the world possess microorganisms capable of mimosine detoxification. It was demonstrated that Australian cattle could be protected from mimosine poisoning by transferring rumen fluid obtained from Hawaiian goats that can degrade DHP (Jones and Megarrity 1986). A rumen bacterium capable of DHP degradation was recently isolated from the rumen contents of a goat from Hawaii (Allison et al 1992). Recent grazing trials with Leucaena pastures have also shown that transfers of DHP-degrading bacteria can protect cattle in both Australia and North America (Hammond et al 1989;Pratchett et al 1991;Quirk et al 1988). We should note that in tropical countries the quality of feed supplied, including that supplied to laboratory animals, is unsatisfactory, varying from batch to batch. Some feeds contain toxic substances, which cannot be degraded even with the special capabilities of rumen microorganisms.Recent studies have demonstrated that, for the digestion of cellulose (Figures 2 and 3) and starch, attachment to these insoluble substrates is a pre-condition for both pure cultures and the natural mixed population if digestion is to proceed. Cellulolytic species differ in the nature of their attachment to insoluble substrates and in the nature of their enzymatic attack (Kudo et al 1987b;McAllister et al 1990;Minato and Suto 1978). When these substrates are placed in the rumen, they attach to substrates very rapidly (< 15 min). Among the major cellulolytic bacteria in the rumen, F. succinogenes attaches very closely to the substrate while R. flavefaciens attaches at a small distance and R. albus remains at a much greater distance. This spatial distribution appears to be dictated by the width of the glycocalyx structure that these species use to attach to cellulose but, in all three of these bacterial species, their cellulases reach and digest the colonised cellulose substrate. Similarly, the digestion of starch is affected by the structure of the glycocalyx of the amylolytic organisms (Cheng et al 1990a). Amylase  producers adhere to starch but not to cellulose, while cellulose decomposers adhere to cellulose but not to starch (Minato and Suto 1978). Cheng and Costerton (1980) postulated that rumen microorganisms can be classified into three groups: (i) microorganisms attaching to the rumen wall; (ii) microorganisms living freely in the rumen; and (iii) microorganisms attaching to feed particles. In the rumen, as much as 75% of these microorganisms are attached to feed particles. Microorganisms in the rumen have a variety of surfaces to which they may attach, and a distinct population of microorganisms adheres to each different surface. From an ecological viewpoint, bacteria with the ability to attach to feed particles have a great advantage over non-attaching microorganisms, which can flow more quickly from the rumen. In addition to adhesion, ingestion of feed particles was observed in protozoa (Figure 4). The importance of the adhesion of microorganisms to substrates suggests that there is a possibility for better feed efficiency if we can increase the attachment.Pure cultures of cellulolytic bacteria and fungi digest cellulose in vitro but digestion does not proceed at a similar rate to that seen in the rumen unless consortia are formed with non-cellulolytic Treponema bryantii, Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens and methanogenic bacteria. Electron microscopy of partly digested plant material shows that consortia of F. succinogenes, R. flavefaciens and R. albus are in direct contact with the cellulose fibres, while cells of Treponema species, Butyrivibrio species and methanogenic bacteria are more loosely associated. Morphological examination, by electron microscopy, showed that the cells of T. bryantii associate with the plant cell wall materials in straw, but that cellulose digestion occurs only when these organisms are present with cellulolytic species such as F. succinogenes. These results show that cellulolytic bacteria interact with non-cellulolytic Treponema to promote the digestion of cellulosic materials (Kudo et al 1987a). Recent studies have shown that both protozoa and fungi may be active members of consortia (Ho et al 1988b;Imai et al 1989;Kudo et al 1990a). We have recently discovered that mycoplasma tend to be associated with most rumen fungal cultures (Kudo et al 1990b). We have confirmed that the rumen fungal cultures, reportedly pure, were also contaminated with these cell wall-deficient bacteria. Thus, the microbial ecology of the rumen is obviously very complex, including many interactions of microbial species and even though primary cellulolytic organisms may be present in a system, many other factors may be required to facilitate actual cellulose digestion.The results of up to date ruminant production indicate that immediate improvements in feed efficiency in ruminants may not be expected. However, there is some potential. Some of the forages and by-products, for example Leucaena and palm oil by-products, may require manipulations to reduce the toxicity. PKC is used widely as animal feed but its high concentration of copper and imbalance of Ca/P cannot be ignored. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a valuable leguminous forage crop with a high yield and an excellent nutritive value. However, the risk of bloat caused by the high initial rates of microbial digestion and nutrient release from the more digestible leaves often limits its use. We (Kudo et al 1985) have shown that through plant breeding programmes this adverse effect can be limited in order to reduce the high initial rate of digestion and provide an engineered forage that is equivalent to the original plant but does not have an adverse effect on the ruminant. This concept could be applied to low-quality forages in tropical countries by similar plant breeding programmes to increase the initial rate of digestion. Tropical ruminants are known to be better converters of poor quality feed. Therefore, breeding based on this fact and the better chewing characteristics of certain individual animals may improve animal production in tropical countries.The present approach in biotechnology has many problems if we expect the genetic engineered microorganisms to survive in the rumen. For the successful development of rumen microbiology, it is very important to study and to include more basic characteristics of rumen microorganisms including the ecosystem. Otherwise, further development in rumen and ruminant studies would not be expected (Ling 1994).Electron microscopy revealed that when grass leaves (Akin 1976a(Akin , 1976b;;Akin and Amos 1975;Akin et al 1974) or straw (Cheng et al 1984) were exposed to natural populations of rumen bacteria, the thick highly structured cellulosic cell walls of these plant materials were seen to be colonised by pleomorphic cells of F. succinogenes. Attempts to isolate F. succinogenes from the rumen and to maintain active cellulolytic activity under laboratory conditions have not always been successful (van Gylswyk and Schwartz 1984;Stewart et al 1981). These difficulties limited the number of F. succinogenes used in in vitro studies to only a few strains (Bryant and Doetsch 1954;Bryant et al 1959;Dehority 1963;van Gylswyck and Schwartz 1984;Mackie et al 1978;Stewart et al 1981). Many of the cellulolytic bacteria were isolated a long time ago. For example, F. succinogenes S85, which is one of the most popular cellulolytic bacterium in the laboratory, was isolated over at least 40 years ago (Bryant and Doetsch 1954). Growth of fresh isolates of F. succinogenes in liquid glucose medium is very good but some strains would not grow after eight to ten subcultures in this medium. F. succinogenes S85 can survive in glucose medium although great loss of cellulolytic activity is evident. Most strains of fresh isolates of Ruminococcus sp. cannot utilise glucose (Hungate 1966) but most 'laboratory strains' of Ruminococcus sp. can utilise glucose. Continued growth of N. patriciarum in vitro, with glucose as carbon source, resulted in a loss of ability to utilise cellulose for growth, but little loss of activity was evident when grown on plant tissues or cellulose (Orpin and Ho 1991). We have confirmed this with other rumen fungi, Neocallimastix, Piromyces, Sphaeromonas and Orpinomyces. In addition, cellulolytic microorganisms do not belong to the population freely living in the rumen but they belong to the population attached to feed particles. Therefore, we should use only insoluble cellulosic materials when subculturing cellulolytic microorganisms.The bacteria that comprise the wall-associated biofilm population produce very large amounts of exopolysaccharide glycocalyx material when grown in culture immediately after isolation from the rumen (McCowan et al 1980). However, this elaboration of slimy material was seen to decrease sharply upon subculture and almost entirely after five to ten subcultures. We have shown the possible mutation of some strains of Bifidobacterium sp. which lacks extracellular glycocalyx material (Kudo et al 1989a; Figure 5). This 'naked' Bifidobacterium sp. is probably a mutant strain produced and adapted under laboratory conditions. To generate and maintain a glycocalyx, a bacterial cell must expend energy, and in the protected environment of pure culture the glycocalyx is a metabolically expensive luxury conferring no selective advantage. Cells that fabricate these elaborate coatings are usually eliminated from pure cultures by uncoated mutants that can devote more of their energy budget to proliferation. The bacterial glycocalyx was ignored because the familiar pure laboratory strains do not need it and therefore do not fabricate it (Costerton et al 1978). Therefore, the 'naked' laboratory strains of bacteria have an advantage in laboratory conditions as an energy saver but not in natural conditions. Another example of mutation in the laboratory is Streptococcus bovis. On initial isolation the rumen strains of this species are sensitive to oxygen. Later, this sensitivity diminishes, and the cells grow aerobically (Hungate 1966).Most researchers subculture fungi at five-day intervals. Fresh isolates of fungi require three-day intervals of subculture if we do not want to lose any of the cultures. Practically this is difficult and sometimes the subcultures are done at four-to six-day intervals and we lose the strains. So finally we have the cultures which can survive  five-day intervals of subculture. Thus, laboratory strains, especially cellulolytic bacteria, that are currently used have many problems. Therefore, we have developed a simple isolation method for cellulolytic bacteria using medium enriched with Whatman cellulose filter paper (the type of the papers should be chosen according to the target cellulolytic bacteria) as the sole selective substrate (Figure 6). Once isolated, soluble carbohydrates (especially glucose) should not be used as carbon sources in the medium as these reduce the enzyme activities.The author (H.K.) criticised genetic engineering but this does not mean the denial of biotechnology. We should study and include more basic characteristics of rumen microorganisms, including ecosystems which have been ignored totally. Genetically engineered microorganisms from 'laboratory strains' might not survive in the rumen if we introduce them back into the rumen. Even laboratory strains might not survive in the rumen any more. Generally, in case of aerobic microorganisms, substrates are utilised effectively towards production of microbial cells and metabolic products are mostly released as carbon dioxide and water. In contrast, anaerobic bacteria produce less microbial cells and large amounts of organic materials (ethanol, methane, volatile fatty acids, non-volatile fatty acids, etc.) are accumulated. Thus, rumen microorganisms have a potential for practical applications in other industries such as food and fermentation industries, although up to now they and other related microorganisms have not been used in other areas.Anaerobic chytridiomycete fungi have been known to be a component of the rumen microbiota for 20 years (Orpin 1975). Together with the anaerobic bacteria and ciliate protozoa, they are responsible for the production of hydrolytic enzymes which degrade dietary polysaccharides and other carbohydrates and the fermentation of the resulting monosaccharides. An important role for anaerobic fungi in the rumen has long been proposed (Akin et al 1983;Bauchop 1979;Orpin 1977). Until recently, there was little or no direct evidence for the magnitude of the contribution made by anaerobic fungi to digestion in the rumen. However, it is now known that anaerobic fungi are extremely important for the voluntary feed intake of poor quality, mature herbage by sheep (Gordon and Phillips 1993).In our paper we present some of the evidence which supports this conclusion and discuss some of the possible reasons for it. Also, we consider some ways in which the benefits obtainable from anaerobic fungi could be harnessed in domesticated ruminants in semi-arid regions of Africa. There are a number of recent reviews (Fonty and Joblin 1991;Li and Heath 1993;Teunissen and Op Den Camp 1993;Trinci et al 1994;Wubah et al 1993) which should be consulted for detailed information on the biology of anaerobic fungi.A definite positive relationship exists between the presence of anaerobic fungi in the rumen and the voluntary intake of herbage diets of low digestibility (Akin et al 1983;Gordon 1985;Gordon and Phillips 1993;Morrison et al 1990;Weston et al 1988). This is quite possibly a result of fungal attack of lignified plant tissues (Akin 1987;Akin and Borneman 1990) with the resultant weakening of these tough plant components (Akin et al 1983(Akin et al , 1989)).Table 1 shows that the removal of anaerobic fungi from the rumen of sheep reduced the voluntary intake of poor quality feed by about 30%, with little effect on the populations of bacteria and ciliate protozoa. Ruminal fungal activity is often accompanied by increased feed digestibility in vivo (Gordon and Phillips 1993;Weston et al 1988). An oral inoculum of anaerobic fungus stimulated hay intake in early weaned calves (Theodorou et al 1990). A plan for selecting appropriate strains of anaerobic fungi for inoculation into the rumen of mature ruminants at pasture has been proposed (Gordon 1990).Anaerobic fungi have the potential of contributing to the protein supply of the host animal. They are proteolytic and may contribute to ruminal protein degradation (Wallace and Munro 1986), although the extent of this contribution remains to be conclusively determined (Bonnemoy et al 1993). Fungal cells are composed of proteins with a well balanced combination of amino acids (Gulati et al 1989(Gulati et al , 1990;;Kemp et al 1985) which are highly digestible and available to the ruminant host (Gulati et al 1989(Gulati et al , 1990)). Until an accurate method of measuring the biomass in the rumen is developed (Faichney et al 1991), the possible extent of the fungal contribution to protein supply is largely conjecture. However, should an increase in the biomass of ruminal fungi prove to be feasible, it is unlikely that the supply of high-quality microbial protein to the host ruminant would be diminished.The treatment of ruminants with defaunating agents (usually ionic detergents) to remove ciliate protozoa from the rumen (Bird 1989) has a secondary effect; it results in increased populations of ruminal fungi (Soetanto et al 1985). Therefore an inverse relationship between the sizes of the fungal and the ciliate populations in the rumen is apparent, at least in herbage-fed animals. This relationship has been confirmed in several studies (Hsu et al 1991;Romulo et al 1986Romulo et al , 1989)). Defaunation can also be accomplished through non-chemical methods and the same general inverse relationship between anaerobic fungi and ciliates is frequently (Newbold and Hillman 1990;Ushida et al 1990) but not always (Ushida et al 1990;Williams and Withers 1991) observed. The underlying mechanism by which defaunation increases the fungal population is possibly a reduction in the turnover of fungal protein in the rumen (Newbold and Hillman 1990). Therefore, it is likely that the nutritional benefits due to defaunation of animals being fed poor-quality, low-nitrogen herbage is at least in part a result of increased fungal numbers with their associated degradative activity against plant fibre.Early in the study of anaerobic fungi, it was recognised that the sulphur content of hay diets or pasture was a significant factor governing the fungal population in the rumen (Akin et al 1983;Gordon 1985). When sulphur was present in the diet at levels of around 1.0 g S per kg organic matter or less, anaerobic fungi were apparently absent from the rumen of sheep fed on hay made from the tropical pasture grass Digitaria pentzii (Akin et al 1983). The size of the anaerobic fungal populations in the rumen increased dramatically after either an application of a sulphur fertiliser to the pasture used to make the hay (Akin et al 1983) or a sulphur supplement to the low-S hay (Gordon et al 1984).Fertilisation of the pasture resulted in an average increase of 38% in ad libitum feed intake (Akin et al 1983;Gordon 1985). A diet of another tropical grass hay (speargrass, Heteropogon contortus), which had a low sulphur content, also resulted in an undetectable fungal population in the rumen (Morrison et al 1990). On the other hand, diets of cereal straw (usually wheat straw) which were low in sulphur supported a low, but detectable, population of anaerobic fungi (Gordon et al 1983;Gulati et al 1985;Weston et al 1988). Some of the results of these studies are summarised in Table 2. The apparent relationship between the declining sulphur content of a pasture and a declining ruminal fungal population did not apply to a ryegrass pasture in Scotland where anaerobic fungi increased with increasing pasture maturity which was accompanied by a declining sulphur content (Millard et al 1987). Therefore, the form of sulphur in the feed (e.g. inorganic-S, non protein-S, protein-S) may be as important as its total sulphur content in determining the ruminal fungal population. Herbage diets with a low content of sulphur can have a negative effect on the size of the fungal population in the rumen. In some cases the fungi are apparently absent from the rumen (Akin et al 1983;Gordon 1985;Morrison et al 1990), whereas in other cases the fungal populations are greatly reduced (Gulati et al 1985;Weston et al 1988). In all cases, supplementation of these straws with several different types of sulphur allowed fungi to proliferate in the rumen and resulted in increased voluntary feed intake. At the same time, there was little or no change in the ruminal populations of bacteria and ciliate protozoa due to dietary supplementation (Akin et al 1983;Gulati et al 1985;Morrison et al 1990). Diets of low-sulphur Digitaria have been successfully supplemented with methionine and elemental sulphur (each about 1 g S/d per head; Gordon 1985;Gordon et al 1984), and cereal straw supplemented with either methionine (Gordon et al 1983;Gulati et al 1985) or sulphate (Weston et al 1988) supported a greatly increased number of anaerobic fungi in the rumen. Heteropogon (speargrass) supplemented with sulphate supported a higher fungal population in the rumen compared with the same hay when unsupplemented (Morrison et al 1990). Anaerobic fungi grown in vitro require reduced forms of sulphur (Orpin and Greenwood 1986;Phillips and Gordon 1991) indicating the need for reduction of supplementary sulphate in the rumen before it can be available for anaerobic fungi. However, a sulphur supplement which is either specific for anaerobic fungi in the rumen or relatively so is still to be discovered.Early studies showed that anaerobic fungi preferentially colonised the sclerenchyma patches of tropical grass leaves (Akin and Hogan 1983;Akin et al 1983) which suggested an affinity for lignified tissues. Subsequently, selected strains of anaerobic fungi were found to solubilise about 35% of the label from a 14C[lignin]lignocellulose preparation (Gordon 1987;Gordon and Phillips 1989b) whereas the consistent loss of acid-detergent lignin from wheat straw was not demonstrated (Gordon and Phillips 1989a). However, around 34% of the lignin component of sorghum stem was removed by the anaerobic fungus Neocallimastix patriciarum (McSweeney et al 1994) confirming that 'core' lignin can be attacked by at least some anaerobic fungi. Pure cultures of anaerobic fungi are unable to mineralise lignin-derived phenolics to CO2 (Bernard-Vailh‚ et al 1995;Gordon 1987).Phenolic compounds, derived from lignocellulose within the rumen, are a potential barrier to the degradation of structural polysaccharides in the rumen (Wilson 1994). Ferulic and p-coumaric acids inhibited fibre degradation by mixed anaerobic fungi in vitro (Akin and Rigsby 1985;Tanaka et al 1991). These phenolic compounds also inhibited fibre degradation by pure cultures of both monocentric and polycentric anaerobic fungi, with polycentric strains generally being less sensitive than the monocentric strains (G. Gordon, H.K. Wong and M. Phillips, unpublished observations). The inhibition by plant phenolics is potentially significant because anaerobic fungi produce powerful hydrolytic enzymes for releasing ferulic and p-coumaric acids from plant cell walls (Borneman et al 1990). Even though the infusion of free phenolic acids into the rumen of sheep had no effect on digestion of herbage by sheep (Lowry et al 1993), the localised concentrations of phenolics liberated by fungal enzymes in the rumen may be high enough to hinder fungal growth and activity.The deleterious effects of another form of dietary phenolics, the plant tannins, on rumen function have been broadly characterised but the ability of the rumen microbial population to interact with and adapt to the presence of tannins has received little attention. A better understanding of interactions between tannins and the rumen microbial population will enable us to capitalise on the beneficial attributes of tannin-containing plants.The minimum inhibitory concentration of tannin appears to be much higher for fungi than bacteria (Scalbert 1991). This would imply that anaerobic ruminal fungi may be more tolerant of tannin than the bacteria which compete with them in the rumen. The tolerance of rumen fungi to tannins was demonstrated by the ability of Neocallimastix patriciarum to degrade cellulose effectively in the presence of 100 ug per ml condensed tannin (CT; from birdsfoot trefoil, Lotus corniculatus; McAllister et al 1994).Also, it is thought that the protein complexed with tannin is in a form unavailable to the microorganisms of the rumen. Cleavage of a proportion of these tannin-protein complexes may be achieved by modifying the microbial population. Protein availability in the rumen would then be optimised while allowing sufficient complexed plant protein to bypass the rumen for intestinal digestion. Therefore some rumen anaerobic fungi have been screened for their tolerance to tannin and their ability to utilise protein from tannin-protein complexes. Condensed tannin from the shrub legume Calliandra calothyrsus was solvent extracted, purified by gel chromatography (Terrill et al 1990) and used as a model tannin in the screening procedure. Calliandra CT was included in media which lacked protein so that tolerance to free CT could be tested. Stable complexes of Calliandra CT and bovine serum albumin were prepared in acidic buffer and dried before addition to media to examine the ability of fungi to utilise the complexed protein (Table 3). Neocallimastix patriciarum appeared to grow better in the presence of free CT compared with two other related species and Piromyces communis and Caecomyces communis. All three Neocallimastix spp. grew when nitrogen was present only as a CT-protein complex while growth of the other fungal genera was inhibited under these conditions.There have been a large number of studies on the biology of anaerobic fungi, some of which have dealt with the contribution, both as measured and as perceived, that is made by these unusual microorganisms to the availability of nutrients for the host animal. Some of the essential features of these studies have been given in the present paper. From these studies, it is apparent that anaerobic fungi are extremely important to ruminants that are consuming diets of poor-quality, mature herbage through the mechanism of increasing the voluntary intake of feed. This influence of ruminal fungi is most apparent when additional sulphur is added to tropical pasture grasses that have a low content of sulphur. The high lignocellulose content of tropical grasses (Wilson 1994) together with the relatively high tolerance of anaerobic fungi to plant phenolics may be determining factors in the effectiveness of these microorganisms. Therefore, a considerable potential exists for the manipulation of fungal numbers and activity in the rumen to benefit the utilisation of poor-quality herbage by domesticated ruminants (cattle, goats, sheep, buffalo and camels) in the semi-arid regions of Africa and other continents for the improved production of milk, meat, hair, wool and hide. Anaerobic fungi represent a special group of microorganisms inhabiting the rumen ecosystem and possess a life cycle alternating between a motile reproductive flagellated form (zoospore) and a non-motile vegetative form (thallus). The history of their discovery is interesting. The motile form was first observed in 1912 in the fresh water crustacean Cyclops stenuus and Callimastix cyclopis was described as a parasitic polyflagellate protozoan by Weissenberg (1912). The next year a very similar organism was observed by Braune (1913) in the rumen of sheep and was described as aCallimastix frontalis. In the mid-1960s, it was found that Callimastix cyclops had a cell ultrastructure similar to fungi and the species was transferred to chytrid fungi in the Blastocladiales (Vavra and Joyon 1966). The rumen 'Callimastix' species remained in Protozoa in a new genus, Neocallimastix, with Neocallimastix frontalis as the type species. In 1975, Orpin described the life cycle of N. frontalis consisting of motile and non-motile stages. The genus was transferred to fungal class Chytridiomycetes (Heath et al 1983). On the basis of the zoospore ultrastructural characteristics, a new family, Neocallimasticaceae (Barr 1988), was established, now with six subdivisions of the family. monocentric Neocallimastix Piromyces Caecomyces and polycentric Orpinomyces Ruminomyces Anaeromyces The most important feature of these fungi is their plant fibre degrading ability. They are attracted to fibre which they degrade and expose plant material to bacterial attack. All isolates produce cellulases and hemicellulases. In very few isolates is either of these activities suppressed (our observation). The fibrolytic activity produced by pure strains of rumen fungi is in generally comparable or higher than the fibrolytic activity of pure cultures of rumen bacteria (Orpin and Joblin 1988;Wood et al 1986). Fungi colonise even lignified cell walls which are not attacked by rumen bacteria (Akin and Rigsby 1987). This is probably facilitated by their high activity of p-coumaroyl-and feruloylesterases (Borneman et al 1992).This study focuses on the occurrence of anaerobic fungi in the digestive tract of different herbivorous animals, their hydrolytic properties and on interactions with other rumen microbes with the aim of increasing their importance in rumen fermentation.Citrus pectin (GENU Pektin, Denmark) with 65% esterification was used for all experiments. Pectin was washed twice with 80% (v/v) ethanol to remove soluble sugars and freeze dried. It contained 3.50% (w/w) galactose, 0.41% (w/w) rhamnose and 0.27% (w/w) mannose. Content of arabinose, xylose and glucose was lower than 0.05% (w/w). Polygalacturonic (pectic) acid was prepared from the same pectin by the method of Kertesz (1957).Colloidal chitin used as a substrate for all experiments was prepared from crab shell chitin (Sigma) according to Shimahara and Takiguchi (1988). Chitin suspension was autoclaved and stored at 4°C.A strain of rumen fungus Orpinomyces joyonii A 4 was isolated from the rumen fluid of a camel according to Joblin (1981).Megasphaera elsdenii L 2 was isolated in our laboratory from rumen fluid of a sheep on PY medium with lactate. The strain L 2 utilised fructose, glucose, maltose, mannitol and lactate. Eubacterium limosum ATCC 8486 is a type strain from The American Type Culture Collection (Rockford, MD, USA). Of the sugars tested, only fructose and glucose were utilised by this strain.Four fungal strains showing pectinolytic activity were selected from 24 isolates obtained in our laboratory according to Joblin (1981). Orpinomyces joyonii A 4 was isolated from rumen fluid of a camel, Neocallimastix sp. JL3 from faeces of a red deer, and Neocallimastix sp. OC and H15 from sheep rumen.Rumen bacteria and fungi were grown anaerobically at 38°C in 100 ml flasks with butyl-rubber stoppers in modified medium M10 (Caldwell and Bryant 1966). Medium was enriched with 0.1% (v/v) vitamin mixture (pyridoxine 200 mg, riboflavin 200 mg, thiamine 200 mg, nicotine amide 200 mg, pantothenic acid 200 mg, p-aminobenzoic acid 1 mg, biotin 0.5 mg, cobalamin 0.5 mg in 100 ml of water), 0.1% (v/v) microminerals (NiCl  , pH 7), 20% (v/v) clarified rumen fluid and 4 g of substrate (chitin, glucose, microcrystalline cellulose, amorphous cellulose or cellobiose instead of a mix of glucose, cellobiose and starch). Medium was boiled and after cooling 0.5 g of cysteine and 4 g of Na 2 CO 3 was added (Holdeman et al 1977). Reduced medium was transferred into flasks in an oxygen-free atmosphere (70% N 2 , 25% CO 2 , 5% H 2 ) and autoclaved.Anaerobic fungi were isolated according to Kudo et al (1990) from serial dilutions (10 -1 -10 -3 ) of rumen fluid or faeces in medium M10 with agar, cellobiose and antibiotics (penicillin, streptomycin and chloramphenicol) in an anaerobic atmosphere. After three days colonies were reisolated and then transferred into liquid medium. Culture purity was checked microscopically. Animal faeces were transported under a CO 2 atmosphere at a temperature of 30 to 40°C.Chitinolytic rumen bacteria were isolated on plates with the same medium M10 containing 0.5% colloidal chitin and 1.1% agar. Samples of rumen fluid were diluted in anaerobic flasks and inoculated into agar. Cultivation was done at 40°C under anaerobic atmosphere for 48 h. Cleared zones indicated chitinolytic strains.Anaerobic bacterial counts were estimated on PYG medium with 15% rumen fluid under anaerobic conditions.Volatile fatty acids (VFA) were determined by gas chromatography after diethylether extraction on a column of DB-Wax Megabore (J and W, USA). Succinate was estimated on the same column but after esterification with methanol and extraction with chloroform. Ethanol was measured directly by GLC on a column with 10% SP1200 with 1% phosphoric acid on Chromosorb WAW. Formate was estimated colorimetrically (Sleat and Mah 1984). Lactate was oxidised to acetaldehyde and measured in microdiffusion chambers (Marounek and Bartos 1987). Protein concentration was measured according to Lowry et al (1951) and Herbert et al (1971).N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase was assayed with p-nitrophenyl-β-N-acetyl-glucosaminide (pNAG, Sigma) according to Bidochka at al (1992). The reaction mixture contained 100 µl of enzyme solution, 100 µl of 4 mM pNAG and 200 µl of 100 mM phosphate buffer pH 6.5. Reaction was stopped with 800 µl of 2% Na 2 CO 3 . After centrifugation, released p-nitrophenol was measured at 410 nm in the supernatant.Chitinase was determined by a colorimetric assay with p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DMAB) (Boller and Mauch 1988) or with p-hydroxybenzoic acid hydrazide (Lever 1977).Activity of pectin esterase (EC 3.1.1.11) was measured by continuous titration with NaOH (Shejter and Marcus 1988). Pectate (EC 4.2.2.2) and pectin lyase (EC 4.2.2.10) activity were measured by recording absorbance at 232 nm during incubation with polygalacturonic acid and pectin (Tagawa and Kaji 1988). Polygalacturonase (EC 3.2.1.15) activity was estimated according to Tagawa and Kaji (1988) by release of reducing sugars. Sample (0.5 ml) was incubated with 0.5 ml of 0.5% polygalacturonic acid and 1 ml of 100 mM phosphate buffer pH 6.0 with 6 mM EDTA for 10-60 min at 40°C. Reaction was stopped in a boiling water bath for 5 min. After cooling and centrifugation, reducing sugars were estimated in the supernatant (Lever 1977).Anaerobic fungi were isolated from rumen fluid and faeces of different animals over a period of two years (Tables 1 and 2). The distribution of fungal species changed during the year and even within one animal species individuals did not bear the same types of fungal strains. Some unknown types of anaerobic fungi were observed and we are sure there exist several undescribed species. Such a wide spectrum of fungi was not observed in other animals kept in a zoo (Teunissen et al 1991).Metabolic tests were done with some isolated fungi (Table 3). Only alditols, mannose, sucrose and inulin were of diagnostic importance. Fibrolytic enzymes were measured in most isolates. The range of activities varies up to three orders (Table 4). Since extracellular β-xylosidase and β-glucosidase activity were not measured in many samples we did not include the results in Table 4. However, these enzymes were always detected in the medium. The most important is the activity of cellulases and hemicellulases. The efficiency of the cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic complex is so high that the fungi are able to degrade soft wood (Joblin and Naylor 1989).Pectinolytic strains isolated in our laboratory belong to two genera of anaerobic fungi. Strains OC, H15, JL3 shared characteristics similar to the monocentric members of the genus Neocallimastix (Borneman et al 1989;Mountfore and Asher 1989).The strain A 4 is a polycentric fungus and had properties typical of Orpinomyces joyonii (Li et al 1991). Similar to other anaerobic fungi, all pectinolytic isolates utilised glucose, cellobiose, cellulose, fructose, xylose and lactose. Other sugars tested were metabolised by some strains only. No growth was observed in the presence of galactose, galacturonic acid or arabinose. Fermentation products of these pectinolytic isolates grown on glucose and pectin were similar (Table 5). Amounts of individual fermenta-   7). The pH optima of these enzymes were tested in intracellular and extracellular fractions (Table 8). All extracellular polygalacturonases had a pH optimum at pH 6.0, except in strain H15 which had another peak at pH 7.5. On the contrary, in intracellular fraction this enzyme possess other optima beside the main one at pH 6. These data are in agreement with observations reported by Collmer at al (1988).Our pectinolytic isolates also produced pectate lyase (EC 4.2.2.2). In comparison with the two enzymes mentioned above, the level of this activity was lower in the intracellular fraction (Table 2). No detectable pectinesterase (EC 3.1.1.11) was observed (data not shown). Several species of bacteria and protozoa are responsible for the degradation and fermentation of pectin in the rumen (Orpin 1984;Szymanski 1981). These microbes produce mainly exo-polygalacturonase, endo-and exo-pectate lyase and pectin esterase  (Paster and Canale-Parola 1985). Contrary to the former findings of Phillips (1989), extracellular pectinase activity was observed in mono-and polycentric rumen fungi (Gordon and Phillips 1991). The predominant pectinolytic activity in the monocentric fungus Neocallimastix sp. was represented by an endoacting pectin lyase with pH optimum at 8.0 (Gordon and Phillips 1992). We found that this enzyme was located mainly in the intracellular fungal fraction. The mixture of pectin degrading enzymes (pectin and pectate lyase and polygalacturonase) should be able to degrade natural pectins in a cooperative manner in the absence of pectin esterase (Tsuyumu and  Reducing sugars remaining in the medium after three days of incubation (mg hexose l -1 ). ‡ Concentration of short chain fatty acids (SCFA) in mmol l -1 .Miyamoto 1986). Thus the results of this study confirmed the possibility of complex utilisation of pectin and pectin-like substances by anaerobic fungi. Nevertheless, the determination of the activity of specific pectic enzymes in crude pectolytic preparations is considerably complicated by the partial suppression of the activity value due to simultaneous effect of these enzymes on the same substrate. There is still a need for a more detailed description of isolated pectic enzymes produced by anaerobic rumen fungi.   A 4 OC H15 JL 3 Extracellular 6.0 6.0 6.0, 7.5 6.0 Intracellular 6.0, 8.1 5.05, 6.0 6.0, 8.1 6.5, 8.55 † Activity was estimated with 100 mM phosphate-citrate buffer in range of pH 3-7.9 and with 100 mM borate buffer from pH 8.1-9.0.Chitinolytic bacteria were screened in rumen fluid of sheep and faeces of herbivorous animals from the Prague Zoo. From 14 animal species, chitinolytic bacteria were present in sheep, American bison, deer milu, przewalski horse, llama paco, Somalian ass and European bison. Different chitinolytic strains were isolated from the rumen fluid of five cows (Table 9). Their counts were in the range 5 × 10 4 to 2 × 10 8 per ml. Many chitinolytic strains were examined. Most of them were spore-forming rods. One of the isolated strains, ChK5, was fully characterised (Table 10) and it bore all features of Clostridium tertium (Cato et al 1984). The growth rate of ChK5 differed significantly on glucose and chitin. Exponential growth on glucose was complete in 4-6 h in comparison with more than 30 h in case of colloidal chitin. Chitin significantly stimulated sporulation. Fermentation products also changed. The main product in both cases was acetate (Table 11). The other main fermentation product on glucose was propionate. When chitin was used as a substrate, there was almost no propionate production and increased levels of acetate, butyrate and lactate were observed. Production of chitinolytic enzymes was measured in the culture medium of ChK5 grown on chitin (Table 12). Endochitinase activity was usually much higher than N-acetylglucosamidase, which is cell-associated.Cell walls of anaerobic fungi represent a substrate for chitinase that is normally present in the rumen. A lot of chitinase activity is produced by fungi themselves. It is necessary to maintain hyphal growth and branching in fungi. Therefore, the effect of the chitinolytic bacterium on rumen fungi was studied.The polycentric fungus Orpinomyces joyonii A 4 was cultured on microcrystalline cellulose. SCFA production was measured for 10 days (Figure 1). Exponential growth of the fungus was observed up to the fifth day of incubation. Strain Cl. tertium ChK5 was inoculated at different stages of the fungal culture and cultivated for five more days (Figure 1). In co-cultures SCFA production was decreased. The inhibitory effect was related to the time of Cl. tertium inoculation. The sooner the chitinolytic strain was added the bigger the decrease of SCFA that was found.In the same experiments chitinolytic activity in the medium and cell fraction was measured. Addition of Cl. tertium to the fungal culture decreased total chitinolytic activity (Figure 2). Cellulolytic activity was decreased in a similar manner (data not  shown). It would be interesting to compare the effect of rumen ruminococci and chitinolytic bacteria on anaerobic fungi.The polycentric fungus A 4 was assigned to the genus Orpinomyces joyonii on the basis of its morphological and biochemical characteristics (Breton et al 1989).In monoculture of strain A 4 , cellulose was degraded extensively and metabolised to yield mainly formate, acetate, ethanol and lactate (Table 13). High levels of glucose and cellodextrins released by the fungus were observed from the second day of cultivation. The association of the fungus A 4 with E. limosum or M. elsdenii clearly increased cellulose degradation. It was also significant that in these associations the free sugar concentration (glucose and cellodextrins) was much lower than in the fungal monoculture (Table 13). Besides the fact that bacteria profited from the association with the fungus, the low sugar concentrations positively influenced fungal enzyme activities (data not shown).The end products of cellulose fermentation for the two co-cultures (Table 13) were qualitatively similar but there were variations in the amounts of the individual products. Association of the fungus with E. limosum as a H 2 -consuming bacterium resulted in a shift  of fermentation pattern toward more acetate and butyrate. The shift was similar to changes observed with monocentric fungi (Bernalier et al 1993). Since the utilisation of hydrogen by E. limosum is repressed in the presence of glucose (Genthner and Bryant 1987), cellulolysis in our case would be enhanced mainly by consumption of free glucose by the bacterium. Utilisation of formate by E. limosum might have some effect as well (Loubière et al 1992).Although the strain did not grow on formate as a sole source of energy, it was able to utilise it in presence of other ATP-generating mechanisms (Loubière et al 1987). Formate is used for acetate and butyrate production (Genthner et al 1981). Utilisation of lactate by E. limosum for the production of butyrate is in agreement with results of Loubière et al (1992). The decrease in ethanol concentration in co-culture could be caused by bacterial degradation (Genthner et al 1981) or by lower fungal production.The association of the fungus strain A 4 with M. elsdenii led to a greater extent of cellulose degradation in comparison with O. joyonii plus E. limosum co-culture. M. elsdenii L 2 is a ruminal species with a nutritional strategy based on the utilisation of lactate and glucose. Increases in butyrate and caproate production associated with the disappearance of acetate allowed us to assume that the main substrate utilised by strain L 2 was glucose. This assumption is supported by the findings of Forsberg (1978) that acetate was essential for growth of M. elsdenii in the presence of glucose but not in the presence of lactate. The conversion of acetate to butyrate and caproate is an energy  consuming reaction in which the acetate serves as an electron sink (Hino et al 1991). Acetate alone never supported growth of our strain without glucose. M. elsdenii utilises lactate via the acrylate pathway (Ladd and Walker 1965). This metabolic pathway is associated with ATP production because propionate is the main end-product of lactate fermentation. In contrast, in our co-culture with the fungus, valerate but not propionate production was observed.Mixed cultures had a stimulating effect on specific biomass production. Co-culture with M. elsdenii was more efficient (Y cellulose = 64.9 g dry matter (mol glucose) -1 than with E. limosum (Y cellulose = 55.3 g dry matter (mol glucose) -1 in specific production of total dry matter. The yield of the fungus alone was Y cellulose = 52.3 g dry matter (mol glucose) -1 . Carbon recovery higher than 100% was probably due to utilisation of compounds from the rumen fluid. Microbial interactions in the rumen are highly complex. Any type of improvement in cellulose degradation will lead to a higher efficiency of anaerobic fermentation in the rumen. Detailed studies on microbial interactions with more microbial species and more substrates will be necessary for a better understanding of this type of fermentation.In many parts of Africa natural grazing is often the most important or even the sole source of nutrition for ruminants. Where available, cereal straws or stubble are often also used as well as any type of plant material (shrubs and trees) including crop residues. For large parts of the year the grazing can be dry and of very poor quality, characterised by high fibre content of low digestibility and very low protein content. Such material cannot maintain the condition of ruminants. In periods of drought even this material is in short supply. The purpose of this paper is to look at some ways by which such low quality material has been upgraded and attempt to relate the results to the rumen ecology, particularly the rumen bacteria.It is natural to assume that fibre-digesting bacteria in the rumen are of primary importance when ruminants feed on poor quality material of which cellulose and hemicellulose can comprise about 80% in roughly equal proportions. The cellulolytic bacteria provide fermentable energy sources both for themselves and other bacteria. Table 1 shows the types of greatest significance.All the species listed ferment cellobiose. These and many non-cellulolytic rumen bacteria can ferment soluble and even poorly soluble hydrolysis products of cellulose (Russel 1985), thus demonstrating the reliance of the non-fibre digesting bacteria on fibrolytic ones. Fibrobacter succinogenes and the ruminococci are considered to be the most active in cellulose digestion. The hemicellulolytic activity of F. succinogenes and Ruminococcus flavefaciens appears to be directed mainly towards exposing cellulose through removal of hemicellulose because the mono-and oligosaccharides of this fibre component cannot be utilised by these bacteria and are available for others. In particular, F. succinogenes appears to occur in high numbers (10% or more of 'total culturable' bacteria) in the rumen of animals feeding on material containing highly crystalline forms of cellulose such as wheat straw (Byrant and Burkey 1953) or maize straw (van Gylswyk and van der Toorn 1986). Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens can comprise more than half of the more active hemicellulolytic bacteria in the case of the latter diet (van der Linden et al 1984).F. succinogenes and the ruminococci have an absolute requirement for ammonia. Amino acids and other N sources are of little importance in their nutrition (Byrant 1973). These species also require certain branched chain (BC) and straight chain volatile fatty acids (VFA) for growth. They are shown in Table 2.Protein is rapidly broken down in the rumen to amino acids and peptides and it was shown (El-Shazly 1952;Menahan and Schultz 1963) that the BC-VFA originated from the BC amino acids valine, leucine and isoleucine after deamination or, more usually, deamination followed by decarboxylation. n-Valeric acid may be derived by deamination of γ-aminovaleric acid which is probably formed by means of a Stickland-type reaction involving alanine and proline. n-Valeric acid is also produced by Eubacterium cellulosolvens (Table 1) as a product of carbohydrate fermentation.The cellulolytic bacteria incorporate the straight and BC-VFA mainly into n-C 13 to n-C 17 straight and BC fatty acids and aldehydes as part of the lipid component of bacterial cells (Allison et al 1962;Wegner and Foster 1963). Only in the case of R. flavefaciens are significant amounts of BC-VFA used in amino acid synthesis (Allison and Byrant 1963). However, the total ruminal flora tends to incorporate BC-VFA predominantly into the corresponding BC amino acids (Allison and Byrant 1963). It has been suggested (D. Palmquist, personal communication) that the long BC acids and aldehydes lend fluidity to the lipids of the cellulolytic rumen bacteria as is the case for unsaturated long chain straight acids in aerobic organisms. In the rumen and other anaerobic environments there is a strong tendency towards saturation of double C bonds due to reducing conditions (Harfoot and Hazlewood 1988). The special need for fluidity in the lipids of the cellulolytic bacteria could indicate that it is concerned with cellulolysis, perhaps in the transport of the large molecules of cellulolytic enzymes  (Bryant and Doetsch 1954;Wegner and Foster 1963).5 to 8 carb. across membranes. Cellulases tend to be excreted in membranous vesicles (Chesson and Forsberg 1988). In this context lipid fluidity may also be of significance.The cellulolytic rumen bacteria have requirements for vitamins but all of the vitamins listed in Table 3 for a particular species are not necessarily required by all strains of that species. The growth and cellulolytic activity of R. albus is stimulated by 3-phenylpropionic acid (Stack and Hungate 1984). The subspecies ruminicola of Prevotella ruminicola (hemicellulolytic) requires heme for growth (Caldwell et al 1965) because it contains cytochromes. Strains of this species require methionine when ammonia is the major N source (Pittman and Bryant 1964). P. ruminicola does not appear to require vitamins.Rumen bacteria require a range of macro-and micro-elements. In tropical regions, the elements most likely to be deficient for grazing cattle are P followed by Cu and Co. Deficiencies in Na and I are widespread (McDowell et al 1984). Deficiencies in P and Na are likely to have the greatest effect on rumen bacteria. Wheat and barley straw have very low P contents, not sufficient for the bacteria (Hungate 1966). Rumen bacteria are somewhat halophilic, e.g. the Na concentration must be at least 100 mM to support the growth of R. albus (Mackie and Therion 1984). Sulfur can be expected to be limiting in diets low in protein. Sulfate is a good source of S for rumen bacteria, although not for the protozoa (Hungate 1966). However, reduction of sulfate for utilisation in biosynthesis requires energy. Hemsley and Moir (1963) conducted experiments with sheep. Milled oat hay (0.7% N) was supplemented as shown in Table 4 which also gives some of the results. The addition of BC-VFA increased intake and digestion of the hay over that obtained by supplementing only with urea. In another experiment with sheep (van Gylswyk 1970) a poor quality teff hay (0.5% N) resulted in increased intake on supplementation with 3% urea and a further increase occurred when BC-VFA were added (Table 5). With the latter diet the sheep often ate the complete ration and intake was therefore restricted. This part of the experiment was subsequently repeated with unrestricted intake. It showed that the urea/VFA supplement raised the quality of the hay to achieve more than maintenance. Numbers and types of cellulolytic bacteria were determined and these are shown in Table 6. The number of cellulolytic and total culturable bacteria did not change when the hay was supplemented with urea. However, the increased rate of passage of feed particles plus bacteria would mean that the bacteria had grown more rapidly and cellulolytic activity increased to account for greater digestibility (Table 5). Further addition of a BC-VFA mixture increased the numbers of both cellulolytic and non-cellulolytic bacteria. The percentage of cellulolytic bacteria remained the same indicating the dependance of the total bacterial flora on the activity of the fibre-digesting ones. Together the ruminococci were the predominant cellulolytic species on all three diets followed by B. fibrisolvens and E. cellulosolvens. The proportion of ruminococci increased with supplementation of urea and even more so when the VFA were included. Unfortunately the method used for the primary culture of cellulolytic bacteria was not suitable for the growth of F. succinogenes. It is most likely that this species was an important component of the cellulolytic population because poor quality roughages such as wheat straw (Byrant and Burkey 1953) and maize straw (van Gylswyk and van der Toorn 1986) fed to cows and sheep, respectively, support rumen populations containing several-fold more F. succinogenes than ruminococci. Hemsley and Moir (1963) found that molasses and sucrose could partly replace BC-VFA. Other workers also found that even small amounts of easily fermented carbohydrate such as starch, added to poor quality roughage, could enhance its utilisation. It was suggested (Brüggemann and Giesecke 1967) that lysis of bacteria not requiring BC-VFA could release BC amino acids which are broken down to BC acids. Evidence of this was obtained in vitro when Ruminobacter amylophilus grew in a simple medium containing starch (Miura et al 1980). After growth had ceased, BC-amino acids were released. When it was co-cultured with the amino acid-dependent Megasphaera § Time taken to achieve a 50% loss in weight of cotton thread bundles suspended in the rumen.Source: Hemsley and Moir (1963).elsdenii in a similar medium, also containing glucose, the BC-amino acids were converted to BC-VFA required for the growth of R. albus. A small amount of starch in medium containing glucose and cellobiose gave successive growth of the three species (when mixed) in the order R. amylophilus, M. elsdenii and R. albus. A second type of mechanism was also demonstrated (Stevenson 1978). A range of pure cultures of different rumen bacteria were grown separately in medium containing glucose, cellobiose, starch and (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 . All strains excreted amino acids during active growth. The BC amino acid, valine, was generally excreted in relatively large amounts. These two mechanisms could explain the BC-VFA-sparing action of starch or other readily fermentable materials added to poor quality roughages. It would, of course, also be a protein-sparing action. However, protein is a source of peptides and the growth of the important hemicellulolytic bacterium, P. ruminicola, as well as others, is stimulated by these. Furthermore, protein is a source of reduced sulfur.Vitamins may be limiting for growth of bacteria in the rumen (van Gylswyk et al 1992). Pure cultures of six species of common rumen bacteria were grown separately in filter-sterilised rumen fluid from cows and sheep fed good diets. Glucose was the only added energy source. Parallel cultures were grown with yeast extract as the only other additive. It was found that P. ruminicola, the most abundant species in the rumen of  animals from which rumen fluid was taken, grew almost as rapidly in rumen fluid free of yeast extract as in that containing yeast extract. B. fibrisolvens, the second most numerous bacterium, grew more rapidly with yeast extract than without but at a greater rate than species occurring in much lower numbers in the rumen. Growth stimulating factors were only slowly released from ruminal microbes and feed particles. P. ruminicola appears to have low or no requirements for vitamins. A B. fibrisolvens strain was subsequently found to be stimulated by pyridoxine and folic acid and peptides when grown in rumen fluid containing glucose (Wejdemar 1994). It is considered possible that the vitamin supply in the rumen is one of the factors that regulate the proportions of different species in the rumen. The possibility of bloating when vitamins, together with other nutrients, are in plentiful supply was examined recently (van Gylswyk 1994).In the animal experiments cited above, mineral supplements were provided, but low quality roughages are usually deficient in minerals for rumen bacteria. Recently, the effects of P, Ca and Mg concentrations on the growth of F. succinogenes and R. flavefaciens were examined (Komisarczuk-Bony et al 1994). Concentrations below 15 mg/l for P and 5 mg/l for Mg reduced growth and cellulose degradation by R. flavefaciens while the corresponding concentrations for F. succinogenes were 5 mg/l and close to zero, respectively. The response to Ca concentrations was similar for both species with inhibitions below 1 mg/l. While the Ca content of a straw was adequate for optimal degradation by F. succinogenes, the P content was so low that dry matter digestibility was decreased appreciably (>25%). These results suggest that the proliferation of F. succinogenes is favoured more than that of R. flavefaciens in the rumen of animals feeding on poor quality hay or straw; at least with respect to P and Mg. P. ruminicola subsp. ruminicola, which possesses cytochromes, will require Fe. This element is unlikely to be lacking in roughages as all plant material contains cytochromes. Although the iron content of rumen fluid is low it is also quite constant. As mentioned earlier the Na content of such diets could also limit growth and cellulose degradation by rumen bacteria. The intake of soil will contribute to the alleviation of mineral deficiencies.There is a growing trend in the non-ruminant livestock industry to supplement diets with fibrolytic enzymes. Amending rations with cellulases and/or xylanases increases the feed efficiency of livestock. Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose and xylan to simple sugars (e.g. glucose and xylose) provides the non-ruminant animal with carbon sources that are normally not made available by intestinal enzymes. Furthermore, enzymes eliminate certain forms of these polymers (e.g. arabinoxylan, found in wheat and rye; β-glucan, in barley and oats) that may have deleterious effects on nutrient absorption and promote intestinal disturbances by pathogenic enteric microorganisms.Unlike non-ruminant animals, ruminants have an extensive array of microbial fibrolytic enzymes produced in the rumen, and these enzymes play an important role in the ruminant digestive process. Fibrolytic activity in the rumen arises primarily from the activities of three bacterial species: Fibrobacter succinogenes, Ruminococcus albus and R. flavefaciens (Forsberg and Cheng 1992). Enzymes produced by other microorganisms, including fungi and protozoa, also contribute to fibre degradation. Ruminal fungi are noted for their production of potent fibrolytic enzymes and their ability to degrade the most recalcitrant of plant cell wall polymers (Forsberg and Cheng 1992;Forsberg et al 1993;Trinci et al 1994;Wubah et al 1993). Nonetheless, recent evidence suggests that enzyme supplementation can also dramatically increase the average daily gain of ruminants (T.A. McAllister and K.-J. Cheng, unpublished data).Fibrolytic activity in the rumen is estimated to be 10 times higher than in any other known fermentation system. The microflora of the rumen represents a rich and underutilised source of superior fibrolytic enzymes. In this review, the current status of the inclusion of enzymes and microorganisms in animal feeds is outlined briefly, and some of the recent advances in enzyme technology are highlighted. From this perspective, we examine the microflora of the rumen as a source of enzymes and discuss the application of these enzymes in the livestock feed industry.Some commonly ensiled plants (e.g. grasses and, in particular, alfalfa) are low in soluble carbohydrate and therefore often ensile poorly. The inclusion of cellulase and endoxylanase enzyme mixtures from a variety of fungi or bacteria during ensiling increases the amount of free soluble carbohydrate available for fermentation (van Vuuren et al 1989). Consequently, conversion of carbohydrate to lactic acid is more extensive, resulting in a lower pH in enzyme-treated silage as compared to untreated silage (Chen et al 1994;Selmer-Olsen et al 1993). In some instances, enzyme treatment has increased the intake (DM basis) of silage by dairy cows and improved milk production, but these responses are less pronounced for cereal silages (Chen et al 1994) or silages with a high dry matter content (Fredeen and McQueen 1993). Enzyme treatment of grass silages has increased (Jacobs et al 1992), decreased (Jacobs and McAllan 1991) and had no effect (Jacobs and McAllan 1992) on the apparent whole-tract digestibility of organic matter. In a single study, different enzyme preparations were found to increase and decrease the digestibility of organic matter in sheep (Chamberlain and Robertson 1989). These inconsistencies emphasise the need for more precise definitions of enzyme preparations and of the forage properties for which a given enzyme treatment is most likely to elicit a positive response in animal performance.The addition of glucanases and pentosanases (endoxylanases) to poultry diets containing barley, oats, wheat and rye has been shown to increase feed efficiency and to enhance growth rates by 5 to 17% (Campbell and Bedford 1992;Classen et al 1991;Marquardt et al 1987;Rotter et al 1987). Protein sources such as oilseed meals (e.g. canola meal, soybean meal), commonly incorporated into these rations, contain substantial amounts of non-starch polysaccharides. The addition of cell-wall digesting enzymes to canolabased diets for poultry increases the digestibility of non-starch polysaccharides from 3 to 37% (Slominski and Campbell 1990). The benefits of enzyme supplementation on growth performance of swine are more variable with improvements in average daily gain ranging from 0 to 15% (Inborr 1990). This variability can be partially attributed to the age of the pigs, since in older pigs (> 15 weeks) considerable degradation of mixed-link β-glucans by the ileal microflora and greater endogenous enzyme secretions may negate the beneficial effect of enzyme supplements on digestion (Johnson et al 1993).The mechanisms by which glucanases and xylanases enhance animal performance have been elucidated. Barley and oats contain mixed-linkage (1→3,1→4)->D-glucans as a major constituent of the endosperm cell wall whereas the endosperm cell walls of rye and wheat are rich in arabinoxylans (Pettersson and Aman 1989). During digestion these polymers are released from cereal cell walls, become hydrated and dramatically increase the viscosity of the digesta. An increase in viscosity impairs the activity of digestive enzymes, reduces digestive flow and nutrient absorption and contributes to the formation of 'sticky' faeces which is especially problematic in poultry operations, as it adheres avidly to feathers and to eggs (Classen et al 1988(Classen et al , 1991;;Pettersson and Aman 1989).Small quantities of purified β-glucanase (Edney et al 1989) and/or endoxylanase (GrootWassink et al 1989) in poultry diets cleaves these polymers and lowers the viscosity of the digesta (Almirall et al 1993;Hesselman and Aman 1986;Pettersson and Aman 1989;Rotter et al 1990). The associated improvements in nutrient utilisation and decreases in digestive upset reduces the need for antibiotics in poultry and swine diets (Inborr 1990;Johnson et al 1993).The addition of microbial phytase to poultry feed increases phosphorus availability by more than 60% and reduces phosphorus in the droppings by 50%, resulting in significant increases both in growth rate and feed conversion (Simons et al 1990). Similarly, the addition of phytase to diets for growing pigs increases the apparent digestibility of phosphorus by 24-53% and lowers the amount of phosphorus in the faeces by 35% (Ketaren et al 1993;Simons et al 1990). The inclusion of phytase in the diet induces hydrolysis of plant phytate (inositol hexaphosphate), releasing dietary phosphate in the gastrointestinal tract. Phytate constitutes approximately 1 to 2% (wt/wt) of cereals and oil seeds, and phosphorus as phytate accounts for 60 to 90% of the total phosphorus present in cereal diets (Cheryan 1980;Swick 1991). Phytate is a strong chelating agent and binds with proteins and minerals, reducing the bioavailability of these nutrients in feeds (Erdman 1979;Cheryan 1980). Consequently, supplementation of poultry and swine diets with phytase not only improves phosphorus retention, but often enhances the digestion of dry matter and crude protein, and the utilisation of calcium and zinc (Lei et al 1993;Mroz et al 1994;Zyla and Koreleski 1993).In the 1960s, several studies were conducted to examine the efficacy of adding enzyme preparations to diets for ruminants (Burroughs et al 1960;Clark et al 1961;Perry et al 1966;Rovics and Ely 1962). Clark et al (1961) found that enzyme supplementation improved average daily gains by as much as 20%. However, responses to enzyme preparations were inconsistent (Perry et al 1966;Rust et al 1965;Theurer et al 1963), possibly because of differences in diet composition, method of enzyme application and the stability and activity of the enzyme preparations.Improvements in fermentation technology and the biotechnological development of more defined enzyme preparations have prompted a renewed interest in the use of enzymes in ruminant diets. More recent studies have attempted to define the conditions in a given feed that are most likely to result in a favourable animal response to enzyme supplementation (Feng et al 1992a(Feng et al , 1992b;;Judkins and Stobart 1988). Factors such as substrate specificity of the enzymes, moisture level of the feed, the time required for enzyme-substrate interaction and temperature at time of treatment are all likely to influence the extent to which enzymes enhance the utilisation of feeds by ruminants. The binding of enzymes to their appropriate substrates is an absolute prerequisite for the digestion of plant cell walls in the rumen (McAllister et al 1994). It follows, then, that treatment methods enabling adequate interaction between enzyme and substrate prior to feeding are most likely to improve animal performance.In light of the exceptional fibre-digesting capacity of the rumen, it is difficult to explain why pretreatment of forages with fibrolytic enzymes prior to consumption would further improve the utilisation of these feeds by ruminants. The enhanced degradation in enzyme-treated forages may be related to the increase in passage rate and reduction in the retention time of forage particles in the rumen of cattle as observed by Feng et al (1992b). Scanning electron microscopy has shown that the surface of plant cell walls is occasionally colonised by a single bacterial morphotype (Cheng et al 1981(Cheng et al , 1984)). Complete digestion of plant cell walls, however, requires an array of enzymes and therefore a single morphotype may not produce the diversity of enzymes required to effect complete cell wall digestion. Furthermore, these primary colonisers may limit the access of complementary bacteria to the surface of the plant cell walls. Under such circumstances, prior treatment of forages may contribute to the digestive process the precise enzymes which would otherwise be limiting the rate and/or extent of plant cell wall digestion. Ultimately, enzyme cocktails should be designed to overcome the specific constraints limiting digestion of a particular type of forage. Component enzymes in such cocktails might vary even for a given forage, targeting particular maturity levels or dry matter concentrations. Developments in biotechnology make it feasible to engineer such enzyme cocktails for xylanase and β-glucanase, but the technology for specific production of many of the other enzymes (e.g. ferulic acid esterase, acetylxylan esterase, arabinofuranosidase) required for cell wall digestion is lacking. In the short term, then, improvements in ruminant performance arising from enzyme treatment of forages will most likely be the result of treatment of the forage with broad spectrum crude enzyme extracts from cellulolytic microorganisms (e.g. Aspergillus spp., Trichoderma reesei).A major factor limiting the widespread use of enzymes in the livestock industry is the expense of traditional large-scale fermentations and downstream processing. This has prompted manufacturers and researchers to seek more powerful enzymes and to examine alternative systems for enzyme production and delivery. Recently, application of recombinant DNA technology has enabled manufacturers to increase the volume and efficiency of enzyme production, and to create new products (Hodgson 1994;Ward and Conneely 1993). The original source organism need no longer limit the production of commercial enzymes. Genes encoding superior enzymes can be transferred from organisms such as anaerobic bacteria and fungi, typically impractical for commercial production, into well characterised industrial microbial production hosts (e.g. Aspergillus and Bacillus spp.). These genes may also be transferred to novel plant (Pen et al 1993; van Rooijen and Moloney 1994) and animal (Hall et al 1993) expression systems.The rumen is increasingly being recognised as a particularly promising source of superior fibrolytic enzymes. Cellulases and xylanases produced by ruminal fungi are among the most active fibrolytic enzymes described to date (Gilbert et al 1992;Trinci et al 1994). The quest to elucidate the mechanisms of fibre digestion and to find more efficacious enzymes for industrial applications, and technological developments which now allow the genetic manipulation of rumen microorganisms have inspired the cloning of a growing number of genes from ruminal bacteria and fungi. At least 75 different genes, the majority of which encode enzymes with a role in fibre digestion, have been cloned thus far from ruminal microorganisms. Most of these have been isolated from a small number of bacterial species, including R. albus, R. flavefaciens, F. succinogenes, Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens and Prevotella ruminicola (reviewed by Flint 1994;Forsberg et al 1993;Hespell 1989;Wallace 1994). Several of the bacteria possess a multiplicity of genes coding for different cellulases and xylanases. For example, F. succinogenes appears to possess nine non-homologous glucanases (Malburg and Forsberg 1993;McGavin et al 1989) and four unrelated xylanases (Malburg et al 1993;Paradis et al 1993;Sipat et al 1987) in addition to a gene coding for cellodextrinase activity (Gong et al 1989). R. flavefaciens has also been found to produce multiple xylanases (Flint et al 1994). The presence of numerous glycanases in a single bacterium suggests that they all may have a role during growth on glycan substrates. Verification of this hypothesis will have to wait until mutant strains of cellulolytic and xylanolytic bacteria with null mutations in each gene have been isolated and tested for growth on cellulose and xylan.Researchers have only recently turned to the study of the genetics of anaerobic fungi isolated from the rumen. Enticed by their powerful fibrolytic activity and ability to utilise the most recalcitrant of plant cell wall polymers, researchers have cloned at least 27 genes from four fungal species. The cloned genes include five cellulases (Black et al 1994;Selinger et al 1994;Xue et al 1992aXue et al , 1992b;;Zhou et al 1994)  and three xylanases (Black et al 1994;Gilbert et al 1992;Tamblyn Lee et al 1993) from Neocallimastix patriciarum, an endoglucanase from Orpinomyces joyonii (Selinger et al 1994), eight cellulases, four xylanases and five mannanases from Piromyces sp. (Ali et al 1995) and a phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase from N. frontalis (Reymond et al 1992). A notable report (Gilbert et al 1992) of a ruminal fungal xylanase (XynA from N. patriciarum) possessing the highest specific activity currently known (6000 µmol of xylose/min per milligram of XynA) will likely stimulate a more rigorous examination of these microbes.The cost of livestock performance-enhancing enzymes can be reduced through the use of more effective expression and delivery systems. Recombinant bacterial and plant systems are being examined for their efficacy in improving the ensiling of low quality forages, and in producing and delivering enzymes on a continuous basis to livestock. Ultimately, researchers envisage eliminating the need to use the feed as a 'middle man' in enzyme delivery altogether by enabling transgenic animals to secrete endogenous fibrolytic enzymes from the pancreas into the small intestine.The cost and inconvenience of adding enzymes prior to the ensiling of forages low in carbohydrates could be avoided if the bacterial species in the inoculant were also capable of producing the enzymes required to release soluble sugars from plant cell walls. However, attempts at isolating such microorganisms have proven unsuccessful, and as a result attempts have been made to develop genetically engineered strains of lactobacilli which produce fibrolytic enzymes. Genetically modified Lactobacillus strains have now been developed which express cellulase and xylanase genes isolated from other organisms (Baik and Pack 1990;Bates et al 1989;Scheirlinck et al 1989Scheirlinck et al , 1990) and which have, in at least one case, been shown to exhibit competitive growth in silage (Sharp et al 1992). Furthermore, those researchers observed that pM25, a pSA3 derivative containing a Clostridium thermocellum cellulase gene, was maintained at high levels by the rifampin-resistant host cells (by 100% of host cells when pM25 was present as a chromosomally integrated element and by 85% when present as an autonomously replicating plasmid element). We have observed similar stabilities of recombinant plasmids when modified Lactobacillus plantarum constructs were applied to the forage during the ensiling of alfalfa. Plasmid constructs pSAG (pSA3::Bacillus subtilis endoglucanase gene) and pSAX (pSA3::B. circulans xylanase) were found to persist in 83% and 62% of rifampin-resistant L. plantarum cells, respectively.Persistence of newly developed recombinant lactobacilli beyond their target environments is an important, but under-studied phenomenon. In a single study, Sharp et al (1994) demonstrated the rapid loss of both unmodified and recombinant L. plantarum silage inoculants from the rumen. Elimination of these strains was attributed to predation by protozoa and other undefined factors (e.g. turnover rate, cell death). These findings are also relevant to the use of these genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMs) as probiotic feed additives, in which case it is essential that they establish and persist in the gastrointestinal tract. Factors influencing environmental persistence must be identified and taken into consideration during selection of microbial strains for genetic manipulation.Two major drawbacks of plasmid constructs are their instability in the absence of antibiotic selective pressure and environmental concerns arising from the potential for horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes carried on plasmids. Consequently, methods have been sought to integrate recombinant genetic material into the L. plantarum chromosome. Progress in this direction was achieved when the pSA3 plasmid was integrated into the L. plantarum chromosome (Rixon et al 1990;Sharp et al 1992), but inclusion of the erythromycin resistance gene was still of environmental concern. Another method, more suitable for GEMs destined for environmental release, permits the integration of select DNA fragments into the chromosome through a two-step procedure involving gene inactivation and replacement (Biswas et al 1993;Hols et al 1994). In the first step, the entire plasmid construct is forced to integrate, via homologous recombination, into a predetermined locus. The process is completed by select recombinational events between tandemly repeated elements which result in the loss of the vector and maintenance of the desired gene.A number of researchers (Baik and Pack 1990;Bates et al 1989;Scheirlinck et al 1989Scheirlinck et al , 1990;;Sharp et al 1992) have reported the introduction of cellulase and xylanase genes into L. plantarum, but the development of efficacious recombinant silage inoculants has been hampered by low levels of heterologous gene expression (Hols et al 1994;Oosting et al 1995). The construction of hybrid genes, consisting of homologous expression-secretion signals fused with the structural component(s) of heterologous genes encoding fibrolytic enzymes, may provide an improvement in the levels of gene expression. Hols et al (1994) demonstrated the effectiveness of this technique by isolating promoter signal sequence regions from L. plantarum and using them to drive expression and secretion of foreign amylase and levanase genes in L. plantarum. The heterologous expression of levanase enabled the modified L. plantarum isolates to utilise inulin as a carbon source. Future research employing recently developed advances in gene expression and integration technology should lead to the development of genetically modified Lactobacillus strains as silage inoculants.Probiotics have been defined by Fuller (1989) as live microbial feed supplements which benefit the host animal by improving the intestinal microbial balance. Bacteria commonly fed to domestic animals as probiotics include L. acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, L. plantarum, L. casei, Enterococcus faecium and other enterococcal species (Jones 1991).Lactobacillus spp. are naturally occurring inhabitants of the gastrointestinal tract, especially of poultry, but their role in the ecology of the tract is not well understood (Fuller 1989;Juven et al 1991). L. acidophilus is the most common lactic acid-producing bacterium colonising the epithelial surfaces of the gastrointestinal tract. Its beneficial effects are thought to be exerted in a number of ways, including the secretion of bacteriocins or bacteriocin-like substances which inhibit both (presumably pathogenic) Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, the production of hydrogen peroxide and the production of lactic acid, which has a strong germicidal action at low pH (Gilliland 1990). Alternate mechanisms by which various species of Lactobacillus inhibit other microorganisms include the deconjugation of bile acids, thereby enhancing their antimicrobial nature, and the production of antimicrobial compounds such as acidolin and reuterin (Juven et al 1991). In addition to inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria, Lactobacillus spp., as primary colonisers, also provide digestible nutrients or digestive enzymes beneficial to the animal (Fuller 1989). Adding fibrolytic agents to the enzymes currently produced by the lactobacilli would no doubt confer upon them a competitive advantage for nutrients in the gut, and secondarily would benefit the host animal by making available more of the dietary energy contained in plant polymers. Progress toward this goal has been made. Baik and Pack (1990) reported high extracellular glucanase activity from L. acidophilus in which they had induced expression of a B. subtilis endoglucanase gene. To date, however, there are no reports of the effect(s) of genetically modified lactobacilli on animal health.Feeding probiotics has been more prevalent in non-ruminant livestock industries than in ruminant feeding, although opportunities may exist for improving the health and growth of ruminants in this way (Asby et al 1989;Aseltine 1991). Other reports, however, have indicated no response (Harrison et al 1988;Mir and Mir 1994) in ruminants fed these agents. Future studies must identify the mode of action of these feed additives if uniform and reproducible animal responses are to be obtained.The manipulation of digestion in ruminants through genetic modification of anaerobic bacteria is currently being investigated in many laboratories, and numerous reviews have been written on this subject (Armstrong and Gilbert 1985;Flores 1989;Forsberg and Cheng 1992;Forsberg et al 1986Forsberg et al , 1993;;Russell and Wilson 1988;Wallace 1994). Strategies proposed for the manipulation of ruminal bacteria include expression of heterologous genes coding for fibrolytic enzymes, artificial peptides, bacteriocins and for detoxification or antiprotozoal factors.The lack of functional gene transfer systems has in the past impeded progress toward achieving expression of foreign genes in anaerobic bacteria. However, conjugal and electroporation gene transfer systems have now been developed and refined for a number of ruminal bacterial isolates, including P. ruminicola (Béchet et al 1993;Flint et al 1988;Russell and Wilson 1988;Shoemaker et al 1991;Thomson and Flint 1989;Thomson et al 1992), Streptococcus bovis (Hespell and Whitehead 1991a;Whitehead 1992), B. fibrisolvens (Beard et al 1995;Clark et al 1994;Hespell and Whitehead 1991b;Teather 1985;Ware et al 1992;Whitehead 1992), R. albus (Cocconcelli et al 1992), Escherichia coli (Scott and Flint 1995) and Selenomonas ruminantium (Kopecny and Fliegerova 1994). Gene expression in the above studies was limited to the expression of vector-specific functions and antibiotic resistance markers. Application of gene transfer technologies to construction of recombinant anaerobic bacteria, designed for modification of the rumen environment, is illustrated in the following examples. Whitehead and Hespell (1989) cloned an endoxylanase gene from the hemicellulolytic ruminal bacterium B. ruminicola 23 and, using the vector pVAL-l, subsequently introduced it into B. fragilis and B. uniformis, where enzyme activity was increased dramatically (Whitehead and Hespell 1990). Endoxylanase activities of the newly constructed xylanolytic strains were up to 50 times higher than that measured in B. ruminicola grown on xylan. The xylanase gene has since been integrated into the chromosomal chondroitin lyase II gene of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron to obtain stable endoxylanase production in the absence of selective agents (Whitehead et al 1991). The activity of the enzyme in B. thetaiotamicron was still 17 times higher than that produced by B. ruminicola 23, and was stable when the modified B. thetaiotamicron was grown in a carbon-limited chemostat culture for over 60 generations. Introduction of the new strain into the rumen to increase xylan degradation was proposed, but it remains to be determined whether or not the genetically modified organism will persist in sufficiently high numbers to substantially increase hemicellulose digestion, especially since B. thetaiotaomicron is not a naturally occurring species in the rumen. Animal trials with this novel GEM will provide preliminary information on its persistence in the rumen and its contribution to ruminal fibre digestion.Many shrubs and trees native to Australia accumulate monofluoroacetate in their shoots and are therefore poisonous to domestic livestock (Gregg and Sharpe 1991;Gregg et al 1994;Jones and Megarrity 1986). Jones and Megarrity (1986) attempted to detoxify fluoroacetate by introducing bacteria capable of degrading the toxin into the rumen. An unsuccessful search for microbes indigenous to the rumen and capable of detoxifying fluoroacetate prompted the introduction of this phenotype into B. fibrisolvens (Gregg et al 1994). A transcriptional fusion between the fluoroacetate dehalogenase gene from Moraxella sp. strain B and the erm promoter from pAMβ1 was ligated to pBHerm (Beard et al 1995), a B. fibrisolvens/E. coli shuttle vector. B. fibrisolvens OB156 isolates carrying the dehalogenase expression plasmid (pBHf) were able to detoxify fluoroacetate in vitro and, under non-selective conditions, pBHf was maintained for up to 500 generations. It was estimated that at the level of dehalogenase expression observed in B. fibrisolvens OB156 (pBHf), toxin protection for the ruminant would be provided if B. fibrisolvens OB156 (pBHf) cells were present in the rumen at 10 6 to 10 7 cells/mL (Gregg et al 1994). The stability and dehalogenase activity of B. fibrisolvens OB156 (pBHf) in vivo has yet to be tested. Attempts are under way to introduce the gene into a number of bacteria from the rumen and improve gene expression, to increase theoretical maximum dehalogenase activity levels in preparation for whole animal ruminal inoculation trials (Gregg et al 1994).In the rumen microbiology laboratory at the Lethbridge Research Centre, B. fibrisolvens has also been selected as a host for heterologous gene expression. As a naturally occurring, ubiquitous resident in the rumen, this bacterium is an ideal candidate for the introduction of new genetic information to the ruminal environment. Our preliminary experiments were successful in the introduction and expression of a S. bovis amylase gene in B. fibrisolvens H17c (Clark 1994;Clark et al 1992Clark et al , 1995)). The amylase gene was cloned onto an E. coli/B. fibrisolvens shuttle vector, and the resulting construct (pUBLRSA) was introduced into B. fibrisolvens H17c by electroporation. Expression of the S. bovis amylase was detected by zymogram analysis. The amylolytic activity of S. bovis (pUBLRSA), grown on glucose as the sole carbon source, was 2.5 times higher than that of wild type B. fibrisolvens H17c. This is the first report of the expression of a foreign polymer-degrading enzyme in a bacterium indigenous to the rumen. Research on construction of a more effective expression system and introduction of additional genes encoding fibrolytic enzymes into native ruminal species is now under way in our laboratory.Recent advances in plant biotechnology may revolutionise the commercial enzyme industry by offering alternative, cost-effective methods of enzyme production and delivery. Large quantities of plant biomass can be produced inexpensively through the use of existing agricultural infrastructure. Expression of enzymes in plant species commonly used for animal feed will minimise downstream processing as the whole or parts of the producing plants are fed directly to livestock. The expression of a xylanase in tobacco plants has been reported (Herbers et al 1995), as has the expression of a phytase in tobacco and soybean (Pen 1994;Pen et al 1993;Russell 1994). Herbers et al (1995) achieved the constitutive expression of a truncated Clostridium thermocellum xynZ gene (Grepinet et al 1988) encoding a thermostable, high specificity xylanase in tobacco via the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter. The proteinase inhibitor II signal sequence was used to target the xylanase into the apoplastic space. C. thermocellum truncated XynZ comprised up to 4.1% of the total protein in leaf extracts and 50% of the apoplastic proteins. The thermal stability of XynZ was exploited to achieve a 31-fold purification through a 20 min, 60°C incubation.In similar experiments, transgenic tobacco plants were made to express phytase encoded by the Aspergillus niger phyA gene (van Hartingsveldt et al 1993;Pen 1994;Pen et al 1993). Constitutive expression was driven by the CaMV 35S promoter and targeted for the apoplast using the tobacco PR-S signal sequence. In the seeds of transgenic tobacco plants, the expressed A. niger phytase comprised 1% of total soluble protein. Feeding trials demonstrated that transgenic tobacco seeds were as effective at promoting growth of broilers as was a commercial A. niger phytase product or inorganic phosphorus (Pen 1994).At the Lethbridge Research Centre, we are combining the utility of plant expression systems with superior fibrolytic enzymes produced by ruminal fungal isolates. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Calgary, we have constructed oleosin (oil body membrane protein)-N. patriciarum xylanase gene fusions in preparation for Agrobacterium-mediated transfer of the xylanase gene to canola. A number of peptides, including β-glucuronidase from E. coli, hirudin and interleukin 1-β (amino acids 163-171), have already been expressed in this way (van Rooijen 1993;van Rooijen and Moloney 1994). Yields of recombinant protein (in excess of 1% of total seed protein) at significantly reduced cost are possible with this system.In addition to providing an efficient alternative to traditional microbial systems, transgenic plants offer the added advantage of a safe and stable formulation system in the form of seeds (Pen 1994). Recombinant enzymes were stable in seeds stored for up to one year at 4°C and room temperature (Pen et al 1993;van Rooijen and Moloney 1994).Technological developments enabling introduction of genetic material into domestic animals (Briskin et al 1991;Ward et al 1989) have validated the concept of direct expression of these glucanases and xylanases in the animal itself as an option to adding microbial enzymes to the feed. To be of benefit to the animal, the enzymes should be expressed in the appropriate tissue, secreted into the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract, resistant to proteases, and active in environmental conditions (e.g. pH, temperature, osmolarity) prevailing in the lumen (Forsberg et al 1993;Hall et al 1993).Expression of fibrolytic enzymes in a non-ruminant animal was first demonstrated by Hall et al (1993). A truncated endoglucanase E gene from Clostridium thermocellum, under the control of the elastase I gene promoter, was expressed in the exocrine pancreas of transgenic mice. Carboxymethylcellulase activity was detectable in small intestinal contents, demonstrating that the recombinant enzyme was secreted from the pancreas. Work is under way to develop transgenic mice in our laboratories as well. Twenty genes have been screened for their suitability for introduction into non-ruminant animals. To date, gene fusions of three selected genes with the elastase I gene or amylase amy 2.2 gene promoters have been constructed. The obvious potential of this approach is a powerful incentive for continued efforts in this field of research.The potential for improvement of the efficiency of non-ruminant and ruminant livestock feed utilisation by enzyme supplementation is widely recognised. However, the cost of this technology has inhibited its widespread application in the industry. Reducing the cost of feed enzymes through improved enzymes and more efficient production systems is the focus of much research in this area. Microbial isolates from the rumen produce a wide array of enzymes and comprise an immense and under-utilised gene pool. As exploration of this enzymological and genetic resource progresses from domestic ruminants to those adapted for survival in diverse habitats worldwide, the isolation of even more potent enzymes is certain. The technology required for practical and safe modification and application of these powerful agents is in place.Shellfish waste is the generic name used to describe the by-products generated by the fishing industry after meat extraction from marine crustaceans such as crab, shrimp, lobster and prawn, and freshwater crustaceans such as crawfish. Shellfish waste consists of shells, viscera and unextracted meat. Most of the shellfish waste, which approximates 85% of the fresh catch, is largely disposed of by its return to the environment either on landfill sites or by direct return to the sea and presents an environmental pollution problem.A potential use of large quantities of shellfish waste is as a feed for livestock. For example, shrimp carapaces dry matter contains in excess of 37% crude protein (Husby et al 1981). The main limitation of shrimp carapaces as a feedstuff is its chitin content (21% of DM), which cannot be efficiently digested by most productive animals. However, ruminant animals, because of the symbiotic microorganisms living in their rumen, are considered better adapted than non-ruminants to assimilate the nutrients contained in shellfish waste.The potential of chitinous waste as a feed for ruminants relies on the capacity of some ruminal microorganisms to degrade chitin (Brundage et al 1981(Brundage et al , 1984;;Laflamme 1988;Velez et al 1991), but the ruminal microorganisms involved in chitin degradation have never been isolated and identified.Recently, a spore-forming bacterium was isolated from the rumen of dairy cows (Cobos and Yokoyama 1993). The clostridial isolate was classified as C. paraputrificum, with 99% confidence, using the RapID II ANA system. However, at least 50 different strains of this Clostridium have been isolated from very diverse environments such as from soil, marine sediments, human infant faeces, and porcine, avian and bovine faeces (Cato et al 1986). Therefore, we proposed that the ruminal strain isolated be designated C. paraputrificum var. ruminantium. The metabolic profile of the clostridial isolate indicates that this bacteria is highly specialised for chitin utilisation. It is unable to degrade cellulose, a common characteristic of other clostridial species isolated from the rumen of cattle and sheep such as C. polysaccharolyticum (van Gylswyk et al 1980), C. chartatabidum (Kelly et al 1987) and C. longisporum (Varel 1989).Although the intimate association of the bacterium with chitin suggested that it attaches to chitin before degradation, similar to the attachment of other bacteria to cellulose and starch, little was known about the actual process.A chitinolytic bacterium previously isolated from the rumen of dairy cows, C. paraputrificum var. ruminantium, was used in this study. The bacterium was grown at 39°C in chitin (CH) medium (CH-medium components described in Table 1). A 48 h culture of the bacterium growing in CH-medium was used as inoculum. The bacterial concentration in the inoculum, as estimated by the roll tube technique, was about 10 10 cells per ml.Shrimp carapace (SC) were used as substrate to observe bacterial colonisation rather than crab shell meal or pure chitin (Sigma) because in initial attempts the last two substrates did not provide a good enough contrast with the scanning electron microscope. The SC were washed in tap water to separate residues of meat, cut into pieces of about 0.5 cm 2 , and boiled in tap water for 10 min. Five small pieces of the boiled SC were placed into eight Dacron bags (5 × 12.5 cm) with 20-35 µm pore size (Ankom, Fairport, NY). Also, in order to observe for possible cellulose colonisation and/or degradation, one small piece of Whatman paper No. 4 (0.5 × 2 cm) was added to each bag. The Dacron bags were placed into a 1 litre Erlenmeyer flask, containing 500 ml of anaerobic SC medium. The SC medium components are given in Table 2, and was prepared anaerobically according to the method of Hungate (1969) as modified by Bryant (1972).The SC medium in the Dacron bags was inoculated with 5 ml of a 48 h culture of C. paraputrificum var. ruminantium, then incubated at 39.7°C. The Dacron bags were recovered aseptically and consecutively after 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h of incubation. The Dacron bags were previously found to be very useful for a fast and aseptic recovery method for multiple samplings and that is the main reason for their use.At appropriate time intervals, Dacron bags were removed aseptically and the residual shrimp carapace were recovered by gently rinsing with distilled water and immediately fixed for 1 h in 2% glutaraldehyde in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). After fixation the samples were rinsed with 0.1 M phosphate buffer. Samples were then dehydrated with a graduated ethanol series (25, 50, 75, 90 and 100% ethanol), and critical point-dried with CO 2 . Specimens were mounted on aluminum stubs, sputter-coated and examined with a JEOL JSM-35C scanning electron microscope at the Center for Electron Optics of Michigan State University, following the procedures described by Klomparens et al (1986). The same procedures were followed with the pieces of Whatman filter paper added to the same Dacron bag for each period.Figure 1 shows structural characteristics of the shrimp carapace (SC) as to its outer surface, inner surface and lateral view, at time zero of inoculation. The outer surface (Figure 1a) is an even surface with the eventual appearance of small appendages about 700 µm in length which look like the rhizoid structure of a fungus. In contrast, the inner surface (Figure 1b) is rough with honeycomb-like compartments present in the curved parts of the exoskeleton. Between the outer and inner surfaces, there appear to be several layers of chitin (Figure 1c), which together with the outer and inner surface layers make up the shrimp carapace. Figure 2 is a series of scanning electron micrographs representing the major events which take place during the process of colonisation and degradation of SC by C. paraputrificum var. ruminantium at different incubation periods. The results show that the bacterium attaches onto the SC inner surface within the first 3 h of incubation (Figure 2a), while the outer surface does not show any evidence of bacterial colonisation (Figure 2b). After 6 h of incubation, colonisation at the inner surface has spread considerably (Figure 2c). In contrast, the outer surface still remains uncolonised at the same time, even after degradation of the external appendages is apparent (Figure 2d). Strong evidence of carapace digestion was observed after 9 h of incubation, as indicated by the presence of typical digestion grooves formed on the inner surface of the shrimp carapace (Figure 2e). At the same time, colonisation and degradation was also present on the different multiple layers of chitin at the exposed sides (Figure 2f). The same photo 5.0 ml Cysteine-sulfide solution §  2.0 ml Resazurin, 0.1% solution 0.1 ml Trypticase-peptone (LBB ® ) 0.2 g Yeast extract (LBB ® ) 0.1 g † Contains (per 1000 ml) K2HPO4, 6.0 g. ‡ Contains (per 1000 ml) KH2PO4, 6 g; (NH4)2SO4, 6 g; NaCl, 12 g; MgSO4, 2.45 g and CaCl2°2 H2O, 1.6 g (Bryant and Robinson 1962). § 2.5 g L-cysteine (dissolved in 15 ml of 2N NaOH); Na2S.9H2O, 2.5 g and resazurin, 0.1 ml of a 1% solution in H2O in a final volume of 100 ml heated until the resazurin indicator is colourless, and autoclaved.   illustrates that the bacteria have formed digestion pits that penetrate into the interior of the chitin layers.After 24 h of incubation, the ruminal clostridium showed profuse growth and colonisation on the inner surface of the shrimp carapace (Figure 3a). At the outer surface near cracked areas, bacterial growth was also evident just behind the outer layer, while the external surface remained unaltered (Figure 3b). Between 48 and 72 h of incubation, the presence of digestion pits that penetrate into the interior of the chitin layers was observed (Figure 3c). By 72 to 96 h of incubation, most of the shrimp carapace had been digested with the exception of the thin outer layer, which looked undigested, but very fragile, due to the lack of support (Figure 3d). By 96 h of incubation, most of the substrate was depleted, and the bacteria entered a distinct phase marked by the appearance of lysed bacteria and released spores indicating the senescence of the culture (Figure 3e and f).When most of the shrimp carapace appeared to be degraded after 4 days of incubation, the culture was checked to see if the bacteria would switch their enzymatic system to cellulose degradation as an alternative source of energy. However, the Whatman paper added was neither colonised nor degraded even by the end of the incubation period (7 d).Vegetative cells were straight or slightly curved rods about 0.3 µm wide and 3 to 5 µm long with rounded ends, and occurred singly or in pairs. Rods carrying spores were larger than the vegetative cells averaging 7.3 µm in length. Spores were oval, terminal and caused the cells to swell. The spores were about 1 to 2 µm long and 0.7 to 1 µm wide. Sporulation seemed to be triggered by either the lack of substrate for growth or by the adverse build up of toxic metabolites in the medium. Also filamentous forms were observed, mainly when the shrimp carapace had been degraded.The results of this study confirm the ability of C. paraputrificum var. ruminantium to bind to chitin. This characteristic is not particularly surprising if we consider the strong adhesive characteristic of chitin (Gooday 1990), and the necessity for this attachment. The adhesion of C. paraputrificum var. ruminantium to chitin may be essential in aqueous environments such as the rumen ecosystem, where the substrate must be degraded to dimers or monomers before their efficient absorption can occur. Attachment would optimise contact between the chitinolytic enzymes and the chitin molecules. In addition, the N-acetylglucosamine and/or chitobiose produced from chitin degradation would be more efficiently absorbed. Without attachment, there is also the possibility that the chitinolytic enzymes may be degraded and assimilated by other ruminal bacteria, or the N-acetylglucosamine released during chitin hydrolysis may be taken up by competing bacteria.The mechanisms of adhesion are not known, but Montgomery and Kirchman (1993) reported that the specific attachment to chitin particles appears to be mediated by chitin-binding proteins associated with the bacterial cell membrane. Another suggested mechanism is that lateral and polar flagella are responsible for cell attachment to binding sites on the chitin surface (Belas and Colwell 1982).The external surface of the shrimp carapace seems to have a protective film of unknown structural complexity which prevents bacterial attachment and is recalcitrant to degradation. This protective film may play a role in the defense of shrimps against bacterial or fungal infections. It is unknown if this protective film is also present in other shellfish wastes, but it would seem advisable to grind shellfish waste when it is used as a feed for ruminants, to increase the attachment surface and the efficiency of degradation.Although not well documented, it is believed that the rate of chitin degradation is enhanced by the adherence of chitinolytic microflora (Gooday 1990). Ou and Alexander (1974) observed that separation of chitin and chitinolytic bacteria by layers of microbeads greatly reduced the rate of mineralisation of chitin particles by pure cultures of a soil Pseudomonas species. This phenomenon has also been observed in C. thermocellum, an anaerobic bacterium which degrades α-crystalline cellulose after the cell adheres very strongly to the insoluble substrate (Bayer and Lamed 1986).Since bacterial attachment to chitin seems to be essential for chitin degradation to occur, attention has been placed on possible plant components that inhibit or promote bacterial binding and therefore the digestion of chitinous compounds. For example, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), a chitin-binding lectin from wheat embryos, exhibits binding specificity toward chitin (Bloch and Burger 1974). WGA lectin and other chitin-binding lectins isolated from stinging nettle rhizomes are potent inhibitors of fungal growth. Chitin chains in the fungal cell wall appear to be cross-linked and the hydrolysis of preformed chitin chains in the process of apical growth of fungal hyphae is inhibited (Broekaert et al 1989).It is unknown if chitin-binding lectins are regular components of forages used as feedstuffs. Also, it is not known if lectins are easily degraded by ruminal proteolytic bacteria. However, it is known that the binding of lectins to chitin blocks proteolytic and β-N-acetyl-glucosaminidase activity against lectins and chitin, respectively (Knorr 1991). Therefore, if lectins are present in the rumen of cattle fed diets rich in chitin by-products like shellfish waste, they may have a negative effect on the digestion of chitinous compounds and animal performance.Not much is known about the factors which affect the animal response to the intake of chitinous compounds, especially those factors which affect the efficiency of the rumen chitinolytic microorganisms. However, the observation that bacterial attachment is essential for chitin hydrolysis opens up a new research area concerning the possible factors that affect bacterial attachment to chitin and its consequences in the rumen ecosystem.Ruminants and camelids both belong to the order Artiodactylae in the mammalian class. The family Camelidae belongs to the suborder Tylopoda which appeared 50 million years ago. The family Bovidae (cow, sheep, goat) in the suborder Ruminantia developed more recently, only 3 million years ago (Romer 1966). The family Camelidae is composed of 6 species: 2 of the genus Camelus, 1 of the genus Vicugna and 3 of the genus Lama (llama, guanaco, alpaca).Camelids, like ruminants, developed large forestomachs harbouring a dense and complex microbial ecosystem which makes them efficient in the use of forages as a main source of nutrients. However, there are large differences between camelids and ruminants in the anatomical organisation of their forestomachs and the histology of their mucosa which give them some specificities in the digestive abilities of their microbial ecosystem. Our paper will compare feeding abilities and microbial digestive abilities of camelids and ruminants. Dromedaries and South American camelids will be considered in these comparisons.The ruminant stomach is composed of four compartments (rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasum) located between two sphincters: the cardia at the end of the oesophagus and the pylorus at the beginning of the duodenum. Following ingestion, solid feeds are submitted to an intense microbial digestion in the first two compartments. Large exchanges of digesta occur between rumen and reticulum. A sphincter located between reticulum and omasum controls the retention time of feed particles in the main fermentation chamber, the reticulo-rumen. The mucosa of the first three compartments is keratinised and covered by papillae. The omasum contains numerous lamellae which act as a filter for large particles and absorb the end products of microbial fermentations.The camelid stomach is composed of three compartments. Compartment 1 could be compared to the rumen while compartment 2 could be compared to the reticulum. Compartment 3 is completely different from the omasum in its function and organisation. It is pear-shaped and internally covered by a mucosa which secretes hydrochloric acid and enzymes only in the pyloric region.In contrast to the rumen, which is composed of six separate sacs, compartment 1 is made of a cranial and a caudal sac separated by a muscular transverse pillar. In contrast to true ruminants, the epithelium of the camelid forestomach is devoid of papillae and is made of a smooth stratified epithelium. Two rows of glove-shaped glandular sacs are located on the wall of compartment 1; one row is found on the cranial sac and the other on the caudal sac. They are composed of glove-shaped cavities opening onto the inside of compartment 1. Each cavity has a muscular sphincter opening at its fundus. They have been described as a place for large bicarbonate secretions and a subsequent absorption of volatile fatty acids (VFA) as shown by Cummings et al (1972) and Luciano et al (1979). Papillae are absent on the wall of the first two compartments, but glandular cells cover the entire ventral part of compartment 1, compartment 2 and the upper part of compartment 3. These secretive cells produce a bicarbonate-rich mucus and could be involved in VFA absorption as indicated previously for glandular sacs. Richard (1989) reviewed the available data on the voluntary intake of dromedaries in natural conditions. The mean consumption varied from 14-15 g DM/kg liveweight (LW) for straw and poor roughages to 23-24 g DM/kg LW for good quality forages. Data concerning straw are comparable to those noted for cattle in tropical areas, and slightly higher than for cattle in Europe (12 g/kg DM with heifers).Experiments on direct comparisons between animals show that the camelid intake was lower than sheep intake (El-Shaer 1981;Gauthier-Pilters 1979;Gihad et al 1989;Kandil 1984;Shawket 1976). Kayouli et al (1995) found that mean intake for three diets was 12 g/kg LW for dromedaries and 25 g/kg for sheep. Gihad et al (1989) also noted that dromedaries ingested 11.4 g DM of three different diets per kg LW while the mean consumption by sheep was 17.9 g/kg. In a comparison carried out on four dromedaries, four rams and two goats fed on oat-vesce hay, H. Rouissi, D.I. Demeyer, C. Kayouli and van C.J. Nevel (unpublished data) showed that goats ate twice as much as dromedaries (25 vs 13 g DM/kg LW respectively), while rams had an intermediary intake (Table 1).Few data involving llamas are available. From 11 direct comparisons, we observed that intake of dry forages, supplemented or not with concentrate, was 15.9 g DM/kg LW (49.3 g/kg LW 0.75 ) in llamas and 18.4 g DM/kg LW (51.7 g/kg LW 0.75 ) in sheep (Cordesse et al 1992;Dulphy et al 1994aDulphy et al , 1994b;;Lemosquet et al 1995;Warmington et al 1989). When data are computed in a figure, it is noteworthy that llamas ingest less good quality forage, on a metabolic liveweight basis, than sheep (Figure 1).Ingestion and rumination times during the day are not different between camelids and ruminants. According to Gauthier-Pilters (1979) and Khorchani et al (1992), it took 400-500 min/d for ingestion at pasture. At trough, Abdouli and Kraiem (1990) noted that ruminating time was 500-600 min/d. Kaske et al (1989) observed that rumination occurs principally during the night in camels. In a comparative trial, Lemosquet et al (1995) noted that ingestion time was the same for llamas and sheep (368 vs 389 min/d, respectively) while the former had a shorter ruminating time (468 vs 538 min/d). The lengths of main meals were similar (160 min and 151 min for llamas and sheep respectively) as well as the number of meals (7.0 and 7.9/d, respectively). However, llamas had fewer (7.5 vs 12.1) but longer ruminating periods which took place mainly during the night. Llamas masticated 2 g/min while sheep were less efficient (1.3 g/min). Such behaviour could explain why there are more large particles (>1 mm) in the faeces of llamas than in sheep (Warmington et al 1989). Also, Lechner-Doll et al (1991) observed that the critical size for particles to move out of the rumen is 3 mm in llamas DM intake (g/kg LW) DM intake (g/kg LW 0.75 ) while it is 1 to 2 mm in sheep and cattle. This could be due to the absence of the filter effect of omasal lamellae in llamas.Mean retention time of feed particles is longer in camelids than in ruminants (Lechner-Doll et al 1991;Kayouli et al 1993a) and this could explain the lower ingestion capacity of camelids. Such differences are not explained only by the differences in animal body weights. Using llamas and sheep with similar LW, Dulphy et al (1994b) and Lemosquet et al (1995) found a mean retention time of 44 h and 27 h respectively for solid particles in the rumen. These differences are mainly due to forestomach anatomy, to the motility of the digestive tract and to the feeding behaviour of animals. For instance, the low ruminating activity during the light part of the day will limit the comminution of solid particles and maintain them in compartment 1 for a longer period of time in camelids. As described by  Liamas Engelhardt and Höller (1982), Heller et al (1984) and Engelhardt et al (1986a), forestomach motility is different in dromedaries and llamas to that described in ruminants. There are more type B contractions in camelids, which could explain the efficiency of the mixing effect inside compartment 1 and the lower propulsive effect outside the compartment (Gregory et al 1985). According to Engelhardt et al (1986b), such a motility is favourable to a better separation of the liquid and solid parts of digesta. As a consequence, the turnover of liquids and solutes is greater in camelids compared to ruminants (Kayouli et al 1993a).From the results of Maloiy (1972), Farid et al (1979) and Kayouli et al (1993a), the mean retention time of the liquid phase in the rumen is 6 h in dromedaries and 8 h in sheep. In a direct comparison, Lemosquet et al (1995) noted that the liquid remained for 11 h in compartment 1 of llamas vs 14 h in the rumen. The higher turnover rate of liquids and the longer retention time of solids both explain the higher DM content of digesta in compartment 1 of camelids as observed by Dardillat et al (1994a). Farid et al (1979), Lechner-Doll et al (1990) and Kayouli et al (1993a) observed that the weight of fresh rumen content is higher in dromedaries than in ruminants; it represented on average 14.7 and 10.5% of the LW of dromedaries and sheep, respectively, fed the same diets. However, according to Dulphy et al (1994b) and Lemosquet et al (1995), the weight of ruminal contents of digesta was not different between llamas and sheep and represented 18.7% of LW when fed inside, at trough.Dromedaries, and llamas to a lesser extent, drink and urinate less than ruminants. According to Gihad et al (1989), water intake per kg DM intake in dromedaries equals 65% that of sheep. On the same basis, Warmington et al (1989) also noted that llamas ingest 57% of water intake by sheep. Kay and Maloiy (1989) showed that dromedaries secrete larger amounts of saliva than cattle and ovines. According to Engelhardt and Höller (1982), camelid saliva is richer in bicarbonates and phosphates, although Engelhardt et al (1984) considered, in another paper, that the production and composition of saliva is not very different between ruminants and camelids.Camelids have a high capacity for recycling nitrogen through their forestomach mucosa (Ali et al 1977;Emmanuel et al 1976;Engelhardt and Höller 1982;Engelhardt et al 1986b;Farid et al 1979), thus limiting urinary losses. The low rate of glomerular filtration by kidneys saves both water and urea (Yagil 1985), and explains why urea concentration can be lower in urine than in blood (Schmidt-Nielsen et al 1957;Wilson 1984). This originality makes the camelids more sensitive to the toxicity of diets with a high content in soluble nitrogen. Similar observations were made on llamas (Hinderer and Engelhardt 1975). Camelids therefore have a greater ability to recycle nitrogen in their forestomachs than ruminants.Bicarbonates and phosphates are secreted inside compartment 1 via the mucosa and more intensively in the glandular sacs. This mechanism contributes efficiently to the stabilisation of physico-chemical conditions in compartment 1 of camelids and maintains the activity of microbes in extreme feeding situations (Jouany and Kayouli 1989;Lemosquet et al 1995). Engelhardt and Höller (1982) consider that the secretion of bicarbonates greatly improves the absorptive capacity of VFA by mucosa of the camelid forestomach. They estimated that the rate of absorption is two to three times higher in camelids than in ruminants.Physico-chemical conditions are more stable in the forestomachs of camelids as indicated by Kayouli et al (1991Kayouli et al ( , 1993b)), Dardillat et al (1994a), Smacchia et al (1995) and Lemosquet et al (1995). Compared to ruminants, pH remained higher in dromedaries and llamas after feeding as previously indicated by Maloiy (1972) and Vallenas and Stevens (1971). The substitution of 25% of hay by barley had no effect on pH in llamas while it decreased the pH in sheep (Lemosquet et al 1995), indicating a higher buffering capacity of digesta in camelids. Even when fed a poor hay, pH remained higher and more stable in dromedaries than in sheep or goats (H. Rouissi, D.I. Demeyer, C. Kayouli and van C.J. Nevel, unpublished data; Figure 2). NH 3 -N concentration was lower and less variable in dromedaries as confirmed by Farid et al (1979) and H. Rouissi, D.I. Demeyer, C. Kayouli and van C.J. Nevel (unpublished data) (Figure 3). However, Lemosquet et al (1995) noted that the concentration of NH 3 -N is higher in llamas than sheep at the end of the night, before the morning meal. VFA concentrations are more difficult to characterise since they are sometimes higher (Kayouli et al 1993a;H. Rouissi, D.I. Demeyer, C. Kayouli and van C.J. Nevel, unpublished data) or lower (Farid et al 1979) in dromedaries when compared to sheep. On a molar proportion basis, the amount of butyrate is higher in camelids than in ruminants. This indicates that a shift in metabolic pathways occurs in camelids. As a consequence, VFAs are more efficiently absorbed since rate of absorption is related to the length of acid chains (Rémond et al 1995). According to Smacchia et al (1995), the buffering capacity of digesta in the forestomachs of camelids disappears when digesta are transferred into in vitro fermenters. It means that this capacity is a direct effect of animals. Secretion of bicarbonate by the wall of compartment 1 and the subsequent higher rate of VFA absorption explain the major part of this effect. The higher turnover rate of liquid associated with digesta in camelids also contributes to the elimination of the end products of fermentations. Such stable conditions are favourable to the growth of cellulolytic bacteria and fungi which are both sensitive to high acidic conditions.Because of the high recycling capacity of NH 3 -N through saliva and rumen wall, camelids are able to supply rumen microbes with their needs in soluble nitrogen even in low nitrogen feeding conditions. Cellulolytic bacteria which have high needs in soluble nitrogen can thus maintain their activity when animals are fed poor roughage diets with a low nitrogen content. This also means that camelids excrete small amounts of nitrogen in urine which makes them very sensitive to overdosages of soluble nitrogen in diets and limits their contribution to soil pollution.Considering these results, it can be assumed that camelids are better adapted than ruminants to using diets supplemented with energy concentrates. Such complementary energy will be fermented in compartment 1 to give higher production of VFA available for animals without any negative effect on cellulolytic bacteria and fungi. The subsequent increase in ATP production associated with higher NH 3 -N availability will serve protein synthesis and therefore, supply camelids with more amino acids. Lemosquet et al (1995) showed that osmolality of the fluid in the digesta of forestomachs was significantly higher in llamas (277 mOsm l -1 ) than in sheep (259 mOsm l -1 ) fed three different diets. This result confirms the higher content of electrolytes due to secretions in the digesta of camelids. Also, osmolality was more stable in camelids all throughout the day.Only a few differences could be shown by scientists in the microbial population found in the forestomachs of camelids and ruminants. According to Williams (1963) and Ghosal et al (1981), the dominant species of bacteria are the same and their numbers are not different between camelids and ruminants. Several observations made by Jouany and Kayouli (1989) and Kayouli et al (1991Kayouli et al ( , 1993a) ) showed that the total population of protozoa tended to be lower in llamas and dromedaries, while the distribution of the different genera is the same. We found that entodinia represented 90% of the number of ciliates and that the large Entodiniomorphida protozoa are only of type B in camelids (see the classification of Eadie 1962), whereas some animals harbour type A and others type B in ruminants. Also, the fungal population seems to be higher in camelids (Fonty, personal communication). However, these slight differences in the microbial ecosystems could not explain the higher cellulolytic activities noted in the microbial population of camelids. Kayouli and Jouany (1990), Kayouli et al (1991Kayouli et al ( , 1993aKayouli et al ( , 1993b) ) and Dardillat et al (1994a) observed that the in sacco degradations of the cell wall part of several roughages  b.was higher in camelids after 24 h of retention time in the rumen than in ruminants. The more indigestible the substrate, the higher the difference in favour of camelids (Kayouli et al 1991). To confirm these results, Kayouli et al (1993b) and Dardillat et al (1994b) showed that the indigestible in sacco residue of straw from the sheep was digested again when introduced into compartment 1 of llamas. The rate of cell wall degradation was not different between animals. Using the same technique, H. Rouissi, D.I. Demeyer, C. Kayouli and van C.J. Nevel (unpublished data) showed that the percentage of ADF degradation of oat-vesce hay at 72 h was not different in goats and dromedaries (37 and 39%, respectively); it was significantly higher in these animals than in sheep (27%). No differences were noted in proteolytic activity of microbes in the forestomachs of camelids and ruminants.The data obtained by Farid et al (1979) and Gihad et al (1989) suggests that the digestibility of the organic matter (dOM) of five different diets was on average 56.2% in dromedaries vs 52.4% in sheep. Using data from Hintz et al (1973), Warmington et al (1989), Cordesse et al (1992) and Lemosquet et al (1995), we showed that the dOM of 11 diets was 58.5 in llamas vs 54.3% in sheep. Differences between llamas and sheep (4 points) remain constant regardless of the nature of the diet (Figure 4). It is noteworthy that differences are much higher when the digestibility of plant cell walls is considered, 8.7 points on average in favour of dromedaries from five comparisons and 7.1 points in favour of llamas from eight comparisons. These results clearly indicate that camelids are far more efficient than ruminants in the use of cell wall carbohydrates. This is explained both by a higher cellulolytic activity of microbes due to the physico-chemical conditions and to the higher retention time of feed particles in compartment 1 as discussed before. Addition of 25% barley to a hay diet had no negative effect on the cellulolytic activity in the forestomach of camelids (Lemosquet et al 1995). The absence of disturbance of the microbial ecosystem could explain why llamas reduce hay intake less than ruminants when additional concentrate is offered. This ability of camelids has to be confirmed with higher starch additions. Differences between camelids and ruminants in the digestibility of nitrogen are negligible (Cordesse et al 1992;Farid et al 1985;Gihad et al 1989;Kayouli et al 1993a;Maloiy 1972). Only Hintz et al (1973) found that the digestibility of nitrogen was 5 points higher in llamas than in sheep. There is no available information in the literature on the efficiency of microbial protein synthesis, but there are some indications that camelids show a greater efficiency. They recycle more nitrogen in the fermentative chamber, they produce more VFA and make more ATP available for microbial growth, pH is maintained in a range favourable for maximum growth, and the increase in the turnover rate of liquids in the fermenter stimulates the growth rate (Harrison et al 1975). The temperature in the fermenter is 2°C lower than in the rumen (Lemosquet et al 1995) indicating smaller losses in extra heat by microbes and therefore a better use of energy for growth. These comparisons show that camelids are able to use poor roughages better than domesticated ruminants in temperate climates. They use energy supplements efficiently without any negative effect on the digestion of the basic diet. However, some care has to be taken when diets rich in soluble nitrogen are given.Regardless of animal product, be it meat, milk, draught power or maintenance, as many livestock serve an important function for security and risk aversion (Ørskov and Viglizzo 1994), it is important that the feed resources are utilised as efficiently as possible. It can also be said that it is important that the potential nutritive value of roughages are extracted. Since most of the ruminant livestock in developing countries feed mainly on cellulosic crop residues, pasture, trees and bushes, it is important that the fermentation process be unimpeded.In many crop residues, the NH 3 generated in the rumen from degraded protein is often too low to ensure an efficient digestion process. In such cases addition of NH 3 -yielding compounds can greatly enhance both intake and digestibility. Since straw ferments slowly, it is important that the N supplement is also provided at a slow rate. If, for instance, urea is used for pasture grazing it is common to include it in blocks for the animals to lick. For stall-fed animals it is generally more convenient and cheaper to spray the solution on the straw so that it is consumed at the same rate as straw. Apart from poor utilisation of urea when it is given rapidly, it can also result in urea poisoning in extreme cases. Urea is also provided from recycling and there is evidence that some breeds of cattle recycle more urea to the rumen than others due to difference in renal reabsorption.The problem of inhibition of degradation is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows how the same feed in an optimal environment (A) ferments faster than in a less than optimal rumen environment (B). Where feeds are described by the exponential model p = a + b(1 -e ct ) (Ørskov and McDonald 1979), it can be clearly seen that the potential (a + b) is the same. In both environments the asymptote will be reached but in the impeded environment (B) the rate constant is less than in A. As a result, for instance, if a normal rumen retention is 48 h there could be substantial differences in digestibility leading to substantial reductions in feed intake.This phenomenon has only recently been given some prominence and is as yet poorly understood. One observation that intrigued us and led to a greater understanding on use of supplements was a trial in which rumen-fistulated sheep were given ad libitum untreated straw + urea or ammoniated straw (Silva and Ørskov 1988).The urea was added to the untreated straw at feeding time in order to ensure that the degradation rate was not impeded by rumen ammonia concentrations. Subsequently untreated straw and ammoniated straw was incubated in their rumens. The most significant aspect was that in spite of optimal pH conditions and ammonia concentrations the degradation rate of untreated straw proceeded more rapidly in the rumens of animals receiving ammoniated straw than in the rumens of animals eating untreated straw. This is illustrated in Table 1 with the 48 h degradability. Subsequent to this observation, Silva et al (1989) attempted to find supplements which when given to the untreated straw gave a rumen environment similar to the ammoniated straw and found that it was generally supplements containing a source of easily fermentable fibre which elicited a response in degradation rate. Sugar beet pulp, for instance, was successful as shown in Table 2. Inclusion of 15% of sugar beet in the diet had the effect of increasing straw intake by about 25%. There was no increase in intake of ammoniated straw indicating that the process of ammoniation itself made available a certain amount of easily fermentable fibre so that no further improvement came about.In the tropics and subtropics there is a great interest in understanding how best to utilise multipurpose trees (MPT). MPT contain an excess of N for rumen microbes so that they can be used as a source of N. They also contain easily fermentable fibre. An interesting experiment was carried out by Pathirana et al (1992) when they fed untreated or urea-supplemented rice straw to sheep and supplemented with different increments of Gliricidia (Table 3). Gliricidia is a leguminous tree which grows well in many areas. It contains about 20% crude protein. Here it can be seen that the animals ate considerably more when Gliricidia forage was added to unsupplemented than to urea-supplemented straw. It would appear that the response to the untreated straw was mediated both by relieving an N deficiency and by providing a source of easily fermentable fibre while the response to the supplemented rice was mediated only by the source of fermentable fibre. This is of course speculative and more work is needed to clarify these issues. If no supplements are available it is possible to make some, for instance by ammoniation. In many parts of Africa crop residues are grazed in situ and not gathered. If a small amount is gathered, ammoniated and fed at night, it might benefit utilisation of grazed crop residues. Manyuchi et al (1992) carried out a small trial to look at the effect of adding a small amount of ammoniated straw to untreated but urea-supplemented straw. Here again the results (Table 4) indicate that intake of untreated straw was considerably enhanced when a supplement of treated straw was provided. It is apparent that there is a great deal to learn about supplements and how they can best support utilisation of basal feeds as well as being utilised as energy and protein sources in their own right.Problems in the rumen caused by low pH due to feeding of large quantities of grains or starch-based diets, often aggravated by over-processing and intermittent feeding, is a  problem generally associated with industrialised countries where intensively fed livestock are given large grain supplements. Low rumen pH not only in part but sometimes totally abolishes cellulose fermentation; it also exposes the animals to problems of acidosis, acetonaemia, laminitis and other feed-associated problems. Since this problem does not occur with mainly roughage diets, which is by far the prevalent feed in developing countries, it will not be discussed here in more detail.Anti-nutritive factors are in effect plant defence mechanisms against attack by animals, insects or microbes. Some of the anti-nutritive factors are targeted to host animals and some are targeted to the microbial population in the rumen. Most of the microbial anti-nutritive factors are phenol related or tannins. A higher understanding of issues relating to microbial anti-nutritive factors is needed. Many chemical determinants of tannins have proved inadequate to quantify the severity of phenolic anti-nutritive factors. In some instances a high tannin content seems to be tolerated while in others a small amount can cause a large depression in intake (see Makkar et al 1989;Mueller-Harvey and Reed 1992). New biological methods making use of the gas-production techniques with or without a tannin-complexing compound such as polyvinylpyrrolidone or polyethylene glycol appear promising (Khazaal and Ørskov 1994) and need more development. There is also a need to identify accurately the active compounds so that they can be targeted or eliminated by genetic manipulation or other means.An increase in understanding of rumen ecology has the potential to make a major impact on feed utilisation in general and in particular in the parts of the world where cellulosic roughages are likely to be the most important feed for ruminants and in areas where higher quality supplements, e.g. brans and oilseed cakes, are scarce. It is also of particular interest in areas where trees and bushes form important feed ingredients.A better understanding of rumen ecology can lead to: 1. A better strategic use of scarce supplements so that they can be utilised not only as supplements in their own right but also provide support for basal feeds. 2. Greater production of rumen microbial protein so that animals can grow better on basal feeds alone without a need for protein supplements. A change in the ratio of volatile fatty acids to microbial biomass has the further advantage that it will increase capture of fermented energy and reduce methane production.In the semi-arid tropics, the natural pasture has a low nutritive value during the dry season when the standing grass is mature and dormant. After the first two or three months of the dry season, crop residues become available following the harvesting of grain, but most of the residues are from cereal crops which have a nutritional value similar to that of the mature natural grass. Residues from leguminous crops are also available but in small quantities. They have a quality better than that of cereal residues and may be used as protein supplements to the poorer quality residues and to the mature pasture. In addition there is now increasing interest in, and use of legumes, either herbaceous or shrub species, from which the foliage can be harvested and used as protein supplements.When ruminants consume poor quality diets, food intake is low so the supply of nutrients is insufficient to meet requirements for maintenance.The main objective of providing a forage legume as a protein supplement is to increase both the total food intake and that of the basal poor quality diet. Early work on the use of forage legumes was mainly concerned with the need to improve the nitrogen content of diets based on poor quality roughages in order to overcome a deficiency of nitrogenous substrates for the rumen microorganisms. More recent evidence indicates that other changes occur in this supplementation situation which result in an enhancement of intake and digestibility of the diet. This review will assess the likelihood of such changes and the effects they may have on animal production.In the experiments reviewed (Minson and Milford 1967;Siebert and Kennedy 1972;Mosi and Butterworth 1985;Smith et al 1990;Kitalyi and Owen 1993), the forage legumes were fed in discrete amounts and separately from the poor quality basal diets, which were given ad libitum. In all experiments, the legume supplement increased total food intake but the response varied widely between experiments. According to published observations, the legume supplements were consumed without any refusals, so the differences in dietary intake were mainly due to differences in the intake of the basal diet.In addition, there are large differences between experiments in the change in intake of the poor quality forage in response to supplementation. In general, if the level of supplementation was less than 30 to 40% there was an increase in the intake of the basal diet, but in some experiments the intake was unchanged or slightly reduced. A very large increase in intake of mature pangola grass (Digitaria decumbens) was found in the study by Minson and Milford (1967). Above 40% forage legume, the intake of the basal diet fell below that seen with the unsupplemented control diet, except for that observed by Siebert and Kennedy (1972) when there was no change when lucerne contributed 45% of the total dry matter intake. In contrast, Mosi and Butterworth (1985) found that the intake of the basal diet on the supplemented treatments was always less than that of the unsupplemented control diet. The reasons for such differences appear to be related to differences in quality of the forage legume and of the basal diet and other factors.Before these factors are considered, it is worth examining the extent of substitution of the basal diet by the forage legume and its practical implications. As indicated earlier, substitution usually occurs when the legume supplement contributes at least 30 to 40% of the total dry matter intake, and it is due to the bulk effect of the forage legume. However, assessing substitution on a 1:1 basis is misleading since the two components of the diet will have different digestibilities and different bulking effects in the reticulorumen. Since the forage legume is likely to be more digestible, it will occupy less space than the poor quality roughage. The poor quality roughage equivalent of the forage legume can be calculated by multiplying the intake of the forage legume by the ratio of the digestibility of the poor quality roughage given alone to the calculated digestibility of the forage legume in the mixed diets. This calculated digestibility is obtained as the intercept of the linear regression of diet digestibility on the proportion of the poor quality roughage in the diet. Anticipated intake of the poor quality roughage can be obtained by subtracting the poor quality roughage equivalent of the forage legume from that of the poor quality roughage when not supplemented. Any change in intake is then calculated as the difference between anticipated and observed intakes of the poor quality roughage. According to the work of Manyuchi (1994), when this condition for differences in digestibility is made the observed is nearly always greater than the anticipated intake. Although this derivation is informative and reassuring, in practice any substitution on a 1:1 basis should be avoided by keeping the inclusion rate of forage legume to a third or less of the total dry matter. This recommendation has the merit of recognising the nutritional quality of the forage legume, especially if it has been grown on a small farm where the growing of the legume may be limited by the land and labour available.If the basal diet has a low nitrogen content, the addition of a forage legume will increase the nitrogen content of the total diet, which is likely to increase food intake and the rate of degradation of the basal diet in the rumen. Such positive associative effects are well known and at one time were thought to be either the main or only effect of providing protein-rich supplement. A number of recent reports have shown that responses to forage supplements are not entirely due to an increase in dietary nitrogen (Smith et al 1990;Getachew et al 1994;Manyuchi 1994).However, when different basal diets are compared any difference in quality, of which the nitrogen content is a part, will be reflected in the size of the effect of the legume supplement on intake. Mosi and Butterworth (1985) carried out a study in which Trifolium tembense hay was used as a supplement to four different cereal straws, maize, oat, teff and wheat. The straws differed appreciably in crude protein content (23 to 62 g/kg) and in acid detergent fibre (710 to 780 g/kg). It was found that the extent of substitution of the basal diet tended to be greater with the apparently better quality straws (oat and maize). Part of this difference was probably due to overcoming a deficiency of nitrogen in the straws.Very few comparisons have been made between forage legumes that differed in their nutritional characteristics. From the early work on the need for nitrogen supplementation (Elliott and Topps 1963) it may be deduced that forages with a high content of rumen degradable nitrogen will elicit greater responses in food intake than those with a low content. The results of a study by Smith et al (1990) support this hypothesis. Three forage legumes, pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and lablab (Lablab purpureus) hay which differed in nitrogen content and in sacco DM degradability were compared as supplements to maize stover. Cowpea, which had the highest nitrogen content, promoted the greatest intake of maize stover. However, the extent of substitution was inversely related to the 48 h degradability of the legumes measured in sacco. In a similar study, Getachew et al (1994) compared three other legumes (Desmodium intortum, Macrotyloma axillare and Stylosanthes guianensis) as supplements to maize stover. S. guianensis had the highest nitrogen and lowest neutral detergent fibre content and promoted the greatest intake of maize stover. Recently in the author's laboratory, Masama et al (1995) found differences between four shrub legumes in the response produced as supplements. Although the nitrogen content appears to be a dominating factor, it should be recognised that legumes with a high nitrogen content are likely to contain less fibre and the total organic matter may be more easily fermented. It may be that the energy available to the microorganisms is a factor equal in significance to the supply of degradable nitrogen. In fact with certain tropical legumes the presence of anti-nutritional factors may obviate any causal relationship between nitrogen content and increase in food intake (Topps 1992).Forage legumes invariably increase the digestibility of the total diet which is somewhat expected. The digestibility would probably increase as the proportion of the forage legume is increased, which reflects the contribution of the legume with its higher digestibility. In most studies, the proportional change in digestibility is equal to or less than the fractional increase of the high quality forage in the diet. This indicates the absence of any positive associative effect of the forage legume on the digestibility of the basal diet. Only a few studies have recorded a positive associative effect of the forage legume e.g. Minson and Milford (1967) and Mosi and Butterworth (1985).If the presence of a forage legume increases the activity of rumen microorganisms, a concomitant increase in degradation of fibre should be observed. Several reports have described such an effect, but it may not occur with certain recalcitrant poor quality roughages. McMeniman et al (1988) studied five legumes as supplements to rice straw and that degradation of the straw was increased by the presence of the legume. Similarly, Ndlovu and Buchanan-Smith (1985) found that lucerne increased the rate of degradation of barley straw, brome grass and maize cobs. In contrast, Manyuchi (1994) found that groundnut hay did not alter the in sacco degradation of poor quality grass hay. It is likely that any change in the degradation of the basal diet as a result of an increase in microbial activity may depend on the number of available sites for microbial attachment (Akin 1989). With some roughages the cuticule layer and extent of lignification are barriers to microbial colonization, so that an increase in rumen microbial population may not be manifested in an increase in rate of degradation.Very few studies have been carried out in which changes in the rumen environment have been measured when forage legumes are fed with poor quality basal diets. Inevitably poor quality forages provide insufficient degradable nitrogen and fermentable energy to sustain optimum digestion of fibre. Forage legumes are relatively good sources of degradable nitrogen and fermentable energy so their inclusion in the diet is expected to increase the rumen population of cellulolytic microbes. Such an effect was seen in a related study by Kolankaya et al (1985) when a higher growth of selected cellulolytic microorganisms was observed with ammonia-treated compared with untreated straw.Concentrations of rumen ammonia increase following supplementation with a forage legume (McMeniman et al 1988;Getachew et al 1994;Manyuchi 1994), the increase being a function of the degradability of the nitrogen in the forage legume. In a study by Said and Tolera (1994), the legume with the lower nitrogen content (M. axillare) gave higher rumen ammonia concentrations than D. intortum, which had more crude protein but with a lower degradability. For certain forage legumes, especially certain species of shrubs, the availability of the nitrogen compounds would be limited by tannins (Mangan 1988). Forage legumes increase the total concentration of volatile fatty acids (VFA) without affecting the relative proportions and the rumen pH. These results indicate that forage legumes are likely to maintain a stable fermentation pattern. Ndlovu and Buchanan-Smith (1985) observed that the feeding of a lucerne supplement increased the proportion of branched chain VFA and suggested that this increase may stimulate the growth of cellulolytic microorganisms.A potential increase in digestibility when forage legumes are added to poor quality basal diets may be offset by a reduction of retention time of digesta. Such an effect was recorded by Ndlovu and Buchanan-Smith (1985) when lucerne was fed with maize cobs, and by Vanzant and Cochran (1994) when lucerne was fed at different levels with low quality prairie forage. Similar results were obtained by Manyuchi (1994) (Table 1). The addition of groundnut hay increased the fractional outflow rate of rumen solids without altering the pool size of the rumen digesta. Manyuchi concluded that the increase in food intake following supplementation with a forage legume was largely facilitated by an increase in rate of passage of digesta. The mechanism by which this occurs is not fully known. Changes in osmotic pressure of the rumen may be implicated but the results of Manyuchi (1994) do not confirm the presence of a relationship.Increases in food intake and in digestibility of the total diet arising from supplementation with forage legume should be manifested in a significant increase in animal performance. There are very few reports of a marked improvement of production when tropical legumes are fed. Work carried out in Kenya with leucaena leucocephala and Napier grass (Bana grass) by Muinga et al (1992Muinga et al ( , 1993) ) has established that sizeable responses in milk yield can occur (Tables 2 and 3). In both experiments there was a small increase in the intake of Napier grass when leucaena was given as a supplement and a significant increase (P < 0.05) in total DM intake. These enhanced intakes resulted in significant increases (P < 0.05) in milk yields and some curtailment of weight losses. In the work published in 1992 it is interesting to note that the response with the poorer quality was greater than that with the higher quality Napier grass. Forage legumes can be used as a supplement to poor quality diets but the responses produced are unpredictable. Much of the nature of the response relates to changes that occur in the rumen environment. It is axiomatic that substantial improvement in the rumen microbial activity especially that of the cellulolytic organisms will lead to greater food intake and increases in digestibility of the diet. These changes in turn will improve animal performance. A knowledge of the factors controlling the changes in rumen microbial activity is essential.In Zimbabwe, the work of Manyuchi (1994) has shown that groundnut hay is an effective supplement when given with either Napier grass hay or poor quality grass hay. Groundnut hay may therefore be a useful model for future studies. In addition, groundnuts are a dual purpose crop in that both the nuts and the forage are harvested, which is attractive to farmers. To successfully encourage small farmers to grow forage legumes such considerations are important. Acceptability of crops such as cowpeas, pigeon peas and groundnuts means that the widespread establishment of these crops is more likely than that of legumes which provide forage only. For this reason intensive studies are needed on certain legumes to ascertain the best way of harvesting, storing and using the forage as a supplement to poor quality roughages. An important problem in rumen ecology is to define conditions required for optimum fermentation of feedstuffs, especially low protein, highly fibrous plant material. There are several chemicals that alter end-products of the rumen fermentation. These include glycopeptide antibiotics, isoacids and monensin. Our laboratory has conducted both in vitro and in vivo studies of the effects of glycopeptides, isoacids and monensin on rumen fermentation (Brondani et al 1991;Quispe et al 1991). Acetate is a major end-product of the rumen fermentation. Currently we are studying the acetyl CoA synthetase gene whose product catalyses the initial step in acetate utilisation. These studies will be described.Teichomycin A2 is an antibiotic produced by Actinoplanea teichomyceticus. Avoparcin is an antibiotic produced by a strain of Streptomyces candidus (Kunstmann et al 1968).Their antimicrobial properties (growth and bacteria) stem from their ability to interfere with cell wall synthesis (Parenti et al 1978;Redin and Dornbush 1969).Cattle fed avoparcin have lower feed intake and improved daily gains and feed efficiency (DeLay et al 1978;Johnson et al 1979). Changes in the rumen include increases in propionate and decreases in acetate (Chalupa et al 1981;Froetschel et al 1983) and butyrate (Froetschel et al 1983) molar percent and α-amino-N.In vitro studies with teichomycin A2 indicate that this glycopeptide alters rumen fermentation similar to avoparcin (Brondani 1983; D.J. Phillips and J.M. Tadman, unpublished data). However, studies directly comparing the two antibiotics under in vivo conditions have not been conducted. Additionally, most studies measured only propionate production rates. We determined the effects of teichomycin A2 and avoparcin on in vivo production of acetate, propionate and butyrate, and rumen nitrogen variables (Brondani 1986).In each of two trials, six rumen-cannulated crossbred ewes were kept in individual pens. Average body weight for animals in Trials 1 and 2 were 40.6 and 39.2 kg, respectively. In Trial 1 (high roughage diet), animals were fed 1000 g/d of alfalfa hay and had free access to trace mineral salt. In Trial 2 (low roughage diet), animals received 900 g/d of a ration composed of 43% alfalfa meal, 10% ground corn cobs, 20% ground shelled corn, 20% ground oats, 5% H 2 O, 1% trace mineralised salt, 0.5% dicalcium phosphate and 0.5% of a vitamin premix (vitamin A, 4400 IU/g; vitamin D, 500 IU/g; and vitamin E, 44 IU/g). Daily feed was provided in two portions (0800 and 1600) with free access to water.In each trial, animals were divided into three groups of two sheep each and randomly allocated to one of the treatments: control, 30 ppm teichomycin A2, or 30 ppm avoparcin (dry matter basis). Antibiotics were injected directly into the rumen through a fistula immediately following feeding. On days 28 and 29, samples for the determination of rumen VFA and rumen nitrogen constituents were collected. Rumen fluid samples were collected prior to morning feeding and then at hourly intervals for the next 8 h.Measurements of rates of acetate production and liquid flow were performed on days 31 and 37. Three hours after the morning feeding, 100 ml of water containing 10 g of polyethylene glycol (PEG, M.W. 4000) and 100 µCi of Na-[1-14 C]acetate were added to the rumen. Serial rumen fluid samples were collected every 20 min for the next 4 h. The rates of production of propionate and butyrate were measured on days 32 and 39 and days 33 and 40, respectively. The procedure was essentially the same as that used for acetate (Cook 1966;Knox et al 1967).Volatile fatty acid concentrations in rumen fluid were determined by gas liquid chromatography according to the procedure of Ottenstein andBartley (1971a, 1971b).Fractionation of rumen fluid for the determination of nitrogen components was according to the procedure of Bergen et al (1968) and Isichei (1980). α-Amino-N and protein were determined using a Technicon Auto-Analyser System (Technicon Instrument Corp., Terrytown, New York). Ammonia-N analysis was according to the method of Okuda et al (1965) as modified by Kulasek (1972).The effects of teichomycin A2 and avoparcin on concentrations of rumen VFA in sheep fed high and low roughage diets are summarised in Table 1. Volatile fatty acids as a percent of total moles are shown in Table 2. In the high roughage ration, glycopeptides did not change the concentrations of acetate (P < 0.10) but increased propionate. Increases over control were 26.0 and 30.8% for teichomycin A2 and avoparcin (P < 0.10), respectively. Glycopeptides tended to lower butyrate concentrations. Total VFA concentrations were not changed by the treatments (P < 0.10). Teichomycin A2 decreased the concentrations of isobutyrate and isovalerate in rumen fluid (P < 0.05), whereas avoparcin decreased isovalerate (P < 0.05). The glycopeptides did not affect the molar percent of acetate and butyrate (Table 2). Propionate molar percent was increased by the glycopeptides relative to control (P < 0.05). As a result, the acetate to propionate ratio was lower for the treated groups in the high roughage diet (P < 0.05).For the low roughage ration, the trends for VFA concentrations were similar to those in the high roughage ration. Propionate concentrations increased (P < 0.10) and butyrate concentrations decreased (P < 0.10) due to glycopeptide supplementation. Concentrations of acetate and total VFA were not affected by treatments (P < 0.10). The lower concentrations of isoacids caused by the glycopeptides in the high roughage ration were not detected in the low roughage ration. Teichomycin A2 and avoparcin increased propionate (P < 0.01) and decreased butyrate (P < 0.05) molar percent with respect to ‡ Means in a row within a ration without a common superscript differ: §, ¶ P < 0.05; † †, ‡ ‡ P < 0.10. § § Standard error of each mean in a row within a ration. control. Acetate molar percent was slightly lower in the treated groups but differences were not significant. This resulted in the lower acetate to propionate ratios in the treated groups (P < 0.01).The effect of teichomycin A2 and avoparcin on the rates of production of acetate, propionate and butyrate in sheep fed high and low fibre diets are shown in Tables 3-5. Animals fed the high roughage diet had a higher rumen fluid turnover rate than animals fed low roughage. These results are in line with those reported for sheep (Froetschel et al 1983). Froetschel et al (1983) reported an increase in rumen volume in animals fed avoparcin. However, the present study did not show increases for either the avoparcin or the teichomycin A2 groups.In the high roughage ration, there was a trend for lower acetate production in the treated groups (Table 3). However, differences were not significant (P > 0.10). Although acetate pools were not affected by treatments (P > 0.10), the lower rate of acetate 3.9 † † 3.0 ‡ ‡ 2.8 ‡ ‡ 0.13 3.6 § 2.5 ¶ 2.7 ¶ 0.17 † 36 observations per mean. ‡ Means in a row within a ration without a common superscript differ: §, ¶ P < 0.05; † †, ‡ ‡ P < 0.10. § § Standard error of each mean in a row within a ration. production due to avoparcin resulted in significantly less acetate pool turnover times relative to control (P < 0.10). In the low roughage ration, trends were the same as those found in the high roughage ration. Acetate production and acetate pool sizes tended to be lower in the treated groups, but differences were not significant (P > 0.10).Propionate production rates were increased by glycopeptide supplementation in both rations (Table 6). In the high roughage diet, increases in propionate production relative to controls were 48 (P < 0.05) and 38.7% (P < 0.05) for teichomycin A2 and avoparcin, respectively. In the low-roughage ration, increases in propionate production due to teichomycin A2 and avoparcin were 34.8 (P < 0.10) and 36.8% (P < 0.10), respectively. The increase in propionate production resulted in higher propionate pool sizes for both antibiotics in both rations. However, significant differences from control were detected only for avoparcin in the low roughage diet (P < 0.10). Butyrate production (Table 5) was not affected by treatments in either ration (P > 0.10).  Changes in VFA production rates found in the present study followed similar trends for both glycopeptides. In general, supplementation with teichomycin A2 and avoparcin resulted in significant increases in propionate concentrations and production rates. For acetate and butyrate, there were trends toward lower concentration and production rates but differences were not significant (P > 0.10). This is in contrast with results from studies in sheep (Froetschel et al 1983) and cattle (Chalupa et al 1981). Froetschel et al (1983) reported higher propionate but lower acetate, butyrate and total VFA concentrations in sheep fed high and low fibre diets supplemented with avoparcin. Chalupa et al (1981) reported that avoparcin supplementation to cattle increased propionate and butyrate and decreased acetate. Total VFA concentrations were not affected by the antibiotic. However, our results are in line with those obtained in feedlot trials by Johnson et al (1979). In these experiments, avoparcin consistently increased propionate without affecting acetate or butyrate concentrations.One point of importance is the time required for the patterns of rumen VFA to return to pre-treatment values when feeding of antibiotics is discontinued. In contrast with ionophores, the effects of glycopeptides seem to be persistent (Brondani 1983;D.J. Phillips and J.M. Tadman, unpublished data). Ten days after glycopeptide supplementation was discontinued, the molar proportion of rumen VFA had not returned to normal. These results question the validity of using Latin squares or reversal designs to study the effects of glycopeptides on rumen metabolism unless there are long adaptation periods to the new treatment to avoid carryover effects.The effect of teichomycin A2 and avoparcin on rumen nitrogen constituents in sheep fed high and low fibre diets is shown in Table 6. Soluble, bacterial and protozoal protein fractions were not affected by treatments (P > 0.10).In the high roughage ration, increases in α-amino-N relative to control were 81.6 (P < 0.05) and 118% (P < 0.05), respectively, for teichomycin A2 and avoparcin. In the low roughage diet, teichomycin A2 and avoparcin increased α-amino-N concentrations by 50.1 (P < 0.05) and 48.6% (P < 0.05), respectively. Ammonia-N in the high roughage diet was decreased by 10 (P < 0.05) and 23.8% (P < 0.05) by teichomycin A2 and avoparcin. In the low roughage diet, decreases in ammonia-N due to teichomycin A2 and avoparcin were 33.2 and 22.7%, respectively (Table 6). Results for ammonia-N and α-amino-N indicate that teichomycin A2 and avoparcin exert a marked effect on rumen nitrogen metabolism. These results are in agreement with in vitro results for teichomycin A2 (Brondani 1983) and in vivo results for avoparcin (Chalupa et al 1981;Froetschel et al 1983). The decrease in ammonia-N concentration concomitant with increases in α-amino-N suggests that teichomycin A2 and avoparcin reduce deamination. Additional evidence is provided by the decline in the concentration of isoacids in treated animals (Table 1). Although some rumen bacterial species can synthesise branched chain acids de novo (Bryant and Doetsch 1955;Miura et al 1980), the majority of isoacids in the rumen comes from the degradation of dietary protein. Therefore, the decline in isoacids suggests that amino acid breakdown was depressed by the glycopeptides.Both compounds increase propionate production but do not affect acetate and butyrate production. Both glycopeptides increase α-amino-N and decrease ammonia-N concentrations in rumen fluid, suggesting less protein and/or amino acid degradation in the rumen.Ruminal bacteria require isoacids (isobutyrate, 2-methylbutyrate, isovalerate and valerate), NH 3 and hydrogen sulfide for growth (Brondani et al 1991). Little information is available concerning the interaction of these three nutrients, particularly when high fibre diets are fed. To study the interaction of isoacids, NH 3 and sulfur, a 2 3 factorial crossover (three factors each of three levels) conducted in two 4 × 4 Quasi-Latin squares was used (Brondani et al 1991).Double blocking criteria were animals and time (non-random repeated measurements were obtained from each subject assigned to a sequence of treatment combinations). In each trial, eight rumen-fistulated adult Tabasco sheep were divided into two groups. Sheep in Groups 1 and 2 weighed 27 and 36 kg, respectively, and were assigned randomly to rows of 1 square, corresponding to a predetermined sequence of treatment combinations. The three factors were isoacids, N, and S each at two levels. Composition of the basal diets for Trials 1 and 2 is given in Table 7. Corn stover was chopped with a silage chopper to lengths of 1.26 cm. Both sugar cane bagasse and stover were air-dried.Based on results of previous experiments, an equal weight mixture of isoacids (isobutyrate, 2-methylbutyrate, isovalerate and valerate) was administered at 0.1 and 0.2 g/kg body weight (BW) per day. To achieve two levels of NH 3 -N in the rumen (about 5 and 15 mg/dl), the basal diet was fed either alone or supplemented with urea (high N treatment) at 1.5% of DM. To achieve two levels of sulfide in the rumen (4 and 8 µg/ml), the basal diet was fed alone or supplemented with elemental S at 0.2% of DM. Sulfur and N supplementation was designed to provide four different N:S ratios. Final N:S ratios were approximately 3:1, 5:1, 8:1 and 12:1. Isoacids, urea and S were premixed weekly with part of the sorghum and then incorporated into the totally mixed diet. The daily ration was fed at 0700 and feed intake was recorded daily for each animal. Water was provided ad libitum. Animals were adapted to a given diet for 14 days prior to measurements.In vivo production rates of acetate were measured by a single injection radioisotope technique (Cook 1966;Rogers and Davis 1982). On day 15, 3 h after morning feeding, each animal received an intraruminal injection of 100 µCi of Na-[1-14 C]acetate with 100 ml of a 10% solution of polyethylene glycol (molecular weight 3350). Following infusion, ruminal fluid samples were collected every 20 min for the next 3 h. Samples were strained through four layers of surgical gauze and stored frozen at -20°C. Ruminal hydrogen sulfide was determined using a hydrogen sulfide-sensing electrode (Lazar model GS-136). Isolation of 14 C-acetate from rumen fluid was as described above under glycopeptides. Determinations of acetate production, ruminal NH 3 -N and acetate were described previously (Cook 1966).In a third trial, sheep in Groups 1 (25 kg) and 2 (35 kg) were each fed 1215 and 1700 g/d of pineapple tops and 20 and 27 g/d of minerals, respectively (Quispe et al 1991). Pineapple tops were 6.6 and 0.13% CP and S, respectively.Pineapple tops were chopped in a silage cutter, air-dried to 20% moisture, and finally ground for formulating rations. Isoacids (equal weights of isobutyrate, 2-methylbutyrate, isovalerate and valerate) were mixed into rations at two levels to provide 0.07 and 0.14 g kg BW -1 d -1 . In order to achieve ruminal NH 3 -N levels of approximately 5 and 15 mg/dl, pineapple tops were fed without or with urea at 0.43 g kg BW -1 d -1 . Similarly, either 0 or 0.086 g S kg BW -1 d -1 was provided by adding elemental sulfur. Experimental periods were one week. Acetate production was measured on the last day of each period.For Trials 1 and 2, results are presented in view of the existence of two significant two-way interactions, i.e. the interactions between N with S and N with isoacids. The interaction of isoacids and S was not significant. Therefore, there was no specific examination of combination means involving those two factors. When two factors interact, it is appropriate to examine the means of two-way combinations (averaged over other factors, if any) to determine the nature of the interaction. For the two-way combinations between N and S (Table 8), DMI did not differ among treatment groups in either trial. Urea increased (P < 0.01) ruminal NH 3 -N in both trials. Similarly, S supplementation resulted in higher (P < 0.01) levels of sulfide-S in ruminal fluid of sheep on both trials. In both trials, acetate production was not changed by either urea or S when fed separately. Supplementation of both resulted in a 44% increase in acetate production in Trial 1 and a 63% increase in Trial 2. Although the lack of an increase in acetate production in the group with low N and high S may be explained by the low level of ruminal NH 3 -N (Table 8), the results for the group with high N and low S were not expected. The calculated N:S ratio and the percentage of S in the basal diets (Table 8) were within the ranges commonly recommended for adult sheep (Bray and Till 1975;Ørskov 1982). However, S intake by animals in the group with high N and low S may have been limiting. Hume and Bird (1970) reported that S intake of 1.95 g/d supported maximal ruminal microbial protein synthesis in sheep. In the present study, intake of total S in the group with high N and low S averaged 0.65 and 0.74 g/d, respectively, for Trials 1 and 2. For the group with high N and high S, average daily intake of S for sheep in Trials 1 and 2 was 1.66 and 1.80 g/d, respectively. The precise level at which ruminal sulfide concentration limits microbial growth and fermentation has not been defined clearly, but 1 µg of sulfide-S/ml of ruminal fluid has been suggested to be the lower limit for optimal fermentation (Harrison and McAllen 1981). Concentrations of sulfide-S in the groups with high N and low S were greater than 2 µg/ml but may not have been high enough for maximal fermentation. These results suggest that S supplementation Increasing the level of isoacids in the diet resulted in higher (P < 0.01) concentrations of these acids in the rumen for both trials (Table 9). In Trial 1, acetate production was higher when N was supplemented along with low isoacids (P < 0.05). Increasing the amount of isoacids in the diet, without adding N, did not change acetate production. When both were present at the high level, acetate production was further increased (P < 0.05) by 30%. These results show that rates of fermentation in the rumen can be only as high as the availability of the most limiting nutrient. In Trial 1, ruminal NH 3 -N provided by the basal diet was more limiting than isoacids. Once N supply was increased by the addition of urea to the diet, isoacids became limiting.Trends in acetate production found in Trial 2 were similar to Trial 1 (Table 9). However, increases (P < 0.05) in acetate production were found only when both N and isoacids were fed at a high level. This suggests that ruminal NH 3 -N provided by the basal diet in Trial 2 was adequate to support microbial fermentations as efficiently as the diet that was supplemented with N. However ruminal NH 3 -N was not sufficiently high to permit utilisation of the higher amounts of isoacids supplied by the high isoacid treatment.In Trial 3, two different ruminal levels of H 2 S and NH 3 -N were achieved by supplementing pineapple tops with elemental sulfur and urea (Table 10). Ruminal H 2 S averaged 7 to 9 µg/ml when S was added compared to 0.7 to 4 µg/ml with no S. Similarly, ruminal NH 3 -N was 13 to 16 mg/dl when urea was added compared to 5 to 7 mg/dl without urea. Ruminal concentrations of isoacids were not increased with high levels of isoacids. This may be due to rapid utilisation in the rumen. The ruminal N:S ratio (Table 10) reflected the dietary N:S ratio.For acetate production, interactions were only significant between isoacids and S. Therefore, the Bonferroni t-test was used to test differences among treatment means within each level of isoacids or S. These results show that acetate production was increased (P < 0.05) with S supplementation. Similarly, acetate production was higher when adding S and high isoacids (P < 0.01).Acetate production was higher with a dietary N:S ratio of 5:1 relative to 3:1, 8:1 or 12:1 (Figure 1). This ratio is narrower than the ratio usually considered adequate for sheep (Bray and Till 1975). The dietary N:S ratio of 5:1 resulted in ruminal NH 3 -N to H 2 S ratio of 17:1, which is close to the N:S ratios for ruminal bacteria of approximately 13:1 proposed by Bray and Till (1975).Acetate production was more correlated to N:S ratios (r 2 = 14.6%) than to ruminal NH 3 -N concentration (r 2 = 3.2%). There was a trend towards more acetate production as ruminal NH 3 -N increased, but differences were not significant.In general, acetate production was 42% greater when higher levels of isoacids and S were added to the feed ration. Adding urea to diets containing high levels of isoacids and S increased acetate production by another 33%. It is concluded that 0.14 g of isoacids, 0.43 g urea and 0.086 g S kg BW -1 gave the maximum fermentation of pineapple tops. These treatments gave a dietary N:S ratio of 5:1.Because production of VFA from carbohydrates in the rumen is coupled with microbial growth, maximal microbial yield can be attained only if precursors for protein synthesis are made available to the microbiota simultaneously and in adequate quantities. This study suggests that high fibre diets low in N are utilised better when all three factors (N, isoacids and S) are adequate. L and H are low and high levels. ‡ S.E. for H2S and NH2-N is 0.6 and 1.2, respectively. §, ¶, † † Two pooled treatment contrasts were different: § vs. ¶ (P < 0.05), positive effect of isoacids when sulfur was present and § vs. † † (P < 0.1), positive effect of sulfur when isoacids were high. All other treatment comparisons were not different (P > 0.01). Monensin has been used extensively in diets for feedlot cattle for several years. Isoacids have been used as a nutritional supplement for lactating dairy cattle. Both monensin and isoacids affect rumen fermentation. However, little is known about the effects of the combination of the two compounds in the rumen. In vitro rumen fermentations have shown that monensin decreases the acetate:propionate ratio (Chalupa 1977;Richardson et al 1976). These results have been attributed to a toxic effect of the ionophore on ruminococci (Henderson et al 1981). Unlike monensin, isoacids (isobutyric, isovaleric, 2-methylbutyric and valeric acids) increase rumen acetate production, probably due to an enhanced growth of ruminococci (Allison and Bryant 1958;Bryant 1973;Felix et al 1980). An in vitro system was used to study the effects of monensin and isoacids on the rumen fermentation (Kone et al 1989). Ruminal fluid was obtained 3 h post-feeding from a mature non-pregnant and non-lactating rumen-fistulated Holstein cow that weighed 550 kg. Samples from different parts of the rumen were strained through two layers of surgical gauze into 1 litre glass bottles kept at 40°C.The semicontinuous culture technique of Short (1978) was used with minor modifications (Figure 2). The culture was maintained in the same flask throughout the experiment. The substrate was timothy hay.Isobutyric, 2-methylbutyric, isovaleric and valeric acids were mixed at equimolar concentrations and neutralised with sodium hydroxide. The final concentrations of the  Experiment 1 investigated the effect of isoacids at 10, 15 and 20 mg/dl of final incubation medium. Experiment 2 investigated the effect of monensin at 100, 150 and 200 µg/dl of final incubation medium. For Experiment 3, monensin was fixed at 150 µg/dl, and isoacids were added to the incubation medium at 10 or 15 mg/dl of the final incubation.Isoacids at 10 and 15 mg/dl increased acetate, total VFA and propionate concentration, but the increase was not as great at 20 mg/dl. As expected, branched-chain fatty acid concentrations increased in proportion to the amounts added in the medium. In contrast to VFA production, CH 4 , CO 2 and H 2 were not affected by isoacids (Table 11).The effects of different concentrations of monensin are in Table 12. In contrast to isoacids, acetate concentration decreased at all concentrations of monensin tested. Propionate concentration was significantly increased, whereas butyrate concentration decreased at all concentrations tested. Monensin decreased methane production. Neither CO 2 nor H 2 was affected. The results from the monensin experiment agree with similar studies conducted by Chalupa (1977). Monensin consistently decreased acetate and butyrate but increased propionate production.The addition of monensin caused a decrease in acetate and propionate after 24 h of incubation, but after 48 h, propionate was higher than control values, whereas acetate remained lower than the controls. The addition of isoacids at 10 and 15 mg/dl to flasks containing monensin increased acetate concentration compared with monensin alone (P < 0.05; Figure 3). However, the addition of isoacids to flasks containing monensin did not alter propionate concentration (Figure 4). It is interesting to speculate on the mode of action of the combination of isoacids and monensin. According to Wolin and Miller (1983), monensin affects the rumen fermentation by selecting for organisms that participate in the production of relatively more propionate and against those that contribute to the production of acetate, butyrate and precursors of methane. The growth of ruminococci and butyrivibrios is inhibited by very low concentrations of monensin. These genera are important producers of acetate, butyrate and the substrate for methanogens, H 2 and CO 2 . Selenomonads are very insensitive, whereas bacteroids, although sensitive, rapidly become resistant to the ionophore. Both organisms are important in the production of propionate. The addition of isoacids to the culture containing monensin may cause an outgrowth of bacteroids and perhaps ruminococci and methanogenic bacteria, which require isoacids, resulting in more acetate, succinate and formate. Succinate would be decarboxylated to propionate by selenomonads and formate would be used as an energy source by methanogens. The end result would be an increase in acetate and probably more substrate degraded as indicated by the higher VFA in Experiment 3 (Figures 3 and 4).The combination of isoacids and monensin may be of practical application in cattle rations. The addition of monensin alone to the diet of growing steers increases the efficiency of growth by increasing propionate production. Because of the importance of propionate in glucose metabolism and insulin secretion in ruminants, the increase in ruminal propionate production will promote growth. Isoacids increase acetate, total VFA and microbial synthesis. Because the addition of isoacids to cultures containing monensin does not alter the effect of monensin on propionate production, the additional energy and microbial protein may further improve growth.The changes in rumen fermentation products brought about by glycopeptides, monensin and isoacids can have positive effects on animal production. In addition, there are other chemicals such as virginiamycin and lasolacid that affect rumen VFA production. These chemicals provide a tool to study regulation of microbial growth at the molecular level. Knowledge in this area is critically needed to provide a basis for In addition to developing better methods to control the rumen ecosystem, it is equally important to understand utilisation of rumen VFA for production of meat, milk and fibre. Of course, molecular mechanisms regulating utilisation of substrates in ruminants are not known. Our laboratory is engaged in a study of the regulation of acetate for milk synthesis at the molecular level. Acetate, as acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) is a major substrate for milk synthesis and occupies a central position in metabolism of Holstein mammary gland as well as in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Acetyl-CoA is generated via the acetate activation reaction catalysed by acetyl coenzyme A synthetase (ACS).Our work on characterisation of ACS in ruminants has determined the tissue distribution, intracellular localisation, physical and catalytic properties and changes in mammary gland throughout lactation. In addition, a bovine mammary gland ACS cDNA has been cloned (Raafat 1994). ACS is most active in heart, kidney, adipose tissue and mammary gland at peak lactation (Cook and Qureshi 1972;Cook et al 1969Cook et al , 1975)). There is marginal activity in brain and skeletal muscle. Unlike non-ruminants, acetate is not utilised by ruminant liver (Cook 1970;Cook and Miller 1965) and ACS activity is not found in liver (Ricks and Cook 1981a). However, in vitro, acetate can be oxidised by liver because propionyl CoA synthetase can activate acetate at a low rate (Ricks and Cook 1981a). The apparent molecular weight of the mammary gland enzyme is 63,000 (Qureshi and Cook 1975). ACS is a glycoprotein and the carbohydrates have been identified (Ricks and Cook 1981b;Stamoudis and Cook 1975).In early lactation, blood growth hormone is relatively high and insulin is low. As lactation advances and milk production declines, blood levels of growth hormone decrease and insulin increases. Also, high producing cows have lower blood insulin and higher growth hormone than do low producing cows (Ghirardi and Cook 1987). Insulin inhibits and growth hormone stimulates ACS activity in lactating goat mammary gland. As lactation advances, ACS activity decreases sharply but can be partially reinstated by injecting a combination of growth hormone, prolactin and dexamethasone (Marinez et al 1976). The existence of 5′ regulatory site hormonal response elements (e.g. glucocorticoids) in the ACS gene might explain these coordinated regulatory patterns.In cattle, ACS activity is marginal in a dry mammary gland, increases from parturition to peak milk production and then declines in activity as lactation advances (Marinez et al 1976). ACS activity is directly correlated with milk production. Thus, as lactation advances, less acetate can be utilised.  Given the central role of ACS in ruminant metabolism and milk production, cDNA cloning of the ACS gene was initiated using poly(A+)RNA isolated from bovine mammary tissue, taken at peak lactation. Mammary gland mRNA was reverse transcribed with AMV reverse transcriptase (Promega Inc., Madison, WI), according to the manufacturers' instructions. Following second strand synthesis and EcoRI adaptor addition, cDNAs were cloned into the EcoRI site of lambda gt11. Initial screening with rabbit anti-ACS sera, prepared by injection of purified bovine ACS, yielded a truncated cDNA clone, AR8. AR8 remained positive through several rounds of plaque purification. Subsequent screening of 750,000 plaques using AR8 yielded 1 clone, designated ATC5, which remained positive through several rounds of plaque purification. ATC5 contains a 4.2 Kbp insert, more than sufficient to encode the complete ACS protein. The insert from ATC5 was excised by EcoRI digestion and subcloned into the EcoRI site of pUC19 (generating pATC5) for further analysis and sequencing.Prior to initiation of full-scale DNA sequence analysis, several steps were taken to ensure pATC5 represented a true copy of ACS gene coding sequences. 1. Rabbit anti-ACS was affinity purified using the fusion protein produced by induction of pATC5 with IPTG. Purified anti-ACS removed over 90% of ACS activity from a preparation of partially purified bovine mammary ACS. In contrast, preimmune sera did not adversely affect ACS activity. 2. Anti-ACS, affinity purified using LacZ-ACS fusion protein from clone pAR8, was used in Western blots of mitochondrial extracts from heart, liver, kidney, mammary gland and spleen. Proteins with the expected molecular weight and tissue distribution as ACS were recognised. 3. Preliminary DNA sequencing of pAR8 and pATC5 revealed an open reading frame with 25% homology to other synthetases (ATP and HSCoA binding proteins). No homology to common structural proteins was observed. 4. The pattern of RNA expression detected in bovine tissues is consistent with known protein expression patterns of ACS. Specifically, heart and mammary gland contain significant amounts of ACS RNA while liver and kidney contain very little. A restriction map of the 4.2 Kbp insert of pATC5 has been prepared and the insert partially sequenced. To date, over 1200 bp have been sequenced, revealing a single long open reading frame. Northern blots of poly(A+) RNA from bovine heart, liver, mammary gland and kidney were probed with [alpha-32 P]-ATC5. Northern analyses clearly show multiple forms of ACS mRNA in most tissues. For example, three distinct transcripts were detected in heart and mammary gland while two transcripts were detected in kidney and one in liver. ACS transcripts range in size from 0.8 to 5.2 kb. Multiple forms of ACS mRNA were not unexpected, based on results from other synthetases, and may be the result of multiple promoters and/or alternative splicing. It is curious, however, that a faint ACS mRNA (4.2 kb) would be present in liver where no ACS activity can be detected. This suggests that either the liver transcript is not translated, leads to translation of an inactive molecule, or is regulated at the post-translational level. It is also possible that our ACS probe hybridised with another closely related mRNA (e.g. propionyl CoA synthetase).The expression of ACS activity in ruminants is unique. ACS activity is constitutive in heart, controlled by nutrition and physiological state in the mammary gland but not expressed in liver (Marinez et al 1976;Mellenberger et al 1973;Ricks and Cook 1981a). Ruminant liver is not lipogenic (Emery 1980). Therefore, acetate is not utilised by liver. The liver utilises propionate as the major source of glucose (Amaral et al 1990;Reynolds et al 1988). Since there is a paucity of glucose in ruminants, this pattern of tissue utilisation of acetate spares glucose for other vital metabolic functions (Ricks and Cook 1981a).ACS is the first committed step in acetate oxidation which is a major source of energy for milk synthesis. Also, in the ruminant mammary gland, ACS is the first committed step in fatty acid synthesis. The activity of ACS is marginal in a dry gland, increases to peak lactation and then declines in activity as lactation advances (Marinez et al 1976). In rat mammary gland, ACC is generally considered to be the first committed step in fatty acid synthesis (Ponce-Castaneda et al 1991). Acetyl-CoA in rat mammary tissue is from glucose via the ATP citrate lyase reaction and this source of acetyl-CoA is generally considered to be relatively constant.Since we find multiple forms of ACS mRNA, acetyl-CoA synthetase could be regulated by tissue-specific promoters. This would explain why the enzyme is active in heart (three forms of mRNA) but not liver (one form of mRNA). Also, there may be an alternative promoter in the mammary gland that is activated by nutrition and/or physiological state. However, tissue specific alternative splicing mechanisms for acyl-CoA synthetases that produce protein isoforms specific for individual fatty acids cannot be ruled out at this point. Understanding regulation of ACS is critical because the reaction catalysed by this enzyme is the initial step in fatty acid synthesis and acetate oxidation in ruminants.It is important to target other genes regulating metabolism. In ruminants, this endeavour is in its infancy (Bergen et al 1995). However, the genomic regulation of protein and fat deposition promises to be the next advance in food producing animals. The genes encoding fatty acid synthase and calpastatin are of current interest and a knowledge of their regulation can provide better methods to regulate nutrient composition and tenderness of meat products.In summary, there are several chemical methods available to regulate the rumen ecosystem such that end-products of feed fermentation can be altered to improve growth and fattening or milk production. A knowledge of the mechanism of action of these chemicals at the molecular level will provide new and better methods to regulate the rumen ecosystem. However, this is just one aspect of improving feed utilisation by ruminants. A knowledge of utilisation of rumen fermentation products by extraruminal tissue is paramount if improved efficiency in food producing animals is to be achieved. This will require detailed knowledge of the regulation of genes important in substrate utilisation. Also, the availability of probes for these important genes will provide additional opportunities for genetic modification of ruminants using marker-assisted selection programmes.Limitations to ruminant production include poorly digestible fibrous plant material, nitrogen losses and toxic compounds present in the feed. In tropical and arid regions, these limitations can be so great as to become critical to the survival of ruminant animals in that environment. The fibre content of many tropical grasses is high and digestibility of the feed is low compared with improved Mediterranean-type pastures (McMeniman et al 1981). Feed supplements are often unavailable or expensive. Anti-nutritive components are also very prevalent in tropical plants and these restrict the forage range for domestic livestock. Many of these limitations may be overcome, or at least alleviated by manipulation of rumen microbial populations.The rumen can be manipulated in two fundamental ways: firstly by the application of genetic techniques to modify the functional capacity of specific bacterial species; secondly, through modification of rumen ecology by introducing novel bacterial species or by selectively enhancing populations of existing species.Considerable advances have been made in developing techniques for the genetic manipulation of rumen bacteria and the predominant species have been transformed, albeit at low frequencies in some cases. Various plasmid vectors have been designed, and for some species such as Streptococcus, recombination of genes into the chromosome of the host has been demonstrated. Recombinant strains of rumen bacteria expressing various foreign genes have been produced and some recombinant strains have been returned to the rumen and have been shown to persist in the absence of direct selection.Modification of microbial ecology by population control has also been demonstrated to be an effective way to improve rumen function. Lactic acidosis in feedlot animals can be controlled by ruminal inoculation of lactate-utilising bacteria. Tannin toxicity can be alleviated and productivity of animals browsing tannin-containing tropical shrubs has been enhanced by the cross inoculation of rumen fluid from wild to domestic ruminants.There is now ample evidence that animal production, especially in marginal areas, can be improved by manipulation of the rumen. Further work on the isolation of novel bacterial species (Brooker et al 1994) and genes that may be transferred between bacterial species will be valuable additions to studies on animal nutrition that will ultimately lead to increased productivity in domestic ruminants in tropical and arid regions.Bacterial strains used were E. coli K12, strain DB11 (B. White, University of Illinois, USA) and S. bovis strain WI-1 (a local ruminal isolate). Plasmid pMU1328 was obtained from B. Davidson, Melbourne University, Australia. All subcloning and plasmid manipulation steps were carried out using pUC19. E. coli was grown in LB medium. S. bovis WI-1 was grown in nutrient medium (YTGS) containing 5 g yeast extract, 15 g trypticase, 10 g glucose and 15 g starch per litre of water. S. bovis WI-1::Tn916 was obtained by conjugation between Enterococcus faecalis::Tn916 and S. bovis WI-1 (Brooker and Lum 1993). Transformation of E. coli and S. bovis was by electroporation using the Biorad Gene Pulser under conditions previously described (Whitehead 1992) except that cells were grown to A 660 of 0.8, washed in sterile distilled water and suspended in 10% glycerol. Most genetic techniques are as described by Sambrook et al (1989).Anaerobic medium was prepared by boiling for 5 min then bubbling with O 2 -free CO 2 (passed over copper turnings at 300°C) for 15 min. Solutions were dispensed into Hungate tubes or 100 ml crimp-top bottles under CO 2 before autoclaving. Media were stored in a Coy anaerobic hood under an atmosphere of 95% CO 2 and 5% H 2 .Virginiamycin (Stafac 500) was kindly supplied by Dr. J.B. Rowe (University of New England, Australia).A Bioflow IIC microprocessor-controlled laboratory scale fermenter (New Brunswick Scientific Co., Inc.) with a 600 ml working volume was used to develop an in vitro model for acidosis. The pH was maintained at 6.0 by the automatic pumping of either 1 M HCl or 1 M KOH and the fermenter was sparged at a rate of 20 ml/min with CO 2 and N 2 gases in a ratio of 3:1. The temperature was maintained at 39°C. Cultures were mixed continuously at 100 rpm for pure culture studies and at 50 rpm for crude rumen fluid incubations.Twelve three-to four-year-old merino wethers and two female domestic angora goats were treated with a broad-spectrum anthelmintic (Valbazen: Smith Kline and French, Australia) and placed in individual metabolism cages. During the first seven days, the animals were allowed to acclimatise to their surroundings and were fed 1 kg lucerne pellets daily. Thereafter Acacia (mulga) was harvested daily from trees 4-6 m in height, the leaves were separated as described by McMeniman et al (1981) and fed ad libitum at 0800 h each morning.Two days after commencing the mulga diet the first of four ten-day metabolism studies (period 1) was conducted. Daily urine and faeces output were measured and samples were collected and bulked for N analysis. Daily dry matter intake (DMI) was measured and liveweight (LW) change was recorded periodically. The second metabolism study (period 2) commenced 25 days after starting the mulga diet.Various vectors have been designed for rumen bacteria. Some of these are based on endogenous plasmids, e.g. pJDB216 for Selenomonas ruminantium (Attwood and Brooker 1992). Others are based on compatible plasmids from other bacterial species, e.g. pBS42 from Bacillus subtilis that functions in Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens. Transformation systems have been developed for several ruminal species. This work has now been extended to the development of a recombination system to insert foreign genes directly into the host chromosome.To develop an expression vector capable of mediating expression of foreign genes in Streptococcus spp, firstly we cloned the non-secreted α-amylase gene from S. bovis into E. coli (DB11). The gene was isolated from a pUC19 plasmid library by screening for starch degradation on nutrient agar plates using the iodine reaction to localise positive colonies. The cloned DNA was mapped and 500 bp of the DNA was sequenced and compared with previously published data. The gene corresponded to that recently described in S. bovis by T.R. Whitehead (personal communication). Using PCR primers, constructed so that a synthetic HindIII site was present on either end, the promoter region and ribosomal binding site for the gene was synthesised. The promoter fragment was cloned in pMU1328 and sequenced to verify its structure and orientation. This fragment has been placed in the mcs of the suicide vector, pJDB9 to drive expression of new genes inserted nearby. Genes to be expressed include a β-1,4-endoglucanase, xylanase, tannin acyl hydrolase and pea albumin.Plasmid pMU1328 was digested with PstI to delete the streptococcal replicon (ori-S), self ligated and electroporated into E. coli DB11. This plasmid, pJDB9, was isolated from single recombinant colonies and mapped. The ori-S deletion was confirmed although a minor rearrangement involving inversion of the ori-C-containing fragment had also occurred (Figure 1). This rearrangement appeared to have no adverse effect on subsequent manipulations.To construct a vector capable of integration into the S. bovis WI-1::Tn916 chromosome, we inserted a PCR-generated 0.47 kb fragment of transposon Tn916 into the multiple cloning site of pJDB9. This was achieved by cloning the tet M-containing 4.8 kb Hinc II fragment of Tn916 into the Sma I site of pUC19 to form pJDB4.8. A 0.47 kb fragment of the tet M gene, between nucleotides 70 and 540, was PCR amplified using primers synthesised from the published sequence (Burdett 1990) but with an EcoRI restriction site added to each end. The fragment was digested with EcoRI and inserted into the EcoRI site of pJDB9 to form pJDB0.5 (Figure 1).To establish homologous recombination of pJDB0.5 in S. bovis WI-1::Tn916, cells were electroporated with pJDB0.5 and the cells were then incubated for various times on agar containing 5 mg/ml erythromycin. Plasmids pJDB9 and pMU1328 were electroporated into S. bovis WI-1 cells as controls. S. bovis WI-1 cells were only transformed by pMU1328. S. bovis WI-1::Tn916 cells were transformed by pJDB0.5 and pMU1328; pJDB9 failed to transform either host. Erythromycin resistant S. bovis WI-1::Tn916 transformants generated with pJDB0.5 were tetracycline sensitive, consistent with integration of pJDB0.5 into the tet M target site. pMU1328 transformants of S. bovis WI-1::Tn916 were resistant to both erythromycin and tetracycline. The frequency of recombination was estimated to be 3 × 10 -8 /cell.To demonstrate chromosomal integration of pJDB0.5, total DNA from recombinant S. bovis WI-1::Tn916 was digested with Bgl II or Pvu I, enzymes for which there are no sites within pMU1328 or the tet M gene, and analysed by gel electrophoresis and Southern blot. A single high molecular weight (> 23 kb) band was observed that hybridised with pMU1328-specific probe, and, after washing and reprobing, with the tet M-specific probe. Control S. bovis WI-1::Tn916 DNA hybridised with the tet M-specific probe but not pMU1328.To examine the organisation of the integrated DNA, chromosomal DNA from two S. bovis WI-1::Tn916 recombinants, JDB-2 and JDB-3, was digested with HindIII, EcoRI or HindIII + EcoRI. Fragments were analysed by gel electrophoresis and Southern blot using radiolabelled pMU1328 as a probe. The results (Figure 2) show that in each digest, several positive bands were detected, and in the single digests, one band in each track displayed a stronger hybridisation signal than the other bands and was the same size as the original linearised plasmid. The same pattern was observed for both recombinants tested.Due to regeneration of the Tn916 target sequence during homologous recombination of pJDB0.5, spontaneous excision of the vector sequence may occur in the absence of erythromycin selection. To assess the stability of recombinants, a culture of JDB-2 was passaged for approximately 100 generations in the absence of erythromycin. Analysis  of total and erythromycin-resistant viable cell counts showed that even after extensive passaging in the absence of selection, between 75 and 84% of total viable cells still maintained the pMU1328 em r sequence.Acidosis in ruminants is caused by rapid fermentation of cereal starch and the production of excess lactic acid in the rumen. This can be avoided by slow adaptation to the cereal diet. During adaptation to this diet Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica was the predominant lactic acid utilising bacterium present. We therefore tested the effectiveness of a fresh isolate of this species to prevent the short-term development of acidosis when the animals were acutely fed with wheat rations.In control sheep, ruminal pH fell to 4.7 (P < 0.001) within 8 h of grain feeding and remained around this value for the duration of the experiment. In contrast, sheep inoculated with Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica strain JDB201 maintained a stable ruminal pH which did not drop below pH 6.3. Total ruminal VFA in control animals fell to less than 20 mM in 8 h and to less than 10 mM by 16 h. In inoculated animals, total ruminal VFA increased significantly (P < 0.001) from 50 to 92 mM within 8 h, but this value declined to 65 mM by 24 h. These changes in inoculated sheep were the result of a twofold increase in propionate and a fourfold increase in butyrate compared with a decrease in propionate and butyrate in control sheep (Table 1). In control sheep, ruminal lactate increased to 109 mM within 8 h of grain engorgement whereas lactate was undetectable in inoculated animals. Blood lactate concentrations were similar for both groups of animals and varied between 1.7 and 2.6 mM.Over the 24 h experimental period, sheep inoculated with Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica strain JDB201 appeared to suffer no ill effect from acutely administered grain whereas control sheep exhibited symptoms of physiological distress, diarrhoea, listlessness and lack of appetite. However, in treated sheep, if grain feeding was continued past 24 h without further bacterial treatment, symptoms of acidosis (distress, lack of appetite) became evident. At the completion of the 24 h experiment, inoculated sheep immediately resumed normal feeding on the original lucerne diet, whereas control sheep took another 3 days before they resumed feeding.Since Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica was only effective in controlling acidosis for 24 h, we tested a combination of Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica and Megasphaera elsdenii. To help monitor the introduced bacteria in one of the three treated sheep, the bacterial inoculum was contained within a dialysis bag with a pore size of approximately 10,000 Daltons. Control sheep were not tested beyond one day to avoid acute acidosis in these animals.Within one day of intraruminal administration of wheat slurry, ruminal pH in control sheep decreased from 6.0 to 4.6. In contrast, all inoculated sheep maintained a ruminal pH (P < 0.05) greater than 5.5 throughout the four-day experiment. Grain administration also significantly (P < 0.05) elevated the ruminal L-lactic acid concentration of control sheep from 0 to 99.0 mM within 24 h. In inoculated sheep, L-lactic acid remained at less than 1 mM for at least four days. Total VFA values were greater than 100 mM in all animals before administration of grain. Within one day of grain feeding, total VFA values in control sheep fell sharply to 21 mM. In animals inoculated with Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica strain JDB201 and M. elsdenii strain JDB301, total VFA decreased transiently to 65-73 mM and then increased to greater than 80 mM.In a continuous culture experiment in vitro, S. bovis was grown to produce lactic acid. The effectiveness of Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica strain JDB201 and M. elsdenii strain JDB 301 in controlling lactic acid accumulation was then tested, and contrasted with the effect of administering 0.75 µg/ml of virginiamycin.In a control culture of S. bovis, when starch was added to the medium, lactic acid concentration increased rapidly from 13 mM to 35 mM within 4 h and reached 48 mM by 8 h. When an established culture of S. bovis was inoculated with Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica strain JDB201, lactic acid increased to 60 mM within 24 hr. In contrast, when an established culture of S. bovis was inoculated with M. elsdenii strain JDB301, the lactic acid concentration was reduced by 65% to less than 20 mM. A combination of Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica strain JDB201 and M. elsdenii strain JDB301 was not as effective as M. elsdenii alone. In S. bovis cultures treated with 0.75 µg/ml of virginiamycin alone, lactic acid accumulation was prevented for up to 12 h, but by 24 h lactate levels had increased to the level of the untreated controls. In cultures treated with Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica strain JDB201 plus virginiamycin or M. elsdenii strain JDB301 plus virginiamycin, the concentration of lactic acid in the mixed cultures was reduced by 50% and > 90% of untreated controls respectively and remained at these levels for at least 24 h.The combination of virginiamycin and M. elsdenii strain JDB301 was tested for its ability to control lactic acid accumulation for up to three days in strained crude rumen fluid cultures incubated in the presence of soluble starch. Starch was added 12 h before the antibiotic/bacteria combination. At 24 h (12 h after introduction of virginiamycin and bacteria), lactic acid in treated cultures was approximately 20% of that in the control. However, by 36 h lactate had increased threefold and by 72 h was 30 mM compared with 50 mM in the controls. When the combination of virginiamycin and M. elsdenii strain JDB301 was introduced at 12 and again at 36 h, lactate concentrations remained below 15 mM for the duration of the experiment. Surprisingly, a combination of Sel. ruminantium subsp lactilytica strain JDB201, M. elsdenii strain JDB301 and virginiamycin administered together at 12 and 36 h was the most effective treatment and the concentration of lactate in the fermenter never exceeded 5 mM.Feral goats thrive on a diet of Acacia (mulga) containing up to 14% by weight of condensed tannin. Domestic ruminants do not do so well. Metabolism studies were carried out on sheep inoculated with feral goat rumen fluid (FGRF) and fed a diet of mulga. Crude protein and CT levels of mulga leaf for the four measurement periods in this experiment were 142, 139, 146 and 141 g/kg and 139, 124, 120, 120 g/kg, respectively.During the dietary adaptation stage of the experiment, N digestibility was significantly less efficient (P < 0.05) during period 2 than during period 1. No differences were apparent in DMI, N balance or DMD. Similarly, there were no differences between the two periods with any of the parameters measured in the domestic goats.Following administration of FGRF, inoculated sheep had measurably higher DMI, N balance and N digestibility values in both post-inoculation periods compared with the pre-inoculation periods (Table 2). N digestibility was significantly higher during the ten days immediately following inoculation (period 3 ver. period 2). This increase was sustained in period 4 and was accompanied by significant increases in DMI and N balance compared to periods 2 and 3. Weight loss was reduced following inoculation. Dry matter digestibility did not change significantly during dietary adaptation or following FGRF inoculation. Over the test period, the untreated sheep lost approximately 40% more weight than the treated sheep. This provided inoculated sheep with a weight advantage of approximately 2.5 kg over the uninoculated sheep at the end of the experimental period.Domestic goats inoculated with FGRF also exhibited increased N digestibility (P < 0.05) and DMI. N balance increased six-fold. Mean DMI, N balance and N digestibility for feral goats consuming mulga were 496 (SED = 60.8) g/day, 0.75 (SED = 0.580) g/day and 544 (SED = 62.9) g/kg respectively. For both sheep and goats, in vitro rumen fluid gas production increased following inoculation. This increase was significant (P < 0.05) for sheep.Both inoculated groups of sheep grew more wool per unit area than the uninoculated group for three of the four periods. However, these differences were not significant. Providing a mineral supplement to the inoculated sheep produced a slight non-significant beneficial effect, reducing the rate of wool growth decline. Linear wool growth did not differ significantly between treatments.Fractionation of FGRF into individual bacterial colonies on tannic acid containing plates revealed relatively few different species. One of these, subsequently named S. caprinus, was capable of growth in up to 3% w/v tannic acid and promotes the hydrolysis of protein-tannin complexes in vitro. The related species, S. bovis was sensitive to less than 0.5% w/v tannic acid. S. caprinus is now known to be widespread amongst animals browsing tannin-rich feed, but not to be normally present in domestic livestock. Another bacterium, possibly a selenomonad, expressed tannin acyl hydrolase activity and could utilise condensed tannin or tannic acid as a sole carbon source. We are currently cloning the tannin acyl hydrolase gene for possible transfer and expression in other rumen bacteria.Vectors for transformation and recombination in several different species of rumen bacteria have been designed and tested. A plasmid vector for gene expression in S. bovis has been developed, using the promoter sequence from α-amylase to drive new genes ligated nearby. We have also described the construction of a suicide vector that integrates in a site-specific manner into S. bovis WI-1::Tn916. Recombination into the S. bovis chromosome was only observed when pJDB0.5 was introduced into S. bovis WI-1::Tn916. As no erythromycin resistant transformants were obtained with S. bovis WI-1, it can be concluded that the plasmid is unable to replicate in this host and requires the presence of the chromosomal copy of Tn916 to provide a site for homologous recombination. Screening is unequivocal because integration inactivates the host M gene, as well as permitting expression of the vector-borne antibiotic resistance marker. The patterns from the Southern blot indicate that twp copies of the plasmid were integrated into the chromosome. Since there were two copies of the transposon integrated (Brooker and Lum 1993), this could mean that each transposon sequence was interrupted by integration of the plasmid. This result is also in keeping with the loss of tetracycline resistance. These results clearly demonstrate that expression of foreign genes in rumen bacteria can now be achieved for some species, and is likely to be achieved for others in due course. Limitations such as restriction barriers, nuclease activity and extracellular polysaccharide can be overcome. It is now possible to examine the effect of introducing and over-expressing genes such as cellulases, tannases and proteases on microbial ecology, competitiveness and function in the rumen.The introduction of microbial populations into the rumen can effect animal productive performance. Ruminal inoculation with lactic acid utilising bacterial species has been shown to prevent accumulation of lactic acid and thereby reduce the possibility of acidosis occurring in acutely grain-fed ruminants. The effect was sustainable for at least four days and suggests that this may provide an alternate treatment for acidosis than use of ionophores or antibiotics. The results show that at least two different bacterial species were required. This is a consequence of different metabolic directions. Under appropriate conditions, S. ruminantium grows rapidly but ferments glucose to produce lactic acid. M. elsdenii utilises lactic acid although it is slower growing. The combination of bacteria is required to maintain a reasonable growth rate and deal with lactic acid as it is synthesised.Condensed tannins inhibit the viability and growth of many different species of microorganism (McLeod 1974). Evidence now suggests that microorganisms present in crude rumen samples from tannin-adapted animals are transferable to non-adapted ruminants to tolerate the tannins, provide microbial biomass and improve digestibility of tannin-containing forage. The results from these experiments also indicate that one organism is not sufficient and that a consortium of several different microbial species is involved in vivo.Overall, these results support the view that effective manipulation of the rumen may be achieved by genetic engineering, but population control is a practical and effective alternative. This approach has certain advantages over the genetic route, including the ability to utilise the abilities of a consortium of bacteria rather than having to rely on an individual species. In the two cases above, effective control of an anti-nutritive situation was only achieved by a mixed bacterial population.In contrast, genetic manipulation of individual species does provide opportunities for the substantial enhancement of bacterial activity and the ready transfer of the technology to other ruminants. There are advantages and disadvantages of both approaches. Notwithstanding this, manipulation of the rumen ecosystem is achievable by various routes, and will hopefully lead to increased ruminant productivity, particularly in marginal areas.Biotechnology is finding its way into many areas of agriculture and animal production through feed and crop plants, through the genetic pool of animals, and through manipu-lation of microbes that influence the growth and development of both animals and plants. The direct genetic manipulation of microbes that inhabit the rumen has been proposed as a possible mechanism for enhancing animal production, although progress in this area has been slow. Nevertheless, the application of molecular biological techniques is beginning to contribute to our understanding of the rumen through the precise methods now available for making in vivo observations. Molecular techniques now allow individual micro-organisms to be tracked in the rumen, identification of organisms by genetic criteria is rapidly becoming an essential part of taxonomy, and 'tagging' bacteria with genetic markers has greatly facilitated studies of their populations in vivo (Gregg et al 1993).As studies of ruminal ecology become more precise, the contribution of biotechnology methods to animal production will become continually more significant. However, in the specific area of rumen bacterial genetic manipulation, the most significant developments are very recent and have so far made little impact upon how this technology is regarded. There has been considerable reservation about the contributions that can be made by manipulating the genetics of rumen bacteria (Armstrong and Gilbert 1985;Egan et al 1992) and the basis for this reservation includes at least four areas of concern. 1. Genetic manipulation of rumen bacteria has not been demonstrated as a reproducible and reliable technique. 2. Bacteria grown in the laboratory are unlikely to retain their competitive features and are unlikely to return successfully to the rumen. 3. Genetic changes to bacteria are likely to impair their competitive fitness, particularly if the changes do not directly benefit the bacterium itself. 4. Addition of an artificially manipulated bacterium to the rumen may upset the balance of the rumen, with detrimental effects on the host animal. In the absence of data to the contrary, these are all reasonable reservations. However, data are now being accumulated to indicate that, at least in some cases, these difficulties may have been overestimated.There are now several systems by which new genetic material can be introduced into rumen bacteria as plasmids (e.g. Beard et al 1995;Cocconcelli et al 1992;Thomson et al 1992). During the past ten years many different approaches have been made to the transformation of rumen bacteria, and most have shown very limited success. The technique that has proven generally useful for inserting new DNA is that of electroporation. This process uses an electrical pulse to generate openings in the cell wall, through which DNA can enter (Dower et al 1988). Combining this with plasmids originating from the bacterial species to be modified has led to at least two of the more successful processes reported (Beard et al 1995;Thomson et al 1992).Methods that successfully achieve plasmid insertion do not necessarily provide evidence of successful genetic manipulation because there remain complications in making and transferring plasmid/gene constructs. It has been our experience that the feasibility of adding any particular new gene to a bacterium can only be assessed empirically, even with a stable and efficient vector system. As a primary example, the usefulness and stability of the transformation system described by Beard et al (1995) for inserting genes of practical benefit into B. fibrisolvens is described below. Some aspects of that example demonstrate unexpected contradictions of the results predicted from basic biological and ecological principles.The ability of B. fibrisolvens strain AR10 to colonise the rumen after several years storage in a laboratory has been described previously (Gregg et al 1993). Strain AR10 was isolated originally from a sheep and had been shown, through a survey of 71 animals from 14 grazing properties, to be absent from the Central Queensland region of Australia. Figure 1 shows data from an experiment in which 5 cows out of a herd of 40, on unimproved tropical pastures at one of the properties previously tested, were inoculated with strain AR10. There was rapid spread through the herd (19 out of the 24 animals tested showing easily detectable levels of AR10 after 28 days post-inoculation). In Cattle at PastureThe conclusion from this work is that bacteria isolated and cultured in the laboratory can retain their ability to cope with rumen conditions.A more important test for recolonisation of the rumen is to examine the ability of a bacterium to which genetic changes have been made in the laboratory to return successfully to the rumen. Strain E14 of B. fibrisolvens was obtained from a reindeer and provided to our laboratory by Dr C. Orpin. This strain had been 'tagged' by the addition of a tetracycline resistance gene using transposon Tn916 by Dr J. Brooker (Waite Institute, South Australia). E14 was inoculated into the rumens of four sheep in the UNE animal house and rumen samples were tested over a period of seven weeks by plating dilutions on selective plates. Colonies that grew on the plates were tested by DNA hybridisation, at high stringency, with genomic DNA from E14. The levels observed in individual animals fluctuated significantly, sometimes falling below detectable levels (10 3 cells/ml rumen fluid). On average, however, E14 was detectable in all four animals at an average density between 10 6 -10 7 cells/ml (Figure 2).The fluctuation of bacterial populations from day to day was observed in both of these experiments, but it was not possible to be certain whether it arose from genuine population changes or from sampling variability.  Experiments described by Russell and Wilson (1988) indicated that bacteria carrying a plasmid grew approximately 30% slower than the same strain without the plasmid. It can be reasonably proposed that sustaining an additional genetic load could impede the population growth of an organism, especially under conditions in which competition for nutrients is high. However, experiments comparing the population growth of bacteria with and without a multicopy plasmid have demonstrated that harbouring a novel plasmid that has no survival benefit to the bacterium need not necessarily reduce its population growth (Gregg et al 1993;Figure 3). It is important to note, however, that this experiment was performed in vitro and did not address the question of direct competition for nutrients against other, non-plasmid-bearing strains.The concern that a modified bacterium could upset the ruminal balance, leading to other (undefined) problems, may be allayed somewhat by recent findings in rumen bacterial  taxonomy. It has been shown that phenotypically defined 'species' may actually comprise multiple, distantly related, or even unrelated, genetic groups. Such genetic diversity has been demonstrated for B. fibrisolvens (Hudman and Gregg 1989;Mannarelli 1988), Prevotella ruminicola (Hudman and Gregg 1989) and Ruminococcus albus (Ware et al 1989). Thus it has been known for some time that, although a 'species' such as B. fibrisolvens may represent 10% of the ruminal population, any individual 'strain' is more likely to represent 0.1-1.0%. This is consistent with the population levels observed for strains that have been specifically tracked in the rumen (Gregg et al 1993). The prospect of replacing, for example, 10-20% of the rumen population with a genetically modified organism is bound to raise suggestions of major ruminal disruption. However, it is now clear that modification of one or a few rumen bacteria is not likely to effect this proportion of the total microbial population. It now appears that to alter 10% of the ruminal population will require the manipulation of many individual genetic strains. While providing a possible ameliorating factor for one aspect of this technology, this generates a perhaps equally difficult question, i.e. whether the relatively small contribution made by a single bacterial strain can provide significant biochemical effect for a modified bacterium to influence the biology of the host animal. Discussion on this point (Gregg and Ware 1990) has offered the suggestion that the effectiveness of genetic manipulation will depend to some extent upon the nature of the changes that are attempted.Therefore, some of the reservations about rumen bacterial manipulation have been addressed and the evidence indicates that the system need not be constrained by these factors, although it remains likely that they will have relevance to a proportion of cases. The work described here addresses some of the final reservations, constituting a model system for rumen bacterial genetic manipulation.Our recent work has been directed towards practical goals for solving problems in ruminant production. In doing so, it has also addressed the questions of how stable genetic modifications to rumen bacteria may be, and how the ability of the bacterium to survive ruminal competition may be affected. These questions became very important in a project that has attempted to protect ruminants against poisoning by fluoroacetate.The compound monofluoroacetate is highly toxic to aerobic organisms, being converted metabolically to fluorocitrate which blocks the action of the enzyme aconitase (Elliot and Kalnitsky 1950). This toxin occurs naturally in at least 40 species of trees and shrubs in Australia and for many years has been known to be a problem in Africa (Marais 1943) andCentral America (DeOliveira 1963). Livestock may be killed in large numbers by the toxic trees, depending to some extent upon seasonal conditions (McCosker 1989).The problem of livestock poisoning occurs despite the existence of widespread capabilities for microbial degradation of the toxin. Many soil organisms are capable of defluorinating the compound to produce glycolate, and of using this as a carbohydrate nutrient. Perhaps because the toxin acts upon aerobic metabolism and because it has poor nutritive value under anaerobic conditions, the microbes of the rumen do not appear to have acquired the same defluorinating capability as their counterparts in the soil (Gregg and Sharpe 1991).The soil organism Moraxella spp. strain B has high activity for dehalogenating fluorinated and chlorinated compounds (Kawasaki et al 1981). A gene encoding the enzyme fluoroacetate dehalogenase (haloacetate halidohydrolase, EC 3.8.1.3) has been cloned and sequenced (Kawasaki et al 1984(Kawasaki et al , 1992)). We repeated the cloning and sequencing after obtaining the bacterium from Prof H. Kawasaki (Osaka University) to examine the DNA regions responsible for regulation of the gene. It was shown that the dehalogenase gene was the second open reading frame (ORF2) in an operon, with the gene promoter approximately 1.4 kilobase pairs (kb) upstream (Figure 4). Removal of ORF1 and attachment of a different gene promoter demonstrated that ORF2 was sufficient for fluoroacetate detoxification.The dehalogenase gene (H1) was isolated and spliced to a gene promoter from the erythromycin resistance gene (erm r ) of broad host range plasmid pAMβ1 (LeBlanc and Lee 1984) using polymerase chain reaction (Yulov and Zabara 1990). The chimaeric gene was then attached to plasmid pBHerm for transfer to B. fibrisolvens strain OB156 (Figure 5). The erm r gene within plasmid pBHerm allowed transformed bacteria to be selected on culture plates containing erythromycin (Gregg et al 1994).The genetically modified OB156 was shown to produce dehalogenase enzyme with activity of 10 nmol/min per milligramme of bacterial protein, which was calculated to be sufficient to make a significant decrease in toxicity to the host ruminant, provided the bacterium survived return to the rumen. The stability of this plasmid-bearing organism was tested by growth for 500 generations in culture medium without the selective antibiotic. After each 100 generations, cells were plated onto duplicate selective and non-selective plates. No difference was observed between bacterial numbers on the two media and it was concluded that no loss of plasmid occurred within the cultures.To examine the competitive ability of this organism in the rumen, it was inoculated into the rumens of two sheep, together with an unmodified strain of B. fibrisolvens (AR10) and two strains of P. ruminicola (AR20 and AR29). Over the following 149 days, the animal's diet was changed several times to encourage competition between rumen microbes and samples were removed for estimation of bacterial numbers.Bacteria were detected by polymerase chain reaction amplification of part of their chromosome (Figure 6) and densitometer scanning gel photographs to quantitate PCR product formation (Figure 7). Plasmid within the modified strain was also tracked by PCR of plasmid sequences. The results of this test showed: 1. That all four strains recolonised the rumen and remained present for the full test period. This confirmed that the ability to recolonise the rumen is common in laboratory strains and that the genetically modified bacterium was not significantly disadvantaged by its modification. 2. The levels detected for each organism fluctuated independently of the others, indicating that variation in bacterial numbers seen in previous experiments was probably genuine fluctuation, and not the result of sampling variability. 3. The plasmid detection reactions showed that levels of plasmid and host bacterium co-varied, indicating that the plasmid was not transferred to other organisms at any detectable level. This was predicted, since pBHerm is a non-conjugative plasmid.The results also indicate that there was no significant loss of plasmid from the OB156 population. 4. Plasmid was extracted from bacteria after they were recovered from the rumen and was shown to be structurally unchanged.This work proved that the genetic manipulation of rumen bacteria is feasible. Most importantly, the altered bacteria were shown to be competitive in the rumen, colonising to the same extent as three other strains that were tracked over the same period. Diet was shown to influence population levels, as expected, and the competition for nutrients under poor dietary conditions did not appear to disadvantage the modified bacterium. Examination of the sheep during the trial period by a veterinarian confirmed that there was no change in the animals' health, apart from the predicted effects of feeding a diet of ground wheat straw for about a week.It is now clear that rumen bacteria can be genetically modified; the modification can be stable even when carried on a plasmid; carrying plasmid does not necessarily disadvantage the bacterium energetically; laboratory-grown bacteria can recolonise the rumen; and genetically modified bacteria can do so as efficiently as their unmodified counterparts.These observations will not necessarily apply to other genetically modified organisms that may be constructed. Each example must be tested individually before these features can be assumed. However, this work has shown that predictions based upon basic biological principles cannot substitute for testing the case empirically.It is interesting that this modification appears stable when the dehalogenase gene confers no known advantage to the bacterium. Rationally, this represents a 'most likely to be lost' case for genetic manipulation. It appears, therefore, that the need for a modification to be useful to the modified organism is secondary in importance to the inherent stability of the plasmid or whichever other gene transfer system is used. There is currently no proven explanation for the ability of a bacterium to stably maintain a genetic feature from which it gains no direct benefit. However, we can propose that this ability stems from the fact that each bacterium maintains about 1000 genes, some of which are constitutively expressed. During the natural changes of conditions that occur within the rumen, some of these genes will inevitably be of no immediate benefit to the organism at one stage or another. If there were serious disadvantages to the bacterium in this situation, then many strains could be lost from the rumen during relatively minor changes in ruminal conditions. Our dietary change tests were for limited periods only, but indicate that the loss of bacterial strains that could be caused by such change may be more likely to occur when dietary conditions vary over much longer periods.While the efficiency and viability of ruminant production is important to the economies of some industrialised countries, the importance for developing nations with less overseas purchasing power are more far-reaching. Where ruminants fill essential needs for food, fibre and draught power, improvements in production and maintenance efficiency contribute directly to the living standards of a high proportion of the population. Much of the nutritional improvement possible through supplementation or processing of animal feed may be difficult to implement in these situations. It is vital, therefore, that improvements in ruminant production should make maximum use of the feed sources currently or potentially available, rather than depend on adding new elements that need to be purchased.Where a high proportion of animal feed is the residue from grain or other staple crops, digestibility is frequently the limiting factor in ruminant production. In those cases where cash crops (e.g. cocoa) leave residues with feed potential, there may be serious limitations created by the secondary compounds present in that material. There may be considerable value, therefore, in systems that help in fibre breakdown or that detoxify anti-nutritive factors.The capability of genetic manipulation to make rumen microbes digest plant fibres more efficiently remains to be proven. For this aim, there may be greater and more immediate gain in examining how different feed plants can be combined to supplement each other and optimise microbial growth and nutrient yield within the rumen. Microbes isolated from the fermentative organs of non-domestic animals (e.g. giraffes, camels, leaf-eating monkeys, etc.) may be directly adaptable if they are able to colonise domestic ruminants. In our laboratory we have shown that bacteria from sheep (strain AR10) will successfully colonise cattle. A strain of B. fibrisolvens from reindeer (strain E14) has successfully colonised both sheep and cattle and OB156 from a Canadian white-tail deer successfully colonised sheep. These three cases are the only ones we have tested to date, but all have been successful, suggesting that they are unlikely to be atypical. Attempts to transfer microbes between animal species will be facilitated by the precise molecular methods now available to track individual organisms within complex mixtures. Without precise and quantitative tracking systems, the effectiveness of any particular organism cannot be clearly demonstrated.The potential for removing or inactivating toxins and anti-nutrients by genetic engineering of rumen bacteria has been strongly supported by the fluoroacetate case. The ease with which this approach may be applied will depend upon the complexity of reactions required for detoxification. Fluoroacetate represents the simplest system, with a single toxin inactivated by a single enzyme encoded by a single gene. The detoxification by non-oxidative means was also important for this process to be functional in the rumen. Effective removal of the goitrogen from Leucaena leucocephala (Jones and Megarrity 1986) by a bacterium that grows to only 10 5 cells/ml (C. Orpin, personal communication) indicates that a small number of modified strains should be sufficient to perform detoxification reactions. Modification of only a single strain might be expected to have variable success, because of the population fluctuations seen in our monitoring work. However, this may turn out, like some of the other predictions about this work, to be overly pessimistic. Trials to test this aspect of the fluoroacetate work are currently in progress.The development of molecular mechanisms for ruminant studies, including methods for microbial strain identification, estimation of population numbers and measurement of changes, has now reached a stage where less affluent nations should be able to benefit from them. Future research will indicate which of the possible applications for genetic manipulation of rumen bacteria are likely to be successful. However, judgement of which technologies will truly benefit the developing economies remains difficult, and the subject of much conflict of opinion. If agencies assisting the developing nations are to adopt this technology, then it should preferably be for the solution of problems that are well defined.Terms of reference 1. Which are the potential research areas in rumen ecology? 2. Among these areas, which would be the preferred research areas for ILRI? a) What are the comparative advantages for ILRI in each area? b) Which areas require collaboration between ILRI and other institutions? 3. For the areas identified to be potential ILRI research areas, which are the resource needs? The group identified the following ten research areas pertaining to rumen manipulation. 1. Fibre breakdown 2. Adhesion to fibre particles 3. Anti-nutritional factors 4. Protein breakdown 5. Microbial protein production 6. Variation in microflora/microfauna 7. Methane production 8. Defaunation 9. Feed characteristics 10. Interactions between rumen microbesIt was established that given the global mandate of the institute, the research areas to suggest for ILRI's agenda in rumen manipulation should have a broad applicability. One role of ILRI in these areas should be the development of tools robust enough to be used successfully by the national research systems of developing countries (NARS).It was agreed that this is an important problem that could be addressed either by improving the environmental conditions that facilitate fibre digestion, by promoting the establishment of fungi or by genetic engineering. Several felt that in the short term the manipulation of the microbial population is more likely to succeed than the high-tech approach.Several participants felt that the data presented in the workshop on the role of fungi in fibre digestion encourage the inclusion of this group of rumen micro-organisms in the research agenda.One topic mentioned as researchable was the process of digestion as the fibre becomes more lignified. There was a suggestion that the mechanisms involved in the improvement of fibre digestion through supplementation needs to be understood. However, there was also the recognition that the influence of supplementation on fibre breakdown could be addressed by NARS.There was a consensus that a main objective in this research area is the characterisation of indigenous microbes to identify superior fibrolytic strains. The approach suggested was the isolation and purification of strains. Superior strains could then be used in high-tech approaches. Some technical difficulties were identified (e.g. purity of CO 2 available in some countries, transport of microbes, etc.). However, it was considered that many of these difficulties could be overcome by involving NARS in the process of preparing the pure cultures and by using polymerase-chain reaction (PCR). Several NARS were identified as having capabilities for isolating microbes and preparing pure cultures.Participants agreed that attachment of bacteria to fibre particles is a requirement for fibre digestion and could be considered as an integrated part of the first research area. The problem of reduced fibre digestion when high levels of concentrate are used was discussed. There was a feeling that under these conditions there is no need for attachment because of preferential use of readily fermentable carbohydrates as substrate. The low pH can also affect the attachment of bacteria to fibre. It was mentioned that possibilities for manipulating microbial attachment need to be investigated. Finally it was concluded that adhesion was not a separate facet of fibre digestion and should not be addressed as a priority area.The group considered that the institute has some expertise in this area. There is a broad base of knowledge already available that needs to be transferred and put into practice. It was suggested that phenolics constitute the most important group of ANFs, but that there are many other types of compounds that have anti-nutritional effects. The detoxification of ANF and the breakdown of protein-tannin complexes were suggested as the main researchable problems related to ANF.One specific area of research considered during the group discussion was the screening for the presence of ANF factors in ILRI's germplasm bank, especially in multipurpose trees (MPTs). Several participants felt that the screening should be made at early stages in the process of evaluating the feed potential of promising trees. Gas release, VFA and microbial mass production in vitro, as well as bioassays with small animals (e.g. the field vole, mouse deer) were mentioned as possible screening criteria. However, several participants questioned the need for a rumen microbiologist in these activities. It was unclear how a microbiologist would fit in this project. It was argued that the microbiologist should be a problem solver. This would require the identification of a specific problem caused by ANF. In addition, the problem should have broad relevance (i.e. not local or site-specific problems). Feasibility for being solved through microbiological techniques was other requirement for its inclusion in ILRI's agenda.Several specific problems related to the utilisation of Acacia siberiana pods, Tagasaste, Calliandria and Tephrosa were mentioned as potential researchable issues. However, several participants felt that problems needing solution should be further and more clearly defined and should have a broader relevance. Chosen species should have a high feed potential and a wide distribution. The nature of the problem, i.e. the plant compound that causes the toxic effects, should first be identified and isolated. The causes of the anti-nutritional or toxic effects may well be at the systemic level and the solution might not be found through microbiological approaches. The possibility of a need of input from a toxicologist or a phytochemist to identify the nature of the problem was noted.There was consensus that possibilities for transferring indigenous micro-organisms from animals that have survived and adapted under the presence of specific ANFs in their diets to domesticated animals should be addressed. The input from the microbiologist would be the isolation and culture of the microbes that detoxify the targeted ANF.1. The feasibility for isolating and preparing pure cultures in NARS was revisited. There was concern that the technical skills required are relatively high. Therefore it might be difficult to find effective collaborating NARS in this area. Several participants felt that in general, with some basic training and the provision of some key materials not readily available in some countries, this should not be a major problem. 2. A framework for identifying research priorities was proposed. The framework was based on the nature of the constraints to livestock production, i.e. nutritional and non-nutritional factors. The latter (economic, social, political, disease, genetic factors) would influence the appropriateness of each potential nutritional solution proposed in a given farming system. The nutritional constraints were arranged in a matrix with the limiting factors on one axis and possible solutions on the other. It was suggested that rumen microbiologists had a potential contribution in the identification of which areas of the matrix could be focused on. 3. It was considered that the proposed activities on rumen ecology should be viewed as part of ILRI's feed utilisation programme. The group should focus on how expertise in rumen microbiology will contribute and enhance the relevance of the other research activities in this programme. It was suggested that a great deal of specificity or focus was needed to make reasonable progress in five years. A specific area that was suggested was the possibility for identifying natural defaunating agents. Others replied that such a topic would be the subject of a PhD thesis, rather than the core of a research programme. It was suggested that the feasibility of transferring defaunating technology either commercially or through trees grown on-farm should be considered. It might be possible that even if defaunating agents exist, the indigenous protozoans have developed a resistance to these agents.4. As the discussion on ANFs continued, the need for identifying the relative importance of ANFs (i.e. the farming systems, regions, seasons where they act as limiting factors), as well as the chemical nature and mechanisms of action was indicated.On the question of how much progress ILRI had made on these aspects, there was a response that there was some information on their effects, but the chemical characterisation would require the input of a phytochemist. 5. Among the ten research areas listed during the first group discussion, the priority areas for ILRI's research agenda were identified. It was considered that several areas (e.g. methanogenesis, protein supply) actually derive from fibre breakdown; others (e.g. defaunation) could be addressed through collaboration with other institutes, but would not be broad enough to be the core of the programme; others (e.g. feed characteristics) are part of other activities in feed evaluation or fibre breakdown.There was consensus that the two most important areas are fibre breakdown and ANFs. The identification of microorganisms that have superior fibrolytic activity or capabilities to degrade ANFs was identified as the major contributions of rumen ecology to ILRI's research work.The feasibility of measuring the ability to degrade fibre in pure cultures was discussed.It was mentioned that the isolated microbes could be characterised on the basis of substrate utilisation, particularly in terms of relative rates of fibre digestion. Several participants argued that this is already known while others suggested that the substrate used for screening should be made up of locally available and important fibrous feeds. This would ensure relevance of comparisons among strains. It was also suggested that fungi should be included in the characterisation of indigenous microbes. Although the collection of micro-organisms was important it was not seen as the end or objective of the project. The possibility for storing 'ecosystems', i.e. mixed rumen populations, was also discussed. Although technically it appears possible (transport of rumen fluid, use of glycerol + soluble carbohydrates, dilution series, etc.), some participants questioned the value of this approach.Several members of the group mentioned the possibility that in a reasonable period of time (three years) the programme could: a) assess the fibrolytic activity of few species, b) assess how well these species are fitted to digest specific substrates and locally available feeds, and c) describe the indigenous microbial populations in some of the mandate areas. It was argued that the programme should be problem-oriented and that more work to identify the constraints to fibre digestion, similar to the experiments conducted in Niger, should be made. In reply, it was noted that such work identifies the problem, not the solution. There is the possibility that the constraints are nutrients and that the problem might not require microbiological techniques to solve. There is a need to establish if the constraints are nutrient deficiencies. If this is the case, interventions to overcome these constraints should be tested along with measures of how the fibrolytic bacteria respond to such interventions.The influence of synchrony in the availability of nutrients to microbes on fibre digestion was suggested as a research issue. Several participants thought that this is not an activity for a microbiologist and noted that it was not clear how this work would serve the feed utilisation programme.There was consensus that the general objective of the research activities on fibre breakdown is 'the use of rumen microbiological techniques for alleviating constraints to fibre digestion breakdown in ILRI mandate areas'.It is expected that in a period of five years the research activities on fibre breakdown will result in:• Characterisation of fibrolytic activity of microbial populations.• Selection of isolates with enhanced fibrolytic activity towards relevant fibrous feeds. • Assessment of cross inoculation and pure culture inoculation for improved fibre breakdown.In a period of five years, the research on fibre breakdown should produce the following outputs:• Inoculants for enhanced fibre utilisation • Improved feed utilisation • Improved skills and techniques • Collection of potential bio-resourcesThe need for microbiological work on MPTs was discussed at length. ILRI would not have a comparative advantage from a microbiological point of view. The comparative advantage of the institute is the access to the materials and the agronomic knowledge base. Since more progress appears to be taking place in Latin America, it was suggested that ILRI should focus on Africa and Asia and learn about the on-going work in Latin America.It was suggested that the most important group of ANFs is constituted by phenolics and that there is need for knowledge on how the microbiological system in the rumen responds to these compounds. Some group members thought that too much work is already being done on phenolics at the expense of investigating the role of other important ANFs.Mechanisms of action of ANFs (i.e. at systemic or microbiological level) and the needs for toxicological work were revisited. Several participants thought that this might not be a microbiological problem. The need for a sharp definition of the problem to be solved and the MPT species to be worked on was mentioned again. It was suggested that trees to be used in ANF work should rank highly in relevance (broadly distributed), feed potential (consumption by livestock, concentration of nutrients), yield potential and severity (economic importance) of the problem caused. The specific problems observed in Debre Zeit with Tagasaste, Tephrosa and Calliandria were rediscussed. It was argued that some of the problems with MPTs are related to feed characterisation and not rumen ecology. Some participants thought that it might be easier to make an impact at farm level, through interventions including MPTs, than through enhancing fibre digestion.The group was reminded that work on mimosine required a lot of manpower and it was unlikely that, with limited resources, ILRI could make a substantial impact in this area in the short term.After long discussions the group agreed that rumen manipulation work should focus on fibre breakdown, but that the rumen microbiologist should collaborate with and support the work on MPTs as the opportunities arise. Two potential areas that were suggested as worth looking into were the characterisation of microbes in animals that have evolved when forages high in ANFs are consumed and the possibilities for cross inoculation to domesticated animals.The group advised that the rumen microbiologist would need back-up in three important areas. 1. Analytical chemistry 2. Nutrition 3. Molecular biologyThe group was informed about ILRI's present analytical capabilities in Addis Ababa. It was considered that the present facilities would be sufficient for only the most common analytical needs. Some additional equipment would have to be purchased (see below), but more advanced analytical needs demanding cutting-edge technology and expertise would be contracted to advanced institutions and/or consultants.The group was also informed that ILRI's facilities for molecular biology in Nairobi are state-of-the-art but are heavily used by other programmes. There is no expertise in rumen microbes. If the rumen ecology work were based in Addis Ababa, the needs for back-up in molecular biology could be met either in institutions already working in rumen microbes or in Nairobi.The group considered that at least a senior scientist and a post-doc with two full time well qualified technicians are needed to cover the proposed rumen microbiology work.Given that the work on rumen ecology would be part of the feed utilisation programme, it was considered that it would be best placed in Ethiopia, where most of the work on nutrition research is taking place. The laboratory should be placed where cannulated animals are readily accessible.• animal facilities including cannulation capacity • experimental surgery 3. Arrangement-Juxtaposition of the two research efforts (in phytochemistry and rumen ecology) is clearly desirable. Workshop participants were of the view that some disaggregation of component parts may be feasible but did not seek to make a recommendation as to how this would be managed by the institute. 4. Modes of collaboration-An ILRI programme of scientific excellence developing applicable research findings will attract collaborators. This could be supported through the pursuit of collaborative grants, exchange of postdoctoral and PhD students and, potentially, contract research. This interaction, the current workshop and scientific review meetings would help establish the ILRI programme within the worldwide network of laboratories active in the field of rumen ecology. Because collaborations will be established after programme development and in response to changing research needs, the workshop did not see the need to establish a list of potential collaborators, although the workshop participants and their associated institutes provide a research pool from which ILRI might draw. 5. Actions and time scale-Two senior appointments be made as soon as practicable (start 1996). Development of chemical, microbiological and animal/tissue for screening ANFs in plant materials on a large scale will be a priority (variable but within one to two years). Early work will require establishment of additional methods of identifying and quantifying important rumen microbes, including fungi (some assays are available, others to be developed by associate scientific support or collaboration within two years). Concurrently, a search can be made for suitable rumen microbial populations from other mammals able to tolerate FTS known to contain toxins or ANFs. These capacities will allow ILRI to interact with advanced research institutes (ARIs) conducting complementary and supporting research on the rumen ecosystem.A strategy of research for improving the utilisation of selected FTS through the above could be expected between year 2 and 3 of the research (when a further small-scale, peer review of the sub-programmes is suggested) with impact from selected improvements estimated within five years of establishment of the programme in ILRI.","tokenCount":"58670"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"27079df15e65fea5235e597571f06de9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/08b00d28-2228-414c-8b62-7c89f5634db8/retrieve","id":"1628792848"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9a8e01c3-a0e8-42ca-a3be-b1dd503daf06","pagecount":"1","content":"Measures to alleviate poverty among smallholder farmers in Africa have focused on individual farmers all through the 21 st century. However, these have not yielded much success, forcing research and development organizations to focus their efforts on technological innovations and other interventions through farmer groups. The potential gain in productivity through group interventions is a major factor underlying the need for developing countries to promote groups. Group actions are analyzed within the concept of collective action. Based on the new institutional economics approach, collective efforts solve societal problems, and focus on the conditions under which groups of people with common interests choose to act to achieve their respective interests (Clague, 1997). The farmer groups fill some of the gaps generated by this situation for example in input and output marketing.Annual decline in productivity in DR Congo has been estimated at 0.98% while low annual increment in agricultural production at 2% compared to the demographic rise of 3.3% (Vandamme, 2008 andMastaki, 2006). Efforts to improve and sustain the sector's productivity therefore would be crucial to the nation's economic development and the welfare of the people. Most farmers have limited access to improved crop varieties of major crops like maize, cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas and common beans. The decline in productivity has also been partly attributed to reduction in soil fertility and high levels of soil erosion such that an estimate of 80 kg/ha of nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium are lost annually (Kasereka, 2003).There is a shortage of animal manure due to reduction in livestock holdings (Lunze, 2000), that could be used as organic fertilizer. Family manpower has reduced following the emigration of active men and women to urban centers in search of alternative opportunities and internal displacement in conflict areas (Cirimwami and Mashika, 1999).Limited institutional support has been offered to farmers since independence in 1960 in terms of information, supply and credit regarding fertilizers. Currently, collective efforts are being made to link farmers to input and output markets by government, international research institutions such as CIAT and other partners. A plan to enhance productivity and economic gains among smallholder farmers in DRC has been followed by introduction of new improved production technologies such as new crop varieties, hybrid seeds and use of fertilizers (inorganic and organic). This has been encouraged through a participatory approach to technology and agricultural information dissemination that involves farmer groups, research institutions and development partners who initiate rural development projects in DRC. Empirical evidence of the impacts of group efforts on productivity and economic welfare of smallholders of the South Kivu territories is limited.There is thus the need to bridge the information gap on whether there is need to upscale the efforts or not. The need to link with other institutions depends on the success of the existing group efforts and without impact assessment, it would be difficult to advocate for up scaling the group efforts. This study contributes to research on agricultural technology interventions aimed at improving productivity and economic gains among smallholder farmers in the DRC.Time spent in off-farm activities influenced economic gain of the smallholder farmers as observed in off-farm income realized. Smallholder farmers spent more time in off-farm activities like running small business enterprises to supplement their income. These off-farm activities can be reinvested in agriculture to increase productivity and enhance economic gains. The positively significant influence of off-farm income on economic gain could only be substituted if future interventions incorporate more income generating activities along with the technology package to enable the resource poor farmers afford improved technologies whose adoption seemed low. In line with the regression results, more credit needs to be availed to the farmers to increase economic gains. This could be done through innovative ways to enable the resource poor farmers access credit, for example credit in kind (input provision) given the risk averse nature of smallholder farmers. Financial institutions should however issue more credit in kind to reduce loss of the funds; the credit could be in form of material inputs necessary to increase agricultural productivity.The lending institutions instituted should be flexible on the repayment periods given the nature of agricultural production in Congo that is characterized by risks of crop failure, erratic rainfall and pest invasion. Membership to farmers' organizations was also observed to have a positive influence on economic gain. It should be encouraged among smallholders in order to boost productivity and incomes as observed in the mean differences in these variables between group and non-group farmers.  For more information: e.birachi@cgiar.org For more information: e.birachi@cgiar.org Acknowledgement • World Bank;• Diobass;• All partners (private, public, civil society and farmers) who are putting their effort to increase bean value chain profitability.","tokenCount":"773"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d0ef2ceeb5b77b68c6cf93e8880aea07","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1ead8427-95f6-47e7-b90c-2ef63175610b/retrieve","id":"1612801436"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c9d114b1-11dc-41df-82a3-318d0e75fd65","pagecount":"2","content":"During the 5-year project period, 74,000 households (55% female-headed) received quality orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) planting material; 39% of them were able to sustain production of OFSP in subsequent seasons without receiving additional vines from the project.• 162,000 households indirectly benefitted through farmer-to-farmer diffusion of planting material and agronomic and nutritional knowledge.• 94,500 children under 5 years of age (24% of them under 2 years of age) were reached with nutrition messaging through their mothers.• Between 2015 and 2018, the frequency of intake of vitamin A rich foods among children and women from intervention households increased from 3.9 to 4.9 days per week for children and from 3.0 to 5.0 days per week for women.Malnutrition is a major challenge in Mozambique, especially among young children and women. Six out of the eleven provinces suffer from very high levels of stunting (>30%); especially the northern provinces of Nampula (55%), Cabo Delgado (53%), Niassa (47%) and Zambézia (45%), and the central provinces of Tete (44%) and Manica (42%). At the national level, 43% of the children under 5 years of age are stunted due to illness and poor diets. Deficiencies in key micronutrients, especially iron, iodine and vitamin A are also high. Approximately 70% of the children under 5 years suffer from vitamin A deficiency (VAD). The project aimed to contribute to improved nutrition, food security, and income of smallholder households by introducing nutritious orangefleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) along with nutrition education and marketing interventions.The Viable Sweetpotato Technologies in Africa (VISTA) Project Mozambique aimed to contribute to improved nutrition, food security and incomes of smallholder farming households with children under 5 years of age through increased production, utilization and marketing of nutritious OFSP varieties (Fig. 1). The five-year project (2014-2019), funded by USAID under the Feed the Future program, aimed to reach at least 65,100 households directly and 260,000 households indirectly through farmer-to-farmer diffusion of OFSP planting material and knowledge.During the five-year period, the project worked in provinces of Nampula and Zambezia, where 39% of Mozambique's population resides (2017 Census). Sixteen districts were covered; eleven in Nampula Province (Monapo, Meconta, Rapale, Malema, Mogovolas, Angoche, Larde, Moma, Mecuburi, Nampula City, and Murrupula) and five in Zambezia Province (Alto Molócuè, Gile, Nicoadala, Mucuba, and Gurúè), comprising 490 communities.During the 5-year period, the project:• Reached 74,000 households (55% female-headed) with quality OFSP planting material from among 15 improved, drought-tolerant varieties (Fig. 2). The distributed material covered an area of 4,600 hectares. 39% of recipients were able to retain OFSP production for at least one year.• Reached 162,000 households indirectly with OFSP planting material through farmer-to-farmer diffusion.• Benefitted 94,500 children under 5 years of age (24% of them under 2 years of age) through training their caregivers on improved agronomic and child feeding practices.• Established and trained 153 decentralized vine multipliers (DVMs), 25 of them women, and 47 of them formally certified as OFSP seed producers. In total, they had 35 ha under multiplication.• Established 8 groups of vine multipliers in 8 districts, representing 178 farmer members (56% female), with a combined area of 5 ha under multiplication.• Trained 53 agricultural extension officers and supervisors and 153 DVMs in OFSP agronomy and a root-based • Supported the construction of 51 net tunnels with vine multipliers to support maintaining a stock of disease-free starter planting material.• Trained 2,900 health professionals and community health workers in improved nutrition practice, including the nutritional value of OFSP and preparation of OFSPbased dishes.• Conducted participatory evaluation and selection of 22 sweetpotato varieties (19 OFSP and 3 purple fleshed) in 14 districts; held field days for participatory varietal evaluation of varieties in 11 districts.• Conducted four household surveys, namely a baseline survey (2015), a nutrition monitoring assessment (2017), a follow-up monitoring survey ( 2018) and endline survey (2019).• Trained National Research System (IIAM) personnel in the production of sweetpotato tissue culture plantlets.As a result, children and women from project intervention households increased the frequency with which they ate vitamin A rich foods-mainly OFSP-from 3.9 to 4.9 days per week for children and from 3.0 to 5.0 days per week for women.Where there any key challenges or lessons learned?The project encountered three key challenges during implementation. First, the unpredictability of the onset, duration and intensity of the rains resulted in shortages of vines at the beginning of the rainy season and hence, delayed project vine dissemination to project beneficiaries; in some years mid-season dry spells led to complete loss of established sweetpotato plots; in others excessive rains led to access problems for some districts making monitoring of activities in those districts difficult. Second, the effectiveness of the project nutrition interventions was adversely affected by some trained government health professionals not cascading down nutrition messages to target beneficiaries or distorting some messages during the cascading process. Third, marketing of OFSP fresh roots and processed products remains low due to low and inconsistent supply volumes (a reflection of limited surplus production at farm level) and market preference for traditional white-fleshed varieties.Several lessons were learnt during project implementation.The participatory evaluation and selection demonstrated that it is critical to first evaluate local adaptability of OFSP varieties to specific locations and then disseminate a small set of best performing varieties for that area, instead of blanket distribution of all released materials. The project also learned that market incentives are critical for sustained uptake and scaling of OFSP. Yet marketing of OFSP and processed products will remain limited until larger, consistent volumes are supplied. This might require working with larger, more commercially-oriented producers and groups. The project officially ended on 30 June 2019 with a project close-out stakeholder workshop. In the coming months the project team will be compiling the final project report, synthesizing the evidence and lessons learned and producing scientific publications, research and policy briefs. ","tokenCount":"956"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"068c04d248f08e703ed83d76137674c0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/495635b2-a4af-4c6f-b310-22d5cdfcc2d3/retrieve","id":"1381533379"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"68867ebe-3752-4986-b8b6-02e66857fa2a","pagecount":"55","content":"The purpose of this LMP instrument is to facilitate the identification of different types of workers likely to be involved in the project and set out the ways in which those workers will be managed in accordance with the requirements of Mali labor laws and the objectives of the World Bank Environmental and Social Standard (ESS): Labor and Working Conditions (ESS2) and Standard 4: Community Health and Safety (ESS4) of the Environmental and Social Framework (ESF).The LMP will also provide a methodical and coherent approach to dealing with the labor-related issues, impacts and risks likely to emanate from the implementation of this project. And at the same time, facilitating the identification of diverse types of project workers likely to be involved in the project.Consistent with ESS2, this LMP seeks to:• Promote safety and health at work • Promote fair treatment, nondiscrimination and equal opportunity for project workers • Protect project workers, including vulnerable workers such as women, persons with disabilities, children (of working age, in accordance with this ESS) and migrant workers, contracted workers, community workers and primary supply workers, as appropriate • Prevent the use of all forms of forced labor and child labor • Establish a framework for managing skilled and unskilled labor engaged in implementing the project and protecting them from potential occupational health and safety risks • Ensure that a reliable and effective grievance redress system exists to address the concerns of all employees in a timely and fair manner • Institute measures to prevent potential sexual and gender-based violence at workplaces and in project implementation activities in general • Support the principles of freedom of association and collective bargaining of project workers in a manner consistent with national law • Provide project workers with accessible means to raise workplace concerns • Respect labor and working conditions for all their employees and the employees of their subcontractors • Respect social and environmental conditions on sites • Promote workers' positive behavior during the implementation of the project; and • Reduce negative social and environmental impacts of the Project.It is important to note that this LMP is a living document and would be updated as and when the scope of work for AICCRA Mali and its related labor requirements changes.The AICCRA project is a World Bank supported project that seeks to strengthen the technical, institutional, and human capacity needed to enhance transfer of climate-relevant information, decision-making tools, and technologies in support of scaling efforts in International Development Association (IDA) eligible countries in Africa. It supports critical knowledge creation and sharing, and capacity building activities to enable regional and national-level stakeholders to take Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) innovations to scale. It will achieve this by further strengthening partnerships between CGIAR and regional and local research institutes, universities, civil society organizations, farmer organizations, and the private sector. AICCRA will facilitate the development of Climate Information Services (CIS) and promote the adoption of bundled CIS and CSA solutions across sub-regions within Africa that are extremely vulnerable to climate change. The project will also support on-the-ground activities in selected countries in Western, Eastern and Southern Africa where CGIAR science has the greatest chance of success in delivering catalytic results, which can be adopted by other countries in the region through spillover effects, and regional engagement.The Project Development Objective is to strengthen the technical, institutional, and human capacity needed to enhance transfer of climate-relevant information, decision-making tools, and technologies in support of scaling efforts in IDA-eligible countries in Africa. Based on this overall objective the project is structured into four components:Component 1. Knowledge generation and sharing: Supporting generation and sharing of knowledge products and tools designed to address critical gaps in the design and provision of agricultural climate services, enable climate-informed investment planning, and contribute to the design of policies to promote uptake of CSA and CIS at the regional, sub-regional and national levels.Component 2. Strengthen partnership for delivery: Strengthening the capacities of key regional and national institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa along the research-to-development continuum for anticipating climate change effects and accelerating identification, prioritization, and uptake of best-bet adaptive, and mitigative measures.Component 3. Validating Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovations through Piloting: Supporting testing, validation, and equitable scaling (including gender and social inclusion) of CSA and CIS technologies in research stations and in farmers' fields; linking of validated bundled CSA and CIS packages to technology transfer systems; and improving their access by farmers and other value chain actors to climate-informed agricultural advisory services to inform decision-making about choice of technology and enterprise management.Component 4. Project Management: Supporting day to day implementation, coordination, supervision and overall communication and management (including, procurement, E&S risk management, financial management, monitoring, evaluation, and learning, carrying out of auditing and reporting) of Project activities and results, all through the provision of goods, consulting services, non-consulting services, training and workshops, operating costs, and payment of staff salaries for the purpose.Mali is a rice basket in West Africa, providing a substantial amount of the region's rice supply, but is also highly vulnerable to climate variability and change. AICCRA-Mali aims to strengthen the technical, institutional, and human capacity required to accelerate the wide-scale adoption of climate-smart agriculture and climate information services packages by hundreds of thousands of men and women farmers in Mali. The project focuses on rice and associated operational (legume, vegetable, tuber, fish, and tree) value chains and pursues to enhance resilience to drought and flooding in rain-fed systems and cold and water scarcity in irrigated systems. Led by AfricaRice and with CGIAR partners, and national public and private stakeholders, AICCRA-Mali addresses the current data limitation for both on-farm decision support and research investment and policy decision making via climate risk mapping and nearreal-time rice crop monitoring and climate change impact assessment; improves access to demanddriven, cost-effective, and timely climate services; and strengthens capacities of the National Meteorological Agency (Mali-Meteo) in real-time services. AICCRA-Mali builds on existing work that introduced and validated CSA technologies in Mali and will deploy well-established frameworks to prioritize gender and social inclusive packages that best fit local biophysical and socio-economic contexts.Sustainable financing mechanisms including business models will be piloted and policy briefs developed for integrating best fit and gender-inclusive options into advisory services. Local capacity will also be strengthened in improved water and irrigation systems management, climate-resilient storage facilities, and processing technologies, while promoting gender and nature-based solutions, community-based measures, governance, and organization. The activities cover the three main components of AICCRA project and contribute specifically to:  The Project workers as it relates to the applicability of the ESS2 refer to workers who will be employed or engaged under the project, whether full- The AICCRA Mali project will engage both direct workers and contracted workers but will not engage the services of primary suppliers or community workers.The national and international staff of the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT (ABC) assigned to implement AICCRA project activities in Mali will be regarded as direct workers. This is because ABC is the lead client and overall coordinator of AICCRA project activities. These staff will remain subject to the terms and conditions of their existing employment contracts, which are governed by ABC polices and national labor laws and constitution of Mali. ABC staff on AICCRA Mali are listed in the table below. Government Civil Servants: \"Institut d'Economie Rurale\" \"Mali-Meteo\", and \"Office du Niger\" are government institutions and the staff assigned to work on AICCRA activities are all government civil servants. The staff of these grant partners will remain subject to the terms and conditions of their existing public and private sector employment, which are governed by the Constitution of Mali, Labor Code (Law No. 92-020 of 23 September 1992), and other labor laws. There will be no legal transfer of their employment or engagement to the Project. Nonetheless, these sub-grantees are required by the terms of their contract to implement project activities in accordance with the occupational health and safety measures contained in this LMP and prohibitions placed on forced and child labor as well as measures on SEA/SH.The scope of AICCRA Mali project does not provide for engagement of security forces and migrant workers. In compliance with national laws, persons under 18 years will not be permitted to work on the project as key project activities may exceed their capacity. The project will have no community workers as defined under ESS2. The use of migrant and seasonal workers is not expected under the AICCRA Mali project. Unskilled farm labor that may be required to clear weeds at the demonstration sites will be recruited from nearby host communities. These unskilled laborers will be engaged and managed as contracted workers. They will be contracted through short-term contractual arrangements consistent with the requirements of Malian Labor Laws and World Bank ESS2. A contract with codes of conduct will be issued to such workers.Consultants: The project may occasionally engage consultants to undertake key research and evaluation studies and prepare other essential dissemination documents in the second and third year of project implementation. Terms and conditions of these consultants will be guided by national labor legislation, and this LMP.Female Workers. Currently 25 % of existing workers on AICCRA Mali are females. Given this low threshold more priority will be given to qualify women during recruitment of consultants and new workers to fill vacant positions on the project. This will be done with the overall aim of seeking to promote qualified women entry and advancement in agriculture.Further details on contracted workers engaged to work on AICCRA Mali are provided below. Key direct and contracted workers required for the implementation of AICCRA Mali activities have been engaged. These workers will continue to work on the project activities through implementation up to closure. Unskilled laborers that may be needed on the project will be engaged in the project second year and the numbers to be engaged will depend on the number of demonstration sites to be set up. In addition, the project may occasionally engage consultants to undertake key research and evaluation studies and prepare other essential dissemination documents in the second and third year of project implementation.This section provides assessment of key labor and OHS related risks and the extent to which they relate to the AICCRA Mali activities. In summary, the key labor risks for this intervention include:1) occupational health and safety (OHS) risks and impacts, specifically, to hazards (poisoning or other injuries) from the use of pesticides and other chemicals, as well as workplace accidents/ injuries, including lack/inappropriate use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), dust, fumes, and traffic accidents; excessive hours of work; risks relating to child labor (risk that a person under 18 years of age is employed/engaged in relation to the project).2) community health and safety issues, including community exposure to pesticides and other hazardous materials; infection with a communicable disease (such as COVID-19) which may arise from the interaction of project workers with local communities, between project workers; Gender Based Violence (GBV) in relation to contacts between project workers and members of the project affected local communities and members of local communities. Details are as follows.1. Discrimination: Discrimination is a potential risk. This includes potential inappropriate treatment or harassment of project workers related to gender, age, disability, ethnicity, or religion; potential exclusion or preferences with respect to recruitment, hiring, termination of employment, working conditions, or terms of employment made on the basis of personal characteristics unrelated to inherent work requirements; in training and development provision. In this project no discrimination is acceptable as per the Malian Labor Law and ESS2. The Project supports equal opportunities for women, men and Persons with Disability (PWD), with emphasis on equal criteria for selection, remuneration, and promotion, and equal application of those criteria.There are concerns that workers may be subjected to poor working conditions including lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when working on demonstration sites, which could result in eye injuries from pesticides use, sand or rock particles, leg injuries from reptile bites and other hazardous on-farm conditions. Partners that will operate CSA demonstration sites will be required to procure and provide PPE for all workers and visiting farmers to safeguard against injuries.The use of pesticides is foreseen as a very limited possibility and would be part of the Integrated Pest Management Plan. Decisions on the quantity, timing and mode of fertilizer application will be made to achieve high fertilizer use efficiency, and limited loss in the forms of nitrate, nitrite, and nitrous oxide emission at each site.Blanket fertilizer recommendations will be avoided. The intended use of both pesticides and fertilizers on demonstration sites could cause both occupational exposure of workers and nonoccupational exposure of nearby residents to the harmful effects of these chemicals. Poor disposal of pesticide residues and containers could also contaminate the soil and water bodies. The neighboring populations may also be exposed to phytosanitary products due to the drift of products sprayed with the wind, and to non-compliance with safety deadlines in chemical applications before harvesting of food crops. The use of chemicals on AICCRA Mali would be part of an integrated pest management plan that will be outlined in an Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) to be prepared. The pest management plan will focus on options other than pesticide application and only use synthetic chemical pesticides as a last resort. Managing these risks also requires adequate training for farm workers. Therefore, adequate training in pesticides storage and safe use will be provided to all farmer workers to reduce the risk of accidental exposure and wrongful disposure. 4. Violation of workers' right: the violation of workers' right could occur through inadequate compensation of consultants and contracted workers to be engaged, requirement for direct and contracted staff to work for long working hours and denial of holidays or leave requests. Through pre-contractual due diligence, the project will ensure that staff of all partners working on AICCRA Mali have working conditions and rights consistent with Malian labor laws. 5. Labor disputes over terms and conditions of employment: Likely causes for labor disputes could include labor wages rates and delays of payment; disagreement over working conditions; and health and safety concerns in the work environment. Invariably employers may retaliate against workers for demanding legitimate working conditions, or raising concerns regarding unsafe or unhealthy work situations, or any grievances raised, which could further lead to labor unrest. 6. Forced and Child Labor: Forced and child labor risk is unlikely as the project is required to work only with institutions without risks to forced and child labor. The AICCRA project maintains strict prohibitions on forced and child labor. Under the AICCRA project, all grant partners are screened to establish that they have no historical practices on forced and child labor before contracts are signed with them.There are concerns of vulnerable female staff of grant partners being harassed by their supervisors, and colleagues. Other abuse may also be experienced by female farmers that would be selected to participate in knowledge transfer sessions of the project. Project workers could ask for sexual favors from women farmers before allowing them to be included in studies at the CSA demonstrations. Project staff that are visiting farming communities may also demand for sex from community members in exchange for money.It is also likely that separate latrine, and other sanitation facilities for both men and women may not be provided at the demonstration sites, which could lead to violation of sexual privacy. There could also be the absence of a specific grievance mechanism for females to share their concern about the working environment including concerns on SEA/SH. Mitigating SEA/SH at workspaces of AICCRA Mali is critical for all partners. AfricaRice will coordinate to ensure strict compliance with all SEA/SH mitigation measures contained in the overall project action plan on SEA/SH mitigation and response. In so doing, the project will conduct sensitization on SEA/SH and require workers to sign code of conduct with key prohibitions on SEA/SH. Safe and confidential grievance channels easily accessible to all stakeholders will also be provided for all project stakeholders. 8. COVID-19 transmissions: Multiple levels of interactions between project staff, farmers, and other stakeholders during project events could increase the risk of COVID-19 transmissions. To mitigate these risks, workers will attend awareness raising sessions, be provided with relevant PPE, and be required to enforce and maintain adequate distances and use masks during meetings, training sessions, and other project activities. This section provides an overview of labor legislation in Mali on workers' terms and conditions of work. Employment contracts of workers on this project are governed by the following laws and regulations: The terms established by the laws and regulations in force include the principles of equity and equal access to work. Discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, etc. is prohibited. Malian law is very explicit on the system of remuneration, working hours, and the right of the worker, including holidays and the freedom to join the workers' organization of their choice. The project must provide for the provision of all this information to any newly recruited worker; inform the staff of any changes occurring during the contract as well as at the end of the contract. Workers will be informed of all withholdings and deductions at the source that will be made from their remuneration in accordance with the provisions of the laws and regulations of the country.Several provisions of the Malian labor code organize the employment contract which defines the way in which the worker will be managed (Article L.13 to L33). The types of contracts (fixed-term contract, openended contract, etc.), the contract visa authority, the trial period, etc. are defined by law.The Labor Code prohibits forced labor. The code also sets the minimum age at which a child can be employed as well as the conditions under which he can work. A law on child protection sets the minimum age for admission to employment at 15 years, but in certain cases of vocational training, light work may be authorized. In addition, there are certain restrictions on the type of work that can be performed by workers under the age of 18 as well as the hours of work allowed.Under no circumstances may children be employed in actual work for more than eight hours a day. They are also prohibited from working at night.Although the list of dangerous professions in the country prohibits activities intended for children under the age of 18, Decree 96-178 of June 1996, still in force, allows children between 16 and 17 years of age to perform certain dangerous activities in condition of receiving adequate specific education or professional training, training in the field of activity concerned. The decree is in contradiction with the protections provided for in the list of hazardous activities, thus leaving children the possibility of working in hazardous activities. Young girls between the ages of 16 and 18 cannot be employed for more than six hours a day. The law applies to all children, including those who work in the informal economy and those who are self-employed.A new ordinance (2017-4388) describes in detail the hazardous activities prohibited for children under the age of 18.In accordance with the Labor Code (Articles 96-99, 284, 296, and 319), wage zones and inter-professional minimum wages are fixed by decree. Salaries can be established by collective agreement. In the absence of a collective agreement, salaries are set by professional category. The minimum wage is determined on an hourly and monthly basis.The remuneration for piece work or piece work must be calculated in such a way that it provides a worker of average capacity, and working normally, a salary at least equal to that of the worker paid by time, performing similar work.According to the Labor Code (Articles 96, 102-109, and 121), wages must be paid in the legal tender at the workplace or at the employer's office when it is close to the workplace. It cannot be done, either in a liquor store or in a sales store, except for workers who are normally employed there, or on the day when the worker is entitled to rest.Monthly payments must be made within eight days of their due date.In the event of termination or breach of contract, wages and allowances must be paid as soon as the service is terminated. Likewise, in the event of termination or breach of contract, wages and allowances must be paid upon termination of service.The employer is required to issue the worker, at the time of payment, an individual pays lip, the details of which must be reproduced in a register known as a \"payment register\".When wages are paid by the hour, the number of hours worked should be mentioned.No deduction can be made from the worker's remuneration other than those provided for by law.In accordance with the Constitution, every person has the right to freely choose his profession in the following terms: \"Work is a duty for every citizen but no one can be forced to a specific job except in the case of accomplishment of an exceptional service of general (public) interest, equal for all under the conditions determined by law\".Women's work is considered in the Malian Labor Code Article L189. Application decrees set out the working conditions of women and pregnant women and in particular the nature of the work that is prohibited to them.Decree No. 96-178 / P-RM of June 13, 1996, implementing the various provisions of the Labor Code of 1992, contains many restrictions for women. Indeed, it is stipulated that women cannot perform the same work or the same tasks as men. For example, in industrial and commercial establishments, women cannot be employed in an effective work of more than ten hours a day, cut off by one or more rest periods of which the duration cannot be less than one hour. Women may not be employed in any night work in factories, mines and quarries, construction sites, especially on roads and in buildings and workshops and their outbuildings.Working hours are considered by Articles 131 to 140 of the Malian Labor Code and Articles 136 (1 and 2) and 140 (1 and 2) of Order No. 1566 / MEFPT-SG of October 7, 1996, relating to modalities of application of certain provisions of the Labor Code.Normal working hours are 40 hours per week. Daily working hours are not clearly specified. However, on farms, working hours are set at 2352 hours per year. Within this limit, an order of the Minister of Labor fixes the legal weekly duration according to the seasons. In agricultural enterprises, the legal working time cannot exceed 48 hours per week.Overtime, up to a maximum of 18 hours per week, may be worked to maintain or increase production.The labor inspector can authorize certain companies to exceed the set limit. However, in any case, the maximum working time limit cannot exceed 60 hours per week.Any hour worked beyond the legal working time gives the right, in the absence of a collective agreement or company or establishment agreement, to a salary increase for overtime.Workers are entitled to several types of leave, including paid leave, annual leave, maternity leave, and childcare leave, and others. In addition to nine national days of paid leave per year (workers must receive at least 24 days of paid leave, workers under 18 receive at least 30 days and disabled employees 35 days).In addition, those working in dangerous and difficult conditions should be given at least a seven-day supplement or at least eight days if working in adverse climatic conditions.Workers can also benefit from additional leave depending on their seniority. Unpaid leave may also be taken by certain groups of people and may also be covered by contracts.Upon termination of employment, employees are paid for unused leave and may use the leave for job search or as a deduction from notice upon respect of the maximum allowed number of leave days per year as per the employer policy.Women are entitled to maternity leave for up to 70 calendar days, or 86 days in the event of complications. Maternity leave is calculated in total and paid in a lump sum, regardless of the actual number of days of leave.Professional associations (Article L253), unions (Article L256), trade union committees (Article L258) and the possibility for workers to designate their staff representatives (Article L265-L278) are recognized by the law of the Republic of Mali.Article L.256: Any worker or employer may freely join a trade union of his choice within the framework of his profession.Article L.258: A trade union committee may be set up by any representative trade union in each company or establishment usually employing 11 employees. For the determination of the workforce of the company, not only permanent staff are considered, but also apprentices, trial workers and casual or seasonal workers carrying out an average period of 6 months of work in the year.Article L.265: Staff representatives are elected in each establishment comprising more than ten workers. Their term of office is one year. Their mission is organized by Article L 278 of the Labor Code.The law of the Republic of Mali does not restrict the freedom of workers to form an association to defend their rights and claim working conditions. Project workers have the right to form an association or join a union of their choice without this constituting a source of retaliation. Article L.34 of the Labor Code indicates the conditions for suspension of the contract. The conditions under which the worker is or is not entitled to compensation following the suspension of his contract are specified in articles L34-L38. Articles L46 to L50 for their part give the conditions under which a worker can be dismissed. An unfair dismissal can give rise to damages. The competent court finds the abuse by investigating the causes and circumstances of the breach (article L51).The Malian code has given details on the different types of discrimination to be avoided with the inclusion of criteria for invalidity, handicaps, and persons living with HIV / AIDS (new Article L4). However, distinctions, exclusions, or preferences based on the qualifications required for a particular job are not considered to be discrimination. The above provisions also do not preclude temporary measures taken to establish equality between men and women, regarding the conditions of access to employment, training and development (new Article L4).In accordance with the provisions of the Labor Code the employer is obliged to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of people in the workplace according to the prescribed measures by the provisions on health and safety at work within the framework of labor law.The employer must ensure that the health and safety of workers are not at risk in the workplace and the machines, equipment, substances and working methods are under control. The employer must periodically undertake analyses and evaluations of the working conditions and environment, and to monitor compliance with regulatory safety and health standards. The employer must collect data relating to the safety and health of workers and the working environment.Provisions relating to hygiene, health and safety are set out in the following lines.The labor code of the Republic of Mali requires all employers to take all measures to guarantee good health and safety conditions for their workers without defining the specific documents to be drawn up (Article 170-Article L.177). The law on social security in Mali establishes the compensation and prevention system for work accidents and occupational diseases for the benefit of all salaried workers exercising their professional activity in the Republic of Mali or on behalf of an employer domiciled in Mali (Article 61).The law obliges employers, among other requirements, to:• Be responsible for safe working conditions and occupational safety at all workplaces and for informing workers of working conditions and the results of inspections. • Apply the means of individual and collective protection of workers (including protective clothing and equipment). • Provide appropriate work and rest regimes.• Train workers in their work and in safe working methods.• Provide instructions on labor protection.Employers are required to have a poster affixed in each workshop, site, or workplace to inform workers about the regulations concerning industrial accidents and occupational diseases (Article 70). The employer is required, as soon as the accident occurs:• Provide first-aid treatment.• Notify the doctor in charge of the company's medical services or, failing that, the nearest doctor.• Possibly directing the victim to the medical or inter-company center, failing that, to the public health facility or the public or private hospital establishment closest to the accident site. The doctor is required to send the first copy of the medical report to the National Institute of Social Security, the second copy to the Regional Labor Inspectorate if the accident occurred within the limits of the administrative district in other cases (Article 72, 73).OSH measures will be designed and implemented to address the following issues: a) Identification of potential hazards to project workers, particularly those that could be fatal. b) Establishment of a system of identification and psychosocial follow-up of employees affected following work-related trauma in the field of COVID-19. c) Implementation of preventive and protective measures including modification, substitution, or elimination of hazardous conditions or substances. d) Training of project workers and keeping of corresponding records. e) Recording and reporting of accidents, illnesses, and occupational incidents. f) Emergency prevention, preparedness, and response arrangements; and g) Solutions to remedy negative impacts such as accidents, deaths, disabilities, and work-related illnesses.In addition to the above references, applicable international conventions, and guidelines on health and safety issues such as: The World Bank recently approved an Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) which consists of ten standards and is aimed at preventing and mitigating undue harm to people and their environment in any development projects involving the Bank. The relevant standard of this framework to the LMP is ESS-2 Labor and Working Conditions.The World Bank through the ESS2 promotes fair treatment, nondiscrimination, and provision of equal opportunities for workers engaged on projects it supports. It strongly encourages protection of all project workers, including vulnerable groups such as women, persons with disabilities, children (of working age) and migrant workers, contracted workers, and primary supply workers, as appropriate. It sets certain requirements that the project must meet in terms of working conditions, protection of the work force (especially the prevention of all forms of forced and child labor), and provision of a grievance mechanism that addresses concerns on the project promptly and uses a transparent process that provides timely feedback to those concerned. It requires borrowers to:• Develop and implement written labor management procedures applicable to the project.• Provide workers with information and documentation clear and understandable regarding their terms and conditions of employment. • Provide fair treatment, non-discrimination, and equal opportunity to workers. Decisions relating to the employment or treatment of project workers should not be made based on personal characteristics unrelated to inherent job requirements. • Protect the work force by defining the minimum age for employment and prohibiting forced labor.• Provide an efficient Grievance Mechanism for all direct workers and contracted workers (and, where relevant, their organizations) to raise workplace concerns. • Conduct risk assessment to understand the likelihood and magnitude of OHS risks associated with project based on: whether the project will involve hazardous materials or processes; the potential consequences to workers, communities, or the environment if hazards are not adequately managed, which may depend on the proximity of project activities to people or to the environmental resources on which they depend.The table below shows comparison of the Mali Labor Code and its implementing texts with key elements of the ESS2. Working hours and overtime will be defined in accordance with the Malian Labor Code.Attendance register shall be maintained to record time of arrival and departure from work.Malian labor law makes provisions for regular leaves and benefits.Employer must also provide reasons for termination.ESS-2 requires full respect of workers' rights.The AICCRA project will be implemented in accordance with Malian Laws.An effective grievance mechanism will be put in place to help workers raise their concerns.Children under 18 years old will not work on the AICCRA project.Evidence like birth certificates will be required to certify workers' ages.Action required consider equality of chance, nondiscrimination, maternity leaves, etc.AICCRA Mali project should comply with the national legislation on pregnant and maternity.Person with Disabilities (PWDs)Malian law safeguards against discrimination on the grounds of disability.Mali has ratified the Convention relative to person with disabilities rights.ESS2 provides measures to protect and assist vulnerable project workers, including PWDs.Both include provisions to fight against discrimination of PWDs in workplaces.AICCRA Mali project would comply with the national legislation on discrimination against PWDs.AICCRA project should therefore target to involve PWDs in project learning activities.The Labor Code does not devote any provision forbidden sexual harassments within workplaces.ESS 2 clearly forbids sexual harassment of any kind.All project workers will sign the code of conduct with key prohibitions on SEA/SH. AICCRA Mali project will provide safe and confidential grievance channels easily accessible to all stakeholders.Provisions of the Malian Labor Code consider casual and temporary workers.ESS2 applies to project workers including fulltime, part-time, temporary, seasonal, and migrant workers.The AICCRA project will apply provision in both the Labor Law and ESS2.The Malian labor Code affords all persons the right to freedom of association, which includes freedom to form or join trade unions or other associations.ESS 2 makes provision for borrowers to legally establish workers' organizations and legitimate workers' representatives.Both give workers the right to freedom of association.The AICCRA project will applied provision on the Malian Labor Code.The institutions working on AICCRA project shall recognize and respect the right of employees to freedom of association and collective bargaining.The Malian Labor Code contains provisions that allow workers to resolve disputes in the event of disagreement between employer and employee through conciliation procedures or Labor Courts.ESS2 recognizes that a sound grievance mechanism should be provided for all direct workers and contracted workers to raise workplace concerns.ESS2 sets more provisions for GM AICCRA project will elaborate, implement, and disclose a GM in accordance with provisions in ESS2.Implementing partners will be required to induct their employees on the grievance procedure.AICCRA Mali will be required to report grievances raised and progress on resolution.Labor Code generally precludes employers from deducting any amount from the remuneration of their employees except in some cases defined in the Code.ESS2 gives provisions for payment deductions in line with national law or the labor management procedures.EES2 refers to national law for salary deduction AICCRA Mali project will follow provisions in the Labor Code to make salary deductions.This LMP will be operationalized by AfricaRice through the leadership of AICCRA Cluster Lead for Mali with assistance from the Safeguard Focal Person for the AICCRA Mali Cluster. The AICCRA Safeguard Specialists will provide additional oversight to ensure the application of this LMP to mitigate and respond to issues on working conditions, and occupational health and safety. Detail level of oversight and responsibility is provided in the table below. • Ensuring that all workers are aware of grievance uptake points and procedures. AfricaRice and all AICCRA Mali partners are committed to managing project activities in a manner that safeguards the welfare, health, and safety of their employees, and consultants. In accepting this responsibility, the centers are committed to following the policies and procedures outlined under this section to avoid, mitigate, and respond to the potential labor and OHS related risks outlined under Section 3.0.• All implementing partners will maintain fair terms and conditions guided by the Malian Labor Code for all employees and consultants working on the AICCRA project. • Decisions relating to the employment or treatment of project workers will be made in accordance with the requirements of the job. The recruitment of project workers will be based on the principle of equal opportunities and fair treatment, and there will be no discrimination in recruitment and hiring, remuneration (including wages and benefits), working and employment conditions, access to training, assignment of a position, promotion, termination or retirement, or disciplinary practices. However, because women representation on AICCRA project is low and the project seeks to promote women entry and advancement in agriculture more priority will be given to women during consultants and new workers to fill vacant positions on the project. • Implementing partners will be also required to comply with the national Labor law on gender equality in the workplace, which will include provision of maternity leave and nursing breaks and sufficient and suitable toilet and washing facilities, separate from men and women workers.• To avoid labor disputes, fair terms and conditions will be applied for project workers under AICCRA Mali.• The project will respect the workers' right of labor unions and freedom of association, as set out in the Labor code. • The project will maintain a grievance mechanism for all project workers to promptly address their workplace grievances. Further details are provided in Section 11.0.• Forced labor will not be permitted on the AICCRA project, this is strictly prohibited by the Malian Labor code, the project Environmental and Social Risk Management (ESRM) guide and the World Bank ESS2. • For the reference of partners, this may also include excessive limitations of freedom of movement, imposition of recruitment or employment fees payable at the commencement of employment, loss or delay of wages that impede the workers' right to end employment within their legal rights, substantial or inappropriate fines, physical punishment, use of security or other personnel to force or extract work from project workers, or other restrictions that compel a project worker to work in a non-voluntary basis.Unannounced visits by AICCRA's E&S Safeguard Team and relevant technical services will effectively identify cases of forced labor and refer such cases to the criminal justice system. A review of lessons learned from the experiences of CIAT projects and its implementing partners in Mali highlights the absence of forced labor. However, a specific monitoring procedure will be put in place by the AICCRA Mali cluster in close collaboration with the ministry in charge of labor and the interested parties.All project implementing partners under the AICCRA project will be required to:• Comply with national legislation on occupational health and safety.• Communicate these policy statements and procedures to all workers working under the AICCRA Mali Cluster. • Provide OH&S training and enable workers' attendance of such training.• Regularly screen all project sites to identify potential hazards and set out measures to eliminate them. • Procure and provide relevant PPEs for staff working on demonstration sites, visiting farmers and other stakeholders as and when needed. This will include farm safety boots, protective googles, hand gloves, air purifying disposable/washable masks, neoprene groves, chemical resistant hats, and coveralls. • Ensure proper storage and disposal of pesticides as instructed on the product label and recommended actions in the pest management plan to be prepared. • Ensure availability of emergency first aid boxes at demonstration sites and provide a card that displays an emergency number. • Document all occupational accidents and incidents and report severe and serious (as per WorldBank incident classification at Annex 2) incidents to the World Bank through the AICCRA Senior E&S Specialist with 48 hours after the occurrence of such major accidents and provide full detail report within three weeks. Conduct root cause analysis to inform corrective actions required. • Maintain effective collaborations with CGIAR Centers, sub grantees and employees to investigate cause of accidents at workplace. Relevant information should be gathered and provided in written format with incident investigation form provided at Annex 3 and subsequent details report produced with the aid of the outline provided at Annex 4. • Inspect all farm equipment with the view of ascertain it safety status before use.• Provide workers and visiting farmers with access to toilets and potable drinking water.• Properly dispose of solid waste at designated permitted landfill sites allocated by the local authorities.• Ensure that all drivers to be used on AICCRA activities have undertaken training in defensive driving, enforce maximum speed limits on roads and ensure adequate insurance cover for vehicles.• Overall, all implementing partners under AICCRA Mali Cluster are required to adhere to and implement measures contained in the project SEA/SH mitigation and response action plan. All partners under the AICCRA Mali Cluster shall be required to provide a working environment that minimizes spread of COVID-19 among project workers and stakeholders. In so doing, these minimum measures will be followed accordingly.• Ensure social distancing at the workplace and offer a flexible working schedule for workers as and when necessary, including telecommuting. • Provide accessible sanitation areas with water, soap, and sanitizers at entrance to offices and other venues for project activities. • Provide all workers with appropriate hand sanitizers and face masks and require mandatory wearing of face masks at official premises and other work locations. • Ensure that all workers have adequate and updated information on COVID-19.• Establishing measures and a referral pathway including linkage with the Ministry of Health for workers who get infected with COVID-19 during line of duty.• The following emergency numbers will be available for reporting suspected cases of COVID-19. Partners must contact 36061 toll free or link up with local district health authorities for immediate evacuation or medical help. • Provide adequate support to workers who get exposed to the virus at workplace.The Safeguard Focal Person for AICCRA Mali will regularly monitor compliance of workers, consultants, and service providers to the above policies and procedures and provide biannual report to the AICCRA project management unit. All partners shall provide quarterly reports to AfricaRice on the status of ensuring compliance with the above policies and procedures.This LMP will be shared with all partners and project workers. The policies and procedures will further be disseminated to workers during scheduled training.The Malian legislation, especially the Labor Code prohibits employment of children under the age of 14. A law relating to child protection sets the minimum age to work at 15. It is also forbidden employment of children under the age of 18 for certain hazardous work and for work requiring night shifts. In compliance with these national standards, persons under 18 years will not be permitted to work on the AICCRA Mali Project as key project activities may exceed their capacity.AfricaRice will ensure that all sub-grantees adhere to this requirement. The age of potential new workers will be verified before engagement. The National Identification Card (ID), Passport, birth certificates or national driver's licenses will be used as proxy documents for verifying age of workers. In the absence of one of those forms of IDs, the project will apply and document an age verification process. The age verification process will consist of alternative methods including copies of academic certificates, testimony/affidavits from officials of the schools attended, a medical examination, statements from family members and locality/village officials/local authorities.In addition, all documents will be cross-referenced and subjected to a verification process to ensure the validity of the documents. In instances where the documents are thought to be falsified the project will conduct the same process to ensure their authenticity. In all the processes care will be provided to ensure that the applicant or employee's data are protected and their right to privacy is guaranteed. All copies of the IDs and documents pertaining to the applicant's age and other supporting materials will be kept in files with the human resources personnel.The Malian Labor Code sets the statutory terms and conditions for all employment arrangements in Mali. Drawing from this Code, the table below provides an outline of terms and conditions that will inform management of all workers under the AICCRA Mali project. • Workers (apart from consultants and temporary workers) shall be entitled to 30 days' leave with pay for every year of continuous service.• Women employees are entitled to 14 weeks of maternity leave, upon duly documented request, after nine months of continuous service with an employer. It includes six weeks prenatal leave and eight weeks postnatal leave. Of the 14 weeks, seven weeks (3 prenatal weeks and 4 postnatal weeks) are mandatory. If the delivery takes place before the expected date, the leave is extended until the 14 weeks have expired.• No deductions other than those prescribed in labor laws shall be made hereunder or any other law or collective labor agreement shall be made from a worker's remuneration, except for repayment of advances received from the employer and evidenced in writing. Death benefit• In case of death of a worker during his/her contract of employment, the employer shall pay to his/her remuneration as death benefits in line with the provisions of the relevant national laws and institutional policies.• At minimum, all sub-grantees shall be required to enroll their workers on social welfare institutions that are (i) the National Institute of Social Welfare (INPS); (ii) The Malian Social Security Fund (CMSS); (iii) The National Health Insurance Fund (CANAM), which manages the Compulsory Health Insurance Scheme (AMO); (iv) The Mutualist Insurance system. • Employees of CGIAR centers will be required to continue to benefit from existing medical insurance arranged by their respective research institutions.AfricaRice and CGIAR centers are committed to providing transparent and easily accessible grievance mechanism for all workers under the AICCRA Mali project to report complaints relating to disagreement on working conditions, health and safety, discrimination, bullying, sexual harassment, and abuse.Two major grievance mechanisms are currently available for all workers working on the AICCRA project to report labor related grievances including SEA/SH (i) the CGIAR grievance mechanism and (ii) the project grievance mechanism provided in the AICCRA Mali SEP. All workers will be informed of the grievance mechanism at the time of their engagement on the project including measures put in place to protect them against any reprisal for its use. The mechanism will also allow for anonymous complaints to be raised and addressed through providing options for people reporting a grievance not to mention their names, positions or place or workstation. Individuals who submit their complaints or grievances may request that their names be kept confidential, and this must be respected.The CGIAR grievance mechanismThe grievance mechanism procedure applies to all staff members of ABC, AfricaRice, IFPRI, IRRI, ICRAF (covering all types of employment contracts including, without limitation to regular, consultants, parttime, contract of service and temporary employees), interns, visiting scientists, fellows, contractors, grantees, visitors, donors, volunteers, board members and vendors of the CGIAR centers.The reporting mechanisms under this policy procedure are also applicable to employees of other grantees and contractors hosted engaged by AfricaRice to implement AICCRA Mali activities, although in such cases the investigations procedures may be adjusted in consultation with other relevant legal entities where this may be applicable.The mechanism handles complaints relating to three broad areas:(i) Fraud related breaches: these include embezzlement, theft, bribery, and kickbacks, (ii) Compliance related breaches: these include unsafe working conditions, vandalism, falsification of contract, reports, or records, non-compliance with research ethics, etc. (iii) Human resource related breaches: these include sexual harassment, discrimination, abuse, bullying, conflict of interest, alcohol, substance abuse, etc.Staff members and all other stakeholders may choose one of two ways to submit their reports:1. Anonymous reporting using a CGIAR wide external service provider known as Lighthouse. The provider has been commissioned by the CGIAR to manage anonymous reporting services for all the CGIAR centers through an ethics hotline. Cases can be reported to Lighthouse anonymous reporting page, Email reports@lighthouse-services.com and Toll-Free number: 844-709-6000. Complaints received by Lighthouse through these channels including cases linked with SEA/SH will be shared with the AICCRA Mali Safeguard Focal Person for records keeping and reporting, and referral of SEA survivors to GBV service providers listed at annex 6. or 2. Direct reporting to a supervisor/manager/director/People and Organizational Development Directorate (P&OD)/or a colleague.• The whistle-blower/reporter shall prepare a written report to a supervisor/manager/ relevant director/P&OD directorate/other colleagues. If the report is made verbally, the person receiving the report shall capture the matter in writing and submit to either the supervisor/manager/ director or P&OD directorate. • The person receiving the report shall acknowledge receipt of the report.• The Information provided shall be reviewed and may be the basis of an internal and/or external investigation into the issues which are reported.The whistle-blower/reporter:• Makes a call through the ethics hotline or accesses the online case management system platform and provides information to the external vendor (Lighthouse) which will be captured as a report.• Captures all the information and generates a report that will be shared with the designated recipient.• May liaise with the reporter to seek clarification, gather additional information and work with the whistle-blower as appropriate to build their confidence or encourage them to come out of anonymity (as may be relevant). • Analyzes and shares the report with designated case system administrator and designated recipient at employees' organization.The designated recipients of the reports will generally be the directors of the institute and the reports that will be shared with them will align to their area of work according to the three broad areas of breaches.• Receive a copy of the report submitted to Lighthouse.• Review the report and consult internally to decide on the way forward.Case management investigator: Case management investigators are the designated investigators of the case, who shall investigate the case in accordance with institutional policies and procedures.A P&OD official will assume the role of a case management systems administrator responsible for updating case information on the Lighthouse platform in accordance with the institute's policies and procedures.• After receipt of the ethical report either directly or anonymously, an initial assessment shall be carried out to determine if there is a genuine concern. If the concern is considered to fall more properly within a different type of complaints procedure, such as a grievance, the whistle-blower /reporter will be informed accordingly by the supervisor and People and Organizational Development Directorate and provided with advice on how to proceed. • If there are sufficient grounds to initiate a full investigation, a diverse committee shall be constituted by the Director General or his designate to investigate the matter and recommend the course of action to be taken. During the investigation, the alleged perpetrator/s may be given the opportunity to represent their argument. • The amount of contact between the individual submitting a report and the body investigating the concern will depend on the nature of the issue, the clarity of information provided, and whether the employee remains accessible for follow-up. • Where breaches of duty are confirmed to have occurred, the investigation report will provide recommendations on what action is appropriate, which may involve disciplinary procedures of the institute. Action will be taken to correct the failure and avoid similar events in the future as well as to address the alleged perpetrator(s) misconduct.• Management endeavors to conclude on all cases under investigation within a month of the start of the process, although it is recognized that there may be exceptions depending on the circumstances. • At the discretion of the institute and subject to legal and other constraints, the reporter may receive information about the outcome of an investigation. • Should the whistle-blower/reporter still feel either victimized or disadvantaged following the report and subsequent investigation, they may choose to escalate the issue to the next level in the form of an appeal to the next level of authority. Should the issue raised be with reference to the People and Organizational Development Director, then the whistle blower/reporter shall raise it with the Director General. If the matter is with regards to the Director General, it may be raised with the Chair of the Board and subsequently in cases where the matter refers to the Chair of the Board, the staff member may raise it directly with the Director of the CGIAR Internal Audit Unit.The AICCRA Mali grievance mechanism outlined in the cluster SEP constitutes an alternative pathway for project workers to report grievances including cases linked to SEA/SH. The mechanism provides for several channels for lodging complaints including emails, phone calls, texts, letters, and toll-free line that will also be accessible to all workers. Information on this grievance will be made available to all workers to ensure that all workers have adequate knowledge of how to lodge a complaint and receive resolution through the mechanism.Given that most GBV cases at workplace are not reported because of the fear of victimization, anonymous reporting channels have been provided as part of AICCRA Mali grievance uptakes points to encourage reporting of SEA/SH related cases. When such a case is reported, the complainant would be provided with information about the available services including confidentially appropriate medical and psychological support, emergency accommodation, and any other necessary services as appropriate including legal assistance. The Safeguard Focal Person will refer all SEA/SH survivors to relevant GBV service providers at Annex 6. When a case of that nature is reported, the Safeguard Focal persons will record the case with the following limited information: the nature of the incident, the age and sex of the complainant, and whether the survivor was referred to a service provider.The AICCRA Mali Grievance committee will review all cases referred to it to determine and agree upon course of action for handling and resolving the case. The appropriate institution that employs the perpetrator will be required to review the case and take disciplinary action in accordance with the employer's code of conduct and national legislation. Disciplinary actions may include informal warning, formal warning, additional training, loss of salary, suspension, or termination of employment. A survivor may continue to receive support from the appropriate GBV service providers while the case is being handled by the employer.I, ______________________________, acknowledge that it is important adhering to AICCRA Project environmental, social, health and safety (ESHS) standards, requirements, and preventing sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment (SH), and violence against children (VAC).AICCRA considers that failure to follow ESHS standards, or to commit acts of SEA/SH or VAC -be it on the work site, the work site surroundings, or the surrounding communities-constitute acts of gross misconduct and are therefore grounds for sanctions, penalties, or potential termination of employment. Prosecution of those who commit SEA/SH or VAC by law enforcement authorities may be pursued if appropriate, and only upon informed survivor consent, or in the case of a minor, with appropriate caregiver consent.I agree that while working on the project I will:Regarding Occupational Health and Safety• Comply with legislation and other applicable requirements relating to occupational health and safety risks. • Attend occupational health and safety trainings as requested by employer or the project • Identify the potential risks associated with each activity and workstation • Make recommendations regarding safety and health issues affecting employees • Wear prescribed and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) all times on project site.• Take proper care of working tools and PPEs • Ensure safe disposal of used pesticides containers in accordance with the project pest management plan. • Prevent avoidable accidents and report conditions or practices that pose a safety hazard or threaten the environment. • Report any violations of this code of conduct to workers' representative, HR, or grievance redress committee. No employee who reports a violation of this code of conduct in good faith will be punished in any way.• Washing hands, always sanitize and observing social distancing and follow WHO and GOK updated guidelines. • Taking care of PPEs and materials used for protection (including gloves, masks) and ensuring their safe disposal. • Wash hands frequently, always sanitize and observe social distancing and follow WHO and Malian government updated guidelines. • Seek healthcare after experiencing any of the following symptoms (while at home or work): cough, fever, and shortness of breath • Stay at home and report immediately to the supervisor if I or any family member comes into contact with someone who has been reported to have COVID-19.• Attend and actively partake in training courses related to SEA/SH and VAC as requested by the project. • Treat women, children (persons under the age of 18), and men with respect regardless of race, color, language, religion, political or other opinion, nationality, ethnicity, or social origin, property, disability, birth or nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other status. • Not use language or behavior towards women, children or men that is inappropriate, harassing, abusive, sexually provocative, demeaning or culturally inappropriate. • Not engage in sexual exploitation, which is defined as any actual or attempted abuse of position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially, or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. • Not engage in sexual abuse, which is defined as the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions. • Not engage in sexual harassment, which is defined as any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favor, verbal or physical conduct or gesture of a sexual nature, or any other behavior of a sexual nature that might reasonably be expected or be perceived to cause offense or humiliation to another, when such conduct interferes with work, is made a condition of employment, or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment. • Not participate in sexual contact or activity with children-including grooming or contact through digital media (community members married to minors, even if legally done, will not be hired).Mistaken belief regarding the age of a child is not a defense. Consent from the child is also not a defense or excuse. • Not have sexual interactions with members of the host communities (NB: an exception applies to a locally hired worker already married to an adult member of the community). This includes relationships involving the withholding or promise of actual provision of benefit (monetary or non-monetary) to community members in exchange for sex-such sexual activity is considered \"non-consensual\" within the scope of this Code. • Consider reporting through the Grievance Mechanism or to my manager any suspected or actual SEA/SH or VAC by a fellow worker, whether employed by my company or not, or any breaches of this Code of Conduct.• Wherever possible, ensure that another adult is present when working in the proximity of children.• Not invite unaccompanied children unrelated to my family into my home unless they are at immediate risk of injury or in physical danger. • Not use any computers, mobile phones, video, and digital cameras or any other medium to exploit or harass children or to access child pornography (see also \"Use of children's images for work related purposes\" below). • Refrain from physical punishment or discipline of children.• Refrain from hiring children for domestic or other labor below the minimum age of 14 unless national law specifies a higher age (15 for Mali), or which places them at significant risk of injury. 3. Cross-border trade in pesticide, waste, and waste products, unless compliant to the Basel Convention and the underlying regulations 5 . 4. Research that may lead to environmentally damaging activities, such as inappropriate use of chemical fertilizers. 5. Production or trade in any product or activity deemed illegal under host country laws or regulations or international conventions and agreements, or subject to international bans, such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides/herbicides, ozone depleting substances, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), wildlife or products regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). 6. Biotechnology application in genetically modified (GM) crops that may involve genetic transformations of the national original crops and/or might generate irreversible environmental impacts. 7. Activities that could introduce invasive alien species and may impact critical habitats and/or legally protected areas. 8. Activities that may result in discrimination against vulnerable groups, including based on gender and disability. 9. Activities involving land acquisition leading to economic or physical displacement. 10. Activities that affect existing land tenure arrangements or cultural heritage.e. The Contract Party shall notify the AICCRA Cluster Safeguard Focal Person as soon as possible and no later than 24 hours after learning of any incident or accident related to the AICCRA Project which has, or is likely to have, a significant adverse effect on the environment, the affected communities, the public or workers. In addition, a report shall be provided to Africa Rice within 20 days of the occurred incident or accident. The report shall provide sufficient detail regarding the incident or accident, indicating immediate measures taken or that are planned to be taken to address it, and any information provided by any contractor and/or supervising entity, as appropriate. In the case of the incidents link with sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment, the Contact Party shall notify IITA within 12 hours upon receipt of such allegations. f. The Contract Party shall sensitize all project staff and stakeholders about the AICCRA Mali Grievance Mechanism (GM) and encourage them to lodge all complaints relating to the AICCRA project through the grievance uptake points provided. g. The contract party shall develop or adapt the code of conduct at Annex 1 for all consultants and employees engaged to work on AICCRA activities.","tokenCount":"10089"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3342c3739a37a63c87f467a9ae1e6ee7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/63598855-813c-4a94-bf3c-2a9b615cb1c9/retrieve","id":"1163382285"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"384256d9-7a00-450e-8f2c-7d345f2122df","pagecount":"8","content":"We wish to: Assess the impact, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of these vaccination programmes 1. to provide widely relevant guidance on design and implementation 2. to develop evaluation methods/guidelines which can then be used by others So we intend to cover a range of programmes -Potentially considering:-Country -Disease/vaccination -Species/livestock system -Crisis/vaccination programme design -Implementor type (NGO, government?)Which programmes to evaluate?-Eastern, Southern and Western Africa -countries considered include:-Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Karamoja (Uganda-is there much vaccination?), Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar -Will need to be pragmatic -Consider scale and importance of these programmes in that country but also -Do we have a willing partner to work with (we understand possible sensitivities and will accommodate this)[key to success] -Where can we operate effectively and efficiently (ethics approvals, ILRI capacity, logistics, feasibility) -Donor priorities ","tokenCount":"136"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fa8be531b1b74aad92cb837dc16fda85","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/93097823-253e-40eb-9460-d3e6445e0193/retrieve","id":"-1934696416"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"507bf0d2-ccbf-41d8-9e9a-d5ad4cd62978","pagecount":"59","content":"The CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) seeks to realize the potential of agricultural development to make significant contributions to improving the nutrition and health of people worldwide. A4NH is led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and managed by four other CGIAR Centers: The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI); and two academic institutions: the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Wageningen University and Research (WUR). Some 2020 highlights that you will read about in this report include:• A broad range of nutrition stakeholders endorsed and supported a Commitment to Action, which outlines areas of action to maintain and accelerate India's progress on malnutrition in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. • The Republic of Kenya finalized its One Health Strategic Plan to guide One Health prioritization in the country. It includes cysticercosis as a priority disease in the strategic framework.• In India, the State Government of Bihar made a commitment to help increase the production of biofortified zinc wheat seed by leveraging the capacity of Bihar's State Seed Corporation, local agricultural universities, and farm schools. • Funders are supporting the development of two tools -one to measure empowerment across the value chain and another that can provide standardized gender data from national surveys conducted by countries themselves -in response to the increased interest from funders, policymakers, and implementers in supporting women's empowerment.• The World Bank and the Government of Assam in India are scaling a food safety intervention, designed and tested by CGIAR researchers, in informal dairy and pork value, expected to benefit millions of consumers. • To date, 393 biofortified varieties of 12 staple crops have been approved for planting in 41countries. An estimated 9.7 million farming households (48.5 million people) were growing and consuming biofortified crops across 19 countries Africa, Asia, and Latin America. • Now ten countries have Aflasafe products registered for use and with new distribution partners, Aflasafe is available at 92 distribution points across nine countries in Africa.• French institutions are partnering with A4NH to expand research on food systems to include formative research on institutional catering, development and validation of a Retail Diversity Index, and development of a 'mini' Massive Online Open Course on the food environment. • Koppert Biological Systems was licensed to distribute Aflasafe KE01 in Kenya and a private sector consortium was appointed as the local distribution and marketing agent. By the end of 2020, there were three fully operational Aflasafe manufacturing plants, and the newest one, a HarvestField Industries Ltd. plant in Lagos, Nigeria, will soon be the fourth.More research outputs, events, and achievements can be found in the interactive A4NH 2020 Annual Report, on our website, or @A4NH_CGIAR on Twitter.The CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) seeks to realize the potential of agricultural development to make significant contributions to improving the nutrition and health of people worldwide. A4NH is led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and managed by four other CGIAR Centers: The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI); and two academic institutions: the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Wageningen University and Research (WUR).As CGIAR's only research program on nutrition and health, A4NH research contributes to the systemlevel outcome (SLO) on food and nutrition security for health. Our 2020 contributions to the SLO targets from adoption and impact data are summarized and described below.• In 2020, as a result of HarvestPlus delivery efforts, nearly 5.7 million farming households were reached with biofortified planting material and an estimated 9.7 million households, (translating to an estimated 48.5 million people) were growing and consuming biofortified crops. In 2020, 23 new biofortified crop varieties were released, bringing the total number of releases through HarvestPlus efforts to 393 varieties of 12 crops, across 41 countries (with 20 additional countries in testing phase). When vitamin A-enriched orange sweetpotato (OSP) varieties released through the International Potato Center (CIP) are included, this figure increases to 391 biofortified varieties.HarvestPlus' original targets were to have an estimated 10 million households growing biofortified crops in 2020 and 12 million households by 2021. These targets from the A4NH Full Proposal for Phase II were based on a budget that was not realized and funding for delivery has declined. It is likely that these targets may be revised again, given the halt in delivery and monitoring & evaluation (M&E) due to the global pandemic. HarvestPlus continues to find innovative ways and partnerships to continue the delivery, some of which are described in other parts of this report.• During 2020 approximately 380,000 hectares were treated with Aflasafe by more than 250,000 farmers. More than 600,000 tons of aflatoxin-safe maize and groundnut were produced by a mix of public and private sector partners and IITA.IITA's targets for 2020 targets were to cover 500,000 hectares, a four-fold increase from 2017, which was not quite achieved largely due to pandemic-related challenges. However, they exceeded the other targets related to farmer adoption.A4NH seeks to realize the potential of agricultural development to contribute to improved nutrition and health of people worldwide. A4NH research is conducted in five flagships, or program areas. Three cross-cutting units help to catalyze research outputs into development outcomes and impact. A4NH places emphasis on aligning with country partners, particularly in five focus countries (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Viet Nam).What has A4NH looked like in such an unusual year marked by a global pandemic and an organizational change to One CGIAR? The pandemic disrupted some work in 2020, but A4NH's ideas and long-term agenda grew even more relevant. This year's report demonstrates how aspects of A4NH's second phase, such as working more closely with national governments and greater attention to issues of equity, positioned A4NH to respond to key research questions and policy and programmatic challenges surrounding the pandemic. Looking ahead, the long-term trajectory of A4NH research in food systems, One Health and large-scale nutrition programs and policies for use by national and international partners seems promising. A series of strategic briefs captured the learning and achievements of A4NH's 11-years and how the program has contributed innovative, strategic research that can help One CGIAR and its partners contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.In June, CGIAR established a COVID-19 Hub. It has been hosted by A4NH and co-implemented by IFPRI, ILRI, the CGIAR System Organization, and LSHTM. Its achievements are described elsewhere. A section of this report describes ways A4NH researchers analyzed the impacts of COVID-19 and implications for the future of food systems, public health, nutrition, and development.FP1 -Food Systems for Healthier Diets Progress• Through the new Food Systems Idea Exchange, trainings, key papers, strategic briefs, multistakeholder consultations and support to CGIAR, Flagship 1 with partners in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Viet Nam, built constituency around food systems approaches starting from a dietary perspective. A new partnership with French institutions expanded research. • A compendium of food system metrics, methods, and tools was finalized, and a World Index for Sustainable and Healthy diets was developed. • Evidence generation for potential pathways for improving diets through sustainable food systems innovations continued, with a focus on the food environment and consumer choices. Consumer-oriented innovations that continue to be tested include those that improve availability, accessibility and acceptability of fruits and vegetables in Nigeria and Viet Nam and increase healthy options of foods adolescents consume outside the home in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, researchers finalized a study on the effects of a video-based behavior change intervention on awareness, and in Viet Nam, published impacts of a school-based feeding program on changes in household eating habits. • Innovations developed through the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition initative promoted wider appreciation and use of biodiversity in health, nutrition, agriculture and food security programs and strategies in project countries.• To date, 400 varieties of 12 staples have been released in 41 countries. Hundreds more varieties are being tested in 60 countries. • HarvestPlus continued to develop its partnerships to scale up biofortification, with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) to commercialize biofortified crops in six countries and with Precision Agriculture for Development to use their digital platforms and expertise to generate demand for biofortified seeds and foods, which is part of HarvestPlus' efforts to integrate digital solutions throughout its programs. • Biofortification evidence to date was published in a CAST Issue Paper, written by a task force led by Howdy Bouis and presented at a side event at the 2020 International Borlaug Dialogue. A study on the role of intrahousehold bargaining and decisionmaking found that inclusion of both genders promoted adoption. Another study explored the role of zinc biofortification as a double-duty action to address diabetes and cardiovascular disease.Another study found that consumption of iron beans improved work efficiency. • 26 countries have now included biofortification in their policies and strategies. For example, Bihar's Minister of Agriculture (India) made a commitment to increase zinc biofortified wheat seed production by capacitating the State Seed Corporation, local agricultural universities, and farm schools.• The Government of Assam (India) made progress in scaling a combined intervention to improve food safety in informal dairy and pork value chains, which was informed by an intervention approach piloted by ILRI.   The COVID-19 pandemic and measures contributed to some delays in implementation. Fieldwork, especially related to testing food systems innovations, was delayed. In other cases, phone surveys were used, but were conducted later in the year than planned. Innovations planned for the first half of 2020 in Nigeria and Viet Nam, were not cancelled, but did not start until the end of the year. While partners were restricted from traveling, local partners were contracted to implement fieldwork. For example, in Ethiopia, Mekelle University managed a survey on an integrated community-based approach for farm, market, and dietary diversity. PhD projects in Ethiopia were interrupted due to a combination of the pandemic and political unrest. Policy engagement activities in Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Nigeria were postponed to 2021, as virtual engagement appeared to be ineffective.Researchers contributed to the understanding of impacts of COVID-19 on food systems and diets in the four focus countries. Assessment of COVID-19 impact was incorporated into existing projects. Previous studies provided the opportunity for follow-up on possible effects of COVID-19 on food systems and diets. Using a panel survey of urban households in Ethiopia, researchers monitored the impact of the pandemic and published results in a discussion paper. Researchers repeated dietary intake surveys in Nigeria and Viet Nam to monitor changes in fruit and vegetable intake in urban populations; results were presented at the Micronutrient Forum's fifth global conference. Some of the key publications include a rapid appraisal of food systems risks from COVID-19 measures, local food system resilience in the pandemic context, and impacts on household food security. Blogs provided an opportunity to more quickly share evidence on emerging issues, including results from the rapid appraisal, relationship between COVID-19 and obesity, and opportunities for re-shaping food systems after COVID-19.Amidst COVID-19 restrictions, HarvestPlus continued to deliver biofortified planting material to farmers through various partner-based approaches. Decentralized, community-based seed systems, which leveraged partners on the ground; virtual or socially-distant/remote/small-group demand creation and agronomic trainings; and working with the private seed sector in countries where agriculture was considered to be an essential sector were found to be effective in reaching beneficiaries through ongoing M&E, also conducted virtually, by phone, and other digital means.Several governments enacted strategies to protect farmers and ensure the biofortified food supply was uninterrupted. For example, the procurement and distribution of Vitamin A maize and cassava seeds for input subsidy programs as an emergency response to COVID-19 was instituted by ten state governments in Nigeria. Guatemala's Economic Recovery Plan included biofortified crops and food. Biofortified crops and foods were being acquired by the Ceará and Maranhão state governments for delivery as part of safety net programs in Brazil and the Colombian government's was involved in delivery of biofortified seed to strengthen food and nutrition security.Learning from delivery did not slow down. In addition to various national-level virtual activities, HarvestPlus organized an event on lessons learned to improve nutrition security, through biofortification, amidst COVID-19. Innovative pivots that were implemented in 2020 include the use of digital solutions to address bottlenecks in scaling and alternative mechanisms for delivery and outreach. HarvestPlus is also tracking COVID-19 pivots at national and global levels.The pandemic highlighted the relationship between micronutrient deficiency and weakened immune systems that increase susceptibility to and severity of infections. HarvestPlus developed evidencebased advocacy material on the role of biofortification in cost-effectively improving micronutrient intakes, especially in rural areas promoted through blogs. A paper, co-authored with CIP, emphasized the role of biofortified crops in improving the resilience of local food systems amidst COVID-19.COVID-19 disrupted most field-based activities. Interventions in wet markets in Viet Nam and Cambodia were adapted in response to the pandemic. Work on food handling practices of caregivers and the effects on the safety of food consumed by infants and young children in Kenya was temporarily suspended. Sampling of maize flour for aflatoxin contamination in nine Kenyan markets was able to proceed as planned. Research on the multi-country impact of COVID-19 on retailers and consumers and the safety of animal source foods in Kenya and Southeast Asia that was launched in 2020 will continue next year. Interest in the origins of the coronavirus disease and implications on food safety in informal markets provided several opportunities. Researchers contributed to strategic documents on COVID-19 and food safety from the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the International Union of Food Science and Technology, and provided commentary on wildlife markets in popular media and on food safety and pandemics in national media in Viet Nam.To evaluate the impact of the pandemic on Aflasafe commercialization partners, a survey was conducted to assess implications on their manufacturing and distribution business in four countries. COVID-19 has had a negative impact on the business of all the partners. The impact varied according by country. The highest impact (70%) was observed in Nigeria while the lowest (25%) was reported in Tanzania. The variable impact was related to the extent of restriction of movement in the countries. COVID-19 also impacted testing of the efficacy of Aflasafe products in Togo and Benin since the products could not be transported from Nigeria due to border closure. Growing pains are expected with newly developing value chains, like Aflasafe. The pandemic came at a formative time for some commercialization partners, but they can recover.The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures paused data collection for several program evaluations, other fieldwork, and training courses. Ongoing program evaluations were able to use phone surveys to understand different effects of COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns on households in Kenya (informal dairy sector intervention in Nairobi), Bangladesh (agricultural credit program), and Burkina Faso (integrated poultry value chain and nutrition intervention).In countries where Flagship 4 researchers are present, there was significant research related to COVID-19 impacts. In Myanmar, researchers carried out a monthly survey of pregnant women and mothers of young children -yielding data on food security, diet quality, and economic impacts of COVID-19 lockdown measures -in urban and rural areas. A similar survey was conducted in Bangladesh. In India, in collaboration with the Partnerships and Opportunities to Strengthen and Harmonize Action for Nutrition in India (POSHAN), researchers analyzed the impacts of the pandemic on the outcomes, determinants, and coverage of interventions related to maternal and child nutrition. An online COVID-19 Monitoring Report presented available data to policymakers and program managers to strengthen public health nutrition during the crisis.Blogs and webinars provided opportunities to increase awareness of the impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns on nutrition outcomes and policy and programming implications. Researchers looked at available evidence to show that nutrition progress will be threatened by the COVID-19 crisis and made recommendations on how to protect vulnerable groups. A high-profile piece in The Lancet and webinar drew attention to the expected increase in child malnutrition. Researchers also focused on how governments and organizations can drive transformation and strengthen health, nutrition, and food systems post-pandemic, considering issues related to conceptualizing vulnerability and the political economy of resilience.The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted all field activities in 2020. To adapt to these conditions, the team: (i) worked remotely to develop technical reports, complete publications, develop research compliance documents and draft new proposals, (ii) hosted on-line workshops involving local and international stakeholders, and (iii) supported new activities including phone-based surveys to assess impact of the pandemic in their study areas. More specifically, researchers supported phone-based surveys that were conducted in various locations in East Africa specifically to assess levels of knowledge, effectiveness of the response, and socio-economic and nutrition impacts.Webinars provided opportunities to share preliminary survey results with a wide audience. The Zoonoses in Livestock in Kenya project diverted some of its surveillance funding to undertake a survey of the impact of pandemic lockdowns on food systems, targeting several animal source food commodities in Kenya. The 2020 peer-reviewed publications from A4NH which received the most attention were related to COVID-19, malnutrition, the affordability of nutritious diets, and food waste. This year's top three were all published in The Lancet. The popularity of the work underscores the importance of the subject, and A4NH's reputation for high-quality, trusted research addressing it.• By the end of 2020, 11 of the 13 pilots completed their final analyses of the impacts of the agricultural interventions on women's empowerment outcomes. Results from the pilot with the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages project in Bangladesh were published as a discussion paper and many more papers are expected in 2021. The team also published results from cognitive interviewing that led to revisions to the modules and strengthened the overall index. The final, validated version will be available in 2021.To promote uptake and use, the team launched the pro-WEAI Foundations Module, the first in the pro-WEAI Distance Learning Course, in January 2020, and continues to provide technical support through the WEAI Resource Center.Mixed methods data for pilots for the pro-WEAI market inclusion module were collected and analyzed. Formerly known as WEAI4VC and now referred to as pro-WEAI+MI, this tool measures empowerment across the value chain whereas WEAI and A-WEAI are more focused on the production dimension of agriculture.The team also conducted virtual consultations to develop the Women's Empowerment Metric for National Surveys (WEMNS), a new initiative to develop a metric that would provide standardized gender data from surveys conducted by countries themselves.Since Gender research and its integration into A4NH and CGIAR went well. COVID-19 exposed a number of issues that were largely ignored in urgent pandemic responses that we provided evidence for, such as findings on the differential effects on women's nutrition and challenges in women's autonomy. Our gender researchers integrated well into the new CGIAR GENDER Platform arrangements, supporting both the development of the methods and tools module and a specific research area on gender and nutrition.For specific A4NH gender research in flagships, this generally proceeded supported by the GEE Unit, with only a few delays in writing up results.Three studies were completed in 2020, designed to respond to A4NH's greater attention in Phase II on equity. One paper, with the Institute of Development Studies, explored how to engage with \"youth specific\" aspects of food systems change. Results from a second piece of work, a scoping review of governance and equity issues in agriculture, nutrition, and health research, were summarized in an A4NH blog post. The last was a scoping review on gender equity in food environments of low-and middle-income countries. The authors conclude that gender norms can present barriers to achieving the desired outcomes of food system interventions; on the other hand, they may also offer clues about how to better move forward to achieve both food and nutrition security, and gender equity and equality goals.b) Mention any important findings that have influenced the direction of the CRP's work, and how things have changed.A4NH's work on equity, beyond gender equity, was slow in getting started during Phase II.Unfortunately, many findings were not available until 2020 and with the program ending in 2021, it is too late to make significant changes in A4NH's work. However, A4NH prepared a strategic brief on intersectionality and addressing equity in agriculture, nutrition and health, which summarizes the research effort on equity and inclusion in Phase II and was shared to inform the One CGIAR process, and is now online making it accessible to a wider audience.Despite the slow start, most of the youth and social inclusion outputs were planned and well underway before 2020. The studies that were completed and published are described in the other sections.• A4NH co-convened a fully virtual 2020 Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (ANH) Academy Week with LSHTM over six days, attracting 914 online participants from 72 countries, including 63 participants from CGIAR Centers. The Learning Labs, several coordinated and led by A4NH researchers, built research capacity on particular topics and on the use of tools and methods important in multi-disciplinary research. • Building capacity that supports the commercialization of Aflasafe is a significant part of IITA's strategy. IITA works with private companies to transfer the Aflasafe know-how and provides technical assistance in implementing the business plan. IITA's support includes training technical and sales staff on the integrity of the technology to increase their confidence during commercial deployment; providing technical assistance for structured awarenessraising and demonstration of the economic and social value of the product to different market segments using business cases; and support in setting up of their factory, quality control and staff training. • Researchers from A4NH and PIM provide ongoing technical support through the WEAI Resource Center, which builds capacity to use tools that measure women's empowerment.In 2020, to promote uptake and use, the team launched the pro-WEAI Foundations Module, the first in the pro-WEAI Distance Learning Course. In 2020, a paper in PLOS One looked at the interactions between the sustainability of food systems across four key dimensions of food security & nutrition, environment, social, and economic and their drivers on the global scale. Their analysis is one of the first efforts to provide quantitative evidence at a global scale of significant correlations between the unsustainability of our food systems and particular drivers. This research fills evidence gaps that stand in the way of adequate food system policy and interventions.A4NH has an intentional, multi-institutional partnership design with clear roles, responsibilities, authority, and accountability for its six managing partners and Lead Center. As the A4NH governance and management systems were well established, they largely continued without problems during the 2020 move to virtual interactions. A4NH was able to pivot its work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in coordination with the managing partners leading work in food systems (WUR, Bioversity, CIAT and IFPRI), nutrition (IFPRI) and One Health (ILRI and LSHTM). The new research provided several key outputs. Managing partners also coordinated with the Program Management Unit (PMU) on COVID-19 research challenges and adjusted plans.Management of other partnership arrangements with evolving roles and responsibilities suffered more from moving to virtual interactions. Reasonably successful was the design and implementation of a food systems and nutrition partnership with French institutions. Fortunately, we had productive face-to-face meetings to define the main work areas in 2019 and work progressed reasonably well, although suffering somewhat from inability to meet physically. CGIAR strategic partnerships with other Centers, like developing a research agenda around responding to demand from food industry for processed staple foods, could have been accelerated by face-to-face meetings which did not happen. Country partnerships for food systems continued to proceed well in countries such as Ethiopia and Viet Nam, in which we had a strong core partner. For countries in which we relied more on a coalition of multiple institutions, managing work in the countries in 2020 has been more challenging.In 2020, the A4NH PMU and several researchers took on additional duties supporting the CGIAR COVID-19 response. The A4NH PMU, in particular, assumed a crucial role in the overall management and communications of the CGIAR COVID-19 Hub in partnership with the System Office.• HarvestPlus and GAIN are partnering on a new initative to catalyze commercial markets for biofortified seeds, grains, and food products in six countries (Bangladesh, Kenya, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Tanzania). Using a value chain approach, with country partners they are creating sustainable commercial pathways for biofortification by leveraging existing value chains for comparable non-biofortified staple crops and foods. • Partnerships with WorldFish and the CRP on Fish and A4NH provided opportunities to build capacity to use food systems approaches in fisheries and aquaculture. In addition, through Flagship 1, WUR and WorldFish co-managed a PhD project on fish in food systems of adolescent Bangladeshi girls. The partnership has enhanced the analysis of the role of fish in food systems. • HarvestPlus and CIP continued their efforts to document lessons learned in scaling and commercialization of OSP. Major joint activities included collaboration on the ex-ante costeffectiveness and impact assessment of OSP interventions using HarvestPlus-developed methodology; development of the OSP narrative for the updated Biofortification Priority Index (BPI); completion of the joint external evaluation of CGIAR contributions to the AU commitment to biofortification; country-specific implementation activities; and joint proposals. • As part of the COVID-19 response, in six states in Nigeria, the HarvestPlus country team negotiated a 10 percent price discount with seed companies for vitamin A maize seed and 20 percent for vitamin A cassava stems. The farmers were also offered the vitamin A maize seed and Aflasafe as a package to reduce aflatoxin contamination in maize, under a partnership with HarvestField Industries Limited, the licensed manufacturing and distribution partner for Aflasafe in Nigeria. This was a great example of a cross-flagship partnership to get multiple CGIAR innovations to farmers. • A4NH has been partnering with AfricaRice and more recently, IRRI, on several areas of work related to human health. One is around the integration of climate change adaptation and mitigation with mosquito vector management; two is on tracking mosquito productivity of alternative irrigated rice cultivation techniques, in order to identify how to grow rice in Africa without growing deadly mosquitoes; and three is on effects of landscape-change on the vectoral capacity of malaria vectors, including the work on rice.A4NH's intellectual assets are largely knowledge and information products that are open access. Intellectual assets associated with new varieties and germplasm for biofortified varieties are the responsibility of the CGIAR Center involved in developing them.A4NH along with the CRP on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) commissioned an external evaluation of CGIAR's contributions, primarily through HarvestPlus and CIP, to the mainstreaming of biofortification in the AU. A4NH received a positive assessment from an external CRP review commissioned by the CGIAR Advisory Services Secretariat. A series of strategic briefs captured the learnings and achievements of A4NH's cumulative contributions to the evidence base through innovation, strategic research linking critical areas of work across agriculture, nutrition, and human health. Lastly, A4NH identified a set of high priority studies intended to synthesize A4NH research and implications for the design of future research in One CGIAR, some of which started in 2020 and all of which will be completed in 2021.A4NH research for the most part continued without problems during the 2020 move to virtual interactions. Managing partners continued to implement their established research and coordination roles as well as taking on new roles, such as ILRI's leadership of the CGIAR AMR Hub.Coordination with CIP/RTB on monitoring and evaluation and scaling and commercialization of biofortification, which started in 2019 went as planned. In 2020, we cooperated on policy and advocacy and carried out a joint evaluation on biofortification advocacy in Africa.Multiple food system convenings and partnership events were planned for 2020, given A4NH's early leadership in food system approaches and as follow-up to a series of CGIAR consultations on food systems in 2019. Of those plans, a new food systems partnership with French institutions progressed, however, plans for more food systems coordination within CGIAR were constrained. These worked well on new initiatives led by A4NH managing partners, but other plans to organize food group upgrading working groups on animal source foods, fruits, and vegetables, and processed staple crops using common tools and methods only partially met expectations.One clear benefit of past A4NH investment and existing expertise was our ability to rapidly respond and step in and coordinate the CGIAR COVID-19 research response paper and CGIAR COVID-19 Hub.In 2020, A4NH's management and government entities began implementing plans to ensure that A4NH can best manage the transition to new research modalities, given the expected central role of nutrition and health outcomes in future CGIAR research.Institutional risks. One strength of A4NH is its multi-institutional management arrangement. Managing partners have strong capabilities for multi-institutional research program design and implementation, as well as research support and ethics, and M&E. Some capacities can contribute to new One CGIAR initiatives, but there are risks, especially for the two external managing partners, WUR and LSHTM, that may regress. Programmatic risks. In the One CGIAR design, the A4NH impact areas on nutrition and health will become a platform. To support research continuity, A4NH consolidated lessons and evidence into a series of strategic briefs, organized online repositories for methods and tools, and launched a set of synthesis studies. Ideally, there will be a 6-month overlap between A4NH and a new nutrition and health platform for both internal CGIAR capacity and partnerships (more below).A major risk in the change process is to neglect critical partnerships at multiple levels -national, regional, and global. Given its cross-sectoral nature, many of A4NH's nutrition and health partners, at all levels, are relatively new and unique to CGIAR. A4NH is ready to support the new system to facilitate the engagement of key nutrition and health partners, such as the ANH Academy, SUN, AU, and national nutrition and health institutes, in the One CGIAR change process.In 2020, 23% of overall program expenditure was from W1/W2. The bulk of the W1/W2 funding was for research (90%) and the balance for cross-cutting support at the CRP level. The funds have been allocated strategically, over multiple years, to support joint research (cross-flagship, cross-CGIAR, and with local partners), help A4NH disseminate results more widely, and build targeted partnerships and capacity in our five focus countries (Table 12). Some 2020 highlights of the W1/W2 investment are listed below.• (Multi-year) Support to national partners in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, India, and Viet Nam (our focus countries), linking A4NH research to national government and partner priorities and actions. Support included engagement with national partners in food systems analysis, assessment of food system innovations and multi-stakeholder partnerships, and a range of partnership building and capacity development activities. Support to countries was also provided through engagement with SUN and through partnership with the African Nutrition Leadership Program. The 2020 A4NH financial summary shows decreased expenditure from 2019. W1/W2 and overall expenditures were approximately 86% of what was planned.The main implementation challenge caused by the COVID-19 pandemic for A4NH was for large-scale field trials, particularly in Flagship 4 (SPEAR). There were some disruptions and changes to bilateral funders. Some of this was expected with continuing growth in FP1 (Food Systems for Healthier Diets) and FP5 (Improving Human Health) and gradual decreases in grant funding for FP2 (HarvestPlus) and FP4 (SPEAR). There were also some delays in new partnerships, in which activities began as planned but administrative delays caused expenditures to be delayed until early 2021.A4NH entered Phase II (2017-21) with approximately $8 million in carryover, largely due to a 2016 financing plan budget that was forecasted to be much lower than previous years, but actual funding received late in the year was consistent with funding from previous years. Most of the carryover was planned for expenditure in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Thus, multi-year plan went well in 2018 and 2019 but expenditures were not maintained at planned levels for 2020. Some of the 2020 expenditure gap was due to cancelled implementation of activities; however, others were due to activities that were adapted or re-programmed and were implemented later in 2020 or early 2021 with delayed expenditure. A new initiative has started to streamline M&E data collection for impact assessment and coverage of Aflasafe. We expect that in 2021, an additional 150,000 hectares of fields will be treated with Aflasafe.Multi-national: Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, the Gambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique 150 million more people, of which 50% are women, without deficiencies of one or more of the following essential micronutrients: iron, zinc, iodine, vitamin A, folate, and vitamin B12In 2020, 9.7 million farming households (48.5 million people) were growing and consuming biofortified crops as a result of HP-led delivery efforts. An internal report describes the definitions and methodology for the Global Households Reached Projection Model.HarvestPlus' original targets were to have an estimated 10 million households growing biofortified crops in 2020 and 12 million households growing biofortified crops in 2021 -across HarvestPlus priority countries in 2020. These targets may be revised, given the halt in delivery and ME around delivery due to the global pandemic. Over the past two years, the effects of COVID-19, droughts, etc., have been significant. HarvestPlus continues to find innovative ways to continue the delivery.Multi-national: Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, DRC, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe   The study in Guatemala is nearly complete. In 2020, the analysis was completed and results were presented at the Micronutrient Forum. A journal article is in progress. No decisionmaking tools were developed and there are no plans to develop those, although support to local partners to advocate for (based on the evidence) and to develop and implement national biofortification programs will continue.Preliminary results from Guatemala 2020 -2 decision making tools incorporating evidence from efficacy studies of zinc biofortified crops (rice and wheat) for various target populationsThe two major decisionmaking tools from 2020 included a summary of outcomes and outputs from a major zinc consultation organized by HarvestPlus, which is expected to catalyze future efficacy studies on zinc biofortified crops and a book by Howarth Bouis on biofortification evidence and learning. In addition, a zinc wheat brochure, summarizing the research to date was widely disseminated (available upon request). In addition, a 2020 study serves as a key resource on the potential of biofortification to address noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and a basis for deeper research. Filling evidence gaps on zinc for biofortification has been one of the major goals of HarvestPlus in Phase II of A4NH. A zinc efficacy study in Bangladesh has been delayed due to COVID-19, but is expected to be completed and published in 2021. Other studies -on effects of zincbiofortified wheat intake on zinc status biomarkers in men, supplemental zinc, and fatty acid endpoints from a zincfortified rice trial -are all in the publication pipeline.2020 extended to 2021 -Ex ante impact and cost-effectiveness analyses of all target cropcountry combinations are updated and publishedDue to limited internal resources and capacity, this large piece of work has been delayed. Analyses are expected to be finalized in 2021 for publication in 2022. In the meantime, the methodology has been updated for zinc and analyses are ongoing for other crops. HarvestPlus researchers have provided support to CGIAR colleagues from CIP and the CRP on Roots, Tubers, and Bananas (RTB) to conduct analyses for orange sweet potato (OSP). Preliminary results and progress to date were shared in scientific conferences in 2020.Sub-IDOsLink to evidence 2020 extended to 2021 -Lessons learned on delivery of the biofortified crops along the value chain in Nigeria, Bangladesh, India pearl millet summarized and publishedIn the 2020POWB, we expected to report on lessons learned from Rwanda, Nigeria, and Bangladesh. The countries selected depend on partnerships, demands, and progress in the countries. Instead what could be reported on in 2020 occurred in Uganda and Rwanda. For example, success in reaching so many Ugandans has hinged on continuous innovation, made possible under two projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).In these projects HarvestPlus promoted several novel approaches to scaling up the reach and impact of biofortified crops in Uganda, and many of these innovations have been duplicated in other countries. In Rwanda, a video released in 2020 on YouTube tells the \"nutrition success story\" of iron beans. COVID-19 impacted fieldwork (interviews/focus group discussions), so the work in Nigeria, Bangladesh and India has been delayed and is expected to be completed in 2021. In 2020, HarvestPlus continued communicating with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the review of evidence as part of the process of issuing joint WHO-FAO guidance to governments. (The link provided shows an example of the joint effort.) The WHO plans to complete the evidence review by mid-2021, convene the Nutrition Guideline Advisory Group, and issue a recommendation on biofortification as a mainstream nutrition intervention to prevent micronutrient deficiency. The corresponding guideline is expected to follow in 2022. In response to a request by the WHO nutrition and food safety department, and in an effort to elevate the priority given to biofortification by the Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group and accelerate the process, HarvestPlus country managers are asking their health ministries to officially request guidance on biofortification from the respective national WHO office.HarvestPlus-FAO Brief 2020 -Biofortification included in 5 additional national/regional policies and 3 additional country grants/loans from IFIsIn 2020, biofortification was cited as a strategy to tackle micronutrient malnutrition in policies and official statements from (1) Tanzania, (2) India, (3) USA (concerning overseas development), and (4) Nigeria. The target for three IFI loans was not achieved by the end of 2020, which is why we report this milestone as changed. IFI loans related to biofortification that were approved included an investment from the World Bank to Malawi (approximately $258k). By the end of 2020, negotiations were nearly complete with The World Bank on Link to evidence recommendations for food safety based on evidence from A4NH Phase I and II.chains in 13 districts, expected to benefit millions of consumers. The OICR provides more detail. In 2020, pilots with pork slaughterhouses (Vietnam) and pork sellers in traditional markets (Cambodia) were completed, but it is still too early to say how policymakers/regulators are using the evidence. Evidence generation through pilots of different versions of the \"three-legged stool\" approach in six value chains in four countries in Africa are ongoing so recommendations are not yet available nor are they expected to be before A4NH ends. An assessment on how policy innovations linked to ILRI's \"three-legged stool approach\" that has been trialed in dairy value chains in three countries worked, and why they struggled to continue beyond a pilot phase in some countries has not been completed. The first step, a literature review, was completed. The full report is expected in 2021 with the synthesis completed after A4NH ends.overview of their status, policy context, and opportunities for policy innovation to improve health and safety F3 Outcome: Biocontrol and GAP delivered at scale in key countries along with understanding of their impact and appropriate useThe global pandemic prevented the full achievement of 2020 targets for Aflasafe coverage, which is described in more detail under the relevant milestone. However, targets for the other milestones were exceeded. Now Aflasafe is available at 92 distribution points across nine countries (in 2019, it was 30 distribution points across seven countries). In addition, IITA shared lessons learned from its 5-phased approach and prepared four guides on implementing the business development strategy  Value added, in a few wordsThrough Flagship 1, Wageningen University and Research (WUR) and WorldFish co-managed a PhD project on fish in food systems of adolescent Bangladeshi girls. In 2020, the PhD proposal was finalized and submitted and a review and secondary data analysis took place resulting in a scientific paper to be submitted in 2021.Scientific -supports analysis of role of fish in food systems; sharing of datasets, through knowledge of dietary intake of fish in urban Dhaka.Through Flagship 1, Wageningen University Research (WUR) and WorldFish prepared a joint presentation on food systems perspective for fisheries and aquaculture and are drafting a paper on a similar topic. WorldFish Scientific -builds capacity among WorldFish staff on food systems approaches and how it can be applied in fisheries and aquaculture Through Flagship 2, this collaboration has been established to share lessons learnt in scaling up/commercialization and to harmonize monitoring evaluation and learning systems across HarvestPlus and CIP's vitamin A-enriched orange sweet potato (OSP) program. Besides harmonization of ME indicators, their definitions, and methods and metrics for their measurement, HarvestPlus and CIP co-authored publications on strategic issues; co-developed proposals for additional funding for research, as well as for inclusion of biofortification in the One CGIAR; continued the ex-ante cost-effectiveness and impact assessment of OSP interventions using HarvestPlus-developed methodology; co-developed the OSP narrative of the global Biofortification Priority Index tool; participated in the A4NH/RTB-led evaluation of the efforts of both organizations in shaping the African Union commitment to biofortification; and continued country-specific implementation.  In 2018, a nationally and divisionally representative survey on 48,900 rice farm households in Bangladesh was conducted to understand the progress of the Zinc Rice program. The results show that the Bangladesh Zinc Rice program was still in a relatively early phase of delivery and scale-up at the time. In the early phase of scale-up, zinc rice growers tend to be those with risk-mitigating characteristics. However, the efforts to raise awareness have been very successful, with around 2 million rice farmers being aware of zinc rice and liked the yield attribute, but there was a need to boost seed supply.S3039 -Consumer acceptance study for zinc rice in BangladeshProgram/project adoption or impact assessmentThe objectives of this study were to answer two questions:(1) what are consumers' acceptance and demand for low-milled and biofortified rice? and (2) does sharing nutritional (zinc) information --its importance, benefits, and availability in zinc biofortified and low-milled rice --impact consumers' acceptance and demand? Findings suggest Bangladeshi consumers are willing to pay a 4-5% premium for the two strategies that increase nutrition (zinc) intake -biofortification and low-milling, if they are given appropriate information. However, of the two strategies, addressing zinc deficiency via high zinc rice appears to be the optimal way forward. Full results are unpublished.Preliminary results S3050 -Updated ex ante impact and cost effectiveness analyses of all target crop-country combos Ongoing Ex-ante, baseline and/or foresight study Due to limited internal resources and capacity, this large piece of work has been delayed. Analyses are expected to be finalized in 2021 for publication in 2022. In the meantime, the methodology has been updated for zinc and analyses are ongoing for other crops. For example, analysis of biofortification of zinc in South Asia indicates high cost-effectiveness. The potential for zinc to address the double burden of malnutrition has potential to yield large benefits. From a sample of 480 farmers, this study assessed willingness to pay (WTP) for Aflasafe KE01, a promising biological control product for the management of aflatoxin contamination of key staples in Kenya, compared its cost with that of a similar product in use in Nigeria, and determined factors likely to affect its adoption. Factors that positively influenced farmers' WTP included information from crop extension services and access to credit. To facilitate the adoption of Aflasafe KE01 or any other biocontrol product in Kenya and elsewhere, there is a need for increased education efforts through extension services to farmers about aflatoxins.Published results","tokenCount":"7220"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b0db65e0832eed98552d0f5957f27c40","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d52ce320-9987-4ee4-a86e-e9793264e98d/retrieve","id":"384932771"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8459952e-3105-4a5f-ab5e-32e370efd222","pagecount":"2","content":"The September-October issue of 'Livestock Matter(s) presents a round-up of livestock development news from ILRI and its partners.World Food Day in Ethiopia: Achieving food and nutritional security-and better livesthrough livestock More than two billion people worldwide are not getting all the nutrients they need. Micronutrient deficiency can lead to illness,physical stunting and impaired cognitive development. Animal-source foods-milk, meat and eggs-dense in essential micronutrients are among nature's 'first foods'. Providing poor people with greater access to these foods is a powerful way to improve human nutrition and wellbeing, both through the foods animals provide as well as through the income generated from animals, which poor households use to purchase nutritious foods.African Development Bank-supported livestock team and Nigerian agricultural lending agency to scale up proven animal production technologiesLaunched in 2018 to support the Feed Africa Strategy of the African Development Bank, the 'Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation' (TAAT) initiative aims to increase food production in the continent by 120 million tons per year contributing to lifting about 100 million people out of poverty. The initiative is working to scale up agribusiness opportunities across 9 value chains-maize, cassava, rice, beans, wheat, sorghum, millet, orange-fleshed sweet potato and livestock-in 27 countries.ILRI's Jimmy Smith on farm animal diversity for more sustainable and resilient global food systems Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), this week made a short","tokenCount":"227"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"507fe7224001bda2a47d773652e15bbb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/280843c6-0d7b-41a0-8935-191dc81608c4/retrieve","id":"-1157242937"},"keywords":["Learning and Program Improvement Through \"Horizontal Evaluation\" Horizontal evaluation: Stimulating social learning among peers Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experiencexi Cadima","X.","Terrazas","F.","Salazar","M.","Calderón","R.","Antezana","I.","Iriarte","V.","Ajnota","E.","Gonzales","R.","Ferrufino","N.","2009 Devaux","A.","Andrade-Piedra","J.","Horton","D.","Ordinola","M.","Thiele","G.","Thomann","A.","Velasco","C.","2010a. Brokering innovation for sustainable development: The Papa Andina case. ILAC Working Paper No. 12. Institutional Learning and Change Initiative c/o Bioversity International","Rome. Devaux","A.","Horton","D.","Velasco","C.","Thiele","G.","López","G.","Bernet","T.","Reinoso","I.","Ordinola","M.","2009a. Collective action for market chain innovation in the Andes. Food Policy 34","31-38. Devaux","A.","Ordinola","M.","Flores","R.","Hibon","A.","Andrade-Piedra","J.","Blajos","J.","Reinoso","I.","2009b. Developing a strategic vision for the potato sector in the Andean region. Paper presented at the 15th Triennial Symposium of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops: Lima","Peru","November 2-7","2009. Devaux","A.","Ordinola","M.","Hibon","A.","Flores","R.","2010b. El sector papa en la region andina: Diagnostico y elementos para una vision estrategica. CIP","Lima","Perú Horton","D.","Akello","B.","Aliguma","L.","Bernet","T.","Devaux","A.","Lemaga","B.","Magala","D.","Mayanja","S.","Sekitto","I.","Thiele","G.","Velasco","C.","2010. Developing capacity for agricultural market chain innovation: Experience with the 'PMCA' in Uganda. Journal of International Development","22","367-389. Horton","D.","Oros","R.","Paz Ybarnegaray","R.","Lopez","G.","Velasco","C.","Rodriguez","F. Escobar","E.","Rotondo","E.","Hareau","G.","Thiele","G. 2011b. The participatory market chain approach: Experiences and results in four Andean cases. CIP Social Sciences Working Paper No. 2011-1. Lima","Perú. Horton","D.","Thiele","G.","Oros","R.","Devaux","A.","Andrade-Piedra","J.","Thomann","A.","Velasco","C.","2011a. Knowledge management for pro-poor innovation: The Papa Andina Case. Knowledge Management for Development Journal","7(3) (forthcoming) Thomann","A.","Devaux","A.","Ordinola","M.","Cuentas","M.","Urday","P.","Sevilla","M.","Andrade-Piedra","J.","2009. Native potato market chain and poverty reduction: Innovation around corporate social responsibility. Paper presented at the 15th Triennial Symposium of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops: Lima","Peru","The Papa Andina Experience Multi-stakeholders platforms Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience251"],"sieverID":"0f6d98b9-30db-4933-863d-c2f1cdac318f","pagecount":"444","content":"In July 2011, four individuals from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, who have been involved with Papa Andina for several years, were asked to respond to the question, \"What does Papa Andina mean to you\"? Their replies are presented here, translated from the original Spanish-language replies. \"I believe that the work of Papa Andina is more revolutionary than the Green Revolution and the recent advances in biotechnology. It is our responsibility now to help public officials, the public, and especially farmer organizations understand the significance of the Papa Andina approach. The innovations achieved at different points in the market chain show how science can benefit all market chain actors, and not only those who supply inputs or market agricultural products.\"Luis Paz, Alianza de Aprendizaje Peru \"In Ecuador, the main contribution of Papa Andina has been to consolidate an intervention strategy for the potato sector, which can easily be adapted and applied with other sectors and under different circumstances. The \"Papa Andina Brand\" and philosophy include a number of key components, including: application of participatory methods to develop market chains; innovation that goes beyond technical and productive concerns and includes empowerment and social inclusion; emphasis on adding value to primary agricultural products; working through multi-stakeholder platforms and public-private partnerships; and engagement of policy makers as a strategy to influence public policies. Now that Papa Andina is winding down, its philosophy will continue and its strategies should be applied and the benefits multiplied through other projects, programs, and public policies.In Peru, where Papa Andina's work with local partners has been most intense, the demand for potatoes has increased, especially for native potatoes. This has motivated small farmers to expand the area dedicated to native potatoes, diversify the varieties they grow, increase the volumes of native potatoes produced and marketed, and enter into dynamic new markets. The results are translating into higher incomes; for example, a study in the Andahuaylas region indicated that farmers reaped higher sales and prices, nearly tripling their average annual income from just over US $300 to nearly $900. Benefits also reach beyond economic impacts. In the Lake Titicaca area of Peru, for example, Papa Andina's participatory approaches have been used to improve farmers' production and marketing of a traditional freeze-dried potato producttunta. This woman's testimonial describes the impacts on her personal capital and family this way: \"With my earnings [from tunta], I have been able to buy a small amount of land, fix up my house, and buy supplies for my children's school. I feel good because I have learned a lot and I will pass these things on to my children.\" Similarly, an impact study in Ecuador indicated that Papa Andina's multi-stakeholder platforms were an effective way to link farmers to the market, and that the profits obtained by participants were approximately 6-times those of non-participants. The study highlighted an improvement in social capital among participants, as measured by greater trust among market chain actors. This has facilitated the entry of small-scale producers into more demanding markets.Another important legacy of Papa Andina is a vast array of tools, publications, and other materials sharing its methodologies, applications, and lessons learned. Indeed, Papa Andina is a model for knowledge management, making intensive use of participatory planning and evaluation, systematic documentation of activities and results, synthesis of findings, in-service training and mentoring, and publication in national, regional, and international outlets. In addition, the program has produced a considerable quantity of guides, manuals, articles, market sector analyses, campaigns, and other products in Spanish and English, also using social media, including its website (http://www.papandina.org/) to stimulate knowledge sharing.The work of Papa Andina has been ground breaking in many ways. When the program began, little was known about how to translate innovation systems thinking into practical application and tangible results for the rural poor. Papa Andina's approaches and projects have served as a critical laboratory for experimenting with new modes of partnering for innovation. At a time when there was great reluctance on the part of many international and national research organizations to partner with the private sector, Papa Andina reached out to engage private entrepreneurs (and large companies) in research and development (R&D) efforts both extensively and effectively. The results have included improved linkage of research with action, leading to pro-poor innovation in market chains for potato-based products.The Papa Andina Partnership Program has employed a strategy that builds on the assets of small Andean farmers, notably local knowledge and biodiversity. This strategy differs sharply from the one that had been employed traditionally, which focused on the transfer of external solutions to identified constraints or problems. With its national partners, Papa Andina has helped Andean farmers build new livelihood strategies using the genetic diversity of potatoes, local knowledge, and social capital -assets that are often undervalued.Rather than engaging in potato R&D directly, Papa Andina has focused on developing new R&D approaches, managing knowledge, and supporting local and national groups to facilitate innovation processes. Working with partners, Papa Andina has engaged in the promotion of needed policies and institutions. They have created structures to include lines of accountability to multiple stakeholders and different types of interaction, fostering greater, mutual communication and understanding. As such, Papa Andina has functioned as an innovation broker for the Andean potato sector of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Papa Andina's participatory and applied approaches have generated greater understanding of real-world constraints and how to respond more effectively to challenges and opportunities regarding the use of potato to reduce poverty in the Andes. Results and activities have helped inform the research agenda of the International Potato Center (CIP) to strengthen its contributions to sustainable poverty reduction in the Andes. Likewise, it has helped counter a previously held notion that modern science had little to offer Andean farmers, due to their sophisticated local knowledge of the potato crop.There are a number of lessons learned from Papa Andina's work with new modes of partnering for innovation. These could be of value to agricultural researchers, development professionals, and policy makers at both national and international levels. They include:1. Partnering is essential. The papers presented in this book make it eminently clear that the results obtained -including commercial, technological, and institutional innovations -could not have resulted from a single, isolated actor. Developing new products, the practices needed to produce them, and the new arrangements needed to market them in the required quantities and qualities were possible only through the collaboration of many different actors in the private, public, and NGO sectors. 2. Long-term commitment and persistence pay off. Without the continued support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), CIP, and national organizations in the region, Papa Andina would have been far less productive. 3. Modern science can help preserve biodiversity while contributing to longterm food security. Agricultural research is often criticized for introducing high-yielding modern crop varieties that can lead to the disappearance of native or heirloom varieties. In the Papa Andina case, modern science has been used to aid in the utilization of native potatoes and to greater appreciation of their nutritional, economic, and cultural value. In this sense, modern science has contributed to an understanding of the local context and potentially valuable assets of producers and given new life to what was previously a forgotten crop. 4. Research is not enough. While research is often necessary, it is seldom sufficient to ensure successful innovation. Hence, the importance of initiatives, like Papa Andina, which focus on improving innovation processes per se. 5. Gender matters. Unless specific measures are taken, the main beneficiaries of innovation are likely to be the more powerful and connected groups, to the disadvantage of women and other relatively disenfranchised groups. Papa Andina has demonstrated the feasibility of approaches for improving the benefits of innovation processes for women and others who are frequently left out. 6. Approaches developed for use in the Andes are robust and can be used elsewhere. It is promising that some of Papa Andina's approaches, which were developed for use with potatoes in the Andes, have proven useful and effective elsewhere. The most striking case is that of the participatory market chain approach, or PMCA, which has now been applied with such diverse market chains as those for coffee, dairy products, yams, sweet potatoes, and vegetables not only in the Andes but also in Uganda, Indonesia, and the Philippines. 7. International R&D can make a difference, locally as well as globally.International agricultural research centers are often seen as producing globalInnovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experienceix public goods that are freely available for use by all interested parties, but of little immediate import in promoting national development and poverty reduction in their host countries. Papa Andina has offered a mechanism to connect CIP effectively with local organizations to identify and develop opportunities for using the potato to promote development and poverty reduction in the Andes. Likewise, the research results and new R&D approaches results of this local work have been shared and used for global applications.CIP and SDC have been proudly associated with Papa Andina since its inception in 1998; with CIP as the host organization and SDC as the principal donor. Both organizations have been dedicated to supporting potato development in the Andes since the 1970s. Papa Andina has been an important keystone in this effort. Its legacies include increased innovation capacity in the Bolivian, Ecuadoran, and Peruvian potato sectors that will last far beyond the life of the project. In addition, Papa Andina leaves an important body of knowledge and new methods. This book captures key examples of those. We hope you find it useful. • New potato-based products that were developed and marketed• Continuing innovation processes• Strengthened capacity for innovation• New perspectives on the role of the potato as a resource for development• Changes in the research agenda, at CIP, in national research organizations, and elsewhere• Information on Papa Andina's experiences and results, available in publications and on the Internet.These assets are described in the final section of these Highlights.This book has three main parts. Part 1 deals with the evolution of thinking and practice in Papa Andina and the development of what could be termed 'the Papa Andina innovation model'. Although Papa Andina was originally set up as an applied regional research project, over time its focus shifted from research to brokering and supporting innovation processes. The papers in Part 1 explain why and how Papa Andina shifted its focus, and how this shift helped to link research carried out at CIP and other research centers with local action, innovation, and development in the public and private spheres.Part 2 is concerned with the new R&D approaches that Papa Andina developed and applied in order to perform effectively as a 'second-level innovation broker'. Achieving the shift from research to brokering innovation went hand in hand with the development and application of new approaches, such as:• Identifying and exploiting opportunities in market chains• Establishing multi-stakeholder platforms• Promoting learning and continuous program improvement;• Influencing agricultural policies though advocacy• Promoting corporate social responsibility• Developing sustainable technologies for Andean small farmers • Specifically addressing empowerment and gender.The papers in Part 2 describe the approaches that were developed in each of these areas, and illustrate how they have been used.Part 3 deals with knowledge sharing and the dissemination of Papa Andina's innovation model and approaches. It is sometimes, erroneously, assumed that the dissemination of research results through research publications will stimulate the intended uses of these results by the intended users. However, dissemination of information through publications is not enough to ensure the use of new R&D approaches that are needed to improve innovation systems and their results for the poor. Improving knowledge systems requires fundamental changes not only in the knowledge and skills of individuals but in their attitudes and habits. Bringing about such changes requires more than sharing explicit knowledge via publications or similar media. It also requires sharing of tacit knowledge through sustained personal interaction, which in turn requires the development of trusting interpersonal relationships. Part 3 examines the ways in which Papa Andina worked to disseminate its approaches through the sharing of both tacit and explicit knowledge.The potato, grown mainly by poor smallholders, is the most important food crop in the Andean highlands of South America. For many years, SDC supported national potato research and development programs as a strategy for reducing rural poverty in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru through bilateral projects and collaboration with CIP. In 1998, CIP and SDC established Papa Andina as a regional project in order to improve coordination and the cost-effectiveness of these national efforts.In line with the CGIAR strategy at the time, Papa Andina aimed to provide a regional approach to research planning, priority setting, and implementation involving the traditional partners of CIP and SDC -the national potato research programs. The goal was to develop a decentralized regional research program with country partners implementing specific research projects and sharing the results with researchers in the other countries.3. Acting as a 'broker of innovation in R&D approaches and processes.' 7   The Coordinating Team mainly provide support for methodology development and innovation brokering, knowledge sharing through regional activities, and grants for operations in each country.A key Papa Andina strategy was to strengthen the innovation capacity of national partners by delegating responsibilities and authority to them. An external evaluation of Papa Andina found that country-level activities were so closely associated with the Strategic Partners that many Operational Partners, producers, and other stakeholders knew little about Papa Andina, and assumed that they were participating in or benefiting from the activities of PROINPA, INIAP, or INCOPA (Bebbington and Rotondo, 2010:38). Papa Andina's low profile helped to build up the public image of the Strategic Partners, but may have limited the extent to which Papa Andina was recognized for downstream results of its work -outcomes and impacts. The difficulty of measuring or attributing impacts of innovation brokers, such as Papa Andina, poses problems for fund raising when donors expect their projects to generate tangible impacts in the short term (Klerkx et al., 2009).The four papers in Part 1 of the book cover the evolution of Papa Andina from a regional research project to a diverse and decentralized knowledge brokerage and innovation facilitating network.The first paper in Part 1, Adding value to local knowledge and biodiversity of Andean potato farmers: The Papa Andina Project (Thiele and Devaux, 2002) was published soon after Papa Andina was established. It outlines the rationale for a resource-based approach to improving the livelihoods of Andean potato farmers by building on two of' their most important resources -local knowledge and the biodiversity of their native potatoes.In the second paper, Underground assets: Potato biodiversity to improve the livelihoods of the poor, Meinzen-Dick et al. (2009) show how these ideas were put into practice in the intervening years. Papa Andina and its national partners helped Andean farmers build new livelihood strategies using the genetic diversity of potatoes, local knowledge, and social capital -assets that are often undervalued. This required a range of policies and institutions such as collective action among farmers and interactions with outsiders including market agents and agricultural service providers, to foster market chain innovation, and to access and build market opportunities. The authors conclude that a good understanding of the changing 10Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Highlights context of producers, processors, and consumers is essential to ensure that potatoes play a role in improving the welfare of the poor.The term 'collective action' generally refers to voluntary action taken by a group of individuals with similar interests to achieve common goals. The paper, Collective action for market chain innovation in the Andes (Devaux et al., 2009a) explains how Papa Andina promoted and used collective action involving individuals with different, often conflicting agendas, to foster market chain innovation. Two of the approaches developed and employed by Papa Andina -the participatory market chain approach (PMCA) and multi-stakeholder platforms -engage small potato producers together with market agents and agricultural service providers in group activities to identify common interests, share market knowledge and develop new business opportunities that benefit small farmers as well as other market chain actors. The paper analyzes Papa Andina's experiences with collective action and discusses the policy implications for research and development organizations.The inadequate linkage of research with policy-making and economic activity is an important barrier to sustainable development and poverty reduction in many fields, including agricultural research and development. The emerging fields of sustainability science and innovation systems studies highlight the importance of 'boundary management' and 'innovation brokering' in linking knowledge production, policy-making, and economic activities. Brokering Innovation for Sustainable Development: The Papa Andina Case (Devaux et al. 2010a) analyzes how Papa Andina functioned as an innovation broker in the Andean potato sector. As a regional initiative, Papa Andina was a 'second-level innovation broker,' backstopping national partners who facilitated local innovation processes in their respective countries. Papa Andina worked to strengthen local innovation capacity and to foster the development of more effective ways of bringing stakeholders together to produce innovations that benefit small-scale farmers. The paper outlines the ways in which Papa Andina fostered innovation brokerage at these two levels, the types of results obtained, and some challenges in innovation brokerage at the international level.The last paper in Part 1, Knowledge management for pro-poor innovation: The Papa Andina case (Horton et al. 2011a) analyzes Papa Andina's perspectives on knowledge management and innovation and how these have influenced its strategies and results. Due to the highly decentralized mode of operation within Papa Andina, local teams developed their own perspectives and approaches to market chain development and multi-stakeholder platforms. These perspectives and approaches reflected local circumstances and underlying beliefs about development processes. Rivalry among the teams led to creative conflict, which stimulated creativity and innovation. Participatory evaluations within the Papa Andina network played a central role in recognizing differences and building shared knowledge across teams, contributing to continuous program improvement.Over time, Papa Andina developed a number of new R&D approaches to facilitate pro-poor innovation in market chains. The first of these was the PMCA, which served as a trigger for innovation. At the same time, work began with multi-stakeholder platforms, in some cases to facilitate innovation processes, in others to improve coordination along market chains.With work on these two approaches underway in each country, a way was needed to share and learn from the diverse experiences. For this purpose, a participatory evaluation approach, known as horizontal evaluation was developed.Through the work at the farm and market chain levels, it became clear that public awareness and advocacy were also needed to achieve large-scale impacts, and work began in this area. As large companies began to show interest in processing native potatoes, Papa Andina also began to work in the area of corporate social responsibility.During the work to improve the participation of small farmers in high value market chains, new priorities for technological research emerged, which were addressed through applied research for sustainable technological innovation. In order to ensure that all the benefits of Papa Andina's work were not captured by powerful groups, work also began on empowerment and gender. Papa Andina's work on each of these approaches is introduced in the following sections and highlights of the relevant papers in Part 2 are presented.The PMCA stimulates innovation and generates business opportunities that benefit small farmers. This participatory process involves different market chain actors, including small farmers and the business sector, as well as R&D institutions, agricultural service providers and representatives from the gastronomy sector. This approach uses a carefully structured participatory process focused on market demand, guided by a facilitator, and organized around three phases, focused on diagnosis, analysis of opportunities, and development of innovations (Bernet et al., 2008: Figure 1). Together, the different market chain actors analyze new business ideas and innovative ways to implement them. The participatory process focuses on building trust among the different actors and fostering effective public-private partnerships. The PMCA also provides R&D institutions with an opportunity to capture research demands from farmers and other market chain actors.The PMCA was originally developed and applied to the potato market chain in the Andes by Papa Andina and its partners. It has subsequently been extended to other market chains such as those for coffee, milk and fruit in the Andes, and to sweet potato and vegetable market chains in Africa and Asia.The first four papers in Part 2 relate to PMCA. The first two of these, both titled Participatory market chain approach, (Bernet et al., 2005(Bernet et al., , 2008) ) present the case for a simple participatory approach for promoting market chain development and 12Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Highlights outline the basic features of the PMCA. They explain how the approach can be used to bring together small farmers, market agents, and service providers in a facilitated process that builds trust and encourages collaboration in the identification, analysis, and exploitation of new market opportunities. To ensure that impacts are sustained, the PMCA is best used as part of a broader program of market chain development.In the third paper, Strengthening competitiveness of the potato market chain: An experience in Peru, Ordinola et al. (2009) describe an application of the PMCA and the resulting innovations, which included pro-poor, demand-oriented innovations of three types:• Commercial innovations: new products or marketing arrangements that benefit small farmers as well as other market chain actors. These included attractively packaged, washed and selected fresh native potatoes, colored potato chips, dehydrated mashed yellow potatoes, and a high-quality traditionally freeze-dried product, tunta. 8 • Technological innovations: new ways to cultivate potatoes, manage pests and diseases, or process potatoes, which were stimulated by changes in marketing practices. • Institutional innovations: new rules or organizational arrangements that favor competitiveness of the sector and empower small farmers, including publicprivate alliances, the National Potato Days that are now celebrated in Ecuador and Peru, and Peru's new Potato Wholesale Commerce Law and technical norms for tunta.In the final paper in this section, T'ikapapa: A marketing scheme that uses potato biodiversity to improve livelihoods of Andean farmers in Peru, Manrique et al. (2011) analyzes the T'ikapapa marketing concept, which emerged from a PMCA application in Peru, and resulted in:• Entry of small-scale Andean farmers into high value urban markets• A business case for corporate social responsibility in the food processing industry• Increased public awareness of the value of native potatoes• Increased interest in conserving the biodiversity of Andean native potatoes• Changes in the research agenda for potatoes in Peru.8 Some native potato varieties are known as bitter potatoes, which have high levels of glycoalkaloids. These potatoes are bitter tasting and cannot be consumed fresh, but they are highly frost resistant and suitable for cultivation at high altitudes where other crops cannot be grown. Indigenous Andean farmers have developed traditional freeze-drying methods that eliminate glycoalkaloids as well as moisture, allowing bitter potatoes to be stored for long periods before they are consumed. Consequently, bitter potatoes, such as tunta and chuño, play a key role in the food security strategies of many small farmers in isolated high reaches of the Andes.Stakeholder platforms offer a space for public-private collaboration. Papa Andina promoted stakeholder platforms, as they demonstrated the potential for empowering market chain actors, especially small farmers, and improving access to markets, services, and research results. Stakeholder platforms bring together diverse actors who share interests linked to specific market chains or innovation processes. By interacting within the platform, they can improve their mutual understanding, create trust, set priorities, define roles, and engage in joint action.Stakeholder platforms can perform three main functions that are useful for enhancing the competitiveness and empowerment of small-scale farmers. They can stimulate joint innovation and formulate demand for research; they can improve coordination and governance in the market chain (e.g. by matching demand and supply or by developing information services and business standards); and they can advocate for policy changes and public awareness.There are two main types of platform. Commercial platforms bring together market chain actors such as farmer organizations, traders, processors, and supermarkets, as well as chefs, NGOs, and researchers. They focus on the creation of new products, development of niche markets, and advocacy. Local platforms involve actors from a delimited geographical production area such as local public authorities, NGOs, and farmer organizations. They focus on market coordination issues, empowerment of farmer organizations and access to agricultural and financial services. Both types of platform interact with public and academic institutions at the national level and R&D organizations can play an important role in facilitating them.Three papers relate to multi-stakeholder platforms. In the first paper in this section, Multi-stakeholder platforms for innovation and coordination in market chains: Evidence from the Andes, Thiele et al. (2009) describe how Papa Andina and its partners have supported different types of multi-stakeholder platforms to promote interaction, social learning, social capital formation, and collective action involving these diverse actors in innovation and market coordination processes. The paper analyzes experiences with platforms of different types, presents a general framework for characterizing platforms and identifies key lessons for facilitation and securing significant outcomes.The second paper, Linking smallholder potato farmers to the market: Impact study of multi-stakeholder platforms in Ecuador, by Cavatassi et al. (2009), analyzes the impact of participation in multi-stakeholder platforms aimed at linking smallholder potato farmers to the market in the mountain region of Ecuador. It describes the platforms and evaluates their success in linking farmers to higher value markets and the effects that such connections brought. The authors conclude that the program was successful in improving the welfare of beneficiaries, while potential negative environmental impacts, particularly in relation to agro-biodiversity and use of agrochemicals seem not to be a concern.The third paper, Fostering pro-poor innovation: The case of the Bolivian Andean Platform, by Velasco et al. (2009), uses an innovation system perspective as a conceptual framework for analyzing the experience of the Bolivian Andean Platform (ANDIBOL) in fostering pro-poor technical innovation in response to market opportunities.Horizontal evaluation is a flexible evaluation approach that combines self-assessment and external review by peers. It was developed by Papa Andina to improve the work of local project teams, to promote learning, and to share knowledge within the network. Members of the network had felt frustrated with their experiences with traditional external evaluations and also with study visits to different project sites. In developing horizontal evaluation, they tried to incorporate positive features of external evaluations and cross-site visits, and to avoid the disadvantages.The first of two papers on this approach, Horizontal evaluation: Stimulating social learning among peers (Thiele et al., 2006) offers a brief introduction to horizontal evaluation. The involvement of peers neutralizes the lopsided power relations that prevail in traditional external evaluations, creating a more favorable atmosphere for learning and improvement. The central element of a horizontal evaluation is a workshop that brings together a group of 'local participants' who are developing a new R&D methodology and a group of 'visitors' or 'peers' who are also interested in the methodology. The workshop combines presentations about the methodology with field visits, small group work and plenary discussions. Horizontal evaluation elicits and compares the perceptions of the two groups concerning the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology; it provides practical suggestions for improvement, which may often be put to use immediately; it promotes social learning among the different groups involved; and it stimulates further experimentation with, and development of, the methodology in other settings.The second paper, Horizontal Evaluation: Fostering knowledge sharing and program improvement within a network (Thiele et al., 2007), presents a more substantive treatment of the approach, for a professional evaluation audience. The paper explains how, in a horizontal evaluation workshop, a project team and peers from other organizations independently assess the strengths and weaknesses of a R&D approach that is being developed and then compare the assessments. Project team members formulate recommendations for improving the R&D approach, and peers consider ways to apply it back home. The paper reports on a survey of participants in horizontal evaluations. Results indicate that the horizontal evaluations helped improve the work under review, stimulated visitors to experiment with new R&D approaches back home, and strengthened interpersonal relations among network members.There are limits to what can be achieved through work at the level of small farmers and other market chain actors. To improve the image of native potatoes and influence governmental policies that affect the competitiveness of the potato sector, Papa Andina and its partners in the Andes engaged in three strategies, which reached a pinnacle during the UN-declared International Year of the Potato in 2008. 9• Creation and celebration of a National Potato Day in Peru and Ecuador with the participation of the Ministry of Agriculture, municipalities, supermarkets and restaurants, cooking schools, and media coverageThe first strategy was to develop a strategic vision for the potato sector in the Andean region. Papa Andina worked with research partners in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru to implement a regional diagnostic of comparative statistics for the potato sector. These data provided the basis for developing a strategic vision for the whole sector. The participatory vision exercise involved a wide range of actors such as Ministries of Agriculture and leading private sector companies. It identified priority areas requiring public and private action for the development of the potato sector, such as organizing the sector, developing lobbying capacities, and developing technologies for improving the efficiency and sustainability of the potato production system.The second strategy was to change public perceptions of the value of the potato. Over the past decade, Papa Andina and its partners have created and promoted awareness about native potatoes at the regional, national and international levels, highlighting their culinary, cultural, and economic potential for promoting development in rural areas of the Andean region. The main results include:• Production of a potato photography exhibition that toured the Andean countries in 2008• High visibility of the potato in the media throughout 2008 and later.The third strategy was to advocate for measures to enhance the competitiveness of the potato sector. Papa Andina and its partners advocated for ministerial decrees and participated in normative processes. This work led to the introduction of native potatoes in the national variety catalog and the formal seed system in Peru, and to the promulgation of official quality and technical norms for chuño and tunta in Bolivia and Peru.The tenth paper in Part 2, Developing a strategic vision for the potato sector in the Andean region (Devaux et al., 2009b), describes how Papa Andina and its partners took advantage of the International Year of the Potato in 2008 to promote the development of a strategic vision for the potato sector in the Andean region. This was done in cooperation with the PROINPA Foundation (Bolivia), INIAP's National Potato Program (Ecuador) and the INCOPA Project (Peru), and in coordination with public and private actors in each country. The process involved an international diagnosis, national surveys and analyses in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and workshops involving public and private stakeholders to build up a joint strategic vision. In each 16Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Highlights country a strategic vision was elaborated or priorities were defined for the sector. Partners have used these results to support development of the sector. The instability of public authorities responsible for making and implementing political decisions was a common challenge identified in the three countries. This paper explains the diverse dynamics at work and analyzes the progress made in developing the vision and implementing concrete actions in each country. A book based on this work, which compares and contrasts the potato sector in the three countries, is now used as a reference document in technical and political circles in the region (Devaux et al., 2010).The entry of large companies into the native potato market boosted the demand for native potatoes and the potential to increase incomes for producers. However, there was a risk that small farmers, who have little market knowledge and limited bargaining power, and produce only small volumes for the market, might lose out to larger commercial farmers. To ensure that small farmers benefitted from development of the market for native potatoes, Papa Andina and its partners in NGOs and processing firms experimented with business models that integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR).In the context of a high value chain, such as that of the native potato, one way for an agri-food company to implement CSR is to establish a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship with small farmers as suppliers. Such a partnership allows the company to take advantage of market opportunities for native potatoes while contributing to poverty reduction. Labeling and public awareness campaigns driven by independent parties can further strengthen this model, as they provide consumers with a guarantee and the company with credibility for its efforts to invest in smallscale farmers in an impact-oriented way. To implement such a business model, innovation and capacity building are required both at the company and farmer levels. Research and development organizations can provide valuable support to meet these needs.Native potato market chain and poverty reduction: Innovation around corporate social responsibility (Thomann et al., 2009) analyzes an innovation process promoted by Papa Andina and its partners to integrate CSR into the native potato market chain, and harness the private sector in efforts to reduce poverty. Outcomes included:1. A tripartite partnership between PepsiCo Foods, R&D organizations and farmer organizations, which has generated substantial benefits for farmers 2. A dialogue on the private sector's role in supporting research to improve smallholders' production 3. New institutional arrangements, such as a social marketing initiative and a CSR certification label for the native potato trade.To be competitive in high value markets and improve their incomes, farmers generally need to improve the quality and yield of their potatoes. In collaboration with CIP's research divisions and its national research partners, Papa Andina promoted the development and adoption of technological innovations that help small Andean farmers respond better to market demand, without affecting their productive and natural resources, including biodiversity.The starting point was market demand. For high value markets, quality criteria included tuber size, absence of pest and disease damage, specific processing or cooking characteristics, and reasonable shelf life. The use of production methods with no, or minimal, use of pesticides also increases the perception of quality for a growing number of consumers who are concerned about food safety.To respond to market demands and also contribute to poverty reduction, Papa Andina and its partners promoted technological innovations that improved the competitiveness of small farmers, made minimal use of pesticides and other practices that could damage the environment, and combined the traditional knowledge of farmers, the practical experience of local partners (NGOs), and formal knowledge of research institutions.Technological innovation was promoted in three main areas. The first of these was quality seed production for native potatoes, where new techniques such as aeroponics were applied, together with more traditional approaches such as positive selection in seed production systems that integrate elements of both formal and informal systems. Research articles are being prepared on a mixed seed potato system in Ecuador and on the aeroponics techniques used in Ecuador and Peru. The second area, integrated crop management, involved the adaptation and use of new techniques in local contexts and participatory capacity strengthening approaches, such as Farmer Field Schools and Local Agricultural Research Committees. The papers by Cavatassi et al. (2009) and Andrade-Piedra et al. (2009) included in Parts 2 and 3 of this book provided examples of this work. The third area covered post-harvest management, and aimed to improve the quality and market price of harvested potatoes.The first two papers on technical innovation are based on experiences with the Innova project, which aimed to strengthen technology innovation systems in potatobased agriculture in Bolivia. At the time, Bolivia had a large set of almost-ready technologies, which were developed under projects funded by DFID. Completing the technologies involved systematically gauging demand for them from farmers and other potential users, in a way that did not simply rubber-stamp the existing research program. Cinderella's slipper: Sondeo surveys and technology fairs for gauging demand (Bentley et al., 2004) describes how project personnel adapted the sondeo (informal survey) method to learn about pilot communities in three regions and their explicit demands. They also created a new method, the 'technology fair', to present almost-ready technology to smallholders and elicit feedback from them. The 18Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Highlights technology fairs confirmed that Innova's technology did meet many demands for research, and together with the sondeos improved understanding of demand. However, smallholder farmers did not necessarily respond to the technology that most closely addressed their explicit demands as identified in the sondeos but rather to the one that was most convincingly presented.Unspoken demands for farm technology (Bentley et al., 2007) notes that before Innova started, critics suggested that the previously developed technologies should be discarded, because they were not based on a thorough demand survey. Instead, Innova kept the existing technologies, but judged the demand for them using several methods, including local agricultural research committees, sondeos, technology fairs, and others. It was found that there was demand for some of the existing technologies, and that a survey would probably have missed much of the demand, which is implicit. People are not initially aware of all their problems or all the possible solutions. Over the years, farmers made more specific, sophisticated demands on the technologies, which evolved as a result.As market innovations have been introduced and the demand for native potatoes has increased, Andean farmers have been challenged to improve their yields and the quality of harvested potatoes. In this context, one of the main limiting factors has been the low availability of high-quality seed for native varieties. In Seed systems for native potatoes in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru: Results of a diagnostic study Hidalgo et al. (2009) present results of a diagnostic study of potato seed systems in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, which reveals that most small farmers keep their own seed and neither buy nor sell much seed. Little is known about the factors that influence seed degeneration or the optimal production technologies for seed of native varieties. Many projects and organizations are helping farmers produce seed, but few of these are concerned with native varieties. Systems that combine elements of formal seed certification systems and informal farmer systems are likely to be the best option for improving the quality of native potato varieties.In the last paper in this section, Promoting innovations in the Peruvian Altiplano: The case of tunta, Fonseca and Ordinola (2009) report on work in southern Peru to promote the production and marketing of tunta. Since ancient times, traditional processing has allowed Andean farmers to diversify their consumption and preserve potatoes for later consumption or sale. Tunta is a highly nutritious, dehydrated food, but studies have identified deficiencies in the quality of the product. The INCOPA project supported the development of a multi-stakeholder platform in Puno to promote tunta production and marketing. This platform worked on three main fronts:1. Technological improvements in tunta processing and quality certification 2. Establishment of the 'Aymaras Consortium', which brought together 100 small producers from eight communities 3. Linking the consortium to different markets and marketing tunta under the brand name, 'Los Aymaras'.In 2008, the Consortium's members sold about 220 tons of tunta at prices about one-third higher than the traditional market price. Producers have reported substantial increases in their income, which translated into expansion of their cropland and investment in livestock.Innovation processes may not benefit men and women equally. Men usually have better access to external information and play a greater role in decision-making during innovation processes. R&D approaches seldom include gender-specific tools to encourage women's participation. To help counteract the typical gender bias in R&D, Papa Andina prepared a set of guidelines for incorporating gender perspectives into the PMCA, stakeholder platforms, and horizontal evaluations (Avilés et al., 2010. Papa Andina also provided support for partners to strengthen their capacities to address gender issues within their institutional strategies.Two papers illustrate the importance of applying a 'gender lens' in innovation processes. The first paper, Gender relationships in production and commercialization of potato seed with small-scale farmers in the Central Andes of Ecuador (Conlago et al., 2009), reports on a gender analysis conducted in the central Andes of Ecuador. The objective was to analyze gender relationships and benefits in potato seed producers of the farmers' organization CONPAPA (Consorcio de Pequeños Productores de Papa) and to propose recommendations to improve the relationships among the actors of CONPAPA's seed system. Women were found to play key roles in seed production in CONPAPA. While becoming part of the CONPAPA seed producers' groups was empowering for women, it may also overburden them. Men were found to still manage the most important events and are in charge of taking the most important decisions. To address these issues the following recommendations were made:1. Use training materials tailored to women's needs and conduct training events in their native language 2. Promote women's access not only to knowledge, but to other resources, mainly credit 3. Practice affirmative action and promote women's leadership 4. Be aware that new activities could overload women's capacity and, therefore, start the intervention with few and simple activities 5. Highlight women's contributions to specific activities.The second paper related to gender, Preserving biodiversity of Andean roots and tubers: working with women (Cadima et al., 2009) reports on a project to preserve biodiversity of Andean roots and tubers by working with women. PROINPA and the Bolivian Ministry of Agriculture, supported by Papa Andina, worked together to promote women's participation in producers' associations, which have tried to increase their members' incomes through the use and promotion of the biodiversity 20Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Highlights of Andean roots and tubers. Women's traditional knowledge related to the use of Andean roots and tubers was combined with new information on additional uses of such products. Results were presented at several food fairs and other events, in order to disseminate the knowledge to other communities. The project contributed to increasing family incomes, and particularly women's incomes, since they were the ones who marketed the products. It also contributed to improving women's self esteem and recognition from other community members.It is sometimes assumed that new R&D approaches can be efficiently transferred through scientific publications, training materials, or guidelines. However, changing the approaches used in R&D programs often requires significant changes in knowledge, attitudes, and skills on the part of users; and such changes are not likely to be brought about merely by sharing information via publications or training documents. New R&D approaches do not work in the same ways, nor produce the same results everywhere. They require tailoring and adaptation to fit different circumstances.For these reasons, the Papa Andina model and approaches cannot be simply 'transferred' from one place to another. Local capacities need to be developed to apply the model and the various approaches, and to tailor them to local circumstances. For this, both explicit and tacit knowledge need to be shared through a number of mechanisms. The dissemination of international public goods is necessary, but it is insufficient to only disseminate the use complex approaches such as the PMCA and horizontal evaluation. Strategies to promote individual and organizational learning are needed to bring about changes in knowledge, skills, and especially attitudes, behaviors, and organizational procedures.Part 3 presents three papers that deal with issues related to the sharing and utilization of new knowledge. The first two papers report on experiences with introducing the PMCA to new settings. The third paper reports on an initiative to more effectively communicate to potential users principles for controlling late blight, one of the most severe diseases of the potato crop.• Success factors for the PMCA include the economic policy environment and the presence of 'PMCA champions' among the PMCA facilitators and within the market chain.• One common weakness of PMCA implementation is the limited engagement of business people and their commitment to market chain development.• The PMCA is best seen not as a 'producer of innovations' but as a 'trigger for innovation processes'; the main benefits do not come directly from application of the approach but later on, as market chain actors and stakeholders continue to innovate.In the second paper, Developing capacity for agricultural market chain innovation: Experience with the 'PMCA' in Uganda, Horton et al. (2010) address two fundamental questions that are frequently posed with regard to the PMCA:• Can the PMCA be successfully used to stimulate innovation outside the Andes and in other commodity chains?• What does it take to successfully introduce and apply the PMCA in a new setting?The paper describes the strategies used to introduce the PMCA to Uganda and some of the results to date. The Ugandan experience indicates that the PMCA can, in fact, stimulate technological and institutional innovation in locally relevant agricultural commodity chains in Africa. Since the PMCA requires researchers and development professionals to work in new ways with diverse stakeholders, including not only small farmers but also market agents and policy-makers, its successful introduction requires an intensive capacity development process that fosters social networks, changes in attitudes, and the acquisition of social as well as technical knowledge and skills.In the third paper in Part 3 and final paper in the book, Humans: the neglected corner of the disease tetrahedron -developing a training guide for resourcepoor farmers to control potato late blight, Andrade-Piedra et al. (2009) describe how competence analysis was used to develop a training guide on late blight control for extension workers in Ecuador. Late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, continues to be one of the major threats to potato production, especially in developing countries. A group of farmers, extension workers and plant pathologists identified five areas of competence needed to manage late blight efficiently, which relate to:• Recognition of the symptoms of disease and the organism that causes it• Knowledge of how this organism lives• Identification of the characteristics and benefits of using resistant potato cultivars• Appropriate use of fungicides Papa Andina's work is well known among different communities concerned with propoor innovation. In the agricultural research for development communities in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, Papa Andina was known for its innovative approaches and successful work to promote market chain development and link small potato producers to new high value markets. In the CGIAR, Papa Andina was known for its success in linking international research with national and local research forOver time, an innovation model has emerged from the collaborative efforts of CIP, SDC, and partners in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. This model was developed to pursue specific objectives in the context of a regional initiative in the Andes, and it reflects these particularities. The model is dynamic and has evolved over time as new needs and opportunities emerged, specific objectives evolved, and the partners learned 24Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Highlights new and more effective ways to accomplish them. Key features of the model can be summarized in the following points:• The over-arching goal is to promote innovation in market chains, as a strategy for improving the livelihoods of small producers, along with other market chain actors.• The modus operandi involves working in partnership with diverse stakeholders in public, private, and non-governmental organizations.• Two key functions of the partnership coordination unit are:o innovation brokerage, which facilitates innovation processes o organizational boundary spanning, which links research organizations more effectively with the other actors engaged in innovation processes.• The three main entry points for innovation are:o understanding the key assets of the poor (farmers and other market actors) that could be leveraged to improve their livelihoods. Such assets include local knowledge and biodiversity.o understanding the potential market opportunities related to these assets (such as colored potato chips)o identifying other sources of information and support (including research) that could contribute to pro-poor market chain innovation.• Efforts are pursued simultaneously on multiple fronts, to foster technical and institutional innovation and encourage changes in policies and public opinion.• Initiatives target multiple system levels, including, for example, specific social and economic actors, the market chain, local and national government, public opinion, and the national, regional, and international scientific and development communities.• Research is mobilized where it is most beneficial, for feeding new ideas into innovation processes; marshalling information to solve identified problems or develop opportunities; and synthesizing results, drawing general conclusions, and packaging them in the form of public goods.New R&D approaches are central to the Papa Andina model. As work and priorities evolved over time, new approaches were developed in the following areas:• Identifying needs and opportunities and fostering innovation in market chains (the PMCA)• Promoting collective action among diverse stakeholders to foster innovation and coordination in market chains (multi-stakeholder platforms)• Collective learning and program improvement in the context of a network (horizontal evaluation)• Advocacy and public awareness• Corporate social responsibility• Developing sustainable technology• Empowerment and gender.These approaches were co-developed with partners in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru so as to be suitable for local circumstances. They evolved over time while maintaining their core principles. In future, new approaches will surely be needed to address emerging problems and opportunities. These approaches are at different stages of consolidation and documentation, with the PMCA and horizontal evaluation being the most advanced. Papa Andina's Coordination Team played a lead role in systematizing the approaches and disseminating them through publications and training manuals as well as through CIP's global programs and collaboration with other organizations. For example, CIP, the Regional Potato and Sweet Potato Improvement Network in Eastern and Central Africa (PRAPACE), and several national organizations introduced the PMCA into Uganda, with support from DFID. Also with DFID support, the Andean Change Alliance and numerous local organizations applied the PMCA in market chains for coffee, fruits, dairy products, native potatoes, and yams in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. With support from the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), CIP and local organizations introduced the PMCA to Indonesia.Experience to date indicates that the most significant and lasting results derive from a combination of these approaches over time. The PMCA has been useful for triggering innovation processes. Work to strengthen farmers' organizations and multi-stakeholder platforms has helped to consolidate these innovation processes and improve market coordination. Work on public-awareness has raised the profile of native potato-based products in the marketplace and in the national development agenda. Work on corporate social responsibility, empowerment, and gender has helped ensure that traditionally disempowered groups share in the benefits of market development. As work advanced in these areas on the demand side of the market equation, efforts were also made to improve the supply of information and technologies needed to enable sustainable development. Such supply-side work has included new research on the following aspects of native potatoes: Previously, research in these areas focused on improved varieties and the results were of little use with native varieties.As a result of applications of the PMCA and associated approaches, a number of new products based mainly on native potatoes entered markets in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. In Bolivia, an early result of an application of the PMCA was the development of the first colored native potato chips marketed in the country. This product was developed by the Lucana company in Cochabamba in partnership with native potato producers organized around the APROTAC association and with the PROINPA Foundation. It was launched in 2004 and is still in the market. Another PMCA application, with traditional, frost-resistant bitter potatoes grown in high areas near La Paz, resulted in improvements in traditionally freeze-dried potatoes (chuño) and in the first-ever official quality norms for this product, which is important in the local food system. A new product, consisting of clean, selected and bagged chuño branded Chuñosa, was launched in 2005.In Ecuador, through the stakeholder platforms (and later, CONPAPA), three products were developed and are being marketed:• Forty-five kilogram bags of selected tubers of the cultivar INIAP-Fripapa and other cultivars suitable for French fries were sold to fast-food restaurants, and 400-gram bags of selected, washed baby potatoes were sold in urban supermarkets. Both the selected table potatoes and seed tubers are sold under the brand name \"Raíz de Vida\" (Root of life, in English).• Forty-five kilogram bags of quality potato seed of the same cultivars, certified by CONPAPA with an internal control system developed by INIAP.• Since early 2011, a private company (INALPROCES) has produced 50 gram bags of mixed colored chips (brand Kiwa), made from two native potato cultivars grown by farmers affiliated with CONPAPA. This product, sold in Ecuador's main supermarket chain, won an award for its CSR approach (Exhibit 3).A book of recipes using native potatoes has been published (Monteros et al., 2006). From 2005 to 2010, in the province of Tungurahua, CONPAPA produced 528 tons of seed and sold 4,004 tons of table potatoes to restaurants, generating sales of USD 1,340,480 (F. Montesdeoca, INIAP, personal communication). In Ambato, at least 5 persons (including three former CONPAPA employees) have also begun to sell selected tubers of Fripapa and other suitable cultivars to fast food restaurants that market French fries.An impact study (Cavatassi et al., 2009) indicates that multi-stakeholder platforms were an effective way to link farmers to the market, and that participants' profits were approximately six times those obtained by non-participants. The study highlights an improvement in social capital among multi-stakeholder platform participants, which is expressed in greater trust between market chain actors. This has facilitated the entry of small-scale producers into more demanding markets.In Peru, there has been more new product development than in the other two countries, as potatoes have played a central role in the country's recent 'culinary boom.' As shown in Exhibit 3, more than a dozen new products have come onto the market since the initial PMCA exercise was conducted. A few of these products, including Jalca Chips, T'ikapapa and Mi Papa, were direct results of the PMCA. When these products came into the market, they stimulated considerable interest and motivated other entrepreneurs to develop other new products, many of which have been of far higher quality and are more successful than the original ones. The innovation process with native potatoes in Peru illustrates how change occurs over time in unpredictable ways, and how the initial results of an innovation process may soon be superseded by other 'copy-cat' innovations. The appearance of these new potato products, promotion of Andean potatoes as an important aspect of the country's cultural heritage, 'the blossoming of Peruvian cuisine as a global gastronomic phenomenon' (Scott, 2010: page 148), and recent economic and political trends in Peru have driven a rapid expansion of Peruvian potato production and consumption. As Scott (2010: page 148) notes, in a study of growth rates for potatoes in Latin America, 'The renaissance in potato output and area planted in Peru over the last 15 years has been perhaps the most remarkable development in the region over the last half century.' A recent study of Peru's potato sector concludes that initiatives associated with Papa Andina and INCOPA have contributed to shifting the demand curve for potatoes -especially native potatoes -to the right, so that increased production and consumption have been accompanied by increased prices (Proexpansión, 2011: 13). These initiatives have included not only new-product development, but effective work in the spheres of public awareness and political advocacy, which led to establishment of Peru's National Potato Day (since 2006), celebration of the International Year of the Potato ( 2008), and the central role played by native potatoes in the Mistura International Gastronomy Fairs (since 2008).New product development and general promotion of the potato sector have helped small farmers improve their participation in dynamic markets. Small farmers have expanded the area dedicated to native potatoes, diversified the varieties they grow, increased the amount of native potatoes produced and marketed, and entered into dynamic new markets. A study in the Andahuaylas region (Proexpansión, 2011) indicates that farmers who benefitted from higher sales and prices increased their incomes from their potato crop from an average of just over US$ 300 to nearly US$ 900 per year. In the Puno area, where farmers improved the production and marketing of tunta, one woman summarized the benefits in this way: \"With my earnings [from tunta], I have been able to buy a small amount of land, fix up my house, and buy supplies for my children's school. I feel good because I've learned a lot and I will pass these things on to my children.\" Despite these significant gains, it is important to note that the overall incomes or welfare of rural families have improved relatively little, because livelihoods depend on multiple activities, not only in agriculture but increasingly off farm.More important than the initial new products resulting directly from the PMCA are the innovation processes triggered by applications of the PMCA and other approaches, and which will continue long after the work of Papa Andina and its Strategic Partners has ended, as entrepreneurs in the private, public, and nongovernmental sectors take over the innovation processes. In Peru, for example, spurred by the early work with native potatoes spearheaded by the INCOPA project, private enterprises in many parts of the country have continued to develop new fresh and processed potato products, and native potatoes have become a central ingredient in the rapidly growing slow-food and gourmet food industries.Researchers and development professionals who worked with Papa Andina now tend to approach their work with a new set of eyes. Rather than framing their work narrowly, they tend to think in terms of how it contributes to the development of market chains that benefit the poor. The work of Papa Andina also helped legitimize value chain work in the broader scientific community. For the first time, recent conferences of the Latin American Potato Association and the International Society for Tropical Root Crops have featured sessions on market chain development (which highlighted the work of Papa Andina).One of the most striking changes stimulated by Papa Andina was the increase in interaction and collaboration among individuals and organizations achieved through capacity strengthening at individual and institutional levels. Previously, both individuals and organizations tended to work alone or with professional peers. It was very rare to find researchers collaborating with extension agents, business people, or NGOs. In contrast, now, individuals who worked with Papa Andina frequently partner with others who represent different institutional or economic interests. It is common now for business people, chefs, and nutritionists to participate in sector-wide events to discuss innovation possibilities for the potato, something that was virtually unheard of a few years ago.In each of the countries formal, or more often informal, networks have been established that bring people together to pursue common interests. Gradually, people from different backgrounds and with different interests develop a common language and common perspectives on development, and begin to pursue joint activities. Examples include Peru's Learning Alliance (Alianza de Aprendizaje) that serves as a forum for discussing and improving the use of market chain approaches; and the stakeholder platforms in Ecuador (CONPAPA), Bolivia (ANDIBOL), and Peru (Production Chains for Quality Agricultural Products, Peru, CAPAC) that serve as fora for discussing and resolving problems related to the potato sector in each country.Papa Andina's work also helped to change the perspectives of policy-makers in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru on the role of the potato in development efforts and on market-led strategies for improving the livelihoods of the rural poor. Through its advocacy work, Papa Andina has helped raise public awareness of the nutritional value of native potatoes and the importance of maintaining biodiversity in Andean crops.Previously, in all three of the countries, native potatoes had a very poor image, as a 'poor man's food'. This image has now changed dramatically, particularly in Peru, where multi-colored native potatoes are now viewed as highly desirable and nutritious ingredients in Peruvian cuisine. In Ecuador, a processing company (INALPROCES) has recently incorporated multi-colored native potato chips into its list of products. In Bolivia it is now common to find mixtures of fresh native potatoes 30Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Highlights available in supermarkets as well as in traditional markets, something that did not occur a few years ago.Papa Andina has shown that modern science can help preserve biodiversity while contributing to long-term food security. Agricultural research is often criticized for introducing high-yielding modern crop varieties that can lead to the disappearance of native or heirloom varieties. In the Papa Andina case, modern science has been used to aid the utilization of native potatoes and to foster greater appreciation of their nutritional, economic, and cultural values. In this sense, modern science has contributed to a better understanding of the local context and local producers' valuable assets. It has given new life to a previously a forgotten crop.As market demand for native potatoes has increased, technical production constraints have been identified and communicated to researchers. Researchers have responded to these new production and post-harvest challenges, and the research agenda for potatoes has gradually changed, both in national and international organizations. In Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, researchers are now working to characterize native potato varieties and to develop seed systems for native varieties. CIP has also expanded its genetic and seed-related research for native potatoes.With support and encouragement from SDC and CIP, Papa Andina gave a high priority to documentation, learning from experience, synthesis of lessons, and publication. Results of this work remain available on the Papa Andina web site. 10   10 www. papandina.org. Individuals associated with Papa Andina have participated in many national and international conferences and have published a large number of research reports and papers in professional journals and books. These publications generally deal with the Papa Andina model, Papa Andina's R&D approaches, or experiences with South-South knowledge sharing -the three main sections of this book.Most of the publications associated with Papa Andina report on local or national work. They have been prepared in the Spanish language by collaborators in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru and have been issued in these countries. In contrast, most of the English-language publications have been presented at international conferences or published in international scientific journals. A small but important sub-set of Papa Andina's publications includes manuals, guidelines, and training materials for two new R&D approaches: the PMCA and horizontal evaluation. It is expected that these publications arising from Papa Andina's work will be useful for others who wish to foster pro-poor agricultural and market chain innovation.The experiences of Papa Andina, and of other similar initiatives, highlight two main challenges to the sustainability of partnership programs that function as innovation brokers and manage the institutional boundaries separating research organizations from others involved in innovation processes (Klerkx et al., 2009).A unit within a research organization responsible for managing relations with other organizations (boundary spanning) may be expected to favor the interests of its host organization. However, an effective innovation broker needs to be seen as independent, trustworthy, and unbiased in its advice and management practices. Being hosted by an international agricultural research center had a number of advantages for Papa Andina, providing easy access to scientific and related resources and ensuring credibility as a source of technical expertise. However, playing the dual roles of boundary manager and innovation broker has at times led to real or perceived conflicts of interest.Ideally, an innovation broker is independent of the major actors in an innovation system. However, in practice, independence has proven difficult to attain. Most documented experiences concern brokers that are hosted by entities with stakes in the innovation processes being brokered -usually research organizations, and it seems likely that in the near future, most innovation brokers will continue to be hosted by such organizations. This being the case, Papa Andina's experience shows the importance of having long-term external funding, such as that provided by SDC, and an independent Management Committee with members representing key actors in the innovation system.As innovation brokers are not directly involved in innovation processes, it has proven difficult to document their 'tangible outputs,' 'value added,' and 'long-term impacts' on development objectives (Klerkx et al., 2009: 415, 422-423). This difficulty was highlighted in the final evaluation of Papa Andina (Bebbington and Rotondo, 2010). In the present era of 'results-based management' and 'evidence-based decisionmaking,' the impossibility of measuring tangible impacts and attributing them to specific interventions makes it difficult to present a convincing business case for innovation brokerage to increasingly impatient private funders, government officials, and international donor agencies who expect to see results of their funding within a few years or even months. Fortunately, SDC provided Papa Andina with funding over a 13-year period, and this after earlier bilateral funding to national potato programs for potato R&D in the Andes beginning in the 1970s. This type of long-term funding support was necessary for the development and maturation of Papa Andina, for the consolidation of its R&D approaches, and for the documentation and dissemination of its results and lessons.The year 2011 marks the end of Papa Andina as a Swiss-funded initiative operating in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. Therefore, it is timely to ask: What will be the legacy of Papa Andina?As noted earlier, Papa Andina and its partners stimulated the creation of several new potato-based products that have been sold in Andean market outlets. The appearance of these products stimulated 'copy cat innovation' that produced several additional products that are marketed locally, and some of them have been exported to other countries in the region or Europe. Only time will tell how long these new products, generated directly or indirectly as a result of Papa Andina's work, will remain on the market. But it seems likely that the innovation processes triggered by Papa Andina's activities will expand in the future, contributing to new product development, growth in demand for potatoes -especially native potatoes -and benefits for small farmers.In addition to the new products and innovation processes, there have been many changes at the level of individuals and institutions. Individuals who worked with Papa Andina now tend to approach their work differently. They are less concerned with conducting specific research or development projects and more concerned with developing new products, new policies, or new institutional arrangements with the concrete objective of benefitting poor people. Individuals and organizations that have worked with Papa Andina tend to be more open to collaboration with diverse stakeholders in innovation processes. Papa Andina's experience shows that partnership programs that broker innovation processes and facilitate communication across institutional boundaries can improve the linkage between international agricultural research and local innovation processes and the alignment of international research agendas with local needs and opportunities. One important way to improve this alignment is to strengthen incountry and regional innovation capacity, so that local groups can work more effectively with national R&D organizations in fostering pro-poor innovation, and in articulating their needs for new technologies to international programs. If CGIAR centers supported innovation brokers in various parts of the world, this could lead to strengthened innovation capacity and improved articulation of technology needs and demands, which could exert significant influence on the research agendas of national agricultural research institutes, CGIAR centers, and other research institutions.Papa Andina led the development of a community of professionals concerned with pro-poor market chain innovation who now speak a common language and have a common mode of operation. These professionals possess the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to facilitate innovation processes and to work effectively across organizational and institutional boundaries. They represent a valuable pool of talent that could be mobilized to facilitate innovation processes on a larger scale. Based on Papa Andina's experience, we believe that support for the development of a network of innovation brokers dedicated to facilitating pro-poor agricultural innovation would be a high payoff area for international donor organizations, as well as for national and local governments and NGOs.Papa Andina has become a widely recognized brand in the Andean agricultural community. Over the next five years, this brand will continue to be developed and promoted in the context of a broader program focusing on agricultural innovation and food security in the Andes. This program will be implemented by CIP and supported by the European Union. It will extend work from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru to include Colombia and Venezuela. This new program, called 'Strengthening propoor agricultural innovation for food security in the Andean region', will be implemented in collaboration with national organizations concerned with agricultural innovation and food security. The objective is to promote innovation in potato-based food systems, so as to improve food security and reduce the vulnerability of rural people in the Andean region. The program will work to adapt innovation processes to the needs of vulnerable groups, to strengthen the capacity of participating organizations, and to harmonize policies related to innovation and food security. This initiative will be integrated in a new CIP geographic program focusing on highland potatoes in the Andes. It will take advantage of partners' networks and the approaches developed by Papa Andina, which will be complemented with new approaches for addressing new issues. Papa Andina's brand, innovation model, and approaches will continue to be developed and enriched in the future in a broader context within the framework of CIP's research program. Not all potato products have the same potential to benefit the poor. Taking advantage of new markets for products that will ultimately be taken over by large farms does not help to alleviate poverty. Some products that have stringent quality and uniformity requirements, particularly regarding non-visible characteristics such as dry matter or sugar content -which farmers cannot easily check -favour larger-scale farmers. Papa Andina is developing poverty filters to identify products which give small-scale farmers a longer term competitive advantage. In the case of such products, smallholders have the benefit of better location, local knowledge, access to a wide range of local land-races or crop management practices. For example, some market niches require small tubers, which in turn require high planting density and manual harvesting. Such constraints favour small non-mechanized farms.Papa Andina works with its partners to promote exchange of technology and information within the Andean region. Sharing technology based on genetic resources presents special problems in the Andes. Indeed, while the potato originates from the region, each country increasingly regards control of genetic resources as important to maintaining domestic competitiveness. Papa Andina also helps partners in the different countries to share lessons learned about the agrifood chain approach.One of the best opportunities to apply the approach described above is in the case of native potatoes from local landraces. These come in a range of beautiful colours and shapes. Many are especially tasty and form part of local dishes for special occasions. Farmers keep small fields with these crops for home use and call them «gift potatoes», as they are reserved as presents for best friends and relatives. Some native potatoes are especially suitable for freeze drying in the cold highland nights and processing into chuño, a local food that goes back to the times of the Incas. Market studies supported by Papa Andina showed an unmet demand in major towns for native potatoes as a gourmet food and for chuño. But meeting the demand means improving product presentation and quality, as well as ensuring a regular supply to consumers. These changes would also contribute to improving smallholders' incomes.To access these new markets, farmers have to adapt their existing technology. Often yields of native potatoes are low and farmers need help to increase production while using ecologically sound technology. Typically the seed of these potatoes has become infected with disease. One of the first steps is thus to help farmers have access to disease-free seed that will improve crop yield and quality. Farmer field schools, a training approach developed for integrated pest management as an alternative to chemically based control, are being extended to help farmers learn about product requirements and negotiation skills in these new markets. Farmers are collaborating to conduct research on so-called rustic stores to extend the period during which potatoes can be stored on farm and facilitate deliveries to market at a better price.Papa Andina has three major challenges for the future. The first is to turn ideas into concrete tools, such as the poverty filters and local platforms mentioned above. The second is to create a culture of cooperation between actors with diverging interests and philosophies. Such a culture is essential to the proper functioning of the platforms. Finally, perhaps the hardest part of Papa Andina's mandate is to promote sharing of technology and genetic resources between countries. A critical step in this direction is to develop and agree on easily understood and transparent procedures for dealing with intellectual property rights. If these three challenges are met successfully, the concept of access to biodiversity as a means of improving smallholders' livelihoods will become a reality.Three quarters of the world's poor live in rural areas where agriculture is the primary source of livelihoods (World Bank, 2007). Although agricultural development has played a major role in reducing poverty in recent decades, many of these advances have bypassed the areas with poor soils, limited infrastructure and other constraints, in which many of the poor live. While they may lack many of these resources, the poor do have other assets, and building on these offers the possibility to respond to multiple constraints and to new threats such as climate change. This is the case of the South America Andes where the potato remains a key component in the livelihood systems of small-scale farmers, contributing to food security as a direct food source and as a cash crop (Antezana et al., 2005). In the Andes, as in many developing countries, the potato is often produced in poor, remote and mountainous areas, on small plots, by families with little land. However, potatoes generate more added value and employment per hectare than any other staple. Once home consumption needs are covered, sales are usually made close to the place of production, and the resultant income is utilized according to the needs of the family: the first bag to pay a hospital bill, another for school fees, a third for savings, etc.The Andes are the home of the potato, and more than 4,000 native varieties (landraces) are still cultivated in the highlands above 3,000 m.a.s.l. This biodiversity has been undervalued, but could become a stronger asset for the people who maintain the varieties if their nutritional characteristics, multiple colours and the social value associated with traditional knowledge accumulated over time by the Andean farmers were duly recognized. Agrobiodiversity and the social capital linked to it represent unique resources that can partially compensate for the other missing resources that its custodians face and, if well managed, can be transformed into competitive advantages. There is considerable scope for repositioning potato as an added-value cash crop through expanding use for processing and sales of improved and native potatoes (landraces) to satisfy emerging markets in small and large cities. Because agrobiodiversity is often linked to smallholders and marginal areas, the link between biodiversity and livelihoods is not specific to potatoes but has a wider application to high diversity areas.To be most effective in reducing poverty, development programs need a sound understanding of the often complex and heterogenic conditions which poor people face. The sustainable livelihoods framework provides a useful starting point for this understanding, to help identify appropriate types of interventions or to evaluate how particular interventions have affected poverty (Scoones, 1998;Ellis, 1999;IUCN, 2002). For example, a set of case studies of the impact of agricultural research on poverty (Adato and Meinzen-Dick, 2007) used this framework to synthesize and identify patterns across studies of different technologies, crops, and countries. A key aspect of the livelihoods framework is that it recognizes people themselves, whether poor or not, as actors with assets and capabilities who act in pursuit of their own livelihood goals, not passive \"beneficiaries\" of programs or victims of circumstances. It gives explicit attention to sources of vulnerability, which will also shape people's behavior (Chambers and Conway, 1992). Rather than assuming people are full-time farmers or non-farmers, it draws attention to multiple livelihood strategies and the variable role that agriculture plays in people's lives (ODI, 2003;FAO, 2004). The framework's emphasis on different types of assets helps us to see the resources that poor people have to work with, and how policies and institutions can help or hinder them from using their assets in pursuit of improved livelihoods and well-being.In this paper we examine the role that potatoes, especially native potatoes, can play in improving the livelihoods of poor people, as demonstrated by the Papa Andina Regional Initiative, a programme to stimulate innovation in the potato market chain in the Andes. The paper draws on existing studies of this regional initiative using the livelihoods lens to highlight the assets of the poor in these communities that are often overlooked in conventional development approaches. We then consider the 42Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model lessons from this approach that can inform other programmes that seek to reduce poverty.The Papa Andina Regional Initiative was established in 1998 to promote pro-poor innovation in Andean potato-based food systems. Financed mainly by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and other donors such as New Zealand Aid, and hosted by the International Potato Center (CIP), the network includes about 30 partners in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. In each country, Papa Andina coordinates its activities with a \"strategic partner\" that plays a leadership and facilitating role to develop participatory approaches for market chain innovation with the Papa Andina coordination team: the PROINPA Foundation in Bolivia, the INCOPA (Innovation and Competitiveness of the Peruvian Potato) Project in Peru, and the National Potato Program of INIAP (National Agriculture Research Institute) in Ecuador. This network promotes partnership with diverse actors from the public and private sector and reaches directly a growing number of poor rural households, currently estimated to be around 4,000.Until recently native potatoes, a product domesticated 8,000 years ago and grown since then in the High Andes, was not recognized in urban markets in Peru. A market study led in 2002 showed that they were essentially destined for self-consumption or local markets, and hardly represented a source of income for poor farmers (Lopez et al., 2002). But with their amazing diversity in colours and shapes, high cooking versatility and nutritional profile (superior content of dry matter, C vitamin and antioxidants) and traditional production practices (small-scale farming with low inputs), native potatoes represent a special asset. New urban consumption patterns increasing demand for quality and processed foods, along with health, environmental and social concerns in modern society, create the opportunity to expand the markets for native potatoes. Because native potatoes grow better in higher altitude (above 3,300 m) where small-scale farmers predominate, Papa Andina decided to concentrate its activities around those potatoes to promote market innovation that would give a comparative advantage to small-scale farmers. The native potatoes act as a \"poverty filter,\" meaning that using them in developing commercial innovation or new commercial products would give a comparative advantage to poor Andean farmers who predominate in the highlands.The market chain approach is used to bring together research organizations and a wider range of partners to promote pro-poor innovations. The Papa Andina network in these three countries employs novel forms of collective action to foster market innovation in the Andes, with special attention to inclusion of small-scale farmers. The participatory market chain approach (PMCA) (Bernet et al., 2006;Antezana et al., 2008) and stakeholder platforms (Thiele and Bernet, 2005;Reinoso et al., 2007) bring small potato producers together with market agents and agricultural service providers to identify common interests, share market knowledge and carry out joint activities to develop new business opportunities. Papa Andina facilitates knowledge sharing and promotes collective learning in a regional and broader context (Devaux et al., 2007).Based on these experiences Papa Andina has developed a framework for analysis of collective action in market chain innovation, which builds on the Institutional Analysis and Development framework (Ostrom, 2005). As illustrated in Figure 1, the Papa Andina framework focuses on important innovation processes, taking account of components of social learning, social capital formation and joint activities (Devaux et al., 2009). The central focus of attention in this framework is the Innovation Arena where social learning, formation of social capital, and joint innovative activities lead to the development of innovations as livelihoods strategies that contribute to livelihoods outcomes. Commercial innovation involves the development of new products or services for specific market niches, to add value to potato production. Technological innovation involves improvements in the way commodities are produced or transformed. Institutional innovation relates to changes in attitudes, habits or relationship among stakeholders, to create more favourable conditions for pro-poor innovation. The Innovation Arena is influenced by four sets of exogenous variables:1. The external environment: mainly the formal and informal institutions and organizations that may influence collective action and access to livelihoods strategies playing a facilitating role in bridging between smallholders, other market chains actors and policy makers 2. Biophysical and material characteristics of the market chain, focusing on commercial innovation and development of high-value niches for potato products for generating greater benefits for small farmers 3. Characteristics of market chain actors: relations in market chains are traditionally characterized by lack of trust and cooperation. Hence, getting diverse market chain actors (including small farmers) to work together in innovation processes contributes to increase the social capital among market chain actors and to empower famers (men and women) to participate more actively in high value markets 4. Institutional arrangements: one of the key challenges to stimulate innovation in the market chain has been to provide adequate facilitation for social learning processes, which promote the development of collective cognition, social capital and leadership capacity. In most cases, a research organization took responsibility for this facilitation role.As indicated by the broken lines in Figure 1, the outcomes may influence the processes that take place within the Innovation Arena. For example, successful innovation may stimulate participants to invest more time and resources in joint activities. Over time, outcomes may also influence the four groups of exogenous variables. For example, successful innovation may predispose policy makers to support future programmes involving collective action.The overall conceptual framework for sustainable livelihoods is has been described by Carney (1998) andDfID (2001). The framework is intended to be dynamic, recognizing changes due to both external fluctuations and the results of people's own actions. The starting point is the vulnerability context within which people operate. Attention is next given to the assets that people can draw upon for their livelihoods. Assets interact with policies, institutions and processes to shape the choice of livelihood strategies. These, in turn, shape the livelihood outcomes (which may be positive or negative) -the types of impact we are interested in. However, those outcomes are not necessarily the end point, as they feed back into the future asset base. We examine each of these for the Papa Andina case, drawing on a study on poverty in potatoproducing communities in four communities in the central highlands of Peru in 2005 (Antezana et al., 2005) as well as a study on the impact of farmers' participation in multi-stakeholder platforms (Plataformas) aimed at linking smallholder potato farmers to the market in the mountain regions in three provinces of Ecuador (Cavatassi et al., 2009). Vulnerability refers to things that are outside people's control. Perceived and actual vulnerability influence people's decisions, and hence their livelihood strategies. For Andean farmers, the climate is a major source of vulnerability. Regular temperature and rainfall fluctuations affect what they can grow in different landscape niches, and farmers report that sudden frost, hail, and droughts affect their production. The Andean highlands are used to extreme temperatures, fluctuating from 20°C to -25°, and farmers apply different strategies to reduce the impact of frost on their crops such, as planting dates, field location and mixture of varieties. Due to climatic change, frost can have an erratic pattern and may hit any time. In the four communities in Peru, frost, hail and the lack of rainfall were reported as having the most impact on crop production in the past 15 years (Antezana et al., 2005). In 2007, one single unexpected frosty night caused tremendous losses in the native potato harvest in the central highlands of Peru, with some communities losing their whole crop. This extreme situation directly affected the food security, economic income and family health of the most vulnerable communities. Although some preventive measures exist to deal with frost (field burners, community-based early warning, use of less exposed planting areas), setting them up is a costly organizational challenge for the communities. Farmers under these conditions need to diversify their activities and also link to activities outside agriculture to manage risk, cope with shocks, and make the most of their resources. This is compounded by major rainfall fluctuations associated with El Niño, which are, in turn, associated with global climate change. Additional major constraints in the potato production in the Andes are Late Blight (Phytopthora infestans) and Andean Potato Weevil (Premnotrypes spp.). Both can cause severe yield losses and reduce the quality of the potatoes. Soil fertility declines are prevalent, attributed to soil erosion, overgrazing, shorter fallow periods and inappropriate use of chemical fertilizers. Support from external agents (such as research organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or governmental bodies) is required to stimulate innovation and provide technical and institutional backstopping in order to facilitate access to training and technologies to respond these technical constraints.In addition to considering these common agronomic factors, a livelihoods perspective pushes us to look at other sources of vulnerability. In the areas in which Papa Andina and partners work, low potato and livestock output prices and high input prices have had important effects on livelihoods. Low potato prices, in turn, are attributable to several factors: on the one hand is the declining demand for certain types of potatoes that are commonly grown and the competition from large-scale potato producers with new varieties. On the other hand, small-scale farmers' poor marketing arrangements, which include high transaction costs, poor connection to markets, limited access to information and low negotiation capacity, limit their access to dynamic markets that can be more profitable (Escobal and Cavero, 2007). Illness, especially that related to poor water and sanitation, lack of dietary diversity, and exposure to wood smoke in unventilated houses affects many households. Illness can 46Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model cause households to fall into poverty due to loss of labour and additional expenditures, and Antezana et al. (2005) found that health problems made up one of the main reasons why people remained poor. Changes in government policy over the years, including structural adjustment in the 1990s and the decline of agricultural or social assistance projects, have also been sources of vulnerability to these rural communities, particularly with the privatization of agricultural research and extension making it hard for poor farmers to obtain information, increasing their dependence on NGOs. Changes in land tenure cause further uncertainty, with government programmes favouring privatization of land, which undermines the collective ownership of land that has provided a bond among campesino communities. Even past crises cast long shadows of vulnerability. The hyperinflation and economic crises of the 1980s and the civil war and consequent militarization of the region caused mistrust, especially of strangers, emigration, and a high number of female-headed households.Gender interacts with vulnerability. Although the image of gender in the Andean culture calls upon a complementary and harmonic role between males and females without discrimination, in practice rural women are less endowed to face adversities and thus more vulnerable than men. Evidence suggests that female-headed households in the Andes are more likely to fall into poverty and to remain poor than male-headed households (Antezana et al., 2005). This is often a result of gender inequities in access to education and training as well as to lack of own sources of income.Identifying the sources of vulnerability not only helps outside programmes to understand people's behavior and attitudes to new and potentially risky enterprises, but also to identify opportunities for programmes to help reduce sources of vulnerability. In the Papa Andina case, for example, addressing the small-scale farmers' poor marketing arrangements and limited access to dynamic markets as well as their needs for information were important entry points.People use a wide range of assets to make a living. The livelihoods framework goes beyond tangible assets to look at natural, physical, financial, human, and social capital. In this section we consider the role of each of these for potato farmers in the Andes, and the basis they provide for the Papa Andina Initiative.Natural capital generally refers to land, water, forests, marine resources, air quality, erosion protection and biodiversity. In many Andean communities farm sizes are relatively small (less than 5 ha), and productivity is limited by slopes, soil erosion, and the rocky terrain. Land not suitable for cultivation is set aside for pasture. Many communities hold the land in common and allocate plots to individuals to cultivate. In the central highlands of Peru, lack of access to land appears to increase poverty, but on the other hand, access to land without other assets, such as capital investment or labor force, does not protect from poverty (Antezana et al., 2005). Farmers who own some livestock, including large animals (mainly cattle) to work in the fields, medium animals (sheep, alpaca, lamas, pigs) for wool and meat, and small animals for meat and eggs, are better endowed to face adversity. An average of 62 per cent of interviewed farmers in the central highlands of Peru mentioned livestock as the second most important source of income after potato production. More than 80 per cent of farmers who remained poor or became poor described the soil of their fields as medium to low fertility. Small-scale irrigation systems can increase agricultural productivity, but much of the land is unirrigated (only 13 out of 120 farmers mentioned having access to irrigation), and some communities even face difficulty in getting enough drinking water. In this context where other natural capital is limited, the agrobiodiversity in potato landraces and Andean tubers represent a valuable asset, because of its adaptation to local environments. Collectively, it is estimated that over 4000 varieties of native potatoes are still cultivated in the Andean region of South America (Spooner et al., 2005, cited in Devaux et al., 2007).Physical capital encompasses transportation, roads, buildings, shelter, water supply and sanitation, energy, technology, or communications. Because of their mountainous location, Andean communities often lack public transportation, telephone and even drinking water. Nevertheless, most have electricity, primary schools, and some kind of road. Location and infrastructure constraints limit access to markets and information. There are some tractors used collectively, and some have collective facilities for storing potatoes.Financial capital includes savings (cash as well as liquid assets), credit (formal and informal), as well as inflows (state transfers and remittances). Papa Andina and partners work in communities that have limited access to credit from formal institutions such as banks and from informal providers such as money lenders and friends. In a recent study in Huanuco, Peru (Bucheli et al., 2008, p. 100) only 13 out of 83 farmers had access to credit in the last 5 years. From those 13 small farmers, three were financed by a bank, two through their participation in a savings fund and eight received credit from moneylenders. Less than a quarter of households receive remittances, and lack of cash is a serious constraint that restricts adoption of certain agricultural practices, such as purchase of disease-free planting materials.Human capital can be analyzed in terms of education, skills, knowledge, health, nutrition and labour power. In the case of Andean farming communities, education levels are variable both within and between communities, with considerable primary and some secondary education. The percentage of female illiteracy is around 35 per cent (INEI, Census, 2005) and many women, although they understand Spanish, speak only Quechua. This limits their participation, for example, training activities conducted in Spanish and in dealing with public affairs outside the communities. There is considerable knowledge of highland cultivation. Health problems are greatest in the cold and rainy months, but there is considerable morbidity that erodes labour productivity. The nutritional status of women and children, in particular, is poor, which is related to starchy and inadequate diets and poor sanitation. Approximately 20-25 per cent of households are female-headed, but all male-headed households have an adult woman. Old age is another factor affecting labour power. Social capital refers to social norms and networks that increase trust, ability to work together, access to opportunities, reciprocity, informal safety nets and membership in organizations. Whereas other asset categories are relatively weak, social capital is strong in these Andean communities. There are active indigenous institutions including communal landholding and decision making on production, communal work obligations, and work feasts that create bonds among the community members. In the central highlands of Peru, mutual help and community organizations were frequently mentioned as contributing to people's well-being by protecting them against becoming poor. In some communities, in which the community associations are strong, community members even indicated that those families who do not belong to the associations are more likely to remain poor (Antezana et al., 2005). There are also a number of \"modern\" organizations that have been introduced by government or NGO programmes, such as producer associations. While there is therefore strong bonding social capital within the communities, many Andean peasants face social exclusion from society at large. This is particularly the case for those of indigenous ethnic origin, especially those who do not speak Spanish. The communities therefore need bridging social capital to link to other similar communities and linking social capital with outsiders to bring in additional resources and represent their interests. Initiatives are implemented by public authorities, in coordination with NGO and other civil society organizations at regional and local levels, to promote livelihoods of rural families. But these efforts are still limited and need to be developed to enhance rural development.Examining the general pattern of assets held by smallholders in the high Andes illustrates how examining the whole set of assets can assist programmes to help the poor. Interventions, especially agricultural innovations that require a high level of assets to adopt, are more likely to exclude the poor, but those that build upon the assets that the poor have are more likely to be adopted by and help the poor (Adato and Meinzen-Dick, 2007). A conventional approach might only see the small holdings, poor soil, lack of infrastructure and financial resources and conclude that little could be done or (as is often the case), that the only viable strategy was to focus on the \"progressive farmers\" with more education, better land, etc., and hope that the benefits would trickle down to others. But Papa Andina has picked up on what people do have -the strong social capital and the often overlooked assets of diverse potato varieties, especially native potato and the knowledge of how to grow them, plus the cultural heritage of the communities who have been growing potatoes for generations. These have become crucial ingredients for the programme, as discussed below.Assets by themselves produce little. The value they have for people's livelihoods is shaped, to a large extent, by the formal and informal institutions and organizations that shape livelihoods by influencing access to assets, livelihood strategies, vulnerability, and terms of exchange. They may occur at multiple levels, from the household to community, national, and even global levels. The public and private sectors, civil society, and community institutions may all be relevant considerations; laws as well as culture can also be included. Gender norms and relations are relevant, as are class, ethnicity, and other factors that affect one's position in society.Efforts devoted to reduce rural poverty have traditionally focused on small-scale farmers trying to increase their competitiveness within the market chain by strengthening organizations and improving production through new technologies. Some challenges could nevertheless not be overcome. First, the market chain encompasses a diversity of actors, ranging from small-scale Andean farmers to modern supermarket chains or restaurants, including wholesalers and processors. These actors live in distinct geographical areas and cultural settings, have sometimes never met, or have informal relationships characterized by a lack of trust and wild competition. They lack the capacity to identify common interests and joint opportunities and to innovate to overcome hurdles at different levels of the market chain. For innovation to start taking place requires new patterns of interaction and institutional arrangements among the diversity of actors involved in the value chain (Manrique et al., 2008).Much of the institutional innovation in Papa Andina has focused on adapting scientific expertise to the local context, paying special attention to the socioeconomic, environmental and market-driven dimensions through coordinated efforts and promoting collective action for helping smallholders to have better access to market and research and development institutions. The program partners have developed approaches such us the PMCA and stakeholder platforms to promote commercial, technological and institutional innovations. The PMCA has helped to link small farmers to markets within the context of market chains and by facilitating collective action among different chain actors, including producers, processors and traders. This requires a participative, guided process in which representatives of research and development organizations interact with the chain actors to identify and pursue business opportunities. Small farmers have through this interaction improved access to markets, technical assistance, information and business partners. According to farmers' perceptions in Huanuco, Peru, this improved access to information and markets contributes to reduce their vulnerability and to increase their food security (Bucheli et al., 2008).Stakeholder platforms facilitate the interaction of research and development organizations, producers and other chain actors in order for them to share knowledge and identify joint actions (Devaux et al., 2006). Unlike conventional agricultural extension programmes that \"disseminate\" technologies developed by researchers to selected individual farmers, the stakeholder platforms tap into existing community institutions not only to disseminate technologies, but also to articulate their need for  , 2007). The platform has been used to bring together potato farmers and a range of suppliers of research and development services to help link farmers to higher-value markets for their produce including, supermarkets and local fast food restaurants. This effort has led to improvements in small farmer productivity and the quality of potatoes supplied to market, facilitating direct linkages of farmer organizations to these purchasers. It provided smallholders with greater opportunities to obtain benefits from their potato production. In Bolivia, the \"Bolivian Andean Platform\" has contributed to establish links with market agents to develop better quality chuñobased products (traditionally processed and dried potatoes) with a higher price and to explore the export potential of chuño and tunta. The platform today represents 13 core members including four farmers' associations with around 200 members, processing firms, development projects, an NGO and a research organization, PROINPA. It has helped to build trust and social networks among its members and has improved links between small farmers and market agents on one hand, and regional research and development (R&D) organizations and other service providers on the other (Devaux et al., 2007).The decision by the government to reduce its support to public extension service in the 1990s has affected the access of small-scale farmers to services in agriculture, although there was support specifically oriented to help small-scale farmers, from NGOs and public programs funded on a competitive basis by international cooperation. But those programmes had a limited impact. Recently Peru has launched programs to help highland farmers link to markets by identifying market opportunities that can benefit rural families and involve them more actively in these new businesses. But the impact of this programme on small-scale farmers' livelihoods is very limited because the programme is oriented to export crops for which most of small-scale farmers are not competitive enough, because they do not have the assets required. The current decentralization process transferring responsibilities and resources to regional and municipal governments should support local livelihoods strategies, but the lack of capacities of regional and municipal governments in implementing development programs limits their support and response to the needs of small-scale farmers.In the Andes as elsewhere, agricultural development is taking place in the context of rapid urbanization and increasing market integration. Packaged food sales and supermarket retail outlets are now found in most developing countries. Recent concerns for food quality and safety have stimulated demand for locally grown and organically produced foods including native potatoes from the high Andes. Consequently, the production practices and livelihoods of small Andean potato farmers are influenced by the demands of urban consumers and food industries. These trends have created new market opportunities for indigenous food products such as native potatoes that Papa Andina has been able to exploit through its novel participatory approaches. The PMCA and the multi-stakeholder platforms developed by Papa Andina benefited also from policy support for market chain development in Peru and Bolivia. In contrast, in Ecuador, policies favoured farmer organization through stakeholder platforms over market chain development per se. Recent governmental changes in Bolivia have reduced support to market chain development vis-à-vis peasant organization. In the context of CIP the new vision launched in 2004 based on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) has contributed to the strengthening of partnership programmes such as Papa Andina that help link research to development for poverty reduction.Vulnerability, assets, and institutions all influence people's livelihood strategies, i.e. the choices they employ in pursuit of income, security, well-being and other productive and reproductive goals. A realistic picture of the range of livelihood strategies will generally lead to better programmes, whereas those that assume people are either full-time farmers or non-farmers may limit their choices. In many parts of the world, the number of full-time farmers has been declining as people move into non-farm occupations, or diversify their activities to supplement farm income and to cope in time of stress or shocks. The Andean communities still have a very high dependence on agriculture, not just for subsistence but also for income. But the levels of income they obtain are often insufficient to meet household needs. Thus, a programme that would enable them to earn more income while still doing farming would have a better fit than those that insist on particular types of other jobs.The Papa Andina initiative has sought to increase profitability of potato cultivation through commercial innovation to improve farmers' access to more dynamic markets that can provide better incomes. There are several ways this can be accomplished: through increasing total demand, adding value to the product, or by improving contractual arrangements and access to commercial information. The Papa Andina initiative works on all of these. First, the programme seeks to differentiate the market and expand demand, especially for native Andean potato varieties that are often bypassed in moves toward homogenization of products, particularly in supermarkets. The PMCA has identified opportunities and developed commercial innovations oriented to high-value niches by working with supermarkets, culinary schools and the media to raise the profile and uses of native potatoes and chuño blanco (traditional dried potatoes). This process draws upon both Andean and urban \"gourmet\" culture to raise the profile and profitability of native potatoes. Improved storage, labelling and processing of the potatoes added value as well as expanded the market for these colourful and extraordinary potatoes, e.g. through gourmet coloured chips, instant yellow mashed potatoes and other products made from native potatoes. For example, in one community in Huanuco, there was an increase in yearly average income resulting from potato sales from USD 720 to USD 2000. Interviewed community members explain that increase was due to better prices of the improved quality of the product and better market access (Bucheli et al., 2008, p. 42). Institutional innovation through the stakeholder platforms also enabled farmers to interact with other market chain actors and get organized and empowered for negotiating for a higher share of the value. But beyond early successes, turning potato biodiversity into a drive for sustainable rural development implies two challenges: strengthening smallholders' participation and competitiveness in these 52Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model high-value market chains despite their high transaction costs; and guaranteeing their access to a fair share of benefits despite their low negotiation capacity. During the last year, Papa Andina has been working with its national partners on approaches to stimulate public-private partnership to achieve business with social responsibility within the native potato market chain. In this context, socially responsible companies' efforts to achieve business for development makes them consider small farmers as business partners; innovating around this client-provider relationship becomes a way to access new market segments and generate a win-win situation. The identification and development of sustainable commercial and pro-poor production practices, certification and social marketing schemes represent new research fields for promoting innovation; and R&D institutions appear as knowledgeable allies and warrant of credibility (Thoman et al., 2008).The Papa Andina initiative has sought to increase incomes by building on existing livelihood strategies in the high Andes, particularly potato production. Technological innovation responding to market should increase or stabilize output and reduce costs of production. As priority was given to identify niche market for native potatoes grown by the Andean smallholders, the programme, together with its national partners, seeks ways to reduce input costs, such as through integrated pest management to reduce expenses for chemical pesticides, and improved seed selection and storage systems to reduce losses from virus or insect infestations. Reducing chemical pesticide use and providing information about safe practices also reduces health risks for household members. Investment in potato production plays an important role in helping Andean farmers move out of poverty (Antezana et al., 2005, p. 165). But even with increased profitability, potato farming alone is unlikely to give small farmers in the Andes enough income and stability to rise or remain above poverty levels. Farmers growing only potatoes remain vulnerable to shocks such as frost, drought, disease, and price fluctuations. Farmers employ additional livelihood strategies, such as diversification of both on-farm and off-farm income sources, to face adverse situations. Expansion of other Andean tubers, other crops, and livestock help to stabilize and increase farm income. Expansion of processing and marketing in the rural areas, will increase options for local non-farm employment, while improved education, transportation and communications can facilitate migration and remittances to supplement rural incomes.Potential outcomes include conventional indicators such as income, food security, a strengthened asset base, reduced vulnerability, empowerment and improvements in other aspects of well-being such as health, self-esteem, sense of control, and thus have a feedback effect on the vulnerability status and asset base. The cases of the T'ikapapa in Peru and the APROTAC (Asociación de Productores de Tubérculos Andinos) Farmer's Group in Bolivia illustrate some of the livelihood outcomes.T'ikapapa is a commercial innovation obtained through application of the PMCA in Peru, facilitated by INCOPA, a strategic partner of Papa Andina. T'ikapapa is the first brand of high-quality native potatoes sold in Peru's leading supermarket. T'ikapapa was launched through a partnership between farmers' organizations, NGOs and the private sector facilitated by INCOPA, taking advantage of a stakeholder platform \"CAPAC\" that was promoted in Peru. T'ikapapa has been implemented as a pilot case since 2004 to market native potatoes in a specific market niche. The idea was improve the visibility of native potatoes in competitive markets, test the viability of marketing native potatoes in those markets and to take advantage of this experience to promote other native potato-based products. INCOPA estimates that in total around 500 families from 21 farmer organizations have participated and benefited directly from the marketing concept behind T'ikapapa. Main outcomes from T'ikapapa can be summarized as increased farmers' revenues, new access to stable markets for native potato producers, higher prices for native potato, improved image of native potato and increased farmer's self esteem (Manrique et al., 2008). The marketing concept has already been imitated by other stakeholders, increasing the number of indirect beneficiaries.APROTAC is an association of young farmers from the Primera Candelaria community in the Municipality of Colomi in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The PROINPA Foundation, one of the main strategic partners of Papa Andina, has applied the PMCA giving impetus to the work already in place and taking advantage of new market opportunities (Bernet, et al., 2006, p. 129). PROINPA has worked with the Primera Candelaria community promoting technological innovation to guarantee food safety and the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources to benefit small farmers. PROINPA has promoted Andean tubers such as native potato, oca (Oxalis tuberosa), and papalisa (Ullucus tuberosus) and has supported the social capital from farmers by strengthening farmer organizations such as APROTAC. A recent study (Oros, et al., 2007) found positive impacts of the intervention in three main aspects: technological (use of quality seed, organic fertilizers and pest control); economic (higher income, increased crop areas, contracts with supermarkets and industry); and social (greater negotiating capacity, enhanced market knowledge, revaluation or agrobiodiversity consolidation in terms of native potato varieties). APROTAC members are now responsible for managing their own business -taking orders, delivering produce, doing the accounts and looking for new markets. They have introduced new native potato products into the market, which not only increases profitability but also helps to accomplish the important goal of agrobiodiversity conservation. New opportunities have opened up for selling potatoes, particularly for farmers affiliated with APROTAC. While non-members continue with their long-term customers and traditional marketing systems (\"rankeras\" or middlemen/women, retailers, local outdoor markets), 81 per cent of the APROTAC member farmers have accessed new markets (agroindustry, supermarkets), in addition to their traditional buyers. Now about 13 per cent are specializing in sales to supermarkets and agroindustry and potato crops grown solely for home consumption have dropped from 50 to 6 per cent, because the farmers are producing more native potato (Oros, et al., 2007). The new demand for native potato in supermarkets and agroindustries has meant that native potato production in the region has increased in recent years, both among APROTAC members and non-members. While member farmers have 54Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model increased their average crops from 38 to 597 kg, non-members have moved from growing 82 kg to 263 kg on average (Oros et al., 2007, p. 8). Increased native potato production and commercial innovation have had positive economic and institutional impacts. These products have fetched higher prices, increasing income for farming families. Members, who previously sold their potatoes at 0.55 bolivianos/kg, obtained 2.38 bolivianos/kg in 2006 (Oros, et al., 2007, p. 10). New business relations have also been introduced, such as contracts, which the farmers say give them greater security that buyers will actually comply with agreements.In Ecuador, through the stakeholder platforms, small-scale potato producers have access to high-value market purchasers such as local fast-food restaurants, supermarket chains and the multinational food processor Frito-Lay. Platforms provided smallholders with greater opportunities to obtain benefits from the changes in agricultural marketing systems through shortening and improving the efficiency of the potato value chain as well as through the application of better agricultural techniques, thus decreasing transaction costs with the former, and improving yields with the latter (Cavatassi et al., 2009). The platform had a major advantage compared to other providers through the improved Fripapa potato variety which was not previously grown in the area and is much more suitable for processing than traditional varieties grown previously. This variety was originally developed by the INIAP potato research programme, in collaboration with CIP, for its resistance to diseases and processing characteristics. Fripapa gave farmers an advantage analogous to the native potatoes in Peru and Bolivia. From 2003 to date approximately 17,000 tons have been marketed via the platforms. The price received by members was approximately 30 per cent above that received by non-members during the same period. This commercial success resulted from successful collaboration between NGOs, universities and the INIAP potato research programmes to organize different capacity building activities to improve small farmer productivity and the quality of potatoes supplied to the market. Thirty-two R&D institutions, municipal councils and 61 farmers' organizations have participated in the activities of the platforms. The existence of social capital has proved to be fundamental in implementing the platforms, which have in turn contributed to strengthening the social fabric and have built or improved the capacity of farmers to link successfully to the market. As a result of this process, a national organization, the Consortium of Small Potato Producers (CONPAPA), was established to support joint marketing activities (Devaux et al., 2007).In reviewing the impact of agricultural research on poverty, Adato and Meinzen-Dick (2007, p. 332) note: \"Three main sets of factors are likely to affect adoption: (1) whether the technologies are anticipated by potential adopters to increase or decrease their production, profits, and vulnerability; (2) whether the farmers have the requisite assets to make technology adoption worthwhile; and (3) the nature of mediating institutions, including the extent to which they represent the interests of poor people and people's attitudes toward the institutions\" Increasing productivity is important, but it is not sufficient to reduce poverty, and may not even be sufficient to induce farmers to adopt new practices, unless they are also likely to be profitable. Attending to profitability by expanding markets and value added has been an important factor in Papa Andina's success. But profitability is also not the only measure of success. Because vulnerability is an important aspect of poverty, interventions that seek to reduce poverty need to take into account the sources of vulnerability. Even profitable new enterprises may not be adopted by the poor if they are also perceived as too risky, whereas innovations that reduce vulnerability are valued.The asset thresholds required for adoption of any innovation play a critical role in whether the poor will be able to adopt and benefit directly. If a particular approach would require an asset that poor or marginalized groups (e.g. female-headed households) do not have, then either that asset needs to be built up or the asset threshold lowered. In the Andes, where many farmers lack financial capital, the technological interventions can help reduce cash requirements, e.g. varieties resistant to diseases will reduce the use of chemical pesticides. Where bridging and linking social capital are weak, the Papa Andina initiative, together with its partners, has worked to build trust between farmers in different areas, and with other actors in the market chains by bringing them together to pursue common objectives. Working with socially responsible companies as new partners in the context of \"business for development\" is a new approach that involves small farmers as business partners that can contribute to achieve business with social responsibility.The livelihoods framework requires researchers and practitioners to think holistically, not just about certain types of assets such as land and credit, but also about the potential interaction of different kinds of assets, and the complementarities between assets and their sequencing. For example, membership in a social group (social capital) may be necessary for access to land (natural capital), which is necessary for access to credit (financial capital) and which, in turn, is needed to purchase inputs to take advantage of a new technology. Poor people lack many assets, which often lock them into \"poverty traps.\" But rather than focusing only on what they lack, it is more constructive to identify what they do have, and develop new livelihood options that use and strengthen those assets, and then focus on building up other assets that may be important. Papa Andina identified the genetic diversity of potatoes, local knowledge and social capital -assets that are often undervalued -and built upon those in the program to make them have higher payoffs.The process of working with people to identify what those assets are and enabling them to build upon those assets is an empowering process in itself, from which all parties can learn. Rather than a patronizing perspective of \"lifting people out of poverty\", a partnership that recognizes the agency of the poor will have a greater impact. But partnerships that include poor women and men are difficult to achieve, 56Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model because social exclusion is also a key aspect of poverty. Programmes need to consider the nature of the relevant institutions such as extension and marketing and how they are viewed by the rich and poor, men and women, etc. In some cases government institutions may be trusted more than private ones; in others government may be seen to favour the rich. In places with high community solidarity, group-based extension or other types of intervention are likely to be effective in reaching all, but where communities are highly fragmented, working through local groups may lead to capture of the benefits by local elites (Adato and Meinzen-Dick, 2007). Papa Andina has invested heavily in new institutional arrangements to bridge between poor farmers and market intermediaries, and has recognized that this requires going beyond creating paper organizations, to actually build trust through regular interaction. Although this type of institutional investment is time-consuming and the results often intangible it can make the difference between inclusive and exclusive development.The livelihoods framework also provides a structure for thinking about conflicts between livelihood objectives, e.g. whether increased income may be at the expense of increased degradation of the natural resources or of social cohesion, which helps people to weather the storms of life. The Andes, in particular, are a fragile ecosystem, and intensification of productivity can have serious consequences in terms of soil erosion or pesticide pollution. Thus, rather than just increasing quantity of production, Papa Andina is working to increase the market value of production, taking advantage of the cultural, environmental and social values of potato biodiversity to promote it in national and international niche markets. This contributes to maintenance of agrobiodiversity and the sustainability of potato farming in the region. This is a direction that other agricultural development programmes may also consider. However, this requires going beyond technological innovation to also include commercial innovation (to tap into new market opportunities) and institutional innovations such as strengthening collective action within communities and involving communities and outside actors. In joint efforts involving biophysical scientists, social scientists, small farmers and other market chain actors, potatoes can be a valuable asset for poverty reduction.The implications of this case for other development projects are that a sound understanding of the constraints and opportunities of smallholder farmers is an important starting point. Participation of the poor needs to be more than a slogan-it is crucial for correctly identifying the critical factors that shape their lives, and for finding innovative ways to move forward. But outsiders can also play an important facilitating role in bridging between what smallholders have and what is needed.The Andean region of South America is characterized by extreme social and economic inequalities. It is estimated that more than 60% of Ecuador's rural population and nearly 80% of Bolivia's and Peru's are poor (CEPAL, 2004). Poverty is especially prevalent in highland areas, where the potato is the main staple food and an important source of cash income. In areas over 3,500 meters above sea level, subject to frequent frost and drought, potatoes are among the few crops that can be grown. Over centuries, Andean farmers have developed more than 4,000 native varieties of potato. In Peru and Bolivia, most native potatoes are cultivated by semi-commercial farmers for home consumption, barter and sale in local markets. At lower altitudes, more commercially oriented farmers grow modern varieties employing pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. In Ecuador, where growing conditions are generally milder, native varieties have almost entirely been replaced by new varieties introduced by national breeding and seed programs.Agricultural development is taking place in the context of rapid urbanization and increasing market integration. Farmers are confronted with many new market challenges as well as opportunities. Urbanization and increasing participation of women in the labour force are leading to a dietary transition towards convenience foods, animal protein, fresh dairy products, and higher consumption of fresh fruits 60Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model and vegetables. Packaged food sales and supermarket retail outlets are now found in most developing countries. Demand is also increasing for higher quality foods that meet ever-increasing standards of safety. Supermarkets are becoming major players in vertically integrated food marketing systems. Consequently, the production practices and livelihoods of small Andean farmers are increasingly influenced by the demands of urban consumers, market intermediaries and food industries (Reardon and Berdegué, 2002;Wilkinson and Rocha, 2006).In contemporary agricultural markets, small farmers are often at a disadvantage in relation to larger commercial farmers who can supply larger volumes of qualityassured products, possess superior bargaining power, and have better access to information, services, technology and capital. Small farmers' limited access to physical and financial resources restricts their ability to expand and invest in technologies that increase efficiency and add value to primary production. Small farmers also frequently have limited technical skills and poor access to information and training for improving their production practices. The limited market surplus of individual small farmers inflates marketing costs, increasing transaction costs and the per-unit costs of assembly, handling and transportation. Small farmers also lack basic knowledge of the marketing system, current information on prices and market conditions, and bargaining power (Kruijssen et al.;Berdegué, 2001).Various approaches have been proposed to improve the prospects of small farmers in agricultural markets, including collective action via farmer organizations and cooperatives (Shepherd, 2007). In the present paper, we discuss two novel uses of collective action that involve not only small farmers but also market agents and agricultural service providers. The PMCA and Stakeholder Platforms foster market chain innovation in ways that benefit small farmers as well as other market chain actors. The main intended outcomes of these types of collective action are commercial, technological and institutional innovations. This differs from most cases of collective action described in the literature, which report on farmer organization for achieving economies of scale, enhancing small farmers' bargaining power or improving the management of common pool resources. The new forms of collective action reported on here, involving diverse market chain actors, researchers and other agricultural service providers, have been developed by the regional research and development (R&D) network, Papa Andina, which operates in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.This paper is concerned with the use of collective action to foster pro-poor innovation in market chains. Much has been written on farmer organizations for managing common pool resources, and for marketing and service provision. There is also a rapidly growing literature on innovation processes. However, the role of collective action in innovation processes has received little attention to date. In this section we review relevant literature on collective action and on innovation, and identify key factors that will later be combined in a framework for analyzing collective action in market chain innovation processes.Collective action refers to voluntary action taken by a group to pursue common interests or achieve common objectives. In collective action, members may act on their own, but more commonly they act through a group or an organization; they may act independently or with the encouragement or support of external agents from governmental bodies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or development projects (Meinzen-Dick and Di Gregorio, 2004).There is an extensive body of literature on the role of collective action in managing common pool resources such as forests, fisheries, grazing lands, and irrigation water. Agrawal (2001) presents an exhaustive literature review that identifies 33 \"critical enabling conditions\" that contribute to the sustainability of common property institutions. These fall into four main categories: 1. Resource system characteristics (e.g., small size, well-defined boundaries, predictability, low levels of mobility, and feasibility of storing benefits from the resource)2. Group characteristics (e.g., small size, shared norms, past successful experience with collective action (social capital), homogeneity of identities and interests, capable leadership, interdependence among group members, and low levels of poverty)3. Institutional arrangements (e.g., rules are simple and easy to understand, locally devised access and management rules, ease in enforcement of rules, and graduated sanctions for breaking rules)4. External environment (e.g., external support for organization, low levels of articulation with external markets, governmental bodies that do not undermine local authority and supportive external sanctioning institutions). Ostrom (1999) identifies other factors that are important for institutional development, such as the feasibility of improving the resource and a low discount rate. Many authors emphasize the importance of social capital for the emergence and development of local organizations for collective action.Based on a study of \"associative peasant business firms\" in Chile, Berdegué (2001) identified several factors that facilitate the emergence and development of collective action for marketing and value-addition. These factors include: high transaction costs; policy incentives; presence of community groups and organizations, providing an important initial forum where alternatives can be discussed; support from external agents, such as NGOs or private extension firms; linkage to actors outside the rural community, providing access to external sources of information, expertise and financial resources; embeddedness in the rural community, facilitating more effective and less costly internal rules, decision-making processes and procedures for monitoring and evaluation; establishment of rules that are consistent with market signals; and potential to differentiate members' products through value addition. Kruijssen, Keizer and Giuliani (this issue) discuss the importance of social learning for collective action in the context of smallholder market participation. Social learning is defined as the process through which groups of people learn, by jointly defining problems, searching for and implementing solutions, and assessing the value of solutions for specific problems (Koelen and Das, 2002). Social learning brings about a shift from \"multiple cognition\" to \"collective cognition\". Individuals involved in social learning processes begin with quite different perceptions of their current situation and the potential for change; as they interact, they develop common, shared perspectives, insights and values. Dialogue and social learning foster collective cognition and social capital formation, both of which are necessary for effective joint action. Social learning and social capital formation are also key features of innovation processes.Whereas research focuses on generating new knowledge, and technology development aims to create a supply of new production methods, innovation is concerned with the practical use of new knowledge. As Barnett (2004: 1) states, innovation involves \"the use of new ideas, new technologies or new ways of doing things in a place or by people where they have not been used before\".The relationship between research and economic activity is not simple and linear but complex and interactive (Hall et al., 2001;Engel and Salomon, 2003;World Bank, 2007). Interactive social learning processes involving researchers and economic actors are crucial for ensuring that applied research generates useful new knowledge that is put into practical use. Since research organizations have traditionally worked in isolation from the end users of their technologies, institutional innovations that strengthen patterns of interaction between researchers and economic actors are crucially important for strengthening innovation systems.An innovation system can be defined as \"a network of organizations, enterprises, and individuals focused on bringing new products, new processes, and new forms of organization into social and economic use, together with the institutions and policies that affect their behaviour and performance\" (World Bank, 2007: xiv). Four key sets of factors influence the performance of innovation systems: the external environment, the diversity of actors involved, the values and attitudes of the key actors, and the institutional arrangements and patterns of interaction.Different factors can trigger innovation, including changes in policies, markets and technology. Attitudes and institutions determine how individuals and organizations respond to such triggers. Behaviours that make organizations and policies responsive to stakeholders' needs and interests can encourage innovation. Innovation is also stimulated by the interaction of individuals and groups with different backgrounds, interests and perspectives. Hence, groups that are more diverse generally have a greater potential for innovation. Even though participants with different economic interests may initially be sceptical about the benefits of interacting, the values, attitudes and patterns of interaction can change over time as a result of social learning, development of personal relationships, trust and other forms of social capital. The ability to interact constructively and work in new ways is crucial for the innovation performance of groups.Recent studies of agricultural innovation highlight the utility of the value chain concept -a set of interconnected, value-creating activities undertaken by individuals and enterprises to develop, produce and deliver a product or service to consumersas unit of analysis and focus of interventions aimed at stimulating innovations and developing innovation capacity (World Bank, 2007: 24). Thus, attention should not be directed at individual supply chain participants such as producers but at the overall supply chain capacity and the degree to which the chain in its entirety is able to compete.Ostrom and colleagues at the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University have developed a general framework for understanding institutions known as the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework. It has three main components:• The \"Action Arena\" in which participants interact• Three groups of \"Exogenous Variables\" that influence the \"Action Arena\"(biophysical/material conditions, attributes of the community and rules)• The \"Outcomes\" produced (Ostrom, 2005, Figure 1.2, p. 15).In developing a framework for analysis of collective action in market chain innovation, we have built on the IAD framework and added the external environment component from Agrawal (2001) and the World Bank (2007). To focus attention on important innovation processes, we have also added the components of social learning, social capital formation and joint activities from Kruijssen, Keizer and Giuliani (this issue). The resulting Framework for Analyzing Collective Action in Market Chain Innovation is illustrated in Figure 1.The central focus of attention in this framework is the Innovation Arena where social learning, formation of social capital, and joint innovative activities lead to the development of innovations. The Innovation Arena is influenced by four sets of exogenous variables: the external environment, biophysical and material characteristics of the market chain, characteristics of market chain actors, and institutional arrangements. Based on the literature review reported in the previous section, particularly the works of Agrawal and Berdegué, we have identified a number of factors in each of these four areas that are likely to influence collective action processes and outcomes in the context of market chain innovation (Table 1).In the resulting framework, the two major outcomes of collective action are strengthened capacity for innovation and commercial, technological and institutional innovations. As indicated by the broken lines in Figure 1 influence the processes that take place within the Innovation Arena. For example, successful innovation may stimulate participants to invest more time and resources in joint activities. Over time, outcomes may also influence the four groups of exogenous variables. For example, successful innovation may predispose policy makers to support future programs involving collective action.  Agrawal (2001), Kruijssen, Keizer and Guiliani (2007) and World Bank (2007) .Papa Andina was established in 1998 to promote pro-poor innovation in the Andean potato-based food systems. Financed mainly by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and other donors, and hosted by the International Potato Center, the network includes about 30 partners in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. In each country, Papa Andina coordinates its activities with a \"strategic partner\" that plays a leadership and coordinating role in market chain innovation: the PROINPA Foundation in Bolivia, the INCOPA Project in Peru and the National Potato Program of INIAP in Ecuador. This network of partners reaches a growing number of poor rural households, currently estimated to be around 4,000. The PMCA is used to bring researchers together with other agricultural service providers and market chain actors, including small farmers, to promote pro-poor innovations.Interaction among the market chain actors is crucial for market chain innovation. In 2000, we began experimenting with a participatory approach to stimulate agricultural innovation known as 'Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Knowledge Systems' (RAAKS). This approach, developed by Engel and Salomon (2003), brings diverse stakeholders together in a flexible, participatory process. Papa Andina began using RAAKS to foster pro-poor market chain innovation for native potatoes. Based on RAAKS, through action research we developed two complementary approaches to enhance innovation: the PMCA and Stakeholder Platforms.  2) and Berdegué (2001).In 2000, the INCOPA project began working with RAAKS to stimulate social learning, build trust and foster joint actions among potato market chain actors. They added tools for product and market development and re-christened the approach as the 'PMCA' (Bernet et al., 2006). The PMCA has three phases, usually implemented over several months. A R&D organization initially leads planning, coordination and 66Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model facilitation. As the process advances, market chain actors take on more responsibility, and the R&D organization shifts to a supporting role (Figure 2). Phase 1 of the PMCA begins with a rapid market survey and ends with a workshop where market chain actors meet supporting R&D organizations to discuss possible innovations. Phase 2 involves a series of group meetings and applied research to analyse market opportunities. A key goal of this phase is to build trust among participants. Phase 3 involves joint activities that seek to develop concrete innovations, which might be technical (e.g., new products, production practices or packaging) or institutional (e.g., farmer associations, stakeholder platforms or business arrangements such as contract farming agreements). The PMCA formally ends with a large public event where market chain actors and service providers present their innovations and meet national policy makers, donor representatives, the media and other 'VIPs'. After the formal closure, the R&D organization may be called on by specific actors or asked to backstop new institutions. In the Andes, interactions among market chain actors and service providers are frequently characterized by lack of trust, and successful private-public partnerships and alliances are rare (Hartwich and Tola, 2007). Agricultural research organizations usually keep their distance from NGOs, farmer groups and traders. The quest for market-led innovation made it necessary to look beyond the research community and build relationships with a broader range of public and private actors. Papa Andina employs stakeholder platforms to promote interaction, social learning, social capital formation, and collective activities involving diverse actors in innovation processes.Stakeholder platforms have been established at different levels. Local platforms facilitate interactions between potato producers, local authorities and service providers to empower small farmers, reduce marketing costs, and increase efficiency in service delivery. Market chain platforms bring farmers' associations together with traders, processors, supermarkets, researchers, extension agents, chefs and others to foster pro-poor innovation. In some cases, platforms also serve as representative bodies for interaction with policy makers.The following examples present cases from Peru and Bolivia, where the PMCA has been developed and refined, and from Ecuador, where attention has focused on stakeholder platforms for strengthening farmer organizations.In 2002, INCOPA initiated the PMCA in Peru with a market chain survey. Results were discussed in a meeting of nearly 100 stakeholders, including potato producers, wholesalers, processors, supermarket managers, researchers, and professionals from NGOs and international agencies. Based on this survey, two cycles of PMCA were implemented, one for potatoes in general and one specifically for native potatoes.Innovations resulting from the first cycle included: 'Mi Papa' (a new brand of highquality, fresh potatoes for the wholesale market), 'Papy Bum' (a new native potato chip product), and a series of online bulletins with daily information on wholesale prices and supplies for more than 20 types of potatoes. A national organization, CAPAC-Peru, was established to promote marketing of high-quality potato products, reduce transaction costs, and add value through innovation. Founding members included farmer organizations, NGOs, traders and processors. Today CAPAC represents 22 core members including five farmer organizations with 600 members.In the second PMCA application, several new actors joined the process to develop new native potato products. CAPAC-Peru played a key role (Ordinola et al., 2007), and results included two new products: T'ikapapa and Tunta Los Aymaras.T'ikapapa is the first brand of high-quality, fresh, native potatoes sold in Peru's leading supermarkets. First marketed in 2004, sales grew from 14 tons to over 70 tons in 2006. This has allowed more than 300 families in 10 highland communities to obtain 10-30% above the going market price for native potatoes. An agro-processing company, a member of CAPAC, owns the brand and contracts farmers to supply potatoes to the supermarket. CAPAC helps to organize small farmer groups to supply potatoes that meet market requirements. In 2007, INCOPA and its partners received a United Nations award for 'Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development'. Tunta Los Aymaras is a brand of high-quality, freeze-dried, native potatoes developed through a coalition of farmers' groups, local government agencies, NGOs and a private service provider. Tunta is produced traditionally from native 'bitter potatoes' by small farmers in the high Andes and has generally been restricted to traditional Andean markets. Through collective action, farmers' marketing and processing capacities were strengthened; quality norms developed, and market studies undertaken. A farmers' association, 'Consortium Los Aymaras', was created to market this new product, and it also owns the brand.The PMCA was applied in two regions of Bolivia. In Cochabamba, the PMCA was introduced from Peru in 2003, validated and adapted. PROINPA led the exercise with a local farmers' association, a food processing firm and a supermarket in Santa Cruz. Based on the common interest identified by the participants, two new products were developed for sale in supermarkets: coloured chips made from native potatoes and high-quality, pre-packaged, fresh native potatoes. PROINPA gained a new approach for linking small farmers to markets; it helped the farmers' association to get better organized, build links with market agents, and upgrade the quality of its members' native potatoes. It also helped them to improve working relations and negotiation capacity with market chain actors.From 2003, the PMCA was applied twice in the Department of La Paz in market chains for tunta and chuño, traditional freeze-dried products. These applications involved farmers, traders, food processing firms, exporters, cooking schools and R&D organizations. In the first cycle, participants prepared a set of 'Bolivian quality's standards for chuño and tunta' in coordination with national authorities. In 2004, the PMCA was used to identify new uses for chuño and tunta, and ways to improve the products' image. This exercise involved some participants from the first cycle plus chefs and a food-processing firm manager. It resulted in a new product: clean, selected and bagged chuño, marketed under the brand 'Chuñosa'.In 2005, participants established the 'Bolivian chuño and tunta platform', formalized as the 'Bolivian Andean Platform', to sustain and consolidate their collective action. Among other activities, the platform has established links with market agents to develop better quality chuño-based products with a higher price and to explore the export potential of chuño and tunta. The platform today represents 13 core members including four farmers' associations with around 200 members, processing firms, development projects, an NGO and a research organization, PROINPA. It has helped to build trust and social networks among its members and has improved links between small farmers and market agents on one hand, and R&D organizations and other service providers on the other.INIAP's potato program initially attempted to create a national-level consortium of market chain actors and development organizations to address macro-level problems. When this effort failed, attention shifted to local stakeholder platforms to develop better collaboration among local institutional actors and farmers' organizations. With financial support from the SDC, it has provided small grants for 'collaborative projects' that link small potato farmers with specific markets.Platforms and collaborative projects were set up in the provinces of Tungurahua, Chimborazo in 2003, andin Cotopaxi andBolivar in 2006. With initial leadership from INIAP, these involved 24 farmers' groups that were created through previous Farmer Field School experiences (they include around 200 members), universities, local governments, and NGOs representing 32 core members in total including the farmer groups' representatives. Platforms were organized around existing farmers' groups. Their activities have included marketing selected fresh potatoes to 29 restaurants, fast food outlets and processors in Ambato and Riobamba. Platform members grow the new Fripapa potato variety, which is in high demand for processing and fast food outlets. Through the platforms, researchers have interacted with small farmers as well as local authorities, development projects and NGOs. This has facilitated knowledge sharing, social learning and capacity building, leading to improvements in small farmer productivity and the quality of potatoes supplied to market. As a result of this process, a national organization, the Consortium of Small Potato Producers (CONPAPA), was established to support joint marketing activities.In this section, we summarize patterns that emerge from our examples of collective action in relation to the main components of the Framework for Analysis of Collective Action in Market Chain Innovation (Figure 1).In each of the cases described, the collective action was triggered by a research organization associated with Papa Andina, external to the market chain. Once local groups had been established with external facilitators, they took on lives of their own and often evolved in unexpected ways. All the groups were supported by such external agents as NGOs, local or national governments, and R&D organizations. The Bolivian and Peruvian groups benefited from policy support for market chain development. In contrast, in Ecuador policies emphasized farmer organization and empowerment rather than market chain development per se. In several cases, collective action for market chain innovation built on earlier groups, such as Farmer Field Schools, NGOs and farmers' associations, confirming the importance of prior experience with collective action. In some cases, when collective action got underway, complementary groups were established at other levels (for example, CONPAPA, CAPAC-Peru and the Bolivian Andean Platform).As shown in the cases, joint marketing can reduce transaction costs. However, commercial innovation and development of high-value niches for potato products have generated more significant benefits for small farmers as well as other market chain actors. In Peru and Bolivia, use of the PMCA led to the development of new 70Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model products based on native potatoes. In contrast, in Ecuador, where attention focused on organizing farmers' groups to respond to existing market opportunities for modern varieties, fewer commercial innovations, and benefits, have resulted.In the Bolivian and Peruvian cases, small farmers, market agents, researchers and service providers have participated in groups working with the PMCA. In contrast, in Ecuador market agents have not been involved in the platforms. An important factor for innovation has been the trigger effect of researchers who brought new information and ideas. For example, in Peru and Bolivia, researchers suggested that it might be possible to market a colourful native potato product, and they assisted with laboratory testing of processing techniques. With these inputs, other participants took the lead in product development, testing and refinement. The Ecuadorian approach focusing on farmer organization has strengthened farmer organizations but has led to less market chain innovation.Women were involved in all cases, more actively in marketing and processing than in production. In most of the cases, men assumed leadership at the community level, while women assumed leadership in R&D organizations in Bolivia and Peru. Small farmers are generally more dependent on the potato market chain than large retailers; this may be one reason why it is easier to engage small farmers in the PMCA than to engage market agents. Small Andean farmers have traditions of collective action at the community level, but not along market chains. Relations in market chains are traditionally characterized by lack of trust and cooperation. Hence, getting diverse market chain actors (including small farmers) to work together in innovation processes is itself a significant institutional innovation.One of the key challenges has been to provide adequate facilitation for social learning processes, which promote the development of collective cognition, social capital and leadership capacity. In most cases, a research organization took responsibility for facilitation. There has been a tendency for facilitators to introduce rules to speed up the process, rather than facilitate the local development of rules. Where multistakeholder platforms have emerged from PMCA exercises, they have developed their own rules, often with little support from Papa Andina.The three phases of the PMCA correspond to the three social processes that take place in the Innovation Arena. Therefore, where the PMCA has been implemented, in Peru and Bolivia, the groups involved have advanced through the phases of social learning and social capital formation, and have engaged in joint activities focused on the development of specific commercial, technical and institutional innovations. In all the cases, participants report that the group meetings and social interactions with other market chain actors and service providers were useful to them, even before they began the process of developing specific innovations. Participants learned new things about the market chain or about technical and market potentials that they could put into practical use in their businesses. They also established personal relationships with other market chain actors or service providers that have proved useful to them in their businesses. This is one reason why stakeholder platforms have been established in some cases: to allow the diverse stakeholders to continue to interact and work together over time.An important result of the collective action processes promoted by the PMCA and stakeholder platforms has been the build-up of participants' capacity for teamwork and innovation. Leadership capacity has also been developed at the level of farm communities to enable communication and interaction with market chain actors and service providers as well as institutional leadership for facilitating collective action and distributing roles among the market chain participants.The groups identified new market opportunities and developed new production processes, new ways of working together and, finally, new commercial products to exploit these opportunities. This is illustrated by the case of T'ikapapa in Peru, where this commercial innovation stimulated other innovation in the areas of technology development to respond to the quality criteria required by the market and institutional innovation required in the CAPAC association to provide the necessary services to these market chain actors. The results of these outcomes can be summarized as higher prices for native potatoes, increased farmers' revenues, more stable markets for native potato producers, improved image of native potatoes and increased farmer's self-esteem.An example of indirect outcomes is the creative imitation process by which other market chain actors develop similar products based on the original creative idea that stimulated further innovation and involved new participants in the process and eventually new members to the CAPAC association. The promotion of successful innovation has also attracted the attention of policy makers and donors to the process, increasing their support for future collective action for market chain innovation.Papa Andina's work illustrates how collective action involving small farmers, market agents, researchers and other agricultural service providers can generate pro-poor market-chain innovations. The collective action literature emphasizes its role among individuals with common interests, in managing common pool resources, reducing transaction costs, gaining scale economies, and improving the bargaining power of small farmers. The innovation literature, in contrast, highlights the importance of interactive, social learning among individuals with different perspectives and interests. Neither discusses the use of collective action in fostering innovation. Papa Andina provides some concrete examples of how these two fields can be bridged -72Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model how collective action involving diverse stakeholders can contribute to innovation processes that benefit small farmers. In the examples presented, participants strengthened business contacts and social networks, shared knowledge, and built up trust. As the capacity for teamwork developed, participants identified market opportunities and developed new products and marketing methods creating innovation processes that improved the market participation of smallholders on more favourable terms. Papa Andina's work shows that diversity of participants' roles and interests is not always bad for collective action. In fact, diversity is valuable for innovation. The collective action literature commonly observes that diversity within a group impairs collective action. Papa Andina's experience confirms that diverse groups may be more difficult to establish and maintain over time, and that good facilitation is essential. But, in line with the innovation literature, diverse groups are potentially more productive in terms of social learning and innovative behaviour. Papa Andina's experience shows that a well-facilitated group, with diverse backgrounds, values and economic interests, can coalesce into a high-performance team that actively, creatively and successfully pursues the common objective of market chain innovation. Papa Andina's work illustrates the synergies of different forms of collective action at different levels: stakeholder platforms and the PMCA have proven to be highly complementary. At the market-chain level, groups have found that exploitation of new market opportunities often requires collective action at the local level, and vice versa.In many cases, collective action has been short lived, linked to accomplishment of the initial goal. In others, it has evolved into more formal and stable multi-stakeholder associations. Much of the collective action literature seeks to identify factors that contribute to sustainable institutions. While clearly important for natural resources management, institutional sustainability is perhaps less relevant for innovation processes. Our experience highlights the dynamics of collective action -the different ways in which it has emerged and the different courses it has taken over time as social capital and leadership capacities have been built up and institutions have emerged. Papa Andina's work highlights the initial importance of competent external facilitation and support. The collective action literature notes that many local organizations are established as a result of external interventions. However, the roles of external agents and the capacities they need are seldom carefully assessed. In collective action for market chain innovation, facilitators need to motivate business development, and at the same time foster development of social capital and leadership within the group. This often involves a delicate balance between achievement of short-term results (e.g. new products) and the development of sustainable institutions that can foster innovation processes.Three broad policy implications come out of Papa Andina's experiences with collective action. First, institutional innovations in R&D (such as use of the PMCA and Stakeholder Platforms) can lead to technical and institutional innovations that enhance small farmer market participation. For example, as a result of the PMCA, new native potato products were launched. This stimulated the formation and strengthening of farmer organizations, which facilitated marketing and improvements in production and post-harvest practices. At the market chain level, formal associations were established, such as the Bolivian Andean Platform in La Paz and CAPAC-Peru.Secondly, market chain innovation for indigenous agricultural products can aid insitu conservation of biodiversity. In Bolivia and Peru, commercial innovation with native potatoes has been a key element in linking small farmers to markets. Until recently, urban consumers did not appreciate the cultural value and nutritional characteristics of native potatoes. However, recent concerns for food quality and safety have stimulated demand for locally grown, organically produced foods, reflected in the number of gourmet restaurants serving dishes based on indigenous products. These trends have created new market opportunities for indigenous foods, including native potatoes. The resulting products also have export potential, because they are seen as exotic and nutritious. As Smale (2006) and others have shown, increasing farmer returns to crops with a high public value, such as native potatoes, will enhance the incentive for farmers to maintain agro-biodiversity. Applications of collective action approaches such as the PMCA may also prove useful for the conservation of other indigenous agricultural products in other settings.Lastly, for R&D organizations to contribute to market chain innovation, they must develop their capacity to facilitate and participate constructively in collective action. Pro-poor innovation goes far beyond the traditional R&D. Implementing the PMCA requires R&D organizations to have the capacity to diagnose innovation systems and facilitate group processes involving people with diverse stakes in a commodity's production, marketing and use. Women's opportunities for participation in collective action processes like the PMCA and the potential benefits need to be addressed more systematically. To effectively facilitate such processes, R&D organizations need new skills and resources. Retooling themselves to play these new roles is likely to pose major challenges for many R&D organizations.This Working Paper deals with a central challenge facing international agricultural research organizations, including those affiliated to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR): How to contribute significantly to sustainable development and poverty reduction while maintaining a focus on scientific research that produces international public goods (IPGs). A recent discussion paper produced by the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development and the European Initiative for Agricultural Research for Development (EIARD) (Ashley et al., 2009:1, 7) characterized the problem as follows:• There has been a major tension between good science and applied agricultural research, in NARIs [national agricultural research institutes] and also within the CG system.• Years of failing to respond to development needs have led to a situation where those engaged in planning agricultural and rural development often perceive research programmes of the NARIs, through to the CGIAR centres, to have limited relevance to the development agenda.The Working Paper focuses on an approach that international agricultural research centers and their national partners are experimenting with to link the worlds of research and action and promote pro-poor innovation: Partnership Programs that work to broker innovation processes, develop more effective ways of fostering innovation, and strengthen national innovation capacities. When the CGIAR system was established in the early 1970s, its mission was \"to use the best science in advanced countries to develop technologies for the benefit of food deficit countries and populations\" (Lele, 2004). Over time, as donor priorities shifted and the limitations of a narrow \"pipeline\" approach to productivity enhancement became apparent, the CGIAR mandate expanded to include poverty reduction and environmental protection. New research programs were added to address issues of food policy, institutional arrangement, and the management of water, forest, and fishery resources. The CGIAR's current mission is to achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through scientific research and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, policy, and environment (www.cgiar.org). The research priorities include genetic improvement, sustaining agriculture biodiversity, the sustainable management and conservation of water, land and forests, improving policies and facilitating institutional innovation. Although these priorities cover a wide range of subjects, it is important to note that they are priorities for research, which aims to produce IPGs, taken to mean \"research outputs of knowledge and technology generated through strategic and applied research that are applicable internationally to address generic issues and challenges consistent with CGIAR goals\" (Harwood et al., 2006). The CGIAR Science Council encourages centers to focus on research that addresses problems of broad international importance and discourages them from engaging in applied research and development activities that address local problems (CGIAR Science Council, 2006).CGIAR centers have produced new knowledge and technologies that have helped to increase food production and reduce rural and urban poverty (Evenson and Gollin, 2003;Hazell, 2008;Kelly et al., 2008). Nevertheless, problems of poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation remain daunting in many developing regions (IAASTD, 2009). As Ashley et al. (2009) noted, despite substantial donor investment in agricultural research over many years, \"many of the outputs of research have not impacted on poverty.\" Increasingly, those who provide funds for research expect their investments to benefit poor people (Adato and Meinzen-Dick, 2007). Consequently, there has been growing emphasis on \"research for development\" and a search for research and development (R&D) methods that ensure the relevance and use of research results. The increasing emphasis on research impact has challenged the status quo for research organizations and has stimulated a major reform process in the CGIAR system, which is presently underway (Ashley et al., 2009:3).Over the years, international agricultural research organizations have used a number of approaches to link research more effectively with development initiatives and farmers, including outreach programs, farming systems research, participatory technology development, networking, and partnership (Horton et al., 2009;Scoones and Thompson, 2009). Recently, there has been experimentation with innovation systems approaches that shift attention from increasing the supply of new technology to facilitating innovation processes in which new solutions to technical and institutional problems are co-produced by diverse stakeholders in interactive learning processes. An innovation system can be defined as ''a network of organizations, enterprises, and individuals focused on bringing new products, new processes, and new forms of organization into social and economic use, together with the institutions and policies that affect their behaviour and performance\" (World Bank, 2007) to promote innovation processes in market chains that benefit small-scale potato producers in highland areas (Devaux et al., 2009;Meinzen-Dick et al., 2009). In each country the national partners function as \"innovation brokers\" who facilitate innovation processes in potato market chains. These processes involve not only researchers, but also other agricultural service providers, policymakers, small-scale farmers, and market agents. Papa Andina's Coordination Team functions as a \"second-level innovation broker\" in that it supports and backstops the national teams, facilitates learning and knowledge sharing among them, and encourages the co-development of approaches and methods for improving innovation brokering processes at national level. Papa Andina and its partners have received national and international recognition and awards for their innovative work. 4   4 In 2005, CIP, INCOPA, and a private firm, A&L Exportaciones y Servicios SAC, won the Peruvian Award for Entrepreneurial Creativity (http://creatividadempresarial.upc.edu.pe), given by the Peruvian University for Applied Sciences for developing T'ikapapa (bagged native potatoes) through an initiative that \"values the enormous diversity of Andean potatoes, brings them to urban consumers, and generates sustainable businesses for small farmers\". In 2008, INCOPA and Papa Andina won the award again, this time \"for exploiting the diversity of native potatoes in expanding the competitiveness of products from the Andean region. Based on successful experiences in the Andes, some of Papa Andina's approaches have been applied by other groups to broker innovation processes in other value chains in the Andes and in other regions. Despite these achievements, however, a number of challenges remain. For example, a recent external evaluation noted that Papa Andina lacks a clear \"theory of change\" for its work. The evaluators also commented on the ambiguity of some of the roles and responsibilities of Papa Andina's Coordination Team and those of its national partners, particularly with regard to responsibilities for achieving impact. There is also uncertainty about the future sustainability of Papa Andina and the functions it performs (Bebbington and Rotondo, 2010). As we will see in the next section, evaluations of many other innovation brokers have reached similar conclusions.In this paper, after a brief review of the literature on \"innovation brokerage\" and the related topic of \"boundary management,\" we describe the development of Papa Andina as an innovation broker. We then describe the approaches it has used to broker innovation processes, the types of results obtained, and the challenges it faces as an innovation broker. Based on the Papa Andina case, as well as prior research, we close with a discussion of policy issues related to the role of innovation brokers in linking research with action to support sustainable development and in catalyzing pro-poor innovation processes in other settings. In their report on a major study of knowledge systems for sustainable development, Cash et al. (2003:8086) emphasized the importance of boundary management:This study suggests that efforts to mobilize S&T [science and technology] for sustainability are more likely to be effective when they manage boundaries between knowledge and action in ways that simultaneously enhance the salience, credibility, and legitimacy of the information they produce. Effective systems apply a variety of institutional mechanisms that facilitate communication, translation and mediation across boundaries.The study found that scientific information is effective in influencing decisionmaking so long as it is seen as credible, salient, and legitimate. In this context, credibility refers to the perceived scientific adequacy of the technical evidence and arguments; salience relates to the relevance of the information to the needs of decision-makers; and legitimacy reflects the perception of stakeholders that the information was produced in a way that was \"respectful of stakeholders' divergent values and beliefs, unbiased in its conduct, and fair in its treatment of opposing views and interests\" (Cash et al., 2003).The credibility, salience, and legitimacy of information are tightly linked in the sense that an increase in one of them generally comes at the expense of a reduction in the others. For example, if efforts are made to maximize the relevance of information for decision-makers, methodological shortcuts might be made that reduce the credibility of the findings. Similarly, use of state-of-the-art research methods that maximize the credibility of research results might alienate decision-makers who do not understand the methods used (therefore reducing legitimacy) or delay the delivery of results until they are no longer relevant or useful to the decision-makers. Cash et al. (2003) identify three key functions that contribute to effective boundary management:The literature on innovation brokerage, in the field of innovation systems studies, has been summarized by Klerkx et al. (2009).• Communication. Active, iterative, and inclusive communication between researchers and decision-makers is crucial in efforts to mobilize knowledge in the service of practical action.• Translation. Understanding between experts and decision-makers is often hindered by jargon and differing assumptions about what constitutes a persuasive argument. For this reason, translation is often needed to ensure that participants from different institutional settings understand each other.• Mediation. Although communication and translation are essential for effective information flows between researchers and decision-makers, they are seldom enough to ensure that research influences decision-making.Because stakeholders often have conflicting interests, mediation is usually needed for mobilizing science for practical action.Boundary management functions can be carried out effectively through various organizational arrangements and procedures, but are frequently performed by \"boundary organizations\" responsible for managing one or more specific boundaries. Although they have lines of responsibility and accountability to groups on both sides of the boundary, these organizations can provide a forum or \"safe space\" in which members from participating organizations can come together to discuss and negotiate problems and solutions.Empirical studies of boundary management show that \"not all organizations that bring together divergent perspectives necessarily result in anything new or better\" (Schneider, 2007:60). Successful boundary organizations tend to exhibit an inclusive leadership and management style (Schneider, 2007:76) that facilitates the coproduction of plans, strategies, models, methods, or reports that are viewed as salient, credible, and legitimate by those involved and by their organizations. Studies also highlight the important contribution made by particular individuals, known as boundary agents, who play key roles in \"creating and sustaining relationships, building trust, communicating information needs and concerns, and bridging gaps between various stakeholder groups (McNie et al., 2008:2; see also Kristjanson et al., 2009 andReid et al., 2009).6 This section is based on Klerkx et al. (2009).Insights from the literature on industrial and agricultural innovation have recently been brought together within the concept of agricultural innovation systems (Klerkx et al., 2009). The World Bank (2007:6-7) defines an innovation system thus:An innovation system may be defined as comprising the organizations, enterprises and individuals that together demand and supply knowledge and technology, and the rules and mechanisms by which these different agents interact. The innovation systems concept focuses not merely on the science suppliers but on the totality and interaction of actors involved in innovation. It extends beyond the creation of knowledge to encompass the factors affecting demand for and use of new and existing knowledge in novel and useful ways. Thus, innovation is viewed in a social and economic sense and not purely as discovery and invention 82Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model Klerkx et al. (2010:390) note that \"in the AIS [agricultural innovation systems] approach, innovation is considered the result of a process of networking and interactive learning among a heterogeneous set of actors, such as farmers, input industries, processors, traders, researchers, extensionists, government officials, and civil society organizations.\"One implication of innovation-systems thinking is that the innovation capacity of a country's agricultural sector depends on: the extent of shared visions; effective linkages and information flows among public and private actors; incentives for cooperation; adequate marketing, legislative, and policy environments; and welldeveloped human and organizational capital (Hall, 2006;Gijsbers, 2009;Klerkx et al., 2009).Past efforts to strengthen agricultural innovation systems focused mainly on training and organizational capacity development (Horton et al., 2003). Attention is now shifting towards improving incentives for cooperation and strengthening linkages among relevant actors. The importance of having intermediary organizations that link the various actors involved in innovation is becoming recognized (Szogs, 2008;Klerkx et al., 2009;Kristjansonet al., 2009). These intermediaries have been referred to as \"innovation intermediaries\" or \"innovation brokers\". Howells (2006:720) defines an innovation intermediary as \"an organization or body that acts as an agent or broker in any aspect of the innovation process between two or more parties\". The provision of brokerage and mediation services might or might not be the primary role of an innovation intermediary. For example, a research or extension organization might, as a sideline, broker innovation in some of its projects. Winch and Courtney (2007:751) define an innovation broker more narrowly as \"an organization acting as a member of a network … that is focused neither on the organization nor the implementation of innovations, but on enabling other organizations to innovate\". Klerkx et al. (2009:413) identify three main functions of an innovation broker:• Demand articulation: Articulating innovation needs and visions and the corresponding demands in terms of technology, knowledge, funding and policy• Network composition: Facilitating linkages among relevant actors• Innovation process management: Enhancing alignment in heterogeneous networks of actors with different objectives, institutional norms, values, incentives, and reward systems. This is a continuous activity that involves boundary management, translation, and mediation to build trust, establish working procedures, foster learning, and manage conflict and intellectual property.A number of risks and challenges to effective innovation brokerage have been identified in the literature, which Klerkx et al. (2009:414-415) summarize in three points:Tensions over legitimacy. The legitimacy of an innovation broker depends on the extent to which stakeholders consider the broker to be a relatively neutral \"honest broker\". Neutrality is never absolute \"because brokers always exercise a certain degree of steering\", but the degree of steering needs to be acceptable to those involved in the innovation process. To minimize tensions over legitimacy, brokers should avoid taking over management and ownership of the innovation process from innovation network partners, and should attend to the goals and interests of each partner. Tensions are inevitable in innovation networks because innovation tends to challenge current practices and the participants often have conflicting interests. Ambiguity of functions. Innovation brokers and intermediaries are often linked to research organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or donors, which can lead to confusion or ambiguity about their role in the innovation process. Due to this association with parent organizations engaged in research or other activities, other participants in innovation networks sometimes view innovation intermediaries as competitors for resources rather than neutral facilitators.Intangible effects / unwillingness to pay. Assessing the impact of innovation brokers is difficult because of the indirect and intangible results of their work. They do not produce technologies or innovations, but work to improve the performance of innovation systems composed of other actors. The difficulty in assessing the impact of innovation brokers applies both ex-ante (making it difficult to justify allocating funds to brokerage activities) and ex-post (making it difficult to demonstrate \"proof of concept\" through the documented impact of successful brokerage). The current emphasis on logframe-based planning and evaluation, \"hard\" and \"SMART\" 7The literature on boundary management and innovation brokerage is overlapping and complementary in many respects. In this section we bring together some major themes from the two sets of literature that are relevant for analyzing Papa Andina and other boundary organizations that are attached to CGIAR centers and that function as innovation brokers.indicators, and short-term results all exacerbate this problem, as funders aim to support the production of tangible outputs in short-term projects (rarely more than 3-5 years). Innovation brokers need more time to establish themselves and produce significant results in terms of strengthened capacity and improved performance of local agricultural innovation systems. Similar difficulties in acquiring funding for boundary-spanning activities that support innovation processes have been reported in the CGIAR (Kristjanson et al., 2009:5052).An innovation broker can be viewed as a type of boundary organization that specializes in brokering or facilitating innovation processes involving several other In performing these functions, innovation brokers need to pay particular attention to ensuring that all network members consider the information generated and exchanged to be salient, credible, and legitimate. Given the inherent tradeoffs between these information characteristics, innovation brokers need to skillfully balance the diverse information needs and standards of different groups. They should also be skillful in communicating technical and non-technical information, translating it effectively (so that it is understood by parties from different institutional and cultural backgrounds), and mediating between participants with different, and often conflicting, interests and agendas.International agricultural research and innovation tend to be characterized by a range of challenging traits: \"immature\" and highly fractured national innovation systems in developing countries; weak capacity at the level of individual organizations performing various R&D functions; weak or unproductive interorganizational relationships often characterized by mistrust; significant language and cultural differences between the diverse groups in the private, public, and nongovernmental sectors and those operating at local, national, and international levels; significant imbalances in power and access to resources, especially between \"northern\" and \"southern\" partners (with CGIAR centers typically falling into the \"northern\" category); and considerable variation in all these traits from region to region, country to country, and sector to sector.Innovation brokers attached to or associated with CGIAR centers can be considered \"second-level innovation brokers\" in that they do not facilitate national-or local-level innovation processes, but support the work of national and local partners who take the lead in brokering innovation processes in their countries. In this context, a key role for a second-level innovation broker attached to a CGIAR center could be to facilitate the co-production of new approaches and methods for improving innovation processes.The traits listed highlight the need for CGIAR-based innovation brokers to balance competing demands. On one hand, they need to establish themselves as \"honest brokers,\" trusted to negotiate fair deals among diverse actors with different objectives and interests. On the other hand, however, they need to steer innovation processes in ways that strengthen national innovation capacities. This often involves pushing for the expansion of an innovation network in ways that traditional partners might find threatening. Second-level innovation brokers therefore need to balance their roles as honest brokers in negotiation and as advocates for capacity strengthening.CGIAR-based innovation brokers are often expected to provide specialized scientific information for decision-making. Playing such an \"expert\" role, however, conflicts with serving as an independent process facilitator. It also increases the risk that the CGIAR center begins to dominate local innovation processes, rather than playing a backstopping role.To effectively help strengthen local innovation capacity, center-based innovation brokers need to work behind the scenes and promote the achievements of local actors (Horton et al., 2003). Playing such an invisible and catalytic role, however, makes it difficult to assess their results and measure \"tangible impact\" or \"value added.\" The consequent lack of hard evidence could jeopardize obtaining funding support for innovation brokers. Klerkx et al. (2009:432) note that \"innovation brokers … always have to perform a balancing act.\" For the reasons outlined in this section, CGIAR-based innovation brokers need to be particularly adept at balancing conflicting needs, priorities, and agendas.Much of the literature on boundary management and innovation brokering is abstract, and there are few detailed case studies on the structures of boundary organizations or the approaches used by innovation brokers to facilitate innovation processes and strengthen innovation capacities. In this section, we analyze four aspects of Papa Andina's evolution as a second-level innovation broker:• Its shift in focus (and paradigm) from regional research to regional learning and innovation brokering• How it is structured and its relationship with first-level partners• The approaches it has developed to facilitate innovation processes and strengthen national innovation capacities• The types of results it has achieved through its work with national partners.Papa Andina was designed to strengthen potato research capacity in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru through the development of a regional research program. In line with the CGIAR strategy at the time, outlined by de Janvry and Kassam (2004:159), it sought to develop \"a regional approach to research planning, priority setting and implementation\" involving CIP's traditional research partners in the Andes -the national potato research programs.It soon became clear, however, that national policy-makers and potato researchers were less interested in developing a regional potato research program than in coping with external forces that were buffeting their organizations. Production-oriented agricultural research had fallen out of favor with international donors and national governments, research funding was falling precipitously, and market-chain To address these issues, Papa Andina linked up with the New Paradigm Project of the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) (de Souza Silva, 2001;de Souza Silva et al., 2001), which offered a theoretical framework for understanding and managing organizational change. The framework emphasized that research organizations operate in highly dynamic environments and need to anticipate and respond with agility to changing demands and opportunities for their services.Encouraged by these ideas, Papa Andina gradually shifted its focus from devising a regional research agenda to developing a regional learning agenda and strengthening national capacities for innovation, making use of resources in the region, incorporating new ideas, and adapting them to local circumstances. This shift involved developing and using participatory approaches, facilitating teamwork and group decision-making, and collaborating with new types of partners outside the usual circle of research organizations. The changes took some time to be incorporated into the way Papa Andina and its partners worked. The co-development of several approaches for facilitating innovation (described in Section 3.3) was central to moving from a focus on research to one on learning and innovation.The shift in focus was radical, and continues to be controversial within the international agricultural research community. For example, a recent review of social sciences in the CGIAR notes that \"IS [innovation systems] theory remains underdeveloped and exceedingly difficult to operationalize empirically … we see only a very limited role for this line of research within CGIAR social science while the concepts and methods remain seriously underdeveloped and the CGIAR lacks appropriately trained staff to enjoy a high likelihood of generating breakthroughs\" (CGIAR Science Council, 2009).Papa Andina began as a CIP project funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It has evolved into a Partnership Program with different donors, and spans the institutional boundaries of CIP and R&D partners in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. Over the years, Papa Andina has managed a portfolio of complementary donor-funded projects that aim to stimulate pro-poor innovation and develop national innovation capacities in the potato sector. All its work has been funded through donor projects, rather than through CIP's core budget. 8 Papa Andina is part of CIP's research structure, which is made up of Research Divisions and Partnership Programs (CIP, 2004:59). Partnership Programs are characterized by the direct involvement of partners in program governance and implementation. Papa Andina has its own advisory body -the Coordination Committee -that includes representatives of its Strategic Partners, its Coordination Team, CIP, SDC, and the agricultural sector in each country. This creates multiple lines of accountability between Papa Andina and its main stakeholders. It also reports through CIP's management system. Some of its approaches and innovative strategies for linking research with action and some of the results achieved in the Andes have been reported as CIP outputs and outcomes, and are becoming part of CIP's research strategy. Papa Andina's Coordination Team is made up of CIP staff members and consultants based in Peru (3), Bolivia (2), and Ecuador (1). The Papa Andina Coordinator, who is based in Lima, Peru, makes frequent trips to field sites in all three countries and the management style is markedly \"horizontal\" (Bebbington and Rotondo, 2010: 36). Major decisions are made at Papa Andina's annual meetings or at meetings of the Coordination Committee.The Coordination Team works closely with focal points and collaborators in one R&D organization in each country. Known as \"Strategic Partners\", these organizations are: the PROINPA Foundation in Bolivia; the National Potato Program at INIAP in Ecuador; and the INCOPA Project in Peru. 9Most of Papa Andina's work in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru is led by the Strategic Partners and is implemented directly by them or via local organizations known as \"Operational Partners\" (Figure 1). In this sense, therefore, Papa Andina operates as a second-level innovation broker. Its Coordination Team is not directly involved in brokering in-country innovation processes. Instead, it works to support and co-fund the Strategic Partners by creating an appropriate environment or \"innovation ecology\", facilitating the implementation of innovation processes in each country, and acting as a \"broker of innovations for innovation.\"The team members are based at CIP or with the Strategic Partners. This facilitates communication between the team and the partners, but \"in some cases this co-location may have weakened the independence of the coordination team and created uncertainty in the eyes of stakeholders as to institutional identities\" (Bebbington and Rotondo, 2010: 37). 10 9 The organizations' names in Spanish are: Fundación PROINPA (Promoción e Investigación de Productos Andinos), Bolivia (www.proinpa.org); Programa Nacional de Raíces y Tubérculos rubro Papa (PNRT-Papa), INIAP, Ecuador (www.iniap-ecuador.gov.ec/); and Proyecto INCOPA, Perú (www.cipotato.org/papandina/incopa/incopa.htm), a coalition of private and public partners that aims to improve small potato farmers' access to markets.10 For a discussion of this term, and some examples, see Hall (2003).The main types of support that the Coordinating Team provides are methodology development and support for 88Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model innovation brokering, knowledge sharing through regional activities, and grants for operations in each country.A key Papa Andina strategy is to strengthen the innovation capacity of national partners by delegating responsibilities and authority to them. An external evaluation of Papa Andina found that country-level activities were so closely associated with the Strategic Partners that many Operational Partners, producers, and other stakeholders knew little, if anything, about Papa Andina, and assumed that they were participating in or benefiting from the activities of PROINPA, INIAP, or INCOPA (Bebbington and Rotondo, 2010:38).Papa Andina has developed and promoted several R&D approaches for brokering innovation processes and strengthening national innovation capacities. At this level, it promotes \"innovations in innovation\", as described in Section 3.4. Some of these approaches are outlined here and have been taken up by other organizations involved in brokering innovation in other settings.The CGIAR is best known for the \"Green Revolution\" of the 1970s, which ushered in the use of HYV of staple food crops along with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Green Revolution technology boosted crop production and yields on irrigated land, contributing to significant reductions in food prices. Early success with the technology helped consolidate an \"HYV technological regime\" in the CGIAR, which prizes breeding and genetic engineering over other more holistic approaches, such as integrated natural resources management and agro-ecology, which are more closely associated with concepts involved in evolutionary thinking, systems analysis, complexity, and innovation (Vanloqueren and Baret, 2009).Whereas modern high-yielding potato varieties have been introduced into many parts of the Andes, native varieties (landraces) still predominate on small farms in areas above 3,500 meters in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Until recently, native potatoes received almost no attention in potato research agendas. And yet, with their diversity in color and shape, high cooking versatility, nutritional profile, and traditional, lowinput production practices, native potatoes represent a valuable asset for small-scale farmers in the region (Ordinola et al., 2007;Meinzen-Dick et al., 2009). As they grow best at the higher altitudes where small-scale farmers predominate, using them in the development of new commercial products should give these farmers a comparative advantage. Based on a market study that indicated untapped market potential for native potato products in Peru, Papa Andina began exploring ways to exploit the potential of native potatoes through new product development, resulting in several new products being developed and marketed in Bolivia and Peru. In Ecuador, where native potatoes have almost disappeared from the market, efforts have remained focused on improving small-scale farmer access to markets for modern potato varieties. Papa Andina's experience with native potatoes illustrates that innovation brokers need to avoid being constrained by the prevailing research agenda and dominant technological regime. Successful pro-poor innovation needs to begin with an understanding of the assets, perspectives, and needs of key stakeholders in the innovation process -especially those of small-scale farmers and market agents -and then building on this understanding. The main approach that Papa Andina has developed for initiating innovation processes that capitalize on local assets and address local needs is the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA), described here.In 2003, in order to stimulate agricultural innovation, Papa Andina and CIP's Social Science Department began to use a participatory approach known as Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Knowledge Systems (RAAKS) (Engel and Salomon, 2003). RAAKS brings diverse stakeholders together to stimulate social learning, build trust, and foster innovation. Papa Andina used RAAKS to bring market chain actors together to identify and develop market opportunities that could be of mutual benefit. Rapid market assessments and focus group approaches were added, and gradually a new approach emerged, known as the Participatory Market Chain Approach. 11 11 The PMCA methodology has been documented in Spanish and English in User Guides and Training Guides (Bernet et al., 2006(Bernet et al., , 2008)).The PMCA seeks to build trust and connectedness and to facilitate the acquisition of useful knowledge, skills, and attitudes for innovation. One of its goals is to foster relationships that continue after the completion of the specific PMCA application.  The PMCA engages those who make their living from a market chain ('market chain actors') and public and private service providers (such as researchers, credit providers and development workers) in facilitated group processes in which market opportunities are identified and assessed and innovations are developed. The objective is to stimulate commercial innovation (such as the development of new products or the identification of market niches). Experience has shown that developing new products or identifying new markets stimulates institutional innovation (such as the creation of new supply channels) and technological innovation (such as improved potato production methods).An R&D organization initiates the PMCA process by identifying key market chain actors and supporting organizations, and by conducting market research to learn about these actors and their activities, problems, and priorities. Thematic groups are ormed that focus on market opportunities, and facilitators lead group meetings to analyze the opportunities and conduct the R&D activities needed to develop specific innovations.As the process advances, the aim is for the facilitator to hand over responsibilities to the market chain actors. This has often proven difficult, however, and R&D organizations have found it necessary to continue in a facilitating mode.In promoting and supporting the use of the PMCA, Papa Andina's partners play the role of innovation broker. Key facilitation functions involve:• Encouraging relevant actors to participate in the PMCA process (network formation)• Ensuring effective communication and mutual understanding among the diverse groups implementing the PMCA (communication and translation)• Mediating conflicts, which are often inevitable during market-chain innovation• Catalyzing problem-solving when groups get stuck, often by linking to external sources of expertise (boundary spanning)• In order to consolidate the innovation processes initiated through the PMCA and to promote the scaling up of its interventions with partners, Papa Andina has developed complementary approaches focusing on stakeholder platforms, policy dialogue, corporate social responsibility, and horizontal evaluation.• Establishing multi-stakeholder platformsIn the context of the Papa Andina initiative, a multi-stakeholder platform is defined as \"a space for interaction between different stakeholders who share a resource or common interest and interact to improve their mutual understanding, create trust, learn, reach consensus over priorities, define roles and engage in joint action\" (Thiele et al., 2009). These platforms have proven useful for consolidating innovation processes during and after a PMCA, helping to maintain dialogue and sustain the innovation dynamics and working relationships among stakeholders. Papa Andina and its partners have promoted two types of platform. The first is structured along the market chain and brings farmers together with traders, processors, retailers, researchers, chefs and others to foster new product development. The second is structured around geographically delimited supply areas. In both cases, key functions are communication, translation, and mediation, which require leadership and competent facilitation. Platforms can be used to address market coordination problems, helping small-scale farmers to meet the volume, quality, and timeliness standards demanded of particular market chains. They can also help in coordinating 92Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model the acquisition of inputs, bringing NGOs and others in to provide technical support or access to credit (Thiele et al., 2009). Papa Andina's partners have promoted the establishment of multi-stakeholder platforms and supported capacity development for platform leadership and facilitation. Although the platforms have performed useful innovation, marketing, and advocacy functions, their continued operation has often depended on external facilitation and financial support.Innovation in the value chain might stall without policy support and corresponding changes in the legal framework. To influence pro-poor policies in the potato sector, Papa Andina's partners have developed two strategies to promote dialogue among researchers, civil society organizations, the private sector and political decisionmakers. The first strategy is based on influencing public opinion through media coverage about the importance of potato value chains and the challenges facing them, and bringing these issues to the attention of political decision-makers. The second aims to directly engage policy-makers in developing a vision and strategy for the potato sector (Devaux et al., 2010). Here, Papa Andina's role has been to draw on methodological expertise developed in other value chains and, with its partners, to adapt and validate these approaches for potato value chains. In establishing spaces for policy dialogue, Papa Andina is working on the boundary between politics and science, as referred to by Guston (2000).In value-chain innovation processes, there is always a risk that the lion's share of the benefits will go to large commercial interests. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an entry point for addressing the issue of small-scale farmers' interests with the largest players in the value chain. CSR refers to an ethical form of management that takes into account the expectations of a company's stakeholders in order to achieve sustainable development (Thomann et al., 2009). In a value chain, two important areas for CSR work are: developing a market segment willing to pay a premium price for a high-quality, environmentally and socially sustainable product; and developing the competitiveness of supplier organizations to reduce asymmetries in bargaining power. Papa Andina works to sensitize its partners to CSR, facilitating dialogue among large companies, NGOs, and farmer organizations on the application of CSR in the market chain. In this way, it facilitates communication and translation among stakeholders with differing perspectives, and through mediation it seeks to address asymmetries in power and areas of conflicting interest among stakeholders in the value chain (for example, small-scale producers and large corporate buyers).Box 1: Applying the PMCA to unleash the potential of native potatoes in Peru Papa Andina applied the PMCA in Peru with researchers, farmers, private companies, and nutritional and gastronomic experts to find innovative ways to expand the market for native potatoes through product development.Early products opened new market niches and brought higher prices for farmers. Among these were T'ikapapa (bagged native potatoes), which received the prestigious BBC World Challenge Award and the UN Seed Award, and Jalca Chips (multicolored native potato chips), which took off in the duty-free shops at Lima airport. As visibility and interest in native potatoes rose, Papa Andina worked with small-scale farmers, NGOs, and large multinationals to develop more products, while boosting the bargaining power and participation of local farmers. As a result, a supply chain has been created that gives more than 200 farmers access to a stable market and a negotiated price that provides them with a 20-40% profit margin. Export channels are opening, too, and in 2009 the overall demand for native potatoes in Peru was estimated to have reached 2,000 metric tons, generating close to $US1 million in revenues for farmers.The emergence of a native potato market has fueled the research agenda. CIP scientists, along with NGOs and farmers, are working on ways to increase quality and yield while safeguarding the sustainable and natural production methods valued by consumers.An important aspect of consolidating the market is to position the native potato on the political agenda. Interested stakeholders have linked up to form lobbying platforms, recording successes such as the creation of National Potato Days in Peru and Ecuador and the compilation of quality norms for potatoes and their processing. A CIP-led \"vision exercise\" implemented in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, involving public and private sector representatives, identified opportunities for public and private investment to increase the competitiveness of the sector as a whole, with the focus on small-scale farmers.The \"horizontal evaluation\" approach was developed to promote knowledge sharing and collective learning within the Papa Andina network (Thiele et al., 2006(Thiele et al., , 2007;;Bernet et al., 2010). It combines elements of self-assessment and external peer evaluation within the setting of a regional workshop. In these workshops, two groups -a local project team and a group of peers from other organizations -assess the strengths and weaknesses of an experience (usually within a project), and then compare their assessments. Papa Andina's horizontal evaluations have a strong regional knowledge-sharing component because most of the peer evaluators come from abroad. There are usually important differences between the self-assessment conducted by the local project team and the assessment by the external peer group. The ensuing dialogue helps both groups fill information gaps and address points of disagreement. No attempt is made to reach broad agreement on the merits of the project. Instead, the local team formulates recommendations for improving the project, and the peer evaluators looks at how they can apply lessons learned during the evaluation in their own work back home.Participants report that these horizontal evaluation workshops have been extremely useful opportunities for learning about the strengths and weaknesses of new R&D approaches, as well as for building common visions, language, and understanding among diverse stakeholders. As a result of horizontal evaluations, 94Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model many local project teams have significantly altered the way they pursue their innovation agenda. After the workshops, when the peer evaluators return home, they often begin to experiment with things they learned during the evaluation. For example, after the horizontal evaluation of a PMCA project in Peru, Bolivian participants began to work with the PMCA themselves, and subsequently made major contributions to the approach. In contrast, Ecuadorian participants did not see the value of the PMCA in their context, preferring to focus their energies on strengthening farmer organizations.Through the use of horizontal evaluations, the Papa Andina Coordination Team provides a safe space for frank and open discussion, the airing of disagreements among network members, and constructive criticism of work and results. The constructive conflict that takes place between national teams has been an important source of social learning, contributing to the development of Papa Andina's approaches. It has also motivated national teams to perform at high levels. For national partners, representing high-profile R&D institutions in the Andean region, horizontal evaluation exercises have generated ideas for improving current practices, insights into the potential use of new R&D methods, and greater disposition to learn and share knowledge with other R&D teams.The most important products of the Papa Andina initiative are the new approaches for fostering innovation and strengthening innovation capacity, described above. They can be considered innovations in innovation, which Hall (2003:v) refers to as \"institutional and organizational innovations that emerge as new ways of developing, diffusing, and using new knowledge\" or \"new ways to generate and promote innovation\". Lawrence et al. (2002:281) refer to them as \"proto-institutions\" -new approaches, practices, and norms that transcend a particular collaborative relationship and could become new institutions if they diffuse sufficiently.User guides on the PMCA and horizontal evaluation have been produced (Bernet et al., 2006(Bernet et al., , 2010) and many reports have been published on Papa Andina's approaches, co-produced by CIP and R&D organizations in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. Some of the new approaches have been applied by other groups in other settings and have the potential to develop into new ways of conducting agricultural R&D.Through partnerships with other organizations and CIP's global network, the PMCA has been used in a range of market chains in the Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The first pilot application of the PMCA outside the Andes was in Uganda, where it was used in the potato, sweet potato and vegetable market chains. The Ugandan experience indicates that the approach can foster pro-poor innovation in local commodity chains in sub-Saharan Africa (Horton, 2008;Horton et al., 2010). Through alliances with other organizations, including Practical Action ,12 and in collaboration with CIP's research divisions and regional projects (most notably Alianza Cambio Andino), 13   • Researchers who have worked with Papa Andina generally think now more in terms of facilitating innovation processes, rather than simply conducting research.the PMCA has also been applied in market chains for milk, coffee, potatoes and other commodities in the Andes. In a project supported by the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the PMCA is being used in Indonesia to develop and promote dynamic potato market chains. The horizontal evaluation approach has been applied by other regional projects in the Andes, such as the InnovAndes and Cambio Andino projects, and some professional evaluators have picked up the approach from specialist publications (Thiele et al., 2006;2007).An important goal of innovation brokering is to strengthen innovation capacity. Actually measuring such capacity, however, can be daunting (Horton et al., 2003;Baser and Morgan 2008;Klerkx et al., 2009). As noted in Section 2, key aspects of innovation capacity are the willingness of groups to work with other stakeholders in innovation processes, openness to a range of ideas for diagnosing and solving problems, and the nature of relationships among R&D organizations, public authorities, NGOs, private companies, farmers and other stakeholders. Although the extent to which Papa Andina has contributed to innovation capacity in the region has yet to be measured, illustrative results can be noted:• Groups that have worked with Papa Andina (researchers, NGOs, other service providers, farmers, or other market chain actors) are generally more open to working with others.• New approaches using native potatoes to improve small-scale farmer livelihoods, which were not considered as a priority in the past, are now part of the agenda of R&D organizations in the region.• Working with such approaches as the PMCA and muli-stakeholder platforms is now common practice among Papa Andina's partners, and some of the R&D agendas are now more market oriented.• Researchers and NGOs that have worked with Papa Andina are more aware of gender issues and the need to achieve impact at farmer level. Farmers who produce native potatoes above 3,500 meters in altitude in the Bolivian highlands are among the poorest people in Latin America. Native potatoes (landraces) and the local knowledge for their cultivation and transformation are among the main assets possessed by farmers in these areas. Traditional freeze-dried potato products known as chuño and tunta are typically used for home consumption, intra-household exchange, and trade in local markets. The ANDIBOL platform -an alliance of small potato producers, R&D organizations, NGOs, and medium-scale enterprises -was established to promote the development and exploitation of market niches for chuño in demanding urban markets.In 2003, PROINPA used the PMCA to foster innovation in the market chains for tunta and chuño. This work involved farmers, traders, food-processing firms, exporters, cooking schools and R&D organizations. In the first cycle, participants prepared a set of Bolivian Quality Standards for Chuño and Tunta. In 2004, the PMCA was used again to identify new market opportunities for chuño and tunta, and ways to improve the products' image in different market from the traditional ones. This exercise involved some participants from the first application plus chefs and a food-processing firm manager. It resulted in a new product: clean, selected and bagged chuño, marketed under the brand 'Chuñosa'. In 2005, based on their successful collaboration to date, participants established the Bolivian Chuño and Tunta Platform, which later was christened the Bolivian Andean Platform (ANDIBOL) (Velasco, et al, 2009).ANDIBOL has established links with market agents to develop quality chuño-based products with a higher price and to explore the export potential of chuño. The platform has developed a strategic plan and has obtained funding to support new projects. Facilitated by PROINPA, the platform has 13 core members including R&D organizations, processing firms, and 4 farmers' associations grouped in APEPA (Asociación de Productores Ecológicos Primero Aroma), which represents 485 families in 20 communities.One of the platforms' functions is to promote innovation around traditional chuño products. Introduction of chuño into urban markets and access to export markets have stimulated demands for quality improvement in production and processing. These demands, in turn, have led to work with a local manufacturer to develop simple machines for classifying and peeling native potatoes and with R&D organizations to improve potato production technology and management of the Andean tuber weevil, a major pest in the Andean highlands. Recently a new brand Chef Andino was established for marketing products based on chuño as well as Andean grains (flours, instant soups, and flakes). On average, farmers now receive 30-40% more for their chuño when sold to supermarkets as compared to their traditional market.While ANDIBOL has made great strides, it is not without challenges, which include relatively weak farmer participation, limited influence of farmer demands on research agendas, the small number of participating farmers, and limited volumes of produce marketedPapa Andina's experience shows that commercial innovation often stimulates institutional and technological innovation. Applications of the PMCA in Bolivia and Peru have led to the development of native potato products, including selected \"gourmet\" native potatoes, naturally colored chips, and selected and bagged chuño and tunta, a potato product dehydrated using a traditional highlands method (Ordinola et al., 2009). Stakeholder platforms and CSR have played useful roles in developing pilot products into economically and socially sustainable larger-scale businesses. For example, after the first native potato chips were introduced in Lima on a small scale, a large commercial firm developed a higher-quality product based on supply from small-scale Andean farmers that is now available all year round in supermarkets, is marketed on TV, and is certified as \"ethically produced\" by an independent body. This boom in the native potato market has increased the demand for these potatoes, which are grown mainly by small-scale farmers (Figures 2 and 3).  Commercial innovation has also stimulated innovation in potato production. For example, it has improved the seed production system for native potatoes in Peru by including 61 native varieties in the national commercial variety list and establishing a seed system aimed at low-resource potato farmers in Ecuador (FAO, 2006). Research is also being conducted in Peru and Bolivia on post-harvest practices to improve the quality and shelf life of selected and processed native potatoes in high-quality markets.Achieving farm-level impact is not a direct result of the work of an innovation broker (Klerkx et al., 2009). An innovation broker needs to interact with partners and stimulate their capacity to improve small-scale farmer competitiveness. This applies even more so to the work of second-level innovation brokers operating regionally or globally. Nevertheless, Papa Andina's experience provides insights into the impact pathways connecting innovation brokers with farm-level changes. The development of market opportunities for potatoes has enabled small-scale Andean farmers to access higher-value markets for the first time, despite the high production and transaction costs associated with scattered smallholder production. In Bolivia, the Andibol stakeholder platform has enabled farmers to sell processed chuño in local supermarkets and start exporting to Spain (20 to 40% price increase compared to local market). In Ecuador, stakeholder platforms have enabled hundreds of small-scale farmers to sell their potatoes to fast-food restaurants, resulting in an increase in their yields from 6.3 to 8.4 MT/ha and in their gross margins from $US 63 to 259/ha (Cavatassi et al., 2009). In Peru, the establishment of a business model incorporating CSR has made it possible for farmer organizations in the Central Andes to sell native potatoes on contract to a multinational company. Access to markets has motivated farmers to strengthen their organizations and to introduce changes in their production and post-harvest practices, such as improvements in pest and disease management, seed quality, and the classification of harvested potatoes (Velasco et al., 2009). These new practices have increased yields and improved product quality.In this section, we discuss some of the challenges to Papa Andina's operations and sustainability. As outlined in Section 2.2, Klerkx et al. (2009) identified three broad types of challenges to effective innovation brokerage: the independence and legitimacy of the broker; the ambiguity of the functions performed by the broker; and the issues of funding, evaluation, and willingness to pay for innovation brokerage services. Papa Andina has faced challenges in each of these areas.At times, some partners have suspected that Papa Andina's position has reflected the interests of CIP rather than those of the partners or countries involved. For example, some partners in Ecuador have questioned Papa Andina's promotion of the PMCA, of native potatoes, and of the participation of private entrepreneurs in driving innovation processes. They did not think the PMCA reflected local Ecuadorian needs and circumstances. Another issue relates to competition for funding. As both CIP and its national partners have scarce core resources and actively seek project funding from donors, and because Papa Andina depends entirely on donor project funding, national partners have sometimes viewed Papa Andina as a competitor for scarce resources. It is important to note that, in other instances, the close working relationship between national organizations and Papa Andina has helped them obtain donor funding.As Papa Andina is funded by donor organizations, it sometimes finds it necessary to mediate between the interests and priorities of its donors and national partners. For example, in recent years, donors have sought to involve the private sector to a greater extent in R&D efforts, but researchers in some NARIs view the involvement of the private sector with suspicion. Other themes of high priority to many donors, such as gender, empowerment, and partnering with NGOs, have not always been the top priority of national partners. In some cases, promoting such themes has compromised 100Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model Papa Andina's legitimacy as an \"honest broker\" of innovation processes at the national level.Funding for Papa Andina, including the funds received by national partners, goes through CIP. This has led partners to express concern sometimes about the sharing of resources, center expenses, and power imbalances. A recent evaluation questioned the current management model of Papa Andina as a Partnership Program based at CIP, with one Strategic Partner in each country. The recommendation was to establish a broader consortium with a more diverse set of Strategic Partners (including NGOs and representatives of the private sector), with CIP playing the role of one among many partners. But there was no specific analysis of the capacity of these actors to play a second-level innovation-brokering role.There have also been sensitivities related to intellectual property. Papa Andina's approaches draw on the contributions of many actors with different institutional affiliations, but few of the contributors have the time and ability to participate in writing up results of Papa Andina's work for publication. Additionally, the publication of Papa Andina's work is seldom a priority for the contributors' home institutions. These issues have led to problems related to authorship and to individual and institutional recognition, which have often required dialogue, negotiation, and compromise.While Papa Andina's main function is that of innovation broker, as a program based at CIP and within the CGIAR it is expected to conduct research and produce results of global relevance and use. There can be confusion between its brokerage work to support partners in local innovation processes and its research work that might not be of direct use to these partners. A related issue is that the demand-oriented research focus promoted by Papa Andina does not always fit with the traditional biophysical research on which the CGIAR has built its reputation and legitimacy; the emphasis on innovation strategies and processes remains controversial in the CGIAR.As an innovation broker, Papa Andina works to manage boundaries between organizations that can play a role in innovation processes, in order to promote propoor innovation with potatoes in the Andes. It appears, however, to be doing much more on managing boundaries between research entities, other service providers, small-scale farmers and market agents at the country level than on managing boundaries between CIP and these groups. Indeed, Papa Andina's Coordination Team has often felt frustrated in its efforts to mobilize CIP expertise in support of national innovation processes and to help improve the impact of CIP research in the Andes. As we note in the Conclusions section, however, this frustration might stem from unreasonable expectations in this area.As a program hosted by CIP, Papa Andina is expected to support national and locallevel innovation processes, not to lead them. Between support and leadership, however, there is a broad continuum of types and levels of involvement. Some degree of involvement is essential for learning, action research, and effective steering of innovation processes. The challenge of operating as a \"hands-off\" second-level innovation broker is compounded by the fact that national and local innovation brokers are generally based at R&D organizations whose priorities and core activities could jeopardize the legitimacy of the organization as an \"honest broker.\" For example, an innovation agent based at a national research organization might feel under pressure (overt or covert) to channel research contracts to his / her own organization, even when another organization might be more appropriate. In such situations, Papa Andina sometimes needs to steer processes (particularly with regard to the composition of innovation networks) and mediate agreements among parties with conflicting interests and agendas. As a result, the first-and second-level innovation brokerage roles sometimes become confused.To date, all Papa Andina's work has been funded through donor projects with time horizons of 4 years or less. SDC funding has been renewed twice and extended over a total of 12 years, allowing the Coordination Team to develop good working relationships with national-level teams. Nevertheless, the inherently unpredictable nature of donor project funding is not ideal for developing innovation brokerage capacity, either at national or international level.Recent trends in project management and evaluation that call for the use of logical frameworks, SMART indicators, and \"hard evidence\" of impact put Papa Andina and other innovation brokers at a disadvantage compared with projects that produce tangible outputs and promise short-term, direct impact on poverty. Papa Andina's direct results are at the level of innovation processes and capacity strengthening, which are inherently difficult to document, measure, and attribute to specific actors (Perrin, 2002;Klerkx et al., 2009:415).Since Papa Andina is now well known for its work and has many donors and stakeholders, it has been subjected to numerous external reviews and evaluations. During 2009 and early 2010 alone, Papa Andina and many of its national partners were asked to participate in seven external evaluations conducted for three donor The Papa Andina case illustrates the useful roles that a Partnership Program attached to a CGIAR center can play as a second-level innovation broker and the types of results that can be achieved. It also highlights important challenges facing innovation brokers. Here, we present some of the main conclusions of our analysis and identify possible ways forward.These evaluations diverted the scarce human resources of Papa Andina and its partners from brokering innovation processes to meeting donors' accountability needs.Three important roles for second-level innovation brokers are:• Fostering innovations in innovation through developing and testing new R&D approaches, such as the PMCA, that can be useful for articulating demands for innovation, forming innovation networks, and managing innovation processes• Strengthening the capacity of national and local innovation brokers who, in turn, can broker local innovation processes and strengthen national innovation capacity• Creating a dynamic innovation environment that fosters feedback and learning between the innovations-in-innovation level and the innovation brokering level linked to national contexts and particular value chains.Our analysis has shown that becoming an effective innovation broker requires the application of a complex set of new knowledge, attitudes, and skills. For example, based on assessments of experiences with the PMCA in the Andes and Uganda (Devaux et al. 2009;Horton et al., 2010b), we believe that the successful introduction of the PMCA into new settings requires a multi-pronged capacity-development strategy implemented over several months. 15  Implementing such strategies takes time and resources, but they should be seen as an investment in innovation capacity that will generate returns for many years. Our analysis indicates that the capacities developed, at both individual and innovationsystem level, continue to be utilized long after the initial PMCA exercise formally ends. In many cases, the creative imitations that occur years after the initial efforts are the most important ones.When introducing innovation-brokering approaches such as the PMCA to new settings, it should be kept in mind that each situation presents a unique combination of socio-economic, political, institutional and technological conditions. The approach therefore needs to be customized for use in each country and market chain. Institutional sustainability issues should be dealt with as priorities from the outset of any process involving the introduction of new approaches.Being an effective innovation broker requires being a trusted and reliable \"matchmaker\" to ensure that the most appropriate actors are involved in innovation processes. Papa Andina's experience highlights the importance of involving a wide range of national actors with different areas of expertise. If an innovation agent is overly concerned with engaging the services of his / her host institution, this could hamper the development of local innovation capacity.The Papa Andina experience indicates that being hosted by a CGIAR center has both advantages and disadvantages. Affiliation with a center can provide easy access to valuable technical inputs, expertise, and knowledge. It could also give the innovation broker the legitimacy to serve as an \"honest broker,\" vis-à-vis national actors. A CGIAR center also has recognized prestige within the national and international R&D community, which gives the innovation broker greater credibility. CGIAR centers can provide administrative and other facilities that may be valuable for an innovation broker operating regionally or internationally. On the negative side, being hosted by a CGIAR center that works on a limited set of commodities or resource areas could constrain the work of the innovation broker. An innovation broker based at a center might fall back into a technical, or expert, role, which is incompatible with the effective facilitation and brokerage of innovation processes. He/she might also be motivated to involve the center in activities for which it is not best suited. The center might have high overhead costs. And there could be pressure within a center to give oriented PMCA training workshops, use of the PMCA User Guide and complementary training materials, practical hands-on work with the PMCA in commodity groups, and backstopping and coaching by experienced PMCA facilitators, involving both face-to-face and virtual communications; (e) knowledge sharing among the PMCA practitioners working in different commodity teams; and (f) periodic learning-oriented reviews and evaluations to improve the process and document results (Horton et al., 2009: 387). priority to research and the production of IPGs, rather than to what are perceived to be less valuable \"service functions\" or \"development activities.\" The innovation broker must find the right balance in responding to both agendas. Some authors (for example, Bebbington and Rotondo, 2010:27) have suggested that it would be preferable for the innovation broker to be constituted as an independent consortium, but it is not clear how such an entity would function.Traditional tools for project planning, management, and evaluation, which have their origins in the engineering field, have serious limitations when applied to programs such as Papa Andina that seek to promote innovation in varied and dynamic contexts. As Perrin (2002:13) noted, \"Most attempts at innovation, by definition, are risky and should 'fail' -otherwise, they are using safe, rather than unknown or truly innovative approaches.\" To promote innovation, rather than focusing on pre-determined indicators or average results, evaluations should identify situations where actual impact has occurred and the reasons for success.Similarly, Rogers (2008) noted that logical frameworks pose many challenges when applied to the evaluation of complex interventions that have numerous components, operate under varying and changing conditions, and have complex cause-effect relationships. These characteristics make complex interventions such as Papa Andina difficult to analyse. This has important implications not only for evaluating innovation projects, but also for planning and managing them. Rogers (2008:44) emphasizes the limitations of logical frameworks for performance measurement and the use of management results in complex interventions: Particular care should be taken to not imagine that a logic model, however detailed, can be used to generate performance measures that can be used formulaically to modify implementation and improve performance when interventions have complex aspects There are also important methodological issues in the evaluation of capacity development, which is an essentially intangible property (Horton et al., 2003;Baser and Morgan, 2008).Whereas it will always be inherently difficult for innovation brokers, especially when operating at the regional or international level, to document impact at the level of broad development goals, it is important for them to develop clear and testable \"theories of change\" or \"impact pathways\" for their interventions (Douthwaite et al., 2007;Rogers, 2008).Papa Andina's experiences make it clear that one should not expect such mechanisms as innovation brokering and boundary management to serve as a \"silver bullet\" for linking CGIAR research with local needs and innovation processes. These mechanisms could, however, contribute to a gradual process of alignment between the research priorities in CGIAR centers and locally articulated needs. A logical pathway for influencing the international agricultural research agenda would be to strengthen incountry and regional innovation capacity, so that local groups could work more effectively with national R&D organizations to strengthen the national innovation system and place demands on international programs.No single entity such as Papa Andina should be expected to have a significant influence on the research agenda of its host center. CGIAR centers work on problems of global importance, and core resources are assigned according to global priorities. Potato farmers in the Andes are a very small group in the total constituency of potato and sweet potato farmers whose problems CIP is mandated to address. CIP has prioritized key problems of global relevance, and a problem such as improved storage methods for native potatoes would rank very low in any priority-setting exercise driven by total number of beneficiaries or value of net benefits to research.Nevertheless, if CGIAR centers supported innovation brokers in various parts of the world, this could lead to strengthened innovation capacity and improved articulation of technology needs and demands, which could exert significant influence on the research agendas of national agricultural research institutes and CGIAR centers.Another promising avenue for influence is via donor-funded projects. As a very large share of centers' operating budgets comes through donor projects, one strategy would be for innovation brokers to seek to influence the priorities of donor-funded projects. This, in turn, could influence centers to focus on food security, environmental sustainability and poverty reduction linked to development outcomes in partnership with public and private research and development partners.Papa Andina has contributed to an emerging community of R&D professionals with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to facilitate innovation processes among stakeholders and to foster market chain innovation. These professionals represent a potentially valuable resource that could be mobilized to facilitate innovation processes on a larger scale. Based on our (admittedly limited) experience, we believe that support for the development of a community or network of innovation brokers dedicated to facilitating pro-poor agricultural innovation would be a high-payoff area for international donor organizations, as well as for national and local governments and NGOs that wish to foster pro-poor innovation in developing regions. Thiele, G., A. Devaux, C. Velasco and D. Horton. 2007 There is little systematic understanding of the ways in which agricultural research and development (R&D) organizations manage knowledge in order to foster innovation in developing regions. By innovation we do not mean the production of new knowledge but \"the use of new ideas, new technologies, or new ways of doing things in a place or by people where they have not been used before\" (Barnett, 2004: 1 (emphasis added). This paper analyzes how Papa Andina, a partnership program hosted by the International Potato Center (CIP), has managed knowledge in order to foster innovation.CIP is one of 15 international agricultural research centers affiliated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The initial goal of the CGIAR, established in the 1970s, was to increase food production in developing countries by carrying out and mobilizing research on major food crops and livestock. The institutional design of the CGIAR reflected a \"research-and-technology-transfer\" model of innovation that was popular at that time. In this model, the role of CGIAR centers was to carry out strategic and applied agricultural research, the results of which were used by national agricultural research organizations to generate production technologies that were subsequently transferred to farmers. CGIAR centers were expected to produce globally applicable and relevant knowledge that would be freely available for use by all national research programs. Such knowledge has been referred to as an \"international public good\" (Sagasti and Timmer, 2008).Over time, knowledge of innovation processes has improved, the goals of agricultural research organizations have broadened, and more actors have become involved in research and innovation processes. There has been considerable experimentation with participatory approaches for democratizing knowledge management (KM) and improving linkages between research programs and innovation processes. However, few of these experiences have been systematically documented or analyzed.This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of KM and innovation in developing regions, by analyzing the case of Papa Andina. The paper was prepared by six individuals who have been directly involved with Papa Andina, and were based at CIP or at Papa Andina's \"strategic partners\" in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. 3In this section, we introduce perspectives on KM and innovation that have informed discussions and decisions on the organization and conduct of R&D efforts, including those associated with the CGIAR.There are two main perspectives on KM -one concerned primarily with codifying, storing, and transferring existing knowledge and the other concerned primarily with producing useful new knowledge. McElroy (2003) refers to these two perspectives as generations of KM. First-generation KM focuses on capturing, codifying, and transferring existing knowledge and getting the right information to the right people at the right time. It values what is considered to be universally valid, context-free, objective information. It strives to formulate broadly applicable lessons and best practices. It emphasizes the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for storing, managing, and transmitting knowledge. In contrast, second-generation KM goes beyond knowledge warehousing and transfer and also seeks to enhance the capacity of individuals and groups to produce new knowledge that they need to achieve their goals. Second-generation knowledge managers think of KM in a cyclical, holistic way, and are concerned with both knowledge production (learning) and knowledge transfer. As a result, they are concerned with social interactions and social dynamics as well as engineering.In a recent review of KM practices in international development, Ferguson, Huysman and Soekijad (2010) note that these two perspectives on KM often existand are in conflict with one another -within the same organization. International organizations frequently promote networking among development stakeholders to enhance their participation in development debates and expand the use of contextrelevant knowledge in decision-making processes. However, the internal KM systems of these same organizations usually focus on codifying, storing, and transferring the organization's knowledge through ICTs. By stressing the use of presumably contextfree and universally applicable codified knowledge in their planning and reporting, the internal KM systems of international organizations ignore or downgrade the value of local knowledge, \"marginalizing intended beneficiaries rather than incorporating their knowledge more closely into development interventions\" (ibid: 1798). As a result, the internal KM systems of development organizations frequently impact negatively on the achievement of their broader development goals.The authors suggest an alternative perspective on KM -a third generation -in which \"situated mutual learning\" helps reconcile the external KM goals and programs of international organizations and their internal KM systems and practices (ibid: 1806). In situated mutual learning, different groups and organizations with different interests and social positions interact with one another to generate commonly shared knowledge. Situated mutual learning involves negotiation and mediation of conflicts and reflects the unequal social positions of diverse actors. It does not involve a oneway process of knowledge transfer, but emerges where different parties interact while seeking to advance their own interests. When an international organization and its local partners engage in situated mutual learning, they co-produce new knowledge that is considered valid and useful on both sides of the organizational boundary. Studies of industrial innovation have identified perspectives on innovation that are similar to those just described for KM. The \"research-and-technology-transfer\" or \"pipeline\" model of innovation remains the dominant perspective in many settings. Nevertheless, there is a trend toward what Von Hippel (2005) terms \"democratizing innovation.\" User-centered innovation processes are seen as offering \"great advantage over the manufacturer-centric innovation development systems that have been the mainstay of commerce for hundreds of years\" (ibid: 1). Chesbrough (2006) observes a \"paradigm shift\" in how companies produce and commercialize industrial knowledge -a shift from \"closed innovation\" (an internally focused approach with companies generating their own ideas and then developing and marketing them) to \"open innovation\" (with firms using external as well as internal ideas and paths to market). These and other authors provide examples of the growing importance of non-traditional, open and democratic innovation processes in many sectors, including agriculture (Cash et. al. 2003;Douthwaite et. al., 2009;Kerkhoff and Lebel, 2006).When the CGIAR was established in the 1970's, its strategy was \"to use the best science in advanced countries to develop technologies for the benefit of food-deficit countries and populations\" (Lele, 2004). It sought to mobilize cutting-edge agricultural sciences, particularly breeding and genetics, to increase the yields of major food crops and livestock in developing countries. The \"Green Revolution\" of the 1970s ushered in the use of high-yielding varieties of staple food crops along with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Early successes with these technologies helped consolidate the research-and-technology-transfer model, which subsequently guided researchers' decisions on what problems to address, what types of solution to persue, and what organizations to partner with (Vanloqueren and Baret, 2009).Over time, in agriculture as in industry, the limits of the research-and-technologytransfer model have become apparent, as our understanding of innovation processes has improved, more actors have become involved in research and innovation processes, and stakeholders have come to expect agricultural research to help solve complex problems of rural poverty, food security, nutrition, and natural resource management. As a result, since the 1970s, attention has shifted from improving technology transfer to strengthening national agricultural research systems, to strengthening innovation systems (Hall et al., 2000;Pant and Hambly, 2009).An innovation system can be defined as \"a network of organizations, enterprises, and individuals focused on bringing new products, new processes, and new forms of organization into economic use, together with the institutions and policies that affect their behavior and performance\" (World Bank, 2006: vi-vii). An innovation system \"extends beyond the creation of knowledge to encompass the factors affecting demand for and use of knowledge in novel and useful ways\" (ibid, vii). In addition to researchers, extension agents, and farmers, an agricultural innovation system includes policy makers, agricultural service providers (such as financial entities, seed certification agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support agricultural and rural development), and such market chain actors as input suppliers, commodity traders, processors, retailers, and consumers.There are subtle, but important differences between perspectives on knowledge systems and innovation systems. Knowledge systems are concerned fundamentally with the production, exchange, and use of knowledge. As Klerkx et al. (2009: 411) point out, although these functions are essential for innovation processes, innovation systems need to fulfill several other functions, such as fostering entrepreneurship, developing a vision for change, mobilizing resources, building legitimacy for change, and overcoming resistance to change. Additionally, \"the agricultural innovation systems approach recognizes the influential role of institutions (i.e., laws, regulations, attitudes, habits, practices, incentives) in shaping how actors interact\" in innovation processes.One approach that has been proposed for promoting innovation is \"innovation brokering,\" which can be defined as acting as a \"systemic facilitator\" within an innovation system, which focuses on enabling other actors to innovate (Klerkx et al., 2009: 413). As we will see in the next section, over time, Papa Andina's role evolved from one of conducting research to one of brokering innovation processes.Despite the evolution of thinking on innovation processes and systems, the institutional arrangements and practices of agricultural R&D have lagged behind. As Hall (2009: 30) notes, \"the central challenge remains with us: the need to accelerate policy and institutional change in public (and increasingly, private philanthropic) investments in agricultural science, technology and innovation for development.\"There has been considerable experimentation in recent years in both national and international agricultural research organizations with new ways of linking research with innovation processes. This has mainly been on the periphery of research organizations, in externally funded projects designed to achieve practical outcomes in short time periods. The following section presents the case of one such initiativethe Papa Andina Partnership Program. Examples of other similar initiatives that engage in innovation brokering and the related concept of \"boundary work\" are provided by McNie et al. (2008) and Kristjanson et al. (2009).Grown mainly by poor smallholders, the potato is the most important food crop in the Andean highlands (Meinzen-Dick, Devaux, and Antezana, 2009). For many years, in order to contribute to reducing rural poverty in the Andes, the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) supported potato R&D in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. In 1989, Papa Andina was established as a regional project supported by SDC and hosted by CIP. In line with the CGIAR strategy at the time, Papa Andina was designed to implement a regional approach to research planning, priority setting, and implementation that would involve the traditional partners of CIP and SDC -the national potato research programs of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. The goal was to establish a decentralized regional research program with country partners When the project began, it soon became clear that national policy-makers and researchers were less interested in developing a regional potato research program than in learning to cope with external forces that were buffeting their organizations. These forces included declining funding for agricultural research, accelerating change in the agricultural sector, and expanding demands for short-term impact. Both local stakeholders and international donors were complaining that research was not addressing the most pressing problems, and new value-chain approaches were being promoted as part of a new \"research-for-development\" agenda. In this context, researchers and policy-makers wished to improve their understanding of, and ability to respond to, changing demands for research.To address these issues, we linked up with the New Paradigm Project of the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR), which was also supported by SDC (Souza Silva, 2001). The New Paradigm Project offered a theoretical framework for understanding and managing organizational change processes. The framework emphasized the growing role of urban and global markets in driving agricultural change and the need for research organizations to understand the changing global context and to respond appropriately to changing demands for agricultural research and related services.These ideas fell onto fertile ground. CIP had a long tradition of participatory technology development (Thiele et al., 2001). Papa Andina's two coordinators (Devaux and Thiele) had complementary training and skills (plant physiology and social science, respectively) and were experienced in on-farm research. For many years, SDC had supported the use of participatory research methods, and had organized participatory planning workshops for many of the projects it supported. Several of Papa Andina's members had learned participatory project planning methods in these workshops. In line with thinking in the New Paradigm Project, SDC also believed that agricultural research organizations needed to become more open and responsive, working with development partners (including NGOs) and private enterprises to innovate in market chains in ways that would benefit small farmers.Encouraged by these ideas, Papa Andina's coordinators and national partners conducted strategic planning exercises and explored different approaches for understanding and developing market chains. In Bolivia, this led to experimentation with an approach for market chain analysis developed by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA). In Ecuador, strategic planning and market-chain analysis led to establishment of multi-stakeholder platforms that involved the potato researchers, other service providers and small farmers (Thiele, et al., 2011). This led to further work on farmer organization and empowerment. In Peru, experimentation began with a market chain approach that engaged not only small farmers and agricultural service providers, but enterprises involved in potato processing and marketing. The market-chain work in Bolivia and Peru led to development of an approach known as the \"Participatory Market Chain Approach\" (Bernet et al., 2006;2008).In order to promote knowledge sharing among the different national groups, to strengthen the work of local teams, and to learn lessons of a more general nature, Papa Andina's coordinators took the lead in developing a participatory evaluation approach that fosters learning, knowledge sharing, and improvement in the context of a network. This became known as \"Horizontal Evaluation\" (Thiele, et al., 2006;2007).As the micro-level work with farmers, service providers, and market chain actors advanced, national groups realized the importance of engaging with policy makers and influencing policy dialogue and decisions. This led to national initiatives, each of which reflected the particular policy context of the country (Devaux et al., 2010b). In Peru, when a multi-national corporation showed interest in processing and marketing native potato products, the Peruvian team began work on issues of corporate social responsibility.Through these efforts, there was a gradual shift in the focus of Papa Andina from developing a regional research agenda -a set of technically oriented projects, the results of which would be shared across national boundaries -to developing a regional innovation agenda focused on strengthening the capacity of national agricultural research organizations to contribute to pro-poor innovation.Making the shift was not a well-planned process that followed an elaborate strategy or a detailed script, but one that evolved in unexpected ways and that frequently involved disagreements, tensions, and conflict. When work on market chains and multi-stakeholder platforms was undertaken, each local team developed its own perspectives and approaches linked to underlying core beliefs about the nature of the development process, and there was a degree of rivalry among the teams. The diversity of initiatives and experiences and rivalry between the teams promoted methodological innovation. Horizontal Evaluation then served as a useful tool for understanding and learning from the local diversity of perspectives and experiences. Out of the different interests, perspectives, and experiences, shared new concepts and knowledge emerged. In this sense, horizontal evaluation was crucial for situated mutual learning.It has taken time for the shift from doing research to facilitating situated mutual learning and brokering innovation to be incorporated into the way Papa Andina and its partners work, and the process is still incomplete. Changing the central focus of a partnership program and the ways in which it works is a complex process that involves controversy, interpersonal and inter-organizational conflict, and periodic setbacks. We return to this point in the concluding section of this paper.In this rest of this section, we describe two of Papa Andina's approaches for promoting situated mutual learning and brokering innovation, which are also the In 2003, CIP's Social Sciences Department and Papa Andina members in Peru began experimenting with a participatory approach known as Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Knowledge Systems (RAAKS) that brings diverse stakeholders together to stimulate mutual learning, build trust, and foster innovation (Engel and Salomon, 2003). RAAKS was useful to bring those who make their living from a market chain -the so-called 'market chain actors' -together to identify market opportunities. However, it did not include the development of innovations -new products or processes -to exploit the identified opportunities. As steps and tools were added to foster commercial, technological, and institutional innovations, a new approach emerged, which was named the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA). User guides and training materials for the approach were published in English and Spanish (Bernet et al., 2006;2008;2011;Antezana, et al., 2008).The PMCA applies principles of action research to foster market chain innovation. It engages market chain actors and agricultural service providers (including, for example, agronomists, post-harvest technicians, marketing specialists, extension agents, and enterprise development professionals) in facilitated group processes in which market opportunities are identified and assessed, and innovations are developed. The PMCA is implemented in 3 phases, which comprise the broad innovation brokering functions of demand articulation, network composition and innovation process management: Phase 1. Familiarization with the market chain and the key actors Phase 2. Joint analysis of potential business opportunities Phase 3. Development of market-driven innovations.As illustrated in Figure 1, a research or development organization typically initiates work with the PMCA. Early steps include selecting the market chains on which to work, identifying potential R&D partners and carrying out exploratory, diagnostic market research. Key goals of Phase 1 are to become familiar with market chains and market chain actors, and to motivate market chain actors to participate in the PMCA process. In Phase 2, representatives of the R&D organization facilitate meetings that aim to build up mutual trust and knowledge sharing among participants. In Phase 3, the market chain actors work together to develop new market processes or products, with support from R&D organizations.During Phase 1, diagnostic research is carried out to become familiar with key market chain actors and understand their interests, problems and ideas. This phase is expected to take two to four months and may involve 20 to 40 interviews with diverse market chain actors. This phase ends with a public event that brings together individuals who have been involved in the PMCA process so far, including market chain actors and representatives of research organizations and other service providers, to discuss results of the market survey and to exchange ideas. Individuals who have not been involved so far are also invited, to share results with them, to stimulate their interest in the PMCA process, and motivate them to participate in future activities. In Phase 2, thematic groups are established to explore potential market opportunities. The lead R&D organization facilitates group meetings where market opportunities are identified and discussed. The main challenges during this phase are to engage a wide range of relevant stakeholders -including market entrepreneursand to keep participants focused on identifying and exploiting market opportunities, rather than, for example, addressing production problems of unknown importance for marketing. Six to ten meetings may be needed to analyze potential market opportunities. In some cases, specialized market studies may be needed to complement the group work. At the end of this phase, the market opportunities are discussed in a public event with a wider audience and new members with complementary knowledge and experience are encouraged to join Phase 3.Phase 3 focuses on the activities needed to put in place joint innovations, with leadership from market chain agents. A challenge during this phase is to cultivate leadership within the market chain to lead the innovation process. The time required 120Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model may vary depending upon the complexity of the innovation, the capacity of the group, and biophysical, socio-economic, and institutional conditions. A rough estimate of the time needed, based on experience in Bolivia and Peru, is three to six months. Phase 3 closes with a large public event to which a much wider group is invited to present the commercial innovations or new market products. Invitees include, for example, political officials, donor representatives, commercial leaders, and members of the press.Applications. The PMCA was developed to stimulate pro-poor innovation in potato market chains in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. Subsequently, other organizations expressed interest in applying the approach in other regions and market chains. The Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom funded a project to introduce the PMCA into Uganda and apply it in market chains for potatoes, sweet potatoes, and vegetables (Horton et al., 2010). DFID later provided funding for experimentation with the PMCA and other participatory methods in a program known as the Andean Change Alliance (www.cambioandino.org). In this program, the PMCA was applied in value chains for potatoes in Bolivia and Ecuador, for coffee in Peru, for yams in Colombia, for dairy products in Bolivia and Peru, and for fruits and vegetables in Bolivia (Horton et al., 2011). The World Agroforestry Center has employed the PMCA with tropical fruits in Peru. The Australian Aid Agency has supported use of the PMCA in combination with farmer field schools in Indonesia.Results. Studies in South America and Africa (Devaux et al., 2009;Horton et al., 2010;2011) indicate that use of the PMCA has stimulated varying degrees of learning, interaction, innovative thinking, and changes in practices, which in some cases have resulted in commercial, technological, or institutional innovations. Many participants -including both poor farmers and small-scale market agents -have gained valuable new knowledge and experiences that have empowered them in their dealings with other market actors and service providers. Individuals learn a new way of approaching problems -with a more comprehensive market perspective -which they apply in their future work. Exposure to the PMCA also helps professionals appreciate the importance of focusing on practical results and contextualizing their work within larger systems such as value chains.Experience shows that the main benefits don't come during application of the PMCA, but later on as a series of ideas are tried, adapted, fail, and succeed. This highlights the value of follow-up support to innovating groups after formal completion of a PMCA exercise.Several organizations that have participated in PMCA exercises have incorporated elements of the approach into their work. A few have adopted use of the PMCA in toto. Since agricultural R&D organizations depend on external donors for a large part of their operating funds, they need to include the PMCA in their donor proposals. Recently, many donors are favoring projects that promise tangible results in very short periods of time (sometimes in months, rather than years), limiting the possibility of applying a complete PMCA exercise.A few universities have incorporated the PMCA into their academic curriculum for development professionals, providing an unexpected avenue for dissemination of the approach.Success factors. A country's economic policies set the stage for local development efforts and can support or discourage use of value-chain approaches such as the PMCA. For this reason, international organizations need to work with local groups to determine which approaches are most appropriate for promoting innovation and development in their context.Successful innovation is more likely in some market chains than in others, highlighting the importance of doing a thorough market analysis before investing heavily in market-chain innovation. Personal factors also influence results. Two types of \"innovation champion\" are important:• The facilitator in the R&D organization that initiates and supports the PMCA exercise• One or more respected individuals in the market chain who are committed to, and eventually lead, the innovation process.Without both these types of champion, results of the PMCA may be limited. An especially critical factor is the engagement and commitment of market chain actors, who are expected to play a lead role in driving development of new business opportunities and generating demands for innovation. As proactive leadership from within the market chain is essential, engagement of the business community is an area that merits very careful attention in applications of the PMCA.Horizontal evaluation is a flexible evaluation method that combines self-assessment and external review by peers (Thiele et al., 2006;2007;Bernet et al., 2010). This evaluation approach was initially developed as a type of \"product evaluation\" to assess and improve the new R&D approaches that were being developing in Papa Andina (for example, the PMCA and multi-stakeholder platforms). More recently, horizontal evaluation has been used also to assess R&D processes and experiences as well as products.In its early years, Papa Andina, like many other regional programs, organized study visits for local professionals to exchange knowledge and experiences. Expert-led evaluations were used to evaluate Papa Andina's work and make recommendations for improvement. The study visits were enjoyable and instructive for participants, but there were few clear outcomes and little follow-up. External evaluations provided interesting results, but Papa Andina's members often doubted the relevance or feasibility of the recommendations, and their implementation was patchy. In view of the limitations of traditional study visits and expert evaluations, horizontal evaluation was developed as a participatory alternative that combines the positive aspects of both. Evaluation by peers is what makes the process \"horizontal,\" compared with the \"vertical\" evaluation typically provided by outsiders of perceived higher professional status. This method differs from the anonymous peer reviews used by professional journals and research funders, in that horizontal evaluation is open and transparent, with all the participants encouraged to learn and benefit from the evaluation process.Horizontal evaluation neutralizes the power dimension implicit in traditional evaluation, in which the \"expert\" judge the \"inexpert\" and the \"powerful\" assess the \"powerless.\" Because of this neutralization, a more favorable learning environment is created. The involvement of \"peers,\" rather than \"experts\" creates a more favorable atmosphere for learning and improvement.The heart of a horizontal evaluation is a 3-day participatory workshop involving a local group (referred to as \"local participants\") of 10-15 people and a similarly sized group of outsiders or visitors (referred to as \"visitors\"). Visitors are peers from other organizations or projects who are working on similar themes in other contexts or other countries and have a potential interest in applying in their own context the R&D approaches being developed or the knowledge acquired.The role of local participants is to present, and with help from the visitors, critically assess the work undertaken and make recommendations for improving it. The role of the visitors is to critically assess the work, identifying its strengths and weaknesses and making suggestions that will aid the wider application of its results, if appropriate. The visitors may contribute to the formulation of recommendations, but the local participants must take the lead and actually propose and agree to them, since their ownership of the recommendations will be the key to implementation.Planning the horizontal evaluation workshop. An organizing committee is established that includes decision makers from among both local participants and visitors. Workshop organizers are responsible for:• Identifying an appropriate object for evaluation (in the cases we have supported, an R&D approach or specific experience of regional interest)• Ensuring the participation of an appropriate group of local participants and visitors (the latter should have an interest in learning about the approach or experience)• Designing the 3-day workshop and arranging for professional facilitation• Developing preliminary evaluation criteria• Arranging field visits that will demonstrate application of the methodology• Sending both sets of participants background information prior to the workshop• Making provision for writing up and using the workshop's findings.Day 1-Introducing the object of the evaluation. At the start of the event, the facilitator introduces the objectives of the workshop and the procedures to be followed, stressing that the workshop is not intended to evaluate everything the organization or project is doing but just the R&D approach or experience that has been selected for the evaluation. S/he encourages visitors to be critical but constructive, identifying the strengths and positive aspects of the work being reviewed as well as its weaknesses. S/he also encourages local participants to be open and receptive to comments and suggestions.On Day 1, local participants present the context and background of the R&D approach or experience to be evaluated and describe the activities carried out and the results to date. Our experience has shown that interactive ways of presenting activities, such as knowledge fairs with poster exhibitions, are more effective than PowerPoint presentations. Visitors are encouraged to limit themselves to asking questions and are discouraged from voicing judgments about the value or merits of the work until they have acquired additional information and insights during the field visits on Day 2.Near the end of the day, the evaluation criteria are discussed and finalized. Then the participants divide into small groups to prepare a short interview guide and make a simple plan for interviews and other forms of information gathering on Day 2.Day 2 -Field visits. The field visit provides an opportunity for visitors to see at first hand the work carried out and its results, and to talk with those whose livelihoods are directly affected by it. Visitors conduct semi-structured interviews, make direct observations, and as far as possible try to triangulate different sources of information. After the field visit, groups synthesize their findings using the evaluation criteria and present them in a plenary session. It is an opportunity to illustrate observations made during the field visit with photos or videos.Day 3 -Comparative analysis. Visitors and local participants work separately at the start of Day 3. For each evaluation criterion, the two groups identify strengths, weaknesses and suggestions for improvement. After this group work, visitors and local participants present their findings in plenary session. All participants, helped by the facilitator, then identify convergent and divergent ideas. Where the groups' assessments of strengths or weaknesses diverge, the reasons for the divergence need to be explored in order to reach a shared understanding of the issue (but not necessarily agreement on it). After this plenary session, local participants synthesize recommendations and identify lessons learned as a basis for improving the methodology in the future. Visitors analyze the potential and requirements for applying the approach in their own organizations and settings. Both groups then come together to present, discuss and modify their conclusions in a final plenary session. The workshop ends with the participants identifying specific and time- bound steps to improve their work and facilitate the wider application of its results, if that is judged appropriate.Participants in the seven horizontal evaluations organized by Papa Andina in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Uganda have identified the following types of result and benefit (Thiele et al., 2007):• Horizontal evaluation demystifies the evaluation process for participants who have previously only been exposed to external evaluations by \"experts\".• It provides useful information, insights, and suggestions for improvement of the work or the R&D approach being evaluated.• It motivates and builds commitment for change on the part of the local project team.• It strengthens the local project team.• It encourages experimentation by visitors with new ideas and approaches back home.Our reflection on the Papa Andina experience leads us to the following conclusions related to perspectives on KM and innovation and to the potential application of the approaches we have developed in other settings. Papa Andina's approaches, centered on situated mutual learning, have produced new knowledge that has been valuable for both the international and the national organizations involved. Our experience supports the position of Ferguson, Huysman, and Soekijad (2010) that situated mutual learning can help bridge the gap between the internal, or active, KM programs of international organizations -which focus on the capture, storage, and transmission of universally valid codified knowledge -and their external or latent KM programs -which focus on learning and the use of locally relevant knowledge in decision making. Approaches such as the PMCA and horizontal evaluation have produced new knowledge that has been useful for both the international and the local organizations involved. Local organizations gained knowledge that could be put to immediate use in addressing development problems; CIP gained knowledge that it could use in its global research programs and disseminate in the form of international public goods (the present publication, for example). This is not to say that the KM process has been free from tensions and conflicts. On the contrary, local researchers and development professionals have frequently been challenged to demonstrate the local relevance and payoff of their work with Papa Andina. Similarly, CIP professionals have been challenged by peers involved core activities in the CG center itself to explain why scientists in an international organization should be involved in local market development efforts.As tangible results have been produced and reported in international peerreviewed journals -considered the \"acid test\" for international public goods in the CGIAR -and as Papa Andina has received public recognition and awards for its work, 4Combining decentralized experimentation with centralized analysis and documentation has led to healthy constructive conflict and competition, which stimulated learning and innovation. Over a relatively short period of time, Papa Andina developed several approaches for fostering learning, communication, these challenges have diminished somewhat. However, situated mutual learning that involves work across organizational boundaries is inevitably accompanied by tensions within and between the organizations involved.Development and application of Papa Andina's approaches has helped members of the partnership understand the needs, interests, and limitations of other members as well as those of the intended beneficiaries. Regional research programs can be set up and their results transferred among researchers, in the form of research reports, publications, or seeds, without the individual members gaining knowledge of the circumstances, needs, interests, or limitations of other members. This is one reason why so many new technologies remain \"on the shelf\" and are not used by other researchers, development professionals, or the intended farmer beneficiaries. In contrast, developing and using such new R&D approaches as the PMCA and horizontal evaluation have brought individuals from different disciplines, organizations, and countries together in co-development processes that have allowed them to learn a great deal about other members of the partnership and also about the circumstances and interests of the small farmers and market chain actors who are the intended beneficiaries of these R&D efforts. collective action, and pro-poor innovation involving diverse market chain actors, agricultural service providers, and policy makers. Combining decentralization of work on these approaches with horizontal evaluations and participatory planning has contributed to creativity and the productivity of the partnership. Decentralized experimentation has allowed national groups to develop approaches that met their local needs. Horizontal evaluations have allowed the national teams to share their ideas and expose them to constructively critical evaluation. They have also stimulated a degree of, usually friendly, rivalry among the national teams and between the national teams and Papa Andina's coordinators. Feeding the results of the local work and the horizontal evaluations into Papa Andina's planning cycle has contributed to continuous program improvement. At times, disagreements and tensions have flared in public, requiring mediation of conflicts and some \"cooling-off\" periods. But on balance the results of open communication and constructive conflict have been quite positive.The approaches developed have led to many changes in individuals' perspectives and behaviors and to some organizational changes. Those involved in developing and using Papa Andina's approaches report a number of personal and professional benefits. They have gained useful new knowledge, learned new skills, and changed their attitudes and approaches to their work. For example, individuals who have employed the PMCA or participated in horizontal evaluations report having broadened their professional networks and improved their communication, negotiation, facilitation, and evaluation skills. Through involvement in PMCA exercises, they have learned the importance of commercial innovation and its power to drive subsequent technological and institutional change. This has led to changes in the way researchers and development professionals, and in some cases their organizations, plan, implement, and evaluate their own work. In this way, Papa Andina's approaches have gone beyond improving knowledge management to strengthen the capacity of innovation systems.There have been programmatic changes in some organizations. In Peru, for example, the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INIA) now includes native potatoes in its seed production program. The PROINPA Foundation in Bolivia is now analyzing potential market opportunities when testing technologies with farmers. At the international level, recent conferences and symposia of the Latin American Potato Association and the International Society for Tropical Root Crops have included sessions on market-chain development and related issues, which have featured presentations on Papa Andina work. Notwithstanding these changes, there have been relatively few structural changes in participating organizations. An organization's operating procedures for program and project planning, KM, and performance assessment are built up over time and resist rapid change. Additionally, R&D organizations are usually part of larger administrative systems, such as national governments or international bureaucracies, which have their own, relatively, inflexible, procedures. This is why many promising approaches for KM and innovation developed in externally funded projects or partnership programs may take a long time to, or never, become mainstreamed in the host organizations.Knowledge management tools have contributed to change in the context of innovation brokering. One of Papa Andina's main vehicles for promoting innovation has been the PMCA. Here, knowledge management techniques that foster the production, exchange, and use of relevant new knowledge have been invaluable. However, our experience indicates the importance of focusing not on the KM tools themselves but on their use to achieve broader innovation goals. One of the most important factors in the success of a PMCA application is the extent to which an appropriate innovation network is established, with adequate representation of, and ultimately leadership from, entrepreneurs within the market chain. Another important success factor is the extent to which the exercise is focused on innovation that is market driven, by which we mean innovation that is linked to a market opportunity and emerges from the interaction of actors along the value chain.In most cases, PMCA exercises have been initiated and facilitated by R&D organizations, which have traditionally partnered with farmers and have limited experience working with market agents. Unless the innovation broker goes beyond his or her comfort zone and enlists the active engagement and eventual leadership of market entrepreneurs, a PMCA exercise is unlikely to result in successful market chain innovation. Papa Andina's approaches were developed in response to specific needs and circumstances; they are likely to be useful in some other contexts, but not in all. Economic policies, local customs and institutions, and personal and other factors influence the utility and performance of R&D approaches. In Peru, the PMCA is compatible with current national economic policies, which promote market-based development, and here the PMCA has been embraced by public institutions and NGOs. Prior to 2006, this was also true in Bolivia. In contrast, when the PMCA was being developed in Peru and Bolivia, Ecuadorians were skeptical of an approach that would bring small farmers together directly with profit seeking market agents as partners, and preferred to strengthen farmer organizations so they could negotiate more effectively with these market agents as clients. This led to useful work on stakeholder platforms in Ecuador (Cavatassi et al., 2011) that later stimulated similar work in Peru and Bolivia. The PMCA has now been employed in several market chains in the Andes, Uganda, and Indonesia. However, neither this nor any other approach should be expected to be universally applicable.Introducing complex, knowledge-intensive approaches for facilitating situated mutual learning and pro-poor innovation requires a systematic process with sharing of both codified and tacit knowledge. In order to facilitate the use of the approaches described above, we have prepared user guides, training materials, and publications. But our experience indicates that introducing these approaches into new settings requires more than sending a publication or user guide. A new group can learn to apply the horizontal evaluation approach in a relatively short period of time, if accompanied by a skilled evaluator -facilitator. In comparison, introducing the PMCA 128Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Development of the Papa Andina model is much more demanding, as the approach requires local facilitators / innovation brokers to lead multi-stakeholder groups through unfamiliar types of discussions, negotiations, and product-development processes over a period of months. Innovation brokers need to help groups focus on market-driven innovations. Market chain actors need to be actively engaged and take on a leadership role as the process goes forward. This is definitely not \"business as usual\" for most R&D organizations, including NGOs.Given the needed transformations of perspectives, attitudes, skills, and behaviors, efforts to introduce the PMCA into new settings should be guided by a capacitydevelopment strategy with the following elements (Horton et al., 2010):• Participatory planning and decision-making involving local actors• Negotiation with senior managers in lead R&D organizations to foster institutional commitment to the PMCA and to support fund-raising for its use • Knowledge sharing among the PMCA practitioners working in commodity teams• Periodic learning-oriented evaluations to improve the process and document results• Continuing support after the completion of Phase 3.Implementing a thorough capacity development process with these components takes time and resources. It should be seen as an investment in innovation capacity that will generate returns over years. Our experience is that the capacities developed -at the level of individuals and the innovation system -continue to be utilized long after the PMCA exercise formally ends. In most cases, the creative imitations that occur years after the initial efforts are the most important ones (Devaux et al., 2010a).When introducing a new knowledge-intensive approach to a new setting, it needs to be kept in mind that each situation presents a unique combination of socioeconomic, political, institutional, and technological conditions. For this reason, the approach will need to be customized for use in each new situation. The rapid growth of the urban population presents special challenges for small-scale farmers in developing countries. They are under increasing pressure to fulfil the new market requirements of powerful supermarket chains and agroindustry, which demand product quality, volume, and continuity of delivery. Most farmers in rural areas agree: \"The worst pest we face nowadays is low prices and researchers so far have not found adequate measures to help!\" Many agricultural research and development (R&D) institutions have realized that small-scale farmers' key concern is not only agricultural productivity but also better market access.The strategy for R&D institutions seems obvious. Given existing or potential business opportunities, marketing chains must be modified so that all actors of the marketing chain benefits, particular small-scale farmers. Two options are possible:• To gain efficiency in the marketing chain by lowering costs (i.e., production and/or transaction costs); or• To add value in the marketing chain by increasing consumer prices (i.e., products and services supplied are of higher value).What is less obvious to R&D institutions is how to create these new beneficial marketing settings that involve different marketing chain actors, who normally compete and mistrust each other in their daily business. Attempts in recent years to promote collaboration along marketing chains have often not generated the wished benefits. The main reasons for this limited success are:Many agricultural R&D organizations have struggled with reduced funding, which has limited institutional investments to enhance capacities outside of the core (agricultural) activities. Few have staff trained in both marketing and action research.Most participatory R&D methods focus on agricultural contexts and do not explicitly involve other market chain actors. In addition, many relevant diagnostic approaches such as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Rapid (or Relaxed) Appraisal of Agricultural Knowledge Systems (RAAKS) stop with the elaboration of a work plan and do not move to implementation of development activities.Much marketing chain analysis is very theoretical and lacks practical advice on how to implement a functional exchange of information and build trust, to make pricecompeting market chain actors collaborate.Potato commercialization in Lima's wholesale market; the need for change is obvious but difficult to achieve!The Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) is a participatory R&D method that has recently been developed. Involving the different actors of market chains, it seeks to generate group innovations based on a well-led and -structured participatory process that gradually stimulates 1) interest, 2) trust and 3) collaboration among members of the market chain. These innovations can be new products and processes, new technologies or new institutions, benefiting the different actors of the marketing chain directly or indirectly. PMCA is a flexible method to be applied in different marketing chain contexts. Its use is not restricted to agriculture. The R&D institution needs to adapt PMCA to the specific market contexts and policy environment to ensure the desired types of impact (e.g., poverty reduction, gender enhancement, farmer empowerment).The only fixed elements of this approach are its three phases, with flexible duration depending on how the process advances. Each phase has a specific objective and a closing event. At the final event of each phase, results are presented to a larger group of participants and further steps are discussed. It is important that the institution that leads the PMCA process understands the \"sustainability logic\" of this 3-phase structure, gradually seeking to empower key actors involved in the process on the cost of the R&D institution, which progressively reduces its importance and influence on decision making along the process (Figure 1).Phase 1 of PMCA is diagnostic research, typically taking two to three months and involving between 20 and 40 qualitative interviews. In contrast to conventional market research, the gathering and evaluation of technical or quantitative information is less important than getting to know and understanding the key actors of the market chain, with their interests, problems, and ideas. Contacts established through the interviews help to motivate these actors to participate in the first public event of the project, where also other actors of the market chain, representatives of research and government institutions are invited.In the first part of the event, findings from the interviews are presented and discussed in plenary. Then two or three smaller working groups are formed, based on topics of joint interest identified through the interview session. In this sense, this event is used as a first occasion to share ideas and interests among the different stakeholders.Phase 2 of PMCA aims to identify and analyze potential business opportunities. For every working group, the R&D institution provides a facilitator who guides interactions and mutual learning. The group meetings have a strong demandoriented focus, not giving room for never-ending, supply-driven discussions. Six to ten meetings might suffice to analyze carefully the different joint opportunities. To support the working groups with in-depth studies, the leading R&D institution might want to contract marketing specialists at this stage.  At the final event of this phase, the identified market opportunities are represented by each working group and discussed with a wider audience. This event provides an opportune momentum to integrate new actors into the R&D process, to complement the working groups with requested but lacking knowledge and capabilities.Phase 3 of PMCA concentrates on the implementation of all activities needed to put in place the suggested market opportunities. The time needed for their implementation might vary according to working groups and projects: complex settings require more time, while availability of support staff and frequent meetings speed up the process. In any case, three to six months are necessary to satisfactorily implement the planned activities and launch the generated innovations at the closing event of the project. In contrast to previous events, invitations to this last event are sent to a much wider group, such as press people, politicians, and public donor agencies. The idea of this last big event is to optimally capitalize on the project's outcome and empower those actors who will be prominent to sustain the innovations over time.PMCA explicitly finishes with this big last event, seeking to pass full responsibility over to those market chain actors who at this stage are the owners of the engendered products. Nevertheless, this does not impede the R&D institutions from following up with specific activities to help consolidate all achievements: new products, processes, and institutions. The degree of involvement will be different from case to case, depending much on the nature of the innovations and the capabilities of the market chain actors to move forward independently. Further support is especially necessary when new institutions are formed, which need initial resources to start to operate properly.PMCA has not been widely used yet, but the first application and its initial results were well analyzed in a participatory setting, where R&D experts from different Andean countries participated. The following advantages were identified:The approach covers a range of activities from diagnostic to the implementation of coordinated concrete activities. Many participatory research methods tend to stop with the definition of a work plan of activities that should be implemented.Our experience shows that research input is important during all three phases, being more conceptual in the initial phases and more technical to support initiatives during the implementation phase. In any case, the continued backstopping of the R&D institution in the implementation phase is crucial to avoid losing group dynamic until innovated products are launched and institutional innovations are consolidated. The approach consists of three explicit phases with a clear objective, but its implementation is highly flexible as it responds to different contexts and user needs.Many key actors are identified in later stages of the process, when concrete marketing opportunities are analyzed and implemented, but specific key knowledge and capacities might be lacking in the working groups. In this sense, the approach has shown to be very effective in functionally pooling information and skills during the different phases while optimally combining development with research activities.The approach is strictly demand-driven and responds to collectively identified business opportunities, seeking to link consumer-oriented demands to technological innovation. Supply-driven discussions are minimized and put into the context of the market chain. This al-lows giving more room to those actors who are closer to consumers, and therefore crucial for identifying and analyzing valid joint marketing opportunities.The approach generates differentiated and continuous benefits for all involved in the project. Group meetings generate tangible benefits for participants: access to new and relevant information, skills, and business contacts. The leading R&D institution is on the winning side as acquired knowledge and contacts help to better respond to concrete needs and opportunities. In this sense, PMCA provides an interesting concept to determine technological innovation at the farm level based on market demands.PMCA has been very successful in bringing together actors with different backgrounds, such as traders, farmers, processors and R&D institutions, who previously mistrusted each other. It allowed the creation of confidence amongst them to point that they shared the same project interests and they were willing to invest considerable time and money to take forward the group's activities.PMCA per se does not guarantee a successful project. Failures might result from bad application or a difficult context, when, for instance, certain key actors dominate a whole marketing chain and alternative commercialization solutions do not seem feasible. In any case, the following factors need to be addressed to enhance PMCA's, successful future applications:The approach works with new and rather unconventional mind sets and concepts that are not always easily understood, especially by R&D institutions related to agriculture, where most staff members have been trained in production sciences. If the R&D institution does not have the technical expertise and social skills to apply PMCA, it would be wise to access consultants who have the desired skills. The fact is that inadequate leadership frustrates voluntarily participating \"market chain experts\", putting at risk their active project involvement and thus mutual learning as a first important step in stimulating desired group innovations.The approach is market-oriented and prioritizes the identification and implementation of marketing opportunities. This initially gives less attention to production-oriented problems and the actors behind them (i.e. farmers). These production-related activities are tack-led at a later stage when the marketing opportunity is constrained by production quality, volume or prices.If the geographical distance between the production areas and the market impedes active participation of producers as the main beneficiaries, the R&D institution needs to maintain a firm position in favour of producers and focus only on those activities that ultimately generate direct and/or indirect benefits for this target group. More over field trips might be planned to improve the links with farmers. The approach requires a flexible allocation of funds to support those activities that participating actors jointly identify as important for the project. It will be important that donor agencies move away from activity-based towards objective-and processoriented funding. This would help the R&D institution to better respond to demands from market chain actors and make research activities more relevant for achieving development goals.The International Potato Center (CIP) has been developing and applying PMCA in the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)-funded INCOPA project that aims to create new marketing opportunities for small-scale potato farmers in Peru.After the diagnostic study of Phase 1, and based on 24 qualitative interviews applied on different actors of the market chain (i.e., farmers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), traders, processors), two working groups were formed to analyze existing and potential marketing opportunities during Phase 2. One working group developed a marketing system for a quality wholesale potato product. The other working group decided to analyze the development of a new industrial product. In this latter case, a marketing study was conducted to determine the market potential of native potato chips. After the public event of Phase 2, where the results were presented to a larger audience and new key actors were involved, both working groups started to implement step by step the necessary activities to launch the different innovative products. In the final event of the project, all these innovations were presented by the project participants themselves:• \"Papy Bum\": a registered potato chip brand made of native yellow potatoes\"Mi Papa -Seleccionada yClasificada\": a registered brand name for a standardized 50-kg wholesale potato bag with well-selected and well-classified potatoes, to be applied on different commercial potato varieties• \"CAPAC PERU\": a new formal association working as a platform involving actors from the whole agri-food chain with the objective to promote quality marketing of Andean crops, owner of the brand \"Mi Papa\" and with its own homepage: www.capacperu.org• \"Papa al día\": a daily bulletin with actual potato wholesale prices, including more than 20 potato varieties and classes• A new potato grader: a flexible machine at relatively low cost to be used in different locations of the Andes, capable to grade different potato varieties and sizes Altogether, PMCA was implemented in Peru to create a functional platform where farmers, private sector actors, and sup-porting R&D organizations could interact. PMCA became a mechanism not only for generating market chain innovations but also to make market chain actors' demand more explicit to R&D institutions. The biggest challenge for CIP was to ensure that the PMCA enables farmers to express their needs. Given the distance between Lima and the main potato production areas, they could only sporadically be involved in the process, mainly in the closing events of each phase. CIP trusted the different NGOs to advocate farmers' needs in the R&D process and build the last link in the market chain within the production region helping \"their\" farmers respond to the new business opportunities discussed in the working groups. particular attention to engaging private sector actors, who are critical in identifying and making use of new market opportunities.The PMCA was developed by the Papa Andina Initiative and its partners, the Foundation for Promotion and Research of Andean Products (PROINPA) in Bolivia, and the project for Technological Innovation and Competitiveness (INCOPA) in Peru, to improve the competitiveness of small potato producers in the Andes. The Papa Andina Initiative was keen to address one of the principal constraints to agricultural innovation: a lack of trust and knowledge sharing among different actors in the market chain. So, in 2003, Papa Andina carried out a 'Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Knowledge Systems' (RAAKS) (Engel and Salomon, 1995) in Peruvian potato market chains. Based on this experience, the PMCA was developed to facilitate pro-poor market chain innovation. A key feature of the approach is that it brings together small farmers, market agents, and agricultural service providers who don't know each other or who distrusted one another (Bernet et al., 2006). This Brief should interest R&D professionals wanting to help small farmers participate in dynamic markets. And, it provides useful information for donor agencies looking for more effective ways to intervene in market chains to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development.The PMCA has three phases, each with its own objective (Figure 1). This generic structure should be tailored to local conditions.The PMCA engages those who make their living from a market chain ('market chain actors') and public and private service providers (researchers, credit providers, and development workers). It facilitates group processes in which market opportunities are identified and assessed, and innovations developed.• Commercial innovations, such as new or improved products• Technological innovations, such as new production or post-harvest practices• Institutional innovations, such as new ways for small farmers to work with market agents or service providers.Experience with the PMCA in different countries indicates that it is sufficiently robust and flexible to help facilitate pro-poor innovation in many different types of market chain, and under a range of different geographical, social, and economic conditions. However, the PMCA should be led by skilled facilitators, belonging to a neutral R&D organization, who must pay careful attention to creating tangible benefits for actors participating in the process.The Participatory Market Chain ApproachThe Participatory Market Chain ApproachUsing the PMCA entails a holistic way of thinking about farming, marketing, and innovation, and a willingness to conduct joint R&D activities with partners in the market chain. Diverse stakeholders -with different interests -are involved, so good facilitation is key for building collaboration and trust.Ideally, the R&D organization that takes on this facilitating role should have the following characteristics:• Skilled PMCA facilitators• A strategic vision to guide the overall process• An openness to engage with private sector market actors• Sufficient independence from any particular group of market actors (i.e. a neutral facilitator)• Flexible funding to support different types of activities identified in the R&D process.If these characteristics are lacking, the R&D organization involved can progressively build its capacities by using the PMCA over a period of time. During this period, an experienced PMCA practitioner and trainer should provide support and mentoring.It is important to identify a market chain where the PMCA promises good results. This is generally where there are:• High transaction costs and potential to reduce these through innovation. A market chain completely dominated by a single monopoly purchaser, for example, does not offer such an environment.• Potential for product differentiation and adding value. A market chain for a low-value commodity with limited potential for improvement or processing may be a poor choice.• Good prospects for accruing substantial benefits for poor and primarily poor producers. For example, in the Andes, we compared different market opportunities for potatoes and concluded that native potatoes grown by small farmers in highland areas offered the best prospects for the poor.• Long-term interest and commitment of facilitating R&D organizations in the market chain. The PMCA is most appropriately applied as part of a broader and longer term programme for market-chain development.Planning for the PMCA requires considerable administrative flexibility. As the PMCA is used to stimulate innovation processes; specific activities are impossible to predict at the outset. They emerge from the participatory process itself, driven by opportunities identified by the private and public actors involved. It is not advisable to begin using the PMCA until adequate funding has been secured. Whilst costs vary from case to case, an average cost for one application -taking about 12 to 16 months-is in the order of US$25,000-30,000, in addition to staff time provided by participating R&D organizations. A substantial commitment is needed from the facilitating organization with at least one person assigned for 50% of their time during the PMCA.Partners might be able to share costs and, as the project generates encouraging results, it may be possible to leverage further investment, both from market chain actors and interested donors. However, ensuring continuity in innovation processes and engaging small farmers in new marketing activities might require additional long-term funding (see section Follow-up).The PMCA involves three phases with specific objectives and activities. Each phase ends with an event where results are presented to and discussed with a wide group of stakeholders (Figure 1).The R&D organization that facilitates the PMCA (the facilitator) initiates the process by identifying key market chain actors and supporting organizations. It carries out exploratory, diagnostic market research to get to know these actors and their activities, problems, and priorities (PMCA Phase 1). This is the basis of forming 'thematic groups' that focus on the market opportunities which have been identified. Facilitators lead group meetings to analyze market opportunities (PMCA Phase 2) and to carry out R&D activities needed to develop specific innovations (PMCA Phase 3). The Participatory Market Chain Approach these actors take ownership of the innovations by the end of the PMCA process, when all innovations are presented to a wide audience in a final event.Making demonstrable progress with market-chain innovations helps keep market chain actors motivated and actively engaged throughout the PMCA application. For this reason, it is essential that there is early progress in generating visible outputs for which the group feels responsible, and that the whole process is completed within a reasonable amount of time -14-18 months at most.PMCA Phase 1 begins with a rapid market survey that includes 20 to 40 semistructured interviews including key representatives of each stage of the selected market chain. These interviews allow the facilitator to get to know the different market chain actors and their activities, interests, problems, needs, and ideas for improving the chain's competitiveness.All this information is presented at a first event, at the end of Phase 1, where the interviewees and others with a stake in the market chain discuss the survey results. Participants then form thematic groups to begin identifying and exploiting potential market opportunities.Those actors interested in continuing the interactions are invited to participate in 6 to 10 thematic group meetings during Phase 2. R&D professionals plan and facilitate these group meetings, which should each involve 10 to 20 stakeholders, to ensure active participation and group decision making. The objectives of these meetings are to clarify and evaluate market opportunities and to develop a work plan for exploiting these opportunities in Phase 3.In the process of identifying and specifying the most promising market opportunities -from the point of view of those involved and from a development perspective (i.e. potential for poverty reduction)-the facilitators build mutual learning and trust among participating actors. Facilitators also seek to empower participating small farmers by giving them a voice in the decision making process. To support thematic groups' work and decision making, the facilitators may arrange for technical or market studies. At the final event of Phase 2, each thematic group presents its results and a work plan for exploiting the identified market opportunities during Phase 3. Moreover, this event is used by the facilitating R&D organization to engage new actors in the R&D process. These new actors bring knowledge and capacities to complement that of the existing groups to help the project move ahead with innovation in Phase 3.Phase 3 concentrates on the activities needed to develop the innovations proposed by the groups in Phase 2. Such activities may include: product development, improvement of production and marketing standards, or the creation of new working arrangements (e.g. partnerships or contract farming). The time taken to develop the different types of innovation will depend on the time and resources participants can dedicate to the process, and also on the complexity of the problems to be solved. However, to keep motivation and participation at high levels, facilitators should try to finish all Phase 3 activities within a period of 6 months (continuing to meet every two to three weeks). The PMCA process finishes with a final event, where participants present their innovations to a wide group of invited guests, including such 'VIPs' as national policy makers, donor representatives, and the media.The PMCA should initiate a process of innovation that continues after its final event. Often, it leads to the creation of a more permanent platform for coordination between farmers and other market-chain actors. Small farmers, in particular, are likely to need additional assistance in organizing themselves, improving production practices, and developing business activities. Hence, the PMCA is best used as part of a broader programme of market chain development.In the follow-up period, the facilitating organization assumes a different role, responding to demands from market-chain actors to help consolidate their innovations. Such follow up is particularly necessary where new institutions, created during the PMCA process, require external support to become fully consolidated. To sustain interaction and collaboration initiated during the PMCA process, and to involve new partners, market-chain actors may set in place 'multi-stakeholder platforms' (Devaux et al., 2007), broadening their scope for innovation.The PMCA was first applied in 2002 in Peru to the potato sector, triggering commercial, technological, and institutional innovations (Box 1). In 2003, the Papa Andina Initiative replicated the PMCA elsewhere in Peru to validate and fine-tune its concepts and procedures. First applications focused on native potatoes grown by small farmers in the high Andes. This led to a marketing concept for selected native potatoes: attractive bags of potatoes sold in supermarkets as the gourmet product, 'T'ikapapa'. This product, launched in Lima's leading supermarket chain, has received considerable media attention and has won prestigious national and international awards, including the World Challenge Award in 2008 (www.theworldchallenge.co.uk).In 2003, Papa Andina shared Peru's PMCA experience with partner organizations as part of a 'Horizontal Evaluation' exercise (Thiele et al., 2006). As a result, PROINPA Foundation staff decided to apply the approach in Bolivia. By applying the PMCA, farm communities developed commercial partnerships with potato processors and supermarkets, making native potato products available to consumers in Bolivia's principal cities.In 2005, local groups promoting market chain development in Uganda visited PMCA projects in Bolivia and Peru and subsequently applied PMCA in commodity chains for potato, sweet potato, tomato, and hot pepper. In each case, PMCA 148Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina ExperienceThe Participatory Market Chain ApproachThe Participatory Market Chain Approach triggered product development and improved relationships among market-chain actors and R&D professionals. This has led to improved collaboration in other activities as well (Horton, 2008). More recently, the PMCA has been used in potato, coffee, and dairy market chains in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, and for potatoes in Indonesia.The PMCA not only stimulates innovation, but strengthens capacities for innovation within market chains. PMCA participants learn a great deal about the market chain and gain useful skills for communication, negotiation, facilitation, and teamwork.Positive interaction with other market chain actors also fosters social learning and the development of social capital, enabling market-chain actors and R&D professionals to collaborate effectively in other areas in the future. Participation in the PMCA empowers those involved, including low-income farmers, merchants and processors.It gives them a voice in discussions involving both market chain actors and R&D professionals, and allows them to gain knowledge, contacts, and the self-confidence to negotiate better agreements in the future.The PMCA does have some limitations. Sometimes innovation processes are more complex than originally envisaged and an extended period of follow-up is required to generate successful innovations with tangible benefits. Farmers may require complementary capacity building (for example in organization and enterprise development) if they are to make full use of the opportunities created by the PMCA.As innovation processes grow to involve a broader group of actors, it may be difficult to ensure that benefits flow mainly to the poor. For this reason, it is important that social responsibility is kept at the top of the agenda when developing marketing concepts and products with the private sector. In addition, the PMCA requires administrative flexibility. This may raise issues that are out of the control of the facilitating organization, which might be bound by regulations of the host government or donors. Here, broader engagement may create a more enabling environment for the PMCA. Finally, whilst many organizations and actors have benefited from using the PMCA, institutionalizing the approach remains a challenge. For this reason, we are now developing a programme for PMCA capacity development.In 2002, Papa Andina's main partner in Peru, INCOPA, began to use PMCA to enhance the competitiveness of small-scale potato farmers in Peru. The following activities were carried out during the three phases of PMCA:PMCA Phase 1 An initial market chain survey included interviews with 24 individuals from different stages in the potato market chain, and supporting organizations, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the national agriculture research institute, and the Ministry of Agriculture. At the final event of Phase 1, nearly 100 stakeholders from the potato sector were present: market-chain actors, researchers, development workers, and representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture. After the presentation of the survey results, three thematic groups were formed to explore potential innovations relating to: (1) fresh potatoes, (2) processed potatoes, and (3) export potatoes.Because of similarities between the issues raised for export potatoes and those for processed potatoes, these groups were merged, leaving two thematic groups for Phase 2. These groups centered their discussions on identifying and clarifying market opportunities for each step of the product marketing chain. The 'fresh potatoes' group rapidly agreed to create a marketing concept for selected potatoes that would be sold wholesale in standardized bags. The 'processed potatoes' group was motivated by a processor's investment interest to focus on developing a new potato chip using native potatoes. Once they had identified initial market opportunities, the groups shared information and took joint decisions to fine-tune their ideas. To obtain important additional data, the processed potatoes group hired experts to carry out processing trials and to conduct a market study for potato chips in Peru. At the final event of Phase 2, the groups presented the innovations they proposed to develop during Phase 3. New actors with complementary skills were invited to join the groups.Activities became more practical during this phase. Researchers from the International Potato Center (CIP) helped the processed potatoes group to conduct trials using the facilities of a processing firm. Focus group research explored the potential market for native potato chips. The fresh potatoes group formed sub-groups to tackle specific tasks in parallel: for example, different packaging options and collaborating with a wholesale marketing group to design market information products. All the innovations were launched at the PMCA final event, attended by around 200 people including officials from the Peruvian government and the media. A series of stands representing the different links in the market chain visually presented innovations created by each group: A 50-kg branded wholesale potato bag (compared to traditional unlabelled bags of up to 130 kg with potatoes of mixed calibre and quality) A potato grader Market information bulletins Yellow native potato chips CAPAC Peru (Cadenas Productivas Agricolas de Calidad), a market chain association that would own and supervise the brand applied on the standardized potato bags as a means to promote the commercialization of quality potatoes within Peru.INCOPA's role changed as it started to help project partners consolidate their innovations (e.g., launching yellow potato chips and standardized potato bags). Special support was provided to CAPAC Peru, considered to be a promising multi-stakeholder platform for promoting continuous collaboration among market-chain actors and an advocate for structural and institutional change in the potato sector. The positive experience with PMCA encouraged the INCOPA team to use the method again, focusing on market opportunities for native potatoes. The social capital created in Peru as a result of the two PMCA applications led to the establishment of Peru's National Potato Day, celebrated annually since 2005 on May 30. This annual event, which stimulates private and public promotion activities and media coverage in favour of the potato sector, inspired the Peruvian authorities to ask the United Nations to declare 2008 the International Year of the Potato. ; (b) institutional innovations or new rules and standards (public-private alliances, National Potato Day, the Potato Wholesale Commerce Law and the Tunta Technical Standard, among others); and (c) technological innovations (post-harvest management, production of healthy seed, and sustainable potato production technologies, among others). The evidence indicates that the value of the native potatoes and the appreciation of these potatoes as a cultural heritage are essential for small producers. Their commercialization enables producers to obtain prices 20% above the prices offered by traditional channels; better performance per hectare has been achieved (from 10 to 14 tm/ha), and there has been quality improvement.The potato is one of the main nutritional staples in the world. In Peru, it is one of the most important products in the agrarian system in both economic and social terms. An average of 3 million tonnes per year is produced and 270 thousand hectares are planted annually. Some 600 thousand families depend on its cultivation (MINAG, 2007). In Peru's Andean region, in particular, potatoes are the main crop for small producers, for whom they are a very important source of income and food, as well as being a way of preserving ancestral customs. But, they are also significant for the urban population, because this age-old tuber adds nutrients and diversity to the daily diet. The potato is a good example of how a product with high nutritional value can be obtained by combining agro-ecological factors with efficient handling. There is no other crop that produces so much energy and protein per hectare than the potato. Furthermore, it offers great culinary versatility. In 2007, the World Summit of Gastronomy Madrid-Fusión recognized the Peruvian potato as 'one of the eight emblematic products of international cuisine'. In Peru, the potato production sector is not homogeneous. It displays different specific features according to the varieties grown. Analyzing this sector, we find three main segments: white potatoes, yellow potatoes and native potatoes. In the first case, during the last thirty years there have been periods of pronounced fluctuation in prices (although with a general downward trend) and the possibilities of industrialization have not been clearly investigated. In the second case, the varieties of yellow potato have good positioning in the local market and the processed product (peeled, precooked and frozen) has been exported to international markets such as the United States, Spain, and Japan, although in small quantities and oriented to the 'ethnic' market (Peruvians living abroad). Finally, in the case of native potatoes, recent endeavors have successfully introduced them in local supermarkets as a gourmet product, and processed products such as flakes and mashed potato have been developed, with good export potential (Ordinola, 2009).Even though the nutritional value of the potato is excellent, consumption per capita among Peruvians has been irregular. During the 1950s it was 128 kg. But by the beginning of the 1990s, it had fallen to 32 kg, eventually rising to 70 kg by 2005. At the same time, over the past few years the sector has experienced decreasing competitiveness. This is reflected in the relatively low prices (and the lack of management of quality conditions in the production zones). The identified causes for this situation are negative environmental factors, inadequate technological resources, and the economic and social precariousness of the farmers. A key limitation is scant commercial development. The fresh product image has not been modernized and no added value has been generated in the last few years. In this context, one of the crucial aspects to determine is how to generate innovations to support the development of competitiveness in the sector, and to promote the coordinated involvement of all the various actors along the potato production chain.During recent years, it has been demonstrated that research and development can work hand in hand to create impacts at the small producer level, which translate to a reduction in poverty, improvement in food safety, and the sustainable exploitation of natural resources (Devaux et al., 2008).In this context, CIP's INCOPA Project (Innovation and Competitiveness of the Peruvian Potato), executed with SDC funds, and in alliance with a series of public and private partners, is geared to improving the competitiveness of the potato chain. Emphasis is on small producers, taking advantage of new market opportunities, and promoting the consumption of Peruvian potatoes, within a framework of publicprivate institutions, favoring the modernization of the sector. Through their work, it has been demonstrated that research and development can work together to achieve effective impacts at the small producer level. The project operates a Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA), seeking to involve all the actors in the potato production process so as to generate innovations that will improve the competitiveness in the production chain (Ordinola et al., 2007b).The work at INCOPA is organized along four lines of action:1. Promoting negotiation platforms between the chain actors, which are strong and operate sustainably 2. Promoting public awareness activities and policies jointly implemented by all the partners to reinforce the potato sector 3. Building the capabilities of the local partners to improve the competitiveness of small producers (local service markets) 4. Promoting a broader participation of the private business sector in the Peruvian potato market chain.INCOPA is implemented in the Peruvian Andes, with a small coordinating team in Lima, and works through local partners in the following regions: Ancash, Junín, Huánuco, Cajamarca, Cusco, Pasco, Ica, Huancavelica, Apurímac, Ayacucho, and Puno.The following graphic summarizes the strategy and shows how research and development can complement each other to obtain concrete results (innovations).The model operates on three main levels. The first is the market chain approach (widespread in recent years), which focuses on contact among all the different actors in the market chain, such as producers, businesses, and service providers, in order for them to express their needs, mainly regarding innovations and technical assistance. The second area is research for development, which channels all this information so that research institutions -CIP, research centers, universities-can respond to what the markets require with a view to improving competitiveness. Finally, policy influence makes it possible to scale up results, and to generate trends that may enable policymakers -ministries, regional and local governments -to adapt their actions and promote others that have already been approved at the different levels. These three major fields of action are synergetic. For example, while market chain actors promote public awareness and influence policies, policy-makers may legislate or regulate in ways that improve business performance. Similarly, introduction of a commercial innovation (such as a new processed product) may generate demands for new production technology (for example, to improve the quality of potatoes for The 'visible' results of the model are: commercial innovations, technical innovations and institutional innovations. Each one of these will be explained later. As mentioned before, the project's main intervention tool is the so-called Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA), which is a method developed in Peru by INCOPA together with Papa Andina. It is a method which is openly geared to involving all actors in the chain taking part in the production, marketing and consumption processes. The idea is to generate innovations that will improve competitiveness and support the creation of new businesses benefiting all the participants (Thiele and Bernet, 2005).The PMCA strives to combine supple elements of leadership and decision-making that favor innovation in the production chains, based upon a participatory process. This can result in new rules of partnership and/or quality standards (institutional innovation), more efficient processes (process or technological innovation), or new products (innovation of products or commercial innovation). The procedure looks primarily to demand, emphasizing the needs and requirements of the consumers. Once innovations have been identified at this level, the changes are rolled out 'backwards', that is to the other members of the chain (retailer, processor, wholesaler and producer) and so a qualitative and quantitative product that meets the market's need is manufactured. In the case of Peru, the PMCA has been applied in two instances (2002-2003 and 2003-2004).As a result of the implementation of the PMCA, the following innovations have been developed and applied.Commercial innovations. These are the changes made to final products that improve small farmers' access to dynamic markets with increased added value. Examples are: Mi Papa, selected and classified potatoes (for the wholesale market), packed tunta (white chuño) (for the local market and export), Puré Andino (for export), T'ikapapa (for supermarkets), and Jalca Chips (for export). It should also be noted that new brands of snacks made out of native potatoes have been developed and launched recently in 2008 These are: Lay's Andinas, Inca's Gold, Natu Krunch, Nips, and Mr. Chips among others. These are all proposals with which the project works jointly. Commerce Law] among others). At the same time, a key issue is the inclusion on the public and sectorial agenda of the need for sustainable development of the potato segment in Peru.Technological innovations. These are the technological changes required to increase the efficiency or quality of production and the transformational processes aimed at meeting market demands. Some achievements attained in this area are the trials performed to define rules and regulations and quality standards for Mi Papa, the trials of sprout inhibitors, widespread dissemination of strategies for integrated harvest management, storage techniques, and seed production techniques.The specific combination of these results makes for a significant impact. Regarding income increase, commercial innovations have an influence on the return small producers receive. Since the products target market niches, they move into a higher price range and improve the profit margins producers obtain. Technological innovations also have repercussions on prices, because with better quality and higher quantities of products, the level of performance rises and costs are reduced. Institutional innovations reduce transaction costs, mainly in commercialization, allowing access to identified market niches and improving the product's image among consumers. Establishing the National Potato Day is a good example of this. The resulting increases in demand, in turn, influence the size of the market.Insofar as the combination of these results influences prices, quantities and size of markets for small farmers' products, it also influences their income levels and makes a reduction in their state of poverty.As mentioned before, the potato sector in Peru is not homogeneous. One of the key issues has been to insist upon the policy-maker's perceiving the potato sector as defined by certain characteristics. The following graphic summarizes the way to look at it. The important matter now is that it should be clear that there is potential for development and commercial positioning for native potatoes, a segment formerly neglected by different actors in the potato chain.Two of the main limitations in the case of fresh products are inefficient post-harvest handling, which causes losses, and the persistently inefficient wholesalers' markets that continue to use 120 kg containers of unselected unclassified product. Some important steps have been taken to change this situation by modernizing the potato wholesale market in Lima and introducing new products such as Mi Papa. It should be noted that Lima's wholesale market commercializes 600 thousand t of potatoes per year. Higher efficiency with this volume of production generates a whole chain of goods and services. At the retail level, supermarkets are applying the concept of selected,, classified, clean, washed and packed product so as to facilitate its access to consumers.On a global scale, there are significant changes and the following results may be seen as consequences of the project.Yellow potatoes. This product has gained position in an 'exclusive' segment of the market due to its taste and color differentiation. But it is equally consumed throughout all social classes, hence consolidating a high penetration level in the important fresh product consumers' market. In the export segment, the 'ethnic' market, mainly Peruvian citizens living abroad, is significant, first within the United States, and more recently in Japan and Spain. In 2006, the export total of this product increased by 83%. An interesting fact is that during the first semester of 2007, potato exports grew by 42% compared to the same period in 2006, which, in turn, had increased 16% over the same semester of the previous year. We may well be on the brink of an export boom of this tuber (De Althaus, 2007).At the same time, there are other options being developed to process mashed yellow potato, both with and without peeling, for the export market. A new yellow potato processing plant has recently been opened in Cajamarca. In 2008, the Gloria Group launched Mr. Chips Papa Amarilla, a line of yellow potato chips; while, as recently as mid-2009, Frito-Lay launched Lay's Peruanísimas, a product also based on yellow potato. The challenge for yellow potato varieties is to cross from the ethnic segment to the general public of the targeted export markets. The Participatory Market Chain Approach biodiversity of potatoes in the Peruvian Andes that has been inefficiently exploited in sustainable terms, and the majority of these varieties are unknown.With reference to the consumption of fresh produce, there are some varieties that have been successfully introduced in supermarkets with the concept of 'fresh, selected, classified native potato, clean and packed, with brand'. This has gained endorsement thanks to the potatoes' extraordinary nutritional value and diversity of shape, size and color, as well as the texture and flavor of their pulp (Ordinola et al., 2007a). Furthermore, there are some processed products made from native potatoes on the market. They include a deluxe presentation of native potato chips that is sold in the duty free shops at Lima's international airport, and other brands that have been introduced in the supermarkets of Lima and in regional markets for the tourist segment. In May 2008, Frito-Lay, a transnational snack food corporation based in Peru, launched Lay's Andinas, potato chips made from native varieties, which implies a substantial improvement in market development for these products. At the same time, the Gloria Group, an important local company, has launched a new product, Mr. Chips Native Potatoes, which is also produced from native varieties. Another private sector company has developed a face cream with extracts of the purple potato variety. The next step is to explore the possibilities the export market has to offer for products processed from native potatoes.It is imperative to take advantage of the gastronomic potential that the various Peruvian potatoes offer, especially the yellow and native varieties. There are many ways of cooking them, and their versatility in the creation of dishes is astonishing, as several haute cuisine schools in Lima and other Peruvian cities may well testify. Many recipes have been created in different ways with a diversity of potato varieties as their main ingredient (Ordinola et al., 2007b).Many studies have been conducted to measure how the benefits of the actions implemented have impacted on the producers. Some of the most important results within the region of Huanuco (Bucheli et al., 2009) are described below:1. The study substantiates that fieldwork has been performed with improved native potatoes and small producers 2. In Cayna (one of the project's areas of intervention) there has been an important increase in the average annual income due to the sale of potatoes (from US$ 721 to US$ 2,058), and there are qualitative signs that support this positive variation. Productivity is also increasing (from 10,830 kg/ha to 14,810 kg/ha), while there is a positive difference in prices of 20% in relation to other market alternatives 3. This increase in income results from technical assistance and training provided that have impacted on production improvement (quality and productivity). There is also the contribution of INCOPA/ADERS-(Asociación para el Desarrollo Sostenible) to the opening of new market opportunities: the commercialization of native potatoes not seen before, the use of mechanisms such as Mi Papa and T'ikapapa and new commercialization channels such as supermarkets and the wholesale market of Lima 4. This situation means that there is a new window open for commercialization that did not exist before, and it remains open to the present day. The market incentives for these new opportunities are making perceptible changes possible, which will become stronger and continue in the future 5. The intervention of INCOPA/ADERS has made important contributions towards the situation of women, especially in the division of work, and their self-esteem. This involvement has made it possible for women to access new commercial spaces, and the work they perform in the field, particularly the classification, has been appreciated 6. The strategy of bringing together actors, promoted by the PMCA has been successful in Cayna, where greater confidence towards NGOs, businesses and producers' associations is observed; a situation which is not perceptible in other 7. The observed results are related to the innovations generated as a result of using the PMCA: technological (improved knowledge), commercial (new commercial channels, new products), and institutional (the strengthening of ECOMUSA-Empresas Comunales y Multicomunales de Servicios Agropecuarios)In general, it may be said that the potato sector in Peru -particularly that of yellow and native potatoes -is in the process of changing. As observed, there are products already developed by private companies, or new products these companies are researching, because the markets are asking for them. To support the success of the project, which means improving the income of potato producers, it is essential that all the actors in the production chain share the common vision of selling quality products, fresh as well as processed, to cater to what the market demands. If the potato sector is developed competitively, this will have an effect on promoting the competitiveness of the Andean region as well, and the generation of innovations described here plays a key role in that process.The Andean region is one of the most diverse areas in the world and the home of a vast collection of biodiversity for a number of food crops, such as potato, maize, bean, tomato, etc. The Andes range is a vast mosaic of ecosystems with distinctive conditions, such as elevation (800 to 4,500 m.a.s.l.), rainfall, geology, and the distribution of particular plant and animal species. These diverse agro-ecosystems have allowed only in Peru the development of the widest collection of potato biodiversity, which is estimated at more than 3,000 native landraces. The close relationship between plant diversity and indigenous people in the Americas has been documented by several authors (Padoch and de Jong, 1991;Bellon, 1990;Boster, 1985). Brush et al. (1992) mention that in a single valley in the Peruvian Andes, peasant communities may grow between 70 and 100 different potato varieties, and a typical Andean household may keep up to 50 different varieties, including tubers from several potato species. Therefore, native potatoes are a unique asset and a comparative advantage of Andean farmers, since the harsh climatic conditions of the high Andean altitudes are the limiting factor for growing other crops. mainstream of modernity and access to the market. This situation resulted in the highest levels of poverty mainly in the rural areas in the Andes as compared to the overall average in Latin America (Figure 1), which, in the case of Peru, translates to two out of three rural inhabitants living in extreme poverty (less than US$ 1 per day).Extreme poverty and biodiversity coexist in the same rural habitat, where rural populations are directly dependent on biodiversity for subsistence, as was pointed out in 2003 by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan during the International Day for Biological Diversity: \"Biological diversity is essential for human existence and has a crucial role to play in sustainable development and the eradication of poverty. Biodiversity provides millions of people with livelihoods, helps to ensure food security, and is a rich source of both traditional medicines and modern pharmaceuticals\" (www.biodiv.org). This paper describes the experience in Peru of T'ikapapa, a brand name and a marketing concept to link small-scale farmers from the Andean highlands to supermarkets, to take advantage of potato biodiversity and tap new market opportunities.Since 2002, Peru has shown remarkable economic growth, with one of the highest gross national product growth rates (8%) in Latin America, and this trend is expected to continue. This economic expansion was reflected by the World Bank's country economy classification where Peru ranks among the lower middle-income countries, with an average income per capita of US$2,140, still below the average of Latin America (US$3,260). However, despite this economic growth within the country there are still exceptionally inequitable distributions of income and wealth that are masked by the macroeconomic indicators. The poverty map of Peru (Figure 2) was developed in 2006 by a governmental agency (FONCODES, 2006) based on data of the national census of 2005. It shows five groups or quintiles identified by colors; these groups were defined by the lack of basic services such as: electricity, tap water and sewerage; other demographic variables considered were illiteracy and malnutrition rates. The poorest groups are identified with red and orange; an estimated 40% of the country's population (10,2 million) are in these two groups, where the highest levels of illiteracy and malnutrition can be found. Nine of the 13 regions considered in these two groups belong to the Andean highlands (Cajamarca, Huánuco, Pasco, Junín, 164Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina ExperienceThe Participatory Market Chain ApproachThe Participatory Market Chain Approach Huancavelica, Ayacucho, Apurímac, Cusco and Puno), and those marked with a star are the regions of the communities participating in the T'ikapapa supply chain (Appendix). The study also revealed that most of this population lives in rural areas where the poverty rate is 72.5%; other socio-demographic variables reveal that in rural areas 69% of under-five-year-olds suffer from chronic malnutrition, and 73 out of 1,000 children die at less than one year of age (UNDP, 2006). On the other hand, the least poor and wealthiest part of the population live in the coastal area, mainly concentrated in Lima.The general profile of the population living in the Peruvian Andean highlands is characterized by the small landholdings, with less than 5 ha of land per family; a low adult literacy rate; and high child malnutrition levels. For these communities, the potato crop is an important cash crop and an important component of the Andean household diet for food security. In a recent survey study carried out in the Central Highlands of Peru by a group from the German Development Agency, 72% of the interviewees considered that the potato crop is a key livelihood strategy for escaping poverty and famine (Antezana et al., 2005). Another study carried out in Ecuador to determine the relationships of the nutritional status of pre-school children with 3 types of potato production systems (strong potato-based, intermediate, and less potato-based) in seven potato farming communities, revealed that the highest levels of severe to moderate malnutrition were observed in 51% of children under 3 years of age living in strong potato-based farming communities, whereas intermediate and less potato-based systems showed 30% of children with malnutrition (Orozco, et al., 2007). The same study also revealed that the diets in all the communities had excess energy intakes due to the high consumption of carbohydrates and fat; although the diet's profile is related to the type of crop rotations in each system, as well as the presence of livestock in communities with intermediate and less potato production systems.High potato production helped farmers to improve their living situation. However, sole increased potato production cannot ensure the way out of poverty; for this to occur, the increase of potato production has to be associated with market-oriented strategies (Antezana, et al., 2005).In recent years, considerable effort has been devoted to developing new strategies, concepts, frameworks and approaches to reduce rural poverty in the context of a market-oriented innovation process that can focus on small-scale farmers. However, small farmers are often at a disadvantage in relation to larger commercial farmers, who can supply larger volumes of quality-assured products, possess superior bargaining power, and have better access to information, services, technology and capital (Johnson and Berdegué, 2004). Additionally, small farmers live in remote areas, have limited and non-homogeneous production surplus, and have a communityoriented organizational structure rather than a market-oriented organization, all of which inflates marketing costs, increasing transaction costs and the per-unit costs of assembly, handling, and transportation. This situation leaves no room for innovation, contributing at the end to the little profitability of the small farmer as an economic agent.There is a need to introduce new patterns of interaction and institutional arrangements among the diversity of actors involved in the value chain to start an innovation process at different levels of the market chain. The experience of Papa Andina has shown that this group of individuals, working collectively and in a coordinated manner, pursuing common objectives, have the potential to develop a synergistic force that can positively influence their external environment (government offices and policy makers) for the common benefit of the involved market chain actors and this economic sector as a whole. Meinzen-Dick and Di Gregorio ( 2004) add that this process can be encouraged or supported by external agents from governmental bodies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), or development projects.In the light of this context, the International Potato Center (CIP) regional network \"Papa Andina Initiative\", funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), promotes, together with its strategic partners, mechanisms and approaches to link technology supply with farmers' needs, based on market opportunities within a market chain framework. Papa Andina has conceptualized new forms of collective action, namely the Participatory Market Chain Approach or PMCA (Bernet et al., 2006) and Stakeholder Platforms to foster market chain innovation in ways that benefit small farmers as well as other market chain actors. , its strategic partner in Peru, have developed and conceptualized the Participatory Market Chain Approach or PMCA (Bernet et al., 2006) as a structured three-phase participatory methodology to identify and exploit new business opportunities that can benefit the poor. The first phase of PMCA is a learning stage, where stakeholders are identified and common problems are discussed; and a qualitative assay of the market chain is performed. In the second phase or analysis phase, thematic groups are organized and facilitation is provided to analyze market opportunities. Third, the thematic groups use the feedback provided during public events organized after each phase to implement jointly commercial, institutional and technological innovations (Figure 3). Along the whole PMCA process, the information exchange among the stakeholders contributes to building trust as an essential condition for starting joint venture type of businesses.The premise with the PMCA approach is that commercial innovations are the driving force to promote other type of innovations -technological and institutional-, along the market chain, which are required for feeding the newly identified products. Technological innovation may include research for new product development or culinary uses. It also includes: the development of quality standards, variety selection for processing, improvement of production processes, storage and post-harvest techniques, and commercial information systems. Furthermore, in order to provide the enabling environment for these innovations to take place and to enforce new rules of relationship among stakeholders, institutional innovation becomes a key element to sustain this new innovation environment. Therefore, the concept of multistakeholder platforms has been defined as an organization where different stakeholders interact to understand each other better, for learning and developing shared priorities, defining roles and agreeing on joint actions (Devaux et al., 2005), and it becomes a necessary complement for sustainability. In the Andes, interactions among market chain actors and service providers are frequently characterized by a lack of trust, and successful private-public partnerships and alliances are rare (Hartwich and Tola, 2007). Agricultural research organizations usually keep their distance from NGOs, farmer groups and traders. The quest for market-led innovation made it necessary to look beyond the research community and build relationships with a broader range of public and private actors. Papa Andina employs stakeholder platforms to promote interaction, social learning, social capital formation, and collective activities involving diverse actors in innovation processes (Devaux, et al., 2007).Stakeholder platforms have been established at different levels. Local platforms facilitate interactions between potato producers, local authorities and service providers to empower small farmers, reduce marketing costs, and increase efficiency in service delivery. Market chain platforms bring farmer associations together with traders, processors, supermarkets, researchers, extension agents, chefs and others, to foster pro-poor innovation. In some cases, platforms also serve as representative bodies for interaction with policy makers. Although native potatoes represent about 80% of potato biodiversity in Peru, their presence in urban markets fell significantly behind improved or modern potato varieties. The initial rapid market survey in Lima revealed that urban consumers know very little about native potato varieties and other by-products such as white chuño or tunta (a traditional freeze dried potato), but also the survey showed that there was a general interest in promoting the use and learning more about native varieties, because consumers perceive them as natural products. Therefore, with the aim of promoting the utilization and improving the image of native potatoes in Peru, INCOPA project implemented in September 2003 the PMCA method in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture (Manrique, et al. 2006).The Participatory Market Chain ApproachThe Participatory Market Chain ApproachThe PMCA began with a rapid appraisal of the native potato sector that was obtained through a qualitative survey in order to: identify key actors, and understand their interrelationships and problems, as well as their expectations for a better collaboration among market chain actors. About 34 interviewees participated in the survey that comprised: potato growers, NGOs, governmental agencies, cooking schools, potato traders and other commercial agents. The results of the survey were presented in the first public event of PMCA where some 60 attendees representing major groups of stakeholders of the potato sector (i.e. producers, traders, processors, retailers, chefs, researchers and tourist agents) were present. The discussion following the presentation of results confirmed the general interest in promoting the use of native potato varieties mainly through novel dishes of Peruvian novoandino cuisine and improvements in commercial presentation. The study also revealed gaps in culinary research and lack of knowledge about the native potato varieties' production systems and seasonality. Afterwards a sketch enacted by the PMCA facilitators helped to emphasize the need for collaboration among market chain actors to promote native potatoes.The participants were divided into two thematic groups: the \"native potatoes\" group and the \"tunta\" group, and both groups started deliberating possible ways to promote innovation with their respective products. Using a brainstorm technique and then labels to organize ideas, the work of both groups was supported and monitored by PMCA practitioners. The \"native potatoes\" group came up with three innovating ideas: production of a recipe book about native potatoes, development of a marketing concept to sell native potatoes in supermarkets, and the formulation of instant soups. On the other side, the \"tunta\" group decided to promote this ancient product through cooking and catering schools, and identified the need for a permanent supply of high-quality tunta. The one-day first public event of PMCA, finished with the presentation and discussion of these results in a plenary session. This article describes only the developments of the \"native potatoes\" group to explain the origin of the T'ikapapa marketing concept.After the first event, both groups worked in a parallel manner to develop commercial concepts for each product to test the commercial feasibility that was detected in previous market appraisal. Both groups met every two weeks for two months as a fixed routine, and a practitioner was responsible for keeping track of discussions and attendants. This period was very active in interactions and field trips.The \"native potato\" group was made up of producers, processors, chefs, communication experts, researchers and extension agents. Considering the little information available about native potatoes and poor knowledge of the general public about potato native varieties, the group decided to revert this situation with a strong information effort to put native potatoes in the public eye. Therefore, the development of information materials was proposed, such as a catalogue of \"Peruvian native potatoes\", and a recipe book developed by cooking schools to promote the consumption and utilization of native potatoes. The group also realized the potential of selling these new and exotic types of potatoes in urban supermarkets where they had never been sold before. Then a discussion started to look for a proper brand name: after a brainstorming session, the group agreed on T'ikapapa (which means potato flower in Quechua). It was then analyzed which potato varieties would be the first to be introduced to the market and how production seasonality could be overcome by better crop planning across production areas. This is how a commercial prototype for fresh native potato, such as the T'ikapapa concept was developed and later become a commercial brand of processing company A&L Exportaciones y Servicios SAC for a bag with 1 kilogram of selected and classified native potatoes for retail sale. Additionally, \"Puré Andino\" a new concept for mashed potato was developed, which included the peel in the processing phase in order to avoid the excessive loss due to constrictions and deep eyes -a typical trait of the native yellow potato.The second phase of PMCA ended with a public event where the advances of both groups were presented by the same group members. This event also served to motivate other actors to join the group and reinforce the initiatives that were under development.The implementation phase took about 6 months. In this period, important decisions were taken in the group, and the participation of specialists was required to draw up marketing strategies, design commercial brands and packages, and carry out shelf-life studies.Among the attendees at the second public event, there were representatives of a local supermarket chain (Plaza Vea), who afterwards expressed to the group their interest in starting to sell fresh native potatoes. This exciting prospect prompted the completion of the T'ikapapa concept, which evolved into a commercial brand. Marketing specialists were hired to help with the initial packaging design to contain 1.5 kg of selected potatoes with a carton label. The processing company A&L Exportaciones y Servicios SAC started the registration process of T'ikapapa and signed purchase agreements with Andean potato growers, and promotional activities were carried out with the support of cooking schools in the retail store.At the same time, tests for the development of the instant mashed potato (Puré Andino) were finally completed and the native yellow Tumbay variety was identified as the best input for this product. The final product was tested by chefs at international events in Germany and Switzerland with promising results. Two information flyers were produced: for T'ikapapa and Puré Andino.The third and last public event was held at CIP Headquarters with a significant participation of governmental officials, international aid agencies, non-governmental agencies, businessmen, retailers, media and press. Nearly 200 participants attended the last event, which had wide press coverage so that it could be commented in 170Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina ExperienceThe Participatory Market Chain ApproachThe Participatory Market Chain Approach magazines and newspapers and watched on TV news by the general public; thus began a process of public awareness-raising that continues to this day thanks to the efforts of different partners. The program of the event included formal speeches by government officials (including Peru's Minister of Production) and then representatives of the thematic groups collectively presented the final results and accomplishments achieved during the PMCA process. The event concluded with a traditional social luncheon served by the participating cooking schools, serving innovative dishes made from the recipes they had developed during the PMCA process.The activities following the conclusion of the third phase were mainly wrapping up and consolidating activities, i.e. recipe pamphlets were published, as well as the native potato catalogue. The public events that were organized after each phase of the PMCA, offered the chance not only to motivate new interested participants, but also to interact with important key persons such as investors, businessmen, government officials or policy makers who can help the innovation process. It was during the last public event that it was possible to contact the Wong supermarket chain's chief executive officer and start negotiating the introduction of T'ikapapa in Peru's largest supermarket chain.The application of the PMCA on native potatoes has made it possible to achieve innovation at three levels.a. Commercial innovation: the development of T'ikapapa as a new marketing concept for native potatoes represents a milestone in commercial innovation in Peru's potato sector. The T'ikapapa concept has incorporated new marketing concepts such as social responsibility and fair trade while emphasizing the benefit to small-scale farmers. It is a modern marketing concept because it is environmentally friendly, since it promotes the conservation of potato biodiversity, and focuses on the gourmet market. The T'ikapapa concept represents a model of how biodiversity can be utilized in a profitable way.b. Technological innovation: the thematic groups have identified a number of research issues (i.e. potato sprouting control, storage technology, quality seed production of native varieties, culinary research etc) that represent concrete bottlenecks for the development of a strong T'ikapapa supply chain. These topics had not been considered in the research agenda of any research institution. However, these issues are now being addressed by research partners and are under way. c. Institutional innovation: the PMCA on native potatoes has fostered new arrangements among different stakeholders based on contracts and/or clear quality standards for the potato supply. Participating in a value chain with access to technical assistance guarantees better prices for organized farmers. Therefore, local platforms and organized farmers are key to promoting not only commercial innovation but also technological innovation at different levels in the supply chain. Currently Fontagro (Fondo Regional de Tecnología Agropecuaria), another Papa Andina project, is conducting a PMCA in Huancayo-Huancavelica with the specific goal of organizing a local platform to link a number of other projects that are either working in the same production area or have market-oriented activities with native potatoes and other Andean products.Native potatoes have a strongly seasonal harvest time, therefore it was a challenge to organize the logistics to supply the processor continuously with quality raw material. The strategy involved CAPAC Peru (Cadenas Productivas Agricolas de Calidad), a stakeholder platform that resulted from a previous PMCA application, to act as an organizer and linkaging entity working directly with farmer associations or communities. An increasing number of participating communities have joined in the supply chain every year since 2004 (Figure 5). and Apurimac) were involved and benefited from the T'ikapapa supply chain, between 2004 and 2007 (Figure 6 and Appendix).An important issue in this endeavor is the climatic change, the effects of which are devastating to the potato crop in the Andes. The weather in the Andean highlands in Peru fluctuates greatly: the day temperature can reach an average maximum of 20°C and a minimum of 5°C, although due to climatic change the frosts now have an erratic pattern and can hit any time. Usually in the highlands the winter season starts in June with an abrupt change of temperature. However, in recent years the occurrence of anomalous winters has caused temperatures to fall to between -25º C and -35ºC. Snowstorms and cold winds caused by a polar air mass have mainly affected regions located 3,500 meters above sea level. This was the case of the frosts in July 2004 and February 2007, particularly the latter, where farmer communities involved in the T'ikapapa supply chain were severely affected, causing great losses in their native potato harvests, and affecting the volume of commercial tubers. The magnitude of the disaster is reflected in Figure 7 which shows the drop in average monthly sales from 4.9 MT in 2006 to 3.3 MT in 2007. This situation increases the vulnerability of poor farmer communities living in these areas. Some preventive measures have been taken for the next season such as the identification of less exposed growing areas, the use of field burners, and community-based early warning systems. The T'ikapapa marketing concept of linking small-scale farmers from Andean highlands to urban markets, taking advantage of biodiversity, has succeeded in introducing native potato varieties from poor, indigenous, rural farming communities to an exclusive supermarket chain in Lima. This has brought increased revenue to the farming communities involved in the project and a great sense of achievement and pride. The prices received by small farmers selling their native potatoes to the supermarket as T'ikapapa were 20% higher than those of potatoes sold through traditional market channels during the 2005 pilot action. Formal agreements and contracts have been signed between A&L processing company and the organized farmer communities to ensure stable prices and supply of quality raw material (Figure 8). A recent impact study (Bucheli, et al., 2009) carried out in one of the supplying regions (Huánuco) compared the situation of Cayna, a community that participated in the T'ikapapa supply chain, and Huayllacan, a non-participating community. The study highlights the following benefits of participating as suppliers of T'ikapapa. First, the participation in the T'ikapapa supply chain enabled Cayna to raise to 25% the volume of native potato tubers destined to the market (Figure 9), whereas the rest was used for home consumption and generated no income. Second, access to a new market that offered higher prices was the main reason given by more than half (53%) of Cayna farmers interviewed to explain higher incomes; increase in yields and better quality potato production (access to better seeds) is the second most important reason (cited by 37%). It is important to note that Cayna farmers have previously received technical assistance from the NGO ADERS-Peru that allowed them to improve their potato production system. This assistance included the setting up of community-based research groups (GIAL in Spanish) 2 T'ikapapa, as the marketing concept for native potatoes, has succeeded in positioning native potatoes as a modern, quality and gourmet product in the mind of the consumer, where potato is usually perceived as a non-differentiated commodity. It has been the driving force for the development of technological and institutional innovations to sustain the development of T'ikapapa as a commercial new product.Linking small-scale Andean farmers to new operative commercial circuits and new markets as a strategy for poverty alleviation is a valid assumption, but it can remain as a truncated approach unless other complementary skills and capacities are developed by farmers, and unless attitudinal changes are adopted by stakeholders to improve: efficiencies, equity, competitiveness, performance, and overall relationships among chain actors to develop a win/win situation. In this reference, the T'ikapapa case study shows that PMCA and stakeholder platforms have a significant potential to enable this powerful shift of attitude to occur, which can alter the whole course of communication among participating stakeholders that turn into social capital development, reinforcing institutional innovation.Since its introduction to the market T'ikapapa's concept has been replicated by four different brands (Kusandina, Mi terruño, Cosechandina and Vivanda's native potatoes) owned by four entrepreneurs not involved in the PMCA process. This reflects the commercial viability of the original idea that emerged from the thematic groups.Explicit quality standards have been set for the potato varieties involved in the T'ikapapa marketing scheme, and these are included in formal agreements and contracts, which under traditional marketing and trading schemes were inexistent. This allowed small farmers to gain reliable access to markets and prices, where otherwise transaction costs would be too high.The project has achieved a significant public influence at the national and international level, reflected in public awareness and perception about potato biodiversity, and reinforcing its conservation (i.e. United Nations SEED Awards 2007, World Challenge 2007 award, National Potato Day in Peru, FAO Food Day Award 2006 and Entrepreneurial Creativity 2005 award). It was possible to maintain the interest of consumers and to promote potato consumption by improving the potato's commercial image and involving cooking schools as a new partner for innovation. Technological improvement for native potato production has become an issue in R&D organizations that want to tackle key topics such as: quality seed production, good agronomic practices in support of organic production, and adequate post-harvest management including storage technology.The T'ikapapa marketing scheme is being replicated by new products such as native potato chips. On June 2008, Pepsico / Frito Lay presented \"Lays Andinas\", a new snack product that initially used 300 tonnes of native potato tubers from small-scale farmers to produce colored potato chips. The market response has been positive and there are prospects for exporting Lays Andinas to the U.S. and Brazil. New marketing concepts such as social responsibility and fair trade hold an untapped potential for the commercial development of biodiversity products, to deliver sustainable benefits to poor farmers; because they can be attractive concepts to consumers, and an interesting marketing component for the private companies, as they communicate to buyers the social benefits they generate for poor farmers with their purchase, appealing to their values and responsibility as modern consumers.Therefore, in Peru the production area of native potato varieties has increased, although a major effort has to be made to coordinate production from different areas since the production of native varieties is seasonal and, identity and quality homogeneity has to be assured; especially if different communities participate as suppliers. Local platforms and market chain stakeholder platforms such as CAPAC canThe Participatory Market Chain ApproachThe Participatory Market Chain Approach play a key role to promote not only commercial innovation but also technological innovation at different levels in the supply chain, helping small farmers to engage in market opportunities.However, the devastating damage caused by the frost in February 2007 has shown the extreme vulnerability of small Andean farmers when facing the effects of climate change, and how these effects also affect the rest of the supply chain. This extreme situation directly affects the food security, economic income, and family health of the most vulnerable communities. This experience shows that if a commercial innovation is not supported by an adequate technological backup to reinforce sustainability and post-harvest management, similar endeavors to link small farmers in the context of a market chain approach can be endangered.Other intangible impacts have been attained: for example, the self-esteem of participating indigenous communities has been strengthened, since their products are appreciated in exclusive urban markets. Urban consumers have revalued the cultural heritage of Andean farmers; and urban supermarket chain owners are aware that including social responsibility in business adds value to their commercial image.Local potato biodiversity and its by-products can be utilized in a profitable way by small-scale farmers, and its preservation is ensured by becoming an economic asset of the community. There are clear comparative advantages for Andean farmer communities to use their indigenous knowledge for biodiversity utilization to access niche markets, by getting organized in small enterprises and improving their ancient production systems.Working in partnership is a new way of doing business for Andean communities, and to enter new routes of commercialization requires new partners and institutional schemes of relationship with stakeholders. The T'ikapapa experience reveals that it is a continuous learning process, which requires the development of new skills and capacities, particularly among small farmers. Their present weak organization and limited technology result in a poor quality product, and this limits their participation in market-oriented partnerships.The development of an adequate organizational structure and new skills to become competitive are pre-requisites for other Andean communities that want to join market-oriented partnerships, since future commercial initiatives will involve working through market chains to create other partnerships needed to tap new market opportunities such as processed native potato by-products (i.e. potato flakes, chips) for gourmet and novelty snack food markets.The high transaction costs of the initial period of introducing new products into the market can become a burden to small agro-industries and jeopardize further commercial development. Therefore, a careful strategy has to be designed to select the entrepreneur who can assure the commercial development and growth of the new products.At the present time, 2011, the marketing scheme started by T'ikapapa has been replicated by other actors, and products with added value have been introduced. The public awareness activities that promoted the consumption of potato diversity have led to the creation of a new market segment that is now being exploited by other partnerships and productive chains to benefit small-scale Andean potato growers and enhance their livelihoods. In the Andes, interactions among market chain actors and service providers are frequently characterized by a lack of trust, and successful private-public partnerships and alliances are rare. Papa Andina and its partners have supported different types of multi-stakeholder platforms to promote interaction, social learning, social capital formation, and collective action involving these diverse actors in innovation and market coordination processes. This paper analyzes experiences with platforms of different types, presents a general framework for characterizing platforms, and identifies key lessons learned for facilitation and securing significant outcomes. It complements a more general paper prepared about Papa Andina's innovation approach also prepared for this symposium (Devaux et al., 2010).The term \"platform\" is in vogue. Sometimes it is used to characterize a methodology such as Farmer Field Schools. (FFS) When used to refer to groups, it has sometimes been applied to any group which comes together for joint action. Building on previous work of Röling et al. (2002) and Papa Andina (Thiele et al., 2005), we define a multi-stakeholder platform as a space of interaction between different stakeholders who share a resource or common interest and interact to improve their mutual understanding, create trust, learn, reach consensus over priorities, define roles, and engage in joint action. Henceforth we refer to this as a \"platform\".It is an intrinsic characteristic of a platform defined in this way that it involves stakeholders of diverse types, who have different visions, ways of making a living, and sets of resources. A producer cooperative would not be a platform in this sense because it includes only one type of actor. The platform is relevant and has value for these stakeholders because there is interdependence between them, either actually or potentially. This interdependence can create tension, conflict, maneuvering to seek advantage, and even group displacement. But it also opens up opportunities for mutual understanding, building confidence, social learning and joint action (Röling et al., 2002). Hence the platform makes it possible to achieve changes which none of its members could have achieved on their own. A platform is a particular type of partnership with an especially diverse and complex membership (Horton et al., 2009). Because of its complex membership, potential for conflict, and differences of opinion, a platform is likely to require facilitation and may have a lengthy initial phase of mutual learning and role definition before it can get down to business (Thiele et al., 2005).Stakeholders can have different roles in a platform. In this paper we distinguish platform \"members\", who are the core partners making up the platform, from \"partners\" who interact with the platform and share information and other resources and \"clients\" and \"providers\" who may receive or supply goods or services to the platform on a strictly commercial basis. In practice, these categories may be somewhat blurred and some \"members\" may be more passive than \"partners\" who are not considered full platform members.Multi-stakeholder platforms were first proposed in the context of natural resource management where a group of stakeholders share a common resource such as water access in a river basin (Röling et al., 2002). The use of the concept in the context of market or value chains is less common and has hardly been discussed in the literature. A recent overview of collective action for small farmer market access gave particular consideration to small farmer organizations, but did not mention platforms (Markelova et al., 2009). In a market chain context, platforms may perform two somewhat different but interlinked functions. First, they create a space for learning and joint innovation. Second, they provide a coordination function within the market chain to reduce cost. Each of these functions can be linked to separate bodies of literature. Devaux et al (2009) presents a framework for analyzing innovation in market chains, where the innovation arena is shaped by external environment, biophysical/material characteristics of the market chain, characteristics of market actors, and institutional arrangements. The Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) as a facilitated process contributes to social learning, social capital formation, and joint activities which underpin commercial, technical and institutional innovations. Consistent with this framework, platforms have been used by Papa Andina and its partners as a structured space where innovation can occur and be sustained, and in this sense they are complementary to the PMCA as a process. Together, they have contributed to the creation of new potato products from which farmers and other market chain actors can capture higher value. By stimulating learning and improving access to information, platforms have played a role in the empowerment of small-scale farmers and women in the market chain. In a similar vein, Critchley et al. (2006) have emphasized the role of platforms as a space or theater where innovation involving different stakeholders can occur.Two other bodies of literature -one academic and the other applied -have concerned themselves with market chain governance. Dorward et al. (2009), writing from a New Institutional Economics perspective, note that coordination between market actors provided through different non-market mechanisms can help actors in 182Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Multi-stakeholders platforms developing countries reduce transaction costs and escape what they call the lowlevel equilibrium trap associated with underdevelopment. Developed countries have seen the emergence of supply chain management, defined as the \"integration of key business processes from end-user through original suppliers that provide products, services and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders\" (Lambert 2008). Given the increasingly \"disintegrated\" nature of supply chains made up of different enterprises in automotive, textile and electronics industries, Bitran et al. (2006) postulate the need for a neutral third player or maestro to coordinate the network of suppliers. The need for increased integration in developing countries, as well as the disintegration of more hierarchically organized supply chains in developed countries, has created a curious convergence with the need for new types of institutions that provide a coordination function in the market chain. As we shall see below, platforms have provided one such institutional mechanism for this market coordination function.All three platforms grew out of a lengthy prior process of interaction between the partners involved. This interaction was supported through project activities linked with Papa Andina and funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC), including the regional Papa Andina project, Fortipapa in Ecuador, and Incopa in Peru. For most of those involved in the three countries, working with markets by engaging market chain actors and a broader set of stakeholders was initially new, unfamiliar and challenging. Each case involved a research organization: PROINPA (Foundation for Promotion and Research of Andean Products) in Bolivia, INIAP (National Agriculture Research Institute) in Ecuador and CIP (International Potato Center) in Peru, which had experience with participatory approaches for on-farm research but had not engaged multiple stakeholders to work with markets. It was clear in this new context that technological innovation was only one part of the process, so the research organization had to assume a new role. The research organization took the lead in overall facilitation of the process of platform creation and also played a subsidiary role in research to address specific market constraints. Papa Andina's coordination unit played an important backstopping role and promoted the sharing of ideas about platforms as they were being developed. Because it was new, there were few guidelines and little group knowledge to draw on. Partners in each country were aware of, and learned from, what occurred in the other locations; but the origins, membership, structure, and functions of the three platforms were all different.In Peru and Bolivia, the CAPAC (Cadenas Productivas Agricolas de Calidad) and Andibol (Bolivian Andean Platform) platforms were established after cycles of PMCA which had already led to other commercial innovations, and there was a perceived need for a more permanent forum to support the innovation process. These platforms engaged private sector market actors as either members or partners for innovation.In Ecuador, the INIAP team which facilitated the creation of market-oriented platforms was critical of the PMCA application they had seen in Peru, because they felt that it paid insufficient attention to farmer empowerment and that there was a risk of capture of the benefits of innovation by the private sector actors involved. Here the INIAP team guided a broad process of consultation with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Universities and others as part of the search for a \"New Institutionality\" which meant explicitly adopting a multi-stakeholder approach, recognizing that agricultural research and technological innovation was only one element. This sought to build on the existing mandates and interests of regional research and development (R&D) actors in the potato sector, recognizing that each had a particular competence, but with a new set of institutional rules about how they engaged -this was the \"New Institutionality\". Initially, this was linked to the creation of a national-level platform REDCAPAPA (Estratégica para el Desarrollo de la Cadena Agroalimentaria de la PAPA) to improve equity and competitiveness in the whole potato chain (Reinoso and Thiele, 2002). While REDCAPAPA was not successful in engaging a wide range of actors and never became fully operational, it stimulated interest in local-level platforms linked to specific market opportunities. The INIAP team was influenced by an earlier experience with a platform in the Colomi municipality of Bolivia which had been led by PROINPA and supported by Papa Andina. In Ecuador, an experience led by CESA (Central Ecuatoriana de Servicios Agrícolas), an NGO, in Quisapincha, of setting up a platform to link farmers to markets where INIAP had participated, influenced thinking (Montesdeoca et al., 2002). The INIAP team drawing on these experiences, developed a method for constructing platforms with the following steps: identification of local market opportunities, analysis of stakeholders, formulation of \"shared projects\" (proyectos compartidos) by farmers organizations and groups of R&D organizations, training, input provision, marketing, farmer organization and consolidation, (Monteros et al., 2005 ). In Ecuador, in contrast to Bolivia and Peru, platforms were conceived of as alliances between R&D organizations and farmers; other market chain actors, such as restaurants, supermarkets, and Frito-Lay, which purchases potatoes for chips, were perceived as clients to be consulted and informed, but not as full platform members who joined in regular meetings. Through the Fortipapa project, INIAP helped establish four platforms; this paper concentrates on the Chimborazo platform, which began in 2003 to link small farmers with markets for processed potato.CAPAC and Andibol have general mandates to promote market chains for potato and other Andean tubers and Andean products respectively. CAPAC has a specific objective concerned with promoting the inclusion of small producers and Andibol has adopted social responsibility as part of its name. Plataforma Chimborazo focuses on strengthening small-scale potato producers and positioning them in the market for processed potato; it is the only one to have the specific objective of organizing small potato farmers.Multi-stakeholders platforms These differences in mandate and objectives are consistent with different stakeholder roles. Andibol engages private sector market actors as platform members. CAPAC interacts with some private sector actors as members (formal membership) and others (Frito-Lay and Wong) as partners. The Plataforma Chimborazo has treated private sector actors mostly as clients, and has placed greater emphasis on the organization and empowerment of small farmers within the platform.All of the platforms have had external support and backstopping provided by a research organization or project. CAPAC and Plataforma Chimborazo have full time managers or coordinators, who spend a considerable amount of their time in supply chain management. In the case of Andibol, platform meetings are facilitated by PROINPA. Each of the platforms also has an elected Board (Directiva) drawn from its partners.All of the platforms engage a wide and diverse group of stakeholders. CAPAC and Andibol include private actors such as MiChacra and Gastrotur cooking school in Peru; and Ricafrut, Ascex, and Bolivia Natural in Bolivia. Plataforma Chimborazo includes many more farmer organizations with many farmers attending meetings. It also has more commercial relationships with private sector actors. Initially, the primary client was seen as Frito-Lay, but in practice it was difficult to meet the more demanding quality (levels of reducing sugars) and quantity requirements imposed by this large agroindustrial client, and the most important group of clients was that of restaurants serving French fries in Ambato and Riobamba.While CAPAC emerged out of the application of PMCA and the promotion of innovation, its current activities are principally concerned with providing technical orientation, capacity building, and information to members (farmer organizations) and partners (public local authorities); and commercial services on a not-for-profit basis for linking farmers to the supply chain of processors such as Frito-Lay (e.g. contract management, quality control). CAPAC only has one annual general assembly, and other stakeholder interaction is project-specific. In practice, involvement of some private sector partners is more active than that of some formal members. CAPAC also plays a role in advocacy and promotional activities, and takes part in technical normative commissions.Andibol has regular monthly meetings with a principal focus on stimulating new product development with its Chef Andino trademark, and coordinating supporting technological innovation.Plataforma Chimborazo had monthly meetings that focused on planning production, meeting quotas for delivery, and overcoming technical constraints to improve the quantity and quality of potatoes produced. A business roundtable was held in 2004 with potential clients, primarily restaurants, for Fripapa (suitable for frying) and other varieties. Stands had been set up with information about research and training activities of the platform, and production plans to assure regular supply; and bags of Fripapa with the CONPAPA (Consortium of Small Potato Producers) label were distributed to participants. The Cooking School from ESPOCH prepared french fries and other processed potato products; and at the end, representatives of restaurants were asked to estimate purchasing requirements by variety (Reinoso et al., 2007).Each of the platforms has outcomes linked both to innovation in a market context and to market coordination.All three platforms have led to market-linked innovation. CAPAC contributed to developing the \"Mi Papa\" collective trademark and a certification label for potato trade with Corporate social responsibility -CSR (Thomann et al., 2009). They also provide expertise to private partners for the creation of new products (e.g. Ayllin Papa). CAPAC has also linked with researchers at CIP to disseminate postharvest practices (e.g. handling, packing, technology to inhibit sprouting). Andibol has also developed a trademark: \"Chef Andino\". Responding to a request from Ricafrut to improve cleanliness, grading, and peeling, PROINPA and Kurmi carried out participatory research to develop a potato peeler and grader (Velasco et al., 2009).The Plataforma Chimborazo identified and developed a new market for the Fripapa variety among restaurants in Ambato and Riobamba that were looking for a potato that made good French fries. In the area of technological innovation, the Plataforma supported training in integrated crop management with Farmer Field Schools; it also supported specific research on planting densities and fertilization to increase tuber size; and on planting periods to lower the levels of reducing sugars in potatoes for chipping, with local universities.Turning to outcomes linked with market coordination, the Plataforma Chimborazo provided technical assistance, developed and monitored production plans with farmer quotas by area, and managed supply of potatoes to clients, primarily to restaurants. This supply chain management function was very time-consuming and occupied most of the time of the coordinator of the Plataforma Chimborazo. In addition, the Plataforma Chimborazo empowered farmer organizations and associations to assume a greater leadership role; this began with Farmer Field Schools, which helped build social capital by creating trained and organized groups and included specific training in leadership with a particular emphasis on women. This led to the creation of CONPAPA, which from 2007 took over the technical assistance functions, production planning, bulking up, and marketing functions that the Platform had previously performed, leaving it with a more limited role of coordinating service provision.In the case of Peru, CAPAC has neither the vocation nor the resources to coordinate the whole supply chain. However, in the regions where no local partner (NGO) is available (Andahuaylas, Ayacucho), CAPAC carries out marketing tasks (contract management, quality control, and delivery at the plant) that cannot yet be handled by farmer organizations, and provides them with orientation and capacity building 186Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Multi-stakeholders platforms for planning, production, and postharvest management. At the beginning of every planting season, planning meetings among CAPAC and farmer representatives are held to establish quotas by area and planting times, in order to organize production supply. Alliances with local partners are sought in order to develop technical assistance, and greater organization at farmers' level is encouraged.An impact study of the Plataforma Chimborazo and other platforms in Ecuador, based on questionnaires and a control group, found that it was effective in improving farmer incomes and welfare (Cavatassi et al 2009).Papa Andina as a regional project contributed to developing ideas about platforms, provided backstopping as platforms were implemented, and contributed to systematization of experiences and the formulation of an explicit methodology for platforms in Ecuador (Reinoso et al., 2007). Papa Andina coordinators participated frequently in meetings of the R&D organization that facilitated the development of each of the platforms. Papa Andina stimulated discussions among those involved in the three countries during workshops such as the workshop on PMCA and platforms in 2005 (Bobadilla, 2005). It also supported horizontal evaluations of the Plataforma Chimborazo in 2005 and of Andibol in 2009, as well as systematization of work with the different platforms (Thiele et al., 2007 andVelasco et al., 2009).Papa Andina has promoted a general concept of working with platforms as a space for bringing different kinds of actors together. Partners within the Papa Andina initiative have shared ideas and progress made working with platforms, and there has been considerable cross-fertilization. Earlier work on platforms in Bolivia influenced the development of the platform concept in Ecuador in , and visits by partners to the Ecuador platforms, including the horizontal evaluation in 2005, led to new thinking about platforms in Bolivia.Despite the generation of a general platform concept and several exchanges of ideas among partners, there has been little explicit theory behind the creation of the platforms. In contrast, development of the PMCA was based on a prior theoretical construct -Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Knowledge Systems (RAAKS ) -which structured the process of bringing stakeholders together to stimulate innovation from an early stage (Engel 1995). One attempt to provide a more general explicit theory was published, but not widely read or applied among Papa Andina and its partners, perhaps because it was too theoretical (Thiele et al., 2005). Theory behind platforms has been mostly implicit, and the platform facilitators involved followed their noses in pragmatically developing the platforms. Only one platform (Ecuador) appears to have had a specific procedure for implementing platforms, but this lacked the theoretical basis of PMCA and was more fully described after the platforms had been implemented to promote wider use (Reinoso et al., 2007).Our principal conclusion is that Papa Andina has worked with two broadly different types of platform in a market context, and that both have been effective:1. Platforms structured along market chains bring farmers and their associations together with traders, processors, supermarkets, researchers, chefs, and others to foster the creation of new products with greater possibility of added value for small farmers, and pro-poor innovation. This type has been more widely described in previous publications (Devaux et al., 2009) 2. Platforms structured around geographically delimited supply areas have also addressed market coordination problems in assuring volumes and meeting quality and timeline constraints associated with a supply chain made up of many dispersed and small producers. They also address coordination problems in the subsidiary \"markets\" for support services and complementary inputs, bringing NGOs and others in to provide technical support or access creditThe platform in Bolivia is concerned mainly with innovation, and the platform in Ecuador with market coordination. The case of Peru is more complex: while it began primarily to stimulate innovation, at present its activities appear to concentrate more on improving market coordination. Both types of platforms have also served as representative bodies for interaction with policy makers.There is a growing body of evidence that platforms can achieve significant outcomes and impacts, but more systematic impact evaluation is still needed (Cavatassi, 2009). So while platforms of heterogeneous groups may be more difficult to facilitate than homogeneous ones (e.g. producer associations), it seems likely that they may result in new products, processes, norms, and behaviors. So far, however, platforms have lacked a coherent theoretical framework, compared for example, to the PMCA. Hopefully, this paper should encourage more rigorous comparative analysis and stimulate wider use.   This paper analyzes the impact of participation in multi-stakeholder platforms (Plataformas) aimed at linking smallholder potato farmers to the market in the mountain region of Ecuador. It describes and evaluates the Plataformas program to determine whether it has been successful in linking farmers to higher-value markets, and the effects that such connections have brought, particularly with regard to farmers' welfare and to the environment. The analysis is run comparing a set of different and carefully constructed control groups to beneficiaries and using various specifications. Results are strongly consistent across the different specifications and are sound across the counterfactuals, suggesting that impacts are adequately identified. Findings suggest that the program was successful in improving the welfare of beneficiaries, while potential negative environmental impacts, particularly with regard to agrobiodiversity and the use of agrochemicals, seem not to be a concern. Mechanisms through which impacts have been achieved are analyzed. Few spillover effects are found.The last two decades have witnessed profound changes in farming systems and the way in which agricultural production is organized in many developing countries. While changes affect the whole chain, they are most clearly manifested in the manner in which food is being retailed. Agricultural producers now supply long and complex value chains that are marketing high-value fresh and processed products to mainly urban consumers. On the input side, farmers increasingly rely on commercialized transactions in market venues to obtain seeds, and the use of agricultural chemicals, as the demand for product quality increases. These changes, referred to as the new agricultural economy, have led to new organizational and institutional arrangements within the food marketing chain, such as new forms of contracts, as well as the imposition of private grades and standards (Dolan and Humphrey, 2004).The net effect of the new agricultural economy, both on the welfare of poor people and on the environment, is controversial. On the one hand, increased 194Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Multi-stakeholders platforms commercialization shifts farm households away from traditional self-sufficiency goals towards profit and income-oriented decision making. On the other hand, benefits to smallholders are by no means guaranteed and, indeed, the process may even exacerbate poverty levels through marginalization of the rural poor if they are unable to directly take advantage of new market opportunities or benefit from increased labor demand. Furthermore, the agricultural intensification that often accompanies market-oriented agriculture may lead to a focus on a few commercially-oriented varieties, increased use of chemicals, and intensified land use, and thus to potentially negative environmental and health consequences.One approach that has been used in the Andean region to enhance the benefits to smallholders of linking with the new agricultural economy has been the multistakeholder platforms, Plataformas de concertación or simply Plataformas (Devaux et al., 2009). The Plataformas program in Ecuador has been implemented by the Instituto Nacional Autónomo de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP) through the FORTIPAPA (Fortalecimiento de la Investigación y Producción de Semilla de Papa) project, supported by the International Potato Center (CIP) through its Papa Andina Partnership Program, and funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The Plataformas program brought together potato farmers and a range of suppliers of research and development services, with the purpose of linking farmers to higher-value markets. High-value market purchasers included local fast food restaurants, supermarket chains, and the multinational food processor Frito-Lay. By establishing direct linkages of farmer organizations to these purchasers, platforms have displaced traditional intermediaries, potentially providing the smallholders with greater opportunities to obtain benefits from the changes in agricultural marketing systems.The objective of this paper is to describe and evaluate the Plataformas program in order to determine whether it has been successful in linking farmers to higher-value markets and the effects, particularly with regard to farmers' welfare and to the environment that such connections have brought.When smallholders have no apparent advantage in production, the challenge is to reduce the transaction costs associated with purchasing from large numbers of farmers producing small quantities to make them relatively competitive, or to devise a way to directly link smallholders to high-value purchasers. This requires organizing smallholders to overcome the costs of transactions, as well as providing them with the necessary information to meet market requirements. The Plataformas program does just this. The approach used is to provide support for smallholders from a range of institutions, through building a strong social capital. This latter function as a connector between groups and among individuals, thereby facilitating co-operation and mutually supportive relations; and, thus, it acts as an effective means of reducing transaction costs and linking associate farmers directly to high-value purchasers. The connection is reached in a manner that ensures that those buyers receive quality potatoes, of the variety they require, and in a timely fashion. The intervention operates on the basis of a well designed program, through the whole potato supply chain, in such a way as to reduce inefficiencies, overcome barriers, and reduce costs in each link of the chain.The logic of the program is to reduce transaction costs, so that smallholders can be a low-cost option for high-value purchasers and take advantage of the benefits of the new agricultural economy. The ultimate expected benefit of the intervention is to increase the income obtained from potato production, not only through increasing productivity, but also through higher output prices and through lower transaction costs. When transactions are taken care of by the Plataforma, single transactions requiring that each smallholder deals directly with final clients are avoided, and thus associated costs and burdens are dramatically reduced.In order to conduct a proper impact evaluation, it is crucial to have a clear picture of the intervention under scrutiny, its overall program and the context in which it operates. To this end, prior to the beginning of the evaluation, a qualitative study was conducted to inform and guide the research. This first phase was based on interviews with key informants, focus group discussions in the regions of interest, and a value chain analysis of the Ecuadorian potato market. This section describes the Ecuadorian potato market and the key elements of the Plataformas.The potato is the primary staple and one of the most lucrative market crops cultivated in the highlands of Ecuador. Farmers can be differentiated by the use of technology, chemical inputs, production efficiency, types of varieties farmed, and the degree of market integration (An, 2004). Cultivation is largely undertaken by small-scale farmers: 32.2% of farmers in the country grow potatoes in areas smaller than 1 ha (OFIAGRO, 2009), and about half of all potato farmers grow potatoes on less than 2 hectares of land (Mancero, 2007). Almost all potato production is for domestic consumption, with per capita consumption of around 32 kg per year (OFIAGRO, 2009).Over the past decade, total production has fallen from more than 450,000 metric tons to less than 320,000 mt, while the cultivated area has shrunk from 65,000 ha to less than 50,000 ha (FAOSTAT, 2007). Average yields (6.8 t/ha) (INEC, 2001) are still far below the international average, not only when compared to Europe (17.27 t/ha) and North America (36.79 t/ha), but also when compared to nearby countries: 12.6 t/ha in Peru and 17.3 t/ha in Colombia (FAOSTAT, 2007). From 2002 to 2006, imports of potato-based products --mainly frozen French fries --, have increased from 2,423 t in 2002 to 7,119 t in 2006 (OFIAGRO, 2009) in response to growth in demand, mainly from fast food restaurants. Although this still represents less than 2% of total consumption, it shows an interesting trend.The Plataformas are multi-stakeholder alliances that bring farmers together with a range of agricultural support service providers, including INIAP, local NGOs, researchers, universities, and local governments. Plataformas are part of a comprehensive program involving practical intervention that pays special attention to improving the participation of low-income farmers in high-value producer chains, by providing them with new technologies, promoting their organization and social capital accumulation, and involving them in a \"value chain vision\" of production and commercialization that directly links them with the market.The primary objective of the Plataformas was to \"reduce poverty and increase food security, by increasing yields and profits of potato-producing smallholders\" (Pico, 2006). The Plataformas program was undertaken in four provinces of the central highlands, two of which are the focus of the present study: Tungurahua and Chimborazo.An integral component of the Plataformas was the training provided at the farmers' field schools (FFS) in order to build the knowledge and capacity of farmers. FFS placed special emphasis on production technologies and integrated pest management (IPM) techniques aimed at improving quality and quantity of production while protecting the environment and farmers' health. Farmers were taught techniques to efficiently manage soil, seed, insects, diseases, and pesticides using training materials adapted to resource-poor farmers. With regard to soil management, special emphasis was placed on techniques to reduce soil erosion, since most of the farmers are located in steep areas. Farmers were taught the importance of renewing seed of good quality and techniques to select their own stocks, considering the size, shape and health status of the tubers. Use of synthetic and organic fertilizers was also taught, including sources, methods and periods of application, and dosages. To efficiently manage Andean potato weevil (Premonotrypes vorax) and tuber moths (Phthorimaea operculella, Symmestrischema tangolias and Tecia solanivora), farmers learned the life cycle of the insects and different techniques to reduce the pest population and the damage it causes. Traps using low-toxicity insecticides are widely used to catch and kill Andean weevil adults. To manage late blight, farmers learned to recognize the symptoms of the disease, the life cycle of the pathogen, the use of resistant potato varieties, and the use of fungicides. Lastly, farmers were taught how to recognize the toxicity level of pesticides (by the color of the label), the main symptoms of intoxication, and how to protect the environment and themselves from risks associated with using pesticides. Hence, the training provided in the FFS with respect to the importance of preserving the environment and of protecting human health might reduce the over-usage of agrochemicals. However, pressure to reach marketrequired standards might operate in the opposite direction and the net effect on chemical use would need to be empirically determined.Of particular importance among the varieties used is CIP clone 388790.25 (CIP, 2009) released by INIAP in 1995 as INIAP-Fripapa (Fripapa), and which is specifically suitable for processing and frying (Pumisacho and Sherwood, 2002). INIAP produces, supplies and certifies high-quality Fripapa seeds, and has promoted their use in the Plataformas as they are demanded and preferred by fast food restaurants. Fripapa is particularly suitable for resource-scarce small producers, because it has a good degree of resistance to potato late blight and its use, therefore, reduces the need for frequent fungicide applications.During harvest and commercialization, the Platforms carry out some quality control to ensure marketed potatoes meet clients' needs. They also identify potential clients who can make a commitment to make purchases as long as the produce meets their required standards. In this regard, the sales are on the basis of through preestablished verbal agreements.The challenge of evaluating the impact of a program, project or intervention is that it is not possible to observe what would have happened to participants in its absence.The key to identifying and measuring the impact is, thus, to have a proper counterfactual-that is, a comparison (control) group that is similar to the intervention (treatment) group with the exception that it did not receive the intervention. In the case of this study, the challenge in creating a counterfactual was complicated by the ex-post nature of the evaluation which required creating a counterfactual after the program intervention had been implemented. This entailed ensuring that the communities selected as controls had characteristics similar to the treatment communities at the initiation of the program.The final sample includes three sets of households: i) beneficiaries of the program, ii) non-beneficiaries in the treatment communities (referred to as non-participants), and iii) non-beneficiary households in the control communities (referred to as noneligible). Lists of households from each of these categories were provided by Plataforma coordinators and community leaders. Households from the lists were randomly selected to be interviewed (157 out of 227 in Tungurahua and 167 out of 232 in Chimborazo). The final sample included 1,007 households, of which 683 reside in beneficiary communities (324 participants and 359 non-participants) and 325 in control communities (non-eligible).The data were collected from June to August 2007 through a household questionnaire, which was designed to conduct an impact evaluation and which included a number of questions on participation in the Plataforma. The questions were developed based on qualitative information collected through an earlier value chain analysis and focus group discussions.In determining the success of the Plataforma program, we first wanted to find out whether the intervention it supported reached its primary objective of improving the welfare of participating farmers. To do this, we looked at the relevant primary indicators. If the answer was positive, that is, the intervention increased participants' welfare, the next step was to consider the mechanisms whereby this primary objective was reached; or, alternatively, to determine why the intervention might have failed to meet its objectives. Lastly, secondary indicators arising from Plataforma participation, particularly with regard to knowledge of precautionary measures in agrochemical applications and environmental impacts, are considered. These three sets of variables -primary indicators, mechanisms and secondary indicators-which measure the impacts we were interested in analyzing, are presented in Table 1 for the entire sample, as well as for the three distinct groups of households we are comparing. Tests of difference (t-test) for the equality of mean values are reported for participants versus non-participants, participants versus non-eligible, and participants versus all non-beneficiaries.The first set of indicators in Table 1 shows that the group of beneficiaries, on average, obtained higher yields per hectare than the three possible counterfactual groups. The yields range from 6.3 t/ha for non-participants to 8.4 t/ha for beneficiaries. Although the average yield for beneficiaries is substantially below the average harvest in Latin America (16 t/ha), it is consistent with the average for Ecuador (6.8 t/ha) and about 2 t above the average of the focus region (6 t/ha) (INEC;2001).The mechanisms through which the platform achieves these outcomes are primarily through shortening and improving the efficiency of the potato value chain to decrease transaction costs and capture a higher share of final price for producers, as well as through the application of better agricultural techniques. Two transaction cost indicators are considered here -time per transaction, and price of sale -in addition to transport cost which is closely related to the transaction. Households on average sell almost half of their potato harvest (45%) at a price of about $0.11/kg. The transport cost is about $0.01/kg and the time spent on each transaction is around 1.29 hours. Plataforma beneficiaries appear to sell more, receive more value for their produce, and get a higher price per kg than non-beneficiaries.The secondary indicators analyze the side impacts of participation in the Plataforma. The first, which considers both health and environmental impacts, is the use of agrochemicals. To assess the environmental impact caused by pesticides, a methodology -the Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ)-to account for the toxicity level of the active ingredients contained in each pesticide and for their quantities has been used, as described by Kovach et al. (1992). The comparison of EIQ measures for fungicides (curative and preventative), insecticides, and total EIQ for the three household categories shows no significant differences (Table 1). This indicates that even if beneficiaries use more chemicals in terms of quantities and number of applications, their environmental impact is no different from that of the pesticides used by other household groups, indicating that the types of pesticides beneficiaries use are less toxic.Another environment-related indicator is the level of agrobiodiversity maintained at the household level, i.e., how the composition and share of potato varieties change due to market participation. The Plataforma program directs its attention towards commercial varieties. In particular, the Fripapa variety was introduced and supplied through the intervention of the Plataforma because of its market acceptance and resistance to late blight. If farmers are more specialized, the number of varieties cultivated may be reduced as farmers shift to the market variety. To measure this, four indices of diversity are used: the Count, the Margalef, the Shannon and the Berger-Parker index (Winters et al., 2006). On average they show that there is not a great diversity in the sample. Total potato planted per hectare is about 1,000 kilograms, or slightly more, with a large share represented by Fripapa (29%) and by INIAP-Gabriela (30%). While there appears to be no difference in agrobiodiversity between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, it does seem that beneficiaries have shifted toward Fripapa and away from INIAP-Gabriela.In connection with the use of pesticides and their toxicity level, some health-related measures are considered. The percentage of households that use protective measures is in general very low: 19% use gloves, 13% use ponchos and 6% use masks (Table 1). Slightly higher is the percentage of farmers that use plastic protection for the shoulders (38%). The results show that on average 34% of farmers know that the red label indicates high toxicity level and 25% know that the green label indicates less toxic products. The results suggest that participating in the Plataforma did lead to more beneficiaries using precautions and having better knowledge about the toxicity of products.The empirical problem faced in this analysis is the typical one of missing data to fill in the counterfactual. Propensity score matching (PSM) offers a potential solution to this problem if differences between the treatment and control are observable. The basic idea of PSM is to construct a control group that has similar characteristics as the treated group, through a predicted probability of group membership calculated via a logit or probit regression, and then compare the outcomes. An alternative to using PSM, particularly when control and treatment although not randomly assigned are reasonably comparable, is a weighted least squares procedure that uses weights calculated by the inverse of the propensity score (Todd et al, 2008).We estimate the impact of the program using three approaches, i) a standard OLS (ordinary least squares) with multiple controls, ii) propensity score matching using a kernel weighting scheme and bootstrapped standard errors, and iii) an intermediate approach of weighted least squares with weights determined, as previously discussed, from the propensity scores. Additionally, we also reconsider the use of all non-beneficiaries as the best counterfactual and check the robustness of results using the four alternative counterfactuals: beneficiaries versus non-beneficiaries; 200Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Multi-stakeholders platforms beneficiaries versus non-participants; beneficiaries versus non-eligible households; and treatment communities (beneficiaries and non-participants) versus control communities (non-eligible households).Table 2 reports the results of the analysis of the least squares regression, propensity score matching and weighted least squares, comparing Plataforma beneficiaries to non-beneficiaries. An analysis using the weighted least squares with the alternative counterfactual groups was also made (not shown) to demonstrate consistency and robustness of results. The results are remarkably consistent across specification and make sense for the different types of counterfactual, indicating that the impact is well identified.Table 2 shows that all three primary indicators of impact are positively and significantly influenced by participation in the program, with the estimated differences very similar across specification. The results suggest that yields are 33.3% percent higher as a result of the platform intervention, input-output ratios are about 20% higher, and gross margins per hectare were four-fold higher (Table 1). Overall, it appears that while beneficiary farmers paid more for some key inputs, they received the benefits of this investment through higher yields and higher prices, and thus higher returns to potato production.Moving into the secondary indicators of impact, there is some concern that linking smallholders to market may lead to higher returns but at the cost of greater environmental and health problems. The increased use of inputs suggests that this might be a problem. The evidence is somewhat mixed, but does not seem to imply a widespread problem. Beneficiaries do not use significantly more fungicides, but do use significantly more insecticides and chemical fertilizers (Table 1). The evidence does not suggest, however, that they are using more toxic mixes of chemicals (see environmental impact, Table 1) and in fact suggests that they can identify toxic products better than before joining the Plataforma, most likely due to the training they received. The increased use of insecticides and chemical fertilizers may be due to quality requirement for tubers to be a certain size and free from any damage (including insect damage). Program participants are generally more likely to use protective gear, as evidenced by a greater use of a plastic poncho and mask.A final concern relates to the influence on agricultural biodiversity of linking farmers to market. Market pressure may lead farmers to abandon traditional varieties and produce those varieties demanded by high-value markets. The evidence does not support this hypothesis, as indicated by the insignificant impact on any of the measures of agricultural biodiversity (Table 1). In fact, what appears to have happened is that farmers replaced one modern variety (Gabriela) with another variety (Fripapa), which is demanded for its frying qualities. Thus, this group of farmers is maintaining the same diversity level although changing the primary variety. The results are strongly consistent across the different specifications and the different types of counterfactuals, suggesting that the impact is well identified. Our findings suggest that the Plataforma program successfully improved the welfare of beneficiary farmers. All impacts related to the primary objectives of the Plataforma (gross margins and input-output ratio) are positive and significantly influenced by participation in the program. Since similar results are obtained when using the non-participants as a control group, the implication is that the program has very few or no indirect effects. The mechanisms through which the Plataforma achieves this success are: shortening and improving the efficiency of the potato value chain; and applying better agricultural techniques; decreasing transaction costs with the former, and improving yields with the latter. Results show that not only do beneficiaries sell more of their harvest as compared to non-beneficiaries, both in terms of percentage as well as quantity per hectare harvested, but they also sell at a price that is about 30% higher than those who were not in the program. To achieve these results, though, participant farmers have higher input costs, particularly for seeds (of which a higher percentage and quantity per hectare are bought) as well as for hired labor and fertilizers. Nevertheless, participants receive the benefits of this investment through higher yields and higher prices, and thus higher returns to potato production. The existence of social capital has proved to be fundamental in implementing the program which, through its intervention, has strengthened the social tissue and has built or improved the capacity of farmers to link successfully to the market.There is some concern about the increased use of inputs. While the results are somewhat mixed with respect to the use of agrochemicals, they do not seem to suggest a substantial problem. Our findings show that participants use significantly more insecticides and chemical fertilizers. However, they are most probably using less toxic products as the environmental impact is not significantly different from that of non-beneficiaries. These results might also be reinforced through the FFS and IPM approach used by the program, since it appears that through a better knowledge of risks and hazards associated with the use of agro-chemicals, participant farmers tend to use more protective gear, although overall the percentages are remarkably small. Likewise, the concern about potential impacts on agricultural biodiversity is unfounded, as seen by the insignificant effect on any of the four indices of agricultural biodiversity considered.Overall, participation in the Plataforma suggests a successful way of linking smallholder potato farmers to the global market. While primary benefits are undoubtedly obtained, concerns relating to potential costs supported by the natural resource base with respect to varieties cultivated and agrochemical impact seem to be unfounded. The success of the Plataforma can be first explained by its patient and efficient intervention along the value chain, eliminating unnecessary transaction costs and intervening also on the input side, not only introducing and supplying market-demanded varieties but also, and above all, providing good quality seeds. Secondly, the importance of the social capital in determining participation in the Plataforma can explain its successful results, while suggesting the most effective way of overcoming entrance barriers. Finally, it is important to note that while the program proved very successful, it only applies to a small proportion of Ecuadorian potato producers. Thus, if any significant effects are sought at national level, successful programs and interventions such as this need to be scaled up, taking into account context-specific situations and using appropriately those elements that have proven successful.Changes in urban consumption habits and the growing importance of new actors in food markets (supermarkets, food industries and retailers) are increasingly exercising pressure on production practices and on the resources of small farmers and other small-and medium-scale market chain actors. These people, in turn, have limited access to market information, services, technology, and capital, as well as inferior bargaining power to compete in this evolving context. The panorama described above poses multiple challenges -as well as opportunitiesnot only to economic agents (including poor farmers) but also to agricultural R&D organizations and other development agencies. Although market opportunities have very often been signaled as a trigger for innovation, mainly in the private sector and recently in the small rural household sector in developing countries, the question of how and to what extent development programs and projects can help poor farmers to face those challenges and benefit from the opportunities posed by market transformations remains a challenging question in the current debate of agricultural development.Bolivian farmers living in the Andean highlands are among the poorest in Latin America. Native potato varieties and the local knowledge for their cultivation and processing are perhaps the only resources possessed by farmers in these areas. Fresh native potatoes and the traditional freeze-dried potato product known as \"Chuño\" are normally used for home consumption, intra-household exchange, and trade in local markets. This paper reports on the experience of the Bolivian Andean multistakeholder platform (ANDIBOL),-a social network involving potato producers, R&D organizations, NGOs, and medium-scale enterprises-in fostering pro-poor commercial and technological innovation to develop and exploit market niches for this special processed product (chuño) in the most demanding urban markets.The ANDIBOL experience has been analyzed from the perspective of the \"Innovation system framework\". The analysis focuses on the associated processes of collective decision making and knowledge sharing undertaken by actors within ANDIBOL. The point of such processes is to provide insights about the potential, challenges, and implications for agricultural development programs and projects that entail bringing together a broad range of actors (and the inherent variety of social, cultural and economic background, interests, and expectations) for innovation in response to market opportunities and farmers' needs at the same time.This paper assumes the broad and flexible conceptualization of innovation offered by the Innovation System Perspective, whose main elements are developed below, in order to create a conceptual framework to analyze the experience of ANDIBOL in fostering commercial and technical innovation.We start by introducing the concept of innovation as it is defined in terms of the innovation system perspective. Central to the innovation system framework definition of innovation is the presence of diverse agents playing different roles and interacting with each other in the process of generation, accumulation, dissemination, and use of knowledge in response to market opportunities or other social needs; and the formal and informal institutions in which such a process is embedded (Spielman, 2005;Johnson et al., 2003;Berdegué, 2005;Hall, et al., 2001;World Bank, 2007).The first noteworthy element in the previous definition is the fact that it explicitly recognizes that innovation is an interactive process that often requires quite extensive relationships in order to sustain the acquisition of knowledge and permit interactive learning. Most of the literature on innovation systems mentions as of primary importance the flow of knowledge between actors in the process of technical change and the factors that condition these flows (Hall et al., 2000(Hall et al., , 2001(Hall et al., , 2003;;Spielman, 2005;Johnson et al., 2003;Clark, 2002;Berdegué, 2005). Further, Johnson et al. (2003, p. 6) note that the flow of knowledge required for innovation necessarily involves \"complex patterns of interaction and relationship between actors, generally characterized by reciprocity and feedback mechanisms in several loops\". Therefore, there is an important role for a broad spectrum of actors in the innovation process, and their different agendas and demands nourish this process.Second, such recognition introduces a wider perspective concerning knowledge and its sources. Knowledge generation is no longer seen as separate from its context of use, as has been seen in more traditional approaches (Johnson et al., 2003;van Kerkhoff and Lebel, 2006). This consideration allows us to shift our attention from 'basic research' to the 'processes of innovation', where research becomes just one element of a wider process of transforming 'new knowledge' into goods and services (Barnett 2006, p. 2). This point of view -which can be expressed as \"putting new knowledge into use\" -means, among other things, that agricultural research organizations face the challenge of gaining new skills and capacities and changing their working schemes to cooperate and coordinate closely with actors from the demand side, if technological change is to be responsive to end users' needs. It further signifies that the innovation process necessarily takes into account multiple sources of knowledge, both implicit and explicit, and that the existing stock of knowledge -possessed by each different actor -is a substantial source of innovation (either incremental or radical innovation).The third remarkable element in the definition of innovation offered by the innovation system perspective is the institutional context in which the innovation takes place. If it is admitted that the pattern of interaction and interactive relationships among actors impinges on knowledge flows, there is an explicit recognition that the set of rules and regulations governing such relationships really matters for innovation.Finally, under the innovations system perspective we can assert that improvements on the nature and extent of the interactions among farmers, R&D organizations and a broad range of other actors are widely important if innovation is to be responsive to poor farmers' needs (Hall et al., 2001;2007;Hall, 2006;2007;Hartwich et al., 2005;Hartwich et al., 2007;Johnson et al., 2003;Spielman, 2005;Berdegué, 2005;The Wold Bank, 2007).ANDIBOL is a market chain platform bringing farmer associations together with traders, processors, researchers, extension agents, service providers and others to foster pro-poor innovation. Papa Andina Initiative, a partnership program hosted by the International Potato Center (CIP), and the PROINPA Foundation, a private R&D organization working in Bolivia, have promoted the use of stakeholder platforms as an approach to foster interaction, social learning, social capital formation, and collective activities involving diverse actors in innovation processes (Devaux, et al., 2009).The efforts to build the ANDIBOL started in 2003. At this time, PROINPA Foundation used the Participatory Market Chain Approach 2 Based on the initial results in commercializing Chuñosa (clean, selected and bagged chuño) in supermarkets of La Paz and Santa Cruz (two of the main cities in Bolivia), the manager of RicaFrut, a medium-scale firm dedicated to the processing and commercialization of natural Andean products, revealed to its R & D partners in the platform the need to improve chuño quality to respond to urban customers' requirements, in particular: uniformity of size and shape; cleanness; and absence of to foster innovation in the market chains for \"tunta\" and \"chuño\", traditional freeze-dried potato products. These applications involved farmers, traders, food-processing firms, exporters, cooking schools and R&D organizations. In the first cycle, participants prepared a set of 'Bolivian Quality Standards for Chuño and Tunta'. In 2004, the PMCA was used again to identify new market opportunities for chuño and tunta, and ways to improve the products' image in markets other than the traditional ones. This exercise involved some participants from the first application plus chefs and the manager of a foodprocessing firm. It resulted in a new product: clean, selected and bagged chuño, marketed under the 'Chuñosa' brand. In 2005, participants established the 'Bolivian Chuño and Tunta Platform', formalized as the 'Bolivian Andean Platform ANDIBOL.Among other activities, ANDIBOL has established links with market agents to develop better quality chuño-based products with a higher price and to explore the export potential of chuño. The platform has a strategic plan guiding its activities and has obtained additional financial resources to support new projects. The platform today is facilitated by PROINPA and represents 13 core members, including four farmer associations with around 200 members, processing firms, development projects, NGOs and other service providers (Devaux et al., 2009).The following sections present the experience undergone by members of ANDIBOL in searching for, and adapting, two specific technologies to overcome chuño quality problems in response to market opportunities.2 The Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) is another approach developed and promoted by the Papa Andina Initiative and its strategic partners in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. The PMCA was developed as an approach for identifying and exploiting new business opportunities that benefit the poor, by stimulating market-driven innovation of different types. It engages market chain actors, researchers, and other service providers in identifying and analyzing potential business opportunities (Bernet et al., 2006). peel and pest damage. Since the quality of chuño stems essentially from the process of transformation of fresh potatoes into frozen and dried potatoes using traditional techniques at farmers' field level, meeting such demands made it necessary to search for technical alternatives that would enable farmers to improve their processing methods.Interestingly, RicaFrut did not demand a specific technology. The demand was posed in terms of what can be called an \"explicit demand\", or the manifestation of a problem that needs to be solved (Bentley et al., 2004). In this case, the need was to solve quality problems. 3  Once the demand was made, it was translated into what ANDIBOL denominates a \"research mandate\" and passed to the R&D organizations to search for technical solutions to overcome specific constraints hindering farmers and/or firms from taking advantage of market opportunities.According to the research mandate, PROINPA and the NGO Kurmi Cochabamba began searching for technical alternatives to solve quality problems at the field level. They found a local retailer using a manual machine invented by him to remove chuño peel. They also found that some years ago, CIFEMA (an R&D organization outside the platform dedicated to developing animal-drawn tillage implements) had already developed a prototype of a manual machine to classify fresh potatoes. The performance of this machine, however, had never been tested with the kind of potatoes that farmers use to obtain chuño. Both machines were taken as a starting point to carry out a process of participatory research to find out whether they solved marketing limitations and whether they were appropriate to farmers' working conditions.PROINPA and KURMI researchers, working with a local mechanic, introduced the first changes in the manual machine used by the retailer. The new version was assembled changing the barrel of the first version for a cylinder made of metal sheet in order to make the peel remover stronger. Chuño producers from 4 communities tested the improved machine during 2 months. They tested aspects such as the time required to peel 1 arroba [@] (11 kg.) of chuño, the human effort required to operate the machine manually, the appropriate speed with which the cylinder need to be turned to achieve a good product, and the resistance of the materials that the machine was made of. Equally important was the participation of the manager of RicaFrut, who visited the production area to see how the machine performed and to verify that the chuño obtained met market quality standards.Two months later, in a meeting with farmers, researchers and local authorities, the results achieved were presented and the following suggestions were put forward:• The material of the internal mechanism needed to be replaced with stronger material to prevent erosion.• Introducing chuño into the machine was very difficult; therefore it would be necessary to install some kind of funnel on the top of the peeler.• To facilitate the separation of removed peel, powder and clean chuño, it would be necessary to add a sieve on the bottom part of the machine.• Finally, the peeler machine was extremely noisy.It was not possible to work on these improvements with the local mechanic, so CIFEMA experts were contacted and the suggestions were passed on to them. Besides working on the aspects mentioned above, CIFEMA introduced modifications to improve durability, and to facilitate the repair and replacement of parts; they also investigated the type of cover material required to diminish noise.Six new improved machines are now used by farmers. Interviewed by the researchers, chuño producers highlight the following initial results:• Now we have more time available for other activities; the time required to peel 1 arroba (11 kg) has been reduced from 4 hours to 20 minutes.• Normally, chuño was peeled by women; now with the machine, men and women share this work.• We obtain clean chuño, without peel, and we are able to produce the quantity of chuño required by the \"empresario\" (Ricafrut manager).• The firm (Ricafrut) no longer rejects our chuño.• In the local market, our clean chuño also fetches a higher price.• We need peeler machines in each community, however the price is high (400 US Dollars each) and we are not able to buy them.• We will try to get funds from the local government to buy more machines. To start the research process, PROINPA's researchers bought a classifier from CIFEMA and showed it to farmers. In order to make the machine usable for classifying chuño, the first idea that they proposed was to change the sieves used to classify potatoes in the original model for sieves especially designed to select chuño. However, the farmers refused this idea, arguing that the process of selection starts with the classification of fresh potatoes and therefore the only thing that they had to do was to adapt the shape and size of the sieves to suit the kind of potatoes that they use to obtain chuño.This information was communicated to CIFEMA experts, who transformed the sieves and then sent the classifier back to the farmers in the field. As with the peeler machine, the new classifier was distributed to be tested in four communities, and after two months the following suggestions were made:• The new sieves worked properly with the potatoes used to produce chuño.• It was necessary to reduce the inclination of the sieves to permit better selection.• The classifier was too heavy to be transported; therefore four wheels needed to be added, instead of the two suggested by CIFEMA and PROINPA experts.• The lateral metal sheets of the machine were too small and short; they needed to be enlarged in order to prevent losses.Coming back to the CIFEMA's mechanics shop, the experts worked on introducing the changes proposed by the farmers, and additionally on modifications to improve the rotation mechanisms and to facilitate the sieve-changing operation.Twenty-four improved potato classifiers are currently being used in 16 different communities. Initial information about their performance has been gathered by interviewing farmers:• The time required to classify potatoes was reduced from 12 hours to 5 hours.• Normally, we women were in charge of this extremely hard work; our hands suffered injuries. Now we do this work together with the men and our hands no longer suffer.• We have chuño of better quality, because when we work with selected potatoes the frost acts uniformly.• We also obtain benefit from selling our fresh potatoes, because classifying potatoes by size we obtain better prices in the local market.• As with the peeler, we cannot afford to buy this machine (350 US Dollars each), but we want it. We are going to try and get help from the local government.the market evolves. ANDIBOL, as an institution where information and knowledge can be directly obtained from interested parties, and where market demand can be combined with information on what farmers require in order to respond to those demands, expedites the process of decision making on what needs to be researched and reduces the transaction cost associated with the search for useful information.Moreover, the experience has shown that during the participatory research process, the combination of different sources and types of knowledge, tacit or codified, coming from farmers, firms and scientists, as well as the use of feedback mechanisms, speeds up the finding of technical solutions to specific problems and opens up the possibility of further adoption of technologies. This point has been illustrated by the fact that both machines have been adapted during a short period of time (less than one year) and because farmers have demonstrated their willingness to adopt them.Working in the context of multi-stakeholder platforms like ANDIBOL means that agricultural research organizations face the challenge to gain new skills and capacities and to change their working schemes to cooperate and coordinate closely with a wide range of actors.Different groups have different internal laws, rules, regulations, standards, cultural habits, values, attitudes, practices and interests. It is necessary to understand the institutional context in which innovation takes place and identify those components that are either an impediment or a potential for innovation. This task involves developing skills and capacities to:• Interpret different institutional contexts and harmonize different agendas• Create mechanisms that enhance information and knowledge flows• Enhance different forms of interaction• Create incentives to participate and innovate collectively.The fulfillment of these functions could result in the formation of \"innovation opportunities\" in which social learning, social capital formation and joint activities can be fostered.The authors of this ILAC Brief coordinate Papa Andina, a regional network of the International Potato Center (CIP) that promotes knowledge sharing among R&D partners in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador in order to reduce poverty and foster sustainable development in the Andes.For several years, we organized study visits for local professionals to exchange knowledge and experiences, and conventional expert-led evaluations to assess our work. The study visits were enjoyable and instructive for participants, but there were few clear outcomes and little follow-up. Evaluations by outside experts provided interesting results, but the implementation of their recommendations was patchy.In view of the limitations of these two approaches, we developed the horizontal evaluation method with our partners as a participatory alternative that combines the best aspects of both. So far, we have organized four horizontal evaluations, improving the method each time. Further improvements are likely, so this brief describes work in progress.Evaluation by peers is what makes the process 'horizontal', compared with the 'vertical' evaluation typically provided by outsiders of perceived higher professional status. This method differs from the anonymous peer reviews used by professional journals and research funders, in that horizontal evaluation is open and transparent, with all the participants encouraged to learn and benefit from the evaluation process.Horizontal evaluation neutralizes the power dimension implicit in traditional evaluation, in which the 'expert' judge the 'inexpert' and the 'powerful' assess the 'powerless'. Because of this neutralization, a more favourable learning environment is created.Most of those involved directly with Papa Andina have been specialists who work with potato R&D organizations. They come from broadly comparable social and professional backgrounds, with similar types of knowledge about potato R&D, and they see each other as peers. As stakeholders in Papa Andina they share an interest in the methodologies developed with support from the network. This gives them the motivation to participate, learn and contribute. Another motivation for active involvement is that some of those who serve as peer evaluators during one horizontal evaluation know that their own work may later be evaluated by other peers within the network.Horizontal evaluation is a flexible method which can be applied in a range of settings to facilitate: the sharing of information, experiences and knowledge; the building of trust and a sense of community, which in turn fosters knowledge exchange; the social or interactive learning and corrective action needed to improve R&D methodologies; and the adaptation and wider use of these methodologies.To learn about and improve the R&D methodologies under development in our network, we have done four horizontal evaluations to date:3. An evaluation of the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA), conducted with the Promoción de la Producción Competitiva de la Papa Peruana (INCOPA) project in Peru (2003) 4. An evaluation of methodologies designed to articulate the demands of smallscale producers and match these with the supply of new technologies, conducted with the Innova project in Bolivia ( 2004) 5. An evaluation of the use of multi-stakeholder platforms to link small-scale farmers with markets, conducted with the Instituto Nacional Autónomo de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP) in Ecuador (2005) 6. An evaluation of the initial application of the PMCA in Uganda, conducted with the Programme Régional d'Amélioration de la Culture de la Pomme de Terre et de la Patate Douce en Afrique Central et de l'Est (PRAPACE), a regional network for the improvement of potato and sweetpotato (2005).The next box gives a brief description of the first of these experiences.In 2005, we also used elements of the horizontal evaluation approach in an evaluation of the Papa Andina network itself.We believe the approach can be applied in different types of projects and programmes, especially those that operate in a network mode.The heart of a horizontal evaluation is a participatory workshop, typically lasting 3 days, involving a local or internal group (referred to as 'local participants') of 10-15 people and a similarly sized group of outsiders or visitors (referred to as 'visitors'). Visitors are peers from other organizations or projects who are working on similar themes and have a potential interest in applying the methodology under evaluation.The role of the local participants is to present, and with help from the visitors, critically assess the methodology and make recommendations for its improvement. The role of the visitors is to critically assess the methodology, identifying its strengths and weaknesses and making suggestions that will aid its wider application. The visitors may contribute to the formulation of recommendations, but the local participants must take the lead and actually propose and agree them, since their ownership of the recommendations will be the key to implementation.We work with our partners to identify an appropriate methodology to be evaluated, select participants and prepare for the event. An organizing committee should be established and should include decision makers from among both local participants and visitors.We have learned that it is very important that the topic of the evaluation should be clearly defined: it is the methodology that should be evaluated, not the project or 224Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Learning and program improvement through 'horizontal evaluation' organization that developed it. Defining and maintaining the scope of the evaluation is critical for its success.Workshop organizers are responsible for:1. Identifying an appropriate object for evaluation (in the cases we have supported, a methodology of regional interest) 2. Ensuring the participation of an appropriate group of local participants and visitors (the latter should have an interest in learning about and perhaps using the methodology) 3. Designing the 3-day workshop and finding a facilitator (who should be familiar with the horizontal evaluation method) 4. Developing preliminary evaluation criteria (these are often based on the criteria of the organization or project using the methodology) 5. Arranging field visits that will demonstrate application of the methodology 6. Sending both sets of participant's background information prior to the workshop 7. Arranging a 'dress rehearsal' of key moments and presentations for the workshop 8. Making provisions for writing up and using the workshop's findings.The workshop works best if professionally facilitated. At the start of the event, the facilitator should introduce the objectives of the workshop and the procedures to be followed. The facilitator should stress that the workshop is not intended to evaluate everything the organization or project is doing but just the methodology that has been selected. S/he should encourage the visitors to be critical but constructive, identifying the strengths and positive aspects of the methodology as well as its weaknesses. S/he should also encourage the local participants to be open and receptive to comments and suggestions.During the morning of Day 1, local participants present the context and purpose of the methodology, explain the stages involved in applying it and describe activities and results to date. Our experience has shown that interactive ways of presenting activities, such as a knowledge fair with a poster exhibition, are more effective than Power point presentations.We helped the INCOPA Project, which led the evaluation, to design and prepare for the workshop. The partners identified the following criteria for analysing PMCA:• Potential for developing new products for market • Potential for empowering small-scale farmers and alleviating poverty • Capacity to stimulate technological or organizational innovation • Cost-effectiveness Local workshop participants included market chain actors from Peru, while visitors came from Puno in southern Peru, from Bolivia and from Ecuador.On Day 1, local participants explained the PMCA methodology and activities and achievements in entering two new markets: yellow potatoes to make crisps and standardized bags of selected and classified potatoes for the Lima wholesale market.On Day 2, visitors went to two sites: • Need for complementary interventions to ensure impact on the poor Recommendations:• Training materials should be made available for those facilitating the PMCA;• Experiences of application need to be properly written up and shared.The workshop stimulated a learning process about the PMCA as well as an exchange of relevant knowledge. After the workshop the visitors applied and further developed the approach in Bolivia and Ecuador. Papa Andina supported this process, and documented both the approach and the outcomes (Bernet et al., 2005).On Day 1, visitors should limit themselves to asking questions for the purpose of clarification and to requesting information that has not been presented. They should be discouraged from voicing judgments about the methodology at this point, and asked to wait until they have acquired additional information and insights during the field visits on Day 2. Our experiences have shown that even carefully prepared and rehearsed presentations usually provide insufficient information for evaluating an 226Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Learning and program improvement through 'horizontal evaluation' R&D methodology. Hence, field visits are a critical component of the workshop and the evaluation.During the afternoon of Day 1, after the initial presentations about the methodology, the list of tentative evaluation criteria prepared before the workshop is presented in plenary for discussion and revision. These criteria are extremely important, as they will be used throughout the rest of the evaluation exercise. Many aspects of the methodology could be evaluated, but as time and resources are of necessity limited, it is of the utmost importance to reach consensus on a short-list of criteria that are considered both to be good indicators of the methodology's usefulness an to be practical in the context of the workshop. We have found it useful to select no more than four criteria, which can then be used throughout the rest of the workshop and can provide a logical thread that holds the whole process together. The evaluation criteria should be used systematically by both groups of participants to structure their analysis at each subsequent stage of the workshop, including the field visit. This is a key point, since it ensures comparability of analysis across the groups.Examples of the evaluation criteria we have used include:• Effects on empowerment and gender equity• Advantages compared to similar methodsAt the end of the first day the participants divide into small groups (6-7 members), each of which includes local participants and visitors. These groups will visit different field sites and observe different aspects of the development and application of the methodology. In our cases, field sites have included communities, markets, local government offices, trade union offices and processing factories. Before going to the field, visitors in each group prepare a short interview on the basis of the evaluation criteria and make a simple plan (deciding, for example, who will introduce the group and explain the purpose of the visit, and what questions will be asked).A 'workshop process group' should be set up and should meet at the end of each day to check on logistical aspects, assess how things are going and make any necessary adjustments for the next day. At the end of Day 3, this group should also assess how the workshop went as a whole and make recommendations for future horizontal evaluations.The field visit provides an opportunity for visitors to see at first hand the methodology under development and to talk with those whose livelihoods are directly affected by it. Visitors conduct semi-structured interviews, but should, in addition, carefully observe what they see and as far as possible try to triangulate different sources of information.For example, if farmers say that participatory trials have been set up at a number of sites in the village, these should be visited.Within each small group, visitors take the lead in asking questions. Local participants may act as guides, but should only provide information if explicitly asked to do so by visitors. Above all, they should resist the temptation to answer on behalf of those interviewed or to influence their answers.After the field visit, each small group synthesizes its findings in tabular form using the evaluation criteria. At this point local participants may make comments and provide their interpretations of what occurred during the visit.The small groups then come together in a plenary session and each presents its findings for each evaluation criterion in a table (see example in Figure 1), so that the findings can be compared and contrasted across sites by the whole group. Using digital photos to show the most important aspects of each visit gives findings credibility and retains people's attention during the session. The table is recorded and photocopied as a resource for participants on Day 3.Site 1 Site 2 Site 3Advantages compared to similar methodsRelevance Day 3 -Comparative analysis and closure: Visitors and local participants work separately at the start of Day 3. For each evaluation criterion, the two groups identify strengths, weaknesses and suggestions for improvement. We have found it useful to work with 10 cm x 30 cm cards, which can be moved and grouped by evaluation criteria. The notes from the field visit help participants prepare the cards. To keep the exercise manageable, we have usually asked each group to limit itself to identifying no more than six strengths, six weaknesses and six suggestions for each evaluation criterion.After this group work, visitors and local participants present their findings in plenary session. All participants, helped by the facilitator, then identify convergent and divergent ideas. Where the strengths converge or coincide, the local participants can feel confident that they are on the right track. In contrast, where weaknesses coincide for both groups, this probably indicates the need for corrective action. Where the groups' assessment of strengths or weaknesses diverge, the reasons for the divergence need to be explored in order to reach a shared understanding of the issue (but not necessarily agreement on it).For example, in one workshop local participants identified 'a business plan' as a strength, whereas outsiders identified it as a weakness. After some discussion the 228Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Learning and program improvement through 'horizontal evaluation' local participants realized that the farmers in fact had a 'production plan', with specific areas being sown each month, but that this was not the same as a business plan, which should instead deal with markets and profits. In this case the local participants changed their strength card to 'production plan' and the apparent contradiction was resolved. In other cases the divergence may be more deeply rooted, reflecting differing underlying values or mental models of the development process. In such cases the facilitator should not try to force a consensus, but rather to enable participants to reach a better understanding of the causes of differences.After this plenary session, the participants again divide into two groups -visitors and local participants. Drawing on the previous plenary session, local participants synthesize recommendations and identify lessons learned as a basis for improving the methodology in the future. Visitors analyse the potential and requirements for applying the methodology in their own organizations and settings. Both groups then come together to present, discuss and modify their conclusions in a final plenary session. The workshop ends with the participants identifying specific and timebound steps to improve the methodology and facilitate its wider use, if that is judged appropriate.At the end of the workshop it is helpful to have each participant identify the positive aspects and outcomes of the workshop and what improvements could be made for similar events in the future. Such an exercise could be open, in plenary session, or it could employ a simple one-page questionnaire with two questions:• What in your view are the most positive aspects of the workshop?• What are your suggestions for making future horizontal evaluation workshops better?The process group should also meet at the end of the workshop to analyse the event and its key outcomes and to suggest ways of improving the horizontal evaluation method for the future.The organizing committee should establish clear responsibilities and deadlines for editing and distributing the workshop report. It is important to distribute the report soon after the event, while participants are still interested in its outcomes.Local participants use the workshop's recommendations to make changes in the methodology being developed. Horizontal evaluation promotes ownership of the recommendations, making implementation more likely than in conventional evaluations. In all four workshops that we helped organize, horizontal evaluation led to significant changes.Where the horizontal evaluation forms part of a broader network, such as Papa Andina, network coordinators may follow up by facilitating the exchange of information and the application or adaptation of the methodology by visitors (for example, they may provide consultancy support for more in-depth training in the methodology, organize longer exchange visits, commission the development of training materials, etc).We have found that horizontal evaluation has the following advantages over traditional external evaluations and study tours:• It is adaptable to different objects of evaluation (including fairly complex R&D methodologies)• It is enjoyable for participants who, as part of the process, learn a great deal in a dynamic yet structured environment• Local participants accept critical feedback and observations more easily from peers than from external evaluators• It fosters social learning, as local participants and visitors are actively engaged throughout the review process, which guides analysis and synthesis and generates new knowledge and proposals for action• It stimulates experimentation with and further development of the methodology elsewhere• It can be used in conjunction with a more traditional external evaluation, to generate additional information and insightsWe have identified the following factors as critical for the success of a horizontal evaluation:• Selecting the right moment for the workshop -one when the new R&D methodology is sufficiently advanced so that there is real substance to review but not so finished that there is little scope for modification• Careful selection of visitors to ensure that they have diverse perspectives, possess adequate knowledge and experience, and are perceived as peers rather than superiors• Good facilitation, so as to create an environment of trust, focus the attention of participants and manage time efficiently• Identifying a limited number of clearly defined evaluation criteria• Well prepared presentations and field visits that ensure the visitors have all the information they need to understand the methodology.Horizontal evaluation has become a central element in our approach for developing R&D methodologies and sharing knowledge across the region in which we work. It is especially relevant for networks such as Papa Andina that seek to bring together peers for social learning in ongoing processes.Changes in information and communication technology have led to the emergence of a new paradigm of knowledge generation and sharing based on networks (Castells, 2000). Participatory evaluation involving different types of stakeholders has become increasingly common (Alkin, 2004;Cousins, 2005;Estrella, 2000;Fitzpatrick, Sanders, and Worthen, 2004;Jackson and Kassam, 1998;Whitmore, 1998) Ecuador, and Peru. We refer to this new type of participatory evaluation as \"horizontal evaluation\" (evaluación horizontal in Spanish) because it is based on a \"horizontal\" and reciprocal relationship between the members of a project team whose work is being evaluated and colleagues from other organizations in the network who participate in the evaluation process as external peers.The article begins by outlining the origins of horizontal evaluation, the process through which it was developed, and the applications to date. The main section of the article describes the procedures used to conduct a horizontal evaluation. After this \"how to\" section, the article presents participants' views on horizontal evaluation. It then describes how horizontal evaluation relates to other types of participatory evaluation. The article concludes with a discussion of conditions under which we believe others may find horizontal evaluation useful and some limitations for its use.The Andean highlands are home to some of the poorest people in Latin America. The region is characterized by extreme social and economic inequalities, reinforced by policy and institutional arrangements that exclude poor and vulnerable groups from decision making and governance. Around three fifths of the rural population in Ecuador and nearly four fifths in Bolivia and Peru are poor (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2004).Potato is the principal staple food and cash crop for most small Andean farmers. For this reason, international development agencies and national governments have supported a number of R&D programs specifically targeting the crop. Reflecting a broader paradigm change, agricultural R&D has shifted from a dependence on independent research institutes to a situation in which many organizations are engaged in knowledge generation and sharing through networks. Consistent with this new paradigm, the Papa Andina network (http://papandina .cip.cgiar.org) was created to promote pro-poor innovation for development in the Andean potatobased production and marketing system. The network is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and other donor organizations and is hosted by the International Potato Center, one of 15 centers affiliated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. These centers pursue sustainable food security and poverty reduction in developing countries through scientific research and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, policy, and environment (www.cgiar.org).Until recently, the Papa Andina network focused on applied research aimed at technology development. Innovation, however, requires a broader set of activities and processes. Whereas research aims to generate new knowledge, and technology development seeks to create a supply of new production methods of potential use to farmers and other economic actors, innovation refers to the application of new knowledge to achieve economic outcomes. Innovation processes often involve changes not only in production techniques but also in marketing and institutional arrangements-changes in the ways production is organized or business is conducted. Innovation involves doing something new in a specific context, regardless of whether it is new elsewhere in the world (Perrin, 2002;World Bank, 2007).The Papa Andina network includes approximately 30 partners in the three countries; in each country, one of these partners plays a coordinating role. By working with and through this network of partners, Papa Andina reaches a growing number of poor rural households, currently estimated to be around 4,000. The Papa Andina network has encouraged the development and testing of participatory R&D approaches to promote innovation. As partners in one country developed something different, the network encouraged collective learning to improve the approaches and share new knowledge. Three of the most important R&D approaches to be developed are described below.1. The participatory market chain approach. Weak links between farmers and other market chain actors limit farmers' capacity to access new markets and secure higher incomes. Organizations in Peru that form part of Papa Andina began developing the participatory market chain approach as a response. This approach engages market chain actors, farmers, researchers, and other service providers in identifying and analyzing potential business opportunities (Bernet, Thiele, and Zschocke, 2006). It helps to build trust among market actors and R&D organizations and to empower small farmers. Enhanced trust unleashes the potential for innovation around new business opportunities, which creates possibilities for small farmers to raise their incomes.Small farmers need to organize for collective action and receive a range of agricultural support services to be competitive in a rapidly changing and globalizing environment. Partners of the network in Ecuador developed the concept of multistakeholder platforms as the basis for a project intervention in several provinces. Multistakeholder platforms were established as spaces for farmers and agricultural service providers, including research institutes and nongovernmental organizations, to share knowledge and experiences, develop a common vision, and work together more closely. This helps farmers to become more competitive and meet the quantity and quality requirements that new markets demand.One of the \"Achilles heels\" of agricultural research has been the limited use of many new technologies developed by researchers. Papa Andina's Bolivian partners have taken the lead in developing a set of methods for improving the identification of farmers' demands for new technology and articulating this demand with what R&D organizations supply (Bentley et al., 2007). This should improve the effectiveness of agricultural R&D in providing technologies that farmers will actually use.As members of Papa Andina's coordination unit (the first three authors of the article), we sought a type of evaluation that would stimulate experimentation with R&D approaches throughout the network. Horizontal evaluation emerged out of our 234Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Learning and program improvement through 'horizontal evaluation' frustration with the evaluation practices and collective learning methods commonly used in the agricultural R&D programs with which we were involved. Agricultural R&D projects and programs funded by international donors are generally evaluated by teams of external experts selected for their substantive expertise and links to the donor agencies rather than for their knowledge or expertise in the field of program evaluation (Cracknell, 2000;Horton, 1998). Although their reviews are generally considered to be an accountability mechanism, with the donor as a principal audience, the reports also contain numerous recommendations that program staff are expected to implement. In practice, staff is often unenthusiastic about implementing these recommendations because they have not been involved, and as a result, the recommendations may not actually be feasible, a problem reported elsewhere (O'Sullivan, 2004).When Papa Andina began, study visits were frequently organized for professionals from each country to visit project teams working with novel R&D approaches in other countries to foster knowledge exchange among members of the network. During a typical study visit, three or four professionals from one country would visit a novel experience in a neighboring country, and on return, they were supposed to share lessons learned with colleagues. The study visits were enjoyable for participants, and participants always learned something, but there were few identifiable outcomes. The trip reports they wrote tended to be superficial, few people read them, and there was little follow-up after the visits.At this time, Papa Andina and partners frequently used \"SWOT analysis\" (analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) in the early phases of strategic planning exercises. SWOT analyses were carried out in a workshop setting using cards completed by participants who assess the strengths and weaknesses of a project or organization in relation to the opportunities and threats in its external environment.We developed horizontal evaluation with network members as a way to improve knowledge sharing, collaborative learning, and program improvement within the Papa Andina network. We built on elements of traditional evaluations, study visits, and SWOT analysis. We progressively developed horizontal evaluation by trying out ideas and modifying them after each application. We return later in the article to a discussion of how horizontal evaluation can be situated in the broader family of participatory evaluation.The development of horizontal evaluation has become an important activity for Papa Andina's network coordination unit. As many members of the network have participated in two or more of the workshops, there has been an iterative process of collective learning about, and improvement of, the approach. Each application of horizontal evaluation has been evaluated, and the results have been used to improve and refine the method. Reports on the horizontal evaluations carried out are available on the Papa Andina Web site (http://papandina.cip.cgiar.org).Horizontal evaluation was first tested in 2003 to evaluate the participatory market chain approach. During a 2-day workshop in Lima, Peru, 11 members of the local project team met with 11 peers from Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Local project team members provided an overview of the approach and organized field visits to local potato processors and markets. Peers talked with a range of people who had been involved in developing and applying the participatory market chain approach. The local team and the peers assessed the approach separately and compared assessments. Animated discussions around differing perceptions led to proposals to improve the participatory market chain approach and to try it out in Bolivia.These initial positive results motivated us to continue developing horizontal evaluation. Observations during the workshop and the evaluation at the end led to the following process lessons about horizontal evaluation:• More information should be provided prior to the workshop on the R&D approach to be evaluated and the horizontal evaluation process• A 2-day workshop was too short to allow a thorough evaluation of the R&D approach being developed.These lessons were incorporated into the design of the second horizontal evaluation, carried out in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 2004. This time, the evaluand was a set of methods developed to improve the identification of farmers' demands for technology (Bentley et al., 2007). In this case, 15 members of the Bolivian project team came together with 13 peers from Peru and Ecuador to evaluate these methods in a 3-day workshop. On the second day, small groups of peers, guided by local project team members, visited different communities to talk with the farmers who had been involved in using the methods. An evaluator attended the workshop to gather information for a donor evaluation of the Bolivian project. The workshop produced a number of important ideas that the local team used to improve its work and information that was used for the external evaluation.The following process lessons were learned:• Clear presentations the first day are vital and the local team needs to carefully prepare and rehearse these.• Presenting too many cards (based on the argument \"we can't lose information\") made it difficult to compare the perspectives of the local team and peers-one of the central features of the workshop.• Maintain the focus of the evaluation on the R&D approach and do not drift into evaluations of other aspects of the project or the organization that manages it.• Careful planning and preparation are needed to formulate appropriate questions and procedures for the field visits and to systematically analyze and compare observations at different sites.Learning and program improvement through 'horizontal evaluation'The third experience with horizontal evaluation was an evaluation of methods for establishing multistakeholder platforms to link small farmers with markets, held in Riobamba, Ecuador, in 2005. During the workshop, 12 members of the local project team, including four farmers' leaders, came together with 12 peers from Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. In this case, a professional facilitator helped to plan and to organize the evaluation and report on the results. The project team in Ecuador developed a preliminary short list of evaluation criteria and organized and rehearsed presentations and field visits prior to the event. The more careful preparations and process management paid off handsomely, in terms of the high level of energy displayed by participants, the richness of discussions, and the clarity of conclusions reached. Two important process lessons learned this time were as follows:• Using a limited number of carefully selected and jointly agreed evaluation criteria at all moments in the workshop provides a logical thread that links the different parts together.• Do not assume that information provided prior to the workshop will be read, particularly if it is in the form of lengthy reports.Up to this point, local project teams in each workshop employed PowerPoint presentations in dimly lit rooms to provide information on their work and results. Members of the audience frequently became bored and felt that they were being bombarded with too much information that could not be fully absorbed. As a result, in the next horizontal evaluation workshop, we introduced a knowledge-sharing method known as a \"knowledge fair.\"In the fourth horizontal evaluation, carried out in Kampala, Uganda, in December 2005, 19 members of a local project team met with nine professionals from neighboring countries and staff members of the International Potato Center from Peru and Bolivia to review the process of introducing the participatory market chain approach from the Andes to Uganda. Digital photographs taken during field visits were used to illustrate key points and helped stimulate discussions later.The approach outlined in the following section includes the improvements identified by workshop participants to date.As mentioned earlier, the heart of horizontal evaluation is a participatory workshop. The following discussion assumes a 3-day event that we have found to be most appropriate.Farmers are the ultimate beneficiaries of the R&D efforts being evaluated, and they are consulted during the evaluation process, but they are not the direct intended users of horizontal evaluation. In the context of Papa Andina, two types of network members are the intended users, and it is they who are the principal participants in the evaluation process: local project team members who are developing and testing the R&D approach under review and peers from other organizations in the network who are working on similar R&D issues and are interested in learning about the approach being evaluated, for potential application in their own work.The principal roles of local project team members are to organize information about the process and outcomes of the methodology being developed, present this information at the workshop, and (stimulated by the assessment of peers) autocritique the methodology they are developing and identify ways to improve it.The main roles of peers are to critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology under review, make suggestions for its improvement, and assess its potential application in their own circumstances. Our role as Papa Andina's coordinators has been to work with local team members to provide guidance on how to carry out horizontal evaluation, help define the evaluand, prepare for the workshop, select appropriate peer participants, stimulate critical but constructive thinking during the event, and ensure adequate follow-up after the evaluation.It should be noted that although peers feature prominently in horizontal evaluation, their role differs from that of anonymous peer reviewers used by many research funding bodies and professional journals. Rather than playing the role of a faceless judge of the merit or value of the evaluand, in horizontal evaluation, peers present their assessments directly to the local project team members. The evaluation is an open process in which all participants are encouraged to share their knowledge and perspectives and to identify areas for improving the evaluand.The first task is to clearly define the evaluand. Our horizontal evaluations have focused on R&D approaches being developed and applied by local teams. Focusing on the R&D approach, rather than on the performance of project teams or the local organization, has reduced sensitivities during the evaluation process and allowed more critical assessment of strengths and weaknesses than is customary in such settings.In addition to focusing on an appropriate evaluand, the following key tasks need to be accomplished during the planning phase:1. Select an appropriate moment for the evaluation during the pilot phase when the new R&D approach is sufficiently advanced to allow a meaningful evaluation, but not so fully developed that there is little room for modification. 2. Contract an experienced facilitator to aid in planning and managing the workshop process. 3. Design the workshop with the facilitator. 4. Select an appropriate group of (10 to 15) local project team members and a similar number of peers who have an interest in learning about and perhaps using the methodology under development. Where beneficiaries form part of the team, they should be included, too. Peers need to be carefully selected 238Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina ExperienceLearning and program improvement through 'horizontal evaluation'to ensure that they have adequate knowledge and experience related to the topic of the evaluation and also diverse interests and perspectives. It is also important that they are perceived and will behave as \"peers\" rather than \"superiors\". 5. Develop a preliminary list of evaluation criteria, to be finalized during the workshop. 6. Prepare presentations, field visits, and background documents to ensure that all participants have access to the information they need to critically evaluate the methodology under development. 7. Make arrangements for documenting the workshop process and results, including responsibilities and deadlines for editing and distributing the workshop report. 8. Make all needed travel and logistical arrangements for the workshop. In the cases described here, international travel was needed for about half of the participants. An adequate venue is needed for plenary and breakout sessions, including accommodation for all participants.The facilitator opens the workshop by presenting the objectives of the workshop, explaining horizontal evaluation, and outlining the logical flow of sessions in the workshop (see Table 1). The facilitator emphasizes that it is not the organization or project team that is being evaluated but a specific R&D approach. He or she encourages peers to be constructively critical in identifying strengths and weaknesses of the R&D approach under consideration. He or she encourages project team members to be open and receptive to criticisms and suggestions rather than defensive. Several features of horizontal evaluation should promote this open and constructive criticism: Making the approach, and not the project, the evaluand helps members of the local team to identify and analyze possible weaknesses; careful selection of outside participants to ensure that they are perceived as friendly peers and not potentially hostile superiors; participants form part of a broader network or community of practice, which builds confidence; and the knowledge that in the future, peers may themselves be subject to review encourages them to frame criticism in a constructive manner.Volunteers are sought for a \"barometer group\" that will meet at the end of each day to assess the day's work and suggest improvements for the next day. At the end of the workshop, this group will also meet to assess the workshop as a whole and to make recommendations for improving future horizontal evaluations.During the morning of Day 1, local project team members provide background information on the local setting and on the relevance of the R&D approach being evaluated. They explain how and why the approach is being developed and what it is supposed to accomplish. They describe its key features and identify the main results achieved to date. Plans for further development and application of the approach are also outlined.Our experience has shown that interactive modes of presentation, such as \"knowledge fairs,\" are valuable ways to share knowledge and should be included in the workshop schedule, in addition to the PowerPoint presentations that have become the norm in many meetings. A knowledge fair involves four to seven stands, as in a local fair or market. A stand typically includes a poster illustrating one case or element of the R&D approach, photographs, guides, and new products or materials under development. Peers are divided into small groups and accompanied by locals, visit different stands. A project team member takes 10 to 15 min to explain the stand, and peers ask questions. All groups rotate to the next stand after a fixed time until all stands have been visited. Whatever types of presentation will be used, they need to be carefully prepared and rehearsed to ensure that key points are communicated effectively. 2. Local team presents R&D approach and results of its application. Peers ask clarifying questions.3. Participants agree a short list of evaluation criteria to be used during the workshop.4. Facilitator forms small groups combining local project staff and peers for field visits. Groups prepare for field visits .Day 2: Field Visit 1. Small groups travel to different field sites.2. Project team members introduce visitors to farmers and local people at the field site.3. Peers interview farmers and local people and look for opportunities for triangulation of information through direct observation.4. Peers construct a results matrix using the evaluation criteria to compare results across field sites.Day 3: Synthesis and Recommendations 1. Peers and local project team work in separate groups to identify strengths and weaknesses in relation to each evaluation criterion and suggest improvements.2. Groups present findings in plenary. Similarities and differences are explored.3. Local project team members draw up a short list of recommendations and possible improvements. Peers discuss possible applications of the R&D approach in their own settings .4. Plenary to identify specific, time-bound steps to improve the R&D approach and make suggestions for promoting wider testing and use.Learning and program improvement through 'horizontal evaluation' (Knowledge-sharing techniques for meetings and workshops are provided by Chambers [2002] and Russell and Staiger [2005] and the Web site of the Knowledge Management for Development Community [www.km4dev.org] and the Web site for Knowledge Sharing in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research [http://www.ks-cgiar.org/toolbox/].)During the first day, peers are requested to observe and listen carefully, ask questions for clarification, probe for deeper understanding, and request additional information. They are discouraged from voicing judgments about the R&D approach being evaluated until after the field visits on Day 2.On the afternoon of Day 1, after presentations on the local setting and the R&D approach being evaluated, the facilitator presents a tentative list of evaluation criteria for discussion and revision. Deciding on good evaluation criteria is extremely important, as these will guide the rest of the evaluation exercise. Many aspects of the R&D approach could be evaluated, but as time and resources for evaluation are limited, it is essential to agree on a short list of evaluation criteria that will be used by all participants to guide information collection and analysis. For instance, the evaluation criteria agreed on by participants to evaluate the approach for developing multistakeholder platforms in Ecuador were (a) the extent to which the platforms are effectively linking small farmers with the market, (b) contributions to empowerment and gender equity, (c) quality of services provided to small farmers, and (d) sustainability of the platforms established. For each of these criteria, information will be collected during the evaluation process to identify strengths and weaknesses of the approach being developed and to make suggestions for improvement.Near the end of the first day, workshop participants form small groups with five to eight members each, including both local team members and external peer evaluators. On Day 2, these groups will visit different field sites to interview beneficiaries of the R&D approach, and other key actors, and observe its applications and results. Field sites have included small farms, rural communities, markets, food-processing facilities, restaurants, government offices, and nongovernmental organizations. Before going to the field, the peers in each group, helped where necessary by the local team, prepare a plan for fieldwork that indicates who will introduce the group, what should be observed, and what key questions asked. This helps structure the visits to generate useful information related to the evaluation criteria.The field visits provide an opportunity for all participants to see at first hand how the R&D approach has been developed and applied and to talk with those whose livelihoods are directly affected by the use of the approach. Peers conduct interviews and observe closely, triangulating different sources of information to reach judgments related to each of the evaluation criteria. For example, in the Bolivian horizontal evaluation, peers not only talked with farmers but also visited some of the agricultural experiments they were managing to check that what they said was consistent with what they were in fact doing. Local project team members are instructed to guide the group and introduce the visitors to local people. They are requested not to answer questions on behalf of those interviewed or to influence their answers in any way. In our evaluations, groups have generally accepted and maintained this division of roles.On Day 2, after the field visits, each small group, led by peers, meets to summarize its findings in relation to the evaluation criteria. At this point, local team members are encouraged to comment on the findings and provide their own interpretations of what was observed in the field.At the end of Day 2, all the workshop participants come together in a plenary session where each group reports its findings using cards, building up a matrix of results with the evaluation criteria on one axis and the field sites on the other. This matrix allows the comparison of results of the field visits across the sites (see example in Table 2, which shows the degree of detail that is appropriate). In these sessions, digital photographs have proven useful to illustrate points and maintain interest. As the results matrix is built up, presenting results for the different sites, discussion generally become quite lively, even though participants are tired from the fieldwork. Many consider this to be the most productive and enlightening session of the workshop. The matrix of results is recorded and distributed to participants the next morning, to serve as a resource for the final day's work.On the morning of Day 3, local team members and peers work separately in newly formed groups. For each evaluation criterion, the groups identify strengths and weaknesses of the R&D approach being evaluated and make suggestions for improving it. For this exercise, we have found it useful for participants to summarize each of their points on a 10 cm × 30 cm card that is pinned on a poster board or taped on a flipchart or the wall, so that all participants can see it well. The cards are then grouped by evaluation criteria and by similarity of content. Only one idea should be put on each card, and writing should be sufficiently clear that it can be read in the plenary session. Participants use notes from the field visits and the results matrix as inputs for this exercise. To keep the exercise manageable and to establish priorities, we have found it useful to ask each group to limit itself to identifying no more than five strengths, five weaknesses, and five suggestions for improvement for each evaluation criterion.After the small group work, project team members and peers present their findings in the plenary session. The results of these two perspectives are compared and contrasted, and the facilitator helps participants in identifying points of convergence and divergence. When assessments coincide, there is little need for discussion. For example, where project team members and peers agree on strength, it is likely that the 242Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Learning and program improvement through 'horizontal evaluation' project team is on the right track in this area. Similarly, where both groups agree on a weakness, it is likely that improvement is needed.More time and effort are needed to discuss cases in which there is disagreement on strengths or weaknesses. The reasons for divergence need to be probed and discussed in plenary to reach a common understanding of the divergence. However, it is not always possible or appropriate to reach an agreement on the issue or what to do about it. In cases of profound differences in perspective, the facilitator should not attempt to force a consensus but seek a shared understanding of the underlying issues.In one evaluation workshop, local participants identified business planning as a strength, but peers identified it as a weakness. After some discussion, project team members realized that although farmers had a production plan with monthly planting and harvest targets, this was not a business plan based on an analysis of markets, costs, benefits, and returns on investment. In this case, when local participants learned the difference between these two types of plans, they accepted the peer critique and the apparent contradiction was resolved.In other cases, divergences have been more substantial, reflecting different underlying values or assumptions. In one case, peers from Ecuador and Bolivia felt that the participatory market chain approach being developed in Peru paid insufficient attention to issues of empowerment and poverty reduction. The issue was hotly debated during the workshop, and the two groups never agreed on the extent to which the approach was addressing these important issues. Nevertheless, after the workshop, the local project team began to pay much more attention to issues of empowerment and poverty reduction.In another case, in the evaluation of the approach for establishing multistakeholder platforms in Ecuador, peer evaluators from Bolivia and Peru felt that insufficient attention was being paid to involving market agents in the platforms. Members of the local project team disagreed strongly because they viewed the platforms as spaces for collective action between small farmers and organizations providing agricultural services, which should strengthen farmers' bargaining power vis-à-vis market agents, who could be involved as clients rather than active members. In contrast, the Peruvians and Bolivians viewed the platforms as mechanisms for collective action involving small farmers, organizations, and market agents. In this case, the local project team and the peers from other countries agreed to disagree about the purpose of the platforms and the role of private market agents in them. Nevertheless, participants report that the discussions that took place during the horizontal evaluation made them aware of the range of possible purpose and structures for the platforms. After the horizontal evaluation workshop, participants from Peru intensified their work on small-farmer organization, and those from Ecuador began working more closely with market agents.After the plenary session in which internal and external perceptions are contrasted, the participants divide into two groups for a final exercise. One group consists of all project team members, and the other consists of all the peers. Drawing on the results of the previous sessions, project team members draw up a short list of recommendations for improving the R&D approach they are developing. The peer evaluation group discusses potential application of the approach in its own settings. Both groups present their conclusions in a final plenary. The workshop ends by identifying specific, time-bound steps to improve the R&D approach and suggestions for promoting its wider testing and application in the region, if judged appropriate.At the end of a horizontal evaluation workshop, participants are asked to identify the most positive aspects of the workshop, the main weaknesses, and ways to improve future events. We have used different methods for this, including questionnaire surveys and facilitated discussions in plenary along the lines of an after-action review (see http://www.ks-cgiar.org/ toolbox/). Just after the event closes, the barometer team meets one last time for an overall assessment of the event and to formulate suggestions for future events. Based on this review process, horizontal evaluation has been improved and refined over time.After the third horizontal evaluation workshop in Ecuador, one of the authors of this article (D.H.) interviewed 8 of the 24 workshop participants to elicit their views on the horizontal evaluation method and its results. Later, he interviewed 4 other people who had participated in horizontal evaluations in Bolivia, Peru, or Uganda. Most of those interviewed had, in fact, participated in two or more of the horizontal evaluations. In these interviews, participants identified results and benefits of horizontal evaluation.Participants noted that participation in a horizontal evaluation helped to demystify the evaluation process for them. Previously, they viewed evaluation as a somewhat mysterious process carried out by high-level experts (personas de altisimo nivel)often foreigners-who visited the project site, interviewed a few people, and then wrote a report for the donor organization, which presented a number of recommendations that the project team was expected to implement. Participants in horizontal evaluations were pleased to learn that an evaluation could be conducted as a transparent team effort, leading to valuable new insights and improvements in their work.With a traditional evaluation, one or two so-called \"experts\" meet briefly with you, and maybe they go for a field visit, and then they deliver a report that has little to do with your work. It often seems to reflect more their own interests and points of view than what you are doing in your project. In contrast, with a horizontal evaluation, the experience and the information are much richer and more relevant. One reason is that many more people are reviewing your work, and as they are working on similar things in their own organizations, they know what they are seeing and talking about. A second reason is that the process involves open and transparent information gathering and dialogue. There are no mysteries. Since you all go to the field together, everyone sees what is going on. So when the criticisms come-and they are bound to-you know where they come from. If there are mistakes, you can correct them, but more often than not, the \"outsiders\" have simply seen things that you hadn't seen, because you were too involved in your work. (Ecuadorian project team member) Participants noted that the experience of participating in a horizontal evaluation was very rich in terms of the new insights and knowledge gained and the relationships developed. In comparison, they characterized their previous experiences with external evaluation as less enriching and frequently negative.The experience and the information are super rich (\"riquisima\"). The contrast with a traditional external evaluation couldn't be greater. Right after our horizontal evaluation, the donor contracted an external evaluation, as a requisite for renewing our project grant. The report was of very little use to us. In comparison, the information in the horizontal evaluation was much more valid and useful.(Ecuadorian project team member)Project team members often reject the recommendations in external evaluations because they feel the evaluators do not understand local conditions and suggest things that are inappropriate or not feasible. In the horizontal evaluations, project team members have accepted critical feedback and observations more easily as they came from peers who they felt were better informed and more sensitive to local circumstances. Moreover, as team members were involved in all aspects of the evaluation and formulated recommendations for improving their own work, by the end of the evaluation workshop, they were committed to implementing changes. Two examples are as follows:The horizontal evaluation really motivated us to document the participatory market chain approach. We thought it was all clear, but the Bolivians and Ecuadorians had so many questions that obviously we needed to spell things out in writing. This was the initial motivation for us to prepare the user's guide for the participatory market chain approach. (Peruvian project team member)Before the horizontal evaluation, we thought our approach to developing stakeholder platforms was quite alright. But when our colleagues went to the field and met with the people involved, they quickly saw that we were playing too proactive a role, and not giving enough responsibility to local producers' groups. So now, when I'm talking a lot, I remember what they said and try to keep quiet, facilitate discussion, and not intervene so much. (Ecuadorian project team member)In all the cases, participants noted that preparing for the horizontal evaluation, participating in it, and taking follow-up actions helped to strengthen the local project team. The following is an example from Uganda:Preparing for the horizontal evaluation was really the first chance we had to put our thoughts together in coherent presentations. This helped us to reflect on our work and on what we had and hadn't accomplished. Later, participating in the horizontal evaluation workshop helped us all reach a common understanding of our goals, activities, accomplishments, and priorities for the future. Before this, we had never had the opportunity to get together, review our work, and plan our work as a team.It was most valuable. (Ugandan project team member).Participants report that they have learned things that they later tried out in their own work. In some cases, participants began working with the new R&D approach they had evaluated. For example, as a result of the 2003 evaluation of the participatory market chain approach in Peru, Bolivian participants began experimenting with this approach. Previously, they had been attempting to use a more traditional research approach to analyze market chains, which they found difficult to implement and ineffective in stimulating market innovation. When they saw the positive results of using the approach in Peru, the Bolivians were eager to try out the approach back home. In response to this interest, the Papa Andina coordination unit organized follow-up visits for Bolivians to Peru to learn more about the participatory market chain approach. Peruvians also traveled to Bolivia to provide training and to backstop initial work with the approach. Since then, Bolivians have participated actively in further development and application of the approach, with quite positive results.Similarly, the 2005 evaluation of work with stakeholder platforms in Ecuador stimulated considerable interest in farmer organization and led to several follow-up visits of Bolivians and Peruvians to Ecuador to learn more about these new institutional arrangements.Participants also reported learning lessons that they have applied in other areas of work. For example, in the evaluation of methods to identify farmers' demands for technology in Bolivia, participants felt the lack of involvement of local government officials was a weakness of the work. As responsibilities for agricultural R&D were being devolved to local government throughout the Andean region, the absence of local government involvement could limit essential political support for the work. Motivated by this observation, Ecuadorian participants paid particular attention to involving local governments in their future work to establish multistakeholder platforms with considerable success. In the evaluation of multi-stakeholder platforms in Ecuador the following year, the involvement of local government was considered to be a strength. Observing this, the Peruvians subsequently strengthened their work with local government.Horizontal evaluation is a type of participatory evaluation, following the definition of Cousins and Whitmore (1998) as one in which \"researchers, facilitators, or professional evaluators collaborate in some way with individuals, groups, or communities who have a decided stake in the program, development project, or other entity being evaluated\" (p. 5). Horizontal evaluation involves the key principles of participatory evaluation as outlined by Burke (1998, pp. 44-45), the evaluation methodology respects and uses the knowledge and experience of the key stakeholders, the evaluation favors collective methods of knowledge generation, the evaluator (facilitator) shares power with the stakeholders, and the participatory evaluator continuously and critically examines his or her own attitudes, ideas, and behavior.As Cousins and Whitmore (1998) note, the term participatory evaluation covers two rather different types of evaluation: practical participatory evaluation, which aims to support program or organizational decision making and problem solving through the use of evaluation; and transformative participatory evaluation, which is concerned with emancipation and social justice and in reallocating power in the production of knowledge and promoting social change. In terms of this framework, horizontal evaluation falls within the first type, as it aims primarily to support decision making and problem solving within the Papa Andina network.Within the evaluation literature, there are debates about how different types of participatory evaluation relate to one another and how participatory evaluation relates to such close relatives as \"collaborative\" and \"empowerment\" evaluation. For example, Cousins and Whitmore (1998) view participatory evaluation as one type of collaborative inquiry, but O'Sullivan ( 2004) views collaborative evaluation as a participatory approach that has evolved out of \"responsive evaluation\" (Stake, 1983).We developed horizontal evaluation from within the discipline of agricultural R&D, which has worked less closely with the professional evaluation community than other disciplines such as health and education (Horton, 1998). During this process of developing horizontal evaluation, we were not aware of many of the types of participatory evaluation. We developed horizontal evaluation through a number of applications by paying close attention to the needs of stakeholders so that it was intuitively \"responsive evaluation.\" In our case, the goal was to evaluate an R&D approach of interest to members of the Papa Andina network to improve it and promote its use. This meant that the principal audience for the evaluation was the Papa Andina network of R&D professionals. We actively involved these network members as the principal audience to improve the use of results, one of the main outcomes sought by use-focused evaluation (Patton, 1997). Because the principal audience for the evaluation was made up of network members, Andean farmers-the ultimate intended beneficiaries of our work-were involved to a lesser degree, mostly in a consultative fashion during field visits. Although where beneficiaries have been part of project teams, for example, farmers' leaders in Ecuador, they have also participated in all stages of the workshop.We observed at the beginning of this article that networks are part of a new paradigm for knowledge generation and sharing. As O'Sullivan ( 2004) has noted, networks require new types of participatory evaluation. Horizontal evaluation is a novel approach to participatory evaluation in a network context. Its novelty lies in the systematic contrast of the assessments of those involved in developing and piloting a new approach and those of peers from other parts of the network. This contrast stimulates social learning. Horizontal evaluation has become a central element in Papa Andina's approach for developing R&D methodologies and sharing knowledge among collaborating professionals and organizations. Our experience indicates that horizontal evaluation is particularly useful for formative evaluations of programs implemented via decentralized networks with activities at multiple sites. The horizontal evaluation approach may be useful for other initiatives that wish to bring collaborators together to promote social learning and capacity development. In such cases, horizontal evaluation can provide a structure for combining the perspectives of the local team engaged in piloting an approach and peers interested in using it. It encourages critical reflection, learning, and program improvement and fosters knowledge sharing and experimentation with the new R&D approach at new sites.Horizontal evaluation is most appropriately used during the pilot stage of developing a new approach, when definitive evidence of success or impact is not yet available. In such cases, the primary concerns of the evaluation are the relevance and potential utility of the new R&D approach and early results of applications of the new approach. Horizontal evaluations neither require nor generate reliable quantitative information on program impacts.Horizontal evaluation can complement other forms of participatory or external evaluation. Each has its place, and we have used horizontal evaluation in combination with the other types. In Peru and Ecuador, external evaluations employed results of horizontal evaluations along with other sources of information. In Bolivia, an external evaluation was timed to coincide with the horizontal evaluation so the evaluators could attend the horizontal evaluation workshop and observe the discussions, interact with participants, and visit field sites. In 2005, the Papa Andina network was evaluated by two external evaluators who collected information from several primary and secondary sources, including horizontal evaluation reports and a participatory evaluation workshop carried out by network members.For those interested in using horizontal evaluation in their own programs, some practical requirements should be kept in mind. The first requirement is a skilled evaluator/facilitator who can work with the project team to plan the evaluation process, facilitate the evaluation workshop, and document the results. The second requirement is an understanding of the horizontal evaluation method. In this regard, Papa Andina is preparing a user's guide for horizontal evaluation. The third requirement is the time and resources required to plan and implement a horizontal evaluation. It is necessary to budget participants' time as well as financial resources for facilitation and travel expenses and lodging for participants. The fourth requirement is that local project teams need to allocate adequate time and resources to planning and preparing for the evaluation workshop. We have found that the best way to convince project managers and local staff to make the needed investment is to have them join a horizontal evaluation at another site to experience the process and benefits.In networks such as Papa Andina, most activities are carried out by members operating at decentralized locations. There are few truly regional activities. This distribution of activities fosters capacity development at the individual and organizational levels, but cross-site knowledge sharing among individuals and organizations is often rather limited. In such a context, horizontal evaluations have served as valuable mechanisms for network participants to learn about activities being carried out at other sites, while strengthening the individual projects. Over time, through their participation in the horizontal evaluations, participants have built up knowledge, interpersonal relationships, trust, and a sense of community, all of which have strengthened the Papa Andina network. In this sense, horizontal evaluation has contributed to the effectiveness of the network as a whole and has become an integral part of its intervention strategy.The potato is a central element in the economy of highland rural families in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the International Potato Center (CIP), and national organizations in the three countries, have supported development of the potato sector in the Andes for several years. 2 The authors would like to thank Felipe Balderrama, Gladys Triveño and OFIAGRO for their collaboration in the implementation of the national diagnostics in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador respectively. We would also like to express our acknowledgement to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for its support and contribution to the work and results presented in this paper.Priorities for this work have evolved over time, from a rather narrow focus on production, based on improved potato varieties, to a wider concern for development of market chains for products derived from both improved and native potatoes. Native potato-based processed products have started to reach national and international markets.In 2008, coinciding with the celebration of the International Year of the Potato, SDC worked with CIP and representatives of the potato sector in each country to promote development of the sector, nationally as well as internationally. The CIP-based Papa Andina Initiative and its partners -INCOPA in Peru, PROINPA in Bolivia and INIAP in Ecuador -worked together to implement a project entitled \"Celebration of the International Year of the Potato in the Andean Region,\" with two objectives: 1. To implement a diagnostic of the potato sector in Boliva, Ecuador and Peru;support the participatory development of a strategic vision for this sector; and define priorities of action to strengthen it 2. To create and promote regionally, nationally and internationally, awareness about native potatoes and their culinary, cultural and economic potential for promoting sustainable development in the Andean region.This project was coordinated by Papa Andina, which aims to improve the linkage of research with pro-poor innovation in Andean potato based systems (Devaux et al., 2009).The work carried out was based on an approach devised by the Quito-based consultancy firm OFIAGRO, which has three main steps:1. A diagnostic study of the potato sector and its market development in the international context. The main idea was to show and analyze world trends in potato production and trade, and relate them to the Andean region context, suggesting possible implications for the development of the potato sector in this region 2. Surveys and analyses of the potato sector in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador 3. Workshops in each country, involving public and private stakeholders of the potato sector, to develop a strategic vision.The methodology was adapted in each country according to the local context, local public policies, and requirements that arose from participants during the participatory process. But a general common methodology was adopted containing the following elements: A SWOT analysis (analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) was carried out and the strategic vision was formulated, including offensive and defensive issues, strategic areas to be worked out, and strategic objectives. A summary of the general methodology based upon the Ecuadorian experience is shown in the following graphic. The main strength was the participatory approach that made it possible to work with a wide range of public and private partners.Considerable effort went into documenting key aspects of the potato sector in each country. The potato crop contributes 7%, 11% and 10% of the agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, respectively. This is equivalent to a total value added of US $1,056 million in 2006. It is estimated that there are more than 820,000 potato farmers in the three countries, representing around 5% of the agricultural economically active population. Potato production generates more than 52 million workdays each year. These figures indicate that the potato crop is one of the main sources of rural employment and income in rural Andean areas. During the period of 2002-2006, Peruvian farmers produced roughly 3,248,000 metric tons of potatoes per year. This exceeds the total production of both Bolivia and Ecuador. However, Peruvian potato production is largely static, whereas Ecuador's production has grown at an annual rate of 2.0% and Bolivia's farming area has grown at 1.5% annually.Although they represent the center of origin of the potato, the three Andean countries together produce only about 1.4% of the world's potatoes on less than 2.3% of land area under this crop (see Table 1). In the same period (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006), 82% of the potato's world production was concentrated in Asia and Europe; with only five countries (China, Russia, India, the USA and Ukraine) accounting for more than half of global potato production. Source: OFIAGRO, 2008a;2008b;Pro-Expansión, 2008;Valderrama et al., 2008. Notes: a. Reference of Idaho, U.S.A.: Total of direct and indirect costs, without fumigation or storage. b.[Price to producer -Unit price] / Price to producer, without taking into account transaction costs or risks.Production trends differ sharply between developed and developing countries, with potato production falling at an annual rate of -2.4% in developed countries and rising by 8.4% annually in developing countries. China and India are the largest developing-country producers of potatoes.Potato yields in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru are well under the world average (17 t/ha) and very far behind countries like New Zealand (45 t/ha), Belgium (43 t/ha) or the Netherlands (43 t/ha). Many factors -agronomical, climatic, socio-economic, and institutional -explain those differences.In these three Andean countries, potato production is widely dispersed in many different, and highly diverse, production zones and systems, which are influenced by such factors as: type of producer and producer organization, ecological zone, weather and growing season, altitude, rural and urban consumer preferences, and access to technology, credit, and other services. At the same time, most potatoes (90% or more in the three countries) are consumed unprocessed. Fresh potatoes are still a basic staple for most poor people, particularly in rural highland areas. From 2002-2006, annual per capita fresh potato consumption was 32, 43 and 68 kg in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, respectively. In comparison, the world average is 36 kg/per year.)In the Andean zone of the three countries, thousands of varieties of native potatoes (sub-species Andigena, Curtilobum, and Juzepczukii) are being grown by small Andean farmers, together with \"improved varieties\" of the sub-specie tuberosum, which have been selected by national and international research programs. Although the native potatoes have a lower potential yield than the improved white potato, they offer several advantages in relation to production (tolerance to low temperatures and resistance to pests and diseases), processing (high starch content, less consumption of frying oil) and consumption (color, texture and flavor). These attributes of native potatoes are highly valued by the small producers in the Andes and mitigate the multiple agricultural risks (freezing temperatures, hail and drought), phytosanitary threats, and market conditions they face on a daily basis to ensure their food supply. Recently, native potatoes are beginning to position themselves in urban market niches with high purchasing power, processed as potato chips and snacks, and as ingredients with interesting gastronomic characteristics for gourmet food and \"Novoandina cuisine\". This new tendency should benefit small Andean producers, who will require better coordination with the market chain actors in order to respond to the interest of the target consumers for their product (and to comply with the preservation of the environment and the biodiversity).The process was coordinated by OFIAGRO and implemented with CIP-Papa Andina, INIAP, FAO (Food and Agroiculture Organization), the Ministry of Agriculture (MAGAP, Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería, Acuacultura y Pesca), the Consortium of Smallholder Potato Farmers (CONPAPA) and several universities, which formed a committee to organize the IYP in Ecuador. With this information, a workshop to construct the strategic vision for the potato sector in Ecuador was carried out following the methodology mentioned above. Thirty-two people representing public and private organizations attended the meeting, allowing the identification of strategic areas to be worked out, and the strategic objectives to be identified.The diagnostic and the strategic vision were presented at a public meeting to celebrate the IYP in Ecuador (Quito, June 2008) in a positive political context, as the national government had significantly increased its social investment, especially for the poorest sectors of Ecuadorian society. As a result of these efforts, a high official of MAGAP in charge of the highland region where potatoes are grown (Subsecretaría de la Sierra) decided to use the strategic vision as the basis for constructing an ambitious initiative: a Program to Strengthen the Potato Sector, focusing on low-resource smallholders. CIP-Papa Andina and OFIAGRO supported this initiative and coordinated its implementation. The public and private partners involved in the development of the strategic vision participated in the construction of this program.A year later (June 2009), the same MAGAP authorities launched the program under the name \"Programa de Desarrollo Productivo y Fortalecimiento de la Cadena Agroalimentario de la Papa\", and a few months later the National Secretary for Planning and Development (Spanish acronym; SENPLADES) approved the budget to implement the program in 2010 (MAGAP, 2010). This program was to be implemented by MAGAP 3 3 In practice the program was postponed several times and was not executed because of changes of priorities in the Ministry of Agriculture. over a period of 60 months, with a budget of US $6,720,630 and support to the following projects: (i) promotion and dissemination of information systems; (ii) promotion of scientific research and dissemination of adequate technologies; (iii) production and use of quality seed; (iv) strengthening the organizational capacity and partnerships in the potato sector; (v) strengthening MAGAP's institutional capacity; and (vi) improving the participation of small-scale farmers in the marketing system.In the case of Peru, the process was coordinated by INCOPA. The situation of the potato market chain was analyzed from different perspectives and a SWOT analysis carried out. The following themes were identified as requiring policy attention: (i) revaluation of potato biodiversity and response to climate change threats; (ii) orienting the market according to consumer needs; (iii) promoting technological innovation as the basis of competitiveness; (iv) implementation of innovative and differentiated strategies for commercial development; (v) re-launching the potato's image nationally; (vi) promoting different forms of entrepreneurial organizations and public-private alliances focusing on farmer organizations.In Peru, the First National Congress of the Potato \"Science, art and business\" was organized in the context of the International Year of the Potato 2008 in Huancayo. The congress objectives were to promote a process of knowledge-sharing about scientific, productive, commercial, industrial and gastronomic experiences with the potato. After the congress, two additional events involving public and private actors of the potato sector were organized in close coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and with the different institutions that were part of the Multisectoral Commission for the International Year of the Potato (IYP 2008).The first event was the \"Entrepreneurial Meeting for the Development of the Potato Sector\", conducted in August 2008, bringing together all the main entrepreneurial actors of the potato chain to discuss the present state, projections, and the policies required to develop, from the entrepreneurial point of view, the potato sector in Peru. The Minister of Agriculture and his technical team related to policies of the potato sector attended the meeting, as well as 47 other people, mainly from the entrepreneurial sector. Some of the most important private companies that are working in the potato sector analyzed the situation based on the following questions: (i) what are the main potato products?; (ii) what are the main problems facing these products; (iii) what are the prospects in the long term (10 years) for these products?; (iv) what policies are considered necessary to stimulate entrepreneurial development for these products? With these inputs it was possible to obtain a matrix of various business plans and identify policies required to support the entrepreneurial sector linked to the potato sector in Peru.The Workshop \"Elements for the Strategic Vision for the Potato Sector in Peru to 2015\" was the second event that was conducted in August 2008 aimed at defining priorities and strategies for the development of the potato market chain, taking as references the following aspects: production, processing, commercialization, and research and development.This meeting took advantage of the conclusions of the Entrepreneurial Meeting for the Development of the Potato Sector, the conclusions of the First National Congress of the Potato, and information from the national and international diagnostics. Sixtythree participants representing several organizations working in the potato sector 258Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Public awareness and advocacy (producers, NGOs, research centers, public institutions and cooking schools among others) attended the meeting. A SWOT exercise was run, defining the strategic vision and identifying strategic working areas, strategic objectives, action plans and budget.As a result of the previous process, several actions were proposed for the potato sector, differentiating white potato and native ones including the yellow potato. These actions included technological, institutional and commercial areas based on the defined strategic objectives. With this input, the Ministry of Agriculture decided to develop several studies designed to identify the competitiveness factors in promoting the potato sector: (i) key factors to increase potato consumption in Peru; (ii) market chains for French fries in Lima; (iii) key factors to increase the use of highquality seed; (iv) reception centers for potatoes to be marketed to urban markets in the Peruvian highlands and the need to support a new wholesale market in Lima. The details of these studies can be found on the following web page: http://www.minag.gob.pe/congreso-de-la-papa/congreso-de-la-papa/4.html.In Bolivia, the national diagnostic was completed with the PROINPA Foundation. It was shared with the Ministerio de Desarrollo Rural, Agropecuario y Medio Ambiente (MDRA and MA) for analysis and further comments before taking the next steps in building and implementing the vision. The Ministry has prioritized the potato sector in the context of the creation of the Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agraria y Forestal (INIAF). A strategy to support the potato sector within INIAF based on a strategic vision has still to be defined.An important achievement has been the publication of results of the diagnoses and analyses of the potato sector in the three countries with recommendations for implementation of a strategic vision for this sector (Devaux et al., 2010).As a product of the processes described above, each of the three countries has drawn up a vision for the sector and strategic elements for its development, as follows:The vision is to become, by 2015, an efficiently organized, well planned, innovative potato agri-food chain that guarantees differentiated requirements (of quality, quantity, and price) of the national market, as well as the sustainability of this activity, influencing the generation of policies to benefit the sector.The following strategic lines of action were identified to realize this vision:• Recover the leadership and protagonism of the State in the planning process, as occurred in the case of the potato, has been a key factor for designing programs in accordance with the National Development Plan (known as the \"National Good Living Plan\"). The decision makers now have an operational instrument, the Programa de Desarrollo Productivo y Fortalecimiento de la Cadena Agroalimentaria de la Papa [Program for Development of Production and Strengthening of the Potato Agri-Food Chain] in keeping with the guidelines and fiscal demands of the public sector's budget.• Give priority to Ecuador's food security and sovereignty with the potato, first consolidating the supply to domestic markets, and then looking at export possibilities.• Reinforce the Consultative Councils, at the canton, provincial, or national level, that have played an effective role in defining a concrete vision and strategy involving public and private actors, and targeting the sustainable development of the potato chains.• Design the research projects based on the demand for innovation on the part of the producers, with particular attention to the poorest people (e.g. promoting the consumption of native potatoes), and by means of alliances among the INIAP, universities, and private organizations or companies.• Motivate and support the producers, in particular the small-scale farmers, to become better organized for the market, by providing training in the management of their organizations.• Facilitate producers' access to quality seed at reasonable prices, especially for the multiplication of new varieties.• Give support to proposals for setting up and operating a pertinent, reliable and opportune information system for the private sector, stressing the importance of quality based on technical potato standards (varieties, size, plant health, etc.), to be drawn up with the participation of the actors along the chain.• Adapt micro-finance instruments to the needs and risks of the potato sector, managed by local savings and loan associations or community banks. The most recently created small-scale producer organizations could be given the backing of a trust fund of limited duration (3-5 years), subject to the approval of a business plan.The vision is to have a more competitive market chain for potatoes, with quality products, both fresh and processed, designed to meet the market's demands, and potato producers, including small-scale ones, with a higher level of income, by revaluing the biodiversity and the role it can play in confronting climate change; orientation of the chain to the global consumer; promotion of technological innovation; the application of modern, differentiated strategies; re-launching of the potato image at the national level; and the promotion of different types of entrepreneurial organization.The Papa Andina ExperienceOf the three countries, Peru has the most favorable conditions for private-sector development of the potato. The government's economic strategy has been to stimulate private investment in the development and exploitation of market opportunities. This has a number of implications including the following:• Take advantage of the shared strategic vision to give greater visibility to new actors, in particular the producers of native potatoes and processing companies, in the design and execution of the sector's policy.Promote public-private alliances, like those formed since 2005, which were reinforced during the International Year of the Potato 2008. In the strategic vision process, the MINAG used funds from International Cooperation to finance four studies with a business plan approach, and these have served as a basis for several private companies to develop specific business lines. 4• Periodically re-launch the campaign \"Papea Perú\"• with global advertising for the sector (\"este pechito come papa\"), a campaign that has had an effect on potato consumption estimated at an additional 300 million USD, from 2008 to the present.The vision is to have strengthened potato market chains, particularly in the Andean regions that have the highest levels of poverty and malnutrition. Increased productivity will lower the price of potatoes, benefitting low-income urban consumers and reducing imports of potato substitutes.To realize this vision, the following initial strategic lines of action were proposed: reinforcing the participation and facilitation role of the MINAG and its Regional Branches, for strengthening the constitution and implementation of the National Potato Council, with nation-wide initiatives, such as the National Potato Day (May 30), the National Potato Congress (every two years), and support for groups drawing up technical standards for seed and consumer potatoes, among others.• Improve the production and productivity indices 4 In 2009, the Gloria company decided to invest in a plant for frozen pre-fried potatoes (white, yellow, and native varieties), due to start up in 2011; and the \"Viva la papa\" company supplies a market niche of native potatoes with different flavors in the United Kingdom. These experiences complement other private experiences that were already under way (Frito Lay, Wong Supermarket, and other companies that have launched native potato-based products on the market).by strengthening decentralized research and development programs in areas with potato production potential (e.g. Toralapa, Colomi, Los Negros, Lequezana, Morochata, El Rosal, etc.), with national and international public funding and a participatory approach.• Improve communication between chain members, using existing networks and creating multi-stakeholder platforms, to meet the differentiated demand of urban and rural consumers; and give support to the operation of an information system• Retrieve the results achieved on the different ecological tiers by previous Intensify research on the genetic potential of the potatoto permit a more efficient use of the imported inputs (fertilizers, agricultural chemicals, etc.) and of the water, and make full use of the potential of native potatoes to mitigate the risks associated with climate change at the different ecological tiers.The strategic vision exercise implemented in the Andean region has made it possible to identify several priority areas requiring action for the development of the potato sector, such as: (i) organizing the potato sector, promoting local consortia that could join forces in a national potato council involving actors of the potato market chain and organizations supporting the potato sector,(ii) developing lobbying abilities at producer, entrepreneur, and businessman levels for policy influence in favor of the potato sector, (iii) defining policies, programs and actions for managing the risks generated by significant price fluctuations; (iv) developing technologies adapted to the context of each actor in the market chain to improve the efficiency of the potato production system in both the economic and environmental contexts.The partners in each country are using the information generated in the process, in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture, to propose concrete approaches for the development of the sector. In Peru, promotion policies and technical norms for the potato were promulgated, indicating the commitment of the public and private sectors. Private investments were made to develop new potato-based products and to build processing plants. In Ecuador, the strategic vision and the priorities identified were to contribute to the development of a program supporting potato production and marketing systems with public funding, but finally political priorities did not allow this program to be implemented specifically for the potato sector. A broader program promoting capacity-strengthening and technology promotion designed for small-scale farmers was implemented, and this included the potato farmers. In Bolivia, building the vision of the potato sector was considered by INIAF a methodological 262Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Public awareness and advocacy tool to develop its strategy for this commodity, but it still needs to be put into practice.A common factor in the three countries analyzed in this exercise is the instability of the authorities or public leaders who are responsible for making and assuming political decisions. This explains the diverse dynamics and the different levels of progress achieved in building the vision and its implementation in each country. But, undoubtedly, as it is a participatory effort, the different actors motivated by this process, who are also the true implementers, are responsible for continuing the promotion and execution of these actions in support of the sector in the medium and long term. The book published on the basis of this work and with the production and socio-economic data of the potato sector in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, with a synthesis comparing the situation in the three Andean countries has been promoted in the region and is used as a reference document at technical and political levels.and their traditional production practices (small-scale farming with low inputs), native potatoes fit perfectly into these new consumption patterns. Domesticated 8,000 years ago by High Andean populations, these potatoes produce the highest yields in farming systems located at high altitudes (between 3,000 and 4,200 m.a.s.l.). They therefore constitute a comparative advantage for small-scale farmers who live in these remote and marginalized areas of the Andes that today have the highest concentration levels of extreme poverty. However, until 2002, native potato growers were not fully taking advantage of their crop: it was largely destined for home consumption or for the local markets, and was not considered a valuable source of income. As a result, native potatoes were largely unknown in the domestic urban market (Lopez et al., 2002).In order to unleash the potential of native potatoes for poverty reduction, CIP-Papa Andina started focusing its efforts on promoting commercial innovation. Since 2003, and as a result of the participatory innovation processes facilitated in Peru by CIP-INCOPA, pilot products were launched in high-value domestic niche markets (Ordinola et al., 2007). The most successful examples were the \"T'ikapapa\" fresh selected and bagged native potatoes 3 Demand for native potatoes has grown at a fast pace since then, creating opportunities for larger-scale farmers. This threatens the unique selling position of small-scale farmers in the native potato market chain. In order to remain competitive, small farmers must turn their initial comparative advantage (native potatoes inherited from past generations) into a sustainable competitive advantage by producing a quality product that meets the supply requirements of large industries without losing sight of environmental concerns. This challenge is shared by R&D organizations like CIP-Papa Andina and its partners CIP-INCOPA, FOVIDA and CAPAC PERU, which foster innovation to develop inclusive and competitive market chains that take advantage of potato biodiversity, with the aim of reducing poverty. They identified CSR as a basis and the naturally colored native potato chips (Bernet and Amoros, 2004). Processed by small agri-businesses and distributed through the most exclusive channels (supermarkets, airport duty free shops), these products have made it possible to cut out intermediaries and secure high prices, providing resource-poor farming families with access to new, high-value market channels and increased income. The intervention of research and development (R&D) actors in the process (International Potaro Center-CIP, non-governmental organizations-NGOs) contributed to improving the competitiveness of farmers' traditional production and marketing systems by increasing trust among market chain actors, and strengthening capacities for quality and productivity in farmer organizations.By 2007, the success of these pilot experiences had started to interest both consumers and larger food industries.to develop a dialogue with the private sector on its commitment to this objective (Hermes, 2005). Papa Andina and its partners base their work on the broadly accepted definition of CSR as a corporate philosophy and ethical form of management that takes into account the expectations of its stakeholders in order to achieve sustainable development (Canessa and Garcia, 2007). According to this definition, CSR should be confused neither with philanthropy (understood as donations corresponding more to the company's values than to its stakeholders' interest), nor with mere marketing. CSR should be strategically linked to a company's core business and should aim at strengthening a long-term relationship between the company and its stakeholders, resulting in economic, environmental and social benefits for both in the long run.Drawing on examples of CSR applied to market chains in the context of high value products (Hermes, 2005), Figure 2 summarizes how a food company can establish an innovative, mutually-beneficial relationship with small-scale farmers to take advantage of market opportunities for native potatoes while contributing to poverty reduction.In a CSR framework, the company focuses its investment on:• Developing a market segment willing to pay a high price for a high-quality, environmentally and socially-sustainable product (investing in the quality of the product, and in social marketing campaigns that convey credence attributes to consumers)• Developing the competitiveness of its suppliers and reducing the asymmetry in bargaining power (providing fair buying conditions including price and payment delay, and investing in capacity building). In that model, high production and transaction costs (e.g. cost of searching for information on native potato offer; cost of negotiation; cost of planning and monitoring the product transfer without clear quality criteria) generated by smallscale farmers' systems (e.g. numerous plots scattered in remote areas, weak organization, and distinctive business culture) are:• Reduced through training and trust established in the framework of a longterm relationship• Transferred to the consumer• Absorbed by the company and turned into image benefits.By applying CSR to the market chain, the company makes it possible for poor, smallscale providers to increase their income and standards of living by accessing new markets despite their initial lack of competitiveness; and to receive a share of the profits despite their low negotiation capacity. This business model's objective is not to maximize short-term profits (\"business as usual\"). Rather, it seeks to develop new, high-value market niches and increase providers' reliability and competitiveness in the medium term that will lead to longterm profitability (\"business for development\"). In addition, by publicly communicating this strategy, the company may draw benefits for its brand value.Social labeling initiatives (certification schemes and public advocacy campaign) driven by an independent party can consolidate this model, providing the company with:• Credibility to back up its own social marketing towards its client• Orientation on how to invest in its providers' competitiveness in an impactoriented way.To implement such a business model, innovation and capacity building are required at different levels. R&D institutions can provide the following contributions:• Capacity building for farmers to increase their competitiveness• Generation and provision of marketing services for all market chain actors (as an initial investment into kick-starting the business and building trust among market chain actors)• Identification of pro-poor commercial practices and facilitation of innovation processes to develop social labeling initiatives• Demand-oriented research for sustainable and affordable technologies that increase the competitiveness of small farmers.The Papa Andina Experience267 In 2008, the multinational company PepsiCo Foods entered the growing native potato market that had been boosted by the efforts of Papa Andina and its partners. On Peru's National Potato Day, PepsiCo launched \"Lay's Andinas\", naturally-colored native potato chips. A market leader with more than 80% share of the Peruvian snacks market, the company turned the idea of native potato chips into a top-quality product available at any supermarket in Lima, and contributed to validating the business model presented above.PepsiCo's CSR investment focused on two aspects. First, PepsiCo invested in a transparent, mutually-beneficial business relationship with providers that had a lower bargaining power. In this process, several innovations were introduced in the native potato market chain. Commercial conditions were negotiatied with regard to the situation of High Andean farmers: the price was set to leave farmers with a profit margin -taking as a reference production costs (including workforce) plus marketing costs -, and certain flexibility was introduced for non-compliance with agreed volumes. Despite finding itself in an almost monopsonistic position for buying native potatoes, the transnational company maintained the conditions that it usually offers to its providers. So for the first time, native potato producers were offered a contract at the beginning of the growing season guaranteeing demand for their production; a transparent quality control; short payment delays (maximum one week); technical assistance at critical moments of the campaign; and the opportunity to visit the processing plant in Lima.Second, the company positioned the product in a high-end niche market. The product not only boasted a high intrinsic quality, but was also socially responsible and relatively expensive (price/kg up to twice that of competitors). PepsiCo developed a social marketing campaign (packaging, TV commercial), appealing to the sensitivity of the top consumer segment on issues such as health, social development in the High Andes, cultural legacy and active conservation of biodiversity. Linking these issues to a food product also constituted an innovation in the Peruvian market. Launching Lay's Andinas was a private initiative by PepsiCo. However, partnerships at two different levels with R&D actors were necessary to make this an impactoriented business model, yielding benefits to both the company and small-scale farmers. The first partnership was formed in 2007 between PepsiCo and the Peruvian not-for-profit organizations FOVIDA (an NGO with extensive experience in promoting pro-poor market chains) and CAPAC PERU (a stakeholder platform [Devaux et al., 2007] made up of NGOs, farmer organizations and companies, and chaired by FOVIDA). In this framework, both FOVIDA and CAPAC have been covering part of the initial investment involved in linking small-scale farmers to the agro industry. Indeed, among the challenges that arose from setting up PepsiCo's native potato supply chain was the unavailability of counterparts with an adapted legal and fiscal status to sign the supply contract, since most farmer organizations were still in the process of formalization. Definition of quality parameters and referential production costs were also lacking for these not-yet-commercial varieties traditionally used by producers for home consumption. In addition, the multinational did not have the resources to provide the initially requested day-to-day monitoring and capacity building of dozens of scattered small farms. Services provided by FOVIDA and CAPAC PERU to bridge these gaps fall into two categories:• Capacity building in production and post-harvest management, organization and business management in order to increase farmers' productivity and competitiveness with a criteria of environmental sustainability.• Business services, including legal representation of small-scale individual or organized farmers, contract management, and credit for inputs and transport.• These services are provided on a non-profit basis justified as an initial investment in the setting-up and consolidation of a new, inclusive market chain. They are financed by development cooperation funds from Switzerland, New Zealand, and USA, and imply technological and methodological expertise from CIP (Farmers Field Schools (FFS) and Integrated Crop Management (ICM) practices) and the National Institute for Agricultural Innovation (INIA). Particular care is taken to make the corresponding costs visible to both farmer organizations and the agroindustry. There is a shared perspective to transfer them to market chain actors as business develops.The second partnership was formed in parallel to the development of Lay's Andinas business; CSR and advocacy were the core issues. It led to the establishment of the Andean Potato Initiative (www.papasandinas.org), launched officially in May 2008 with the aim to promote a native potato trade based on values such as culture, history, biodiversity, health and poverty reduction. The Initiative is a public-private open alliance, currently comprising FOVIDA, CAPAC, the NGO ADERS-Peru (Asociación para el Desarrollo Sostenible), PepsiCo, Wong supermarkets, representatives of the gastronomical sector and market-oriented farmer organizations. It receives technical back-stopping from CIP-Incopa. Hosted by CAPAC-Peru, the Initiative has led an award-winning advocacy campaign and co-organized the celebration of the 2009 National Potato Day with CIP and the Ministry of Agriculture.The Initiative soon recognised the need for precisely defining the content of native potato trade with CSR. As market leader and an observed player, PepsiCo was willing to implement an impact-oriented CSR strategy towards its new providers, as well as obtaining independent and high profile institutional backup to maximize their external credibility. After identifying a similar demand from other private actors processing or distributing native potato products and recognizing the need for a label relevant to the domestic market, CIP-Papa Andina facilitated a public-private workgroup in the framework of the Initiative to establish a specific certification scheme for Andean native potato trade with CSR. The objective was to set a standard for responsible practices and develop a communication tool to make companies' compliance visible to consumers. Intended outcomes were to secure benefits for farmers and prevent unfair competition from companies conducting \"social\" 270Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Corporate social responsibility marketing not based on CSR practices. The \"Andean Potatoes Label\" was made available early in 2009 and Pepsico successfully went through the certification process 1From a qualitative point of view, the farmers' commitment to quality criteria like PepsiCo's encouraged them to acquire new skills and adopt new attitudes, especially in post-harvest management (selection). In the remote High Andean areas, where communities have had a growing tendency to rely on external aid (in many cases due to extended development cooperation or public support), interesting changes towards a more entrepreneurial attitude could be observed: for the second campaign and in the context of soaring prices on the input market, farmers negotiated a price increase of 20%; they also increasingly incur the costs of frying trials at farm gate in order to minimize the risk of rejection upon delivery in Lima. Additionally, in Junín and Huancavelica, farmers have been developing their capacities for production with the support of FOVIDA, driven by the motivation to supply the industry, and they , obtaining the right to use the label for its 2009-2010 production. Several other companies have expressed interest in the label.Participation in the supply chain of a product such as Lay's Andinas has generated benefits for farmers in terms of access to a high value market for their potato biodiversity.The strong growth between 2008 and 2009 in terms of volumes (Figure 3), corresponding business value (Figure 4), number of varieties accepted by the industry (Figure 5) and workdays generated for farmers (from 7´500 in 2008, to 16´700 in 2009) give evidence of the potential of this type of market chain to improve sustainable means of living in High Andean comunities. In absolute terms (brought down to cash benefits at an individual scale), results are still modest. But they are quite satisfying in relative terms (compared with opportunities farmers had before, see Figure 6). Estimated business profitability for farmers is between 20% and 50% depending on local conditions. Moreover, the contract guarantees the farmers a market and a stable price. Besides, business is extending beyond this successful commercial relationship. On the one hand, farmer organizations involved (from the Department of Huancavelica, Junin and Apurimac) have started to diversify their clients and enter new high-value markets (selected fresh potatoes, seeds) using potatoes that do not fit industrial requirements. On the other hand, the agroindustry is seeking to extend its supply chain to other Andean regions.have obtained an increase in average yield from 6 to 12 MT as a result of an adequate use of inputs 2   The public-private partnerships and institutional innovations around T'ikapapa and Lay's Andinas have provided evidence that the approach of Papa Andina and its partners to integrate CSR into the native potato market chain is a promising one. In the current conjuncture, where the demand for quality native potatoes still exceeds the supply, the agreement reached by farmers and R&D actors with the market leader in a CSR framework has set a benchmark for the whole native potato market, and competitors have been aligning prices offered to farmers (on both fresh and processed markets).However, to make benefits sustainable for small-scale farmers, and eventually scale up the volumes and number of suppliers involved, it is essential that PepsiCo consolidate its commercial strategy and that the product be financially viable over time. As for competitors in the potato industry, they will have to institutionalize the high price they currently offer to farmers into a comprehensive, proactive CSR strategy. Finally, consumers will also have to be responsible in their purchases in order to make this trade with CSR viable. This is the main objective of the Andean Potatoes certification label. The emerging possibility to access new, export markets, where ethical consumption is more developed, will favor this process. This experience also highlighted priorities for a demand-driven research aimed at improving the competitiveness of small-scale farmers. Issues currently tackled by Papa Andina and its partners in collaboration with other CIP research divisions and private partners include: controlling reducing sugar accumulation in native potatoes to minimize rejections from the chips industry; defining Good Agriculture Practices for High Andean farming systems to ensure environmental sustainability and protect farmers' (and consumers') health; facilitating access to sprout inhibitors to improve supply regularity of this seasonal product; and improving pro-poor quality seed production systems to enable farmers as a way to increase yields. The opportunity There are, nevertheless, a number of unresolved issues linked to sustainability in the current experience of Papa Andina and its partners. While the Andean Potatoes Initiative provides an institutional framework to address them in a constructive and practical way, the following issues ought to be further investigated to prevent \"business for development\" from turning into a more cynical \"development as a business\".Based on previous positive experiences (Escobal, 2003), there is consensus that subsidizing the competitiveness of small-scale farmers is a necessary initial social investment taken on by NGOs, and that market chain actors in the long run should cover these costs without aid funds. However, in the recently established native potato chain, no reasonable horizon and agenda could be defined for a direct relation between the industry and farmer organizations. The circumstances of High Andean farmers (high levels of poverty, low educational levels and limited resources) is likely to slow the transfer of responsibilities from the NGOs to farmers' organizations.There are many threats to the inclusiveness and sustainability of the native potato market chain. Some possible future scenarios:• Ethically-sourced products face \"unfair competition\" from products claiming to benefit small farmers without necessarily doing so• Small farmers are unable to compete against larger farmers. This threat could be heightened by the development of colored potato varieties that are suitable for lower altitudes• Recently-formed farmer organizations are undermined, as individual farmers leave their organizations to operate as independent providers, excluding the most marginalized producers from the market chain• Overproduction generates downward pressure on prices, marginalizing the less competitive producers (likely to be poor small farmers);• As a result of market incentives, productivity is sought at the expense of biodiversity, human health and the environment.The certification scheme is an attempt to consolidate a market for responsible products, but the success of this strategy will depend on factors such as the sustainability and credibility of the Andean Potatoes Initiative and its institutional framework, and the stakeholder platform CAPAC PERU. Their ability to get companies committed to the vision embodied by the label and to position the label in the market will be crucial. Finally, the market response will be decisive.• Adequately capturing demand requires combining a range of methods like sondeos and fairs and moving from the notion of capturing demand as an event to an on-going interactive process.SIBTA is an ambitious competitive funding organization, following similar models established elsewhere in Latin America and a newly emerging paradigm for agricultural research (Byerlee, 1998). It attempts to fund public-sector agricultural research by competitive bidding, seeks to improve the accountability and relevance of agricultural research, and insists that all calls for research and funding come from farmers, in written petitions, preferably from organised groups (cooperatives, farm for new technology Scientists are no longer encouraged to study new technology just because they find it promising. New technology must be 'demand-led' (Almekinders, 2000, Bellon, 2001, Biggs and Smith, 2002, Thiele et al., 2001, Tripp, 2001).In 2001, Bolivian agricultural scientists had many technologies almost ready to extend. These were the fruits of several earlier projects funded by DFID in areas where farming was centred on potato growing. However, the establishment in the previous year of the Bolivian Agricultural Technology System (SIBTA), to replace the Bolivian Institute of Agricultural Technology (IBTA) which had been disbanded in 1998, presented the scientists with some problems. unions, indigenous organizations, etc.). 3• First, capturing farmer demand may not be as simple as SIBTA's architects suppose.In this competitive demand-led context it was suggested that technologies researchers had already developed should be abandoned and a fresh start made, by collecting demand from smallholder farmers.The SIBTA proposal to base research on farmer demand has many merits, but it raises two major and related concerns:• Second, what should be done with research that is already underway and in which a considerable amount has already been invested?While it is good to start research by determining farmer demand, this requires a more profound interaction with farmers than a petition or canvassing a community in a group meeting. 4 Besides, the scientists who had worked on projects before SIBTA insisted that their nearly completed technologies had been designed in response to smallholder demand. Finally, after much heated discussion, the researchers and various colleagues (including the authors) developed the INNOVA project to gauge and respond to farmer demand, even for technology that already existed. INNOVA works with three partner organizations which were involved in projects from before SIBTA 5Interaction with farmers to test ideas and responses to existing technologies was planned in pilot areas in the departments of La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.How we assess farmers' demands and then provide useful interaction that allows these demands to be elaborated and meshed with research knowledge is a continual problem. Sondeos (which will be explained in the Section on Methods), public meetings with farm communities, formal petitions for research and other methods can help to define the farmers' explicit demands. On the researchers' side, we need some way of making sure that their ideas respond to the reality of farmers' priorities and knowledge as quickly as possible. One innovation for doing that is the technology fair, which we describe later in this paper.At first glance, finding the demand for an existing technology is a bit like looking for Cinderella when one has only the glass slipper. One seems to have things backwards. We introduced the notion of 'implicit demand' to suggest that there might be demand for a technology, even though farmers had not expressed it.Problems are defined as constraints to agricultural or livestock production, storage, processing or marketing. A demand (for research) is the need for a solution to a problem.Explicit demand by a farmer for research is defined as a real need for practical, novel, technical solutions to constraints to agricultural production. One way to gather demand is to hold community meetings and ask people what they want from agricultural development institutions. Explicit demands are those which farmers articulate. Smallholders tend to say they want things like:• Higher yields• Better prices for their products • Control of specific pests, preferably with pesticides, e.g. a spray for Andean potato weevils• Subsidies for purchases such as fertilisersThese are kinds of explicit demands, and they deserve to be taken into account.Implicit demand is demand for research which smallholder farmers do not articulate when asked, either because they are unaware of the problem, or they confuse the causal agent with something else. This is especially common with pests that are difficult to observe. For example, Bolivian farmers know that their native potato varieties are often low-yielding but they do not generally know that this is because viruses have gradually built up in their crops. In this case, the farmers' explicit demand is for a higher-yielding potato crop with larger tubers, while the implicit demand is for a technique to clean the potatoes of viruses. Bolivian agronomists have a technique 280Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Technological innovation for sustainable development for removing viruses from native varieties in laboratories, by rearing the potatoes in vitro (Iriarte et al., 2000).People often ask for chemical control of pests, sometimes because they cannot imagine alternative controls. They do not ask for the control of pests with parasitic wasps if they do not know they exist. Smallholders realise they have problems with frosts, but may not know that frost-resistant crop varieties are available. Perhaps all social groups are like that, not just smallholder farmers: many computer users could not imagine digital photographs but when they saw them, they adopted them. In the same vein, many smallholders do not ask for new machinery until they see a prototype. This demand is implicit. We define implicit demand as:A research need that people do not ask for, but which they recognise if it is explained or shown to them in an appropriate way. Implicit demand is not simply the researcher's favourite topic; rather it must be identified by researchers, on the basis of local problems. Implicit demand must be reconfirmed by the community, in collaboration with researchers. When implicit demands are correctly identified, they become explicit.Explicit demand is often vaguely expressed, e.g. farmers may say their soil is 'tired'. However, they are sometimes quite specific, as in the case of pests, where the method and level of control are often specified, e.g. 'What can we spray to get rid of potato tuber moth?'The problem with using agricultural researchers to identify implicit demands is that the researchers like to find demand for solutions they just happen to have, especially if the thing took years to develop. In this they resemble the prince who already has Cinderella's slipper in his pocket, and will do anything to get a foot into it. However, in order to spot an implicit demand, one must be an expert, or at least have a certain amount of expertise in a specific topic, (e.g. nematodes). One way of resolving the problem is to use a team of people of different disciplines, to check from various angles to see if the implicit demand has a foundation, or if it is just one of the researchers' favourite topics. We decided to use the sondeo (or informal survey).Farmers may reject a technology because, although it aims to resolve a problem, it fails to meet a demand, 6 6 We are grateful to André Devaux for first pointing this out to us. e.g. because the farmers cannot afford it, or it is too tedious, or requires too much labour. For example, in Central America and elsewhere cover crops seemed to respond to demands for weed control and increased soil fertility. Researchers slowly began to realise that in many cases these legume crops were not, for example, fixing as much nitrogen as agronomists originally expected (Anderson et al., 2001.). Many of the farmers in Central America who tried cover crops have since abandoned them; because of the extra labour they require (Jeff Bentley, personal observation, Nicaragua 2003, Felipe Pilarte, personal communication).The sondeo has a long history, and was designed to understand smallholders' farming systems and find research opportunities. An inter-disciplinary team combining agricultural and social scientists spends some six days in the field, visiting various communities within a region, and working in pairs: walking the land, observing crops and talking to people. The sondeo team coins and tests hypotheses about the area. The sixth day they write a report that is something like an agro-social inventory of a geographical area with recommendations for planning future research (Hildebrand andRuano, 1982, Davies et al., 1994).INNOVA's three pilot communities (one on the high plains of La Paz, one in the high valleys of Cochabamba and another in the low valleys of Santa Cruz), where the participatory trials would be planted, were places where the scientists had already worked for several years, with other projects. There are advantages in working in areas one already knows, e.g. the agronomists and some of the local people already know and trust each other (Bentley and Baker, 2002).We modified the sondeo a little to meet our objective of writing a brief description of the agriculture of a community and to identify farmers' demands for research. We did each sondeo in two to three days, not in a week, and included some local people on the team. We presented the results to the local people, in a public meeting, where they confirmed some conclusions and changed others. 7• Crops, main and secondary We included our own observations, e.g. taking note of large erosion gullies, soil quality and the (lack of) forage and sometimes the presence of pests, but we based our work mostly on semistructured interviews covering the following topics:7 For example, in Pomposillo, about 20 community members attended the meeting, including some people whom we had interviewed in their homes or fields. We used an overhead projector to show charts, outlining the conclusions, in the order we had asked our questions during the interviews. Our presentation described the local farming system, including problems and explicit demands. We invited corrections and the local people were quick to speak up. They added some specific details about veterinary diseases, for example. Most importantly, they explained to us very carefully that, although all our conclusions were more or less accurate, the community's greatest demand was for more irrigation and improved forage, so they could have healthier, fatter livestock. Although a few community members did most of the talking, we could see by the nods and words of approval from the rest of the audience that improved animal health really was a major explicit demand of the community. Most of the meeting was in Spanish, but at one point we broke into separate workgroups of men and women. One of the PROINPA agronomists who is a native speaker of Aymara facilitated the discussion with the women, in Aymara. The women concluded that they were in general agreement with the demands as expressed, but they encouraged us not to forget the smaller animals (e.g. sheep and chickens) and added that they wanted to grow more quinoa, especially to feed their children. • Land, describing its quality and quantity, how it is used, and problems with soil and water.Hildebrand's sondeo tries to identify the various social strata in the communities studied, and the different problems each stratum has. We would have liked to do something similar, to see who makes research demands and especially if the poorest people have different demands from their neighbours. Instead, we lumped all of local people's responses together, without trying to tease apart the differences between the poor and the very poor. (Follow up work by PROINPA later suggested that most people in the communities had similar research demands. Most of them were quite poor, and people with, say seven sheep faced the same problems as people with 30 sheep).Each day the team divided into groups of two or three to conduct 20 to 30-minute interviews. We chatted with people in their fields or on their patios, either alone or in small family groups (e.g. husband and wife, niece and uncle, mother and son). Each team asked questions in their own words, devising supplementary questions as they went along. They ensured, however, that each interview touched on all the topics given above. In the evenings, we wrote down the answers on laptop computers, before arguing among ourselves over the conclusions (Bentley et al., 2002, 2003, Oros et al., 2002). The second day of each sondeo we modified the interviews a bit, to include better questions.In interviews with large numbers of people, a group of influential people can dominate the others (Brown et al., 2002). The advantage of individual interviews is that, if 20 of them are carried out, 20 people talk, and the team can start to quantify the results, at least in a rudimentary way. For example, if we look at the results of discussions about potato pests on the Altiplano (the high plains) we clearly see that the problem most often identified by the respondents is weevil, with aphids worrying them much less (Table 1).Our methods for hypothesising implicit demands improved with experience. By the third sondeo in Pomposillo, after presenting the results to the community and learning their explicit demands, the team members were able to sit down next day in the PROINPA office in La Paz to discuss the implicit demands. We each proposed possible demands, then criticised each other's ideas, refining some and rejecting others. The method may still need improvement, but we hoped that the technology fair would be another, possibly better way of identifying implicit demand, especially for the technologies we already had. The idea was that, while the sondeo helps to see an area, talk to people about their problems and gather their demands, another method should be used to see and measure the farmers' reactions to new technologies. For this, we used the encuentro tecnológico (technology fair). To see smallholders' reactions to INNOVA technologies, we used a format a little like a field day, where several technologies are presented at once. We call it a technology fair (we coined the term encuentro tecnológico in Spanish). Preparations began several months beforehand:• The scientists chose the communities, usually in places where they had worked for several years• They set up four or five trials in each community. Each trial was managed by one or two local people, who committed themselves to explaining the results to their neighbours. In this sense it was a bit like the CIAL (local agricultural research committee), which are local committees, set up to identify agricultural problems, test solutions and report the results back to community members. The committees often work with a modest research fund, to buy materials. CIALS frequently test new crop varieties, but some of them try other technologies (Ashby et al., 2000). Unlike the CIAL, however, INNOVA had no local committee, and no local research fund. Also, the evaluation of the trial results was quantitative and statistical, usually with a random block design, so the scientists had to gather and analyse the data• The personnel of the institution working in the area (including thesis students and assistants), met with the community to plan the event, down to the order in which visitors would rotate through the trials and other demonstrations, the lunch, the welcoming and closing ceremonies, and even parking. This took two days or more• Up to 250 guests, from various communities, arrived on the morning of the technology fair, in transportation paid for by INNOVA• Technical people from the three partner organizations (CIAT, UMSS, PROINPA) attended, and helped manage each event• The participants registered, were issued name tags, and divided into groups• Each meeting opened with a welcoming ceremony from an official of the local municipality• People took buses or walked round a circuit of farm trials, two to four groups of 20-30 people each rotating through the trials and stands• Each technology was presented by someone who knew it well and could explain it with enthusiasm• The participants voted for the technologies they liked most• The technical staff administered a short questionnaire, to see which technologies the participating farmers wanted to try• Everyone ate a good lunch• A formal ceremony closed each meeting.There were so many new technologies that trials or demonstrations could not be conducted for them all, so some were explained by the technical people at various stands. At each \"encuentro\" there were three to five trials to see. It doesn't sound like many, but it is, because the number of people involved meant spending a minimum of 30 minutes per trial, which, with five trials, easily accounted for two-and-a-half hours. At each fair we presented six to 16 technologies in stands, which made for quicker viewing: we set them up like booths around a football pitch, and people rotated from stand to stand every 10 minutes or less. But a stand cannot show a technology in the same detail as a demonstration or a field trial.Each pilot area was coordinated by one institution, but they all tried several technologies in each area, not just those generated by their own institution. Table 2 lists the trials which INNOVA carried out during its first year in all three pilot areas.'Hilling up' (Spanish: aporcar) means to pile soil around the stalk of a growing crop, in this case potatoes, usually combined with weeding. It can be done with a hoe. Sometimes people hill up with an animal-drawn plough, often returning with a hoe to finish the task. Hilling higher helps to reduce diseases and increase yields. The Altiplano This is one of the most extreme places on the planet. It is in tropical latitudes, but because it is exceptionally high, at about 4,000 metres, it is cold all the time. It is a vast deposit of alluvial sediments (with a lot of rock and gravel) between the Cordilleras of the Andes. The land is flat to rolling, with small outcroppings of rock. It is quite dry, with some 300 -400 mm of annual rainfall. It is only thanks to a deep local knowledge that crops can be harvested at all in this austere environment. Much of the land is in range or fallow. Some communities practise a kind of open field system (McCloskey, 1975) or aynuqa; they rotate crops in blocks planted together, followed by a seven-to 10-year fallow. Everyone in the community plants the same crop, in the same year, and respects the same fallow, during which all community members can pasture their animals on the aynuqa. The forest was almost totally eliminated during colonial times. The main language is Aymara.These are also tropical, but are a little lower (2,500 to some 3,700 metres above sea level) than the Altiplano, and are a little warmer. The soils are variable, since much of the land is steeply pitched, with some small, flat pampas. The soil varies from very thin and rocky to some areas of loamy soil over five metres deep. It is a little more humid than the Altiplano, with up to 600 mm of yearly rainfall. In places that have irrigation, two or three crops can be harvested per year. Few communities have aynuqa. Many communities have individual land tenure, but the households do complicated crop rotations, almost always starting with potato. Land that is too rocky or otherwise unsuited for crops may be individually or communally owned. There are some new, planted forests of pine and eucalyptus and in the highest areas a few remnants of native forests. Quechua is the main language.These are sometimes known as the 'mesothermic valleys'. They are still high, at some 2,000 metres or more, but compared with western Bolivia they are warm, low lands, with a sub-tropical climate. The valley floors have loamy soil and where there is water for irrigation; one can grow crops all year round. Land is individually owned. On the hillsides there are still forests, although some of them are secondary, since people occasionally slash and burn it to plant field crops, followed by a long fallow. The main language is Spanish.Most people in the pilot sites are poor. According to the SDC (1999) the percentage of poor households in the following communities is:• Umala, Aroma Province: 98.03%• Ayo Ayo, Aroma Province: 98.12%• Colomi, Chapare Province: 93.15%• Tiraque, Tiraque Province: 96.55%• Comarapa, Manuel Maria Caballero Province: 84.55%• Saipina, Manuel Maria Caballero Province: 55.34%We did three sondeos in late 2002, early 2003, during which the communities and researchers identified the explicit demands listed in Table 3.The explicit demands in Pomposillo and Qolqe Qhoya are quite similar. Community members explained that they want improved pasture and irrigation, to rear more cattle and sheep for sale at higher prices. They also have some pests and animal health problems. In Los Pinos, near Comarapa, it is a little different, since there is more land and water. However, since the people there grow more diverse crops, they mentioned more pests. In Section 2 we discussed how we identified implicit demands. Some of these demands, identified through sondeos, are given in tables 4 and 5.Researchers were unable to respond to most of these demands right away. They did plant a trial of Phalaris grass with two members of the Pomposillo community, but they had planned this before the sondeo. This inability to respond quickly is partly because the researchers already had a full agenda (after all, they were working with technology that was nearly ready), but it is also because research topics are easier to identify than to resolve satisfactorily. Reasons for including themLocal people complained of aphids on broad beans. The team thought it looked like a problem induced by the abuse of insecticides.The team observed gullies, etc., although local people did not complain of erosion. Improve the weight of sheep when they are sold, to increase income. Smallholders said they sold sheep when they needed the money, when there was nothing else to sell, and that often this was when the sheep were skinniest.Study fertilisation with chicken manure, to rationalise the dosage.One of the agronomists noticed piles of chicken manure that people buy to fertilise potatoes, without first analysing the soil, and without technical recommendations.Reasons for including themIt is a robust, perennial forage, and the community members explicitly demanded more forage. Improve the management of forage in communal lands and in fallowed aynuqas.Most pasture lands are fallowed aynuqas, but the new forages (e.g. alfalfa) are intensive crops, needing irrigation, etc., so they only work on individually owned plots.Restore seed of native varieties, for example, lluk'i potatoes for chuño 11   People still plant some 20 or more varieties of potatoes, but they have lost some, which PROINPA can supply.. Vegetable growing: varieties the people can reproduce themselves, without buying seed every year Currently the local people buy fruit and vegetables to eat. However, an institution (not linked to INNOVA) is now promoting home gardens in the community. The local people accept these gardens, even though they are planted with foreign seed, which they will end up having to buy if they want to continue with the gardens.INNOVA held three technology fairs in March 2003, in the three areas where sondeos had been carried out. The supply of technology was enormous: 10 or 15 technologies or groups of technologies (see Table 6) to be shown in three or four hours which forced us to limit the time given to each presentation. Depending on the fair and whether the technology was presented as a trial or at a stand, the time allotted to each ranged from seven to 30 minutes.At the end of the technology fair we asked the respondents which of the technologies they had seen that day they would like to try. The respondents could choose between several technologies, but we encouraged them not to answer 'everything'. Most people chose two or three out of a dozen options.If we compare farmers' explicit demand for technology (Table 3) with INNOVA's supply of technology (Table 6), we see that some explicit demands have not been satisfied. However, most of INNOVA's technologies did respond to demand. Only two, new animal traction implements and improved hilling-up, did not respond to demands identified in the sondeo. However, both were well accepted by the community; they turned out to satisfy implicit demands unidentified during the sondeo.The technologies the researchers supplied to the community in Pomposillo partially fulfilled the demands identified in the sondeo, i.e. for more water and forage so that they could have more livestock. At the technology fair, INNOVA did not offer an irrigation technology, but did offer three forage technologies. However, these were not well received. Improved pasture caught the interest of only 48% of the people, and Phalaris just 29%, while quinoa interested 89%.People preferred quinoa to pasture, not because they needed it more, but because it was better presented at the technology fair. Pasture was presented in three different, but not overly convincing ways: (1) Some pasture seed was shown on a table at one of the stands by two agronomists from Cochabamba, so people immediately doubted that this grass species would thrive in La Paz (which is higher, colder and dryer). (2) The Phalaris had been planted in a trial, but it is a perennial crop, only three months old at the time of the fair, and looking so poor that the agronomists decided not to show the trial to the public. Instead, the farmerresearchers talked about Phalaris at a stand, and had a most animated discussion in Aymara. (3) The trial of grains associated with legumes was a student thesis project, and even though it was presented by two farmers in Aymara, the pasture plants were growing poorly and the trials were split into tiny squares like a chessboard, so that people could hardly tell what they were supposed to show.The trial of grains intercropped with legumes was presented in Aymara, by two enthusiastic farmers (Figure 1). There were many replicates, each of which was labelled. Even though two local women explained the trial, it really was a thesis project which is why it was managed as on an experimental station, in little squares.Technological innovation for sustainable development Because the trial grew poorly, people were unimpressed. The technology might have been more attractive if it had been better managed. 12 An agronomist at a stand showed bags filled with several dozen different kinds of new species and varieties of forage crops. He discussed their uses and encouraged people to plant them.13 A trial and a demonstration of mixed forage crops planted in fallow land, instead of allowing weedy pioneer plants to re-colonise the soil. In the quinoa trial the agronomists had used chemical fertiliser (which is not a common local practice), as a result of which the crop was growing spectacularly. Also, rather than planting it in small squares, the quinoa was in large, easy-to-see strips. Besides the trial, there was a stand where two young agronomists were distributing pieces of delicious quinoa cakes to each of the 200 participants. In sum, quinoa was presented in a better (more attractive, convincing) way than pasture, and the audience went for it, even though pasture would have responded better to their own, explicit demands.In Qolqe Qhoya, as in Pomposillo, the researchers supplied several technologies that responded to the shortage of forage. However, just because a technology is aimed at people's explicit demands, does not mean it will be accepted. The Qolqe Qhoya community explicitly asked for more pasture, but, in the event, the most popular of the three forage technologies they saw attracted 72% of farmers, while the least popular interested only 17%. The trial they liked was a simple intercrop of grains and legumes, planted by a local farmer and his father. The trial they least liked was similar, planned by researchers: the plants were thriving, lush and vigorous, but local farmers (and visiting anthropologists) found the little squares (random blocks of various treatments) hard to see, so showed less interest in it. Although it is not a DFID technology, PROINPA showed native varieties of potatoes cleaned of viruses in the lab. Farmers liked the idea, even though they only saw it at a stand, not in the field (Figure 2).  The voting and the questionnaires provided rapid feedback as to how the ideas were being received. One of the UMSS agronomists presented Phalaris grass at all three technology fairs. At the first, in Pomposillo, Phalaris was not well received, for reasons explained above. In the second encuentro, the agronomist brought a farmercollaborator with several years of experience, who described the grass with conviction. His farm was too far away to visit, but he had brought several clumps of the grass with him to show people, and he discussed it in Quechua, at a stand. At the end of his presentation, the agronomist observed that the smallholders spontaneously took pieces of the Phalaris sample so they could try it themselves at home (Figure 3). The agronomist profited by this observation, and at the third technology fair in Verdecillos (Santa Cruz), he prepared samples for people to take home and plant, thereby directly stimulating local experimentation with this technology.Most themes that the researchers identified and proposed do respond to explicit demands identified in the sondeo, even though the technologies existed before the sondeo was carried out. Some of the other technologies, especially farm implements, responded to implicit demands, which people did not articulate during the sondeo. However, when they saw the implements, they knew they wanted them. In general, the technologies were well received.In Pomposillo (Table 7) the preferred technologies were quinoa, higher hilling up of potatoes, and animal-drawn tillage implements. Even though the forages were an explicit demand, the people did not view these particular examples favourably, because the test-plot crops looked straggly. INNOVA does not have a supply of technology to meet the major demands of irrigation and improved livestock (mainly sheep and cattle).In Qolqe Qhoya (Table 8) grains intercropped with legumes and the new pasture crops were the favourite technologies, which was to be expected, since the people identified forages as a priority during the sondeo. The high acceptance of implements was not anticipated from the evidence of the sondeo nor was the strong interest in virus-free seed potatoes, although people did say that they wanted quality seed. The presentation of the potato plantlets, growing in vitro, which people could see and hold, was a crowd pleaser. Again, the quality of presentation influenced how well a technology was accepted (at least at that moment).In Verdecillos (Table 9) the people wanted to try control of Rhizoctonia, new pasture species, Phalaris, implements, higher hilling up and bokashi. In other words, they liked the things they saw in the trials, in real demonstrations, and not what they saw at the stands. The only exception was implements (which they could see and touch at the stand, as well as watching them during the hilling up trial). The acceptance of bokashi is an anomaly, since it is an expensive compost, tedious to make. It requires some 10 non-local materials, which people have to buy in town, at different stores. One needs to add 10-20 tons of organic matter per hectare to make bokashi, and it must be stirred several dozen times. Because of the high labour demand, this technology is probably not profitable. In the future perhaps we should include simple economic analysis so farmers can make better informed decisions about the technologies on offer. Technological innovation for sustainable development Most of the technologies won the interest at least 10% of the people, who said they wanted to try them. That is fairly high, considering that, in its first year, an innovation is rarely tested by 25% of the population (Rogers, 1983). The massive adoption of a technology comes later, after a few people have tried it out and tell their neighbours about it (Henrich, 2001). In industrial design, to see how a new product would fit into users' homes or offices, the designer must observe the behaviour of would-be consumers (how they choose items at a supermarket, or what objects they already have on their desks) to assess user demand. For example, the design of motorcycle safety equipment must take into account the fact that many bikers are trying to project a youthful, manly image (Wasson, 2000).For us, the designers of new agricultural technology, it is more important to see how new technologies fit into the lives of smallholders than to do more trials. In the next year of INNOVA (2004) we will see what technologies people try on their own account, and why, how they modify them and how many people adopt them. These will be more reliable indicators of the probability of final adoption.If we want people to try the technologies, we must distribute some materials, especially in the case of new crops and varieties: people cannot try them without some planting material. With the exception of the UMSS agronomist in Verdecillos, 296Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Technological innovation for sustainable development we left the farmers with nothing after the technology fairs but the wish to try some things. We talked about the virtues of quinoa, and when people asked where they could get these varieties, we told them they were not ready. We showed the use of new forage species, and when the smallholders asked where they could buy a kilo to try, we told them we had not brought any to sell. Technology fairs would be much improved by distributing samples seeds and other material for people to try on their own farms.The fairs were fun, novel and helped create a team spirit among the technical personnel of the partner institutions. They cost money, but if they speed the adoption of something worthwhile or cull an inappropriate line of research, they may justify their cost. However, another option is to find ways of lowering the costs of the fairs.One of the innovations of the technology fair was that it proved to be a way of giving the public a good deal of information and seeing how it was received, all in one day. Working independently, anthropologists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico (CIMMYT) have developed something similar, which they call the voting method. They present many maize varieties to campesinos, who vote for the ones they prefer (Bellon, 2002).We agree with Bellon that voting gives us a rapid (albeit preliminary) idea of the public's perception of several innovations. Voting and questionnaires are forms of rapid feedback, a kind of marketing survey which we hope will help researchers make more efficient use of their scarce resources. Researchers tend to love their inventions the way other people love their children ('it's not a bad technology; it's only misunderstood'). It remains to see whether researchers will learn from the technology fair or any other feedback method, but that is a task for the second half of the INNOVA project.At the technology fairs, people seemed to respond both to the quality of the presentations and demonstrations and the extent to which they felt the technology responded to their own problems and circumstances. For example, audiences were attracted to technologies presented in a field trial, with a thriving crop, especially if the trial was described by an enthusiastic farmer.In Pomposillo the people stated quite clearly that they wanted irrigation and improved pasture, as ways of having more and better livestock. The project did not present irrigation or animal management, and the forage trials were not very attractive. But quinoa, which was a secondary demand, was so well presented that it 'beat' the forage technologies. There we learned that presentation (the 'show') has a big influence on the attractiveness of a message. Talking with people about their problems is a way of finding out their explicit demands for research. However, there can be things they need, even though they don't say so. Farmers can have an implicit demand for certain technologies, e.g. new implements. The technology fair is a way of further identifying implicit demand, and of making it explicit. As farmers learn about a technology (whether at a fair or elsewhere), and as they come to value it and want to adopt it, the demand becomes explicit.Scientific research is creative (Wilson, 1998). Hypothesising implicit demand also requires some imagination and background information. Still, in the future we need to develop more replicable methods for identifying it, otherwise the notion could 298Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Technological innovation for sustainable development degenerate to the point that researchers defend pointless inventions by saying that they meet an implicit demand.The researchers developed their supply of technology before the sondeos to estimate demand were conducted. Yet the people's response during the technology fairs suggests that the research agenda was not just pulled from a hat. If the researchers were not able to make the glass slipper fit Cinderella, at least they showed a range of shoes for her wardrobe, most of which will probably be suitable for different circumstances.The sondeo can be dusted off and used to learn about farmer demand. As for the technology fair, while we don't want to make unrealistic claims, it seems to be a good way of measuring how farmers react to a new technology, even to a large set of technologies, especially if researchers can create a level playing field (present the innovations equally well). That will be impossible to achieve perfectly: even if all the technologies are presented in the same amount of time, and in trials or talks of similar formats, someone will always give a more charming talk, or have a more eye-catching field trial. Whether the technology fair is useful or not depends not so much on whether farmers adopt the innovations they see there (although that is part of it), rather the main point is whether researchers in the future learn about their clients at the fairs, the way the UMSS agronomist learned that his Phalaris grass would be more attractive to his audience if he gave them samples they could take home and try. We are planning a study to understand the way interaction between farmers and researchers occurs and how we can facilitate the processes involved.This brings us back to the concerns posed at the beginning of this paper in the context of SIBTA. First, capturing farmer demand may not be as simple as SIBTA's architects suppose and second, what should be done with research that is already underway and in which a considerable investment has already been made? With regard to the first concern, we have shown that learning about demand requires more than just a petition from farmers. Demand cannot be captured in a single event, it requires a process, including tools like the sondeo and fair, which bring farmers together with researchers with expert knowledge and a stock of near-ready technology to pick out the implicit demands that lie beyond what farmers demand explicitly. INNOVA is building mechanisms to incorporate this insight into the procedures for capturing demand within SIBTA.With regard to the second concern, we found that most, but not all, the technology generated by the previous projects responded to either an explicit demand or to an implicit one. The tools we tested should help improve resource allocation in INNOVA, where some of the technology deserves a higher share of resources to promote its use, and research on a few of the technologies should probably stop. We are working on mechanisms to translate these findings into decisions about research management. It is clear though that throwing away DFID's existing technologies and starting from scratch would have discarded a lot of potentially good technology, wasting a considerable research investment and potential for assisting poor farmers in Bolivia and elsewhere.Smallholder farmers need new technologies from the formal sector if they are to stay competitive and sustainable in a rapidly changing world (Tudge, 2004). There is a growing awareness among researchers and policy-makers that research should be 'demand-led,' meaning that farmers should help set the research agenda (Beye, 2002;Royal Society, 2004). 'Demand' for research is not the same as the market demand for goods and services. In competitive markets, prices send signals between buyers and sellers about the demand of goods and services. Most of the products of agricultural research, such as IPM principles, or new tillage practices etc., are public goods which can be freely and widely shared with no loss in their value. Many of them cannot be sold, so no private market will promote them 2 1 Originally published in International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability (5, 1), 2007, pages 70-84.2 Public goods in the economic literature are defined as those goods which are nonexcludable and non-rivalrous (Dalrymple 2005). The classic example of a public good is a light house, no user can be excluded from access to the good (non-excludable) and however many ships make use of the light signal there is no reduction in its value (non-rivalrous).. At the same time, smallholder farmers in tropical countries have little contact with researchers and have little scope for expressing demand for research (e.g. new farm tools, crop varieties or pest control techniques) through non-market means. Participatory diagnoses have been proposed as ways to see what people want (Bellon, 2001;Gill, 2002;Horne and Stür, 2005), often with an emphasis on easing the adoption of technologies (Smale and De Groote, 2003). In Vietnam, researchers interviewed farmers, learning the history of fruit trees, and how farmers manage them, which helped scientists understand why some farmers were getting more serious pest problems. Only then could researchers make detailed recommendations, in a way which farmers would accept (Van Mele and Van Chien, 2004). As this example shows, farmer demand co-evolves with research. Demand for research is not like an object in the real world, which can be discovered; rather it is more like one side of a conversation which will only unfold if there is someone else to talk to. This paper discusses a three-year experience to describe and meet farmer demand in Bolivia. In 2001, Bolivian agricultural scientists had many technologies which were considered almost ready to disseminate. These were the fruit of several earlier projects funded by DFID in potato growing areas. However, the Bolivian Agricultural Technology System (SIBTA) had been established the previous year: it was explicitly 'demand-led,' which presented the scientists with new challenges.SIBTA was a public-sector, competitive-funding organization, following similar models created elsewhere in Latin America and an emerging paradigm for national agricultural research systems (Byerlee, 1998;Hall et al., 2003). SIBTA replaced IBTA (the Bolivian Institute of Agricultural Technology); IBTA was disbanded in 1998 (Gandarillas et al., 2007). Competitive bidding seeks to improve the accountability and relevance of agricultural research. Calls for research and funding come from farmers, in written petitions, preferably from organized groups (cooperatives, farm unions, indigenous organizations, etc.) and is elicited from farmers, as a 'raising of demands' (levantamiento de demandas). Most of SIBTA's work is channelled through four Foundations which manage extension projects known as PITAs.In this context, policy-makers in La Paz suggested that technologies which researchers had already developed should be abandoned and a fresh start made, by collecting demand from smallholder farmers. However:• First, capturing farmer demand may not be as simple as SIBTA's architects believe. The idea of 'collecting demand' supposes that farmers know their needs, and will voice them. It also supposes that farmers are aware of potential technical options that could respond to this demand, the costs, and the pros and cons of each one.• Second, what should be done with research that is already underway and in which much time and money has already been invested?Learning farmer demand requires a deeper interaction with farmers than a survey, petition or a village meeting. Besides, the scientists insisted that their nearly ready technologies had been designed in response to smallholder demand. Finally, after much heated discussion, the researchers and various colleagues (including the authors) developed the INNOVA project to gauge and respond to farmer demand, even for technology that already existed (Bentley et al., 2004). INNOVA was implemented through three partner organizations which were involved with DFID before SIBTA (see Table 1). INNOVA was managed by the regional partnership programme of the International Potato Centre (CIP), known as Papa Andina.  (2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05). Its goal was to find methods to capture farmer demand for research, and to refine technologies that had been recently invented. In 2002, INNOVA proposed validating ten technologies with farmers (Table 2), and began developing methods to compare this supply of technology with farmer demand, as discussed in the following section.The researchers used several methods (described below) to hone their technologies, always with farmers, never on-station. INNOVA adapted most of these methods from existing ones. What was novel was a coherent set of methods for linking the supply and demand for technology (Doug Horton, personal communication).INNOVA coined the idea of explicit and implicit demand. Explicit demands are the ones that people recognize and can express loud and clear (\"We need more grass for our sheep in the dry season\"). Implicit demands are for problems that the people themselves do not recognize (they will not demand control of potato viruses if they do not know that viruses exist), or for techniques which they have not imagined (for example, they did not demand metal ploughs until they saw them). INNOVA used the following methods to study demand.CIALs are groups of about five local people who conduct field trials with a few replications, and uncomplicated trial designs on topics the communities have agreed upon, and present the results back to them afterwards (Ashby et al., 2000;Braun et al., 2000;Thiele et al., 2005;Pretty 2002). Before INNOVA, both PROINPA and CIAT/Santa Cruz had already organized several CIALs. In other areas, INNOVA used the GET (technology evaluation group). A GET is like a CIAL, except that instead of asking farmers to define their research topics, the agronomists present their research topics and the community decides which to try. The GET and the CIAL both evaluate the technologies with committees of farmers, who use simple tables with flipcharts ('participatory evaluations') to register and analyse committee members' preferences for different technologies, and for which characteristics (Ashby, 1992). INNOVA used CIALs and GETs during all three years. An unanticipated advantage of the CIALs and GETs was that they helped INNOVA with the other methods described below (see Table 4). The committee members were like promoters (Bunch, 1982), suggesting that most methods for working with rural communities can be enhanced by personal contacts between researchers and some individual community members. This is a method that PROMETA (part of UMSS) had developed and used previously, which was used during all three years of INNOVA. Researchers take an implement, e.g. a plough, to the field. They try it with the campesinos who suggest changes. The mechanical engineer redesigns the implement, and the team takes it back to the field, until people are satisfied with it. In the final stages, PROMETA may leave an 306Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Technological innovation for sustainable development implement in a community so they can try it for several days. For example in 2003, INNOVA showed metal ploughs that had been developed in the valleys to campesinos in the Altiplano. They liked the plough, but asked for wider wings, to heap more earth around the potato plants. They also said the 13 kg plough was too heavy for their oxen, which are smaller than the ones in the valleys. INNOVA returned with a lighter, 8.5 kg plough, but it was too fragile, and could not work the rocky soil of the Altiplano. By 2004, INNOVA returned with a heavier plough, 10.5 kilos, with a stronger, sharper point. It worked well and people began to buy it.The sondeo (literally 'sounding,' the nautical term for finding the depths of the water) is known by its Spanish name even in English-language literature (Hildebrand, 1981). It involves six researchers going to the field for a week to observe farms and talk to farmers. Some of the partner organizations had used the sondeo for several years. CIAT started using the sondeo in the 1980s and PROINPA used it in the 1990s. INNOVA used a sondeo early in the first year , but changed it, making it shorter (two days instead of six), going to one community in each of three regions (instead of many communities in a single region) and added a final session to discuss the results with the community (Bentley et al., 2004). Semi-structured interviews on crops, pests, livestock etc. led to ample descriptions of local agriculture, including problems and demands.INNOVA's technologies fit reasonably well with the explicit demands voiced in the sondeo. For example, the farmers said they wanted more fodder for their cows, oxen and sheep (Bentley et al., 2004), and four technologies were on fodder (Table 3). However there was little explicit demand for nematode control, improved tillage, animal traction or soil conservation, which were all important for researchers in INNOVA (Table 2). This does not mean that the technologies were trivial. Nematodes are a serious pest in Bolivia, even though they are so difficult to observe that smallholders tend to be unaware of them unless the little worms are brought to farmers' attention (Bentley et al. 2003) Campesinos seldom complain of soil erosion, even when it is serious and chronic, but may show concern over extreme gulley erosion (Thiele and Terrazas, 1998).A study funded by SDC found that almost everyone in Bolivia is poor (Quiroga et al., 1999). So the real question is not if the campesinos are poor, but if they are all equally poor, and if they all have the same needs for innovations. The study indicated more poverty in the Altiplano than in the low valleys. In three of the municipalities where INNOVA worked, the rate of poverty was 98% (in Umala, on the Altiplano), 97% (in Tiraque in the high valleys) and 85% (in Comarapa in the low valleys) (Quiroga et al., 1999). The 15% who are not poor tend to live nearest to the highway. They are more visible, have more contacts, more time and may be more likely to collaborate with INNOVA. So after the first sondeo, discussed above, INNOVA planned a stratified sondeo to distinguish between the demands of the poor, the poorer and the poorest. In Tanzania and Ethiopia, researchers held meetings to ask farmers to rank demands by income groups. Wealthy farmers were more concerned about the shortage of grazing land in Ethiopia, because they had more cattle. The poor were more concerned about access to irrigation water in Tanzania because the wealthy had the water. But many issues were of concern to most community members (e.g. declining soil fertility, deforestation, deteriorating water quality (German et al. 2005).INNOVA conducted a stratified sondeo in four communities the second year ( December 2003-March 2004), identifying economic levels with wealth ranking (see Grandin, 1988). The stratified sondeo showed some differences between the 'rich' and the poor, e.g. on the Altiplano, the poorest felt most strongly the shortage of irrigation water. In the high valleys the least poor were the most concerned about the high price ($50) of metal ploughs. And in the low valleys the poor were not interested in the problems of cattle or fruit trees. However, the poorest shared many demands with their wealthier neighbours (e.g. everyone wanted to control diseases of potato: a staple food of the Andes). But the stratified sondeo annoyed the local communities, which have a sense of moral equality. All community members are regarded as equal, even though they are well aware of wealth differences and it was upsetting for them to see this differences made so starkly obvious, when the facilitators asked people of different economic levels to sit in different workgroups. INNOVA found that the communities have just a few relatively prosperous households, with more land than the others, and just a few very poor households, mainly of elderly people. Most households are of middle income: poor but not destitute, food producers with a small surplus to sell, much as scholarly studies have shown for the Peruvian Andes (Mayer, 2002).Local notions of equality may be a kind of polite fiction, but glossing over some economic differences helps avoid problems like envy among community members, and allows them to respect each other and work together. In the future it will be important to learn about local economic differences, and the various demands for 308Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Technological innovation for sustainable development research per each group, but in slightly more discrete ways, not by physically arranging the 'strata' into highly visible workgroups (\"all the poor people over here\") .Before harvesting their field trials, the researchers and the CIALs and GETs showed the test plots to hundreds of their neighbours and to people from other communities. They divided the visitors into three to five more-or-less random groups, who visited each trial (in a bus or on foot), where the farmer-experimenter explained the technology. Some technologies were presented as stands, which were not as convincing as the ones shown in the field, but stands saved time. Each technology fair took about six hours, but they were fun, 'a party without booze'. They started with a sign-in, and a welcome by municipal authorities. After seeing the field trials and stands, there was an exit questionnaire, a big lunch and a farewell. They included other fun events, like music, skits or a football match. Besides the lunch, farmers were also provided transportation to the technology fair (in a chartered bus). The technology fair was inspired by the field day, with the difference that INNOVA used short questionnaires to see which technology people preferred. The one-page forms could be filled out in two minutes, and they asked which technologies people wanted to try (and why) and which technologies did they not like (and why not). At a typical fair, 12 to 14 project staff members gave the questionnaires to over 100 people. INNOVA held technology fairs the first year in one community in all three regions, in two regions the second year (Altiplano and low valleys), and in two the third year (Altiplano and high valleys).The first year, INNOVA also used voting, with small 'ballots' which farmers dropped into boxes representing each technology. However, this gave similar results to the short questionnaires (see Bellon, 2002 for another voting method) and in following years INNOVA just used short questionnaires.Forage was an explicit demand, however during the first technology fair (2003) on the Altiplano the fodder trial of grains-with-legumes had been planted late and the plants were barely growing. Questionnaires showed that the farmers were not convinced (only 31% expressed interest). In the sondeo on the Altiplano, people demanded more forage; quinoa was a secondary demand. However, during the fair, people actually preferred quinoa to fodder. In part this was because a woman and man from the area showed a healthy field of quinoa (they had used chemical fertilizer, not a local practice) (see Figure 1a) People also liked quinoa perhaps because at a stand, agronomists gave a convincing talk, and handed out pieces of quinoa cake (see Figure 1b). People are attracted to well-presented technology, even if it is not high on their list of demands.In the fairs, the farmers gave high scores to improved tillage and animal-drawn implements, even though these were not demanded in the sondeo. The technologies responded to implicit demands; people did not request the implements until seeing them. By the third year INNOVA knew how to show its techniques to best effect: in the field, with a thriving crop, explained by farmers in the local language (Spanish, Quechua or Aymara), and giving away little (50 gram) bags of seeds, so farmers could try the new crops or varieties at home (see Figures 2 and 3).  CIALs and GETs have a final event where the farmer-experimenters explain their preferences for each technology. But INNOVA used this feedback (during all three years) to encourage farmers to suggest changes in the technologies and plan the next year. The farmer-experimenters and the agronomists outline key points the day before on a large sheet of paper, which the farmers present in their own words.Discussions with the audience often helped improve the technology. For example in Pomposillo, on the Altiplano, people said it was important to plough, adding that the grains-plus-legumes failed in 2003 (year one) because they were planted late. INNOVA followed their recommendations and in 2005 (year three), the oats-plusvetch on the Altiplano were tall and green for the technology fair, and visiting farmers wanted to plant the mix (see Figure 4).During the feedback in Sank'ayani, in the high valleys of Cochabamba, farmers said they liked vetch, but they would like it more if the seed were not so expensive. They proposed trials to grow their own vetch seed. INNOVA started doing trials with farmers to grow seed. SIBTA uses an extension method called PITAs (applied technology innovation projects) where agronomists extend technology to organized groups, especially associations (tomato growers, onion growers etc.) usually linked to market opportunities. In its third year, INNOVA created the MIPITA (INNOVA model of PITAs) to extend the most promising technologies and to adjust methods to link technology supply and demand. INNOVA funded and implemented three MIPITAs, one in each pilot area. Some MIPITAs included several communities and were organized (for example) to buy seeds, so people could adopt forages.As Table 4 shows, INNOVA made the effort to use various formal methods to gauge farmer demand in an integrated way. The methods themselves evolved over time (e.g. the sondeo gave rise to the stratified sondeo, and the technology fair improved every year).  While the Bolivian farmers happily agreed to take part in semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and other formal methods, researchers learned at least as much from farmers incidentally, simply by working with them in the field trials. For example, while spreading dry chicken manure with farmers in the low valleys, agronomist Ernesto Montellano saw that the manure got in people's eyes, and it burned. The farmers suggested placing the manure in the bottom of the furrow instead of scattering it over the surface, which they did, and that became the technical recommendation. Unfortunately, their university training usually does not prepare researchers to write about conversations held on ditch banks or while following an ox team around a field. The following section tries to remedy that by recapturing some of the lessons that farmers and agronomists learned, with formal methods, and informally.This technology did address explicit demand, even so it changed a great deal as the farmer-experimenters and the agronomists adapted it. Purple clover (Trifolium pratense) has been in Bolivia since the 1970s, when it was introduced by earlier projects. PROMETA tried planting mixes of purple clover, white clover (T. repens) and vetch (Vicia sativa) with various grasses (Lolium, Festuca, Dactylis, Eragrostis curvula and Bromus unioloides) in farmers' fields in Qolqe Qhoya and elsewhere in the high valleys of Cochabamba in 1996. After 2000, another project, PROMMASEL, inherited purple clover from PROMETA and continued trying it in Qolqe Qhoya. PROMMASEL started with botanical and ethno-botanical surveys. After planting potatoes, farmers typically plant other crops for two or three years, and end with oats or barley; then fallow the land. Weeds build up each year, and are abundant in the first few years of fallow, although many of the weeds are fodder for livestock. Several of the authors were involved with a study of weeds (Bentley et al., 2005), and we thought that the fallow could be improved by planting purple clover and other plants. So for several years PROMMASEL conducted on-farm trials of 'improved fallow', mixes of grasses and legumes.During the first sondeo in November 2002 in Qolqe Qhoya, people said they were tired of doing little field trials with clover. \"We want to try big fields\", they said. INNOVA agronomist Salomón Pérez dutifully returned four days later and tried selling the seed at a meeting of the sindicato (village organizations with elected leaders and 314Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Technological innovation for sustainable development a monthly meeting with a representative from each household). Pérez even went door to door, and still only four families bought purple clover seed. In other words, they had explicitly demanded seed, and then showed little interest in buying it. Some said they did not have the money. Others said they would wait to see their neighbours plant it first.INNOVA kept studying 'improved fallow' and in the first technology fair, in Qolqe Qhoya, presented a participatory trial, in a farmer's field, with three treatments of different mixes. But at the same technology fair, another farmer, Nelson Vallejos, showed a plot of about 1000 square meters he had planted on his own (see Figure 5). As soon as Vallejos and the others started planting purple clover on their own, they changed it radically. Instead of planting it at harvest time, they planted it at the regular planting time, and they sowed it with oats, instead of with festuca or lolium, since they knew oats better, and had the seed. They planted purple clover in good soil, not in hillside fields. INNOVA recommended another change, irrigation. Farmers and agronomists realised that they should plough carefully when planting, instead of simply broadcasting the seed. Later farmers began manuring the clover (see Figure 6).The members of the GET mentioned these changes at the first feedback in Qolqe Qhoya, and with the agronomists, redesigned purple clover so it yielded fodder, which was what they demanded. Mr Vallejos and the others in the GET may well have benefited from their five or six years' experience with purple clover and other fodders during earlier projects, but they made big changes in the technology once they began planting purple clover on their own. It has long been known that farmers modify what they learn (Johnson, 1972;Denevan, 1983); the advantage here was having the agronomists there to see what the farmers were doing, and collect some hard data. This way the agronomists themselves accepted the changes, and would later recommend them to other farmers.By 2005 the MIPITA in the high valleys helped 17 farmers from various communities get 36 kilos of purple clover seed, enough to plant small parcels on their own. At the technology fair in 2005, Nelson Vallejos once again showed his small plot of clover, only this time the sign did not say 'improved fallow'. It said 'managing purple clover,' because farmers and agronomists realized that the technology had changed from a type of fallow to a kind of permanent pasture. INNOVA even printed pamphlets for farmers, describing the purple clover as pasture.The above case suggests that farmers and researchers working together may make major changes in a technology. But change is not always so dramatic. Sometimes the researchers create appropriate technology essentially on their own, in response to explicit demand, later making only minor adjustments with farmer-colleagues.1970s. IBTA introduced a small lot of phalaris from Colombia to the experimental station at Patacamaya, on the Altiplano, as forage (Mendieta, 1979). The agronomists lost interest in phalaris, but the hardy grass survived anyway. In the early 1980s, CIF (Fodder Research Centre) promoted it in the valleys and high country of Cochabamba.1996-99. The Hillsides Projects (PROLADE) rediscovered phalaris and tried it for live barriers to conserve soil in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. The grass thrived and farmers and NGOs started to accept it.2002. In December 2002, INNOVA took phalaris to the Altiplano. At first, proposing it as a live barrier, looking for small slopes to plant it on. The GETs in Pomposillo and Mamaniri planted live barriers and 40 people took plants. 2003. During the technology fair in Pomposillo the phalaris grass was still only three months-old, and not well established yet, so INNOVA decided not to show it. Two farmers explained phalaris in a stand, and gave away a few plants. But five months later, 16 August 2003, when the phalaris was better grown, they presented it again in Pomposillo at the feedback, and six people asked where they could get more.In December 2003, INNOVA sold 10,300 phalaris plants to 66 households in six communities (two in each pilot area.) In participatory evaluations in the GETs people had only good things to say about phalaris: It stayed green after frosts. It was easy to transplant, took root readily, grew back well after being cut, was cheap to establish, animals liked to eat it and it even kept the Andean potato weevil out of the fields (see Figure 7). 2005. INNOVA introduced the idea of making hay from phalaris, and 130 families tried it. In the technology fair at Kellhuiri, Umala, farmers Javier Condori and Gladys Condori gave a glowing account of phalaris. Even though they spoke at a stand, not in a field, people in the crowd asked \"Where can I get it to plant?\"In the first two cases, the technologies were adapted to fit an explicit demand. But in this next case, the farmers did not ask for the technology; it responded to an implicit demand, and through a sustained conversation changed it into an explicit one.2000. The MIPAPA Project started a scientific survey of pests and diseases in the low valleys (Santa Cruz).April 2001. In Comarapa, Santa Cruz, CIAT found the small beetle Epitrix damaging seed potato in the CIAL in Verdecillos. Agronomist Ernesto Montellano, Pablo Franco and colleagues decided to try managing it with a technique they had learned from CIP: higher aporque (hilling up: after potatoes sprout, farmers heap soil up onto the plants as they weed). But it was hard to do well with a wooden plough. 2002. People in the CIALs and GETs started using a higher aporque. Previously, they had heaped the soil when the potatoes were big, which damaged many tubers. Now, they heaped the soil just as the plants were sprouting, and again when the plant had grown but the tubers were still small. This damaged the potato plants less and gave room in the soil for the tubers to bulk up. INNOVA planted tillage trials in all three areas, and showed them at the technology fairs.2003. The PROMETA agronomists came to Comarapa and designed a plough with wings, with the CIAL, using Back-&-Forth, and showed the plough and trials at the technology fairs (see Figure 8).  All of the INNOVA technologies changed as they responded to demand, but in different ways. After years of working with scientists on purple clover, farmers made several big changes, which they never would have made if researchers had not shared the crop with farmers. Phalaris changed much less; after scientists introduced it farmers made only one change, planting it in small fields instead of in live barriers. Researchers accepted this in good faith, and responded with a further change of their own: making hay from phalaris. High aporque (hilling up) was researcher-led, and did not respond to an explicit demand; it was invented by CIP researchers to grow bigger potatoes, but bigger potatoes are not always what Andean farmers demand (Zimmerer, 2003). Furthermore, while adapting high aporque to Bolivia, researchers made most of the changes, although they did all of their trials with farmers, who then accepted the technology.Perhaps the clearest evidence that INNOVA responded to demand was that it had the honesty to end fruitless lines of research (two out of 10 in Table 5) and that technologies evolved as the conversation with farmers was developed (eight out of 318Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Technological innovation for sustainable development 10 in Table 5). INNOVA's methods contributed to the conversation and the changes (all 10 in Table 5), although as we mentioned earlier, spending time with farmers and looking and listening were equally important. Demand for innovation is not a static phenomenon which can be discovered and then acted upon. Demand co-evolves with research, and must be monitored as the technologies develop; that is how commercial products are developed, either with focus groups or with individuals (Morgan, 1997;Bernet et al 2005), even with interviews in consumers' homes (Sunderland et al., 2004). Successful innovation is not the work of solitary heroes, but of groups and institutions, linked in relationships of trust, where the users can make their demands known and be involved in the research (Barnett, 2004). Innovation, like conversation, goes in stages. This brings us back to two concerns posed at the beginning of this paper. First, capturing farmer demand may not be as simple as some policy makers suppose. Gauging demand requires more than a petition from farmers. Demands are of different types: explicit demands can be more easily captured than implicit ones. Farmers may voice explicit demands, and researchers may have to intuit some of the implicit ones. Researchers respond with some technology, although even the strongest research institutes would be unlikely to meet all of farmers' demands. The farmers then respond to the new 'supply' of technology, which researchers must then adapt to an increasingly focussed, more sophisticated set of demands. Appropriate methods such as the sondeo, technology fair and others, particularly when ordered into a coherent set, help to guide the evolution of supply and demand, but just as important are the insights that come from working closely with farmers.Second, what should be done with research that is already underway and in which a high investment has already been made? In this case, most, but not all, the technology generated by the previous projects responded to either an explicit demand or to an implicit one. Throwing away existing technologies and starting from scratch would have scuttled potentially functional technology, wasting a research investment and potential for helping poor farmers in Bolivia and elsewhere.  The potato is a staple food in the Andean countries. Hundreds of native varieties are very well appreciated by farmers and their families because of their excellent culinary 326Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Technological innovation for sustainable development qualities. These varieties have now better and increased commercial prospects as big companies, like Frito Lay, have developed new commercial products. In addition, the consumption of fresh tubers is increasing. Part of the production is sold in urban markets, and another part is used for home consumption, which make native varieties very important for food security. Unfortunately, small farmers obtain very low yields, partly due to poor seed quality. In order to accomplish new plans to expand markets, farmers are required to improve the production and quality of seed tubers.The Papa Andina Initiative of the International Potato Center and its partners in Bolivia (PROINPA Foundation, Promoción e Investigación de Productos Andinos), Ecuador (INIAP, Instituto Nacional Autónomo de Investigaciones Agropecuarias) and Peru (INCOPA Project, Innovación y Competitividad de la Papa) implemented this study to diagnose the current situation of the production systems of tuber seeds, focusing on native potato varieties of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, in order to propose actions for improving these systems, especially for small farmers.Secondary information was collected. Recent information was obtained in early 2008 through direct observations in the field and interviews with farmers and officials of governmental and non-governmental organizations. Interviews were based on visit guidelines and a work plan previously established. The information received was mainly qualitative.It was difficult to obtain information about volumes of native potatoes for fresh consumption, because official statistics on native potato production are inexistent. However, it was possible to obtain information on the volumes of certified seeds of improved and native varieties produced in Peru and Bolivia, but not in Ecuador. After the field visits and interviews had been completed, a workshop was conducted in each country to discuss the situation of the seed potato production. These meetings allowed the experts to discuss the results of this study and also to implement some actions to improve the tuber seed production of native varieties.The results of this study relate to: (1) the situation of native varieties in each country;(2) the formal, informal and mixed seed potato production systems; (3) the potential demand and seed needs of native varieties; (4) problems affecting seed quality of native varieties; and (5) seed renewal practices.The availability of native varieties in each country was established. In Ecuador, there are approximately 400 native varieties grown by indigenous communities (INIAP, 2006), but only 20 of them are present in local markets. Unfortunately, the original collections were lost, but INIAP is collecting these materials again. A publication of INIAP (INIAP-PNRT -Papa, 2005) mentions 17 commercial varieties grown in the central provinces of the country. FONTAGRO (Fondo Regional de Tecnología Agropecuaria) is supporting a project to eliminate pathogens from several native varieties and multiply them for use in processing. FONTAGRO and two CIP projects (Cambio Andino and InnovAndes, Strengthening Capacity for Innovation and Poverty Alleviation in the Andes) are also promoting the production and commercialization of native varieties in the central Andes of Ecuador.In Bolivia, the PROINPA Foundation maintains a gene bank with approximately 1,750 accessions. Of those, approximately 1,050 are multiplied (\"refreshed\") to produce seed tubers which are also used for commercial purposes. Every year approximately 150 to 200 accessions are cleaned-up. A catalog of potato varieties, mostly native ones, was produced in 2002 (Ugarte and Iriarte, 2002). Another catalog of potato and oca varieties of the Candelaria area was published in 2004, where 32 native varieties are included (Cadima et al., 2004).Each region in Bolivia has its own native varieties that are utilized mainly for local consumption. In the north of Potosi, 200 native varieties were characterized and four were selected to promote their use. Another five varieties are being used by APROTAC (Asociación de Productores de Tubérculos Andinos de Candelaria), which has successfully consolidated the production and commercialization of seed and fresh tubers for the Cochabamba markets (Oros et al., 2007).In Peru in the department of Huánuco, Mr. Victoriano Fernández (Jr.), a farmer that preserves native varieties in the district of Quishki, indicated that he grows 437 native varieties for traditional home consumption and periodic sale. He also indicates that there are 14 other farmers who preserve native varieties, and that each farmer maintains around 200 to 300 varieties. It is also known that CIP has returned 104 virusfree native varieties to the local communities in Chogobamba (3,800 m.a.s.l.). In Junín, 15 native potato varieties are being multiplied by the on-governmental organization (NGO) FOVIDA (Fomento de la Vida) and the CAPAC (Cadenas Agrícolas Productivas de Calidad) platform, for further process testing by Frito Lay. In addition, INIA (Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria) maintains an in-vitro collection of 18 pathogen-free native potato varieties, which was multiplied in Huancayo for the NGO ADERS (Asociación para el Desarrollo Sostenible), to be used for the industry and fresh consumption. In the region of Aymara (Huancavelica) there are several farmers who maintain native potato varieties; each farmer maintains approximately 400 varieties. A FONTAGRO project is supporting the evaluation of the processing aptitude of 12 native varieties for chips and for mashing. In Paucarbamba, ADERS is conducting a seed project for multiplying five native varieties for industrial purposes. Farmers involved in this project attend farmer field schools (FFS) to receive training on seed production techniques. Some of these varieties are for fresh consumption in urban markets. It is also important to mention that UNALM (Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina), CIP, and INIA have set up breeding programs designed to select improved varieties with colored flesh pigmentation for industrial and fresh consumption purposes.Finally, CIP maintains under custody the world potato gene bank made up of samples of the potato germplasm collected in the countries of the Andean Region. Kallhuay and others. Seeds of these varieties come from Andahuaylas and have been planted in the communities of Chicche, Pomamanta and Chuquitambo. In Andahuaylas, at least five varieties (Ccompis, Peruanita, Huayro, Tumbay and Amarilla) are certified by INIA. Under Peruvian seed legislation, the commercial varieties must be registered in the Register of Commercial Varieties in order to produce certified seed. At present, 61 Peruvian native varieties have already been registered.In none of the three countries is there any specific reference regarding the potential demand for seed of native varieties. In Bolivia, it was estimated that 5000 t of seed tuber is required for the country's highlands region, and this amount can be supplied initially with 300 t of basic seed (Programa de Semilla de Papa, 1998). In Ecuador there are no references on any potential demand. In Peru, it was determined that the chip industry would require approximately 500 t of flesh-colored native varieties annually. In order to produce this amount, it would be necessary to produce 20,000 pre-basic tuberlets in beds under rustic screen-house conditions or in aeroponic facilities (see below). 2In none of the three countries are there any studies indicating the problems that reduce the sanitary quality of the seed tubers of native varieties. It is recognized, however, that certain diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, virus or nematodes, among others, can cause severe losses to the crop and the seed (Rioja andBarea, 2004 and2006). For seed production purposes, it is essential to begin the process using pathogen-free materials (Rioja andBarea, 2004 and2006;Iriarte et al., 2001).In Peru, it is estimated that diseases caused by viruses are an important factor in the degeneration of native varieties (Scheidegger et al., 1995). These authors, working with improved and some native varieties, estimated at 50% the crop losses in plants with 100% incidence of viruses PLRV (Potato Leafroll Virus) and PVY (Potato Virus Y) transmitted by aphids. The contact viruses PVX (Potato Virus X), PVS (Potato Virus S), APLV (Andean Potato Latent Virus), and APMoV (Andean Potato Mottle Virus) did not affect the yield significantly. Due to the fact that potato producers use their own seed, virus incidence increases and consequently degeneration occurs, which makes it necessary to perform periodic renewal with pathogen-free seed.In this country there are a large number of rustic screen-houses that can be used for the production of high quality pre-basic seed.In the lower parts of Huánuco, Peru, two potentially serious pathological problems persist, and these should be taken into consideration if native varieties are multiplied in this zone: PYVV (Potato Yellow Vein Virus) and Bacterial Wilt (Ralstonia Technological innovation for sustainable development solanacearum). The latter has not been reported in most seed production areas, but its absence needs to be verified constantly.In Ecuador, Fankhauser (2000) demonstrated that the main causes of seed degeneration are not viruses, but soil pathogens and insects, such as Rhizoctonia solani, Streptomyces scabies and Premnotrypes vorax, with incidences from 17% to 78% and losses from 17% to 30%. Viruses such as PLRV, PVY and PYVV had low incidence (< 3%), affecting individual yield (per plant), but not affecting total yield because of a compensation effect.Another limiting factor for potato production in the Andean zone, as well as for seed production, is the Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN, Globodera rostochiensis) (Pacajes et al., 2002;Franco et al., 1999). Losses caused by this nematode are very important (Franco et al., 1999), not only for commercial potato productions, but also for seed production. An obvious problem at present is that the rotation periods are too short, which makes it almost impossible to multiply seed in areas with PCN incidence.For native varieties, seed renewal is performed through \"refreshing\" procedures, i.e., periodic reintroduction of pathogen-free materials every four to five years. In Bolivia, in the Toralapa Experimental Station of PROINPA, approximately 2.0 t to 2.5 t of certified seeds of native varieties are produced. In addition, a FONTAGRO project is in the process of producing certified seeds of eight native varieties.In Peru, CIP has repeatedly reintroduced native varieties into communities, since many of them had been lost due to social turbulence, natural disasters and abiotic factors. From 1998 to 2006, CIP restored to their original places 3182 samples of 1350 native varieties in 38 communities in 7 departments of Peru (R.Gomez, CIP, personal communication). In Andahuaylas, seed renewal is effected by buying certified seed of five commercially produced varieties (Ccompis, Peruanita, Huayro, Tumbay and Amarilla). This is not the case with the rest of native varieties that are produced by individual request. Seed is also \"informally\" produced when special projects request seed for specific varieties. This is the case of the production of the Cceccorani variety for a project of the NGO FOVIDA in Junín. Seed exchange in local fairs is a common source of seed renewal in Peru and Bolivia.In Ecuador, seed renewal of native varieties is almost inexistent, as there is no production of certified seed. However, INIAP is cleaning up several native varieties. Exchange in local fairs is also low, as most native varieties are not present in markets.In order to improve the seed production systems for native varieties in the three countries, it is necessary to take into consideration that most seed comes from informal seed systems. Exceptions are certified seeds produced under the supervision of the ORS in Bolivia and by INIA in Peru. Farmers do not usually practice any type of plant selection (positive or negative) due to the lack of knowledge on limiting factors and also because of cultural beliefs. For example, killing a cultivated plant (i.e., negative selection) is not accepted by many Andean cultures. The following alternatives are proposed to produce high-quality seed of native varieties:With this alternative, production is conducted under the regulations of a seed certification scheme based on existing seed laws. It requires a lot of personnel, knowledge, and investment from the public sector. Previous experiences in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru (and in many developing countries) show that this alternative is feasible for large farmers, but not for small farmers. The expected sustainability of these systems is low, since it implies the need for a market that demands quality potato production, which acts as a driving force to develop demand for certified seed. Low multiplication rates of conventional techniques are not capable of lowering the price of pre-basic mini-tubers to start a seed multiplication program. An innovative technology called aeroponics is being tested in Ecuador and Peru for the production of pre-basic mini-tubers. Early results suggest that this technology could dramatically reduce the cost of mini-tubers, making certified seed more affordable.These systems are suitable for small farmers connected to dynamic markets. They include the following components:• Using seed produced in a formal system (e.g., pre-basic, basic, registered, certified) every certain number of years (usually four or five)• Training farmers to re-use the seed that they receive• Implementing an internal quality-control system (e.g., Montesdeoca, 2005).There are good examples of such systems in the three countries, which apply at least one of the components: APROTAC in Bolivia, ADERS in Peru and CONPAPA in Ecuador. The expected sustainability of these systems is medium term, as farmers depend on seed from outside every certain number of years.These systems are particularly suitable for small farmers with low connection to markets, and living in remote areas with high climatic risk. In this case, farmers are trained to select and manage their own seed in order to become self sufficient and to secure a seed supply. The expected sustainability of these systems is high, although the quality of seed stocks can decrease rapidly with poor cultural practices. Examples of these systems are described elsewhere (e.g., de Haan, 1999).In mixed and informal systems there are at least three points to be considered. First, in regions with high climatic risk, rustic greenhouses or protected beds (e.g., PROINPA, 1998) could be used to produce small amounts of high-quality seed, but the requirements of water, labor and cash could be too high for small farmers. Second, positive, negative and clonal selections are key elements in both systems and, 332Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Technological innovation for sustainable development therefore, training farmers in these simple techniques is crucial. Third, small farmers have to be organized in order to implement mixed or informal systems.The availability of most native varieties in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru depends on small farmers, who preserve these varieties in situ. Small farmers use these varieties mainly for home consumption, and also to supply the increasing demand of the industry and the fresh market.Seed of native varieties is mostly produced and distributed through informal systems. Although poor cultural practices and free exchange of planting material derived from these systems are some of the main factors for pathogen dissemination, mixed and improved informal systems are the most promising alternatives for potato seed production for small farmers in the Andes to respond to market demands.A limitation for using formal systems is that native potato varieties need to be registered officially in order to produce certified seed. This represents an administrative constraint since bureaucratic paperwork is demanding and timeconsuming, and it is not clear whether this is the responsibility of a national or private entity. The work done under the leadership of INCOPA in Peru illustrates how private partners have worked together towards the official registration of native varieties.Seed-production techniques and agronomic technologies for seed production have been developed and are well identified for improved potato varieties, but need to be adapted to improve seed-production systems for native varieties. New techniques, such as aeroponics, are promising and can have an impact on seed systems. Nevertheless, simpler technologies, such as positive and negative selection, training, and technical assistance remain the key factors for strengthening the existing seed systems in order to respond quickly to market demands. Similarly, factors causing seed degeneration are well identified for improved varieties, but need to be validated for native varieties.After the International Year of the Potato, an increasing demand for native potatoes has become evident. In response, a growing number of NGOs, governmental organization (GOs) and projects are helping small farmers to produce seed. It is, therefore, urgent for CIP and its partners to guide these efforts in order to avoid costly mistakes, such as implementing formal systems, which have proved to be inadequate for small farmers.Finally, the sustainability of any seed-production system depends on the quality requirements of the market. A quality-demanding potato market (for fresh or processing) will be the driving force for the development of a quality seed market and, therefore, market requirements are a crucial variable when designing and implementing seed systems.Technological innovation for sustainable development is a white dehydrated potato tuber (14-16% humidity), round or elongated (according to the variety of potato used). It has a high concentration of starch (80%) and fiber (20%) and is rich in calories and minerals (calcium and iron). See Table 1.Tunta is processed from fresh potato and has a conversion factor of 7:1 or 6:1, according to the variety used, which means that 6 to 7 metric tonnes of fresh potato are needed to produce 1 t of tunta. The varieties most frequently employed are the sweet native variety called Imilla, and the bitter varieties such as Locka. Other contemporary varieties are also used, such as Ch'aska. See Table 2.  The major production area of tunta is the region of Puno, mainly concentrated in communities at an elevation of more than 4,000 meters above sea level, where \"heladas\" (freezing spells with drastic temperature drops to -5° C) occur in the winter time, and water is available in rivers or lakes: these being the key elements for producing tunta. It is estimated that the province of El Collao (the most important area in Puno) produces around 5,000 t/per year and 4,000 t/per year is commercialized. 80% of the production is destined for the Bolivian market and 20% is sold in Peru (Arequipa, Cusco, Puno and, in lower quantities, Lima). Tunta has started being exported to Spain and the United States to cater to the Bolivian and Peruvian communities living there.The studies conducted in these areas (Villena and Caro, 2002;Lacour and Guiet, 2003) indicate that tunta is basically prepared by small producers, for whom it is an important source of income. But they face serious technological restrictions in its production, which, in turn, affect the quality of the end product. At the same time, the weak organization of the producers does not allow a coordinated operation to produce technological and commercial improvements. In addition to these disadvantages, the market for this product is restricted to the traditional regional sector.In this context, the INCOPA project, implemented by CIP (International Potato Center) with funds from SDC, has, since 2005, supported the work platform \"Alianza institucional para el desarrollo competitivo de la tunta\". This project strives to integrate public and private institutions from Puno, including organizations from the Ministries of Agriculture and Production, professional associations in Puno, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and private producers' firms. The aim is to promote improved competitive production of tunta through technological innovation and through the strengthening of organizations, as well as linkage to the market with a quality product. (Gianella, 2004;Fonseca and Ordinola, 2009).Quality improvement work began in 2005. This was based on analyses (Cota, 2005) drawing on local experience, and it brought together a group of leading producers from El Collao to jointly develop innovations in the tunta production process. Several participatory trials were conducted, in which critical points affecting the quality of the end product were identified. With the results of these trials, traditional \"good practices\" [\"buenas prácticas\"] relating to tunta were developed, keeping in mind the ancestral technology of the producers. These include practices related to:• Selection of the potato (raw material), discarding pieces that were damaged by pests such as the Andean weevil (Premnotripes spp) and rotting diseases caused by fungus• Use of floor mats (mantas) to avoid direct contact of the product with the soil during freezing and drying phases• Immersion of the product in the river in cages made out of fishing net instead of in stone-walled ponds, which helped to obtain sweet-smelling tunta free of stains• Practices for peeling and cleaning processes.At the same time, the use of appropriate working clothes, such as overalls, rubber boots, gloves, hats and face masks was emphasized, which improved safety conditions for the producers and ensured the cleanliness of the end product. The results of the investigation were used to prepare training material such as a poster allusive to good practices for processing and the guide entitled Guía de las Buenas Prácticas de Procesamiento Artesanal de la Tunta [Guide to Good Practices for the Traditional Processing of the Tunta] (Fonseca et al., 2008). Technical personnel and producers participated actively in these events, and the guide has become an important item of training material for improving the quality of tunta both in the target group and in adjacent communities within the project's sphere of influence.The producers' leaders received coaching lessons on good practices for processing tunta. They were trained as \"farmer promoters\", who, in turn, would then teach primary producers. The advantage to this is that promoters can communicate in the local language (Aymara), thus guaranteeing the learning and communication process (see Figure 1). The following basic aspects of good practices were emphasized during training:• Cleanliness and hygiene in the production of tunta• Recommendation of tools that protect the product from direct contact with contaminants (floor mats), and also tools that help in obtaining a quality product (fishing nets)• Use of appropriate attire .The producers who have been trained and their neighbors are adopting the good practice rules. As a result, they are obtaining a good quality tunta product characterized by its intense white color, light weight, pleasant smell and easy rehydration (less than 10 minutes) before cooking. All of this has brought direct benefits, increasing both the demand and the market price. Initially, in 2005, organized groups of producers were identified within the work platform. In subsequent years several other groups have joined, and the organizations have been strengthened through management training and advice on legal aspects such as business definition, organizational business development principles, and the business tax system.The training sessions have been the bases for the development of good practices for tunka processing and the organization of supply links to access the market.Consorcio Los Aymaras is a small business formed by the leaders of eleven producer associations. The Consorcio brings together 100 producers, mainly small farmers, coming from eight rural communities and three micro-basins in Ilave (Table 3). They produce on average 1.25 t of tunta per year, using 7 t of fresh potato, of the sweet native varieties as well as bitter and contemporary hybrids such as the Ch'aska, acquired in Andahuaylas. 60 % of their production is destined for market consumption. A very important initiative for the creation of the Consorcio was the involvement of the leaders as commercial drivers in the cities of Arequipa, Cusco, Lima and Tacna. Here, they contacted different venues such as fairs, wholesale food markets and food stores, as well as local authorities, and convened the press to promote the product's image. As a result of these contacts, the producers felt motivated to improve the 340Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Technological innovation for sustainable development quality of their tunta. They also captured the interest of supermarkets, leaving open doors for future commercial transactions (Fonseca and Julca, 2006). See Figure 2. While the organization was improving and traditional good practices for processing the tunta were being implemented, the work platform, together with Consorcio Los Aymaras, designed strategies to expand market access and develop a commercial brand, \"Los Aymaras.\" As a result of good processing practices, the Consorcio now had a product of excellent quality. They were able to obtain their sanitary registration (R.S. DIGESA:N16036N/TECNLS), and had greater potential for linkage to different markets.In 2006, the Consorcio began commercial transactions with supermarkets to introduce tunta as a quality product targeting consumers in a higher income bracket. The aim was to improve its image and to widen its consumption. Thus, the Los Aymaras brand is commercialized in 300-gram packets at supermarkets in Arequipa (Franco and Super), Cusco (Mega), Lima (Tottus) and Puno (commercial stores). In all these cities, the producers also sold directly to consumers at regional fairs during the National Potato Day. Sales reached 6,000 packets (1.2 t), which has prompted a change in the concept of quality and has motivated other producers' micro businesses to sell tunta in hallf-kilo packets.The Los Aymaras commercial brand (see Figure 3) has significantly improved the image of tunta, and this has been reflected in the increase in demand and prices year after year in the markets of Arequipa, Cusco and Puno. In Puno, a study of the production chain, conducted during 2003 (Lacour and Guiet, 2003), indicated that the price of tunta in the Ilave fair was between S/. 1.5 and S/. 3.0 per kilo (depending on quality). Signalling a significant increase since the Consorcio began working in 2006, by 2009 prices had risen to as much as S/. 9.00 per kilo (a 200 % increase ).In 2007, this commercial experience was expanded by the wholesaling of the Los Aymaras brand in 50 kg sacks for the markets in Ilave, Puno, and Desaguadero on the border with Bolivia. Consequently, the Consorcio's small producers commercialized an average of 1.0 t of guaranteed quality tunta in 2008, mainly at Ilave's weekly Sunday fair. They sold a total amount of 70 t of tunta at US$ 2,600 per ton. Another group of 30 larger producers sold a total of 150 t at the markets of Ilave and Desaguadero. A combination of these figures means that the 100 producers connected to the Los Aymaras consorcio achieved a sales volume of US$ 583,300 during 2008.Tunta is one of the most significant gastronomic contributions of the pre-Hispanic cultures (Olivas, 2008;MIMDES, 2008), and it is still consumed today, in both rural and urban areas, mainly in the southern parts of the country: Arequipa, Cusco and Puno. It is eaten in typical dishes, the most popular of which is chuño pasi (boiled tunta served with cheese and an assortment of deep-fried meats). It is also used to prepare sopa blanca (white soup), chairo (a traditional soup with pork and pieces of tunta) and tunta pudding.Aware of the culinary benefits of tunta, and in an attempt to promote its consumption, the project sponsored haute cuisine schools in their work on gastronomic innovations using tunta. Research was done at Escuelas D'Gallia and Gastrotur Perú in Lima, the Cordon Bleu school in Cusco and La Casa de Avila in Arequipa. Other restaurants which participated were: El Rocoto in Lima, Ukucus, Los Balcones de Puno and Mojsa in Puno. These endeavors demonstrated the great culinary versatility of tunta. The flavor adapts equally well in sweet and savory dishes, so it can be used for soups, stews and desserts. Several chefs declared that tunta was a highly malleable product, easy to combine with different ingredients: \"Tunta is like a sponge: it absorbs the flavor of the ingredient it accompanies. In a \"chupe de camarones\" (shrimp soup), it takes on the flavor of the shrimp, and it also blends very well with aromatic herbs\" (Anabel Augusto).As a result, more than 20 recipes were created, among which we can note: ñoquis de tunta y trucha ahumada --tunta gnocchi with smoked trout; manjar de tunta -a sweet tunta delicacy; humitas de tunta -small tunta tamales; and chocotunta -a sweet made out of tunta, chocolate, sugar, and milk. These tunta innovations have been demonstrated at different events in Lima as well as in other regions, where they have been very well received. Several well known chefs from haute cuisine schools and restaurants participated in these activities and are contributing to improving tunta's image. In Puno, this ingredient has been included in dishes on the menu of tourist restaurants that want to promote Peruvian food (see Figure 4).The combination of improved technology, organization, and market linkage has started to show results among small producers. A qualitative survey (through personal visits and talks to the producers' leaders exploring achieved goals, has established that the capability-building of the producers has had a significant influence. This has affected both men and women, and has led to the creation of a network that has an impact on their families and their communities. The producers point out that they have doubled their production and sales due to the improved tunta quality, which resulted from applying good practices for processing and a better understanding of the market. The testimony of one producer (Teresa Ramos) claims \"I learned a lot at the training events; I feel I have grown; I like to teach others what I have learned; besides, my tunta now has better value in the market; people recognize its good quality.\"At the same time, the majority of the producers report that the increase in sales has had positive repercussions on their family incomes. They have used their revenues mainly for:• Increasing the area used to grow potato, to produce more tunta• Buying livestock to fatten and sell for slaughter • Improving their houses or building houses in the town of Ilave.Twenty percent of the producers connected to the Consorcio turned into producerdealers, as in the case of one associate (Constantino Flores) who declared: \"With my wife's help, I now buy tunta from my neighbors to sell it in Ilave and Desaguadero at a good price for us all.\" As seen from this experience, tunta offers great potential, and the results achieved thanks to its improved competitiveness provide the foundations for commercial growth in both national and international markets (Bolivia, Spain and the United States). It should be noted that tunta has already been given a customs classification: 0712.90.90.00 (Project BID-ADEX -RTA, 2009), which means it can be launched in different international markets. This is in addition to the culinary development that the product has been experiencing (the most important gastronomic schools andThe potato is the main source of energy in the Central Andes of Ecuador, especially for low-resource farmers. Some 80,000 families depend on this crop for food and income. Yields are low and farmers' organizations are weak. In 2003, the National Agricultural Research Institute of Ecuador (INIAP) with the support of the Papa Andina project at the International Potato Center (CIP) and funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) started the construction of multi-stakeholder platforms which helped to develop the CONPAPA, a farmers' organization aimed at strengthening the entrepreneurial capacity of potato producers (Cavatassi et al, 2009).One of the strongest points of CONPAPA is the implementation of a seed system. This includes using high-quality seed from INIAP, training farmers on how to re-use their own seed, and setting up an internal quality-control protocol (Montesdeoca et al., 2006). Women participate actively in CONPAPA's seed system and, therefore, INIAP and CIP-Papa Andina agreed to implement a study to analyze gender relationships. This document presents the results of the analysis.Gender analysis helps to explain the mechanisms and dynamics of agricultural research and extension problems in a certain context, in order to understand them and obtain sustainable and equitable results. The objectives of this study were (i) to identify and analyze gender relationships and benefits in seed producers of CONPAPA and (ii) to propose strategies to improve the relationships among the actors of CONPAPA's seed system.This study was done in the provinces of Cotopaxi, Chimborazo, and Tungurahua located in the central Andes of Ecuador. This region concentrates 55% of potato production of Ecuador and is among the poorest in the country. One location was sampled in Cotopaxi (Cumbijín), two in Chimborazo (Calerita and Ballagán), and three in Tungurahua (San Andrés and Pilahuin). All these locations are at elevations of between 2,500 and 3,600 m.a.s.l. Farmers were selected using the following criteria: producers of potato seed, and belonging to the CONPAPA association of seed producers (hereafter referred to as 'CONPAPA seed producers'). In addition, a group of potato seed farmers not belonging to the CONPAPA seed producers was selected (hereafter referred to as 'individual seed producers'). In the CONPAPA seed producers, 21 families (17 represented by women and 4 by men in the association) and 118 of their family members (64 women and 54 men) were included in the study. In the individual seed producers, 21 families and 114 family members (58 women and 56 men) were included in the study.A rural participatory diagnostic with gender approach (Adamo et al., 1998) was used to gather information about general characteristics; participation in community activities; potato-related activities; decision making; and personal, family, and unpaid activities. This method promoted reflection among farmers about their roles according to gender. Several techniques were used: interviews, workshops and direct observation. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the information.Table 1 shows the main characteristics of the families included in this study. Gender is balanced in the CONPAPA seed producers and in the individual seed producers. Distribution across age shows that most members are between 18 and 56 years of 348Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience Empowerment and gender age. Most family members have incomplete primary education, and the percentage of illiteracy is relatively low in both groups. There are three sources of income: potato seed production, off-farm employment and agriculture in general. In the CONPAPA group, potato seed production is the most important one, followed by off-farm employment and agriculture in general. A remarkable 18% of women participate in potato seed production, while off-farm employment is dominated by men. In the individual seed producers, there is no formal business of producing potato seed and, therefore, agriculture in general is the main source of income. As in the CONPAPA group, off-farm employment is dominated by men. On average and in both groups, women's participation in general community activities is higher than men's participation (Table 2). General activities are, for example, assemblies, election of authorities and task groups, strikes, and mingas (collaborative community work traditional in the Andes). In the CONPAPA seed producers group, election of task groups, strikes and mingas are attended mostly by women, while assemblies and election of authorities are attended mostly by men, though women's participation is high. In the individual seed producers group, women's participation is higher than men's participation in strikes and mingas, while there is no clear trend regarding gender for participation in assemblies or election of authorities and task groups. In specific activities for the CONPAPA seed producers group, men dominate participation (Table 2). In the CONPAPA seed producers group, women tend to decide on topics relating to food, clothing, and vegetable and animal management, while men tend to decide on the children's education, the sale of products, cash management, input use, and practically all the activities relating to potato production as an organized group (Table 3). In the individual seed producers group, all decisions are taken mostly by men.In the CONPAPA seed producers group, most potato-related activities are performed mostly by women (Table 4). Exceptions are soil preparation, pest control and selling the production. In the individual seed producers group, all potato-related activities are performed mostly by men. It should be noted that women in the CONPAPA seed producers groups participate much more in pest control and especially in selling the production than their peers in the individual seed producers group.  Family and unpaid activities in the CONPAPA seed producer groups are carried out overwhelmingly by women (Table 5). Men do one activity at a time, while women do several activities simultaneously. For example, women take care of babies while shepherding and spinning wool. This explains why women spend 46 hours per day on these activities, while men spend 24 hours.Finally, qualitative information showed that most women are not able to fully understand the training they receive from INIAP and other organizations, as women prefer to communicate orally in Quechua and not in Spanish and in writing, as often occurs in training events. Women also complained about limited access to credit. Although the sample size was relatively small and the data were mostly qualitative, this study suggests the following conclusions. First, women are a critical component for seed production in CONPAPA. They attend events such as assemblies, training workshops, etc. (Table 2), decide on important aspects of seed production (Table 3) and, more importantly, carry out most of the seed-production tasks (Table 4). As result, this activity is becoming the single most important source of family income, displacing off-farm employment by men (Table 1). Second, women are being empowered by becoming part of CONPAPA seed producers groups. For example, they decide in a higher proportion and on more topics than women who do not belong to the CONPAPA groups (Table 3). They also sell the production almost as often as men do, and nearly twenty times more than their peers who do not belong to CONPAPA (Table 4). Third, becoming part of the CONPAPA seed producers groups might be overloading the women's capacity. The women carry out an incredibly large number of activities, which seems not to be matched by or compensated for by the men (Table 5). Finally, men are still attending the most important events (Table 2), and are in charge of taking the most important decisions (Table 3).Taken as a whole, the intervention of INIAP for training women to become seed producers seems a good decision. However, several recommendations could be made. (i) take extra care to use training materials adapted for women, and conduct the training events in their native language; (ii) promote women's access not only to knowledge, but also to other resources, mainly credit, so they can run their own businesses; (iii) practice affirmative action, since 'treating unequals as equals is to perpetuate inequality', and promote women's leadership; (iv) be aware that new activities could be overloading the women's capacity and, therefore, start the intervention with few, relatively simple activities (e.g., growing small potato plots); and (v) publicly acknowledge the contribution made by women, if not to all activities, at least to those relating to potato production.The capacity of CONPAPA to organize farmers and to provide access to markets was not part of this study; nevertheless, this is a critical point if we are to understand the success of women seed producers. CONPAPA provides access to new technologies, training, technical support, credit, and markets that demand high-quality tubers. Seed is produced only on demand; it is checked by an internal quality-control process, and is sold to other CONPAPA farmers at a convenient price for both parties. In that manner, seed producers are encouraged to produce high-quality tuber seeds, because they are rewarded with a good price. In addition, seed producers are seen as top potato producers within their communities, which in turn increase their selfesteem.Rural women, while pursuing food security for their families, have been contributing since ancestral times to the preservation of native roots and tubers. They have passed on to their children their knowledge and skills regarding resource management, seed selection and the use of several agricultural products (Estrada, 2000;Tapia and de La Torre, 1997).However, in most of the cases, rural women have been performing their duties in silence, without proper recognition. In Andean communities, women's participation in decision-making comes up against barriers imposed by a world predominantly governed by men, in which women play a subordinate role. Those women can often communicate only in their native language, which further limits their possibilities.It is a real challenge, therefore, to carry out activities with female community members for strengthening the use and conservation of biodiversity. PROINPA (Foundation for Promotion and Research of Andean Products) and the Bolivian Ministry of Agriculture, with the support of the CIP-Papa Andina Initiative, have accepted this challenge involving the participation of women in different experiences in the area of genetic resources; the idea is to restore the important role of Andean roots and tubers in the family diet, and to make it possible to increase the family income with these products.Activities were carried out in three Bolivian areas: Coroico and Cariquina Grande (in La Paz); and Colomi (in Cochabamba). In all, approximately 700 families have benefited from PROINPA's activities in the three areas (direct and indirect beneficiaries).Even if biodiversity loss in countries with ancestral cultures such as Bolivia is not considered so dramatic as in other countries (Sevilla, 2006), such loss still takes place. The strategy to stop this process was based on developing social and economic incentives for in situ conservation of the agrobiodiversity in microcenters with high biodiversity. Rural women played a key role in this process.The strategy included following activities:• Selection of microcenters with high biodiversity of Andean roots and tubers (Coroico and Cariquina Grande in La Paz; Colomi in Cochabamba). Microcenters are geographical areas whose environmental and socio-cultural characteristics contribute to the existence and conservation of a diversity of species and varieties (García et al, 2003a) • Identification of communities and families, particularly women, with extensive traditional knowledge in the use of Andean roots and tubers• Use of participatory methodologies for the characterization of Andean roots and tubers as well as for raising the people's awareness of their properties. These methodologies are particularly useful for gaining a better understanding of people's interaction in their own context (Almanza et al, 2003) • Campaigns (local radio, workshops and lectures) to point out the importance of the use and conservation of Andean roots and tubers both to improve family nutrition and to generate additional family income• Workshops with female community members to promote recovery of traditional uses, development of innovative new uses, and dissemination of recipes including Andean roots and tubers. At this stage, emphasis was on the role of preserving biodiversity for food security (Terrazas and Iriarte, 2009). According to Fries (1997), training is a key element to improve nutrition and promote more extensive use of edible species• Promotion and organization of biodiversity and nutrition fairs with the participation of health and local education representatives. In recent years, local fairs have become an important element to promote the conservation of genetic resources (Tapia and De la Torre, 1997;García et al, 2003b;PROINPA, 2005) • Promotion of women's active participation in producer associations, in order to open up their market opportunities. Currently there is a large demand for non-traditional and organic products, providing a good opportunity for products such as roots and tubers (Hermann and Heller, 1997). As Tapia (2006) points out, market links may provide an incentive for conservation.People in the municipality of Coroico, 95 kilometers from La Paz, traditionally produce and consume several Andean roots, such as the achira (Canna edulis), ajipa (Pachyrhizus tuberosus and P. ahipa), walusa (Xanthosoma saggitifolium), aricoma or yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius), and racacha (Arracacia xanthorrhiza) (Figure 1). This tradition has, however, been neglected in recent years because of the widespread consumption of commercial products such as coffee and orange. Thanks to the persistence in maintaining their natural resources of some farming families, in which women play a leading role, and thanks to the support of several institutions during the past decade, these root crops are being recovered and reinstated in the family diet; and they are also generating additional income.The project identified interest groups (producer associations) and local promoters to work in the rescue of available knowledge on the management and use of the roots. Men showed little or no interest in the experience. Women, on the contrary, showed a high personal commitment and played an active part in the associations. One of three associations in the area is currently composed exclusively of women.Work with these women has contributed to recovering the traditional uses of those roots and proved to be a good way of introducing innovations for culinary purposes.Participating women told PROINPA, that they are proud of their achievements. They mention that before the project, the use of the roots was limited to a couple of recipes and their families were tired of them. Whereas nowadays they are more aware of the nutritional value of these root crops and have learned to use them in different ways. Women also participate actively in local and regional fairs selling their products and thus improving their own income and that of the family.The town of Tablas Montes in the subtropics of Colomi is approximately 100 km from the city of Cochabamba,. The basis of the economy is agriculture, particularly the cultivation of \"locoto\" (hot peppers) and potatoes, although there are a variety of other Andean crops.The objective in this area was to promote the local use of biodiversity. The strategy was to engage teachers, school students, personnel from local health centers, and the women's associations of Tablas Montes. The project organized and implemented biodiversity and nutrition fairs with these actors (Figure 2). Training workshops on traditional and innovative uses of the local products were conducted. Women from Coroico (La Paz) came to the area to share their knowledge and experiences, acting as trainers. This further contributed to the empowerment of women, improving their knowledge and self-esteem.During the fair, female community members and students gathered together to make with their own hands the traditional and new recipes using their root crops (Figure 3). They wrote their own recipe booklets and shared their knowledge with members of neighboring communities.Participants are currently selling the products in other regional fairs to raise funds for their organization. At the same time, thanks to the training, they are now better endowed to plan and conduct other businesses, such as providing snacks for school breakfasts in Colomi.Cariquina Grande is an Aymara community in the northern highlands of La Paz, close to Lake Titicaca. Cariquina has a large variety of native potatoes and other Andean tubers such as the oca (Oxalis tuberosa), papalisa (Ullucus tuberosus), and isaño (Tropaeolum tuberosum), which have grown in the community since ancient times. The conservation of these crops is strongly linked to food security and to cultural relationships among people, and between people and nature (\"Mother Earth\").  PROINPA worked with local women searching for incentives for increased consumption of Andean tubers, especially among younger generations. Traditional, but also innovative, forms of consumption were promoted, such as cakes baked from native potatoes, and bread made of oca (Figure 4). Recipes also included new ingredients such as quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) and tarwi or lupine (Lupinus mutabilis). The feasibility of delivering such products to local schools as part of the school breakfast is currently being explored.The project also promoted women's participation in the local producers association. Currently, female members are actively engaged in the production and marketing of native potatoes.• Rural women in the Andes seem to be better informed than men with regard to the use and properties of agrobiodiversity.• Working with rural women to promote the use and conservation of biodiversity seems to be a good approach, since they are motivated and interested partners.• Engaging other sectors in the Project, such as the health sector and the education sector, contributes to further promoting the use and conservation of Andean roots and tubers.• Rural women have increased their income through the marketing of root and tuber products. This has helped improve women's social capital, including their self-esteem and increased recognition from other community members.• Rural women appear to be willing to try technological innovations. Through the participation of women, it is also possible to draw the attention of male community members and involve them in the project. The Andean Change Alliance is a collaborative regional program in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru that pursues three objectives:1. Improve the capacity of national agricultural research systems to identify and respond effectively to the demands of poor farmers for agricultural innovation 2. Promote collective learning and knowledge sharing with participatory methods in the Andean region 3. Influence policy formulation and implementation related to participatory methods and approaches One of the participatory methods that national and local organizations affiliated with the Andean Change Alliance have experimented with is the \"Participatory Market Chain Approach.\" The PMCA is a participatory-action-research approach that is designed to: (a) identify business opportunities in market chains that are important to small farmers; and (b) develop economically viable ways to exploit these opportunities and benefit small farmers as well as other market chain actors. A central feature of the PMCA is that it brings diverse stakeholders together to identify and exploit new business opportunities. The PMCA involves a facilitated process that seeks to improve communication, build trust, and foster joint activities that stimulate commercial, technological, and institutional innovation around new business opportunities.The Andean Change Alliance tested the PMCA in several value chains with local groups in the region. This study focuses on the following four cases: The study was carried out to assess six aspects of the PMCA:1. Fidelity of implementation of the PMCA in the four cases 2. Results of the PMCA 3. Factors that have influenced implementation and results 4. Institutionalizing use of the PMCA 5. Validity of the PMCA theory of change 6. Contributions of participation to the results observed.Based on the case-study analysis, we have formulated general conclusions and suggestions for improving the PMCA and its future application.Two analytical frameworks were selected to guide the research. One is the \"Program Theory Framework\" developed by Chen (1990;2005), which illustrates how an intervention like the PMCA is designed to operate -the \"action model\" -and how it is assumed to bring about the desired changes -the \"change model\". In 2006, the Andean Change Alliance used the program theory framework to formulate hypothesized \"impact pathways\" for the PMCA in workshops with partners using the Participatory Impacts Pathway Approach (Alvarez et al., 2008). In the present study, we now look back to test the validity of this construct in four cases.The second analytical framework we employ is the \"Institutional Analysis and Development Framework\" (Ostrom, 2005;2010), which posits that repetitive human behavior -\"institutional behavior\" -is influenced by three main sets of independent variables:• Biophysical / technical factors • Characteristics of the population or community• The \"rules in use\"These frameworks have guided our information collection and analysis. Our study employs a comparative case study methodology. It draws on the abundant documentation generated by the Andean Change Alliance, including monitoring and evaluation reports. Information was also gathered during visits to four study sites.Brief reports are presented on four case studies. These include information on the following aspects of the cases:1. Context in which the PMCA exercise was implemented (the macro context, the market chain, market chain actors and service providers, and norms and customs) 2. Implementation of the PMCA exercise (main participants, timeline and roles) 3. Outcomes of the exercise (changes in knowledge, attitudes, and skills; commercial, technological, and institutional innovations; inclusion, empowerment, and wellbeing; institutionalization of the PMCA; prospects for the future) 4. Lessons and suggestions for improvement.While the four PMCA exercises were all carried out within countries of the Andean region, there have been significant differences in the macro setting of each case. One important difference refers to the national economic policy environment. Recent governments in Colombia and Peru have pursued neo-liberal economic policies that promote market-led development through promotion of competitive markets, international trade, and investment. In contrast, the Bolivian government has emphasized regional and indigenous development, food security, and conservation of natural and cultural resources. These differences in government policy have influenced the attitudes and behavior of public servants and NGOs related to use of such value-chain approaches as the PMCA. The Colombian and Peruvian economic policy regimes have been more favorable to use of the PMCA than the Bolivian regime.Peru's San Martin province produces some of the best coffee in the world. Yet the region has no \"coffee culture.\" People consume little coffee, and most of what they do consume is imported instant coffee. The international NGO (non-governmental organizations) Practical Action has worked in Peru's San Martin department for more than a decade to promote sustainable and equitable development of the coffee industry. Until recently, virtually all efforts focused on improving production and post-harvest practices for export coffee. Results of the PMCA exercise included enhanced knowledge and skills for producing and processing high-quality coffee, improved relations among market chain actors, and a new brand of coffee sold on the local market. Since completion of the PMCA exercise in 2008, several new brands of coffee have appeared in local and regional markets, and an association of the artisanal coffee processers who produce these new brands has been established. A recent event to promote the new local brands of coffee attracted the Regional President, other \"VIPs,\" local radio, TV and newspapers, and about 500 members of the public.The Oruro department in Bolivia's altiplano is famous for its silver and tin mining and its legendary carnival. Agriculture is dominated by extensive livestock production on semi-arid high, flat grasslands. Agriculture and livestock herding are challenged by the region's cold, dry environment, and rural population density is low. Over the past 30 years, development of micro irrigation has stimulated small-scale cropping and dairy herding near the capital city, Oruro. The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and other development organizations -both foreign and national -have encouraged and supported farmer self-help groups that operate communitybased dairy processing plants. Dairy specialists who worked in aid programs have established a foundation (SEDERA -Fundación de Servicios para el Desarrollo Rural Agropecuario, Bolivia), linked to the departmental federation of dairy producers. This group now offers technical services and support to small herders and dairy processors. From October 2007 -April 2009, SEDERA and local partners applied the PMCA with the goal of diversifying the products produced and marketed by community-based dairy plants. One focus of the exercise was to develop a new mozzarella cheese product, to supply pizzerias in Oruro city. The exercise faced several obstacles. It was difficult to bring stakeholders together in face-to-face meetings, in part because small herders are scattered over the rural landscape, often in remote locations. Midway through the PMCA exercise, the farmers' organization that was originally involved withdrew and had to be replaced by another organization. Perhaps the most fundamental obstacle was the marginal, low-yielding nature of local dairying and the resulting high cost of locally produced milk, which makes locally produced mozzarella cheese costly relative to a competing product from Santa Cruz. As a result of the PMCA exercise, SEDERA and a local farmers group (INPROLAC-Industrializadora de Productos Lácteos -Cercado, Bolivia) were successful in developing a new dairy product that met local quality requirements and is now being marketed on a small scale in high-end markets in Oruro under the \"Vaquita Andina\" brand. Due to the high cost of production, the sales and subsequent benefits to small producers, remain small. One of the main benefits of the PMCA exercise has been the experience gained by SEDERA with market-chain innovation processes and the new market-orientation with which it now works. Another benefit has been that members of SEDERA and INPROLAC now have a much greater awareness of the importance of establishing and maintaining high quality standards for their dairy products. They are applying this principle in their entire menu of dairy products now.The main economic activity in Northern Potosi is mining, and most of the region's population is concentrated in mining centers. Agriculture and livestock herding are limited by the region's harsh climate and mountainous topography with small areas suitable for production on valley bottoms and sides. Rural population density is low and the rural population is among the poorest in the country (and in Latin America). One of the region's underexploited resources is the genetic diversity of its native potatoes, which exceeds that found in any other region in Bolivia. The PROINPA Foundation and the Center for Agricultural Development (CAD) have worked for several years to conserve biodiversity in the region's potatoes and other Andean crops and to reduce poverty. From May 2007 -October 2008, CAD and local partners implemented the PMCA to promote the development of markets for the native potatoes produced by small farmers in the region. This effort was backstopped by PROINPA and Papa Andina. A new potato product branded \"Miskipapa\" was developed, which consists of selected and washed native potatoes sold in net bags. Miskipapa has been marketed in supermarkets in La Paz and Cochabamba, in the store of a mining union, in two tourist hotels, and in farmers' markets. Results have been mixed, due to limitations in both the supply of native potatoes and the demand for them. During and after the PMCA exercise, CAD has played crucial roles in establishing farmers' organizations, linking them with potential buyers, and assisting with specific market functions. Governmental bodies have stated their commitment to supporting the efforts of farmers' organizations to market their produce, and have offered facilities for processing native potatoes and other Andean crops. However, little governmental support has materialized. After the end of the PMCA exercise, CAD has continued to support the marketing initiative. Participating households have benefitted, but the scale of benefits has been limited by the small volume of native potatoes marketed in the region. Additional benefits have accrued from the increased value attributed to native potatoes in local food systems. Perhaps the most significant outcome of the exercise has been that CAD has shifted its emphasis from production to market development and has strengthened its capacity to support market chain innovation and development among the region's small farmers.Yams were introduced to the Caribbean region together with the slaves from West Africa. They are now one of the main crops grown by poor farmers on small plots of rented land in the northern coastal region of Colombia. Here, and in other parts of Colombia, the distribution of land holdings is extremely skewed, contributing to rural poverty and conflict. This social milieu, combined with the presence of drug traffickers, led to an eruption of rural violence at the end of the 1990s, which 368Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience South-south knowledge sharing continued for nearly a decade. Despite the extreme insecurity, a few development organizations continued to work in the areas. One was the PBA Foundation, which has worked with small farmers in participatory agricultural research and development projects related to yams and other crops for nearly 30 years. In 2006, the PBA Foundation launched an exercise to improve the marketing of small farmers' commodities in the region, and it incorporated the PMCA into this process. Cambio Andino supported the Corporation's efforts by providing training in the PMCA and backstopping the work with yams. Three potential areas for commercial innovation were identified: production of yam flour for specialty uses in cosmetology and baking; exportation of fresh yams to the USA; and domestic marketing of selected fresh yams. Applied technical and market research was carried out in these areas, business plans were developed, and new products were pilot tested with potential buyers. After completion of the PMCA exercise, in May 2009, the PBA Foundation has continued to work with local farmer organizations and has supported development of network of local associations to promote development of yam sector. Some progress has been made to improve the domestic marketing of selected yams. There have also been a few shipments of fresh yams to the USA, but development of this market has been limited by the recent appreciation of the Colombian peso and steep competition from other Caribbean suppliers. There is now interest in testing micro irrigation for off-season production and exports. Commercial testing of yam processing has been hampered by lack of funds for a pilot plant. The PBA Foundation continues to actively seek opportunities to advance the work begun with the PMCA, and has incorporated elements of the PMCA into its portfolio of participatory methods.In all cases, the main phases and steps of the PMCA methodology were implemented. However, there were some important qualitative differences in implementation across the cases. One of the main differences was the degree of involvement of different types of market chain actor. In most cases, the emphasis was on working with smallholders and their organizations. Relatively few business people (such as processors, and venders) were involved, and their participation was less active than that of smallholders. The main exception to this rule was the coffee processing case in San Martin, where processors and market agents were actively involved from the start. Here, the lead organization, Practical Action, has a tradition of value chain development work. In the other cases, the lead organizations' mandates focused on improving rural welfare through work with smallholders, and working in market chain development was quite a new experience. One feature of the coffee case that distinguishes it from the others is the large extent to which networking was promoted among diverse market chain actors, service providers, and political authorities in the regional government who were concerned with expanding the market access of regional products. In the other three cases, more effort has gone into strengthening farmer organizations than networking and relationship building among diverse stakeholders. In Oruro, the recent marketing activities of SEDERA are beginning to build useful relations betw3een dairy processors and retailers. This illustrates how relationships are built up over time and can take years to mature. In Northern Potosi, where the initial goal was for indigenous farmers to market their native potatoes in supermarkets, hotels, and other urban outlets, differences in language and culture appear to have hampered effective communication and problem solving.In all the cases, work initially focused on a single group (smallholders in Northern Potosi and the north coast of Colombia, processing groups in Oruro and San Martin). In San Martin, networking expanded and deepened over time, during the PMCA exercise and afterward, mainly because of continued attention to this point from Practical Action and Papa Andina. In the other cases, multi-stakeholder collaboration appears to have been limited by the traditional focus of the facilitating organizations on smallholder development. Another common barrier to getting all the actors together in the same room to talk about marketing opportunities appears to have been differences in language and culture, which have been especially problematic in Northern Potosi.Useful knowledge was acquired by participants in each of the cases, along with useful contacts with other market chain actors and service providers. Smallholders report gaining valuable information on the needs and priorities of consumers as well as knowledge of other market chain actors. R&D organizations gained valuable information and perspectives on market innovation and development. Learning that occurred within the lead R&D organizations appears to be one of the most important results of the PMCA exercises. In particular, the local lead organizations in Northern Potosi and Oruro (CAD and SEDERA), gained valuable experience with market-chain innovation and development, and they now approach their development activities with a more integral market-chain perspective.The most visible commercial innovation is the new brand of coffee marketed by the women's processing group in San Martin, Peru. Its success appears to have motivated several other groups to launch or upgrade their own brands of coffee. The new mozzarella cheese marketed under the Vaquita Andina brand in Oruro is another important commercial innovation. Work with the PMCA in this case has also motivated local dairy producers to diversify the types of cheese they produce and to upgrade their quality. In Northern Potosi, farmers have marketed small quantities of Miskipapa for three years now. The economic impact of these sales on farmers' welfare appears to be relatively small. However, the expanded marketing of native potatoes has also helped to increase the value of native potatoes in the eyes of both smallholders and consumers, which has contributed to efforts to conserve the biodiversity of native potatoes in the region.The work with yams in northern Colombia has not produced a clearly defined commercial innovation to date. This may reflect the importance of developing a tangible new product with a brand name. The pursuit of commercial innovations has led groups in each case to seek changes in institutional arrangements. In San Martin, seven artisanal coffee processors have established an association to pursue common interests, representing an institutional innovation. In Oruro, in order to support high-quality dairy processing and efficient marketing, SEDERA has taken over these functions. In northern Potosi and in Sincelejo, in light of the small size of local farmers' organizations, there have been moves to establish regional networks of local groups that can perform marketing functions more efficiently and effectively.The PMCA exercises have tended to strengthen farmers' organizations in each case. In San Martin, success with coffee marketing has helped consolidate the womens' processing group and raise its visibility in public and policy circles as well as in emerging fairs and markets for organic produce. The group now plays a much more prominent role in public discussions on the local food system than previously. In the other three cases, farmers report having gained confidence in dealing with market agents, development professionals, and government officials.Forces at play in the macro context appear to have strongly influenced the implementation and results of the PMCA. The pro-market policies of Colombia and Peru provided a more favorable environment for use of the PMCA than did the policies of the Bolivian government, which emphasize the role of the state and \"communitarian socialism.\" The cases' more favorable agro-ecological environments in Colombia and Peru also appear to have favored implementation processes and results. In the Bolivian altiplano, where poverty is more severe than in practically any other part of Latin America, there appear to be limits on the potential impact of development approaches that center on innovation in agricultural value-chains.Characteristics of the market chain have also influenced PMCA implementation and results. In the cases involving coffee, and to a somewhat lesser extent dairy, it has been possible to mobilize extensive external knowledge to improve processing technology. In contrast, in the cases of native potatoes and yams, the global knowledge base is more restricted. And for yam, the available scientific knowledge is more difficult to mobilize for Colombian smallholders, because the main research center is in Africa2 2 The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria.and very little scientific information on this crop has been translated into Spanish. Coffee and dairy products are also more amenable to processing and product differentiation than are potatoes and especially yams.The attributes of participants involved in the different exercises have also had strong influences on PMCA implementation and results. It appears that two types of \"champions\" are essential for success: one type of champion is needed in the entity that initiates and facilitates the PMCA exercise; the other type is needed within the market chain itself. In the coffee processing case in Peru, Ivo Encomenderos (based in Practical Action) played a key role in identifying and supporting local actors and facilitating change processes. Delicia Guivin, founder and leader of the women's processing group, played a key role within the market chain, in developing the new brand of coffee and in networking with others to develop the local coffee sector.The local organizational and institutional environment also appears to have played a role. The relative strength of the women's coffee processing group in San Martin provided a favorable springboard for innovation. In contrast, the recent organizational and management problems in community-based dairies in Oruro seems to have discouraged local herders from committing their time and energy to the PMCA.The mandates, priorities, traditions, and established relationships of the entity that facilitates the PMCA appear to strongly influence the course of the work. The fact that CAD, SEDERA, PROINPA, and the PBA Foundation have traditionally worked with smallholders to improve rural wellbeing helps to explain why they have tended to continue working with smallholder organizations during the PMCA, rather than working more actively with market agents.Many members of the participating organizations see the value of implementing comprehensive PMCA exercises with other commodities, but have not done so, for lack of opportunities to include them in other donor-funded projects. When the PBA Foundation implemented the PMCA with yams, it also applied it in six other commodity chains with which it was working at the time. Since then, it has included informal market diagnoses in other projects. PROINPA is applying elements of the PMCA in the context of a large-scale Dutch-funded project. CAD and SEDERA report incorporating elements of the PMCA into their work.The PMCA theory of change, or impact pathway, corresponds reasonably well with the types of changes observed. In each of the cases, there was an attempt to identify the main market chain actors, to identify the main problems and potentials in the market chain, to identify promising market opportunities, to involve market chain actors, to develop appropriate innovations, and to motivate public authorities to support pro-poor market-chain innovation and development. To the extent that these results have been obtained, there has been movement in the direction of the expected outcomes. The cases have progressed to different points along this impact pathway, and many factors external to the PMCA itself -variables in the macro context, the nature of the market chain, characteristics of participants in the exercise, and the prevailing norms and practices -have influenced the degree of success of the exercise.Participation has been central to generation of the results observed. For example, a protocol for mozzarella production was introduced to Oruro by Argentine cheese experts, but it required an extensive local process of adaptation to local conditions, and all this work was done by local people from SEDERA and INPROLAC. In Peru, local participation and capacity development have been crucial for production of results with coffee and for empowerment of the women's food processing group. This group, which gained experience and public recognition through its participation in the PMCE exercise, has later played important role3s in the coffee processors' association and in organizing public events to promote the development of the local coffee market. In Colombia, participation of the manager of the Sincelejo market motivated him to organize market venders in the market, in order to improve the flow of market produce and reduce price fluctuations. In Northern Potosi, farmers who were involved in the PMCA have been motivated to increase the diversity of their stocks of native potatoes, which they produce and conserve in situ, on their farms. None of these results would have been possible without active participation of small farmers, processors, and others in the PMCA exercises.In this section, we present the main conclusions of the study and suggestions for improving future applications of the PMCA.In the cases studied, the PMCA has stimulated varying degrees of learning, interaction, innovative thinking, and practices, which in some cases have resulted in commercial, technological, or institutional innovations -new practices that have become mainstreamed in economic and social life. Many participants -including both poor farmers and small-scale market agents -have gained valuable new knowledge and experiences that have empowered them in their dealings with other market actors and service providers. Less progress, however, has been made in improving welfare, in terms of cash income.These studies and other experiences (Devaux et. al. 2009;Horton et. al, 2010) indicate that the main benefits of the PMCA come not during the application of the approach but later on, as a series of ideas are tried, adapted, fail, and succeed. For this reason, follow-up support to innovating groups can be very valuable after the PMCA formally ends.It is also important to recognize that in areas of severe poverty, where households engage in multiple on-farm and off-farm activities just to survive, and where there is very little agricultural surplus for the market, approaches such as the PMCA that focus on innovation in a single value chain may have a limited measurable impact on overall household welfare.In the cases studied, the success of the PMCA in fostering pro-poor market chain innovation has been influenced by numerous factors related to the macro context, the market chain, the participants, and customary rules and practices. The economic policy environment sets the stage for local development efforts, and can support or present challenges to use of value-chain development approaches such as the PMCA.Successful innovation is more likely in some chains than in others. This highlights the importance of doing a thorough market analysis before investing heavily in market-chain innovation. Where the market surplus of a commodity is limited and strongly influenced by local natural and climatic factors, where the potential demand for new products is limited, or where the costs of introducing an innovation are high, the short-term results of the PMCA may be limited.Personal factors also seem to be of critical importance. Results of these four cases highlight the importance of two types of \"innovation champion\": (1) the facilitator in the R&D organization that initiates and supports the PMCA exercise; and (2) one or more individuals in the market chain who champion the innovation process. Without both these types of champion, results of the PMCA may be limited.Customary rules and practices also influence the success of the PMCA. For example, a history of failed development projects makes people skeptical and can discourage them from committing their time and creativity to a PMCA exercise.In all the cases, the main steps in the PMCA were implemented. However, in some cases there was limited engagement and commitment of some market chain actors. In the PMCA, market chain actors are expected to play a proactive, lead role in driving development of new business opportunities and generating demands for innovation. But this doesn't always happen. This sort of engagement and proactive leadership from within the market chain is the essence of the \"P\" in the PMCA, it is a defining feature of the approach, as envisaged in the original protocol, distinguishing it from other market chain approaches. So ensuring the engagement of the business community is an area that merits very careful attention in future applications of the PMCA.Several organizations that have participated in PMCA exercises have incorporated elements of the approach into their work. But few have adopted use of the PMCA in toto. An important result of participating in a PMCA exercise seems to be that individuals learn a new way of approaching problems -with a more comprehensive market perspective -which they apply in their future work. Most of the organizations 374Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience South-south knowledge sharing involved in the four cases analyzed depend on external donors for a large part of their operational funding. In some cases they have been able to incorporate elements of the PMCA -for example the informal market diagnosis in Phase 1 -into new projects. In 2 cases (PBA Foundation and PROINPA) they have been able to obtain funding for comprehensive PMCA exercises in other market chains. In some cases, universities and research organizations have incorporated the PMCA into their academic curriculum. In future, it would be important to elaborate a strategy for institutionalizing use of the PMCA.The learning and capacity development that result from participation in a PMCA exercise have a strong influence on the ultimate success and benefits of the exercise. This is partly because the most important results are produced after completion of the formal PMCA exercise, by local groups that continue with innovative activities. For this reason, it is crucially important to ensure the active participation of all relevant stakeholders, not just small farmers, but including other key market actors and service providers.In Africa as elsewhere, agricultural development is taking place in the context of rapid urbanisation and market integration. As a result, the livelihoods of small farmers are increasingly influenced by the demands of urban consumers, market intermediaries and food industries. In modernizing agricultural markets, small farmers are often at a significant disadvantage relative to larger commercial farmers, who benefit from economies of scale and better access to market information, services, technology and capital (Weatherspoon and Reardon, 2003;Wilkinson and Rocha, 2006).Collective action, usually in the form of farmer cooperatives, has been proposed as one way to improve the market participation of small farmers (Shepherd, 2007). While of undoubted importance, small-farmer organization is only part of the solution. Market-chain innovation is also needed to allow small farmers to benefit from participating in emerging high-value markets. Numerous value-chain approaches have been developed to foster pro-poor market development (Kamplinski and Morris, 2001;Merlin, 2004;Roduner, 2005). However, there is little documentation on their introduction, use and results. This paper aims to begin filling this information void by describing the introduction, use and results of one value-chain approach in Uganda.The PMCA was originally developed by the Papa Andina partnership program, hosted by the International Potato Centre (CIP), to promote pro-poor innovation in potato marketing chains in the Andean highlands of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. The approach has proven its usefulness in the Andes, particularly in applications with native potatoes that are grown by small farmers in high mountainous areas using traditional production techniques. Nevertheless, some observers have questioned whether the approach would be effective when applied in other commodity chains and in other regions, where socio-economic, technical and institutional features differ significantly from those of the Andes. They also wondered how a new research and development (R&D) approach like the PMCA could be effectively introduced in a new setting.To test the feasibility and potential utility of the PMCA in sub-Saharan Africa, beginning in 2005 Papa Andina partnered with the Regional Potato and Sweet Potato Improvement Network in Eastern and Central Africa (PRAPACE) and with several local R&D organizations to introduce the PMCA into Uganda and apply it in the commodity chains for potatoes, sweet potatoes and vegetables. Funding for this work was initially provided by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom (DFID), and later was supplemented with resources from CIP and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA).The present paper addresses two main questions: (1) Can the PMCA be useful in promoting market-chain innovation outside of the Andes and in a range of commodity chains (or was its early success a 'special case', owing to the circumstances of its development and application with native potatoes in the Andes)?(2) What does it take to successfully introduce and apply the PMCA in a new setting? The paper briefly describes the development and main features of the PMCA and the process whereby this approach was introduced and tested in Uganda. Since the PMCA is a novel, knowledge-intensive approach to R&D, its introduction required an intensive process of capacity development for individuals to acquire new knowledge, attitudes and skills and to build social capital and institutional commitment.After describing the capacity-development strategy employed in Uganda, the paper outlines some results of the PMCA. These include both innovations and strengthened capacity for innovation. The final section summarises our results in relation to the two questions identified above and discusses future prospects for the PMCA in Uganda and beyond.Innovation involves 'the use of new ideas, new technologies or new ways of doing things in a place or by people where they have not been used before' (Barnett, 2004: 1). Until recently, it was commonly assumed that agricultural research would automatically lead to innovation, which in turn would increase yields and production and benefit the poor. In essence, research results were assumed to flow through an 'innovation pipeline' from basic research (conducted by 'advanced research institutes' in the north) to strategic research (conducted by CGIAR centres), on to applied and adaptive research (conducted by national programs) and finally to farmer adopters.In fact, the relationship between research and innovation is not simple and linear but complex and interactive. As Hall (2009: 31, 36) notes:• Innovation is rarely triggered by agricultural research and instead is most often a response of entrepreneurs to new and changing market opportunities.• Innovation requires knowledge from multiple sources, including from users of that knowledge.• It involves these different sources of knowledge interacting with each other in order to share and combine ideas.• These interactions and processes are usually very specific to a particular context.• Each context has its own routines and traditions that reflect historical origins shaped by culture, politics, policies and power.Advocates of participatory research in the 1970s and 1980s believed the main challenge was to persuade biological scientists of the importance of including farmers in research teams (Ashby, 2009: 40), and considerable effort went into the development of methods for engaging farmers and researchers in participatory technology development. However, subsequent research in Europe and elsewhere has highlighted the importance of involving a much broader range of stakeholders and focusing attention on innovation per se, rather than more narrowly on research activities (Hall et al., 2001;World Bank, 2007).The PMCA addresses the innovation challenge by bringing diverse stakeholders together in facilitated processes that are structured to improve communication, build trust and engage in joint activities that produce technological and institutional innovations in the market chain. The stakeholders involved may include small farmers; various types of market agents (for example, commodity transporters, wholesalers, processers, domestic retailers and exporters); chefs and restaurateurs; 378Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience South-south knowledge sharing researchers; food technologists; extension agents; and specialists in enterprise development, packaging, labelling and quality control, among others. Papa Andina has worked since the late 1990s with CIP and R&D organizations in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru to improve the competitiveness of small potato farmers in the Andean highlands of South America. In the early years, a traditional R&D approach was pursued that centred on improving production technology. However, after frustrating results due to marketing problems, Papa Andina began to search for new ways to improve the participation of small farmers in market chains.In 2002, CIP social scientists, Papa Andina, and the Project for Potato Innovation and Competitiveness in Peru (INCOPA Project) began working with a participatory approach to stimulate agricultural innovation known as 'Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Knowledge Systems' (RAAKS). This approach, developed by Engel and Salomon (2003), brings diverse stakeholders together in a flexible, participatory process to stimulate social learning, build trust and foster innovation. Papa Andina used RAAKS to bring market chain actors together to get to know one another, build up trust and explore market opportunities that could be of mutual benefit. Approaches (such as rapid market assessments and focus groups) were added to RAAKS for developing new products. Gradually a new approach emerged, that was named the 'Participatory Market Chain Approach'. This was documented in a PMCA User Guide (Bernet et al., 2006(Bernet et al., , 2008)). In 2003, when the INCOPA market chain work was reviewed in an Andean regional workshop, participants from Bolivia became interested in the approach and decided to begin experimenting with at home. Over the next few years, the PMCA was further developed and documented based on the work in Bolivia and Peru (Devaux et al., 2009).The PMCA engages those who make their living from a market chain (the 'market chain actors') and public and private service providers (such as researchers, credit providers and development workers) in facilitated group processes in which market opportunities are identified and exploited, leading to technological and institutional innovations. As outlined in the PMCA User Guide, the PMCA is implemented in a highly structured process with three phases.Phase 1: Familiarisation with the market chain and the key actors Phase 2: Joint analysis of potential business opportunities Phase 3: Development of market-driven innovations.As illustrated in Figure 1, an R&D organization initiates the PMCA by selecting the market chains on which to work, identifying potential R&D partners and carrying out exploratory, diagnostic market research. Key goals of Phase 1 are to become familiar with market chains and market chain actors, and to motivate market chain actors to participate in the PMCA process. In Phase 2, the R&D organization facilitates meetings that are designed to foster mutual trust and knowledge sharing among participants and to identify potential market chain innovations. In Phase 3, the market chain actors collaborate in practical innovation processes, with support from R&D organizations.During Phase 1, diagnostic research is carried out in order to become familiar with key market chain actors and understand their interests, problems and ideas. This phase is expected to take 2-4 months and may involve 20-40 interviews with diverse market chain actors. This phase ends with a public event that brings together individuals who have been involved in the PMCA process so far, including market chain actors and representatives of research organizations and other service providers, to discuss results of the market survey and to exchange ideas. Some individuals who have not been involved so far may also be invited, to gain their interest in the PMCA process and motivate them to participate in future activities.In Phase 2, thematic (commodity) groups are established to explore potential market opportunities. The lead R&D organization facilitates group meetings where market opportunities are identified and discussed. The main challenge during this phase is to keep participants focused on market opportunities (rather than, for example, production problems). Six to ten meetings may be needed to analyse potential market opportunities. In some cases, specialised market studies (for example, focus groups) may be needed to complement the group work. At a final event, the market opportunities are discussed with a wider audience and new members with complementary knowledge and experience are encouraged to join Phase 3.Phase 3 focuses on the activities needed to launch specific innovations. The time required may vary depending upon the complexity of the innovation, the capacity of the group, and biophysical, socio-economic, and institutional conditions. A rough estimate of the time needed, based on experience in Bolivia and Peru, is 3-6 months. Phase 3 closes with a large event to which a much wider group is invited, including for example, political officials, donor representatives and members of the press. Based on experiences with the PMCA in Peru and Bolivia, 12-15 months seems to be adequate to implement the three phases of the PMCA.In practice, as discussed below, implementation of the PMCA has not followed this three-phase process in a well-planned and linear fashion. Unpredictable processes have been triggered that have evolved at different paces. Some groups disbanded in the middle of the process; some perceived opportunities early in the process and launched successful innovations during Phase 2; others that appeared to be 'on a roll' during Phase 2 lost momentum and failed to generate feasible innovations in Phase 3; and yet others have continued to interact and innovate years after the end of Phase 3.To validate the PMCA and build capacity for its use in a country, one has to complete the three phases. However once you get underway the innovation process starts to be cyclical... Some developments will make us start the cycle again or jump from one phase back to the previous one: Many organizations and individuals have played key roles in introducing, validating and refining the PMCA in Uganda. These include an international agricultural research centre (CIP), an Andean-based partnership program (Papa Andina), an African regional commodity program (PRAPACE), a national agricultural research organization (NARO), a ministry-level project (Competitiveness and Investment Climate Strategy, CICS), a non-governmental organization (Africa 2000 Network, A2N) and a private company (the Ssemwanga Group). The diversity of organizations involved reflects the important role of partnership in promoting pro-poor innovation (Hall et al., 2001;Horton, Prain and Thiele, 2009). Altogether, developing capacity for the PMCA in Uganda involved a sequence of activities spread over 2½ years (Figure 2). The process was much longer than it had been in the Andes because separate funding sources had to be negotiated for each of the three phases. The process involved a preparation period, in which Ugandan partners familiarised themselves with the PMCA, and an application period, in which they used the method on their own. In applying the PMCA, participants worked in three commodity teams that focused on the market chains for potatoes, sweet potatoes and vegetables. During this period, training activities were combined with hands-on implementation of the PMCA to foster development essential knowledge, attitudes and skills among Ugandan partners.Initially, CIP and Papa Andina took the lead in defining the steps to introduce the PMCA. But as the process advanced and Ugandan stakeholders became more involved in planning and implementing their own work, responsibilities shifted to the local PMCA Coordinator based at PRAPACE and to three commodity teams. The person selected by PRAPACE to serve as the PMCA Coordinator was a woman who had previously coordinated a sweet potato project that had been successful in its technical work but had faced marketing challenges.  Once work with the PMCA got underway in Uganda, the PMCA Coordinator served as an interface between individuals who had developed and used the PMCA in the Andes (mainly Bernet and Velasco) and three 'commodity groups' that were implementing the PMCA in Uganda. Each commodity group selected a leader to coordinate meetings, visits to markets and processing facilities, focus groups and other activities of the commodity groups.Women were selected by group members to lead each of the three thematic groups, largely because they had shown interest and aptitude for leading group activities. They were also interested in learning new skills and approaches that would advance their careers, and were willing to dedicate the (considerable) time needed to implement the PMCA, with minimal financial compensation.The ladies were more interested in PMCA, were more eager to see results, and also more willing to invest their time. That is how the ladies ended up leading each commodity team.Women always work hard to do a good job. They have to prove that they are capable, and they are known to be trustworthy as well as careful in spending money.Harriet Nsubuga, Vegetable Commodity Group When commodity groups were formed and each group had to select a representative, the ladies were selected. I must say that most of these ladies were professional, committed and loved their work. They had mobilisation and facilitation skills and wanted to see the programme succeed.Immaculate Sekitto, Uganda Project Coordinator, Phases 1 and 2. I think it was the social benefits that kept us women [the Commodity Team Leaders] glued to the process. I am proud to have these ladies as my friends -some are more like my sisters. We still look out for each other.Sarah Mayanja, PMCA Coordinator, Phase 3The commodity group leaders represented the following local R&D organizations:The Africa 2000 Network (A2N) -a non-governmental organization operating in 13 African countries, with headquarters in Kampala.The Ssemwanga Group -a consulting and trading firm owned and operated by a food technologist who specialises in marketing of agricultural commoditiesThe Mukono Zonal Agricultural R&D Institute -one of seven zonal institutes responsible for adaptive research and technology dissemination within Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO).The Competitiveness Investment Climate Strategy Secretariat, based in Uganda's Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.During application of the PCMA, the commodity teams grew to include 20 'Core Team Members' representing 14 R&D organizations. These were mainly nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) but also including research organizations, extension projects and private firms. Many R&D professionals participated in the 384Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience South-south knowledge sharing PMCA exercise -often investing significant amounts of unpaid time and effort -to learn the PMCA and to acquire new skills and tools they could use in their work.More than 100 market chain actors -including representatives of farmers' groups, local market agents, processors, managers of urban markets and exportersparticipated in the commodity group meetings. Some of these were active early in the process and then dropped out; others joined or became active later on. Relatively few market agents participated throughout the entire process. Those who did often gained considerable influence in their group. For example, one potato processor and one vegetable exporter participated throughout the process, influencing the groups' decisions on which market opportunities to pursue. In the potato commodity group, more than 10 potato crisp processors participated throughout the entire process. Despite being competitors, they found PMCA an interesting mechanism to share and access new information, thus finding enough common ground to work together in improving their products and business practices. In the sweet potato group, traders from the Kalerwe market in Kampala were also very steady participants, providing important marketing insight to the group on sweet potato marketing.The owner of TomCris, a family-run potato crisp processor, had the following to say about his experiences in the PMCA: I have gotten a lot of knowledge by participating in the PMCA that is helping me now to manage my business and improve the quality of my products and packaging. This allows me to access more markets and has won me recognition by the Ugandan National Bureau of Standards and the government. The UNBS is now basing standards for crisps on my products and I got a barcode for my products about which I am very proud.Thomas Bukena, owner of TomCris Enterprises Farmers participated in the commodity groups to meet other market chain actors, to make business contacts, and to get new ideas for processing and marketing their products in urban markets. They also valued the technical information and advice they obtained from R&D professionals or others present at PMCA events.In Uganda and elsewhere, agricultural research organizations and NGOs are often hesitant to engage with market agents, to avoid becoming 'tainted' by commercial interests. Agricultural researchers usually work alone or with other researchers; and only occasionally with farmers in participatory technology development. They seldom work with NGOs or market agents. Similarly, professionals in NGOs frequently work with other NGOs and sometimes with farmers, but seldom with market agents or researchers. Farmers interact with market agents in the context of commercial transactions, but the relations between these two groups are typically characterised by distrust. Few farmers come into contact with researchers.Given these infrequency and commonly distrustful nature of interactions between the different groups that have a stake in market innovation processes in most Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience385South-south knowledge sharing developing areas, introduction of the PMCA implies significant changes in the way the stakeholders view one another and interact. As a result, developing capacity for use of the PMCA requires more than knowledge and skill acquisition; it requires profound changes in attitudes, patterns of interaction, and in many cases in organizational culture.To promote the needed changes, the capacity-development strategy implemented in Uganda included a number of complementary components. The overall strategy was designed to expose Ugandan partners to the PMCA is ways that would allow them to discover for themselves the strengths and weaknesses of the approach and the knowledge, skills, attitudes and other factors needed to apply it successfully. The strategy employed reflects a model of capacity enhancement that Pidatala (2004) has described as 'creating space for the client to learn by doing, finding the best local fit and nurturing effective behavioural competencies. This process is designed to promote local/country ownership and help bridge the knowledge adaptation gap by leveraging local and global knowledge to bring just-in-time and just-enough expertise to help enhance client capacity'.One key feature of the capacity development strategy employed in Uganda was 'South-South learning exchange' that involved two study tours for groups of Ugandans to the Andes. The study tours allowed the Ugandans to see how the PMCA had operated in the Andes and to reflect on how this approach might perform in the context of Uganda. Another key feature of the strategy was 'action learning' -an educational process in which participants reflect on their own actions and experiences, in order to improve performance 2 2 A useful introduction to action learning and up-to-date references are available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_learning. . Opportunities were provided for Ugandans to experiment directly with the PMCA in the context of local commodity chains, with methodological supervision and support from PMCA specialists from the Andes. PMCA training workshops involved both theoretical and practical sessions with group work and personal experimentation with PMCA tools. This allowed Ugandans to acquire both knowledge and practical skills needed to apply the knowledge under real-life conditions. After individual and group work, reflection in workshops was designed to consolidate learning and to trigger a more demand -and market-oriented way of thinking -a key capacity for fostering market-chain innovation. Within the overall strategy of South-South learning exchange and action learning, a number of component strategies were used, which are described and assessed in this section 3People saw that PMCA was not just theory but something that can be put into practice to benefit the communities... Seeing that it worked in Boliva, convinced that would also work in Uganda... The interesting take-home message was that it was possible to create trust among the different actors that normally don't trust .Throughout the process of introducing the PMCA and developing capacity for its application, core team members from R&D organizations were involved in planning, implementing and evaluating each phase of the work. The core team members, in turn, engaged market chain actors in planning and reviewing each commodity group's activities. Participation fostered teamwork and empowerment and ensured that the capacity development process responded to the needs and interests of those involved. The utility of engaging intended beneficiaries in all stages of a capacity development intervention is supported by experience with capacity development in research and development organizations elsewhere (Horton et al., 2003).Two study tours to the Andes were central to the capacity development strategy. In March 2005, the PRAPACE coordinator, the recently recruited Ugandan PMCA coordinator, and a representative of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) visited Peru for initial orientation and to plan initial PMCA activities in Uganda, including a survey of Ugandan R&D organizations and the initial market study.In July of the same year, 15 Ugandans who had participated in an initial PMCA training workshop in Uganda visited Peru and Bolivia, where they met with the people who had developed and applied the PMCA in the Andes and saw the results in situ. This visit played a crucial role in stimulating interest and sharing tacit knowledge on the PMCA -the type of knowledge that is difficult to write down and transmit via written guidelines or classroom teaching.The Ugandans observed how the PMCA had been applied and the results it had produced in a setting that was comparable in many ways to their own. They were not visiting ultra-modern facilities in North America or Europe -of little relevance to Uganda -but small-scale processors that made simple yet significant improvements in processing and marketing under conditions not so different from those back home. Ugandan participants consider the Study Visit to have been crucial for the entire process of introducing the PMCA in Uganda.3 At the end of Phase 2 and again at the end of Phase 3, we reviewed these strategies in participatory workshop. For additional information see Horton (2008).South-south knowledge sharing each other and work collaboratively to support themselves and others. Seeing that markets can actually be developed by bringing people together also was a good incentive to really work for it.Berga Lemaga, PRAPACE CoordinatorThe use of visiting Bolivia was seeing things like we see here, but having success in the market. Previously, we were always thinking we needed new crops to get ahead. But in Bolivia we saw that we could make a difference with what we had. . . We also found out the importance of the middleman. Here we've always said that if we eliminate the middleman the farmer will be rich. Ugandan researchers and market chain actors were surprised to see farmers and traders working together to develop innovations.What was useful for me was to see that a farmer can sit and talk with a trader and come up with something useful for both of them. That was really an eye opener for me.Beatrice Akello, Researcher, Mukono ZARDI We saw that the PMCA had worked in the Andes, and were anxious to try it out since the conditions (poverty levels etc) were quite similar to those at home. We also had to work hard to show that the investment in the trip was worth it. Sarah Mayanja, Coordinator, Phase 3Another important result of the study visit to the Andes was the bonding that occurred within the Ugandan group and the commitment to succeed upon their return to Uganda. This helped to strengthen teamwork upon their return back home.An important benefit of the trip was that it created a sort of 'PMCA family'. We were all experiencing the same marketing problems and wanted to have them solved through the new approach. Since we were working in the same field (agricultural development), the trip to the Andes brought us together and inspired us to work as a family to the benefit of all... After Bolivia, my work became much easier. The trip led to a major improvement in teamwork. A PMCA User Guide had been drafted in Spanish for use in the Andes. An important element of the work in Uganda was to involve Uganda colleagues in revising the User Guide and adding examples and illustrations from Uganda. The final version was published by CIP (Bernet et al., 2006). Participation of the Ugandan colleagues helped to improve the User Guide and also to improve their understanding of PMCA and its practical application. Dealing with theoretical issues and its practical application in the Andes provided the Ugandans with important insights and it also generated a sense of involvement in the development of the PMCA itself.The highly structured information and guidelines on the PMCA was especially key to commodity team leaders who were most concerned about 'what to do' in each stage of the PMCA process. Since the Uganda experience helped to clarify and improve this document, it is now a clearly valuable source of information for introducing the PMCA in other areas.Adult learning is most effective when the subject matter relates to participants' felt needs and when learning opportunities are linked to practical action. For this reason, classroom training has greatest value when it relates to issues of importance to learners and when it incorporates exercises that illustrate the practical application of abstract theories and principles. Learning is essentially a social process and adults generally learn more rapidly in groups where participants bring diverse knowledge, perspectives and experiences to bear on an issue of common interest and importance. With adequate facilitation, diverse groups have greater potential for interactive learning than do more homogenous groups of individuals with similar backgrounds and experiences 4 Each phase of the PMCA began with an action-oriented training workshop. These workshops provided the initial motivation and knowledge needed to implement the phase and also provided opportunities for skill development. The PMCA training was especially effective because it was delivered by individuals (mainly Bernet and Velasco) who had developed and applied the PMCA in the Andes and who possessed deep personal knowledge of the approach. In these training events, trainees performed learning exercises involving focus group research, rapid market appraisal and other methods useful for product development. Experimentation with applied R&D methods during visits to local markets, processing facilities, food technology laboratories, or other settings that were 'new' for many participants generated personal, subjective insights that could not be effectively gained from reading publications or studying training materials (Von Krough et al., 2000: Chapter 2). . 4 Useful information on these and related aspects of learning is available on the website of the 'Learning Innovations Laboratory' of Harvard Graduate School of Education (http://lila.pz.harvard.edu). Chambers (2002) presents a useful sourcebook of ideas and activities for participatory workshops in the context of international development.South-south knowledge sharing Because these workshops combined class room sessions with field visits to local markets, supermarkets, processing facilities, and other relevant locations, -which participants found to be valuable 'eye openers' -participants also developed a common, shared understanding about the market chains, and how specific PMCA tools might perform in such settings.With the knowledge and skills obtained during the workshops at the beginning of each phase, the commodity teams were responsible for implementing the PMCA on their own, receiving guidance and feedback from a PMCA specialist (Bernet) based at CIP in Peru. Commodity team members concur that their practical work with the PMCA combined with feedback from a PMCA specialist was indispensable for developing their understanding of the PMCA and their capacity to apply it.Technical support was provided mainly by a single PMCA specialist based in Lima. He came to Uganda six times to provide training and to assist in the organization of major events, and provided backstopping for the teams mainly via email from Lima. The Ugandan team leaders place high value on the training received and the quick email responses from Lima. Nevertheless, they would have appreciated having more frequent face-to-face support and feedback from a PMCA specialist based in Uganda. At some points during Phases 2 and 3, team leaders were concerned that their teams were under-performing, as one leader noted: 'We were not always sure we were on the right track'. Especially at these points of uncertainty, core team members would have valued more direct, personal access to a PMCA specialist.During Phase 2 and later on, the commodity teams worked independently. Although team leaders communicated frequently with the local project coordinator, there was little direct communication among the leaders or members of the different teams. In some cases, the team leaders found it difficult to translate the principles and tools outlined in the PMCA User Guide into practical action and to solve problems that arose with the groups -for example how to get producers and traders to communicate openly, when they distrusted each other. It is likely that more interaction among the teams would have helped them share experiences and support one another in solving problems and advance more rapidly with their innovations. The benefits of knowledge sharing among practitioners working in a new area have been widely documented in the literature on organizational learning and knowledge creation (Von Krough et al., 2000;Collison and Parcell, 2005). After discovering this deficiency in a review of Phase 2, the local PMCA coordinator started to call meetings of commodity group leaders to share information about progress in each group. These meetings were also helpful for planning the final PMCA event at the end of Phase 3, where all groups participated. Learning-oriented evaluation was intensively used in the process of introducing the PMCA to Uganda. The PMCA User Guide encourages team leaders to evaluate major events and to periodically reflect on their work and performance. At the end of each phase, participants in the PMCA exercise reviewed their work together with PMCA specialists. At the end of Phase 1, a 'horizontal evaluation' (Thiele et al., 2006(Thiele et al., , 2007) ) was organised with participants from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Bolivia, Peru and the Netherlands. This exercise allowed the Ugandan PMCA practitioners to share their experiences with local and foreign R&D professionals who were interested in the approach. The external participants contributed to the discussions and assessment of the PMCA process with their own perspectives and experiences. One of the major challenges identified for the commodity groups was 'to strengthen their business and marketing skills to put in practice a strong market and demand focus' (Bernet and Lemaga, 2006: 3). At the end of Phases 2 and 3, an evaluator (Horton) facilitated participatory reviews of the work carried out during these phases and the results obtained. These evaluations produced recommendations that were subsequently used to improve the process of introducing and refining the PMCA (Horton, 2008).The applications of the PMCA in Uganda produced a number of 'islands of success', in terms of the commercial, technological and institutional innovations that were at various stages of development at the time the PMCA exercise formally ended in September 2007. Individual and organizational capacities were also strengthened. Technical and institutional innovation that benefits poor farmers is an important goal of the PMCA. However, such innovations inevitably have a limited 'shelf life'. In contrast, strengthening the capacity to innovate -through the development of knowledge, attitudes, skills and social capital -is likely to have greater social and economic impacts in the long run. Innovation processes are continuous and dynamic. In the Andes after completion of PMCA exercises, many 'creative imitation' processes have been observed in which market actors imitated, often with rather small modifications, innovations developed during the PMCA exercise. Such creative imitation should be fostered wherever possible.Nevertheless, experiences with the PMCA in Bolivia and Peru have shown that new product development can stimulate subsequent innovation in production technologies and in new institutional arrangements, such as marketing contracts.The main innovation developed by the potato commodity group was improved packaging and labelling of a potato crisp product. Focus groups indicated that the quality of the product was excellent, even compared to imported potato chips, but that improvements were needed in packaging and labelling. The new packaging isSouth-south knowledge sharing now in use, and sales of this product have increased significantly. About 1,000 packs of 750 g are now sold daily in Kampala supermarkets and the Kampala International Airport. Smaller packs are also being sold to lower-income consumers and students. The producer has increased his labour force from 22 to 27 employees, and has increased his income significantly. According to the owner, the main constraints to increasing the quantity and quality of production are now in the supply chain of fresh potatoes available for processing. Consequently, after the PMCA application formally ended in late 2007, the potato commodity group organized a meeting of potato processors, market agents and farmers in Uganda's main potato producing area, Kabale, to explore ways to improve the supply of potatoes to Kampala-based processors. This illustrates how commercial innovation stimulates the search for technological and institutional solutions to subsequent production bottlenecks.The sweet potato group worked on a number of innovations. During Phase 2, Sulma Foods sent samples of the new variety Naspot 1 to the Uchumi supermarket in Kampala. After a positive market test and orders were placed for this variety, Sulma Foods engaged contract farmers to produce this variety, in addition to a red-skinned variety they were supplying previously. Naspot 1 is now being marketed for fresh consumption in the Uchumi supermarket and in four smaller supermarkets. A new snack food product based on orange-fleshed sweet potatoes was developed, and the producer (TomCris) has received many requests for this product. However, production is constrained by the limited supply of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes for processing. The processor and NARO continue to explore means to increase the supply of fresh orange-fleshed sweet potatoes for processing. Composite flours containing orange-fleshed sweet potatoes were developed and pilot-marketed by two Ugandan processing firms. However, their production is constrained by the high cost of the final product and the limited and uneven supply of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes available for processing. After the end of the PMCA process, the sweet potato commodity team leader, based in NARO, has continued to organise quarterly stakeholder meetings, bringing in new members over time. NARO's sweet potato work has also been expanded into additional production zones, where Phases 1 and 2 of the PMCA have been applied. Another project that works to promote the production and use of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (HarvestPlus) hired one of the PMCA facilitators and has applied the approach in its work.The vegetable group improved the quality, packaging and labelling of an existing tomato paste product. The group also developed three new products -a tomato chili appetiser, hot pepper paste and pickled hot peppers. The first of these is now being sold by Sulma Foods in local markets including supermarkets, and the demand is steadily growing. A processor who participated in the potato group has also started making a tomato chili appetiser and selling it locally. He is currently discussing with Makerere University and the Uganda National Bureau of Standards ways to upgrade this product so that it can be sold in supermarkets. Motivated by his participation in 392Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience South-south knowledge sharing the vegetable group, an influential Ugandan exporter established a system of contract farming for hot pepper, which continues to function.Social capital refers to forms of social organization, such as networks, interpersonal relations and trust, which facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit (Putnam, 1995: 67). During the application of the PMCA, participants´ capacity to innovate has been gradually improved as trust and connectedness were fostered and knowledge, skills and attitudes of participants were strengthened. Many researchers, farmers, local traders, processors and exporters came together for the first time during PMCA exercises. The commodity teams gave many market chain actors their first opportunity to meet and discuss issues of common interest with others in the same market chain. The PMCA also provided many R&D professionals with their first opportunity to develop productive interpersonal relations and to work together on joint projects of mutual interest.At the beginning of the PMCA exercise, the PMCA facilitators hardly knew each other. During the first and second workshops, they built relationships that greatly helped them work together in the future. During the PMCA, the facilitators and other group members also mobilised their own personal networks to support innovation processes. When specialised expertise was needed (for example in product testing or selection of packaging materials) professionals known to group members were brought in on a pro-bono basis. Such expertise, which was essential for new product development would have been very expensive to obtain through strictly commercial means.Socially, a PMCA family has been built, and even today, when the headmistress (I. Sekitto) makes a call or sends out a notice to help out in a situation of need, the response is still overwhelming. In a nutshell, the PMCA family is a social network in which we all look out for each other.Sarah Mayanja, PMCA Coordinator, Phase 3In early commodity group meetings, farmers and traders were sometimes suspicious and accused each other of bad dealings in the past. Over time, as group members got to know one another, exchanged information, and worked on common tasks, they began to trust and respect one another. Communication became more open and fluid and collaboration became possible. In several cases, market chain actors developed personal and business relationships with people they met in the commodity meetings, which continued until now. Trust building has been a key feature and result of the PMCA.We've been telling government that we need R&D to work together with the private sector. Thanks to the PMCA, we've built a platform for R&D where we can get answers to our questions and needs. I always tell my colleagues that when they Working with the PMCA has led to improvements in many individuals' knowledge and skills. Core team members gained confidence in dealing with a range of market chain actors, with whom they previously had little or no contact. The team leaders strengthened their ability to manage complex group processes, boosted their selfconfidence and leadership skills, and improved their facilitation, communication and presentation skills. Team members also learned specific applied research skills in such areas as rapid market assessment, key informant interviewing, and focus groups.Whenever I came to these meetings I got new ideas, knowledge, and approaches, and when I went to the field people wondered where I got them. They thought I'd been abroad! I combine what I learn here and there, and now when I talk about marketing and innovations, people think I'm knowledgeable.... I also learned so many useful new ways to present things to groups... Sylvester Nganda, Uganda National Farmers Federation PMCA practitioners often report feeling empowered by the experience, and it has been observed that farmers, small-scale traders, and processors gained selfconfidence and became more assertive during the process. At the outset, they could not imagine sitting at a table with researchers or businessmen, much less expressing their views in public. By the end of the process, many of these same individuals had developed a voice and expected to be heard.In Uganda, as elsewhere, most rural development programs (whether organised by the government, local NGOs, or international donors) are concerned primarily with improving the livelihoods of poor farmers, and most of them have focused on working directly with farmers, rather than working to develop market chains. Farmers as well as government officials, donor agencies and NGOs frequently consider traders as unscrupulous middle men who play little or no useful role in commodity chains.Working with the PMCA has led to significant changes in attitudes concerning the importance of working to develop market chains and the benefits of working with diverse groups, including traders, to promote pro-poor market chain innovation. Through their work with the PMCA, many participants realised the importance of developing market chains and of working not only with small farmers but also with 394Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience South-south knowledge sharing market agents, rather than attempting to eliminate or bypass them. Many participants have felt 'enlightened' by their experiences and have become 'true believers' in the PMCA.While I am myself a biological scientist, I have come to realize that all our work must be driven by the market. If the farmer cannot sell what we help him produce, we haven't really helped him.Peter Lusembo, Director of Mukono ZARDIThe application and results of the PMCA have stimulated considerable interest in Ugandan R&D organizations, in donor agencies, in policy circles, and among market chain actors who have participated in the work or heard about it.For example, the Zonal Agricultural R&D Institute of the NARO in Mukono has continued to organize meetings of the sweet potato commodity group, and the institute director has expresse interest in mainstreaming use of the PMCA throughout the organization. A2N-Uganda has received funding from the Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid to implement a 3-year project entitled, 'Poverty eradication through the PMCA' in eight districts of the country. In 2008, the African Technology Centre invited several Ugandans to share their PMCA experiences with colleagues from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia at workshops on value chains and technology development that were held in Kenya and Uganda. In 2009, one of the PMCA commodity team leaders, a finalist in a regional competition for young professionals and women in science, was invited to Ethiopia to present her paper on experiences with the PMCA in Uganda (Akello et al., 2009). Some of the team leaders have used the PMCA in consultancy work. The PMCA Coordinator during Phases 1 and 2 has gone on to work with the Belgian development organization VECO 5In 2008, VECO organised an international workshop on the topic of understanding the role of traders and middlemen in the development of agricultural market chains, which brought together 76 participants from 45 organizations in six African countries. Uganda's PMCA experience was presented to illustrate 'a useful tool to engage smallscale farmers with other market chain actors to improve market access' (VECO, 2008). In 2009, The Royal Tropical Institute in The Netherlands has been developing a where she has continues to mobilise local PMCA experts and promote use of the PMCA in value chains.I have appreciated the team spirit and willingness of commodity team groups to share information and knowledge acquired through PMCA. Wherever I call upon them, they respond positively ... I must say I use my PMCA knowledge in all my work and activities, and I have continued to preach the gospel.Immaculate Sekitto, PMCA Coordinator, Phases 1 and 2 5 VECO is the acronym of 'Vredeseinlanden Country Office'.South-south knowledge sharing curriculum and program for 'Agricultural Innovation Coaching' in Africa. Professionals who had recently promoted significant innovations in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda were invited to serve as resources, and among them one core PMCA practitioner from Uganda. The PMCA served as a major input into development of the curriculum for preparing innovation coaches.As seen in the previous sections, the strategies employed to introduce the PMCA to Uganda were effective in motivating people and developing individual capacities for fostering market chain innovation, and there have been practical results in terms of the innovations produced. Notwithstanding these results, the PMCA practitioners faced a number of challenges in applying the approach in Uganda. Some of these challenges relate to intrinsic features of the PMCA; others relate more to implementation issues.The PMCA is not intrinsically 'pro-poor.' The approach can be used to stimulate and nurture innovation in any market chain, and the benefits can be captured by any group. Therefore, to ensure that use of the PMCA benefits poor farmers, those who lead the exercise and facilitate thematic groups need to apply 'poverty filters' that focus efforts on market chains in which there are significant potential benefits for poor farmers. In the Andes, the PMCA has been used most successfully to develop new high-value products based on native potatoes that are grown by small farmers in remote areas using traditional, low-input practices. Here, use of a poverty filter led to the decision to focus on native potatoes, rather than the improved varieties for which large commercial farmers have a comparative advantage. In future applications of the PMCA in Africa and elsewhere, attempts should be made to employ similar poverty filters.In contrast to the prominent role played by women in facilitating the PMCA process, men have been more prominent in innovation processes: In future, more attention should be paid to ensuring that women and other disadvantaged groups are more fully engaged in and benefit from the results of the PMCA.Innovation processes are inherently unpredictable: This made it more difficult for PRAPACE and local R&D organizations to manage and administer resources and activities than is the case with traditional research or extension projects, which are guided by work plans or logical frameworks with clearly defined objectives, timetables and budgets. Innovation does not finish with the Final Event of Phase 3: The PMCA should be viewed as a trigger for innovation processes that need to be nurtured after the initial exercise is completed. Essentially, we are saying that the mode in which R&D is carried out needs to change. Bringing about such a vast cultural change is a daunting challenge. Some progress has been made, but considerable work is still needed. Mechanisms for scaling up are yet to be fully understood and implemented: Most of the results of the PMCA in Uganda were at the pilot stage at the end of Phase 3. More recently, some innovations have expanded their role in the market and some new 'copy-cat' innovations have emerged. A similar pattern has been observed in the Andes, where the most significant innovations have actually occurred long after the formal completion of the initial PMCA exercise. We do not yet have a systematic strategy for supporting innovation processes or scaling them up after completion of the PMCA.Funding could not be obtained for the entire PMCA exercise: Instead it had to be cobbled together phase-by-phase. This led to substantial uncertainties and delays in the process. In retrospect, it is remarkable that most of the core participants -both the group facilitators and key members -continued throughout the process which stretched over 2 years, rather than the 12-15 months it had taken in Peru and Bolivia.Facilitation of the commodity groups was not in the work plans of most team leaders: Implementing the PMCA requires a substantial input of time by the commodity team leaders, and it was difficult to justify this use of time within many of the team leaders' organizations. In future, when a PMCA exercise begins, more effort should be made to enlist the commitment of participating organizations and to negotiate needed adjustments in work plans.The teams found it difficult to put into practice some of the concepts and methods presented in the PMCA User Guide: Consequently, they would have benefited from closer supervision and more extensive and practical training materials.It was difficult to convince some market chain actors to invest the time and effort needed to engage in the PMCA and to invest in new, untested processes or products: Consequently, some of the innovation processes progressed slowly and some participants who could have made significant contributions to innovation processes dropped out of the PMCA exercise.In this final section, we return to the two questions posed in the Introduction and reflect on the prospects for future use of the PMCA in Uganda and elsewhere.The results of the work reported on here with the PMCA in Uganda demonstrate that the approach can be usefully applied outside of the Andes and in a range of commodity chains.In fact, the results with the PMCA in Uganda exceeded our initial expectations. The PMCA has proven useful both for strengthening innovation capacity and for fostering market chain innovation.South-south knowledge sharingThe commodity teams initiated the development of a number of commercial innovations that have been further developed after the formal end of the PMCA exercise in late 2007. Examples of successful commercial innovations include improved packaging and labelling for a leading Ugandan potato crisp product, a new sweet potato variety successfully introduced into Ugandan supermarkets, and an improved commercial tomato sauce product.Development and expanded sales of new high-value food products have stimulated both institutional and technological innovations. For example, an exporter who participated in the vegetable group has established a contract-farming scheme for producing and exporting fresh hot peppers. This scheme (an institutional innovation) includes the provision of improved planting material and technical assistance to small farmers (technological innovations). Potato processors who wished to expand sales of new products have also developed new arrangements with producers and market agents to secure more reliable supplied of fresh potatoes for their businesses.Valuable capacities for innovation have been created in the realms of knowledge, skills, attitudes and social capital. And these new capacities have been applied in various ways with a growing number of local and international organizations.What does it take to successfully introduce and apply the PMCA in a new setting?Several strategies were employed to introduce, validate and refine the PMCA in Uganda. These included: participatory planning and decision making; South-South learning exchanges, via study tours to Peru and Bolivia; action-oriented PMCA training involving use of a PMCA User Guide, participatory workshops, hands-on work with the PMCA, backstopping and coaching; knowledge sharing among practitioners; and learning-oriented evaluations. These strategies motivated people to become involved with the PMCA and to persevere until the completion of the exercise. They promoted the exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge and fostered the development of skills, attitudes and interpersonal relationships needed for successful pro-poor innovation.Work with the PMCA in Uganda has highlighted some areas where our capacitydevelopment strategies should be improved. The commodity team leaders would have benefited from access to more practical training materials (including case studies). They would also have valued more frequent and direct access to guidance, coaching and feedback from a PMCA expert. CIP and PRAPACE could have also provided more assistance in building commitment and funding support for the PMCA at senior management level within the participating organizations. A priority for CIP is to simplify the PMCA and reduce the time and cost required to implement the approach. Provision should also be made to provide follow-up and support after teams complete the three phases of the initial PMCA exercise. Based on our self-assessment and experiences in the Andes (Devaux et al., 2009), we believe that future efforts to introduce the PMCA into new settings should be guided by a capacity-development strategy with the following seven elements:1. Participatory planning and decision-making involving local actors 2. Negotiation with senior managers in lead R&D organizations to foster institutional commitment to the PMCA and to support fund-raising for its use 3. South-South learning exchanges, via study tours to the Andes, Uganda, or other sites where the PMCA has been successfully used 4. A comprehensive training strategy that includes action-oriented PMCA training workshops, use of the PMCA User Guide and complementary training materials, practical hands-on work with the PMCA in commodity groups, and backstopping and coaching by experienced PMCA facilitators, involving both face-to-face and virtual communications 5. Knowledge sharing among the PMCA practitioners working in different commodity teams 6. Periodic learning-oriented reviews and evaluations to improve the process and document results 7. Continuing support after the completion of Phase 3.Implementing a thorough capacity development process with these components takes time and resources. But it should be seen as an investment in innovation capacity that will generate returns over a number of years. Our experiences in Uganda and even more so in the Andes, where work with the PMCA began in 2003, is that the capacities developed -at both individual and innovation-system level -continue to be utilised long after the PMCA exercise formally ends. In many cases, the creative imitations that occur years after the initial efforts are the most important ones.When introducing the PMCA to new settings, it needs to be kept in mind that each situation presents a unique combination of socio-economic, political, institutional and technological conditions. For this reason, the approach will need to be customised for use in each country and market chain. Institutional sustainability issues should be dealt with as priorities from the outset of any process of introduction.One common characteristic of most resource-poor potato farmers in developing countries is that they know very little about the processes which cause plant disease. Farmers know much about biological entities they can see, such as crops and animals, less about insects -some stages of which they don't see-and almost nothing about microorganisms (Trutmann et al., 1993;Ortiz and Forbes, 2003). The common answers to the question of \"what causes blight\" will be anything but correct:1 Originally published in Acta Horticulturae, 2009 (834) pages 111-122.South-south knowledge sharing lightening, low temperature, rain, sun while it rains, stages of the moon, bad seed, or mystical explanations (Ortiz and Forbes, 2003). Therefore, in spite of having access to new technologies, particularly ago-chemicals, many rural people have not gained new knowledge from agricultural science. For this reason, humans seem to be the neglected corner of the disease tetrahedron (Fig. 1). The limited knowledge that resource-poor farmers have about pesticides, together with other factors that affect potato late blight (PLB), has led to an epidemic of pesticide poisonings and other chronic health problems in the developing world. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (Anonymous, 2003) produced an International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides. Based on this code, highly toxic pesticide (Class-I, WHO system) should be banned, because necessary protective clothing is cumbersome, expensive and almost never used (Eddleston et al., 2002;Wesseling et al., 2005). The most recent version of the code promotes corporate responsibility in pesticide trade, but we have not been able to find documented examples where the industry willingly removed hazardous pesticides from a market. A recent study has indicated that adherence to the code is very low in Peru and Ecuador (Orozco et al., 2009), and this is undoubtedly the case in most developing countries. While the majority of dangerous pesticides are not fungicides, three of the most commonly used late blight fungicides (mancozeb, maneb and chorothalonil) were recently included in a list of pesticides considered to be dangerous to developing country farmers (Wesseling et al., 2005). The increasing number of technical and development workers decrying the current pesticide crises South-south knowledge sharing in developing countries concurs that in addition to effective regulation, integrated pest management and natural pest control methods are required.The lack of knowledge about basic aspects of the disease itself makes it difficult to simply teach farmers how to manage fungicides or other technologies. For that reason, extension workers in developing countries have been using knowledgeintensive, participatory techniques to help farmers increase their understanding of how disease occurs and how it can be managed. The most commonly used participatory approach is probably the farmer field school (FFS). The International Potato Center (CIP) and partners initiated a FFS program in the late 1990s with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (Sherwood et al., 2000;Nelson et al., 2001).To provide FFS facilitators with materials related to potato, a guide was developed by CIP and partners in Peru with a strong focus on PLB (Nelson et al., 2002). Initially, the FFS were intended to focus primarily on PLB, but this rapidly evolved into a focus on potato integrated pest management (IPM) and potato production in general in response to needs expressed by farmers. Subsequently, a number of other materials were developed in other countries, including Bolivia (Gandarillas et al., 2001), Ecuador (Pumisacho and Sherwood, 2000;Pumisacho and Sherwood, 2005) and El Salvador (Anonymous, 2000). All of these were focused on potato and contained some information and/or activities related to PLB management.In 2006, CIP initiated a comparison of FFS guides dealing with PLB. Many commonalities were found and are discussed in more detail later. This work was initiated in part by a need expressed by FFS facilitators to produce more thorough materials for PLB management. It was assumed that a farmer-focused approach, which emphasized the capacities farmers need to manage the disease, would produce more balanced and thorough materials, which would have greater impact in the field. This paper describes the process followed since 2006 that has resulted in the production of a new PLB guide for FFS facilitators (the users) who work with resourcepoor farmers in developing countries (the beneficiaries). We also discuss some of the issues related to use of the guide and the general problem of building capacity of farmers for PLB management.The approach that was taken to develop the capacity building guide consisted of three stages described in the next paragraphs.Previously published materials related to building farmer capacity for PLB management in developing countries (Anonymous, 2000;Pumisacho and Sherwood, 2000;Gandarillas et al., 2001;Nelson et al., 2002;Pumisacho and Sherwood, 2005) were compared for content and methodology. A synthesis of the materials was developed to facilitate access for the following step. These included FFS facilitators, extension workers, and plant pathologists. In this workshop participants followed a methodology refined by V. Zapata which relies heavily on knowledge management theory (Zapata, 2006). The methodology consisted of: i) identification of the competencies farmers need to control PLB; ii) analysis and description of the components for capacity building; iii) development of the learning objectives; iv) selection of content and information sources; v) selection of strategies and resources, vi) identification of the facilitators functions; and vii) development of the evaluation questions.The farmer competencies were identified by a participatory process in which the following concept was developed: \"to effectively manage PLB, a famer needs to be capable of…..\" This was done by working in groups and then evaluated in plenary sessions. Once the competencies were identified, the participants identified the capacity building components, which were: mental abilities, physical skills, attitudes, and information. These components then gave rise to different learning objectives. For each component (e.g., mental ability) at least one learning objective was developed. Each objective had the same structure, consisting of a subject (to whom is the objective directed), verb (what is the nature of the action the subject will do), conditions (under which the subject does the action) and the criterion (used to evaluate the action). Special care was given to use verbs representing actions that later could be evaluated. For example, instead of using verbs like 'know' or 'understand', verbs such as 'describe' or 'draw' were used.Guided by the learning objectives, the participants then identified the information that was needed as content to support the development of the abilities, skills and attitudes. The content was found in a number of sources, including the previously published guides that had been synthesized, other pamphlets, books and Internet. The next step was to develop strategies to deliver the content to the end user. Here a number of existing participatory activities were evaluated and the best were included. In many cases, groups also developed new approaches to facilitate learning of particular capacities and knowledge.The final part of the process involved defining the role of the facilitator. Here clear instructions were developed to assist facilitators in the implementation of the sessions. Questions were also developed that would guide the facilitator in the evaluation of success of the learning objectives.The results of the process described above were formulated into modules using the guidance of experienced facilitators. The modules were then validated and iteratively improved in three FFSs in the central highlands of Ecuador (68 farmers; 49 men and 19 women) and in two workshops of facilitators, one in Peru (10 participants) and the other in Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) (seven participants). Finally modules were assembled into a guide with appropriate technical design, and published.A total of 25 activities related to PLB management were compiled from the earlier sources. The sources varied but generally dealt with one or more of seven themes: symptoms and diagnosis, host resistance, factors affecting disease severity, fungicides, dissemination of the pathogen, disease development in a humid chamber, and integrated management (Table 1). The most complete work was that of Peru (Nelson et al., 2002), which had 12 practices related to PLB.Participants in the workshop identified five competencies that farmers need to effectively manage PLB. These were: i) capable of recognizing the symptoms of disease and know which organism causes it; ii) know how this organism lives; iii) identify the characteristics and benefits of using resistant potato cultivars; iv) use fungicides appropriately; and v) by periodically visiting the potato field, be able to select practices that control late blight efficiently. Fifteen capacity building components were identified and then 15 learning objectives were developed (Table 2). Learning objectives for the use of appropriate protection while mixing and applying pesticides and for pesticide application technology were not developed, as these subjects are generic and it was felt that they would be better developed in a separate facilitator's guide. Based on the learning objectives, scientific resources, learning strategies and specific functions for the facilitator were developed. Different techniques were used to facilitate learning, for example, observation, analogies, skits, discussions, experimentation and simulation. The five competencies with learning objectives were formulated into five modules. Annexes were also developed to provide supporting 406Innovation for Development: The Papa Andina Experience South-south knowledge sharing material on: i) how to construct a \"knowledge test\" using simple resources; and ii) basic fungicide information formulated in a fungicide guide. Once all the material was developed, much emphasis was put on formatting. A specific format was used for each module that gave consistency and facilitated use of the guide. Page size, paper quality, font, figure content and quality, design, and language were chosen in function of field utility, user, beneficiary and gender considerations. The format of each module included: i) instructions for the facilitator before the session (prerequisites, time needed, introduction, objectives, structure of the module, and preparation for the facilitator); and ii) activities to be developed with the participants during the session (revision of the preceding module, evaluation of the existing knowledge, expectations of the participants), which included at least one practical session (objective, materials, procedure, technical notes for the facilitator, and handouts to give to participants) and final activities (synthesis of the module, final knowledge evaluation, feedback, and questionnaire). The guide was initially published in Spanish (Cáceres et al., 2007) and then translated into Ecuadorian Quechua Cáceres et al., 2007and English (Cáceres et al., 2008).One valid question as a consequence of this multi-year process is: \"what was gained\"? As noted earlier, a number of materials for intensive farmer capacity building already existed. Why was there a need for yet another? This endeavor grew out of a realization by facilitators, communicated to the authors (S. Sherwood, pers. commun.) that the existing materials were not covering all the necessary areas, nor were they achieving the necessary learning objectives. This can be seen in Table 1, where several existing guides do not cover key themes for PLB control. PLB is the most serious biotic constraint to potato production and arguably the most serious yield threat in many regions. If not properly managed, PLB can easily destroy a crop and leaving little or no yield. This endeavor differed from earlier ones in the approach taken. While a number of earlier PLB publications were used as resources and for inspiration, the final content of this guide was decided by a structured and highly participatory exercise. Perhaps one of the unique qualities of the exercise was not so much its participatory nature, but rather the structured competence-based approach. One can only hope that this gives a solid underpinning to both the scope and balance of the modules. In the 2006 workshop in Quito, five competencies were identified. In a more recent workshop in Beijing, 2008, with different participants coming from a different context, a very similar set of competencies was also identified (unpublished data).The endeavor described herein also differed from earlier ones in the way the competencies were translated into learning objectives. Here, expert guidance based in knowledge management theory assisted the process to ensure that the objectives, once met, would result in the identified competencies.When the facilitator's guide is compared content wise with earlier versions one can see that it is similar to them, particularly the one from Peru (Nelson et al., 2002). To the extent that this guide, with its systematic methodology, resembles the earlier ones, it also validates them; to a large extent the experts who created them were on the mark. This strengthens the idea that the present guide does not represent a revolutionary change, but rather an evolutionary step in PLB capacity building.The process of developing this guide was in itself edifying. INIAP, Ecuador's national agricultural research system, adopted the process to develop guides for other aspects of potato production, and was able to convince the national government to fund the process. CIP is also currently discussing how to use this approach to improve and standardize existing capacity building materials.Overall, the process of identifying competencies, capacity building components (mental, physical and attitudinal), information and then learning objectives was very intuitive to those who participated in the workshop. Most participants left the workshop confident that the work they had done was founded in a solid strategy and that the outputs would be effective if implemented with farmers. This guide can be used in different participatory learning approaches, particularly in FFSs and short courses. It utilizes several different techniques to facilitate learning. It also emphasizes the importance of building on the existing farmer knowledge and subsequently developing with farmers improved knowledge by strengthening the competencies they need to control PLB. For this reason, the facilitator should act as an intermediary of knowledge and not as a traditional professor. This guide is not intended to be highly technical in the different aspects of control of late blight. Other sources such as books, scientific articles and technical sheets (e.g., Pérez and Forbes, 2007) can be used if greater knowledge is needed. The objective of this guide is to present the information that is essential for the participants to be able to adequately manage potato late blight.Considering the educational level of the projected users and beneficiaries of this guide, it was essential to use simple language. For example, while the pathogen that causes late blight, P. infestans, actually belongs to the group of microorganisms known as oomycetes, in the guide it is referred to as a fungus, which is much more familiar to most people. Other simplifications have also been made in language.The users of this guide should be able to read and write. Also it is highly recommended that they have some experience in potato cultivation and in processes of participatory capacity building. The beneficiaries do not necessarily have to know how to read and write. Therefore, it's highly recommended that users of this guide participate in a course on how it should be correctly used. This course might last two or three days and could be given by people with experience in PLB control, the use of this guide, and in the pedagogical principles that make FFSs successful. To date, three workshops were held in Ecuador to train extension workers to use the guide.Finally, the guide should be tried and adapted to the local social and agroecological conditions. Furthermore, some contents are specific to each location, as for example lists of cultivars or lists of fungicides. Adaptation of the guide for dissemination in South America, Asia and Africa is foreseen. ","tokenCount":"118716"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1eed762344fc6a2735f3ac68fc5f8e48","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4eeb3a72-d8b3-4a04-9fd0-14820a8c0dd3/retrieve","id":"-431680775"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b5bd11ba-7733-4227-ba6a-3da6d5c351bf","pagecount":"2","content":"The Africa RISING program comprises three research-fordevelopment projects supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the U.S. government's Feed the Future initiative.In Ethiopia, the main aim of the project is to identify and validate solutions to the problems experienced by smallholder crop-livestock farmers. Some problems arise from the difficulties facing farmers in managing natural resources and achieving efficiencies from managing crops, trees, water and livestock together. These efficiencies are often influenced by other factors such as access to inputs and the reliability of markets.To address this complexity, Africa RISING takes an integrated approach to strengthen farming systems. It conducts participatory research that identifies technologies and management practices that work for farmers and take account of contextual issues like markets for inputs and outputs, community and other institutions and of the policy environments that influence farm households.In Ethiopia, the project works in eight intervention kebeles (the lowest administrative units in Ethiopia) in four woredas (or districts): Basona Worena, Sinana, Lemo, and Endamehoni in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP and Tigray regions respectively.According to the 2007 census, the total population of the woreda is 118,594 people of whom 58,666 were male and 59,928 female. In this district, Africa RISING is working in two kebeles, Jawe and Upper Gana.In general, the district is well-served by markets and roads, but infrastructure is poor. Visitors to rural areas will encounter a diverse and intense tree-crop-livestock system containing many trees and fruit orchards as well as enset (or false banana, its pulp forms a staple food, its leaves are fed to animals). Land is scarce and fragmented, there are many people (many receiving remittances from outside the area), and crop diseases are affecting the enset and the wheat. Responding to farmer demands, Africa RISING efforts focus on ways to intensify land productivity through technologies that work well for small landholding and diversify farm income. Current interventions include sheep fattening, forages, improved crop varieties, fruit trees and water-harvesting.Jawe is 10 km southwest of Hossana. It is characterized by a crop-livestock system with a strong perennial crops component. It has 914 households, 749 are male-headed and 165 are female-headed. Wheat, teff, potato and faba bean are the most important cash crops; enset, vegetables, teff, wheat and potato are the main food crops. Livestock produced include oxen, cows and donkeys.Jawe is at an altitude between 2,100-2,244 metres. It receives a mean annual rainfall between 900-1,400 mm. It has a bimodal rainfall pattern. The mean annual maximum temperature is 23o C and the mean minimum temperature is 18o C. Nitisols are the dominant soil types.Upper Gana is 13 km northwest of Hossana. It is characterized by a crop-livestock system with a strong perennial crops component. It has 796 households, 710 are male-headed and 86 are female-headed. The livelihoods of the communities are mainly based on crop and livestock production and from remittances from outside. Wheat, teff and faba bean are the most important cash crops; enset, wheat and maize are the main food crops. Livestock produced include oxen, cows, donkeys and poultry.Upper Gana is at an altitude between 2,129-2,400 metres. ","tokenCount":"514"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6841abc71b558c4d93ae93d7ac4b9515","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f0b3b2b5-aa1a-438c-90ef-eea628febc40/retrieve","id":"-1390964440"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7c994923-08e9-4699-beef-c301781bd7a5","pagecount":"2","content":"• Retail prices of maize increased by 4 percent in July.• Prices of maize were highest in the Southern region.• No ADMARC sales were reported in any of the 26 markets monitored by IFPRI.• ADMARC purchases were reported in 4 markets.• Retail prices of maize in Malawi were similar to those elsewhere in the region except in Tanzania, where maize is considerably cheaper at both the official and market exchange rates, presenting an opportunity for imports.Figure 1 shows a trend in prices over the 12 months ending in July 2024, and, for comparison, over the 12 months ending in July 2023. At the beginning of the harvest season, we start reporting prices of newly harvested maize, which has a higher moisture content compared to maize from the previous harvest. High moisture content makes it unsuitable for storage or milling. During drying, it loses about 20 percent of its weight. Solid lines in Figure 1 represent observed maize prices. Dotted lines represent prices adjusted for moisture content, reflecting the true price trend.After a sharp increase in June and early July, daily average retail prices of maize stabilized in the second half of July, resulting in only a 4% increase in the weekly average prices between the final week of June and the final week of July (Table 1). Despite the stability, the weekly average price of maize in July 2024 was K792/kg, which is 22 percent higher than the price observed in the final week of July 2023 (K650/kg).In July, retail prices of maize continued to exhibit a typical regional pattern, with highest prices in the South (K862/kg on average) and lowest prices in the North (K627/kg on average). In the Central region, maize retailed on average at K758/kg (Figures 2 and 3). Most markets monitored by IFPRI saw moderate price increases between the last week of June and the last week of July (Table 1). The Monthly Maize Market Report was developed by researchers at IFPRI Malawi to provide clear and accurate information on the variation of maize prices in selected markets throughout Malawi. All prices are reported in Malawi Kwacha (K).For further information contact Chimwemwe Banda (C.Banda@cgiar.org) at IFPRI Malawi.To learn more about our work, visit www.massp.ifpri.info or follow us on Twitter (@IFPRIMalawi).Table 1. Weekly average retail prices (K/kg) Figure 3. Location of marketsRetail maize prices in Malawi were higher than in Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa, and Tanzania at the the official exchange rate (K1,751/$) (Figure 4). Meanwhile, neighboring Tanzania continues to report the lowest maize prices at both the market exchange rate (K2,400/$) and the official exchange rate. This price disparity presents a strategic opportunity for the Malawian government, which faces challenges in replenishing its reserves from domestic sources, to explore importing maize from neighboring countries. This move could bolster national reserves and help stabilize local prices, ensuring a secure food supply.In July, no ADMARC sales were reported in any of the 26 markets monitored by IFPRI. However, ADMARC made purchases in four select markets, specifically Karonga in the North, Salima and Mitundu in the Centre, and Mwanza in the South.IFPRI Malawi has been monitoring retail maize prices and ADMARC activities in selected markets since July 2016. Currently, data is collected from 26 markets across the country, with monitoring occurring six days per week, excluding Sundays. At least three monitors report data from each market. Data is collected by means of phone calls to the monitors. Regional prices reported in Figure 4 are sourced from weekly reports from Commodity Insights Africa.  ","tokenCount":"583"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6117541094.json b/data/part_3/6117541094.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ad619e9a5829173ddaf89d17521e5b8a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8d9d16de-7873-41a0-b5f6-fd20381ec4c2/retrieve","id":"-1869960095"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ddfa1fd7-894d-40ef-9a2a-c80ee02e28d0","pagecount":"10","content":"The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) is a systematic method to assess local feed resource availability and use. It helps in the design of intervention strategies aiming to optimize feed utilization and animal production. More information and the manual can be obtained at www.ilri.org/feast FEAST is a tool in constant development and improvement. Feedback is welcome and should be directed feast@cgiar.org. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is not responsible for the quality and validity of results obtained using the FEAST methodology.The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) was used to characterize the feed-related aspects of the livestock production system in Namayumba sub district, Wakiso district of Uganda. The assessment was carried out through focused group discussions and completion of short questionnaires by three key farmer representatives owning small, medium and large scale farms on the 24 th of March 2011 1 . The following are the findings of the assessment and conclusions for further action.The farming system is primarily a subsistence based, mixed crop/livestock system. Farm sizes in the area are around 1.5 acres (0.6 ha) on average with most of the land being used for cropping. A typical household size is 6 people who live permanently on farm on average per year. Households in the area commonly grow a variety of food crops including; maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), bananas (Musa acuminate), cassava (Manihot esculenta), and groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea). Many farmers also grow forage crops such as Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum), Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana), and Nandi setaria (Setaria sphacelata). A few farmers grow fodder legumes such as Lablab purpureus and Mucuna pruriens as well as fodder trees and shrubs such as Calliandra calothyrsus. The average area of land used for production of food crops is shown in Figure 1 and fodder crops in Figure 2.Each household also raises a variety of livestock species including cattle, sheep, goats and pigs for various purposes. Cattle are kept mainly for milk, cash income from animal sales and manure. On average most households have two or three milking cows. In addition, many households have 3-4 sheep and/or goats. Indigenous chickens are kept by households to meet household meat, egg and cash needs. Nganda type cattle are kept by more than 80% of households but they are not popular with farmers due to their low milk production capabilities. Improved cross bred cattle are kept by about 30% of the households. Cross breds comprise mainly of Friesian, Jersey breeds and the local Nganda cattle. Sheep and goats are also raised by 20-50% of the households for quick sale when funds are required. Labour is generally available all the time at approximately 60,000 Uganda shillings per month. In addition to this price workers are given meals, milk and some health care cover. This total price package is considered very expensive. Livestock oriented labour is mainly needed during the dry season while the crop oriented labour is required mainly required in the wet season. Herding labour is more costly in the dry season because herds are moved over longer distances in search of pastures and water. This high cost of labour is considered to be due to many rural people migrating to town to look for better paying jobs. Rainfall levels are generally adequate to support cropping activities; however, rainfall unreliability is increasingly becoming common (Table 1). Water is not a major constraint in the area and no large scale irrigation is carried out.  Milk sales are the primary contributor to household income. An average of 52% of all household income comes from the sale of milk. Crops, mainly maize, beans, bananas, groundnuts and cassava make an important contribution of approximately 38% to household income. The contribution from sales of indigenous birds and eggs is considered relatively minor at 10% collectively for some households (Figure 3). The contribution of these sales varies substantially throughout the year based on climatic conditions. Income received from the regular sale of livestock is uncommon in the area as indicated by a proportional off take rate of 0.33%. Sale of animals generally occurs in an ad-hoc manner when funds are required quickly or undesirable animals such as bull calves and unproductive old cows need to be culled. The livestock production system is focused on milk production. Improved dairy breeds, namely Friesians and a few Jerseys dominate livestock holdings as shown in Figure 4. Milk produced on the farm is sold to Bubusi dairy co-operative society at an average price of 620 Ugandan shilling (UGS), (0.26 USD; ranging from 500-800; 0.21-0.33 USD) per litre. The average milk production per cow per day in the area is 7.8 kg. Management of the cows varies with type of cattle. Indigenous local breeds are normally grazed while improved cows are confined and fed in cattle sheds throughout day and night. Generally households with larger land holdings tend to graze cows while those with smaller land holdings confine their cows in a small fenced area (sometimes with a cattle shed). Sheep and goats are normally tethered in homesteads and along the road side for grazing. The common feeding strategies in the area include grazing, feeding chopped green fodder and or crop residues especially maize stover. Hay and silage is fed by a few farmers.Artificial Insemination (AI) services are readily accessible for all farmers in the area from Bubusi dairy farmer business association (DFBA) and it is the preferred method of reproduction. Improved bull services are also available from large farms and the National Agricultural Advisory Department (NAAD) bull scheme at a cost of UGS 20,000 (8 USD) per successful service. The price of semen varies significantly and AI services cost UGS 30,000 -40,000 (13-17 USD per service) per service. Farmers pay UGS 30,000 for any repeats. Farmers consider this price expensive. Farmers would like to be trained on heat detection to improve conception rates. Service providers use bull catalogues to decide which semen to give. The type and quality of semen is given to farmers depending on the provider's perception of the farmer's management capabilities.  The diet is primarily composed of green forages, concentrates, crop residues, legumes and grazing as shown in Figure 5. The contribution made by these feed sources to the diet varies throughout the year. During the main part of the wet season (April-June) and (September -November), green forages, legumes and grazing compose the largest part of the diet. During the dry season (January -March and July-August) crop are found in the diet in larger quantities. Surprisingly, larger quantities of concentrate feeds are fed during periods when there is plenty of forage. Grazing, purchased feeds, naturally occurring and collected feeds, cultivated fodder and crop residues contribute 48, 32, 8, 6, and 6% of the total diet on farms (Figure 6). Concentrates and maize bran contribute 99% of the total purchased feed. The contributions of total ME (MJ/kg) and crude protein (CP; %) are shown in Figure 7 and 8 respectively. Supplements such as maize bran and dairy meal can be purchased for 200 UGS (0.1 USD) per kg and 40,000 UGS shillings (17 USD) per 70 kg bag respectively.   According to farmers, the main constraint to production in this area is insufficient forage seed for establishing high yielding forages. Animal diseases, especially tick borne diseases and lumpy skin disease, is the second most important problem in the area. Water scarcity is the third most important problem especially in the dry season. Other problems include unavailability of animal health providers. Farmers also consider fluctuation of milk prices in the dry and wet season as a major problem to sustainable incomes. Farmers attribute price fluctuation to the monopoly of the milk processor in the area. Although not listed as a major problem concentrate feeds are considered to be very expensive and significantly increase the cost of milk production. A summary of problems and farmer proposed solutions are shown the (Table 2). -Service provider should separate personal and animal heath roles -Service provider should specialise in technical roles such as A.I., clinical and animal husbandry services rather than mixing them.One way of mitigating the effects of feed constraints is to produce more feed biomass per hectare. Farmers consider that the main reason limiting this is lack of forage seed. As most farmers have not committed large proportions of their holdings to fodder, there is still scope for producing more fodder from available land. To mitigate the effects of lack of forage seed, efforts will have to be made to catalyse community seed production either through groups or interested people as a business. There is also an avenue of linking seed companies to the DFBA to supply seed in small packages that are affordable to farmers.The variation in price received for milk indicates an oversupply of fresh milk in the area, particularly during the wet season. There is potential to conserve the excess forage that occurs during the wet season through silage making. This will help alleviate dry season feed shortages and enable farmers produce more milk during the dry season when milk prices are high hence to earn more money. Simple on-farm methods of silage production should be considered. The use of polythene bags or small scale silage pits may be viable options. Grazing forms a substantial amount of forage to households. Improving pasture quality can significantly increase DM available for feeding. Simple methods of improving pasture such as bush clearing, strip and circular sowing are viable options given that farmers own small portions of land.Currently most of the 32% of purchased feeds are concentrates and feed ingredients. As a result attempts to make delivery chains effective and improve access of concentrates will enhance usage amongst farmers. However, as the price received per litre of milk is relatively low, the extra expense of additional concentrate feeds is unlikely to be off-set by the potential increases in milk yields that may be achieved with higher levels of concentrate feeding. Improvement of animal health services will required a top down approach as it is unlikely the farmers can instigate the necessary changes themselves on-farm. Such changes include creating attractive incentives that should attract more service providers and make them concentrate on providing animal health services. Other changes are that service providers should specialise in technical roles such as A.I., clinical and animal husbandry services rather than mixing them. However, this would require farmers to show the willingness to pay for better services.To mitigate the high incidences of animal diseases attempts need to be made to increase the number of local drug shops, increase the number of service providers and enhance education on control of diseases and vaccinations. Again some of these are outside the scope of what farmers can change themselves and will need institutional interventions to solve them.Milk is the main contributor to household income in this subsistence based mixed/crop livestock system. Farm sizes in the area are an average size of 1.5 acres (0.6 ha) most of which is used for cropping. Every household has at least 2-3 milking cows and 3-4 sheep and/or goats. The primary crops of importance are maize and beans. The main constraint to the further intensification and development of dairying in the area is a lack of feed especially in the dry season. Rhodes and Napier grasses are the main types of fodder. Most farmers keep improved cattle. Milk prices are generally unstable and vary throughout the year due to an oversupply in the wet season. The major constraints are lack of forage seeds for establishing high yielding forages and limited animal health service providers.","tokenCount":"1913"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c3738a9ec26ec3bc54cfdc319ee19822","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/241fbd36-a909-46c9-9932-3ec65d607a81/retrieve","id":"-1586178310"},"keywords":["AligningtheobjectivesofAfrica'sclimate","agricultureandfoodsystemspoliciesisanurgentpriorityforthe continent.Whiletherearenumerousclimate-smartagriculture(CSA)relatedpolicyframeworksandstructuresin place","atmultiplescales","manyofthemrequirepolitical","technicalandfinancialsupporttostrengthentheir coherence","integrationandalignmentandultimatelyimplementation. Therecommendationsinthispolicybriefingaimtoenhancethedesign","financing","implementationandmonitoring ofCSApoliciesthroughoutAfrica.ImprovingthecoherenceandalignmentofCSApoliciesiskeytoachieving integratedandsustainableclimatechange","agricultureandfoodsystemsoutcomes","aswellascollectively catalysingthedesiredtransformationofclimateresilientagriculturalproductionandrobustfoodsystemsneeded tosupportthecontinent'sdevelopmentgoals.Inaddition","policyintegrationisarequirementforcoherent financingofCSAacrossthecontinent Impacts","Adaptation","andVulnerability.ContributionofWorkingGroupIItotheSixthAssessmentReportofthe IntergovernmentalPanelonClimateChange[H.-O.Pörtner","D.C.Roberts","M.Tignor","E.S.Poloczanska","K.Mintenbeck","A.Alegría","M.Craig","S.Langsdorf","S. Löschke","V.Möller","A.Okem","B.Rama(eds.)].CambridgeUniversityPress.InPress. 4 AfricanUnionandAUDA-NEPAD.MalaboPolicyLearningEvent","MAPLE2021","ConceptNote"],"sieverID":"4ab2ef5c-5b7d-4db9-98c1-e75a85e7f929","pagecount":"8","content":"Policycoherenceisthesystematicpromotionofmutuallyreinforcingpolicyactionsacrossgovernment departmentsandagencies,creatingsynergiestowardsachievingtheagreedobjectives. 5 • RegionalAgricultural Policies• NationalAdaptationProgrammesofAction• NationallyAppropriateMitigationActions(NAMAs)• NationallyDeterminedContributions• Long-termDecarbonisationStrategiesRegional CSA policy frameworks and alignment• RegionalAgricultural InvestmentPlansAmongst others, actions and efforts that support policy coherence in CSA include:• Mainstreamingofclimateandagriculturalpoliciesandsupportmeasuresintobroaderpublicpolicy, expenditureandplanningframeworksatthecontinental,regional,national,sub-nationalandlocallevel;• Systematicintegrationofclimatechangeresponsesintotheplanninganddevelopmentofsustainable agriculturalandfoodsystems;• Fosteringalignmentofpolicyacrossmultiplescales;• Activitiesthatsupportthestrengtheningofinstitutionalcoordinationmechanismsandcross-sectoral arrangements;• Capacitydevelopmentacrossstakeholdergroupstoallowforactionablepolicyinterventions;and • NationalCommitteeofClimate Change • TheIrrigationMasterPlan(2020)• KenyaClimateSmartAgriculture Programme(2015-2030)• KenyaClimateSmartAgriculture Strategy(2017-2026)• KenyaClimateSmartAgricultureMulti-StakeholderPlatformStrategicPlan• KenyaCSAM&EFrameworkand trainingmanuals• NationalCSAFrameworkProgramme (2015-2025)• NationalAdaptationPlan• NationalClimateChangePolicy(2015)• TheLandResourceConservation Department(LRCD)isthefocalpoint forCSAcoordinatingCSAinvestments• TheAgricultureClimateResiliencePlan (2014)• TheNationalAgriculturePolicy• ZanzibarClimateChangeActionPlan (2016)• NationalIrrigationPolicy( 2009)• TheZimbabweAgricultureInvestment Plan(2019)• DraftZimbabweCountryStrategicPlan (2022-2026)• Climate-SmartAgricultureFramework (underdevelopment)• Climate-SmartAgricultureManualfor AgricultureEducationinZimbabwe(2017)• TheClimateChangeFacilitationUnit• CSAaddressedinthecountry'sINDC• NationalForestryPolicy(2014)• NationalAgriculturePolicy(2012-2030)• NationalStrategyforReducingEmissionsfor DeforestationandForestDegradation• TheSeventhNationalDevelopmentPlan(SNDP 2017-2021)includesafocusonclimatechange andstimulatingagriculturaldevelopment PrecedingtheUN'sFoodSystemSummit,NationalFoodSystemsDialogueswere establishedtoprovideanentrypointforlocallytailored,multi-stakeholderdiscussions aroundfoodsystemreform.Informedbythelatestscienceandpolicythinkingatan internationallevel,thesedialoguesacrossallAfricancountriesarecriticaltobridgethe gapbetweenpolicymakingatthegloballevels.2. Support the mainstreaming of CSA into existing policy frameworks at multiple scales,including nationaldevelopmentplans.Furthermore,linkclimateandagriculturalfinancing,incentivesandinvestmentsin CSAthroughthedevelopmentofsectoralandsub-nationalplanningandbudgets.inthedevelopmentoflong-term,economy-widelowemissionsstrategies(orLong-TermStrategies(LTSs)),in the5-yearrevisioncyclesoftheNationallyDeterminedContributions(NDCs),aswellasthenationaldialogues onfoodsystemstransition.ActionPlan(2022-2032).Technicalexpertsandkeyresourcepeoplewerecalleduponto developtheStrategy'scontent,aswellastoparticipateinthevalidationsessions.Farmers organisations,youthorganisations,gender-focusedgroupingsandothers,participated directlyintheStrategy'sdevelopmentandvalidationprocesses,makingspecificinputto thesectiononagricultureandlandmanagement,ensuringtheexplicitreferencetoCSA andfarmers'resilience.UnionDevelopmentAgency-NEPAD),throughtechnicalassistance,increasedfinanceandinstitutionalcapacity. Enhancethetechnicalandresourcecapacitiesofnationalandregionalpolicycoordinationinstitutions.TheSouthernAfricanDevelopmentCommunityhassetuptheCentreforCoordination ofAgriculturalResearchandDevelopmentforSouthernAfrica(CCARDESA)tocoordinate CSAattheregionallevel.CCARDESAplaysakeyroleincoordinating,leadingand sustainingactionstopromoteclimateresilienceacrosstheregion. ","tokenCount":"109"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9ae107ad8d9389c5a6eeafd5f102b12b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0ea32283-db3b-4521-9d25-bce12d924b63/retrieve","id":"551216277"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d94c75ce-b292-411d-9d8a-6bb57fb346a3","pagecount":"2","content":"Three young entrepreneurs working in the digitalisation for agriculture sector have learned the hard way that delivering technology-driven solutions for smallholder farmers in Africa can present special challenges. Here, they share some of their insights, including a survival strategy that they claim is critical to success -diversify or die.In developed countries, markets are generally well researched and documented, so start-ups will have accurate data on which to build its market strategy, without having to spend too much time on testing and analysis. That is far from the case in Africa. Here, start-ups have to do their own market research. This adds to the costs, and makes it difficult to develop a single value proposition and business model from the outset.Dealing with potential investors is often a challenge as a result, since these expect to be presented with detailed business plans that focus on a single product or service. Our experience suggests that this does not work well for start-ups in Africa, and that diversification is a good way to gain efficiency and explore new segments.Creating derivative products based on the same core technology, and which contribute to the company value proposition, makes it possible to increase business efficiency while exploring connected market pools. For example, if you are using remote sensing technologies to advise wheat farmers on fertiliser use, why not use the same technologies to help fertiliser companies assess the impact of the fertiliser they sell? While this multi-sided business model may allow African start-ups to survive and even develop, it carries with ít certain marketing and communication risks, which digital entrepreneurs would do well not to ignore. Using experience from running our own digital start-ups, we offer some advice on branching out -highlighting some of the potential pitfalls along the way:• By developing individual value propositions focused on two different types of customerfarmers and enterprises -Brian Bosire, founder of UjuziKilimo, a start-up developing soil sensors in Kenya, has leveraged soil analysis data acquired from farmers to generate market insights for input enterprises operating in the agricultural sector. He quickly learned that although farmers could not always pay for the soil analysis information his company supplied, they provide valuable feedback that input companies are ready to pay for. • For Hamza Rkha Chaham, co-founder of SOWIT -a start-up developing remote sensing decision support tools for farmers -diversification is not just a way to reconcile short and long-term financial and strategic objectives. It also drives market exploration. In Morocco, cereals are cultivated on 5 million hectares, with fertiliser accounting for onethird of production costs -representing substantial scope for precision agriculture. However, seeing the need to first gauge the business potential of decision support mechanisms for fertiliser application, he made a strategic move to diversify. So while developing a drone-based decision support tool targeting wheat producers, he started selling SOWIT's drone technology to other market segments -surveying, mining and construction -and offering drone training packages to ensure short-term income. • N'kalô is a successful market advisory company operating in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Senegal, but founder Pierre Ricau soon saw that farmer subscriptions of €0.18 per month would not be enough to secure financial sustainability. Realising that N'kalô would need to find other sources of revenue, he chose to diversify. The current strategy includes selling the company's market expertise through consultancy projects, and Ricau is exploring solutions such as advertising input companies' products.In our experience, diversification has mitigated the income risk, increased returns on investment by maximising assets, and allowed us to explore new market segments. However, it also brought with it a number of challenges.Diversification is not only confusing for investors, who tend to interpret it as an inability to address a core market. It may also confuse the customers. Addressing different market segments presents a communication challenge. As a start-up with limited resources, it is not always wise to spread a marketing budget over several segments, since it is already hard enough to drive awareness for just one.Most investors we met preferred to put their capital into simple business models, for which they could establish a clear correspondence with equivalent models in more advanced economies. In addition, many tended to back the trending technologies, rather than the solutions. Even donors and institutions wanted to hear more about artificial intelligence, drones or blockchain than about providing farmers with a way to reduce their fertiliser costs.For us, technology is a means to deliver what the farmer expects in the most scalable way, and to solve their most pressing challenges linked to inefficiencies. We address investors' concerns by establishing strong management, mitigating the unintended confusion that could result from diversification. We do this by making that any product we develop still leverages our core technology or know-how, and directly contributes to our main value proposition. Then, when communicating with a specific market, we translate our main value proposition into an individually-adapted one, to ensure we are speaking the market language and avoiding confusion. Finally, we set up time and budget management processes to allocate company resources to the different market segments, and avoid ambiguity.As entrepreneurs, implementing a strong discipline of resource allocation is crucial. Likewise, developing communication and management skills is essential, not only to prove the benefits of 'controlled' diversification to investors, but also to preserve the value proposition of the company over time.This article was created through a CTA-led process to document and share actionable knowledge on 'what works' for ACP agriculture. It capitalises on the insights, lessons and experiences of practitioners to inform and guide the implementation of agriculture for development projects.","tokenCount":"925"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7af701d981404409ecc19ec3f47991fc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/901a487c-9fca-499e-b741-48e11dc92a78/retrieve","id":"101235755"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"817d4fde-ef4a-49cf-a5ea-94bd1422af43","pagecount":"28","content":"Over the last 30 years or so. the single mos( urgent task of agricultura! researchers In the troplcs has been to help farmers pul food on lhe developlng world's (able. Now. we've got lo work w1th them loward a balance between three competlng obJecUves: l. Achieve and maintaln food securlty.In many parts of the developlng world. food security Is sun lenuous al besl. To help abolish hunger. agrIcultural researchers must make an all~out assault on majar constrainls of food producUon and storage. 2. Close lioks to well-targeled, participatory research on craps and their wild relat1ves ensure that whal we do lo Lhe ¡ab 1s relevanl lO Lhe needs of farmers and consumers.In Lhe accompanying Project Updates (see pocket). we describe research on selecled tapies. These exampJes ilIusLrate how biolecho ology, Integrated wiLh neld rescarch. can enhance the problem-solving power of agricultura} science.In market-oriented agnc ulture, there Is a powerful Lendency toward excesslve pesll clde use. which adds to producUon costs. causes ecologtcal damage. and may give rise to trade baniers. Ooe way biotechoology can combat this probIem is by speeding lhe development of disease-and pest-reslstant varieties that elimlnate or reduce the need for chemical controIs. Another ts to enhance natural associaUons belween plants and beneOcia l mlcroorganlsms lhal reduce populations of haTmful pathogens and pests.To help farmers malntatn the balance. we must do more Lhan simply master new technlques. We must apply íbem creaUvely lo practical ends. such as conserving plant genetlc diverslty (In gene banks, farmers' fields, and nature) and uslng valuable genes for plant tmprovement.JIgS3W puzzle wtth thousands of pleces.We take one ONA segment or probe at a lime and determine where it fits on the crop genome.\"   The cassava collecllon al ClAT compt1ses nearly 6,000 accesslons from the species' pt1mary centers of dlverslty In the Americas and secondary centers In Africa. Asia. and Oceanla. The Center ts pursulng several approaches to tmprove conservatlon oC these geneUc resources.One is lo Idenlify duplicates in the collection, whlch conlains several local clones (each with a dlfferenl name) of the same genotype. Thls should increase the cost-effectlveness of germplasm conservaUon and management.Analysis of Isozyme promes (see pholo), along with morphologlcal and agronomlc desct1ptors, has shown that about 20% of the collecllon conslsts of duplicates. Among varieUes already screened on the basls of morphology and Isozymes, we're applylng DNA flngerpt1nting to detect genetic differences more preclsely. For example, In a sample of 100 apparentiy similar accessions, we determlned that 20 are geneUcally unlque (and the remalnder duplica tes), uslng the gene for protein 111 of the bactet10phage M13 as a probe . RAPO markers confirm lhese resulls.Effectlve conservation oC geneUc resources requires a combination oC in situ and ex si tu approaches, In si tu conservallon Is preferred for populations of crap wild relatives , ptimiUve cultivars. and landraces. Ex sltu conseIValion complements that approach by safeguardlng germplasm threatened with gene tic eroslon or other dangers, We can achleve thls end by vanous means, ranglng from preservation of landraces and pt1mlUve cultivars in the fleld to In vitro conservaUon, DNA storage, and cryopreservaUon.In cooperation with the Inlernatlonal Institute for Planl Genetic Resources (IPGRJ) , ClAT has developed an in vitro active gene bank thal conlalns more than 5,900 clones, representing over 950/0 of the world coHecuon of cassava germplasm (see pholo) . The Center's Genetic Resources Unll malntalns these clones under s low-growth condltions (I.e., at reduced lemperature In a speclal medium). Even so. the accesslons must be renewed every 12•18 months. The entlre In vitro bank occuples 35 m 2 of laboratory space, about a thousandth of the area needed to maintain the same maleria)s in the fleld. From [his active colieclion, we've distributed nearly 2,000 palhogen-tested cassava clones to lhe national research institutions of 35 countries In Africa, Asia, and !.alln America.An even more ideal approach 15 cryopre5ervaUon or ultrafreezing (8ee photo) . By stopplng cell funcllons and senescence, tbls technlque makes It possible to preserve tbe plant genome Indellnltely. CIAT has been workJng on tbe cryopreservation of cassava shoot lIps sine e 1989. By 1991 we were able to recover complete cassava plants from shoot Ups frozen in liquid nltrogen (-196\"C) . Furlher improvements In tbe technlque (lnvolVing changes In tissue dehydrallng trealments, tbe rate of coollng, and culture media) enable us lo conslstenUy recover plants from frozen shoot tips witb a success rate of more than 60%.CurrenUy, we're developing a simple protocol for more emcient and les s cosUy freezlng, which will open tbe way to long-term eonservallon of a base gene bank of cassava clones in IIquld nltrogen.In vitro conservaUon of cassava figures tmportantIy in CIAT trainlng on genetic resources. For example. tt was among the main tapies of a course entiUed Bioteehnolagy for the ConseIVaUon of Agrobiodlversity, whlch was held at Center headquarters In November 1994.CIAT and IPGRl JolnUy establlshed tbe In Vitro active cassava gene bank In 1991, after a 3-year study of lIs lechnical and logisllcal requiremenls. In eollaboration wtth national programs, the two centers are now plannlng a comparable pllot projeet lo Implement a base gene bank using cryogenics.GETrING A PREVlEW OF PHASEOWS GENETIC DlVERSlTIThe 26.500 Phaseolus accesslons stored In CIATs Genetlc Resources Unit contaln enough geneUe dlversity to keep bean researchers busy for decades. But because the complete eollectlon Is so large and has not been thoroughly characterized. irs an unwieldy tool for studylng the structure and dlstr1buUon of Phaseolus genellc diverslty and IdenUlYing valuable genes.To provide a more convenlent way of performtng these tasks. CIAT researchers (lncludlng speclallsts In bean genellcs. blotechnology. and agricultural geography) recenUy formed two core collecllons. The flrst. contatning 1.420 accessions. represents culuvated common beans (Phaseolus uulgaris). while the second. with 100 accesslons. covers wild P uulgaris. The core coIlecllons are intended. nol lo replace the complete holdings. bul to glve researchers a preview of them as a guide lo further InvesUgatlon .But eore colleellons are useful only If they aeeurately represent the geneUe dlverslty of the speeles sampled. To meet thls requlremenl. we based the composltion of OUT core collecUons 00 a combJnaUon of faclors re1ated lo the evolutton of common bean and lo the agroecologtes ln whlch tt 15 raund. For example. In formlng the eolleellon of culUvaled P vulgaris. we Inc1uded more accesslons rrom primary lhan secondary centers of dlverslty and gave more weighl lo primltive seed types and growth hablts than to moderno cornmercial anes.Te guarantee lhat the core collecUon covers the crop's entlre range of adaptalion. we developed a simple agroecologieal c1assifieallon. It's based on four faetors (sueh as solls and ralnfall) and Includes a total of 54 dislinet agroecologies. Uslng map coordina tes for the sltes where seed of bean landraees was eolleeted. we identiOed the agroeeology to whlch each aecesslon belongs.In cooperaUon wtth the Universily of Wisconsin , USA. we used RAPD markers to veril)' thal the genetle variabtllty of the eulllvated P uulgarts core eolleellon truly represents thal of the base eolleellon. Now we oeed to evaluate and use the eore eolleeUons. One example 15 our sereenlng of the eultlvated bean eollectlon for phosphorus use effieieney and seleetion of de51rable genolype5.In addilion. we're eharacterizing lhe eollectlon of wHd accesslons, using phaseolin and other polyrnorphlc seed prolelns as bloehemleal indicators of genetlc diverslly as well as molecular markers. such as AFLPs and RAPDs (see photo). These teehnlques help us study the gen elle structure of the wild germplasm, determine the extent to whleh cultlvated beans evolved from only a limlted fractlon of wild populatlons (referred to as the founder e.1Jec~, and trace the gene fiow between wlld and cultlvaled germplasm a nd between the Andean and Mesoamerican gene pools of common bean .We see the core collecllons and procedures by whlch they are belng formed as ne.w opportunllles for cooperaUon wlth gene banks and breedlng programs. The collectlons could provide a convenlent. cornmon focus for furtber study and evaluation of Phaseol.us dlverslly.Bul we're also seeking partners Inleres led In applylng the new procedures lo form core collecllons of other specles, whlch wllI help researchers sludy a wlde range of agroblodlverslty. Tools IIke molecular markers can magnlfy the preclslon of such sludies and the Inslghls we galn from them. Geographic Informatlon systems (GIS) can help us describe and analyze genetlc dlverslty In relatlon lo key agroecologlcal variables. TAMING THE WILD RELATlVES OF COMMON BEANIn wild fonns and dlstant relaUves of Important staples but often Ue beyond the reaeh of eonvenUonal plant breedlng. Through several proJeets at CIAT. we're exploring new ways to ease the transfer of su eh genes to domest1eated eommon bean IPhaseolus vulgaris).Sorne Important traits oeeur In wild or primltlve for ms of P vulgaris. But getting them Into domestleated eommon bean can be far from stralghtforward, even though the two are sexually compatible.     Windows of cooperation: IRRl and CLAT are strongly promoting lnternatlonal cooperatlon In the development of germplasm wlth durable blast resistance, so that developlng CQuntrles can more easlly ceap its benefits lesUmated at US$210 mllllan annually. on average. In Lal1n America alone).Amer1ca. Together with SClenUsts from Cornell and Purdue univerSiUes, stalf of the two InternaUonal centers have agreed on a Jolnt breeding strategy. Our work in Colombia is critical, because 1t takes place at a site ISanta Rosa) where the causal fungus Is extremely variable.To make new flndings and technology more wldely avaUable to national Institules. CLAT held a rice blast workshop during Oclober 1994 In cooperation wlth the Programa Cooperativo para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Agropecuario IPROCISUR). It focused on molecular marker-aided analysls of pathogen dlversity and vlrulence dlverslty sludles. The participants were multtdlsciplinary teams of sclentlsts [each conslsting or a breeder. pathologist. and blotechnology speclal!st) from the flve countr1es of South Amer1ca's Sautbern Cone.  But rather than stop wlth Brachiaria. why not start there? Assuming that an apomlx1s gene could be transferred from this to other crops. we could gain a convenient. inexpenslve way lo multiply hybrtds uniforrnly.Hybrids are Ihe vigorous progeny of crosses between genetlcally distlnct parents. Since only Ihe Orst sexual generatlon of Ihis seed shows hybrid vigor, it makes no sense for farmers lo adopt hybrids unless Ihey buy new seed for each crop . lo many developlng counlr1es, weak seed systems and rural poverty make Ihls pracllcally Imposslble. Anolher problem is Ihat Ihe reproductlve blology of certalo self-pollinating crops (characterized by deOclent pollen productloo or transfer) greatly complica tes large-scale producUoo of conveollooal hybrid seed.Getllng around lhe obstacles to hybrid development Is one goal of Ihe various inslltutlons already try1ng to Introgress apombds genes into major cerea1s. Eventually, 1t may be possible lo en¡¡ineer apomictlc crops by using new biotechnology lechnlques lo lransfer aporntx1s genes belween more genetlcally dlstant specles.Once farmers have Ihelr Orst supply of apomlcllc hybrids, Ihey can produce one generallon afler anolher of hybrid seed.Windows of cooperution: To genetlcally engineer apomlctlc crops, we musl complele lhree main tasks: 1) densely map Ihe Brachiarta chromosome reglo n on whJch the apomlxJs gene ts located , uslng molecular markers, 2) isolate and clone Ihe apomixis gene, and 3) geneUcally transform larget crops. Each step presents a maJor challenge and will requlre close collaborallon wilh advanced labs. But by Idenllfy1ng a molecular marker linked to Ihe apomixis gene, ClAT has begun the Orst task, and by regeneratlng Brachiaria planls from Ussue culture, we've made progress in developing a lransformaUon protocol as well. Thls technique will enable us to test the expression of Ihe apomixis gene in different Brachiaria backgrounds.Olher useful appllcaUons of molecular markers are to facllltate lhe use of exoUc germplasm In erop Improvement. Identlfy duplleatlon In germplasm collectlons. determine evolutlonary relatlonshlps among erops specles and between lhem and lhelr Wild relatlves. and measure geneUc dlverslty.In seeklng geneUc solutlons to problems of plant productlon and utilizaUon. It isn't always clear how or where we can intervene. To use gennplasm efflelently. we musl Idenllfy polnls of gene tic Inlervenllon by elucldaUng lhe bloehemleal fa clors and genetlc meehanlsms Involved In Important physlologtcaJ and quaJlty tralta [Figure 4) and In lhe InteracUons between planta and blotlc stresses. We ean lhen develop blochemlcaJ and molecular assays to detect lhose factors and eventually Isolate and clone lhe genes responslble for lhem.Uslng molecular techn lques. we can next attempt to m odlfy lhese genes. ellher enhanclng lhelr n ormal functlon [overexpresslon) or InhlblUng It (downregulaUon). Thls procedure employs a transformatlon 'cassette: comprislng lhe complete coding sequen ce of lhe structural gene of Interest. gene promoters. enhancers. gene markers. ele . [Figure 5). AH lhese elementa are n eeded for proper expresslon when lhe modlfied gene construclls relurned to lhe planl or transferred to olher specles lhrough genetic transjormalíon .The genes lo be used mus l firsl be Isolaled. c1oned. and modlned . Al lhe same time. we have lo develop a workable system or protocol for genetlc transformatlon of lhe crop . At ClAT we've em ployed two approaches successfully: Agrobaclerium-medlaled and partlcle bombardment-medlated genetlc transformatlon (Figure 6). Wllh lhe flrst approach. we've produced(1) Fruclose Glucose-6-P 1(11  (5.5 %) 5.5 ( 6.8 'Y.) 6.9 (9.4 %) 9.6 (11 .1 %) 11.3 can analyze a much larger number of ONA fragments and lhus dlsUngulsh genotypes more preclsely al lhe molecular level.New recomblnanl ONA lechnology has greaUy facIlltaled lhe development of genet1c maps. Prevlously. researchers could delecl only a few geneUc recomblnat1on evenls by observlng phenotyplc markers In plants . Wlth molecular markers. genetlc dlfferences can be delecled more thoroughly and slmply.For example. an RFLP map of lhe planl genome can be developed by uslng numerouS markers lo deterrnlne the pasillon of speclfic restrtcllon fragments relaUve lo one anolher. Thls Is accompl1shed through a procedure lermed linkage ana/ysis. In whlch markers lhal segregale togelher afler melosis are said lo be \"linked.\"Slnce lhe number of such markers Is unlimlled. Il's posslble lo lilerally salurale the planl genome and lhus obtaln InformaUon aboul alI reglons of each chromosome of a plant specles. Markers línked to parUcular genes enable us lo follow lhe transfer of lhese tagged genes from one generatlon lo another. as chromosomal segmenls are exchanged during meiosis (FIgure 2).Important advanlages of RFLP markers are lhal they can be delected al any slage in plant developmenl and In any tissue. are not affecled by the envlronmenl. and are geneUcally codomlnanl. Consequenlly. lhey provlde a rellable. direct means lO Jocate and monitor chromosome segments and tbe genes they contaln.ClAT Is currenlly developlng two molecular geneUc maps. for cassava and tepary bean . We're a150 ustng common bean and Jice molecular maps developed al the Unlversity of Florida and Cornell Unlverslty. respectively. In the USA. 5uch maps comprise sets of molecular rnarkers , referred lo as linkage groups (FIgure 3). Normally. lhe number of lhese groups equals the specles' basic chromosome number (n = xl.In addltlon lo helplng map planl genomes. RFLPs and RAPOs show great pro mise for facIlllaUng planl selecUon for Importanl tralls. Wllh a procedure referred lO as bulk segreganl analysis. we lest many RAPOs to IdenUfy lhose ly1ng closest lo genes of interesl. Though not yel w1dely pracliced.  In 1991. ClAT established the lnstitutional Biosafety Committee to oversee aH research al the Center involving recombinant DNA techniques and to monitor the release and testing of transgenie organisms. In addiUon, we eoorganlzed a regional workshop on blosafety In Latln America with the Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IlCA). Participants in this event, which was funded by DG1S and the US Department of Agriculture {USDAJ, cal!ed for partnerships In the Andean countries to develop biosafety guldelines and cooperate in properly eontrolled experimental release of transgenle organisms.The Center also contributes to the debate on intel!ectual property rights (IPR) and on policles governlng the status and international movement of plant geneUe resourees. Under our eurrent IPR poliey, bioteehnology products and methods developed at ClAT are within the public domaln. The poliey also allows for strategie allianees with institutions in developed and developing eountries to faeilitate the laUer's aeeess to information and technology. We're developing Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) for al! exchanges of biotechnology producls and methodoIogles to guarantee their avallab1llty to natlonal instllutions in deveIoping countries. ","tokenCount":"2668"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aa69666adfa1c853375272f3461eb4e8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/72fa4f64-c35a-4a06-8c94-94a1c0a4f04e/retrieve","id":"1963907490"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bc3973fb-c910-4f9a-ac62-6813f74f0b40","pagecount":"20","content":"A three day workshop on Climate-Smart Village (CSV) Approach was organized from 12-14 September in Nepal. Nearly 100 representatives from various CGIAR centers, development partners and CCAFS regions (Latin America, West Africa, East Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia) participated. About 50% participants from Nepal were representative from national and local government, non-governmental organizations, development partners working in Nepal, private sectors organizations and media. The workshop was organized to bring key stakeholders together with leading experts from different parts of the world to support the development of a Climate-Smart Village program for different agro-ecologies of the country. It was focused on exchanging learnings and experiences from other regions/countries that could be relevant for Nepal. A two day field visit to CCAFS-supported CSVs in the Terai region of Nepal (Nawalparasi) was included in the program. The main objectives of the workshop were to:  Demonstrate the Climate-Smart Village approach for scaling out CSA in Nepal.  Foster South-South learning and exchange to support the development of a national program on climate adaptation through the CSV approach in line with the Agriculture Development Strategy of the country.  Sensitize national and international stakeholders about Nepal government's priorities on Agriculture Development Strategy on climate risk management. Plenary and parallel group discussions, combined with field visits to the CSV sites aided to reflect CSV approach and its implementation in the farm communities. Participants in the CSV field visit were able to directly observe the implementation of different climate smart interventions in the farmers' field, involvement of farmers and women's groups, integration of CSV approach in the local development program and involvement and support from local government offices and private sector organization such as ICT companies, seed suppliers and solar companies. The participants also got an opportunity to interact directly with the farmers and local stakeholders and collect feedback. Plenary session were primarily focused on the CSV framework and its application in different regions including Nepal. Various approaches of CSVs across different regions were highlighted in the South-South Learning session of the workshop. Parallel sessions were organized to discuss on four pertinent issue of scaling out climate smart agriculture through CSV approach: i) CSA Practices and Technologies, ii) ICT and Insurance, iii) Institutions and Policies on CSA, and iv) Gender and Social Inclusion. Current challenges, potential options and way forward to implement CSV in Nepal were discussed in these sessions.The President of Nepal while addressing the parliament on \"Policies and Programmes of the Government of Nepal for 2016-17\" announced the key priorities of the government for the coming years. A significant announcement was that \"the concept of climate-smart village will be gradually implemented by carrying forward the climate adaptation programme.\" This workshop on CSV approach brought more than 100 participants from various CGIAR centers, development partners and CCAFS regions (Latin America, West Africa, East Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia). About 50% participants from Nepal were representative from national and local government, non-governmental organizations, development partners working in Nepal, private sectors organizations and media.Part A: Field Visits (12-13 September 2016)The workshop began with a field trip to the CSVs located in Nawalparasi district of Nepal. The visit set out to demonstrate participatory implementation of CSV approach in collaboration with local communities, government, non-government and private sector partners in Nepal, It also offered the participant an opportunity to see how the different components of the CSV approach were implemented and functioning in the farm communities.The CSV approach in Rajahar Village Development Committee (VDC) of Nawalparasi district in Nepal is implemented in rainfed rice-fallow system. This CSV was under surface irrigation few years ago. However, all the area under rice cultivation became rainfed due to decease in water level and change of direction of water flow in the river nearby. The gravitational irrigation system completely changed and became impractical. Currently the groundwater table is shallow and there is high potential of using alternative energy (e.g. solar) to pump water for irrigation purpose. This provision of water can largely increase cropping intensity in the rice fallow system. CSA technologies for a lowland system were demonstrated during the field visit. These included solar irrigation, precision nutrient management, cropping system diversification (adding vegetables and cash crops), use of improved seeds, farmer trainings, mobile based weather information and integration of CSV approach with village and district plans (Figure 1). During the visit the benefits of the CSV approach to the farming community in the village were highlighted. The secretary of the farmer's cooperative group along with fellow villagers also spoke about their experience in relation to the adoption of CSA technologies and its impact on farm income and cropping pattern.Earlier the dominant cropping system was maize-rice-mustard, leaving the land even fallow sometimes. However, with solar irrigation, farmers have diversified to more profitable crops like vegetables and legumes, surging the cropping intensity by around 300%. Though with solar irrigation, the cost of production is expected to increase by approximately 2.5 times, the expected net benefits (NRS 1,653,625) after using solar are more than enough to compensate for the expected cost of production. Gender gap in solar benefits is also not wide, given the ratio of 17:11 of male v/s female beneficiaries.ICT services have helped around 20 farmers. Farmers receive weather (mainly rainfall) based information thrice a week on their mobiles. Apart from that, to realize nutrient use efficiency, farmers in Rajahar use leaf colour charts quite often. There is a computerized tool as well to inform them regarding precision in nutrient content, however, to access it they need to visit nearby computer centres.The District Agriculture Development Officer also joined the filed visit and explained the role of local authorities in setting up and promoting CSV interventions in the village.The CSV approach in Narayani VDC of Nawalparasi district is implemented in upland agriculture system. The village is mostly rainfed and hence water scarcity in the dry season limits the production of more crops. The major crops grown before CSA interventions included maize, mustard, and fruits. Similar to Rajahar, the groundwater table here is also shallow and there is high potential of using alternative energy (e.g. solar) to pump water for irrigation purpose and increase cropping intensity. CSA technologies for an upland agriculture system were demonstrated during the field visit.  Solar irrigation has enabled the farmers to grow crops in the dry seasons and decrease their dependence on rain water. This combined with drip irrigation, has helped them to grow high value crops including fruits and vegetables, translating to higher incomes. Seeing these results, the members of the villages' women Self-Help Group (SHG) have also expressed their interest in producing high value crops instead of contributing to agricultural labour for producing other crops. The group members are provided trainings and are also shown the results of various technologies on demonstration plots. Also, out of the 15 member solar cooperative group, five members receive weather (rainfall and temperature) and market information on their mobiles which help them to prepare for any climatic variation as well as get better market rates for their crops.This site was chosen to demonstrate the institutional aspects of CSV approach in the farm communities. In Agyauli, local women's group are actively participating in the development and management of solar based irrigation and a community seed bank.The community seed bank was established a few years ago (before the establishment of CSV) and was integrated into the CSV for enhancing farmers' capacity to adapt to the changing climate. An Agriculture Development and Conservation Farmers' Committee was formed to operate the seed bank and has 38 farmers' groups as members, covering 880 farming households. The seed bank is not only helping to conserve agro-biodiversity in the current changing environment, but is also very important for future food security.The major activities in the CSV are focussed on: providing irrigation in the rice-fallow system, replacing fossil fuel based water pumping system with solar based system, enhancing climate change resilience capacity of farmers, organizing women farmers and building their capacity to adopt to climate change and variability.A group of 16 female farmers is actively involved in developing the solar based irrigation system which provides irrigation to 4.67 hectare land. All management and maintenance of the solar pump and distribution of water is regulated by this group. This women's group is planning to intensify cropping system by including vegetables and legume crops in the ricefallow system.Other interventions being undertaken in this CSV include training and capacity building, provision of weather and agro-advisory services, and diversification of crop and cropping system (Figure 3).  Dr. Balaram Thapa, Executive Director, LI-BIRD ended the session by giving a vote of thanks to all participants on behalf of all the organizing partners.The session was aimed at learning from experiences of all regions and understand the commonalities, differences and challenges faced by each in implementing the CSV approach.Yogendra Bahadur Karki (Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agricultural Development, Nepal) and Prof. Dr. Bruce Campbell (Director, CCAFS) chaired the session.Climate Smart Agriculture by Dr. Andy Jarvis (Flagship Leader CCAFS), who spoke about a four step approach to adopt a comprehensive approach for building evidence, systematic learning and scaling up of CSA. The steps include a situation analysis, targeting & prioritizing, programing and monitoring and evaluation for all CSA interventions. Prof. Dr. Pramod K.Aggarwal then explained the four key steps involved in implementing the CSV approach and the outcomes expected from it. He laid stress on the importance of weather-based agroadvisories, insurance, capacity strengthening of farmers and local partner institutions (farmer groups, governments, researchers etc.) in the formation and scaling up of a CSV. Finally the adoption of the CSV approach in Nepal was explained by Dr. Bikash Paudel who described the major steps that were undertaken for designing and implementing CSVs in Nepal.The next part of the session comprised of five brief presentations on the CSV approach in each of the CCAFS regions. The presenters were Dr. John Recha, PAR Specialist, ILRI (East Africa), Dr. Mathieu Ouedrago, Scientist, ICRISAT (West Africa), Dr. Bui Tan Yen, Science Officer, CCAFS (South East Asia), Dr. Deissy M. Baron, Science Officer, CCAFS (Latin America) and Dr.Arun KC, Science Officer, CCAFS (South Asia). Each of the presenters illustrated the approach adopted for the formation and implementation of CSVs in their regions through case studies and highlighted the impact/outcomes from them.In the end Dr. Osana B -Findji, (Science Officer, CCAFS) summarised the session with key points given below:This session comprised of four parallel sessions with presentations and group discussions on the topics of CSA practices and technologies, ICT and Insurance, Institutions and Policies on CSA, and Gender and Social Inclusion. The participants were free to attend any session of their choice and take part in the discussions of their respective groups. The objective of these sittings was to brainstorm and suggest potential initiatives for implementing CSA practices, technologies and services in Nepal.Chaired by Dr. YR Pandey, Executive Director, NARC and Dr. Clare Stirling, Senior Scientist, CIMMYT, the session began with a presentation by Dr. Andy Jarvis on 'Prioritization of CSA Interventions' who explained the prioritization action research methodology in theory as well as in practice in different regions. This was followed by a presentation on CSA business models by Dr. Annemarie Groot, Researcher, Wageningen UR. She defined the concept of a business model, as a means for scaling up CSA, using a business canvas. Each component and phase of developing a business model was also explained highlighting the role of multiple stakeholders.Post the presentations, the participants were divided into two groups and each group was given a topic for discussion. The first group answered three questions related to prioritization of CSA options. These were: (a) balance between community identified and selected CSA options versus researchers identified CSA options (achieved through conducting vulnerability analysis, and creating an enabling environment though market opportunities and alignment Post these presentations, a discussion ensued on opportunities in ICT and insurance services in Nepal:For ICT and information services, the need for a scaling up strategy, technical assistance and capacity building for ICT service providers was stressed upon.  For insurance it was agreed that agricultural insurance is not as profitable as other insurances and hence support from the government (subsidies) is important. Also, need assessments studies should be conducted along with building technical capacity of insurance providers.  The workshop on 'Climate-Smart Village Approach in Nepal-Learnings from global, regional and local knowledge' in Nepal brought together several groups and organizations and provided an opportunity for experts to share and learn from each other's approaches and experiences. The workshop was, to a great extent, successful in achieving its objectives, especially in the area of south-south learning and informing participants about Nepal's current strategy and future plans for climate risk management.","tokenCount":"2109"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e0966ad9a4589ab923c75ac40fab15b8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/7cfac5a0-49cd-447d-956d-824689d0eb8a/content","id":"-319078699"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"14ff14e8-4a74-47f1-97f7-abe72e3761a6","pagecount":"113","content":"The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) was established in 2009 to promote durable change at scale in South Asia's cereal-based cropping systems. Operating in rural 'innovation hubs' in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, CSISA works to increase the adoption of various resourceconserving and climate-resilient technologies, and improve farmers' access to market information and enterprise development. CSISA supports women farmers by improving their access and exposure to modern and improved technological innovations, knowledge and entrepreneurial skills. By continuing to work in synergy with regional and national efforts, collaborating with myriad public, civil society and private-sector partners, CSISA aims to benefit more than 8 million farmers by the end of 2020.The countries of South Asia are built on agricultural foundations. Our farmers play a crucial part in providing food and nourishment to our people. They however face a number of consistent threats to maintaining the productivity of their fields and farms. Pests are one of these threats, and among them, weeds in particular are important because they can cause large yield losses. They can also result in many hours of drudgery when farmers have to spend many hours removing weeds by hand. Conversely, where farmers use herbicides to control weeds, improper knowledge of chemical handling and application safety can be problematic for both human and environmental health. This is in particular important in the aquatic environment of a rice field, where many non-target fish and amphibian species can be affected by careless agrochemical use.Farmers can benefit from learning and improved knowledge on how to better manage weeds in an integrated way. Increased knowledge means that farmer will have available a wealth of information on what tools, techniques, and products might be needed to improve weed management and to reduce weed inflicted yield losses. The same information is needed for agricultural input dealers, extension agents, and others working to technically support farming communities. An improved understanding of weed ecology and an ability to understand which weed species are most problematic, and to comprehend the significance of this information when selecting from weed control techniques is also crucial.In order to better grasp the importance of integrated weed management, farmers will benefit most from hands-on and experiential learning. Such learning is best facilitated using the field as the classroom. The set of training modules you hold in your hands has been developed through a collaborative effort between Bangladesh's Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement center, the International Rice Research Institute, and the Department of Plant Sciences at California State University in the United States as part of third phase of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CISISA) project. While the modules were developed mainly in Bangladesh, the general approach and principles described in each learning session are widely applicable. They can also be used to educate farmers in a variety of other countries where smallholder agriculture predominates. Everything you need to know about training farmers in weed management can be found here -from how to conduct training sessions, to lists of required materials, to flip charts that can also be made into Power-Point slides, all along side sets of practical field exercises that will boost farmers' learning.For these reasons, I am very proud to introduce and support these training modules, which are part of a set of comprehensive training resources on scale-appropriate machinery and resource-conserving agricultural practices for smallholder farmers in cereal-based farming systems. Use of these modules fits seamlessly with the DAE's vision is to provide ecofriendly, safe, climate resilient, sustainable, and productive good agricultural practices while sustaining natural resources to ensure food security and commercial agriculture with a view towards accelerating socio-economic development. For this reason, these modules can be widely used by DAE staff in the field, in addition to by NGO and private sector trainers in different organizations, with the goal of helping farming communities to achieve rural development.Sincerely, Md. Hamidur Rahman Director General -Department of Agricultural Extension -BangladeshGlobally, weeds cause higher agricultural production losses than other agricultural pests. In a systematic review of the evidence on crop production losses, Oerke (2005) wrote that \"Estimates on potential and actual losses despite the current crop protection practices are given for wheat, rice, maize, potatoes, soybeans, and cotton … weeds produced the highest potential loss (34%), with animal pests and pathogens being less important (losses of 18 and 16%)\" 1 . Weeds are therefore a consistent headache to farmers. They interfere with crops by competing for soil nutrients, light, and water. They are particularly problematic when crops are directly sown by machine, or under conditions of reduced tillage. They also constrain farmers with respect to their time and labor, and constitute an important production cost.This book covers critical topics for the principles and practice of integrated weed management (IWM) in the context of smallholder farming in the tropics, with emphasis on experiential and hands-on learning. The materials within provide a guide for training facilitators to conduct a rapid one-day training on IWM, including detailed instructions on how to facilitate a training, training material requirements, flip charts to facilitate discussions, and pre-and post-tests for training participants. IWM is better learned through multiple training sessions or as part of a farmer field school than in an individual one-day training. Hence while this book details several modular training sessions that can be conducted consecutively over a single day, they can also be broken up and applied as individual modules during a season long farmer field school, or for more targeted training sessions. Note also that training in IWM is needed prior to training farmers, machinery service providers (farmers who own equipment or machinery, such as seeding equipment or herbicide sprayers, and charge other farmers for their use on an affordable fee-for-service basis), or others in aspects of direct seeding or the practicalities of conservation agriculture (CA, such as zero-or strip-tillage). In the latter case, the cultural weed control concept of crop rotation fits nicely with CA principles. For this reason, training facilitators are encouraged to use these IWM modules prior to attempting to train farmers or service providers on these more advanced crop establishment techniques. IWM techniques are also commonly incorporated into the packages of services that agricultural service providers make available for farmer clients.This training is meant to be discussion based and experiential, and to encourage critical reflection and learning among participants. This means that while the facilitator will have to present materials, the format in which this should be done should be horizontal and participatory. We also underscore that farmers and agricultural machinery service providers, who are the target of these trainings, are experts -they work daily in their fields and have considerably more experience than most university educated technicians, researchers, or extension agents. Listening to their opinions and working with them to facilitate learning will enhance the quality of a training session. In this sense, it is the responsibility of a training facilitator to elicit training participants' input, opinions, and ideas, and to use them interactively to shape discussion and learning. The technical materials included in this document are therefore a guide to supplement farmers' and agricultural machinery service providers' already in-depth knowledge.The training format used here is based loosely on the experiential learning cycle described by Kolb (1984) 2 , who proposed that adults learn differently than children, with learning based on having a concrete experience, reflecting on this experience, conceptualizing of this experience, and then experimenting, after which the cycle of learning is repeated. He further hypothesized that there are generally four types of adult learners and learning styles which should be accommodated, including people who learn by watching demonstrations (which he called divergers), those who learn by thinking, reading, and watching (assimilators), those who learn by hands-on thinking and doing (converges), and those who learn by doing (accommodators). Well-designed trainings should accommodate each participant's individual learning style, by providing a mixture of lecture and discussion, reading or visual material, hands-on experiential and experimental opportunities, and opportunities to watch demonstrations and to learn. Kolb's theories have been widely researched and validated in a number of contexts, and provide a solid foundation for educational programs aimed at experienced farmers and agricultural survive providers, as well as farmer field school oriented learning. In this training, we loosely attempt to formulate Kolb's learning styles as shown below.Above: Kolb's (1986) experiential learning cycle as loosely applied in the IWM training modules.Facilitators should therefore at every step of the process work to generate discussion, handson learning through activities, provide opportunities to demonstrate and show how to use IWM approaches, and to encourage critical but constructive reflection among the training participants. There is a certain art to this process, and facilitators should practice with their peers different techniques for eliciting discussion among trainees.Here's some examples of how to ask questions of the training participants that will encourage them to think and critically reflect on the training material:1. Arrange seating in a circle, not like in a classroom: Circular seating arrangements encourage participants and facilitators to interact as equals, and improve the potential for discussion.For example rather than ask \"what are the different ways that crops and weeds compete\", ask \"what is the significance and implications for your farm of the ways that crops and weeds compete\"? Participants may require some additional encouragement to discuss this question, but gently push them towards realizing the answer.For example, rather than ask training participants \"what happens if the pressure regulation on a sprayer is not working evenly\", ask \"if the pressure regulation on a sprayer is not working, what are the implications for weed control, yield, and farmers' profits\"?4. Pick a particular participant to give an answer: Rotate among students, picking different ones and asking them or a group of students to give an answer to a question. It may take time for them to give an answer, but allow them to work through the process of reflection and coming up with their response. Then engage and discuss their response with them, and ask others for their thoughts on their response. But if a particular participant is naturally quiet or reserved, avoid asking them too many questions. The goal is to encourage an active learning atmosphere, but not to make participants feel uncomfortable.This seems like a simple point, but it is important to stay on topic and assure that participants are equipped to respond to questions.Provide space for underrepresented students to speak: In many trainings, men speak over women or dominate conversation. Members of a particular religious group or caste may also speak over those who are not part of this group. Facilitators should recognize this, and work to give space to underrepresented groups to learn and speak. This may require specifically asking other participants to wait to reply to give them an opportunity to contribute.Trainings are also to be held primarily outside and in the field, where participants are encouraged to learn with their own hands how to work with integrated weed management principles and tools. It is only by taking weed samples and examining them that trainees can learn how to identify weeds by class or species. For this reason, the flip chart material provided in this book can be printed on large paper and taken to farmers' fields, where electricity for power points or other formats may not be available.Emphasis should be given to these participatory activities throughout the training. Last but not least, training and education does not end at the conclusion of the day. Participants should be encouraged to experiment with, learn from, modify and adapt IWM techniques on their own farm, emulating the cycle of continual learning articulated by Kolb. For this reason, training facilitators should share their contact information with training participants so they can backstop and assist on technical matters when needed.This book is organized as follows: After presenting a general introduction on the training format and style, and materials needed for a one-day training, five independent learning sessions are presented. Each session covers a different topic, including: Instructions are then given for the individuals facilitating trainings on how to implement each session. This includes a review of the learning objectives, key messages, required materials, and step-by-step instructions on how to conduct the training session from start to finish, while working to encourage experiential learning as articulated above. Most sessions all include a component during which the facilitator is expected to give a brief presentation on the topic. Presentations are intended to be discussion oriented, so the facilitator should allow time for participants to ask questions, and in turn elicit questions and feedback if few participants are speaking.Flip chart materials are provided to guide the technical content for each of these presentations. Facilitators should simply follow the flip charts and use the material presented to initiate discussion and assure that all technical points are covered. Care should be taken to allow all participants to speak, and to make space for underrepresented participants, specifically women, to speak and ask questions.The pages of this book can be printed out on large poster sized paper and used for the flip charts. Flip chart sessions should be conducted in the field and not in a classroom. The same flip charts are also intended to be printed on normal size paper, stapled together, and provided as handouts and reference material for participants.Lastly, trainings are to begin with a pre-test of participants' knowledge, and end with a posttest of their knowledge after the training. The change in participants' scores gives an indication of their progress in learning. Ready-made pre-and post-test exam sheets are included within this book. Simply print them on regular size paper for use.This training is aimed at improving farmers' and agricultural machinery service providers' awareness and knowledge about weed management and associated machinery practices, and to improve their skill so that they can ensure safe, effective, economic and environment friendly weed management. Effective weed management is very important if service providers are to establish fields using conservation agriculture, strip tillage, or direct seeding in the case of rice. This module is designed to cover the major principles needed to manage weeds in a safe, productive, and integrated way.By the end of the training, participants should be able to: Understand and explain the importance of weed management. Describe the implications and mechanisms of crop-weed competition.  Be able to explain the difference between broadleaf species, sedges and grasses, and their implications for weed management.  Explain the difference in weed management through manual, mechanical, cultural and chemical methods. The number of participants per batch should be limited to a maximum of around 10-15 people. Ideally, it is good to have at least one machine, sprayer, or piece of equipment per three to five participants so the opportunity for hands-on learning is increased. Ideally, at least 25% of the participants should be female. Trainees should be targeted who have leadership capability, at least primary level of education, ideally business experience, and with capability to work outside the household and run a rural business. These points are important as these types of participants may increase the potential that they transfer their knowledge to other farmers or service providers. Participants should be contacted well ahead of the date (at least one week) of training to allow them to prepare for the training.The training venue should be selected carefully. There should be a covered outdoor area, or similar facility having sufficient light, air, and adequate space for the number of participants listed with each session, and a large bare field/crop land (with adequate space to experiment with equipment). This outdoor area should be no more than a 5-minute walk away from the place where participants will meet. The space should be free from outside distractions.Please review the detailed list of training aids listed at the beginning of each module and assure that all required materials are available.Experienced field technicians and/or extension agents should be selected to facilitate the training, following their passing a training course to familiarize them with the principles of experimental learning and each training module and session set.Well ahead of starting the training, facilitator(s) should go through the 'the respective module of interest and also respective topic(s) and practice the implementation techniques as per allocated time. Each session contains different topics, implementation techniques and time allocation. So facilitators should have to read them minutely and practice them following the power point presentation/flip charts for timely and lively presentation.The date of the training should be decided following discussion and agreement with trainees to ensure their participation (preferably during their weekly day off to avoid any financial loss to their business). Before starting the pre-evaluation exercises that begin each training module, divide participants into three small groups (i.e. 5 participants per group, however, number of groups or number of participants per group may vary depending on total number of participants and availability of machinery).Working in smaller groups assures a more action-oriented, hands-on approach to learning. Generally, four to five people should be assigned to work on each available machine. Set up any seating arrangements so these small groups can sit with one another. Participants will take part in discussions, questions and answer sessions, demonstrations, exercises, etc. in this small group throughout all sessions. Do not set up seats in classroom style.Circular seating should always be used.The training approach should be participatory, with emphasis on hands-on and experiential learning. The facilitator should utilize techniques that aim to get participants interested and involved in the training, for example question and answer sessions, experience sharing, group exercises, group discussions, group presentations, etc.The training should be facilitated in such a way that the trainees feel it useful/valuable (rather than waste of their time). To achieve this goal, the facilitator should work to assure that the training is enjoyable (use of fun games, quizzes, sing along, or other techniques to get trainees excited).One-way lecture formats are not acceptable and are discouraged.Use of mobile phones causes distractions and reduces the effectiveness of the learning experience. All participants, including the training coordinator and facilitator should keep their mobile phones switched off during the training session.A pre-evaluation test before starting the training session and a postevaluation test at the end of all training sessions is important and required to judge effective learning. Pre-and post-evaluation questionnaires are attached the respective annex.The course is designed for a one-day approximately 7 hours including demonstration and practical exercise, and excluding lunch and breaks. This is therefore an intensive course, which should be held in the field, and not in a classroom. Training facilitators can decide on the best time to take tea and lunch breaks, etc. Note that these times are not included in the time estimates above, and hence should be accounted for in planning the training. Times should be kept flexible depending on the needs of the participants. Some sessions may be faster than reported above, or slower. This is why it is important to remain flexible.The content is divided into five instructional sessions as follows: Please review the 'planning and preparation for training events' section at the front of this book. Note that you may wish to establish demonstration learning field plots before this training (detailed below in different sessions), so advanced preparation of several weeks is required. In addition to the items listed there, prepare for this training by considering the following:Provide adequate space outside with cover from the sun for at most 10-15 participants, and a bare field/crop land (with weeds and adequate space for operating at least two sprayers for herbicide application exercises) nearby for practical session. The venue should be free from outside distractions. Demonstrations plot with and without weed management, preferably with under strip tillage or direct seeded rice, or other machine planted crop establishment methods. Demo plots should be established well ahead of the training so that it becomes ready to serve the training purpose on time.  At least one print out of the pre-and post-tests for each participant (see Annexes)  Notebook and pencils for each participant.  At least one copy of \"Common herbicides\" for each participant (see Annexes)  Pre-and post-tests for each participant  Pencils and spare paper/notebooks for each participant  Printed flip charts on integrated weed management (See Flip Charts)White board or blank flip-chart paper and dry erase markers  Handouts for each participant in the form of printed and stapled A4 sized paper versions of the flip charts.  Flip chart stand, white board and stand, white board pens  Multi-colored index cards  Hand weeding tools (like hand hoe or niranee, khurpi, etc.), mechanical weeders, including manual operated and motorized (if available)  If possible, one successful farmer familiar with IWM principles and safe and environmentally sound herbicide use  Several units of different types of backpack pump sprayers (manual operated traditional backpack, battery operated, motorized sprayers) for demonstration (if available, if not, simple pump sprayers will do). In addition, Three to four knapsack pump sprayers (manual or battery operated) for herbicide application (one for the training facilitator and then one each for each group).  Measuring beaker to measure water (250, 500, 1000 ML capacities are ideal).  This training is composed of six sessions and will take about 7 hours excluding lunch, tea or other beaks. Please be patient but there is a lot of material to complete.  This is a participatory and fun training, and both trainers and trainees will learn from each other.  The training is mostly hands-on. Participants should learn by working with the IWM principles and equipment themselves rather than just listening. Active participation is best.  Participants should be attentive during the training and participate either individually or in groups for each task/assignment/exercise given to them.  All participants as well as facilitators should keep their mobile phone switched-off, or on silent, and if they receive an urgent call, excuse themselves from the group to go elsewhere to answer the call.Assemble training participants and make use of the flip charts (See Session 1: Introduction to integrated weed management) designed to introduce the training.Step 1 -Form groups (15 minutes)Most adults learn best when they can work in groups. Participants in a small group can interact and can share ideas with each other, which allows peer-to-peer learning, and can stimulate more entertaining and rich learning experiences.An ideal size is 10-15 participants for the entire training, which will be divided into smaller groups.Divide the participants into groups of four or five people by requesting to call off numbers from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. (you do this because people generally like to sit with the people they already know best).Next, rearrange seating so people with the same number form new groups. Ask members of each group to sit together by rearranging their sits. Also ask them to select a group leader and choose a fun name for their group. It is helpful if the group leader can read and write. Also, try to be sure that someone in each group is competent in basic mathematics and calculations. This will be important later on when learning about machine calibration and business models.Ask each group to find five things they have in common, with every other person in the group, and that have nothing to do with work (please no body parts as we all have legs, and we all have arms! Also, no clothing too, as we all wear clothes. Focus on more interesting commonalities). This helps the group explore shared interests more broadly.Request the group leaders to take notes and be ready to read their list to the whole group at the end of the session. This should generate a lot of laughter and fun, and discussion, while encouraging the groups to think more like a team.Step 2 -What are participants' expectations? (10 minutes)This is one of the most effective tools for breaking the ice, and getting new group participants to get to know each other. Each group member is an important source of knowledge. Each participant also has his or her own style of thinking and learning. For this reason, understanding the participants' expectations of the training module is important for effective learning. It will also help the training coordinator and facilitators be better equipped to deliver a successful learning experience through the training.Use the icebreaker \"Expectation\" at the beginning of the day to get feedback from each participant regarding what they expect and also want to get out of the training.During the introduction of the training module, when it is time for participants to introduce themselves following group formation, the training coordinator or facilitator will explain that participants' expectations are very important, and understanding them will be crucial for assuring quality outcomes from the training. These expectations can later be compared with the module outline, and modifications and changes can be made where necessary.The training coordinator should ask each of the groups to: Introduce themselves individually  Share their expectations of the training course (provided as a summary from the group leader after 2-3 minutes of discussion) Here's an example:\"Hi, my name is Rahim. Our group is expecting to get rid of very nasty weeds in rice without having to spend hours pulling them by hand. Will we learn how to do that?\"At the end of the training, the training coordinator should review the list of expectations the groups made, and discuss/explain points if not covered in the course and explain whether or not, and why, if not, their expectations won't be covered in the course.Step 3 -Introducing the training (10 minutes)The training coordinator will then present using flip chart Session 1: 'Integrated Weed Management -Introduction and training objectives' a brief overview on the training course, the methods of training, and rules and responsibilities to be followed by the participants. Allow time to ask questions, and for the participants to ask any clarifying questionsStep 4 -Pre-test evaluation (25 minutes)Distribute the 'pre-evaluation questionnaires' (see Annex 1) among each participant and allow 20 or so minutes to answer the questions. If needed, the facilitator will help less literate participants to understand and answer the questions. The test can also be printed and placed on flip chart paper. Collect the pre-evaluations for later comparison with the post-test evaluations at the conclusion of the training. They should be corrected during the course of the day, prior to the closing session.Session 2: Weeds and integrated weed managementAt the end of this session, participants should be able to: Identify different types of weeds including broadleaves, sedges and grasses. Articulate the principles of crop-weed competition. Understand different types of weed management practices including manual, mechanical, cultural and chemical management.  Select the appropriate herbicide considering type of weed and stage of weed control i.e.pre-plant, pre-or post-emergence.1. Weeds are mainly of three types, broadleaves, sedges and grasses.2. Weeds compete with crops for nutrients, water, and light.Weeds can be controlled manually (hand weeding), mechanically (using weeders or other implements when crops are line sown), through cultural practices (use of weed competitive crop cultivars, stale seed beds, mulching, crop rotation) and /or chemically (using herbicides). 4. Chemical management of weeds can be done at three stages: Pre-plant (burn-down), pre-emergence and post-emergence. 5. Pre-plant burn-down herbicides are non-selective and are applied before you sow the crop to kill the existing weeds. These herbicides are especially important under zerotill/conservation agriculture based systems. 6. Pre-emergence herbicides are applied after crop seeding but prior to emergence of weeds, 1-3 days after seeding or transplanting, by ensuring adequate moisture at the time of spray. 7. Post-emergent herbicides are applied after the crop and weeds are emerged, generally at 3-4 leaf stage. 8. Select the appropriate herbicides for specific crop considering type of weed that is a problem in the field (broadleaf, sedge or grass) and stage of weed control (i.e. pre-plant, pre-emergence or post-emergence).For this session, you will need the flip chart \"Session 2: Weeds and integrated weed management\", printed copies of the flip chart as a handout for each participant, copies of Annex 1 \"Common herbicides\", a crop field or demonstration plots where different types of weeds can be observed, samples of pre-plant, pre-and post-emergent herbicides to control different types of weeds.Step 1 -Generate reflection and discussion (10 minutes)Initiate the session at field beside a demonstration plot or field with weeds. The facilitator should ask the participants: In what ways do weeds reduce crop growth?  What are the weeds commonly found in your crop fields?  How do you control weeds?Allow one or two participants to answer the question. The facilitator should note important points on poster paper or white board for later discussion.Step 2 -Use flip charts to generate discussion and learning (45 minutes)Next make use of the flip chart to explain integrated weed management to the participants. You will need the \"Session 2: Weed and integrated weed management\" flip chart. Summarize this material verbally and pause to ask questions at the end of each flip chart page.Note that the flip chart presents weeds and gives their scientific species name. These names can be changed to local names in the language in which the training is to be conducted to improve participant learning.Here are the main messages to convey:1. Weeds compete with crops for light, water, and nutrients.2. Control weeds before they begin to severely compete with crops, and assure they have been removed or killed before they set seed. 3. The three classes of weeds include broadleaves, sedges, and grasses. Knowing which group the weeds in your field belong to is important for selecting the right herbicide. It is important to be able to tell the difference between these classes quickly and by eye. 4. Integrated weed management makes use of different forms of weed control. This improves the management of weeds and reduces the development of herbicide resistance. 5. Cultural management methods are easy to apply and should be used to control weeds before considering use of herbicides. Cultural control methods are also part of best agronomic management practices. 6. Manual and mechanical weed management can be effective to remove perennial and noxious weeds. Mechanical weeders are available that can be effective for rice, though for perennial weeds, additional hand weeding may be needed to remove the roots of the weeds as they cause re-growth 7. Herbicides should only be used along size cultural and mechanical control options. 8. Herbicides can cause weeds to become resistant to chemical control. Monitor closely for herbicide resistant weeds and be ready to change weed control products as needed. 9. The three major kinds of herbicides are pre-plant, pre-emergence, and post-emergent herbicides.At the end of each flip chart page, ask the participants if they understand or have questions.Always take time to answer their questions. Annex 1, 'Common herbicides' can also be handed out during this session. This Annex provides a table and critical information on the use of different herbicide types that can be referred to after the training.Step 3 -Weed classification discovery learning exercise (20 minutes)Supply index cards to each group (supply three cards each with the specific weed type i.e. broadleaf, sedge, or grass) and ask them to collect at least three different types of weeds that belong to that particular type from the nearby crop field/demonstration plot. Give groups about 10 minutes to complete this task.When they return to the area in which the flip chart was displayed, ask them to display out the weeds below the cards indicating if they are broadleaves, sedges, or grasses. Allow up to ten minutes more for groups to do this, and then ask each group to review the other groups' work to determine if weeds are correctly categorized.Session 3: Sprayers, spray technology, and sprayer maintenanceAt the end of this session, participants should be able to: Select an appropriate sprayer for spraying herbicide. Identify different parts of a sprayer and understand their functions.  Identify and understand the characteristics of different types of nozzles and booms.  Understand and explain key components of accurate herbicide application.  Ensure proper maintenance and storage of the sprayer.1. Different types of sprayers such include knap sprayers, foot sprayer/pedal pump sprayer, traction pneumatic sprayer, tractor mounted sprayers and Aerial sprayers. Knapsack sprayers are most common for small farmers in the tropics. 2. Knapsack sprayers are most commonly used for spraying herbicides in field crops. Three types of knapsack sprayers are often available in the market, including hydraulic, manual pneumatic and motorized/battery pneumatic sprayers.Above: Knapsack sprayers with a single nozzle boom 3. Different components of a sprayer include the pump and/or power source, tank, distribution system, pressure gauge, pressure regulator, the boom, and the nozzles. 8. The sprayer should be stored away from sunlight in a locked room or box. Keep it away from children.For this session, you will need the flip chart \"Session 3 -Sprayers, spray technology, and sprayer maintenance\", printed copies of the flip chart as a handout for each participant, different types of knapsack sprayers, i.e. hydraulic, manual pneumatic, and motorized and battery pneumatic (if available), single and multiple nozzle booms, different nozzle types, and a shield or hood.Step 1 -Generate reflection and discussion (15 minutes)The facilitator will initiate the session through exploring participants' experience about spraying herbicide or insecticide. He/she will ask the following questions one by one after answering to previous one is completed: Which type of sprayers available in your area?  Which sprayer is suitable for spraying herbicide?  Which type of nozzles is used for applying herbicides and why?  What types of booms are available in your area?  How you ensure accurate application of any herbicide or insecticide?Allow 1-2 participants to answer each question. Facilitator should note points important for following discussions on the white board.Step 2 -Use flip charts to generate discussion and learning (30 minutes)Using the flip charts and the sprayers and parts that have been brought to demonstrate, review these key items: 1. Calibration is the process of determining the sprayer output for a known area. 2. Field size, droplet size, nozzle size and spacing, nozzle capacity, speed and pressure all influence herbicide effectiveness. 3. Wear mask, gloves, coveralls, hat, goggles, gumboots, etc. as a safety measure before mixing and preparing, and applying herbicides. 4. Select the appropriate sprayer and nozzles. 5. Make sure the sprayer is at the correct pressure, and that you hold the spray nozzles (called a boom) at the right height. 6. Calibrate the sprayer using a field for testing before actual use in the field. 7. Re-calibrate if pressure, nozzles, or speed is changed.For this training session, you will need the following resources and materials:  The flip chart \"Session 4 -Practical calibration\"  Printed copies of the flip chart as a handout for each participant  Blank poster paper/white board, marker pen  A plot of least 33 m x 3 m in size  Protective clothing (at least 3 sets or one per group) for herbicide application, including goggles, a mask to cover the face, protective poly-ethylene coat that covers the head and arms, gloves, protective polyethylene trousers, and gumboots  Four knapsack sprayers (ideally around 15 L capacity)  Measuring beakers to measure water (250, 500, 1000 ML capacities)  At least four plat fan/flood jet types, ideally with multiple booms  Several flat fan nozzles (for four knapsack sprayer and if using 3 nozzle booms, 12 flat fan nozzles would be needed)  At least 12 empty plastic bottles  Duct or electrical tape to attach bottles to nozzles and booms  1 kg of urea  Measuring tape  Appropriate herbicide for the weeds present in the field (preferably pre-plant or preemergent)Step 1 -Raising participant's awareness (10 minutes)Initiate the session by exploring participants' experience about calibrating sprayers.Why should you calibrate the sprayer before spraying herbicide or insecticide? How do you calibrate the sprayer?Allow 1-2 participants to answer each question. Facilitator should note points important for following discussions on the white board or blank flip chart paper.Step 2 -Flip chart to generate discussion and learning on how to calibrate a sprayer (30 minutes)This session is to be held in the field, using flip charts near a plot on which the sprayers can be calibrated.Note that flip charts make use of metric units like liters, m 2 , and hectares. To improve participants' learning, these should be converted to local units and explained on the white board.Assure that the conversion from area sizes to local units is clear to each participant. We suggest changing the units before the training and testing the calibration calculations in advance of the training to assure they are correct. Always wear mask, gloves, coveralls, hat, goggles, gumboots, etc. as a safety measure before mixing and preparing, and applying herbicides  Granular herbicides are broadcast; liquid fertilizers are sprayed and require more careful calibration  Select the appropriate sprayer and nozzles  Make sure the sprayer is at the correct pressure, and that you hold the spray nozzles (called a boom) at the right height  Calibrate the sprayer using a field for testing  Calculate water volume per field area  Calculate tank number  Calculate herbicide rate per tank  Add surfactants to improve herbicide effectiveness  Re-calibrate if pressure, nozzles, or speed is changed Assure time at the end of each flip chart page to ask questions to participants, or allow them to ask clarifying questions.If an experienced spray operator is available, first ask them to demonstrate the procedure of practical calibration focusing on following points:  Select test area: Select an area of 33 m × 3 m  Select the appropriate sprayer and nozzle: knapsack sprayer of 15 litre capacity and flat fan or flood jet type nozzle, and associated boom  Calculation of water/spray volume  Adjusting the sprayer calibration  Calculation and addition of herbicide per tank  Calculation and addition surfactant per tank Following the demonstration and any discussion, ask each group to calibrate a sprayer themselves. Before doing this, assure they have put on protective clothing correctly.Demonstrate how to put on the protective clothing gumboot, mask, gloves, coveralls, hat, goggles -it is best to do this by asking one participant to put on all the equipment and to then ask the participants to critique and point out if any part has not been put on correctly, for example if the pants are tucked into the boots, rather than the outside, so spray can roll down the pants and off the boots without being trapped in them, and so-on. The experienced operator can assist the training facilitators with helping the participants, and to assure that calibration has been done correctly.At the end of this session, participants should be able to: Maintain personal safety during spraying herbicide (Prepare themselves with protective clothing i.e. mask, gloves, coveralls, hat, goggles, gumboots, etc.)  Prepare the required spray volume with appropriate herbicide  Spray the herbicide accurately maintaining adequate speed, pressure and boom height  Demonstrate awareness that herbicides are poison and therefore must be handled carefully.  Ensure environmentally sound and personally safe herbicide application Wear protective clothing when mixing, spraying, and disposing of herbicides  Use the right spray boom height and direction  Walk the right path when spraying in the field  Do not swing the spray boom  Do not spray herbicides when it is windy, or when people or animals are nearby  Properly dispose of herbicide bottles  Always store herbicides in locked boxes away from childrenFor this training session, you will need the following resources and materials:  The flip chart \"Session 5 -Practical exercise on spraying techniques\"  Printed copies of the flip chart as a handout for each participant  A weedy and weed free plot (on which weeds were controlled prior to the training)  Blank poster paper/white board, marker pen  A weedy field  Protective clothing (at least 3 sets) for herbicide application, including goggles, a mask to cover the face, protective poly-ethylene coat that covers the head and arms, gloves, protective polyethylene trousers, and gumboots  Four Backpack/Knapsack sprayers calibrated and prepared in the previous session (ideally around 15 L capacity)Step 1 -Discussion on herbicide spraying (5 minutes)Initiate the session by exploring participants' experience about calibrating sprayers. How do you use a sprayer in a way that is not wasteful? Under what conditions is it safe to spray?Allow 1-2 participants to answer each question. Facilitators should note points important for following discussions on the white board or blank flip chart paper for later discussion and review.Step 2 -Use the flip charts to generate discussion on spraying techniques (20 minutes)Using the flip chart \"Practical exercise on spraying techniques\", review the key points of the training. Allow time at the end of each flip chart page to generate discussion and clarify that participants understand the material that has been presented.Step 3 -Prepare for the spaying exercise (20 minutes)If you are not already outside in the field near the plots that have had weed control and no weed control, move the training participants to the field. Next, the facilitator or an experienced user of herbicides will demonstrate the following points in practical field exercise: Point out and discuss the effectiveness of weed control in the weed-free compared to weedy plot, and explain that if weeds are not well controlled, then they can become a serious problem  Review how to put on protective clothing (as discussed in the previous session) by asking 3-4 people (one from each group) to put on protective clothing. Next, have other group members critique if they did it correctly.Step 4 -Hands on spraying practical exercise (45 minutes)Next, divide the participants into their groups, and ask each of them to do each of the following things listed below. But first, the facilitator or experienced herbicide applicator should demonstrate the following techniques. Participants should watch and learn from the experienced service provider who demonstrates each of the steps below:1. Select the appropriate sprayer and nozzle for the weeds in the field 2. Select the appropriate pre-or post-emergent herbicide depending on the types of weeds present and stage of application 3. Calibrate if necessary, and measuring the herbicide and water, safely mixing them while wearing protective clothing 4. Use of surfactants to improve herbicide effectiveness 5. Use appropriate boom height, and sprayer pressure (refer to the flip chart) 6. Checking and assuring correct sprayer pressure 7. Spray the field using the correct walking path and speed 8. Cleaning the tank after spraying 9. Cleaning the clogged nozzle safely and effectively First review the flip chart. You will notice that the flip chart has questions. This is because the facilitator should ask participants these review questions and help them answer them, and correct any wrong answers.Step 2 -Conduct the post-test (30 minutes)Distribute the post-tests to participants. Allow them to answer the questions in about 15 minutes. Calculate their scores, and check them compared to their pre-test. Give both pre-and post-tests back to the participants for review. Also record each participant's score in a training or project logbook. If any errors are common, take time to discuss them with participants and to correct any misconceptions before closing the training.Step 2 -Close the training (10 minutes)Distribute any awards for best participant or group, handout certificates; assure participants have contact information for trainers, and handouts. Close the training. Weeds should be removed or killed before they compete or flower and make seeds. Annual weeds grow quickly and set seed 1 or more times a season.  Bi-annual weeds take two or more seasons or years to flower and seed.Perennial weeds grow throughout the year. If you pull them up, many will regrow from their roots in the soil. What is integrated weed management? Integrated weed management is the use of several different methods of weed control, rather than relying on herbicides only. This is important because different weed species require different kinds of weed management to be effective. Weeds also develop resistance to herbicides, which is why integrated management is needed. Dust mulching is a cultural method to control weeds.1. Dust mulching is a good cultural weed control approach for directly seeded rice. 2. Apply pre-sowing irrigation to a well-prepared field. 3. When the field is at best soil moisture for seeding ('Jo' or 'Vattar' condition), till again and plank. 4. This will seal the soil surface with a 'soil mulch' that conserves moisture. 5. The top 1-2 cm of soil will dry quickly, killing weed seeds. Lower soil layers remain moist. 6. Seed immediately after field preparation in the evening to avoid moisture loss. 7. Irrigate 10-20 days after seeding.Other important methods of cultural control of weeds include: Use certified seeds free of weed seeds  Use competitive crop cultivars (early, vigorous seed growth with early canopy closure, long duration, high tillering, with wide and long leaves)  Sow your crops in rows and lines to make manual and mechanical weeding easier.  Sow your crops on time and use the correct seed rate.  Early flooding of rice at the right time helps reduce weed pressure.Manual and mechanical weeding can be used along with cultural and chemical control.For perennial weeds, hand weeding can be helpful to remove their roots.Both push and power mechanical weeders and tillers are also available for rice and maize sown in lines.Perennial weeds may however require hand weeding to remove weeds roots that can cause regrowth. Control of weeds with herbicides is often necessary in conservation agriculture or direct seeded rice. Chemical control should always be practiced in an integrated weed management program. Herbicides are poison. Safety must be considered. Weeds develop resistance to herbicides over time. This is why integrated weed management is needed.Farmers using herbicides must avoid resistance. Herbicide resistance happens when the same herbicide is applied to the same weed species season after season. Over time, the herbicide is less effective at controlling weeds.One resistant weed survivesTo avoid resistance, remove or kill weeds before they flower and set seed, and rotate herbicide types.Based on when they are applied, there are three types of herbicides, which can come in liquid or granular form. Apply before sowing to kill all weed types, especially under conservation agriculture.Glyphosate is a common pre-plant herbicide, but use it with care and make sure to rotate its use with other herbicides. Apply after seeding but before weeds emerge, usually 1-3 days after sowing or transplanting. Apply after weeds are visible and have 3-4 leaves. Direct seeded rice requires different herbicides than transplanted rice.  Conservation agriculture practices often require pre-plant herbicides. Surfacants help pre-plant, and post-emergent herbicides to be more effective. This helps the herbicide bind to and penetrate leaves.  Urea can be used as a surfacant. Just add it to your tank in small quantities (usually < 2 kg ha) Broadleaves, sedges, and grasses are the three main kinds of weeds. Pumps are a important part of the sprayer. They convert the water and herbicide into the spray mist.There are two pump types:  Pneumatic pumps force the air in an airtight sprayer to move the liquid through the spray nozzle.  Hydraulic pumps force a definite amount of liquid through the spray nozzle under pressure.  This boom has one nozzle.  The regulator maintains constant pressure for consistent spray.  Some regulators have gauges to maintain pressure. First measure the spacing between nozzles  If spacing is 50 cm for a 2 nozzle boom, then swath is (2  50) -15 = 85 cm (subtract 15 cm due to spray overlap)  For a three nozzle boom, it is (3 50) -30 = 120 cm (subtract 30 cm due to spray overlap) Nozzle height is important.  With multiple nozzle booms, height is very important.  Adjust height so that 30% of the spray from each nozzle overlaps. Knee height (50 cm) from the soil is best height for pre-emergent herbicide.  For post-emergent or pre-plant herbicides, 50 cm from the top of weed leaves is best. Correct spraying depends on tank pressure.  If pressure changes when spraying, herbicides are less effective and you loose money.• Constant flow valves that operate at 1, 1.5, 2 and 3-bar pressure (1 bar = 14.5 psi) stabilize pressure.• They reduce spraying effort and improve application. Used to spray between rows of crops.  Some herbicides can damage crops so hoods are needed for post-sowing sprays.  But what about granular herbicides? Granular herbicides come in small, solid balls like fertilizers.  They cannot be sprayed.  Granular herbicides are broadcasted like fertilizer.  Read the herbicide bottle to determine the weight of herbicide required per unit of land area.  For transplanted rice, granular herbicides are applied to the floodwater 2-3 days after transplanting.  Granular herbicides can be broadcast without mixing, though for transplanted rice they can be mixed with sand and broadcasted.  This helps to improve how they are spread over the field.Select a test plot and mark it Select a sprayer and nozzle  Flood jet nozzles are preferred  If using a multiple nozzle boom, make sure it is straight and there is 50 cm between the nozzles.  For a single flood jet nozzle (1.5 m spray swath) turn around at the end and make a second pass and stop. For a single flat fan nozzle (0.5 m spray swath) turn around at the end and make two more passes.Next calculate water requirements for one hectare: Initial water volume in the tank = 4 L  End volume in the tank after spraying about 100 m 2 = 3 L  Volume consumed for spray = 3 L  3 L water required to cover about 100 m 2 or 1/100th of 1 hectare  So, 3 × 100 = 300 L is required to spray 1 hectare.  Surfacants help pre-plant, and postemergent herbicides to be more effective.  Urea is often used as a surfacant at a rate of 1.5-2.0 kg urea ha -1 added to the tank  Most non-ionic surfactants are applied at 2% of the water and herbicide in the tank. Select herbicides with low environmental impact.  Read the herbicide label and follow instructions.  Do not spray when people or animals are near.  Do not spray when windy.  Use herbicide efficiently and avoid overapplication. 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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b189f9b4e56b0756923a16a805902a61","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1a90f2a3-8e93-43a5-8ee5-a26663f94f9f/retrieve","id":"1838160363"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f82f0532-aa42-4921-a5d1-06b83f1e2260","pagecount":"1","content":"Integrated aquaculture-agriculture (IAA) has been widely promoted as a form of farm diversification that can promote more efficient resource use, improve productivity, and lead to higher household incomes and more diverse diets. Farm productivity is usually measured in terms of biomass or income produced per area of land. Here, we extend the concept of productivity to measure production of energy (kcals) and micronutrients, and explore the relationship between the economic and nutritional productivity for 12 distinct types of IAA system, identified from a survey of 721 farms in Southwest Bangladesh.Nutrient productivity is expressed as the number of adults able to meet their total recommended annual intakes of selected nutrients from the food produced on one hectare of land (AEs/ha). We present productivity of energy (kcal), iron, zinc, and Vitamin A under different IAA systems. Farms integrated with fruits and vegetables, and farms producing fish with freshwater prawn tend to have higher economic productivity than non-integrated farms, and those producing fish only. (Fig. 1). Farms integrated with rice have higher energy productivity. Farms integrated with fruit and vegetables produce slightly more vitamin A. OLS regressions confirm that, in general, integrated farms produce more nutrients per hectare than non-integrated farms. Vegetable production is a key driver of both economic and nutrient productivity. These findings have important implications for the design of Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture programs that can enhance the contributions aquaculture makes to nutrition security in Bangladesh and other countries. ","tokenCount":"238"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4a998fa8ed9a5f2479a27a8e766f6cb7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8e3495e9-0350-45fd-a6d1-5d7aeede6e64/retrieve","id":"785721915"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aaab904b-5eb4-4104-b909-ed0c11113ca4","pagecount":"100","content":"Outil décisionnel pour la mise en oeuvre nationale du système multilatéral d'accès et de partage des avantages aux termes du Traité international sur les ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture Programme conjoint de renforcement des capacités des pays en développement pour la mise en oeuvre du Traité et de son système multilatéral d'accès et de partage des avantages Traité International SUR LES RESSOURCES PHYTOGÉNÉTIQUES POUR L'ALIMENTATION ET L'AGRICULTURE Le Programme conjoint de renforcement des capacités des pays en développement pour la mise en oeuvre du Traité international sur les ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (Traité) et de son Système multilatéral d'accès et de partage des avantages (Programme conjoint de renforcement des capacités) a pour objet de mieux faire connaître la structure et les mécanismes du Système multilatéral auprès des parties prenantes régionales et nationales et de moderniser l'infrastructure institutionnelle, juridique et administrative pour assurer le bon fonctionnement du Système multilatéral. Le programme a été conçu et mis en oeuvre pour répondre aux demandes d'assistance des pays en développement, en fonction des priorités définies par l'Organe directeur et des fonds disponibles. Le programme est coordonné par le secrétaire du Traité et exécuté conjointement par laOutil décisionnel pour la mise en oeuvre nationale du système multilatéral d'accès et de partage des avantages aux termes du Traité international sur les ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture Cet outil décisionnel procède du Programme conjoint de renforcement des capacités.Il vise à aider les acteurs de politiques à identifier les mesures appropriées pour mettre en oeuvre le Système multilatéral dans leur pays, en tenant compte du fait qu'un nombre croissant de pays qui sont Parties contractantes au Traité sont également Parties au Protocole de Nagoya sur l'accès et le partage des avantages.Il s'appuie sur l'expérience acquise en collaboration avec des partenaires nationaux dans un certain nombre de pays au cours des huit dernières années, en élaborant des politiques et des systèmes nationaux pour mettre en oeuvre le Système multilatéral.Rétrospectivement, il y a des années que ce type d'outil aurait dû être élaboré pour pouvoir offrir de l'aide et des options à tous les pays dans la mise en place de tels systèmes. Cependant, sans ces années passées à accumuler des expériences et à en tirer les enseignements, il aurait été impossible de mettre au point un outil décisionnel comme celui-ci, aussi simple, logique et sensible aux genres de défis que les décideurs de politiques et les autres parties prenantes doivent relever lors de l'élaboration de tels systèmes. • conservation des RPGAA,• utilisation durable des RPGAA,• partage juste et équitable des avantages découlant de l'utilisation des ressources génétiques.Le Système multilatéral contribue à la réalisation de ces trois objectifs. Le Système multilatéral inclut les ressources génétiques figurant dans l'Appendice I du Traité qui :• sont « gérées et administrées par les Parties contractantes et relèvent du domaine public »,1 Traité international sur les ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (Traité), 29 juin 2004, http://www. planttreaty.org/texts_en.htm (site consulté le 24 octobre 2017).• sont volontairement incluses par des personnes physiques et morales,• font partie des collections hébergées par des institutions internationales qui ont signé des conventions avec l'Organe directeur du Traité.Tous les matériels couverts par le Système multilatéral sont transférés en utilisant l'accord type de transfert de matériel (ATTM) qui a été adopté par l'Organe directeur en 2006. 2 Aux termes de l'ATTM, le fournisseur s'engage à transférer le matériel gratuitement ou à des coûts minimaux et à notifier à l'Organe directeur tous les transferts conclus au travers d'un ATTM. Le bénéficiaire quant à lui s'engage, entre autres, à :• utiliser le matériel aux fins stipulées plus haut « à l'exclusion des utilisations [...]   industrielles non alimentaires et non fourragères »,• ne revendiquer aucun droit de propriété intellectuelle limitant l'accès d'autres parties au matériel fourni « sous la forme reçue »,• effectuer des paiements au fonds fiduciaire pour le partage des avantages du Traité, s'il commercialise de nouveaux produits RPGAA incorporant du matériel couvert par le Système multilatéral et s'il interdit à d'autres bénéficiaires leur utilisation à des fins de recherche et de sélection,• ce que la tierce partie bénéficiaire (qui représente les intérêts du Système multilatéral) puisse lui demander des informations quant à sa conformité avec l'ATTM et initier des procédures de règlement des différends à son égard en cas de non-respect présumé des termes de l'ATTM.Même si l'objet de cet outil décisionnel est d'aider les acteurs de politiques à élaborer des mesures pour mettre en oeuvre le Système multilatéral, nous savons que de telles mesures ne suffiront pas, à elles seules, à faire du Système multilatéral un succès. Des efforts supplémentaires considérables devront être déployés pour renforcer les capacités de tous les utilisateurs potentiels, notamment des obtenteurs des secteurs privé et public, des banques de gènes, des universités, des organisations d'agriculteurs et des organisations non gouvernementales, afin que chacun puisse tirer parti du Système multilatéral pour accéder à la diversité génétique et aux informations associées. Le succès du Système multilatéral dépendra également d'une prise de conscience accrue de ses contributions potentielles à toute une série d'objectifs de développement comme l'adaptation au changement climatique, l'amélioration des moyens de subsistance et l'autonomisation des populations autochtones et des communautés locales, notamment des agriculteurs. Même si le sujet dépasse le cadre de cet outil décisionnel, le Système multilatéral peut apporter des contributions significatives aux plans, programmes et stratégies nationales de développement comme en témoigne l'aperçu fourni dans l'appendice 1 du présent document.de nouvelles lois sont-elles nécessaires pour mettre en oeuvre le Système multilatéral ?Dans beaucoup de pays, on ne juge pas qu'il soit nécessaire de créer de nouvelles politiques ou lois sous forme de législations, de règlements, d'arrêtés ministériels ou de décrets pour mettre en oeuvre le Système multilatéral. Dans ces pays, les services gouvernementaux existants sont censés être en mesure de faire avancer les choses sur la base des mandats et pouvoirs décisionnels mis en place, du profil et de l'influence octroyés. Ainsi, conformément aux mandats déjà reçus, les autorités responsables de la banque de gènes nationale sont censées identifier quels seront les matériels de leur collection qui seront inclus dans le Système multilatéral (selon la formule établie dans le Traité) et faciliter l'accès de ces matériels en utilisant l'accord type de transfert de matériel (ATTM). Dans la même veine, le personnel du ministère de l'Agriculture ou des institutions de recherche nationales est censé organiser des consultations avec les universités, la société civile, les organisations paysannes, les compagnies ou tout autre personne physique ou morale qui détiennent des RPGAA situées dans le pays, couvertes par l'Appendice I du Traité, sur la base de leurs mandats, responsabilités et capacités de rassemblement, pour les encourager à inclure ces matériels dans le Système multilatéral.L'approche « pas besoin de nouvelle loi » est possible puisque ceux qui ont négocié le Traité et l'ATTM ont résolu une grande partie des difficultés liées au Système multilatéral.Outil décisiOnnel pOur la mise en oeuvre natiOnale du système multilatéral d'accès et de partage des avantages aux termes du traité internatiOnal sur les ressOurces phytOgénétiques pOur l'alimentatiOn et l'agriculture d'une autorité nationale compétente pour le Traité et définissant de manière explicite ses pouvoirs et responsabilités, aucune agence n'aurait les pouvoirs ou le « permis » de convoquer des réunions et de promouvoir la prise des décisions requises. Dans certains pays, les gestionnaires de banques de gènes ont également indiqué qu'ils ou elles hésitaient à agir, par manque de soutien officiel puisque leur droit de fournir un accès facilité aux matériels détenus dans leurs collections n'a pas été officialisé dans le public.Mise en oeuvre concertée et solidaire de  Par conséquent, nous avons fait en sorte que chaque section puisse être lue de manière séparée. Cette approche présente néanmoins l'inconvénient des répétitions qui auraient pu être évitées avec des lecteurs disciplinés lisant l'ouvrage du début à la fin.Chaque section est présentée sous forme de questions/réponses de manière à ce que le lecteur puisse repérer facilement les problèmes qui le concernent en particulier et trouver rapidement les réponses dont il a besoin. Dans chaque section, nous avons combiné les questions de manière différente afin de fournir des réponses différenciées. En revanche, dans la plupart des sections, nous avons pris en compte les questions communes suivantes :• Y a-t-il différentes approches pour résoudre les questions qui se posent, en fonction des cultures juridico-politiques des pays concernés, mais aussi des différents niveaux de décentralisation ou de centralisation du système que les pays souhaitent mettre en place ?• Les questions peuvent-elles être traitées sans avoir besoin de créer de nouvelles lois ? Quelles sont les spécificités nationales susceptibles de contraindre un pays à adopter une nouvelle loi de manière à accélérer les choses ? Qui a la responsabilité de promouvoir et de coordonner la mise en oeuvre nationale ? 1 1 1. Qui a la responsabilité de promouvoir et de coordonner la mise en oeuvre nationale ?Pour chaque Partie contractante, un bureau, un service ou un ministère aura la responsabilité de promouvoir la mise en oeuvre nationale du Traité et notamment de son Système multilatéral. Dans certains pays, on pense qu'il est inutile de trancher sur les responsabilités en créant de nouveaux titres, termes de référence, politiques, bureaux et de prévoir des budgets en conséquence. Dans ces pays, les services gouvernementaux existants sont censés être en mesure de faire avancer les choses sur la base des mandats octroyés, des pouvoirs décisionnels, des profils et des influences déjà mis en place. Cependant, comme déjà relevé dans l'introduction, il se peut qu'il soit impossible de mettre en oeuvre le Système multilatéral dans tous les pays sans créer de nouveaux bureaux, octroyer de nouveaux pouvoirs et élaborer de nouvelles lois. En effet, dans certains pays, il sera éventuellement nécessaire de nommer un nouveau service gouvernemental, de le doter d'un nouveau titre, de lui confier des tâches officielles et de le revêtir des pouvoirs nécessaires pour qu'il puisse s'occuper de la mise en oeuvre de manière efficace. Peu importe le nom qu'on puisse donner à ces rôles, ces pouvoirs, ces services. En revanche, comme dans beaucoup de pays, on appelle les entités qui assument de telles responsabilités des « autorités nationales compétentes », nous proposons de reprendre ce terme. Ce qui est plus important que le nom, ce sont les responsabilités que cette organisation assumera, les pouvoirs qu'elle détiendra ainsi que les activités qu'elle poursuivra pour mettre en oeuvre le Système multilatéral.   Pacifique Sud (CePaCT) ; la Banque internationale de gènes de cacaoyer ; les banques de ressources génétiques mutantes de la Division mixte de l'Organisation pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO)/Agence internationale de l'énergie atomique (AIEA) ; les banques internationales de gènes de cocotier pour le Pacifique Sud, l'Afrique et l'océan Indien ; le Centre d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en agriculture tropicale ; le Centre international pour la recherche en agroforesterie (ICRAF) ; l'Institut international de recherche sur le riz (IRRI) ; le Centre international de la pomme de terre (CIP) ; l'Institut international de recherche sur l'élevage (ILRI) ; l'Institut international d'agriculture tropicale (IITA) ; l'Institut international de recherche sur les cultures des zones tropicales semi-arides (ICRISAT) ; le Centre international de recherche agricole dans les zones arides (ICARDA) ; le Centre international d'amélioration du maïs et du blé (CIMMYT) ; CIAT ; Bioversity International et le Centre du riz pour l'Afrique (Africa Rice Center). Les banques de gènes des centres internationaux CGIAR (Africa Rice Centre, Bioversity, CIAT, CIMMYT, ICRISAT, IITA, ILRI, CIP, IRRI et ICRAF) conservent près de 700 000 accessions qui font partie du Système multilatéral depuis la signature des accords conclus en vertu de l'article 15 entre ces centres et l'Organe directeur du Traité.        3. Si les conditions sont satisfaites et si la collecte est approuvée, les RPGAA seront transférées à celui qui en a fait la demande en utilisant l'ATTM.24 Dans une approche centralisée, la loi se réfèrera à l'autorité nationale compétente. Dans une approche plus décentralisée, la loi se réfèrera plutôt aux organismes directeurs. Certains pays qui ont ratifié le Protocole de Nagoya ont choisi de ne pas mettre en place des systèmes exigeant le consentement préalable donné en connaissance de cause d'une autorité nationale compétente pour ce qui est de l'accès aux ressources génétiques. D'autres pays disposent de dérogations explicites ou implicites pour permettre aux personnes physiques et morales de fournir volontairement l'accès aux RPGAA en utilisant l'ATTM sans obtenir l'approbation de l'autorité nationale compétente désignée en vertu de la loi APA (par exemple, le Costa Rica). 26  27 Dans un certain nombre de pays, la législation nationale visant la mise en oeuvre de la CDB subordonne l'accès aux ressources génétiques à une voire plusieurs obligations telles que celles qui suivent : l'utilisateur des ressources génétiques doit partager avec le fournisseur des ressources génétiques les résultats de la recherche exécutée ou de la technologie développée grâce à ces ressources ; l'utilisateur des ressources génétiques doit engager des scientifiques nationaux dans les projets de recherche et de développement qui impliquent l'utilisation de ressources génétiques ; l'utilisateur de ressources génétiques s'engage à ne pas partager les ressources génétiques avec des utilisateurs tiers sans l'accord écrit du fournisseur ; l'utilisateur des ressources génétiques s'engage à ne pas les utiliser à des fins commerciales sans l'accord écrit du fournisseur ; un pourcentage des bénéfices monétaires résultant de l'utilisation des ressources génétiques doit être négocié entre le fournisseur et l'utilisateur, pourcentage que l'utilisateur s'engage à verser au fournisseur. Ces conditions APA obligatoires sont incompatibles avec les conditions du Système multilatéral et avec l'utilisation de l'accord type de transfert de matériel pour l'échange de matériel phytogénétique inclus dans le Système multilatéral.   A • une analyse des objectifs et du contenu du Traité,• les obligations encourues au titre du Traité, notamment les obligations financières,• les obstacles juridiques à la ratification ou à l'adhésion et comment ces obstacles juridiques peuvent être surmontés, Où peut-on obtenir de l'aide dans l'élaboration de la demande à présenter au Cabinet ? ","tokenCount":"2307"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c7217bce401b9afc2a00f8d8c12a0296","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/781dd051-7a77-41f9-aba7-f326e36faa0f/retrieve","id":"-1681654577"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"32275d62-228d-40cd-8534-d32e3765f208","pagecount":"16","content":"Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The CG is directly involved with pillar 4 of CAADP which is coordinated by the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA). It was pointed out, however, that ILRI's work in livestock is relevant to all of the CAADP pillars, especially pillar 1, which deals with land and water management, and pillar 2, addressing the challenge of market development and, specifically, the building of agricultural value chains. ILRI is also working with AGRA on the dairy value chains in agriculture and providing support regarding market development in general. AGRA has funded ILRI to host a conference \"Towards priority actions for market development for African farmers.\" This meeting will take place in early 2009.2. The issue of the food-feed-bio/fuel trade-off was raised. ILRI reported on collaborative work with ICRISAT in India on sweet sorghum for both feed and biofuel production. Other opportunities for win-win technologies are also being explored. The SLP is considering focussing on the issue of food, feed, fuel trade-offs in the next competitive grant program.3. The issue of ILRI's comparative advantage for livestock research in Africa was also raised. It was suggested that International Research needs to complement the roles of NARS and SROs in implementing the African livestock research agenda.4. With several recent publications on the relationship between climate change and livestock, ILRI has moved to the forefront in defining a global livestock research agenda that integrates the issues of methane emission, livestock productivity, and the future of the sector for poor people's livelihoods. It was observed that the FAO Report on the \"long shadow of livestock\" had defined livestock as a \"global public bad\" leading to negative comments about livestock development from the UN Secretary General. ILRI is working with UNEP to articulate a more balanced approach to the role of livestock specifically as related to its role in livelihoods of small holder farmers in the tropics.A number of Program issues raised were transferred for discussions at the Programme Committee.Board Members expressed their satisfaction with the accomplishments and achievements at ILRI and commended the Director General for an excellent report.At the 26 th BoT Meeting, the Board discussed the recommendations from the EPMR and formulated an ILRI response. As in previous meetings, Management presented a detailed progress report providing an overall picture of achievements so far made. The focus of the presentation was on recent developments as well as a limited number of recommendations for which action is pending. In summary good progress has been made on implementing most of the EPMR recommendations.The Board expressed satisfaction with the rate of implementation of the actions for each recommendation.The Program Committee held its meeting on 3-5 November. The Programme Committee proposed the following recommendations for consideration and approval:1. The Board reviewed progress in ILRI research in Asia, southern Africa, West Africa and East Africa and noted the considerable progress being made. The Board recommended that ILRI management prepares plans for documenting and conducting a systematic external review of ILRI's global reach and how this is implemented in different regions to be discussed at the April 2009 Board meeting.2. The Board noted with satisfaction the substantial efforts made and progress achieved in implementing the BecA project and developing the BecA hub.3. The Board reviewed the revised terms of reference, process and panel composition for the CCER on impact assessment. These were approved with suggestions to sharpen the research questions. The Board recommended that the CCER be conducted in the first half of 2009 and its results reported to the Board in November 2009.4. The Board recommended that ILRI conduct a CCER on the intensification of smallholder crop-livestock systems based on the plan presented and further suggestions provided. This CCER will be conducted in the first quarter of 2009 and a draft report discussed at the April Board meeting.The final report and Management response will be presented at the November 2009 Board meeting.5. The Board discussed and made suggestions on the CCER report on vaccines and diagnostics. The Board accepted the report and agreed with the ILRI Management response to the individual recommendations. It was agreed that ILRI Management would summarize the major implications for ILRI action.6. The Board reviewed the business model document and fully endorsed the general directions proposed by Management. The Board requested a progress report at its November 2009 meeting, with a view to making a greater contribution to the currently under-represented livestock sector and considering the CG change management process.The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the recommendations presented by the Chair of the Program Committee Agenda Item No. 9(a)The Human Resources committee met on Tuesday 4 November 2008. The Committee proposed the following recommendations for consideration and approval:1) The HRC was pleased to note positive feedback from the staff councils regarding management's constructive involvement over the last few months. SC requests that the BoT encourage Management to continue with this spirit of engagement.2) HRC notes Management's commitment to working on staff issues and the timelines on the various projects such as:i. provision for early retirement, ii. long service awards iii. removal of the 13 year cap for the retirement severance payment, iv. leave allowance review v. recognition of Staff council members vi. Management's follow up and contingency planning on the potential taxation of the NRS-Kenya pension vii. role of Staff Councils viii. finalization of the joint appointment policy ix. confirmation of offshore pension fund status x. research on how currency fluctuations can be handled effectively3) The HRC encourages the continuation of the more strategic role that HR has started playing at ILRI.The HRC noted that this project was in its advanced stages with full implementation scheduled for February 2009 following in-depth verification by supervisors and Directors.The HRC recommends that Management should consider incorporating parallel career paths into job classification e.g. Management, Research, Support Services etc 5) Whistle blowing policy: The HRC noted that this policy has been implemented and communicated to staff. It further recommends that the policy should be part of the induction package and signed off by staff.The HRC recommends approval of the recruitment policy 7) Code of Conduct: The HRC recommends approval of the policy. It further recommends that the code should be part of the induction package and signed off by staff.The Board unanimously approved the recommendations presented by the Chair of the Human Resources Committee.The Finance Committee (FC) met on Tuesday 4 November. The Board received the following report and recommendations for consideration and approval.1. The Finance Committee welcomed the news of the slight positive balance projected for the 2008 budget. This represents a significant improvement over the projected deficit. The Finance Committee also welcomed the formation of a separate Audit Committee. Terms of reference for both committees were circulated. Approval of the terms of reference for the Finance Committee will be completed by email as committee members need time to review them.The following recommendations were made to the Board of Trustees for its approval.With The Board discussion resulted in a fifth recommendation:11. That ILRI Management develops an approach to track the evolution of budgets on a regional basis over time. This will give the Board additional information to assess the progress of ILRI's efforts to extend its global reach.12. The Board also discussed the issue of splitting the cash and non -cash elements of overhead as well as the issue of how Themes allocate their unrestricted core allocations. No firm decisions or recommendations were reached on these issues.The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the recommendations presented by the Chair of the Finance Committee.This was the first meeting of the newly established Audit Committee. The Audit Committee recommended to the Board of Trustees that the Terms of Reference of the Audit Committee be approved. This recommendation was unanimously adopted.On the occasion of its Retreat preceding the formal BoT Meeting held on the 2 nd November 2008, the Board reviewed the Change Management Team reform proposal against the background of the current global challenges and threats and evolving international research environment. The Board's position and recommendation are as follows:Over the last couple of years, ILRI has been actively involved in a number of efforts to stimulate discussion amongst Centers and to advance CGIAR reform.• In particular, ILRI has initiated and still leads the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) programmatic alignment process aiming at promoting more coordinated collaboration amongst CGIAR Centers operating in ESA and strengthening CGIAR/NARS strategic planning and collaboration at local and regional levels. • ILRI has also been active in building the CGIAR Center Alliance with the objectives of strengthening the System as a whole, promoting collective action and creating a strong System voice on issues of common interest.• More recently, in the context of the System Change Management Process, ILRI has been most active in providing analysis and scenarios for governance options aimed at facilitating exchange and discussion among Centers and forging Alliance positions.It is therefore natural that ILRI supports both the overall direction and the basic principles for reform of the CGIAR System as agreed at the Los Banos Stakeholder Meeting in early September, 2008 and reflected in the Change Management Steering Team's (CST) Draft Report of 3 November 2008. ILRI recognizes, however, that the risks and costs associated with taking this reform forward need to be carefully assessed as the broad principles are translated into concrete action.In this spirit, the ILRI Board of Trustees, at its 30 th meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 3-5 November, 2008, reviewed the reform proposals against the background of the current global challenges and threats and an evolving context of funding and partnerships. The Board's continuing concern is that a revitalized CGIAR system be able to function as an effective public international agricultural research network capable of generating the knowledge and facilitating the innovations necessary to: reduce food insecurity; conserve, enhance and sustainably use natural resources and biodiversity; and stimulate equitable agricultural growth that benefits the poor, especially rural women and other disadvantaged groups.We believe that ILRI will, within this revitalized system, be able to contribute to:• Improving productivity of livestock systems that provide critical \"food for people;\" • Developing livestock-based systems that use and conserve the biodiversity of both plants and animals, creating an \"environment that sustains people;\" and • Promoting the policies and innovations that enable productive livestock-based systems to provide adequate livelihoods for the poor and provide safe, nutritious, and affordable animal-source products for consumers.Based on its discussions, the ILRI Board agrees with the direction and key principles underlying the Integrated CGIAR Reform Proposal as currently drafted. In particular, the Board concurs with: ILRI supports the proposed organizational architecture as it would:• Enhance the operations of the unique network for international research that has been created to date through the CGIAR. The network would maintain privileged relations between funders and centers while setting the stage for more effective implementation of a results-oriented global research agenda.• Reform the way in which the System operates to recognize, inter alia:o new science, technology, and development challenges; o expanded research capacities in the developing world; o an increasingly specialized system of privately-funded research; o and the need to improve livelihoods of poor farmers and livestock keepers in the developing world.• Reshape in a systematic way all parts and relationships of the System.• Clarify lines of accountability; and clearly separate funding from research management and implementation.• Strengthen the ability of the centers to work together. The Consortium would be responsible for both programmatic reform and for restructuring operations for greater cost-effectiveness.ILRI occupies a unique role in the CGIAR system as it is the only center principally focused on livestock systems and the challenges that poor livestock keepers face as they seek to respond to rising consumer demand, increasing population densities in production zones, emerging diseases, and climate change.In this role, it has contributed to defining the global livestock research agenda.It is evident that ILRI must work closely with others in the international agricultural research network on issues of mutual concern: efficient use of water for both crops and livestock, development of efficient markets to support the operation of agricultural value chains for food as well as feed-grains, and development of policies that provide incentives and the means for poor producers to invest in inputs and technologies that will enhance their livelihoods and the natural resource base upon which they depend; and so on.ILRI also has strong ongoing collaborations with other global partners focused on livestock issues (OIE, FAO, WHO, and GalvMed) as well as with regional organizations such as AU-IBAR and private pharmaceutical companies developing and marketing animal vaccines and diagnostic tools.The Board believes that the plans for revitalizing the System, especially regarding greater attention to partnerships, are consistent with ILRI's approach to date. The promise of additional funding to the global research agenda should enable ILRI to be even more proactive in pursuing such collaborations and partnerships in the future.In the following sections, we share some specific concerns and ideas for next steps.Given the momentum of the CGIAR reform process, the ILRI Board believes that there is an urgent need to address some of the specific concerns that are emerging as more flesh is being put on the bones of the System reform outline and to agree on a timeframe for completing the next steps critical for building consensus and buy-in of all actors involved.Key concerns that were highlighted in the Board's review of the most recent CST proposal include:• A need for greater clarity on the way that the Centers will operate within the Consortium. While it is clear that the Centers, as shareholders in the Consortium, will appoint the Consortium Board, the nature and mechanisms for interactions between the Centers, Center Boards and the Consortium Board are not clear. The Consortium Board must have authority for effective leadership and binding decision-making. However, the Centers must have the ability to voice their views on an ongoing basis and operate in a highly-fluid international research environment with significant flexibility.• Mechanisms for assuring transparency and coherence in the Consortium will be needed. The application of subsidiarity principles has been endorsed, but this will require greater definition of the specific roles and responsibilities to be assumed by organizations/individuals at all levels of the Consortium.• There is great uncertainty regarding the upfront costs that will need to be incurred to implement the planned reforms and the likely cost-efficiencies that will be achieved down the road. ILRI's concern is to minimize immediate cost requirements to assure that progress on its current research initiatives is not negatively-affected. At the same time, ILRI would caution against overestimation of the savings that will be achieved, especially as we perceive significant under-funding of critical global livestock research in the current environment.Next steps require immediate involvement of the Centers, through the Alliance, in the elaboration of the Consortium design and functioning as well as its linkages to the Fund and instruments envisioned to constitute the revitalized System.• The Consortium Constitution and its modus operandi, need to be discussed and agreed among Centers -at least in broad terms -preferably at the AGM in Maputo. An Alliance-prepared draft outline would facilitate this process and ensure Center buy-in to the outcomes. Specific attention will need to be paid to the relationships between the Consortium Board and Center Boards as they condition and complement each other.• The norms and mechanisms for Centers/Consortium interaction and collaboration need to be defined. Centers need to agree to accept specific responsibilities as well as time/cost requirements for implementation (e.g. definition of strategic orientation, development of Strategy and Results Framework, design of Program Performance Contracts as well as Centre Performance Agreements).• A great deal more clarity is required to operationalize the concepts of megaprograms, budget windows, Center Performance Agreements, and Results Measurement Frameworks. All of these instruments must be designed with a view to reducing transaction costs, increasing efficiency, and improving and promoting coordination and collective action amongst Centers. Further, there must be clear agreement on feasible \"metrics,\" i.e. to provide objective and measurable performance indicators against which the Consortium and Centers can be held accountable.• Center input into the Consortium Board nomination process can be elicited at the AGM. Centers should specify candidate profiles and competencies that will best meet their needs. This will enable the process to be launched in the near term.• ILRI expects that the Alliance will simultaneously take steps to establish the Consortium as a legal entity and will convene, perhaps as early as May according to the CST document, a meeting of Alliance members for the purpose of making interim Consortium Board appointments.• Once the Consortium is legally established, the Consortium Centers will need to assemble as required for purposes of conducting Consortium business, e.g. renewing and revoking appointments, agreeing on strategic instruments linking Fund, Consortium and Consortium Centers, etc.)• The Consortium should assume responsibility for conducting the required indepth review of Center mandates, programs and services. A transparent and participatory process will be needed to assure that joint, coordinated and individual responsibilities are carefully considered, leading to undisputed structural, programmatic and service reform. While this review will not be conducted immediately, development of terms of reference for the review in the near term will permit both funders and Centers to make adequate inputs.• Elaboration of a comprehensive business plan for the Transition Period with clear definition of responsibilities and a realistic timeframe to fill existing gaps, design strategies, policies, processes and tools is essential. Additional resources will be required to carry out this business plan. Levying a tax on Centers for these additional expenditures risks derailing ongoing research.The ILRI Board of Trustees instructs the ILRI Board Chair and Director General to pursue the Center's constructive participation in moving forward the Change Management Process, based on the observations and assessments outlined above.The ILRI Constitution provides for up to15 Board Members made up of \"at large\" members, government representatives of host countries (2) and CGIAR nominees (3). In 2003 the Board decided to limit the total number of members to 12.Currently the Board has 11 members, leaving one \"at large\" position vacant. With the retirement of Fee-ChonLow and Uwe Werblow in November 2009, there will be two additional \"at large\" vacancies, bringing the Board size down to only eight members if no new recruitments are made.Finally, there were four members who have completed their first three year term on the ILRI Board. Over the past few months the Board Chair was able to consult with ILRI Board and Management as well as the Board Members concerned to assess their performance and interest in serving a second three-year term.1. The Board unanimously approved the renewal of the mandate for a second three-year term for Emmy Simmons, Knut Hove, Modibo Traore and Jim Dargie. Their second terms will continue through the 36 th Board Meeting which is currently scheduled in November 2011. On the occasion of the previous BoT Meeting, the Board decided to identify a new Chair one year in advance of the retirement of the incumbent. As the term of Uwe Werblow will end in November 2009, the Board was required to identify a Board Chair Elect.The Board Chair was able to meet individually with each Board Member to determine whether they would be interested and able to serve as Board Chair when the incumbent retires in November 2009.Board Members unanimously approved the nomination of Knut Hove to become the 4 th ILRI Board Chair with the retirement of Uwe Werblow in November 2009.The Board is required to undertake an evaluation of the Board Chair annually during its autumn meeting. The evaluation form was completed by all Board Members in attendance and handed to the Board Secretary. The Board Secretary will analyse the assessment and comments and provide a summary report.Board Secretary to summarize the outcome of the BC evaluation exercise.The Board is required to undertake a self evaluation at the end of each Board meeting. Standard evaluation forms were provided to Board Members electronically and are expected to be completed and returned to the Board secretary. The Board secretary will analyse the assessment and comments and provide a summary report.Board Members were asked to complete the self evaluation forms and return the result to the Board Secretary by 15 November.The Board plans its meeting two years in advance to enable Board Members to plan their schedules. The following dates and venues were agreed:1 ","tokenCount":"3384"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"507ecf54b587e5715e841d5ba9cfe84e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/dbc143de-bc3f-4e39-88e8-4f949acd8d39/content","id":"-1537526619"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"23c76ab8-2c23-49ca-ad8d-6c3027aacb01","pagecount":"10","content":"Women's role in agriculture is widely reported to be essential; despite this, women's role in the wheat-sector is under-researched. Feminist standpoint theory is applied in analyzing 73 documents on women's role in agriculture from 1990 until 2016 to answer the following questions: How does the world look, and operate, for males and females in wheat growing households? What do we know about social relationships and mediating processes (i.e., social factors mediating men's and women's access to resources and activities) that exist in the prime wheat growing regions in Pakistan? The paper highlights a knowledge gap in relation to the life histories, local experiences, as well as unofficial and informal networks of small farmers in general, and of poor and marginalized women in particular. This neglect of rural subjects is a missed opportunity to learn and to engage in improved program design that contributes to enhanced food security and resilience in rural communities. The paper is relevant to development professionals and agriculture researchers and proposes further research questions on topics that appear to have an influence on women's role in wheat farming and food systems and women's ability to be successful in securing a wheat-based livelihood.Wheat is an important staple crop that contributes to food security: it provides 21% of the food calories and 20% of the protein for more than 4.5 billion people in 94 countries; and sustains 1.2 billion wheat dependent poor, who live on less than US$ 2 per day. Climate change is expected to reduce wheat production by 20-30%. 1 This literature review focuses on Pakistani males and females living and working in wheat-based food systems and generating a livelihood from wheat. While this review focuses on Pakistan's Punjab and Sindh provinces as the prime wheat growing regions, it is important to point out that other areas of the country grow wheat but are neglected in the literature due to their low yields.The role of Pakistani women in producing wheat and the way wheat products are used, valued and shared by them is grossly under-researched. The initial search around the basic key words 'rural women', 'agriculture', and 'wheat' did not produce any significant outcome, identifying not so much a paucity of current published literature pertaining to gender in wheat producing regions, but rather a more fundamental and widespread inconsistency about the connection between women and grain crops. Moreover, the crop sector of the small farm economy remains to a certain degree unexplored by economists and anthropologists alike.The Pakistan State has historically suppressed women's rights. Consequently, \"studies on women in Pakistan have largely been written in the context of the struggle of elite and urban women against the antiwomen laws and structural changes that have adversely affected women's lives\" (Ali, 2004:129). This important literature has \"ignored the experiences of the majority of poor and rural women and women's domestic experiences \" (ivi:130). This neglect of rural subject's results in a missed opportunity to learn and, consequently, to engage in improved program design that would contribute to enhanced food security and resilience in rural communities. Rouse (1996) further argues that women's rights have been framed in a teleological grid as histories of progress and setbacks and to overcome these shortcomings we must \"return to sources where we find women speaking in nonpublic spaces\" (Ali, 2004:129-130).The review is feminist in nature by the way it is rooted in the realities of daily life; it takes into account gender differences in the division of labor, property rights, and power; and examines how the processes of resource use and their structuring by gender relations manifest themselves in aspects of agrarian society, in the literature, and in agricultural development practice. At the same time the authors reject a focus on women alone as being too narrow and obscuring the male role. They endorse the hypothesis that an exclusive focus on agricultural production would make women fade away into invisibility/illegibility, and they therefore aim at providing alternative entry points into the lives, feelings, concerns and unofficial and informal networks of rural Pakistani women.Likewise, mediating processes are highly relevant to the way more traditional societies are organized and can illuminate the rationale behind gender norms. Mediating processes are \"formal and informal organizations and institutions with regularized practices or patterns of behavior that are structured by rules and norms of societies which have persistent use\" (Scoones, 1998:12). The portfolio of resources and activities used by a given household in a given community in pursuit of viable livelihoods is complex to unravel as not only it would include measurable assets and visible outputs, but would also and concurrently be mediated by a great number of social, economic, and policy considerations. Contexts matter; and contexts are laden with political and environmental history, economic trends, demography, social differentiation, and gender inequality. To this end, the review focuses on anthropological literature to highlight the human dynamics, mediating processes (or conditioning factors), norms and values of communities where wheat is grown. A more general knowledge emerges in relation to the life histories and local experiences of small farmers in general, and of poor and marginalized women in particular.The review finds that despite the dogmatic insistence of the strictness of purdah (the code of honor and modesty resulting in the seclusion of women) in public fora, women and men's actual participation in various activities points to the flexibility of the concept. It provides substantial evidence that the spheres of men and women do overlap much more than they are likely to admit. A meaningful relationship emerges from the literature linking women's energies, goals, and interests with home gardens (harvesting vegetables), storage of cereals (post-harvest activities) and natural resources management, especially with livestock tending and animal production. The reasons for these deep connections will be explored, along with observations of the socalled male dominancy (patriarchy) and in general of cultural values that are widely held as hindering women's agency in the eyes of Western observers and developers.The structure of this review is as follows: Theory; Methodology; Review Results -articulated in the sections The Legibility of Grain Crops; Veiled Work; The Illegibility of Rural Women; Men and Women in the Shadow of Purdah; Beyond the Curtain (on Tiptoe); and the Conclusion that the agricultural literature reviewed tends to accept cultural norms and gender roles, rather than question their persistence or attempt to examine them. The agricultural literature tends to focus on yield, crops or climate, rather than people, history and culture. Conversely, the anthropological literature reviewed questions the traditional view of gender and the nature of purdah and thus highlights the need for further feminist agriculture research.In line with Hawkesworth (2006) gender is used as an analytical category to foster greater equality between the sexes. The intention is to understand how gender operates in the agricultural literature and try to avoid more universal claims about why gender performs a particular social function. Thus, the review analyzes what is typically portrayed as men's greater and women's lesser powers of action and how these gender demarcations manifest in wheat (and in more general agricultural) literature.A feminist standpoint theory is applied to the review to disclose alternative stances and stakes in the literature. This analysis \"affords greater awareness of potential sources of error and a commitment to heightened interrogation of precisely that which is taken as unproblematic in competing accounts\" (Hawkesworth, 2006:206). A feminist standpoint analysis involves several steps (ivi:173-5):□ Step 1 -Construct alternative standpoints by collecting and synthesizing as many competing views of the subject under investigation as time allows; □ Step 2 -Acknowledge the partiality and contentiousness of comparing competing claims and methods.In line with step 2, and Haraway (1988:193) who argues that 'unlocatable' knowledge claims are irresponsible, the situated knowledge of the reviewers is acknowledged. One reviewer is Australian with a background in political economy and women's economic empowerment research in Asia and the Pacific and currently works for CIMMYT based in Ethiopia. The other Italian reviewer was a consultant for the institute; an anthropologist academic with experience in African food systems from a gender perspective. Both are self-declared feminists. It is from this position that they review this work.Step 3 -Compare theoretical assumptions and empirical claims in conflicting accounts; □ Step 4 -Present the alternative views fairly while avoiding caricatures.According to Clough (1994) a feminist standpoint analysis proposes to make women's experiences the point of departure. Originating from Marxist class relations, \"(s)tandpoint theory is an epistemology, an account of the evolution of knowledge and strategies of action by particular collectivities in specific social relations in given periods\" (Cockburn, 2015:331). Hartsock (1985:231) explores the idea that women's life activity, including housework and reproduction, might be considered the source of a specific feminist standpoint. Drawing on Marx, she argues that material life sets limits on the understanding of social relations for a given class or a given sex, and can (re)structure social life. Therefore, women's lives \"make available a particular and privileged vantage point on male supremacy, a vantage point that can ground a powerful critique of the phallocratic institutions and ideology that constitute the capitalist form of patriarchy\" (ibid.). 'Subjugated' standpoints are preferred because they are the one's missing from dominant discourse and knowledge, and promise more transforming accounts of the world (Haraway 1988:191).A feminist standpoint analysis should help to confront and critique \"problematic assumptions that impair an objective grasp of the complex issues confronting contemporary political life\" (Hawkesworth, 2006:206) as well as to increase the reader's understanding of \"women's experience, both in the past and present, and promote our appreciation of women's value in the world\" (Tyson, 2015:119). The review aims to apply such militant theoretical perspective to the case of rural women in contemporary Pakistan, whose invisibility mainly persist because of a very limited understanding of the rural household economy. Gender plays in this entity a highly functional role by splitting the livelihood strategies into extra-verted and intro-verted modes respectively; one dominated by men who seek to gain income and prestige through market relations, and the other by women who rely more on familial relationships in maintaining non-market reciprocal exchanges to ensure survival and improve livelihood security.This neglected and gendered nuance of the rural household economy draws attention to the concept of 'legibility' as outlined in Seeing Like a State by James Scott (1998). According to the author, the State \"sees\" the country through the eyes (and interests) of the ruling elites who develop policies and dominate the State apparatus. In doing so, the State chooses to \"see\" those it considers full citizens and structures societies to make their human and economic fabric legible. In the quest for legibility, the population is arranged in ways that simplify State functions (e.g., via taxation, conscription, and the prevention of rebellion). As such 'seeing like a State' or 'legibility' is often achieved by geographical concentration of the population; increasing uniformity in crops based on a bureaucratic and commercial logic; and the use of high-value forms of cultivation, so that the cost of governing the area as well as the transaction costs of appropriating labor and produce is minimized. However, and quite interestingly for the argument of Pakistani women's invisibility developed in this review, the author does not claim that the unseen lack agency. For him, the unseen -whom the State regards as trapped into the 'backwardness' of rural habits, norms, and cultivation practices -are sometimes strategically hidden to avoid the State's purview, stigma and exercise of power.In order to take stock of the current situation with regards to integration of gender and social equity in wheat research for development, and to conceptualize opportunities for strengthening this, a critical appraisal of peer-reviewed and gray literature using a gender lens was accomplished. The literature on gender in wheat-based livelihoods was limited, and expanding to programs that cover gender in agriculture more broadly was therefore necessary but restricted to a focus on the prime wheat growing regions (Punjab and Sindh), to learn about gender relations in agricultural livelihoods in these areas. Thus the review focuses on the anthropological literature which offers the most promise for understanding social relations. Key research questions addressed are:✓ How does the world look, and operate, for males and females in wheat growing households? ✓ What is known about social relationships and mediating processes that exist in the prime wheat growing regions in Pakistan?This literature review has privileged an analysis of the work, tasks, and roles associated with men and women over a more technical yet gender-insensitive discussion of yields, management practices, income sources, land tenure, and technological interventions to enhance food security -topics which are mostly dealt with in economics, agricultural sciences, and development reviews (Table 1). By contrast, this study provides an outline of the socio-cultural, religious, and existential environments in which Pakistani men and women, of the lower segments of society as well as from wealthy families, participate in a variety of agricultural and non-agricultural activities to secure their livelihoods; struggle with, and challenge, cultural constraints and financial problems; perceive of their own needs and performances; and make decisions over material and immaterial resources.A desk-based review of literature (both peer-reviewed and secondary/gray/unpublished) was conducted using databases such as Google Scholar, ProQuest, JSTOR, SAGE Journals Online, Taylor & Francis Online Journals, and Wiley Online Library. The search terms used in combination with 'Pakistan'/'gender'/'wheat' were: agency, agrosystem, agronomic strategies, climate change, consumption, crop choice, crop diversity, cuisine, decision-making, diversity, division of labor, domestic sphere, emotion, empowerment, environment, equity, family farms, family politics, foodways, food preferences, food security, green revolution, human capital, identity, inequality, landscape, livelihood, lived experience, livestock husbandry, local ecology, marginalization, masculinity, natural resources, nutrition, patriarchy, performance, privilege, political ecology, postcolonial relations, poverty, resistance, resilience, rural development, rural women, seasonality, seclusion, small farmers, social hierarchy, social roles, subsistence, sustainable development, traditional farming, traditional knowledge, women's autonomy, women in agriculture, workload.A total of 73 documents was reviewed. The annotated bibliographical resources (46) are listed in the annex and grouped into the following headings: Development, Livelihood Strategies, Vulnerabilities; Gender Division of Labor; Domesticity and Agency Revisited. The headings were chosen to retrace a progression, found in the literature itself, from the overt and visible scene where an androcentric frame seems to be universally applied, to spaces and times where the rules were negotiated (or even subverted) allowing women to have a voice and to operate. The majority of the data presented is of an anthropological nature. Articles which merely focus on wheat production and productivity without reference to social equity or gender roles have not been included.4.1. The legibility of grain crops: historical introduction to the literature This section offers an historical introduction into Pakistan -the State, agriculture, and wheat growing areas. It foregrounds the inversely proportional relation between the legibility of grain crops and the legibility of rural women. Since Pakistan's creation in 1947, the country has been a configuration of shifting alliances and competing political and social ideologies. Urdu, the official national language and lingua franca, dominates the cultural center and this has bred a sense of exclusion among other linguistic groups. The proliferation of ethnic nationalism and the strengthening of regional identities further hinders the emergence of a national culture that democratically includes the diverse voices and languages present in the Pakistani cultural spectrum (Ali, 2004:127-128). Within this context of cultural politics and ethnic polarization, certain areas of the country emerge as more visible and legible from an economic and demographic viewpoint, namely the irrigated plains of the Indus Basin. The literature mirrors this divide between the irrigated plains (including Punjab and Sindh) and 'the rest' consisting of mountains, highlands, and deserts. Ethnographic research has mainly worked on these peripheries of the nation-State. Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa (formerly the North West Frontier Province), Balochistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are characterized as 'tribal' cultures in which the people espouse fiercely egalitarian rhetoric and carry out cultural practices and discourses which overtly assert idealized notions of masculinity and honor. Ethnographies of Punjab and Sindh, in contrast, characterize populations there as 'peasant' cultures (Lyon 2012:30).The plains areas of Punjab and Sindh, the focus of the review, account for over nine-tenths of the rural population, and an even greater proportion of value added in crop agriculture. The irrigated plains are also at the forefront of technological innovation and agricultural growth. These regions, while relatively better off compared with the rest of the country in terms of infrastructure and average incomes, nevertheless account for much of rural poverty and under-nutrition (Balagamwala, Gazdar, & Bux Mallah, 2015:16).Pakistan is one of the stars of the Green Revolution (Lopez, Castro, Krutmechai, Kaewtankam, & Habib, 2012:73). The fertile plains of Punjab were one of the first regions in the developing world in which farmers adopted semi-dwarf wheats. Despite initial and subsequent success in improving yield potential and stability, maintenance of disease resistance, and other plant characteristics, the popularity of the Green Revolution semi-dwarf wheats has provoked criticism (Smale, Hartell, Heisey, & Senauer, 1998). While in aggregate terms it is true that the Green Revolution has managed both to meet national food requirements and to fuel economic growth, yet in disaggregate terms it has worsened the incidence of rural poverty, and the maldistribution of rural incomes and assets. After Pakistan's independence in 1947, there were limited land reforms which led to less than half of the arable land being occupied by a majority of small landholders, while most of the land went to a minority of large landholders. Almost 67% of Pakistan's population resides in rural areas where the average farm size has decreased from 13.1 acres in the early 1970s to 7.7 acres in 2000. These inequalities were made worse by the innate bias of Green Revolution technology towards the rich in rural Pakistan, a situation that favors commercial farmers, better-off peasants and large landholders over poor peasants, simple commodity producers, subsistence smallholders and landless tenants (Niazi, 2004). Pakistan's agricultural policy, which is largely influenced by a powerful lobby, is likely to continue to benefit the rich instead of the poor (Munawar-Ishfaq, 2010:55). Successive central governments have directly supported the intensification of resource use through the development of irrigation and intensive agricultural technologies. These agriculture policies and packages are inclined towards richer farmers in their design, cost and uptake. The cumulative impact of these historical developments has been to shift the balance between animal husbandry and agriculture increasingly in favor of the latter, and to replace the role of vegetative dynamics with human labor (Besio, 2006:261-262). At a later point, the review discusses the way women tend to livestock and that their role in animal husbandry is not considered agriculture in the literature, which is highlighted here to originate from the State's view.Nowadays the most commonly grown crops are wheat and rice. The priority of wheat in most areas is a relic from the days of the hereditary rulers who demanded taxes in grain (Allan, 1990:407). Grain crops have long been integrated into the modern market system and made 'legible' to the State. This means that a percentage of crop production is extracted from farmers in the form of rents, taxes, costs of milling, transporting and irrigation, and market middlemen. This extraction has increased over the past several decades through Green Revolution development projects, which have introduced productive but costly packages of high-yielding variety seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. The legibility of crop farming and its transformation through commercialization and development makes it vulnerable to a host of risks, including market busts and pest destruction cycles (Carpenter, 2001:14).Only rarely do accounts on the life of grain crops (their rise, fall, productivity, and legibility) record the point of view of farmers, and even less of female farmers. Information on dietary preferences, the value and use of crop residues, 2 and perceptions of local as well as new high-yielding varieties 3 is largely absent. Farmers rarely grow just one variety of wheat, or only wheat as a livelihood protection strategy. 4  Moreover, there hasn't been any government-funded research on the link between traditional knowledge systems and sustainability (Munawar-Ishfaq, 2010:39). The idea that wealthy farmers tend to be progressive (and vice versa) is an integral part of the institutional belief system of many government agencies, not only in Pakistan but elsewhere as well (Dove, 1994:338-339). As a result, indigenous solutions and local innovation for achieving sustainable development and food security are rarely recorded and portrayed. 5 There are also knowledge gaps with respect to the organization of agricultural work, particularly from the point of view of gendered aspects of work and income. The understanding of how choices with respect to work, care and consumption are made, by whom, and even the extent to which these are choices, is limited to anecdotal accounts (Balagamwala et al., 2015:16). The scientific agricultural literature is gendered in the way it privileges male views; and also exclusive in the way it ignores poor and more marginal populations and women.The previous section offers a historical introduction into wheat growing areas and the State's purview. Gender relations, women, indigenous knowledge, marginal regions and poor farmers are missing from the literature. This section introduces the concept of purdah and how it shapes economic and social relations.The population of Pakistan is predominantly Muslim, with a strong Islamic influence felt in the socio-economic, cultural and political spheres (Munawar-Ishfaq, 2010:52). Many Western scholars view Pakistan's Islamic society as a monolithic community. This assumption tends to lead to the homogeneous treatment of Pakistani women as powerless entities, unable to exercise autonomy over their lives, decisions and reproductive rights. In fact, purdah is seen as the cause of women's suppression in much literature.Purdah means 'curtain' and in its literal sense is understood as the veiling of women's faces and bodies underneath a cloak (burqa). Purdah divides village life into two domains -a public, male one and a private, female one -and decrees that everything that occurs within the female domain be literally unseen by men in the public domain. The male domain is exemplified by the market, and includes roads and public transport. Because markets are male realms, purdah prevents almost all women from entering them. In most of Pakistan, it also prevents male traders from visiting women in their courtyards (Akram-Lodhi, 1996:91-93;Bari, 1998:126-127;Elahi, 2015:15-17). The female domain is exemplified by the four walls of the courtyard, but this does not mean that rural women cannot work outside of it: at certain times of the day or when traveling in groups, women go to their own fields, the village wells, uncultivated grasslands on the outskirts of the village, and to the forest.Purdah institutionalizes the separation between women and the government officials who might be interested in their activities (census takers, tax collectors, foresters, agricultural extension agents, veterinarians, etc.) because these officers are all men and all come from outside the village. Purdah also prevents urban women from joining these male-dominated bureaucracies, or from working in rural areas. All dealings of a household with the world outside the village must go through men, and all information that the State collects about the household must come from men. Women and what they do are matters of family honor and Islamic law.According to some authors (Carpenter, 2001;Grünenfelder, 2013;Ibraz, 1993;Mumtaz & Salway, 2005;Nyborg, 2002), the ultimate punishment for failing to respect purdah is death. However, this is factually erroneous and confuses 'disrespecting purdah' with 'adultery.' The religious sanction of the latter is the 'death penalty,' but this is not gender specific as both adulterer and adulteress should be punished (at least in theory). This review understands purdah to relate to 'sex segregation' and disrespecting purdah may include a Muslim woman 'unveiling' her face voluntarily or involuntarily.The literature is full of such fallacious examples that reveal the misbegotten feminist perspective that claims that purdah (and in fact Pakistani culture) denies Pakistani women their 'agency' and hobbles them as a 'dependent' appendage of men.2 An exception is represented by the notes on the household food supply of a mountain community in Northern Pakistan (Allan, 1990:407-409). Another isolated note refers to the multi-functionality of wheat in rural Sialkot (Munawar-Ishfaq, 2010:74).3 In rural Punjab (Sialkot) the point of view of women was exceptionally recorded with regard to the decline of local soil fertility; they unanimously attributed this decline to a switch to artificial fertilizers (Munawar-Ishfaq, 2010:72). 4 These risk-minimizing practices are described for the Baltistan region and are characteristic of what has been called a 'mixed mountain farming system', within which much of the operative agroecosystem can be interpreted in terms of polycultures that are based upon a diversity of species (MacDonald, 2010:140). 5 A notable exception is represented by the study of indigenous environmental knowledge in the rain-fed tracts of Punjab and North-West Frontier Provinces, now called (footnote continued) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Dove, 2003).Crops belong to the male domain. Anything grown for cash in Pakistan becomes the province of men, because of their domination of markets. The crop sector of the small farm economy is motivated by rural households' desire to better their socio-economic position and their willingness to experiment with new crops, taking a variety of risks to do so. It is through crop production that rural households 'develop' themselves, and thus participate in the national development process. In most of Pakistan, grain crops are strongly identified with men; the plough, for example, is such a potent male symbol that women may not even touch it. Even if women weed crops, this role fits within the livestock sector as the weeds are fed to animals (Carpenter, 2001:13-14).Raising livestock is what women do, in the same way that raising crops is what men do (Carpenter, 2001:15). Milk and milk products are the primary source of protein in the diet of the small farming household. Livestock and crops are part of a single, integrated farming system that once characterized the Indian subcontinent. Farmers need to ensure their survival in the face of risks associated with development, a need that divides the household into a commercial sector that is legible to the State and takes risks, and a subsistence sector that is not legible to the State but plays an important role in the household's food security (ivi:13). The gender division of labor lends itself to this split, and patriarchal values and practices such as purdah keep the subsistence half hidden (ivi:17). The gender division of labor based upon purdah is how male dominance and female subordination manifest.On one hand there is a clear division of labor -e.g., provision of care to newborns and infants is almost entirely a female responsibility within the household (Ali et al., 2011:2-5;Fafchamps & Quisumbing, 2003;Halvorson, 2002Halvorson, , 2003)); on the other hand, there is a gray area around farming. A range of agricultural tasks must be undertaken by females. These tasks need to be identified further. In rural areas women seem to enjoy much more freedom of movement, and veiling is less strict compared to town areas. This greater freedom and mobility is positively correlated with more working hours, inside and outside the households. The next section discusses mobility in more detail.Certain approaches in development thinking associate increased economic prosperity with increased empowerment of women. However, the evidence collected in rural Sialkot (Punjab) reveals that women became more confined to their homes as the economic prosperity of their household's increases; and women now report a greater perception of insecurity and social isolation compared to the past. In rural areas, the practice of secluding women within the home is more common among women from large land-owning families than among poorer groups where women are economically forced to leave the home for work (Mumtaz & Salway, 2005:1752). Conversely women may feel and assert that they are better off economically and socially than before, even though their social mobility has decreased (Munawar-Ishfaq, 2010:79).The control of women's mobility and their exclusion from public space is perhaps the most salient feature of purdah in Pakistani society. And it is equally true that gender is one of the most powerful social relations that shape Pakistani people's everyday lives, reflecting the social and political constructions of difference between women and men. However, gender hierarchies interact closely with those of socioeconomic class, resulting in diverse behaviors among different subgroups of Pakistani women. While it is important to be aware of the extensive degree to which women's interests have been neglected in various social sectors, understanding gender relations in Pakistan requires more than a study of national statistics or quantitative surveys. In general, much information is available on urban, literate, middle and upper class women, and the ways they articulate notions of family, individuality, and sexual mores in rapidly changing social and economic milieus (Ali, 2004;Ali et al., 2011;Sathar & Kazi, 2000a, 2000b).It should be noted here that the work of Mumtaz & Salway (2005:1758) provides insight into the issue of mobility but not with respect to agriculture. In fact it examines the relationship between mobility and uptake of reproductive health services. Moreover, the research is limited to certain areas. While relevant, the income earned from agriculture could make mobility relations and permissions very different and thus generalizability is cautioned. Nevertheless, many women in the study made the statement mai kidde nai jandi (I never go anywhere) as a matter of routine. Further probing usually elicited an admission of traveling out, but only to attend weddings or funerals. Such mobility was represented as an unavoidable necessity. However, there was some variation in mobility restrictions, with the richer women emphasizing their restricted mobility, while a few very poor women admitted that it is a luxury they can ill-afford (ibid.). To some extent purdah, veiling, and women's lack of involvement in marketbased economic activities can be viewed as luxuries only the financially affluent can afford. These 'luxuries' become cultural ideals that men aspire for their women, as women's restricted mobility epitomize women's sexual chastity and family honor; and moreover, it reflects positively on their image as good earners and, hence, on their masculinity (Ibraz, 1993:120;Zakar, Zakar, & Kraemer, 2013). 6  Women's mobility is a complex and contested issue, which classically exemplifies the fluid nature of gender norms, how they are policed and embodied. Cultural norms glorify restricted mobility and seclusion (Siegmann & Sadaf, 2005:4-6). However, for the large majority of women, especially from poorer households, the practical needs of survival necessitate mobility outside the home. Despite women subscribing to the notion that they should not travel outside, they are observed to be quite mobile, and a woman walking alone in a distant field is not an unusual sight in Pind (a village pseudonym), Punjab. Women visit each other's houses, making roties (flat bread from stoneground whole meal flour) in a tandoor (a cylindrical clay or metal oven) and meet to collect water from wells, wash clothes and bath together in nearby streams. The poor women look after livestock, which include herding cattle and collecting fodder from family cultivated fields, sometimes involving 1-2 h walk in lonely fields. Women's farm work in rain-fed villages is significantly greater than that found in the irrigated villages because they travel farther for water in the former. Similarly, women travel to and from the dhokes (isolated farm houses), alone or in groups, some of which are located at distances of 30-45 min walk from the main village, with no clearly defined paths (Mumtaz & Salway, 2005:1758). One can expect these practices to vary considerably depending on location and proximity to infrastructure and larger towns.One explanation for the variance between women's stated and observed mobility is the emic construction of space and movement. Women's construction of space is not determined by physical geography but rather by social geography. The identity of the people who share a space at a particular moment in time determines whether the space is classified as bahir (outside) or ander (inside) space. The presence of biradari (related by blood) members, both women and men, creates a socially acceptable 'inside' space, while the presence of a non-biradari man, or even a woman, creates an 'outside' space. There is little correlation between the social boundaries and physical village geography. Women could visit a relative's house that involved a lonely 45 min walk 6 \"The loss of social status associated with women's work is often cited as an explanation for the low reporting of women's labor force participation rates in Pakistan where data on women's work is collected by male enumerators from the male head of households […]. In addition to the reluctance to admitting to women working because it may be associated with a loss of status, husbands may simply not be aware of their wives employment or did not consider it as productive activity […]. Men are reluctant to admit that wives are participating in the outside sphere of decision making even though women admit a higher level of participation in outside decisions\" (Sathar & Kazi, 2000b:897-909).in the fields, but would not visit a non-biradari house a five-minute walk away. If most of the biradari houses happen to be located in close proximity constituting a mohalla (neighborhood), women of the biradari may move from home to home as if each was an extension of their own homes. Even the ghalian (village lanes) are a socially acceptable space to linger around chatting (Mumtaz & Salway, 2005:1758).Given the paucity of the available first-hand accounts of Pakistani women's lived experience of distance, time, and space, this section necessarily draws on a couple of key sources, which are not generalizable but make the point that seclusion has never been absolute, and that observed mobility outside the home cannot simply be equated with some generic notion of 'freedom of movement' (Mumtaz & Salway, 2005:1752). It should also be pointed out that it is not entirely clear how much mobility is related to greater status. It is perhaps more of an indicator that women are as much 'equal' to their husbands in terms of leaving the confines of their homes. Their exposure to the outside sphere is likely to be greater by virtue of that ability, but their decisionmaking authority and participation may remain unaffected (Sathar & Kazi, 2000b:899).Presenting purdah as an inflexible practice that subordinates women is contested by the anthropological literature focusing on women's experiences, beliefs and practices. Purdah is not strictly observed. Women in farming households walk about without, or despite, the imperative of purdah; with an ability to exercise their agency that now and then shows up in subtle ways. This observation stands as a reminder of the untidiness of a reality which belies neat and simplistic generalizations.The previous sections suggest that purdah governs economic and social life and by extension that women are subordinated and men powerful. However, these absolute gendered notions are contested by the anthropological literature as an over-simplification. Thus, gender roles and cultural practices such as purdah may only be one part of the explanation for why women are less visible in the agricultural sector.As poignantly put by Carol Carpenter, (w)omen's work in rural Pakistan has been documented; its invisibility does not stem from its never having been studied. But this documentation lies in what we call, interestingly, 'gray' literature, which is unavailable outside Pakistan, and not readily available inside the country.[…] After more than two decades of efforts by women, in Pakistan and elsewhere, to make women's work visible and thus involve them in the development process, why does this invisibility persist? (2001:12) Is it because the majority of agricultural scientists are male and purdah makes researching and analyzing women's roles difficult? If this is the case then it suggests a bias in agricultural research because Pakistani male scientists will privilege male ways of knowing and engaging with the world.Studies that build upon Carol Carpenter's model provide further evidence that women's role in agriculture is more substantial than what is portrayed in the agriculture literature. Research conducted in Sindh province shows that women are actually found to be involved in a range of agricultural tasks either on their own or as part of a family unit. Cotton harvesting is the most conspicuous activity in terms of women's agricultural work. Ploughing and field preparation are activities exclusively carried out by adult males. The same is true of on-farm water management, and the application of fertilizers and pesticides to crops. While there do not appear to be strong gendered norms around weeding, collecting fodder and caring for livestock, these activities are mainly carried out by women and children rather than adult males. The sowing of wheat is done exclusively by men. Wheat and rice harvesting is carried out by families -men, women and able-bodied childrenand makes a major contribution to a household's annual consumption of the staple. However, there are only specific sets of activities that are almost exclusively seen as women's work, and for which women's entitlement to remuneration is only nominally acknowledged: cotton and vegetable harvesting, and livestock rearing (Balagamwala et al., 2015:21-27).The role women play in the harvesting of cotton deserves special recognition and special caution. As a highly valuable monsoon season (kharif) crop, cotton enters into the agricultural cycle in combination with wheat (the major winter crop) in Southern Punjab and Northern Sindh (Altaf, 2010:32-39;Dorosh, Malik, & Krausova, 2010:169;Hussain, Byerlee, & Heisey, 1994:41). Yet the few sources mentioning women's contribution do so laconically and without any substantial discussion of this productive and somehow submerged relationship (Begum & Yasmeen, 2011:641;Hassan, Ali, & Ahmad, 2007:664;Sathar & Kazi, 2000a, 2000b:97). The area around women's role in farming becomes even more gray when it comes to cotton activities. This may be due to the industrial nature of cotton picking. Cotton was originally cultivated for domestic consumption, with women mastering collection, spinning, and textile-making (Munawar-Ishfaq, 2010:61-62); however, cotton has over time ended up to be mostly cultivated in the fields of powerful producers for cash and accumulation of profits, and as such has stopped being livelihood of poor residents (Mustafa 1998:300-301;Nazli, Birol, Asare-Marfo, & Tariq, 2015). Cotton is an expensive crop to cultivate; it requires enough finances to buy expensive packets of fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides essential for a good harvest; and therefore it remains out of reach of most small farmers. These inequalities in socioeconomic status intersect with those related to gender. According to the rule that \"anything grown for cash in Pakistan becomes the province of men\", women enter into the production of cotton in a progressively marginalized position. Again, a large population of women cotton pickers across Punjab and Sindh -who work long hours in the fields at the mercy of landlords, vulnerable to sexual harassment, frequently without adequate law and union protection, and facing occupational hazards and health costs (Siegmann & Shaheen, 2008) -remain unaccounted for in the literature and await recognition in the daily headlines as well as in academic research.A study which explores the emerging pattern of changes in the economic activities of women in Ziarat district, Balochistan, takes a closer look at women's productive activities, and reveals that the assumption that women's roles are confined to household chores only, or that a household's economy has been monopolized by males, is mere myth. Women start participating in economic activities from a very young age by keeping and tending livestock and poultry in addition to a number of other tasks that add to the family income (Mohyuddin, Chaudry, & Ambreen, 2012a, 2012b:243-247). So it appears that women engage in more agricultural activities than what much of the agricultural literature that emphasis purdah implies.In the Punjab province most livestock related activities are undertaken by females. Females are actively involved in livestock decision making except for decisions regarding insemination of cows where their participation is low. Although mutual consultation seem to be the norm for most livestock-related decisions, the female role in decisions to keep goats or sheep, breed selection, replacing old breeds with improved ones, allocation of land for fodder and putting animals on concentrated feed, is found to be more prominent (Tibbo et al., 2009:8).One of the most striking findings with regard to the lives of rural women is not so much their special connection to livestock husbandry in terms of time allocation and intensity (Allan, 1990:406;Halvorson, 2002:262;Ibraz, 1993:106-112;Joekes, 1995:67-68), but rather the degree of their commitment and enjoyment in performing the task:(w)omen prefer housework to fieldwork, and they particularly like to raise livestock, feeling that it is both proper and emotionally interesting and rewarding, in contrast to agriculture, which is slightly improper and not, for women, valued. For a household to have its women working in the fields is a sign that its means are limited (even though very few households can afford to hire the labor that would keep their women entirely out of the fields); for a household to have milk animals, on the other hand, is a sign that it is prosperous (Carpenter, 1997:159).Therefore, women's role in certain livelihoods may well be a choice acted upon (thus a display of agency) that is associated with an individual's sense of satisfaction and with the household's reputation. A similar sense of satisfaction is generated by women's ownership of home gardens (Azhar-Hewitt, 2002:84).Additionally, the definition of agriculture requires discussion. Carpenter's (1997) quote above implies that 'raising livestock' does not count as agriculture. 'Crop agriculture' is different to raising livestock which is classed as 'animal agriculture' but both are agriculture activities. The manure from livestock is often part of a farm's eco-system in that it fertilizers crops and crop residue is fed to animals. Women's involvement in livestock shows that Pakistani women are already playing a key role in agricultural production, but their contributions await 'classification' or documentation. This omission has a lot to do with the androcentric bias of male researchers to which this work is a timely corrective.The standpoint taken in the literature presented in this section offers a more nuanced understanding of women's agency and their involvement in agriculture. The anthropological literature available shows that in Pakistan customary practices and gender roles are successively refined through slight and incremental variants, and the same is true with regard to the productive behavior of men and women, where strong linkages are found between women and men's productive activities. For example, in the rain-fed regions there has been a tradition of seeking employment outside the farm sector. As a consequence, women are left with a larger burden/responsibility of managing the family farm, while the men diversify into the non-farm sector to supplement family income. A livelihood system has emerged which provides relatively stable male paid employment in the formal sector combined with subsistence agricultural production managed by women (Sathar & Kazi, 2000b:896).The previous sections have shown how certain research -based on a Western-biased and hegemonic model of the global feminine subjectdraws upon purdah to explain women's invisibility in agriculture, and can even be used as an excuse for why research does not have to focus on women. Alternative views found in the literature do nonetheless demonstrate that the structure of purdah is not universal and changes over time. Explaining what purdah means in contemporary society, by region, and for men and women requires research rather than assumptions.There is little research thus far on whether social realities are different for men and women. In all probability women and men are susceptible and constrained by the same social constructs, which confine them in certain roles and reinforce the status quo. This does not necessarily lead to male dominance and female powerlessness. Women may well (and unsurprisingly) be found to reaffirm and redefine an existing set of social relations as men do (Sathar & Kazi, 2000b).The anthropological literature highlights the way women's voices are powerfully and provocatively channeled: (a) in popular women's magazines (in the case of middle-and lower-middle-class literate women) which allow the readers to fantasize about the reversal of the status quo (Ali, 2004); (b) through a vocabulary of fear (and the related category of risk) as expressed by lower-class women workers in gendered public spaces in Karachi (Ali, 2010); (c) in the rural development sector, and specifically in gender-mixed working environments, where they are forced to negotiate gender relations so that they can reconcile the requirements of being both a good Muslim and a good worker (Grünenfelder, 2013). A rich body of literature explains how women place themselves in the patrilineal ordered system of religious charisma and secure support or forms of patronage, acting pragmatically and innovatively with what is available to them (Kasmani, 2016).The studies also highlight women's desire to, and creativity in, shaping their own feminine identity in the future. Women use energizing ritual performances (or festivities, or gatherings commemorating death, marriage, birth and other such events) to practice an oblique, undeclared dispute against their subordinate position in society; and, in so doing, they nurture resilience in the face of constant reminders of their dependency and lack of agency (Ahmed, 2005;Hegland, 1995). The aesthetic of suffering expected of women is discussed as inherent in the framed genre of life stories, through which women convey sentiments and emotions that are inappropriate to tell out of specific contexts of intimacy and privacy, but at the same time, function as a discourse of honor that gains them reputation (Grima, 1991). These studies suggest possibilities of social networking and solidarity that may be for Pakistani women a mode of resisting patriarchal arrangements, of struggling to survive and generating trust and support at home and in the community. In terms of agriculture, this means that group-based interventions may be more effective than one-to-one extension services.Equally rich records exist of Pakistani masculinity in its hegemonic or subordinate variants. The work of Magnus Marsden among Chitrali Muslims (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) stands out prominently for its fine ethnographic analysis of the active role played by the youth in embodying, interpreting, and rewriting forms of Islamic ethical sensibility and piety. Great attention is paid to the ways in which rural Muslims act within, perceive, and invest with relevance to their worlds. As a result, the assumption that village Muslim life is static, bucolic, and of little relevance for anthropological debates is sharply contested. Far from Chitral being a dead space of immobile villagers, mobility is central to the ways in which its young men are trained in locally valued modes of inhabiting and perceiving their world (Marsden 2005(Marsden , 2007a(Marsden , 2007b(Marsden , 2009)).Rural, and frequently illiterate, women are under-researched although there are a few exceptions which highlight their defiance of men's domination; namely: a study of how women and men of Sultanabad negotiate over several types of resources -i.e., agricultural land, monetary and grazing resources, timber and firewood (Nyborg, 2002); research on girls who enjoy wanderings in out-of-bound spaces in rural Punjab, and on their performances of rebellious, unruly selves (Chaudhry, 2009); an intriguing ethnography of how Askole villagers (Karakoram Mountains) use space to assert their agency in strategic ways against the backdrop of describing space through the dichotomy 'public' versus 'private' (Besio, 2006); and an article that explores women's autonomy in relation to that of men, but also in relative ranking with women, from different rural communities in Pakistan (Sathar & Kazi, 2000a).The anthropological literature highlights acts of resistance which suggests female manoeuvres may be filled with more challenges and practical consequences than men's. Seemingly innocuous actions that may indeed signal deviations from patriarchal norms are documented. Women in corporate households (common to South Asia) with dominant male household heads often choose covert strategies in resource negotiations, as compared to women in segmented households (common in Africa) who can negotiate more overtly. In the Pakistani context it is not always possible or desirable to actively or vocally contest or lobby for control over resources for fear of physical retaliation. Consequently, women resort to less confrontational forms of negotiation (Nyborg, 2002:114). Sometimes discussed as 'soft power', women's power can be more subtle than men's as it is not displayed publicly. This often renders it invisible to the male gaze, as the agricultural literature illustrates.These actions of breaking away from otherwise publicly accepted norms create co-existing and co-mingling worlds where the contours of mobility, honor, domesticity, and agency of both sexes appear less static. Men equally negotiate and test strategies and pathways for increasing autonomy within a society with strong traditional family ties.The ways men and women bargain their social and work roles reflect to a certain extent a conscious strategy to gain access to resources and power that they need or desire. So not only is the strictness of purdah questioned in the literature, but also the subordination or passivity of women, along with male supremacy and contentment.However, this rich literature about rural men and women does not really venture into the realm of crop choices or livelihood strategies; of seasonality, intra-household decision-making and 'making kinship', or building social relations; of overlapping bonds, loyalties, allegiances and debts between families (extended and nuclear). Food items, food preferences and preparation, women's control and influence over resources are mentioned rarely, if at all.So far this review illustrates the way the standpoint of the agricultural literature overplays purdah and women's subordination and invisibility, which serves to reinforce and reproduce patriarchy. Whereas, the anthropological literature offers a more nuanced view of power relations and struggles for autonomy from women themselves. The following case-study illustrates how existing development approaches also overlook localized feminine concepts of empowerment to the detriment of women's adoption of agricultural innovations.This case-study touches upon rural women's competence and contribution, and refers to research done in the Hunza and Nagar districts in the Karakoram Mountains (Joekes, 1995). In the late 1980s, the Aga Khan Rural Support Program tried to introduce apricot kernel cracking machines, on the assumption that this was an effective labor saving device that would relieve women of one of their most demanding tasks (since the cracking was otherwise done manually). The women themselves had not pressed AKRSP to supply labor saving machinery for this or any other task, and the effort was suspended for lack of interest on the part of the recipients. Another type of project, by contrast, was very successful, namely support for new productive activities under women's control (poultry raising and vegetable growing). Both poultry and vegetable growing are beneficial to the agro-ecological system by adding to the supply of organic matter, poultry manure, green manure and fodder (from vegetable waste and residue) for soil improvement. Both also help women meet their household provision obligations by significantly improving the quantity and quality of food intake for their families. The production of eggs is particularly valuable, for household incomes otherwise allow for only a low level of consumption of protein (in milk and milk products). In narrow economic terms, vegetables in particular are highly profitable. They are less labor intensive than production of wheat, purchased inputs are less costly, and realized prices give a clear margin of advantage. It may well be that, along with these dimensions, poultry and vegetable production generated more immediate benefits than the mechanization of kernel crushing. There was no resistance to mechanization per se in these communities. Such failed project experiences often conceal other issues.Women's resistance to the new technology makes sense in terms of the political economy of gender relations. The crucial feature of the activity was that, unlike poultry and vegetable production, it did not offer women any individual benefit within the gendered agro-ecological system. The savings in women's time would have been redirected to increase total household income, which is subject to male control and their discretion of expenditure. Poultry and vegetable production, by contrast, offered an avenue whereby women could for the first time control the proceeds themselves, because the products can be sold or bartered locally. Other crops (wheat, maize, fresh or dried fruit, potatoes) are all sold in wholesale markets in Gilgit town, a journey of two hours or more away by truck. Women do not have access to distant marketing of this kind.This case highlights how even women focused programs can overlook important aspects of women's decision making and the wider social relations that enable and constrain adoption of agricultural innovations. It also highlights how gender relations can shape livelihood choices and how little is known about the mediating processes that exist in the prime wheat growing regions of Pakistan.To summarize, the literature provides substantial evidence that the spheres of men and women do overlap and that the structures of purdah are not rigid nor universal. A knowledge gap remains in relation to the life histories, local experiences, as well as unofficial, un-ritualized or informal networks of small farmers in general, and of poor and marginalized women in particular. There is scant or no information about their means of experimenting on their fields and of spreading results. This neglect results in a missed opportunity to learn and, consequently, to engage in improved program design that would contribute to enhanced food security and resilience in rural communities. As women's lives get enmeshed in the process of developmental priorities, certain kinds of voices -the unruly, the contradictory, the peripheral, the feminist -may remain suppressed. This review suggests that instead of creating grand narratives of change and resistance, it may be worth a moment of introspection and rethinking to enhance researcher's work on the private sphere of women's lives.The agricultural literature reviewed tends to accept cultural norms and gender roles, rather than question their persistence or attempt to examine them. The binary thinking which simplistically identifies men with technology and farming, and women with tradition and home, accompanies much gender blind work and is strongly reasserted in agricultural literature. Conversely, the anthropological literature reviewed questions the traditional view of gender and the nature of purdah. There is extreme variation across parts of Pakistan that is reflected in the literature and yet frequently downplayed by agricultural literature which focuses on yield, crops or climate, rather than people, history and culture.There is a clear need for women's involvement in agricultural research as principal investigators, and in the design as analysts, scientists and authors. While women do not automatically represent and focus on women, the evidence from this review and elsewhere (Dodson & Carroll, 1991;Thomas, 1994) suggests that women as leaders and researchers are more likely to identify and lobby for women's issues. Frequently agricultural literature (like development projects) blame 'culture' or 'gender' for the failure of projects to reach women, when in reality the failure stems from the absence of gender analysis at the research/project design phase.This review sheds light on the dynamics that are rarely tackled in both policymaking and the development agenda. Firstly, it foregrounds the inversely proportional relation between the legibility of grain crops and the legibility of rural women. Secondly, Pakistani women use alternative scripts to cope with the dominant paradigm, be it inside the domestic walls or in open fields, talking around rather than contradicting it head on. There is scope for exploring how women's assertion of their independence may well cohabit with their desire to be modest, self-sacrificial, subservient, and humble and the way this plays out in the agriculture sector. Thirdly, women's work mainly and meaningfully stands in the realm of subsistence; yet often development institutions, in their attempt to commercialize agricultural activities, competes with the subsistence sector for natural resources and women's labor. Women's role in providing food security for the family and managing farms when their spouses engage in non-farm income elsewhere should play a more prominent role in the literature. And finally, women's relationship with livestock has to be brought into clearer focus in its emotional as well as practical components if a full understanding of the important role women play in agriculture and in intra-household decision-making is to be identified.This theoretical visibility of women is needed considering that:the female sector of the economy of the small farming household is invisible to the State. As we have seen, the labor that women invest in livestock does not appear in government statistics. Livestock are also notoriously undercounted in Pakistan, and livestock productsmilk and dung -are not measured at all. In addition, the fuel wood women collect, the poultry they raise, and the vegetables they grow are undercounted or simply do not appear in government statistics. Even women themselves, especially daughters, are known to be undercounted in censuses (Carpenter, 2001:13).The review raises the question of whether women want to be seen by the State and in society; and if so, in what way? Scott (1998) demonstrates that certain forms of autonomy come from invisibility. This line of thinking warrants further research before, yet again, a Western notion of what women should want is projected onto Pakistani women. By simplifying women's role, by overlooking women's agency, by naively assuming purdah is responsible for all gender inequalities little room is left for gender research questions to be developed. Agricultural literature on Pakistan is gendered in the way it defines femininity and masculinity traditionally and by the criterion of visibility. More nuanced accounts of women's perceptions, aspirations, and actual roles inside houses and on farms is needed. Otherwise, the traditional view of purdah will stay intact, thus reinforcing its existence as fact. This inflates male power and female subservience and results in women being defined in convenient terms for men. In the case of male scientists this means they do have to put in additional effort, such as hiring female enumerators so that women can be interviewed. More effort and funding is needed for agricultural research that tries to avoid universal claims about gender roles and their particular social function. Gender should not be seen as unproblematicit is complex, contested and requires sound research design that is primarily gender focused to interrogate and identify more fluid gender roles and responsibilities, strategies for change and survival; and to empirically critique the problematic assumptions that impair an objective grasp of rural women's roles in wheat systems and livelihoods more broadly.In terms of answering the research questions posed in the introduction, the most obvious conclusion is that we know far less in 2017 than we should about these topics. So many knowledge gaps remain about the politics of gender and the livelihood choices of Pakistani farmers. The review generates a range of further research questions: Is it through agriculture that women could increase their economic prosperity, and through prosperity, they could overcome confinement and seclusion? Do women like to take part in farming and in other agricultural work? Do women find it emotionally interesting and rewarding? How do women view the activity of growing crops compared to other livelihood opportunities? Do women have strong opinions about what crops and livelihoods to enter? How are these opinions formed and do women share these opinions with anyone (their spouse)?Many of the studies highlighted in the review relate to a certain village or area and their findings should be generalized with caution. What they do highlight is the heterogeneity of Pakistan and why Statecentric viewpoints and generic agriculture packages may not be relevant or optimal across the country. Moreover, social relationships and mediating processes that exist in the prime wheat growing regions in Pakistan, especially those pertaining to gender, cannot be assumed. Pakistani women's agency cannot be overgeneralized as a dependent extension of patriarchal relations. Similarly, gender roles and cultural practices such as purdah should only be considered one part of the explanation for why women are less visible in the agricultural sector. Given the male dominated nature of agriculture research and the contrasting anthropological literature it does appear that the world looks and operates differently for males and females in Pakistan and by extension, in wheat growing households. However, the details of this difference and its relevance requires greater scholarship.The authors' selection of a feminist standpoint theory illustrates that a standpoint is \"an ongoing achievement rather than a spontaneous attribute or consciousness\" (quote). Focusing on women, using feminist methodologies and theoretical frameworks are needed to make women visible. More research is required to investigate the nebulous but immense region of life between submission and revolt, between silence and overt talk -which overlays gender relations in agriculture. A feminist standpoint is \"both a product and an instrument of feminist struggle\" (Weeks, 1998:8). The research into women's role in wheatrelated livelihoods continues….Funding: This review received financial support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany under the project 'Understanding gender in wheat-based livelihoods for enhanced WHEAT R4D impact in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Ethiopia' implemented by CIMMYT http://www.cimmyt.org/. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.","tokenCount":"10010"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bd6a7d69b1b15a8523eb84f0844a87a1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a04f8601-4b4c-4a2d-89c9-c3e98064ce4d/retrieve","id":"1663716904"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3ddb9653-6d0a-4855-970b-34b0322494b3","pagecount":"2","content":"Bean seed delivery for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa I mproved bean varieties can make a difference to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Adoption studies across five African countries show that improved bean varieties give families yield increases of 30 to 50 percent. Bean variety research advances by the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa can translate into increased yields on-farm only if new seeds reach farming families. The challenge is in addressing how to get seed of new bean varieties to the poor and to the more marginal areas. Research shows that relying on individual farmers to diffuse seed of new varieties can be slow and unequal (i.e. the poor may be excluded). Formal seed channels (government or commerciallybased enterprises) also have a weak track record in reaching most potential clients because:• certified (formal) bean seed may cost up to four times that of seed found in the local markets • sales outlets, if they do exist, are generally restricted to more favoured areas • private seed industry has not found the bean seed business to be lucrative, as once farmers get new germplasm, they usually re-sow from their own harvests for many seasons to come.On the other hand, farmers across seventeen countries in the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) have shown interest in experimenting with, adopting, and even paying for, new bean seed varieties (if seed samples are sold in small affordable quantities). Within the last eight-year period, National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) have released a considerable number of varieties. However relatively few varieties were multiplied by formal channels and the amounts of seed supplied were minimal in relation to what farmers actually use. Ethiopia is a case in point, while the NARS released twenty-three varieties between 1996 and 2004; the formal sector provided less than 1% of the seed which farmers actually sowed. The bulk of seed came from local seed channels (home saved or from local markets). Within a modest couple of years, the wider impact programme has made substantial progress in our quest to reach millions of families with seed of new bean varieties.By the end of 2006, the programme has catalysed 436 complementary partnerships (Figure 1). For example, in Ethiopia in 2006, the NARS engaged in partnerships with 26 organisations directly and 130 indirectly, allowing it to produce seed to cover 60 % (9,446 tonnes) of the national seed requirement-from 0.8 % two years before. Although progress in the expansion of partnerships has been substantial and widespread in most PABRA countries since 2004, the Alliance is carefully monitoring and learning from shifts in partners' activities, (particularly with emergency aid organisations which operate on short-term time scales.)The Alliance has recently scaled up seed production and dissemination. In 2005 monitoring showed that eight countries have made substantial progress in significantly increasing the amounts of seed disseminated to farmers. Our network goal was to reach two million households in five years.Monitoring studies at the end of 2007 found that we had reached more than 3.8 million households (about 19 million people) in a three-year period within the six PABRA member countries that have been most closely monitored.The Alliance is proud of its accomplishments, but not complacent.If we are to scale out further we need to understand better the multiple reasons for our first successes. The research component of the WIP has begun to compare the costs of varied seed production modes, the cost and benefits of different delivery channels, and is monitoring seed health along the production and delivery chain. Partnerships are also receiving much needed scrutiny. One of the key network challenges for the coming seasons will be to understand how to maintain viability of partners and we are asking the following questions:• What incentives are needed to maintain seed supply and delivery? • What do partners need to be able to scale out quickly? • What elements can guide key partnerships into profitable seedrelated enterprises?The goal in our wider impact programme goes well beyond seed production and delivery. We want to identify and implement creative, sustainable, profitable and equitable ways to help smallholder farmer households gain access to seed of improved bean varieties-no matter where they live or what their economic means.","tokenCount":"702"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"00370b93caa6c92362c84637fd6b62f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4bbf6e58-242e-42e2-983d-020908895ad5/retrieve","id":"-1787759068"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"faf74aa7-9bde-49dc-a1c0-414e3e6e452d","pagecount":"5","content":"Applications in Plant Sciences 2013 1 ( 6 ): 1300024; http://www.bioone.org/loi/apps © 2013 Simon and Spooner . Published by the Botanical Society of America.This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.A tedious part of preparing a taxonomic monograph is collating specimen data for (1) specimen citations and (2) indices to associate collectors and collector numbers to taxonomic identifi cations ( exsiccatae ). While preparing a taxonomic monograph of wild potatoes for northern South America, we designed tools to effi ciently and accurately convert specimen data into the formats specifi ed by Systematic Botany Monographs . One of the tools is a conversion tool to reformat tabulated records into specimen citations and the other for exsiccatae. It is a specifi c implementation of the reproducible research approach ( Gentleman and Temple Lang, 2004 ). A version of our software tool is freely available for R ( R Core Team, 2012 ) at http://cran.r-project.org/ web/packages/exsic/.Overall design of the package -The package was designed to facilitate very specifi c steps in the processing of tabular specimen data: the conversion from table-oriented to index-based or list-based formats. Other necessary steps, such as data cleansing or data conversions, are not part of the main functions as there are other tools available for that purpose. That is, date conversions or geographical coordinate transformations into the fi nal desired format must be done separately by the user and before using the exsic function. The main function assumes, therefore, correct structure and content, but has been designed to be robust and to gracefully handle missing columns or content. In the case of essential columns (for sorting or fi ltering, e.g., \"species\", \"country\", \"collcite\", \"number\", \"majorarea\", \"minorarea\"), these will be added and fi lled with meaningful values for missing content (e.g., \"Anonymous\" for missing collector information). However, a few convenience functions have been added to handle specifi c transformations, and these are explained in more detail below.Tabular data format -As a starting point for preparing the specimen data, we used a format based on conventions defi ned by the BRAHMS (Botanical Research and Herbarium Management Software) package ( Filer, 2001 ), as detailed in an online manual ( Filer, 2010 ). The column names used by exsic are mostly the same as those used by BRAHMS, with a few modifi cations and additions to facilitate both the concurrent use of the BRAHMS conventions and this package ( Table 1 ) . One is the addition of the \"colldate\" fi eld for the \"date of collection\". The content of this fi eld should usually have the format \"1 Jan 2013\"; the corresponding BRAHMS fi eld names are: \"colldd\", \"collmm\", and \"collyy\" for day, month, and year, respectively. Functions in the package \"date\" can be used to convert from these three columns to the desired format and stored in the column \"colldate\". The other addition is the column or fi eld \"collcite\". The information on citing collectors is stored in two BRAHMS fi elds: \"collector\" and \"addcoll\". A custom function (\"coll.cite\") is provided that helps address most formatting issues, including whether or not to use initials, whether or not to use periods after initials, and whether to cite both names for collector pairs or cite only the fi rst and add \"et al.\" when there are more than two. The variations can be set using \"coll.cite\" function parameters. Another convenience function is called \"strip.last.dot\"; this is meant to process the column \"locnotes\" for location notes because they are separated by a comma in most specimen citations. A last variation is the use of a separate column for \"phenology\", with expected content to be \"fl \" for fl owering stage, \"fr\" for fruiting stage, or empty for neither stage.Target formats for specimen citations of numbered collections -We researched format variations using a Google search and found three additional formats to that used in Systematic Botany Monographs . The four formats ( Systematic Botany Monographs [format.SBMG], American Society of Plant Taxonomists [format.ASPT], New York Botanical Garden [format.NYBG], and PhytoKeys [format.PK]) are summarized in Table 2 . The main differences between these specimen citation formats relate to the formatting of species and country information as well as to differences in formatting the collector information. New York Botanical Garden journals include phenology information after the date of observation. Numbered collections formats differed with respect to using index numbers to point to the species or directly using a species. Another difference is whether consecutive numbers of the same species for a 1 Manuscript received 28 March 2013; revision accepted 22 May 2013. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (DEB 0316614). The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their feedback on earlier versions, which greatly helped to improve the scope and usability of the tool. 4 Author for correspondence: r. • Premise of the study: Taxonomists manage large amounts of specimen data. This is usually initiated in spreadsheets and then converted for publication into locality lists and indices to associate collectors and collector numbers from herbarium sheets to identifi cations ( exsiccatae ). This conversion process is mostly done by hand and is time-consuming, cumbersome, and errorprone. • Methods and Results: We constructed a tool, 'exsic,' based on the statistical software R. The exsic function is part of the R package 'exsic' and produces specimen citations and exsiccatae conforming to four related formats. • Conclusions: The tool increases speed, effi ciency, and accuracy to convert raw spreadsheet tables to publication-ready content.Key words: exsic; exsiccatae; R; reproducible research; software.The package can be downloaded from the central R repository CRAN using standard procedures in R and activated using the command \"library(exsic)\". A user would typically start using the main exsic function and either provide an inmemory table or a fi le path. For example: a table may be read using the custom function \"data <-read.exsic(fi lepath)\". This function ensures that all obligatory fi elds (see Table 1 ) are present; if not, they will be created and prefi lled with placeholder text (e.g., missing collector citation in \"collcite\" will be replaced with \"Anonymous\"; missing collection numbers with \"s.n.\"; missing dates with \"s.d.\"; and missing minor area or major area information with \"Unknown major/minor area\"). An example table with 1000 records of wild potato specimens is included in the package and can be accessed using \"system.fi le(\"samples/exsic.csv\", packages=\"exsic\")\". This may take a minute to process. For quicker testing, a subset can be constructed using \"pt = potato[1:10,]\" which will use only the fi rst 10 records. A complete minimal example using the provided sample table is given here: afi le <-system.fi le(\"samples/exsic.csv\", package=\"exsic\") potato <-read.exsic(afi le) pt = potato[1:10,] exsic(pt) # or shorthand for the whole table: exsic(fi le=\"afi le\") collector citation are grouped or not. The report created by the command example (exsic) creates a Web page as shown in Fig. 1 . The HTML page can then be further edited and formatted using a word processor. A user's guide showing the principal usage along with a precise description of the input format can be found in the package documentation (http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ exsic/exsic.pdf).The specimen citation records are, by default, not fi ltered from the given table, and species and countries are sorted alphabetically. However, a taxonomist may want to order species by taxonomic relationships, and countries may be ordered from north to south and west to east. Also, the same table may be used for checking subsets. Therefore, to allow both fi ltering and custom sorting \"on-the-fl y,\" an additional table (an R data. frame) can be defi ned. It has two columns, \"country\" and \"species\", where the desired countries and species may be listed separated by semicolons without spaces. To list all countries or all species, the word \"all\" may be used. The table may be added to the exsic function as a parameter \"sortfi lter\". If this parameter is omitted, default options apply. A helper function to check format compliance is available (is.sortfi lter). A sample \"sortfi lter\" table is also available (sort.specs).  c The \"phenology\" fi eld is only used in one format. http://www.bioone.org/loi/apps or species must be written exactly as in the primary table and must be separated by semicolons without spaces. Only those countries or species recognized will be used in the fi nal indices and will be sorted according to the provided sequence. C. Advanced users may defi ne their own format conventions using one of the \"format.XXXX\" (where XXXX is either SBMG, ASPT, NTBG, or PK) examples as a starting point. The formats are defi ned in simple tables so that they can be edited using spreadsheet software. The available formats for text include: bold, italic, underline or underscore (no difference), capitals, uppercase, parentheses, or square brackets. These formats can be combined and are applied from left to right; several options must be separated by a semicolon without a space. Unrecognized formatting words are ignored. For example, the formatting \"();italics\" will result in italicized parentheses whereas \"italics;()\" will not. More details can be found in Table 3 . D. The parameter \"header\" can be used to set other section titles; the parameter \"out.fi le\" is used to set the output fi le name.The resulting Web page will be in the same directory called \"exsic.html\" (this name can be changed via a parameter).By default, the whole table passed to exsic will be used, sorted alphabetically by species and country, and formatted according to the conventions of Systematic Botany Monographs . To see an example, one may also type \"example(exsic)\" in the R console. The user may modify the defaults by combinations of the following fi ve options: (a) choose of one of four formats, (b) select a subset of species and countries, and order nonalphabetically by species or country, (c) defi ne additional formats, (d) set section titles and the output fi le name, and (e) selectively execute only some of the subroutines. These options are explained below.A. Choice of formats: The main exsic function has an additional parameter, \"formats\", that accepts tabulated parameters. The table must have only four columns named exactly as \"fi eld\", \"style\", \"sept\", \"comments\" (for example contents see Table 2 ). The four formats are listed in Table 2 . The default format is \"format.SBMG\". B. The \"sortfi lter\" is a parameter in the form of a table that must have only two columns, named \"country\" and \"species\". Within each fi eld, countries  a The \"rec\" variable is the fi rst record from the table. It can be created using: rec = read.exsic(system.fi le(\"samples/exsic.csv\", package=\"exsic\"))[1,] http://www.bioone.org/loi/apps E. The building blocks of the main exsic function are also available individually along with some helper functions. Each index function can be executed separately. Output format is in an intermediate format called \"markdown\" format and needs to be converted. This can be achieved using the function \"write.exsic\". Headers can be provided by using \"exsic.header\" and a combination of string concatenating commands such as \"paste\". For example, a custom index could be achieved using: hdr = exsic.header(\"A header\") idx = index.collections(pt) txt = paste(hdr, idx, sep=\"\") write.exsic(txt, \"idx.html\")For more details, see the package documentation.Implementation and speed -We used R and two libraries: (1) stringr ( Wickham, 2012 ) and (2) markdown package ( Gruber and Swartz, 2004 ;Allaire et al., 2012 ) as a basis to implement the exsic package. The exsic package shows one application of R and reproducible research tools for taxonomists and botanists. The package is freely available under the open source GNU Public License (GPL) and for all platforms supported by R (currently Windows, Linux, and Mac OS). On a Dell T7400 precision PC with 4 GB of RAM, a 2.66-GHz Intel Xeon CPU E5430 processor, and running R 2.15.2 on top of Ubuntu 12.10, the sample table with 1000 records was processed in about 30 s. The function has also been tested on Windows XP and Mac OS Snow Leopard.Important note-When working across operating systems with tables created in Excel, it is indispensable to make sure that data are saved not only in .csv format but also using the encoding standard UTF-8. This allows the use of accents or other alphabets in the indices. Excel does not use UTF-8 as a default, and this will result in formatting errors.The tool primarily increases the speed of preparing specimen citations, numbered collections, and supporting indices.It also minimizes human errors in manual transcription from table to list formats as well as formatting errors. The possibility to quickly create indices in familiar formats also provides an opportunity to double check the consistency and completeness of the table before fi nal publication, thereby increasing the fi nal quality of the table and interpretation. We are not aware of a similar freely available tool except for the report module in the BRAHMS software version 7 that also facilitates the generation of these indices. While the BRAHMS software is Windows only, the exsic package works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.","tokenCount":"2157"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4f47d53fdb9426adcf2b0e502bd1a6c8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4a6578cd-b8c4-495d-b5e4-0f7c2bd75f24/retrieve","id":"-776895154"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"15c570c2-cdf8-42d1-bde4-1a503116b88c","pagecount":"185","content":"This volume results from extensive on-the ground assessments in seven African countries. There are many people to thank for its coming to fruition.Louise Sperling Tom RenilngtonThis volume contains eight case studies managed by CIA T, CRS, and CARE Notway in a project entitled, Assisting disaster-affected and chronically stressed communities in East, Central and Southern Africa: Focus on small farmer systems. The case studies were undertaken to eval uate various forms of emergency seed aid in the field and to couple these with analyses ofthe broader seed and crop systems. The objectives were to understand if and how vulnerable farmers are being helped by the kinds of assistance they receive-and how to move fotward on improving practice.The work was undertaken over a two-year period, in seven countries in A frica. In all cases, the seed aid practitioners were also engaged in the evaluations and reflections, so that \"lessons leamed\" could immediately influence the \" next steps of practice.\" It is to the credit of the participating national agricultura! research systems and nongovemmental organizations (NGOs) that they were willing to take a hard look at the effectiveness oftheir interventions. Equally, the donors, both USAID/OFDA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Notway, are to be lauded for promoting substantive follow-up on emergency assistance because such foll ow-up is rare.Table 1 gives the broad overview of the major features of the case studies: the countries in which they were undertaken, the stresses that originally triggered a decision to supply seed-related assistance, and the types of interventions that eventually unrolled. Note that the analyses ofthe real stresses changed as the work progressed.Table 2 hones in on the salient (defining) questions ofeach field program. Five ofthe cases address key features of specific interventions (such as introductions of new varieties), while three present overviews of the practice and evolution of seed aid on a country-wide basis.In the volume that follows, case study abstracts provide findings specific to the intervention and context. In this introduction, we step back-and reflect on the broader findings that emerge from this rare opportunity to examine seed aid across countries, across stresses, across interventions, and across different types of seed systems.Emergency seed system assistance was delivered in six out of the eight cases in response to what was characterized asan acute stress. That is, acute seed insecurity was presumed to have been brought on by distinct, short-duration events that affected a significan! portian of the population. However, more in-depth analysis, in all six cases, showed the problems to be of a more chronic, systemic nature: e.g., declining productivity, water-related stress, ongoing civi l unrest, and/or misplaced political policies.The other two cases, both of crop breakdowns (one in westem Kenya with beans and the other in northem Mozambique with cassava), were the only ones in which prior assessments (or diagnoses) actuall y took place. These revealed that the \"acute manifestation\" was due to more systemic biotic, abiotic, and economic pressures: build-up ofplant disease, lack ofcrop rotations, declining farm sizes.The result of an \"acute\" response in a more chronically stressed context means that the problem is not al leviated and that seed system assistance is then needed~again and again. However, the effects of giving \"acute\" aid in chronic stress contexts are not just neutral (and may have a negative impact). During the second and third rounds of a id, one is not just starting from the same ( compromi sed) baseline. lncreasing evidence, within and beyond these case studies, demonstrates that aid given again and again distorts farmers' own seed procurement strategies (see Malawi case herein and Ke nya case, Sperling, 2002), undermines local seed/grain market functioning (Burundi case herein), and even compromises the development of more commercial seed suppl y systems (Zimbabwe case herein and Tripp and Rohrbach, 200 1 ). So, there are negative effects of giving acute seed aid on a repeated bas is, particularly for vulnerable fanners, for local and regional traders, and for the developers ofprivate enterprise.Seed aid distribution is taking place in a large number of countries: onc season, two seasons, three seasons, and beyond. The giving ofseed aid is itselfbecoming a \"chronic\" acti vity. Table 3 summarizes the number of years seed a id has been given in severa( of the countries under study. Figures ha ve been amassed from actual govemment records, from NGO reports, and from the accounts of implementers working on the ground. There seem to be few checks for stopping such assistance (simply when funds dry up?) and deliberate exit strategies have not bccn planned. The rise of a chronic seed aid system has been identified as a profítablc business opportunity for the entrepreneurial, who specialize in quick deli very ofa small range ofcrops. lt has also led to the rise ofa separate seed system based on relief, i.e., a \"relief seed system\" (see the Eth iopia and Zimbabwe cases). Relief seed systems are created to assist farm communities in post-disaster contexts and are based on the assumption that other seed channels (in both the formal and farmcr seed systems) are simply nonfunctional.Relief seed systems have evolved dramatically and differentially in di fferent countries in A frica, but their rise has been quick and steady. They seem to be of two basic types: in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, there are commercially based reliefseed systems. This is because of the importance ofmaize as a commerc ial crop and the dominance of commercial maize in the seed market. In countries without a significant maize-based commercial seed sector (like Burundi ) or those w ith a niche market (Ethiopia), donors and relief agencies have always relied on the farmer seed system to source their seed for emergency redistribution. The functioning of such systems involves a straightforward set of steps: a disaster is declared, seed need is assumed, and then a well-establi shed chain of suppliers moves into action.The lack of any diagnosis related to the seed system has now beco me a commonplace observation within the disaster literature (Sperling and Cooper, 2003). In practice, one of four strategies is employed for \"assessing\" seed security and none is sufficientl y accurate or timely for assessing seed security among vulnerable farming populations:• No assessment is done at all-and seed need is assumed.• Food security assessments are effected-and seed need is assumed.• A crop production fall (decline) is measured-and seed need is ass umed.• Lengthy surveys of fam1ing and rural production systems are completed-and the results are analyzed and written up-after emergency seed has been delivered.W ithin the cases documented here, only two instances of diagnosis or problem assessment were noted. Both were research-driven and related to an analysis of progressive crop fai lure--due to plant di sease/farming system pressures.In the absence ofseed-related needs assessment, the default option has been to assume that there is a lack of available seed. This has been done in a wide range of disaster contexts since the start of seed aid practice.Two sources of concrete information, from very different perspectives, indicate how incorrect this automatic assessment of lack of availabil ity often is.l . A growing number of studies have actually traced where farmers in \"disaster\" situations sourced the seed they planted-in areas where seed aid distribution had taken place. Table 4 indicates that in contexts where precise data were examined (and with larger sample s izes), relatively little of the seed sown came from emergency aid (with the importance of the assistance varying by crop and context) . This means that, as farmers were lining up to become beneficiaries of free seed aid, they were s imu ltaneous ly sourcing non-a id channels to access most of their needed seed supplies.To date, only two types of cases have been identified that show when availability of seed in a disaster context may be a fundamental constraint.. The first case is where local seed on offer is no longer adapted to local growing contexts, often due to biotic and abiotic pressures (e.g., cases herein are in eastem Kenya, due to bean root rots, and northem Mozambique, due to cassava brown streak). Purists might label this problemas a seed quality constraint, rather than one ofavailability. However, the fact remains that fam1ers did not have anything to plant that would actually grow.The second case invol ves contexts where there have been substantial production shortfalls and local markets ha ve never sufficiently developed to deliver routine seed or planting supplies. In addressing this latter issue of availability and market failure, it might be useful to distinguish between spatial and temporal issues of availabi lity, or the lack thereof. Delving into the root causes for these lacks should encourage practitioners to move from a focus on seed aid to one on strengthening the seed system.The more one looks at seed systems in detail, the more the role o f local seed/grain markets appears as a central element in promoting seed security. Varied market-related find ings are emerging from direct field analysis:l . Market-sourced seed (especially for self-pollinated crops and cereals, in general, with the exception of maize) provides a core for fanner seed security, especially among the more vulnerable, e.g., in this volume, Burundi , Zimbabwe, and westem Kenya; scc also Rwanda (Sperling, 1997) and eastem Kenya (Sperling, 2002).2. Local grain markets, from which secd is obtained, have been shown to be more durable than expected in stress periods, with analysis showing their functioning in periods of civil strife (e.g .. Burundi) as we ll as in periods of drought and tloods.3. The genetic quality of seed sourced in markets is most oftcn acceptable to fam1ers, as it is generally grown in surrounding agroecological contexts .4. Surpri sing ly, the physiolog ical and phyto-sanitary quality of seed purchased in local markets can also be partially regulated (through purchase from known contacts and rigorous farmer sorting). Laboratory analyses (for purity, health, and gennination) demonstrate acceptable quality parameters for the market seed examined. Such data do not mean that all market seed is of high quality. They do, however, firml y show that the reverse is not universall y true. Market seed, a priori, should not be equated with low-quality seed.5. For the non-hybrids, local seed/grain markets are proving an important channel for moving new varieties, that is, new genetic materials developed by formal research systems. In fact, for some crop types, loca l markets seem to move new varieties more effecti vely than formal seed channel s.6. Markets ha ve provento be a useful so urce for re-accessing seed of desired types and quantities that has been lost or temporarily abandoned in stress periods.Given their pivota/ role in seed system stability-and resi/ience-one of the majar conclusions of our case studies is that local grainlseed markets must be strategically supported. not undermined. in post-stress periods. They provide a central core ofseed security. particular/y for the vulnerable .Evidence shows that seed system resilience. of the local, farmer system, is the norm, rather than the exception during periods of stress. \" Resili ence\" in this context means that seed channels continue to provide varieties and seed that farmers find of acceptable quality, and which wi ll grow w hen sown. Further, those analyses that focused on varietal di versity have generally found that major varieties are not lost-not during drought, war, nor even select cases of flood (viz. Ferguson, 2003) There are important exceptions to this observation on seed system resi lience. In areas of crop breakdown, when existing varieties no longer perform dueto fom1idable pressures ( usually plant d i seas e or declining fertili ty), the local systems may not ha ve the capacity themselves to bring in new materials. Particu larl y in cases where vegetatively propagated crops (e.g., cassava, sweet potatoes) provide the base offood security, outsidc assistance may become key. The problem o f cassava mosaic virus in East and Central Africa since the late 1980s demonstrates such need.Issues of seed quali ty very much shape the types of seed assistance (and asset transfers) that can unfold.In emergency seed procurement, quality issues most often focus on whether the seed is certified or not (as many donors require fom1al verification as a prcrequisite for seed procurement.). Quality stereotypes ha ve equated certi fied and formal sector seed as bei ng of high germination and good seed health, with poor assessments applied to farmer seed (home-produced and procured from the market), which is stereotyped as generally poor. Case study anal yses have shown that such labels can be deceptive. The quality of fom1al -sector seed may not be as advertised (this volume, see western Ken ya case) and emergency-grade seed overa ll is of highly variable health and genetic quality (eastern Kenya case). Farn1er seed and market seed has also proven to be \" objecti vely\" of good qua lity, as assessed in laboratory analyses (western Kenya case).Some of the existing emergency interventions build in special measures to exam ine quality on a site-by-site basis, such as the catalyzing of regulating committees during seed vouchers and fairs (SV &F). Undoubtedly, additional mechanisms can be put in place to reinforcc acceptable quality standards. Minimally, seed on offer via emergency assistance should be as least as good as that which farmcrs routine ly sow.The focus on the seed health parameter of \"quality\" has di verted attention away from w hat is probably the more importan! quality issue for seed: the seed on offer, at the very least, must be adapted to the stress conditions at hand, and have generally acceptable crop characteristics. It is puzzling that genetic (variety) quality, in practice, has been g iven second priority in emergency responses. Varieties emerging from fo rmal research sectors or on offer from commercial companies are assumed \"good enough,\" whether or not they have been selected for use in the regions of stress or for growing under the management conditions practiced by beneficiary farmers.Optimall y, the genetic quality on offer should anticípate on-s ite stresscs; e.g., they should be early maturing for those facing a hungry gap or resistan! to speci fi c disease prcssures in areas with marked pathogen build-up.•lddressing SrNI Sf'CIIfÚ\\\" in nisasl~r N(•s¡um.w•: Unking Relief táth !Jer•e/opmcnl• Varie ty baske t should be on offe rA choice o f varieties shou ld be on offer-particularl y as the context is one of stress. ln both westem Kenya and northem Mozambique, the basket of options helped to ant ic ipate probable future breakdowns of disease resistance.• N ot ever•ything new is goodNot everything new is good. Maize hybrids, in partic ular, are o ften promoted as new items on offer in stress contexts. However, their perfonnance is very uneven as an emergency input (see Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Malawi cases). This underlines the need fo r a strategy for ncw introductions to be careful ly weighed-particularl y ifthe recipicnt he rself is not the one selecting the precise emergency aid option.• The choice of specific diffusion cha1mels is c ritical for new varie ty impactThe choice of diffusion channels for moving new vari eties (formal, info nnal, market, groups offanners, etc .) is potentiall y as important for achieving impact as the quality of the product being diffused. 1t makes stra tegic sense to build o n channels that move products fast, widely, at low cost. The case analyses showed unimpressive results for working through in fonnal farmer seed mu ltiplier groups, but remarkable d iffus ion results via local grain/ eed traders. Parallel to a foc us on diffusion channels, the varied seed production mode ls being promoted througho ut A frica ( ofw hich farmer multiplier groups are one) need to be designed from the start with an explicit impact-oriented outreach focus-ifthey are to reach the vulnerable.Severa! of th e case studies showed that new varieties in themselves can have an im portant impact in speci fi c kinds of stressed contexts. However, research needs to speed up its product-development response if it is to become a reliable partner in a lleviating disaster scenarios.The steps for improving the effecti veness o f seed aid practice seem fa irly straightforward, and implementable over the next fi ve years. They invo lve a combination ofpositive strategies: (a) promo ting real leaming evaluations that can fine-tune curre nt implementation modes, (b) broadeni ng the basket of potential response options-through low-risk case scenari o tests and capacity build ing, (e) supporting assessme nts of seed system sccurity prior to intervention (which w ill also encourage methods/tools to become fu rther refined), and (d) developing strategies for \"eme rgencies\" that factor in chronic stress. A fundamental step for moving fo rward also involves acknowledging that \"more of the same\"-repeated OSO or SV &F-may not be ac hieving the expected humanitarian aims. Most of the recommendations below encourage a mov ing away from knee-jerk emergency responses-towards interventions where implementers better understand what they are implementing and w hy.The scale of seed aid has escalated since it was introduced as a complement to food aid about 15 years ago. G iven (a) its impressive scale, (b) the observat ion that seed a id has become repetitive, and (e) evidence that aid can have negativc as wcll as positi ve effects, evaluation should be promoted for a rangeAddressing Sced Securil 1• in Ois<ISter NP.<¡)(Jnse: Linking Relief ll'ilh /Je¡•elopmenl of contexts. Perfunctory evaluations (such as tallying the quantity of seed distributed to x number of farmers) serve as little more than self-confirming checklists that implementers have \"done a good job.\" Instead, evaluations should minimally have two salient characteristics:• First, they should be situated w ithin a brief analysis ofthe functioning of on-going seed systems-and frankly assess how important the aid was versus other seed-related sources and support. Taking a sample of farmers and finding out w hat they actually sowed and why is quick, easy todo, and gives a reality check on the importance of the intervention. • Second, each evaluation should program a critica! question follow-up so as not to repeat the same mistakes: e.g., did the poorest get seed? (why or why not?) Was the crop profile on offer appropriate? (why or why not?) Did farmers re-sow the new varieties deli vered? (why or why not?)The money required fo r such follow-ups is modest in relation to the funds employcd in the intervention itself. The time required for such punctual questions involves but a matter of weeks. If such modest time/money commitments prove obstacles for implementing organizations, they should not be intervening at the heart of vulnerable farming systems. ldeally, evaluations of seed system support should also be framed within assessments of the larger regional economy and livelihoods, but it is unrealistic to expect the quick-response teams to conduct in-depth analyses. So for mo ving evaluation in seed aid forward, we suggest the practica! and do-able, and consigo the \" ideal\" (more in-depth) to specialists. 1The repertoire of seed system responses in emergencies has already been broadening, particular! y in the last four years, with seed fairs , vouchers, direct cash payments, input and livelihood fairs, etc., Further follow-ups analyzing and comparing these options are underway in a number of countries and are supported by severa! agencies (e.g., in Ethiopia: OFDAIUSAID and ODI). Unfortunatcly, implcmentation of response alternatives is frequently de-l inked from an analysis of the problem at hand (see next point on needs assessment), and pro-linked to the current speci fic capacity ofthe implementing organization. T here is an urgent need to build the capacity of implementers to engage in a range of response options. Without an explic it donar focus on practitioner capacity building, we will get more ofthe same.The methodology for doing seed system securi ty assessments is quickly being honed, and key e lements can be applied immediately. Work during the last few years has shown which seed channels to focus on during acute crisis (90% of the time, own production and local seed/grain markets) and how to assess whether such channels are functioning, at what level, and for w hom.For instance, one of the tenets of the SSSA Guide (CIAT/CRS/CN, forthcoming) is that \"production shortf all is not necessarily equal to seed shortfa/1. \" Modeled after actual Eastcrn African farming parameters, the example illustrated in table 5 clearly shows that one can lose most of the harvest (88% for beans and even 99% for sorghum) and stil l have enough sced to sow-assuming that all the crop harvested can be saved for actual planting.l. At the time of this writing, CRS has conducted ex post evaluations of seed vouchers & fa irs in Gambia, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe, and has recently completed a meta-analysis ofthc SV& F approach (Bramel and Remington, forthcoming ).Our understanding now of the importance of local grain/seed markets is also contributing to the SSSA guides and shifting the focus of methods beyond assessing what farmers actually have in their hands (own production and home stocks) to what they can access. Two key parameters shape market analysis in the SSSA in particular. Differences between the seed and grain on offer need to be factored in across crops, and a spatial overlap must be la id o ver market zones and zones of agroecological adaptation .. In all cases, elements of a comprehensive SSSA thinking guide are in place-and such seed security assessments-as distinct from food-need calcu lations-should be encouraged in the coming years. Only with more focused seed security assessments can we hope to more toward more tailored support responses.Tahle Beans Sorghum Finall y, we highlight an implication of one of our key find ings: that much ofthe ac ute response is being implemented in more chronicall y stressed contexts, where a swath of the population is continually vulnerable-usually dueto poverty.In such a context, the emergency response should explicitly work through a lens that anticipates features of such chronic stress. At a mínimum, interventions should be avoided that (a) expose farmers to increased risk and (b) have the potential to undermine functioning systems. In a positive vein, interventions should be promoted that (a) counter the stress but which al so (b) aim to strengthen farmers' own capacities, bolster the functioning of their farming systems, and stimulate growth in the local economy. We now know firmly, mostly through seed systems studies, that seed (in)security is rarely about seed-and almost always about poverty. Hence, those implementing emergency responses should now face the obligation to squarely address this poverty link--even during periods of stress.Burundi 's economy is essentially based on agriculture, with small fanns providing over 90% of the population 's livelihood. The land-use system is diverse and comprised, with regional differences, of various components, including coffee, tea, maize, sugar, potatoes, and other food-based cropping systems. The natural vegetation has been degraded to the point where there is little forest left except in the highest elevations.The population of Burundi was estimated at 6,600,000 in 1998, with a growth rate of over 3% per year.In 1990, the average population density was estimated at 180 inhabitants per square kilometer. However, this figure varíes greatly from regían to region, with sorne areas showi ng a population density as high as 400 inhabitants per square kilometer. Land pressure is one of the prime underlying causes of the Burundian conflict and is a significant contributing factor to food insecurity.Since 1993, civi l unrest and conflict has caused over 200,000 deaths and displaced over 700,000 people, both internally and externally. Burundian civil society has been undennined as a result of a combination of massive population displacement, a poorly functioning and substantially underfunded public sector, and continued fear and mistrust among large segments ofthe population. With the signing ofthe Arusha Accords in April 2000, the arrival of a government of transition in November 200 1, the peaceful transition of the presidency in May 2003, anda cease tire between majar belligerents in October 2003 , there is significant hope that Burundi has turned the comer.This study is took place in Kirundo Province, in the extreme northwest of the country, bordering Rwanda and covering an area of 1700km2 . The province is divided into two natural agroecological zones: the Bugesera zone, which covers 65 % ofthe province 's total surface and has an average alti tude of !350m, and the Bweru zone, with an average altitude of 1600 meters covering the remaining 35%.The study is foc used on the Bugesera zone, which has the ecological characteristics of dry areas with poor rainfall of 900-11 OOmm/year, a very long dry season of seven to eight months, and poorly developed schlerophyllic vegetation. Kirundo Province enjoys a fertil e soil, which can, under optimal conditions, produce a large variety of food and cash crops. The Bugesera zone 's economy is based on agriculture and Jivestock. The region is traditionally a producer of beans and sorghum, but bananas, coffee, cassava, and sweet potatoes are al so cultivated there.Agricultura! production and food security at the household leve! ha ve been devastated by the combined effects of drought and política! crisis. For the last six years, all ofKirundo Provi nce, and particularly the Bugesera zone, has experienced asevere rain shortfall with declines of 70% of the nonn for 2000 and 200 l . Farming families characterized as very poor and poor, with an average land area of less than one hectare under cultivation, make up 65% of households in the region. Households deemed \"average,\" wi th one to two hectares under cultivation, represent 25% of the households. \"Rich\" households, accounting for 10% ofKirundo Province, have an average oftwo or more hectares under cultívatíon. 2In Kirundo Province, as elsewhere in Burundi , seed assessments are based on assessments of household food security. without distinguishing between issues of access and availability (where access refers to adequate means of acquiring des ired seed through cash, barter, and social networks; availability refers to the presence of sufficient quantities of desired seed w ithin reasonable proximity to people at critica! sowing periods). This conventional approach to seed aid tends to become a Pavlovian response to a misdiagnosed problem. 3 Moreover, assessments have been based on seasonal calculations w ithout regard to potentially more chronic problems related to seed systems.Traditional seed and tools interventions are, at a mínimum, two to three times the cost per beneficiary of seed fairs, while the economic benefits, to the community at large (who do not receive agric ul tura! inputs from the intervention) are negligible. 4 With conventional seed distribution, there is little evidence that the intervention supports the local seed system or addresses more chronic seed-system problems.Conventional seed distribution, under the coordination of the Food an Agricultura! Organization of the United Nations (F AO) is the dominant intervention through which seed needs are addressed in Burundi.The summary ofFAO-coordinated responses in the table be low is not exhaustive but it does provide a good representation ofboth the scale and scope of the international community 's emergency agriculture response over the past six years. Two agricultura! seasons.One agricultura! season.Catholic ReliefServices (CRS), Burundi has, up to the date ofthi s study, used an altemative approach to respond to seed needs in Kirundo Province. Over the course ofthree agricultura! seasons leading up to this case study, approximately 30 ,000 fanning households have had their seed needs met through the seed voucher and fa ir (SV &F) approach. 5 This approach responds to problerns of seed access, where farming families lack the income, resources, or social capital needed to access seed. The approach 3. \" In Pavlovian or 'respondent' conditioning we simply increase the magnitude of the response elicited by the conditioned stimulus and shorten the time which elapses between stimulus and response . \"-Skinner, B. F. ( 1953). Science and Human Behavior, 65. 4. Numbers are derived from CRS experience with seed and tools interventions and seed fairs in Sudan, Kenya, Tanzan ia, and Uganda, where the average cost ofseed per beneficiary ranged from $4.4 1 to $ 11 .02 per household ('Getting Offthe Seeds and Tools Treadmill with CRS Seed Vouchers and Tools'-Disasters Joumal , 2002, Vol ume 26(4); 3 16-328.) 5. Through 2003, CRS and local partners have carried out seed fairs in Burundi, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambía, and Zimbabwe, serving over 400,000 farmin g households recoveri ng from man-made or climate-induced disaster.involves supplying farming households that lack access with a voucher that is used to acquire seed . The vouchers are later redeemed by seed traders for cash.No formal assessment ofseed needs was conducted for any ofthe Kirundo seed fa irs. Comrnunities were targeted for seed based on a seasonal assessment conducted by F AO and provincial authorities. CRS, in coordination with local authorities, was given the mandate to respond to seed needs for specific communes in Kirundo Province. Local authorities, in consultation with the govemor of the Province and the Provincial Departrnent for Agriculture and Livestock (DPAE), selected the specific comrnunities for seed fair interventions. Coverage was, in principie, lOO% in the communiti es selected.The Burundi OFDA-funded study focuses on the SV &F traders, large and small, who participated in the Kirundo seed fairs. 6 The aim is threefold: ( 1) to understand and quantify the impact ofSV &F at the farm leve!, (2) to get a better assessment of the economic effects of SV &F events on small seed traders, and(3) to get a better understanding of how the traditional seed system functions, its strengths and weaknesses, so as to design and implement interventions explicitly geared to alleviating acute and chronic challenges.Moving heyond access: The need to understand the local seed system and the residual impact of seed vouchers and fairsThe results from the Kirundo seed fairs indicated that when subsidies in the form of a voucher redeemable in local currency are provided to stimulate demand among seed-needy households, local seed suppliers respond favorably by providing seed that is adequate in both quantity and quality. Hence, during the three agricultura! seasons preceding this study, seed needs in Kirundo Province could be more aptly characterized as being caused by lack of access as opposed to lack of availabili ty. Otherwise stated, there was sufficient seed to meet total seed demand for the dominant crops in the seed system, but a number of farming households lacked the buying power and/o r kinship networks to access this seed.O ver 1200 exit interviews were conducted among seed-voucher holders at the Kirundo seed fairs ( 40 per seed fair), which showed that the average seed package obtained by recipients was greater in quantity than that received by conventional distribution and that this amount of seed was sufficient to meet their planting needs. The average package received by voucher-holding farm families over the three agricultura! seasons was 20kg beans, lkg sorghum, 0.5kg maize, and 0.33kg groundnuts; the voucher value for each fami ly was US$ 6.00.Additionally, the price at which thi s seed was obtained through the SV &F approach did not indicate any problem with seed availability. Local market prices fo r bean seed, the dominant crop in the Kirundo system and the domi nant seed provided by seed a id practitioners, showed no price spikes at the time of any ofthe Kirundo seed fairs that would indicate a lack of seed availability. There were price premiums paid at the Kirundo seed fairs (lO% to 20% higher than to the same seed available at local markets in Kirundo). This is attributed to voucher recipients being required to spend their vouchers on the day received, at the seed fair organized by CRS, and with seed suppliers who were registered by CRS.6. Trader is used throughout this document to refer to everyone who exchanges seed for vouchers at seed fairs: those who bring seed from their own production to the fair, those who source seed on credit and pay it back credit after the fair, and those who never take actual title to what they bring, reimbursing to thc owner for what has been sold and handing back unso ld seed to the owner after the seed fa ir.Addressíng Seed s~rurity in Disaster Response: Linking Reliif with Development. 18 1Seed quality (defined here as seed that is known and preferred by farrners and adapted to local farming conditions) is more problematic. Using the yardstick of conventional seed relief in Burundi, which is sourced almost exclusively in Burundi from large traders and undergoes no process that would differentiate it in quality from the seed available in local markets, the seed sourced through seed fairs is deemed superior by farming farnilies.Exit interviews from the Kirundo seed fairs indicated that farmers preferred the seed from seed fairs as opposed to seed from conventional distribution for three reasons: ( 1) seed fair seed is more adaptable to local soils, (2) seed fairs provide fanners an opportunity to choose the seed they want and negotiate its price, and (3) seed fairs provide farmers an opportunity to buy seed from traders they know.Seed fairs in Kirundo may have provided adequate seed quantity to needy farming households, but the issue of getting new varieties into the hands of farrners in a demand~dri ven fashion, and understanding how this approach through the local seed system can improve seed quality in the medium to long term, remains a major challengé.The exit interviews from the Kirundo fairs point to the potential for this approach to support the local seed system, and perhaps address more chronic problems related to the seed system. Seed traders reported reinvesting proceeds from the seed fairs into seed production and seed trade, but the behavior of the seed traders in time ofacute and chronic stress, and the characteristics ofseed suppliers in the region, was not we\\1 enough appreciated or understood to provide a more robust argument for how seed vouchers and fairs might support the local seed system.The Kirundo seed fairs confinn ed the need for a better understanding of how the local seed system functions under both acute and chronic stress, thus exploring the potential for seed fa irs to address both chronic and acute shocks to the seed system, which could be seen as being driven by \"access\" as well as \"availability.\" They also established the need for a better understanding ofthe profi le and characteristics of seed traders, particularly women, who constitute a third of all seed traders. In addition, the fairs demonstrated a pos itive impact on the local economy but pointed to the need for a better understanding of how they affect the local economy and the local seed system.This study was conducted in collaboration with local goveming authorities in Kirundo Province and the PDAE. Both CRS and CIA T aided with the fieldwork.In February 2003, preliminary (participatory and semi~structured) interviews with local traders and farmers, suggested four key insights:• There has been no problem with seed availability in recentyears; the last real problem was in 1999.• In normal times, most traders source their seed directly from farmers; only in a crisis do they buy from traders. • Smal l vendors greatly appreciate seed fairs because fairs provide them with fourfold income in one day, compared to other sales channe ls, and they don't have to extend credit.Traders suggested putting new varieties on offer at lower prices than local vanetles so as to stimulate initial client interest. Traders also asked to be provided credit by CRS to bring these varieties to the fair.In July 2003, a questionnaire was developed to target seed traders who had participated in the Kirundo seed fairs during the previous agricultura! season. The questionnaire was pre-tested over two days, and fi eld interviews were completed in early August 2003. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by three C RS staffwho had been in volved in the planning and implementation ofseed fairs in Kirundo over the preceding three agricultura! seasons.The questionnaire consisted of thirty questions and was di vided into four sections:• Seed-trader profile• Seed characterizationlsources and sales channels/sourcing in stress periods• Seed fair operations and the seed fair impactA total of 41 seed traders who had participated in the Kirundo fairs during the previous agricultura) season were interviewed (16 women and 25 men), roughly half ofthe approximately 80 seed traders who had participated in the fairs. Traders were chosen from different sites within Kirundo where the seed fa irs were held, specific emphasis was placed on gender representation from all of the fa ir sites and representation of traders from the three main categories: sma ll (havi ng gross revenues of less than US$ 500 during the previous agricultura) season), medium (gross revenues of more than US$ 500 and Jess than USS 2,500 during the previous agricultura) season), and large (gross revenues of more than US$ 2,500 during the previous agricultura) season).More than half of the traders interviewed indicated that they had traded seed fo r more than 1 O years; fewer than 20% had been at it for fi ve years or less. This appears to show that seed traders-at least those at the seed fairs-are a well established group. This may also indicate that traders are specialized and that trading seed may, ata mínimum, require a medium-term investment in building trade relations and acquiring knowledge specific to the trade.Twenty percent ofthe traders interv iewed described themsel ves as full -time seed traders; 63% described themselves principall y as traders who also do so rne agriculture; the remaining 17% described themselves principally as farmers who also do some trade. Among those self-described as full-time seed traders, only one was mal e. Ofthe 16 female traders, only one described herself as more of a farmer than a trader. This further supports the idea that seed traders are a specialized group. This difference between male and fcmale traders with regard to their self-definiti on oftheir trader status indi cates a female bias among traders and potentia lly a Jack of access to Jand among female traders (as is the case for Burundian women in general).More than 75% ofthe traders (33) reported seeing a growth in volume and product line since they started trading seed . This could be attributed to reinvesting profits into their trade and the generally well-established nature of the group interviewed. This could also mean that this sub-set of traders (seed-fai r traders) is more entrepreneurial. Note that with a single exception (a sunflower specialist), the seed traders tended not to specialize in any particular crop; they various ly sold beans, sorghum, maize, and groundnuts.Traders were asked about the assets they had needed when they started trading seed. Over one-third said they started with no access to financia! capital or credit, making due with their own stock of seed, access to land, and their own means of transport. Over two-fifths ( 18) indicated starting up with only financia) capital or credit, which includes bank loans, loans from family and friends, and credit for seed from larger seed traders as well as family and friends. Almost two-thirds of the traders started up without access to transport.Traders were asked if their start-up assets were suffícient. Nearly one-third of traders ( 12/41 ) indicated that their start-up assets were sufficient and that this was dueto seed com ing from their own production, gifts from friends and relatives, and small loans from friends. Among the two-thirds who considered their start-up assets insuffícient, access to credit for financing was the biggest challenge.Traders were asked if there are special requirements, such as knowledge and connections, that are necessary for a seed trader to start in the trade. Aside from assets, social relationships and kinship ties appear to be important: a large majority of traders (28) mentioned the need for the support of parents, fami ly, friends, and neighbors. However, a sa lid minority ( 13) saw no need for anything special and indicated that they started with their own stock and made due with what they had.Traders were asked if they distinguish between seed fo r sowing and grain for eating, for the crops they sell . More than ha lf the traders (23/41) said they made a distinction between seed for planting and grain for eating. Fifteen indicated that the population at large does not make this distinction. Only three said they made no distinction because when they were selling they were notable to determine the buyer's intended end use.Traders distínguishing seed from grain provided the following reasons for such distinction: sorne varieties are separated because of price variations due to end use, such as w ith white sorghum for porridge versus the more expensive red sorghum for beer. Beans are separated because at harvest they are mixed, yet there are price variations within the mixture, and sorne varieties, like yellow beans, may be more susceptible to infestation and should be separated out befare storage.Traders were asked to discuss the sources ofthe grain versus the sources ofthe seed that they sold. AJI of the traders considered the sources to be the same. They noted no difference in production but rather in processíng for end use, storage, or for price.Five ofthe six traders who had gross revenues ofmore than US$ 2,500 during the previous agricul tura! season sorted grain from seed. Among these five, four ofthem sorted by variety for beans and one sorted by grain for beans.For traders with gross revenues of more than US$ 500 and less than US$ 2,500 during the previous agricultura! season, 45% sorted seed from grain.Addressing Seed Serurity in Disaster Response: Linking Relief with Development. 21 1For small traders, who had gross revenues ofless than US$ 500 during the previous season, 66% sorted seed from grain .  Own production and direct on-farm sourcing accounted for at least half o f the crops refcrenced above. Maize, however, is an anomaly here; Kintndo is not known for its maize production and WFP's food distribution s provide a ready stock for consumption.Rural collectors are small traders, based at tradi ng centers and in proximity to farmers, who procure seed directl y from fanners. They rarely sell retai l and usua ll y, but not always, ho ld the sccd to sell to other traders, large as well as small. Rural co llectors are an important link in the supply chain, providing the human faceto much ofthe credit and capital that reaches the fanner.Stockists are small traders who advance capital and credit to intennedia ries who, in tum, source seed from fam1crs and then provide the seed to the stockist. Stockists are more likely to hold seed and to sell retail.Large traders (who had gross rcvenues of more than US$ 2,500 during the previous agric ultura! season) were far more likely to source seed from their own production than small or medium traders, and \"own production'' for large traders was likely to take on a different meaning. Subcontracting and crcdit arrangements with fanners were likely to be considered \" own production\" for many ofthe large tradcrs.Cash was used to source 71% of the total bean seed sold among a ll traders in 20038; credit was provided for 23%.Social capital is extremely important in seed sa les, as evidenced by over 40 separare seed fairs where decisions about \"whom to bu y from\" were based on whether the trader was known to the buyer and carne from the same area (a phenomenon that could also be linked to soil specificity and bears further research). And credit is considered a necess ity to establish social relations. In table 3 the use of credit by traders, critica! for building on social capital and kinship, is indirectly indicated.Seed fa irs represented a tremendous market for all seed traders, with generally higher prices than local markets: approximately 12% to 20% above local market prices, on average. iThe seed traders described two distinct stress periods in the recent past, one due to drought (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000) and an earlier one dueto civil war (1993)(1994)(1995). l nitially, blanket statements were made to characterize the stress:Trader characterizations of the drought stress:l . no seed on market 2. prohibitively high prices of seed brought in by large traders from the region 3. everyone living off aid from NGOs and WFP 4. even grain planted did not germinate 5. heavy migration among the able-bodiedTrader characterizations of the civil war stress:1 . no seed on market 2. own production insufficient for food needs 3. even large local traders had no seed However, w hen asked to comment in more detail (on dates, regions)-if there was any time when planting material was absolutely not avai lable, the maj ority of seed traders (32/41) said that there was nevera time in their experience when seed or planting material was absolutely not available. Although expensive during the drought period, bean seed was available from other parts of Kirundo Province, although sorne traders stated that even when seed was avai lable, it was useless to sow because of the drought.N ine ofthe traders said there were times when there was no seed availabl e at all. Specifically in reference to the drought, they said they could not find seed beca use all the seed had been bought up and distributed by NGOs. These traders did not sell during this period.When asked to reflect on ea eh crop sold and where it is sourced in times of stress, 1 O of the traders said they sourced beans regionally (Rwanda, Tanzania), most renting a vehicle. Eleven said they sourced beans by traveling on bicycle to other parts ofKirundo Province, and nine said they sourced beans from other regions ofBurundi, using a vehicle.The definitions of access and availability depend on the size of the trader's business and access to transport. Although seed was available even during times of profound stress, larger traders had a better chance of sourcing volume because they had access to transport to regional markets and a greater likelihood of having cash or credit. Sourcing seed during thi s period was possible but difficult, with many traders giving up. Major sources during this period were small traders on bicycle from Rwanda and large traders bringing seed in from the reg ion (Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and other parts of Burundi).All six ofthe large traders reported sourcing during periods ofstress from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and other regions ofBurundi, using vehicles.T he majority of these revenues go back into the agricultura( economy as investments or repayment of debts. Over 80% of the revenue generated by seed traders from fairs is a llocated to commerce, agriculture, or debt repayment.Commercia l activity, which includes extending trade credit, accounted for 43% of seed fair revenue, while repayment of debts accounted for 27%. There was significant overlap among these categories, as credit for seed fairs was considered \"commerce\" among some traders and \"debt\" among others. Only 13% of seed fa ir revenue was invested into agriculture and livestock. Household consumption accounted for 17% of revenues. This includes medica! expenses, school fees, home construction, and clothing.Social capital is both a widely cited special quality for traders at start-up and an important factor in developing and expanding their trade. Knowing the trader and havi ng a relationship with him or her appears to be an important factor in determining from whom to buy seed. In this light, seed fairs provide a mechanism to build on existing social capital and perhaps can help us gain insights into the challenges of getting new varieties into the hands of farmers.According to seed traders, the decision to purchase from one trader as opposed to another is based on the adaptability of the seed on offer, precision of the scales, the trader's honesty, the confidence the buyer has in the trader, price, and the welcome the trader offers.Rough ly half (22) of the seed traders interviewed stated that their seed fair customers had also beco me generous customers outside the seed fairs. So me of these traders noted that they had sourced seed from these same buyers at harvest.Data from the seed fair trade payout sheets over the three agricultura! seasons leading to this study showed a growing role for female traders. The total number of individual traders paid in the first agricultura! season was 346, 18% ofwhom were female. fn the second agricultura! season, 23% (of289 traders) were female, and in the third season of January 2003, out of 49 1 traders, 3 1% were fema le. This increase of 66% between the first and third seed fairs seems to indicate that seed fai rs provide anmterestmg mcome opportumty to women.The case study revealed that full-time traders may be disproportionately female. Male traders, except for very large traders, tend to have other sources of livelihood and hence are far less Iikely to describe themselves as full-time traders. Only one of the 16 female traders identified herself as more of a farrner than a trader, which may indicate a lack of access to land for female traders and hence a far greater likelihood that trade would consti tute their dominant means of livelihood.These findings point to the importance of seed trading as an occupation and income opportunity for fema les. Seed aid practitioners should pay particular attention to des igning interventions that provide access to female traders, particularly small traders, as they appear to play an important role in local seed supply channels and seed trade is a valuable income opportunity for thi s vulnerable sub-set which derives less entitlement from land than medium to large traders.Twenty-two of the traders (o ver half) said that there were traders who don ' t come to the fairs but who should be encouraged to participate. The reasons gi ven for them not coming included being intimidated by larger traders; being afraid that they would not sell anything at the fair and would then be left holding a stock ofunsold seed; and not having access to transpot1. Additionally, it was noted that many organizations and comrnunity groups with seed, such as farmer associations, farrner cooperatives, and the Provincial Department for Agriculture and Livestock (DPAE), did not regularly participate in seed fairs.At the end ofthe questionnaires, traders were asked ifthey had any questions or comments. A sample of their responses is given below.• Why are yo u asking these questions? You asked these sorts of questions during the last seed fairs in February 2003.• Why can't we receive vouchers too?• Can CRS give us credit?• We have realized that in identify ing beneficiaries, you don 't work in close co llaboration with the local administration. • We like the fairs. Organize more. We are partners; you should do more discussions with us so that in the end we can end this repetitive problem of lack of seed.Seed fairs have a pos itive impact on the local seed system by stimulating social capital and kinship ties between traders and buyers. The seed fairs provide a forum through which seed sourcing relationships are built and extended. This building of social capital is particularly important in cash-poor rural economies and in societies recovering from conflict.Seed fairs also provide capital for the local economy, capital that is predominantly allocated to commercial and farro activity. The residual impact of the seed fairs include extending credit lines, both for traders and others, and stimulating expenditures, which has a knock-on effect on the local economy, such as supporting home construction.Seed aid practitioners and donors should fund and support seed aid and agricultura! interventions that have an explicit link to the local seed system, as opposed to being in competition with it.Development and seed aid practitioners should pay particular attention to the efficiency and impact of demand-driven subsidies, such as vouchers, on rural-based livelihoods and economies.Seed trading is more likely to be a primary employment and revenue opportunity for women. Female traders play an important role in the seed trade, accounting for a large share ofthe small and very small traders. Female traders in this study appeared to have less access to land than their male counterparts, as reflected by only one of the 16 female traders identifying herself as more of a farmer than a trader.Seed aid practitioners should pay particular attention to designing interventions that explicitly target female traders, particularly very small-scale traders, who are more likely to count seed trade as a main source of livelihood.Promising new varieties may ha ve a greater likelihood of propagation if local traders are leveraged and new varíeties are introduced in more of a demand-driven fashion. The links between the formal and informal seed sector are underexploited and the seed fair is one forum where researchers, formal-sector seed players, and seed traders can work within the same milieu towards the same end, meeting the farmer's demand for seed.Seed aid practitioners and researchers should focus more on local seed traders when exploring how to introduce promising new material into the seed system.In 1996, rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) began harassing people in the Ruwenzori Mountains of westem Uganda, displacing an estimated 150,000 persons. In Bundibugyo (figure 1), people fled to nearby camps guarded by the Ugandan army. B y February 2002, 1ife had begun to retum to normal and people began retuming to their farms. During their di splacement, their farms had been neglected, houses destroyed, a nd assets lost.The climate ofwestem Uganda supports the production ofa wíde diversity ofcrops . Cassava, bananas, and sweet potatoes are important food crops, and groundnuts, rice, and beans are grown for consumption and sale. The cropping system has been described as the \" banana and coffee system,\" where coffee, introduced after the Second World War, replaced cotton, which had been predominant in the system (Parsons, 1970). Recently, however, coffee has been on the decline in favor of diversified cash cropping, with a bias towards cocoa.  In response to the conflict and repeated displacement, Catholic Relief Scrvices (CRS) planned and implemented a series of seed voucher and fair (SV &F) events. (These events, developed by CRS, support secd demand, in contrast to direct seed distribution, which supports supply.) T he lntemational Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), which has a special interest in biodiversity and experience with seed diversity fairs in Mali, was invited to carry out an extemal, real-time, evaluation of these events.In the SV &F approach, vouchers are issued to farm families identified as seed insecure (as indicated by repeated or prolonged displacement). Voucher recipients then negotiate seed purchases with sellers at special seed markets or fairs. At the end ofthe day, sellers redeem the vouchers for cash. Communities benefit two ways: ( 1) the seed insecure are able to choose the seed they want, and (2) the seed secure are able to sell seed (Remington et al., 2002).Before the seed fa ir, local CRS staff conducted a survey in which 19 farmers were asked what assets had been lost and what assets they had succeeded in reacquiring. The interviewed farmers had been displaced an average of four years each. Ni ne out of the 19 reported the loss of crops and farms among their top three lost assets. When asked to rank their most important crops, rice, beans, soybeans, vani ll a, groundnuts, and cocoa emerged as the to p six . Fanners reported that in norma l years, they acquired planting material for these crops from a wide range of sources, through social networks and from the govemment, as well as the ir own seed stocks . However, during the survey year, they responded overwhelmingly that they had had to source rice, beans, soybeans, and gro undnuts in the local market.In addition, 278 potential seed sellers ( 17 1 women and 107 men) were identified and interv iewed. In addition to determining their suppl y of seed and planting material for di fferent crops, this survey was used to in form potential sellers of the upcoming seed fairs. Ofthose interviewed, 93 responded that they would be able to sell rice, 11 7 had beans, six could sell maize, 23 had vani lla. 38 would be able to provide ground nuts, and one could sell cocoa. Wome n dominated the rice and bean sellers, and w hile the men had more vanilla than the women, men and women respondents indicated they were eq ual ly able to sell groundnuts . What made this group inte resting was thatthe majority ofthem reported fam1ing as their primary occupation (77% ofthe women and 85% ofthe men). The remaining 23 % ofthe women sellers identified themselves principally as traders. In addition to traders, severa l of the men li sted thei r occupation as carpenter. While many farmers citcd seed insecurity as a result or di splacement, many others were indeed able to provide the demanded seeds.O ver many years, farmer decisions and selections have resulted in a diverse cropping system in Bundibugyo. Th is combination of crops and varieties is referred to as agrobiodiversity in this article. Agrobiodiversity has three majar advantages (Grum et al. , 2002;IPGR I, 1999):• lt fulfil s different uses. For example, not all banana varieties can be used for local brcw.• lt optim izes different resources (labor. land, cash).• lt mitigates unpredictabi li ty due to water, soil, and pcsts.The scope of this study was to look at the impact ofseed vouchers and fairs on agrobiodiversity, within the context of agri c ultura ! recovery from conflict. The central research question was What was thc influence o f the conflict and of thc sccd vouc hcrs & fairs on agrobiod ivcrsity?The fol lowing questions related to the effectiveness of the seed vouchers & fairs were asked:• How do farmers normall y acquire seed?• How did they obtain seed this year?• How would they ha ve acquired seed in the absence of seed vouchers & fairs?• What crops and varieties did voucher holde rs acqu ire at the fairs?• What did voucher holders want to purchase that was not available at the fa irs?• Did the people plant the seed they acquired in exchange fo r their vouchers?:lddn•ssit1g Srnl Securil) in /Ji.w.,ln He.1ponse: Linking Relieflcith Ot•relopmrn/ Related to the impact on agrobiodiversity, the following questions were asked:• What crops and varieties are available in the region?• Why do people have specific crops and varieties?• Have any new varieties been acquired recently?• Have any varieties been lost recentl y?• If so, what was the reason for the loss?• What varieties were on offer at the fair and why?• What varieties were not on offer at the fair and why not?• Did the seed fair increase agrobiodiversity?Data was collected with two surveys. The first, \"real time\" survey was administered to the beneficiaries on the day of the fairs. The second survey was carried out two months later, using the four-square analysis method.At each of the seed fair sites, six community enumerators administered the survey to departing participants. Responses were recorded for 183 beneficiaries (6% of the 3100 beneficiaries ).The four-square analysis is a method that helps obtain g reater detail on agrobiodiversity at the vi llage and farm level. In it, a group of farmers brings a sample of each variety he or she is growing. A large cross is drawn on the ground to distinguish four categories or squares (figure 2).Many householdsLarge area Small area Few households Few householdsFigtll\"e 2. The four squares A voluntecr displays the first sample and the other farmers decide whether it is grown on a large or a small area and whether or not it is grown by many or by few households. After the first sample has been placed in the square, another farmer takes hislher varieties and puts them in the correct square. Ifthere is airead y a variety in that square, the group has to decide if it is grown more or less than the first crop. This goes on until all crops are placed. Farmers quickly grasp the process and begin to coordinate it. After all the existing varieties ha ve been placed, the farmers discuss and identify crops or varieties that ha ve been los t.For each variety, the following information was collected:• What is the variety name?• When was it first used?Addressing SPed Srcurily in Disasler Respume: Linking Relief wilh Developmenl• When was it last used?• What was the geographical so urce of the variety?• How was the variety first obtained (what was the initial source)?• Positive traits of the variety • Negative traits ofthe variety• What was the normal seed channel?• How was it obtained during the displacement?• How was it obtained this current season?This process results in a display of the present state of the plant genetic resources and history of each crop in the area-in this case, Bundibugyo. Important events that changed the number of varieties as well as the sources of new varieties al so carne out in our survey (Sthapit et al.,200 1 ). The four-square analysis can be adjusted for different purposes (see box 1 ).At one location the people in charge did not use the four-square analysis correctly and it was therefore not useful to include those results in our analysis. The results from only six locations have been synthesized for this report.1The four squares can be used in many different ways. lt can be used for animals (large/small scale by many or few households) or for crops in general, not just varíeties. You can even explain why people drink a lot of Coca Cola and not so much Fanta citron. We have also heard people using it to look at low-inpuVhigh-input, low-outpuVhigh-output activities on farm s. This was done in the case of labor restrictions and income possibilities related to HIV/AIDS (Ard Lengkeek, personal communication). Or if you want to compare how a system was 30 years ago, you divide the people into young and otd. Men and women often have different perceptions. Possibilities are endless. In general, we see the four-sq uare analysis too! as simple and understandable for everybody and therefore appropriate for a lot of participatory research.Three thousand one hundred families from three sub-counties were targeted in seven seed fairs. Each beneficiary received vouchers worth a total ofUS $7.50. From the farmers' perspective, a variety name is the basic unit fo r distinguishing varieties. The fo ur-square analysis provided useful information. In total , participants mentioned 35 crops and 23 1 varieties that they were currently growing in the region. Each village seemed to have a number ofunique varieties, based on names alone. Adding six varieties brought to the fairs but not mentioned during the four-square analyses, we arrived at a total of237 varieties.Ten crops and 24 varieties were present at the seed fairs. However, the enumerators did not name cocoa, groundnuts, maize, soybeans, and vanilla by variety, which meant that diversity was undercounted. We estima te that there were in fact a total of 76 varieties on offer at the fairs.----~----------- Notably absent at the fairs were bananas, swect potatoes, and cassava. Planting material ofthese crops is not exchanged in ordinary markets; during the preliminary survey, fanners explained that vegetatively propagated crops are usuall y sold in situ, so that you can get a perspective ofthe full crop when you are buying.Based on the amount of money spent on ea eh crop, one can see that beans and rice were the maj ar crops purchased at the seed fa ir (figure 3).Crop at the seedfairFigure 3. Money used on sp ecific crops during the seed fair (The per•centage is the percenlage of money that was registered by the questiom1aires.)With rice and beans being the most traded crops (83% of the total), it is interesting to look at their distribution as described through the four-square analysis. From the four-square analysis, we can see that most ofthe rice varieties are grown by few people on a small area, and only 20% of the varieties were seen at the seed fair. When a variety is common in one location, it is very likely to appear in another location as well, including the seed fairs. In fact, the more comrnon a certain variety is, the more likely it is to show up at the seed fair. In table 2 one can see how this pattem emerged w ith rice. We can also see that rare varieties are less likely to show up at the fair. For example, rice has fewer varieties and there are also fewer varieties on the market. T here were two rice varieties at the seed fair that were not mentioned in the four-square analysis. These were not widely traded (figure 4 ).  Jt is interesting to note that during the four-square analysis, people did not mention four of the varieties ofbeans that were present at the seed fairs. While this is 27% ofthe number ofvarieties we recorded during the fo ur-square analyses, financially each of these varieties represents less than 1% of the total amount traded at the seed fair, so their contribution is insignificant.The conclusion concemíng crop agrobiodi versity is that both demand and suppl y focus on the important varieties-those grown by many households in large areas. Rare varieties are either not so ld by farmers, not purchased by traders, or they may be mixed with the dominant variety and therefore lost in a varietal mixture.Most participants purchased rice and beans (table 3). O ver two-th irds of participants bought beans, and more than hal f of participants bought rice. The table shows the average number of crops bought and thc average numbe r of varieties a participant acquired when buying a specific crop. In the case of soybeans, for example, thi s means that whe n a pcrson boug ht soybeans, he or she also boug ht two other crops.According to the survey, 37% of the pa rticipants were women. For rice, beans, and groundnut, there is no clear gender preference (Chi-square test, 0.90 reliability), although women seem to ha ve a slig ht (not signiticant) preference for beans, vanilla, and onions (however, the sample size for vanilla and onions is small).According to participants, 89% of all the seeds they bought were of good quality, 5% were average, and in 6% ofthe cases, quality was not deterrnincd. Almost all ofthe pa rticipants (98%) stated that they were already working ful l time on their farrn. This d id not mean, however, that they were not spending nights in the camps for in temall y displaced persons. Ninety percent stated that they would not have been able to get seeds for growing without the fair; thc mai n reason given being lack of funds (52% of all beneficiaries). E ight percent claimed that thc seed fair would he lp them pay school fees, indicating that the seed fa ir enabled them to divert money from buying seed to other priorities.ineteen percent of the farrners c laimed that they wanted a specitic variety or c rop that was either not available or not available in sufticient quantity to satisfy demand. In all cases, fa rrners knew w here to obtain thc vari ety. Therefore, we can conclude that no desired varieties were lost. During the four-square analysis, we asked where participants sourced their seed for each variety. Severa] sources were possible (fi gure 5).  The year of our survey, participants received a lmost 20% oftheir seed at the seed fairs-a so urce that did not exist befare. Own saved seed was reduced by 10%, seeds from social networks by 5%, and seed purchased at the market by 4%, indicating that the conflict and displacement resulted in a shi ft in seed sources, especially in a reduction of own saved seed.The c rops and varieties that are available in tlw r egionIn table 4, one can see how the crops mentioned by participants were categorized in the four-square analyses.Table 4 shows the crops grown in fi ve locations. T he maximum number of times a crop can be mentioned is therefore fi ve. It is puzzling that there were only two maize transactions at the fairs bccause maize is grown on large areas by most househo lds in the region. Although sweet potatoes are an important crop in four ofthe locations, cassava in three, and yams in two, they were absent from the fairs. This indicates a need to devise an altemati ve mcchani sm to facilitate exchange of thcse crops when promoting agrobiodiversity is a priori ty.Thf' varie ties at the seed fairDuring the four-square analysis, farmers mentio ned most often the following characteristics of popular varieties:• income generating• a crop that also can be used as a food crop • high yieldingAddressing Seed Securit.\\ in Disaster Hf'sponse: Linking Rrlief with f),.,.,.fopmcnt• good taste• used al so for firewood ( cassava, coffee, cocoa)• additional uses (oil, coffee, flour, lotion)• resistant to diseases• not labor intensive (no weeding)• problems with drought, wind, or water logging Although farmers maintained that the rice variety kamusesere was not grown before the war, it was in high demand at the fairs. lt yields three times ayear and provides a source of income as wcll as food. The fact that it emerged during the con flict indicates that confl ict and displacement do not hinder acccss to new crops and varieties-and may actually present new opportunities. Small area, few households Avocados (5), Tomatoes (5), Onions (5), Sugarcane (4), Coffee (4), Pineapples (4), Eggplants (4), Vanilla (3), Soybeans (3), Groundnuts (3), Yams (3), Oranges (3), Green grams (3), Passion fruit (3), Pumpkins (3), Mighobe (2), Sesame (2), Mangoes (2) , Cabbages (2) , Green dodo (2) , Jackfruit (2), Pawpaws (2), Sweet potatoes (1 ), lrish potatoes (1 ), Pigeon Peas (1 ), Dodo (1 ), Moringa (1 ), Sorghum (1 ), Nswiga (1) Sorghum (4), Wheat (3), Sesame (2), Millet (2), Banana fruit (1 ), Pumpkins (1 ), lrish potatoes (1)Note: This exercise was repeated in five locations. The numbers in pare nthesis indicatc how often a certain crop was put in the specific square, which gives an overvicw ofthe importance ofthe crops across the fi vc locations. The exercise was also repeated for each crop with the varieties placed in the different squares.Farmers had stopped planting 2% ofthe 23 1 varieties that existed prior to the conflict, but had added 14 new varieties, which represents a 2% net increase in agrobiodi versity. No varieties were mentioned as having been lost due to the conflict; rather, it appears that old varieties were replaced by new varieties with superior characteristics (better yield, shorter maturation, higher market value, etc).During the post seed fair evaluation, we also asked when a variety was introduced. We were able to trace 94 varieties (figure 6).Figure 6. Pet•iod of origin of varieties in the Btmdibugyo at•e a (These are varieties that are still grown there. V arieties that were introduc ed in the same period but are no longer grown are not include d in this graph. This probably m e ans that in the period 1940-1969 m an y more varietie s were introduced than are shown here .)The four-square analysis presented a very d iverse fa rming system, but we saw that the majority of participants bought only two crops and varieties at the seed fairs. Although no farmer would have al! or even most of the 237 varieties, every farm would have substantially more varieta l di versity than the two varieties that fa rmers acquired at the fairs. T herefore, we can conclude that seed vouchers and fai rs do not significantly contribute to an increase in the agrobiodi versity on the average farm.lt is not clear wh y varieties grown by many people on a small area were poorly represented at the seed fair. There are severa] possible explanations: it could mean that they are also poorly represented at regular markets, but it could al so mean that a seed fa ir is an exceptional event and sellers bring a different set of varieties compared to what they normally would. This may depend on what they think they will sell on the basis of information they obtain before the fair. A ltemati vely, it might also be a question of demand since these varieties are cultivated o n small areas for consumption. Without strong demand, sellers would not bring them to the fair. It might also be an issue of price. If rare varie ties are more expensive, sell ers might believe that the demand will be low. There are no agriculture input stockists in Bundibugyo who carry commercial seed. lt was not surprising, therefore, that commercial seed companies did not participate in the fairs and that the formal sector offerings were restricted to cocoa and coffee seedl ings.The question of whether fanners could have accessed seed themselves (e.g., bought or exchanged it without assistance) is problematic. Although 63% ofthe respondents stated that it would not have been poss ible, it is likely that difficulty obtaining seed was exaggerated in order to increase the likelihood of receiving assi stance in the form of physical capital (seeds and tools) or financia! capital (cash or vouchers).Reference to seed fairs is common in the literature. The more common form of secd fairs, known as \"diversity fairs\" or \"seed diversity fairs,\" generally refers to special venues designed to encourage and facilitate agrobiodiversity through farmer exchanges. On the other hand, seed vouchers and fairs support fanners' demands for seed to assist with immediate recovery from a disaster. 1 f the objective is to promote agrobiodiversity, perhaps in a follow-on recovery phase, then a \"seed diversity fair\" might be considered as the appropriate intervention. The difference between the two is explained in table 5.As we have seen from this document, as a relief activity, seed vouchers and fairs help restare agrobiodiversity. It would be good practice to increase the resilience of the fanners' seed system by promoting agrobiodiversity or increasing agro-varictal tumover as well. We think this could be done by integrating the seed voucher and fair approach with some ofthe key elements ofthe seed d iversity fa ir. stimulati ng farmers to bring as much diversity as possible by awarding prizes to the one w ith the most varieties and associated know ledge.When the target group involved in a seed voucher and fair acti vity is experiencing a less acute/more chronic stress situation, it might be use fui to explore whether sorne aspects of seed diversity fairs could be included in the more emergency-oriented seed voucher & fair activity.Seed vouchers and fairs enable seed-insecure farm fa milies to access seed of preferred crops and varieties in the fo llowing ways:• People are able to choose what they need .• The material that is available is local, so it is ada pted to the growing conditions.• The local seed system is part of the rel icf effort However, the seed vouchers and fairs carried out in Bundibugyo, western Uganda, did not specifica ll y promote agrobiodivers ity. While there was a fairly good representation of diversity among the mai n crops at the fair, there were unexplained gaps. Maize was hard ly present at the seed fai rs, in spite of its importance, and numerous minar crops and varieties were completely absent.The re are a couple of important considerations to keep in mind:• New varieties have to be promoted along w ith knowledge. Accepting new varieties is always accompanied by risk beca use farmers do not know if the material is sui tablc for their region and their specific management practices.• The introduction ofnew materi al is perhaps not suited to acute situations, but it is crucial in chronic si tuations.• For the promotion ofbiodiversity, seed di versity fa irs are a suitable option to promote both the new and the o ld. • The combination of seed vouchers and fa irs with seed diversity fai rs can lead to increased variety tumover and, therefore, toa more producti ve and resilient seed system.There is no clear indication that current seed sources are different from what there was befare the confl ict, but it appears that agri cultura! recovery is nearl y complete. It also appears that fa rmers did not lose varieti es worth keeping and that variety tu m over is as good or even better (i.e., there are more and/or better varieties) than befare the confiict. This report presents a comparative analysis of two different approaches used in emergency seed distribution in predominantly semiarid eastem Kenya: direct seed distribution (DSD) and seed vouchers and fairs (SV &F). The decade from 1992 to 2002 witnessed intermittent droughts in eastem Kenya, with major crop failures reported in 1993, 1996, 1999, and 2000. The Govemment of Kenya and other relief agencies responded to the disasters with DSD. Based on experience in northem Uganda, SV &F was tested in six districts in eastem Kenya and one district in central Kenya during the periods preceding the short rains in 2000 and 2001 .The results ofthe ana lysis show that more funds are invested in DSD and therefore larger quantities of seed are procured and distributed to more beneficiary fam ilies over a wider geographic area than in SV &F. However, DSD has problems of targeting and timeliness, and due to the wider coverage and broader targeting, less seed is di stri buted to each beneficiary famil y. In contrast, SV &F was better at targeting individual beneficiaries and was timed better: the seed reached the target beneficiaries prior to the on-set of rains. DSD seed is procured mainly from registered prívate seed companies that supply certified seed, although there are a few cases where \"emergency-grade seed\" was procured and distributed through the system. SV &F provides vouchers to identi fied seed-needy fanners who use them fo r the seed oftheir choice during organized seed fairs. The amount ofseed received by each benefitting household was higher under SV &F compared to DSD. V arieta! composition and number of crop species distributed was also higher under SV &F. Conceming the costs invo lved in the implementation of the two schemes, SV &F was associated with higher faci litation costs compared to DSD. However, the analysis of cost effectiveness revealed that SV &F was financ iall y more attractive in benefit-cost ratios. Provision of seed through the SV &F al so tends to enhance the local seed system.The study recommends a policy change to fac il itate a combination of the positive attributes o f both approaches, as well as a policy change to allow procurement of \"emergency-grade seed\" of betteradapted drought-tolerant crops by relief agencies during drought emergencies.l. Michael Makokha is the Communicating Author: C/0 Box 30148, Nairobi , Tel: 254-66-32884, 254-722-328563, 254-733-685808, mikemako67@yahoo.com The !ive!ihood ofthe approximately 3.8 mili io n inhabitants ofeastern Kenya is mainly from sma ll-scale, subsistence-based agriculture. Both crops and !ivestock are important parts of the farming system and form the main sources offood and income for over 90% ofthe populati on. Farm s ize varíes between two and seven hectares per household, larger in more arid zones. The land each fam ily devotes to crops ranges from 30% to 50%, agai n depending on the zones; the remainder is used for livestock. ln the subsistence agriculture common in the ASALs, farmers produce a broad range of crops and varieties to meet their basic needs and also to avoid the risk of total crop fa ilure. The majar crops include cereals (maize, sorghum, and millet) and grain legumes (beans, pigeonpeas, cowpeas, green grams). Cotton, cassava, sweet potatoes, sunflowers, dolicho beans, castor beans, gourds, and chickpeas are a!so grown as part of the common mixed-fanning system. Severa! socioeconomic factors ha ve contributed to the dec lining productivity of ASAL regions. Farmers face problems selling surpluses produced in good seasons because they are poorly linked to markets.Few know where, when, and how to market their produce because they lack market information and have been unable to organize themselves into effective marketing groups. Consequently, they rely on local markets and middlemen who rarely offer attractive prices. Poor infrastructure further complicates the time\\y delivery of inputs and sale of produce. The problem ís most severe during the rainy seasons because most roads become impassable. Transport is costly and often very unreliable. High transport costs ínflate the cost of inputs and reduce profits from commodity sales. Although many producers have traditionally relied on family labor, availability is no longer guaranteed since most ofthe young people are either in school or have left in search ofpaid employment in urban centers. Few fanners can afford hired labor because of the need to finance education, health, food, and clothing, among other things. Although policies to improve the quality of livi ng in the ASALs have been forrnulated , their implementation has been poor.The ASALs of the eastem Kenya region are characterized by a bimoda l rainfall pattem with peaks in April (the long rains) and November (short rains). Ranging between 400mm and 800mm annually, w ith a mean of700mm, rainfall is scant, unreliable, and poorly distributed . The short rains receive a mean of 400mm and are more reliable compared to long rains, which ha ve a mean of 300mm.The seasonal rainfall during the 12 years ffom 1990 to 2001 is presented in figure 1 for Katumani Station, which is located in Machakos and is representative of ASAL areas. lt can be seen that the long rains were below average in nine of the 12 years and above average only in three. The more-reliable short rains were abo ve average in five of the 12 years, average in two, and below average in five.The majority of the households in the ASAL agro-ecosystems depend on crops for their food security. The prolonged droughts that result from below-average rainfall, such as occurred between 1990 and  2001 , compel most farm families to exhaust all their available grain, includ ing what is normally kept for seed. Thus, food insecurity is usually associated with seed insecurity. For instance, in the year 2000, the estimated 178,978 households that required food in ASAL districts also required seed.Two seed delivery systems, the formal and infmmal, are operational in Kenya.In the formal seed production system, processing, packaging, labeling, and marketing of certified seed is done by registered producers. This normally involves prívate or public seed companies with outlets in many parts of the country, especially in town centers. Leading seed companies in Kenya include the Kenya Seed Company, East African Seed Company, Westem Grain and Seed Company, and Faida Seeds. There are about 38 registered seed companies in Kenya, most of which produce seed for cereal crops, especially maize, wheat, barley, sorghum, and legumes (especially beans), and vegetables. Except for maize-which Kimenye (1999) says are mainly open-pollinated varieties (OPVs)--the comrnercial seed sector accounts for less than 5% ofthe seed sown in ASAL areas during the years with normal rainfall (personal comrnunication, District Crops Officer, Tharaka District). Very little certified seed of open-poll inated crops such as pigeonpeas, cowpeas, sorghum, millet, and green grams (which are usually grown by resource-poor farmers who mainly live in ASALs) is produced by private seed companies, and 95% of what is produced is exported directly and/or sold to NGOs for distribution locally or in foreign countries (Kimenye, 1999). The prívate seed companies do not produce seed of vegetatively propagated crops either. They are profit-driven and consider the seed of crops adaptable to ASAL areas not only expensive to produce and market, but also subject to unreliable demand.ln the informal seed delivery system, production, processing, marketing, and/or distribution of seed is done by unregistered farmer seed producers. This seed is variable in quality and is not produced under a certification scheme. Production and marketing are often localized and based on low-input technology. Key players in this system include NGOs, farmers, farmer groups, researchers, and comrnunity-based organizations. The informal system produces localland-races, improved OPVs, anda blend ofthe two.For most of the crops grown in ASALs, farmers obtain seed from local sources, especially their own saved seed, and social networks (relatíves, neighboring farmers, and grain traders in open-air markets).The majority of farmers rel y on seed saved from their own harvests and continue recycling seed as long as the harvest is \"adequate\" and they are able to keep some for subsequent seasons. Local traders play a critica( role in rural communities by purchasing grain at harvest, storing it and later selling it back to the same fanners, either for food oras seed at planting time (Sperling, 2001 ). These traditional seed systems are critica! to the livelihoods of poor households in the supply of both food and seed. During emergencies, relief and seed given as gifts beco me an important source of acquiring seed (Audi 2000). This is best exemplified by a Kamba saying, \"mbeu ndivatanawa,\" which, literally translated, means that \"one cannot be denied planting seed.\" Seed bought from local markets also proves key (Sperling 2001(Sperling ' 2002)).The informal sector accounts for over 90% of the seed sown in ASAL regions. Beca use it is based on rain-fed cropping systems, it is highly vulnerable to drought stress, resulting in severe shortages.Although producers in the informal sector ha ve limited access to breeders and basic seed of improved varieties, the local system has potential for sustainabili ty partly because it is derived from traditional systems and has Iimited demand for extemal inputs.Seed relief is a relatively new development in Kenya. lt began in 1992 as an effort to supply seeds to communities faced with food and acute seed shortages following drought. No record or report is available for an assessment of the seed situation in Kenya, but seed distribution has always followed food di stribution in the majority of locations. A number of factors have been considered in identifying geographicallocations and potential beneficiaries for seed, usually provided by Ministry of Agricul ture staff and including the following:• the prevailing food/seed insecurity in drought-prone areas• the actual nwnber of households that are affected by food/seed insecurity • the existing crop and farming systems in the targeted areas, including the crop planting density per population and cropping seasons (long-and short-rain seasons) • suitable crop species and varieties, based on agro-ecological conditions and existing crop and farming systems • the land area to be planted to different crops • the total amount of appropriate seed in terms of quantity/quality required for the affected areas, and existing capacity for packaging and distributing the seed • the potential sources of seed and their availability among the licensed merchants, approved stockists, and small seed enterpri ses • weather forecasts and advice on suitable crops for the anticipated amount and distri bution of precipitation During droughts, governmental and nongovemmental organizations have responded not only with food aid, but also with \"a package\" that includes seed and, in sorne cases, tools for land preparation and other crop-husbandry operations. lt has been anticipated that the seed distributed to farmers would serve as a boost in restoring their capacity to produce crops and seed for subsequent seasons.Tn the l990s, most of this seed aid followed a centralized tendering and distribution system to the affected areas, with little participation ofthe target groups. However, with the introduction ofthe World Food Program's (WFP) community-based food distribution system in 2000, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) started shifting their seed distribution policy towards strengthening communi ty-based systems and promoting the use of seed of locally avai lable and adapted crop species.Two approaches, direct seed distribution (DSD) and seed vouchers and fairs (SV &F), ha ve been used to distribute emergency seed in eastem Kenya. Many organizations (both NGOs and government agencies) have followed and continue to foll ow the DSD approach.In this approach, the organizations request seed quotations from registered seed compani es. Once the companies respond, the quotations are assessed, based on the unit cost and the ability ofthe company to supply the types of crop, varieties, and amounts required. Successful bidders transport the seeds to the district headquarters in the affected area, where it is received by the implementing agency for storage, awaiting delivery to the divisions and finally to locations where the seed is distributed to the beneficiaries. Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Office of the President ha ve been used to distribute seed to beneficiaries. Where NGOs are involved, ground staff supervise the distribution.CRS and its local partners used the SV &F approach to distribute seed to needy households in Kenya for the first time during the short rains of 2000 and 2001. This approach involves special markets (fairs) organized for farmers and local traders with surplus grain to be sold as seed. Seed stockists and companies are also invited to bring certified seed to the fairs. Seed-needy farmers are identified and issued vouchers of given monetary value, which they exchange for seed of the crops, varieties, and amounts of their choice, depending on the monetary val u e of the seed vouchers. When the fa ir is o ver, seed sellers redeem the vouchers for cash .The overall aim of emergency seed distribution is to contribute to food and livelihood security by ensuring that fanners, especially the vulnerable ones, have access to adequate seed and planting materials. An effective emergency seed distribution system should therefore ensure that a large number of seed-needy households are reached. The basic features ( operational processes) of emergency seed distribution involve geographical and beneficiary targeting, identification ofseed sources, procurement, transportation to distribution points, setting up the distribution procedures, and communicating extension infonnation.Table 2 compares the operational features (processes) of the DSD and SV &F approaches. Most important to note is the fact that SV &F in vol ves and empowers the community in all the stages, thus building their capacity. As opposed to DSD, where farmers have no option but to accept the seed brought to them, SV &F empowers the community to identify seed-needy households, choose the crop, variety, and amount of seed to plant, bring seed to be exchanged, and even participate in seed quality inspection and price setting. With DSD, the community is involved only at the receiving end-they receive the seeds that are distributed. The process of seed sourcing, acquisition, transportatíon, and distribution is done by the govemment and NGOs.ln Kenya, emergency seed distribution is mainly associated with drought whose effect is gradual in both geographical and population coverage. It usua ll y starts from the most drought prone moving to the lesser drought prone districts as drought persists across seasons.Between 1992 and 2002, Kenya suffered through three major drought periods (1992-1993, 1996-1997, 2000-2002), in which food and seed were distributed to the affected regions and population. During these major drought periods, o ver 42 districts benefitted from seed distribution in Kenya. In the droughts of 1992-93 and 1996-97, the govemment and other development organizations used the DSD approach to distribute seeds to seed-needy households. In 1992-93 , seed was distributed to 32 districts, and between 1996 and 1997, it was distributed in 41 districts. In the period between 2000 and 2002, both the DSD and SV &F approaches were u sed to distribute seed in 42 districts in the country, out of which, the DSD approach was used in 34 and both DSD and SV &F in eight districts, mainly in eastem Kenya.Data available from implementing organizations reveal that SV &F has only been implemented in three years in nine districts in Kenya. However, OSO has been implemented for o ver 1 O years in all the 42 districts where seed distribution has taken place. The NGOs and the Ministry of Agriculture stafftend to agree that as long as seeds are available with seed companies and transport log istics are in place, the DSD approach is easily replicable and can cover a wider geographical area within a short time period compared to the SV &F approach. This is mainly beca use DSD is implemented through govemment and other development agency structures that already exist and which are easily mobilized for seed distribution. However, seeds and transport are usually not in place in the quantities needed at the required time. Although more of the targeted districts can be reached through DSD, the distribution of seed from the districts to the divisions, locations, and households is usually delayed beyond the necessary planting period.The nature of the SV &F approach, which involves targeting the most affected locations or divisions within a district, may limít it to smaller geographical coverage. However, with time and more capacity building in the implementing institutions, SV&F may be a better approach since it targets the neediest locations. Targeting depends on the distributing agency. Some NGOs do their targeting according to criteria set by officials within their grassroots networks. ALRMP at times offers blanket distribution mainty to satisfy potitica\\ interests, though, theoretically, frontline extension officers are supposed to target needy households Community sets criteria through sub-village committees to identify and rank seed-needy householdsSeed companies, and at times small-seed enterprises such as irrigation schemes and community seed butking units --------Farmers, local market traders, research institutions, community seed bulking groups, small-and large-scale seed companies -------Requires a tendering process, or direct agreement with small seed enterprises 1No tendering process required . Seed vendors bring grains and certified seed to the seed fai r si te--------- Oiscussions with those who implemented DSD and SV &F (Ministry of Agriculture and NGO staft) revealed that when OSO approach is used, even households that were not seed deficient received seed; SV &F is more efficient in targeting seed-needy households.Types of crops/varie ties distrihuted DSD relies o n the crop varieties and quantities of seed available with seed companies. These are mainly improved crop varieties, which are released for cultivation in specified regions. For most ofthe dryland areas ofKenya, only a few crop varieties have been released for cultivation (Omanga, 2002) . This limits the number ofsuitable crops/varieties that are distributed to fam1ers thro ugh DSD. Nevertheless, maize, sorghum, beans, and cowpeas are the main crops that seed companies supply fo r emergency seed distribution.Discussions with Ministry of Agriculture crop officers in the various districts revealed that the most common maize varieties supplied for distribution in eastern Kenya d uri ng droug ht emergencies were DLC, KCB, H5 11 , H5 12, and H5 13. However, it is not uncommon to find that maize for high-potential areas, such as H5 12, H5 13, H 61 4, and H6 14, have also been included in the supplies (Mohamed,200 1). Two varieties of sorghum, Seredo and Serena, are the most common, while, in beans, the seed companies usually supply mwatimania and rosecoco.For drought-tolerant crop species like millet, cowpeas, green grams, pigeonpeas, and Dolichos beans, where few varieties have been released by research, the seed companies have been able to supply seeds but with no variety tag or )abe!. In most cases, it is only the name of the crop that is written on the package. This indica tes that some of the seed for these crops could be not certifíed but was purchased by seed companies from local markets.A sample of crops, varieties, and quantities supplied and distributed to benefíciaries through DSD are presented in table 4 for Makueni District, which is representative ofthe other districts.The crops and varieties/cultívars available during SV &F is representative ofthe cropping system ofthe area. In most SV &F distributions, various crops grown by farmers in the regían were avaiJable (table 5). These included maize, sorghum, millet, beans, cowpeas, green grams, pigeonpeas, Dol ichos beans, and chickpeas. Other crops that were brought to sorne ofthe seed fairs included cassava, sweet potatoes, and cotton. For each ofthese crops, farmers, traders, and seed companies brought completely differentiated varieties and cultivars. More crops and different crop varieties were brought for sale to farrners at SV &F events, compared to the number of crops and varieties that seed companies supplied through DSD.For DSD, the amount of seed supplied during the three drought periods largely depended on the availabi lity ofseed through seed companies, the price ofthe seed, and the availability offunds. Between 1992 and 2002, over 3219 tons ofseed worth 302 million shillings were supplied and di stributed by the govemment and NGOs in eastem Kenya using the DSD approach. During the drought period of 2000 and 2002, CRS and its partners distributed about 1020 tons ofseed worth 23 million shillings using the SV &F approach in eastem Kenya . A total of 51 SV &F events were conducted. At these events, 2169 seed vendors (farmers, traders, and seed companies) brought over 2500 tons of seed and sold 1020 tons to voucher ho lders (table 6).Despite the fact that beans and maize are not the best-adapted crops for the drought-prone areas of eastem Kenya, they still comprised the highest proportion of seed distributed by both DSD and SV &F. This is mainly due to taste preferences and suggests that a greater effort is needed in promoting drought-tolerant crop varieties through on-farm trials and demonstrations.Quantities of seed given to each household Generally, most of the stakeholders who are involved in emergency seed di stribution rely on technical backstopping from Ministry of Agriculture staffto provide estima tes ofthe amount ofseed to be given to each household. This is based on the average area of land per household and prevailing agroclimatic conditions. For most districts in ASAL eastem Kenya, the average land holding is between two and seven hectares. The seed budget per household is about 1 Okg of maize, 1 Okg ofbeans, 5kg of sorghum or millet, and another 5kg of cowpeas, pigeonpeas, or green grams, according to d istrict crops officers.The amount of seed that each househo1d got through govemment channels, in practice, depended on the number of members of each ho usehold who present at the dí stribution point. In most cases, the benefíciaries received between 3kg and 1 Okg of seed of various crop varieties (according to district crops offícers). However, when NGOs were involved, the quantities received by each household ranged from 8kg to 25kg (table 7). Seed distributed through govemment channels went to everyone who carne to the distribution point, but the NGOs were more targeted, giving seed to the already identified seed-needy households only. Through SV&F, the average amount of seed received by each benefíciary was 28kg.  An analysis of process and product compares the two approaches in emergency seed distribution in the context of logi stics and timeliness, quantities supplied and del ivered, capacity building, and process of seed acq uis ition. It also addresses spin-offs such as choice leeway, pricing, income redistri bution, and gender composition ofkey players. In the product analys is, we addressed the appropriateness oftypes of crops and va rieties distributed, adaptability ofthe seed to local conditions, quality of the seed-viability, purity-and the composition of the seed in tenns of crop species and varieti es.For any emergency seed distribution, logistics have to be put into place to ensure a timely supply ofseed to needy househo lds befare the onset ofthe rains. The two systems ofemergency seed distribution (DSD and SV&F) differ markedly in terms of the logistics involved, which begin from the identiftcation of drought-affected areas through to the procurement and distribution of seed to the targeted benefic iaries (table 8). The OSO involves a lengthy time consuming tendering process. lt also entails that the seeds have to be transported to the affected districts and locations. This is time consuming and more often the seed reaches the beneficiaries long after the onset of rains. For example, during the seed distribution of 2000 October short rains, most ofthe districts reported receiving seeds two weeks after the onset ofrains and sorne more than one month la ter (Mohamed,,200 l ).In SV&F, most ofthe seed distributed comes from the affected areas. lt onl y requires mobilization and sensitization of fa rmers, traders, seed stockists, and seed companies to take seed to selected seed fair sites that are closer to beneficiaries. The mobilizati on may take about two weeks. In fact, discussions with agriculture officials and farmers revealed that through SY &F, farmers received seed in time to plant before or at the onset of the rains in 2000 and 200 l. This is further supported by Mohamed's (200 1) evaluation findings.Apart fro m the seed-needy farmers who are the purported beneficiaries of both systems of emergency seed distribution, other stakeholders also benefit. Table 9 gives a summary of various categories of beneficiaries in each system and the nature of benefits. Under the S V &F approach, the farming cornmunities benefitted twice: once from seed received and also from money received by local seed vendors, which was injected into the local economy. On the other hand, under OSO, the farming cornmun ities only benefitted from receiving seed. The funds used to purchase the seed went to the seed companies. The active role played by the farming communities under SY &F helps enhance the sustainabili ty ofthe local seed market system because local seed vendors and farmers play a key role in the actual exchange ofvouchers for seed.In SY &F, the amounts of seed the voucher holders received depended on the prices ofthe grain (seed) in the seed fa ir. With the voucher value of700 shillings given to farmers during the seed fairs in 2001, most of the beneficiaries used 250 to purchase maíze, 250 to purchase beans, 1 00 to purchase sorghum and millet, and 100 for other grain legumes (table 1 0). Atan average price of 16, 38, 26, and 35 shillings per kilo of maize, beans, sorghum/mi ll et, and other legumes, respective1y, the beneficiaries took home an average of30kg of grain to be planted as seed. Only 8kg of certified commercial seed could be purchased for 700 shillings.In the OSO approach, the amount of seed received by households was decided by the implementing agency or the Ministry of Agricu lture. In most districts, each household was to receive about 1 Okg of maize, 5kg ofsorghum, 5kg ofbeans, and 2kg ofeither cowpeas, green grams, or pigeonpeas-a total of 22kg. However, the amount of seed finally received by the househo lds depended on what was supplied to the 1ocation or division and the number of househo1ds ata distribution point. Ouring 2000 and 2001 , most farmers receiving seed through DSO, took home an average 3kg to 1 Okg of seed to plan t.Table 11 gi ves a summary ofthe seed distributed in each district, the targeted farmers, and the estimated seed per household under the two systems. The average amount of seed supplied under the SV &F system was 28kg. T he highest amount of.seed was received in Tha,raka Oistrict, with each beneficiary receivi ng about 36kg of assorted seeds, whi1e the lowest amount was received in Kitui, where each beneficiary received 21 kg of assorted seed. Budget for distribution normally allocated to provincial No physical transportation by an independent administration yet Ministry of Agriculture officials are transporter requi red to reach targeted beneficiaries supposed to distribute seed to targeted beneficiaries.No officials of provincial administration nor extension Individual NGOs involved in seed distribution organize staff required to supervise distribution their grassroots network for actual distribution toNo elaborate packaging and storage facility required at targeted beneficiaries grassroots/village level Most ALRMP lorries in the districts are in disrepair and no specific funds are allocated for hiring lorries from prívate transporters to carry seed to target locations Some new districts lack adequate storage facilities for large quantities of seed sourced and distributed by the government. Most NGOs also lack storage facilities in target locations• Adequate time and properly planned logistics required to have the seed reach the beneficiaries-hence not capable of quick response to emergency \\ .• Literally no time spent on distribution to target communities, as each beneficiary gets hislher share to carry home• Decentralized system with ta rgeting on smaller scale-hence more accurate and easier to monitor and evaluate• Both buyers and sellers benefit-hence ensures targeting without creating conflict with in the community .   For each of the dryland crops, there are a number of varieties/cultivars that fanners can easily differentiate by local names and preferred characteristics. Indeed, different Iocall y adapted crops and crop varieties, which are not available in the formal seed sector but are important to food security in drought-prone areas, were brought for sale to the fairs. This helps develop an understanding of the biodiversity in crops and varieties and fanners' preferences for the various crops in each location. The seed fairs provided an opportunity for local seed vendors and seed-needy fanners to interact. lt also provided an opportunity to gather infonnation on the kinds of crops and varieties available for sale and fanners' preferences. In this way, the SV&F system strengthens the operation of local seed systems rather than undermining it.The promotion of seed-quality issues related to seed preservation, selection, and management of good-quality seed during sensitization meetings and fairs, as well as the involvement of local vendors and fanners under the SV &F scheme, considerably enhances the local seed supply system. Conversely, under the DSD scheme, all seed is purchased elsewhere and brought in for distribution in target Iocalities. The well-organized publicity and involvement of a considerable number of vendors, fanners, and commercial seed companies associated with SV &F make it possible to access a wider range of crops and varieties (see table 5). For example, during the implementation of the \"Emergency Provísion of Seeds to Drought Affected Farming Households\" project in Kenyan ASALs, sorne 43 varieties ofnine crops were bought at seed fairs, compared to only 27 varieties for seven crops provided through DSD. In the long tenn, the repeated provision of relief seed associated with DSD could unintentionally increase fanners' vulnerability by promoting false expectations, contributing to dependency on free assistance, and disrupting local seed markets (F AO, 2002b ). In this context, SV &F is less \"hannful\" as it enhances the local seed supply. Seventy percent ofthose who bring their own seed under SV &F are from the local communities, w hich ensures that a larger proportion ofthe funds committed to relief seed remains in the benefitting communities. For instance, of the US$ 276,000 spent on vouchers in the six districts under srudy in 2001 , approximately US$ 193,200 remained in the benefitting communities.The SV&F approach presents a \" leve! playing field\" upon which the commercial seed sector (seed companies and stockists) and the fanner seed system (fanners and market traders) can compete.However, the playing field can be easily tilted in favor ofthe commercial sector iffarmers are lectured on the superiority of commercial seed of improved varieties. lt can also be tilted towards the farmer system by encouraging voucher holders to buy locally so asto prevent the proceeds from the sale Jeaving the community.The SV &F methodology provides beneficiaries a choice of crops, varieties, and seed quality.It is an open process in which commercial seed companies, stockists (input supply shopkeepers), market grain traders, and small farmers can all participate. With competent, experienced, and proactive management, SV &F can provide farm fami lies with a choice between farmer and formal seed, as well as small quantities of seed of new varieties.Beneficiary access to information concet•ning quality of the supplied seedInterviews with representative farmers (F AO, 2002a) and officials of the Ministry of Agriculture (district crop officers) revealed that farmers have more leeway accessing information regarding adaptation to local environments and seed quality in SV &F, compared to OSO. This is mainly dueto the fact that in SV &F, farmers ha ve the freedom to choose the crop, variety, and amount of seed they want, within the constraint of the value of their vouchers. They al so have the freedom to choose what to bu y from a number of suppliers, who range from local stockists, seed companies, seed vendors, and fellow farmers. This way, they ha ve control over the quality of the seed that they take home. Under SV &F, farmers are al so in a position to choose the seed or combination of seeds that they prefer. The majority (over 50%) ofthose displaying seed for sale are fellow farmers and the benefíciaries are able to rate the quality oftheir seed based on experience because they live in the same community. On the other hand, under the DSD system, farmers are compelled to contend with what is provided to them, as they do not play any role in deciding either what is to be purchased or the crop mix in terms ofwhat is provided to them.Interviews with various stakeholders (farmers and extension staft) revealed that both the OSO and SV &F systems of emergency seed distribution enhance biodiversity through the introduction of new varieties and, even at times, crop species. The DSO system brings in certifíed seed, sorne of which is totally new to the target areas and, thus, enhances diversity of the crop species in such areas . SV &F involves participation of seed companies and other seed merchants who introduce new crop species and varieties in target areas. For instance, Westem Kenya Seed Company was able to display and sell new varieties of pigeonpeas, beans, millet, sorghum, and maize during the seed fairs in 2001 , which is an indication that farmers in the region actuall y seek seed of new varieties.Comparison ofthe two systems in terms ofability to satisfy the estimated demand revealed that the OSD system under ALRMP has rarely supplied the districts with the requested amounts. Using Machakos as an example (table 12), it can be seen that the amount of seed supplied for the much-needed varieties of maize, beans, cowpeas, and sorghum was far below the quantities ordered. On the other hand, the supply under SV&F is such that all vouchers are exchanged for seed and no farrner goes home with unused vouchers.Addressing Seed Securily in Disaster Response: Linking Relief with Development. 60 1 In a rder to implement emergency seed distribution, funds are required to meet the costs of purchase, transportation, and distribution. Depending on the approach used to distribute seed, these costs vary with the types of seed distributed and the distances between the di stribution locations and the district and seed company headquarters. At the NGO leve!, it was diffícult to get information on the amount and value of seed purchased and distributed. However, sorne data were avai lable from FAO Kenya, which coordinated seed distributions during the droughts of 2000 and 200 l . Based on the available data, we used two methods to compare the cost implicatíons ofDSD and SV &F:• information on the number of targeted beneficiaries and total project costs that was available for 2000 and 200 l from the F AO Kenya office, wh ich provided the overall costs involved in di stributing seed to each benefitting household under each of the two schemes. • the estimated costs of seed procurement, transportation, handling, and faci li tation, which addressed the cost effectiveness of each ofthe two schemes (adapted from a study on \"Compara ti ve Financia! Analysis ofthe Seed Vouchers and Fairs Scheme,\" FAO, 2002b).Table 13 compares the average cost and estimated amount of seed per beneficiary, and the estimated unit cost of seed for the DSD and SV &F distributions conducted in eastem Kenya during 2000 and 200 l.Only the cost of purchasing seed was included in this analysis since it was difficult to get other costs related to transportation and faci litation for DSD.The average cost of distributing seed to each beneficiary through DSD (545 Ksh) was almost identical to that ofSV &F (560 Ksh) in 2000, but less by 102 Ksh for the 2001 distribution. However, the amount of seed received by each household was far less in the DSD distribution: 4 .3kg through DSD in 2000, compared to 12.2kg in 2000 and 28. 7kg in 2001 through SV &F. The estimated unit cost of 128.2 Ksh/kg of seed for DSD in 2000 was considerable more than the cost ofa kilo ofseed distributed through SV&F: almost three times more for 2000 and six times more fo r 200 l.Addressing Seed Securily in Disaster Response: Linking Relief with Development. 61 1 128.4 45.9 22 .5Source: FAO (2002b).Considering the cost of seed, the DSD system is more expensive to implement than SV &F . The cost of the certified seed distributed in OSO is approximately s ix times more expens ive than the local grain that domina tes the seed exchanged in SV &F schemes.The relative cost-effectiveness the two schemes is presented in table 14, as adapted from FAO (2002b).Due to lack of data on all emergency seed dis tribution operations, the analysis was conducted on the basis of final reports and financia! statements from AMR EF, the impl ementing agency of DSD in Makueni District, and CRS , the implementing agency of SV &F in Mbeere, Tharaka, and Embu. Both schemes were implemented under the \"Emergency Provision of Seeds to Orought-Affected Farming Households\" project (OSRO/KEN/001 /SWE) funded by OFID through FAO. The CRS financia! budget and preliminary results for implementation of the \"Emergency Seeds Distribution by Voucher System fo r the ' Long' Rains in Eastem Kenya\" project (OSRO/KEN/101/UK) were also used.The maja r costs involved in implementing OSO included procurement of seed, transportation, handling, and facil itation. There were al so expenditures to cover the costs of procurement missions. In contrast, the costs of seed provision through the SV &F seed fairs in volved facilitation and the value of the vouchers. In table 14, a summary of the cost comparison is given, revealing that the combined costs of facilitation and transportation per benefíciary (and therefore the total costs per benefíciary) are lower for SV &F than for DSO (US$ 1.0 and US$ 2.3 for SV &F projects OSRO/ KEN/00 1/SWE and OSRO/KEN/ 10 1 /UK, respecti vely, compared to US$ 3.3 under DSD). The total cost of US$ 13.8 per household for OSO is e ven more expensive when one compares the amount of seed that each household rcceived .lt is evident in table 14 that the average price of seed was lower for SV &F in both 2000 and 2001 , compared to the price for OSO . However, the average cost for SV&F in 2000 was tvvice that ofSV&F in 200 l . This was attributed mainly to a change in market grain prices betvveen 2000 and 200 l. The grain prices were higher in 2000 due to grain shortages and high demand. Although direct seed distribution is based on the assumption that after a drought disaster, farm ing communities do not have enough seed, the experience with seed vouchers and fairs in eastern Kenya shows that despite the intermittent dro ughts that lead to repeated acute stress, the main constraint is one of access to seed as opposed to local seed availabili ty. T his is ev idenced in the fact that during SV&F ac ti vi ties, over 70% of the seed supplied was by local seed vendors and/or farmers w ho double as suppliers of\"seed\" during such fairs. This implics that thc local seed system is capable ofproviding the required seed even in situations of acute stress. Lack of access, which might be a result of widespread poverty, is the most likely exacerbating factor for the seed-related problems observed under conditions of acute stress.In the nonnal planting season before any prolonged drought, fanners in drought-prone areas prefer planting landraces from their own sources and/or open-air markets (Audi, 2001 ). This implies that there is a built-in tendency for communities in ASALs to keep their own seed for planting or for sale to others through open-air markets, a factor that further supports the theory that during acute seed problems, the required seed is available in the communities but not accessible to all .The normal supply of seed for distribution through OSO has been come from govenunental or commercial sectors. This has led toa narrow range of crops and varieties available to beneficiaries. The commercial seed sector produces mainly for the reliable markets in medium-to high-potential agroecological zones, which means that they are not likely to ha ve adequate stocks of species or varieties adapted for ASAL districts. A shift towards empowering local bulking and availability of crops and varieties that are appropriate to local conditions could facilitate the procurement of seed for emergency seed di stributions, if only the donors and relief agencies could be convinced to be more flexible in their seed-sourcing policies. There are many cases where locally produced \"emergency-grade seed\" has been sourced and distributed. For instance, fanners in the Yal a Oivision, Siaya Oistrict in Kenya (in collaboration with KARI, CIMMYT, and KEPHIS, and with financia! support from the Rockefeller Foundation) are currently bulking and selling unpacked and unbranded \"semi-certified seed\" among themselves in a cluster of 20 fanner groups. The same arrangement co uld be replicated in the A SA L districts of eastern Kenya.The fact that interventions have been needed each time there has been prolonged drought in eastem Kenya means that intennittent interventions have not resulted in establi shing a more resilient seed system that could sustaín itself through períods of acute stress without externa! intervention. There is therefore a need for a deeper understanding of the impact of relief seed on the rehabilitation of the seed system and promotion of system stability.At present, seed fairs are only used as a means of enabling seed-needy fanners to access seed for the crop or variety of their choice in desired quantities, subject to the constraints of the value of the seed vouchers. However, the SV &F approach holds the poten tia! for stimulating local seed enterprises because it empowers even the small-scale sellers to participate. The approach could be modified to facilitate seed fairs on a regular basis, where those w ith vouchers and those w illing to buy with cash could be brought together. Thís would help exploit the inherent empowennent and economic support of the approach, resulting in a more resilient and stable seed system in the drought-prone ASAL districts.The use of OSO and SV & F in emergency seed di stribution in eastern Kenya reveals that both approaches have strengths and weaknesses. OSO has been in ex istence longer and is therefore more familiar to donors, relief agencies, and govemment departments-both at top levels and grassroots. This means that it is easy to access funds from donors for O SO and to implement it on a wider scale. Also, the seed distributed through OSO is obtained mainly from commercial seed companies, so it is of know n quality. An analysis ofthe cost effectiveness ofthe two approaches reveals relatively lower facilitation costs associated with SV &F compared to OSO. Further more, the OSD approach al so suffers the weakness of being implemented from the top down, w ith little room for participation by players in the local seed system. This has the potential ofundennining local seed system and its stability. The reliance of OSO on seed from commercial seed sources means that it might fa il at times to get species and varietíes suítable to the target areas. The inherent bureaucratic red tape in procurement and di stribution al so has a negative impact on the timeliness of delivery and targeting of actual seed-needy households.Providing seeds through SV &F has the potential of enhancing the local seed system by giving the farmers the opportunity to choose seeds of the crops and varieties they want, which can save for following seasons; contributi ng to the development of social capital by recognizing the dignity of the beneficiaries and empowering them to choose seed of their preferred crops and varieties; us ing and supporting local crop diversity; linking to development through their capacity to choose, competitive seed markets, and development of agro-enterprises; enhancing local seed marketing systems by reinforcing existing market mechanisms and reducing externa! dependence; and strengthening the local cash economy because it provides financia! injections into the communities.The inherent weaknesses in SV &F include the inability to ascertain seed quality; its lack offamiliarity to most donors, relief agencies, and beneficiaries; and the risk associated with moving large amounts of cash.The study team is of the opinion that there are inherent strengths in both DSD and SV &F that could be built on to enhance the capacity ofthe interventions not only to bring the local seed systems back to their feet but to rehabilitare, stabilize, and sustain the systems. This study recommends that the program designs in emergency seed distribution should always include capacity building at all levels, which provides the recipients with the required ski lls and experiences necessary to maintain the stability and sustainability of the local seed system.SV &F opera tes on the premise that the seed is available in the communities and it is only access to that seed that crea tes a problem in a situation of acute stress. To ensure the sustainabihty of SV &F, small-scale production of open-pollinated varieties for sale as \"seed\" needs to be enhanced and strengthened in order to facilitate jump-starting small-seed enterprises, as well as intluencing policy on the production and sale of \"emergency-grade seed.\"More resources are currently being used under the DSD scheme, compared to SV &F. DSD also has a wider geographical reach than SV&F. However, comparative analysis ofthe two schemes reveals sorne inherent weaknesses in DSD, particularly with regard to targeting, timeliness, and lack of support for local seed systems. This study propases that the key stakeholders in the implementation of the two schemes should work collaborati vely with a view to incorporating the positive attributes of both for enhanced targeting, timeliness, and stabi lity of local seed markets.Activities for backstopping and institutionalization of small -seed enterprises in the production of standard or \"emergency-grade seed\" should be encouraged and supported. The govemment, through ALRMP, has shown its willingness to purchase and supply such seed (for example, the purchase of sorghum in Turkana). Stakeholders and other policymakers should exploit the precedent set by ALRMP and start lobbying for legalization of purchase and distribution of such seed by a l! relief organization during emergencies occasioned by droughts. local), cassava, sweet potatoes, sorghum, and finger millet are also widely sown, and there are a few cash crops: tea, coffee, snap beans, and sugar cane.Westem Kenya produces 12% of the total bean production in Kenya, although cultivation is largely concentrated on small plots and among small-scale farmers. Crop production has been constrained by low soil fertil ity anda build-up of pests and diseases. This is mostly dueto continuous cultivation, with very little use of fertilizer, soil amendments, or chemicals (for pest/disease control).Starting around 1989, bean production (and particularly yields) started to drop dramatically in westem Kenya. About 10% of farmers gave up bean production altogether in the more severely affected areas (Addend et al., 2004: 1 0). One ofthe causes ofthe decline was soon identified as bean root-rot, a complex of fungal pathogens which often emerges in depleted, intensively used soi ls.A great deal has been written about the response ofresearch institutions and development col laborators alike to the \"bean root-rot crisis.\" Among the more notable partnerships has been the collaboration ofthe Kenyan Agricultura! Research Institute (KARI), The Intemational Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIA T), and the Organic Matter Management Network (OMMN). Within a fairly short period, this group jointly diagnosed the root-rot problem and tested severa! options for pathogen control, both on-station and with farming communities. One ofthese options, the sowing ofbean varieties resistant to root-rot, subsequently achieved widespread adoption. A forma l survey in 2001 showed 35%-80% of farmers using the resi stant bush-bean gennplasm in the two districts in question, Kakamega and Yihiga (figure 1) (Addend et al., 2004).This case study focuses on key aspects of the spread of the root-rot resistant bean germplasm in the context of the overall OFDA-funded project. More generically, it examines the provision of new varieties asan emergency response and analyzes the varied seed channels for reaching farmers affected by stress. In particular, this case study was spurred by the observation that informal seed groups in areas in western Kenya Kakamega and Yihiga Districts) that had been devastated by root-rot seemed to be diffusing the resistant varieties widely and quickly. T he starting point of analysis was to understand how these informal seed groups functioned and how effective they were in a stress period such as the Kenyan one, where there was severe pathogen infection . The investigations were subsequently expanded to look at the role oflocal markets as well as the fonnal seed supply, asking how well each channel was reaching affected farmers and assessing the quality of the product on offer.The stressWhile the build-up of root-rot is a gradual problem, its manifestations on-farn1 were perceived by farmers as rather abrupt. This may be beca use a certain pathogen threshold has to be reached befare there is a marked drop in production. Starting about 1989-1990, farmers and extensionists alike started to perceive this drop as dramatic. In participatory rural appraisal exercises (KARl, 1997), fanners vividly described the yellowing (and then death) of plants just weeks after first emergence. Declining soil fertility, which aggravates the severity and enhances the manifestation of bean root-rot, was also increasingly evident at this time: subsidies of fertilizers for maize had just been withdrawn and many farmers who had regularly used fertilizer with maize (i n a routine maize/bean intercrop) had to do without. A survey carried out in 200 1 reported that bean root-rot did reach calamitous proportions in the 1990s, with 76% and 80% of the farmers in Kakamega and Yihiga, respectively, reporting clear experience w ith and destruction ofthe bean crop dueto bean root-rot (Addend et al., 2004). Note that Kakamega/Vihlga District fa rmers did not necessarily understand the speciftc causes (e.g., witchcraft was sometimes postu lated as the agent), but they had leamed to recognize the symptoms of root-rot.Diagnostic surveys followed-formal and informal (KARJ, 1999;Nderitu et al., 1997;Nekesa et al., 1998)-along with an arra y of on-station trials and laboratory tests (Otysula et al. , 1998). The complex of fungal pathogens causing the root-rot was eventuall y isolated into its varied forms: Fusarium solani fsp phaseo/i, Rhizoctonia sola ni, Sce/erotium rolfsii, and Pythium spp (Bu ruchara et al., 200 1 ). These diagnoses were made by varied actors, using both qual itati ve and quantitative methods, and moving in time toward greater scientifíc ri gor.lt is not easy to characterize this type of stress within the larger set of emergency scenarios. The root-rot epidemic probab ly straddles the acute/chronic stress di vide. The bui ld-up of soil pathogens and subsequent rot, while technically a g radual process, mani fested itself on-farm and, as perceived by the farmer, as a dramatic, acute decline in production . Many varieties in use at the time, including the most popular, GLP2, simply no longer produced yields. Howcver, the causes of the rot and decline in yields ha ve been s hown to be ftrml y systemic. Poverty, leading tono use of inputs or land rotation, meant that farmers had chronic production problems, which could be lessened by variety/seed inputs that, alone, could not solve the problem.This case also straddles diagnostic categories in terms of a seed-security analysis, which theoretically distinguishes between seed-related problems of avail ability, access, and qua lity (Remington et al., 2002). The complete dropping of bean cultivation by sorne farmers suggcsts the degree to which seed simply was not available locally (that is, nothing was available that would grow). Sorne fanners did buy a local variety from northem Tanzania (around Lake Victoria), ipunda, fro m the market. T hi s variety had sorne roo t-rot tolerance, so a limited amount of seed was accessible-if farmers had the funds. The fact that this bean did subsequently produce indicates that the issue of varietal quality could be sol ved, by sorne. However, since many local fanners dropped beans altogether, rather than sowing the Tanzanian option, the problem (lack of availability? access? quality?) is not clear-cut.In sum, this case study contains elcments of acute and chronic stress, in w hich all constraints of a seed security framework might be bro ught forward as concerns: problems with availability, access, and aspects of seed, such as varietal quaJity.The When it was recognized that there was a problem, researchers and development personnel mobilized relatively quickly (in researc h tenns) to identify options for helping fanners control and mitigate the root-rot stress. From 1990 to 1995, experiments were undertaken on three bas ic thrusts. The first concentrated on improving soil fcrtility (to counteract soil pathogens and enhance plant tolerance).Experiments were conducted with green manures, mulching, inorganic fertilizer, and ridging. All proved somewhat effective. The second thrust focused on enhanc ing existing seed, either coating the seed itself (employing local varieties) or using certified seed of already released materials. either of these had marked results. The third thrust, the promotion of varieties resistant to root-rot has been the most effective and most w ide ly adopted.Kenyan researchers screened hundreds of bean li nes locally and found no resistance (Otsyula et al., 1998). However, they had an advantage in that as promising varieties had already been identified through regional breeding programs and in the pathology nurseries of ncighbori ng countries where root-rot pressure had come earlier and with great severity. From among these varieties (ori g inating from the Great La kes region), researchers and fanners selected severa! promis ing lines, among them KK8, KK1 5, and K.K22 (KK standing for K.ARI Kakamega). These eventually e merged as both resistant to the root-rot and acceptable to users in the western Kenyan region. They di ffer in seed color, maturity, and y ield poten ti al (see annex 1 ), but all ha ve been widely adopted, largely due to a single factor: their resistance to the root-rot stress.This case study seeks to understand the opportunities and constraints of us ing varied diffusio n channels to spread new varieties. The study started with a focus on one particular conduit, the informal (farmer) seed produc er gro ups, as these were among the least understood ofthe diffusion channels in the region of interest and because initial observations suggested some potential impact. Seed production among small fanners in East and Central Africa, in general, is becoming a popular impl ementation option (especially during post-disaster recovery periods), so it bears closer scrutiny.Practically, the study seeks to gain insight into how these K.K varieties actually spread. As ofmid-2004, they still have not been formally released. This means that, in theory, these varieties cannot be increased or sold by govemment agents or in certified seed stores (commonly know as stockists in Kenya).Certified bean seed has never been in strong demand in such formal channels because farmers find the cost high and feel they can control the seed quality sufficiently themselves. (Certified bean seed con tributes about 1% of the total bean crop sown in Kenya.) However, farmers usually need an initial infusion of genetic materials to spur the broader diffusion process. In this case, without fonnal release, a first infusion was not available.Fieldwork for this study was primarily carried out in the districts of Kakamega and Vihiga in westem Kenya. Select market surveys were also carried out in these districts, as well as in Mumias-Butere.Four basic methods were used for gaining insight into the general agricultura\\ context and conducting specific seed system analyses.Documents, mostly in refereed joumals and gray literature (annual and progress report publications), were reviewed to give a background of l 0-year trends. The themes pursued included (a) agriculture in the westem Kenya region in general, (b) research and experimentation results in on-station and on-farm trials, (e) diagnostics on farming systems (including participatory rural appraisals (PRAs), and (d) adoption surveys of bean varieties in relation to root-rot.lnterviews were carried out among different types of seed suppliers and seed cl ients. These included groups of seed producers trained by KARI or OMMN (N=6), as well as individual seed producers (N=20), sorne ofwhom stated that they had received outside training. Those buying seed from these seed producers, seed buyers (N=30) were followed up in the chain. A third majar group, those in the more formal sector, were al so interviewed (N=8) to record their views on types of seed and seed sources. This formal-sector group included extension personnel, prívate seed company managers, and representatives from farmer cooperatives. All interviews used semi-structured questionnaires and elicited qualitative and quantitative insights.Surveys were carried out in eight regional markets in the s ix-week period prior to sowing time (from the end of January to mid-March). All bean sellers (N=202) were visited and their prod ucts inventoried, with 30% (N=6 1) directly interviewed. The purpose was to understand the profiles and sources of seed being sold and differences in beans for sowing versus eating. Market analysis also aimed to assess the overall availability of the resistant KARI varieties in public fora.Finally, formal analyses for seed quality were carried out in two separare research laboratories to compare standards among varietal materials (KK8, KK 15, and KK22) and among seed from a variety of sources (seed produced by trained farmers versus untrained farmers versus KARI seed versus seed procured on the open market) . Samples were tested for purity, germination, and seed health, including both seed-bome pathogens (relati ng to disease, per se) and saprophytes (relati ng largely to infection introduced in post-harvcst hand ling, which subsequentl y affects rates of germination). Annex 2 describes in sorne detail the laboratory analyses can•ied out at KARI /Kakamega (Kcnya) a nd CIA T/Kawanda (Uganda).In brief, the overall aim of the research strategy was to trace the main channels by which new varieties (and seed) might be accessed (markets, individual seed producers, groups of seed producers, etc.) and to compare and contrast their effectiveness a long varied criteria. Seed quality is one ofthese criteria. It was added because quality is often perceived as an obstacle to allowing development or emergency aid groups to use more local channels.The market analysis gives an overview of the extent of diffu sion of the root-rot-resistant KARl varieties. lt bears emphasizing again that these varieties have yet to be fonna ll y released and, in theory, are not available from any of the formal channels with which research might normally interact (i.e., govemment stockists, extension agents, or prívate seed companies). The KARI station itself has produced li mited quantities of these materials for the public, between about IOOkg and 300kg per season, since 1995 and at least through 2003 (KARI-Kakamega, Seed Un it, communication).The eight markets surveyed represent an area of about 90 kilometers (55 miles) in radius. Each was visited for a si ng le day, chosen because it was the principal selling day for that particular market-but with no other bias. As stated in the methods section, for all those selling beans, the products on sale were inventoried .Table 1 shows that across these markets, 43% to 77% ofall bean sellers had some ofthe resistant KARI varieties on sale. In six of the markets, all three varieties were found, and in the other two, KK 15 and KK22 were avai lable.The findings are unexpected ; in such a short period (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003), an impressive network of market sellers has been moving improved varieties, resistant to root-rot. Market analysis was also done on the full range of beans on o ffer among a subset of sellers (N=6 l ) eh osen randoml y from the whole group. Within this subset, inventaries wcre made of all the bean baskets on di sp lay, separating beans according to whether they were (a) research generated (improved) or \" local\" and (b) root-rot tolerant or not. It is important to note that somc ''local\" varieties (non-research generated) do show some tolerance to root-rot (see annex 1 ). Table 2 shows the profile of beans for this market subset (with proportions expressed in terms of \"baskets,\" rather than volume or weight). During this sowing period, January to March, relatively egua! sets of beans that were root-rot tolerant and those that were not were on offer. As traders explained, \"There are beans for food and beans for seed-and customers know the difference-and they need both.\" lnterviews w ith individual sellers indicated the degree to w hich varieties res istant to root-rot are particularly valued for sow ing. Their preference was also reflected in the price analysis, w ith resistant material sometimes fetching up to 20% to 35% more than the nonresistant material at peak planting time.Traders were quick to remark, however, that so me of the local varieties are sti ll considered among the tastiest and that post-sow ing, the prices of root-rot materi als tend to drop q uickly. In severa! markets, sellers commented that KK.l 5, though black and traditionally not preferred, remains a highly demanded item as it appears to be early maturing and fast cooking, and homemakers can easily remove the black coat for food preparation.Where did the market sellers obtain their stocks?. Interviews w ith traders and sellers showed that the sources were varied and, most of all , dispersed. No single source provided all the varieties on sale; rather, they were sourced from farmers in the countryside, middlemen, and even other market sellers. No market seller specifically mentioned specialized groups of seed producers as a so urce.Rural groups of seed producers were originally postulated to be an important means of diffusing these new varieties in the countryside. Five such groups were identified, all having been facilitated by sorne outside agency and having received sorne training related to seed production techniques. Table 3 summarizes the size and composition of the groups, w hen they started, and the breadth of activities in which they were engaged. lt is important to note that these groups might be considered to be \"informal\" seed producers: seed was just one of severa! enterprises they pursued, and they had received seed production training only once. As Table 3 shows, all groups started between 1995 and 2000, with between 25 and 50 members, and all but one seem to be in membership decline. All are also engaged in multiple activities in addition to seed production to give them income and greater sustai nability.Tnterestingly, all groups clearly stated that they embarked on bean seed production because the new varieties became available and because, due to the big disease problem, there was a strong demand for them. So, they started producing seed beca use of a varietal opportunity, not beca use there was a demand for clean seed or because seed quantities overall were low.In terms of organization for seed production, the actual joint ( or group) activities seem few. Most of the production is still done on an individual basis on fa rmers' home plots, although one group experimented wíth renting land together and, at the time of research, were waiting to see harvest res ults. In terms of seed, group acti vities seem limited to pooling for purposes of sale. In general, however, members each seem to dec ide their price alone and dispose ofthe beans (seed or food) as they wish.In group interviews, farmers described in detail how the resistant beans were being produced. All groups had received sorne seed-related training (two of them having been instructed by KARI scientists), yet, across the five sites, farrners described no special treatment between grain and seed in the field. As severa! ofthe groups had also been instructed in \" better agricultura! practices,\" they were starting to add manure and to plant beans in rows. After harvest, sorne used ashes or actellic to coat the beans. When sorting for their own use, farrners picked out the healthier beans at sowing ti me; such sorting was also sometimes done with beans destined for sale.Their recounting of distribution specifics gave further insight into how these groups function. All stated that at the beginning, the new beans they sold brought higher prices than those available Jocally, but no Longer (\"at the beginning, 100 Kenyan shillings (Kshs) per kilo; now, maybe 30 Kshs/kg\"). Among their constant buyers ha ve been the schools, who use thi s \"seed\" as food for their pupi ls, and hotels, who serve bean meals on a continua! basis.None of the groups has done any financia! analysis of their operations, although most of the farrners sense they are making money individually. Farmers variously described how bean production helped them to pay school fees (about 2000 Kshs/year) and buy school unif01ms, fertilizer, chickens, a bull, health care, and other necessities. The issue of scale of sales is pursued below, under \"individual seed producers,\" because it was easier to get quantitati ve data on bean dis tribution when farrners were interviewed one by one. In short, suppl y was neither sustained, nor very large: those who sold the largest quantities moved beans destined for consumption-and sold to schools and hotels. Sorne also sold the beans they did not immediately need for their own use.The conclusions to be drawn from speaking with the seed-producer groups are the fo llowing : they function little in terrns of direct collaboration, the beans they produce can be cons idered equally as grain or seed, and the amounts delivered tend to be modest. Financially, it seems clear that the groups themselves perceive that bean production (whether for seed or food ) results in profits, but alone, such production cannot give them a stable income-a vari ety of additional income-generating activities is required.The case study identified indi vidual seed producers through local word ofmouth. All 20 individual seed producers interviewed were local farrners, integrated w ithin the rural countryside. All had also devoted themselves to \"special bean production\" when the new KK varieties arrived on the scene. Like the seed producers associated with groups, these individuals saw a niche or a new demand because of the build-up of bean disease. About 40% of the individuals had further been in volved in the production of seed for other crops, including maize, local beans, cowpeas, and local vegetables. When asked if any special qualities made them seed producers, 75% said no, but the other 25% indicated two strengths: their other seed experience and, especially, the fact that they had larger p lots and, in a few cases, more fertile land.The analysis ofthe individual seed producers' profiles adds insight to the inforrnation on those who are associated with groups (who also seem to work primarily as individuals). Individual producers saw the demand for a new variety, not for seed, per se. Sixty per cent indicated that their production methods in the field were exactly the same for bean seed and food. The other 40% indicated that they did separate varieties when planting for seed, and 5% used fertilizer and planted in rows. The main treatment specifically for seed was applied post-harvest, when farrners sorted out the inert material along with the physically damaged and immature beans, and when they dusted the beans w ith ash or actell ic.Addressing Seed Security in Disaster Response: Unking Relief with Deoelopment. 77 1The Use oflnfonnal Seed Producer GroupsThe individual producers indicated that, at the beginning, the price for the new beans was higher than that oflocal varieties, but this was no longer true (five to six years later) as the new varieties had become more conunon. They were also not always clear whether their buyers were acquiring beans for seed or for food (and the use did not seem to make any difference to them because they did not demanda price differential). ln terms of the quantities distributed, the figures were highly variable. Taking the long rains of 2002 as an example, 20% did not distribute at all , and the four farmers (again 20%) who distributed most-an impressive 195kg, on average-sold the beans entirely for food to schools and hotels. On average, those who distributed or sold beans that were \"possibly used for seed\" sold about 20kg per season either to other farrners or rniddlemen . Assuming optimistically that half of this is planted, each seed producer provided 1 O kg of KK material s per season.Ninety percent of the individual producers perceived this production to be profitable, again using mi testones of purchase ( e.g., payi ng school fees or purchasing livestock). They al so indicated that the demand for beans is always there: \"Even when the new varieties are known, there is the demand for food.\" In terms of seed, per se, severa) of the producers anticipated an ongoing set of customers: \"When a farrner buys from another fanner, slhe knows what is being received-and can count on that quality. Also they may have seen it in the field. \" Sorne further observed that traders mix GLP585 and KK22 (both small red-seeded types), whereas fanner producers don't.In sum, it is not clear that the individual seed producers were specificall y producing seed, or whether they even considered their goal as selling seed, rather than food. lt appears that only limited quantities of beans are moved as seed, per se. Having said this, the individual producers, like those associated with groups, saw their bean transactions as profitable and aimed to continue producing and sellíng.The research agenda subsequently followed the chain to those who actuall y bought seed from the well-identified seed producers. Thirty farrners , a ll ofwhom were traced through specific producer links, were interviewed on-farrn to assess the importance of the root-rot-resistant varieties in tenns of their total bean sown, and to assess their satisfaction with the purchased seed product.In sorne respects, the seed buyers interviewed (N=30), seemed to have made radical changes in their bean production over the previous ti ve years. N inety-three present (28 out of 30) were sowing only the resistant KK varieties, having completely dropped local types because of their poor performance. This step could be quite risky for such farmers, putting all their beans in one basket, so to speak.Seed sourcing ln other ways, however, these farrners seemed typical of small-scale holders. Their modest holdings meant that they sowed, on average, limited amounts ofseed: 7.25kg during the short rains of2003 , with a range of0-22kg). Further, as table 4 shows, they tended to source their seed (nearly completely) from their own home-saved stocks: 88% ofthe quantity sown ca me from home stocks, with five farrners using solely home stocks. The farrners all commented that although they had at one time purchased the seed of the new variety from the seed producer (buying small initial quantities of 0.05kg to 1 kg), they had not purchased it again (and had no intention of doing so). These farrners simply re-sowed what they themselves harvested, again and again. Most buyers assessed the quality of seed received from seed producers as \"good\" (better than average). However, most also felt that it was not particularl y different from the seed they themselves ro utinely produced (table 5). Finally, each of the one-time buyers was able to li st severa! sources where she could obtain these resistan! varieties again, if needed. Getting a future supply s imply was not perceived as a problem.Diverse representati ves from the formal sector were also interviewed, for two majar reaso ns: the resistant varieties were not released and, hence, this sector was not offi cially responding to the stress. Second, varieties were being moved through uncertified channels and uncertified seed has a varied reputation within formal-sector circles. T he formal seed sector (and forma l research sector, in general) is often contrasted to fanning communities in terms of types know ledge-and viewpoints--on offer. Formal-sector personnel (seed and otherwise) are in charge of g iving expert advice and steeri ng communities to options. It is of interest to examine how fom1al-sector personnel perccive the rot problem, the varieties on offer, and the seed channels though which the varieties could presently be accessed.Eight professionals from different formal -sector institutions and levels were interviewed: Four worked direct ly with certified seed: representati ves from the Kenya Seed Company, the National Cereal Board, L'Agrotec h (a prívate company), and the Kenya Farmers' Association (KFA). The other four give advice to farmers on a regular basis: district extension officers (DEOs) or the district agricul tura! and lives lock extension officer (DALEO).There were sorne commonalities in the eight sets ofresponses: all knew ofthe root-rot problems in their zones of action. All but one also knew about the root-rot-resistant varieties being tested by KARl and also that they had not been released (the exception was the Cereal Board representa ti ve who dealt only in maize).The differences emerged when discussing whether farmers themselves produce seed of resistan! varicties for sale, and when eval uating its quality .As ta bl e 6 shows, two specialists from the fom1al sector (seed-production company representatives) felt that farmers should not be producing seed for sale, and that what they were producing was not of good quality: \" It is grain.\" \" Seed production practices are not followed: there is no isolation and no separating of off-types.\" The representative from the KF A, which al so se lis inputs to fanners, fc lt otherwise, and asserted that he himself, on his own plot, sowed bean seed from the market. Jn contrast, all four extension agents expressed the need for farmers in the region to have the resistan! varieties quickly. They knew the varieties were not released but stressed that this was a bureaucratic issue and that they needed to focus on raising productivity-and quickJy. All agents supported farmer production , either as a continua! process ora stop gap measure (to be bolstered by outside monitoring).T he extens ion agents further gave insights into the positi ve and negative attributes of forma l versus fanner channels-and how farmers in their zones perceived both. Agents emphasized that formal channels may also not be within geographic reach of farmers. Such channels supply a few varieties (GLP2, GLP24, GLP585 , GLP1004, GLPX92) but fanners like many others in addition to these. Most fundamentally, the agents reported that fanners perceived the seed from the formal sector as not genninating well (it is not handled well post-harvest).As assets of farmer-produced seed, the extension agents offered the following insights: fanners in the countryside can provide good channels of distribution because seed can be given as a gift to friends and relatives, exchange is possible (seed for grain), and the channel is physically nearer to fanners.In tenns of quality, all cons idered fanner seed as viable. However, they stressed that sorne fanners are known for producing better seed than others. The only real caution for the resistant varieties was that fanners might mix resistant and susceptible varieties (KK22 and GLP585). It is interesting to note that this is the same complaint fanner seed producers made against traders.So, in general, the seed-sector companies did not value farmer seed, except for the representative from the Kenya Fanners' Association (a nationwide body) who said he sows it himself. The extension agents generally felt it was \"okay\" in tenns of health, but wamed about mixing. However, they al so saw great advantages of using local channels in tenns of distributing a range of varieties, making seed available financially, and easing the logistics of distribution.As \"quality of seed\" seems to be a pivota) point for implementers deciding what kinds of production and diffusion channels to support, in the final step, laboratory analyses were carried out to assess key aspects ofthe quality (purity, gennination rate, and seed health) ofseed procured from a variety ofsources. Seed from four sources was compared and contrasted: seed produced for KARl (the fonnal sector), purchased from the market (local traders), produced by fanners trained in seed production, and produced by untrained fanners. Two separate batches of seed were collected and analyzed at two different laboratories, one in Kenya (KARl-Kakamega) and one in Uganda (CIAT/Kawanda). See annex TI for more methodological detail.The tests carried out at KARl-Kakamega were conducted on 36 samples of beans (encompassing the three KK varieties from four sources). Key results appear below (see annex II for detailed methodology).The mean purity percentage of seeds tested was 97 .5%. There was no significant di fference (p > .05) in bean purity between the three varieties (KK8, 15, and 22), but there was a significant difference (p S: .05) between local market samples and KARJ samples (figure 2). Having said this, all groups produced seed with purity above 95%--quite acceptab1e levels, even for commercial producers.The mean percentage gennination of seeds tested was 71 .6%, with a maximum gennination of98% from KK 15 and a mínimum of 34% for the same variety. Figure 3 shows the seed germination percentage from seed samples collected from the four groups. There was no significant difference in gennination in bean samples among the four groups (nor, in another analysis, between the three varieties).As the recommended mínimum lirillt of gennination is 70% (Aggrawal, 1994), on average, the germination rate ofthe seeds was good, both for seed produced fonnally and otherwise. In this analysis from KARl-Kakamega, the higher mean gennination ofseeds from the local market can be attributed to the long exposures in the sun during selling. When sell ing beans, sellers put them on traditional trays or The relatively low gem1ination rates ofthe KART-produced seed are noteworthy.Seed health in the KARI analyses gave the most unexpected results, with infcction rates running from O (from a KK8 and KK22 sample) to 24.0% (rrom a KK8 seed sample sourced from KARI), with a mean seed infection of 9.24%. Figure 4 illustrates the proportion of infected seeds infection in the bean samples collected from the four groups in the study. (Note that in this first ana lys is, disease counts did not separa te pathogens and saprophytes, per se.) There was a significant difference (p :5: .05) between the infection rate in KARI seed samples and those of the trained farmers, in particular, with the formal sector having higher rates of infection. (Another analysis showing no significant difference between the varieties themselves.) Seeds were especially affected by storage-related pathogens, such as Penicil/ium spp. The high mean rate seed infection in the KARl samples was thought to be the result of one set of seeds that had very poor gennination and were al so highly infected. This was attributed to inadequate drying, which encourages storage problems ( and saprophytes). In addition to the large quantity ofseed harvested by KARI, drying is difficult because it is usually done using sunlight only. The area has a great deal ofrain, and there fore drying can onl y be done for a few hours.Laboratory analysis, CIA T/NARO-Kawanda (Uganda)The observed high rates ofinfection in the KARl bean samples spurred a re-collection of bean seed and re-analysis of germination qualities and seed health. This second analysis was done at the laboratory of ClATfNARO (National Agricultura\\ Research Organization) in Kawanda, Uganda. There, laboratory facilities allowed analysis to distinguish between seed-bome di sease, per se (i.e., true pa thogens), and infections caused primarily by post-harvest handling (manifest by saprophytes). Salienl insights are abbreviated below. Again, refer to annex IJ for more detail.The analysis showed that seed from the market had a lower germination rate than seed from other sources, but it was still within an acceptable mean of 73.3%. Fanners remarked that they can ra ise thi s level by sorting market seed (a procedure, which, unfortunately, the researchers failed to orchestrate prior to analysis). There was also wide variation in gennination between different marke t samples and KK 15: 17% to 84%. Overall, there was no s ignificant difference in mean values between the other sources (figure 5).Pathogens: A wide range of pathogens associated with bean seed were identified in the more focused C IAT-Kawanda study: Fusarium solani (whi ch causes root-rot), Colletotrichum lindemuthianum (anthracnose), Phoma exigua (ascochyta blight), and Macrophomina phaseolina (ashy stem blight). Others identified included Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani. which are soi l-bome pathogens. However, the mean level ofseed infection fo r different pathogens from a ll sources was low.The highest mean value (5.2%) was observed with Phoma exigua on KK8 (table 7).  Saprophytes: The major saprophytic fungi observed were Aspergillus, Penicillium, Rhizopus, and Cladosporium spp. Market seed fared less well than it did in the KARI-Kakamega analysis, but still showed generally low infection levels. The high leve! of saprophytic infection in certain samples from the market may have been due to poor post-harvest handling or storage. Poor storage conditions, seed not well dried, or attack by insects (mainly bruchids) may lead to high levels of secondary infection by saprophytes. Although saprophytes do not cause di seases on crops, they do lower germination rates (see figure 5).Seed from trained farmers al so fa red less well in that there was no significant di fference in infection rates between trained and untrained producers. Again, overall , the seed looked healthy.Seed quality: Overa/1 rejlections 8oth sets ofanalysis showed that a ll four sources delivered seed that can be considered \"acceptable,\" not only by farmers' standards, but also by extensioni st and even intemational standards (such as those of Quality Declared Seed of FAO).one ofthe bean seed sampled reached the levels of certified seed for germination and health , not even that produced by KARI. However, farmers, extensioni sts, and most ofthe formal-sector representatives interviewed did not sense that certified seed was needed. Farmers can obtain very good-quality seed from local channels-at a fraction of the price of certi fied seed .T he aim ofthe study was to examine channels for diffusing seed in a period of cris is. We started from a premise that informa l groups of seed producers played an important role in moving new varieties. This could not be verified. Whether the groups produced seed or grain proved secondary to the observation that they moved only limited quantities of beans. Thi s raises the issue of whether a focused group of small rural producers, with smalllandholdings, can be expected to produce the \"excess\" needed to move new varieties quickly in a crisis.The study then developed a secondary focus on local market channels, as this conduit had proveo to be a nexus for moving a larger quantity of the root-rot-resistant varieties for food, seed, or both. Traders' sources for obtaining local varieties were varied , including purchasing directly from farmers in the countryside and from other small traders, and even self-production.Analysis of a broad range of local markets showed the resistant varieties to be on easy offer throughout the region, and in large quantity.The quality of the seed then carne to the forefront as a defining issue. lf one is to use markets as a significant diffusion channel, what are the implications in terms of seed purity, germination, and health? ls the product on offer supporting livelihoods in crisis? Two separate collections and laboratory analyses gave firm results that the seed in local markets in westem Kenya, including that which farmers routinely produce in the countryside, is good in terms of purity, germination, and overall seed hea lth .In terms ofthe wider issues, the study showed that an injection ofnew varieties can make a difference to the stability ofthe farming system. Farmers did shi ft the profile of varieties sown (many dropping local varieties altogether), and wide price differentials among bean types at sowing time provided strong evidence that farmers place a high value on varieties that wi ll grow in the context of root-rot stress.However, the study also suggests that one seed channel is not necessarily as effective as another for movi ng new varieties, although both may be locally based. Large numbers of farmers do not seem to ha ve been reached through the intervention of training for seed producer groups. The evidence is al so mixed on w hether these groups produced higher quality seed than those who had not been trained.The unexpected prevalence of the root-rot-resistant varieties in the local markets raises the question of building on channels farmers routinely use-in emergencies and otherwise (assuming these channe ls can function in stress periods) . Traders, like fanners, recogni zed the value ofthe KK varieties relatively quickly and scooped them up from a wide array of farmcr suppliers in the countryside. Suppliers were not initial ly concentrated, but the number grew thro ugh ti me. Nom1a l farmers (at al! levels-large, medium, and small), who had not been trained, seem to have supplied the core ofthe available seed. So building on local channels in a period of stress can pay off.The work al so shows that to move new varieties, seed production models need to be carefully evaluated beyond their technical dimensions (e.g., beyond the quality of seed). At least as important as quality is the socioeco nomic organization of production : w ho produces, at what sea le, for whom, and with what strategies for distributing or marketing the seed. Seed production models have to be built that are (a) sustainable, (b) affordable, and (e) which have an explicit impact-oriented outreach focus. At the KARI seed-quality laboratory in Kakamega, Kenya, parameters of purity (analytical and inert matter), gennination rate, and general rates of pathogen infection (seed health) were examined. For the first set of laboratory analyses, 34 seed samples of bean varieties KK8 ( 1 0), KK 15 ( 13 ), and KK22 ( JI ) were obtained from individual seed producers, both trained and untrained, and six local markets in Vihiga, Kakamega, and Mumia Butere Di stricts (the six being serem, luanda, mbale, shinyalu, Kakamega municipal , and butere). The majority of the seed samples were from the harvest of the previous season (short rains 2002), whi le a few samples were from the long rains harvest. Laboratory analysis of the seed was done at KARI-Kakamega on blind samples (samples were submitted for analysis without identification).The purity test was to first determine the percentage composition by weight ofthe samples. The working samples were separated into three component parts: pure seed, inert matter, and other crop seeds, which included varieties of beans other than the one that was being tested. The percentage of each part was detennined by weight. The second objective was to identify various species of seeds, including the species being tested and other seeds found in the samples, such as weeds and other crops.The objective of the germination test was to determine the maximum gennination capacity of the seed samples. In this test, sand was used as the substrate. The working samples were made up of 100 seeds and divided into five replicates of 25 seeds each. T he seed samples were kept at room temperature (20° to 25°C. T he first count of germination for crotalaria was after seven days, and the second count was after 14 days. The gennination test involved taking the percentage by number of hard seeds, non-germinated seeds, abnonnal seeds, germinating capacity, and pure germination capacity, which is obtained through the calculation of (P * Gil 00), where P = purity and G = percent germination capacity (1ST A, 1999).The seed health tests were done to determine the state of health of the seed samples. lnstead of a full sample of 400 seeds, only 100 seeds were used to test seed health. This is because samples collected from fanners were relatively small and therefore would not be enough for the usual working sample of 400 seeds. The samples were divided into four replicares of25 seeds each. Blotters, which were used as substrates, were soaked in water and placed on petri dishes. Seeds were not subjected to any pre-treatment; they were directly plated on blotters and then incubated in 12 hours ultra-violet light alternating with 12 hours of darkness for seven days. After seven days of incubation, the seeds were exarnined for the presence or symptoms of disease organisms. The incubated seeds were then examined thoroughly under a stereo-microscope for growth of di fferent types of fungi and bacteria, but not all of the fungal and bacteria( diseases were identified.Data collected from purity, germination, and seed health tests were analyzed using ANOV A to determine any differences between the varieties. T he means ofthe purity. germination and health results were also analyzed and compared with the standards for bean seed, as g iven by Kenya Plant Health lnspectorate Services (KEPH IS).Seecl Sou rce and coUection R. Otsvula el al.For the second set of analyses, 59 seed samples were collected, and fanners and bean-seed traders were interviewed . Only those whose seed samples were collected were interviewed. The min imum number of samples required for each variety in each group was five.Local markets: Seed collectors went to local markets, identified the bean varieties, and then purchased them if the traders were willing to sell.Trained farmers: Fanners who had been previous ly trained by KARl staff on bean-seed production were individually visited and asked if they had the required varieties and if they were w illing to sell samples to the collectors. A few had all three; others had only one or two of the desired varieties in sufficient amounts.Collection from untrained farmers: Fanners who had not been fonnally trained by KA.R l staff were also visited individually and asked for samples ofthe required bean varieties. The bean collectors found sorne individual fanners who had all three varieties, while others had one or two.Collection from KARI-Kakamega : Collection was made from two seasons' planting of the bean variety KK8.The germination test was done using the ro ll paper-towel method on 200 seeds per sample. Ten days later, samples were evaluated for germination and were categorized as norma l or abnormal seedlings, rotten, or fresh ungenninated seed.Seed h e alth test Seed-bome in fection was detennined using the standard blotter method. Two hundred seeds per sample were incubated at 20°C for seven days in petri dishes containing moist filter papers. Seeds were then examined under a stereo-microscope for funga l growth, and identification was made on the basis of fungal characteristics.' .• This study presents the case of a disease on a vegetatively propagated crop: cassava. During the 1990s, fanners in northem Mozambique became aware of problems with root rot on cassava, a d isease later identified as cassava brown streak disease (C8SD). In the District of Memba in the Province of Nampula, where this study was undertaken, C8SD was di sastrous fo r both the li velihoods and the seed securi ty of the people depending on agriculture. The dominance of cassava in the production system made farming comrnunities particularly vulnerable. ln addition , genetic unifonnity and relia nce on varieties very susceptible to the di sease made cassava production even more precarious. Fanners were unable to obtain either appropriate cassava planting material or sufficient amounts of seed for alterna ti ve crops, such as sorghum and maize. The onset ofthe crisis was slow, starting in the ' 90s and developing into an acure situation of food insecurity by the autumn of 2002, by which time the situation was considered critica! and there seemed to be a need for externa! action.Two separare operations were launched in November-December 2002 : one by Save the Childre n USA (SCIUSA) and one by the Provincial Govemment of Nampula (PDA). 8oth aimed at givi ng fanners altemati ve and tolerant varieties ofcassava or altemative crops as a supplement to the cassava. SC/USA based their intervention on assessments of the impact of C8SD both on the cassava an d on the livelihoods of the people, while the PDA assumed seed insecurity on the basis of livelihood measurements only. 8oth are working in collaboration with a wider national and reg ional scientific network aimed at solving the problem of C8SD in southem and eastem A frica.The case shows how the fonnal scientifi c sector can be essential in the process of identify ing resistan! and tolerant planti ng materi al when coping with a disease in vegetatively propagated crops. As, at thi s point, only tolerant varieties have been identified, the case also indicares the importance of d iffus ing knowledge about the disease and effective cultural practices to ensure clean planting material-along with the new plants themselves.The govemment strategy of distributing c uttings on credit does not seem feasible because of the low quantity and (very likely) low quality of retumed material. Supporting local seed systems to produce adequate cassava planting material (i.e., quantity and quality) mi ght be a stratcgic focus for futurc institutional support.When di sasters ha ve affected farming areas, rehabilitation is commonl y constrained by a lack of seeds. But a id agencies often fail to address seed issues appropriate ly in relief operations, which can slow down and complicare recovery. Many agencies clearly need education on how to ana lyze the prob lem ofseeds and how to con tribute to restoration of seed supply systems. For that purpose, the review of cases is a necessary leaming process. The case of a crisis caused by a virus disease in cassava, the most important subsistence crop in coastal areas of East Africa, represents one kind of disaster for which relevant authorities and aid agencies must be prepared.This The outbreak ofCBSD in northem Mozambique started in the 1990s, affecting only a few cassava plants at first. But in a few years, rotted roots were observed over a wide area. The disease had been building up year by year until it finally devastated whole fi elds. Farmers lost both the food harvest and their reproductive materials. Since the disease occurred over a wide area, many affected fa nners had nowhere to go for new planting materíals: accessibfe cuttings were also likely to be in fected .Fieldwork for this report included one vis it immediately befare planting time in December 2002, when the crisis was assessed. Varíous group interviews were conducted with farmers in Memba Dí strict and with representatives from the SCIUSA and DDA. Another field visit in Jul y 2003 allowed for study of the interventions and their impact.In July 21 -31, 2003, data were collected using semi-structured interviews with both farmers in the impacted area and representati ves of SC/USA and di fferent levels of the govemment. Yarious reports and documents of relevance to the operations were consu\\ted. ln addition to co\\lecting infonnation on the experiences of both the implementers and benefi ciaries, the main goal of the fi eldwork was to get infonnation on the background, scale, and impact of the operations.Infonnation was also gathered in semi-structured interviews with individual farmers in communities that had received assistance from SC!USA, in communities that had received assistance from DDA, and in communities that had not received any seed assistance, although it was difftcult to find communities that had not received any assistance at all. Interviews were carried out in one community (Chipene) where no distributions had taken place, but it appeared that thi s community was not affected by any production crisis in the year 2002 season. C BSD is nota problem in all of Memba; no rth of Mazua (see figure 2), the disease is not considered a problem. Communities in Memba that were visited and that are referred to in the text were Mekuta, C hopite, Chipene, Yamene, and Muipia (figure 2).During interviews with individual fanners, other members of the family o r neig hbors often also participated. Thus, sorne ofthe interviews took the form of group interviews, which sometimes enriched the information but other times limited the value of the interview.Guides were developed for interviews with the implementers (SC!USA and the govemment), but those interviews were generall y carried out as informal conversations and discussions.The difficulty finding communities that had not received assistance from any relief operations does not mean that such communities were nonex istent; the district is large, and we were only able to visit communities a long the roads. The di stribution of seeds and cassava sticks depended on road transport, so it might not have adequately reached the more remate areas--communities that may be the same ones we were unable to visit. Thus, our sample may not be representative ofthe overall impact ofthe disaster or the sea le and impact of the relief operations.Fanners in Memba practice bush fallow in various rotations but usuall y with fairly short fallow, commonly two years-a system that people said had not changed during the ir time. T here is enough unoccupied bush land for fanners to take as much landas they can manage for cultivation, which is done by hoe only. They bum the bush during the d ry season. Family members work together or separately, according to traditional gender roles.The primary crop is cassava. In addition, the farmers grow maize, sorghum, and sorne pearl millet. Grain legumes are grown mostl y in small amounts and include groundnuts, cowpeas, pigeon peas, beans, green grams, and bambara groundnuts ( Voand=eia subterranea), of which, cowpeas are probably the most important. Mixed cropping is common with these crops. Other crops include sweet potatoes, bananas, and ata fe w places, rainfed lowland rice. A little cotton is also g rown in the north ofthe di strict.People do not invest money in production s ince it is primarily fo r subsistence. Sources of income are from the sa le of surplus cassava, maize, groundnuts, and cashew nuts. However, the cashew trees are  poorly maintained and produce little. T hose living near the sea also fish, and for them, fi shing is the main so urce of money. There is no integration of crop and li vestock production, and 1 ivestock seem to be quite insignificant in the fa rming and food system. Only a few farmers keep goats and poultry.T he people say that this system nom1a ll y produces suffi cient quantities of food for their subsistence needs. This was the case even during the exhausti ve civil war from the late 1970s to the Rome Peace Accord in 1992: \" During the war we were disturbed, but we had enough to eat.\" Unfavorable weather, such as droughts and cyclones, sometimes causes loca l problems, but when the cassava d iscase struck, the district experienced its first widespread hunger crisis.The farming system has not experienced any maj or transition in recent history. There has been some tumover ofvarieties and introduction of new crops, b ut technology--cultivation by burning, the use of hoes and pangas, and no use of inputs-has not changed. In such subsistence economies, therc is little surplus capacity to meet major calam ities.Note that we use the word seed here in a broad sen se, covering any means of reproduction of crop plants.Thus, using cuttings for reproducti on of cassava and sweet pota toes has been íncluded in th is description of the sced supply system .In the past, cassava stems were abundantly ava ilabl c for making cuttings. Traditionally, farmers saved c uttings from their own fields, but if they lacked planting materials, they could ask anybody and they would get them for free. Cassava cuttings had no price. However, that system co llapsed with the cassava disease. At present, sources ofnew, clean planting materials are so far away that farmers in the affected areas cannot get them on their own.At the time ofthe CBSD outbreak, many farmers were growing only a s ingle cassava variety . As in many other parts of Afri ca, there has been some tumover in varieties over time. New ones havc been introduced and old ones discarded, often beca use of damage caused by pests or diseases (Tresh et al. , 1994 ).The current dominan! variety in Memba was introduced (together w ith other assistance) after 11 Apri l 1994, when the area was devastated by a cyc lo ne. Beca use of the circumstances of its introduction, people called the variety calamidade (calamity), although that name mig ht also have been attached to other varieties associated with severe crises, suc h as cyclones in the l 980s. Some suspect that thc variety referred toas calamidade is the one that brought the virus into the area. But initially it was found to y ield well and most fa rmers stopped growing other varieties, wh ich meant that there was an extreme degree of genetic unifom1ity in locally grown cassava when the disease later started to bui ld up.Ca/amidade appears to be very susceptible to thc disease. When farmers were asked if any of the previously grown varieties could have resisted the disease, one group said that they had other varieties when the d isease came and that all ofthem were equall y affected. However, when farmers were asked to name cassava varieties that had been grown before the introduction of calamidade, they mentioned 1 1 different named varieties, some of whic h were still bei ng grown when SC/USA surveyed the area for varieties to screen for disease tolerance.Farmers in many communities knew these varieties and some expressed regret that they had been lost. Farmers in this reg ion have traditionally cultivated both bitter and sweet varieties of cassava, a lthough curren ti y, bitter varieties (like mulapa) seem to domínate the farming system. Most farmers claimed that the bitter varieties yield better than the sweet ones, while others claimed that the sweet cassava have other advantages that the bitter ones lack. The sweet variety can also be eaten raw, whereas the bitter one is preferred for cooki ng.In sorne places people said that they never grew more than one variety ata time. When a new introduction carne and did better, the older variety was discarded. O thers said that they grew severa! varieties ata time and had them in separate fields. One fanner group sa id they had a few varieties until recently but that the disease had devastated all o fthem.Such stories suggest that virus diseases could have been aro und for a long time. lfviral infections build up year by year, new introductions from unaffected areas would naturally appear more vigorous than infected materials grown locally. If that is the case, they have replaced varieties instead of getting disease-free cuttings of existing varieties. The tragedy is that farmers switched to the new introductions befare these varieties were suffi ciently exposed to the virus to assess their degree of disease tolerance.Befare the cassava crisis, maize was only grown to a limited extent. T here used to be many local varieties, but few are left now (e.g., kanyangulu and calamidade). To help farmers expand maize production , the commercial varieties matuba and manica have been distributed in recent years.T he only local sorghum variety mentioned was lannla, but all farmers havc sorne sorghum. Relative to maize, sorg hum is more reliablc on the local soils and under the uncertain ra infall pattem ofrecent years. However, birds are considered a seri ous problem with sorghum.Various local varieties of pearl millet, cowpeas, and bambara groundnuts (both black and white) are cultivated. There are also severa! named varieties of sweet potatoes.The seed crops are nonnally maintained through on-farm seed saving. Grains intended for seed are selected and stored separately from food grains by the women, who have the main responsibility fo r thi s process. They decide on how much ofthe harvest should be kept for food and how much should be kept as seed for the next season. The interviewed fanners said that some people do not separate seeds and food but keep it all together and plant w hatever is left in the granary at planting time. However, the separa te storage of seed is considered the norm.While food grains are vulnerable to insect damage during storage, fanne rs said they were able to maintai n their seeds well. They described a number of storage and protection methods, some traditional and sorne learned from govemment and SC/USA extensionists: ( 1) keeping unshelled/unthreshed cobs/panicles/pods on the roof, (2) tying the seed in grass bundles and keeping it on the roof, (3) ty ing it in grass bundles and suspending it in trees, (4) storing it in celeiros (granaries), or (5) sticking it under the cei li ng near the cooking a rea so that it is exposed to smoke. Threshed seeds may also be kept in sealed bottles or pots, in which case some protective agent, such as ash, sand, cooking oil, hot pepper, or leaves from a certain wild plant, is mixed with the seeds. Hot pepper can be added whole or dried and pounded. Leaves from the wild plant can be pounded and mixed in or burned and added as ash.In nonnal times, most farmers are able to save all the seeds they need for the next planting. They do not keep reserves for replanting because one planting is considered to be enough. [f sorne farmers do not have seeds, they can go to othcr fanners and offer work for seeds. They then have to help with the hard work of hoeing the land to prepare it for seeding, but they would get the seeds they need as payment.That was the traditional \"safety valve\" that ensured access to seeds for everybody.Considering that cassava used to occupy most of the land and therefore only small amounts of seeds were needed, it seems likely that this system provided reasonable seed security fo r a11 befare the demise of the cassava. In inland Nampula, however, where fa rmers depend less on cassava (see liTA, 2003 , indicating approximately 50% ofthe land in Nampula was planted to cassava in the 1997/98 season) and more on seed crops, farmers save twice the normally required amounts of seed.In Memba, selling and buying seed is very limited. A significant market for seed has not developed and certified seed from the commercial sector is not available in the district. However, local s hop owners in Memba have started buying grain seed from farmers at harvest time and selling it back at p lanting time.Un like commercial seed companies, the shopkeepers deal with local seeds only-mostly sorghum, maize, groundnuts, sesame, and green grams. They \"rescue\" small quantities of local seed from being consumed, but currently, this isjust a few sacks, far from a solution to the district's seed problem. Even when farmers are desperate for seed, they may not have the money to buy it. One shopkeeper said that few farmers are able to buy, and those who do, can only afford small amounts, lkg to 2kg. Sorne visitors from outside the are a bu y larger quantities. Thus, so me of the traded seeds were exported from Memba during a time of critica\\ seed shortage.This was a crisis of slow onset. According to Hillocks (2003), the disease was described in Tanzania as early as the 1930s. When it spread to Mozambique is uncertain, but many farmers blame the introduction and wide distribution of susceptible varieties that occurred during the 1980s and 1990s. The first local report ofthe disease was in 1998. ln 2002, the impact ofthe disease had reached a leve\\ that threatened people's livelihoods in a number of coastal districts. The problem went beyond known coping mechanisms; there was no experience with that sort of crisis, and little was known about sources of disease-resistant cassava material. Communities faced a major challenge in identifying and multiplying disease-tolerant cassava.Because of cassava' s dominant positton in the cropping system, it was difficult for farmers to compensate with other crops. On the contrary, the food shortage caused by the cassava disease made ít difficult for farmers to save enough seed. By the planting season ofDecember 2002, when the first field visit too k place, households in the district were facing shot1ages of cash and seeds in addition to the lack of cassava cuttings. Food stores were running dry and many fami lies depended on bush food for their subsistence.Since everybody had the same problem, there was nowhere to go to get seeds. In the group interviews, only one farmer group said they knew about a place where seeds could be obtained. But that place was far away, and the owner would only give seeds after having seen that his own fields had germinated and been successfu lly established.By autunm 2002, the situation seemed to be acute for the livelihood security ofmany househo\\ds. lfnot dealt with in a proper way, it was feared that the situation would cause widespread chronic food and seed insecurity. The need for a response was apparent. However, the total population in Memba di strict at that time was almost l l 0,000, ofwhich 95% were living on fanns (figures provided by District Agricultura) Office). That makes a farm population of s lightly more than 100,000. With an average family size ofThe Case o/ Cassava Brown Streak Disease in Coastal Areas of Northern Mozarnbique around five persons, the number ofhouseholds would be approximately 20,000. So identi fying tolerant varieties and multiplying them to meet the needs of all the farmers in the area would be a major undertaking. Even with the disease only seriously affecting the southem part of the district, the total requirement amounts to 50 mil! ion cuttings if we calculate 10,000 farms in need of assistance, and if each ofthem plants half a hectare of cassava and uses 10,000 cuttings per hectare. In addition, there were similar needs in other affected districts . Since cassava cuttings do not constitute a regularly traded commodity, al l ofthis wo uld have to be produced and distributed in a sep arate operation organized as a response to this partic ular crisis.As mentioned above, the situation at the 2002 planting season was considered critica! in severa! coastal districts in the Nampula Province, and development actors decided to distribute planting materials, including cassava s tems and seeds of cereals and Iegumes. In M emba District, SC/USA Mozambique and the District Directorate of Agriculture (ODA) were involved.The seed operations carried by SC/ USA and ODA are described in terms of ( 1) the diagnosis made by the implementers about the food and seed situation in the area befare the distributions, (2) the actual process ofimplementing the distributions in the communities, and (3) experiences with the di stributions from both the implementers' and the farmers' points ofview.Both SC/USA and the ODA based their interventions on qualitative and quantitative assessments and assumptions about the food and seed security in the area.A \" strange phenomenon\" affecting cassava in N acata-a-Velha and Memba Districts was reported in 1998 (Noticias, Maputo, 13 October 1998). In 1999, a farmer contacted SC/USA asking for pesticides to use against the root decay on cassava, symptoms that were later identified as cassava brown streak disease. However, farmers recounted that they had observed the symptoms for the first time in 1994.According to the SC/USA assessment, the disease multiplied by eight-to tenfold per year through the use of cuttings taken from infected plants. lt reached a disastrous leve! during the first SC/USA development activity program (DAP) in the period 1996-200 l . This USAID-funded program was operational in Nacala-a-Velha and Memba. Its main goal to strengthen food security and nutrition among farmers in those two districts. Since C BSD was identified as a huge problem for farmers in these districts during this period, the disease was given a central position in the DAP2 proposal (SC/USA, 2002a). As early as 1999, SC/USA Mozambique had started small-scale multiplication of cassava to find resistant varieties.Two fo nnal assessments of the disease's impact on the production system were carried out: first, leaf symptoms were assessed in 2000. That involved 19 extension workers, each investigating at random 20 plants per farm, and covering 391 farms in six districts. Second, an investigation ofroot symptoms took place in 2002, which showed that the disease affected 75%-85% ofthe plants in the area.ln addition, a baseline survey was carried among fanners in early August 2002, mainly focusing on food availability, access, and utilization. In this survey, 587 households were interviewed (about 2.3% of the estimated number of households in the program area) (SC/USA, 2002b ). The investigators concluded that there was low availabili ty of appropriate cassava material in the area and that there was therefore a need toAddres.1i11g Seed Securit_r in Disastf'r Response: /,inking Relief uúh Development. 98 1 identify and di stribute res istant varieties of cassava. Furthermore, in DAP2, SCIU SA identi fíed a need to make farmers less reliant on bitter cassava.Parallel to the SC/USA ope rations, in December 2002, the Provincial Directorate of Agri c ulture (PDA) also organized distributions o f cassava sticks and seeds in coastal areas of Nampula, including the District of Memba. This ope ration was based on reports that had come in from govemmenta l fíe ld technicians in 2002 on food security problems and probl ems with too hig h a consumption of bitter cassava (which can cause death from dietary cyanogen exposure). In this context, the provincial Technical Secretary on Food Sec urity and Nutrition (SETSA N), a govemmental group in Nampula, made a crop assessment survey, w here farmers were asked questions on access to food, amounts of food in storage, availabili ty offood in markets (including prices), altem ati ve sources ofincome, general local li velihood strategies in stress situations, and moveme nts of people caused by the famine and reasons for their move (which was asked o f community leaders).The report described the food security situation as critica! , particular! y in N acata-a-Velha and M emba (SETSAN, 2002). Recommendations were divided into two categories: long-and sho rt-term interventio ns. Among the short-tem1 interventions, distribution of seeds was considered as an appropriate measure to help fa nners cope with the critica( s ituation. To encourage self-re liance, the govemment prefers measures that stimulate production rather than distributing free food, so food aid was not considered an altemati ve. For the long-term di versification o f the agri c ul tura( sector, the introduction ofaltemative crops adapted to local soil and wate r regimes was proposed (SETSAN, 2002).The diagnosis made by the SC/USA and the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture (PDA) in amput a resulted in two separate seed operations in December 2002. In the fo llowing more details on the main goals of these operations, their scale and scope, and the processes of selecting beneficiaries are presented.Seed distributions by SC/USA are pa rt of the second USA ID-funded developme nt acti vity program (DAP2) with the overall objecti ve of improvi ng '' househo ld farming systems and food consumption by introducing sustainable technolog ies a nd nutrition prac ti ces\" (SCIUS A, 2002a: 1 ). An expressed goa l of the program, whic h is being run during the period 2002-2006, is to eradicate the current threat o f C BSD by having disseminated disease-resistant cassava material to 50,000 househo lds by the end of the DAP period in 2006 (SC/USA, 2002a). In addition, SC/ USA aims to diversify the agricultura( production system by presenting other, more nutritious and marketa ble, crops as altem atives for the farmers.As me ntioned above, SC/USA Mozambique had startcd small-scale experimental multiplication of cassava in Memba and Nacala-a-Velha Distri cts to find resistant varieties shortl y after the disease was identified in 1999. As part of DAP2, four more di stricts (Nacala, Mossuril, Ilha de Moyambique, and Moginc ual) were included in the program . In each of the s ix districts, primary multiplication fields (PMF), ranging between one and two hectares in size, were established under the clase supervision of an SC agronomist for multiplication of cassava sticks. In Memba the average PMF is 1.37 ha (SC/USA, 2003a). Infected Jea ves still ha ve value as food and can be used for making the traditionallocal sauces, which are prepared from stamped cassava leaves, often mixed with different kinds oflegumes, such as groundnuts, bambara groundnuts, etc.In December 2002, cassava sticks of the nikwaha variety were distributed to fanners for further multipl ication in secondary multiplication fields (SMFs). Nikwaha was chosen because it was considered tolerant and, at the time, was the one most readily available. The di stributed material was from both SC/USA 's PMFs and material collected from Namina, Nampula Province. Within each community , three to four groups of 15-20 fanners were established under the supervision of SC/USA 's local extension workers, and each group was given a plot for the cultivation of the distributed cassava sticks. Each fam1er received 20 sticks of cassava (in !-meter lengths), which in tu m , were cut into fou r pieces of25 cm, giving each fanner approximately 100 cuttings. The leftovers after the cultivation of the SMF were for farmers' own prívate fields. In the interviews, fanners said that they had between fíve and seven one-meter sticks left after the SMF cultivation.Distributions in Memba included 10,400 sticks from SC/USA 's primary multiplication fields in December 2002 and another 14,500 sticks from SARRNET in February 2003 (SC/USA, 2003b). Facilitated by SC/USA 's extension workers, meetings with fanners were held in each community befare the distributions. The famers who received the sticks volunteered for the project. They got no monetary compensation but had the rights to the produce ofthe SMF after harvest without any further obligation. This supplied both roots and lea ves for eating and disease-tolerant planting material for the next season. The only condi tion was that fanners had to participa te in SC/USA ' s training programs, w here they were trained in identifying CBSD symptoms, crop lining and spacing, and mixing of crops in the fíeld. In addition, fanners had to form groups to cultivate the SMFs. The groups were responsible for cleaning the fields, harvesting the produce, and weighing and distributing the produce among themselves after harvest (which was not yet finished at the time of the field visit in July 2003).According to SC/ USA records, the total number offanners trained in the groups in the program area was 5236. In Memba, 1 108 fanners were participating in the program (SC/USA, 2003a).As a response to the critica! food security situation in the coastal area of ampula, the Provincial Directorate of Nampu la established a three-year project, running from 2002 to 2005. The overall objective is to increase agricultura! production and improve toad security by diversifying agriculture in the area. The project has been implemented in the districts of Memba, Nacala-a-Velha, Mossuril, Mogincual, Erati, Nacaroa, Nacala Porto, and Ilha de Moc;ambique.One important element ofthe project is to replace some ofthe bitter cassava with sweet varieties, as well as replacing sorne of the cassava production with altemative, more nutritious, short-cycled crops (Furede, 2002), which are adapted to local soil and water regimes (SETSAN, 2002).A further o bjective, which has influenced who the beneticiaries of the project would be, has been to promote cultivation of the most ferti le land.In November 2002 , based on the knowledge of CBSD tolerance accumulated by SC/ USA, l iT A, SARRNET, and IN IA, the nikwaha variety of cassava was provided from the District ofRibaue; most of the other seeds were improved varieties of mil let, maize, sorghum, cowpeas, and groundnuts from SEMOC, the Mozambican seed company. The exception was millet, which was of local origin. While most of the seeds were sourced from the commercial sector, most of them were known and had been cultivated befare by many farmers in the area (interview with the Provincial D irector of Agriculture in Nampula, E.M. Furede, 3 1 July 2003).The intention has been to provide 1000 cassava sticks, 3 kg of maize, 1.5 kg of sorghum, and 3 kg of cowpeas to each family (table 1 ); however, it was di fficult to veri fy the actual amounts distributed, particularly the number of cassava sticks. Amounts of millet and sorghum are not mentioned in the proj ect description. The proj ect has an ultima te goal of reachi ng 3000 families (households) during the three-year proj ect period (Furede, 2002). The amounts indicated here as having been retum ed are percentages ofthe amounts distributed. Since farmers were expected to retum twice as m u eh as they recei ved. their repayment oftheir commitment is even less than indicated here.* Matuba was the variety distributed in Memba. Because ofits short growth cycle, it does not need a lot ofrain to grow well and was considered the best-adapted variety for the sandy soils in Memba.It has been di fficul t to get c lear in formation on the exact process by which beneficiaries were selected in this distribution. In the project description, farmers were to be selected, on the one hand, on the basis of interest, experience, and responsibility and, on the other hand, on the location of their farms (Furede, 2002). lt appears that in most places, farmers were selected from govemment lists and provided w ith a bag containing a certain amount of seeds of different ki nds. In other places (as in Yamene), only farmers who were members offarmers' associations were provided seeds. T he fa rmers were given the seeds on the condi tion that after harvest they retum 200% of the amount of seeds they received. T he intention of this was to establish a seed bank that could províde farmers with seeds each planting season. ldeall y, in this way the ODA cou\\d reach more farmers in their seed di stributions at the time of the next planting sea son.In Memba, fanners with the best soils were favored in the distributions. This was part o f a govemment stratcgy to get the farmers wi th the poorest soil to abandon their land and movc their production to other fi elds with more favorable conditions (interview with District Director of Agri culture in Me mba, Aiupa Abudo, 22 July 2003 ). There is little social stratification in the area, so no other c riteria were applied to the selection of bene ficiaries.Agricultura( development in thc Mcmba arca is constrained by an un favorable environment, particular! y poor soils a nd unprcdictable rainfall. The dry, sandy soils are extremely dependent o n good rains to produce well, and a shortage o f rain can scrious ly affect farm production and farm li velihoods. The distribution of cassava sticks and seeds by SCIUSA aimed at decreasing the fa nners' vulnerability to stress situations, w hcreas the conc urrent ODA operation ai med at both decrcasing farmers' vulnerab ility and rc licving the situation of acutc food insccurity.At the time of thc study, nei th cr the SC/ USA nor the ODA had yet madc any fo nnal cvaluations or reports regarding the degree of success or fa ilure o f their seed distribution operations. Since thc distributed cassava had not bccn harvested at the time o fthe fie ldwork (Jul y 2003), it was too earl y to assess success or failure.Still, it was possible to get an impression o f the operations by talking with representativcs from both SC/ US A and ODA and by talking to fanners in the diffe re nt communities. Sorne importan! expe rienccs from the ope rations, both in tenns ofthe pe rspectives and parameters o f the implementers andas seen by the targeted fanners, are presented below.A maj or problem faced in the SC/USA DAP has been to find C BS D-resistant cassava materi al, which was fo rmulated as a goal in the DA P2 Proposal (SC/USA, 2002a). No resistant or immunc varieties have been found and, according to thc SC/ US A Assistant Agronomi st, it is not likely that a ny resistant varieties witl be found within the program period (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006). However, sorne varieties that are onl y slightly affected by the disease are considered to be tolerant and have been selected fo r multiplication and distribution. lt is hoped that the currently identified tolerant vari eties (nikwaha. m 'povatahva, chigoma mafia, and nachinyay a) wi ll be sufficient to overcome the crisis.Prob lems encountcrcd during the search for tolerant varietics have includcd gene tic crosion , whc rc many traditional vari eties ha ve been discarded and have di sappeared from the arca, leaving the cropping system with a narrow genetic base. lt was al so difficult to get fanners to sharc infonnation on disease to lerance. In the hope of being provided w ith assets from the project staff, fanne rs ha ve been reluctant to say that they still ha ve good or to lerant vari cties o f cassava. For fanncrs to share this info nnation with the SC/ USA. a relationship o f trust and close collaboration between extens ion workcrs and fanners is necessary. There may also be a problem o fknowledge: linking thc leaf symptoms to thc root rot may not be obv ious to the fa nners; thcy keep planting stems from infcsted plants, thereby multiply ing the problc m. There ha ve been reports from fanners of problems with theft of cassava from the PM Fs. At night, other fanners (or fanners from within the groups) visit the plots and steal cassava. lt is c laimed that this happens because fam1ers are desperate for food. However, other fam1ers disagreed wi th this view, claiming that there has been a change in people's mentality:In th e old days people could trust each other. People were also hungry at that time, but they would never steal fro m the fields.(Eiderly farmer in Mecuta)Still , the scale of this problem is unclear, andas stated by SC/USA 's Agronomist, Steve McSween: \"The tolerant distributed cassava material is still out there amongst the farmers.\" Nevertheless, due to problems with theft of the distributed sweet cassava, it is reasonable to question the feas ibility of distributing sweet vari eties of cassava. lt was the fanners who adopted and developed a preference for the bitter varieties, in the first place, possibly beca use theft of sweet cassava had been a problem in the past. A study by Chiwona-Karltun in Malawi showed that social factors were the main reasons for farmers preferring bitter cassava: the need for processing roots before consumption confers protection from theft and vennin (Chi wona-Karltun, 2003).lt is important for indigenous know ledge and preferences to be leam ed and utilized in order to accelerate the process of trans ferring agricultura! production technologies. In the process of figh ting cassava mosaic virus in Uganda, in order to secure prolonged and sustainable cultivation, the farmers identified resistant genotypes before they were released (Otim-Nape et al., 1994). This has not happened in the present situatíon. Fanners in Memba have been invo lved to a very limited degree in the process of identifying and selecting preferred tolerant varieties of cassava.The di stribution process was constrained by a number of problems: sorne communities cannot be reached by road, it was not possible to reach all the benefíciaries by the best planting time, and unfavorable weather condi tions were also mentioned as a constra int. The rai n carne as expected in January and February but stopped early in March. Furthermore, a cyclone made cultivation difficult for sorne fanners.In the whole program area, 6 162 households were reached by the SC/USA cassava distributions (SC/USA, 2003b) . The ultimate goal of reaching 50,000 households by the end ofthe program period in 2006 is still far away. The SCIUSA Assistant Agronomist is worried that at the program's c urrent pace, it w ill be difficult to reach that goal. However, calculating the 2003 nurseries covering more than 25 hectares with 10,000 plants per hectare and each plant producing lO cuttings, 2.5 mi Ilion c uttings can be produced. That would be enough for lOO cuttings to each of25 ,000 households. Adding the customary free exchange of cassava cuttings makes it likely that di stributed vari eties w ill diffuse through the region once the fanners have enough for their own needs.So fa r there has been no fonnal evaluation ofthe DDA distributions. The only ava ilable indicator oftheir degree of success is the amount of seeds paid back by the fam1ers (table 1 ). lt appears that the distributed sorghum has not perfonned well, probably due to late distributions and lack of rain late in the cropping season, whi le the di stributed maize and gro undn uts seem to have done better. Still , there are reasons toAddressing Seed Security in Disaster R,.sponse: Linking Reliefll\"ith Dt'velopme!ll belíeve that many fam1ers ha ve not yet paíd back the agreed amounts in spite of good production. As one farmer said, \"1 ha ve not yet paid back the amounts of seeds demanded by the govemment beca use no one from the government has been here asking for them.\" Here, the government faces a logistical problem in that neither the government nor the farmers have the means to transport the seeds to the seed bank.The govem ment distributed seeds on credit to avoid fanners getting used to receiving suppot1 for free. However, the farmers who benefitted from the govemment distributions generally (and not surprisingly) were not pleased by having to pay back twice the amount that they had received:It does not make sen se that we ha veto pay back the seeds. 1fl had kept the seeds, 1 would ha ve distributed the seeds to persons in other areas, but now this is impossible.(Farmer in Chupite)The local authorities relied o n central funding for the seed distributions, which may ha ve contributed to late distributions in some of the communities. The seeds and the instructions were given by the provincial ministry in Nampula, and the framework given for the operations was perceived by the ODA in Memba as a limitation:The operation was emergency assistance, and that should not be a governrnent task . ... We [the DDA] did what was possib le within the framework given by the Govemment ... . The mai n problem that we faced in the distributions was reaching all the people. In addition, seeds were not enough, and some of them arrived too late, and did therefore not perform well in the fíeld s.(Aiupa A budo, District Director of Agriculture in Me mba)Reaching people was another problem. In the end, the ODA was assisted with transportation of the seeds within the district by SC/USA. The problem of late distribution was most pronounced in the case of sorghum, which was hampered by a short (but heavy) rainy season. In addition, there were not enoug h seeds fo r all the cornmunities to receive the whole package:The govemment told us that 200 people should clear their land because we were about to receive seeds fo r planting. ln the end they only brought cowpeas in small amounts, only 50 kg (2.5 kg to each of 20 people). T here are still 180 people here waiting for the ir seeds.(Farmer in Muipia)Seed security can be defined as a situation where farmers ha ve or can access enough seeds of desired species and preferred varieties, of good quality, in time to fully exploit the potential of their fa rms. The cassava disease disrupted the en tire farming and seed suppl y system in Memba in a way that undermined seed security, as defined by all of these criteria.The failure o f cassava affected not only the food suppl y. There is a shortage both at individual farms and generally in the cornmunity, and when there is Jack of food, people cannot save en ough seed. Seed security accompanied the food insecurity.Addrrssing Seed Security in Disaster Response: Linking Relief wilh Development. 104 1 ----In Memba there were many farmers who had not saved enough seeds or, in the case of cassava, lacked disease-free cuttings. There were no other farmers to go to for seeds and they could not buy sufftcient quantities. Thus, there is strong evidence that in thi s situation externa! assistance was needed.A plant disease that does not kili its host and is transmitted through vegetati ve planting materials wo uld tend to increase from year to year, eventually resulting in total infection of suscepti ble varieties. Tf the disease causes serious yield loss and resistant varieties are not available, a crisis situation will gradually develop. lt may take time, maybe years, until farmers and authorities see the danger. This kind of situation could al so occur in other vegetatively propagated subsistence crops such as potatoes, bananas, sweet potatoes, and yams. We are therefore díscussing not only a specific incident of cassava on the coast of East A frica, but a general problem that could affect subsistence farmers in many parts of the world.The case of a disease in cassava also shows the difficulties and long-term nature of recovery. The problems include the search for resistant altematives and the practica! task of multiplication and distribution of disease-free planting materials. That cannot be done in a one-season operation. Recovery takes time, and severa! years must be allowed for the restoration of affected cropping systems. Relief operatíons wíth short-term budgets are therefore inadequate as a response to such crises.Agricultura! history provides many cases of catastrophic outbreaks of plant diseases. From history we know ofthe late blight in potatoes in Ireland in the 1840s and the demi se ofthe Gros Michel banana in the 1960s. In most cases, the outbreak has been preceded by genetic uniformity. Vegetatively propagated species are particularly vulnerable because the growing of one or a few favored varieties results in an extreme degree of uniformity. In the case of bananas, the industry has continued with the same degree of uniformity, based on a single new clone (Cavendish).There are other examples of cassava diseases in Africa, cassava mosaic virus (CMV) being the most striking. The situation of CMV in Uganda is very similar to the one we find in Memba: widespread cultivation of a fe w popular but very susceptible varieties of cassava was identified as one exp lanation for the sudden upsurge of the disease in Uganda (Thresh et al. , 1994). The pandemic had its greatest impact in areas with limited genetic diversity, where the main varieties were vulnerable to infection. In contrast, areas of high diversity experienced a marked shift in the relative importance of different varieties (Otim-Nape and Thresh, 1998).As in these examples, in Memba the cassava disease could spread unhindered in areas with on ly or mostly susceptible plants in the fi elds. According to farmers' experiences, a switch from growing severa! varieties to only one variety took pl ace at many fanns in the years preced ing the disaster. Most likely this happened because the virus was a lready there making new, \"clean,\" introductions appear more vigorous than the old varieties. This points to a need to organize the supply and maintenance of virus-free planting materials.Examples from other parts ofthe world show that low cost in vitro propagation of cassava is possible. In northem Cauca, Colombia, an NGO (FIDAR) together with CIA T have carried through a collaborative plan, involving the establishment of a tissue-culture laboratory and training of farn1ers. By using low-cost altematives, the tissue-culture laboratory was set up for 20 times less than the cost of a conventional laboratory (Restrepo et al., 2000). In order to speed up the propagation of disease-tolerantAddressing S eed SPcurity in Disaster Response: Link ing Re/ief with Developmenl. 1051 cassava varieties, this example may also be relevant for development actors working with the problems of CBSD in Nampula.The soils of the most severely affected areas of coastal Mozambíque are un favorable fo r typical seed crops and make it hard fo r farmers to mitigate the problem by switching to other species. This added to their vulnerability befare the crisis and made a quick recovery after the crisis vcry difficult.Cassava brown streak disease has been litt le studied and only superfic iall y describcd in the avai lable li terature. The disease is spread through infccted planting materials, but there must also be a mechanism whereby plants grown from e lean cuttings become infected in the field. A booklet about cassava diseases issued by liT A (Msikita et al. , 2000) says that the vi rus is \"believed to be spread from plant to plant by insects.\" But the lack of exact knowledge how the disease is spread, the la e k of systematic screening of germpl asm for disease tolerance, and the nonexistence ofbreeding programs with a focus on the disease was a poor starti ng point for agencies that too k up this challenge when the problem first beca me known.This situation is repeated every time a disease or pest appears for the first ti me in an area. Preparedness in the form of capacity to quíckly start research on new diseases or pests and to integrate the search for resistance in plant breeding programs is needed but generally inadequate or nonexistent for many importan! subsistence crops in tropical countries.In such situations, local authorities and development agencies need to link with profcssional experts for coll abo ration. The experts are needed for technical support and they, in tum, need the local projects for surveys and testing of materia ls.In this case, SC/USA has established links to the national research center in Mozambique (IN lA), to the regional network (SARRNET), and the lntem ational lnstitute of Tropical Agriculture (liT A). In addition, they ha ve networked with organizatíons and projects that work w ith cassava in other affected coastal areas in East Aft•ica. Having to develop solutions in that way, however, explains why the recovery has been slow and must be accepted as a long-term undertaking.Seed crops that are managed thro ugh on-farm seed selection may mai ntain so me degree of resistance to old diseases and quickly build up resistance to new diseases. In cassava, however, each variety is a clone and not amenable to such selection. On the contrary, farmers' local management tends to erode the existing base for selection when serious diseases start appearing in their varieties.In the Memba case, reliance on one crop andfew varieties madefarmers vulnerable to CBSD. The.fact that the stap/e was a vegeta ti ve/y propagated crop with poorly developed informal systems (integration in markets, etc.) made the .system even more vulnerable. In this case, solutions require access to new germplasm, a capacity for testing and multiplication--or the technology to generate and maintain disease-free planting materials. Al ! of this is outside the reac h and beyond the capacity oflocal farming communities.As a matter of policy, both the government and SCIUSA have self-reliance as a main objective and therefore want to avoid free handouts. In the case of the government, this means no food distribution, and seed distribution on credit. For SC/USA, it means collaboration with farmer groups in multiplyingAddressing Seed S ecurity in Disaster Response: Li11king Relief witit /Jel'elopmenl and making tolerant cassava varieties available in affected areas. Since the implementers ha ve identified only varieties of cassava that are toleran! to CBSD (not resistan!), some kind ofknowledge transmission (of disease and cultural practices to ensure clean planting material) has to go with the material as part ofthe distribution process.The local people are clearly going through extreme! y hard times but seem to be able to survive by their own means. In both the SCIUSA and DDA operations, the fanners' own capacities and preferences have been addressed toa limited degree. For examp le, the di stribution of the nikv.•aha variety was not based on farmers' preferences, but because ofits disease tolcrance and availability; it is still an open question whether the fanners in the end wi 11 adopt this new sweet variety. Fanners' preferences are more complex than just disease tolerance; other sociocultural factors, such as taste, cooking qualities, and protcction from theft, are important. Thus, there is no guarantee that fanners will adopt the nihvaha variety.The govemment gives out seeds on c redit and demands repayment in kind in order to establish a seed bank for redistributíon in coming years. This requires organization and an infrastructure for administratio n of such a credit scheme, for recovery of seed loans, and for storage and redistribution of the seeds. The ODA does not appear to have the capacity and resources to manage all of that. The wisdom of combining credit recovery and extension services may also be questioned, and the interest is rather high: retum of twice the amount ofborrowed seed after one cropping season. T he requirement of repayment by weight does not encourage rhe retum o f high-quality grain as seed. Thus, \"seeds on credit \" does not seem to be a viable scheme because o.fthe low quantity and (vet)' likely) low quality o.f the returned material.Traditionally , seed security ís ensured by mechanisms o fredi stribution ofseeds and cuttings within the communi ty. Those mechanisms are only marginally commercialized and based o n free g ifts, in the case of cassava, and seeds for work, in the case of seed crops. This mechanism broke down w ith the cassava crisis. Post-disaster recovery should ideally restore o n-fam1 production and household food securi ty, genetic resources, and the seed supply system with the traditional mechanisms of distribution and exchange within the communi ty. But it is too early to assess whether the recovery w ill bring back the old mechanisms of seed exchange. A local seed trade is emerging and may, over the long term, replace the old ways of acquiring seeds for those who do not have enoug h.Because of the nature of this crisis, ad hoc operations cannot sol ve the proble m. Only projects with a long-term presence and long-tem1 commitme nt can deal with the difficulties of finding and implementing so lutions. A long-te rm presence is also necessary to bui ld rc lations of tn1st in arder to mobilize communities for active involvement. The way SCIUSA operatcs in collaboration w ith local and regional scientifíc networks seems in thi s caseto be a relevant model.SC!USA 's Agronomist in Nacala, Steve McSween, are thanked for generous support and valuabl e discussions.A second field visit in July 2003 targeted only areas that had received seed assistance during the December 2002 planting season. Save the Children USA, amputa, together w ith fíeld offíce staff in Nacala Porto, facilitated and supported that second fi eld visit in all practica! ways. The SC!USA Program Manager, Richard Dixon, helped in organi zing the work and supported it with transport, accommodation, and fíeldwork assistancc from the SC/USA staff. T he SC!USA Assistant Agronomist, Chande Ossufe, was of particular help during the fíeldwork in a ll practica! ways, as well as in terms of sharing infonnation and translating information from the farmers. During the last days in Memba, the SC!USA Food Securir:y Adviser in Nacala-a-Velha, Agy Armando Erminio, also assisted in the fieldwork. We also thank Steve McSween, who just after retuming from his summer vacation spent time discussing important issues and impressions from the fie ldwork; the SC/ USA Extension Supervisor, Dos Santos, who assisted in both fi eldwork periods in terms of guiding and selecting communities to be investigated ; and the District Director of Agriculture in Memba, Aiupa Abudo, who provided us with essential infonnation about the government activities in the district and who also indicated communities to be investigated. We are also grateful to the people ofMemba, who in all possíb!e ways showed interest and patience with our (sometimes) tiring questions. For more than 30 years, the intemational communi ty has been assisting Ethiopia in recovering from recurring disasters. A continua! need for emergency agricultura! assistance as a response 10 droughts, confli ct, and famine has led many to queslion lhe effecliveness and sustainability of the current interventions and to search for altem ati ve approaches. This paper describes the approaches used for agricultura! recovery in Ethiopia, including problem diagnos is, design and implementation of interventions, and evaluation. Furthermore, lessons from one specific case, based on fieldwork in East and West Hararghe, are presented to assess the need for and appropriateness of the approach u sed. The study reports results from a review of assessment and evaluation reports, literature reviews, interviews with key informants, and questionnaires given to farmers and govemment officials in East and West Hararghe.The crop production system in East and West Hararghe is very di verse w ith very limiled use of inputs. Fanners' seed security is based on domestic supply and availability of assets to access the market. Productivity is inherently low and the droughl o f the last two years has reduced supplies of own saved seed. Access to seed in the market is li miled due lo lack of cash or olher asse1s. However, even in drought, the supply of seeds from the market has been adequate to meet the demands from both farmers and the relief seed system.In East and West Hararghe, between 75o/o-79% ofthe households surveyed had received seed assislance in the previous three years. Direct seed distribution is the standard agricultura! emergency o r recovery response to repeated crop failures in Ethiopia. The use of seed aid has been institutionalized wi th the fo rmation of a \"relief seed system\" with clearly deftned ro les and procedures that define how seed needs are identified and how seed is distributed. Farmers have a need for assistance in a rder 10 recover from very compl ex, chronic emergencies but the continua( application ofthe standard response has not always met this need. lmproved approaches fo r diagnosing seed needs and taking lessons from past experiences are needed, and there is a need to explore new approaches that ensure that local strengths and opportunities are employed. A need to look beyond the short-term perspective of relief operations and focus resources on long-tenn developmenl is urgent.For more than 30 years, the intemational communi ty has been assisting Ethiopia in recovering from recurring disasters. A continua! need for emergency seed assistance as a response to drough ts, conflict, and famine has led many to questio n the effectiveness and sustainability ofthe current inte rventio ns and to search for altemative approaches. . 111 1The main objective of this case study is twofold . First, it aims to describe the approaches used for seed relief in Ethiopia. This will include issues of diagnosing the problem and designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions. Changes in the seed relief approach over time have also been reviewed.Second, lessons from one speci fic case, based on fieldwork in East and West Hararghe, are presented to assess the need for and appropriateness of the seed re lief approach used.Ethi opia has a long history of drought and famine (EM-DAT, no date). Droughts that resulted in maj a r fam ines occurred in the years 1972-74, 1976-1978 1983-84, 1987, 1989/91, 1993/94 , 1997, and 1999/2003 . In eight ofthe past 15 years, the numbe r a ffected from drought ranged between 5-14 million Poverty is both a cause and an effect ofthe Ethiopian disasters. In appeals for emergency assistance, the various famines that ha ve occurred since 1 996 are all blamed on a combination of a drought emergency and poverty. On the other hand, the chronic vulnerability of the Ethiopian rural population is seen as the effect of repetitive crop failures that have graduall y deprived farrners of their assets. Dercon (2002) found that communities affected by the 1983/84 drought had barely recovered to pre-drought levels by 1994/95. Poor conunun ities have repeatedly had to adopt survival mechanisms that deplete their long-term strategies and assets. Droughts have caused the less poor to become poor, and the poor to beco me destitute. The lack of productive assets a nd savings, a long with small plots of land and a weak and poorl y educated work force means that people are very vulnerable to shocks.A World Bank Country Study (World Bank, 1998) suggests that the share ofa household's income spent on food is a key indicator ofpoverty. In Ethiopia, this averages 75%. 8oth on-fann production, markets, and gifts/loa ns/wages from friends and relatives contribute to household diets . More than half(53 % ) of the food consumption is o btained thro ugh purchases in local markets. A survey by Dercon (2002) fou nd that most households rely on the market for food during certain times of the year, even for crops c ul tivated on their own land. On average, households reported that they have no homegrown food in stock during about 1 O weeks per year.Agricultural policies Dercon (2002) analyzed the impact of the política! and economic reforms in Ethi opia from a feudal system, through a communist-in spired contro lled economy, toa market-based economy (supported by the lnternational Monetary Fund and the World Bank). He studied changes from 1989 to 1994/95 in households that were affected by the 1984/85 drought. The study concluded that the reforrns had not been universally pro-poor. The nearly 50% o f households that had good rains, good land, and access to infrastructure contributed to more than 80% of the overal l estimated reduction in the poverty gap. The poorest households stayed poor and had a lower growth rate.In the mid-1990s, the Ethiopian govemment adopted an initiati ve for agricultura! development ca lled \"agricultura! development led industrialization.\" T hrough nationwide promotion and dissemination of agri cultura! extension packages, this approach contributed to increased food production. Many fanners were able to produce a surplus that could be marketed. However, since markets are underdeveloped, the high supply resulted in very low cereal prices, especially for mai ze, sorghum, and wheat. Wholesale prices for mai ze in Nekempt plummeted by 75% from A ugust 1999 to July 2002 as the number of plots that participated in the extension package program in East W ellega Zone increased from 600 in 1995 to 133,017 in 200 1 (Raymakers and Sewaonet, 2002). T his has led, in tum, to an inabi lity of farmers to repay loans for the extension packages. The loan repayment has forced farmers to sell parts of their assets, household items, livestock, or oxen (Raymakers and Sewaonet, 2002). Guinand (2002) concluded that \"many cash crop and surplus-producing farmers ... say they are better off not using the so-called govemment agricultura! ex tension package that is not helping them any more.\" The use offarm inputs has been s ignificantly reduced, and the productivity achievements ofthe late 1990s have been reversed (EC/ LFSU and WFP, 2002). Seed sales from the formal sector (including the ESE, the Pioneer Company, and farmer-based secondary seed multiplication units) fell from 35,000 metric tons (Mt) in 200 l to 20,000 Mt in 2002. For 2002, an F AO/WFP assessment concluded that about 97 % of the seed used was local.Development economist Amartya Sen 's analysis of the 1972 Ethiopian fam ine led to his Nobel prize-winning theory of entitlement (Sen,198 1 ). The entitlement approach switches the focu s from a problem of food availability, addressed through food di stributions, to one offood entitlement, addressed through poverty reduction and market reform.Emergency reliefin Ethiopia has not proved able to adopt Sen's new paradigm. T he Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC, 2002a) indicated that, in terms ofrelieffood aid, the food intlow to regularly mitigate fam ine has expanded progressively by over 600,000 Mt per year in the period from 1994 to 1999. Paradoxically, these imports have co incided with an increase in domestic cereal production but very low cereal prices to farmers. Programs for food aid are repeated every season (Raisin,200 1 ), and due to constraints of time or other factors, evaluations of the long-tenn impact of assistance on food security are rarely undertaken. This hampers the possibi lity offinding a way offthe treadmi ll. However, seed assistance has been widely adopted, with the intent of reestablishing production, and thereby ensuring food security in the long run.The predominant approach for seed assistance, direct seed distribution, is generally based on the assumption that most households in a food insecure area are also seed insecure, i.e., that they do not have sufficient seed of their own or sufficient capacity to acqu ire seed locally ( Longley et al. , 2002). However, repeated provision of seeds in vulnerable areas might disrupt traditional household strategies for manag ing and accessing seed. Seed markets (both formal and informal) may also be disrupted. ln effect, local systems and capacities for coping wi th harvest fa ilures may be undermined, which may prolong the need for ''emergency\" assistance. A pproaches that are employed to diagnose local seed stress and guide interventions are often s implistic. Assessments oflocal seed securi ty are seldom carried out before interventions are planned or impl emented. Differences ac ross households are seldom explored, and it is often assumed that all crops are equally affected . Remington et al. (2002) presents a framework for assessing seed security and diagnosing seed systems. This framework describes three parameters of seed securi ty: avai lability, access, and quali ty. Availability is re lated to seed supply. A sufficient quantity of the seed of desirable crops must be found w ithin reasonable proximity to people and in time for critica! sowing periods. To benefit fro m available seed, people must have access to it, which means they must have adequate resources to secure seed through purchase or barter. And last, seed must be of appropriate quality, that is, it must be for desirable varieties and of acceptable standards (seed health, physiological characteristics, and varietal integrity).Seed di stributions generally contribute to seed avai lability by creating an artificial supply ofseed within a limited period oftime. However, questions may be raised at this approach, as seed is hardly ever totally unavailable. Certain areas may provide surplus production, or seed ofaltemati ve crops may be available. For instance, recent food aid imports to Ethiopia have coincided with high cereal production in certain areas ofthe country (Guinand, 2002). The problem may be more one ofaccess or quality: seed may not be accessed because it is beyond the purchasing powcr of the impoverished, shock-susceptible population. A ltematively, farmers may be forced to use seed of inferior qua lity. However, Remington et al. (2002) concluded that, \"In summary, the preceden ce fo r the determination of food unavai lability, the complexity of diagnosing a lack of seed access, and the challenge of addressing access all contribute to the avoidance of the access determination.\"The case study consisted of three main sources of evidence Different types of data were collccted in fíeldwork in nine woredas (di stricts) in the specifíc target area, East and West Hararghe, in Aprii-June 2003. Surveys were done with fa nners while interviews were conducted w ith grain traders and govemment offí cials. Thc farmer survey involvcd between 30 and 2 16 househo lds per agroecological zone in each woreda. Nineteen grain traders were interviewed. Woreda administrative offícials were interviewed in every woreda except Mieso. One woreda agricultura! development offícer (ADO) was interviewed in each of the nine woredas. Officials of peasant associations were also interviewed in each ofthe nine woredas, for a total of66 officials in 60 villages.A review ofrecent seed reliefprojects in Ethiopia reveals that disasters are al! blamed on a combination of a drought emergency and chronic vulnerability. Over the years, direct seed distribution has become a typical response to these seed stress situations.In 1999 an appeal was made for food and seed distributions because of\" the poor 1998 meher [main and long rain y season] and 1999 belg [short rain y sea son) harvest as well as increasing vulnerability from previous years\" (UNDP-EUE, 1999). The appeal was justifíed further because \"many farmers have consumed or lost their grain seeds and have been forced to sell agricultura! tools and oxen to buy grain.\"In 2000, an appeal was made for food and nonfood assistance due to repeated poor rains and the fail ure of the 1999 belg and the poor meher (UNDP- EUE, 2000) . Another appeal in 200 1 stated that the objective ofthe project was to \"save lives and to support the recovery process by protecting and building productive assets.\" Furthermore, it was stated that \"an essential component of the approach will be ... the provision of seeds and tools for the upcoming belg cropping season\" (UN/OC HA, 200 1 ). A new appeal in 2002 requested more than $ 15 mi Ilion for the provision oflocal and improved seed for the belg season in response of a fai lure of the previous belg rains and the poor meher (DPPC, 2002b,c). T he appeal gave the following description of the situation : \"Seed stocks are required in many crop-growing areas for the coming planting season. Seed ava ilability in 2003 will be critica) dueto the poor production perfom1ance in 2002. The seeds ha ve hi ghly shrivcled and are of poor quality for pl anting. Therefore, time! y suppl y is cri tica ) to avoid intlated needs for the remainder of 2003 .\" Additional appeals were made in March (DPPC, 2003a) and June (OPPC, 2003b) of2003.Most appeals reviewed since 1996 relate the farmers' vulnerabilities to the famine in 1983/84. In the Govemment of Ethiopia 's appeal for 2003. the disaster was described as the res idua l effect of con ecutive years of drought and poverty. The food insecurity is described as chronic in nature w ith the exception of particular crisis periods that may produce more acute and transitory food insecurity. The appeal concludes that poverty is the underlying cause of chronic food insecurity dueto a lack of assets and endowments, low or variable rainfa ll, high population density, and low natural resource e ndowments. This is despite overall good harvests in 1995/96, 1998, and the meher of 2001, and increased cereal production in the surplus growing areas of the country from 1996 to 200 l .In Ethiopia, repetitive seed aid in the form of direct seed distribution has been institutiona lized to such an extent as to see the formation of a relief seed system, which is dri ven with funds from intemational donors and focused on seed procurement and production. Apmt from the funders, thc system is composed of organizations or individuals who produce seed ( or grain), institutions that procure seed. institutions that distribute the seed, and fin ally the beneficiary househo lds that rece ive the seed as assistance. The system is regu lated by the OPPC nationally, and by the Di saster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau (DPPB) regionall y, while the ationa l Seed lndustry Agency (NS IA) monitors seed quality and procurement. DPPC and OPPB are govemment agencies. The DPPC has three mandates: prevention/mitígation, preparedness, and immediate response. Food aid is classified as emergency response, whereas seed a id is considered a mechanism for preparedness or rehabilitation. Other national agencies in volved in the relief seed system are the Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (ESE), the Biodiversity lnstitute, Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopian Agricultura! Research Organization (EARO), and the uni versities.The donors include intemational organizatio ns, the European Union (EU), USA ID/OFDA , DFlD fro m the UK, and other official Northern agenc ies. Funds are provided directly or through F AÜ. Additional fundin g comes from prívate funds to NGOs. Donors may be involved at a number of di fferen t levels, funding assessments, serving as membe rs of the assessment teams, or responding as key informants for the assessment. The food and non-food assessments are generally done with DPPC as the lead agency, while WFP and FAO, UN-EUE, the donors, the NGOs, the Ministry of Agriculture, the DPPB, regionallzonallworeda staff, and fam1 ers participare as appropriate. Irrespecti ve of the assessment team, the assessments are generally based on the same sources ofinformation (see below). The institutions that solicit fu nds and procure the seed include the Govemment ofEthiopia, FAO, EU RONAJD, CRDA, and intem ational NGOs. The institutions that undertakc the distributions include intem ational and local NGOs, thc Ministry of Agriculture, DPPB, and development agents in the affected peasant associations. Zonal and woreda committees participare in seed needs assessments, and work with affected farmers to identify the particular crops/varieties and quantities of seed needed. Often they mayal so participare in seed procurement through organizing local tender. In general , the woreda committee works with local development agents or peasant associat ion lcaders or local peasant association committees to identify beneficiaries. The woreda comm ittee is usual! y made up of representa ti ves from the local govemment, the implementing NGO, Ministry of Agricu lture, and the woreda DPPC.Prior to 1996, the DPPC did needs assessments based on the food ba lance sheet and used thi s as a basis for appeals. WFP assisted in the food assessments; FAO and the Ministry of Agricultu re d id agricul tura! assessments. Thi s resulted in the donors receivi ng two sets ofnumbers or estimates of need, which were sometimcs not very similar. In 1995/96 the DPPC made the assessments more transparent. Currently, multi-agency emergency needs assessments are led by the DPPC but carried out by over 15 institutions, including govemment agencies, foreign donors, UN agencies, and NGOs. EU-LSFU and FEWS-NET are also involved in assessments and early warning for food-and non-food needs.Assessments are routinely done at least twice ayear, depending on the situation. One assessment is done in October/ December for meher, followed by another in June/July. Indicators used in the assessments are crop production estimates, crop production area, li vestock status, market prices, human health status, general tood securi ty, and weather data. The number of affected households is determined together with local officials. T he Ministry of Agriculture provides market data, and market trends are ana lyzed and assessed relative to other years and to quantitative assessments done by others. The col lected data is cross-checked against information from farmers, traders, NGOs, donar project staff, and remate sensing data fro m early-waming systems. Prior to 2003 , food assessments were used to justi fy seed needs. In 2003, seed assessment indicators were identified by the DPPC, thus faci litating a separate assessment of seed securi ty. The indicators were the status of belg rains and the effect on seed stock, on the plantlreplant cycle, grain price, and the quality of grain in the market (DPPC, 2003b ).Local assessments are used as inputs into the larger scale food or non-food assessment (WFP/ DPPC and FAO/Ministry of Agriculture). Local conditions and needs are assessed by local government officials, such as the development agents or Ministry of Agriculture extension staff. These assessments collect data on the number of specifically affected comrnuni ties, number of affected households, and the specific needs fo r food, seed, or other no n-food needs. They are surnmarized at the woreda leve! by the woreda officials, reported to the zonal DPPB, and finally reported to the DPPC in Addis Ababa. This local assessment also guides the Govemment of Ethiopi a and local NGOs in implementing direct seed distribution. The Ministry of Agriculture extension staff, the development agents and the local NGO staff work with the affected communities to identi fy the exact quantities and types of seed needed. The cxact number of beneficiaries to be targeted in the communities is also determined with the local offici als.In addition, to these assessments, VN-EUE carries out descriptive annual regional assessments and special assessments throughout the year to provide a situation report that is initiated wi th the DPPC at the federal leve! but irnplernented with DPPB at the local level, along with NGOs and fanners. T he assessments are cross-checked with the local government and others for validity. The indicators of stress include weather conditions, livestock conditions, grain/livestock prices, and human health status. The agricultura] situation is assessed along with the fanner' s seed status frorn farrner interviews. The assessrnent do es not consider the cause ofthe lack of seed-whether it is from lack of availability or lack of access. Seed req uirements are formulated fro m a local request for an agriculturallseed response and local confirrnation with different farmers, NGOs and government representatives. They alert the UN country team to the seed shortage. [f it is a very local cris is, the local NGO wil l respond, but if it is of greater magni tude, FAO wi ll get involved and fo llow up with an addi tional assessment.Addressing S eed Security in Oisosler Respu111;e: Linking Relief with Developmcnl. 1161The seed is procured at the intem ational, national , regional, or local leve!. The procurement process is usua lly by tender, w hich specifies the exact quantity of seed required for each crop/variety, the requirement for packaging and labeling, quality standards, and delivery s i te. Certified seed of improved varieties is supplied from the formal sector (ESE, priva te sector, research stations, and university farms ).In addition, there are producers and traders who are certified to produce and del iver seed of local varieties. Uncertified seed and gra in, generally from the in forma l system, is also supplied, either from central and regional markets or through local traders, seed grower cooperatives, and local farmers.Over the years, emergency seed from central sources, inc luding improved varieties, has been met with many complai nts from farmers about late del ivery and the appropriateness of distributed seed. This has led to the development of a local procurement process, where F AO and various NGOs procure seed by tender to local traders, who generally purchase local seed from smaller traders or farmers and bulk the seed lots. They also purchase seed from local seed grower cooperati ves. The Ministry of Agricultu re assesses the physical quality ofthe seed ( cleanliness, puri ty, degree of impurities, broken or di sea sed seed) but not germination percentage. Local procurement is usually done by local tender under the supervision of a local proc urement committee made up of staff from the zonal!woreda DPPB and Ministry of Agricul ture, woreda counc il members, and the local NGO. The tender is us ua ll y given to one trader.The provis ion of seed from the formal sector is limited because of an underdeve\\oped national seed industry. This includes federal and regional agric ul tura! research establishments, universities, the NS IA, the ESE, and a few priva te companies (Gemeda et al., 2001 ). ESE domina tes the prod uctio n, processing, and di stribution of seed of released varieties, selling its seed to commercial farmers and other interested organizations, such as the Ministry of Agric ulture and NGOs. Each year, ESE sends a letter of availability toNGOs. During 1995During -1998, ESE distributed about 15% of its seed to state farms , 55% to extension management training plots, and 30% to others (Gemeda et al.,200 1 ). It decides what varieties to produce over a two-year cyc le based on the suppl y ofbreeder seed, avail abi1ity of contract farms, and demand for the varieties. ln 1998, 67.5% of its distribution was wheat, 3 1% was maize, l % was bar ley, and 0.5% other crops. Woreda Ministry of Agriculture staff sell the seed that is given to them in retail packs. All the seed is packaged and sold in small amounts sufficient for one-fourth to one-halfhectare. The seed rate is predetermined based on an average for the crop ac ross the country. The price for seed is set based on production cost, overhead, and a sma ll margin to recover costs.These days, traders involved in seed relief, such as the ODA Share Company (which has participated in this type of seed trade for more than 1 O years ), purchase and deliver from the same area (personal interview with Belissa Gobosho, Genera l Office Manager, ODA Share Company, Addis Ababa, Oct 16, 2002). lfthe seed is not Iocally avai lable, they w ill ask to procure from other areas or they will decl ine tender. They participate in tenders in Addis since this is where they are licensed and mainly deal w ith seed of haricot beans, barley, tef, chickpeas, niger, and wheat. All these traders are required to have a trade license, which can be got from NAIA, which issues an efficiency certificate to deli ver seeds anda license/technical certificate to deal with seeds. To get a certificare, the traders must meet specific standards, have experience w ith deli very, and paya fee.One additional approach has been used by SCF-UK. In this process, woreda local committees work together with woreda offic ials to set up a market pl ace on a speci fi c date. The committee compiles a list of crops and varieties and the required amounts, and then selects the desired seed from fa rrners and local traders that meets quality standards. If the required seed is not available, the committee has to loo k at altemative crops and varieties. These local seed markets have been arranged in six to eight woredas.In an EU-funded project, there was a major problcm with the EU procurement procedure that requi red a single central tender from one vendar for all the required seed.The \"relief seed system\" has a large number of participants and is better developed and util ized than the fo rma l seed sector, although the seed produced by the fo nnal sector is used ex tensively by this system. The main feedback loop is berween those who procure seed and those who deliver seed . There is little feedback between the recipients ofthe seed (who are the affected households) and these seed producers. The development of this system has been driven by the constant need to provide secd in emergencies, and many feel that it has had a negative impact on the development ofthe formal seed sector to meet the seed needs of fanners in a more sustained fashion.We reviewed five final reports and evaluations of past interventions to study how the seed problem was diagnosed, w hich actions were taken to allcviate the problem, the evaluation criteria used to judge the impact ofthe intervention, the technical and ocia! adequacy ofthe intervention, cost effectiveness, and finall y, the impact over the longer tenn in relation to meeting project goals. The reports reviewed dealt with seed distributions by CRDA in 1994, CRS-Ethiopia in 1999, SCF-U K in 1999, CARE-Borana in 200 1, and FAO in 200 1.Sin ce L 984/85 CRDA has been coordinating the procurement of seeds, tools, and transport fo r members. The L 994 program was its tenth. Reports from 1994 show that 8 1% ofthe recipients receivcd the seed on credit, 9% got the seed on time for sowing, 92% thought it was appropriate, but only 11 % used the seed for 10% of the ir seed requirement (CRDA, 1995). Problems identified in the implementation included the high demand for seed in the target areas, delays in seed deli very, a shortage ofstaffin the member NGO and the Ministry of Agriculture, remoteness ofproj ect areas, and final ly, the poor yield of pl anted crops dueto continued drought, too much rain, di scases, and other pest problem over the season.CRS-Ethiopia/HCS implemented seed distribution in 1999 in 12 peasant associations in Fedis Woreda in East Hararghe (CRS/HCS, 2000). The project was implemented through a local partner, the Hara rghe Catholic Secretari at (HCS), and the DPPC at the zonal and woreda levels. lmpact was assessed on the basis of four criteria: the number of beneficiaries, the amount of seed procured and distrib uted, area planted, and production per area plantcd. The evaluation of the project concl uded that the seed was de li vered on time, the project distributed appropri ate local seeds of hig h quality (germination of 95%), there was good production by farmers in both distributions, good participation by all partners, and the allocated budget was adequate.SCF-UK implemented seed distribution in seven woredas ofNorth Wollo and in three woredas ofWag Himra, along with the zonal departments of agriculture (SCF-UK, 2000). T he imple mentation process, which included procurement, distribution, and coordination berween actors, was eva luated with the stakeholders and found to be satisfactory even though there were p roblems with the procurement ofthe seeds from ESE in a timely fash ion, and seed was distri buted to only 55% ofthe beneficiaries targeted, who on ly received 35% ofthe seed required. lmpact was assessed on the basis ofthe fo llowing criteria: number of beneficiaries, quantity of seed distributed, area planted, production per area planted, the contribution of production to household food security and indebtedness, fam1er satisfaction with the timing of distribution and vari ety, credit repayment. and effectiveness of targeting. In general, the project was well received although sorne of the fanners received the seed late and it was the wrong variety of wheat or the wrong crop. The use of improved varieties and credit were also found to be problematic for targeting beneficiaries in this intervention.CARE-801•ena CARE-Borena reported on a seed distribution done for the meher 2001 in the pastoral areas of thc Borena Zone of Oromiya Region (CARE-Borena, 2001 ). CARE and the Ministry of Agriculture procured local haricot beans and katumani maize from ESE. Woreda comm ittees and peasant association Ieaders allocated seeds to beneficiaries. The criteria used to measure impact included the number of beneficiaries, quantity of seed distributed, percent of area in the woreda planted w ith distributed seed, timely distribution ofseed, crop production and deviation from normal, the gap filled in food security with the production, and seed repayment. The haricot beans performed well but the maize was planted late and did very poorly, so there was not much of an impact on food securi ty.F AO implemented seed distribution as part of a la rger project to facilitate the resumption ofagricultural activities in preparation for the meher cropping season of 2001 among displaced households in Tigray and Afar. The tender process was used. The improved seed was delivered late or the next season, but all the local purchase was fully distributed in the meher 200 l cropping season. The criteria used to evaluate the project included the number of beneficiaries, quantities of seed distributed, land area cultivated, success of loca l purchase to meet variety preference (no data given), use of inputs (stated as \"were put to good use\" but no data), estimated production , and estimated months of food supply. The ratio of cost of production versus total value was 1 :3. In this calculation, costs included the cost ofthe seed purchase and the cost ofland preparation/planting, while value included both the food and the value ofthe straw. 8oth proj ect implementation and impact were judged acceptabl e based on quality of inputs, timeliness, and suitabil ity of implementation .In general, in the five projects reviewed, no specific problem diagnosis was used to design the intervention, so no a lternative interventions to address the emergency were considered. Thc process of implementation focu sed mainl y on the procurement and delivery of the inputs and was not reviewed. The impact of the intervention was considered in each of these cases almost exclusive! y in relation to teclmical adequacy. Thus, the diagnoses and evaluations are very focused on the supp ly-side dimension of the operations; while the farmers, representing a possible demand for assistance, were not involved. One eva luation was made ofthe social adequacy in relation to the targeting (SC-UK) and one evaluation addressed the cost-benefit ratio ofthe intervention (F AO). No project evaluated the longer-term impacts of the intervention on the households, the communities, the target agricu ltura! system, or the seed system. While all these evaluations concluded with a list of constraints and future needs or opportunities, it is not clear how all these were addressed in subsequent interventions.The diagnosis of seed insecurity at the household level depends upon a baseline understanding of household seed security within the framework of locallivelihood systems. Fieldwork was conducted in nine woredas of West and East Hararghe to describe the communi ty and household secd system in relation to seed security, identify indicators of household seed security, evaluate houschold experiencewith seed assistance, and determine thc role of farm er/grain trader sales for local seed security. lnterviews were done with indi vidual farmers and farmers or grain traders who sell seed and grain.The fanncr survey included 1 80 1 respondents who were randomly sampled, using an opportunistic sampling scheme, at the village, woreda, and district level. The proportion ofthe respondents that were female (3%) or carne from female-headed househo lds (3%) was very small. The survey also sampled very few very poor households with small landholdings and very few animals or other livelihood assets.The sample mai nl y included male-headed households with four to eight members, of average wealth with modera te landholdings, a small number of animals, and some chal as a cash crop.In recent years, there have been indications that farm production has fallen (figure 1 ). Farmers perceive that crop production has fa llen dramatically since the fairly average year of2000-bad in 2001 to even worse in 2002. ln 2002, more than 60% ofthe lowland and midland house holds rated the harvest much lowe r than average.The househo lds surveyed listed 15 crops grown overall in their plots. Of these, 1 O were grown in a ll three zones. Finger mil let and oats were only grown in the midland and highlands, groundnuts and paprika only in the lowlands, and garlic only in the midlands. Maize, sorghum, and chal were grown by the highest proportion of the households in all three zones. There were a total of 74 crop combinations planted by the surveyed households. The on ly crops that were mono-cropped were finger millets, groundnuts, and paprika. A moderate proportion ofthe respondents used fe1tili zer routinel y (25% in the lowlands, 48% in the midlands, and 43% in the highl ands). Of those who used fertilizer, it was used mainly on maize and potatoes. lmproved seed of maize, sorghum, and wheat were used routinely by a number ofhouseholds in all zones (23% in the lowlands, 28% in the midlands and 5% in the highlands).The seed required was hígher in the lowlands but similar for maize, sorghum, t~(and haricot beans.The planting time for maize, sorghum, and haricot beans is March to June (March to May in the highlands). Tef is planted from April to July in the lowlands, from March to May in the midlands, and only in April in the highlands. Replanting is rarely done. For maize, 92%-97% of the respondents did not replant ifthere was crop loss. Ifreplanting is done, it is mainly done with sorghum and potatoes in the lowlands and midlands, and sorghum and maize in the highlands.In normal years a household wi llutilize the most trusted sources that they can access. Any disruption in the normal farming practices can result in reduced availability ofthis preferred source andan increased demand for seed from altemative sources.While 97% of farmers in Ethiopia stil l use landraces (FAO, 2002), that does not necessari ly mean that they use 100% home-saved seed for those landraces, even under norma l conditions. A s ingle household can use two or more sources routinely, and different crops or varieties may be accessed from diffe rent sources . The survey households used seed from their own saved secd, seed obtained from soc ial networks (such as neighbors or relatives), seed purchased from the local market, and seed obtained from seed assistance given by GOs and the govemment. Figure 2 shows how households in the three different zones meet their seed needs. Before 2003 , the majority of househo lds in the lowlands used multiple channels for seed. In the mid lands and hi ghlands, the proportion of households who uscd own saved seed only was equal to the proport ion ofhouseholds using multiple channels. Prior to 2003, about 10%-12% ofhouseholds used only the loca l market to access seed in all three zones. In 2003 , after the dro ught of 2002 , a hig her proportion of househo lds planned to use the loca l market in all three zones. There was also an increase in the proportion ofhouseho lds who planned to use only seed from seed assistance, especially in the lowlands and midlands. In allthree zones, thc proportion of househo lds who planned to obtain seed frorn rnultiple channels decli ned. The use of only own saved seed declined in the lowlands and midlands but increased in the highlands. T hus, the drought of 2002 resulted in househo lds access ing fewer seed channels, especially in the lowlands a nd rn idlands, and reliance on sced frorn outside the home-from the local rnarket and seed assistance-increased. The main seed channel used to meet househo ld seed needs for maize was own savcd seed both before 2003 and in 2003; however, the use of this channel dccl ined in 2003, espec ially in the lowlands and mid lands. This reduced use of own saved seed was compensated by an increased demand for seed from the local market and from seed assistance. The social nctwork only contributed a small proportion ofthe total seed needs for maize.Own saved sccd contributed 6 1%-76% of the total seed needs for sorghum, but in 2003 this was reduced, especially in the lowlands and midlands. For sorghum, the social network contributed more than seed assistance, especially in the lowlands and midlands.The importancc of own saved seed beforc 2003 was lcss for wheat compared to maize or sorghum, especially in the lowlands where households only used this source for 27% of their secd needs. In 2003, the contribution of this seed source increased or stayed very s imi lar. Both the local market and seed assistance accounted for one-fourth to one-thi rd of total seed needs. In 2003, there was a reduced demand for secd from the local market, espec ia lly in the highlands. In the lowlands there was an increased use of seed assistance for 2003.For te_¡; own saved seed was used for about one-third of the total seed needs befare 2003 in all three zones. The local market and seed assistance combined accounted for more of the total seed needs than own saved seed. In the lowlands a nd highl ands, there was a reduced use of own saved seed in 2003, while the contribution ofthe local market increased. In thc midlands, houscholds planned to use more of their own saved seed and secd from local networks in 2003.For haricot bcans, own saved seed and the local market were the main seed sources used before 2003. In 2003, there was a reduced use of own savcd seed anda large increase in secd needs to be met from the local market. There was no change in the use o f seed assistance.Generally, the households surveyed met a high proportion oftheir seed needs with thcir own saved seed and the market. The impact ofthe drought of2002 increased the proportion ofhouseholds who used only one seed source. The local market met an increased propottion of total seed needs in all three zones. In the lowlands, the contribution of seed assistance increased as well. The proportion ofthe total household seed needs to be met from own saved seed was reduced for all crops except wheat in all three zones, maize and sorghum in the highlands, and tef in the midlands. The household 's response to this reduced supply of own saved seed was to increase seed use from the local market for all crops except maize and sorghum in the lowlands where there was an increased use of seed assistance. Thus, households in the survey responded to the reduced suppl y of own saved seed with greater use of altemative seed sources, such as the local market, and they became more dependent on s ingle sources.The households were questioned about their experience with seed from outside their domestic supp1y over the previous 1 O years. In the mid1ands and high1ands, very few households had never used seed from outside. Unlike the Jowlands or midlands, a majority ofhouseholds in the highlands use seed from outside every year for all the crops. However, the majority of seed sti11 comes from own saved seed. The use of outside sources has increased in the past five years for most crops.The abi lity to produce one's own seed is critica! to househo1d seed security, but to benefit from thi s retained seed, the househo1d must a1so be ab1e to conserve the seed and use practices that maintain varieta1 integrity or qua1ity. Thus, househo1ds were asked about their seed selection and conservation practices now and in the past. Signi ficant changes in any of these components cou1d indicate increased risk to seed security. The househo1ds in the survey described a number ofmethods used to conserve seed but many (more than 80%) used a white tab1et they obtained from the Ministry of Agricu1ture for maize, sorghum, tej, bar1ey, wheat, and haricot beans. In all crops there were very few changes in seed se1ection procedures and storage systems from 1 O years befo re. In all three zones, maize seed is main1y se1ected in the fie1d at harvest or the cobs are selected befare storage. Sorghum is al so selected in the fie1d at harvest and panicles are selected befare storage, but in the highlands a higher proportion ofthe households select the seed at planting time. Separating seed from grain without any selection process is more common for wheat than for maize and sorghum. The majority of barley, tef. and haricot bean seed is se1ected at planting time.The market is a major source of smallholder seed. Generally, in the 1ow1ands, households listed 40 different markets where they found the qua1ity and quantity of seed desired. Tn the midlands, househo1ds 1isted 35 markets, whi1e in the highlands, households 1isted on1y 15 markets. Thus in the surveyed woredas, households u sed a diversity of markets to access seed or p1anting material. Overall, about 70% of the households accessed sufficient quantities of seed to purchase. Among those who did not access sufficient quantities of desired seed, on1y 5% fe1t that this was due to a prohibitive1y high demand in the market. Another 13% felt that quality seed of the desired varieties was unavailab1e. About 90% of the households in the lowlands and midlands and 80% in the high1ands found the price of seed higher than for food grain in the market.Overall, in the three agroecologica1 zones, 75%-85% of househo1ds used credit to purchase seed. The main sources of credit were loans from re1atives/neighbors (26%), the government (49%), cooperatives (4%), or NGO revolving funds (1 %). Households were also asked about other sources ofincome for seed purchase, which was main1y cash from the sale of shoats, calves, or food crops. F or many households, access to the seed market depended upon credit from the govemment or relatives/neighbors, with very few househo1ds (1ess than 20%) using cash or assets sold for cash.A survey was also done with 19 maJe grain traders in nine woredas. A trader was characterized as small, medium, or large, depending on access to storage facil ities, own transport, marketing facilities (own store to sell seed or selling only at weekly markets ), and volume of sales. A majority ofthe small traders had regular sales but were unlicensed . A nearly equal number ofthe medium traders had regular licensed trades and intermittent unlicensed trades. Surprisingly, the large traders were mainly unlicensed, with temporary to intermittent sales. There was no relationship between the characteristics ofthe traders and the number or types of markets attended. A trader attended up to four regional and local weekly markets.The traders were asked about the crops sold in the previous year ( 2002) and crops purchased for sell ing in 2003. Individual traders sold up to five crops in 2002 and six in 2003. There was no relationship between the number of crops sold, the types of crops sold, and the various trader characteristics. There was little relationship between the number of crops sold in 2002 and 2003. For example, three traders who sold no crops in 2002 had bought two to six crops to sell in 2003. All this demonstrates the very informal, dynamic nature of this market.Traders either buy the commodity directly from fanners or through local agents in various ways: 42% purchased the commodity at the main market, 16% purchased from agents, and 42% traveled by public transport and by donkey to farmers to make purchases. Nearly 47% of the traders did not need to transport the grain since it was bought near their house. Overall, 42% ofthe traders felt they could access as much as they wanted. Grain was so id as seed by 68% of the traders but only 42% of the traders had ever purchased grain to sell as seed. Seed was stored separately from grain by 59% of the traders. Seed was so id on credit to farmers by 22% of the traders.Local purchases accounted for 57%-100% of grain purchases for 2003, depending on the crop. In 2002, a drought year, local purchases accounted for a lower proportion of the grain/seed supp ly of maize, wheat, and beans but a higher proportion for sorghum, te[, barley, and chickpeas. In 2003, all the local-purchase seed came from direct purchases from farmers for sorghum, beans, and chickpeas. E ven for the other corps, a majority of local purchases were directly from fanners. In 2002 and 2003, the govemment, other traders, and NGOs met the demand for relief seed assistance through local purchases.In 2002, 48% of these traders sold seed to farmers, 24% sold to the govemment, 19% to other traders, and 10% to NGOs. Obviously, local purchase ofreliefseed assistance uses the same market that farmers use directly, which could contribute to a shortage. However, neither the traders nor the farmers perceived these purchases from the reliefseed system as a constraint to access to seed in the local market. Apparently, seed supply is sufficient but access to seed from the market may be restricted due to low availabi li ty of cash or credit in the households. It is noticeable, however, that local traders were able to access the grain of most crops from farmers during years when production was low and seed assistance was needed.Households were asked about their experience wi th seed received from NGOs or the govemment for assistance or development in the past three years. Overall, 8% ofthe households had received sorghum, 23% had received maize, and 1% had received wheat. ln total, only 72 households in the survey received more than one crop from a di stribution. In many cases, the govemment distributes seed for the NGO or together with NGO staff. No household declared that they had received a distribution from both in the same season. Most ofthe di stributions were free, from both the NGOs and the government, although the The survey requested the fanners to judge the technical aspects of relief seed distribution for those who had benefitted (figure 3). Nearly all the households received improved varieties of wheat, maize, and sorghum. O ver all crops, 70o/o-83% ofthe households that recei ved seed fo r an emergency received it on time. Only 45%-52% of the benetíciaries felt that the amount of sorghum and wheat seed they were given was adequate. F or all three crops, the beneficiaries felt that the variety was appropriate for the crop season and the emergency. Very few beneficiaries thought the variety quality was poor, and for maize and wheat, over 60% thought it was excellent. This indicares that benefi ciaries felt that the d istributions were technically sound.In the lowlands, of the households that received assistance, 42% received seed because they did not ha ve seed to plant because ofthe drought, while 58% said they took the seed because they were told to take it by the peasant association leaders. In the midlands, on ly 16% of the respondents needed the seed because ofthe drought, while 85% said they were told to take the seed by the peasant association leaders.In the highlands 50% of the households accepted the seed for each of the two reasons. In the lowlands and midlands, 53% ofthe households felt they could have obtained the appropriate seed themselves if they had received cash instead of seed for assistance, but in the highlands, only 42% felt th is way.T he households that had received seed assistance in the previous three years also used seed from their family or neighbors and the market. In all three zones, the majority of househo lds used seed obtained from the market at the same time they obtained relief seed. Households were al so asked about the source of seeds used during the season/year when others received seed assistance. There was no difference in the responses across agroecological zones. Overall , 65% ofthe ho useholds that did not receive seed aid indicated they had still planted, 55% of the househo lds that planted when others used seed assistance used their own saved seed, 19% accessed seed from fami ly or neighbors, and 26% obtained the seed from the market.In the previous three years, 75%-79% of the households in the survey received seed assistance. The households were asked whether they were still growing the varieties they had received from the government or NGOs in the last three years. Two maíze varieties (katwnani, a variety reieased in 1974, and A Sil , a variety released in 1973 ), a sorghum variety (76Tr#23, released in 1 979), and one haricot bean variety (Mexican 142, re leased in 1 973) were still being grown. T he households had also adopted a .4ddre-<-<ing Seed Securitr in Disasler RPspoiiSe: Linking Relief 1áth Developmenl. 1261 wheat variety, inkoyi, and a tef variety that were farmer varieties from other areas of Ethiopia. The proportion of households that still planted the varieties varied across the three zones for all varieties except Maize A 51 l . Of those who had received a variety through seed assistance but no Ionger planted it, the main reasons given were related to poor performance (whether the variety was improved or local), high incidence ofpests, and the Iow storabi lity.A ltogether, 18% of the households that received these s ix crops/varieties as seed assistance still cultivated them. Another 26% ofthe ho useholds al so culti vated these varieties, but these households had been introduced to the varieties by othe r farmers. Thus, it wo uld seem that farmers were more will ing to experiment and grow new varieties when they obtained them from other fanners rather than directly from the government oran NGO. Whilc this is a good adoption rate, it is not known how many times they received these crops/varieties or how many crops/varieties they had tested but not adopted. Thus the effectiveness of the use of seed assistance to introduce new varieties is still uncertain from this survey.A survey was done w ith woreda admi nistrati ve offícials: the agricultura) development officer (ADO) and the peasant association leader or the development agcnt in al! nine woredas were interviewed. Seven of the nine woreda administrative officials had been involved in seed relief programs during the previous three years. In four woredas, the officials also had experi ence with ferti lizers as patt ofthe seed package. A l! the experiences were from the belg seasons in 2000-2002.The woreda officials listed three main respo nsibi lities for their office in seed assistance: ( 1) organi zing woreda DPPC committees, (2) identifying drought-affected peasant associations, and (3) sctting up screening committees at the woreda leve! to target beneficiaries. For the three belg distributions, the probl em was described as a drought, w ith the overall project goal to protect the affccted people and to provide them with seed. Seed needs assessments were performed in fou r woredas with staff fro m the woreda DPPC, Ministry of Agri culture, and NGOs. The targeting of beneficiaries was described as \"those households highly affected by the drought with no seed and no purchasing power.\" When asked if the targeting was adeq uate to reach the most affected, four out of eight officials said no.All woreda agricultura! development offtcers had been involved in emergency seed interventions in the past, whi le five had also been involvcd in seed/ ferti lizer package distributions. Agricu ltura! development officers were involved in seed needs assessments in eight ofthe woredas (Meyu is a new office) and this was done w ith the development agents. NGOs were involved in the dístribution, and the coordination was good among al! the agenc ies in four of the seven woredas. According to the agricu ltura! development officers, the criteria used to identify beneficiaries were drought im pact, seed loss, availabi li ty ofassets to buy seed, availability of land, abi li ty to prepare the land, and knowledge of how to use the seed properly. In four out nine ofthe woredas, the agricultura! development officers felt that the most affected beneficiaries were targeted. Two felt that sorne fam1ers sold orate thc seed given to them. Seed was distributed fo r free in two woredas and for c redit in five woredas but no agricultura! developme nt officer reported any payback of the credit, apparently dueto either a lack of follow-up by the govemment or GOs or c rop fai lure for the beneficiaries.Ninety-three percent of the peasant association leaders and development agents ha ve been involved in seed programs in the past. The main role ofthese officials was to mobilize the peasant association to take the seed and/or ferti lizer package. In 24 of thc pcasant associations, a committee was established for targeting beneficiaries. Al! peasant association offícials described the problemas Ioss of seed dueto late. 1271onset of belg rains and stated the project goal as \"giving seed to affected households.\" Seed assessments were done in 37 peasant associations and in 32 of these, the peasant association official was involved in the assessment; however, only seven of the 68 peasant association officials knew how the assessments were done. Most (95%) identified the cri teri a for targeting beneficiaries as, for example, \"Those who entirely lost bis seed dueto caterpillars,\" while a few gave criteria like the fo llowing: \"Those who could afford to pay back the Ministry of Agriculture.\" There was no reference to loss of crop from the drought. Overall , 63% of the peasant association officials knew that special efforts had been made in the past to target female-headed households.Local purchases had been made with the assistance of the peasant association leader or development agent in eig ht peasant associations. ln three ofthese, the farmers were also involvcd in the selection of the seed needed. The seed was distributed for free in 28% of the peasant associations and for credit in 22% , but only two said the fanners repaid the credit for cash, while no peasant association officia l rcported that fanners had repaid the in-kind credit. Some ofthe peasant association officials (38%) were involved in the supervision and monitoring of the performance of the crops. When asked to g ive suggestions to improve seed interventions in the future, 96% suggested that it would be better to distribute varieties directly detennined by the farmers instead of\"strange\" varieties.The survey among local govemment officials indicates that the focus ofthe emergency interventions in the previous three years was on direct seed distributions for emergency and development seed assistance. The main role for al! these official s was identifying the affected areas and targeting the beneficiaries. Officials at the woreda leve! wcre mai nl y involved in coordinating the response, assessing necds, and targeting beneficiaries. The peasant association leaders, the development agent, and the ADO were involved in assessing local needs, listing beneficiaries, and monitoring crop performance. The description ofthe disaster and the description ofthe criteria used for targeting beneficiaries di ffered at the various government levels. At the very local leve!, there was greater awareness o f thc poor impact of the distribution and the poor payback on any credit arrangement. The peasant association officials and development agents fe lt the farmers cou ld have taken a greater role in determining the specific crop/variety to be distributed.lt is clear from the 30-year history offood and non-food assistance given to Ethiopia that the approaches used by donors, relief agencies, and government agencies have not mitigated the need for assistance. Thi s is evident in the appeals for more than $ 15 million in seed assistance in the year 2003. The case study reveals that different opinions persist as to what is the root cause of the Ethiopian emergencies. Most Addis-based officials claim that the recent emergencies are the result of a combination of chronic poverty and extreme climatic events . Many of the officers at the leve! of the woreda and peasant association concluded that the cause was an acute climatic event. Given the history of seed assistance in Ethiopia, direct seed distribution is the standard approach to agricultura! relief and rehabilitation. This seems to be used as a follow-up to food distribution and, in general in Ethiopia, food needs are used to justify seed needs. lndicators used for assessing both food and seed needs are estimates of crop production, cropping season indicators, and grain prices in the market. While independent assessments ha ve been suggested for food and non-food needs in Ethiopia, we were only able to identify one example where the two had been addressed separately: A number of changes ha ve been made in the implementation of direct seed distributions. Donors, NGOs, and the govemment of Ethiopia have responded to farmers' concems with more frequent delivery of appropriate local crops/varieties in a timely manner. They have made changes in the procurement procedures, such as the timing of request for funds, more efficient tendering processes with certified traders, and the use of local purchase to obtain local varieties with less stringent quality assurance. The formal sector has expanded and has made changes to better address the need for specific varieties in small packs. Local purchase itselfhas been improved to allow greater input from the local communities in the decisions on crops and varieties. All ofthis has resulted in the development of a relief seed system that relies on local production to provide seed to respond to agricultura! emergencies. Also, noting the adoption of new approaches piloted by CRS and CARE, the evidence from Ethiopia shows that institutions are able to leam from past lessons.There is a general lack of problem diagnosis to identify local constraints and design an appropriate intervention. Generally, the need for a shift from food distributions triggers the need for an agricultura) response. While macro-level assessments may trigger this shi ft from food aid to agricultura! recovery, no micro-leve) assessments have been done to design the most appropriate local response. In a ll the cases reviewed, it is assumed that there is a need for seed, so direct seed distribution is implemented. No one assesses seed security, i.e., whether seed is available locally, whether seed can be accessed, whether seed is of acceptable quality, or even whether seed is the priority need of the affected households. The experiences from Hararghe found that at the same time as farmers received reliefseed, most ofthem also used other seed channels, such as the market. This suggests a problem of access rather tha n availability. Apparently, the complexities of diagnosing a lack of access to seed, and the challenge of addressing access, contribute to the avoidance of seed stress being identified and addressed as an access problem. This has contributed to the poor perfonnance of these programs.Farmers have responded to disasters with increased reliance on seed outside the home, mainly from the local market and seed assistance. The local commodity market is very informal, with supplies of grain and seed procured mainly from local farmers. lt is used as a source of seed for fatmers on a routine basis but the demand increases when local crop production is lower. This local market is also used for the procurement of local seed for emergency seed distributions. It has probably been strengthened with the relief seed purchases but the impact of this does not seem to have enhanced the seed security of individual households.Generally, the needs assessments are initiated at the local leve! by the Ministry of Agriculture or the woreda DPPB, which report the results to the zonal and then the Addis DPPC. They al so notify the local NGOs or UN-EUE. This can be reported to Addis ora local proposal can be developed for a response. The focus of the assessment is on the number ofbeneficiaries to be targeted and the quantity and type of crop/variety needed. Based on this, a project proposal is developed to solicit funds to implement the intervention. The project must be approved at different levels, delaying its implementation. As the timing for the response is paramount, there is generally no time for considering altemative approaches and interventions.Addressing Seed Secu rity in Disas ter Response: Linking Relief with Development ' 1291 ----'-------In general, no time! y comprehens ive evaluation of the short-and long-term impact of direct seed distribution is done, nor is there any attempt to redesign further interventions. T here is a tendency to continue to use the standard response with logistical changes made to increase its efficiency. Longer term evaluation of the impact of direct seed distribution on system resil ience or productivity has not been done.Most of the informants in Addis had knowledge of the local seed system, but the local seed system and its seed securi ty were not cons idered in the design of altemative interventions, especially in relation to the issues ofavailabi lity of seed versus access to seed. All ofthe informants interviewed concluded that the seed security constraint in these emergency responses was access to seed dueto a high market price, a lack ofhouseho ld assets to gain access, and the stress on social networks. No one believed that the seed insecurity was due onl y to lack o f household seed availabi lity, yet direct seed distribution was implemented, a response tailored to address failures in seed supply.T he need to continually respo nd to emergency agricultura! recovery has resul ted in fewer resources being available for agricu ltura! rehabil itation or development. There werc a number of examples given in the key informant interviews with donors and NGOs where agricultu ra( development programs have been reduced or delayed beca use of the need to respond toan emergency. There was no shortage of ideas on altem ative rehabilitation or development programs but very few had been full y implemented because of the need by donors to shift funds from development programs to an emergency response due to the continua! crisis. Many of the NGOs articulated the perception that donors were not interested in longer term projects or in the application of alterna ti ve approaches. However, donor interest in alternatives to funding direct seed distribution was demonstrated by O FDA in 2003 with the alternative approaches implemented by CRS and CARE.One other problem is that the continua! need for emergency responses resu lts in a low level of investment by NGOs and others into good agricultura! technical expertise in Add is and in the local offices. Most of the responses invol ving d irect seed distribution are logistical and, thus, agricultura( technical knowledge is not always appreciated. Altemative agricultura! recovery interventions and development will require good technical skills and research options. Even though resea rch stations (EARO) and agricultura! universities are involved in many of these emergency interventions as seed producers and suppliers, their research support is not available to use for testing. T he survey revealed that 26% of respondents had adopted a few varieties that had been developed and released in the early 1970s orearlier, which shows that fa nners are interested in new approaches in their cropping systems. However, it is doubtful whether the continua! emergency response with its short-term goals can meet this need.Households in Ethiopia have a need for assistance to recover from complex, chronic emergenc ies and to increase their agricul tura! producti vity. T he continua! app lication of the standard response has not met this need. Altemati ve approaches to agricultura( recovery, rehabilitation, and development need to be designed for Ethiopia. Sorne specific options suggested by the case study were as follows:• A comprehensive diagnosis of the agricultura! system, notj ust the seed system, needs to be made.There is a need to study seed securi ty within the broader context ofl ivelihood and not to study seed needs in isolation. One option may be to consider the value of baseli ne studies, like the farmer survey conducted for this case study, to develop a too! to assist in seed security assessmen ts.There is a need to design interventions that are appropriate to address the problem at the micro-Ievel. The intervention used needs to address both the strengths and weaknesses of the exi sting seed and agricultura) systems, which requires a good understanding of the local agricultura! system and good technical knowledge of agriculture. The application of altematives to direct seed distribution, such as seed vouchers and fairs or just seed vouchers, needs to be carefully evaluated, and used if appropriate.• More emphasis should be put on market-based interventions that address the issues of access by farmers to seed, such as seed vouchers and fa irs. These should be focused on stimulating the development of local seed markets for farmers who already use the local grain market and fínd it satisfactory, as evident in our farmer and trader survey. A clearer understanding of thi s local seed market needs to be established and used in the design of seed interventions. The whole issue of access to this market through credit also needs to be investigated.• There needs to be greater investment in research to develop and test new varieties/crops and new agronomic practices that are appropriate to resource-poor farmers. This has to be clearly linked to local market development and it needs to invo lve farmers in the testing and evaluation. All this requires a shift in investment from emergency interventions to development and is very long term, compared to direct seed distribution in a s ing le season. Farmers have constraints to production and marketing that need to be addressed by research. The articulation of these needs to the research community is always very difficult and wil l require a more active role for NGOs and farmer organizations in research planning and testing. Farmers clearly need a greater role in designing emergency intervention, but future gains in agricultura! productivity depend upon both the development of research products and their use by farmers to meet a demand in the market place. This will need to be considered for future development interventions.• NGOs, the Govemment of Ethi opia, and donors need to carefully consider monitoring and evaluation as a very critica) part of proj ect implementation. There is a need for clear criteria and procedures for evaluation ofthe process and the impact ofthe intervention. This needs to be done in a timely fashion and must be considered at the time ofthe project design. lt must be user focused for the benefít ofthe implementing agency, its partners, and others. Jt needs to consider the perspecti ve ofthe donor, the implementing agency, local staff and partners, and the beneficiary farmer. lt needs to look at both short-tenn indicators and long-term impacts on the agricultura! or market system. Malawi is a small, landlocked Sub-Saharan Afri can country covering about 1 18,000 krn 2 w ith a population of about 11 million people. The country's economic base sti ll largely depends on the agricultura) sector, which contributes about 35% to the gross domestic product (GDP) and employs about 80% of the population. The agri cultura) sector is divided into smallholder and estate subsectors.Traditionally, the estate sector has mainly focused on the production of export crops, such as tobacco, tea, sugar, and coffee, while the smallholder sector has been the main producer of food crops (maize, rice, cassava, sweet potatoes, grain legumes) and lower-value cash crops, such as cotton. This study focuses on the smallho lder fanners.Aftere njoying food self-sufficiency for a long time between the 1970s and early 1990s, Malawi suffered a severe dro ught in 1992, leading to a disastrous food shortage. In response to this, the government, a long with donor agencies and N GOs, provided food relief, followed by seed relief. Similar relief was provided in response to the food crisis in 2001 /02, and again in 2002/03.Access to appropriate seed is an important precondition for food production. lt is often assumed that seed insecuri ty is directly li nked to food insecurity. In Malawi, this kind of perception was fi rst proved invalid after the 1992 drought disaster. For all interventions in response to the disasters mentioned above, the hypotheses were that farmers had run out offood, and that therefore they had consumed their seed stocks. However, to the contrary, even in arcas that had been worst hit by droug ht, fa nners were able to plant their maize crop with the first rains, well before the seed reliefwas delivered in sorne areas, where deli ve ry was delayed (Musopo le, personal comm unicati on, 2003). Similar resul ts in Sudan were rcported by Jones et al. , (2003). Fanners' seed systems continued to meet the crop and variety needs of farmers, even fo llowing the 1998 famine in that country.Seed securi ty is dependent not onl y on seed being physically avai lable, but also on the abil ity of individual households to access the seed. In addition, the seed must be of appropri ate q uali ty (physiological/physical and genetic ). Often, farmers' access to seed of improved varieties is considered to be crucial to food security. At the policy leve!, it is argued that farmers' access to improved varieties (that is, va rieties developed through formal plant breeding) will lead to increased food production and improved food security. However, very little attention has been given to whether these correspond toa farmer's own preferences .This case study was initiated to assess the various strategies that have been implemented during the past two to three years in an attempt to mitigatc the negati ve impacts of natural disasters and depri vation on sced securi ty among smallho lder fanners in Malawi .This case study feeds into a larger proj ect studying seed systems under stress. lt will contribute to the ovcrall aim o f gathering knowledge about how fanners secure seed in ti mes o f stress, and providing institutions with infonnation on assisting fanning communities in ways that promete, rather than undennine, sced security.This report describes the seed systems that fanners in Ma lawi use and how they ha ve functioned under the stresses that have occurred during recent years. Jt also evaluates the impact of the seed interventions that have been undertaken in response to these stresses and how such interventions have affected farmers' seed systems in M alawi, assessing whether these operations were necessary and appropriate.Based on institutions' own perceptions regarding fanners' needs and the appropriateness of past interventions, the text analyzes the institutions' abili ty to apply lessons from past activities to their planning and programming process.The case study contributed to the proj ect in a number ways. Through meetings and in fonnal exchanges, stakeholders have been infonned of and inc luded in the project with the hope that this will influe nce future practices and approaches concerning seed security, to ensure that future interventions support and/or increase farmers' resilience.Addressing Seed Securil,r in Disa.ster Respunse: Unking Relief with Development. 1361The project started with a comprehensive literature search on recent \"seed and tools\" initiatives that ha ve been implemented through various organizations. This review was guided by a review outline developed by the study team. Checklists were also developed for consultations with key organizations and donors and for a selected number of comrnunities where sorne ofthe NGOs are operating. Although severa! NGOs were in volved in the pre-scoping phase of this case study , the field study was undertaken in six sites in five districts where five different NGOs were operating seed intervention initiatives. These were Concern Universal (Dedza), Action Aid (Salima), Care Malawi (Dowa and Lilongwe-Chilaza), CADECOM (Lilongwe-Mitundu), and World Vision Malawi (Mchinji ). All study si tes were in central Malawi, in areas w ithin or close to Lilongwe for ease of logistics. AII six si tes had also been subject to govemment seed intervention programs, SPls, and TTPs.Field work was comprised of focus-group discussions that were conducted us ing checklists, and individual interviews that were conducted using structured questionnaires with approximately 40 questions, which were re latively the same questions as those in the focus-group checklist. The aim of using a questionnaire was to quantify the qualitative infonnation collected from the focus groups and then to compare the two sets of infonnation.Only comrnunities that were involved in NGO-driven seed-related operations were included in this study. Most NGOs in Malawi operate w ithin the framework of a traditiona l authority. Hence, thi s was the entry point into each of the communities. Within a traditional authority, a cluster of villages was selected with the help of one group village headman. Each si te had at least five focus-group discussions with over 30 people in attendance in each group. A total of 30 focus groups were conducted.The individual interviews were conducted in the same areas. Individual s were selected usmg a multi-stage purposive and random sampling technique. From a cluster of villages, four to five villages were sampled (generally the same as those used for the focus groups) and households were then randomly se\\ected. A total of 35 villages were selected for such interviews, w ith a target of nine individual households in each village. However, only 3 1 1 individual household interviews were achieved. These were distributed as follows: Dedza (5 1), Dowa (49), Lilongwe-Chilaza (50), Li longwe-Mitundu (58), Mchinji (53),and Salima (50).Addressing Seed Securit)• in Disaster Response: Linking R elief with Development. 1371Social and demograpbic characte ristics Interview results revealed more than 40% illiteracy in the households studied. This corresponds w ith the national illiteracy leve! (NSO, 2000). The highest illiteracy rate was reported in Salima, where 52% of the household heads had not been to school. Such levels of illiteracy ha ve negative implications for the uptake of new teclmologies and the overall understanding of development issues.Overall, the main occupation of the majority of the household members across study sites was agriculture. The highest proportion (63%) ofthose engaged in agricul ture was reported in Salima and the lowest (34%) in Mchinji. These results confirm that agriculture is the main occupation ofthe majority of people in the ru ral areas ofMalawi.More fanners in Mchinji (94%) reported to have large landholdings, more than 1 ha, followed by Li longwe Chilaza (66.0%), Salima w ith 56%, and Dedza (33%). For households with an average size of six people (which is a conservative figure for Malawi), such small landholdings cannot produce enough to meet the food requi rements for a ll members of the household from one harvest to the next.The majority of the rural households are smallholder farmers who re ly on a single harvest in a year for their livelihoods. These fa rmers grow various crops such as maize, cassava, rice, sweet potatoes, millet, sorghum, white pota toes, groundnuts, beans, and soybeans (table 1 ). lntercropping is w idespread.Results from this study indicated that such crops as soybeans, white potaroes, and cassava were limited to relatively few farmers across the study sites, compared to maize, groundnuts, tobacco, beans, and sweet pota toes, which are trad itiona l crops in most of the study si tes.Traditionall y the majority ofpeople in Malawi, as in many countries in southern Africa, rely on maize for food securi ty. ln all the survey sites, almost all respondents (92%), produced maize mostly for food, compared to only 8% who sold part of it to eam some cash income. It has been estimated at the national leve! that maize occupies about 70% of the culti vated land w ithin the smallholder subsector in any growing season (Phiri et al. , 2003). As a result, food security in Malawi is defined in relation to maize, which was confirmed by this study. A lthough most households had limited landholdings, on average 0.49 ha of that was planted to maize. T he land all ocated to other crops, and their sowing dens ity, is difficult to quantify because they are generally intercropped with maize. Generally, their densities are much lower than they would be when mono-cropped.Cassava, white pota toes, and soybeans ha ve only recently been introduced to the area as a result of crop diversification efforts. Cassava, for example, has been promoted for food security in most parts of the country following persistent droughts. Nevertheless, interviews with farmcrs revealed that the inclus ion of cassava has been slow, partly due to lack of access to cassava pl anti ng materials.The farmers in the study si tes reported various constraints. Sorne of the cross-cutting ones, captured through the focus-group discussions, were ( 1) declining soil fertil ity, (2) lack of fertilizer, (3) lack of markets for agricultura! produce, (4) pests and diseases, and (5) seed-related problems. The last is explored further in the fo llowing section.with possible weevil damage ovcr the long period that seed must be stored because crops are only cu ltivated in one season, contributes to the inferior qual ity.The problem of poor seed quality was not only related to farm-saved sccd. In Lilongwe Chilaza and many other study sites, farm ers received hybrid maize seed for the winter season (when farmers grow crops under residual moisture or irrigation). This was part ofthe govemment's Targeted Input Program (TIP), aimed at farmers in certai n localíties who had lost their rainy season crop in floods. Fanners complaíned that the hybrid maize seed th ey received failed to set cobs, and they did not harvest anything. They claimed that the hybrid was not adapted to the winter growing conditions.Seed stress can be categorized as two types: acute or chronic. According to Sperling (2003), acute seed insecurity is brought on by disti nct, short-duration events that afien affect a broad range of the population. People can be short of seed beca use of a failure to planta single season, loss of a harvest, or loss of seed stocks in storage. On the other hand, chronic seed insecurity is generall y associated with poverty or reso urce deprivation. People who are margi nalized may have problems saving seed or accessing seed through purchase or barter. Such seed insecurity is independent of an acute stress or disaster, although it may be exacerbated by it. These two types of stress can both be rccognizcd in Malawi:• Droughts and floods that have altemated in various regions ofthe country have temporarily caused Jow supplies of seed. • Poverty, coupled with high seed prices resulting from removal of subsidies on agricultura! inputs, has negatively affected access to seed on a continua! basis.Disasters like droughts and tloods usually occur in isolated pockets, causing acute food and seed stress in a localized area. However, in recent years, floods and drought have been frequent and, at times, have covered wide geographical areas, resulting in pro longed food and seed stress and the loss of people's resources. In such circumstances, the problem changes from acute to chronic food and seed stress. The chronic nature of this stress is illustrated by the fact that most households are not self-sufficient in maize from onc harvest to the next. Usuall y, during the last three mo nths befare the harvest (February-April), the majority (approximately 75%) of the househo lds are without their own maize supplies (Levy, 2003). Sorne of them are forced to buy from the market at relatively high prices, or exchange labor for food, but many cope w ith inadequate food supplies. E ven those who buy or work for food most likely do not get supplies adequate to meet FAO daily intake standards. In the past few years, such disasters and stresses to the livelihoods of smallho lder farmers in Malawi have resulted in more than 60% of all rural househo lds being food insecure every year (Levy, 2003) . Dueto high levels ofpoverty, the majority of them are unable to compensate through the market, \\eaving many food and seed insecure.Seed systems and seed security Almekinders and Louwaars ( 1999) categorize seed systems as formal and farmer. In the formal seed system, specialized breeders, seed producers, certifiers, and marketing agents supply seed through an organized chain. On the other hand, farmer seed systems are defined as systems in which seed selection, production, and exchange are integrated into crop production and the socioeconomic processes of farming communities.In the past few years, various authors have mentioned the value of seed in the fanning system. Out of all the inputs used in agriculture, Morris ( 1998) identified seed to be one that is most limiting to crop productivity. Tripp (2000) said that under normal circumstances, most farmers are able to save or use seed from a previous harvest. He identified four situations where there is an incentive or need to access seed from other sources. These are emergencies, poverty, need for quality seed, and need for new varieties. Each of these situations leads to different types of seed demands, which can be satisfied by different responses.The concept of seed security depends on three principie elements: availability, access, and quality (Sperling, 2003). Availabi/ity is related to seed supply: a sufficient quantity of seed of desirable crops must be found w ithin reasonable proximity to people and in time for critica! sowing periods. To benefit from available seed, people must have access to it, which means they must have adequate resources to secure the seed through purchase or barter, or indeed, domestic storage. Last, seed must be of appropriate quality, that is, it must be of desirable varieties and of acceptable standards (health, physiological characteristics, and varietal integrity).The following text summarizes informatíon on seed systems among Malawian farmers and how they secure their seed. The information has been col lected through direct di scussions with participating NGOs, extracts from the literature, and fanners ' opinions expressed in the focus groups and individual interviews.This study showed that most of the smallholder farmers in Malawi depend largely on the farmer seed system for such crops as maize, groundnuts, beans, soybeans, sweet potatoes, and white potatoes. The farmer seed system includes such means of seed acquisition as fann-saved from previous production, purchases from local markets, exchange of labor for seed, and donations from friends or relatives. Phiri et al. (2003) reported similar results in a study on fanners ' use of improved maize seed in the SADC region. They found that up to 70% of the smallholders in Malawi stíll used the farmer seed system for maize, where the main seed source was fann-saved, which was recycled each season. The remaining 30% of the smallholder fanners acquired maize seed through the formal system, which is about 20% hybrid and 10% open-pol linated varieties.The formal system is limited beca use farmers' income or other resources are not adequate for purchasing seed from organízed retail outlets or agro-dealers. The inability offanners to access seed from the formal system has been exacerbated by the higher prices resulting from removal of state subsidies on agricultura! inputs. Adding to this, most seed dealers in the forma l system are located in urban or semi-urban areas, making the di stances to the nearest distribution point prohibitively far. Thus, farmers tend to recycle their own local maize varieties or grain harvested from a hybrid maize crop. Although group discussions with farmers revealed that they doubted the quali ty of recycled maize seed, the farmer seed system continues to domínate the acqui sition ofmaize seed among smallho lder fanners in the study si tes. The situation for other crops is different in the sense that the fo rmal seed system is less developed for such crops. Very limited quantities of certified seed for groundnuts, beans, soybeans, etc., is made available through seed multiplication groups or farmers' associations. The few fa rmers who access such seed usuall y do so through loan schemes or NGO activities. Otherwise, the majority of farmers rely on the farmer seed system for these crops.Figures 1-4 highlight the trends in seed acquisition in the study area. The focus in these graphs is primarily on the differences in trends between a normal year (2000/0 1, representing the general situation with chronic seed stress) and a year of disaster (200 1/02, representing acute seed stress). These graphs capture two crops: maize (figures 1 and 2) and beans (figures 3 and 4). The pattems shown for beans are reasonably representa ti ve of similar crops like soybeans and groundnuts. Since many fam1ers acquired seed in a variety of ways, the percentages add to more than 100%. C1l E 20 (.) ... For both maize and beans, farm-saved seed from own production remains the major means of acq uiring seed for normal seasons (figures 1 and 3) as well as seasons ofseed stress (figures 2 and 4). Although the interviews with farmers did not clearly separate purchased seed by source (formal or loca) markets), it is only maize seed that could be obtained from both types of markets. Beans and other grain crops are almost nonex istent in the formal market and can only be obtained as grain in the local market, planted as seed for the next crop. Seed acquired in exchange for labor has also become an important means for the needy to obtain seed on a routine bas is. T hese are people who are prepared to work and prefer to get paid in kind (with seed) rather than with cash. There is also some indication that there was an increase in the proportion of farmers who acqui red maize and bean seed through relief programs during the seed stress season. Thi s means that although farmers savcd sorne seed (and also used local channels to acqu ire seed off-farm), during disaster years such as 200 1/02, secd rclief interventions might ha ve supplemented orAddressing SeNl Security in VisciSter Response: Linking Reli<f r!'ilh D,•rdupml'lll duplicated their own stocks. It should be noted, however, that the area planted to beans is a lot smaller than that pla nted to maize and that not al! study sites were in bean-growing areas, which explains the differences in proportions of farmers accessing maize and bean seed.Seed security iu MalawiIn terms of seed security in Malawi, the survey information is far from clear-cut. lt was evident in the study that for aJI the crops that were reported during the period 1999 to 2003, the main source of seed was farm-saved. Even during 2001 /02 , a food crisis year, farm-saved seed was reported to be the main type of seed that fatmers grew. Thus, even under the worst conditions, many farmers were able to save sorne seed from their majar crops. However, farmers routinely ha ve to go outside their own home stocks, their own farm-saved seed, to get enough to plant. In sorne cases, such as with beans, they are used to accessing seed off-fann through purchases in local markets and by working for seed. Obviously, seeds ha ve always been local ly available, but whether they are accessible to al! farmers and whether they are of appropriate quality remains in question .It ís often assumed that seed insecuri ty is directl y linked to food insecurity. Because ofthe importance of maize to food security in Malawi, seed interventions have tended to focus on maíze. However, in an attempt to di versi fy cropping systems, recent interventions (mainly SPI and TIP) ha ve included other crops, such cassava and sweet potatoes for drought tolerance and legumes or pulses for enhancing soil ferti lity, protein supply, and cash income. By trying to diversify cropping systems, these interventions are different from the routine direct seed distributions that aim only to restare the pre-disaster cropping system.The following section di scusses policies and interventions that have been enacted or undertaken to improve fanners' seed security. They include general agricultura! policies to strengthen access to seed, seed distribution for development purposes, and seed as emergency assistance. The premise of these programs is that access to appropriate seed, which for most program managers means seed of improved varieties, is the key to restoring or enhancing agricultura! productivity.Although the sing le most common means of seed acqulSlttOn is fann-saved for most food and dual-purpose (food/cash) crops, farrners do supplement or replenish their seed stocks through other sources. Two contrasting eras of central agricultura! poli cies have, in different ways, influenced farmers' seed systems and the means that farmers have used to restock or replenish their seed stocks. Up to the earl y 1990s, there were subsidies on agricultura! inputs and products administered by the Agricultura! Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC). Among the agricultura! inputs, ADMARC used to stock subsidized certified seed of officially recommended varieties for maize (hybrids and open-pollinated varieties), groundnuts, beans, and severa! other crops that the govemment promoted at that particular time. Seed ofspecific crops was made available in ADMARC markets, which were located in the rural areas where such crops or varieties were adapted.As a parastatal organízation, ADMARC enjoyed a monopoly in marketing smallholder agricultura! inputs and products. Through íts Smallholder Agricultura! Credit Administration (SACA), the organization offered credit and inputs at subsidized prices. This prov ided an avenue for most farmers who needed to restock or add on new seed to their own stocks, thus helping them to overcome problems with access to seed or seed quality (for the new varieties). But this type of support to the smallholder farmers was considered to be fin ancially unsustainable. As a condition of strucrural adj ustment programs, ADMARC was restructured to improve efficiency in the marketing ofsmallho lder inputs and produce (Ng'ong'ola et al., 2003). In the mid-l990s, subs idies o n agricu ltura! inputs were removed and from then onwards, the market for agricultura! inputs and products was liberalized.With the removal of input subsidies, lack of access to credit (following the coll apse of SACA), and reduced income (following liberalization), farmers lost their access to certified seed o f improved maize hybrids, old and new. Seed of open-pol linated maize varieties and other crops was no lo nger avai lable, because after liberalization, the private sector was onl y interested in hy brid maize seed, on which they could make profits. However, many fa nners could hardly afford the seed of improved maize hybrids at market value. Smale and Phiri ( 1998) reported di sconti nuities in the use of improved maize hybrid seed by the majority of smallholder farmers in Malawi. Obviously, ADMARC had stimulated the demand for improved seeds. The question remains whether the demand for cert ifi ed seed of improved hybrids indicares that farmers appreciate such seed, or whether it followed from certain biases (especially subsidies) towards improved seed in the ADMARC system.owadays, farmers m ay find it difficult to replenish or restock seeds of new or improved varieties if s uch seeds have been lost, which may cause hardships in disaster situations. Different government and NGO seed initiatives have assisted communities in overcoming seed stresses, but there are variations in approaches, and their impact on local seed systems may differ.The market liberalization, combined with other factors, has led to reduced productivity and food security at both the household and nationallevel. In this context, both government and donors have accepted the urgent need to scale up safety-net programs as well as to find appropriate strategies to promote smallholder productivity.In recent years, the govemment has enacted two majar initiatives to respond to seed insecurity among smallholder farmers. The Starter Pack Tnitiative (SPI), which has been modi fied to the Targeted Input Programme (TIP), and the Agricultura! Producti vity lnvestment Prog ramme (APTP). 8oth of these are based on govemment perceptions of food insecuri ty among smallho lder farmers. As many reso urce-poor farmers run out of maize befare the onset of the rains, there is a w idely he ld notion that they are not able to save seed for the next crop. Through ensuring access to qua lity seed, the interventi ons have been aimed at enhancing crop productivity and thereby helping to overcome food insecuri ty and all eviate poverty at both the household and nationallevel.APIP is a countrywide loan scheme designed to help smallholder farmers obtain agricultura! inputs; it is not a free input-distribution initiati ve. The proj ect, implemented with fi nancia! and technical assistance from the European Union, gives \" resource-poor\" smallholder farmers interest-free loans on agricultu ra! inputs. In tended to strengthen access to improved techno logies, such as improved seed (Phiri, 2000), the loans are given free of interest to overcome the barriers that risk aversion put on investment decisions among resource-poor farmers. A ltho ugh the main target group for APIP is the resource-poor fa rmer with Iess than 0.5 hectares ofl and, the target group has expanded to include fa rmers w ith up to one hectare of land. T he credit package provides not onl y maize seed, but it al so includes soybeans, groundnuts, cotton, and other legumes to promote diversification ofthe crop base and improve soil fertil ity.Addressing Secd Sccurity in Disaster Rf:'sfJOIISI': Linking Relif:'j with Deeeloprnent ' 1451 ~--SPVTIP on the other hand, was established after an assessment in 1998 (Biackie et al., 1998) that revealed that fanners had poor access to improved technologies such as seed of improved varieties, leading to declining productivity. The main assumption was that the majority of smallholder fanners were unable to access seed of\"improved varieties\" because they were cash constrained, but it was also widely believed that fanners were not aware of the benefits of using seed of improved varieties. It was believed that through the use of seed of improved varieties and proper application of fertilizer, agricultura) productivity would improve and so would food security. In the section that follows, we discuss this in more detail, considering the design, implementation, and lessons leamed from SPIJTIP.Design and implementation SPI started in the 1998/99 cropping season with a universal free seed distribution to all smallholder farm families throughout the country, where 2.86 mi Ilion packs containing 2 kg of improved maize seed, 1 kg oflegume seed, and 15 kg offertilizer (1 O kg ofbasal and 5 kg oftop-dressing), sufficient for 0. 1 ha were distributed. This blanket SPJ was repeated in the 1999/2000 cropping season. The intention was that after production had been \"jump-started,\" fanners would ultimately be weaned off distributions.However, from 2000/01, the program was modified and became a Targeted Input Program, through which only a targeted number ofhouseholds received free inputs (enough for 0. 1 ha). Initiall y, the target was 50% (about 1.5 million households) ofthe total number of smallholder households in the country, and during this season, the fertilizer was reduced to 1 O kg instead of 15 kg. The number ofbeneficiaries was gradually reduccd in subsequent TJPs, and only about a third of smallholder households werc targeted during the 2002/03 cropping season (Levy, 2003).Evalualion reports for the first two cropping seasons SPI was implemented revealed that maize production increased (Levy, 2003). It was estimated that this increased production would be sufficient to feed a family for about 1.5 months. However, since inputs were distributed free, there was a danger that local markets would be undennined .Lessons from TIP were somewhat different. According to Levy and Barahona (200 1 ), the contribution ofTIP to household and national maize production in general, was poorer than that ofthe universal SPI. Targeting beneficiaries for TlP was generally based on criteria such as poverty, number of orphans in a household, and the age ofthe household head. This targeting was not very success ful. It turned out that the strategy ofrelying on the community to identify the poor, was not appropriate. There were two major problems:• The reliance on village-level political authorities to be capablc ofand willing to select beneficiaries in a fair and transparent manner was not realistic.• In addition, the assumption that communities would accept the notion that when resources were scarce, the small amount available should be targeted to the poorest, turned out to be in error.The evaluations revealed that there was resistance within communities to si ngling out the poorest families because differentiation among the poor was culturally unacceptable. Furthennore, the village task forces favored themselves. relatives, and friends. These problems in securing proper targeting of provisioned seed could have significantly reduced the impact ofthe program.The main lesson from APIP is that maize, grown under sma llholder management conditions, is not a high-retum crop capable of repaying the loan (Dr. Elizabeth Sibale, European Union/ APIP, personal communication 2004). Although APIP is a subs idízed credit scheme, the majority offarmers have been unable to repay the loan solely on the basis of maize. Hence, grain legumes were subsequentl y included in the loan package to play a dual role of fetching a higher income to repay the loan as we ll as fixing nitrogen in the soil for the subsequent crop. There is general consensus among key players (govemment, donors, and NGOs) that dueto low maize y ields under the management conditions of smallholders (and the low prices of maize relative to prices of inputs), it is not worth creating an extra burden by introducing maize hybrids. Instead, open-po llinated varieties have been preferred to hybrids; they can be recycled and farrners do not need to purchase new seed each year.  ). Severa! of these NGOs had previous experience with seed-based activities. They had distributed seed and planting materials of di tferent crops to foster crop di versification and thereby strengthen food security and increase cash income. T hese distributions included seed of open-pollinated varieties of maize, self-pollinated legumes (groundnuts, beans, soybeans), and the vegetatively propagated crops like white potatoes, cassava, and sweet potatoes. Sorne of the NGOs were also involved in promoting community-based seed multiplicatio n groups to ensure the availabi lity of good-quality seed at reasonable prices within the communities.Almost all NGOs in this study used the govemment's call for disaster assistance to justify their responses. Nevertheless, they al so did rapid assessment studies of the food, social, and economic situation in the areas in which they operated and, thus, quantified the magnitude ofthe disaster. Concern Universal observed loss offamily members dueto famine and the u se of erosive coping strategies, such as disposal of capital assets at extremely reduced prices, and used these observations as indicators of stress. Likewise, Care Malawi used such indicators as levels ofhunger-related diseases and consumption of famjne foods like wild tubers and banana roots. Similarly, CRS used observations of fanners' premature harvests to feed their fam ilies as an indicator of looming disaster, and therefore called for interventions (CRS, 2003). According to Mr. Edson Musopole of ActionAid (personal communication, 2004), ActionAidjustified their interventions on vulnerability assessment reports from the FAO, WFP, and Govemment of Malawi .All NGOs assessed seed insecurity, and the need for intervention , on the basis of food insecurity . C RS (2003) clearly states this in their proposal document: \"Jt is assumed that as a result of unfavorable  (personal communication, 2003) explained that this was due to the time pressure in responding to disaster situations. Project proposals for food relief, intended to save lives, and those for seed relief, for agricultura! recovery, have to be developed almost simultaneously because the hunger period coincides with the on-set of the next cropping season.Because of this, many N GOs use a food cris is to justify a seed crisis . However, at the implementation phase, many NGOs do further analyses of the seed situation through participatory assessments with farmers in the areas in which they operate. These analyses have revealed that food insecurity is often accompanied by seed insecurity at the household leve! , again leading to food insecuri ty in the long run (CRS, 2003).For example, Concern Universal had been working in various areas in Dedza and Ntcheu Districts. After the 2002 food crisis, Concern Universal responded to the government's call for assistance. Since they already had operations in the area, they conducted a quick assessment of the social and economic situation. They used such food security indicators as people losing a family member to starvation, desperate sales ofl ivestock and other capital items like bicyc les at incredibly low prices (usually at less than 30% of the normal value) to determine the seriousness of the food crisis. Based on these findi ngs, they targeted the communities that needed food relief support, and with assistance from WFP, distributed food in the disaster-affected areas. Following the food distribution, Concern Uni versal proposed a small grant targeting one traditional authority, Tambala, in N tcheu District. The area was chosen because ofthe poverty leve! and because no other NGO had activities there. T he project aimed to provide poor househo lds with relief seed and tools. Through participatory rural appraisals at the beginning of project implementation, farn1ers in the communities chose two crops (maize and beans), seed banks, and small irrigation equipment. The maize seed was for open-pollinated varieties because it is their policy to distribute seed of open-pollinated varieties. This proj ect was one-off, only for one year, a typical relief response to crisis. Clearly, the project u sed the food crisis and extreme poverty in the area to justify their re lief seed and tools interventíon.Recent relief seed initiatives in Malawi have mainly taken three forms. One is direct seed distribution (DSD) for quick agricultura! recovery following acute seed stress. Most NGOs have delivered seed directly to beneficiaries. CRS-CADECOM tried seed vo uchers and fairs (SV &F) beca use, unlike DSD, seed fairs promote a decentralized choice of crop seed based on smallholder farmers' preferences in terms oftype and amount. lt also promotes di versification since the smallholder farmer has a wide range of choices.In the case of CRS-CADECOM, the seed vouchers and fairs approach was used to give vulnerable households access to seed. Severa! activities preceded the actual seed fairs. One important activity was to conducta quick survey to establish seed availability in the communities before conducting the fair. Thi s was important to make sure that farmers would have seeds to sell. (lt is worth noting that just the possibility of holding a seed fair is an indication that seed is locally available.)A third type of seed initiative is encouraging communi ty seed multiplication (CSM) schemes, which aim at establishin g seed security in the long run. In CSM schemes, farmers who receive seed are general\\y required to repay the seed, plus interest, at harvest. The recovered seed is stored and may subsequentl y provide insurance in case of future harvest failures. CSM schemes are o ften ins titutionalized into communi ty seed-producer groups, where a group of farmers are trained in producing quality seed.All ofthe GO initiatives e mphasized community participation in decision making. Farmers, through group discussions at the corrununity leve!, were involved in reviewing the causes offood insecuri ty and were encouraged to identi f)r possible solutions. Then they suggested possibl e crops and varieties of their choice. The communities also participated in choosing the primary beneficiaries . As a result, NGOs adapted their approaches to farm ers ' preferences and thus tried to ensure that they met the actual needs of the vulnerable households. Study findings through focu s-group discussions in the communities and discussions with NGOs indicated that these initiatives not onl y served to re tore seed security w ithin the community, but also became ways of generating income for members ofthe communities. Although not explicitly stated, the choice that the NGOs made between DSD and CSM indicates that they are somehow aware o fthe distinctions between chronic and acute seed stress and that the ch.ronic stress can only be resolved through building local capacity.Concem Universal and CARE Malawi combi ned DSD and CSM. They argued that even though the irru11ediate need was to respond to the rehabilitation o fthe seed situation aft:er the crisis, their focus was beyond rehabilitation, towards self-reliance in seed supply. The example of Concem Uni versal, described above, is a case in point, where they combined the two roles by providing farmers wi th (maize and bean) seed to replenish lost stocks soon after the di saster, but also built eed banks, where farmers could store their seed, coupled with provision of irrigation equipment to make sure that farmers would be able to generate more seed in the future should drought strike again.The types ofcrops that NGOs used in their rehabilitation activities (OSO/S V &F) were no di ffe rent from those they used in CSM. For example CADECOM-CRS held SV &F that encouraged the exchange of various crops (open-pollinated maize, cassava, pearl millet, sorg hum, beans, groundnuts, white potatoes, cowpeas, rice, soybeans, and pigeon peas), depending on which crops we.re grown in the area (CRS, 2003). Whi le Concem Universal di stributed onl y two crops (maize and beans), CARE Malawi had cassava, sweet potatoes, beans, and groundnuts.From the project proposals, o ne gets the sense that for the SV &F, the focus of CADECOM-C RS was primarily on the rehabilitation of agri cultura( systems in drought-affected areas. By facilitating the appearance of a broad spectrum of crops and varieties at the fairs, they gave farmers access to varieties they would otherwise have lost. For C ARE Malawi and Concem Universal , on the other hand, the aim was not only rehabilitation, but also to improve the self-re liance and food ecurity of disaster-affected households by introducing new crops and varieties. 8oth organizations promoted the use of improved crop varieties. The proposal highlighted the need to offe r fanners some hig h-protein and cash-income crops in addition to drought-tole rant crops, so that fa rme rs would be better a ble to c ushion subseque nt drought effects. In the focus groups and individ ual interviews, farmers were asked about their perceptions of different seed initiatives. These discussions focused mainly on DSD and CSM (NGO seed programs) and SP I/TJP (govemment seed programs), since SY &F and APIP hada limited reach.Communities largely preferred the NGO initiativcs over those from the government. The targeting of NGO in itiatives was considered more transparent, seed was provided in a timely manncr, farmers were able to choose the crops they received, and thc quality ofthe seed was superior. In add ition, the NGOs providcd extension services with their CSM program. Overall, the NGO seed programs were said to be more sustainable because the CSM approach provided an exit strategy, in strengthening the local capacity to multiply and share seeds.Seed intervention ini tiatives in general have had a positi ve impact on croppi ng system by promoting diversity in the number of crops as well as varieties grown. Farmers in all six areas in this study were unanimous in reporting that the seed interventions expanded the diversity of crops and varieties in their communi ties. T hi s was consistent across the six sites and from both the focus groups and indi vidual interviews, with 82% of the households interviewed reporting an increase in diversity. Most of the farmers were happy that they now had mo re crops and varieties than befare.However, the new varieties have been introduced at the expense ofsome old ones. Among thc individual interviews, 7 1% o f the respondents reported that some old local varieties were disappearing. Most notable were local maize and groundnut varieties. In all six study sites, the late-maturing local maize varieties were being replaced with new early-maturing varieties for food security purposes. Likewise, farmers were replacing local groundnut varieties with new ones, like CG7, because new varieties performed better than local ones under speciftc production constraints.Regarding seed security, 47% ofthe individual fam1ers interviewed reported that the seed initiatives had contributed to seed security; hence, farmers were less worried about seed problems. However, thc seed initiatives had varied impacts on fam1ers' ways of sourci ng seed. The majority (69%) of respondents among the interviewees reported that they had changed their ways of sourcing seed beca use of the seed initi atives that had been implemented in their areas. For cxampl e, among individual interviewees, 44% of the respondents reported that they had reduced buying seed of the crops included in the program: open-pollinated maize, groundnuts (CG7), cassava (Manyokola and Mbunduma/i), swect potatoes (Kanchiputu, Kenya, Y oyera), and new bean varieties (Napi/ira, Khaki, Nanyati, and Nkha/atsonga). It was reported that white potatoes had also been introduced recently through seed initíatives; however, farmers were not aware of the varieties. Likewise, thc focus groups revealed that in all communities under study, farmers who had benefitted from the programs had either stopped or reduced buying or working for the type of seed that they had received (note that th is kind of information is not re flected in fig ures 1 through 4 because they present a single cropping season and not a trend).T he discussions w ith farmers índicated that the seed initiatives had eased access to seed. lf we take a social perspective, particularl y in Malawi, where farm-saved seed is the predominant system and, more important, where poverty levels are very high, the reduced need to buy seed either through local or formal markets is a plus because it implies that farmers need to use fewer resources for seed. However, it is difftcult to identify the long-tenn impact of the interventions.Advocates of the formal seed system perceived these NGO or govemment seed interventions as a threal to the formal seed industry. OSO programs were said to have a negative effect on retail and household demands for seed. Tripp and Rohrbach (200 1) reported that seed distributio n programs had al so discouraged the development of wholesale and retail trade channels because pri va te seed companies preferred to sell large consignments of seed to a s ingle buyer, like an NGO. Thus, any interest in the prívate sector in developing local channels fo r seed distribution would be reduced by the possibi lity that either govemment oran NGO would suddenl y initi ate a free seed distribution program.In reality, however, the perceived threat is probably exaggerated. Not a ll farmers get seed from the forma l seed markets anyway, and for those who do, it is mostly hybrid maize seed . Thus, both the formal and fa rmer seed systems ha ve had and will continue to ha ve a ro le in Malawi 's smallholder agriculture.Through the focus groups, farmers were g iven an opportuni ty to express their opinion on how they would manage their seed problems in the absence ofNGO or SPI/TIP seed interventions. Most of them, in five out of the six sites, suggested that they could still cope with the situation by us ing their farm-saved seed, supplemented by seed acq uired throug h cash purchases from local markets or neighbors or exchanging seed for work. T hese responses revealed that farmers' seed systems would still maintain some resilience. However, it should be noted that farmers who rcly on seed for work often plant late, as they have to wait until the seed owners have satis fied their own requirements.Most institutions covered by this study ha ve evaluated some oftheir previous interventions to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the ir programs. Based on the findings of such e valuations, they have responded by making adj ustments.Plan Malawi made a fo llow-up study on the possible impact of the ir previous seed interventions (Joseph Ndengu, personal communication, 2003). However, apart from identifying that certain new crops and varieties were adopted after being introduced by the interventions, speci tic socia l and economic impacts were difficult to establish. For example, because primary beneficiaries ofthe OSO were required to pass on a proportion of their harvest as seed to other farmers, there is reason to believe that there were a number of secondary beneficiaries. However, there was no proper record of this.Another lesson for Plan Malawi has been to ensure that the seed of open-pollinated and self-poll inated crops is of good quality. In the past, they bought open-pollinated maize and self-pollinated legume seed from any registered seed grower or supplier (Joseph Ndengu, personal communication, 2003). The quality became difficult to verify when small traders, farmer groups, and associations supplied the seed, and it appeared that some suppliers so ld grain as seed. To get around this problem, Plan Malawi started to make contracts with reputable organizations, such as IC RISAT, to provide quality bas ic seed of groundnuts and pigeon peas, which they used in their CSM programs. Thi s has worked well and the quality of basic seed has been assured. Based on this, similar contracts to produce good-quality basic seed are now being extended to other o rganizations that can supply basic seeds of other crops, such as beans from C IAT and cassava and sweet potatoes from IITA-SARRN ET.Concem Uni versal has also evaluated its previous in itiatives (Isaac Munro, personal communication, 2003). These have focuscd on seed sources and the petformance ofseed banks, among other things, and have had an influence on current seed prog rams. For cxample, there were negative experiences with centralized storage faciliti es, which made it difficult to ens ure the qual ity ofseed that farmers put into the storage. To encourage the production and storage of quality seed, they recommend decentralizing seed banks to the communities, so that each commun ity is responsible for its own seed.Concem Universal also did a study on seed sources, which revealed that while fam1ers acquired seed from various sources, seed banks were ranked as one ofthe preferred sources (Senard Mwale, personal communication, 2003). Therefore, subsequent programs have built in more emphasis on seed banks to make them efficient, reliable, and sustainable.Care Malawi relied heavi ly on the national agricultura! research system for their supply ofbasic seed, which they used in their OSO/CSM programs. This worked well before the year 2002, when they faced serious seed shortages because, during the disaster year, the national research stations had committed most ofthe seed to govemment seed initiatives. As a result, the NGO had to access seed from unreliable sources, where quality (varietal purity) could not be g uaranteed. After this experience, they decided to contract out the seed supply to re liable institutions or medium-to large-scale farmers.ActionAid recorded experiences similar to those ofConcem Universal with seed banks. However, their approach to improving the supply of quality seed at the community leve!, involved establishing community seed producer groups where selected farmers and farmer groups within communities were trained to produce quality seed of open-po llinated crops that should be reliable within the area. However, these suppliers were not equipped to market their seed, and in their subsequent programs ActionAid had to focu s on training the seed suppliers in marketing skill s.CAOECOM-CRS said their experience with OSO and SPI/TIP showed that the number of crops offered to farmers was too limited to cover the crops that farmers normall y grow . To respond to this, they developed the SV &F approach, which provided access to a wider range of crops.F AO had gone into seed multiplication by default rather than by design. This basicall y started after the 2002 food crisis and the call for crop di versification. Cassava multiplication was one area they got involved in. Their experience was that marketing was seen a problem; however, over time, structures were put in place to market the certified discase-free cuttings. In addition, farmers had to be trained in disease and pest identification so that they could identify diseases and pests in good time, to maintain quality production .In Malawi, extreme weather events like droughts and floods have caused acute stress to farmers' access to seed. Over the longer perspecti ve, such vagaries of weather have added stress on livelihoods, depriving farmers of their resources. Thus, more households are experiencing chronic stress, which is manifested as poor access to seed, even in normal years.While a significant proportion of farmers employ formal markets for parts oftheir maize seed, the large majority of those interviewed in our study rely on the farmer seed system (farm-saved, local markets, relatives, and seed for work) for most of their crops. Thi s was the situation even after the stress of the 2001 /02 season. lt is apparent that seed has always been available in the are as studied, even in times of stress. This is also illustrated by the observation that CADECOM-CRS were able to conduct seed vouchers and fairs that attracted a w ide spectrum of seeds of different crops and varieties. This indicates that programs that import seed for relief aid, on the assumption that seed is not avail able, have been mistaken. However, households under stress may not have the capacity to access seed in adequate quantities or of appropriate quality beca use the tenns on which to access them can be prohibitively high.Fanners' complaints of the poor gennination of their fann-saved seed require attention. These claims may be related to poor genetic quality of the local varieties, thus suggesting that new genetic material (new varieties) should be introduced. However, the complaints may also be related to poor physiological quality ofthe seed, caused by inappropriate storage facilities. With only one cropping season per year, there is a long storage period befare the next planting. Establishing proper seed storage facilities may contribute to solving this problem. Complaints about the maize hybrid deli vered for winter TIP, which was said not to have been adapted, indicate that even improved seed may sometimes be un satisfactory.Through the ADMARC system, farmers had been subsidized w ith cheap inputs, marketi ng support, and credit. The collapse of ADMARC and other subsidized institutions that provided credit for agricultura) inputs, created a new operating environment for smallholder fanners seeking externa) sources of seed.Seeds from the formal sector became prohibitively expens ive for smallholder fanners, with the result that most of them cou ld only access local seed.The authorities responded by establishing ad hoc fonns of subsidies that provided interest-free loans (APIP) or free agricultura! inputs (SPI/TIP). By disseminating certified seed, the SPI/TJP aimed at boosting agricultura) productivity, and thereby promoting food security. However, in the face of recurrent emergencies, it is evident that househo lds are vulnerable, which has led to yet another type of intervention, namely, seed relief, with the aim of protecting food sccurity in the short run.Responses from farmers who had benefitted from DSD or CSM interventions were generally positive.The general notion was that the programs had helped to reduce seed insecurity and, therefore, improved food security. Fanners had positive perceptions of the seed they received through DSD, and they commended the programs because they were open to local involvement. Furthe r, the fanners commended the CSM initiatives because they were directed at strengthening local capacity to secure quality seed. However, these favorable responses are subject to serious questions. First, there is a human element to such responses where the beneficiaries respond favorabl y w ith the hope of continued support from the program. The second is related to the sustainability ofthe CSM activities. What becomcs ofthe CSM scheme when everyone in the community has acquired the seed oftheir choice?Generally, NGOs in Malawi have become involved in seed interventions as a response to the govemment's call for assistance following the 2002 disaster. While the call was primarily for food, there was also an urge to provide seed for agricultura! recovery. NGOs did not undertake in-depth diagnoses of the impacts of the disasters on seed systems, but made quick assessments to justify funding from donors. Because of time pressure, these were based on indicators of food insecurity; . the situation in regard to seed insecuri ty was not assessed per se.Based on the findings reported here, it can be said that the justification and design of NGO seed interventions in Malawi have been based on somewhat ad hoc approaches. The in fonnation that is collected to guide the interventions has been based on assumptions and in fonnal inferences rather than structured assessments. NGOs don 't employ a wide repertoire of alterna ti ve interventions; rather, they seem to follow certain approaches as a blueprint and employ them by default. Jn general, DSD was undertaken whenever a seed shortage was diagnosed, while CSM and the establishment ofseed storage facil ities were employed to faci litate seed security in the long run. The exception was CA DECOM-CRS, who tried seed vouchers and fa irs. Ideally, different seed problems should call for different seed interventions. Among the specter of acute or chronic stress conditions and problems of access to or quality of seed, there are various options for responses (Sperling 2002). While OSO would be appropriate whenever there is a fai lure in the seed supply-where seed is unavailable-it may not be the most appropriate response when there are access problems. Even though most NGOs have a sense that OSO and CSM may fu lfill different objecti ves and play a role in different circumstances, they generall y have a narrow sense of the differences between stresses. This limited knowledge may con tribute to the low repertoire of approaches that organizations employ. However, NGOs seem keen to leam from experience, as indicated by the adj ustments that have been made to the standard approac hes over time.In the cases ofTI P and S PI , seed distributions were used as a development tool to jump-start agricultura! production, a nd not to resolve an emergency situation. In these programs, the implicit goal seems to be one ofsubstituting the farmer seed system and traditional varieties with the formal system and improved varieties. There is reason to question the sustainability of such approaches. SPI was meant to be one-off, to jump-start agricul tura! growth by showing farmers that good seed and fertili zer could make a difference in food security at the household leve!. However, the program has been recycled severa! times (also in the form of TlP), without any convi ncing long-term impact. Agricultura! productivity did increase in the short tem1, but no sustained increase in production can be detected. Farmers complaincd about the approach, and the blanket distributions made it difficult for the approaches to target specitic seed problems.It is worth noting that the various seed interventions described in this study ha ve diffe rent impacts on the resilience of the farmer seed system. The govemment seed interventions (SPVTIP) have all included hybrid maize, which cannot be recycled. However, farmers seem to acknowledge the yield advantage of hybrids compared to local cultivars or open-pollinated varieties. The NGO seed initiatives (OSO and CSM), on the other hand, have focused on improved seeds of open-pollinated maize, self-pollinated legumes (groundnuts, beans, and soybeans), and vegetatively propagated crops (white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cassava), wh ich potentially add crop di versity at the household leve!.By creati ng artificial access to inputs, there is a danger that seed interventions may actually undermine the local systems and traditions for securing seed-systems that households may be dependent upon in the absence of externa! assistance. On the other hand, subsidies and interventions may already have significantly altered the local seed and livelihood systems in Malawi, creating a situation of dependency on such assistance. Having said thi s, the study showed that even during disaster years, farm-saved is the largest component o f all means of sced acq uisition. And clearly, farmers ha ve coping mechanisms, even under what policymakers might perceive as the worst scenario.The following factors are critica! for the success of seed relief interventions, such as OSO:• timeliness • amountA diagnosis of the impacts of disasters on seed systems is important to cnsure that interventions are justitied and to guide their design and implementation so that they meet the actual needs of fanners.Diagnoses must be sensitive to difference acros crops and across, as well as between, households and communities.Local involvement is importan! for both diagnosing the pro blem and implemcnting any intervention.Whil e disasters may cause severe stress to loca l communities, local systems for securing sced often show remarkable resilience. Rather than intcrvening in the fie ld of sccd, it may often be more worthwhile spending efforts to relieve other strcsses.When the need for seed interventions is established, GOs seem to jump to DSD and CSM by default because they are logistically simpl e. Depending on the type of seed problem, othcr o pti ons, such as SY&F, might be more appropriate to meeting fanners' needs.Seed insecurity and, especial ly, chronic seed insecurity should not be viewed merely a seed problems but, rather, wi thin a livelihood context. Appropriate seeds are often available even in eme rgencies, but fanners cannot access them because their resources are insufficient. Rathcr than looking at seed as an isolated issue and thereby coming up with seed-based interventions, non-seed approaches may be more appropriate to alleviate such general strcsses. lt may be rel evan! to view thc use ofboth DSD and CSM in this light. Rather than seed, as in the case o f DSD, farmcrs should be provided with general resources with which they can access local seed or meet othcr priorities. Rather than cstablishing new networks, as in the case of CSM, maybe efficient networks for seed production and cxchange already cx ist, the problem being that livelihood stress lcavcs no potential for accessing thcm.In Malawi, two sets of highl y subsidized systems (ADMARC and SPI , both targeted on the supply s ide) may have distorted both commercial systems and farmers' own management of the seed supply. This may have undennined local systems and resulted in a high dependency on extemal subsid ies, which, agai n, may be one reason it is difficu lt to find an ex it strategy from recurrent seed intcrventions. The survey reported here found that thc seed requirements for households were less than those generally recommended by the technical guidelines used in macro-leve! seed assessments, especially for legume crops. Households obtain most of thei r seed from own saved seed and the local market for all crops but maize. For maize, seed obtained from the formal sector is most importan!. Seed security fo r households in the survey was dependen! on availability of own saved sced and access to seed channels outside the home. Maize appears to be the exception for the use of vari ous seed channels, especially in relation to the formal sector seed. Thus, seed needs assessments that foc us on ma ize ha ve a bias towards seed demands from the formal sector.The Zi mbabwe seed industry is one of the largest in A frica and is a major supplier of relief seed in the region. Much ofthis seed is produced by smallholder farmers and also distributed to smallholder farmers for emergency relief programs, often by the same GOs in the same areas. While this increase in seed supply and the enhanced links to the fonnal sector has increased the supply of seed to the relief market and increased the value ofthe relief seed market to Zimbabwe seed companies. it has not increased the supply of local seed or enhanced access to local seed fo r rural smallholder farmers. There is a criti ca! need for alternative responses th at will strengthen the local seed system and its links to the fonnal sector, with increased emphasis on seed enterprise development at the local level.Z imbabwe has a history of recurrent droug hts. In the last 20 yea rs, sig nifican! d roughts occurred in 1982/83 (700,000 people affected), 199 1/92 ( 4.6 mi Ilio n people affected), 1994/95 (5 mil! io n peo ple affected), and 200 1/02 ( 6. 1 m i Ilion people affected ). This frequent loss of food productio n, and the subsequent need fo r recovery, has reduced househo ld assets, increased vulne rabil ity and stressed coping m echanisms. Recurren! droug hts ha ve a lso contributed to a rapid decl ine in the econo m ic status of the l . Pauta Brame) is a consul tant; Tom Rem ington is with Catho lic Relief Services.Addressing Seecl Securil_r in Disasler Respor~~e: Linking Reliefwith Deuelopmenl. 1591country. A study done by the World Bank (Aiwang, Milis, and Taruvinga, 2002) on the changes in poverty in Zimbabwe in the 1990s and its causes found that the percentage of people living in extreme poverty increased from 26% in 1990 to 35% in 1995. This increased poverty was closely tied to economic restructuring and the poor performance ofthe economy. There is evidence that ownership of physical assets has been slow to recover from the impact of the drought of 199 1192. In addition, the country faced a political crisis in the late 1990s which severely affected the competitiveness of the economy (lntemational Crisis Group. 2002). The política! crisis also severel y affected the policy environment that is necessary for the alleviation of poverty and the facilitation of rapid recovery from drought. Al l ofthese have contributed to the cutTent chronic complex emergency in Zimbabwe.Since the end o f 2001 , FEWS NET, FAO/WFP, IFRC, UN-RRU , and other organizations have conducted numerous assessments ofthe current emergency food situation in the Southem A frica region. These assessments have confirmed an increas ing food crisis in the region due to a combination of factors, including ( 1) drought and un usual rainfall pattems, (2) poor harvests from previous years, (3) reliance on a single staple crop (maize), (4) a continuous decline in economic conditions, and (5) detrimental government policies. Government policies and regulations, such as food price controls, a monopoly on maize marketing by the Grain Marketing Board, and the high duty on small grains, inhibit access to food in general. The government's fast-track land reform policy has severely curtailed commercial cereal production, contributing toa decline in grain reserves. The emergency food situation is exacerbated by the fact that considerable portions of the population in the country are particular! y vulnerable beca use of high levels of chronic malnutrition and HIV 1 AIDS. (Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the region, at 25.1% of the population).Zimbabwe has been a recipient of food and seed a id sin ce the 1990/91 drought-considered one of the worst in 100 years. Donors, GOs, and the govemment ha ve used many approaches to assist farmers in recovering from the immediate emergency and to rehabilitare the agricultura! sector. While these individual effot1s may ha ve alleviated the short-tetm needs, non e of them ha ve resulted in longer term improvements that would ha ve mitigated the impact of the current drought and economic crisis, which once again threatens the lives a nd li velihoods of Zimbabwe. In add ition, FOSENET, a national GO comprising a food security network of 25 organizations that cover all the districts of Zimbabwe, con sol ida tes the monthly monitoring reports from individual NGOs and reports these results three to four times ayear. They report on the status of seed distributions, crop status, and seed needs for the next season ba ed upon observat ions in the ft eld. Mpofu (2002) described a macro-leve! approach to assessi ng seed needs in southern African countries affected by the floods in 1999/2000. T he procedure estimates the total affected area and population in need of assistance. The crop need and crop calendar are al so considered in the estima tes of need . In this assessment, a questionnaire was sent to country focal points, seed companies, and seed projects. A mi ssion was also sent to each of the affected countries to tal k to government officials, NGOs, donors, and secd companies. Finall y, there was a revicw of relevant background inforrnation. Thc crop seed needs were calculated as the total area to be planted times the governn1ent recommended seed ing rate fo r each crop. The total cost ofthe seed needed was thc seed needs times the number ofhouseho lds affected times the transport cost. The seed availabil ity was deterrn ined from the supply avai lable from the prívate or public sector in each country. Thus, the assessment was able to recommend where seed was available for distribution. This is a macro-leve! analysis that looked at theoretical need versus actual suppl y. It did not look at actual demand.One assessment, done by CRS/CTDT for their planned seed voucher and fa ir distribution in 2002/03, did focus on seed needs in both the farmer and formal seed sectors (Takavarasha, Vudzijena, and Madondo, 2002). They used focus-group discussions and key informant interviews with AREX, CTDT. RDC, DA, and farmers. To determine the need for seed, they asked abo ut cropping pattem s, most importan! crops grown, preferred varieties, and quantities required by crop/variety. To detem1ine the local seed suppl y,Addressing Seed Securily in Disas/er f<esponse: Linking Relief with D evdup llt(' lllfarmers were asked about seed quantities available locally. There was a reluctance among households to report on home-saved seed or the availability of seed from other local farmers. Thus, in all districts assessed, farmers claimed that the local seed supply had been severely affected by the drought. This highlighted one of the major constraints to determining seed supply at the household or local level.The focus of macro-level assessments of the country's seed needs is on calculated seed needs versus actual local demand for seed. Thus, the assessment that seed is needed is based on a perceived shortfall in supply rather than on demand, since local farmers' demand for seed is not entirely from fonna l-sector suppliers. All the assessment mcthods reviewed assumed that all households in an area (national, district, or ward) are equally affected by the drought or flood. In general, it is assumed that all households ha ve a similar demand for seed of different crops/varieties, ha ve the same seed requirements per hectare with no difference in cropping system or land type, and need the same quanti ty of seed assistance, since all have lost seed. The demand is also assumed to be constant, with little recognition of a farmer's use of alterna ti ve crops during reco very. Fluctuations in area to be planted are assumed to be influenced only by the seed shortage. For crops other than maize, it is assumed that part of the demand will be met with home-saved seed and that poor crop production has an adverse impact on the supply of home-saved seed. Since it is assumed that the seed loss has resulted in non-availability of seed in the local area, no assessment of the impact of the disaster on access or quality is made. Access to seed is based only on an assessment of the price of formal seed, which is assumed to be the only seed supply available to meet the seed needs of the affected farmers.Agricultura! rehabilitation interventions with direct seed distributions are based on an assumption that all food -insecure households are also seed insecure, i.e., that seed is not available, they lack the capacity to acquire seed, and all crops are equally affected (Longley et al., 2002). Current approaches to agricultura( rehabilitation tend to ignore or discourage altemative responses, which may be more appropriate. This is done on the grounds that altematives are more suited to a \"development\" context. The result is the repeated fabricati on of an artificial supply of inputs over a finite period of time, which changes traditional household strategies for seed management and existing seed markets (both formal and informal). In tum, this may prolong the need for \"emergency\" assistance and further divert donar support for longer term interventions.R elief agencies in Zimbabwe do not carry out assessments of local seed systems. Rather, the decision to respond with a direct seed distribution is based on numbers of affected or vulnerable households and potential area to be planted. In Zimbabwe, as elsewhere in Africa (Remington et al. , 2002), lack of availability is the most common misdiagnosis and is based on the assumption that lack ofavailability of food is equated with lack of availability of seed. A lack of access is neither diagnosed as the primary constraint nor considered in the design of interventions. Utilization (referring to the qua lity of both seed/planting material and varieties) is also rarel y diagnosed as the primary constra int. Remington et al. (2002) concluded that, \" ln summary, the precedence fo r the determination of food unavailability, the complexity of diagnosing a lack of seed access, and the challenge of addressing access all con tribute to the avoidance of the access detem1ination.\" This does seem to be the case for Zimbabwe. The only exception was the SADC Seed Securi ty Network report (2002) that described the seed situation in Zimbabwe for 2002 as \"adequate to surplus\" for cereals and pulses, except for minar problems with groundnuts, millet, and beans. Since retained seed is important for these crops, it is probable that the seed supply was adequate. SADC assumes that when there are no harvestable surpluses, households willlack the cash to purchase seed, resulting in an access problem. Thi s is very different from the assumption of other assessments that the lack ofharvestable surplus indicates a lack of seed at the household level, resulting in a diagnosis of lack of availability.The diagnosis of seed insecurity at the household level depends on an understanding of household seed systems and security. Therefore, a survey was conducted ( 1) to describe the community and household seed system in the context of seed security, (2) to evaluate household experiences with seed assistance, and (3) to determine the role offarmers and grain traders in the local seed system. Tnterviews were done with individual farmers and with farmers and grain traders who sell seed and grain. These interviews were conducted in Chiredzi, Lupane, Tsholotsho, UMP, Makoni, and Murewa districts (all ofwhich had been targeted in 2003/04 for a seed vouchers and fai rs intervention by CRS-Zimbabwe and CTDT) and two districts (Binga and Nyaminyami) where a direct seed distribution had been implemented by SCF-UK in 2002/03. A total of 380 farmers and 92 grain or seed traders were interviewed .The fanner surveys consisted of a set of questions to quantify individual farmer and cornmunity seed security. Questions were asked about the components of the system in relation to asset base, seed requirements for planting, value of crops to household, seed source channels used, seed conservation, and experience with seed from outside the household (from the market and relief or development seed programs). Longley et al. (2002) describe the development of a seed system pro file that utilizes a similar approach to seed system security. These surveys and questionnaires were developed further with questions on household vulnerabi li ty and wealth from surveys carried out by SCF-UK for monitoring household food security (SCF-UK, 2003). A report is avai lable for the seed security assessment in Binga and Nyaminyami (Bramel, 2003a). Information on possible indicators of househo ld vulnerability from the impact of HIV/ATDs was added with input from a study done for four countries (SADC FANR Vulnerability Assessment Report, 2003). In addition, studies of seed system security comrnissioned by SADC/GTZ were used to frame the questions (Mheen-Si uijer, 1996). Mheen-Siuijer ( 1996) reported on a study of household seed security in the semiarid districts of Tsholotsho and Chiredzi. Seed security was defined as the ability of households within specified geographical boundaries to meet seed needs from their own enterprise production or through purchases from domestic markets. A household was seed secure if it had an adequate supply from its own production or had cash to purchase supplementary seed. Since seed security was related primarily to household production levels, Mheen-Siuijer concludes that household seed security is related to crop-protection practices, farmers seed selection practices, seed storage practices, and the value of seed to the household versus its food value. She also concludes that the most important factors for seed security are timely planting, appropriate farming practices, pest and disease control, and appropriate varieties that contribute to maximum crop production and adequate seed availability at the household leve!.Most ofthe crop production in Zimbabwe fa lls into three agroecological zones, which are referred toas natural regions (NR). Two of the surveyed districts, Makoni and Murewa, are classified as mainly Natural Region TTT (NR3), w hich is characteri zed by a long growing season, favorable rainfall and temperatures, and low probability of crop failure. This is the most productive natural area of Z imbabwe for agriculture. The other six districts are mainly classified N R4 and NRS : the semiarid to arid arcas of Zimbabwe, where the growing season is shorter, the temperatures are high, and rainfall is low, with a high probability of crop failure. In many of these areas, farmers practice animal production more often than crops. The households surveyed were asked to rate the crop production for the last three cropping seasons (figure 1 ). In 2001, crop production was average in high-potential areas but below average in the semiarid areas. In 2002, both ecologies were affected to ncarly the same degree and were much below average. Then in 2003, crop production in the high-potential area was rated as average, but the semiarid areas were again much below average. If household seed security is related to crop production, seed securi ty in the 2003/04 season should be recovering in the high-potential areas but should still be problematic in the semiarid areas because of the three consecutive years of below-or greatly below-average crop production.Farmers in the survey were asked about land holdings, areas planted to various crops, and the quantity of seed requi red to plant a specific area, based on the normal ( 1999) season. The mean plot size and quantity of seed required (in kilos) for the household was summarized for each agroecological area separately (table 1). There were different crops grown by the farmers in the two ecologies, different areas planted, and different seed requirements, except for groundnuts and bambara nuts.  . 1661In both regions, maize was planted on the largest plots, and required the greatest quantity of seed. Groundnuts also required a larger quantity of seed. Except for maize, the cereal crops have a high seed-multiplication rate, while legume crops have a very low seed-multiplication rate (ODI Seeds and Biodiversity Programme, 1996). Crops that have a higher seed requirement and/or a lower seed-multiplication rate may be more seed insecure beca use of the need to save a higher proportion of the previous harvest and the difficulty in storing larger quantities of seed. Crops that requi re less seed and have high seed-multiplication rates, such as sorghum, pearl millet, and ftnger millet, are more seed secure and recover more quickly from crop losses.Seed requirements are dependent on the agroecological zone, speciftc crop, cropping system, and area planted. The recommended seed requirements for maize (33kg/ha), sorgh um (8kg/ha-12kg/ha), and pearl millet (8kg!ha) for the fanners in NR3 were nearly equivalent to those used by the farmers in the survey. The seed rates used by farmers in the semiarid areas were lower than the recommended rates, except for ftnger millet ( 4kg/ha-6kg/ha). The seed requirements given by households for cowpeas, groundnuts, beans, and bambara nuts are very low compared to the reconunended seed requirements (90kg/ha-l20kg/ha). This is probably dueto the corrunon use of intercropping for these crops. lt appears that the estimates of seed needs used for the macro-level assessments commonly used in Zimbabwe overestimate the seed required by households for crop production in the drier production areas and for the legume crops.Sources of seed Mheen-Siuijer (1996) reports that in addition to own saved seed, secd of traditional varieties could be gifted, purchased, and exchanged or bartered from one's neighbor or others loca lly. Households can purchase commercial seed from prívate retailers or receive it from the governrnent (the Grain Marketing Board) or NGOs. Households can use one seed so urce ora combination of seed sources. The importance of each source is determined by household experience; in nonnal years households use the most trusted sources. The impact of an y disruption in nonnal farming practices can resul t in reduced availability or reduced access to a preferred source and an increased demand for seed from altemative sources. These seed sources are referred toas seed \"channels.\" The nonnal demand for seed from specific channel s is determined by each household for each crop grown. In addition, the demand for seed from the various channels for the 2003/4 season was also deterrnined by each household.Maize was the most frequentl y grown crop in the survey. In the high-potential areas, 99% ofthe farmers surveyed grew maize, while in the semiarid areas, 97% did. The second most important crop in the high-potential areas was groundnuts (grown by 74%) and the second most important crop in the semiarid areas was sorghum (71% ).Few households use own saved seed exclus ively (figure 2). Most-in both the high-potential and the semiarid areas-use multiple channels to access maize seed, acq uiring it from commercial sources for part of their seed needs. In normal years, a quarter of all farmers in the high-potential areas so urce all their maize seed at the local market, and a quarter of fanners in the semiarid areas acquire commerc ial seed from GMB and retailers. Maize seed sourcing in 2003 remained virtually unchanged in the high-potential areas; however, in the semiarid areas, more fanners used multiple sources and acquired commercial seed from NGOs. This was matched by a sharp reduction in seed sourced exclusively from GMB and retailers and from the local market.For all other crops, fanners in the high-potential and in the semiarid areas u sed different sources for seed in normal years and following drought (table 2). Own saved seed is an important seed source for small farmers in both ecological regions. For example, in the high-potential areas, fanners rel y a lmost  exclusively on own saved seed for finger millet and source the majority oftheir seed for groundnuts (63%), beans (58%), bambara nuts (68%), and pumpkins (84%) from their own stock. In the semiarid areas, a1most half of all farmers rely exclusively on own saved seed for groundnuts ( 49%), sorghum (42%), and pearl millet (49%).The drought disaster resulted in reduced availabilíty and reliance on own seed. This reduction was compensated by greater reliance on multiple sources, including NGOs and the local market. For example, in the high-potential areas, seed sourced from NGOs and the govemment increased from 0% to 9% for finger millet and from 0% to 13% for bambara nuts. In the semiarid areas, it increased from 8% to 13 % for sorghum and from 5% to 12% for pearl millet. Groundnut seed sourced from the local market increased from 10% to 14% in the high-potential areas and from 10% to 17% in the semiarid areas.In cowpeas, the use of own saved seed increased with the drought, and the use of seed from NGOs and the govemment decreased. This is because cowpeas were given as seed assistance in 2002/03 by SCF-UK, which may have contributed toan increased household seed supply and reduced demand for outside seed.One other strategy used by households to respond to the loss of own saved seed or reduced access to seed outside the home is to switch toa different crop. Generally, there were very few households who planned to change their crop mix from normal after the two years of drought. Thus, the shift to alternative seed channels was a strategy used more frequently to respond to the drought than changing crops.The ability to produce one's own seed is critica! to household seed security. However, to benefit from this retained seed, the producer must also be able to use seed-saving practices that maintain varietal integrity and seed quality. Households were asked about their seed selection and conservation practices at present and in the past. Significant changes could indicate increased seed insecurity. Surveyed households described a number oftraditional methods used to conserve seed.ln the high-potential areas, 88% of househo1ds used chemical seed treatments, a practice that had not changed in the previous five years. Although only 22% of farmers in the semiaríd areas used chemícal seed treatment, 16% used traditíonal treatments like tobacco, goat dung, ash, and shrub leaves. Mheen-Siuijer ( 1996) found that many of thc respondents in her surveys felt that their varieties had degenerated over the years. T his loss in varietal quality was attributed to poor seed selection. In response to the question, \" How has varieta l quali ty changed?\" 38% ofthe households responded that it had. Many indicated that they were currently using earlier maturing maize hybrids tha n in the past. Few respondents referred to changes in their own saved seed varieties or crops. The conclusion is that altho ugh varieties have changed, there has been no significan! dctcrioration.In summary, the seed requirements for the surveyed households was less than the quanti ties indicated in the technical guidelines used for macro-leve ! seed assessments. This was especia lly true for legume crops that are routinely interc roppcd. While a high proportion o fhouseho lds use only own saved seed, except for maize, the use of multiple seed c hannels is very common, especiall y when crop production has been poor. Current seed selection and conservation prac tices did not seem to indicate any negative impact on seed or varietal quality. Thus, seed securi ty for househo lds in the survey was dependent on the availabi lity of own saved seed and acccss to seed channels outside the home. Because househo lds do not use own saved maize seed, seed needs assessments that foc us on maize distort the assessment with a bias towards the formal sector.Mheen-Sujier ( 1996) observed that farmers preferred free seed distribution over using their own saved seecl. Farmers actually waited for the seed distribution, with the result tha t they planred late. Thi s reduced yields, resulting in less seed saved for the ncxt season. She suggested that the dependence on free seed distributions created a temptation for farme rs to consume their own seed. The conclusion is that seed packs ha ve decreased househo ld seed security and fa rme r reliance on own seed sel f. Though this study was conducted in 1996. it is li kely that the situation has not changed, cspecial ly for maize, which is routinely g iven by the government and NGOs.Local govcmment officials and fa rme rs were interviewed about their knowledge and appreciation of relief seed assistance. Although the local officials knew of past emergency and developmcnt sced distributions, these dístríbutíons were done with limited local assessment-or involvcment and coordination wi th local offí cials. The exception was AREX for assessment and moni toring and the involvement o f vill age heads in targeting beneficiaries. Little or no fo llow-up or monitoring was done.Seed distributions were mainly done on a credit basis, but there was little payback by the fa rmers. The result was ( 1) late delivery of seed, (2) deli very of inapp ropriate varie ties or crops, (3) late planting, ( 4) poor targeting, (5) disappointing harvests for those w ho received the seed. and (6) increased dependence on seed handouts.S heen-Sujier ( 1996) fo und that most seed insecure households were poor, with little means to purchase supplementary seed. These farmers bought traditional varieties locally, and any quantity could be bought if cash or barter items were availa blc. The usual sources o f seed were the better farmers. In some cases, farme rs identifíed seed sources during harvest with visits to the field. Good fanners wo uld even advertise the availabil ity ofseed through their neig hbors. Sometimes the seed was avai lable locall y and sometimes they had to source from adjacent wards or districts. The acceptability of purchases from this informal market depended upon the location.In our farmer survey, farmers described a local seed market where local varieties of maize and other crops, such as sorghum, pearl millet, and groundnuts, were sourced from local shops, shops in the nearest town, or from other farmers in the same or neighboring villages in the same ward . A number of farmers or villages were named as sources ofseeds. Sourcing seed locally was descríbed as follows:• Seed is bought either in the same village or in the ward; however, there is no known prominent trader.• Everyone can sell ifthey have excess grain.• Selling is also at a very low leve!.• Seed can be found locally or in other villages. The sellers are not exactly traders but fanners who sell their excess grain as seed. Any farmers can sell, depending on their harvest in a particular season. • Seed can be obtained from local farmers in the same village. No specific fanner is known. Anyone with excess grain can sell • People come from far away to sell grain that local people can bu y and la ter use for seed. T he names ofthe sellers are not known.It should be noted that a number offanners did comment that they preferred to obtain seed from relatives rather than use this market option, although the local market is used more frequently.The househo lds surveyed for the case study indicated that normally the local market is relied on for all crops. When farmers were asked about the quantities of seed available for purchase in the past, 59% in the high-potential areas and 30% in the semiarid areas felt that there were suffi cient quant ities available for purchase. However, in the current season, that proportion had fallen to only 17% in the high-potential areas and 4% in the semiarid areas. More than 60% of the respondents in both regions said they did not know ifthe present quantities would be adequate. Sheen-Sluijer ( 1996) reported that farmers did not find infonn al purchase from the local market a very re liable source of seed, although the fanners in their study did conclude that if you had enough cash, seed could always be found in suffic ient quantities. It is notan easy channel to use and farmers in their study did not find easy access to the seed until the season had sta rted and the sellers were confident of their own seed needs.The households were asked about assets used to access seed nonnally and for the previous season. Normally, households in both regions use poultry, small ruminants, fami ly labor, crop sales, cash or remittances, crafts, and vegeta bies to exchange for seed. The number of assets used and their use by the househo lds to access seed had not changed in the 2003/04 season. However, the actual value ofthe assets in re lation to the quantity of seed that could be acquired was not determined in the survey. So while the same asset was u sed, the \"cost\" of seed per asset m ay ha ve been affected and thus access could ha ve been limited beca use of the drought.In total, 92 farmers and traders who sold grain or seed were interviewed, of whom 67% were farmer vendors. These vendors so ld 14 crops for grain. mainly their own production, except for maize, beans, cowpeas, suntlowers, and vegetables where they also so ld grain purchased from other farmers and traders. Virtually all the seed sellers were farmers selling thei r own production. Ofthese seed sellers, 16 farmers and six traders offered credit. lt is clear that there is an important informal seed market in Zimbabwe a nd that there are opportunities to strengthen the role of these farmer traders to improve the quality oftheir seed and the profitability oftheir seed business.  The premium for seed varied for different crops, but sellers listed a 40% to 60% premium for maize seed, 50% to 300% for groundnut seed, and up to 200% more for bean seed. Two sellers did not sell for cash but gave seed as a gift or exchanged for labor. One seller asserted that local crops were frequently sold only among farmers in villages and wards. Overall, 71% of the sellers surveyed sold grain as seed, but only 17% had specifically bought grain to sell as seed. The farmer sellers used special methods to store seed. These were mainly chemical and traditional methods. Farmers stored the seed in bags in the granary and in their home, hung from the roofin the kitchen and put in clay pots. Thus, the survey found that local seed sellers exist and are able to produce or bu y grain that was sold as seed. They are very local in both their purchase and sales. One agro-dealer did selllocal sorghum grain sometimes when he bought it specifically for that purpose. Sales ofseed were made to local farmers (69%), govemment (6%), seed houses (4%), grain traders (10%), and NGOs (13%). When asked ifthey could access as much seed as they wanted from the local farmers, only about halfthe sellers said yes. When asked ifthey could sell as much seed as they wanted, more than 70% said yes.In the evaluation ofthe seed vouchers and fairs program implemented by CRS-Zimbabwe and CTDT in six of the districts surveyed for the case study, a series of questions were asked of the seed sellers after each seed fair (Brame!, 2003b). The survey included 1347 seed sellers from the seed vouchers and fairs who sold 31 different crops. The majority of the sellers were farmers (88%) and full-time seed sellers. Overall , 72% of the seed sellers were women. Full-time seed sellers were very experienced sellers: nearly 70% had sold seed for more than four years, while nearly 30% of the farmers had sold seed for more than eight years. All the maize seed was sold by seed companies, stockists, and agro-dealers, but the majority of seed sellers for the other crops were farrners. The majority of farrners sold their own seed for all crops while part-time seed sellers on ly sold their own seed. Part-time seed sellers were fanners who were proficient seed producers, selling seed in their communities if they had a surplus. Full-time seed sellers obtained the majority of seed they sold from sources other than their own production, usually from other local fanners. Thus they were full-time because they consolidated excess g rain or seed in the community and sold it regularly. They did se ll their own production for sorne crops, for example, groundnuts. Other market traders and the fonnal sector were al so sources of seed for farmers and full-time seed sellers.This assessment ofthe seed sellers at the seed fairs indicates that a very local seed market operates on a routine bas is for crops other than maize. The source of seed sold is local but there does seem to be a routine demand and specialized suppliers. From the evaluation, it was clear that the CRS seed vouchers and fairs program utilized an a lready existing market structure to meet the need of the beneficiaries for the seed of a wide range of crops and varieties.The local seed market in Zimbabwe is very informal. Most of the seed sold is a fa nner' s or trader's own production. A large number of crops are sold routinely for both cash and credit. The market seems to ha ve adequate quality with special seed storage facilities used by most ofthe sellers. The majority ofthe potential customers view the suppl y as unknown, while the seed sellers view the demandas adequate but the supply inadequate.This information concurs with the observations o f Mheen-Sluijer ( 1996), who described this market as dependent on fanner-to-fanner interactions, which resulted in fmmers having to seek out a supplier for seed of both local and new varieties. S he describes the local nature of thi s market as being \" within the area\" where \"fanners see the crops in the fíe ld and then determine which variety they w ish to pl ant the next season. Sometimes fanners buy heads when they are ripe, they know it is a good variety and it is good quality. Fanners who sell seed are good farmers who grow a variety of crops and usually have a good harvest and one can often buy a range of varieties. lf a fanner has a lot of seed to sell, he will advertise that there is plenty ofseed for sale. As long as o ne has money, anyone can be approached to sell seed.\"The seed industry in Zimbabwe is one of the largest in A frica. The public sector monitors and controls variety releases, multiplication, and di stribution of seed withín the country and for export. The public sector also conducts research and deve lopment on a wide range offield and horticultura! crops. For some crops, this research is done in coll aboration with intemational agricultura! research centers. The public sector is al so involved in seed distribution th rough relief programs. The priva te sector is responsible for seed production and marketing. 1 n addition, a number of priva te companies are invo lved in research and development, mainly for maize. After 1970, all publicly registered varieties were released and marketed through one company, Seed Co. The agreement with Seed Co specified producti on and pricing levels, as we ll as the retention of carry o ver stocks for seed security of maize, sorghum, wheat, barley, soybeans, and groundnuts. This agreement was cancelled in 1997 to make all publicly developed varieties available to any company ifthey also agreed to pay royalties on sales and reta in carryover s tocks for seed securi ty. No company has come forward to sign any new agreement, with the result that very few new public varieties have been available to farmers (Gwarazimba, 2002b).Addressing Seed Security in Disaster H.esponse: Linking Relief with Oei'elopmenl. 173 _ 1 _The priva te seed sector consi sts of a number of companies which are focused on crops, vegetables and flower seeds. Seed Co, Monsanto, Pannar, and Pioneer do research and development in Zimbabwe while National Tested Seeds, Agricultura! Seeds and Services, and Quton Seed Company only do multiplication and distribution of seeds. A number of small companies import and market vegetable seeds. Based on seed production estima tes in 2002, Seed Co has about 50 percent of the fonnal sector market share for cowpeas, 52% for pearl millet, 56% for beans, 59% for open-pollinated maize, 66% for hybrid sorghum, 79% for hybrid maize, 91 % for sorghum, 94% for soybeans, and 100% for wheat. Agricultura! Seeds and Services has 60% ofthe market for groundnuts. There are 4 companies involved in hybrid maize and beans, 3 in open-pollinated maize, pearl mil let, and cowpeas, 2 in soybeans, groundnuts, and sorghum, and only 1 company in wheat and cotton (Gwarazimba, 2002b ).The infonnal seed sector has attributes of both the formal and the local seed sectors and occupies a middle ground between the two. Companies such as National Tested Seeds and Agricultura) Seeds and Services purchase seed directly from smallholder or communal farmers. This seed can be of local varieties or from production with foundation seed obtained from these companies. These companies and others, such as Seed Co and Pannar, collaborate with NGOs to provide foundation seed and to purchase seed produced by smallholder fam1ers' groups. In 2002, there were seven NGOs involved in the seed sector with the collaboration of ICRISA T and CIMMYT. The crops produced were sorghum, pearl millet, open-pollinated maize, and cowpeas. This increasing link between the formal and infonnal sectors with the assistance ofthe NGOs has contributed toan increased supply of seeds for these crops. Many of these seed projects have focused on increased production by smallholder farmers, training farmers on seed production/conservation, and developing marketing links between producer groups and the prívate seed companies (Gwarazimba, 2002b).Maredia and Howard ( 1998) reviewed the literature on changes in the seed sector in A frica. They concluded that the focus by govemments and donors on formal seed sector development had been unsuccessful in building demand from the smallholder sector. Such a shift will require increased demand for improved varieties of a wider range of crops among smallholder fanners, decreased cost of seed production and marketing, improvement in transport and information infrastructure, and reduced leaming and transaction costs for new seed enterprises. While their focu s is on the seed suppliers, they do consider the need to better understand and develop the market demand and to consider the seed quality issues of a decentralized seed system.Maredia and Howard ( 1998) concluded that seed projects carried out with the assistance ofNGOs and the public extension service in Zimbabwe could result in reduced costs in seed production and distribution, with trained seed producers in the informal sector and increased market links between the informal and formal sectors. They noted that there was a danger that these activities would be dependen! on subsidies from the NGO or donar community. Thus the withdrawal ofthese subsidies or the NGOs could result in the failure ofthc seed production and market links. This has been the case for a number of seed-multiplication projects in Zimbabwe and it continues to be an issue for the future of the informal seed sector. This will clearly be the case if the focus of this production is on crops or varieties that are distributed for seed relief but not marketed in rural areas to smallholder farmers.While seed projects that emphasize increased seed production can result in increased availability of seed of minar crops in remate areas, without a focus on market development among smallholder farmer-producers, here might not be a similar increase in access to these crops in these areas dueto poor local markets. Unfortunately, this curren ti y seems to be the case in Zimbabwe. The focus on the informal seed supply system without a concurrent focus on the informal seed market system may reduce the cost of seed production but will not increase the demand for improved varieties or strengthen distribution systems to these same farmers.The Zimbabwe seed industry is a major supplier of relief seed in the region (Gwarazimba, 2002a). Most sales ofseed have been to Mozambique, Malawi, Angola, Zambia, and South Africa. Much ofthis seed is both suppl ied by smallholder farmers and distributed to them through emergency relief programs, often by the same NGOs in the same areas. A large proportion of smallholder farmers (85%) in the more remote, drier areas of Zimbabwe are willing to pay for high-qual ity seed of minor crops. However, despite increased supply, many of these varieties are still not available Locally ata reasonable price. Quite s imply, the repeated and persistent distribution of relief seed has stifled the development of a viable seed market.Smallholders in Zimbabwe have limited access to this fonnaVinformal sector seed since most of the research, development, and marketing is done by agribusi ness companies specializing in hybrid maize.Most of the distribution is done through a central location by traders who lack knowledge of the varieties. In addition, the formal seed companies do not offer credit to the traders or farmers. Thus, only small quantities of seed are available in remote areas, or the availabi lity in shops is limited to planting time. There is also a limited distributíon network, which results in farmers in remote areas traveling long distances to more central points to source seed. Much of the seed that is sold from rural retail and w holesale centers is ofpoor qua lity dueto poor handling and storage conditions, and there is inadequate production of specific crops and varieties to meet an undeveloped market. Thus, the cost of seed is very high, well over 20% of the costs of production. Fanners have very limited access to finances at reasonable credit terms at planting time. At the same time, there is limited labor in the rural areas, very low land holdings, and limited access to markets with low prices for commodities. Thus, grain is only valued at 5% to l 0% of the seed price.The local seed system for maize is very different from the other cereals. There has been a shift away from own saved seed and greater use of fo nnal-sector seed sources. Maize is also a crop that has been routinely made available through relief programs; thus, households have come to depend upon this source. The impact ofthe frequent distributions ofseed was evident from a discussion held with ZFU in Binga (Personal interview, June 2003). First, purchases by the govemment and NGOs in Harare make the very limited stocks unavailable in remote markets like Binga or Kariba. Also, the diversity ofhybrids available locally is limited since many ofthe seed companies make the less desirable hybrids available for sale there. One other consequence is that the agro-dealers and shops in the area are unable to get credit from the companies because the seed market is so uncertain with so much free seed being distributed. Thus, local sources of formal maize seed ha ve access to very limited supplies, w hich affects possible sales and then influences future access to seed for sales. The other problem is the limited access to transport, since these local markets outside of Harare are also not lucrative. In 2003/04, ZFU had managed to get Pannar to make seed avai lable for cash sales to farmers in Binga, but a very limited supply of a less desirable hybrid. Such a situation further limits fanners' willingness to access formal-sector maize from local shops and influences the development of forma l-sector outlets in the districts. In the past, both fanners and traders confinned that maize seed was available at local shops, but at the time ofthe survey, no local trader indicated they sold maize seed.In Zimbabwe, the majority of smallholder farmers use their own saved seed for crops that are critica! to food security. Thus, a seed system must be encouraged that will sustain farmers' saved seed, a local seed market, and a viable seed industry. A ll play important roles in agricultura! rehabilitation and development. The past focus on seed supply needs to be complemented in the long term with enhanced development of market links and a dístríbutíon infrastructure at the local leve/. 8oth of these are currently sharply curtai led by the distribution of large quantities of free seed, which biases the development of commercial seed markets for alternative crops and sharply reduces incentives to develop retail trading networks in rural areas. Thus, addressing the short-term emergency need to enhance farmers' access to seed with sorne forrn of direct seed distribution reduces agricultura! rehabilitation over the long term.Generally, donors, relief agencies, and government agencies have responded with direct seed distributions to a fairly constant need for agricultura! recovery from droug hts and floods. These distributions have used seed obtained frorn the formal sector and traders in Z irnbabwe, and the need for seed has mainly been based on assessments from this sector of seed availability . Farmers ha ve cometo rely on this artificial seed channel for hybrid maize and have responded to this routine seed distribution with delays in planting, as they wait for the distribution of relief seed .. For other crops, they continue to utilize local markets.The donors, NGOs, and govemment have sorne knowledge and appreciation of farrner seed systems but do not focus emergency responses on enhancing fa rmers' access to nonnal seed channels, such as the local market, when they fail to save enough oftheir own seed or have a need to go outside their home for seed of new varieties. Instead, they assume seed is unavailable and make it avai lable locally via direct seed distributions. The local seed system is constrained by a poor information infrastructure about alternative sources of seed, which include both the informal and formal sectors. 8oth the farmer and the formal seed sector are hampered by the poor transportation system and the remo te nature of most of the crop production in Zimbabwe.Farmers ha ve limited access to formal-s ector seed and the cost is high. They ha ve greater access to local seed through a very infonnal market, but it is limited by supply, quality, variety choices, and access. This informal market is more accessible in rural Zimbabwe than is the forma l seed sector. Farmers are interested in new varieties and crops but ha ve limited access except through direct distribution of re lief seed.The relief seed approach in Zimbabwe has included smallholder farmers as seed suppliers. In sorne cases, that has been with the assistance of NGOs and intemational agricultura) research centers in producing seed for the formal sector th rough seed multiplication projects. This increase in seed supply and the enbanced links to the forma l sector has increased the supply of seed to the rel ief market, as well as increasing the value of the relief seed market to seed companies in Zimbabwe. lt has not necessarily increased the supply oflocal seed or enhanced access to local seed for smallholder farmers in rural areas.In addition , the impact ofthe direct distribution of relief seed on the formal sector has been to reduce the supply of seed to the rural retail level and to increase the supply at central points like Harare.Finally, if direct seed distribution is an intervention meant to assist agricultura! systems in recovering from a drought or other disaster, then why is there always another request for seed assistance? The answer to this question is that the direct distribution approach does not strengthen seed system productivity and resilience, nor does it effectively integrate the different systems farmers use. Past distributions have been ineffective in terms of timeliness, crop and variety appropriateness, and community/farmer participation and empowerment. Rather, they have dísrupted the development of local seed enterprises. There is a critica! need for altemative responses that will strengthen the local seed system and its links to the formal sector, with increased emphasis on developing seed enterprises at the local leve!. One altemative approach is the use of seed vouchers, which utilize the existing local seed market to meet the need offarmers affected by a disaster. This alterna ti ve was introduced into Zimbabwe in 2003 and was widely implemented in 2004. ","tokenCount":"65541"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b36e9341c0c2b0add5db948e273e9eee","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6ca158a0-b74d-4bb7-8454-41c3e25ee341/retrieve","id":"-2017707112"},"keywords":["CIRAD","NRI","PRODAR (in Lima)","IDRC","CIP","JITA","SEARCA","UPWARD","CARE","CRS","Foodnet. CIPASLA (Colombia)","CLODEST (Honduras)","Africare (Uganda)","TIP (Tanzania)","ADD-Lilongwe (Malawi). ODAR-IICA (Peru)","members ofPhAction (GTZ","NRI","JIRCAS","ACIAR","CIRAD","FAO","liTA","CIP","IFPRI","IRRI); ASARECA (Foodnet)","the W.K CGIAR system linkages: Enhancement and breeding: 35% Crop production systems: 20% lnformation: 25% Livestock 10% Training: 10% 4"],"sieverID":"c58946ab-1689-4392-bb70-8353e299dd73","pagecount":"175","content":"National and local training programs have been implemented in at least four countries in Latín America, Asia and/or East Africa. At least two Impact studies and/or results from participatory monitoring and evaluation. systems document the effect ofRII projects' approaches, methods, tools or organizational principies on the diversity and rate of innovation in the beneficiary groups and on capacity to undertake risky innovation. Gender mainstreaming implemented in at Jeast one system wide partnership with national programs in Asia.2007 Assessing results to date of mainstreaming of participatory research methods and gender At least six lnnovation Case Studies document and analyse significant processes of improving capacity to innovate.The first stage of a cumulative meta-analysis of innovation case studies investigating the effect of capacity to innovate on food security and income generation is available. At least two novel RII projects' approach or methodology devised originally in Latín America adapted to conditions in Southeast Asia and/or Eastem Africa and used on a significant scale with up to three national or intemational partners.A major report disseminated analysis for use in agriculture and natural resource management in the CGIAR system.Users: The Institute works primarily on behalf of small-scale farm producers and agro-enterprises together with the businesses and agencies that serve them, including prívate, public and not-forprofit organizations, community-based organizations and farmer organizations. Among the rural poor, women and ethnic minorities and their organizations are especial! y important as beneficiaries.Objectives: The Rural Innovation Institute improves the capacity to innovate of resource poor, rural producers and businesses by increasing the scale and impact of new methods and approaches developed by the lnstitute's projects and programs to strengthen competitiveness, client-driven experirnentation and knowledge sharing. All the work ofthe Institute is carried out in its projects which are presented in the Mediurn Term Plan as separate LogFrarnes: SN 1 Rural Agro-enterprise Development {RAeD); SN3 Participatory Research Methods (IPRA) and SN4 lnformation for Development (InfoCom). The Institute also hosts the COlAR Prograrn on Participatory research and Oender Analysis (PROA). All resources are allocated through the projects.Outputs: l . A territorial approach and associated methods and tools for the participatory design and execution of rural agro enterprise development designed, vali_ dated and in widespread use. These demonstrably diversify and add value to the production of resource-poor, rural producers and businesses. 2. Participatory research principies, approaches, methods, tools and organizational principies for client-driven experimentation and a leaming selection approach to innovation in a resource-toconsurnption framework and show how these strengthen the capacity of R&D institutions to support and work with farmer-led research and improve the capacity of farmers to manage risky innovations. 3. Improved approaches, methods and tools using new information and communications technologies (ICTs) developed, validated and in widespread use. These improve the capacity to innovate by obtaining, generating and sharing information and knowledge of resource poor producers, agro enterprises and businesses in rural communities and the R&D organizations serving them. 4. Mainstrearning gender analysis and equitable participatory research to promote leaming and change in CO centers and NARS so that they can better target the demands ofbeneficiary groups, particular} y poor rural women.Resource-poor producers and businesses improve capacity to innovate in order to assure food security, link to markets, compete effectively and increase income generation.Milestones: 2005 At least three Innovation Case studies document and analyze significant processes of improving capacity to innovate. At least one novel Rll projects' approa<.>h or methodology devised originally in Latín America adapted to Southeast Asia and/or East Africa and used on a significant scale with a national partner. Up to four impact studies of participatory research completed and available through the RIIrelated websites.Mainstreaming gender analysis and equitable participatory research to promote leaming and change in CO centers and NARS so that they can better target the demands ofbeneficiary groups, particularly poor rural women . training programs have been -Absence of social conflict at resource-to-consumptíon implemented in at least four the reference sítes framework and show how countries in Latín America, -Data available from the these strengthen the capacity Asia and/or East Africa, reference sites of R&D institutions to Impact studies and/or results -A vailability of information support and work with from participatory from partners farmer-led research and monitoring and evaluation improve the capacity of systems document the effect farmers to manage risky ofthe project's participatory innovations.approaches, methods, tools or organizational principies on the diversity and rate of farmer-led innovation in the beneficiary groups and on their capacity to undertake risky innovation. The results and lessons are in use in at     OBSc CIA T Proj ect Linkages  The Institute continues to build on the established reputation of sorne long-standing areas of work such as agro-enterprise development and participatory research. At the same time the Institute is developing novel strategic initiatives including Enabling Rural lnhovation in East Afiica; the Learning Alliances; a Knowledge Sharing facilitation role in the CGIAR system; eleaming courses ; the study of innovation histories, innovation ecologies and. the role of social capital, networks and \"netchains;\" andan initiative to support indigenous peoples' ethnic entrepreneurship. New kinds of partnership are al so being developed such as that initiated with secondment of a staff member to the Global Forum on Agricultura! Research (GF AR) based in F AO, Rome this year.The RII budget in 2004 was US $5,291 ,459 in 2004 2 ofwhich 16 percent was unrestricted core (See Figure 6). Proposal development requires a very significant portion of the time of RII staff at alllevels. The initiative and contribution ofNationally Recruited Staff associates and assistants to developing proposals and securing grants are increasingly important and deserve especial recognition. Overall in 2004 RII projects submitted 52 proposals, an average of 6.5 proposals per IRS PhD-level scientist (including those principally involved in management). Grant proposals submitted in 2004 totaled US $19 million ofwhich 13 percent were approved to date and 87 percent are still pending approval.A considerable proportion ofRural Innovation-related work is carried out in other CIAT projects (see table on page 16). In 2004, RII projects had 15 joint publications involving other CIA T projects. Sorne of this work involves Rll staff in new research initiatives, and sorne of it involves use of methods and approaches developed in collaboration with RII support.Partnerships and Alliances RII projects report 205 active partnerships in 2003-4, many of which are clustered into learning alliances that are a very significant aspect ofhow RII does its work. Most research is action research conducted in close association with or \"piggybacked\" onto the application ofRII approaches and methodologies by partners and/or capacity development for use of those approaches and methods. In 2004 RII has 4 7 active partnerships of this type.A Learning Alliance is an agreement between a research partner and development partners( including donors and the prívate sector) to carry out a joint process of action-research on a development-oríented intervention or program that is using sorne RII methods, tools and approaches. Leaming Alliances take a very different approach from the technology transfer that characterized relationships with development partners in the past. The Alliance involves collaborative monitoring, evaluation, knowledge-sharing and capacity development about good practices for the management of innovation processes.Leaming Alliances advance rural innovation on two fronts. First as a way to conduct action research that advances fundamental and strategic understanding ofhow to develop and improve capacity to innovate. Thus Leaming Alliances provide RII projects with proof of concept on a Jarge scale. Second, as a way for RII to realize its comparative advantage in research through . engagement in fieldwork that advances both the program objectives of development partners as well as the uptake, scaling out and impact of RII research products. These products are the intemational public goods-the approaches and methodologies-that are refined and subjected to proof of concept in the context of large scale efforts to provide solutions for the rural poor.The Learning Alliance concept is itself experíencing rapid uptake within and outside the RII. CIA T first experimented with this approach in 2000 with CARE in Nicaragua. From there the idea moved to East Africa where a six nation Leaming Alliance was set up with Catholic Relief Services, CRS. New Alliances facilitated by agro-enterprise development objectives have since been established in Central America and the Andean region. The success of the Eastem A frica learning alliance between CIA T and CRS has led to the development of a global Jearning alliance in which 30 CRS country programs have pledged $850,000 of their prívate resources to implementa tools based \"leaming alliance\" in East, South an West Africa, South and South East Asia and Andean and Central America. This is a significant new endeavor for the RAeD project and wiU enable the team to fine tune many activities across a wide range of territoríes. The impact on development partners has been substantive in terms of a shift from relief to enterpríse development and from a focus on agricultura] production to a focus on marketing.Within RII the concept of a Learning Alliance has begun to catalyze closer project integration: in response to an invitation from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Andean Program to presenta proposal. The RII projects in Latín Ameríca are designing an Alliance with the Foundation and its partners for combined input from agro-enterprises, participatory research and information for development. This builds on RII's work for the Kellogg Foundation supporting evaluation ofthe Foundation's 30-plus clusters ofintegrated projects (Conjuntos Integrados de Projectos) in their Latín Ameríca program. Another leaming alliance was formed to advance development methodologies of farmer experímentation and participatory research in Ecuador. The alliance characterized \"good-practice\" approaches to FPR in Ecuador being used by three organizations: World Neighbors, IIRR and INIAP. The approaches characterized were CIALs, FFS, Farmer-to-Fanner and Experimental Trials. The sharing of information at a workshop led to the stakeholders' recognition ofthe need to continue sharing experiences, seek complementarities and pursue opportunities for further scaling-up of these approaches.A new leaming Alliance is being sought around the theme of ethnic entrepreneurship. Rural poverty is often concentrated in ethnic minority groups and indigenous people's communities. At the same time ethnic entrepreneurs are recognized as sorne ofthe most successful innovators who . design ingenious strategies for marketing and production using both indigenous and externa} technologies.Institutional leaming and change is an integral part of any Leaming Alliance and the CGIAR ILAC (lnstitutional Learning and Change) Initiative has included the CIA T Leaming Alliances and one of its concepts and cases. The concept of a learning Alliance is increasingly identified on a broad front intemationally with innovation at CIA T. Over the past 30-40 years, many developing countries have experienced a slow separation between the focus of public sector research organizations and the cornmercial research interests ofthe entrepreneurial prívate sector world. Research on \"Public-Private Partnerships for Agroindustrial Research\" developed methods and tools that will facilitate more effective partnerships between public sector agricultura! research organizations and the prívate sector. The main assurnption behind public-private partnership initiatives is that although goals and incentives maybe different, there is a 'comrnon space' where interests can converge and it is around this comrnon space that public-private partnerships can evolve. However, ifthis common space is hidden then joint initiatives will not occur. Research is testing hypotheses about the common interest areas between public and prívate interests and developing methodology to facilitate the design of public-private partnerships for innovation, which is low cost and improves the negotiation and decision-making process.Many of the problems that face small-scale rural producers are related to the effects of trade liberalization, globalization, foreign investment in traditional markets and their effects on market supplies and prices. Macro-economic trends are important to Rurallnnovation's strategy to improve market engagement by small-scale producers. A 2004 study showed developing countries reliant upon a limited range of traditional commodities face staggering losses. This bleak situation is reflected in the dramatically falling terrns oftrade for many African countries and suggests a profound downtum in their economic outlook. The conclusions ofthis study are that decision-makers and development agencies should give urgent consideration to the following: (i) Improving the negotiating powers of LDCs for global trade, (ii) Managing the over-supply ofprimary product exports, (iii) Stimulating production of added-value products (iv) Strengthening Market Information Services and (v) Developing export strategies based on highly differentiated higher value products and (vi) Reducing imports of goods that can be competitively produced domestically. These measures are required to regain more ethical trading values between rich and poor nations in regard to existing products and wherever possible to find innovative ways of adding value to commodities before export, such that a higher percentage of the final market price is realized in the producing countries.Rurallnnovation's focus on the interaction among information, technology and social organization is now being reflected in intemational concern with the digital divide which is shifting focus from connectivity towards the importance of capacity building and local content development. Recently-initiated research in collaboration with Imperial College London is applying social network analysis to rural information exchange. A comprehensive literature review on the importance of information flows in supply chain management provided a . framework in which to assess the ways in which ICTs can enhance information networking for the poor. This initial work on information exchange in supply chains has identified the concept of a \"netchain\" to explain the differences information flows in supply chains. Empirical research in Bolivia has been launched this year to increase our understanding ofnetchains and ofhow information is shared between producer groups and to identify where infon'nation bottlenecks exist in supply cbains. By assessing the role that information intermediaries can play to overcome these barriers, the project hopes to improve producer groups' access to information and to create new opportunities in the production and marketing of high-value crops.Academic researchers' agree that the speed at which experiences in ICT practice are evolving makes action research a desirable methodology for understanding the complexities facing practítioners and for speaking with authority on the factors affecting the current state of play. RII's research on \"ínformation intermediaries\" grew out ofprevious work on community telecenters. The idea was to identify individuals and groups, who with appropriate training and support, can serve as a bridge between di verse formal sources of information on agroenterprise development and the many people in rural communities who lack access to those information sources or have little confidence or interest in them.A pilot research study is investigating tbe potential of grupos gestores de comunicación in relation to the panela (unrefined sugar) supply chain, which is quite important in Cauca Departrnent, Colombia. 1bree communications undergraduate studa:1ts from the University of Cauca are invpolved in this research. During 2004 they examined information flows within and between the groups, using focus group discussions and surveys to determine how members communicate, how frequently, and how effectively.Innovation histories and innovation briefs are being constructed to enable Rll to build a database of case studies that can eventual! y be used for meta-analysis that will give insight into underlying principies and dynamics of rural innovation processes. Methodology for constructing and learning from innovation histories was devel<:>ped and implemented this year and published as an ILAC Brief, distributed at the CGIAR Annual General Meeting. ILAC (Institutional Learning and Change) is a new initiative in the CGIAR System.A comparison was made of the innovation histories of CIALs in Honduras and Colombia, the two countries with the most CIALs established that institutionally sustainable CIALs are supported by an network of organizations who enjoy mutually beneficia! relationships. The actions taken to register the ASOCIALs in Honduras as legal entities and build their capacity to attract and manage projects on their own are belping build the links that the ASOCIALs need for their long-term sustainability. As of 2003, however, those links were not yet sufficient so their remains a role for the host organizations to continue to seek funding. To reach the long-term sustainability that the ASOCIALs seek, they will have to learn how to operate as small NGOs and/or providers of services that can win contracts and projects and pay staff salaries. CIAL and ASOCIAL members in Honduras are linked on average to 7 organizations within their respective communities, and six organizations outside. Through these linkages CIAL members are influencing local decísion-makers and local development agendas.ínnovate. Second, that accountability ora sense of responsibility on the part of leaders and cítizens can be enhanced by adopting long-term collective goals as a result of the planning process. Third, that participatory rural planning approaches enhance Jeaming at different hierarchical Jevels of organizations and so improve the coordination of development efforts by articulating clients (demand) and service providers(supply) from one leve] to the next, from the bottom up. The Rural Planning approach is being used to articulate municipal plans at the departmental level, and departmental plans at the national leve! in the different case studies . The \"Resource to Consumption\" framework is being tested by research in Africa. This focuses on understanding the linkages between the technology development process and inarket opportunities and how this can generate criticallinks between investment in natural resources, markets and incentives for their adoption. In a research-extension-university-NGO-farmer group continuurn, CIA T and its partners are working in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda to explore and understand how market orientation Ieads to improved NRM at the farm level. Analyses of research to date highlight examples where identifying potential markets for existing and new products has led to increased investment in NRM and how developing innovative agricultura} technologies that meet the specific needs and constraints of different income levels and gender groups leads to improved livelihoods.Enabling Rurallnnovation is the name for the combination of rural innovation approaches from the participatory research (IPRA), agro-enterprise (RaeD) and information for development (INFOCOM) projects being applied to test the resource-to-consumption framework in East Africa. Agricultura} research and development organizations are increasingly under pressure to shift from enhancing productivity of food crops to improv1ng profitability and competitiveness of small-scale farming, and linking smallholder farmers to more profitable markets. What is not obvious however, is how to make small-scale farming more market oriented, or how to integrate participatory research approaches to marketing and agroenterprise development. In Africa, CIA T is testing an integrated approach for demand-driven and market-oriented agricultura! research and rural agro-enterprise development. This approach termed Enabling Rural lnnovation (ERI) offers a practica] framework to link farmer participatory research and market research in a way that empowers farmers to better manage their resources and offers them prospects of an upward spiral out of poverty.ERI uses participatory processes to build the capacities offarmers' groups and rural communities in marginal areas to identify and evaluate market opportunities, develop profitable agroenterprises, intensify production through experimentation, while sustaining the resources upon which their livelihoods depend. The approach emphasizes integrating scientific expertise with farmer knowledge, strengthening social organization and entrepreneurial organizations through effective partnership between research, development and rural communities. By strengthening human and social capital, ERI encompasses effective and proactive strategies for promoting gender and equity in the access to market opportunities and improved technologies, and in the distribution ofbenefits and additional incomes.• Is the Enabling Rural Innovation framework an effective mechanism for reaching women and the poor? How are the ERI processes contributing to changes in rurallivelihood strategies?Is the community enterprise development process reaching the women and marginalized members of the community? Do women and the poor benefit? Results ofaction research applying the ERI approach in pilot sites in Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania show that small-scale farmers are not always attracted by higher economic returns. Rather they use a range of economic and non-econornic criteria for selecting their existing crops and livestock for new marke~s, as well as new crops for new markets. Evaluation ofmarket opportunities stirnulates farmers' experimentation to reduce risks, access new technologies, and improve the productivity and competitiveness ofthe selected enterprises. Lessons Iearned suggest that building and sustaining quality partnerships between research and development organizations, government, private agribusiness sector; and building necessary amount ofhuman and social capital over a certain period oftime are critica} for achieving success in small-scale agroenterprise development. This however, requires that an explicit scaling up strategy be mapped out to link successful community processes to meso and macro level market institutions at the national and regionallevels.Scaling out RII approaches from Latin America to Africa and AsiaThe National Agricultura} Advisory Service (NAADS) was established\"to assist Uganda make the transition from a production based, Government supported extension service, to a demand led extension agency that will incremental} y operate on afee paying basis. This is an ambitious program given the status of existing extension capacity and to support of this process, RAeD undertook a multi-sector market opportunities study to assess product demand, using Kampala, the capital city, as a proxy for demand in Uganda. This demand profile providing an objective means for prioritising enterprise options that could be prometed by extension officers at the district Ievel. In all countries, participatory market research has been carried out, with serví ce providers facilitating farmers' visits to local, regional and in sorné cases markets in the capital cities of their respective countries to identify attractive market options. The farmers then rigorously evaluate each option identified using a set of criteria that they themselves develop, based on the communities' priorities for meeting food production and income generation.The results ofthese experiences were presented in a workshops held in each country, and shared with institutions that are in the process ofinitiating 'enabling rural innovation' activities. By the end ofthis year the experiences and lessons learned will have been brought together in a practica! field guide for market facilitators.We ha ve made gains in building capacity of partners in applying ERI approaches to strengthen their work. These approaches are now being tested and evaluated by partners in leaming si tes in Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania. Additionally, a significant number ofpartners have institutionalized these approaches in their institutions; e.g. Coo Versalles had increased beyond 3,000 liters 1 da y, generating an additional US$150,000 per annurn in incorne dueto a 100% increase in the milk's sales price and a 130% increase in sales volume.The PRGA Program is collaborating with CIA T 's (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) Participatory Research in Agriculture (IPRA) Program on a study ofthe impact oflocal agricultura! researcb committees in Cauca, Colombia. This study examines the impact of one particular method of incorporating farmer participation into the research process. The methodology is based on the establishment oflocal agricultural research committees (CIALs) in rural communities, wbich act as research services for their cornrnunities. This method was developed in CIA T in the 1990s and is currently in use in approximately 250 cornrnunities in severa] Latin American countries. This irnpact study aims to better understand how effective the CIAL methodology is in ensuring that benefits reach a large proportion ofthe population and also how CIAL members benefit from their participation.In another stud y the development of second-order organizations of CIALs was evaluated. These organizations are playing a very important role in facilitating the interactions among the farmer groups, local governments and externa) agents that intervene in local development. The CIALs have continued doing research on new technologicai options to adapt them and make them accessible to the low-resource farmers in order to improve their quality of life. To date, there are eight second-order associations: 2 in Colombia (CORFOCIAL and UNICIAL), 5 in Honduras distributed across 4 regions (ASOCIALAG0 . This collaborative study with EMBRAP A assesses the impacts, and potential impacts, of a participatory cassava-breeding project implemented in several areas of northeast Brazil over a period of eight years by EMBRAP A/CNPMF (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agroprecuária/Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Mandioca e Fruticultura Tropical) . The study . assesses the soundness of the methodology implemented in the project by asking if participant farmers were representative of the other. farmers in their communities. It also asks: what is the . adoption potential ofthe varieties developed in the project? Who adopted (or is likely to adopt) them? Why, and what benefits accrue from adoption? What difference does the institutional arrangement through which a participatory plant-breeding project is implemented make for the adoption potential? Finally, what were the costs of participation?Participatory Barley Breeding This joint project with ICARDA assesses benefits and costs ofiCARDA's (lnternational Center for Agricultura! Research in the Dry Areas) participatory barley breeding approach as compared to the conventional ( centralized) breeding approach, both at the farmer Jevel and as returns to research. Preliminary analysis ofthe data has been completed and the results were presented at the 25th lnternational Conference of the lnternational Association of Agricultura} Economists (IAAE) Durban, South Africa in August 2003. The methods used include economic methods of measuring benefits from adoption and \"process impacts,\" which occur because ofthe participation itselfrather than because ofthe technologies developed.In a new effort CIA T and other CGIAR centers embarked in April 2004, on an initiative to foster KM/S within and among centers and their partners. InforCom obtained a significant competitive grant from the CGIAR and contracted a half-time senior scientist to coordinate the project, in close collaboration with other centers that have expressed strong interest in this work, the Organizational Change Program (OCP), the more recent Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) initiative and the CGIAR ICT-KM Program. The general objective ofthe KM/S project is to foster a learning-oriented, knowledge-sharing culture in the CGIAR that improves its performance in strengthening food security, reducing poverty, and pres~rving natural resources in developing countries. The project will review past experience with KM/S and generate commitment to the approach, support the development and implementation of KM/S strategies and facilitate access to KM/S tools and téchniques. Success in obtaining this grant is a testimony that InforCom, although stíll in an early stage of development, has established a definite ni che and a reputation for high quality.Forum for Sustainable Developmen t Development partners and in particular local govemments forman important segment ofRII clients. RJI is collaborating wíth the W.K.Kellogg Foundation in the design of a baseline evaluation of approximately 20 Project Clusters (CIPs) distributed throughout numerous municipalities in Central America, North East Brazil and the Andean region. Each CIP is based on an Alliance among multiple institutions working in local development, including local government. Data was collected by the Foundation 's evaluation team in a series of participatory workshops with local stakeholders in the CIPs and processed at CIAT. The data analysis produced a set of descriptive tables and charts for each CIP which are of considerable interest not only to the projects but to municipal planners and decision-makers. In addition a paper on the Latín American context for local development was prepared for the Foundation by the GIS analysis team led by Glenn Hyman. They developed an interactíve, web-based Forumfor Sustainable Development using•GIS analysis in which the data on the murucipalities included in the Kellogg Program can be consulted, and which enables municipalities to compare the results of their programs with results in other municipalities, and to interact about this information. The Forum was pilot tested with sorne munícipalties in Valle Department, Colombia and stimulated so mucb interest tbat municipalities sent tbeir staffto CIAT to learn more about it. The Foundation has also expressed interest in using tbe Forum. Tbe evaluation baseline documents the extent and quality ofthe multi-intstitutional Alliances and it sbould be possible to monitor how fuese use the Forum and its impact on tbeir knowledge sharing.Created witb tbe objective to put at reach of the farmers all tbe information that tbeir peers in other countries have generated. This web system is also recognition of the farmer communities that have believed in tbe CIAL metbodology; and through which they have developed scientific research important for tbeir geographic areas. On tbe otber hand, it is a system tbat can belp many rural research and development institutions to know tbe fanners ' criteria for tbe selection oftechnology. Furthermore, it could be an information resource on generation and adoption of technologies for the farmers tbemselves, which would be used in the development programs for their dissemination.The software Expertise was ratified as one oftbe main components ofthe CGIAR VRC (Virtual Resource Center) platform under the C4D initiative ICT -KM C4D (Content for development). This software will bring great benefits to partners as well asto rural communities in the confonnation of groups in knowledge sharing processes.The CÍAT USI complemented Enrica Porcari's report \"Collaboration Systems for Virtual Teams: Report to the CGIAR CIO\", published on 26th ofFebruary 2003, witb a special emphasis on free open source software solutions. The general approach was an exploration of the state of the art of open source collaboration tools, and their possible solutions and services offered. Then, we applied tbe knowledge gained lo the particular needs of the CG Centers. We found that free open source software packages do existas a good altemative to commercial collaboration software. We are convinced tbat there will not and should not be any single solution solving it all. Software packages usually have a special focus and become best ofbreed of sorne area. So combining two or three software packages will give berter results for knowledge sharing and collaboration in the communities.To increase tbe competitiveness of small-scale agro-enterprises through te~hnical and marketing innovation RaeD has developed a metbodology entitled \"Groups for Innovation in Rural Agroindustry'' (GIARs). GIAR is essentially a support group, made up by representatives from research, commerce, education and technícal organizations that focused on assisting small agroenterprises within an identified market cham. The GIAR group works like a commercial research unit, to identify bottlenecks• and increase supply chain efficiency, product quality and ultimately product sales. The GIAR methodology has been successfully applied to Cassava and Panela (raw sugar) processing in Cauca Provinée, Colombia. By using the GIAR approach, more than 100 Panela producers in Cauca Province ha ve tested and adopted improved varieties, increased processing capacity (kg Panela 1 h) of their sugar\"plants by up to 21 0%; significan ti y reduced firewood consumption and eliminated burning of old tyres. The GIAR has al so found ways to improve product quality; enter new markets, including export opportunities, through product differentiation and consolidate a producers association. This year, the methodology was also expanded with new activities on Panela market chains in Honduras.SIDER is an initiative designed by Inforcom and RAeD to support small-scale business communitíes through a continuous exchange ofknowledge, experiences and 1earning among local actors and their support services. The system is based on simple ICT tools that have been developed through active participation of producers and local community support organizations see website, (http://www.caucasider.org/). In 2004, the RAeD team focused on incorporating a market information service into SIDER, starting with a weekly price system for the main products from principal cities in Cauca and neigbboring provinces. To facilitate the distribution ofthis information 15 native American and Afro-Colombian radio stations in the province agreed to broadcast SIDER data. To promote the approach two workshops were held which led to an agreement by the stations to produce 12 programs that combine traditional contents with those from the SIDER business information Web site. Through this process, information for commercial development is being distributed to many thousands of clients in the province.Tradenet, is a new web-based product developed as •part of an F AO funded evaluation of market information systems developed in Uganda over the past 5 years by FOODNET. The analysis revealed that a major problem in the efficiency and cost of delivering market information services (MIS) was a lack of access to low cost, user friendly softWare systems that could assist in data collation, synthesis and distribution. To overcome this problem RAeD established a relationship with a Ghanaian based ICT business Incubator Company, Busylab to develop an appropriate web-based MIS platform that could facilitate information flow and also integrate lCT options including, web, mobile phones, SMS, satellite data channels, FM radios and mobile print media services. The beta version ofthis software http://www.tradenet.biz/ is now being pilot tested with the Ugandan national market information service and if successful, this product will be commercialised through a public:private sector company. This service will support up to 7 million farmers in Uganda and has potential for application in many other countries seeking a similar service. The findings from this work were recent1y summarised in a paper submítted for publication to F AO and ASARECA monograpbs series.In a new project funded by the New Zealand Government, RAeD is working with two local stakeholder consortia for agro-enterprise development in Cauca, Colombia and Y oro, Honduras. In late 2003, a diagnostic study identified priorities for new and improved services, including marketing, information, accounting and legal services, and post-héil\"Vest training/technical assistance. During 2004, each consortium has facilitated the establishment of these new services through the creation and promotion of an eoterprise risk fund that provides incentives for new service providers to enter these rural markets. The consortia are managing a process that includes training potential providers in t}le design of new serví ces, and the development of proposals, business and market plans for their sustainable delivery in the target area. These new services wil1 be operational in late 2004. Monitoring and evaluation ofthe new services will continue tbrougb 2005. Methodological differences between the two locations are developing, and will be reflected in the field guide that will result from this (and other) experiences. The first version ofthe business development services guide will be devdoped in Spanish and thereafter translated into English and French, for use in Asia and Africa The BDS tools being developed in Latin America are simultaneously being assessed and adapted to South East Asia. The use of an enterprise risk funds is also being designed in both continents to catalyse innovative ofnew approaches to BDS.This year InforCom demonstrated the potential of computer-supported collaborative learning, or e-learning, as a means of making k.nowledge and other results of agricultura} research more widely available and more relevant to development professionals in rural areas. Ambitious and creative course development with partner organizations and active participation in the planning of a CGIAR initiative called the Global Open Agriculture and Food University (GO-AFU) led to a grant from USAID to develop two courses with the University ofFlorida, Gainesville in the USA which will open the door to University degrees for participants in CIA T -facilitated elearning. CIA T's first distance education course was launched. In collaboration with Colombia's Universidad Nacional, we completed the development of a course begun last year, entitled Exsitu Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources. It got under way in mid-August and runs until mid-November 2004.From Aug.-Oct. a review ofliterature was conducted to cover topics such as the training of facilitators, facilitation and leadership, participation, participatory actionresearch, poverty, FFS, farmer-to-farrner methodology, agricultura! knowledge and information systems, strategic extension and other related topics. The PROINP A study (A synthesis of knowledge-sharing methodologies anda proposal for new methodological arrangements) will provide us with an additional up-to-date review of literature in our area of interest: \"Pro-poor RD&TI methods and methodologies.\"The Intemational Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is leading the design ofthis initiative in collaboration with CGIAR centers and other actors. InforCom actively participated in an electronic forum and later in the Task Force Meeting and Donor Dialog on this subject in August at IFPRI headquarters. lnforCom will provide a report on its first pilot distance-education course for the GO-AFU Web site.InforCom staff made good use of the multimedia training tool developed last year on setting up community telecenters. It proved effective for conducting orientation sessions with individuals and organizations involved with new telecenters established at two of CIA T's research reference sites-:Yorito in Honduras and San Dionisio in Nicaragua-thróugh government COlUlectivity programs. The too} was also used to develop a new project on ICTs for rural development in Bolivia. The use of animation, the colloquial language, and other features of this tool are clearl y effective with our intended audiences in rural communities.Capacity development continues to be a significant feature of Enabling Rural lnnovation in Africa, and the Institute's work with participatory methods in Latin America and Asia. In each continent a critica! mass of capacity is being built with partners, most ofwhom are now conducting a significant proportion of the training. The Institute is increasing its involvement in the development ofUniversity courses and degiees as a•strategy for institutionalizing this teaching capacity. For example, in Africa approximate]y 200 R&D personnel from various institutions have been trained this year in applying ERI approaches and total of 120 R&D personnel have been trained in establishing and implementing project-level and communitybased PM&E systems. Of these, 71% are KARI researchers and technical officers and 29% are their extension and NGO partner. Lessons from applying ERI approaches have been documented and shared at various national and intemational venues including conferences, workshops and meetings. Five regional workshops have been conducted to support regional NARS partners to develop proposals and mobilize funds to support ERI activities.The development of an integrated, ni.ultidisciplinary team of scientists from different projects and competencies, which is working in ERI to address a common development challenge.Starting in 2002, RII and CA TIE have offered a joint yearly training course on competitive strategies for smallholder market chains to a total of 49 participants. Based on the demand for this training and the lack of similar courses in Latin America, both organizations decided to organize a post-graduate diploma program in the area ofrural enterprise development. The objective ofthis course is to prepare service providers (NOOs, public sector agencies, universities, among others) with the necessary tools to facilitate effective linkages between rural communities and dynamic markets. The first two modules were offered in 2004 .Those that successfully complete the four modules will re\"ceive a diploma in Rural Enterprise Development from CATIE and CIA T. It is expected that the first class of participants will graduate in 2005.Demand for the agro-enterprise guides has led to their re-organization and updating for use in the learning alliance programs planned for 2005. These guides are also supplemented with other manuals on marketing basics and application ofbusiness techniques in rural innovation. Five Guides will be published at the end of 2004.Strategic partnerships with the goal of integrating gender analysis and participatory research into agricultura] and natural-resource management research practice were formed in 2002 and 2003 by the PRGA Program. Small grants and methodological support were provided to CGIAR Centers for institutionalizing gender-sensitive participatory research. This has resulted in each Center conducting institutional assessments to determine the opportunities and constraints to mainstre~ing gender-sensitive participatory approaches.Mainstreaming gender analysis with Regional networks and NARS Numerous workshops and capacity development•events were supported by PROA in 2003-4 to address the Program's goal ofmainstreaming gender analysis. The PROA Program has initiated a partnership with the Association for Strengthening Agricultura! Research in Eastem and Central Africa (ASARECA), one ofthe three SROs in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the perio~ 2004-2006, the PRGA Program, in collaboration with ASARECA, proposes to strengthen, consolidate and mainstream participatory research and gender analysis in a high-priority, high-visibility program that recognizes and prometes gender equity and gender-sensitive participatory approaches as an important strategic process to enable research for development to become demand-driven.PROA in collaboration with IDRC, Canada and the North East Network (NEN, eastem Himalayan region), has brought together researchers involved in biodiversity and naturalresource management related projects for iterative training in social and gender analysis concepts and methodologies. A team of extemal researchers and trainers has worked with a group of 18 participants from the region.The China Agricultura! University is a leading proponent for the use of participatory research in agricultura! research and development in China. In p~ership with Rll's IPRA and PROA several activities are underway to support the effort of the College of Rural Development to mainstream participatory research methods in the Chinese agricultura} research system .•In Latín Arnerica securing special project funding for research is increasingly challenging. A significant proportion ofthe Institute's intellectual capital is vested in the nationally recruited associates, research assistants and technicians who develop and train in many of the methods and approaches. They are based in Colombia, but increasingly must find resources to. support this work elsewhere. One solution being pursued vigorously, is to increase the level of effort in proposal subrnission and to engage with Colombia at regional and national scales for the development ofRural Innovation projects for Colombia. Overall in 2004 Rll projects submüted 52 proposals totaling US $19 mili ion of which 13 percent were approved to date and 87 percent are still pending approval.Another solution is to develop new types of partnerships through which resource mobilization can be jointly undertaken to achieve complementary research and development goals ofthe partners. These partnersbips emphasize the co-development of innovations and provide an opportunity for Rll to conduct strategic researcb on how to irnprove capacity to innovate via engagement in development processes . An example is the new Andean Region Learning Alliance in whicb the partners' goals are development and who loo k to RII for action researcb on themes they have identified and that they anticípate will make their development work more effective. Another example is the process under discussion with the Kellogg Foundation to support their network of community-based Centers tbroughout Latín America with joint research, methodology testing and knowledge sharing.A serious challenge is the persistence ofthe mid-20th Century, technology transfer model of innovation, still deeply entrenched in the CGIAR but largely discarded. everywhere else. Modem innovation systems required by markets to respond to client demand are based on the idea of codevelopment oftechnologies and this is the approach tbat has cbaracterized CIAT's rural innovation work for over two decades. Rural innovation-related researcb in the CGIAR has always been primarily funded by non-core resources. In the 1980ties and early 1990ties special projects and the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship Program were an altemative source of high quality PhD scientists and operational funds beca use most of the biological research was primarily core funded. In the 1990ties, a couple of systemwide programs addressed this need. However as core funding has declined or been routed to Challenge Programs which do not 1 include Rll-related research in their portfolios, social science is competing unfavorably with biotechnology and soil science for special project funds, and tends to be oflower priority (viz. the closure ofiSNAR, the only Center with a social and management science focus). So long as donors and the CG's Science Council cbaracterize rural innovation-related research in the CGIAR asan aid to technology transfer, funding innovative research in the social sciences will continue to be problematic. This means that the type of creative applied social science research that was done in the 1990ties and that fuels today's demand for Rural Innovation methodologies and research products is undemourished. We are basically living off our intellectual fat without being able to reinvest the desirable Jevel of effort in a new wave of ideas and applications.One solution is to bring this issue to .the attention of donors and the priority setting process in the CGIAR and this has begun. Another solution is to nest strategic research into contracts for development services, and a second is to respond to demand from development partners for research which is driven by their projects and goals. This is especially challenging because rural innovation staff essentially have to piggyback ''blue-sky\" research onto a demanding service provision function in sorne cases, subject to exigent micromanagement by the donor in question. The difficulties this can create are illustrated by the recent experience in Asia. However successes in this respect have been achieved in the Leaming Alliances.Africa and Asia continue to be major poles for scaling out and resource mobilization, pulling the node of project management towards these regions and thereby increasing the complexity of project management and of research coordination. An important challenge is to sustain a coherent, cornmon research focus in the projects across multiple sites and special projects, all of which must be tailored to meet specific donor and partner interests. The solution is to pursue a few cornmon research themes across sites and continents as is the case with PM&E for example.The development ofhigh quality partnerships is critica} and enormous time and effort must be devoted to partnership development. One solution is the emergent trend to engage with major intemational partners in an alliance that has broad geographical coverage as is the case with the Global Alliance with Catholic Relief Services.5. Indicators l. Software Rent-Agro-In 2004, a serious effort was made to address final software bugs and the first Spanish language version of RentAgro has now been thoroughly tested. As a result of this work, the software received drastic aesthetic and functional changes. The next stage in the development ofRentAgro is to deliver the product to the Legal Office (Germán Arias) to begin legal processes. RAeD is currently taking advice on whether to copyright this software with the future aim of making RentAgro a commercial product or at least protecting the product within the public domain. The team is also working on the possibility ofmaking this product available asan online facility. The rationale for developíng the online version is based on the ongoing popularity of the powerpoínt presentation developed by C. Ostertag on financia! profitability models. In this case our partners and clients would ha ve the opportunity of putting the theory into practice. ln 2005, the team therefore will develop a planto launch this new software and translate the product into English such that is wíll be available to a wider international audience. Developing scalable market information services -Tradenet Based on previous work undertaken in Uganda and Eastern Africa, for the development of market information it became increasingly apparent that there were no effective, off the shelf software packages that could be used address the increasingly complex needs of national market information services. To overcome this problem RAeD established a relationship with a Ghanaian based ICT business lncubator Company, Busylab to develop an appropriate web-based MIS platform that could facilitate information flow and also integrate ICT options including, web, mobile phones, SMS, satellite data channels, FM radios and mobile print media services. The beta version ofthis software http://www.tradenet.biz/ is now being pilot tested with the U gandan national market information service and if successful, this product will be commercialised through a public:private sector company. Updating Agro-enterprise Guides: Dueto increasing demand for the agro-enterprise guides, the RAeD team has re-organised and updated the main guides, these include:-(i) A Guide to territorial cbaracterisation and developing partnerships (ii) A Guide to identifying market opportunities for small-scale producers and processors (iií)Strategies for improving the competitiveness of market chains for small-scale producers (iv)Collective marketing for small-scale producers (v) A Guide to evaluate and strengthen rural business development services. These Guides will be published at the end of2004 in English and subsequently translated into French, Spanish and Vietnamese and Lao for use in the learning alliance prograrns planned for 2005. These guides are also supplemented with other manuals on marketing basics and application ofbusiness techniques in rural innovation. New Guides are also being developed in:-(vi)Guide to developing public:private sector partnerships for practioners (vii) Guide to developing public:private sector partnerships for prívate sector (viíi) Guide to developing public_:private sector partnerships for policy makers (ix)User manual for Rent-Agro InforCom staff developed first drafts of documents on two methods: one on using ICTs to strengthen local organizations and the other on support information intermediaries in rural communities. A prototype Information System on Rural Agroenterprise Development (SIDER) is now available online at <www.caucasider.org>. A guide -ILAC brief writing up Innovation histories: a usefullearning too l.8. A comrnunity-based PM&E system designed and adjusted to a wide range of L.A. situations 9. A strategy for practica} application ofM&E systems adjusted to Bolivian PITAs 6. Publications Lise 4   1 -!..:SNl- .::::::;::. =Ptaining Manuals    Rural communities in many developing countries face unprecedented challenges; they need to protect their natural resources, build complex, multi-sector livelihood strategies and improve agricultural productivity in the face ofhistorically low commodity prices and increasing competition. In today's ever more globalised market place, small-scale agricultural producers need to find innovative and robust ways to compete in an environment where their success in the marketplace will determine their immediate and future prospects.To address these challenges rural producers need to adopta new generation oftechnologies, embrace a new information realm and gain enterprise skills to evaluate and invest in market opportunities as they arise and change. The most successful rural producers in the near future will be those who can produce efficiently and conserve their resource base, add value to their primary commodities, differentiate products and develop organizational structures to take on larger commercial initiatives.To enable rural communities to achieve these goals, the next generation of\"service providers\" and policy makers must also acquire the skills and knowledge such that they can assist poor rural communities to understand tllls accelerating and exciting new world and enable them to meet the • needs of an ever more dynamic and disceming market plaée.The Rural Agro-enterprise Development Project (RAeD) project, working closely with other CIA T projects, such as InfoCom, IPRA and partners from the public and prívate sector, is developing, and testing a range of new particípatory tools and support services that will assist business decision making and enterprise development in rural areas In 2002 and 2003, the project focused on decentralising RAeD activities, with new Agroenterprise project work starting in Eastem and Southem Africa and S.E. Asia. In 2004, this expansion phase has continued, through several initiatives including:-(i) the development of a leaming alliance with the Catholic Relief Services to implement a global \"learning alliance\" for agro-enterprise in 30 countries and (ii) new multi-organisational strategic alliances, with public and prívate sector partners in Central and Andean America and (iii) through \"action alliances\" with large farmer organizations in Bolivia and Colombia. To support these new initiatives the RAeD team has worked on a second, updated set of learning tools in preparation of these scaling up processes.Other promising initiatives include (i) developing methods to facilitate public: prívate sector partnerships in Latín America, (ii) finding new and more strategic applications for the principies underlying the \"learning alliance concept\" and (iii) developing new tools to evaluate and strengthen business support services, through a grant from a new donar, NZAID. These activities were under intensive development in 2004 with the hope of new implementation in 2005.As indicated last year, Rupert Best, the founding Project Manager 1eft RAeD in July to take on a new role within GFAR in Rome. In June, the new project manager, Shaun Ferris, was hired and is currently managing the project from Kampala, Uganda. RAeD is in the process ofrecruiting two new agro-enterprise specialists, one to be stationed in Southem Africa, and another in to support activities in S. E. Asia.Objective: To undertake research and develop methods and information systems for use by local practitioners in the participatory design and execution of rural agro-enterprise by which the production of smallholders can be diversified and value-added.l. Methods for identifying and developing viable market opportunities that incorporate smallscale farmer selection criteria. 2. Methods and tools for developing local capacity to select and develop postharvest processing and handling technologies. 3. Options and tools for integrating collective action with business organization to establish sustainable enterprises. Gains: Rural populations and their service providers in Central Arnerica, Andean Region, Eastern and Southem Africa, and Southeast Asia gain enhanced capacity to establish small-scale agro-processing enterprises. Linkages improved between markets, added-value processing, and consumers. Sustainable production practices catalyzed and adopted more widely. Pro poor trade policy agenda better articulated from the perspective of small-scale rural producers in target areas. Percentage decrease in rural poverty index in selected areas of Africa, Asia, and LA.By the end of2007, the project has complemented its actívities in the reference sites by establishing alliances with important partner institutions in LA who are widely using the methods, tools, and institutional models developed by \\he project. These products ha ve been adapted by partners in Asia and A frica and are applied in a selected number of si tes on both continents.2005 (1)  Markets and market integration are fast becoming the focus of a new generation of research and development projects across the developing world. This shift retlects a general political transition towards free market economics and a greater reliance on market based growth. For many developing countries this has meant a rapid change in priorities that were fonnally based on food security and subsidised agriculture towards more liberalised Government policies that encourage investment in more commercialised agriculture targeting all opportunities at the local, national, regional and overseas markets.This new environment offers the rural farming communities with both opportunities and threats many of which will be decided at the highest level through a new round of multilateral trade agreements being decided within the Doha round. At the mesa and micro levels, rural communities will need to adjust to the trade based changes that will slowly filter through the marketing system.To support and facilitate rural communities in this transition, support services will also need to re-engineer themselves to be in a position to pro vide robust analysis of market options and offer their clients with a range ofbest practises such that marketing rhetoric can be translated into positive impact in the field. RAeD is keenly aware that making this transition is not a simple task and that is will take many years of incremental change before most national R&D institutions and non Governmental organisations, the front line ofR&D activities, will have the necessary skills and capacity to support the policy changes that are being designed and decided in meetings from Doha to the national parliaments and local administrations.To take on this challenge the RAeD project has developed a strategy which is based on tbe principies ofleaming. This approach is being developed with our partners to develop methods and tools that will enable our clients to undertake market research, design appropriate enterprise options and strengthen business support services to facilitate agroenterprise development in a profitable and sustainable manner. Towards this end the proj ect has developed five types of outputs, which make up RAeD's Territorial Approach to Agro-enterprise Development:l. practica! approaches to partnership formation with a business agenda 2. decision-support tools for identifying products with high market and production potential and methods to systematise this information 3. business oriented methods to design and implement agro-enterprises within a market to value chain perspective, that can respond to scale anda range of investment options 4. strategies for creating support services that rural agro-enterprises need in order to thrive, 5. the development oflong term partnerships with local, national, and intemational organizations to promote this important change Demand for CIA T's agro-enterprise research findings and methods are increasing with new requests for joint activities from a range of partners wanting to test and adapt the information systems, methods and training materials to local needs. The current developments in the \"leaming alliances\" have also expanded with partners in at least 30 countries from Africa, the Americas and Asia, seeking more specialised types of partnerships, sorne tools based, sorne more st:rategic in nature and others focusing on business requirements. Through these alliances, CIA T' s findjngs are being tested more systernatically, research challenges are more focused and the team is able to work withln dedicated partnershlps that are generating new findings more quickly and also russeminating these results more effectively through ever more efficient ICT options.Marketing This year's majar advances focus on finding ways of scaling up processes using new methods and information systems from the Territorial Approach to Enterprise Development.Tools methods and information to identify market opportunities Updating Agro-enterprise guides: Dueto increasing demand for the agro-enterprise guides, the RAeD team has re-organised and updated the main guides, these include:-(a) A Guide to territorial characterisation and developing partnersbips (b) A Guide to identifying market opportunities for small-scale producers and processors (e) Strategies for improving the competitiveness ofmarket chains for small-scale producers (d) Collective marketing for small-scale producers (e) A Guide to evaluate and strengthen rural business development services. These Guides will be published at the end of 2004 for use in the learning alliance programs planned for 2005. These guides are also supplemented with other manuals on marketing basics and application ofbusiness techniques in rural innovation.• Application ofthe tools: The Ugandan National Agricultura! Advisory Service (NAADS) was established to transform the Government supported extension agency, into a new demand led service. To support this process RAeD undertook a multi-sector, market opportunities survey to assess demand for a range of products, using Kampala, as a proxy for national demand. The study included six product categories, viz:-a) livestock, b) roots, tubers and bananas, e) fruits and vegetables, d) legumes and oil crops, e) cereals, and f) high value products. The analysis, revealed demand for the products that farmers already produce and market potential for new products. Majar trends identified in the retail sector related included the arrival ofthree multi-national supermarkets and the use of mobile phones in trading. Tbe survey information has been documented and integrated into a database for use by NAADS officers and service providers to assess market options for their clients and make decisions on which types of services to offer.To increase the competitiveness of small-scale agro-enterprises RAeD developed a methodology entitled \"Groups for Innovation in Rural Agro-industry\" (GIARs). GIAR is a support group that provides technical and marketing support to small agro-enterprises within an identified market chain. The GIAR methodology has been successfully applied to cassava and panela (raw sugar) processing in Cauca Province, Colombia. Using this approach, more than 100 panel a producers in Ca u ca Province ha ve adopted improved varieties, increased processing capacity up to 21 0%; and eliminated buming of tyres as fuel. The GIAR has improved product quality; enabled new markets, including export opportunities and consolidated a producers association. In 2004, the GIAR case study for panela processing in Cauca was selected for presentation at the CGIAR Annual General Meeting, to be held in Mexico 25-28th October, 2004.The purpose of this project is to develop tools that foster action research based publicprivate partnerships for agro-industrial development. The project, funded by BMZ and being implemented by ISNAR (IFPRI), CIA T and both regional and national research programs. Activities focus on three components: training and diffusion, research, and implementatíon. In 2004, RAeD has (i) evaluated previous agro-enterprise training courses in the Andean Region, the Southern Cone and Mesoamérica; (2) completed and published results from actíon:-research in Ecuador and Dominican Republic and (3) written three guides for differentiated stakeholders. • Learning Alliance Going Global: Over the past two years, RAeD has been working on a series of initiatives to sea le up the use of the Territorial Approach to Enterprise development, with a range of organisations. The Catholic Relief Serví ces (CRS), an Intemational NGO, has been particularly interested in the RAeD methodology as a means to retool its staff profile. CRS's strategic vision is to be alead agro-enterprise organisation in the next decade with the ability to enhance market engagement ofpoor communities. Following the success of two pilot learning alliance programmes, in Central America and Eastem Africa, CRS have asked RAeD to develop a global development alliance. This project wíll buíld upon exístíng agro-enterprise programs and expand the agro-enterprise \"learning alliance\" approach to new countries in West & Central Africa, South America and South and South East Asia. To date 30 CRS country programs have committed funds to a value of $850,000 to support this new inítiative. The project aims to improve the Iivelihoods of 36,000 farm familíes and 200,000 beneficiaries over a 30 month period. This project will commence at the end of2004 with field work in Ql ofFY 05.• In Central America, (a) three training and learning workshops were held with clients in the region; (b) seven market studies were conducted in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua; (e) a virtuallearning platform was launched (www.alianzasdeaprendizaje.org);• In the Andes, RAeD facilitated three workshops to lay the groundwork for a leaming alliance proposal to link research, development, donors and the public sector with 13 partner agencies in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Significant impact has also been achieved through support of ongoing action allíances with producer organisations in Colombia.• In Africa, the learning alliance continued with in country monitoring and a final workshop on participatory market chain analysis, enterprise design and BDS. Eight CRS country programs participated:-Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Madagascar and Malawi.• Mainstreaming RAeD tools: To achieve scale, RAeD is developing links with other educational institutions involved in marketing methods to catalyst rural innovation. RAeD has started this process by incorporating training materials into CATIE's agricultura! diploma course in Central America and seeking to repeat this success with ICRA in Africa.In Latin America funding continues to be a problem, particularly in regard to staffing issues. RAeD is suffering from a lack of funds to support local staff and also faces a threat oflosing one senior staffunless additional resources are found. This has meant that staff are being hired on 6 month contracts or to undertake specific tasks. Solutions • This issue has not yet been resolved, although discussions between all the staff members has been frank and supportive. The issue is to find sufficient income to support the existing staff. However, the task offinding sufficient funds should not only be considered the role CIA T management and RAeD senior staff, but a task that all RAeD members seek to address. • Revenue: Senior staff members and national staff are being asked to seek any opportunities to engage new donors and al so to seek out consultancy work that will bring in additional revenue to support local staff and purchase capital items as required.Incentives are being developed such that if national staff members are able to find additional investment then RAeD will seek ways to provide an annual bonus. This system is currently under discussion.• In South East Asia, concerns were raised by Budget &Finance that funds from SDC maybe cut dueto a slow initial spending rate from the SADU project.Capital item purchasing has also been delayed dueto lack ofproject permits in both Laos and Vietnam.Project field work has been delayed dueto local political concerns that prevented project work and led to delays in decisions to implement activities in alternative areas.Lack of a marketing and business development specialist on the project to develop a coherent strategy for marketing opportunity identification, market promotion, market orientation, or market linkage. This delay was a product of existing staff profiles and negotiation with the donor .....• Following a recent meeting in Hanoi, the SDC represeritative confinned in writing that CIA T would not loose any unspent funds on the SADU project as these finances were committed to the project.The SADU tearn is working with MARD representatives to find out where the project can operate. Ifnot in the politically sensitive areas ofDak Lak, then other sites, such as Hao Binh, need to be confirmed. This process is now underway and should be resolved in the next 2-3 weeks. • Rod Lefroy, CIAT's Regional Coordinator, is following up with MARD representatives and local officials in both Laos and Vietnam to gain project perrnits. This will enable the project to purchase goods tax free and also allow for the release of a substantial amount of capital funds.• A head hunting recruitment has taken place to identify candidates for the position of a marketing-specialist. This person will be recruited as soon as SDC give the green light to proceed.In Africa, sorne delays in agro-enterprise activities were caused by a change in the project manager's position. This has led toa 2-3 month review of global activities. This was exacerbated by a concurrent delay in hiring of a new agroenterprise specialist following a recruitment action in June, 2004, which failed to identify a suitable candidate.Project funding is a concem and a series of new proposals to raise in come to expand activities are being developed.• The new project manager is now in place and after undergoing a series of orientation meetings, the new candidate is now in a better position to focus on the work at hand. • A person has now been identified for the African position and will take up this role in the first quarter of2005. • Three proposals have been submitted to donors in the past 3 months and there is hope that at least one ofthese will be funded for expansion of activities in 2005.lndicators: List Technologies, Methods & Tools .Software Rent-Agro-In 2004, a serious effort was made to address fmal software bugs and the first Spanish language version ofRentAgro has now been thoroughly tested. As a result ofthis work, the software received drastic aesthetic and functional changes. The next stage in the development ofRentAgro is to deliver the product to the Legal Office (Germán Arias) to begin legal processes. RAeD is currently tak.ing advice on whether to copyright this software with the future aim of mak.ing RentAgro a comrnercial product or at least protecting the product within the public doma in. The team is also working on the possibility of making this product available as an online facility. The rationale for developing the online version is based on the ongoing popularity ofthe powerpoint presentation developed by C. Ostertag on financia) profitability models. In this case our partners and clients would ha ve the opportunity of putting the theory into practice. In 2005, the team therefore will develop a plan to launch this new software and translate the product into English such that is will be available to a wider intemational audience.Developing scalable market information services-Tradenet Contributors: Shaun Ferris and Mark Davies* Busynet director Based on previous work undertak:en in U ganda and Eastem A frica, for the development of market information it became increasingly apparent that there were no effective, off the shelf software packages that could be used address the increasingly complex needs of national market information services. \"t~H'Y\"Jfll) lio7t'fl\"\" .• H.Qt\"~;ftf-Q it~lf()bt \"/ r~-\"f.f ~ r 'ICITI-.,..r&ll':.liElectronic modules • Fair Trade information service:-In 2004 the Information Service on Fair Trade was officially Iaunched on 8th May, as part of the 1nternational Fair Trade Da y, a high pro file website promotion was Iaunched. The si te received 10,519 entries from June-September with a growth rate of 29% and a monthly average of 2,629 visits.• RAeD website. The RAeD website holds first place among the 15 CIA T projects in number of visits, totaling 121,272 visits from Oct. 2003-0ct. 2004. Moreover, among the 10 documents downloaded most frequently from CIAT, 8 are from RAeD; the document Model for Financia! Profitability occupied first place with 104,330 downloads. The RAeD team will be upgrading the site in 2004/5 by integrating a new section on Methods and Tools for Agri-business development from the World Bank and also tested the beta on-Jine version ofRent-Agro. SADU website: A new website has been developed to promote the activities ofthe new, SDC funded Agro-enterprise project in S.E Asia, the SADU team (Small-scale Agroenterprise Development for the Uplands ofVietnam and Laos) have recently established a new website to post progress of the project. See www.saduproject.orgUpdatíng Agro-enterprise Guides: Due to increasíng demand for the agro•-enterprise guides, the RAeD team has re-organised and updated the main guides, these include:-(x) A Guid~ to territorial characterisation and developing partnerships (xi)A Guide to identifying market opportunities for small-scale producers and processors (xii) Strategies for improving the competitiveness ofmarket chains for small-scale producers (xiii) Collective marketing for small-scale producers (xiv) A Guide to •evaluate and strengthen rural business development services. These Guides will be published at the end of 2004 in English and subsequently translated into French, Spanish and Vietnamese and Lao for use in the learning alliance programs planned for 2005. These guides are also supplemented with other manuals on marketing basics and application ofbusiness techniques in rural innovation. New Guides are also being developed in:- Oberthur, T., Lundy, M. 2004 Oberthur, T., Lundy, M., Cock, J. 2004. New opportuníties for hillside farmers: matching product quality, envíronments and market demand for high value agricultural products. Presented to BMZ, Germany. Value Euro 1.3 million (approved 9 with reduced budget).Ostertag, C.F.; Barona, J.F. ;Sandoval, O.A.;Izquierdo, D.A. 2004. Proyecto de Apoyo al Desarrollo Empresarial Rural. Presented to the Secretaría de Agricultura de Nariño, Colombia 10 US$60.000. 60,000New directions for 2005.In addition to the on-going activities that RAeD is already comrnitted to fulfilling in 2005, the following areas are proposals of work that the tearn is aiming to develop. Implementation ofthis work however, deperids on funds being available:-Deve/oping new work areas with interna/ partners Closer links witb IPRA: In 2004, there have been severa! meetings held to find ways in which IPRA and particularly the CIAL methodology can be integrated in a practica} manner with RAeD activities. Joint ventures in Bolivia have preved an opportunity for the tearns to work together, and there are plans to develop other joint projects in 2005. Closer links witb Land Use team: As part ofthe expansion ofthe work on public: prívate partnerships, RAeD is aiming to develop closer links with the Land Use project team, in arder to apply the lessons learnt within new sectors, such as the coffee sector in Latín America.Leaming alliance: Much ofthe project activities in 2005 will focus on implementing the various Iearning alliance partnerships that have been developed over the past 2 years. In the last part of2004, team efforts will focus on finalizing the suite oftraining materials that RAeD is planning to use for the various training programs. In the first quarter of 2005, these materials will be supplemented with power point presentations and all materials will be translated into the three majar languages such that the process can proceed in English, Spanish and French. As this is a major endeavour, it is anticipated that the team will meet to undertake a week long write shop to complete the development of a common set of materials.Pro poor Policy: The global commodity crisis debate is an ongoing issue that is having an increasingly negative effect on the growth prospects for many developing countries, particularly those dependent upon the export ofa narrow range ofraw commodities. Over-supplied markets have led to commodity prices faJling to a 40 year low and the financia} losses being incurred by many developing countries is more prolonged and more severe than those that occurred during the Great Depression. CIA T is well placed to undertake two types of research that will contribute to raising awareness and hopefully to addressing this truly global issue, through:-(i) the collation and repackaging of complicated technical trade information into more easily digested trade briefs that can be circulated and debated at the nationallevel and (ii) to undertake primary research into the impact of current trade policies on key agricultura] sectors and or the implications of adopting new approaches, such as supply management, on future economic prospects.Market Information: RAeD is working on two projects that are developing new software tools to assist national partners in the collation and delivery of market information. This activity will expand as demand grows for the comrnercial products being developed.Seed evaluation: The Food Aid industry is a high profile activity that is likely to play a dominant role in many parts of Africa in the next decade. However, the food supply is also supported by seed aid and it is this area which RAeD is intending to analyse, with a view to introducing processes that link the local marketing actors more effectively into the system. The aim being to reduce market distortions created by hand-outs and other safety nets.RAeD is seeking to work with partners in education to mainstream the principies of agroenterprise and small-scale busil'less development into institutional courses.To develop and disseminate participatory research (PR) principies, approaches, analytical tools, indigenous knowledge and organizational principies that strengthen the capacity of R&D institutions to respond to the demands of stakeholder groups for improved levels ofhuman well-being and agroecosystem health Outputs l. PR approaches, analytical tools and indigenous knowledge that lead to the incorporation of farmers and other users' priori ti es in R&D agendas developed for interested institutions 2. Organizational strategies and procedures for PR 3. Professionals and others trained as facilitators of PR 4. Material and infonnation on PR approaches, analytical tools, indigenous knowledge and organizational principies developed 5. Impact ofSN-3 activities documented 6. CIA T projects and other institutions supported and strengthened in conducting PR 7. Capacity ofthe SN-3 team strengthened~ Users involved at early stages in decisions about innovation development ~ Methods available for incorporating user preferences; participatory methods applied on a routine basis in CIA T research; at least three LA universities with the capacity to teach PR methods ~ New and better links between farmers group and local markets ~ At least 1 S links and agreements with grass root farmers organizations, NGOs and R&D institutions to establish PM&E in four macroregions in Bolivia as a contribution to the new Solivian technology system (SffiTA) ~ Prelimjnary impact study about the CIAL 15 influence in both cornmunities with and without CIALs, taking into account factors such as education, ownership ofland and animals, Iiteracy, yield improvement, women's participation and scaling out ~ Building on the lessons from LAC, participator)r monüoring and evaluation (PM&E) systems are being tested at both the cornmunity and project level with seven projects in three pilot learning sites (Kisii, Kitale and Mtwapa in Kenya) in Africa. ~ In Bolivia important progress has been made in the adaptation ofPM&E systems so that they can be readily incorporated in their technological innovation projects (PITA), enabling the farmers to exercise greater control over their projects and then give feedback on their execution to the project suppliers ..... Research in Afiica focuses on understanding the linkages between the technology development process and market opportunities and how this can generate criticallinks between investment in natural resources, markets and incentives for their adoption. In a research-extension-university-NGO-farmer group continuum, CIA T and its partners are working in Malawi, Mozarnbique, Tanzania and U ganda to explore and understand how market orientation leads to improved NRM at the farm level. Analyses of research to date highlight examples where identifying potential markets for existing and new products has led to increased investrnent in NRM and how developing innovative agricultural techno1ogies that meet the specific needs and constraints of different income levels and gender groups leads to improved livelihoods.An important focus of researcb has been on understandi~g the various dimensions of social capital as a strategy for strengthening the decision-making capacity of communities. A diagnosis of social capital in U ganda using a combination of research approaches has generated understanding on the different dimensions, levels and types of soci~l capital; strength of social capital and potential for community joint action; forms of ínter-and intra-bousehold support, village-level interactions and wider scale linkages; gender roles, responsibilities and resource access; pattems of participation and interest in NRM initiatives and local bylaws (rules and regulations) formulated by different stakeholder groups; and constraints to adoption/compliance with bylaws for different groups, particularly women, the elderly and the poor.Building on lessons from LAC, PM&E systems at both community and project levels are being tested in three pilot learning sites (Kisii, Kitale and MtWapa in Kenya), with seven projects. The PM&E framework includes: Expected results at different levels (outputs, outcomes, impacts), processes, activities and indicators, targets and baselines for each of them, as well as frequency of monitoring. A part of this process has been identifying baseline needs and developing tools for data collection where gap exists. Additionally, there have been efforts to integrate PM&E within existing research activities and project implementation to make this process a component of good project management. Additionally, community-driven PM&E systems were initiated in the pilot learning sites. Currently, there are 17 farmer groups applying PM&E for reflection and learning (11 in Mtwapa,4 in Kitale and 2 in Kisii). Community-driven PM&E systems were initiated through a process of intensive training of the research teams on how to facilitate their establishment. Achievements are as follows:./ Lessons from managing and sustaining partnerships have been applied to strengthen research for development processes in at least 3 countries in East Africa ../ Communities in pilot learning sites have been empowered to analyze their opportunities and plan activities on farmer experimentation and community enterprise development to address their income and food-security needs ../ At least 200 R&D personnel from various institutions have been trained in applying ERI approaches ../ A total of 120 R&D personnel have been trained in establishing and implementing project-level and community-based PM&E systems. Ofthese, 71% are KARI researchers and technical officers and 29% are their extension and NGO partners ../ The CIAT team has trained 17 farmers groups (approx. 340 farmers) directly and . indirectly by the scientists, extension and NGO staff; and they are now irnplementing commuruty-based PM&E systems ../ Lessons from applying ERI approaches have been documented and shared at various national and international venues including conferences, workshops and meetings ../ At least five regional workshops have been conducted to support regional NARS partners to develop proposals and mobilize funds to support ERI activities ../ The development of an integrated, multidisciplinary team of scientists from different projects and competencies, which is working in ERI to address a common devdopment challenge. This group is also operationalizing the integration across CIA T institutes (RII and TSBF).This year, the project \"Promoting Change\" (FOCAM) in Bolivia has increased its presence in the different pilot zones ofthe project, implementing the systems directly in the commuruty groups and developing their capacities for creating the local capacity. Likewise, the project has entered into a large quantity of agreements with diverse NGOS and system suppliers to implement new systems in the• so-called expansion zone. In both types of action the methodology facilitates clearing up the objectives and indicators ofthe projects, follow-up on them and evaluate them precise! y by the direct beneficiaries. These actions are enabling the beneficiaries give feedback opportunely to the suppliers on the good or regular execution ofthe project and malee corrections in due time. The project has actions in three of the four macroregions in which the Bolivian System of Agricultura! and Livestock Technology has divided the country. In general terms the FOCAM project has accomplisbed the following:• More than 20 agreements and letters of intent have been signed between NGOS and community groups with CIA T -FOCAM to apply or pro vide support for the PM&E processes in different Bolivian regions.There is sufficient infonnation to malee an adaptation of the methodology PM&E to the Bolivian tecbnological innovation projectsThey have trained more than 100 farmer-promoters (farmers) and 150 technicians in the methodology, to be applied in the community projects and will become a means of participatory evaluation of their projects.They ha ve created a national tearn of technicians and farmers as trainers who ha ve begun their process of disseminating the methodology.More than 15 specific experiences are being documented by technicians from tbe national team of trainers.A database was initiated with the information from the community groups and wil1 then be input into the large database that the foundations in charge of each of the macroregions are developing.• Successful application of PM&E methodologies at different levels of the SIBT A system will prompt decision-making levels to introduce PM&E processes as an integral part of the system at the level of Foundations, technology-service providers and local groups.During the period Aprill-June 30, the Project Coordinator and bis Bolivian counterpart Eduardo Nogales were dedicated to two different kinds of activities: (a) socializing the project among different stakeholder groups and (b) organizing the Project \"platform.\" In both activities, face-to-face encounters were preferred to Internet dialog with most of their counterparts. This increased the number oftrips to FTDA and service providers' headquarters.The socialization of the project took place in a variety of fora that included project coordinator meetings with the four executive directors of the FTDAs, two workshops to exchange ideas about the project with the FIT project coordinators and other groups of staleeholders, meetings with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Affairs (MACA), its Technological Development Unit (DDT), as well as visits paid by the FIT 8 Bolivian Coordinator to groups of technical assistance-service providers, which included negotiation of their participation. These included GAlA S.R.L., ADAPICRUZ, Reingeniería Total, Agro XXI, UNEC Agrocentral and AGROCINTI, all of whorn ha ve successfully executed PITAs in the four agroecoregions and who are willing to participate in the Project.The socialization process was a difficult task. Severa! stakeholders and sorne collaborators understood this project as \"a quick way to replicate a PITA\"; others thought that the project would contribute resources to foundations so that they would be able to repeat successful PITAs to wider farmer audiences. Sorne were hesitant to collaborate given their misunderstanding that the Project would provide rnechanisrns for farmers to access PITAs for free, etc. It was an interaction-intense task to help everyone understand that this project was interested in improving the quality ofthe methodological relationship between •technical service providers and farmers in order for the latter to irnprove the quality oflearning and adoption. •The institutional plat(orm •was organized around the four Foundations for Agricultura} Developrnent (FTDAs). There technical personnel, financed by FIT 8, will carry out the PM&E of project activities along with the technical assistance of PITA serví ce providers, who have agreed to host the Project in terms of the use of their physical prernises and other facilities. The Bolivian Project Coordinator willliaise with these people to keep track and lead events. The general Project Coordinator, together with PROINP A, will be working on the conceptual and rnethQdological guidelines ofknowledge management. These will be inputs for the training of facilitators. Agreements ha ve been reached to rnake payments to both the FTDAs and the technical assistance service, providing agencies for their participation in the project-an investment of nearly US$60,000.At the end of this reporting period, all actors are on stage and ready to initiate the leaming process. Beneficiary farmers are expecting to start as soon as possible. Nonetheless, in several of the methodological trials we will havl? to wait for the planting season. The service providers are expecting that the new rnethodologies to be field tested will irnprove their work from here on. Many nonparticipating service providers have asked to attend the training sessions so that they too can participate. The FTDAs have rnade all adrninistrative decisions to hire a professional who is able to carry out the PM&E of the project at the field Ievel.From Aug.-Oct. a review ofliterature was conducted to cover topics such as the training of facilitators, facili~ation and leadership, participation, participatory action-research, poverty, FFS, farmer-to-farmer methodology, agricultura! knowledge and information systems, strategic extension and other related topics. The PROINP A study (A synthesis ofknowledge-sharing rnethodologies anda proposal for new rnethodological arrangements) will provide us with an additional up-to-date review ofliterature in our area of interest: \"Pro-poor RD&TT methods and rnethodologies.\" Innovation histories . We developed a methodology for constructing and learning frorn innovation histories. A description of the approach was published as an ILAC Brief and distributed at Annual General Meeting. ILAC (Institutional Learning and Change) is a new initiative in the CGIAR Systern. A comparison ofthe innovation histories ofCIALs in Honduras and Colombia, the two countries with the most CIALs, was begun and yielded sorne initial findings. These include the following: • Institutionally sustainable CIALs are supported by an interlinked network of organizations who enjoy mutually beneficial relationships. • The actions taken as part ofthis Project to register the ASOCIALs in Honduras as legal entities and build their capacity to attract and manage projects on their own are helping build the links that the ASOCIALs need for their long-term sustainability. As of2003, how~ver, those links were not yet sufficient so their rernains a role for the host organizations to continue to seek funding. To reach the long-term sustainability that the ASOCIALs seek, they will have to learn how to operate as small NGOs and/or providers of serví ces that can win contracts and projects and pay staff salaries. • CIAL and ASOCIAL members in Honduras are liriked on average to 7 organizations within their respective communities, and six organizations outside. Through these linkages CIAL members are undoubtedly in:fluencing local decision-makers and local development agendas~A learning alliance to develop the p.otential for rural innovation in Ecuador: Characterization of the methodologies of farmer experimentation and PRWe characterized \"good-practice\" approaches to FPR in Ecuador being used by three organizations: World Neighbors, IIRR and INIAP. The approacbes characterized were CIALs, FFS, Farmer-to-Farmer and Experimental Trials. The sharing ofinformation ata workshop led to the stakebolders' recognition ofthe need to continue sharing experiences and seek complementarities.Application of social network analysis (SNA) to agricultura! researcb Stafffrom IPRA and PRGA were trained in InFlow, a program to analyze social networks in preparation for applying the approach with partners. We also leamed how SNA can be used to map innovation networks in communities and how these maps can be used to both suggest beneficia] change as well as monitor implementation.The second-order organizations of CIALsThese organizations are playing a very important role in their regions, facilitating the interactions among the farmer groups, local governments and extemal agents that intervene in local development. The CIALs have continued doing research on new technological options to adapt them and make them accessible to the •low-resource farmers in order to improve their quality of life. To date, there are eig}\\t second-order associations: 2 in Colombia (CORFOCIAL and UNICIAL), 5 in Honduras distributed across 4 regions (ASOCIALAG0 16 , ASOCIAL Yorito 17 \" ASOCIAGUARE 18 , ASOCIAL 16 The Association of CIALs of the Yojoa Lake Region. 17 Tbe Association ofCIALs ofYorito. 18 The Association of CIALs of tbe Y eguare Region.Vallecillos 19 \" and CIADR0 20 ), and 1 in Nicaragua (COFOCIC). In other countries such as Bolivia, these organizations have not been created, but they have been strengthened internally, forging strong linkages with local governments and the markets.Although individual case studies show promising signs of success and robust results at the comrnunity level, the greater challenge líes in linking micro-leve} community processes to higher macro-level processes, where market opportunities and institution¡il conditions may offer better opportunities for small-scale farmers. The challenge is creating conditions under which national market imtiatives can support and benefit small-scale poor fanners in marginal conditions. These include promoting efficient market institutional innovations and support services such as microfinance, market information systems, business services, pricing policies, inputs marketing, extension advice and rural infrastructure.The success ofPMR is highly dependent on the development of effective quality partnerships with research and extensions systems, NGOs, business support services and farmer communities. However, considerable efforts are still needed to forge effective partnerships with the prívate sector, business services and high-level policy and government institutioQ.S.Given the diversity of activities involved in ERI, the success of this work is highly dependent on the development of effective quality partnerships with research and extensions systems, business support services, private-public partrierships, NGOs and farmer communities. Lessons learned suggest that it is important to build a critica! amount ofhuman and social capital to create institutional commitments and clarity in understanding of the roles, responsibilities and expectations of the different partners. lt is also critica! to develop early in the project a simple Problems encountered and functional PM&E to build in regular reflection activities with communities and partners, to ensure that lessons are documented, and to enabh~ adjustments to the project to be made in a timely manner. However, considerable efforts are still needed to forge effective partnerships with the private sector and high-level policy and governrnent institutions and initiatives in marketing. These are key for the sustainability of rural agroenterprises and for scaling up, linking community micro initiatives to high-level macro economic policies. There are sorne important challenges of linking fanners to markets. These are related to improving market institutions and market behavior for small-scale farmers. Market institutions are indeed critica! to the expansion of production possibilities and to improving of the perfonnance of small-scale agriculture.• • Does market orientation benefit women and the poor? When promoting marketoriented production, there is need for a better understanding of intra-household and community dynamics to assess the differential and distributional effects ofmarketoriented production on different categories of farmers. Rather than focusing onJy on women as is the case in many \"gender'' strategies, our strategy has been to encourage and sustain active participation and cooperation ofboth men and women in the project activities and creating gender awareness at the community level through the use of interactive adult education methods.Job tumover continues to be a serious problem in many government institutions and especially the NGOs in Latín America, above all in Bolivia. Today, said organizations contract their personal for specific periods oftime that are generally not more than 18 mo. This type of co\"ntracting restricts their participation in new initiatives because their operational plans are set by the project directors so it is very difficuJt to include new activities or make changes in them. A possible solution to this problem would be to get outstanding results and then a strong dissemination to the decision-makers at the level of SIBT A to convince them of the benefits that these methodologies could have and adopt them as part ofthe parameters of evaluation from the standpoint ofthe end-us~r or requester. When contracted, the technicians shouJd initially be trained before beginning to apply them with the different groups of requesters..The present situation of competitiveness for the resources for research has resulted in a greater dedication of our time as researébers to become searchers of resources. This circumstance affects the quality of research. Moreover, a large part of those resources are available mostly for projects where the technologies developed by our projects are required in development programs for their imrnediate implementation. Thus it would be convenient to create sorne teams within each project or ~nstitution that can support these initiatives, providing sufficient inputs so that said people can write and negotiate the proposals with the partners and/or donors. Similar! y, these projects for developing capacities without much commitment to research could eventu~Jy finance other scientific initiatives for generating new approaches or methodologies.Mechanismsfor PM&E \"\" Finalize the establishment ofPM&E processes at remaining learning sites: Kakamega and Embu. This will include capacity development activities workshops as well as on practica} training \"\" Continue to strengthen the communities' capacity to apply PM&E information for self-reflection and learning. This will also involve continuous capacity development at the community level and the design of simple tools for data collection and analysis that can be easily applied in the field by communities and project staff \"\" Develop tools for analyzing and synthesizing data gathered from the leaming sites and designan interactive user-friendly database system to manage the data. \"\" Design a simple PM&E reporting system for linking the different PM&E systems to allow an agile flow of information and feedback between rural CÜmmúnities and R&D systerns ( communities -projects -centers -institutional). This will include simple tools for aggregating and reporting the micro-leve! data collected by PM&E processes to facilitate its use for decision-making at different levels and to provide feedback and learning. \"\" Conducta systematil( evaluation and review ofPM&E processes in place to document lessons and experiences. This will involve as analysis of achievements to date, identification of methodological aspects that are effective, areas for further research, and specific are that need adaptation and modifications. • Lessons and experiences will be documented and disseminated through feedback and review meetings with key stakeholders and policy-makers in KARl ; presentations at meetings and serninars; and through different types of publications.Consolidate lessons and scaling up the ERI framework. This will include the following strategy:\"\" ERI will scale up to several other countries including Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and DRC. To support this scaling up process, the ERI team will also support partners to mobilize funds to support this process \"\" Gender and equity dimensions ofERI will be strengthened. This will include developing a strategy and research on HIV/AIDS and impact of agricultura] technology choice, and how linkage to markets can support people living with HIV/AIDS, especially women who are the most vulnerable. \"\" ERI will focus on ensuring that CO!fllllunity enterprise projects are functional and documenting the lessons and experiences from this process \"\" F:inally, enhance focus on strengthening our partnerships and creating new partnerships \"\" A strategy for scaling up at different levels will be implemented within the community, across to other communities, within the district, within the country (nationally) and across countries (intemationally)../ Continue supporting the implementation of PM&E systems and CIALs in the project pilot zones ./ Follow up the trained technical personnel in participatory. methods in the expansion areas of the project ./ Strengthen linkages with FDTAs and SIBTA ./ Continue adjusting the database that will feed into the database of the Bolivian Foundations so that the information of the farrners' groups on the execution of theii project will be incorporated in their current evaluatiori systerns ./ Strengthen the contribution of PR methods to the improvement of SIBT A ./ Identify fanner organizations to initiate joint activities and evaluate the contribution of participatory methods in the articulation of their demands within SIBT A Innovation histories ./ Complete histories of the adoption of four bean varieties in East A frica and share the findings with the stakeholders involved through and institutionallearning and change process ./ Complete CIAL and CLA YUCA cassava-processing innovation histories . ./ Present the approach at t}le American Evaluation Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia Interaction with the Kellogg Foundation projects Support the integrated project sets, CIP and the Learning Centers and Exchanging ~ow how (CAIS) of the Kellogg Foundation in Latin America in the incorporation and adaptation of participatory methodologies in their projects. Emphasis is on creating a capacity in the different region, implement M&E to analyze the lessons learned for similar institutionalization processes.    During the frrst few months of the reporting period, we demonstrated that the Project is capable of incorporating new ideas and methods into its strategy so as to seize opportunities for working with other COlAR centers and national partners in novel and exciting ways. Specifically, we incorporated knowledge management and sharing (KM/S) into our work by undertaking a new project on thls subject with funding provided by the World Bank througb the COIAR's Information and Communication Technology-Knowledge Management (ICT-KM) Program.After the project's start in April, we hired a senior scientist half-time to coordinate the project, and we organized a planning workshop (held in June), jointly with the Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) initiative. Based on workshop outcomes, we embarked on four pilot projects, in collaboration with the Bellanet Intemational Secretariat in Canada, aimed at applying KS techniques to deal with important issues in three COlAR centers (including CIAT) and the Water and Food Challenge Program. We also joined forces with ILAC in a consultancy on the relationship ofhuman resource policies and procedures in three COlAR centers to K.MJS and ILAC. In addition, we began organizing a training course on facilitation for COlAR staff and througb Bellanet made progress in putting together a toolkit on KM/S techniques.As a consequence ofthat work, we have modified InforCom's project outputs as follows, substituting KM/S for our previous emphasis only on finding and obtaining agricultura} information: l.Techniques and tools with which intematiomd and national R&D institutions can better share knowledge.Computer-mediated distance-education (e-learning) programs and multimedia products on CD-ROM tbat convey science-based methods in forms that are useful for development professionals.Strategies for using community telecenters as a means to integrate new ICTs into rural development.Strategies for enabling information intermediaries to construct and share knowledge in rural communities, using ICTs and other communications media.Approaches for developing local information systems that reinforce participatory R&D.InforCom continued to refine and deliver its original outputs (2-5) through work at CIA T headquarters and in our \"field Jaboratory'' in nearby Cauca Department. We made good progress, for example, in strengthening and expanding our partnerships with local NGOs and universities, with a view to enhancing sustainability and scaling out the methods we have developed with them. We also made a good start toward documenting the methodologies developed in Cauca for strengthening local organizations through the use of new ICTs and for supporting local information intermediaries.Largely on the strength of that work, InforCom succeeded in obtaining support from the UK's Department for Intemational Development (DFID) for a project in Bolivia, aimed at enhancing the information networks of agricultura! supply chains, with the aid of new information and oommunications technologies (ICTs). The project got under way in April, and we quickly consolidated our alliances with Bolivian partners, took steps to begin strengthening their current information and communications initiatives, hired a local project coordinator, and began characteriza~on of information networks at the community level.That achievement underscores severa} important messages about InforCom. First, our outputs are evidently appealing to donors and partners. Second, on the basis oftheir interest, Project staff are capable ofbuilding strong partnerships in a short time for collaboration in research and development. Third, we are le:arning quickly to execute project activities efficiently outside CIAT's host country through strong teamwork, involving our counterparts in Bolivian partner institutions, staffbased at headquarters, and locally hired staffin Bolivia. And fourth, through new projects we are integrating our work more closely with that of other CIAT projects, both within and beyond the Center's Rural Innovation Institute.As an example of this last point, our new project in Bolivia is closely linked with CIA T initiatives in that country on participatory research methods. Moreover, the project directly involves Center colleagues working on land use, and it draws heavily on our collaborative work in Colombia with CIA T specialists on rural agroenterprise development.InforCom further reinforced its ties with other Center projects by contributing actively to the development ofLearning to Innovate (LTI), one ofthree initiatives launched by CIAT in 2003 to address major development challenges through more concerted research efforts. Severa! ofLTI's outputs are closely aligned with those oflnforCom.We are hopeful that new projects, still at the proposal stage, will be approved in late 2004 or early 2005, enabling us to advance even further on the fronts mentioned above, that is, in building partnerships, delivering outputs through efficient teamwork, and integrating our work with that of other CIA T projects, in search of new ways to generate greater development irnpact. Of course, not all the proposals we prepared this year were accepted, but even the unsuccessful ones preved to be important learning experiences. This introduction gives the impression that lnforCom staff did little else besides develop new projects. Without doubt, this activity---though critical for enabling the project to move forward-came at the cost of documenting and publishing the results of impact assessment obtained through the InforCauca Project, corripleted in 2003. Nonetheless, we hope to make up for this shortcoming in the next reporting period. And we are building a strong research component into our new project in Bolivia, with a view to having publishable results in 2006. Toward this end we have arranged for a PhD student in economics at Imperial College London -Wye Campus to carry out her thesis research within the framework ofthe project. Already, she has prepared a thorough and comprehensive literature survey, which offers a good basis for defining the project's research questions and methodologies. In Bolivia, for example, we made more than a half dozen such presentations to the various organizations--8IBT A, FDT As, AOPEB, Finrural, and Fundación PROINPA--involved in the FIT3 Program. We also presented our work on several occasions to the various local and intemational NGOs involved in the Conjuntos Integrales de Proyectos (CIPs}, which are supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Bolivia and Peru. These latter presentations wer:e made in connection with the development of a new project that would operate in both those countries with Kellogg support.Simi1arly, in Colombia, InforCom staff made about a half dozen presentations on our work to representatives of diverse organizatlons, including Jan In connection with our work on grupos gestores de comunicación in Colombia, InforCom staff helped organize four training workshops for farmers and other members of rural communities on various topics, including design and organization ofthe Web site ofthe Infonnation System for Rural Agroenterprise Development (SIDER), visioning exercises for communitybased groups, project development, and preparation and dissemination of news bulletins. The average number of participants in each of these events was 20 farmers.In connection with the FIT3 Project in Bolivia, InforCom staff provided training on topics such as Web publishing and media relations to colleagues at two FDTAs (Chaco and Trópico Húmedo).lnforCom helped organize and hosted in June a planning workshop for our KM/S Project and the ILAC inititiative, which was attended by 22 people from seven CGIAR centers and severa} ofits programs, including the Water and Food Challenge Program, ICT-KM Program, and Gender and Diversity Program.During July InforCom staff organized two workshops on the dissemination of agroenterprise-related information for an association of radio programs serving indigenous and AfroCoJombian communities in Cauca Department.InforCom stafftook part in two important regional workshops on ICTs for development: La Ond@ Rural: Taller Latinoamericano sobre radio, nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación y desarrollo rural, held at Quito, Ecuador, in April, and the III Encuentro Regional de Telecentros, held at Sao Paulo, Brazil, in May.Rural Innovation Institute: Information and Communications for Rural Communities (lnforCom)Objective: To strengthen local capacity for innovation by better enabling rural communities and the R&D organizations that serve them to obtain, generate, and sbare information and knowledge, with the aid ofnew information and communications technologies (IGTs).Techniques and tools with which international and national R&D institutions can better share knowledge.Computer-supported collaborative learning (e-learning) programs and multimedia products on CD-ROM that convey science-based methods in forros that are useful for development professionals.Strategies for using community telecenters 28 to integrate the use of ICTs into rural developrnent.Strategies for enabling information intermediaries to construct and share knowledge in rural cornmunities, using ICTs and other communications media.Approaches for developing local information systems that reinforce participatory R&D. . Worlcing document on strategies for linking• Strateg:ies designed in 2005 with four Solivian farmer organizations to community telecenters in partners for linking farmer o rganizations with Bolivia. community teleceoters in tOur to six communities.• Generic approach documented in 2005 with one . Generic approach available in Spanish, in print • Local organizations collalxlrate in characterizing intermediaries to construct and share knowledge Colombian partner for supporting inforrnation and PowerPoint.supply~bain iofonnation networks and designing in rural communities, using lCTs and othcr intennediaries in rural communities.• Working document reporting on characterization improvements. communications media.• Supply-chain inforrnation networks characterized of supply-chain inforrnation networks and on during 2005 in four to six rural communities of plan. ned improvements in Bolivia. Bolivia, as a basis for strengthening these nctworks with four local partners.Approachcs for developi~ local informal ion • Web-based market inforrnation systerns • Market information systerns available online.• Local partners maintain commitment to systems that reinforce participatory R&D. devclopcd or improvcd in 2005, with Ccntcr support, dcvelopi~ online market infonnation systerns. by one local orgmization in Bolivia and anotber in Colombia.---L -----Communication strategies for learning and change with partners.Project heading: Project on Communication and Publications.Accelerated learning and cbange from the generation ofnew, widely applicable methodologies for enhanced gender analysis, participatory research, irnpact assessment for institutional learning and change, and organizational development for mainstreaming these approaches in the practices, structures, and processes of organizations. Considerable savings for, and increased impact of, participating CGIAR Centers and NARJs through increased and efficient use ofthese methods.Capacity for these methods will be strengthened and disseminated through an established network of trained trainers from these participating institutions. Poor rural women will be important participants in, and beneficiaries of, research. The\"development and adoption of diverse germplasm will be greatly accelerated in major food cropsAt least 12 partner institutions (2 CGIAR Centers and 10 NARJs) incorporate gender analysis and participatory research into core (mainstream) plant-breeding or natural-resource management research. Action research undertaken and too1s developed for enabling scientists to capture product and process impact, and to integrate learning from impact assessment into research planning and adaptation.A core capacity in tbe partner institutions (at least 2 CGIAR Centers and 1 O NARis) has been institutionalized in tenns of people trained in the methods, changes irnplemented in research organizations, multi-year funding cornmitted, and insthutional policies adopted, such that the scientific use of gender analysis and participatory research is an organic part of research, project design, staff recruitment, and capacity building in the participating institutions.Capacity ofiARC and NARS scientists to use good-practice gender-analysis, participatory research, impact-assessment and organizational-development methods is considered strengthened through training oftrainers.Poor rural women farmers, poor farmers in general, CGIAR Centers, NARis, NGOs, and rural grassroots organizations.The collaboration ofthe PRGA Program with its partners (IARCs, NARS, NGOs, universities, grassroots organizations) has been through the provision of direct grants, workshop costs, and inkind contribution of senior staff for joint proposal development and studies. The collaborative arrangements are detailed below.  -lmpa.ct-assessment studies.-Extemal review reporte.- -Monltoring and evaluation by the PRGA Program.-Collaborators' reporta.-PRGA Program's Annual report and web-site.-Published field manual . .-Tra.ining reporta.-Collaborators' reporta.-PROA Program's Annual report and web-site.-PRGA Program publications.-Workshop proceedings.-Potentlal partner lnstitutions are willing and interested In collaborating with the PRGA Program.-With support from the PRGA Program, working groups are wil1ing and interested in collaborating with düTerent partnen!.-Funding partners interested in supporting fnútful engagement with partners.-Potential partner institutions are willing and interested in collaborating with the PROA Program.-Funding partners interested in supporting capacity building. -IARCS and partner institutions willing to commit budget and human resources for internal capacity development.Overall Output U: Evt.ctence or the impact o{ particlpatory reaearch {PR) anct gender analyala (GA) methocta aaaeaaect, anct methocta ctevelopect to permit impact aaaeaament (lA) reaulta to be effectively inte¡ratect lnto reaearch anct ctevelopment (R&D) cteciaion-maldng. \\.-At least 3 collaborative-impact atudies are -lA studles and methods publiahed as PRGA Working documenta.-PRGA PrograJn's publications, briefs, presentations, peer reviewed joumal articles, books, web-site.-PRGA Annual reporta, workshop proceed.ings.-Published studies (PRGA worldng documenta) on lA tools and methods, and assessments of their effectlvenese in lmproving the ueefulnesa of lA and stimulating organizational lea.rning an change.-PRGA PrograJn's Annual reports, Program's web-site.-Collaborators' reporta.-lARCa and partner institutlons willing to collaborate in lA.-Funda available to conduct empiricalstudies.-Partner lnstitutions interested and willing to participate in action research.-Funding partners interested in supporting these initiatives.Research Highlights in 2003-04  • F ARA will work closely with only one Sub-Regional Organization during its fmt phase (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006), with a view to up-scaling of lessons and best practices to other SROs later. )\"> ASARECA: Recently initiated partnership will seek to strengthen, consolidate and mainstream gender analysis and participatory research in a high-proftle program to research-for-development to become demand-driven.)\"> LiBird (Nepal): Received direct grant for farmer-led participatory plant breeding of upland maize. A survey in 2003 assessed process irnpacts, including costs of using participatory approaches, and organizational implications of making such approaches sustainable. )> CARFJLaos: Joint assessment of results of gender-mainstreaming process (2002)(2003)(2004) to detennine best practices of gender main5treaming.   )-The currículum for capacity development for mainstreaming has included impact assessment as a major category in all workshops.Output 2: Evidence ofthe impact ofparticipatory research and gender analysis methods assessed, and methods developed to permit impact-assessment results to be effectively integrated into research and development decision-making 2.2.1. Activity 2.1. Develop original impact-assessment frameworks tailored to the particularities of assessing the impact of participatory methods, and develop tools that improve the information resultingfrom impact assessment in order to facilitate institutionallearning and change processes)-A Workshop on Cutting-edge Issues in Impact Assessment is scbeduled for 2005, on tbe recommendation of the PRGA Advisory Board. The objective is \"to build capacity in impact assessment and also to foster mutual learning among the impact-assessment practitioners within the CGIAR, by allowing participants to present their experiences and empirical results, as well as to bring outside experts to present topics of mutual interest.\"The papers (edited) and presentations will be made available so that participants can later give seminars at their own centers. )-Jointly with CIAT's participatory research project (IPRA), the PRGA Program submitted a proposal on strengthening rural innovation ecologies to BMZ. The project will establisb Innovation Field Schools to improve innovation ecologies, i.e. identify, implement, monitor and evaluate actions designed to make local conditions more conducive to faster and equitable innovation. )-To synthesize results from publisbed impact assessments of participatory researcb and gender analysis, and as a means of sharing information to facilitate institutional learning and cbange, an annotated bibliography on participatory research and gender analysis in agricultura! and natural-resource management research is being prepared. )> CIMMYT and the PRGA Program are conducting a meta-analysis of participatory methods used by CIMMYT projects. This should provide a general overview and understanding ofthe concept ofparticipatory research approach at CIMMYT, its history, and the contexts in which participatory research occurs. A standardized format will be used to allow comparisons between studies. Results are expected in late 2004. )> An impact study has been conducted on the CIA T Cassava Project in Asia, jointly with CIA Tanda consuJtant (from Agrifood Consulting Intemational), and with funding from the CGIAR Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA). The Project used fanner participatory research (FPR) to test and develop best practices for controlling erosion and maintaining soil fertility in cassava-based systems, in Thailand and Vietnam. Key infonnant interviews, focus group discussions, partiCipatory rapid rural appraisal, and participatory rural appraisal were used to gather impact data (adoption oftechnologies on farmers' own fields). The full report is available, but highiights include the following:• Adoption of soil-conservation techniques was greater in Vietnam than in Thailand. Vetiver-grass hedgerows have been adopted in Thailand, but mainly as a result of promotion by the Royal Family. Overall, however, contour-ridging is more popular than hedgerow-planting, mainly as a result of less labor involved and the fact that the Jand does not have to be set aside for hedgerows. Soil conservation would be expect~ to reduce the rate of soil loss, so that while one would not expect an increase in yields, one wouJd expect that participants would have higher yields than non-participants (everything else being equal). However, there is no evidence from multivariate analysis that the yields of the two groups are significantly different. • Project training courses have had a significant, but limited impact on intercropping adoption; despite higher retums from an intercrop system, most fanners do not wish to reduce their cassava yields in retum for increased benefits from intercropping. Fanners in Vietnam are more willing to undertake intercropping than their Thai counterparts. • Fertilizer adoption (chem.ical and organic) has increased in both countries: in Thailand, adoption is greater among project-participants, but they use Jess than their non-participant counterparts; while in Vietnam (with equal adoption of use among all fanners), participants use greater quantities. The driving factor has been income, suggesting that the project impact per se, while not insignificant, is not the whole story. However, the project has affected the type offertilizer used. • The project demonstrated that wealthier households are more likely to adopt new technologies than their poorer counterparts. The FPR approach self-selects farmer-researchers who are more willing to take risks and experiment, and have the land to do so. )> A multi-step econometric analysis was conducted ofthe CIAT Asia Cassava Project data, to: (1) determine factors affecting individuals' decisions to participate, (2) understand determinants of adoption of soil-conservation and soil-fertility management techniques, and (3) determine how participation and adoption affect behavioral and productivity outcomes. ","tokenCount":"18444"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"53de39ac4d3b977c8130d96c379d9b7a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d7659e0f-a140-4733-ae4d-69c356ed03cf/retrieve","id":"-606212017"},"keywords":["• P1682 -Product Line 3.1.1: On-farm","large-scale and global feed assessments and prioritization approaches CIAT","ILRI","ICARDA"],"sieverID":"92750019-142d-4f17-85e1-fd6dd3f8f47a","pagecount":"1","content":"Links to the Strategic Results Framework: Sub-IDOs:• Adoption of CGIAR materials with enhanced genetic gains • Closed yield gaps through improved agronomic and animal husbandry practices Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Too early to say Description of activity / study: The Tropical Forages Selection Tool (TF) is an open-access online expert knowledge system created by a team of renowned international forage specialists between 2000 and 2005 and updated between 2017 and 2020. It provides detailed information on 172 major forages grown in the tropics and sub-tropics and incorporates a species selection tool based on target environment and forage use. The ability to select and prioritize forages for specific production niches, environments, socioeconomic and animal requirements is important to mitigate feed shortages and improve natural resource management as part of sustainable farming systems. This brief reviews how the tool is being used and by whom.Comments: <Not Defined> Links to MELIA publications:• https://hdl.handle.net/10568/116196 1 This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:16 (GMT+0)","tokenCount":"165"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f55450ab8c8fcc804014decd7268fb1a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b6031de4-8013-4ec8-adad-6065aec00122/content","id":"1508305579"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"68588894-74ee-427c-9f31-d9fef5b9ad22","pagecount":"60","content":"The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) is a regional initiative to sustainably increase the productivity of cereal-based cropping systems, thus improving food security and farmers' livelihoods in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. CSISA works with public and private partners to support the widespread adoption of resourceconserving and climate-resilient farming technologies and practices.In India, weeds are responsible for about 33% of total yield losses caused by pests, whereas insects and diseases are responsible for 26% and 20%, respectively. Weeds interfere with crops by competing for light, water, nutrients and space resulting in reduction of crop yield and quality. The yield reduction in any crop through weed competition depends on several factors such as weed flora and density, duration of competition, management practices and climatic conditions. Therefore, timely weed management is crucial for attaining optimal grain yield of a crop. However, none of the single weed control methods are effective for all weeds and to manage weeds effectively and sustainably in the long run, it is essential to develop and deploy flexible integrated weed management (IWM) practices. IWM consists of physical, cultural, chemical, and biological means (Figure 1) developed on knowledge of weed ecology and biology.In addition, costs involved in weed management constitute a significant share of total cost of production. Weeds have also become major constraints in adoption of new resource-efficient (labor, water, and tillage) technologies such as direct-seeded rice and reduced/zero-till systems. In eastern India, hand weeding has traditionally been the most common practice of weed control in rice and other cereals crops. In recent years, because of rising scarcity of labor and increasing labor wages, farmers have started adopting herbicides for weed control. However, farmers have limited knowledge on proper herbicide handling, selection of herbicide molecules and their time of application, application technologies for better efficacy, and environmental and human health risks associated with their incorrect use. Therefore, there is a need to train and develop master trainers with a strong understanding of IWM, who will help to pass on this knowledge on to farmers.www.csisa.org This module is organized into five independent learning sessions and designed to be covered over two days: For each of these sessions, step-by-step instructions are given for training facilitators on how to implement each session. This includes: key learning objectives, key messages to be given to the participants, materials required to conduct the session, and instructions on how to conduct sessions with hands-on learnings and practical demonstrations. For each session, a PowerPoint presentation on the topic is included (see Annex 3), which should be used by the facilitator. All participants should be engaged in the discussion and encouraged to speak and ask questions, especially under-represented participants such as women. The PowerPoint presentation and other relevant reference materials can be printed and provided as handouts to the participants.Participants' current knowledge should be evaluated by conducting a pre-test just before the training begins. To assess the learning progress of participants, a post-evaluation should be conducted at the end of the training. Pre-and post-test exam sheets have been included as Annex 1 and 2 for ready reference. The course is designed to span two days, covering a mix of classroom and hands-on sessions. The content is divided into five instructional sessions followed by Q&A, post-evaluation test and feedback session as follows: Keep the number of participants per batch limited to a maximum of 20-25 with a good mix of male and female participants.Training centers or any institute with fields/farms within walking distance so that all hands-on sessions can be demonstrated to the participants in the field and participants get a chance to learn the IWM practices by doing, as this will allow the participants to understand the process completely. Each session will consist of a classroom lecture followed by hands-on training in the field.Ensure that all the training materials listed at the beginning of each module are arranged and available in the proper quantity and in working condition. Try to arrange at least one machine, sprayer, or piece of equipment per three to five participants so that the opportunity for handson learning is increased.Extension agents or field staff who have already received training on IWM can be the trainers/facilitators for this training.A pre-evaluation test of the participants just prior to the beginning of the training session to judge their current knowledge level and a post-evaluation test at the end of all training sessions should be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of training.Feedback should be taken from all the participants after the completion of each session regarding suggestions for further improvement of the overall training module.The suggested duration of this training module is of two days. However, it is not possible to conduct hands-on training unless a few activities are in place before the start of the training. Complete the below mentioned activities beforehand, but do not forget to explain these steps to the participants during the classroom session. Following is the list of activities which need to be completed earlier:• Demonstration plots with and without weed management. Demo plots should be established well ahead of the training so that they become ready to serve the training on time.• Selection of a plot infested with major weeds of rice on which training is conducted, or grow major weeds in pots for weed identification.• Hand weeding tools (like hand hoe or niranee, khurpi), mechanical weeders, including manually operated and motorized (if available).• Two to three different types of backpack pump sprayers (manually operated traditional backpack, battery operated, motorized sprayers) for demonstration if available (if not, simple pump sprayers will do). In addition, two to three knapsack pump sprayers (manual or battery operated) for herbicide application (one for the training facilitator and then one for each group).• Measuring beaker to measure water (250, 500, 1000ml capacities are ideal)• 3-4 water buckets of at least 10L each • Flexible measuring tape (at least 40m length)• Spray nozzles: 3-4 sets of different types of nozzles (flat-fan type, even cone type, and flood jet/cut type, if available) to demonstrate how these nozzles differ in spray pattern. Make sure they come with strainers.• Spray booms: 3-4 sets of multiple nozzle booms (e.g. three nozzle booms) fitted with flat fan nozzles, if available. One single nozzle boom is also needed.• About 1/2 to 1L each of pre-emergent and post-emergent herbicides (select the active ingredient most appropriate for your region, or for the weeds to be controlled).• Protective clothing (at least 3 sets) for herbicide application, including goggles, a rubber hat, a mask to cover the face, protective polyethylene coat that covers the head and arms, gloves, protective polyethylene trousers, and gumboots, as shown below:www.csisa.org • This training is composed of five sessions and will be covered in two days. It will be a mix of classroom lecture and hands-on learning.• This is a participatory training, and both trainers and trainees will learn from each other.The training is mostly hands-on. Participants should learn by working with the IWM principles and equipment themselves rather than just listening. Active participation is the best.• Participants should be attentive during the training and participate either individually or in groups for each task/assignment given to them.• All participants as well as facilitators should keep their mobile phone switched-off, or on silent.www.csisa.orgStep 1Step 2Step The training coordinator will then present Session I: Introduction to Integrated Weed Management using a PowerPoint presentation. A pen drive/CD of all the presentations will be provided to the participants. Also, hard copies of the presentation should be handed out to the participants.Distribute the 'pre-evaluation questionnaires' (see Annex 1) to every participant and allow them 15 minutes to answer the questions. Collect the pre-evaluation sheets for later comparison with the post-evaluations at the conclusion of the training. They should be checked/corrected during the course of the day, prior to the closing session. At the end of this session, participants should be able to:• Exchange their knowledge about weeds • Weeds can be classified into three main groups: grasses, broadleaf and sedges.• It is important to know the type of weeds infesting your field. Why? Different management strategies are needed for different types of weed species as weeds differ in their response to control measures.• Yield losses due to weeds in rice are higher under direct seeded and upland rice than in puddled transplanted rice.• Selection of a field or a demonstration plot near the training venue which contains the main weed species of rice.• Pots with grasses, broadleaf and sedge weed species. Either grow some major grass, broadleaf and sedge weed species in pots in advance by seeding weeds or by transplanting these weed species in pots from the field. This is to use during classroom lecture to explain differences in broadleaf, grasses and sedges.• PowerPoint presentation \"Session II: Know your weeds\" (Annex 3) Step 1Step 2Step 3Initiate the discussion on weeds (group assignment, 35 minutes)Field visit for hands-on learning (60 minutes)Divide the participants into 4-5 groups. Each group should consist of 4-5 people. After this, initiate discussion on weeds with participants and asks each group to discuss and note down their points on the flip chart around the following:1.What is a weed?What are different types of weeds? Write down 5-10 major weeds of rice 3.Negative effects of weeds 4.Where are agricultural weeds coming from?Why is it important to know your weeds?Give the group 15 minutes to discuss and prepare their report and then ask each group to present their report (15 minutes).In this step, make a presentation using the PowerPoint presentation provided in Annex 3 (Session II: Knowing your weeds). Also, provide handout of this presentation to participants. This presentation covers the following topics: 1) What is a weed?;(2) Why is weed control important?;(3) Losses caused by weeds in rice; (4) Types of weeds;(5) Major grass, broadleaf and sedge weed species of rice; (6) Why is it important to know your weeds?Use a white board or flip chart wherever needed to explain things.During this section, ask each group to do a practical exercise to differentiate between grass, broadleaf and sedge weed species. This exercise should immediately follow classroom teaching on different types of weeds (see PowerPoint presentation slide #15 for detailed instructions about this exercise).If weeds are grown in pots, then after this lecture, show those weeds to participants and explain key characteristics of each weed (if not, then take them to field for hands-on learning).The training coordinator explains the procedure for the field visit. Divide the participants in 4 groups (keep the same morning groups). Take the participants to either the selected demo plots or a pre-identified field in which the common rice weeds are present. Facilitator then shows the major weeds of rice present in the field, how to differentiate between types of weeds (grasses, broadleaf and sedges) and ask some local names of weeds to engage the participants. After this, the facilitator asks each group to collect 5-10 predominant weed species from that field and classify them into grass, broadleaf or sedge and record their local names and note down their prevalence in the field (minor or moderate or dominant). After this, participants return to the training venue.Step 4Participants present their field report (30 minutes)Facilitator asks participants to arrange their report in the format given below: Each group then presents their report and shows the weed they collected and other information they compiled about those weed species in the format.Note: Please refer to Annex 3 for PowerPoint slides for Session II: Know your weeds.At the end of this session, participants should be able to:• Know different rice establishment methods and why weed control is more challenging in direct seeded rice (DSR)• Know different methods of weed management [cultural, physical (mechanical/manual) and chemical]• Understand the importance of using an integrated approach to weed management • In states like Odisha, broadcasting of rice followed by beushening is also a common rice establishment method. (The training coordinator will use this message only during trainings in Odisha. For other states it is not important.)• Due to rising labor shortages and increasing labor wages, there is more interest to shift towards laborsaving and cost-effective rice establishment methods such as direct seeded rice or mechanical transplanted rice.• Weeds are more serious problem in DSR than in transplanted rice because: (1) the initial flush of weeds is not controlled by early flooding because flooding immediately after sowing is not possible in DSR as germinating rice is sensitive to flooding, (2) in DSR, rice does not get headstart compared to weeds as is the case in transplanted rice.• Weeds should be controlled before they start to compete with rice.• Minimize weed seed production and seed recruitment in soil. Weed should be removed or controlled before they set seeds.• Four guiding principles for weed management in any crop are: (1) Know your weeds (see Session II), (2) Keep the crop free from weed competition in first 30-40 days after sowing (DAS) / or transplanting (DAT),(3) Apply weed control properly and at the right time, and (4) Integrate different weed control methods sensibly depending on options and resource availability.• IWM consists of cultural, physical (manual hand weeding or mechanical weeding), and chemical methods (using the right herbicide at the right dose, at the right time and through the right method of application).• IWM minimizes the dependence on herbicides and hence reduces the evolution of herbicide resistance in weeds. IWM is more sustainable and effective in the long run than any single method.• Cultural methods include:-Preventing entry of weed seeds to crop fields by using rice seeds free from weed seeds or using seedlings not infested with weeds, cleaning machineries/equipments before entering new fields, and if FYM is being used, it should be well decomposed (avoid using non-decomposed FYM as they can be source of new weeds).-By preventing seed production during fallow periods.-Using state seedbed techniques -Dust or soil mulching (pre-sowing irrigation followed by shallow tillage followed by sowing and then delaying first irrigation for about 10-15 days) in DSR -Good land preparation to have fields free from weeds at the time of crop establishment -Flooding in transplanted rice (immediately after transplanting for the first 3-4 weeks) -Good agronomy methods that give more competitive advantage to rice than to weeds such as competitive cultivars/hybrids, narrow spacing, good fertilizer management, etc.-Crop rotation• Manual weeding is important to remove escaped weeds or noxious weeds, which are not controlled by herbicides. Mechanical weeding can reduce time and labor costs.• Herbicides can provide effective and economical weed control and save labor. Herbicides play an important role in facilitating the adoption of DSR, but over-reliance on herbicide can lead to herbicide resistance development in weeds and can also adversely affect environment and human health.The three major types of herbicides are pre-plant, pre-emergence and post-emergent herbicides.-Pre-plant herbicides are used for controlling annual weeds and their application is made before the crop is planted to make the best use of the moisture available at the time of sowing. Some of these herbicides like dinitroanilines need incorporation to avoid volatilization losses. Pre-seed burn down herbicides like glyphosate are mainly used for controlling weeds that have already emerged in the field prior to seeding. These herbicides are especially important under zerotill/conservation agriculture based systems or where time for good land preparation is limited.-Pre-emergence herbicides are applied after crop seeding but prior to the emergence of weeds, 1-3 days after seeding or transplanting, by ensuring adequate moisture at the time of spraying.-Post-emergent herbicides are applied after the crop and weeds have emerged, generally at leaf stage 3-4 of weeds.• Select the appropriate herbicides for specific rice establishment methods the types of weeds that are problem in the field (broadleaf, sedge or grass) and time of application (i.e. pre-plant, pre-emergence or post-emergence). The most common herbicide options for transplanted and direct seeded rice are given as in Annex IV.Note: There are no selective herbicides available for controlling weedy rice, emerging weeds in DSR systems. This can be best managed using stale seedbed techniques (by germinating them prior to rice seeding and killing them), by rotating DSR with transplanted rice (manual or mechanical) and preventing their seed production by removing them before seed setting by manual weeding or cutting their panicles using sickles. Step 1Step 2Step 3Initiate discussion on different rice establishment methods (30 minutes) Integrated weed management in rice (30 minutes)The training coordinator divides the participants into 3 groups and asks them to discuss and list different rice establishment methods prevalent in their area. Give 15 minutes to the groups to discuss the following points: In which method are weeds less of a problem and in which method are weeds more problematic? Under what landscape (upland, lowland) are weeds more or less problem? What are the common weed management practices used by farmers in rice crop in their area and their time of application, e.g. prior to sowing/transplanting, and after sowing/transplanting? Then ask each group to present their discussion outcomes.In this step, the training coordinator will make a PowerPoint presentation (Session III: Integrated weed management options). Make the presentation more interactive by asking questions, allowing participants to ask questions and discussing points participants listed in the first step.Divide the participants into 3 groups (as done in the first step). The training coordinator briefs the participants about the field visit. Take these groups to the farms of three pre-identified farmers. Each group will interact with one farmer and collect information about rice weed management practices and major weeds at his/her farm. Each group will have the following discussion with the farmer: How much is the total cost of managing weeds?13. How much are the losses (%) caused by weeds in rice? (Farmer's perception)14. Do they want more knowledge and training on weed management?After this interaction, the group will visit 2-4 plots of his/her farm and collect weeds they find or they think are predominant in those fields. They should collect 5-6 weeds from each plot and record following information: Step 4The training coordinator asks each group to present their field report (results of their discussion/interview with the farmer and weed information they collected from his/her farm). After each presentation, allow other groups to ask questions. The current method of herbicide application (single nozzle boom, cone type nozzle and swing method) using knapsack sprayer is non-uniform, leading to poor herbicide efficacy.Different types of sprayers available include the knapsack sprayer and mounted sprayer (e.g. tractor mounted or mounted on another platform). Knapsack sprayers are the most common for smallholders in the tropics.Knapsack sprayers are most commonly used for spraying herbicides on field crops. Three types of knapsack sprayers are often available in the market, including manual pneumatic, motorized pneumatic and battery operated sprayers. Therefore, the major emphasis should be placed on accurate herbicide application technologies using the knapsack sprayer.Accurate application of herbicide is essential for: Multiple nozzle booms improve herbicide efficacy and efficiency by increasing uniformity.Mounted sprayers (e.g. tractor mounted) provide uniform and safe application (applicators are not directly exposed while spraying) and better efficacy.Boom height should be kept at 50cm from the target for uniform herbicide application.Pressure regulation is important for the accurate and uniform application of herbicides. Spraying at a constant pressure is key for uniform application. A normal, manually-operated knapsack sprayer, spray pressure varies with pumping, leading to non-uniform application. Battery-operated sprayers, that create and maintain constant pressure, are better suited for uniform application.Always use clean water for making the herbicide mixture. Dirty/muddy water can reduce the efficacy of some herbicides and lead to intermittent nozzle clogging. Calibration is the process of determining the sprayer output for a known area.Always calibrate your sprayer under field conditions prior to herbicide application. This ensures application of right recommended dose in the field.Walking speed, sprayer tank pressure and nozzle capacity will influence sprayer calibration.Always wear a mask, gloves, coveralls, hat, goggles, gumboots before mixing, preparing, and applying herbicides.Select the appropriate sprayer and nozzles.Make sure constant pressure is maintained in the spray tank and hold the sprayer boom at the right height.Make sure all the nozzles in the boom are of the same type (nozzles are color coded)Explain how to calculate the number of tanks to be sprayed per unit area and herbicide dose per tank.Add surfactants, if prescribed, to improve herbicide effectiveness.Re-calibrate if pressure, nozzles, or speed is changed.Properly mix the herbicide when first put in the tank and keep shaking the tank so that the herbicide remains properly mixed, especially if herbicide is in powder or granule form.12.The sprayer should be cleaned thoroughly after each use with a brush and detergent in running water. Do not use metal objects for cleaning the nozzle.Minimize spray drift as it can adversely affect neighboring crops, which could be sensitive to that herbicide.The sprayer and herbicides should be stored away from sunlight in a locked room or box. Keep them away from children and animals. Ask participants to solve the following questionsStep 1 (30 minutes)Step 2 (10 minutes)Step 3 (60 minutes) Take the participants to the practical demonstration site. Demonstrate the procedure of practical calibration by taking the help of volunteers with focus on the following:• The spray pattern of different types of nozzles (flat fan, cone type and cut type)• Spraying using manually operated and battery operated sprayers and discuss the advantage of battery operated sprayers (ease of operation, uniform pressure and uniform herbicide application)• The uniformity of spraying using multiple nozzle boom as compared to single nozzle boomThe effect of height of boom on uniformity of spray applicationThe swath of single nozzle boom using flat fan and cut nozzle that cut nozzle give wider swath and is more uniform over the entire swath area, therefore is preferred if single nozzle boom is being used Step 4 (30 minutes)www.csisa.org Distribute the post-evaluation forms to participants. Allow them to answer the questions in about 15 minutes. Calculate their scores, and check them compared to their pre-test. Give both pre-and post-evaluation forms back to the participants for review. Also record each participant's score in a training or project logbook. If any errors are common, take time to discuss them with participants and to correct any misconceptions before closing the training.Discuss with participants the advantages of creating skilled/professional pesticide applicators for giving services on a custom hiring basis (easy to train, fewer people to train, better efficacy, business opportunities for youth).Also, discuss who could be the potential target groups for creating: Service providers using knapsack sprayers and service providers using mounted sprayers.Open the session for Q&A if the participants have any further questions for training coordinator. Ask each participant to complete the feedback form and give a vote of thanks to all the participants for their active participation. Step 2Step 3Step 4 ","tokenCount":"3759"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"44fb664434cdf553fb21a7ff9fa3b32d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2a7bf856-ed37-4e41-94d1-7ad816777b57/retrieve","id":"-813154305"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba82e7c4-acca-4e98-84b3-86489804ae1c","pagecount":"18","content":"The accompanying financial statements of ISNAR are the responsibility of management, and have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and CGIAR financial guidelines.ISNAR has established and maintains a strong system of internal controls designed (I) to provide reasonable assurance that assets are properly safeguarded and transactions are executed in accordance with management's authorization, and (2) to assist management in ensuring the preparation of reliable financial statements. The Audit Committee of the ISNAR Board of Trustees meets regularly with management and representatives of the external auditors to review matters relating to financial reporting, internal controls, and auditing. The financial statements have been audited by the independent accounting fm, Deloitte Accountants. The auditors' report expresses an independent opinion on the fairness of presentation of these. financial statements.Because of the pending closure of ISNAR, all costs for the transition must be shown in the financial statements, even if they had not all been incurred by December 3 1,2003. Accordingly, the 2003 deficit appears as $4.3 million. Transition costs are shown as $4.5 million, which means that the operating result actually was a small surplus. Component costs for the transition include staff separation payments, building lease cancellation costs, and other contract cancellation penalties.The senior management team changed significantly in 2003, with the appointments of an interim Director of Finance and Administration in May and an interim D i r e c t o r General in July. Twelve ISNAR staff were separated in mid-2003 as part of the planned downsizing.It will be recalled that during 2002 ISNAR's fourth External Program and Management Review was canid out, reviewing the period 1997-2002. As a co~lsequence a panel, the ISNAR Restructuring Team (IRT) was appointed by the CGIAR at AGMO2 to review ISNAR's programmatic work areas, its interaction with its partners, its presence in.the regions and its governance structure, and to make . recommendations to the Group. The most significant of these recommendations called for-ISNAR to cease to exist as a free-standing CGIAR center, and that a restructured ISNAR program should be operated under IFPRI governance in a sub-Saharan African site. These IRT recommendations were endorsed by the Group at AGM03, which also pledged funding for the ISNAR closure. As a result of the Group's decisions, the ISNAR Board of Trustees met in November 2003 and adopted a resolution dissolving itself and the institute in 2004, and launched the transition process for the transfer of research activities to IFPRI.The end of operations for ISNAR will be March 3 1,2004, and legal dissolution will occur when the Dutch law firm engaged to oversee the final administrative transactions in The Hague detennines that, there are no further ISNAR liabilities. The CGIAR membership has approved the plan for distribution of ISNAR assets including project f h d s which will revert, along with the project contracts, to IFPRI, after closure of the institute in March. ISNAR's regional office in Pretoria will also close on 3 1 March 2004, but the project operations in Costa Rica a~ expected to cdntinue-under IFPRI management. The government of the Netherlands has been informed of the arrangements for closure and has supported the process.We have audited the accompanying statement of financial position of the Intemational Service for National Agricultural Research (\"ISNAR\") at The Hague, a not-for-profit organization, as of December 3 1,2003, and the related statements of activity and of cash flows and the notes thereto, expressed in United States dollars, for the year then ended. These financial statements are presented on pages 6 up to and including 13 and have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in Note 2, which are in conformity with CGIAR's financial guidelines contained in the \"Accounting Policies and Reporting Practices\" manual, which are in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America for not-for-profit organizations. These financial statements are the responsibility of ISNAR's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit.We conducted our audit in accordance with Intemational Standards on Auditing. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatements. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of ISNAR, The Hague as of December 3 1 , 2003 and the results of its activities and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with CGIAR's financial guidelines contained in the \"Accounting Policies and Reporting Practices\" manual, which conform with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America for notfor-profit organizations. Emphasis of matter Without qualifying our opinion above, we draw attention to Note 13 of the financial statements which refers to subsequent events and a resolution of the Board of Trustees to close all operations on March 3 1 , 2004. As a consequence, the accounting principles applied are based on the assumption that the organization will not be able to continue its activities.. Accounts Payable:Funds m Trust Loan ACGNalS ..Total Current Liabilities ISNAR's mission is to enhance the performance of agricultural research systems in developing countries. To this end, ISNAR carries out research and provides services in the amas of policy, organization and management, together with regional and national pmners and stakeholders. The accompanying financial statements, expressed in US dollars, are prepared on the basis of accounting practices prescribed for international agricultural research centers within the CGIAR. The CGIAR-prescribed accounting practices conform with International Accounting Standards (IAS) and U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Rinciples (U.S. GAAP) for not-for-profit organizations.A summary of ISNAR's significant accounting practices is set out to facilitate the understanding of data presented in the financial statements:Cash Equivalents: short-term. highly liquid investments that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash with original maturities of three months or less.Accounts Receivable: carried at their nominal value. less an allowance for doubtful amounts. The allowance is calculated on the basis of judgment of the individual outstanding receivables.Property and equipment: carried at cost Individual additions for an amount of $l,oOO or m a are capitalized.Depreciation of acquired assets is charged from the month that the asset was placed in operation. Depreciation of all assets owned by ISNAR is computed on the straight-line method over the following estimated useful lives of the related assets:Category Description . -Estimated lite in years Infrastructure and Leasehold Improvements . 8 Offce Furniture Computers and Office Equipment Improvements to Rented Offices Vehicles Revenue: Grants are recognized as revenue upon the fulfillment of the donor-imposed conditions attached. Grants are classified according to the type of donor-imposed restrictions.Foreign drrency transactions: Foreign cmncy-denominated transactions are restated to US dollars for reporting purposes at exchange rates prevailing at the dates of the transaction. Exchange differences resulting from (a) the collection of foreign currency-denominated receivables and (b) the settlement of foreign currencydenominated obligations at rates which are different from which they were originally booked are credikdlcharged to operations.Outstanding assets and liabilities denominated in cunkncies other than in US dollar at year-end have been adjusted to the prevailing exchange rate on the date of the statement of financial position. Any gains or losses resulting from the restatement of accounts are credited or charged to operations. The Net Book Value of the Property and Equipment has been written down to zero at 31 December 2003 because of the impending closure of ISNAR. There will be some proceeds arising from disposals and some items will be transferred to the ownership of IFPRI. For the most part however, the Property and Equipment will either revert to the owner of ISNARs leasehold premises in Den Haag or be scrapped at 31 March 2004.Note 7. Accounts payable -EmployeesThe long-term accounts payable to employees consists of an accrual for accumulated leave earned by and payable to internationally and nationally recruited staff upon termination of services, in addition to the eventual repatriation costs of internationally recruited staff.Note 8 Legal Action by ex-employee A former staff member had made a claim for compensation from ISNAR in respect of the fact that, upon the expiration of the fixed-term employment contract, ISNAR did not offer a new employment contract; This claim was rejected by a hearing of the International Labour Organization on 10 February 2004.Note 9. Grant Revenue CGIAR Accounting Policies require that a distinction be made between those restricted grants which have a temporary restriction and those which have a pennanent restriction. The average number of staff (Full-time Equivalents) employed during the year was 55 (2002: 64). The personnel costs are stated net of a personal income tax, which in accordance with the Headquaners Agreement concluded with the Kingdom of The Netherlands, is levied internally for the benefit of ISNAR.ISNAR participates through the Association of International AQricultural Research Centers (AIARC) in a collective CGIAR defined-contribution retirement plan for its staff. ISNAR contributes to this plan for all staff members in accordance with the Staff Regulations. During the year an amount of USD 688,000 (2002: USD 760,000) was paid to AIARC for the retirement plan. In November 2003, the ISNAR Board of Tmtees adopted a resolution for the dissolution of ISNAR as an independent center. ISNAR will close all operations on March 31,2004. From April 1,2004 a Dutch law iirm expected that these tramactions will be completed within several months. The Director General of ISNAR will remain in office during this period as the official representative of ISNAR. The legal dissolution of ISNAR will occur when the Director General and AKD determine that all known obligations of ISNAR have been satisfied.The government of the Netherlands has been informed of the arrangements for closure and supports the process.AKD prinsen van Wijnen.(AKD) has been appointed to oversee the 6nal administrative transam -om. ","tokenCount":"1670"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6354356038.json b/data/part_3/6354356038.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"00a1749cb34f3dc6d33d66e769bac54a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/118a51f8-4354-4685-961d-7481c6509261/retrieve","id":"574607487"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ac70bd6b-d10b-42af-beea-693eb678b503","pagecount":"2","content":"Efforts to ensure the use of CCAFS climate science and sitespecific climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices in the Rainforest Alliance voluntary certification scheme and in impact investment approaches implemented by Root Capital began in 2015. The project leverages existing smallholder value chain interventions to translate climate science into actionable strategies for farmers and supporting actors, including agricultural businesses, voluntary certification schemes, and investors, across a number of geographies using smallholder coffee and cocoa systems in Africa and Latin America as model cases.Initial outcomes include a clear demand from private sector partners for improved information on climate change and cocoa in Ghana expressed by the widespread use of exposure maps at the recent global World Cocoa Foundation partnership meeting. Companies such as Hershey's, Mars, Lindt, Tom's, Guittard and Tcho as well as key trading houses like ECOM, Olam and ADM have shown interest, and some have offered to provide additional data to further improve the models. The World Cocoa Foundation has also requested further engagement to mainstream results at the sector level.The long-term objective is defined as adoption of recommended CSA practices by 15% of global cocoa producers and 7% of global coffee producers, as well as the provision of USD 350 million of tailored financial products to producer organizations, traders, exporters, and other key value chain actors by 2019.• Ghana is the world's second largest exporter of cocoa, climate change and variability is projected to impact the sector significantly • About 70% of the global cocoa supply is from West Africa, produced by smallholder farmers on less than 5 ha of land.• Partnership between various actors including agricultural/climate scientists, voluntary certification bodies, and impact investors ","tokenCount":"274"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6374206391.json b/data/part_3/6374206391.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b233e8131df91cb660d13995930e5c1f9dab03e0
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b91621b09e4bb05753989494d930ae5f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b3962470-7058-4622-b4a6-06bff891b573/retrieve","id":"-2028507276"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"edd85088-990b-43a6-8823-d2ae14090176","pagecount":"1","content":"• Regional agricultural research institutes (RARIs).• Agricultural development offices at different levels.• Farmers and farmers' organizations.• CGIAR centres and higher learning institutions.• Partnership: Linkages and collaboration with research and development institutions have been strengthened. • Appreciating the challenges of working with diverse stakeholders at different levels. • Understanding the significance of landscape-based approach for soil, nutrient and water management research in undulating areas.Until Nov 2021Report on status of field trials and data collection.• Fertilizer and ISFM field trials have been implemented.• Field trials management and data collection are on progress.• Field M and E has been done with partners.• Conducting field days• The final technical report will be submitted.• Dataset has been organized to develop the DST • The prototype DST is being validated under field condition.• The DST for site-specific fertilizer recommendations will be developed.• Development agents, experts model farmers were trained about trial implementation, management and data collection.• Training will be given to researchers and extension staff. ","tokenCount":"159"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6378818596.json b/data/part_3/6378818596.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8ec124095dfbb2a4e6a0686720f0666b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0a392d23-2765-4098-9ca0-038804bf8ed2/retrieve","id":"1194925457"},"keywords":["Indigenous knowledge","Ethno veterinary","Agroecology","Livestock husbandry","Medicinal plants Dairy product xvi"],"sieverID":"3d27d791-ee11-4fbe-b415-a074084e8cd0","pagecount":"136","content":"to extend my heartfelt thanks to my major advisor Dr. Mehammed Beyan, as without his encouragement and guidance, the completion of this work may not have been possible. Thus, I am very much indebted to him for his willingness to come along distance and guiding me on focus group discussion on field level with key informants, data arrangement, and to successfully finalize the thesis. Special appreciation also goes to my co-advisor Dr Sintayehu Yigrem as he gives me valuable and constructive comments starting from the proposal and for shaping of my thesis write-up. I want to also give special thanks to my co-advisor Dr. Melkamu Bezabih for his genuine guidance, constructive comments and excellent cooperation, and his facilitation on budget. My thanks also goes to Dr. Yosef W/gerigis for his data analysis. I would like also to express my sincere appreciation to African rising /ILRI Project for covering the funding of my M.Sc degree. I would like to thank Maichew Woreda African rising /ILRI site staff Ato Mehammed Ebrahim, Ato Getachew Bisrat and Ato kagnew Kasahun who facilitated me on data collection smoothly in the field. My honest and special thanks should go to MAC giving to me for his postgraduate program. My appreciation goes to the people of Endamohoni woreda for their positive response, sharing their valuable knowledge and time as well as for their tremendous generosity and hospitality. I also thank the Endamohoni woreda Offices of Rural Agricultural Development and development agents, their provision of information and data collection. Finally, I acknowledge to my sisters and brothers as well as staff members of Catholic Church community in Maychew, particularly to Abba Hagos Tinsaie, Sr. Adoni Abraha Sr. Tsige Petros and Sr. Lemlem Siyum for their moral, wishes and encouragement to accomplish my study. v Tables of Contents ADVISORS' APPROVAL SHEET.ix DEDICATION I dedicated this thesis to my beloved parents ABRAHA WOLDU and ABEBA GEBRAY and my sisters and brothers for their support and words of encouragement during my moments of anxiety.xFirst, I declare that this thesis is my genuine work and that all sources of materials used for this thesis have been duly acknowledged. This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for M.Sc. degree at Hawassa University and is deposited at the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. I solemnly declare that this thesis is not submitted to any other institution anywhere for the award of any academic degree, diploma, or certificate.Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permissions provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and African rising when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interest of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author.            Agriculture and related actives are the major occupation of the population of sub Saharan countries and most of the populations are dependent on the sector directly or in directly for their livelihood (Daniel, 2008). Livestock sector occupies a special position in the national agenda of the economic development of Ethiopia. This sector plays a vital role in revenue generation in the country and is believed to play an important role in poverty alleviation and supporting the socioeconomic development of Ethiopia's rural groups (Benin et al., 2003;FAO, 2009;Tadesse, et al., 2014).Ethiopia possesses the highest livestock resources in Africa and the majority of which are native breeds mostly reared under traditional type of management and are dependent on indigenous knowledge for their nourishment (Hiwet, 2013). These native livestock breeds have adaptive traits that enable them to survive and reproduce under harsh climate, poor nutrition and management conditions (Mwacharo and Drucker, 2005). In Ethiopia, livestock production remains crucial livelihood option and represents a major asset among resource-challenged smallholder farmers, serving as a source of cash income, farm power, milk, meat, skin/ hide and manure (FAO, 2009;Tadesse, et al., 2014).Indigenous knowledge is a broad concept that covers all forms of knowledge, technology, knowhow, skills, practices and beliefs that enable the community to achieve stable livelihoods in their environment (UNEP, 2008). It has significances role in designing sustainable farming systems, by improving traditional method of livestock management and ability of the stockowners to deal with different challenge of selection, disease tolerance, feeding management, and product handling.Indigenous traditional knowledge (ITK) maintains genetic resources (both plant and animal) which are essential for the wellbeing, sustenance and development of the environment and livelihood of a community (Banerjee. et al., 2014).ITK of animal husbandry consists of animal management, hygiene, feeding, watering, animal product handling and disease control (Kumar and Singh, 2011) and it forms the basis to improve the livelihood of the rural populations. Local peoples in many parts of the world use their traditional knowledge to prepare herbal medicines to treat various animal diseases and, this practice has remained there since time immemorial (Patel et al., 2013).According to Abubakar (1999), over the centuries Africa stockowners, through their own methods of trial and error have learnt a great deal about animal diseases and their treatments.These remedies are define by Mathias and McCorkle (1989) dealing with the folk beliefs, knowledge, skills, methods and practices pertaining to the health care of animals. As reported by Robinson Zhang (2011), 70-95% of the population in the developing countries relies on traditional medicine for main care of their population. Similarly in Ethiopia, traditional medicine are still the most important and sometimes the only sources of remedial for approximately 80% human and more than 90% livestock population (Gidey, 2010). This is regularly practiced in rural areas of Ethiopia due to lack of veterinary clinics, practitioners and absence of regular supply of quality drugs.Most commercial drugs are also expensive for farmers and pastoralists. Therefore, most of the farmers and pastoralists rely on their traditional knowledge, practice and locally available materials (mainly plants) in controlling diseases of their domestic animals (Mirutse, and Gobena.2003). Besides to this, different ethnic groups have their own practices which are often distinct and unique (Mesfin and Obsa, 1994;Hiwet, 2013). ITK is still unexploited resource in the development efforts of Ethiopia (Tesfahun, 2000). Thus, documentation of essential ITK of farmers on agricultural practices in general, livestock husbandry, breeding and trait selection criteria, and traditional remedial practice of farmers in particular is necessary before the elder generation passes awayEthiopia is one of the orgin of of ancient culture and utilizes indigenous traditional knowledge (ITK) as deep-rooted practices along with all part of the society (Hiwet, 2013). Likewise, in Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia, farmers have a long tradition of indigenous knowledge in agricultural practices in general and livestock husbandry, livestock product handling, breed selection, ethno veterinary and soil and water conservation in particular. The region is endowed with large livestock resources with a rich traditional husbandry practices. The livestock husbandry practice has been acquired through experience over years and it is environmentally stable, cost effective and are easily accessible to all members of society from which such practices have been evolved (Banerjee et al., 2014).However, many of our indigenous knowledge and technologies in agriculture and allied fields have been replaced by the so-called modern and skilled technologies and thus the elder peoples do not access them easily. Now these indigenous practices, which are unwritten body of knowledge, are endangered as it is used only by the aged and elderly farmers. Hence, there is a possibility of them to become extinct if not formally documented and preserved (WIPO, 2011).Similarly, in many cases, individuals who are knowledgeable in traditional practices usually try to keep the knowledge secret and remain unwilling to openly teach to others. This is also considered as another problem causing a loss of knowledge to the country, because such traditional peoples are becoming fewer and fewer in number (Mesfin and Obsa, 1994). Indigenous knowledge (IK) is a complex body of knowledge, skills and technology, which belongs to a particular geographical community (Matsika, 2012). IK is expresses traditional knowledge, rural knowledge as well as ethno science (Altieri, 1994). According to Ward (1989),IK is people's science, ethno-science, folk-ecology, village science, and local knowledge.Matsika (2012) goes further to list the main characteristics of IK as:ü A home grown form of knowledge, which is derived from the solution of everyday life problems ü It is part and parcel of a community's cultural practices and ways of life and regularly it is not documented but has passed from one generation to another through oral history Risiro (2013), defined IK as a community based functional knowledge system, developed, preserved and refined by generations of people through continuous interaction, observation and experimentation with their surrounding environment. IK is a dynamic system, ever charming, adopting and adjusting to the local situations and has close links with the culture, civilization and religious practices of the communities (Pushpangadan et al., 2002).Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is an integral part of the culture and history of a local community.It evolved through many years of regular experimentation on the day-to-day life and available resources surrounded by the community (Jena, 2007). It also indicated that it is essential for maintenance of the plant and animal genetic resources for continued survival of the community.The livelihood of rural population mainly depends on IK, which is essential for their survival.This knowledge has been integrated with agriculture activities of the population like, animal husbandry and those days used to practice such knowledge for sustainable development (Mahalik and Mahapatra, 2010).IK is generated by a particular society within a geographical area and it is respected for its ability to solve prevailing problems (Risiro, 2013). Furthermore, IK has been recognized as a valuable input into modern industries such as pharmaceuticals, botanical medicines, cosmetics and toiletries, agriculture and biological pesticides. Most industries look for the time tested traditional knowledge information for developing novel products having commercial acceptability (Kumar and Bijoylaxmi, 2011). IK has been based on practical experience; it can be preserved and harnessed for the benefit of both present and future generations, belonging to humanity in general and its communities in particular (Noyoo, 2007). Risiro (2013) pointed out that the introduction of western education and missionary activities in Africa watered down the value and respect given to indigenous knowledge and cultural beliefs. Some of this knowledge has been regarded as primitive and superstitious even though indigenous knowledge had been respected and practiced by indigenous people on their own custodians and legislators of environmental management. The same author explained that this indigenous knowledge had ensured forests, water resources and animals protected from destruction and extinction. IK plays a substantive part in poverty eradication among communities in different parts of Africa. The knowledge is implicit and thus difficult to systemize it. It is embedded in community practices, institutions, relationships and rituals (Msuya, 2007). Therefore, there is a need to systematically document, validate, standardize and to propagate IK or technologies to reduce dependence on external inputs, to reduce the cost of cultivation and to propagate eco friendly agriculture.Early Ethiopian Civilization serves as an evidence for the extent and rationality of indigenous knowledge (Tesfahun, 2000). The same author reported that domestication of certain crops like coffee, teff and enset and the development of bench terrace system by the Konso nationalities are among important cases of achievements in agriculture. In Ethiopia, traditional farming represents centuries of accumulated experience and skills of peasants who often sustained yields under adverse farming conditions using locally available resources.The country has a written language for over 2000 years and owns over 500 years' old manuscripts, which deal with traditional knowledge concerning public health and veterinary medicine (Tesfahun, 2004). Ethiopia's traditional medicines are faced with problems of continuity and sustainability due to loss of habitats of medicinal plants and loss of indigenous knowledge (Sintayehu, 2011). Therefore, today the issue of medicinal plant conservation, making systematic studies and documentation are obligatory before the accelerated ecological and cultural transformation take place (Endashaw, 2007).According to Hiwet, (2013) Due to inadequate modern veterinary services in Ethiopia and its inaccessibility in most parts of the country, majority of the country's livestock owners mainlydepend on traditional healers and herbalists. Traditional veterinary practices include mechanicalphysical, pharmacological, surgical, rituals and managerial methods of treatment using faunal medicine.The result of a study by Hiwet (2013) from Sidama zone of southern, Ethiopia, points out that the prevalent breeding system of livestock is still the age-old phenotypic selection. Animals were identified based on the color and production traits are correlated with the color and other phenotypic traits. The majority of farmers preferred local cows claiming that the crossbred animals are susceptible to feed shortage, disease and adaptation problem. Banerjee et al. (2014) indicated that common methods of livestock selection are based on phenotypic traits and oral pedigree information about the production performance of the dam.This is because farmers have awareness about heritable attributes of livestock, which included physical, production and behavioral traits in traditional breeding system. Traditional livestock breeders have developed a large variety of institutions and mechanisms for optimizing the genetic quality of their animals within the constraints of their environment (Rollefson, 2000).Pastoralists are exceptional in identifying and recognizing important information about their herds. They have traditional systems of population classification and are aware of the existence of breeds that have not been documented (FAO, 2009) Pastoralists, using long tradition of animal breeding practices, select better quality herds by using certain traditional management practices (castration, culling, offspring testing), and pedigree keeping with social restrictions on the sales of genetically valuable breeding animals that lead to closed gene pool with varieties of selection objectives (FAO, 2003). Kool and Steenbergen (2014) noted that farmers on the highlands focus on the cattle, to produce a strong drafting ox while, pastoralists select a bulls based on the milk productivity of its mother and grandmother, meat and walking abilities (as they go for long-range grazing and watering )and can quickly adapt to survive under harsh environments.A study by Semakula et al, (2010) from Uganda indicated that smallholder goat breeders select bucks based on body size, growth rate, fertility, temperament, color body conformation and tolerance to diseases/parasites, whereas for does they select based on horn shape, body size, fertility, growth rate and color.The results of study by Endashaw et al. (2012) indicates that the mursi and bodi pastoralists of Ethiopia select cows based on their milk yield, coat color, fertility and udder size, whereas bull were selected based on coat color, fertility, body size and horn shape. Shiferaw (2006) reported that Kereyu, cattle owners select animals based on color, giving high importance for white color.Similarly, Shigdef (2011) noted that white and red colors are the preferred coat colors of sheep and goat in the Washera and Fenta districts whereas black color is the least preferred.Helen et al. ( 2013) reported from Eastern Ethiopia (Jijiga and eastern Hararghe) that the majority of the community selected potential breeding rams and ewes from within their herds and selection of rams was more frequent than ewes. The common selection criteria of breeding ram include appearance, growth and coat color with some variation in the order of importance of the selection criteria among production systems. In the crop-livestock mixed production system, appearance is given more weight followed by coat color and growth, whereas in the agro-pastoral system growth is given more emphasis followed by appearance and coat color. In the pastoral production system, appearance, age, fast growth and tail type, which indicates fatrumped sheep are in high demand for religious festivals and export markets. Similarly, Gizaw et al. (2010) has shown that the overall appearance of sheep is an important economic trait that influences price of traditional markets in Ethiopia. Coat color is also an important selection criterion, with difference in the preference of colors between production systems. Red, white or mixed colors were more preferred in the mixed crop-livestock system, while a black head with a white body was preferred in agro-pastoral and pastoral production systems. According to Edea et al. ( 2012), black coat color is mostly unwanted color due to less market value across all the production systems and pure white and red head with white body are unwanted colors in both agro-pastoral and pastoral production systems due to less resistance for drought and disease. Banerjee et al. (2014) indicated that coat color is related to the adaptability and influences the disease tolerance of the livestock, coat color also influences the ability of the livestock to ward away the evil eye, certain coat colors have more market demand than the other do and particular coat color has better ability to tolerate the environmental variations.Studies by Yosef et al (2014) from pastoral communities of Afar and Somali indicates that trait preference of dromedary camels in Afar was milk production, adaptability, breeding efficiency, growth, ability to give birth to more female and draught capacity. In Somali pastoral communities (Gode and Jijiga) milk production and adaptation to give birth to more number of female than male calves and draught capacity ranked third. As opposed to the other study sites where at least milk production is rated as most important trait, Moyale pastoral communities' trait preference indices indicate adaptation to be the priority trait followed by growth and milk yield in their order of importance. In all Somali and most Afar pastoral communities, adaptation trait ranked second in their trait preferences.Breeding goals of traditional societies are far more multifaceted than in intensive productions systems and comprise many aspects other than high productivity with regard to cash products (meat, milk). They can include aesthetic preferences, religious requirements and behavioral aspects, such as a satisfied nature, good mothering capacity, and herd ability, the ability to walk long distances and loyalty to the owner (Köhler-Rollefson, 2000).Local breeds play a multi-functional role in rural livelihoods, contributing cash products and traction. They have also social benefit as \"insurance\" against natural disasters or economic bottlenecks. Furthermore, indigenous breeds may have valuable genes with future commercial potential. This is all true among the breeds kept by pastoralists, who are regularly exposed to stressful conditions and vagaries of nature such as shortages of feed or water, and in spite of all such calamities excel in the survival and fitness when compared to the temperate and crossbred animals (Koehler-Rollefson, 2001).Livestock feed resources used in Ethiopia include natural pasture, crop residue, improved pasture and forage, agro industrial by products and other by-products like food and vegetable refusal, of which the first two contribute the largest feed types (Alemayehu, 2005).According to Belay et al, (2012), the major sources of feed for livestock are natural pasture, crop residue, conserved hay, stubble grazing and nonconventional feeds. Teff (Eragrostisteff) residue in low and medium altitudes and wheat and barley crop residue in the highland areas are main crop residues used as livestock feed. Maize Stover is also an important feed biomass in maize growing areas.The study conducted by Shitahun (2009) in Bure Woreda, Amhara Regional state, indicates that the major dry season feed resources for cattle in the district were natural pasture (55.7 %), crop residues (20.7 %), stubble (14.3 %) and hay (9.3 %). For sheep, 73.6 %, 12.1 %, and 14.3 % of the feed was derived from natural pasture, crop residues, and stubble respectively. For goat, 72.9 % was obtained from natural pasture and 27.1 % from crop aftermath. For donkey, crop residues constituted 65.7 %, natural pasture 17.9 % and aftermath 16.4 %. In the wet season, natural pasture is the sole feed sources of livestock.The feeding system mainly involves free grazing in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas and in the mixed farming systems where grazing land (private or communal) is available. However, in the highland areas, due to the continual shrinking of grazing lands, cut-and-carry system combined with tethering of animals is becoming a common practice. In this latter system of feeding, animals are tethered around the backyard and green forage, hay and crop residues are offered to them. Although grazing on fallow land and cropland after harvest has been a common practice (Tesfaye, 2008), in recent times local bylaws have been enacted preventing free movement of animals in some rural to protect soil and water conservation soil bunds.To mitigate feed shortage farmers indigenously suggested different coping mechanism such as collection and storing of crop-residues (92.16%), preparing of hay from farm boundaries (54.25%), utilizing of browse species(50.93%), utilizing of supplementary feeding either by purchasing or homegrown (44.39%) and selling of older and unproductive animals (28%) in order of importance (Shitahun, 2009). Bakyusa et al., (2012) reported about the feed scarcity coping mechanisms of livestock owners in the urban and peri-urban areas of Uganda. Farmers' major form of herd reduction reported in urban and peri-urban areas of Kampala was selling, relocating animals to the countryside and slaughtering. Similarly, when livestock survival is threatened by different stressing factors, destocking is the obvious first action (Salem & Smith, 2008).Result of study by Seid and Berhan (2014) from Burjiworeda, Segenzuria zone of south Ethiopia indicated that 24% of the livestock owners relied on stored crop residues during feed scarcity periods and about 55% depend both on migration and natural pasture. Thus, the strategies to cope with feed shortage in dry and wet seasons were feeding on farm residues and on natural pasture. Also 40% in highland, 21.7% in mid-altitude and 25% in lowlands send their animals to others areas of ample natural pasture. About 30% in highland, 10% in mid-altitude and 40% in lowlands resist the condition through relaying on both farm residues and natural pasture.Milk is the most complete food item since its great biological value and contains a variety of nutrients. These nutrients in milk make it naturally most nearly perfect food (Kassahun and Fekadu, 2009). On the other hand, milk is the most easily contaminated and perishable product of animal origin (Abebe, 2011). This is mainly due to its high nutritional value, which creates favorable environment for growth and multiplication of pathogenic microorganisms and facilitates spoilage of milk. Thus, the major factors affecting dairy product quality is associated with the hygienic standard of milking and milk handling procedures and equipments.Asamenew and Eyasu (2009) stated that the majority of dairy cooperatives in Bahir Dar Zuria and Mecha Woredas, Northwestern Ethiopia wash their hands and milk vessels before milking cows. However, washing of udders and use of towel to clean the udder had not been practiced, furthermore the same author indicated that milkers dip their fingers into the vessel containing milk and moisten teats of the cows while milking.Similarly, Abebe (2011) reported that not all respondents in Ezha district of Gurage zone, Southern Ethiopia cleaned udder before milking. In the same district (87.5%) of respondents, cleaned milking equipment but the source of water (86.7%) is from river, which may be a source of contamination and increase the microbial load of the milk. In addition, the practice of washing hands after milking was also low in mid land areas of the same region (48.3%).Milk processing is an important mechanism to the preservation of food constituents as sources of nutrients and cash for many people in the world. Milk processing is usually designed to remove water from milk or reduce the moisture content of the product (Abebe et al., 2013).Butter making is an ancient practice and farmers in Ethiopia have accumulated rich traditional knowledge on possessing milk into butter. The common traditional practice is to accumulate the daily milk in clay pot for few days until a sufficient amount of soured milk is obtained, and then the soured whole milk is churned by shaking the pot for several hours. Butter is used for cash Abraha, (2012) from northern part of Ethiopia identified various herbs when smallholder farmers were using to wash and smoke milk utensils. To reduce milk spoilage plants such as Achyranthes aspera (Mechalo), haypoests forskaolii (Gribya), and Cucumis prophertarum) Olea europaea (Awulie) and Rhus glutinosa (Tetalo) were used. These plants were used either for sanitation or fumigation purpose. Similarly, major tree species used for smoking of milk handling and processing utensils identified included Accacia etbaica (Seraw), haypoests forskaolii (Gribya) Dodoneae angustifohia (Tahises) and Olea europaea ( Awulee) (Abraha, 2012). Cleaned and smoked containers have been reported to pertain anti-microbial properties and prolong shelf life of cow milk (Ashenafi 1996). Beside to that milk handled and processed in smoked utensils had pleasant flavor and taste. Regular smoking of milk handling utensils slows down fermentation process (Tesfaye, 2007). Tradtional dairy products are unquiclly processed and consumed differently according to the culture of various regions of Ethiopia. Hiwet ( 2013) noted that traditional products such as the fermented milk (Ergo) consumption pattern of Arbrgona and and Lokabaya woredas of sidama zone was differ. In Lokabaya Ergo was not consumed because of traditional preferences but gender difference was observed, in Arbrgona woreda. Ergo is given to male member of the family and guests. Abraha, (2012) also documented that the milk consumption pattern of southern Tigray highlands were hindered by insufficient amount of milk production and cultural restriction. However, majority of the dairy owners were intimated with their neighbours and they share animal products like the priceless life saving 'tsimbahlela and yoghurt during emergencies. Dairy products play important social and cultural roles. For example, farmers to drink milk products alone, particularly after long fasting periods, for that matter every dairy owner do distribute about 3 to 5 litters of milk for his neighbour as gift just in every holidays like Easter, Ashenda, New-year, Christmas and/or Epiphany. Besides ploughing oxen was shared to neighbours in the rural and periurban areas that kept strong social bond.  experience method besides, in most sub-Saharan African countries, more than 80% of the population uses the services of traditional healthcare practitioners in combination with conventional healthcare systems (Soewu and Ayodele, 2009).Tick and tick born diseases (TBD) are widely distributed parasites throughout the world particularly in tropical and subtropical countries, which cause bacterial diseases and great economic losses in livestock industries (Seyoum, 2001). However, the stockowners use herbals with combination of other modern medicine to control tick invasion in their stock. The result of studies by Gbolahan et al ( 2012), from logos state, Nigeria noted that Fulani pastoral were unsatisfied control of Tick by only improved technologies. The poor farmers' modern methods of treatment using acaricide, pour-on preparation, slow-release implants, and premunization are viable, only on a small scale, Cost, scarcity, and difficulty of application. Then cattle herdsmen by their own way combined indigenous strategies with conventional strategies to control ticks invasion on cattle. As reported, indigenous strategies adopted by the herdsmen to control ticks were, use of fire with insecticide, use of fire with kerosene, use of kerosene only and use of fire only in order of respective importance.Similarly, Achenef Melaku, (2013) from north Gonder, Ethiopia, reported that Stockowners use nine potential medicinal herbs to control tick invasion with most commonly used Zikita (Calpurnia aurea) and Birbira (Millettia ferruginea) that could be used to kill or repel ticks. Ticks and tick borne diseases as well as, tsetse and trypanosomiasis, are two major parasitic vector borne disease complexes with very serious effects on livestock production and productivity in the sub Saharan Africa (Mattioli et al, 2000).According to Abubakar (1999), many traditional farmers have their own folk knowledge of immunology. Russian Cossacks, Arabs and Indian camel keepers effectively vaccinate their camels against pox variola using variolation. The Indians use scabs from an infected animal and suspended in milk. A needle then dipped in this vaccination solution and inoculated into the young camel in the lips. The Arabs use thorns from acacia plants for inoculation.The Somali pastoralists immunize their animals against rinder-pest by employing a solution of urine, milk and faeces obtained from animal with mild cases of rinderpest while Fulani infuse a piece of infected lung in the muzzle of immunizing against rinder-pest (McCorkle, et al., 1996).Plants and other substances used as wound dressings. For instance in Sri Lanka, wounds are dressed with crushed fresh turmeric cooked in oil of Azadiracticaindica leaves. The Maasai healers cleanse their livestock wounds with hot water and suture with thorns held in place by tendons (Abubakar, 1999).In the same way, Ethiopia has glorious tradition of health care system based on plants, which dates back to several millennia. Medicinal plants and traditional medicine play an important role in the health care system like most developing countries (Regassa, 2013).Cattle owners in Ethiopia have long been aware of serious diseases such as desta (rinderpest), aftegir (foot and mouth disease), abasenga (anthrax), abagorba (blackleg), gendi (trypanosomosis) and diseases caused by internal and external parasites, and of the zoonotic nature of diseases such as anthrax and rabies. Before the introduction of modern veterinary practice, traditional healers were usually the only people approached to attend to these livestock diseases. The various traditional practices included prevention of diseases, recognition of toxic plants, surgical intervention and crude vaccination methods (Mesfin and Obsa, 1994).It has stated that most of the modern day medicines including the discovery of coffee have attributed to observations made on livestock by the traditional rearers. Ethno veterinary medicines are mainly administered to livestock orally as decoctions, liquid in that the plants have been steeped, vaccination, suppositories, through smoke, vapours, massage, intranasal or applied topically on the skin or as a bathe in skin problems (Dilshad et al., 2008).According to Yirga et al, (2012) leaves are frequently used as part of the ethno veterinary medicine evenennn tails roots, rhizomes, bulbs, barks, stems or whole parts have effects on the survival of the mother plants. Similarly, Mirutse and Gobena (2003), from northern Ethiopia noted that leaves and roots are the most commonly used plant parts in the preparation of remedies accounting for 70% and 35% of the total medicinal plants.Most of the plants are collected from wild. While only few are cultivated in home garden besides the plant parts used for livestock health treatment in western Ethiopia are leaves take upper hand (57.14%), bark (14.28%), seed and root collectively 14.28%), whole plant (7.14%), root only (7.14%) (Haile and Delenasa, 2007).The result of studies by Hiwet,(2013)from southern Ethiopia indicates the plant part used in preparation of traditional remedies, leaf only accounts (62.2%) followed by vessel xylem (16.2%) and the route of administration are oral application (55%)followed by dermal and oral (18%). In addition, preparation method of traditional medicine are concoction, squeezing (50%), crushing and pounding (26%) and crushing by hand, only (12%) are the main processes.Local people use different type of remedy preparation and application to treat livestock disease (Behailu, 2010). The techniques used for preparation includes squeezing, crushing, squeezing followed by concoction and crushing followed by concoction and direct harvesting. However, Endashaw (2007) from west showa of Ethiopia noted that root was the most common part used by the traditional healer.The study was conducted in the Endamohoni woreda of southern zone of Tigray region located at at 12° 47' N and 39° 32' E. (see Figure 1). The woreda is located 621 km north of Addis Ababa and 121 km south of Mekelle, sit of the Tigray regional state The population of the district is estimated to be 93,521, (47201 males & 46320 females). The district has a total of 615-km 2 area of which the cultivated and grazing land accounts for 29.25%and 23.52% of the district, respectively (SZT, 2014).According to SZT (2012) report the estimated cattle, sheep, goats, donkey, and chiecken population is 77921 heads, 71333, 64541, 29053 and 92,071, respectively. There exist 17,836beehives. The major feed resources in the area are natural pasture, crop residues (wheat, barley and, teff straw, sorghum and maize stover), hay and cactus peals (SZT, 2014).The Woreda was purposively selected based on its contrasting agro-ecologies and potential of being the source of traditionally knowledgeable peoples who for generations have been associated with livestock rearing. Six kebeles were selected based on agroecology and livestock population size. Accordingly, Tsibet and Embahasti from highland agroecology Hizibateklehaymanot and Simret from midland while Nekah and Dum fromlowlandshave been included in the study (see Figure1).The study was conducted between December 2014 and July 2015. A rapid reconnaissance survey was made prior to the actual survey. This was helpful to have prelimanry information for the structured survey, through which the distribution and population of livestock, major husbandry practices and number of ethno-veternary practitioners were identified. The data were collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary source included questioner survey, observation, interview and focus group discussion. Secondary sources comprised published and unpublished materials.Key informants (indigenous knowledge practionars) were identified after preliminary discussion with households in each of the 6 kebeles. From the discussions in general information about livestock production practices in the area such as livestock feeding management, product handling, and production constraints were gathered. Data on indigenous knowledge on livestock husbandry practices were gathered by interviewing key informants of the community using a semi structured open-ended questionnaire. These respondents were mainly male elders above 50 years. From 25 to 30 elders per kebele were selected with a total of 175 respondents for the data collection through the survey questionnaire. Development agents (DA's) from each kebeles were selected and were trained to support and collect the survey work. In the survey, households were asked to show their feeding method, product handling, breeding strategies, selection criteria for production and reproduction traits, medicinal plants and way of preparation. The group discussion comprised of nine informants' two groups per kebele, each group comprisized twelve-discussion groups in total.Video recorders were used to ensure the reliability of the interviews. The leaf and flower specimens of medicinal plants were collected according to standard procedures and sent to the National Herbarium for species identification and verification. After completing the questionnaires for each kebele, an informal meeting was held with the key informants for triangulation.The data was analyzed using statistical package for social science Inc (SPSS, 2007, version 16).Socioeconomic results were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, standard error of mean. To make comparisons among different groups one way ANOVA were employed.Differences were declared for significance at P < 0.05. The highest number of responses or respondents was given the a and the lowest number of the responses (respondents) the c of variables.The other data being of qualitative type was analzed using non-parametric test-chisquare, the results were tabulated using percentage, also index, and rank is used for reporting purpose.Indices were calculated to provide ranking for purpose of livestock rearing, livestock production constraints and milk selling differences among agroecologies as the follows:Rn = the last rank (example if the last rank is 5 th , then Rn = 5, Rn-1 = 4, R1 = 1).Cn = the number of respondents in the last rank, for all as (Endashaw et al., 2012).The household characteristics of livestock owners in the study area are presented in Table 3.The mean family size of the three agroecologies was 6.5±0.24, 5.8±0.26, 6.6±0.34 in highland, midland and lowland, respectively.Most of the respondents participating in livestock husbandry practice in all agroecologies were males. The mean age of respondents in the studied site was 60.6±1.23 in the highland, 58.8±0.86 in the midland and 57.93±1.01 in the lowland.Regarding to educational level, the majority of the respondents 55% in the highland, 50% in the midland, and 74% in the lowland agroecologies were illiterates, whereas 30% in the highland, 18.33% in the midland and 21.82% in the lowland were able to read and write.About 3.33%, of the respondents in the highland had junior and 1.66% above junior high school education. Similarly 6.66%, and 3.33%, of the respondents from midland had junior and above junior high school education, respectively. However, respondents from lowlands had no regular education. Relatively, educational level is better in midland agroecology compared to rest agroecologies. The land holding and its use pattern in the different agroecologies are shown in Table 4. The land allocated for rain-fed crop production ranged from 0.67 (lowland) to 0.81 (midland), whereas that allocated for irrigated crop production ranged from 0.11 (lowland) to 0.19 (highland). The mean fallow landsize was 0.35 ha in the highland and 0.08 ha in the midland, but none in the lowland. The communal land was about four times higher in the lowland than the highland. Table 5 shows the number of livestock holding per household in the study area by agroecology.The composition of livestock holding varied considerably between agroecologies. Sheep and cattle were the dominant ruminants in the highland, while goat and cattle were mainly kept in the lowland. Crossbred cattle, improved chicken and horses were absent from the lowland households. Table 6 presents the purpose of livestock keeping by smallholder farmers in the study area. Four major livestock functions, namely draft power, food of animal origin, cash income and social values were listed and prioritized by the respondents. According to the ranking index, draft power was the priority purpose in the highland and midland agroecology followed by animal product for foods and cash income.However, in the lowland agroecology animal source foods (milk and meat) were ranked first followed by the social value and draft power of livestock .In addition to this, in the highland agroecology livestock served as source of organic manure for soil fertility, hide and skin used for various uses. Oxen were reared mainly for ploughing crop landsand they are often sold when there is feed scarcity and shortage of money for essential household expenditures towards the end of the crop cultivation period. Livestock products specially milk play a major role in daily home consumption as food item sauce (\"weti\") and furthermore old parents consume milk in coffee.The study also indicates that livestock in lowland areas serve an important function as a source of gifts/dowry/in marriage. In this community, there is norm that before asking somebody's girl for marriage, the boy's family considers the number of livestock that the girl's family possesses.Similarly, when they select their leader, the community focuses on the livestock number that the candidate owned. Respondents explained that there is a saying in the district about the leader whom they want to elect \"If he wins in his home he can win in his way\". They assume that anyone who is model in his home by owning a number of livestock, he is model for the village and can lead well.Respondents assumed that the one who has a good number of livestock in his home works without corruption, transparently, democratically and can serve the community equally as a person in charge. Respondents in the lowland traditionally believe that one who had a better livestock number in his home, if he does a any unfair decision, God will take his wealth. In the group, discussion key informants made it clear that the milk product (butter) is a main source of income besides serving as animal protein by providing regular liquid cash for purchasing home items. It is also a culture in the study area to give milk and milk products (butter) as gifts for neighbors in local ceremonies and holidays.The results in Table 7 indicate that feed shortage was the number one constraint for livestock production in all the three agroecologies. Land shortage was the second constraints inhighland and midland agroecologies. Livestock disease was ranked the third main constraint in the highland and midland, whereas it was ranked 2 nd in the lowland. Results from the study indicated that in all the three agro-ecologies farmers predominantly used natural mating for breeding of animals (93.14%). Some respondents reported that traditionally they try to select breeding males based on pedigree histrory of the animals. Respondents are traditionally well awared of the negative impact of inbreeding. To control inbreeding, they castrate undeserible male animals, and also purchase and introduce male breeding animals from the market while separating males from the same line during heat period.During group discussions, key informants in the highland indicated that communal grazing land is being converted in to cropland and households are forced to keep their livestock near the homestead.Out of 175 farmers interviewed in the three agro-ecologies, 41.7% of the households in highland 38.3%, in the midland and 70% in the lowland kept their own breeding males. Where breeding males were not kept, farmers (30-48%) got the service from neighbours or from free mating on communal grazing lands. In contrast to above, 20% of midland respondents and (6.86% of total)got the servce from artificial inseminetion for cattles.The common system of livestock trait selection in the study areas are still the age-old phenotypic selection (Table 8). The major criteria for the selection of dairy cows and heifers in the three agro-ecologies were the presence of well-structured udder and long teat. According to the respondents, cows with long teat are easy to milk and reduce milk contamination by reducing spraying of milk in the milkers' hand. Respondents indicated that cows and heifers with, thin slender neck, big udder and good mammary line on cow's belly denote high milk yields in cattle.Other important selection criteria stated by the respondents in lowland agroecology were large open nostrils, hair whorl and its position and coat color. Cows with high hair whorls are believed to produce more milk yield, are fast growing and their calves are active than low hair whorl. Respondents have their own belief on position of hair whorl. It must be either on the middle of backbone or preferably near to the hump.Respondents from highland and midland agro-ecologies consider soft, flexible and finely collapsed udder after milking, and long and thin tail with clean cut and plenty of hair at the end as selection criteria for dairy cows and heifers. In addition to this some key informants mentioned, that small size of horn is better to adapt the environment. Additionally, some key informants stated the nose of dairy cow should be black in color, which farmers' belive helps in grazing because black nose have strong skin than other one. Hair whorl near to hump or at the center 8.9 8.7Hence, animals are preferred based on the physical body size and structure, color and production traits like, udder and teats size and structure, tail and similar appendixes. and the second cause was poor productive performance in highland and midland. In lowland agroecology, coat color of livestock was the second reason of culling. Animals with black and white colored are culled out.Traditional farmers stated that black animals have no acceptance on the market, as well as completelywhite colored animals do not tolerated adverse environment. Respondents also stated that white colored animals were easily attacked by leech and by evil eye.This study also indicated that respondents from lowland agro-ecology confirmed animal which have hair whorl near hipbone or which have exceptionally seven teeth culled directly. Because the farmers traditionallybelieved that animals which have hair whorl on hipbone decrease the age of the owner. In opposite to the above the animal that has hair whorl near to hump was believed to increase the life of the owner & kept for long period. Respondents reported that castration was one of the most important livestock husbandry practice in the study area. Traditional healers do the practice of castration using locally available materials.The objectives of castration in the study area were indicated in Figure 2. In the lowland agroecology, the main goals are to make the animal docile, for fattening purpose, to improve disease resistance, and to control breeding (selection mechanism) in their order of importance. To control breeding, farmers castrate animals like calves with abnormal testicles, thin calves and black coat colored. Farmers castrated their goats in addition to gain body weight to reduce the smell of the goat meat.Figure 2: Purpose of livestock castration in the study areaThe woreda has only one veterinary clinic. Since the size of the woreda is large and has, many up and doun geographical feature, the veterinary service coverage is limited to city areas.Modern medicine is not accessible in the villages where the huge livestock resource is kept.Therefore, the most important way of treating livestock is use of traditional medicine. The respondents in the woreda identified 17 diseases, which are common in their locality, but As documented in Appendex 2, the most common disease reported were antrax, blackleg, foot and mouth disease, pnemounic pasteurellosis,foot rot, mastitis, external and internal parasites, tick, leech, and various injures. Key informants from the lowlands reported that to treat black leg they use crushesd Solanum marginatum, and Justicia schimperiana and administer through oral routes while others apply Phytolacca dodecandra through nasal route. Respondents also reported tick is a serious problem in the study area. To control ticks they used Calpurnia aurea and Phytolacca dodecandra making a concoction from leaves of both palnts they wash the whole body until the ticks died.Therefore, traditional healers of the study area played significant role in the health care system of the animals in the community. They have been treating livestock of resource poor people who had no access of veterinary service or could not pay the cost for modern medications.Farmers have walked a long distance with their sick animals if they have to get veterinary service, which brings additional stress on the animals. In addition, respondents stated that there was deficit of medicine in clinics and some diseases have no treatment at all for example evil eye, hand of man and rabies. However, respondents believed that traditional healers have remedy and preventive approach for most of ailments. The results in Table 11 indicate that ethno veterinary practices are mainly transferred from elders to their children, and to some extent from neighbor. In the present study, about sixty-five types of plant species (Appendix 1) have been identifiedas useful plants for ethno veterinary practices. Of the total identified medicinal plants, most of them (81.1%) were found to be growing in wild vegetation; where as a small number of plants are cultivated as home garden and near home farms.The result of the study also confirmed that leaves are the most commonly used plant parts to make traditional medicine followed by roots. Uses of other plant parts are indicated in Figure 3. Respondents also stated that use of leaves help for sustainable harvesting of plants compared with using roots of medicinal plants.The respondents also farther stated that the majority of the remedies are prepared from freshly collected plants in the form of concoction or other forms with the use of solvents or diluents.Water is the most common solvents used. Human saliva and urine as well as milk and butter are also reported as solvents or additives in the preparation of remedies. The medicines are prepared either from single plant alone, with combination of plants and by adding other substances like water, butter, honey, milk and local brewery residues Appendix2.The dosage and proportion of mixtures prepared by the traditional practitioners usually remain secret. According to the healers, when preparing the dosage of concoction for livestock, mostly they focused on livestock species, body condition, physiological status, sex and age. Animals with good body condition and higher age are usually served with higher amount and concentrated concoction than younger and emaciated ones.The healers reported that they are well aware of toxicity due to over dosage. So that they used locally available materials to measure the dosages before administering for animals like finger length for root, number, for leaf, teaspoon, for powder, coffee cup ,plastic highlands, and bottle Traditional healers stated that animals in treatment require rest and quality feed to recover from their illness furthermore the recovery is tested by ability of feed intake, fecal smell, color and concentration, coughing condition, movement of animal, rumination and fever.The respondents reported that crushing and squeezing (45.3%), concoction and squeezing  The most common administration methods of traditional medicine in the study area is oral (47.1%) followed by dermal, nasal, anal and ocular as indicated in Figure 5.The respondents in the study area also indicated that use of fresh materials directly harvested are more effective than stored,as it has no chance of deterioration through preservation.Moreover, concoction made up of many plants has a higher effectiveness than that prepared from a single plant. The respondents reported that the majority of the preparations are made from assortment of plant species with water and different additive substances like honey, butter, salt, local brewery residues, barley powder and milk. These additive substances have functions to reduce poisons, improve flavor and as antidotes during adverse effects like diarrhea.. The causes of threats to medicinal plants were natural and human induced factors. However, as reported in this study most of the causes for the threats to medicinal plants and associated knowledge are the anthropogenic factors, which threaten the survival of medicinal plant species.These include cutting and burning of plants to create new agricultural lands, prolonged dry season, free grazing and firewood in the three agro ecologies of study site. However, the study also indicated significant difference in the threat to medicinal plant between the three agroecologies.In the highland and midland agroecologies agricultural expansion is rated as the primary threat to medicinal plants whereas prolonged dry season is the most economical factor in lowland agroecology followed by over grazing by animals. Respondents from highland agroecology also reported, dominance of planting of eucalyptus and juniprusprosera caused some of the medicinal plants to disappear in the areas where they were abundant earlier. Respondents of the three agroecologies also noted declining of practitioners have a negative impact on medicinal plant conservation especially on midland agroecology. The types of livestock feed resources during dry and wet season in the study area are indicated in Table 13. The major feed resources in the studied areas during dry seasons included natural pasture, crop residue, hay, aftermath, improved grasses and legume trees, cactus, home wastes with \"atela\" and supplemental concentrates. The importance of the different feed resources varied across the three agroecologies. Respondents from high land reported that natural pasture, hay, crop residues (barley, wheat, and pulse straw) and aftermath were the basic livestock feed in order of importance. In addition to this, some respondents used improved grasses (elephant grass) and tree legume (tree lucerne) and home wastes for their animals.Supplementation of salt is common practice in this agroecology to increase intake of crop residues.In the midland agroecology, respondents mentioned that natural pasture, crop residue (barley, wheat, teff, and pulse straw) with maize and sorghum Stover), cactus and aftermath in their order of significance. In the highland agroecology, next to natural pasture, farmers' utilized hay since there was large area enclosure (watershed) which was protected from animals and used as cut and carry system.In the midland, next to natural pasture crop residue and cactus are important feed resources.In the same way, there was better utilization of home waste with atella and supplementation of concentrate from Maychew town. In the lowland agroecology, next to natural pasture, livestock relied on cactus, crop residue, hay and aftermath supplementation of salt is less.   Feed scarcity was reported to be relatively higher during dry season as compared to the wet season in all agroecologies. However, in the highland agroecology the magnitude of feed scarcity during wet season was exceptionally high (45%) compared to the midland (30%), and the lowlands (5.45%). In this agroecology, according to the respondents, feed shortage was a serious problem from June to end of July, during which crop residue reservesare ususally finished and collecting grasses from mountains and hilly sidesbecomes difficult as it is highly slippery and inaccessible when it rains.This was supported by focus group discussion.Key informants reported that during the wet season, the quantity of weeds and leaves collected from crop lands was not sufficient to fulfil their feed demands. Moreover, the price of straw in local market is highly expensive, as the reserve becomes depleted from most of the households and the supply is low.In midland agroecology, also there was competition of straw with the construction sector.This is mainly attributed to the farmers' proximity to Maychew town. Weeds, and leaves, natural pasture, crop residue, home waste, cactus fruit residue, traditional brewery residue (Atela) and concentrate were other sources utilized. Farmers in the lowland agroecology have large communal grazing land holding in contrast to the other sites, and livestock mainly rely on grazing on natural pasture and cactus.In lowland agroecology, feeds shortage during wet season was not critical as long as the rain distribution is normal. On the other hand, during the dry season, feed shortage is more common in the lowlands (91%) than the rest, as the availability of natural pasture goes down with the dryness of the soil.Lowland farmers mentioned traditional mechanisms to minimize the effects of water shortage on livestock as indicated bellow in Table17). Respondents in the studied area used different types of shelters for their livestock like Corral/fences with plastic or grass cover, house made up of stone/wood with wood, leaves and soil cover (Hidmo), with the family house together and houses with corrugated iron sheet cover as indicated in Table 18.Feeding and watering facilities are among the basic facilities required in livestock shelter.However, only 3 % of the livestock owners in the midland area had both feeding and watering troughs, while about 33.3 and 12% of the respondents in highland and midland,respectively, had locally made feeding troughs in the shelter. Moreover, in the highland agroecology, with help of African rising project initiative, about 23.3% of the farmers have well-designed feeding troughs for cattle and feed storage shed for straws in Tsibet and Embahasti kebele.  Although in midland agroecology were better than others were, the housing condition in many of the respondents were damp, dirty and generally unhygienic.This study indicated that respondents mainly focus on cow milk in highland and midland while, cow milk followed by goat milk in low lands. Except in lowland agroecologies, cows were milked twice a day by exercising suckling before milking (Table : 19). Besides, farmers practice milking of cows with die calves (95%, 90% and 81.8%) in highland, midland and lowland respectively. Respondnts reported cows reject milking in the absence of their calves; however, respondents milk their cow by means of creating artificial dolls (Hubihub) as indicated below. Respondents from lowland reported that in case cows refused their calves, (mifinfan) farmers traditionally used diverse kinds of mechanism to alter the behavior of the cow like using of herbals. Farmers apply leaves of Urticasimensison (am-ae) in vulva of the cow and then the fluids from vulva wiping on body of the calves. Respondents reported that when vulva of the cow contact with leaves of am-ae, cow irritated and accept her calf. Creating of strong sound suddenly in night also mentioned to change the behavior of the cow. The results indicated that about 97, 100 and 95% of farmers in the highland, midland and lowland, respectively, reported to washing their hands and milk utensils before milking their cows. However, practice of washing udder and using towel was insignificantin the highland (4%) and in the midland (17%)while not reported in lowlands. In the focus group discussion, key informants reported that suckling of calves serve as cleaning of udder. Farmers believe that washing of udder could cause drying and irritation on udder of cows, and leads to disease of teat in cows, and reduce the amount of milk. About 98%, in the highland, 77% in the midland and 93% in the lowland respondentsin, dip their fingers in the milking utensils(at the time of milking) in order to avoid pain on teats at the time of milking. Traditional milking utensils used in study sites were \"Carfo\" made up of wood (Figure 10) in highland and midland Gourd (\"Beshay)\" also in the low land agroecological zones.(Kiliawe)Euclearacemosaand(Hahot) Rumexnervous), RamboRambo (Cucumisprophertarum) Grbiya preference of these shrubs are different in the three agroecologies (Table 21). Respondents in the studied area also practice smoking of milking and milk handling utensils regularly with specific plants (Table 22). The plants identified and used for smoking purpose are (Hasiti) Erica arborea (Awliee) Oleaeuropaea, (Tahises) Dodonea angustifolia (Chiliaen)Cadiapurpurea and (Seraw) Acacia etbaica. Smoking was also reported to give a good flavor to the product and disinfect the vessels, thereby reducing the microbial load and therefore extending the shelf life of the product. Respondents from highland explained that smoking milk processing (churning) utnsile's by (Hasiti) Erica arborea) make easy to fat collection, increases the amount, and improve aroma and taste of milk as well as shelf life of milk. The result also shows respondents add root of Urticasimensis (am-ae) to facilitate churning process.Cucumisprophertarum (ramborambo') to speed up fermentation and improve the quality of yoghurt. Zehneriascabra (hargeresha) also acts as a disinfectant and cleaning plants.Olea europaea served both to cleaning and to smoking milk vessels. Respondents from the midland area stated thatsmoking milk processing utensil with Cadiapurpurea (Chili-aen)changes the color of butter from gold to reddish color and it is attractive and increase the price of butter in the market when compared with other butter. However, the treatment does not have effect on the quantity of butter produced. Respondents from the lowland agroecology also stated that Cadiapurpureaan important tasting and disinfecting agent. During focus group discussions, it was reported that the skill of a women is measured by her abilities to handle milk and milk products properly.In three-agroecologies, women are involved in processing of dairy products and in highland, they churn milk once a week for extraction of butter and respondents from midlands indicated that, they churn milk twice a week. Although respondent from lowland reported that, they churn milk every second day based on amount of milk collected.In the study areas, the reason of milk processing is almost similar with some difference in midland agroecology. This is due to cultural restriction, to get income from sell of butter, to get diverse products (fermented milk, butter, skimmed milk, whey, butter oil and dedicated milk (\"Hazo\") traditionally prepared food) and to increase shelf life of dairy products. In the three agroecologies, raw milk processing is a cultural practice since the dairy products consumption has classified. Highland agroecologies, women and adult females are culturally restricted from using of fresh milk, fermented milk and skimmed milk, thus they were limited only using of whey and butter.In highland respondents (40%) stated that fresh milk and fermented milk, was not recommended to drunk for the reason of butter preference and cultural practice.Incase fresh milk and fermented milk were allowed for husband and adult males. However, in case of butter, priority is given for women than husband and adult males for smearing of hair. This is very common in all agroecologies of the study site with special attitude of \"Raya culture\" which obligated women and adult females to smear their hair always with butter. In Rayaculture, women's and adalt femels practice traditional mokebath (\"Maetena\") with utilization of butter  The result also indicated that in midland agroecology, except old parents, majority of family members consume fresh milk and fermented milk. Priority is given to husband and adult males followed by children. While in lowland agro ecology, similar to highland agroecology women and adult females restricted from consuming of fresh milk and fermented milk but they consume skimmed milk, whey and butter too. In this agroecolgy contrary to the highland agroecology, husband and adult males did not consume skimmed milk, as they believe that it is \"dead milk\".In all the three-agroecologies old parents prefere to consume whey or boiled skimmed milk rather than other milk products. Because culturally they believe that old, parents cannot digest fresh milk and fermented milk products (irgo).During focus group discussion key informants supported those believes that the digestive system of old people could be affected easily so every feed given to them should be cooked (skimmed milk) unless, the health of old parent would be influenced. Hazo is dedicated buttermilk prepared with spices and powder of roasted barely to extend shelflife and to provide special aroma and flavour for special occasions like religious and sociocultural festivals. The composition also varies according to household wealth and experience.In holidays, most of dairy owners provide hazo gifts to their neighbours. There were different plant species reported for fermented buttermilk ('hazo') making in the study areas like, Red onion (Keyhshinkurti), Garlic (Tsaedashinkurti) green pepper (Qaria), herb of grace (Chena adam), safflower (Suf), roasted barley (Tihini Beso) and fenugreek (Aba'eke).Similarly, butter oil ('Sihum') is prepared from cows or goats' milk was a special ingredient of holiday dish in majority of the traditional farmers in the three agroecologies. Butter oil is used to enrich the taste and nutritional quality of various foods either in cooking or as a spread on the finished food. Besides to its nutritional value, its ease of storage make butter oil more preferred asset as it could be stored for about a year shelf life with minimum spoilage. Its low moisture content and the various spices added served as preservative and provided attractive aroma and flavour. These spice included Cardamom (Korerima), Onion (Keyhshinkurti), Garlic (Tsaedashinkurti), Turmeric (Erdi) and Fenugreek (Aba'eke).As observed during the current study, the sale of fresh whole milk was a restricted practice in highland and lowland agroecologies Table 23. Cultural restrictions (taboos) and butter preference were the primary reasons in the highland and in the lowland, whereas low milk production and butter preference was the main marketing problem in midland agroecology.On the other hand, respondents stated that they sold butter regularly to buy agricultural materials food items and washing detergents. The results presentd in Table 3 indicated that males are mainly participating on livestock husbandry practice. Females have low participation in indigenous livestock husbandry practice compared to males, female focus on home activities, like food preparation, fetching of water and care of babies. The results observed in this study are in agreement with observations of Yirga et al., (2012;Yaried et al., 2014;Abraha, 2015) from different part of Ethiopia who reported that females are focus in door farming activities. The average age of the respondents, also indicate that the active labor forces are not participating in livestock production and husbandry practice. The present finding is in agreement with the report of Yirga, et al. (2012),and Banerjee et al. (2014) who stated that the younger generations were not interested to continue the traditional agricultural practice.The study indicated that level of literacy across the three agroecologies differed, being better in the midland compared to highland and lowland agroecologies. This may be due to accessibility of the agroecology to the zonal town of Maychew and educational facilities better in Maychew area. The number of average illiterates observed in this study (59.24%) was higher than that reported for Bure woreda (39.3%) of Northwest Amhara (Fisseha et al. 2010a). However, this is lower than that reported for North West Ethiopia (82.1%) Halima, (2007) while it is closely, agrees with reported of Hailemichael ( 2013) 68.57% of illiteracy from the southern zone of Tigray.The mean family size of the study area was generally higher than the national average of 4.6 persons (CSA, 2011). Asaminew and Eyassu, (2009), reported higher average family size of 7.7 person per household from northern Ethiopia. Our finding agrees with the Tigray regional state report of livelihoods in the year 2007, which states that the mean middle wealth (income) household size in southern part of Tigray was 6-7 people per household.Respondents in three-agroecologies reared different types of livestock species (cattle, sheep, goat, equines and chickens). This is may be to use variesof feed resourcr and reduce risk of animals drop. In the highland and midland agroecologies sheep and cattle were given priority while in the lowland agroecology goats and cattle were the dominant ones. This is similar with result of Rota and Speradini, ( 2009) reported that farmer own diversified livestock species reduce risk of livestock loses. Except, the mean number of donkey and honeybee colonies, the livestock holding in the present study area were significantly different across the agoecologies.The mean numbers of sheep in highlands are higher than lowlands owing to the suitability of the environment for sheep rearing. This observation agrees with Fsahatsion et al. (2013) who noted that the sheep number is high in highland than lowland.Possessing large number of animal is considered as security. The number of animals owned per household is indicative of the owners' social status. Endashaw et al, (2012) also noted that keeping large number of cattle is believed to contrubting assest accumulations, as livestock are banks on hoof. Respondents from the three agroecologies reported there is an increase in the number of sheep and goats over the years. This may be due to their ability to graze and browse easily in very sloppy and unproductive areas where as cattle could not utilize. In addition, small ruminants require small initial investments to begin herding. These findings are in line with those of Sahana et al (2004) and Fikrete (2008) who reported that sheep and goat have the ability of using diverse feed resources, capacity of adaptation to environment and low risk of diseases.During focus group discussion, key informants further explained that sheep and goats have advantages over cattle because of their short reproductive cycle (more prolific, less gestation interval), small farm area requirement per head, flexible short-term investment and easy marketability compared to cattle. Helen et al. (2013) stated that small ruminants have a unique niche in smallholder agriculture due to the fact that they require small investments; have shorter production cycles, faster growth rates and greater environmental adaptability as compared to cattle.Large number of animals owned by respondents in the study areas is believed to provide guaranty for draft power, family consumption (milk and meat), income as well as fulfilling diverse social functions in the three agroecologies. Asaminew and Eyassu, 2009;FAO, 2009, Tadesse, et al. 2014, Hailemichael, 2013) reported from different part of Ethiopia, livestock were reared for draft power, sources of food (animal protein), cash income and prestige.The current study also pertain that in the highland and midland agroecologies respondents reared cattle mainly for agriculture purpose. The result of present study is in agreement with the observations of Solomon (2004) and Asaminew (2007) who reported that oxen were reared primarily for agricultural purpose and sold when too old to work. Seid and Berhan (2014) reported that major purpose of cattle rearing were draught power, income source, milk and milk products, social functions as a gift and organic fertilizer in their respective importance.The results from lowland agroecology also indicated that the main functions of livestock keeping are for family consumption (milk and milk, products, meat and egg), social values/ gifts, draft power and cash income. The finding indicates milk play major role in daily home consumption as food item (sauce) and furthermore old parents, drink milk in coffee. The results are in line with Abraha, (2012) from southern part of Tigray who noted milk socially ties the community. Banerjee et al, (2014) also reported that livestock products, milk, meat serve as source of animal protein for the nursing mothers, infants, and people with disabilities from southern part of Ethiopia. Solomon, (2010) from arsi zone reported that farmers reared livestock for home consumption of milk and milk product. Whereas sintayehu et al. (2008) reported in rural area of central and western part of Ethiopia farmers cattle were kept to grow male calves that assist the crop production by providing draft power.Endashaw et al. ( 2012) indicated that Bodi and Mursi pastoralists reared their cattle primarily for milk production and the second most important purpose for keeping these cattle in Mursi communities was blood as food. Hiwet (2013) from southern part of Ethiopia as well reported the main objectives of livestock keeping were milk and milk products, income source, pride and insurance. Kool and Steenbergen (2014) also reported farmers in lowland focus on selecting of bulls based on the milk productivity of its mother and grandmother.Endashaw et al, (2012) reported that Bodi community keep livestock mainly for milk production followed by dowry payment, thus a person marrying a wife has to pay large number (between 38 and 40 heads) of cattle for the bride's family. Different authors reported the importance of butter as a source of immediate cash income for smallholder households (Abraha, 2012;Hiwet, 2013). In the present analysis, butter was also found to be serving the same purpose.During field observation it was seen that in low land (Nek segel local market), marketing of butter (not ghee) using containers like gourd and natural large leaves, as main source of cash to buy salt, cleaning detergents and kerosene for home use. This is in agreement with the study conducted by Seid, Berhan (2014) from southern part of Ethiopia stated that sale of animals, and animal products were an important source of household cash income.In the present study, feed shortage was mentioned as one of the major constraints for livestock production in the three agroecologies. Various scholars in Ethiopian also showed feed shorage as pressing issue in the livestock sector (Adugna and Aster, 2007;Abdi, et al., 2013;Dawit et al., 2013;Hiwet, 2013). The challenge of feed shortage is also mentioned as important problem in other Afrcian. For example, Bakyusa et al., (2012) reported that feed shortage was the primary constraint to livestock improvement programs by smallholders in Uganda.The study also confirmed that in highland and midland agroecologies the second limiting factor toward livestock development was shortage of space. This is in concurrence with Gebremeskel, (2013) who reported that changes in the farming systems, expantion of crop farm has resulted a negative impact on communal gazing lands and forced the livestock to depend mainly on crop residues and crop aftermath, which does not fullfil the nutritional requirements for optimum production. Abdi, et al., 2013;Dawit et al., 2013 andHiwet, (2013) reported that water was the second important factor affecting livestock production in the lowland areas, which agrees well with the present study.The present study results in Table 7 also showed in lowland agroecology, disease outbreak was the the second factor which affects the livestock production and productivity.This is closely similar with the report of Asaminew and Eyassu, 2009;Solomon, 2010, Abdi et al., 2013 who noted that disease was one of the factor that reduce the livestock improvement.Present study showed that natural mating mating of animals on communal grazing lands is the common breeding practice. This is in agreement with the result of Shiferaw (2006) who indicated that in Fental district of Oromia region, 92.7% respondents are practiced pure breeding system for Kereyu cattle and Agere, (2008) for Horro cattle from the Horro Gudru area as well as Hiwet, (2013) from southern part of Ethiopia.In the study area, animals are selected based on the physical body structure, color and production traits. These phenotypic selection methods observed in the study have similarity with other reports (FAO, 2003;Kunene & Fossey, 2006;Ouma et al., 2006);Shiferaw, 2006;Endashaw et al. 2012;Shigdaf, 2011;and Hiwet, 2013) from different parts of Africa. Livestock are selected by phenotypic and oral keeping of pedigree. The result in the current study indicated that in selection of dairy animal udder size and its stracture as well as teat, lengeth takes upper hand. Kunene and Fossey, (2006) noted that cows with long teat, big udder, and good milk veins on cow belly as well as large hollow body cavity have high milk yield. Hiwet, (2013) from southern Ethiopia also reported that cows with longer teat facilitate milking. Morse et al, (1988) have indicated that cows with longer teats are less affected by mastitis. The reason being that the teat canal provides as effective barrier to ward any external infections as teat canal closes within a few minutes of milking and thus shifting off the line between external environments and the udder canal. Kshatriya, (2009) in his study concluded that udder and skin thickness were related to milk yield thus could be considered as one of management criteria of dairy cows.Addis and Godadaw, (2014) also reported that udder contains 40% in dairy animal selection traits. Endashaw et al, (2012) indicated that the Mursi and Bodi pastoralists from southern part of Ethiopia select dairy cows based on their milking yield, coat color, fertility and udder size.Respondents in the present study also confirmed that dairy cow with well-structured udder evenly balanced and cylindrical shape and uniform size have good milk yields. These findings are similarity with Seykora andHansen, 2000, Addis andGodadaw, 2014) Large two milk veins clearly visible in udder were also considered as selection criteria. This finding is in accordance with observation of Bonsma (1980, Kunene andFossey, 2006;and Addis and Godadaw, 2014) who noted that the presence of well-developed milk veins was considered as selection criteria for dairy cows.With regard to coat color, in the lowland agroecology respondents preferred to red coat colored animals and black coat color is the least preferred with the reason of red coat colored animals are easily adapted to their adverse environment and black colored animals have less acceptance on market. These results are in line with the finding of Edea et al, ( 2012), black coat color is mostly unwanted color due to market preference.Ths result has closely agreement with Shigdef, (2012) from Washera and Fenta districts reported that white and red colors are the preferred coat colors of sheep and goat whereas black color is the last preferred. Banerjee et al, (2014) reported that native farmers' from southern part of Ethiopia preferred to cows with reddish brown or red color coats for they believe that such cattle are good milk providers.Finch, (1986) from his study noted that coat color has an important adaptation trait to high temperature and solar radiation. On the other hand, Ouma et al. (2004)  Broucek et al, ( 2007) indicated that dairy heifers, with a high hair whorl significantly had higher body weight and average daily gain. In the present study, cows with high hair whorls were considered to produce more milk yield, fast growing ability and their calves are active in behaviors than low hair whorl. Respondents mentioned thin tail with clean cut; plenty of hairs at the end are taking as selection criteria for dairy cow, which indicating that mothering ability of the cow with good milk yield. Kunene and Fossey (2006) and Banerjee et al (2014) reported fine tail of a cow was one criterion to decide on milk yield related traits (dairy cow and heifer).The respondents from the study area also indicated that selection criteria of bull are based on body muscular strength, scrotum and penis size. These are in agreement with the findings of Bruce (2012) and Bonsma (1980) who reported that the length of penis are correlated with good fertility and may be associated with the proper function of the cremastermuscle which is responsible for the movement of the penile sheath. Kunene and Fossey, (2006) also stated long penis and big neck is related to good fertility in bulls. Respondents also indicated that when they choose bull to meet with their cow or heifer red or brown in coat color was preferred and this is correlated with sequentially to get red or brown calve.The study also indicated that to select better quality herds, stockowners practice some traditional management practices of castration, culling, as well as keeping the history of pedigree. These results are in accordance with Rollefson, (2000;FAO, 2003;FAO;2009) reported that traditional livestock breeders have long tradition of animal breeding practices, select better quality herds though management,Ethno veterinary practice has been in used for generations.  and Gobena, 2003;Endalew, 2007;Nurya, 2010;Robinson Zhang, 2011;Yirga et al.,2012;Yibrah,2014)who reported that major portion of the farmers in different parts of Ethiopia, relies on traditional veterinary knowledge, practices and locally available materials primarily medicinal plants to cure and prevent livestock health problems.Respondents reported anthrax, blackleg, foot and mouth disease, tick leech; external, internal parasites were the main livestock aliments in the study area, and farmers used herbals to treat livestock. Mesfin and Obsa, (1994) reported that Ethiopia cattle owners have aware of serious livestock diseases and they were the only people approached by herbal treatment.The respondents also stated that tick infestation is widespread in all districts and causes reduction in milk as well as emaciation of animals. Seyoum, (2001;Gbolahan et al., 2012;Achenef Melaku, 2013) from different part of Africa reported that tick and tick born diseases are widely distributed parasites particularly in tropical and subtropical countries, which cause bacterial diseases and great economic losses in livestock industries. So that the stockowners use herbals with combination of other modern medicine to control tick invasion in their stock.The results in the present study indicated that ethno veterinary practices were mainly transferred from elder to their children orally. This finding is in line with observation of Yaried et al, (2014, and, Mirutse and Gobena, 2003, Yibrah, 2014) documented that the majority of traditional healers transfer the knowledge only to the first-born and only some of the traditional healers to their honest and faithful children. Gidey yirga, (2010) also from northern Ethiopia reported that only 33% of traditional healers transfer their indigenous knowledge only to selected family members while some (50%) kept the knowledge and the remaining (16.7%) do not transfer at all.The study also revealed that younger generations are migrating to cities in searching of better life opportunities, and this appears to have posed a threat to the transfer of indigenous knowledge to the next generation in addition individuals who are knowledgeable in traditional practices in the study area are usually try to keep the knowledge secret. This is due to as they get respect in the community as well as income from the practice. Mesfin and Obsa, (1994) reported that traditional practionars are remain unwilling to freely to teach others is considered as another problem causing a loss of knowledge.The present study showed that leaves (50.8%) are widely used plant parts for a variety of treatments than the other parts followed by roots (27%  and Gobena, (2003;Haile and Delensaw,2007;Behailu, 2010;Nurya, 2010and, Yaried et al. 2014). Yibrah (2014) also further confirmed that leaves appear to contain chemicals that are more active than other plant parts. Sintayehu Tamene. (2011) stated that the preference of leaves to other plant parts due to the easy to preparations compared to remedy preparations from other plant parts.On other hand, the finding of Endalew (2007) indicated that root was the most common plant part used by traditional healers and which have serious effect on the survival of mother plant.The common traditional medicine preparation methods in the area are crushing and squeezing, concoction and squeezing and direct use. These findings are in accordance with report of Yibrah, (2014) and Abraha,(2015) noted that traditional medicinal plants were prepared by crushed/chopped, squeezed, and then filtrated to liquid form to administer. However, Hiwet, (2013) from southern Ethiopia indicated concoction, squeezing (50%), crushing and pounding (26%) and crushing by hand, only (12%) are the main processesThe common routes of administration method reported were oral followed by dermal. These findings are closely similar with the finding of Teshal et al. 2004;Dilshad et al., 2008;Yibrah, 2014;and Yaried et al. 2014) from different parts of Ethiopia. The observations are however not in accordance with Abraha (2015) who reported that the frequent applied modes of administration of ethno veterinary medicine include creaming, rubbing and smearing.Normality and accuracy of dose determination and unit, measurements of the medicinal plants were the troubles of the traditional veterinary healers. Indigenous knowledge practitioners used variety of unit measurements to determine dosage. Getu (2010) also similarly reported normality and accuracy problems.Even though the value of indigenous knowledge in livestock disease treatment is indispensable, the local communities did not give much attention for management of traditional medicinal plants. The threats of medicinal plants are also differ among the agroecologies. In the highland and midland agroecologies agricultural expansion is rated as the primary threat to medicinal plants. These findings are in accordance with reports of Yirga et al. (2012) andYibrah, (2014) who noted that agricultural expansion is the major threat for medicinal plants.In the midland next to natural pasture, crop residues and cactus appeared to be important feed resources. In the same way, there was better utilization of home waste with Atella and supplementation of concentrate from Maychew town. These findings are agreement with finding of Tesfaye, (2007;Asaminew and Eyassu, 2009;Belay et al. 2012) from different parts of Ethiopia. Alemayehu (2005) also reported agro industrial by products and other by-products like food and vegetable refusal are other source of feed types.In the midland agroecology, cactus pear was an alternative feed resource for all species of livestock. This is in line with report of Shushay ( 2014) who reviewed that cactus is the main alternative feed source when the crop residue was not present. In the lowland agroecology next to natural pasture livestock mainly relied on cactus. Cactus was more economical for farmers livestock freely rely on cactus pears next to natural grazing during both dry and wet season. Haile et al. (2002) documented the importance of cactus in Southern zone of Tigray. Farmers with no access to cactus do migrate from the nearby districts to the natural cactus plantation areas with their livestock at times of drought.In the wet season livestock in the highland and midlands largely rely on weeds and leaves from croplands followed by homestead grazing. Approximately every part of lands were covered with food crop. Highland respondents stated during this season used potato vein as feed while midlands allowed livestock to use cactus pear. Lowland stockers mostly relied on natural pasture. This is agree with the results of Dawit et al., (2013;Gebremeskel et al., 2013) noted that shefitning the land use system from grazingland into crop cultivation has decreased the potential of the livestock.In the three agroecologies, respondents to mitigate lose of livestock by feed shortage, practiced, purchasing of straw, destocking of livestock, sending of livestock to other relatives and movement (urna). Shitahun (2009) reported that farmers indigenously suggested collection and storing of crop-residues, preparing of hay from farm boundaries, utilizing of browse species, purchasing of straw and selling of older and unproductive livestock as coping mechanism.On other hand, Bakyusa et al ( 2012) reported the coping mechanisms of livestock owners in the urban and peri-urban areas of Uganda was major form of herd reduction through selling, relocating livest to the countryside and slaughtering. Similarly, Salem & Smith, (2008), reported when livestock survival is threatened by different stressing factors, farmers' first option is destocking. Abraha (2012) reported traditional farmers in southern part of Tigray practiced urna as means of sustaining their livestock during drought period.Result of study by Seid and Berhan (2014) from Burjiworeda, Segenzuria zone of south Ethiopia also indicated that 24% of the livestock owners relied on stored crop residues during feed scarcity periods and about 55% depend both on migration and natural pasture. Thus, the strategies to cope with feed shortage in dry and wet seasons were feeding on farm residues and on natural pasture. Also 40% in highland, 21.7% in mid-altitude and 25% in lowlands send their animals to others areas of ample natural pasture. About 30% in highland, 10% in mid-altitude and 40% in lowlands resist the condition through relaying on both farm residues and natural pasture.The present study also showed that farmers used diverse water resource in the three agroecologies. Farmers in highland mostly used spring, dug-well and river water. Midland mostly used river, dug-well and tape. While farmers in lowland agroecologies widely relied on well water, and spring water for their livestock. Sintayehu (2007) reported45.8%of the interviewed producers in crop livestock system of shashemene area used river water, while24.8%tape water. Solomon (2010) from Arsi zone of Oromia region also reported that 72%of interviewed producer depends on river water to provide drinking water for their cattle.of the milk from the milker's hand. The observations are accordance with the report Asaminew andEyassu, (2009), andAbebe et al, (2013).Traditional milking utensils used in study sites were milking vessel made up of wood \"Carfo\" in highland and midland while gourd \"Beshay\"in low land respectively in the three agroecological zones. Respondents from three agroecologies explained that these utensils are suitable for milking with provides comfort for animals during milking when we compared with plastic utenils. This is because the utensils have less sound during milking the less sound gives comfort to the dairy cows. Plastic utensils disturb milking animal via, generating strong sound during milking. The results are in accordance with Abraha, (2012) who reported that a traditional milking utensil gives less sound and culturally acceptable. But Abebe et al, (2013) reported the most common milking utensil used in Ezha district of the Gurage zone was plastic jar.Farmers in the three agroecologies practiced cleaning and smoking of milk handling utensils by some shrubs. Respondents' traditionally by their own try and error develop specific plant herbs for cleaning and smoking dairy utensils. The use of herbal products for cleaning, fumigation and preservation of dairy products have also reported by Zelalem Yilma andBernard Faye (2006) andBiruk (2010). The milk handled in cleaned and smoked utensils with these herbs have better flavor as well as long shelf life. These results are in agreement with the result of Ashenafi (1996;Tesfaye, 2007;Sintayehu et al., 2008;Yitaye et al., 2009) who reported that smoking is common practice of smallholder of dairy to improve shelf life of milk and milk products. Clay pot (kuraee) is the most common utensil used for storage of milk until the desired volume is collected for processing (butter making.Clay pot gives good aroma of milk by keeping from rapid change of temperature as compared to plastic and metal utensil as well asfacilitating fermentation. These results are similar to Abraha, (2012) and Abebe et al. (2013).The frequency of processing of dairy products was mainly depending up on the temperature and milk amount. Due to this highland, respondents churn milk once a week for extraction of butter and respondents from midlands indicated that, they churn milk twice a week. While respondent from lowland reported that, they churn milk every second day based on amount of milk collected. This finding is in agreement with findings of Abebe, (2011) stated that farmers in low lands churn the milk more frequently than highlands.Respondents prepare traditional foods from dairy products. The most common traditional foods are dedicated buttermilk (Hazo) and butter oil (sihum). Hazo is prepared by fermenting of milk with spices and roasted barely powder to provide special aroma and flavour for special occasions like socio-cultural festivals and extend shelf life. Sihum was similarly prepared from cows or goats milk without grain powder for special ingredient of holiday dish. Majority of the traditional farmers in three agroecologies used to sihum to enrich the taste and nutritional quality of various foods either in cooking or as a spread on the finished food. This finding is in accordance with Abraha, (2012) who noted that inhabitants of south Tigray used different dairy product as holiday saucers.The results presented in Table 22 pertained that dairy products consumption has culturally restricted. Women and adult females are culturally restricted from using of fresh milk, fermented milk and skimmed milk in highland. They were limited to use only whey and butter.Similarly, lowland males are restricted from utilization of skimmed milk. This is similar with finding of Abraha, (2012) who reported that milk consumption was culturally restricted in south Tigray.About 40% of respondents in the highland stated that fresh milk and fermented milk, was not recommended to consuming for the reason of butter preference as well as sale of fresh whole milk was culturally restricted practice. This is in agreement with the report of Fikrineh et al., (2012) from Mid Rift Valley of Ethiopia reported that the majority of milk (95.3%) of the farmer consumed milk after it has been fermented. Lemma ( 2004) also reported that in most cases fresh milk and fermented milk were not consumed on the daily bases and out of the total milk produced per household per day; about 83.3% was accumulated for further processing. Abebe et al., ( 2013) from his study also documented that the sale of fresh whole milk was not a common practice in Gurage zone, Southern EthiopiaIn consumption of butter, priority is given for women than husband and adult males for smearing of hair. This is very common in all agroecology with special attitude of \"Raya culture\" (southern Tigray in general) women and adult females obligated to smear their hair always with butter and sometimes to smear their whole body by butter with traditional fumigation. This finding is in line with finding of Abraha, (2012) from southern Tigray..The study has investigated the indigenous knowledge and practices of livestock husbandry, ethno veterinary and dairy product handling and consumption pattern in different agroecologies of Endamohoni district, southern Tigray Northern Ethiopia. The results indicate that the primary functionsof rearing livestock in highland and midland agroecologies were inorder of importance draft power, food of animal origin (milk and meat), cash income and gifts. While in the lowland agroecology, include food for household consumption (milk and meat) and social services (gifts during marriage). Livestock are commonly selected by farmers based on their phenotypic characteristics. For cows, the principal criteria are udder size and softness, teat length, tail length and thickness, coat color, hair whorls, structure of neck and nostrish. In addition, informal pedigree records are also kept orally for large ruminants. Livestock in the study site are mainly relying on natural grazing, crop residue and cactus pear. During feed shortage periods, farmers in the highland purchased crop residues to feed to their animals and midland areas destocking of animal was the mitigation.Where as in the lowlands farmers they move (urna) their livestock to distant locations where there is relatively better grazing pasture. Mixing of crop residue with local brewery residue (Atela), household waste and salts was found to be a common practice to increase feed intake and improve performance of livestock in the highland and midland agroecologies, while chopping or re-threshing was mainly used as a crop residue treatment in the lowlands. In the lowland agroecology, drinking water was mentioned as a problem and to reduce water shortage stresses on livestock, farmers feed cactus, reduce livestock movement and keep the animals in sheds.The use of ethno veterinary practice is deep rooted in the studied three agroecologies and about sixty-five plant species have been identified to be used frequently by ethno veterinary practitioners in the district. Most of these medicinal plants have been growing in wild vegetation, whereas a small number of plants are cultivated in home garden and near home farms. The most common used part of plants are leaves followed by root and the treatments were administered through oral and dermal and few of them are in nasal, ocular and anal. The preparation methods are crushing and squeezing, concoction and squeezing followed by direct use of plant parts.","tokenCount":"15034"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"804db724dddb784ef12cbcfdc0e7e7e8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/879ba06d-ffbe-4dab-83ea-feb471d5e381/retrieve","id":"433688320"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dcda6725-2e1d-40bb-9c5f-add2e56ea94c","pagecount":"66","content":"Regional heritability mapping (RHM) is effective for understanding the genetic architecture of complex traits in cassava.• Prediction accuracies can reflect the impact of genomic segments on cassava dry matter (DM) content.• Serine-threonine protein kinases (SnRKs) are candidates positionally associated with cassava DM.• Prediction accuracy of SnRKs for cassava DM was 50% of the total accuracy from genome-wide SNPs.The HarvestPlus program for cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) fortifies cassava with beta-carotene by breeding for carotene-rich tubers (yellow cassava). However, a negative correlation between yellowness and dry matter (DM) content has been identified. Here, we investigated the genetic control of DM in white and yellow cassava subpopulations. We used regional heritability mapping (RHM) to associate DM to genomic segments in both subpopulations. Significant segments were subjected to candidate gene analysis and we attempted to validate candidates using prediction accuracies. The RHM procedure was validated using a simulation approach. The RHM revealed significant hits for white cassava on chromosomes 1, 4, 5, 10, 17 and 18 while hits for the yellow were on chromosome 1. Candidate gene analysis revealed genes in the carbohydrate biosynthesis pathway including the plant serine-threonine protein kinases (SnRKs), UDP-glycosyltransferases, UDP-sugar transporters, invertases, pectinases, and regulons. Validation using 1252 unique identifiers from the SnRK gene family genome-wide recovered 50% of the predictive accuracy of whole genome SNPs for DM while validation using 53 likely (extracted from literature) genes from significant segments recovered 32%. Genes including an acid invertase, a neutral/alkaline invertase and a glucose-6-phosphate isomerase were validated based on an a priori list for the cassava starch pathway and also a fructose-biphosphate aldolase from the calvin cycle pathway. The power of the RHM procedure was estimated at 47 percent when the causal QTL generated 10% of the phenotypic variance with sample size of 451. Cassava DM genetics is complex. RHM may be useful for complex traits.Quantitative trait loci (QTL) Regional heritability mapping (RHM) Serine-threonine protein kinases (SnRKs) Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) Genotype-by-sequencing (GBS) Genome-wide association analysis (GWAS)Cassava currently ranks as the sixth world staple crop consumed by more than 500 million people in Africa, Asia and South America (El-Sharkawy, 2003). It was originally a perennial shrub but is cultivated now as an annual for its starchy root (El-Sharkawy, 2003). It is an outbreeding species and considered to be an amphidiploid or sequential allopolyploid (El-Sharkawy, 2003). The crop is clonally propagated by mature woody stem cuttings called stakes, which are 15-30 cm long and planted mostly inclined on ridged soils (Keating et al., 1988). Botanical seeds are used mainly in breeding programs with up to three seeds produced per pod (Iglesias et al., 1994, Iglesias andHershey, 1991). Storage roots are generally harvested 7-24 months after planting (El-Sharkawy, 2003). Dry matter (DM) is the major product from cassava roots apart from moisture and traces of water-soluble vitamins and pigments (Holleman and Aten, 1956; Barrios and Bressani, 1967;Lim, 1968). On average, cassava DM is made up of about 90% carbohydrates (mainly starch), 2% protein, 1% fat, 3% minerals and ash and 4% fiber (Holleman and Aten, 1956;Barrios and Bressani, 1967;Lim, 1968). This starch deposit makes cassava attractive for the food industry and other industries that rely heavily on starch as their primary raw material (Lim, 1968). The value of cassava derives from a combination of fresh root yield and the percentage DM that can be extracted from fresh roots, referred to as dry yield. Fresh cassava roots with high DM content are also preferred by local farmers and processors (Kawano et al., 1987;Safo-Kantanka and Owusu-Nipah, 1992;Enidiok et al., 2008) who transform cassava roots into valuable staples consumed by many in developing countries. With 263 million metric tons produced in 2012 (FAOSTAT Database, 2013), cassava has become an indispensable staple in the world and improvement of cassava for high dry yield is needed. This improvement should also endeavor to increase micronutrient content, as it is much needed in the cassava consuming regions of the world. Biofortification is a successful genetic improvement technique for increasing micronutrient content in staple crops (Meenakshi et al., 2010;Bouis et al., 2011) and represents a promising approach for solving the problem of micronutrient malnutrition around the world (Meenakshi et al., 2007;Meenakshi et al., 2010;Pfeiffer and McClafferty, 2007).The target of biofortification is to increase the content of essential micronutrients such as Iron, Zinc, and Vitamin A (Meenakshi et al., 2007;Meenakshi et al., 2010;Pfeiffer and McClafferty, 2007), hence improving the health of millions of people who depend on these staples for daily nutrition. The biofortification process is facilitated by plant breeding (Meenakshi et al., 2010;Bouis et al., 2011). Since the early 2000s, the HarvestPlus initiative (Meenakshi et al., 2007;Pfeiffer and McClafferty, 2007) has been tasked with biofortification of staple crops including cassava, sweet potato, maize, rice and wheat. Biofortification of cassava is geared towards breeding varieties containing increased levels of provitamin A, or beta-carotene, a precursor for vitamin A. The socalled 'yellow cassava' (Liu et al., 2010;Plus, 2009;Aniedu and Omodamiro, 2012;La Frano et al., 2013) is designed to address public health issues including child mortality, impaired vision and night blindness, reduced immunity to diseases and other consequences of vitamin A deficiency (Liu et al., 2010;Plus, 2009).Breeding for required levels of provitamin A necessitates the accumulation of beta-carotene in cassava roots (Aniedu and Omodamiro, 2012;La Frano et al., 2013).Many breeding programs use yellow flesh color as a proxy for measuring beta-carotene amount in cassava despite the fact that yellowness is more of an indication of total carotenoids in the root (Chávez et al., 2005;Ssemakula et al., 2007;Akinwale et al., 2010). This protocol is used to visually pre-select lines containing beta-carotenoids prior to quantification of different carotenoid levels using HPLC protocols (Kimura et al., 2007;Adewusi and Bradbury, 1993). Breeding for farmer preferred bio-fortified cassava involves the development of high yielding clones with high DM and high beta-carotene accumulation in a single clone or variety (Ceballos et al., 2004;Raji et al., 2007).Incorporating all these characteristics in a single variety of cassava makes for a challenging breeding task. Some studies have shown that there is a negative genetic correlation between DM and yellow root flesh color in cassava making this breeding task even more challenging since the target is towards full adoption of pro-vitamin A varieties by local farmers and processors (Akinwale et al., 2010;Vimala et al., 2008). It is therefore useful to understand the genetic control of DM content and beta-carotene accumulation in cassava to facilitate the breeding of farmer-preferred varieties.Regional heritability mapping (RHM) is a relatively new procedure for identifying loci affecting quantitative traits (Nagamine et al., 2012;Riggio and Pong-Wong, 2014;Riggio et al., 2013;Shirali et al., 2015). Unlike single marker GWAS methods which the lack power to detect rare genetic variants (Bodmer and Tomlinson, 2010;Gibson, 2012; more power to identify loci that cannot be detected by standard GWAS (Nagamine et al., 2012;Riggio and Pong-Wong, 2014;Riggio et al., 2013). The RHM has been shown to detect both common and rare genetic variants implicated in disease traits in human genomics (Shirali et al., 2015;Uemoto et al., 2013;Zeng et al., 2016) and recently in tree genomics (Resende et al., 2017). RHM is a suitable method for capturing the effect of a genomic block or segment since it can identify genomic segment-trait associations for regions spanning multiple loci (Nagamine et al., 2012;Riggio and Pong-Wong, 2014;Riggio et al., 2013;Caballero et al., 2015). A multi-marker mapping approach like the RHM may identify both common and rare variants involved in the expression of DM in white and yellow subpopulations of African cassava. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to use the RHM procedure in an annual crop.The objectives of this study were:1. To understand the genetic basis of DM in white and yellow root African cassava populations.2. To determine the power of the RHM procedure to detect genomic segments carrying QTL using the hide-a-causal-SNP procedure.We used phenotypic data collected from the Genetic Gain (GG) population trials conducted by the cassava breeding program at the Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria for our analysis. The GG population (713 clones) is an elite population bred from the 1970s to 2007 by the cassava breeding program at the IITA (Maziya-Dixon et al., 2007;Okechukwu and Dixon, 2008;Ly et al., 2013). Most GG clones are of African origin with very good performance such that they were advanced to advanced to multi-environment uniform yield trials. For this study, we used clonal evaluation trials (CETs) of the GG population planted in an augmented design. The CET uses an unreplicated incomplete block design consisting of a layout of between 18 to 30 blocks with 22 accessions and two checks in each block. Accession plots were a single row (1m x 1m spacing) of five-plant stands without borders. All checks were included in the analysis. A few trials were replicated twice. These trials were conducted in three locations in Nigeria: Ibadan (7.40° N, 3.90° E), Mokwa (9.3° N, 5.0° E), and Ubiaja (6.66° N, 6.38° E) between 2013 and 2015. Three core agronomic traits were measured for these trials including fresh weight of harvested roots expressed in tons per hectares (T/ha) (FYLD), percentage dry matter (DM) of storage roots, which measures root dry weight as the percentage of the root fresh weight, and pulp color (PLPCOL) a binary trait rated on a scale from 1 (white flesh to light cream root) to 2 (deep cream to yellow flesh root). The DM trait was measured using the oven method: 100g grated root sample (with thorough mixing of 10-15 randomly selected roots from a plot) were collected per accession and oven dried. DM content was then measured as residual weight after oven drying. We further divided the GG population (713 clones) into two subpopulations of white (451 clones) and yellow (262 clones) cassava using the PLPCOL trait where clones with a score of 1 for this trait were grouped into the white population and those with score 2 into the yellow population.To validate results from the RHM analysis, we used data from a population called the GS-C, which consisted of progenies of clones from the GG population described above.Phenotypes from the GS-C1 were obtained from clonal evaluation trials (CETs) of 1,651 clones split into trials at three locations: Ibadan, Mokwa and Ikenne (6°52′N 3°43′E). These trials were planted using an augmented design consisting of between 20 to 30 blocks with 22-24 clones and two checks in each block. Plots were a single row of fiveplant stands (1m x 1m spacing) without borders and without replication and trials were planted during 2014 and 2015. Cassava trait measurements for this population were as described earlier, except that no strict distinction between yellow and white flesh color was used because the GS-C1 were majorly white and cream clones; thus we performed validation analysis using all clones.DNA was extracted using DNeasy Plant Mini Kits (Qiagen) from 713 clones from the 2013 Genetic Gain trial at IITA and was quantified using PicoGreen. Genotyping-bysequencing (GBS) was used for genotyping (Elshire et al., 2011) these clones. Six 95plex and one 75-plex ApeKI libraries were constructed and sequenced on Illumina HiSeq, one lane per library. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were called from the sequence data using the TASSEL pipeline version 4.0 (Glaubitz et al., 2012), using an alignment to the M. esculenta version-6 reference genome (Goodstein et al., 2012).The marker data was converted to dosage format (0, 1, 2) and missing genotypic data were imputed using the Beagle software (Ayres et al., 2011). The final data set consisted of 177,201 SNPs scored in 713 clones. Members of the GS-C1 used in the validation analysis were genotyped in 2014 as described above. SNPs from both populations were called together using the TASSEL pipeline (Glaubitz et al., 2012) and missing genotypes also imputed using Beagle (Ayres et al., 2011) yielding the same number of SNPs as above.Genome-wide Regional Heritability mapping (RHM):RHM was carried out using the following procedure (Nagamine et al., 2012;Riggio and Pong-Wong, 2014;Riggio et al., 2013): a. Chromosomes were divided into 100 SNP segments in sliding windows with 50 SNPs overlapping between adjacent windows. b. A multikernel univariate mixed model was used to partition the genomic additive variation due to trait of interest into components of the target genomic segment and the whole genome SNP markers as follows:Where y is a response variable (DM), X is a known incidence matrix for fixed effects β (including grand mean and a nested effect of Rep within Trial within Year within Location), Z is a known incidence matrix for clonal additive genomic effects u 1 for the target genomic segment and u 2 for the whole genome SNPs. K u1and K u2 are the genomic relationship matrices calculated from the SNPs using the procedure of VanRaden ( 2008) as:where G is the genomic relationship matrix, M is a centered marker matrix coded as -1,0,1 and p is the major allele frequency vector. Other components of the model include the genomic variance for the target genomic segment ߪ ௨ భ ଶ and the total genomic variance for the whole genome ߪ ௨ మ ଶ , ߪ ଶ is the genomic error variance and e are the residuals from the model. Model (1) was fit using the R EMMREML package (Akdemir and Okeke, 2014). Note that the K u2 genomic relationship matrix serves to statistically control for population structure effects as the kinship matrix does in standard GWAS.c. Following model fit from step (b) above, genomic heritability for each target genomic segment was computed as follows:where is genomic heritability for a target genomic segment and variance components are described above.d. A likelihood ratio test (LRT) was used to test the significance of target genomic segments with the alternative model as model ( 1) and the null model as model ( 1) without the target genomic kernel component ie ‫ݕ‬ = ܺ ߚ + ‫ݑܼ‬ ଶ + ݁. This model was also fit using the EMMREML package (Akdemir and Okeke, 2014).P-values were obtained using the pchisq function in R (R Core DevelopmentTeam, 2016).e. Local FDR (LFDR) was estimated using the R qvalue package (Sorey and Tibshirani, 2003;Storey et al., 2015).f. Genomic segment LFDRs were then plotted across the genome in a Manhattan plot with a cutoff of 0.05 used to assess significance.We carried out the RHM procedure separately for the white and yellow cassava subpopulations of GG. No defined population structure was found on in the GG population in a previous GWAS study (Wolfe et al., 2015). Therefore, the genomic relationship matrix from the whole genome SNPs in the RHM was sufficient to account for structure in this analysis (in fact we refer to this more as background effect).We identified candidate genes from the significant hits of the RHM analysis based on annotations for the v6 M. esculenta genome on phytozome (Goodstein et al., 2012). We used plant physiology information to narrow down the list of genes associated with carbohydrate biosynthesis including genes functional in starch and sugar biosynthesis, cell wall loosening and degradation, and root sink and plant growth pathways. We carried out validation tests on selected candidates based on prediction accuracies on the GS-C1 population as described below.We conducted validation analyses for the significant hits of the RHM analysis and for the RHM procedure itself. Validation here was geared towards understanding the prediction accuracies obtained from genes and gene families on RHM significant segments. Validation proceeded as follows:(a) Validation using SnRK genes (a candidate gene family):To obtain genotypic data for this analysis, we searched the Phytozome M. esculenta v6.1 web portal (Goodstein et al., 2012) using the keyword serine threonine kinases to recover all its instances in the cassava genome, resulting in 2,408 hits. We filtered the resulting list to remove all hits not containing gene ontology or Eukaryotic Orthologous Groups function definitions for the keyword serine threonine kinase. We then manually added genes containing known serine threonine kinases that did not contain a function definition, for example the SNF1 gene (a list of these genes is provided in the Supplementary Table ). We extracted all markers within 2.5 kb of the start and end of each gene model using the Bedtools intersect function (Quinlan and Hall, 2010) resulting in 7,203 unique SNPs. We refer to these SNPs as candidate SNPs below. For validation of these candidate SNPs on the GS-C1 data we fit the following model:matrix for fixed effects β (including grand mean and a nested effect of Trial within Year within Location), Z is known incidence matrix for clonal additive candidate genomic effects s and whole genomic effects g. For K s , and K g we used the candidate SNPs and the remaining SNPs from the whole genome excluding the candidate SNPs, respectively, to generate genomic relationship matrices for the 1,651 clones of the GS-C1 population as above. A third kinship matrix, K rand , was generated as a control from 7,203 SNPs anchored to 2000 randomly selected genes from the cassava genome and used in Model (2) in place of K s, while we calculated K g using SNPs from the whole genome excluding those in K rand . Other components of the model include the SnRKs candidate genetic variance ߪ ௦ ଶ and the genetic variance from other parts of the genome ߪ ଶ , ߪ ଶ is the error variance and e is the residuals from the model. Model (2) was fit using the EMMREML. To assess prediction accuracies, we fit another model as follows:where most components of Model (3) remain same as in Model (2) apart from the genetic effect u having an identity matrix I as its covariance matrix signifying that the 1,651 GS-C1 validation clones are unrelated. Model (3) was also fit using R EMMREML. Model (2) was fit using a 5-fold a cross validation (CV) scheme with 10 repeats and prediction accuracies were obtained for this CV scheme by a correlation of ‫̂ݏ‬ of each clone from Model (2) to its ‫ݑ‬ ො value from Model (3).(b) Validation using 53 candidate genes extracted from plant physiology literature and 53 randomly selected genes from the RHM significant regions:We performed a second procedure to validate the 53 candidate genes identified in significant hit regions in the RHM analysis based on plant physiology literature (Table 1). Using the cassava genome unique gene identifiers from Phytozome (Goodstein et al., 2012), we extracted all markers within 2.5Kb flanking the start and end of each gene as before, resulting in 400 unique SNPs. We refer to these SNPs as 'likely candidate SNPs'. We also picked 53 single copy genes at random from within the RHM significant regions and anchored them to 395 SNPs as controls for the likely candidate SNPs. We term these the 'unlikely candidate SNPs'. To validate these, we also fit the GBLUP Model (2) with these modifications: (1) for K s we used K 53 which was a genomic relationship matrix calculated from the 400 likely candidate SNPs for the 1,651 clones of the GS-C1 population (as above), (2) we calculated K g using SNPs from the whole genome excluding these likely candidate SNPs, (3) K rand was also calculated as above (as a control) from 402 SNPs anchored to 53 randomly selected genes from the cassava genome (with 7.5 kb flanking the start and end of these genes), (4) K unlikely was calculated from the 395 unlikely candidate SNPs. These were also used in place of K s in Model (2) with their appropriate K g calculated as other SNPs in the genome excluding those in K rand and K unlikely . Other components of the model were as described for Model(2) and prediction accuracies were obtained in the same way. To assess the prediction accuracy of the whole genome SNPs, we also fit a model analogous to Model (3) with covariance of u coming from a genomic relationship matrix with whole genome SNPs.We term this the predictive accuracy of the whole genome SNPs.(c) Validation using all genes within 1Mb of the RHM significant list and an a priori list of starch genes in cassava:We performed another validation procedure to provide a validation for all the genes identified in the significant hit regions in the RHM analysis, including those shown in Table 1 and those not shown because they were not selected on the basis of information from literature. Using the cassava genome unique gene identifiers from Phytozome (Goodstein et al., 2012), we extracted all SNPs within a 1 Mb region centered on each of these candidates using Bedtools resulting in 2,297 SNPs from 650 unique genes. We refer to these SNPs as all RHM region SNPs (RHM-regions). In addition we extracted SNPs anchored to 123 unique genes in the cassava starch pathway compiled by Saithong et al. (2013), resulting in 419 SNPs. We refer to these SNPs as cassava starch SNPs. To validate these SNPs, we fit Model (2) using genomic relationship matrices calculated as above from RHM-region and cassava starch SNPs, in place of K s with their appropriate K g calculated from remaining SNPs.We also picked 650 single copy genes at random excluding the RHM significant regions and anchored them to approximately 2300 SNPs as controls for the RHM-region and cassava starch SNPs. We refer to these as Random-650 SNPs. We calculated K random-650 using these SNPs and an appropriate K g . These kernels were also fit in Model (2) as K s and K g respectively. In addition to prediction accuracies from these candidates, we validated genes in the RHM-regions by searching for them in two a priori lists compiled by Saithong et al. (2013) including one for the cassava starch pathway and another for the Calvin Cycle pathway. RHM-region genes that made this list were considered validated.(d) Assessing the RHM power via the hide-a-causal-SNP procedure:To validate the RHM procedure, we performed an analysis similar to the classical hidea-causal-SNP approach as follows:a. Chromosomes were divided into 100 SNP segments in sliding windows with 50SNPs overlapping between adjacent segments.b. Five (5) adjacent segments were randomly selected on each chromosome.c. On the third segment, effects were added to a random SNP to inflate the phenotypic variance of the DM trait by 10%.d. Genomic relationship matrices were made for these segments but for segment 3, the random pseudo-causal SNP was excluded when calculating the genomic relationship matrix.e. Subsequently, steps (b) to (d) of the RHM procedure above were carried out, resulting in P-values for these five adjacent segments. Steps (a) to (e) were repeated twelve times, resulting in 216 tests.f. We then calculated the P-value from the RHM analysis on our data that corresponded to the LFDR threshold of 0.05 and used this as significance threshold.g. The power of the RHM analysis was then calculated as the number of times any of the five segment P-values were significant given the significance threshold from (f) above.h. To make a decision on the bounds set for extracting adjacent candidate genes from the M. esculenta genome for a significant segment in the RHM analysis, the number of times either the 1st or 5th segment P-values were significant conditional on the 3rd segment having a higher P-value were also calculated.This reflected how far away adjacent segments captured causal variants.RHM for DM in white and yellow cassava populations:The genomic heritabilities for DM in white and yellow cassava based on whole genome SNPs were 0.57 and 0.48 respectively. These heritabilities are somewhat higher than those found by Ly et al. (2013), presumably because they worked with more locations and years and thus experienced higher genotype-by-environment interaction. We observed different genetic control patterns for DM in the white and yellow cassava subpopulations as shown by Manhattan plots from the RHM analysis (Figure 1).Significant genomic segments for the white cassava DM were observed on chromosomes 1, 4, 5, 10, 17 and 18 while for the yellow cassava a significant segment was only observed on chromosome 1 (Figure 1). Due to the difference between the sample sizes of both subpopulations, it is unclear if the DM genetic control patterns between these subpopulations were different. A non-significant but strong signal was also observed on chromosome 9 of both cassava subpopulations.Using information from the estimates of the mean LD between genomic segments per chromosome (Figure 2A), the distribution of the length of genomic segments in our analysis (Figure 2B) and information on the number of times adjacent segments captured causal variations in the simulation analysis; we set the bound for the region where candidate genes were sought to 1.0 Mb (500Kb flanking each hit), representing from two to three genomic segments adjacent to the top hit genomic segment.For the top RHM hits in both cassava gene pools, we identified possible candidate genes and transcriptional regulators adjacent to these hits based on their involvement in the carbohydrate biosynthesis pathway including members of the serine/threonine kinase family (SnRKs), members of the UDP-glycosyltransferase family (including starch and sucrose synthases), and UDP-sugar transporters, specific plant transcriptional factors including members of the beta helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family and mini zinc fingers, and other genes involved in cell wall processes, root storage and development including pectinases and beta vacuolar processing enzymes. We show a list of these genes in Table 1. An additional candidate gene, phosphofructokinase, was associated with the non-significant peak on chromosome 9 which was more pronounced in the yellow cassava germplasm.The predictive accuracy of the whole genome SNPs was 0.54 (0.03). Using the set of candidate SnRK SNPs, prediction accuracies from the CV using Model (2) were 0.26 (0.04) and 0.12 (0.06) for the candidate and random SNPs, respectively, with standard deviation of the cross validation repeat cycles shown in parentheses. The predictive ability of the genome-wide SnRK candidates (7,203 SNPs) had approximately 50 percent of the total prediction accuracy from our set of genome-wide SNPs (177,201) for the GS-C1 population.Validation using 53 likely candidate genes extracted from plant physiology literature and 53 unlikely candidate genes from the RHM significant regions:Using the likely candidate SNPs from the genes identified for all the top hit genomic segments genome-wide (shown in Table 1), prediction accuracies from the CV using a modified Model (2) were 0.17 (0.03), those for the 53 unlikely genes randomly selected from the top hit genomic segments genome-wide were 0.14 (0.02) and those for the SNPs from random 53 genes from the cassava genome were 0.06 (0.08) with standard deviation of the cross validation repeat cycles in parentheses.Validation using all genes within 1Mb of the RHM significant list and an a priori list of starch genes in cassava:Using the RHM-region, cassava starch and Random-650 SNPs, the prediction accuracies from the CV using a modified Model (2) were 0.17 (0.04), 0.18 (0.03) and 0.03 (0.01) respectively. Based on two a priori lists compiled by Saithong et al. (2013) including one for the cassava starch pathway and another for the Calvin cycle pathway, we found three RHM-region genes on the cassava starch pathway list including an acid invertase (Manes.01G076500), a glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (Manes.18G060600) and a neutral or alkaline invertase (Manes.04G006900). However, from the Calvin Cycle pathway list we found one RHM-region gene, namely fructose-biphosphate aldolase (Manes.04G007900). These genes are known to play key roles in starch biosynthesis and storage (Junker, 2004;Ap Rees, 1992;Appeldoorn et al., 1997;Renz et al., 1993). To assess if these genes were significantly enriched in RHM regions, we performed a simple calculation by multiplying the 650 genes in the RHM region with 123 genes in the cassava starch pathway (Saithong et al., 2013) and divided them by the total number of genes in the cassava genome (33,030). The result was 2.4, which is the expectation of a Poisson process of obtaining the genes in the cassava starch pathway.However we calculated the probability of drawing 3 cassava starch pathway genes from the genome at random resulting in p = 0.22 indicating no significant enrichment.Assessing the RHM power via the hide-a-causal-SNP procedure:We calculated the statistical power of the RHM procedure to detect simulated causal effects from 216 analyses as the number of times any of the five segment P-values were significant. The P-value from the RHM analysis on our data that corresponded to the LFDR threshold of 0.05 was 0.00024, which became our significance threshold for this analysis. We found that 102 tests were significant out of a total of 216 representing a 47 percent statistical power to detect the simulated causal region. To set the bounds for how far in the genome to cover when extracting candidate genes from an RHM significant segment, we also calculated the number of times P-values from the 1st or 5th genomic segments were significant conditional on the 3rd segment's P-value being higher. With a total of 216 analysis, 27 cases had significant P-values on segment 3 and 15 cases had significant P-values from segments 1 or 5 when the P-values from segment 3 were higher. This represents 15 percent coverage farther away from the causal segment. With this information we chose an adjacent span of 500,000 kb pairs flanking an RHM significant segment as the bounds for extracting adjacent candidate genes.The RHM results in the high DM and white cassava populations clearly demonstrate the polygenic nature of the DM trait. DM is composed of carbohydrates (mostly starch), cell wall components and fiber, as well as other non-starchy polysaccharides. Thus, it is not surprising that this trait is complex and controlled by many genes. Also the RHM procedure in this study showed a 47% power for detection of association with a sample size of less than 500 given the polygenic nature of this trait.The serine/threonine protein kinase (SnRKs) gene family in plants is homologous to the sucrose non-fermenting 1 (SNF1) protein kinase family in yeast and the AMPK gene family in mammals. Its members have gained recognition as critical elements in transcriptional, metabolic and developmental regulation in plants (Halford et al., 2003;Halford et al., 1998;Polge and Thomas, 2007;Xue-Fei et al., 2012;Crozet et al., 2014;Jossier et al., 2009). The most studied member of this family is the SnRK1 (Halford et al., 1998;Polge and Thomas, 2007). SnRKs play a vital role as global regulators of carbon metabolism and mediate cross talk between metabolic and other plant signaling pathways (Halford et al., 1998;Polge and Thomas, 2007;Xue-Fei et al., 2012). SnRK1was shown to play a key role in seed filling and maturation and in embryo development in peas (Radchuk et al., 2010;Radchuk et al., 2006). In potato and wheat, SnRK1phosphorylates and inactivates key enzymes in the sugar and starch biosynthesis pathway, affecting sucrose synthase, trehalose phosphate synthase and alpha amylase (Purcell et al., 1998;Laurie et al., 2003), and in potato, it stimulates the redox activation of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase) in response to high sucrose levels (Geigenberger, 2003;Tiessen et al, 2003). Antisense expression of SnRK1 resulted in a reduction in the expression of sucrose synthase in potato tubers (Purcell et al., 1998) and alpha amylase in cultured wheat embryos (Laurie et al., 2003). However, the overexpression of SnRK1 in potatoes resulted in a significant increase in starch accumulation in tubers and a decrease in glucose levels resulting from a dramatic increase in the activity and expression levels of sucrose synthase and AGPase (McKibbin et al., 2006). SnRK1 is activated by high cellular sucrose and/ or low glucose or a dark period (Rolland et al., 2002). The model of sugar and starch biosynthesis in potato from McKibbin et al. (2006) showed SnRK1 at the heart of these processes.Using RHM analysis in the white cassava population, we identified significant genomic segments containing some of the proteins or enzymes in the model given in this illustration (McKibbin et al., 2006) including SnRKs, UDP-Glycosyltransferases and UDP-sugar transporters, an ADP-type starch synthase 2 and a neutral invertase.Glycosyltransferases are a family of enzymes involved in carbohydrate biosynthesis of which sucrose and starch synthases are members (Momma and Fujimoto, 2012). Using the RHM procedure and candidate gene analysis, several of these known carbohydrate biosynthesis enzymes (Table 1, Figure 3) were putatively associated with the cassava DM trait.Other proteins located within significant genomic segments that are also involved in the carbohydrate biosynthesis pathway include invertase inhibitors which have been shownto form complexes with SnRKs and lead to reduced accumulation of reducing sugars and increased accumulation of starch in potatoes (Lin et al., 2015), and BAK1, a brassinosteroid insensitive 1 (BR1) associated receptor-like kinase and a member of the somatic embryogenesis receptor-like kinase (SERKs) subfamily involved in regulation of root development (Du et al., 2012). BAK1/serk1 positively controls starch granule accumulation in Arabidopsis root tips (Du et al., 2012). Using a transgenic sweet potato overexpressing a DNA-binding one zinc finger (Dof) protein encoded by a SRF1 gene (a member of the mini zinc finger family of plant specific transcription factors (Takatsuji, 1998;Takatsuji, 1999)), Tanaka et al. (2009) showed that transgenic roots had significantly higher storage root dry matter content, increased starch content per fresh weight of storage root and a drastic decrease in glucose and fructose levels (Tanaka et al., 2009). SRF1 was shown to modulate carbohydrate metabolism in sweet potato storage roots via negative regulation of vacuolar invertase (Tanaka et al., 2009).Several enzymes, including pectinases, pectin esterases, cellulase synthase and galacturonosyltransferases (GAUT), found in the RHM significant regions in white and yellow cassava may be involved in plant cell wall loosening and degradation which may be linked to carbon partitioning in cassava. In fact GAUT, a member of the CAZy (Cantarel et al., 2009) GT8 family of glycosyltransferases, is involved in pectin and hemicellulose biosynthesis (Cantarel et al., 2009;Atmodjo et al., 2011;de Godoy et al., 2013). GAUT-silenced tomato fruits showed altered pectin composition and decreased starch accumulation (de Godoy et al., 2013). Cassava GAUTs may interfere with carbon metabolism, partitioning and allocation as seen in tomato (de Godoy et al., 2013). In their expression profile study using samples from different stages of cassava root development, Yang et al. ( 2011) found a significant up-regulation of these enzymes involved in plant cell wall loosening and degradation. The beta helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family of transcription factors is a large family in plants involved in flavonoid, carotenoid pathway and anthocyanin pigmentation of tuber skin and flesh (from yellow to white and purple) in potato (De Jong et al., 2004;Zhang et al., 2009;Tai et al., 2013) and may interact with sucrose transporter to perform this function (Krügel et al., 2012).Phytochrome-interacting factors (PIFs) form a subfamily of bHLH transcription factors and PIF1 (a member of this subfamily) have been shown to directly regulate the expression of phytoene synthase (PSY) (Toledo-Ortiz et al., 2010), a major driver of carotenoid production in plants and the first and main rate-determining enzyme of the carotenoid pathway (Toledo-Ortiz et al., 2010;Maass et al., 2009). It is not clear how bHLH may link with sugar biosynthesis and transport or play a role in starch accumulation in yellow cassava clones, but this may translate to the frequently observed negative correlation between DM and yellow root flesh color in African cassava (Esuma et al., 2016;Akinwale et al., 2010). Interestingly, cassava breeders in Colombia have not found any negative correlation between carotenoids and DM in their germplasm and in fact have made gains in both traits using a rapid cycling recurrent selection scheme (Ceballos et al., 2013).Using the RHM analysis, we identified (Figure 3) a number of cassava genes in the heterotrophic plant cell starch/sucrose metabolism pathway (Junker, 2004). We describe a few steps in this pathway, concentrating mostly on where we have identified candidate genes (candidate genes are in braces henceforth with phytozome gene identifiers). After sucrose is imported into the cytosol by a sucrose transporter (Manes.05G099000, Manes.18G054200), it is converted into hexose sugars via two paths involving the enzymes sucrose synthase (shown in the center of Fig. 3) and invertase (shown to the left in Fig. 3) (Manes.04G006900, Manes.01G076500) (Junker, 2004;Ap Rees, 1992;Appeldoorn et al., 1997;Renz et al., 1993).Sucrose transport is much more pronounced in the sink tissues that switch to storage mode (Weschke et al., 2000;Weschke et al., 2003). A transgenic study using sucrose transporter 4-RNAi potato plants showed an increase in tuber yield and starch accumulation, and also induced early tuberization (Chincinska et al., 2008). It is worth noting that the cytosolic neutral invertase tends to play a larger role in sink organs than does the vacuolar acid invertase. Studies on maize null mutants of the cytosolic invertase (Mn1) had miniature seeds due to arrested endosperm development (Miller and Chourey, 1992), while overexpression of Mn1 increased grain yield and starch content (Li et al., 2013). Similar studies in rice, tomato and cotton have also found consistent phenotypes with cytosolic neutral invertase (Wang et al., 2008;Zanor et al., 2009;Wang and Ruan, 2012). Other studies on vacuolar invertase inhibitors showed a significant reduction of cold-induced sweetening in potato tubers (via a reduction in sucrose accumulation in tubers) by restricting the activities of vacuolar acid invertase (McKenzie et al., 2013;Brummell et al., 2011). These studies suggest the importance of sucrose unloading to sink organs and hence vacuolar acid and cytosolic invertases are targets for post-translational regulation towards starch storage and dry matter accumulation (Tang et al., 2016).The hexoses cleaved from sucrose are rapidly phosphorylated into hexose monophosphates by hexokinase and fructokinase (Junker, 2004;Ap Rees, 1992;Appeldoorn et al., 1997;Renz et al., 1993) and they proceed to starch biosynthesis or glycolytic pathways. As shown in the central pathway in Figure 3, the resulting hexose monophosphates (including glucose-1-phosphate, glucose-6-phosphate and fructose-6phosphate) are interconverted by the enzymes phosphoglucose mutase and phosphoglucose isomerase (Manes.18G060600) (Junker, 2004). Phosphoglucose isomerase connects the Calvin Cycle pathway with the starch biosynthetic pathway in illuminated plant leaves (Bahaji et al., 2015). It also plays a key role in the glycolytic pathway and in the regeneration of glucose-6-phosphate in the oxidative pentose pathway in heterotrophic organs and non-illuminated plant leaves (Bahaji et al., 2015). It is strongly inhibited by light (Heuer et al., 1982) and by an intermediate Calvin Cycle molecule 3-phosphoglycerate (3PGA) (Dietz, 1985), which accumulates in the chloroplast during illumination and allosterically activates AGPase (Kleczkowski, 1999;Kleczkowski, 2000). The second phosphorylation step in the glycolytic pathway is the phosphorylation of fructose-6-phosphate to fructose-1,6-bisphosphate by phosphofructokinase (Manes.09G077800). Interestingly, transgenic studies overexpressing 6-phosphofructokinase in potato found no changes in the transgenic tuber phenotype compared to the controls but had an increased flux of cytosolic 3PGA that did not affect the amount of starch that accumulated in the tubers (Sweetlove et al., 2001;Burrell et al., 1994). It is noteworthy that our RHM results identified a signal on chromosome 9 in both yellow and white cassava that corresponds to the position of a phosphofructokinase in cassava.Fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (FDA), a candidate from the Calvin Cycle pathway (Manes.04G007900), is known to play a key role in carbohydrate biosynthesis. Changes in FDA activity have marked consequences for photosynthesis, carbon partitioning, growth, yield and improved uniformity of solids in potato and other plants (Haake et al., 1998;Barry et al., 2002). Transgenic plants (including potato, corn, rice, canola and other crops) that expressed the E. coli FDA gene in their chloroplasts had significantly higher root mass, leaf phenotypes with significantly higher starch accumulation, and lower leaf sucrose compared to control plants expressing the null vector (Barry et al., 2002).The RHM results presented in this study suggest that DM content is under complex genetic control, particularly in the white cassava population. A network of genes and transcriptional regulons that are at the heart of sugar and starch biosynthesis were positionally associated with significant RHM regions in white and yellow cassava populations. The hide-a-SNP analysis performed to validate the RHM results indicates that spurious associations due to linkage may have been avoided in the RHM analysis even when large segments were involved (Figure 2B). Given the genetic complexity of the cassava DM trait, we suggest that candidate genes, including invertases (neutral and acid) and FDA, may be targeted for gene editing or transgenic techniques to substantiate the role of these genes in DM and starch accumulation in cassava and to provide a clear path for their utilization in cassava breeding programs.DM content must work together with fresh root yield (FYLD) to make cassava production profitable and provide value for farmers and processors. To investigate whether some of the genes and gene families identified in the RHM analysis are also involved in the biological processes that lead to cassava FYLD, we validated their effects on FYLD using the same validation procedures and populations as above. The results showed prediction accuracies for SnRKs on FYLD as 0.03 (0.02), 53 likely candidates as 0.02 (0.02), 53 unlikely candidates as 0.006 (0.03), RHM-region genes as 0.03 (0.02), and cassava starch pathway genes as -0.009 (0.02). These results suggest no single biological pathway controls DM and FYLD. This is not surprising since there is little genetic correlation between DM and FYLD (Kawano et al., 1987). It appears from the negative correlation between carotenoid content in roots and DM content in African cassava germplasm (Esuma et al., 2016;Akinwale et al., 2010) and from the link between bHLH and sugar biosynthesis (Krügel et al., 2012), that yellow flesh color is associated with the accumulation of reducing sugars in edible roots (Eleazu and Eleazu, 2012). This poses a more complex challenge for improving DM in African yellow cassava and shifts attention towards finding recombinant yellow cassava progenies that have high DM. Ceballos et al. (2015) states that the search for the appropriate recombinant is difficult in cassava breeding and advocates for the use of inbred progenitors while breeding for hybrid cassava.In this paper, we have utilized candidate gene analysis attempting to understand the function of the genes or gene families positionally associated with the RHM hits. We do not make the claim that these candidates are causal genes detected by the RHM hits but rather we have shown using prediction accuracies that these RHM hit loci were positionally associated with the DM trait in cassava (Figures Using RHM analysis, we demonstrate the complex genetic architecture of DM content in high DM white African cassava. Candidate gene analysis revealed possible roles of SnRKs, vacuolar and neutral invertases, phosphoglucose isomerase and FDA in the regulation of sugar and starch biosynthesis in cassava. The RHM analysis indicated that inheritance of DM content in the high DM white cassava population is more polygenic than in the low DM yellow cassava population. We examined the utility of models based on genome-wide candidate genes found in this study using prediction accuracies in a different but related population and found appreciable predictive ability compared to what is obtained when whole genome markers were used. Transcriptional regulators such as bHLH may be involved in flesh root color and sugar biosynthesis in cassava, as shown in potato. We recommend further studies using genome editing or transgenic technology to better understand these mechanisms and to inform and accelerate breeding efforts for cassava.Author's contributions:UGO designed, carried out study and drafted manuscript, DA provided statistical assistance and advice, JLJ supervised the study, designed the validation procedures and revised manuscript, IR and PK supervised data generation for this study and revised manuscript. All authors read and approved manuscript.        Plant Gen. Accepted Paper, posted 07/31/2017. doi:10.3835/plantgenome2017.06.0050 q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q q 5.0e+06 1.0e+07 1.5e+07 2.0e+07 Significant segments non−significant segments q q q q Fruct.bi.ald. Invrt.&Inhib. Pect.&Pester. Glycosyl.trns q q q Phos.gluc.iso Ser.Thre.Kin Sugar trans.","tokenCount":"7205"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5e61f33fe23aa828ad3316b9606e7742","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0c07ef68-72c6-442c-ba32-96bcf2f414fd/retrieve","id":"-2047654780"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"55ae30d2-19ae-47ce-9b47-891daf7202cd","pagecount":"40","content":"Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) a mängi dudungurã wirikahẽẽ nga gu na a ngere ku rogo gu gbẽgbẽrẽ apai na ndu na pa zingarigatise, pa ariarago tihe, pa gberesa agu angbakungbä du pati rani, na pa de angua na zokoda rago.Gi Riigbuu re na ngera kuti gu nexus nga ga sopabino, na rigatise. Ani na manga sunge gbaria yo, rogo ringara, na gu dungu akaureasunge du rogo Ringara biaboro dunduko, Asia yo na Latine America na Caribean, na agu abasunge nga ga zogarago, agu abasunge nga ga aboro na agu ariigbuu du rogo ringara. Na gu vovo kodatise, gu riigbuu re kusi rengo na gu vovo banguapai tipa ka aria sinä aria rigo na gu rago du pati rani tipa si banda zegino na ba ha, si sonosi weneraka ki ni rigi aboro rogo gu kere sinä aria rago tihe.Gu Kodatise re nga bete pa gu rii gbuu I a yamba ha nga CGIAR, gu ga zegino bakere bawisigäapai na zambuasi pa du kina sã tipa banda pa kusa rigo ku mbata yo nga gu fu tihe ka umbasi gu pai nga ga rungo, ka ye na gu mämu nga wene riahẽẽ na wene sinä rigatise, na ki ni sonosi agu ahẽẽ du rogo zegino. https://alliancebioversityciat.org/ www.cgiar.org Gu Basunge nga gaSopabino, Rũkäangua, na ga Atĩõ (DAFF) gere nga gu riigbuu du rogo gu ringara nga South Africa du gaha sunge nga ka manga sunge na agu andikä na birĩmangapai nga gu gu Dungurãtie nga ga South Africa a da kuti ni. Si na ia gaha ome be gu agu andika du bange he nga 27(1)(b) na (2) rogo agu Andika nga ga gu ringara nga South Africa nga gu nga gu dia gaha ruru andikä na kura ringbisaapai, kina rogo gaha ahũũkumuko, tipa ka nyãsa sangba gu sonosa mangaapai nga ga (Gu rengo nga ga aboro dunduko) tipa ka du na gu mämu nga ka du na bakere ngbatuga arigo\" Rogo gu dungurã dungurã riigbuu nga ga DAFF, na ka yugo ho nzũnzũ rogo pa kusa ahũũ äti, Parakaaboro na pa du rigo wenengaĩ. Gu tooni be bamangasunge nga ga DAFF, Gu bamangasunge nga ga pangbatunga ahẽẽ na gu ome behe ka rugusa na ka fu gu kodikodi ngerafuo ahẽẽ na banda paha ki ni undä gu pa banda na sonosa ahẽẽ arigo na sunge sopa bino. Gere gu du na gu pai rogo nga ga sonosa rago na banda pa arugute na pa rũkä agu ahẽẽ nga ga rigo na pa rũkä ahẽẽ na ka na pa gu kere pai ni songoda gu bakere pa rukä ahẽẽ.Ani ini pa gu undä a na ye be gu manga apai nga ga gu ba na ngere fuo ria hẽẽ na pa banda ri wene ria hẽẽ, nga ga South Sudan Food and Nutrition Security Resilience Programme (FNS-REPRO), tipa kusa gi wiri tooni buku du re.Ani nga aboro Bajrangi du rogo gu baigä tungaahẽẽahẽẽ rogo gu gbata nga Balapur rogo gu ba nga Bundelkhand Bebere India yo. Ani a tona gaani ka banda tungaahẽẽ rogo Muambe diwi rogo gu garã nga 2016. Wa vura du he nga Balapur na kina ga ha tooni nzengu gu yangada mbembedi nzengu du na agu ahẽẽ na kura äti yo ni bakere he du rogo gu ba i a yamba ha nga Karwi, du wa bagizä ha nga 12 ꞌkilometereꞌ.Awere, ani na banda tunga abapu, abakpa, sere, vunde, mapunga, pusivunde. Ani na ru mapunga, pusivunde, abapu tipa ka baga ha. Gu kura rũkurũku ahẽẽ du tipa rani, käti vura kura regbo hõ ani na baga ha a baga kina rogo gu gaani anzengu du gbaria yoꞌ ono ni bete he.Ani na bi dungu atatamana tipa gaani a sunge be Deendayal Research Institute na Bioversity International.Ani na kpi nyämu ka zaka bangirani tipa gu dungu atatamana du hõ tipa waĩ ka zaka ga aboro baigä tungaahẽẽ, na gu meme apai na mängi he nga gu rengbe ka undä roni rogo gaoni apai. Ga aboro baigä tungaahẽẽ na ida aira ha nga agu yo na ima ruga tiyo na gu nyãnyãki pa atatamana wa duku he. Gere na ida gamo regbo na ome mängimängi pai.Gini ngbatunga rũkurũku ahẽẽ du mo a ida ka banda ha rogo tungaahẽẽ? Dedede gu ngbatunga rũkurũku ahẽẽ renghe ka do gomorõ ni ipo dagba aboro: adeee na akumba, aparanga na gbinza aboro, aboro kumuko na aira rungo, mbembedi asopobino na agu aboro turũ a turä.Dungu aboro ba banda tunga na ngera gbe tipa ngbatunga gu rũkurũku ahẽẽ na ima mbeda ka inga na gu rũkurũku ahẽẽ ngba ri he ti aboro. Go pai du re: waĩ ti a ngera, ba sona ha, ba nzira ha. Adee na a kumba gayo nyamu ahẽẽ nibakiakia, ti du wakabangirise go nga tini ya bara hõ aboro aida ka banda tunga ni.Awere dungu abasopobino na kpi nyämu gu rũkurũku ahẽẽ du wenengaĩ, wa wege a vura ka aria ti he.Ti ni nyãnyãki pai ka du na maa bangirise tipa ka du na wene abamangi sunge na gu tatamana du tipa dungu rũkurũku ahẽẽ. Kina waĩ renghe he, mo rengbe a rengba na sia bete ngabtaunga rũkurũku ahẽẽ watadu ka tona ha na bangisa ngbatuka ruru he sa ka mota rugätiro tie nani mo kini ru tie ka du nani rũkurũku ahẽẽ, ni dungu he.Banguapai rogo pa dungura tunga nga, dungura gu a du nga na kaza tini ya. Bawene tata mana kamanga ha nga:• kaa ta rogo äti na wisiga gu rũkurũku ahẽẽ re• rogoda papara gu ruiuruu ahẽẽ rogo a pavuru äti sa ni ba dungu he• dungura tunga ahe ti gu rũkurũku ahẽẽ du ni wene he• hõ mo a dungura gu tunga ni ka mo di nga gu du pa ngba äti ya, bambiko kangi tiima koda ti he na kura ngbatunga atunga• zanga rogoda tunga ti kaza kaza rũkurũku ahẽẽ, watady wiri rukuti be angua na tinda tunga gbiäti zukuzuku he Fuo dungura ha, ani ki ngere kpere tipa gu tunga du na fuo wiri airo tini watadu kaza a, na ngereka kna wo hõ yo a girisa ha ni, bambiko wiri agbiro na ka rengbe ka zuga/ mapai hõ yo a banda tunga ni gbamu yo.Ti rengbe a rengba ka sana aboro zara (extension agent) tipa undo, kayo du hõ mbembedi, ba wirikapai nga ga a basopo bino rengbe ka yugo pai na ka undo na mangapai rogo nzunzu tatamana yo.Tina ida ka du na buku tipa ka rimisa gu bakio tunga ye yo nani ku babanda ha, rame diwi, rimo ira ha, gbaria, watadu agu aboro yo a dungura be yo, na ngbatunga gu rũkurũku ahẽẽ re.Ka mizani du hõ, ti ngba a ngba i ke ba kio he, ti naka sa gu pai nga, i mangi gbiakuti ka ino ba kio gu tunga ahẽẽ kuru rogo gu gara re, rogo ga a gu aboro ba banda tunga re.Kura wene mbakädi mbakädi ga aboro ba band tunga, renghe ka du na buku ue: kura ha tipa hõ yo a ye ni na tunga, na kura ha tie tipa hõ yo a rogoda tunga ni. Kura aboro rengbe ka du na a buku tipa dungu apai; tipa rimo abasopo bino nga agu you na ye na gayo tunga ahẽẽ ka ba banda ha yo; rimo ngbatunga a tunga a wa rengbe he nga gu yo a gamu he fu yo na keke keke rimo a gu angbatung ahẽẽ na ima inga.Buku na ke rimo dungu ngbatunga rũkurũku ahẽẽ rengbe kadu na gu rimo hõ ini agu aboro re rogo gayo rago gbiäti genetic resource, sunge he nga gine nzunzu, were ti hõ, ti rogo ba sa watadu ti rengbe ri a rago du, ti rengbe ka ima rogo zingo ime na bakere faya rago hõ du he ni äti yo, aboro na bi pa ri he waĩ na sino na ida nami watadu gayo pa Mbori.Banguapai tipa banda tunga ahẽẽ nga tunga ugu wenengaĩ, käti dunga na kura ngbatunga atunga nga ga nvuo ya, nvutu na zekere mbia/ ngume Ka banda tunga gigiri, naraka rogo hõ, gu ba yo a banda ha rogo na waĩ yo a banda ha nga meme pai.Dungu ba banda tunga ahẽẽ na banda ga yo a tunga kina waĩ a titayo a yugu he fu yo na gu rũkurũku ahẽẽ: dogoro, nganzi, ndukura etc. Ina ugusa gayo tunga ahẽẽ na uru, ki mbu he ti zere mbata ano fu i mai he ku rogo ba ha nzunzu rorgo a gu ahẽẽ ina ikidi he na dogoro. Gi a gene nga bwawene gene ki susi.Ono awere, kura aboro na banda tunga ahe rogo kodi kodi gene nga ga ätitayo na ga abaramu nga a gu a hu banda tunga du awere nga gu ahẽẽ wege a rimo nga ku rogo ya, agu a baramiri a kandi boro angera ngera tini watadu gizaza, kura suari du ku ri a suari (super grain bags) nga gu na ima rengba ka raka tipa dungu a gara bambiko wege na ime arengba nga ka rimo tini te. Areke nga ga zeolite (zeolite beads -aluminosilicatebased absorbents) nga gu yo a maya ha ku rogo a gu ahẽẽ du tunga rogo na tisa rogo vuru a gu he yo re du ni ugu he, agu areke na manga sunge wenengaĩ.Wa avura nga nge yo gbe ya, badungu aborohõ na wene gene be yo ka aboro kida kuti ni ka maya faya rago na ime rogo wege du nzunzu te, nga gu ba nguapai tie tipa genetic material raki tipa gbanga regbo. Ti du tie du, gu pai ngba gbe nga maya bangirise tipa wazunu ime (test moisture) rogo tunga ahẽẽ tipa tunga ahẽẽ du wenengaĩ.Agu apai ti aida ka tingida ha:√ ka faya rago vuru bambu da nga ti 35 degrees celcius ya bambiko ti andu ka tona kura √ agu ahẽẽ yo a maya tunga ku rogo (gizaza, kandi watadu pere) du wa käti du ni gigiri he tipa ka wiri agbiro na kaza andu ka zio tunga ahẽẽ √ gu ime du rogo tunga ahẽẽ mbata fu maya ha ku ba banda ha you du wa käti nye tooni tipa ka gu tunga re kuru nga yaBadungu agu aboro na banda tunga na ru he na agara dunduko tipa ti rengbe kaino gu ba re na sende. Gu sukuru nga ga abasopo bino a watadu college nga ga azara rengbe a rengba na ruka agu a tunga re.Käti du nga ina ida banda agu atunga re tipa gbanga regbo, i rengbe ka ruko ha fuo agara 5 -7 na tipa agu a tunga nga ga nzeme ina ka ruko hõ fuo gara 3 -4.I na ruko a gu ahẽẽ kina rogo gayo kpoto sende waadu gu boro sa dagba yo abosopo bino na fu he. Basopo bino sa na dia pa ruko kura ngbatungahẽẽ sa gu kurani ki di kuraha watadu ni dungu he kube boro sa.Gu kura aba banda tunga na ida kina gayo aboro ruku agu a tunga yo a dungura ha na agaara dunduko.Agu a kura ba banda tunga kina hõ na manga apai ki susi gu nga ka ruka kina tunga yo a dungura ha. Ono i na kura ngbatunga a tunga ni bakere he tipa aboro na ka baga ha. Tipa ka rengba ka manga gere tina ida weneba zugasi tunga na pa bagaha na biri he.Asada ruka gu tunga re ni betehe (germination test) na ida ka manga ha dedede tipa ka kparia ga ha kura, kangia ti na ome kindi.Andika tipa ka dia tunga be aboro ba banda ha du wa ka aboro ba banda ha idi kutini.Rogo mangi mangi he ti nga:√ ka da kuti waĩ ka fu he fu a gu aboro na ye nani watadu ka fu he fu kungbo aboro a √ ka manga ha nga gu mo ye mbata iki fu he foro na ti rengbe a na aboro dunduko √ Mbakadapai tipa karaga agirisi tunga nga gu yo a di he ni babe na bara waĩ i ka karaga ha √ ka ida kuti waĩ tini ka du kaboro a karaga nga ha ti regbo hõ ya watadu ka ni a ye nga nani ya.√ keka pa kparaka gu tunga ahẽẽ re rogo wene gene yo.Ani na pe gu pai nga pa ye na tunga na kusa tunga du mbakädi mbakädi he, ti na ka sa gu pai nga ani ini ngba ha ku barani yo na da du angba nga ha ku barani yo ya, gini ngbatunga rũkurũku ahẽẽ du aboro adida ha gbe, na gini gu yo aidanga ha ya, bakio tunga waĩ yo aida rogo garasa watadu regbo ruko gu he nga ni re.Ka gurusa gu pai du rogo gi buku re:1. Ka siaka rũkurũku ahẽẽ na dungura tunga tipa ngbatunga rũkurũku ahẽẽ na ngbatunga a gu mo aida ka dungura na ka banda ha rogo gaoni ba banda tunga 2. Wene tunga ahe na girisa ha du tipa siaka gu a dunga na kaza tini ya 3. Keka bakio tunga ahe irengbe ka du na dungu a buku tipa keka dungu ngbatunga apai 4. Mbakada tunga na banda ha. Ye na gu pai nga koda kuru apai na vovo hõ wa sa, waĩ ka banda tunga ahẽẽ na ngera fuo tunga du ni ugu he zanga tunga nvuo rogo, nvutu, zekerembia etc.Maabangirise tipa tunga -naida ka asada tunga dedede ka bi tinga tikindi na ome he 6. Zugasi tunga -dungu a gene tina ugu he tipa zugasi tunga 7. Kadia tunga rogo babanda ha -tipa ka kusa andika tipa tunga waĩ tunga a rimo na kini kuru rogo ba banda ha. Gere nga digido ue buku tipa sonosa na manga ga aboro ba banda tunga, tatamana Ani na aria tirani kuti gu buku nga number 3 awere.Pai tipa akehe Arnab Gupta, PhD (Seed science and technology) -sayansi nga ga tunga ahe na ina pa ka manga ha -nga gu ko na ngera fuo ruka a he rogo wene gene yo, nga gu ko na manga sunge India yo mbata fu ga ko ku Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, du Netherlands yo. Ga ko sunge India yo angia unda aboro ringara na ga yo ba banda tunga a he. Ko ki du na bakere maya bangirise tipa banda tunga rogo ugu ba, saka pai tipa ha na ni mangi mangi he. Ga ko sunge a nga yugo pai fu aba sopo bino na agu aborosunge na dungura a tunga na wai ka banda ha na gu he yo a yamba ha nga 'Zeolite beads technology' tipa tunga raki tipa ba gbanga regbo rogo ga aboro ringara ba banda tunga. ","tokenCount":"2421"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"79b371b70e804b34a28dbe6cd4adf6c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/infobrief/8976-Infobrief.pdf","id":"1985461943"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a405fdd8-8e27-4f2f-8b78-61410c4cbccb","pagecount":"6","content":"Que se passe-t-il après l'arrêt des paiements de conservation?Les paiements de conservation connus sous le nom de paiements pour services environnementaux (PSE) sont des transferts conditionnels dans lesquels les gestionnaires des terres reçoivent de l'argent ou des compensations en nature en échange de l'adoption de pratiques de conservation, telles que la réduction de la déforestation et la conservation des forêts (Wunder 2007(Wunder 2015)). Il s'agissait du principal type d'intervention initialement envisagé pour la mise en oeuvre sur le terrain de la REDD+ (réduction des émissions dues à la déforestation et à la dégradation des forêts), bien que de nombreuses autres interventions aient également été mises en oeuvre au niveau local (par exemple, l'amélioration inconditionnelle des moyens de subsistance, l'application de la loi et la clarification du régime foncier) (Duchelle et al. 2017).Sous l'égide de la REDD+, la raison d'être des PSE est de rendre les forêts plus rentables sur pied que coupées (Angelsen et McNeill 2013), incitant ainsi les bénéficiaires à soutenir activement les efforts de conservation. Pour que cette stratégie fonctionne, les paiements pour la conservation des forêts doivent dépasser le coût d'opportunité de la déforestation évitée -c'est-à-dire le montant de la perte résultant de l'abandon des activités économiques dépendantes de la déforestation (par exemple, l'agriculture sur brûlis, l'élevage extensif de bétail) (Wunder 2008). Il est important de noter que les responsables de la mise en oeuvre des PSE doivent contrôler la conformité des fournisseurs de services, en vérifiant dans quelle mesure les propriétés inscrites ont rempli les conditions contractuelles (par exemple, la conservation des forêts) avant d'effectuer des paiements (Wunder et al. 2008).Même avant le lancement de la REDD+, les PSE étaient déjà courants dans les pays en développement (Engel et al. 2008 ;Ezzine-de-Blas et al. 2016), probablement pour deux raisons. Premièrement, les PSE pourraient être plus rentables pour atteindre les résultats en matière de conservation que les stratégies indirectes, telles que les projets intégrés de conservation et de développement (ICDP) (Ferraro et Kiss 2002). Deuxièmement, les PSE sont potentiellement plus justes socialement que les mesures prescriptives traditionnelles axées sur l'application de la loi, car ils rémunèrent les gestionnaires des terres pour l'adoption volontaire (plutôt que forcée) de comportements de conservation (Jack et al. 2008). Par conséquent, les PSE peuvent promouvoir des résultats gagnantgagnant (c'est-à-dire la conservation des forêts et la réduction de la pauvreté) (Leimona et Lee 2008), ce qui a encouragé les maîtres d'oeuvre à cibler les petits exploitants pauvres. Malgré l'enthousiasme suscité par les PSE, leur efficacité ne fait pas l'unanimité. La plupart des évaluations d'impact des PSE indiquent un certain succès dans la réduction de la déforestation et la conservation des forêts (p. ex., Robalino et Pfaff 2013 ;Costedoat et al. 2015 ;Jayachandran et al. 2017 ;Montoya-Zumaeta et al. 2019), mais qui reste généralement modeste (Wunder et al., 2020). Cependant, peu de programmes de PSE ont été examinés et les études ne sont pas toujours exemptes de problèmes méthodologiques (Snilsveit et al. 2019). Ainsi, le bilan de l'efficacité des PSE reste à établir.La durée des effets des PSE sur la conservation après la cessation des paiements est encore moins étudiée, c'est la question que la littérature sur le carbone forestier appelle la « permanence ». De nombreux PSE sont conçus comme des programmes à long terme, où les paiements peuvent même être maintenus indéfiniment (Pagiola et al. 2016). Cependant, un financement continu est rarement garanti, et de nombreuses initiatives de PSE ont pris fin en raison de restrictions budgétaires (Jones et al. 2017 ;Hayes et al. 2022). D'autres initiatives de PSE sont prévues dès le départ en tant que programmes pilotes sans horizon de paiement à long terme (Jayachandran et al. 2017).À quel scénario de permanence devrions-nous nous attendre? Théoriquement, les réductions de déboisement encouragées par les PSE temporaires auraient également tendance à être temporaires : après la cessation des paiements, les utilisations concurrentes des terres (par exemple, l'agriculture, l'élevage du bétail) seraient à nouveau plus rentables que la conservation des forêts, induisant la reprise de la déforestation (Swart 2003 ;Phelps et al. 2013).Pourtant, la tendance à la baisse de la déforestation pourrait se maintenir au cours de la période suivant le paiement à deux conditions principales. Premièrement, un programme de PSE pourrait inciter à adopter d'autres moyens de subsistance plus rentables et durables (par exemple, des systèmes agroforestiers) qui pourraient supplanter de manière permanente les activités dépendantes de la déforestation (Pagiola et al. 2020). Deuxièmement, les programmes de PSE pourraient accroître les motivations altruistes des participants à conserver (renforcement de la motivation), les amenant à conserver plus de forêts qu'avant les paiements (Ezzine- de-Blas et al. 2019).En outre, même si la déforestation reprend après la cessation des PSE, les gains forestiers découlant des paiements resteraient « permanents », tant que les anciens bénéficiaires ne « rattrapent » pas la déforestation perdue (Banque mondiale 2018). Ce serait le cas uniquement si, après la fin des paiements, les taux de déforestation augmentaient encore plus que ce qui se serait produit en l'absence du programme -c'est-à-dire un scénario contrefactuel qui reste à vérifier (Skutsch et Trines 2010 ;Costedoat et Pfaff 2022).Un projet ne pourrait provoquer une accélération de la déforestation qui annule ses gains de conservation forestière seulement dans des circonstances exceptionnelles. Par exemple, cela pourrait se produire si les bénéficiaires investissaient les revenus des PSE dans l'achat d'outils de défrichement forestier (par exemple, des tronçonneuses) et/ou se lançaient dans l'agriculture extensive (par exemple, des pâturages à faible capacité de charge). Une autre possibilité serait que la réception de paiements pour la conservation des forêts sape les motivations intrinsèques des bénéficiaires à conserver (baisse de la motivation) (Rode et al. 2015), les amenant à déboiser plus qu'ils ne l'auraient fait en l'absence de paiements.Cela conduit aux quatre scénarios de permanence présentés à la figure 1 Il n'y a eu que quelques évaluations de la permanence des résultats de conservation des forêts obtenus par les programmes de type PSE. Le plus souvent, elles confirmaient les scénarios plus optimistes présentés ci-dessus -c.-à-d. S1 et S2 en Équateur et en Ouganda, respectivement (Banque mondiale 2018 ; Etchart et al. 2020). Pourtant, on observe aussi un exemple en Indonésie mettant en évidence le risque de résultats négatifs, correspondant à notre scénario S4 (Erbaugh 2022).En somme, la permanence est cruciale pour l'efficacité de toute intervention de conservation au fil du temps. Pourtant, nos connaissances empiriques sur le degré de permanence et ses facteurs restent limitées. Selon la logique théorique des programmes de PSE, la déforestation reprendra après le paiement : vous n'obtiendrez que ce que vous payez. Cependant, comme indiqué ci-dessus, d'autres scénarios sont également possibles.Dans les sections suivantes, nous résumons les principales conclusions de notre évaluation d'impact d'un projet REDD+ comportant des paiements pour les petits de la région transamazonienne (partie occidentale de l'État du Pará, Amazonie brésilienne) afin de réduire la déforestation. Le projet a été évalué à la fois pendant la mise en oeuvre et après sa fin, dans le cadre de l'Étude comparative mondiale sur la REDD+ (GCS REDD+) dirigée par le Centre de recherche forestière internationale (CIFOR). La recherche a été publiée dans Ecological Economics (Carrilho et al. 2022).Nous avons examiné Sustainable Settlements in the Amazon (SSA), un projet REDD+ mis en oeuvre par l'ONG brésilienne Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (IPAM). Le projet SSA a commencé en 2012, mais a été suspendu en 2017 après le refus d'une demande de refinancement par le Fonds Amazon.Environ 2 700 ménages de l'État du Pará ont participé au projet SSA (IPAM 2016). Cependant, notre étude s'est concentrée sur les 350 ménages auxquels l'IPAM avait offert des PSE. Ils vivaient dans douze communautés près de l'autoroute transamazonienne, une zone à forte déforestation où les petits exploitants sont nombreux -principalement des colons venus du nord-est du Brésil -avec des propriétés de moins de 100 hectares (ha) (Godar et al. 2012 ;Stella et al. 2020).Les principales activités économiques des ménages étaient l'élevage de bétail et l'agriculture sur brûlis. Malgré la médiocrité des infrastructures de transport, une partie de leur production a été vendue (p. ex. manioc, viande). Deuxièmement, les ménages dépendaient des ressources forestières principalement pour l'autoconsommation, telles que le bois de chauffage pour la cuisine, les fruits, le poisson et la viande de brousse (Carrilho et al. 2022). La plupart des ménages ont également reçu un revenu monétaire d'autres sources, comme des virements gouvernementaux (Cromberg et al. 2014).L'objectif central du projet SSA était de réduire les taux de déforestation. Pour stimuler l'adoption d'activités de subsistance durables, telles que l'horticulture, le poivre noir et la production de cacao, l'IPAM s'appuyait principalement sur des paiements directs allant jusqu'à 725 USD par ménage et par an, à la condition de réduire la déforestation, et sur un soutien de type ICDP (c'est-à-dire une assistance technique et des intrants agricoles gratuits). En outre, les participants ont reçu un soutien administratif pour enregistrer leurs propriétés au cadastre rural du Brésil (Cadastro Ambiental Rural -CAR), et ont été invités à des réunions de sensibilisation sur la législation environnementale et la régularisation des régimes fonciers.Pour estimer les impacts du projet REDD+ sur la déforestation, nous avons utilisé des méthodes quasi expérimentales. Ces méthodes nous ont permis de sélectionner un groupe témoin approprié pour construire un scénario contrefactuel valide (c'est-à-dire ce qui se serait passé en l'absence du projet REDD+). Les impacts du projet ont donc été estimés en comparant les résultats observés dans les unités participant à la REDD+ (c'est-à-dire un groupe expérimental) et dans le scénario contrefactuel (Ferraro 2009).La variable utilisée dans la comparaison entre les groupes (c.-à-d. la variable de résultat) était le couvert forestier, correspondant à la somme des pourcentages de forêt primaire et secondaire sur les propriétés, selon les déclarations des ménages répondants aux enquêtes, et validés par des données de télédétection. Toutes les procédures méthodologiques sont décrites en détail dans Carrilho et al. (2022).Nous avons comparé les changements du couvert forestier au fil du temps entre le groupe expérimental et le scénario contrefactuel au cours des deux périodes évaluées. La première a eu lieu entre 2010 (niveau de référence) et 2014 (deux ans après le début du projet), afin de mesurer les effets des PSE pendant le projet. Pour isoler les effets des PSE, en 2014, la collecte de données a eu lieu avant le début du soutien de type ICDP aux moyens de subsistance alternatifs. Les contrats de PSE avaient déjà été signés près d'un an plus tôt (début 2013) et le premier paiement allait être versé. Ainsi, nous nous attendions à ce que les participants aient moins déboisé en 2013 pour devenir éligibles aux premiers paiements. Si tel était le cas, nous trouverions une différence significative entre les changements dans le couvert forestier du groupe expérimental et le scénario contrefactuel au cours de la première période évaluée. Il convient de mentionner que, outre l'IPAM, plusieurs autres organisations ont offert un soutien administratif dans la région transamazonienne pour l'enregistrement des propriétés des ménages au cadastre. Par conséquent, la plupart des ménages témoins ont reçu la même intervention. Tout effet supplémentaire de l'enregistrement au cadastre sur la déforestation serait donc annulé par la comparaison des groupes expérimentaux et témoins.La deuxième période évaluée s'est déroulée entre 2014 et 2019 (deux ans après la fin du projet), afin d'observer dans quelle mesure les effets des PSE étaient permanents. Comme le montre la figure 1, quatre scénarios de permanence auraient pu être possibles.Août 2023Nos résultats indiquent que le projet REDD+ a réduit la déforestation alors qu'il offrait des paiements conditionnels directs. En comparant les différences entre le groupe expérimental et le scénario contrefactuel au cours de la première période évaluée (c.-à-d. 2010-2014), nous avons trouvé des résultats statistiquement significatifs qui montrent que le projet a permis de préserver en moyenne 7,8 % de couverture forestière par propriété, soit 6,1 ha (Figure 2). Le couvert forestier a continué de diminuer dans les groupes expérimentaux et les groupes témoins. Cependant, nous avons détecté une pause dans la perte de forêts entre 2010 et 2014 dans le groupe expérimental, que nous pouvons attribuer avec une grande confiance au projet REDD+.Comme indiqué plus haut, la réduction de la déforestation a probablement résulté des PSE. Cela étant, nos résultats corroborent la majorité des études d'impact montrant l'efficacité des PSE dans la réduction de la déforestation et la conservation des forêts (voir l'introduction). L'explication la plus probable de ce succès est que les paiements ont, dans une certaine mesure, compensé le coût d'opportunité de la déforestation évitée. Par conséquent, les agriculteurs ont choisi de moins défricher les forêts en vue d'autres utilisations des terres (p. ex., l'agriculture et l'élevage du bétail) pour recevoir des paiements.Après la fin du projet, la déforestation a repris pour correspondre aux taux de déforestation contrefactuels. Ainsi, le projet n'a pas réussi à promouvoir une réduction soutenue de la déforestation. Au cours de la deuxième période évaluée (2014-2019), nous n'avons pas détecté de différences significatives entre le pourcentage de couvert forestier du groupe expérimental et le scénario contrefactuel. Cela indique qu'au cours de cette période, les anciens participants n'avaient, en moyenne, ni augmenté ni diminué le couvert forestier par rapport à ce qui se serait produit en l'absence du projet.Comme le prévoit la théorie qui sous-tend les programmes de PSE (voir l'introduction), après la cessation des paiements, la conversion des forêts redeviendrait plus rentable que la conservation des forêts. Par conséquent, les pratiques de déforestation devraient également reprendre. Tant que l'externalité environnementale persiste -c'est-à-dire que les forêts sur pied rapportent moins que les autres rendements d'utilisation des terres -nous ne pouvons pas nous attendre à ce qu'un paiement temporaire induise un changement permanent dans la logique du système productif.Cependant, le projet REDD+ a tout de même laissé un gain environnemental durable : le groupe expérimental est retourné défricher les forêts aussi rapidement que leurs pairs qui composaient le scénario contrefactuel, mais sans en faire plus. En d'autres termes, la déforestation a repris, mais à un rythme qui n'a pas annulé les gains de conservation précédents. Cela signifie qu'un gain net de forêt a perduré au fil du temps, comme l'illustrent les tendances empiriques de la déforestation de la figure 2. Nos conclusions ici correspondent parfaitement à une évaluation précédente de la permanence des résultats de PSE en Ouganda (Banque mondiale 2018).Les résultats que nous présentons ici sur un projet REDD+ dans la région brésilienne de Transamazonie (État du Pará) indiquent que les transferts temporaires et conditionnels de PSE liés à l'utilisation des terres ont effectivement réussi à réduire significativement la déforestation, mais seulement pendant la durée des paiements. La tendance à la réduction de la déforestation due aux PSE ne perdurait donc pas, mais les gains de conservation n'ont pas disparu, comme prévu dans notre scénario théorique attendu (S2, Figure 1), et observés ailleurs sous les tropiques.Notamment, les pilotes de la mise en oeuvre du projet ont également tenté d'induire une réduction plus ambitieuse et auto-entretenue de la déforestation en promouvant des utilisations durables des terres susceptibles de maintenir les arbres sur pied, et changeraient ainsi la logique de production de manière plus permanente. En fait, c'était le principal objectif déclaré du projet, avec des investissements dans les composantes de l'ICDP présentant des moyens de  Pourtant, même ce programme temporaire de PSE a eu un effet durable en ce sens que les gains de conservation obtenus pendant la mise en oeuvre étaient pleinement intacts après la fin des paiements : la déforestation a repris à un rythme accéléré, mais sans dépasser le scénario contrefactuel. Ainsi, le projet PSE n'a pas résolu de manière permanente le problème de la déforestation, mais il a permis une pause utile -une parenthèse dans le temps, sauvant les forêts pour l'atténuation du changement climatique et les avantages connexes pendant la durée de l'intervention durait et juste après.Sur le plan méthodologique, nos techniques rigoureuses d'évaluation d'impact nous ont permis d'étoffer ces résultats en détail. D'autres études sur la performance post-projet et la pérennité espérée des gains de conservation sont absolument nécessaires. La nouvelle terminologie que nous proposons pour différents degrés de permanence devrait également être utile ici pour poser les bonnes questions : y a-t-il eu un changement permanent dans les tendances de la déforestation, ou, du moins, les gains de conservation de l'intervention étaient-ils permanents ?","tokenCount":"2694"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"50595401aa2bb0db405f8d42413bb412","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/81cd215f-421c-4b38-b569-05eb8b402c8c/retrieve","id":"2035190276"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"67260349-d1af-4d10-89e9-7c5f7c0d898c","pagecount":"28","content":"No 04/5 COTTON CTA is funded by the European Union The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) was established in 1983 under the Lomé Convention between the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) Group of States and the European Union Member States. Since 2000, it has operated within the framework of the ACP-EC Cotonou Agreement.CTA's tasks are to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development, and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilise information in this area.South Africa is the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to have adopted genetically modified cotton for commercial production. Other countries, however, are extremely interested in the potential of GM cotton, not least because it promises to greatly reduce the amount of chemical pesticides needed to keep a crop healthy. The most common variety of GM cotton is called 'Bollgard'. It is made by the agrochemical company Monsanto, and it is known as Bt cotton, because it contains a gene from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. This gene is responsible for making a protein which, when eaten by insects is poisonous to them. In other words, the Bt cotton plant produces its own, internal pesticide protecting it against pest attack.There has, of course, been considerable opposition to Bt cotton, not only in Africa, but even in some countries where the crop has been widely grown, such as India. Some farmers have experienced that the Bt cotton plants are less productive than their traditional varieties (although farmers in KwaZulu-Natal have experienced yield increases between 50 and 89%, according to a New Scientist report -March '03), while also being more expensive to buy. As a result they have actually lost money by planting Bt cotton. There are also concerns that Bt cotton may pose a danger to the environment that we cannot predict, and fears that farmers growing the GM variety may become overly dependent on the companies who market the seed.The interview Bt cotton -a safe and profitable option? examines these issues in the context of Bt cotton trials being conducted in Burkina Faso. The interviewee is a researcher with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, a research institute that has been in favour of genetic modification of crops, as a means of solving Africa's problems of poverty and rural under-development. However, the interviewee does emphasise the importance of African countries ensuring that all necessary safety checks are carried out before making any decision to allow the widespread planting of a GM cotton variety. He also makes the point that unless the subsidies to cotton farmers in rich countries are ended, any increases in production enabled by Bt cotton will be worthless.Syngenta, one of Monsanto's rivals in the development of GM crops, has produced a second type of Bt cotton called VIP cotton. VIP stands for Vegetative Insecticidal Protein; like Monsanto's 'Bollgard' cotton, Syngenta's VIP cotton also uses a gene from Bacillus thuringiensis (although not the same gene found in 'Bollgard'), to produce a protein that kills pests. In the case of VIP, the protein causes the insect larvae to stop feeding and die. Scientists in Zimbabwe are currently testing VIP cotton to see how effective it will be at killing different species of bollworm that afflict cotton in the country. The interview Genetically modified (VIP) cotton features a researcher, who explains what she feels the benefits of VIP cotton could be to small-scale Zimbabwean farmers.The interview Preventing pest plagues includes discussion of how, at a national level, government policies can help both to prevent pest outbreaks spreading from other countries, and to ensure that unauthorised, potentially dangerous pesticides do not end up in the hands of farmers. The interviewee also explains what farmers themselves should do to ensure that pests from one season cannot damage cotton crops in the following season. The uprooting and burning of cotton plants soon after harvest is very important, as is early cultivation of the land, which exposes insect cocoons to the sunlight, thereby disturbing their life-cycle.Protecting plants and killing pests also emphasises the importance of early planting and harvesting, to minimise pest damage and the need for chemical sprays. But the interviewee also gives some useful information on how best farmers can protect themselves against contamination by the chemicals, and the benefits of targeted spraying. This allows farmers to minimise the number of sprays needed, and protect the beneficial insects, called pest predators, which actually help to reduce pest attacks on the crop. 'Scouting', in order to identify the level and type of pest infestation, and the presence of pest predators, is a key skill for cotton farmers to learn. The interview also addresses some alternative means of pest control, such as use of home-made pesticides, and inter-planting with peppers -a naturally insect-repelling crop -to keep insects away from cotton.More information about scouting, destruction of old plants and targeted use of pesticides is given in Pest control with fewer chemicals. The interview also looks at the role chemicalmarketing companies need to have in preventing the development of insect resistance to pesticides. One key step is ensuring that chemicals which are season-specific, are only sold during the appropriate seasons. If this is done, there is less chance that farmers will continue to apply the chemicals throughout the growing season, which can encourage insects to develop resistance. The interviewee also points out that Zimbabwean cotton, despite being grown in small quantities, is favoured by the textile industry because it is grown with minimal use of chemicals, and is therefore less sticky than other cottons grown in the region.Here are some questions relating to cotton production that you could discuss in your programme, supported by the interviews in this pack. Your 'discussion' could be done by yourself, with phone-in comments from listeners if possible, or by inviting a 'cotton expert' into the studio. If you decide to debate the issues surrounding use of GM cotton, you could invite -or record contributions from -people representing both the 'for' and 'against' viewpoints.The interview on VIP cotton probably presents the case for using GM cotton most strongly. Joseph Nkole from Zambia and Ousmane Coulibaly from IITA give more emphasis to establishing the environmental safety of any varieties planted, with Dr Coulibaly also mentioning the importance of establishing the financial benefits from growing Bt cotton.This may include reforming tax systems so that locally produced cotton is not penalised, in comparison with imported cotton; lobbying for the end to cotton subsidies in developed countries; placing checks on cotton seed imports to prevent pest and disease outbreaks; controlling the pesticide products that can be sold or imported into the country; carry out a thorough analysis of the weaknesses in the cotton sector at all levels, and support the process of finding, and implementing solutions. The interviews with Dennis Ochwada, Mackson Banda and Joseph Nkole cover most of these topics.Several interviews offer advice for how farmers can target their pesticides more efficiently, thereby both reducing the cost and the number of sprays, and doing less damage to the environment. Protecting plants and killing pests and Pest control with fewer chemicals both emphasise the importance of farmers knowing how to scout their fields, to determine the level of pest attack before carrying out any spraying. The first of the two covers the need for protective clothing when using chemicals, although this is a subject that deserves much more coverage. You might want to supplement this interview with a more in depth discussion of safety during spraying, with a local expert.Crop hygiene -the uprooting and burning of cotton plants soon after harvesting -is a vital activity for cotton farmers, if pest numbers are to be minimised. Pest control with fewer chemicals refers to a 'dead period' during which cotton must not be grown, to further deplete pest populations. Early land preparation (which helps to kill pest cocoons), early planting and early harvesting are also important. Protecting plants and killing pests suggests that a repellent crop like pepper can reduce attacks on cotton, if inter-cropped.Restoring a national textile industry is a good resource for this discussion. The interview suggests that there are many problems affecting the cotton industry in Africa -referring particularly to Kenya. However, solutions to these problems are possible, particularly if all the stakeholders in the cotton sector can work together. In the interview Dennis Ochwada answers the question of whether he thinks cotton is a good business for farmers to get into. The interview Business sense needed from growers and government, is also extremely relevant for this subject, suggesting that cotton farmers must be much more businesslike if they are to succeed in the future, and that governments also have a vital role to play in ensuring a good future for the industry.Restoring a national textile industry 5'24\" Dennis Ochwada of Kenya's National Cotton Stakeholders' Forum describes how Kenya's cotton and textile industry is being rebuilt.6'33\" Dr Ousmane Coulibaly of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture on the risks and potential of genetically modified (Bt) cotton.3'55\" Lucia Muza of the Quton company on the potential offered by Syngenta's VIP cotton to small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe.5'08\" Joseph Nkole of the Cotton Producers' Association of Zambia on the farmer practices and government policies needed to support the industry.4'16\" Joseph Mambu of the Cotton Development Corporation in Cameroon with advice on effective pesticide use and other pest control activities.5'12\" Dr Mackson Banda, Deputy Director of Agricultural Research in Malawi on how farmers and policies are working to stop cotton pests spreading in the country.4'32\" Alois Chimoga of the Cotton Research Institute in Zimbabwe on crop hygiene and correct use of pesticides.In the last twenty years, approximately four out of every five textile manufacturers in Kenya has closed down. And among Kenya's farmers, the decline in cotton production has been equally severe. But what are the reasons for this collapse in the cotton industry, and can anything be done about it? In fact, the reasons are many, and much is already being done. As a start, the Kenyan government has carried out in depth studies that have revealed weaknesses in every part of the cotton chain, from poor quality cotton seed, to unfair competition in world markets. Now, an organisation called the National Cotton Stakeholders' Forum has begun to work on the solutions.The Forum is organising activities at many different levels, to address problems throughout the industry. This has meant working with farmers, processors, marketing agents and crop scientists, and trying to establish links between them that will benefit all whose lives and livelihoods are somehow tied to cotton. Dennis Ochwada is the secretary of the Forum, as well as being Chairman of the Kenya Cotton Growers Association. He spoke to Eric Kadenge about the problems that face Kenya's cotton industry, and how they are now being addressed.\"In the mid 1980s there… OUT:… we are seriously working on it.\" DUR'N 5'24\"Dennis Ochwada of Kenya's National Cotton Stakeholders' Forum was talking to Eric Kadenge.In the mid 1980s there were about 51 textile industries in Kenya. As a result of the adverse situation of the cotton textile sector a lot of them closed down.At the moment we are having about seven functioning textile industries and most of them are still operating very much under-capacity because of lack of raw material, poor state of equipment, and lack of finance for reinvestment.At least there is good news now that measures are underway to try and revive this industry. What are those measures?First, stakeholders have come together and they have realised the importance of cotton. By stakeholders I mean farmers, I mean those who own the processing industry both primary and secondary, I mean the manufacturers of textiles, I mean the actual manufacturers of apparels, all the way down to the mama cherehani at the local duka in the village. They have come together and they have formed the National Cotton Stakeholders' Forum. They have looked at the local cotton textile chain from bottom to top and back and have realised where these weaknesses are. We have also gone out and looked at the possibilities of producing seed because we really don't have good quality seed from which our farmers can benefit right now. We have also looked at the market situation and the main problem here was that farmers really didn't know who to sell it to. Anybody could come along and cheat a farmer, take his cotton and that is the end of the story. On the other hand the processor also who wanted cotton did not know where to find the farmer. So we have created a linkage between the producers and their market as a means of stabilising the whole situation in order for it then now to start regenerating.Cotton being a cash crop is also a crop that can be exported internationally. How is the playing field when in comes to the international market?We have been saying that we Kenyan producers are efficient producers of cotton; we are competitive at the production level. Unfortunately some people, mainly in the west, are not competitive but they have resources to keep an uncompetitive sector going through subsidies. Now this is illogical.They should do what they do best and they should allow us to do what we do best. At the international level in terms of quality our cotton is good. In terms of price our cotton is good. The only problem is when you introduce subsidies by western countries then we become unable to compete.And is there anything that you can do then to meet that challenge?We are continuing to lobby for the removal of those subsidies while at the same time improving our own efficiency in production so that we continue to be competitive.Now I do realise that cotton is one crop that requires a lot of chemical input and this can have an impact on the final cost of production for the farmer. Is this something that you are trying to address?Yes. First of all let me say that the cost of chemicals and pesticides take anything between 31%-37% of the cost of production. So you can see they are quite significant. Any way we can find of mitigating that cost is of benefit to the farmer. Now what is happening is that while we are trying to get to the farmer better techniques of managing his crop so that his use of chemicals and pesticides goes down, we are also looking at alternatives like organic cotton. Those are varieties which have a special attraction in that their use of chemical is virtually negligible. They command a niche market which fetches a better price in the rich north. But we are also trying to look at what causes the chemicals to be so expensive because chemicals are also expensive.Now all said and done would you tell a farmer that cotton is a good business to get into and why?Well cotton is a good business to get into because it's a hardy crop, it's drought resistant and it grows in those areas where not many other cash crops grow. So it is something that I would tell farmers to do. First of all from the individual household level they can get money. In terms of the national economy, its extensive coverage is good for the economy. We are estimating that a fully revived cotton industry in this country would create the 500,000 jobs that have been talked about all over the place.Ochwada I would like to see it tomorrow. Unfortunately it doesn't quite work that way. There are certain things which have got time implications which we cannot avoid. One, the development of the pure seed. Surely you are not going to have a re-established and fully functional cotton sector if you don't have a pure seed. This we estimate will take about three to four years. That will go with other strategies such as the training of the farmers, the rehabilitation of our processing industry and the development of the marketing structures.That will take about three to four years if we are seriously working on it and we think we are seriously working on it. End of track.Bt Cotton -a safe and profitable option?The introduction of genetically modified crops to African soils has provoked strong reactions right across the continent. In Burkina Faso, the agrochemical company Monsanto is carrying out trials of a genetically modified cotton variety, called Bollgard 2. The new variety is designed to be resistant to certain cotton pests, such as bollworm and some caterpillars. The cotton plants have been engineered to produce a natural poison which kills these insects when they feed on the plant. However, opponents of the new technology have suggested that in many instances, such new varieties, which are known as Bt varieties, are no more effective at killing pests than ordinary cotton plants. The difference is that if you plant Bt cotton, because of its resistance to some specific pests, the crop losses linked to insects will be lower, so at the finish the yield will be higher. And also by decreasing the amount of insecticide to be used on the conventional cotton, Bt cotton can protect also the environment by being used.African governments have also been reacting to the controversy between genetically modified cotton and conventional cotton.Yes, well the controversy is a good one because if we have a genetically modified cotton, like the Bt cotton, to be planted, you have to make sure that there is no environmental cost or degradation or pollution linked to the planting of this kind of cotton. And African governments are thinking about testing, measuring the impact of planting this cotton compared to conventional cotton, and assessing all the environmental benefits, or the environmental costs, linked to the new cotton, because we don't produce it our self. It is a company, which is Monsanto which brings it, but we have to make sure that all the safety conditions are met. If the safety conditions are met, the profit can be higher for us, in terms of increased yield and lower environmental damage through lower insecticide use.OK, let's take the example of Burkina Faso, that is currently experimenting with Bt cotton. What is this level of experimentation, and what are the partners involved in this experimentation?Monsanto is testing the Bt cotton in Burkina Faso, in collaboration with the INERA, which is the National Agricultural Research Institute. But these results are not definitive, and they are only comparing the yield of Bt cotton compared to conventional cotton.What are these results, and where were the results presented?The results have been presented in September at the International Conference of Entomology in Australia, showing that there is a significant difference in yield and the level of resistance of Bt cotton. But still this is not really enough, because there are tests to be done to see the impact on the ecology, the impact on other insects, the economic and the financial impact to farmers, to the community and the country. And to make sure that all the safety conditions are met, before one can write a policy to recommend the wide use of the Bt cotton. But except Benin, which has a moratorium on GM crops up to 2007, most of the west African countries are ready to push the GM crop, especially the Bt cotton, because we have also to look for a cheaper way, to be more competitive. So this means that anything that anything that can decrease our costs of production, by using less pesticide, will be something good for us.Why is it that an independent international body has not been able to evaluate the results presented by Monsanto, to say, 'Yes, this is OK.'Coulibaly I fully agree with you. I think we need checks and balances here. And the first check and balance, which will work well, will be to put together a kind of independent council of research. No Monsanto, or no government should really have a kind of political pressure on this body. I think this is a really good way to go for it, even for more accountability.Now if Bt cotton becomes an alternative, what will this impact be on the farmers?Normally these farmers are supposed to benefit through the decrease in the cost of production, through the use of less pesticides. This can really be an advantage for a resistant Bt cotton. But the problem is more complicated, because you know that if you go to the international arena, there are a lot of subsidies.Yes, in fact I want to come to that situation.Subsidy means that the government of the US or the European Union are helping farmers with money to produce their product at a lower cost, so they get something out of the government, and our farmers don't get the same thing. Let me take an example: the US every year put $4 billion of subsidies, of help to a small number of farmers.How many?Like 25,000, almost 25,000 farmers. So compared to 15 million farmers of cotton in West and Central Africa, which are producing by their own means, without really much help from the government. And these farmers are going to compete on the same market. So I think there is a kind of unfair trade at this level. If you look at the World Trade Organisation, and you are aware of the Doha ministerial conferences, and the Cancun, so the subsidies issues came very high. And four countries, Benin, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali put together a kind of paper proposal, called the Initiative of Cotton, where they asked for the complete removal of subsidies from cotton.So you are in fact saying in essence that Bt cotton, in the long run, is good, provided, one, the subsidy given to the American and European farmers are removed, or subsidies are also given to African farmers?Which is unlikely.Which is very unlikely. Two, one has to look at environmental impact, before one can generally say, 'Yes, Bt cotton is a good alternative for African farmers.'Exactly. End of track.Cue:In South Africa, the planting of genetically modified cotton plants has been going on for several years. So what success has it had? According to a report in the New Scientist magazine, farmers growing the GM varieties in KwaZula-Natal have not only experienced yield increases of between 50 and 89%, but also have greater peace of mind about the health of their cotton crop, which so far has shown good resistance to pest attack. The GM cotton plants get this resistance from a protein which is normally formed by a bacteria that lives in the soil. However, scientists have been able to take the gene which is responsible for making this protein, and introduce it into cotton plants. The name of the bacteria is Bacillus thuringiensis, which is why the modified cotton is called Bt cotton.Most of the world's Bt cotton is made by the company Monsanto, and is sold under the name Bollgard. However, the Syngenta company also have their own variety, which actually uses a different gene from the same bacteria. The gene also produces a protein, which when eaten by pest larvae, causes them to stop feeding and die. The protein is called a Vegetative Insecticidal Protein. Hence the name 'VIP' given by Syngenta to their own brand of Bt cotton. The Quton company of Zimbabwe is currently testing the ability of Syngenta's cotton to withstand pest attacks. Lucia Muza, one of the research team, spoke recently to Sylvia Jiyane about the potential of Bt cotton for farmers in Zimbabwe.\"We planted the Bt cotton … OUT:… human life is not there.\" DUR'N 3'55\"Lucia Muza, on the testing programme for genetically modified cotton being carried out by the Quton company of Zimbabwe.We planted the Bt cotton, it is a variety that we got from Syngenta and then we compared it to our local variety. The objective was to see whether the VIP gene was able to control Zimbabwean bollworms. Bollworms are the major cotton pest in Zimbabwe and I think they constitute more than 50% of the total cost of production in terms of plant protection. Normally for a cotton crop we end up with 7 to 10 sprays to control these bollworms and in some cases it may be weekly. So it's a lot of work, it's a lot of chemicals to use. So when we did our trial in the Bt cotton we didn't need to spray for all the bollworms, Red, Spiny or the Heliothis, up to the end of the season. Whereas in the non-Bt cotton we had to spray 7 to 10 times to control the bollworms.RRRP 2004/5 Cotton Muza I think there is a lot of potential because, like I was telling you, 40% of our production costs in cotton can actually be accounted by the sprays that we need to control pests. So it means that if we really adopt Bt cotton or VIP cotton then we can get rid of that 40% or we may reduce that to 20%, saying maybe that is the cost of the seed. So you actually reduce our cost of production. And also during spraying time, it's not easy because we have to go and scout for pests so that we just don't go and spray. And most of our farmers, especially smallholder farmers, they don't have these good scouting skills. So they don't actually scout, so they loose a lot of their yield because they spray when maybe it is too late, or if they spray when it is not necessary. Also in spraying, people use a lot of chemicals, you need to wear a lot of protective clothing, you use a lot of water, so especially for women spraying is not an easy job. Also in terms of the environment, you are adding a lot of chemicals to the environment. So I think by introducing Bt cotton surely it will be environmentally friendly, it will reduce our costs, it will reduce our labour requirements and it would be user friendly.Muza I see the potential surely to be there more in the smallholder sector because they are the people who have got the limitations in terms of scouting, in terms of labour and most of the farmers are actually women. And if you look in terms of yields in the cotton industry, the smallholder sectors are the ones that are being affected so much. So that it is very difficult to say a farmer will achieve yields that are above 1500 kgs per hectare. That is why at the moment they complain that is not profitable to grow cotton. With Bt we will assure them of yields that are above 1.5 tons per hectare, and then it will become profitable to them.And what are some of the challenges for Bt cotton in the country since it seems like it's a new development that is just coming in and people may not really welcome it that much. What are some of the challenges?There are so many challenges. People need to be educated, what is Bt cotton? What is the effect of that protein that we have added to the cotton, to the environment, and to the people themselves. So it's a matter of educating not only the people on the ground but also including the policymakers. We needed really to take lessons from what has happened in other areas, to see whether there were some negative effects on the environment and on the human beings in those areas, so that we really assure our people that there are not going to be those negative effects on the environment or on human life in general. But like I told you, it's a matter of us working together with the Biosafety Board and doing the experiments together so that everybody would be convinced that this is the way forward and that the results are positive and that the damage to the environment and to human life is not there. End of track.Cue:If farming is to be a profitable business, and not just a subsistence activity, there are two issues that farmers will need to think about very carefully: how to maximise their yields, and how to get the best price possible for their crop. With a cash crop such as cotton, there may be some help available for them to do both things. In Zambia, for example, there are a number of cotton promoting companies that depend on farmers to supply high quality cotton for their textile plants. Dunavant, Clark Cotton and Mulungushi are three such companies operating in the country, that are helping farmers both to grow and sell cotton. Despite this, however, the Zambian textile industry is struggling, not least because of a tax system which favours imported cotton, and makes Zambian cotton too expensive for the local industry to buy.Joseph Nkole is the Executive Secretary of the Cotton Producers Association of Zambia. He believes strongly that the government should be supporting its domestic cotton producers through a better tax system. He also believes that Zambia should be exploiting the Africa Growth Opportunity Act, known as AGOA, in order to export more cotton products to the United States. Under AGOA, a range of commodities, including finished clothes, can be exported without duty to the American market. Mr Nkole spoke recently, to Chris Kakunta, about how he believes the Zambian cotton industry can be resuscitated, or brought back to life. Chris began by asking how the cotton promoting companies were helping farmers in Zambia to increase their cotton production.\"These organise the small-scale … OUT:… getting Bt into this country.\" DUR'N 5'08\"Mr Joseph Nkole of the Cotton Producers Association of Zambia was talking to Chris Kakunta.These organise the small-scale farmers into schemes that are provided with inputs for production. They go into providing extension services to the farmers and then they provide the market for the farmers. But what we are seeing as a base is to have now these farmers to be trained in the various skills. To have best practices where they are dealing with a particular promoter, not leapfrogging from one promoter to another and avoiding to pay back loans. We want the farmers to have good ethics, appreciate the sanctity of contracts, so that they can now start to do business on a business footing, so that they can grow into bigger entities and run business on their own.How best can a small-scale farmer look after his or her cotton crop so that it gives maximum yield?Well principally the farmer must plant his cotton early, on time. He must weed his crop, he must control the pests and he must have the correct plant population. For me these are the four non-negotiables in cotton production and if a farmer handles those with optimum efficiency they are bound to get very good yields from a hectare of cotton.Why do you think the yields are still low per hectare?RRRP 2004/5 Cotton Nkole I think some farmers want to grow cotton as a by the way crop after they have planted maize or they have grown other crops. Now we are trying to get the farmers to appreciate that cotton is a main crop that they must engage in, plant on time, manage properly and they will see the good yields coming through. It has been done in many places and we are just hoping that we can now spread this to all the parts of the country where cotton is being grown.Zambia is part of the global village and obviously we have seen some cotton being imported into the country. Does that imported cotton affect the price of the local production and what are you doing to help the farmers have the better price?There are two issues here. One is the issue of second-hand clothing. Two is the issue of tax on raw cotton. Imported cotton is costing less to the textile industry than Zambian cotton because of the tax regime. And we have identified this with the ginners, and the Zambia National Farmers Union and we are trying to talk to the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry and their counterparts in finance to see how best we can give the Zambian cotton a price good enough for export so that it competes with cottons coming from outside. Yes cotton from outside is cheaper and the only reason is truly due to the tax regime. If government decides to tackle the issue of internal taxation again the service-providing companies will pass the benefit to the farmers by increasing the price. On the other hand, we would also work as an association to lobby the promoting companies, to pay the farmers a price that is good enough. But for Zambia, really for the price to improve we must get our textile industry to process the cotton produced in this country into finished products. Then you can start to benefit even from AGOA and the price to the farmer will obviously be increased. And so we are saying let us get quickly to look at what is Mulungushi doing? What is Mukuba doing? What is Mulungushi-China doing? Let us get them to have to produce garments; then we can break into the AGOA. There is a lot of benefit in there. Our counterparts and colleagues in West Africa are benefiting from it and I think it is a question of time. Very soon we will have these meetings to discuss how the government can come in to help us resuscitate the textile industry and then see our lint being processed internally.What about coming to Bt cotton? Do you think if a law was passed in Zambia to allow such cotton to be grown, as an association you would embrace it? And if you are going to embrace it, why?We would definitely want to work within the ambits of the law. What we are seeing is the benefit to the small cotton farmer, like the other colleagues in the region are getting. So if we were to say 'Yes', we would say it would be a welcome idea because we stand to benefit as a nation by increased volumes. We are, in the meantime, collecting a lot of data and evidence to show that this has got advantage for us. And as I said, we will not fight the law. If the law of the land determines that we have no Bt cotton, we shall go by that. But as an association we would want to have further investigation and compare the advantages and disadvantages. And at the moment we are currently thinking that it would be worth our while to increase productivity, to increase profitability and enhance the standards of living of our smallholder cotton farmers by getting Bt cotton into this country. End of trackCue:In recent years, a farming method called Integrated Pest Management has become increasingly popular with farmers in Africa, particularly those growing vegetable crops. But what does Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, actually mean? As its name implies, IPM involves combining, or integrating, many different farming practices in order to find a solution to a difficult problem, that of controlling pests. These methods may include the use of chemical pesticides, but in using such chemicals an IPM farmer will firstly make a careful assessment of the type and number of pests attacking the crop, so that pesticides can be applied in an appropriate way. This both reduces the cost for the farmer, since less pesticide is wasted, and also causes less damage to the environment. For example, helpful insects, known as pest predators, are less likely to be affected.Mr Joseph Mambu is an agricultural researcher who has worked for the Cotton Development Corporation in Cameroon for many years, particularly in the north of the country. Martha Chindong spoke to him about the danger of pests for cotton production, and how his organisation is helping farmers in the north of Cameroon to tackle the problem.\"(Vernac) After beans, in this area … OUT:… to destroy the cotton plants.\" DUR'N 4'16\"Mr Joseph Mambu of the Cotton Development Corporation in Cameroon, with some advice for how farmers can reduce pest attacks on their cotton plants.Transcript Mambu (Vernac) After beans, in this area cotton is the next crop mostly attacked by pests and if not treated we will loose more than 80% of the produce.What are the main pests of cotton?The most dangerous cotton pests are caterpillars as well as some bacterial infection.This means that a lot of pesticides are needed in growing cotton. Am I right?(Vernac) This entails the use of much pesticide to grow cotton.Can the pesticides be used in a sustainable way, so as not to affect the farmer and his environment?We advise farmers to always protect themselves before and during the use of these chemicals. That is to put on eyeglasses, nose masks and they should also clean themselves after the use of these chemicals. We used to apply the chemicals quickly, at random, without any tests. To reduce costs and waste of chemicals, as well as the harm done to the environment, we later carried out tests to know the level of pest attack and whether or not to treat the farm. If, for example, we find 20 insects within the population of 100 cotton plants, the farm is declared infested and we treat these farms twice a month.Considering that you reduced the treatment from 4 times a month to only 2 times, were the results still encouraging? Mambu (Vernac) With this approach the results were encouraging.Is there a possibility to use Integrated Pest Management in growing cotton?(Vernac) Of course Integrated Pest Management can be used in growing cotton. First the use of resistant varieties is recommended, but we do give farmers treated seeds in order to produce quality cotton for the market. This is because the resistant varieties may give good yield but not necessarily quality cotton. We also advise that the farmers respect the planting season, for early planting can avoid certain treatments carried out with chemicals. And also early harvesting will reduce the number of times to treat the farm. Because if harvesting is delayed there is an insect that usually attacks the cotton fibre as soon as the cotton bud opens. And this also will entail that after this harvest we will have to treat the cotton again before use. If this happens the farmer will have to carry out the supplementary treatment that will bring extra costs and waste of chemicals. So farmers should then follow the advice of the agriculture technicians placed at their disposal.Is there any other thing that you would have loved us to share on this topic? Mambu (Vernac) Cotton farmers in the north have succeeded to produce an insecticide from a mixture of soap and kerosene. This effectively killed insects that attack the cotton, but the product is short lived, for should it rain this product would be washed away. Cotton as we know is a mono-cultivated crop, that is it can only be cultivated on its own without associating other plants. However, we can try to associate another plant to the cotton, like the pepper, whose repulsive affects on insects are well known, and this can also help to repel the pest that will come to destroy the cotton plants. End of trackThis is very good because if you have travelled to all cotton growing areas, if you leave cotton plants in the field you find these even late pests like cotton stainers flying all over the place. Now if you cut all these or you uproot all the cotton plants, you burn them, you reduce the breeding ground for these particular things. And then as you start the new season, you start with a fresh season, and a fresh crop, so that if there are any pests coming they should be coming within that season but not coming from one season to another. That would develop a bomb for the cotton crop.Now there are some diseases and even pests that spread from region to region, country to country. Are there special rules to maybe check the spread of diseases of cotton?Yes we have a Cotton Act in the country which prohibits imports of unauthorised cotton varieties into the country. This is done first in the interest of protecting the crop from pests from other countries, even diseases being imported through seeds. So the government here has this Act which is in force so that we don't just receive seed from elsewhere without proper verification of the phyto-sanitary, and sanitary measures that were taken in the place of production. So the law is there, it protects the farmer, it protects the economy, it protects the cotton industry so that it continues to flourish.How do you look at the use of chemicals as opposed to the cultural practices in cotton production?Well at the moment we can say is, we don't have a single method of controlling pests in cotton. What we are advocating at the moment is Integrated Pest Management. By Integrated Pest Management we mean use of cultural practices, use of improved varieties, use of chemicals where necessary, plus also crop hygiene, uprooting of stalks. Combining these is what we call Integrated Pest Management, so that no single method is the superior in pest management. We have to combine these methods in an integrated manner. Then it will be friendly to the environment. But if we just advocate chemical use, we will pollute the environment.There is a law, there is the Cotton Act which is a binding thing. And we work in close liaison with all stakeholders in the cotton industry. This includes chemical manufacturers or sellers, ginners, cotton ginners, those who do bailing of cotton, those who do exporting of cotton, whoever is working on cotton we work with them. But the rule of thumb is that, if let's say a chemical company wants to introduce a pesticide in the country, they have to come to the Ministry of Agriculture and apply and we have a committee which is called Agricultural Technology Clearing Committee which looks at the pesticides. So our scientists have to analyse that particular pesticide, evaluate it in the field, generate information under our local conditions and then be satisfied that it can work under our local conditions. Then we release it, officially release it, ask them to sell it in Malawi. We don't just allow any importation of any junk to be sold on our soils because we are cautious, we need to protect the farmer.I have also heard about the Pesticide Control Board. How serious is this Board?The Pesticide Control Board is very serious because if there is a banned pesticide they will take an action to say this must not be used on the soils of Malawi. This protects the environment, it protects us as human beings, it protects the natural fauna, the natural environment is protected. So people must realise that this Board is working in the interest of the whole nation. End of track.Cue:If farmers plant the same crop on the same land each year, as many do, one very great danger is that the number of pests feeding on the crop can grow and grow. Such a build up in pest numbers makes the task of obtaining a good harvest increasingly difficult, and expensive. Because of this, many who practise Integrated Pest Management use the technique of crop rotation -moving crops around the farm, or simply using their land for a different crop in the new season. Growing a cereal crop followed by a legume crop is one common example.Cotton plants are very susceptible to insect pests, particularly a group of pests called bollworms. To prevent the number of these insects increasing on their farms, it is essential that cotton farmers destroy all their cotton plants between cropping seasons. When buying cotton seed for planting, the seed packets should give clear information about the dates that the plants should be destroyed after the crop has been harvested. But of course, some farmers may not be aware of the importance of this information. So how to communicate this important message about cotton production?In Zimbabwe the Cotton Research Institute has been working for many years to improve cotton production in the country. Busani Bafana visited the institute to find out what is currently being done to help cotton farmers in fighting bollworm pests.\"Zimbabwe is among the top five … OUT:… footsteps in this direction.\" DUR'N 4'32\"Alois Chimoga, Principal Research Officer at the Cotton Research Institute in Kadoma, Zimbabwe.Zimbabwe is among the top five producers of hand picked medium staple cotton. The government has ensured the maintenance of this standard of cotton production through the establishment of the Cotton Research Institute in 1925. One of the challenges of growing cotton is the ability to manage pests. For example bollworm, a key pest of cotton can reduce yields by up to 60% if not controlled. We spoke to an entomologist, Mr Alois Chimoga who is the Principal Research Officer in Kadoma, Zimbabwe. How has your institute helped farmers in this regard?Farmers have been helped to control pests by a dead period of 66 days when cotton is not allowed to grow. During the growing season farmers have been taught to do scouting, to look for the pests. If the pests are there in high numbers they only apply chemicals as a last resort. In doing scouting they are supposed to apply chemicals following the labels, very low dose when the plants are very small and when the plants are very high we apply high doses.These have helped the cotton farmers to have high quality. The scouting also helps the pests to be controlled by predators, because the period where no chemicals are applied the predators will be in big numbers controlling the pests.The IPM approach has gained respect in a number of African countries. How has it been received by farmers the Institute here has worked with?RRRP 2004/5 Cotton 24The farmers have received us very well and they understand it very well as pest management. Such as the destruction dates, after you have picked your cotton you destroy the cotton crop, they have understood this because on every pocket of seed there are dates for the destruction period and they have taken this very well. They know when you grow cotton you need to follow guidelines.Mr Chimoga, what particular hurdles have you had to overcome to ensure that farmers understand this approach and they implement it?Farmers had heard of using some of the chemicals which we don't allow like pyrethroids, which are supposed to be used from January up to the end of season, and non-pyrethroids from emergence up to January. We have moved away from this hurdle by insisting that the marketing companies will produce, will supply the chemicals, give the farmers these chemicals, during the appropriate time, even the agrochemical companies. So far we have had good success with fenvalarate, one of the pyrethroids which has shown resistance in other countries from the bollworms. In Zimbabwe we don't have any problems with fenvalarate as far as Heliothis bollworm is concerned.We would like to know what practical benefits of the Integrated Pest Management approach have you realised in the way farmers in Zimbabwe grow and harvest their cotton?Farmers have benefited quite a lot. They use low chemicals. Zimbabwe is renowned for low chemicals compared to their South Africa our neighbours.Farmers have recouped more money from their high quality hand picked cotton as a result. So far our cotton, it is not sticky, it is liked by all the stakeholders in the cotton industry despite of it being very low in terms of the quantity.What are the future trends in the implementation of Integrated Pest Management in Zimbabwe for cotton growers?Our future plans for cotton growers, as an institute, is to provide them with the new technology. So far we have been allowed by the Biosafety Board to experiment on GMO's. We are making concerted efforts to look at the aspect of how pest GMO's are going to control the red bollworm, the Heliothis bollworm that causes 60% of yield loss. In 2-3 years' time we shall be able to have a lot of footsteps in this direction. End of track","tokenCount":"8042"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cb7d6c10a04f6a640f264e9ab8888e6d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bc9f1b59-98b6-4675-9057-c5d22d88731f/retrieve","id":"398875653"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cd68f0fa-7b01-49ae-967b-9cafa0516706","pagecount":"1","content":"This project is a five year initiative implemented by the International Potato Center (CIP) and the Agronomic Institute of Research (IIA) in collaboration with public and private partners. Main objective is the sustainable increment of the economic contribution of four vegetatively propagated crops--banana, cassava, sweetpotato, potatofor improved food security and diets of the communities with Vitamin A-rich foods as well as increasing the income of the farmers and poverty reduction in the rural areas of 4 provinces with diverse agro-ecologies: Uige, Kwanza Norte, Huambo and Huila.The farmers and consumers participating in the evaluation selected nine varieties (Zapallo, Nemanete, LO326 (Camuto), LO323 (Cenoura), MUSG13 (Helena), Musg 21 (Lombe), Musg 26 (Morena), Huambachero and Mayai (Banza Luanda) based on market demand and taste of cooked roots. Seven varieties were proposed for release by the Instituto de Investigação Agronómica (IIA), the research institute of the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) for production in Angola in 2012. The selected varieties were multiplied using conventional and rapid multiplication techniques in 223 decentralized plots and 7 centralized fields. The project also developed and promoted OFSP products such as Golden Bread, juice and other bakery products.","tokenCount":"188"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f7f162aaed539c0f3e63704011d806cb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b9e0ada7-c80d-4b18-b3e7-c9d23f0f4fbf/retrieve","id":"1350239480"},"keywords":["Senior Economist","Theme Leader","in situ & onfarm Conservation & Availability Programme Bioversity International Via dei Tre Denari","472/a 00057 Maccarese (Fiumicino)","Italy Scientist","Theme Leader","Diet Diversity for Nutrition and Health Nutrition & Marketing Diversity Programme Bioversity International Via dei Tre Denari","472/a 00057 Maccarese (Fiumicino)","Italy Theme Leader","Marketing Diversity Nutrition & Marketing Diversity Programme Bioversity International Via dei Tre Denari","472/a 00057 Maccarese (Fiumicino)","Italy"],"sieverID":"c13e072c-619a-4455-94d0-fb2897ff98de","pagecount":"174","content":"Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization. We have a vision -that agricultural biodiversity nourishes people and sustains the planet.We deliver scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural and tree biodiversity to attain sustainable global food and nutrition security. We work with partners in low-income countries in different regions where agricultural and tree biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation.Bioversity International is a member of the CGIAR Consortium -a global research partnership for a food-secure future. www.bioversityinternational.org Bioversity International Headquarters Via dei Tre Denari 472/a 00057 Maccarese (Fiumicino) Rome, ItalyThe consultative process used during the Conference was strategic for promoting interdisciplinary dialogue that is fundamental to the Project's approach. On the first and second day, experts gave presentations in their different research areas relating to agricultural biodiversity and resilience of livelihood systems, holistic approaches for building sustainable and nutrition-sensitive food systems, and conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity. Working groups were held in the afternoon of the second day, in which the participating experts discussed strategies for designing agricultural biodiversity-based interventions and monitoring the impact of these interventions in four areas 1) food and nutrition security under climate change, 2) value chain upgrading, 3) conservation of plant genetic resources, and 4) empowerment of vulnerable groups. The results of these working groups were presented and discussed in depth on the third day, providing key inputs to refine the monitoring and intervention plan for the Project. Ways to develop an enabling policy environment and build joint initiatives with other agencies and the private sector were extensively covered throughout the discussions.Certification and labelling was one specific approach for supporting the conservation of agricultural biodiversity that was discussed in a dedicated session of the Conference. Two main options were explored: 1) To create a novel dedicated standard to indicate that a product supports the conservation of valuable or unique plant genetic resources and 2) To include or reinforce biodiversity standards related to on-farm conservation practices in existing certification schemes, particularly 'organic' standards. The pros and cons of these options for strengthening on-farm conservation were debated, with the conclusion that the proposition to create a new label was extremely valuable but that further investigation is needed before moving forward with the idea.On the third day of the Conference, the Project partners shared their site-specific plans for implementation and received feedback from the participating experts. These plans were further refined in three national stakeholder consultations that were held in each country following the International Conference. The meetings were held in Bamako, Mali, on 15-16 June 2015, in Bhopal, India, on 19-20 June 2015and in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on 25-66 June 2015. During these consultations, a thorough analysis of the local situation for nutrition, climate change, vulnerable groups and agricultural biodiversity was made to gain appreciation of how underutilized crops can be mobilized to enhance nutrition, livelihood resilience and income generation. Comparative advantages of resilient and highly nutritious local crops were debated along with issues related to the use-enhancement of these resources from agronomic, economic, and social perspectives. The crops selected to be targeted by the Project were Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) and fonio (Digitaria sp.) in Mali, kodo (Paspalum scrobiculatum) and little millet (Panicum sumatrense) in India, and tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) and Mayan spinach (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) in Guatemala. These crops stood out as best options in view of their high nutritional profiles, their high appreciation in local food cultures, and the fact that they are able to respond to the effects of climate change such as soil degradation and unpredictable rains. In order to promote more nutritionally balance diets, participants also agreed that special attention should be dedicated to identify underutilized local vegetables, fruits, and pulses for promotion.This document shares the results of the International Conference that launched the IFAD-EU NUS Project and the three national stakeholder consultations. It captures the participatory, multistakeholder process used to define the work plan for interventions and monitoring for this highly interdisciplinary effort. The document follows the structure of the International Conference (Annex II). It begins with an introduction to the objectives of the Conference and the Project and opening comments from the funding and implementing agencies. The abstracts of expert presentations are shared in the second section, covering a range of topics related to the multidisciplinary Project. In the third section, results of the working groups are shared, integrating comments from the plenary discussions. The indicators selected for monitoring the impact of the Project that were defined based on these discussions are also presented. A fourth section shares the results of the roundtable discussion on certification to support the conservation of agricultural biodiversity. The fifth section presents the global framework of the Project and plans for implementation in Mali, India and Guatemala, which were refined based on discussions in the International Conference and the national stakeholder consultations.Agricultural biodiversity is an essential asset for rural households worldwide, especially for the poor and marginalized. Diversity in crops, trees and livestock allows farmers to respond to different situations and contexts and these options can build resilience within livelihood systems and improve food and nutrition security. Communities' resilience relies on their access to crops adapted to new weather patterns. It also depends on their capacity to use diversity effectively in value chains to generate income and nutritionally complete family diets.Several neglected and underutilized species (e.g. Andean grains, fonio, Bambara groundnut, minor millets and many fruits, vegetables and pulses) are known to be tolerant to marginal growing conditions and hold great potential to contribute to resilience, nutrition and food security of communities, which can be realized if their cultivation is supported and integrated into value chains. Value chain development for such neglected and underutilized species (NUS) needs to be fostered in an integrated approach that includes gender-sensitive, pro-poor and nutrition considerations otherwise, there is risk of developing value chains with crops that fail because they are not adapted to new climate patterns, developing cropping systems for products that are difficult to market or are disconnected from local food cultures, or devising \"solutions\" that do not improve or even exacerbate nutritional imbalances or increase social inequities. Multiple efforts are needed to promote species and varieties adapted to climatic and socio-economic conditions, to raise awareness on the need for dietary appropriateness of food within households and to advocate for enabling policies for linking these crops to markets.There is currently no coherent methodology for linking equitable value chain development with climate change adaptation and gender-sensitive food security and nutrition considerations. Until now, linkage between efforts to develop crops more adapted to climate change and interventions targeting agricultural biodiversity value chains have been very limited. Furthermore, efforts to conserve plant genetic diversity have not been well linked to its use in fostering more resilient production systems, value chains and nutrition. Diversification strategies that address multiple goals, including income generation, climate change adaptation and food and nutrition security have been limited so far, largely because researchers and the networks they engage in tend to be largely disconnected.Rural communities, and particularly indigenous peoples, hold knowledge which is important for sustainably managing resources and responding to ever-evolving opportunities and threats that may affect their nutritious crops. Complementing this knowledge with innovative methods and approaches developed by other farmers, communities, and researchers can support adaptation to the changing climate. Designing holistically beneficial diversification strategies requires women and men farmers to be able to draw on a wide range of knowledge sources which supplement their own extensive knowledge, allowing them to set goals and mobilize their resources effectively. Tried and tested participatory tools (such as Community Biodiversity Registers, participatory weather data monitoring, Farmers' Field Fora, and multi-stakeholder value chain innovation platforms) are available to support diversification strategies, manage production and market risks, and guide assessment of income generation potential and nutritional value of local crops.This International Conference was organized by Bioversity International in collaboration with Action for Social Advancement (ASA), Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER), Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG) and the Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty in order to launch the three-year Project entitled 'Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk'. The Project is supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the European Union (EU), and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and is being implemented in India, Guatemala and Mali. The objectives of the Conference were to share knowledge on ways to support the poor in managing risks using local crops, and to guide the Project team in identifying suitable, affordable solutions to be tested through this new collaborative effort.The Conference addressed the themes of agricultural biodiversity value chains and conservation and their roles in nutrition and climate change resilience. It paid a cross-cutting focus on women and resource-poor indigenous communities and ways to support their empowerment through participatory interventions, as well as needs and approaches for capacity building and policy advocacy to support this holistic, integrated approach.1. Share lessons on approaches, methods and tools for empowering communities towards more resilient livelihoods through agricultural biodiversity-based solutions. 2. Guide the implementation of the IFAD-EU NUS Project for the next three years through development of a robust methodological framework.3. Enhance the scientific understanding of the role played by agricultural biodiversity in resilient and nutrition-sensitive production and food systems. 4. Share experiences applying approaches, methods and tools to assess, document, monitor, conserve and manage stress-tolerant varieties of traditional crops for more effective deployment in value chains and resilient livelihood strategies. 5. Understand how best practices on climate change adaptation are influenced and managed by farmers according to gender and other social factors and how these can be further strengthened and promoted through the Project. 6. Explore mechanisms and processes managed by rural communities (including indigenous people) for the sustainable conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity and how these can be further strengthened through the Project. 7. Identify actions for strengthening the capacity of poor and vulnerable groups to deal with climate risks within a holistic value-chain approach and other efforts meant to build capacity of national agriculture research systems in dealing with these themes. 8. Design a process by which the Project will engage with policy makers to achieve policy change for long lasting impact.Director General Bioversity International Maccarese, ItalyWelcome to all of you. It is great to have you here and great to meet the partners who are going to be involved in this Project with us. This Project is an important area of work for Bioversity International. We are looking forward to the outcomes of this inception workshop and the results of the Project's implementation over the next three years.I will say a little today about Bioversity International's strategy. We have four high-level objectives, which we shorthand as consume, produce, plant and safeguard. These mean basically 1) to consume biodiversity for healthier diets, 2) to produce with biodiversity for improving productivity, improving livelihoods, and increasing resilience, 3) to plant a diversity of materials, making the seed and planting material available to enable meeting these needs for consumers and for producers, and finally 4) to safeguard biodiversity either in situ or ex situ. Under these high-level objectives we have developed three initiatives. The first initiative links the notion of consuming a more diverse healthy diet with production systems that underpin more diverse healthy production, healthy diets and healthy production systems. The second initiative links the notion of helping produce more diversified farming systems and more diversified landscapes with providing the appropriate planting materials to farmers to achieve that effect. Finally the third initiative links the idea of providing appropriate planting material with identifying what is appropriate planting material that needs to be safeguarded in the wild, on farms or in ex situ situations.When people ask me: What crops do you concentrate on at Bioversity International? I tell them that we focus on neglected and underutilized crops. These are crops that in the future will be more nutritious, more resilient and better adapted to climate change and for these reasons they are core to achieving our institutional objectives and are integrated into all our initiatives.I wish to highlight that participatory approaches are fundamental to pursue our goals at Bioversity International. We are working directly with farmers, farming cooperatives, and farming organizations, to ensure that we are not just delivering research but actually working with farmers to develop that research in a participatory way. This is a unique way of working within the CGIAR system and is one of Bioversity International's strong suits. Work on biodiversity can become very micro, working with one particular community and one particular crop. One of the outcomes that it would be great to see emerging out of this Project is high-level thinking on how we can take the lessons that we are learning and the methodologies, tools and materials that we have developed and scale up these approaches. We will not be successful if we are only improving the lives of people who are directly engaged in this project. We need to make sure that what will come out is something we can take to governments, extension agencies, development organizations, farmers' organizations, actors and partners who can help getting these methodologies, tools and best practices mainstreamed into the wider community.Attaché, Press & Information Officer European External Action Service Delegation of the European Union to the Holy See, to the Order of Malta and to the UN Organisations in Rome Rome, ItalyThank you very much for inviting us to participate in this interesting Conference that is going to happen in next three days. I work for the European Union (EU) Delegation in Rome which is the delegation in charge of working with the UN Organizations here in Rome (FAO, WFP, and IFAD) and also Bioversity International, with whom we have been linking our work. This project is quite interesting for us because it is focused on many areas that we are supporting and giving great importance at the EU -nutrition, climate change and biodiversity. These areas are great priorities for us, on which we will be focusing in the coming years, without any doubt. For example, for nutrition recently we have been co-organizing and co-funding the International Conference on Nutrition that happened in November at FAO * . We have a big commitment from our previous commissioner to reduce wasting and stunting for seven million children. We are also integrating nutrition in all our policies and all our documents of work at country-level. This reflects the importance we give to this topic. The other topic that the Project will be following is climate change, which is again a top priority for us. We are in a very important year for climate change. We have the conference in Paris that will happen in December -the COP21 † -which is a key meeting that will have big repercussions in coming years. Considering the importance of climate change for us, we estimate that 20% of our whole EU budget will be allocated to climate relevant actions. In discussing agriculture and climate change, our common agriculture policy in Europe has a lot of measures that try to increase the sustainability of agricultural products. We are also working on mitigating climate change in Europe. The European Developmental Cooperation also partners with 60 countries all over the world that have food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture as focal sectors. Finally, the other area where we are working is diversity in agriculture. We the EU recognize the importance of having diverse agricultural systems. We consider that agricultural systems vary according to different conditions and we think many lessons can be learned from traditional farming systems. We are placing a lot of emphasis in supporting diverse agriculture assistance in our funding strategy and in our development interventions. Finally, I would like to say, the Project will work mainly in three countries: Mali, India and Guatemala. I would like that you take advantage of the EU delegations in these countries that work in agriculture. Do not hesitate to contact our delegations in order to link, to make a more relevant programme and find synergy with this important research.Senior Technical Specialist Indigenous Peoples and Tribal Issues, Policy and Technical Advisory Division International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Rome, ItalyMy name is Antonella Cordone and my role at IFAD is Senior Technical Specialist on Indigenous Peoples Issues. I am happy to be here and to learn about this work. I am particularly looking forward to learn how we can strengthen our partnership. I really hope these days will help us to understand better how to work together, not only at IFAD but more and more in the field. We were in New York last week for the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and there were so many issues coming up -I see many linkages that we can make on this front. I am also very interested in monitoring resilience and was particularly struck last Friday by an interesting presentation given at IFAD by the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact on issues covered also by this Conference. In particular I was happy to learn of new tools they have developed on how to monitor resilience at community level (the Indigenous Navigator). I can see immediately that there are lots of good opportunities on the table that we can explore together through this new IFAD, EU and CCAFS supported effort.Coordinator Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty Rome, ItalyMy name is Phrang Roy and I am the coordinator of the Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty. The aim of the Partnership is to build a platform where science and traditional knowledge can work together around the themes of interests and knowledge of indigenous peoples. I just came yesterday from New York from attending the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. For one who has worked all these years on indigenous issues, I was very pleased to see that indigenous local food systems have now been scaled up to the attention of many organizations. It is a pleasure to see IFAD and FAO pushing for local indigenous foods to be looked upon more seriously. During discussions held at the UN in the 2015 Year of the Soil, indigenous peoples showed many examples of how they have been protecting and safeguarding the soil through their cultivation systems. The international board has agreed that scaling up what indigenous people are doing is something quite exciting and can also create a future for us. The Indigenous Partnership together with Slow Food will be holding the Indigenous Terra Madre in North East India later this year. We will be having about 500 delegates attending from all over the world. The theme is 'The Future We Want from Perspectives of Indigenous Peoples'. The area where we will be having the conference is inhabited by two native matriarchal communities. One of the important issues that we are working on, together with McGill University and the National Institute of Nutrition of India, is looking at matriarchal communities and peoples and the role that they have played in terms of nutrition status. We are now a partner of this IFAD-funded programme in the hope that together we can unite our abilities to strengthen the diversity that is entrusted in these peoples.Chef at l'Unité des Ressources Génétiques Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER) Bamako, MaliMy name is Amadou Sidibe. I am from Mali, West Africa and I am the head of the Genetic Resources Unit of the Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER). On behalf of the Director General of IER, I have the pleasure to welcome you to the International Conference on Agricultural Biodiversity to Manage Risks and Empower the Poor. It is a great pleasure for me to participate in this Conference, with the possibility of carrying out a deep analysis of the negative effects of climate change and to identify how agricultural biodiversity can be used to address these effects. Food availability in West Africa in general, and particularly in Mali, depends mainly on pearl millet, corn, sorghum, rice, fonio, and coffee productions. Mali is considered as the centre of diversity of pearl millet and sorghum. On farm conservation and local seed systems are very important for the use enhancement of these species. Despite the importance of the local varieties of millet, sorghum, rice, and fonio, these crops are being severely affected by genetic erosion due to climate change and anthropogenic factors. It is of critical importance to safeguard the genetic resources at the farm level as these are the backbone of rural agricultural development and empowerment of all stakeholders. It is thus very much appreciated that Bioversity International, FAO and the International Treaty are committed to preserve and manage agricultural biodiversity, including neglected and underutilized species. Our country is very much interested in this Project and I am happy to say that IER through its Genetic Resources Unit has always been deeply engaged in the conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. For the last 15 years, my unit has been receiving technical and financial support from a number of agencies, including Bioversity International and IFAD to further our work on the conservation and management of agricultural biodiversity at the rural community level. In Mali we are deeply involved in studying agricultural biodiversity, conserving plant genetic resources and improving access to good quality seed. We do this work involving all stakeholders in the process. We have confidence that this meeting provides a continuity for ongoing work and adds further knowledge on ways to better manage risks associated to climate change.Director and Managing Trustee Action for Social Advancement (ASA) Bhopal, IndiaMy name is Ashis Mondal and I represent Action for Social Advancement, which is an NGO working from Bhopal. It is a great pleasure to be here and I am thankful to Bioversity International and the partners for providing us this opportunity to be partnering with them. We are indeed very happy and proud to be associated with an institution like Bioversity International, and other esteemed organizations. ASA mainly operates in Central and Central-East India, covering four provinces: Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar. This is a very important part of India in terms of agricultural biodiversity because the majority of India's indigenous people live here. Of the target group we work with, counting about 130,000 families or 1 million people, around 80% are indigenous. We call the work that we do \"agriculture-based livelihood promotion\". We primarily focus on conservation and development of water resources. We also do biodiversity and agricultural biodiversity conservation work, organizing the community in different forms, capacity development, and linking with the market, trying to establish value chains. Conservation of agricultural biodiversity is very important in our work, because it means food security. The indigenous people do mixed cropping, which is one of the major strengths that they have today.In adverse climate conditions they can still manage their food security. What was considered a disadvantage some years ago is turning out to be a benefit. Our major realization is that not enough is being done to promote neglected and underutilized crops. We need to make this concept more robust, so that there is linkage among the individual partners to take it to the next level. We need to do more rigorous work. We need to have strategies and should target something like 10 years down the line and try to achieve it in a very systematic manner. We are people who come from different facets of life, we are researchers, extensionists, etc. Let us work for developing an agriculture which is robust enough to mitigate the effects of future changes.Professor and Researcher Universidad Del Valle de Guatemala Guatemala, GuatemalaMy name is Silvana Maselli. I am a plant genetic resources teacher and researcher at Universidad Del Valle de Guatemala. We want to thank Bioversity staff in Italy and in Costa Rica, for inviting us to participate in this important project. We are very happy to be here, and we hope to contribute with our experiences to this Project.Senior Scientist Bioversity International Rome, ItalyWelcome everybody, I am really excited for this Conference. We are coming from at least 15 years of work on neglected and underutilized species (NUS), and I am really thrilled by the opportunity to reach higher research ground with this Project.This Conference intends to capitalize on the launching of this IFAD-EU NUS Project for sharing experience on the different topics it covers. The title of the Project 'Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk' captures all the important keywords and underlines the type of interdisciplinary collaboration this initiative intends to promote. We are very excited by the opportunity to develop methodologies, approaches and tools together with the partners and to reinforce collaborative networking around the different themes covered by the Project. This Conference aims to achieve a sharing of knowledge of lessons that we have learned in our work on how rural communities can be empowered through agricultural biodiversity to address the great challenges of the day, namely: climate change, poverty and food insecurity. How can we strengthen the capacities of rural communities through agricultural biodiversity-based solutions? This is really the core of our business and why we are here.Specific objectives of the Conference are: 1) Enhance the scientific understanding of the role played by agricultural biodiversity in resilient and nutrition-sensitive production and food systems.2) Share experiences on approaches, methods and tools to do many things within a resilient framework: How to assess resistant crops? How to document and monitor them? How to conserve these resources? We heard earlier from our partners that traditional crops play an important role in making food production resilient so, how do we conserve these varieties and species? How do we manage them? And how do we link these traditional crops with markets? At the end of the day, it is not enough just to identify resilient species, they also need to generate income as this is the key to the whole livelihood system. We will discuss over these three days the 3) mechanisms and processes managed by communities for the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity. Another key aspect of the Project and this Conference will be to look at 4) how to strengthen capacities of communities and particularly vulnerable groups for dealing with climate risks within a holistic value-chain approach -which I will come back to in a minute. We are looking to enhance the preparedness of farmers and other value chain actors to deal with climate variability and associated risks. We are particularly focusing on strengthening capacities of communitybased organizations. In India, we have been involved in creating self-help groups, following an approach introduced 20 years ago by IFAD and which is working very well. We will also be having a special focus on gender. We are keen on this because we realize that women play a strategic role in making livelihood systems resilient. Women and gender aspects have been marginalized in research and we want to fill a gap of knowledge in this area. In the Project we will be developing methods, approaches and tools and we will test their success but, as Ann mentioned earlier, we also need to scale up. We will do this by 5) creating an enabling policy environment. The engagement of policy-makers right from the beginning is very important to have a wider reaching impact. Building capacity is another key action, which I have already mentioned. Networking is also key for bringing people together. A gap exists between knowledge that is held by the people and knowledge held by scientists, as they are working in different spheres. Bridging this gap and creating complementarity in these knowledge domains is very important, which we do through networking and creating platforms.The novelty of this Project is the interdisciplinary -bringing together different disciplines. This is really important to get sustainable results and impact. We are linking production systems -work related to adaptation, seed availability, and selection of adapted varieties -to the food system. It is not enough to develop improved varieties if we do not have the connection to nutrition in terms of quantity (food security) and quality. So many underutilized crops have an excellent nutritional profile that we want to leverage. Our work has also demonstrated that these crops can be an instrument of empowerment for vulnerable groups, including women.The Project will be following what we call \"a holistic value chain approach\", that is focusing along and at each segment of the value chain of target crops in order to enhance cultivation, post-harvest and value-addition operations and technologies, to make traditional underutilized crops more attractive, especially to younger generations, to increase demand, and to raise awareness of consumers and decision-makers on the nutritional benefits and resilience of these species. In the end, this holistic approach is set to strengthen the five livelihood assets, namely human, natural, financial, physical and social. The Project will be exploring how to reinforce these five capitals to make the whole livelihood system more resilient and at the same time we shall work to harness the synergy among different but highly complementary disciplines like plant genetic resources, agriculture, nutrition, climate change and marketing so as to achieve a profound and long lasting impact.NUS are central in our strategic approach. Their resilience to climate change and their high nutritional values have been long appreciated by rural communities and have finally also been documented in many scientific papers. We are also interested in other crops but for us it is a priority to work on NUS because these resources are fast disappearing due to their marginalization by mainstream markets. The rise in temperature will be highly challenging, especially for the poor.For instance in India by 2050 the rise of 2 degrees centigrade will mean that farmers will be unable to continue to grow rice in many areas. The crop for the future in those areas will be the so-called minor millets. To that regard it is interesting to note that the Indian government has enacted a new Food Security Bill in 2013, which will allow farmers that grow millets to sell them to the public procurement programme, just as they do now for rice and wheat. This was made possible thanks to an amendment to the Public Distribution System. This new law is a huge opportunity for this country, but also for the Project because India is opening up its research and development to minor millets and we thus have a great opportunity to share best practices on how to safeguard, cultivate, market and promote these crops. We also hope that such a policy would inspire other countries to develop similar supportive mechanisms for promoting use enhancement of hundreds of nutritious and hardy species currently marginalised by mainstream agriculture and markets.There are so many other linkages that we will be looking into with this Project, including links to culture. To that regard, I would like to stress that today we are not just losing crops, we are also losing culture, which is going to negatively affect the identity of people in every country around the world. Today more efforts need to be deployed in support of on-farm conservation and management of agricultural biodiversity. Ex situ conservation is widely covered today through a network of 1,740 ex situ germplasm collections. But the dynamic and highly adaptive process of in situ or on farm conservation is very poorly covered. This is a great limitation of research and development that we need to address.At the end of all these interventions we are looking at a resilient system, not just resilient cultivations but also resilient livelihood system. It's a really big endeavour but in each of the thematic areas we have already several methodologies available which we will examine, improve and deploy in the Project target sites. At the end of three years we are very keen to see what has been the change we have made in these three countries and also the validation of the methodology that we are developing and testing out.Session IInnovative approaches in climate change adaptationBioversity International (Costa Rica)Globally, climates will remain unstable long after atmospheric carbon dioxide peaks. So climate adaptation in agriculture is not a one-time effort; agricultural practices will need to be updated recurrently. Climate-smart agriculture needs a quick-paced process of continuous, massive discovery of locally appropriate solutions. The good news is that, as mobile telephone coverage expands in rural areas, simpler, more data-rich and cost-efficient information-andcommunications-technology-based systems become possible. Also, new sensor technologies can help to track local climates with more detail, which in turn helps to compare diverse options across different places, taking into account the diversity of agricultural systems and local cultures.Bioversity International has developed a novel \"farmer citizen science\" approach, taking advantage of these technological possibilities. In this approach, each farmer tries and ranks a small number of technologies (for example, crop varieties or management practices), characterizes local conditions with cheap, reliable weather sensors, and shares information by mobile phone. The resulting information serves to create empirical, location-specific advice on climate-smart practices for farmers, helping them to constantly adapt to shifting climatic and social conditions.The first results of experiences with this new approach show that farmers are highly motivated to participate, that the approach is relatively easy to implement and upscale and that the resulting information is of good quality. Remaining challenges are the ongoing construction of a userfriendly platform that standardizes data to make it globally comparable and accessible and the training of agricultural researchers, extension agents and farmers in using the approach. Agricultural diversification is thought to be an effective measure to reduce production risks related to climate change for individual smallholders in order to improve overall production stability and keep up with global food demand under climate change. Although diversification of crops and production systems is an established strategy for many smallholders today, crop and system switching under the transformative characteristics of climate change brings in new practices and technologies and additional costs and risks. New crops require farmers and other value chain actors to overcome initial learning and investment. They can also introduce hosts of infectious diseases, or have uncertain markets. We carried out a review to understand under which agroecological and socio-economic conditions agricultural diversification will be an effective climate change adaptation measure for smallholders.The realities of smallholders are complex and their production systems and access to resources differ according to local contexts. Rather than looking at specific adaptation options like agricultural diversification, climate smart agriculture policies and programs could be more effective when providing flexible options and alternatives to farmer households, enabling them to define the most appropriate measures. This approach allows combining agricultural diversification with other adaption options to develop integrated responses to climate change. We suggest that some of the factors limiting diversification can be overcome by providing smallholders and associated organizations access to information on management and seed availability of crops, trees, and production systems, and also by promoting a shared understanding of trade-offs and synergies within diversification strategies. Portfolios of local adaptation options can be prioritized using participatory action research involving different stakeholder groups. This approach enables the selection of crops and systems, considering farm household needs and ensuring that these choices are linked to local food systems and value chains. Crop and tree evaluation programs including on-farm experimentation enable further testing of potential species for specific locations.Key words: climate change adaptation, diversification, information, participatory methodologiesA comprehensive participatory approachCentro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza (CATIE, Costa Rica)The effect of global warming on food production is resulting in severe food insecurity in regions across the globe. In Central America, for example, more than half a million households are suffering from food insecurity as a consequence of the 2014-2015 drought. Food-based approaches that focus on dietary diversification (e.g. promoting home gardens, poultry production, and capacity development) are effective strategies for improving food security and nutrition. However, dealing with climate change and variability demands more comprehensive approaches as well.The Mesoamerican Agroenvironmental Program (MAP), a platform that links research, education and extension, seeks to improve food security and climate resilience of small landholders in Central America by: i) promoting innovations to increase productivity and diversification of home/community gardens and farms, including the use of trees, ii) strengthening capacities using farmer field schools, a participatory tool that facilitates integration of local and scientific knowledge, iii) improving HH planning capacity by developing home garden and farm plans, iv) fostering more participation of women and youth in production decision-making, v) advancing the sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity through the establishment of germplasm/seed banks and local mechanisms for germplasm exchange, and vi) strengthening capacity of value chains that link local farmers to a variety of stakeholders at different geographical scales.The preliminary results of MAP´s approach in Trifinio and Nicaragua show a high level of adoption of the innovations promoted in order to intensify and diversify production, more vegetables and poultry available for consumption at the household level, a wider participation of different household members in the production of diverse and nutritious food, and strong relationships between farm size, and women's' participation in decision-making with food security. To formulate effective policies adequate information on how different policy options affect the complex issues surrounding food security and sustainable development is needed. One key complicating factor for generating this adequate information is the large variability in smallholder farm households across and within sites.I have applied two steps that are essential to make progress in this research area: First, bringing together farm household characterization data from a wide range of regions has provided an immensely rich database to derive descriptions linking food security status and land use to the socio-economic and biophysical environment of smallholder farmers. Second, I have developed farm household performance indicators that can be calculated based on the diverse information available. I presented a food security indicator for the individual farm household level based on production data and applied it to assess the potential for agricultural based activities to supply enough energy to feed the family through food and/or cash oriented activities.Results were shown on how these data and this indicator are used for:• Quantifying the relative importance of on-and off-farm activities for household level food security across a wide range of farming systems and farm households in sub Saharan Africa • Identifying and quantifying the effects of key determinants/drivers of food security • Quantifying threshold values of these key drivers that determine the switch between food insecurity and food security I also show how these analyses can be used for risk assessments and analyses of causes and effects of on-farm diversity of activities. This work has led to an integrated set of tools for rapid farm household characterization that, by combining survey tools and analyses in one integrated framework, drastically reduces the time needed for characterization, intervention analysis, and assessment of agricultural interventions.Key words: value chains, farm production, food security, indicators, livelihood assets Resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes (SEPLS) is defined as the ability of these systems to absorb or recover from various pressures and disturbances -in terms of both ecosystem processes and socio-economic activity -without lasting damage and at the same time use such events to catalyse renewal and innovation. Building on the premise that SEPLS are too complex for resilience to be measured in any precise manner, Bioversity International, in collaboration with the UN Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), has developed a set of 20 indicators designed to capture different aspects of key systems: ecological, agricultural, cultural and socio-economic. These indicators do not aim to provide hard, quantifiable numbers to measure resilience, but rather focus on a community's own perceptions. By encouraging community members themselves to reflect on landscape and seascape resilience and how it can be improved, the indicators can give them a greater sense of ownership over management processes, hopefully leading to more lasting sustainability. Periodic use of these indicators enables monitoring of progress towards sustainable management objectives and identification of priority actions for local innovation and adaptive management. The indicators are to be used flexibly and can be customized to reflect the circumstances of each particular landscape or seascape and its associated communities. The resilience indicators' framework has been tested in more than 20 countries around the world across different ecosystems. A couple of case studies were described during the presentation.Key words: indicators, participatory methodologies, resilience, socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes. The simplification of agricultural production systems is highly concerning for the future of food and nutrition security for the Planet. Diversification of species and varieties is embedded in farmers' strategies to secure sustainable food production, create income options, fight pests and diseases, promote adaptation to abiotic stresses and support various ecosystem services. Scientific literature published in recent years has amply demonstrated that the narrower the crop diversity portfolio managed by farmers, the more vulnerable their livelihood. Documenting and monitoring diversity grown on farm is helpful to farmers to assess the spectrum of options they can rely on for building a robust climate change coping strategy. Whereas users have fairly good access to information related to ex situ gene banks, extremely poor is the understanding of what is currently conserved on farm and the extent of what is at risk or already lost. We argue that this condition requires the development of a new set of approaches, methods and tools to assess the status and dynamism of crop diversity on farm to prevent diversity from being lost and support its management for climate adaptation and other livelihood purposes. Over the last four years, Bioversity International and partners have been developing and testing a community-based participatory documentation approach with a special attention to neglected and underutilized species. The presentation will share the methodology applied in Bolivia, India and Nepal, present data and discuss lessons learnt. Authors will also offer their perspectives on how such a methodology could be leveraged for moving forward towards a global information system for agricultural biodiversity -that currently does not exist and that could be used to monitor the status and trends of these resources on farm to guide their proper conservation for the benefit of future generations.Key words: agricultural biodiversity, documentation and monitoring, ex situ-in situ linkage, information, participatory methods, climate change adaptation.Agricultural biodiversity to improve nutrition using a nutrition-sensitive food system approachBioversity International (Italy)One of the world's greatest challenges is to secure universal access not only to enough food, but healthy, safe, and high-quality food that is produced sustainably. Currently, more than 800 million people are hungry worldwide. More than 165 million children under five years of age are stunted. Of these children, 80% live in just 14 countries. Micronutrient deficiencies, otherwise known as \"hidden hunger\", undermine the growth, development, health and productivity of over two billion people. At the same time, across the developed and developing world, an estimated one billion people are overweight and 300 million are obese.Moving towards sustainable diets is a key challenge of the 21st century. Sustainable food systems and diets need to be diverse and nutritionally adequate. Sustainable food systems can maintain or even enhance agricultural productivity. Such systems sustain the environment and ecosystem services, boost resilience, and guarantee the adequate intake of essential nutrient and non-nutrient health-promoting food elements. Such systems can make local food biodiversity affordable and available for low-income rural and urban households, all year round, in sufficient quantities, and in culturally acceptable forms -all critical ingredients to improving dietary quality. Maintaining the agricultural biodiversity resource base within local food systems is critical to achieving improvements in dietary quality and food system sustainability, especially given that 70% of the world still relies on locally-produced food. Lack of investment and attention to agricultural and tree biodiversity is a critical limitation for human nutrition and health, particularly in the developing world, where diets consist mainly of starchy staples with insufficient intakes of nutrient-rich foods, such as animal products, legumes, fruits and vegetables. Sustainably diversifying agricultural production and associated markets and processing systems, as well as raising consumer awareness to increase year-round supply and demand for nutrient dense foods is the goal of the nutrition-sensitive food system approach.Key words: dietary diversity, local foods, nutrition, sustainable diets, value chainsIndigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty (Italy)The Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development held in June 2012 called for the creation of a world that is \"just, equitable and inclusive\". As the world searches for a meaningful way forward from the current climate change and food security crises, concerned citizens are turning a thoughtful gaze toward indigenous peoples. Today the world's remaining biodiversity is concentrated on their lands. Developing a deeper understanding of the world view and practices of indigenous communities and forming a partnership with them can help the CGIAR system to favour those at the margins of mainstream society.Over the years, development initiatives have learned of the need to ensure a greater participatory, listening and learning approach between the knowledge systems of indigenous communities and that of the scientific community. IFAD is committed to make its investments in rural farm households more nutrition-sensitive, applying a nutrition lens in projects addressing agriculture and rural development. In times with growing complexities, there are no longer simple solutions and short cuts. Agricultural biodiversity is an essential tool to achieve dietary diversity as a corner stone for good nutrition -not only to reduce undernutrition but also overnutrition. There is still the expectation that increased production and increased income automatically improves the nutrition situation. Unfortunately, this automatism does not exist. We need to be intentional in what we are doing and this starts with assessing the causes for undernutrition. Eating habits and feeding patterns are not necessarily guided by nutrition concerns. Even in poor communities, we can observe that the little money a household has might be used for so-called junk food. There are various reasons for this: it is modern, which implies it is good, it is convenient, and it also satisfies the tastes people are tuned to, namely salty, sweet, and fat.Food is more than a commodity to fill the stomach. Taking examples from indigenous peoples, food has also emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of health, healing and protection from disease. Nevertheless, traditional and/or local food is considered as inferior and turning to traditional food like wild fruits, roots and tubers in times of food insecurity is an indicator for being in a 'bad situation' without realizing that this food might have a higher nutritional value than the food consumed in 'good times'. In this presentation I will share stories from the field, including the example of quinoa. Governments still adopt high input mono-cropping as a key strategy to food security. As a consequence, mono-cropping of commercial crops has increasingly replaced traditional and diverse diets, directly affecting rural consumers and producers.Hivos' 'Green Food' programme aims to contribute to sustainable diets of food-insecure rural and semi-urban households (men and women) by developing scalable and replicable solutions. Key to finding solutions is creating a vibrant, sustainable and viable link between plates and farms. This is only possible if the policies are supportive and only viable if the market players have a shared interest. While developing inclusive value chains is important, we started to realise that diversity increases are limited and improvements in nutritious food security slow. For this reason, Hivos' strategies go beyond value chains towards developing 'landscape' level approaches, where stakeholders meet, their voices are heard and sharing observations leads to co-created solutions.Our current programmes include 1) collaboration with the growing counter-movement of citizens, businesses and organisations opting for diversity, robustness and transparency 2) delivering proof of concept of approaches that increase local demand for diversity and remove barriers to more diverse production 3) influencing relevant policy frameworks based on growing knowledge and insights.In India we co-initiated the Revitalizing Rainfed Agriculture Network, a coalition of over 180 civil society organisations, research institutions, policy-makers and donor agencies. This network cocreates proof of concept in 'comprehensive' pilots. In East Africa we innovate in coffee-based landscapes through a public-private partnership with ECOM coffee company to regain vitality in the coffee sector. Triggers for change include diversification through dairy and horticulture production, while also introducing biogas digesters to secure a sustainable energy and fertilizer supply. Worldwide we collaborate with the 'agricultural biodiversity community' to build open source seed systems (institutions) that aim to tackle the issue of farmers' access to preferred seeds. Initial results show promising changes towards more diversity, new functional institutional mechanisms and openness for next steps.Key words: diversification, multi-stakeholder platforms, networks, nutrition, policy, private sector, seed systems, value chainsUniversidad del Valle de Guatemala (Guatemala)In 2014, a longer than usual dry period (heat wave) took place in Guatemala during the expected rainy season (July-August). The Ministry of Agriculture and Famine Early Warning System of the United States Cooperation Agency reported losses of 80-90% of maize and 70% of the bean crop in nine Departments of Guatemala, where both crops are essential for food security.We present results from the project entitled 'Establishment of a preliminary network of community seed banks in vulnerable regions of Guatemala to provide seeds in the event of natural disaster' that is supported by the Benefit Sharing Fund of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The results provide an example of how participatory approaches and community seed banks can improve communities' ability to face climate change and food security. During the project execution, three villages from Chiquimula and one from Zacapa suffered crop loss due to the heat wave. The Seed Bank Committee in Olopa, Chiquimula, which was established and trained by the project, was ready to distribute seed among community members, who started their second bean sowing in September 2014 using the seed they had stored with the support of the project. Inter-institutional participation and coordination, as well as the trust gained with farmer´s groups were crucial for success.Key words: conservation of plant genetic resources, capacity development, climate change adaptation, community seed banks, disaster recovery, drought, participatory methodologies, resilienceSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden)The social effects of climate change have gained attention in academic and policy literature. In the limited literature on gender and climate change, two themes predominate: women as vulnerable or virtuous in relation to the environment. Two viewpoints are regarded as obvious: women in the South will be affected more by climate change than men in those countries and that men (in general and especially so) in the North pollute more than women. The debates are structured in specific ways in relation to the North and the South. In my talk, I will trace the lineage of the arguments about women's vulnerability or virtue to previous discussions about women, development and the environment and examine how they recur in new forms in climate debates. Following on some of these ways of thinking, I highlight how a focus on women's vulnerability or virtuousness deflects attention from inequalities on the ground and in decision-making. By reiterating statements about poor women in the South and the pro-environmental women of the North, these assumptions also reinforce north-south biases. Generalizations about women's vulnerability and virtuousness can lead to an increase in women's responsibility without corresponding rewards. There is need to contextualize debates on climate change to enable action and to respond effectively to its adverse effects in particular places. I ended with some thoughts on methodology.Session IIILet the locals lead: Empowering the poor to manage agricultural biodiversity and adversityBioversity International (Nepal)On-farm conservation efforts are not sustainable without local efforts and there are considerable gaps globally in how to consolidate local efforts on the ground. Roles of farmers as users, conservers, innovators and promoters are considered important for supporting evolutionary breeding and on-farm management of local crop diversity. We tried to 1) assess whether empowering community and local institutions helps realize the dual goals of on-farm conservation and improved farmer livelihoods; 2) discuss key principles and practices that empower community and local institutions and 3) identify key indicators of empowered community and local institutions. We analysed experiences of two long term on-farm projects: 'Strengthening the scientific basis of in situ conservation of agricultural biodiversity on farm in Nepal', and 'Conservation and sustainable use of wild and tropical fruit tree diversity in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand'. We found that community empowerment is the key driver to achieving the dual goals of conservation and development. This can be achieved through the community-based biodiversity management (CBM) approach -a set of principles and practices by which communities enhance knowledge of local intraspecific diversity and improve traditional practices through continuous engagement in platforms of social learning that are led by community organizations. These platforms could benefit from a set of good practices, tools and methods that engage both men and women, poor and rich in collective planning and learning processes. This presentation illustrates some of the good practices from the CBM approach that are essential for empowering communities, promoting in situ-ex situ linkages, and managing adversity by mobilizing available genetic resources and participatory crop improvement. The paper puts forward CBM as a key strategy to promote community resilience and contribute to the conservation of plant genetic resources. A fundamental conundrum is experienced in most developing countries today: How to safeguard the biodiversity maintained in the fields of the rural poor-which constitutes a national and global good for adapting to climate change and maintaining future options, food security and ecosystem health-whilst meeting those same people's development needs and rights? As many of the benefits of agricultural biodiversity management are public goods, markets alone are limited in the extent to which they can adequately reward farmers for managing levels of diversity needed by society. This has led to a call for the development of positive incentive schemes being specifically mentioned by the Convention on Biological Diversity's Strategic Plan for 2011-2020, Aichi Target 3.While value chain development can facilitate the maintenance of threatened genetic resources, such a strategy has limitations in how much it can achieve. Challenges include a tendency to focus on a narrow range of traditional crop species with high market potential but not particularly at risk, high initial investment costs and uncertain long-term success rates, as well as displacement of other threatened genetic resources where successful.A recently tested innovative solution to the public good provision dilemma is implementing 'rewards/compensation for agricultural biodiversity conservation services' (PACS) incentive schemes. Through the use of competitive tenders and in-kind, community-level rewards, these schemes have been shown to be a potentially effective complementary instrument for promoting the cost-effective maintenance of threatened genetic resources. They are capable of building on (rather than undermining) existing pro-social collective behaviour, as well as accounting for participatory justice and social equity considerations -such as facilitating the participation of women, poor and younger farmers. Up-scaling nevertheless requires urgent consideration of accompanying prioritization protocols (\"what to conserve?\"), conservation goal setting (\"how much to conserve?\"), participatory monitoring schemes and identification of agricultural biodiversity-relevant ecosystem service indicators (including climate change adaptation and nutrition), as well as the establishment of a funding dialogue with potential private and public sector service purchasers and beneficiaries.Keywords: incentive mechanisms, public good benefits, rewards for agricultural biodiversity conservation services, value chain developmentKoolman Consulting (Germany)The successful implementation of adaptation strategies for climate change, including the fostering of agricultural biodiversity, requires human, natural, technical and financial resources. Private entities need to be involved and engaged to mobilize financial resources and technical capacities.Private companies and corporations have incentives to prepare their businesses for climate change. One of the strongest incentives is the fact, that because of climate change, some of today's agricultural or food business models may simply not survive in the future. Private actors may also be incentivized to act by the emergence of new business models, new product opportunities, and the differentiation of opportunities in existing markets. Successfully attracting private sector entities to engage in agricultural biodiversity-based climate change measures depends on success factors such as relevance, incentives, capacities, and perspectives. Further, apart from successful cultivation and functioning supply chains, market access is crucial. Demand for neglected and underutilized species products has to be triggered through communication and the right branding. Under all circumstances the promotion of these crops should comply with the principles of fair and equitable sharing of benefits. In this presentation I shared reflections on work linking Moringa (Moringa oleifera) producers from East Africa to the German/European food market.Key words: neglected and underutilized species, marketing, private sector, value chainsInstituto per la Certificazione Etica ed Ambientale (ICEA, Italy)Over the past 20 years, voluntary sustainability certification programmes have developed as important tools to build producers' capacities to manage their production systems and businesses more sustainably and to empower them to access international markets, in many cases at more remunerative prices. These programmes have shown impressive growth for the past 8-10 years, often outpacing their conventional counterparts and have demonstrated their potential value to smallholder farmers. Certification can benefit farmers through increased returns and long term environmental improvement, which also benefit their communities and society as a whole. Certification can offer small farmers opportunity to stay in business through the support of consumers who are willing to pay a price premium. Despite many potential benefits, certification programmes also bring challenges, in particular for poorer smallholders, and in order to benefit, producers and agencies must properly understand and manage them. It is critical to identify and balance the investment required for certification with the market benefits and to work towards maximizing the social and environmental improvements. Particularly regarding environmental aspects, there is still work to be done to increase the relevance of elements such as the protection of biodiversity and on-farm conservation. These issues are scattered among different certification schemes, without providing concrete measurable benefits to smallholders. This presentation provided an overview of the most recognized certification schemes and programmes, putting emphasis on the environmental elements related to biodiversity, trying to investigate how those elements could be strengthened. The presentation also made proposals for possible interventions at technical and political levels to support the importance of biodiversity elements within certification frameworks.The International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Rome)Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) are crucial in feeding the world's increasing population, which according to projections will reach 9.1 billion in 2050. They are the raw materials that farmers and plant breeders use to improve both the quality and productivity of our food crops. PGRFA are a vehicle of innovation for agriculture and a driver for change and increased food production. The sustainable use of PGRFA has the potential to increase agricultural productivity and sustainability, thus contributing to enhanced global food security and reducing poverty. In coming years, the integration of PGRFA with product development chains will be required to increase productivity in marginal areas with less reliable production conditions. Concrete impact for climate adaptation through the creation of climate-ready crops has been supported by the Benefit Sharing Fund of the International Treaty on PGRFA, which over the years has helped to breed new crop varieties and identify traits relevant to climate change. It is essential that additional conservation and plant breeding capacity is built up to support farmers and breeders to adapt agriculture to the changing environment. On the one hand, it is important to understand how new scientific and technological developments, such as gene discovery and genomic technologies, can be applied to implement the Treaty objectives. On the other hand, it is relevant to recognize the enormous contributions of farmers and local/indigenous communities to the conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA. Supporting the custodians of food crops may help advance the exchange of information on national measures affecting the realization of Farmers' Rights and concerted actions or recommendations to protect and promote them in harmony with other international instruments.Key words: agricultural biodiversity conservation, climate change, custodian famers, policy, ex situ-in situ linkageBioversity International (Italy)Despite considerable strides in feeding the world's growing population, food systems still fall short of doing so in a healthy or environmentally-friendly manner and are currently unable to address two sides of the same coin: malnutrition and obesity. Advances in agriculture have largely focused on increasing production of a limited number of staple crops and animal species rather than promoting cultivation of nutrient-rich species. In addition to nutrition problems, advances in agriculture have also had major consequences in terms of biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. Much of our food biodiversity has been neglected or lost yet it has huge potential to provide the natural richness of nutrients and bioactive non-nutrients humans require to thrive. Decades of unsustainable agricultural practices and nutrition-related interventions are now prompting calls for new thinking and approaches to better mainstream agricultural biodiversity for improved food and nutrition and to support sustainable food systems. This has also led to a resurgence of interest among donors, policy makers, researchers, practitioners and consumers, accompanied by numerous high-level intergovernmental meetings and conferences, in finding ways to reshape food systems that improve nutrition outcomes. A growing number of agencies and forums, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the World Health Organization (WHO) and Bioversity International recognize the important role of agricultural biodiversity in this growing momentum to reshape food systems. Most recently, the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at its 15th Session in January 2015 endorsed a set of guidelines to facilitate the process of mainstreaming agricultural biodiversity into policies, programmes and national and regional plans of action on nutrition, which among other things provides useful guidance to support countries in developing sustainable and nutrition-sensitive food systems. This presentation explored some of these initiatives, with detailed examples from the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition project funded by the Global Environment Facility. It examined the opportunities and challenges they present for upscaling and mainstreaming agricultural biodiversity for improved nutrition and other sustainability outcomes.Key words: agricultural biodiversity, nutrition-sensitive food systems, mainstreaming, policy Capacity development: What, where, how?Bioversity International (Italy)Working in poor communities in Guatemala, Mali and India, the new IFAD-EU NUS Project will use agricultural biodiversity to manage risks and empower the poor. The goal of the Project is 'to strengthen the capacities of women and men farmers, including indigenous communities, and other value-chain actors to manage risks associated with climate change, poor nutrition status and economic disempowerment'. The Project will seek 'proof of concept' that better-managed traditional crops and landraces, linked to nutrition-sensitive value chains, can contribute to enhanced nutrition, income and empowerment, and safeguarding livelihood assets. For this to happen, decisions, actions and interactions of people and organizations would need to change, compared to the current state. The Project's theory of change i) describes the socio-economic and agro-ecological context in which the intervention is taking place, ii) analyses the actors, organizations and networks that participate in, or influence change, iii) outlines a desired change and describes a set of activities-at farm, community, national and international levels-that would trigger the anticipated change. Capacity development, both as a distinct activity, such as training, and as a process embedded in participatory action research, value chain enhancement, and policy influence, plays a central role in the Project and needs to be understood by Project staff and partners alike. Using the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development definition of 'capacity' as 'the ability of people, organizations and society as a whole to manage their affairs successfully', a capacity development framework is presented to guide the planning, implementation and monitoring of the Project's capacity-related activities. A literature review of capacity development and change processes in complex adaptive systems is presented, along with practical examples and lessons from earlier projects managed by Bioversity International on upgrading value chains of neglected and underutilized species, linking nutrition and agricultural diversity, and managing climate risks at farm level.Key words: capacity development, neglected and underutilized species, policy, theory of change, training, value chainsBioversity International (Italy)Part of the challenge in monitoring and evaluating research for development initiatives comes from the multiplicity of interventions and actors that intervene and interact along the project pathway.Since 2013 Bioversity International is encouraging and supporting the use of Outcome Mapping ‡ among its scientists and project managers as a tool for establishing an integrated system for ‡ http://www.outcomemapping.ca/ project and program planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning. Outcome Mapping is a project planning, monitoring and evaluation approach that helps build the bridge between 'outputs' (knowledge products) and 'outcomes' (changes in behaviour).Generally, our thinking about research for development gets stuck at the question of how to get our knowledge products in use. Outcome mapping helps span the divide by focusing on the behaviours of boundary partners and thinking through ways in which we can work with those partners more effectively to achieve our development goals. The application of this methodology will help us to: Working groups were held in the afternoon of the second day of the Conference (April 28) to make recommendations on methods, tools and approaches to effectively make an impact and monitor the results of the Project. Four groups were formed that focused on the key thematic areas of the Project: 1) Food and nutrition security in the context of climate change § , 2) Value chain upgrading, 3) Conservation of plant genetic resources and 4) Empowerment of vulnerable groups. Participants were divided into the four groups according to their expertise.Each group was assigned a list of focus aspects for which the Project aims to have a positive impact, as shown in Table 1. Each group answered the following questions considering their focus aspects:1. Evaluate the proposed focus aspects and refine the list [Are there other, related aspects that are central or perhaps more relevant to your theme? Can some aspects be refined? Which level and target groups should be evaluated?]2. What is the best approach to measure your focus aspects?[What are the essential existing tools and methods for measuring your focus aspects? What are the minimum indicators? Rough timeline for measurements?][What are the causal links between agricultural biodiversity value chains and your focus aspects? How could these be leveraged for a positive outcome? What are existing tools and methods? Are there gender-responsive and participatory approaches? What are the risks and constraints associated with these methods/approaches and how can they be addressed? In addition to the baseline data, what supplementary information would be useful to identify suitable interventions?]4. What is the best approach to mainstream (scale up and out) these tools, methods and approaches to bring a greater positive change for your focus aspects?[How can we create an enabling policy environment? What organizational/institutional dimensions will need attention, and how? What are the gaps in knowledge and capacity that should be strengthened by the Project? How can a model of continuous learning and feedback be sustained and shared?][How do your focus aspects relate to those of other groups? What mechanisms could the Project apply to leverage synergies between themes? Are there any conflicting interests or trade-offs that need to be addressed? Are there potential synergies between sites?]The results of the working groups were presented and discussed in plenary on the third day of the Conference (April 29). The results from each working group are presented below, integrating the feedback from the plenary discussion ** . § Two working groups were proposed initially to focus on climate change resilience and nutrition separately but these were combined to one group.** Some discussion points brought up in the working groups were more related to other working groups. These points have been moved to the appropriate working group, indicating the original source of the information. Resilience, vulnerability and adaptive capacity are big concepts that are difficult to operationalize in the field. These need to be defined and broken down to be more specific to the Project.Nutrition security is a component of food security, especially relevant to the utilization component.• Livelihood resilience is the major focus.• Cropping system resilience is also considered, as a component of the livelihood system.• For nutrition, target groups are infants and children up to two years of age and women of reproductive age. • Household level is the focus of most measurements but nutrition assessments are more disaggregated, focused on individuals. • Nutrition-sensitive value chains need strategies for the local scale and the national scale.• Exposure: Frequency of hazardous climate events happening (e.g. how often is there drought) • Sensitivity: How does the system respond when there is a hazardous climate event? What are the outcomes for food and nutrition security? • Adaptive capacity: Ability of farmers to learn to use strategic crops for own benefit • Availability (Food Security) • Access (Food Security) • Stability (Food Security) • Utilization (Food Security): Is the individual's diet adequate for their needs?Micronutrients, food groups, bioavailability with methods of preparation for target crops? • Nutrition-sensitive value chains 2. What is the best approach to measure your focus aspects?• Exposure: Variability in the short and long term, frequency of hazardous climate events (e.g. how many years of drought in a 10 year period). • Sensitivity: Is there crop failure when there is a hazardous climate event? Do people go hungry? Responses to climate events in the short term (e.g. drought) are very important to consider. Related to: Which crops they grow, diversity of the system, livelihood assets, land use (e.g. allocation to cash crops), use of local imported/processed food in the communities (e.g. school feeding programs). • Adaptive capacity: Learning around specific crops: Are they doing experiments, exchanging seeds of target crops? Do people change their practices? Have they adopted target crops and associated practices that we recommend in the Project for better biophysical resilience in the cropping system, e.g. water and soil conservation metrics to go with adoption of the crop? Related to: Education, assets, institutions  (FAO 2013), consumption of nutritious target crops, bioavailability of nutrients in target crops and food recipes, land allocation to nutritious crops, market availability of nutritious crops, market functional diversity score, is there a school feeding program?We need to assess trade-offs with the diet e.g. are they taking meat out of the diet if they are eating more legumes? Evaluating the proportion of the target crop in the diet before and after the Project.Measuring production area of the target crop before and after the intervention will help assess if farmers start to grow a crop but then sell it and buy something else that is cheaper and less nutritious. Farmers produce for themselves and for the market -We need a two-pronged approach to assess the nutrition aspects.Children are in some cases most hungry in the harvest season because women are too busy with harvesting. Measuring time allocation can help reveal trade-offs.In more rural areas a lot of food also comes from uncultivated sources. In India the area that we are talking about is quite rich with forest resources. Especially the children supplement quite a bit of their nutrition requirements with minor indigenous species that they gather from the wild and that in many cases we are not aware of [from discussion].• CCAFS baseline survey (CCAFS 2011) • See compendium and review of current metrics for measuring food security (Jones et al. 2013)• Social ecological resilience assessment (UNU-IAS et al. 2014).• Participatory mapping methods -gendered maps of farm and livelihood activities.• Time use analysis.• Toolkit on how to link climate change and gender in research. CATIE just translated in Spanish and has been doing training on these methods in Nicaragua (Jost, Ferdous and Spicer 2014).• Review availability of secondary data from various sources e.g. Promoting underutilized species through value chain development can improve food security, nutrition and resilience through several mechanisms:Mechanisms Interventions Improved food availability and diet quality, especially in the lean season and in years of climate stress (e.g. drought)• Promote crops that produce during the lean season.• Promote stress tolerant staples that can enhance food availability in bad years.• Promote crops with high nutrition value (targeting specific deficiencies in the population of focus).• Processing tools (e.g. dehydration, drying) and food reserves. Storage can improve ability to carry over food one year to the next and availability in the lean season.• Supporting small farmers to arrive in the markets improves availability of diverse, nutritious foods.Generation of employment and extra income, especially for women can help in buying more food and more nutritious food, but not necessarily.• Nutrition education supports behavioural change and influences purchasing decisions toward more diversified and nutritious diets -this is needed to complement value chain interventions.• If women control income from value chains, this will result in more direct benefit to household nutrition than if men control income. Reduced drudgery in processing encourages consumption of target crops and increases time available to prepare nutritious food. Development of a voucher system in communities was discussed as an option to promote local value chain development and improve the resilience of the value chain to market volatility.Produce of targeted crops might be promoted for local cultivation and consumption, not necessarily for the market.Having a home garden component alongside the commercial component could be important for improving nutrition.Biodiversity/seed fairs complement the value chain work. They increase awareness of local agricultural biodiversity, providing a \"marketing\" role, while also helping ensure conservation.Identifying target crops is one of the most important points and is an interdisciplinary issue.There should be good reasons for selecting the target crops to pursue greater food security, nutrition and resilience outcomes.Choosing stress tolerant crops can improve climate resilience of the system.Choose the commodity for the value chain from a nutrition perspective -those that can fill micronutrient gaps and improve seasonal availability of nutrients are good targets. Fruits, vegetables, pulses and animal source foods are the most needed to fill nutrition gaps. Ideally we should go beyond staples. Staples are important but not enough to meet nutrition requirements, we need to add something. At least we should consider promoting local nutritious crops for household food consumption. If there are additional marketing opportunities for the crops, we can develop them further.Consider pursuing multiple value chains from a nutrition perspective, because only one crop (e.g. millets) cannot deliver a balanced diet. It is useful to consider the whole portfolio of crops (the main crops and associated crops) that contribute to food security, nutrition and resilience and aspects of the farming system. However, we have to be pragmatic and we need to focus -choose a few crops for specific activities.Use existing data to help in strategizing/selecting target crops. Look for 'low-hanging fruits' (e.g. crops with recognized potential) and develop a strategy to act on these to start in the Project. Then we can do some investigation during the Project to find other interesting species in the communities which might take longer to upscale or promote. It is recommended to take a general baseline about the crops, landscape, and food security in the target sites as an introduction to the system and then zoom in on target species.In Guatemala, tepary bean is highly drought resistant and gives much higher production in dry years. Other advantages are that it is similar to the dominant crop in Guatemala (common bean) with practically the same agronomic practices. There is already a successful bean cooperative in the region where Bioversity International has been working in Guatemala, so there is an existing institution to build upon (from discussion).Fonio is likely to be the target crop in Mali but we might consider putting two crops in addition.Maybe we focus on a staple like millet and fonio plus one other crop (a vegetable or a legumes) that would be helpful in filling the nutrition gap in the target areas. In fact, there are previous projects at the Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER) which have been already covering vegetables and pulses. With regard to fruit species, these would be new but can be added as well (from discussion).The decision of minor millets as target crops in India is acceptable but could we also think about opportunities for diversification into other nutrient dense foods? In India the traditional agricultural system includes millets and associated crops such as pulses, beans and so on. Furthermore the traditional practices involve crop rotation, mixed farming, early cropping, etc. Also the communities are in transition towards agroforestry. In this mosaic of agricultural systems to include other fruit and vegetables is possible. We can have a mixed approach: specific value chain or adaptations on the millets and promotion of not just millets, but also fruits and vegetables, for example through home gardens (from discussion).What is the best approach to mainstream (scale up and out) these tools, methods and approaches to bring a wider reaching positive change for your focus aspects?Identify existing policies which can be leveraged within the Project so as to get support for scaling up and out. It is important to do at least some quick analysis of policies in each of the three countries to understand which direction target countries are going with these big challenges.• e.g. National Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPAs), National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), and Pacto Hambre Cero (Zero Hunger Pact) in Guatemala • Within the Indian context there is big movement called Scaling up nutrition (SUN) present at the national level (from discussion).Support and lobby the government for setting up and operationalizing/implementing policies that promote the role of target crops in better food security, nutrition, and resilience. Influence policy makers at Municipality, District, State and National and International Levels.• Target programs for food and nutrition to integrate target crops and broaden the food basket in the national food procurement programme, e.g. integration of millets in the National Food Security Act in India, promotion of nutrient-dense foods in Brazil's procurement programs (PAA) (from discussion). • Consider the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) guidelines for mainstreaming genetic resources for climate change adaptation, and mainstreaming food and nutrition strategy plans. • Consider the Go Local Guidelines for scaling up.• We would need a sort of nutrition champions to support our advocacy.• Explore the possibility to do an event during the governing body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture or the CBD. For the first time the CBD has endorsed resolutions on biodiversity and health including nutrition so it is very much up in their agenda. We could have good opportunities to organize side events covering these issues (Montreal, first two weeks of November) (from discussion).Work with other organizations: NGOs and community based organizations.• Share knowledge and best practices, build their capacities to carry out similar work in other areas.Certification: Include biodiversity, nutrition, and resilience in certification schemes to assure the product is supporting these aspects.Synergies:• Diet diversity is supported by on-farm conservation.• Diversity fairs promote awareness and encourage crop consumption locally, which has benefits for conservation, nutrition, and value chain development. • On-farm conservation supports climate adaptation (WG3).• Income from value chain development is not necessarily going to lead to better nutrition outcomes unless you have specific interventions to educate people about a more diversified diet. The key point is how to make different choices with that income that could lead to more nutrition. There may need to be a work package in the Project outside of the value chain development to encourage better nutrition outcomes in target communities, which would involve nutrition education, home gardens, diversity fairs, etc. • We can consider introducing new crops to the region with potential to improve nutrition or resilience but this will not contribute to the conservation initiative.Analysis of on-farm and off-farm risks for value chain development should be done early in the Project.Working Group 2Participants: Per Rudebjer (Chair) 1 , Maarten van Zonneveld (Rapporteur) 2 , Dietmar Stoian 3 , Michele Maccari 4 , Willy Douma 5 , Klaas Koolman 6 , Ashis Mondal 71. Evaluate the proposed focus aspects and refine the list.The focus aspects were not modified.• Individuals within households Holistic value chain framework for neglected and underutilized species (NUS) (WG1)• Used for millet promotion in India and Latin America in the last phase of this initiative (Padulosi et al. 2014(Padulosi et al. , 2015)). The M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation calls this the 7C approach (abstract page 19): • Action to promote the value chain at many points: quality seeds, processing machinery to reduce drudgery, encouraging local consumption and bringing surplus to market, capacity building of women and men for quality, consistency and scale. The value chain starts before the farm gate, it starts from the seed. • Managing on-farm and off-farm constraints:-On farm: Best practices on how make production more effective, e.g. irrigation, rainwater harvesting, irrigation from river, kitchen wastewater (WG3). -Off-farm difficulties, e.g. processing, milling, de-husking, value addition.• Packaging helps to sell but it needs to suit the market -need to perform a market analysis (WG3).Crop Improvement: Selection and breeding for traits of interest. Participatory Variety Selection (PVS) to determine farmer preference (WG2). The speed of participatory plant breeding speed will depend on crop biology. With some species we can make quicker progress (WG1).Stakeholder meeting (private sector, media, etc.) at the beginning:• The value chain accommodates different players: Primary producer, processer, procurer, \"value adder\" (WG1). • Revise the Theory of Change with key actors.• Identify how we influence the market site? Which key actors? How can we influence them? • Create ownership in actors in different part of the impact pathway.• Identify public and private policy with the most potential and low-hanging fruits to develop a strategy to act on. • Identify credit and other financial partners and options from the beginning.• Identify different credit and payment schemes (e.g. contract farming).• Identify scaling opportunities (e.g. biscuit companies and school feeding programs).In linking producers with purchasing entities, the challenge is to find a buyer.Consider public food distribution and use of local foods in public sector institutions (schools, universities, hospitals, armed forces) as a potential buyer (WG3).Need to find means of reducing transaction costs because neglected and underutilized species are typically produced in marginal, remote locations where reaching mainstream markets has high transaction costs. Providing suitable assets to the community (e.g. aggregation points, improvement centres) that are supported by suitable institutions is a viable approach (WG1).Transportation of agricultural products to markets is a major issue (WG3). Consider the possibility of infrastructure development, e.g. transportation/improvement of roads (WG1).• Increase bargaining power, control, and lifting people in the value chain level by adding value and building collectives, e.g. farmer producer companies at different levels (e.g. region, state). • Cooperatives can help in overcoming issues with quantity and quality of supply (WG3).• Look at existing institutional structure and build from there, as it is much easier than starting from scratch (WG1).If we are building the value chain from scratch, it will be better to start with a smaller number of families. We can have different levels of intervention. Target more families for cultivation of crops that are better developed or easier to mainstream. Target fewer families for cultivation of less developed crops or ones that need more intensive capacity development (WG1).Alternative currencies (e.g. internal voucher system with no interest) are an option to explore for buffering the value chain from market volatility and reducing issues with liquidity. Alternative currencies can stabilize the system where there are products but shortage of currency. For value chain development, it facilitates calculation of the precise efficiency of different stages. This is a trust-based institution that depends on institutional integration and carries a certain level of risk or potential to fail. The relevance would need to be investigated in each country. The Social TRade Organisation (STRO) is an example of this kind of work (WG1).What is the best approach to mainstream (scale up and out) these tools, methods and approaches to bring a wider reaching positive change for your focus aspects?Market research: where are the markets with highest potential?Advertisement and marketing, e.g. Movie stars promote neglected and underutilized species.• There is a challenge in India to spread concepts like balanced diet, good diet, and nutritious food. We can do something to promote these concepts especially among the vulnerable groups we will be targeting through the Project [from discussion].Engage the private sector, e.g. biscuit companies• We have to reflect not only on public policies but also on private ones. We need in fact a mixed approach, because the private sector contributes a lot to the development of the civil society [from discussion].Engage with seed companies (WG3)• Seed companies are not so well organized and are often unaware of the importance of genetic resources or landraces. • Need tools to engage with them as research organizations and for them to engage with NUS-related activities. They need something they can rely on that will provide them with a competitive advantage or niche.Engage with national food programs • Identify public policies with the most potential for scaling up, e.g. school feeding programs.• At present farmers are growing millets mainly for home consumption. Now there is a new policy situation in India, where these crops are included in the national food security program, so there is a new driver out there that the producers can take advantage of. This is a new opportunity and we can take advantage of it by creating value chains and working on the demand side, to increase marketing and hence income generation from these underutilized species [from discussion]. • Influencing policy is easier when we have demonstrated certain results on the ground [from discussion]. • It is very important to pursue the country's specific policy agenda. We need to have an agenda specific for each country and their consumers. We cannot talk about policy makers in general, because each country is unique, and each country will have its own leverage points within the system, and will have its own ways of responding [from discussion].Work with higher education, connection to academia • There should be an analysis of whom we are going to collaborate. We need to identify robust organizations in the area and work with them, because we cannot set up, or build everything from scratch. We should look at the institutional landscape and make these selections quickly. We need a more or less unified set of criteria to guide this process (from discussion). • Linkage with other projects: There are lots of opportunities to leverage existing work (from discussion).Build in upscaling mechanisms from the start.What are the synergies between your theme and the other project themes that could be leveraged or built upon?• Value chain development of neglected and underutilized species can generate income for the rural poor, which can support empowerment of vulnerable groups who are involved in the activities. • Improvement of the asset base can strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity (Tinch et al. 2015). • Production development of neglected and underutilized species can improve nutrition and health. • Improving the money earned at the farm level by target crops can mean that they are valued and grown more, supporting agricultural biodiversity conservation (from discussion).• Not all crops/varieties can be brought to the market -alternative strategies are needed to ensure conservation of those which don't have this potential (e.g. community seed banks, rewards/compensation for agricultural biodiversity conservation services (PACS), etc.). • We must be careful on how we will be developing products from NUS. For instance, if we promote a biscuit using NUS, which is made with trans-fat, we are going to be highly criticized later in India because this product will be seen as contributing to the spreading of cardiovascular diseases and deaths due to heart attacks. So we should avoid trans-fats in NUS products and again do our best to improve the micronutrients content. It is important to work on the nutrition aspects and on food product development (from discussion). • If millet production could dramatically increase we might get also a deforestation impact from such a situation (from discussion).Analysis is needed about how NUS value chains will change market and production risk management within farmer systems. We may incur negative impacts. It is important to think about these potential negative impacts that we might face from the start.Working Group 3Participants: Stefano Padulosi 1 (Chair), Adam Drucker 1 (Rapporteur), Didier Bazile 2 , Riccardo Franciolini 3 , Silvana Maselli 4 , Amadou Sidibe 51. Evaluate the proposed focus aspects and refine the list.The focus aspects were not modified.• The Project needs to strike a balance between inter/infra-specific levels. Few crops and then focus on infra-specific level 2. What is the best approach to measure your focus aspects?For threat level need articulation of standards/criteria• Crop and variety richness at household and community levels and regional/national level • Evenness of crops and varieties at community level and regional/national level Use/promote a broader range of diversity in markets. Link conserved material to markets.Where conservation goals are modest then local demand may be sufficient to achieve conservation through use goals. However, it is noted that product development can negatively affect on farm biodiversity. Consider having a work package in the Project outside of the value chain development with activities to support conservation e.g. diversity fairs, diversity kits, community seed banks, rewards/compensation for agricultural biodiversity conservation services (PACS) (WG1).Need to ensure that our Project crop selection criteria results in choices that are not just based on those species/varieties with market potential, but also important public good values.Prioritize crops for value chain interventions using the baseline assessment and a Weitzman prioritized approach (Weizman 1992, Weitzman 1993).Criteria for conservation:• Neglected and underutilized species • On-farm conservation contributes to better climate resilience of production to support food security. • On-farm conservation also contributes to better nutrition by enabling diverse diets.• Product development negatively affects on farm biodiversity. Consider having a work package in the Project outside of value chain development with activities to support conservation e.g. diversity fairs, diversity kits, community seed banks, PACS (WG1).Strengthening on farm conservation and linkage with ex situ • How to support effectively custodian farmers is a challenging task -we need to capitalize on them and their networks and leverage their expertise. We also need to build collective action within the communities, e.g. through community gene banks. This resilient conservation system should leverage not only individuals but also community-based institutions (from discussion). • Institution strengthening: Support community seed banks, local seed regeneration, and seed fairs. Also strengthen capacity of national genebanks. • Strengthen linkages between ex situ and in situ: support exchange visits between farmers and genebanks, participation of genebank and farmers in seed fairs, regeneration of seed from genebanks by communities (in exchange for payment for this service), farmer characterization, scientists and farmers learning from each other. It is very important to work towards the complementarity between in situ and ex situ conservation. Ex situ is static and in situ is dynamic -we need both. The dynamic adaptation (so important for climate change adaptation) takes place in the field. But it is the gene bank that can provide material to farmers if that has been lost. It's an important service. • We must see how to institutionalize conservation practices at the village level, beyond a person or a project.Rewards/compensation for agricultural biodiversity conservation services (PACS)• Development of payment schemes for conservation within value chain development.• Identify potential agricultural biodiversity ecosystem service beneficiaries and purchasers amongst private/public sector entity funding dialogue. For example, tax link enterprises like Farmer Producing Companies for conservation and (pre-) breeding. • Couch the \"willingness to pay\" question in terms of cultural heritage, not offering financial reward.Discussion in plenary: • In some local contexts it could be appropriate to pay, as it is happening in some countries.For instance in Mali 90% of farmers that grow fonio say that they receive cash payments from the government, payments for consultation services or for projects. • However, there is a very big social science issue about the concept of spheres of exchange. It is an ethical question that divides opinion, that is: To pay or not the custodian farmers or just give them a formal recognition and use their material for commercial purposes which will eventually realize economic benefits to them. • We should maintain and promote free exchange of the plant and agro-resources instead of adopting a pay system. • Maybe we could pay seed multiplication, but give the seeds for free?• There is also a practical matter. If we pay the custodian farmers we need to check and monitor their work and this is a quite a big burden. So the sustainability of the paying system and ensuring continuity of the work are issues. • We should not go for particular incentives without studying the context first hand -study the local norms and then think about incentives in a broad sense. The focus aspects were not modified.• Rural communities and smallholder custodian farmers living in diversity rich areas2. What is the best approach to measure your focus aspects?• Have a voice within community and formal institutions;• Capacity to establish their own agenda, priorities, define needs, future;• Ability and right to exchange information and materials;• Knowledge on institutional innovations; • Access to biodiversity areas, natural resources; • Develop/promote both their own and newly introduced technologies;• Access to financial and institutional resources. Is there a gendered control or access for resources and assets?An empowered community is one that is more organized, inclusive and that takes positions. For instance, in Guatemala the number of women that participate in all the activities is an indicator. Indeed, from our experience, there is a place where the men were engaged in the fields when we had some activities and they could not participate in the workshops. Nevertheless, the women were interested in the topics that we were training them on, so the husbands let them go. We can measure the women that are not allowed to express themselves or how many women are talking. Maybe another region is not the same but it is something that you can take into account as an indicator of empowerment (from discussion).Maybe it comes down to institutions functioning. If some local institution is functioning without external support doing the things we want, that is just perfect. If they have the knowledge and we have built capacity, it does not necessarily mean that they will continue. It has to be selfrunning at the end (from discussion).• Changing Equations: Gains and Losses (MSSRF 2007) The WEAI has five different domains: 1) Decisions about agricultural production, 2) Access to and decision-making power over productive resources, 3) Control over use of income, 4) Leadership in the community, and 5) Time use. It is really comprehensive but it does not meet the criteria of being simple to administer or reducing time burden of the respondent. You could maybe pick and choose from that index what could be interesting for the Project. Maybe you do not collect it in quantitative way but a qualitative way [from discussion].In an activity linked to the CGIAR Research Programme on Policies Institutions and Markets, Bioversity International scientists are taking the WEAI and some other pieces on board for the gender responsive version of the 5Capitals (Donovan & Stoian 2012). With the five capitals we are looking at the household level and beyond at what we call the linked enterprise, trying to figure out what kind of asset building is happening there. We would assume that the enterprise level leads to increased assets and to viable business (from discussion).Why not just throw it back to the communities and get them to make the assessment? There are very good methodologies for doing that which OXFAM has developed. It is very interesting to apply that in the framework of the holistic nature of this Project. With OXFAM's approach you just throw it back and you get different surprises in all these communities about the process, etc. If we introduce this crop maybe the women will increase their income or increase their availability of these foods. Maybe many of those indicators will actually already be in the food security assessment etc. This method was followed in a number of other projects and you end up with a set of very powerful testimonials from different community members that appeal very strongly to donors (from discussion).Use participatory approaches in value chain development • Make sure that marginalized groups are engaged and involved! Special importance of social inclusiveness (women, youth, indigenous peoples, etc.) and the participatory aspect of the methods and approaches. • Review and dialogue with existing institutions (e.g. farmer organizations, village councils, Panchayats, self-help groups, women groups, youth, traditional customary institutions, ceremonies, crops, etc.) -Make sure no group is excluded. • Active involvement of farmers in the value chain activities and dissemination of results (WG3). • Women are involved in value chain activities e.g. processing (WG3).• Participatory market chain analysis: Match the existing biodiversity with the market chain and different actors involved. • \"Free prior informed consent\" -explain the project and arrive at common understanding.• The cultural aspects of the products are crucial! Products tell stories.• Use methods to valorise the local biodiversity e.g. seed diversity fairs, biodiversity farm forums, fruit (and other) catalogues.Strengthen existing institutions and introduce new institutions managing agricultural biodiversity for improved livelihoods • Identify factors that might be eroding the capacity of the existing local institutions.• Introduce new management and collective action institutions: biodiversity farm forums, document and monitor existing biodiversity, monitor investments and returns to agricultural biodiversity. Strengthen the capacity of the local indigenous communities to develop and formulate their own \"community vision\" and a communication strategy.• It should include a work-plan with specific activities and a \"Future Vision\".• It will constitute the framework under which external linkages such as scientific-based development projects, initiatives, partnerships, etc. should take place. • Desired research topic or aspect to be covered by partnering with development agencies.What is the best approach to mainstream (scale up and out) these tools, methods and approaches to bring a wider reaching positive change for your focus aspects?The linkages developed during the implementation of the process (between different communities, stakeholders) will ultimately lead to the promotion (i.e. scale up and out) of the best practices and lessons learned.• Link to other IFAD and other development projects.• Platform of product fairs and trade fairs.Capacity building to empower communities to negotiate and make decisions will make more communities more capable to:• Adapt to Climate change • Realize nutrition and food security • Engage in value chains • Conserve agricultural biodiversity• Value chain development and empowerment can also be in alignment to a certain point where value chain becomes very successful and may be some change in interest/stakeholders/competition (WG1). • Need land for value chain development, which can be a constraint for the most vulnerable (WG1).Managing the complexity of monitoring the holistic approach • Many aspects are covered in the Project, so finding connections between frameworks will be necessary and useful to clarify conceptual linkages between the Project themes: e.g. sustainable livelihoods framework, food systems framework (production, market, and consumption), food security framework, value chain framework. The livelihoods approach is the main framework and then we complement that with elements that are appropriate to the particular interventions of the Project • It is very important to be very critical about the key aspects where we really want to make a change or to just focus on. • The methods must be simple and lean. We must select those items that are most relevant to the resilience that we want to tackle from our perspective. It will be challenging but otherwise this Project will be just about a baseline. It is desirable that the Project has less documentation and is more action-oriented. • We will have to be very much aware that there is an inherent contradiction between the robust system with very strong indicators and something light, low cost, and easy to apply in the field. We will probably have to find a middle ground. • We embraced this holistic approach. If we are able to develop a methodology, the baseline, and answer the different questions from the different disciplines we have made a tremendous step forward. This discussion will also be used by other people so there will have an impact beyond the Project. • A lot of the tools mentioned are more complex and maybe you could do some ground truth and come up with a minimum set which will act as a reasonable approach to approximate what you would get if you applied the bigger more complex tools. • Maybe in this Project we are uncomfortable to decide on quantitative or qualitative indicators. In reality it could be pretty good to have a combination of quantitative and qualitative indicators. • We measure quantitatively certain factors -the quantitative stuff is really maybe two, three indicators that are hypothesis driven. The rest you do with the focus group or with a more qualitative approach and then we maybe get interesting surprises.• Some questions at community level don't need to be asked in every household. The community assessment can give context. The household survey would give rigorous assessment of key indicators (WG1). • We can reduce detail for overall production but document greater detail for target crops.• We must explore also how we can do monitoring and data gathering in a cheaper way.This raises questions about how we can actively engage communities in monitoring and getting data in an effective way. We need to know what kind of incentives they face in order to do that. Maybe some of that data is useful to them too and this would certainly be an incentive for their involvement and commitment in the long term. • There are same possibilities to actively involve school children. For instance we could teach them: how to draw maps, how to use GPS, how to upload information and use it very actively together with the community members.• We would like to follow the same format or baseline in the three countries. Common guidelines to make surveys are one of the most important things recognized for the Project. • We are trying to develop a central system for data collection and entry so that the data format is compatible across countries and can be used together for a broader analysis. • A cloud-based system that generates questionnaires, used remotely could be interesting to use (e.g. Open Data Kit -ODK). With this type of system, data is collected on a smart phone or ipad, which can be important in reducing error and time in data entry and providing intermediate results faster. It is interesting as the people see the progress in real time. In this way the partners, and the donors can have an immediate sense of our work.Based on the working group discussions in the Conference, the following indicators were selected for monitoring the impact of the IFAD-EU NUS Project on multiple dimensions of the livelihoods of targeted farmers: 1) food and nutrition security, dietary diversity and consumption of target crops, 2) climate change coping/adaptive capacity, 3) income and value chain development of target crops, 4) conservation of target crops and 5) empowerment.These indicators will be measured in the first year of the Project using baseline investigations that involve focus group discussions (FGD; Annex III) to establish contextual information about the communities and household surveys (HH Survey; Annex IV) that capture the quantitative indicators. Some indicators, will be evaluated by the researchers through interviews and observations in the communities. Various certification schemes exist to indicate to consumers that a product was generated through specific environmentally and/or socially responsible ways, including organic, fair trade, humane society certifications for livestock products, etc. These labels raise consumer awareness for specific issues in agricultural production and allow them to vote for improved production practices, often paying a price-premium. In addition to greater income, farmers can benefit from the positive effects on their social and ecological environment.While several environmental issues (e.g. use of chemical inputs, canopy cover for bird conservation, etc.) are addressed by existing labels, current schemes do not adequately or explicitly address the conservation of agricultural biodiversity. This workshop explored two options to address this gap:1. Establishment of a new dedicated standard: Creating a new label that indicates products were produced from threatened plant (and possibly livestock) genetic resources by custodian farmer communities 2. Integrating on-farm conservation into existing certification systems: Include and/or reinforce biodiversity standards and on-farm conservation practices through already existing certification schemesThe feasibility of these options was discussed in the roundtable session. Michele Maccari and Stefano Padulosi introduced the topic and the Conference participants then debated the advantages and challenges of both options, considering their effectiveness for supporting conservation of agricultural biodiversity.The main points raised in the discussion are described below and the pros and cons of both approaches are summarized in Table 1.The new certification scheme would ensure that a product is produced and is maintained by custodian farmers. Behind there is the livelihood narrative with the sustainability, maintenance and safeguarding of our common heritage. The idea is to create something that is reasonable and can attract the consumer attention, because as of today there is no system to support on-farm conservation.With a labelling approach we would put emphasis on the person or the family, with their traditional knowledge and the genetic resources (varieties) that are cultivated and conserved using that knowledge. It would be one package -the diversity is part of the identity of rural communities that we want to celebrate around the world. The certification would involve a participatory approach built up by local people.The new label could be a very powerful way to raise awareness of consumers over the need to support on farm conservation.Interest in old varieties (eg. wheat) is rising and the new label can appeal to these consumers.It could be linked to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the UN framework. We could also involve the multipliers -that is the big agri-food value chains. The food industry would pay to put a special sticker on their products that says it supports the conservation of agricultural biodiversity. But in this approach we would face a problem: who will ensure the respect of rules?In situ conservation should be focused on the agriculture cradles (the centres of origin and domestication), but it should also consider other areas where there is a high diversity, even if it is not a centre of origin.Centres of origin are often in the developing world and organic certifications are difficult in those areas for a number of logistical, administrative and financial reasons.New emerging consumers are looking at neglected and underutilized species (NUS), so NUS by itself could be a label but we are interested also in the landraces of maize, wheat, rice, etc.The narrative contained in a certification of on-farm conservation brings attention to saving the environment as a collective effort. The organic agriculture business instead is largely driven by personal health considerations. People buy organic basically to eat healthier. A challenge for a dedicated standard for conservation will be to motivate consumers to think more about the bigger picture, beyond themselves.At the same time the consumers of organic products are the ones that are more sensitive to conservation, so we will be competing with the organic label by creating a new label.Setting up a new label would be a very intense process, demanding a large amount of resources needed to set up the regulations and make visits to farms for certifying the products. These costs could be minimized by using a participatory guarantee process but the skill of farmers and community members to recognize the relevance of plant genetic resources would remain a concern.There are no schemes that bring together organic and conservation. It is an interesting option. The combination of the two perspectives could make a difference.There is already a very large established consumer base for organic certification and by bringing biodiversity conservation into the organic certification scheme we could have a much wider impact.By integrating conservation with organic, consumers would not have to choose between competing 'good causes'. It makes it a simpler choice and they can feel confident in their purchase.There are many countries where organic agriculture is being practiced and there are also different regulations. The strongest and oldest one is that of the European Union. In the USA, organic certification is very strong and continues to grow.In the same 'organic' label there are the big farms that are in the border of the regulation and small farms. The current regulated approach for organic agriculture does not give special recognition to smallholders but this is where the greatest conservation still operates. The organic production system/labelling could include a special focus on smallholders as key actors in conservation.The organic label is in many cases highly bureaucratic and costly for the producers, which is a barrier to access the benefits. Many organic producers are not certified because of the costs or because some particularities of the regulations. For example, in India the millets are NUS crops that grow in a mosaic condition. The farmers are not cultivating consistently in the same parcels so in this context the organic certification will not work.To get biodiversity considerations into an organic certification framework may be very difficult due to politics and bureaucracy, which would have to be navigated in the various certification institutes.Organic agriculture does not necessarily mean that there is on-farm conservation. You do not need to be organic to be interested in conservation of biodiversity and you do not need to be interested in conservation of biodiversity to be organic.The International Movements of Organic Agriculture (IFOAM) is moving forward to go beyond the limited legislation of organic agriculture, towards a more articulated concept of organic certification (the so-called Organic 3.0).As a starting point organic agriculture may be too narrow.Another option to consider is the Fair Trade movement. The world of Trade Fair is also a very good match with our narrative of fair conservation goal.The solution could also come from a territorial approach, which represents the new developing frontier.The Slow Food scheme, focused on marketing final products (the so called praesidia) and other similar schemes work well to match people that make conservation and markets, without requiring certification.ProSpecieRara Foundation in Switzerland, promotes the cultivation of varieties that are disappearing such as ancient potatoes varieties, providing also a trademark that helps the marketing of these products and raises consumers' awareness.In India, Participatory Guarantee Systems is emerging and it is helping to resolve some problems related to NUS. It is focusing more on the regional use of a label. It's a different way to empower the people and to reduce the costs.During the discussion the challenges for certification in the centres of origin of crops has been addressed from different perspectives. The participants highlighted the importance for conservation, not only of the centres of origin, but also in all areas rich in agricultural biodiversityThis option would guarantee to define the contents and create a single scheme and related logo that would immediately identify a product with the required characteristics. The main threats of this option is the specific skills required and high costs associated to the introduction (and promotion) of a new standard in the market of standards and certification schemes, which is already highly competitive.Considering the existing international certification scenario, 'organic' was seen as the most feasible certification scheme that could incorporate agricultural biodiversity conservation. After a very stimulating discussion on the meaning of organic and non-organic systems, the workshop highlighted that organic could be a starting point even if very limited. It is important also to consider the entire narrative behind organic and the standards used for its certification. Organic standards are in fact numerous and regulated by different bodies in different places. The existing standards for organic agriculture and biodiversity conservation are not necessarily compatible, as organic does not require conservation and conservation does not require organic production. However, the process ongoing now by IFOAM to define a more articulated concept of organic certification could be an interesting chance to participate and explore the possibility to include specific references on biodiversity within the existing portfolio of organic standards.Alternatives to the organic certification have also been mentioned, including geographic indications, the involvement of the food industry and the big agro-food value chains, participatory guarantees, Fair Trade, the Slow Food scheme and other consumer-facing solutions such as trademarks and brands.Table 1. Summary of pros and cons.Integrating conservation of agricultural biodiversity into the organic label• Dedicated to the specific cause • Raises awareness for the importance of agricultural biodiversity conservation • Interest in old varieties (eg old wheat) is rising • Can be tailored to the needs of smallholder farmers in centres of origin of plant diversity, with awareness of their farm and cultural practices.• Large established consumer base of organic means joining conservation with this label would have a wide impact for safeguarding agricultural biodiversity • Reduces the burden on the consumer to choose between 'good causes'• Competes with organic and other established labels, which have high market share • High cost of setting up a new label and regulatory mechanism, securing the expertise required to guarantee the importance of the conserved plant genetic resources • Don't need certification as can focus on traits in labelling.• The cost of the certification is a barrier to entry for many small producers, especially in poor countries, which are often the most important for conservation (centres of origin) • Different organic certification schemes would mean that we need to work with different regulatory bodies. • Conservation doesn't depend on organic production and organic producers may not only want to use rare/threatened crop resources.The workshop ended with the recommendation of following up through a study that would shed more light on pros and cons of the two options identified, along with suggestions for concrete opportunities for development. We can consider engaging an expert that could interview different stakeholders in the countries involved in the IFAD-EU NUS Project to gather more views and get a better understanding of the issues involved, needs and challenges.The Istituto per la Certificazione Etica ed Ambientale (ICEA) could offer the following assistance in this process:• Technical Guidance: ICEA provides services related to regulated standards and has also the necessary expertise to develop new certification schemes. ICEA can provide guidance in the implementation of a technical analysis about the components related to biodiversity already included in the main standards (Organic, Fairtrade and others). ICEA could coordinate a working group with representatives of Bioversity International and interested organizations participating in the programme.• Networking with stakeholders in certification and standards: ICEA could facilitate the networking with the main organizations (standard setting and certification bodies) and raise their awareness about issues related to biodiversity. ICEA could also lobby to facilitate the adoption of criteria related to biodiversity within their standards schemes and support the process of inclusion.• Public-Private Partnership for marketing products: Starting from main products identified by the IFAD-EU NUS Project, ICEA could select some interested private companies and facilitate the development of commercial partnerships. ICEA could also facilitate relations with the consumers associations and facilitate the participation in dedicated fairs and events (i.e. BIOFACH, SANA, etc.).The three-year Project 'Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk' aims to empower women and men farmers and other valuechain actors, to build resilient livelihoods through agricultural biodiversity-based solutions. The Project, whose main geographical focus will be in Guatemala, India and Mali, will build capacities of community-based organizations to collect information, share experiences and make selfdirected decisions to foster knowledge-building and local innovation. Beneficiary groups are vulnerable smallholder farmers, including indigenous peoples and women, who will be able to exchange data regarding weather, markets, the performance of varieties of crops and their nutritional benefits. Data generated through the mechanisms established by the Project will enhance the preparedness of farmers and other value-chain actors for climate variability and help them to manage the associated risks. Data on crops and varieties (e.g. prices, demand) will guide farmers and other value-chain actors to make informed choices regarding production of crops that are more aligned to market needs and emerging trends. Existing networks will be strengthened and new ones will be created to help communities to better document, monitor, exchange, and manage their traditional crops. National and international platforms and fora will be used to voice the concerns and aspirations of communities for more sustainable, inclusive and nutrition-sensitive food and agricultural systems.The choice of target countries, Guatemala, India and Mali, has been made on the basis of a number of considerations, most importantly the potential for agricultural biodiversity to be leveraged for improved livelihoods, as these countries have high levels poverty and malnutrition and rich native crop diversity. The choice of sites in three distinct regions of the world will enable inter-regional knowledge-sharing. Finally, the choice was also made to leverage strong research partnerships and existing efforts by Bioversity International and other CGIAR Centres.The At the onset, the Project will be focusing its attention on gaining a better understanding of livelihood assets for resilience at both household and community levels. This information will then be used to guide the deployment of Bioversity International's 'holistic value chain approach' (Figure 1) (Padulosi et al. 2014(Padulosi et al. , 2015) ) for teasing out and strengthening the many benefits from local agricultural biodiversity and NUS, that are currently poorly leveraged in terms of adaptation to climate change, nutrition security and income generation. Such an approach is characterized by being highly participatory, multi stakeholder, interdisciplinary, inter-sector and gendersensitive. The portfolio of thousands of edible plant species -wild, semi-domesticated and cultivated (Padulosi & Hoeschle-Zeledon 2004) -represents a strategic asset for communities, and particularly those affected by marginalization, poverty and food insecurity (Padulosi et al. 2013). Bioversity International has been leading work on NUS at the global level for over two decades and this Project represents its latest contribution to demonstrate to the research and development community the benefits of these 'orphan' crops with regards to:• Nutrition: Neglected and underutilized grains, pulses, vegetables, and fruits are a diverse set of nutrient-dense species whose role is increasingly appreciated by science. • Market: There are emerging opportunities to market NUS appealing to nutrition and health conscious consumers at all latitudes. • Adaptation: The resistance of NUS to abiotic stresses is yet to be duly exploited. The marginalization of these crops from mainstream agriculture is depriving communities of strategic assets for their future. • Conservation: The NUS are a large portfolio of crops that are not conserved in ex situ gene banks but only in situ/on farm. By supporting the on-farm conservation of NUS the Project has importance supporting 'evolutionary agriculture' through continuous adaptation.• Culture: NUS are a reservoir of immense gastronomic diversity and they often embody the identity of peoples and territories. Their conservation and promotion can contribute to strengthen cultural identities. • Empowerment: NUS are a vehicle for empowerment of women and vulnerable groups including Indigenous People who are typically their key custodians.Women are often the nexus between conservation and use at both household and community levels. The Project will devote a special attention to promote women's empowerment through agricultural biodiversity-based solutions. The focus on women is strategic for a number of reasons:• Women play a vital role in supporting global food security.• Women constitute 40% of the labour force of the agricultural sector in developing countries. • Although women reach an average production levels 20-30 % lower than those of men, it is estimated that if they had equal access to resources, agricultural production in the world would grow by 2.5-4 %. This would help saving an estimated 100 to 150 million people from starvation. • Women actively participate in the conservation and use of food.• Women account for 2/3 of the poorest small holder farmers.• Understanding women's participation, roles and needs linked to target crops is essential to ensure effectiveness of any policies directed to supporting them.Another social group that will be receiving special attention in this Project is indigenous peoples who are key custodians of agricultural biodiversity and knowledge for sustainable management.Complementing this knowledge with innovative methods and approaches developed by other communities and researchers can support them in facing climate change and responding to everevolving opportunities and threats that may affect their nutritious crops.Thanks to the Project interventions over a period of at least three years, women and men farmers and other value-chain actors will be able to identify diverse, stress-tolerant, adapted crops with market potential. The development of climate-resilient and adaptive practices, combined with the availability of high quality seed of stress-tolerant varieties, will strengthen the capacities of farmers to cope with change. Greater participation of women and men's farmer groups in income generation activities, supported by better skills in cultivation, value addition and marketing and accompanied by activities designed to raise demand for nutritious products from traditional crops, will contribute to enhanced nutrition, income and empowerment of vulnerable groups.By understanding better the pros and cons of diverse configurations of local crops, and their interactions with management of animals on farm, the targeted communities will have improved capacities to manage weather-associated risks and improve their livelihoods. Involvement in participatory systems to document and monitor the potential of local plant genetic resources, weather information and market intelligence systems, will help women and men farmers to better commercialize underutilized local resources and generate more benefits. Increased market opportunities will create incentives for farmers to continue to conserve indigenous local crops on farm, which will contribute to safeguarding important livelihood assets. The strengthening of indigenous agro-ecological networks will allow participants to share their knowledge and learn from others.After the three years, the Project will carry out an assessment on the outcome and impact that its activities have created in target sites in terms of strengthening the resilience of the livelihood system as a whole. The evidence-based analyses that will be carried out through systematic reviews and modelling of climate-nutrition linkages will be used to raise the awareness of decision makers about policy options in support of the better conservation and enhanced use of nutritious and stress-tolerant crops. Close synergy with other important programmes and initiatives (e.g. CCAFS and ASAP) combined with policy options promoted by the Project at national and international levels will help scale up climate resilient and weather adaptive practices.The Project framework is presented in Table 1, which documents the goal, objectives and outputs.The activities are organized in four focus areas: 1) Cultivation, conservation and risk management, 2) Value-addition and marketing, 3) Institution building and knowledge sharing and 4) Enabling policies and public awareness. An international expert consultation will be held at the onset of the Project so that partners from target countries and key agencies, including representatives of the EU and IFAD, can discuss the methodologies to be developed and used in the target sites. The initial framework will then be refined during country-level meetings with stakeholders in Guatemala, India and Mali. Detail on the planned activities is provided in the following paragraphs.Surveys on stress-tolerant crops and assessment of conservation status, erosion threats, degree of use and nutritional value will be carried out in the first year. The survey results will guide the design of other activities to be conducted for the target crops together with the target communities, involving indigenous people and women's associations. Indicators on the resilience of the system as a whole (agro-ecosystem, value chains and food system) will be developed together with communities, tested and used to generate needs assessments, make recommendations for policy interventions and guide countries towards adoption of innovative integrated monitoring frameworks.Interventions will include: Supporting custodian farmers and community genebanks for the conservation of target crops and their associated knowledge, strengthening networking among farmers, identifying best practices for cultivating target crops, developing weather information systems to support risk management by farmers, and participatory documentation and monitoring, including development of indicators for resilience of the cultivation-marketing-nutrition system as a whole. Training sessions will be carried out for partner agencies, who will then disseminate approaches, methods and tools to participating communities. Information systems on weather conditions for risk management will be designed and tested in Guatemala along with training of women and men farmers, development practitioners and other actors on how to operate these tools. Seeds of stress-tolerant crops identified in the Project will be multiplied and distributed to farmers.Stress-tolerant crops identified in Area 1 will be prioritized as the main focus of value addition and marketing initiatives. Participatory analyses of the value chains of the target crops will be carried out to understand constraints and opportunities and to identify entry points for nutrition. The participation of more vulnerable and marginalized groups such as indigenous peoples and resource-poor women in these processes will ensure that the viewpoints of all stakeholders are taken into consideration. Solutions to bottlenecks along the value chains using a blend of traditional and scientific approaches will be explored in multi-stakeholder meetings. These will be then replicated in Mali and India. Concurrently, in all three countries, farmer-led market intelligence systems will be explored and tested in manners and forms suitable to the local context and building on the Project partners' experiences.This area will deal with the strengthening of the capacities of local organizations and institutions (self-help groups, community based organizations, women's groups, etc.) to develop farmer-led platforms to collect local information, share approaches, methods and tools and to facilitate access to information relevant to climate change, nutrition and markets. The Project will develop a framework to empower rural communities, including indigenous people, to enhance their knowledge and practices as conservers, innovators and promoters of agricultural biodiversity in their own landscapes. It will build on traditional knowledge and practices-of women and menby supporting the generation and exchange of information through community-based documentation and monitoring of agricultural biodiversity and the benefits of its use (seed fairs, food festivals, participatory video, community biodiversity registers, etc.). Groups involved will be empowered to develop locally driven plans, leveraging local innovation through stronger dialogue, networking and participation among local and indigenous peoples and between them and scientists. The Project will strengthen the connection between the scientific community and rural people and will use national and international platforms and fora dealing with local and indigenous peoples to voice their concerns and aspirations for more sustainable, nutritious and inclusive food and agricultural systems.This area of work will analyse how current policy and legal frameworks affect the use of crop diversity by farmers. Activities will explore policy options for enhancing the efficiency of incentives aimed at promoting the use of diversity of crops for climate change coping strategies and nutritional benefits. It will also contribute to raising awareness-especially among decision makers-about the advantages that agricultural biodiversity can offer to local farmers and other value-chain actors in building more adapted and resilient agricultural and production systems. These efforts will be complemented by systematic reviews and modelling studies that will help consolidate the evidence base and make the argument for policy change in support of greater use of agricultural biodiversity more incisive and robust.This area of work will pay special attention to the role that local and indigenous communities play as generators and users of diversity with regard both to major and minor crops, and will develop mechanisms for strengthening their capacities to better benefit from them. A solid communication framework will be organized to support dissemination of methods, approaches and tools among practitioners and reach out to stakeholders, including research organizations, NGOs, policymakers and donors.The resulting methodology and evidence generated on multiple benefits will be used to promote up-scaling of agricultural biodiversity-based solutions by community-based organizations, governmental organizations, NGOs and national agricultural research systems. The evidence base from the Project will be supported by a systematic review and modelling work. The results will be used to advocate for policy change for further enhancing use of local crops for their better conservation and management on farm for the food and nutrition security of both rural and urban people.The Project is housed within the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Links are also made to the CGIAR Research Programs on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) and Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM). Links with IFAD loan programs will be explored in each target country, including the 'Tejaswini rural women's empowerment programme' in India and the 'Programme d'amélioration de la productivité agricole au Mali (PAPAM)' in Mali. Furthermore, the Project will work closely with the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) and the Indigenous Peoples Assistant Facility (IPAF) to scale out the approaches, methods and tools tested in the initiative.To strengthen the capacities of women and men farmers and other value-chain actors, including indigenous communities, to manage risks associated with climate change, poor nutrition status and economic disempowerment.• Food and nutrition security levels for farmers and farming communities in project sites. • Income levels in project sites.• Levels of vulnerability of local production systems to climate change in target communities.• Baseline data for ex-post impact assessment.• Favourable political environment.• Policymakers and partners contribute to the research and dissemination processes. Objectives 1) Strengthen capacities of indigenous and local women and men farmers and development practitioners to assess, document, monitor, conserve and manage stress-tolerant varieties of traditional crops for their effective deployment in value chains and resilient livelihood strategies.• 25% more farm households, over baseline, are using traditional varieties in managing adaptation to climate change in their production systems. • 25% more production, over baseline, of traditional crops in areas challenged by climate change (aggregated measure). • 3-5 stress tolerant crops per country, with approx.10-20 varieties per crop, conserved by target communities on farm. • 3-5 stress tolerant crops per country, with at least 20 varieties per crop, conserved by ex situ genebanks in partner countries.• Farmer and household surveys linked to data from the field. • Participants earn 25% more than baseline from traditional crops and products, disaggregated by gender. • 3-5 stress tolerant crops per country, with 5-10 varieties per crop, sold in local and national markets linked to target areas.3) Strengthen capacities of national agriculture research systems to deal with climate risks within a holistic value-chain approach and promote scaling up of successful approaches through collaborative linkages with rural• 500-800 farmers per country, of which at least 40% women 30% indigenous, trained in practices for managing risk through agricultural biodiversity.• 30 national agriculture research system experts trained in use of agricultural biodiversity to manageObjectively verifiable indicators* Means of verification Assumptions communities, and major national and international agendas. Part of the capacitybuilding process will be to promote an enabling environment for national agriculture research systems. climate change risks in crop production and valuechain enhancement (disaggregated by gender).• 300-500 farmers per country, of which at least 40% women, participating in decision-making fora related to climate change. 4) Enhance the scientific understanding of the role played by agricultural biodiversity in resilient and nutrition-sensitive production and food systems and advocate a policy change for its sustainable use.• At least 3 to 5 linkages with national and international projects per country, including to IFAD loan programs and to ASAP. • At the end of the program, the three participating countries, plus, through the collaboration with ASAP and CCAFS, an additional three to five countries, will have increased research and development attention on agricultural biodiversity for more resilient and sustainable production and food systems. Outputs 1) Improved crops, methods, approaches and tools for coping with climate change.• 3-5 improved, stress-tolerant crops per country with market potential identified and used by women and men farmers and other value-chain actors in target communities. • Amount of high quality seed of stress-tolerant varieties (in kilos, target to be established during inception) managed and produced by women and men farmers in target sites. • At least 3-5 farmer-led intelligence systems to support local producers. • At least 3-5 weather information forecast systems used by rural communities in target areas.• Field surveys in target sites. 2) Strengthened market access for stresstolerant and nutritious crops.• Level of production of stress-tolerant traditional crops and varieties (increased yield to be established at inception based on the target crops selected). • At least 30% increase in demand, over baseline, for nutritious crops/products of stress-tolerant crops in local markets linked to target sites.• Field surveys in target sites.• Annual Reports by Bioversity and other partnering agencies.• Project research data.• Project reports.• Community members and value chain actors agree to provide information on market demand.Assumptions 3) Enhanced capacities of farmers and other value chain actors in conserving and using agricultural biodiversity sustainably.• 5-10 farmers' networks (including indigenous ones) strengthened per country. • 3000-5000 farmers per country, of which at least 40% women, enabled to access information on climate change for better management of their agricultural production.• 300-500 farmers per country, of which at least 40% women, from target communities enabled to document stress tolerant crops for their better use in their production systems. • 40-50 practitioners/ researchers in national agriculture research systems per country (with gender proportion to be established) trained by the Project in holistic value chain approaches. • Amount of high quality seed of stress tolerant crops produced by women and men farmers in target communities (in kilos, to be established at project inception based on crops selected). • Three participating countries, plus an additional three to five countries, are using agricultural biodiversity documentation and monitoring tools promoted by the Project. • At least 3 to 5 projects adopting methods and tools developed by the Project (including to IFAD loans and ASAP).• Field surveys in target sites.• Annual Reports by Bioversity and other partnering agencies.• Project research data.• Project reports.• Secured level of commitment of research partners.4) Proof of evidence of role of agricultural biodiversity in nutrition, income and adaptation to climate change provided along with recommendations for supportive policies for its enhanced use.• 5-10 highly-visible scientific papers that provide further evidence of how agricultural biodiversity strengthens people's livelihoods. • 10-20 policy recommendations to decision makers promoting the greater use of local diversity, at national and international levels. • Collaboration with ASAP and CCAFS established and operational for promoting linkages between local producers and national and international agendas dealing with adaptation to climate change. * All targets will be reconfirmed and verified during the multi-stakeholder launching meeting at project inception. The logframe presents indicators and targets for the 3 Year Project.The Project 'Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk' will be implemented in Mali by the Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER), which is the main research institute in the country in charge of agricultural research and development.IER's mandate is to undertake and facilitate research activities that contribute to better performance of crop, animal, fish and tree resources to ensure food security and income generation for the people of Mali. The institute puts farmers at the centre and uses participatory approaches in all their activities related to plant and animal breeding, soil and water analysis, pathology and entomology, sustainable cropping systems, integrated agricultural development, capacity building, gender and development, natural resource management, agricultural enterprises, food technology, and animal nutrition and genetic resources management, conservation, and sustainable use Through its Genetic Resources Unit, IER has worked in close collaboration with Bioversity International since 1999. In the course of the joint implementation of several projects, the partnership has strengthened the capacities of actors involved in the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources in Mali and developed approaches for seed diversity fairs, diversity fields, diversity kits, community seed/gene banks and costing the benefits of conservation of genetic diversity for major crops. The IFAD-EU NUS Project will build and expand on these efforts, promoting use and cultivation of underutilized crops with high potential to strengthen food and nutrition security and livelihood resilience of rural communities facing climate change.Mali is a landlocked country in the heart of West Africa. The majority of its land surface is characterized by a hyper-arid to arid climate. 51% of the land area falls in the desert eco-zone (annual rainfall 0 to <250mm) and 26% in the Sahel zone (250-550mm) (Coulibaly 2006). The climate is more benign, with higher levels of rainfall, toward the south: the Sudanese zone is characterized by a semi-arid to sub-humid climate (550-1100mm) and the pre-Guinean zone is characterized by a sub-humid climate (>1100mm). These more humid southern zones are only a small amount of Mali's land area (17% and 6%, respectively) but the population is concentrated in these regions.Peoples' livelihoods are closely related to the land in Mali. The national economy is largely (35%) based on the agricultural sector and the majority of the population is rural (78%) with livelihoods based on farming or pastoralism (IFAD 2011). Different ethnic groups have distinct livelihood strategies: the Bambara, Senoufo, Mianka, Foulany, Bobo, Malinke, Sarakole, Dogon and Songhay are mostly settled farmers (agriculturists or agro-pastoralists), the Fula, Touareg and Maure in the northern regions are mostly herders, and the Bozo are fishers primarily settled along the Niger River (Minority Rights Group International 2015). Farmers' landholdings are typically small, with 85% having less than 10 hectares and the average plot size being 4.7 hectares (FAO & SICIAV 2010). 87% of national agricultural production is for home consumption (CFSVA 2005) and almost all the farmland is rainfed (IFAD 2011), making the production highly vulnerable to climate hazards.Food insecurity and malnutrition are major issues in Mali, which are more pronounced in rural areas. The country experiences severe food shortages generally one year in three (CFSVA 2005) and faces a lean period every year from July-September before the crops are harvested. Stunting, wasting, and underweight are prevalent, estimated at 38%, 15% and 27% respectively in children under 5 years of age (FAO & SICIAV 2010). Micronutrient deficiencies are also highly prevalent. Anaemia, often linked to iron deficiency, is a critical issue: 81% of children aged 6-59 months were found to display anaemia and 10% severe anaemia in 2007 (FAO & SICIAV 2010). A strong urbanization has occurred in recent years and obesity and overweight cases are increasingly recorded among the urban middle class that is consuming foods high in carbohydrates and fats (FAO & SICIAV 2010). In Bamako, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is 31%, which is a trend linked to risk factors of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer (Fanou-Fogny 2012).The most food insecure regions of Mali are the north (Kidal, Gao, and Tombouctou -especially the lake area), the south of Kayes and Koulikoro, the north of Ségou, and specific areas in Mopti (the Dogon plateau, Niger delta, and Douentza Cercle) (CFSVA 2005). Sikasso and Ségou have lower rates of food insecurity than the rest of the country but still 25% of households are food insecure or highly vulnerable (CFSVA 2005). Despite having relatively better access to food and being the main cereal basket of Mali, Sikasso actually has the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the country (CFSVA 2005). Diets are more diverse in Sikasso and Ségou, as households more commonly consume fruits and vegetables, but low consumption of milk and meat in these regions is linked to higher rates of vitamin A and iron deficiency than other regions (FAO & SICIAV 2010). Only 33.6% of the Malian population is literate (IFAD 2011) and a major barrier in proper nutrition is mother's education, which is related to the adequacy of child feeding practices. Stunting was found to be double for children of uneducated women compared to those with secondary education or greater (FAO & SICIAV 2010). As half of rural households in Mali live below the poverty line (IFAD 2011), the lack of purchasing power is also a barrier to food security for many households, particularly in north where there is greater dependence on purchased foods (FAO & SICIAV 2010, CFSVA 2005).Climate is a fundamental constraint for food security in Mali (CFSVA 2005). The climate features a long dry season (October/November to May/June) and a short rainy season (June to September) (FAO & SICIAV 2010). Frequent drought and drying of water bodies underlie a state of chronic food insecurity in the northern regions and are the most important hazards for food security in the south because of high dependence on subsistence agriculture (CFSVA 2005). With already harsh conditions for agriculture, climate change is a major threat to food security in Mali. Variation in precipitation patterns have occurred in recent years, including delayed onset of the rainy season, irregularity of rainfall, early cessation of rains, and less precipitation overall. Rainfall declined 20% from 1951 to 2000 and a general shift of climate zones southward has occurred, raising alarms about desertification. With heat and drought already major constraints to food production in Mali, the increasingly arid conditions could have severe consequences for food security unless action is taken to adapt.The major food crops in Mali are pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), rice (Oryza sativa and also to a smaller degree native O. glaberrima), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and maize (Zea mays). The important cash crops are cotton, tobacco and peanut, the latter which is also grown as a food crop [2]. Other important minor food crops are cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea), and fonio (Digitaria exilis, Digitaria sp.). Popular vegetable crops are lettuce (Lactuca sativa), onion (Allium cepa), bell and chili peppers (Capsicum annum, Capsicum frutescens), tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), and cabbage (Brassica oleracea), which have their origins outside of the region. Many other native and naturalized vegetables also continue to be cultivated on a smaller scale (Box 1). Cultivated trees in Mali include mango (Mangifera indica), papaya (Carica papaya), guava (Psidium guajava), sugar apples (Annona squamosa), and various Citrus species (oranges, lemons, grapefruit, etc.). Cereals make up 72% of arable land in Mali, while cash crops make up 19% (FAO & SICIAV 2010).Production of rice and maize has expanded in Mali since the 1990s displacing traditional crops like pearl millet and sorghum (FAO & SICIAV 2010), Diallo 2011). Rice cultivation expanded as a result of government investment in irrigation, notably in Ségou region (Ministry of Agriculture 2009). Its production has not kept pace with rising consumer demand, however, as rice has become the predominant staple in urban areas and is increasingly consumed in rural areas (Fogny-Fanou 2012, Ministry of Agriculture 2009). There is consequently high dependence on imported rice in Mali, which comes mostly from Asia with volatile prices (Ministry of Agriculture 2009). Production and consumption of maize has also increased in Mali as a result of government research and promotion, particularly in Sikasso region, where fast-maturing varieties of maize (as short as 65-75 days) are a critical lean season food (Diallo 2011, Laris 1995). Maize is promoted because it has the highest yield potential of the coarse grains but a major constraint is that it depends on good rainfall, which is increasingly unstable in Mali (Diallo 2011). Maize is also expensive to due to the cost of seed and dependence on fertilizer, which is a barrier for farmers to cultivate this crop (Diallo 2011).An important aspect of traditional agricultural practice in Mali is the correspondence between the varieties cultivated and the soil and climate conditions. Many varieties are disappearing, however, due to agricultural modernization (shift to extensive agriculture) and climate change. With increasing aridity in Mali due to climate change, increasing the availability and performance of heat and drought tolerant crops will be key in strengthening food security. Traditional West African crops, which are well-adapted to the harsh growing conditions of the region, have received scant research and promotion in comparison to rice and maize but are critical assets to secure livelihoods and nutrition of Malian people in the face of climate change (Tadele & Assefa 2012).Sorghum, pearl millet and cowpea are native dryland crops that are vital to food and production systems in Mali. Two other traditional crops, fonio and Bambara groundnut, are also important in Malian production systems on a smaller scale. These highly drought tolerant crops, tied to traditional food cultures and risk management strategies, have great potential to improve food security under climate change. However, due to the low of research attention, these crops face many constraints that must overcome to enhance their role in food and nutrition security.The IFAD-EU NUS Project will focus on Bambara groundnut, fonio and traditional vegetables to build understanding of their constraints for production and use and work to overcome these bottlenecks to support development of more nutrition sensitive and resilient food and livelihood systems in Mali.Bambara groundnut (known as voandzou in Mali) is widely cultivated in semi-arid sub-Saharan Africa. It is the third most important legume in Africa, and Mali, after peanut and cowpea and has an advantage over these crops in terms of its adaptation to poor fertility soil, drought tolerance, and resistance to pests and disease (Table 1; Hillocks, Bennett & Mponda 2012;Brink & Belay 2006).The seeds of Bambara groundnut, which mature underground, are eaten fresh, dried and boiled, roasted, or ground as flour. Nutrient values differ between varieties and locations but the crop is considered a 'complete food' with an adequate complement of protein, carbohydrates and fat (Azam-Ali et al. 2001). Some studies report that Bambara groundnut has higher protein value than groundnut or cowpea (Azam-Ali et al. 2001, while other sources report slightly lower levels (Table 2). Lipid content is similar to cowpea but inferior to peanut (Azam-Ali et al. 2001). Indeed, Bambara groundnut is believed to have been displaced in West African production systems when peanut was introduced from the Americas for the high export potential of peanut oil (Azam-Ali et al. 2001).Red seeds are higher in iron than cream-colored seeds and could be important in reducing iron deficiency (Bamshiaye, Adegbola and Bamshiaye 2011; Hillocks, Bennett and Mponda 2012). The black seeds have an additional cultural value in Mali, because they are considered a protection against the spirits. Bambara groundnut is cultivated primarily by women subsistence farmers and could be an important income opportunity for these producers. Currently, the majority of Bambara groundnut production is destined for home consumption (Bamshiaye, Adegbola and Bamshiaye 2011). However, it is a popular snack food, with a fairly high market price and studies have suggested that demand often exceeds supply (Azam-Ali et al. 2001;Hillocks, Bennett and Mponda 2012).There are several constraints to increase production and use of Bambara groundnut that have been noted in the literature, including poor germination (INERA 2012), late maturation (Tadele & Assefa 2012), poor uniformity (INERA 2012), difficulty in mechanical harvesting, that hinders largescale production, disorganized value chains with poor aggregation of producers, laborious processing due to difficult de-hulling, and long cooking times, that demand more fuel and water than competing legumes like cowpea (Hillocks, Bennett and Mponda 2012). Bambara groundnut is generally under-researched and the most important constraints in Mali are not well documented. The bottlenecks to increase production and use of Bambara groundnut could be overcome given some research attention to develop and introduce appropriate technologies and strengthen the supply chain.Fonio (Digitaria sp.) has been cultivated widely in the Sahel and Sudanese zones of West Africa for thousands of years for human consumption. In semi-arid and sub-humid regions of West Africa, the crop occupies 12-23% of cropping area -the third largest area after millet and sorghum (Vall et al 2011). Fonio is a staple or forms a major part of the diet for many rural communities in Mali, contributing 17-21% of cereal requirements (Koreissi 2015, Vall et al. 2011). Ségou and Sikasso are the major fonio growing regions in Mali, which provided 70% of production in 2006-2007 (Koreissi 2015).Because of the short time to maturation for some varieties (<100 days), fonio holds a central place in the food security strategy of rural families during the lean period before millet and sorghum are harvested (Vall et al. 2011). In the semi-arid zone it is almost exclusively consumed in the lean period (Vall et al. 2011). In the relatively more food-secure semi-humid zone, in addition to using the crop in the lean period, it is also commonly stored and used throughout the year to diversify the diet (Vall et al. 2011). Predictions for climate change in West Africa suggest that the most severe impacts on agriculture will be the result of the reduced length of the growing period, as the rainy season starts later and ends earlier (Tadele & Assefa 2012). Crops with shorter growth cycles, such as fonio, will be increasingly important to secure food production.Fonio is a fairly nutritious crop, rich in starch and glucidic energy (Koreissi 2015). It stands out for its content of essential amino acids methionine and cysteine, which are deficient in rice, wheat, maize, and sorghum, and generally limiting for the protein quality of West African diets (Tadele & Assefa 2012;Adoukonou-Sagbadja et al. 2006;Annegers 1974). Fonio holds second place after sorghum for iron and zinc in the Table de Composition des aliments du Mali (TACAM; Koreissi 2015). However, traditional processing methods (involving husking, de-hulling, washing and milling) have been shown to significantly reduce the iron content to levels below other cereals commonly consumed in Mali (Fogny-Fanou 2012, Koreissi 2015). The phytate content in fonio also interferes with iron absorption and is not fully eliminated with processing and cooking (Fogny-Fanou 2012, Koreissi 2015). These issues limit the value of fonio in improving iron in Malian diets. However, the crop still shows value as a source of carbohydrate, protein, and zinc. Another appeal is that it is a gluten-free grain and has low glycaemic index, making it suitable for diabetics.Fonio is considered one of the best tasting African cereals, appreciated by all levels of society (Adoukonou-Sagbadja et al. 2006). For some communities in Mali it is considered the fanciest grain served to guests and at celebrations (Adoukonou-Sagbadja et al. 2006). It has strong traditional significance, holding a central role in women initiation ceremonies, baptism of newborns, and requesting a woman's hand in marriage (Adoukonou-Sagbadja et al. 2006). The Dogon's consider it 'the grain of the world' (Cruz, Beavogui & Drame 2012). The central role of the grain in traditional practices hints to the greater importance that it once had in the food security and culinary traditions of Mali and West Africa and is an appealing characteristic for consumers.In Bamako, in contrast to rural areas, the cereal has generally no importance as a staple grain but it is still consumed popularly as food during feast days, for important guests, and a snack (Fogny-Fanou 2012). The grain carries a high market price in part because of its high esteem but also because of low yield and supply (Foltz 2010). The high price represents an income-earning opportunity for producers on marginal lands but also a barrier to use for cash-limited consumers.Fonio is highly drought tolerant and grows on marginal soils with no inputs (Vall et al. 2011).Because of its capacity to thrive under low nutrient conditions, it is often the last crop in the rotation cycle before the land is left to fallow (Adoukonou-Sagbadja et al. 2006). As it requires no inputs the cost of production for the crop is very low, which makes it an accessible income-earning and risk management strategy to resource-limited producers (Vall et al. 2011). In terms of labour, the crop is considered to be relatively low maintenance up until the harvest stage but harvest is arduous due to high seed shattering, which is most severe in the short-maturing varieties (Vall et al. 2011, Foltz 2010). In the semi-arid zone farmers often will harvest only a small patch at a time to meet short-term needs, while spreading out the intensive work for harvesting and processing over time (Vall et al. 2011).The small size of the grain and numerous seed coats makes fonio very tedious and time consuming to process and cook (Foltz 2010). This work is the responsibility of women who must juggle their domestic and productive responsibilities and who are increasingly opting to use more convenientto-prepare grains that have become more available. Reducing the time and labour involved in processing could be key in increasing the appeal to consume and commercialize fonio and its products.Increasing the use of climate-hardy crops such as Bambara groundnut and fonio can strengthen food security by ensuring greater availability of food, especially in drought years and under a contracting growing season. The nutritious properties of Bambara groundnut and fonio can also enhance diet quality bringing important micronutrients to diets dominated by few staple crops. It is acknowledged, however, that these crops cannot provide all the essential nutrients required for a balanced diet. Promoting other nutrient-dense underutilized foods such as vegetables and fruits would also be strategic to address malnutrition in the target sites.There are many neglected and underutilized vegetable species grown and gathered by communities in Mali (Box 1) that with greater promotion can be important sources of essential micronutrients like iron, zinc, vitamin A or vitamin C. The vegetables cultivated, collected and consumed by communities will be documented early in the Project to identify species with high potential to improve nutrition, income and climate resilience of target communities.The study will focus on two regions of Mali: Ségou and Sikasso (Figure 1). Ségou is in the Sudanese zone that receives 400-600 mm rainfall annually and the main crops are sorghum, millet, cowpea and fonio. Sikasso is in the Pre-Guinean Zone which receives comparatively more rainfall (800-1000mm annually) and has more diverse cropping systems with the main crops being sorghum, maize, millet, cowpea, cotton and fonio.Six villages are being targeted with the project activities: three in Sikasso region and three in Ségou region (Table 1). The total population of these villages is 10,789, with 1,703 households. Two additional villages have been surveyed, one in Ségou and one in Sikasso, with a reduced set of questions to provide a counterfactual. The treatment and control villages were selected based on similar criteria and they have socio-economic and agronomic characteristics typical of their regions. Villages where the target crops (fonio, Bambara groundnut and vegetables) are cultivated and where women are involved in income generation from these crops were selected. Willingness of the villagers to undertake activities was also an important criteria for selection of both control and treatment villages.Bolimasso and Boumboro in Ségou region were part of a previous project by Bioversity International supporting on-farm conservation. N'Goutjina in Sikasso region was surveyed for its level of agricultural biodiversity in a previous Bioversity International Project. This project will build on these past efforts. By having a more continuous effort in these communities, there is better trust and commitment and also the possibility to leverage knowledge and capacity built through the past work.  The IFAD-EU NUS Project will promote the cultivation, consumption and conservation of Bambara groundnut and fonio to strengthen food and nutrition security and livelihood resilience of target communities in the face of climate change. Investigations will also be made, starting with baseline household surveys and focus group discussions in the first year, to understand the current use of indigenous vegetables in target communities and identify species that could be promoted to address critical nutrition gaps and generate income for target communities.The yield and consistency of production of fonio and Bambara groundnut are major constraints for their use. The Project will work to improve the production characteristics of these crops by identifying high quality varieties through participatory variety selection. Collections will be realized in the target villages and nearby villages and the seeds of at least 10-20 local and improved varieties of fonio and Bambara groundnut will be multiplied. This process will support adaptation of the farming systems to climate change, as selected varieties may be shorter duration or more tolerant of drought, pests, disease or other pressured faced by the communities. Preferred varieties will be produced and made available to help raise productivity and the contribution of these crops to family food security and income.A multi-actor analysis of the fonio value chain will be realized involving farmers, private sector and researchers to identify key constraints to the use of fonio and Bambara groundnut that should be addressed in the Project. The washing step, which uses a large amount of water and may be the key step responsible for loss of iron content, is an area we would like address, but there may be other steps identified in the analysis that are more relevant to the target communities. The value chain analyses carried out with multiple stakeholders research will investigate the viability and effectiveness of promoting Bambara groundnut and fonio, as opposed or in addition to other underutilized native crops, to achieve the Project aims.The capacity of existing farmers' networks or associations will be strengthened and the creation of new associations and networks will be encouraged as required. The capacities of these associations will be strengthened through training on best practices in production and processing of the target crops (post-harvest activities, threshing and shelling, steaming food technology, fortification, and packaging).The organization of the market sector, pricing mechanisms and market information systems for target crops will be studied. Farmers access to information on the market will be enhanced, which along with access to agro-meteorological information, will support farmers' decision-making processes.Bambara groundnut is a crop typically cultivated by women. The gender roles in fonio cultivation are more variable. In Ségou region fonio is grown on communal plots controlled by men (Sogoba et al. 2013), while in Sikasso region it is commonly grown by women on their individual plots (Collins & Foltz 2013). In any case, the processing of both crops is the responsibility of women and is highly time consuming and labour intensive, which is a barrier to increasing the use of these nutritious and hardy species. Previous value chain development projects implemented in Mali have supported women's groups in purchasing fonio from male dominated producer associations and processing it for commercialization, mainly in local markets (Sogoba et al. 2013).The holistic value chain approach taken in the Project will support various dimensions of women's empowerment. It will contribute to raising the income (financial capital) that comes under women's control, by enhancing the value-addition and marketing of the target crops in a context where income streams are gendered and where women's income can be 3-4 times smaller than men's (McGlinchy 2006). It will also focus on increasing women's decision-making and leadership in the community and their social capital by strengthening collective action via consolidation of crop processing groups. Training on best cultivation and processing methods and provision of new and adapted tools (physical capital) for cultivation, harvesting and processing will enhance yields, reduce drudgery and save time in processing. Women's capacities (human capital) to produce high quality products and run collective enterprises -skills which can be applied to the pursuit of other livelihood activities -will additionally be enhanced through a range of capacity strengthening initiatives.Sustainable agricultural value chains and production systems depend on availability of quality genetic resources and seed. Actions will be taken in the Project to conserve the genetic diversity of minor millets to ensure continued availability and adaptability of materials in a changing climate.The Project will support the creation of community seed banks where they do not already exist and it will strengthen the capacity of existing community banks. Seed fairs will be organized to encourage exchange of seed, share information, improve the linkage between villages and sensitize people on the importance of agricultural biodiversity.An inventory on threatened and/or extinct species and varieties, especially for target species will be established using the five cell analysis. A red list will be compiled based on this initial inventory and confirmed by assessing the presence of varieties in the communities and the region.Community biodiversity registers will be established in villages where they currently do not exist and where they have already been established, the Project will encourage them to be updated. The possibility to take advantage of a fellowship program for rural people in Segou and Sikasso will be explored. Seed fairs will be organized as an important occasion for different actors to exchange seeds and knowledge.In West Africa, farmers and fishermen have developed a wealth of knowledge and a great flexibility to manage environmental fluctuations. This knowledge is a resource that must be protected, applied and enhanced. Traditional agriculture in Mali involves practices to conserve water resources by avoiding water runoff, such as the Zaï practice, contour ploughing, and ploughing cycle end, which are practices that also support soil conservation.Recognizing that rural communities are repositories of important knowledge to sustainably manage resources and adapt to changes and risks that affect their food security, the Project will document and support this knowledge, especially focusing on the role of agricultural biodiversity in these strategies. The Project will promote the recovery of traditional practices, where they can be favourable against the negative effects of the climate changes. New methods and approaches used by other communities and researchers will also be shared to improve productivity and encourage adaptation of farming systems to changing conditions. An inventory of traditional and modern practices will be made and those most relevant for the local context will be identified through a participatory process. Training will be provided to farmers on practices for adaptation to climate change, including practices using the target species, where farmer field fora will be promoted as a collective learning process between researchers, developers and farmers.Resilience-building activities, such as exchange of seed, will be emphasized.Policies can be key in realizing or hindering the benefits of fonio and Bambara groundnut and other indigenous crops for nutrition, income, climate resilience and empowerment of women. A study will be made on seed usage policies of local varieties of targeted crops and opportunities to increase their consumption/use through positive changes in seed legislation and other forms of legislation (health, education, and environment). The Project will develop policy options that encourage better use through the connection between community banks and the national bank, encouraging multifaceted cooperation between actors and groups of actors. It will also work to strengthen dialogue between stakeholders through meetings with key partners on the role of target crops.The Project 'Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk' will be implemented in India by Action for Social Advancement (ASA). This NGO was involved in the previous phase of this initiative † † (2011-2015), in which they worked with farmers in Mandla and Dindori districts of Madhya Pradesh to strengthen on-farm conservation for better climate resilience. This phase of the initiative will build on these efforts and other work by ASA to enhance soil quality, water resources development for minor irrigation, forward and backward linkages of farmers with the market for agri-business, credit, insurance and other services, etc. to enhance income, livelihood resilience and nutrition of farmers in the region.India is host to a large share of the world's malnourished people: 60 million in the country are undernourished and 9 million suffer from severe acute malnutrition. In Madhya Pradesh, nutritional status is below the country average as 60% of children under 5 years of age are underweight in the State as compared to 43% at country-level (IIPS & Macro International 2007). Infant mortality and nutritional status of children are critical in Mandla and Dindori districts, where the rate of underweight is 56.5-61.7% (Brahmam et al. 2011ab). There are many factors contributing to under-nutrition in India. A leading issue is the nutritional status of women during adolescence, preconception and pregnancy. Poor infant and young child feeding practices and poor intake of essential calories, proteins, fats, micronutrients and vitamins (especially vitamin A) are also important factors (IIPS & Macro International 2007, IIPS 2010).Madhya Pradesh is a strongly indigenous state, with more than 20% of households identified as 'scheduled tribes' in the National Census (2001). The districts of Mandla and Dindori are predominantly inhabited (~60%) by indigenous peoples, including Gond, Baiga, Dhoba and Ahir. The Baiga, found especially in Dindori district are recognized as 'Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups' by the Indian government (Ministry of Tribal Affairs).Agriculture is the major livelihood source in Madhya Pradesh. Mandla and Dindori districts are characterized by subsistence production, with nearly one third of farmers considered small or marginal. Collection of non-timber forest products is another important livelihood source in the district, while the livestock sector and small-scale enterprise/service sector are also important. Seasonal migration is common in the region. Major constraints to the farmers in the area include climate and soil issues, as well as poor availability of capital, dependency on wage labour, disorganization, primitive agronomic practices and poor access to government sponsored schemes.Almost 70% of the crops in Madhya Pradesh are rainfed. In Mandla and Dindori, only 6-10% of crops are irrigated. Rainfall is highly seasonal, occurring from June to September with the number of rainy days ranging from 70 to 80 days and an average total rainfall of 1250 mm. The rains feed † †The project 'Reinforcing the resilience of poor rural communities in the face of food insecurity, poverty and climate change through on-farm conservation of local agrobiodiversity' was supported by IFAD from 2011-2015.many perennial/seasonal water bodies in the Dindori and Mandla area, including the Narmada, Johila and Son rivers. The dependence of rain water makes the agriculture in this region highly vulnerable to climate change. Rising temperatures, declining rainfall, reduced irrigation potential, extreme climatic events, and increased pest and disease pressure are being experienced already and will affect the region already suffering from malnutrition. From the end of the century, temperature increases are predicted to reduce rice yields in India (Burney & Ramanathan 2013).Madhya Pradesh has very rich agricultural biodiversity that stems from its geographic diversity, Minor millets are traditional crops in Madhya Pradesh but their production area has declined more than 50% in the last 20 years (Jain & Singh 2008-2010;FAOSTAT). Preliminary research has found that the kodo varieties currently grown in Mandla and Dindori are improved varieties developed by researchers, but four landraces used to be cultivated in the region. Six landraces of kutki have been preserved by indigenous farmers in the region but the scented Jawaphul variety is believed to be extinct. Before 1978 there were 6 landraces of finger millet of which only two are now left. Four landraces of foxtail and two landraces of barnyard millet are maintained by the farmers in Mandla and Dindori but these crops are grown only sparingly. Pearl millet and sorghum have almost disappeared from the area.Minor millets are generally suitable for dry and marginal lands, requiring less water and maturing early. Kodo millet in particular is among the most drought-tolerant of the minor millets, meaning it has strong potential to support climate adaptation of rainfed farming systems. The minor millets also have strong nutritional value compared to the more common cereals like rice. Indeed these crops are appreciated for high fibre content, protein quality, mineral composition, and nutraceutical values. Kodo millet especially stands out for its iron content (Table 1). Millets are also useful for diabetic patients because of their low glycaemic index. Because of their accessibility to the poor, minor millets can play an essential role in providing nourishment to people across all income categories, especially pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children.The value of millets has been increasing on the market in recent years. Millets were also recently included in the Public Distribution System (PDS) of India with the National Food Security Act (2013), in which they are referred to as 'coarse cereals'. Procurement and sale of millets through the PDS programmes in most State has not yet started but the policy development is opening up opportunities for millets to make a stronger contribution to household income and food and nutrition security.Minor millets, particularly kodo and kutki, will be the primary focus of the Project in India.Cultivation and consumption of these crops will be promoted to benefit climate resilience, nutrition, food security and income of the target communities. Increasing the use of these climate-hardy crops can strengthen food security by ensuring greater availability of food, especially in drought years. The nutritious properties of millets can also enhance diet quality. It is acknowledged that millets cannot provide all the essential nutrients for a balanced diet. Promoting nutrient-dense foods such as vegetables, fruits, pulses and animal source foods would also be strategic to address malnutrition in the target sites.There are many neglected and underutilized fruit and vegetable species grown and gathered by the communities in the target area, including moringa (Moringa oleifera), taro (Colocasia esculenta), and amaranth (Amaranthus sp.). These will be documented early in the Project to identify species with high potential to improve nutrition, income and climate resilience of target communities. The Project is focused on Mandla and Dindori in Madhya Pradesh (Figure 1). 30 villages are being targeted by the Project, which include 4,518 households. These villages are listed in Table 2 and a map of the targeted villages is shown in Figure 2, also showing the other villages that ASA works with in the region. The knowledge and data from those villages will be used to establish a context analysis and counterfactual.Low productivity, poor seed availability, weak market opportunity and low price are major constraints for farmers to continue cultivating minor millets. These crops have been relegated to less fertile areas of farmers' land, resulting in lower yields and their further marginalization in the family food basket and national economy. Through the Project, ASA aims to improve productivity and remuneration from millets cultivation to enhance their production and supply.A holistic approach will be used for the value chain development of minor millets that will give attention to production-supply issues and market-demand issues to achieve livelihood and sustainability benefits. A participatory, pro-poor, gender sensitive approach will be followed to support the empowerment of vulnerable groups through strengthened use and conservation of their traditional crops. Multi-stakeholder platforms will be held early in the Project to analyse constraints to millet cultivation, marketability and consumption and foster productive collaboration and collective action to organize and upgrade the value chain.Identification of high quality varieties of kodo and kutki through participatory variety selection will be a major action to raise their productivity. Abandonment of millet production has been associated with erosion of genetic diversity in the area. New varieties will be introduced from other areas of India and from genebank and research organization collections, which will be evaluated alongside the locally available varieties. Identification of preferred varieties that are well-suited to the local environmental and cultural conditions will support adaptation of the farming systems to climate change, as selected varieties may be shorter duration or more tolerant of drought, pests, disease or other pressured faced by the communities. Preferred varieties will be produced at a large scale and commercialized through farmer producer companies, making quality seed more available in the target area, which should help raise productivity and the contribution of millets to family food security and income.Productivity of millet will also be improved through training on good agricultural practices for cultivation. ASA has developed a package of practices inclusive of good agricultural practices, responsible environmental and social practices for farming. All these together the package of practices is called the 'responsible crop initiative'. Besides internal evaluations done time to time during the season, the protocol involves a third party verification of compliances by the farmers.Additional farm practices will be promoted to support coping and adapting to climate change conditions. Practices to be covered include intercropping, integrated pest management, production and use of organic fertilizers, rain water management, etc. Weather data will also be made available to the farmers to help guide their planting decisions.Farmers' field schools, farmer field trial, farmers' field days, mobile-based communication, etc., will be used to train farmers on the package of practices. Particular emphasis will be given to the women farmers who are actively engaged in farming but have very little recognition as farmers and the new skills and training are seldom imparted to them.Minor millets are currently marginal on the market in India due in part to inconsistency in quantity and quality of production. Collective action and institution building are necessary to help farmers achieve scale in millet production.ASA has already established over 200 self-help groups with majority women members in the target villages who will be the main entry point for the implementation of Project activities. Three farmer producer companies have also been established in the target area since 2013 (with a fourth currently being formed) that will be involved in millet commercialization (Table 3). The shareholders in these companies are members of the self-help groups and all profits are being distributed among them. The farmer producer companies have store-fronts, warehouse facilities, etc. already established which will be leveraged for kodo and kutki millet commercialization. With the support of the Project they will enhance their warehouse capacity, introduce intermediary processing machinery (graders), and make efforts to scale up their business for kodo, kutki millet. In the first year of the Project, plans are to organize the aggregation of millet production to achieve a large quantity that can be sold at a higher price for farmers by reducing the number of middle men between the farmers and bulk buyers. Novel market information systems, including the National Commodities Exchange (NCDEX), Indian Farmers Fertilisers Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), Sanchar and other platforms, will be leveraged to increase farmers' awareness of market opportunities and help them secure the best possible prices. The IFFCO system will relay to farmers information regarding millet price in the three major markets (mandi), monitored by the ASA team, along with weather information via daily SMS messages. The NCDEX web platform connects sellers and buyers from throughout India and will be investigated as a means of securing a higher price for bulk sale of millets from the producer companies.The income benefits of value-addition (e.g. product development), as well as restaurants and ecotourism will be explored. Synergies with IFAD's Tejaswini Rural Women Empowerment Programme, which has established millet-producing self-help groups in several districts in Madhya Pradesh, including Mandla and Dindori, will also be explored. The identified varieties by our Project could be highly relevant for enhancing productivity in the area, including villages involved in the Tejaswini Programme. Furthermore there is the prospect to collaborate for collective marketing or linking our producers as suppliers for value addition work carried out in Tejaswini communities and training programmes related to best practices for millet cultivated, marketing, conservation and culinary preparation.Beyond increasing productivity and profitability of millets, interest among consumers is also a major constraint in upscaling millets. Activities to raise awareness will be undertaken in the Project to increase interest in millet consumption among rural communities and urban consumers. Millet promotion over the next three years will involve schools and village exhibitions, national and international fora, food fairs and other forms of communication. Seed and food fairs will be organized to promote awareness of the values and tastiness of millet-based foods, as well as to encourage seed exchange. A three-day Tribal Farmers' Food Festival will be organized in Bhopal in January 2016 with special focus to millet crops. Self-help groups will be sensitized on the role of millets and other local crops in balanced diets, taking the results of baseline investigations of diet diversity into account. Nutrition training will be also be one area of complementarity explored with the Tejaswini Rural Women Empowerment ProgrammeSustainable agricultural value chains and production systems depend on availability of quality genetic resources and seed. Actions will be taken in the Project to conserve the genetic diversity of minor millets to ensure continued availability and adaptability of materials in a changing climate.Custodian farmers will be identified, recognized by their communities for exceptional knowledge on local agricultural biodiversity and as reliable seed keepers and seed sources. Networking and capacity building of custodian farmers will be promoted through exposure visits to the genebank in Raipur University and community seedbanks in other regions of India.Documentation and monitoring of local agricultural biodiversity will be promoted by mobilizing village-level Biodiversity Management Committees and People's Bioversity Registers in accordance with the regulation of India's 2002 Biodiversity Act and the National Biodiversity Authority. The format promoted by the Madhya Pradesh Biodiversity Board will be adopted and adapted to include neglected and underutilized species (crops and non-timber forest products). Surveying in the Project will also lead to preparation of a red list of threatened crops and varieties for which conservation action will be taken.Policies can be key in realizing or hindering the benefits of minor millets for nutrition, income and climate resilience. A policy analysis group will be established with qualified professionals to analyse key policy issues and make recommendations for policy changes and implementation strategies that can help realize the livelihood and sustainability benefits of millets. Key areas of focus will be seed legislations, intellectual property rights and integration of ex situ and in situ conservation methods. Other key programs of focus will be the PDS, mid-day meal schemes, Nutricereal and Nutrifarm schemes in Madhya Pradesh and the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) ‡ ‡ .The Project 'Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk' will be implemented in Guatemala by the Universidad Del Valle de Guatemala (UVG). The Biology Department at UVG is one of the key institutes, working on the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity in Guatemala. They have an explicit focus on plant genetic resources in their academic programme.  The agricultural calendar in Guatemala is marked by seasonal weather events. The first rainy season from May to June precedes a heat wave and drought period referred to as the 'canicula', which is followed by a second rainy period from September to October (FEWS NET 2013).Hurricanes can hit from August to December, while there is high frost risk from January to April (Figure 1). Changes have been occurring in this calendar in recent years. In particular, the beginning and the end of the rainy seasons have been shifting, making it difficult to predict when rain will come. In 2012, a two-month delay of the second rainy season resulted in famine (SESAN et al. 2013). In general the total annual rainfall has been the same, but the intensity and timing of the events has changed. Natural climate variability derived from phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña, are being amplified by climate change, bringing more severe droughts. In the past decade extreme events have been increasing in Latin America and the Caribbean, including extreme temperatures, wildfires, drought, storms and floods (ECLAC 2010). Guatemala is one of the ten countries most affected by extreme weather events in the last twenty years at the global level and in 2010 the country was ranked second in the Global Climate Risk Index. The expected future scenario (by 2100), will involve an increase of temperature from 2-6 ºC and a decrease in rainfall between 10-20% (IPCC 2014).Drought and climate variability, including extreme events like hurricanes, severely affect agricultural production in Guatemala. In 2014, due to prolonged drought between July and August, 80% of corn and 63% of the bean crop were lost affecting 266,000 families across the country, especially in the eastern region (SESAN 2014). Climate variability has caused damage to the agricultural sector in the range of 40-70%, affecting infrastructure and productivity of strategic crops. Yield declines, harvest losses, a higher incidence of pests and diseases and erosion of soil in intense rainfall events are part of these losses, with the most affected cultivations being corn, beans, coffee and certain vegetables.Many factors contribute to the limitations and adaptation to the climate changes in Guatemala.Poverty greatly limits adaptation by preventing access to necessary resources. Vulnerable groups are affected by a low purchasing power. They often have poor land tenure rights and low access to basic services like health, water and infrastructure. Lack of education and knowledge on climate change adaptation also contribute to limited progress. The absence of climate change adaptation in government agendas, low prioritization for funding allocation, focus on short-term and mediumterm planning, and corruption limit policy support.The socio-cultural context is a decisive factor for climate adaptation and food insecurity as it affects eating habits and other behaviours. The socio-cultural context differs from community to community but studies have shown a lack of prioritization of the nutritional value of food against the economic and taste values. At the same time, there is often prioritization of other domestic activities and an influence by cultural beliefs and perceptions in their food habits. The social context of vulnerable groups is often characterized by a devaluation of women's role, where decision-making power is differentiated. Education on sexual and reproductive health is often deficient and there is low family planning. Violent episodes in the families are often reported, which can be linked to alcoholism, which is yet another important social issue. The perspectives and actions of community leaders, religious groups, community, and health providers have a notable influence on the socio-cultural context.Guatemala is an important centre of origin and diversity for common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) (Bittochia et al. 2011). This crop is a fundamental staple for the population, providing an important source of protein and carbohydrates that is complementarity to the nutrient profile of cereals and vegetables (Scheerens et al 1983). Common bean was domesticated in more humid regions of Central America, the Andes and the Amazon basin and heat and drought conditions cause major losses of this crop when they strike (Gaur et al. 2015, Blair et al. 2012). Such crop failures have devastating effects for the farming communities that depend on common bean for subsistence.Tepary bean (P. acutifolius) is a relative of common bean in the same genus. Its precise centre of origin is not confirmed but it is thought to have been domesticated in dry regions of Central Mexico and the south western USA (Blair et al. 2012). The species is well-adapted to arid conditions, exhibiting a high level of drought, heat and cold tolerance, as well as early maturation (Blair et al. 2012, Beebe et al. 2013). Tepary bean is underutilized, grown at a limited scale in dry parts of Mesoamerica, but it shows potential to support climate change adaptation of farming systems in this region and other drought-prone areas through greater use and crossing with common bean (Blair et al. 2012, Gaur et al. 2015). Tepary bean is fairly high yielding and outperforms common bean in hot environments (Beebe et al 2013). The beans are comparable or superior in nutritional content compared to major pulses, with protein content between 17-32% (Nabhan & Felger 1978, Scheerens et al. 1983). Tepary beans were widely used by Sonoran peoples before the arrival of the Spanish but are now used on a much smaller scale (Scheerens et al. 1983). Two general types exist: white-seeded and brown-seed types, the latter characterized by a stronger and more distinctive flavour (Scheerens et al. 1983). The culinary properties of tepary bean are distinct from common bean (pintos) and Mexicans reportedly have used different recipes to prepare these pulses (Scheerens et al. 1983). Some people in the south western USA have been known to prefer teparies to common beans and use them as a prized soup ingredient (Scheerens et al. 1983).Evaluations of organoleptic quality by students in Saudi Arabia have also revealed them to be moderately to highly acceptable (Tinsley et al. 1985). Nevertheless, their \"unfamiliar\" taste was believed to have contributed to a failure of early commercialization attempts for tepary beans in USA, while others contend the failure of these attempts was due to poor timing of the interventions (Nabhan et a.l 1978, Scheerens et al. 1983). The leaves are highly nutritious, containing significantly higher amounts of crude protein, fibre, calcium, potassium, iron, ascorbic acid and β-carotene than spinach (Kuti & Kuti 1999). Cooking slightly reduces the nutritional composition but is essential to inactivate toxic hydrocyanic glycosides (Kuti & Kuti 1999). Although the nutritive and agronomic potential of this shrub has been recognized for decades, and appreciation for its good taste, there has been little research and promotion of its use (Ross-Ibarra & Molina-Cruz 2002). The species has strong potential to enhance nutrition in communities in the dry corridor but also more widely in Guatemala and in distant markets. Promotion of chaya as a superfood could be an important income generation opportunity and its greater use can also valorise local culinary traditions in celebrating this food that was an important feature in the pre-Columbus diet. The IFAD-EU NUS Project is targeting communities in Chiquimula, which is part of the dry corridor of Guatemala and faces a high burden of malnutrition, poverty and climate risk (Figure 2). Baseline surveys will be carried out in the communities of Tesoro Abajo, Jocotán (Caserío) Petentá (Camotán) and Caserío La Brea (Camotán). The Project will work with communities involved in FAO's 'Mesoamérica sin Hambre' Project that works through the Mancomunidades (associations of various municipalities). Opportunities to involve their communities that have been part of the Mesoamerican Agroenvironmental Program (MAP) with the Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza (CATIE) will also be explored to collaborate and build on their existing efforts applying a holistic approach for climate change adaptation, involving promotion of home gardens, exchange of local and scientific knowledge in farmer field fora, training on poultry production, household finance and establishment of seed banks (see abstract on page 14).The IFAD-EU NUS Project in Guatemala will promote the cultivation, consumption and conservation of tepary bean and Mayan spinach to strengthen food and nutrition security and livelihood resilience of target communities in the face of climate change. Investigations will also be made, starting with baseline household surveys and focus group discussions in the first year, to understand the current use of local agricultural biodiversity in target communities and identify species that could be promoted to address critical nutrition gaps, enhance resilience of cropping and livelihood systems and generate income for target communities.The Project will involve students from Valle de Guatemala University in carrying out many of the activities which is seen as a strong opportunity to raise capacity in Guatemala for the holistic, integrated approach to agricultural development promoted in the Project. The plans for the Project activities in the first year are detailed below. These activities will be continued and expanded in subsequent years based on findings emerging from the surveys and interactions with the communities.In the first year of the Project, surveys will identify and document the local food plants in the communities participating in the Project and their tolerance to abiotic factors and nutritional value. These initial investigations will document the state of in situ conservation and the use of local crops and other food plants. Work will be done to identify and document degree of threat and genetic erosion they face.Consultation and capacity building workshops with local stakeholders (including the National agriculture research system) will be held to analyse the value chains of target species and determine a strategy and mechanisms for their development in Guatemala using a holistic value chain approach. Systems to make market information available to the farmer communities will be investigated.Researchers at the Universidad Del Valle de Guatemala have been working on chaya since 1992 investigating its nutritional, chemical, molecular, botanical and agronomic aspects. The Project will leverage these efforts and move forward with value chain interventions to raise demand among consumers. In the first year, work will be done to multiply chaya in the communities participating in the Project. A manual will also be elaborated and shared with the farmers with best practices for managing the crop on farm.For the close relationship with common bean, hardy tepary bean could easily fit within the established diets and farming practices in Guatemala. The Project will introduce tepary bean through trials to evaluate the performance and taste compared to a diversity of common bean varieties. These trials will use a 'crowd-sourcing' approach developed by Bioversity International that engages a large number of farmers to grow and evaluate just a few varieties each, ultimately resulting in a big dataset that can be used to identify varieties suited for different microclimates and preferences.Guatemala is an important centre of origin and diversity for common bean and a major concern is that introduction of new varieties or promotion of just a few varieties could threaten the persistence of the native diversity. With this risk in mind, various actions will be taken through the Project to support conservation and promote greater use of native bean diversity. The crowd-sourcing trials will in fact disseminate many native common bean varieties to farmers as well as tepary bean, and these varieties may be taken up by farmers who appreciate their qualities. Strengthening seed exchange networks and community seed banks are other actions that will be taken to support conservation, which will build on recent efforts by FAO, the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and UVG.In the first year, meetings and capacity building workshops will be organized with farmer groups, and national institutions to strengthen existing networks and establish new mechanisms to cooperate and exchange best practices and seeds to strengthen conservation of plant genetic resources. Linkage between in situ and ex situ efforts will be promoted through at least one visit of farmer network representatives to the national gene bank.To further contribute to conservation of vulnerable crop genetic diversity and mitigate risk of losing valuable bean genetic diversity with value chain development, an assessment of Guatemala's bean genetic diversity will be carried out based on genebank records to identify distinct varieties that should be prioritized for conservation through a rewards/compensation for agricultural biodiversity conservation services (PACS) scheme. This work will involve a Weitzman analysis and several stakeholder meetings to prioritize material for conservation and assess the feasibility of supporting this work at a national level.A review of existing policies relating to the conservation, sustainable use and nutritional value of agricultural biodiversity in Guatemala will be carried out. Discussion will be promoted through consultation workshops with key stakeholders on how to develop and leverage these policies to enhance the conservation, sustainable use and nutritional value of agricultural biodiversity in Guatemala. Among the policies that will be evaluated are the Politica National de Disarollo Rural Integral (PNDRI), Programa de Agricultura Familiar Para el Fortalecimiento de la Economia Campesina (PAFFEC), the Sistema National de Extension Rural (SNER) and the Plan de acción estratégico para la conservación y el uso de los recursos fitogenéticos Mesoamericanos para la adaptación de la agricultura al cambio climático (PAEM).The Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty (The Indigenous Partnership) is a network of indigenous communities and organizations committed to defining their own food and agricultural practices that sustain agricultural biodiversity, assisted by scientists and policy researchers who value participatory agricultural research approaches. The Indigenous Partnership supports indigenous peoples, communities and their representatives to celebrate, defend and revitalize their food systems and agricultural practices at local and global levels through participatory research initiatives and associated advocacy activities. With one foot in the world of leading academic research and the other grounded in the knowledge and priorities of indigenous peoples, the Indigenous Partnership is engaged in the IFAD-EU NUS Project to reinforce and expand global indigenous initiatives related to agricultural biodiversity and food sovereignty and to support the sensitization of methodologies to empower indigenous peoples.Three million people live in North East India (Figure 1), of which 86% are indigenous (2011 Census). Almost 50% of households are below the poverty line (Human Development Report 2009). This part of India is considered one of the most bio-culturally diverse areas of the world, but is affected by strong Westernization and urbanization that threaten the local agricultural biodiversity and cultural traditions. The Khasi are the majority indigenous group of Meghalaya and other main indigenous peoples are the Jaintias and Garos. All these ethnic groups follow matriarchal traditions, but are strongly impacted by modern influence.The Indigenous Partnership established the North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society § § (NESFAS) in collaboration with Slow Food International to bring together partners from different sectors to enhance agricultural biodiversity of the region, thereby strengthening food sovereignty. Slow Food brings into play the importance of pleasure through good, clean and fair food, which goes hand in hand with our responsibility for the environment. Meanwhile, the Indigenous Partnership reaffirms the importance of local food systems and the age-old role of indigenous peoples as guardians of agricultural biodiversity, which is inextricably linked to their cultural identity and their rights to food sovereignty and food security.NESFAS especially focuses on facilitating community-level networks to empower communities to celebrate and defend their diverse food and agricultural practices and to have a say at local, national, and international levels in food policies that will sustain their well-being and protect their lands, territories and resources. The organization is particularly sensitive to traditional ecological knowledge and supporting its integration with modern practices. As a platform, NESFAS believes that traditional ecological knowledge is as important as modern science and therefore facilitates a mutually respectful dialogue for sustainable progress.The specific focus areas of NESFAS are: In collaboration with NESFAS, the Indigenous Partnership is promoting and supporting better management practices, community seed storage and community-based documentation and monitoring of agricultural biodiversity in Meghalaya.At local economies level the IFAD-EU NUS Project will promote the Mei-Ramew branding development. Mei-Ramew cafes, school gardens and mid-day meals could become nutritionsensitive value chains. Farmer markets have started in some villages and at the NESFAS Office in Shillong and a Mobile Van does rounds to all the customary weekly markets selling the products of the communities.The Project will be also involved with NESFAS in training communities on the development of weather information systems and farmer-led market-intelligence systems. Awareness will be raised in the 40 villages on climate resistant crops, and agricultural biodiversity management for climate change adaptation.The integration between local knowledge and new modern knowledge is a relevant point to develop in all these initiatives.One of the most important upcoming events is the Indigenous Terra Madre that will be organized in Shillong, Meghalaya, North-East India from 3 to 7 November 2015. It is a joint venture of the Indigenous Partnership, Slow Food International and NESFAS focused on indigenous perspectives and actions. Many communities (40 villages) will host the event. The IFAD-EU NUS Project is supporting the Conference as a special appointment for knowledge sharing and raising awareness of decision makers of the role of communities as custodians of agricultural biodiversity and associated knowledge that underpins sustainable livelihoods.The Indigenous Partnership has many strengths that will be leveraged in the Project. Good practices and approaches will be shared with their network and their guidance will ensure the methods and approaches applied in the Project are sensitive to the needs of indigenous peoples and geared towards their empowerment. Some of their strengths are highlighted in Box 1. Have any water sources dried up in the last 10 years? Which ones? How many? 1. 3.4 What is the reason for drought typically? (e.g. late rain, not enough rain, drying of water sources) 1. 3.5 What actions are they taking to cope with drought in the community? Looking at all the crops in the cells, underline the crops with a red pen.Are there crops that are purchased in the market that are not grown on their farms?Write out cards for these crops using a red pen. Also consider products purchased in the markets, like oil, noodles, processed snacks, etc. For processed products try to document the main ingredients. Add the purchased products as accurately as possible to the cells, according to how many families buy them and in which amounts.Are there crops that are purchased in the market that are also grown on their farms?Indicate with a star *, particularly just for the most important crops. We are conducting a survey looking at the role of [target crops -see table below] for income, nutrition and adaptation to weather changes. We would like to ask you some questions that should take no more than one and half hours of your time.We would like to share some of the information collected so more people understand the needs to strengthen income, nutrition and climate change adaptation in your region, and particularly how to support the role of [the target crops] in strengthening livelihoods. Any information collected will be shared anonymously, without your name, and grouped with the results of other farmers being surveyed.We ideally will have two respondents for the survey a man and a woman responsible for decision making in the household. We would prefer to speak to the heads of household -man and woman. ","tokenCount":"32591"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"05b71ccdc8c6ce23d82fe3253350b6c1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f2ae118e-2c9a-4ee7-b74e-aeb0886c00a5/retrieve","id":"-1607565365"},"keywords":["Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program","ABM: Adaptation Benefits Mechanism of the African Development Bank","AU-CCRDSAP: African Union Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan (2022-2032)","BMGF: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation","IPAM: International Platform for Adaptation Metrics","TNC: The Nature Conservancy"],"sieverID":"c343f566-3242-4c31-bb32-d444b03b1697","pagecount":"26","content":"Review the state of adaptation tracking across the continent to:• identify on-going national monitoring efforts that could contribute to the global stocktake • assess entry-points for improvement of existing systems Focus • Adaptation components of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): the main adaptation reporting vehicle used by developing countries to date Partners and collaborators: African Group of Negotiators Expert Support Group (AGNES), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3), iCatalyst, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) * Document inclusion criteria: NDCs with Adaptation components (or sections); NDCs submitted by African governments by September 1, 2022; NDCs published on the UNFCCC repository. Data extraction and coding protocol based on Berrang-Ford et al (2021), doi 10.1038/s41558-021-01170-y Consider NDCs published on the NDC Registry by 1 Sep 2022• Any NDC or update submitted by this date was excluded.• In total, we analysed 53 NDCs. One country (Libya) had not submitted an NDC by the time of the analysis.Not reflecting countries' adaptation planning instruments, such as National Adaptation Plans• We are working on including information from existing NAPs in the database, to acknowledge countries' progress on longterm adaptation planning and recognize the integration of adaptation tracking elements in NAPs rather than NDCs. As a temporary solution, figures in this presentation highlight where NAPs are available.Goals: explicit reference to long-term adaptation vision Objective: statement describing a desired change (also labelled as \"impact\", \"outcome\", \"priority\" Target: benchmarks for adaptation objectives or actions, suggesting the desired state. They are essential to set a clear direction for adaptation. Actions: statements describing the strategy to respond to climate impacts and achieve objectives and goals (includes on-the ground measures, projects and programs). We identified more than 2400 adaptation actions across agriculture and cross-cutting sectors. Indicator : explicit reference to a measure or value of achievement, of change or of performance (a quantification or measurable variable)","tokenCount":"307"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5bfb0ba9cdaefde88a293d1a5dd70306","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3f9fd429-8f8f-4d2c-91f7-e0faa89f9208/retrieve","id":"-2026465695"},"keywords":["facilitation","international agricultural research","research for development","participation","CGIAR"],"sieverID":"fc050efd-a22d-4907-9127-a6f15f5cb61a","pagecount":"14","content":"This article describes CGIAR's experience with group facilitation over 10 years. CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food-secure future. Including 15 research centers with a total of nearly 9,000 staff, CGIAR embarked a decade ago on an effort to improve how teams meet, think collectively, and make decisions. Inspired by participatory approaches, which had been used since the 1980s to involve farmers in research, the leaders of this effort aimed to tackle challenges faced by research teams and partnerships, and since then, the need for more effective stakeholder engagement and the consequent demand for group facilitation have steadily increased. Based on the experiences of the co-authors, a survey, complemented by follow-up conversations with CGIAR in-house facilitators and researchers, as well as professional consultant-facilitators and partners, this case study analyzes the evolution of facilitation, its added value, and current trends. In addition, the authors discuss the different ways and contexts in which facilitators have worked in CGIAR and some of the facilitation essentials that emerge from the author's enquiry. This article should be of particular interest to knowledge management practitioners working in research and development, as it offers hints on how to position facilitation as an essential tool for stakeholder engagement and participatory decision-making in research-for-development organizations.ILAC organized a series of 4-day training courses on group facilitation, which were led by Sam Kaner of Community At Work 5 . The idea was to strengthen the capacity of CGIAR and partner organization staff to facilitate group decision making. A total of 160 people attended the courses from 2005 to 2010, 80% were researchers. The courses succeeded in introducing the basic principles of facilitation and raising awareness of their importance among researchers and senior management in CGIAR.According to an ILAC report (Sette and Watts, 2010) the number of facilitated events has greatly increased since 2005, and meetings have become more participatory. Most participants in the workshop (87% of 63 responses) went on to facilitate meetings regularly. The evaluation also found that the meetings were more productive, gave rise to better agreements, and produced more creative solutions, as a consequence of the facilitation techniques used. Even those participants, who didn't become regular facilitators, were important as they better understood, supported and promoted facilitation and alternative approaches to meetings within the CGIAR.The Priorities and Strategies Committee (PSC) meetings of Bioversity International (Kaner, 2008), one of the CGIAR research centers, provides a good example of how the training was applied. Kaner's Gradients-of-Agreement polling procedure was used to improve decision making. Before the director general finalized a decision, each PSC member expressed his or her level of agreement on a seven-point scale, and the poll results were recorded and displayed on a simple Excel spreadsheet. Once all PSC members had been polled, each in turn explained why he or she agreed or disagreed with the proposed course of action. Based on the reasons given, the director general modified the proposal.In 2000, CGIAR embarked on initiatives aimed at increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of research through improvements in knowledge sharing and institutional learning. Initially, two entry points were created for addressing these issues and in the process for mainstreaming facilitation techniques. First, in 2005, a knowledge sharing project established by CGIAR's Information and communications technology and knowledge management Program (ICT-KM) organized a series of pilot initiatives in selected centers to introduce new ways of designing and facilitating major meetings (Staiger 2005, Staiger 2005, Russell 2005). And second, the Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative and ICT-KM Program held a short-term training course on group facilitation, which was then repeated several times by ILAC (see Textbox 1). A scientist, who participated in one of this training course, recently stated that:The training gave staff confidence to begin with, and built individual and institutional interest. The training provided a set of tools to those who wanted to try them out.Facilitation is not for everybody, but those who have interest and attitude should receive training.As CGIAR's sharper focus on development and impact intensified the need for knowledge sharing and facilitation continued to gain importance, and the number of facilitated meetings increased. CGIAR facilitators realized over time that their role was not just to help others perform specific tasks, using diverse techniques, or to develop meeting agendas, or to use colored cards and dots in clever ways. They discovered that facilitation is more about enabling people to interact in ways that build and strengthen relationships, resulting in commitment to joint endeavors focused on solving problems.To take stock of the current status and perceptions on group facilitation, the authors of this paper invited CGIAR staff and partners in October 2014 to participate in a survey with the objective of analyzing the evolution, added value, lessons learned, and current trends of facilitation within CGIAR. The survey received 133 responses, 83% from CGIAR staff and 17% by partners, and some responses from independent consultants. Partner organizations who responded to the survey are UN agencies, universities, and civil society organizations. Most respondents are based in Asia (34%), and Africa (25%), followed by Latin America / Caribbean (20%), and Europe (15%). Respondents are senior researchers (29%), communications and knowledge management professionals (23%), senior managers (16%), consultants (12%), junior managers (9%), and administrators (7%). In addition, to deepen the feedback received through the survey, the authors interviewed 1) CGIAR staff who practice group facilitation, 2) researcher colleagues from a broad range of perspectives (some do not use facilitation, others call upon internal and external facilitation support), and 3) external consultant-facilitators.According to this survey 70% of the respondents perceive and appreciate the increased use of facilitation in meetings and events. They highlight the importance of gearing facilitation to stakeholders' expectations and of respecting people's time and effort. Respondents see facilitation as an effective means to gain a better understanding of partners' needs, strengths and weaknesses, especially during planning or needs assessment meetings. Facilitation, they state, narrows the gaps by engaging actively with different types of stakeholders and therefore increasing collaboration among them. Facilitation also helps people think outside the box, connect ideas, deal more successfully with complex issues, and understand each other better, despite cultural and disciplinary differences. In addition, it can orient group dynamics to outcomes, support subsequent monitoring and evaluation and help overcome political and power struggles. The dialogues with scientists who have experience working with facilitators specifically highlight the need for the facilitator to have good knowledge about the topic. Process should not dominate over the content, and therefore many prefer in-house facilitation. However, there is no agreement about the added-value of facilitation, some being very skeptical (\"I have limited patience for round tables and world cafes\"), some being convinced about the gains (\"There are still too many colleagues who are not valuing enough good facilitation and investing in it\").In the following section we digest the results of the different enquiries of the authors into six facilitation essentials that seem to represent the current state of the art and must-haves of group facilitation.The survey, interviews with facilitators and scientists, as well as the authors' experience all underline a growing demand for \"effective' meetings\". Based on those enquiries, the authors suggest that new expectations can be met if the meeting organizer and facilitator can deliver on six imperatives: (1) being equipped with theory and tools, (2) co-designing a coherent process that leads to the desired outcomes, (3) finding common ground, (4) facilitating online, (5) creating and maintaining stakeholder bonds, and (6) accelerating change by facilitating wider and deeper (social learning) processes. Below we expand on each of these facilitation essentials.According to consultant-facilitator Nancy White 6 , experienced facilitators rely on a range of theoretical approaches to maximize the benefits. She highlights, for example, Snowden's Cynefin Framework 7 , which emphasizes the need to distinguish simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic dynamics, each requiring different facilitation approaches (such as categorizing issues, planning scenarios, managing patterns, and crisis management). She also cites \"Liberating Structures,\" an approach that questions \"the conventional structures that are used to organize how people routinely work\" and lead to \"dysfunctional and wasted ideas\" 8 . Another approach is to facilitate group dynamics from a community of practice perspective, emphasizing the importance of community formation, the community's domain of interest, and the kind of practices that strengthen the community and foster learning. To create trust among meeting owners and facilitators, Nancy keeps the tool or theory in the background, as she feels that new approaches can be perceived as a risk. It is more effective, she says, to use a given approach, afterwards analyze with participants what happened, and only then reveal the theory. Survey respondents appear to agree, suggesting that they expected facilitators to use innovative methods and tools but get nervous when meeting design and preparation become long and complex. This is specifically true for scientists who do want to keep the focus on content and outputs. Some feel that the applied facilitation techniques are too often used to \"harvest the same ideas again and again instead of leading to closure.\"Co-designing a coherent process that leads to the desired outcomes In the authors' experience, far too many meetings are conducted without a clear and logical process design or without a design that carefully balances information pushing and knowledge sharing or reflection. Often, facilitators are brought in at a late stage when the organizers have already a program and sometimes even a process in mind, which from a professional facilitation point of view cannot deliver the desired results. Typically, these agendas handed over to the facilitator(s) too late display one or more of these characteristics: Far too many presentations, limited group work and interaction time, a disconnect with the desired outputs, and too many formalities inhibit the achievement of results, no matter how many participatory tools and techniques are applied. Turning around the organizers' agenda is often the biggest challenge, even for an experienced professional facilitator. This causes discomfort, as often the program was developed far in advance, and the number of presenters has already been confirmed but must then be reduced. The meeting or event will only deliver high-quality outputs if the process design is coherent and then well facilitated.Far too many meetings and events are planned without allowing enough time for participants to get to know each other's perspectives. Therefore, facilitation, to be effective, must start by outlining the purpose of the activity. One aspect of the process that is often neglected concerns the preparedness of participants to make decisions, understand why this particular activity is happening in the first place, or what is expected from them by all parties. So, it is key at the very beginning of any activity, to create opportunities for participants to find common ground. This makes for more positive meeting dynamics, as one survey respondent noted:Facilitation has been particularly successful in getting a diverse group to recognize common interests/goals and then to see around differences to focus on opportunity to collaborate. Otherwise, the differences would have stopped the conversation from the beginning.Survey participants note that virtual facilitation is increasing in response to the growing complexity and decentralization of partnerships, and to limits on travel. As on-line platforms improve, electronic media are being used for social reporting (live documentation of events), facilitated expert consultations, webinars, and computer-assisted brainstorming.Technological breakthroughs have given rise to a proliferation of virtual conferencing facilities 9 . Social media have resulted in more emphasis being given to personal learning networks 10 and \"personal knowledge mastery.\" 11 Today, it is easy to document and collaborate online (e.g., through wikis and real time collaboration tools), to share and spread ideas (via Twitter, Facebook, etc.), to invite people around the globe to participate in conversations (via Twitterchats, streaming events, etc.), and to upload documents to specific repositories (e.g., pictures on Flickr, presentations on Slideshare, videos on YouTube or Vimeo, etc.), and this has made organizing and tracking events easier and more attractive.The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) pioneered a multistakeholder approach in 2010-2014 based on participatory impact pathway analysis (PIPA) combined with the writeshop methodology. PIPA is a participatory method for planning, monitoring and evaluation that promotes learning and provides a framework for research on change (Victor, 2014). PIPA seeks outcomes and changes in knowledge, attitudes, and skills which serve as the starting point for research planning (as opposed to starting with problems and related research outputs). The writeshop methodology was used in combination with PIPA to foster collaboration within and between projects. Each project was designed to have a multi-stakeholder team representing research institutions, universities, civil society, government organizations, and the private sector.Facilitation of the interactive writeshops was crucial. First, the PIPA process required heavy facilitation and coaching to ensure that proposals were outcome oriented and that research outputs were relevant to the desired outcomes. Second, writeshops provided the right context for interaction between projects and created a shared understanding of how each project was contributing to a larger outcome.Interviewed researchers have been using almost no facilitation for virtual meetings. Also most agree that it is important, they wonder how to really get it done effectively. One researcher states: \"Expert facilitation is very much concerned with group dynamics and the combination of verbal and visual communications between participants. To this day, virtual meeting technologies cannot cater to these dimensions.\" Nancy White nicely summarizes the challenges of online facilitation. She believes that having better online meetings is crucial, as we tend to adopt bad habits from face-to-face meetings and bring them into online spaces. She also stresses the importance of facilitating asynchronous discussions (like those on Slack or Yammer) to ensure engagement and participation over time. Another challenge is to stimulate effective and continued online participation for researchers belonging to many groups and networks. Since the technology is still far from perfect, Nancy suggests, it is important to always have an alternative in case of technology failure. Technology stewardship --meaning for Nancy White having enough experience of the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with technology to take leadership in addressing those needs--should be part of the service that an online facilitator provides.For longer term engagement that goes beyond specific meetings, creating bonds is especially important, as many of the scientists and other actors from diverse sectors may not be used to working together, do not use the same terminologies or focus on the same levels of intervention. Most of them did not have a chance to integrate their research agendas and activities beforehand and thus require a fair amount of alignment. In practice, this means that facilitation has to become more engaging, participatory, interactive, and action-oriented.Helping others create bonds has been one of the objectives of Nadia Manning-Thomas, a consultant who previously worked in a CGIAR center and is now a consultant with the CGIAR Consortium Office which supports research centers to communicate and collaborate among themselves; explore opportunities to improve efficiency; adopt best practices; and share knowledge 12 . To this end, various communities of practice (such as directors general and specialists in knowledge management, intellectual property, to mention a few) were created, and Nadia has been handling virtual and face-to-face facilitation for many of them. She has observed 13 that participants and organizers are starting to recognize and value the required skill sets. Increasingly involved in designing meetings and engaging with participants before the meeting and through post-workshop activities, Nadia highlights two challenges that must be dealt with to create lasting bonds between meeting participants: One is to prevent the owners of meetings from delegating too much authority and not assuming their full responsibilities. Another is sustaining momentum within communities of practice. This requires a long-term effort with community of practice leaders to find the best ways to encourage sustained interactions and conversations.Facilitation techniques are increasingly applied to solve real-world problems. In CGIAR, facilitation initially focused on improving meetings through the use of selected facilitation techniques to change how people interact. But there is a growing awareness that transforming the research process requires more profound types of facilitation based on the principles of organizational development and change management. This is the case for facilitation at the local level, involving innovation platforms (Rooyen, 2013) and other such mechanisms, as the main change required often involves institutional arrangements and changes in the mindsets and attitudes of the actors.A study, commissioned by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (Gonsalves 2013) revealed 120 different approaches that foster social learning. Facilitation that fosters social learning is complex, challenging, and involves a wider set of stakeholders, who have diverse interests. It requires a high level of communication, process facilitation, and leadership (Merrey, 2013). A CGIAR social scientist and facilitator at heart states that, \"facilitation helps with critical reflection and learning, such as in learning alliances or innovation platforms. Process facilitation is critical, as it runs on social capital, and that is what makes research work: People doing their best thinking, exposing issues, having adversities, and working through it, bringing the group where they have not been before.\"Facilitators who responded to the survey also consider their work with processes oriented to end-users, such as events focusing on stakeholder engagement, to be the most important. As one survey respondent put it: \"There is a need to increase and adapt facilitation to the enduser level as a way to assure continuity, from research to development, enable innovation, learning on the ground, and avoid exit problems. This requires the facilitation of whole processes. It includes the facilitation ofoften quite conflicting-stakeholder relationships [...] as well as the use of tools and methods (i.e., role playing or storytelling) that are adapted to different cultural contexts.\"CGIAR in-house facilitators would like to be put into a position to act more as a knowledge broker and process facilitator around social learning. In this context, they express, that the interaction and learning between institutional approaches (such as facilitating internal planning meetings) and research approaches (e.g. facilitating an innovation platform), could be more explicit and fruitful. Now, here arises the question of the limits between process facilitation and project management and the respective roles of facilitators and project leaders. ILRI's Peter Ballantyne 14 wonders if facilitators take responsibility for facilitating a whole project process, this creates the risk that they will get caught up in project management. He suggests that facilitators should intervene in specific parts of the process and thus complement the work of research managers who should be process sensitive. From another perspective, Jürgen Hagmann warns about the dangers of bringing scientists too much into process management, which can take valuable time from science. He sees facilitators as brokers between science and management, who should \"engage -allow scientists to go back to scienceengage.\"In the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, facilitation was interpreted more broadly. It was not limited to workshops but rather involved continuous engagement with stakeholders focused on building relationships and working with them. Leaders of research in major river basins were asked to facilitate and lead engagement with multiple stakeholders. This required them to understand the political and social contexts, institutional mandates, and stakeholders and determine how to make research more effective. This role also required research managers to learn the basics of facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge brokering.Where do we go from here?The tendency in CGIAR toward increased facilitation in meetings and events is likely to continue, as the CGIAR research agenda becomes steadily more complex and multistakeholder consultations multiply at every level, from the grassroots to global arenas. The meetings will involve more and more diverse people, and will create new demands for external and in-house facilitators, while also requiring other professionals to acquire expertise in facilitation basics.There has been a tendency in CGIAR to separate 'engagement processes' and 'science'. CGIAR managers took almost a decade to get a better understanding of the importance of process, and the interviews with scientists who work with facilitators show that there is a concern about process \"overkill\". The conscious attention to processwe call it process literacy--is not yet really institutionalized, and facilitation still requires active promotion across the board. While the pockets of success are known, they still remain islands of success: the ICT-KM program activities related to knowledge sharing, the ILAC papers and training courses focusing on facilitation, the approach to events followed by ILRI 15 (documented on this wiki), the CPWF focus on quality learning through facilitated processes, CIAT's focus on embedding facilitation and knowledge management at the core of research.As CGIAR research becomes more results-and development-oriented, process matters and research teams will have to move towards facilitation that supports longer term processes. The efforts to bring process literacy to the next level will help maximize the skills we have built over time and they will help us get away from patchy results to institutionalizing facilitation.","tokenCount":"3461"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"95fce8e4efac6abfbbfcef146821a8c1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/02ef4b3e-1d66-46e6-91b2-35327a690edb/retrieve","id":"1156293731"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1af6ac0a-bbb0-41ae-9663-ef6305ff723a","pagecount":"5","content":"This cleared the way for the Treaty's ratification and future implementation, reflecting Colombia's dedication to agricultural sustainability. The case underscores how epistemic communities not only inform policy but actively shape it, blending politicization and depoliticization strategies. Their success came, in part, from framing the Treaty both as a politically relevant issue (linked to food sovereignty and development plans) and as a neutral, technical tool for international cooperation.The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) aims to conserve and sustainably use plant genetic resources while ensuring fair and equitable benefit-sharing. Ratified by 150 countries, it facilitates genetic resources access for 64 essential crop species and offers a benefit-sharing fund to support developing nations. After years of efforts, Colombia ratified the Treaty in 2024.Earlier attempts to ratify the Treaty in Colombia back in 2004 and 2009 were blocked by political and institutional barriers, including a lack of coordination between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment. Progress resumed in 2021, with the emergence of a dedicated epistemic community, supported by CIAT, composed of scientists, technical experts, and government officials who underscored the Treaty's importance for accessing genetic resources, securing funding, and fostering capacity building and technological exchanges.In 2023, The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT used an Outcome Trajectory Evaluation (OTE) approach to trace the critical role of an epistemic community, made up of experts from various Colombian institutions, in the successful ratification of the Treaty. Documenting the process of ratification was a key result of this qualitative study.A second study conducted by the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT on the Treaty has explored the potential benefits for Colombia, focusing on past experiences with plant germplasm exchange and the impact of the benefit-sharing fund, which has financed numerous projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. These initiatives aim to manage genetic diversity, strengthen local value chains, and share resources. Outcomes include the collection of 6,300 crop species accessions and the development of 400 new crop varieties globally. The Congress of Colombia approves Law 2285 of 2023, recognizing the Plant Treaty. The ratification undergoes further steps, including approval by the Constitutional Court.The Constitutional Court begins the constitutionality review of the Plant Treaty (File number 488 LAT0000488).The Constitutional Court issues Judgment C-349 of 2023, declaring the constitutionality of the Plant Treaty and Law 2285 of 2023.In the case of Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) germplasm from Colombia could reduce the economic impact of the disease.The analysis uses FAOSTAT provided data on production, area, and prices, while economic losses were estimated using the market value of lost production at current prices for three scenarios (4%, 8% and 12% losses due to the disease).In the case of improved cassava varieties coming from other parts of the world, we estimated the benefits from adopting the TAI-8 variety. Two scenarios were examined, varying in research cost attribution. One scenario considered 6% of Colombia's agricultural research expenditures along with CIAT's cassava program. The second included 1% of Thailand's research investments, adjusting research costs to reflect the fact that the mentioned variety was not the sole research outcome.The analysis relied on data from literature reviews and secondary sources. The approach is to estimate benefits when sending genetic material to solve problems overseas or when receiving genetic material from other countries to solve internal problems.• This section summarizes results from diverse case studies, highlighting how germplasm exchange has helped address agricultural challenges such as developing disease resistance and promoting the adoption of improved varieties.• • The collaboration between the ICA and the Bioversity-CIAT Alliance has been pivotal in distributing nearly 400,000 germplasm samples-comprising primary germplasm, advanced lines, and improved varieties-across various countries. This initiative has facilitated access to critical germplasm for national research centers, international institutions, private companies, public institutions, and universities (Álvarez et al., 2021). A key factor in this success is CIAT's presence in Colombia, enabled by special international agreements, which have facilitated the exchange of genetic resources. Over the last 60 years, these agreements have allowed CIAT to become a hub for germplasm reception and distribution. Without these agreements, Colombia's opportunities for exchanging essential genetic resources might have been severely constrained. AGROSAVIA has faced difficulties in sending its collections to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault due to Colombia's non-ratification of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (ITPGRFA), which restricts international exchanges and affects the conservation of national seeds.• Cassava Varieties Cassava is Colombia's second most important root crop after potatoes. Collaborations between AGROSAVIA, the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA), and CIAT have led to the introduction of seven improved varieties, two of which (Corpoica Tai and Corpoica Sinuana) resulted from the hybridization of Colombian and foreign genetic material (Ocampo et al., 2022;Rosero et al., 2023). Notably, the Tai variety (TAI-8), introduced from Thailand in 2004, accounted for 77% of improved cassava varieties in Colombia's Caribbean region by 2016(Rivera et al., 2021)). Economic analysis showed a positive impact, though incorporating Thailand's research costs in the second scenario, the return was negative, highlighting the necessity of international collaboration in research to enhance cost-effectiveness.• Forages: From Africa to the Americas. This publication is based on two articles:• Ortiz, D., Cordoba, D., Andrade, R., Gonzalez, C., & Rivera, T. (2024). How Epistemic Communities Shape Agri-Food Policy through (de)politicization: The Trajectory of the Plant Treaty in Colombia.Manuscript submitted for publication in Enviromental Science and Policy.• Rivera, T.; Andrade, R.; Gonzalez, C.; Ortiz, D.; Ocampo, J.; Cordoba, D. (2024). Seeds of change unlocking the potential for Plant Genetics Material Transfer in Agriculture and Foods Systems. Manuscript in preparation.This Impact Brief is part of a series curated by the PISA for Impact Program, aimed at fostering a culture of evaluative results.October 2024• The analysis underscores the vital role of sharing exchanging genetic resources in global agricultural research, particularly in addressing Colombia's agricultural needs and strengthening its food security.Germplasm management resources such as genebanks have long supported the conservation, sharing and use of plant genetic resources and the ITPGRFA has played a central role in facilitating such exchanges, through its Multilateral System of germplasm exchange (MLS) (FAO, 2022). However, Colombia, still lacks specific regulations exposing plant genetic resources and farmers to risks (Castaño, 2022), suggesting that the ITPGRFA could strengthen regulation, cooperation, and sustainable practices.• While Colombia has benefited significantly from foreign genetic material, the country must maintain flexible access to genetic resources to address emerging challenges including climate change and pest and disease incursions. Several crops or genetic resources networks can also help enable germplasm exchange, for example MusaNet (Banana and Plantain), CacaoNet (Cacao), COGENT (Coconut); PABRA (Beans).• Furthermore, the Treaty needs better mechanisms to ensure benefits reach farmers, particularly in developing countries, highlighting the need for fair and effective benefit-sharing strategies, while addressing potential intellectual property concerns.","tokenCount":"1118"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1b6183cba741c1c4fd23a648de88a4ff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b530b323-b59a-47e1-8c7b-817d1899e8c8/retrieve","id":"1929975178"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c5858733-81a7-4460-9c07-eaa7a6397537","pagecount":"12","content":"Intérêt des modèles socio-hydrologiques dans la gouvernance participative de l'eau au Burkina FasoPouvoir arrêter la dégradation de la qualité des ressources en eau, voire inverser la tendance, est une préoccupation mondiale majeure. Compte tenu de la diversité des besoins et des priorités en matière de ressources en eau, la question de la pollution de l'eau est devenue complexe et multidimensionnelle. La gestion de la qualité de l'eau exige la prise en compte de la diversité des exigences et des préoccupations pour mettre en oeuvre des stratégies efficaces. Au Burkina Faso, la participation des différents acteurs, ou parties prenantes, est d'une importance capitale dans la gestion efficace des bassins versants. Le projet Planification participative pour une gestion plus inclusive et durable de l'eau en milieu rural au Burkina Faso (PP4MIS) a élaboré des stratégies d'appui pour renforcer les capacités des Comités Locaux de l'Eau (CLE) au niveau local. La recherche menée par l'Université Technique de Vienne (TU Wien) vise à soutenir ce projet en explorant le rôle que pourraient jouer les modèles socio-hydrologiques dans la prise de décision en matière de gestion des ressources en eau. Les zones autour de la rivière Kou et du barrage de Bapla ont fait l'objet de cette partie de l'étude. Elles correspondent aux espaces de gestion des CLE Kou et Bougouriba 7.La question spécifique posée par l'Université Technique de Vienne était la suivante : peut-on élaborer un modèle socio-hydrologique permettant de décrire avec précision les relations entre les populations et la qualité de l'eau dans la zone d'étude ? Dans la zone d'étude, la rivière, le barrage et la bande de servitude, c'est-à-dire les berges, sont utilisés intensément. Au nombre des principaux usages de l'eau, on peut citer la pêche, les loisirs, l'agriculture et le maraîchage ainsi que l'abreuvement du bétail. Les causes de la pollution de l'eau sont les suivantes : les produits agricoles chimiques (pesticides et engrais) qui sont drainés en direction de la rivière, la mobilisation des berges de la rivière pour l'agriculture, la présence d'animaux à proximité des points d'eau et les activités rémunératrices comme l'exploitation minière. Les stratégies visant à réduire la pollution et l'ensablement des abords de la rivière Kou se sont concentrées sur la réduction des pratiques agricoles près de la rivière et sur le remplacement des cultures sollicitant beaucoup les sols (telles que le maraîchage) par la plantation d'arbres fruitiers qui permettent au contraire la stabilisation des sols et la lutte contre l'ensablement. Une zone de 100 m attenante à la rivière et au barrage est ainsi interdite aux pratiques agricoles. Cette zone est appelée « bande de servitude ». Les Comités Locaux de l'Eau (CLE) jouent un rôle capital dans la promotion de stratégies de réduction de la pollution à travers des campagnes de sensibilisation notamment sur l'utilisation de produits phytosanitaires aux abords de la rivière et du barrage, la délimitation de la bande de servitude par des panneaux et des arbustes, l'appui aux cultivateurs pour l'abandon de la culture dans la bande de servitude pour l'exploitation d'arbres fruitiers. En outre, une Police de l'Eau a été mise en place dans chaque région du Burkina Faso pour, entre autres, surveiller et faire respecter la bande de servitude (voir la note technique intitulée « La Police de l'Eau, instrument de la GIRE au Burkina Faso, réalisations et limites »). Les cultivateurs peuvent être incités à quitter la bande de servitude par la mise à leur disposition des terres de remplacement ou une compensation. photo : Marlies Barendrecht/TUWLa socio-hydrologie est l'étude des interactions dynamiques entre l'homme et l'eau (Sivapalan et al., 2012 ;Fig. 1). Elle part du principe que l'eau et les systèmes sociaux se développent de manière fortement interconnectée. Ainsi, les changements qui surviennent dans le système d'approvisionnement en eau (c'est-à-dire lorsque l'eau devient moins disponible ou plus polluée) incitent ses usagers à réagir (par exemple en passant à des cultures moins consommatrices d'eau, en sollicitant d'autres sources d'eau, comme les eaux souterraines, ou en mettant en place des usines de traitement des eaux usées pour réduire la pollution. Ces réactions humaines entraînent elles aussi d'autres changements dans le système d'approvisionnement en eau, à savoir la réduction de la consommation d'eau, l'augmentation de la disponibilité de l'eau ou l'amélioration de sa qualité. De tels changements, en particulier lorsqu'ils sont combinés à des changements imprévisibles dans la quantité des précipitations, à travers, par exemple, les changements de saisons, déclenchent d'autres réactions de la part des populations. Il peut s'agir de l'augmentation ou de la réduction de la superficie cultivée, de l'utilisation de l'eau plus propre et moins polluée pour la pêche ou les loisirs. Ces réactions ont à leur tour un impact sur la disponibilité et la qualité de l'eau, ce qui entraîne d'autres changements parmi les usagers des ressources en eau et ainsi de suite.La modélisation socio-hydrologique vise à saisir ces interactions et rétroactions à l'aide de modèles mathématiques basés sur des équations différentielles liées (Di Baldassarre et al., 2013). De tels modèles peuvent être utilisés pour explorer la façon dont les interconnexions entre les usagers et les ressources en eau peuvent continuer à évoluer à l'avenir. Ainsi, les modèles socio-hydrologiques peuvent être utilisés pour simuler une variété de trajectoires différentes qui pourraient être anticipées dans l'avenir. Ils peuvent également permettre d'explorer la façon dont usagers de l'eau et ressources en eau interagissent et ce qui pourrait se produire par exemple en cas de changement de politique, comme l'introduction de subvention pour les cultures moins consommatrices d'eau ou la prise de règlements interdisant le rejet d'eaux usées non traitées. Vus sous cet angle, les modèles socio-hydrologiques sont différents des modèles hydrologiques visant à montrer l'impact de l'homme sur les systèmes aquatiques. Alors que les modèles hydrologiques peuvent avoir pour but de développer des prévisions, par exemple de la disponibilité de l'eau sur la base d'un scénario plausible de l'évolution des besoins en eau, les modèles socio-hydrologiques intègrent dans leur structure les réactions humaines aux changements hydriques. Bien qu'ils ne permettent pas de faire de prévisions pour l'avenir, ils peuvent produire toute une gamme de scénarios différents auxquels on peut s'attendre. 2.2 La socio-hydrologie dans le projet Planification participative pour une gestion plus inclusive et durable de l'eau en milieu rural au Burkina FasoDans le cadre de ce projet, la recherche a été axée sur les changements de la qualité de l'eau au fil du temps. L'hypothèse retenue est que les activités humaines augmentent la pollution de l'eau et en réduisent la qualité. Ce changement de la qualité de l'eau entraîne un changement des stratégies d'utilisation des terres et de l'eau par leurs usagers. Ces changements entraînent à leur tour d'autres changements dans la qualité de l'eau, par exemple la réduction de la pollution.La modélisation socio-hydrologique a été l'approche retenue dans le cadre de ce projet pour deux raisons. Premièrement, du point de vue de la recherche, les sites d'étude offrent une occasion précieuse d'explorer l'élaboration et l'application des modèles socio-hydrologiques dans des situations où la qualité de l'eau est la principale préoccupation. A ce jour, très peu de recherches ont été menées à ce sujet. Deuxièmement, l'élaboration de ces modèles et de leurs trajectoires pourraient permettre aux CLE et aux autres intervenants d'explorer les répercussions possibles des différentes décisions stratégiques touchant la qualité de l'eau. Dans ce modèle socio-hydrologique, les changements de perception de qualité de l'eau de la rivière et du barrage sont sous-tendus par la sensibilisation et l'appui à la mise en oeuvre de stratégies de gestion visant à réduire la pollution de l'eau par les cultivateurs. Le modèle part de l'hypothèse qu'à mesure que la sensibilisation sur la pollution de l'eau augmente, l'appui institutionnel pour y faire face s'accroît. Cet appui met en place ou renforce la Police de l'Eau, institution qui sensibilise, surveille et fait respecter la règle de l'interdiction de cultiver dans la bande de servitude, et les CLE, institutions qui visent à élaborer et mettre en oeuvre des stratégies de gestion des bassins versants pour une meilleure gestion des ressources en eau. Ces institutions régionales et locales sensibilisent les cultivateurs au problème de la pollution et les aident à mettre en oeuvre des stratégies de gestion. Dans ce modèle, trois stratégies de gestion différentes sont mises à leur disposition. Elles doivent permettre de réduire la pollution de l'eau à travers les leviers suivants : 1) arrêter de cultiver près de la rivière ou du barrage ; 2) remplacer les cultures maraîchères par des cultures arboricoles ; et 3) réduire l'ensablement et le rejet des engrais et des pesticides vers les points d'eau en réduisant par exemple leur utilisation, l'exploitation intensive des sols, etc. La mise en oeuvre de ces stratégies a un impact sur la productivité des cultivateurs. Par exemple, le fait de cultiver des légumes dans un autre endroit, éloigné de la rivière, peut entraîner une productivité inférieure à celle des cultures dans le lit de la rivière. De plus, les arbres fruitiers produisent des fruits au bout de cinq ans. Ces coûts de productivité peuvent réduire la volonté des cultivateurs de poursuivre la mise en oeuvre de la stratégie. Ils doivent être compensés par le soutien des CLE ou des amendes imposées par la Police de l'Eau, associés à une forte prise de conscience des cultivateurs face à la question de la pollution des eaux, ce qui renforce leur volonté.    SCÉNARIO 6 : des campagnes de sensibilisation pour amener les cultivateurs à comprendre que leurs activités peuvent entraîner une pollution de l'eau et les encourager à réduire l'ensablement et l'utilisation des engrais et pesticides.Les résultats de la modélisation montrent que les différents scénarios conduisent à des situations très diverses dans les bassins versants et à des niveaux différents de pollution des eaux d'origine agricole (Figure 4). Le scénario de référence montre une augmentation continue de la culture dans la bande de servitude, correspondant à une augmentation de la pollution. Le scénario de réglementation et d'application (scénario 2) montre que les amendes sont efficaces pour réduire les pratiques agricoles dans la bande de servitude, ce qui permet une diminution de la pollution. Mais à mi-chemin de la période modélisée où la Police de l'Eau cesse d'imposer une réglementation et de faire respecter la bande de servitude, il y a une augmentation rapide du nombre d'exploitations agricoles dans la zone et une augmentation de la pollution. Un modèle similaire est observé pour les scénarios basés sur les incitations dans lesquels les incitations financières accordées aux cultivateurs pour qu'ils s'éloignent de la bande de servitude (scénario 3) ou pour mettre en oeuvre des stratégies de réduction de la pollution (scénario 4) sont efficaces pour réduire la pollution des eaux tant qu'ils continuent à être soutenus. Cependant, si ces incitations sont supprimées, le modèle suggère que les cultivateurs retourneront dans la bande de servitude et à des pratiques agricoles plus polluantes. Les incitations à court terme, surtout d'une durée d'au moins cinq ans, pour la plantation d'arbres fruitiers et le soutien aux cultivateurs pendant la croissance de ces arbres semblent avoir un impact positif à long terme sur la qualité de l'eau (scénario 5). En effet, pour ce modèle, on estime que les arbres fruitiers procurent un revenu à 200% supérieur à celui du maraîchage après cinq ans. Les données devront être fournies pour appuyer cette hypothèse. Enfin, le scénario 6 montre de manière intéressante que la sensibilisation a un impact positif à long terme sur la qualité de l'eau. En effet, le modèle est conçu de manière à ce que les activités de sensibilisation accroissent la volonté et la capacité des cultivateurs à mettre en oeuvre des mesures de réduction de la pollution de l'eau, ce qui conduira à une diminution très progressive des activités agricoles dans la bande de servitude, à une augmentation du nombre d'arbres et à l'adoption de stratégies de réduction de la pollution.Bien que la documentation laisse penser que la sensibilisation aux questions environnementales incite à tenter de les résoudre (par exemple chez Nordlund et Garvill, 2002), d'autres données seraient nécessaires pour confirmer cette relation dans ce contexte.   Appui à la rédaction : Élise Cannuel / Conception graphique : Laura Delhommeau","tokenCount":"2013"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a6df88dca371255c4fd706ed1a6dd1d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c89ef1f3-6621-474e-ad84-f94f076251ab/retrieve","id":"1727325099"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0131e1f6-5bc6-4c06-a252-c7bdc7121c82","pagecount":"1","content":"We thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders.Objective § Forage seed testing and processing § Forage seed conservation § Forage seed multiplication and regeneration in Shola, Bishoftu, Zwai and Sodo § Forage germplasm characterization § Forage seed distributionMore than 23.1 million people (4.7 million households) are projected to benefit from highyield vitamin A-rich cassava and orange-flesh sweet potato. Agrobiodiversity available in genebanks includes nutritional traits and variation and resilient landraces to underpin farming system diversification and crop improvement in support of planetary and human health, and nutrition and food security.More than 2.5 million women producers (and 3.4 million women and girls in adopting households) are projected to benefit from high-yield fast-cooking beans and orange-flesh sweet potato. Some needs of women, men and youth may be addressed by providing improved technologies (varieties with adaptive traits) that respond to their preferences (such as those that can reduce processing labor, quality traits and income-generating traits) and by repatriating landraces that have been selected by women over time for particular preferred traits.More than 69.9 million people (14.7 million households) are projected to benefit from stress-tolerant maize. Genebanks hold landraces and crop wild relatives that are a rich source of adaptive traits and genetic material that can be made available through a range of tools and approaches in adaptive breeding, developing new stable varieties of globally important crops to adapt to new challenges linked to climate change.70,000 additional genetic accessions become available (an increase of 15%). Agrobiodiversity conserved in genebanks and made available for use underpins efforts to reduce the loss of genetic variation at all levels and to safely restore and diversify agroecosystems, supporting the provision of environmental services as well as crop genetic resources § Universities, § NGOs and § farmers More than 42.6 million people (9 million households) are projected to benefit from highyield high-zinc rice, stress-tolerant maize, and high-yield wheat. Agrobiodiversity available in genebanks includes specific crops and genotypes to underpin crop improvement and farming system diversification in support of efforts to increase farmers' employment and income and thus reduce poverty and enhance livelihoods. Crop improvement also contributes not only to the volume of crop yields, but also to their stability, which is especially critical for farmers in vulnerable and marginal situations.","tokenCount":"380"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6512898401.json b/data/part_3/6512898401.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4e3e510424f27b6faf3011a238cb6642314a4bb1
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8182f068ea5b1d8bfa02335ebe663669","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f13bae1f-707c-4302-a0a7-9d789a76a8ea/retrieve","id":"-885988433"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c1cf44ac-bb4d-4960-9c47-28b733959647","pagecount":"2","content":"Bean is both a food crop and an important source of cash. The importance of dry bean as a market crop varies within and across production areas. In the Rift Valley, more than 90% of beans are marketed whereas in the eastern zone the crop is grown both for food and cash.Bean production areas in Ethiopia can be broadly classified into four agro-ecological zones: the central, eastern, southern and western zones grouped according to altitudes, rainfall, soil, production systems and geographical locations. Production constraints, both biotic and abiotic are specific, though some e. g local varieties with low potential yield and susceptibility to pest and diseases are common to all zones. Similarly, preferences and types of bean grown vary in different zones.To increase farmers' bean productivity and also to respond to their varied needs and The national strategy to develop improved bean varieties has evolved over time. In the past, evaluation of promising improved bean lines was done across several growing environments, with the expectation of identifying varieties adapted to a range of different growing conditions. A few improved varieties were released, such as Mexican 142 and Red Wolaita. But this approach ignored specific needs of different bean growing zones and potential cultivars appropriate to specific production systems may have been rejected. ","tokenCount":"212"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5025fc98ee4547c20c236cead597e2bd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3ba6880b-7561-425c-a850-0b28e1cd4e6b/retrieve","id":"1430385062"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"94e54c3a-f43d-4816-b2bd-7d429d70d126","pagecount":"6","content":"Climate change fundamentally shifts the agricultural development agenda. Changing temperature and precipitation, sea level rise, and the rising frequency of extreme climate events will significantly reduce global food production in this century unless action is taken. Major investments, private and public, will be needed.! Adapting agriculture to climate change is necessary to achieve food security, and agricultural mitigation can also reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and slow climate change itself.! There are many drivers of change affecting agricultural sectors around the world, including population growth, changes in consumer demand and market integration. Climate Smart Agriculture is an integrated approach to achieve food security in the face of climate change, while also mitigating climate change and contribute to other development goals. Achieving!1. CSA must be a continuing process to achieve climate inclusive agricultural planning and implementation. It requires a strong commitment from policy makers in government and in the private sector, including farmers and scientists;! 2. CSA confronts many uncertainties and much needed knowledge is still lacking, particularly how to evaluate agricultural performance across different spatial scales and over a longer time. these goals will require cooperation at many levels, including working with farmers' organizations and other stakeholders in the private sector, scientists, and policy makers at the national and sub national level.! CSA is a way to achieve short and long term agricultural development priorities in the face of climate change and serve as an integrator to other development priorities. CSA seeks to support countries and other actors in securing the necessary policy, technical and financial conditions to enable them to:! A. sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes; !  CSA is still being elaborated, in concept as well as in application, but three elements stand out.! First, CSA is conceived as a process. We know that we must begin to do something different from what we have done in the past, and while we have some insights, and examples exist, new scientific approaches and insights are needed to provide guidance to policy makers and farmers. Thus, CSA involves bringing farmers, scientists, policy makers and others together in a sustained process to identify and refine fruitful actions, with confidence that these integrated efforts will be productive over time. We need to take action now, in an uncertain context and without fully knowing the future, and we need to sustain this effort over many years.! Second, CSA is highly context specific. Research has produced certain expected generalities to climate change, i.e., changing temperatures, changing precipitation and a higher risk of extreme events. However, effects are expected to vary substantially across even relatively small regions. Thus, the design of appropriate changes in crop varieties and crop mix, infrastructure investments and policies must be context specific. Moreover, they will often require landscape solutions that consider multiple objectives for agricultural activities, environmental quality, and social well-being across a mosaic of ecosystems that are spatially contiguous. These solutions willExample: The landscape approach, Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration in Niger! Since the mid-1980s, development partners have supported Niger's farmers in their longestablished practices of woodland management promotes re-growth from living tree rootstock. The major innovation was to encourage of the practice into cropping areas, as well as protecting trees germinating naturally, creating a whole-landscape management An assessment in 2008 found an estimated 200 million trees on five million hectares, attributable to farming practices rather than to decadal climatic trends. Quantitative evidence shows that farmer-managed natural regeneration contributes to food security by improving the fodder available to animals, reducing loss of fertile topsoil and raising incomes. Adaptation to climatic variability is enabled by the diversification of local livelihoods. The aggregated value of farmer-managed natural regeneration, resulting in improved soil fertility, fodder, food and firewood, is estimated to be at least US$56 ha-1 year-1, giving a net annual value of US$280 million. These benefits reach up to 2.5 million Greenhouse gas mitigation benefits have not been measured, but are likely to be substantial. Success factors include the simplicity of the practices, which farmers can learn, share and adapt easily, and a pivotal decision by the government of Niger to transfer tenure rights over trees from government to landholders.! Reference: CCAFS Working Paper no. 50 involve considerable complexity worked out by multiple partners and institutional arrangements.! Third, CSA involves more than food security and increasing agricultural production; it involves concern for multiple goals, each of which has important effects on human welfare and all of which must be considered jointly. These goals materialize the agriculture multi-functionality and include concern for livelihoods, impact on the poor, and preservation of biodiversity, forests and environmental services. These goals must be pursued in an integrated manner, for all are important. Science-policy interactions will develop appropriate tools for analyzing how to achieve these goals, which might differ from one place to the next and from one place to globally, or how to identify conflicts among the goals and choose among them, when necessary.! How to make CSA work! CSA is a continuous and iterative process that aims to combine food security, agricultural development and climate change objectives. This concept implies that the cycle of planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation is one of continuous learning, knowledge sharing, and advancement towards solutions. As agricultural production is part of a complex food chain, many types of stakeholders must be involved in this process. Such a continuous and multi stakeholder process requires commitment from the relevant stakeholders. The process requires transparent communication to organize and maintain commitment of all relevant stakeholders.!To address CSA we need to understand the factors that shape agricultural production as well as the impact agriculture has on its environment. Scientific knowledge will be needed to support CSA, but for many areas more knowledge is needed, including the way to look at performances and impact especially over larger time and spatial scales.! Continuous interaction between science, policy makers in the public and the private sector, including farmers, is needed to align research and decision makers. A good starting point in this interaction is to mainstream CSA into current development plans and activities. Due to local conditions, the measures to be taken in CSA are context specific and require customized solutions.!Learning from examples of processes and innovations that resulted in success or failure is powerful. Exchanging best practices and lessons learned provides a basis for concrete recommendations and for identifying further steps. For this exchange to take place, institutional mechanisms must be created to identify best practices and facilitate their exchange between sectors, countries, and regions.! In brief, the CSA process involves flexible yet clear guiding principles that will allow us to effectively use science to inform policy, bring stakeholders together and improve the efficiency of investments to successfully confront climate change. ","tokenCount":"1113"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6527951671.json b/data/part_3/6527951671.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d41e33ba17f7d7e954eb8d913883de1a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8f6f7213-e08d-4bf2-af05-679de2ba149f/retrieve","id":"968921219"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e5d1673b-cc98-486c-a0a1-3fbac7210096","pagecount":"7","content":"This brief is one of a series of publications arising from the collaborative project between the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Veterinaires sans Frontieres Belgium (VSF-B) on the 'Development of monitoring and evaluation tools for livestock development activities in pastoral production systems'.This report focuses on the issues surrounding livestock marketing in Turkana District. The report's authors undertook an extensive literature review and conducted field work in Turkana in early 2006. They characterized and described the livestock marketing systems operating in the district, identified problems and constraints, and made a series of recommendations intended to increase the number of pastoralists profitably accessing livestock markets. Finally, they identified researchable issues which would enable a better understanding of livestock marketing in Turkana District.Turkana is the largest though least developed district in Kenya. Bordering Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, the district is classified as arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL). It covers 77 thousand km 2 and is home to around half a million people. With less than 3% of the land suited to growing crops, around two-thirds of the population depends on subsistence-oriented nomadic pastoralism for their livelihoods. Livestock-goats, sheep, camels and donkeys and, in wetter parts, cattle-are also central to local social and spiritual life. Some pastoralists who used to keep cattle no longer do so having lost them in severe droughts, such as the one that occurred in 1980.Turkana District has a higher livestock population than any other district in Kenya. With a pastoralist tradition going back thousands of years, the Turkana people have developed sophisticated and effective strategies for surviving in this harsh environment, where drought is part of the natural cycle. These included migrating to take advantage of areas which received higher rainfall, herd splitting to spread risk, maintaining a defensive capability and stock raiding to rebuild depleted herds. Although this worked well in the past, changes that occurred in the last 100 years or so threaten these traditional approaches. Drawing up of national borders has limited the extent of traditional migration patterns, and expansion of lands cultivated by agriculturalists and agropastoralists has further reduced the area available for livestock.In recent decades, drought has become both more frequent and severe. This has resulted in catastrophic losses of livestock and owners who sold their animals cheaply during droughts have been unable to restock.The current study identified drought as the principal threat to livestock oriented livelihoods in the district. Some former pastoralists have lost their entire herds and flocks and are now destitute. As pressure on traditional pastoralist lifestyles increased, exacerbated by increasing human and livestock populations, competition between clans and neighbouring pastoralist tribes also increased. Conflict, stock raiding and violence all became more common and insecurity was identified by this study as the third most important constraint to livestock rearing and trading.Increased poverty amongst pastoralists has resulted in largescale humanitarian aid programs, the majority providing food aid which, it has been argued, further exacerbates the problem by maintaining unsustainable human and livestock populations in the district. Previously, pastoralists unable to cope with severe drought or who lost their animals to disease tended to move to more favourable areas where they became settled farmers or traders.From the 1960s, there have been a number of livestockoriented interventions supported by international donors and implemented by the government and other agencies. These have addressed rangeland rehabilitation, water development, destocking and animal health, as well as livestock marketing. Most are widely regarded as having failed. Typically they were top-down and had weak grass-roots institutional foundations. For a period from the 1970s, the government through the Livestock Marketing Department of the then Ministry of Agriculture, was the principal buyer of livestock in the district but this ceased in the 1980s, since when private traders have taken over.To carry out the marketing study, an essential starting point was a reasonable estimate of the human and livestock population and an idea of their spatial distribution.The last human census in Turkana was carried out in 1999. The researchers worked from this figure, adding 3.3% annually to derive an estimated population for 2005-just under 470 thousand people. They further estimated that this population represented some 74 thousand households, of which 64 thousand owned livestock. The population is not uniformly distributed throughout the district. People are concentrated around main transport routes, in urban centres, along the permanent Turkwel and seasonal Keri rivers, and along the shoreline of Lake Turkana.The last livestock census in the district was carried out in 1998. Since then district livestock and veterinary officers adjust the figure up or down each year, based on prevailing conditions; in 1999, a drought year, they estimated the population of cattle, sheep and goats decreased by a quarter; during the period 2000-2004, when there were good rains, the populations were assumed to have increased; during 2005 and 2006, when drought occurred, the livestock population would be expected to decrease again. Using this approach, the best estimate of the livestock population in 2005 is: 2,021,000 goats, 1,054,000 sheep, 197,900 cattle and 173,400 camels. Using this figure, together with the estimated number of livestock owning households, the researchers calculated the average household livestock holding as: 34 goats, 17 sheep, 4 cattle and 2 camels. However, in fact cattle are found only in the wetter, northerly parts of the district.The concept of carrying capacity of rangeland is a highly controversial subject. Nonetheless, for the present study the researchers used this concept to come to an informed opinion as to the current stocking density of the district. They used data generated in 1995. For this, Turkana District was divided into 25 rangeland units and recommended stocking densities were computed for each. Building on these figures, the current researchers calculated the total carrying capacity for the district for the four major livestock species: goats, sheep, cattle and camels. They then compared these figures to the estimates of the actual livestock populations (see Table 1). The conclusion of this exercise was that, overall, Turkana District is heavily overstocked with livestock.Further analysis showed that the northern part of the district has a higher carrying capacity than the south, especially for sheep and cattle; this was also true for hills along the western and southern boundaries. This makes sense as these areas enjoy higher rainfall and have different vegetation compared to the remainder of the district. Finally, the researchers used their figures to produce maps showing projected livestock numbers in each of the rangeland blocks of Turkana District.In general, pastoralists do not like selling their livestock. Their primary objective is to build up large herds and flocks, ILRI Brief which they value for the cultural prestige this brings but also as a means of accumulating wealth, paying dowries and as a drought coping mechanism. And in fact, they usually have no better alternative investment option.When cash is needed, for example to pay school fees or buy food, clothes or tobacco, pastoralists sell a sheep or goat, often bartering for goods with itinerant traders or local shopkeepers.Lacking knowledge of the relative value of their animals, the exchange rates tend to be low. one group of pastoralists described to the researchers their dry season survival strategy: during a normal season, each household would sell one goat a month for the four month duration of the dry season, and they would also slaughter a goat for home consumption during the fourth month. Most pastoralists prefer never to sell large stock. only in extremis, when they were very hungry and had not eaten for a long time, would all but the wealthiest consider slaughtering a camel.The livestock marketing system in Turkana District operates on a number of tiers. Some pastoralists trek their animals for sale at secondary (local) or primary (larger) markets. Also, small-scale itinerant traders visit pastoralists in the interior of the district and purchase or barter for sheep and goats. These are then trekked to secondary or primary markets and resold to either local butchers for slaughter or larger scale traders. Sometimes the traders will keep the animals they purchase, along with their own animals, to fatten them up and sell when the price is good. The secondary markets also provide pastoralists with replacement breeding stock.Some pastoralists trek their small stock, sometimes long distances, to sell them directly to butchers or shop or kiosk owners, either in exchange for goods or cash. In trekking animals long distances, however, they are exposed to the risk of losing their stock due to theft or disease en route.Local, middle-level traders buy livestock from secondary markets and deliver them to primary markets, usually trekking them but occasionally using trucks. Animals are purchased on the basis of individual negotiation. These middlemen lack the capacity and knowledge to function in the terminal markets, such as those in Nairobi. And finally, traders from outside the district visit the primary markets and purchase truck-loads of animals (250 goats, 25 cattle) for cash and transport them to terminal markets in Nairobi or other major urban centres. Table 2 summarizes some features of the district's main primary markets.The secondary markets tend to be located along an east-west axis, alongside minor roads and the primary markets are located every 100 kilometres or so along the main north-south highway.The researchers estimated that 97%, by number, of livestock sold or slaughtered in the district are sheep and goats, 2.8% cattle and just 0.2% camels. Combining official slaughter statistics (covering only animals slaughtered at local council facilities) with findings from discussions with pastoralists (to capture home slaughter data), it was estimated that around 220 thousand goats are slaughtered annually. Far more goats were slaughtered for local consumption than exported live out of the district: the latter accounted for less than 10% of off-take. The number of animals slaughtered for home consumption varied with herd size, which is a good proxy for wealth. The very wealthiest families would slaughter up to four male camels a year for consumption by family and friends. Cattle would very rarely be slaughtered by any pastoralist. For wealthy households with more than 300 goats, up to six goats a year would be slaughtered for each wife and her children (Turkana are polygamist, with wealthy men commonly having three wives).If flock size was below 50, no animals would be slaughtered as the priority then would be to rebuild the flock. Pastoralists whose flocks had decreased to 10 or fewer goats were considered by their peers to no longer be viable.From studying movement permits issued by the District Veterinary officer, the numbers of livestock exported from the district for the 12 months 2004/05 were calculated: these were found to be 20,433 sheep and goats (compared to 220,000 consumed locally) and 1352 cattle. To put these figures in perspective, they represent less than 1% of the district's livestock population.Comparison of export figures between selected years showed that the numbers exported decreased by around half in years ILRI Brief following droughts. This is not surprising: at such times livestock would be in poor condition and therefore less attractive to buyers. In addition pastoralists' priority would be to rebuild their herds and flocks.For the present study, movement permits were examined to determine where Turkana livestock were being exported to. For 2004, this showed that 80% of sheep and goats were being sent to the main Nairobi goat market (Kariobangi). Although officially, cattle from Turkana can only be exported to Dagoreti market, on the outskirts of Nairobi for immediate slaughter in the adjacent slaughterhouses (due to the on-going CBPP quarantine), the actual situation was confused. The movement permits indicated cattle were exported to all three Nairobi cattle markets, whilst another independent study suggests 80% of cattle were exported to markets other than Nairobi, such as Kitale and Eldoret.Efforts were made to collect and compile data, obtained from a number of sources, on price of goats as they proceeded along the marketing chain. This information is summarized in Table 3. Data from several sources were also collected for cattle prices. These showed that a 300 kg steer fetches between KES 6000 and 12,000 in Turkana, whereas in Nairobi the same animal is worth KES 12,000 to 20,000. However, Turkana pastoralists sell very few cattle and even fewer camels.The share of profit along the goat value chain was also estimated by dividing net profit made by capital invested. Unfortunately, the pastoralists' production costs are not known so it was not possible to work out whether or not they were making a profit.For the remainder of the value chain, it was shown that traders in Turkana made a return on their capital investment of around 18.5%, while traders in the terminal market made a return of 24%. The highest costs were incurred by the traders who transport livestock to Nairobi. on a capital investment of up to KES 627,500, a trader could make a profit of up to KES 72,500; an average rate of return of 12%, which is regarded as low in view of the level of risk exposure. The enterprise was only considered to be worthwhile because large numbers of goats can be exported at one time. A similar exercise undertaken for cattle suggested that traders exporting cattle from Turkana to Nairobi derive a similar rate of return as for goats.The researchers identified a long list of problems associated with livestock marketing in Turkana District. These included pastoralists' subsistence orientation, lack of marketing infrastructure or institutional capacity, high transport costs, insecurity, fees, taxes and corruption, trader cartels, lack of market information, lack of cash, savings and credit, and low and variable producer prices.Although there has been a long tradition of pastoralists bartering animals for trade goods such as beads or food, selling animals for cash is a very recent development. Pastoralists, including those in Turkana, however, increasingly need cash-to pay school fees and hospital bills, for example or to buy food during drought.Livestock off-take rates in Turkana remain low. Pastoralists prefer to accumulate livestock, and this is increasingly being recognized to be a sound strategy in drought-prone areas: the more animals one has before a drought, the more are likely to survive and from which one can rebuild ones flock afterwards. Where animals are sold, the majority are males; females are retained whenever possible for breeding and for milk production-milk constitutes an important component of pastoralists' diets.Sales are dampened by a number of other factors. If animals are sold and converted into cash, there are very few alternative options for investment and deposits in bank accounts are eroded by high bank charges. Banks are also few in number and distant from the majority of pastoralists.The social support mechanism of pastoralists in Turkana also acts as an impediment to individuals accumulating surplus cash or building-up their herds and flocks. Households with surplus cash will be beset by claims for assistance from poorer family and friends, and complex safety nets require that surplus livestock are loaned or given to others in times of need.In general, infrastructural development in the district is poor.With the exception of the main road from Lodwar (the district capital) to Lokichoggio, all roads in Turkana District are poor and often impassable during the rains. This increases the cost of transportation to terminal markets.Where The poor state of the district's roads discourages truck owners from operating in many parts of the district, especially the interior, because of the unacceptably high maintenance costs they incur.Transporting livestock out of the district is costly: it can cost KES 300 to truck one goat and KES 2500 to truck one steer to Nairobi. With a journey time of three days, high mortality rates and loss of condition along the way make transporting even more expensive. Traders mostly rely on trucks making the return trip from the refugee camps of Lokichoggio to Nairobi, which otherwise would be returning empty.Trucking livestock out of the district is, however, a relatively small-scale operation, with only several hundred sheep and goats and some tens of cattle trucked to Nairobi weekly. Within the district, livestock are trekked, sometimes long distances, to secondary and primary markets. But trekking is not an option for the journey to Nairobi due to security problems and the sheer distance involved.The threat of raids by livestock rustlers and armed bandits is a major impediment to both livestock production and marketing.The situation is particularly bad in the northeast of the Turkana, where cross-boarder raids are a frequent occurrence. Insecurity has created 'no-go' zones for traders and transporters: there have been instances where trucks have had their tyres shot-out and drivers have even been killed. one impact of the security situation is that livestock prices are depressed as traders have to factor in possible losses from theft. Moving cash is also risky in this lawless environment.A range of official and unofficial charges further add to the cost of marketing livestock from Turkana District. These include fees levied by local councils for use of sale-yards, slaughter slabs, loading ramps and other facilities, and also for business licences. In some cases, the Local Marketing Associations (LMAs) collected the fees on behalf of the council; in others the LMAs levy charges in their own right. The effect of these charges is to drive livestock trade away from the officially designated areas. Additional costs are also incurred during transportation: drivers have to pay a cess to each local authority whose area 1. KMC was revived in 2006 although this occurred too late to be included in this study.they pass through. one truck owner interviewed admitted he also budgeted KES 5000 per truck for bribes paid to police at roadblocks along the route to Nairobi.Livestock trade in Turkana is dominated by cartels formed along ethnic lines; for cattle, these are predominantly members of the Burji, Boran and Gabra communities. The cartels are said to be a response to concerns over insecurity and high transaction costs. They are recognized to reduce transaction costs and promote trade but at the cost of some market exclusions and distortions.The informal social networks that characterize the trader cartels are a major source of capital: less than 20% of traders rely on banks. Livestock traders tend to be wealthy; their wealth allows them to withstand the risks and challenges associated with this business: volatile prices, insecurity, poor market information and weak infrastructure. A characteristic of traders is their ability to speak several local languages, which enables them to bridge ethnic barriers.In some terminal markets, powerful brokers impede marketing of livestock from Turkana due to ethnic divisions. This seems to be especially the case in the major Nairobi goat market.Lack of market information creates huge disparities between buyers and sellers and contributes to lower producer prices. Although many pastoralists reported having good knowledge of prices in local markets, they had no idea of prevailing prices in distant terminal markets. For local market information they relied on word-of-mouth from those who had just sold their animals. Some LMAs, however, reported they were in touch with Nairobi traders and received regular market updates.The need for pastoralists to have better access to a wide range of information, encompassing not just market prices but also rangeland condition, disease outbreaks, water availability and conflict hot-spots, is widely recognized. A recent USAID-funded project (Livestock Information Network & Knowledge System; LINKS) aims to provide this information through the use of new information and communication technologies, such as mobile phones.Lack of cash or access to credit is regarded as a major barrier to livestock marketing. For middle-level and itinerant traders, it severely limits the number of animals they can buy at one time. Likewise, for pastoralists a weak capital base diminishes their bargaining power. Formal credit is largely lacking in the district; only credit provided by families is commonly available, although where strong business relationships have developed, some transporters will accept payment after the load of goats has been sold.Many factors have been identified which contribute towards low and variable producer prices for livestock in Turkana. These include low throughput in markets, high transport costs, poor infrastructure, insecurity, lack of commercial orientation of producers, poor quality of animals and poor disease control.There is also seasonal oversupply; pastoralists sell animals during droughts when their herds' milk yields decline and food grain prices increase. on the positive side, Turkana goats are said to be preferred by some Nairobi traders because of their tender meat.Turkana has been under permanent quarantine restrictions due to the cattle disease contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia (CBPP) since colonial times. officially, cattle from the district can only be exported directly to Nairobi for immediate slaughter, or alternatively they need to be subject to testing which takes three months. The district is also periodically subjected to quarantine restrictions for other diseases, such as contagious caprine pleuro-pneumonia (CCPP) and lumpy skin disease (of cattle).The effect of the quarantine restrictions is to further reduce producer prices as it limits opportunities for marketing.The researchers made recommendations to improve livestock marketing and pastoralists' livelihoods in Turkana District under four main headings: transport, insecurity, information and creating opportunities for pastoralists to sell livestock.A major investment is required by the government and development partners to upgrade the district's road network. This would not only benefit livestock marketing, but also help to improve security and promote other non-livestock livelihood options. other options to reduce transport cost include subsidized transport schemes, although it is recognized that these are highly vulnerable to abuse. Efforts would have to be made to minimize fraud and ensure benefits flowed to local middle-level traders and pastoralists. A different approach could be to provide loans to LMAs so they could purchase and operate their own trucks.Every effort should be made to ensure that the Kenyan Government acts on its obligation to the people of Turkana by enhancing security in the district. This is especially important along the borders with Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan as well as along the boundary between the Turkana and West Pokot tribal groupings. Improved security would enable better use to be made of the entire rangeland and would reduce the 'risk premium' traders impose to protect themselves against losses.Better access to market information would greatly improve livestock marketing systems in the district. Both pastoralists and local traders would benefit from regular access to prices and traded volumes in the distant terminal markets. The LINKS scheme should provide this information, once it is fully operational. Access to improved information on rangeland conditions would also be invaluable, helping pastoralists to make strategic decisions on livestock migration and informing de-and re-stocking initiatives.There is considerable demand for the creation of new sale-yards in areas where such feeder markets are lacking. VSF-Belgium and oXFAM have already initiated development of these facilities in northeastern Turkana.There is considerable opportunity for greater exploitation of local markets: the UN refugee camps in Lokichoggio and Kakuma and the new African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) meat processing factory in Lokichoggio all create local demand. It is recommended that these are prioritized ahead of pursuing more distant opportunities.other recommendations under this heading include introducing livestock auctions, reducing the dominance of the cartels, promoting Turkana goat meat as a regional speciality, strengthening LMAs and creating livestock producers associations, improving access to credit and providing training for local traders and pastoralists (animal production and health; market-based drought mitigation, response and recovery; livestock marketing, and business skills-perhaps delivered using a Farmer Field School approach).In addition, the researchers made a number of policy recommendations:• Government of Kenya (GoK) and international donors should be lobbied to make significant improvements to the road infrastructure in Turkana of these needs to be assessed, not just in terms of direct impacts on pastoralists' livelihoods and livestock marketing, but also in terms of spill-over effects on micro-enterprises, such as kiosks, shops and hotels.There is considered to be a need for better understanding of animal health constraints to profitable livestock marketing, as well as the potential role of women: currently more than 93% of livestock traders in the district are men.As the institutional capacity of Turkana increases, it is essential to assess the role of institutional structures in the promotion of efficient, effective and sustainable livestock production and innovative livestock marketing systems in the district. And last, but not least, it is essential to investigate how pastoralists can make the transition from a traditional, subsistence-based livestock economy to a fully integrated market one.Disclaimer: This publication is an output from a project funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom for the benefit of developing countries. However, the views expressed here are not necessarily those of DFID.","tokenCount":"4060"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d04a48417191284af872c3debb3c0d35","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/af62760b-3f92-45ed-89ee-a0e1567b4401/content","id":"-1836668050"},"keywords":["Bt maize","stem borers","Bt δ-endotoxins","enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)","dot blot analysis","cry1Ab"],"sieverID":"d7adadc6-7109-4734-baa6-ec97ceb47a19","pagecount":"6","content":"In Kenya, stem borers destroy an estimated 13.5% of farmers' annual maize harvest. Maize transformed using Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) derived genes controls stem borers without negative effects to humans, livestock or the environment. The effectiveness and sustainability of Bt transgenic technology in the control of stem borers depends on the levels of concentration of the Bt δ-endotoxins in plant tissues. Kenya introduced Bt maize events to test the efficacy of Bt maize in controlling stem borers, and to develop high-yielding and locally adapted Bt maize germplasm for farmers. The objective of this study was to assess under greenhouse conditions the concentration levels of Bt δ-endotoxins in the leaf tissues of the parents, the F 1 , and the F 2:3 populations of tropical maize, as a measure of stability and sustainability. Kenya introduced Bt maize events to test the efficacy of Bt maize in controlling stem borers, and to develop high-yielding and locally adapted Bt maize germplasm for farmers. The objective of this study was to assess under greenhouse conditions the concentration levels of Bt δ-endotoxins in the leaf tissues of the parents, the F1, and the F2:3 populations of tropical maize, as a measure of stability and sustainability. Two public Bt maize lines (Event 216 and Event 223) containing the cry1Ab::ubi gene were crossed with two non-Bt maize inbred lines, CML144 and CML159, to assess how the concentrations of Bt δ-endotoxins are transmitted from parents to F 1 and to F 2 generations. The mean concentration of Bt δ-endotoxins (μg/g) was 4.93 and 4.63 in Events 216 and 223 respectively. As expected, F 1 generations of all the crosses had similar concentrations of Bt δ-endotoxins. However, the F 2 generations showed a spread of concentrations. These findings may imply that genotypes with a higher mean concentration of Bt δ-endotoxins also have a lower level of plant damage traits expressed. In addition, these observations indicate that the cry1Ab gene was dominant and was inherited following the Mendelian segregation and that Events 216 and 223 could be utilized as reliable sources of resistance to stem borers in maize breeding programmes.Genetic engineering may create and preserve genetic *Corresponding author. E-mail: mwimali@yahoo.co.uk. Tel: +254 722 915 500. diversity which can be exploited through conventional breeding (Ayad, 1997). The use of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) genes as sources of resistance is reported in literature for various crops and genotypes (Bravo et al., 2007). Maize breeding may require a systematic evaluation and introgression of genes for multiple borer resistance into locally adapted genotypes (Gethi et al., 2001;Bravo et al., 2007).Nevertheless, the expression of transgenes depends on the genetic background (Bravo et al., 2007;Paris et al., 2008), and the physiological and environmental conditions (Lepri et al., 2002;Mahon et al., 2002;Olsen et al., 2005). The stability, inheritance and expression of transgenes in subsequent generations of breeding are of paramount importance for functional analysis as well as for crop improvement (Dietz-Pfeilstetter and Kirchner, 1998;Kathuria et al., 2003). Dutton et al. (2005) suggested that the stability of transgene expression is essential for transgenic crops to become an integral part of agricultural systems.The effectiveness and sustainability of Bt transgenic technology in the control of stem borers will depend on the levels of expression of the Bt δ-endotoxins (Kranthi et al., 2005;Olsen et al., 2005;Dong and Li, 2007;Siebert et al., 2009). In addition, gene expression levels should be sufficient in appropriate plant tissues and express in successive generations (Kranthi et al., 2005;Olsen et al., 2005). In Kenya, stem borer species Chilo partellus and Busseolla fusca destroy an estimated 13.5%, of farmers' annual maize harvest. Maize transformed with a vector containing the Cry1Ab gene from a soil bacterium, Bt that produces insecticidal crystalline proteins, controls stem borers without any observable negative effects to humans, livestock or the environment. In 2010, biotechnology crops occupied approximately 10% or 140 m ha -1 total of crop land. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of Bt δ-endotoxins retained in successive generations of crossing, breeding and seed production under biosafety greenhouse conditions.The study was conducted in 2007 and 2008 in the biosafety level II greenhouse complex (BGHC) and the biosafety laboratory located at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Biotechnology Centre, at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL), Kabete. These facilities were designed and developed consistent with international standards and were approved for research on transgenic plants by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) on behalf of the Kenya National Biosafety Committee (NBC). The facilities are for bio-containment and provide an effective means of isolation and prevention of unintended transmission of genetic material (Traynor et al., 2001;Murenga et al., 2004;Mugo et al., 2005;Mugo et al., 2011a).Plant materials for the study included the seedlings grown from the parents and the F1 and F2 generations of four populations (CML144 × Event 216, CML159 × Event 216, CML144 × Event 223, and CML159 × Event 223). Events 216 and 223 were obtained from CIMMYT -Mexico as BC3S1 lines. The two events were descended from a common parent, CML216, which was transformed with a vector containing a full-length cry1Ab coding sequence driven by an enhanced ubiquitin (cry1Ab::ubi) (Mugo et al., 2005). MBR C5 Bc F1-13-3-2-1-B-4-2-B is one of the many inbred lines developed from recombinations and recurrent selection usingmultiple borer resistance (MBR) populations under artificial infestation with various stem borer species (Mugo et al., 2001). Given that borers naturally occur in complexes, the MBR populations may be used in breeding programs to control more than one stem borer species. CKIR6009 is a maize hybrid formed from crosses of multiple borer resistant maize inbred lines, while H513 is a commercial maize hybrid in Kenya.The genotypes were grown in pots filled with a planting medium composed of one part of topsoil mixed with farm yard manure, one part sand and one part coconut peat (Traynor et al., 2001;Murenga et al., 2004). The pots were irrigated twice a week to ensure vigorous growth. Other standard procedures for plant management at the BGHC level 2 were followed according to the laid down protocols (Murenga et al., 2004). F1 generations were formed when twenty seeds each of Events 216 and 223, and CML144 and CML159 were sown in small transfer pots (7.5 × 7.5 × 9.0 cm) and later transplanted into large pots (12 × 30 cm). At anthesis, plants were cross-pollinated in predetermined combinations of Bt × Bt, Bt × non-Bt and non-Bt × non-Bt maize inbred lines. Bt plants and non-Bt plants were used as males and females, respectively. To ensure nicking, the sowing of the seeds was staggered over three different dates separated by 5 days. F2 generations were formed from 20 F1 plants through sib-mating with bulked pollen to an equal number of plants among other F1 plants of the same cross. During anthesis, pollen from each cross were collected and bulked and used for pollinating an equal number of plants by sib-mating.Seeds were sown and leaves from approximately 30 different plants were sampled 30 days after sowing for analysis of the levels of Bt δ-endotoxins. These plants were grouped into three categories of; resistant, moderate and susceptible plants based on the feeding damage found on the leaves. Three of the most recently fullyexpanded leaves from each plant in the same generations were excised from the middle of the leaf blade, excluding the midrib, to standardize and minimize errors in leaf sampling (Dietz-Pfeilstetter and Kirchner, 1998). Protein was extracted from leaf tissue samples based on the procedure described by CIMMYT (2005). Dot blot analyses were used to confirm the presence or absence of biomolecules, which can be detected by DNA probes. For qualitative analysis of Bt in leaf tissues, 20 μl each of the extracted maize leaf samples was spotted and developed on a 0.2 μm nitrocellulose membrane as described by CIMMYT (2005).The detection and quantification of Bt δ-endotoxins in maize leaf samples was carried out using the Bt cry1Ab/cry1Ac microtiter plate kit, a \"sandwich-type\" enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (Greenplate, 1999). Leaf tissues from 20 plants from each parent and from all their crosses in the different generations were sampled and ground in liquid nitrogen. This was followed by homogenization in 5 ml of 0.1 M sodium bicarbonate pH 10.01 containing 10 mM 2-mercaptoethanol, 2.5 mM EDTA, 2.5 mM EGTA, 1 mM benzamidine-HCl, 0.5 mM PMSF, 1 µg/ml pepstatin A, 40 µg/ml bestatin, 1 mM CWS, and 10% (v/v) glycerol. In the assay system, the Cry1Ab standards, controls, or sample extracts loaded into wells coated with monoclonal antibodies raised against Cry1Ab proteins. Any residues of Bt δ-endotoxins found in the standard or sample extracts is bounded to the antibodies on the wells. The \"sandwich\" ELISA was completed by the addition of immunoaffinity-purified polyclonal goat-antibodies specific to the same Bt δ-endotoxins. A dose response curve of absorbance of the colored product formed versus concentration was generated using results obtained from Cry1Ab protein standards from the ELISA kit (Figure 1).ELISA data from parents, F1 and F2 generations were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the means were computed and separated using t-tests (LSD), for each experimental data set at (P = 0.05). Contrast analyses of the same data for the adjusted mean concentration of Bt δ-endotoxins were carried out on the parents, their crosses and successive generations.Analysis of leaf tissues using ELISA indicated significant differences among generations with respect to Cry1Ab protein content (Table 1). The Bt parents (Events 216 and 223) had mean concentrations of Bt δ-endotoxins of 4.93 and 4.63 μg/g, respectively. Observations of 30 F 1 s of Event 223 × Event 216 showed no significant differences (p<0.496), with a mean concentration of 4.35 μg/g. The 30 F 2 s of CML144 × Event 216 showed highly significant differences (p<0.0001), with a mean concentration of 1.99 μg/g. No significant differences (p<0.3830) in the concentration of Bt δ-endotoxins were found among 30 CML144 × Event 216 F 1 s. These crosses had a mean of 4.24 μg/g. Nevertheless, highly significant differences (p<0.0001) were observed among crosses of 30 CML144 × Event 216 F 2 s, with a mean concentration of 3.90 μg/g. Similarly, no significant differences (p<0.3833) were observed for 30 CML144 × Event 223 F 1 s, with a mean concentration of 3.92 μg/g. However, highly significant differences (p<0.0001) among 30 CML144 x Event 223 F 2' s were observed, with a mean concentration of 1.69μg/g. No significant differences in the concen-tration of Bt δ-endotoxins were observed among 30 CML159 x Event 216 F 1 s (p<0.7058), with a mean of 5.44 μg/g. However, highly significant differences (p<0.0001) were reported among the 30 CML159 × Event 216 F 2 s, with a mean concentration of 1.60 μg/g (Table 1). Thirty CML159 × Event 223 F 1 s were not significantly different (p<0.7058), with a mean concentration of 5.44 μg/g (Table 1). Nevertheless, highly significant differences (p<0.0001) were observed among 30 CML159 x Event 223 F 2' s with a mean concentration of 1.60μg/g (Table 1). Thirty of both F 1 s and F 2 s of CML144 × CML159 had no significant differences (p<0.9675), with a mean concentration of 0.00 μg/g. Contrasts of adjusted mean concentrations of Bt δ-endotoxins in leaf tissues indicated highly significant differences (P<0.0001) among Bt maize Events 216 and 223 and CML144 and 159, and their F 1 and F 2 generations of crosses of tropical maize (Table 2).The results of the contrast analysis show highly significant differences between the Bt parents and the non-resistant parents (p<0.0001). A contrast of Events 216 and 223 versus all F 1 generations showed no significant differences (p>0.4960). They have highly significant differences (p<0.0001) between the F 1 generations compared to all the crosses of Bt maize events in the F 2 generations.The analysis of all F 1 s and F 2 s of the Bt × Bt crosses showed significant differences in the mean concentration of Bt δ-endotoxins. Neither were there any significant differences among the Bt × non-Bt crosses for all F 1 s. However, the F2s showed significant differences in all the crosses, probably due to Mendelian segregation. These results agree with the findings by Kranthi et al.(2005) in Bt cotton, and Sulistyowati et al. (2008) in their studies on segregation patterns of insect resistance genes in the progenies and crosses of transgenic rojolele rice. The study findings are consistent with the Mendelian inheritance of a single dominant locus such as the Cry1Ab gene. In addition, these results suggest that in the leaf tissues, expression of the concentration of Bt δendotoxins was inherited stably and follows the Mendelian segregation as observed in the crosses of Bt maize events and the non-Bt F 2 generations (Siebert et al., 2009;Mugo et al., 2011).In the contrast analysis, crosses between Bt and non-Bt F 1 generations had no significant effect on the mean concentration of Bt δ-endotoxins. This may imply that the gene was stably integrated into the genome of the F 1 crosses (Zhu et al., 2004). It may also suggest that the transgene could be successfully transferred from Bt maize lines to non-Bt maize lines and that the Cry1Ab gene was dominant. The highly significant differences observed among the crosses of Bt and non-Bt F 2 generations may be attributed to Mendelian segregation.","tokenCount":"2198"}
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7678b0d76f33cb281702e423e8317a741c4444c3
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"88f6e2165f593266d8d6bbb4aab6c5b3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/40907e8d-9882-4e93-a683-8191d33653fb/retrieve","id":"-673055725"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d5be391b-6926-4e96-b388-872d5dc9c574","pagecount":"1","content":"The potato tuber moth Phthorimaea operculella (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is considered one of the most serious pests worldwide. Potato is the main host but other Solanaceae are also attacked. It is originated in the tropical mountainous regions of South America and is reported more than 90 countries. The moth occurs in almost all tropical and subtropical potato production systems in Africa and Asia, as well as in North, Central, and South America and it's adapted to wide range of different climates and agroecologies. Losses can reach up to 40% in the field and 100% in storage. P. operculella attacks all vegetative plant parts of potato, typical symptoms of leaf damage are mines caused by larvae feeding in the mesophyll. Tuber infestation caused by first instar larvae can be hardly noticed and characteristic piles of feces indicate infestation. Inside tubers, larvae bore irregular galleries which may run into the interior of the tubers or remain directly under the skin in field and storage conditions. Adults are brownish gray, with fraying on the posterior edge of the forewings and on both posterior and inner edges of the hindwings. The wings are folded to form a roof-like shape with a wingspan of 12-16 mm. They are nocturnal and all activity occurs in the evening. The future distribution and abundance of this pest will be affected by climate change by changes in temperature. Using the Insect Life Insect Modeling (ILCYM) software we applied three risk indices (establishment [ERI], generation [GI] and activity [AI] index) in a geographic information system (GIS) to map and quantify changes. Under the climate of the year 2000, an ERI>0.6 represents very well the current global distribution of P. operculella: Africa, Oceania, South America, and Asia. Under the year 2050 temperature scenario, the boundaries for P. operculella are indicated to shift further north in the northern hemisphere. The number of generations indicates pest abundance and is closely related to losses. In regions where potato tuber moth is established and losses occur, a minimum of >4 generations are developed; between 12-15 generations are developed in tropical production systems. For future scenario (2050), changes in a number of generations per year of >4 will be highest in Europe and Asia. In potato production areas of Africa, Asia and South America, P. operculella abundance and infestation is expected to become more severe, reflected in an increase of the area with >7 generations per year. The AI indicates the potential population growth throughout a year; an increase by 1 indicates a 10-fold higher increase rate. For 2050, an increase by a factor 5-10 is predicted for most potato growing regions worldwide especially in those regions where temperatures have not reached the upper temperature threshold. For Africa, establishment of P. operculella will potentially increase as well as number of generations (2-5 generations/year). There are only few regions that might become too warm for potato tuber moth and more likely also for potato production. Infestations in other Solanceaea crops such as tomato might increase. The activity will generally increase; only in regions where temperature may reach values of maximum temperature threshold for development, the population growth will be gradually reduced due to increasingly high temperature-induced mortality and reduced reproduction per female. P. operculella is already a cosmopolitan pest but climate change will support its further spread and abundance. Phytosanitary measures and inspections are important in those countries where the pest has not yet established.","tokenCount":"567"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6549541337.json b/data/part_3/6549541337.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..340940462be626117197380088aebe7f55a18595
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7f4310252161bbfc98b7fcd7e70efed7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0b5e9af9-1ce9-4067-865b-8e0637acca39/retrieve","id":"1466092217"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d8528350-f289-478e-b9c5-61db040277e5","pagecount":"11","content":"The project covered by this Screening Report is the 2006 programme of technology packages being introduced in Ada'a Wereda, Oromiya Region, a Pilot Learning Wereda (PLW) of IPMS Ethiopia, that are considered likely to have potential environmental impacts.The Responsible Authority is CIDA.The intervention programme consists principally of support for farmers to perform better in the activities in which they are currently engaged. There will be no entirely new technologies as such. Furthermore, improved environmental management procedures such as soil and water conservation measures and composting are part and parcel of the improvement programme. Thus potentially negative environmental impacts of the interventions will be marginal.The interventions covered by the present EASR are limited to the following inter-related innovative practices to be adopted and disseminated and which might be expected to have negative environmental impacts: (i) Crop Cultivation under Agrochemicals, (ii) Improvement of Efficiency of Vegetable Cultivation under Irrigation, and (iii) Use of Livestock Drugs & Chemicals.. These innovative practices constitute components of an integrated programme for the PLW, implemented by the local farmers through the wereda agricultural office and facilitated and supported by IPMS. They are screened here as one project for environmental assessment purposes due to the fact that they are to be implemented jointly and their impacts are interrelated and therefore best assessed jointly.The project is a point project, limited to the geographic extent of Ada'a Wereda.The project activities will be focused on the existing teff-livestock farming system in the rural areas, and the teff-dairy farming system in and around urban areas and adjacent rural areas.It should be noted that the following are not included in this EASR, which covers only activities with potentially harmful effects on the environment: (i) A number of measures for improved environmental management; (ii) The introduction of new crop varieties that are accompanied by any significant changes in technology or production method, and which will not have any environmental linkages or potential environmental impacts.The activities concerned may be summarized as follows:The teff, wheat and chickpea improvement programmes will be accompanied by the modest use of agrochemicals.The programme will improve the capacity of the wereda staff and farmers in water use efficiency, the use and maintenance of irrigation equipment, and marketing. Farmers are presently using motor pumps and furrow irrigation. Innovations will be made for the supply of water lifting (watering cans and treadle pumps) and water distribution systems (drip irrigation). No new irrigation systems will be developed.The improved dairy programme will be accompanied by the modest utilisation of veterinary drugs and chemicals.The PLW, with a 2003 total population of 332,017, stretches from east of Bole International Airport to north-west of the Koka dam.Three agro-climatic zones are identified:  The mountain zone, at an altitude of over 2,000 m, accounting for around 9% of the PLW;  The highland zone, at an altitude of 1,800 to 2,000 m, accounting for 57%;  The Rift Valley zone, from 1,500 to 1,800 m, accounting for 34%.The agro-ecology of the PLW is suitable for diverse agricultural production. A number of rivers and crater lakes are being used for irrigated agriculture, particularly horticultural crops. Of the 64,088 ha of rural land in the wereda, 59,312 ha are under temporary crops, the dominant crop being teff.The PLW is relatively close to the national capital, Addis Ababa, and has a relatively well developed infrastructure, covering telecommunications, electrical power, elementary and high schools as well as a number of institutions contributing to the development of the rural areas. The main road from Addis Ababa to the Rift Valley, and the railway line from Addis Ababa to Djibouti passes through the PLW.The capital of the wereda that constitutes the PLW is Debre Zeit, Together with the secondary towns of Dukem and Adulala, the total (2003) urban population in the PLW is 130,050.Fauna are found principally on mountain slopes and around a series of crater lakes clustered in the vicinity of Debre Zeit town. Being close to the Rift Valley lakes, the PLW is on some migratory bird routes.There are distinct eco-systems associated with the mountains of Zequala and Yerer, which are located within the wereda. There are protected forests on Yerer.The PLW lies within the catchment of the Awash river. The Awash itself does not flow through the PLW, but there are springs and rivers flowing from Zequala and Yerer into the Awash river. The town of Debre Zeit receives its water supply from ground-water. Some of the crater lakes and streams are being used for irrigated horticultural production.The principal household energy source is cattle dung, followed by fuelwood and crop residue. There is continued movement of cow dung from rural to the urban centers, and fetching of fuelwood from the mountain forests.Apart from modern churches, mosques and burial grounds, there are cultural heritage resources in the PLW consisting of  Ancient Orthodox Christian and traditional Oromo natural sites (including sacred groves) and human-made monuments and buildings on Zequala mountain, including a sacred crater lake,  Similar but more modest cultural sites on Yerer mountain,  Traditional Oromo cultural sites on some of the crater lakes (notably Lake Hora, in Debre Zeit town), and  A number of battle sites and associated monuments dating from Ethiopia's mediaeval period.However, none of the planned project activities will impact on any of these sites.The project will focus its activities mainly in the mid-high altitude areas, which have been identified as having the greatest agricultural and market potential. In these areas, farms are 1-2.5 ha, with mixed crop and livestock. In addition, the project will promote apiculture development on and around Yerer and Zequala mountains.The principal environmental issues in the PLW are interrelated, being associated largely with poor catchment management. They are as follows: Soil degradation and nutrient loss are growing problems, arising from deforestation mainly on slopes, and consequent flooding in lower-lying areas. In environmentally sensitive areas such as on and around Yerer mountain, springs are drying up due to poor watershed management. The increased flooding associated with loss of ground and tree cover on the slopes is causing excessive erosion, leading to a severe gulleying problem on the plains. As the gulleys develop upstream (a rapid process in the vertisols common to this area), the springs themselves are being destroyed. Although siltation is not as much of a problem for the crater lakes as it is for the low-lying and shallow Rift Valley lakes outside the PLW, one of the crater lakes in the PLW is reported to be disappearing due to siltation from Zequala and Yerer. An energy-deforestation-fertility loss cycle is evident in the PLW. Over the last few decades there has occurred widespread deforestation of the mountain slopes, as demonstrated by the fact that around Yerer, fuelwood has been largely exhausted, now accounting for only 21% of household energy consumption, cattle dung accounting for 61%, with a commensurate loss of soil nutrients. Crop residues account for the remaining 18%. It is noted that some farmers are engaging in on-farm tree-planting of eucalyptus for poles and fuelwood. Poor watershed management during recent decades has created a permanent and growing body of standing water at Cheleleka, a floodplain at the foot of Yerer. These wetlands are proving to be a mosquito breeding ground, posing a serious malaria hazard. There is a growing ground-water supply problem for Debre Zeit town, due to a combination of poor watershed management and increased abstraction rates. There is a growing water pollution problem and deteriorating urban environment associated with the current rapid growth of Debre Zeit town. Possible negative environmental impacts before the introduction of mitigating measures;  Planned mitigating measures;  Expected negative environmental impacts after implementation of mitigating measures. It should be noted new crop varieties will be limited to those produced and approved by government public bodies, notably the Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (ESE) and the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organisation (EARO). No varieties involving any form of genetic engineering, or likely to introduce new environmental impacts, will be introduced. Expanded cultivation of fruit and vegetables will be accompanied by organic fertilizer and composting programmes, thus producing a positive environmental impact. The promotion of apiculture will in turn promote bee forage, which will result in a growth in vegetation and pollination, leading to the the flourishing of springs and a general improvement in the environment.Flooding and gullying in some areas below Yerer Mountain has been an environmental issue. Herbicide application is also killing bee forages. On the other hand, because of very high degradation in many areas, groundwater availability is being affected in the area. No public concerns have been raised regarding the planned IPMS programme.Table (i) relates to the operations phase of the project. There is no pre-construction phase, construction or closure phase. Accidents and malfunctions are covered within the Integrated Pesticide Management (IPM) Plan.After implementation of the recommended mitigating measures, no significant adverse effects are likely.Technically and economically feasible mitigation measures are set out in  (i) Uncontrolled or careless use of livestock veterinary drugs or chemicals may pollute the groundwater, resulting in health hazards for human and animal life.(i) An Integrated Pesticide Management (IPM) plan covering use of a combination of natural methods and agrochemicals will be drawn up and implemented, to ensure good environmental management. The IPM will cover acquisition, application, accidents, storage and disposal of agrochemicals. In addition, the location of use will take into account proximity to any adjoining areas dependent on apiculture.(i) As watering cans, treadle pumps and drip irrigation from crater lakes and small rivers will be promoted by the project, salinisation will not be a significant issue.(i) A Drugs and Chemicals Management plan will be drawn up and implemented, covering acquisition, application, accidents, storage and disposal of livestock veterinary drugs and chemicals.After implementation of mitigating measures, no adverse environmental impacts are expected.After implementation of mitigating measures, no adverse environmental impacts are expected.After implementation of mitigating measures, no adverse environmental impacts are expected.The following potential long-term cumulative effects could be postulated:If small-scale irrigation becomes increasingly popular in the PLW as a result of the IPMS programme, there could be excessive abstraction of surface water, with resultant reduction in downstream flows or other negative impacts. However, the planned mitigating measures incorporate an abstraction monitoring programme to avoid this impact occurring.Growth in the popularity of irrigation may lead to unplanned development of groundwater irrigation, which may, in turn, result in depletion of the ground water. In the event that the programme leads to unplanned expansion in the use of irrigation, abstraction rates and water-table levels will be monitored by the Regional Water Resources Bureau.If the cultivation of cash crops becomes so popular that cash crops come to displace food crops to a significant extent, this could produce an imbalance that might lead to food shortages within, or outside, the PLW. However, the Wereda Agriculture Office and the Regional Food Security Bureau have planning systems to address such a trend before it becomes a problem.Uncontrolled adoption throughout the PLW and beyond of a newly introduced crop species could lead to a situation whereby the genetic base of the crop concerned is unduly narrowed. This could mean, for example, that in the event of an outbreak of disease, there is no alternative strain available. It is thus recommended that the regional or wereda agricultural office should monitor production rates of new crop varieties, and should liaise with the Biodiversity Institute to ensure that the gene banks contain alternative varieties.Although the Project is not promoting zero-grazing in high-density urban areas, the zerograzing being promoted (which by reducing grazing and often livestock numbers is generally environmentally beneficial) may eventually lead to uncontrolled adoption of zero-grazing in high-density urban areas, with resultant health hazards, noise and smell pollution. To avoid this happening, the project will liaise with the urban Public Health authority and will include their representative in training workshops, in order that any regulations controlling the keeping of cattle in the urban areas are recognized and enforced.The PLW is not a drought-prone wereda, and no significant impacts of the environment on the project are anticipated.Many Peasant Associations close to Yerer Mountain and others are suffering due to excessive flooding. Many farmers' plots are damaged as a result. Similarly, gulleys are also eating many farmlands close to these mountain areas. With this regard, different studies made in the area have recommended integrated watershed management systems in order to minimize effects.There has been extensive public participation in the design of the IPMS interventions in this PLW, including a well-attended two-day workshop in the PLW on 24-25 August, 2004. In addition, a number of training sessions for farmers and Development Agents (DAs) and visits to various areas for training purposes have been conducted since the launching of the project.A follow-up program to ensure that the recommended mitigating measures are implemented as required will be conducted by the staff of the Environment and Natural Resources Unit in the wereda agricultural office, with support from IPMS as required.In the project design workshops, it was agreed by the community and the wereda agricultural office that there are no viable alternative means for conducting the project, other than by supporting the Wereda Agricultural Office and the Development Agents (DAs).The following transboundary effects might be postulated in the long-term: Food shortages in areas traditionally consuming food grown in the PLW, arising from a high ratio of cash:food crops in the PLW. This effect and its mitigating measures are addressed in para 5.3 above. Uncontrolled use of agrochemicals could lead to pollution of rivers and streams flowing into adjoining weredas. The mitigating measures set out in Table (i) will address this issue.","tokenCount":"2255"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6568720157.json b/data/part_3/6568720157.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ddab09296e14a0b15ba588e6b6ee7a44f65c086f
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3d58cb7251ad10c548d9e7ac7f1bbf13","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4570ed78-70e1-4c0b-bc47-cba35afa4326/retrieve","id":"638586898"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0d3da037-fe51-4b95-a661-b2fe460a5c05","pagecount":"9","content":"Network analysis is applied to an investigation of the effectiveness of pro-poor interventions in the dairy industry of Tanzania and Uganda. A sample of milk producers and traders, and of suppliers of Business Development Services, is constructed by a snowball method to preserve market and other linkages amongst the actors.Geometric analysis of the resulting networks is used for simple network diagnostics which are then applied to market structure analogues. Statistical and econometric analysis is then applied to examining actors' characteristics and performance by way of conventional actor-specific variables and by using information about the links between actors within networks. Indications of the success of the Business Development Services support programme are derived from network characteristics.Dairy production in East Africa provides income to a large number of producers and service providers, and offers a cheap source of high quality protein to the population. Dairy-generated income is available daily, and the prevailing market systems offer cash payment. Hence dairy offers significant benefits to the region's poor consumers and producers, and has been the target of development expenditures by both public and private sectors. Despite significant efforts toward developing co-operative-based formal large scale dairy processing, treatment and packaging, small scale producers and informal raw milk markets continue to dominate the dairy sectors in these countries (Omore et al., 2004a, b;Ahmed et al., 2004).The East African dairy sector has undergone substantial development in the last two decades. Milk production has increased by 65% in Kenya to 4.1 million tonnes, and Uganda by 270% to 1.2 million tonnes in this time (FAOSTAT, 2012). Research, development and commercial interest has been focused not only at production level, but at the response of the whole value chain to increasing demand, populations and pace of urbanization. Enhancing hygiene and other quality issues, boosting production to achieve a marketable surplus, and training and certification for milk handlers and traders have seen successful applications. Such efforts directed at the small scale and informal dairy sector in Kenya have shown significant returns throughout the value chain (Kaitibie et al., 2008), and are being rolled out to other countries in the region (ASARECA, 2007). A variety of interventions have been used, including mobilization of trained value chain service and input providers to hand on training key inputs, generally known as Business Development Services (BDS) (ILRI, 2006).Analyses of the dairy value chain for the design of new interventions or the evaluation of past ones have favored a description of the actors along the value chain and estimation of costs, prices and margins (e.g. Sevo, 2008). Analysis of incentives for positive and pro-poor change such as income increase and reduced risk to public health have tended to focus on value chain actors' responses to price and cost. This approach has two main weaknesses: first that the interactions amongst traders, amongst producers, and between producers and traders are multifaceted and extend beyond payment and delivery (Coppock et al., 2011); second that quality-based price changes in such circumstances are not commonly observed and in any case represent a small part of available benefits from change. Further, the costs, institutions and resources widely cited as related barriers to market entry by developing country smallholders (Barrett, 2008;Muriuku and Thorpe, 2001) are influenced by the nature of networks within which such market actors operate (Trienekens et al., 2003;Wilson, 1998).The current paper provides an analytical model based on networks -arrays of producers and traders supported by BDS providers -rather than the characteristics of samples of value chain actors in isolation from those of their peers, trading partners and service providers (Kranton and Meinhart, 2001). The model employs the nature of the network's arcs and edges (the forms of connection between network nodes) to quantify inter-actor variables usually generalized into opaque forces such as \"trust\". The model is then used preliminarily to assess market structure and the network-related impact of the BDS support programme.The overall objectives of the study are to enhance the effectiveness of dairy development interventions by increasing the understanding of producer-trader networks and identifying the relationship between network form and function on the one hand, and the ways change occurs and can be accelerated, on the other.A theory of change for small scale dairy producers and traders was established by discussion with expert informants, and in structured focus group discussions with producers, traders and BDS providers in Tanzania and Uganda. These, along with past work on developing country and agricultural markets and networks, were used to generate hypotheses about the causes and effects of change in performance variables such as production, costs, profits, investments and behavior regarding public health. Cross-sectional analysis of key conventional explanatory variables, and the extent and intensity of network linkages, were used to explain performance.Existing information was used to establish sample frames for actors in selected regions, and a snowballing procedure was used to collect data on actors and those that trade with them. Questionnaires (of 3 types, corresponding to each actor) were implemented in Uganda and Tanzania. They included, among others, questions related to the respondents' characteristics, products marketing, linkages within the network and the duration and intensity of these linkages. Data analysis includes both geometric projection of network forms and statistical and econometric analysis 1 of the data referring both to actors and the linkages between them.In the case of Uganda the total number of respondents was 195 and in Tanzania 173. Details of type, location and number of participants are summarized in Table 1. Data collection in Uganda took place in 4 small and contiguous districts near the city of Kampala: Kampala, Masaka, Mbarara, and Rushere. In the case of Tanzania the surveys were implemented in 2 spatially separated and non-contiguous regions: Arusha located in the northern part of country and, and Mwanza located in the northwest on the shores of Lake Victoria. Across the networks analyzed, the majority of respondents are male: female participation is more important at the production level, especially in Tanzania (Table 2). Smallholder producers' age exceeds that of other value chain participants in both countries, with average around 50 years.BDS providers in Tanzania are on average older, and less educated, than their peers in Uganda.In both countries, traders are less educated than BDS providers, and Tanzanian traders are on average more experienced than Ugandan traders. Producers in the two countries have on average more than 17 years of experience. The majority of the interviewed actors are owners of their business. Networks' mapping for milk producers and traders in Uganda (figure 1) and Tanzania (Mwanza and Arusha respectively figures 2 and 3) show that the majority of traders (62%; 58% and 53% respectively for Mwanza, Uganda, and Arusha) are linked to just one or two producers. Milk traders in Uganda handle generally larger volumes of milk compared to their colleagues in Tanzania (Mwanza). Average daily milk purchases by Ugandan and Tanzanian (both Mwanza and Arusha) traders which are respectively 133.7, 22.9 and 18.9 litres in the wet season, and 89.1, 19.4 and 10.7 litres in the dry season.Male milk traders' supply networks appear to be more developed and dense in comparison to those of female traders. In the case of Arusha, on average each male trader has around 3.26 connections with producers. In the case of women the average is much lower at 1.92. The situation is almost the same in the case of Mwanza where male traders' average number of connections is 3.40 and for females 2.25. In the case of Uganda, there is no apparent difference between genders of trader (female average is 2.40 and males' 2.38).   For Ugandan milk traders, restaurants/hotels (18%) and other traders (17%) are the next most important milk sales channels. In the case of Mwanza and Arusah, restaurants/hotels represent the second most important channel with respectively 28% and 24% of traders indicating these outlets. In the case of Arusha, it is interesting to note that institutions such as schools and hospitals are listed as outlets by 9% of the milk traders.Figures 5, 6 and 7 show the relations between milk producers, milk traders and BDS providers. It is possible to distinguish (with different intensity and importance) 3 different relationships between the dairy actors:1. BDS providers working exclusively with producers, and supplying them with inputs (animal feeds, drugs, vaccines, etc.) and services (training on milk hygiene, information and advisory services, etc.).2. BDS providers working exclusively with traders, and supplying them with inputs and services.3. BDS providers working with both producers and traders. This case is very rare for the three regions. A notable result is that many BDS providers are working only with one trader or one producer. This could be due to the fact that the experience of BDS business is limited in both countries, and need time to develop their business activities and expand their client base. It is also notable that many BDS providers are only connected to traders: it is possible that in some cases traders are playing the role of intermediaries between BDS providers and producers, buying inputs from the former and selling them to the latter. This should be confirmed by further analysis.The average number of connections for BDS providers with the value chain actors (producers and traders), has been calculated in order to assess the impacts of the training and accompanying programme that some BDS provides have received from the project. The results indicate that in the case of Mwanza, BDS providers who have participated in the programme present on average a higher number of connections (3.56) in comparison to those who did not participate (0.82). In the cases of Uganda and Arusha the difference is less clear: Ugandan BDS providers who participated to the programme have in average 6 connections with either traders or producers, whereas those who did not participate average 5.5 connections. In the case of Arusha, the average numbers of connections are respectively 1 for BDS taking part to the programme and 1.4 for those who did not participate. These results may indicate the relative importance of the BDS programme in terms of improving BDS providers' connections and value chains' interactions.It is interesting to observe the difference between the two countries. In the case of Tanzania, and except the case of trained BDS providers in Mwanza, the rest of BDS providers have on average almost only one connection. In the case of Uganda average connections are around 6 for both groups of BDS providers. This could probably positively affect (and explain) the individual volumes of milk (which also implies the total volumes) produced and exchanged among the value chain. In a previous paragraph, milk sales data showed the big difference between average quantities traded in each country (almost 6 times higher in Uganda compared to both Tanzanian regions)The paper presents an empirical network model of agricultural markets as proposed by Kranton and Meinhart (2001), which offers a number of advantages in terms of the analysis of prospective pro-poor development interventions. The informal markets for milk in Tanzania and Uganda are modeled in this way, and insight into market power, measures of individual actors' success, and predisposing factors for value chain upgrading are offered.Geometric configuration and the distribution of arcs and edges in the networks are used to provide preliminary comments on market power. BDS providers' configuration of services is also described. The nature of the arcs and edges are examined to evaluate the distribution of service and input providers, and the degree of bundling in their provision: these factors affect smallholders' market access.As further steps in these preliminary results, an econometric analysis is now underway to test hypotheses relating network configuration to actors' performance, and relating network structure to actors' behavior and uptake of change. Cluster analysis is also being used to explain actors' performance, comparing socioeconomic and demographic variables with those related to the nature of actors' networks.","tokenCount":"1959"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6571577304.json b/data/part_3/6571577304.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..78760bcda75e417433ed3900536b21ed05eac101
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d54f520f845c5d718c9c21661ffc5a52","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7b34848e-b622-45ac-9a4f-4e251e4d512b/retrieve","id":"1137938097"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f9053081-040b-4b25-8da5-62905618e352","pagecount":"17","content":"Ce manuel fournit une approche pas à pas des caractéristiques et de l'usage du site web pour la recherche d'informations pertinentes. Nous assumons que lorsque l'utilisateur introduit le Lien http://database.africa.org , alors, il ouvre le site web et la fenêtre suivante apparaitra, avec des boutons de sous menu qui donnent accès à toutes les routines dans le site lesquelles sont divisés en plusieurs sections qui incluent: Accueil, Amélioration variétale, Systèmes semenciers, Gestion Intégrée de la Culture (ICM), Renforcement de Capacité, Nutrition, Rapports, Commercialisation, Autres (administration et contact), à propos de nous et Aide. (La page d'accueil s'affiche comme ci-dessous) Ce manuel a été structuré suivant les clés thématiques des domaines de Reproduction, Systèmes de semences, Gérance Intégrée des cultures (ICM), Renforcement de Capacités, Nutrition, autres onglets importants inclua nt Rapports, Commercialisation, Autres (administration et contacte).Dans chaque sections, le manuel exposera comment l'utilisateur peut accéder, voir, demander et peupler les informations residant dans la base de données. Quelques sections auront des liens à des sites extérieurs qui fournissent des informations supplémentaires à ce que nous avons dans la base de données.1.2 Disposition Générale de la base de données La base de données a été structurée en 2 présentations distinctes, l'extrémité arrière est réservée aux utilisateurs autorisés et celle d' avant que est ce que le manuel explique et illustre. Le tableau ci-dessous donne un résumé des principaux caractères de disposition de la base de données (Extrémité avant).(S'il vous plait faites référence au Figure 1)  Les connections montrent une liste des pays africains dans le réseau à l'extrême gauche et quelques boîtes de paramètres de recherche près de la carte du continent Africain. Les paramètres de recherche permettent aux utilisateurs de filtrer leur recherche basée sur un critère choisi/spécifié dans les boîtes de recherche. Et si vous choisissez de sélectionner un pays dans le carreau de gauche, l'information affichée sera limitée à ce pays seulement. Pareillement, le compte total changera à une autre valeur spécifique pour le pays de choix.2. Navigation à travers la base de données. Cette section donne une explication détaillée comment un utilisateur peut entrer sur chacune des pages et être capable de naviguer dans la base de données pour des données en même temps transférant des données pour autre manipulation.Amélioration variétale : Sous cette section, l'utilisateur peut voir plusieurs branches qui inclue le compte total, le nom officiel, le nom locale, le nom d'Origine, l'année de sortie (de), l'année de sortie (à), Altitude, Température, précipiation, type de plante, durée de matûrité, 100 graines catégorie de la couleur, dessin d'enveloppe, forme, dimension, divers stress et contraintes, étiquète de marquage génétique et but de lancement parmi d'autres.L'interface amélioration des plantes offre une base de données enregistrées au niveau national ou des variétés diffusés et vulgarisés avec leurs propriétés. Le compte total changera de temps en temps étant donné que la population de la base de données est un processus continu. Les principales fonctionnalités de l'utilisateur en entrant dans la page amélioration variétale:  L'interface de la Gestion Intégrée de Culture (ICM) fournit une base de données sur les'insectes, les maladies et les technologies de gestion de culture, sur la fertilité des sols, qui sont promus avec les semences de haricot dans l'amélioration de la performance de la culture de haricot. Ces technologies sont collectivement appelées ICM. Les domaines spécifiques incluent: Nom de la Technologie, type de Technologie, but de la Technologie, années de dissémination (de quelle année à quelle année), les partenaires impliqués et lieux de dissémination entre autres.   Les pages expliquées dans la section 2 sont le noyau des pages liées à des domaines thématiques de PABRA, les pages expliquées dans cette section sont des pages supplémentaires à la base de données incluant les parties Rapports, Autres, Administration, Contact, A propos de nous, et Aide.Les pages de rapports montrent des rapports sommaires sous forme de tableau et de graphes ; l'information pourrait être un résultat des informations trouvées dans la base de données ou provenant d'autres sources compilées par l'Unité M&E. L'information sur cette page sera changeante en fonction de la pertinence de l'information désirée par l'utilisateur final ou estimée importante par le M&E group.Pour accéder cette page, cliquez l'onglet des rapports à la barre de menu, la page est affiché avec l'information actuelle/le plus à jour.   téléchargement de documents pour accéder au manuel de l'utilsateur de la base de données de PABRA qui le guide pour être capable de suivre les étapes tout en utilisant la base de données.Ce manuel d'usage est téléchargeable et peut être sauvegardé dans d'autres places pour une accessibilité facile si l'utilisateur n'a pas d'internet.","tokenCount":"760"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f682b86d05a41e9d0cf2d915c2619919","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/653dd4b2-84f4-4cd3-a713-a27e1c9eab11/retrieve","id":"1421615925"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8ca7f014-fab0-4e9d-bc9d-055657a3ffcf","pagecount":"20","content":"The authors would like to thank ILRI for its strong collaboration with the Ministries of Planning and Development and Women and Social Affairs of Ethiopia.Ethiopia faces significant challenges from climate change, with increasing temperatures, erratic rainfall, and more frequent extreme weather events. These changes threaten critical sectors such as agriculture, water resources, health, disaster risk reduction, and infrastructure, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities while posing substantial risks to sustainable development. Climate change impacts are not gender-neutral, where women and girls are disproportionately affected due to existing gender inequalities. These inequalities limit their access to resources, decision-making processes, and adaptive capacities. Women, particularly those in rural areas, endure most climate-related stresses, including food insecurity, water scarcity, and health risks. Such a threat of climate change on gender requires comprehensive and coordinated responses from national governments.Like many developing countries, Ethiopia is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts due to its reliance on rain-fed agriculture, underdeveloped infrastructure, and limited adaptive capacity. To address these impacts, the country has taken steps through the development of national policies, strategies, programs and action plans. An essential aspect of these efforts is the integration of gender considerations into these policies and strategies, as climate change can have differentiated impacts on women and men.In this connection, the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic Ministry of Planning and Development and the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs, in collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) through the Accelerating the Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project, has prepared national Climate Change Gender Action Plan (CCGAP). This CCGAP is envisioned to address the intersection of climate change and gender inequality by integrating gender-responsive strategies into climate policies, strategies, programs and actions. The plan seeks to empower women, enhance their resilience, and ensure their active participation in climate action, ultimately contributing to equitable and sustainable development. Therefore, this stakeholder consultative workshop aimed to introduce, familiarize, and collect feedback on the draft of the CCGAP document.A two-day national-level stakeholder consultative workshop was conducted from July 11-12, 2024, in Adama, Ethiopia. The consultative workshop targeted stakeholders from government organizations, the private sector, knowledge institutions, and development partners. The list of organizations who attended the workshop is presented below.  Mr. Abas Mohammed, who is representing the Ministry of Planning and Development (MoPD), delivered the keynote speech. In his remark, he stated that Ethiopia has been hit hard by the increasing frequency and intensity of droughts in recent years due to the changing climate. These prolonged dry periods have led to acute water shortages, devastating crop failures, and the loss of livestock -the lifeblood of many rural communities. The effects of these climate-induced disasters have not been equally distributed among the population. Women have borne a disproportionate burden due to their traditional roles and responsibilities within the household and community. Mr. Abas pointed out that it is in this context that the MoPD, and MoWSA, in collaboration with ILRI, have taken the commendable initiative to develop a draft national Climate Change Gender Action Plan with the primary objective of integrating gender issues into the national policies, strategies, programs, and actions in the context of climate change. He wrapped up his speech by requesting participants to engage in this reviewing and validation process, which will undoubtedly enrich the action plan and ensure that it truly reflects the needs and concerns of all those affected by climate change.Dr. Lemlem Aregu from the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) gave a brief overview of climate and gender in Africa. In her speech, Dr. Lemlem indicated that climate change and gender intersect significantly in Africa, impacting both men and women differently and exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and inequalities across various sectors such as Food Security, Agriculture, Water, Forestry, Health and Education.In her speech, Dr Lemlem stated that African women are often engaged in informal sectors such as small-scale agriculture, fisheries, and petty trading, which are highly vulnerable to climate impacts. Losses in these sectors due to droughts, floods, or extreme weather events can exacerbate poverty and economic insecurity among women. In her conclusion, she suggested that unless gender issues and inequality are addressed, women and girls will continue to be more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and environmental degradation. She added that gender equality and gender justice are a central element of climate justice. This approach involves recognizing and addressing the differential impacts of climate change on people based on their gender identities, roles, and relations. The approach also centers on the diverse needs, experiences, and leadership of people, particularly women, impacted by discrimination and oppression. Ultimately the approach of gender justice helps achieve equity (equal distribution of resources, access, and opportunities) and equality (equal outcomes for all).Mr. Ketema Legesse from the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MoWSA) described the gender mainstreaming status of 20 sector ministries using a leveling tool prepared by their ministry. Accordingly, five sector ministries are labeled as highly gender-responsive, where gender mainstreaming and women empowerment are institutionalized. Eleven sector ministries are classified under genderresponsive, and the remaining four ministries are classified under gender-sensitive; no organization is gender-blind. According to Mr. Ketema, based on the gaps identified, MoWSA is supporting and facilitating sector ministries to mainstream gender in their policies, strategies, programs etc. and promote gender equality and empowerment.Mr. Mohammed Andoshe from the Ministry of Planning and Development summarized the existing climate change policies, strategies, plans and gender considerations Ethiopia adopted and implemented to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. He further discussed that based on the national plan and following the Paris Agreement, the country submitted its first NDC in 2015 and updated and submitted its second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2020. Both the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, of which Ethiopia is a signatory, make gender equality their integral parts. Therefore, gender analysis is required for women's inclusion in the plan's implementation. In the process of NDC moving forward, important activities include reviewing gender issues related to the action stated in the NDC and in the NDC update, particularly in terms of differences in roles and responsibilities, access to resources, decisionmaking power and participation and differences in needs and capacities. In addition to this, recommended actions for effective integration of gender considerations are important activities in the process of NDC moving forward.Dr. Abonesh Tesfaye gave an overview of the draft CCGAP document. The overview was presented with the following outline. Dr. Abonesh discussed the several ways climate variability and change affect the country, including a reduction in the production and productivity of different sectors, prevalence of pests and diseases that affect humans, crops and livestock, shifts in sowing and harvesting dates of crops, and environmental degradation. She also explained that climate change has varied effects on men, and women felt more strongly about women than men due to systemic gender discrimination, limited access to resources, and exclusion from policy and decision-making. However, the disproportionate burden of climate change on women can be countered by empowering them and recognizing them as change agents. She further explained that this is the reason why this CCGAP is drafted in collaboration with a working group established by the MoPD, MoWSA and ILRI-AICCRA with the main objective of integrating gender-responsive strategies into climate policies and actions in different sector ministries to address the issue of gender inequality and promote gender equality and women empowerment.Following the presentations, stakeholders raised questions for clarification. Some of the questions raised included:▪ Who developed the draft action plan? ▪ What were the criteria for selecting the eight priority sectors? ▪ Why were the Industry, Mining, Irrigation and Lowlands Ministries not included as priority sectors in the action plan? ▪ How do you measure the indicators? ▪ The role of the private sector is missing in the action plan ▪ A section on monitoring, evaluation and learning is missing ▪ Budget sources for these activities are not clear All the questions raised by stakeholders were properly addressed.During the breakout session, stakeholders formed four groups, and sectors that collaborated were assigned to the same group. Each group selected a facilitator and rapporteur. The four groups established were: All the stakeholders in the four groups edited and modified the draft action plans based on instructions given by facilitators. Once group work was finalized, in a plenary session, the rapporteur from each group presented a summary of the action plan prepared for further discussion. Most of the discussion was about resource mobilization to carry out the activities. It was suggested that the private sector and non-governmental organizations could be the sources of finance for the activities.  ","tokenCount":"1421"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6623465827.json b/data/part_3/6623465827.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"16d1139be9f215029d9a079e2f985c7d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e5d29ccb-23c9-4334-8540-58422dbebedf/retrieve","id":"1630520173"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3059fef1-5cb4-4b30-8709-477aad223826","pagecount":"1","content":"Identifying possibilities and pitfalls of technology-oriented climate change adaptation interventions in Pailom CSV through feminist analysis Commissioning Study: <Not Defined> Part II: CGIAR system level reporting Links to the Strategic Results Framework: Sub-IDOs: • Technologies that reduce women`s labor and energy expenditure adopted Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Yes SRF 2022/2030 targets: • # of more farm households have adopted improved varieties, breeds or trees Description of activity / study: A study was carried out in Pailom CSV (Laos) by an MSc student of the University of Copenhagen. The study explored the meaning-making of new climate change adaptation technologies as interpreted by local farmers and project practitioners, and the relation between technology and gender power dynamics at the local level.Analyses of the study focused on three technologies: new drought-tolerant rice varieties, the dynamic crop calendar, and the direct-seeding practice. The study found that design and arrangement of selected CSA T&Ps provided added values for households while maintaining existing local social hierarchies and also 'traditional' gender roles.","tokenCount":"170"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6664396653.json b/data/part_3/6664396653.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..65583e0016f01ed9f4b7c6934a86e9878be6dd2a
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7315a2b87073afc9555d42a3b2af8be5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/66a42726-da9c-4e3a-9ac3-14e57f2935a0/content","id":"271360215"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bf536b66-27d4-4a53-a263-45a3174f6f19","pagecount":"41","content":"2003. Derechos reservados. El CIMMYT es el único responsable de esta publicación. Las designaciones empleadas en la presentación de los materiales incluidos en esta publicación de ninguna manera expresan la opinión del CIMMYT o de sus patrocinadores respecto al estado legal de cualquier país, territorio, ciudad o zona, o de las autoridades de éstos, o respecto a la delimitación de sus fronteras. El CIMMYT autoriza el uso de este material, siempre y cuando se cite la fuente.El Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT®) (www.cimmyt.mx) es una organización internacional, sin fines de lucro, que se dedica a la investigación científica y la capacitación. Tiene su sede en México y colabora con instituciones de investigación agrícola de todo el mundo para mejorar la productividad y la sostenibilidad de los sistemas de maíz y trigo para los agricultores de escasos recursos en los países en desarrollo. El CIMMYT forma parte de los 16 centros de Future Harvest dedicados a la investigación sobre cultivos alimentarios y el medio ambiente. Con oficinas en todo el mundo, los centros de Future Harvest llevan a cabo investigación colaborativa con agricultores, científicos y formuladores de políticas para combatir la pobreza y aumentar la seguridad alimentaria, al tiempo que protegen los recursos naturales. Son financiados por el Grupo Consultivo sobre la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org), entre cuyos miembros se cuentan cerca de 60 países, organizaciones tanto internacionales como regionales y fundaciones privadas. El CIMMYT recibe fondos para su agenda de investigación de varias fuentes, entre las que se encuentran fundaciones, bancos de desarrollo e instituciones públicas y privadas. Figura 2. Distribución porcentual del valor de la producción de los cultivos agrícolas. Figura 3. Producción de los principales cultivos básicos en México. Figura 4. Gasto federal en ciencia y tecnología, en millones de pesos a precios de 1994, y su porcentaje con respecto al PBI. Figura 5. Distribución del gasto federal en ciencia y tecnología en agricultura, ganadería y desarrollo rural en 1997 (por institución).En la década del 90, el sector agropecuario mexicano generó alrededor del 5% del PBI y el 2.5% de las exportaciones. A pesar de su reducida contribución al PBI, el sector agropecuario tiene una gran importancia económica y social como generador de empleos (un 25% del empleo total), por su influencia sobre el costo de vida, la prevalencia de la pobreza rural (más del 75% de la población pobre y más del 50% de los que viven en pobreza extrema habitan en zonas rurales) y porque las exportaciones agropecuarias constituyen una fuente de ingreso importante para varias regiones, especialmente las zonas irrigadas del norte y centro del país.Desde la década del 70, algunos productores agropecuarios mexicanos, especialmente los que se integraron a cadenas exportadoras, pudieron incorporar tecnologías de punta que han sido la base de su competitividad. Pero, en general, estas tecnologías no fueron desarrolladas por las instituciones públicas de investigación sino que fueron importadas o desarrolladas por empresas privadas mexicanas.Las instituciones públicas de investigación fueron creadas para proporcionar apoyo técnico a las políticas de desarrollo agropecuario.Por esta razón, las autoridades de estas instituciones mantenían contactos fluidos con las dependencias gubernamentales de las que dependían, pero sus interacciones con agricultores y empresas ligadas al sector eran débiles. En general, esta estructura jerárquica se reproducía dentro de las instituciones y en sus relaciones con los agricultores.A partir de la década del 90, México ha hecho un esfuerzo importante para reformar su sistema público de investigación. Los cambios incluyeron nuevos incentivos para los investigadores establecidos por las principales instituciones financiadoras. Sin embargo, las reformas dentro de las propias instituciones han avanzado a paso lento, especialmente los incentivos para incrementar las interacciones con otros agentes dentro del sistema de innovación agropecuario aún no se han adecuado a las necesidades de un sector integrado a la economía mundial.En la década del 90, el sector agropecuario mexicano generó alrededor del 5% del PBI (OCDE, 1997) y el 2.5% de las exportaciones (Banco Mundial, 2001). A pesar de su reducida contribución al PBI, el sector agropecuario tiene una gran importancia económica y social como generador de empleos (un 25% del empleo total), por su influencia sobre el costo de vida, la prevalencia de la pobreza rural (más del 75% de la población pobre y más del 50% de los que viven en pobreza extrema habitan en zonas rurales) (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000), y porque las exportaciones agropecuarias constituyen una fuente de ingreso importante para varias regiones, especialmente las zonas irrigadas del norte y centro del país.La importancia económica del sector agropecuario mexicano disminuyó en las últimas décadas dado su lento crecimiento relativo. Entre 1988 y el 2000, el PBI agrícola creció a una tasa promedio anual del 1.9% mientras que el PBI total creció a una tasa del 3.5%. Las causas de este comportamiento son varias, entre ellas, la prevalencia de campesinos minifundistas, políticas económicas que no favorecían la adopción de tecnologías más productivas, regímenes de propiedad de la tierra poco flexibles, precios reales decrecientes para cereales y carnes, un fuerte ajuste de las estructuras productivas en respuesta a la apertura de los mercados agropecuarios, y sistemas de investigación y extensión rígidos y débilmente articulados con otros agentes del sistema de innovación agropecuario.Hasta la década del 80, el sector agropecuario mexicano operó en medio de una compleja estructura de subsidios directos e indirectos (incluyendo control de precios de productos e insumos), control estatal de la comercialización e importación de ciertos bienes, fuertes inversiones en infraestructura de riego e investigación agropecuaria. Los dos objetivos principales de las políticas agrícolas, incluidas las de investigación, eran la autosuficiencia alimentaria y el apoyo a los pequeños productores de subsistencia. Sin embargo, ni la competitividad ni la sostenibilidad de la agricultura figuraban entre las metas públicas. Estos objetivos se plasmaron en la concentración de los apoyos a productos pecuarios y granos básicos destinados a mercados domésticos aislados de los mercados internacionales. En forma paralela, respondiendo a oportunidades de mercado y sin apoyo público, se desarrolló una industria de exportación de hortalizas y frutas (Calvin y Barrios, 1999).La evolución de estos dos subsectores (producción para consumo interno y exportación) respondió, entre otras influencias, a oportunidades tecnológicas y comerciales específicas. La producción dirigida al mercado interno y las actividades de investigación relacionadas con ésta se organizaron en lo que Kash y Rycoft (2000) llamaron el patrón normal de evolución: redes de agentes relativamente estables que generan innovaciones a lo largo de trayectorias tecnológicas conocidas. Puesto que cada agente \"entiende\" el funcionamiento del sistema y las necesidades y capacidades de otros agentes, las relaciones entre éstos son relativamente impersonales y formales, en muchos casos, terciadas por mercados.El sistema público de investigación agropecuaria mexicano se formó antes de la década del 80 como parte de esta red relativamente estática. Lo integraron dos grupos de agentes bien diferenciados: las instituciones públicas (especialmente el INIFAP y las instituciones que lo precedieron) y las universidades. Estos agentes se organizaron como dependencias públicas tradicionales, lo que impuso serias limitaciones a su capacidad operativa. Internamente, estas instituciones se estructuraron por disciplinas científicas o por cultivos, con pocas interacciones con otros agentes del sistema de innovación (incluidos los usuarios de tecnologías), con el propósito de apoyar la producción de productos con poco valor agregado pero gran importancia política (granos básicos y ganadería), y se concentraron en aspectos puramente productivos dentro de las explotaciones agropecuarias (mejoramiento genético, plagas y enfermedades, manejo de agroquímicos y algunos aspectos de manejo de cultivos). Las universidades, además, se organizaron siguiendo los modelos tradicionales de las universidades europeas, donde los profesores no tenían obligación de investigar ni de interactuar con el resto de la sociedad.conformación de nuevas redes de interacción y el desarrollo de nuevas líneas de investigación. Además, la nueva trayectoria se caracterizó por una mayor incertidumbre tecnológica y comercial. Dados los limitados conocimientos sobre el sistema, los agentes tuvieron que establecer contactos más directos y estrechos entre sí. Ante la débil respuesta de las instituciones públicas de investigación, fue necesario importar las primeras tecnologías de producción y comercialización, si bien más tarde agentes mexicanos influyeron también en el desarrollo del sistema (Calvin y Barrios, 1999).La crisis de 1982 puso en evidencia la necesidad de replantear el modelo de sustitución de importaciones. Después de la implementación de los programas de ajuste estructural en 1984, las políticas agrarias se transformaron radicalmente. Se desregularon los mercados nacional e internacional y se liberalizó el mercado de tierras. El sector agropecuario tuvo que ajustarse rápidamente a las nuevas reglas del juego y respondió con fuertes ajustes en su estructura de producción: se expandieron considerablemente las exportaciones de frutas y hortalizas y se redujo la producción de granos básicos (con excepción del maíz para el que se mantuvieron fuertes subsidios en algunos estados).El nuevo entorno político y económico transformó las necesidades tecnológicas de los productores agropecuarios. De pronto, la competitividad y la sostenibilidad pasaron a ser objetivos fundamentales. La atención de estos objetivos requería nuevas rutinas de investigación, basadas en una visión sistémica del proceso productivo y la interacción con otros agentes dentro del sistema de innovación. Sin embargo, las instituciones públicas no tenían ni los medios ni los incentivos para apoyar el desarrollo tecnológico de estos productos.Al reconocer la necesidad de reestructurar el sistema público de investigación, en la segunda mitad de la década del 90 el gobierno mexicano modificó el régimen que regula estas actividades. El objetivo de las reformas era vincular las instituciones públicas de investigación con agentes públicos y privados. Las instituciones respondieron cambiando sus rutinas de operación, incluidos sus sistemas de incentivos. Sin embargo, como sucede con todos los cambios fundamentales, la transición ha sido lenta y su avance desigual debido a la inercia creada por culturas institucionales que no favorecen la interacción entre instituciones, valoran la disciplina (y por ende la uniformidad) dentro de los equipos de investigación, desincentivan la creatividad de investigadores individuales y no crean espacios para la integración y desarrollo de investigadores jóvenes.En la sección 2 se describen aspectos esenciales de la evolución y organización actual de la agricultura mexicana. El Sistema Nacional de Investigación se analiza en la sección 3, mientras que el Subsistema Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria se analiza en la sección 4. Las conclusiones se presentan en la sección 5.El territorio mexicano tiene una superficie aproximada de 197 millones de hectáreas. De esta superficie, las tierras cultivables ocupan cerca del 16%, las praderas naturales 41%, los bosques 25% y las malezas 16% (OCDE, 1997). Desde el punto de vista agroecológico, el país se divide en tres grandes regiones: Árida (norte del país), Templada (centro) y Trópico (sur), las cuales a su vez tienen varios microclimas. Esta gran variedad agroecológica permite cultivar una gran diversidad de productos agropecuarios.A pesar de esta diversidad ecológica y productiva, los productores agropecuarios pueden dividirse en tres grandes grupos: los que producen para la exportación, ubicados mayormente en el noroeste y centro del país; los productores comerciales que abastecen el mercado interno y los productores de subsistencia. Cada uno de estos grupos tiene necesidades sociales y tecnológicas diferentes. Los dos primeros necesitan mantener su competitividad en los mercados interno y de exportación. Para los productores de subsistencia, en cambio, la prioridad es desarrollar nuevas fuentes de ingreso para romper el círculo vicioso de la pobreza. No obstante estas diferentes necesidades tecnológicas, todos los grupos enfrentan un mismo problema que condiciona su supervivencia: integrarse a mercados cada vez más competitivos y complejos que los fuerza a innovar con más frecuencia y a modificar tanto aspectos productivos como de comercialización.Una segunda división importante se encuentra entre productores ejidatarios y productores dueños de sus explotaciones. Los miembros del ejido disponían del derecho de uso en forma colectiva pero no individual. El sistema ejidal se caracterizaba por derechos de propiedad mal definidos e imponía fuertes restricciones al desarrollo de un mercado de tierras (OCDE, 1997). Como resultado de estas restricciones se consolidó un sector campesino con poca capacidad de invertir en tecnologías agropecuarias más productivas.La reforma constitucional de 1992 autorizó a los ejidatarios a vender (previa autorización de la asamblea ejidal), rentar o hipotecar sus parcelas. El objetivo de la reforma era reforzar los derechos de propiedad para inducir un aumento de las inversiones y la consolidación de las parcelas pequeñas en explotaciones viables. A pesar de estos cambios en la legislación de tierras, el proceso de consolidación de explotaciones ejidales ha sido lento. En cambio, el mercado de renta de tierras ejidales se expandió considerablemente y aumentó el uso de tierras comunales para pastura (Deininger y Bresciani, 2001). Pese a la lentitud del proceso, se observa un aumento de la concentración de la propiedad de la tierra en manos privadas. Los ejidatarios que han vendido sus tierras se han transformado en asalariados rurales o han emigrado a las ciudades para emplearse como obreros. Sin embargo, no se observan incrementos de inversión privada en el campo.Los productores privados (incluidos los pequeños productores) en general tienen mayores ingresos y son más productivos que los productores ejidatarios (Deininger y Bresciani, 2001). Si bien las pequeñas propiedades bajo diferentes formas de tenencia predominan en el campo mexicano, las grandes explotaciones generan una proporción importante de la producción agrícola (OCDE, 1997).Uno de los mayores problemas del campo mexicano es la prevalencia de la pobreza rural, ya que ésta se encuentra más concentrada en el campo y los pobres rurales viven en condiciones más precarias que los pobres urbanos. Entre 1985 y 1999 la proporción de la población rural disminuyó del 31.4% al 25.6% de la población total, pero la población rural concentró más de la tercera parte de la población pobre y más de la mitad de los que viven en pobreza extrema. En 1998 se estimaba que el 59% de la población rural era pobre y el 31% vivía en pobreza extrema. La reducción en los índices de pobreza rural en la década del 90 no se asocia tanto a mejoras en la productividad de la agricultura como a fuertes procesos migratorios hacia las ciudades y los Estados Unidos (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000).Desde la década del 50 hasta mediados de la del 80, México mantuvo políticas de sustitución de importaciones y de autosuficiencia alimentaria junto con un sistema político sumamente centralizado (OCDE, 1977). Los objetivos principales de estas políticas eran garantizar una oferta estable de alimentos baratos a los consumidores urbanos y la reducción de la pobreza rural. Los instrumentos más importantes fueron el apoyo a productores que abastecían al mercado interno, en especial, los pequeños productores de granos básicos (maíz, trigo, frijol, cebada, arroz, sorgo y cinco oleaginosas), una fuerte intervención estatal en las cadenas de comercialización (incluido el comercio exterior) y la desprotección de actividades ligadas a la exportación de bienes y servicios (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000).En las décadas del 40 y 50, el PBI agropecuario creció a una tasa media anual del 5.8% y el subsector agrícola casi al 7%, como resultado de una expansión de la superficie cosechada del 4% y un aumento de los rendimientos del 3%. Este fuerte crecimiento fue posible gracias a importantes inversiones en obras de irrigación y al comportamiento relativamente favorable de los precios agropecuarios. En 1939 México tenía 15 millones de hectáreas cultivables; para 1949 éstas aumentaron a 20 millones y a 24 millones en 1960. A partir de entonces la superficie de tierra cultivable ha permanecido estable. Adicionalmente, 80 millones de hectáreas se destinan a la ganadería, de las cuales dos terceras partes se localizan en las zonas semiáridas con baja capacidad de carga animal (Fernández-Cornejo y Shumway, 1997).Gracias a los grandes proyectos públicos de irrigación, las tierras de riego pasaron de 1.7 millones de hectáreas en 1939 a 2.4 millones en 1949, 3 millones en 1960 y 5 millones en 1980, y desde esa fecha se han mantenido sin cambios importantes. La superficie cosechada aumentó de 6.7 millones de hectáreas en 1939 a 8.6 millones en 1949, 11.4 millones en 1960 y 17.4 millones de hectáreas en 1980, manteniéndose estable en las dos décadas siguientes (FAO, 1999).A partir de la década del 70, el gobierno federal utilizó los ingresos petroleros para aumentar los subsidios al campo, los cuales alcanzaron en 1981 el 22% del PBI agropecuario. Muchos de los programas de desarrollo agrícola, así como de inversión pública, extensión, investigación, controles sanitarios y apoyos directos a la producción y la comercialización eran ejecutados directamente por el gobierno federal. Las políticas agrícolas y de desarrollo emplearon diversos incentivos para promover tecnologías seleccionadas por los técnicos que diseñaban los programas. 2 En general, las políticas agropecuarias fueron organizadas desde el gobierno federal hacia abajo, con escasa participación de productores y gobiernos estatales y municipales. Esta organización de arriba hacia abajo contribuyó a la generación de un fuerte déficit fiscal, distorsiones de mercado, corrupción, clientelismo político y costos de transacción muy altos (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000;Kondo, 1999;Triomphe et al., 2001). Sin embargo, estas políticas tuvieron impactos contradictorios sobre el sector privado. Por un lado, elevaron la rentabilidad por medio de subsidios y la creación de infraestructura en irrigación, electrificación, comunicaciones y provisión de servicios esenciales (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000). Por otro lado, disminuyeron la capacidad de innovación de los productores agropecuarios, reduciendo la inversión privada neta.En la década del 80, México comenzó un profundo proceso de transformación económica basado en la desregulación de la economía interna y del comercio exterior; en cambio, la transformación política se retrasó diez años. El efecto combinado de las nuevas políticas resultó en la transferencia de responsabilidades del gobierno a los productores privados y ejidales, de las autoridades federales a los gobiernos estatales y la eliminación de la regulación de precios por parte del gobierno permitiendo el accionar de los mercados (Naylor et al., 2001).Las nuevas políticas redujeron la inversión pública en el sector agropecuario, los subsidios y los gastos en fomento agrícola y desregularon parcialmente el comercio internacional de productos agropecuarios. La proporción del gasto público orientado a la agricultura en el gasto total cayó del 12% en 1980 a menos del 6% en 1989. Este último porcentaje se calculó sobre un total notablemente inferior al del comienzo de la década. Habiéndose desarrollado con una protección fuerte, la agricultura se vio repentinamente obligada a competir en mercados más abiertos.A pesar de los cambios de políticas, la superficie cosechada, los rendimientos por hectárea y la composición del producto agropecuario, se mantuvieron estables durante la década del 80. En la década del 90 el sector creció a tasas moderadas, impulsado por un aumento en los rendimientos unitarios y cambios en la estructura de cultivos. Este mayor dinamismo reflejó los cambios estructurales que se habían producido en la década anterior: mientras que la producción de la mayoría de los granos y oleaginosas cayó, aumentó la de frutas, verduras, forrajes y cultivos industriales (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000).En el periodo analizado, dos tipos de políticas influyeron fuertemente sobre el agro mexicano: las de precios de productos e insumos agropecuarios, incluidos los subsidios a la producción, y las de comercio exterior.Hasta la primera mitad de la década del 80 las políticas de precios incluían precios de garantía para determinados productos, control del comercio exterior e intervención en el tipo de cambio. Los apoyos a la producción incluían subsidios a los insumos (particularmente al agua de riego, electricidad, fertilizantes y semillas), tasas de interés preferenciales, seguro agrícola e inversiones en infraestructura agrícola (Mielke, 1992). Las políticas de precios incentivaron un uso excesivo de ciertos insumos; por ejemplo, existen evidencias claras de que los acuíferos en las principales áreas de riego se están agotando porque las extracciones superan la recarga (Triomphe et al., 2001).Luego de la incorporación de México al Tratado de Libre Comercio entre Canadá, Estados Unidos y México (TLC), se establecieron apoyos que compensaban a los compradores de productos agropecuarios por pagar un precio interno superior al de productos similares importados. Estos apoyos son operados por Apoyos y Servicios a la Comercialización Agropecuaria (ASERCA). Esta institución también otorga cobertura de precios a los productores de ciertos productos en regiones específicos. El monto de subsidios otorgado por ASERCA en el 2000 fue de aproximadamente 320 millones de dólares (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000).Un objetivo importante de las políticas agropecuarias recientes fue la consolidación de los mecanismos de mercado como elemento director de las decisiones productivas. La transición de un mercado protegido a uno integrado a la economía internacional forzó a los productores a transformarse para aumentar su eficiencia productiva y de comercialización. Pero esta transformación se ha demorado por falta de crédito (Rosenzweig, 2001) y los crecientes riesgos asociados con el inicio de nuevas actividades. Los productores utilizaron los programas de apoyo a la agricultura, como Alianza para el Campo, para capitalizarse y continuar produciendo granos. Como la mayoría de los beneficiarios del programa Alianza eran productores de zonas irrigadas, los pequeños productores de zonas de temporal dejaron de recibir apoyo (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000). La razón es que los productores participantes tenían que contribuir con un tercio de los costos, y esto limitaba los apoyos a productores con una mínima capacidad financiera.alrededor de 8.7 millones de trabajadores (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000;Zedillo, 2000). En el período 1990-1999 la producción agrícola representó en promedio el 70% del PBI agropecuario, la producción pecuaria el 23%, la silvícola el 4% y la pesquera el 3%. En el mismo período, la producción agrícola creció a una tasa media anual del 1.9%, la producción pecuaria a una tasa del 1.3%, la silvícola al 1.0% y la pesca al 1.1% (INEGI, varios años) (Figura 1).Los rubros agrícolas más importantes son hortalizas, frutales, cereales y forrajes. Entre 1980 y 1999 la participación de los cereales en el valor total de la producción agrícola cayó de 31% a 20% y la de los cultivos industriales de 19% a 15% (Figura 2). Esta caída fue causada por el mayor dinamismo tecnológico y comercial de las producciones para exportación, cambios en las políticas agrícolas y la caída de los precios reales de cereales y oleaginosas.Si bien las exportaciones de hortalizas ya eran importantes a fines de la década del 80, los cambios tecnológicos en la producción y comercialización se aceleraron en la década del 90. Las principales innovaciones tecnológicas de producción introducidas fueron los sistemas de riego presurizados y por goteo, los sistemas de ferti-irrigación, el uso de la plasticultura o acolchado (que permite esterilizar el suelo por las altas temperaturas que genera, retener humedad e inhibir el crecimiento de malezas) y la introducción de semillas mejoradas.En general, estas tecnologías fueron importadas. En el caso del tomate, la principal hortaliza de exportación, se introdujo una variedad de larga vida en anaquel, desarrollada en Israel. Esta variedad aumentó la competitividad de los productores mexicanos en el mercado estadounidense, ya que dicha variedad no ha podido ser adaptada a las principales zonas productoras de Estados Unidos. La adopción de sistemas de fertiirrigación fue subsidiada por los gobiernos federal y estatales (Salcedo, 1999). Las tecnologías de comercialización introducidas incluyeron una consolidación de las empresas comercializadoras para ofrecer hortalizas todo el año y mayor eficiencia en los trámites aduaneros, en las comunicaciones con los compradores y en los procesos de distribución en Estados Unidos (Calvin y Barrios, 1999).La producción de frutas para la exportación también aumentó considerablemente. Por ejemplo, las exportaciones de plátano crecieron 4.870% durante el periodo 1982-1997. Las tecnologías de producción fueron importadas de Centroamérica; de hecho algunos gerentes de las principales fincas bananeras eran originarios de esta región (Salcedo, 1999). Si bien el crecimiento de las exportaciones de frutas y hortalizas se ha concentrado en productores mexicanos que ya exportaban antes del TLC, existe un gran potencial de crecimiento para productores medianos que todavía no participan en estos mercados (Yúnez-Naude, 2001).El desarrollo de cuencas lecheras intensivas en varias regiones del país ha estimulado la demanda de varios cultivos forrajeros, entre los que destacan la alfalfa, el maíz y el sorgo. Los granos básicos desempeñan un papel fundamental en la agricultura mexicana ya que constituyen la base de la alimentación de una gran parte de la población de bajos recursos, en particular de campesinos que producen para el autoconsumo. En los años previos a la entrada en vigencia del TLC, la mayoría de los estudios indicaban que la producción de granos básicos caería como consecuencia de la competencia de importaciones. A pesar de las predicciones, la producción se mantuvo estancada en la década del 90, salvo la de maíz, que se expandió (Figura 3), y la de trigo y de soya que se contrajeron; esta última principalmente a causa de los ataques de la mosca blanca.Existen tres explicaciones alternativas de la estabilidad de la producción de granos básicos. La primera es que el nivel de protección efectiva que se le otorga es aún relativamente alto. PROCAMPO y ASERCA, en particular, han apoyado a los productores de granos básicos, y principalmente a los comerciales 4 (Rosenzweig, 2001, Yúnez-Naude, 2001). En el caso del maíz, los fuertes subsidios estuvieron complementados con un considerable aumento de los rendimientos y la expansión del cultivo en zonas con condiciones favorables.La segunda explicación es que una gran parte de la oferta de granos básicos Figura 3. Producción de los principales cultivos básicos en México.Fuente: SAGARPA.Trigo granoFrijol (sobre todo maíz y frijol) es generada por pequeños productores. Estos productores enfrentan altos costos de transacción en algunos mercados, lo que explica, al menos parcialmente, que produzcan para el autoconsumo. 5 Por esta razón, fueron menos afectados por la liberalización de las políticas de precios y de comercio exterior (Taylor et al., 1999).La tercera explicación es que las demandas de los productores de autoconsumo se basan en características específicas (ej., gusto, color, facilidad de cocción, etc.), que no pueden encontrarse fácilmente en los mercados. Al mismo tiempo, las familias de estos productores tienen estrategias de ingresos diversificadas, entre ellas, la producción para el autoconsumo, producción para el mercado e ingresos no agropecuarios (especialmente transferencias de migrantes) (Yúnez-Naude et al., 2000). Apenas entre el 20% y el 35% del ingreso de los productores con 5 ha o menos se genera en la finca, más del 50% del ingreso proviene de actividades no agrícolas y entre el 16 y el 20% de transferencias de migrantes a los Estados Unidos (Rosenzweig, 2001). Por esta razón, su producción de granos básicos no está dirigida al mercado sino a satisfacer una demanda personal.Durante los últimos 20 años, la competitividad de la agricultura mexicana estuvo afectada por tres grandes variables: 1) la inestabilidad de la década del 80 y primera mitad de la del 90, seguida por la apertura comercial y la apreciación del tipo de cambio; 2) el peso de las deudas bancarias del sector, agravada por las altas tasas de interés real; y 3) la rápida reducción de los subsidios por parte del gobierno federal en la década del 90 (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000). Las exportaciones de productos agroalimentarios que más crecieron en el periodo de 1985-1997 fueron legumbres, hortalizas y frutas frescas, cerveza, tequila y otros aguardientes, jugo de naranja, extractos de café y carne bovina. Las exportaciones de frutas y verduras frescas crecieron gracias a las ventajas estacionales con que cuenta México, a la importación de tecnologías avanzadas (ver la pág. 10), al crecimiento de la demanda en Estados Unidos, y en menor medida al TLC dado que los aranceles aplicados a las frutas y verduras mexicanas eran en promedio bajos antes de la entrada en vigor del Tratado. Las importaciones que más crecieron en ese periodo fueron alimentos para ganado, carnes frescas o refrigeradas, aceites y grasas animales y vegetales, preparados alimenticios especiales y conservas vegetales.En la agricultura mexicana conviven diferentes sistemas de producción. Los tres más importantes son la agricultura comercial, los pequeños productores en transición y los productores de subsistencia (Del Valle y Sánchez, 1996). Los agricultores comerciales se caracterizan por su inserción en mercados nacionales e internacionales; cuentan con extensiones de tierra relativamente importantes y utilizan sistemas de riego e insumos comerciales; en la región Noroeste producen hortalizas, granos y frutales; en la región del Noreste predomina la producción de forrajes y granos, y en el Bajío (centro) destacan los granos y hortalizas.Los productores en transición agrupan a ejidatarios y productores privados que producen alimentos básicos para el mercado interno; poseen extensiones de tierra de medianas a grandes, generalmente de buen temporal y emplean insumos modernos (ej. semillas mejoradas y fertilizantes).Los productores tradicionales o de subsistencia se encuentran en todo el territorio mexicano, sobre todo en terrenos de temporal, utilizan semillas criollas que generalmente guardan de cosechas anteriores y pocos insumos comerciales. En este tipo de agricultura predomina la producción de granos básicos para autoconsumo. Por esta razón, su demanda de tecnologías de alta productividad es muy baja (Taylor et al., 1999).El sistema nacional de investigación puede dividirse en un subsistema institucionalizado y uno no institucionalizado. En el nivel superior del sistema institucionalizado está el Poder Ejecutivo Federal, responsable de regular las actividades de investigación y de asignar recursos para investigación en la propuesta de presupuesto elevado al Congreso. El Presidente de la República es asesorado en temas científicos por el Consejo Consultivo de Ciencias, formado por investigadores a los que se les ha otorgado el Premio Nacional de Ciencias. En 1999 se creó el Gabinete Especializado en Ciencia y Tecnología, el cual realizó su primera reunión de trabajo en mayo del 2000.El Congreso de la Unión participa en el proceso de elaboración y aprobación del presupuesto de la nación y de las leyes que regulan las actividades de investigación. En ambas cámaras del Congreso existen comités de ciencia y tecnología, encargados de la preparación y análisis de las iniciativas legislativas relacionadas con la investigación científica y la difusión de tecnologías.Por debajo del poder ejecutivo, los principales organismos dentro del sistema de ciencia y tecnología son (RICYT, 2001):• La Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP).• El Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT).• El sistema CINVESTAV.• Otras secretarías de estado.Hasta el 2001 la SEP era el máximo organismo responsable de la política científica y tecnológica mexicana y de la coordinación de las actividades de las instituciones que participan del sistema institucional de investigación. La SEP era también responsable del funcionamiento y evaluación del CONACYT, así como de su programación y decisiones presupuestarias. En el 2002 el CONACYT se convirtió en un organismo dependiente directamente de la Presidencia de la República y dejó de depender de la SEP.El CONACYT es un organismo público federal con estatuto jurídico propio. Cumple un papel fundamental en el sistema de ciencia y tecnología mexicano, ya que colabora con la administración federal en la definición de las políticas científicas y tecnológicas, participa de la coordinación del sistema institucionalizado, define normas de funcionamiento, administra fondos públicos para ciencia y tecnología, apoya la innovación en el sector productivo y contribuye a la vinculación de las actividades de ciencia y técnica con otros agentes dentro del país y con instituciones extranjeras. Además, es responsable del sistema de estudios de postgrado más importante del país, mantiene varios centros de investigación en el sistema SEP-CONACYT y administra el Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI).El sistema SEP-CONACYT, creado en 1992, puede dividirse en tres subsistemas: el de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, cuya misión principal es el desarrollo de ciencia básica y aplicada, el de Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica y Servicios, orientado a satisfacer las necesidades de las industrias y favorecer el desarrollo económico de las regiones en las que actúan, y el de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades. En 1996 el sistema recibió cerca del 19% del gasto del gobierno federal en ciencia y tecnología (Casas et al., 2000).El SNI fue creado en 1994 por decreto presidencial como un mecanismo de estímulo económico a los investigadores, con el propósito de arraigarlos en sus centros e institutos de docencia e investigación. El SNI está diseñado principalmente para investigadores con nivel de doctorado y con una alta producción científica. Inicialmente, los requisitos de entrada y permanencia en el SNI daban prioridad a las publicaciones en revistas científicas incluidas en un padrón de excelencia del CONACYT. De esta manera, se incentivaba a los investigadores a realizar estudios de doctorado y se fomentaba la investigación académica, pero no la interacción con otros agentes del sistema de innovación. Además, el sistema discriminaba las actividades de investigación más aplicadas o de sistemas, ya que éstas raramente permiten escribir artículos que se puedan publicar en revistas científicas de primer nivel. Los investigadores ligados al sector agropecuario fueron particularmente afectados por estas reglamentaciones (ver más adelante). Una reforma al sistema en 1999 permitió a los investigadores participar en el SNI, no sólo con base en publicaciones sino también por desarrollos tecnológicos y actividades de innovación.Los recursos destinados al SNI en el 2000 fueron de aproximadamente 70 millones de dólares (CONACYT, 2001). El número de investigadores aumentó de 5,879 en 1995 a cerca de 7,800 en el 2000. Además del crecimiento absoluto, el sistema se descentralizó. En 1995, el 33% de los investigadores del SNI se encontraban en los estados mientras que en el 2000 esta proporción aumentó al 48%.El CONACYT ha dedicado una proporción significativa de su presupuesto al Programa de Becas-Crédito, y a partir de 1993 se manifestó un crecimiento sustantivo en los recursos destinados a este rubro. En 1996 los fondos destinados a becas representaron el 40% del gasto total del CONACYT, contra el 29% en 1994. El destino de los recursos de las becas también ha registrado cambios. En 1994 el 55% del gasto en este rubro se destinaba a financiar estudios en el país y el 45% en el extranjero. En el 2000 estas proporciones fueron de 65% y 35%, respectivamente, lo cual reflejó los menores costos obtenidos por medio de convenios con instituciones educativas extranjeras (CONACYT, 2001).Uno de los mecanismos más importantes que utiliza el CONACYT para distribuir recursos financieros son los concursos de proyectos de investigación abiertos a todas las instituciones de investigación y docencia. Existen dos tipos de convocatorias: nacionales y regionales. En las convocatorias nacionales se concursa principalmente por proyectos de investigación básica y/o estratégica, a cargo de investigadores con doctorado de amplia trayectoria. Las convocatorias regionales operan a través de nueve delegaciones regionales, y los recursos se orientan principalmente a proyectos de investigación aplicada de impacto regional, a cargo de investigadores que con frecuencia tienen menores calificaciones académicas. En ambos casos, los criterios de aprobación de los proyectos son: calidad académica, pertinencia y cobertura regional, aportación de fondos complementarios, trabajo interinstitucional e interdisciplinario y formación de recursos humanos.En 1998 se estableció el Programa de Modernización Tecnológica, el cual brinda apoyo económico al sector privado para adquirir servicios de consultoría a fin de diagnosticar la problemática tecnológica de empresas individuales y realizar proyectos tecnológicos que mejoren tanto los productos como los procesos productivos (CONACYT, 2001).El sistema CINVESTAV (Centro de Investigaciones y de Estudios Avanzados) fue creado en 1961 con el propósito de formar investigadores especializados y de desarrollar investigaciones originales en diferentes áreas científicas y tecnológicas. Inicialmente ubicado en la Ciudad de México, posteriormente abrió otras unidades en los estados de Guanajuato, Yucatán, Coahuila, Jalisco y Querétaro. En 1996 el CINVESTAV recibió el 7% de los gastos federales en ciencia y técnica y empleaba al 7% de los investigadores del SNI (Casas et al., 2000).Diversas secretarías de estado (ej. SAGARPA, SEMARNAT, de Energía, de Economía y de Desarrollo Social) también realizan investigación científica y desarrollo tecnológico en áreas de su competencia en institutos especializados, como los de Ecología y de Tecnología del Agua, dependientes de la SEMARNAT. Otras instituciones que realizan tareas de investigación y desarrollo tecnológico en México son:• Instituciones de educación superior (públicas y privadas). Las principales universidades públicas que realizan investigación son la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana y el Instituto Politécnico Nacional. Tres universidades (dependientes de la SAGARPA) se dedican especialmente al sector agropecuario: el Colegio de Postgraduados (CP), la Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (UACh) y la Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro (UAAAN). En años recientes, algunas universidades localizadas en los estados han comenzado programas de investigación, a menudo en asociación con universidades estadounidenses. Entre las instituciones privadas que realizan investigación agropecuaria se destaca el Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, orientado principalmente a los agronegocios. • Sector industrial, donde unas pocas empresas han desarrollado importantes capacidades de investigación y desarrollo, como por ejemplo, en biotecnología aplicada a frutas y verduras.Igual que en la mayoría de los países latinoamericanos, las instituciones públicas de investigación en México fueron creadas con la misión de generar tecnologías para el sector público mientras que las instituciones de educación realizaban \"ciencia pura\" (Casas et al., 2000;Katz, 2001). Además, las instituciones se organizaron según la concepción lineal de la ciencia. El resultado fue un sistema fragmentado en el que las instituciones de investigación acumularon una considerable capacidad de trabajo pero interactuaban débilmente con otras instituciones de investigación y el sector productivo.En la década del 90, México comenzó a transformar su sistema de investigación, que era dominado casi con exclusividad por el sector público. En 1998 se promovió un amplio debate sobre cuál debería ser el marco regulatorio de la investigación en México. A partir de dicho debate, la SEP, el Consejo Consultivo de Ciencias de la Presidencia de la República, la Academia Mexicana de Ciencias y el CONACYT elaboraron la propuesta de ley para el Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, cuyo objetivo era crear un nuevo marco regulatorio para estas actividades y para los apoyos otorgados por el gobierno federal. La ley, aprobada a comienzos de 1999, establece que el Estado debe fomentar la descentralización -territorial e institucional-de las actividades de investigación, así como fomentar la vinculación de las instituciones públicas de investigación con empresas. 6 También establece que los apoyos públicos deben distribuirse mediante concursos y que las instituciones que reciban recursos públicos deben someterse a evaluaciones externas periódicas.Antes de la sanción de la ley, las instituciones públicas de investigación estaban obligadas a cumplir con la normatividad establecida por la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público y de la Contraloría y Desarrollo Administrativo. Estas normas eran demasiado rígidas para la realización de tareas de investigación y limitaban la capacidad operativa de los institutos públicos. Para subsanar esta deficiencia, la ley creó la figura jurídica de los Centros Públicos de Investigación, otorgándoles una mayor autonomía técnica, operativa y administrativa. La mayor autonomía implica que los Centros Públicos pueden disponer de la totalidad de los recursos que generen y con ello incentivar la captación de recursos y la interacción con agentes que puedan proveer recursos.En 1999 se autorizó la desgravación impositiva de los incrementos en gastos de innovación en empresas y se permitió a las instituciones científicas y tecnológicas importar insumos libres de gravámenes. El CONACYT, junto con las Secretarías de Hacienda y Crédito Público, Educación Pública y Comercio y Fomento Industrial, integra el comité interinstitucional que evalúa las propuestas que presentan las empresas a fin de hacerse acreedoras a dicho estímulo. Si bien aún no ha pasado suficiente tiempo como para evaluar este programa, los primeros resultados muestran que su impacto es débil. Además, la experiencia de otros países indica que estos estímulos no son adecuados para las pequeñas empresas porque los montos que éstas pagan en impuestos son reducidos; en cambio, estos programas pueden ser importantes para las grandes empresas, incluidas las agroindustriales.A fin de corregir la falta de interacción entre agentes, en la década del 90 se crearon una serie de programas y centros de vinculación tecnológica y de transferencia de tecnología. Estos programas regulan las interacciones entre instituciones, pero como los cambios dentro de las instituciones (en especial los incentivos a los investigadores) han sido mucho menores, el impacto ha sido reducido. Por ejemplo, las instituciones de investigación tienen una fuerte tradición de mecanismos de decisión centralizados y de poca colaboración entre ellas (Triomphe et al., 2001a). A pesar de que las decisiones sobre las actividades a emprender emanan en general de las autoridades de las instituciones, éstas tienen poca capacidad para imponerlas a los investigadores individuales pues no existen mecanismos de control eficientes (por ejemplo, los investigadores tienen la estabilidad de los empleados públicos y no existen mecanismos de control de calidad de las investigaciones).Las nuevas políticas científicas y tecnológicas han dado preferencia a las demandas tecnológicas para la definición de prioridades de investigación y han propiciado una creciente participación del sector privado, otorgando apoyos específicos para promover la vinculación con centros de investigación y desarrollo (Casas et al., 2000;Tapia, 1997).El financiamiento público de la investigación se ha reducido desde los años 80 como parte de las políticas de transformación del Estado. El incremento observado a partir de 1991 se debe a que desde ese año se reportan como gasto de ciencia y tecnología los recursos asignados a fondos para el fortalecimiento de la infraestructura y capacidades científicas y para repatriar a científicos mexicanos (Figura 4).En 2001 los recursos destinados a todas las actividades de ciencia y tecnología representaron apenas el 0.44% del PBI. En 1997, últimos datos disponibles, el gobierno constituía la principal fuente de financiamiento de las actividades científicas (71% del total), seguido por el sector privado (17%) y las instituciones de educación superior (9%); y, por último, el 2.5% de los fondos provinieron de fuentes extranjeras (RICYT, 2001).En 1997 el 23% de los recursos se destinó a investigación básica, el 48% a investigación aplicada y el 29% a desarrollo experimental. La distribución de estas actividades por sector En México no existe un sistema formal que coordine las actividades de las diferentes instituciones de investigación agropecuaria. En la segunda mitad de la década del 90 el INIFAP impulsó la creación de dicho sistema pero esos esfuerzos no cristalizaron (Kondo, 1999). Sin embargo, existe un sistema nacional de facto en el cual interactúan agentes públicos y privados que llevan a cabo investigación y extensión agropecuaria. Las principales instituciones dentro del sistema de investigación agropecuario son:• La Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y Alimentación (SAGARPA), a través de sus instituciones de investigación y docencia: INIFAP, el CP, la UACh y la UAAAN; • Los Institutos Tecnológicos Agropecuarios dependientes de la SEP; • Las Facultades de Agronomía y Veterinaria de las universidades estatales; • Los Consejos Estatales de Ciencia y Tecnología; y • Los Patronatos de Apoyo a la Investigación y las fundaciones estatales PRODUCE para fomento y apoyo a proyectos con orientación hacia la transferencia de tecnología.Los patronatos y las fundaciones fueron creados para diversificar el financiamiento de la investigación agropecuaria y permitir una mayor participación de los productores en la definición de las prioridades de investigación. Pero como en general estas instituciones fueron creadas desde el gobierno y no por los agentes activos en cada estado, la participación real de los productores en las mismas es muy variable.Al igual que el resto del sistema nacional de investigación, los sistemas de investigación y extensión agropecuaria en México se organizaron a partir de la visión lineal de la ciencia. A pesar de los cambios introducidos en años recientes (ver más adelante), esta concepción todavía predomina en el sistema público de investigación. A menudo los mecanismos de comunicación entre los diferentes agentes dentro del sistema de innovación (investigadores, extensionistas y usuarios de tecnologías) no funcionaban con la intensidad necesaria y, en consecuencia, las tecnologías generadas no resultaban adecuadas a los requerimientos de los usuarios (Casas et al., 2000). En general, las interacciones entre instituciones de investigación y entre éstas y las de extensión se concentraban en los estratos directivos, con poca interacción a nivel de investigadores y técnicos. A su vez, los productores no tenían ninguna capacidad de influir sobre la organización de las instituciones de investigación.Como respuesta a esta falta de interacción, diversos agentes comenzaron a buscar fuentes alternativas de tecnologías. Así, algunos productores desarrollaron técnicas propias (ej., la siembra de trigo en camas 7 ) o empresas proveedoras de insumos o comercializadoras de productos las importaron del exterior (p. ejemplo, frutas y hortalizas para exportación).En algunos casos, las instituciones de investigación y extensión también funcionaron como soporte técnico de las políticas públicas sociales y de fomento a la producción agropecuaria que subsidiaban el uso o compra de determinados paquetes tecnológicos. Estos programas adolecían básicamente de cuatro problemas. Primero, las tecnologías promovidas eran elegidas a nivel del gobierno federal, con poca interacción con los usuarios y sin atender a diferencias regionales (Kondo, 1999). Segundo, los programas enfatizaban la transferencia de maquinaria e insumos físicos, con poca atención a la capacitación de los productores en el uso de los mismos (Triomphe et al., 2001). Tercero, el servicio de extensión agrícola se consideraba como un eslabón que vinculaba los resultados de la investigación con los programas de fomento pero no transfería información de los productores a los investigadores. Cuarto, se fijaban metas que se podían cuantificar fácilmente (ej., cantidad de subsidios entregados o sembradoras compradas) desatendiendo componentes menos obvios pero cruciales para el éxito de los programas (ej., entrenamiento en el uso de las maquinarias entregadas).A pesar de que las zonas de temporal y tropicales representan casi tres cuartas partes de la superficie agrícola mexicana, la investigación pública ha dado prioridad a las tierras de riego, en las que se concentran los productores comerciales. Las investigaciones dirigidas a este grupo en general se realizan en el campo experimental y se especializan por cultivos, partiendo de la premisa de que el productor dispone de medios para incorporar innovaciones tecnológicas (Jiménez, 1996). Esta visión parcial de la producción agropecuaria y de los procesos de innovación ha disminuido la efectividad de las instituciones de investigación.El financiamiento público de la investigación dedicada al sector agropecuario cayó considerablemente desde 1981, tanto en términos absolutos como relativos al total del gasto público en ciencia y tecnología. La caída de las inversiones públicas en investigación agropecuaria afectó fuertemente a todas las instituciones (Cuadro 4) y las forzó a buscar nuevas fuentes de financiamiento. mientras que las universidades agrarias dedican una gran parte de sus recursos a la docencia (Figura 5). Las reformas a las políticas científicas y tecnológicas introducidas en la década del 90 también afectaron a las instituciones ligadas al sector agropecuario. Las características fundamentales de la reforma en el sector fueron una mayor descentralización de las definiciones de prioridades y de los mecanismos de asignación de recursos. En síntesis, la filosofía de la transformación consistió en el cambio de un sistema científico centralizado a un sistema de innovación dirigido por la demanda de tecnologías (Paredes y Moncada, 2000). No obstante, el impacto de estas reformas aún es reducido, fundamentalmente por la dificultad de cambiar la mentalidad de los empleados públicos encargados de planear y ejecutar las políticas y actividades de investigación.El grueso de los recursos para investigación agropecuaria provienen del gobierno federal. Sin embargo, los gobiernos estatales destinan cada vez más recursos para solucionar problemas en sus comunidades y municipios, generalmente como complemento de los programas federales (como PROCAMPO) o financiando organismos estatales de investigación. Los recursos estatales se canalizan a través de los Consejos Estatales de Ciencia y Tecnología y complementan las acciones del CONACYT y de las Fundaciones Produce. Los Consejos estatales apoyan proyectos de investigación, difusión científica y tecnológica y formación de recursos humanos. Actualmente existen 13 Consejos Estatales integrados en una red.Las inversiones privadas, en particular las de origen mexicano, están adquiriendo cada vez mayor importancia. Las empresas utilizan tres estrategias diferentes. Algunas financian proyectos de su interés en centros de investigación que no pertenecen a la empresa; otras invierten en la formación de equipos internos de investigación. Finalmente, algunas empresas combinan las dos estrategias anteriores. Algunos ejemplos dentro de esta categoría son el Grupo MASECA, Nestlé, Novartis, Monsanto, el Grupo Bimbo, la industria maltera, la industria harinera y la industria aceitera.Otra modalidad de financiamiento privado para la investigación son los patronatos de apoyo a la investigación, formados con el propósito de solucionar problemas que afectan directamente a sus agremiados. Los primeros patronatos se crearon por decretos estatales para funcionar como entidades de sanidad vegetal y combatir plagas agrícolas. Dependiendo de si fueron promovidos por los antiguos institutos de investigación agrícola o pecuaria, los patronatos se dividen en agrícolas o pecuarios y tienen diferentes esquemas de dirección, de recaudación de fondos y de provisión de servicios.Los patronatos agrícolas obtienen recursos mediante cuotas directas de sus miembros, cuotas por uso de agua e impuestos a la producción y/o venta de insumos votados por los propios productores. Por ejemplo, el Patronato de Sonora había fijado en 1995 un impuesto del 0.5% sobre el valor de cada tonelada de trigo producida y de 2 dólares por tonelada exportada. Los patronatos pecuarios se financiaron inicialmente con la donación de terrenos para instalaciones, tierras para experimentación y aportaciones financieras iniciales. Estos patronatos recaudan fondos por medio de diversos esquemas, por ejemplo, \"medianías\" entre la SAGARPA y las organizaciones para la cría y engorda de ganado. En general, los patronatos pecuarios tienen mayores dificultades para recaudar recursos de sus asociados (Polanco Jaime, 1996).Siguiendo el ejemplo del Patronato para la Investigación y Experimentación Agrícola del Estado de Sonora (el primero en crearse en 1969 y hoy el más importante), el INIFAP fomentó la réplica del modelo en otros estados. En 1995 había 56 patronatos, pero sólo 31 se mantenían activos (Polanco Jaime, 1996). Algunos patronatos pueden movilizar más recursos que las Fundaciones Produce de sus respectivos estados (ej. en los estados de México y Sonora).Los Fideicomisos Instituidos en Relación con la Agricultura (FIRA) del Banco de México financian fundamentalmente actividades de extensión y destinan algunos recursos a la investigación. FIRA cuenta con centros de demostración, sobre todo en temas de ganadería y de labranza de conservación. Los fondos provienen de organismos internacionales y de recursos fiscales. A fines de la década del 90, FIRA inició un proceso de revisión de sus actividades para incrementar las interacciones con institutos de investigación y universidades. Las transferencias del gobierno a FIRA pasaron de US$13 millones en 1979 a US$70 millones en 1995. Las actividades de FIRA se caracterizan por el mismo enfoque no participativo de los otros programas de difusión tecnológica.Los recursos públicos para investigación son complementados con financiamientos externos. Dos de las fuentes extranjeras más importantes son el BID y el Banco Mundial. Estos bancos no financian directamente las actividades de investigación, sino que otorgan créditos a los gobiernos nacionales o estatales, los cuales deben aportar una contraparte. La importancia de estos préstamos no es tanto el monto de los mismos, sino que comprometen por varios años a los gobiernos a dedicar un volumen específico de recursos a la investigación, disminuyendo la variabilidad del financiamiento público.Algunos gobiernos extranjeros, principalmente de países industrializados, han contribuido con recursos para investigación cuando existen problemas de interés mutuo, por ejemplo, en campañas fitosanitarias y zoosanitarias o de conservación del ambiente y de recursos forestales. Otras fuentes de fondos externos son las fundaciones (ej. las Fundaciones McNight, Kellogg, Ford y Rockefeller) y las universidades extranjeras (ej. el programa Mexus de la Universidad de California, o los fondos que el Servicio de Investigación Agrícola del Departamento Estadounidense de Agricultura (USDA) asigna a universidades del Midamerica International Agricultural Consortium de la Universidad Estatal de Oklahoma, Universidad Estatal de Iowa, la Universidad de Missouri, la Universidad de Nebraska y la Universidad Estatal de Kansas). Estos últimos programas son importantes no sólo por los fondos que aportan sino por los contactos que se establecen entre centros de investigación mexicanos e instituciones de excelencia americanas.Si bien los organismos responsables de la administración del financiamiento de la investigación son, principalmente, instituciones públicas, la iniciativa privada, y los productores agropecuarios en particular, desempeñan un papel cada vez más preponderante. Las instituciones federales más importantes son la SAGARPA, la SEP y la SEMARNAT. La SAGARPA, como cabeza del sector, administra la mayoría de los recursos públicos para investigación agropecuaria y forestal y para actividades de transferencia de tecnología.Las Fundaciones Produce, creadas en 1995 como parte del programa Alianza para el Campo, son asociaciones de productores constituidas como asociaciones civiles sin fines de lucro (Paredes y Moncada, 2000). Las Fundaciones financian proyectos de investigación y de transferencia de tecnología en respuesta a las demandas de los productores agropecuarios y de otros usuarios. Las Fundaciones Produce tienen una instancia nacional de coordinación, la COFUPRO. Las estrategias de las Fundaciones y de COFUPRO fueron desarrolladas en colaboración con el IICA y el ISNAR.Las Fundaciones Produce interactúan activamente con el CONACYT, otras instituciones públicas de financiamiento dirigido al sector agropecuario (ej., FIRA y el Fondo de Capacitación e Inversión del Sector Rural) y otras fundaciones (ej. Fundación Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural). Las interacciones a nivel internacional incluyen el Consorcio de Universidades Agrícolas del Medio-Oeste Norteamericano, el sistema de la Universidad de Texas A&M, la FAO, el IICA y varios centros del CGIAR, en especial el CIMMYT, el CIAT, el IWMI y el ISNAR.La característica principal de las Fundaciones Produce es la descentralización de las decisiones y de la administración, que fueron delegadas a los niveles estatales. Las prioridades son establecidas por los agentes interesados en las actividades de las Fundaciones, especialmente los productores agropecuarios. Desde su creación, las Fundaciones Produce han realizado una serie de foros regionales en colaboración con los Sistemas Regionales del CONACYT para detectar los problemas de los sistemas o productos agropecuarios predominantes y para definir prioridades en la asignación de los recursos destinados a la investigación. En estos foros participan productores, investigadores y funcionarios públicos. El grado de participación de los productores en las decisiones de las Fundaciones varía entre los diferentes estados.Las Fundaciones son responsables de administrar y asignar los fondos del programa Alianza para el Campo. Otra innovación institucional es la creación de un fideicomiso con un mecanismo mediante el que los aportes privados (incluidos los de los productores agropecuarios) son complementados con aportes equivalentes de los gobiernos federal y estatal. En algunos estados, los productores agropecuarios y empresas privadas complementan los recursos públicos (Paredes y Moncada, 2000).Las Fundaciones Produce buscan fomentar la interacción entre agentes del sistema de innovación agropecuario y diversificar las fuentes de financiamiento de la investigación. El mayor problema de este esquema es que el financiamiento que otorgan las Fundaciones no es complemento sino sustituto del financiamiento público. De esta manera, la demanda de tecnologías tiene un peso excesivo en la determinación de la cartera de proyectos de investigación, se favorecen proyectos que requieren menor plazo de ejecución frente a desarrollos de más largo plazo y se discrimina en contra de las líneas de investigación más innovadoras. Además, aumenta el número de investigadores asignados a tareas de validación, difusión y capacitación, en detrimento de actividades de investigación de mediano y largo plazo.Si bien México tiene una masa de investigadores en ciencias agropecuarias importante y de alta calidad, el sistema de investigación está fragmentado y ofrece pocas oportunidades para la colaboración interinstitucional y con otros agentes del sistema de innovación.Internamente, las instituciones de investigación agropecuaria tienen mecanismos muy centralizados de definición de prioridades y de administración de los proyectos de investigación. En general, las interacciones entre instituciones se establecen en el ámbito de los niveles decisorios, pero hay pocas actividades conjuntas entre los investigadores. Estas características también se aplican, en gran medida, a las empresas privadas que realizan tareas de investigación.Además, estas instituciones tienen pocos mecanismos de control de la calidad de los programas de investigación. Los salarios de los investigadores son bajos (comparados con los pagados en instituciones similares extranjeras y con el costo de vida en México), lo cual los obliga a buscar otras fuentes para complementar sus ingresos. Los tres mecanismos más comunes son el SNI, la docencia y los trabajos de consultoría. Si bien el ingreso al SNI introduce un mecanismo de control de calidad, éste induce a los investigadores a trabajar en proyectos que permitan publicar en revistas con arbitraje. Este mecanismo desincentiva los trabajos interdisciplinarios y las interacciones con otros agentes dentro del sistema de innovación. Por su parte, los trabajos de consultoría no permiten realizar actividades de investigación de envergadura dado que requieren respuestas rápidas.El número de instituciones públicas que realizan investigación agropecuaria en México aumentó en los últimos 20 años. En 1973 se habían identificado 76 instituciones públicas de investigación (González et al., 1976), mientras que en un censo elaborado por el INIFAP en 1998 se registraron 122 instituciones. Varias de las nuevas instituciones eran universidades que fortalecieron sus actividades de investigación, como la Universidad de Tamaulipas, o institutos estatales de investigación, como los de Tabasco, Guanajuato y Sonora. La mayoría de estas instituciones tienen programas de investigación muy débiles.El INIFAP es la principal institución mexicana de investigación agropecuaria. En el año 2000 tuvo un presupuesto de US$70 millones y una plantilla de 1,300 investigadores distribuidos en 81 estaciones experimentales y 6 Centros Nacionales de Investigación Disciplinaria. En 1998 el INIFAP mantenía 100 programas agrícolas, 20 pecuarios y 60 forestales.El mandato inicial del INIFAP enfatizaba las tareas de investigación en tecnologías agropecuarias y forestales y la formación de recursos humanos. En 1996 este mandato se amplió para incluir el estudio del manejo de los recursos naturales. Si bien el mandato institucional excluye la extensión agrícola, la mayor parte de los proyectos se vinculaban con las prioridades del programa Alianza para el Campo, es decir, investigación adaptativa y apoyo a procesos de transferencia.A partir de 1995, el esquema de financiamiento del INIFAP cambió substancialmente. El gobierno federal pasó a financiar únicamente los gastos de estructura (salarios y mantenimiento) y los recursos destinados a gastos operativos se canalizaron a través de las Fundaciones Produce. Actualmente, los investigadores tienen que buscar fondos operativos negociando proyectos con las Fundaciones y otras fuentes de financiamiento.El método principal para definir las prioridades de investigación del INIFAP es la integración de cuerpos colegiados de expertos por sistema-producto. Sin embargo, los nuevos esquemas de financiamiento están generando un sistema paralelo de definición de prioridades más descentralizado y dirigido por las demandas tecnológicas.El INIFAP estaba regulado por el régimen de la administración pública, que le imponía normas estrictas de manejo de fondos y de personal. Hasta septiembre del 2001 estuvo constituido como un organismo público desconcentrado. Mediante decreto presidencial, a partir del 2 de octubre de 2001 se transformó en un organismo público descentralizado, lo que le permite contar con patrimonio propio, disponer de los recursos que genera, poner en marcha programas de estímulos económicos a sus investigadores y tener su propio órgano de gobierno. Cuando se escribió este documento, se estaba elaborando un Convenio de Desempeño, uno de los requisitos para convertirse en Centro Público de Investigación.A partir de abril de 2002, el INIFAP introdujo un programa de estímulos económicos a los investigadores basado en su productividad (publicaciones, generación de tecnologías, actividades de transferencia, etc). Se estimaba que este programa beneficiaría a la tercera parte de los investigadores del Instituto con mayor puntuación en sus evaluaciones. Igual que otras instituciones públicas de investigación de América Latina, el INIFAP creó la Fundación Mexicana para la Investigación Agropecuaria y Forestal, A.C. (FUMIAF), con el propósito de manejar recursos externos al margen de las regulaciones formales impuestas por el régimen de administración del sector público. A pesar de haber establecido convenios con varias empresas agroalimentarias, el impacto de esta fundación en la generación de recursos adicionales ha sido limitado.El INIFAP ha hecho un esfuerzo importante para capacitar a sus investigadores; en 1999 un 80% de ellos tenía estudios de postgrado y más de 15 años de experiencia (Kondo, 1999). Sin embargo, este esfuerzo no tuvo correlato en las políticas de personal, ya que el INIFAP ha afrontado problemas para retener a sus investigadores más capaces, especialmente cuando han obtenido títulos de postgrado en universidades extranjeras. Los datos anteriores, además indican dos problemas importantes en las políticas de personal profesional. El primero es el envejecimiento de sus investigadores. 8 El segundo es la falta de personal de apoyo a los profesionales más capacitados. El resultado es que doctores y maestros terminan haciendo trabajos que requieren menor capacitación o no trabajan por falta de personal de apoyo.El CP, la UACh y la UAAAN realizan fundamentalmente docencia complementada con investigación. La investigación que se realiza en estos centros de docencia en general constituye parte de la formación de recursos humanos. En los últimos 10 años estas instituciones se han transformado, dando mayor espacio para las actividades de investigación de sus profesores y a la interacción con usuarios de tecnología. Esto se ha derivado de las presiones externas para incrementar la vinculación con el sector productivo, de las exigencias requeridas para mantener la categoría de Centro Público de Investigación y de la necesidad de generar recursos adicionales a las transferencias del gobierno federal.El CP tiene una presencia importante en diferentes regiones. En los últimos años ha hecho un gran esfuerzo para mejorar la formación de su plantel docente. En el 2000 el CP tenía 614 profesores, de los cuales el 41% tenía el grado de doctor. En ese mismo año, 31 de los 39 programas de postgrado del CP figuraban en el padrón de excelencia del CONACYT. Su presupuesto era de aproximadamente de 38 millones de dólares. En el 2001 el CP se constituyó en un Centro Público de Investigación (Colegio de Postgraduados, 2001).Las universidades no agrícolas también realizan investigación relacionada con el sector agropecuario. En 1973 el CP identificó 6 universidades que realizaban investigación agropecuaria (González et al., 1976), mientras que en 1998 el INIFAP reportó 88 universidades. La gran mayoría de las universidades (sobre todo aquellas ubicadas en los estados) reportan como actividades de investigación las tesis de sus estudiantes, pero no tienen programas encabezados por académicos con reconocimiento nacional. Las universidades con programas de investigación propiamente dichos son aquellas que cuentan con programas de postgrado, tales como la UNAM, la UAM, la Universidad de Chihuahua, la de Tamaulipas, la de Yucatán y algunos Institutos Tecnológicos Agropecuarios.Las escuelas de agronomía y veterinaria de las instituciones de educación superior también realizan actividades de investigación agropecuaria. En algunas de estas instituciones se han creado centros especiales como el Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV) del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, el Centro para la Innovación Tecnológica (CIT) de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, los centros regionales del CP y la Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo. Finalmente, se ha fortalecido el sistema de educación tecnológica agropecuaria (DGETA) de la Secretaría de Educación Pública (Morales y Gómez, 1996).Además de financiar investigación a través de sus programas de subsidios, el CONACYT opera directamente centros de excelencia en investigación agropecuaria, entre los que se encuentran el Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de Yucatán, especializado en agricultura tropical, y el Centro de Investigaciones en Alimentación y Desarrollo, con sede en Sonora, especializado en manejo de poscosecha de hortalizas, granos y frutales.Los cambios en la reglamentación y financiamiento de las instituciones de investigación favorecieron el surgimiento de nuevas asociaciones de agentes interesados en encontrar soluciones técnicas a problemas comunes. Un ejemplo es el Consorcio Técnico del Noreste de México, constituido como una Sociedad Civil, que tiene como socios a la Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, la Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro, el INIFAP y organizaciones de productores de Tamaulipas, Nuevo León y Coahuila. Este consorcio estableció una alianza estratégica con la Universidad de Texas A&M (Tewolde et al., 2001).El CGIAR tiene una presencia importante en México. En virtud de que su sede está ubicada en México, el CIMMYT es el centro más activo en el país en cuanto a mejoramiento genético y desarrollo de tecnologías de manejo de cultivos. El CIMMYT interactúa con las principales instituciones de investigación agropecuaria, varias Fundaciones Produce, gobiernos estatales y el Gobierno Federal. Otros centros activos en México son el CIAT, el ICARDA, el ICRAF y el IWMI.El sector privado también ha comenzado a realizar investigaciones agropecuarias. En 1973 el CP había identificado sólo una institución privada que realizaba investigación, mientras que en el censo elaborado por el INIFAP se identificaron 20. La mayor parte de las empresas identificadas son empresas de semillas. Otro rubro importante desarrollado por el sector privado es la biotecnología; en particular el Grupo Pulsar se ha convertido en uno de los mayores productores mundiales de variedades transgénicas de hortalizas.La agroindustria ha desempeñado un papel importante en la generación y transferencia de tecnologías. En general, a mayor grado de concentración del subsector, mayor ha sido la participación de la industria en el proceso de cambio tecnológico. Por ejemplo, las industrias tabacaleras y cerveceras forman dos duopolios. En el caso del tabaco, las empresas han establecido contratos con productores en los que se estipulan las tecnologías de producción, los montos a producir y los precios de compra. En el caso de la industria cervecera, ambas empresas se asociaron con el INIFAP en una nueva empresa que desarrolla nuevas variedades y paquetes tecnológicos que después se ofrecen a los productores. Las dos principales empresas productoras de harina de maíz también han buscado una mayor interacción con los productores y con el INIFAP a fin de desarrollar materiales genéticos que respondan a las necesidades de la industria harinera (Salcedo, 1999). Las hortalizas para exportación han sido otro rubro en que el sector privado ha desempeñado un papel fundamental en el desarrollo de tecnologías de producción y comercialización (Calvin y Barrios, 1999).Los productores agropecuarios también han desarrollado tecnologías propias. Por ejemplo, en ciertas zonas del estado de Chiapas, los pequeños agricultores tradicionalmente sembraban granos tierras comunales dentro de un sistema con largos periodos de barbecho. Estas tierras tienen pendientes muy pronunciadas y no pueden cultivarse con técnicas convencionales. La titulación de tierras a principios de la década del 90 indujo una intensificación de las prácticas agrícolas y el abandono de los barbechos. Los productores desarrollaron una técnica de labranza cero basada en el uso de herbicidas y siembra manual (Mauricio Bellon, comunicación personal, 2001). Se desconoce el origen de este paquete tecnológico y ninguna institución ha reivindicado el crédito por su desarrollo.También se han identificado importantes tecnologías desarrolladas por los productores en áreas irrigadas del Bajío y del Valle del Yaqui (Triomphe et al., 2001;Sayre y Moreno Ramos, 1997). En ambos casos, los productores experimentaron diferentes técnicas de irrigación, labranza y rotaciones de cultivos con el fin de reducir el uso de agua. En toda esta labor los productores interactuaron con investigadores individuales de instituciones públicas, centros internacionales y empresas privadas.De 1942 a 1950 la organización y el enfoque de la extensión agrícola sufrieron múltiples cambios y los recursos para operar con que contaba eran escasos. En contraste, la red de estaciones experimentales se desarrolló considerablemente. Hacia 1954 la extensión se concentró en las zonas de riego, y por primera vez participaron en su programación productores organizados. Con el apoyo de las fundaciones Rockefeller y Ford, se realizaron importantes programas para apoyar los cultivos de maíz y trigo en los recién creados distritos de riego marginándose a los pequeños productores de las zonas de temporal. En 1966 se trató de reducir la brecha entre los servicios de investigación y extensión, asignándole a la última mayores recursos humanos y financieros. Sin embargo, recién en 1971 se creó la Dirección General de Extensión en la Secretaría de Agricultura. El número de extensionistas pasó de 268 en 1962 a 1,583 en 1971 (Zuloaga y Pérez ,1996).En 1981 se canceló esa Dirección y sus actividades se transfirieron al Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrícolas y a los distritos de riego y temporal. Entre 1977 y 1979, el servicio de extensión llegó a contar con 21,500 técnicos, de los cuales el 57% estaba asignado a zonas de temporal.A partir de 1990, el gobierno promovió la asistencia técnica privada impulsando la repartición de costos entre el gobierno y los productores. El mecanismo para lograrlo ha sido la celebración de contratos directos entre productores y consejeros privados. Un antecedente de este proceso es el Programa de Reembolso de Asistencia Técnica del FIRA, que apoya a los productores de bajos ingresos financiando en forma decreciente y por cinco años los servicios de asesoría proporcionados por empresas privadas. Los agricultores más pobres continuaron recibieron asesoría técnica gratuita de acuerdo con el Programa Nacional de Solidaridad (PRONASOL).A continuación se mencionan algunas características actuales de la extensión agrícola (Zuloaga y Pérez, 1996):• Su organización es inadecuada porque las áreas administrativas y normativas predominan sobre el área operativa. • Carece de presupuesto suficiente y oportuno, cuenta con poca diversificación de fuentes de financiamiento y existe una virtual ausencia de productores en la planeación y evaluación de actividades. • Insuficiencia de recursos humanos. En 1996 se tenían cubiertas sólo 372 de 2,000 plazas de extensión agrícola. • Utiliza sólo el método de extensión \"capacitación y visita\" para atender una diversidad de condiciones agronómicas y socioculturales y minimiza el vínculo con el INIFAP.A pesar de los cambios introducidos en los sistemas de investigación y extensión, las interacciones entre ambos sistemas continúan siendo escasas, lo mismo que las interacciones con los productores. El sistema público de extensión aún se estructura de arriba hacia abajo. Estas características se han mantenido en algunos programas de apoyo que, si bien privilegian el abastecimiento de insumos por canales comerciales, han mantenido la provisión de servicios de asesoramiento tecnológico en manos de los administradores de los programas (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000). El desarrollo de servicios privados de extensión ha sido escaso, aunque en algunos estados como Sonora y Sinaloa se han dado cambios importantes.En una evaluación reciente de la Alianza para el Campo se menciona que un poco más de la tercera parte de los beneficiarios de este programa recibió asesoría técnica junto con el subsidio. En la mayoría de los casos, estos servicios fueron proporcionados por extensionistas públicos, proveedores y técnicos independientes. Al mismo tiempo, se señala que el 63% de los beneficiarios opinaron que requerían asesoría técnica y/o capacitación, especialmente para emprender nuevas actividades. Por último, sólo el 50% se mostró dispuesto a pagar por el servicio (FAO y SAGARPA, 2000). Las discrepancias entre estas cifras indican que los productores no encuentran fácilmente un asesoramiento que satisfaga sus necesidades.Desde hace varias décadas, el sector agropecuario ha sido el menos dinámico del país. Las causas de su estancamiento relativo son varias: políticas económicas que no favorecían la adopción de tecnologías más productivas, la prevalencia de campesinos minifundistas, regímenes de propiedad de la tierra poco flexibles, y sistemas de investigación y extensión rígidos y débilmente articulados con otros agentes que participaban en el sistema de innovación agropecuario.La desregulación de la economía a partir de la década del 80 y la puesta en marcha del TLC han forzado un fuerte ajuste en el funcionamiento del sector público y de los productores agropecuarios. Entre las medidas más importantes que afectaron al sector agropecuario se destacan la eliminación de los precios de garantía, la eliminación de subsidios a insumos clave (ej., semillas mejoradas, fertilizantes y electricidad) y la apertura de la importación de varios productos, principalmente granos y carnes. Como resultado de este ajuste, los ingresos de productores de artículos tradicionalmente protegidos y dirigidos al mercado interno han disminuido y los de aquellos que han podido transformarse para exportar han aumentado considerablemente.En general, las instituciones públicas de investigación se concentraron en llevar a cabo investigación relacionada con productos dirigidos al mercado interno (granos básicos y ganadería) y ofrecer apoyo técnico a programas federales de apoyo al sector agropecuario. Las tecnologías utilizadas por los productores que han podido insertarse en los mercados internacionales han sido en su mayoría importadas y adaptadas a las condiciones locales por los propios productores o proveedores de insumos.La investigación agropecuaria no ha sido ajena a los cambios que siguieron a los procesos de ajuste estructural. Los mayores cambios ocurrieron en los mecanismos de financiamiento y en las leyes que norman el funcionamiento de las instituciones públicas de investigación.En la última década se han llevado a cabo una diversificación de las fuentes de financiamiento y un cambio en los mecanismos de distribución de los recursos. La participación del gasto federal en ciencia y tecnología relacionada con agricultura y ganadería en el gasto total en ciencia y tecnología disminuyó de alrededor del 32% en 1990 a poco más del 22% en 1997. Esta disminución en la disponibilidad de recursos fiscales ha forzado a las instituciones de investigación del sector a buscar fuentes alternativas de financiamiento, entre las que se destacan el sector privado y los fondos competitivos financiados con recursos públicos.Al tiempo que disminuía el financiamiento público, se modificaron los mecanismos de asignación de fondos. Actualmente, las transferencias del gobierno central sólo cubren salarios y parte de los costos de mantenimiento. Los fondos públicos para pagar gastos operativos de investigación se canalizan a través de las Fundaciones Produce, que también movilizan fondos estatales y, en algunos casos, del sector privado. El objetivo de introducir el nuevo sistema de financiamiento fue permitir a los productores agropecuarios ejercer influencia sobre la asignación de recursos públicos de investigación. Sin embargo, los resultados varían según los estados y el grado de participación de los productores locales en la fundación local.La caída en los salarios reales ha forzado a los investigadores a buscar fuentes alternativas para complementar sus ingresos. Una de las fuentes más importantes es el SNI, administrado por el CONACYT. Tanto acceder al SIN como permanecer en él depende fundamentalmente de la producción académica medida por publicaciones en revistas con referato, hecho que desincentiva los trabajos interdisciplinarios y la interacción con agentes innovadores fuera del ámbito académico.En general, los cambios en el funcionamiento de investigación pública se han centrado en los mecanismos de financiamiento, pero no se han hecho modificaciones substanciales a los sistemas de incentivos que las instituciones ofrecen a sus investigadores y administradores de investigación. De esta manera, el financiamiento de los programas de investigación se vuelve más inestable y conspira contra las líneas de investigación que requieren mayores plazos para su ejecución o que son más novedosas (Huffman y Just, 2000).El cambio de legislación relacionada con la investigación más importante fue la creación en 1999 de la figura jurídica de centros públicos de investigación. Las instituciones que adopten esta modalidad obtienen mayor independencia en el uso de los recursos y en la fijación de incentivos para sus investigadores. Si bien las instituciones públicas hacen un importante esfuerzo por adaptarse a la nueva normativa, el corto plazo en que esta ley ha estado vigente impide evaluar sus efectos.México lleva a cabo un importante esfuerzo para adaptar su sistema de investigación agropecuaria a las necesidades creadas por la globalización y los cambios en las políticas económicas y sociales. Si bien estos cambios se han efectuado en las reglas que afectan al sistema en conjunto, también están promoviendo adaptaciones dentro de las propias instituciones de investigación. Sin embargo, el ritmo de cambio de este tipo de instituciones ha sido lento ya que se requiere un cambio paralelo en las culturas institucionales desarrolladas a lo largo de varias décadas. Un esfuerzo paralelo para acelerar los cambios dentro de las instituciones de investigación permitirá obtener los beneficios de la transformación más rápidamente.","tokenCount":"12411"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"033f5c2dccf6bad78c84c655a8f21a45","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9577d012-9335-4b90-823b-607d0bb3de09/retrieve","id":"990190818"},"keywords":["Agronomic traits","Drought","GWAS","INDELs","Napier grass","Nutritional Trait","SNPs","WGS"],"sieverID":"52422247-c2da-4b4f-bb4f-dc15e45e5df8","pagecount":"123","content":"Limited access to improved forages is one of the major factors affecting livestock performance in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). Cenchrus purpureus L is a C4 perennial grass species native to SSA and it has attributes high yielding, resistance against most pests and diseases. However, it has received limited research attention and few genomic tools have been developed for it to date. Main aim of this study was for genetic diversity, identification of SNPs and genome wide association analysis on 109 core collections of Napier grass accessions from 16 countries. Results shows that more than a million SNPs were identified for analysis. Among sequenced 84 Napier grass accessions were phenotyped for two seasons, under different water stress conditions normal water condition, moderate water stress (MWS) and severe water stress (SWS). Agronomic traits such as plant height (PH), leaf width (LW) and length (LL), total fresh weight (TFW) and total dry weight (TDW) and nutritional traits such as Acid Detergent fibre (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), Neutral detergent fibre (NDF), crude protein (CP), Metabolizable Energy (ME) and in-vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) were measured. Significant differences for both agronomic and nutritional traits were observed and most traits showed higher mean value under MWS conditions. Furthermore, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified more than 100 SNPs, for both agronomic and nutritional traits, that were significantly associated (P < 1.00E-05) with traits of interest. The results obtained in the present study will enhance our understanding of complex agronomic and nutritional traits in Napier grass and these genomic tools will serve as a valuable resource in future breeding programs to select high yielding and drought-tolerant varieties of Napier grass, suited for different agroecological zones.Demand for animal products in developing worlds such as Africa is growing in response to the rapidly rising economy and urbanization (Kingston-Smith et al., 2013;Rajendran et al., 2022). Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) comprises one-fourth of the global livestock population and 18% of the global bovine herd (Butterbach-Bahl et al., 2020). However, annual milk and meat production remain low compared to the global average and, the livestock industry is yet to meet the increasing demand for animal products in the region (Balehegn et al., 2021;FAO, 2021). One of the main reasons for the low productivity of the livestock industry is inadequate access to quality feeds and forages exacerbated recently by the risk of climate change (Balehegn et al., 2020;Paul et al., 2020). Common feeding sources (communal grazing lands) remain a major source of forages in SSA (Hanan and Kahiu, 2016); but, these sources are becoming scarce as a result of the inevitable population increase, climate change, and more land being allocated for food crops (Enahoro et al., 2019).Cropping systems (i.e. priority given for food crops than forages to ensure food selfsufficiency) and climatic risks (like drought) are constraining livestock feed supply and productivity in East Africa (Paul et al., 2020). Though accessible feeds sources are not sufficient to feed the present livestock population and are available to a certain amount in the majority of cases during and after the rainy season (Hassanuur et al., 2020). Hence, the small-scale livestock industry is under enormous pressure arising from declining feed resources due to climatic factors (Kumar and Roy, 2021), and rising prices for the available feeds and forages (Assefa et al., 2012). Therefore, boosting feed resources through harnessing forage genetic resources is of paramount importance to contribute to the development of the livestock sector and therefore rural livelihoods and economic growth in SSA (Ates et al., 2018;Juju et al., 2020).Several forage germplasm resources were collected at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) from 160 countries in collaboration with global partners; 43 % and 17% of those collections are from SSA and Ethiopia, respectively (Hanson et al., 2020). Among this, a variety of annual and perennial grasses, legumes, trees and shrubs are traditionally grown by the farmers in SSA (Batello et al., 2008), though less research attention was given to date (Mengistu et al., 2017). Forage grasses such as Napier grass, Urochloa brizantha, desho grass (Pennisetum pedicellatum), buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris) (Cantarutti et al., 2021); herbaceous legumes (Stylosanthes, Centrosema, Desmodium, Lablab and Macroptilium) (Jimoh et al., 2021); tree legumes (Acacia), silages (Alfalfa, oats) and crop residues (sorghum and corn); (Trees, natural vegetation, crop residues, and grazing are the most common feed resources in the region (Balehegn et al., 2021).Napier grass is amongst the most important tropical forage grasses native to SSA. It is cultivated as a multipurpose forage, primarily used to feed cattle in cut and carry feeding systems (Negawo et al., 2017); because of its ability to withstand repeated cuttings and some degree of resilience against drought (Muyekho, 2015;Paudel et al., 2018). Furthermore, it is the higher-yielding tropical grass species (Muyekho, 2015;Paudel et al., 2018) and perennial availability under irrigated conditions (Haegele et al., 2017;Muktar et al., 2019).Easy establishment, fast-growing, and good palatability, when cut between six and eight weeks of regeneration, are some of the additional attributes of Napier grass (Archibald et al., 2021;Habte et al., 2020;Singh et al., 2013).Despite the aforementioned attributes and primary importance, particularly to small-scale farmers, Napier grass has received little attention from researchers to date (Negawo et al., 2017). At present, farmer's varieties are threatened by novel biotic factors such as Smut (caused by Ustilago kamerunensisis) and stunt (caused by a phytoplasma), and abiotic factors like drought (Farrell et al., 2002;Kariuki et al., 2016;Sangsuwan and Dickinson, 2019). To limit the damage caused by biotic and abiotic threats, and to improve the nutritional value of farmer's varieties, breeding is a way forward for new varieties development program (Kingston-Smith et al., 2013).For the successful improvement of Napier grass, germplasms stocks persevered in genebanks', both in ex-situ and in-situ, are vital sources to initiate a breeding program (Pattanashetti et al., 2015). Advanced initial knowledge on these resources is key for sustainable use of the available genetic resources and developing improved varieties (Peters et al., 2021), thereby providing solutions for challenges that affect yield and other important agronomic traits like tolerance against diseases (such as smut and stunt) and climatic factors (like drought and frost) (Nassif and Tanji, 2017;Sandhu et al., 2019;Singh et al., 2012). To date, a limited number of studies were carried out to understand the genetic diversity among germplasm collections of Napier grass (Hanson et al., 2020). Molecular markers such as Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) (Negawo et al., 2018); Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) (Wanjala et al., 2013); Randomly AmplifiedPolymorphic DNA (RAPD) (Okukenu et al., 2020); Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR)and Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs,) (Wang et al., 2020); were used for genetic diversity studies of Napier grass germplasm. Recently, genotyping by sequencing (GBS)was utilized to develop genome-wide markers for Napier grass and assess genetic diversity among accessions (Muktar et al., 2019;Paudel et al., 2018).For appropriate germplasm conservation, use and further genetic improvement the aforementioned genomic tools are critical (Brummer and Wang, 2020;Muktar et al., 2019).Though the GBS approach is significantly better approach than PCR based molecular marker on the other hand whole genome sequencing (WGS) is a method of choice due to the reduction in the cost of sequencing (He et al., 2014). It gives a complete genomic DNA sequence of the particular organism and generates more accurate information that can rapidly identify/select genes associated with specific characteristics and accelerate the conventional variety development processes with the support of bioinformatics tools (Yano et al., 2016).Therefore, to accelerate the breeding programs on Napier grass, the WGS approach is advanced for the discovery of genome-wide markers suitable for marker-assisted selection and/or building genetic maps (Peace et al., 2019). It also helps to quantify the genetic variability and hence efficient use of available germplasm and conservation strategies (Nakato et al., 2021;Perez-De-Castro et al., 2012).The main aim of this study was focused on the phenotypic and genetic diversity of Napier grass accessions within the ILRI genebank. In addition, to carry out, a genome-wide association analysis (GWA), for traits of interest such as resilience against abiotic stress and nutritional quality aspects of selected genotypes. Thus, the tools developed in this study will enable forage breeders to apply advanced plant breeding procedures like genomic selection and marker-assisted breeding in their improvement. Specifically, the study aimed at: In SSA, approximately one-third of rural people rely on livestock for a living (Gadekar, 2021;Ibeagha-Awemu et al., 2019); and the region encompasses 18% of the global bovine herd, yet annual milk and meat production remains low compared to the global average (7000 tonnes) (Butterbach-Bahl et al., 2020). Average meat and milk production in the SSA is below 2500 tonnes, which is more than half the global average, 7000 tonnes (FAOSTAT, 2021). While changing climatic conditions are global phenomena, their adverse effects are more severe on the livestock feeding systems in SSA, due to their dependency on rain-fed feeding schemes (Kabo-Bah et al., 2021), resulting in a decline in food production of animal origin (i.e. meat and milk) (Patrick and Barkhuizen, 2020).The main challenge affecting livestock production and productivity in the region is inadequate access to feeds and forages, which is available for a short period, mainly during the rainy season (Ayele et al., 2021;McDermott et al., 2010). Agriculture and livestock farming plays a vital role in the poor pastoral and agro-pastoral systems in SSA and its lack leads to continued economic decline and food security challenges (Birhanu et al., 2021).Source: (FAOSTAT, 2022) Livestock production and productivity in SSA are affected by various factors such as changing climate conditions like severe drought, flooding, land degradation, animal health and management practices (Ringler et al., 2010;Squires and Gaur, 2020). More importantly, limited access to quality forages and feed is the cause for the underperforming small-scale livestock industry in the region (Enahoro et al., 2019;Mutimura et al., 2015;Paul et al., 2020). Therefore, to realize the full potential of livestock sectors in the region, a continuous supply of sufficient and quality feed is critical as any approach to boost production and productivity (Kriel, 2016). And also, a palatable feed source is an important aspect to increase animal performance which is linked with feed quality like nutrient digestibility, chemical composition, and other attributes (Coleman and Moore, 2003).Various factors, such as biotic and abiotic stresses repeatedly affect the availability and quality of resources in SSA (Adugna, 2016;Lottering et al., 2020). Among these factors, climate (delay in rainy season) has the greatest influence in reducing pasture quality and yield, disrupting forage seed production, and causing the appearance of biotic factors (diseases and pests) as well as direct effects on animal health, growth and reproduction (Adugna, 2016;Bakare et al., 2020). Due to severe droughts, SSA potential vegetation is largely desert and semi-desert, shrub, and woodland, with only a small area of pure grassland resulting in the seasonal availability of feeds (Reid et al., 2005). In addition, climate changerelated challenges are expected to get worse in the future because additional other factors like continuous population increase, increasing energy demands, erratic weather conditions, shrinking arable land, and competition for water resources (Balehegn et al., 2020;Diriba et al., 2020).Globally, around 12,000 species (650 to 785 genera) of grasses and 18 000 species of legumes are used as forage and fodder (Cherney and Cherney, 2011). As compared to the biodiversity of food crops available, genetic resources for feeds and forages lags far behind in terms of collection, characterization and genetic improvement (Priyadarshan and Jain, 2022). Hence, there is a need to increase the number of species and cultivars under collection, use, and preservation and recognize the work of end-users who preserve these genetic resources (Batello et al., 2008).Central, South America and Caribbean regions are the origin for genetically diverse legume forages (Kretschmer and Pitman, 2000) like Stylosanthes, Leucaena, Desmodium, Centrosema, and Gliricidia, while important grass genera, such as Urochloa (syn.Brachiaria), Pennisetum, Megathyrsus (syn. Panicum) and Digitaria are predominantly from SSA (Pengelly, 2015). Some important grass genera like Cenchrus and Bothriochloa have both African and Asian distributions (Sandhu et al., 2019). There are widely distributed grasses (Napier grass) and legumes (lablab) in SSA but genetic improvement and other breeding strategies and their adoption and use in the regions are limited and still underutilized (Barnes et al., 2021).There are various feed resources such as sown and /or planted grasses, herbaceous, dualpurpose legumes, shrub fodder legumes and trees which are among key components to improve livestock production and productivity (Casanova-Lugo et al., 2022;Paul et al., 2020); that can play important roles and achieve different goals in crop and animal production systems (Enahoro et al., 2019). There are tropical and subtropical fodder resources, mainly legumes and grasses, which are used in the development of feeding systems for large and small scale animal production (Pengelly, 2015).There are diverse germplasms of grain feeds (oats, corns) and forages (like local grasses, legumes, groomed pastures or woody forbs, and a wide variety of plants (Harris-Coble et al., 2021). But these resources are becoming scarce as a result of the inevitable population increase, more land being allocated for food crops, and changing climate affect conservation schemes (Balehegn et al., 2021;Stavi et al., 2021).Natural vegetation (natural grazing, crop residue, enset by-products (leaf and pseudostem), green feed (weeds and crop thinning), and sugarcane top) are the main forages in East Africa, mainly in Ethiopia (Dey et al., 2021;Funte et al., 2009); and also similarly, in Kenya;Uganda, Rwanda, and Sudan (except enset by-products (leaf and pseudostem), but its availability are mostly dependent on the rainy season and after harvesting time of crops (Paul et al., 2020). Livestock production is the major component in the agriculture of Horn Africa;making it SSA's leader in milk production (contains 68% of Africa's milk production) (Bingi and Tondel, 2015). And its achievement depends on a better functioning of sufficient and quality feeding systems (Michael et al., 2022), but a shortage of farmland, undulated topography, natural hazards, and absence of diversification in production are serious problems leading to poor performance of the livestock industry in the region (Paul et al., 2020).The livestock production system (particularly dairy production) is grouped as pastoral, agropastoral, the agro-pastoral in cooler and humid regions (crops and livestock) and sedentary schemes depending upon agro-climatic conditions, the purposes of production, available resources used, the extent of production, market orientation (Mengistu et al., 2013). But the availability of sufficient and quality feeds and forages is very low which is threatened by seasonal climatic factors and diseases (Franzel et al., 2014;Paul et al., 2020). Loss of forage genetic resources (Hanson and Ellis, 2020); lack of improved high yielding and quality forage resources (Paul et al., 2020); more allocation of farmland for food crops, loss of biodiversity, severe drought, and other management practices are factors that limit forage production, particularly in eastern Africa (Lottering et al., 2020;Wreford and Topp, 2020).Furthermore, feed and feeding schemes of livestock are constrained by state restrictions on livestock mobility, grassland degradation, overgrazing, land tenure, land-use changes (Soumya et al., 2022), the encroachment of invasive plant species, soil infertility, and inadequacy of grazing inputs and planting materials (Baumgard et al., 2012;Ringler et al., 2010). In addition to the above natural and man-made challenges, tropical forage research was given limited attention in the region leading to farmers using only landraces that are low yielding, susceptible to disease and pests and not amenable for mechanization (Balehegn et al., 2021). As a result, there is an urgent need to focus and invest in enhancing tropical forages so that the underperforming livestock sector may reach its full potential (Kitalyi et al., 2021).Ethiopia has the largest livestock genetic resources and population in Africa and its main feed supplies are natural vegetation, crop residues, and grazing (CSA, 2016;Gebreyohanes et al., 2021;Tolera et al., 2012). Most commonly known forages in Ethiopia are natural pastures/ gross fodder (about 124 grass species; and 333 legumes species) and browse trees and root crop as well as roughages, agro-industrial by-products and concentrate compound feeds (Assefa et al., 2012;Mengistu et al., 2017;Tolera et al., 2012). Natural pastures are the major fodder resources and represent 92.81% and 7% are other sources such as agricultural by-products (1.53%) and improved feeds and forages constitute only (0.31%) (Hassan et al., 2020).Hence, livestock productivity is profoundly dependent on natural sources of pasture in all parts of Ethiopia (Funte et al., 2009;Kitaba and Tamir, 2007). However, it is not enough to meet the demands because it is limited by several factors such as ecological deterioration, drought due to climate change; unwanted weeds and bush invasion due to overgrazing; land tenure due to investments; the decline in soil fertility due to soil erosion (Adugna, 2016;Guadu et al., 2016;Mengistu et al., 2017). Compound feeding, fodder, and forages are common feeding stuff worldwide which is also common in Ethiopia (Birhan and Adugna, 2014). These are harvested crop residues intended for animal feed are grown in a limited area for livestock that is the collection of legumes, grasses/herbs, maize, oats, alfalfa and other edible plants (Phelan et al., 2015). Among key common forages, Napier grass is multipurpose high biomass yielding resource and known traditional grass grown in SSA and mostly Eastern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya Uganda, Tanzania) (Umer and Nurusheva, 2020). Napier grass (Cenchrus purpureus L.), is a multi-purpose forage(used as feed and forage, soil conservation, biofuel), native to SSA, used in intensive or semi-intensive agriculture (Mkhutche, 2020). It is known for its high biomass yield, adaptability under broader environmental conditions of growth (Muyekho, 2015;Negawo et al., 2017); and is commonly grown in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria (Farrell et al., 2002;Hassen, 2004;Mwendia et al., 2006;Orodho, 2006). It is a perennial forage plant distributed and grown in the tropical and sub-tropical regions, known as a good source of palatable forage, at the early growth stage, and can rejuvenate after each harvest (Kamau, 2007;Knoll and Anderson, 2012;Singh et al., 2013). It is a monocotyledonous open-pollinated flowering plant that usually produces few full forms of seeds; so its main mode of propagation is by vegetative through stem cuttings (Dujardin and Hanna, 1985;Knoll and Anderson, 2012;Kustyorini et al., 2019).Genus Cenchrus has 140 known species, among which Napier grass is an important perennial C4 flowering cultivated species and its polyploidy level is an allotetraploid (2n=4x=28, A'A'BB genome) (Yan et al., 2021;Zhang et al., 2020). It can yield 60-150 tons of green matter ha -1 each year and is capable of withstanding repeated cuttings (four to six cuts per year), tolerates high temperatures, drought stress, low soil fertility, and other biotic stresses; but for its best growth temperature between 25-40 °C, and an altitude of above 2000m in the tropics (Dokbua et al., 2020;Kamau, 2007;Rusdy, 2016;Yan et al., 2020).In addition, Napier grass is used as a biofuel source, for soil and water conservation, and as a trap crop in integrated pest management practices (Kabirizi et al., 2015;Rengsirikul et al., 2013). Once established in the main production field, it can grow and stay for a long time under good management practices (Hassen, 2004); and grow as a multi-cropping system that can be intercropped with legumes such as desmodium, Macrotyloma axillae, and stylosanthes (Knoll and Anderson, 2012;Rengsirikul et al., 2013). Napier grass can grow in the wider types of soil but for better performance and high biomass yield, deep and fertile soil with good drainage is preferable (Nassif and Tanji, 2017).Napier grass is a C4 grass it can grow at a wider altitude; for maximum yield, an altitude than 2000m is best and well ploughed and a fine planting field during establishment also favours establishment (Mengistu et al., 2017). Depending upon growing environmental conditions and variety; appropriate nutrition, as well as irrigation supply, improve the performance and feeding quality of Napier grass (Mwendia et al., 2018).Napier grass is one of deeply-rooted, tall, fast-growing perennial grasses, and its main mode of propagation is by the cutting of stem and can withstand continuous harvesting, once established (Muyekho, 2015). Biomass yield and forage quality, as well as other nutritional attributes, are a function of variety, growing seasonal condition, growing environment and agronomic and other management practices (like plant nutritional management; planting density, harvesting age, cutting height, water management, disease, and insect management practices) (Mukhtar et al., 2003;Rusdy, 2016;Zewdu, 2008). More importantly significant difference in yield and nutritional attributes of Napier grass due to varieties reported which is important initial information for improvement programs for better forage quality and other agronomic traits (Wangchuk et al., 2015); similarly growth and other attributes are influenced by genotype by environment interaction because of their difference in growth response to a specific environment (Kabirizi et al., 2015).Poor nutritional quality is among the challenging factors affecting the production and productivity of livestock in SSA (Muia, 2000). According to Animasaun et al. (2018), Napier grass has lower forage quality than pearl millet. Furthermore, pearl millet has higher calcium, zinc, iron, and potassium whereas a higher percentage of acid and neutral detergent fibre and lower minerals were recorded for Napier grass (Wangchuk et al., 2015;Zewdu, 2005). Nutritional and growth attributes of Napier grass are majorly controlled by growing altitude, agronomic management practices like harvesting time, and plant population (Mukhtar et al., 2003), soil nutrient status and fertilizer application (Tessema et al., 2011);other biotic factors such as diseases may also affect the nutritional content of Napier grass (Kitaba and Tamir, 2007;Rengsirikul et al., 2013;Wangchuk et al., 2015). Source: (Cuomo et al., 1996;Rusdy, 2016;Turano et al., 2016;Zewdu, 2005) Besides, the nutritional quality of Napier grass is affected by the age of harvesting because the accumulation of required chemical composition is associated with the stage of harvesting (Takara and Khanal, 2015;Wangchuk et al., 2015). For balanced livestock feeding and maximum yield, it is important to mix Napier grass with other forage sources for balanced mineral mixture because Napier grass was reported as deficient compared to a critical level in minerals elements (Table 2) and its nutritional content decreases as age increases (Aganga et al., 2005). Napier grass is well known for its high biomass yield when grown under irrigated conditions.But its yield and nutritional quality are constrained by various factors such as; drought (Gashaw et al., 2014;Turano et al., 2016); poor agronomic management practices (Mukhtar et al., 2003), and/or biotic factors like smut and stunt diseases (Farrell et al., 2002;Khan et al., 2014). Some of these important factors that threat Napier grass are discussed below.Napier grass is a drought-tolerant forage plant through changing its growing physiology in response to severe drought and water deficiency but its yield potential is affected as compared to normal growing conditions which are mainly from the direct effect of climate change like higher temperature and /or drought (Mwendia et al., 2019;Wreford and Topp, 2020). In all growing altitudes, environmental stresses like drought, soil fertility, and poor agricultural practices significantly reduce the yield and quality of Napier grass (Mengistu et al., 2017). According to Maleko et al. (2019) growth, biomass yield, and nutritional quality of Napier grass were affected by growing season and genotype interaction. To minimize yield and quality loss arising from abiotic stresses developing improved varieties resilient against these stresses is the way forward (Habte et al., 2020).Biotic factors are one of the production constraints that affect the growth, and nutritional quality of forages including Napier grass (Farrell et al., 2002;Khan et al., 2014;Singh and Chahal, 2020). Insect pests (mites and nematodes), disease (viruses, fungal and bacterial) are among serious novel biotic factors that cause significant loss in yield and nutritional quality of Napier grass (Farrell et al., 2002). Recently Smut (caused by Ustilago kamerunensisis) and stunt (caused by a phytoplasma) disease were reported as serious biotic factors affecting the productivity of the Napier grass in central and East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, and Cameron (Kawube et al., 2014). Stunt disease causes complete yield loss (40-90%) and/ or even death of the plant (Wamalwa et al., 2017).Similarly, yield loss due to smut is approximately 0.265 t ha -1 yr-1 (Mwendia et al., 2007).The yield potential of Napier grass can be improved significantly with good agronomic management practices like fertilization, watering/irrigation, as well as insect pests and disease management (Maenetja, 2021). Napier grass is a promising forage resource but is yet to be fully domesticated and explored (Mwendia et al., 2019;Paul et al., 2020;Simeão et al., 2021;Turano et al., 2016).Forage germplasm collections are vital initial breeding tools that help to develop highyielding and resilient varieties adaptable to wider climatic conditions and agroecology (Hanson and Ellis, 2020). Napier grass germplasm collections, characterization, and appropriate conservation are important strategies to enhance germplasm resources because every genetic improvement plan is mostly dependent on available germplasm and their initial genetic variability (Habte et al., 2020;Kawube et al., 2015;Wanjala et al., 2013). Besides, collection and appropriate maintenance is a fundamental approach against genetic erosion and rapid loss of germplasm from native biodiversity because of damage caused due to biotic, abiotic factors such as human interference, habitat destruction, air pollution and the invasiveness of non-native species, and deforestation (Anandhinatchiar et al., 2020;Okukenu et al., 2020) The study of phenotypic and genotypic variability helps to identify desirable traits and enhance selective breeding for abiotic and biotic stresses, thus to achieve sustainable forage production, including in Napier grass (Lutatenekwa et al., 2020;Wanjala et al., 2013).Characterization based on morphological traits has long been used in conventional breeding and is now advanced by the use of molecular markers which speed up the process and permit optimal utilization of available diversity within a species and beyond (Anandhinatchiar et al., 2020;Irshad, 2014). Napier grass germplasm collection, characterization, diversity study will contribute to a genetic improvement plan which helps to enhance improved varieties with good forage quality (Anandhinatchiar et al., 2020). Assessment of genetic variability among available germplasm helps further breeding programs by providing insight into polymorphisms that cannot be accounted for through phenotypic characterization (Anandhinatchiar et al., 2020). Phenotypic characterization provides relevant morphological information that helps to identify some epigenetic information for those traits beyond genetics (Eichten et al., 2014;McCouch et al., 2012).Variability on biomass yields and nutritional content of Napier grass collections have been reported (Habte et al., 2020;Maleko et al., 2019;Turano et al., 2016;Wouw et al., 1999).But phenotypic evaluations based on agro morphological traits cannot depict variability at the gene level and should be complemented by marker-assisted platforms (Muktar et al., 2019;Pattanashetti et al., 2015).Napier grass has a long vegetative phase which makes it difficult to identify its germplasm based on only its agro-morphological traits (Bhandari et al., 2006). Thus, evaluating genetic diversity with the help of molecular markers offers more accurate, fast, non-expensive technology that complements phenotyping, to identify relationships and purity among germplasm collections, populations, and species (Anandhinatchiar et al., 2020;Kawube et al., 2015;Muktar et al., 2019).DNA-based markers are among the essential tools for diversity study and breeding with a variety of applications including genome mapping, gene tagging, genetic diversity, and phylogenetic analysis (Irshad, 2014;Ortiz, 2002). There are various molecular markers like non-PCR-based (RFLP) and PCR-based markers (RAPD, AFLP, SSR, SNP); used for genetic diversity study of forages including Napier grass (Kandel et al., 2016). Since sequencing costs became gradually lower, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNPs), have gained high popularity due to their genome-wide coverage, even though it is only a bi-allelic type of marker (Wang et al., 2020).Applying genomics to forage improvement programs is vital to accelerate conventional breeding by targeting key genes behind traits of interest and such tools are already in use in temperate forage like ryegrass (Genus Lolium) (Brummer and Wang, 2020;Habte et al., 2020;Mishra and Singh, 2020). Developing and applying genomic tools contribute towards fast-tracking breeding efforts in Napier grass which has a perennial nature and is difficult to improve through the conventional breeding approach (Ahmar et al., 2020;Mishra and Singh, 2015). A whole-genome sequencing approach is a new tool that supports a genetic improvement plan through the formation of suitable reference genomes and their wild relatives to implement novel methodologies such as genomic selection (GS), genome-wide association studies (GWAS), epigenomics, and genome editing (Schreiber et al., 2018).A marker-trait association study was done in Napier grass (Habte et al., 2020); the recent report indicated that diversity study and construction of high-density genetic mapping was done by sequencing which is one of the new insights to diversity study of Napier grass (Muktar et al., 2019;Paudel et al., 2018). However, despite this progress more genomic tools are needed for advanced improvement plans of Napier grass and other animal forage plants (Nuccio et al., 2018;Paudel et al., 2018). Also, more studies on the GWAS to identify important agronomic traits for further breeding; identification of molecular markers for diversity study in available germplasm collections is of paramount importance to address the necessary genomic study of Napier grasses (Azevedo et al., 2012;Habte et al., 2020;Kandel et al., 2016).Genome-wide association studies are one of the approaches for identifying the genomic regions responsible for the important agronomic traits like resistance to drought, high yielding, resistance to common diseases and other related qualitative and quantitative traits (Hirschhorn and Daly, 2005;Wang et al., 2020). Identification of QTLs and/or molecular markers nearby the gene of interest, associated with important agronomic traits, facilitate the transfer of those traits into target populations via conventional approaches or through a genetic transformation which is a robust tool to make changes at a distinct locus in the genome, even at the individual nucleotide level (Brummer and Wang, 2020;Chai and Wang, 2020). Moreover, GWAS combines a wide-ranging and unbiased investigation of the genome with the power to detect common alleles in different loci with modest phenotypic effects and hence it is also a powerful approach for dissecting complex traits (Akiyama, 2020;Grenn et al., 2020;Wang et al., 2020). Genomic tools fasten breeding effeort through clearly complementing conventional approach.There is progress on Napier grass improvement like germplasm collection, characterization, evaluation, and selection as well as a genomic study (Anandhinatchiar et al., 2020;Muktar et al., 2019;Nassif and Tanji, 2007). The main improvement objectives of Napier grass are developing resistant and/or tolerant varieties against smut and stunt diseases, and increasing forage quality such as crude protein content (Anandhinatchiar et al., 2020;Kingston-Smith et al., 2013;Mukhtar et al., 2003). Limited genomic tools are available to date for Napier grass with the first reference genome published (Yan et al., 2021) and with only two GBS studies to date (Muktar et al., 2019;Paudel et al., 2018). This is mainly because of lack of awareness, little attention of policymakers, lack of cheap and quality forage seed, and poor market linkages for inputs and outputs (Ndah T et al., 2017;Sejian et al., 2021). This grass is a key perennial traditional forage in SSA, with limited genetic resources for its improvement (Muktar et al., 2021). Therefore, developing more genomic tools offers opportunities to apply modern breeding tools such as marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection (GS) to complement the traditional breeding approach (Simeão et al., 2021).Among 109 Napier grass accessions collected and conserved at ILRI genebank and used in this study (Table 3 and Appendix Table 1), eighty-four accessions were phenotypically evaluated at Bishoftu as described by Muktar et al., (2019), the site located 48 km southeast of Addis Ababa East Shewa Zone, Oromia Region). The field trial site is geographically located at 8 0 47\"20' N 38 0 59\"20' E, altitude 1800 (masl), annual rainfall (875mm), soil type alfisol maximum, average, and minimum Temperature ( 0 C) of 25,19, and 11 respectively.The trial was established in August 2017 and data collection was carried out between 2018-2020 as previously described by (Muktar et al., 2019). In addition, all the 84 phenotyped accessions in the field trial (Figure 2) and an additional 24 that were not phenotyped were genotyped at the WGS level through Illumina sequencing tool (Table 3). Eighty-four Napier grass accessions were arranged in a partially replicated (p-rep) design and replicated four times for phenotyping as previously described by Muktar et al. (2019).Six stem cuttings from respective accessions were planted in a single row allowing 750 mm spacing between plants and rows. After six months of the establishment, a standard cut of 50 mm above ground was carried out before drought stress conditions were imposed at the beginning of 2018. During the dry season (DS), two blocks were irrigated to a volumetric soil water content (VWC) of approximately 20% (now onwards called moderate water stress (MWS) and the other two blocks were irrigated with a reduced amount of soil moisture, which corresponds to a VWC of about 10% (now onwards called severe water stress (SWS).Drip irrigation was paused during the wet season (WS) and VWC for all the blocks was approximately 30%. Soil moisture content was checked by using a Delta soil moisture probe (HD, England). Overall, 12 harvests were conducted, following every eight weeks of regrowth, in both wet and dry seasons. Phenotypic scores such as agronomic performance and feed quality traits of Napier grass accessions were collected under both moderate and severe water stress moisture conditions.A total of six growth and forage biomass yield traits, like plant height (PH) (cm), leaf length (LL) (mm), leaf width (LW) (mm), tiller number (TN), average total fresh weight per plant (TFW) (g) were measured after every eighth week of each harvest from six randomly selected plants, per accession, in each treatment condition. In addition, total dry weight per plant (TDW) (g) after oven drying 600gram fresh weight at 65 °C for 72 hrs was recorded at every harvest. Three hundred grams of the whole plant was oven-dried for nutritional trait analysis samples were ground into a powder fine enough to pass through a 1 mm sieve and scanned using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) (FOSS Forage Analyzer 5000 with software package WinISI II) to estimate feed quality traits.Seven nutritional traits like acid detergent fibre (ADF) (%), acid detergent lignin (ADL) (%), crude protein (CP) (%), Dry matter (DM) (%), in vitro organic matter digestibility (IOMD) (%), metabolizable energy (ME) (%), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) (%), organic matter (OM) (%) were measured by following procedures described by (Choudhary et al., 2009).Young leaf tissue was collected from respective 109 accessions (Table 3 and Appendix Table 1) and subjected for isolation of genomic DNA using the procedure as described by Qiagen DNeasy® Plant Mini kit (250) (Qiagen Inc., Valencia, CA) method. The DNA quality and quantification; was checked using a spectrophotometer and agarose gel electrophoresis.Before library preparation, DNA quality was checked on 1% agarose gels and DNA purity was checked using the Nanophotometer® spectrophotometer (IMPLEN, CA, The USA); andDNA concentration was measured using the Qubit® DNA Assay Kit in Qubit® 2.0Fluorometer (Life Technologies, CA, USA). High-quality DNA with a minimum of 50 ng/µl was used for Illumina whole-genome sequencing at a depth of 20x.The construction of the sequencing library was created using NEBNext Ultra II DNA Library Prep Kit for Illumina (New England Biolabs, England) and following manufacturers' recommendations. The 1µg genomic DNA was randomly fragmented to a size of 350bp by Bioruptor, then DNA fragments were narrowly size selected with sample purification beads.The selected fragments were then polished at the end, A-tailed, and bound with the fulllength adaptor. After these treatments, these fragments are filtered with beads again. Finally, the library was analysed for size distribution by Agilent2100 Bioanalyzer and quantified with real-time PCR. Libraries were sequenced by Illumina high-throughput sequencer with a paired-end sequencing strategy. Following library optimization and preparation, DNA sequencing was performed by the Novaseq platform and end readings of 150 bp were generated. Library preparation and sequencing was conducted by Novogene (https://en.novogene.com).Once raw sequence reads were received, the quality of reads was checked by the MultiQc tool (Ewels et al., 2016). Afterwards, raw reads were trimmed and filtered by a trimmomatic tool (Bolger et al., 2014) to remove remnant adaptor sequences and get rid of low quality reads ahead of the mapping. Cleaned reads were mapped to Napier grass reference genome with Burrows Wheller Aligner (BWA) which is a software package for mapping lowdivergent sequences (Li and Durbin, 2009). Once bam files were generated, from the previous step, variant calling was carried out by Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK3.8) (McKenna et al., 2010). GATK generated a vcf file which was filtered by BCftools/1.8 (Li et al., 2009). The SNP filtering only kept SNPs that are biallelic, polymorphic, read depth above 10 and below 300, mapping quality (GQ>20) and minor allele frequency above 0.85.All the collected agronomic and nutritional traits were used for the analysis by using Rsoftware version 4.0.2 for variance analysis in the library Agricolae (de Mendiburu and de Mendiburu, 2019). Pearson Correlation for an inter-trait association for both agronomic and nutritional trait analysis by using corr package in the R-Software. For cluster and principal coordinate analysis, the optimum cluster number and membership for respective accessions of Napier grass was done using FactomineR r-package for the analysis of the contribution of nutritional and agronomic traits and to visualize the cluster plot fviz_cluster function of the R package factoextra. was used (Kassambara et al., 2017).3.6. Genomic Data Analysis andBy using filtered SNPs STRUCTURE analysis was carried out and admixture-based clustering was used in structure V 2.3.2. and run ten independent times for each K value ranging from 1 to 10 with a burn-in of 100,000 iterations and 50,000 iterations for the analysis. The inference of true K, using an ad-hoc statistic ΔK, was determined based on the second-order rate of change in the log probability of data between consecutive values. The generated results were processed using Structure Harvester's web-based version https://taylor.biology.ucla.edu/StructureHarvester/).Phylogenetic trees were constructed with filtered and high-quality SNPs and both the unweighted neighbour-joining method and the hierarchical clustering method based on the dissimilarity matrix was calculated with Manhattan index and visualized using R-software packages in a library (Ape, cluster) Version 4.0.2. A neighbour-joining tree based on a simple matching dissimilarity coefficient was constructed.Mean agronomic and nutritional values were used for marker-trait association analysis. A marker-trait association was performed for each trait separately with multi-locus GWAS algorithms Fixed and random model Circulating Probability Unification (FarmCPU) (Lipka et al., 2012) and Bayesian-information and Linkage-disequilibrium Iteratively Nested Keyway (BLINK) Models (Huang et al., 2019) implemented in GAPIT software package within the R environment (R core team 2021). Missing data in the genotypic matrix were imputed by Beagle (Browning et al., 2018). The population structure was accounted for by including two principal components in the subsequent analysis of the data. The distribution of observed vs. expected −log10(p) values were visualized using Quantile-Quantile (Q-Q) plots to test the fitness of GWAS models for both agronomic and nutritional traits (Sharma et al., 2018); significant marker-trait associations, corresponding to putative QTLs, were determined by the P-value. Significantly associated SNPs (-Log10(P-value)> 5.0) were annotated against gramene plant database (https://www.gramene.org/) and NCBI database to check if the region containing these SNPs play a similar role in other grass species.Different Soil Moisture ConditionsFor all the agronomic traits significantly (p<0.05) different responses were recorded between accessions over growing moisture conditions (Table 4 and Appendix Table 2).Except for LW and TN, the rest of the agronomic traits were significantly affected by moisture conditions. Furthermore, traits like PH, TFW and TDW were significantly affected by the interactive effect of accessions and season. Higher values in agronomic traits were recorded during the wet season versus the dry season. A similar trend was also shown during the dry season, traits such as PH, TFW and TDW were higher in MWS vs SWS conditions (Figure 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D).Similarly, there was a significant difference (p<0.05) for feed quality traits between accessions under different growing seasons, and moisture conditions (Table 4 and Appendix   Table 2). All feed quality traits ADF, NDF, ADL, OM, IVOMD, Me, and CP were significantly affected by accessions, growing seasons and moisture conditions and the interactive effect of accessions. Except for traits like ADL, IVOMD and Me, all nutritional traits were significantly affected by the interaction effect of accessions and growing seasons.Higher values in CP and Me were found during the dry season under severe water stress conditions while lower mean value was recorded under MWS during both wet and dry seasons (Figure 4A, 3B, 3C and 3D). Lower values in neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent lignin were recorded and higher mean value in ADL was recorded under MWS during the dry season and lower values in NDF and ADL were recorded under both moderate and severe water stress conditions during the dry season versus wet season.   The correlation coefficient (R-values) was computed to determine the relationship between and among agronomic and nutritional traits as described in (Figure 5A and Appendix Table 3). For example, PH showed a strong positive correlation (P<0.01) with TFW, TDW, LL and LW. There was also a significant and strong positive correlation between TFW and TDW. On the other hand, TN depicted a weak negative association with PH, LL, and LW.Among nutritional traits, NDF showed a significant and positive correlation with ADF, ADL and OM but a significant and negative correlation with CP, IVOMD and Me. In addition, CP exhibited a significant and positive correlation with IVOMD and Me. There was no strong association between OM and other nutritional traits (Figure 5B and Appendix Table 3). To determine the largest contributing traits, principal component analysis was done (Figure 6A). As the PCA the scree plot (Figure 6B) four principal components (PC1 to PC4) had eigenvalues greater than one and eigenvalues make a straight line after the fourth component.These retained first four components accounted for 86.3 % of the total variation among accessions for the studied agronomic and nutritional traits (Table 5). In the first two principal components (PCs) total of 64.1 %, explained variances PC1 (38.1%) and PC2 (26%) was determined. All the agronomic traits showed a similar maximum correlation with the (PC1) which were ordinated in the same dimension and found a strong positive correlation among traits. However, nutritional traits were distributed in different components i.e., IVOMD, CP, and Me were ordinated in the second component which contains the second greatest variation and negatively correlated with the rest of nutritional traits but OM, ADL, ADF, and NDF were appeared in the fourth component and positively correlated with each other but negative correlation with IVOMD, CP and Me (Figure 6A, Table 5).Hierarchal clustering was done for grouping accessions using agronomic and nutritional traits (Figure 6    Whole-genome sequencing of 109 Napier grass accessions generated a total of 108,957,694 variants (SNPs and Indels). Of the total variants about 90,803,632 were SNPs and 19,654,799 were indels (Table 6). After hard filtering, about 1,129,470 SNPs were kept for subsequent genotyping but Indels were not included for downstream analysis because of enough SNPs. Based on the filtered SNPs a variant was detected at every 1683 bases. An accession 16621, showed below-average mapping quality hence removed from subsequent downstream analysis. After filtering, the largest SNPs were found in chromosome B01 followed by chromosome B02 and the smallest SNPs were mapped on chromosome A06 followed by chromosome A07. From total identified SNPs higher (716,080 SNPs) and lower (413,390) were mapped on B and A chromosomes, respectively (Figure 7). Most of the filtered SNPs were located at intergenic regions (85%) and 10,374 (0.8%) were in the Exon region of the genome. Among the identified SNPs, the rate of transition was much higher than transversion and the ratio of Ts/Tv was 3.09. A total of 180 unique gene IDs were also detected among that filtered SNP. SNPs (99.13%) were found modifier based on its impact effect while 49.96 % were found silent based on effect of SNPs by its functional class (Table 7). SNP density (0.085 %) was found from the total size of 177,737,733kb on chromosome B02 which has a lower size than the B01. The lowest SNP density (0.0037%) was recorded for chromosome A01 but it has a higher genome size than the rest of A subgenomes. In general, SNP density across assembled chromosomes was not associated with its respective size (i.e from a higher size smaller SNPs were identified and vice-versa (Table 8).  8A). Interestingly, most CNPGL and BAGCE accessions were captured in the first and second coordinates. There were some outliers from ILRI accessions in the fourth coordinate and similar contributions were observed for all the ordinates. Both, Super Napier, and PIONEIRO varieties contributed to the second ordinate. The hierarchical cluster analysis showed there were two main clusters (A and B) into which accessions were grouped based on their dissimilarity matrix (Figure 8B). The distribution of the ∆K (Figure 8D) shows a clear optimum cluster peak at K=2 indicating that the presence of two major groups with each have further subclusters.A total of 49 accessions out of 108 were grouped in the first cluster and the rest were grouped in the second cluster. ILRI and CNPGL accessions were equally captured in both Clusters but most of CNPGL were captured in cluster A and are aggregated non distantly into a similar sub-cluster. The three USA accessions did not cluster together. Cluster and structure analysis (Figure 8B and C) showed no clear pattern based on their country of origin and an admixture of accessions were observed which grouped into the different clusters and subclusters regardless of their country of origin. Eighty-four accessions were phenotyped for two years, under two soil water conditions, and these data were combined with genotyping data for GWAS analysis. A total of 1,129,470SNPs were used for GWAS analysis. More than 100 SNPs were significantly correlated -log10 (p-value) ≥ 5.0) threshold using a Circulating Probability Unification model (FarmCPU), for both agronomic and nutritional traits (Table 9 and Appendix Table 4). For example, 21 SNPs were significantly associated (Figure 9   9). Similarly, GWAS analysis for nutritional traits identified SNPs that were significantly associated with measured traits (Table 9). SNPs putatively associated with CP were located at chromosome A04 (1 SNP) and A02 (1 SNP) under MWS and SWS conditions, respectively during the dry season.Moreover, in both seasons there were a total of 13 SNPs (seven during the wet season and six during the dry season) that were significantly associated with ADL (Figure 11 A and B).During the wet season, six total identified SNPs that pass -log10 (p-value) ≥ 5.0) were found under the MWS condition while a SNP was found under the SWS condition. These significantly associated SNPs for ADL were located on chromosome A03 (3 SNPs), A04 (1SNP), B02 (1SNP), B06 (2SNPs) under MWS condition while A01 (1SNP) under SWS condition of WS. SNPs located at one from chromosome A03 and A04 were found correlated with ADL under the MWS condition of the wet season.Similarly, during the dry season, a total of six SNPs (two SNPs under MWS condition and four under SWS condition) were significantly linked with ADL. These SNPs were located B03 (1SNP), B05 (1SNP) under MWS condition and four were located at chromosome A01 (1SNP), A06 (1SNP) B01 (1SNP), B02 (1SNP) and B04 (1SNp) under SWS condition.Several SNPs were also detected for the other feed quality traits in the study (Table 9).Interestingly, most of the SNPs identified in the present study were shared by different traits or treatment conditions. For example, SGWHAORA00000005_58573147 was a significantly associated variant in both LL and TFW traits. Similarly for nutritional traits, SNP SGWHAORA00000013_36372759 was shared among ADF, IVOMD and Me traits.  In the current study, the result revealed growth and forage biomass yield of Napier grass was significantly affected by accessions, moisture conditions, and seasons (Table 4). This result was in agreement with findings reported by Habte et al. (2020), who found that the forage yield of Napier grass was significantly different across genotypes and growing seasons.Consistently similar results also were reported from the study conducted by Shanableh et al. (2016), who found that growth and forage biomass yield of pearl millet were significantly different across accessions. Growth and yield traits like, PH, TFW, and TDW were higher during the wet season while lower during the dry season (Figure 3). Dinkale et al. (2021) reported that Dry matter and fresh biomass yield were high during the rainy season as was in the present study. This study revealed a significant difference in measured agronomic traits, across accessions, which was also reported by Zewdu (2005), in which a similar result in a study that included most of the accessions in the present study but the experiment was carried out in a different location. The above results highlight the fact that maximum yield can be harnessed from Napier grass if there is a continuous supply of water during production. ILRI accessions 16801 and 16804 were recently released varieties for biomass yield (Tulu et al., 2021) but some of the accessions in the present study performed as good or better, in terms of PH, TFW and TDW highlighting the possibility of further improvement of released varieties.Nutritional traits of Napier grass were also significantly different, among the accessions, implying inherent polymorphism, in terms of feed quality traits, due to their genetic background (Table 4 and Figure 4). In the present study, higher mean CP content was observed in dry seasons and under SWS in wet season conditions. This result was in agreement with the study conducted by Kebede et al. (2017), who found that CP yield, digestibility were higher at lowland (with high temperature) than highlands (more wet conditions) for different Napier grass accessions studied. A similar study on Brachiaria spp.cultivars showed higher CP content under dry conditions as was shown in the present study (Garay et al., 2017). Comparatively, nutritional traits were, more importantly, responding to the interactive effects than agronomic traits (Table 4) implying that nutritional content can be more determined by the interactive effect of accessions with stress conditions and this finding agreed with the study conducted (Kebede et al., 2016).In the present study, CP was higher under SWS conditions during the dry season and lower during the wet season which highlights soil moisture plays a key role in the nutritional qualities of Napier grass. This result suggests that limited soil moisture has a positive impact on nutritional values like CP in Napier grass and a similar finding was reported by Bahreininejad (2019), who recorded higher mean CP under drought stress conditions.Likewise, higher values in Me and IVOMD, during low moisture conditions, were observed which is in agreement with the studies conducted by Habte et al. (2020);and Bahreininejad (2019). All nutritional traits were significantly affected by the cumulative effect of accessions and growing seasons and these results were consistent with the study conducted by (Habte et al., 2020;Maleko et al., 2019;Mwendia et al., 2017). Hence, livestock farmers should be made aware of this seasonal fluctuation in feed quality traits in Napier grass and should supplement their livestock accordingly.Correlation analysis indicated PH was significantly and positively correlated with LL, LW TFW and TDW, indicating that these traits can be improved simultaneous (Figure 5). This finding was consistent with the report made by (Rahul, 2017). Correspondingly, there was a significant association among nutritional traits. For example, NDF showed a significant and positive correlation with ADF, ADL and this finding was consistent with a report from Habte et al. (2020). Similarly, ADF and NDF exhibited a significant and strong negative correlation with CP, IVOMD and Me which might be indicating that fibre content significantly affects factors of nutritional traits and palatability of Napier grass; similar studies were also reported by (Maleko et al., 2019). Also, in this study nutritional traits that are positively and strongly correlated will be a promising potential to improve those traits i.e., breeding to improve one trait will improve other traits that positively correlated with the trait of interest. Similar reports were found that improving one trait can improve other traits which have a positive correlation with traits of interest (Henkin et al., 2011).This study revealed that there was phenotypic, nutritional, and genetic variability among global Napier grass collections (Figure 6 and 8). Principal component analysis categorized traits into three coordinates and the first four PCAs describes 86.4 % of cumulative explained variation and the biplot was drawn using two major ordinates explaining cumulative of 64% variation indicating that their relations among the traits (Figure 6 a and c). Traits in the first components were greater contribution for the variation and strong positive association between traits indicating that improving for these traits will be promising further Napier grass breeding. A similar finding was reported by (Rahul, 2017).Hierarchal clustering based on measured traits grouped accessions into three clusters regardless of their geographical origins. This finding was in agreement with the study conducted by Pattanashetti et al. (2015), who studied Napier grass collections at ICRISAT India which were clustered irrespective of the source of country origin. In the cluster analysis, 51 accessions (38 ILRI, 8 CNPGL and 5 BAGCE accessions) were grouped into the first cluster. Interestingly, only ILRI accessions were grouped into the second Cluster, 14 of them and 9 ILRI accessions, 5 CNPGL, 4 BAGCE and PIONEIRO accessions were categorized into the third cluster. These groupings regardless of country of the collection might be due to germplasm exchange between countries and a similar finding was reported by (Wanjala et al., 2013).When curated reads were mapped against the recently published Napier grass genome (Yan et al., 2021)  6). A GBS study on Napier grass also showed a similar result where the highest SNPs were mapped in the B sub-genome (Muktar et al., 2019). Among A subgenome chromosomes, the higher SNP number was recorded for A01 as was reported by (Muktar et al., 2019). Napier grass's A' chromosomes are homologous to A genomes of pearl millet (Gupta and Mhere, 1997) and the tools developed in this study can also play a role in key forage and feed species, pearl millet and hybrids originating from these two closely related species. This is the first study that generated genome-wide makers, a SNP at every 1,683 bases even after hard filtering, for Napier grass and these genomic tools will be critical for advancing Napier grass breeding technology for its improvement and full domestication.More than a million SNPs were shared among 108 Napier grass accessions; implying that there is polymorphism among these collections. This finding is consistent with the report made by Muktar et al. (2019), who found the presence of a significant quantity of variation between the ILRI collections with some distinctive features among EMBRAPA collections.Principal component analysis revealed that accessions were scattered into ordinates with no clear structure (Figure 8). This is expected for ILRI accessions as they were of global origin.Interestingly, most EMBRAPA elite lines (CNPGL) clustered into one quarter indicating similarity in their origin. In addition, USA accessions, three of them, clustered close to EMBRAPA accessions which were in agreement with finding from (Muktar et al, 2021).The whole-genome sequencing approach also singled out an accession (16621) with poor quality mapping to the reference genome which implies this accession is not the same species. A previous GBS study by Muktar et al., (2019) reported a similar trend for this accession.Structure analysis indicated there were delta K=2 optimal clusters which were consistent with cluster analysis result through Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) where accessions were grouped into two clusters (A and B) regardless of their country of origin (Figure 8 b and c). Each main hierarchical cluster contains 49 accessions and with each cluster, accessions were sub-grouped into a small cluster. A possible reason for the grouping of accessions irrespective of their geographic origin might be that populations were admixtured due to germplasm exchange across global regions. Similar reports were made by (Muktar et al., 2019;Negawo et al., 2018;Tadelech, 2021;Wanjala et al., 2013).Association mapping of SNPs with Agronomic and Nutritional Traits Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have opened the door for systematic discovery of genetic factors for complex traits such as yield, disease and pest resistance, nutritional quality etc (Kaur et al., 2021). While GWAS have provided new insights into genetic factors affecting traits of interest, these genetic variants only explain a small proportion of the phenotypic variance attributable to genetic factors (Manolio et al., 2009). The large unidentified heritability can be partially explained by various factors including allelic heterogeneity, independent association of common SNPs or cumulative effects of rare variants in single loci (Elorbany et al., 2022;García-Cañas et al., 2014;Ward et al., 2022).In the present study, GWAS have successfully mapped thousands of loci associated with both agronomic and nutritional traits of Napier grass, in two seasons (dry and wet) and under two soil moisture conditions (MWS and SWS). One of the key complex traits affected by water stress was PH and it is regulated by multiple loci with small effects. The GWAS analysis has identified SNPs significantly associated with PH (P < 1.00E-05) under both dry and wet conditions of the trial. These SNPs were further checked for their significance under MWS and SWS (Figure 9-12). Previous field characterization of Napier grass accessions in Ethiopia, under irrigation conditions, recorded improved performance for PH than rainfed conditions (Faji et al., 2022).Therefore, the PH associated SNPs identified in the present study can be of great value in future selection programs to select high yielding Napier grass accessions. Biomass yield is one of the key traits in forage crops and a recent study comparing 9 perennial tropical forage types of grass showed that Napier grass gives the highest dry matter yield per hectare (Faji et al., 2022). In the present study SNPs significantly associated with TFW were recorded in MWS and SWS conditions, for the dry season. A study in pearl millet, which can hybridize with Napier grass and is thought to be one of the progenitors of Napier grass identified loci that significantly associate biomass yield and fresh weight (Habyarimana et al., 2020) and these loci were located at chromosomes 7, 8 and 9. But the present study did not find significant markers (P < 1.00E-05) in the A sub-genome, which is homologous to pearl millet chromosome 1 to 7. In general, a total of 67 SNPs were detected for all agronomic traits of which 47 were repeated across traits or treatment conditions (Table 9).Forage quality of individual genotypes can be altered by abiotic factors such as season and soil moisture; hence, the assessment of plant performance and adaptability in different soil water conditions and seasons is important. A total of 50 SNPs were significantly associated with all nutritional traits, except OM (Appendix Table 2). One of the key nutritional traits in forage species is crude protein content (CP) and this study only identified 2 SNPs associated with CP content during the dry season in both soil moisture conditions. A study by Muktar et al. (2022) did not detect SNPs for CP content. Relatively, a higher number of SNPs were detected for ADF and ADL and these two traits were positively correlated (Figures 3).Relatively, a fewer number of SNPs were identified for NDF but a higher number for ADL.Since ADL and NDF significantly and positively correlated, SNPs identified for ADL can also be used for the selection of NDF traits.Functional annotation of significant SNPs detected in the GWAS study showed interesting results. For example, SNP (SGWHAORA00000005_58573147) which was significant in both LL and TFW traits is positioned at the CpA0502823 gene in Napier grass. Blastx query of this gene, against NCBI database, showed significant similarity with FACT protein gene families. Several studies on this protein family revealed its role in the growth andNapier grass is a fast-growing perennial grass native to Sub-Saharan Africa that is largely used as animal feed and found in tropical and subtropical areas across the world. The ILRI fodder genebank has a variety of genetic resources of Napier grass that have been collectedand conserved, but little information is known about its diversity and important agronomic features. As an initial breeding effort, analyzing genetic and phenotypic diversity, defining crucial agronomic features, and identifying significant and acceptable molecular markers is a critical step forward in improving Napier grass germplasm to develop high yielding, quality (nutritional) and wider adopted cultivars. To speed breeding efforts on Napier grass, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is required and were used in this study.Despite the possibility of breeding genetic enhancement, many breeding programs in SSA have yet to implement genomics-based breeding strategies. This is due to the limited capacity of national institutes in acquiring genotypic data for the crop of interest and this challenge is worse in orphan forage crops like Napier grass. The present study revealed genetic diversity across a global collection of Napier grass accessions and this diversity was anchored to phenotypic and nutritional variability via an association mapping study. The activities initiated in this project will lead to public sharing of a genomic database and SNPs for design breeding in Napier grass for new cultivars, which will be made available to SSA farmers. The results from a present study will be key to initiating molecular marker-based breeding in Napier grass and fastening its further improvement effort. Ultimately, improved forages will play a key role in improving livestock performance in SSA and alleviate rampant protein malnutrition in the region.Agronomic traits such as plant height (PH), leaf width (LW) and length (LL), total fresh weight (TFW) and total dry weight (TDW) and nutritional traits such as Acid Detergent fibre (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), Neutral detergent fibre (NDF), crude protein (CP), Metabolizable Energy (ME) and in-vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) were among measured traits. Significant differences were observed and showed higher mean value under MWS conditions. Furthermore, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified more than 100 SNPs, significantly associated (P < 1.00E-05) with both agronomic and nutritional traits. The finding obtained in the present study will helps to enhance our understanding of complex agronomic and nutritional traits in Napier grass and these genomic tools will serve as a valuable resource in future breeding programs to select high yielding and droughttolerant varieties of Napier grass, suited for different agroecological zones. ","tokenCount":"10221"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cf3e52ec69f8e9b3f64edb63955fafff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f38dd552-9a0d-4cf5-958e-9fabe4b9dd6d/retrieve","id":"1190986877"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c0e33ee6-7516-4103-99aa-fc135062224c","pagecount":"6","content":"The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and partners are working to apply CRISPR technology to achieve a step-change in pearl millet seed product design: altering fatty acid metabolism to achieve the non-rancidity trait to create grain that when milled into flour has extended shelf life. Kenya is a country where the regulatory environment permits the introduction of geneedited seed products when derived from site directed nuclease 1 and 2 derived technologies. Market intelligence looked to shed light on the question, If such a seed product were available in Kenya, what would be the potential relevance for millet farming and value chains? This brief explores that question by examining the context in which millet is produced, processed, and sold and the associated expectations and requirements of farmers, consumers, and processors. Data were collected through interviews with millet farmers (n=35) and rural consumers (n=35), local processors (n=14), traders (n=3), and flour producers (n=6). Value chain actors reported rancidity as a problem, but it was not perceived to be a primary challenge. Rancidity was overshadowed by larger challenges related to lack of improved seeds of any type, low production volumes, and postharvest challenges. Achieving impact from millet seed products with extended shelf life rests on changing expectations about the commercial opportunities for millet flour (such as flour-blending policies) and building viable, high performing seed systems with new varieties that address farmers' needs, such as high yield, drought tolerance, and bird resistance. This brief concludes with future scenarios on how nonrancidity millet could deliver impact at scale.• Market Intelligence looked to understand the current and future relevance in Kenya of a potential step change in millet seed product design (i.e., introduction of the non-rancidity trait) within the context of existing millet production, processing, and seed systems.• The seed system has not released millet seed products in more than two decades. Farmers typically sow millet grain from previous harvests or purchase grain for planting-they recognize the problems of low yields from very old varieties.• Farmers also reported major challenges to increase millet output. First was bird damage to maturing panicles. Another was the lack of machinery for postharvest processing, including threshers, shellers, and winnowing machines.• Consumers, who are often millet farmers, and millers manage the rancidity issue in different ways, such as milling in small volumes and/or more frequent visits to mills and preparation of porridge in smaller quantities.• The future impact from investments in genetic innovation for millet will depend on advances in creating both viable seed systems and value chains for millet. Future research and engagements should consider building consumer demand for healthier flour, support for flour millers to construct new millet-based product lines, and engaging with traders and millers to set up links with farmers (including support for access to improved millet seeds).Market Intelligence Brief #7The United Nations has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets. Enthusiasm around millet responds to its potential to advance development goals related to food security, nutrition, health, environmental sustainability, and economic development. Millet and other dryland crops, including sorghum, provide resilience in the face of changing agroclimatic conditions, as well as support smallscale production with income, food, and nutritional security (Satyavathi et al 2021, Wang et al 2018). Their production tends to be less resource-intensive, allowing for production on poor-quality soils and requiring lower volumes of water and fertilizer (Wang et al 2018). These crops can be important for poor and otherwise vulnerable farmers in some of the most challenging agricultural landscapes in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ndiku, Jara, and Sabaté 2014). Additionally, pearl millet is rich in resistant starch, soluble and insoluble dietary fibers, minerals, and antioxidants (Saleh et al 2013).In Sub-Saharan Africa, the production of millet is concentrated in West Africa, with Burkina Faso being the largest producer. Millet production in East Africa is relatively small and has experienced slow growth. Finger millet, rather than pearl millet, has been the more important product for farmers in the region. However, millet and other dryland crops are projected to triple in production toward 2050 in East Africa (Orr et al 2016). At the same time, production areas for maize, one of the most important crops for food security in the region, are likely to decrease in the region due to more frequent periods of extreme heat and drought (Ojara et al 2021).The potential to increase consumption and overall commercial viability of millet flour in East Africa depends on increasing the production and availability of millet production. However, pearl millet traditionally has not been commercially viable in the region due to the short shelf life of pearl millet flour. As a result, pearl millet is mainly consumed on-farm, with any excess production sold to local traders as grain. Pearl millet has a high oil content that makes it prone to rancidity. Off flavors in pearl millet flour develop shortly after milling and is acknowledged as the key bottleneck for wider consumer acceptability, growth, and investment (Goyal and Chugh 2017). Shorter shelf life of the milled flour may also result in food wastage. Additionally, the rancidity problem can be a drudgery for women, as the amount that can be milled by commercial mills is limited, resulting in the need for frequent trips to millers or regularly pounding small amounts of millet grain at home to produce a small quantity of flour.Recently, CIMMYT and partners applied CRISPR technology to achieve a step change in seed product design for pearl millet: flour that has an extended shelf life due to the introduction of the non-rancidity trait. Kenya is a country where the seed regulatory environment allows for the introduction of gene-edited seed products. Through CRISPR 1 technology, new pathways become available to suppress the formation of off flavors after milling (Sharma et al 2022), potentially opening new commercial uses for the crop as well as reducing drudgery for growers.Discovery of CRISPR Cas9 and related genome-editing technologies has opened immense opportunity to edit genes and develop crops with beneficial traits. These technological breakthroughs allow precise and rapid genetic variations in plants to target specific traits.Pearl millet grain has a proportionately larger germ layer than other cereals and a higher lipid content (5-7 percent). During milling, the bran and germ layer rupture, releasing endogenous lipases that commence the hydrolysis of stored lipids (triacylglycerols, or TAG) and release of free fatty acids (FFAs). Two genes were identified, fatty acid desaturase-2 and lipase, which are involved in rapid development of the off flavor of pearl millet after milling. Using CRIPSR Cas9 technology, both the genes will be knocked out in pearl millet to eliminate the process of production of specific chemicals responsible for rancidity.In this brief, we respond to the question, If such a seed product were available in Kenya, what would be the potential relevance for millet farming and value chains? The next section presents our methodological approach to responding to the question. The sections after present results on the expectations and requirements of millet farmers and rural consumers, local processors, traders, and flour producers for millet varieties and assess whether a potential step change in innovation, i.e., pearl millet with the non-rancidity trait, can reinvigorate the seed system and overall interest in pearl millet in Kenya. While Kenya is not a major pearl-milletgrowing country, it does have a mature regulatory framework in place for gene-editing products. In addition, the Kenyan government is planning to make flour blending mandatory to reduce overreliance on maize, support underutilized crops, and improve nutrition. We conclude in the final section with scenarios for how new millet products with the non-rancidity trait could have positive impacts at scale for farmers and across the millet value chain.Key informant interviews were carried out with farmers, rural consumers, and owners of small-scale (posho) mills (n=10) in four Kenyan counties (Embu, Tharaka Nithi, Machakos, and Kitui) located in the drier eastern region of the country (Table 1). These counties were selected due to their relatively high volumes of pearl millet production. Consumers of pearl millet were consulted at home or at posho mills when size of grain and good quality (clean seed with no pest/ diseases/damage) to plant in the next season. However, the continuous use of saved seeds was acknowledged to result in more susceptibility to pests and diseases, coupled with lower yields. Farmers also noted that despite pearl millet being drought tolerant by nature, a prolonged drought in Kenya in recent years has affected overall yield targets, especially since farmers are using old, recycled varieties.Farmers considered bird damage (i.e., loss of grain to birds) to be their biggest challenge for pearl millet production. They also reported spending considerable resources (both money and time) keeping birds away from their fields, using techniques such as scarecrows (mainly made of clothing purchased from a local market), shiny ribbons, sounding a bell (hitting a stone on a metal sheet), and configuring ropes to throw stones (releasing the stone creates a loud sound) to scare the birds off the fields. All farmers noted that they plant at the same time to spread the risk of crop loss to birds-if a farmer plants late, losses can be severe because that crop is the only one available. According to farmer reports, the mwanza (local variety) was not prone to bird attack because of an important trait characteristic-bristles on earheads that are sharp, pointy, or prickly, making it difficult for birds to access and consume the grain. Another critical challenge related to millet farming was postharvest crop management. The postharvest process for pearl millet is labor-and time-intensive. The earheads are cut manually, dried, and threshed using sticks to remove the grain. The lack of mechanized threshers is a deterrent to increasing the acreage. In Kitui, farmers lacked the tarpaulins needed during threshing and drying processes to prevent postharvest losses and maintain the quality of threshed grain. Second, provision of labor is heavily reliant on women and children, who are tasked with winnowing, cleaning, seed selection, seed management and storage, and milling the grain. Pearl millet grain was stored in hermetic bags, especially in Kitui; in Embu and Tharaka Nithi Counties, most farmers stored it in sisal bags.Given the much larger challenges of seed, drought, birds, and postharvest, rancidity was not a top-of-mind concern for farmers or millers. However, that does not mean that rancidity should be ignored. Farmers and consumers have adapted to the challenge by milling pearl millet flour in small, required quantities, which leads to time loss at the millers' and very frequent visits to flour mills. Due to the small quantities brought in, millers require consumers to they were buying pearl millet flour or porridge and having their grain milled to use it for home consumption. We also sought information and insights from representatives of the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), millet trading businesses (n=3), flour processors (n=6), and Kenyan supermarket visits. Seed companies will be interviewed in a next phase to scope the interest of formal seed producers in seed production.Pearl millet consumption is localized near production areas where the crop is grown. Pearl millet production is mainly for the farm family's own consumption, but when farmers have a surplus yield, they sell it on local markets for relatively high prices (USD 25-50 for 100 kg, which is double the value of maize in the region). Local posho mills are mainly used for milling although some farmers still prefer grinding millet by hand. Outside of local markets, there was no additional demand for pearl millet. Farmers and local consumers consumed a variety of pearl-millet-based foods, but the most popular dish was uji, a fermented porridge made from millet and maize flours often consumed by children.Land area allocated for pearl millet cultivation by the farmers interviewed tended to be small, roughly 0.5-2 ha. These farmers had cultivated pearl millet for more than 10 to15 years and utilized about 10 kg of seed to plant a hectare. Yield in the surveyed areas was very low, with farmers reporting yields from 500 kg to 650 kg per hectare, which is approximately 25 percent of what can be expected from pearl millet (i.e., a yield gap of 75 percent).New pearl millet varieties have not been released since 2001 (Table 2). To date there are three registered and released improved varieties of pearl millet, namely, KAT PM1, KAT PM2, and KAT PM3. These varieties were developed by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). A major challenge was that farmers interviewed had no access to pearl millet seed and recalled that the last time they received new millet varieties was in 2001. A visit and discussion with the most popular agrodealers in Embu, Tharaka, Machakos, and Kitui also revealed no available pearl millet varieties in the market. Additionally, breeding for new pearl millet varieties is currently not a priority given the budget constraints in KALRO and the small production zone.Most farmers had tried one or two varieties. Farmers stated they recycle seed, practice seed exchange with other farmers, and purchase grain (USD 1 per kg) from the local market to be used as seed. They preferred to select and save based on the following physical characteristics: large wait for delivery of more grain by other consumers to be milled together, since it is costly to operate the mills that are diesel-operated for minor quantities. Local traders deal with the challenge of having only small volumes of millet flour available in their stores to avoid food waste, which consumers also deal with.One of the biggest consequences of millet rancidity was not found on the farms but on the shelves of supermarkets or local shops. Due to the short shelf life after milling because of the rancidity issue, none of the stores would sell packaged pearl millet flour. Only finger millet could be found in flour blends, often targeted at parents with small children. But fixing the rancidity problem alone would not automatically transform pearl millet into a crop of choice for the processing industry. The processors saw little potential in pearl millet as a flour product due to the low supply and low consumer interest, even with the rancidity challenge resolved.The previous discussion suggests that achieving impact at scale from the introduction of new millet seed products with extended shelf life is a long-term proposition, to be achieved once larger challenges are addressed. Besides introducing the non-rancidity trait, significant efforts will be needed to develop improved pearl millet varieties that are higher yielding and resistant to disease and birds.Seed systems need to be put in place that give farmers access to seed, whether through collaboration with seed companies or public sector investments. Introducing laborsaving mechanization for postharvest millet processing, such as motorized milling and threshing machines, could significantly reduce processing time and effort. Once these challenges are met, what future scenarios could exist for millet in Kenya and what would the return on breeding investments be (Table 3). First, the return on investment (ROI) in breeding will depend on the area of pearl millet production. The popularity of maize as a staple in Kenya together with its well-organized seed systems and significant investments in breeding, could lead to a further decline of millet production area, potentially reducing the ROI. However, the opposite is likely as well. Predictions are that the effects of climate change and increased frequency of crop failure might push farmers to switch to traditional dryland crops such as millet and sorghum. Supported by the availability of new varieties and established seed systems, pearl millet could become the predominant crop in Eastern Kenya. Secondly, value chain drivers could lead to increased ROI in breeding. Currently, pearl millet use is limited to the production zones and there is little to no value addition happening. Flour processors could become interested in expanding their product portfolio and start new production lines with pearl millet; however, processor interviews highlight that without increased consumer demand, there is a reluctance for processors to make substantial investments to increase mill capacity to produce pearl-millet-based products. Also, government policies pushing processors to use millet due to mandatory flour blending could result in a strong increase in millet production, resulting in increased ROI. This scenario would depend less on consumer demand as a necessary condition for success but does necessitate testing of consumer acceptance of blended flours. This scenario requires that non-rancidity millet grain be traded, processed and marketed in a differentiated matter (through different supply chains), which would require a rapid assay to identify grain with the non-rancidity trait. Alternatively, this scenario would be viable if all pearl millet produced had the low-rancidity trait-this would be a huge undertaking and would still require the assay to reject grain without the desired trait. Nevertheless, these scenarios do start from functioning seed systems for millet.","tokenCount":"2780"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b4c34b3f17d2dc63d91194d9e0060dfe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3839baac-757f-44de-b05f-239037595f50/retrieve","id":"-1797969646"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b36a718e-b012-4b78-bf44-68945f2a3786","pagecount":"8","content":"Participatory plant-breeding (PPB) effo¡;ts have prolíferaled wilhin the last 10 years; however, olher key aspects have ye! lO be explored, As in m.ny olher fields, !he property rights .nd etbical ¡ssues ofparticipatory plan! breeding are laggíng far behind !echnic.1 odvances, The urgency lO define property-righlS issues for PPB orises al an opportune time, This paper introduces incipien! work (inc\\uding developmen! of a state-of-the-art paper) 00 property rights (Le., legal ¡ssues, bes!-pr.ctice options lO guide field programs, .nd ethical coneeros in PPB work) .nd p.rticipatory plan! breeding, Sleps for develapmenl ofthe state-of-the-art paper .nd Ihe rypes .nd ¡ssues lo be covered are lisled,Participatory plant-breeding (PPB) efforts have proliferated within the last 10 years, with sorne 65 examples identified worldwide (McGuire, Manicad, and Sperling 1999;WeltzienlSmith, Meltzner, and Sperling 2000). A range ofintemational agricultural research centers (lARes), national agricultura! research systems (NARS), nongovemmental organizations (NGOs), and universities are experimenting with varied approaehes (about 50 institutions belong to the plant-breeding group of the Systemwide Program on Participatory Researeh and Gender Analysis [SWP PRGA] alone), with the research paradigrn increasingly being framed as a mainstream or strategie activity. Yet while work is mushrooming on eertain aspeets of PPB-for example, development of farmerfriendly breeding schema, analysis of possible cost efficiency, and testing of models to promote varietal diversity (SWP PRGA 1996)-other key aspects have yet to be explored. As in many other fields, the property rights and ethical issues of partieipatory plant breeding are laggíng far behind technica! advanees. TIris is serious for an approach that pivots around the tenets of \"trust\" and \"collaboration\" among different groups-most ofien among poor farming eommunities and formal-system researchers, Joint collaboration should mean joint benefit sharing, At thís point, there are no ready-made arrangements or \"best practices\" to suggest for the processes and materials that emerge from PPB collaborations. Most ofthe PPB work to date has simply skirted the issues ofproperty rights with two very diverse strategies: materials jointly developed by formal breeding and farming eommunities have been fed into the formal system for variety release and seed multiplication (eompletely ignoring farmers' input), or the PPB-developed materials have been \"released,\" \"let go\" into farroing eommuníties-with no official1auneh of any kind. This has had a positive impact among [armers with mostly self-pollinated erops where issues of seed ¡nerease and quality are relatívely easy for farmers to manage at theír own leveLThe urgency to define property-rights issues for PPB arises at an opportune time. The debate over farmers' rights seems stalled in many quarters on politieal, legal, and practicallevels, Further, The legislation on plant breeders' rights makes varied assumptions about how much formal breeders control the process (to the exelusion offarmers)--assumptions that have rarely been placed under doser scrntiny. Exploration of property rights, and related issues within the field of partícipatory plan! breeding, offers the possibility of giving a second mirror to these other realms. PPB has ¡he advantage ofbeing able to follow fanners' practical, and ofien varying, contríbutions in very specific ecologícal and historical contexts. Símilarly, within PPB work, ¡he contríbutíon of plant breeders is gíven well-defined geographical and historícal specificity. PPB has many variations, rangíng from superficial consultation on fanner preferences to fanners actually being in volved in choosing parents and crossing materíal. Scrutiny of the varíations of PPB-and the reflections on property rights assocíated wíth these different farmer-breeder relationships-might indeed prove useful for grounding sorne of the discussions about fanners' rights and plant breeders' ríghts. This short note announces SWP PRGA's incipient work (ínc\\uding development of a state-of-theart paper) on property rights and participatory plant brecding. We use the term property rights as shorthand for considering three separate but related aspects: legal issues, best-practice options to guide field programs, and cthical concerns in PPB work.The \"think paper\" is bcing based on intensive discussion of actual and developing practice in PPB. The paper's development is a four-step process:1. identification of 8-1 O type-case scenarios for PPB 2. analysis oflegal, best-practice, and ethical issues for each scenario by a team of specialists: lawyer, breeder, and social scientist 3. feedback of ínitial recommendations/insights to the SWP PRGA and a wide range of groups involved in plant genetic resources (pGR) and intellectual property rights (IPR) 4. synthesis/publication/distríbution ldentification oftype casesfor PPB We recogníze lhat there are substantial variations in PPB (as there are, in reality, even in many fanners' breeding situations). We are in the process of identifYing the 8-10 classic types by analyzing programs along such variables as • Goals of PPB-skill buildinglempowerment; varietal improvement/release • Roles of partuers (fanners/researchers)--everytrung from simple consultation on preferences to actual collaboration in choosing crosses and crossing (analysis of stages of involvement) • Type of germplasm used-Iocal/exotic; stablelvariable • Sites in wruch material is stabilized-farmer controIled, researcher controlled, mixed • Type of product derived-homogeneous/variable • Means by wruch product is distríbuted-informal or formal seed channels The Plant Breeding Group ofthe SWP PRGA, now encompassing 170 members from a broad PGR spectrum, is he1ping to identify these classic PPB types through email discussion.A team of three, an IPR Iawyer specialized in cultivated plants, a plant breeder, and an applied social scíentist will analyze the cases-legalIy, ethically, and operationaIly-in terms of such lssues as• broad obligations of each party (legal, ethical, bes! practice)• germplasm ownership issues (i.e., recognition of contribution to Ihe creative process) • distribution rights (i.e., recognition of rights to move seed)The team will synlhesize know!edge on existing practice (including constraints and opportunities) and suggest draft recommendations or options for better practice (e.g., what is being tried where).The draft document will be widely distributed among PPB, breeding, and PGR advocacy groups. JI aims to stimulate lively discussion-and present a more grounded view of what different types of farmer and breeder collaboration might entail.The final paper will be published as a SWP PRGA working document. Decisions on wider distribution should be made afier an independent panel evaluates Ihe final product.The primary output would be a think paper on options for considering property rights (in the broad sense) in participatory plant breeding. It would be geared to those who variously reflect on (1) legal issues, (2) best-practice options, and (3) ethical issues as paramount.Whíle no! binding, Ihe paper would be written in such a way as to achieve the following:• guide ongoing practice within SWP PRGA • guide practice among PPB projectsin general • inform and ground debates surrounding farmers' rights and plant-breeders' rightsTwelve to 18 months (project to be completed end 2000, early 2001).We recognize that there are substantial variations in PPB (as there are, in reality, even in many furmer breeding situations). We aim to identifY the 8-10 c1assic types by analyzing programs according to such variables as Type cases for PPB analysisBelow we have oullined a range of cases in which there has been PPB collaboralion. They include bcth farmer-Ied and formal-!ed collaboralions. The cases in general represen! the mosl cornmon of the curren! applications ofPPE. However, severa! have been constructed lO anticipate future trends inPPB.Case 1• Formal breeders decide to increase the production of a crop in a given farming area.• There is no prior agreement with the local population, which is mixed ethnically and has no strong views on germplasm rights one way or the other.• Formal breeders screen exotic stabílized materia!s received from an IARC and make decisions at all stages.• Formal breeders decide what lo pul inlo on-farm trials.• Individual farrners, mostly male, ron the on-farm trials.• Farmer preferences are taken into account for the formal release of varieties.• The released varieties are forwarded to the stale seed-distribution chain.Case 2• Formal researchers are given the government mandate to improve crop production in marginal areas and specifically seek out farmer breeding priorities there.• There is no prior consultation or subsequent formal agreement with the cornmunities involved.o Researchers realize that the exístíng avaílable NARS gennplasm has líttle promising materíal. They initiate a crossing program using some local gennplasm and some gennplasm supplied by a neighboríng NARS.o Dn-station, breeders do several cycles of screening. Interested fanners from the local target communíties, some women, sorne men, are brought on-station for evaluation ofmaterials, including feedback on specific desired traits.• Dn the basis of farmer and breeder assessments, segregating material ís put with farming communities in researcher-desígned but cornmunity-managed plots.o The materíal stabilízes on-farm.• Fanners and breeders pick the most promising finished materials.• Varieties are put through formal release and multiplícatíon processes.Case 3o Fanner communities make a deeision to build on and improve the qualíty of their existing local germplasm. While they want higher yields, they are eoncerned about keeping their local varietal diversity. They highly value free exchange of materials among themselves. In faet, giving a seed gift is a true sign of friendship .. o The scientist is paid and thanked and the cornmuníty decides its own path.Case 4• This case ís a variation on case 3, where a technology that is a private company's patent ís involved.o A large women's cooperative thínks ít canmake money offofpotatoes ifthey get ridofthe tubers' blemíshes. Supported by an NGO aimíng for female empowerment, they call in a NARS researcher for consultation. He índeed confirms a virus problem and agrees that he and his institute can help the women's group.• He proposes to breed potaloes resistan! to the blemish-causing virus. For this purpose, a patented resistance gene will be introduced into the potatoes. A private company holds the patent granted for the gene.• NARS personnel a1ert the cooperative that the end product has to be officíally cleared under the newly adopted biosafety framework.• Subsequently, the wornen's group gets their product. It is simultaneously put through an official release proeess.Case 5• In the course of doing a survey, formal researchers discover an innovative farmer breeder who has developed an \"interestíng population\" from local materials. They ask the farmer if they can have a sample but no formal agreernent ís made. Scientists plant this population on-station, stabilize it, and come up wíth a híghly productíve mix.• The produet is sufficiently homogenízed so as to be put out through a formal release process.Case 6• Scientists are con cerned about lhe decreased use of a certain minor erop, whieh is important for local nutritional needs. As this particular erop is not among the NARS priority mandates, they aim to develop a program lhat strengthens farmers' own skills to maintain the erop and ensure planting material qualíty.• Scíentists invite key farmers from the region-Ioeally recognized as experts-to pursue specialized training on plant improvement.• Cornmunities involved have thernselves prioritized the need for technícal support to ensure the crop' s maintenance but no formal collaborative agreemént has been signed.• Fífty local experts are trained, both men and women, and formal scientists remain on hand to give occasional advice.• The training proves effective for conserving and even improving lhe quality ofthe local crop.","tokenCount":"1786"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ab34ed1f76e8b712090237805675c9d6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/83199d3d-8899-46c3-bf43-2c567a868a87/retrieve","id":"1186661807"},"keywords":["Tree species diversity","forest landscape restoration","tree seeds","fencing","exclosure","NTFPs"],"sieverID":"7de08c50-6c3b-4e6e-a327-e364efeb1582","pagecount":"22","content":"In the Sahelian region, different approaches are being used to halt environmental degradation and restore tree cover, with varying degrees of success. Initiatives vary according to projects' objectives, type of land to restore, and technical practices used (natural regeneration, farmer-managed assisted regeneration, enrichment planting, etc.). This study investigates tree planting choices and selection of tree seed sources in some villages of the Central region of Burkina Faso. The study targeted 96 farmers and compared planting practices adopted by farmers involved in small-scale forest restoration using fences, with those not involved in this initiative. The objective was to understand what portfolio of tree species were planted, what factors influenced tree species selection, what tree seed sources were used, what collection practices were generally adopted, and whether there were significant differences between types of farmers. The results showed that the use of fencing to promote forest restoration support the planting of a more diverse portfolio of tree species than other small scale efforts and includes a greater representation of indigenous trees. Fenced plots have therefore a conservation value in landscapes where the diversity of tree species is progressively declining. In addition to the use of fences, some other key factors affect tree planting, mainly land tenure, availability of diverse tree seed sources, and availability of land. Farmers tend to collect directly most of the planting material they need, but in the majority of cases they do not follow recommended best practices. In light of the ambitious forest restoration targets of Burkina Faso and the need to provide diverse options to rural communities to enhance their resilience vis-à-vis increasing environmental challenges, strengthening the capacity of farmers in tree planting and establishing a robust tree seed systems are crucial targets.In the face of worldwide increasing deforestation and forest degradation, global initiatives have been launched to support large-scale forest restoration. The Bonn Challenge, set by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (2011-2020), identified the bold goal of restoring at least 150 million hectares of the world's degraded ecosystems by 2020. This initiative was later extended by the New York Declaration (2014) to a target of 350 million hectares by 2030, and regional implementation platforms, such the AFR100 for Africa.Forests cover approximately 5.3 million ha in Burkina Faso and represent circa (ca.) 20% of the country's land area, to which ca. 4.8 million hectares (ha) of other woodlands can be added [1]. Between 1990 and 2015, Burkina Faso lost 21.8% of its forest cover and the remaining area has been subjected to fragmentation [2]. In sub-Saharan Africa, rapid population growth and poverty constitute the main drivers of change in land use [3,4]. Under severe pressures due to overexploitation and climate change, woodlands and tree savannas are degrading into wastelands [5]. Northern Burkina Faso is part of the Sahel Belt, which is losing forest annually to desertification. Climate change will pose increasing challenges affecting temperature and rainfall regime, threatening the long-term adaptation of tree species.Forests and woodlands have important biological and socio-economic roles, especially in arid lands [6]. Dry forests in Burkina Faso provide approximately 25% of the household incomes in rural areas and most households rely on fuelwood as a source of energy [7][8][9]. Dry forests also provide important environmental services and goods such as fruits, fodder, honey, and medicines [10]. Moreover, they serve as a buffer during drought-related crises and offer food and fodder for communities [11].Forest management and restoration are often seen by the stakeholders as an opportunity to protect ecosystems while raising social benefits (e.g., plantations of fruit trees to increase food security and nutrition quality). The Burkinabè government, local authorities, local communities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are investing resources in forest restoration to contain desertification in the Sahel and improve the sustainable use of natural resources. Burkina Faso is one of the countries involved in the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative, promoting soil and forest restoration. In a recent assessment bythe GGW office, approximately 5 million hectares of land could be targeted by restoration initiatives. The country is also participating in REDD+ -related initiatives, still in an early phase of implementation.The large extension of degraded lands requires implementing cost-efficient methods for forest restoration tailored to the characteristics of the types of land targeted (e.g., forest land; protective land and natural buffers; agricultural land) [12]. Furthermore, restoration of vast areas of wastelands requires addressing and overcoming risks of failure associated with political and socio-economic aspects (e.g., land tenure and property rights, conflicts among different groups) and technical aspects (such as the quality and the composition of the materials planted, and the processes needed to restore a self-sustaining ecosystem) [13,14].In the Sahelian region, a range of forest restoration projects have been set in place at different scales, promoted by various initiatives, from locally driven small projects supported by NGOs and associations, to larger regional programmes promoted by international organizations. They have involved smallholder farmers, community organizations and land owners with larger properties. Different approaches have been used, according to projects' objectives and type of land to restore, ranging from communal forest management, improvement of pastures, sustainable exploitation of forest resources through the adoption of improved ovens (which limit the consumption of fuelwood), to extensive tree planting and the adoption of traditional soil management practices [15]. Farmer-managed assisted regeneration, where trees are pruned, coppiced, and protected by farmers, has been successfully implemented on a large scale in Niger and other Sahelian countries [16]. In Burkina Faso, the association tiipaalga, involved in this study, has promoted a household-based approach based on the establishment of enclosures around targeted areas to trigger tree regeneration processes. Similar measures have been adopted to safeguard tree plantations [17]. Different strategies and approaches are currently being used to halt environmental degradation and restore a tree cover, with varying degrees of success.One factor that increases the success of forest restoration efforts is involving local people in their design, implementation and monitoring. But reports from different geographic contexts indicate that this is not done systematically despite it being critical to the efforts' success [18,19]. Including the differentiated needs of different groups within the community (e.g. women, disadvantaged groups, migrants, including both pastoralists and agriculturalists) not only boosts chances of success, but also leads to more equitable outcomes regarding who benefits from the restored lands [20]. Participation of farmers in tree planting initiatives and natural resource management has been identified as a pillar in the national reforestation policy of Burkina Faso and is part of the strategy of numerous NGOs. The plantations of trees in the fields of the farmers and the management of species-rich parklands can contribute greatly to the conservation of forest genetic resources, by connecting fragments of remaining woodlands and reducing the pressure of local populations on forest resources [21].Evidence from a global review of forest and woodland restoration efforts indicates that the success of the huge global investment in forest restoration is threatened by a tendency to neglect tree intraspecific and interspecific diversity [22]. Restoration usually does not use a wide mix of tree species, and even more rarely a wide range of varieties of the same tree species [23,24]. This reduces the chances of long-term viability of the restored ecosystems. However, despite the general poor adoption of best practices, the growing global interest to support reforestation and forest restoration is accompanied by interest in using native plant material and in selecting appropriate genetic planting stocks [3,[25][26][27]. Using locally adapted native tree species reduces the need for inputs such as water or fertilizers. This allows people to choose tree species culturally suited to specific contexts, land-uses, and market niches. Selecting and using good quality sources of forest reproductive material ensures better and more consistent quality of products.One of the reasons why tree diversity is neglected in ecosystem restoration is that good quality planting material is not available to the farmers and nursery owners who need it [28], or it is not available in sufficient quantities. In addition, in Burkina Faso, many multipurpose indigenous tree species have not been sufficiently characterized to enable a proper selection and supply of planting material, despite their significant contributions to food security, nutrition, medicine, wood and a number of processed products for income generation.In order to understand the potential future trajectories of forested landscapes in Burkina Faso, under the impulse provided by different factors (e.g.,. funding opportunities, general awareness of rural communities, role of local institutions) we examined and compared tree planting activities in selected villages of the Central region of Burkina Faso. This study focused on the following questions:What are the main processes through which the forest cover is maintained or restored in the landscape?What is the portfolio of tree species planted?In case of active planting by farmers, what factors most influence tree species selection?In case of tree planting, what are the main seed sources used and the collection practices adopted?The survey was conducted in 31 villages spread across the Kadiogo, Oubrintenga, Kourwéogo, and Boulkiemdé provinces, located in the Centre, Centre-West and Plateau Central regions of Burkina Faso (between 12 • 11' and 12 • 48'N, 2 • 6' and 0 • 54'W; Figure 1) with an average population density of 681, 86 and 58 inhabitants/km 2 [29] respectively. In all study sites, Mossi were the main ethnic group, followed by Fulani, Bissa, and Samo.The study sites are characterized by flat terrains with few rocky hills ranging from 310 to 340 m above sea level. All selected villages were located in the North Sudanian climatic region, with an annual rainfall between 600 and 800 mm, concentrated mainly from May to October. The prevalent mix of land uses includes traditional agroforestry systems (parklands), other woodlands and pastures. The main cultivated crops are cereals (millet, sorghum, maize) and cash crops (e.g., sesame, peanut). Extensive animal husbandry is largely practiced, primarily by the semi-nomadic Fulani. Out of the 31 villages selected, 20 were targeted by activities of the association tiipaalga (headquartered in Ouagadougou), focused on sustainable use of natural resources. The activities implemented by tiipaalga included the promotion of improved ovens, distribution of microcredits for the development of value chains around non-timber forest products and capacity building of farmers in sustainable agricultural practices. The remaining 11 villages were selected based on two main criteria: a presence of farmers actively involved in tree planting and a low degree of externally driven interventions targeting sustainable forest management. By sampling these three groups of farmers, we covered a diversified set of contexts in which tree planting take place (e.g., with and without support of projects' interventions to establish fences, with and without exposure to best practices promoted by NGOs, etc.) and could examine the potential different modalities through which tree planting takes place (e.g., different choices of tree species and seed sources, different constraining factors).A total of 96 farmers were interviewed across the 31 selected villages during two periods in the field, in April-June 2017 and in February-April 2018. In both cases, interviews were conducted mainly during the dry seasons to benefit from a greater availability of farmers. The low proportion of women interviewed is because local customary practices tend to exclude women from tree planting. Farmers fell into three main groups, based on the following characteristics:1.Group 1: farmers partnering with the association tiipaalga in the establishment of small fenced plots = 48 farmers (43 male individuals, 4 female groups). 2.Group 2: farmers in the same villages as those above, but not involved directly in activities promoted by tiipaalga and without fences = 24 farmers (all male individuals).Group 3: farmers in villages other than those above, not exposed to the activities promoted by tiipaalga and not reached by externally driven interventions promoting sustainable forest management, selected based on the indication of local forest officers = 24 farmers (23 male individuals, 1 female individual).After establishing a contact with traditional local authorities, focus group discussions (FGDs) were organized in a representative sample of five villages to obtain preliminary information on the topics of investigation and to refine the questionnaires for individual interviews. Participants to the FGDs were selected based on their involvement in tree planting or knowledge of tree nursery practices. When possible, old villagers were involved in FGDs to better assess changes over time in the forest cover surrounding the selected villages. The FGDs were structured around questions on land tenure, access to forest resources, tree planting and management, and the perception on the conservation status of important tree species. Between 4 and 17 peoples participated to each of the FGDs.In each village, a focal point helped in the organization of the survey. The focal point helped targeting farmers with fenced plots, in villages where tiipaalga was active, and farmers with the ideal profile and experience in other villages. In addition, at the end of each individual interview, the selected farmer was asked to put the research team in contact with other farmers known for being active in tree planting. The relatively low number of farmers interviewed per village is due to the limited extent of tree planting in the regions examined, so the sample is representative of the dynamics researched.The individual questionnaire was focused on the following aspects: a description of on-farm productive activities, land tenure and land use, tree planting practices, preferred species, seed sources, constraints faced by farmers in tree planting, and social networking activities in relations to some specific on-farm activities. Both FGDs and individual interviews were conducted in the native language of the respondents (mooré) by the first author with help of a translator who assisted in field work, previously trained on the content of the survey. When interviewing representatives of women's groups, one woman always accompanied the interviewer to facilitate more open communication. Individual interviews and FGDs were all tape recorded after obtaining consent.The diversity of tree species planted in farmers' fenced plots and fields was defined by four variables: number of species, number of trees per hectare, proportions of exotic species, and proportions of exotic tree individuals. In addition, a total of 19 categorical variables (see Table 1), which constituted the structure of individual questionnaires, were used to define attributes of the respondents. Finally, the different types of seed sources used by farmers were characterized based on the provider, the entity responsible for collection, the type of land where seed collection takes place, and the type of access to the seed source.Data were analyzed in R program version 3.5.1 [30]. The Wilcoxon-Man-Whitney test was used to compare mean values of the four variables related to tree planting, given that not all variables had a normal distribution, and the Chi-Squared test was used to compare the frequency of the different tree species planted. To explore patterns of planted tree diversity in farmers' fenced plots and fields, we used a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA). The analyses enabled to reveal similarities in the diversity and type of tree species planted in farmers' fenced plots and fields and were performed using the FactomineR and Factoextra packages [31]. For the MCA analysis, the four variables used to characterize tree planting choices were utilized to define the Euclidean space and the 19 categorical variables were set as passive.To reveal what factors seemed to have most influence on the patterns observed in planted tree diversity in farmers' fenced plots and fields, we used a Random Forest analysis, performed using the Party package [32]. Four models were developed, one for each of the variables describing tree planting practices. The models predicted the likelihood of observing certain planting practices being set in place by a farmer (as defined by each of the dependent variables) by looking at the set of critical attributes considered potentially influential in determining farmers' choices regarding tree planting (19 explanatory variables; Table 1). The out of bag score (OOB) indicated the predicting power of the model (the lower the value, the better the model). We generated a permutation score to assess correlations between variables, considering relevant all factors scoring above 0, the higher the permutation score, the higher the weight in the model [33]. Barplots were generated using ggplot2 packages [34]. Information of the main tree seed sources used by each farmer and by type of species planted was collected, analyzed, and frequencies were presented.Table 1. List of the 19 variables structuring individual questionnaires, considered to have an influence in determining farmers' choices regarding management of natural resources, including tree planting. The variables were used for constructing the four models in the Random Forest analysis.Size of the household Household Number of people living in the household Land size Surface Surface of land owned, including fallowActivities supplying important income in addition to crop cultivation and husbandry (e.g., tree planting, establishment of commercial nurseries and off farm jobs).Farmers' knowledge was tested by posing questions about tree species uses, tree species used in the past and disappearing from the landscape. The total number of species emerging from this exercise was used as a proxy for defining individuals' knowledge on tree species.Level of education of the farmer. Religious education has been considered as primary education.Constraints in seed supply Seed_supply Number of different type of constraints reported by the farmer interviewed in getting an adequate (meeting demand) supply of seed Constraints due to seed price Seed_price High seed and seedlings price reported as a limiting factor in accessing forest reproductive material by the farmer.Constraints in availability of seed of some tree species Seed_avaibility_sp Lack of availability of seed and seedlings of some desired tree species.Other types of constraints concerning access to tree seed sources Seed_other Limitations faced by farmers in accessing tree seed, other than seed price or seed availability for certain tree species Remoteness of the village Remoteness Distance between the town hall of the municipality and the first paved road.Presence or not of farmers assisted by tiipaalga in setting up fenced plots and other agroecological practices in the same municipality of the interviewed farmer.Direct support received from tiipaalga by the farmer interviewed for fencing his plot.Issues due to termites affecting planted trees reported by the farmer interviewed.Issues due to wildfire reported by the farmer interviewed.Tree planters' groups or associations Tree_planter_grp Affiliation to an informal group or an official association of tree planters jointly involved in tree planting efforts (nurseries, tree plantations, etc).Own production of seedlings by the farmer interviewed.Presence of at least one private nursery, most commonly run by one individuals, producing seedlings for his own use but also for selling within the same municipality of the interviewed farmer.Whether or not the farmer interviewed had training in seed harvesting and/or in establishing a nursery.Whether or not the farmer interviewed had contact with institutions supporting farmers in tree planting.On average, the farmers interviewed owned 11.8 hectares of land, mainly acquired through heritage (in ca. 93% of cases). All women's group gained access to land through informal renting agreements. All farmers interviewed belonged to the Mossi ethnic group, except for one Fulani farmer. Around 54% of the farmers interviewed had not received formal education.A total of 65 tree species were collectively planted by all farmers interviewed. Of these tree species, 55 were found across farmers in Group 1, 35 across farmers in Group 2, and 27 across farmers in Group 3.Farmers in Group 1 have planted more species than farmers in Group 3 (Table 2, Table S1 in Supplementary Materials), while differences between Group 2 and 1 and Group 2 and 3 were not significant. The density in trees planted was not significantly different across the three groups. Within groups variation in the number of trees planted/ha was pronounced, especially in Group 2. Farmers in Groups 1 planted fewer exotic tree species than farmers in Group 3, or in Group 2 and 3 combined, while no significant difference in the proportion of exotic tree species between Group 1 and Group 2 was observed. Furthermore, farmers in Group 1 planted fewer individuals of exotic tree species than Group 2 and 3 examined alone or combined.Table 2. Mean and standard deviations of the four variables used to assess tree plantation practices of the three groups of farmers. For the three groups, couples of values marked with the same letter and an asterisk are significantly different from each other, (Wilcoxon Mann Whitney test; p value < 0.05). Values with the same letter and no asterisk are significantly different with p value < 0.1 (this second cut-off value was used to detect patterns, despite the small size of the sample). Group 1 = farmers with fences; Group 2 = farmers without fences, in the same villages as Group 1; Group 3 = farmers without fences, in different villages from Group 1 and 2. Group 2 + 3 = it includes all farmers without fences, as opposed to farmers with fences in Group 1. The two tree species most commonly planted by all farmers were exotics: Mangifera indica L. and Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh. (Figure 2). Azadirachta indica A. Juss. was much more favored by farmers of Group 3 than by those in the other groups.Out of the 15 most planted tree species, seven were indigenous, with the first indigenous tree species, Acacia senegal L., found in third position in the overall ranking. It was planted more densely in fenced plots to create a natural barrier all around the plot and progressively replace the artificial fence when damaged (Figure 2). The second and third most planted indigenous trees were Parkia biglobosa Jacq. and Adansonia digitata L., the first planted by significantly more farmers of Group 1 than by other groups. Indigenous tree species were more frequent in fenced plots (e.g.: Parkia biglobosa Jacq. and Adansonia digitata L.) than in plots without fences. Of the 15 most commonly planted tree species, 10 supply edible products, two are used for construction, and three are planted for fencing. In total, 10 species had a considerable market demand and were a significant source of income for the household. Looking at the overall total number of tree individuals planted by all farmers, 49.8% had a commercial use, 37.3% were used for fencing, 4.5% had nutritional value, and 4.2% medicinal value (Figure 3).  Of the 15 most commonly planted tree species, 10 supply edible products, two are used for construction, and three are planted for fencing. In total, 10 species had a considerable market demand and were a significant source of income for the household. Looking at the overall total number of tree individuals planted by all farmers, 49.8% had a commercial use, 37.3% were used for fencing, 4.5% had nutritional value, and 4.2% medicinal value (Figure 3). Each point in the MCA bi-plot (Figure 4) corresponds to a farmer (an individual in case of male farmers, a group of individuals in case of female farmers, except one case). The position of each farmer/farmers' group on the biplot was defined by the four variables describing the tree planting practices adopted by each: number of tree species planted, density of trees planted, proportion of exotic tree species planted, percentage of individuals of exotic tree species planted. The first two dimensions of the MCA explained 45.2% of the variance and three main groups of observations emerged. Points positioned on the left-hand side of the bi-dimensional space represent farmers who planted a low number of trees in their plots, mainly of exotic species; points clustered on the right side, lower quadrant, represent farmers who planted many tree species, mainly indigenous; points clustered on the right-hand side, upper quadrant, represent farmers who planted many tree individuals/ha, mixing native and indigenous trees in similar proportions. The variable that most contributed to axis 1 in the MCA was the percentage of exotic tree species planted (declining from left to right and corresponding to a relative increase in indigenous tree species among those planted). The variable that most contributed to axis 2 was the percentage of exotic individual trees planted (declining from the upper part to the lower part of the graph, coupled by a relative increase in the number of individuals of indigenous tree species planted versus exotics) (Table 3). By fitting the random forest without explanatory variables, the predictions will be wrong in 66.67% of the cases, so OOB scores for the four models indicate that the predicting power of the model increases significantly using the explanatory variables identified. The model with the best predictive power was the one predicting the percentage of exotic tree individuals planted (Table 4). The variable that most influences this aspect was the fencing of the planting site. The second most accurate model was the one explaining the diversity of tree species planted. In this case, the most critical variables affecting the choice of how many tree species to plant were the constraints found in accessing diverse seeds. According to the other two models, which have lower predictive power, fencing was the most important variable affecting the percentage of exotic tree species planted, while the density of tree planting was affected mainly by the size of the land available to the household. Capacity was a significant variable in three out of four models. Our study revealed that the farmers interviewed obtain seed from diverse sources (see Table 5). Most of the tree seed used (47.1%) derived from direct collection by farmers from plantations, fields, woodlands, and fenced plots. About 31.2% of the seed used came from sources in which seed collection was carried out by trained staff (NGOs, National Tree Seeds Center-CNSF), forest department), thus potentially of higher quality. Finally, around 21.7% of the seed used came from informal sources, which included small private nurseries, seeds brought from Ivory Coast by migrant workers, the local market, and large seed companies (whose seed supply is also largely not registered).Table 5. Categories of tree seed sources used by farmers for tree planting. Seed sources are presented based on the expected level of compliance with best practices in seed collection. (*) Although trees found across farmers' fields have a specific owner, seed collection happens almost freely; it is sufficient to ask permission to collect seed from trees on land belonging to others and this is rarely refused. (**) More than one seed source could be indicated by each farmer, so the total is more than 100%. Figures in bold have the highest values and are above 50%.Responsibility Fields and private nurseries were the seeds sources used by the largest proportions of farmers (Table 5). The markets, forest department, and woodlands were also sources used by an important proportion of the farmers. Woodlands were the most diverse source in terms of number of tree species from which seed is collected (16 tree species are exclusively collected from woodlands, including 10 medicinal tree species; Figure 5a). On the other hand, seed of only a few species was collected in tree plantations. However, plantations represent the sources where the largest quantities of seeds were sourced (Figure 5b). Private nurseries and NGOs constituted additional significant sources in terms of size of the seed supply. The NGOs, fenced plots, woodlands, CNSF and other seeds sources provided most of the seed of indigenous species, while the market, plantations, and forest department were sources that primarily provided seed of exotic species (Figure 5c). In total, 52% of the farmers are harvesting their own seeds and producing their own seedlings. For each species, different seed sources are privileged (Figure 5c, Figure 6). Most of the seeds of Adansonia digitata are sourced in the fields or woodlands, while most of the seeds of Mangifera indica are supplied by informal sources and seeds of Moringa oleifera are supplied mainly by NGOs and the forest department. Information was collected on the criteria used by farmers in identifying tree seed sources from which to collect seed. It emerged that farmers base their selection of mother trees on seven main traits (Table 6). They primarily screen characteristics of individual mother trees (mainly health conditions of a tree, followed by fruit taste and productivity). A minority of farmers stated that they take into account characteristics of a tree population, not just of a single individual, when looking for mother trees (Table 6). Table 6. Criteria for choosing mother trees based on the number of citations of each criteria by farmers directly involved in seed collection, in each of the three different farmers' groups. More than one criteria could be mentioned, so the total in each column is more than 100%. Others = ripeness of the fruits, shape of the fruits, similarity of soils conditions with planting sites. Group 1 = farmers with fences; Group 2 = farmers without fences, in the same villages as Group 1; Group 3 = farmers without fences, in different villages from Group 1 and 2.All Farmers (%) Group 1 (%) Group 2 (%) Group 3 (%) About 69% of the farmers interviewed reported constraints in accessing seeds in adequate amounts (see Table S2). The most cited limitations were excessive seed price and the limited availability of seed of desired species (Table 7).Table 7. Different issues affecting tree seed supply and frequency of citation of each issue by the different farmers directly involved in seed collection, in each of the three farmers' groups interviewed. More than one criteria could be mentioned, so the total in each column is more than 100%. Group 1 = farmers with fences; Group 2 = farmers without fences, in the same villages as Group 1; Group 3 = farmers without fences, in different villages from Group 1 and 2.Total (%) Group 1 (%) Group 2 (%) Group 3 (%) Across the sites examined in this study, farmers engaged in tree planting represented a minority. They were planting a wide diversity of trees, even though only few species were largely planted. Overall, the most commonly planted trees were exotics, producing timber for sale and valuable non-timber forest product (NTFPs), used both for sale and house consumption.The most commonly planted tree, Mangifera indica L., has an important nutritional value and large market demand, despite its low survival rates recorded in our study sites, generally attributable to planting in unsuitable soils or to insufficient watering. Another exotic tree species largely planted, Anacardium occidentale L., seemed to be poorly adapted to the environmental conditions of the Central area of Burkina Faso and presented extremely low survival rates. However, this species was favored by many farmers due to its expanding market. Most farmers interested in planting this species witnessed success in its cultivation while they were working in tree plantations in Ivory Coast or got to know about it through relatives who migrated to Ivory Coast. The second most planted species, also an exotic tree, Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh., supplies construction material, largely demanded in urban centers. Its fast growth, rustic characteristics, and high market value make it an interesting tree species for income generation. It releases allelopathic compounds, therefore farmers tend to plant it in high density, with no other trees or crops in close proximity. The most planted indigenous species was Acacia senegal, Willd. planted in large numbers, especially by those farmers partnering with the association tiipaalga, to form live fences that gradually replace the metallic barriers used to fence farmers' plots. This indigenous species is highly adapted to the environmental conditions of the Central area of Burkina Faso. The second and third favorite indigenous tree species, Parkia biglobosa Jacq. and Adansonia digitata L., have both a huge nutritional importance, contributing to diet diversification, largely consumed at home and partly sold.A preference for exotic versus indigenous trees in small scale planting (especially Mangifera indica L. and Anacardium occidentale L.) has been observed in previous research carried out in Burkina Faso [28,35]. In studies conducted in other African countries, income generation has emerged as a critical consideration in choosing what tree species to plant [36,37]. In our study, the average number of tree species planted was higher than in other cases presented in the literature, but only a few farmers planted a very large number of tree species. The decision to also plant indigenous tree species seemed related to the increasing scarcity of some important local NTFPs and the progressive disappearance of some useful tree species (e.g., Securidaca longepedunculata Fres.). Forest resources in the proximity of the villages investigated were indeed described by farmers as largely degraded.In our study, both the analyses of planting choices of individual farmers (or women's groups) and, separately, the analysis of the characteristics of the capabilities and assets of these farmers, revealed that the observations tended to cluster around three main groups, within which farmers had both similar planting strategies and similar characteristics. This seemed to indicate that planting choices could be partly predicted based on a set of variables describing individual farmers' capabilities and assets. The establishment of fences emerged as a critical factor in predicting the relative proportion of indigenous tree species planted. Farmers who established fences planted a higher diversity of tree species and more trees of indigenous species in their plots. Thus, fenced plots tend to host generally more tree diversity if in addition to the enrichment planting also the spontaneous regrowth of the vegetation, attributable to the reduced pressure of grazing, is taken into account.Most farmers interviewed in our study belonged to the main ethnic group in Burkina Faso, therefore acquired the right to use their lands largely through inheritance. Other arrangements were observed but regarded a small number of farmers interviewed, in particular, four women's groups and an individual woman; these borrowed land from other farmers in the village. The establishment of fences clearly has constituted an incentive to tree planting and management by increasing land tenure security and contributing to its formalization (in the case of partnership with tiipaalga, the 'contract' with the association lasts at least seven years). Across forest restoration projects in Burkina Faso and other countries, land tenure security is definitely emerging as a critical factor for their successful implementation together with clear legal frameworks that recognize usufruct rights for households on restored lands [35,[38][39][40][41]. Similarly, a survey on fruit tree planting practices in Nigeria and Cameroon revealed that the most influencing factors in tree planting decisions were land tenure security, access to markets, and access to forest resources [42].The ecological implications deriving from the implementation of fences have been described in a number of case studies from different regions of the world. The benefits consist in enhanced regeneration of natural vegetation, reduction of runoff and erosion, land stabilization, increase in water availability and improvement in soil physical and chemical properties [43][44][45][46][47][48]. Prolonged exclusion of livestock grazing produces over time a significant increase in aboveground and belowground biomass and species richness [49,50]. In some cases, an increased richness of woody species can be observed after less than 10 years since establishment of exclosures [51]. In our study, the release of pressure from grazing within the fenced plots generated significant spontaneous regeneration of several species present in the soil seed bank (not only trees and shrubs, but also herbaceous species), or present in the form of resprouting stumps, despite the extremely dry environment, and created ideal conditions for enrichment planting. Thus, fenced plots tended to be more diverse than external areas, primarily thanks to spontaneous regeneration and secondarily to tree planting. In the most successful cases, livelihood benefits in fenced plots were already materializing in the first years after fencing, through the sale of forage harvested within fenced areas and in the exploitation of NTFPs [52].Given their higher diversity, resulting from a combination of natural and artificial regeneration, small fenced areas in the landscape could play the role of conservation units, protecting species otherwise seriously threatened and difficult to find in the landscape. These small plots could also function as seed sources for tree species less commonly found in nurseries, primarily indigenous trees, and could foster secondary succession in abandoned farmlands [53]. Biodiversity conservation could be enhanced by increasing landscape connectivity among these plots, allowing the movement of tree species and genes between habitats within degraded landscapes. Movements of small animals were apparently not limited by the presence of fences, as traces of rabbits and jackals were found within the plots. Furthermore, in the specific context investigated, given the extreme pressure from grazing animals, the protection offered by fences encouraged the spontaneous regeneration of a large diversity of plants inside the plots, potentially dispersing their seeds also outside the fences. In the study sites investigated, beekeeping activities were implemented within fenced plots, contributing to sustaining pollination, an important ecosystem service.The planting choices of farmers not using fences were compared. The hypotheses was that the exposure of villagers to the best practices implemented inside fenced plots would have had an influence on practices adopted by other farmers not directly engaged in small scale fencing. The expectation was that these farmers could also benefit from better access to seed of indigenous trees available inside the fenced plots and could have an opportunity to observe the effectiveness of traditional agroecological practices implemented inside the plots, which favour tree establishment by enhancing soil fertility and improving water retention. The comparison of the two groups of farmers not using fences revealed some differences but they were not significant, with a slightly higher diversity of tree species planted by farmers in the same villages where tiipaalga was active.The results revealed that, in addition to the use of fences, other important factors had a prominent role in influencing farmers' choices in tree planting: availability of land and labour, and availability of sufficiently diverse seed sources. These two sets of factors played a key role, respectively, on tree planting densities and on the number of tree species planted. A wide variety of seed sources were commonly used by farmers. Plantations contributed the largest amounts of seed but exclusively for exotic tree species, while fenced plots, NGOs and CNSF were the most significant seed sources for indigenous species. NGOs and the forest department derive from CNSF a significant part of the seed they supply to users, therefore the amount of seed supplied by the national tree seed centre is greater than what emerges by looking at seed sources cited by final users. Woodlands provided lower quantities of seed but an important diversity of indigenous tree species of medicinal value.Reliance on self-procured reproductive material was found to be considerable, but very few farmers appeared to apply optimal seed collecting practices. Seed collection criteria were mainly focused on the phenotype of the mother tree and neglected important characteristics of the tree population sourced. The limited use of population-level criteria for seed collection has been observed in studies about quality of seed collected by farmers and small scale nurseries in some other African countries [54][55][56]. More generally, a neglect of appropriate collection practices has been observed in forest restoration projects globally [22,24].These findings raise concern about the evolutionary potential of planted woodlots, especially in the light of unpredictable future climatic conditions. The capacity of natural vegetation to provide the seed required for both large restoration projects and several small scale, locally based planting efforts has been subject of concern [22,[57][58][59]. The need to broaden the genetic base of forest reproductive material has been recognized as crucial in order to maximize the adaptive potential of restored populations [24,60]. Local tree populations targeted for seed sourcing, particularly for rare or highly threatened tree species [61], may be genetically impoverished or too degraded and fragmented. Furthermore, the timing and amount of seed produced by natural populations can vary over the years, making availability unpredictable. In addition, relying on few, more abundant and easy to collect tree species for tree planting may progressively lead to homogeneous landscapes. Finally, a further risk is posed by the successive use of seed collected from planted stands with low genetic diversity [55,62]; this practice would lead over time to more pronounced effects of a narrow genetic base in subsequent populations.Farmers in drier regions recognize the importance of diversifying tree species on farms because by doing so they minimize risks of failure [63]. Various guidelines on how to capture a minimum level of genetic variation in seed collection have been developed, providing guidance on selection of mother trees [27,[64][65][66][67]. Selection criteria partly depend on the reproductive biology of the species sampled but, as a general rule, it is preferable to collect small amounts of seed from several individuals than large amounts of seed from few trees and it is recommendable to sample individuals sufficiently far apart to increase the chance of collecting from unrelated individuals [68].These guidelines are generally overlooked as they impose more efforts in seed collection and the negative consequence are not immediately visible but strengthened dissemination efforts, also targeting rural populations, would enhance local capacity in seed collection and consequently ensure a greater genetic diversity of planting stocks [64]. Dawson et al. [69] highlighted the potential of small private nurseries as entry points for the development and distribution of good quality tree germplasm, as they can easily reach all local farmers willing to plant trees. In Burkina Faso, a regulatory framework is in place for production of forest productive material, which prescribes the registration of small commercial nurseries and compliance to guidelines of the forestry department, but the enforcement of the legislation is weak, challenging the establishment of a sound tree seed supply system.In this study, the most common issues reported in relation to tree seed supply were the high price and a limited availability of seed of a broad range of species. Farmers have a low willingness to pay for seed and tend to collect it on their own when possible or to look for cheaper sources. In addition to concerns about the potential level of degradation of the populations targeted as seed sources by farmers, seeds from local tree populations may not always constitute the best option in light of uncertain, expected future climatic conditions [70]. Forest reproductive material collected from sources other than local, and growing under environmental conditions expected in future in the site targeted for planting, could be a better choice to enhance ecological resilience of planted trees [24].Given the limited knowledge of the performance of many tree species, the tests of genetic material of different origins conducted in provenance trials are still the most informative experiments that can assist in addressing questions about suitability of forest reproductive material to specific current and future site conditions, about its adaptation to constraining factors (e.g., limited soil fertility, drought, diseases, etc.) and about commercially important traits. However, there is a risk that high quality forest reproductive material, fully tested, could be less affordable than seed from other sources.Farmers' willingness to pay for quality forest reproductive material depended on the profitability of planting. For exotic tree species with high economic return (e.g., Mangifera indica or Psidium guajava) farmers were ready to travel to access superior cultivars available in nurseries in the capital city. For less common indigenous trees (several of these with medicinal use), own-collection of seed and seedlings by farmers was the only option because seedlings were not available in nurseries due to a low demand. However, as pointed out by various authors [71,72], seed collectors and nurseries need to run commercially profitable activities and this often leads to a narrowing of the range of species grown in nurseries, for various reasons including a limited accessibility of some seed sources, a desire to avoid risk of unsold material, etc.. For tree species subjected to overexploitation or with a challenging biology, even direct seed collection by farmers can be an endeavour.Important in situ sources of forest reproductive material (e.g., old fallow and forest remnants where less commonly available tree species can be found) could be mapped, characterized and safeguarded. An integration of traditional regulatory systems (e.g., harvesting rules for NTFPs) and additional conservation measures applied to sites of potential value as seed sources, could be an efficient way to maintain tree diversity in the landscape. They could also sustain an adequate decentralized supply of high quality germplasm to meet the ambitious forest restoration targets that Burkina Faso has identified at the country level and to provide livelihood options locally [21,73,74].In the sites investigated, small flows of forest reproductive material were observed, in the form of sales or gifts, through seed exchange networks active at the level of municipality. Some authors expressed the view that supporting these kind of networks and their expansion could be a viable option to increase the adaptation potential of planted trees [75]. Kindt et al. [64] illustrated the difference in tree species compositions across several villages in Kenya and proposed an approach by which forest reproductive material of tree species would spread from villages where some species are abundant to sites where they are less abundant. Those villages where the occurrence of these target species is relatively higher, and early domestication processes are at play, would function as seed sources.The potential of establishing community nurseries and developing nursery networks for the long-term support to farmers and for their capacity building has been documented [76]. Similarly, the creation of favourable market conditions for seed sales, accompanied by a clear definition of benefit sharing arrangements, have been described as crucial elements to support the long-term success of collective action of farmer's groups engaged in production of high quality seed [77]. Furthermore, the role of \"innovators\" among farmers could be strengthened and integrated into strategies for the implementation of forest landscape restoration initiatives to spread best tree planting practices sustaining farmers to farmers diffusion of knowledge [36,[78][79][80].The development of a sound seed production system requires an appropriate enabling environment. Unsecured land tenure has been identified as a limiting factor in African countries that affects income opportunities of small nurseries development [81]. In a survey on the development of nurseries for production of agroforestry species in Southern Africa, Böhringer et al. [82] found that provisions of information and training was important in determining the production capacities of the nurseries. However, the extension services appear to fail in their provisions and farmers rely more on networks of NGOs.This study showed that small-scale planting in the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso tends to focus primarily on exotic tree species that produce income. The use of fencing to promote forest restoration appears to support the planting of a more diverse portfolio of tree species than other small scale efforts and includes a greater representation of indigenous trees. Fenced plots have therefore a conservation value in landscapes where the diversity of tree species is progressively declining. In addition to the use of fences, some other key factors affect the diversity, the type of tree species planted and the extent of tree planting. These factors are land tenure, availability of diverse seed sources, availability of land and labour, and training received in seed collection and handling. Farmers tend to collect directly most of the planting material they need but in the majority of cases, they do not follow those best practices (e.g., seed collection from a minimum number of mother trees) that would favour adequate quality and diversity in the seed lots and could sustain adaptation and resilience of planted individuals. A wide promotion of capacity building of smallholder farmers seems crucial in maintaining diversity in forested landscapes. The establishment of networks of small-scale nurseries could help broaden the diversity in the supply of forest reproductive material. In situ sources of high-quality germplasm should be properly mapped and new ways of setting in place a sound and geographically distributed seed supply system should be designed in order to provide livelihood benefits to rural communities, reduce seed prices, and maintain a diversity of tree species in the landscape. Given the ambitious forest restoration targets of Burkina Faso and the need to provide diverse options to rural communities to enhance their resilience vis-à-vis increasing environmental challenges, the findings from this study indicate that strengthening the capacity farmers and establishing a robust tree seed system are crucial targets.","tokenCount":"7928"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"498e2a87da2fbd19a6e66decfa558a5d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0679fabe-de1c-4514-8c4f-502aa0e007ca/retrieve","id":"930841308"},"keywords":["p:\"'~ r","'\" '\"' ~--, f",".. ••/ ( .-~,-. Tropical Latin America, cattle, grasslands. trends. development, policy, production, consumption"],"sieverID":"319ce90e-bace-4bf1-9aac-b93d567eaa4f","pagecount":"26","content":"The paper reviews trends in land use change in the tropícs and subtropícs of Latín America and the Caribbean, and their relation to the evolutíon of the cattle industry in the region. It is posited that horizontal expansion is neaTIy. finished. and that cattle sector, and the grasslands that support it, are ibeginníng to intensify.Nevertheless a number of paradoxes subsist and are discussed. Most notable among these are the interactions among land speculation, a characteristic aspect of much of the extensive cattle industry fhroughout history. with policíes and technologies. An overview of grassland-based cattle svatems is given and their social. economic and environmental are discussed, showing some of the tradeoffs between intensification. equíty and environmental impacto In this contexto the desirability of integrating the crop and cattle enterprises is pointed out. and so me of the barely incipient trends are identified. The potential benefits brought about by public sector funded research on tropical pastures has been simulated and is summarized. iimplying that this area of investment has been systematically underfunded. Lastly, the overríding importance of polícy changes, and their close interactions with technology developments are analyzed based on simulations ran for the region, and it is concluded that grassland and animal scientists should become more involved in policy debates regarding development of the sector and its environmental implications.Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a highly diverse region. both between and within countries. Nevertheless, during the , 990's national economic and development policies have rapidly changed. and the macroeconomic context for agricultural development is more uniform across the subcontinent than in the pasto In this scenario of changing policies, past diagnoses and remedies have become rapidly outdated (Jarvis, 1986;Smith et al.,1996a).Cattle. sheep and goats are bred and fattened almost exclusively on forages. and most of them are grazed year-round. Historically. traditional systems such as extensive cow-calf operations and other low input/low output grazing systems based largely on native grasslands, hav:e had internal rates of return (IRRI of 3-6% without considering appreciation of land values (Vera and Sere. 1985;Jarvis , 986); nevertheless. the expectation of land appreciation has been one of the driving forces behind horizontal expansion of the industry in the agricultural frontier of South America (e.g. Smith et aL, 1996b). These extensive systems which will soon become nearly extinct. have been highly sustainable IEden. 19901. and graziers in the frontier areas have shown relatively little sensitivity to changes in beef prices IKaimowitz. 1994). This phenomenon is explained by a complex of factors, including the fact that historically, these systems have experienced unfavourable input/output price ratios, leading to a cost structure that includes very few purchased inputs. Nevertheless, with a few exceptions alon9 parts 01 the Amazonian rainforest of Brazil and Bolivia, the horizontal expansion is nearly finished.The opening up of the national economies to international markets that has taken place in the late 80'5 and early 90•s. has brought about major changes in land use, most of which are yet not adequately documented. The cereals and oilseeds sectors were the first to experience revolutionary changes (see for example, Barkin et al., 1991 l. These in turn appear to have influenced the spatial distribution of the swine and poultry industry which ere so dependent on cereata and oilmeals. The phenomenon is most notable in the large area of tropical grasslands, or Cerrados, of Srezi!, and in the mid 90's there is circumstantial evidence that it is beginning to influence elso the beef and milk industries via the use of oilmeals and grains in the finishing phese of young steers.Population. consumption and production lAC is very different from other developing regions in Africs and Asia. Its populatioñ is relatively low (Table 11 and, more importantly, it is largely urbano Current trends predict that by year 2005, 85% of it will be urban, a percentage larger than that of Europe. That figure has already being achieved in so me countries and subregions within countries, most notably in parts of the core Cerrados and in South America southern cone. Another distinguíshíng traít of the region's endowment of resources. ís large land availability per capita (Table 1), though its distríbution is largely skewed. The region's cattle herd is very large relative to the human population (Table 1 l. Five countries (Argentina. Srazíl. Colombia. Mexico and Venezuela) account for 86% of the total cattle herd, over 80% of the beef and mil k production of the subcontinent, and 78% of the pasture lands. Associated with land and cattle availability, the ratio of area occupied by grasslands and cattle, relative to that of crops, is higher than the world's average (Tabla 1) and is several times higher than that of the rest of the developing nations. In this contexto it should be noted that the largest world reserves of arable land are located in Africa and South America, where only 21 % and 15% respectively of the potential agriculturalland was being used in the early 80s (Dudal. 1982).There is a close correspondence between the pattern of land use deacribed aboye and dietary habits that dates back to the time of the Spanish conquest. During the last two decadas, meat consumption in LAC has ranged between 35 and 40 kg/capita.year, 50% of it being beef. In TLAC, beef consumption par capita in 1995 was 16 kg (FAO, 1996); this comparas with about 5 kg in Africa and 2 kg in the Far East. Milk eonsumption in TLAC over the period 1986/93 averaged 96 kg/capita.year, which is above the world's average, and is three times higher than that of the rest of the developing world. Per eapita protein consumption in LAC ranges between 65 and 70 g/capita.year, which is similar to the world's average, but 40-45% of it is of animal origino This is twice as mueh as that of Africa, and the Middle and Far East.Studies conducted in both rural and urban populations of a number of TLAC eountries (Rubinstein and Nores, 1980;Sanint et al., 1985) have shown that income elasticies for beef and mil k are very high (Table 2), particularly among the two 10west quartiles of the population (alillilflllli ... atcl, 40% of the region's population), and that beef and milk account for 25-33% of the total tood expenditure of that segment of the population. These high income elasticies constitute an exception among agricultural products, shared only by vegetables, fruits, vegetable oils and fjsh and seafeod (de la Vega, 1996). Thus, it should not be surprising that the growth rate of demand tends to be higher than that of the supply (Table 2), particularly in view that many governments have historically considered beef and m)lk as wage goods IJarvis, 1986), thus keeping prices to the consumer under tight control.The coexistence of high demand and dietary preference for beef and milk, with gevernment reign over prices, and with high expectations for land appreciation in .the frontier areas has historically explained the extensiveness of much of the cattle industry in LAC, a situation that has begun to change since the mid 80's...Large portions of the estimated 590 mimon hectares of grasslands in LAC (Table 1)are contiguous, such as the majority of the 250 million ha of neotropical savannas (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela), the approximately 75 million ha of tropical forests converted to pastures (Kaimowitz, 1994) in South and Central America, and the 84 million ha of temperate Pampas and subtropical native grasslands (Solbrig and Vera, 19961. On the other hand, derived grasslands in the low-mid altitude hillsides of Central America and the Andean foothills and valleys are highly fragmented.Native grasslands throughout LAC are under threat. Since the late 80's there has been a pronounced process of Hagriculturization\" of the Pampas, subtropical grasslands and parts of the neotropical savannas, driven largely by the expansion of soybeans that in 1995 were cropped in over 20 million ha, and other crops also.Cattle from the Pampas, Andean valleys and foothills, and other areas have increasingly been displaced to more marginal areas (Figure 1) which explains the sustained low apparent productivity of cattle in TLAC.Consistent with the aboye view, and largely driven by policies. is the large expansion of pastures and cattle in the Amazon rainforest and tropical forest areas along the Caribbean coast of Central America and Mexico. Numerous authors have satanized the cattle industry in those areas, but current analyses have consistently identified misguided government policies as the main culprit for deforestation in a variety of countries (Sherbourne et al .. 1991;Jones and Painter, 1995;Kaimowitz. 1994;Skole et al., 1994). Similarly, it has been recognized that H ... pastures returning to forests are the dominant features in the culturally modified areas H and that u •• the succesional process that cattle ranchers decry as pasture degradation, ecologists welcome as return to the forest\" (Moran et al., 1994). Many institutions and scientists in the region also hypothesize that the sustainable intensification of crop and cattle production in the neotropical savannas would constitute an \" .. .alternative to the continued advance of the agriculture frontier in the Amazon, at least in the medium termoAt the same time that these shifts in land use patterns are ongoing in the frontier, the reverse process is occurring in some traditional agricultural areas. In the mid 90s sown grasslands and intensively grazed beef and milk cattle are beginning to replace traditional crops such as coffee and maize-beans associations in many hillsides areas, cotton in flat lands, and maize plantations in highland plateaus of Mexieo and some Central Ameriea countries (Vera, pers. obs.; Estrada, pers.eomm.; Bellows et al, 1996). These changes are elosely assoeiated with changes\"in the international prices of those commodities le.g. coftee, but al so due to the spread of pests; cotton, maize) and removal of trade barriers (importation of cheap maize from the USI. During the 80s, the price of eotton deereased 1.4%.year 1 , sugar 8%.year• 1 , and coftee 5.3%.year'1 (de la Vega, 1996). During the early 90s there has been some recuperation of these prices, but the cumulative effeet is stm negative, thus explaining the recent increase of cattle produetion in some of those regions.Recent studies have shown the complex interactions between land appreciation, policies, agricultural teehnology, intensification of the cattle industry and issues of natural resouree management. .grass-Iegume versus grass-only pastures). The tradeoff may well be that natural resources such as native grasslands, gallery forests, and water sources may be threatened with extinction in this phase. Their protection will need new policies which intemalíze the environmental services of these resources.As Indlcated above, TLAC is a hlghly diverse region. The same applies to extant grassland-based cattle production systems In the neotropics. The main characteristics of these systems are summarized in Table 3. As suggested there, beef and milk production have tended to favor the replacement of neotropical savannas by sown pastures based exclusively on introduced grasses of African origino Various current estimates imply that 20-25% of the neotropical savannas hava been sown to these grasses (largely 8rachiaria spp.) and that up to 10% of the area has been converted to intensive annual and perennial crops.In general, there is as yet, limited purposeful within-farm integration between the cattla and the crop enterprises, though there are some encouraging signs of It in the \"core\" area of the Brazilian Cerrados, a trend-setting region for the rest of the South American tropics. Recent developments of new crop (rice, soybeans, maize) cultivars well adapted to acid so lis may accelerate the development of purposefully integrated crop-cattle systems, but their feasibílity will continued to be governed by international prices. As long as many northern countries continue to subsidize cereal gralns, the competitive abílíty of tropical areas will be hampered.Low intensity, low yielding dual purpose systems (Table 3) in which 80S indicus x 8. taurus crossbred cows are milked once a day provide 40% of tha mllk produced in TLAC, and represent 75-80% of the milked cows (Rivas, 1994). The economic advantages of these systems have been well documented ¡Sere and Vaccaro, 1984). In essence they employ resources with low opportunity cost le.g., family B . . labor), economic risks are very low, they provide extreme f1exibility in terms of cattle management and feeding, 80% of the capital is represented by land and cattle, and they are most frequently operated by small and medium farmers.Nevertheless, in the mid 90s there are signs of rapid intensification of these systems as well, with implications in terms of capital requirements, more diversified feeding systems of higher quality, somewhat less dependen ce on directly grazed forage (particularly during the dry seasonl, use of conserved forages, and the adoption of improved animal genotypes. In fact, there is ample evidence that dual purpose systems rapidly intensify in response to improvements in transport and marketing infrastructure, and new technological options such as improved pastures (Ramfrez and Seré, 1990;Michelsen, 1990).Important social and environmental impacts of some of these systems are listed in Table 4. Some of the impacts are well documented in the literature, but many of them have received scant attention as veto Frequently, there are tradeoffs between intensity and efficiency of these systems, and social and environmental impacts.For example, cow-calf operations are highly compatible with the maintenance of low quality but abundant and diverse neotropical savannas; in tum, these systems do not generate labor opportunities and constitute low cutput systems. Dual purpose systems, although relatively extensive also in terms of land use, maximize use of family labor but in frontier areas there is evidence of deforestation of gallery forests in the savannas and of rainforest degradation (Franz and Pimenta da Aguiar, 1994).More intense and efficient grass-based beef and mil k production systems have led to replacing native rangelands with large areas of monospecific introduced pastures.Current estimates IH. Zimmer, pers. com.; Macedo, 1994) suggest that there may be 50 million ha of pastures sown with only 3-4 genotypes of Brachiaria spp.across tropical South and Central America. Some authors have expressed concern about the danger of colonízation (HAfricanization\") of the neotropical savannas by sorne of these species (lnchausti, 1995.) but the phenamenon, if real, appears to be associated with small niches (Klink, 1994). A much larger risk is that due to the spread of potentially devastating pests, as the well known case of spittle bug (Anae/omia sp., Zulia sp.) on Brachiaria decumbens has shown (Lapointe and Miles, 1992). There is some evidence that where this risk is high, farmers attempt to buffer future risks by undergrazing and deferring pastures, an strategy that on the long term favors the build up of the pest and lowers efficiency of pasture use.The temporal and spatíal integration of grass-Iegume pastures with annual and other crops is gene rally deemed as highly desirable (see for example Vera et al., 1992). Indeed, in the temperate Pampas of Argentina, the wheat-alfalfa system was highly successful for over 50 years, until it begun to be replaced by the more profitable wheat-soybeans rotation and other crop-only systems (Solbrig and Vera, 1996). Despite the existence of appropriate components and technologies for implementation of neotropical ley farming systems, there has been limited adoption of those systems. Alternatives such as the periodic rehabilitation of grass-only pastures with fertilized annual crops (Vera et al., 1994) such as maize, sorghum, upland rice millets or soybeans appear to be more acceptable in areas of the Brazilian Cerrados (H. Zimmer, pers. comm.,. It is also hypothesized that forage legumes may enter these systems, but initially mainly as cover crops in zero tillage systems, and as green manure in minimum tillage crop-based systems. Similarly, it is hypothesized that grass-Iegume pastures and \"protein\" ar legume banks may constitute a suitable step in the gradual intensification of dual purpose aystems located in ragions with reliable milk markets (Vera et al., in preparation).The most controversial issue is the intensification of pastura-based beef and milk systems in the rainforest areas. Brazilian researchers have convincingly argued in the last faw yeara that thia procesa ia not only technically and economically feasible, but that it is more austainable than the use of extensive pastures and that ls being increasingly adopted in sorne of the oldest settlement areas such as in southern Para State (Serrao and Homma, 1993;see specially Mattos and Uhl, 1994). In another development, pasture technology developed by CIA T tor the savannas has be en adapted by ICRAF for the Peruvian rainforest. essentially by combining tropicallegumes with annual and plantation crops such as peachpalm and other agrosilvopastoral systems; so me of these systems have withstanded the test of time under experimental conditions. Similarly, the upland rice-pasture system developed for the neotropical savannas (Vera et al., 19921, has   (1992) concluded that the on farm introduction of a tropical legume, Desmodium ova/ifa/ium, as cover crop in coftee plantations, together with improved agroforestry practices and the use of grass-Iegume pastures is profitable, and provides improved cash flow and system productivity.Nevertheless, they also recognized that the design and implementadon of appropriate policies constitute essential prerequisites for successful adoption of thase technologies and for internalization of social costs associated with changing land uses.As Mattos and Uhl (1994) argue \" .. the debate is no longer whether or not cattle belang in the Amazon. Ranching is in the Amazon to stay\". The real issue is how to make cattle rearing in the rainforast araas mora resource-friendly, and this most likely implies more intensive, knowledge-based, grazing and feeding management, and the setting up of an appropriate policy context INores and Vera, 1993;Nicholson et al., 1995).In the last analysis, this same argument is applicable to all of the most productive, efficient, and resource-conserving systems listed in Table 4 (Vera, 19961.Pasture research in TLAC: is it enough?Research on tropical and subtropical pastures in LAC has traditionally been conducted by the public sector, although with large differences between countries in the amount and quality of resources allocated to it. Given the importance 01 the grassland-based system of beef and milk production, it is timely to ask whether resources assigned to researching these systems and its components have been sufficient. A partial equilibrium model was applied by Rivas (1996) to assess the returns to research on 24 different pasture technologies for the savannas, forest margins and mid-altitude hillsides in the tropics of South America. Assumptions regarding probability of su cee ss in the development of each of the technofogies, time horizon for adoption, the size of the impact area (3% of the savanna grasslands, 18% of the pastures in the rainforest, and 32% of the hillsides grasslandsl, and technical coefficients were highly conservative. long term growth rates of demand and supply ,and price elasticies were used (Table 2). Over a period of 35 years (1994-20291, the net present value (NPV) of the derived benefits amounted to US$ 4 billions, or an internal rate of-return (lRR) of 55%. It was further shown that pasture technologies directed at the savannas and deforested forest margins ecosystems accounted for the bulk of the benefits. In terms of the social distribution of the projected benefits, it was estimated that 87% of them would accrue to consumers, and that roughly one-half of these benefits would be received by the two lowest quintiles of the population (consumers and small farmers). Lastly, linkages with other sectors of the economy were large, and every dollar of inca me in the cattle sector generated 0.55 dollars in other sectors.Nevertheless, the environmental impact of these technologies could not be accommodated in the analysis.This, and similar analyses made aarlier on (Jarvis, 1986), suggest that research on tropical grasses and legumes has been systematically underfunded in LAC, an statement that is further supported by examinining the human and financial resourees deployad in the region (RIEPT, 1987).There is no doubt that the pasture-based cattle industry of TLAC will continue to be of major significance in terms of land use and economic activity well into the next century. This scenario, and the economic analyses summarized aboye, would argue for continued allocation of public and private funds to technology generation.Nevertheless, there are at least two dimensions of the problem that hava received limited attention thus far.Firstly, current trends in LAC favor a decrease in the size and funding of the public sector. Many of the formerly public sector funded aetivities are being increasingly privatized, including agricultural research. It is generally agreed that some of the benefits of agricultural research can easily be appropriated by the private sector (a.g., improved cultivars), but the issue of funding research on the environmental consequences of new policies and technologies, and the simulation of alternative development paths for the farming sector ís not easily privatized nor has it being the subject of debate in the LAC societies.Secondly, limited simulation of alternative land uses in which pastures and cattle continue to assume majar roles, shows the highly synergistic effects of appropriate policy scenarios and technologies (Smith, Winograd, Gallopin and Pachico, in prep).These simulations suggest that a combination of policias and technologies can control the expansion of the agricultural frontier in tropica! America, and can achieve environmantal protection without sacrificing agricultural production. It is highly suggestive that simulated results indicate that the impact of policy is four times larger than that of technology in both the Amazon and the Cerrados.Furthermore, -results reveal that incorporation of environmental concerns in technology development strategies has minimal impact on frontier expansion if policies remain unfavorable, particularly in the Amazon-ISmith et al., in prep.l.The unavoidable conclusion is that, as Noresand Vera (1993) suggested in the previous IGC, soienoe and grassland scientists have to mora actively contributa to the societal debate so that policy adjustments are made based on scientific facts.  Includes Che traditional wheat-alfalfa rotation of che Pampas, now seriously threatened.. . ","tokenCount":"3585"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b95a9a4eb9e1fdf297896a06e2036af5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3c423fbe-e383-4a37-93ba-92db0ca0c111/content","id":"-2071694405"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"100e3c59-87b7-4dd2-bb8f-5a74c27338dd","pagecount":"9","content":"Flowering time is considered one of the most important agronomic traits in maize (Zea mays L.), and previous studies have indicated that this trait is correlated with genome size. We observed a significant difference in genome size between tropical and temperate inbred lines and a moderate positive correlation between genome size and 180-bp knob abundance determined by high-throughput sequencing in maize inbred lines in this study. We assembled the reads that were mapped to 180-bp knob sequences and found that the top ten abundant 180-bp knob sequences are highly variable. Moreover, our results indicate that genome size is associated with the flowering time of both male and female flowers, in both tropical and temperate inbred lines and under both tropical and temperate environments. To identify loci associated with genome size, we performed a genome-wide association study. The analysis identified three genomic regions associated with genome size, of which two were novel while the third one is located close to the known knobs K8L1 and K8L2. Overall, our results indicate that selection for breeding materials with earlier flowering times can be assisted by choosing germplasms with smaller genome sizes and that genome size can be determined based on the abundance of 180-bp knobs.Maize originated from the lowland tropics in South America and is now grown almost all over the world from latitudes 40°S to 58°N (https://www.worldcornproduction.com). Behind this wide distribution is extreme diversity both in phenotype [1][2][3] and genotype [4][5][6][7][8][9] . In addition to phenotypic and genetic variation, large variation in genome size has been observed among tropical and temperate maize germplasm 10 , including differences in knob content 5 . Genome size in the Zea genus varies within species as well as between species 11 and is correlated with a wide range of phenotypes, such as seed mass 12 , leaf size 13 , growth rate 14 and flowering time 15 . The B73 reference genome size is 5.64 pg/2C 16 , and there is at least a 30% difference in genome size among maize inbred lines 5 . Most of this variation is caused by differences in the amount of repetitive sequence, and the proportion of unique regions does not vary significantly among different lines 17 . Alterations in the proportion of repetitive sequence have been caused by temperature differences at different geographic locations, longitudes, and latitudes 16 .The maize genome is composed of 85% repetitive sequence 18 , 9.4% of which is found in knobs 19,20 . Knobs were first discovered by McClintock 21 and can provide evidence for the physical exchange of chromosomal segments during crossing over 22 . These knobs are the major components of heterochromatic regions and consist of 350-bp and 180-bp repeating units 16,18,23 . Previous studies suggest that knob number is correlated with the amount of nuclear DNA among different maize varieties 4 , and knob size is correlated with the amount of 180-bp repeat sequence observed by in situ hybridization 24 . In an oat-maize chromosome alien addition line, the 180-bp knob is interrupted by retrotransposable elements, and these elements constitute about 30% of the sequence in knob DNA regions of chromosome 9 25 . High levels of polymorphism in knob size and number have also been found among different maize strains 20 . Different maize inbred lines showed highly variable knob numbers, ranging from zero 25 to 20 or even more, which are located in one or more chromosomes 26 . The abundance of 180-bp knobs has been investigated using resequencing data 5,23 ; however, a relatively small number of inbred lines were used in those studies.Maize exhibits huge variation in flowering time, with days to flowering ranging from 35 to 120 days 27 . So far, most studies have focused on the genes regulating flowering time, such as Vgt1 28 , ZCN8 29 , id1 30 and ZmCCT 31,32 . Many studies have also reported a large number of quantitative trait loci (QTL) 33 for flowering time, each with small phenotypic effects 34 . However, less effort has been made to study the relationship between genome size and knobs on flowering time. For example, six cycles of selection in maize for early flowering has been reported to decrease genome size 15 . Researchers have hypothesized that maize lines with larger genome sizes need more time to complete vegetative growth 14 , which may explain the link between flowering time and genome size.One approach that has been successfully used to identify the genetic basis of quantitative traits is genome-wide association study (GWAS), which is a complementary strategy for linkage analysis. GWAS is a useful approach to dissect complex agronomic traits in maize for quick linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis. With the availability of low-cost and high-throughput single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping platforms, high-throughput microarray and sequencing technologies, GWAS has been successfully applied in maize to identify major effect genes and genomic regions associated with several traits including oil biosynthesis in kernels 35 , leaf architecture 36 , ZmDREB and ZmNAC111 that increase drought tolerance at seedling stage 37,38 , crtRB1 that increases grain β-carotene concentration 39 and other QTL in the nested association mapping (NAM) population 34 .In the present study, knob abundance in different maize inbred lines was calculated and we investigated both male and female flowering time in diverse tropical and temperate maize inbred lines and its relationship to genome size in both temperate and tropical regions. To identify loci associated with genome size, we also performed a genome-wide association study.Genome size in tropical and temperate inbred lines. To test if there was a significant difference in genome size between tropical and temperate maize inbred lines, the genome sizes of different maize ecotypes were determined by flow cytometry. Based on ANOVA, the genome size of tropical maize inbred lines was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than the temperate inbred lines (Fig. 1a). The genome size of tropical inbreds ranged from 5.39 to 6.24 pg, with an average of 5.75 pg and a coefficient of variation (CV) of 0.03, while those of the temperate inbreds ranged between 5.12 and 5.83 pg with an average of 5.48 pg and a CV of 0.03 (Fig. 1a, Table S1).Correlation between genome size and knob abundance. In order to gain an insight on the relationship between 180-bp knob abundance and genome size in tropical and temperate ecotypes, DNA libraries prepared from 70 maize inbred lines originate from a wide range of latitudes were sequenced, and knob abundance was determined based on the number of reads that mapped to 180-bp knob sequences (Reads Per Kilobase of region per Million mapped reads; RPKM). Abundance of 180-bp knob sequences was highly variable, ranging from 11,854 for the temperate inbred line Ji853 to 632,730 for the tropical inbred line CML511 (Table S2). The overall average 180-bp knob abundance is 338,455 with a coefficient of variation of 0.38. The low knob abundance and small genome size of Ji853 prompted us to test if there was a correlation between 180-bp knob abundance and genome size. Spearman's correlation showed that there is a highly significant positive correlation between genome size and knob abundance (Fig. 1b; ρ = 0.5367, P < 0.01 for temperate inbreds and ρ = 0.4567, P = 0.01 for tropical inbreds). Ignoring ecotype, the value of ρ for the correlation between genome size and 180-bp knob abundance is 0.6056 (P < 0.01).In order use 180-bp knob abundance as a marker to estimate genome size, we determined whether 180-bp knob sequences are monomorphic or polymorphic among different germplasm. Because the dataset was too large to assemble 180-bp knob sequences for all inbred lines, we used a subset of 16 of the 70 inbred lines that showed large differences in genome size. Paired-end sequencing reads from 16 inbred lines were aligned to 180-bp knob sequences download from NCBI. The mapped reads were used to assemble line-specific 180-bp knob sequence. We obtained 11,829 180-bp knob sequences with a different number of contigs for each line (Table 1). Reads from the 16 resequenced lines were further mapped to these 11,829 knob sequences. The differences in the numbers of reads mapped to the 180-bp knobs among the 16 inbred lines indicated that 180-bp knob abundance is highly variable (Table S3). The top ten abundant knob sequences shared about 50% similarity (Fig. 2), which indicate that if we want to estimate the abundance of 180-bp knob and use it as a marker for estimating genome size, we had to establish a highly variable database. Otherwise, the use of incomplete pool of 180-bp sequences will lead to an incorrect estimation of the genome size.  anthesis (DTA) for male flowering and days to silking (DTS) for female flowering showed significant deviation (P < 0.008) from normality in both tropical (Hainan) and temperate (Beijing) zones(Supplementary Figure 1). According to the Supplemental Figure S1, both DTA and DTS in the tropical zone shows bimodal distribution, while those in temperate show unimodal distribution. Inbred lines grown in tropical and temperate environments required from 48 to 78 and from 70 to 106 days to flower, respectively (Table S4). Anthesis occurred on average 1.9 and 3.2 days earlier than silking in the tropical and temperate regions, respectively (Table S4).We next determined the relationship between genome size and flowering time. For both tropical and temperate inbred lines, genome size was moderately correlated with male and female flowering time (P < 0.05). Regardless of sex, there was higher correlation between genome size and flowering time in tropical inbreds than in temperate inbreds (Fig. 3a). The contribution of genome size to flowering time in tropical inbreds was also larger than in temperate inbreds based on a linear model. When population structure was introduced to the linear model as described by Tenaillon et al. 14 , the contribution of genome size to DTA in and DTS in tropical ecotypes became larger than without including population structure (Table 2), indicating that the correlation between genome size and flowering time is independent of population structure. However, when kinship was introduced, the model was no longer significant for all traits (P > 0.05). We further analyzed the correlation between genome size and other traits related to flowering time: anthesis-silk interval (ASI), photoperiod response of day to anthesis (PRDTA) and photoperiod response of day to silking (PRDTS) (Table S4). ASI is not correlated with genome size in either the tropical or temperate regions (Fig. 3b). Both PRDTA and PRDTS are moderately negatively correlated with genome size (Fig. 3b and Table S4). Overall, our results indicate that there is a broad association of genome size with flowering time irrespective of sex, ecotype and environment.In order to identify genomic regions associated with genome size, we conducted a GWAS in a diverse panel of including 82 temperate and 93 tropical/subtropical inbred lines (Table S5). This panel was genotyped using a recently developed 55 K SNP Chip 40 and genome size was evaluated by flow cytometry. Using a minimum threshold value of −log 10 (P) = 3.9, we identified three genomic regions that individually explained between 9.2 and 10.8% of the phenotypic variation for flowering time (Fig. 4 and Table 3). Two genomic regions are represented by a single marker that mapped in the centromere on chromosome 5 (bin 5.04) and chromosome 10 (bin 10.03); both regions are novel. The third genomic region is the most significant and is represented by two markers that are located on the long arm of chromosome 8 (bin 8.06), close to the known knobs K8L1 and K8L2 (Table 3).A number of researchers have reported the significance of small-effect QTL in flowering time variation 33,34,41 . However, little research has been focused on the influence of genome size on flowering time. Understanding the relationship between flowering time and genome size will aid the selection for early flowering lines in maize breeding. Here, we used a combination of high-throughput sequencing technology and flow cytometry to understand the association between flowering time and genome size indicated by 180-bp knob abundance. The association between absolute DNA content of nuclei indicated by 180-bp knob abundance and flowering time indicates that 180-bp knob abundance can be used in maize breeding.Knobs have experienced considerable decline due to selection. For example, teosinte which is the ancestor of maize, has twice as many knobs as modern maize lines 5 . Previous efforts have been made to find knob polymorphisms 20,24,26,42 . However, those studies were based on PCR amplification using conserved primer sequences, which enabled discovery of only limited types of knob sequence variation 16 . In the present study, by using a de novo assembly method, we found much more polymorphism in knob sequence. We predict that 180-bp knob abundance, as well as 350-bp knobs (known as TR-1) 20 , combined with flowering time genes, contribute to variation in flowering time in maize. Previous researchers have suggested that the increased packaging of heterochromatin caused by a larger number of 180-bp and 350-bp knobs increases the time needed for the DNA synthesis phase and thus cycle time 24 .Our results showed a moderate correlation between flowering time and genome size, which suggests the possible influence of genome size on flowering time. However, like previously identified small-effect QTL, genome size also does not have a large effect on flowering time. The moderate correlation that we observed is also in agreement with a previous study which concluded that selection for earlier flowering leads to reduced genome size 15 . In addition to flowering time, growth rate was also found to be negatively correlated with genome size 14 . We observed a higher correlation between genome size and flowering time of inbred lines evaluated under tropical growing conditions than under the temperate growing conditions (Fig. 1); the contribution of genome size to flowering time under tropical growing condition was also larger than that of the temperate conditions (Table 2). This result indicates that selection on genome size grown in tropical growing conditions will be more useful.Using GWAS, we identified three genomic regions associated with flowering time, of which one region was mapped close to the knobs K8L1 and K8L2 on chromosome 8, which are annotated in maizeGDB. Two novel genomic regions were also identified in the centromere on chromosome 5 and chromosome 10. Previous studies have reported positive correlation between genome size in grass and the size of the centromere 43 and also higher knob abundance in some centromeres as compared to other parts of the chromosomes 44,45 . Therefore, it is not surprising that QTL for genome size are located in the centromere.Our results showed a moderate correlation between 180-bp knob abundance and genome size. Given that there are 916 lines with whole genome sequences available in HapMap3, calculating knob abundance from these data might be used to obtain a quick estimate of genome size. Based on correlation between genome size and flowering time, selection for breeding materials with earlier flowering times may be facilitated by considering genome size and haplotypes consisting of favorable alleles associated with flowering time. Quantification of maize genomic DNA. Maize inbred lines used for genomic DNA quantification (Table S4) were grown in a greenhouse under 28 °C/25 °C day/night and 16 h light/8 h dark. Four plants of each inbred line were grown per pot measuring 20-cm in diameter, 15-cm in height, and these pots were filled with 1:1 nutrient soil and vermiculite. Plants were watered with distilled water every two days. Three out of four plants of each maize inbred line were sent to PLANT CYTOMETRY SERVICES in the Netherlands for determination of absolute DNA content of plant nuclei (C-value). For each inbred line, DNA content was measured from three biological replicates and two technical replicates using flow cytometry as described in Enke et al. 46 . Genome size was estimated in picograms (pg) per 2 C nucleus using the nuclear DNA content of Vinca major, which is an evergreen plant with a relatively small DNA content (4.20 pg/2 C) compared to that of Zea mays, as an internal standard. Nuclear DNA content for the unknown samples (maize inbred lines) was calculated using the following formula 47    For quality control, each measurement included more than 10,000 events, and the CV for most samples should be < 5-6% 23,47 . For each maize inbred line, the average of six readings (three biological replicates and two technical replicates) was used to estimate the final genome size. Outliers in genome size were replaced as missing data. The R package was used to analyze the genome size data (http://www.r-project.org).Resequencing of maize lines. Using CTAB method 48 , genomic DNA was extracted from a single seedling from each of the 70 maize inbred lines grown under greenhouse conditions as described above for quantification of genomic DNA (Table S2). A library with insert size ranging between 400-600 bp was constructed from DNA extracted from each maize inbred line as described in Quail et al. 49 . Paired-end sequencing of each library was carried out on the HiSeq 2000 platform. We sequenced 90 bp from each paired end, and 6.0 Tb raw sequence data for the maize inbreds was obtained. Trimmomatic (version 0.30) was used to trim adapters in the raw reads 50 .Calculation of knob RPKM. The 180-bp knob sequences of temperate and tropical maize lines 24 were downloaded from NCBI, and a 180-bp knob database was made using the protocol described by Tenaillon et al. 23 . SSAHA2 (version 2.5.5) was used to map genomic data of our 70 maize inbred lines to the 180-bp knob database with parameters -kmer 13 -skip 1 -identity 80 -memory 4000 -best 1 -score 12 -cmatch 9 -ckmer 6. Alignments < 30 bp were filtered out using kentUtils (http://github.com/ENCODE-DCC/kentUtils), and each alignment was considered a \"hit\". The total number of knob hits was recorded for each inbred line. The 180-bp knob abundance indicated by RPKM 51 was calculated following Tenaillon et al. 23 where M is the number of reads mapped against the 180-bp knob database, H i is total the number of reads that map to the i th knob and L i is the length of the knob in kilobases.Read mapping and assembly of 180-bp knobs. We selected 16 maize lines (Table S3) that had large differences in genome size to determine if 180-bp knobs are conserved or polymorphic. Reads for each of the 16 resequenced maize inbred lines were separately mapped to 180-bp knob sequences using SSAHA2 after excluding alignments < 30 bp were filtered out. SOAP de novo (version 2) was used to assemble the mapped reads into 180-bp knob sequences. Each assembled knob sequence was named based on sequence number, inbred line, and length of the assembled knob sequence. For example, the name 1833CNA004.180 indicates that this is the 1833rd sequence of the inbred line CNA004 and that the assembled knob sequence is 180-bp (Table S3). Reads of the resequenced maize lines were further mapped to the assembled knob sequences of 70 maize inbred lines by SOAP (version 2.21) with parameters -v 2 -p 20 -r 2. The top ten abundant sequences were aligned with DNAMAN 7.0.A total of 159 maize inbred lines that consisted of 74 tropical/subtropical and 85 temperate inbred lines (Table S4) were evaluated for flowering time. The 74 tropical/subtropical maize inbred lines were grown in a tropical region between October 2014 and May 2015, (Hainan-China, 18.1°N, 109.3°E) and in a temperate region between May and September 2013 (Beijing-China, 40.1°N, 116.6°E). The 85 temperate maize inbred lines were evaluated in a tropical region (Hainan-China, 18.1°N, 109.3°E) between October 2014 and May 2015 and in a temperate region between May and September 2014 (38.56°N, 100.27°E, Gansu-China), with two replicates in the same plot. All lines were planted using an incompletely randomized block design. Each plot was four meters long with 60 cm between rows and 25 cm between plants. The plots were single-row in the tropical region and the Gansu temperate region, and double-row in the Beijing temperate region. Flowering time was calculated as the number of days from planting until half of the plants in a row flowered. DTA and DTS were recorded for each inbred line. For the 85 temperate maize inbred lines evaluated in Gansu, DTA and DTS were averaged for flowering time analysis (For convenience, Gansu is labeled as Beijing). Photoperiod response of day to anthesis (PRDTA) or photoperiod response of day to silking (PRDTS) were calculated as the difference between DTA or DTS under long-and short-day conditions, respectively. Outliers in flowering time were replaced as missing data. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to check if flowering time data fit a normal distribution. Spearman correlation coefficients were computed to assess the relationship between flowering time and genome size (Fig. 3a). Population structure and kinship were introduced to the linear model to correct for population structure as described by Tenaillon et al. 14 . Data were analyzed using the R package (https://www.r-project.org/).A total of 175 maize inbred lines that includes 93 tropical/subtropical and 82 temperate inbreds were used for GWAS (Table S5). DNA was extracted from each inbred line using the CTAB protocol following Murray et al. 48 . The DNA samples were genotyped using a newly developed 55 K Array invented by our lab 40 at Capitalbio Technology Beijing. Genome size was used to predict positions associated with it. The 175 inbred lines for genotype were grown under the same environment conditions and the same methods as those inbred lines grown for genome size quantification. GWAS was conducted using mixed linear model (MLM) implemented in TASSEL software (version 5.0) 52 using the following input files: (i) the first three principal components from principal component analysis (PCA) as covariates to account for population structure; (ii) the identity by state (IBS) based on kinship matrix to account for population relatedness; (iii) the genome size determined by flow cytometry; (iv) the 38,765 genotype data after filtering SNPs with minor allele frequency less than 0.05. Manhattan plots were obtained from genome-wide P using a graphical tool for SNP effect viewing and graphing (SNPevg) 53 .","tokenCount":"3659"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"73644d17d1ffcb8a3fe1765ce25497ef","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/148fb4f7-4cff-4e4a-9bb0-03a9e013dd2d/retrieve","id":"-1882176295"},"keywords":["Participatory Forest Management","Selection Bias","Farm Forestry Development","Kenya JEL Classification: Q12","Q28","D52"],"sieverID":"b270fec4-fe57-4be6-8c47-354dfebeb0c1","pagecount":"24","content":"This study investigates the factors that influence participation of households in devolved system of forest management by joining community forest associations (CFA). It further employs Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to measure the impact of household's participation in CFA on farm forestry decisions. The analysis uses cross-sectional data from a survey of Kakamega forest communities in Kenya in 2010. Generally, our findings reveal that participation in CFA by households is influenced broadly by socio-economic and institutional factors, and that participation in CFA has a positive impact on farm forestry development. Policy makers and development practitioners, therefore, need to devise, implement and sufficient fund interventions that would promote development of community forest associations with the ultimate goal of increasing forest cover in the country.Decentralized forest management regime has gained currency in developing countries in the recent years (Agrawal, Chhatre and Hardin 2008), being viewed as a means of enhancing economic efficiency, public accountability, community and individual empowerment, and allocative efficiency in the forest sub-sector (World Bank, 2009).These reforms are expected to reconcile conservation and livelihood needs. In particular, forest decentralization is aimed at enhancing peoples' livelihoods, poverty alleviation and preservation of the forest condition.Decentralization policies, however, do not affect forest users' behaviour directly. Rather they change local incentive structures by altering security, access and the power structure of local governance which in turn lead to behavioural change. The expected outcomes of regime change are mediated by forestry regulations that impose conditions for use of forest resources, and by the capacities of small holders and communities to adapt to those regulations. For instance, communities are required to implement workable systems of governance for their collective lands, exclude third parties and engage in competitive conditions with the forest markets. Indirectly, the outcomes of the reform are also influenced by access to financial and non-financial services. In the absence of these conditions, forest tenure reforms are unlikely to achieve their livelihood and conservation goals. Thus, decentralization policies may produce a variety of outcomes, both desirable and undesirable. For example, many of the Community Forest Associations (CFAs) formed in Kenya were driven by expectations beyond what the legislation provided for (Ongugo, 2007;Ongugo et al., 2007). Indeed some CFAs anticipated converting forests into farmlands for production of cash and food crops (Ongugo et al., 2004). Basically, the diverse outcomes are dependent on community experiences and traditions, and the capacity of the local communities to take advantage of the prevailing market conditions (Monterroso, 2008).Numerous benefits are expected to accrue to individuals from participating in community forest associations through increased access to forest products such as fuel wood, herbal medicine, honey, tree seedlings, thatch grass and fodder. Other activities allowed within the co-management framework include eco-tourism, bee-keeping, fish farming and growing of crops. With these benefits, it would be expected that communities would fast embrace the system and participate effectively. However, the progress has been slow and, in some cases, CFAs have been formed only to collapse after a short while (Ongugo et al., 2007). But it is also important to note that, decentralization of forest management may not necessarily yield desirable environmental outcomes as has been revealed by evaluation studies elsewhere in the World (Agrawal and Ribot 1999). Thus, it is critical and urgent to understand what drives individual households to participate in community forest associations and how this participation impacts on specified environmental outcomes in Kenya.Several studies have been conducted on community participation in forest management, effects of PFM on household poverty and opportunity cost of forest conservation (Emerton, 1999;Mogaka et al., 2001;Colfer, 2005;Mbuvi et al., 2007;Ongugo, 2007;Guthiga et al., 2008;and Borner et al., 2009). Decentralization policies interact with numerous context-specific pressures and interactions to change governance institutions, forest user behaviour and resulting forest conditions and livelihood outcomes (Andersson et al., 2008). While there are several theoretical arguments relating benefits and costs of forest decentralization, these fail to generate consistent predictions (Andersson, et al., 2008). These studies ignore behavioural changes resulting from decentralization among forest users in their empirical investigations.This study seeks to address this gap by first examining the drivers of household's participation in community forest associations (CFA) which is the framework through which communities take part in forest management before analyzing how this participation impacts on household farm forestry investment decisions. We seek to understand how decentralization policies filter down to local forest users. Economic theory does not provide clear predictions about the effects of decentralization policies on forest users' behaviour. Instead we must derive from studies of how such policies interact with existing biophysical, socio-demographic variable such as age, gender and educational variables, wealth and other factors change incentives at the local level. We test the effects of forest decentralization, arguing that the effects of decentralization need to be understood according to specific contexts. We investigate the effects of decentralization drawing on data collected from Kakamega forest in Western Kenya in 2010. In particular, we test the effects of decentralization on the farmers' participation in community forest associations and how this affects on-farm forestry investment decisions. Increased forestry cover is a key policy requirement in Kenya, where forest cover is only 3 percent, much lower than the globally recommended rate of 10 percent.The rest of the paper is organized as follows: In the next section we review the history of decentralized forest reforms in Kenya. In section 3 we draw on existing literature to derive factors that influence household farm forest investment decisions. Section 4 examines methodological issues while Section 5 outlines the study area and provides summary statistics of the variables used. In section 6, we report our empirical results and discuss these findings and in section 7 we conclude and draw policy recommendations.The colonial government of Kenya created a forest department in 1902, which alienate most prior existing community-managed forests. The Forest Department managed and controlled all forests in the country with policy focused on conservation. Following independence in 1963, a series of donor funded forestry programs focused on afforestation and reforestation on farms, with the goal of alleviating fuel wood shortages.The Forest department managed the forests without consultation outside the relevant government ministry. Conflicts increased in the late 1980s between communities who needed fuel wood from neighbouring forests, and the forest department (Ongugo and Njuguna 2004).The Forest Act of 2005 saw the formation of the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), a semi autonomous government agency with representation from various government ministries.Under the Act, the KFS is expected to devolve powers to the private sector and to forest conservation committees and community forest associations (CFAs). Community participation is achieved primarily through CFAs, and integrated management of forests is the central principle motivating the new policy (Ongugo, et al., 2007).A number of CFAs have been formed through sensitization of communities adjacent to the major forests in the country by the Kenya Forest Action Network (FAN) and the Kenya Forests Working Group (KFWG) (Ongugo et al., 2007). Lately, the Kenya Forest Service has also been spearheading the formation of CFAs as a step towards meeting the requirements of the Forest Act (2005). The CFAs rely only on membership fee and subscription by members as their main sources of funds (Kinyanjui, 2007).This section reviews the link between participation in community forest management groups and households' farm forestry investment decisions. It also explores other factors that may motivate households to undertake on-farm tree growing.It is generally recognized in the literature that a number of factors explain the differences in farm tree growing decisions by smallholder farmers. However, the specific socioeconomic and institutional variables affecting the decisions differ across countries, regions, villages, and farms. Moreover, the direction of influence of a given variable is not often consistent across studies.Participation in forest management groups has been shown to influence decisions to plant more trees on-farm (Emtage and Suh, 2004). Perhaps this is due to the fact that it enhances people's attached value to forest ecosystems and the need to protect them; which in turn results in their desire to increase forest cover on their farms. Moreover, participation in community-based conservation groups enhances farmers' access to diversity, quality and quantity of tree species (Boffa et al, 2005).Besides Participation in community forest management, households' decisions to plant trees may be directly influenced by household-specific, plot-specific and institutional factors. For instance, farm forests have enormous environmental advantages beyond direct benefits to the farm households. To comprehend these indirect benefits, the decision-maker at household level requires some education, either formal or informal, obtained through schooling or extension services. Thus, better educated household heads or households with access to government or farmer-farmer extension services are better adopters of farm forestry (Muneer, 2008), either because they view tree planting as a means of improving the land (Dewees, 1995) or because they are able to appreciate other non-quantifiable benefits as ambiance, micro-climate modification or carbon sequestration. This also explains why households with good social networks may have a higher possibility of planting trees because they are able to get extension services through such networks (Gebreegziabher et al., 2010;Muneer, 2008).Institutional factors have also been shown to influence the decision by households to plant trees. Secure land tenure arrangements, for example, have been found to influence tree planting decisions among farmer groups. Trees take a longer gestation period and only farmers who are confident of continued use of a given plot would be encouraged to plant them (Bannister and Nair, 2003;Deininger and Feder, 2001;Gebreegziabher et al., 2010;Warner, 1995). However, some studies do not agree with the idea that secure tenure may encourage tree planting and cite cases where communal ownership of land has been more conducive for development of farm forestry (German et al., 2009).Perhaps tree planting in areas with ambiguous land tenure system is a means used by households to place a claim of legitimacy of ownership and/or access.This paper has twin objectives, to identify the determinants of a household's participation in CFA, and to estimate the impact of participation in CFA on farm forestry investment decisions. We discuss the approaches used to achieve these objectives in this section.Participation in CFA has potential costs and benefits which are perceived uniquely by different households. Costs may include membership fees, monthly/annual subscriptions, and time to undertake the association's activities while benefits may include access to forest products, contracts to undertake specified activities within the forest, grazing in the forest, access to information on care for trees and general benefits of maintaining forests, and better access to quality tree seedlings. The individual decision to participate in CFA can be modeled in a random utility framework, popular in analyzing innovation adoption under uncertainty (see Feder, Just and Zilberman, 1985). This implies that participation in CFA can be modeled as a binary choice based on utility maximization subject to household resource constraint (Manski, 1977). The utility function of the household can be expressed as:where i X is a vector of exogenous variables and  is a vector of parameters to be estimated. The unobserved part of the household's utility is represented by i  which is assumed to be independently and identically distributed with mean of zero. A farm household will choose to participate in if the utility derived from participation, p i U is higher than the utility derived from non-participation, n i U . The probability of a household being a member of CFA is given by ) (. Thus, the participation model to be estimated is:The behavior of each household is influenced by its transaction costs as influenced by its access to information, assets, services and markets (Barret, 2008). Whether a household participates in CFA or not is dependent on its evaluation of the costs and benefits.Literature indicates that human capital is important for receiving and processing information with regards to new developments (Schultz, 1982). Education and experience, captured by the level of education and age of the household's decision-maker are, thus, important to be included in the analysis. Other important factors are the physical assets such as land, labour and cash (Boahene, Snijders, and Folmer, 1999). We, thus, include the landholding size, household size (to proxy for access to labour) and access to credit to proxy for cash. Whether a household owns cows or oxen is also important in the analysis as they indicate the household wealth level. Moreover, ownership of such livestock may drive the need to participate in CFA to access fodder.Oxen ownership may also proxy for transport cost. Because households participate in CFAs because of perceived benefits (Ongugo et al., 2007), distance to the forest and the forest management agency are likely to influence participation. Households that are close to the forest are more likely to participate because they stand to gain more as they incur lower costs to access the forest. A management agency like the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) completely restricts entry into the forests and is likely to discourage participation.Gender of the household head may influence participation. Men and women have different opportunities, motivation and capabilities to involve themselves in collective action (Pandolfelli, Meinzen-Dick, and Dohrn, 2007). Domestic responsibilities may also reduce chances of women to participate in groups (Meinzen-Dick and Zwarteveen, 1998).Because of this, we include the gender of the household head in the analysis.The influence of social networks in decision-making among the smallholder households has been recognized in literature. Such networks are for farmer-to-farmer extension and may accelerate diffusion of new ideas (Matuschke and Qaim, 2009;and Conley and Udry, 2010). As a result, we include the number of social groups, other than CFA, that a household participates in.The main interest here is to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT).That is, how participation in community forest association affects on-farm growing of trees. Because we are not able to observe what the results would have been without participation, we have to deal with missing data on the counterfactual. The remedy is to identify non-participating households and use them as counterfactual. But we must also deal with selection bias because self-selection into CFA membership is non-random.Self-selection implies that mere comparison of outcomes of CFA members and nonmembers cannot yield reliable results.Selection bias may arise from systematic differences between participants and nonparticipant. These arise from observable characteristics such as asset ownership and education. We use propensity score matching (PSM) to control for the observable characteristics. PSM constructs a suitable comparison with non-participants that are similar to the participants in all relevant observable attributes (Caliando and Kopeinig, 2008). Another potential source of bias is differences between participants and nonparticipants in terms of the unobservables. PSM cannot control for this kind of bias, and therefore we test for robustness of our impact results using different specifications.Execution of PSM is undertaken in two stages. The first stage involves generation of the propensity scores,), (X P from the probit model. These scores indicate the probabilities of respective households being members of CFAs. From the scores, we construct a control group by matching participants to non-participants according to their propensity scores. Participants for whom no matches are found and the non-participants that are not used as matches are excluded from further analysis. In the second stage, we compute the ATT of membership to CFA on extent of household farm forestry using the matched observations. PSM estimator of the ATT is obtained by computing the difference in acreage under trees between households participating in CFA and the non-participating ones which are appropriately matched by the propensity scores, expressed as: indicates control/non-participating households. We use all the variables in the PSM probit in the outcome analysis with the belief that the inclusion of even non-significant variables cannot bias the estimates nor can they make them inconsistent (see Caliendo and Kopeinig, 2008 for details).The study site for this survey was around Kakamega Forest, situated in Kakamega District in Western Province of Kenya (Figure 1). It lies north-east of the Lake Victoria between latitudes of 00°10'N and 00°21'N and longitudes of 34°47'E and 34°58'E at about 1600 m above sea level. The forest area is drained by two main river systems, the Isiukhu River to the north and the Yala River to the south. The forest is the only remaining rain forest in Kenya and is the furthest east remnant of the Guinea-Congolean rain forest. According to the 1994 welfare monitoring survey, 52% of the population in the district lives below the poverty line, meaning that they can hardly afford basic necessities like food, shelter, clothing, and education. As such there is a heavy reliance on the forest to supplement their daily necessities. This region has also been considered by the Kenya Woodfuel and Agro-forestry Programme (KWAP) as one of the areas that could benefit most from policies that target improvement of forestry projects due to its high population and high agricultural potential.Source: Biota Sub-project E13 data bank, 2006The data for this study was collected from communities around Kakamega forest in western part of Kenya. The study focused on households residing adjacent to the forest.A random sample of 318 households was interviewed using a detailed semi-structured questionnaire. The sampled households were randomly interspersed in the study area and across the three management regimes. The management regimes were Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Kenya Forest Services (KFS) and the Quakers Church (QC). Table 5.1 captures the descriptive statistics for respondents that participated in Community Forest Associations (CFAs). The mean age of household head is 48 years and 47 years for participating and nonparticipating households, respectively. The education level for both participants and nonparticipants was generally fair, averaging at secondary school. The household size for participants and non-participants is 6 and 5 members respectively. Larger family sizes would have more demand for forest products due to high consumption. Having large family size could then act as an incentive to participate in CFAs. 79% of those who participated in CFAs were male headed households. It is presumed that male headed households may be better resourced and informed to participate in CFAs. Though male headed households also dominated among non-participants, the response rates were slightly lower (69%).On farm characteristics, participants in CFAs had smaller land sizes (averagely 1.9 acres) relative to that owned by non-participants (2.3 acres). Non-participants would need larger farm sizes so as to be able to plant trees and compensate for the foregone benefits of forest products access enjoyed by participants. Another variable of significant interest is access to credit facilities which is likely to influence participation decision. 27% of participants had access to credit compared to a paltry 8% of non-participants who accessed similar facilities.With regards to institutional attributes, households not participating in CFAs were, on average, belonging to 1 social group while participating households belonged to 2 none CFA social groups. Participation was also informed by the type of management regime one was in, whether KFS or KWS. KFS is more flexible and allows entry into the forest while KWS is more restrictive. Awareness about the new forest law also influenced the decision to join CFAs with 85% of participants having been aware relative to 37% of non-participants.Notably, the difference in mean acreage under tree cultivation between non-participating and participating households is different from zero with t-statistic of -3.64. This makes it important to investigate whether this difference indeed originating from CFA membership.In this section we show and discuss the results of our analysis of the determinants of participation in CFA by households adjacent to Kakamega forest, and how this participation impacts on household farm forestry behavior.We estimate the probit model of household membership to CFAs as described in Eq. 2.The results are displayed in Table 6.1. Distance to the forest has a negative effect on the probability of a household participating in CFA; each additional minute of walking time to the forest reduces the probability by 0.6 percentage points. This is reasonable because if households join CFA to benefit from extraction of forest products, households that are far from forests will have less impetus to participate because it would be more expensive for them to travel to the forests for such products.Access to credit has a positive effect. It increases a household's chance of participating in CFA by about 25.3 percentage points. That is, households with access to credit have 25.3 percent higher probability of joining CFA than their counterparts without. This is plausible because such households are better endowed in terms of cash that would enable them to meet membership fees and the periodic subscriptions by CFA members. Such households may also be better endowed to hire labour or purchase equipments that would maximize their gains from participating in CFA. As a result, they would be more motivated to participate in CFAs.Larger households have a 3.5 percent higher chance of participating in CFAs. The reason for this is fairly straight forward. The size of household proxies for household labour endowment. Thus, larger households have labour time to devote to the activities of CFAs.Moreover, such households would be better placed in terms of labour for extraction of forest products. Larger households may also be viewed as having greater demand for forest products which they may not satisfy front on-farm production. Thus, participating in CFAs and benefiting from forest products could be viewed as a viable livelihood alternative for the larger households.Household landholding size has a negative effect on CFA membership. Each additional acre of land owned reduces the probability of participating in CFAs by 4.8 percentage points. Possible explanation to this is that households with larger pieces of land may produce a number of products which they would otherwise extract from forests on-farm.If this is the situation, such households would not be motivated to join CFAs.In terms of social networks, participation in other social groups increases the possibility of a household joining CFA. This is understandable because through such groups information on CFA is disseminated. Of course the herding behaviour may also lead members of a given social group to jointly decide to participate in a CFA. Furthermore, trust built from the previous social groups may encourage household to quickly accept new frontiers of collective action.Those households that were aware of the Forest Act (2005) had 48.7 percent higher chance of participating in CFA. This could have been because such households were aware of the benefits that could be derived from participating in CFAs and wanted to take advantage. They may also have found it easier to believe the earlier efforts to encourage communities to join CFAs. But management agency is also important in determining participation of households in CFAs. Those households that are closer to forests managed by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) have 21.7 percent higher probability of participating in CFAs than households closer to forests managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Partly this is because KWS has been at the forefront of educating and encouraging communities to join CFAs. However, it must also be noted that management by KWS is more restrictive, limiting forest entry by communities. People would be less willing to participate in CFAs if that does not give them any advantages in terms of extraction of forest products. Thus, gains from CFA membership would be lower in forests run by KWS, and households being rational would be less willing to participate in CFAs.As indicated earlier, the matching process is preceded by specification of the propensity scores for the treatment variable. Probit model was employed to predict the probability of a household being a member of CFA as outlined and discussed in sub-section 6.1. The effect of participation in CFA on a household's land area under trees (farm forestry) was estimated with Nearest Neighbour Matching (NNM) and Kernel-Based Matching (KBM).Common support condition was imposed in the estimation by matching in the region of common support.  The results indicate that membership to CFA exerts a positive and significant effect on household land put under tree cultivation. Precisely, the NNM and the KBM causal effects of CFA membership on household acreage under trees suggest that household that participate in CFA have 0.428 acres of land under tree cultivation more than the non-CFA members.Results of sensitivity analysis for the presence of hidden bias are presented in the fourth column. Because sensitivity analysis for insignificant effects is not meaningful, we computed Rosenbaum bounds only for the treatment effects that were significantly different from zero (Hujer et al., 2004). The results indicate that, using NNM, impact of CFA membership on household land size under trees should be viewed critically at a level of Γ=2.70. The same caution on causal inference should be taken when Γ=2.05 while using KBM. Thus, the lowest critical value is given by Γ=2.00-2.05 and the highest by Γ=2.65-2.70. This shows that even fairly large amounts of unobserved heterogeneity would not alter the inference about the estimated effects of CFA membership on tree planting behavior of households.The main objective of PSM estimation is to balance the distribution of relevant variables in the groups of CFA and non-CFA members rather than precise prediction of selection into treatment. We use the reduction in the median absolute standardized bias between the matched and unmatched models to examine the balancing power of our estimations.We show these results in Table 6.3. As indicated by the third and fourth columns, substantial reduction in bias was achieved through matching. P-values show that joint significance of the regressors was rejected after matching and never rejected at any level of significance before matching. This suggests that there was no systematic difference in the distribution of the covariates between members and non-members of CFA after matching.The direct effect of households participating in community forest associations (CFA) is that more household land gets devoted to farm forestry. The study employed Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to examine the direct effect of CFA membership on acreage under tree cultivation using cross-sectional data from a survey of farm households adjacent to Kakamega forest. The analysis considered the causal relationship between participation in CFA and household land area under trees. It also examined the factors that drive households to participate in CFAs.Empirical results indicate that CFA member households have 0.428 more acres of land under tree cultivation than the non-members. The implication of this is that decentralized forest management is a viable approach towards increasing forest cover in the country.To ensure that households effectively participate in the community forest associations, policy makers must device alternative livelihood and income-generation mechanisms to ease financial constraints among the forest-adjacent communities. Alternatively, funding mechanisms for the CFA operations may need to be devised so that it is less burdensome particularly to the poor participating and/or intending-to-participate segments of the society. Possibly, the range of products harvested and other activities allowed in the forest could be expanded to cater for the varying interests of households. This would make participation in CFAs more rewarding to households.","tokenCount":"4430"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1dd34e9c9d50e84ba88006fc07812104","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0423114c-f4b0-46d5-8f95-4ff2b975da9c/retrieve","id":"904074884"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0652a418-fc73-48c6-8dc7-86d7e8d671b7","pagecount":"7","content":"In the hilly region of Uttarakhand, both in the irrigated and rainfed areas, the predominant system of agriculture is mixed crop-livestock farming. The farmers, mostly marginal, mainly depend on forest resources to feed their livestock. This sometimes contributes to degradation of forests in certain areas, particularly in the lean periods (summer and winter). But it is found that in the same regions some of the farmers cultivate barley (Hordeum vulgare) for fodder purpose (use of grain for human consumption was an earlier practice but discontinued later, despite being highly nutritious). Hence it is very clear that large scale promotion of dual purpose barley as a food-feed crop in the hills of Uttarakhand, can help addressing the fodder shortage issue (in the lean periods), reduce dependence on forest and increase food security. To catalyse the process awareness needs to be created among people to resume the use of barley grain as human food considering its nutritional value. With this intention, a trial was laid out to compare the local barley variety with a dual purpose variety (BHS 380) on fodder and grain yield under different fertiliser management.To understand the response of green fodder harvest at 75/80 days after sowing (DAS) a field experiment was conducted in two locations in Uttarakhand (village Thaeli of block Bhilangana of Tehri district situated at an altitude of 975 m AMSL and village Kothera of block Gangolihat of Pithoragarh district, altitude 1500-1550 m AMSL). The trial was carried out with two varieties (local and improved /BHS 380) and four treatments: (1) no cut; no fertiliser (2) cut at 75/80 DAS; no fertiliser (3) cut at 75/80 DAS with 100 kg urea (46 kg N) /ha after the cut (4) cut at 75/80 DAS with 6 MT FYM /ha after the cut. The plot size was 2m 2 . There were four replications for each treatment and used complete randomised block design design.The crop was sown (seed rate 100 kg/ha) in the first location (Tehri) on Nov. 7, 2011 by broadcasting (local variety) and using a seed drill (BHS 380). Three irrigations were given by the farmer: first during 2-3 days after sowing, second on 60 DAS and third on 76 DAS. As per treatments, harvesting of crop for fodder was done at 75 days after sowing leaving a stubble height of 5 cm. The final harvest was done at 165 DAS.In Pithoragarh the seeds were sown (broadcasting) on December 2, which was late by 47 days compared to the normal sowing season (mid-October) and fodder was harvested at 80 DAS. Here, one irrigation was given at 82 DAS. Final harvest was done at 159 DAS.The data recorded during the experiment in the two regions are presented below.TEHRI REGIONIn the Tables 1-2 below non-destructive and destructive observations of the two varieties at 75 DAS with and without Nitrogen /FYM are given: It was observed that the number of plants, plant height and number of tillers were more in the improved variety than the currently cultivated local one. Similarly the green fodder yield was much higher (85% more) in the improved variety compared to the local (Table 2). In the Tables 3-4 below non-destructive and destructive observations of the two varieties at 165 DAS with and without Nitrogen /FYM are given: It is found that the plant height, spike length and number of tillers in the local variety did not change much when fodder was cut and FYM was applied. With urea application, though the plant height and spike length reduced slightly, the number of tillers increased by 37%. When fodder is cut and no fertiliser /manure was applied all the three factors reduced to some extend. In the case of improved variety, there was not much change in plant height, spike length and number of tillers when fodder was cut with and without urea /FYM application (Table 3). In the local variety the number of grains per spike and 1000 grain weight reduced slightly when fodder was cut with and without fertilizer /manure application (Table 4). But the reduction was less when urea was applied after fodder harvest.Statistical analysis revealed that (Table 5) between varieties there is significant difference in fodder, grain and straw yield (improved variety better). As far as the treatments are concerned (Table 6), the improved variety produced maximum quantity of grains when urea was applied (4.78 MT). In the local variety also, though insignificant, maximum grain yield was noted when urea was applied after fodder harvest The following Table (15) summarises the analysis and helps us to take a decision on the desirable variety in Pithoragarh through a comparison of impact on grain and straw yield with and without fertiliser /manure application after fodder harvest at 75 DAS: Between the two varieties, BHS 380 is the one that can be recommended as it produces substantially higher quantities of grains and straw besides 3.78 MT of green fodder during lean season.In the Tables 8-9 below non-destructive and destructive observations of the two varieties at 80 DAS with and without Nitrogen /FYM are given: It was observed that the number of plants and plant height were more in the improved variety than the currently cultivated local one. But average plant height and green fodder yield was more in the local variety.  In the local variety it was found that while the plant height and number of tillers increased in all the treatments, the spike length got reduced in all cases. In the case of improved variety, there was not much change in plant height, spike length and number of tillers except in the case of FYM application, which resulted in an increase of spike length by 10% and number of tillers by 25%. In the local variety the number of grains per spike, 1000 grain weight and total biomass increased in all the treatments with maximum effect when no urea /FYM was applied followed by cut with urea and cut with FYM application (with the exception of reduction in 1000 grain weight with FYM application). In the improved variety the total biomass increased with urea application, grains per spike increased with FYM application and 1000 grain weight increased with urea and FYM application.Statistical analysis revealed that (Table 12) between varieties there is significant difference in grain and straw yield (improved variety better) but the difference is not significant for green fodder production. As far as the treatments are concerned (Table 13) the improved variety produced maximum quantity of grains when no urea or FYM is applied (7.23 MT), followed by application of urea after cut (6.84 MT). The local variety is also found to produce maximum grains when no urea/FYM was applied after fodder harvest The following Tables (14) summarise the analysis and help us to take a decision on the desirable variety in Pithoragarh through a comparison of impact on grain and straw yield with and without fertiliser /manure application after fodder harvest at 80 DAS: Between the two varieties, the improved BHS 380 is the one that can be recommended as it produces substantially higher quantity of grain and straw besides 1.28 MT of green fodder during lean season.It can be concluded that, both in TEHRI and PITHORAGARH, the improved variety BHS 380 performed better in terms of fodder, grain and straw yields. The performance in terms of grain and straw yield was commendable in Pithoragarh compared to Tehri. While the best treatment to get best result (from the improved variety) In Tehri was 'application of urea after fodder cut', that in Pithoragarh was 'no application of urea /FYM'. Though the later treatment effect is insignificant, It is felt that it needs to be further explored.","tokenCount":"1273"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d53d09a215b51e7daeadb3286972b570","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/30072fb4-3b10-4ce1-9505-6e34d91bb33a/retrieve","id":"1983893268"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"111e105a-5eae-4a0f-891e-0df98abc8833","pagecount":"48","content":"Igice cya 1: Uruhererekane nyongeragaciro rw'imbuto y'ibirayi Gukoresha imbuto nziza y'ibirayi ni kimwe mu bintu by'ingenzi bigena umusaruro mu buhinzi bw'ibirayi.Ubutubuzi bw'Imbuto y'ibirayi mu Rwanda bigizwe n'ibyiciro bitandukanye:(1) Ubutubuzi bw'ingemwe z'ibirayi bukorerwa muri laboratwari, (2) Ubutubuzi bw'imbuto remezo (minitiberikire) bukorerwa mu mazu yabugenewe, (3) Ubutubuzi bw'imbuto fatizo na shingiro bukorerwa mu murima, (4) Ubutubuzi bw'imbuto icuruzwa ifite icyemezo cy'ubwiza 1, 2 bukorwa mu byiciro bikurikiraho.Gutubura imbuto n'igikorwa gisaba ubumenyi kandi kigizwe n'imirimo myinshi. Umutubuzi w'imbuto y'ibirayi mu Rwanda agomba kuba yanditswe byemewe kandi yujuje ibyangombwa bisabwa.Imbuto nziza igomba gutandukanywa neza n'ibirayi bisanzwe binyuze mu birango, kuyiranga, ndetse no gushyiraho uruhererekane ngenagaciro rw'imbuto.Icyizere hagati y'abatubura imbuto n'abaguzi bayo n'ingirakamaro cyane mu guteza imbere ubucuruzi bw'imbuto.Inzira y'ubuzima bw'iikirayi cy'imbuto ishobora kugabanywamo ibice bine bikurikira: gusinzira, kumera, kuzana imimero myinshi no gusaza.Gusinzira n'icyiciro gitangira ako kanya nyuma yo gusarura mu gihe ibirayi bitaramera.Nyuma yo gusinzira, umumero umwe uva mu kirayi ugatangira gukura. Uyu mumero umwe ushobora gukurwaho kugirango utume havuka indi mimero ku ruhande. Ibi bigomba gukorwa bitarenze inshuro imwe.Mu cyiciro cya gatatu, havuka imimero myinshi mu kirayi.Mu gihe cyo gusaza, haza imimero yerurutse, miremire kandi mitoya. Ibi birayi biba bishaje cyane kuburyo bidashobora guterwa.Igihe cyiza cyo gutera, n'igihe ibirayi by'imbuto bifite imimero migufi iri hagati ya 3 kugeza kuri 6 (ifite cm 1-2 z'uburebure), imimero ikomeye kandi ifite ibara rigaragara.Ni ngombwa gusobanukirwa n'ibihe byo gusinzira kw'imbuto z'ubwoko butandukanye kugirango utegure igihe cyo gutera no gusarura wizera ko imbuto zizaboneka ku gihe cy'itera.Igice cya 3: Ubwiza bw'imbuto no kuzemeza Abatubuzi b'imbuto bagomba kubaka izina ryabyo binyuze mu gukomeza gutubura imbuto nziza kugirango bareme ikizere mu bakiriya babo.Imbuto y'ibirayi iba ari nziza cyane iyo idafite indwara n'udukoko, imeze kimwe, kandi ifite ubunini bugereranije, hagati ya mm 28-55 mm.Abatubuzi b'imbuto bagomba gukurikiza uburyo bwiza bwo gutubura imbuto y'ibirayi kugirango imbuto yabo itangizwa n'indwara cyangwa udukoko.Gutanga icyemezo cy'imbuto mu Rwanda, n'uburyo bukorwa n'abagenzuzi bo muri RICA, basura umutubuzi w'imbuto kugira ngo agenzurwe mu buryo bwemewe mu gihe cyo gutubura imbuto na nyuma y'isarura.Indwara z'ibirayi zikwirakwira mu buryo bworoshye bitewe no guhura n'ibirayi byanduye, ibikoresho by'ubuhinzi n'abakozi bagendagenda mu mirima. Ni byiza guhindura cg gutera umuti usukura ibikoresho n'imyenda byakoreshejwe mbere y'uko wimuka ujya mu wundi murima.Kugirango hemezwe imbuto, abagenzuzi b'imbuto basura inshuro 4 mu gihe cy'ihinga, mu minsi 15 nyuma yo gutera, mu gihe cy'ururabo, mbere yo gusarura, no mu gihe cyo guhunika.Imbuto y'ibirayi igomba kugira inkomoko izwi neza (igisekuru). Ibintu byose byinjiye cyangwa byasohotse bigomba kwandikwa neza mu bitabo.Kubika inyandiko ni ngombwa ku batubuzi b'imbuto kugirango ubashe kumenya ibyasohotse ndetse no gusesengura inyungu iva mu butubuzi bw'imbuto.Akenshi, amafranga yasohotse agendera mu kugura imbuto z'itangiriro, ifumbire mborera n'imvaruganda, imifuka yo gupakira umusaruro, imiti irwanya indwara, iyica udukoko, ndetse no guhemba abakozi.Ibyago by'indwara n'udukoko biri hasi mu mirima iri ahantu hirengeye. Imbuto shya zigomba guhingwa nibura ahantu hirengeye kurusha ahandi mu butaka bwawe. Mu gihe imbuto zimaze guhingwa igihe kirekire zo zishobora guhingwa ahantu haciye bugufi.Intera ihagije (byibuze m 20) hagati y'umurima w'imbuto n'umurima w'ibirayi bisanzwe igomba kubungabungwa, cyangwa hagashyirwa ibihingwa bikora uruzitiro nk'ibyatsi by'amatungo, ibigori cyangwa ibindi bihingwa bitari mu muryango umwe n'ibirayi.Ubutaka bugomba kuba burebure, bwumutse neza, kandi buseseka kugirango ibirayi bikure neza.Kugirango wirinde indwara n'ibyonnyi, ugomba guhitamo umurima nibura utarahinzwemo ibirayi cyangwa ibindi bihingwa biba mu muryango umwe (nk'intoryi, urusenda, inyanya, itabi), nibura mu gihe cy'ibihembwe by'ihinga 4.Tegura gahunda yo gusimburanya ibihingwa mu bihe 5, simburanya ibirayi hamwe n'ibihingwa nk'ibigori, ingano, ibishyimbo, karoti, amashu ndetse n'izindi mboga.Irinde guhinga ibigori mbere y'ibirayi mu murima wagaragayemo Nematode cg ufite ubutaka butarimo ifumbire ihagije.Guhora uvana mu murima ibirayi bya kimeza biturutse ku musaruro w'ubushize mu gihe cyose uri gusimburanya ibihingwa.Guhinga bishobora gukorwa hifashishijwe isuka; ibimasa bihinga; imashini zihinga cyangwa imashini zihinga.Tegura ubutaka kugeza igihe ubutaka bworoshye, butarimo ibinonko, kugeza ku bujyakuzimu nibura bwa cm 30.Gutegura neza umutabo uterwaho imbuto bihindura neza ubutaka, ukarwanya ibyatsi byona ndetse ukirinda n'indwara.Mu gihe hashobora kubaho isuri cyangwa amazi yiretse, imitabo igomba gukorwa.Aho guhinga bikozwe n'imashini, irinde icyitwa \"guhinga-isafuriya\" uhinduranya ubujyakuzimu uko umwaka utashye.Ibikoresho byakoreshejwe mu gutegura umurima (harimo nibikoresho by'imashini) bigomba gusukurwa neza mbere yo kuva mu murima ujya mu wundi.Igice cya 8: Gufumbira (ifumbire y'amatungo, imborera n'imvaruganda)Gerageza kubona igipimo cy'ifumbire isabwa hagendewe ku miterere y'ubutaka bw'umurima.Mu gihe hatabonetse igipimo cy'ifumbire igendeye ku miterere y'ahantu, ni ngombwa ko ushyira ibiro 3 bya NPK 17-17-17 kuri ari 1 (ibiro 300 kuri hegitare), igabanijwe mu bice bibiri, igice cya mbere mu gutera ikindi ugishyiremo mu gihe cyo kubagara no gusukira itaka (ikiro1.5 mu gutera na ikiro 1.5 mu gusukira ubutaka).Usibye ifumbire mvaruganda, shyiramo ibiganza bibiri byuzuye ifumbire mborera cg iy'amatungo iboze neza ku kirayi kimwe mu gihe cyo gutera (bihwanye na kg 200-300 y'ifumbire mborera kuri ari 1 cyangwa toni 20-30 kuri hegitare).Mu gihe cyo gutera, shyira ifumbire mborera cyangwa iy'amatungo mbere, ubone gushyiramo imvaruganda, hanyuma urenzeho itaka ku burebure bwa cm 5-10. Hanyuma ubone kurambikamo ikirayi.Ibirayi bimaze kumera, shyiramo ifumbire mvaruganda mu gaferegi kari ku ntera ya cm 10-15 uvuye aho ikirayi kiri.Ifumbire ikungahaye kuri Azote (N) ituma ibirayi bikura nabi n'umusaruro ukagabanuka, igomba kwirindwa.Niba ubutaka busharira (munsi ya pH 5.5), shyiramo ishwagara kg 25-50 kuri ari 1 (toni 2.5-5, mu gihe cyo gutegura ubutaka.Ibyumweru 4-6 mbere yo gutera, umumero wa mbere ku kirayi ugomba guhungurwa kugirango ikirayi kizane imimero myinshi.Genzura ko ibirayi by'imbuto bimeze neza, bifite imimero ikomeye, y'icyatsi ndetse migufi (cm 1-2), kandi wirinde ibirayi bishaje bifite imimero miremire.Tera ibirayi by'imbuto bifite ubunini bungana ahantu hamwe.Tegura uduferegi cyangwa imyobo ku ntera ya cm 70-75.Mu murongo hagati, koresha intera ya cm 20 niba ibirayi ari bito (mm 30), cm 25 mu gihe ibirayi biringaniye (mm40), na cm 30 mu gihe ari binini (mm 50).Shyira ibirayi ku bujyakuzimu bwa cm 5 kugera ku 10, mu mwobo cyangwa agaferegi kandi imimero ireba hejuru mbere yuko utwikira n'ubutaka.Ahantu hahanamye, imyobo cyangwa uduferegi two guteramo imbuto, bigomba kugendana n'ubuhaname. Ibivanwamo ni ibirayi birwaye (urugero, Kirabiranya), ibirayi bitari iby'ubwoko bw'imbuto (byavuye ku kwivanga kw'imbuto), cyangwa se kimeza yavuye ku birayi byasigaye mu murima.Icyiciro cy'imbuto gishobora kwangwa mu gihe cyo kwemeza imbuto niba uku gutoranya ikibi bitarakozwe neza.Tangira kuvanamo ikibi mu gihe ibirayi bimaze kugera kuri cm 20-25 z'uburebure kandi ukomeze kubikora nibura rimwe mu cyumweru kugeza igihe amababi y'ibirayi yamaze gufunga hagati y'imirongo.Kugenzura umurima bikorwa neza iyo bikozwe mu gitondo, mu gihe hatariho izuba bityo bigafasha kumenye neza ibihingwa bitameze neza.Kuramo ibirayi birwaye ubikuranamo burundu n'ubutaka bukikije aho byatewe. Imigozi n'itaka bigomba gushyirwa mu gitebo cyangwa mu mufuka bigakurwa mu murima bigatwikwa cyangwa bigatabwa mu rwobo rurerure. Ishwagara cyangwa ivu ryo mu gikoni bishobora gushyirwa mu mwobo aho igihingwa cyakuwe kugirango byice indwara.Indwara y'imvura yangiza amababi, ibiti n'ibirayi. Amababi cg ibiti byarwaye byerekana uruhumbu/ kwijima/ ibidomo by'umukara nkaho byatwitse. Ibimenyetso kandi birimo imirongo yera ndetse no kwera munsi y'amababi.Indwara ikwirakwizwa n'umuyaga, n'amazi, ubutaka, cyangwa ibirayi n'ibikoresho byanduye. Ibihe bikonje bitiza umurindi uburwayi.Tera imbuto nziza n'ubwoko budakunda kurwara kugirango urinde indwara mu murima.Kusanya unatwike imigozi y'ibirayi nyuma yo gusarura kugirango usukure umurima.Intera nini hagati y'ibirayi igabanya ubukonje mu murima bityo bigafasha kugabanya indwara y'imvura.Koresha imiti irinda indwara (urugero: Mancozeb) kugirango wirinde kwandura ndetse n'imiti irwanya indwara (urugero Ridomil) kugirango uvure indwara:-Tera umuti urinda indwara ako kanya ibirayi bimaze kumera nibura bifite uburebure bwa cm 10.-Tera umuti urwanya indwara ku minsi 40-45 nyuma yo gutera, gusa niba hari imvura nyinshi n'indwara yageze muri ako gace. -Gukurikiranya umuti, tera umuti urinda indwara nyuma ya buri byumweru 2. Mu gihe ibimenyetso by'indwara bigaragara mu murima koresha umuti urwanya indwara. Mu gihe ibimenyetso by'indwara bimaze kugenda, subira gutera umuti urinda indwara.Mu gihe ukoresheje imiti, buri gihe koresha igipimo nkuko bisabwa n'uwawukoze.Imiti irinda indwara (nka Mancozeb) igomba gukoreshwa byibuze amasaha 6 mbere yuko imvura igwa kugirango wirinde ko umuti utwarwa n'indwara. Imiti irwanya indwara (nka Ridomil) igomba gukoreshwa byibura amasaha 3 mbere yuko imvura igwa. Amababi agomba kuba yumutse adafite urume.Igice cya 14: Kurwanya Kabore Kabore, ihindura ingirangingo y'ibirayi mo amazi cyangwa kubora byoroshye kandi igatera ibikobore by'umukara munsi y'uruti.Ibirayi byanduye birabora haba mu murima cyangwa mu buhunikiro kandi bigatanga impumuro mbi (bikanuka).Kurwanya iyi ndwara ukoresha ingamba zimwe nk'izatanzwe mu kurwanya Kirabiranya arizo: gukoresha imbuto nziza, gusimburanya ibihingwa, kurandura ibihingwa byarwaye no gusukura neza ibikoresho by'ubuhinzi).Igihingwa cyose kirwaye imfunyarazi kigomba guhita kirandurwa hirindwa ko cyakwanduza ibindi ndetse bikwirakwize indwara no kuyindi mbuto izabikomokaho.Indwara z'imfunyarazi ziragoye kuzimenya mu murima. Iyo indwara yoroheje, igihingwa gishobora kuterekana ibimenyetso na gato.Iyo indwara iri mu rugero cyangwa ikabije bitera impinduka mu miterere y'igihingwa (amababi arifunga, akaba umuhondo, akaba magufi ndetse akikunja).Indwara z'imfunyarazi zituma ibirayi biba bito. Guhitamo ibirayi bito nk'imbuto uzatera ubutaha bishobora kugabanya umusaruro mu gihe ibyo birayi bishobora kuba byanduye! Rwanya izi ndwara utera imbuto nziza z'ubwoko bwihanganira indwara.Kurandura no kujugunya ibihingwa byanduye. Iyo ufite urujijo rwo kumenya ko igihingwa kirwaye cyangwa kitarwaye, ni byiza ko uhita ukivana mu murima.Sukura ibikoresho wakoreshe mu buhinzi ukoresheje Jike cyangwa umuriro mbere na nyuma yo kubikoresha.Umurima ndetse n'ahantu hawukikije hagomba guhora isuku, harandurwa ibyatsi.Udusimba tw'uduhunduguru n'amasazi bishobora gukwirakwiza indwara z'imfunyarazi. Imiti yica udukoko ishobora gukoreshwa mu kuturwanya, ariko nk'uburyo bwa nyuma mu gihe habayeho ibimenyetso bikomeye by'indwara.Imungu y'ibirayi (nanone bita urunyo rw'ibirayi) yangiza igihingwa mu murima hanyuma ikimukana n'ibirayi mu buhunikiro.Urunyo rw'ikinyugunyugu rwinjira mu kirayi rugakoramo imyenge kandi rugakora n'imiyoboro mu ruti ndetse no mu mababi.Irinde gutera mu butaka bworoshye kandi buseseka cyane kuko butuma ibirayi bigaragara hejuru.Sukira itaka neza kugirango urinde ibirayi.Genzura ibirayi witonze mbere no mugihe cyo kubihunika hanyuma ukureho buri kirayi cyerekana imyenge.Koresha ibimera birwanya udukoko nka Lantana cyangwa inturusi bitera ibinyu-gunyugu kuguruka.Umurima ugomba guterwa imiti yabugenewe yica udukoko, ku ntera ya buri byumweru 2-3, ariko mu buryo bwitondewe hirindwa ko byangiza ibidukikije n'ubuzima bwa muntu.    ","tokenCount":"1571"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fbd0b3fddda25c77176af2c510449c89","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/53c76f4e-063e-4cc2-a4db-358cca4530cc/retrieve","id":"861850862"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5614d3c2-0f0e-4506-a22c-344a41e876bd","pagecount":"12","content":"The expected cost of inaction on adaptation of cocoa production by the 2050s was estimated at 410m USD per year or about 1% of current real GDP. Recommendation domains with different degree of projected impact can guide interventions to scale out adaptation. Climate Smart Practices for Cocoa simultaneously improve productivity and help to adapt to future climate risk. Current, low adoption rates of improved farming practices are a reflection of significant barriers. We recommend cocoa value chain actors mainstream interventions tailored to projected climate gradients in different regions of Ghana.Climate Smart Cocoa (CSC) is not only about avoiding future losses but also about mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improving the livelihoods of farmers by increasing the productivity and resilience of their farms. The current state of cocoa production in Ghana has significant leeway to become more forward-looking and productive.Cocoa farms in Ghana are vulnerable to an array of climate-related risks: the Harmattan wind, droughts, storms, flooding. Climate change is projected to increase the occurrence of such extreme events, as well as induce more gradual changes to cocoa farming suitability via higher average temperatures and more erratic rainfall. Whether sudden or gradual, production needs to be resilient to these changes.This info note gives an overview of research to guide the implementation of CSC practices in Ghana.To achieve adaptation at scale, stakeholders should consider impact gradient maps as well as the costs and benefits of potential CSC practices.Three degrees of adaptation effort 1. Incremental adaptation where climate is most likely to remain suitable and adaption will be achieved by a change of practices and ideally improved strategies and enablers 2. Systemic adaptation where climate is most likely to remain suitable but with substantial stress, adaptation will be achieved through a comprehensive change of practices, but also requires a change of strategy and adequate enablers 3. Transformational adaptation where climate is likely to make cocoa production unfeasible, this will require a focus on a change of strategy and adequate enablers as practices alone may be uneconomical Uncertain precipitation patterns and increasing temperatures are projected to pose a challenge to Cocoa production in Ghana. Cocoa is produced all over the southern part of Ghana, whereas in the Northern Savanna the lack of suitable precipitation prohibits its production. Cocoa production is an integral part of the rural economy in Ghana. An estimated 800,000 families cultivate and market cocoa on 1.69 million ha in plots that average 2 to 3 hectares. It has been estimated that 25 to 30% of the population of Ghana depends on the cocoa sector for their livelihood. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) generated from cocoa accounts for 1.6% of the total GDP and 6.8% of primary sector GDP.The negative impacts of climate change on cocoa would have repercussions for the Ghanaian economy and especially for rural development. Training, enabling, and monitoring are not trivial tasks at any scale. Therefore, the importance of selecting noregret adaptation practices and understanding barriers to implementation becomes crucial. To take a further step toward increasing the resiliency of production in the face of climate change, scaling must account not only for the current climate but also for the projected developments of the coming decades. Recommendation domains of future impacts, as displayed in the following pages, and the division of practices into incremental, systemic, and transformational are a touchstone of CSC for improving the resiliency of cocoa production in Ghana.Resiliency at the farm-level equates sustained productivity despite gradual climate change and a rapid and thorough recovery after extreme climate events.Resilient production at the national scale implies that the supply of cocoa beans from Ghanaian farmers is far more secure and sector incomes are more stable.Scaling CSC practices provides a path to greater resilience and improved productivity, adaptation, and mitigation of GHG emissions in the production of Ghanaian cocoa.Adaptation to climate change is often understood as a change of production practices at farm level. Because of the high climate uncertainty for Ghana, we recommend no-regret CSC practices, i.e. practices that improve economic and social benefits regardless of the actual future climate. We were able to identify these suggested farm level practices with the input from farmers and experts. This aims to make the adoption of these practices feasible for resource-constrained smallholders.With increasing degree of climate impacts, the importance of systems approaches to adaptation and the enabling environment increases. Value chain inclusive systems approaches to adaptation, therefore, include a wider range of actors or crops to manage risk from cocoa. Such systemic or transformational adaptation may require changes to the framework conditions, or enabling environment for CSC. This enabling environment includes policies, institutional arrangements, stakeholder involvement, gender considerations, infrastructure, credit, insurance schemes, as well as access to weather information and advisory services.The implementation of strategies and enablers by value chain actors beyond the farm gate is needed to help farmers adapt specific CSC practices. Climate change is a threat not only to cocoa production but to the entire cocoa value chain. Effective solutions require shared investments and greater collaboration among diverse value chain actors both private and public.Cocoa experts and stakeholders report a wide range of perceived climatic changes to date. Irregular or intermittent rainfall are among the most voiced complaints, yet others state that heat and drought are increasingly concerning.Observed climate data from interpolated weather observations confirmed some of these perceptions but not all. Across the cocoa zone in Ghana, temperatures have risen in all seasons: For example, the driest quarter has become hotter everywhere by about 0.7°C over the last three decades. However, precipitation during the dry season has also increased on average between 1981 and 2017 with high variability between years (Figure 1). Increases in evapotranspiration are similar to the rise in temperatures but the precipitation increase is outpacing this so that the driest quarter is overall more humid. Precipitation of the wettest quarter has not changed. The data is inconclusive about the perceived irregularity of rainfalls.In an intermediate emissions scenario the median temperatures in the 2050s would be hotter than at 98% of global locations under current conditions.Observed trends should not be extrapolated over several decades. Therefore, we used data from global climate models (GCMs) for long term projections. West African growing areas were found to have pronounced dry seasons both in length and in deficit compared to other global locations (Figure 2). Under current conditions, growing and dry season temperatures were above most other global locations. Precipitation projections in the climate change simulations were uncertain. In the RCP 6.0 and 8.5 emission scenarios, slightly more GCMs projected increasingly severe dry seasons but overall the humid conditions were projected to prevail.  To support efficient adaptation, we developed a gradient of climate change impacts. The gradient is a cocoa specific evaluation of the projected climatic changes described above. Otherwise identical climatic changes may result in severe or irrelevant impacts depending on the historic climate conditions. For example, a reduction of 50mm precipitation may be critical to the cocoa crop at locations with low water availability but would be irrelevant where rainfalls are abundant throughout the year.The gradient shows the most likely degree of necessary adaptation effort across several potential future climate developments.Our method used an RF classification model to evaluate the degree of climate change impacts in Ghana by comparing future (2040-69) to present  bioclimatic suitability for cocoa. We considered 19 climate projections from GCMs in a moderate emissions scenario. For each climate scenario, we distinguished four impact zones: Cocoa production can either be sustained under low or high adaptation effort (incremental or systemic adaptation) or will become unprofitable such that it should be substituted or radically transformed (transformation). In previously unsuitable regions (opportunity) cocoa may become a new option for farmers.The gradient showed that southern Brong Ahafo, northern Ashanti, and the North and South of Volta will become transformation zones. Such transformation may include the development of alternative value chains or novel cocoa systems that are viable under conditions that would in the past be considered hostile for cocoaThe Northern half of the central cocoa production zone (northern Ashanti, northern Western region and most of the Volta region) was classified as a zone with little certainty of climate projections. For this zone, global climate models don't exhibit the necessary degree of agreement to support specific technological packages and emphasis should be put on increasing the resilience of producers.Southern Ashanti, the Eastern region, and the southern margin will require systemic change because a change of one climate zone to another was projected (Figure 3).For other parts of the country, the climate change signal was found to be less significant. The southern stretch of the current production zone was projected to remain in the same climate zone so that no fundamental changes in agronomic practice are needed. Incremental adaptation is the dominant strategy. Only a few sites were projected to become suitable because of climate change. Some locations at the margins of the currently suitable area may become suitable, but with strong limitations. Stakeholders along the cocoa value chain, on the one hand, acknowledge the reality of climatic change and the need for action. On the other hand, many of them downplay the cost of inaction and proceed with 'business as usual'.Stakeholders avoid investments that anticipate future climate change because the action would not have had positive returns with current (or past) climate conditions.We demonstrate that adaptive action needs to be valued against a hypothetical future in which no action is taken to contain negative impacts and conditions for cocoa degenerate. By providing a benchmark for this cost of inaction we aim to make it easier for cocoa stakeholders to argue in favor of investments in climate change adaptation.In our analysis, we asked how cocoa producers in West Africa would be affected if the projected conditions of the 2050s hit today. We evaluated the loss of production under 171 impact scenarios that reflect potential climate change trajectories and empirically founded production losses.The expected cost of inaction on adaptation by the 2050s was estimated at 410m USD per year which is about 1% of current real GDP.However, there is considerable uncertainty about future climate conditions and climate damages to unadjusted cocoa. We estimated a 90%-probability range of 270m-660m USD per year (or 0.7-1.6% of GDP).The probability distribution was not symmetric and indicated that the risk of extreme values, i.e. very low cost (e.g. less than 250m USD) are rather unlikely, while very high cost (higher than 570m USD correspondingly) are relatively more likely. Our cost of inaction must, therefore, be understood as an estimate of the degree of potential cost based on reasonable assumptions.A full assessment of the benefits of adaptation by the 2050s would require knowledge of future cocoa production and prices. Demand will likely grow in the future and Ghana announced an effort to expand future production. Under these conditions, the true cost of inaction could, therefore, be even higher. Decisive climate action is a smart investment.  Climate Smart Cocoa recommends a series of agricultural practices that fulfill one or more of the key objectives of Climate Smart Agriculture. Because of the urgent need for high adoption, an obvious approach to CSC development is to promote the scaling of strategies that some farmers already use to cope with climate risks within suitable recommendation domains.These CSC practices are already used in the region and may increase the resilience of farmers.Such practices are usually no-regret options because they exhibit positive economic returns despite uncertainty about the future climate.The following list consists of expert validated practices. They can serve as a starting point to develop portfolios for each of the risk zones.Incremental Farmer field school approach and mass media campaigns should be adopted to raise awareness about the threat of climate change and preventive measures against forest fires Roads, bridges, and other construction activities should be planned away from riparian areas, wetlands and aquifers.See an example of practical implementation for training here:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/93360Cost-Benefit Analysis of CSC Farmers are resource constrained, i.e. they lack the financial capacity and knowledge of expected returns to adopt new practices. Making an economic argument for investments in climate smart practices and the present value of future benefits can be a determining factor in increasing adoption rates of the practices and for obtaining the necessary credit to finance them. Although cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) are ex-ante assessments and involve some uncertainty, the comparison of incremental costs and benefits can aid farmers and extension agents in prioritizing the adoption of certain CSC practices over overs. From the above set of climate smart practices, we chose a few that are widely debated to be potential \"Best bet\" options for scaling out. We compared the costs and benefits of these practices to a conventionalwell managedreference system with some shade and intercropping.The following overview of costs, benefits, and barriers to adoption may help design interventions to support the adoption of these practices. From our analysis, the barriers to adoption are high for each of these practices.The Net Present Value NPV) is calculated as the sum of benefits minus costs of each year at discounted at a specified rate (14% in our case) to find their equivalent value in the present period in the following way and it can be used to prioritize one investment over another, as a higher NPV is generally preferred. The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is calculated in the following way and is a measure of the discount rate at which the NPV is zero, the higher the IRR the better the investment. BAU refers to results according to continued current production practices with no adaptation or Business As Usual. Cocoa producers at locations that are severely affected by climate change will seek alternative income sources. Diversifying production can be a measure to reduce climate shock risk to household income. However, field crops often don't offer the same income and ecosystem services benefits provided by cocoa. Other tree crops are therefore preferential. The development of alternative or complementary value chains that can replace lost cocoa income will require multi-stakeholder approaches that include public and private actors.We evaluated the climatic suitability of frequently named companion crops for cocoa under current and future climate conditions. For the cocoa zone, we evaluated whether these companion crops can be considered resilient to climate change so that they can be recommended for on-farm diversification if a market for the produce exists locally.The methodology used was similar to the approach to evaluate climate impacts on cocoa. First, we evaluated the degree of climate change impacts in Ghana by comparing future (2040-69) to present  bioclimatic suitability for these crops. We then identified what the most likely future suitability in a certain region will be. A crop is recommended if cultivation can continue with only incremental adaptation. Results maps are shown on the following page. With an increasing degree of climate impacts, the importance of systems approaches to adaptation and the enabling environment increases. In this case, a change in the livelihood strategy may be necessary. Value chain inclusive systems approaches to adaptation, therefore, include a wider range of actors or crops to manage risk from cocoa. The chain itself may be made risk-proof or more efficient, for example at the processing and transport stages, or where farmers and exporters choose to diversify into alternative crops. Such systemic or transformational adaptation may require changes to the framework conditions, or enabling environment for CSC.Practice focused adaptation reaches a limit when the climate changes to a degree that makes alternative systems more attractive.Changes in the enabling environment can reorient current practices toward climate-smart cocoa in a sustainable and efficient way. It promotes institutional capacity and facilitates access and risk-reduction to the adoption of new technologies and practices. Comprehensive enabling environments have already been proven effective for climate-smart agriculture implementation.The enabling environment for climate-smart cocoa constitutes a set of framework conditions that encourage the adoption of climate-smart practices.The following presents the vision for a climate smart cocao sector, and the roles of sector participants. For each degree of impact, it presents a set of priority actions that should be developed towards 2030 with the objective of increasing the resilience of cocoa in Ghana. Over many decades, cocoa production has been shaping the landscapes of Ghana. Forest cover is lost at a rate of 3%, among the highest in Africa. In the coming decades, however, the changing climate will come to shape cocoa production more deeply. Some areas will become unsuitable, yet most will require some form of adaptation. The analyses presented here should be useful to achieve the goals of policy directed toward increasing the resilience of cocoa at scale in Ghana.There is an urgent need to shift from current cocoa farming practices to CSC practices adapted to the requirements of each climate impact zones. Crop diversification helps stabilize farmer incomes and increase food security. Furthermore, cost-benefit analyses of these practices may be helpful in convincing farmers and lenders of potential increases in profits. ","tokenCount":"2806"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"05515d90ffc7d24ddcc55648cd7ccd2f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c7efc874-9a91-4ed1-b19f-1fa0974b76ee/retrieve","id":"754544295"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3ddd8bca-a93e-47d6-b312-1e4466908d05","pagecount":"9","content":"• Soon after this meeting, the facilitator will contact some groups in some of the countries. (We have already had some contact with these groups)• We will invite these country teams (Active committed teams of trainees--ACTT) to select one to three tools to use for a field study in their countryPhase 2: Field work• The ACTT will use the tool(s) as methods for a field study• During the study, the ACTT will have guidance from the tool owner, from Jeff (as mentor) and from JMC (for overall support)• The ACTTs will also keep diaries, videos, blogs of their experiences in using the tools -so you can follow and interact with them in real time• Jeff, JMC and tool owners will help the ACTT write up the results• The ACTT will present results in a seminar on 25, 27 and 28 Oct (one day per country)• You will all be invited to attend that seminar, to hear the country teams report on how they have used tool, and to discuss the results","tokenCount":"171"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6779201338.json b/data/part_3/6779201338.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"40d64696d6f40e30013510d1634f19cd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ffe175c6-1161-4f6c-8e00-3def729d3003/retrieve","id":"1649883795"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"64d46e85-f856-4539-aab7-86b4617869ad","pagecount":"2","content":"First we created clusters of accessions based on climate similarities. For each cluster we have created 6 different maps. This map is the average of the modeled distribution layers developed for each 19 Global Change Models (GCM).The first map represents the modeled distrubution under current climatic conditions. The second map shows a representatino of the modeled distrubtion for climatic conditions in 2050. This map is the average of the modeled distribution layers developed for each 19 Global Change Modes (GCM).The third map shows the overlay of current and future modeled distribution indicating 1) high impact areas, i.e. areas that are predicted to become unsuitable for that specific climate cluster; 2) low impact areas, i.e. areas that are predicted to remain suitable; and 3) new areas that become suitable. The fourth map represents the consensus of the 19 GCMs on suitable 2050 areas (map 4). This map shows for each pixel in the distribution area, the number of GCM models predicting. The confidence that an area indeed is suitable in 2050s increases when the number of GCM models concordant on 2050s suitability is higher.The 'Atlas of crop suitability' is an essential tool to predict the environment under which an accession or a group of accessions can grow based on the climatic characteristics of the locality in which they were collected. The more information is available on any given accession the more the prediction will be accurate. This is just a first step as many factors crucial for crop suitability are not part of the methodology and therefore the selected accessions need to be tested in the field and under different climatic conditions to validate the output of the Atlas.The major output for this activity is the Crop Atlas. As shown on the maps it is possible to know which group of accessions can be used under which climatic conditions and therefore, when applied to future climate, it is possible to better plan for adapting the agricultural production systems to the changing conditions. First we created clusters of accessions based on climate similarities.For each cluster we have created the following maps:Seeds for Needs Policy brief no.2 www.bioversityinternational.org A summary of cluster richness is created for all the climate groups combined which can be used under present and future conditions (map 5 and 6). This will inform which types of accessions should be used.The major output for this activity is the Crop Atlas. As shown on the maps it is possible to know which group of accessions can be used under which climatic conditions and therefore, when applied to future climate, it is possible to better plan for adapting the agricultural production systems to changing conditions. ","tokenCount":"443"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6783825520.json b/data/part_3/6783825520.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e7842900d49bbcfe9bd305c276eca897","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b22c7516-6bcd-47bc-9c6d-b5840b9f0216/retrieve","id":"1681405895"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ff3b9757-28bb-451b-8a17-5cdebdaf1e8c","pagecount":"6","content":"The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is not responsible for the quality and validity of results obtained using the FEAST methodology.The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) was used to characterize the livestock production system and in particular feed-related aspect in the Sebusaray woreda of Baako, Ethiopia. The assessment was carried out through structured group discussions and completion of short questionnaires by three key farmers/stakeholders on the 12 th of May 2010. The following are the findings of the assessment and conclusions for further action.The area is a mixed crop/livestock system characterised by small land holdings of approximately 2 hectares per household. The primary focus of the system is cereal crop production. Livestock are integrated into this system to support cropping operations. Cereal crops, namely maize (Zea mays) and tef (Eragrostis tef ) are the main crops grown within the area. Other cereal crops such as; sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and finger millet (Eleusine coracana) are also grown, however, the areas sown to these crops are minimal and restricted to only a few farmers. Noug (Guizotia abyssinica) and green peppers (Capsicum annuum) are also grown by some farmers. The amount of land used to produce these crops is highly variable. Cattle are the most important livestock species kept within the area as they provide the draught power and manure fertiliser required for effective crop production. Sheep, goats, and poultry are kept in varying numbers by most households for household consumption and sale when disposable income is required. Labour availability has become a problem of recent times as large numbers of children leave the area for schooling. This has decreased the size of the family labour force. Many farmers now hire labour for approximately 10Birr/day including meals during periods of peak labour requirements such as planting and harvesting. Water is becoming problematic for many farmers as rainfall during the dry season is not sufficient enough to allow effective cropping operations to be carried out. The increased population density of the area also means irrigation is no longer a viable means of overcoming insufficient rainfall levels.Maize is the main source of income contributing an average of approximately 75% of all household income. Livestock contribute approximately 10% to household income through the sale of old draught animals that are no longer strong enough to pull the plough, sale of shoats and poultry for slaughter and the sale of manure for fertiliser. Interestingly, no income was received from the sale of milk as milk yields are not sufficient enough to warrant excess being sold. All milk that is collected is consumed within the household. Other sources of income include cash crops such as coffee (Coffea arabica) and khat (Catha edulis) which contribute 10% and 5% to household income respectively. However, the extent to which these crops contribute is highly dependent on yields. This is particularly true with coffee crops which are susceptible to numerous diseases within the area that significantly affect yields.Cattle are the most important livestock species as they support the production of crops through the provision of draught power. Every household has at least 2 castrated males for draught purposes and a cow to fulfil household milk requirements. The manure produced by these animals is also collected and used as a cheap and readily available source of fertiliser. The system relies heavily on grazing to fulfil the nutritional requirements of the animal. Cattle spend daylight hours grazing household lands, returning to a circular corral made of Acacia spp. branches at night. During time spent in the corral, the cattle are often given supplementary feeds such as crop residues and cut green forages. Veterinary care is inaccessible for many farmers in the area as the nearest veterinary clinic is approximately 8 kilometres away. This poses significant problems if the veterinary is unwilling (or unable) to visit the area due to poor road conditions (particularly during the wet season) and the animal is unable to walk to the clinic. Artificial Insemination (AI) services are not present within the area. At present, all farmers utilise freely available natural matings with indigenous bulls. Selection of bulls for mating is not based on characteristics or desirable traits possessed by the bull; it is simply a matter of whichever bull happens to be in the area at the time of oestrous. Due to the lack of water availability donkeys are also considered important for most households. Almost every household has at least one donkey. The donkeys are used to carry water from nearby rivers and bores.There are many problems faced by farmers in this area. Lack of feed is the main constraint faced by farmers, particularly towards the end of the dry season (January-March). This problem has been observed worsening over the past decade as the population density of the area increases. The increasing population density has caused the size of land holdings to decrease as plots of land are divided amongst family members. This is placing increasing pressure on finite feed resources. The increasing population density is also affecting water availability and quality. Clean, fresh water is currently only available during the wet season. As a result water borne diseases such as Liver Fluke (Fasciola hepatica) are a serious concern for farmers. Other diseases such as trypanosomiasis, foot and mouth disease, anthrax, and black leg are also prevalent within the area and are viewed as constraints to improving livestock production. The local extension service is also considered to be playing a role in preventing the development of livestock production within the area as farmers believe they are largely ineffective. The extension service has thus far been unable to help farmers control or mitigate the effects of disease in their animals or train them on ways to overcome feed scarcities and methods of water conservation.The main feed sources relied on by farmers throughout the year come from grazing and green forages. Grazing is restricted to the farmers own land as there are no communal grazing areas available. In an attempt to overcome this restriction, many farmers fence off part of their lands during the wet season to conserve plant material for periods when pasture availability begins to decline during the dry season. These fenced areas are cut periodically or grazed directed when the farmer deems it necessary. In addition to these conserved areas, farmers cut naturally occurring pastures from nearby roadsides or forest areas to supplement fodder found on farm. At times when pasture growth is low and finding adequate quantities of green forage becomes difficult, farmers resort to feeding crop residues, particularly from November -February. Farmers have a preference for Tef residues and tend to store all the Tef residues at the end of the growing season, whereas they will only store approximately ¾ of all Maize residues. Concentrate feeds compose a very small fraction of the diet. Concentrate feeds usually consist of Noug cakes which are purchased for 40Birr for 100 kilograms. Due to the relatively high economic value of concentrate feeds farmers utilise a strategic feeding system in which only dairy cows receive the concentrate feed during lactation periods. However, only a small minority of farmers feed concentrates and it is not a common practice in the area.The contribution livestock make to household income in this area is relatively minimal. Alleviating the constraints will improve livestock productivity and ensure a greater contribution to household income can be achieved from livestock products. To mitigate the effects of insufficient feed it will be necessary to better utilise the feed sources currently available, increase feed biomass production onfarm and potentially purchase more concentrate feeds. At present, not all the maize residues are being collected and stored for later feeding. This may represent a significant wastage of feed material that could be utilised during periods when feed availability is low although leaving stovers in the field may be strategic to maintain soil fertility. Steps could also be taken to improve the quality of the residue material through the use of simple technologies such as chopping (or chaffing) the residues and mixing them with more palatable feed stuffs, such as molasses. To increase on-farm fodder production, the use of fodder crops could be considered. As farmers in the area already fence sections of their land to conserve stands of fodder for the dry season, planting these areas with fast growing fodder species such as Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) could be advantageous. It would allow the farmer to cut the area numerous times throughout the season and produce much more feed per hectare than could otherwise be achieved with naturally occurring grasses. Leguminous forage species such as Lucerne (Medicago sativa) could also be considered to help improve soil fertility. The use of these fenced areas for fodder crop production in a \"cut and carry\" operation would also have the added benefit of providing large quantities of fodder in close proximity to the household. This would reduce the labour intensity of the feeding system and the time spent collecting fodder material. Additional concentrate or industrial by-products can also be purchased, however, this would not be recommended at this time as it will greatly increase the cost of production which is unlikely to be offset due to the low productivity of the indigenous cattle that dominate holdings. Thus, attempts could also be made to develop AI services to ensure farmers can upgrade the merit of their herd to ensure higher productivity is genetically possible.Mitigating the effects of disease can be achieved through increasing farmer awareness of the important disease issues such as, disease identification, preventative techniques and quarantine procedures. Veterinary services in the area could also be improved to ensure farmers have access to the necessary treatments in the event of disease outbreak. Similarly, improved water availability and quality can be achieved through increasing farmer understanding of water contaminating agents, and methods for water conservation such as the introduction of water tanks (where possible) and building of dams to capture water during rainy periods.Extension services in the area will have an integral role in the introduction of any potential interventions as Ethiopian government mandates dictate that government extension services must be involved and are responsible for the introduction of new agricultural techniques and technology. Thus, to sustainably mitigate the effects of constraints within this area, it will be necessary to strengthen extension services through the use of additional training programs, further education and increased funding opportunities to ensure an appropriate budget is available for extension officers to carry out their mandated tasks. Mitigation of the other constraints is unlikely to occur without strengthening of government extension services.-Lack of feed sources, both in terms of quality and quantity -Poor water availability and quality -High disease prevalence affecting animal health and productivity -Ineffective extension services-Introduce fodder crops to improve the quantity and quality of feed available.-Introduce simple feed processing technologies to improve the quality of existing feed.-Provide training to farmers in techniques of disease prevention and quarantine practices.-Improve access veterinary services.-Increase awareness amongst farmers about sources of water contamination and methods of water conservation. -Strengthen the capacity of extension services to provide training and support to farmers.Milk yield: 320 litres per household per year Meat offtake: 5.46% per household per year ME per TLU:Farmers in this mixed crop/livestock system rely heavily on maize production as a means of income generation. Livestock's primary role is to support this production through the provision of draught power. The contribution made by livestock to household income is negligible. Farmers believe livestock can become more important in terms of income generation if the main constraints to livestock production; insufficient feed, poor water quality and availability, disease, and ineffective extension services are ameliorated. The introduction of fodder crops and feed processing technologies will help to ease feed constraints through improving the amount of feed available and the quality of that feed. Improved farmer training on issues pertaining to livestock disease, agents of water contamination and water conservation methodologies will help to negate the impact of these constraints. However, to ensure that the necessary steps can be taken to alleviate production constraints, strengthening the capacity of extension services will be pivotal as it will only be with improved extension services that the interventions can be sustainability introduced.","tokenCount":"2022"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9c38c5bd9958193590305d347da9dffd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/29669f96-29c4-4e46-bed7-19e36d685a6d/retrieve","id":"-1720129655"},"keywords":["Agriculture","Amazonia","Certification","Deforestation","Greenhouse gas emissions","Incentives","Institutions","Interventions","Livestock","Sustainability"],"sieverID":"c9512200-3b1b-4edb-b9ad-cf2688c3343a","pagecount":"54","content":"Up to 75% of deforestation in Brazil is associated with cattle ranching. To reduce forest conversion and increase sustainability in the cattle supply chain, government, private sector and civil society support interventions based on combinations of institutions and policies, incentives, and information and technology. In this paper we analyse the observed and expected interactions among the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) Standard for Sustainable Cattle Production Systems certification program and other interventions associated with livestock and deforestation in Amazonia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with cattle supply chain key actors, who identified the opportunities and barriers to the development and scaling of the SAN cattle program. The SAN cattle program has set a new high standard for sustainability, demonstrated the viability of certifying the cattle supply chain, and created new incentives and markets. However, the program has certified few farms to date. Other interventions are playing a critical role in incentivizing farms towards enhanced sustainability. Interventions that complement progress towards the SAN program include those that help producers to comply with forest laws or provide farmers with access to information and technology to improve their practices. Other interventions may constrain the program, for example by competing with the standards in the marketplace. Greater coordination among interventions may catalyze a more coherent, strategic approach to enhanced sustainability.Tropical deforestation and forest degradation are the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions globally, accounting for 12% of CO 2 emissions (Fearnside 2000, Smith et al. 2007, van der Werf et al. 2009). In Brazil, direct emissions from land-use change and deforestation represented 22% of the country`s total CO 2 emissions in 2010, following agriculture and ranching (35%) and energy (32%) (MCTI 2013). In 2010, 50.3% of emissions from land-use change were from the conversion of forests to pasture in the Amazon biome (MCTI 2013).Brazil has one of the highest deforestation rates worldwide: between 2000 and 2010, more than 16.9 million hectares (ha) were deforested in the Amazon biome (IMAZON 2013). In total, more than 70 million ha of Amazonian forests have been cleared (INPE 2013). Cattle ranching has been widely cited as a major driver of land-use change and deforestation in Brazil (Nepstad et al. 2006, McAllister 2008, Gibbs et al. 2010, Cohn et al. 2011), and it is estimated that 75% of forest conversion in Brazil may be associated with this land use (Bustamante et al. 2012). Predicted human population growth and higher food demand are likely to increase pressure on remaining tropical forests (Wirsenius et al. 2010).A large number of interventions designed to enhance the sustainability of agricultural commodity supply chains are being developed by government, private sector and civil society actors at a range of scales. Many of these interventions aim to reduce deforestation, either by increasing productivity through intensification or by restricting expansion into forest areas (Smith 2008, Cohn et al. 2011, Barreto 2012, Newton et al. 2013). These interventions can be characterized as being based on combinations of institutions, incentives, and information (Newton et al. 2013).Voluntary certification programs are a prominent example of an intervention that aims to improve both sustainable production and consumption. The programs create market-based incentives for producers, processors and retailers to establish and comply with management practices that adhere to agreed social and environmental standards (Steering Committee 2012). By improving sustainability practices along the supply chain, deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions may be reduced (Bass 2001). Certification programs for forest and agricultural products have become more common in the last two decades, with the establishment of standards for timber by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC); for palm oil by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO); and for crops such as coffee and bananas by the Rainforest Alliance (Bass 2001, Steering Committee 2012).Voluntary certification programs combine both incentives (to producers) and information (to consumers). The benefits of certification programs to producers may include access to niche markets, receipt of price premiums, and increased production efficiencies. At the same time, consumers receive assurance of reduced environmental impacts relative to non-certified alternatives. However, many obstacles to the implementation and success of certification programs have been identified, including high transaction costs, difficulties in securing a product price premium, and challenges in assuring compliance (Bass 2001, Chen et al. 2010, Steering Committee 2012).In 2010, the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) consortium launched a standard for environmental and social responsibility in cattle production (SAN 2010). The SAN cattle certification program aims to improve environmental sustainability in cattle production, with a specific focus on reducing deforestation. It is the first voluntary certification program in the world for cattle sustainability. Livestock production presents a series of unique challenges for certification, including issues concerning animal welfare and the movement of animals among farms at different stages of the production process. The SAN cattle program addresses these challenges through specific standards and certification options.Interventions designed to halt deforestation and improve agricultural sustainability, such as the SAN cattle certification program, depend not only on the design of the intervention itself, but also -and critically -upon the ways in which the intervention interacts with the political and economic contexts in which it is implemented and with other interventions in the same sector. In effect, no intervention is implemented in isolation, and so the extent to which the SAN cattle certification program will reduce deforestation in Brazil depends on how the program is supported or constrained by contextual factors and by other interventions at the local or national level (Newton et al. 2013). There are numerous governance interventions being implemented concurrently within the cattle sector in Brazil, but the extent to which these interactions may be complementary, inhibitive, or neutral to the achievement of the SAN cattle certification program's objective of reduced deforestation remains unexplored. The principal aim of this paper is therefore to answer the question: How is the SAN cattle certification program's aim of reduced deforestation in Brazil supported and constrained by other governance interventions? This question is addressed through an in-depth institutional analysis of multiple governance interventions in Brazil, and their current and likely future influences on the SAN cattle certification program.Information on environmental issues related to the cattle supply chain in the Brazilian context, the SAN cattle certification program, and other interventions was obtained through a review of published and grey literature and interviews with key actors. Interviews were conducted with all categories of key actors involved in the cattle production supply chain, and particularly with those working on environmental sustainability. Interviewees included individuals and organizations from the state sector (Municipal Secretariats, Ministry of Environment); civil society (non-governmental organizations -NGOs, certification bodies, and researchers); and private sector (producer associations, cattle farmers, slaughterhouses, retailers, restaurant chains, and the input industry). Interviews were conducted in person (n = 28 interviews) and by phone (n = 6 interviews). A total of 28 organizations and 46 people were interviewed. Some interviews were conducted with more than one interviewee at the same time: these were treated as a single interview (Table 1). Five of the 46 people were interviewed more than once. In-person interviews were conducted in the state of São Paulo (SP), in and around the cities of São Paulo and Piracicaba, and in the state of Mato Grosso (MT), in and around the cities of Cuiabá, Tangará da Serra, Alta Floresta and Sinop (Fig. 1). Phone interviews were used to reach actors in the national capital of Brasilia. Interviews were conducted between June and August 2013 by HNAP, with assistance from PN and two field assistants.  Brazil contains more than 172 million ha of pasture, of which more than 10% are degraded (IBGE 2006). Further, 15% (11 million ha) of the total deforested area in Amazonia is either abandoned or contains very few cattle (Embrapa and INPE 201a). Cattle production in the region is predominantly based on extensive pasture systems and is characterized by very low cattle densities, with an average of 1.2 heads per ha (ABIEC 2012).The cattle supply chain involves multiple actors, including the private sector (producers, slaughterhouses, and retailers who are directly involved in the supply chain), and the state (e.g. government agencies) and civil society (e.g. NGOs), who are both more peripheral.Here, we review the role of each of these actors in the supply chain.Around 30% of all rural properties in Brazil are involved in cattle ranching. Cattle birth, growth, and fattening (IBGE 2006) can either occur on the same farm or be conducted by different producers (Cezar et al 2005). In Brazil, 40.8% of the herd is raised on farms that engage in all of these stages of cattle production (IBGE 2006).There are approximately 1.2 million cattle ranchers in Brazil (IBGE 2006), ranging from small subsistence ranchers who employ traditional non-mechanized practices to very large mechanized farms. Small producers are the most numerous, but own only 18.6% of the productive cattle land (IBGE 2006). Many have little or no access to infrastructure, machinery, or information. In contrast, a small number of large ranchers own the majority of the productive pasture lands and a large proportion of the country's herd (IBGE 2006). They generally have better access to technical assistance and infrastructure. Approximately 46% of the country's herd is in properties with more than 500 ha of pasture (IBGE 2006). The three biggest slaughterhouses in Brazil -Marfrig, JBS, and Minerva -process a large proportion of the total cattle. In the state of MT a single slaughterhouse -JBS -is responsible for almost 50% of all the beef processed (IMEA 2011). These large slaughterhouses grew from 2005 onwards, and particularly during the 2008 financial crisis when they expanded by buying several big and medium companies that were severely affected by the crisis (Macedo and Lima 2011).Small butcheries were formerly the most common sellers of domestic beef, but these have been increasingly replaced by large retailers such as supermarkets. The largest beef retailer groups in Brazil are Grupo Pão de Açucar, Carrefour, and Wal-Mart (ABRAS 2013).Government agencies influence the cattle supply chain by developing or supporting projects and policies to improve cattle ranching practices and sustainability. The government agencies most closely involved in the cattle sector and their responsibilities are:The Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (Ministry of Agriculture, Cattle and Provision -MAPA) is responsible for agriculture and ranching policy management.    The SAN cattle program is the first initiative in the world to comprehensively certify sustainable cattle production, accounting not only for animal welfare and product quality but also for the social and environmental aspects of cattle production. Innovatively, it includes standards that involve the entire chain of custody, which increase the traceability of the product through the entire supply chain. Moreover, it is considered a credible standard due to its strict criteria, which were developed by a third-party certification body rather than by an industry roundtable (SAN 2010, Golan et al 2001, Hatanaka et al 2005).The SAN cattle standard is divided into 15 principles and 136 criteria, comprised of the 10 existing SAN principles for agriculture (Sustainable Agriculture Standard) and five principles that were developed specifically for the cattle industry. The 15 principles relate to management systems, ecosystem conservation, wildlife protection, water conservation, working conditions, occupational health, community relations, integrated crop management, soil conservation, integrated waste management, integrated cattle management systems, sustainable range and pasture management, animal welfare, and reducing carbon footprints.Each of these standards has multiple criteria.The certification process involves a full initial certification audit and two subsequent annual audits. After three years, the process starts again with another full audit. Producers may opt to have a diagnostic visit before the first full audit to coarsely assess where the farm is positioned in relation to the criteria. To become certified, farms have to comply with a) 80% of all the criteria, b) at least 50% of the criteria in each principle and c) 22 critical criteria (with which the farms have to completely comply). Most actors consider the environmental and social criteria with which cattle producers must comply in order to achieve certification under the SAN cattle program to be a very high benchmark for sustainability. There is broad agreement that SAN certification genuinely reflects a high level of sustainability in multiple dimensions by any farm that achieves it. This is in contrast with some commodity certification programs that have been critiqued for setting criteria that are less stringent and which enhance sustainability to a lesser extent, such as the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) (Greenpeace 2013).A strict set of criteria means that concerned actors are more likely to have greater confidence that SAN-certified farms have achieved a meaningful sustainability standard. However, the changes in practice needed to meet the expectations of the SAN cattle program are beyond the capacity of a large majority of cattle producers in Brazil. Key barriers include low levels of compliance with environmental legislation (a pre-requisite for certification); high costs of infrastructure such as fences, piping and fertilizers needed to comply with the SAN cattle standards; and poor access to information and assistance with respect to pasture management, production control, and forest restoration. These barriers present challenges particularly to small and medium ranchers, thus prohibiting many cattle producers from participating in the SAN cattle program, at least in the short term. For these reasons, some actors have critiqued the SAN program as having limited relevance in the Brazilian cattle supply chain at this stage.Direct recruitment of producers into the program is only one route to achieving impact and is only one metric of success. Proponents of the SAN cattle program argue that the development and implementation of a third-party cattle certification program can have multiple additional benefits, including:1. Re-defining sustainability for the cattle supply chain by 'raising the bar' and setting a higher benchmark for the rest of the supply chain to aspire to;2. Demonstrating a proof-of-concept that certification of the cattle industry is viable; and 3. Altering the wider context of cattle production by generating new incentives and opportunities for enhanced sustainability across the sector (Drigo 2013).Here, we briefly discuss each of these three mechanisms of change.First, the SAN cattle standards set a higher standard for sustainability than any other existing law or incentive mechanism in Brazil. This standard is widely perceived as a credible and legitimate one because the experiences of Imaflora, SAN and RA in working with SAN certification for other agricultural products mean that they are well-established and wellrespected as representing meaningful levels of sustainability.Second, the SAN cattle program has demonstrated that the certification of the cattle supply chain is likely to be viable, at least at a small scale. The program has already certified farms within the Amazon biome, as well as one slaughterhouse. Further, actors at every stage of the supply chain have been certified, from the farm that initially rears young cows, to the farm that fattens and sells the cows for slaughter, to the slaughterhouse. Certified beef is being sold to consumers in Brazilian supermarkets. None of these things were happening before 2010, so the SAN cattle program has already made some progress by recruiting a set of key actors that complement each other in the production process. Just the demonstration that these actions are possible and that certified sustainable beef is being produced and sold could have an impact on how actors view sustainability within the cattle supply chain in Brazil.Finally, the SAN cattle program could change the wider context of cattle production by altering the suite of incentives and barriers to improved sustainability. For example, the program has helped to establish a small but expanding market for certified beef. Other retailers are showing interest in buying SAN-certified beef. If the contracts being discussed come to fruition, there will be an urgent imperative to certify more farms to supply that demand.Imaflora initially targeted a set of key actors likely to be motivated and able to engage with the program in its early stages to help launch the program and get it off the ground. These 'pioneers' or 'first-movers' were defined as those whose production and processing practices exporting certified leather to Gucci. Marfrig also stated that SAN certification gave their beef more credibility with some international buyers: during the export process, buyers seemed to require less information about slaughterhouse procedures after Marfrig had achieved the SAN cattle certification. Carrefour is the only retailer for SAN-certified beef in Brazil and so monopolizes the market for this new niche product. Further, the market for certified beef is expanding, and certified actors are well positioned to capitalize on this expansion. For example, the British retailer Tesco is interested in importing SAN-certified corned beef directly from Marfrig.Responsibility (CSR). Several of the certified actors had a strong philosophy of sustainability before the development of the SAN cattle program. For example, FSM had a history of sustainable production practices, had previously been certified as an organic farm, and had a culture of pioneering and innovation. According to the farm manager, \"getting the SAN cattle certification was a natural step in our process of continuous improvement\" to achieve higherquality and more sustainable products, as well as better farm management. Marfrig also had similar sustainability philosophies.c) Brand recognition and visibility. Becoming certified significantly increased visibility for the pioneer farms, including publicity in high-impact popular magazines, on TV, and on news websites. Certification also earned industry-wide recognition for the pioneers.d) Opportunities to improve the farms' Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and management systems. GAP is a package of practices, such as crop rotation and water management, which can be adopted to help improve cattle quality and health and economic output (Poisot et al. 2004). GAP and management practices introduced to achieve SAN cattle certification increased production efficiency and reduced operating costs, resulting in financial returns. FSM reported that the audits were very useful in helping them to improve agricultural practices and continuously improve management.The SAN cattle program is being developed and implemented in a complex cultural, social, The context in which Brazilian Amazonia was colonized during the 1960s resulted in a system of cattle ranching based on low-cost management and expansion to new areas. Some of the characteristics originating from this colonization process continue to shape the way in which the cattle supply chain is organized.First, many properties are not yet compliant with Brazilian environmental legislation (the Forest Code, described below), nor have formal land property registration.Second, even producers that are compliant with the Forest Code often have little formal control of their production practices, such as knowledge of the amount of feed given to the cattle or even the number of heads slaughtered each year. Poor control makes it more difficult for producers to predict whether a given investment or change in practice will result in higher revenues or whether to change strategy in the event of negative outcomes. A farmer who had improved his production control commented, \"I wasn`t used to writing down anything, not even the number of heads I sold. Now I know where I spend the most money and can control it better\".Third, even ranchers that wish to change their production processes have little technical knowledge about which practices are the best for their specific case. Some ranchers practice pasture management based on techniques taught by their grandparents, but these are not necessarily the most effective or efficient. In some cases, producers have the knowledge to improve their processes, but don`t have sufficient capital to invest in such initiatives.Smallholders are often the producers who have the least access to technical assistance (IBGE 2006).Finally, a strong culture governs ranchers' production processes, inherited from families who have practiced cattle ranching in the same manner for multiple generations. As a result, many ranchers are unwilling to change their production processes and are averse to new initiatives that present any risks (Smeraldi andMay 2009, Acrimat 2012). It is very difficult to convince ranchers that practices need to be changed, particularly since there has always been demandfor their cattle, including those raised in Amazonia. On the other hand, many civil society, government, and private sector initiatives have been operating for several years, and so producers are starting to accept some suggestions and aid from these actors.Certification is often associated with price premium incentives to supply chain actors. Though SAN-certified beef is sold for slightly higher prices when compared to uncertified equivalents, there is little available information about the value of the premium that is received by each actor in the chain. Thus far, producers claim that it has not sufficiently increased their revenues. As a consequence, many actors who could become certified (i.e.whose current practices are within reach of SAN sustainability standards) but who have not yet done so, are reluctant to engage with the program without a guarantee that there will be near-term financial returns. Furthermore, producers complain that revenues from the premium are spread unevenly along the supply chain, with retailers and slaughterhouses receiving the largest proportions. Similar challenges have been documented in certification programs for other commodities, such as timber (Walker et al. 2013c). However, SAN-certified meat only began to be sold in June 2013, so it is difficult to estimate future trends in the value of price premiums based on such little market experience.A second financial barrier to certification is the lack of a well-developed market for certified beef in Brazil. This is partly because the product has only recently become available, and partly because there has historically been little demand from Brazilian consumers for sustainably produced food. However, environmental concerns are growing, and there is evidence that consumers are increasingly willing to pay more for environmentally differentiated products (Hall 2012). However, willingness to pay is significantly associated with income and education (Hall 2012), and there may be a gap between willingness to pay and the reality of doing so (Barcellos et al. 2011). Most consumers choose their meat based on price and quality (especially tenderness and fat content), and many do not have a goodunderstanding of what the SAN label signifies. Without greater demand, SAN-certified beef will likely only be sold in niche markets, and the potential to scale up could be constrained.The complexity of the cattle supply chain in Brazil -shown in Figure 3 below -has multiple implications for the development of sustainability initiatives. First, the cattle supply chain is characterized by a large number of actors, some of whom have historically had tense relationships. Coordination among actors throughout the supply chain is thus extremely challenging. There have historically been high levels of distrust among these actors: one producer stated that, \"slaughterhouses are enemies of producers\". Disagreements are frequently related to the establishment of prices, which are often most advantageous to the slaughterhouse. Local monopolies often mean that slaughterhouses can decide how much they are going to pay for the cattle (Drigo 2013).Second, a single slaughtered cow produces many different products, including several different cuts of beef (with varying degrees of quality), leather, internal organs, bones, and fat/tallow. These cuts are sold for very different prices. For example, the average export values from an animal weighing 425 kg are: meat−USD 999; leather−USD 182; and fat/tallow−USD 14 (Walker et al. 2013a). Consumers only discriminate a few of these products with respect to quality. As a consequence, only the leather and the prime beef cuts from each certified cow are sold with the SAN/RA label, while the rest of the cow is sold for the same price as non-certified equivalents. This may serve as a disincentive to slaughterhouses that must buy certified cows for a higher value, but who are only able to sell a small number of products for a premium.Finally, traceability and the control of cattle sourcing exacerbated by supply chain complexity is a major challenge for reducing deforestation. Animals are bred by many small farms and are moved from farm to farm at different stages, as was shown in Figure 3. Calves are often sold to large fattening farms through informal mechanisms, such as in auctions or by traders.The informality of the trade means that there is little control of the source origin of cattle.Although some interventions have been developed to tackle this issue, it remains difficult to discern whether calves were raised in illegally deforested properties, particularly because slaughterhouses are not in direct contact with these numerous small properties (Walker et al. 2013a).Other  3). Brazil's National Law No. 12.651 from May 25 th , 2012 (referred hereafter as the 'Forest Code') is considered by some to be the strictest national legislation for forest protection worldwide. Among the many requirements of the law, land-owners have to maintain a minimum proportion of forested area on their properties. These protected forests are calledReserva Legal (Legal Reserves -RL). The minimum percentage of the total area that each property has to retain varies according to the biome in which it is located: properties located in Amazonia have to maintain 80% of their area protected as RL, whereas in the cerrado 35% must remain protected in RL. In addition to the RL, Áreas de Preservação Permanente (Permanent Protected Areas -APP) are defined as all of the natural vegetation surrounding water bodies and other special areas such as mountaintops and may also not be deforested. Nationally, few properties yet have the CAR, though in Pará and Mato Grosso a high percentage of rural properties are registered. In these places, the CAR has already helped to monitor and enforce legislation, and so policies that aim to register and legalize rural properties can enable the enforcement of the Forest Code and in turn catalyze the rate at which farms are able to consider participating in the SAN certification process.A series of factors inhibit the rate at which properties are able to obtain the CAR. First, the cost and mechanism for obtaining the CAR varies from state to state, but can be prohibitively expensive for small ranchers, who frequently have no funding available for obtaining it.Second, while the CAR is part of federal legislation, each property is processed at a state level and each state defines how the information will be collected. This can either be by a technical assistant, assuring more precise geo-referencing and property characterization; or by selfdeclaration, in which each farmer reports the characteristics of their property, which can lead to less accurate information. Finally, the institutions responsible for processing millions of registries have limited capacity, and so the process of obtaining a CAR for every property will be a lengthy one.Some interventions aim to enhance sustainability by restricting market access for unsustainable producers. In 2009 the Public Prosecutors (MPF) imposed a Termo de Adjustamento de Conduta (Conduct Adjustment Term -TAC) on slaughterhouses and retailers, forcing these actors to buy cattle only from properties with the CAR. Consequently, no cattle from illegally deforested properties (such as those in IBAMA-embargoed areas) can be sold. Fines are levied against actors who do not comply with the TAC. This moratorium resulted in slaughterhouses and retailers exerting pressure over producers to avoid illegal deforestation and to become compliant with the Forest Code, and changed the criteria used by slaughterhouses to select their suppliers. The threat of losing income is a significant incentive to producers to change their practices and to stop deforestation (Drigo 2013).Poor rural infrastructure is a final example of state policy inhibiting progress towards greater sustainability. The criteria of the SAN cattle program require correct waste disposal and energy in all employees' houses within the farm. However, in some cases, there are no facilities for correct waste disposal in the city closest to the farm or electric energy available.Improvements in such infrastructure are beyond the scope of most individual actors, and require formal government support.The institutional and policy interventions described above have some flaws and are still adapting, but they can help to improve the basic challenges for forest conservation in the cattle supply chain. However, one of the biggest barriers to progress is the small number of government initiatives that systematically address the need to provide technical assistance to small and medium producers. This is a key barrier to achieving enhanced sustainability, assuring compliance for a majority of landowners and creating conditions for companies in the cattle industry to achieve the SAN cattle certification.Incentive-based interventions have positively influenced the development of SAN cattle program, as described above in Table 3 and Figure   3). These interventions have established voluntary standards that can be followed by producers, whose products can then be sold for higher prices under the program`s label.Adherence to the criteria leads to an improvement in production processes and sustainability, raising the standards of participating producers and leveraging them closer to the levels of the SAN cattle standards (Figure 4). For example, many of the farms in the highest level of the The Brazilian domestic market is thus crowded with competing labels and standards, which represent varying degrees of credibility and transparency. The history of these labels in the market may mean that consumers are accustomed to the idea of production standards being indicated by different labels, preparing them for the SAN-certified RA sustainability label. At the same time, consumers may fail to differentiate among alternative labels, which could diminish the impact of a strict, third-party certification such as that of the SAN cattle program. Some consumers are unwilling to pay for certified products because they have concerns regarding their credibility (Hall 2012).Government incentive programs can also offer opportunities for producers to improve practices. For example, the Low Carbon Agriculture Program (ABC Program) awards loans to producers who are interested in ameliorating their production practices toward reduction of carbon emissions and sustainability (Observatório do Plano ABC 2013). The ABC Program creates loans with low interest rates and extended terms (from five to 15 years, depending on the type of project) (Strassburg et al. 2011). However, these loan programs are complex. To be able to access these loans the producer must submit a lengthy document that details all the steps and practices that will be developed with the loan. Because many small and medium producers in Amazonia have limited knowledge of this type of information, they either don`t apply for a loan, or are unlikely to be awarded one (Cohn et al. 2011, Strassburg et al. 2011).As a result, 69% of the funding available from the ABC Program in 2012-13 was distributed to cattle ranchers in the south and southeast of the country, where ranchers are more organized and have much more infrastructure and access to information than those located in the Amazon biome (Observatório do Plano ABC 2013). The loans therefore reach the producers who have more access to infrastructure and private funding rather than the ones who may benefit from them the most.Private sector and government incentives deal with two very distinct contextual situations.Private sector initiatives promote high sustainability practices and so can be considered steps towards the achievement of the SAN cattle program standards (Figure 4). Further, these interventions offer price premium and market accessibility for producers, slaughterhouses and retailers. The adoption of such initiatives increases both the likelihood of achieving SAN cattle program standards and the probability of reduced deforestation within properties.However, adequate distinction between these standards and those associated with SANcertified and RA-labeled products is critical to avoiding competition. In contrast, government loan incentives were created in order to tackle the financial problems that small and medium producers face in developing good agricultural practices within their farms. The loan programs still require improvements, and it is likely that, until this happens, the financial capacity of producers to work towards more sustainable practices will depend on other interventions.Many interventions based on information and technology directly address the problems of poor access to information and infrastructure among small and medium producers. These interventions aid producers with obtaining the CAR, development of good agricultural practices, intensification, and monitoring and control. Some of them also provide funding to achieve these goals. Other initiatives target slaughterhouses, with measures such as traceability.Programs that help producers achieve the CAR include the Olhos d`Água da Amazônia and Municípios Verdes (Green Municipalities) programs, operated by the Alta Floresta municipality secretariat in MT and Pará state government respectively. The program Olhos d`Água, which started in 2011, is in its first phase and has already achieved the CAR for more than 80% of the properties of the municipality. The secretariat paid for the registry with the Fundo Amazônia (Amazon Fund) and provided the infrastructure and knowledge necessary to achieve the registration. The Municípios Verdes has a similar approach but reaches a larger scale, being developed in several municipalities in the state of Pará: many municipalities already have more than 80% of properties registered. The possession of the CAR is a significant step toward assuring that the property is compliant with the Forest Code, and likewise closer to the achievement of the SAN cattle program standards.Interventions such as the Low Carbon Ranching and the Sustainable Ranching in Practice focus on pasture management, intensification and good agricultural practices inside demonstration units (DUs) within volunteer farms. The NGO (ICV) and roundtable (GTPS)program developers help producers to implement management plans, production control, and pasture improvements. The DUs will be used to disseminate these practices to other producers (Table 3). Embrapa's Boas Práticas Agropecuárias program (good agricultural practices -BPA Embrapa) are a benchmark set of criteria used by producers nationwide for the improvement of these practices, and some other programs use it as a guideline for determining best production alternatives. By providing information and infrastructure (e.g. machinery, herbicides, feed, water pumps) to help producers improve their techniques, these interventions raise the sustainability practices of farms, which will be better prepared for the adoption of p both private sector incentive programs and eventually, the SAN cattle program (Figure 4). For instance, after one year of implementation of the program Low Carbon Ranching, pasture quality improved and the number of heads per area increased from 1.4 animal units per ha (the average in the Alta Floresta region) to 3.1 animal units inside DUs.Breeding farms are numerous and are usually small, which makes it challenging to track the entire lifecycle of a cow. Traceability programs were developed to tackle this issue. The Sisbov (Brazilian system for bovine and buffalo origin identification and certification), for example, is a program that identifies each animal within a property and is capable of tracking it throughout its life cycle from birth to slaughter. However, Sisbov is a voluntary instrument and is commonly only implemented by farms that sell directly to slaughterhouses, since adoption of the program enables their products to be accepted for the export market. Also, Sisbov is more focused on the control of conditions of animal health and hygiene than on the prevention of deforestation. A second traceability initiative, implemented by MAPA, is the Guia de Transporte de Animais (Animal Transportation Guide -GTA), which is an official document that has to be completed with information regarding the destination and hygiene conditions of animals each time they are transported between farms or to the slaughterhouse.Although effective, it is also more focused on animal welfare and hygiene rather than environmental legality. The SAN cattle program's requirement for full traceability brings important additionality to this issue, but the absence of a comprehensive traceability program creates a bottleneck for the expansion of the program.Finally, some interventions do not act directly within the cattle supply chain, but help to control and monitor illegal activities such as deforestation. These programs include the Núcleo de Inteligência Territorial (Territorial Intelligence Centre -NIT), Monitoramento da Floresta Amazônica Brasileira por Satélite (Brazilian Amazon Satellite Monitoring System -PRODES), Plano de Prevenção e Controle do Desmatamento na Amazônia (Plan for the prevention and control of Amazonian deforestation -PPCDAm), and IBAMA's embargoed areas. All of these contribute by monitoring illegal deforestation, and in some cases they make their data publicly available. For instance, slaughterhouses can use data from IBAMA on embargoed areas to identify producers from whom they cannot buy cattle. These initiatives also facilitate the implementation of other interventions.Interventions characterized by novel information and technologies adopt multiple foci, from improved practices to technological improvement to monitoring. Monitoring is one of the most important strategies for the state to control deforestation, and these initiatives are generally national in scale. In contrast, several technology and information interventions do not achieve large-scale, national coherence across the cattle supply chain and reach just a few, focal actor groups. Still, there is great potential to replicate these initiatives across multiple municipal secretariats, thus increasing their scale and impact. Improved access to information and technology is likely to allow more actors to change their production processes and address the core problems of poor environmental compliance and management practices.The SAN cattle program has set higher standards for sustainability than any previous policy or incentive program in Brazil, raising the sustainability reference-level for the rest of the cattle supply chain. It has potential to alter the industry's wider context by creating new incentives and markets. Initially, the program was established with strategic recruitment of pioneer actors who already had a culture of sustainability and who already employed highstandard practices. The program has already certified some actors and established a small market for sustainable beef, and has thus made some progress towards enhanced sustainability in the cattle supply chain.The were cited as disincentives to producers for the pursuit of SAN cattle certification, while supply chain characteristics, including the large number of actors at each stage (producers, slaughterhouses, and retailers) and diverse cattle products also create challenges for certification. These, and other opportunities and challenges, are discussed in detail below.Many interventions complementary to the SAN cattle program are working toward the improvement of producer practices, but few are dealing directly with increasing market demand for certified products. Most farmers seek direct financial returns to compensate for investing in changed production processes to achieve high standards for certification (Chen et al. 2010, Drigo 2013). Although many actors believe that price premiums are unlikely to increase, they are of great importance in encouraging producers to engage in the program (Strassburg et al. 2011, Walker et al. 2013b).Even farmers who have the initial capital to make the changes necessary to achieve SAN certification are skeptical that demand will be sufficient to make the investment worthwhile (Walker et al. 2013c). At the same time, market expansion for SAN-certified cattle products may be constrained by the limited volume of sustainable cattle available to retailers. This 'chicken and egg' problem could be a major obstacle if retailers are unable to promote the product widely enough to create sufficient demand, and few suppliers become certified because there is lack of demand. It is extremely important that demand-side initiatives are developed to create an incentive to suppliers, by stimulating markets for more sustainable products and by promoting research and technology transfers along the chain (Walker et al. 2013c). Finally, it is essential that SAN-certified products be differentiated from the alternative private-sector standards, to avoid unrepresentative competition and to acknowledge the higher producer costs and sustainability standards associated with SANcertified products.The SAN cattle program is not the only solution for reducing deforestation associated with the cattle supply chain in Brazil, nor does it aim to be. Rather, it is a complementary intervention that fills a unique, previously unoccupied niche alongside other private sector, civil society, and state interventions.A possible trajectory of the SAN cattle program is that it will recruit different actors over time. In the first stage, the program enlisted actors with existing high standards of sustainability and good practices. It targeted pioneer actors who have been able to achieve certification in the short term and who were not mainly motivated by direct financial incentives (Drigo 2013). However, such actors comprise only a small proportion of producers in the Brazilian cattle supply chain, and the SAN cattle program itself does not include any specific mechanisms to enable the majority of producers to get closer to these high sustainability standards (Steering Committee 2012). Therefore, certification will likely be able to initially scale up by engaging actors with current higher sustainability standards, such as those in the highest level of the Marfrig Club. However, many actors may be unable to independently progress in the sustainability process, and this could increase the dichotomy among producers with the best practices and the rest (McDermott 2012, Walker et al. 2013b).Other, complementary interventions are therefore critical in dealing with some of the main issues in the cattle supply chain, such as non-compliance with the environmental code and poor access to technical assistance and information (Smeraldi and May 2009, Cohn et al. 2011, Strassburg et al. 2012, Barreto 2012). Government policies are the main mechanism for enforcing environmental compliance and for providing assistance to small producers to achieve this on a national scale (Drigo 2013). Some interventions are implemented nationally, such as the monitoring of deforestation and prosecutions of retailers and slaughterhouses (Drigo 2013, GTPS 2013a, MMA 2013, CAR 2013)  4). This step-by-step process may place more farms within reach of certification as a viable tool for even greater improvements in sustainability. In subsequent stages, small and medium farms may therefore be better positioned to achieve SAN cattle certification.The SAN cattle program does not explicitly depend on any other intervention, but a positive correlation between compliance with the law and adoption of certification has been observed in coffee-certified farms (Lima et al. 2009), and the expansion of the SAN cattle certification would certainly be slower if none of these complementary, catalyzing interventions were developed alongside it. Indeed, the combination of some of these interventions has already resulted in the reduction of deforestation rates in Amazonia from 2004 to 2011: even though the total cattle herd increased in this period, deforestation decreased from 2.7 million ha in 2004 to 600,000 ha in 2011 (IBGE 2006, Barreto 2012, Macedo et al 2012, INPE 2013). First among these obstacles is that small and medium producers have difficulty achieving the standards, making expansion difficult (Hatanaka et al. 2005, McDermott 2012, Walker et al. 2013b). Developers of SAN coffee certification found that group certification standards can act as a strategic mechanism for the inclusion of smaller producers. In the coffee supply chain, this strategy succeeded in engaging producers of different profiles and sizes, who share strategies, responsibilities, profits, and risks. They developed a degree of cooperation among them that is not common for the agricultural sector in Brazil. Group certification could improve producer representativeness in the supply chain and could facilitate coordination throughout it (Pinto et al. in prep).Although inclusion of small and medium properties would undoubtedly help to achieve scale for certification, there are examples of programs that have expanded considerably by primarily certifying large companies. An example is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) timber certification, which was formally established in Brazil in 2001. Although the program has certified few small producers, it already has more than 16 certified units covering more than three million ha (Taylor 2005, Pinto and McDermott 2013, Romero et al. 2013).The SAN cattle program`s development is dependent on producer, slaughterhouse, and retailer willingness to participate in the program, and lack of demand could be a major challenge to its expansion. One reason for the belief that demand will not be adequate to incentivize suppliers to adopt certification is that Brazilian consumers have an 'Attitude Behavior Gap'. This is defined as the difference between stated environmentally-friendly attitudes and a willingness to pay more for sustainability, and the behavior that is observed in practice where consumption is based primarily on price and quality rather than on sustainability criteria (Barcellos et al 2011). Two different strategies were developed by coffee and timber certification markets to promote demand and deal with this issue and can be used as reference for the cattle supply chain.The strategy of the coffee supply chain was to associate the concept of sustainability with the concept of quality. Market competitiveness in Brazil is achieved by quality and price more than by sustainability criteria. Thus, by associating these two characteristics, certification can secure demand from the same niche that demands quality (Giovannucci and Ponte 2005). Likewise, Brazilian consumers value prime beef cuts for their quality, and so this could be also a strategy for the cattle supply chain. A short-term solution for developing this strategy would be to sell certified beef in restaurant chains that are known for their quality. Marfrig is reaching this market and has begun negotiations with selected quality restaurant chains (Taylor 2005).FSC timber certification, in contrast, offered a different incentive to suppliers. Timber is currently a buyer-driven commodity supply chain, and large retailer groups create most timber demand. For instance, the retailer members of the Global Forest and Trade Network generate two-thirds of the demand for FSC-certified wood products (Atyi andSimula 2002, Klooster 2005). This dominance generated pressure for more suppliers to become certified, even though there is little or no price premium for them (Taylor 2005, Drigo 2013, Walker et al. 2013b). FSC certification has grown dramatically as a result (despite the absence of price premiums), though mainly large-scale suppliers have had the conditions to access these markets (Taylor 2005). For cattle, Grupo Pão de Açucar, Carrefour and Wal-Mart could act as catalysts by putting pressure on suppliers (ABRAS 2013).In contrast to coffee and timber, the cattle export market represents a relatively small percentage (22%) of Brazil's beef trade. International markets have a stronger history of buying sustainably certified products, which is in many cases related to higher income rates and willingness to pay for sustainable products (van Kootena et al. 2005), and there is greater recognition of sustainability labels -such as the RA label -than in Brazil. Furthermore, in many certification schemes, there is a positive correlation between the percentage of export and the motivation for suppliers to adopt certification (van Kootena et al. 2005). Using these international markets to help establish demand for SAN-certified beef could be a strategic way to overcome the chicken-and-egg problem of constrained market expansion for SANcertified products by demonstrating demand and recruiting more farmers to the program. Until now, fear of low market demand has been a disincentive for suppliers (Section 5.1).Finally, scaling up of the SAN cattle program could also benefit from the endorsement of this intervention by influential actors. The GTPS is one such key strategic actor since it a) connects all of the cattle supply chain participants, b) would be able to deal with disagreements among different actors, and c) would be able to help concomitantly coordinate the development of supply and demand (Drigo 2013).It is difficult to track the environmental impacts of the SAN cattle program for several reasons. First, the program was implemented in 2010 and the first farms were certified in 2012, and so only three farms in Brazil have been certified to date, with one in the process of certifying. However, the strictness of the auditing criteria that is developed by a third-party certification provides a very robust assurance that the minimum necessary criteria for achieving certification are being met, and that positive environmental impacts will likely result.The program is likely to scale up over the coming years, certifying a larger number of farms that are currently further from these standards. This leads to the second difficulty: that of determining a baseline. A farm is unlikely to actively express interest in the SAN cattle program until they are 'within reach' of its sustainability standards. Yet the presence of the program within the cattle sector, setting a high-bar for the entire supply chain to aspire to and creating new market incentives, may have motivated behavioral changes in actors long before they began to formally engage with the program.Third, there is no established impact assessment methodology for certification programs generally, and very few reliable quantitative studies of the impact of certification across commodities and scales (Romero et al. 2013). The development of an effective impact assessment for certified farms would have to take into consideration factors such as the changes made in the farm prior to the first audit, the differences between certified and control farms, and that factors other than the certification might positively or negatively affect the environmental outcome of interest (Blackman and Rivera 2010). More broadly, the development of a better impact assessment methodology would be facilitated by the identification of good indicators of selected outcomes (Newton et al. 2013).Finally, the farms that have been certified to date have been those with production practices closest to the sustainability standards demanded by the SAN cattle program. Thus, the additional requirements for these farms to conform to the SAN standards were relatively low.For example, two of the Fazendas São Marcelo units are located in the Amazon biome, one of them in the heart of the arc of deforestation and the second one south of the arc frontier but still inside the biome. In the Juruena unit, more than 16,600 ha of the total area of 25,000 ha were already designated as preserved forests before the group decided to certify. In the Tangará da Serra unit, 2,300 ha of the total area of 6,000 ha were already designated as LegalReserves. The legal requirement to have an aggregate 50% of the area designated as Reserves was thus already met. However, both units are additionally implementing restoration projects to increase the forested area within the farms, in response to certification criteria. This means that small farms that sell cattle also have to be certified or be checked regarding their environmental compliance. The SAN cattle program is unique in requiring producers other than those who sell directly to the slaughterhouses to be monitored.The requirement prevents leakage by either certifying the supplier properties or by assuring full traceability, no matter the stage of the cycle the certified farm (SAN 2010).Additionally, the SAN has also developed a Climate Module, which aims to provide additional value to the practices developed by producers that are part of SAN standards, putting more emphasis on practices that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (SAN 2011).The Climate Module adds 15 criteria onto the existing SAN certification system, encouraging farmers to monitor and reduce emissions, maintain soil carbon stocks, and adapt to climate change impacts (SAN 2011). In sum, the SAN cattle program addresses the factors motivating deforestation both directly and indirectly. Directly, it creates additionality even for the most sustainable farms; its high-standard criteria are assessed by a very strict, third-party audit; and it provides financial and non-financial motivations to actors at all stages of the supply chain.Indirectly, it creates a new market and a new reference level for sustainability in the cattle supply chain. In aggregate, these effects might result in positive environmental outcomes at a landscape level.Voluntary certification is a market instrument that provides an additional tool for enhancing 1. Better enforcement of strong policies is urgently needed to assist producers with information and technology in order to become compliant with the law and to improve production processes. These policies could be controlled by government institutions in partnership with civil society and private institutions.2. It is necessary to increase consumer demand for sustainable products, which may require additional information and education to change consumer culture.3. If groups that are able to exert influence over supply and demand in the cattle supply chain endorsed certification as a priority action, then more positive outcomes might be achieved (Walker et al. 2013c).4. It is important to develop strategies to incorporate small producers into the SAN cattle certification program, both in order to increase sustainability among this key group and to avoid inequalities and exclusion of these actors from the market. ","tokenCount":"8522"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"607b7170ba9f880924d1119f0e89350d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5c14917b-2c77-43b1-8983-ac53d26ca6f6/retrieve","id":"-802267638"},"keywords":["Farmer participatory research","Participatory plant breeding","Climate change","Sustainable agriculture"],"sieverID":"3c94d6a1-543b-423d-9277-d2f0c5888472","pagecount":"17","content":"The article describes the institutionalization of farmer participatory research and plant breeding that has occurred in Honduras over the past 22 years and demonstrates how this approach can offer a positive response to climate change and sustainable agricultural development. In Honduras, participatory plant breeding (PPB) involves the collaboration of farmer researchers organized in local agricultural research committees (CIALs), plant breeders, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). While earlier debates often questioned the role of farmers in agricultural research, particularly the synergistic effect of this role with regard to scientific research, little empirical evidence was provided to settle this debate. Nor was the contextualization of farmer research adequately addressed. The article responds to calls for studies that detail what actually happens in development practice.Discussion of sustainability, which has long been a prominent theme in international development, particularly in the area of agricultural development [1][2][3][4][5], is today commonly pursued under the mantle of climate change priorities. These priorities, along with global concerns around food security following the spike in food prices in 2007/8, have helped to imbue sustainable agricultural development with a new urgency that has propelled it to the forefront of scientific research agendas [6,7]. Since 2008, renewed interest in funding international agricultural research has the scientific community keenly focused on the development of new technologies to help communities both mitigate, and adapt to, climaterelated changes, as well as respond to diverse development dilemmas. However, as researchers have previously noted, sustainable solutions generally involve processes that are adaptable to moving targets, rather than to specific ends or fixes, such as new technologies or policies [1,2,7]. And almost inevitably, this involves innovation on a continuing basis.Involving farmers as protagonists of their own agricultural research agendas is one means of permitting continual innovation, allowing the moving target of sustainability to be kept continually in the \"crosshairs\" of local people. Farmer research is particularly important in the Global South where strained research budgets are liable to exclude poor and marginalized rural populations due to the heterogeneity of the physical and sociocultural landscapes they frequently inhabit [8][9][10]. 1  This article revisits some of the earlier, as well as more recent debates on farmer participatory research, and contributes extensive empirical research on participatory research gathered over many years. Our goal in this article is to throw light on a topic that is often debated but seldom well documented. We provide detailed case study material from Honduras where more than 20 years of institutional support for research conducted by hillside farmers has served, it will be argued, to effectively position local farmers, non-governmental, and scientific institutions, at the forefront of innovation for climate change adaptation. By documenting the experiences of hillside farmers in research, the article also responds to calls for studies that detail what actually happens in development practice [12], particularly in the field of participatory development where past claims of success have been much greater than the evidence to support them [13].Biggs' personal reflections on the history of participatory technology development (PTD) show just how culturally and methodologically diverse approaches to participatory research have been since the seventies [14]. But most importantly, he shows how technology development is always rooted in specific historical and socioeconomic contexts and replication outside a given context may be neither easy, nor appropriate. In particular, he focuses on negative fallout in the nineties from intense rivalry amongst \"mainstream PTD advocates\" (p. 495-7) as they attempted to establish the superiority of one approach over another. This, he argues, stifled learning from participatory technology development and amounted to a lost decade in advancing knowledge of different approaches. Also missing from the nineties' analysis was the employment of social science skills to contextualize the different environments in which these approaches were being employed. Instead, adherents to the cause of participatory technology development, or farmer participatory research, were more focused on frameworks and management tools that could be \"scaled out and scaled up\" (p. 499).Competition was notable between those who favored a farming systems research (FSR) approach and those who called for farmers to be accorded greater agency in research planning that went beyond what those in FSR considered appropriate. Adherents to FSR argued that farmers' research was best understood to serve the role of complementing the work of scientists rather than adding extra benefits to science. Sumberg and Okali, who put forward this position, questioned the scientific validity of much of the farmer participatory research literature, which, they argued, was largely unreviewed and tended to be self-referencing in nature (p. 164) [15]. While acknowledging that farmers engage widely in research of a tinkering, or adaptive nature, these authors rejected claims of \"significant extra benefits\" or synergies, either for farmers or for scientists, through the development of a collegial research relationship, and concluded \"that training farmers in the techniques of formal experimentation should not be seen as either essential or desirable\" (p. 158). Rather, they supported a model of \"agricultural research with farmer participation\". This was a model reflective of the more consultative relationship between farmers and scientists in which farmers adapt new technology to their own needs and provide feedback to the formal scientific sector. They regarded this as a particular form of agricultural extension, which was, in essence, development-rather than research-focused. Their particular concern was that efforts to exaggerate farmers' impact on research were diverting funding for scientific research to development ends, thus mixing the agendas for empowerment and self-reliance with agricultural research to the detriment of the latter (p. 27).Amongst those who envisioned a collegial relationship between farmers and scientists were social scientists working at some of centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Having witnessed firsthand the disregard that agricultural scientists often paid to the needs of poor farmers, they were determined to find ways to put farmers \"in the driving seat\" so that the farmers themselves could actively participate in the planning and development of their own technologies [16,17]. And this meant teaching farmers a basic understanding of the scientific method so that scientists in the CGIAR could respect their research and collegiality might be genuinely pursued between the parties. The CIAL methodology (the acronym derived from the Spanish, comités de investigación agrícola local) developed by Ashby and her team at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in 1990 did precisely that: farmers organized in research teams were given the tools to plan and carry out randomized block design trials and replications, and to evaluate and analyze the results in a manner that was statistically verifiable and thus readily available to scientists within the CGIAR and other institutions [17,18]. These tools were considered an important means for empowering farmers and allowing for a collegial relationship to be established between farmers and scientists.Other social scientists within the CGIAR (e.g., International Potato Centre) leaned more towards the farmer field school (FFS) approach supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization. While the CIAL methodology was by nature deductive, involving farmers in testing and evaluating alternative technologies against a control or customary technology, the FFS approach was inductive. By observing differences between a customary plot, or \"control\", typically treated with agrochemicals, and the \"treatment plot\", managed according to agro-ecological principles, farmers in the field schools learned about agro-ecological processes and the logic behind the application of an integrated pest management approach [19]. Over time, this approach has been adapted to deal with more complex issues including \"learning fields\" and associated experiments [20]. Like the CIALs, the field school concept supported the development of analytical skills applicable to research execution, and these, in turn, were expected to foster shared decision making between farmers and scientists, including farmer involvement in the early stages of research development [21].Both the FFS and CIAL platforms were intended to be replicable in different contexts, or \"scaled up and out\". But, as Biggs points out, little attention was paid to context and explaining how this affected different outcomes [14]. Those supporters of farmer participatory research who have been most concerned with context have generally been social scientists working outside the CGIAR and other large development institutions. This group, involving social scientists from a range of academic disciplines, has often questioned the appropriateness of teaching farmers the scientific method. This is particularly true of those who are guided by precepts of cultural relativism, as many anthropologists are, and argue that farmers' experiments have their own value, which it is incumbent upon outsiders to try to understand. To do otherwise is to devalue local knowledge and increase existing differentials in power relations between farmers and researchers [22][23][24]. Stolzenbach, one of those who favored learning from farmers' research, argued that it is hard to separate farmer experiments from daily farming practice, but it is the continuous performance of those practices that explains the \"innovative element of the craft of farming\" (p. 155) [25,26]; Richards referred to such practices as agricultural \"adaptive performances\" [27]; Bentley called them folk experiments [28]. In research conducted in the Andes, Bentley et al. describe how farmers, who were organized in CIALs, turned the topics learned through formal experiments with scientists into their own creative folk experiments that better met their needs [29]. Forcing farmers to mold their experiments to the demands of science, this group of researchers argues, runs the risk of stifling cultural performance, serving to undermine farmers' creativity and the value of farmers' research for science.While the examples provided by Bentley et al. demonstrate that CIALs may successfully foster folk experiments [29], it is less clear that FFS have this effect. The meta-analysis of literature on the FFS conducted by Waddington, et al. shows that experimentation is not a prominent feature of the FFS approach [30]. None of 92 impact studies included by Waddington et al. in their metaevaluation of FFS provided information on experimentation. However, sustainability was a consideration in 11 of the studies. These studies drew attention to the need for follow-up after the field schools ended to \"support farmers in the continuing development of local practices\" and that \"good leadership, collective goals and a supportive group environment might be important in maintaining FFS groups and providing impetus for further farmerled initiatives\" (p. 138). The bulk of these studies also showed that \"little if any\" diffusion of FFS knowledge and learning beyond the group was noted (p. 139). In other words, the documentation included in the meta-analysis of FFS did not point to farmer research or to the spread of new ideas beyond the schools as a sustainable element of this approach. However, as Van den Berg and Jiggins stress in their earlier review of the FFS literature, most impact studies of the FFS approach have sought statistical rigor and generally been narrow in scope, while the focus on immediate impacts has excluded longer term effects, such as experimentation and diffusion [31]. They argue that intermediate-and long-term impacts do include experimentation, as well as farmer organization, which were widespread in the 182 sub-districts in Indonesia where the FFS had taken place [31]. Nevertheless, they recognize that such impacts are sparsely described and without convincing evidence of attribution, while diffusion is limited by the complexity of integrated pest management, necessitating experiential learning for effective up-scaling.As demonstrated, the documentation dealing with farmer participatory research generally fails to provide convincing empirical evidence of sustainable farmer innovation and systematic integration with the formal research sector. Long-term studies capable of illuminating the intricacies of farmer innovation are rarely conducted because most development projects are short term and impact assessments are focused on immediate outputs and outcomes. It is the short-term nature of most development funding that prevents the kind of deep learning that longitudinal research can provide.In Honduras, by contrast, long-term donor support for farmer participatory research offers a unique learning opportunity. Below we provide an analysis of the context for the emergence of this initiative, discussion of the development of a program of farmer research teams and the institutional partners that support them, case studies describing individual bean breeding initiatives conducted between farmers and scientists over a 15-year period, quantitative analysis of bean varietal adoption, and a discussion of the dynamics behind the involvement of farmers in the breeding process that has generated synergies between farmers and scientists in research.In Honduras, the context of participatory research is well described through the lens of political ecology [32]. Public sector debt in the late eighties led to a series of structural adjustments to the economy, including agriculture, and resulted in the disappearance of agricultural extension from government-supported services (p. 185) [33]. While agricultural research continued, it has been severely restricted by limited funding to the country's public university system, and to the government department in charge of agricultural research, Dirección de Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria, (DICTA). This has left the private-, and not-for-profit sectors, 2 to play a leading role in the country's agricultural research and to deliver specialized, fee-based extension services, while public sector research has been mainly confined to experiment stations with limited application for farmers who make a living off subsistence crops of maize and beans on the country's mountains and hillsides. These make up approximately 80 % of the landmass [34] and provide a home to most of the rural population [35]; 3 the latter comprises just under half of the country's total population. According to the World Bank, 6 out of 10 rural Hondurans live in extreme poverty, 4 a statistic that encompasses nearly all of the country's hillside farmers [35]. It is within this context, comprising high agro-biodiversity associated with a mountainous landscape, extremely limited public sector agricultural research capacity, the absence of public extension services, and impoverished hillside farmers, that farmer participatory research finds its particular niche. Here, a system of research that involves farmers as experimenters at diverse locations becomes a sine qua non of the country's research apparatus. Such a system requires strong partnerships between scientists, non-governmental and farmer research organizations capable of supporting highly decentralized and innovative research.It is this decentralization requirement, and the system that has grown up to support it, which underpins our argument that farmer participatory research contributes synergistically with science in the Honduran context. We cannot make the claim that such synergy is necessarily a given in every context. Nor do we claim that farmers should be involved in every stage of the planning process. This is simply not practical. However, we do make an argument for the necessity of a flexible and open system of research that is receptive to the \"demand-pull\" of farmers' ideas and incorporates these into research design and planning. Such a flexible and open system allows for constant innovation to occur in response to pressures from climate change.Additionally, there are multiple development benefits that come from farmer participatory research in the form of farmer skill acquisition and learning, and the associated income and empowerment effects derived from these. These other development impacts have been detailed in separate articles and book chapters [36][37][38]. This article focuses on the creation of an environment that has been conducive to farmer and scientist co-learning for research and innovation.Local Agricultural Research Committees (CIALs) have been operating in Honduras since 1993 [39,40]. Initially introduced as a pilot project by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the CIAL methodology 3 According to Hansen, et al. 60 % of the total population is rural with most living on hillsides [35]. Since that time the percentage of the population that is considered rural has declined to 46 % [54]. 4 According to USAID, two-thirds of Hondurans live in poverty and 40 % live in extreme poverty [55]. Honduras has the most extreme inequality at 57.4, as measured by the Gini Coefficient, of any country in Latin America (p. 24).has become the central organizing framework for two local non-governmental organizations, the Foundation for Participatory Research with Honduran Farmers (Spanish acronym FIPAH, formerly IPCA) and the Program for Rural Reconstruction (PRR). For more than 20 years, these two organizations have been supported by Canadian donors, specifically the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and most importantly, World Accord and USC Canada, the latter with backing from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). 5 More recently, FIPAH has been involved in training other organizations to support CIALs in the south of the country. Today these organizations facilitate research with 139 CIALs, with a further 23 planned over the next 5 years, that conduct research into a wide array of topics across a variety of agricultural zones but mostly focus on the principal food crops, maize and beans.Uptake of the CIAL methodology in Honduras has been shown to shift significantly over the duration of the project [39,40]. Teaching extremely poor, semi-literate farmers in Honduras to conduct research according to the logic of the scientific method was slower than Jacqueline Ashby and her co-workers at CIAT had anticipated when they originally designed and tested the methodology in 1990 in Colombia [17]. At the outset, when the Honduran program was perceived in the light of previous development projects, it was subject to elite capture and the exclusion of women [36,39], limiting broader dissemination. However, once local people began to grasp the meaning of research and to understand the essence of the program, especially expectations around work and the long-term nature of the commitment, the elites departed and women found a space for themselves as part of an organization that offered them both camaraderie and opportunities to take on new roles outside of the household. An evaluation undertaken in 2004 found social and economic improvements occurring amongst CIAL members to be significantly associated with the CIAL program [36,37].Over time, regular support to the CIALs passed from agronomists to local farmer facilitators. While PRR has long had a cadre of farmer facilitators to support local farmers, FIPAH evolved as an organization specifically around the CIAL approach. Farmer facilitators who came to work with FIPAH were those farmers who were quick to grasp the logic of formal experimentation and were good at explaining the process to other farmers; and most importantly, they were people who were trusted, and respected, by other farmers [41]. Thus, much of the spread of the CIALs into ever more remote mountainous areas grew with the training and recruitment of farmer facilitators, who also lived in these remote zones and could visit neighboring CIALs on their motor bikes and provide them with the necessary research support. Working as part-time NGO employees, alongside the management of their land and research within their own CIAL, these facilitators linked the farmer researchers to an agronomist at one of the regional NGO offices. The CIAL approach, like FFS, requires facilitation. However, unlike most FFS, which assemble only for the purpose of field school training, the CIALs are permanent organizations that become close-knit teams over time and typically do more than research, such as rotating savings and loans, group income generation activities, and leadership on community development projects. Some of the oldest CIALs have been in existence for 15-20 years, usually with most of the same members. This CIAL network structure, which over time has reached into ever more remote areas, provides the basis for decentralized research covering a wide range of agro-ecological zones. There are 5 research networks organized as Associations of CIALs (ASOCIALs) located in different regions of Honduras. Farmer facilitators oversee the planning of research with individual CIALs and help with the collection of data that gets fed into a broader set of trial data managed by agronomists working at FIPAH and PRR, and subsequently shared with scientists at the Escuela Agrícola Panamericana, El Zamorano (EAP-Zamorano).EAP-Zamorano has worked with both FIPAH and PRR since the mid-nineties. While it is a private institution, it receives public funding for pro-poor bean research through the Bean Research Program (Spanish acronym, PIF), which focuses on improving red and black beans used by the region's small farm families and by public and private sector organizations [42]. In the early years of the CIAL program, EAP-Zamorano provided FIPAH and PRR with conventional varieties of maize and beans for the CIALs to test out against their own local materials, usually landraces. After nearly 5 years of testing, it became clear that the formal sector materials were not well adapted to the conditions faced by most of the CIAL members, particularly those located above 1000 m.a.s.l. In multiple trials conducted by CIALs supported by FIPAH at upper altitude locations in the early years of the program, farmers' varieties out-yielded conventional, formal sector varieties approximately four out of six times in the case of beans and approximately five out of six times in the case of maize [43]. Since 2000, the focus of support to the CIALs by EAP-Zamorano, FIPAH, and PRR has been directed towards participatory plant breeding to better adapt cultivars to the local conditions of CIAL members. This initiative was initially given an impetus by the CGIAR's Participatory Research and Gender Analysis program, 6 and longer term by the Development Fund of Norway through the Mesoamerican Collaborative Participatory Plant Breeding Program. The latter includes NGOs, farmer associations and cooperatives, universities and governments from across the region and has helped to generate a strong regional interest in PPB and been instrumental in bringing together different players from each country.Food insecurity occurs so regularly in the mountains of Honduras that it is simply known as 'los junios' after the calendar month when grain scarcities generally set in. The precariousness of farmer livelihoods is further affected by climate-change-related stressors. While climate extremes, including hurricanes and drought, are not uncommon, heavy rain and extended periods of drought now occur with greater frequency than in the past affecting the regions' farmers in multiple ways. Indeed, Honduras was recognized as the world's most climate-change-vulnerable country over the 20-year period between 1993 and 2012 [44]. It is frequently acknowledged that climate-smart agricultural technologies are needed to help farmers everywhere combat climate perturbations, including a wider spectrum of disease-resistant crops and treatments, as well as greater crop and varietal diversity, better soil management practices, and other measures [45].While CIALs engage in a variety of soil and crop management activities that respond proactively to the changing climate, it is PPB that most clearly positions the CIALs as vehicles to effectively adapt to, and mitigate, climate change. Varietal diversity that includes crops that are disease resistant, tolerant of drought and moisture extremes, and adaptable on an ongoing basis to the locales where farmers live and work, provide a level of resilience for local communities to withstand climate change risk. PPB is a special case of farmer participatory research and farmers trained in formal research methods can fairly easily be trained as breeders. However, it is important to recognize that not all CIALs have the same research capabilities and that those with strong research skills, as well as those who are highly motivated with long-term horizons, are much better equipped for PPB than some others. It is also important to recognize that farmers without formal skills are capable of creating new varieties through plant selection, as they have done throughout history. However, institutionalization of participatory plant breeding involving farmers and scientists necessitates some level of formalization. In this article, following Almekinders et al. and Rosas, PPB is the term used to include both participatory plant breeding and participatory varietal selection [42,46]. 7  Bean research has been a principal focus of the PPB program in Honduras from the start, because beans, along with maize, were identified by CIALs as research priorities. As the primary source of protein in the diets of most poor Hondurans, beans are critical to nutritional security. At the same time, EAP-Zamorano was in a position to provide institutional support to FIPAH and PRR for CIAL research due to funding from the PIF program. After 2000, PIF began incorporating a focus on participatory breeding into its bean research agenda with a shift in focus towards hillside farmers living in environments characterized by a high degree of agro-biodiversity [42]. 8  Between 2004 and the present, the partnership between EAP-Zamorano, FIPAH, PRR and the CIALs has led to the development of 23 new bean varieties, most of which have been released at the municipal level; one has been released at the national level. While EAP-Zamorano has been less actively involved in maize research with its partners, nevertheless, the CIALs have generated 9 new maize varieties, four of which have been released at the national level. In this case, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) worked closely with FIPAH and the CIALs to develop new maize varieties in conjunction with the government's agricultural research unit, DICTA. 97 Following from the work of Vernooy [56], Almekinders, et al. state that \"PPB refers to approaches that involve close collaboration between researchers and farmers, and potentially other stakeholders, to bring about plant genetic improvements within crops\" (p. 7) [46]. This includes both participatory plant breeding as well as participatory varietal selection. 8 The Bean Research Program (PIF) was initiated in 1988 with the Panamerican Agricultural School, El Zamorano, in collaboration with regional national programs, NGOs, CIAT, and the Bean/Cowpea and Dry Grain Pulses CRSPs. It is supported primarily by USAID in partnership with US universities. The Collaborative Program for Participatory Plant Breeding in the Region of Central America is supported by funding from the Development Fund, Norway with counterpart funding from the Norwegian government. 9 These included a variety with high lysine content as well as varieties with drought and low-nutrient tolerance. During the process of testing CIMMYT materials, FIPAH discovered a line of maize resistant to fungal Tar Spot disease (Phyllachora maydis), a disease that was previously little known in the region but has proliferated with prolonged heavy rainfall associated with climate change. The new variety, DICTA96, is scheduled for release in 2015.Seed regulation in Honduras is governed by the public sector under a 1980 seed law, which is still in effect. Nevertheless, in 1985, under structural adjustment, an action plan was introduced to move seed production and commercialization into the private sector. The plan did \"not try to contribute to the seed needs of small subsistence farmers, since they [were] … outside the economic flow on which the strategy was founded\" (p. 5) [47]. Seed regulations in Honduras require national release of a registered variety before it can be promoted as \"commercial seed\". 10 And commercial seed must be registered and certified, which includes a field inspection and laboratory test to ensure seed quality. In the case of decentralized seed production carried out by producers at remote locations, this is clearly impossible, especially given budget restrictions affecting the public sector. In other words, the seed regulatory framework militates against smallscale seed growers and decentralization. As a consequence, most PPB seed produced by local CIAL members is sold officially as \"grain\", although it is recognized locally as \"seed\" and differentiated from grain by a higher price. To ensure high quality \"seed\", local seed growers buy foundation, or registered seed from EAP-Zamorano and produce what in essence boils down to \"commercial seed equivalent\" for local sale. 11 Recent discussions regarding changes in national seed regulations have raised the possibility of legally recognized production of a new seed category called \"apt seed\". Apt seed, if it were produced by registered, small seed enterprises, would only require commercial inspection prior to sale, foregoing the additional requirement of a field inspection. And this would help to open up the opportunity for the development of a sustainable, decentralized commercial seed system fully supported by locally generated PPB seed. Local seed production and profitable sales are essential to making PPB a sustainable undertaking, as will be discussed.Research for the case studies in this article is drawn from a number of sources. These include long-term agronomic field notes provided by the Foundation for Participatory Research with Honduran Farmers (FIPAH); research data generated by plant breeders at the Panamerican 10 Honduras is not a member of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) but is one of 17 countries/states that has initiated procedures for acceding to the UPOV convention. The Honduran seed law demands that seed be registered and certified before it can be commercialized. Honduras follows the terminology of the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) which categorizes seed as: breeders' , foundation, registered and certified. 11 Seed growers may also be provided with foundation seed by EAP-Zamorano through PIF project funding, rather than through purchase.Agricultural School, El Zamorano (EAP-Zamorano); as well as qualitative research conducted by graduate students and faculty at the University of Guelph, Canada in accordance with Canadian Tri-Council protocols. This data have been generated over a 22-year period between 1993 and 2015.Of particular importance for this article is a quantitative assessment of PPB, involving a randomized sample of 189 12 famers in 30 participating CIAL communities in the municipalities of Yorito, Sulaco and Victoria in northcentral Honduras. This study was conducted in 2013 by a University of Guelph graduate student [51] with the support of local farmer facilitators. The sample included both CIAL members and non-members who had planted beans in the previous (spring and fall 2012) cycle. All non-members were located in CIAL communities. 13  CIAL members were divided into two groups of older members (5 or more years in a CIAL) and newer members (4 or fewer years in a CIAL). This division was predicated upon the observation by FIPAH that many of the changes associated with CIAL membership were not immediate and generally took about 4 years to become apparent. Varieties planted by farmers in the two seasons in 2012 were divided into three categories: PPB (and PVS varieties), traditional (farmers' or landrace varieties) and conventional (formal sector varieties). Descriptive varietal adoption data from this assessment are presented following the case studies.Learning from case studies: much more than a hill of beans Case studies of PPB are employed below to illustrate the varied ways that farmers have been involved with formal sector scientists in the generation of new bean varieties. All but one of the cases are drawn from the municipalities of Yorito, Sulaco and Victoria, the region with the largest number of CIALs (32) and the one that has been the most extensively documented by researchers seeking 12 The goal was to include approximately 200 farmers from the region reported on here, namely Yorito-Sulaco-Victoria. CIAL member names were provided by FIPAH. For non-CIAL members, records provided by the local health authorities were used. Where there were no records, local farmer facilitators were contracted to generate local lists of inhabitants. Numbers were assigned to the names from the three combined lists using a random number generator (StatTrek). For CIAL members, a rule of thumb was that 60 % of members were selected. 8 of the respondents in the sample did not appear on the randomly generated list of names but were included when the principal researcher was not present at the interviews. Those names were kept in the study to maintain the number of observations at an acceptable level for purposes of analysis. 13 At the outset, it had been planned to draw the non-members from non-CIAL communities to better provide a counterfactual. However, in communities where people were not exposed to the CIALs, there was a reluctance to answer questions. Moreover, most communities have CIALs, making selection of non-CIAL communities difficult and presenting other biases since non-CIAL communities are different to CIAL communities by virtue of not wanting a CIAL.to measure the impact of the CIALs on poverty reduction and gender empowerment [36,37]. It is also amongst the poorest regions in the country, listed earlier as being at the lowest level of human development, under 400 on the Human Development Index [48], although it does not appear on the more recent government list of the 40 poorest municipalities [49].The first two PPB beans developed by members of the Association of CIALs of Yorito, Sulaco, Victoria were Macuzalito and Cedron. The two narratives illustrate the early history of PPB development amongst FIPAH-supported CIALs.Macuzalito was the first PPB bean released in Honduras. Developed in the upland area around Yorito from one of the most widely used trailing landraces, Concha Rosada, the improved offspring has gained broad acceptance amongst both CIAL and non-CIAL members. In 2000, prior to initiating the PPB process, CIAL members (17 women and 20 men) identified their ideal bean traits through a focus group. • Cooks quickly without much fire [43].At Zamorano, scientists selected 5 elite lines 14 for crossing with Concha Rosada seeking to improve disease resistance, yield, and architecture while retaining the desirable traits of the landrace. Amongst these was early maturity. Early maturing varieties are valued by poor farmers because they shorten \"los junios\", the hungry period, and provide food at an earlier date than later maturing materials. Earliness, farmers tell you, allows the variety to \"escape poor weather\", such as drought or heavy rains, depending on the growing season. However, farmers recognize that this benefit is offset by lower yields than those provided by later maturing varieties and farmers typically include both early and late maturing varieties amongst their planting materials.The development of Macuzalito involved 53 members (30 men and 23 women) from 4 CIALs over 4 years. Originally, the process was conceived by EAP-Zamorano as being centralized in one upland community; however, the 4 participating CIALs decided to decentralize it, selecting materials amongst (F3) lines from 120 families for planting in their own communities (ranging from 1350 to 1650 m.a.s.l.) to ensure adaptation to local conditions. The 10 best bets from the individual community trials were subsequently put into replicate trials (F6) in the four communities, along with 5 materials selected on-station by EAP-Zamorano, plus the local check. At that stage, farmers selected 4 lines for multiplication (F7), followed by verification trials from which they selected one line, Macuzalito, for local varietal release. None of the lines selected by EAP-Zamorano was amongst those identified by farmers, reflecting the very different environmental conditions of the two participant groups, as well as differences in preference criteria used by farmers compared to those typically employed by the scientific community. Macuzalito, named after the highest point in the municipality, had the best traits on average of the finalist materials: good yields (but not the highest); moderate maturity; medium disease tolerance; good commercial value, amongst others. It was released in the municipal seat of Yorito in 2004 [43].Cedron was the product of a multiline-cross using scientist-generated materials 15 and technically constitutes participatory varietal selection (PVS), rather than PPB. The process of farmer 15 A FIPAH brochure notes that the improved materials used in the multiline cross that led to Cedron were MD23-24/MD30-37//UPR9177-214-1/ Tío Canela 75.learning and selection began in 1999. What came to be called Cedron was selected by CIAL Chaguitio from 16 advanced lines (F6) that were part of a regional adaptive trial [Ensayo Centroamericano de Adaptación y Rendimiento (ECAR)] provided to FIPAH by EAP-Zamorano. Line EAP 9508-93 was chosen by CIAL members for its high yield, high tolerance to disease and drought, its upright bush architecture, and its adaptation to high-altitude zones (1000-1400 m.a.s.l.). The members named it Cedron after the mountainside where local farmers cultivate beans and where the research had taken place. However, the dark red color of the bean reduced its commercial value. EAP-Zamorano subsequently improved this, increasing its marketability and broadening its appeal. Cedron was released at the municipal level in 2007 and since then has been used widely both locally and regionally. A local FAO representative reports that it is broadly disseminated in the western departments of Intibuca and Lempira (Personal communication, Edgardo Navarro).Four of the PPB varieties developed by different members of the ASOCIAL of Yorito, Sulaco, Victoria region have come from one CIAL, La Esperanza (Spanish meaning hope). This CIAL, comprising 14 members, has 8 seed growers amongst them-more than three-quarters of the most active members of the local seed committee. 16 And since the commercial application of PPB, as \"seed\", is a driver for the development of new varieties, this helps to explain the enthusiasm of CIAL La Esperanza for PPB. However, the environment where the CIAL is located is also a factor influencing its active role in plant breeding. The community of La Esperanza is perched atop a mountain, surrounded by 360° views across valleys to other mountain ranges, in an environment that is considered excellent for growing beans: moderate humidity, even while surrounding areas may be undergoing periodic drought, permits fairly reliable production of rain-fed crops, especially of beans, which are grown twice yearly without irrigation. But at 1350 m.a.s.l., the community is 16 There are 40 seed growers in the ASOCIAL of Yorito, Sulaco and Victoria but most are only occasional seed producers. Ten of these seed growers are women. Eleven growers regularly produce seed twice a year; 8 of these come from La Esperanza. The survey conducted in 2013 showed that at least one of the CIAL members in La Esperanza had higher than average land holdings (7 hectares), although other surveyed CIAL members in the community owned or accessed much smaller amounts-between 1 and 3 has. Certainly access to land is an important factor in seed production, although none of the growers can be considered a large landowner. The isolation of the community, however, has likely meant that pressure on the land is lower than in communities where road access is better.relatively isolated, linked by a muddy, and sometimes impassable, dirt road to a few other communities and to the municipal seat of Yorito over the mountain range in the valley below. Electricity was only installed at the end of 2014, a project brought in largely by the efforts of CIAL members who, as in other communities, have become de facto local leaders [36,37]. It was mostly bean production that helped households in La Esperanza pay the necessary quota (one-third of the total cost of US $50,000) to be hooked up to the grid. Thus, the whole community has benefited from the work of the CIALs and the provision of well-adapted local bean seed.Estica Mejorada (Improved Estica) comes from a trailing landrace bean, Estica, that is widely used in the uplands of Yorito and Sulaco. Estica has long been the preferred traditional variety for farmers across a range of high-altitude locations due to its high yield and commercial value (color, shape of bean), as well as its taste. Because trailing beans are typically grown in association with other crops, particularly with maize, their long climbing stature contributes to high yields, while intercropping with other species supports disease resistance. But local farmers dislike trailing materials because they ripen unevenly, making the harvest very time-consuming. Additionally, Estica is affected by angular leaf spot and anthracnose, and more recently, by powdery mildew, a fungal disease that farmers associate with climate change. Thus, at the request of CIAL La Esperanza members, Estica was sent to EAP-Zamorano to be crossed with disease-resistant materials. In 2009, farmers received 16 segregating (F3) lines for selection. CIAL members in La Esperanza prefer to receive materials at early generations as this gives them a wider selection of lines to test for adaptation to local conditions. However, it took the CIAL 6 years of repeated selections to find a bush bean that was capable of out-yielding the trailing landrace. Some members of the CIAL were ready to \"throw in the towel\" but other members insisted on persevering, particularly the 8 members of the local seed committee. This group could see the commercial seed potential from an improved version of the landrace and managed to keep the CIAL focused on the goal ahead. Estica Mejorada eventually emerged from this protracted process. Zamorano is currently testing different lines from Estica in regional adaptive trials.Amilcar and Esperanceño beans are derived from conventional breeding techniques. Both originated from a set of 58 materials contained in a regional adaptive trial (Vivero de Adaptación Centroamericano) known as VIDAC. Between 2006 and 2008, CIAL La Esperanza members engaged in successive rounds of selection from the VIDAC trial, selecting 4 materials in the fifth round: two lines for early maturity, and two lines for lateness. CIAL members subsequently selected a variety from each of these two groups: one from the early maturing group that was named Esperanceño after the community; one from the late maturing group that was called Amilcar after a local CIAL member.What became known as Amilcar seed had been identified earlier in the trial by the wife of Amilcar. At the different stages of a trial, extra seed is typically shared out amongst members and is either eaten and/or planted in farmers' fields. Amilcar's wife identified the excellent culinary properties of this late maturing line and made sure that her husband got some of it in a fifth round of testing to plant on their land. Amilcar selected seed from the line over a few cycles, improving the seed quality. During this period, the CIAL and farmer facilitator typically monitor seed distributed to individual farmers, comparing how the different lines progress.In 2010, Amilcar's seed was selected over the other late maturing line. Subsequently, a new bean, Amilcar 58, a golden mosaic virus-resistant selection derived from Amilcar, was identified using molecular markers at Zamorano and returned to the CIAL for seed multiplication and dissemination. The virus-resistant variety will allow for the dissemination of Amilcar in the lowlands of southern Honduras, where the original variety has been adopted by many farmers but has presented susceptibility to this disease.Demand for Amilcar seed is very strong in both upland and lowland areas because of its commercial value and also because of its excellent culinary qualities. Since all families eat beans on a daily basis, culinary properties are highly valued alongside commercial ones. While women tend to rank culinary properties at the top of their list of preferred traits, men generally put commercial value at the top of theirs. However, these criteria are not rigidly gender-specific and men will rate culinary properties very highly if the beans are for home consumption, while women are likely to put commercial traits at the top of their ranked list if sales are their priority.Chepe came from a set of 16 beans, developed through the CGIAR's AgroSalud program, selected by EAP-Zamorano for Central America. The AgroSalud program aims to develop bio-fortified crops for Latin America, in this case beans dense in iron and zinc to combat deficiencies, such as anemia, a problem endemic in the region [50]. In trials conducted at the FIPAH office in Yorito, CIAL members selected 8 lines. These 8 lines were subsequently distributed to 200 CIAL members in ¼-lb bags at the 2007 biannual regional research meeting, the \"encuentro regional\". Chepe, a member of CIAL La Esperanza, received one of these bags and selected seed from it over two seasons. Farmer facilitators, who monitored the recipients of the seed, evaluated Chepe's seeds as being superior to those received by other CIAL members. This seed was subsequently increased by CIAL members in La Esperanza and released under the name of Chepe at the municipal level in 2012, just 4 years after it was first introduced into the region. It has not been released beyond the local region because it is susceptible to bean golden mosaic virus, although this virus is not a problem at high altitudes where a large percentage of the country's poorest farmers resides.The bean variety, Don Rey, is named after an individual farmer and CIAL member, as in the cases of Amilcar and Chepe beans. Unlike the other bean case studies provided here, the CIAL in this instance is located in the central department of Francisco Morazán, about an hour and a half 's drive from the capital, Tegucigalpa. To date, it is the only bean generated through farmer-scientist collaboration that has been released at the national level.The bean, which farmers call Don Rey, originated from a cross (backcross-self-fertilizing process) between a landrace, Paraísito, from the department of El Paraíso, and a conventional material, Carrizalito, 17  The final case details the development of a new variety, which, at the time of writing, is still being improved.No one is quite sure where the bean, locally named Rosado, came from. It is thought to have arrived in the Yorito, Sulaco, Victoria region back in 2008. Some people felt it came from Nicaragua, others believed it may have arrived through the Honduran Government's \"Bono Tecnologico\" program, a package that provided seeds and inputs to farmers. Once it started to circulate in the area; however, CIAL seed growers, especially those in La Esperanza, were beset with demand for the new seed, both from local farmers who wanted to grow it, and from local bean buyers who wanted to sell it based on the commercial value of the variety, namely its particular grain size, form and color. However, it is susceptible to anthracnose, which is a serious problem in the region. So members of the CIAL seed committee are reluctant to produce seed, notwithstanding strong local demand. The response of the farmer breeders/seed growers has been to pass Rosado onto EAP-Zamorano for crossing to introduce resistance to this disease. It will be passed back to the CIALs for selection in early generations.The case studies demonstrate the dynamic process that comprises PPB varietal development in Honduras. At the centre of the system is the responsive partnership between CIAL members and plant breeders connected through FIPAH, which allows for an outward flow of materials from EAP-Zamorano to the farmers for further research and selection, and an inward flow of farmers' materials to EAP-Zamorano for crossing and improvement. This two-way system has led to the generation of multiple new varieties that are widely disseminated in the CIAL regions across the country (FIPAH reports, Zamorano field notes). Additionally, as can be discerned from the case studies, the role of local demand and the responsiveness to this by farmer breeders, as seed suppliers, are the principal system drivers. Evidence of the demand for PPB-generated seed and the incentives for its supply, along with discussion of the partnership between farmers and scientists, are detailed below.As outlined in the Methodology section, in 2013, a quantitative study was conducted to evaluate adoption of different bean varieties in 30 participating CIAL communities in the Yorito-Sulaco-Victoria region in the previous planting cycle (spring and fall 2012) [51]. The study sought to describe the demand for PPB-generated varieties relative to others.As can be gauged from the nature of varietal adoption shown in Fig. 1, there is a strong demand for PPB-generated materials in the municipalities of Yorito, Sulaco and Victoria. PPB varietal adoption is not only extremely high amongst CIAL members, both old and new (between 64 and 69 %), but also amongst non-members (40-61 %). Diffusion of program benefits has moved beyond direct beneficiaries, i.e., CIAL members, to non-participants. By contrast, adoption of formal sector (conventional) materials is much lower over the two cycles (9-21 %) amongst the three groups; use of traditional materials generally falls in the middle range (17-28 %). Clearly PPB and associated local seed production is welcomed broadly by local communities [51]. The most widely planted varieties were Cedron, Chepe and Macuzalito, presented as case studies above. 18 (b) Supply of PPB seed Strong local demand, as evidenced by the evaluation, for PPB-generated varieties by the region's farmers helps to drive the PPB research process, and the supply of seed. Farmer breeders derive social capital from the provision of seed that benefits family, friends and neighbors; it boosts their standing in their communities and their leadership credentials. And while individual CIAL members, such as Amilcar, Chepe and Don Rey, may have selected individual varieties, the process is a collective undertaking that involves monitoring by the CIAL and the support of FIPAH. Individual actions that lead to seed generation are motivated by collective values that come from being part of a CIAL and the social capital inherent in CIAL membership. But innovation is also motivated by the opportunity for personal economic improvement. It is a \"both-and\" proposition [52]. One of the reasons why CIAL La Esperanza has been so actively involved in PPB research is because La Esperanza CIAL members make up the bulk of active seed growers within the ASOCIAL seed committee and committee members stand to profit personally once their research has been turned into seed. Thus, notwithstanding the personal satisfaction that comes from sharing seed with family and friends, there is also an individual economic incentive built into the process through seed sales that helps to make the process sustainable. Even so, variability in the price of local seed means that seed growers must have access to savings or credit to prevent forced sales into a weak market. Making a profit from seed production is far from guaranteed. Product differentiation, leading to higher prices for high-quality beans at the point of sale, provides farmers with a strong incentive to regularly purchase fresh seed to maintain bean quality. The introduction of interest-free loans for seed kits, repayable after the harvest, allows farmers who may not have access to savings prior to planting, to regularly purchase seed. 19 In general, farmers are more likely to buy fresh seed for the spring planting but to save seed from the latter to replant in the fall. However, sale prices in local markets are also affected by factors other than grain quality, such as price fluctuations associated with the seasonality of the bean market, increasing unpredictability of weather patterns, especially of drought, and monopsony power of intermediaries due to the isolation of communities. And these risks in turn affect the demand for seed.According to the 2013 impact study, older CIAL members received higher average prices for their beans compared to new and non-members in both cycles in 2012 [51]. 20 While this may reflect sales of higher quality beans, it may also reflect the tendency amongst older CIALs to sell their beans collectively, as individual CIALs. The longevity of their association, resulting in higher levels of trust and collective savings, puts members in a stronger bargaining position to obtain the best prices for their products. In general, however, sales of CIAL members' beans are still a patchwork of arrangements and higher prices overall are limited by this. To date, there have been insufficient funds within the local CIAL Association to buy all members' beans to market them collectively. Nevertheless, this remains the stated goal and a means to increase sale prices by entering the value chain at a higher level. Collective sales require bean quality standardization. And regular seed renewal through the purchase of fresh seed supply is one way 19 Individual loans covering one manzana (0.7 of a hectare) were provided to credit-worthy farmers in fall 2014 in the form of interest-free seed kits, repayable after the harvest. At that time, the ASOCIAL was able to fund bean production on 112 hectares (160 manzanas) in the hillsides of Yorito-Sulaco-Victoria. Shortages resulting from drought throughout the country in the previous cycle, pushed bean prices above seasonal levels and resulted in gross earnings for ASOCIAL loan recipients of $165,000. Considering that the average size of property holding in the region is less than 3 hectares (Kindsvater, unpublished summary statistics), this represents substantial earnings to local bean growers. The provision of non-interest-bearing 'seed kits' provides a way around farmers' traditional reluctance to pay for seed over simply replanting their own grain [53]. Of course, there has to be an incentive in the form of a premium on basis of quality to make it worth farmers' investment. 20 The evaluation by Kindsvater showed that old CIAL members sold at an average price of to help ensure this and to also add stability to the local seed market. At present, seed sales are mostly confined to the local market. Since seed growers are technically selling grain, they are not getting a fair market price for their seed. Seed production incurs costs associated with the purchase of foundation or registered seed, 21 rogueing, controls for humidity and germination. Typically there is 100 % price differential between commercial seed and grain sold in Honduras that serves to cover these, and additional marketing costs. As mentioned, commercial seed production requires prior national release of a registered variety. Most of the varieties produced by PPB have not been released at the national level as the case studies demonstrate. While PPB seeds are adapted to the locality for which they were bred/ selected, they may not meet the broad-spectrum requirements necessary for national release. However, unpublished results from a study led by the CGIAR and local organizations (including Zamorano, FIPAH and PRR) in 49 communities in 4 regions of Honduras based on the method known as Participatory Mass Evaluation found that 6 PPB varieties 22 outperformed the formal sector check on the majority of criteria; neither altitude nor zone explained any differences, except on the criterion \"vigor\". The results, which show that varieties selected by farmers generally did better than the formal sector check developed specifically for broad adaptation, suggest that farmers' criteria for selection may be much more robust than has traditionally been believed and that they may not in fact inhibit broad-spectrum adaptation. This finding opens the door to much greater involvement of farmers in the national release of crop varieties and lends strong support to the argument that restrictions on farmers that prevent the sale of PPB varieties as commercial seed, unnecessarily limit farmers' access to broader markets, and hence the profits of artisanal seed growers. In the long run, this could act as a disincentive for CIAL members to invest in uncertain, long-term research. The introduction of a different seed category, such as \"apt seed\", 23 which would allow legally regis- 21 If EAP-Zamorano is unable to supply sufficient foundation or registered seed, CIAL seed growers use carefully selected \"second generation\" foundation seed. This occurred in spring 2015 when 14 manzanas (around 10 ha.) of seed were planned but EAP-Zamorano could only supply around 20 % of the seed required. 22 The six PPB varieties were Cedron, Macuzalito, Chepe (FIPAH-supported CIALs) and Victoria, Campechano, Don Kike (PRR-supported CIALs). The formal sector check was Amadeus 77. 23 Similar rules that prevent sale of uncertified seed are common throughout the region (GRAIN, 2015). If a category of \"apt seed\" is permitted in Honduras, it would mark an important step in recognizing \"farmers' right\" to produce and sell seed.tered groups of seed growers to sell certified farmers' seed, is one of the changes to the regulatory framework that should be put into effect to make small-scale commercial seed production, and associated research, a more sustainable undertaking for the long term. (c) Seed supply and climate change risk Climate change is another system driver of PPB. While farmers still use a substantial number of landraces as part of their portfolio to diversify risk, 24 increasingly these are becoming less viable as new diseases, especially diseases associated with high humidity, as well as prolonged drought, become more prevalent as the climate changes. This makes the crossing of landraces with disease-resistant, drought-tolerant materials imperative.And local farmers will need to have access to improved, locally adapted seed as they become available. What is important is that local farmer researchers and seed growers have the capacity to identify and select seed for their region as well as the institutional arrangements with the formal scientific sector to bring these seeds to local, as well as to national level markets. There is an inherent nimbleness within the system that government bureaucracies cannot replicate. Moreover, given the extent of agro-biodiversity in Honduras, and the requirement of broad adaptation for the authorization of national release, many of the varieties that local farmers have selected will likely never receive national recognition. However, this does not prevent them from being widely adopted at the local level if they meet local farmers' needs, as the above impact evaluation clearly demonstrates they do [51]. As Mog has pointed out, sustainability is a process; it is not a policy, or a particular technology [1]. The flexibility of the process described here, particularly farmers' role in driving change and the system's responsiveness to farmers' requirements, puts it at the cutting edge of climate change adaptation. (d) The power of partnershipsThe case studies underline the critical importance of the linkage between the formal sector, specifically EAP-Zamorano, and farmer breeders/seed growers, in a relationship that is mediated by NGO partners, FIPAH and PRR. This relationship underpins the nimbleness of the research process and its responsiveness to local demand and climate change adaptation. It is a relationship marked by trust. The bean breeder at EAP-Zamorano refers to FIPAH and to PRR, as \"partners\", a sentiment that is reciprocated by the two NGOs. More recently, as CIAL members have come to identify as farmer breeders and seed growers, they too have turned their attention to the 24   [15]. Rather there is a synergy in the system comprising farmers, NGOs, and scientists that provides added value to the breeding process. The institutionalization of \"demand-pull\" by organized and skilled farmer researchers on the formal scientific sector marks a fundamental shift away from the supply-driven model of conventional plant breeding, as typically pursued in the past, to one in which farmers help to shape the research agenda. Compared to EAP-Zamorano, government agricultural researchers in DICTA have been much slower to recognize the value of farmer participation in research. However, as the national government has begun to question the effectiveness of its agricultural research office, in part due to the low rate of release and diffusion of formal sector-developed varieties, members of this office have come to value the strategic importance of aligning themselves with farmer researchers and their NGO partners. This was made evident at the above-mentioned biannual farmer research meeting, which, for the first time in 22 years, was hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. In his closing speech, the deputy director of DICTA stated that the agency would, he hoped, soon include an office of participatory research, making it clear that linking government researchers to farmers and their NGO partners was to be a priority for his office. Ten months later, in June 2015, at a ceremony attended by the Canadian donors, DICTA and FIPAH signed an agreement that includes the provision of training in participatory research, along with mutual collaboration in research, as practiced between EAP-Zamorano and FIPAH for more than 20 years and discussed above. At this event, the Honduran government recognized the importance of agro-biodiversity, and hence the necessity of decentralized research, as a driver of this accord between the parties. Thus, PPB has been accepted as an integral part of the Honduran government's agricultural policy agenda. Only time will tell how this change will affect seed regulations as these relate to small farmer seed enterprise and sales.As Robert Tripp discusses, the emergence of institutions for seed system development cannot be imposed externally through aid programs; rather \"they must emerge from the experience, negotiation and compromise of the actors themselves\" (p. 26) [53]. As the case studies and subsequent discussion demonstrate, the institutions governing the development of the seed system in Honduras have emerged over a prolonged period of time. We have argued that the context for this can be linked to the low funding envelope allocated to public agricultural research associated with structural adjustment and the resulting termination of public extension services after 1990, in conjunction with the high degree of agro-biodiversity characteristic of the Honduran landscape. Given the constraints on public research, farmers, NGO partners and scientists in Honduras have taken the opportunity to join forces over the past 20-year period to create an innovative agricultural research system-a system that produces recognized synergies for scientific research and that demonstrably serves the needs of the country's poorest farmers. This opportunity has been enabled by the formal research skills of CIAL members, and the generation of research results that are respected by the scientific community. It has also been enabled by the benefits-both social and economic-that accrue to CIAL members, and in particular to those farmer breeders who generate seed and whose ambitions help to drive the system. Recently, agricultural researchers in the Honduran government have elected to align themselves to this research system. While some may argue that farmers are providing private services that should be covered by the public or corporate sectors, the financial returns to some of the farmers through \"seed\" sales have made research provision sufficiently attractive up to now to sustain their inputs. Nevertheless, changes to the seed regulatory structure are important to ensure farmer participation in plant breeding over the long term. At the same time, foreign donors have underpinned the services provided by the two NGOs and EAP-Zamorano. It is this combination of long-term donor funds both from the public, as well as from the charitable sector, alongside the private investments of hundreds of individual Honduran farmers that sustains this innovative research system.A commentary in nature recognizes the value of involving farmers in their own research as a means to adapt to, and mitigate, climate change [11]. Until now, most farmers in the North have not had much cause to invest their time and energy in the way that farmers in Honduras have found it both necessary and advantageous to do so. But climate change has brought new uncertainties, turning sustainability ever more into a moving target. Climatesmart technologies alone will not solve the problems that lie ahead. In situ research with skilled farmers permits flexible responses to climate-associated changes to local environments. Moreover, public demand in the North for locally produced food, and a growing appreciation of terroir, means that in situ knowledge and appreciation for the value of agro-biodiversity is likely to take on more significance in plant breeding. But, as we have seen, research adapted to conditions of agro-biodiversity requires the added ingredient of local investment in research to deliver the required research outcomes. It is unlikely that the public and/or corporate sectors will be in a position to deliver what local farmers and increasingly savvy, and environmentally conscious, consumers demand. Participatory research that links farmers to the formal research sector is one way to keep farmers at the forefront of sustainable agriculture and a means to meet the growing demand for local specialty food. The Honduran experience provides a credible model worthy of emulation.","tokenCount":"10350"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"20b3b078f23e2784c1af51382eba2af4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://data.mel.cgiar.org/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=hdl:20.500.11766.1/FK2/ITPMGO/LCD7V8","id":"-1125673175"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"18805b4e-df74-4368-9f52-7375af22b8d2","pagecount":"4","content":"examining the effect of improving access to the East Coast Fever vaccine (via demand aggregation events) on vaccination rates in Kenya, and whether the presence of a checkoff system increases the effect of access on vaccination rates. To examine these questions, we are collecting baseline information from the dairy cooperatives and farmers. Before you decide whether or not to participate in the study, we will read you the consent form and you should ask questions if there is anything that you do not understand before you agree to participate.Huu ni mradi wa utafiti unaotekelezwa na chuo kikuu cha California, Santa Cruz idara ya Uchumi wakishirikiana na Taasisi ya utafiti ya mifugo inayofahamika kama International Livestock Research Institute. Lengo la utafiti huu ni kuchunguza athari za kuboresha upatikanaji wa chanjo ya East Coast Fever (ECF) kupitia kujumlisha mahitaji ya chanjo. Mradi huu pia utaangalia kama uwepo wa mfumo wa kulipia chanjo kutokana na kipato cha mauzo huongeza athari za upatikanaji wa viwango vya chanjo. Kujibu maswali haya, tunakusanya habari kutoka kwa vyama vya ushirika wa maziwa (dairy cooperatives) na wakulima. Kabla ya kuamua kushiriki au kutoshiriki katika utafiti huu, tutakusomea fomu ya kuomba idhini. Kumbuka, unapaswa kuuliza maswali ikiwa kuna kitu chochote ambacho huelewi kabla ya kukubali kushiriki.Your participation is completely voluntary; you are free to change your mind at any time and quit the study. You may skip any questions you do not wish to answer. Whatever you decide will in no way result in loss of benefits or services to which you are otherwise entitled.Ushiriki wako katika utafiti huu ni wa hiari kabisa; uko huru kubadili mawazo yako wakati wowote na kuacha. Uko huru kutojibu maswali yeyote ambayo hutaki. Chochote utaamua hakitasababisha wewe kupoteza faida au huduma zako.This survey will include questions on: -Your age, education, family and cultural background -Livestock farming decisions and outcomes -Contact information Nini utafanya katika utafiti: Utafiti huu utajumuisha maswali juu ya: -Umri wako, Kiwango cha Elimu, Familia yako na mila ana tamaduni -Ufugaji wa mifugo, Maamuzi nyumbani -Nambari ya simu, kwa mawasiliano Time required: Participation will take approximately 60 minutesUtafiti huu utachukua takriban ya dakika sitini (60)This research is strictly for academic purposes and your participation is strictly voluntary. You are perfectly free to refuse to participate. If you do participate, we will make every effort to keep all data strictly confidential. While data will be held as securely as possible using industry-leading standards, there is still a small risk that data could be accessed (for example, if the server were attacked or an electronic device holding the data were lost and the password was known). Respondents who are uncomfortable with this risk should decline the survey.Lengo la utafiti huu ni kitaaluma na ushiriki ni wa hiari. Uko huru kutoshiriki. Ukiamua kushiriki, tutafanya kila juhudi kuweka taarifa zote siri. Ingalipo tutatumia viwango vya juu kabisa kuhakikisha kuwa taarifa yako iko siri, kuna hatari ndogo sana kwamba taarifa inaweza patikana (kwa mfano,komputa ikishambuliwa au kupotea kwa kifaa cha elektroniki kilichoshikilia taarifa na nenosiri kujulikana.If you participate, you will receive $1 in airtime credit. There are no direct benefits to you for participating in this study. There may be gains to livestock farming policy, however. Hundreds of thousands of farmers in Kenya alone are involved in cooperatives, and so it is important to understand how improving access to the East Coast Fever vaccine and the checkoff system affect the vaccination rate.Ukishiriki katika utafiti huu utapokea airtime ya mia moja. Hakuna faida za moja kwa moja kwako kwa kushiriki katika utafiti huu. Kutokana na utafiti huu, kuna uwepo wa kuboresha sera za ufugaji. Nchini Kenya, mamia ya maelfu ya wakulima ni wanachama wa vyama vya ushirika. Kwa sababu hii, ni muhimu kuelewa jinsi kuboresha ufikiaji wa chanjo ya ECF na mfumo wa kulipia chanjo kutokana na kipato cha mauzo huongeza viwango vya chanjoIf you have questions about this research, feel free to ask them. You will be texted contact information for people you can contact if you have questions. If you have any questions regarding your rights as a research participant, please contact the Office of Research Compliance Administration at the University of California at Santa Cruz at 831-459-1473 or orca@ucsc.edu.Ikiwa una maswali juu ya utafiti huu, jisikie huru kuwuuliza. Utatumiwa nambari ya simu ya watu unaoweza kuwasiliana nao kupitia ujumbe mfupi. Ikiwa una maswali yoyote kuhusu haki zako kama mshiriki wa utafiti, tafadhali wasiliana na Ofisi ya Utawala wa Utekelezaji wa Utafiti katika Chuo Kikuu cha California Santa Cruz kwa 831-459-1473 au orca@ucsc.edu.If you do participate, we will make every effort to keep all data strictly confidential. All data is being collected electronically on tablets. The tablets are password protected and the information gathered will be uploaded to an encrypted server which is only accessible on a locked and protected computer. Only the researchers will have access to the information you provide. Personally identifying information will be collected in this research (i.e. your name, gender, age, phone number,). The researchers plan to keep personally identifying information in case there is need to follow up with you again. The data will be used for the research for an unlimited amount of time.Ukikubali kushiriki, tutafanya kila juhudi kuweka taarifa zote kwa siri. Taarifa zote zina chukuliwa kupitia kompyuta. Kompyuta zote ziko na nenosiri, taarifa zote zinazo kusanywa zitahifadhiwa kwa kompyuta iliyofungwa na kulindwa. Taarifa zako zitapatikana tu na watafiti. Watafiti watachukua taarifa za kibinafsi kama ( jina lako,jinsia, umri, namba ya simu) Watafiti wanapanga kuweka habari hizi za kukutambulisha kuwasaidia kukufikia baada ya utafiti, iwapo kuna haja.Taarifa utazotoa zitatumika kwa utafiti kwa muda mrefu.With your permission, researchers may use your identifiable information for future research to look at long term effects. The data will be protected as explained in the Confidentiality section above. De-identified information might be used for future research without additional consent.If you have any questions about this project, please feel free to ask them.Kwa idhini/ruhusa yako, watafiti wanaweza kutumia Habari yako kwa utafiti wa baadaye kutazama athari za muda mrefu. Taarifa yako yote italindwa kama tulivyo elezea katika sehemu ya Usiri wa Taarifa. Taarifa yako isiyo na sehemu ambayo inakutambulisha inaweza kutumiwa kwa utafiti wa baadaye bila idhini ya ziada Ikiwa una maswali yoyote kuhusu mradi huu, tafadhali jisikie huru kuuliza.I have read this form or it has been read to me. My questions have been answered. I agree to participate. ","tokenCount":"1057"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ced917c0fa80486996fa425610eb2d36","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/28d2bb9a-4aa3-49f2-8d15-f027d6ed9ac9/retrieve","id":"-1155687613"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ae68b3c6-d512-460f-aaac-96fa427141e2","pagecount":"2","content":"Successful agricultural research for development (AR4D) should go beyond generation of quantitative research findings, and ensure these findings feed into context-relevant development interventions. An understanding of the context in which the research takes place is therefore essential for AR4D, and ought to include all groups that make up the research context in the process: include their voices, opinions, needs and ideas and look for ways to communicate these to a variety of audiences.Participatory Video (PV) is a participatory research tool that involves members of a community in creating their own video message. It is an ideal method for sharing ideas and learning, encouraging marginalized groups to identify their own needs and implement their own forms of sustainable development.The community learns to use video technology, write their own story, interview leaders and neighbors, and tell their own story. The PV methodology collects indigenous knowledge on factors that impact the effectiveness of sustainable development interventions based on local needs.The cross-cutting nature of PV contributes to the achievement of development outcomes, by effectively mainstreaming elements of innovation and gender and youth empowerment in AR4D design and implementation. Innovation is strengthened by creating conditions for smallholder farmers, women, and youth to gain confidence in their abilities to succeed at new activities and improve existing local knowledge and practices.At the same time, gender and youth empowerment occurs by engaging marginalized groups in learning activities and encouraging them to voice their stories and opinions. This provides a non-threatening mechanism that improves gender and inter-generational relationships. Exploring the potential of inclusive youth and gender components linked to innovation and transformation processes which stem from learning experiences at community level, provides a thorough understanding of the development challenges facing poor rural communities. This serves as a powerful contextual base to adequately adapt development strategies and policies to local needs, knowledge, and wants.The PV workshop takes approximately eight days, and a modular approach can be used to make the experience accessible to communities that cannot commit to an extended timeframe.The extended duration of the workshop requires particular sensitivity to special circumstances that may arise during the process. It is especially recommended to budget for a daily participant per diem, ensuring that the request for their participation does not cause unforeseen expenses or put them in a conflicting position with their daily duties and responsibilities. However, this measure can be culturally dependent; in some regions it is a must, while in others it can be frowned upon. The best way to approach this subject should be discussed with local partners before starting the project.The equipment used during the PV workshop can be purchased or borrowed from partners. The PV workshop is a cost-effective methodology that can be replicated several times throughout the duration of project initiatives, providing a wealth of quantitative and qualitative data to enhance project objectives and track progress. ","tokenCount":"471"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/6855408158.json b/data/part_3/6855408158.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e6048e6839072c61cb71a1283cfbaac9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5ae2fbc5-6602-4890-8713-94abe5f5d896/retrieve","id":"-1621536300"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0cc5328e-35ce-4ce8-8e04-3bbe61023445","pagecount":"48","content":"Number of people 68.3 million internally displaced people⁴ 6.9 million asylum-seekers 5.8 million other people in need of international protection² 31.6 million refugees under UNHCR's mandate³ 6 million Palestine refugees under UNRWA's mandateTrends at a Glance at the end of 2023 as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order.This report's main focus is the analysis of changes and trends in forced displacement from January to December 2023 among people covered by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency's mandate. 9 The data presented are based on information received as of 17 May 2024 unless otherwise indicated.At the end of 2023, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide was estimated at 117.3 million. 10 This figure encompasses refugees under UNHCR's mandate as well as Palestine refugees under the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)'s mandate, asylum-seekers, internally displaced people (IDPs) and other people in need of international protection. UNHCR also estimates the population that UNHCR protects and/or assists. This includes those who have been forcibly displaced (refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced people and other people in need of international protection); those who have returned home within the previous year; those who are stateless (most of whom are not forcibly displaced); and other groups to whom UNHCR has extended its protection or provided assistance on a humanitarian basis. At the end of 2023 this figure stood at 122.6 million people.These two categorizations are compared graphically below. A detailed breakdown of the population that UNHCR protects and/or assists is provided in the Annex Tables by category and country.The figures in this report are based on data reported by governments, nongovernmental organizations and UNHCR. Numbers are rounded to the closest hundred or thousand. As some adjustments may appear later in the year in the Refugee Data Finder, 11 figures contained in this report should be considered as provisional and subject to change. Unless otherwise specified, the report does not refer to events occurring after 31 December 2023. CHAPTER 113 See footnote 1. 14 This estimation is based on UNHCR's nowcasting for refugees and asylum-seekers, UNRWA's estimates of Palestine refugees under their mandate at the end of March 2024 as well as operational data from countries with large numbers of people who are internally displaced using IDMC's end-2023 figures as a baseline. 15 Following verification and registration exercises, the number of Afghans classified as people in refugee-like situations was revised in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan. In Germany, refugees in the process of permit renewal were re-included in the country's refugee population, reversing a temporary methodological change in 2022.An estimated 117.3 million people remained forcibly displaced at the end of 2023, having been forced to flee persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order. 13 This constitutes a rise of 8 per cent or 8.8 million people compared to the end of 2022 and continues a series of year-on-year increases over the last 12 years. One in 69 people globally or 1.5 per cent of the entire world's population was forcibly displaced, nearly double the one in 125 people a decade ago. Based on operational data, UNHCR estimates that forced displacement has continued to increase in the first four months of 2024 and by the end of April 2024 is likely to have exceeded 120 million. 14 During the year, the global refugee population increased by 7 per cent to reach 43.4 million. This reflects new displacement, primarily from Sudan, as well as revised refugee population figures in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan and Germany. 15 The end-year total includes 5.8 million other people in need of international protection, predominantly from Venezuela, half a million people more than at end-2022, as Government population estimates in Colombia and Brazil were revised upwards. It also includes 6 million Palestine refugees under UNRWA's mandate.The number of new individual asylum applications surged during the year, with 3.6 million recorded. However, there was a 17 per cent drop in the overall number of people seeking international protection in Behind these stark and rising numbers lie countless human tragedies. That suffering must galvanize the international community to act urgently to tackle the root causes of forced displacement.UN High Commissioner for Refugees 2023 to 5.6 million, 16 primarily due to lower numbers of refugees from Ukraine applying for and being granted temporary protection, mainly in European countries. The total number of asylum-seekers waiting for a decision by the end of the year rose by 26 per cent to 6.9 million as new individual asylum applications outpaced substantive decisions on these. According to data by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, the number of internally displaced people due to conflicts grew sharply by 5.8 million to reach 68.3 million at the end of 2023.Forced displacement is a consequence of the failure to uphold peace and security. The frequency, extent, duration and intensity of conflicts as measured by16 Includes new individual asylum applications and people receiving recognition through group procedures as well as those granted temporary protection. 17 Conflict-related deaths provided by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. Data for 2023 is sourced from the UCDP Candidate Event Dataset, with conflict events with the highest degree of uncertainty excluded (code status equals \"Check\"). Fatalities combine State-based violence, non-State violence and one-sided violence. 18 Including as refugees, asylum-seekers and other people in need of international protection. 19 This figure includes estimates of new internal displacements. These refer to movements, and are a comprehensive cumulative figure of displacement. Depending on certain situations the same people can be displaced several times over a given period and would therefore be reported multiple times in the cumulative figures. 20 See Armed Conflict Survey 2023, IISS. 21 Including people in refugee-like situations. conflict-related fatalities 17 is closely correlated with the number of people forced to flee in each year, both within their own countries as well as to other countries. 18 In total, at least 27.2 million people were forced to flee during 2023, 19 with one in four fleeing to another country. As shown in figure 1, as conflictrelated fatalities have increased, so too has the number of people forced to flee. During the last 25 years, the average number of people forced to flee in a year has been 14.3 million, while between 2021 and 2023 alone, this average has exceeded 27.8 million, nearly double the 25-year average. Clearly, the intensity of recent conflicts has grown. 20 Conflict in Sudan broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, causing one of the largest humanitarian and displacement crises in the world. As escalating violence quickly spread from the capital, Khartoum, to other parts of the country, more than 6 million people in Sudan had been forced to flee by the end of the year, with a further 1.2 million fleeing to neighbouring countries. The number of Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers globally increased by at least 826,800 during the year to reach 1.8 million, almost all of whom were hosted by neighbouring countries, including the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan. In these countries, national legal and policy frameworks include refugees in public services, such as documentation, education, health care and social housing despite still under-developed systems, access barriers and different standards in some situations. In total, 10.8 million Sudanese remained forcibly displaced at end-year. As the conflict rages on, thousands are still being displaced daily, more than one year after it began. 22 As of May 2024, operational data indicates the number of new displacements since April 2023 has risen to more than 7.1 million within the country, with a further 1.9 million people arriving in neighbouring countries. 23 Prior to the war, the country was already facing a dire humanitarian situation, with 3.6 million people internally displaced. This figure rose to 9.1 million, the largest number of people ever recorded to have remained displaced within their own country at end-year. Hunger is widespread in the country, with more than 20 million people (42 per cent of the entire population) facing acute food insecurity, especially in conflict areas that are hard to reach. 24 One million refugees also lived in Sudan prior to the latest conflict, primarily from Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan and the Syrian Arab Republic. Many have now been forced to return to their home countries prematurely or move on to other countries, often arriving in remote and difficult-to-access locations that lack essential services. For example, estimates indicate that the conflict forced nearly 400,000 South Sudanese refugees to leave Sudan and return to South Sudan. Even as refugees were forced to leave Sudan, several hundred thousand refugees remained in Sudan -the country they had sought refuge in. This includes those who have been repeatedly displaced within the country as the conflict unfolded.Conflict in the Gaza Strip in the State of Palestine has had a devastating toll on the Palestinian civilian population. 25 The humanitarian situation is extremely dire, with levels of hunger so widespread with all of the 2.2 million inhabitants facing acute food insecurity and an imminent threat of famine. 26 UNRWA estimates that between October and December 2023, up to 1.7 million people (or over 75 per cent of the population) have been displaced within the Gaza Strip, with some having been forced to flee multiple times. 27 By the end of 2023, there were 6 million Palestine refugees under UNRWA's mandate, 1.6 million of whom were in the Gaza Strip. 28 UNRWA estimates that two-thirds of the Palestine refugees under its mandate in the Gaza Strip have become internally displaced in 2023, compounding existing vulnerabilities.More than 1.3 million people have been displaced within Myanmar in 2023 by escalating violence following the military takeover in February 2021, bringing the total number of IDPs in the country to more than 2.6 million by the end of 2023. An additional 1.3 million refugees and asylum-seekers from Myanmar were hosted in other countries. Nearly one million are stateless Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled Myanmar seven years ago. Most live in Cox's Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, where dependency on humanitarian aid is widespread and the security situation is deteriorating. 29 Desperation in these camps is driving Rohingya refugees to risk their lives on dangerous sea routes to Indonesia and Malaysia, which have been described as among the deadliest in the world. Estimates show that one Rohingya died or went missing for every eight who attempted the journey in 2023. 30 Globally, nearly 10.9 million Afghans remained displaced, almost all within their country or in neighbouring countries. In 2023, the number of Afghan refugees 31 reported globally increased by 741,400 to reach 6.4 million, mostly reflecting new population estimates reported by both the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan. Opportunities for sustainable return remain limited, as almost half the population of more than 40 million people in Afghanistan face acute food insecurity, and millions remain displaced from their homes within the country.After the escalation of the war in 2022, displacement within and from Ukraine continued, albeit at a slower rate than during the previous year. Approximately three-quarters of a million people became newly internally displaced, primarily in eastern and southern Ukraine, where fighting was most intense during 2023. Reflecting revised estimation methodologies, as well as return movements, the number of people remaining internally displaced in Ukraine by the end of 2023 decreased to 3.7 million. The number of Ukrainian refugees and asylum-seekers increased by 275,500 to 6 million. At the end of the year, an estimated one-sixth of the Ukrainian pre-war population had fled abroad. Whilst new estimates indicate that up to 1.3 million internally displaced people and at least 324,600 refugees returned during 2023, it remains highly challenging to accurately quantify such movements. At end-year, a total of 9.7 million Ukrainians remained forcibly displaced.In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a resurgence of fighting in the eastern part of the country has exacerbated a humanitarian emergency where large-scale forced displacement started nearly two decades ago. During the year, 3.8 million people were newly internally displaced, while 1.8 million IDPs were estimated to have returned during the same period, and 6.7 million people remained internally displaced in the country at the end of 2023.Somalia continued to experience persistent insecurity in 2023 as well as weather extremes, with flash floods in April 2023, after five consecutive failed rainy seasons. During the year, 673,000 Somalis were displaced within 30 See Urgent action needed to address dramatic rise in Rohingya deaths at sea, UNHCR. 31 Including people in refugee-like situations. 32 See In 2024, approximately 5.5 million Haitians require humanitarian assistance, OCHA.their country due to conflict, with a further 2 million new internal displacements caused by disasters. Some 20 countries around the world, hosting millions of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people, are experiencing increasing risks of climate-related hazards as well as conflicts (see \"Forced displacement in the context of the adverse effects of climate change and conflict\" on page 23). In Somalia, 3.9 million people remained displaced in the country at end-year, and the number of Somalis who sought international protection also rose by 177,600 to 1 million, most of whom were in Kenya and Ethiopia.Elsewhere, indiscriminate gang violence in Haiti has caused a surge in human rights violations, with 311,000 people remaining displaced within their country at the end of the year. Nearly half of the country's 11.4 million people require humanitarian assistance. 32 The number of Haitian refugees and asylum-seekers rose sharply by 68 per cent to 350,600. Hostilities in Syria flared up in 2023, with the number of people displaced within the country growing by 174,000 to stand at 7.2 million at end-year. Including 6.5 million Syrian refugees and asylumseekers, a total of 13.8 million Syrians remained forcibly displaced in 137 countries at end-year. A further 141,900 refugees fled to Armenia, with most of them arriving after renewed armed conflict in the South Caucasus region in September 2023.Most forcibly displaced people remain within their country (58 per cent at end-2023). Of those seeking protection in another country, most remain in countries neighbouring their home country (69 per cent of refugees at end-2023). However, some refugees and asylum-seekers residing in such countries do not find sufficient protection and access to rights, national services and labour markets and therefore choose to move onward. As described in box 2 below, UNHCR is taking a route-based approach to strengthen protection and solutions for refugees and migrants in the context of mixed and onward movements along routes.The UNHCR Forced Displacement Survey (FDS) is a multi-topic, nationally representative household survey designed for low-and lower-middle-income refugee-hosting countries. It generates standardized high-quality socio-economic data on refugees and asylum-seekers, as well as their host community. Other population groups can also be included as needed, such as refugee returnees or internally displaced people. The FDS covers a broad range of topics, such as living conditions, self-reliance, social inclusion and access to services, among others.The FDS is aligned with internationally recognized survey programmes to ensure its quality meets international standards and its data is comparable with data collected by other key survey programmes. All statistical outputs of the FDS will be published in UNHCR's Microdata Library. 34 UNHCR also collaborates with National Statistical Offices to promote the statistical inclusion of forcibly displaced people into national statistical systems. The FDS socio-economic data will also support the inclusion of refugees into national development plans and the reporting towards international commitments.The first FDS was conducted in South Sudan in 2023, prior to the large influx of refugees and returnees from Sudan which commenced in April 2023. In total, 3,100 households were enumerated in five states, including both refugee and host communities as well as a small experimental sample of refugee returnee households. The findings presented below show households' experience of shocks, including disasters and hazards such as floods, the death or illness of a household member, deteriorating livelihood or financial circumstances and the households' strategies for coping with these shocks. The full FDS report for South Sudan will be published later in 2024. Currently, FDS fieldwork is underway in Pakistan and Cameroon and planning is well advanced for the FDS in Zambia.Figure 2 shows that during the previous 12 months refugees in the north of South Sudan have generally experienced similar level of shocks (42 per cent) compared to the host community (46 per cent) in the same region. 35 The most common type of shock experienced by both refugees and the host community was flooding, which is common in the north of South Sudan. 36 Most of the refugee and host community households in the north reported that they did not have any coping strategies to respond to such adverse events (see figure 3). Of those households that did, many of the reported ways of coping were not sustainable, such as reducing consumption and borrowing money. Humanitarian and development actors can use the FDS findings to work together with the Government of South Sudan and design sustainable interventions to assist the most vulnerable households in both refugee and host communities, helping to build their resilience and self-reliance. Notes: Only the households that experienced a shock in the previous 12 months were asked for coping strategies. Multiple answers were allowed, thus the sum of percentages of all categories may be higher than 100. Pledges to improve data also featured strongly in the second Global Refugee Forum (GRF), which took place in Geneva in December 2023. Some 1,750 pledges and commitments, including financial pledges totalling USD 2.2 billion, were made reflecting the GRF's objectives: easing the pressure on countries hosting refugees; enhancing refugees' self-reliance; expanding third country solutions available to refugees; and improving conditions in countries of origin to enable voluntary and sustainable returns. 37 For example, commitments included a multi-stakeholder pledge on advancing the inclusion of forcibly displaced and stateless people in national statistics, which comprised 102 financial, technical, material, and policy support pledges. 38 States and international organizations aimed to reinforce the identification or inclusion of forcibly displaced and stateless persons in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems, in national censuses or nationally representative surveys. 39 The GRF took place against the backdrop of a year when durable solutions for refugees, IDPs and stateless people were, once again, only available to a tiny fraction of those in need of them. In 2023, 1.2 million refugees returned to their home country, were resettled to a third country or became citizens of their host nation. However, most of these refugees either returned to Ukraine, despite the ongoing international armed conflict, or to South Sudan, to escape the escalating conflict in Sudan. Essential services and economic opportunities in the communities receiving these returns remain insufficient. As a result, the potential for refugees to rebuild their lives will remain unfulfilled.The GRF 2023 commitments have set an ambitious benchmark for improving policies to truly change the lives of the millions of forcibly displaced and stateless people, as well as the communities that host them. The implementation of these commitments in the coming years will be a measure of what the international community can achieve when working with and for forcibly displaced and stateless people around the world. The route-based approach aims to strengthen protection and solutions for refugees and migrants in the context of mixed and onwards movements along routes. 40 Refugees fleeing persecution, war, conflict or generalized violence in their country of origin, may move onwards from their host country travelling alongside migrants, often irregularly. Onwards movements of refugees may be driven by crises in host countries, such as poor governance, political, economic, social and environmental conditions, lack of access to rights and services, insecurity, the effects of climate change or by a search for better opportunities. While the rights of, and solutions for, refugees and migrants are distinct, those using the same routes face similar vulnerabilities and risks along the way.Data can shed light on the risks faced by refugees and migrants along key routes. Between November 2019 and March 2023, interviews were conducted by the Mixed Migration Centre with 31,500 refugees and migrants (of whom 34 per cent were female) along the Central Mediterranean route. The predominant risks reported included severe threats to life, rape and sexual violence, torture and physical violence, kidnapping for ransom, arbitrary detention, robbery, human trafficking and collective expulsions. 41 The dangers along some routes are especially high in hard-to-reach places, where humanitarian organizations are not present, including because they are not granted access or because of the prevailing insecurity. In total, over 950 people are known to have died while crossing the Sahara Desert between 2021 and 2023, but due to its enormous size and inaccessibility, the actual number is believed to be much higher. During the same period, around 7,600 people on the move were reported to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea. 42 The immediate services refugees and migrants need along these routes are similar. Responding more effectively and predictably to the challenges of mixed and onward movements requires a broader, wholeof-route approach. At the core of this approach is a shift towards more humane and effective responses that ensure international protection for refugees all along the routes, and delivering better outcomes for all those on the move -both refugees and migrants, affected communities and States alike. For example, humanitarian partners working with local authorities can locate protection services where they are most needed and provide needed information on risks, services, procedures and opportunities along the routes. This requires data to be collected, analysed and acted upon.A route-based approach to mixed movements of refugees and migrants must be informed by data and based on evidence collected through operational partnerships, research and analysis. Without investment in these areas to gain up-todate knowledge of challenges and opportunities, responses may instead be driven by immediate political imperatives. This can give rise to restrictive policies and practices or fuel anti-foreigner or antirefugee rhetoric and populist narratives based on misinformation.While a route-based approach can be considered for all mixed and onwards movement of refugees and migrants, UNHCR is initially working with partners on a few selected routes, such as the Central Mediterranean route and the movements towards South Africa. A hemispheric approach is also applied in the Americas, encompassing strategies to address root causes of displacement in countries of origin, respond to humanitarian and protection needs of people in transit, and strengthen protection, inclusion and solutions in destination countries. 43 Along the routes leading to the Central Mediterranean Sea, for example, data from the Mixed Migration Centre, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR shows the geography and the typology of the protection risks that refugees and migrants face (see 43 See Los Angeles Declaration: UNHCR redoubles commitment, calls for coordinated hemispheric approach to respond to forced displacement in the Americas. 44 See Mapping of Protection Services: a route-based approach to protection services along mixed movement routes, UNHCR. Source for the routes: IOM and UNHCR. Source of protection risks: the Mixed Migration Centre.map 1 and figure 4). 44 While most incidents have been reported in Algeria, Libya, Mali, Niger and Sudan, the locations where most monitoring is conducted are also within these countries. Protection services along other parts of the route remain unavailable. Key to a route-based approach is detailed data on population flows, including the means of movement, composition of flows (i.e. age, sex, country of origin, etc.) and details about arrival destinations. Such data may include estimations of the percentage moving by land, sea or air. This data should also differentiate between those arriving regularly versus those arriving irregularly -even if their journey may have started as a regular movement. It can also include understanding the specific risks facing certain profiles (such as unaccompanied and separated children) or distinguishing between arrivals directly from countries of origin and onwards movement from third countries.UNHCR assists States to regularly undertake verification exercises for camp or urban refugee populations to confirm the number of refugees present on their territories, whether those who are no longer present have returned, moved onwards or have relocated in the country of asylum. UNHCR has provided estimates of onwards movements across the African continent in countries where the organization's registration system is used for the registration of refugees and asylum-seekers. However, as some refugees embarking on secondary journeys do not necessarily register again in countries using UNHCR's system, data gaps also persist in these instances.Drivers contributing to onward movements are different from country to country and from community to community. Qualitative data about refugees and migrants can help understand these key drivers as well as the enabling factors, pull factors and movement constraints. To capture key movement drivers, the Mixed Migration Centre has developed a longitudinal approach which can highlight whether people have moved or not, and for what reasons. 45 This methodology has the potential to enable more qualitative planning along the routes by estimating the percentage of refugees and migrants who are settled in a country along the route, versus those on the move.However, not all mixed movements generate the same attention. Those highly mediatized and dramatic movements by sea attract far more attention than deadly journeys by land. Movements to the North of Africa and across the sea to Europe also receive more coverage than those by land within Africa or across the Gulf of Aden. Yet, they deserve equal attention and response. While the emphasis is often on more data, adapting policy and pragmatic responses, including preparedness, do not necessarily require more data, but a better combination of quantitative and qualitative data, as well as better and regular analysis of the trends and drivers over time, including forecasting where possible. Not doing this could lead to conflating economic migration and refugee movements potentially resulting in poor or ineffective responses and in the absence of international protection where it is needed. of refugees under UNHCR's mandate originate from just five countries.refugees were from Afghanistan, once again the largest country of origin.46 This does not include Palestine refugees under UNRWA's mandate. 47 See UNHCR's forced displacement flow dataset. Most people in a refugee-like situation were Afghan or Ukrainian. In 2023, Brazil reported 95,800 people in a refugee-like situation, primarily Haitian nationals (87,400), who have been granted a humanitarian residency permit.Most refugees have remained displaced for many years, and globally, the total number of refugees under UNHCR's mandate reached 37.4 million at the end of 2023, 2.7 million (+8 per cent) more than at the end of the previous year. This included refugees escaping rapid escalations of conflict in Sudan and gang-related violence in Haiti as well as further forced displacement from countries including Afghanistan and Ukraine. Compared to a decade ago, the total number of refugees globally has more than tripled. The global total included 5.9 million people in refugeelike situations and 5.8 million other people in need of international protection. All further references to refugees in this chapter include all three of these population groups, unless otherwise stated. 46 During 2023, more than 2.8 million people were granted international protection including 823,800 who had made an individual asylum claim, 891,000 recognized on a group basis and a further 1.1 million people who received temporary protection (see \"How is refugee status granted?\" on page 30). The total number of people granted international protection in 2023 represents a decrease from the 4.9 million people in the previous year. In 2023, a further 486,500 people in refugee-like situations were estimated to have been displaced during the year. 47As in recent years, the burden of hosting refugees is not equally distributed across countries. The Gini coefficient -which measures inequality across host countries -highlights that the current status quo remains extremely unbalanced (see section on burden and responsibility sharing of refugee hosting countries below).BULGARIA. Oleksander, a Ukrainian refugee, is shown here in the corridors of an accommodation centre for refugees near Burgas. He and his partner fled the conflict in Ukraine in 2022, taking their pet cat with them. Oleksander said that he is grateful to Bulgaria for hosting them, and he expressed his hope to return to Ukraine one day.© UNHCR/DOBRIN KASHAVELOV UNHCR compiles data annually on the combined sex-and age-distribution of the populations that UNHCR is mandated to protect and/or assist. At end-2023, demographic data by age and sex was available for 77 per cent of refugees and people in refugee-like situations, and disaggregation by sex only was available for a further 6 per cent. Coverage of demographic data for other people in need of international protection has increased from 50 per cent in 2022 to 68 per cent, with sex-disaggregated data available for a further 20 per cent of them.To fill these data gaps, statistical modelling is applied to impute the sex-and age-distribution of populations with missing demographic data. 48 The estimated percentage of refugees, people in refugee-like situation and other people in need of international protection who are children was 40 per cent, and women and girls account for 49 per cent.To estimate the global number of children born into refugee status, UNHCR calculated estimates by imputing missing birth data for the years between 2018 to 2023. 49 During this period, approximately half of the data on how many children were born into refugee status was missing in the reported statistics.Using statistical modelling to mitigate these gaps, UNHCR estimates that more than 2 million children were born as refugees between 2018 and 2023, equivalent to some 339,000 children per year. In 32 countries globally, the children of refugees born in the host country have the right to attain that country's citizenship 50 and are therefore not included in these estimates. As this imputation is based on several broad statistical assumptions, the results should be considered as estimates and not precise figures.Almost three in four refugees (73 per cent) originated from just five countries, and 87 per cent of them are from just 10 countries, consistent with the previous year. The largest refugee population globally were Afghans, constituting one in six of all refugees under UNHCR's mandate. Slightly more than 6.4 million Afghans were hosted in 108 countries, an increase of 741,400 or 13 per cent from the previous year. This was predominantly due to the increase of Afghans in refugee-like situations in the Islamic Republic of Iran (+327,300) and Pakistan (+189,800). As in previous 48 These models are generated using the available demographic data for a country of origin as a starting point. Where data for a particular country of asylum is missing, the values are estimated using statistical modelling from the available data for the same origin country in nearby countries of asylum. The margin of error by sex and age groups is the highest for males aged 18-59 (1 per cent) and the lowest for girls aged 0-4 (0.2 per cent). 49 A key assumption in the estimates is that forced displacement is likely to impact the fertility pattern of refugees. Refugees face a situation that is drastically different from that of people remaining in their country of origin, and birth rates in the country of origin are not necessarily indicative of refugee populations that have fled these same countries. 50 See the definition of jus soli in the UNHCR glossary. 51 See footnote 7. years 90 per cent of all Afghan refugees were hosted in the Islamic Republic of Iran (3.8 million) and Pakistan (2 million).The number of refugees from Syria stood at 6.4 million at end-year, a slight decrease from the previous year. Almost three-quarters (73 per cent), were hosted in neighbouring countries including Türkiye (3.2 million), Lebanon (784,900) 51 and Jordan (649,100). Almost all of the reported 6.1 million Venezuelans have remained in Latin American countries (97 per cent), particularly in Colombia (2.9 million), Peru (1 million), Ecuador (471,400) and Chile (435,800). Overall, the total has increased from 5.4 million at end-2022.As the Russian Federation's war on Ukraine continued, the number of refugees from Ukraine stood at 6 million at the end of the year. This represents an increase of 5 per cent from end-2022, and 25 times more than a decade ago. Around 2.6 million Ukrainians were hosted in neighbouring countries (44 per cent), with a further 3.4 million in other European countries and beyond.In 2023, after the outbreak of war in Sudan, the number of Sudanese refugees surged by 79 per cent to 1.5 million. Approximately six in seven (86 per cent) are hosted in neighbouring Chad (923,300) and South Sudan (359,600). Prior to the outbreak of the war, Sudan also hosted a substantial Syrian refugee population. With obstacles to obtaining valid documents, the number of Syrian refugees in Sudan decreased from 93,500 in 2022 to 26,600 in 2023 as many moved onwards to other countries.    Most people fleeing conflict and persecution remain near their country of origin. By the end of 2023, 69 per cent of refugees were hosted in neighbouring countries, remaining at a similar level to the previous year.75 per cent were hosted by low-and middle-income countries.Low-income countries continued to host a disproportionately large share of the world's displaced people, both in terms of their population size and the resources available to them. These countries represent 9 per cent of the global population and only 0.5 per cent of global gross domestic product, yet they hosted 17 per cent of refugees. This included very large refugee populations in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda. A further 28 per cent were hosted by lower-middle-income countries such as Bangladesh, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Lebanon and Pakistan. This was higher than in 2022 (26 per cent), primarily as the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan hosted more Afghans. Upper-middleincome countries, including Colombia, Jordan and Türkiye, hosted 30 per cent of all refugees, a decrease from 33 per cent one year prior. High-income countries, which account for most of global wealth, 54 hosted 25 per cent of refugees at end-2023.Countries. 55 The Least Developed Countries consist of 45 countries, including Bangladesh, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen. Together, they account for less than 1.4 per cent of global gross domestic product, yet they were responsible for hosting more than 21 per cent of all refugees worldwide. 56 This is up from 20 per cent in 2022. At the end of 2023, the number of refugees in Least Developed Countries stood at 7.7 million.66 per cent were in protracted situations.Protracted situations are defined as those where more than 25,000 refugees from the same country of origin have been in exile in a given low-or middle-income host country for at least five consecutive years. 57 This definition should be seen as a reflection of the situation as a whole and does not refer to circumstances of individual refugees.At the end of 2023, an estimated 24.9 million refugees and other people in need of international protection were in 58 protracted situations, in 37 host countries, 1.6 million people more than the previous year. Some situations are only recently reported, while others such as the Somali refugees in Kenya have been protracted for several decades.54 High-income countries account for 60 per cent of global gross domestic product (Source: World Bank GDP statistics). This compares with 0.5 per cent, 8 per cent and 30 per cent for low-, lower-middle-and upper-middle-income countries respectively (data is unavailable for 1.5 per cent). 55 There are 45 Least Developed Countries classified by the United Nations Statistics Division. These are typically low-or lower-middle-income countries confronting severe structural impediments to sustainable development. The list of countries is revised every three years. 56 Data sources of gross domestic product (in current US dollars) in 2022 is the World Bank, accessed on 16 May 2024. 57 Includes people in refugee-like situations and other people in need of international protection. Palestine refugees under UNRWA's mandate are excluded from this analysis.Introduced in the Global Compact on Refugees Indicator Report 2023, UNHCR has developed a measure to assess and understand how countries are sharing the burden and responsibility of hosting refugees. 58 The Gini coefficient is a statistical index commonly used to measure inequality such as inequality of income or wealth. In this case, it measures the disparities between countries hosting refugees relative to each country's population size, the wealth of the resident population 59 and thirdly, the Human Development Index (HDI). The resulting index is expressed by values between 0 and 1, with 0 representing perfect equality (where the burden and responsibility to host refugees is equitably shared) and 1 representing complete inequality (where only one country hosts all refugees globally).A Gini coefficient of 0.4 or higher indicates significant inequality, whereas lower values indicate a more equal distribution.Based on the global distribution of 37.4 million refugees, people in refugee-like situations and others in need of international protection by the end of 2023, the estimate for the distribution of refugees relative to the population size of the hosting countries is 0.81, to the income level of countries is 0.80 and to the HDI is 0.75. 60 All three measurements indicate a significant imbalance in the distribution of refugees with a small number of countries shouldering much of the responsibility. For example, eighty per cent of the world's refugee population was hosted by countries that together produced less than 20 per cent of the world's income. In many contexts that are home or host to forcibly displaced people, the adverse effects of climate change and disasters are often seen together with other pre-existing vulnerabilities and drivers of displacement, including conflict, violence, poverty, food insecurity, poor governance, or inequalities. Climate change is exacerbating the protection needs and risks for forcibly displaced people and contributing to new, onward and protracted displacement. For example, through the impacts of extreme weather events and scarcer natural resources, such as dwindling access to water and failed crops or the loss of livestock, through the increased exposure of women to violence during disasters and the flaring of communal tensions. Without urgent adaptation, mitigation and measures to address loss and damage, climate change impacts are expected to increasingly, and disproportionately, affect climate vulnerable States and communities, including forcibly displaced people, particularly where fragile and conflict-affected conditions serve to amplify climate vulnerability.Whereas most people whose displacement is related to the adverse effects of climate change and disasters remain within their own countries, in some cases they flee across borders. In specific circumstances, when they cross borders in search of safety, international refugee law may apply and they may be eligible for refugee status. Where this is not the case, they might still be in need of international protection. They might then be protected under international human rights law notably where there is a real risk for them of being subjected to serious harm, or when no other option is available, through temporary protection or stay arrangements especially after a sudden onset disaster.At the end of 2023, almost three-quarters of forcibly displaced people were living in countries with highto-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards. 62 Nearly half of all forcibly displaced people were living in countries where they remained exposed to conflict 63 as well as these same climaterelated hazards. Extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods and extreme heat, are becoming more frequent and more intense. These have often impacted countries experiencing new or escalating conflicts. In these situations where capacities to adapt are severely limited, climate-related hazards are exacerbating vulnerabilities such as poverty, triggering harmful coping strategies. They are also hindering the enjoyment of human rights, increasing protection risks, particularly for women and children, leading to a loss of livelihoods, straining peaceful relations between communities and, ultimately, increasing fragility across all levels of society.Countries experiencing high, severe or extreme levels of climate-related hazards, as well as conflict include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Sudan, in particular, is the country where the largest number of forcibly displaced people are exposed both to climate-related hazards and conflict. Map 2 shows where exposure to climate-related hazards overlaps with countries reporting the most conflict-related deaths per capita, and shows the number of forcibly displaced people living in these countries. While estimates are at the national level, the risks that forcibly displaced people face will vary depending on their location within the country. In Soon to be published research, 68 including the forecasting of climate-related hazards, shows that the hazards are likely to increase over time across a range of countries, particularly in Central America, West and East Africa and Southern Asia. To safeguard the lives, well-being and human rights of millions of forcibly displaced people worldwide in the years to come, comprehensive and ambitious action is needed. An integrated approach, which strengthens adaptive capacities and prepares for foreseeable yet unavoidable climate-related hazards, will help to reduce the vulnerability of forcibly displaced people. Extreme weather events and other adverse effects of climate change on safety and security in areas of return will need to be considered to achieve durable solutions. For example, solutions will need to provide climate resilient access to food, water, livelihoods and health care, as well as wider peace and stability.CHAPTER 3 IDPs were reported in Sudan, the largest internally displaced population ever reported. At end-year, 7.2 million IDPs remained displaced in Syria and there were 6.9 million in Colombia.MILLION new displacements due to conflict or violence occurred in 2023. 87 per cent of these occurred in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Somalia and Syria.IDPs returned to their place of origin, 39 per cent less than in 2022. Most returns were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ukraine and Ethiopia (see the Solutions chapter for details).People forced to flee due to armed conflicts, generalized violence, or human rights violations and who remain within their own countries are known as internally displaced people (IDPs).The two most commonly reported statistical measures of internal displacement are the number of people remaining displaced at a particular point in time, such as the end of the year, and the number of new internal displacements during a period of time, such as a calendar year. As new internal displacements refer to movements, and is a comprehensive cumulative figure of displacement, depending on certain situations the same people can be displaced several times over a given period and would therefore be reported multiple times in the cumulative figures. 69 As of the end of 2023, IDMC reported 75.9 million IDPs, of which 68.3 million remained displaced due to conflict and violence, and 7.7 million due to disasters. UNHCR reported on internal displacement situations in 37 countries with a total of 63.3 million people internally displaced at end-year. The figures exclude people displaced within their countries solely due to disasters and the effects of climate change. The figures in this chapter relate to IDPs protected/assisted by UNHCR, unless otherwise indicated. As in recent years, most forcibly displaced people remained within the borders of their own countries. The number of IDPs grew by 10 per cent compared to the previous year to reach 63.3 million at endyear, reflecting a continuing rise in the global total for seven years. More than 80 per cent of them were reported in just 10 of the 37 countries where UNHCR 70 The National Victims Registry of Colombia contains the historical accumulated figure of the number of victims of displacement which continues to increase, with new displacements that continue to be registered. The total number of persons recognized as victims of displacement (more than 8.6 million), includes the number of IDPs who are subject to attention and/or reparation, i.e. those who meet the requirements to access the measures of attention and reparation established in Colombian Law 1448 (6.9 million). The number of victims of displacement who are deceased, direct victims of forced disappearance and homicide, and other victims who, for various reasons, cannot effectively access these measures, are identified as not being subject to attention or reparation and therefore not included in the figure of 6.9 million. Source: unidad victimas as of 31 December 2023. 71 See As Sudan conflict fuels epic suffering, UN launches humanitarian and refugee response plans for 2024. is engaged with IDPs, slightly higher than previous years. This is primarily due to the surge in the number of people displaced within Sudan following the outbreak of conflict in the country in April 2023. At end-year, Sudan (9.1 million), Syria (7.2 million), Colombia 70 (6.9 million), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (6.3 million) and Yemen (4.5 million) reported the largest number of people displaced within their own countries. During 2023, the most significant changes in internal displacement occurred in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, Syria and Ukraine.In Sudan, at least 5.8 million people were forced to flee their homes during the year following the outbreak of conflict between the Sudanese Army Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023.The fighting has been concentrated around the capital Khartoum and in the Darfur region, although other regions such as Kordofan and States such as Aj Jazirah have also been affected. At endyear, 9.1 million Sudanese remained displaced in their own country, including displaced people from previous conflict episodes. As such, Sudan constitutes the largest IDP population ever reported, as the humanitarian context in the country further deteriorated. 71 The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continued to worsen during 2023, as fighting between armed groups and the Congolese armed forces intensified in North and South Kivu and Ituri provinces. This escalation in violence compounded the already dire humanitarian crisis, resulting in nearly 2.8 million people displaced in 2023, with the number of people remaining displaced at the end of the year growing to 6.3 million. 72 In Myanmar, widespread violence escalated in several regions, further exacerbating the humanitarian and human rights situation in the country. 73 In 2023, over 1.3 million people were compelled to flee their homes and 2.6 million individuals remained displaced in Myanmar at end-year.Somalia continued to experience persistent insecurity in 2023 as well as extreme weather phenomena, with flash floods in April 2023, after five consecutive failed rainy seasons. As a consequence, nearly 40 per cent of the population do not have enough to eat each day. 74 During the year, 1.1 million people were displaced due to conflict, with 3.9 million people remaining displaced at end-year.In Syria, the number of IDPs grew by 467,200 to reach 7.2 million people at end-year. Similarly, as the war in Ukraine ground on, approximately 714,900 new displacements were reported during the year, and 3.7 million people were estimated to still be displaced by the end of the year. 75 Conflict-related internal displacement situations were reported by UNHCR for the first time in 2023 in Benin and Togo. In the case of Haiti, since the assassination of the president in July 2021, insecurity and gang violence has escalated. In 2023, an estimated 158,700 people were newly displaced, with an estimated 155,200 already displaced previously, bringing the total remaining displaced at end-year to 313,900.72 The number of IDPs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo only refers to those displaced by conflict. This figure differs from the 6.5 million reported by OCHA which includes IDPs displaced by conflict and disasters. 73 See Myanmar: Human rights situation worsens as military lashes out indiscriminately amid losses. 74 See Global Report on Food Crises 2024, Food Security Information Network. In Somalia, 39 per cent of the population in the country are in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) / Cadre Harmonisé (CH) Phase 3 or above. 75 In 2023, 734,600 people in Ukraine were estimated to have been newly displaced, while 1.3 million returned. At the same time the IOM DTM methodology was revised using updated baseline population estimate for the overall Ukrainian population. This revision resulted in a lower estimate of the number of IDPs reported in 2023 by around 2.2 million. The share of IDPs out of the total estimated resident population in Ukraine decreased from 12.4 per cent at the beginning of the year to 11.1 per cent at end-year. 76 Of note is the fact that the proportion of children among people displaced internally in Ukraine (24 per cent) is significantly higher than the proportion among the Ukrainian population as a whole (18 per cent).Accurate demographic and sub-national estimates of the number of people forcibly displaced within their countries are crucial to guide the operational response by UNHCR and its partners to protect and assist IDPs. In 2023, sub-national data on IDPs was reported for 32 countries, five more than the previous year. Urban areas were home to nearly 3 in 5 IDPs (58 per cent) based on the available data. It is likely that this proportion will increase given that most IDPs are likely to be in urban areas in the countries with missing data.The availability of age-and sex-disaggregation for IDPs improved in 2023 and such data was available for 21 countries (8 more than in the previous year). This represents 57 per cent of the IDP population reported by UNHCR, while sex disaggregation was available for 66 per cent of them.Women and girls constituted 51 per cent of all IDPs, with significant variations observed between countries (as low as 44 per cent in Haiti and as high as 58 per cent in Ukraine). Approximately 49 per cent of IDPs were children. Countries with the highest proportion of children in the IDP population included Somalia (66 per cent), Afghanistan (62 per cent), Niger (58 per cent) and Burkina Faso (56 per cent), while the smallest proportions of children were reported in countries including Colombia (20 per cent), Ukraine (24 per cent) 76 and Azerbaijan (26 per cent).There is a growing and urgent need to reimagine humanitarian action. At the same time, resources continue to dwindle, and situations are becoming far more complex and protracted. Several recent initiatives have collectively highlighted that humanitarian responses in situations of internal displacement have been too slow and process oriented. 77 There has been insufficient investment in solutions to internal displacement and limited government ownership of these solutions. In June 2022, for example, the UN Secretary-General's Action Agenda (SG Action Agenda) on Internal Displacement 78 stated, \"More of the same is not good enough\".Promising practices to improve community engagement in IDP situations include the Emergency Relief Coordinator Flagship Initiative, 79 which was launched in early 2023. It seeks to empower the leadership of Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators to develop tailored coordination and response solutions that are driven by the priorities of the affected communities. The SG's Action Agenda has also helped to bring a renewed sense of commitment towards the collective search for solutions to internal displacement, including committed investment and engagement from development actors and member states.Such initiatives will help to ensure a more predictable response by humanitarian and development actors. They will also help capacitate governments in owning and leading interventions, which is crucial in the search for solutions for internally displaced people. All these initiatives hinge on improving the quality of the available data to inform decision-making. This includes enhancing socio-economic data of displacement-affected communities, with increased participation of IDPs and much greater national ownership. Understanding the intentions of displaced populations to return or find alternative types of solutions forms an integral part of building the evidence.Capitalizing on its long-standing experience and expertise in this regard, including in refugee situations, UNHCR will continue to strengthen the evidence through its survey work 80 as well as its protection analysis, registration expertise, profiling exercises with partners such as JIPS, 81 and its support for the implementation of the International Recommendations on IDP Statistics. 82Moving forward there is a growing expectation that the outcomes and findings of ongoing initiatives will contribute to concerted and agile action from humanitarian actors. This will allow for a systematic and smooth transition into investment from development entities informed by IDPs' expressed needs and intentions, and strengthened government ownership towards achieving solutions. • 891,000 were recognized on a group basis (a 3-fold increase).• 1.1 million received temporary protection (-72 per cent).asylum-seekers were pending a decision on their claims at end-2023 (+26 per cent).was the total protection rate in 2023.people were granted refugee status through individual status determination procedures (+15 per cent).Fair and efficient asylum systems are essential to assess the asylum claims of those seeking international protection against the legal criteria set out in international, regional and national law. Effective procedures and prompt decisions on refugee claims allow those recognized as refugees to find protection where they are and find better pathways towards socio-economic inclusion. Prompt decision-making also facilitates the safe, dignified and rights-based return of those found not to be in need of international protection and reduces the incentive to legalize stay through asylum procedures when international protection needs are not present.The process of making such assessments, known as Refugee Status Determination (RSD), is the responsibility of, and conducted primarily by, governments. In the absence of a fair and efficient national asylum system UNHCR may conduct RSD under its mandate to facilitate protection and solutions. However, its priority is supporting States to effectively assume their RSD responsibilities.CHAPTER 4 Refugee status can be determined through either individual or group procedures, and the result of such recognition is the same. Individual RSD procedures start with the applicant registering their asylum claim for the first time in a country -a new asylum application. Once their claim is processed, applicants will either:• Receive a substantive decision on their case. Such decisions include the grant of Convention status, complementary and other forms of protection, and rejected cases.• Or their case will be closed for administrative reasons, which means a decision is not made on the case's merits. Examples of a case being closed for administrative reasons includes the death of the applicant, withdrawal of the application, abandonment of the claim, or the determination that another country is responsible for the claim.• If applications are rejected, applicants should have the right to appeal this decision by applying for a review by administrative appellate bodies or the courts (or both). Statistical information on the filing and outcomes of asylum appeals and court proceedings, especially at secondary or higher appeals, is under-reported in UNHCR's statistics, as this type of data is often either not collected by States or not published.Recognition through group procedures, often referred to as prima facie procedures, most commonly takes place when there are readily apparent, objective circumstances in a country of origin which suggest that most individuals fleeing from that country are likely to be refugees. In most cases, those being granted refugee status on a group basis will be directly registered as refugees, as opposed to those recognized on an individual basis who will first be registered as an asylum-seeker. This is why individuals undergoing group determination will normally not be counted in the \"asylum application\" total. Individual procedures primarily take place in the Americas and Europe, while most group refugee procedures are conducted in Africa.In addition to group and individual refugee protection, in some circumstances individuals that would otherwise apply for refugee status instead apply for, and are granted, temporary protection. Temporary protection is considered to be complementary to the international refugee protection regime. It can be an effective tool to use in the context of large-scale displacement to provide immediate protection from refoulement, access to legal status and rights in host countries.83 In Bulgaria, Japan, South Africa, Slovakia and Yemen, the data on asylum applications is provided together without distinction between new, repeat and appeal applications.In 2023, 5.6 million people applied for asylum on an individual basis, were recognized through group procedures or were granted temporary protection, 17 per cent less than in the previous year. While the number of new individual asylum applications (3.6 million) and recognitions from group procedures (891,000) grew from 2022, the number of people receiving temporary protection (1.1 million) dropped sharply, largely due to fewer people fleeing from Ukraine.In addition to the 3.6 million new individual asylum applications, 268,900 repeat or appeal applications were made for review by courts or other appellate bodies (-19 per cent from 2022), bringing the total to 3.9 million individual asylum applications registered in 160 countries by States or UNHCR worldwide. 83 This is the largest number of individual asylum applications ever recorded and represents a one-third increase from the 2.9 million individual applications in 2022.Over half of all new individual asylum applications globally were received in just five countries: the United States of America (1.2 million), Germany (329,100), Egypt (183,100), Spain (163,200) and Canada (146,800). Most new individual applications were by nationals of Venezuela (314,200), Colombia (209,900), Syria (201,000), Sudan (194,900) and Afghanistan (169,600).In 2023, 1.7 million individuals were granted refugee status, either on an individual or a group basis, an increase of 63 per cent compared to the previous year.The number of people who were granted international protection on a group basis almost tripled from 336,800 in 2022 to 891,000. Much of this increase can be attributed to refugees fleeing from Sudan to neighbouring countries, notably Chad (491,000), South Sudan (65,400), Ethiopia (27,900) and the Central African Republic (21,300) which all recognized Sudanese refugees using prima facie approaches. 84Also, 1.1 million people were granted temporary protection in 2023, 72 per cent fewer than in the previous year. Temporary protection was most commonly granted to refugees from Ukraine in European countries.84 People fleeing from Sudan to Egypt applied for individual asylum rather than receiving refugee recognition on a group basis.In 2023, 1.4 million people received substantive decisions on their individual asylum applications, 8 per cent more than during the previous year and 37 per cent more than in 2021. This increase in decisionmaking demonstrates that asylum authorities are taking steps to introduce efficiencies and ensure that applicants receive a decision as soon as possible. Despite the increase in the number of decisions, the number of asylum-seekers waiting for a decision on their individual applications continued to grow and stood at 6.9 million by the end of 2023. This represents the highest such number ever recorded and was a sharp increase of 26 per cent from 5.4 million at the end of 2022. Figure 12 shows that new individual asylum applications have exceeded the number of substantive decisions since 2006. 85 Temporary protection granted to Ukrainians does not necessarily mean new displacement since it could include reapplications or reactivations from the refugees who were already granted refugee status following temporary visits to Ukraine as well as duplicated registrations across countries. See Ukraine Refugee Situation: Population movements, Factsheet #1, UNHCR. 86 In 2023, 152,800 Sudanese were registered by UNHCR in Egypt as asylum-seekers. Of this number, 125,600 were new arrivals who had fled the recent conflict, with an additional 222,000 pending registration with UNHCR by end-year. The Government of Egypt reported 370,000 Sudanese people having arrived in the country since the onset of the crisis. See also the Sudan Situation on the Operational Data Portal. 87 The figure of 141,900 includes 26,700 people who fled to Armenia and remained there, following the previous armed conflict which lasted from September to November 2020. In 2023, 1.4 million substantive decisions were made on individual asylum applications. The global Total Protection Rate, 88 which measures the percentage of 88 UNHCR uses two rates to compute the proportion of refugee claims accepted. The Refugee Recognition Rate is the proportion of asylumseekers accorded refugee status out of the total number of substantive decisions (Convention status, complementary protection and rejected cases). The Total Protection Rate is the proportion of asylum-seekers accorded refugee status or a complementary form of protection relative to the total number of substantive decisions. Non-substantive decisions are, to the extent possible, excluded from both calculations. For the purposes of global comparability, UNHCR uses only these two rates and does not report rates calculated by national authorities.substantive decisions that resulted in some form of international protection, increased to 59 per cent in 2023 from 55 per cent in the previous year.Figure 14 provides an overview of individual and group recognitions as well as people granted temporary protection by the major source countries.  What is useful to note in this regard is that the vast majority of claims from individuals originating from these countries are dealt with through group recognitions or temporary protection. This helps to ease the strain on asylum systems resulting from high levels of displacement avoiding what would otherwise be pending asylum applications.The total number of asylum-seekers waiting for a decision at the end of 2023 stood at 6.9 million, an increase of 26 per cent from the end of 2022. Globally, the United States of America reported the largest number of pending applications, 2.6 million, which was 45 per cent more than at the end of the previous year (1.8 million). Other countries with many pending asylum applications were Peru (508,400, -5 per cent), Germany (361,500, +38 per cent), Mexico (257,400, +22 per cent) and Egypt (232,400, +263 per cent). The Central African Republic (32,500, 69fold increase) presented the most rapid growth in asylum applications. This was mainly due to the influx of Chadians caused by the intercommunal conflict involving an armed group, which commenced in March 2023. Other countries reporting rapid growth in asylum applications registered on their territories included Ethiopia (63,800, a 29-fold increase), Rwanda (12,700, a 26-fold increase) and Nigeria (34,200, a 21-fold increase).It is evident from the increased use of group recognitions and substantive decisions, that some States are taking measures to implement differentiated case processing modalities and reinforce their systems. However, core issues remain in many systems including weak institutions, cumbersome decision-making structures, weak case management, and under-resourced or poorly capacitated workforces. With more people on the move and increasingly complex drivers of movements, it will be important that asylum system strengthening efforts are embedded into a comprehensive, route-based approach to addressing mixed and onward movement. This will help to ensure that refugees can find protection early after displacement and will help prevent asylum systems being used to regularize stay for people without international protection needs, in the absence of adequate migration management systems. • Over 1 million refugees returned to their countries of origin (-304,200, 22 per cent less than in 2022).• 5.1 million IDPs returned to their place of origin (-3.2 million, 39 per cent less than during 2022).refugees were resettled (+44,400, +39 per cent).refugees naturalized (-19,500, -39 per cent).A solution is achieved when the situation of forcibly displaced and stateless people is satisfactorily and permanently resolved through ensuring national protection for their civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights. Durable solutions are part of UNHCR's mandate and are a strategic priority for UNHCR and the humanitarian community, as set out in the Global Compact on Refugees and the UN Secretary-General's Action Agenda on Internal Displacement. 89 Durable solutions continue to remain a reality for very few people.For refugees, durable solutions can be achieved through voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement to a third country. They could also be progressively attained through complementary pathways opportunities in third countries and family reunification:• For most refugees, returning to their home country in safety and dignity based on a free and informed choice would be a preferred solution to bring their temporary status as refugees to an end.89 See also the explanation of solutions on the Refugee Data finder.CHAPTER 5+ See also the explanation of solutions on the Refugee Data finder.• Resettlement to third countries is a crucial protection tool and a solution for refugees who face urgent or specific risks, and for populations in protracted situations. Offering resettlement opportunities, allows States to share responsibility with those countries of asylum who welcome large numbers of refugees.• Local integration helps ensure that refugees can build new lives in host countries. However, statistics on local integration are rarely available. Naturalization -the process by which a person can obtain citizenship in their host country -is used by UNHCR as an imperfect proxy to more comprehensive statistics on local integration. Even such statistics are only available for a limited number of countries. Other metrics also have limitations, such as the number of refugees that have been granted long-term or permanent residency, although such statistics are more widely published.• Complementary pathways can lead to solutions, ease pressure on host countries and enhance refugees' self-reliance, including through education pathways or labour mobility. 90• Family reunification, is a procedure ensuring access to the right to family unity -that is regulated by national, regional and international law -allowing refugees and asylum-seekers to enjoy their right to family life, and start new lives together.For IDPs, assessing and reporting on whether they have overcome their displacement-related vulnerabilities requires a multi-faceted, comprehensive approach, as set out in the International Recommendations on Internally Displaced Persons Statistics (IRIS). 91 This can take place in IDPs' place of habitual residence (i.e. after return), in their current place of displacement, or after settling elsewhere in their country. In almost all countries in which people have been internally displaced, the availability of data to inform this approach remains extremely limited and efforts to generate and improve such data to better measure durable solutions for IDPs continue. In the meantime, UNHCR continues to report on IDPs that have returned to their place of origin.  In 2023, nearly 1.1 million refugees from 39 countries of origin returned from a total of 93 countries of asylum (see figure 16). Four out of five of those returning were Ukrainian or South Sudanese. Most spontaneous returns that took place during the year occurred in contexts not entirely conducive to return in safety and dignity, and they may not be sustainable.The return of over 527,200 refugees to South Sudan, primarily from conflict-affected Sudan, was three times higher (+376,000) than during the previous year. Most returns (99 per cent) were from neighbouring countries including Sudan (386,800), Ethiopia (111,100) and Uganda (22,300).Taking account of updated statistics for returns to Ukraine in 2022, 93 the number of refugees returning to Ukraine in 2023 declined by 68 per cent 93 The number of refugee returns to Ukraine is estimated using the IOM DTM data Round 13. The report estimates that 861,000 refugees have returned for three months or more, which may (in light of the high frequency of pendular movements between Ukraine and host countries) indicate an intention for a stable return. Of these, 158,000 have returned for between three and six months and are reported in 2023 statistics, while 703,000 returned more than six months ago and are reported retroactively in 2022. In addition, 353,000 refugees have returned to locations in Ukraine that are not their place of origin. UNHCR estimates that 39,000 of them returned in early 2023, with 314,000 having returned in 2022. 94 The IOM survey estimates a total of 4,455,000 refugee and IDP returnees since February 2022, an estimated 26 per cent of whom are refugee returns and 28 per cent of returns occurred in 2023 (see IOM DTM round 15). 95 Includes people in a refugee-like situation. 96 See Pakistan-Afghanistan -Returns Emergency Response #15, UNHCR. 97 See also the regional response for durable solutions for Syrian refugees. compared to the previous year. During 2023, nearly 324,600 refugees returned to Ukraine, 94 with most returning from Germany (75,200), Poland (65,500)  and Czechia (25,600).Among the 57,500 refugees returning to Afghanistan, 99 per cent (56,800), returned from Pakistan. 95 There was a notable surge in the number of Afghans returning from Pakistan in 2023 overall, including through deportation, primarily driven by the implementation of the government's illegal foreigners' repatriation plan put in place in October 2023. 96 Of the 37,600 refugee returnees to Syria, 97 the majority made their journey back from Türkiye (19,900) and Lebanon (10,100) while of the 31,700 returnees to Nigeria, most (87 per cent) returned from Niger (27,600).  According to the data received from 24 refugee hosting countries in 2023, approximately 30,800 refugees acquired citizenship, originating from 131 countries. This represents 39 per cent fewer (-19,500)  than during 2022. Due to limited data availability, these statistics should be viewed as indicative only. Refugees who obtained their host country's citizenship or were granted permanent residence were mainly from Syria (8,900), Eritrea (2,500) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (1,900).In 2023, almost half of the refugees who naturalized (14,900) were reported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, predominantly Syrians (7,700) and Eritreans (2,400). Canada and France also reported 9,400 and 2,500 refugees naturalizing respectively.During 2023, nearly 5.1 million internally displaced people are estimated to have returned to their place of origin. This is a 60 per cent drop from the previous year but remains generally consistent with earlier years (see figure 17).Nearly In 2023, 32,200   In 2023, UNHCR launched the \"Strategic Plan 2023-2026: Redoubling Our Efforts on Ending Statelessness\" with the aim to achieve transformative and measurable changes by 2026 in the reduction and prevention of statelessness and the protection of stateless people. 105 To this end, UNHCR has intensified policy and public advocacy to encourage country-level action for legislative and policy reforms to grant nationality to stateless populations and to prevent statelessness.Multi-stakeholder engagement and coalition-building is a key element of the strategic plan. In this regard, work is underway to establish a Global Alliance to End Statelessness, a new multi-stakeholder platform which will bring together Member States, regional organizations, UN entities, stateless-led organizations and other civil society actors. The Alliance is designed to advance action and solutions at the country level, including by supporting pledge implementation. The Alliance will also work to accelerate change on thematic issues such as gender discrimination and childhood statelessness.During the 2023 Global Refugee Forum, 24 entities, including 11 States, along with 13 organizations, have already committed to joining the Global Alliance which will be launched in October 2024.Causes of statelessness are different across situations, with common denominators relating to gaps in nationality laws or discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion or language, excluding people and entire communities from access to citizenship. As a result, stateless people are often denied enjoyment of their human rights, such as education, healthcare, civil and political participation, as well as access to essential public services and the formal labour market. Statelessness may also ","tokenCount":"11677"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8a33f34ce16b1a864c495cddd8556057","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a927b04e-4a6e-4c9d-942b-6343e57d4258/retrieve","id":"-1426334282"},"keywords":["Mots-clés Transhumance","communauté locale","système agropastoral","conflit foncier","élevage","Mali"],"sieverID":"c0fd5f38-1084-4772-9252-2850bc094287","pagecount":"10","content":"Les études sur la transhumance ont souvent ciblé les pasteurs -notamment peuls -des zones sahéliennes. Pour en donner une autre perspective, la présente étude a été centrée sur les pratiques de la transhumance dans la zone soudano-sahélienne du Mali en intégrant la perception des agriculteurs et des pasteurs sédentaires concernés par la transhumance dans les zones d'accueil. Les scénarios envisageables pour le futur des systèmes pastoraux ont aussi été analysés. Les données ont été collectées à travers des groupes de discussion et des enquêtes individuelles. Les résultats ont montré que la transhumance n'était plus le seul fait des populations pastorales peules mais concernait diverses ethnies. Plus de 70 % des agriculteurs, des pasteurs sédentaires et des pasteurs transhumants interviewés dans les deux sites de l'étude ont rapporté que les avantages de la transhumance pour les communautés d'accueil en termes de dépôt de fumier dans les champs des cultures décroissaient. Quand bien même la majorité des répondants ont rapporté une augmentation des pratiques de la transhumance au cours des trente dernières années, ils prévoyaient leur diminution dans les années à venir. L'augmentation de la compétition autour des ressources pastorales entre les membres des communautés d'accueil et les pasteurs transhumants dans le sud du Mali crée une situation d'impasse et des frustrations se manifestant par une méfiance mutuelle.Au cours des trente dernières années au Mali, la transhumance a connu des transformations importantes telles que l'augmentation du nombre d'animaux, l'augmentation de la distance parcourue et l'orientation des mouvements des animaux davantage tournée vers le Sud (Ayantunde et al., 2014 ;Bassett et Turner, 2007). Ces modifications ont occasionné un profond bouleversement des relations agriculture-élevage et une exacerbation de la compétition pour l'exploitation des ressources pastorales remettant en question la durabilité du système pastoral (Banoin et al., 1996).La compétition pour l'exploitation des ressources pastorales (fourragères et eau) dans la zone soudano-sahélienne du Mali est ainsi le résultat de l'accroissement du nombre d'animaux transhumants dans cette zone pendant la saison sèche suite à la rareté des pâturages dans le Sahel ainsi que de l'augmentation du nombre d'animaux possédés par la communauté d'accueil. En effet, pour limiter les risques associés à la variabilité de la pluviométrie, les agriculteurs ont diversifié leurs activités en intégrant l'élevage du bétail dans leur système de production (Turner et al., 2014 ;Turner, 2000cité par Ayantunde et al., 2014 ;Banoin et Jouve, 2000). Selon Moritz et al. (2009), la croissance démographique et la baisse des revenus agricoles due à la baisse de la fertilité des sols avec notamment la réduction des jachères seraient aussi d'autres éléments qui ont poussé les agriculteurs à diversifier leurs activités vers l'élevage. Parallèlement, cet accroissement démographique et la dégradation des terres cultivables dans les zones soudano-sahéliennes ont occasionné une expansion des zones de cultures au détriment des zones pastorales (ILRI, 2010). Il résulte de ces récentes tendances dans la zone soudano-sahélienne du Mali, une réduction et une marginalisation des espaces pastoraux, une augmentation de la charge animale et de la pression autour des ressources existantes, ainsi qu'une augmentation des tensions entre les éleveurs transhumants et les agriculteurs. Ces derniers se considèrent actuellement davantage comme des acteurs en compétition, alors qu'autrefois ils entretenaient des relations centrées sur la complémentarité. Ces changements ont affecté la perception des paysans sur les pratiques de la transhumance. Les études réalisées antérieurement ont surtout porté sur les pratiques de la transhumance dans le Sahel (Kiema et al., 2014 ;Turner et al., 2014 ;Ayantunde et al., 2000). De plus, elles se sont surtout intéressées aux éleveurs peuls et n'ont pas accordé beaucoup d'importance à la perception des autres acteurs dans les zones de transit et de destination des éleveurs transhumants venant du Sahel.Cette étude prend en compte le point de vue de tous les acteurs concernés par la transhumance : agriculteurs 4 , pasteurs sédentaires 5 et pasteurs transhumants 6 . Elle apporte aussi une valeur ajoutée à l'ensemble des connaissances sur la transhumance dans la zone subhumide où les études sur les pratiques de la transhumance sont limitées. L'objectif de cette étude a été d'examiner la perception des différents acteurs sur les pratiques et les tendances actuelles de la transhumance, et d'analyser les scénarios possibles sur l'avenir du pastoralisme dans la zone soudano-sahélienne du Mali.L'étude a été menée au sud du Mali dans la région de Sikasso et a concerné six communautés situées dans deux zones (figure 1 saison sèche et de pluie d'une durée moyenne de six mois. La pluviométrie annuelle varie respectivement entre 750 et 1100 mm, et 900 et 1200 mm dans les zones de Koutiala et de Bougouni. L'économie des deux zones repose principalement sur les activités agrosylvopastorales. Cette région a connu des vagues de migrations venues du centre et du nord du pays après les années de sécheresse. Beaucoup de Dogons et de Peuls y ont trouvé des terres d'accueil favorables à leurs activités agricoles et pastorales (Dembélé, 2008). Les deux zones ont été sélectionnées par le projet Africa Rising car elles se situent dans les zones d'intervention prioritaires pour les activités de l'USAID au Mali. En outre, les deux zones sont très importantes pour les pratiques de la transhumance au Mali, et elles constituent les points de transit et/ou de destination des éleveurs transhumants.Les données ont été collectées en période de transhumance, de février à avril 2014, pour assurer l'inclusion du point de vue des éleveurs transhumants. Elles ont été recueillies à travers des groupes de discussion (Duggleby, 2005) et pendant une enquête transversale exhaustive (Creswell, 2014). Le cumul des entretiens individuels et collectifs était justifié par leur complémentarité. Leur combinaison a permis d'explorer en détail les opinions des paysans et les expériences spécifiques. Le tableau I donne un aperçu sur les méthodes de collecte des données.Les groupes de discussion ont été conduits sous forme d'entretien semi-structuré dans le but de répondre à la question suivante : quelles ont été les tendances des pratiques de la transhumance au cours des trente dernières années ? Des discussions ont ainsi eu lieu pour permettre une compréhension aussi complète que possible du sujet et pour recueillir les perceptions des populations concernées.Ces groupes de discussion ont été organisés par communauté : trois dans la zone de Bougouni et trois dans celle de Koutiala. Pour faciliter les échanges, quinze personnes au plus et huit personnes au minimum ont été invitées pour constituer chaque groupe. Seuls les paysans résidant dans les communautés d'étude (agriculteurs et pasteurs sédentaires) ont été concernés. Par ailleurs, aucun groupe ethnique n'a été privilégié, le choix a été fait pour que les participants représentent une couche importante de la population visée. La connaissance pertinente du sujet, la volonté et la capacité de partager ces connaissances ont été d'autres critères qui ont orienté la sélection des participants. Les discussions ont été centrées sur l'évaluation des tendances des pratiques de la transhumance. Pour cela, une proposition de variables sur la transhumance a été présentée et il a été demandé aux participants si celles-ci avaient augmenté ou diminué au cours des trente dernières années. Ensuite, il leur a été demandé d'apprécier l'ampleur du changement (faible, modéré, élevé, très élevé). Les détails ont été collectés à travers les discussions menées autour de chaque variable (thème). Les thèmes abordés ont été la mobilité du bétail dans le terroir du village, la distance parcourue lors de la transhumance, l'accès aux pâturages et à l'eau par les troupeaux transhumants, la relation des éleveurs pastoraux avec la communauté d'accueil, et la fréquence des conflits entre les agriculteurs et les éleveurs transhumants.Les enquêtes individuelles ont été menées pour répondre aux questions suivantes : a) quelle est la perception des acteurs concernés par la transhumance des pratiques de la transhumance ? et b) comment ces acteurs perçoivent-ils les pratiques de la transhumance dans les années à venir ? Les enquêtes ont été conduites auprès de 177 paysans. Les entretiens semi-structurés ont été centrés sur trois groupes concernés par la transhumance dans chaque communauté : les agriculteurs, les pasteurs sédentaires et les pasteurs transhumants. Il est à Revue d'élevage et de médecine vétérinaire des pays tropicaux, 2016, 69 (2) : 53-61 préciser que dans les deux zones (Bougouni et Koutiala), davantage d'agriculteurs ont été interviewés en raison de leur nombre élevé par rapport aux autres groupes. Le choix des personnes à interroger dans chaque groupe a été fait au hasard, sauf dans les cas où la taille de l'échantillon total était trop petite, comme pour le groupe des pasteurs transhumants ; ainsi tous les éleveurs transhumants rencontrés lors des enquêtes ont été interviewés.Pour évaluer la perception des paysans sur les pratiques de la transhumance, une échelle de Likert a été utilisée pour classer les opinions. C'est une échelle de jugement avec laquelle la personne interrogée exprime son degré d'accord ou de désaccord vis-à-vis d'une affirmation. Une note est attribuée à chaque réponse proposée. Dans notre étude, trois types de réponses ont été proposées : 1 = d'accord ; 2 = neutre ; 3 = en désaccord.Une analyse descriptive a été menée sur les perceptions des paysans vis-à-vis des tendances des pratiques de la transhumance. Les citations de propos ont été ajoutées dans certains cas pour la mise en scène des perceptions des répondants. Le logiciel SPSS version 20 a été utilisé pour certaines analyses descriptives.Les informations collectées à travers les groupes de discussion conduits dans les zones de Bougouni et de Koutiala ont montré que les pratiques de la transhumance dans la région soudano-sahélienne du Mali au cours des trente dernières années ont fait face à quelques changements dont la nature et l'importance ont varié selon la zone d'étude. Il y a eu une augmentation du nombre de troupeaux partant en transhumance. L'ampleur attribuée à cette augmentation par les répondants dans les discussions de groupe a été très élevée à Bougouni et élevée à Koutiala. Les participants ont perçu cette augmentation comme le résultat de la réduction de la surface des pâturages dans beaucoup de lieux. « Il y a plus d'animaux et moins de ressources, il faut alors multiplier les déplacements des animaux pour couvrir leurs besoins », ont expliqué les participants. Selon les paysans agriculteurs et pasteurs sédentaires dans les zones d'accueil, l'accès aux pâturages et à l'eau pour les troupeaux transhumants a très fortement diminué dans les deux zones au cours des trente dernières années. L'appropriation des animaux par les agriculteurs des communautés d'accueil a été perçue comme un élément qui a contribué à la réduction de l'accès au pâturage et à l'eau pour les troupeaux transhumants. « Puisque nous avons beaucoup d'animaux, nous privilégions d'abord nos animaux. De plus, rares sont maintenant les éleveurs transhumants qui ont accès aux résidus de récolte car nous collectons la plupart de ces résidus pour les distribuer à nos propres animaux », ont rapporté les agriculteurs lors de discussions de groupe.Les paysans pensent qu'aujourd'hui, la descente des éleveurs transhumants vers le sud du Mali est précoce comparée aux trente années passés : « De temps en temps les éleveurs transhumants arrivent avant même les périodes de récoltes ». Globalement, selon les participants des groupes de discussion, aujourd'hui on peut distinguer deux types de flux du bétail qui se distinguent en fonction de la période d'arrivée des transhumants dans les zones de transit et/ou de destination. Il s'agit, d'une part, des vagues d'animaux transhumants arrivant dans les zones de transit ou d'accueil avant, pendant ou juste après les récoltes (entre les mois d'octobre et de janvier). « La majorité des animaux transhumants arrivent durant cette période », ont spécifié les paysans, ajoutant que la présence des animaux transhumants durant cette période était à l'origine d'énormes dégâts dans leurs champs. D'autre part, il y a les vagues d'animaux transhumants arrivant un peu en retard dans les zones de transit ou d'accueil quand les champs sont complètement dégagés (entre février et mai). A cette période, les transhumants avaient l'accès libre aux résidus de récolte restant dans les champs après que les agriculteurs aient ramassé la quantité nécessaire de résidus pour leurs propres animaux. Ces deux types de transhumants retournaient chez eux à l'approche de l'hivernage ou dès le début de l'hivernage (mai-juin).En résumé, les mouvements des animaux dans les territoires de Bougouni et de Koutiala s'étalaient d'octobre à mai avec des pics observés en novembre ou décembre selon les répondants. A Bougouni, un troisième type de transhumants circulant dans cette zone pendant les périodes de cultures a été constaté ces dernières années. D'après les paysans, ces transhumants ne retournaient jamais chez eux, ils étaient présents tout au long de l'année et se déplaçaient d'une zone à l'autre dans le sud du Mali en fonction des périodes (période de culture, de récolte et d'après récoltes) mais aussi en fonction de la disponibilité de ressources pastorales. Selon les répondants, ils n'étaient pas nombreux.  2014), et Schlecht et al. (2001). Les paysans ont constaté que les distances parcourues évoluaient d'une saison à l'autre en fonction des conditions climatiques, de la disponibilité et de la répartition des ressources pastorales (FAO et Cirad, 2012 ;Ayantunde et al., 2011). En effet, suite à la rareté des pâturages et à l'expansion des terres cultivables en zone de pâturages, les transhumants sont obligés de créer des itinéraires alternatifs et de parcourir des centaines de kilomètres pour accéder aux ressources pastorales dans les zones où elles sont disponibles (Bassett et Turner, 2007 ;Ayanda et al., 2013 ;Turner et Hiernaux, 2008). L'implication des agriculteurs dans l'élevage était perçue comme un élément qui a contribué à la réduction de l'accès des groupes transhumants aux ressources pastorales dans le sud du Mali.De fait, la pratique de l'élevage par les agriculteurs et le manque de fourrage naturel en saison sèche chaude font qu'il y a une collecte Aussi bien les agriculteurs que les éleveurs transhumants ont partagé ce point de vue. La plupart des conflits enregistrés étaient liés aux dégâts causés au niveau des champs, d'autant que le passage était très difficile dans les zones ne disposant pas de schémas pastoraux. Néanmoins à Koutiala, 29 sur 91 interviewés ont déclaré que, bien que la gestion des animaux transhumants dans leurs zones fût difficile, elle ne conduisait pas souvent à des conflits.Les agriculteurs et les pasteurs sédentaires et transhumants ont aussi mentionné que les avantages de la transhumance pour les communautés d'accueil en termes de dépôt de fumier dans les champs des cultures décroissaient. Ceci a été reconnu par plus de 70 % de l'ensemble des interviewés. Selon eux, cette baisse du dépôt de fumier dans les champs était due, en premier lieu, à la réduction de la durée de séjour des transhumants dans les champs des agriculteurs. Cette réduction a été la conséquence du manque de ressources pastorales, surtout à Koutiala où les transhumants ne faisaient que passer et ne déposaient donc pas suffisamment de bouses dans les champs. En deuxième lieu, la plupart des agriculteurs sont devenus réticents à l'idée de laisser les animaux transhumants camper dans leurs champs car ils étaient convaincus que leur passage apportaient des mauvaises herbes. En dernier lieu, ils ont mentionné le manque de points d'eau pour l'abreuvement des animaux. D'après les transhumants, l'abreuvement des animaux était de plus en plus problématique et ils ne pouvaient pas rester dans les zones où il leur était difficile d'abreuver leurs troupeaux. En outre, plus de 80 % des éleveurs transhumants enquêtés ont rapporté que les agriculteurs ramassaient presque la totalité des résidus après les récoltes et qu'il n'y avait ainsi aucune raison d'aller camper dans les champs des agriculteurs : « C'est du business, pas d'eau, pas de résidus, alors pas question de leur fournir du fumier ». Les transhumants préféraient camper dans la brousse plutôt que dans les champs, là ils étaient sûrs de trouver les aliments pour leurs animaux.Pour comprendre la perception des paysans sur l'avenir des pratiques de la transhumance, il a été demandé aux acteurs concernés d'exprimer leurs prévisions sur cette question. A Bougouni, 71 % des agriculteurs, 70 % des pasteurs sédentaires et 83 % des pasteurs transhumants ont affirmé que la transhumance serait significativement réduite dans les trente prochaines années, contre seulement et respectivement 60, 44 et 50 % de ces groupes interviewés à Koutiala.Les raisons données par les interviewés dans les deux zones pour la réduction des pratiques de la transhumance ont été regroupées en trois catégories décrites ci-après.Selon 70 % de la totalité des répondants dans les deux zones, la probabilité d'une réduction significative des pratiques de la transhumance vers la région du sud du Mali serait le résultat des perturbations climatiques et des dégradations environnementales. Leur argumentation a été fondée sur l'hypothèse que la persistance des perturbations climatiques allait conduire à une réduction considérable des ressources pastorales dans le sud et un peu partout dans le pays. Dans cette situation, il serait alors difficile aux éleveurs de couvrir les besoins de leurs animaux. Ainsi, les éleveurs seraient obligés de rester chez eux et de créer des conditions alternatives pour nourrir leur bétail sur place.Plus de 90 % des répondants agriculteurs, pasteurs sédentaires et transhumants à Bougouni contre 30 % à Koutiala ont pointé Revue d'élevage et de médecine vétérinaire des pays tropicaux, 2016, 69 (2) : 53-61 l'avenir de la transhumance dans le sud du Mali. Globalement, les réflexions sur l'hypothèse d'une réduction significative de la transhumance dans les trente prochaines années ont différé selon les zones d'études. Les zones qui expérimentent une recrudescence des mouvements des animaux ont tendance à adhérer à cette hypothèse. Nous pensons que la recrudescence des conflits dans les zones à forte présence d'éleveurs transhumants au cours des trente dernières années et les difficultés associées aux pratiques de la transhumance, comme la diminution de l'accès aux ressources pastorales pour les éleveurs transhumants et la gestion des animaux transhumants qui devient de plus en plus difficile dans les territoires d'accueil, expliquent la contradiction entre l'augmentation de la transhumance, constatée au cours des trente dernières années par les paysans et leur prévision de sa diminution dans les années à venir.Au cours des deux dernières décennies, l'avenir des systèmes pastoraux a suscité l'intérêt des experts à cause des sécheresses de plus en plus sévères, la croissance démographique et la multiplication des conflits avec les agriculteurs mettant en péril l'avenir de l'élevage pastoral au Sahel (Niamir-Fuller et Turner, 1999 ;Marty et al., 2006 ;Turner et al., 2014). Sur la base de nos résultats, il n'est pas possible de conclure sur la probabilité de disparition ou non de la transhumance dans les trente prochaines années. Néanmoins, l'étude souligne la possibilité d'une réduction des pratiques de la transhumance dans les années à venir.et un stockage d'une quantité importante des résidus par les agriculteurs juste après la récolte, réduisant ainsi l'accès des pasteurs transhumants aux résidus de récolte (Kiema et al., 2012 ;Sougnabe, 2013). Cette réduction des ressources fourragères et l'augmentation du nombre d'animaux dans les territoires d'accueil sont à l'origine de l'accroissement de la compétition autour des ressources disponibles car chaque acteur défend ses intérêts à tout prix. Cette réalité conduit le plus souvent à des situations tendues et/ou conflictuelles entre les agriculteurs et les éleveurs (Kiema et al., 2014 ;Driel, 1999). De temps en temps des massacres de personnes sont aussi rapportés.Cependant, l'ampleur des conflits est beaucoup plus élevée dans les zones où la durée de séjour des transhumants est beaucoup plus longue. Par exemple, à Bougouni, on assiste au cours de ces dernières années à une recrudescence du nombre de conflits entre les agriculteurs et les éleveurs (Umutoni, 2016), suite à l'augmentation du nombre de transhumants arrivant dans cette zone et à la durée de leur séjour (Moritz, 2010) Studies on transhumance have often focused on pastoralistsin particular the Fulanis -of Sahelian areas. To give another perspective, the present study investigated transhumance practices in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Mali by integrating the perception of farmers and sedentary herders affected by transhumance in the host areas. Possible scenarios of transhumant pastoralism for the future were also analyzed. Data were collected through focus groups and individual interviews. The results showed that transhumance was no longer solely practiced by Fulani pastoralists but involved various ethnic groups. Over 70% of the interviewed farmers, sedentary pastoralists and transhumant pastoralists in the two study sites reported that the benefits of transhumance for the host communities in terms of manure deposit in crop fields had been decreasing.Although the majority of respondents reported an increase in transhumance practices in the last thirty years, they forecast their decline in the coming years. The increasing competition over grazing resources between members of host communities and transhumant pastoralists in Southern Mali creates a deadlock and frustrations expressed by mutual distrust.Keywords: transhumance, local community, agropastoral system, land conflict, animal husbandry, MaliUmutoni C., Ayantunde A.A., Sawadogo G.J. Conocimiento local de las prácticas de trashumancia en la zona sudanosaheliana de Malí Los estudios sobre las prácticas de trashumancia se han a menudo enfocado en pastores -en particular los Peul -de las áreas sahelianas. Para dar otra perspectiva, el presente estudio investigó las prácticas trashumancia en la zona sudanosaheliana de Malí, integrando la percepción de los finqueros y pastores sedentarios afectados por la trashumancia in las zonas de acogida. También se analizaron posibles escenarios de pastoreo trashumante para el futuro. Los datos se colectaron a través de grupos de enfoque y entrevistas individuales. Los resultados muestran que las trashumancia no era ya únicamente practicada por los pastores peul pero que involucraba varios grupos étnicos. Más de 70% de los finqueros entrevistados, pastores sedentarios y pastores trashumantes en los dos sitios de estudio reportaron que los beneficios de la trashumancia para las comunidades de acogida en términos de deposito de estiércol en los campos de cultivo estaban disminuyendo. Aunque la mayoría de los entrevistados reportaron un aumento en la des prácticas trashumancia en los últimos treinta años, ellos prevén una disminución en los años que vienen. La competencia creciente sobre los recursos de pastoreo entre miembros de las comunidades de acogida y los pastores trashumantes en el sur de Malí crea parálisis y frustraciones expresadas por una desconfianza mutua.Palabras clave: trashumancia, communidad local, sistema agropascícola, conflicto por la tierra, ganadería, Malí","tokenCount":"3662"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bccfd184f78f1f125848525ab9c86104","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8fb3cf75-c43a-4e26-8c82-2e55333aeac6/retrieve","id":"1022767262"},"keywords":["Direclor General Qireclor. Animal Science Coordînator","Beef Production Syetems Director","Plant Sc 時 nce Coordinator","TropÎcal Rool Crops Coordinator. Food Legwnes Production Communication Scientist Leader","Training and Communication Associate Soil Scientist Coordinator","Plant Science Training Assistant Plant Physiologist Coordinator","Maizc Production Associate Plant Pathologist Executive Officer Associale Soi1 Microbiologist Scientist","Pastures and Forages Assistant Scientist","Editor Plant Breeder Leader","Crop Improvement Agricultural Engineer Leade-r","Agricultural Engineering and Station Operalions Virologisl Photographer Animal Scienlisl Coordinalor","Swine Production Syslems Associale Communication Scienlìst Associate Animal Scienlis t Coordinator","Animal Science Traìning Associate Animal PathoJogist Coordinator","Lives tock Produclion Training Animal Scientis t Pathologist Leader","Animat Hea1th Soil Scientist ; Leader","Agronorny Associate Agronomist Agricultural Economist Leader","Agricu1tural Economics Food Le.gumes Architectural Consultant V'siling Scientist","Soils Study Leave"],"sieverID":"7f94893d-3ff8-4277-adf6-f575756b86c7","pagecount":"120","content":"Specia l projecl funding during 1hz year included supporl from Ihe Int e r amer 自 can Oeve!opment Bal~k for the Seminar on Rice Policies and Ihe producl ion Iraining programs, from Iha W. K. Kellogg Foundalion 'to help fjnance ge nera l conference a nd symp。別 a ac~i v ities ， and from the United States Agency for Inte rn a ti c nal Develo pment , Was hing to n, as we ll as AID country missions in Honduras and Panama fo r t ra inea support Changes in Ihe CIAT senior sl aff during Ih e yeer included five deparlures an d ten arrivals. Those leaving we re Dr. Charles Mullenax , 10 join the Wo rld Bank in 80go 惘， Dr . E. R. Roberls , 10 join Iha s'laff o f Ihe new College 0 1 V剖 erinary Med 峙 i n-e a t Lo ui s ia na State Universitγ ， Dr . James Wilkus , to join the Interna ti ona l Ve te rina r y Sc ie nce Program , Un iversi ty of Minn es。惜， and Dr. Ge ra ld 1. Tranl , 10 become Di 月ctor Genera l, ECQ-nomiC5 8ranch , Ministry of Agricultu re , Canada. Mr. Thomas Bloch co mple'ted his assig nment as te mpo rary librari an and became librðr ia n for the Central American In s titut e o f Business Adm ini st ration in Nicaragua New arrivals we re Dr 口。 nald Bu shm an , rum inant nutrit 叩門 l 肘 MrKenneth Buhr, v isit ing sc i e nt 叫 i n focd legum 帥 ; Dr. James Cock , planl ph ys i o l og 自 肘; Dr . Jerry 0011 , weed contro l spec ia li st; Or. Peter Graha m , soíl microbíologist; Or . 8ela G rof, pas'tu res and forages specia li st; Dr. C Patrick Mo。時， training coordinator in an imal sc ience; Dr . Amado r Vi llaco:-峙 I entomoloqist , and Mr. C~rrit Zemmelink , anima l nutritioní st o n assignment 10 CIAT from the Wageningen UniversilY, Ihe Ne lherlands. In add il io n , Ihe Rockeleller Foundal ion assigned Mr. Neil Mac Lell an , ex perienced ag ri cu ll u ral photographer , 10 CIAT lor a n indefinile pericd 10 ass ist in t he deve lo p ment of our ph叫。 graphic service5 Des pite the unseasona l weat he r, labcr and material sho rta ges, and soil problem s, cont ruction cantinued on the phy 剖 ca l pl a n l. AI yea r 's e nd , Station Operations was occupied , with more t han 50 percen't o f the spac'J being used as temparary o ffices and labo rat o ries for commodity pro grams. Olher build 叭叭 I expec ted 10 be r臼 dy for occupancy in the fir5t quarter o f 1972, included Ihe Sma ll Animal Co l o nγ ， Field un i'ls lor Ihe beef and sw ine prcgram s, and the green and screen hou ses. The aÇl r icult ura l engrneer , continuing the deve lopmen t of the experimental farm , used this as an opportun it y tO tr ain a number of yo ung e ng ineers in th:= variou s ph ases of development and opera ti o n Upon Ihe departure 01 Mr. 81。的 Dr . Fernando Monge, assac ia tc communica'tion spThis has been a lransitional year for the Centro I nternacional de Agricultura Tropical , a trans 山 on from p rojec t plans to research programs , from architectu 月 I drawings to completion of same of the principal structures, and from discuss 的 ns about production systems concepts '.。 field efforts to identi fy, describe, and understand the components of 咱們。 us systems These transitions have helped sharpen 。υr objecti ves and to consolidate efforts toward achieving the basic mission o f CIAT: To accel 軒的e agr 叫Jltural and economic development and to increase agricultural pro ductÎon and productivity of the tropics 間的出 improve the diets and wellare 01 the people 01 the world Several el/ents helped management and staff to appraise presen't programs and to plan future activities. These inclu由d the Seminar on St rategies for CIAT in which all senior staff members part icipated in March , two meetings of 'the Exec utive Commìttee of the Board of Tru stees , and two meetings of the Board Actions 0 1 the Board included the appointing 01 a three member Pro 9 月 m Review Committee to meet in 1972 with the CIAT staff lor a com prehensive analysis of the substantive aspects of 'the commodity thrusts, plus the decision to establish the position 01 De pυt y Director Genera l. In so doing, the Board recommended that the person se lected for this post be primarily concerned w 川、 the interna'tional aspects 01 the CIAT pr。 grams and 10 provide dìrect leadership for overall agricu ltural production systems developments While the multi-commodity approach of CIAT is dictated by the diverse agricu: í: ural production systems and fcod customs of the countries and areas served, j't became important to establish criteria to guide management and staff in the selection o f i nd川 dual prcgrams as well DS overall strategies , The highlights of the cr iteria w hich emerged thi s y3ar through the Seminar on Strategies and subsequ εnt discuss 的 ns in cJ ude the follow 川g components: Increase in real Încome, time for prcgram pay.off to result , number of people served , income distribution effec'峙 I relaticnships with 。 ther agencies , input of CIAT resQurces required , nutritional importanc-3, market potenti 訓， and the international nature of CIAT. This latter criterion su 日gests that CtAT select problems generally important in the lowland tropics and, of these, th osc least likel γ to be υndertaken by other agenciesThe followinq paragraohs present a few highliqhts of the accomplish ment s and activìties in CIA T' s major programs during 1971 Beef. In collaboration w 川、 ICA at Carimaaua , a series of nine be情 f ca1 ttle production herds υsino arade Zebus nati ve 10 the area wer-e e 叫 ab lish~d 10 comoare varvina intensitv bep.f c.:\\ttle o roduct ion sv叫p. ms. Pres entlv aV <=I ilable evidp. nce ìndicates that besf catt le produr. tion Ip.vels and prcfitabilitv could be substantìal\\y increa sed usÎna sound oastlJre m;ln ðaemen t. feedin 呵， breedinÇJ and he;-d health o ractices. ?lonQ wit h SOnî'2 川、 oroved castures. Thi s is a 5-6 year studv which wil\\ be bùsed on 324 heifers and the apρrooriate amount of pasture lanrl One of the maicr limitinq factors 10 附creased li ves tock orcduction in thρinteri o r and coastal olains of South Ame rica is the low nutritive va lue ()f na'tive orassland. A wide ranoe of n p.f'I州 c materi,, 1 of severi'l l imoortarït le門 ume ~n p. cie<; is beina ob~erved 削 CIAT. Snecies of thρI p. nυm 巾巾，只 npn<>ra Stvlosanthes, Centrosema , Desmodium , Glycine and Pueraria are promising The addition of a leaume tc the native qrassland pastures to 5uop lv the necessa rv nitrooen for the soil-plant-a nimêll com plex is considcred the m 。到間。 nomical wav to orodtJ ce more beef rìe r unit areA <'l t Inwp. r r:。只 t Several hiQh-yieldinq types o f Stylosantl、es have been identified , these includino two orovisicnal selections both n訓 Î vP. 10 Colnmbia . S前汁。 f th叫e lines is beino increased. Perennial forms of Stvlosanthes are o f oarticular interest in 'the lequme testinq pr∞ ram. Stylosanthes is adapted to low fertility , acid soils and has the abiJi'ty to extract phosphorυ 5 fro fì1 soils low in t his element Continuaticn of the a nimal health studies with blood parasites demon strates that premun 忱的n (infected blood and druq therapy) is the method of choice a't the present time to prevent clinica l anaplasmosis and babesiosis in Colombia. Thi s information is being uS3d in 打 eld trials at Turipana . The use of pre.munition has , under contro lled cond山 ons ， eliminated deaths in cattle mov-ed into endemic zones , and the techniques deve loped for premunition are safe Swine. Seeking an on-the-farm source of protein to balance diets for hogs , swine nutritio ni sts ccncεn't rated this yea r on seeking economica l and practical means for processing cowpeas so as to red uce th 3: digestive inhibiting factors theγcon tain. Soaking was o f little va lue ; resu lts w 川、 germinated ccwpeas were inconsislent , but cooked cowpeas provided a protein that was well used by the pigs even when it was the onlγsource of protein. Growth rates and feed conversion of pigs f.ed diets based on cooked cowpeas were similar to th。但。 f pigs fed standard control diet s based on corn and soybean meal Rice. Adoption of the new h 可 h γ 時 Iding varieties of rice reached a significant le vel in 197 1. Most of the area previously planted to high y 悶 Iding va rieties had been in IR8 , but the release in earlγ1971 of CICA 4 and IR22 leads to the expectation that these varieties will rQpidly replace IR8 and w 刊 1 ， in add 巾。 n ， be grown under many circumstances where IR8 has not CICA 4 has been accepted , multiplied and distributed in Ecuado r as INIAP 凸 and in the Dominican Repυ b lic as Advance 72. A sister line Îs being widely distributed in Peru υnder 'the name of Nylamp With the mounting interes t in Latin America in the new rice varie ties a nd t he possible conseqυences o f rapid increases in production associated w ith their plantinq , CIAT in vited some 200 representatìves of 23 countries 10 meet in Cali in October to consider the issues associated with rice pol 比 ies for Latin America lt was the purpose of this sem inar to provide opportunities for dscision makers to expand theìr horizons so th at they can make better polîcv decisions. More specifically, ìt was to indi cate wavs and rnp. ans bv which rice productivity increases may be achieved on a broad scale and in such a waγtha' t these inc reases and productivity may benefit , in te rms of 川、 proved real incomes and diets, the greatest numbe r of pCïSOn S in each countrγ Maize. One of the goals is to oroduce ccmmercial maize hybrids and varieties w.ith wider adaptation for the range of micro-climates in the tropics . Photooeriod sensitivity limits no r'th-south exchanqe of qerm plasm , but field studies in 1971 revealed a simple inherit ed sys tem fo r sensi ti vit y -possibly as few as two genes-and thi s genetic pattern is being tested.7 1 ' 可 Sea rch for a h 咱 h quality maize with a flint endosperm continued Labo ratory a nd biol。中 cal resυIt5 are promising, and preliminary 5tudies 。 n n 吋 rogen balance in children confirmed laborato ry and rat data . The quali'tγ 。 f the yeJlow flint selections i5 essentiallv equal to the o ri g inal floury opaque-2 phenotype. In a white hybrid , H255 , se lection toward a crystalline endosperm was accompanied by reduced Iys ine and tryptopha ne levels as we ll as a lower b 的 logical va lue w hen fed to rats. Success ìn these selecti ons , despite the problems with the w hite hγbrid ， indicate that a commercial vers的 n of opaque-2 w Îth a mcre acceptable grain l tγpe may be available soon CassaviI. Research ;n cassava was seriously harγ10 ered because of an 。 utbreak of a bacterial infection , tentatively identified as Pseudomonas sp. , in the collection and increa se plots. This bacterial w ilt is common in other areas of CoJombia but had no't recently been f。υnd in the Cauca ValleγTo prevent the possible spread of the disease to commercial fields a 門 d cther cassava collection5 , a v 呀。 rous 剖 tempt was made to e1i minate the disease in the farm .A low-cos t cassava chipper was designed and built , and the economists s urveyed cas sava produ ction methods in Colomb 開 Production cOs ts appea r to be equal on Ilat and sloping land w ith th e techni ques currently usedThe germ plasm collection o f nea rl y 2,800 cultivars is being cata\\oged and various obse rvati ons made Few var iet ies have produced a higher yi.eld than Ll aner a ， δv a riety co llected by the Inst ituto Colomb ia no Agropecuario (ICA) Irom the Colombian Ilanos . Ll anera consis' te nt 旬 is one of the h 旬 hest 川 cr ude protein content with about 6 percent . Although several other cult ivars we re found w i 的 int ermediate 10 almost eq ual levels of nitrogen, Ll ane ra was the only cultivar agronomica lly sa ti s fac t oryυnde r the condi ti ons 'tested Ano the r aspec t o f the ra p idl y growing cassav a program is the plan to establis h, as part of the Li brary, a Cassava Document Ana lysis Center With the assisla nce of the Int er nati ona l Development Research Centre o f Canad a, the υn it w ill a t't empt to collect the av ailable world cδ ssav a 1 i terature and pub li s~、 a com p rehensíve a nno ta ted bib l 的graphy Food Legumes. Exp lo rato ry work ín food legumes was expanded to incl ude limited s lυd y 01 the available germ pla sm with dry bean s (Phaseolus vulgaris) and soybeans (Glycine max) . Varie ti es o f cowpeas (Vigna sinensis) and mung beans (Phaseolus aureus) have been screened fo r possible use in the tropics. A soybean s tudγh as de mons trated that it is pùss ib le 10 inc rease yield by genet ica lly delaying th e date 01 Ilowe ring, allowing the ρ l ant to grúw larger before rep rod uct 叩叭 ， and delaying the date of maturit y. By se tting these two character changes as 90als , C IAT expects to 9剖 a tal ler pl ant , pod s that lorm higher 0 11 the groun d , a nd increa sed seed γie ld Agricultural Production Systems. Data from field surveys , experiences 01 prodυction trainees on Jjvestock ranc hes on the north coast and on small farms În the Cauca Va ll eγ ， and observa tì ons o f many farming operations in the tropics have helped ident ify the commona lities of the situ a ti ons and the possib!e goa ls for coopera tive efforts with na't ional ðge n c 自 es W I 的 r es pec I 10 agncυhural p roduction systems Regardless o f the si 2:e or nature of the operation, it wo uld seem th a t th e ag ricυ Itural prodυctio n system 90als fcr the people living on the land might well in clude the lo ll ow in g: ( 1 ) Ca reer opportunities in agriculture;(2) yea r-round adequate diets; (3) opportun ity to produce, week ly o r monthJy , some cash in come 10 supp\\y the necess ities they a re not ab le t 。 grow; (4) bette r h oυs ing and sanilat io B Work on the CIAT farm micro.nutrient deficiencies indica'tes that zinc, boron and iron are the most serious lìmiting factors in corn , sorghum and grain legumes. Zinc deficiency 時 most serious in rice, and the agronomists ha ve obt 剖 ned spectacular results with minimal applications of zinc in various forms Agricultυral Economics. The impact of rapid expansions in production of selected agricultural commodities on such facto rs as price, incomes, income dis'tr ibution , investmen t, employme nt a nd fore:gn trade is now being stud 時d. Pre liminarγ data indicate th 剖 considerable increases in the demand for meats may be expectGd. The demand for rice will increase at a somewh at slower pace while that for maize and cas savð will 川crease moderately. Higher income familie s tend to co nsume less m創 ze and cassava as incomes increase, while low income families tend to eat more 。f these foods at a modes't rate. As their income increases, low income families te nd to spend a greater proportion of their money for meat than do high income famiHes International Activities. Throughout this report , CIAT scienti sts ha ve detailed their act ivi'ties to become fa miliar w ith and assíst with the agricultural problems of va r ious countries. Specifi 日 1 旬， t hey have ex. changed germ plasm , information , and other materials. Scientists are collaborating o r assisting in several countries on beef, swine, rice, and corn projects , in addition to the cooperative work underwaγin several locations on plant di sease , insec't s, and weed ccn tro l. There is a constant flow of visitors from the countries to CIAT a nd from CIAT to the countrles.In addition , during the year 82 persons from 15 countries participated in CIAT training programs , includìng 32 as postgraduate interns in research and 25 as production specialists. Nearlγ200 policy makers from 23 countries a'ttended the Semìna r on Rice Po l 凹的 ， w hile 16 scientists from all Qver the world presented a tec hnical symposiυm to some 100 par t 山 pants representing most of the rice.growing areas of Latin America The IV Andean Zone Maize Conference ùttracted more than 50 persons from 12 countries Administrative Developments CIAT's l inancial base lor operations expanded in 1971 with 'three gove rnment s , Canada , the Netherlands , and the United States , joining in the support 01 CIAT. Through the U.S . Agency lor International Develop m. ~，nt ， the Government of the United States became a full pa 內 ner w Îth the Rockeleller Foundation and the Ford F oundat ion 川 the basic core support w ith each of the three donors limi ting their support to a maximum 。 1 $750,000 annually Th rough the Canadìan Internatìonal Development Agencγand 't he Inter nationa! Development Research Centre, the Government of Canada estab. lished lunds app roximating $4,000,000 to help linance CIAT's research and train ing programs in swìne a nd cassava. Most of these fund s wil! be spent direc tl y by CIAT, others in behalf 01 CIAT projects through Canadian in st itut 的 n s ， and st ill o'ther s in connection with outreach funct 悶的 in other c。υntries. The Government 01 the Netherl ands contributed $125,000 to the core program Beef Production Systems A vìable beef cattle ìndus try can sign ifì cantl y contrÎbute 'to the overall econo m ic development of countries and regions in the t ropica l bel t. Bee f ca ttle pt'ov ide the mech3n ism for the r ationδ| use of extεn sive pasture land not s uitable for crop p roducl 的n ， as we ll as the immed 叫c utilizatÎon o f potent iallγ a rable lands fcr grazing until the necessarγ 川 f rastr uctur e: for crop farming deveJops. 8eef cattle can t ransform these pas(ures and forages , as we ll ðs cther ce llulosic crcp res idues and by produc 帖， into h ig h qua lit y a nima l protein fo r h um an con su mp tion. These feedstuffs have nO nutriti ve va lue for man , pcult ry Qr non-ruminants , but prc ::l uce real income when fed 。 ruminant s Also, in many count ri es an expanded beef industr y wouid nc t o nl y supp ly ad dit 昀 n a l an imal protein for huma 、 consumption , but w。υ Id provide beef for export above eHective local d emand These export earnings are often critically nE. ede: d to suppcrt country development Since both internal and expor't demand for beef are st rong, it would appear ad va ntageou s for those lesser develo ped countrie.z wit h high beef production poten tia l to exploit this opportunity t。 increase beef exports Re search and training programs are under way al C IAT in Palmira, Ihe ICA Cðrimagua station situated in th 3 II an05 and Ihe ICA Tu ripa na station localed near MOl1 teria on the ncrth coas t. CIAT is assisting Ihe INIAP BEef Ca tlle program in Ecuado r. It Îs anticipated that C IAT slaft w il l cooper ale at other loc 卸 ti o n s 附 La tin Arnerica when cur ren t programs become ~ufficientlγdeveloped rrojects with o ut side fundìng include th e Texas A&M Unívers ity hemoparasite project , and a project i nvo l 圳 n9 V I 訓 tin g sc ien t is ts from Wageningen. The Texas A&M hemoparòsit e p:-oject is comp !ete ly financed by USAID . A porlion o f t he fυnds is uscd to suppo rt graduate training and research ìn hemopar as 的 e di ， ε 目前的 Texas A& 川， and the remainder 10 suppor\\ g raduale s lude nl Ih e剖 s and other resea rch in CIAT. Wageningen provides sa lary and ot her perqui si tes for its visitin g scienti sts Th e fcllowing de,cribes the pa r\\ icipation of va ri ous profess iona l groups as related to spec ific resea rch and tr a in 附 9 。 b j ec' li ve s 川 developi ng beef catt le pr。 duct 的 n sys tems for the lowl and tropi cs Specific resea rch objectives are ( 1 ) t 。 provide adequδle fe金d supply, (2) t。 control disease and parasítism , and (3) to develop econom ica l sys tem5 o f p ro duc ti on and marketing . Spec îfîc training ob jectives inc lude tra ining of profes5i ona ls as prodυction and researc h 5pecíal 15t5Feed Supply Soil5, 50il bacteriology, weed control , pas'tures and forages , and animal nutrition spec Îalists collaborate in developing beef ca t t le feeding regimes. Year-round feed supplγand adequale life-c ycle nu trition are probably the most critícal factors affecting repropuctive perfor mance, growth rale, and susceptibility 10 d isease and parasitism . Primary a t't ent Jon 1$ 9 自 ven 10 grazmg systems , w ilh supplen、 enlation on ly as needed 10 cQrrect nutrÎent deficier可 cies. In add 川 lon ， the use of other feedstuffs in more intensive beef cattle production systems is considered Agronomy/ Soils Developmenl of a beef ca'l lle induslry based on grazing system s depends directly upo n the inherent productivity of soils on which these pastures are grown, and the influence of soils type o n fo rage y 自 eld and nutriti ve va lue Soils fertility . In Carirr、 agua ， sC len ti c; ts have screened certain forage legumes an d grasse s for fertilizer requiremen 峙， and have coopera ted in 'the establish ment of the molasses grass (Melinis minutiflora) grazing e xperiment using Ihree fe 叫 ilîzation regimes. 5 tυdies w ill be continued to determine time and ferlilizer (especially phos戶 horus) re-qU lreme 門 Is of besl adapled paslure grasses and legumes , as well as methods 。f fertilizer application Soils Managernent. Molasses grass and Calopogonium muconoides have been successfully establi shed in Carimagua with no mechanical seed bed prepara~ tion. These studies wi ll continue to test selecled Iillage melhods and cher吶 ical weed con tro l to redυce costs, machinery requirements, management of res idues and (ont rol of weeds Soil microbiology. A freeze-dried (01lection of Rhizobium cu ltures for most spec ies is now readγand is being suppl ied to coll abo ra'tors on request Field and greenh。 υse testing o f cu lture 15 In progress Pastures and Forages 一 Agroslology One of the major limiting factors to increased li ves tock production in the interior and coastal plains o f South America is the low nutritive val ue of native grasslands consisting of mon。 5pecific grass swards and inferior fire 5ub-climax vege'tation. The addition o f a legume to supply the necessarγnitro gen (prolein) for Ihe soil-planl-animal ∞ mplex is cons 自 dered t he most economical means of producing more beef per unit area at lower cost 2) Developmen l 01 sυper i o r culti vars o f forages a nd grass-Ieg ume mi x tures ad apled 10 p as lυr e uti lization3) Sludy 01 praclica l and econo m ica l-Iy leasib le paslure es l ab l 悶 h me n t a nd range re-seeding techniqu es, w ith e m phas is On legume introduc:t lo n Into eX lst mg nat lve pastures 4) Stu dy 01 poss ible solutions to 。 ve r cc m e li m iting soil fertility 5) Seed prod uct ic n a nd regional eval υat ion of se lec ted fo rage 5 戶 eCles Pasture Plant Introduction and Evaluation . A wide range of genet ic material 。 severa l importan t legume spec ies is be ing ob ~e r ved at CIAT. Species of Ihe l egum 川。 us genera Stylosanthes , Centr。目 ma ， Oesmodium , Glycine and Pueraria show promi se. New accessions a nd indi genous m a te ri a ls a re bei ng added to the ex ist ing ge rm p las m coJ lE:c t ion f rom o ther 'trop ica l reg io ns 5tylosanthes, The pe re nn ia l species (S. guyanensis) is a natura lly occ u r ring com ponen t ofρast u r e s in Colombi a. It 悶 fo und Irom sea level to 1,700 m in man y forms and biotypes. The wide range of va ri abi lity observed in this polymo rphi c species wa r rants det ailed agro nomic eva lu a ti 。門 Th e select ion of produc t ive typ es, ada pted to pasture cond i't io ns, is in p rog ress . Several highy'εIding Iypes have boen identilied Thεse inc lu de two provis io nal se~ections ， both nat ive to Co lombia , o ne accession from Costa Rìca and one fro m Brazil Seed 01 Ihese selected lines is being ÎncreasedExper imen ts at p ilct p lots in Ca r ima-gU J 川 dica te th a t severa l t ro p ica l for age l egum缸， e .g ., the peren ni a l spec ies of Sty lo , Pueraria phaseoloides, a nd Calopcgonium muconoides, a re ada pted 't。 the Ilanos env ironmen t Ce ntrosema . Ce ntrosema pυbescens 自 S wid elγre cogni zed as a t ro p ica l forag~ leg ume, bu t ct he r species of t hi s gen us have no t r eεeived attention as cu lt iva ted fo rages. F3 a nd F 4 popu la ti o ns deri ved frcm th e int e rs j: ecifi c cross C. brasilianum x C. virginianum a re being assessed in a space-p lan ted nurse ry. Selection for importan t agronomic c haracters , in cluding yie\\d , sto lo ni fe ro us development , and late seeding habi t, we re carried out Twelve se\\ected lines are be ing propaga ted clo n a llγfcr fur t her tes ting and seed p roduc ti on.D臼mod仙 m . A r ange of ecolypes of bcth D. in tortum a nd D. uncinatum are unde r ob serva t 的 n a nd seed in c rea se Some 01 these were coll ected loca lly, 。 thers 附 E c u ado r .  The effect o f four micro~nulrjents (Mo, Zn, Cu, B) in combina tio n wit h phosphorus and potassium on the establishment of Stylo wa s studied in another pot experimen t. Again , phosphorus gave the largest dry ma'tter increase a nd showed a phosphorus x molybdenum interac t ion. W川、out p hosphoru s, a ll other elements were inef fective Seed production. To reach eve n a fracti o n of the pastυre production and grazing potential o f the tro pics of La tin Ameri ca , eno rm ous quan t 山 e s of seed of se\\ec'ted grass and legume speci es will be needed. At present th e re is no org a n 自 z ed forage seed production in Colombia Bulking up of seed o f s tγ 10 se~ec ti on s ， centro , kudzu , glγcì ne ， greenleaf desmodiu r啊 Brachiaria decumbens, B ruziziensis and Paspalum plicatulum wasThe feed suppl y for the beef catt le ind u5try of the lowland tropic s is based upon γea r-round paslure fo rage . There are extens ive pas'ture la nds w h 時 h could suppo rt an expa nded beef ca ttle in dustrγ Unfortunatel y ， these pasture lands arc eìther poor ly managed and sometlrnes overg月 zed or are gross ly υnder-υti l izedThe pastures and forages utilization program focuses on methods (1) 10 increa~e prcductivity of existing grassland s, and (2) to fu rther increa se pro duct 川 ty u sing trop ica l legumes and improved grass 5peciesTwo grazing tr ial s have been initiated to determ 川 e IÎ ve weight ga in and costs of prod uction in in'tensive 5ystem5 o f growing-finishing beef cattle usìng Pango la (Digitaria decumbens) and Para (Brachiaría mutica) pastures 16 Pangola grazing experiment. Four nitrogen fertilization rates (200, 400, 凸 00 ， 800 kg N/ ha/ yr) and rotational grazing with three stocking rates are u sed. Gravity irriga tion is provided as needed. Thi s experiment was del ayed bec a use o f th合 redes ign o f the irrigatio n system and the slow growth rate of the Pango la grass resul'ting from soi l fertil ity prob lems and a high wate r tablePoss ible re asons fo r this slow growth rate are (1 ) micro-elemen t deficìencies including zin c, iron and bo ron as sug ges ted by that obse rved with rice and soybeans , (2) 時 linity ， esp ec i a llγwhere la nd leve ling cuts we re made , and (3) high wa te r tab le. Explo ra to ry trials are being initi ated 10 d e termine possible 50il micro-elemen't deficiencies affecting growth 01 Pangol a Para grazing experimen t. This trial was begun in November, 1 中 7 1. Three nitrogen fertilizati o n ra tes (200, 400, 凸 00 kg/ha /γ r) are being com pa red u 引 ng a rotational grazing system . Thìs exper iment will continue for two.threeγear s 、Nhereas Pan gola appears to be highlγ sens ltl ve t 。 呵 i l mine ra l def呵呵 nCles ， s。 川 sa linit y， and h igh wa ter table, Para is much be t't e r adapted to these cond 卜 tlon s Diethylstilbesterol and Vitamin A. The effec t5 cf implantatio n o f diethylstilbesterol and Vitamin A o n g row th rate were determined in g rade Zeb u bu !l s and steers maintained on pasture durìn g the growing-fi ni sh ing peri od . Durδti on of 'this tri a l was 672 daγ s. A total of 284 animal s wa5 u sed . Twent y-one bulls and eight steers failed to reach t he 450 kg slaughter weight Tab le 1 presents average wei ght gaìn s o f bulls and st eers calculat ed by threefo ur mo nth periods. The hea v 時 r animal s and the best ga 川 ers we re sold first These dat a indicate th at diet hylsti lbes'terol implantation increased average weight gains in s teers by 13 percent dυring the e ntire expei iment , but did not effect the bulls. The grea test response to diethγIstilbesterol was o btained in the initial stages with 'the Mean Dec. 1969Feb. 1970May. 1970Sepl. 1970Nov. 1970Feb. 1971May 1971Dec. 1969Treatment Feb. 1970May 1970SE'pt. 1970Nov. 1970Feb 1971 May 1 日 71 Oc t. \" Reimp!an t.ed every 120 days with 30 mg diethy l:; tìlbestrol and 400 IU Vit::.min A .一一一-一-一一圖-           During thi s period and un'tîl the end of the dry sea son, redu ced stocking rates ðre υsed to protect the pasture, as little information is availabl e regarding effect 。 f stocking ra te AJI trea'tments resulted in weig ht losses dur ing th 內 per i od ， 'the beginning cf the d ry season. At thi s time mo lasses grass flowers a nd goes 10 seed , vegeta'tivE growt h stops , and paslure palatability and nutritî ve va lue decline. Relatively minor losses were observed 川 the υn fertilized pastures as compa red to the fertilized plots. This pe rhaps WðS beca use de la yed flowering an d seed in g in υn fer tilized pJots produced il more nutr îticus pas't ure forage than in the fer tilized pasturesNatjve pasture. This triaJ wa s initiat ed in September , 197 1 to deterr啊 Ine amount and cos t of live-weig ht ga in of native cattle grazing pastures nati ve t 。 í: he Colcmbi an lI anos. Prz do m inant grass species incJ ude Trachypogon vestitus, Androp。包。 n bicornis and Axonopus purpvsi i. Cont inuous a nd rotationa l grazing sys tems are being ccmpared using three s'tock ing rates, 0.20, 0.35 ðnd 0.50 animalsjh a. It seemed advisabJe to in jtiate the tr ial w 川、 l ower stocking rates because of the appro aching d ry seasQn and lack of info rm at ion using stocki ng rates heavier th a n 0. 20 animalsj ha Results to dat e are sh ow n in Table 3 Average daily w制 ght gains were lea st at 'th e highest stocking rate as compa red to the lower s tock in g rates usîng both rotational a nd con tinuou s grazing The beef ca ttle nυtntlon prog 月 m IS placing emphasis 0 1\"1 ( 1) the nutritional factors limiting reproduction a nd grow' th rate, and how th ese can be resolved, and (2) beef calt le feeding regimes În more intensified farminQ 5yStem s Primary a ttentio n w iJl be g iven to minera ls, energy and protein , wh ich appear to be the most critical nutritional factor s affecting rep roducti ve and growth performanceIn determining 'the poss ible rol e of beef ca ttle in more in ten sìHed systems during the ne xt tWQ yea r s, the primary wo rk emphasis will be on the feed value and productivity of certain cu ltivated fora ges , crops , crops res idues a nd byproduc ts. The data ob tained on each 01 these potenti a l feed stuffs can be direct-Iy applied to more intens 川 e crop li vc stock enterprises incl uding : (1) farms of intermed iate si ze which produce crops such as corn , cassaVð , sugar cane, rice, cotton , etc. , (2) dairy-beel , and (3) small , highl y intens ified crop-lives'tock unitsThe primary objective of the animal heal'th program is to im p rove reproduct ive and growth performance a nd reduce mortal 川 through cont ro l 01 d 悶， ease and parasi'tism , with particular att' ention to causes of re produc t ive faîlure resul ting 川 l owered calving pe rcentages, a nd to generally high mortality 01 calves from birth to wea ningThe prog ra m includ>?s in vest 啥 叫 l on s 01 t o圳 c plant p roblems , selected disease agen ts , and the Texas A&M hemoparasite proJectThe study of enzootic hematuria , prob ably caused bγb r ac ken fern (Pterdium equilinum) which ca uses c hroni c bJood lo ss in the ur inÐ ry bladder, continued Calves on pastures w hich in the past had produced a high incidence 01 th , disease were studied fo r eight months While at least one 0 1 them developed the di sease, no c hanges in the serum va lues measured were observ;?d which might give an indication of the etiologic agen t. The study 01 thi s di sease was d 時， con tin ued. There is nQ dou b' t that it causes seve re losses in intermediate ele va tion areas, but it is no t a problem in the tropica l lowlands Toxic plant studi es con tinued 自 n Turipana . The weed Anamu (Petiveria alliacea) was identified as one respon s ible lor a syndro l11 e locally called \"vacas c aida s 九 w hi c h is c harac terized by lack of coordination and muscular dystrophy, particularly in calves A preliminary inves tiga tion wh ich tried to associate the weed \"Rosa vieja \" (Lantana camara) wi'th photosensi ti vi ty (piel caida) was u n s u ccessfυ1 ， probabl y because of lack ,,1 sunlight during th e leeding trialsThe search for the rQute of the infec tion w ith Vesic ular Stomδtitis Virus (VSV) continued on a far m near Popa yan . Despite a 40-yea r kn ow ledge 01 the tWQ virus types in 'th 問 gr ou 戶， the sou rce o f the virus În nat u re and the route of in f.ection are not kn own. In related s t u:ly with VS viru s, no evidence was found that b。圳 n e leuζocytes play a role in the pathogenesis of VSV infection in thc bovine A preliminary in vest igati on of bovine papillomatosis on a large farm in An tloqυia ， where 'this viral infection leads to a cancerous condition which causes severe losses of livestock , concluded that the problem seems to be only 01 local importance During 1971 a serum bδnk was estab lished and a t year-end somo 3,000 specimens we re stored The infective agen ts of bovine ðna pJa smosis (Anaplasma margínale ), ba besios 時 ( 8abesia argentina and 8abesia bigemìna) and 'Iryponosom iasis (Trypanosoma vívax,Trypano5oma evansil) were isolated and pur 刊 ied from spon taneous bovi ne field cases. The purified isolates were stored by a low temperature method and used in Jaboratory ðnd field experiments. Ultrastructural studies we re performed on B. bigemina ðnd T. vìvax for compa rative pu rp自由 Micr0scopic and serologic diagnostic methods were developed and app l 時 d on ð limited sca le to the study 01 'the in cidencc ùnd prevalence of hemoparasitic diseases of catt le in Colombia. The sur vey made of these infections in Colombia has clearly identilied the problem areas , as well as the clean areas. The correlation o f Anaplasma and Babesìa 'fhc .prCl)aralkm of sUdcs of 1J1ood parasitcs incidence with va r ious climatic zones revea!s a pattern which wou ld pr。圳 de valid information for all parts of Latin America Pathogenesis studies of single and multiple hemoparasitic infections ìn catt! e havc signifìcantly elabcrated cn th~ virulence, disease mechanisms and host reaction to the causa tive agents Resea rch demostrates th 剖 premun 卜 tion (inlec ted b lood and drug therapy) is the method of choice at the presen t time to prevent c linica l anap l asm 。剖 S and babesiosis in Colombia. Thi s infor mation is being used in field trials at Turipana . The use of premunition has , under ccntrolled conditions , eliminated deaths in ca ttle moved into cndem ic zones, and t h. techn i qυes developed lor prem un ition are safe E xperirr、ents were cond υcled to eval uate the prophy laxis, therapy, effect , dosage , rOute of ir、oculatÎon ， toxici ty and response of the ðnima!s injected with new drugs for anaplasmosis and babes 的 sis . The sγnergis.tic effects of comb:ned d rug therapy ùre currently in US2 in Colombia as a treatmen't t。 moderate Anaplasma and Babesia pre munizing inf ec t 怕的 Experiments were execu led 怕 iden tily arthropod vec tors 0 1 anapla s m白 IS ùnd babesiosis. Boophilus microplus, a tick , was identified as the principal vector . The licks hav~ been pur ified and m alnta 川 ed under laboratory conditions The vector of bovine trypanosomiasis was n叫 iden'tili edAUempts were made 10 develop cffective di luted infec tzd blood, irradi a ticn ðtt-e nuated, ki ll ed , and adjuvðnt vacCtnes t。∞ ntro l hemopa rasi ti c d 悶 eases of catt\\e . Under experimenta l ∞n ditiC' n:: , some of these vaccines have ex h ibi.ted promising results for further study and applicat;on ~~me of the projects in progress in clude the fo ll owing: In vitro cultivation of Babesia bigemina , deve lopment of a Babesia vaccine uti l 山 n9 infected tick t is sues , development of a fluorescent antibody diagnostic test lor b。圳 ne trypanosomras 凹 ， analysis and compari 宇on of Babesia antigens , development ofδ 8abesia rapid card agglu.tinations test , study of stra in i mmυn l 句， stlJd y 0 1 the in the north coas t has been p lanned effec t 01 rno lasses grass on tick popu-for 1972 !Dtions, and othersThe agricυI t ural economists worked closel y wlth anima l scie nti s ts. Besides collaboration on experimental designs , a major research project was initiated and l wo projects we,e planned in 1972Colombian 8eef Cattl~ Seetor . A research p roject aimed at dεscribing the Colombian beef ca ttle sec tor is in progress. The prìmary objective is to pro duce informatio n on 't he ba sis of whic h the C IAT beef cattle prog ram rn.γes t . b li sh guideli nes for futu re activìties. In addi'ti o n to s-e rving CIAT, the informati on will be useful to o ther national a ncl 川 ternational agencies in establishing guidelines for c redit , tec hnical assi sta nce and ge neral publi c policy 口!:. u :o:B .s 呵 info r m atic n is obtdined from surveys amcng beef cattle producers The informa ti on sough t includes such O1 a tte rs as managemen t practices wit h re spec't to cattle a nd pas tures , credi t, technica l ass ist ;:mce and marl惜 tlng A survey has been carried 0υt a01o ;1 g 487 ranchers in the no rt h coast region 01 Colombia. The da ta are present lγ be ing a na lyzed . Tentative results indi ca te that for the nor'th coas t region average cal ving rates are abou t 6 1 for aJl fa rms, wi th 訓 i gh tl y lower rates (55) fo r larms larger than 500 ha , a nd 62 for I.rms less than 500 ha . Varia ti o n amo ng zones in the r呵 io n is Irom 36 to 80General rates o f morta lity in th :: rc-9i on range from 2 . 2 10 10; th e average for t he region is est imated to be 4 . A percen L Higher mortalit γ rates are associated w;th smaller farms Stocking rates vary Iro m 1.3 head per hectare to nea rlγ2 per hectare with the average being about 1.5 head pe r hectare Cost of production . An in-dep th anal. ysi s 01 the cost 01 p roducing beel ca ttle AGR ICULTU RAL ENGINEERING Ag rlcυI t ur a l Eng ineering and Station Operations have prov ided leildersh ip , training and supe rv isio n in the imple mentat 自 C :1 of long spa n fe nc in g, irrigati on , draînage , water supply and pasture establishment fo r the cxperime nt stûtio n areas at C IAT to be used il1 beel research and beef ca ttle product ic nLong span fen ci ng with reinforc 3d COlìcr 的 e corner posts and ho ri zonta l braces reduced total cos ts and p;-ovided rYl orc permanent fencing BEEF CATTLE PROD UCTION SYSTEMS 8eef ca'ttle productio n levels are gen erally low in all the tropics 01 Latin Ameri 曰， particularly in latosolic g rass land a re as in the Colombian lI anos and th e Ca mpo Cerrado c f Brazil . Prelim 卜 nary cvidence indicates that produ ctivi ty and p;oli tability cou ld be subs ta nti a ll y increased using sound pasture manag'3ment , feedin日， breeding and herd health prùctic凹， and using some improved pasture AII CIAT b.ef catt le research pro i ~ct ， a re d irec ted towards contributing tech. nologγfc r the development 01 complete beef ca ttle production sys'tems 川 the tropi 臼 This techn o l ogγ ， combined wi th available know ledge, w ill be used in d etermining productivity and profitabüi ty 。 f var ious lile-c ycle beel catt le production 5γs t emsIn collaboration with ICA a t Ca r i rr、 a gua , a se ries o f nine beef cattle produc-Î' ion herds using grade Zeb us native t 。 thc area were established 10 compa re va ryl ng I nt en 別 t y beef cattle p rodu ction sy叫 em s. Comparisons include (1) tr aditional versus improved cattle and pasture management systems, (2 ) na tive 9 月 ss ve rsus native plus some improved grass (Melinis minutiflora ) ve rsus all improved grass (Melinis minutiflora J, ( 3) co ntinual back crossing with Zebu bulls versus rotational cross breeding υsing Zebυand San Martine 巾， a local breed, (4) m ineral supplementation versus no mineral supplementation on native grass, and (5) effect 01 continuous versus seasonal breeding on calv ing percentage. In addition , the effects of protein and energy suppleme 門 tation 。 n reproduct 叫e perfo rmance of cows grazing native, native-Melinis minutifl。 ra and Melinis minutiflora pastures will be determined by providing supplemen tal feecl for a portìon of the cows in selected herds on these three pastυre systems This study will use 324 heilers a 門 d approximatelγ2 ， 500 hectares 01 pasture Ouration of 'the experiment wìU be 打 ve to six years. A similar replìcation of this experiment will be established in la 'te 1972  Experimental work ind 時的 ed the bðC teria are foυnd mainl y in the n。仆 l ign 刊 ied stem 't issue, and cutting back plant5 below the infecti o n along with 。 ther sanitation practices reduced the amount of infection. AII experimental trials , increase plots and bυIk f 陪 Id 5 and all b山 four plants from each collection were destroyed . These remaining plants were cut 50 cm from the ground and the top material destroyed . AII refu5e material was cleaned from the areas and the regrowth observed at least twice a week for re 附 fe 凹的 n. Any reinfected plants were then either destroyed or cu't back to ground level Reinfection was found in ab。υt 10-15 percent of the plÐnts, but w ith the coming of the dry 5ea50n the biweekly inspection showed a considerable reduction in number of reinfected plants. The eradication of the bacteria necessitated a reduction in o ther act 叫 ities w ith in the prog ram . W 川、 the decreased occur rence o f infected plants , in-depth research efforts are being renewed Areas where work has been conduc ted with cassava in 1 中 71 include agricultural engineering ，呵 ricultural economi 白， 何 ro nomy and ge rm plasm evaluation , C'\"'\"l~c:nologï ， (j ~allt patholcgy, and weecJ cc 、 !rolIn cooperation wîth agricultural en. g l neenn 日， station operations and agron. 。 my ， a Jow cost cassava chipper simi lar 10 a type used in Tha iland was design 是 d ðnd buill (Fig. 1) . Thi5 prololype chipper uses a barrel end as a rotatir、9 graler (Fig. 2) which is ðllached 10 ð power shaf.: driven by a tractor powei lðke-off. The 'totðl  Roots from Ll anera plants grown on soil fe r'tilized at two rat es and an unfert ilized s印 I were divided accord ing to 5ize by weight and analY5ed lor den5ity and dry matter (Table 3). 80th density and dry matter in roots weighing more than 250 gram5 Irom the fertilized plot s were essentially the same for all 5 日e claSSe5. ROOt5 01 less than 250 grams were 5 啥叫\" c a ntl y lowe r (0.05 level) in den5ity and dry ma'tter than th05e larger Fertilizer application significantly lowered den5ity 01 the root5 produced 芷江 ean of 0 plots Dens it y and d ry matter are commonly used to estimate starch w itho ut do ing the detailed and time-cons uming chem 卜 cal analyses. Density was determined fo r individual roots from each of fi ve Ll anera plants harvested from fertilized and unfer'tilized 50il (Table 2). The range in indi vidual rool density from a s ingle plant was greater than the range in average densities between plant s Roots from unfertilized plants had a higher den5ity than fertilized root5. The diHerence was small but significant at a 0.10 level Dry matter differences showed the same trend but this was not significan t. The greater vari 肘 ion in dry matter 悶 prob ably assocìated w i'th sampling proce dυres. Approximately three kilograms of several root s were used for density analysis compared wit h only 5。一 250 9 月 m samples for d ry matler determina li o n . The larger sampJes permitted an averaging of variability from several roots Root samples Irom more than 100 01 the more desirable collections were taken to a small extracting uni't 10 esti mate the amoυnt 01 \"indυstr i al\" starch cxtracted by commerc ial sys tems pres ently used ìn Colombia. These facilities lor extracting starch , locally called \"ralladero\", ha ve a rool capacity of Iw。 10 Ihree tons per day w ith 引 mp峙I low cost , loca ll γbu ilt equipmen t. In the cxtract ion of starch , the roots are hand peeled , washed and then grated with a rotating rasp whee l driven by a small gasoline engine or electric m。∞ r. After grating, the pυIp is pu't into a perforated rotating drum lined with a cloth screen Water is added to the material as the drum rota tes and the starch Îs washed Doctor Pierre SUvestre, France (left) and Dr Efraim Hernande:z X., Me:dco, discuss culHvars from CIAT coUect1 on during a recent cassava conrerence 。 u t into a large tank while the fiber or pulp of the root ìs re'tained in the drum After the suspended starch settles , the water is drained and the starch is sundried immediately or left to ferment 叭 a tile-lined tank 15-30 days belore sun drγing. The starch , either fresh or fermented , is used by numerous small bakeries throughou't the area for spe cia !i zed bread and other products A comparison of starch extracted in the \"commercial system\" and the starch content as determined by using a con version factor for either dry matter or density indicates the am 。υnt of s'tarch obta ined in processing was more closely predicted by conversion from density measurements than from dry matter evaluationυsing a \"standard\" conversion factor ( No viru s particles we re ob. served in ultra-thinεections or in 't he leaf d ip cf the Africa n m。曰 Î c. Ano the r difference between the two mosaics is the method of transmi ssion. African common m。阻止 i s w hì'te fl y-îransmi tted , w hz reas the A m ε ri ca n mosaic does not ha ve a kn own vectorThe high thermal-dea th poin , ( 70? C 10 min) prec ludes a hot wa ter trea t ment for control of America n com mon m osaic; other methods mus t be sough t Bacterial Disease: The bacterial d isease was stud ied as a docto ra l thesis through ICA-C IAT a nd the Uni ve rsitγ 。f W 肘。 ns in cooperation. Fi f't een differ e 們 t iso la~es of the pathogen were collected in infected plantations from Brazil (Sa。 Paυ10 )， Venezuela , and 10 differen t st a tes o f Cclombia. 1, was fo und that the penetration of th e path ogen wa5 v 昀 stomata or 川 jured ti ssue and th 剖 I t induced symptoms of leaf sp。峙， blight , dieback and wilting, dependi ng on cultìvar susceptibility. Spread in g was mainly by raindrops splashing the bacterium from plant 10 plant Qr by using contaminated tool s.Infections are 5pread fro m one crop t。訓。 ther through 'the usc of infected cυtt i ngs More than 1300 different cultivars from the CIAT collection were inoculated w ith bacteria and 21 cultivars were fou nd 10 be resistantj highl y resistant 10 the organisms tested in ðccordance w ith a scale which rated the above men叭。 ned symptoms. Cultivars 642 , 647, 667, 1184, 1155, and 1079 showed the highest resistan ce. Leaf spot invasion did not Qccur in cultivars 647 and 667 . No cu )tivars showed immυnlt yLimited tests indicate the pathogen was able to survive for 5 1/2 months 川 necro sed stems , 2 1/ 2 months in d 悶eased pe't ioles, 35 days in necrosed leaves , 20 daγs in sandy-wel 50Î I. These trials were conducted in a growth chamber maintained at 22' C and 70-80 percent relative humidity with an 800 foot-candle light intensity for 12-hour p hotoperiods. N。川 fecti on occurred in plants grown on soil wh ic h had been artificially inoculated six months prev 卜 。 usly T。自 dentif y and chara c'terize the cassava bacteria, 26 b ìochemical and physiological tests were performed wi th 14 isolates of the cassava bacterium The utilization of 19 carbohydrates a nd sugar derivates; 32 fatty acids , decar boxylic acids, hydroxy and other acids; 20 am 川。 acids ， 16 aromatic amin 。 acids, amines and re!ated comp。υnds; and 15 nitrogenous subs trates have been determinedSerological s'tudies showed that is。 lates of the caSsava bacterium ha ve a similar relationship when agglutination and agar-double diffusio門 tests were performed. They did not show a ny serological relationship with four iso lates o f Erwinia chrysanthemi pathotγpe seae, one 時 olate of E, chrysanthemi, t w。 isolates of E, caratoyora , nine isolates of Pseudomonas solanacearum (three representatives to each of the three races ),。 ne isolate of each of Xanthomonas axonopodis, X. malvac~arum ， X. campestris, X. pruni , Ðnd six non-pigmented xanthomona. No Iysìs was observed to rep resent iso la tes of 'H、e same specles 111一 cluded above by an isolated bacteriophage and a Bdellovibrio sp. whic h showed specifici'ty only to the bacterium isolates of cassava . Theoretical\\y , both organ 自 sms could offer biological control fo r the cassava bacter 悶 evalυatlons have not been mðde up 10 the present In a test using 15 different c hema therapeutants , the bacterium was resistant only to Peni ci llin (10 u g) and Macrodantin (100 u g). I't was sensitive to dihydro-streptomγcin ， Novobiocin , Chloromycetin ，的 fam戶口 n ， BrÎstacicl 巾 ， Rifam ic 巾， Garamicin , and Neomycin Fungi Diseases: Phomopsis , an important dìsease of cassava caused bγthe fungus Phoma sp. Or Phyllosticta sp. , was found in the states of Cauca and Valle. Preliminarγ symp toms in young seedlings consist of wilting. Longitudinal section of infected plants showed dark brown s'treaking, leaves that have dark brown to black colored lesìons and plant s that present a die-back symptom somewha t similar to the bacterial disease. The difficulty of making the fungus sporυlate 川 the laboratory was overcome through the USe of artificial light , 。 pening the way for massive screenìng of the cul'tivars in the germ plasm collection. At lea st two clones observed near Popayan (Cauca) under serious ep 自 phytotic conditlons were highlγre slstar、 tAnthracnose. Necrosis and death of the stems were observed in the affected plants . The spores produced in the lesions were pinkish in color . The dis ease Js caυsed by n Gloeosporuím sp Glomerella sp. Another cassava dìs ease caused bγGlomerella sp. showed black canker and white myceliu m on 'th~ surface of those cankers Ascochyta sp. A disease characterized by concentrìc rings in the dark brown leaf spots was found in Caldas and Cau ca. This disease may be caused by an Bacterlal intected cassava showing 何制回l stem leslons and bacterlal exudate from the green, imroature stem or branch FIGURE 3. Particles ot cassava mosaic \\\"irus round in Latin America. taken by an electron microscope.Typical symptoms ot bacterlal wtlt in cassava Young叮. fuily mature leaves wi Jted and dried green on erect peUols.Ascochyta sp. Further s tud 悶 s for charac'terization of these diseases are p la nned , a5 we ll a5 the development of mass screening techniques for re剖 s tanceLittle has been done in weed control A thorough search of the litera'ture y自 elded o nl y seven specif ic references to weed control , many of them co ntrad ic tory Prelim inary res vlt s o f a weed co mρb tition study in cooperat ion with IC A, Turipana , indicate that cassava must be kep t weed-Iree at lea5 t 45 to 60 day5 t。 avoid competi'ti on losses 、 ， 34 5ince little is known about chem ic a l selectivity in cassava , plans are to screen a large numbe r of herbicides at the po. tentiall y safe rates and two an d four tìmes these rates to determine selecti vit y and observe he rb icide injury symptoms il 'they appear BecaU5e 0 1 the lo ng g row ing cycle of c assava , integrated cont rol is of great importance to obtain full sea so n con. trol. In the cu lt u ral practices expe r imen 峙， effects suc h as row spac ing and plant densities should be evalua ted in te rms c f the com petiti ve abili't y of cassava . These recommendat 的 n s 'then mu st be inco rporated with economical and feasible chemical and j or mechanical method5The Swine Prog 月 m seeks to help increase pork production in the lowland tropics by emphasizing the ident ifica tion and re so ll泌的 n of the major barr;ers limiting swine production and the 'trùining of persons for national swine production and research programs Small Farm Production Systems Most of the pigs in the tropics are produced in small herds on 5mall Qr subs叫 ence farm s; level and efficiency of prodυction are lo w. Pig: presently su pply a readily av訓 lable income for many people in the lowland tro pics Wìth greater production efficiency the prssent $wine population could p rodυce greater 川 come and amounts of ani ma l protein w i'th less fee廿 A project to study ways to improve the efficiency of swine productíon on small farms ha s been launched on the north coast of Colombia. Also, initial efforts are concentrated in a locality representative of many such areas in 'thc tr。戶口 The factors w hich limit economi c swine production an d those which limit the introduction of technology and improved practices are b制 ng stud ied The project initially emphasizes three pha ses 1 . De'termination , through field s urveγ， 。 f the existing level and efficiency 。f production, hu sband ry practices , feeding systems , health problems and market systems to estabJish a base-reference p。自 nt 2. Introducti on of improved practices specificallγdesi gned for 10c.1 co nd 卜 tions to overcome factors identified as limiting 戶 roduction. Although \"a \"package system\" is env 時 ioned ， the practice w ill be int roduced gradually as a \" spiral\" approach 3. Fu ture evaluation of the effect of 'the introduced systems on production and incomeThe original data indicate an δver ag e of 11 pigs per farm . A herd usually includes a sow and 10 p 可s ， the ages ranging from birth to two years. The unimproved na . ive pig (Zungo Pel ado) predominates and, although litter size and reproductive capacity appear satisfactorγ(about eight pigs born per litter ), growth rate is extremelγslow Pigs are marketed at 12 10 18 months of oge, weighing about 60 kilograms Ma ny factors appear 'to influence these low prodυction levels, including deficient nutrition , heavy infestation of jnterna l and externai parasi t'es , poor genetic stocks , and inadequate manage-們nen t.叭叭 normall y roam the area for fallen fruit , worms, ro 。峙 I spro u 峙， grass and other foods . When they r\"lurn home, they are fed shelled common corn; if corn is scarce, the pigs get small quantities of cassava Qr yams. When ava il.S\\\\ine production offers an opportunity to subsistence fanners or the lowland tropics where human ruets are notoriously deficient in proteins and sources of income are very scarce. Both ractors rdard progress in these areas ab 峙， farmers use rice bran as δ s upple ment. Whey from home-made ch~ese is fed on some farms , as are sma!! amounts or kitc h-en waste. Vitamins, minerals and protein are not commonly availab 峙， and where obtainable are seldom used because farmers do not appreciate the ir value or do not have 'the monev to buy them Exam 川肘 ion of fecal samples and autopsy of animals have identified parasites, including lungworms , roundworms , nodular worms, coccod 坤， cysticercus, and sarcoptic mange . Mùny animals cxhibit a general syndrome of fatigue , accompaniεd by cough and nasol di scharge, and many ck~alhs resul t.There is \\ittle influence of improved breedi n9 ma ter i 肘， 'the majority 01 the pigs being characterized by wattles and lack 01 hair A uniform marketing system does not exis t. Pigs are so!d by the head to trav e Ji ng buyers when cash 時 needed ， and 36 there is little knowledge 01 octual weight 。 r market va\\ue Training and Institutional Development Eigh't animal scientists from Colom-b惘 I Ecuador, Mexico and the United States have received pr。廿 uction and re search I:-aining. One scientist is completing a mas'ter 's degree thes 阻 and another a doctorate in international animal science at the Uni versit y of I !linoisThe prcducticn tra 川 ongρrogram now being designed wi l! consist of two parts The fjrst six months will be devoted to teaching and applying proven produc tion procedures and practices . AII trainees w 自 11 complete this period 01 train ing whicn will be c。門 sidered as adequate for extension agents and universitγ personnel who will teach 5wine pro duction. After completion of the initial tra 叭 ing period, those involved in national research will receive addi ' Rica, Bolivia and Peru. In Bolivia , there will be a production and teaching lacility ðnd herd at the \"José Benjamín Burela \" Nationa l Colloge 01 Veterinarγ Medicine, Santa Cruz. In Peru , prelim 卜 nary studies have been made for a sw ine resea rch unit at the IVITA Station at Pucallpa. The program , supported by the University of San Marcos , w ill be ini. tiated in 1972. Collaborative breeding and nutrition st udies continued 川 ICA ，Mater 也 Is available for swine feed ing in the tropics are diverse in type and qυalitγEnergy sources presen tly avail able 川 clude maize, sorghum , sugar, m。 la sses, cassava , bananas , plant ains, yams , swe,-et potatoes and rice bran and polishings_ Est ima'tes of future rice pro duction increases indicate that this grain may al so be considered for υse In sWlne ratlons Cassava: Cassava and cassava meal are a valuable energy source for sw 叭 e Although sat 悶 factory resυ It s are ob tained , analyses indica t-e that the pres. ence or absence of some factor of fact ors influence 怖 e optimal use of this food The ni'trogen and glycoside fractions are being studied Studie5 b y CIAT personnel at the Universidad del Valle indicate that approx 卜 mately 40 perce 叫。 f the nitrogen pres ent in cassava is protein nitrogen , thz remainder being non-protein nitrogen Fernando Calderón, a Costa Rican stu dent at the Uni versi ty of Florida , is makin g a mcre deta i! ed evaluation of the nitrogen fraction and w ill continue p:-ote 川 e va: u a tion studies at CIAT in 1972 as a thesis project Swine and p。υItry studies demonstrated that methionine supplementation of diets containing high level s of cassava signjficantl y improves grow t h and feed efficiency. Although cassava is delicient ìn methion ine, these results might no t be expected in view of o ther results with sUQar based diet s which indica'te that the methionine level of soybean meal Îs ad-e quate for opt imum g rowt h when used as the only source of protein _ However, additional methionine is necessary to support the best gains when cassava meal prepared Irom the Ll anera variety is used as thc major energy source Thi s nε-3d for additional methioni 門 e may be í.: he resul't of 門 activation of the methio川 ne by the hydrocyanic acid (HCN) preεent in the cassava. Although definitive published results are not avail able, some informa'tion related to the cassava-eating population of Africa in~ dicates that thi c-cyan ates are present in the b lood and ur ine of Cðssava-consum-In9 humans , and goiter develops after long ,c.eriods of cassava consun、 ption . If the low level cl HCN present in the cocked caεsava combines i 門 the 1 iver with the su llur Irom meth 的 nine a nd cyst ine to fo rm a th 的cyana 悟， this would explain both the need l or supplemental meth ionine and the development o f goi 'ter Thiocyanate formation in rats fed cassava w ith high levels 01 HCN is being measur~d. Urine and blood serum samples are being analγzed for the presence 01 th 向 cyanates ， and nerve and thyroid ti ssue will be studied histopathologically to assess any morphological changes from HCN toxicit y . Dìe ts containing sugar or dried ca ssava are included as controls for measuring toxic effects of fresh cassava w h 陀 h is hi gh in HCN Pre 1i minary resu !ts indica'te that the ccnsumption of cassava containing h 旬 h 。 r low levels 01 HCN will delinitely increase the normûl 。υtput 01 thio cyanates by the ra t. The liver appears to be the site 01 HCN det。別 fication Within this organ the CN-01 hydrocyanic acid combines with su lfur and probably iodine and potas s ium 。 form thiocyanates. As the level 01 thio cyana'tes builds up in the blood st ream, it is excreted by the kidney and appears in the urine The n0rmal level of thiocyanate ex. cretion by rats on diets con taininq no HCN is approximatelγ0 . 11 mq (mea su red as potassium thiccyana'te)ρe r day , Similar groups of rats fed diets conta 叭叭9 dried cassava meal preoared from L1 anera roots conta 叭叭 Q low I ~ve l s 01 HCN excreted 0.4日 mg per day. When fresh cassava ccntaininQ hiQh levels of HCN was led to rats , the level 01 俑'0cyanate excretion was increased 10 3.70 m9 or 8 times the dried ca ssava die'ls and 33 times tha't 01 the control diet based on sucroseThe total siqnificance of thiocyanate production and exc retion based on diets containing HCN is notγet known. But frcm prevìous report s and these resul 峙， it does appear 'that HCN per se can increase sulfur aminc acid requirements ( methionine and cγstine) of non-rυ 川， nant animals by deacti vating the amin 。 acid bv combining w 川 h the sul fur portion. Thiocvana tes thus formed can fur. ther interfere with íodine uptake throuQh the lormation 01 的dine com. pounds and , therel。舟 ， play an impor. tant rcle in Çlo iter prodυctlon Bananas : Collaborative research with INI AP in Ecuador has demons trated th e usefulness of banana s ~s a source for growinq-fini s hìn何 ， Çlestation and lacta. ti o n. Althcugh fresh , ripe bananas a rQ: an excellent source of energy for growing.finishing and gesta'tion , they cannot be used effectively during lactation , and, 'therel。時 ， d ri ed gr朋 n banana meal must be υsed to supply the maior portion of the ralion. Oried ripe bananas are not common!y used because of dry. Îng difficulties 38 Ripe bananas supported faster and more efficient and eco nc-mical gains than green bananas. Other studies foc us on the lactors responsible lor these d 刊 ferences 川 leeding value because 01 dilferences in ripeness. Pair feeding stυdies with INIAP (Santa Catalina , Ecuador) derr、。 n s trùte that the feeding value 01 both ripe and grEen bananas are similar if the pig consurnes equal quantities of cach bð l1 a:lð. Sim î! ar groups of pigs we re daily fr.:d equal quðntities of either ripe or g rC[;1 bananils along with equa l quantities o~ a protein supplemen t. Af ter 28 days, pig gains a nd efficiency 01 feed co nver:; ion were nOI d ifferent , in d i c剖 ing that the p∞ r performance of pigs fed bananas in previous studies was due basically 10 the low level 01 banana consumption caused by the poor palata bili'ty 0 1 the green bananasThe poor palatùbility cf green bananas is apparently associated with the presence of act ive tannins. A lth ou~h the total concentration of tannins , Or \" veQe. table tannates\", does not vary be't w臼n the green and ripe banana, dυrìng the ripening process the level of active tan nins. whkh imparts a bitter taste t。 the banana , decreases progressively dur句 ing rìpening . Although it is not C!conornically feasible in a commercial operatiOn , remova l of the greer、 banana peel. ing will reduce the active tannìns leve l as the active tannins leve! is higher in the peel than 川 the pulp 州。 re detailed studies will determine the d 甸回 tib 刊 ity of th e ccmpo nent parl s (pro tein , fiber , fat and nitrogen.free e :<.t ract) and to measure the digestible and me ~aboli zabl e energy value o f ripe and green bananas both as the fresh fruit and as dried mea l. These data are bein ::'l obtained as a thesis prcject bγa CIAT resea rc h sc ho la r from EcuadorMaize : E x per 時 nce has demonstrated the value of normal ma ize and th~ level 。 f supplementa l protein necessary for efficien't use of maize . Sυbstantial quan. tities c f supplemen'tal protein are essen. tial for proper utilizati o n during all phases 01 the p旬' s life cγcle . However, sim. ilar experimen'ts with opaque--2 maize have shown that th 時 9月 in can provide sufficient protcin during 011 phases 01 the life-cyclc except lor the pre-weaning and growing periods . 80th periods re quÎre supplemental protein for efficient use of the opaque-2 maì ze dìe'ts. Pigs at 22-25 kg make optimal gains on opaquc-2 maize-based d 削 5 contalnmg only 12 percent proteìn; at weaning woights less than 18 to 20 kg , however , th:) 12 percent protein diets support 剖 ightly less rapid growth than a s'ta r吋 ard 16 percent protein control diet Studies indicate that an opaque-2 maize based diet containing 13 percent protein w 叫 I produce gains not different from the control but inferior to similar opaque-2 maize diets containing 14 percent protein , Pigs led 14 percent prote叭 d iet s based on opaque-2 m 剖 ze-soybean meal gained 8 percen't more rapidly than those fed 16 percent protein normal corn-soybean diets A pilot st ud y wit h female rats is being conducted to determine what effect a life-cycle fceding of normal carn , 。i=> aque-2 carn and a con'trol corn-soya diet have 011 growth and reproduction ðnd cn the growth characteristics of their offspring. Growth rates during the growing period conf ir m previouslγ 悶， ported results which indicate thal growth is slow on common maize, improves with opaque-2 maize, but 自 5 superior w 川、 15 percent protein control AvaÎlable reproductive data indica'te that rats !ed any 01 the three experimental diets will cycle and produce lit' ters . When 。但q ue-2 ccrn WðS used as the o nl y soυrce of prote 巾 normal breeding and gestation with li'tters were similar to those obtained from 'Ihe COI1trol (15 percent p ro tein) rats. Rats led opaque-2 corn throughout growth and breeding could not suppo rt a normal lac'tation (I itters with low wea n 川 g weigh'ts) because the opaque-2 corn was nutritionally inadequateWhen common corn replaced opaque-2 corn in the dict , all the lemal.s cycJ ed , Large healthy lit阻 rs are the resu1t o( production syste 血s tbal co血bine adequate nulrition, breedlng -stock and proper managemeut with sanitation and disease ~control were bred , and produced litteγs However, the litters were small in nurnber and weight , and survival poor If similar results are obtained in pìgs as in rals, the recommended use of 。 paque-2 corn in swine rations will be drastically aHected . As previouslγre ported , results obtained from studies conducted at different stages 01 the lilecycle 01 the pig indicat.e that opaque-2 corn alone is adeqυate for 'Ihe fînishing, gestatl 。們 δnd lactation periods. However, Ihese prelim inary ra t 5tυdies appear to indicate that although in isolated periods of either gestation , lactation or Finishing rhe opaque-2 corn 悶 adequa'te ， it may not be adeqυate jf used as the 。nly source of prolein during consecutive and cOd[inuQus periods of the lifecycleThe soft, light weight kernels that are characteristic of opaque-2 maize prevent 。r reduce widespread acceptance for human food and cause storðae problems Studies have been made wj'th the maize program 10 evaluate crystalline selections from commercial opaque-2 maize Although results are promising, long term studies will be required to produce, evaluate and understand Ihe in-heritance of these crystalline charac 'ter IstlCS In collaboration with ICA, seven double cross hybrids con'taining tbe Iloury-2 genes or both Iloury-2 and opaque-2 genes and eight Iloury-2 lines have been biologicallγevaluated. Results to date indicate that the nutritional value 01 the I1。 υry-2 crosses and lines is inlerior to opaque-2 hybrids Triticale:In col1 aboration with CIMMYT in Mexico, three lines 01 trit icale were 'tested for nutritive value and compared 10 methionine-suppJemented casein and Colombian opaque-2 ∞ rn . When fed to rats on an isometric basis , the higher protein triticale sup ported faster gains than opaque-2 corn and gain s only slightly inferior to those prcduced by the control (10 percent pro'tein) casein die t. When compared 。 n an equal protein basis, all three triticales were inferior to casein and als。 inferior to the opaque-2 corn diet that contained slightly less protein . The el ficiency of protein utilization (PER) WðS Jess than 50 percent of the casein diet and only about 69 percent 01 the opaque-2 corn. These data (Table 1) in dicate that a kilo 01 triticale has a hi gher nutritive value than a kiJo of opaque-2 corn; however, one gram of protein from tritîcale has onl y about 凸 9 percent the value of Qne gram of protein from opaqυe-2 corn Cowpeas: If swine production is t。 be made eff 時間川， economically at1 tractive and readi J γava il ab峙， economical sources of suppl emental protein mu st be found. Grain legumes appear to offer the m。泣 imm ed 問峙 。 pportunity for both animal and human food. Previous pilot studies with rats have demonstra1ted that some grain legυmes provide a fair supp ly of the amino acids needed to supplemen't the diet; however , most grain legumes have two Ii mitin Çl factors asεociated with their use as feed fo r non-rumÎnant animals. These are : (1) inhibitors which limit the digestib ility and release of amino acids in the upper leveJs of the gastrointestinal trac t. and(2) a deficient level of 'the sulfur-containing amino acids , methionine and cystine. Although the factors are listed separateJy, they are interrelated , w ith the inhibitors limiting the efficient re lease and utilization of 'the sulfur amino acids Studies to determine the most eff i cient and economica l processing method -soaking, germination and cookingthat will supply a satisfactory prodυct Hcweve r, it appears (Table 2) that the drying process may have destroyed some o f the su lfur amir、。 acids é1 S th\"3 addition of melhionine 10 the germinat ed-dried cowpea diets improved pig growt h to a leve l superior to th at ob tained with simi lar additions of methionine to the crude cowpea diets. Cooked cowpeas provided a pro'tein thal was well used by t he pig even when it was the onJy SQurce of protein. Growth rates and feed conversion of pigs fed diets based on ccoked cowpeas as the protein sou rce were sim ilar to those of pigs fed standard control diets based on corn and soγba an mealIn the pig studies, cowpeas alone sup pJied all the protein . Preliminary studies with ra1 ts indicate that germinated cowpeas supplemented wit h 0.05% DL-me thionine adequately supplemen t diets based on opaque-2 corn and , În fact , promOle growlh and feed conversion efficiency not d ifferent than that produced by soγbean meal This second li mi ting factor , deficiency of the sulfur a mino acids, has been studied in collabora'tion wi í. h a doctoral student from Purdue University working .t ICA and the Uni vers idad del V.lie Nutritive va\\ue can be determined bγ roughly screening the sulfur content of beans (Ph. 持。 lus). After chemical .n.l. ysis 10 determine protein an d to tal sulfur, diets were prepared from beans contain ing different levels of 't otaJ sulfur When these diets were fed 10 g row Îng rats , it was not pos sible 10 predict precisely the protein quality on th e basis of their pro tein and total s ulfυr contents , but i't was poss ible to separate those w 自 th low from those with high nutritive value. More precise sepa rat 咱們 based on tota\\ su 1f ur content are prob-.bly not possible bec.use of differences tn rafl 的。 f me thionine to cystine . It is known tha't cystine can be us ed t。 repl.ce on ly • proportion (40-50 percent) o f Ihe methionine reqυ1 月ment But if the cystinc content is greater than the methionine content , then that surpl 肘。f cystine over me't h:onine is of no value \\:0 the animal Varieties of cowpeas have been analysed for crude protein and su\\fur Th ese .n.l yses (Table 3 If the price of opaque-2 maize is equal 10 that of common m 刮目， it appears 戶 rofitable for th e farmer to replace the common maize-soybean oil meal diet by an opaque-2 maize diet during gestation a nd lac tatio n, whe n the price of soybean 。iI mea l is above t ha t o f common maize 1 f the price of soybea n oil meal 時 mOre than 120 percent of that of common maize, opaque-2 maize can al so be used during the finishing cycle (50-90 kg). It does not appear profitable to replace common maize and soybean oil meal by opaq ue-2 ma;ze during the growing cycle Opaque-2 mai ze yields appr。圳 mately 10 percent less than the best common hybrid in Colombia. Assuming a 10 per cen t price differential , it would be prof itable 10 rep)ace a common maize-soy bea n c il mea l diet by an opaque-2 die t dur ing gestatîon , lacta'tion and fin ish ing if the price of soybea r、 o il meal is more than 138, 150 and 180 percent of the price of common maize, respectively 1I was found that Lalin American swine prod uce rs who do not use any protein supplements in the swine diets c。υ Id grea tl y enhance the net return bγ re placing 'the present d 悶 Is w ith a n opaque-2 diet during th e w ho le 5w ine life cycle Swine Pro<h. J ction and Marketing in 44 Colombia. TI'e Latin American domestic demand for meats is increasing rapidlγ In a number of countries the price of pork 時 high rela ti ve tc that of beef Pork production is inc reas in g at a mod erate rate, and a researc h project 悶 underw ay to determine 'the maj o r rea50n s fo r Ihe slow production increase. The project is a case study of two regions o f Cclombia : o ne is believed to USe a relatively high level of technolcgy and has easy access to a major market; the other uses low leve ls of techno logy and does not have easy access to a major market. Basic informa tion is being gathered fr。們 produc~rs and marketing agencies on manaqemen't and marketing practices, and a detailed econo mic a nal ys is of the produc tion and marketing system w ill be carried o ut to identify maj orεconomi c bottlenecks and to suggest imprcvements in the sys tem Swine Production in the Pucallpa R• gion , Peru. This sludy forms a modes'l contribution 10 the naticn a l efforts 10 develop the rain forest region. The major econom ic problems associated w ith large production expansions in the region a re the cost o f transpo rtatio n and the r:sk associated with stora ge and transportation Animal Health Isolated iden tification has been made of many dì seases and para sites in the swine population in Latin America, bυt no systematic study has determined the econo mically important diseases of 'the tropi cal region. For 1972, 25 percent of the effort of the animal health pro gram will be dedicated to swine. A systemat ic su rvey will be made of ex. 叫 ing sw :ne diseases to determine those of economic impo rtance as a bas叫 for establi s hing effective contro l syslems A s'tudv of foot and mouth disease was 川 itialed as part of the requirement for a doctoral thesis. The emphasís in this yea r-Io ng stud y is o n the pathology of They first learned about 'the new rices , the condit io ns necessary for the ir successful production , and the possible economic implicat 凹的。f increased ri ce supplies . Then , in small discussion grcυps ， they ana lyzed rice produc ti o n, mar ke tin 日 ， and consumption data for specjfj c count ries. They explored the pcssible consequences o f va r io us policies and idenli 打 ed fac tors to be inv-estig ated further upon rcturning to their ccuntrles It was the purpose of th 悶 seminar t 。 provide opportunities for decision makers to expand their ho rizon s, so thar they can m a ke better policy decisions More specifica l 旬 ， it was to indicate ways and means by which r ice product Îvi'ty i nc reases m ay be ach ieved on a broad soa 峙， and in such a way that these increases in productivity may ben' efit in terms of improved real incomes and d 時 t 5 the g reates t number of perso ns in each countryThe typical Latin American diet is relat ive ly high in ca lo ries bυt low in proteins , particularly those of high qυal ity , Alth 。υgh rice has slightly less total pr 。峙 in th a n the other two important gral 肘 ， maize a nd wheat , the qua lit y o f its protein is exce l1 en t. Hence, nutrition cou ld be improved greatly if it were possible to subs t 山Jte rice fo r a su b stantial part of the low protein plantain and/ or cassava in the typical die t. Such high rice di e'ts wo uld provide sufficient protein for both adu lt s and ζ hildr en Ther efo 悶， in te rms of human nutr 忱的 n and well being , increased rice production co\"ld pl.V a 叫 al role in the food econ-。 my of latin America VI 酬。 rs atteDding 討回 pollcy conference inspect rice varlety erperiment Experiences in ASÎa and Central Am eríca clearly indicate that the obtaining 。 f maximum benefi'ts from the intr。 duct 的 n of new h 可 h.yie lding semi.dwarf rice varíeties depends upon the deve 卜 。 pment of coherent and complete action programs. Possibly the best way to understand this 1s to consider the va r!Ous steps taken by countries that were successful with their rice ac'tion programs Such a program for an individual country involves at least the following steps; in some countries add 刊的 nal ones will be required because of unique Clr-curr、 stances 1 . I n order that the countrγprogra m can realize the benefits of this increased production and redυced c。肘 it will be essential 'to provide rice growers with adeqυate sυpplies of locally adapted varÎetÎes and inputs as well as appro priate cultural practices . Prov 悶 ion for the multiplication and distribution of hi日 h quality seed is essentiaJ; in some cases this can be left to private firms, in others , some mixture of governmen.r and private enterprise may be best 2. Along with the improved adapted varieties, technical information on the growing of these ne w varieties should be provided if theìr potential is to be realized. This will require a well developed technically competent group of rice produc'tion specialists. Their servi-ceS will have to be combined with ade qυate supplies of appropriate inputs such as fertilizer , chemicals , and ma chinery. These inpυts should be made avaìlable to alJ producers at reasonable prices , in the right amounts and at the right time and place. Bu't the concom itant benefits of íncreased production depend upon an adequate marketing system involving two essential comp。 nent s, phγ sica l and financiδ 1. There are the physica l iss ues: Spec刊 ically， adequate transport facilities are needed between farm and mill and storage, and final market. There is the necessity for adeqυate drying ，肘。 rage， and milling lacil 川 ies. These critical factors will de-terrr、 ine the final quality of tho rice available fo r sale. Spoilage and losses will occur if drying and storage fa:ililies are inadequate, and a favorable percentage of unbroken long grain rice wi ll 。 nly be possible if modern rice milling equipment is used 3. Prior to the production 01 th. ose quantities of rice, deci sions w ill have 10 be made as to the proposed linal disposition of it. Some Latin American cou ntries will be able to maintain their exports of rice, and $ome will be able 10 enter the export market for the first time, if they follcw aggressive policîes leading to low cost production of a good quality rice. Curren't trends, however , sugges t that this wi ll be d ifficult to achieve, in the face of declines in wo rld prices that are expected to result as exporting nations increase their production and importing countries achieveThe levee divides the varietles JR22 00 the lefí and CICA 4 on the rigbí 旭 nitTogen rerlU:izaUon experimen峙。 sell-sufficienc y. It may be expected, therelore, that the typica l L 剖 in ÄmerÎcan count ry will produce primarily for Îts own domes'tic market BREEDING Crosses. A total of 69 new crosses was made in 1971 , bringing the total since 1967 to 58 1. AII 1970 crosses involved the va ri剖 i es Tetep, Marr、。 riaka ， C46-15, and Oissi Hat 斤， which are suspected t 。 have generalized resistance to rice blast Thirty-three o f the new cross.es involving these parents were backcrosses to high quality, dwarf parents giving a total of 2,667 F, plants . Other crosses invol ving F, (dwarf) x blast resistant parents pr。 duced 3,470 F, seeds. The crossing pro-9 月 m is concentra'ting on blast resistance now tha t ear lîe r crosses ha.ye provided vast amounts of segregating material having superior plant type , grain charac-terÎstics, and resistance to Sogata Nurseries. Plantings of breeding material were made dυring 1970 on the ICA experiment station in Palmira in April , May, July, August , November, and December . These included more 'than 17,000 pedigree rows (F 3 to F.) that were evaluated thorcughly for grain and plant traits EI.even F\" single cross populations of 4,000 to 8,000 plants each were grown and se lected. These we re from c rosses of high quality dwarfs and the varieties mentioned previously as having general. ized resi stance to blast A la rge pedigree nursery of F:~ lin2s from cr-osses of d warfs and Colombia 1, a local variety which has maintained i't5 blast resistance in hundreds of test5, was evaluated for blast resistance combined w 川、 d wa rfi s m and acceptabl.~ grain. Few useful plants were fou nd The same single crosses backcrossed t。 the dwarf p-arent were evaluated in 1,0 10 F 2 lamilies having about 200 p lants each. Ab。υt 50 percent 01 the families were susceptible to blast , and were discarded. The remainder , carrying resistan c:e to blas't , had excellent combinations of resistance, plant type and qua:ity, and produced approximately 7,000 selectionsThe new rice selections with improved plant types 3re compared 、甘 th the tradi t.\\onal variely Bluebonnet. 50 in variety trialsThis 几 material appears so promis ing thðl bulk populations were sen t to seven loca ti ons in six countries for local se!ections and evaluation . The observa t ic n tha't single crosses did not result in usefuJ F:! lines , whereas backcrosses to the dwarf parent prcduced excellent F 2 segregates, il!ustrates the need to con centrate o n dwarf traits and rapìdly eliminate the undersirable plant and grain characterÎstics o f t he blast resis tanl parents A number of excellent Fü I i 門 es from crosses 01 IR930 , IR579 , IR532 , and IR6 22 se lect ions combine all desired traits except blast resistance , About 360 01 thεse were sim ultaneo usl y planted in both Fr; rows and in obse rvational plots and were sent tc other coun'tries for w ider evaluations. lt is expected that one or more of these will become a nam ed var iet y as a further improvement on IR8. IR22 , and CICA 4. There is urgent need 10 develop a range of improved varieties even th ough they are a ll poten t iall y susceptible .to blast. Until general ized resistance to blast is bred into superior backgrounds , farmers must have a choice cf several potentially susceptible va rieties as the blast organism adapts itself to existing varieties In summary, nearly all material in the program is dwarf, has excellen't m Î II 川9 and ccoking quality, is early in maturity and has good resistance 'to Sogata feed ing . 81ast res ist ance, now the major ob jective of the program , continues to be ð di 衍 icult breeding problem. Promising F:.: and F:j material must be rigorous!y observed for a fe w more generat ions before firm conclusions can be drawn Yield Tri.ls. A total 01 J J 中!i nes were eva!uated in June. These included selec-tions from 't he earlies t crosses made ín Palmir a and sever td advanced lines from IRRL Many p lots yie lded from 6 to 9 ton jha while local check varieties pr。 duced 2 to 4 tonj ha. Nevertheless , the majority has undesí rab le 9ra 川 andjor la te m a turit y, and o nly 26 lines were re-H 附ed. In December , 'these 26 lines were inclu ded in a trial of 390 en lries, many of which seem especíally oust an dingThe 197 日 Annual Repon presented prcliminary yields 01 the se lec'ti ons 1 R665 23-3-1-IB made in Palmira. Seeds 01 selected plants were processed in a tesltube m iller, and seeds 01 120 had minimum graîn breakage. These were mu l tiplied , and cl 80 singl e rows harvested , 20 ranged Irom SI to 62 percent head ri ce compared 10 37 percent for the or i9 in al line and 52 percent for Bluebonnet 50. These 20 select ions we re replanted in multiplication plots in November ' Two experimen 峙， using CICA 4 and 1 R22 , were affected by zinc deliciency and could not be completely controlled by loliar sprays or by li ght applications 01 zinc su lfate . The CICA 4 experiment wðS 50 se riou sJy affected that it had to be discarded. The resu lt s 01 the IR22 experiment showed tha't there W()S cn)y a slight response to nitrogen in this experimen t. Filty kg N/ ha applied 25 days after seeding produced practically the same yie)ds as higher a moun ts applied in one, tWQ or three app !i cations Soils on the CIAT larm appear to have the capacity to supply the ma jor par't 。f the nitrogen requirementIn one experime川 Ilooding was delayed Irom 0 to 9 daγs after th e appli ca tion 01 100 kg/ ha 01 n 叫 roge n on a dra 叭 ed 50il. The resu lts a re shown in Table 1 The data 川 d i ca te tha t delaγed Ilooding resu lted in nit rogen los ses and tha't higher yields were obta ined by flooding as soon as possìble after nitrogen ap plicat ions VARIETY TRIALS CICA 4 and IR22 we re compared w 川、 the tradi ti ona l varieties now being 。 the r coun tr ies in Central and South America. Some new and promising genetic lines we re 川cluded to g ive com parative information as to 'their potential va lue as future varieties 仁 ICA 4 prcduced higher yields than a 門 y of the o ther commercial varìetìes 。ver the t wo-γear period . IR22 produced approximately 77 percent 01 the IR8 y ield. 60th of these two varie ties pr。 duced 2 切 2.5 times the yield 01 Bluebonne't 50 an d Starbonnet With respect to th e genetic lines, the h ，日 hest yields were produced by the IR841 -63-5一 1 B selections. In sorne cases, the y ields were 700-800 kg/ ha higher than vields of CICA 4. Line IR665-23-3-1-1 日， over the two-yea r perÎod , produced slightl y higher yields than 1 R8 . 1 n the 1971 tes ts, all varieties had to be tre訓 ed w it h zinc to produce normal growth Desp ìte repeated zìnc applications , Blu e bonnet 50 and Starbonnet showed deficiency symptoms throu gh out their growth periodZinc deficiency occurred in all of the 1971 lertili'ty and va riet y tri als. The effects we re severe enough in some cases to result in the death 01 20j30-day-old rìce plant s Sources, met h。缸 f and rate s of 叩 pli 日， ti on of zinc were stud ied in a number of cxperiments . Some evalu 剖 ions were als。 made on the tolerance of varieties to low availability cf zin:: in soil $. Soil samples we re sent to IRRI for analyses and a set of leaf samples wa s sen't to th o Tennessee Val ley Authority Labo ratory . The analytical da ta from thesc sarnples are shown in Tables 2 and 3  The ch emica\\ anal yses show that the so;l was \\OW in av ai \\ab\\e zinc al all deplhs ðnd Ihðl Ihe s ubs印 I sample was sti ll more deficient than lhe surface samples. Zi nc defi ciency 5γmptoms were more severe where t he 5υrf ðCe soil had been removed in leve ling opera ti ons or in levee constructionThe values for z;nc content ín Table 3 ðppeðr 10 be correlðted with publishod va lues relattld to the ap pea ran ce of the rice plants. Complelely normal p lants had a zinc ccntent of 38 ppm as compðred 10 14 ðnd 17 ppm for 'the ρlants s h ow 川 9 z 附 c def 此時 ncγ symp- The data indicate thal there w as no real difference in lhe two nitrogen sources and that the yields were highest in the highes t zÎnc trea t n可 en l. The increases per unit of zinc added were less , however , in the hi gher rat es as compared 10 the lowe r rates In one experimen t. Ihe zinc was incorporat ed in the soil before transplanting ; în the o ther , the zinc was applied in st andì ng water at the time of the zinc deficiency symp'toms . The results of the two exper iment s are co m b ined in Table 5 ðnd Fig. 1 AII three mate rial s are good sources cf zÎnc , and there was I;ttle djHerence among them. When incorporated ;n the soil s, Ihe major part of the yield in creðses was produced wilh 8 kg/ ha 01 zinc , ðlt hough the highest yield was produced wilh the 32 kg/ h ð appliCðtion W hen applied În the wa'ter at the appearance o f the zinc deficiency sγmp to ms some 15 to 20 days after trans planting, the re w as an almost linear response. Th e yield increases were about 50 percent of those obtained in the e xper;ment in w h 阿 h the zÎnc was i 仆 corpo rated in the 50il before trans p lanti ng. These differences are due, in  part , ' 1 0 the difference in t;me of ap plication as well as the method of application In another exper iment , the roots were immersed in zinc suphate sol 叫 lons of 1, 2 and 4 percent concentrations and fo r various periods of 1, 2 and 4 minutes belore transplanting. Although the treatmen'ts gave good growth response durÎng the initial $ix to seven weeks of growth , even the highest treatments were inadequate, and liUle to no grain wa s produced Foliar appJications us ing 0 . 25 percenl Zineb, 0 , 5 percent zinc sulphate and 1 percent zinc poJyflavonoid were als。 tes'ted. The better sources appeared t 。 be z 叭 c sulphate and zinc polyllavonoid , but a minimum of five application5 was reqυired The mate rial Agrimins (Zn content 0.8 . 1.0 percent) was also checked as a zinc sOurce . The data 叭dicate that υP to 150 kg! ha 01 the material corrected the deficiency in these 50ilsIn general , high nitrogen rates ag9ravated 'the condition and, in some cases, yields were nil where no zinc was applied . Zinc alone increased yields bυt bcth nítrogen and zinc were required fOr h igh yields An evaluation of the tolerance of varieties to low availabilitγ01 Zn in the 50il was 司 Iso made . The ratings are show n on Greenhouse and labora torγs tudies wit h susceptible, in termedi ate and resistant varieties and with the m。到 圳 rulent races isol a ted from Brazil ，亡。 Icmbia , and Peru , indicated that 'the type 01 t he les 叩 n ， it s size, color , and the nυmber of conidia produced per |εsion arc important factors in de ler n、J11 lng part 昀 1 resistance to P. oryzae Susceptible varieties showed larger size (type 4) and a greater numbe r 01 1是← sions. Sporulation took place in less time and the number of spores produced was considerab ly higher. Intermediate va rieties in certaÎn cases had type 3 les ions but they produced more conidia . Th 時 implies that l-e sion size is not the only factor contrcJling resistance. Large size les ions producing few conidia may be more important epiphytologically than sma l!er size lesi。肘， bυt may a l50 be ac't ive conidia producers. In general , type 3 lesions produced fewer conidia than type 4Sporυlation was hi ghe r in the greenhouse than in the laboratory. The leave5 became yellow and died in five daγ5. 的 is might be the reason for the smaller number of conidia observed in the laboratory ~tu dies . The time f rom inocu la tio 門 t o spo rulation in 巾的 ion WðS shorter in susceptib\\e varieties than in interme diate ones. However , the time difference was sma l!. Type 3 le 訕 。 ns produced more conidia than type 2 les ions, in gene ra l, but in som e cases a high sporulation occurred in type 2 \\esions Daily d ischarge of conidia was different for Ihe susceptible and inlermediate varie'ties. High spo rulati 。叭。cc urred dυring the first daγ5 for type 4 lesions of Fanny and Bluebonnet 50. The type 4 l e訕。ns of lacð Escuro always pro d uced few co n i d 咱， an Important epl-phγ10109ical factor in the development 01 th e disease. Colombia 3 had type 3 lesions but they produ.ced more conidia after the fifth daγThis kind of late d ischarge resistance may be a ζritical fac'tor in an efficient chemical control combine廿 with partial resistance of rice to P. oryzaeIn general , panicle5 are foun d to be more suscep t ible than leaves. The screening method 悶 based υpon the leaf infection of seedlings 30-35 daγs after planting under natura l conditions in epiphytotic areas. The screening of lines for resistance depends υpon a good correlation between leaf and panicle susceptib i1 ity to P. oryzae 56 Plants of s usceptib 峙， inte rmediate, and resistant varieti es were inoculated with four races of the fungus δt 15 , 3口， 45 days and boot ing s tage, using a con ce 門 trδtion of at least 40 conid 自 a per 100 x microscope field. The results indica.te that the varieties highly suscept ible and resi stant gave uniform reac t 叩 ns al the va riou s stages of growth Scme varielies such as Nahng Mon 5-4 2l nd IR8 , which are susceptible in various Iccations to severa l races u 門 der field cond itio n s, we re resi stant at the seedling stage 10 ðll the ra ces bul suscept ible to neck rot 10 some races This suggests that 50 1訓 e isolates are non-pathcgenic to lea ves but are able to infec t the pan icles . These two varieties have been con 日 s t ent l y re 日 s tar、 t to the four races used at the seedl ing stage Experiments with a large number of varieties ðre planted in the field 10 s tudγ more criticð l1y thi s important correla IlonThrough cooperðtive work w 川、 the Instituto 6iologico, Sao Paulo, ðnd Ihe Instituto Rio Grande do Arroz , Porto Alegre , in Brazil , the Estaci 。門 Experi mental \" La Molina \" , Li ma , and the Uni versidad Pedro R 山 z Ga ll o , Lam bayaque, Peru , races of P. oryza. e were determined by using Ihe int~rnational set of differential varieties. 5even'teen races were delerm 川ed in Bra 叭 ， 14 in Colombia , and 25 in Peru Some races such as 1 A-I , 1 A-65, 1 C-1, 1D 凸， 1D-13 , 1 G-1 , 1 G-2 , I H-1 , and 11-1 are more pr<:!valent and virulen t. The same rðces are present in S。 υtheast Asia , Japan , and the United 5tates . Thi5 information mighl help in screening lines 。 r varieties for partial resistan ce under artifical greenhouse Or laboratory con ditionsThe fungus consists of many races. In addition , constant var iabi lity in path 。 ge n 呵 it y has be:n reported , Ho wever , roces IB-I , 1(-1, IG-I ancl 10-8 have kept their specific pathogenicity fo r fo ur years after freqυent subculturing. Races 1(-1 and IG-I areoften lound throughout the wcrld and this may explain why they do no t change theÎ r racial pattern as reported for other races Chemical control of blast Resistance is the most effective and bast cxpensive way to contro l bla st ; chernica l con trol , however , can reduce losses and maγbe use-f ul in an integ rated control w 川、 parti a ll y res istan t va rieties There are tw c climatic areas to b2 con s idered for chem!cal contro l. Fir s t, rEg ions where there are f a vc rable cond t ions for the devel o pment of the diseasB, with incon s tant rain fa ll , and second , loca t 巾的 5 where it rains a lm ost contin-LJously . In the fj(SI region , il is 戶。 ss ible to cont ro l the disease econo micall y w ith iυngicides . In locati ons having the continuous and heavγrδin s ， it will be necessary to develop special means of app li ca lÎon to overco me the imm ed iate was hing-off cf the applied ch emi ca ls Seed lreatmenl Applications at the booting stage, and two more at weekly intervals thereafter, increased γields of the variety Blue bonnet 50 up to two ton/ ha as connpared wi 'th the check in locations 01 high neck rot infection and intermittent rainsThe fungicides Benlate (0.25 kg a.i . / ha ), NF.44 (0.21 kg a.i.jha) , Hinosan (0.35 I.a . . / ha). Kitazin (0.63 I.a.i . / ha) , Kasunnin (0.03 I.z.i./ha). and Bla.S (0.061.a 自 / ha) cons 自 stentlγcon trolled the disease effectively and ec。 nomically. Mixtures of Benlate (0. 100 kg a.i./ha) and Kasumin (0 日 2 kg a 自 /ha) increased the effectiveness an~ reduced the cost of controL The same lreatments under heavy and continuou::; rains did not give any control. Green house experiments showed that Benlate has a residual effect of up to 12 days, giv ing a good contro\\ even a week after foliar applicat 的 nsThe development of systemic fυn9 1cides offers the possibility of con廿olling the blast disease by soil applications Thirty.five fungicides were screened using a rate of 100 kg a.i. / ha , with the variety Fann y as the test plan t. 01 these, Benlate, NF.44 and NF. 35 were 'the most cffective. In different experiments NF.44 controlled blast better than Benlate a'l lower rates , but they were sti ll too high to be economical. Preliminary experimen 峙 in w hich Twee n 20 at I percent was mixed with the sys'temic fungicides , showed improvement in control at lower doses Monthly p lanting5 in plOt5 previously treated with these systemic fungicides we re effective in the s印 I for more than 150 da ys. They suggest that it i5 p05sible to control blast by using low cos t soi \\ applications with an improved application method Granular KitazÎn did nct control blast when applied directly to the 50il with upland rice; it was affective whe n ap plied to irrigated rice. This granular fun-58 gic ide might be economica 1Jy useful in applications to irriga'ted rice one week before heading, becausc it became effec-tÎ ve three to fou r days after app 1i cation , reached 明創 i n1 um effectìveηess after fjve to seven days, and then gra du al: y be::ame les s effc~tiveThe imρ or tance of hoja blanca has diminished in recent years, presumably because of 川、 proved varieties resistant to the vector Sogatodes oryzicola. The active and the non-ac't ive co\\onies we re maintained for future 5tudies Preliminary experiment s to trace the virus in the vec tor did not show its pn:.sence in t he genitals of either thc female or the male. Direct identifica't ion of the v,rU 5 particles was possible in rice, barley, wheat and al50 in barnyard gra55 (Echinochloa colonum). The lo n9, flexous , thin threads were found in the cytoplasm as wel\\ as in the nuc\\eus These particles broke dow n readily in purified and leaf.dip preparation s, making it di 衍 icult to determine their length HELMINTHOSPORIASIS A disease 'that atta cks the panicle and causes a brown coloration of the grains si m i! ar to that caused by P. oryzae was ob5erved on 5el.ections cf I R822. A fun. gus , Helminthosporium sp. , was ζ。 nSls tently isola ted. Pathogenicity tests showed tha't it was the ca usal agen t. Thi s disease is also present in Brazil , and it may become impor'tant 附 the fu ture SHEATH BLl GHT Th is disease is caus 川 9 sefloυs losses in severa\\ regions of Co\\ombia. 1I has become cne of the most common and destructive diseases. Several isolates of the fungu s Corticium sasakii have been 。 btained from many \\0日 t ions a nd from d 刊 ferent varieties , particularly Tapuripa Studie5 on the growth 01 the fungu5 , Experimeot 00 partial resistance to rice blast cUseasc. Attendants at the CIAT symposium 00 the Horizontal Resistancc to Rice Blast diseaS' e ecology 01 the disease, susceptibilit y 01 the rice plan't at severa l s tages, and development o f a suitable mass screen ing method for resistance wi ll be carried 。 ulThe importance of this disease as one of the limiting factors in rice production in the tropics prompted CIAT to organize a conference to review the present status cf kncwledge abou t partial (h~r 悶。 ntal) resis tance of rice to Þ. oryzae Seventeen scienti s ts working with P oryz:ae and ín related fields were invited to participate. split applications 5hould be made with 7 to 10 day5 between each one 4. Adding a small amount of paraquat to 2, 4-0 or 2, 4 , S-T did not increase conlrol , as has been indicated in another species A fc-Ilow-up experiment wi llυ se the more cffc:::tive treatmen'ts in these trials In 5 戶 lit application and lhen U5e pregcrminated rice seed Another s tudy is compari n9 herbicide selectivìtyυsing either dry or pre-germinated rice seed . We expect a lcss of selecti vit y with several pre-emergance and late pre-emergence herbicides when prεgerminated see品 is used , as the chemical 亡。 mes into direct contact wi í: h the seedWe are comparing the competitive abìlity of rice in both seeding methods in the same trial. In theory, pre-germi nated seed gives the rice a much quicker start and thus reduces weed competition Future work in chem ical con t ro l w ill fo::us on upland rice. The problems are much greate;-because product s must give longer control than is presently ob tained w hen th ere is no water tO give gocd cυItural contro l. Upland weed 5peCles often tend 10 be more resi stant than those in flooded rice fields SOILS Lowland rice produçtion on acid oxisc's in the Ll anos Orientales The ea5tern plain5 of Colombia (Ll anos Orientales) are characterized by very acid and hi 月 hlγleached 50i1 5, and a native savannah vegetδtion. The soils a :-e classified as OX 峙。 15 w ith 9 月 dients to ulti501s in the lower-Iying a re3s Flocded rice is the most im por tant COI11mercial crop. The prcduct ion is lim ite:1 to about 20 ,000 ha 5, all of which a,e locate:l on the wes'tern edge 01 the 110 ncs , ðt t he foot o f Ihe Andes. Rice yie lds are general1y low , 3-4 ton j ha , because 01 low 50i 1 lert i 1 i ty, high bla5t 附 c i dencc and a phys :ological disease ca lled \" ana ra 川 amiento\" cr orange lea f di seas2 CIAT scientists initiated research in 1969 to determine the caus-e of \" ana ranjamiento\" as well as 50ìl management practÎces to overcome 't he problem . Th 弓 j:ot and labcrato rγsludy was done at lCA's Palmira research center using soi l from Cari magua 1. \"ANARA NJAMIENTO\" Fl ooded rice grown in the Ilanos nc r mallγappears rather healthy and green during the first month of growth. Duri ng Ihe second month , howeveõ , the plants become stunted, have in5u fficicnt tiller 10 日， and the leav zs slart turning yelJow to orange . Typica l \"anaranjamien to\" begins w ithγell owing at the tip 01 the lowe r leaves , progres sing down the leaf , esp~cially along the margi 肘， and m ov-In gυp thεp l ant tc the hi 口 her leavc5. The lower leaves eventually dry up and die The slow ly formed new g; een leaves maγ give t he appearance of a later recovery, but the plants remain stun ted and t he ye 110wed leaves never tυrn green. The Fe content in the leaves is seldom above level s usually considered toxic (3 日 D ppm). The rcots 01 aHected p lant5 are generally short with few rcotlets and are covered with a red iron oxide deposi t. Sometimes the rcot tips are slight-Iy enlarged and dark red. Most roots seem !nactlve Because \"anaranjamiento\" is only ob served in flooded rice grown on IIan05 50 i1 5 ， 自 t was postulated that it was due to a nu'trient deficiency ar a reductio n product toxicity. The latter seemed t。 be mare likely since high applications 01 N, P, K and trace elements did not alleviatc 'the problem , Since the soilsδre high in Fe, and the symptoms are simi lar to the yellow type 01 Fe toxícity symp'toms, the dísease wa5 thought to be due to Fe toxicity. The chemical kinetics 。1 the soil after Iloodíng were st udíed , w ith spec ial a~lention being given to changes in the Fe concentration in the 50ìl solution A. The chemical kinetics of the soil and the growth of rice Two sets of experiments we re conducted to determine the effect of various treatments on 仙 e chemical kinetics of the 50il. The experiments were done with 6 kg soil in plastîc pots in the screen-hou5e. Every week , 50il solutions were extracted Irom a glass-T ín the bottom 01 the p。峙， and simultaneously analyzed lor pH , Eh and conductívíty ín a spec íal Iy buílt cell contaíníng o ne g la ss ele<: trode, one calomeJ elect rode, two Pt electrodes , and a conductivity cell. Extraction and analyses were conducted under N~ gas to prevcnt oxidation of the solution by contac't w 川 h air. The solutions were then acidif 悶 d to prevent oxidatìon, and analyzed for Fe and Mn During the first semester the soil was míxed belore plantíng wíth 50 kgjha N (urea ), 150 kg/ ha P,O, (Ca( H,PO,), H,O ), 100 kg/ ha K,O (KC 1 ), 375 kg/ ha CaCO\" and 125 kg/ ha MgCO,. Top dressíngs 01 75 kg/ha N were made at 30, 60 , and 75 day5. The treatments íncludcd varíous lengths 01 tíme 01 prellood íng belore plan tíng, delayed Iloodíng (50íl at líeld capacíty lor 8 weeks ), and MnO, applícatíon 5 at the rate 01 1,000 kg Mn jha. In prelloodíng trea'tment 5 the soíl was submerged at 7, 5 , 3 and 0 weeks befo re transpl anting. At this time 62 all pots were lertílízed and 7-day-old 5eedlíng 01 IR8 we re transpl a nted Fíg. 2A shows the change ín pH ùlter Iloodíng. The pH íncreased Irom 4.1 5 to a n equilibrium value of 6.5 , but the increase was extremely slo w because of a slow reduct 的 n . The rate of reduct io n was much faster in 'the presence t hJn in the absence of fertilizer s. This is indícated by 'the lact that ín the unlertílízed $oíl (seven weeks prelloodíng) the pH during th3 initial fi ve weeks increased to only 5.53 , wh íl e ín the le r'tílízed soíl (0 week5 prellcodí ng) í t íncreased to 5 日 4 ， The5e soíls appear to be so lo w in fertility that the application of lert 山 zers greatly increases the rate of reductíon. Símílarly, wíth 0 weeks pre-Iloodíng the Eh (Fíg. 2 巴) decreasod rnore rapidly than with 7 weeks pre-Ilcodíng In all cases the Eh decreased from 545 mV to a con5tant vel ue o f about 90 mV ín 10-15 weeks. Apparently, the hígh concentration of Fe buffered the 501υ tíon at a relatívely hígh Eh. Po'tentíal s low enough for sulfate reduction were not observed in the 50il 50l u tionThe Fe concentration in so ~ution (Fig 2C ) remained very low for seve ral weeks before ri5ing sharply to a maximum of 300-350 ppm . Alter the peak , the concentratìon dropped to a constant level of 150-200 ppm becau5e of precípítatíon 01 lerrous hydroxíde at the hígh pH. Fe ìevels above 300 pprn have been report ed 10 cause direct Fe toxi city in the ri c-::o plant. The applícðtíon 01 MnO, had hard-|γanγeffect on the p H and Eh, and hacl 。 nlγa sli 日 ht effec'l on the Fe concentra. tion , reducing the maximum slightly tc 285 ppmThe conduct ivit y of the soi l solution in creased 10 a ma ximum of about 800 micro mho5 / cm before aec reas ing 'to a constant level of about 凸 00 mícro mhos/ cm. The Mn concentraticn also increa sed upon I1∞ dí 峙， but never reached hígher than 2 ppm . Th 時 pr ecl udes Mn toxicity After the first semester the soil WðS dríed , síeved , and rellooded lor the sec- ond s~mes ter expefimenL S。 自 I anal ys is shcwed a marked ly highe r pH a nd fe rtility of this \"used\" 50il corn pared with o \"fresh\" lI anos soil (Tδble 7) Before flood in g , the soils were fertil ized wi\\ h the same mater 吋 Is ðS report ed for the first semes ter , except that the in itia l N, P, and lime leve ls were doubled Th e second semester expe r iment in cl uded va ri ous wa ter m a nagemenl a nd other !reatments such ðs we't fallow , const ant and rot ationa l irri f1 a tion , vðr iou s d rõin age systems , an d 'the addi ticn cf st raw and high leve\\ s of lime w ith the reguiar f e川 ili ze r sThe pH and Eh curves ob t 叫 ned we re similar to those in Figs. 2A , 2 B. 8ecau se this 50i l had been c rop ped once before, TABLE 7 ph the ini tial p H was hi ghor (5.3) and ini t ia l Eh w.s lower (420 m V). The higher fe rtility le ve l (and probab ly bac te riol pop ulati on) resul ted in a more rapid red uction . Maximum p H level s of 6.5 a nd minimum Eh levels of 80 mV we re reac hed in only four week s. The str aw and high li me aρplic 訓 i o ns s li ghtl y inc reased the rate of reduction and resu lted in hi gher pH and lower Eh values The rotaticna l irrigation , con sisting of 3 1/ 2 d ays fl coded a lt ernated with 3 1 ' 2 da y, d 內 ， ma rkedl y reduced the pH to about 5.3 and increa sed the Eh to 300-350 \", VThe differences am o ng trea tments we re mos t marked w 川、 respe c t to Fe conc e n t rat 的 n ( Fig. 3  \" used\" soil with continu。 υs flooding. With the addition of 0 , 4 percent straw , t he soil reduced very rapidly, while maximum Fe leve ls were as h 句 h as 310 ppm. Rotational irriga'ti 。門， started at three weeks after seed 卅日， reduced the Fe concentration to nearly zero, whilc Ir (l 9 剖 ion with in ternal dra 川 age (4 cmj da y) ma intai ned ir叫 ermediale Fe level5 P ~a nt response. During both semesters the plant respon se 10 trea'tments was 5ma ll. The plant s were always severely stunted and \"ana ranjamiento\" symptoms appeared around s ix w曲 ks ， being more severe during the first t han the second semester. Prefl ooding did n o~ show any beneficial effect and yields slightly decreased w ith increasing time 。1 preflooding , The delayed flooding treatmen't s howed 也 naranjamiento \" on ly alter flooding , resul'ting in high straw but low grainγields. The MnO, trea tment resul ted in more severe \" ana. ranjaml e nt 。\" symptoms ， whic h m ay have been due to Mn to 別 city (5 ,500 ppm Mn in leaves). but the final plant growth and yields were better 'than for any other treatment During the second semester \" ana ranjamiento\" symptoms developed irrespective 01 treatment s. Apply 川 9 fertilizers at time of seecling resulted in higher yields than at 'time of prellooding. The fa vo rable chemical condi tio ns in the soil due to rotational irrigati on or in . ternal drainage were not reflected in higher y' el ds, prob ab lγbecause of fertil :er losses bγlea c hing and denitrificÐtion. Midseason drainage at two months resulted in the highest yield o f grain The addition 01 s'traw or high levels 01 lime had no beneficia l effecL From these pot expe r iments and field 。 oservations the fo llowing conclusio ns we re drawn: An experimental prototype rotati lJer ha s been used for wet soil puddling A one-meter diameter puddling ro tO:was de訓 gned and developed in 亡 IAT for vcry soft soils Two Japanese rotat illers wi th rubber tire s were providecl with cage wheel ex tens 叩門 s to wo rk in flooded fields One of the major problem areas in the tropics is lack of machinery and 13 bor sys tems to plant crops during the rainy season. Because 1971 was an unusuallγ we t year, it provided the opportunity 'to plant rÎ('e under saturatecl s。叫 conditions. Ory land prcparation an ;:J seeding of o ther cr。但 proved impractical Major irrig剖 ion ðl1d drainage proje::t s developed for tro戶 ical corn production a nd o ther upland crops have required exces s ívelγhigh capital investments . The develcpme :1 t of !'uitable wet land prepara'tion equipment wou ld e nable these areas to be placed in'to rice production with D m inimum in ves tmen t. The use of cqUJp 們 ent in the continuous productio:\\ of rice througho ut the γear would further reduce th c cost in machinery in ves tment and provide unjform employ. m~nt and income . A preliminary rice production system has been impJement. ed on a 50 hectare a rea w i't h the inten. tion of planting app,oximately 1/2 hectare per day . Thus labor , machines and land wouJd be in continuousυse w1thLand levclling under \\V ater wlth a spike (oo(h Prep:!ring wct land with a protot)'pe rotary an income of 2 to 2 1/ 2 tons of harvested rice per work daγMany pro blem s ll1 ust be solved ; however, the co mponents necessa ry w 刊 I be identilied and triedAn est; ,-:'\"!ate w as made of the cost of producing the t(a cJ itional and new rice varieties in nine Latin American coun 司 tries . Bas ic dðta were obtained fro m na-I:ona l agricυItu r al research inst itu'tes and / or thc Ministries of AgricultureThe estima ted cos ts o f produc t 的 n a re reported 附 Figure 4 and Table 8 . The esrlmates ðre rough guidelines rather than exact fjgures . The cost of produc tion tends 10 vary among regions within onγ 。 ne country and even among farmers within a region . The cost datð fo r each 。鬥 e of the countries are expressed 川 ð common currencγ (U . S. $ ) for direct com p arison s. The official exchange rates maγnot correspond tc relative domestic Pυrchasi n g power w ithin the var '。υs c。υntries ， hence a direct compar ison of dollar costs may be biasedFigυre 4 shows tha t t he C05t of p roducing rÎce under irr igation is low În Argentina while it is relatively high in Peru and Colombia . The co st per 怕的 。f rice produced under upland condi tions is low in Ecuador, Colombia , and Paraguay while it is high in Peru and Costa Rica . The production c05t per to n of the new rice vδrietie s is con5iderably below the C05t of producing pre5ent varie'ties. For example, the pr o duct 咱們 cost per ton of present varieties under irrigation in Peru is estimated to bz abo u't $84, w hile the estimated co st 01 producing a ton of the new varieties i5    On the basis of existing ric e p r ices 川 the various Latin American COvntr 悶， an analysis was made 10 determine the re la live competitive position of each countrγ with res~ect to ric~ expor t. Table 中 的。 ws the average internal wholesale price of rice for each one of a number of Latin American cou ntries. To obtain some ind阿剖 ion o f the rel a ti ve competi tive pos ition of each counlry, the internal prices were estimated ðS ð percenl age 01 the export price 01 Thai rice I.o.b Thailand (Table 9). The price cl Thai rice appears '10 be a good index of general world prices Table 9 shows that rice prices tend 10 be low in Argentina and Paraguay and high in Venezυela ， Dom inica n Republ ic ðnd Panama. The w ho l.~sa le prices of rice in countries such as Argentina and Para gυay were below the pr 悶 e of Thai rice during the γears included in the analysis Ecuador shows an improving competitive position. Most other coυnt ries show internal wholesale prices above those lound in the world mδrket A comparison of the internal prices in the va rioυs cou ntries with existing world market prices prov ides a rough guide l 川e for the rel a li ve competitive position with respect to expo r l. However, a number of other fact crs tend 't。 influence the possibi lities for export , hence the above price analysis is no't sufficient to determine the export pos sibilities for the countries included in the analysisIt is expected that the adop't ion 01 the new rice varieties w ill cause a consid erable increase in the quantities of ri ce produced in Latìn America. Given the low price elasticities for rice for direct human consumption , it appears that alternative uses for rice should be 72 identified to avoid drastic price falls and / or large surplus stock accumulations Considering these relationship~， a stυdy WðS initiated after the Seminar on Rice Pol 峙 'es to identify such alternative uses and analyze the ir technical and economic fea 別 bil it y in Latin America The spec ific objectives o f the s tudy are ( 1) 'to project the magnitυde 0 1 the production expansion due to the new varieties in Latin Ameγi ca in the short run , (2) to predict luture demand lor rice for direct hum C:lI1 consumption , (3) to identify and analyze the leasibility of alternat ive uses for rice, (4) to analyze the poten'tial alternatíve uses for land presently ut 山 zed lor rice, and ( 5 The majority of farmers in Latin America plant ma 自 ze 自 n smδ11 plots near their ho uses or in fields of fi ve hectares 。 r less. The crop is characterized by low plant population , límited insect and weed control ，戶。or fertilizatíon , and local varieties. Yields average less than 1,000 kg per hectare. There has been relatively littl e resea rch and extension wo rk directed a t this farmer , especíallγ in the lowlands of the Andean zone Commercial maize production cm ploys available hybri 缸 I moderate rates of fertilizer , granular insecticides , and chemical weed control. Mcst research has bee n directed towa rd this cultural 吋stem ， and current yields average three to six tons throughout the zone . The maize program works with these tw。 distinct cultural systems , and comple ments the efforts of nat ional programs 川 the search for high.impact schemcs to raise p roductionThe collection and testing of prom. ising germ plasm from a wide rang.~ of sources ccntinued . In addition 。 direct requests from nationa l and com. mercial programs for seed , we have planted a series of international trials These include the International Maize Adaptation Nursery (CIMMYT ), the commerCI 剖， experimental , brach叭 ic and 。paque trials fr om Central America (PCCMCA ), two trials Irom the Inter A 別 an Program (IACP, Thailand) , and several early generation trials from CIMMYT. In most 01 these trials, limited crosses among selected lines were made to test new and prom is ing combinations in the next cycle. Thi s rapid selectioll , development and testing scheme has been used with remarkable succeSS in CIMMYT to reduce plant height 01 tropical maize. The selection cr i t軒 la we employ include low plant he i g 仙， ea rl y flowering and harvest dates , efficient dry ma tter prodυction ， and resista 門 ce to prevalent pathogens and insect pests Test ing 01 these materials will take place in regional stations as well as at CIAT A series of promising populations was planted in 197 1 lor observation and select 的 n ， These wi ll be carried through breeding cyc les lollowing several schemes: mass selection , modified mass selection , reciprocδ1 recurrent selection in two populations , and traditional inbreeding a nd hybr id format ion. Th 時 間 ries w ill be implemented in the field ρrimari ly as a traini ng tool , but will always b~ used with th e most promising germ plasm avδilab 峙， so that any end product will be of immedi ate use. Bo th traditional hybrid systems and population improveme nt sch3mes are included , since national maiz-e improvement pr。 grams differ in their approaches , an :J trδining should be as broad as possible Grain samples are col:eclc-d in lhe {i eld 1.。 de!ermine moisture and ad,just final ylelds, A scheme for Ihe flow of ma 阻e germ plasm through our program c f improvcment , evaluat io n , and r 刮目時間 outlined in Figure 1. This scheme allows ðn e仟 icient ， 109ical , and yet thorou9h use 。 f each introduction , and considers the rapicl rnovement of large numbers of materials whi le minim izi ng the chance of discarding important germ plasm This plan allows rapid evaluation ancl use of material s. Observations, research trials, and recomb ination s on an Înter nationaJ sca!e w ill be a primary respon sibîlity of CIAT . Evaluation rrials and spccial purpose screening are shared by l1 ational programs in the z。門 e ， comme ;-ci c: d companies , and farmers , in collaboration with C!AT. Ma ize improve ment within CJAT includes t he part 呵 'pa tion of crop protection , ag向 nomγand 50i 15, nutrition , economics, and engineer In g Grain samples for mo 自 sture determÎnatíon are carried to the [aboratory for evaluation MAIZE PHYSIOLOGY Wider adaptation of commerc ial hy. brids and varieti e s 凹 esse n t ial in a region where maize is grown in such a range of micro-clirnates . There is varia. 1ion in temperatu re (with altitude) , rainf all and relative humidity , availabl e energy, and soi l Iype, especiallγwith respect to l11 inor clemen 峙 I and consider. able varÎat i o n 川 day len91h w ilhin Lalin America . The area in m a 月 e In most micro.clim atic zcnes does not j ustifγan improvement progra l11 and specific hy brids for that a rea. A preferred solut ion is to select a w ide range o f broadly adapled var 削 i es or compos ites w h ich can then be tested in the many zones , and the best materi al for each zone increased in that speci 干 ic area. Develop ment of these composÎtes req 山 res testing in collaborat 的 n w 叫 h na t ional programs , as we ll as more informa ti on on factor s whic h influence adaptation Photoperiod sensitivity limit s north south exchange 01 germ plasm. Field stud ies during 1971 revealed a si mple inherit ance sys te m fo r se nsit 川 ty-p os sibγas few as 'two genes-and thi s genetic pa tte rn is being tested in the c urrent cycle . A study of cri tical da γ length wa s inconclusive, and is being repea ted. germ plasm which has survived the rigors of a previous growth chamber test ìs being screened. These tests will give resul 悶。 n actuaJ resistance to cold and fros 峙 ， and also allow a recombina tion of surv ivors into a re s 時 tant sy nthetíc. Sυrv 川 ng and adapted materials from these three locations in the Andes w ill be combined with survivors from other locations一-Nepal ， Kenya, New Zealand , and New York一一 into an inter ηational composite for use by rrograms throughout the temperate and hi gh altitude trcpical world Plant ty pe and productíon effíc íency are continuing concerns of the breeder Selection sc hemes currently emphasize short stature, earlγmaturity ， fewer leaves and smaller lE: af area , and multiple ears. Efficient use of light , nutri ents and moistu 悶， plus the need for better resist ance 'to lodging, dictate th~ ne3d for a smaller p lan t. In the current season we are testing 50 s。可 hum lines of di ve rse origin w hÎch represent shorts and ta lls, early and late types, leafy ve rsυs sparse foliage , upright a 門 d horízontal leaves, open versus closed pan. icles, a range i 門 grain color , a 門 d other unusual characteristics. Yield data w 川 l be related 'to morphological characteristics of the plant to determine w hether there are some types mo re efficient in dry rnatter product ion pe r day. Similar studies are planned for maize MAIZE AGRONOMY Micro.element deficiencies con'tinue 10 predominate among ou r agronomic problems at CIAT , Rates of boron be Iween 2 ancl 3 kg/ ha can appa.ently correct the observed growth and steril íly problems which have depressed maize yields over several seasons . The zinc deficiency, severe in rÎce, alsc affected maize in one I剖 e i ther foliar application or a soil drench with zinc sulfate reduced lolíar symptoms of the deficiency. A sorghum nursery now in the field shows 'tremendous differences among varieties in respon se to apparently low boron levels. Deficier、cy results in white streaks on the lea ves, vege ta t ive prolíferatíon, delayed or no development of the panicle, and non-uniform growth A sc reening trial is in the field in the eastern plains at Carimagua , where 20 varieties and hybrids of maize and 50 of sorghυm received low and high lime application s, plus differen't levels of applied phosphorus , Prom 峙 ing resu lts fr。們的 i s cycle suggest that screening c rop species may pr。圳 de a resistant type wh 時 h ca n be further selected or used directly under these adverse soil condition~ MAIZE PLANT PROTECTION Entomology. Maize and s。 可 hum crops on the farm 川 the first season of 1971 were serí ously attacked by Ihe stalk borer Oiatrea ; average counts of εntry holes/ stalk were six in maize and three in sorghurn. The observation nursery of sorghu m showed striking differences in susceptibility to this borer, and a replicated screen ing test was planted in the second season. More than 300 sorghum collections and 100 maize types were planted in 咐 í s fíeld , but the level of a'ttack was greally reduced. This research problem will be minimized with a new artificial rearing effort which will soon provide larvae for artific ia l, control!ed, and υnjform infestation in the field. Mon thl y or twice-monthly plantings of rnai 血， sorghum , a nd legumes will be initiated t 。 。 bserve se asonal fluctuati ons in insect popu lations A small trial of prcmi sing formula ti ons of commercial granular insectic ides showed excellent control of Spodoptera sp ., but the differences among treatmen ts were no t great b3.::aυs~ of a natura l con t ro l c f the 的 sec t by a Braconidae that reached a level of 40 p~r cent control in combin 訓 l on w 自 th a parasitic fu 們 gi that produced 80 percent contro l this season. Thi s fungus whic h attacks Spodoptera in the f: eld hðS becn identified w ith the help of the Univorsity of Cali fornia as Metarrhizium anisopliae . Thcse scrcening and dosôg:: t rial s are valuab!c fo r the deve lopment of prOduclion systems for the CIAT farrn , and particularly fo r training cn tomolog ists in the com p lete range o f activities they wi ll fÐce in a national cr commercia l program. The ùva ilabi li ty o f a pùrasitic fungus for control of Spodoptera creates new possib iliti es for ,th2 fa rme r. Emphasis in th e CIAT program rema ins o n integrated control a 門 d 'thz use of a minirnal amount of in secticidc that will re:l uce the ccst of production and preserve natural predato r pop ulJ t 自。 n s PathoJogy. The mai ze dwarf mosaic virus has no l been repo rted in Colombia In October, the visit of a Brazilian e lec tron microscopist and 0υr observa'l ion s in the fie !d of v ir us-like symptoms led to identification of this vir us on both m ai z.e a nd sorghum at CIAT. Inoc ula ti on a nd trõnsmission studies are in pïOgress . Ne ig hboring mai zE: a nd sorgh u ll1 fields in the Cauca vall ey have on ly trace in fections of thi s aphid-t ransm itted virus. Breeding materia\\s will be screened fo r res ista nce in the next fi :e ld cycle. Mont hl y pl an tings of mai 甜， sor ghυm ， cassava, and l egun、e s w ill p rovide da t a on seasonal flu c t υat i o ns in nat u ra l inocu lu m of p a th ogens 川 up l a n d crops 78 Weed Control. Tri a ls were planted in the second season 'to evaluate sepa rate ly t he e ffec ls of com petiti on fro m broad-Ieaf and grass spec ies in the mai ze crop. The t iming of compe t 此 i on ， effec't s of fertility and plant population are other fac tors inclυded in thes:= tests Each trial wi\\1 be repeated in several seasons to provide rea listic results. S:=nsi tivity to atrazine in some maize and sorghum lines is of immediate commer C 的 I concern. Because of the wide use cf tr i az叭 e herbicides bγfarm ers ， all imprcvem en t programs must eith er us~ a tr az 自 n e as a rout ine application o r te:st jines for sens itÎ v自 t y before 'they are ta ken through many cycles of impro vement /v\\ AIZE ECONOMICS A mu Jt i-di sc ip li nary analysis of the factors associated wi th low maize yields in Colombia was initiated in late 1970 (see Annual Report 1970). Thεobjec tives of the study are: (1) to identify impo rt a nt factors associated w ith low maize y ields a mo ng sma!! farmers in certa in selected regions o f Colornbia , (2) 'to determine the inter re lat io nships among t hese factor s, (3) to s uggest avenues of approach to the problem of increasing yields , and (4) to deve lop a methodolo日 1 日 I framework wh ich may be applied in s imil ar studies in other reglons A model wðS developed to illustrate the most important re lationships believed to exist among the factors de'ter m ll\"'l 1l1 9 m 創 ze yields. Three 5ets of fac to rs seem to directl y determ ine yield ( 1) na'tural fac to rs s uc h as soils and wea ther cond îtions, (2) quan ti ty ðnd qua lit y of in puts used, and The searc h {or a high q ua lity rna izea flint endosperm con tinued through two more cyc les in 197 1. Labora 叩門 and biological resu lt s are promis ing and pre !i m ìn a ry stud ies of nitrogen balance in c hildren confirmed the laboratcr y and rat data . A s umm arγ i s pre sented in Tab1e 1The qu a lit y of the ye llow flint selec ti o ns is essentia lly equa l to .th c origina l f10ury opaque-2 p henot ype. 1 n a whi tc hybrid , H-255 , selecti on towa rd a cryst a ll 川e endosperrr、 wa:; accompa ined by a reduced Iys ic c a ncl t ry ptcphane leve l ilS well as J lower b io logica l va lυ~ w hz:l led tO ra ts Th c current program emphasizes se lect ion toward an \" alrr. os t flint \" grain type; laborato ry an ðlys::; are used t。 confirrn the enhanced Iysì ne leve ls. T。 ccnce ntrate mod ifi e rs 附 de s ì rable germ p las m, we are planning to put th e opaque ch aracter istic into as many genetic backg ro unds as pcssible, an d th en sel ect for qu a lity and a hard endosperm. Ea riy success in these se l eζ ti o n s indicates th a t a commercia l ve rsion of opaque-2 with i) mo re acce p tab!e g ra in type maγbe òva ila bJe soon 2. Effects of climate on protein quality The coopera tive s t u d γwi th Purdue Un iver si ty cn prctein quality was me n. tioned earJ ier . Thi s resea rch has been thro ugh one cycle ;n Tu ripana an d in P3 lm :ra. 1\" 1972 wc wil l get quality data from ears harvested in two se3-son5 川 Tu ripa na and P a lm i 日， and o ne ~x t εnded seÐ~on in the highl ands nea r 8090ta. In stru me n.ts have been instal Jed In a ll three loca tions for ligh c energy measurements , and t hi s c limati c info r. mation wilJ be related to m 剖 unt γ and qual ity da ta 3. Further nutrition work with maize In cc lla bcra ti o n w ith ICA, th e swine prcgr am ha s ca rr i~d out ex ten s ivc 't ests cl Ilou ry-2 maize and the comb 川剖 l on o f fl o υr y-2 w ith opaque-2 . In al1 tests , the fJ o ury-2 gene either alcne or in com. b inaticn with the op3que is infc r :or 't。 t ho commerc ia l opaque hybrids. There i ~ no apparent advantage to co 鬥 tlnuln g s tudy 01 Iloury-2 ma te rial s . More detailed results are presented in th e Sw ine Prc duction Sys tems sectic 門 Con't i n 山 n9 resea rch w ith swì ne w ill eva lua te new and promising maize se lections developed by the breed ing program . Lifecycle feedì ng s't udies (see Swine) will con tinue to st udy the lo ng-term effects of a .J iet wit h opaque-2 ma 阻 e as the ma jor ;)r o nl y sou rce o f protein. O th cr pro t-~in sources are being evaluated in term s of the ir value to !;upplement an c pnque-2 rnai ze die t. Nutr îtiona l evaluation of sorgh um will follow ou r identification of se lect io n5 w hi c h are well-suitcd fo r the weathered soi ls of the Jlanos w here l11 aìze m ay not be profitable Families Benefitte-.J. 250 400 8,000 笠主旦旦 tions and b的 ween semesters . In addi. tion to this full time in-service tra 川In g ， the maize p r ogra m s 附 CIAT and ICA 。 rganized a mon th-I o ng in tensi ve course in breed ing in June . The objective wa s to share e xperiences and bring new in . formation to a group of breeders , each w ith one to four years of experience in m 刮目 Ten pa rt 山 p an t s shared in the planning , prep ared lectures, and eva lυated the series of con fere nces. Outside participants from ICA, CIAT, and other institutions p resented top ics . A series of specia lized reference books on maize improvement and genetÎcs wa s distributed. This tγpe o f intensive training proved va luable to t heir wo r k; m ore valuable experience could come from spec ialized courses that focused on fewer topics. These 圳 11 be organized in the coming year Fu't ure t rainees will receive experience in maize production before dedicating full time effo rts to breeding or other 這 pec ialized 訂 elds . This practical expe. rience in crop production will help 。 rient their research interest s and ac-U v 川的 t oward the real problems faced by the farmer , and betler prepare agr。件 。 mist s who can fir st grow a crop well , and then concentrate on improvement , physiology, protection , or fert i1 ity wo rk Th e maize leam has participated ac. tivelγ in the tra ining program in crop p roduction.Seminars in breeding , grow th and development , physiologγ， pro'tection , nutrition , economics , a nd cngineering have been pre p ared and pre sented to the tr剖 ne es. CIAT participation in these classes includes senio ì\" sc ienti sls, res.earc h associates and as sis tants, as we ll as trainees Training of young scientisf.s' recetves high priority in the mai:z.e programThe IV Andean Zone Maize Conlerence wðS held in Palmira in November, host. ed by ICA and CIAT. More than 50 par ticipants from 12 countries presented formal papers and discussed topics in ro und table sessions dedicated 10 improvement , phys io logy and agronomy , plant protection , nutrition , economics , and sorghum. The gro up decided 10 meet each year in djHerent locations in the 7. 0ne. A ~econd plan to have a general conference e ve rγtWQ ye ars, and a more specialized workshop in the alterna t-z years , will al so be consídered. CIAT 內 coordinaring regional trials within the Andean zcne, and will continue to serve as a SQurce of information , reprin 峙， and germ plasm fo r national program s A bimonthly newslelter will be published starting in 1972. A joint team from CIAT and CIMMYT evaluated the natior,-Coordination of re search projects and 。 ther cooperative ventures reqυire fre quent 'travel in Colombia and the zone Senior scientists working with maize have traveled 10 Ecuador, Perυ ， Bolivia , Venezυela ， Brazil , Central America and Mexico during the pa st year. In add 忱的 n ， they have attended meetings in Calilo(nia, New York , Miami , the Philippin~s ， Nigeria and MexÎCo an d pres-a nted research resulls from the maize projects detailed above. Research assistan'ts and trainee5 have worked in Carimagua, Turipana, Tibaitata, and other lCA 5ta. tions in Colombia as part of their research and training activities , These cooperat' ve research projects and travel are the core of CIAT' s international work, and provide an avenυe for n、。vmg germ plasm and sharing ideas through The objective 01 CIAT' s limited wo rk in fcod legumes is to assi st in the de. velopment of more and better quality protein for people in the Americðs, As ia and Africa who cannot acquire it from animal SQurcesThe adult requires appr。別 matelγ14 percent protein for his maintenance diet The lood legumes, or pulses , have a h 句h level 01 protein in the edible seeds. Percent protein varies from about 15 to 45 percen t. However, grain y 時 Id s have persistently been qUÎte low in comparison to cereals. With 't he increases in pr o~ duction of wheat and rice, the market price for these commodities has tended to be more favo:-able for the consumer , and for the farmer who can prodυce cons!derably mQre perυnit ðfeð of land The net effect is that there is less lood legume production , and fewer people are getting 'the plant protein provided by lood legumes CIAT has begun work il1 lood legumes principally with dry beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and soybeans (Glycine max) and to a limited extent in cowpea (Vigna sinensis) and mung bean (Pha-seolU$ aureus).Three th ou sand eight hundred and eighty pJant introductions we re received Irom the United States Department 01 Agricu l't ure for observation , se lection and increase . Through cooperation w ith the Institu to Colombiano Agropecuari 。 (ICA ), plantings have been made at Pa: mira and Medellîn . Thirty-two c h aracters , including morphological characters and disea se rea cti ons , have been record ed on all lines 川 a t least one sem. es ter of gro w th. Entire entries and indj. vidual plants within en'lries are being selected and replanted, where selection is again practiced . A nursery o f rea SQn. ably healthy plants demo nstrating di vers itγof characters and pro mise is being assembled Soybeans A thesis study to examine the herÎtabilit y 01 time to Ilowering and length of growing period is now in the F3 generδt ion. Pa ren ts in the two pa rallel s tudies include one parent with demon stra'ted yielding abilitγand generally good agroncmic che. racters c rossed w 叫 h a plant introducticn origina l!y acquired from the Ryukyus Is land groυp. The two parents of the fo rmer group respond t。 the environment at CIAT much as d 。 most of the varieties fro m the Un 師d States: relati vely short , early flowering , early maturing plants. The plant intr。 ductions fl ower and matυre co ns idera. blγlðler. Whe rea s the U.S. material Ilowers between 25-35 days, the tw。 plant 的，'trod uc ti on s flower abo ut 4 5 and 85 da ys after em ergence It is po ssibJe to increaseγield in cur. rent producticn systems by geneticallγ delaying the date 01 flowering , allowing the plant to grow larger bεfore reproduct ion , and delaying the da te 01 rna turity . By setting the se 't wo character cha nges as 90al5, we al r: o expec t 10 get a taller planl , pods that lorm higher off \\he g ro un d an d inc reased seed y 時 IdOne o f the p la nt introductions used as a parent ha s de monstr ated resrstance 10 certa 川 insects in the Un ited St ates , pa rticularly the Mexican bean beetle Beca use of its ex t re mely st rong photoperiodic f\\owering response, crossing in the U .S . latitudes ha s been difficul l. A breeding p roject inc lu d ing 22 de ter m 卜 nate, southern U .S. va ri e ti es a nd thi s plant introduction is underwayIn cooperation w i'th the m 創 ze pe rso nneJ , ini tial p hotoper iodic scr e-~ning has been started to seek in se n s 巾 V 叫 Y to photcper iodi sm. To date, non e is kn o wn to exi st. There aγe ， however I deg re2s of senslt l v l 仙， and selection for low sen si tivity will be practicedCow peas ，訓。ng wi th soybean s a nd dry beans , have bee n sent to the ea stern lIa nos of Colombia for observat io n in the environment at the research s t 肘 ion nea r Car imaguð. In th 旭 env lr on ment of acid so ils and o cc asiona l drouths , the cowpea holds conside ra ble promise . ln an experiment with three level s o f lìme applicat io n and con tro l (6 日 ， 2.0, 0 .5 , and 0 to ns Ca CO, por hec't are ), t he highest lime app l 自 cal lo n resulted 川 greater plant deve!opment Despite the so il and moist ure regim凹， the cowpea vari.eties dld grow Dnd p roduced a respectable γield under the 0 and 0.5 lime treatments Fifte3n hund red lines of cowpea are being screened at the ICA Ma rco nia station near San ta Marta . Pro mi sin g lines wi ll be p lanted a't CIAT w ith selections be in g m ade for disease resistance and γie l ding ah刊 it yFifty promising Jin es of mung bean were rece ived from the University of Missouri for growth and obse rv at ion Although the vegeta live growth is not terminated a t th is moment , it is eVI. 84 d ent 'that the p lants and seed product io n w ill be small Rhizobium A soil microbiologist joined the C IAT staff in May, 197 1. Field and glasshouse studie s are now under way to de termine wh ich bacterial c ultures are most effec tive in thê symbiotic r e l δ tionshîp s wit h vario u s legume species such ðS Phaseolus vulgaris, P. aureus, Glycine max, Arachis hipogea , and Cajanu5 cajan Field su rveys a re being undert a ken to e xam ine the distribution of r h 悶。b i a in 'the soil and th e effectì veness of native straln S ln ves ti gati ons are ìn progress to d ete rmin e the potentîa l of var io us carrier med 伯 fo r inocuJants. lmprovements in carrier med ia will mean extension of di s'la nces and area s served by supp lie rs 5oil.Micronutrient studies at C IAT in co r~ ρ。 rate th ree varieties o f soybea ns and three 01 dry beans. In the high pH soils , zinc is t he most limiting m 閃閃一 nu tr ien t. lro n, manganese, and bo ron a\\l gave S\\ig\\ll responses . The soy beans respond mo re to treatments than do dry bean sPl ant protect ion studies w ith herbi cides have been star'ted. Soybeans a nd partlcυlarly drγbeans ðre ex tremely poor com戶 e tit or s w ith other plants . If we ca n de ~e r min e the best weed control comb ina ti on, yield s wî ll improve TRAINING Tr ai nin g is p rov ided promisÎng young scie nt 時 ts. One trainee worklng w ith the progra m is now a research ass istan'! w ìth CIAT. Ano the r is being trained in breeding( physiology 01 soy bean s Techni ca l ass ista nce in ag ro nomy, physiology and breeding has been given 10 the production trainees 10 help Ihem became fam iliar with the cultural methods , s trength s, and weaknesses assocìated with 廿 ry bea n a nd soybea n p roduction FoOd legw司(l e plots are freq u..ently observed to isolate desirable plant characteris tñ.cs under troplcal condltions B.ree ù.i ng and selection practí ces are fmpor tant eJemen ts in CIAT's soybea.n improve. ment program. A speciaUst 國akes an evalua tiOD within F, generaUon plan1sThe Agricultural Engineer 川 9 group was occupìed in training a日 rícultural engineers in sta tion developmen't , 5tation operations, and commodity pro grams , support and general administra- The training techn 叫 ue has been t。 place the trainee with a qualified trac'tor driver, mechanic, topog 月 pher ， labor supervls。人 and field engineer. He acts fir st as assistant and then occupies the position befcre moving to the next posit;on . Time in any position varies from a few days to five weeks. A report by the trainee on his individuaJ work experience is requested and cert ified These reports then serve as a reference and record of experience. The desire is to develop responsibílity in the trainee and to emphas 臼e interdependence of the superv 峙。r and supporting workers , so that the trainee may ap preci ate the need for decision making and respon 剖 bilily and the need to select , train , stimulate and gui de skilled person nel to carry out the operatìons Station Development Developmen't 01 the CIAT station has continued thr。 υgh 1971; aerial photographs cf the station we re made January, 1970 and December , 1971 These show the change in statu s, as wel l as soil 戶 roblem areas Production Systems Any ag rì cu ltural production system 問quires development, maintenance , and operation o f land area , roads , irrigatio n, drainage ，的。戶， and machinery facilities by competent personnel in order t 。 prcd uce a crop. A major portion of time has been devoted to produc ing commercial scale and experimental crops by the use of the best available information Records 01 work input s have been kept 。 n individual fields , and machines were used to cbtain cost and output. Farm equ 中 ment work has been divided int。 33 classifications with time and fuel con su mptions reported in reco rds of Since machinery is the excepti on rather tha n the rule , a nd corn , cassava , an d food legumes are mostly grown without mechanization, W~ cl assified various routine labor o peration s into 30 ~tandard labor contracts. These are used to maintain a nd operate th :) exper imental ~tation areas and crop production systems . A balanced utili za tion of labor and machines to prod uce food crops is an ess.ential part of an y produ c t 的n system in the lowland tropics. The need fo r food a nd employment arc both criticaL Properl y used machinery wi ll l 門 crea se both food production and employmen t. The mQst efficientυse o f machinery is in land p reparation , transportation , land developmen t. irrigat io n, and drainage One o f the major problem areas in the tropics is lac k of machinery and labor sys tem s 10 plant crops during Ihe rainy season . Becau se 1971 wa5 an unusually wet year th ere was little op-portυnit y to plant rice under satura ted soil conditions s ince the dry land prep a ra'ti on and seed ing o f other crops proved impracticalThe lack 0 1 suitable equipment pre vents easy impJementation of the wet land p repara ti o n sy!:tem 50 w i delγ u s e:l in th e ri ce-produci ng areas of Asia. The vast, poorl y dra in ed areas of ,k.a tin America shou ld be the best prod uc ing areas. Malariù , and the absence of ð draft animal such as the wa ter buffalo, have led to the under-utilization of these pc ten tia! ly m05t va iuable areas From Nove mber, 1970 until January, 197 1, the agr i cu lt υra l e ngineer se rvecl as a consultant 10 th e Wor ld Bank in t he evaluation of a loa n to sup port th e development of agricultural re s.~arch cen ters in Spain In March , July, Septembor, and October , he v 悶 ited Ec uador to ass is t In st i tυto Nacional de Inves tigacione5 Agropecuarias (INIAP) in the developme nt of t he tropica l agricultural research stati o ns at Bo!i c he, Pi c hili ngue a nd Pυert。 Vj. e 戶， w 叫 h ma jor e mp hasis on Boliche 89 Sections ot loog span feo c1ng used on CIAT tann.Thc AgriculturaJ Economics Prograrr、 is an integra l part of the overall CIAT prcgrarn. Economic studies that compJement the vari。 υs commodity pro grams (see commodity program reports) are underwaγfor all commodi ties except legU r.i 2S. Major emphasis is being given to the economics of pro:J uc tion problems relating to each commod ity, but marketing prc blems are al50 considered. Special attention is \"being given to the economic consequences , 間 I effects on pric凹 income distribu tion , investment. employmentδnd loreign trade of increδsed production 01 the CIAT commodities and others that are c!ose subst itutes for them This sectìon report s only thosc activ ities carried out by the agrícultυral economists which do not logically lall under cne of the commodity p:-ogram rcports Farm labor study Jnten .s ive use of labor characterizes a good deal 01 Ðgricultυral production in the lowland tropics. At the same time the abscJ ute number 01 rural people continues to increase a1t hough the pr。 porticn of rural to urban popuJation decl i nes. Conseqυently there are problems of particular socio-economic il11 portance related to the agricuJtural la bor n、 arket The rural labor sector re-cei ved only a small part of the increase in the total revenue obtained by the agriculturaJ sector during the period stud 時 d. The 川 crease in total rural labor remuneration was δImost matched by the increase in employment , hence average real wages per worker stayed about the same during the live-year period 1967-71 It should be noted that agricultural production expansion was sma!1 during the perìod consìdered. Hence , the conclusions of th is study ma y not be valid under rapid production expansions Economic Împact of new technology A study is in progress to estimate the ìmpact of rapid expansion s in the pro ducticn of selected agricultυra! commod Itles on certa 川 key factors such ðS pr 眩目 ， Incom 肘， income distribution , in vestme 川， employment and foreign trade While agricultural resea rch and ex tension may aim at increasing prodυc tion , the ultimate 90a1 of these activi ties must be to improve social welfòre of the p曲 ple served. Hence, 10 orient research , extension and public policy so as to maximize thc contribution to sccial welfare, it is consider::d important to understand the impact of pro duction increases on the above mentÎon ed factcrs A mathematical model to estimate th~ impací: of rapid prod uction expansions 。n these variables is being developed Major emphasis 悶 placed on developing a framework by which the d 問 tr ibuti on of benefits from the in troduction of new technology may be estimated under al ternative pub lic polic 陪S As a first step to obtain quantitative informat 昀 n for the model , a study is being carried out tO estimate income, price and cross elasticities for certain selec ted fcod products Data were obtaine廿 from a sυrvey car ried out amcng 300 familie s randomly selected frcm the metropolitan area of Ca 1 i, Colo\"、bia. Even though the data have not been analyzed , p re lim 川 ary result s have b een obtaineo for income elasticities with respect to the commodities included in the overall CAT p rog 月 m (Table 1)The income elasti city shows the percentage change in demands associated W 自 th ea.ch one percent change ;n con-5umer incomes. The measure is useful ìn es'timating future demand increases cause:i by changes in incomes. If ，他r cxample，自 is predicted that consumer incomes will increase by three percent , the assodated percentage increase i 門 demands is given by the ìncome e\\astic 卜 ty multiplied by three Table 1 shows that increasing incomes will have little effecl on the demand for cas~ava ， maize and rice. Higher income families tend ' 1 0 consurne less maize and cassava as incomes increase while low income fam 山的 tend to incre as~ th:a consumption of these commod 山 es at a modest rate. The impact of income expans怕的。 n the demand fcr meats is relativelγlarge. Ag剖 n ， low income families tend to spend a larger proportion of their income increa s-es on meals th an do high income fam i1 ies The mδgnitude of the income ela sticity with respect to any one commodity The continuous growmg s曲son In甘 opi ca1 areas permits tbe 且.mul taneous cwtivation ot 也lterent 時前i個 of p1ants under spec1fic systems or agTiCultural produCtionThe intended outcomes 01 CIAT effort s are commodity production systems, alon9 wÎth the associated in~ form 剖的 nal materials and trained per sonnel ,The components of a system include the techno logy, the natural environment in which the system operates, and the people invoJved , as well as the assoc 昀 ted 自 npu't s and 川 frastru c tures An efficient farm enterprise often hinges on the integration of seve ra l commodity prodυction 5γs tem s into a single uni t. Such multi-commodity farm units lend them se lves to c 的 p rotation , utilization of crop residues and su r pluses by li ves tock , and in'ten si ficat ion o f labor input while minimizing direct operation aJ and capital expenditures Further emphasizing the imror tance of multi-commodity farm systems is th() general rυle that , as farm size deCreaSC5, increased attention must be given t。 muJti-commodi'ty enterprises to ach 時ve a minimum leve l o f li ving for the farm lamilyThe initial thrusts 01 CIAT are d卜 rected towards deveJop川9 commodity production systems for certain crops and livestock species . When an adequate techno!ogical base is established, this will help prov ide a nucleυs 01 prodυ ct i on specia lists to app ly this 'technol-。 gy. At the sa me time, CIAT will continυe to explore how thes.e commodity production systems, and cthers, fit int。 total farm operat 的肘， considering the economic real 山間 。 1 practical larm systems and the possible prolit advantages of multi-crop-livestock enterprises Solutions for some technological prob. lem s can be found outside of and 川 dependent of the situ ations where the technology will be used. Bu't oth~r technologi 日 1 problems are intima tel γ related to and part of the environment and people involved. lt is difficult , il not impossible, even to identifγlet alone solve !:;uccessfully and permanently such problems 。υtside o f the environment and without 'taking into account the people and the infra st ructure Consequently, CIAT need s opportunities and resources Wh!Ch will make possible th e identification , study and solution , on location , of such production problems. Thi s wou ld not subst itute lor but comp l~ment presen't research ef forts. At the same time, it would necG:ssitate close linkage with relevant n剖 lon al agencies fc; research and other inputs 。utside CIAT's areas of competence and staffing With the eventual identifica't ion of s ~ecific agricultural sit υa t10ns (environmental as well as 50ci 剖 ， economlc and political ), CIAT antici pates that devel opment and test of specifìc a9ricultural prOduCI ÎO n systems for these situa'ti ons wil1 serve as a basis for further commcdity studies. In other word5, the 仟eeds of the ag ri cu ltural p r。 duction systems wi ll guide further work cn specific commodities . To this end, explo 閃閃 ry work is underway in several environrnznts ty pica l of significantly la rge areas in othsr countries of the Icw land trc pics To da'te , ag ricuhural production systems re5earch has bee n largely an ex ten sio n of ccmmodity programs , but rcl a ~ing these effcrts Ic compreh 叩 slve farm production sy5tem s 1n 50 far as possible, and cOn~i5tenl with efficie門 t la nd, labo r a nd li vestoc k u tilization Accomplishments include: (1) col 1 0凹的 n of fa rm enl:=rpri se data 'through the Livestock Production Spe:::ialist Training Program ancl a re::ently com. pleted survey of 487 farms ( see page 23) , (2) staff effcrt to develop prel 附于 inary farrn productio n 5γstem propcsals for CIAT staff and board critique, and(3) deve~op ing 01 certδ In沌。 mmodity\" picduction system infcrrr可別 的n 'that relates no t only tc the commoclity, but to cc mpre h ε nsi vo farm ~ystems 11. beyond the development of pro dυction sys tems , action agencies accept a respon sibility for th e diss.:=mination to and acce抖 tanc e of the systems by farm famili 凹， then a concern for th ' 3 process through which the system is dcveloped an d demonstrated in the rural eccnomγb2comes relevant This ~uggesls a re sea rch app roach whic h, f rom the beginning, in vo lves the fa milies. Such an approach hel ps insure th a t th ey understand what is going on , 川 crea 5es rapport bet ween scientis'ts and t he people, encourages farmer participa tion in the exploration of alternatives , and helps them deve lop criter ia fo r se!ectin g courses of òction amcng the ðlternative5. Th 巾， in the end , becomes ù two-way educa tional process for the sc ien'tist s as well as the familj~s and leads both groups to a conlinu 川 y of programs which might be best charac. terized as an ope:-ational research (or sys tems engineering) approachThe sυc cess of such an endeavor depends upon resea rch thal is relevant , and an app;-o3ch that is ed ucational and developmental as opposed to promoti 。件 96 .::.1. The re leva nce of the researc h depe nds o n thi s approach , as does the acce p'tance cmd epp!ication of the results CIAT has inv:=stigated several oppor tunities tc become involved in national re: . .sea rch effort s on production 5ystems at the farm leve l, but has yet to deve~op a definite plan for do ing 50 or criteria for selecting among or committing resources to these opportunìtìes. These cpportu nit ies d i ffer 自 n scope or breadth of subjeot matter, specifi ci ty of obje::tive, invol ve ment of other institu The first step in such a cooperativc effort would be to ac hieve consensus among partic ipat ing agencies o f the goal s of the project in terms of the pecple living on the land. To date, ob serva'ti o ns and survey data , plus staff discu !:s ion~， lead to the con clυsion that , regardless of the nature or s ize of the farm cnterpri 妞 an ag ricul tυral pro duction system shoυId provide the follo w ing as minimum 90al s for the peo pl ~ who live cn the land 1. Career cpportunities in agricu Jt ure attractive enough to de'ter  Obv ious 旬 ， CIAT is not sta f! ed , Jinanced , or chùrtered t。 υndertake such a broad unde r't akir間， bυt I! now appears feasible that it might cooperate, par tic ular!y with respect to research inputs , with nation a l agricultural , educat 的 nal ， and health ðgencies 10 demonstrat~ V I 圳 dly and effectively the metho~s ， po'tentials , and values associated with the pursuit 01 su ch g081s by national ùgen C1esSuch an approach wou 1 廿 províde CIAT with opportunities for its scien tists to study the problem s 01 agricultural production 自 n spec 叫 ic locales and situðl ions , and , in ccoperation with na tiona l agencies, 10 conduc t field and adaptive tria! s of new technology t 。 make sure it is technically and econom-icallγV 崎 ble in spec ifi c situa tion s Rather than stres sing a particular type of agricultural 5γste m ， CIAT has decided to test the sys tem concept in a va riet y o f ways through its ongoinp commodity programs in research and training. 60th activities provide opportunity to observe the systems which now exist , the attendant problems , and how these might be solved. One such effort with sma!! swine farmers is reported in the 5wine sec'tìon , while the Beef sectÎon describes the Li vestock Production Spe-cialist Training Program activities. Under Training and Communication , efforts made in 1971 to help crop production tra 川 ers learn about the systems and problems of small cro p and truck farmers are outlined Small Farm5 _ Although wide l γd i scus sed and ofter、口 ted as an example of what ough't not to exist , small far ms co ntinue to be the main source of income and market for labor for the rυral people of Latin America. A自 ricultura ! product 的 n systems research shoul d offer new and imaginative ways of increasing cash and real incomes on these farms w ith a minimur叭 Increase in risk . Specifical 旬， production systems are needed that will permit increased productivity with a minim um cash 。 u'tlay and no increase in the uncertaint y of achieving at least a satisfactory minimum leve! cf income. A pending pro ject contemplates an intensive study of a few farms in a rural co mmun ity to ùscertain their needs and expectations $0 that production sys tems can be designed to lit reqυirements . Systems wi ll be developed cn sma ll larm 刮目 。 lots at CIAT belore taking them out to fa rm commυn 山 e s. This program would be carried ou t in cooperation with nationδ1 agri cu !tural agenci es Inten剖 ve Crop-livestock Systems in Fertile Land Areas. ln the more fertile land areas in Latin America , such as the Cauca Valley, present population-Iand pressure trends would indicate an increa 剖 n9 shift from larger , more exten sively managed units to sma ller, more intensi ve Jy man aged units. These intensive produ ction sys tems would likel y include both crops and li vestock , where food crops wou ld provide cash income, meet subzisten ce food needs, and at the same time provide crop residues, by-prodυct mater 伯 Is ， and s ur p lus grains 'to support ca llle and sw川 e enterprises. Specific crops might be grown to su pport the livest ock enterpri ses such as cassava Or plantain for sw ine . and sorghum o r sυg ar cane as si lage for cattle . The role of loca ll y availab le by-product material s such as mola 臼 es woυId be considered ' 10 complemenl  Traditional cash crops can be grown if sufficient lime and fert 山 zer are applied , but present transpo r'tation cosls make 的 difficult for most grain crops to compete on the domest 呵。 r world market. Some fruits grow well with little or no lime requirement and ap oarently modest fertilizer needs . Mango, cashew, pineapple and perhaps citru5 could be grown and sold successlully with adequa'te market arrangements and a processing industry to absorb the surplus seasonal production. Of all the crops presently grown in the lI anos , however , the most widespread and easiest 10 manage is fora Çle. The beef cattle industry accounts for the only significant production in the areas outside 'Ihe p 陪dmont around Villavicencio Catt\\e ranching is commonly thought 10 be lor Ihe weallhy; bul perhaps it is possible that family-operated ranches cou\\d be the basis for the colonization of some of S。 υth America's vast savan nahs To test this hypothesis , CIAT scientists have been developing models for family-operated livestock units in the smo。阱， weJI drained savannahs of Meta 98 and Vichada in the Ll anos Orientales One such model 時 here describedThe model has a herd 01 50 producing cows for a total of appro 別 mately 90 animal uniti on 100 hectares. This Îs not necessarily an optimal size, but it is feasible This model develops to lull size over 12 years, starting with 15 cows and 。 ne bυ1 1. An impo 門 ant part 01 Ihe plan i5 the subsistence base of food crops , grains and sma!! animals, largely for 。 n-farm consumption. This base Îs developed duríng the fírst year on three hectares 01 limed and lertilized land and allows low maintenance costs for the lamily while the cow herd develops. An ÎnitÎal Cð5h investment of approximately US$3 ,000 is reQuired lor a lamily starting with no livestock or imorovemenls. An add 州的 nal US$3,OOO is required curing the 12 years 01 development , most of which shou\\d be generaled by the enterprise.The gross annual income from sale 01 livestock at the end 01 the period is estimated al $3 , 100, the value 01 the enterprise to be approximatelv $15 ,000 Raw land value is not considered as a cost or asset. The sim p le m ill is easγ to construct Loca llγav ailable materials cos t ap proximately US$1 25 a nd include shop work no t eas ily done in the lield . Thi s p rice includes 1 1/ 4 inc h ga lva nized pipe a nd s tee J sυcke r rod for a IO-meter we ll , a 3-inc h diameter bronze windmìll cylinder , locally cut poles lor th e 8.meter tower, and cement and re inforceme nt for the well ring, pl at form and cover A water bnk takes fOI'm over base or palm stìcks wiren togcther with used barbed wireNo formlng lumber 時間珈山缸，The win dmill yie!ds mOre water th a n had been expec ted and is now being considered lor irrigation 01 small (1 / 2-1 hectare) plot s lor dry season lood pro duction Water Storage A low cost wate r tank was bυilt as a combinatÎo n sto rage a nd stock wa tering tank 10 accompany th e experime nta l wi nd mi ll. Th e concrete and pl as ter tank is five meters 川 d 附 meter and 80 cm deep . The walls were formed with plas ter over a base o f palm cortex called \" choapo\" or \"maca na '\\cu t and w 自 red together with used barbed wìre like a snow o r 戶 cket fen ce in the form o f a circle (above). The floor was po ured, 1 日。 thus there w的 n o need for form 川9 lumber , bricks or concrete blocks. The mate ri a l5 C05 1 aρρro叫 mat el y USS30 Construction , Using Native Materials To meet urgent housing needs at Carim agu a, CIAT des igned and bui\\t tw。 ho uses (page 102 ), us ing Icca ll y available material s where possib le. Th-e ho uses are cool , com fo rt ab le an d we \\l protected from mos l Însects a nd o't her pests They are complete w ith cverhead water su ppl y, bathroom , septic tank , kitchenet 峙 two bedroom s, li v ir、g-d ining roo m , covered ground floo.r sl ab , \\aundrγarea and 1001 roam at a cost of approximately US$ 1,800 each. This cos t wC' uld bc pro hibiti ve for most se ttlers 川 the area . Hcwev::: r, cer tai n design \\eatu l' es and use o f materials can be ea si ly adapted to much s impler and less expensive d we l l 叭叭 Related 50il and Agronomic Res空 arcn Var iou s projects of the soil sc ientists and agronomi sts directly relate 10 gener al agricultural sys lems concerns. Theγ have conducted small plot lield experiments rel a ted 10 m 閃閃 nutnents In sor ghum; iime and phosphorus for upland rice, maize, and sorghum; and Ihe 川 fluen ce of fenilizers and seeding rates on the establishme門 t of forage grasses and legumes . These are reported in the relevant sections 50il cften has been overlooked as an import ant ecol 。自 ical factor i 門 breeding programs designed 怕 prodυce materials 。 1 wide geographic adaptati 。門 CIAT is building a base of fundamental informa-I ion related 10 chem 叫付， fertili 句， and management of weathered soil s 5uch as are found in the plains o f Venez uel a, Colombia , and Brazil. This base wil l serve for the development of S Ub5 叫 ence food c rop production 5γstems 50 that persons living in the area may feed themselves . The same informa tion ÎS also vïtal for long range commercial CrOp p roduc-1 ion plans , and for pasture and forages improvement on these extreme)y 2. Orange le af disease (anaranjam iento) has been reported as a serious limiting factor in the production of flooded rice on oxisols and similar poor , acid soils of the lowJ and tropics. Progre5s was made during 1971 in describing the dis ease more precisely and 川 defin i ng the soil conditions w hich cause 自 t (see Rice, page 62) DIFFERENTIAL SPECIES AND VARIETAL TOLERANCE TO SOIL ACIDITY Species differences with regard to tolerance 10 soil acidily are well known There are a number o f fo ra伊 gra sses a 門 d legumes that require l itt 峙 if any lime for optimum performance even on soils of pH 4 . 5 and lower. The respon ses of such spec ies as Melinis m, inutiflora (molasses grass ), Hyparrhenia rufa (yaragua or puntero ), Stylo.anthes guyanensis, Pueraria phaseoloides, Calopo gonium muconoides and Desmodium in tortum to small additions of lime are probably due to calcium and magne Slum 104 Tree species which are well adapled 10 acid 50il environments include: mango (Mangifera indica). c itrus , guayaba ( P.idiυm guajaba ), marañ 凸 n (Anacardium occidentale ), and ciruela (Spon. dias purpurea).There are a fe w annual crops w h 時h grow well on acid soils w ith relati ve l γ low lime requiremen'ts , including: Cow. peas, peanuts, sesame, sugar cane, plne. apple , rice, and cassava. Varietal dif ferences within crop species have recent. Iy been def ined for wheat , barley , potatoes , tomatoes , and other cr。阱， bu t a s yet li'ttle if any work has been done t。 breed crops for acid soil tolerance A screening program has been initiat. ed at Carimagua as a part of the commodity programs with the objective of iden ti fy ing acid soil.toleran t li nes or varieties fo r u se 川 c rop improvement pr。 grams and for relea se for immedÎate farmυ5e if such tolerance is combined with acceptable agronomic characteri stics. Entries are screened at 0 , 0.5 , 2 , and 凸怕 ns o f lime per hectare. The low rate of 0 .5 ton is included to supply Ca and Mg as nutr;ents . The six.ton ra'te is suf. ficient 10 neutral 凹 e the e xchangeable aluminum Cowpeas (Vigna sinensis) are the mcs t acid-tolerant food legumes screan. ed to date a't Carimagua. There are , how. ever, appreciable var ietal differences Sorghum is generallγbetter adapted to acid 50il than corn A 戶 hosphorus x lime experiment w 內 h rice (upland) revealed that there is much greater variability in that specie5 as regards acid soi 1 tolerance than had been expected . CICA 4 responded strik-川 g l y to lime applications up to 16 凹的 / hectare (Fig. 1 ). The indication is that the native soil phosphorus is much mare available to the rice than '10 the corn . The lack 01 response to P in the case of rice is dif. licult to expla 叭叭 叭 ew of the ex'treme-Iy low P levels in the soi l (2-3 ppm P, BRAY 11). The corn experiment was limed six months prior to pJanting. The rice suffered from a severe attack of blast (Pyricularia ), w hi c h was accen. tuated at high P levels. This only partially explains the results since γield levels were relativeJy high for upland rice in spite of the Pyricularia . AII corn experiments have suffered heavy damage from insect attack (bud warm , stem borer and earwOrm among others) in spite of frequent and regular spraying MICRONUTRIENT DEFI 亡 IENCIES A series of micronutrient trials has b自 n conducted in 'the greenhouse and f 悶 Id s at CIAT. Zinc, boron , and iron have been identified as the most serious limiting factors. Boron is the most wide Iy observed deficiency in corn , sor ghum and grain legυmes and appears to be almost unilormly d針 icient on well drained as well as poorly dr 司 ined soils Zinc deficiency is most serious in rice (See page 51). Preliminary results from trials w ;th zinc, boron , iron , and manganese are reported on Page 65In addition to expected species differences there are striking varietal dif. ferences within species relative to sus ceptibility 10 micronutrient deficiences These differences were pre v 的 usly re ported for boron in sorghum and have now been confirmed for zinc in rice and 106 for zÎnc and boron in soybeans and field beans Two micronutrient trial s a't Carimagua with sorghum and one with peanuts indicate that initially, and a t the yiel d levels obt ,ined (approximatelγ3.0 and 1 .5 ton/hectare, respectivelγ) ， no one micronutrient is seriously limiting. Corn appears 10 suffer from Zn deficiency and that element 時 being included routinelγin all field trial5 at Carimagua 01d citrus trees at the ranch headquarters show a complex of deficiency symptoms including boron and zinc TRAININGThe soils staff has participated in the Crop Production Specialist Training Pro-9 月 m both in the lec ture room and in the field. The trainees worked under superv 卜 訓。 n ， in the f 間 Ids at CIAT, grow自 ng rlce, malz皂， sorghur啊， soybeans, field beans , and cowpeas . They were then assigned \" small farm s\" of 9-12 hectares within the CIAT farm , which they manage廿In groups of three or four. The trainees we re rcspons ible for managerial deci Suppo rted by Others ward advanced degrees. In add 刊的\"， δ limited number of research scholars are supported full y or partially in maste r' s degree programs in other countries CIAT conlinues 10 explore arrange ments wi th graduate level funding organizations in varì 。υs countrìes where by doctoral candidates at universities 川 the developed c。υnlries may do their dissertation research on agricultural problems of t，~e lowland tropics under the d irection of Cl AT scientists. Several such proiecl s are now underwaγNor mally, such persons are appointed as resea rch fellows. Some individuals in this category are not necessa ril y involved in academic programs and may concentrate on a specific research prob lem important 10 CIATYoung graduates of agricultural colleges trll 0υghout Latin Americδare chosen for the Crop Produc tion Specialisl Training Prog 月 m. These agronomists often lack socio-economic and tec hn 。 logica l experience j 的 produci ng crops and in direct involvement wìth farmers and farm problems. CIAT provides such tra inees w ith the opportunity I 。峙的 their theoreticallγ-orientedυniverslty training, and gives them practice in all aspects of farm management and the growl 門 9 of crops using the varying lev room exercise within the communication instruc'tion . Groups of fo ur and fiv. e tra inees spent three days per week during the month of Julγin foυr small comn、 unities help川 9 farmers in th 2ir dail y tasks and discussing their prob lems They subsequent ly prepared a report Qivinq bac kqround 川 formation on the famili 臼 with whom theγhad worked , an analysis ofρroblems enco untered, and recommendations for assistance These reports wer.e presen'ted to both instructors in the course and members 。 f the CIAT staff , w ho we re in vited to part 呵 ipate in the d iscu ssion s and offer sugqesticns. Through such experience and interact ion , researchers are con f ro nted w ith the mos t pressing prob lem s facing these lower. income rural peoples, and students gain prac't ice in serving as a link between the research scientist and the 5ma!! farmer 訓。 ns ， the inputs to be used , and 't he l11 achinery required At the end of the ccur se , these groups repor ted on their projects , s howin Çl bases for planni 門 q and cropping decisions , an account of technical observatio ns and ρroblem s enc。 υntered during the growinq season , a detailed breakdown of productio n costs , and an econo mic analys 凡 of the \" farm \" pr。\" tabilit y in terms of inputs, production costs and sale5 of cropsThe second field activitv during 197 1 ρlaced the trainees two d ays per week for 5ix month5 in one 5m a ll community An essential part of crop production tra ining is the methodology of conduct ing replicated trial s of field c~op s t 。 f' valuat :-J th~ applicability of researc h at e xpe riment stations for commercial farming enterprises , Throughout the year , traine':!s carried out such tr 陪 Is ， both on their \" farms \" and in the com munities in whi ch they worked During the year , trainees participated In two separ 剖 e exercises in I 川 ng with , learning ab 。叫 ， and ass isting small a nd subsistence farmers in the Cauca Valleγ The first experience grew 。叫。f a class-  叫is 剖叫 it the CIAT fa rm lor one daγl們 n m 吶 11吋 d ber. Th. purpose 01 thi叮 5 V I 咕 51川t was: ( 1 ) to give the trainee practice in planning , car rying out , and evaluating a lield day ;(2 )怕 demonst r ate to farmers that the traine肘. advice was drawn from their \"sm all farm\" experience Th e iina l tWQ weeks of the cour se wi ll include, alon9 w ith examinat ions, an evaluation of the CQu rse activÎtÎes through a series of round-table discus 訓。 ns wi th both trainecs and ins't ructors 。 n the tec hnologícal and socio-economic lac l。內 invo l ved in c rop production systems A third crop production spec.i alist training course is projected for Augus t.  Effective agricultura l development programs depend , lirst 01 all , upon dynamic, well-informed leadership above the technical level. Those who make and influence national policies , con'trol and allocate credìt and resources, manage manυfacturing and distribution systems , and pr。、川 de such facil 山 es as transporta ticn , marketing, processing and storage need υnbiased SQurces of reliable data and es timates of production potential5 and requirements Morecver , agricultural scientists have a responsibility 'to communicate effec tively with 的時 leadership -to make known what agricultural developments are feasible and wha t policies and fac il itation are required to increase produc tivity in specific areas and c。υntnes .-1 1The developing CIAT progr.m includes facilities and activities whereby national leaders may interact with 'the scÎentists 01 CIAT as well .5 those 01 the nation.1 agencies , Although CIAT's own f.cil 州 'e sare not yet available, a series of can ferences , Sγmposia and workshops is already υnderway C1AT expects 10 incorporate into its conferences and symposia program a concern for sharply focused objectives and appropriate methods of communicatlon ， δs well as effecti ve procedures for the evalua'tion of both conference and lollow-up act 州的 'es In connection with the release of tw。 new high-y自 elding rice varieties , CICA 4 and IR22 , CIAT planned and 5pon50red a Seminar on Rice Policies in Latin Ame. rica , in Ca \\i , October 10-14. Nearlγ200 producers, reseachers and policy-mak ers from 23 countries learned about rice varieties and discussed the prob able consequences of their production 。n the agricultυral and related sectors of the La'tin American economγ(For more details see Rice ,)A related sem inar on \" Horizontal Resistance to the Blast Disease of Rice ' was   National Agricultural Library , Bellsville , Marγ land ， showed a wide scatter of ar tic\\es . Figure 1 illυstrdtes the results of that analysis Cassava literature 悶 published in a wide diversi tγ 。 f journals. As can be seen from the curve ，∞v ering 55 percent 。 f the articles w。 υJd require subcrip'tion to 28 percent of the journals, while the remaining 45 percent o f the articles would require a 72 percent increase in journal 5ubscriptionsThe presenl collec'lion 01 Ihe CIAT Li brary includes 5,433 lilles catalogued, 511 journal subscriptions, and 250 jou rnals receìved ðS gifts Or through library exchange Ll BRARY This and other considerations argue for a mOre specialized document-by-document approach 10 cassava literalure rather lhan the traditional library ap proach which implies su bscription t 。 man y marginal pυblications. A documenl-bγdocument approach has the added advan tage of providing an indeplh analysis 01 each document Preliminary talks were held w ilh the International Development Research Centre of Canada for establishing a Ca s. sava Document Analysi s Center at CIAT's library . This Cen'ter will attempt to collec't all the available world cassavε literature and publish a comprehensive annotated bibliography On this crop Suρplements wi l1 then be issued periodi cally A preliminary analysis of Ihe cassava literatu 時 ， performed on a sa mple of 162 articles published in the last 1。 υr years and obtained from a search at the ln a meeting at Rome io November , CIAT was invited to become the regional representative for tropical Latin America in the implementation of a world-wide agricultυral information system , AGRIS, sponsored by the Food and Agricυ I'ture Organization of the United Nations. The first level of operations to be imple. mented in AGRIS will be the identification of sources and their compilat 叩門 into a monthly \" current awareness' 九 type of bulletinIn connection with this meeting, the librarian traveled to several European in stitutions considered to be leaders in cassava research , to establish personal contacts and obtain copies of their col. commi 乞 men t s fo r fu tu r e expend 1 巳 u r es 1n re s pec t of purc ha ses of equipment ( $ 9口 ， 120 ) a nd expense s ( $65 , 663) .工 n our opin1on , exc ept fo r the lllatter referred to 1n t l1 e p r ece 吐 ing paragrap h , the ac c omp a nying financi a l st a teme n ts exam inecì by us present f ai rly the f' inancia l pos i tion o f.' Cen t ro Inte rnaci ona l d e Ag ri cultura Tropic al (CI AT ) a t December 3 1 , 1971 a nd t he r esL.t l ts o f its ope r at i ons f or the year l 1n c on f ormit y w1th gene r al l y a cc epτ ed accounting pri nc iples 扎 W~~. C IAT opel'ates under an agr e-e m cnl signed with lhc Colombi an go vernment, the m osl important st ipul a ti ons of which are as rollo ws 1. The agreement is for te n yea rs but rnay be exlended if 50 de5 ired by the par tie5 ther電t。 2 . CIAT is of a p 甘 manent nature and termination of the agr eement \\V ou ld not imply cessation of CIA T's ex istence 3 . H CJAT ceases to exis t, a l1 of its asse ts wîll be tran5ferred to a Colombian educa tional or other ins tilulion cons idered appropriate by the parties to the agre ement 4. C IAT is ex 臼npt from all taxes 5 . CIAT is perm itted to import, free of custo ms duties and ot her ta xes, 011 the equipment and mat叮 iaJs required for its programs 6 . The government provides land for CIAT's purposes un der a rental contract fo r ten years, at a nominal rent. Th is contract may b e extended by mutual agr eeme nt NOTE 3: 10 co nformity with gen e-rally accepted accounting pri nc iples applica ble to Ilonprofit o rga nizatio ns, CIAT does not record depreciation of its proper ty Ð. nd equipment","tokenCount":"33354"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"65665598ad873939fc19a2e524dfac92","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/87b2082a-dd86-4d7d-9a06-e8d66de30dba/content","id":"1657059340"},"keywords":["Zea mays","genetic resources","germplasm conservation","gene pools","gene banks","combining ability","research projects","research institutions","Mexico AGRIS category codes: F30","A50. Dewey decimal classification: 631.52"],"sieverID":"c1c73245-bb3d-472e-a9ce-1dc4636fc317","pagecount":"45","content":"CIMMYT is an internationally funded, nonprofit scientific research and training organization. Headquartered in Mexico, the Center is engaged in a worldwide research program for maize, wheat, and triticale, with emphasis on improving the productivity ot agricultural resources in developing countries. It is one of 17 nonprofit international agricultural research and training centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which is sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The CGIAR consists of some 40 donor countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations.CIMMYT receives core support through the CGIAR from a number of sources, including the international aid agencies of Australia,Saving endangered plant genetic resources is one of the most compelling issues today. Present and future attempts to address questions of sustainability and biodiversity in agriculture are certain to involve breeders and improved crop cultivars. Plant breeders are the primary initial users of germplasm bank accessions, since they can identify useful traits and incorporate them into adapted and useful cultivars. But breeders are generally less inclined to incorporate germplasm bank materials in their research than to use germ plasm that has already been improved and adapted for a given production area. The reason for this is simple: along with clOy useful traits that germplasm bank sources provide, there are usually many undesirable, deleterious genes that keep a breeding program from reaching its objectives very quickly.So, one might ask, what good are plant genetic resources? Why spend precious dollars and time to collect and maintain them?The answer is that, despite the promise of splicing in genes from alien sources and the drawbacks of using germplasm bank materials, those materials are and will be the main source of crop genetic diversity and specific traits of interest to plant breeders for some time to come. The challenge is actually one of finding practicable ways to facilitate the use of germplasm bank accessions in conventional breeding programs. This special report briefly describes directions in which CIMMYT activities on maize genetic resources are evolving to meet that challenge (Chapters 5 and 6, Appendix 1). It also recounts our role in the early work of marshalling maize genetic resources (Chapter 1), tells how we have utilized the materials collected (Chapters 3 and 4, Appendices 2 and 3), and summarizes current activities of the Maize Germplasm Bank (Chapter 2).Certainly there are numerous success stories involving the use of bank accessions. CIMMYT maize breeders have made significant improvements in cultivars by using materials from our germplasm bank. One example dates back to the 1960s, when a search was begun for host plant resistance to several com borer species. After thousands of accessions were evaluated, it was evident that the Caribbean landrace, Antigua, contained genes that were favorable for resistance to one or more species of borers. Further work with the Antigua germplasm has resulted in the transfer of resistance to other agronomically acceptable germplasm. Currently marker assisted selection techniques are being used to enhance the transfer of these favorable genes to a wide range of maize germplasm. It now appears very likely that this use of bank sources will have a global impact, since it will reduce the need for harmful pesticides and in many environments considerably increase the production of food.• We should also include and describe as much improved germplasm as possible in banks. As mentioned, breeders have found improved cultivars very useful as parents in their programs. Obsolete improved varieties are often lost unless a conscious effort is made to preserve them. At .CIMMYT we have decided to place in the germplasm bank seed of every fourth cycle of selection of maize breeding populations. Of course, care must be taken to keep such accessions at a manageable number. In this regard, it might be worthwhile to re-evaluate older collections to eliminate duplications or very similar entries.• Finally, additional funding must be sought for these and other activities relating to the conservation and utilization of maize genetic resources.As we move into the 21st century, the importance of genebanks to plant breeders will increase significantly. Improved cultivars will continue to replace landraces, and wild relatives will disappear as their niches are threatened by urbanization and changes in agricultural land-use patterns. Though the plants may disappear, however, the genetic diversity they embody need not vanish from existence. Careful preservation of improved cultivars will in fact retain the genes in a more useful form.One way to promote genetic diversity in crops is to ensure the unhampered distribution of germplasm bank materials. The plant breeding community is truly global. The pedigree of the famous wheat variety, Veery, for exampl'e, contains 46landraces from 18 countries. Those who develop improved cultivars should in some cases have property rights to market their product. But the germplasm should always be freely available for breeding research and should eventually be stored in genebanks for the benefit of future generations. As mentioned in Chapter 2, this principle is a key feature of CIMMYT policy on maize genetic resources and follows guidlines of the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources (FAD Resolution 8/83).In summary, germplasm conservation is extremely important to plant breeders and, in consequence, to the clients they serve. The value of germpiasm bank accessions will grow with time. We must do all that we can to see that valuable genetic resources and information about them are preserved and made freely available to interested parties. For additional information about the maize materials and research mentioned in this special report, please contact the authors or the Director's office of the Maize Program. As mentioned, staff of the Inter-American Maize Program germplasm bank, concemed about the large volume of collections to be maintained, established several racial and geographical \"groups\" by , confpositing similar collections. In addition, the breeding program made composite populationscomprising both inter-racial and intra-racial crosses-from which elite fractions could be selected. For example, the population Tuxpeno Crema 1, created in 1965, originally comprised 8 collections, including materials from Michoacan with possible Celaya introgressions. In an early mixing generation, the population La Posta (formed in 1963 and including 14 Tuxpeno lines and 1 ETO line) was incorporated into Tuxpeno Crema 1. In the last four decades, Tuxpeno Crema 1 and La Posta have been used at CIMMYT to produce diverse but related germplasm populations (Srinivasan et al. 1992).With the completion at EI Batcin in 1971 of a new office and laboratory complex, including suitable facilities for medium-term seed storage, all samples in the temporary bank at Chapingo were transferred to CIMMYT headquarters. Dr. Mario Gutierrez, head of the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank from 1966 to 1976, was responsible for organizing the materials and associated records and for overseeing their transfer to El Bat'n.Despite lacking proper storage facilities during its initial years of operation, up through 1973 the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank had sent some 470 shipments involving nearly 15,000 items to researchers in 80 countries, as well as growing for regeneration and/ or propagation more than 8,000 accessions and recording basic information about them. That same year some 2,000 Bank collections were sent to locations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America for replicated field tests of yield, disease and insect resistance, and other agronomic traits.The active collection of the Bank was initiated in 1972. Shortly after the new storage facility was completed at El Bat'n, the Bank continued the task of putting its house in order by documenting all accessions as part of the Genetic Resources Communication, Information, and Documentation Systems (GR/CIDS) project of the University of Colorado, USA. The first passport l catalog was developed in the course of that work.Attempts were also made during the 1970s to multiply and regenerate backup samples of the NAS-NRC materials received from NSSL. Initially, it was found that many of the collections, excepting those from Brazil and some of lowland, precedence, were unadapted to conditions in Mexico and could not be grown at CIMMYT stations there. Later Dr. Gutierrez sent seed of these collections to the banks of Colombia and Peru that had originally accepted responsibility for its maintenance from NAS-NRC, in the hopes that these institutions would have better luck at growing it out and thus replenishing their collections. These banks, though, also had difficulties regenerating the collections which, while they had originated on the same continent, were often adapted to conditions not found in the banks' experiment fields. CIMMYT received seed only from PCIM, Peru, as a result of the above effort. Moreover, once the outside funding associated with the NAS-NRC initiative ceased, conserving genetic resources often took a back seat to other agricultural research priorities in national program budgets. Thus, some of the original NAS-NRC collection may have been lost, and what remains cOrrlprises very small samples whose viability, after more than four decades of storage, has fallen to alarmingly low levels.The next round of systematic collecting was sponsored by the IBPGR a few years after that institution 's establishment in 1974 (Reid andKonopka, 1988). On the recommendation of anIBPGR-CIMMYI' crop advisory committee on maize genetic resources, collections were made in Latin America and parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe, concentrating on areas where landraces were being displaced by modern agriculture. Some 15,000 samples were obtained, some of which now form part of CIMMYT collections, as mentioned.After Dr. Gutierrez left CIMMYT in 1976, a Maize Program scientist was assigned part-time responsibility for Bank oversight. This circumstance persisted until the mid-1980s and reflected the secondary role of genetic resource conservation at the Center during that time, when breeding for increased production was seen as CIMMYT's overriding priority (CIMMYI', 1992).One of the main focuses of Bank activities then was to provide resources for breeding, not only to researchers at CIMMYT but worldwide. From 1979 to 1984, 163 cooperators in 40 countries requested nearly 4,000 Bank accessions, amounting to more than a million seeds (CIMMYT, 1985). Apart from responding to seed requests, staff regenerated nearly 1,000 accessions over this period to ensure the continuing viability of the collections. The best materials grown for regeneration were selected for further evaluation and crossing with appropriate gene pools in the breeding program.Given the frequent difficulty of regenerating accessions of non-Mexican origin, added to the expense of conducting regeneration plantings, CIMMYI' has received assistance in the upkeep of our stocks from outside sources on several occasions. In one case, during 1981-86 Dr. Wilfredo Salhuana of Pioneer Hi-Bred International assisted CIMMYT in regenerating more than 1,600 accessions of tropical germplasm (Salhuana, 1987). Backup samples of regenerated seed were sent to NSSL for storage as CIMMYT accessions. CIMMYT collections from Ecuador in the late 1960s were also grown and regenerated at the Santa Catalina Station of INIAP (that country's national program) during 1986-88. In 1987, ICTA of Guatemala increased some original collections.At the outset of the 19808, the subject of genetic resource conservation-previously submerged in academic obscurity-was thrust into the public and political spotlight. Genetic vulnerability and related issues surfaced increasingly in the mass media as well as in scientific journals. As a leader in the development of maize and wheat germplasm for the developing world, CIMMYT came in for criticism regarding its management of the genetic resources under its care. But far from concluding that CIMMYT was unworthy of its trust, Center directors saw the commentary rather as an indirect mandate for a larger role in genetic resources.Thus in 1984 the Maize Program began modifications in one of its cold storage rooms that made it possible to keep the temperature at -15°C, at least doubling the lifetime of seed placed there. Each Bank accession was subsequently divided, one portion earmarked for long-term storagt: as a \"base collection\" in the new facility and the remainder to be kept in the intermediate storage, \"active\" chamber. This two-tiered partitioning of holdings represented a significant refinement in the Center's notion of how genetic resources should be managed: on the one hand, .conservation of invaluable seed collections was assured, with the risk of genetic drift minimized; on the other, given that germplasm when simply \"stored\" is like a dead file in a dusty archive, utilization was afforded due importance as a separatebut-related function.To further the latter, in 1986 the Center undertook a thorough overhaul of the maize germplasm collection. A new curator, Suketoshi Taba, was appointed full-time head of the Bank. Garrison Wilkes, a leading expert on genetic resource issues, was brought in to assess the condition of the Bank and to help organize into accessible computer data an overwhelming backlog of handwritten information about its accessions. CIMMYT staff began developing a database system for compiling and accessing information about germplasm stored in the Bank. This system, supported by the Center's mainframe VAX, contains files for all the major categqries of Bank information-passport, regeneration, evaluation, and storage. It was developed in two principal phases: 1) software for managing passport data and regeneration and storage information; and 2) an evaluation database.It was likewise proposed that CIMMYT should be responsible for certain parts of the world base collection of maize germplasm, a line of thinking that the Program Committee of the Center's Board of Trustees strongly endorsed in 1986, stating that \"CIMMYT should continue to collect, conserve, document, and evaluate these races and their wild relatives...in cooperation with, and with the support of, IBPGR...thus playing CIMMYT's part in the network of conserving maize genetic resources\" (CIMMYT, 1992). Later that year, discussions with IBPGR led to CIMMYT's acceptance of responsibility for maintaining a base collection of landraces of maize native to the Western Hemisphere.The wild relatives of maize -Scientists and others have written about maize's nearest relative, teosinte, since the Spanish Conquest-the plant is mentioned in at least two Aztec codices as an ingredient in a medicinal preparation, and there are many accounts of expeditions to locate teosinte and take samples. Beginning in 1962, though, Wilkes systematically collected seed of more than 70 naturally occurring populations in Mexico and Central America, examined a subset of that collection for various agronomic and morphological characters, and described half-a-dozen major races of teosinte and their distribution (Wilkes, 1967). Some of this seed, along with other collections obtained later in Mexico and Guatemala, entered CIMMYT's Bank and has been used to fill requests from researchers around the world. CIMMYT also received seed deposits of teosinte from Mexican institutions (e.g., Zea diploperennis from the University of Guadalajara) (Taba, 1990).CIMMYT's present system of distribution by race was established in recent years, along with the practice of checking the status of teosinte populations in Mexico and Central America through periodic monitoring visits. In this regard, valuable contributions came from Dr. Current thinking about the role of the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank depicts a service-oriented operation with values that closely parallel those of modern libraries. The overriding principle is getting one's product out to users-in our case breeders and other researchers, whose work benefits developing country farmers and consumers. Strategies for ~chieving this include 1) reaching out to users with targeted, special services; 2) personal contact with users to identify their needs; 3) networking with alternate suppliers to optimize resources; 4) structuring access to be as \"automatic\" (Le., without intermediaries) as possible; and, above all, 5) active promotion of the products available. Several recent activities of the Maize Germplasm Bank illustrate our efforts to apply those strategies.A major networking initiative occurred in 1988, when CIMMYT and INIFAP jointly hosted the Global Maize Germplasm Bank Workshop. The event attracted more than 50 specialists from nearly 30 nations and resulted, among other important outcomes, in a critical assessment of the status of major collections of maize landraces held in Latin American banks.Following recommendations that emerged from this event, Bank staff have taken several steps with the broad goal of establishing a global network for the conservation and distribution of maize genetic resources. In 1991, representatives from 13 maize germplasm banks throughout Latin America convened at CIMMYT to discuss operational procedures of a project to regenerate endangered landrace collections under their responsibility. Genetic erosion in these holdings had reached serious proportions (the conventional preservation activity in many countries was to regenerate collections every 4-5 years). The Latin American Maize Evaluation Project (LAMP), begun in 1986, and IBPGR provided the participating national banks with some assistance for regeneration. CIMMYT supported this effort but was not a direct participant and none of the regenerated accessions were deposited in the CIMMYT Bank. To ensure the rescue and long-term preservation of the landraces described above, many of which no longer exist outside germplasm banks, in 1992 USAID and the USDA National Seed Storage Laboratory (NSSL) granted funds for CIMMYT to begin coordinating the regeneration by Latin American banks of 7,000 endangered accessions in their collections.In addition to maintaining CIMMYT's landrace collections and assisting other banks in preserving theirs, we have recently begun making periodic visits to check the status of major Mexican landraces in situ-a strategy similar to that applied in the case of teosinte. Our staff travelled to Jalisco state, for example, in 1991-92 to monitor and take samples of the landraces Tabloncillo, Tabloncillo Perla, Tampiqueno, and Jala (Listman and Pineda, 1992).Documentation and characterization -As a special service to users-previously constrained to sorting through massive, unwieldy catalogs when framing requests to our Bank-in 1988 we made passport information on some 10,500 Bank holdings, along with user-friendly inquiry software, available on a CD-ROM that essentially put the Bank in users' pockets. Manufactured and distributed with funding from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) of The Netherlanc!s and in collaboration with CGNet Services, the compact disc allows any researcher with access to a CD-ROM reader to quickly \"zero in\" on germplasm of interest, thus helping us to respond more effectively to requests for seed. During 1989-92, we updated maize descriptors jointly with IBPGR and national program collaborators and, with funding from IBPGR, developed a global maize database which was distributed by USDA in 1992 on a CD-ROM to national programs and the maize research community at large. Among other things, this product essentially updated the information distributed through the first CD-ROM.Another recent line of work intended to enhance the utility of Bank collections is the formation of core subsets of race complexes. According to Frankel (1988), the sheer sjze of germplasm collections, while comforting, paradoxically poses a barrier to using them: \"... these very large numbers...inhibit rather than facilitate the dose study needed for effective utilization of a collection. The problem is how to reduce numbers while holding the loss of genetic information within tolerable limits.\" A recent evaluation of the Tuxpeno landrace complex, for example, has allowed us to establish representative subsets of that rather extensive collection (see Appendix 1, 1/ Forming core subsets from the Tuxpeno race complex\"). By searching within a subset, breeders can more easily locate useful genetic diversity present in the larger body of material.Finally, given the enormous interest of late in genetic resource conservation and utilization, the work of the Maize Germplasm Bank figures largely in CIMMYT publications and public awareness activities. For example, CIMMYT's 1988 annual report featured the theme of the conservation and management of maize and wheat genetic resources (CIMMYT, 1989). Disseminating information about work in the area of maize genetic resources helps to promote the products and services of the Maize Germplasm Bank to a range of potential users.Looking over the nearly three decades of existence of CIMMYT's Maize Germplasm Bank, it is apparent that the Bank has not only fulfilled the aim that Wellhausen and his team envisioned when they began their collection efforts-that of conserving genetic diversity destined to disappear before the onslaught of a growing human populace-but is now going a step further and, through concerted work to get useful germplasm from its collections into breeders' hands, actually returning some of that genetic diversity to farmers. Serious challenges remain. A major one is to address the tremendous backlog of important collections, such as those which resulted from the NAS-NRC initiative, that require regeneration. Another significant task will be new collecting missions to fill large gaps in our germplasm holdings, thus achieving a truly representative global collection for maize. Finally, we need to promote the duplication of our accessions at other banks worldwide to guarantee their long-term safety and use.If one strategy holds promise for tackling these difficulties, it is international cooperation. With this in mind, the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank will continue to promote and strengthen the regional and global frameworks already in place for the conservation and management of maize genetic resources.S. Taba*CIMMYT's Maize Germplasm Bank maintains base and active collections of landraces, the former for long-term storage and the latter (kept in medium-term storage) for seed distribution. Each will eventually incorporate the world's largest representation of landraces, with emphasis on those originating in the Western Hemisphere.CIMMYT's conservation mandate also includes teosinte and Tripsacum. An active collection of teosinte is maintained by collecting seed during in situ monitoring tours of the remaining populations in Mexico and Guatemala and by regenerating previously collected samples. Collection is done in cooperation with national programs. An active collection of Tripsacum, representing the variation in this genus, is maintained at one of the Center's experiment stations, and seed is available from these plantings. In the future, in situ monitoring can be done along with that for teosinte.In addition to conserving landraces, the Maize Germplasm Bank occasionally augments its collections with seed of elite lines and populations, developed by breeding programs at CIMMYT or other institutions, under proper agreements.A common practice in reporting CIMMYT holdings in the past was to include old collections where only 100-200 seeds were available. The number now reported-l0,956, with some accessions under regeneration-includes only accessions with sufficient, viable seed. We also have some 2,200 collections comprising small amounts of seed. As has been mentioned, our stocks come from four major maize collection initiatives: 1) the Rockefeller and NAS-NRC efforts in the 1940s and 50s; 2) Inter-American Maize Program collections in the early 1960s; 3) CIMMYT collections in the late 1960s; and 4) the IBPGR-coordinated work of the 1970-80s (Reid and Konopka, 1988). In addition, collections gathered in Africa J Asia, and elsewhere were added to the store of seed. CIMMYT now preserves the collections of Rockefeller-OSS, NAS-NRC (partial), and the Inter-American Maize Program (PIM), as well as seed from Brazil and Uruguay collected with the support of IBPGR and a much smaller fraction from other parts of the world (Table 1).Base collection seed is kept in sealed containers at subzero temperatures (-15°C or lower) and low humidity, allowing it to remain viable for 50-100 years. The purpose of such long-term storage is to avoid\"genetic drift\"-possible changes in the genetic composition of an accession when it is grown out to replenish supplies or replace less viable seed. To further guarantee the safety of our base collectionJ a small sample of every accession will be deposited at the US Department of Agriculture's National• Head, CIMMYT Maize Gennplasm Bank.Seed Storage Laboratory (NSSL) in Boulder, Colorado, and some seed will be duplicated in the holdings of developing country banks through the USAID-NSSL cooperative regeneration projec'\" now under way.Seed in the active collection, kept at just above freezing (0-2°C), constitutes the working bank from which all seed requests are filled. Our ~ormal practice is to send from 25 to as many as 100 or 200 seeds per accession to any bona fide researcher free upon request, depending on availability (occasionally users are asked to wait while a collection is regenerated).CIMMYT abides by national policies limiting or directing seed distribution to organizations within the country, assuming that a written statement of these policies is received from the appropriate authorities.Seed health -Upon their arrival at CIMMYT in Mexico, incoming collections are inspected and treated before planting with a combination of insecticide and fungicide to safeguard against seedbome insects and diseases. To qualify for storage, seed must come from plots that are free from seedborne diseases of maize and/ or undergo inspection by CIMMYT's Seed Health Unit. At harvest ears are treated with an insecticide solution in the field and air dried. After shelling and drying, seed is examined and unhealthy grains are discarded. We distribute only seed grown at one of our experiment stations or elsewhere under collaborative arrangements, with the exception of seed of teosinte populations from wild stands in Mexico and Guatemala (before storage that seed is treated with insecticide and fungicides). In the case of Tripsacum, we also supply small amounts of material from our clonal garden at Tlaltizapan. All CIMMYT experimental plots or wild-relative gardens are monitored from planting to harvest by program pathologists and entomologists. For all shipments, CIMMYT's Seed Health Unit conducts various tests following international quarantine guidelines. Every possible precaution is taken to ensure that the seed is alive, healthy, and free of diseases and insects, and all shipments are accompanied by appropriate phytosanitary documentation from CIMMYT and the government of Mexico.Germplasm Bank operations are the responsibility of one senior staff person, supported by a research assistant and two field helpers, one at Tlaltizapan and the other at EI Batan. Two temporary helpers have also worked with us for the last five years, the last four under funding from the global database project. They will be kept on, either through core funding or as part of the USAID-NSSL regeneration project.During 1988-92, from 500,000 to 1,000,000 seeds were used each year (Tables 3-7). Internal use was primarily for Bank evaluations. Evaluation and enhancement are suggested to promote the utilization of the germplasm preserved.The current Bank storage facility was built in 1972. Funds from IBPGR were used to modify half the storage space for the base collection in the mid-1980s, allowing seed there to be kept at -15°C.The storage vault now used for the active collection measures nearly 140 m 3 , with a storage capacity of 10,920 accessions in one-gallon tin cans. All available space there is currently being used. The base collection vault measures 145 m 3 , and can hold 17,820 accessions in half-gallon cans of 1-1.5 kg, or 5,000 seeds. Extra space is available there, since both active and base vaults presently hold the same number of samples-i.e., all Bank accessions. Excess seed from regeneration plantings (saved for exchange) is now stored in the Wheat Program Bank, but will soon have to be moved elsewhere. A seed drying unit has been in operation since 1991.Field space for Bank use at CIMMYT experiment stations is normally allocated as follows: 3,500-4,000 rows at Tlaltizapan (state of Morelos, 940 masl, 18°N), 1,000-1,200 rows at Poza Rica (state of Veracruz, 60 masl, 2QON), and about 2,000-2,500 rows at EI Batan (headquarters, 2,240 masl, 190N).Since 1988 we have regenerated 893 entries, 548 of which were collections and 345 accessions (Table 2).Of the collections regenerated, most are new introductions collected recently in Brazil and Uruguay with IBPGR funding and old collections taken in Venezuela under the NAS-NRC initiative. We regenerate a collection when one or both of the following conditions exists: 1) low amounts of seed or 2) poor germination in evaluation trials. Fewer regenerations were performed in 1990-91 because of a lack of field space and an increased emphasis on race evaluations, but in 1992 we greatly augmented the number of regeneration plantings.Regeneration methodology and policies -We employ chain crosses in 150-250 plants sown in 16 rows of 5 m and repeat regeneration plantings from which fewer than 100 ears are harvested (Table 2; approved vs not approved). Some failed entries are replanted the following season in either 8 rows or a full 16 rows and the harvest combined with that of the previous cycle to reach the 100-ear minimum. The harvested ears are treated immediately with insecticide at the field station, dried to 13-15% moisture, and shelled. Fifty seeds of each ear are used to make a balanced composite. Two balanced composites are made for each collection-one for long-term storage at CIMMYT and the othe~ for backup at NSSL. The remaining seed is used for another balanced bulk by volume from each ear for the active collection. As of 1991, the three seed bulks for each regeneration are then placed in a drying room at low relative humidity for three-ta-four weeks before packing. Germination and seed moisture (4-6% optimum, depending on texture) are determined before storage in the base collection.Excess seed bulk from regeneration has recently been stored in CIMMYT's Wheat Germplasm Bank. In 1992 we cleared out as much of this as possible, leaving less than 3 kg per collection and only those regenerated after 1980. A list of the remaining seed is being compiled. One alternative for handling excess seed from regeneration is to offer it to other banks or programs. In 1986, for example, some of this seed was \"repatriated\" to the Latin American countries whence the particular collections originated.As for the regeneration backlogs that exist, it has also been suggested that banks in the countries of origin for specific collections assist in renewing seed of those holdings. Most comprise highland material acquired from NSSL in the late 1960s as part of the original NAS-NRC collections and those made by CIMMYT in the Andes at that time; having been in storage for so long, their viability is uncertain. During the last few years, we have returned all original collections from Guatemala to the I1ational program of that country, where in subsequent plantings only about 20-30% of the seed germinated. Portions of seed from those regeneration plantings have been sent back to CIMMYT. We also returned to Costa Rica entries originating there that we were unable to regenerate. To date there has been no word on actions taken with those collections, but we will include them in co~perative work under the CIMMYT-USAID•NSSL regeneration project for Latin American landraces.Some Bank accessions in the past have been established without prior regeneration. Our current procedure for new introductions is: 1) observation plantings, 2) regeneration plantings, and 3) registration as an accession.Teosinte collections in the Bank are regenerated when the supply of seed reaches a certain minimum level. We have begun regenerating some accessions in pots at Tlaltizap'n during the off-season for maize, and were able to regenerate the Guatemala population Zea luxurians by artificially shortening the daylength exposure. We will continue to experiment with regeneration methods for other populations. Requests for teosinte can also be met by providing samples of seed collected in situ.Duplicate storage -Up through the mid-1980s Pioneer Hi-Bred International assisted in regenerating CIMMYT accessions and shipping samples to NSSL for registration as CIMMYT deposits. After that, shipments were held until completion of the new NSSL facility. In 1992, we shipped 599 newly regenerated accessions to NSSL. We are preparing duplicate samples of materials regenerated in .the last 10 years. To date 6,388 duplicate samples of CIMMYT accessions are held at NSSL.In 1986 we offered excess seed in our holdings to banks in Latin America, distributing it to the countries of origin. Thus far we have sent backup samples of our stocks largely to the NSSL International Base Collection Storage Bank. We will continue to send duplicate sets there, as well as announcing the availability of excess seed to interested banks.Approximately 2,200 acc;essions need regeneration to ensure viability and/ or sufficient seed (Table 8). Some NAS-NRC collections in this category could be included in the USDA-NSSL regeneration project.In addition, we need to regenerate collections recovered by Dr. Gutierrez in the late 19605 and early 19705. Finally, we have other samples of non-accessioned seed that have never been regenerated, some requiring growing conditions very similar to those of their native habitats.After compiling passport data on Bank accessions in 1986-87, we began intensive efforts to evaluate our holdings for general characteristics such as ear morphology and plant architecture. Some 40 trials were conducted in race groupings established using the newly compiled passport information. We summarized results for the Tuxpeiio race complex and used them to develop core subsets of that complex. A subsequent comparison, through the global passport database project, of Tuxpeiio race accessions in the CIMMYT and INIFAP banks showed that the Mexican institution has an additional 570 accessions which were not included in our evaluation trials. The Tuxpeiio complex of thli? western and northern state of Mexico contains introgressions from the Mesa-Central-maize germplasm complex. In the southern parts of Mexico, the Zapalote germplasm complex influenced Tuxpeiio (Kato 1988(Kato , 1984)). The INIFAP collections contain additions of Tuxpeiio races from Chiapas, Tabasco, and Quintana Roo.Our evaluations also covered Mexican dent complexes such as Celaya and Vandeiio, as well as the highland races Conico, Conico Norteiio, and Chalqueiio. In cooperation with Dr. Fernando Castillo of the Graduate College of the University of Chapingo, and a student of his, Conico core subsets were selected using data from 1991-1992 evaluation trials. Data from evaluation trials for other races will be summarized and core subsets established through similar types of collaboration. Additional trials in other environments may have to be conducted before enough data are available, especially since only part of the race complexes are preserved at CIMMYT. Complementary evaluation trials with the accessions preserved at the Mexican bank would be desirable.tThe narrow-ear complex of western Mexico-which includes Tabloncillo, Reventador, Dulcillo, and Harinoso de Ocho-was evaluated at Tlaltizapan in 1989. The top performing accessions were used to test combining ability with ETO and Tuxpeiio experimental varieties (see appendices 2 and 3, \"Evaluation of Tabloncillo Ancho and Tabloncillo Tampiqueiio Full-sibs in Crosses with Poza Rica 8749\" and \"Combining Ability of Mexican Narrow-ear Races with Tuxpeiio and ETO Testers\"). The lowland tropical and subtropical maize subprograms of CIMMYT are conducting research using the Bank collections evaluated (see Chapter 3 \"Utilization of Bank Materials\"). Bank staff have also performed informal evaluations of certain collections under regeneration, with an eye to enhancing them and, in one instance, looking for Mexican yellow flint and dent source materials.We have an in-house database system developed in 1986-87 (Rosales et at. 1990) for day-to-day Bank activities such as seed shipments, regeneration, evaluation, and maintaining passport and seed storage information. This is constantly updated. In addition, in 1989-91 we developed a PC-operated global database system, in collaboration with CGNet and with IBPGR funds, that has been distributed throughout the international maize conservation network.The Bank's strong emphasis on collaboration as a way to use research resources and disseminate results efficiently is illustrated by several recent or ongoing efforts related to the conservation and utilization of maize genetic resources. It should be mentioned that these endeavors build on previous collaborative work by the CIMMYT Bank and its predecessor of the Inter-American Maize Program in collecting, evaluating, and facilitating the use of maize genetic resources. These early networking linkages have gradually been strengthened with funding from agencies such as USAID, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, and IBPGR.In 1989 the IBPGR seed physiology unit granted the Boyce Thompson Institute of Cornell University funding for research on maize seed longevity in cooperation with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank. Our main contribuitlonto the project is seed of landraces, in return for which we receive associated data.The global passport database development project funded by IBPGR was carried out in close collaboration with Latin American maize banks and has resulted in the documentation of many accessions for which information was previously difficult to obtain. Regarding the Latin American Maize Evaluation Project (LAMP), CIMMYT was not a direct participant, but we have made our collections available to research programs in the USA, Guatemala, and Uruguay for LAMP trials, have cooperated with LAMP-USA in the evaluation of Caribbean collections (20%) and topcross trials, and have planted other LAMP trials on our experiment stations at EI Bat~n and Tlaltizap~n. Finally, we have participated in several LAMP-rela•ted events, including a seminar on genetic resources and meetings in Chile and the USA.The Latin American regeneration project -This project is the centerpiece of our efforts to establish an effective international network for the conservation and utilization of maize genetic resources.Through it, CIMMYT is coordinating the regeneration by Latin American banks of more than 7,000 maize landrace samples in danger of being lost. The work is funded by USAID and USDA-NSSL (the latter as a continuation of previous regeneratio~ work in Colombia, Mexico, and Peru conducted by North Carolina State University with grants from USDA). The banks will keep the collections they regenerate. To strengthen international conservation, backup samples will be stored at CIMMYT and NSSL in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. CIMMYT will also maintain active holdings of the landraces, together with computerized information about them, ror distribution to interested researchers worldwide. In addition, participants will eventually possess a complete electronic database on materials they hold, a fundamental precondition for a hemisphere-wide maize germplasm network.Given the amount of germplasm in Latin American banks and the status of those holdings, it would be logical to expect that there will be an extension of this project. It has been estimated, for example, that some 5,000-6,000 Latin American and Caribbean accessions under long-term storage at NSSL now require regeneration (Eberhart 1991), suggesting that many of the NSSL duplicates should be replenished through the USAID-NSSL regeneration project.As mentioned, our major strategy vis a vis teosinte, apart from maintaining collections in our Bank, is periodically to check the status of populations in situ. In 1991, for example, staff monitored and took samples of teosinte in Guatemala, in collaboration with Dr. Wilkes and the Guatemalan National Genetic Resources Program, finding that several populations were smaller than when last observed. On a similar trip in Mexico in 1992, we found that all populations were stable and discovered new populations at previously unexplored sites. Future trips are planned to seek out unknown populations, especially in the area of Oaxaca and the Balsas River basin (Wilkes, personal communication). The Bank has recently begun to regenerate teosinte seed in its collections to ensure the continuing viability of base stocks and to supply seed for active use. Finally, we would like to thank h1e genetic resource programs of INIFAP, Mexico, and Guatemala, and express our sincere appreciation to colleagues from those programs for their extraordinary interest and cooperation in this work.'\\Our staff engage in a ran8\\:e of activities designed to strengthen the capacity of national programs to preserve and utilize the maize genetic resources at their disposal. Personnel of EI Salvador's maize bank, for instance, recently spent a month with us to learn about our management system: and field operations. We also work with researchers who attend in-service training courses at CIMMYT headquarters, providing information on Bank contents and procedures for regeneration, characterization, and evaluation. Our staff participated in a course on genetic resources at the University of California, Davis, in 1990, and in a joint training course at that institution in 1992 in which we gave hands-on instruction in bank management. We intend to offer similar short courses from time to time. Finally, we consider the attention afforded the many visitors to the Bank throughout the year as a type of training activity.Little collection has been done in recent years, except for samples of teosinte obtained during monitoring visits in Guatemala and Mexico. The samples from Guatemala have not yet been deposited in the Bank due to that country's policy on seed exchange of wild plants. We gathered seed of Tampiqueno and Tabloncillo Amarillo and Azul during recent visits to Jalisco state to monitor the status of maize landraces, and are growing them out and checking their appearance against the descriptions in the passport database. Several unique ones, especially of the Jala and Tampiqueno races, have been registered as accessions. Dr. Kato of the Graduate College has also provided us with samples of Jala and Jala mixtures from near the point of origin of that landrace. We plan a monitoring visit to Chiapas to check the status of Ollotillo and collect samples in the near future.     The CIMMYT Maize ProgramThe development of general purpose and hybrid-oriented source germplasm for the tropical lowlands (S.K. Vasal)•Bank materials have been used quite effectively in developing useful maize germplasm at CIMMYr. One good example is Tuxpefio Crema-1, which was formed by intercrossing outstanding accessions of the Tuxpefio race. This material is being used widely in different parts of the world, especially developing countries. We now have different versions of Tuxpefio Crema-1 that combine attributes such as drought tolerance, short plant stature, streak resistance, brachytic-2, tolerance to inbreeding, and improved crossbred performance in hybrid combinations. Bank materials have also been used in developing new populations, pools, and germplasm complexes of particular races. The following describes the systematic use of bank accessions to develop general purpose and hybrid oriented source germplasm for the tropical lowlands.Special considerations -The possibility of using Bank materials to generate useful source germplasm has-been recognised for a long time. Unfortunately, the poor agronomic character of most of Bank materials makes their frequent use impractical in active breeding programs. Bank accessions often have excessive plant and ear height, a tendency to root and stalk lodging, too much foliage, barreness, greater pollen shedding and silking interval, and a lack of inbreeding tolerance. One must resort to prebreeding before this germplasm can be used effectively or introgressed into other germplasm. Its use also requires special breeding skills and a definite germplasm management system to keep the total number of source populations to a more or less determined level.The evolution of Program breeding philosophies -Beginning in 1973-74, the CIMMYT Maize Program devised a two-tiered germplasm management strategy involving back-up gene pools and front-line,Ii advanced\" maize populations. The germplasm at both levels was intentionally kept open-ended to permit the introgression of new and superi(Yr germplasm from time to time. The germplasm also followed a more or less predetermined \"flow\" through the system: materials from the maize germplasm bank and the national programs were generally added to gene pools, which featured a broad genetic base. The decision to introgress materials depended on ecological adaptation, maturity, grain color, and grain texture characteristics. In most advanced elite populations, only superior families from each corresponding pool were identified and later introgressed following systematic evaluation.The major emphasis of the Maize Program up until the mid-1980s was on population development and improvement efforts to derive open-pollinated products (OPVs). No emphasis was placed on hybrid-oriented products, other than evaluating the combining ability of existing maize germplasm with respect to Tuxpefio and ETO testers. Thus in both germplasm development and improvement activities, intrapopulation improvement schemes were used. Beginning in the middle of the decade, * Breeder, lowland tropical maize.though, a modest effort in hybrid development was initiated in response to a perceived need for hybrid-oriented products, and this focus has grown steadily since then. As a result, the use of Bank materials must be ~ased on well recognised heterotic groups and follow a stepwise progression involving evaluatiO'n, use in developing new source germplasm, inti-ogression into already existing germ plasm, and finally hybrid development.Evaluation ofgermplasm accessions -A systematic evaluation of Germplasm Bank accessions in multisite tests was necessary to identify superior collections for use in breeding over the past 25 years. At least a few thousand Bank accessions have been evaluated (Table 1). In the past four y~ars we have used several germplasm accessions and also S1 lines identified through such testing.Introgression of bank accessions into existing gene pools -Once superior accessions are identified, they are used mainly to broaden the genetic base of existing gene pools. In four tropical, late maturity pools, several materials from the Bank have been introgressed over the past 20 years. Table 2 lists the materials involved in such pools. The introgression process may take various forms.Introgression of selected accessions -Since most gene pools are handled and improved using a modified half-sib system, materials to be introgressed are planted the first year as female rows and the entries are detasselled and forced to pollinate with male rows representing bulks of families or selected ears from the previous cycle. In the following season, the crosses of the bank materials x pools are either advanced separately by pollinating only the desirable plants or by planting the F1 crosses again as female rows. The performance and combining ability of bank accessions are judged visually in relation to male rows altemating with the female rows. Ears are selected from the desirable plants to enter the main body of that particular pool the next season. A number of bank accessions have been introgressed into pools 23, 24, 25 and 26 (Table 1).Formation of new source populations -Bank accessions have also been used in forming new source populations. In recent years the tropical late germplasrrt\"development unit headed by Dr. W. Villena has developed two new, broad-based materials involving superior Bank accessions. These populations have been tentatively named Poblaci6n Blanco Semidentado (PBS) and Poblaci6n Tardio Caribe (PTC). PBS drew on criollos Argentinos landraces from the area of Villa Valencia in Veracruz, especially accessions of tall plant type but good yield potential, as evidenced by ear size. To improve the agronomic type of this germplasm, it was subsequently crossed to CIMMYT lowland tropical, short stature maize and to some ear-rot-resistant, white flint materials.The PTC resulted from the crosses among Caribbean selections in turn crossed to short plant type testers (NPH). The population is of mixed grain color and, after a few more cycles of recombination, will likely result in a unique set of materials characterized by good standability, husk cover, and grain yield potential.Mini-pools -A few Bank materials have been crossed to testers, evaluated for their combining ability, and used to form \"mini\" pools.development effort, the combining ability of germplasm at all levels has started receiving greater attention. Heterotic patterns of tropical pools and populations have been identified. In addition several inbred-based populations and new heterotic groups have been formed. In the future heterotic patterns of Bank accessions will be evaluated before introgressing them into appropriate materials.Based on the performance of Bank mate~ials in multilocation evaluation nurseries, some were suggested for use in breeding lowland tropical maize. We are inbreeding selections of these and evaluating them, particularly the accessions Veracruz 23 and Sinaloa 21. In addition, SI seed from the Bank's own inbreeding research, initiated in 1989, was shared with lowland tropical maize breeders. In 1989, 1,134 Sllines of various accessions from Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, as well as the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Colima, Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit, Nuevo Le6n, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potos(, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and Veracruz were grown and selections advanced to S2. Further inbreeding and utilization of these lines in various ways will be pursued in the future.Development of special trait germplasm -Bank materials having special traits will be used to improve lowland tropical maize. We have received 66 Olotillo accessions that possess a thin cob, deep kernels, and excellent shelling percentage. The best ones were subjected to inbreeding and the SIs are currently being evaluated.   Pool 24. Tropical Late White Dent Tuxpeno P.B,C n x La Posta C 2 ; Tuxpeno-Caribe 2; Mezcla tropical blanca; Eto Mix. 1-CQI. Early-maturing maize for the tropics (H. C6rdova)*Early maturing maize can provide significant advantages to farmers in developing countries, including greater flexibility in time of planting, the possibility of avoiding biotic and abiotic stresses that occur at certain times in the cycle, the ability to fit more easily into intensive and intercropping systems, and a chance to market the harvest earlier and thus obtain a higher price (Beck, 1991). However elite early maturing germ plasm is relatively scarce in lowland tropical environments, where the vast majority of developing country maize is produced.To provide our cooperators in national programs with new germplasm sources for .use in•developing early maturing maize for the tropics, we are systematically screening accessions from CIMMYT's Maize Germplasm Bank. During the 1988 winter and summer seasons, we evaluated more than 1,000 of these materials. Most of the early-maturing bank accessions tested so far have shown low yield potential per se. As a result, we are placing greater emphc1sis on crossing accessions that show reasonable yield potential to elite tropical early sources. In the 1989A season, 50 of the best early accessions were crossed to Poza Rica 8530 and in 1989B the topcrosses were evaluated in replicated yield trails. Only four crosses performed as well or better than the check entries. We are now improving these four materials through. recurrent selection with mild selection intensity. Using this methodology, we hope to introduce new and useful genes into more desirable agronomic backgrounds.Oaxaca 256 was identified as the earliest collection and used as a.source of extra earliness. Crosses among high yielding late stable genotypes (Pools and Populations) and sources of earliness from the germplasm bank allowed us to identify new gametic recombinations for forming new early genotypes that yield well and possess superior agronomic traits. After four cycles of recurrent selection for earliness and yield, we have made encouraging progress on both counts with two extra early and early populations, 101 and 102 (Table 2).Synthetic varieties formed from the superior families have been tested in several locations in 1991 and 1992. A new early variety from population 102 outyielded all varieties tested in the preliminary evaluation trial PET-! in 1992.* Breeder, lowland tropical maize. (M. BJamason and K. Pixley)-Germplasm of the Tuxpeno race is widely used in tropical and subtropical maize programs because of its productivity and good combining ability. CIMMYT maize populations have included Tuxpeno germ plasm from mainly the lowland tropical region along the Gulf of Mexico. Agronomicallypromising Tuxpeno accessions from subtropical areas in Mexico have been identified in Germplasm Bank evaluation trials in recent years, and we are looking at the best ones more closely in our program. The objective of this work is to identify new sources of Tuxpeno more specifically adapted to subtropical areas. These regions are dryer and have production constraints that differ from those common in the tropical areas from which most Tuxpenos previously utilized at CIMMYT originated.Materials and methods -Fifteen accessions from the Mexican states of Hidalgo, Michoacan, San Luis POtOSI, Tamaulipas, and Veracruz were evaluated and increased at Tlaltizapan during 1991A. The three most promising white and yellow accessions were grown in 1992A, and plant-to-plant sibbing was made among selected plants in each accession. Full-sib ears of the most promising accession of each grain color were shelled individually. Among the whites, a Celaya Tuxpeno from San Luis POtOSI (Ace. 438) was selected, and a Tuxpeno also from the state of San Luis POtOSI (Ace. 1909) was selected among the yellows. In 1992B, 153 full-sib families from the white accession and 165 from the yellow were evaluated for yield and other agronomic characters together with checks in simple alpha (0,1) lattices at Tlaltizapan. The same families were evaluated for resistance to rust and E. turcicum at El Batan. Data are presented here for trials involving full-sib families and for a trial of subtropical, late maturing populations that included these and other promising bank accessions.Results and discussion -The means of the full-sib families evaluated and of 25 families selected for yield, ear height, lodging, and husk cover are presented in Table 1. The performance of the best check entry, 91SLWF, a new white flint population, is also included. The mean yield of all the full sibs evaluated was lower than that of the check entry for both trials, but th'e mean of the selected fraction exceeded the check for yield. Ear height was above acceptable levels in both populations, which is typical of many Bank accessions. The yellow population had very attractive ears with deep yellow dent kernels. The E. turcicum inoculations in El Batan were not successful, but severe natural rust (P. sorghi) infection showed that both populations were highly susceptible, and very limited variability was observed for resistance to this disease.In the trial of late maturing populations (Table 2), which included both established and new populations, one of the white Bank accessions, a Tuxpeno Olotillo from Tamaulipas (Ace. 411), showed very promising yield potential. The better yellow accession, SNLP Tux. Y, yielded more than the yellow advanced population 45, but was 11 days later in flowering. All Bank accessions had high ear placement and poor rust resistance.• Breeders, subtropical maize.through some type of recurrent selection. However, because of limited variation for rust resistance, other strategies, e.g. a conversion program, will be more efficient for improvement of this trait. We do not know yet about E. turcicum resistance in these materials, but this is another trait of importance in many subtropical areas. For hybrid development, a complementary heterotic group could be established by crossing these accessions to elite lines known by pedigree to be of different genetic background and selecting the best lines for recombination. Experience at CIMMYT with tropical Tuxpefios has shown that they combine well with many other materials, so we are cautiously optimistic that these subtropical Tuxpefios will be useful in heterotic combinations with germplasm already in use in hybrid-oriented programs for the subtropics. Line development beyond the 51 or 52 stage will not be attempted in these accessions until their agronomic performance has been enhanced.We envision a chronologically two-tiered implementation of this germplasm: 1) an intermediate-term approach in which agronomic deficiencies will be addressed by crossing to elite material; and 2) a longer-term approach in which we will maintain as pure as possible the genetic identity of the materials. We expect that these pure Tuxpefio types of differe~t origin than those presently used will broaden the germplasm base and provide new options in germplasm development for subtropical areas.An alternative approach for use of Germplasm Bank accessions in subtropical germplasm development would be to implement an early testing scheme for combining ability with a less select group of candidate accessions. This would identify accessions most likely to contribute new and useful genes for hybrid-oriented work, but would also likely result in accessions with poor per se characteristics. Some form of back-cross conversion program would be needed to improve accessions while limiting the theoretical genetic contribution of non-recurrent parents to 25% or so. An important consideration, if this approach were utilized, is the greater investment of resources during the early stages (evaluation of accessions). Perhaps this type of evaluation could or should be a primary task of the Germplasm Bank.Natural and farmer selection in cool highland areas has led to the development of maize types tl,~t are uniquely adapted to cooler regions, as documented recently in experiments carried out in growth chambers (Ellis et al. 1992) where it was shown that optimum growing temperatures for cultivars' based on C6nico and Cacahuacintle germplasm were 6-12°C cooler than those for lowland tropical Tuxpeno germplasm, subtropical germplasm, and temperate germplasm. On the other hand, the two highland cultivars were the only cultiv~rs killed by a constant temperature of 37°C. Besides alack of heat tolerance, Germplasm Bank accessions of highland materials often are deficient in several important agronomic traits, and there may be problems with grain texture, low tolerance to inbreeding depression, and photoperiod sensitivity.In research on highland maize, we recognize that there is a gradient of niches to which our germplasm is targeted, from extremely cold environments with growing season mean temperatures as low as 12.5°C to relatively warmer environments which have means approaching 200C. Night temperatures are extremely important in determining cold tolerance. To simplify matters somewhat, CIMMYT has defined three highland mega-environments based on temperature: 1) the tropical highland transition zone, with mean growing season temperatures of 17-200C and minimum night temperatures usually above 15°C; 2) the temperate highlands, with means from 15-200C and widely fluctuating night temperatures and photoperiods; and 3) the tropical highlands, with means from 12.5-17°C and night temperatures below l00C and occasional frosts. To reduce genotype-by-environment interactions for breeding, the latter mega-environment may be divided into the very cold (12.5-15°C) and cdld (15-17°C) zones. It is important to realize that temperatures and rainfall determine the adaptation of maize pathogens and insects as well, and maize for each zone must carry the appropriate resistances as well as temperature adaptation.The most important Bank accession for the relatively warm tropical highland transition zone has been Ecuador 573. It was introduced in Kitale, Kenya, in 1959. When crossed to the local variety/Kenya Flat White, the hybrid manifested excellent heterosis. Hybrids based on this heterotic pattern have had a great impact in Kenya (Gerhart 1975) and in other countries of East Africa-including Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zaire, Burundi, and Rwanda-in areas at altitudes of 1600-2000 masl.No single Germplasm Bank accession has had a large impact in the temperate highlands. CIMMYT has developed populations for this zone using crosses between temperate germplasm (mainly Com Belt Dents and European Flints) and improved tropical highland populations which are about 60% improved C6nico types, 20% temperate, and 20% subtropical.Bank accessions have been very useful in breeding morocho, floury, and semi-dent maizes for the tropical highlands. In this zone the need for cold tolerance is so important that no exotic germphlsm can be used directly. Rather, it must be used in small doses of up to 40% in warmer zones (ls..i7°C) and less than 10% in cooler zones (12.5-15°C) to correct shortcomings of the indigenous highland germplasm.* Breeder, highland maize.Floury tropical highland germplasm accounts for some 4% of the 6 million hectares of highland areas worldwide. Cacahuacintle is the most important race in Mexico and has contributed greatly to early floury populations for the Andean highlands. Cuzco Gigante has been the most important late floury landrace. In developing gene pools for the Andean highlands (both floury and morocho) about 50% of the initial germplasm was from CIMMYT's 1970's highland pools (Taba 1992)  (Arellano,1984;Mendoza and Carballo 1980). One of these OPVs was based on the C6nico landrace Tlaxcala 151. Early generation lines from this source combine well with Michoacan 21 early generation lines (and CIMMYT highly inbred lines), and it forms the base of one heterotic group used for breeding early and intermediate hybrids (Valdivia 1992).Recently, Mexican highland maize breeders have become concerned about the narrowness of the highland germplasm base (C6nico and Chalqueno). CIMMYT developed broad-based gene pools using these races in the 19705. Since neither C6nico nOr'Chalqueno possesses sufficient variation to allow breeding progress in improving root strength, eliminating tillering, and tolerating high levels of inbreeding, the CIMMYT program since 1984 has been judiciously introgressing exotic germplasm (primarily temperate and subtropical) to correct these faults while maintaining cold tolerance and adaptability. Populations containing a mix of indigenous and exotic germplasm and improved by recurrent selection have been the source of many excellent OPVs, and in 1993 CIMMYT made availablf' inbred lines (55-58) derived from these populations for areas with mean growing season temperatures of 15-17°C (valleys of Mexico, Puebla, areas of Yunnan province, P. R. China, etc.). These lines are approximately 60% C6nico, although RFLP studies will be necessary to estimate the percentage accurately. Lines that are approximately 90% C6nico will soon be ready for cooler areas (12.5-15°C) such as the valley of Toluca, as well as lines that contain approximately 60% Chalqueno for longer season areas.For the future, improved hard grain maize varieties for highland tropical areas will continue to be based on indigenous maizes. Over the short term, hybrids will be formed using as one parent an early generation line derived from a Bank accession and the other a highly inbred line containing exotic germplasm. For the longer term, it is expected that improved lines with exotic germplasm and approaching homozygosity will be used to form more modern hybrids and synthetic OPVs. Still, these improved lines wiIl contain approximately 60-90% indigenous germplasm.CIMMYT's strategy in breeding for drought tolerance is twofold. First, we focus on the rapid improvement of drought tolerance in elite germplasm, and seek to increase the low frequency of drought-adaptive alleles that normally exists within elite maize populations. This approach can result in a 30% increase in grain yield under conditions of drought at flowering and during grain filling that would otherwise reduce potential yields from 6 t/ha to about 2 t/ha (Bolanos and Edmeades, 1993). Much of this gain has come about by changes in partitioning of biomass to the developing ear at flowering, resulting in an increase in grain numbers per ear and a decrease in barrenness. No attention has yet been paid to problems encountered during the establishment of elite germplasm. Selection in elite populations has not changed total biomass production and so has not changed water use efficiency. As well, there seems little genetic variability in elite populations for delayed senescence or osmotic adjustment under drought. Finally, there were indications that gains were declining in advanced selection cycles for improved drought tolerance in elite populations (Bolanos and Edmeades 1993).These observations led to a second approach in research on drought tolerance: the identification of donors for characteristics that would increase production under drought at no great cost to performance under well-watered conditions. We sought to establish two populations as repositories for a wide array of genes related to performance under drought. The first of these, Drought Tolerant Population -1 (DTP1), was established in 1986. The second, DTP2, is 50% DTP1, and has extensive introgression from superior source materials. These populations are, as expected, very heterogeneous for grain type, grain color and maturity. Agronomic performance was also initially poor, so our first emphasis was to improve standability and disease resistance. In order to reduce bias from continuous selection at Tlaltizapan in the dry winter cycle, we have sent 51 progenies of DTPl to interested collaborators in national porgrams for screening under the drought conditions they normally encounter (Edmeades et al. 1991).Identifying sources for drought tolerant populations -We have screened about 200 potential sources of drought tolerance (elite, landrace, hybrid and OPY) under drought and well-watered conditions at Tlaltizapan. The elite sources were from countries other than Mexico (especially southern Africa, Thailand, USA, as well as CIMMYT's own program), and most were included on the basis of their reputed performance under drought elsewhere.A total of 300 potential sources of drought tolerance were identified from CIMMYT's Germplasm Bank. These came from sites described in the passport data as below 1000 m elevation and which had either an annual rainfall of less than 600 mm or were from sites which were noted as dry. These were usually prescreened in the summer for agronomic performance (stalk strength, susceptibility to disease, low yield), and a total of 160 were advanced for testing under drought in either late or early flowering trials. The criteria used in selection under drought were limited to what we could manage at Tlaltizapan. Each entry was grown in a replicated 3-row plot under two levels of drought stress during the winter, as well as normal irrigation to observe yield potential. In the stressed water regime• Physiologist/agronomist.irrigation was withdrawn 3 weeks before anthesis and the crop was severely stressed at flowec;i'ng and during grain filling. A selection index was used to identify superior entries. This indexplac;e4hw'eight on delayed foliar senescence, high osmotic potential (when measured), high grain yield andh,ighears per plant under stress, a short anthesis-silking interval, and lodging resistance under stress. The index maintained yield and flowering date under well-watered conditions. Compared with sel'E!ctionin i elite germplasm, less emphasis was placed on performance under unstressed conditions, and more,on delayed senescence and high osmotic activity.There are many problems encountered in such trials. The site used (winter, Tlaltizapan) limited the traits we could observe. We were unable, for example, to examine variability in abilitytm emerge from depth in a dry soil. In a number of trials the variability in flowering date among entries made it hard to distinguish escapes from those with genuine drought tolerance. We used the summer prescreening trials to stratify entries by flowering date, and then grew all early (or late) flowering entries in the same trials (see Table above). The passport data was not a precise guide to maturity, and many of the accessions are very photoperiod sensitive. Thus it was often difficult to get a fair comparison of ability to withstand stress at flowering, even with a prescreening trial the previous summer.Utilization -Of the 13 components used to form DTP1, one was a direct Bank accessions (Michoacan 21), and another (Latente x Latente) was directly traceable to a Bank accession (also Michoac:an 21). When DTP2 was formed, two of the 25 components used in this introgression into DTPI were drawn directly from the Germplasm Bank (Sinaloa 31, and Tamaulipas 25). Thus 15% of the germplasm used in DTPI and 11 %used in DTP2 could be directly traced to Germplasm Bank accessions. The population DTPI is now in its second cycle of testing internationally and has been used by several NARS (e.g., Zambia, Malawi) as a further source of drought tolerance. The CIMMYT sub-station atHarare has also extracted some promising lines from DTP1. At present 51 lines from DTPI are being screened for their capacity to germinate and Details of six trials involving Bank materials establish under a gradient of moisture stress at conducted between 1987 and 1993.Tlaltizapan. We anticipate that DTP2will be about 10-11.5 t/ha. We anticipate that the adaptation of DTPt will be oriented towards the lowland tropics, while that of DTP2 will Total 160 modified to suit the mid-elevation tropics.The availability of nitrogen limits maize yields throughout the developing world. At the same time, most breeding nurseries are grown under non-limiting levels of nutrients in order to minimize the effects of soil heterogeneity during the selection process. It might be argued that improved materials have lost certain adaptive traits for performance on low fertility soils which were present in the landrace materials from which they were derived. In our search for sources of germplasm which perform well under conditions of low N fertilization, we turned to the Germplasm Bank to examine the performance of accessions which had not undergone much selection under high fertility conditions. Our objectives were twofold: 1) to contrast the strategies of unimproved and improved maize under conditions of low soil N, and 2) to identify accessions to form populations adapted specifically to low N environments.These low N populations represent an attempt to see what would have happened had breeders, like small scale farmers, worked under low N conditions. We also hope that the agronomic performance of the populations can be improved rapidly in order to provide a source of useful germplasm for those national programs that are addressing the problem of low soil fertility through improved varieties.These populations represent a long-term approach to the problem of low soil fertility. We are simultaneously working to improve the performance of an elite population under low N conditions.Evaluation of Bank accessions under different levels of soil nitrogen -A total of 209 Bank entries have been evaluated under high and low N. The low N treatment received no fertilizer N while the high N plots received the normal station application of 200 kg N as ammonium sulfate. The evaluations were made over a period of 3 years, and a variety of criteria were used to select the accessions. In one year, entries were selected on the basis of race: entries represented races of maize which are common to low fertility soil groups in Mexico and Central America, and the accessions were collected at elevations below 1000 masl. In another year, materials of Caribbean origin were evaluated. And in the final experiment, the entries were selected on the basis a low fertility rating in the collector's notes. It should be noted that these accessions, while classified as landraces for the purpose of this study, could all have been improved to some extent prior to their collection. In one trial, improved materials were included as well. In these trials characters measured included: plant and ear height, ear leaf area, flowering dates, ear leaf chlorophyll at flowering, grain yield, biomass yield, and Kjeldahl N concentrations in the stover, cob, and grain.Contrasting behavior of improved and landrace genotypes -Grain yields of improved entries tended to be greater than the yields of Bank accessions under both N levels. Landrace entries tended to have a lower harvest index, but the harvest index of Bank materials was less affected by N stress than was that of improved materials, and the nitrogen harvest index of Bank materials actually increased with N stress while it decreased in improved entries.* Physiologist/agronomist.• When fertilizer N was applied, the improved materials accumulated considerably more N in the grain than did the Bank entries. At low N, however, N partitioning within the plant was similar for the two germplasm groups. The greater dry matter yields in the improved materials under low N was associated with a greater dilution of the grain N, that is, from a lower N concentration in the grain.With N stress, the leaf area of Bank entries was reduced more than in improved materials, but leaf chlorophyll was maintained at higher concentration. This finding suggests that the advantage of the improved materials lay in the production of leaf area of a lower N content, rather than in an improved ability to absorb N from the environment.In summary, it appears that landrace materials show potentially useful genetic variation for:High N uptake under N stress Maintenance of leaf chlorophyll concentration -N Maintenance or increase in harvest index (HI) and nitrogen harvest index (NHI) with N stress Maintenance of grain N concentration with N stress Negative correlations among these traits were not observed.Formation of populations with specific adaptation to low N environments -Land race entries were selected independently in each of the three evaluations, and were combined to form an early population (32 accessions) and a late population (22 accessions). The populations have undergone five c:ycles of halfsib mixing under low N with mild selection to improve agronomic characters in the last two cycles.Recurrent selection under low N began in 92B with strong emphasis on reducing ear height and lodging and improving yield.Preliminary observations of the low N populations reveal that they are very tall and suffer from extreme lodging under high N, such that they show little positive response to N application. In their target low N environment, however, their height is not excessive and their yields are fairly good. Wefeel that the populations show suffident promise to continue their improvement und~r recw'rrent selection for several more cycles, at which point their performance will be evaluate<lalongside that of elite germplasm under low N conditions. \"","tokenCount":"11673"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"46d5c58769e301527630c91386d44c2d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/96931cba-4373-487a-8ae5-34802df2dbd1/retrieve","id":"-264357413"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bc79c45b-a18c-4b40-ab27-5900276f5609","pagecount":"12","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Written by Hubert Some 1 and Augustine Ayantunde 2Milk and dairy products are a key source of essential nutrients, and are an important food product especially for children and pregnant and lactating women. Despite the large cattle livestock sector in Burkina Faso, milk production in the country is limited and dairy consumption is well below recommended levels. Most milk produced in the country derives from traditional low-yielding extensive farming system, with few semi-intensive dairy units mostly located in peri-urban areas. Increased urbanization in the country means the demand for milk and dairy products is increasing. Such demand is now being met primarily by imported milk powder, given that the current dairy production systems in the country are unable to satisfy this demand. On the other hand, such increased demand represents an economic opportunity for the dairy sector in the country and the government is planning investments to grow and modernize milk and dairy products production and marketing in the country. However, livestock intensification is associated with increased environmental impacts, as well as increased health hazards in larger and longer supply chains. The dairy sector and farm associated hazards is poorly known in Burkina Faso, and such information is required to appropriately inform policies and dairy sector development strategies.Despite being an essential food nutriment, milk and dairy products are vulnerable to contamination with bacteria and important human foodborne pathogens. Health risk associated with Salmonella spp. and Staphylococcus aureus have been associated with consumption of milk and dairy products of poor microbiological quality. More recently, reports on high levels of aflatoxins in milk products and their associated carcinogenic effect and putative association with chronic malnutrition (stunting) in children have shown the importance of understanding the levels of such hazards in milk and dairy products and which management approaches can be used to limit their presence in the dairy supply chains.In line with the planned project activities, a workshop was organized involving key smallholder dairy value chain actors on 10 October 2018 in Ouagadougou and on 11 October 2018 in Dori to inform key actors in dairy production and food safety about the project and to map the smallholder dairy value chain.The lists of participants at both meetings are in Annex 1 (18 at the meeting in Ouagadougou and 14 in Dori). The participants included dairy producers, processors and traders. Researchers from INERA and IRSAT also participated along with officials from the Ministry of Animal Resources and Fishery, Ministry of Health and food safety regulatory agency.To guide the mapping of dairy value chain in peri-urban areas of Ouagadougou and in rural areas of Dori, the facilitator of the workshop introduced the value chain concept. The overall objective was to characterize smallholder dairy value chain in peri-urban area of Ouagadougou and in rural area of Dori to inform their strategic development and improve efficiency. The specific objectives were to (1) characterize the important activities and actors for the smallholder dairy value chain and (2) identify constraints, difficulties and possible interventions to improve the value chain.For the mapping exercise, the participants were divided into three work groups in Ouagadougou representing production, processing and commercialization segments of the chain. Due to the low number of participants in Dori, there were only two work groups (production and processing). The instructions and questions for the work groups were as below.• List all input suppliers by type and location of these providers for dairy production, processing and marketing. • List the different types of dairy products and their origins at the level of your production, processing and marketing activities. • List all clients or customers (type and size if possible).• List dairy producer, processor or trader organizations who work with you.• List all of the support services for dairy production, processing and marketing, and the nature of their services.• List the main difficulties and constraints you have encountered in production, processing and marketing of milk products. • What are the issues related to hygiene that you have encountered in the production, processing or marketing of milk products?• What solutions do you suggest for a better organization of dairy value chain in Burkina Faso in terms of production, processing and marketing? • What solutions do you suggest to resolve the identified difficulties and constraints?• What action do you suggest to minimize and/or resolve constraints you have encountered?The reports from the work groups were used for the mapping of the dairy value chain in peri-urban areas of Ouagadougou and in rural areas of Dori. ","tokenCount":"784"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ff4f9001149bd5a9713551c4b3526277","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/324c1b04-8646-47b3-bb3f-c7e7a9531270/retrieve","id":"-692484443"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"90016ed4-d210-486a-8e57-ef9fc2b81d1c","pagecount":"69","content":"Training in the use of information and communication technologies (iCTs) is helping to increase productivity and incomes.his book provides a snapshot of CTA's achievements during the last decade. It is a celebration, rather than a conventional impact assessment, and it provides an insight into the broad range of activities that CTA has supported through partnerships across Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP).Established under the Lomé Convention between the ACP Group of States and the European Union 30 years ago, CTA initially focused on the dissemination of information as its main activity. Although this remains an important part of our work, we subsequently developed programmes on policies, agricultural value chains and information and communication technologies (ICTs).Our main purpose has always been to make a difference on the ground, and in particular to improve food security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in ACP countries. It is often difficult to attribute impact and determine exactly why changes occur in farmers' fields and to their livelihoods. Frequently, several factors -the introduction of new technologies, exposure to information, favourable trading regimes -combine to help farming communities shift from subsistence to market economies. However, I believe the stories told here provide compelling evidence that CTA has made a real difference through its various interventions.Some of the stories focus on activities that are directly helping to improve the productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers and fishers. Some describe the support we have provided to academic institutions and researchers. Others give a flavour of the many policy processes in which CTA is playing an active role. All are contributing, in one way or another, to our goal of improving food security and reducing poverty.A development institution like CTA must ensure that its work makes a difference to its ultimate beneficiaries -smallholder farmers in ACP countries. However, as a small institution with a large mandate, we need to build smart partnerships with farmers' organisations, government agencies, research networks, youth and women's groups and the private sector to add value and bring about sustainable transformation in the agricultural sector. Indeed, our partners are the real heroes of many of the stories told in this book.We are fortunate that governments, development partners, NGOs and private investors are now paying more attention than ever before to agriculture as an engine for socio-economic growth in ACP countries. It is time to redouble our efforts and play an active role in the process of transforming agriculture to achieve its true potential for food and nutritional security and the prosperity of millions of ACP citizens.CTA Director CTA has provided support to dozens of organisations representing small-scale farmers and fishing communities in ACP countries. The Caribbean farmers network (Cafan) and the Kenya national federation of agricultural producers, whose stories are told here, are two of the many organisations that have become increasingly effective and businesslike, thanks to CTa's support. in some cases, CTa has helped to establish new organisations, such as the Caribbean network of fisherfolk organisations (Cnfo). greater cooperation among small-scale farmers and fishers has led to increases in productivity and higher incomes. They have also become more influential in national and regional policy processes.EMPowERing SMAll-SCAlE fARMERS \"at the outset, we decided to focus on small-scale farmers -90% of farmers in the Caribbean have less than 5 acres -and pay particular attention to the needs of women and young people,\" says Jethro. \"and we initially chose to work on non-contentious issues which would bring people together; unite not divide.\" This was particularly important as old enmities between islands in the Caribbean often hindered regional cooperation. Cafan now provides a voice for over 20 farmers' organisations in 15 countries, which between them represent some 500,000 individuals.Cafan's main programmes involve sharing information and knowledge; promoting food and nutritional security; encouraging the involvement of young people in agriculture; influencing national policy making; and helping farmers to improve their incomes through greater involvement in value chains.\"improving marketing is now a key thrust of our work,\" says Jethro. he is particularly proud of the success which ECTad and Cafan have had in improving farmers' profits from various root crops. a decade or so ago, farmers were getting as little as uS$0.25 a pound for their dasheen (Colocasia esculenta). This barely covered the costs of production. ECTad linked farmers to new markets and ran a series of training sessions on post-harvest handling and packaging. Before long, farmers were getting uS$0.70 a pound, and at times almost double that. (See Box page 12: dasheen delivers)Ta has been like a godfather to us,\" says Jethro greene, director of the Caribbean farmers network (Cafan). \"it has funded many of our activities since the early days, and we would never have achieved what we have without CTa's support.\" indeed, the idea of creating a network was first raised at a workshop organised by CTa and the Caribbean agricultural research and development institute (Cardi) in Trinidad in 2002.Caribbean agriculture was then in a state of crisis. its contribution to gdp was steadily declining, and would fall from 4.8% of gdp in 2000 to just over 3% in 2006. The Caribbean imported 90% of its food requirements, and many of the region's smallholder farmers, who constitute around a fifth of the labour force, suffered from low productivity, poor marketing and high levels of poverty. although many islands had their own national farmers' organisation, there was little or no cooperation between them.Shortly after the Trinidad workshop, the executive director of Cardi got in touch with Jethro. he said: 'Since you initiated this idea, why don't you take it over?' Jethro replied that he didn't have the resources to establish a new organisation; but thesethanks to CTa and Cardi -were soon made available. The Eastern Caribbean Trading agriculture and development organization (ECTad), managed by Jethro from an office in Kingstown, St vincent, took on the role of secretariat.The dasheen trainings were among many supported by CTa. \"CTa has been particularly important when it comes to the training of trainers,\" says Cleve Scott, who works parttime for Cafan as a project manager.The first major CTa-funded training workshop, on the management of farmers' associations, was held in Barbados in 2007. Twenty-three participants from 11 countries attended the workshop. Since then, CTa has supported many other training events covering a wide range of topics, from disaster management and risk assessment to postharvest handling, marketing and the use of iCTs. many farmers' leaders have also benefited from web 2.0 trainings (see page 28).The impact is clear to see. farmers' organisations are now more efficiently managed and better led, and many farmers have improved their productivity and incomes. \"i recently attended CTa training workshops on the use of iCTs and web 2.0,\" says audrey walters, a farmer from Sans Souci in St vincent. \"i found them extremely helpful, and i now have a much better idea about how i can use the internet and mobile phone for business activities.\" Since the training sessions, she has been sharing her new-found knowledge with other farmers who belong to the 30-strong women in agriculture for rural development (ward) group she helped to found.Talk to anyone who works for Cafan and you will be struck by their passion and commitment. \"we can't afford a civil-service type mentality, with people sitting in an office and thinking of this as a permanent job,\" says Jethro. instead, the organisation places a strong emphasis on volunteerism. most staff are part-time and make their living elsewhere. Cleve Scott, for example, lectures at the university of west indies and works in the music business. Cafan's country directors -there are two for each country -also have other business interests. one is a doctor; one is a teacher; one a full-time farmer; another a consultant.\"Bureaucratically, we are very lean,\" explains Cleve. \"until now, there have been no long-term, salaried positions, although people have been paid on short-term contracts to undertake the specific projects for which they've raised funds.\" This is about to change, as Cafan has recently received a large grant from the Canadian international development agency (Cida), and this will involve taking on some permanent staff. however, Cleve believes that the network's basic philosophy will remain much the same.Cafan hopes to continue its relationship with CTa, not least because it appreciates the way CTa has provided support and advice. \"we like CTa's partnership approach to development,\" says Jethro. \"CTa believes in consultation, not dictation, and i think that's one of the things that sets it apart from many donor organisations.\" nCarlton ottley has two small farms in richland park, high up in the picturesque mesopotamia valley, an hour's winding drive from St vincent's capital. at one he rears poultry; at the other he grows dasheen and bananas. \"when i first began growing dasheen, about eight years ago, i used to get 30 sacks off a piece of land like this,\" he says as he walks us across his fields. \"now, on the same area, i get 40 or more sacks.\" he attributes his higher yields to the CTa-funded technical training he received from the Eastern Caribbean Trading agriculture and development organisation (ECTad).Just as significantly, ECTad has helped to transform the fortunes of dasheen farmers by finding new markets. in the days when ottley began growing dasheen, he and his neighbours had to accept whatever the buyers or traders -mostly women who take produce to neighbouring islands by schooner -offered, which wasn't much more than the cost of production. Since ECTad identified new markets in the uK and elsewhere, the price farmers get for their dasheen has more than doubled. \"i don't necessarily sell my dasheen to ECTad,\" says Boston maloney, who farms the land adjacent to Carlton's. \"i sell to whoever pays me most, but i appreciate the fact that ECTad has forced traders to offer more than they did in the past.\"although ECTad has been the driving force behind the improvement in the dasheen market in St vincent and the grenadines, Cafan has also played an important role. \"if a buyer in the uK orders a container of dasheen and the farmers here don't have enough, then we get in touch with Cafan members in guyana, grenada and elsewhere,\" explains audrey walters, whose farmers' group, women in agriculture for rural development (ward), is a member of ECTad, which in turn is a member of Cafan. \"That way, we can fill the container and we all benefit.\" as a result, hundreds of farmers have seen an improvement in their living standards.Knowledge means success for Kenya's farmers farmers' voice, train farmers how to use the internet, improve the skills of its staff, and attend agricultural shows.\"our role is to represent farmers, sensitise farmers to the services available to them, and push for changes in policy which will help farmers in Kenya,\" explains KEnfap's chief executive officer, Kanywithia mutunga. CTa's support has played a significant role in the development of KEnfap's communication policy. \"we always had a good relationship with CTa,\" says dr mutunga, \"and it complemented the support we've received from other organisations such as agriterra\"The first thing that strikes you when you enter one of the regional information centres is the sense of industry. These are places that are meant to be used. Every year, around 2400 farmers visit the centre in meru, and around 10,000 in nyeri. Some come to browse in the library, or borrow books. in meru, the centre has 32 books or booklets which it describes as \"farmer-friendly\"; and 112 of interest to researchers and extension agents. visitors can also read farmers' voice, CTa's Spore magazine, and dozens of leaflets about specific aspects of farming, many published by CTa. farmers will often come with specific problems related to pests and diseases, or the feeding and care of livestock, for example. \"if i know the answer, then i'll help them, but more often i link them to advisers within the local branch of the ministry of agriculture, A nnah Kinya Kiambati is the national women's representative for the Kenya national federation of agricultural producers (KEnfap). She is also chair of the local KEnfap branch in meru County. She believes the organisation has made a profound difference to the welfare of small-scale farmers in this hilly district to the north-east of mt Kenya. like annah most of the farmers here, grow a variety of crops, such as beans, maize and bananas, and many have one or two dairy cows, several chickens and a few goats.\"we are farming much more efficiently than we did in the past, because we have access to better information,\" she says. \"we have become more efficient and businesslike, and this has led to better crop and milk yields.\" not long ago, her two dairy cows used to yield just 4 litres of milk a day between them; now, she gets 12 litres from each cow, thanks to better feeding practices and the use of improved breeds. none of this could have happened, she says, without the help of KEnfap's regional information Centre, which occupies a cramped office off one of the busiest streets in meru.The meru information centre is one of 10 centres established by KEnfap with support from CTa under the project \"Strengthening and improving rural communities' access to agricultural information in Kenya.\" The project enabled KEnfap not only to establish and equip a network of regional information centres, but to revive its bimonthly magazinelivestock and fisheries,\" says lucy nyambura, KEnfap's county coordinator in nyeri. She always follows up to make sure that the farmers have received the help they need.The regional information Centres also have computers, provided with support from CTa. in nyeri, KEnfap invited the 80 farmers groups which are members of the branch to send youth representatives for training. They were taught how to set up email accounts, browse the internet and search for information. as a result, says lucy, many farmers have improved their productivity and some have even established new enterprises as a result of what they have learned. one of the most striking examples -described more fully on pages 50 and 51 -involved a group of retired civil servants who established a quail farming business in nyeri. They first got the idea from reading about these birds in Spore; they then used the internet to gather more information and contact breeders in nairobi. now they have a thriving business.TRAining MAKES THE DiffEREnCE regional information centres are an important resource for a wide range of groups and organisations. for example, district extension teams -involving farmers, KEnfap county coordinators, government offices and researchers -frequently meet in the centres. farmers who are members of 'common interest groups' also use these centres as a source of information and the place to contact research institutions, extension agencies and others who can help them. one of the disadvantages of the centres is that they are based in towns, and difficult to get to for farmers who live in remote areas with poor infrastructure. however, the centres have established training programmes which are held in the countryside, and these often get information to farmers who wouldn't receive it otherwise. \"we've held a whole series of training programmes on subjects such as bananas, sweet potato and maize production, on entrepreneurship, and on developing livestock enterprises,\" says Judith nkatha, KEnfap coordinator for meru County.These training sessions have helped farmers improve their productivity. after holding discussions with annah Kiambati and a group of women farmers in rwanyange, near meru -she was gathering information for a CTa impact assessment -mercy rewe, KEnfap's manager in charge of information, communication and knowledge management, summed up some of the benefits of training.\"The women cited plenty of examples of how training sessions have helped them,\" said mercy. \"for example, they now know how to choose the best varieties of banana and what they have to do to increase yields.\" many are now getting bigger bunches of bananas, worth five times more than the meagre bunches they used to produce. likewise, training sessions on chicken farming has led to the introduction of new breeds and better feeding regimes, which in turn has led to a doubling in the price they get for each bird as their chickens are now much larger. Empowering fishing communities in the Caribbean m easured purely in economic terms, Caribbean fisheries are not considered to be particularly important. Their contribution to the nations' gross domestic product being less than that of agriculture. however, the fisheries -an estimated 680 species are harvested in Caribbean waters -are vitally important for two reasons. first, they provide a source of protein in countries where agricultural production is frequently erratic and threatened by natural disasters and, more recently, climate change. Second, the fisheries sector employs 182,000 people either full-time -for example, as fishers -or indirectly in activities such as processing, marketing, boat building and net making. fisheries-related employment is particularly important in rural areas where alternative income-earning opportunities are limited or non-existent. a recent survey revealed that in some countries significant numbers of fisherfolk live in poorly construc-ted houses, have relatively low levels of education, and suffer from poor access to schools, health care and credit. one organisation that is doing its best to improve their welfare, and ensure the sustainability of the region's fisheries, is the Caribbean regional fisheries mechanism (Crfm), an inter-governmental body established by the Caribbean Community (CariCom) in 2002. Empowering small-scale fishers has been at the heart of its work. \"we recognised that fisheries in the region would be better managed if small-scale fishers were more involved,\" says Terrence phillips, who joined Crfm as programme manager in 2003. \"up until then, fisheries had always been managed in a very top-down way, with governments making the laws without adequately consulting small-scale fishers.\"This made for poor fisheries management, and high enforcement costs. \"The hope was that if fishers were more engaged CTa is now focusing on supporting regional, rather than national, farmers' organisations. But its influence endures. KEnfap's regional information centres continue to operate successfully, serving an ever expanding number of farmers; farmers voice and various e-bulletins provide farmers and extension agents with up-to-date information. however, it's not just CTa which deserves praise. \"CTa support has been extremely important, but so has the support we've received from a range of other organisations,\" says mercy rewe. \"They have complemented each other very well.\" nin the policy processes, they would buy into the measures needed for sustainable development, and the costs of enforcement would be reduced,\" says Terrence. But if that was to happen, the fishers themselves would need to be better organised.Soon after it was established, Crfmwith the help of CTa -carried out a survey of national fisherfolk organisations. This survey identified weaknesses in terms of leadership, management and capability. The findings were reviewed at a meeting of fisherfolk leaders in Belize in 2004. They agreed on the need to establish a regional network of national fisherfolk organisations to promote the interests of small-scale fisheries.The survey and subsequent discussions led to a major three-year Crfm/CTa technical assistance project, with Crfm acting as the implementing agency. its objective was to improve the standards of living and income of small-scale fishers and promote the sustainable management of fishery resources.\"we began by identifying six countries which had no national fisherfolk organisations,\" recalls Terrence. national consultations led to the launch of new organisations representing small-scale fishers in dominica, guyana, St lucia, and St vincent and the grenadines; and to the creation of steering committees to form national fisheries organisations in St Kitts and St nevis, and grenada. at the same time, the Crfm/CTa project provided training for leaders of existing national fisherfolk organisations to help them improve their management and advocacy skills.Before the project began, the only organisations representing fisherfolk in St vincent and the grenadines were three cooperatives, which acted independently of each other and whose main business was marketing the fish catch. By 2013, a national fisherfolk's organisation had been established. according to its chairman, Eocen victory, this has been a significant institutional reform. \"we can now speak with one voice, and that will make a big difference in future,\" he says. \"when we were speaking as a single cooperative -rather than three cooperatives acting together -it didn't carry so much weight.\"The Caribbean network of fisherfolk organisations (Cnfo) was officially launched in 2007, and it is now playing an important role in regional policy-making. \"over the years, Cnfo has made an increasingly significant contribution to fishery discussions > Strengthening producer organisations and policymaking,\" says Susan Singh-renton, deputy executive director of Crfm. \"its members have developed a better understanding of fisheries management and Cnfo now makes an important contribution to our forum meetings and scientific working groups.\" The working groups focus on specific fisheries, such as queen conch and lobsters, reef and slope fish, and large pelagic fish such as tuna.Crfm and Cnfo have both established a good working relationship with government fisheries departments. \"we've gained a great deal from the work that Crfm has done since it was created,\" says Jennifer Cruikshank-howard, chief fisheries officer for St vincent and the grenadines. She and her staff have benefited from frequent training sessions, some funded by CTa, and from the knowledge they have gained at the annual scientific meetings organised by Crfm.Crfm's forum meetings, which are attended by all the chief fisheries officers in the region and benefit from the presence of Cnfo. \"in the past, i used to feel as though we were working in isolation, but now we have a much better understanding of how fisherfolk see things, thanks to the contribution made by Cnfo.\" She believes that closer co-operation between government officers and fisherfolks, and steady improvements in the capacity of national fisheries organisations and the Cnfo, are leading to better management.There is no doubt that Cnfo's reputation and influence has steadily grown. in 2009, it contributed to Crfm's special forum to develop a Common fisheries policy for CariCom member states. later that year it attended a meeting of the gulf and Caribbean fisheries institute in venezuela. in 2012-13, Cnfo was Since 2007, CTA has co-organised up to six Brussels Policy Briefings a year. These have played a major role in sensitising policymakers to the importance of agriculture. in 2010, the first regional briefing was launched in africa, and in 2013 haiti asked CTa to support a series of national briefings. These were extremely successful. CTa has also provided financial and technical support to regional policy networks in africa, the Caribbean and the pacific. These have fostered dialogue between policymakers, farmers, processors and others involved in food production and marketing. CTa's annual conferences have become major events in the development calendar, putting specific issues -such as smallholder value chains and agricultural extension services -onto the policy agenda.\"CTa's annual conferences help to raise the profile of specific issues and get them onto the policy agenda in aCp countries,\" says Judith ann francis, one of the organisers of the nairobi extension conference. \"Sometimes, we are ahead of the game, and we have helped to mainstream issues of importance.\" nowadays, the annual conferences are held in africa. as 90% of the population of the aCp regions live in africa, this makes sense. however, there is also a logistic imperative. it is much easier for non-africans to gain visas for african countries than it is for africans to gain visas to visit Europe, where CTa held some of its early annual seminars, the forerunners of today's conferences. in those days, the seminars used to attract between 100 and 150 people. The annual conferences are much larger events. for example, the addis conference on value chains attracted over 500 participants, representing 69 nationalities and more than 250 different organisations. approximately the same number attended the iCT4ag conference in Kigali in 2013.although CTa is the lead organiser of the annual conferences, it relies heavily on the support and cooperation of many other organisations. for example, the addis conference was organised by CTa and hosted by the united nations Economic Commission for africa (unECa), with significant contributions from around 20 other organisations. a similar story of collaboration can be told for the nairobi conference in 2011 and the Kigali conference in 2013.The conferences today are a far cry from the conventional meetings of the past, at which experts talked to one another while everyone else listened politely. There are plenary sessions, attended by all delegates, but much time is devoted to more intimate thematic discussions. CTa's conferences also included panel discussions, group discussions, field visits and leading the debates C Ta's annual conferences have become major events in the development calendar, attracting a large range of interests, including farmers, scientists, politicians, policymakers and representatives of development agencies. Each year, CTa picks a specific theme of topical interest. in 2013, the annual conference, held in Kigali, rwanda, focused on information and communication technologies: 'iCT4ag -The digital springboard for inclusive agriculture'. The year before, the 'making the Connections' conference in addis ababa, Ethiopia, focused on smallholder farmer value chain development. in 2011, the theme of the annual conference, which was held in nairobi, Kenya, was 'innovations in Extension and advisory Services' (see also page 54).CTA's international conferences receive wide coverage in the media. There were over 340 articles and news reports about the iCT4Ag conference, held in Rwanda in 2013.> prompting policy action prize-giving ceremonies for the journalists who participate in pre-conference competitions. in Kigali, the main conference was preceded by a 'plug & play' day, where young entrepreneurs from aCp countries showcased a broad range of innovations and apps designed to provide information for smallholder farmers.\"Conferences this size are nearly always powerpoint-led,\" said CTa's giacomo rambaldi during the closing ceremony of the iCT4ag conference. \"But right from the outset, we decided that this one would be different -that interaction would be at the core of the conference.\" and that's exactly how it turned out.The amount of preparation required beforehand is considerable. for example, prior to the extension conference, the international Steering Committee's call for papers elicited some 400 abstracts. of these, around 100 were chosen for presentation during the thematic discussions. in the months leading up the conference, over 70 people actively participated in e-discussions.CTa encourages a strong media presence at its conferences, which attract both local and international journalists. This is africa, a financial Times magazine, for example, produced a special issue on value chains, drawing heavily on the discussions that took place at the addis conference. This helped to raise the profile of value chains on the aCp policy agenda. The previous year, the findings of the extension conference were enshrined in the 'nairobi declaration', which was printed in full in a CTa policy pointer, agricultural Extension -a Time for Change. more than 60 journalists, representing national, regional and international media, reported on the Kigali conference. in short, CTa's annual conferences are asking -and answering -some of the big questions about the future of agriculture in aCp countries. This is why they have become so popular, and why they attract such a broad range of interests and key policy-making organisations and individuals. To give just one example, seven ministers of state attended the opening plenary session of iCT4ag, and rwanda's minister of agriculture and animal resources, hon agnes Kalibata, attended every day of the conference. nn 2007, when we held the first Brussels briefing, agriculture wasn't seen as a high priority by the vast majority of aCp countries,\" says isolina Boto, head of CTa's Brussels office. \"at the time, just four or five of the 79 aCp countries had identified agriculture and rural development as their main priority for receiving European Commission support in their national indicative programmes (nips).\" during discussions with staff of the European Commission, isolina suggested that there was an urgent need to sensitise policymakers in Brussels about the importance of agriculture, and push it higher up the policy agenda. \"many of the ambassadors and their staff thought of agricultural as something that concerned technical people, such as agronomists, rather than policymakers,\" she says. This is \" Stories of change ngos, 13.5% from international organisations and 17% from the European Commission. The briefings also attract researchers, journalists and representatives of the private sector. They have received consistently strong support from the aCp embassies, with around 35% of the embassies sending representatives to virtually every meeting.\"we frequently receive calls from ambassadors who can't come, asking for documents,\" says isolina. These include the comprehensive 'readers', providing background information for each topic, researched and written by isolina and her young staff. The briefings are also videoed live on the web, and in recent years CTa has produced a series of policy briefs following the briefings. The briefings have promoted strategic partnerships with key aCp, European Commission and international organisations involved in rural development, and they have attracted the interest of new partners for CTa, such as agribusiness companies and multinational corporations. They have also helped, along with many other factors, to push agriculture and rural development higher up the policy agenda. indeed, over 30 aCp countries identified agriculture and rural development as a key priority for support in the latest round of national indicative programmes.in 2011, CTa co-organised a briefing with the international food policy research institute (ifpri) on nutritional security in aCp countries. Since then, ifpri and CTa have coorganised two more briefings on food price volatility and agricultural resilience. ifpri considered these such a success that it has offered to co-organise and part-finance one briefing a year, as have the nEpad planning and Coordinating agency and the african union Commission. following the briefing on agricultural resilience, ifpri staff asked its Board of Trustees to include resilience as what inspired CTa, the aCp group and the Commission to launch a series of policy briefings.The first Brussels rural development Briefing was held in July 2007. Since then, there have been six briefings a year, amounting to 33 by october 2013. Jointly organised by CTa, the European Commission, the European presidency, the aCp group of States and Concord -the European ngo federation for relief and development -the briefings are both popular and influential. Each consists of half a day of presentations and discussions, focusing on a specific topic of interest related to agriculture and rural development. \"This isn't just about food production,\" says isolina. \"we've explored a whole range of topical subjects, such as sustainable intensification, fair trade, climate-smart agriculture, financing agriculture, the geopolitics of food and youth employment. we want to understand the various drivers of agricultural transformation in aCp countries.\"The briefings are attended by up to 150 people. a recent survey found that 21% come from aCp embassies in Brussels, 18% from Jethro greene of the Caribbean farmers network (CafAn) addressing one of the Brussels Briefings. These are helping to push agriculture higher up the policy agenda.> prompting policy action part of its strategic programme for the next five years. agricultural resilience will also be the subject of a major 2020 conference to be held by ifpri -thanks to the influence of the Brussels Briefing. following the briefing on food price volatility in november 2011, CTa facilitated the input of farmers' organisations to the g20 meeting held in mexico in 2012.The key recommendations of this meeting were accepted by the g20 ministers of agriculture.in 2012, CTa published a dvd containing information on all the Brussels briefings. This will be updated every year.in 2010, the aCp Committee of ambassadors and african regional farmers' organisations asked CTa and its partners to launch a series of regional briefings. The first of these, focusing on land access and acquisition, was held in yaoundé, Cameroon, in September 2010. By october 2013, a further 11 regional briefings had been held in africa, the Caribbean and the pacific. Their objective has been to raise awareness about key rural development issues, especially food security, and increase the exchange of information and expertise on selected issues.These one-to two-day regional briefings consist of three or four panel discussions with up to six speakers. Each speaker provides a different perspective on the topic in question. The discussions are followed by interactive debates, and the briefings conclude with a press conference. many have received good coverage in national and international media. wherever possible, the briefings are held back-to-back with high-level regional policy events. in terms of feedback, over 95% of those who have attended have expressed themselves to be very satisfied with the sharing of knowledge, the plurality of experiences exchanged and the openness of the debates. it says a great deal about the influence the policy briefings can have that haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, should approach CTa with a view to setting up its own national policy briefings. \"They told us they'd been following the Brussels Briefing online, and they wanted to use the materials we produce for these as background for their own briefings, looking at the same topics through a national lens,\" explains isolina.national Briefings in haiti were launched in march 2013. organised by promotion for development (promodEv), the ministry of agriculture and other development partners, with financial and technical support from CTa, the first briefing focused on 'Building resilience in the face of crisis and shocks,' which had been the subject of Brussels Briefing no 30. The next two meetings, which attracted over 200 people, focused on adding value to local food products and aquaculture and fisheries development. Each meeting was tailored to the local context and made use of the materials used in the Brussels briefings. \"we are very proud that the briefings are owned at regional and national level and driven by the partners,\" says isolina. here, as in africa, CTa has provided considerable support for activities related to communications and dissemination. during the course of the past decade, Carapn has produced workshop reports, technical studies, policy briefs and popular books. \"Thanks to CTa, we now have a much larger pool of information products than we had 10 years ago,\" says diana. Besides providing financial support, CTa has been closely involved in developing projects and improving the quality of products. Typical of the more popular publications is Choices -Caribbean agriCulture our way. published in 2012, this provides compelling stories about small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs who have increased productivity and created wealth through sustainable farming practices. highlighting what is going right, rather than just focusing on what's going wrong, has become a trademark of Carapn's work.The network has also managed agricultural round Tables, first held during the Caribbean week of agriculture in 2008. apart from putting agricultural ministers and policymakers in touch with people working at the business end of farming, tilling the soil and producing crops and livestock, the CTa-supported round tables have attracted entrepreneurs and farmers whose activities have been highlighted in publications like Choices. \"They have brought policy to life by highlighting the links between policy and all the good things that are happening on the ground,\" says diana.Ta helped us to create a new form of dialogue in the Caribbean,\" says diana francis, a policy and trade specialist in the inter-american institute for Cooperation on agriculture (iiCa) Caribbean region. \"not long ago, agricultural ministers would just talk among themselves, or to the heads of organisations like Cardi (the Caribbean agricultural research and development institute). now, they talk to farmers, farmers' organisations and others involved in food production.\" with the support of CTa, the Caribbean regional agricultural policy network (Carapn) has played an important role in fostering dialogue between all the different parties.in 2000, CTa invited organisations and individuals from the Caribbean and the pacific to attend a workshop in Entebbe, uganda. The purpose was to introduce people from these regions to the work being done by policy networks in africa, and especially the food, agriculture and natural resources network (fanrpan), which had been set up in 1997 in response to a call from african ministers for an organisation that would gather evidence to inform regional policymaking.\"our message at the workshop to people who came from the Caribbean and pacific was: if you think setting up regional policy networks is a good idea, we'll provide you with support,\" recalls CTa's José fonseca. This led, before long, to the setting up of the pacific agriculture and forestry policy network (pafpnet) and Carapn. The latter > prompting policy action of influence across the continent,\" he says. This was confirmed by a recent impact study, which explored the development and impact of nine organisations that have received long-term support from CTa.according to the report on fanrpan, CTa support has enabled the organisation to raise its profile, increase awareness of its activities among a wide audience and improve the frequency and quality of its communication products. The study found that CTa's funding had indirectly supported the organisation's development and growth and helped to instil confidence among other potential donors. as a result, fanrpan had improved its website, undertaken case studies, launched a new media strategy, introduced new communication tools and participated in regional and international policy meetings, all of which had helped to increase its influence. much the same could be said for the policy networks that CTa has supported in the Caribbean and the pacific. nit is easy to be gloomy about the state of agriculture in sub-Saharan africa. for one thing, cereal yields remain depressingly low, little more than they were 30 years ago. for another, many countries are suffering from a lack of involvement of young people. farmers are getting older, and the young increasingly head to the cities in search of work. however, if young people are healthy, skilled and motivated, they can do much to stimulate economic growth, especially in the agricultural sector; which is why it is so important to get them involved. fanrpan has identified this as a key topic for investigation, and with support from CTa it commissioned six young researchers to examine policies in malawi, mauritius, South africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. Their findings were presented at fanrpan's regional dialogue in Tanzania in September 2012. \"The researchers found that there are many policies related to agriculture, and many related to youth, but hardly any which are concerned with helping young people to make a living within the agricultural sector,\" says oluyede ajayi, a policy expert at CTa.The studies revealed that young people tend to have a negative perception about agriculture, and are unaware of the opportunities that exist in the sector. young people working in agriculture also say that they do not get enough support. The authors concluded that governments need to develop incentives to encourage young entrepreneurs to get involved in the agricultural sector. They should also be included in policy-making processes.But do events such as these have any real impact? José fonseca believes they do. \"fanrpan is now one of the most vibrant think tanks on agriculture in africa, with a lot CTA has been in the vanguard of the communications revolution which is transforming the lives of small-scale producers in ACP countries. The experience of the rwanda Telecentre network provides an insight into the effect of CTa-supported trainings on information and communication technologies (iCTs). Since 2008, over 2500 people have benefited from CTa's web 2.0 training programmes. The agriculture, rural development and youth in the information Society (ardyiS) project has contributed to raising young people's awareness of the challenges facing agriculture and the potential of iCTs.Stories of change \"one of the most revealing findings was that the highest adopters, and the people who take greatest advantage of the trainings, are English-speaking women under the age of 35,\" says giacomo. Between 2008 and 2010, 32% of trainees were women and 40% were the under the age of 35. The corresponding ratios for 2012 were 40% and 64% respectively. \"we made a specific effort to achieve this,\" explains giacomo. \"This fits well with CTa's new strategy, which places a strong emphasis on working with women and young people in general.\" during the first two years of the programme over half the participants were involved in research and education. By 2012, the figure had shrunk to 18%, with CTa putting a much greater emphasis on the groups and individuals who make the most of web 2.0's potential, such as those working for government, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and the media.when CTa first began its web 2.0 training, it covered most of the costs, which included flights and accommodation. Since 2010, it has adopted a cost-sharing approach. To give just one example, trainings in uganda were held in Kampala, Entebbe and gulu in 2010 and 2011, and participants were encouraged to make their own way to the workshops and stay with friends or family. This has reduced CTa's per capita investment and as a result, it can now offer more training sessions to more people.The testimonies below provide a brief -and highly selective -insight into the impact of the web 2.0 trainings.I n 2013, CTa's 'web 2.0 and Social media learning opportunities' was the winner of the world Summit on the information Society prize in the 'iCT applications: eagriculture' category. This was in recognition of the remarkable success of its web 2.0 training programmes, which began in 2008. over the years, CTa has received a continuous stream of positive feedback. \"many people have told us that the training sessions have not only changed their working behaviour, but their whole lives,\" says giacomo rambaldi.Since 2008, around 2000 people from aCp countries have benefited from CTa's web 2.0 training programmes. ranging from one-day introductions to intensive five-day courses, their aim has been to familiarise participants with the use of advanced web tools, such as publishing blogs and tweets and calling for free over the internet, as well as other collaborative and social media tools.in 2012, CTa commissioned a study from Euforic Services ltd. \"we had plenty of anecdotal evidence about the benefits of our training sessions, but we wanted to get a clearer idea about their impact,\" says giacomo. The results were revealing. The majority of trainees who responded to the survey said the trainings had improved their ability to access and share information. over half the survey participants said they had improved their information management; a third have used their newly acquired skills to run and facilitate web 2.0 training sessions themselves.\"in Kenya, the ministry of agriculture is now using iCTs -mobile phones, text messages and social media -as a way of communicating with farmers. \"we have approximately one extension staff for every thousand farming households, so that makes it very difficult for us to reach more than a fraction of farmers,\" explains richard githaiga, head of extension management at the ministry. \"This, and the high costs involved in visiting farmers, encouraged us to establish an e-extension project.\"richard and his colleagues have developed an e-extension curriculum and manual, incorporating the web 2.0 concepts they become familiar with at CTa training sessions. in 2013, the manual was used in training workshops attended by 67 ministry extension officers. \"a key selling point of web 2.0 is that it's a technique that anyone can embrace,\" says Steve rono at the ministry's agriculture information resource Centre (airC). \"within five days, you learn all you need to know about how to share information and use social media, and the skills you need to train others.\"Extension staff who benefited from the web 2.0 training sessions are now sharing their skills with other field officers. in mid-2013, the ministry issued over 600 of its 4700 extension staff with shock-proof mecer laptops and smart phones, and these will be used as a way of communicating with farmers, using the skills provided through web 2.0 training.The majority of farmers in Kenya now have mobile phones, which means that the e-extension project can provide them with information using text messages and -for those with smart phones -information on the internet. \"This is going to make it much easier for us to reach large numbers of farmers,\" says richard. \"it is also going to make it easier for farmers to communicate directly with our staff.\"in 2009, maureen agena, a young ugandan woman, applied to attend a CTa seminar in Brussels on the role of 'The media in agricultural and rural development in aCp Countries'. She submitted an abstract on the use of web 2.0 tools for sustainable agriculture, and she was accepted. \"That was my first experience with CTa,\" she recalls. \"i got to learn all about social media and began to realise its potential for improving people's lives.\" a few months later, she applied for a long distance internship at CTa, under the supervision of giacomo rambaldi. again, she was accepted. She learned about moderating exchanges related to web 2.0, and how to disseminate online products and use various online publishing tools. all of this, she says, helped her professional life. at the time, she was enrolled for her second degree and working for the women of uganda network (wougnET) as its information officer. in 2010, she was the only ugandan to attend the CTa-supported web 2.0 learning opportunity event at Baraka agricultural College in Kenya. \"i knew about 80% of what i was taught there, but i was still able to expandin Zambia, rodney Katongo has been putting the skills he learned during a web 2.0 training session to good use. among other things, the training helped him to create the project 'participation in Zambia's Constitution making process', which is hosted by the forum for youth organizations in Zambia (fyoZ). in September 2012, fyoZ launch an internet blog to provide a platform for sharing information and submissions made by civil society to the technical committee drafting the Zambian constitution.\"perhaps most excitingly it allows live blogging from events -so when the technical committee are visiting a district to secure feedback and input, it is possible for people at the event to link live to the fyoZ blog and input people's comments and perspectives as they are made,\" says rodney. The web 2.0 capacities acquired by fyoZ played an important part in attracting funding from the Zambia governance foundation.in June 2013, anna radavisa, the elected mayor of a small community in madagascar, wrote a blog which reflected on the web 2.0 training she had received in the capital, antananarivo, the previous november. at first, she said she was confused by all the jargon about facebook, youTube, google and so forth. however, she soon became an enthusiastic convert, and this has proved to be of enormous benefit in her non-mayoral work for two private companies. furthermore, she has also been able to use linkedin and her wordpress blog to get back in touch with old friends, and meet people in her professional and social sphere. \"my greatest wish is that the women and young people in my country obtain these tools quickly in order to have more possibilities to open up on the rest of the world,\" she wrote in her blog. \"my dream is that the 1549 communities in madagascar become modernised with the help of these tools… This way, madagascar would develop much faster.\" n my knowledge,\" she says. when she returned to uganda, she shared her new-found skills -for example in using advanced searches, rSS wikis, google docs and Skype -to train wougnET members in rural uganda.\"Before, i used to blog mostly about iCTs, gender and health,\" says maureen. \"But the trainings broadened my vision of how iCTs could be used, particularly to help people involved in agriculture.\" in 2012, CTa paid for her to attend a meeting organised by the food, agriculture and natural resources policy analysis network (fanrpan) on the role young people could play in formulating agricultural policies. She subsequently worked as an intern at CTa's headquarters in wageningen with the policies, markets and iCT programme.\"in a period of just two years,\" she wrote in a message to CTa, \"i must say that i am so grateful and thankful for CTa for the investment, experience, exposure. i would never have wished for something better than this.\" maureen completed her internship at CTa in 2013 and has since been working on social media with the communications team at the world Bank group in Kenya.Sean rogers decided to go straight into business after he left school, eager to get a feel of the real world. in 2006, he set up a small iT company in port-of-Spain, Trinidad, convinced that small companies could give better personal service than large corporations. in 2012, he attended a CTa-supported web 2.0 training session in port-of-Spain. This provided him with a new set of skills, access to online libraries and new contacts. \"once you join these sorts of e-forums, business opportunities become as wide as an ocean,\" he says. he now intends to set up web-based programmes that will help small-scale farmers in the Caribbean to become more business oriented.in 2000, the rwandan government outlined its development pathway. 'vision 2020' proposed a shift away from a low-income, agriculture-based economy towards a 'knowledge-based economy.' among other things, this would involve the creation of a large number of iCT access centres -or telecentres -in rural areas. here, farmers and entrepreneurs would be able to use the internet and benefit from the acquisition of new skills.\"it was an excellent idea, but progress was initially slow,\" explains paul Barera, rTn's executive director. \"The government began setting up its first telecentres in 2006, but only 30 were fully operational by 2010.\" The financial outlay was considerable, with each centre costing around uS$100,000 to build and equip. paul was already developing his own ideas about how to improve access to information and communication technologies in I t is market day in the village of gakenke, in rwanda's north province, and by mid-morning the Business development Centre is doing brisk business. \"more than 50 people will come to use the computers and the internet today,\" says manager alice nadine Kaneza. during the rest of the week, even on quiet days, at least 20 people -including students, farmers and local entrepreneurs -make use of the centre's facilities. managed by the rwanda Telecentre network (rTn) on behalf of the rwanda development Board, the centre offers a range of services besides the internet. alice and her colleagues provide secretarial assistance, advice on tax affairs and link the community to government e-services. during the first six months of 2013, rTn also ran five-day training courses on basic accounting and strategic planning that attracted over 100 people.among those who benefited were 10 members of the Cooperative des producteurs de fruits de gakenke (Coapga). \"The training has made a tremendous difference to us,\" explains Titus nijobigira, president of the 173-member fruit-growers cooperative. \"as a result of what we've learned, we've gained access to new markets and developed a new business plan. we're now selling dried pineapples as well as fresh, and we've negotiated better prices for our produce.\" members' incomes have increased, and many have been able to open savings accounts and pay for health insurance for the first time. Stories of change the countryside. \"i had always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and dreamed of creating jobs for myself and others,\" he recalls. for his university thesis he focused on the concept of improving access to iCTs in rural areas. in 2006, soon after he left university, a small grant from the united States agency for international development (uSaid) enabled him to set up a telecentre in his home village of nyamata.here he provided basic computer training for local people -a novelty in this area -as well as internet and secretarial services. later, he added other services. he acted as a representative for several companies and set up a mobile phone service for paying electricity bills. he also provided advice, free of charge, to the government. But it was his partnership with CTa that really changed his life and, just as importantly, rwanda's approach to developing telecentres.in 2008, paul was invited by CTa to attend a workshop in Zambia which focused on the sustainability of telecentres. \"it was an important subject, and the workshop helped me to develop my own ideas about how to ensure a long-term future for my own telecentre,\" he says. \"But it was my experience in india two years later that really opened my eyes.\" during the course of an indian study tour, organised by CTa in 2009, his group met a wide range of people from government, academia, the private sector and rural communities, and visited telecentres in five different states. rather than constructing expensive purpose-built facilities, like the government of rwanda, the indians were fitting out existing public buildings with computers and internet connections at a fraction of the cost, often as little as uS$1000.\"The indian study tour was incredibly important in terms of my personal development, and it helped me develop a vision for the future,\" says paul. \"it also provided me with the evidence i needed to convince policymakers here that they should change their approach.\" They didn't need much persuading, once they had seen the figures, and paul's advice led to significant changes in the government's iCT policy.The first 30 telecentres -including gakenke -are now managed by private organisations such as rTn, although they remain under the supervision of the rwanda development Board. The government is currently in the process of establishing another 60 telecentres, adopting the indian model of fitting out existing buildings at relatively low cost.rTn's mission, developed in the wake of the indian workshop, is to help the government and the private sector create a network of 1000 telecentres. These will provide local communities with the skills they need to develop their businesses, improve the employability of young people, create jobs -each telecentre will employ at least three people -and link rural communities to government services.in 2010, with support from CTa, rTn conducted a baseline study of existing 'iCT access points' in rural rwanda. it subsequently invited the 140 entrepreneurs -cybercafé owners, telecentre managers and mobile phone providers -who managed them to a workshop. Since then rTn has held regular training sessions and workshops to improve their business skills.The benefits have been considerable. Take, for example, the experience of aneclet nambajé, who lives in the northern town of musanze. he set up his first telecentre in 2007, and offered basic training in the use of computers, as well as access to the internet and secretarial services. Before long, he set up another three > promoting information and communication technologies rwanda has made remarkable progress when it comes to reducing poverty and improving the welfare of rural communities. although some 45% of rwandans still live below the poverty line, over one million people -out of a population of 10 million -have been lifted out of poverty during the past decade. all the evidence suggests that the creation of an everexpanding network of telecentres will bring about further improvements in rural services and incomes. n centres, but his business only really took off after the 2010 workshop. Since then he has benefited from four training sessions on subjects ranging from business management to accounting and strategic planning.\"i now have a much better understanding about how to manage the telecentres efficiently and provide the services people need,\" he says. he currently employs 14 people and he expects to take on more staff soon. By the end of 2015 he hopes to have established another six telecentres. Jean de dieu niyibizi, president of the Twihangire imirimo Cooperative, unfurls a 3-metre long roll of laminated paper, revealing three stylised sketches depicting the dramatic changes that have taken place in the surrounding villages and farmland since 2006. \"in 2006, we were getting just 600 kg of maize per hectare,\" says Jean. \"By 2011 we were getting 4 T, and we're hoping to get 5 T by next year.\"The picture of progress depicts numerous other changes, mostly for the better. The leaking thatch on their homes has been replaced by tin roofs. dirt roads have been improved and in some places paved. The village now has drying sheds for maize and many farmers get around by motorbike, rather than on foot or by cart. according to cooperative members, the training they have received from rTn and other agencies at the gakenke Business development Centre has played a major role in raising living standards. \"we have discovered new markets, developed new crops and improved our incomes,\" says Jean. \"and because we've been able to develop business plans, the banks are more willing to provide us with credit.\" paul Barera is particularly encouraged by the way the cooperative uses the internet. \"They're doing their own research and development and using iCTs in a very entrepreneurial way,\" he says. not long ago, the main crops were maize and beans. now, making use of information on the web, they are growing tomatoes and developing a small-scale pig industry. They have also learned about new techniques in storage and disease and pest control.Stories of change have the skills needed -especially in the use of information and communication technologies (iCTs) -to ensure that the agricultural sector thrives.\" launched in 2010, the ardyiS project seeks to raise the awareness of young people to the challenges facing agriculture and the potential of iCTs. The project is managed by CTa, in collaboration with an advisory committee comprising many of its regional partners. its first activity was an essay-writing contest on the subject of youth finding solutions to the challenges facing agriculture and rural development using iCTs. publicised through CTa's flagship magazine, Spore, and by word-of-mouth, the competition attracted entries from 174 young people between the age of 18 and 35 from 33 aCp countries. a panel of judges selected the 12 best essays, two for each of the six aCp regions. The authors were invited to attend CTa's 2010 annual seminar, held in Johannesburg, to give an oral presentation, and the winners received a trophy, cash prizes and CTa publications following the success of the essay writing competition, CTa and its partners launched a competition designed to stimulate blogs that encourage young people to get involved in agriculture. The youth in agriculture Blog Competition (yoBloCo) targeted two separate constituencies: young men and women from aCp countries; and aCp institutions or organisations with their own agriculture-related blogs. The first yoBloCo competition attracted 90 entries and considerable public enthusiasm. around 3000 people commented on the blogs or voted on their preferences online.The best entrants attended a prize-giving ceremony which was held during the 3rd international association of agricultural information Specialists conference in I n sub-Saharan africa, 65% of the labour force is involved in agriculture, which generates around a third of the gross domestic product. yet despite its importance, young people tend to think of agriculture as an unattractive career option. at the same time, the age profile of farmers in aCp countries is becoming progressively older.\"The loss of young people in the agricultural sector is a major problem, so we need to encourage them to stay in the sector,\" says Ken lohento, who is in charge of CTa's agriculture, rural development and youth in the information Society (ardyiS) project. \"Just as importantly, we believe that young people giving young people a voice © Sven Torfinn/panos/hollandse hoogte young people often see agriculture as an undesirable career path. However, the use of iCTs is encouraging many farmers' children to remain in the sector.Johannesburg, South africa, in may 2012. They received cash prizes, became part of the project's network and benefited from various other opportunities. following the success of the first edition, a second one was launched in 2013 and included more partners.during 2013, over 100 young people were trained under the ardyiS project on how to use iCTs, with a particular focus on writing blogs to strengthen the involvement of young people in the agricultural sector. Training workshops were held in Central africa, the pacific and the Caribbean. \"we were particularly proud of the Congo workshop, as Central africa has tended to be neglected,\" says Ken. CTa received over 300 responses to its call for participation in a workshop that could take a maximum of 25 people.Besides the competitions and workshops, the project has disseminated information on iCTs and agricultural opportunities via its website, mailing lists and by using social networking sites such as Twitter and facebook. By the end of 2013, ardyiS had about 900 followers on Twitter and 2200 on facebook.reflecting on the influence of the ardyiS project, Ken highlights two main achievements. on the one hand, he believes that the competitions and training sessions have proved to be a powerful instrument for rebranding agriculture, and promoting the use of iCTs in agriculture, especially by young people. Just as importantly, the activities have opened up new opportunities for many of those who participated, as the stories below illustrate.in 2012, the group Jeunes et agriculture à madagascar ( youth and agriculture in madagascar) -won second prize in yoBlo-Co's institutional category for the East african region. its members, who had established a blog with the support of farming and Technology for agriculture (fTa) -http://jeuneagrimadagascar.org/ -used the €3000 prize to support two ventures. They organized awareness-raising activities for sensitising young people to the importance of agriculture, and the role they could play in agriculture; and they developed e-market rural, a mobile and web-based application designed to provide farmers with information about market prices.The e-market rural app was launched in June 2013 at a one-day public meeting attended by representatives of agricultural cooperatives, the ministry of agriculture, the ministry of Commerce, several development agencies and internet providers. \"This has been a remarkable achievement, and i think it's a reflection of the way in which ardyiS has encouraged young people to develop innovations which can improve farmers' welfare and productivity,\" says Ken lohento.nawsheen hosenally was studying agriculture at the university in mauritius when she first heard about the ardyiS essay writing competition. although she wasn't one of the winners, she was among the top 30, which meant she was invited to participate in the web 2.0 training workshop in accra, ghana, in 2011. \"i already had a blog, and i was using web 2.0 tools,\" she recalls, \"but i wasn't using the blog to cover agricultural issues.\" instead, she had used 'nawsheen world' -http://nawsheenh.blogspot.com -for networking and keeping in touch with friends. That all changed after the workshop. from then on, she took a more serious interest in blogging about agricultural issues. in 2012, nawsheen won first prize (€1500) in the first edition of yoBloCo. Since then, her career has gone from strength to strength.and even make friends, with other young people working in the same field. in 2012, Solomon's company was the winner of the institutional prize in the first edition of yoBloCo. \"although we already had our own business website, i'd never blogged before,\" says Solomon. \"it was the yoBloCo competition that encouraged me to start blogging.\" Take a look at the blog -http://agricinghana.com/ -and you will see how sophisticated it has become. on average, it attracted 80 unique visitors per day, and many more to Solomon's blogs on particular newsworthy issues. Solomon used the €3000 prize money to provide stipends for his team and to buy new equipment and software for his company. all of this has helped the company to expand its operations, much to the benefit of local farmers. Just to give one example, Syecomp is currently providing accurate georeferenced data on some 280 smallholder pineapple farms in ghana. This is part of a process which will enable growers to meet the gloBalg.a.p standards which are required for exporting produce to the European union. n Soon after she won the competition, CTa put her in touch with the food, agriculture and natural resources network (fanrpan), and she was one of six young people commissioned to undertake studies -in her case focusing on mauritius -examining the status of young people in agricultural policymaking. in november 2012, CTa offered nawsheen a one-year internship at its headquarters in wageningen. \"i've been invited by many organisations to conferences, representing CTa, and given presentations on youth, iCTs and agriculture,\" she says. She has also worked with Ken lohento, her supervisor, on developing the ardyiS project and planning CTa's 2013 Kigali conference, 'iCT4ag: the digital springboard for inclusive agriculture'. and of course, she's continued to develop her blog.Solomon Elorm allavi was familiar with CTa when he entered the second ardyiS essay writing competition in 2011, which was organized in partnership with nEpad. a geographic information Systems (giS) expert, Solomon had already established his own small company, Syecomp Business Services, in accra, ghana. The company was set up to provide giS services to smallholder farmers, and this was the focus of Solomon's essay, which won first prize in the west africa category.\"The essay competition helped me to explore how iCT opportunities could be used to help smallholders, and it encouraged me to explore practical solutions which my company could use in its work,\" says Solomon. he used the prize money to purchase tender documents and a tax clearance certificate, thus enabling Syecomp to participate in competitive tenders for government contracts. he also joined the ardyiS dgroup, a networking platform where he has been able to share ideas and information, > promoting information and communication technologies information about agricultural issues, and they have been able to purchase better seeds from neighbouring countries.Thanks to a genardiS grant, villagers in Tanzania who were tired of having to walk many hours to market have been able to purchase mobile phones. They now use these to get market information and communicate with buyers, and they recently established their own market, saving themselves both time and money. These are just three of many success stories.The last group of grantees, who received €7000 each, were actively encouraged to think beyond genardiS, and were given tools and training to take their research one step further. Some have used the results of their research for policy advocacy; others have learning about new monitoring and evaluation tools. n A little goes a long way I n 2002, a meeting at CTa's headquarters in wageningen explored how women in rural communities could gain better access to information and communication technologies (iCTs). The participants drafted a plan which led to the creation of a small-grants scheme known as genardiS (gender, agriculture and rural development in the information Society.) Since then, genardiS has provided support to 34 organisations in 21 countries. The results have been impressive. «genardiS has shown that it's possible to create initiatives of real value with relatively small amounts of seed money,» says CTa's oumy ndiaye, citing just a fraction of the success stories.in Benin, rural women learned new fish conservation techniques, and improved their access to markets, following training in the use of video, television and mobile phones. in the democratic republic of Congo, a grant enabled an ngo to establish a network of rural women, who have been trained in the use of iCTs. The women can now exchange analysing the performance of the key functions at system level; and mapping the links between the actors. \"The aSTi systems approach provides an excellent framework for gathering information and analysing all the different factors that influence the way a sector operates,\" says irene. \"it has changed the way i look at agricultural development and been of enormous benefit for my work.\" following the accra workshop, irene collaborated with CSir on an analysis of the plantain sub-sector in ghana, using the aSTi system methodology. in addition to the desk research, this involved gathering data from 358 people involved in the value chain, from growers to traders and processors. The study revealed that there are strong links between farmers and traders, but relatively weak links between researchers and policymakers.Based on their findings, irene and her colleagues made a number of recommendations. among other things, they called on the government to increase the budgetary allocation to research and development agencies, and strengthen policy dialogue. The authors also recommended that ngos and the private sector should intervene more strongly in the provision of credit to farmer-based organisations. Their findings were also shared in national and international forums and published in scientific publications.\"one of the strengths of using the aSTi system approach was that it brought together farmers, traders, transporters, input dealers and everyone else involved in the value chain to discuss the problems and search for solutions,\" says irene.Since then, irene has been involved in a number of other projects that have used the aSTi systems framework, including a majorThe power of a strong idea I n 2007, dr. irene Egyir, head of the department of agricultural Economics and agribusiness at the university of ghana, attended a training-of-trainers' workshop organised by CTa in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and industrial research (CSir) in accra. The workshop was designed to introduce scientists and others to the innovation systems concept and its relevance to understanding, analysing and strengthening the agricultural Science, Technology and innovation (aSTi) system for enhanced agricultural performance in aCp countries.\"for me, this was a eureka! moment,\" recalls irene. \"Everything i heard during the workshop about the aSTi system resonated with the work i'd been doing on subjects such as the use of agrochemicals by plantain farmers and urban agriculture.\"The aSTi system's methodological framework was developed and piloted in 2004/2005 by CTa and the united nations university institute for new Technologies (unu-inTECh) in partnership with aCp organisations. it was further modified in 2006 in consultation with Eu and aCp universities, research organisations and development partners, and it has been widely used to analyse the performance of specific sub-sectors and commodities. The framework consists of six steps: reviewing the policy environment and the historical performance of the sub-sector under study; identifying the key actors; assessing their competencies, habits and practices; > Supporting research for development study of ghana's marine and freshwater fisheries. Commissioned by CTa, this was one of several commodity-based case studies led by aCp researchers. Some of the other studies looked at cut flowers in Kenya, the dairy industry in Zambia, nutmeg in grenada, bananas in St vincent and the grenadines, and rice in Senegal and papua new guinea.irene regularly makes use of the aSTi systems framework in her university work. \"it is now a part of my toolbox on two of the courses i teach,\" she says. one of these, which attracts up to 30 students a year, focuses on the rural economy; the other explores the subject of climate-smart agriculture. irene has also been invited by CTa to share her knowledge and experience at training-of-trainers' workshops in Ethiopia, ghana and nigeria. like irene, other aCp experts who were trained by CTa have also gone on to train others and incorporated the framework in their research work. other university lecturers and networks have included modules of the CTa training-of-trainers' programme in their academic training and research programmes. nconcentrating on programmes which can contribute to the sustainability and profitability of the agricultural sector, and greater food and nutritional security. Support from CTa is currently enabling Cardi to conduct research and lead science and policy dialogues on science, technology and innovation systems, climate change, iCTs and value chains.agricultural development is likely to be significantly affected by climate change in the Caribbean. already, there has been an increase in the severity of hurricanes and changes in the patterns of rainfall, with extensive floods and droughts. helping Caribbean farmers adapt to climate F or many years the Caribbean agricultural research and development institute (Cardi) hosted CTa's regional branch office -there was another branch office in the pacific -and was responsible for managing its activities in the Caribbean. in 2008, CTa and Cardi agreed that it was time to change this arrangement. This has in no way diminished its relationship with Cardi. \"we are now working together on programmes consistent with our medium-term plan and CTa's strategic plan,\" explains Cardi's executive director, arlington Chesney.Caribbean countries. There is a strong focus on research for development, with Cardichange is now seen as a priority, and since 2010 Cardi and CTa have collaborated on a number of climate-related activities.in 2010, the focus was on protected agriculture -in other words, how to use greenhouses as a means of protecting crops from floods, droughts and other climatic events. in the years that followed, Cardi and CTa focussed on climate change and water management, the impact of climate change on plant genetic resources, and climate change and pest management.Each of these topics was the subject of a major workshop held during the annual Caribbean week of agriculture. \"prior to the workshops, we held-consultations and group meetings and commissioned desk studies on different aspects of each topic,\" explains dr Chesney. \"we also identified success stories and established research programmes on the ground.\" after the workshops, Cardi produced policy briefs and other publications to sensitise farmers, policymakers and the public.But have these initiatives made any difference? \"i think we've influenced policy, at least indirectly,\" says dr Chesney. \"it's important to realise that none of these are stand-alone activities, they are always part of a bigger process. That way, there's a much better chance of the recommendations being implemented.\" José fonseca, CTa senior programme coordinator, believes that the workshops and associated processes have had a significant impact. \"if you take the example of protected agriculture research,\" he says, \"it has helped us to get beyond the rhetoric about climate change and come up with practical solutions. as a result, climate change adaptation is now on the policy agenda.\" research findings have helped inform the activities of the Technical managerial advisory Committee of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), which plays an important role in influencing national and regional policies.in recent years, it has become apparent that most developing countries, including those in the Caribbean, are not getting the same returns on their investment in agricultural research as countries in the developed world. \"a few years ago, CTa asked us to analyse precisely why this is happening,\" says Cardi scientific officer norman gibson, \"and we've done this using the agricultural Science Technology and innovation (aSTi) systems approach.\"The conventional dissemination approach goes along these lines: innovations are developed in centres of excellence, such as universities and research institutes, and extension services then have the task of introducing them to farmers. frequently, this approach fails to work effectively. \"during the course of our research, we found that successful innovations were taking place at the 'borders of knowledge', where a range of different organisations and individuals are working together and sharing ideas,\" says norman.The aSTi research has led to a complete change in thinking. \"in the past, we and other research institutes never involved policymakers in our work, and scientific research took place in silos,\" he reflects. \"now, we deliberately involve policymakers and agri-entrepreneurs from the start of all our research programmes, because we can see that it's important to get them to buy into what we're doing. That way there's a much greater chance of innovation making a real difference.\" This isn't simply a question of picking up the phone and inviting policymakers and > Supporting research for development entrepreneurs to meetings and workshops. \"we needed to build their capacity, so CTa supported training for agricultural ministries, the national institute of higher Education (ni-hErST), Cardi and farmers' organisations,\" says norman. much of this has involved learning by doing, using case studies on various commodities, such as bananas in St vincent and the grenadines, nutmeg in grenada and small ruminants in six other countries. in each case, scientists and policymakers tried to understand the complex relationships between policy, innovation and production.The research has given Cardi and its partners a much better understanding of the various issues that must be taken into consideration when promoting new ideas or innovations to farmers. To illustrate his point, norman cites the case of crop biodiversity. \"you can promote great varieties, but you also have to know how to move material from one region, or one country, to another. and that's a policy issue. in the past, Cardi would have focused mainly on the agronomic aspects. we wouldn't have looked at the regulatory and policy issues -but we do now.\"dr Chesney recalls a conversation with the president of a media association some years ago, during which he complained about the poor coverage that agriculture received in the press. \"he said to me: 'agriculture is not sexy, it's not scandalous, and it doesn't sell papers.' and that was why the sector received so little coverage.\"That was before CTa helped Cardi to promote a better understanding between scientists and journalists. Since 2010, the two organisations have held annual media workshops during the Caribbean week of agriculture. during the first workshop, it was clear that journalists had a very poor understanding of agriculture and its importance for the Caribbean; and scientists had a very poor understanding about how the media works and how to talk to journalists. \"The first of these workshops was pretty chaotic, but the ones that followed helped both sides to gain a much better understanding of each other's needs,\" says dr Chesney.other activities have also helped to create better understanding between journalists and scientists. for example, Cardi and CTa have supported the Caribbean media awards -announced at the Caribbean week of agriculture -for agricultural journalism, with prizes going to the best Tv story, the best news media story, the best print story, the best radio story and the best citizen journalist's story. \"There's no doubt that all these activities have helped, and none of this would have happened without CTa's support.\" says dr Chesney. \"we now see many more articles in the press, and hear programmes on Tv and radio, related to agricultural matters in the Caribbean.\" n the foundation for encouraging agricultural research, entrepreneurship and innovation and for inspiring young Caribbean nationals to have confidence in their own vision, creative instincts and specialised capabilities,\" says Judith.The workshop led to the launch of the Caribbean research innovation and Entrepreneurship network (riEnet). The 60 workshop participants became its first members. it now has over 500 members, providing an electronic discussion forum for entrepreneurs -they make up about 60% of the membershipand researchers, most of whom are involved in agriculture.The network has proved to be an excellent, low-cost forum for sharing knowledge about research and innovation. it has also helped to improve individual businesses. lovaan Superville of the national institute of higher Education (nihErST), an officer assigned to the CCST secretariat, gives the example of an organic farmer who has gained new buyers, thanks to the publicity he received through the riEnet website. \"in some ways, i see it as a sort of help desk,\" she says. Since 2010 CTa has continued providing support to riEnet. riEnet now serves as a source of expertise on science and entrepreneurship. during a 12-month period in 2011-12, a total of 72 articles from around the region were uploaded on the www.rienet.net website, representing one new item each month for the six main linking researchers and entrepreneurs I t is easy to paint a gloomy picture of the agricultural industry in the Caribbean. The region has become a net importer of food worth an estimated uS$3.5 billion a year and agriculture's contribution to gdp has stagnated or declined. yet there is much to celebrate: across the Caribbean, entrepreneurs and producers are showing that it is possible to increase food production, generate employment and develop new markets.until recently, little attempt was made to catalogue the success stories beyond Trinidad and Tobago. That's why the Caribbean Council for Science and Technology (CCST), with support from the organization of american States (oaS), decided to research and document Success Stories in Caribbean innovation and Entrepreneurship. The book describes the development of some 30 enterprises in niche tourism, energy and water, iCTs, agriculture and the environment, and personal health.Shortly before it was published, CCST organised a CTa workshop in Jamaica on 'Building a Critical mass for Science and innovation: identifying the value proposition for Caribbean young professionals and Entrepreneurs.' \"This was one in a series of regional workshops that CTa had conducted in 2009 to mobilize the aCp community on the need to build a critical mass of scientists and innovators for socio-economic development,\" says Judith francis of CTa. The Caribbean workshop provided a forum for learning lessons from demonstrated successes and sharing best practices. \"it set \" selected members deliberated on the subject of 'adding value to local foods for food and nutrition Security: myth or Strategic option'. representatives from commodity and marketing boards, agro-processors, nutritionists, policymakers, researchers and farmers developed a three-year roadmap for adding value, both economic and nutritional, to local foods. Subsequent activities included a survey to gain a better understanding of consumer perceptions and preferences for local foods. The riEnet platform acted as a channel for communication and knowledge exchange. n themes: 'champion of the month'; research update; success stories; value propositions; and foresight and innovation. registered users can provide their own ratings for each article, using a scoring system of 1 to 5. \"The challenge is to continue to lift the average score in each category and strive to gain at least a score of three for each item,\" wrote riEnet facilitator, ian ivey, in his 2012 technical report.riEnet members continue to participate in CTa-related science and technology activities in the Caribbean. in november 2012,The registrar was referring to The Essential Electronic agricultural library (TEEal). published by Cornell university's mann library, TEEal provides scientists and students in the developing world with access to full-text articles from over 275 scientific journals dealing with agriculture and related sciences. it is estimated that the annual improving access to science and research T his is to thank you very sincerely for what i would call the most precious gift that this university has ever received,\" wrote owen Baya, senior registrar at pwani university College, Kenya. \"i want to assure you that this set will go a long way to making pwani university a great academic institution.\" \" Stories of change in alafua, Samoa, and specifically the library at the School of agriculture and food Technology, uSp senior librarian angela Jowitt was so impressed by the TEEal collection that she worked hard to get CTa sponsorship for campuses in fiji, the Solomon islands and vanuatu.in a message to Erica reniff, head of TEEal outreach and Client relations, angela Jowitt wrote: \"TEEal is very important to us at uSp as it is a cost-effective way of providing agricultural information to our staff and students. it is also very valuable as it is completely full text. we really appreciate the CTa sponsorship, which has also enabled us to put TEEal in three more of our regional campuses where agricultural research students are based, to give them access to quality agricultural information.\" in the past, CTa used to deliver various databases free of charge. however, when it asked recipients to fill out a questionnaire to renew their subscriptions, less than 10% responded. \"we couldn't justify the expense if organisations did not reply,\" says Thierry doudet. This has influenced CTa's approach to providing databases. as a bulk buyer, CTa pays Cornell a reduced price for the TEEal database collection. The database is then provided free of charge to successful applicants in aCp countries. in exchange, recipients have to pay a small subscription fee to get updates for their database each year. many -including uSp -are now doing this.many universities and research institutions whose TEEal databases have been sponsored by CTa hold training events for their staff. To give just one example, the university of Eastern africa, Baraton (uEaB) held a workshop at its Eldoret Extension Centre in June 2013. The workshop was attended by faculty members and students. at the end of subscriptions to all the journals provided on TEEal, if subscribed to individually by an institution, would cost more than uS$1 million. Thanks to CTa support since 2009, 200 universities and research organisations in aCp countries -one of the latest applicants being a university in war-ravaged Somalia -had received the TEEal database by the end of 2013. This represents nearly half of the TEEal database distributed in the developing world by Cornell university.The database comes on an external hard drive which can be accessed off-line on a local area network, so there is no need for internet access. \"in many developing countries, scientists can only read the abstracts of journals online, and then only if they have access to the internet, and most institutions simply can't afford the full subscriptions,\" says Thierry doudet, head of CTa's Knowledge management and Communications programme. feedback about the use of TEEal has been overwhelmingly positive. Take, for example, the way in which the database has been used by the university of the South pacific (uSp). although CTa did not directly fund the acquisition of TEEal by the campus the workshop, they were invited to evaluate their experience. Some had not even been aware of the existence of TEEal before the workshop. according to the summary report, \"all the participants… were very excited after they discovered that they were able to enrich their learning experience by downloading full-text articles from TEEal and eventually writing quality research papers.\"Besides enabling users to improve their research abilities, TEEal is providing significant access to scientific papers published in aCp countries. of the 18 most commonly accessed journals, three focus on african agricultural research issues. n CTA's bimonthly magazine, Spore, goes to over 60,000 subscribers, but it is read by a great many more people. Blending news and reviews with lengthy articles, the magazine is a valuable source of information for farmers in aCp countries. CTa has also published over 100 practical publications on agricultural matters, and supported a range of projects which have encouraged extension agencies to work more closely with farmers. This chapter begins with a description of one of CTa's longest-running programmes, its Question & answer Service, launched in 1985. By providing customised answers to specific requests, the service has enabled tens of thousands of farmers to improve their productivity and tackle the diseases and pests that threaten their crops and livestock.Stories of change readers has been overwhelmingly positive. The magazine is put to good use by educational institutions, and information from Spore is regularly transmitted by local radios.following the success of the South Kivu experiment, CTa has continued to explore new ways of promoting the magazine. in Cameroon, the number of subscribers receiving Spore rose from 3000 to over 7500, thanks to an innovative partnership with the monthly newspaper la voix du paysan/The farmers' voice. The newspaper is now distributing the magazine free of charge. reader surveys in Cameroon and uganda revealed a high level of satisfaction. in the former, over 50% said the magazine provided them with useful information about agricultural and rural development worldwide and in neighbouring countries. approximately 16% benefited from technical information and 10% from references and useful addresses. readers also used the magazine as a way of improving their career development and getting training material. The uganda survey provided a number of examples of specific activities inspired by articles in Spore. among other things, readers had benefited from articles on post-harvest practices, biogas, fruit growing, fish farming and vegetable production. Spore is also used in literacy and adult education programmes. it would take a big book to catalogue all the feedback received over the years. The following two stories give a good insight into what Spore has meant to its readers. in 2010, the June/July issue of Spore (no.147) featured a short article which reported that quail farming had recently taken off in Cameroon. This article caught the attention of Thomas munyoro, a retired policeman in Kenya's nyeri district and a leading light in a small ngo for retired civil servants, the 2010 Strategic Selfhelp group.Catching up with the future I n many countries, CTa is best known for its publications, especially the bimonthly magazine, Spore, whose paper version goes to over 60,000 subscribers, but which is read by a great many more. Spore blends articles with news items, book reviews, comment pieces and more lengthy 'dossiers' on specific issues. from time to time, the magazine also produces special issues on topical subjects in which CTa has a particular interest. Spore reaches places where other magazines find it difficult or impossible to gain a readership. Take for example, the experience in South Kivu, democratic republic of Congo (drC). This region suffered greatly from armed conflict during the period 1998-2003, and even now communications remain difficult. \"The postal service is so poor that the chances of copies reaching addressees are remote, especially outside the capital,\" explains murielle vandreck, who oversees the distribution of CTa's publications. poor internet connections also mean that it difficult to access Spore on-line.To get round this problem, CTa struck a distribution deal with proximédias libres, a local company with a good network of partners. Before the partnership was launched in 2010, there were just 100 Spore subscribers in South Kivu. There are now 1500, including ngos, churches, radio clubs, schools, government departments and individuals. The magazines are shipped to the capital, Bukavu, and distributed by bus, motorbike and pirogue. Subscribers also collect their copies from radio stations and churches. The response from > getting information and know-how to farmers Thomas read the article in the offices of KEnfap (see Chapter 1 page 13). \"my colleagues and i had been rearing rabbits as a way of raising income, but we'd had problems,\" he recalls. \"They were affected by many diseases, so we were looking for other activities.\" They liked the idea of quail farming, and after reading the article in Spore they researched the topic on the internet. They found a quail producer in nairobi and bought some chicks. Since then they have established a business selling quails' eggs, which are now in great demand for their medicinal properties. Thomas now has over 100 laying quail and his business is thriving. \"all of this dates back to reading an issue of Spore,\" he says.Spore has also proved highly popular among those involved in education and research. Take, for example, John gushit, a lecturer in the faculty of natural Sciences at the university of Jos, nigeria.John got in touch with CTa's giacomo rambaldi, who he had come across during an e-conference. \"i write to notify you and also thank you for how your publication (Spore magazine) has reshaped and guided me in my researches,\" he wrote and cited a specific article about a project in Kenya that had featured in the June/July 2012 issue of Spore. The information in the article helped him to design his research project on helping peasant farmers to make better and safer use of pesticides. \"This project, which is ongoing, will have a positive impact on the users of these chemicals, as it will enhance good farming practice and healthy living among the peasant farmers,\" he informed giacomo.printed versions of Spore are distributed free of charge to persons and organisation based in aCp countries. Spore is also available online to anyone who wishes to read it (http://spore.cta.int). nW hen the rural Empowerment network (rEn) asked Jane naluwayiro if she would like to become a field agent on a new project to get information to farmers, she jumped at the chance. \"i wanted to do whatever i could to help farmers in my area,\" she says. \"for us farmers in africa, whatever we grow, whatever livestock we rear, we get problems with pests and diseases, and we need help to tackle them.\" She believed the Question and answer (Q&a) 'voucher system', piloted in uganda in 2006 and fully launched in 2008, would compensate for the lack of state-funded agricultural extension services. The vast majority of farmers in and around Jane's home district Kayunga had never met an extension agent or received advice about how to improve their farming systems.The Q&a project has a long history. it was first launched by CTa in 1985, providing the opportunity for farmers in aCp countries to send a written question to CTa's headquarters in the netherlands. They received their answers by post in those days. Then in 2004, CTa launched Q&a pilot projects in Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and uganda. Thesewere locally managed. following a workshop in nairobi in 2005, the decision was made to scale-up the Q&a project in uganda.This involved the introduction of a voucher system at 14 sites in seven districts. \"a voucher,\" explains rEn programmes coordinator patrick Kasangaki, \"represents the right given to a farmer to receive a customised answer to a specific request.\" The aim was to improve food security and rural livelihoods by providing timely and accurate responses to specific questions. By the time the project came to an end in 2011, it had responded to 900 specific questions.Sitting in the office from which she manages patience pays initiative, a pineapple processing company she established together with her husband, Jane flicks through a file which contains all the questions asked by farmers in her district and the answers they were given. for example, Question 6379: why are my pineapples rotting? Question 6409: why are my goats unproductive? Question 6046: why is my sheep's skin so rough? These and all the other questions and answers can be found on http://www.erails. net/ug/ren/qas-2009/.\"once i started work, i visited as many farmers in the district as i could,\" she says. \"if they asked a question i couldn't answer, i would make a record of it, take photographs, and take the questions to the rEn office in Kayunga.\" here, as in other districts, rEn passed the questions on to local rural information brokers, such as the owners of internet cafes, who 'published' them on the internet. These were sent to Eria Bwana-Simba, who works in the library of the government-run national agricultural research organisation (naro).\"my role was to identify the experts who could respond to the questions,\" he says. getting them to respond wasn't easy, and after a while Eria decided the most effective way of getting answers was to visit the experts in person. once he had the answers, he posted them on the web and the rural information broker passed them to the field agent, who returned to the farmers with a written record of the answers. \"i'd often go back later, just to make sure that farmers had worked out how to make best use of the advice,\" recalls Jane. indeed, the various links in the chain -field agents, rural information brokers, experts, rEn and naro -were only paid once the farmers were fully satisfied with the answers.in terms of the amount of land she farms and the difficulties she faces, fatuma Kasibante's situation is typical for many living and farming in the area round Kayunga. a mother of five young children, she struggles to make ends meet. \"when Jane came, it was the first time anybody ever approached me offering help,\" she says. her question was about her rotting pineapples. The expert's advised her to uproot and burn the affected pineapples, © rEn field agents provide farmers with timely and accurate responses to their questions.> getting information and know-how to farmers people in all project sites across the country have listened to the programmes, either on air or as members of listening groups.agronomist peter Sajjabi and vet hamiisi Semanda, two experts who provided answers for farmers in Kayunga, have first-hand experience of the difficulties farmers face in the subcounty. \"There's just one extension worker for every 30,000 households, and farmers have very little knowledge about crop diseases, which are a major problem,\" says peter. \"i think the Q&a project has been very helpful as it's reached farmers who would never have been reached by the extension services.\"To satisfy his own interest, hamiisi not only answered the questions sent to him, he frequently dropped in to see farmers to discuss their problems face-to-face. as a result, the project gave him a better insight into the problems farmers had to deal with in this area. peter agrees: \"it's been an important learning process for me too. my experience with the Q&a service has meant that i am now able to alert local agricultural advisers about unusual diseases they need to look out for.\" an independent evaluation, conducted in 2011, concluded that the service had provided timely, up-to-date and relevant information to farmers, even though its impact hadn't been properly documented. The vast majority of farmers were satisfied with the answers they received.\"my feeling is that the programme was a success, and many farmers would like it to continue,\" says patrick Kasangaki. \"The Q&a service is just one of several approaches that need to be taken to improve the information farmers receive but Q&a services will only be a real success in future if more development partners and the government embrace them and provide financial support.\" n and plant new ones after soaking the roots with insecticide. \"i'm very happy now, and all my pineapples are healthy,\" she says. a few minutes' walk down a dirt track, haminsi Kibunga and his wife are enjoying the last rays of the evening sun outside their shack, chatting with their seven children. haminsi's question related to the rough skin on his sheep. The experts advised him to use a de-wormer and before long his three sheep were healthy enough to sell. \"i used the money to pay for school fees,\" he says. \"i think it's a very good system, and i hope it continues.\" on their smallholding near the main road, mother of six Jane nambejja has to do most of the agricultural work herself as her husband is an invalid. She told Jane that her pawpaws produced just a few tiny fruits; she wanted to know why. She was advised to apply minerals and compost. \"i didn't realise that the soil was in such poor condition. now that i'm making compost, i'm getting much better fruit,\" she says. according to Jane, at least two-thirds of the 100 farmers who asked questions in her area have improved their productivity and incomes as result of the Q&a service. although it has come to an end, she and other field agents have retained a large database of all the questions and answers, and farmers regularly come to her office to consult it.Equally important is her archive of 72 15-minute radio programmes covering 12 themes in six different languages. These are based on the questions and answers generated by the project. \"in my sub-county, there are six farmer listening groups, with up to 20 members in each group, and they meet once a month to listen to Cds of the radio programmes and discuss them,\" she says. patrick Kasangaki estimates that some 5 million listening to farmers the respondents had made and maintained contact with at least 10 fellow participants. \"The extension conference was a torch to find out what i want to do,\" wrote one participant from malawi. \"it has changed my way of thinking.\" a good example of how to involve farmers in the delivery of extension materials comes from papua new guinea. in 2011, CTa, the institute for research, Extension and Training in agriculture (irETa) and png's department of agriculture and livestock organised a training course on the production of agricultural extension materials. \"The aim was to showcase an approach which encourages extension office to work closely with farming communities,\" says rodger obubo, CTa's training programmes manager at the time.during the course, 21 extension workers and researchers from png, vanuatu and the Solomon islands learned how to use a farmer-participatory approach to producing extension materials. This had already been successfully tried and tested during similar CTa organised courses in fiji, ghana, guinea, Sierra leone and Zambia.The trainees invited a selected group of farmers from madang province to catalogue their agricultural activities and describe the challenges they faced. The farmers discussed what sort of information would be most helpful, and identified priorities. They were keen to have written material on the control of the taro beetle, on how to identify and control taro leaf blight, and on techniques for pruning cocoa.The extension workers then began the task of writing and designing booklets and A fter decades of under-investment, governments and development organisations now recognise the importance of revitalising extension services. This is not just a matter of increasing financial support. \"it is also about reforming the way they work, and making sure that the reforms that are underway are cost-effective and sustainable,\" said CTa director michael hailu on the opening day of a major conference on innovations in Extension and advisory Services. held in nairobi in november 2011 and co-organised by CTa and 17 partners, the conference attracted over 450 delegates from 85 countries.The findings of the conference were enshrined in the nairobi declaration, which calls on governments to develop clear policies for extension in consultation with farmers, to increase funding, and to introduce mechanisms that ensure better coordination and sustainability of high-quality services. \"Efficient, demand-driven extension services are the key to improving the productivity and incomes of the world's smallholder farmers,\" says CTa senior programme coordinator Judith ann francis. in 2013, the Kenyan-based company intermedia development Consultants submitted to CTa the findings of a study which examined the impact of the conference on participants and their organisations. it also assessed progress in implementing the nairobi declaration. The majority of participants who responded to the online survey said that the conference had made them more aware of new iCT tools and approaches. The conference had also rekindled interest in agricultural extension, and encouraged participants to keep in touch with one another over the coming years. most of > getting information and know-how to farmers during the weeks that followed, course participants listed a range of activities they had undertaken, or were about to undertake, using the knowledge they had gained. These included revising existing extension materials, publishing new brochures about root crops, cocoa and coconut, producing radio programmes, and training colleagues in the farmer-based approach to producing extension materials. n posters. The aim was to provide simple messages in English and pidgin with plentiful use of drawings and photographs for those who have difficulty reading. The farmers scrutinised the drafts and further changes were made before the final versions were produced. \"The aim must always be to produce materials that farmers really feel part of, and will be proud to use,\" says rodger.how agrodok publications have benefited farmers and others. one respondent had trained 300 farmers on rabbit rearing, using information gained from an agrodok handbook. another had used knowledge from an agrodok handbook to write a manual and flyers on the composting of cattle manure, for use by extension workers and farmers. another replied that agrodok handbooks had \"helped me improve my understanding, as well as my training abilities, on a lot of topics, like snail rearing, mushroom farming and many other topics.\" many respondents said they handed on the agrodok guides once they had used them to friends, neighbours and colleagues.\"most of the handbooks have been published in English, french and portuguese, but they also attracted interest in other parts the world,\" says Jenessi matturi in CTa's publication department. for example, a book on goat-keeping has been translated into Japanese; a book on fruit growing into Chinese; and books on bee-keeping and mushroom cultivation into Swahili. in 2013, an organisation from Eritrea asked CTa and agromisa for permission to translate eight of the booklets into the local language.F rom the moment it was established in 1984, CTa has been thinking about ways of getting practical information to the people who need it most: small-scale farmers, farmers' organisations, extension workers, and teachers and trainers in rural areas. over the past 30 years, it has been closely involved in the production and promotion of more than 100 practical publications.The majority of titles -50 by 2013 -fall under the heading of agrodok, a series produced in partnership with agromisa, a nonprofit knowledge centre that supports smallscale farmers and organisations. Based in wageningen, agromisa has close links to wageningen university and local and international research centres. agrodok handbooks provide practical and accessible information on a wide range of subjects including water harvesting, agroforestry, seed production storage, animal husbandry and marketing. new series of guides under the title proagro. aimed at extension workers, market gardeners and small-scale producers, six had been published in English and french by mid-2013, and another eight were in the pipeline. among the most popular are those on rearing grasscutters -or cane rats -for meat; improving the production of plantains; and making a hand pump. although most of the subscribers and readers are in west africa, some of the booklets have proved popular elsewhere, with the hand pump booklet being ordered by CTa subscribers in Ethiopia and Kenya.CTa's Cameroonian partners are responsible for choosing the topics and commissioning the writers. CTa then has the drafts peer-reviewed, and takes responsibility for editing and design. a pdf of the final product is sent to Cameroon so the printing can be done locally. The pdf versions, published on the CTa website, are proving very popular. as a result of the partnership, ingénieurs sans frontières has significantly improved its publishing skills.\"i think the pro-agro guides are popular for two reasons,\" says Jenessi. \"first, they provide step-by-step instructions that anyone can follow. and second, some of the titles deal with very practical matters that can help people improve their incomes.\" an example of the latter is the guide on soap-making, something which anybody in rural africa can do if they have access to vegetable oil. n CTa's practical guides -18 titles had been published by 2013 -are specifically designed for use in the field. These eight-page, fold-out leaflets provide information for small-scale farmers on topics such as enriching compost for high yields, establishing tree nurseries, controlling stem-borer in maize, intensive rice cultivation and making banana chips and flour. one of the most popular guides in recent years focused on how to control the mango fruit fly, and was first published in 2007. The year before, CTa had supported a workshop in Conakry, guinea, on the battle to control the fruit-fly in west africa. according to CTa's José fonseca, the workshop and other activities helped to alert mango producers and sellers of the danger posed by the fruit fly, a native of East asia which had made its way to west africa via East africa. after the workshop, José got in touch with ColEaCp, an organisation which brings together professionals concerned with establishing a sustainable horticultural trade for aCp producers and exporters. \"The mango fruit fly posed a serious threat to trade, so i went to ColEaCp and said: 'we have a problem, and you have the expertise.'\" ColEaCp commissioned a scientist to write a practical guide on the subject. This proved so popular that it was recently reprinted. The model was subsequently used as a basis for an island-wide management plan and three districts management plans. The process identified 16 'taboo' areas in which there is now total protection of marine life. local people have also begun to clear ceremonial pathways which had become overgrown. during the course of three years of research, the museum of fiji only managed to identified 20 places of cultural significance -a quarter of the number identified by villagers during the modelling process. in many ways, the process is as important as the finished article. \"it helps people to visualise and localise their spatial knowledge, and this is very empowering,\" says giacomo. \"and, of course, it enables them to make their case more persuasively.\" in the past, indigenous communities might produce sketch maps laying claims to their land, but decisions-makers seldom took much notice. The 3-d models providing intricate details of landscape features and resource use are much harder to ignore.Kenn mondiai, who runs partners with melanesians, an ngo based in papua new guinea, was among those to benefit from the training in fiji. Since then he has played an important role in promoting participatory 3-d modelling across the pacific. with support from the world Bank, he helped local communities on png's managalas plateau, home to around 150 clans, to create a 3-d Modelling a brighter future P eople with low levels of education and poor literacy skills have difficulty making themselves heard. This is particularly true for indigenous communities. Their ancestral knowledge and rights are often ignored by governments, mineral companies and others who wish to exploit their lands. however, it needn't be like this. working with local partners, CTa has helped to pioneer a process, known as participatory 3-d modelling, which is helping local communities not only to document the areas where they live, but influence the way decisions are made about land-use and tenure.\"Traditionally, maps were made by governments, and the data was controlled by governments,\" says CTa's giacomo rambaldi. \"But there has been a huge change recently as civil society groups have acquired the ability to make their own maps and videos.\" They have benefited from access to google Earth and youTube and participatory 3-d modelling as a way of creating accurate, geo-referenced maps.The first CTa-supported modelling exercise in the pacific was held in fiji in 2005. The 11-day event in lavuka focused on ovalau island, where local communities were suffering from the over-exploitation of their fishery grounds, especially by foreign fleets. during the first three days, 30 high-school students and six teachers constructed a 3-d model of the island with the assistance of 15 facilitators and trainees. ninety men and women from 26 villages then 'populated' the model with mountains, roads, rivers, fishing grounds, croplands, cultural sites and othermodel of their ancestral lands. This was used as part of the evidence to promote the managalas Conservation area, whose official recognition is anticipated around the time of going to press.in 2011, The nature Conservancy hired Kenn to conduct trainings in the Solomon islands. The modelling exercise at the coastal village of Boe Boe focused on climate change and its possible impact. Such was the enthusiasm of the school children and students who helped to build the model that some would stay until 5 a.m. in the morning and return to work on the model after just a few hours' sleep. The model showed the extent of the last tsunami in 2007 and recent king-tide levels that had inundated parts of the village. The community then used the model to discuss the potential impact of rises in sea-level and other climate-related events.\"The model showed the younger generation that we need to think about climate change,\" reflected winifred piatamama after the exercise. \"it's important to realise that in a few years time the sea level won't be the same as it is now.\" following discussions, the villagers decided that instead of building along the coastline, as they have done in the past, they would look towards the higher land further from the sea. in short, the model helped them to devise plans which will help them adapt to climate change. according to winifred, the modelling process was particularly important for the women in the community. \"at the beginning it was a bit challenging for women, because they don't raise their concerns, they are generally quiet,\" she said. however, the modelling process encouraged them to share their views more openly. \"when everyone contributes to the model, they share pride and ownership,\" reflected gabriel Kulwaum of The nature Conservancy (TnC) in a short film about the Boe Boe exercise. \"TnC or the government don't own it.\" The community does.CTa was keen to encourage participatory 3-d modelling in the Caribbean, but was obliged to import expertise from elsewhere. in october 2012, the first Caribbean modelling exercise was held in Tobago, hosted by the Caribbean natural resources institute (Canari) and facilitated by Kenn mondiai. This led to follow-up modelling workshops on union island and granada.according to gillian Stanislaus of the department of natural resources and Environment in Trinidad and Tobago, the Tobago 3-d model will help the authorities manage future developments more efficiently. \"Because of the modelling process, we have a much greater depth of knowledge about the way in which the land is used and its significance for local people,\" she says.Terrence phillips attended one of the modelling workshops -its focus was on adapting to climate change -as a representative of the Caribbean regional fisheries mechanism. he was impressed. \"i think this is a very useful tool,\" he says. \"The communities were able to describe what had happened to their marine resources in the past and the state of the resources now.\" The modelling encouraged them to consider the possible impact of sea-level rises and climate change, and devise strategies to help them adapt. The modelling exercise helped to create a constructive dialogue between the government and the local community, ensuring that they work together effectively in future. n > getting information and know-how to farmers africa's first participatory 3-d mapping exercise took some 10 months to organise. held in the village of nessuit in Kenya's nakuru County, it was managed by Environmental research mapping and information Systems in africa (ErmiS-africa), with financial and technical support from CTa. over the course of 11 days in august 2006, some 120 men and women belonging to 21 ogiek clans constructed a 3-d model of the Eastern mau forest Complex.The mau forest had suffered from decades of commercial logging and encroachment. These activities had destroyed much of the landscape, as well as many ogiek cultural sites, and for some years the ogiek had been attempting to assert their rights to the land in court. \"The court cases had been dragging on, with no real resolution,\" explains Julius muchemi, director of ErmiS-africa. \"what the ogiek needed was concrete evidence to support their claims, and the modelling exercise helped to provide that.\"The evidence was persuasive enough to convince the government of the ogiek's right to the land, and the need to protect the area from further degradation. when a conservation process was launched in 2007, all those occupying the forest apart from the ogiek were evicted. Since then, ErmiS-africa and its partners have produced the ogiek peoples ancestral Territories atlas. This provides the most comprehensive description to date about the ogiek's culture and their links to the land.among the organisations which supported the mapping exercise was the indigenous peoples of africa Coordinating Committee (ipaCC). according to its director, nigel Crawhall, this was a key event in the life of ipaCC. The mapping exercise, and CTa's support for the organisation, led to a series of important developments for indigenous people, including ipaCC's engagement with the un framework Convention on Climate Change and the launching of a multi-country training programme on climate change mitigation and adaptation.\"from a professional perspective,\" said dr Crawhall, in a written summary about the impact of CTa, \"the relationship with CTa has brought important changes, new tools and opportunities... Exposure and partnering with CTa has transformed the work, practice and knowledge of africa's only regional indigenous peoples network, it has touched the lives of people in more than a dozen countries, it has created new career and advocacy opportunities for indigenous leaders, and it has opened new horizons for me professionally.\"Since the mau forest mapping exercise, CTa has supported similar initiatives in Ethiopia, gabon, Chad and uganda. Supported by an e-handbook published in English, french, Spanish, portuguese and amharic, and a vibrant online community, modelling exercises have also taken place in other parts of Kenya, the democratic republic of Congo, ghana and morocco.This chapter provides an insight into CTA's support for a wide range of activities designed to strengthen national and regional value chains. as international markets become increasingly competitive, producers need to find ways of differentiating themselves and their products, for example, through the use of geographical indications (gi), which link quality and uniqueness with location. workshops and discussion forums supported by CTa, and the publication of a practical manual, provide aCp countries with valuable guidance on the benefits of gis. CTa's agritrade website has established a reputation as a unique source of information and analysis on aCp-European union agricultural trade issues. other stories in this chapter cover CTa's support for a journalists' study tour investigating trade barriers in west africa, and initiatives on structured trade.CTa's work on this subject began in 2005 with the production of a discussion paper to inform aCp countries about the challenges and opportunities of gis in the context of the world Trade organization (wTo) negotiations. This eventually led to the first aCp/Eu workshop on gis, which was held in montpellier in march 2009 and jointly organised by CTa, the agence française de développement (afd) and the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (Cirad).The workshop attracted over 60 participants, including farmers and representatives of producer organisations from many aCp countries. during the course of the week, they learned how gis can contribute to rural development, and explored the legal and institutional framework for gis and the steps needed to create them. There were field visits to see the production of bull meat in the Camargue, sweet onions in the Cevennes and olive oil in nyons, three local products which had benefited from gi status.The following year, CTa was contacted by Cameroon's national Coffee and Cocoa Board (nCCB). \"a that time, nCCB was developing a new strategy for their coffee and cocoa and were keen to learn more about gis and how it could help Cameroon to better position itself on the market,\" recalls vincent. This led to a three-day expert technical workshop in yaoundé, during which representatives of both public and private sectors from Cameroon, Côte d'ivoire, france, ghana, guinea and Kenya explored the potential of gis for coffee and cocoa growers. This indirectly led to contacts between cocoa growers in Cameroon and one of the finest manufacturers of Belgian chocolate, pierre marcolini, who was interested in sourcing a specific type of dark red cocoa from Cameroon's north west region.T he international market for agricultural goods has become increasingly competitive, with Brazil and other emerging economies posing a significant threat to producers elsewhere. To give just one example, africa's share of world coffee exports has fallen by almost a half over the past 20 years, largely because of increased competition from non-aCp countries such as indonesia and vietnam.\"This is a serious problem for many of the countries where we work,\" says vincent fautrel, CTa's senior programme coordinator for trade and value chain development. \"if producers want to retain their market share, they need to find ways of differentiating themselves, of finding a specific niche that attracts consumers.\" The need to stand out from the crowd has led to a surge of interest in origin-linked products and particularly geographical indications (gis) which link the quality, reputation and uniqueness of particular products to a specific location or terroir.Think, for example, of french champagne, parma ham and darjeeling tea. Their gi status, recognised under Eu law, guarantees their authenticity, protects them from counterfeits, and adds value for producers. most products afforded gi protection come from Europe, but producers in aCp countries are increasingly looking at origin-linked products and in some cases gis as a way to better differentiate themselves. Jamaican Blue mountain Coffee, macenta coffee in guinea, penja pepper and oku honey in Cameroon are just a few recent examples of aCp origin-linked products.To increase the outreach of the montpellier workshop, CTa commissioned a documentary film based on the discussions and field visits. This has been used at Cirad's annual training sessions on gis for officials from developing countries. according to Cirad, the documentary has been highly appreciated by trainees as a good introduction to the subject. after the montpellier workshop CTa funded the participation of aCp experts at the general assembly of the organisation for an international geographical indications network (origin), and in partnership with origin it established an electronic discussion forum which by 2013 had 225 members from 62 countries -a clear sign of growing interest.The e-discussions and associated training modules not only helped to build the capacity of the individuals and organisations involved, they provided the raw material for The practical manual on geographical indications for aCp Countries, which was launched in geneva parallel to the 8th wTo ministerial Conference in december 2011. Jointly published by CTa and origin, this provides policymakers, farmers' groups and others with a comprehensive guide to the economic, legal and operational issues involved in adopting a gi approach. in 2013, CTa convened a high-level panel discussion in Brussels that looked at originlinked products for aCp countries. during the same week CTa launched a capacity building programme, and trainings were subsequently held in africa and the Caribbean. according to vincent, CTa's main achievement has been to create greater awareness in aCp countries about the potential of origin-linked products and more specifically gis, as well as the considerable challenges. \"origin-linked products, and gis in parti-cular, provide interesting opportunities for aCp countries, but it is often a lengthy and costly process,\" he says. \"producers have to consider the various protection options available -such as trademarks, collective marks, certification marks and gis -and decide which strategy to adopt based on their specific contexts.\" Building capacities at the national and regional level is a key priority. \" Stories of change furthermore, the transaction costs involved in buying and selling grain are relatively high in many african countries. This relates, in part, to a range of problems that affect both farmers and traders. These include poor post-harvest handling, pressure on farmers to sell crops immediately after they have been harvested -for example, to raise money to buy food or pay school fees -and the difficulties in sourcing grain from large numbers of scattered farmers.fortunately, there is a tried and tested solution to these marketing problems. Structured trading systems already play a key role in organising, regulating and financing trade in commodities in the developed world, and structured trading is now expanding in africa. Since 2008, CTa has conducted a number of activities whose purpose has been to introduce the principles of structured trade to parts of the african continent where it has yet to take off.Structured trade connects farmers to finance by establishing warehouse receipt systems. farmers lodge their grain with a warehouse owned by a third party and they can use the receipt as a form of collateral to raise credit with banks, usually 60-80% of the value of the crop. This means they are not forced to sell their grain immediately after harvest, when there is often a glut and prices are at their lowest. at a later date, when prices will hopefully be higher, they can sell their grain. They can then repay their loans, pay the warehousing fees and possibly invest some of their savings.Africa's smallholders I n many parts of africa, farmers are not producing nearly as much of the staple food crops as they could and should. Take, for example, the situation in Kenya. \"Every soul in this country consumes around 90 kg of maize each year, which amounts to 40 million bags,\" says gerald masila, director of the Eastern africa grain Council (EagC). \"But our farmers are only producing around 29 million bags.\" There is an even greater shortfall for wheat, with the country importing some 60% of its needs.There are a number of reasons why farmers, here and elsewhere on the continent, are failing to fulfil their potential. most obviously, poor farming practices and declining soil fertility mean that many struggle to produce decent yields. while yields of staple crops have risen four-fold in East asia over the past four decades, they have scarcely risen over much of sub-Saharan africa. africa on how to develop similar systems. The west african Economic and monetary union (uEmoa) and Economic Community of west african States (ECowaS) commissioned various studies as a result of these discussions. in Central africa, Cameroon's national Coffee and Cocoa Board, together with the commodities division of the united nations Conference on Trade and development (unCTad), worked on the setting up of a warehouse receipt system for coffee and cocoa. unCTad also used the report and video of the tour as background material for regional workshops in africa.during recent years, the Eastern african grain Council has become a powerful advocate of structured trade. \"we believe that structured trading of grains, similar to the arrangements which already exist in this part of africa for tea and coffee, could improve the way grain crops are marketed, with benefits to both producers and buyers,\" says gerald masila. with support from CTa, EagC organised a 'writeshop' to develop a training manual for structured trade in arusha, Tanzania, in July 2012.This was CTa's first writeshop. \"it was a very interesting and valuable experience,\" says vincent fautrel. \"we brought together a group of experts and organisations involved in agriculture and the grain trade, and during the course of an intensive four-day period we were able to produce a draft for a new manual on structured trade.\" written in plain, jargon-free English, Structured grain Trading Systems in africa, which was published in 2013, is divided into eight chapters, covering topics such as grades and standards, post-harvest handling and warehouse receipts. \"it's a great piece of work,\" says gerald masila, \"and it's an output that SPREADing KnowlEDgE fRoM SouTH To wEST in 2008, CTa and the agence française de développement (afd) funded a two-week study tour of warehouse receipt systems and agricultural commodity exchanges in South africa and Tanzania. organised by the natural resources institute, the tour provided 23 individuals from west and Central africapolicymakers and representatives of agricultural producers' organisations, the banking sector and ngos -with the opportunity to increase their knowledge about the challenges involved in setting up and running warehouse receipt systems and commodity exchanges.South africa has a particularly well-developed commodity trade and finance system, managed by the agricultural division of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. its silo certificate system enables farmers to sign forward contracts to sell fixed volumes of crops at the beginning of the planting season. This, in turn, enables the farmers to access finance from the banks. The system helps to reduce the cost of sourcing produce for traders and processors, while lowering the cost of accessing markets, especially for premium quality produce, for farmers. from South africa the tour moved on to Tanzania, where participants had the opportunity to study the benefits that smallscale agricultural producers gain from a regulated warehouse receipt system. \"The tour proved very successful in achieving its main objectives,\" says vincent fautrel, CTa's senior programme coordinator on trade and value chain development. \"it exposed participants to the benefits and critical requirements of developing warehouse receipt systems and commodity exchanges which are sustainable and accessible to smallholder farmers.\" The study tour contributed to discussions and debates in west and Centralwe will use a lot in the future.\" The manual has been circulated widely and is now used by the Eastern africa grain institute (Eagi), which has offices at the headquarters of EagC in nairobi, to provide farmers, traders, millers and bankers with a thorough introduction on how to establish efficient structured trading systems. at present, just a tiny fraction of grain in East africa goes through a structured trading system. however, EagC believes that the number of farmers taking advantage of these arrangements could rise rapidly in the coming years. as these systems help to improve farmers' access to finance and inputs like fertilisers, they offer a promising avenue for improving agricultural productivity, rural incomes and food security. But how exactly do these 'informal' nontariff barriers work? a journalists' study tour of red tape and harassment along the 1325 km road between Bamako and dakar, the capitals of mali and Senegal, carried out in June 2008, provided some answers. The five-day tour was organised by the Conference of ministers of agriculture in west and Central africa (Cma/wCa) and supported by CTa, in collaboration with the regional Cattle and meat observatory and the west african network of agricultural Journalists.Cattle, sheep and goats represent the main export from mali to Senegal, with livestock from mali helping to meet domestic shortages in Senegal. The trade provides a living and means of survival for tens of T rade within and between regions can play an important role in stimulating economic growth and reducing poverty, so governments should do their upmost to support the cross-border movement of goods and services. But in much of sub-Saharan africa, this simply isn't happening. official figures for 2008 suggest intraregional trade in africa was just 10% of total trade, compared to 27% within latin america and the Caribbean, 47% in asia and 70% in the European union, although this didn't take into account substantial informal trade. in africa, non-tariff barriers to trade include high transport costs, poor infrastructure, excessive bureaucracy and bribery. a study by the united nations Economic Commission for africa (ECa) found that there were 69 checkpoints on the road between lagos, nigeria, and the Côte d'ivoirean capital of abidjanone for every 14 km. These provided the per-thousands of pastoralists, marketeers, merchants, truck drivers and others working in the private sector.despite the existence of a regulatory framework on the free movement of agricultural products in west africa, moving livestock is anything but free. Take, for example, the testimony heard by the journalists in the markets at niamana and Kati, where cattle are loaded for the journey to Senegal. in both markets, the operators unanimously condemned harassment by the authorities. They explained that in order to gain the necessary export licences they were obliged to pay the authorities bribes of Cfa 2000-5000 (€3.10-€7.80). The veterinary services also demanded bribes of between Cfa 500-5000 Cfa (€0.80-€7.80) before issuing health certificates which should have been issued free of charge. The national transport authority and the city council also demanded 'informal payments'. over the next few days, as they travelled west, the journalists gathered more damning evidence. By the time the operators reached dakar they had been forced to pay considerable sums of cash. and they were not the only ones to suffer: bribery on this scale inevitably has an effect on prices, and contributes, in part, to the high cost of meat in dakar. many of the individuals working for law-enforcement authorities painted a very different picture. The journalists reported that all the policemen, customs officers and gendarmes whom they met at various checkpoints said precisely the same thing, as if they had learned by heart what to say when questioned. all said that their job consisted in ensuring the road users' security -by checking the condition of vehicles and whether the paperwork was in order -and they categorically denied demanding and taking bribes, despite evidence to the contrary. however, it should be pointed out that in these sorts of situation private operators also use the system to their advantage by not complying with the rules. Bribery and extortion are not the only problems facing livestock traders and transporters. The study trip revealed that there are also legal and regulatory issues which needed to be addressed. for example, the export licence demanded by the malian authorities was in direct contravention of the current regional regulations; in other words, mali had signed up to an agreement which it was flouting. The journalists also recommended that both countries needed to harmonise the rules relating to the transport of cattle. at the time of the study tour, a truck carrying cattle in mali could have up to five livestock handlers in the back to watch over the animals. in Senegal, this practice was illegal. at the end of the trip, the journalists, who represented a wide range of media, including radio stations, daily papers and national television, were unanimous in their praise for the organisers and recommended that similar journeys should be repeated elsewhere in the region. The study tour had provided them with an opportunity to research a topic of considerable importance and create greater awareness about the problems confronting livestock traders in west africa.Since then, CTa has supported a variety of initiatives which encouraged west african countries and regional trade organisations to review their laws, and reduce regulations and taxes which restrict trade. for example, in april 2011, a workshop in Burkina faso focused on harmonising the regulations governing agricultural trade. Jointly hosted with the Conference of ministers of agriculture in west and Central africa, it attracted policymakers, traders, farmers' organisations and journalists. \"progress has been made in reducing trade barriers, but much remains to be done,\" says José fonseca of CTa. nanalysis on aCp-Eu agricultural and fisheries trade issues. it is used as a source of information for trade discussions by the aCp Secretariat and the aCp missions in Brussels and geneva. aCp ministries use the agritrade Executive Briefs as training material for their new staff. over the past decade, agritrade has undergone various changes. The website initially focused on the agricultural implications of the wTo and the Economic partnership agreements (Epa) negotiations, Cap reform, and several 'protocol' commodities, including sugar, banana, rice and beef. in 2004, the website began to cover sanitary and phytosanitary (SpS) and food safety issues. in the same year, agritrade launched an entirely new section dedicated to trade in the fishery sector. The following year, agritrade played a critical role during the preparation and reporting of the Sixth wTo ministerial Conference in hong Kong, hosting special reports and producing various analytical documents.n 2000, when the Eu and the aCp group decided to negotiate new trading arrangements that would progressively replace long-standing preferential agreements, nobody knew exactly how this would affect the development of the agricultural sector in aCp countries. furthermore, reforms of the Eu Common agricultural policy (Cap) and the launch of the world Trade organization (wTo) doha round of talks also had serious implications for the agricultural and fisheries sectors of many aCp countries.\"policymakers, trade negotiators and private sector representatives all expressed the need to have a much better understanding of the agricultural challenges at stake, and possible policy options,\" says vincent fautrel, senior programme coordinator at CTa. \"This inspired us to establish the agritrade website in 2002.\"The website (http://agritrade.cta.int/) has established a reputation for being a unique source of non-partisan information and unravelling burning trade issues POLICymAkERS, TRAdE NEGOTIATORS ANd PRIvATE SECTOR REPRESENTATIvES ALL ExPRESSEd THE NEEd TO HAvE A mUCH bETTER UNdERSTANdING OF THE AGRICULTURAL CHALLENGES AT STAkE, ANd POSSIbLE POLICy OPTIONS.\" \" information directly to ongoing trade policy processes. \"we need to make sure that our information is not only delivered to the right person, but is actually used in the decisionmaking process,\" says michael hailu, director of CTa. \"agritrade should be developed as a fully fledged service which goes beyond the website. Engaging more directly with various public and private bodies at regional level should help us to achieve this goal.\" n Since 2006, the agritrade website has provided information on many new commodities and has also drawn attention to emerging topics such as aid for trade, product differentiation and biofuels. recently, the site was completely revamped and it has became more interactive with the inclusion of a social platform -myagritrade -that allows subscribers to share common areas of interest and get access to more targeted information.Since 2010, agritrade has covered regional trade issues as well as corporate developments in various agro-food sectors. The agritrade managers also recognise that the site could achieve more by providing","tokenCount":"22457"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"615bd83c4c5cecc8c6dd2c9d766fad26","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/46605822-a04f-4e3d-a806-860290397413/retrieve","id":"158469312"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d43afbf9-699b-43fd-9afb-09e81ee8434d","pagecount":"21","content":"The small-scale sour starch agroindustry of the Cauca valley comprises the largest concentration of sour starch producers, producing the highest output of the product in Colombia. The immediate objectives of the study described in this paper are to describe the industry and to characterize its main technical and socio-economic aspects. A further aim is to assess technology adoption and impact and, based on this, to develop a future research and development agenda involving all levels of the market channel.It was noted that 208 starch plants participated in the study, comprising 95-98% of the existing number of plants. Results show that the industry is mostly small-scale, with only 32 plants standing out as small-tomedium sized, using more advanced processing technologies. Levels of technology are closely correlated to plant size and product output, and to distance from the major highway. The smaller plants, further from the highway and higher in the mountains, manifested the lowest levels of technology utilization, output, efficiency, credit use and technical assistance. Of three designated technology levels observed in the plants, the lowest level showed negative returns to investment. The industry in general is dynamic from a technologyadoption point of view, as smaller low-technology plants are replaced by larger high-technology units.Additional activities of the larger study included problem and opportunity identification and prioritization through \"focus groups\" for each level of production technology, and for representatives of user groups, i.e. bread/pastry and snack food industries. This information will serve to generate a common agreeable research and development agenda, involving relevant sector interest groups and institutes, to be finalized in the development of an integrated sour starch industry project.En 1988 se inició un proyecto integrado de investigación y desarrollo de la producción y transformación de la yuca para la obtención y comercialización de almidón agrio de yuca, el cual fue implementado por CIRAD-SAR (Centre de Coopération International de Recherches Agronomiques pour le Développement, Département des Systèmes Agro-alimentaires et Ruraux) en colaboración con el CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical), y el apoyo financiero del MAE (Ministère Français des Affaires Etrangères . El objetivo de este estudio fue el de apoyar el desarrollo del sector de producción de almidón de yuca en Colombia, enfocando el esfuerzo hacia los pequeños y medianos productores y procesadores de yuca. En este proyecto también participaron diversas instituciones locales, principalmente UNIVALLE (Universidad del Valle), la Corporación Universitaria Autónoma de Occidente, el Fondo DRI (Fondo de Desarrollo Rural Integrado), el PNR (Plan Nacional de Rehabilitación), la CVC (Corporación Autónoma Regional del Cauca), FINANCIACOOP (Instituto de Financiamiento y Desarrollo Cooperativo de Colombia), y COAPRACAUCA (Cooperativa Agraria de Productores y Rallanderos del Cauca). La coordinación institucional del proyecto estuvo a cargo de dos ONGs (Organizaciones no Gubernamentales) locales: CETEC (Corporación para Estudios Interdisciplinarios y Asesoría Técnica) y SEDECOM (Servicio de Desarrollo y Consultoría para el Sector Cooperativo y de Microempresas). Estas ONGs son reconocidas en la zona por su trabajo en desarrollo comunitario, tienen un buen conocimiento de la zona en general y del sector de la transformación del almidón de yuca en particular (Chuzel y Muchnick, 1993). La mayoría de las actividades de este proyecto se llevaron a cabo en el Departamento del Cauca, Colombia.Las unidades de procesamiento de yuca, localmente llamadas rallanderías se encuentran en su mayor parte ubicadas en el Norte del Departamento Cauca, en las márgenes de la carretera panamericana que une a Pasto con Popayán y Cali. Estas rallanderías se dedican básicamente a la producción de almidón agrio de yuca y algunas producen almidón dulce, pero generalmente por pedido. Zakhia et. al (1996) menciona que aproximadamente el 80% de la producción de almidón agrio en Colombia, se localiza en esta región.Las prioridades del proyecto integrado de investigación y desarrollo fueron : (1) aumentar la eficiencia de procesamiento a través del mejoramiento tecnológico de los diferentes equipos (Chuzel, 1992); y (2) mejorar la calidad del producto final (Brabet, 1994). Además, el proyecto realizó actividades para el tratamiento de los desechos y aguas residuales generadas por el proceso (Rojas et. al, 1996) y coordinó un estudio para la evaluación socioeconómica del sector (Chacon y Mosquera, 1992;y Mosquera et. al, 1996).Los aportes del proyecto al mejoramiento del proceso y la transferencia de tecnología pueden agruparse en seis grandes categorías de acción :• Mejoramiento tecnológico de la maquinaria y equipos tradicionales utilizados en la zona para la producción de almidón de yuca (Chuzel et al., 1995ay Chuzel et al., 1995b).• Introducción del sistema de sedimentación por canales para reducir las pérdidas de almidón, mejorar la calidad del producto, y aumentar la eficiencia de proceso permitiendo un proceso continuo (CIRAD, 1994).Cambios en la distribución de la maquinaria y equipos para aprovechar la pendiente del terreno e implementar un sistema de gravedad. Esta distribución permite un flujo continuo de la materia prima, disminuyendo la necesidad de mano de obra y la fatiga de los trabajadores. Además, esta distribución de la maquinaria y equipos permite una mejor utilización del espacio y mejora la seguridad de los operarios, alejándoles de los motores, poleas, y correas de transmisión utilizadas para el funcionamiento de la maquinaria (Seemann, 1993).• Mejoramiento de la calidad del producto final (Brabet et al., 1996). Estos trabajos agrupan numerosas actividades principalmente investigación sobre la influencia de las variedades de yuca (Dufour, 1995), la calidad del agua utilizada en el proceso, el mejoramiento de la maquinaria (lavadora, rallo y coladora), el tipo de sedimentación (tanques o canales), la fermentación (Zakhia et al., 1995), y el secado solar del almidón agrio (Dufour et al., 1995) en la calidad final del producto, especialmente en lo referente a su poder de expansión. También se realizó investigación básica en tecnología de alimentos para estudiar el desarrollo del poder de expansión durante el proceso (Asté, 1995;Laurent, 1992;Mestres et al., 1996a;y Mestres et al., 1996b).• Evaluación e introducción de nuevas variedades de yuca adaptadas a la zona con características deseables para la transformación de la yuca y la producción de almidón agrio (Chuzel, 1992;y Dufour, 1995).• Estudios de sistemas de tratamiento de aguas residuales adecuadas a las condiciones rurales, protegiendo el medio ambiente y los recursos hídricos (Alazard, 1996).Otras actividades fueron desarrolladas en forma paralela y en asociación con el proyecto desarrollo. Estas fueron:• Movilización de sistemas de crédito hacia los productores y procesadores de yuca para facilitar la adopción de la nueva tecnología de producción y procesamiento.• Desarrollo de nuevos mercados industriales para la producción de las rallanderías (formulación de nuevos productos o redistribución por el circuito comercial de las grandes empresas agroalimentarias de la zona).• Implementación de una estrategia comercial para la Cooperativa Agraria de Productores y Rallanderos del Cauca (COAPRACAUCA).• Apoyo técnico a la industria agroalimentaria para la caracterización de la calidad de la materia prima (panificación, calidad sanitaria) y la formulación de nuevos productos a base del almidón agrio.Después de siete años de implementación del proyecto en la zona del Cauca, el equipo de trabajo decidió evaluar el nivel de adopción de los componentes tecnológicos desarrollados y transferidos durante el período de colaboración y el impacto económico y social de este desarrollo tecnológico.Para realizar esta evaluación de adopción e impacto del proyecto se implementó durante un período de dos años (1995-96) un estudio interinstitucional con la participación del CIRAD-SAR, CIAT, Fundación Carvajal, CORPOTUNIA (Corporación para el Desarrollo de Tunía), y CETEC, las cuales son las principales instituciones que han venido trabajando en el desarrollo de la agroindustria y tienen un buen conocimiento de ésta. Los objetivos de este estudio se pueden agrupar en cuatro objetivos:• Realizar una caracterización de la agroindustria de procesamiento de almidón de yuca en el Departamento del Cauca.• Evaluar la adopción y el impacto económico y social del proyecto integrado de investigación y desarrollo implementado en la zona por el CIRAD-SAR en colaboración con CIAT y otras instituciones locales.• Identificar y priorizar los principales problemas o limitantes para el desarrollo de la agroindustria del almidón de yuca en forma participativa con todos los actores y usuarios del proyecto.• Concertar con los diferentes actores y usuarios (productores, procesadores, instituciones, y la industria que usa almidón de yuca como materia prima) para desarrollar una propuesta de trabajo futuro e implementar un proyecto integrado de investigación y desarrollo para toda la cadena productiva desde el productor de yuca hasta el consumidor industrial.Los objetivos de este estudio muestran que éste no solo se limito a la evaluación de la adopción e impacto de la tecnología desarrollada durante la implementación del proyecto, y al análisis de las razones que tuvieron los procesadores para adoptar o rechazar las nuevas tecnologías propuestas por las instituciones. Este estudio también buscó identificar la demanda actual de tecnología y los principales problemas que enfrenta actualmente la agroindustria. Esta información generada por el estudio fue esencial para que el equipo de trabajo pueda (re)enfocar las actividades de investigación y desarrollo, y de esta manera responder en forma adecuada a las necesidades reales de los usuarios del proyecto, y así, optimizar el impacto sobre el desarrollo del sector.Por otra parte, el estudio permitió establecer prioridades para las actividades futuras de investigación y desarrollo de manera objetiva. Esta priorización se realizó de una manera participativa con los diferentes actores y usuarios del proyecto (procesadores, técnicos y extensionistas de las instituciones, y también la industria que compra el almidón de yuca como materia prima para producir otros productos). Esta identificación y priorización de necesidades y limitantes para el desarrollo del sector permitió llegar a una concertación entre los diferentes actores y usuarios de sector para definir una estrategia para el desarrollo del sector y desarrollar una propuesta para un proyecto de investigación, desarrollo y fomento de la agroindustria rural del almidón de yuca Debido a lo extenso de este trabajo, se escribirán una serie de tres documentos : (1) caracterización de la agroindustria;(2) evaluación de la adopción e impacto del proyecto integrado de investigación y desarrollo; y (3) identificación de limitantes, priorización y desarrollo de un plan de acción concertado. Este documento, el cual es el primero de la serie, resume los resultados de la caracterización de la agroindustria de procesamiento de almidón de yuca en el Departamento del Cauca, Colombia.La fase de planeación del estudio incluyó las siguientes actividades ;• Identificación de intereses de las instituciones que trabajan con el sector y de posibles colaboradores para el estudio. Para esto se realizaron varias reuniones de discusión y concertación con las instituciones que de una u otra forma habían trabajado en el pasado con el sector de procesamiento de almidón de yuca en el Departamento del Cauca. Las siguientes instituciones comprometieron su colaboración y participaron activamente durante los dos años del estudio : CIRAD-SAR (Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement), Département des systemes agroalimentaires et ruraux, CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical), Fundación Carvajal, CETEC (Corporación para Estudios Interdisciplinarios y Asesoría Técnica), y CORPOTUNIA (Corporación para el Desarrollo de Tunia).• Recolección de datos secundarios (ya existentes) y evaluación de la utilidad de estudios anteriores, especialmente el estudio de base del proyecto de 1988de -89 (Rey, 1979;;Pinto, 1980;Janssen and de Jong, 1981;SEDECOM, 1988;FINANCIACOOP, 1990;Lenis et. al, 1990, Chuzel y Muchnik, 1993;CETEC, 1994;y Zakhia et. al, 1996). Con base en esta información se identificaron los vacíos de información.• Desarrollo de una propuesta de trabajo y metodología para la recolección de información primaria. Basándose en los objetivos del proyecto se diseñaron diferentes métodos para la recolección de información, dependiendo del tipo de información requerido.Con el objeto de recolectar información primaria y analizarla se realizaron las siguientes actividades :• Encuesta formal estructurada de inventario y caracterización de la agroindustria de procesamiento de almidón agrio en el Departamento del Cauca, Colombia.Se aplicó una encuesta estructurada a todas las rallanderías del Departamento del Cauca durante los meses de Mayo y Junio de 1995. Esta entrevista estuvo dirigida al dueño o administrador de la rallandería, la cual incluye once temas diferentes con preguntas cortas y puntales. Los temas son: (1) características de la rallandería, (2) características del rallandero, (3) producción y comercialización del almidón, (4) producción y comercialización de los subproductos, (5) materia prima, (6) estructura administrativa, (7) adopción de tecnología y cambios en infraestructura, (8) ingresos, (9) asistencia técnica, (10) crédito, y (11) priorización de problemas.• Evaluación visual del sistema de procesamiento de todas las rallanderías del Cauca.A la vez que se realizó la entrevista formal con todos los rallanderos, se completo una guía de evaluación de la tecnología utilizada, la capacidad de producción instalada, y la ubicación geográfica de la planta. Para esto se evaluó cada parte o fase del proceso y se hizo un inventario de las instalaciones y maquinaria en cada rallandería. La ubicación geográfica de cada ralladero se midió con un GPS (Global Position System). Este aparato permite determinar la ubicación geográfica (latitud, longitud, y altitud) a través de señales de satélite. Esta guía fue llenada por personas con conocimiento y experiencia en el proceso de transformación de la yuca en almidón.• Análisis de la información recolectada y post-estratificación de las rallanderías.La información recolectada fue codificada y analizada. Los datos de esta primera parte del estudio fueron analizados en forma descriptiva, utilizando principalmente análisis de frecuencias y medias. Los datos obtenidos de la encuesta formal estructurada aplicada a los ralladeros permitieron realizar una caracterización de sistema de producción de almidón agrio de yuca en el Departamento del Cauca.Con base a la información de la encuesta visual se realizó una caracterización de la tecnología utilizada en la región y se post-estratificó la población en cinco niveles tecnológicos. El nivel 1 incluye aquellas rallanderías donde el proceso se realiza totalmente en forma manual, mientras que el nivel 2 esta compuesto por las rallanderías que tiene ya sea el lavado o el colado mecanizado pero que todavía realizan algunos procesos en forma manual.Las rallanderías donde todo el proceso ya esta mecanizado, generalmente con maquinaria tradicional y que no usan el sistema de canales para la sedimentación ni tienen la maquinaria distribuida en gravedad se incluyen en el nivel 3. El nivel 4 consiste de aquellas rallanderías en las que la sedimentación se realiza en canales o laberintos en lugar de tanques, lo cual permite un proceso continuo, aumentando la eficiencia y mejorando la calidad del producto.El nivel 5 incluye las rallanderías donde todo el proceso esta mecanizado, la sedimentación se realiza en canales, y además la maquinaria esta distribuida en diferentes niveles, haciendo uso del sistema de gravedad. Esta distribución de la maquinaria hace que el proceso sea mas eficiente, más descansado, y que requiera menos mano de obra.• Encuesta formal cuantitativa sobre costos de procesamiento de almidón agrio de yuca, dirigida a una sub-muestra del total de las rallanderías.En esta encuesta se incluyeron puntos que son delicados para ser tratados en forma grupal. Esta encuesta cubrió los siguientes puntos: (1) costos de procesamiento y distribución de estos entre los diferentes renglones: costos variables ( materia prima, mano de obra, insumos, etc.) y costos fijos (administración, depreciación, intereses, etc.); y (2) ingresos totales y márgenes de utilidad.Tamaño de la muestra : Para la estimación del tamaño de la muestra, se utilizaron los datos de la encuesta realizada en la primera fase a toda la población de rallanderos y la postestratificación de la población por nivel tecnológico. El cálculo del tamaño de la muestra a ser encuestada se realizó por estrato, utilizando la siguiente fórmula: donde: n i es el tamaño de la muestra para el estrato i, t es el máximo error permisible, s es la desviación estándar de la cantidad de raíces procesadas en el estrato i, d es el nivel de confiabilidad deseado, y x _ es la cantidad promedio de raíces procesadas. Para la corrección por población finita se utilizó la siguiente formula:donde n ic es el tamaño de la muestra corregido por población finita y N i es el tamaño de la población por estrato.Con base a los resultados de este ejercicio para diferentes niveles de error permitido y confiabilidad, se eligieron para este estudio los tamaños de muestra para un error máximo permitido de 0.20 y un nivel de confiabilidad del 80%. Debido al alto número de encuestas que se necesitaban realizar en los estratos 1 y 2, a la dificultad de acceso, y a los objetivos del estudio, se aumento el error máximo permitido en estos estratos, y en el estrato 3, a 25%. Estos cálculos dieron un tamaño de muestra de 54 encuestas a ser realizadas, repartidas por estrato de la siguiente manera : ocho encuestas en estrato 1, 12 encuestas en estrato 2, 20 encuestas en estrato 3, ocho encuestas en estrato 4, y seis encuestas en estrato 5.La encuesta fue realizada entre los meses de junio y octubre de 1996 por funcionarios del CIAT, CETEC, Fundación Carvajal, y CORPOTUNIA. En los estratos 1 y 2 solo se pudieron ejecutar cinco encuestas en cada uno ya que el resto de las rallanderías no estaban trabajando o estaban acabadas. Por otra parte en el estrato 3 se realizaron 23 encuestas (tres mas de lo planeado), y en los estratos 4 y 5 se cumplió con el número planeado de encuestas de ocho y seis, respectivamente. Esto da un número total de 47 encuestas realizadas.• Análisis sobre costos de procesamiento de almidón agrio de yuca y rentabilidad de las rallanderíasLos datos obtenidos en la encuesta sobre costos de procesamiento fueron analizados en forma descriptiva, utilizando principalmente análisis de medias. Esta información permitió conocer la estructura de los costos de las rallanderías por nivel de tecnología, los costos de procesamiento por ton. de almidón agrio producido y la rentabilidad bruta y neta dadas las condiciones de mercado en el momento de realizar la encuesta. Esta rentabilidad fue también evaluada para determinar cuál es el precio mínimo que se puede recibir por el almidón de yuca o pagar por las raíces de yuca para tener utilidades.Para el análisis e interpretación de los resultados, las rallanderías se clasificaron en tres grupos. El nivel de tecnología bajo, el cual incluye las rallanderías de nivel tecnológico 1 y 2. Las rallanderías de nivel tecnológico 3 se consideran como de nivel de tecnología medio, y las de nivel 4 y 5 son consideradas como de nivel tecnológico alto.En el Departamento del Cauca se encontraron 210 rallanderías de las cuales 208 se pudieron visitar y no fue posible llegar a las dos restantes por problemas de acceso y derrumbes. Estas rallanderías están distribuidas en 12 municipios y 85 veredas del Departamento del Cauca, como se puede observar en la Figura 1. Las rallanderías están concentradas en el Norte y la parte Central del Departamento del Cauca. En el momento de la encuesta, 146 rallanderías se encontraban operando, 30 paradas temporalmente, 28 abandonadas o cerradas y 3 en construcción. Las rallanderías que se encontraron paradas temporalmente son en su mayoría de nivel 2 y 3, donde se encuentran 26 rallanderías en esta condición. Las razones principales que dan para no estar operando son la falta de capital de trabajo (46%) y la escasez de materia prima (29%). Las rallanderías que están abandonadas también son en su mayoría de nivel 2 y 3 (25 de las 28 rallanderías acabadas pertenecen a estos niveles). Las principales razones que dieron los rallanderos para salir del negocio fueron en orden de importancia : falta de capital de trabajo (33%), mal resultado económico (17%), y escasez de materia prima (13%).Con base en la información suministrada por los rallanderos en la primera encuesta, se estimó una capacidad instalada de procesamiento de 163,000 ton. de raíces de yuca por año. Por otra parte, la evaluación visual de las rallanderías mostró un mal dimensionamiento de la unidades de procesamiento. Se encontró que debido a limitantes en el área de secado, los tanques de sedimentación y fermentación, la capacidad instalada sería de solamente 87.000 ton. de raíces de yuca por año.Con respecto a los niveles actuales de procesamiento, se estimó que la agroindustria esta procesando alrededor de 54,000 ton. de raíces de yuca por año, lo cual resulta en un uso promedio de 62% de la capacidad instalada de procesamiento en la zona. La producción de almidón agrio de yuca se estimó en 11,000 ton. por año. Esto resulta en un factor de conversión de 5 kg. de raíces de yuca para producir 1 kg de almidón agrio. La producción de almidón dulce durante 1994 fue de solo 135 ton. por año y fue producido sólo cuando este fue pedido por un intermediario o un particular. Los sub-productos del procesamiento de la yuca en almidón son el \"afrecho\" y la \"mancha\". El primero es la fibra que queda después de la separación del almidón y es utilizado en la formulación de raciones para animales. La \"mancha\" resulta de la separación de la fracción menos densa del almidón, la cual se demora mas tiempo en sedimentar y es fácilmente separada del almidón. Esta \"mancha\" es rica en proteína y se utiliza localmente para alimentación animal, principalmente la alimentación de cerdos. Se estima que esta agroindustria produce aproximadamente 4,450 ton. de afrecho 750 ton. de mancha por año Datos del Ministerio de Agricultura muestran que en el Departamento del Cauca se sembraron en promedio durante la década de los noventa (1990-96) 6,400 ha. de yuca por año. Si consideramos que el rendimiento promedio en el Departamento durante estos siete años fue de 9.4 TM./ha., la producción de yuca en promedio fue de 60,160 TM de raíces por año (3.5 % de la producción total de Colombia). Una encuesta anterior a productores de yuca, realizada por la sección de Economía del Programa de Yuca del CIAT, mostró que 74% de la producción de yuca en el Departamento se destina al procesamiento para producción de almidón. Este dato muestra que aproximadamente 44,500 TM de las 54.000 TM utilizadas por la agroindustria son producidas en la misma región.Por lo tanto, en promedio durante los noventa, la agroindustria importó 9,500 TM de raíces de otras regiones del país (Antioquía, Uraba, y Valle) y mas recientemente de la región cercana a Santo Domingo en Ecuador, lo cual requiere 48 horas de transporte. Es importante notar que en Colombia la yuca tiene diferentes usos, tanto para alimentación humana y animal, y que sólo el 4% de la producción nacional es utilizada para la producción de almidón (Henry y Gottret, 1996). Si la agroindustria de almidón agrio del Cauca trabajara a capacidad máxima, esta demandaría el 5% de la producción actual de yuca en Colombia.Se estima que esta agroindustria genera 827 empleos directos. De estos 827 empleos generados, 475 es mano de obra contratada y el resto mano de obra familiar. Además, de las 827 personas empleadas por la agroindustria, 104 son mujeres y 16 son niños. Las principales labores en que participan las mujeres son en el pelado manual de la yuca, el secado de almidón (extender y recoger el almidón), llevando los registros y cuentas, y colando el almidón en aquellas rallanderías donde esta labor se realiza manualmente.Por otro lado, la mujer participa activamente en el secado y comercialización de los sub-productos de las rallanderías (afrecho y mancha) y en la cría de animales con estos subproductos.Los datos de la encuesta mostraron que en promedio cinco personas dependen económicamente de cada rallandero. Con base en esta información se podría concluir que 1050 personas dependen para su subsistencia de la agroindustria (familia de los rallanderos). Además, las familias de las 475 personas contratadas por la agroindustria también dependen para su subsistencia de este sector. Considerando el promedio en la región de cinco miembros por hogar o familia, serían aproximadamente otras 2375 personas mas. Por lo tanto, se podría decir que aproximadamente un total de 3425 personas en la región dependen para su subsistencia de esta agroindustria en forma directa, sin contar a aquellos que también viven de ella en forma indirecta, como son los intermediarios, transportadores, productores de yuca, y constructores de maquinaria y equipos entre otros. La sección de Economía del Programa de Yuca del CIAT estimó que en el Departamento del Cauca existen alrededor de 4900 productores de yuca, los cuales venden en promedio el 70% de su producción a las rallanderías. Estos 4900 productores de yuca del Departamento del Cauca, con sus familias (alrededor de 24500 personas), también dependen en parte para su subsistencia de esta agroindustria.El almidón agrio es utilizado principalmente como ingrediente para productos de panadería como el pandebono, pan de yuca, y los buñuelos entre otros. Por otro lado, el almidón agrio de yuca esta siendo cada vez mas utilizado en la industria como ingrediente para una amplia gama de pasabocas (chicharrones, rosquillas, besitos, tozinetas, etc.), en los cuales se aprovecha el poder de panificación y expansión del almidón, siendo esta demanda la de mayor potencial de crecimiento. El almidón dulce o nativo es utilizado como ingrediente en la producción de productos de panadería secos, aunque esta demanda no es relevante. Los sub-productos del procesamiento, la mancha y el afrecho, son fuentes ricas en energía y proteína por lo que son utilizados en la preparación de concentrados para animales o la alimentación directa de cerdos y otros animales en la finca.El almidón agrio es comercializado principalmente a través de intermediarios, los cuales llevan el producto a Santander de Quilichao (un pueblo en el Norte del Cauca) donde este se vende a otros intermediarios transportadores que lo llevan a las ciudades principales (Cali, Pereira, Tulua. Manizales, Bogotá). Solamente 35 rallanderos venden su almidón directamente a las panaderías y 8 a la industria de pasabocas. En el momento de la encuesta 20 procesadores (10%) comercializaban parte de su producción a través de la Cooperativa (COAPRACAUCA). Esto último se debió principalmente a las limitaciones de capital de trabajo de la Cooperativa que no le permitían comercializar volúmenes mayores de producción. Según los datos de ventas de la Cooperativa en 1995, se estimó que la Cooperativa estaba comercializando alrededor del 5% de la producción de almidón agrio de yuca del Departamento del Cauca.Un poco mas de la mitad de los rallanderos (107) son además productores de yuca. Estos procesadores tienen sembrado un total de 500 ha. con yuca, lo cual satisface solamente el 7.7% de la demanda actual de raíces. Esto muestra que la mayoría de la materia prima para la agroindustria debe ser comprada a otros productores de la región o a intermediarios que la traen de otras regiones del país e inclusive del Ecuador en períodos de escasez.Se encontró que los rallanderos están procesando 48 variedades de yuca diferentes, pero las preferidas son las llamadas localmente Algodona (44% de las respuestas), y la Blanquita (8% de las respuestas).A pesar de los esfuerzos institucionales realizados durante los siete años del proyecto, sólo 20 procesadores (10%) dicen haber recibido asistencia técnica. Sin embargo, aunque un número limitado de procesadores han recibido asistencia técnica directa por parte de los diferentes proyectos de colaboración, un número importante de procesadores han visitado rallanderías donde se hace investigación y se prueba la tecnología mejorada. Este tipo de visitas ha permitido una difusión informal de la tecnología. Estos 20 procesadores que recibieron asistencia técnica dicen que la recibieron de CETEC, CIAT, y a través de la cooperativa (COAPRACAUCA). 69 procesadores de almidón agrio (35%) han tenido acceso a crédito de inversión y/o capital de trabajo para la producción y procesamiento de la yuca. Este crédito fue dado por la Caja Agraria, BANCOOP (Banco Cooperativo), el Banco Cafetero, FUNDEJUR, y Mundo Mujer, entre otros.En el Cuadro 1 se pueden observar las características de las unidades de procesamiento por el nivel de tecnología utilizada. En general se puede observar que la mayoría de las unidades de procesamiento (67.3%) están concentradas en el nivel de tecnología medio, el cual representa la forma tradicional de procesar el almidón en la región. Por otra parte, se puede observar que el 17.3% de las unidades mantienen el procesamiento rudimentario de los año cincuenta, donde la mayoría de las operaciones se realizan en forma manual y solamente han adoptado el uso del rallo mecánico. Por último, 15.4% de las unidades han modernizado su proceso, incorporando el sistema de canales para la sedimentación y el 5.3% aprovechan la pendiente del terreno para distribuir la maquinaria de manera que la gravedad permita un flujo continuo de la materia. Es importante notar que estas unidades de procesamiento de nivel tecnológico alto fueron transformadas o construídas durante los últimos seis años.Cuadro 1.Características del Procesamiento de Almidón de Yuca en el Departamento del Cauca por Nivel de Tecnología. En el Cuadro 1 se reportan dos datos diferentes para la capacidad instalada. El primero, que es la capacidad instalada según el rallandero, fue obtenida a través de la primera encuesta estructurada dirigida a los procesadores. En esta encuesta se preguntó a los procesadores cuál era la cantidad máxima de raíces que podía procesar semanalmente, suponiendo que tuviera el capital de trabajo y el suministro de materia prima necesarios. Este dato del procesador tiende a sobreestimar la capacidad instalada. Si bien el rallandero podría procesar esa cantidad de raíces en una semana, no sería posible sostener ese nivel de producción durante varias semanas consecutivas debido a los cuellos de botella en la línea de producción por el mal dimensionamiento de las unidades de procesamiento. Se encontró que en el 49.5% de las rallanderías la capacidad instalada esta limitada por el volumen de los tanques de fermentación, en el 48.5% por el área de secado, y sólo en el 2% de las rallanderías, la capacidad instalada esta limitada por el volumen de los tanques de sedimentación.La segunda capacidad instalada que se reporta fue estimada por técnicos expertos en el procesamiento de almidón agrio de yuca con base a los datos obtenidos en la evaluación visual de las rallanderías. Esta estimación toma en cuenta los factores que mas limitan el proceso como son los tanques de sedimentación y fermentación, y el área de secado. Por esta razón se decidió utilizar para los cálculos posteriores la capacidad instalada según los \"expertos\". En ambas estimaciones se puede observar que a mayor nivel de tecnología, la capacidad instalada promedio por planta es mayor. En cuanto a la utilización de esa capacidad instalada, las rallanderías de nivel tecnológico alto hacen un menor uso de ésta (68%), aunque su capacidad de procesamiento es de 2.5 veces la capacidad de procesamiento de una rallandería de nivel tecnológico medio y 6.3 la de una rallandería de nivel bajo. Las razones para esta sub-utilización de la capacidad instalada puede ser una combinación de falta de materia prima y capital de trabajo. La producción de almidón agrio, como se esperaría, esta directamente relacionada con el nivel tecnológico de la unidad de procesamiento. Las rallanderías de nivel alto producen el doble que las de nivel medio y cinco veces mas que las de nivel bajo.Otro aspecto interesante que cabe notar es que el porcentaje de autoabastecimiento de materia prima es mayor en el nivel tecnológico bajo, es decir que la mayoría de los procesadores tradicionales (los que realizan el proceso en forma manual) son también productores de yuca, aunque compran una buena parte de su materia prima de otros productores vecinos. Como se puede notar estos rallanderos son los que se encuentran mas alejados de la carretera panamericana, por lo que el acceso a estas rallanderías, así como de estas a los mercados, es mas complicado ya que en la mayoría las carreteras no llegan hasta la planta de procesamiento y se debe sacar la producción en mulas. El transporte en mulas hasta la carretera destapada puede tomar hasta cuatro o cinco horas. Por otra parte, las rallanderías de nivel tecnológico medio y alto tiene un porcentaje de autoabastecimiento mas bajo y compran mayores volúmenes de yuca. Estas rallanderías tienen un acceso mas fácil a la carretera panamericana, y por lo tanto, al mercado para comprar materia prima y vender su producto.En el Cuadro 2 se presenta una caracterización de la tecnología utilizada por nivel tecnológico. En cuanto a las lavadoras su puede observar un cambio de la lavadora de cargue frontal, por la de cargue lateral y en el nivel tecnológico alto se observa una mayor adopción de la lavadora semicontinua. En lo que se refiere a las coladoras también se ve el cambio de la coladora de cuatro apoyos por la colgada de semi-eje.Además, los procesadores de nivel tecnológico alto están empezando a utilizar las coladoras semi-continuas mejoradas. Por otro lado, aunque los procesadores que tratan las aguas residuales todavía son muy pocos (7 procesadores tratan el agua residual), se puede observar que estos se encuentran principalmente en el nivel tecnológico alto. Finalmente, el porcentaje de procesadores que recibieron asistencia técnica y crédito es directamente proporcional al nivel de tecnología de la unidad de procesamiento.Cuadro 2. Maquinaria, Instalaciones, y Acceso a Asistencia Técnica y Crédito por Nivel de Tecnología Utilizada. La caracterización de la estructura de costos de las rallanderías, así como la rentabilidad de estas, se estimaron con base a una muestra de 47 rallanderías de la población total.En el Cuadro 3 se presenta la estructura de costos de las unidades de procesamiento de almidón agrio por nivel de tecnología. Esta estructura de costos muestra que los costos variables representan en promedio el 97% de los costos totales y que este porcentaje es mayor en las rallanderías con mayor nivel tecnológico. Dentro de los costos variables, el costo de materia prima es el que mas incide en los costos. Este costo representa en promedio el 92% de los costos variables y el 89% de los costos totales de procesamiento. El porcentaje de los costos variables representado por la materia prima es mayor en las rallanderías con mayor nivel tecnológico alto (94% para el nivel tecnológico alto versus 79.5% para el nivel bajo).Por otro lado, para las rallanderías con nivel tecnológico bajo, la porción de los costos representada por la mano de obra y otros costos de procesamiento es mayor. El 20.5% de los costos variables de las rallanderías de nivel tecnológico bajo esta representado por el costo de mano de obra (10.5%) y los otros costos de procesamiento (10.0%). En las rallanderías de nivel alto, sólo el 6% de los costos variables esta representado por los costos de mano de obra y procesamiento. Por último es importante notar que el porcentaje de los costos de mano de obra dentro de los costos totales de procesamiento, es menor en las rallanderías mas tecnificadas. Estas rallanderías mas tecnificadas, a pesar de que contratan un mayor número de jornales y pagan mejor a sus trabajadores, como se puede observar en el Cuadro 3, reparten estos costos entre un nivel mayor de producción.Cuadro 3. Estructura de Costos de las Unidades de Procesamiento de Almidón Agrio por Nivel de Tecnología. En el Cuadro 4 se puede observar que en cuanto a las características técnicas de la producción, el factor de conversión de raíces de yuca a almidón es mayor a 5.0 (promedio de la región según los \"expertos\") en el nivel bajo, igual a 5.0 en el nivel medio, y menor a 5.0 en el nivel alto. Esto muestra que las rallanderías con mayor nivel tecnológico no solo están produciendo mas, sino que son mas eficientes en la extracción del almidón, produciendo mas almidón por kg. de raíces de yuca.Debido a la alta proporción de los costos de producción de almidón representada por la materia prima, el factor de conversión de raíces de yuca en almidón tiene un efecto importante en la rentabilidad de las rallanderías. Para poder validar mejor este resultado sobre la relación del nivel tecnológico de la rallandería y el factor de conversión, sería necesario realizar ensayos controlados en rallanderías con diferente nivel de tecnología. De esta manera, sería posible medir el efecto del nivel tecnológico en el factor de conversión cuando todos los demás factores se mantengan constantes. (principalmente utilizando la misma variedad de yuca y raíces con el mismo contenido de materia seca La utilidades brutas y netas de las rallanderías por nivel tecnológico también se presentan en el Cuadro 4. Las rallanderías de nivel tecnológico bajo tienen utilidades brutas de alrededor de 650,000 $Col por año, las de nivel medio de 15 millones y medio de $Col por año, y las de nivel alto de 47 millones de $Col por año. La rentabilidad bruta de las rallanderías de nivel tecnológico bajo está muy por debajo del costo de oportunidad de la inversión (tasa de interés en el sistema financiero local). Por otro lado, las rallanderías de nivel tecnológico medio tienen una rentabilidad similar a la ofrecida por el sistema financiero local, y las de nivel alto, una rentabilidad significativamente superior. Cuando a la utilidad bruta se le restan los costos fijos (depreciación, costos de administración y financieros), las rallanderías de nivel tecnológico bajo perdiendo plata (utilidad neta de -1.5 millones de $Col.). Este resultado explica la razón por la cual mas de la mitad de las rallanderías de este nivel que se visitaron en 1995, se encontraban paradas o acabadas en 1996. Las rallanderías de nivel medio dan una utilidad neta de aproximadamente 12 millones de $Col por año en promedio, pero su rentabilidad (21%) esta por debajo de las tasas de interés de las instituciones financieras. Por lo tanto, sólo las rallanderías de nivel tecnológico alto dan utilidades netas atractivas y una rentabilidad mayor a los intereses ofrecidos por las instituciones financieras para inversiones de cero riesgo, las cuales son de alrededor del 28% en Colombia.En cuanto al margen de ganancia del procesador se puede apreciar que el costo promedio de producir una tonelada de almidón agrio es de 700.000 $Col y que esta se vende en promedio a 820.000 $Col, dando un margen de 120.000 $Col por ton de almidón agrio producido.En el presente documento se presenta una caracterización de la agroindustria del almidón de yuca en el Departamento del Cauca, Colombia. Esta caracterización permite conocer el tamaño de la agroindustria y la demanda de materia prima. En este estudio se analizó la agroindustria desde el punto de vista tecnológico y económico y se estableció una estratificación de estas agroempresas por nivel tecnológico. Además, la caracterización permitió estimar la capacidad de generación de empleo de la agroindustria y el tamaño de la población en la región que depende directamente de esta actividad para su subsistencia. Se analizaron los aspectos de género mediante la definición del rol de la mujer y los niños en el procesamiento de la yuca para su transformación en almidón de yuca y el uso de los sub-productos del proceso (afrecho y mancha). Esta caracterización de la agroindustria dio información sobre los usos y canales de mercadeo del almidón de yuca y los subproductos del proceso y sobre los costos y la rentabilidad de la agroindustria.Con el fin de retroinformar a los procesadores de yuca (principales usuarios del estudio de caracterización) sobre los resultados de este estudio, se redacto un documento esquemático, el cual sintetiza en forma ilustrada y de manera muy sencilla estos resultados (CIAT et. al, 1995). Este documento fue distribuido a todos los procesadores del Departamento del Cauca. Los datos recolectados muestran que la agroindustria esta compuesta por muchos pequeños procesadores con una gran variabilidad en su tamaño, nivel tecnológico, rendimiento y eficiencia.La gran mayoría de las unidades (67.3% utilizan una tecnología intermedia, mientras que el 17.3% de las rallanderías utilizan una tecnología mas rudimentaria. Por otro lado, 15.4% de las rallanderías utilizan una tecnología de procesamiento mas sofisticada, las cuales se transformaron o construyeron durante los últimos seis años. Se encontró que el nivel tecnológico de las unidades de procesamiento esta directamente relacionado con la cantidad producida y la distancia a la carretera panamericana, la cual une la zona de producción de almidón de yuca con las principales ciudades de Colombia, donde se encuentra una fuerte demanda por el almidón agrio de yuca.La caracterización de la agroindustria no fue el objetivo principal del estudio conducido en 1995-96 pero permitió obtener información de base, la cual es esencial para la planeación de un proyecto integrado de investigación, desarrollo y fomento de la agroindustria. Los resultados de este estudio son también un medio necesario para poder evaluar la adopción de tecnología desarrollada para esta agroindustria durante los últimos años y medir el impacto sobre el desarrollo económico y social de la zona.Por otro lado este estudio es la base para identificar las principales limitantes y oportunidades de esta agroindustria rural y establecer de manera objetiva un orden de prioridades de las actividades de investigación y desarrollo. Los resultados de las encuestas permiten conocer la opinión de los procesadores, a través de la encuesta formal estructurada, y la de los especialistas del sector, a través de la evaluación visual de las unidades de procesamiento.Este trabajo se realizó gracias al esfuerzo conjunto de CETEC, CIAT, CIRAD, Corpotunía, y la Fundación Carvajal. Cada institución puso su personal y medio de transporte para la realización del estudio. El estudio fue financiado por CIRAD-SAR y por el IRDC de Canadá, a través de un programa de PRODAR obtenido por la Fundación Carvajal. El trabajo fue coordinado por María Verónica Gottret y Guy Henry del CIAT, Libardo Ochoa y Juan Pablo Bedoya de la Fundación Carvajal, Dominique Dufour del CIRAD-SAR, William Cifuentes de Corpotunía, y Ricardo Ruiz de CETEC. Un agradecimiento muy especial a William Cifuentes, Carlos Chilito, Freddy Alarcón, Elizabeth Mosquera, Raúl Hernando Calvache, y Eduardo Montes por el esfuerzo que pusieron en el trabajo de campo. Además un agradecimiento a Norbey Marín por el procesamiento de los datos. Por último, pero no menos, un reconocimiento muy especial a todos los rallanderos del Cauca que colaboraron con su tiempo a este estudio y sin los cuales este no hubiera sido posible.","tokenCount":"6915"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3cea4e9ad78f5c7f8bacab881cf79243","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/65aece71-34fd-4d6d-9dd7-bd201077a9d4/retrieve","id":"2108746200"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"13a83007-570d-43de-93fd-77053ab1a71b","pagecount":"2","content":"Weather information and agricultural advisory (extension) services have long been recognized as an important factor in promoting agricultural development. As part of the USAID project, a mobile phone-based information dissemination system has been established in three districts i.e. Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Nalanda (Bihar) and Betul (Madhya Pradesh) in India. A total of 3,750 farmers from 25 villages in each district are being assisted with weather forecast information and agro advisory services.In the initial phase of the project, a project committee comprising representatives from BAIF and IFFCO KISAN (private partner), was formulated with the aim of analysing cropping pattern, weatherrelated crop issues, and advisories content for farmers. Besides, the committee would also create comprehensive information, education and communication (IEC) messages to disseminate the weather forecast information and be proactively warned of impending weather events.A team of agronomists, pathologists, entomologist, and meteorologist along with an agro-economic expert regularly visited the targeted area to analyse the farming situation of different crop grown. Any deviation from the set ideal situation was reported in real-time for analysis by experts. Experts based on their technical know-how gauged the situation and created messages for dissemination. The messages in general comprised of information about upcoming weather event/ situation and recommended the course of action.The inferences made were referred to the farmers in real-time, in the form of advisories through mobile text and voice messages. The inferences employed regional dialect to facilitate acceptability and an easy understanding of the message. Besides, the messages were pushed at a time that had shown the highest call response and duration of farmers' engagement.• With increased access to mobile phones and internet facilities, weather information and agro advisory services have become more accessible to farmers.• Easy availability of large amount of data can facilitate integrated analysis of existing cropping patterns, past and present weather-related cropping issues among others.• Interpersonal trainings and handholding support had shown to facilitate easy access and usage of weather information and agro advisory.• A toll-free helpline number provides farmers the confidence and much needed support to follow the advisory being shared• Agro-advisory has not only increased the food production and income of farmers, but also given them a sense of social security.Photo: J. Turner (CCAFS)","tokenCount":"366"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6349dcbbbf10b7b5b84458a233fc9dad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0361fcd8-9270-4bf1-ad91-84e61edfad3f/retrieve","id":"-132962517"},"keywords":["usages agricoles de l'eau","gestion sociale de l'eau","petits réservoirs","modélisation participative","agricultural water uses","social water management","small reservoirs","participatory modeling","Volta basin","Burkina Faso","Ghana"],"sieverID":"08f7dec3-5284-432e-b2cf-2a4402ad1cd2","pagecount":"120","content":"All models are wrong, but some are useful » \"Tous les modèles sont faux mais certains sont utiles\" George E. P. Box, 1987    Résumé Depuis les années 1980, de très nombreux petits réservoirs ont été aménagés en zones soudanienne et sahélienne d'Afrique de l'Ouest. En cause, tout d'abord, les sécheresses des années 1970-80, et ensuite les désillusions et controverses croissantes dont étaient victimes les grands barrages aménagés pour faire face à ces sécheresses. Ces petits réservoirs, à vocation multi-usage, ont pour but d'améliorer la sécurité alimentaire des populations riveraines et d'assurer localement un développement économique. L'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire et la réduction de la pauvreté sont les principaux objectifs du Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF). Ce programme international est conduit depuis 2002 (une première phase jusqu'en 2009 et une seconde phase depuis 2010) sur différents bassins représentatifs à travers le monde. Le bassin de la Volta fait partie de ces bassins représentatifs. Le CPWF-Volta comprend 4 volets (V1, V2, V3, V4), depuis l'amélioration de la productivité des eaux pluviales et de petits réservoirs à l'échelle locale, jusque à la gestion des sous-bassins et du bassin, et un cinquième volet (V5) dédié à la coordination. Le projet « CPWF-V3 » a pour objectif de contribuer à la mise en place d'une gestion locale intégrée des petits réservoirs à vocation multi-usage, en développant des méthodes basées sur la participation. Il a choisi de développer ses activités sur 2 sites, l'un au Burkina Faso et l'autre au Ghana. C'est dans ce cadre que s'est déroulé le stage. L'objectif était, sur chacun des deux sites, de construire avec les agriculteurs une représentation du fonctionnement des périmètres irrigués installés autour du réservoir et de comprendre l'organisation sociale qui détermine ce fonctionnement.L'organisation mise en place dans les périmètres par les structures d'aménagement est « défaillante» et les performances technico-économiques de ces périmètres sont médiocres. Ces performances semblent refléter le mauvais fonctionnement -voire l'absencede l'organisation. Pourquoi cette organisation est-elle si peu fonctionnelle ? Est-ce parce que les règles mises en place sont très éloignées de la gestion coutumière des ressources ? Les faibles tensions sur la ressource en eau entraînent-elles un manque de motivation quant à l'entretien collectif du réseau ? Malgré de grandes différences entre les deux sites étudiés, des similitudes existent. En autre, vu la disponibilité de la ressource, une extension des usages agricoles du réservoir pourrait être envisagé. Mais l'état et le fonctionnement actuels des aménagements sont des freins majeurs à cette extension.Je tiens à remercier à Ouagadougou :-Le personnel et les stagiaires du Cirad pour leur accueil et leur bonne humeur.-Les agents de la sécurité de la DGCOP pour ces bons moments partagés pendant les « entre-deux » et les weekends. -Mahamadou Traoré pour cette initiation pratique à l'art burkinabé pendant tous ces weekends. -Sans oublier les Soeurs Missionnaires Notre Dame d'Afrique pour leur accueil chaleureux au sein de leur congrégation.Je tiens plus particulièrement à remercier à Boura :-Oussmane Navé, adjoint au maire, pour son aide et son temps accordé.-Abderamane Sanon de l'INERA pour son aide lors de la réalisation des enquêtes.- Aussi, un grand merci à Martine Kaboré pour ces bons moments de complicité partagés sur le terrain et lors de nos repas « gastronomiques » spaghettis-riz-sardines. Que ce soit au Ghana ou au Burkina Faso, merci à tous les agriculteurs pour leur patience, leur générosité et leur temps accordés à répondre aux enquêtes. A tous ceux qui ont croisé ma route que ce soit sur le terrain, à Ouaga ou à Bobo et qui ont fait preuve d'un accueil, d'une générosité et d'une chaleur unique et que j'aurai oublié de citer, merci.En Afrique sub-saharienne, l'agriculture qui emploie près de 70% de la population active est un secteur économique et social prioritaire (Fleshman, 2003). Malgré une présence importante de ressources en eau, l'agriculture demeure essentiellement pluviale. En effet, dans les années 1990, seules 1,2 % des terres cultivables étaient irriguées au Burkina Faso et 0,6 % au Ghana (FAO, 1995). Aucun grand aménagement de terres pour l'irrigation n'a été réalisé depuis. Les céréales produites au Burkina Faso représentent 42% de la production agricole (FAOSTAT, 2012) ; en 1992, seules 3,2 % de ces céréales provenaient de l'agriculture irriguée (FAO, 1995). Les revenus et la sécurité alimentaire des communautés rurales restent donc fortement tributaires de l'aléa climatique.Face aux sécheresses des années 1970, de grands ouvrages hydrauliques ont été édifiés dans les pays qui couvrent le bassin de la Volta : Sourou et Bagré au Burkina Faso, Kpong au Ghana. Ces barrages sont aujourd'hui de plus en plus controversés (Venot et Cecchi, 2011) notamment parce qu'ils ne profitent qu'à une toute petite partie de la population (Turner, 1994). En réponse à ces controverses et aux grandes sécheresses persistant dans les années 1980, le développement des petits réservoirs a été initié pour assurer la sécurité alimentaire et favoriser le développement économique. Les petits réservoirs ont une vocation multi-usage : ils assurent une réserve d'eau pendant la saison sèche pour les besoins domestiques des populations et l'abreuvement du bétail, ainsi que pour développer l'irrigation et la pisciculture (Cecchi, 2011).La sécurité alimentaire et la réduction de la pauvreté constituent les principaux objectifs du Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), programme international de recherchedéveloppement (conduit depuis 2002). Dans le bassin de la Volta, le CPWF vise à renforcer la gestion intégrée des eaux pluviales et des petits réservoirs, depuis l'échelle locale jusqu'à l'échelle du bassin au travers de la mise en place de 5 volets d'études spécifiques (CGIAR, 2009). Ce stage s'inscrit dans le cadre du volet V3 dédié à la gestion locale des petits réservoirs. Ce volet, coordonné par l'UMR G-eau, a pour objectif de contribuer à une gestion intégrée des petits réservoirs à vocation multi-usages, en développant des méthodes fondées sur la participation des parties prenantes. précisément ? Puis, vient la description des sites d'étude ainsi que des méthodes utilisées. Les résultats obtenus sont ensuite présentés en deux volets : le premier volet concerne l'organisation sociale autour des usages de l'eau des réservoirs et le second concerne la modélisation des usages et leurs performances. Enfin, une discussion est consacrée à l'analyse critique de la méthode et des résultats.Face à la multiplication des sécheresses dans les années 1970 et 1980 dans la zone sahélo-soudanienne, de grands ouvrages hydrauliques ont été réalisés tels que Sourou, Bagré et Kompienga au Burkina Faso ainsi que de nombreux barrages de petites et de moyennes tailles. Les grands aménagements sont vus comme une façon idéale d'augmenter la production alimentaire et de réduire la dépendance aux aléas climatiques. Cependant, ils deviennent très vite controversés et victimes d'une désillusion croissante. Le coût et la production agricole ne sont pas ceux escomptés. De nombreux problèmes environnementaux et sociaux apparaissent, ces aménagements ne bénéficiant qu'à une petite partie de la population (Turner, 1994).Face à ces controverses, les petits réservoirs ont constitué un moyen apprécié de sécuriser la ressource. Ils font l'objet d'une demande constante de la part des populations locales. Les gouvernements et les bailleurs de fonds y voyant aussi une opportunité en termes de sécurité alimentaire notamment en intensifiant les usages (Venot et Cecchi, 2011). Comme il sera décrit par la suite, les petits réservoirs ont pour vocation d'être multi-usages ou multifonctionnels. Depuis 30 ans, les paysages de l'Afrique rurale sub-saharienne ont vu apparaître une multitude de ces petits réservoirs. Il est difficile de les dénombrer tous mais on peut estimer leur nombre à environ 1700 au Burkina Faso, 800 au Mali, 600 en Côte d'Ivoire et 500 au Ghana (Venot et Cecchi, 2011).Face au développement des petits réservoirs, il est important de savoir comment on peut les définir. Il s'agit d'un lac artificiel pouvant stocker jusqu'à 1 million de mètres cube d'eau issus du ruissellement des eaux pluviales sur le bassin amont (Venot et Cecchi, 2011). Un petit réservoir peut être installé en tête de bassin versant, ou bien plus en aval sur un cours d'eau. Son mode de construction est très rustique : une digue construite avec de l'argile compactée, et un déversoir permettant l'écoulement de l'eau en aval. Les berges peuvent être constituées de graviers ou de rochers selon le type de sol et l'utilisation qui est faite du réservoir (Hagan, 2007). Dans la plupart des cas, un périmètre hydro-agricole est aménagé à l'aval du réservoir (Venot et Cecchi, 2011).La fonction première d'un petit réservoir est de stocker l'eau pendant la saison des pluies afin de disposer de la ressource en saison sèche. Il permet ainsi de redynamiser les activités agricoles et pastorales pendant la saison sèche ainsi que le développement de nouvelles activités (Cecchi, 2007 ;Venot et Cecchi, 2011). La multifonctionnalité des petits réservoirs est illustrée comme le montre la figure 1 par : -Une sécurisation alimentaire en saison sèche, une agriculture irriguée (riziculture et maraîchage), un abreuvement des troupeaux, un développement de la pêche, des activités récréatives, des activités artisanales (confection de briques) et une fixation de la population assurant ainsi un frein à l'exode rurale (Venot et Cecchi, 2007).-La création et la préservation d'écosystèmes, la prévention des inondations quand les précipitations sont importantes, la production d'électricité grâce à des turbines (Hagan, 2007). A une échelle régionale, la taille réduite des petits réservoirs leur confère un poids et une importance minime, qui peuvent toutefois être compensés par leur grand nombre. Cependant à l'échelle locale, les ressources des petits réservoirs ne sont pas à négliger (Cecchi, 2007). L'ensemble des usages, des opportunités et des risques qui leur sont associés peuvent affecter les différents groupes d'usagers comme le montre le tableau 1 (Venot et Cecchi, 2011).Les opportunités des petits réservoirs rejoignent leurs multifonctions énumérées ci-avant. Néanmoins, de nombreux risques et contraintes leurs sont également associés comme (Tableau 1) :-Des risques sanitaires (foyer de reproduction de moustiques pouvant être vecteur du paludisme, bilharziose…).-Des risques environnementaux (eutrophisation, érosion, pollution …).-Des risques de dégradations des infrastructures du à un mauvais entretien.Les petits réservoirs peuvent être également vus comme :-Un vecteur de mutation sociale dû à la réorganisation foncière mise en place pour l'accès aux terres irriguées (pouvant amener à des exclusions ou des réticences sociales)-Une source d'enjeux de pouvoir entre les usagers amenant parfois à une compétition pour la ressource et à des conflits comme tel est souvent le cas entre agriculteurs et éleveurs Tableau 1. Grille d'analyse des petits barrages d'Afrique de l'Ouest (Venot et Cecchi, 2011) 1.2. Le Challenge Program pour l'eau et l'Alimentation (CPWF)Le Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) est un programme international conduit depuis 2002. Il a pour but d'améliorer la sécurité alimentaire et de réduire la pauvreté en développant des façons innovantes de définir les problèmes d'alimentation et de fourniture en eau. Sa première phase s'est déroulée entre 2002 et 2007. Les travaux étaient soit thématiques (le Small Reservoir Project par exemple) soit focalisés sur 10 grands bassins (Basin Focal Project ou BFP) répartis à travers le monde (Afrique, Asie, Amérique Latine). Chacun de ces BFP avait pour but d'analyser la disponibilité et l'accès à l'eau, la productivité en eau ainsi que les relations entre les différentes institutions de l'eau, et en quoi ces éléments contribuaient à l'amélioration de l'alimentation et à la réduction de la pauvreté (CGIAR, 2009).La seconde phase du CPWF a débuté en 2010 et prendra fin en 2013. Les travaux sont concentrés sur 6 grands bassins à travers le monde : les Andes (10 bassins versants répartis sur la Bolivie, la Colombie, l'Equateur et le Pérou), le Ganges, le Limpopo, le Mékong, le Nil, la Volta. Pour chacun d'eux, un challenge a été défini sur la base de l'analyse des résultats issus des travaux de la première phase, notamment les BFP ; on parle alors de Basin Development Challenge (BDC). En effet, plusieurs sujets ont émergé de la première phase du projet : les systèmes multi-usages à l'échelle de la communauté, les droits et l'accès à l'eau ainsi que sa gouvernance, les petits réservoirs et les systèmes culture-aquaculture. Pour le bassin de la Volta, il s'agit de renforcer la gestion intégrée des eaux pluviales et des petits réservoirs afin de contribuer à la réduction de la pauvreté, à l'amélioration du bien-être des populations et de la « résilience des moyens de subsistance » dans le contexte des terres arides du Burkina Faso et du nord Ghana. Ce programme a également pour objectif de prendre en compte les impacts à l'aval sur les utilisateurs ainsi que sur les écosystèmes (CGIAR, 2009).Pour ce faire, le BDC Volta s'articule autour de cinq projets de recherche (Figure 2) dont les objectifs sont les suivants (CGIAR, 2009):-Projet V1 : mettre au point sur internet un « outil d'aide à la prise de décision » afin d'identifier les sites possibles en matière d'intervention en gestion de l'eau.-Projet V2 : mettre en place des stratégies appropriées concernant la gestion intégrée des eaux pluviales pour les agro-écosystèmes pastoraux.-Projet V3 : s'orienter sur les options de gestion intégrée des petits barrages au niveau local dans un contexte d'utilisations multiples.-Projet V4 : comprendre la gouvernance des eaux pluviales et des petits barrages dans le contexte de la GIRE (Gestion Intégrée des Ressources en Eau).-Projet V5 : veiller à la coordination des projets cités ci-dessus et à la promotion du changement.Figure 2. L'interdépendance des 5 projets du CPWF phase 2.Cette étude s'inscrit dans le cadre du 3 ème volet du BDC Volta ou CPWF-V3. Ce programme est piloté par l'UMR G-eau sous la tutelle du Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD). Les différents partenaires sont l'Institut National pour l'Environnement et la Recherche Agricole (INERA, Burkina Faso), l'Institut International d'Ingénierie de l'Eau et de l'Environnement (2iE) à Ouagadougou, le Water Research Institute (CSIR/WRI, Ghana), le Savanah Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR/SARI, Ghana), l'Université de Technologie de Delft aux Pays-Bas (TU Delft), les universités de Ouagadougou et de Bobo Dioulasso au Burkina Faso ainsi que l'université de Kumasi au Ghana, et le Stockholm Environmental Institute (CGIAR, 2009).L'objectif global de ce programme est de contribuer à une gestion intégrée des petits réservoirs à vocation multi-usages, en développant des méthodes fondées sur la participation des parties prenantes. Il a notamment les objectifs spécifiques de perpétuer les infrastructures, protéger et/ou améliorer la qualité de l'eau à usages multiples, renforcer les potentiels de productivité de l'eau en s'assurant d'une allocation équitable des ressources en eau (CGIAR, 2009). Deux réservoirs ont été sélectionnés pour ce projet : Boura au Burkina Faso et Binaba II au Ghana. Pour rendre compte des multiples aspects de la gestion intégrée de ces petits réservoirs et de leurs usages, le CPWF-V3 est structuré en sept work packages centrés sur (CGIAR, 2010) :(1) La réalisation de modèles écologiques afin de mesurer l'impact de la pression des activités humaines sur la qualité et la productivité de l'eau.(2) La détermination des impacts dus à l'intensification des pratiques agricoles sur la santé (une thèse est en cours de réalisation).(3) L'évaluation de la disponibilité des ressources en eau et de la sédimentation (une thèse est en cours de réalisation).(4) La caractérisation des pertes par évaporation et par infiltration (une thèse est en cours de réalisation).(5) La réalisation d'une typologie des usages de l'eau et des usagers, l'établissement d'un diagnostic sur chaque type d'usage et l'analyse de l'économie des ménages. Des inventaires des usages et des usagers ont été réalisés par le SARI, le WRI et l'INERA ainsi que des enquêtes socio-économiques. La typologie établie sur les deux sites étant incomplète, des enquêtes complémentaires ont été réalisées pendant ce stage.(6) La réalisation de diagnostics et de modélisations participatifs, fondés sur la typologie précédente, pour construire une gestion des usages multiples des petits réservoirs.(7) La mise en place d'essais en « vraie grandeur » (pilot experiment) avec les usagers afin d'améliorer la productivité de l'eau des petits réservoirs. A Boura, l'INERA a mis en place un essai afin de tester des variétés locales et améliorées. A Binaba, le SARI a mis en place des essais pour tester des variétés de riz parfumé, la production de semences, et la protection contre la sédimentation avec des plantations de vétiver sur le bassin amont.Le travail de stage s'inscrit dans le cadre du work package 6.L'axe d'étude est orienté sur la connaissance des usages agricoles actuels de l'eau des petits réservoirs de Boura et de Binaba II. Au vu des premiers diagnostics, le volume d'eau disponible actuellement est très supérieur à la demande globale en eau, dont la demande agricole constitue l'essentiel. En effet :-On peut estimer les besoins pastoraux et humains à 15 000 m 3 /mois soit environ 180 000 m 3 /an.-On peut estimer la consommation agricole en eau de Boura à 2,9 Mm 3 /an et celle de Binaba à 0,8 Mm 3 /an (en supposant que les périmètres sont cultivés en totalité).-Ces besoins (et l'évaporation) ne représentent que 70 % de la capacité du réservoir dans les deux cas de figure.On peut donc envisager d'intensifier et d'étendre ces usages agricoles. Ainsi, la problématique de ce mémoire s'oriente autour des questions suivantes :L'objectif global de cette étude est de construire avec les responsables des groupements et les agriculteurs membres de ces groupements, une représentation du fonctionnement de leur périmètre irrigué. Cette représentation peut alors servir à réfléchir aux améliorations et aux évolutions possibles et à la manière de les mettre en oeuvre. Cette démarche s'inscrit dans le courant des approches de modélisation participative (Poussin et al., 2010). Au cours de ce stage, il s'agissait de contribuer à la modélisation participative des usages agricoles de l'eau pour chacun des deux petits réservoirs (Boura au Burkina Faso et Binaba II au Ghana) choisi par le CPWF-V3. Cette modélisation s'est appuyée sur la Comment intensifier ces usages agricoles ? Quelles techniques peuvent être mobilisées par les paysans, individuellement et collectivement ?L'extension des usages agricoles peut-elle engendrer une tension entre usages sur la ressource en eau ou sur une autre ressource comme le travail ? plateforme de modélisation ZonAgri (Poussin et al., 2010) et les résultats des enquêtes déjà menées.Les objectifs spécifiques de cette étude sont les suivants :-Représenter l'ensemble des activités agricoles et les usages de l'eau autour de chacun des deux réservoirs sélectionnés.-Déterminer l'organisation sociale construite autour de l'eau (les organisations, leurs fonctions, leurs interrelations…).-Quantifier les performances techniques et économiques des réservoirs.-Envisager avec les acteurs des changements (techniques et/ou organisationnels) et évaluer avec eux leurs impacts.Les réservoirs ont été sélectionnés suite à une compilation de bases de données disponibles correspondant aux critères suivants (Cecchi, 2011) : i/ L'état de l'infrastructure : le réservoir doit être fonctionnel.ii/ La taille du réservoir : la ressource en eau doit être permanente en condition hydrologique normale (taille suffisamment grande) ; son exploitation doit être limitée à tout petit nombre de villages pour faciliter la démarche participative.iii/ Un accès possible toute l'année et à proximité des acteurs : pour des questions logistiques relatifs aux suivis et aux enquêtes qui seront réalisées. iv/ L'exploitation pour plusieurs usages (agriculture, pisciculture…) et l'existence de plusieurs systèmes de cultures.v/ L'existence d'une structure de gestion : cette structure, consacrée à la gestion, au contrôle, aux règles d'accès et d'utilisation du réservoir, constitue le principal interlocuteur et utilisateur final des outils de gestion proposés.Sur la base de ces critères et d'une visite des sites par l'ensemble des partenaires du projet, les réservoirs de Boura au Burkina Faso et de Binaba II au Ghana ont été sélectionnés au début du second trimestre 2011 par le projet V3 (Figure 3). La commune de Boura se situe au sud du Burkina Faso dans la région administrative du Centre-Ouest, plus particulièrement dans la province de la Sissili à environ 50 kilomètres de son chef-lieu Léo, 200 kilomètres au sud de la capitale administrative du pays Ouagadougou et seulement 7 kilomètres de la frontière ghanéenne (Figure 3). La commune de Boura regroupe plus de 20 000 habitants et est constituée de 22 villages dont Boura-ville où se situe le réservoir. Cette commune est le lieu de nombreux mouvements migratoires faisant d'elle un « creuset ethnique » où cohabitent Sissala, Mossis, Peuhls et Dagara amenant parfois à des oppositions entre agriculteurs et éleveurs. Le réservoir de Boura a été construit en 1983 par l'ONBI (Office National des Barrages et de l'Irrigation) sur le site d'une ancienne retenue d'eau dont la digue avait été mise en place dans les années 1950 par les villageois. Sa capacité est de 4,2 millions de m 3 : l'eau y est permanente en « condition hydrologique normale » (Karambiri et al., 2011).Ce réservoir permet d'alimenter plusieurs périmètres irrigués (Figure 4):-Le Corikab (62 ha), à l'aval de la digue, alimenté par un réseau d'irrigation de type gravitaire et constitué de 3 zones distinctes où sont cultivés principalement du riz, du maïs et des cultures maraîchères. -Le PIAME (20 ha), en rive gauche du réservoir, alimenté par un système d'irrigation de type semi-californien et constitué de 2 zones distinctes où sont cultivés principalement des cultures maraîchères et du maïs.-Le périmètre Toumhositi (10 ha), en rive droite du réservoir, où est principalement cultivé de la tomate et où l'irrigation se fait à l'aide de sceaux et de quelques petites motopompes.Pour cette étude, nous nous concentrerons uniquement sur les périmètres du PIAME et du Corikab dont les fonctionnements technique, économique et social seront décrits par la suite. Le village de Binaba se situe au nord-est du Ghana dans la région administrative de l'Upper East et plus particulièrement dans le district de Bawku West. Binaba se situe à 580 kilomètres d'Accra, 53 kilomètres à l'est de la ville de Bolgatanga, 15 kilomètres au sud de Zebilla (chef-lieu du district) et seulement 230 kilomètres de Boura (Figure 3). Le village regroupe environ 5000 habitants. La chefferie traditionnelle a un fort poids au Ghana. En effet, la chefferie de Bawku, dans laquelle le chef de Binaba a un rôle majeur, est l'une des plus importantes de la région Upper East. Le village possède au total deux réservoirs nommés respectivement Binaba I et Binaba II. Ce dernier, auquel nous nous intéresserons, a été construit en 1962 suite à un projet du gouvernement ghanéen.Sa capacité est d'environ 1.1 million de m 3 (Karambiri et al., 2011) et permet d'alimenter un périmètre irrigué à son aval, divisé en deux secteurs dénommés « left bank » et « right bank » par les agriculteurs (dénomination inverse à l'écoulement), où sont principalement cultivés du riz et des produits maraîchers (Figure 5). Son fonctionnement technique, économique et social sera également décrit par la suite. Les précipitations sont concentrées majoritairement sur six mois de l'année et varient entre 700 et 1400 mm, août étant le mois le plus humide. La température moyenne annuelle, quant à elle, varie entre 25°C et 30°C. Les températures maximales sont atteintes entre mars et mai avec un pic au mois d'avril tandis que les températures minimales sont atteintes entre novembre et janvier. L'évaporation est fonction de la température et de l'humidité de l'air ; elle est donc plus importante entre mars et mai (elle peut atteindre 1 cm/jour), et plus faible entre juillet et septembre ; l'évaporation moyenne annuelle se situe autour de 2000 mm (Karambiri et al., 2011).Le réservoir de Boura fait partie du bassin versant de la Kabarvaro, affluent pérenne de la Volta Noire ou fleuve Mouhoun, dans la mesure où il alimente l'affluent principal de la Kabarvaro en rive gauche. Le bassin versant alimentant le réservoir de Boura s'étend sur une superficie de 155 km², dont une partie au Ghana. Ce bassin versant est constitué de deux cours d'eau non-pérennes (Annexe A) : le « Tapolwi » qui s'écoule d'est en ouest et le « Poudiéné » qui s'écoule du sud-est vers le nord-ouest. Les ressources en eau souterraines se trouvent à 20 mètres de la nappe phréatique en zone élevée et à 10 mètres dans les basfonds. C'est ce réseau hydrographique dense qui a permis la construction du réservoir de Boura (Karambiri et al., 2011). Nos observations sur le terrain permettent de confirmer la présence de nombreux bas-fonds à proximité du réservoir.Le bassin versant sur lequel se situe le réservoir de Binaba II (Annexe A) fait partie du bassin versant de la Volta Blanche. Il est beaucoup plus petit que celui de Boura. Il s'étend sur 11 km² et est drainé par un cours d'eau principal s'écoulant de l'est vers le sud-ouest (Karambiri et al., 2011)). Peu de bas-fonds sont présents dans ses alentours d'après nos observations.Les deux bassins versants des deux réservoirs ont des caractéristiques géologiques et pédologiques semblables. En effet, le substrat géologique est constitué de roches datant du précambrien (dahoméen et antebirimien) et de sédiment du birimien (Karambiri et al., 2011). Le sous sol est en partie constitué de granites indifférenciés, de granites syntectoniques formant des batholites de grande étendue, de schistes comprenant des phyllades (roches métamorphiques), de tufs et de grauwackes (roches volcano-sédimentaires) (Karambiri et al., 2011).En revanche, la nature des sols diffère suivant leur localisation. Sur le site ghanéen, on trouve des sols ferrugineux lessivés (ou lixisols : sols dans lesquels l'argile a migré vers les horizons plus profonds), des sols bruns lessivés (ou lusisols : sols ayant une forte illuviation d'argile) et des sols riches en argile, de type vertisol, ayant tendance à s'appauvrir sous l'effet de l'érosion et des actions humaines. Sur le site burkinabé, on trouve des sols hydromorphes sur matériaux sableux ou argilo-sableux, des sols peu évolués d'apport colluvial de sable limoneux et des sols peu évolués d'apport alluvial-colluvial (Karambiri et al., 2011).Dans une zone donnée, la végétation présente et les cultures pratiquées sont en étroite relation avec le climat (et le sol). Nos deux bassins versants sont situés sous un climat de type sud-soudanien : la végétation est en grande partie dominée par la présence de savane arborée à arbustive et de savanne boisée. Cette savanne est largement cultivée et on y trouve également des formations anthropiques de type agroforesterie (parcs à néré, à karité et à Acacia albida) issues de l'impact des activités agro-pastorales (Karambiri et al., 2011). On peut compléter ces considérations générales par nos observations. Le site de Boura, en amont et en aval du réservoir, est beaucoup plus boisé que celui de Binaba, signe d'une déforestation plus importante sur ce dernier. On observe notamment une forte densité d'arbres à karité à Boura (Figure 6). L'agriculture, de type extensive, est dominée par des cultures céréalières pluviales tournées vers l'autoconsommation (Karambiri et al., 2011). D'après nos observations, sur Binaba, les cultures céréalières sèches dominent comme le mil ; le maïs et le riz sont également présent. A Boura, les cultures céréalières pluviales prédominantes sont le maïs et le riz. Il y a également la production de tubercules comme l'igname ou la patate douce, en aval de la plaine aménagée. La présence du réservoir a permis en autre de pratiquer des cultures irriguées de contre-saison comme le maraîchage (oignons, tomates, choux, gombo …), le riz et le maïs. L'élevage caprin, ovin, porcin, avicole et bovin de type extensif sont présents. Le réservoir est un atout pour l'abreuvement des troupeaux locaux et itinérants. Il permet aussi d'avoir un potentiel piscicole important.L'économie de ces deux sites repose essentiellement sur l'agriculture, l'élevage, la pêche, le commerce, l'exploitation des ressources forestières et l'artisanat comme la confection de briques. Ces activités économiques ne sont pas indépendantes les unes des autres mais complémentaires. Les ménages sont en majorité polyactifs. Les activités agricoles et pastorales occupent plus de 90% de la population active, vient ensuite le commerce (Karambiri et al., 2011). Si les céréales sont davantage produites pour l'autoconsommation, la production maraîchère est quant à elle vendue en majorité permettant de dégager un revenu pouvant être important. A Boura, l'exploitation du karité se fait majoritairement par les femmes : une plateforme multimodale existe pour la production de beurre de karité et de riz étuvé. Les femmes possèdent une place importante dans les travaux agricoles d'après nos observations. Au sein des différents périmètres irrigués, des groupements ou des associations existent ; leurs rôles et leurs compositions seront décrits par la suite.La mixité des groupes ethniques au sein du district de Bawku dans le nord-est du Ghana peut se faire ressentir. En effet, à Binaba, pas moins de quatres groupes ethniques cohabitent : les Kusasi, les Mossis, les Bimba (Gourmantché) et les Bisa ou Bussanga étant parents à plaisanterie des Gourmantché et des Gourounsi. Les Bimba semblent être à l'origine du village de Binaba. A Boura, les Sissalas (sous groupe des Gourounsi) sont les « autochtones ». Néanmoins, depuis l'aménagement du réservoir, de nombreuses migrations ont eu lieu permettant l'installation de Mossis, de Dagara et de Peuhls. Ces derniers viennent chaque année pour abreuver leurs troupeaux dans le réservoir. Cependant, une minorité s'est installée pour cultiver du mil et du maïs. Ils ne possèdent en aucun cas ni de parcelles dans les périmètres irrigués ni n'y travaillent sauf exception. A Boura notamment, la distinction entre les différentes ethnies est visible au niveau de l'habitat traditionnel (Figure 7). les Mossis dont les concessions en banco closes et en forme circulaire sont constituées de plusieurs cases avec un toit en paille. Ces concessions sont suffisamment isolées les unes des autres pour permettre l'exploitation de « champs de cases ».-Les concessions Dagara et Sissala constituées de banco sont de forme rectangulaire et closes pouvant faire penser à des forteresses. La différence est que les Dagara possèdent à proximité de leur concessions des « champs de case » expliquant leur dispersion ainsi qu'un habitat en terrasse.Utilisation de l'environnement de modélisation ZonAgri L'environnement de modélisation ZonAgri (Poussin et al., 2010) permet de représenter les activités des exploitations agricoles dans une région définie. Des scénarii d'évolution de ces activités peuvent y être testés, ce qui s'avérerait être envisageable dans le cadre d'une gestion intégrée des ressources en eau. En effet, à travers la GIRE, la représentation de la demande agricole en eau et de sa valorisation via les productions semble nécessaire. Cette représentation est basée sur l'établissement d'une typologie des exploitations agricoles et des ateliers de productions.Dans cet environnement, on part du principe qu'une région est un ensemble de secteurs géographiques. Chaque secteur géographique est considéré comme étant la somme pondérée d'exploitations agricoles types, les pondérations correspondant aux effectifs. Une exploitation agricole, quant à elle, est considérée comme étant la somme pondérée d'ateliers de production types, les pondérations correspondant aux tailles des ateliers. Ces ateliers de productions produisent des inputs et des outputs en certaines quantités, lesquelles peuvent avoir un prix. Ces prix d'inputs et d'outputs permettent de calculer le revenu produit par chaque atelier. On peut alors agréger aux niveaux exploitation et secteur, les quantités d'inputs consommés et d'outputs produits, ainsi que les marges brutes dégagées (Figure 8). Construire un modèle dans cet environnement nécessite de construire des typologies : une typologie des activités de production, fondée sur leurs performances (consommation d'inputs et production d'outputs) et une typologie des exploitations, fondée sur la combinaison de leurs activités de production.Ici, les périmètres irrigués sont divisés en secteurs : zones 1 à 3 à Boura, rives gauche et droite à Binaba II. On ne considère pas le niveau exploitation et la typologie des activités de production dans un périmètre irrigué correspond à une typologie des parcelles. On focalise l'analyse des performances des ateliers de productions sur le rendement d'une part (output), et sur la consommation en eau et en travail ainsi que sur le coût des intrants (inputs).La typologie des parcelles s'est faite par leur classification. Les informations recueillies à l'aide d'entretiens ont permis d'obtenir des bases de données utilisées par la suite pour identifier les différents types de parcelles de chaque périmètre. Pour effectuer une classification des parcelles, on s'est basé sur des critères agronomiques relatifs au mode de conduite de la culture et au rendement.Pour les parcelles de riz, trois critères ont été pris en compte. Pour chacun d'entre eux, une note a été attribuée de manière « experte » : 0 si l'agriculteur ne respecte pas le critère choisi (en termes de contrôle, de gestion ou de durée) et 1 dans le cas contraire. Si le critère est respecté, on dira que l'agriculteur réalise une « bonne pratique ». Ces critères sont les suivants (Tableau 2):-La durée en pépinière. Une bonne pratique étant considérée comme une durée en pépinière inférieure à un mois (plus précisément entre 15 jours et un mois).- -Inférieur à 500 kg/acre (soit 1250 kg/ha), inférieur à 2 T/acre (5 T/ha) ou supérieur à 2 T/acre (5 T/ha) pour les cultures maraîchères quand l'effectif est important.-Inférieur à 3 T/ha, compris entre 3 et 5 T/ha ou supérieur à 5 T/ha pour les parcelles de riz.Enfin, pour les cultures très peu représentées (par exemple la tomate), on a considéré un seul type de parcelle.Pour chaque type de parcelle, on a alors calculé :-Le rendement moyen en kg/ha.-Le coût moyen des intrants en €/ha.-La quantité de travail moyenne en jour/ha.-La quantité d'eau utilisée en m 3 /ha.Pour déterminer les pratiques agricoles et la production des différents périmètres irrigués présents autour des réservoirs, les agriculteurs ont été ciblés et un échantillonnage a été réalisé. L'échantillon a été pris au hasard avec un effectif suffisamment important pour avoir une bonne représentativité de la situation actuelle. Le tiers des personnes ayant une parcelle dans chaque périmètre irrigué devait constituer cet échantillon soit :-Une centaine de personnes pour le Corikab, une trentaine par zone.-Une trentaine de personnes pour le PIAME.-Une cinquantaine de personnes pour Binaba II, 25 par rive.Pour rassembler ces informations, des enquêtes semi-directives ont été réalisées avec l'aide de deux chercheurs de l'INERA sur le site de Boura et d'un chercheur du SARI sur le site de Binaba. Les guides d'entretien utilisés se trouvent en annexes (Annexes B et C). Les informations demandées concernent la campagne agricole 2010-2011. Les cultures prises en compte ont été le riz, l'oignon, la tomate et les leafy vegetable 2 (LV) car cultivés en majorité dans les périmètres. Les guides d'entretien demandaient en autre à l'échantillon :-La localisation de la parcelle et ses limites pour vérifier la surface donnée à l'aide de point GPS ou d'une carte imprimée.-La succession culturale pratiquée au cours de l'année comme par exemple oignonleafy-riz pour Binaba II avec précision du cycle de culture, des dates de semis et de durée en pépinière.-Le travail fourni en jours pour chaque culture avec précision du type de main d'oeuvre (familiale, entraide, salariale), de son coût et de la technique utilisée (manuelle ou non).-Le coût total des intrants (semences, herbicide, insecticide, engrais) pour chaque culture.-La quantité d'eau utilisée pour chaque culture avec une précision sur la réalisation ou non d'une pré-irrigation, la hauteur d'eau appliquée et la fréquence d'irrigation.-La production de la parcelle (et non pas le rendement 3 ).Suite à l'identification des types de parcelles, il sera déterminé :-La marge brute (en €/ha) en utilisant ZonAgri. Elle correspond à la différence du produit brut et du coût (hors coût de la main d'oeuvre et coût post-récolte). Les marges pour le riz sont alors très surestimées.-La productivité du travail (en €/j) calculée par le rapport de la marge brute et de la quantité de travail, données par ZonAgri -Le coût de la main d'oeuvre (en €/j) correspondant à la moyenne du coût de la main d'oeuvre salariale (hors frais générés lors de l'entraide).L'analyse de l'organisation sociale autour de l'eau s'est déroulée en 3 étapes :-L'histoire des périmètres par le biais d'une recherche bibliographique.-La compréhension du réseau d'irrigation (prise de point GPS).-L'analyse de organisation sociale actuelle par le biais d'enquêtes.Les enquêtes ont été réalisées auprès des personnes ressources suivantes :-Les membres du bureau des groupements ou des associations pour connaître leur fonctionnement, les différents problèmes rencontrés … -Des membres des structures administratives ou coutumières : mairie, Mofa, chef… -L'aiguadier ou la personne chargée de la mise en fonctionnement des motopompes.-Les différents responsables des zones ou blocs d'irrigation afin de connaître les problèmes liés aux infrastructures, le tour d'eau ….-Des anciens du village et le chef pour en connaître davantage sur l'histoire du village et du/des périmètres.-Les agriculteurs travaillant dans les périmètres.Dans le cadre de la modélisation participative des usages agricoles de l'eau, la participation avec des les parties prenantes se fera via (Annexe D):-La discussion et la validation des types de parcelles mis en évidence lors d'une réunion sur Boura et Binaba tenue début juin 2012.-La discussion et la validation de la proportion de chaque type de parcelle dans les secteurs sur les deux sites lors d'une réunion tenue le lendemain.-La discussion des résultats de la situation actuelle et l'élaboration de scénarii selon leurs propres attentes lors d'une réunion sur les deux sites tenue courant juillet 2012.Les différentes activités à réaliser sur les deux sites ont été répertoriées dans un calendrier prévisionnel (Tableau 3). Au Burkina Faso et au Ghana, l'eau et la terre sont vues comme des ressources sacrées. Traditionnellement, les coutumes et les lois traitant de la gestion des ressources naturelles étaient formulées sous forme de règles émanant de la chefferie traditionnelle. Par exemple, la réglementation des ressources en eau comprend la délimitation d'espaces sur l'étendue d'un fleuve où la présence d'activité humaine est prohibée ou au contraire l'identification de parties où cette dernière est autorisée, l'interdiction de certaines activités lors de jours donnés de la semaine et pendant certains mois de l'année ou l'interdiction de l'accès à l'eau suivant le genre. Le Chef ou les prêtres étaient les dépositaires de ces lois coutumières et détenaient alors en autre la responsabilité de chef de terre et de l'eau. Leurs responsabilités étaient exercées au nom des dieux et des ancêtres. Ils agissaient ainsi en tant que gardien et régulateurs des ressources en eau et de la terre, veillant à éviter leur surexploitation. Les lois coutumières concernant les droits de propriété de la terre et de l'eau sont les mêmes : « La terre ou l'eau est un bien collectif librement accessible aussi longtemps que ce bien collectif n'est pas détruit » (Opoku-Ankomah et al.,, 2006).Dans les communautés traditionnelles burkinabé et ghanéenne (essentiellement celles situées dans le nord du pays), les femmes n'ont pas le droit de posséder la terre et n'ont pas le droit de prise de décision la concernant. De la même manière, elles n'ont aucun rôle dans le domaine de la gestion des ressources en eau. Ce dernier se limite à l'approvisionnement en eau du foyer domestique possible par leur propre accès aux sources d'eau (Opoku-Ankomah et al.,, 2006).Les lois coutumières ont évolué au fil des années par l'influence coloniale et postcoloniale. Au Ghana, lors de la colonisation anglaise, les lois coutumières ont perdu de leur rayonnement ainsi qu'après son indépendance où la gestion des ressources en eau a été mise entre les mains des institutions et des législations étatiques. La reconnaissance des lois coutumières n'est pas mis en avant dans les textes juridiques officiels jusqu'à l'instauration de la GIRE dans les années 1990, qui veut une restructuration du secteur de l'eau (Opoku-Ankomah et al.,, 2006).L'impact colonial sur les lois coutumières burkinabés est relativement faible en raison « des politiques françaises caractérisées par une politique de l'eau non formulée et non écrite ». Les institutions traditionnelles et les lois coutumières sont alors demeurées importantes dans la gestion de la terre et de l'eau à cette période (Opku-Ankomah et al ., 2006). Après son indépendance, une des premières mesures de l'Etat burkinabé a été la domanialisation des terres faisant ainsi cohabiter droit moderne et droit coutumier en ce qui concerne la gestion des terres, ce dernier étant accepté par l'administration. Suite à la révolution menée dans les années 1980, la Réforme Agraire et Foncière (RAF) formulée en 1984 par le capitaine Thomas Sankara (ex-président du Burkina Faso), donne à l'Etat la propriété exclusive du patrimoine foncier. Ceci sous-entend le démantèlement partiel de la chefferie traditionnelle, leur pouvoir de décision sur le domaine foncier étant affaibli. Cette RAF a été relue en 1994 et 1996 lui apportant ainsi quelques assouplissements, donnant un certain pouvoir de décisions aux autorités traditionnelles quant à l'affectation des terres et leur gestion. Elles sont donc restées très influentes dans ce domaine (Henri-Noël Bouda, 2007). Ainsi, l'eau et la terre appartiennent officiellement à l'Etat burkinabé, mais dans la pratique, l'utilisation de l'eau et de la terre est réglementée par les autorités traditionnelles qui les administrent selon les valeurs traditionnelles locales.En Afrique de l'Ouest, les ressources sont gérées par de multiples normes et autorités. Les législations nationales ne sont peu ou pas appliquées en raison de leur décalage avec les principes coutumiers. L'autorité coutumière, généralement peu reconnue par l'Etat, est la seule référence pour les populations locales (Lavigne Delville, 2000).Dire que les règles de gestion de l'eau et de la terre relèvent d'un régime coutumier ne signifie en aucun cas qu'elles soient ancestrales ou figées. En effet, ces règles évoluent et s'adaptent au contexte (évolution du peuplement, des modes d'exploitation, de la disponibilité de la ressource, des enjeux économiques …) (Lavigne Delville, 2000). Les pratiques coutumières continuent encore d'évoluer en raison des changements socioéconomiques dans le milieu rural. Cependant, les communautés conservent leurs croyances traditionnelles (Opoku-Ankomah et al., 2006). Ainsi, les institutions traditionnelles et les lois coutumières demeurent importantes en milieu rural en ce qui concerne la gestion de l'eau et de la terre comme on le verra sur les sites d'étude. Ces lois sont bien respectées par les gouvernements locaux. Malgré l'élaboration de lois modernes en vue de réglementer la gestion de l'eau au Ghana et au Burkina Faso, leur application en zone rurale reste difficile (Opoku-Ankomah et al., 2006).Le village de Boura a été fondé il y a environ 600 ans par deux groupes appartenant à l'ethnie Sissala (sous groupe des Gourounsi) mais ayant des origines géographiques différentes. Voici l'histoire de la rencontre de ces deux groupes ainsi que l'historique des migrations tel qu'il est raconté par un ancien du village.Deux groupes de femmes à la recherche de l'eau se sont rencontrés au bord du marigot « Tapolwi », alimentant aujourd'hui le barrage. Surprises, elles sont retournées informer leurs maris. Ces derniers pour vérifier l'information se sont rendus au marigot pour demander leurs différentes origines. L'un des groupes venaient de Boulou au Ghana 4 et était à la recherche de bonnes terres ; l'autre groupe venait de Tougoo (signifiant « la brousse des éléphants » en Sissala) dans l'ex Haute Volta (Burkina Faso actuel) à cause de l'embêtement des éléphants. Afin de déterminer qui est arrivé en premier dans les lieux, ils se sont donnés rendez-vous le lendemain au même endroit pour en apporter les preuves. Le groupe venant de Boulou a jeté au cours de la nuit une motte de terre dans le marigot et l'autre groupe, une masse importante de cailloux. Le lendemain donc, ils se sont tous retrouvés afin de montrer les preuves. Le groupe venant de Boulou rentra dans le marigot pour rechercher leur motte de terre mais ne la retrouva pas ayant été dissoute. L'autre groupe rentra également et fit ressortir leur masse de cailloux. Ceci fit d'eux les premiers venus dans les lieux. Ils traitèrent alors les ressortissants de Boulou de « Nébouré » en langue Sissala, qui en Français signifie « idiot », d'où vient le nom Boura. Les ressortissants de Tougoo se sont emparés de la chefferie et ont fondés avec les ressortissants de Boulou le village de Boura. De Tougoo sont issues les familles Nadié constituant la famille royale ainsi que la famille Bassavé. De Boulou est principalement issue la famille Kalaoulé. Les terres de Boura ont été réparties entre ces différentes familles. A Boura, le chef coutumier a un rôle important mais la chefferie traditionnelle a moins de poids qu'au Ghana.Peu de temps après la fondation de Boura, des migrations ont eu lieu en provenance du Ghana depuis des territoires Sissala notamment de Gwo, de Fatcho et de Samoa. Puis est venu un groupe Sissala en provenance de Malzan situé au Burkina Faso. Tous ces groupes sont considérés comme « autochtones » au sein du village de Boura. Il y a plus de 50 ans, sont arrivés les premiers « étrangers ». Tout d'abord, des Mossis en provenance de Tchoum et de Koudougou (Burkina Faso), venus à Boura dans le but de trouver des terres pour cultiver. Des terres leur ont été données par les « autochtones » et ils se sont installés dans un quartier près du centre de Boura. Dans les années 1970, des Dagara se sont installés en aval du bas-fond et des Mossis dans le secteur de Loum, tous en provenance du Burkina Faso. Dans le milieu des années 1980, des Mossis en provenance de Koudougou, Yako, Kaya, Ouahigouya, Boulsa 5 ont commencé à s'installer sur la rive droite du réservoir, formant ainsi le secteur 6 de Boura nommé « Amdalaye ». Ils sont également arrivés à Boura dans le but de cultiver sous l'influence de la révolution menée par le capitaine Thomas Sankara, l'ancien président du Burkina Faso, prônant le droit à la terre pour tous. Dans le milieu des années 1980, des Peuhls sont venus se fixer derrière le secteur « Amdalaye » pour cultiver du mil et du maïs.L'entretien avec l'ancien du village s'est ensuite focalisé sur la distribution et la gestion du foncier à Boura.Lorsque le village a été fondé par les ressortissants de Boulou et de Tougoo, les terres ont été réparties entre les principales familles présentes à l'époque : les Nadié, les Kalaoulé, les Bassavé les Mollouvié et les Navé. Sept secteurs sont présents actuellement dans le village de Boura comme l'illustre la figure 9.  ), la gestion de l'espace répond à un ensemble de principes et de règles coutumiers. En effet, il existe à Boura un chef de terre qui n'est autre que le chef du village et gérant du patrimoine foncier. Lorsqu'un nouveau arrivant veut acquérir une terre, il doit effectuer une demande auprès du chef de village ou aux propriétaires terriens. Cette acquisition est alors définitive qu'après l'acte de protocole coutumier consistant en des offrandes et des sacrifices aux ancêtres et au génie de la terre.Un entretien avec le chef de Binaba a permis de mieux comprendre l'histoire de la construction du village ainsi que l'établissement et l'importance des liens hiérarchiques de la chefferie traditionnelle. A Binaba, lorsque les Bimba se sont installés, la terre a été partagée entre cultivateurs et chasseurs, faisant d'eux des propriétaires terriens désignés sous le nom de landlord. Au Ghana, les autorités traditionnelles sont les propriétaires des ressources naturelles et assurent leur gestion (cf. 3.1.1). En ce qui concerne, le partage de l'eau et des forêts, il n'est pas nécessaire d'appartenir à un clan. Une requête directe doit être adressée au chef. En revanche pour l'allocation des terres, une appartenance à un clan est requise. La hiérarchisation au sein de la chefferie occupe également une place importante dans la distribution du foncier. En effet, lors de la construction du réservoir en 1963, le chef-roi de l'époque, Aganti, a pris sa décision concernant l'occupation des terres par le réservoir avec le gouvernement ghanéen sans concertation avec les landlords et leurs notables. Dans la mesure où le roi possède une position hiérarchique supérieure ou sous-entendu un « pouvoir supérieur » aux landlords et aux notables, ces derniers n'ont pas pu remettre en question le devenir de leurs terres. Ainsi, le chef de Binaba en place en 1970 lors de l'aménagement de la première partie du périmètre a donné les terres des landlords aux cultivateurs. Le chef coutumier a également à Binaba le rôle de chef de terre.de BinabaLa présence du réservoir a permis l'installation de plusieurs périmètres irrigués à des dates successives, certains étant formels, d'autres informels, termes étant définis par la suite (Tableau 4). La plaine située en aval du réservoir a été aménagée en 1984, peu après la construction de la retenue et est généralement désignée sous le nom de « Corikab ». L'irrigation y est de type gravitaire. On y cultive essentiellement du riz, du maïs et des produits maraîchers. Le périmètre irrigué du PIAME où se pratique essentiellement le maraîchage de contre saison et la maïsiculture en hivernage a été aménagé en 2009 sur la rive droite du réservoir. Un système d'irrigation de type semi-californien alimente les parcelles. Ces deux périmètres ont un statut dit « formel » dans la mesure où il existe un réseau d'irrigation structuré. En revanche, sur la rive gauche du réservoir est présent depuis 2004 un périmètre non aménagé spécialisé dans la production maraîchère dont le moyen d'exhaure de l'eau se fait essentiellement par des sceaux et quelques petites motopompes. Celui-ci a été nommé « Toumhositi » qui en français signifie « Travail pour ton bienêtre ». Chacun de ces périmètres irrigués possède un groupement d'irrigants de même nom avec à leur tête un bureau. Cette étude sera ciblée sur les périmètres irrigués du Corikab et du PIAME. Le périmètre du Corikab a été aménagé en deux étapes. La première phase d'aménagement s'est déroulée en 1984 par l'ONBI et a aboutit à la mise en place d'environ 32 hectares soit 20 hectares en rive gauche et 12 hectares en rive droite. La deuxième phase a été réalisée en 1993 par le bureau d'étude BERA et a aboutit à l'aménagement d'environ 30 hectares supplémentaires. Une réhabilitation a également eu lieu en 2001. A cette période, la superficie du périmètre était estimée à 62 hectares. Le réseau de distribution est de type gravitaire et constitué de canaux bétonnés à ciel ouvert de section trapézoïdale ou rectangulaire (ONBAH, 2001). Le réseau d'irrigation du périmètre comprend, d'après observations (Figure 11, Annexe E):-une vanne de modèle PAM 350 (diamètre nominal de 350 mm) située en amont de la rive gauche alimentant le réseau de distribution en eau en provenance du réservoir.-deux canaux primaires alimentés par la prise d'eau, chacun étant situé sur une rive.Le canal primaire en rive gauche, de section trapézoïdale (T), alimente un premier tronçon d'environ 20 hectares à l'aide de 9 canaux secondaires (Z1). Le canal primaire en rive droite, également de section trapézoïdale (T) alimente un deuxième tronçon d'environ 12 hectares à l'aide de 5 canaux secondaires (Z2). Ces deux premiers tronçons constituent l'aménagement réalisé par l'ONBI en 1984. La partie aménagée par le BERA est, quant à elle, alimentée uniquement par le canal primaire de la rive gauche. Ce dernier via un premier pont canal (P1) alimente un troisième tronçon d'environ 20 hectares situé en rive droite à l'aide de 8 canaux secondaires (Z3). Un deuxième pont canal (P2) situé au niveau d'un partiteur côté rive droite alimente un quatrième tronçon situé rive gauche d'environ 8 hectares à l'aide de 3 canaux secondaires (Z3'). Au niveau de ce partiteur, la section du canal devient alors rectangulaire et plus étroite (R).-25 canaux secondaires transportant l'eau jusqu'aux canaux tertiaires alimentant les parcelles.-des canaux tertiaires d'abord constitués de remblai puis de terre, alimentés par les canaux secondaires via des prises de type « tout ou rien ».-un réseau de drainage en terre, une digue de protection du périmètre et un déversoir. Les eaux de crues sont évacuées par le marigot central.-deux ponts canal -un partiteur deux pistes d'accès le long des canaux primaires assez large pour permettre l'accès en moto ou en charrette.Les différents débits ont été mentionnés sur chacune des portions du canal primaire ainsi que pour les canaux secondaires. Le débit à la sortie de la vanne est de 314 L/s et décroit le long du périmètre atteignant 8 L/s à l'extrême aval. Les débits dans les canaux secondaires varient entre 8 et 16 L/s (ONBAH, 2001).Sont considérées au sein du périmètre irrigué du Corikab les parcelles alimentées en eau directement par le canal. D'après nos observations, trois zones distinctes peuvent être considérées comme hors périmètre irrigué (Figure 11, Annexe E) :-La première (ZHP1) se situe en amont du premier pont canal côté rive gauche. Les parcelles ont la particularité d'être entourées de clôtures grillagées. Ces parcelles de grande taille (pouvant atteindre 1 hectare) sont exploitées à la fois par des hommes et par des femmes, pouvant au total être comptabilisées à près de 20 personnes. Certains de ces exploitants ont également une parcelle dans le périmètre Corikab.Les agriculteurs de cette zone hors périmètre exploitent ces parcelles à titre individuel. Aucun groupement n'existe. Le maraîchage y est principalement pratiqué en contre-saison faisant place à du maïs et du riz en hivernage. L'irrigation en saison sèche se fait à l'aide de sceaux d'environ 20 litres, l'eau étant prise dans le canal situé en dessous. Cette dernière est jetée dans un canal en terre, bétonné uniquement au début, se divisant en sous-canaux en terre alimentant la totalité des parcelles. Il est très difficile de quantifier le volume d'eau utilisé par chaque exploitant mais une quantification par les exploitants eux-mêmes nous amène à près de 1000 sceaux par jour soit environ 20 m 3 .-Les deux autres zones considérées comme étant hors périmètre sont situées d'une part côté rive droite en amont du premier pont canal (ZHP2) et d'autre part côté rive gauche entre les deux ponts canal (ZHP3). Il s'agit principalement de zones de bas-fond où la riziculture prédomine. L'irrigation se fait grâce à l'aménagement de canaux en terre à partir de l'eau du marigot, s'écoulant au milieu du périmètre. Dans les zones plus hautes, le maraichage est pratiqué et irrigué à l'aide de sceaux remplis grâce à des puisards ou de « chenaux d'irrigation ». -Un canal de refoulement alimentant la cuve grâce aux motopompes. Ce canal remonte une distance de 200 mètres pour une zone et 330 mètres pour l'autre zone (Tableau 5).-Des canaux secondaires -Des prises parcellaires possédant une ou deux ouvertures pouvant être fermées au nombre de 40 pour une zone et de 39 pour l'autre zone et alimentant un réseau tertiaire (Tableau 5). Au sein du PIAME se trouve un ensemble de parcelles entouré par un grillage de superficie égale à un hectare. Cet ensemble avait été mise en place par une mission catholique pour les jeunes de Boura. Aujourd'hui, il fait partie intégrante du PIAME dans la mesure où il est également alimenté par l'eau en provenance du système semi-californien. La figure 12 illustre l'aménagement du PIAME tel qu'il a été réalisé en 2009. -Deux vannes, une pour chaque rive.-Deux canaux primaires bétonnés de section rectangulaire, un pour chaque rive.-Un réseau secondaire et tertiaire constitué de rigoles en terre. Le passage du réseau primaire au réseau secondaire ne se fait pas à l'aide de martellières. Des trous ont été réalisés au niveau du canal bétonné qui sont bouchés à l'aide de chiffons et de pierres lorsque le réseau secondaire et tertiaire n'est pas utilisé.-Un partiteur situé côté rive droite ou « left bank ».-Des chutes d'eau bétonnées.-Un réseau de drainage en terre et une digue de protection du périmètre. Les eaux de crues sont évacuées par le marigot central. Un déversoir est présent au niveau du réservoir.-L'absence de voie d'accès bien définie le long des deux rives pouvant permettre le passage de moto, de vélo ou de charrette.Les valeurs des débits du réseau d'irrigation de Binaba II ne sont pas connues. Des mesures doivent être réalisées au début de l'année 2013. Contrairement aux sociétés « hydrauliques » traditionnelles d'Afrique du Nord, la distribution de l'eau ne répond pas à des règles coutumières de distribution établies historiquement. Son droit de possession est similaire à celui de la terre, c'est-à-dire un «droit collectif» et d'accès libre. Les femmes n'ont en aucun cas le rôle de gestionnaire des ressources en eau. Ce droit coutumier régit encore de nos jours l'accès à l'eau dans les communautés rurales mais il n'a pas de place dans le système juridique et administratif officiel (cf. 3.1.1). Cependant, en l'absence historique de tradition d'irrigation, les communautés paysannes ont été aidées par un tiers extérieur à développer leurs propres règles de distribution comme cela a été le cas pour nos différents sites d'études lors de la construction des périmètres. La distribution de l'eau obéit alors à la même règle, celle du tour d'eau.Cette règle est basée sur le maillage hydraulique qui a été construit par les personnes en charge du projet d'aménagement du périmètre irrigué. Le regroupement des usagers dépend d'un réseau donné constitué de canaux primaires, secondaires et tertiaires et généralement basé sur le principe du tour d'eau (Ruf, 1995).Si on se place dans le cas général, l'alimentation en eau des canaux secondaires des périmètres irrigués gravitaires se fait de manière quotidienne suivie d'une rotation entre les tertiaires de chaque secondaire en raison du tour d'eau. Ce dernier s'effectue d'abord au niveau du tertiaire situé au bout du secondaire jusqu'au premier. Le débit du secondaire est dévié sur ce tertiaire pour une parcelle (la plus éloignée du secondaire commence). Lorsque celle-ci a fini d'irriguer, la suivante irrigue et ainsi de suite jusqu'à la dernière parcelle la plus proche du secondaire. Un autre tertiaire du même secondaire irriguera de la même manière le lendemain (Sandwidi, 1996).La distribution « théorique » de l'eau au sein des périmètres irrigués de Boura et de Binaba doit se faire selon ce mode de distribution à quelques petites nuances près. La structure en charge du projet d'aménagement du Corikab a été l'initiatrice de ce mode de gestion multi-échelle. Le PIAME est organisé de la même manière que le Corikab. Néanmoins, cette organisation s'est faite par le bureau du groupement PIAME afin de faciliter la gestion au sein de ce périmètre. Le découpage se fera de manière suivante à savoir en :-Zones. Le périmètre est découpé en plusieurs zones de superficies égales ou non -Blocs. Un bloc est composé d'un canal secondaire recevant l'eau quotidiennement.Chaque zone possède un nombre égal ou non de blocs alimentés par le réseau secondaire.- Il existe en plus de ce Comité d'irrigants, un contrôle exercé en théorie exercé par :-Un chef de zone ou un bureau de zone en charge de demander les cotisations aux membres, de s'assurer que le travail au sein de la zone est bien fait et d'intervenir en cas de conflit entre les membres.-Un chef de bloc en charge d'assurer le contrôle des entretiens des ouvrages du bloc et donne des conseils concernant les pratiques agricoles et la gestion de l'eau.-Un aiguadier jouant également un rôle important dans la distribution de l'eau dans la mesure où il contrôle le débit sortant de la prise suivant les parcelles à alimenter et doit assurer la distribution.Chaque adhérent au groupement doit payer une redevance pour l'eau dont le montant a été fixé, d'après le règlement intérieur à :-2 000 FCFA soit environ 3 € pour le périmètre Corikab -15 000 FCFA soit environ 23 € (payable par trimestre) pour le périmètre du PIAME.Cette redevance permet en autre de participer à l'achat du carburant de la motopompe et à son entretien.D'après le règlement intérieur du Comité d'irrigants de Boura, chaque membre doit s'assurer de l'entretien de sa portion de canal et participer aux travaux d'entretien du périmètre notamment le curage.Le non-respect de ces règles est soumis à des sanctions :-Une amende de 1000 FCFA (environ 1,5 €) si non-paiement de la redevance et si nonparticipation aux travaux d'entretien. Un cahier est tenu par la commission en charge de l'approvisionnement et des crédits où est répertorié le règlement ou non de la redevance ainsi que la participation ou non aux travaux d'entretien.-Deux rappels à l'ordre avant l'exclusion du périmètre si la redevance n'est toujours pas payée et la participation aux travaux d'entretien inexistante.Le détail de l'organisation de ces comités pour chacun des groupements se situe en Annexe I.A Binaba, une Association des usagers de l'eau a été créée en 1970 suite à la première phase d'aménagement du périmètre. Elle est en règle au niveau des dispositions juridiques. Elle possède également un compte bancaire. Elle compte 150 membres et est constituée comme toute AUE de :-Une Assemblée Générale composée de tous les membres dont le rôle est centré en autre sur l'adoption et la révision des textes fondamentaux de l'association (Statuts et Règlement intérieur), l'élection du bureau de l'association, l'approbation des rapports d'activités.-Un bureau (depuis la création de l'AUE seulement deux Présidents ont été élus).-Quatre groupes d'usagers ayant un rapport direct dans l'utilisation de l'eau du barrage : les pêcheurs, les éleveurs, les riziculteurs et les producteurs d'oignon.-Un organe de gestion ou committee centré sur l'eau, le Water Allocation Committee, chargé de surveiller la bonne distribution de l'eau ainsi que l'entretien des canaux et de régler les conflits entre les différents usagers suivant ses domaines de compétences. Cependant si le conflit est trop important, le problème est rapporté au niveau du chef qui sera alors en charge de régler le conflit.-L'aiguadier jouant également un rôle important dans la distribution de l'eau dans la mesure où il contrôle le débit sortant de la prise suivant les parcelles à alimenter.Chaque adhérent à l'AUE doit payer une redevance pour l'eau dont le montant a été fixé, d'après le règlement intérieur à 5 GCD par an soit environ 2,5 euros pour 0,25 acre (0,1 ha) afin d'assurer les travaux d'entretien si nécessaire. Chaque membre est cependant chargé de l'entretien de la partie du canal alimentant sa parcelle. La somme de la cotisation étant basse, il y a peu de problèmes de non-paiement.Le paiement et le non-paiement des cotisations ne sont pas répertoriés dans un cahier, ce dernier étant soumis à sanctions allant de l'amende à l'exclusion. Lorsque des travaux de réparation de grande ampleur sont à entreprendre, il est demandé aux adhérents de cotiser une somme supplémentaire dans l'intérêt de tous généralement égale au montant de la cotisation.Le détail de l'organisation de l'AUE se situe en Annexe I. -De taille égale à 0,12 hectare pour le périmètre PIAME pour les exploitants faisant du maraîchage et de 0,25 hectare pour les maïsiculteurs, 160 parcelles étant présentes au total.-De taille égale à 0,25 acre (soit 0,1 ha) pour la partie de la « left bank » aménagée en 1970 et de taille inégale pour l'extension en ce qui concerne le périmètre de Binaba II.Cette taille inégale des parcelles de l'extension du périmètre de Binaba II s'explique par le fait que la répartition des terres s'est faite sans la supervision du gouvernement ou des maîtres d'ouvrage ayant aménagés la première partie. En effet, ceux qui ont travaillé précédemment étaient déjà partis. Cette allocation s'est faite par le Land Allocation Committee seulement. Or, il n'avait pas les compétences suffisantes à l'époque pour que cette distribution soit bien faite. De plus, les candidats à l'attribution de terres étaient plus nombreux que la superficie aménagée disponible. Par conséquent, la distribution s'est faite entre les agriculteurs euxmêmes. Ils se sont appropriés des parcelles plus ou moins grande qu'ils ont ensuite divisées entre groupes de 3 ou 4 personnes.Dans le Corikab, la distribution parcellaire initiale s'est faite entre Sissalas et Mossis du centre sans problème. De nombreux migrants exploitent des parcelles pour une courte durée (environ 5 ans) : il s'agit principalement de Mossis ou de Dagara. En revanche, les principaux exploitants du PIAME ne sont pas les habitants riverains, principalement Mossis. Ces derniers possèdent leurs parcelles dans le Corikab, de l'autre côté du lac et également des champs de brousse. Leur refus de cultiver dans ce périmètre est motivé par la divagation de leurs propres animaux sur ce périmètre qui n'est pas clôturé. En effet, les habitations sont très proches et certains ont du être délogés lors de l'aménagement.A Binaba II, la distribution parcellaire s'est faite entre Kusasi, Bisa, Mossi et Bimba répartis au sein de cinq community différents : Tetako, Azowera, Binaba-Natinga, Rajira, Sanpanabon.Dans un ménage, la personne généralement désignée comme étant le « propriétaire » de la parcelle est le chef de ménage. Les femmes s'avèrent être davantage présentes en ce qui concerne sa mise en valeur. Après l'attribution de la terre, chaque « propriétaire » s'occupe de sa propre parcelle selon les règles qui régissent son fonctionnement. En réalité, ils sont de simples usufruitiers : aucun titre de propriété n'est délivré. Les exploitants ont le droit d'usage de la parcelle et le droit d'en percevoir le revenu (même si décès) jusqu'à ce qu'ils faillissent au respect des règles relatives à l'exploitation de ces dernières (paiement de la redevance, respect du calendrier cultural, entretien des canaux adjacents…). Dans ce cas, la parcelle leur est retirée et attribuée à une autre personne présente sur liste d'attente. Lors de l'attribution de la parcelle, le ménage se voit dans la nécessité de payer une contribution :-De 7500 FCFA (soit 11,5 €) pour les « autochtones » et 15 000 FCFA (soit 23 €) pour les personnes extérieures à la commune pour le périmètre du Corikab -De 3500 FCFA (soit environ 5 €) pour le périmètre du PIAME -Aucune contribution pour le périmètre de Binaba II.A l'issue des travaux d'aménagement des périmètres de Boura, les terres sont gérées par un comité de contrôle présidé par le Préfet et assisté par 3 membres du groupement.A Binaba, elles sont gérées par le Land Allocation Commitee chargé de la gestion et la bonne attribution des terres et le Land Developement Committee en charge du conseil des pratiques agricoles. Ils sont composés chacun de 3 personnes en place depuis la création de l'AUE.Suite à l'aménagement des différents périmètres irrigués, des règles de gestion de l'eau et de la terre ont été mis en place (cf. 3.3 et 3.4). Cependant, ces dernières sont très peu appliquées aujourd'hui amenant à de nombreux problèmes à la fois pour les agriculteurs et les groupements, pouvant être sources de conflits.  De nombreux adhérents, surtout les jeunes ne la paient pas car ils ne savent pas comment l'argent est géré. En effet, aucun cahier notifiant les paiements et les dettes n'existe ainsi qu'aucun cahier de compte où sont répertoriés les dépenses pour les réparations diverses. Aussi, lorsque de gros travaux de réparation sont à entreprendre, une cotisation supplémentaire, dont le montant est également égal à celui de la cotisation annuelle est demandée comme cela a été le cas pour la réparation de la vanne côté « left bank ».L'alimentation en eau du Corikab pose certains problèmes comme (Figure 15) :-Un débordement des canaux à plusieurs endroits. L'eau passe par-dessus les prises « tout ou rien » des canaux tertiaires des groupes d'irrigation qui ne doivent pas irriguer au niveau de la zone 2 et certaines parties de la zone 1. Cela entraîne donc à la fois un surplus d'eau pour les parcelles.-Une difficulté d'alimentation pour la zone 3. L'eau a du mal à arriver au bout du périmètre pouvant mettre plus de quatre heures.Le réseau de drainage n'est plus très efficient. Certaines parcelles situées près du marigot sont constamment inondées même lors de la saison sèche. Il a été relevé que les membres du PIAME se plaignent de la façon dont a été aménagé le périmètre et du manque de sérieux de l'infrastructure ayant fait l'aménagement. Le matériel utilisé est dit « défaillant ». En effet, la motopompe tombe souvent en panne et les parties apparentes des tuyaux en PVC sont percées. L'eau n'arrive pas à certains endroits à l'aval du périmètre du à la baisse de pression engendrée en partie par les fuites. Une motopompe, celle de la zone 2 est hors service. Actuellement, uniquement la zone 1 est exploitée. Certaines parties du PIAME connaissent des problèmes d'irrigation et ce dès leur installation en 2009 (Figure 16). Les différents problèmes identifiés par les agriculteurs sont :-L'utilisation de variétés locales non améliorées ; -Un épuisement des sols ; -Des parcelles avec des potentiels différentes.En effet, suivant la localisation des parcelles en zone 1 ou 2, celles situées en amont peuvent réaliser 2 cycles de cultures alors que celles situées plus en aval uniquement 1 cycle en raison de la proximité avec le marigot (inondation en saison des pluies). En zone 3, la conformation des parcelles est allongée. La situation de la zone 3 par rapport au marigot fait qu'une grande partie de cette superficie est inondée en saison des pluies. Seule la partie amont de certaines parcelles peut accueillir deux cycles de culture. Certaines parcelles situées en aval de celles ayant un sol filtrant connaissent une régurgence de l'eau (Figure 15).La divagation des animaux est un réel problème qui a été rapporté sur tous les périmètres irrigués de Boura. Dans le Corikab, la divagation des animaux se situe principalement en zone 3 en raison de la proximité des habitations contrairement aux autres zones. Néanmoins, ce problème est ressorti comme étant le plus important au niveau du PIAME (Figure 16). Aucun moyen ne permet d'empêcher les animaux de rentrer dans le périmètre. Les animaux divagants dans les parcelles sont amenés à la fourrière près de la mairie. Cette dernière requière les services de l'agent d'agriculture pour évaluer les dégâts. L'animal est alors remis au propriétaire après le paiement des frais de fourrière et de fourrage qui s'élèvent à 500 FCFA par jour (soit 0,76 €) pour les petits ruminants et 1000 FCFA par jour (soit 1,5 €) pour les bovins. Ainsi, la proximité des habitations pose un problème réel : certaines se situent juste derrière le PIAME. Il avait été décidé avec l'organisme ayant aménagé le périmètre un recul des habitations situées à proximité. Or même si les personnes installées ici ne sont pas propriétaires des terres, ils ont investit dans la construction de leur concession. Ce n'est pas facile sans dédommagements de construire ailleurs. De plus, les autorités ne sont pas prêtes à les dédommager. Les riverains découragent également les exploitants amenant des conflits entre eux. L'exception de la campagne 2011-2012 au niveau du PIAME n'a pas donné satisfaction aux membres. Suite au déficit des précipitations durant la période d'hivernage 2011, un déficit céréalier a pu se ressentir au Burkina. Le gouvernement burkinabé a donc encouragé la production de maïs en contre-saison et ce fut de même au niveau du PIAME. En effet, la cotisation pour les exploitants voulant produire des produits maraîchers a été élevée à 30 000 FCFA (environ 46 €) tandis que seulement 20 000 FCFA (30,5 €) est payé pour la production de maïs. Beaucoup de producteurs maraîchers ont du quitter le périmètre pour faire du maraîchage ailleurs, ne pouvant pas payer une cotisation aussi élevée. Seuls 24 membres ont été présents au niveau du PIAME pour la saison sèche 2011-2012. Pour les maïsiculteurs, la CONAGESE (Conseil National pour la Gestion de l'Environnement) a fourni une subvention de 75 000 FCFA/ha (environ 114 €/ha). Cependant, des problèmes ont été soulevés concernant cette campagne. Le maïs a connu un mauvais développement en raison de la période de froid. Or ont été fournies des semences de maïs hybride à bonne capacité de rendement. Les maïs produits sont restés petits. Il y a également eu des problèmes d'irrigation à cause du problème d'infrastructure et de carburant. Une cotisation additionnelle a du être payée pour finir la campagne. Les maïsiculteurs n'ont pas été satisfaits de cette campagne qui leur a fait perdre beaucoup d'argent.Beaucoup de règles de gestion de l'eau mises en place par l'AUE ne sont pas respectées comme :-La redevance n'est pas toujours payée (surtout par les jeunes). Le bureau n'est pas toujours respecté et a peu de moyens. Lorsque de gros travaux de réparation sont à entreprendre, une cotisation supplémentaire, dont le montant est également égal à celui de la cotisation annuelle, doit être demandée -Faible participation aux travaux d'entretien. Le canal primaire bétonné est encombré par de la végétation à certains endroits. Un nettoyage et un curage seraient nécessaires. Le réseau de drainage devrait être réhabilité.-Faible présence lors des réunions organisées par l'AUE.-Le non-respect du tour d'eau mis en place. Il n'existe pas de tension sur l'eau du réservoir. Sauf lors de la saison sèche entre mars et avril, où le tour d'eau est respecté, ce dernier ne l'est pas le reste de l'année. Il s'agit principalement d'une distribution à la demande. Les canaux possèdent en permanence de l'eau que les parcelles prélèvent en temps voulu. L'aiguadier a juste pour rôle d'ouvrir la vanne. Il ne gère pas la distribution.A Boura comme à Binaba, beaucoup de règles de gestion de l'eau présentes dans le règlement intérieur du comité d'irrigants ne sont pas respectées comme :-Le paiement de la redevance surtout dans le PIAME. Les membres sont généralement obliger de financer un montant additionnel payant ainsi une redevance annuelle de 25 000 FCFA (soit environ 38 €). Beaucoup ne veulent pas payer cette redevance.- A Binaba, des conflits entre membres et bureau Des conflits entre membres du périmètre de Binaba II et le bureau de l'AUE ont pu être relevés notamment en ce qui concerne le paiement de la cotisation. De nombreux adhérents, surtout les jeunes ne la paient pas car ils ne savent pas comment l'argent est géré étant donné qu'aucun cahier notifiant les paiements et les dettes n'existe ainsi qu'aucun cahier de compte où sont répertoriés les dépenses pour les réparations diverses. D'autres conflits existent en ce qui concerne les travaux d'entretien.Des conflits peuvent exister entre les membres et le bureau du Corikab en ce qui concerne le paiement des cotisations. Grâce à la tenue d'un cahier de notification des paiements, des rappels à l'ordre sont récurrents. Beaucoup de membres ne participent pas aux travaux d'entretien.Des conflits existent également entre les exploitants de la zone maraîchère hors périmètre (ZHP1) au niveau de la plaine et le bureau du Corikab concernant l'utilisation de l'eau. En effet, le bureau souhaiterait que les exploitants de la zone ZHP1 paient la redevance annuelle pour l'eau. Cependant, les exploitants de cette zone considèrent qu'ils n'ont pas à payer cette redevance étant donné le travail conséquent à fournir pour irriguer leurs parcelles.De la même manière, pour le PIAME, les membres entrent en conflit avec le bureau lorsqu'ils doivent payer un surplus pour le carburant.Certains membres du Corikab entrent parfois en conflit avec l'aiguadier lorsque l'eau n'arrive pas à leurs parcelles. Ceci est du au mauvais entretien des canaux et à l'obstruction de ces derniers. Dans ce cas, l'aiguadier essaie d'expliquer que le problème vient du mauvais entretien du canal.Les acteurs ont participé à la construction des modèles en fournissant des informations sur la conduite de leurs parcelles, en discutant des critères de classification des parcelles et en validant la typologie des parcelles et les proportions des parcelles-types dans les différents secteurs du périmètre. Ces discussions et validations ont eu lieu au cours de réunions avec les responsables des groupements et quelques agriculteurs.La réunion de validation des pratiques culturales s'est tenue à Binaba le 5 juin 2012 avec le Président de l'AUE. Les résultats globaux obtenus lors des enquêtes individuelles ont été présentés et les pratiques culturales ont été discutées. La durée du cycle, la durée en pépinière, l'application de l'engrais, de l'insecticide ainsi que de l'herbicide puis la période de désherbage ont demandé à être précisés. Lors de cette entrevue, il a également été soulevé par le Président de l'AUE des problèmes au niveau du riz et des cultures maraîchères notamment en ce qui concerne les ravageurs, l'eau, l'application de l'herbicide et les variétés utilisées. L'herbicide est généralement pulvérisé dans les parcelles de riz (ou casiers), lorsque les adventices, notamment cypéracées, sont à un stade avancé ; l'efficacité de l'herbicide est alors diminuée. D'après les enquêtes individuelles, il est ressorti que les rendements des cultures maraîchères, notamment ceux de l'oignon et de la tomate, étaient très faibles. Le Président a alors expliqué que les semences sont récupérées sur les fleurs (oignons) ainsi que dans les fruits (tomates) et ne sont pas renouvelées. Celles d'oignon par exemple utilisées actuellement sont issues de semences sélectionnées achetées au Burkina Faso il y a plus de 20 ans.La réunion consacrée à la validation des types de parcelles s'est tenue le lendemain. La démarche de classification a été expliquée au Président de l'AUE. Tous les types de parcelles identifiés ont été validés. De plus, des précisions ont été demandées sur le poids des cagettes et des bols utilisés pour la vente des produits maraîchers, ainsi que sur le prix de vente du riz et de la tomate. Ces prix fluctuent : ils sont généralement bas au début de la saison (la demande est faible et l'offre importante) et élevés à la fin de la saison. Par exemple, le prix du bol de 5 kg de tomate peut varier de 3,5 GCD (soit 0,32 €/kg) en période de haute production à 6,5 GCD (0,60 €/kg) en période de basse production. De la même manière, le sac de 100 kg de riz est vendu à 12,5 GCD (soit 0,06 €/kg) en période de récolte et à 50 GCD (0,23 €/kg) hors période.La réunion pour discuter des pratiques culturales et valider la typologie des parcelles devait se tenir à Boura le 7 et le 8 juin 2012. Malheureusement, elle n'a pas eu lieu comme convenu en raison d'une rencontre parallèle des agriculteurs avec des membres du ministère de l'Agriculture au sujet d'un projet national de plates-formes semencières (le village de Boura est fortement sollicité par les projets). Cette réunion a été déplacée mi-juin. La validation des pratiques culturales s'est faite avec les Président du groupement Corikab et PIAME. En revanche, la validation des différents types de parcelles s'est faite lors de la réunion de validation du modèle qui s'est tenue le 23 et le 24 juillet 2012 avec le bureau de chaque groupement. Lors de cette entrevue, les différents types de parcelles identifiés ont été validés.La réunion de validation du modèle de la situation actuelle s'est tenue sur le site de Binaba le 20 juillet 2012. Deux entrevues séparées se sont organisées entre le chef d'une part puis le Président de l'AUE et certains de ses membres d'autre part. Le modèle de la situation actuelle du périmètre de Binaba II a été présenté dans l'environnement ZonAgri en expliquant des différents types de parcelles. Les performances techniques et économiques actuelles des périmètres ont été montrées. Selon le chef, les performances obtenues sont faibles en raison d'un mauvais état général des canaux et des drains.La réunion de validation du modèle de la situation actuelle s'est tenue sur le site de Boura les 23 et 24 juillet 2012. La première journée s'est déroulée avec les membres du Corikab et la deuxième avec ceux du PIAME. L'adjoint au maire était également présent. Le principe de la classification par critères pour l'identification des différents types de parcelles a été présenté ainsi que le modèle de la situation actuelle des périmètres Corikab et PIAME dans l'environnement ZonAgri. Les performances techniques et économiques des périmètres ont été montrées. Certains de ces résultats ont été discutés. Les participants ont été étonnés du faible niveau de rendement pour le riz dans le modèle. A leur avis, le rendement moyen dans le Corikab est compris entre 4 et 6 T/ha. D'après le modèle (issues des enquêtes qui ont été validées), le rendement moyen est légèrement inférieur à 4 T/ha ; certaines parcelles-types ont un rendement supérieur à 6 T/ha, d'autres ont des rendements très faibles. Les proportions des parcelles types, non aisément vérifiable, est sans doute à l'origine de ce décalageLes résultats des enquêtes individuelles nous ont permis d'obtenir des bases de données conséquentes. Dans chaque périmètre, le tiers de la population possédant une parcelle devait être enquêté. Néanmoins, l'effectif réel a été de :-50 parcelles couvrant au total 19,6 ha pour le périmètre de Binaba II soit le tiers des parcelles et 100,5 % de la surface du périmètre. La superficie des parcelles données par les agriculteurs ont été surévaluées. Le tiers des parcelles enquêtées dépasse la surperficie réelle du périmètre.-82 parcelles couvrant au total 19,35 ha pour le périmètre du Corikab (Boura) soit environ un quart des parcelles et 31,2% de la surface du périmètre .-10 parcelles couvrant au total 1,2 ha pour le périmètre du PIAME (Boura) soit environ un dizième des parcelles et 6% de la surface du périmètre.A Binaba, on a demandé aux agriculteurs l'occupation de leur parcelle au cours de toute l'année (en saison sèche et en saison des pluies). A Boura, on s'est limité aux cultures durant la saison sèche. En effet, en saison des pluies, le PIAME n'est pas irrigué et dans le Corikab, de nombreuses parcelles situées près du marigot sont inondées, interdisant toute culture, et une partie seulement des parcelles non inondées sont cultivées en riz.Les bases de données établies ont permis d'identifier les différents types de parcelles de chaque périmètre en utilisant la méthode de classification décrite dans le chapitre précédent (cf 2.2.1). Pour les parcelles de riz classées suivant les critères durée en pépinière, contrôle de la fertilisation azotée et gestion des mauvaises herbes, 8 types de parcelles possibles peuvent être identifiés au maximum par périmètre. Ces types seront nommés par la combinaison des notes des trois critères attribués comme par exemple 0T-0N-0W, T désignant le critère durée en pépinière, N le contrôle de la fertilisation azotée et W la gestion des mauvaises herbes.Lors des enquêtes individuelles, la production avait été demandée en sacs, en bols ou en cagettes. Le poids de chacune de ces unités a ensuite été précisé par les agriculteurs ou par des pesées (Annexe J) afin d'avoir une meilleure estimation de la production. Ainsi, pour chaque type de parcelles, le rendement moyen a pu être évalué. De la même manière, une détermination du prix au kilogramme de chaque produit a pu être possible en utilisant le produit brut obtenu pour chaque parcelle et le rendement, les prix étant en réalité fluctuants suivant le marché. La quantité d'eau utilisée au niveau de chaque parcelle, quant à elle, aurait du être quantifiée à l'aide des enquêtes individuelles (d'après les informations sur la fréquence d'irrigation et la hauteur d'eau appliquée). Or, cette quantification a été jugée trop difficile dans la mesure où, pour les cultures maraîchères, l'eau est distribuée à l'aide de calebasses puisées dans le canal tertiaire s'écoulant entre les billons (Annexe J) et pour le riz, la hauteur de la lame d'eau n'est pas toujours connue. Le volume d'eau apporté sur chaque culture a été estimé sur la base des besoins en eau (calculés en prenant des valeurs d'évapotranspiration de la FAO). Ces résultats sont répertoriés dans le tableau 6. Le périmètre est cultivé pendant les deux saisons : en saison sèche pour le maraîchage (oignon, leafy et tomate) et en saison des pluies pour le riz.Suite aux résultats de la classification par critères pour les parcelles de riz et de cultures maraîchères, 14 types de parcelles ont pu être identifiés au sein du périmètre irrigué de Binaba II (Tableau 7) :-Des parcelles de riz avec une mauvaise conduite générale. Les 3 critères pris en compte ont tous obtenu la notation la plus basse. Le rendement moyen, le coût moyen ainsi que le travail sont faibles pour ce type de parcelles (Type R1).-Des parcelles de riz avec une bonne conduite générale. Les 3 critères pris en compte ont tous obtenu la notation la plus haute. Le rendement moyen pour ce type de parcelles est élevé, ainsi que le coût moyen et la quantité de travail (Type R7).-Des parcelles de riz avec une conduite moyenne à tendance bonne. Les 3 critères pris en compte ont à la fois des notations basses et hautes. Le rendement moyen, le coût moyen et le travail moyen sont élevés (Types R3, R4 et R6).-Des parcelles de riz avec une conduite moyenne à tendance mauvaise pour lesquelles le rendement moyen, le coût moyen et le travail moyen sont faibles (Types R2 et R5).-Des parcelles maraîchères dont les types diffèrent selon le niveau de rendement (Types L1 à L3, O1 à O3 et T).Le tableau 7 permet de synthétiser les résultats de la typologie et de restituer les résultats de chaque modalité par type.Le total des surfaces des parcelles déclarées par les agriculteurs a été confronté à celui de chaque secteur évalué par nous-même, via relevés GPS et usage d'un SIG. Sur la « left bank », les 25 parcelles enquêtées couvrent, au dire des agriculteurs, 21,5 acres soit environ 8,6 ha ; sur la « right bank », elles couvrent 27,55 acres soit environ 11 ha. Nous avons estimé la surface de la « right bank » à 20,75 acres soit 8,3 ha, et celle de la « left bank » à 27,75 acres soit 11,1 ha. Dans les deux cas, on constate que les agriculteurs ont surestimé la surface des parcelles. Les rendements, les coûts et durées du travail moyens que nous avons calculés pour les parcelles-types sont donc sous-estimés. au plus 27% de la « left bank » est cultivée, alors que la « right bank » est cultivée à plus de 75% ; globalement, seule la moitié de la surface est cultivée ;-La « left bank » est plus cultivée en saison des pluies qu'en saison sèche ; c'est le contraire en « right bank » ; globalement, il y a peu de différence ;-Les cultures exploitées sont très différentes : la culture de riz prédomine sur celle du maraîchage ;-Il y a plus de riz et de maraîchage en « right bank » qu'en « left bank ».-La surface totale occupée par le riz prédomine sur le maraîchage en « left bank ».-Les parcelles de riz de type R2 et R4 sont majoritaires sur le périmètre et en « right bank » ; en « left bank » ce sont les parcelles de type R1 (mauvaise conduite générale) qui sont le plus présentes ;les parcelles de riz de type R7 (bonne conduite générale) sont bien plus présentes en « right bank » qu'en « left bank » ;pour les cultures maraîchères, c'est l'oignon qui prédomine ; la tomate est très peu cultivée. -Des parcelles de riz avec un rendement moyen d'environ 2,5T/ha avec des conduites (et donc des coûts des durées de travail moyens) très variables (Types R1 à R3) ;-Des parcelles de riz avec un rendement moyen de 4 T/ha avec un coût et une durée de travail situés dans la moyenne (Type R4).-Des parcelles de riz avec un rendement moyen d'environ 6 T/ha avec un coût et une durée de travail situés aussi dans la moyenne (Type R5).-Des parcelles maraîchères représentant la conduite moyenne pour chaque culture (Types O et T). On constate alors que (Tableau 11):-Le Corikab est cultivé à plus de 95% en saison sèche, avec une large prédominance du riz (les cultures maraichères, principalement oignon et tomate, représentent moins de 15% de la surface).-Le riz de type R4 (rendement compris entre 3 et 5 T/ha) prédomine, suivi par le type R5 ; les types R1, R2 et R3 (rendement inférieur à 3T/ha) concernent globalement 30% de la surface ; ils sont plus importants en zone 2 (37%) et moins importants en zone 3 (22%).-En 2011, le PIAME était cultivé uniquement en maraichage (principalement oignon et tomate) à moins de 60% en saison sèche à cause des problèmes d'irrigation. Cette année, une motopompe est tombée en panne et seule la zone 1 a été cultivée (principalement en maïs irrigué).Les performances techniques des différents périmètres irrigués seront évaluées suivant deux principaux critères : le respect du calendrier cultural et le niveau de production.Les enquêtes individuelles et les réunions de discussion et de validation ont permis de connaître les pratiques culturales pour chaque culture dans le périmètre de Binaba II. Le calendrier cultural détaillé se trouve en annexe (Annexe K). La figure 17 en est une représentation simplifié montrant pour chaque culture la période d'implantation, de récolte et d'irrigation. Le lancement de la nouvelle campagne agricole s'effectue en septembre. A partir d'octobre sont mis en place les cultures maraîchères à savoir principalement l'oignon, la tomate et les leafy. La culture de riz est implantée à partir de mi-mars. La culture d'oignon peut s'étaler jusqu'en mai si du retard existe et les coupes successives de leafy jusqu'à fin mai. La tomate quant à elle est repiquée seulement en décembre-janvier pour être récoltée entre février et mars. Le riz de saison sèche (SS) peut être repiqué jusqu'en juin et le riz de saison des pluies (SP) implanté alors que les retardataires n'ont toujours pas récolté celui de saison sèche. Ainsi, le riz ou les cultures maraîchères, dont le cycle ne dure qu'entre 3 et 4 mois, restent présents sur le périmètre jusque 6 mois et plus. Pour le riz, il est difficile de distinguer les deux saisons car les repiquages ont lieu en continu de début mars à début août. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3  un seul cycle avec du riz (uniquement en left bank) ; deux cycles avec maraîchage (oignon, ou tomate ou autre culture maraîchère) et riz ;trois cycles avec maraîchage, leafy et riz (uniquement en right bank).Toutes les parcelles sont donc cultivées en riz durant une période de l'année. De plus, les parcelles sont souvent découpées, notamment en « right bank », et une partie est cultivée en maraîchage pendant la saison sèche. Dans ce cas, il y a deux successions culturales sur la même parcelle : une partie avec 2 voire 3 cycles culturaux (maraîchage et riz) et l'autre partie avec 1 seul cycle (riz).Le rendement moyen des différentes cultures est illustré dans le tableau 12. Le rendement moyen du riz (3,3 T/ha) est très en deçà du potentiel (de l'ordre de 6-8 T/ha ; FAO, 2008) ; il est légèrement plus élevé en « right bank » qu'en « left bank ». Néanmoins, certaines parcelles obtiennent de bons rendements en riz, notamment celles qui sont « bien conduites ». Il y a donc possibilité d'augmenter le rendement moyen en améliorant la conduite du riz dans les parcelles.De même, les rendements moyens des cultures maraîchères sont très faibles par rapport aux potentiels : 40-45 T/ha pour l'oignon (variété Violet de Galmi) et plus de 30 T/ha pour la tomate (variété Roma) (on a pas trouvé de référence sur les leafy) (FAO, 2008). Les meilleurs rendements pour l'oignon (parcelle-type O3) sont aussi très en deçà du potentiel ; un diagnostic agronomique permettrait d'identifier les contraintes (vieillissement des semences, maladies…) qui pèsent sur le maraîchage.Les enquêtes individuelles et les réunions de discussion et de validation ont permis de connaître les pratiques culturales sur les périmètres Corikab et du PIAME à Boura. Le calendrier cultural détaillé sur ces deux périmètres est présenté en annexe (Annexe L). La figure 18 illustre ce calendrier simplifié avec la période d'implantation, de récolte et d'irrigation pour chaque culture présente dans le Corikab et le PIAME. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3  Pour le périmètre Corikab, le lancement de la nouvelle campagne agricole ainsi que le bilan de l'année venant de s'écouler se déroule en juillet. En septembre, les cultures maraîchères de contre-saison (CS) sont mises en place puis récoltées en novembre-décembre. Il s'agit en majorité de culture d'oignon et de tomate, mais le gombo, le chou et la salade sont également présents. Après quoi, le maraîchage fait place à la riziculture. L'implantation de la culture de riz de saison sèche se fait de fin novembre à février, et sa récolte s'étale de mi-avril à début juillet. Ceci prend en compte toutes les pratiques qu'elles soient précoces ou tardives. D'après le président du Corikab, la période idéale pour cultiver le riz en saison sèche serait de décembre à mai de manière à pouvoir installer à la suite une culture de riz de saison des pluies. Le riz de saison des pluies est installé dans les les zones non inondées de juin à novembre. La durée du cycle des variétés de riz cultivées à Boura est d'environ 3 à 4 mois, mais la durée de la culture sur le périmètre s'étale sur plus de 6 mois.Sur le Corikab, on rencontre 2 types de succession culturale selon que la parcelle est inondée ou pas en saison des pluies :un seul cycle de culture en saison sèche avec du maraîchage ou du riz (on peut trouver les deux cultures sur deux parties de la parcelle) si la parcelle est inondée en saison des pluies.deux cycles de culture avec du maraichage ou du riz en saison sèche et du riz en saison des pluies si la parcelle n'est pas inondée.Selon le Président du groupement Corikab, en saison sèche la pépinière de riz peut durer un mois car les températures sont fraîches entre décembre et férvier. Les paysans appliquent de l'engrais sur la pépinière « pour repiquer plus vite ». De même, pour la fertilisation des parcelles, les agriculteurs apportent 1 sac de NPK et 1 sac d'urée (sur des parcelles de 0,20 à 0,25 ha, soit 120 kg N/ha et 50 kg P/ha) quand leurs moyens sont insuffisants, et 2 sacs de NPK et 1 sacs d'urée (soit près de 200 kg P/ha pour seulement 150 kg N/ha) quand ils ont des moyens suffisants. Les agriculteurs gèrent la fertilisation du riz comme celle du coton alors que le riz a d'abord besoin d'azote.Dans le PIAME, le lancement de la campagne agricole a lieu en octobre. Les cultures maraîchères de contre-saison sont implantées de début novembre à fin décembre et elles sont récoltées entre février et avril. Il s'agit principalement d'un maraîchage polyculture. Bien que la culture d'oignon et de tomate soient majoritaires, la culture du chou, du gombo et de la salade existent également. Les cultures maraîchères dont le cycle est de 3 ou 4 mois occupent donc le périmètre durant 5 mois. En saison des pluies, les paysans cultivent du maïs à partir du mois de mai.aucune culture (notamment en zone 2) ; un seul cycle, avec du maraîchage de saison sèche ;deux cycles avec du maraîchage de saison sèche suivi de maïs pluvial.Le PIAME a connu de bons rendements la première année. Mais dès la seconde année, le lancement de la campagne a pris du retard, et plus les cultures maraîchères sont implantées tardivement, plus elles risquent de recevoir de petites pluies en fin de cycle. Ces pluies provoquent des attaques de ravageurs et donc des baisses de rendement. Néanmoins, une implantation étalée pour la tomate par exemple permet une récolte étalée et donc une mise sur le marché étalée.Le rendement moyen des différentes cultures est illustrée dans le tableau 13. A l'échelle du périmètre, le rendement moyen est de 3,7 T/ha pour le riz ; il est un peu plus élevé que celui de Binaba II mais reste en deçà du potentiel de 6-8 T/ha (FAO, 2008). Le rendement moyen pour le riz de la zone est plus élevé que ceux de la zone 1 et 2. Vu le niveau de rendement du riz dans les diférents parcelles-types, il doit être possible d'améliorer ce rendement, notamment en adaptant la fertilisation (Cf. précédent).Pour la tomate et l'oignon que ce soit au niveau du PIAME ou du Corikab, les rendements sont bien meilleurs qu'à Binaba surtout en ce qui concerne la tomate. Ce dernier atteint presque 9 T/ha dans le Corikab. Ces rendements restent néanmoins très en dessous des rendements potentiels (40-45 T/ha pour l'oignon et plus de 30 T/ha pour la tomate) (FAO, 2008).Les performances économiques des activités agricoles à l'échelle de la parcelle et du périmètre seront évaluées via la marge brute et la productivité du travail. La marge brute représente la différence entre le produit brut et les coûts. Elle ne prend pas en compte les coûts de main d'oeuvre et les coût de post-récolte. La valeur de la marge brute est celle de la situation moyenne, les prix du marché étant soumis à des fluctuations intra et inter-annuelles. Ces derniers concernant les marchés de Binaba et de Boura sont rappelés dans le tableau 14. Il s'agit des prix au moment de la récolte ou de la haute production. La productivité du travail correspond au rapport de la marge brute et de la quantité totale de journées travaillées ; elle permet d'avoir une représentation de la valorisation du travail. On peut comparer la productivité d'une journée de travail au coût d'une journée de main d'oeuvre par exemple. La marge totale du périmètre varie entre -15 300 et 26 000 € ; la marge moyenne par hectare quant à elle, entre -392 et 669 €/ha. Parmi les cultures pratiquées, globalement, les cultures maraîchères rapportent en moyenne plus que le riz. Normalement au niveau des cultures maraîchères, malgré une production importante, les coûts restent élevés amenant parfois à une marge pas très importante voire négative comme pour le cas de la tomate ici (-23 €/ha). Elle devrait être moins importante que celle du riz. Or, le faible prix du riz et sa variation importante explique cette différence. En effet, la marge brute du riz varie entre -51 €/ha (en période de récolte) à 518 €/ha (hors période). La « right bank » est cultivée de façon plus intensive : il y a plus souvent deux cycles de cultures et la marge du riz y est plus élevée. Néanmoins, la marge du maraîchage est plus importante en « left bank » du fait de meilleurs résultats pour l'oignon (879 €/ha en « right bank » contre 1488 €/ha en left bank) et du prix faible du riz. C'est ce qui explique que la marge moyenne par hectare en « left bank » est plus importante qu'en « right bank ». Quant à la tomate, elle est produite à perte sur les deux rives.Ces marges moyenne assez différentes entre cultures et entre rives cachent de très fortes variation entre types de parcelles (Tableau 15). De plus, la productivité du travail est assez variable comme l'illustre le tableau 16. Le maraîchage est plus gourmand en travail que le riz, mais la productivité du travail y est en moyenne plus forte du fait non seulement des mauvais rendements en riz mais aussi de son prix de vente extrêmement bas. Suivant le prix du riz, très bas lors de la récolte et très haut hors-période, la productivité du travail varie de valeurs très négatives à très positives. On s'est refusé à calculer des marges et des productivité du travail pour chaque type de parcelle vu les incertitudes sur les données, notamment concernant la surface des parcelles.On peut comparer la productivité moyenne du travail pour chacune des cultures au coût moyen d'une journée de main d'oeuvre (1,8 €/jour/personne). Ce coût moyen correspond à la rémunération de la main d'oeuvre salariée et aux frais de nourriture. On peut constater qu'il sera difficile pour les cultures de tomate et de leafy d'embaucher de la main d'oeuvre salariale, la productivité étant très inférieure au coût d'une seule personne. Cependant, les meilleurs résultats pour l'oignon permettent d'avoir une productivité du travail 10 fois supérieure au coût journalier d'une personne embauchée en main d'oeuvre ; son emploi ne pose donc pas de problème pour cette culture. Pour le riz, l'emploi de main d'oeuvre sera plus rentable pour les agriculteurs, s'ils vendent leur riz hors-production. En effet, dans le cas contraire, la productivité est négative.La valeur de la marge brute moyenne par hectare pour les différentes cultures pratiquées dans les périmètres du PIAME et du Corikab ne sera pas la même selon qu'on se place à l'échelle du périmètre ou de la rive comme l'illustre le tableau 17. La marge totale du périmètre Corikab est de 51 000 € et celle du périmètre PIAME est de 11 000 €. La marge moyenne par hectare est de 848 €/ha pour le Corikab et de 983 €/ha pour le PIAME. Ces résultats sont plus élevés que ceux de Binaba II à cause des rendements plus importants (Tableau 13) et du prix de vente du riz plus élevé (Tableau 14). Parmi les cultures pratiquées, globalement, les cultures maraîchères rapportent en moyenne plus que le riz. Ceci peut s'expliquer pour le riz par la faible gamme de rendement présente malgré un prix moyen du riz plus haut qu'à Binaba (0,27 €/kg à Boura contre seulement de 0,07 à 0,23 €/kg à Binaba, Tableau 14). La marge du riz est plus importante en zone 3 (810 €/ha), le rendement moyen étant plus élevé dans cette zone. De la même manière, le rendement moyen des cultures maraîchères étant plus élevé en zone 1, la marge moyenne y sera plus importante. Dans le Corikab, la culture de tomate rapporte plus que celle de l'oignon alors que dans le PIAME, la situation inverse se présente. Ces marges moyenne assez différentes entre cultures et entre rives cachent de très fortes variation entre types de parcelles. De plus, la productivité du travail est assez variable comme l'illustre le tableau 18. On peut comparer la productivité moyenne du travail pour chacune des cultures au coût moyen d'une journée de main d'oeuvre. Ce coût a été estimé à 2 €/jour/personne. Il regroupe la rémunération de la main d'oeuvre salariée et les frais de nourriture. Globalement, on constate que la productivité du travail pour toutes les cultures des deux périmètres est largement supérieure au coût journalier d'une personne embauchée en main d'oeuvre, ne posant pas de problèmes pour son emploi notamment pour le Corikab.Lors d'une réunion de discussion avec les parties prenantes, les problèmes actuels des périmètres, pouvant être améliorés, ainsi que les idées de changement ou les attentes précises des usagers de l'eau ont demandé à être relevés.Cette réunion de discussion sur les idées de changements s'est déroulée à Binaba pendant la réunion de validation du modèle qui s'est tenue le 20 juillet 2012 d'une part avec le chef puis d'autre part avec le président de l'AUE et certains de ses membres.Pour le périmètre de Binaba II, les principaux problèmes étaient :-La divagation des animaux : les rendements en sont affectés.-L'alimentation en eau et le drainage : une réhabilitation des canaux qui sont cassés à plusieurs endroits et du réseau de drainage de Binaba II serait nécessaire.-Des semences maraîchères anciennes amenées il y a plus de 20 ans du Burkina Faso.-Un mauvais contrôle des adventices impactant le rendement.-Un manque de marché concernant les produits maraîchers (risque de mévente)-Un prix faible du riz. Les populations des villes sont très friandes du riz parfumé présent sur les marchés de Zébilla ou de Bolgatanga, délaissant alors celui de Binaba.Les idées de changement ayant été soulevées sont les suivantes :-Tester l'efficacité d'une clôture électrique (moins cher qu'un grillage) pour empêcher les dégâts aux cultures causés par les animaux. Un essai en grandeur réel piloté par le SARI se fera sur ce périmètre, le matériel nécessaire a été remis courant juillet 2012.-Remettre en état le réseau de drainage par la population locale et la mise en place d'un projet soumis à financement pour rénover les canaux.-Utiliser de nouvelles semences d'oignon (apportées en juillet 2012) qui seront redistribuées par le Président de l'AUE.-Tester la culture de riz parfumé, très apprécié, afin d'avoir un prix de vente intéressant. Mais les semences de variétés de riz parfumé sont très chères (2 GCD le kilo soit environ 1 € contre seulement 1 GCD soit 0,46 € pour le riz normal) ; pourquoi ne pas les produire sur place ? Ceci (conduite du riz parfumé et production de semences) fait l'objet d'un essai conduit par le SARI.La réunion de discussion sur les idées de changements s'est déroulée à Boura pendant la réunion de validation du modèle qui s'est tenue le 23 et le 24 juillet 2012 avec le bureau de chaque groupement et l'adjoint au maire.Au niveau du PIAME, les principaux problèmes soulevés étaient :-La divagation des animaux : les animaux sont très friands du maïs qui est pourtant très rentable. Pour cette raison, les exploitants préfèrent pratiquer le maraîchage en contresaison plutôt que le maïs.-L'alimentation en eau : une des motopompes est en panne dans le PIAME, empêchant de travailler la totalité de la zone 2.-Le non-respect du calendrier cultural entraînant du retard dans les activités.-Un manque de marché concernant les produits maraîchers (risque de mévente) notamment en ce qui concerne la tomate. Ce sont d'abord les Bobolais et la population de Boura qui achètent la tomate ensuite viennent les Ghanéens lorsque cette dernière est épuisée dans le nord du Ghana qui l'achètent à très bas prix.Pour le Corikab, les problèmes soulevés étaient principalement :-L'alimentation en eau : une réhabilitation des canaux et du réseau de drainage du Corikab serait nécessaire. L'état des canaux expliquerait la faible alimentation de la zone 3 (il faut plus de 2 heures pour que l'eau arrive à la zone 3, et le canal déborde en zone 2). Le curage des canaux (nettoyage, enlèvement des branches et des arbustes qui gênent le passage de l'eau) permettrait d'éviter ces débordements et accélérerait le transit de l'eau (réduction des pertes de charge). La réhabilitation du réseau de drainage et du marigot qui fait office de drain principal permettrait d'éviter l'inondation des parcelles en saison des pluies.-Des variétés de riz de cycles différents (3 ou 4 mois) ou une meilleure organisation des dates de repiquage : le travail d'entraide ne peut pas être fait en même temps pour les travaux de repiquage et de récolte amenant à un des retards culturaux.Pour ces deux périmètres, les idées de changement qui ont été mis en évidence sont :-Tester une clôture électrique au niveau du PIAME pour empêcher les dégâts aux cultures causés par les animaux. Un essai en grandeur réel se fera sur ce périmètre, le matériel nécessaire à sa mise en place devant être remis courant septembre 2012.-Mettre en place une séance de gestion de la fertilisation du riz -Le curage des canaux du Corikab obstrués par la végétation puis éventuellement un projet de réhabilitation financé.-La mise en place d'une organisation pour mieux commercialiser la tomate.-Un lancement de campagne plus précoce au PIAME, situé en septembre et la mise en place de date butoir pour les différentes activités à réaliser au cours du cycle de culture.Les enquêtes individuelles ont l'avantage de centrer le discours. Néanmoins, la personne interrogée peut être plus ou moins libre dans son discours, apportant ainsi une information riche. Par ailleurs, les agriculteurs savent très bien se repérer sur une carte, cet outil ayant été utilisé pour localiser les parcelles lorsque la prise de point GPS n'a pas été possible.Il est néanmoins nécessaire d'être critique sur les informations collectées via les enquêtes individuelles. Les termes employés sont importants (d'autant plus lorsqu'on fait appel à un traducteur). Ils doivent être compris de tous et il est nécessaire de s'adapter au discours de l'autre. Par exemple, la « production » a été demandée au lieu du « rendement » lors des enquêtes. Ce dernier, correspondant à la production par unité de surface, est ambigu pour certaines personnes (que ce soit les agriculteurs ou les techniciens). En effet, pour certains, il signifiera production et pour d'autres rendement. Aussi, on ne dira pas semence mais « graine », herbicide ou insecticide mais « médicament pour tuer les mauvaises herbes ou les insectes ». Pour les unités de mesure de la production ou des engrais, il est nécessaire de s'assurer que l'unité « sac » utilisée par exemple, correspond bien à 50 kg pour les engrais et 100 kg pour le riz. Il faut également s'assurer que les prix donnés correspondent bien à la devise utilisée actuellement. En effet, à Binaba, les agriculteurs enquêtés donnaient pour la plupart les prix en ancien ghana cedi (un nouveau ghana cedi équivalant à 10 000 ancien ghana cedies).La vision des agriculteurs est également importante à saisir. Dans le périmètre irrigué de Binaba II, la nomination des rives est différente de celle qu'on a l'habitude d'utiliser. On ne distingue pas la rive droite de la rive gauche par rapport au sens d'écoulement de l'eau mais dans le sens inverse. L'environnement dans lequel sont effectués les entretiens est important à prendre en compte. La véracité des données obtenues est-elle toujours avérée ? La production obtenue ne sera-t-elle pas surestimée ou sous-estimée pour éviter que mon voisin qui s'est invité pendant l'entretien ne se rende compte que celle-ci est en faite plus ou moins importante. Ce cas de figure a été rencontré plusieurs fois.L'avantage des restitutions est de montrer au fur et à mesure l'avancement du travail aux parties prenantes. Ces restitutions permettent en autre de les rassurer. A Boura, qui est le lieu de nombreux projets parallèles, cet outil est apprécié. Beaucoup d'agriculteurs, en effet, regrettent de ne pas connaître les résultats d'autres projets. D'autres sont davantage réticents à répondre à des enquêtes qui ne cessent de se multiplier.Ces restitutions possèdent également des limites. L'organisation et le déroulement des restitutions sont tributaires des personnes. Par conséquent, le respect du calendrier de travail prévisionnel n'est pas toujours respecté. A Boura, par exemple, la multiplication des projets dans ce village rend les personnes ressources moins disponibles ; un retard dans le déroulement du travail a alors eu lieu. Aussi, il est important d'inviter les bonnes personnes afin d'éviter « un jeu de pouvoir » et de bloquer la discussion chez certains participants. Lors de la deuxième réunion de restitution, cette situation a pu apparaître entre les agriculteurs et le représentant de la Mairie à Boura. Ce cas de figure ne s'est pas manifesté à Binaba dans la mesure où la rencontre avec les autorités coutumières s'est faite séparément, amenant ainsi à une discussion vive et riche lors de la rencontre avec les membres de l'AUE. De manière générale, l'intervention des agriculteurs lors de restitutions où les autorités coutumières locales sont présentes ne pose pas de problème à Binaba comme l'a montré les premières restitutions d'avril 2012.La plateforme de modélisation ZonAgri est un outil permettant de créer des modèles très simplifiés de la réalité. Cette simplicité des modèles générés par ZonAgri peut être critiquée dans la mesure où une bonne représentation des activités agricoles nécessite une quantité importante de détails et par conséquent l'élaboration d'un modèle plus complexe. Dans notre modèle, seuls le coût (excluant ceux de post-récolte et de la main d'oeuvre), la quantité de travail et d'eau ainsi que le rendement sont pris en considération.L'avantage d'un modèle simplifié est en autre d'en avoir une utilisation facile, compréhensible par tous. Il est alors plus facile de corriger les erreurs commises et de modifier les données avec les parties prenantes lors de réunions participatives. Par exemple, le modèle élaboré ici est faux (comme nous le verrons par la suite). Mais, il a tout de même permis de discuter avec les agriculteurs sur leurs pratiques et de les faire réfléchir à des améliorations possiblesLes différents résultats obtenus par le biais des enquêtes individuelles sont critiquables en plusieurs points. En premier lieu, les informations récoltées ne doivent pas être prises comme acquises. Les données entrées pour l'élaboration du modèle ont été celles fournies par les agriculteurs. De nombreuses estimations ont été faites notamment en ce qui concerne le poids des unités de mesure et de la production. Un poids standard a été pris mais rien ne garantit que ce poids était respecté.Les surfaces estimées par les agriculteurs sont plus ou moins fausses. Des écarts parfois considérables existent entre la surface de la parcelle fournie par l'agriculteur et la surface mesurée via un GPS ou un logiciel de SIG (notamment pour le périmètre de Binaba II). On peut se demander si les limites des parcelles considérées sont exactes : une incompréhension peut exister. S'agit-il des limites de la parcelle entière ou juste du « casier » utilisé pour une culture donnée ? Pour chacun des périmètres, la superficie des parcelles est surestimée d'environ 15%. Dans le cas où les parcelles ont été sous-estimées par les agriculteurs, cette sous estimation est de l'ordre de 10%. En supposant que les coûts et la production sont bien estimés, les coûts par unité de surface et les rendements seraient plus élevés. Par exemple, pour la culture de riz dans les périmètres du Corikab et de Binaba II, le rendement moyen avec les surfaces estimées par les agriculteurs est respectivement de 3,7T/ha et de 3,3 T/ha. Il serait respectivement de 4,2 T/ha et de 5,6 T/ha en prenant en compte les surfaces réelles. La classification des parcelles est alors incertaine.Lors du calcul de la surface totale occupée par chaque type à l'échelle du périmètre, les surfaces données par les responsables des périmètres ou par la bibliographie ont été pris en considération. Dans le cas du périmètre Corikab, on constate que des extensions par les agriculteurs ont eu lieu dans chaque zone. Ainsi, la zone 1 ne correspond pas à 19 ha mais à 27,5 ha, la zone 2 ne correspond pas à 13 ha mais à 15,5 ha et la zone 3 ne correspond pas à 30 ha mais à 34,5 ha. Ce périmètre totalise alors 78 ha au lieu des 62 ha initiaux. Ainsi, la surface totale occupée par chaque type de parcelles dans le périmètre est revue à la hausse.Pour le modèle, l'hypothèse émise est que l'ensemble de l'échantillon des parcelles enquêtées est représentatif de la situation actuelle. Cette hypothèse est forte. Elle est d'autant moins tenable que l'échantillon est réduit. Pour le Corikab, 26% de la totalité des parcelles a été enquêté alors que pour le PIAME, seulement 6%. Pour Binaba II, 30% de la totalité des parcelles a été enquêté. Le passage fort se situe du passage de l'échantillon à la globalisation à l'échelle du périmètre. Les périmètres présentent des systèmes de cultures non homogènes : certaines parcelles sont spécialisées dans une culture (riz ou maraîchage) alors que d'autres possèdent plusieurs successions culturales. Pour le Corikab, un sondage à l'échelle de la zone aurait été mieux qu'à l'échelle du périmètre.Comme pour tout marché, ceux de Binaba et de Boura sont soumis à des variations des prix de leurs denrées agricoles. Ces variations peuvent être plus ou moins importantes suivant les produits comme l'illustre le tableau 19. Pour les produits maraîchers, le prix varie fortement entre la période de haute production et celle de basse production. Néanmoins, dans le modèle on a considéré un prix moyen. On aurait pu faire une typologie pour les cultures maraîchères qui prenne en compte la période de production par rapport au prix (distinguer la période de haute et de basse production). Pour le riz, le prix du paddy est assez stable à Boura mais varie fortement à Binaba. C'est pourquoi, on a tenu compte de la variation de prix pour le riz seulement à Binaba. Dans la pratique, les agriculteurs vendent leur riz tout au long de l'année pour pouvoir avoir de la trésorerie. Une vente complète lors de la récolte à Binaba ne serait pas rentable pour les agriculteurs.Les critères de classification des parcelles de riz pris en considération comme la durée en pépinière et le niveau de fertilisation, correspondent à la conduite « normale » à adopter pour cette culture. Or, dans le cas de nos périmètres, les variétés ne sont pas connues. On pourrait donc remettre en question le choix de ces critères. Peut-être que pour les variétés présentes dans le périmètre, la durée en pépinière est plus ou moins longue que celle du critère utilisé. Idem pour la fertilisation.D'après les résultats obtenus, on peut s'apercevoir que nos périmètres d'étude sont très différents.Sur le périmètre du Corikab, deux cycles de culture peuvent être au maximum réalisés si la parcelle n'est pas inondée en saison des pluies. Une spécialisation existe pour certaines parcelles : en riz de saison sèche pour les parcelles situées près du marigot, en maraîchage pour les parcelles les plus en hauteur. Le périmètre de Binaba II est plus intensif sur la « right bank » dans la mesure où 3 cycles de cultures par parcelle peuvent être présents (avec les leafy en plus du maraîchage et du riz). Mais en « left bank », un seul cycle de riz est présent majoritairement : le périmètre y est utilisé comme un bas-fond.En termes de rendement, la différence importante qui existe entre les périmètres se situe au niveau de la culture de tomate. En effet, le rendement pour cette culture est bien plus élevé à Boura qu'à Binaba.En termes économique, la marge totale du périmètre Binaba II est plus faible que celle de Boura, même en supposant que le riz est vendu au meilleur prix. La productivité du travail est globalement plus faible sur le périmètre de Binaba II. Ces écarts peuvent s'expliquer d'une part par la différence qui existe entre le prix du riz sur les deux sites (très faible à Binaba) et celle qui existe entre les rendements, ceux de Binaba étant de manière générale plus faibles.Selon les niveaux de marge par hectare et de productivité du travail d'une parcelle, on peut faire des hypothèses sur la stratégie des agriculteurs :-Si la productivité du travail est faible, il faut préférer employer la main d'oeuvre familiale ; si elle est élevée, l'agriculteur peut embaucher de la main d'oeuvre salariée.-Si la marge par hectare est faible, pour augmenter le revenu, on peut étendre la surface cultivée (si possible) si la productivité du travail est élevée ; dans le cas contraire, il faut avoir beaucoup de main d'oeuvre familiale ou bien il faut décider de changer de culture.Malgré ces différences, on a observé de nombreuses similitudes.Des similitudes peuvent se retrouver au niveau des rendements. Quelque soit la culture, les rendements obtenus au sein des périmètres sont faibles. Ils se situent très en deçà des rendements potentiels. Néanmoins, une variation intra culture montre une marge de progression : certains types de parcelles ont un rendement proche du potentiel. A Boura, les faibles rendements de riz peuvent être expliqués par le fait que les agriculteurs le fertilisent comme le coton.Aussi, que ce soit à Binaba ou à Boura, l'étalement de la mise en place des cultures dans le périmètre donne une occupation très longue d'un cycle de culture à l'échelle du périmètre. Il est impossible de multiplier les cycles sur une même parcelle.Lors des restitutions, les personnes présentes ont identifiés les principaux problèmes rencontrés dans chaque périmètre. Il en est ressorti que certains d'entre eux étaient communs à la fois sur Boura et sur Binaba. Il s'agit principalement des dégâts aux cultures causés par la divagation des animaux, du contrôle des mauvaises herbes, du vieillissement des semences dû à une utilisation de semences autoproduites, du délabrement des canaux et du réseau de drainage des périmètres, du non respect du calendrier cultural. Face à ces problèmes convergents dans les différents périmètres irrigués, des idées de changements semblables ont par conséquent été proposés. Ces changements proposés auront des impacts sur la quantité de travail, du coût, du rendement, de la marge brute et de la productivité du travail. Leurs valeurs pourront être revues soit à la hausse soit à la baisse.L'organisation autour de l'eau et des terres mise en place à Boura et à Binaba à l'issue des différents aménagements est similaire. L'eau et la terre font l'objet de lois coutumières à l'échelle du village. Au sein des périmètres irrigués, des règles de distribution de l'eau et des terres ainsi qu'un groupement ou une association d'irrigants en charge du contrôle et de la gestion ont été mis en place à l'issue des travaux d'aménagements des différents périmètres. Néanmoins, ces règles sont peu respectées et les conflits à l'origine de ce non-respect se rejoignent dans tous les périmètres. Sur les deux sites, les sources de conflits entre les agriculteurs et les groupements sont relativement semblables et sont la conséquence des problèmes soulevés. Ces problèmes concernent principalement le paiement de la redevance et la participation aux travaux d'entretien, le fonctionnement du bureau quant à l'utilisation de la redevance et quant à la prise en compte des problèmes des adhérents, la dégradation des infrastructures et la divagation des animaux. Le tour d'eau est inexistant. L'aiguadier a un rôle limité : il se contente d'ouvrir la vanne sans contrôler la distribution.On peut constater d'après la figure 19, que ces problèmes présents sont interconnectés. Cette « défaillance » de l'organisation sociale pourrait explique en partie les faibles performances techniques et économiques. Elinor Ostrom définit le terme common-pool ressource ou bien commun comme étant un système de ressources naturelles ou faites par la main de l'Homme, qui est suffisamment important pour que l'exclusion des bénéficiaires potentiels à en tirer des bénéfices soit difficile (mais non impossible). Un système de ressources peut être vu comme un stock, soumis à des variations, capable de fournir une quantité maximale de flux en condition favorable sans pour autant mettre en danger le stock de la ressource lui-même (Ostrom, 1990). Il peut s'agir dans notre cas d'un petit réservoir dont la capacité initiale est telle que son utilisation via les usages, l'évaporation et le déversement ou non en hivernage n'altèrent en rien son renouvellement pour l'année suivante.A la fin des années 1960 aux Etats-Unis, Hardin a imaginé la célèbre Tragedy of the Commons qui conforte l'idée selon laquelle la gestion rationnelle d'une même ressource entre plusieurs usagers est impossible. Selon lui, « le penchant naturel de l'Homme pour le profit immédiat et personnel constitue un obstacle insurmontable à une gestion collective et mesurée des ressources naturelles ». La surexploitation de la ressource est inéluctable. Dans ce cadre, les autorités externes ont besoin d'imposer sur les utilisateurs locaux de la ressource des règles et des régulations (Thebaud, 2002).Ainsi, pour fonctionner, un système irrigué a besoin d'un grand nombre de règles, qui la plupart du temps sont imposées par les organismes en charge de l'aménagement. Ces derniers établissent des règles sans vérifier qu'elles soient équitables et sans la consultation préalable des usagers mais également sans se soucier du fait que les usagers reçoivent bien des avantages proportionnels aux efforts qu'ils fournissent pour l'entretien des réseaux. Dans ce cadre, les usagers sont incités à contourner les règles préétablies pour satisfaire leur besoin personnel au détriment de l'entretien collectif du réseau et avoir ainsi des « comportements opportunistes» (Lavigne Delville, 2009).Tel est le cas dans les systèmes irrigués étudiés. Non paiement de la redevance, faible participation aux travaux d'entretien, non respect du tour d'eau sont les principales règles non respectées. Des comités de gestion et de contrôle de l'usage de l'eau agricole ont été mis en place par une organisation tierce après l'aménagement des périmètres. Ils sont peu influents et leur rôle est minime. Des règles « normatives » de distribution de l'eau et de la terre ont alors été établies. L'organisation sociale dans les périmètres irrigués est-elle « défaillante » pour cette raison ?La définition des règles de fonctionnement d'un réseau ne peut pas se limiter à l'application d'un modèle standard d'organisation et de distribution de l'eau. Les usagers de l'eau doivent être directement impliqués dans le processus de définition. Chaque cas est alors unique, adapté aux spécificités de la situation et à son évolution possible, donnant alors un caractère « artisanal » à la définition de ces règles (Lavigne Delville, 2009).Il s'agit d'ancrer la légitimité de ces règles vis-à-vis des règles constitutionnelles locales. Pour autant, ces règles ne doivent pas reproduire les principes coutumiers. Elles doivent prendre en compte le contexte et les enjeux contemporains, inclure les populations actuelles et non les seuls autochtones tout en étant compatible avec la législation sectorielle (Lavigne Delville, 2006). « Les systèmes irrigués viables sont ceux où des règles cohérentes, adaptées aux spécificités de chaque réseau, ont été discutées, négociées, définies, et acceptées par les usagers, les techniciens» (Lavigne- Delville, 2009).Que faire alors sur nos systèmes irrigués d'étude ? Rédiger un nouveau règlement intérieur dont les règles seront établies avec les usagers ? Prendre en compte le mode de gestion locale de la ressource ? Former les personnes constituant le comité de contrôle afin d'améliorer leur compétences ?Le contrôle et la gestion du prélèvement d'une ressource apparaît nécessaire lorsque cette dernière n'est pas surabondante (Lavigne-Delville, 2006). Or, sur nos deux sites d'étude, seulement 70% de la capacité du réservoir est utilisée (en faisant des hypothèses surestimées). Ainsi, plus de 30% de la ressource reste alors encore disponible. La surabondance de la ressource pourrait alors expliquer ces comportements opportunistes et la faible motivation pour investir. Pas de tension sur la ressource, pas d'effort collectif (et accroissement du profit individuel comme le mentionne Hardin) du moins en amont. Face à cette situation, ce sont les irrigants situés à l'aval qui subissent une rareté de la ressource. A Binaba II, la dégradation des canaux à l'amont diminue l'alimentation en eau à l'aval. De même, dans la zone 3 du Corikab, en raison de l'encombrement des canaux à cause de la végétation. La mise en place de règles respectées par tous est indispensable pour l'aval.Si la production en irrigation n'est pas centrale dans le système collectif local, l'investissement des irrigants quant à l'effort collectif risque de diminuer (Lavigne Delville, 2009). A Boura, beaucoup de bas-fonds sont présents à proximité permettant peut-être de privilégier l'agriculture pluviale à l'agriculture irriguée. La production de beurre de karité par les femmes n'est pas à négliger. D'après l'étude sur l'économie des ménages de Boura, l'agriculture constitue l'activité principale pour seulement 40% des hommes et 18% des femmes et l'activité secondaire pour seulement 18 % des hommes et 12% des femmes. L'exercice d'une activité principale ou secondaire autre que l'agriculture permet aux ménages d'avoir un revenu secondaire. Les revenus gagnés par l'agriculture et l'autre activité leur suffisent-ils au point de ne pas s'investir dans le fonctionnement collectif du réseau? A Binaba, la situation est peut être similaire.Binaba ?Un modèle unique de règles ne peut pas être appliqué pour l'ensemble des systèmes irrigués. Ces règles diffèrent d'un système à un autre. Cependant, Elinor Ostrom a définit dans son ouvrage « Crafting institutions for self-governing irrigation systems », huit principes généraux qui sont respectés dans les systèmes irrigués durables c'est-à-dire fonctionnant depuis plusieurs générations. Ces principes sont comparés avec la situation de Boura et de Binaba (Tableau 20). On constate que beaucoup de ces principes ne sont pas respectés, pouvant expliquer les récurrents dysfonctionnements constatés au niveau des institutions en place.Tableau 20. Les  On a vu précédemment (cf. 3.5) que les différents périmètres étaient soumis à des contraintes en ce qui concerne l'alimentation en eau. Dans chacun des périmètres, plus la parcelle se situe en aval, plus l'allocation en eau sera difficile. Ceci est davantage accentué que l'entretien du canal est faible et sa dégradation importante (Annexe J).Le potentiel agronomique des parcelles est différent suivant leurs localisations. En effet, plus les parcelles sont proches du marigot, plus elles ont de chance d'être inondées en saison des pluies. Seulement un cycle cultural peut être alors réalisé. Les sols sont à ce niveau de nature plus argileuse. Une parcelle située sur les hauteurs a un sol mieux drainé et plus léger, préférable pour les cultures maraîchères. A Boura, les parcelles de la zone 1 et de la zone 2, sont alignées parallèlement au marigot, permettant d'avoir une grande majorité de parcelles non inondées en saison des pluies sur les hauteurs. En revanche, les parcelles de la zone 3 ont un découpage perpendiculaire par rapport au marigot : une grande majorité sont totalement inondées en hivernage, le reste ne possède qu'un quart vacant.Le règlement intérieur de l'AUE et des comités d'irrigants sont très stricts en ce qui concerne leur respect. Nombreux ont été les abandons mais nombreux aussi ont été les nouveaux arrivants suite aux migrations des années 1980 à Boura. Les parcelles vacantes ont alors vite été réattribuées. On peut se demander à partir de ce moment si l'attribution des parcelles est très égalitaire. Les « allochtones » souhaitant travailler dans le Corikab doivent payer une contribution dont le montant est double par rapport à celui des « autochtones ». L'étude ciblée sur l'économie des ménages de Boura montre que seulement 15% des ménages 9 (soit 1 ménage sur 5) ont une parcelle dans le Corikab. Ceci signifie entre autre que sur les 317 parcelles du Corikab disponible, seulement 73 (23% du périmètre) sont cultivés par des résidents de Boura-ville. D'après cette même étude économique, la production agricole produite sur le Corikab rapporte plus de la moitié de la part agricole de Boura-ville, dont seulement 73 ménages de Boura-ville bénéficient. Sur les 82 parcelles enquêtées dans le Corikab, 65% en moyenne des parcelles appartiennent à un ménage issu des familles fondatrices de Boura. Cette proportion est la même dans chacune des zones. Ces familles auraient alors davantage de parcelles dans les zones 1 et 2 (de superficie inférieure à la zone 3), ce qui pourrait s'expliquer d'une part par le fait que ces zones ont été les premières à avoir été installées (en 1984 juste avant les premières grandes migrations) et d'autre part la configuration des parcelles (alignement parallèle au marigot).A Binaba, la distribution des terres irriguées s'est faite de manière « encadrée » dans la partie de la « left bank » aménagée en 1970 donnant 0,25 acre (0,1 ha) à chaque exploitant. Cependant, le découpage et la répartition des terres dans l'extension de 1997 s'est faite de manière « non encadrée » entre les agriculteurs eux-mêmes. Néanmoins, on pourrait supposer que le découpage et l'attribution aux différentes familles ne s'est pas faite sans enjeux de pouvoir. Le technicien du MoFA veut d'ailleurs ne pas entendre parler de cette rive.Sur les deux sites d'étude, aucun tour d'eau n'est appliqué. Lorsque l'aiguadier ouvre la vanne, l'eau est généralement accaparée à l'amont. Le reste est distribué à l'aval. L'eau peut mettre quatre heures pour arriver jusqu'au bout comme dans le cas du Corikab ou ne pas arriver.Le tour d'eau mis en place dans le Corikab, ne permet pas de résoudre ce problème d'alimentation en eau. En effet, le tour d'eau se fait entre les groupes d'irrigants c'est-à-dire à l'intérieur d'une même maille hydraulique. Ainsi, toutes les zones et tous les blocs sont alimentés chaque jour. Le mieux serait d'instaurer un tour d'eau entre les mailles hydrauliques (entre les zones 1 et 3 puis la zone 2) pour assurer un débit à l'aval de la zone 1 puis la zone 3.Lors de son aménagement en 1984 puis de son extension en 1993, le Corikab a été dimensionné de manière à alimenter 62 ha. Or, il fait 16 ha de plus. On ne connait pas le débit fictif continu de l'aménagement. Un débit de 314 L/s doit alimenter 78 ha : le débit fictif continu doit être en théorie de 4 L/s/ha. On connait pour chaque bloc, le débit du canal secondaire et on peut estimer à l'aide d'un logiciel de SIG la surface irriguée. Le DFC peut être déterminé pour chaque bloc. En moyenne, il est de 4,6 L/s/ha. Le débit initial semble alors insuffisant pour alimenter la totalité du périmètre (surtout la zone 3).La redevance que les exploitants doivent payer sur les deux sites est un montant fixe (dépendant de la surface). Il ne dépend en aucun de la quantité d'eau utilisée (ni des cultures pratiquées). Ainsi, un riziculteur qui utilise 15 000 m 3 /ha en saison sèche paie la même redevance qu'un maraîcher qui utilise entre 8000 et 9000 m 3 /ha. La localisation de la parcelle n'est pas non plus prise en compte. Ainsi, dans le Corikab, un agriculteur pouvant faire qu'un seul cycle de culture sur sa parcelle (car inondée en saison des pluies) et un agriculteur pouvant faire deux cycles de culture paient le même montant.L'objectif de cette étude était de construire avec les responsables des groupements et les agriculteurs membres de ces groupements, une représentation du fonctionnement des périmètres irrigués de Boura et de Binaba, sites choisis par le CPWF-V3. Un modèle participatif des usages agricoles de l'eau a alors été mis en place en utilisant le logiciel ZonAgri. Pour ce faire, des enquêtes individuelles ont été réalisées auprès d'un échantillon d'agriculteurs afin de déterminer leurs pratiques agricoles sur 4 cultures précises : le riz, l'oignon, la tomate et les leafy vegetable. Les résultats de ces enquêtes ont permis de classifier les parcelles, d'en identifier différents types et de calculer leurs proportions sur chaque périmètre. La classification des parcelles a pris en compte le coût des intrants, la quantité de travail, la quantité d'eau utilisée et le rendement. Au total, 14 types de parcelles ont pu être identifiés pour le périmètre de Binaba II, 7 types pour le Corikab et 2 pour le PIAME. Néanmoins, les résultats des enquêtes se basant sur de nombreuses estimations, la classification des parcelles établie est incertaine.Après l'aménagement des périmètres, des règles de distribution et de gestion des terres et de l'eau ont été mises en place. Ces règles sont définies dans un règlement intérieur. Cependant, ce règlement est peu respecté que ce soit du côté des agriculteurs ou du côté des groupements : les redevances sont peu payées, la participation aux travaux d'entretien des périmètres et aux réunions sont faibles, peu de transparence des bureaux vis-à-vis de l'utilisation de la redevance, l'état du réseau, le non-respect du tour d'eau…. Cette organisation sociale « défaillante » explique en partie les résultats techniques et économiques des périmètres.Les performances techniques et économiques actuelles des périmètres ont été calculées. Ces performances sont faibles. Les rendements sont globalement peu élevés (moins de la moitié du potentiel). Néanmoins, certains sont proches du potentiel, pouvant ainsi montrer une marche de progression. Les cultures maraîchères rapportent plus que le riz. Le prix bas et très variable du riz à Binaba est un réel problème. La marge des périmètres (même en supposant que le riz est vendu au meilleur prix) ainsi que la productivité du travail sont plus élevées à Boura qu'à Binaba. Néanmoins, cette marge moyenne et cette productivité du travail moyenne restent faibles. La productivité du travail est inférieure au coût de la main d'oeuvre pour certaines cultures sur le périmètre de Binaba II : leafy, tomate, riz si la production est vendue à la récolte. L'embauche de main d'oeuvre salariée est alors difficile.Au cours des restitutions, la situation actuelle de chaque périmètre a été présentée aux agriculteurs. Les problèmes présents dans chacun des périmètres ont pu être identifiés. Des idées de changements ont pu être discutées afin d'améliorer les performances des cultures : tester des clôtures électriques pour protéger les cultures des animaux en divagation, remettre en état les réseaux de drainage, utiliser de nouvelles semences, la mise en place d'une organisation pour commercialiser la tomate…. Ainsi, malgré des incertitudes quant au modèle établi, il a tout de même permis de discuter avec les agriculteurs sur leurs pratiques et de les faire réfléchir à des améliorations possibles.De nombreux points ont été discutés dans ce mémoire, tels que les méthodes utilisées, les critères de classification ou l'hypothèse mise en avant lors de la construction du modèle…. Malgré des différences visibles entre les périmètres, de nombreuses similitudes existent dont le mauvais fonctionnement de l'organisation sociale. Ce dernier est peut être dû à l'application d'un modèle standard de règles qui n'ont pas été définies et décidées avec les usagers. La dégradation des réseaux d'irrigation est due à un manque d'implication dans l'effort collectif. La faible tension sur l'eau ou le fait que l'agriculture irriguée ne fait pas partie de l'activité principale pourraient en être la cause. Que ce soit sur les périmètres irrigués de Boura ou de Binaba, l'ouverture de la prise d'eau dans les périmètres est réalisée grâce à (Tableau 1):-Un aiguadier chargé de l'ouverture de la vanne dans le cas des systèmes gravitaires du Corikab et de Binaba II.-Une personne chargée de la mise en marche de la motopompe pour le périmètre PIAME.Ces personnes sont toutes désignées par consensus par les irrigants et restent en poste tant que le travail est fait correctement. L'allocation en eau débute durant la matinée par l'ouverture de la vanne ou l'actionnement de la motopompe (entre 7h et 9h) et se termine par la fermeture des systèmes d'alimentation (entre 15h et 17h) (Tableau 1). Une restriction de la distribution en eau se fait les jours de marché et dans le cas du Corikab également le dimanche (Tableau 1). Ces systèmes irrigués ont la particularité d'avoir le même tour d'eau de 3 jours c'est-à-dire qu'une parcelle située dans chacun de ces périmètres recevra l'eau pendant une journée entière tous les 3 jours. Concernant les systèmes d'irrigation gravitaire, l'aiguadier ne connait pas le débit de l'eau mais il gère l'ouverture de la vanne en fonction de l'état du canal et de l'éloignement des parcelles à approvisionner afin d'éviter tout débordement. Pour le périmètre du Corikab, trois zones distinctes ont pu être identifiées : la zone 1 de 20 ha, la zone 2 de 12 ha et la zone 3 de 30 ha. Chaque zone possède un nombre de bloc différent, correspondant au nombre de canaux secondaires présents dans la zone. On peut comptabiliser dans la zone 1 un total de 9 blocs, 5 pour la zone 2 et 11 pour la zone 3. Chaque bloc possède entre 1 et 3 groupes d'irrigation, chaque groupe ayant plusieurs prises tertiaires et l'eau durant un seul jour, permettant ainsi le respect du tour d'eau de 3 jours (Figure 1). La structure en charge du projet d'aménagement du Corikab a été l'initiatrice de ce mode de gestion multi-échelle. Le PIAME est organisé de la même manière que le Corikab. Néanmoins, cette organisation s'est faite par le bureau du groupement PIAME afin de faciliter la gestion dans ce périmètre.Pour le périmètre PIAME, la division se fait uniquement en zones et en blocs, pas au niveau en dessous. Deux zones distinctes de 10 ha chacune sont présentes. Chacune est divisée en 3 blocs horizontaux. Un bloc est alimenté en eau tous les trois jours permettant le respect du tour. Les cultures pratiquées dans le PIAME, étant de nature maraîchère, aurait un besoin en eau journalier. Cependant, une alimentation en eau tous les 3 jours suffit étant donné la nature du sol (Figure 2).Pour le périmètre de Binaba II, que ce soit au niveau de la « right bank » ou de la « left bank », uniquement une division en blocs existe. Néanmoins, dans cette division en blocs, aucune organisation sous-jacente n'est présente. La délimitation en blocs s'est faite en fonction de l'environnement c'est-à-dire suivant les conditions physiques du milieu (plus ou moins humide, plus ou moins sableux, …). Actuellement, 6 blocs peuvent être comptabilisés, trois pour chaque rive. Chaque bloc a le droit à un jour entier d'eau permettant le respect du tour d'eau (Figure 3). Cependant, étant donné qu'il existe peu de tensions sur la ressource en eau, cette notion de tour d'eau n'a pas lieu d'être entre les mois d'avril et février. Pendant cette période, tous les blocs peuvent irriguer en même temps.  Il existe dans les périmètres irrigués, deux formes de contrôle de la distribution des terres et de l'eau :-Un contrôle formel réalisé par les différents comités de gestion et de contrôle.-Un contrôle informel entre les agriculteurs eux-mêmes notamment en ce qui concerne le respect du tour d'eau.Ainsi, à Boura, dans les périmètres irrigués du PIAME et du Corikab, le contrôle de la distribution de l'eau et des terres se fait :-A l'échelle du périmètre, par un conseil de gestion ou bureau, dont le rôle est d'organiser les tours d'eau et la gestion de l'entretien des infrastructures.-A l'échelle du périmètre, par un comité de contrôle en charge de l'allocation des terres composé de 3 membres du groupement élus pour 2 ans.-A l'échelle de la zone, par un chef de zone choisi par consensus par les membres de la zone pour une durée de 2 ans et qui est en charge de demander les cotisations aux membres, de s'assurer que le travail au sein de la zone est bien fait et d'intervenir en cas de conflit entre les membres.-A l'échelle du bloc, par un chef de bloc élu pour une durée de 2 ans qui est en charge d'assurer le contrôle des entretiens des ouvrages du bloc et donne des conseils concernant les pratiques agricoles et la gestion de l'eau.-A l'échelle du groupe d'irrigation, par les irrigants eux-mêmes, veillant à respecter le tour d'eau de trois jours. Néanmoins, l'échange d'eau entre les groupes est possible lorsqu'un irrigant a un empêchement pour prendre son tour.A Binaba, il n'existe que des organes de gestion et de contrôle ou « committee » formels à l'échelle du périmètre tous composés de 3 membres de l'AUE :-Le « Water Allocation committee » en charge du contrôle du respect du tour d'eau et de la gestion des infrastructures -Le « Land Allocation committee » en charge du contrôle et de la gestion de l'attribution des parcelles.A l'échelle des parcelles, les irrigants du périmètre Binaba II pratiquent également un contrôle informel pour le respect du tour d'eau.L'aiguadier joue également un rôle important dans la distribution de l'eau dans la mesure où il contrôle le débit sortant de la prise suivant les parcelles à alimenter.Sur les sites étudiés, chaque périmètre possède son groupement (comité d'irrigant) ou son association (AUE), tous ayant pris les dispositions juridiques nécessaires : présence au moins d'un règlement intérieur, de statuts, de reconnaissance officielle (agrément).Le périmètre irrigué en aval du réservoir ou Corikab a depuis son aménagement en 1984 un groupement du même nom. Dans ce groupement sont présents (Figure 1):-L'Assemblée générale regroupant 75 délégués dûment mandatés par les organisations membres en règle avec leur statut et le règlement intérieur. Lors de l'Assemblée Générale est généralement effectué le bilan de la campagne agricole précédente ainsi que la date de démarrage de la suivante.-Le Conseil de Gestion composé de 15 membres élus parmi les délégués participant à l'Assemblée générale. Les membres ont la qualité d'administrateur et élisent le Bureau exécutif du Conseil de Gestion.-Un bureau exécutif du Conseil de Gestion composé de 9 membres (Président, Secrétaire et son adjoint, Trésorier, Responsable à l'équipement et à l'entretien et son adjoint, Responsable à la formation, Responsable à l'information et à l'organisation ainsi que son adjoint). Il doit agir dans l'intérêt de tous les adhérents. Les membres sont élus pour 2 ans par 75 membres (25 de chaque zone). Son rôle est d'assurer la gestion des conflits et d'identifier les problèmes liés à la gestion de l'eau et des cultures.-Quatre commissions spécialisées composées de 3 membres et élues pour 2 ans par 75 membres: approvisionnements et crédits, gestion et entretien des ouvrages d'eau, commercialisation, formation et renforcement des capacités techniques.-Un comité de contrôle constitué de trois membres élus pour une durée de 2 ans par 75 membres. Il est chargé de vérifier à ce que les opérations effectuées soient conformes avec le règlement intérieur. Il contrôle également l'attribution des parcelles.-Le gérant. Il assure entre autre l'animation du Comité d'irrigant.Il existe en plus de ce Comité d'irrigants, un contrôle exercé par :-Trois bureaux de zone, un pour chaque zone, constitués chacun de 5 membres élus pour 2 ans par 25 membres de la zone. Ils sont en charge d'identifier les problèmes au sein de chaque zone.-Des chefs de blocs (9 pour la zone 1, 5 pour la zone 2 et 11 pour la zone 3) dont le rôle a été explicité précédemment et élus par les membres du bloc.-Des membres, dont 75 soit 25 pour chaque zone, qui sont choisis comme votant. Au total, le groupement compte 317 membres (chiffre non actualisé depuis 1984) dont 200 hommes et 117 femmes.-L'aiguadier jouant également un rôle important dans la distribution de l'eau dans la mesure où il contrôle le débit sortant de la prise suivant les parcelles à alimenter.Chaque membre doit payer annuellement au bureau 2000 FCFA (environ 3 €) de redevance pour l'eau. Le paiement et le non-paiement des cotisations ainsi que la participation des travaux d'entretien du périmètre sont notés sur un cahier pour chacun des membres. La commission en charge de l'approvisionnement et des crédits doit veiller à l'établissement de cette liste. De la même manière, elle doit amendée les membres ne respectant pas le règlement intérieur du groupement. Lors du non-paiement de la cotisation annuelle, deux rappels à l'ordre sont émis à l'exploitant par la commission avant que cette dernière ne l'invite à quitter le périmètre. Concernant, la non-participation aux travaux d'entretien, l'amende s'élève à 1000 FCFA (1,5 €). Lorsque les absences répétées à ces travaux deviennent trop nombreuses, les membres sont invités à quitter le périmètre.Le périmètre PIAME possède également depuis son aménagement en 2009 un groupement du même nom. La composition du groupement PIAME s'est faite de la même manière que celle du Corikab afin de faciliter la gestion de ce périmètre. Par conséquent, les sous-groupes qui y sont présents ont les mêmes rôles. Sont également présents (Figure 1):-L'Assemblée générale regroupant 75 délégués dûment mandatés par les organisations membres en règle avec leur statut et le règlement intérieur. Lors de l'Assemblée Générale est généralement effectué le bilan de la campagne agricole précédente ainsi que la date de démarrage de la suivante.-Le Conseil de Gestion composé de 15 membres élus parmi les délégués participant à l'Assemblée générale. Les membres ont la qualité d'administrateur et élisent le Bureau exécutif du Conseil de Gestion.-Le bureau exécutif du Conseil de Gestion composé de 9 membres élus pour 2 ans.-Quatre commissions spécialisées composées de 3 membres et élues pour 2 ans : approvisionnements et crédits, gestion et entretien des ouvrages d'eau, commercialisation, formation et renforcement des capacités techniques.-Un comité de contrôle constitué de trois membres élus pour une durée de 2 ans.-Le gérant. Il assure entre autre l'animation du Comité d'irrigant.Il existe en plus de ce Comité d'irrigants, un contrôle exercé par :-Deux chefs de zone, un pour chaque zone, choisis par consensus par les membres de la zone pour deux ans.-Six chefs de blocs, trois par zone, élus par les membres du bloc pour une durée de 2 ans.-Des membres au nombre de 160.Une cotisation annuelle de 15 000 FCFA (23 € environ) est demandée pour participer à l'achat du carburant de la motopompe et pour son entretien. Le paiement de cette cotisation peut se faire par trimestre à raison de 5 000 FCFA (7,6 € environ). Lorsque la cotisation n'est pas payée deux rappels à l'ordre sont émis avant que la personne ait à payer une amende de 1000 FCFA (1,5 €). Si cette dernière ne paie pas l'amende, elle est alors invitée à quitter le périmètre. Le paiement ou le non-paiement des cotisations ainsi que l'attribution des amendes sont répertoriés. -Un bureau composé de 4 membres. Le Président de l'Association est élu par les membres de l'Association. En revanche son mandat n'a pas de durée déterminée. En effet, depuis la création de l'AUE seulement deux Présidents ont été élus.-Quatre groupes d'usagers ayant un rapport direct dans l'utilisation de l'eau du barrage : les pêcheurs, les éleveurs, les riziculteurs et les producteurs d'oignon.-Trois organes de gestion ou committee : le Water Allocation Committee chargé de surveiller la bonne distribution de l'eau ainsi que l'entretien des canaux, le Land Allocation Committee chargé de la gestion et la bonne attribution des terres et le Land Developement Committee en charge du conseil des pratiques agricoles. Ils sont composés chacun de 3 personnes en place depuis la création de l'AUE. Chaque committee étant spécialisé dans un domaine (distribution de l'eau, distribution de la terre, développement), ils sont chargés de régler les conflits entre les différents usagers suivant leurs domaines de compétences. Cependant si le conflit est trop important, le problème est rapporté au niveau du chef qui est alors en charge de régler le conflit.-L'aiguadier jouant également un rôle important dans la distribution de l'eau dans la mesure où il contrôle le débit sortant de la prise suivant les parcelles à alimenter. Chaque membre de l'association cotise 5 GCD par an soit environ 2,5 euros pour 0,2 acre (0,1 ha) afin d'assurer les travaux d'entretien si nécessaire. Chaque membre est cependant chargé de l'entretien de la partie du canal alimentant sa parcelle. La somme de la cotisation étant basse, il y a peu de problèmes de non-paiement. Le paiement et le nonpaiement des cotisations ne sont pas répertoriés dans un cahier. Lorsque des travaux de réparation de grande ampleur sont à entreprendre, il est demandé aux adhérents de cotiser une somme supplémentaire dans l'intérêt de tous généralement égale au montant de la cotisation. Ceci a été le cas concernant le montant de réparation de la vanne située côté « left bank », qui est hors service depuis plus d'un mois.     ","tokenCount":"24616"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4ab83bd19fcedfe134638b8bd8d025c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d9bb3f24-d77a-49b2-8608-7af3ebb05eae/retrieve","id":"1372575341"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0437751a-6c9c-4ce7-bb33-80c95f723d2c","pagecount":"65","content":"This publication provides an evaluation of research and development experiences from a public-private partnership: the Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP). This is an innovative north-south, private-public initiative by industry, producer organizations, NGO, private sector, the public sector and institutions to facilitate the improvement of smallholder agricultural systems based on tree crops in Africa. Partners are working together to improve the livelihoods of the smallholder farmer, to ensure the environmental sustainability of tree crop systems and to ensure that viable and efficient institutional and policy frameworks are in place to service the needs of the entire supply chain. The Institute of Tropical Agriculture (lIT A) based at Ibadan, Nigeria is the convener center and regional host for STCP.A serics of breakthroughs in cocoa have been produced over a number of years as result of investments in research programs at the national, regional and global level. In West Africa, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana have achieved major growth in cocoa productivity and processing of beans. STCP plans to build on of the most successful results, and take them to a further stage, adding value in doing so. Within this context, during the working period of 2000--2001, the STCP implemented several research and development activities addressing challenges to reducing transaction costs, increasing productivity, increasing the share of world prices received by farmers, and addressing the sustainability of the tree crop smallholders.The links between research and the extent to which generated technologies can be translated into improved livelihoods assets for farmers to pursue their own goals, were assessed during an \"STCP Implementation Assessment Workshop\" that took place at Ibadan, Nigeria from 4 to 7 September 2001. The objective of the workshop was to evaluate the activities being implemented by STCP and assess their relevance, efficiency, and impact in sustainable productivity improvements and more efficient use of the land.The workshop could not have been a success without the several constructive ideas of the Steering Committee of STCP and the logistic support of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (lIT A) as a host. The editors acknowledge the hard work done by all the STCP partners in their presentations. Many thanks to Anna Tatchoum in helping with all workshop logistics. Our thanks to Tony Lass from Cadbury International Limited for reviewing the document and his valuable input. Special recognition to the laborious work of Mercedes Delgado-Roa, who, as a consultant to STCP, collated all information during the editing of the publication. Masterfoods, a Division of MARS UK Ltd., kindly contributed funds to this publication.The STCP is developed with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), and the American Cocoa Research Institute (ACRI). The Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP) constitutes a coordinated and innovative effort made by farmers and producer organizations, the worldwide chocolate indllstry and trade, national governments, research institutes, the public sector, policymakers, donors, and development agencies to facilitate the improvement of smallholder agricultural systems based on tree crops in West Africa. With over 50% of the foreign exchange derived in West Africa coming from cocoa alone, it is clear that there are numerous groups now involved and committed to the tree crop commodities. Collectively, these groups, which typically bring different perspectives to the table, have shaped consensus around three common interests and concerns. They include (1) promoting the production and marketing of quality cocoa, (2) improving market access and income for small-scale producers, and (3) creating systems that are environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and economically sustainable.The goal of STCP is \"to improve the economic and social well being of smallholders and the environmental sustainability of tree crop systems\".To achieve the STCP goal, a public and private sector partnership was created-the STCP development alliance-to provide stakeholders with an organizational framework and policy environment to improve the performance and efficiency of the system. Productivity of tree crop farms and enterprises is being raised, with emphasis on the rehabilitation and reclamation of deforested lands. Efficiency in the marketing chain is being improved so that it delivers fair prices to farmers and quality products to endusers. Only by lowering production and marketing costs will tree crops remain competitive and profitable for African farmers on world markets. Achieving this and at the same time improving the state of natural resources, including biodiversity, land, soil, and water is the formidable task facing the STCP. On the social and labor front, STCP is working to prevent and eliminate the worst forms of child labor, thereby improving standards on farms and in communities.If successful, the outcome of these efforts will be a more sustainable global economy for the focal tree crop systems, characterized by: increased rural incomes; reduced risk and greater stability in the supply of quality products to end users; increased demand for and use of tree crop products; better working conditions on farms; and an improved status of environmental resources for current and future generations of Africans.The interest groups for the types of efforts and products being focused on include farmers, traders, manufacturers, financial institutions, support service groups, and policymakers. With over 50% of the foreign exchange derived from agriculture exports in West and Central Africa coming from these crops, it is clear that there are numerous groups now involved and committed to these commodities.STCP is a program that brings together all of these stakeholders and enables them to collaborate. To do this efficiently, a results framework with five component areas was adopted. The components are: (1) strengthening community-focused groups, (2) technology dissemination and research, (3) trade and information systems development, (4) policy analysis and implementation, and (5) labor and social systems improvement.The general approach taken within each component is to build on the existing efforts and activities of relevant stakeholder groups, to add value to them, and to coordinate future collaborations. The primary tree crops targeted by STCP are cocoa, coffee, and cashew. Additional tree crops may be considered within the context of diversification of cocoa, coffee, or cashew production systems.A regional program has been implemented which will enhance the synergies to be gained by working across institutions and countries to successfully develop sustainable tree crop production. The four largest African cocoa producers (Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria) are included in the program and account for approximately two-thirds of total world production. The fifth member of the program is Guinea whose diversified agricultural economy includes cocoa, cashew, and robusta coffee as major subsectors. Furthermore, an integrated and holistic approach is taken within STCP to link developments in research, technology delivery, market systems, information systems, policy change, and community or producer focused services.Currently, a series of STCP pilot projects arc in the start-up phase in West Africa; three pilot projects are located in Cote d'Ivoire, and one in each of the other four countries (Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, and Nigeria). The objective of these pilot activities is to compare, test, and validate different approaches and interventions to develop sustainable and integrated cocoa production systems, and to concurrently address child labor concerns in a coherent and systematic method. The ultimate goal of these pilot activities is improve the rural livelihood of cocoa producers in West Africa by improving their ability to respond to the demands of global markets.To support the pilot activities, several \"cross-cutting\" regional projects have been developed in the following thematic areas: child labor; technology delivery, research and impact; and trade and information systems. These projects are being developed by organizations with the necessary expertise and capabilities.Finally, a regional program management structure has been developed to support and link the pilot projects and regional activities. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (UTA) will be the regional program host; the program will be managed through the STCP Regional and National Coordination Units. The Child Labor Regional Project will be hosted and managed by the International Labor Organization (ILO) through its International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC). The Donor Alliance Committee will ensure a broad-based, public-private partnership to support STCP; a donor liaison office is assisting with development of communication tools and material to serve the Alliance. The STCP Steering Committee, consisting of 15 members from farmers' groups, industry/trade, funding agencies, national network chairs, and the program host institution is providing general oversight to the STCP program as a whole.Sub-Saharan Africa still has low productivity and a high percentage of poor and undernourished people, both adults and children. More than 65% of the labor force was employed in the agricultural sector in 1996, with 15% in industry and about 20% in services (ADB 1999). Some 60\"10 are projected to be employed in agriculture by 2010. Agriculture, accounting for more than 33% of GDP and 40% of reports, remains the dominant factor in economic development in the majority of African economies. As most of the poor are dependent on the rural economy for their Ii velihoods, the performance of the agricultural sector has far reaching implications for food security, poverty reduction, and income generation. However, even by 2020, sub-Saharan Africa's per capita income is projected to be an average still less than a dollar a day; poverty of this magnitude will condemn many people in this region to food insecurity. This will especially affect children. It is projected that sub-Saharan Africa will be the only developing world region where the number or malnourished children will increase, and will reach some 40 million by 2020. 1Tree crops are important in African agriculture and contribute significantly to the income of farmers. Tree crop systems can also playa critical role in sustaining biodiversity in sound management of natural resources and have an excellent potential to improve the income of households and to provide additional pathways for the diversification and intensification of food crops systems.Tree crops have indeed a potential to be a major force for the reduction of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. There are, however, important policy issues to be considered that can unfold that potential, such as to improve the existing input-hostile policy environment, and create in general a conducive policy environment for sustainable production systems. Important policy issues that need to be addressed are also concerned with reduced taxation of exports, providing reliable currency for saving during booms, unlocking the collateral value of tree crops, and branding and price discrimination 2The agricultural sector, in which 65% of the population is involved, therefore, must become one of the foundations of economic growth of sub-Saharan Africa This must be catalyzed by the need to satisfy a growing commercial demand for higher quality and reliable supply of agricultural products at prices competitive in the world markets. STep can indeed provide solutions and spread technologies for poor farmers to contribute to agricultural growth in Mrica.Cocoa beans, from which chocolate is made, are the seeds of the cocoa tree scientifically known as Theobroma cacao. The names cocoa and chocolate are derived from the Olmec and Mayan languages, whose populations consumed it as a beverage more than 2000 years ago. Even now, cocoa is a major ingredient in several Mexican traditional foods, especially in \"mole\"J Cocoa beans are grown in a range of 20 degrees north or south of the equator and West Africa, in the 1990s, had a 70% share of world cocoa production. The cashew tree is largely restricted to latitudes 15° north and south. West Africa produces some lOa 000 tonnes of cashew nuts per year.The four largest African cocoa producers are included in the program: Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria. The fifth member of the program is Guinea whose diversified agricultural economy includes cocoa, cashew, and robusta coffee.According to data from the World Cocoa Foundation (www.acri-cocoa.org), nearly six million farmers grow more than 85% of the world's cocoa and the average land size for these fanners is from 2.5-5 acres with about 1000 cocoa trees. The world consumes some three million tonnes of cocoa beans annually and one third of the world's cocoa is lost to pest or disease every day. The globalization of this market is extensive, involving countries both in the north and the south, developed and developing countries, and poor and rich populations (the former being the producers and the latter being consumers). The share of global cocoa production has increased since the 1990s when Brazilian production started to decline and Asian production stabilized.The consumption trend shows rapid growth due to rising incomes in developing countries and populations, an emerging market in countries which have recently had crises but are potential buyers in the long term, the Asiatic demand is increasing (mostly Chinese and Indian). In the traditional market of North America and Western Europe, the demand for better quality is increasing.Urban population is increasing and production will need to increase to meet urban demand. The cocoa market could profit from this situation as new possibilities arise to enter a niche market.The direct role of governments in productive activities (agricultural production, processing, and trade) is far less prominent today than it was a decade ago and privatization of agricultural processing and marketing agencies is widespread. Where economies and trade are more open now, their exposure to international price fluctuations is also increasing, especially when economies arc not highly diversified. Liberalization of markets in some cases has left farmers without credit, and heavily dependent on loans in a fonn of inputs from buyers, which increases their production costs.Finally, the trend of cocoa prices is the result of the balance or imbalance between global supply and demand, but their typical characteristic is the large share of the price that is absorbed in the chain of the process (such as inflated transport costs, low economies of scale, lack of information, high risk, excessive physical losses, taxes, too many intermediaries).Concerning cashew production, West Africa produces over 100000 tonnes yearly with Guinea-Bissau and Cote d'Ivoire the main producers. Both countries together with Nigeria have some processing capabilities.Insect pest damage is of greater significance than disease but the likelihood of major disease problems is increasing for the cashew-expanded areas. Bush fires and the subsequent damage to cashew crops is one of the major constraints to cashew production (both data according West Africa Regional Cashew Survey provided by Biohybrids for STCP). The prices are high at the moment (for Africa the referential price is the Indian price), processing the raw cashew nut is difficult as are training conditions but expanding dcmand could be linked to increasing Africa's output.Cocoa is one of the major agricultural commodities traded on international markets. Sub-Saharan Africa is currently the world's leading cocoa producing region accounting for about 70% of the world's cocoa supply. The principal consuming areas, on the other hand, are the industrialized countries with the largest markets being in Western Europe and North America.The cocoa market is one of the most volatile among basic tropical commodities. This is attributable, in part, to the long (three to seven years) delay between planting and harvesting of commercially significant returns, and also to the impact of climatic changes and the effects of disease on yields. In contrast, cocoa consumption has evolved more predictably. Changes in production have, therefore, had a direct and significant impact on cocoa bean stocks. The resulting changes in the stocks-to-grindings ratio, the key determinant of the price level, have led to wide fluctuations in price levels, which have tended to reinforce the boom-bust cycles on the world cocoa market. Demand for cocoa as input into the chain can be derived in three ways. The most proper way would be to derive demand for cocoa from developments in intermediate sectors, such as the production of cocoa butter. Alternatively, one may derive demand for cocoa directly from demand for chocolate products, especially for those countries with a large chocolate industry. Or one may even derive demand for cocoa directly from income and population.The main determinant of demand for cocoa is demand for chocolate. Demand for chocolate can be expressed in many ways. It may be meant to indicate the demand for the products containing cocoa, or just for chocolate confectionery, or, within the latter group, the demand for specific chocolate products only. Or it is sometimes used to indicate the demand for the pure chocolate that is contained in many products, or the demand for the cocoa that is contained in the products that are consumed. A common problem in many descriptions of the chocolate market is that a clear designation of what constitutes \"chocolate\" is not given. Currently, 2.7 million tonnes of beans are used in manufacturing 3.5 million tonnes of chocolate, which is used in 5 million tonnes of chocolate products. This latter amount excludes the use of cocoa powder in sugar II confectionery and, for example, chocolate milk. On average, therefore, the ratio of cocoa consumption to chocolate consumption is about 0.77, while the ratio of chocolateto-chocolate products is around 0.70. The various stages of growing, processing, and manufacturing are interconnected by markets and trade. Processing of cocoa beans takes place predominantly in the consuming countries, but this situation is changing. Grindings in nonproducing countries have not risen very much over the past twen'!' years, whereas those in Cote d'Ivoire, among others, have increased substantially.The role of Africa, as exporter not only of cocoa beans but also of cocoa paste and other cocoa products, is clear. Net exports of cocoa products are on the increase, particularly in Cote d'Ivoire. The dominant net exporter of final cocoa products (butter and powder) is The Netherlands. Belgium, Ireland, and Switzerland are also important net exporters. No other developed countries have significant net export positions.There are at least three reasons why producing countries still account for only a small share of world trade in final products. Firstly, tariff escalation in the main importing regions discourages processing in developing countries. Secondly, a few large multinational firms dominate the market for final products. Their competition imposes strong requirements on the flexibility and technology of the marketing departments of these firms, favoring a location in more developed countries. A third explanation for the prevailing regional distribution of the production offinal products is simply the high transport and storage costs for final products, largely due to climatic circumstances in the cocoa producing countries (Burger and Smit 2001) Consumption of cocoa is calculated by ICCO as grindings of cocoa beans plus net imports of cocoa products and of chocolate and chocolate products in beans equivalent.Each activity is identified with a lead institution, which is responsible for deliverables. An activity manager is charged with activity implementation. Each area of the program develops activities focused on achieving its own objectives and purposes.The G&BSS component has as its objective the creation of strong farmer associations and viable marketing businesses. The proposal of this program component is to provide smallholder farmers in the region with an integrated package of services, which will:• increase their knowledge of crop production techniques and pest and disease control • improve their management of natural resources • ensure socially responsible cocoa production • provide them with greater access to training, extension, finance, markets, and information • facilitate the formation of farmer-owned businesses.The objective of this program component is to identify and promote policy suitable to provide adequate incentives for development paths that are sound and contribute to sustainable development. Activities will be implemented through collaborative crosscountry efforts that will build linkages between ongoing country-level efforts, as well as public-private partnerships to address tree crop policy issues.The activities will place less emphasis on traditional policy analysis and focus more on promoting pilot efforts that can be jointly implemented by public and private groups to gain practical experience and knowledge about how to address priority policy issues. Need to support the development of national policies and to introduce interventions that affect policy. The main focal areas for attention and support include:• incentives for smallholder adoption of sustainable systems • improving the economic efficiency of development resources • an environmental certification and reward system • enhancing market competition and efficient trading mechanisms and financial policies.This component provides access to smallholders about the types of markets and information systems.The activities will help smallholder farmers develop the following skills:• Making economic decisions about product quality.• Developing market premiums based on grades, standards, and product certification. • Fostering access to and use of market environmental and technical information.• Learning how to develop and use tools to benefit from sustainable production and marketi ng strategiesThe goal of the research and technology transfer component is to improve the well being of smallholder farmers and the sustainability of production through the development and transfer of technologies for sustainable tree crops systems that increase productivity, generate income and improve the natural resource base.The activities will be focused on developing multi-institutional partnerships and collaborative arrangements with farmer organizations and on delivering the technology and skills required to work in the following initial areas of intervention:• Diagnosis of constraints/opportunities and impact of tree crop systems.• Germplasm improvement and multiplication.• Integrated pest and disease management.• Rehabilitation of existing tree crop plantations.• Establishment of tree crops of deforested land.• Improved postharvest management.• Information and knowledge sharing and technology dissemination and adoption.Activities are implemented in the five countries and several activities will be completed at a regional level, facilitating greater efficiencies at the national level and creating a framework for sharing of knowledge and technology.6.0 STep highlights at national and regional level (presentation by Dr Jose Lnis Rueda)Cameroon STCP established over 300 sales points in the central and southern provinces where fanner organizations, previously trained by STCP in business planning, marketing, and accounting principles, traded approximately 50% of the total cocoa output. Auctions were carried out at the STCP stands, and grouped fanners were able to obtain a price between 10-20% more per kilogram when compared to isolated producers.Producer associations from Cameroon received support from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to develop GIS-supported infonnation systems for tree crop production and marketing. This will provide information to potential buyers concerning production practices, and increase the transparency of the cocoa systems. Additional gains will be in building the capacity of producer organizations and enhanced environmental monitoring.Farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria, with assistance from the National Network of STCP, formed their own producer association named Tonikoko, which means \"owners of cocoa\". For the first time since cocoa market liberalization in Nigeria, fanners came together to address issues such as product quality and the negotiation of prices. Likewise, fanners opened bank accounts and requested that payments from buyers be deposited there. This is the first step towards building savings to develop their own financial mechanisms, and for future credit availability.Cashew production in Guinea Conakry is a major source of income to smallholders, who usually work in isolation. The national network of STCP, led by SPCIA, has helped cashew producers to develop fanner organizations. After just one year, 60% of the farmers are working in association. Key gains from working in association include•• A more effective technology dissemination process.• New postharvest practices have been adopted to increase product quality.• Fanners are reducing costs by producing large amounts of planting materials.• Rehabilitation of old cashew small holdings is taking place at less cost.• Grouped farmers were able to increase their revenue by 15% compared to isolated fanners.Over 40% of the world cocoa outputs are produced in Cote d'Ivoire. Research funded by STCP resulted in refined methods for in-vitro multiplication of cocoa. Plants from in-vitro laboratories are now in nurseries, and ready to be sent to fanners. The massive use of this propagation method will be instrumental in increasing the availability of quality planting materials in all participating countries. Training sessions conducted by Ivorian scientists were held in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ghana.Farmers in Agboville, in the east of the Country, obtained support from STCP to improve the management of their major association, the SCABO Cooperative. Some 90 farmer/trainers are now sharing their knowledge in quality control with their associates.In addition, their links to STCP gave SCABO price information from the London exchange. Knowledge sharing through STCP has allowed them to improve their price negotiations with purchasers and judge the best times to make their sales. A larger share of the export price is now in the hands of the smallholders.Data on production as well as socioeconomic elements, particularly issues related to child labor in cocoa smallholdings, is being addressed in the surveys taking place in all STCP participating countries. Data obtained will assist policy makers to implement options for the overall sustainability of the cocoa sector, and to improve the well being of populations dependent on cocoa production.National networks have been established in all five participating countries. The regional coordination unit, established through the financial support of the American Cocoa Research Institute (CMAIACRI), has conducted a series of country visits and activities to support the development of the national networks. This has resulted in strengthened STep stakeholders in all countries, has facilitated concerted actions for problem-solving activities, and has built strategic alliances. All these are facilitating technology adaptation and adjustment to client needs, as well as exploring ways in which policy options can be developed to stimulate growth in the cocoa sector.PART IIThe workshop was held in Ibadan, Nigeria, from 4-7 September 200 I. The participants included delegates from West Africa as well as from other participating countries outside the region. Representatives from industry, donors, STCP collaborators, and national and regional network partners were also present.The objectives of the STCP Implementation Assessment Workshop were:• Assessment of activities: progress and output, including constraints during the implementation process. • Gaps identification in the roles required for each of the partners to facilitate the sustainable systems, and to identify priority areas for research, human resource development, and capacity building. • Discuss problems, limitations, and perspectives. • Discussion over future direction in all areas.• Pilot projects: presentation of a framework for the pilot projects and the next step towards developing proposals. • Introduce the work on child labor issues in cocoa.The four days of the Implementation Assessment Workshop were divided between work group sessions and plenary sessions. A closing session was organized to develop concluding remarks.Smallholders are the backbone of cocoa economies in West Africa, but their production systems must become more productive and diversified iffurther competitiveness ofthe cocoa sector is to be achieved. However, given the small size of the cocoa farms and the physical dispersion of producers, their capacity to pursue innovations is limited.Besides access to modern technologies, farmers in West Africa need to acquire business planning, management, and marketing skills. The challenge is to develop farmer organizations, which can effectively provide business services to smallholder members. This must be done taking into consideration that different groups have different expectations for raising their social standards. The key issue remains how marketing should be improved to reduce the chain, ensure that farmers finance their harvests, increase their real incomes, and have the adequate services (transport, storage, etc.) to move cocoa quickly and cost effectively from farm to ports.The following activities will offer the different methods available to give the help that farmers need:• training in smallholder agribusiness enterprise • information systems for management • managing quality supplies • the establishment of a viable farmer organization • access to credit and finance (a must to take full advantage of innovations) • improvement in logistics • equipping farmers to better deal with buyers • farmers introducing their own traceability schemes • support to handle diversification to other crops • confidence building • strong links with the activities on market information systems component.The progress achieved in \"Improving management practices of smallholders\"; \"Develop information systems for improved management practices\"; \"Improve the ability of smallholder producers to compete in markets\"; \"Establishment of a pilot farmer ownership model (pOM)\" and \"Study and possible solutions to access to finance and credit for tree crop farmers\" are presented in activities 1-9 of this section.The main achievements obtained by STCP in this component are:• Effective extension supports have been given through a program of village business promoters (VBPs) with the training of36 farmers in Cameroon assisted by ACDIIVOCA. They are trained in smallholder agribusiness enterprise (planning, transparency, management and accounting), characterization on farms and existing production systems (to collect baseline data from farms), and closer detail of case studies of agribusiness.• An information system to management services has been achieved with the introduction of two pilot cooperatives in Cote d'Ivoire: accounting software and training provided for users of the software. This activity was run by SOCODEVl • The necessary quality control equipment was acquired and training in quality control provided to achieve product quality improvement at the level of both producers and cooperatives. This activity was run by SOCODEVI in two pilot cooperatives in Cote d'Ivoire. Confidence has been built to the extent that purchasers now use the quality control assessment from the cooperatives as support payment documents. • EIDI provided assistance to implement Farmer Ownership Model (FOM) in Nigeria to improve farmer income and access to markets. The first step was to form the Tonikoko Farmers' Societies and the second was the establishment of the Tonikoko Farmers' Union. The last step will be setting up the Tonikoko Trading Company.Access to Finance and Credit for Tree Crop Farmers were ready.The main constraints reported were problems with communications (roads are difficult, especially in torrential rain, and telephones and radio communication are nonexistent in several places) and lack offunds for increasing extension activities.Identifying special donors for the rural economic infrastructure (transport, communications, extension services, and public services), which directly affects the rural sector's productivity and the rural population's quality of life, could be a way around these problems. Strengthening links with other potential partners (NGOs, donors, etc. who work in the same area) could profit their own installations, communications, and investment in the zone.Activity 1. Improve management practices of the smallholder Person in charge. Mr 1. Mbarga Force Summary. Development can only be sustainable if carried out through local organizations composed and controlled by the rural poor. The emphasis of the Activity is that fanners acquire business planning. management and. marketing skills to devt:lop smal1holders' agribusiness enterprises. An effective ex1ension support is provided through a program of village business promoters. (VBPs) assisting in fanner organizations and the development of smallholder agribusiness enterprises. Farmers, both men and womeD, should be fully involved in extension. This is the most cost-effective way of reaching thousands of producers.Candidates for becoming a YEP-and it is ensilled that some of the candidates are women-are trained in extension methods and variolls methods of management, planning, quality control, and transparency. The VUPs arc then selected on a competitive basis. They arc assisted and evaluated by teclmical assistance advisory committees (f AACs), and are provided with ongoing training and oversight. The T AACs help set the agenda, have supeIVisory powers, and participate in evaluations of the perfOIrnance of extension agents. As farmer groups become established, they •will begin to asSlUlle a proportion of the cost of extension seIVices, so that, over four to five years, the program would he self-financing.Progress. In Cameroon, 36 fanners have been given basic training in smallholder agribusiness enterprise.Trnining in characterization of farms and existing production systems followed this, in order to collect baseline data from farms, to help smallholders produce organic cocoa so as to improve their income. The third stage of trnining looked in closer detail at case studies of agribusinesses.ConstraintL Communications, monitoring activities in the field, and ways of implementing the extension system were major problems. Lack of fW1ds prevents other organizations joining the neru'ork.Future work. Bringing the smallholder tree crops fanners into direct contact with exporters and business, asswing product quality through to the buyer, and bringing viable prices to tile fanner. The establishment of an effective communication system, providing infonnation on prices and potential national and international buyers; collecting data on quantities marketed. ecological production systems, and calls for bids; exchanging information between farmer organizations on prices in various local markets on tree crops, and acquisition, user costs, and maintenance of computer and commwllcations equipment; the posting of a website. Sensitization and orientation on cocoa product quality, to improve negotiating power.Marketing, involving training in quality control, the construction of fann gate warehouses, negotiations with partners (price setting, contracts, etc.); and market organization (collection, quality checking, payment for removal or storage of product, etc.).Improved production system: training in vegetative multiplication, cropping practices, establislunent of a quality plants distribution system, and of chemicals supply system.Support for funner organizations and plantation management system: training in aceoWlting, the development of strategic plans and agrobusiness enterprise plans, and their implementation; training in monitoring and evaluation; exlernal mid-term evaluation by ACDI-VOCA of the level of ownership of the agribusiness system by the farmers.Budget US$45 000Country. Cameroon Activity 2. Develop an infonnation system for improved management practices Penon in charge. :Mr Maxime Prud'Homme~ SOCODEVI Summary. Infonnation systems for fanners involve multiple objectives: sustainability. productivity, and equity. The project is intended to establish an infonnation system for the management of services to members to allow the cooperatives to: manage their organization; manage quality supplies; and to improve product quality at the fann and at the cooperative by putting premium on good quality beans and improving quality control within cooperatives.The management infonnation system will then be easier to introduce into other cooperatives in Cote d. 'Ivoire with the same needs, as wil1 some elements of the system in the other four STep cOlllltries.Progress. AecoWlting software has been introoueed to the two pilot cooperatives in Cote d']voire, based on their needs, and training provided for users of the software.Future work. Three cooperatives will receive the same support at the pilot cooperatives in 2000-200: these activities arc still at the experimental stage, but enough progress has been made for lessons to be learned for their implementation in other cooperatives. The management software will be installed in three other cooperatives currently supported by SOCODEVI; for quality control, needs [or equipment will be identified and met; premises will be prepared for the quality control wlit; information will be provided on cocoa quality standard::;; a training and information program on cocoa quality standards will be conducted.Budget Future work Experimental design and implementation of a cocoa «traceability\" mechanism,1n order to assure clear identification of the origin of the product at factory level (identity of producer, information on thc plantation, productions conditions, etc.).The management software will be installed in three other cooperatives currently supported by SOCODEVl; for quality control, needs for equipment will be identifled and rnet~ premises will be prepared for the quality control lU1it~ infonnation \", .. il1 be provided on cocoa quality sumdards; a training and infonnation program on cocoa quality standards will be conducted.Budget by the traders on the smallholder farmers, by recommending bottom-up and customer-driven fuuUlc:ial products and support services which \\,\"'Quld allo\\\\o' easier access to credit and input supplies, as well a.~ by seeking out fmancial institutions and ethical buyers willing to provide such facilities.Progreu. Meetings have been held between EfDI and the implementing partner to review the tenus: of reference and develop work schedules and an action plan. A checklist of questions was developed as reference material to guide discussions and interviews. These are constantly reviewed to meet specific requirements and target audiences.A literature reviev.r has been conducted of available data on fInance and credit, and input supplies in the cocoa subsector. Consultative meetings have been held with major stakeholders in the Nigerian cocoa industry: fanners groups, cooperatives, traders~ agrochemical companies. micro-finance institutions. warehousing companies, processors, research institutions, banks and development finance institutions.A three-part fmnnce and credit study report has been produced, ac;;ses~lng the current situation and proposing an intervention model that incorporates the smallholder producer in the cocoa financing fmmcwork.Future ,,:ork. Seminar with the Nigeria STep network, key players in the cocoa subsector in Nigeria, and financial institutions to comment on the draft report \"Study of constraints and solution to access to finance and credit for tree erop fanners\".Budget US$5000Start date. 19 December 2000Country. NigeriaSince 1984 Guinea has had a more liberal free market orientation because of a shift in political regimens and it has been necessary to contribute to the creation of a new agribusiness private sector capable of replacing state control. The Agence pour la Commercialisation Agricole (ACA) was created to offer marketing services, guarantee transparency, help to create an efficient organization, and to transfer knowledge.The ACA worked with STCP on the activity \"Capacity creation and strengthening for producers associations\".As in cocoa, it is necessary to develop cashew farmer organizations that effectively provide business services to their farmer members. Through these different activities, \"Training of cashew cultivation\", \"On-farm cashew plantation monitoring\", 'Training for producers in marketing techniques\" and \"Capacity creation and strengthening for producers associations\" the following progress was made:• Farmers were trained in both theoretical and practical work and lead farmers were identified to extension on cashew production. • Meetings, surveys, and workshops were conducted to train cashew extension agents.• Training courses were conducted to increase the volume of the cashew market and lead farmers were identified to extension. • Legal, efficient, and sustainable groups were established and those already existing were strengthened by means of a survey about cashew culture, meetings, and training.The constraints focused on producers' lack of information on the use of the cashew tree crop. Cashew farmers are quite isolated and the gaps in the information market (such as market prices) and the difficulties in accessing credit must be improved in order to achieve the objectives in these activities. Difficulties in communication and deficient access were other constraints found in the area. Proposals for improvements in this situation arc similar to those for cocoa. Summary. Identified and promoted appropriated tcchnology by extension, \\\\'hich could contribute to improve cashew production in Guinea. Constraints for cashew production must be identified and practices for correction must be suggested to arrive at a sustainable cashew system that improves smallholders well being. Goa]s will be to increase the means available to SNPRV extension agents in Guinea, to promote cashew production techniques to fanners, and to expand monitoring and extension provision to all potential cashew production zones.Progress. :Meetings and surveys were conducted with 11 865 families and 1131 fanners and plantations, with Current global cocoa production is highly concentrated, with significant expansion limited to the world's largest producers. In West Africa two major producers, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, make up almost 60% of the total world output totaling nearly 1800 tonnes in 2000. Most of the production increases have occurred in these two countries, and mainly by migrant settlers. Nevertheless, the threat from cocoa pests and diseases coupled with the age of some plantations and the depletion of soil fertility, are increasingly causing significant reductions in yield/ha of cocoa. Sustainable productivity improvements of cocoa smallholdings must be attained to increase farmer Incomes.One way forward is the dissemination and adoption of production and postharvest innovations, with the emphasis on the rehabilitation of old plantations, suitable soil fertility replenishment approaches, and the reclamation of deforested lands. All these, supported by an appropriate environment policy that improves the efficiency of the tree crop sector, will contribute to reducing poverty and increase the competitiveness of cocoa.The purpose of this session was to evaluate the effects of farmer management in the cocoa system and the establishment ofmuIti-species cocoa plantations on deforested land to reduce deforestationThe initial progress in \"Ecology of cocoa agroforests\" (activity 1 0) is:• The ecosystem integrity is potentially maintained by the cocoa smallholder farming system • There are more uninfected cocoa pods in the treatment where fungicide is applied at the recommended rate • Fungicides have a negative impact on earthworm casts • In canopy gaps, decomposition rates are reduced in the case of rapidly decomposing material • Survival of the cocoa was the same in the presence or absence of shade, and soil water and soil temperature appear more important than shade \"Cocoa agroforest establishment of deforested land\" (activity II) achieved the following status:• Knowledge of biological and nutrient cycling aspects in establishing cocoa agroforest in Chromolaena odorata and imperala cylindrica has been obtained. • Establishment criteria on a range of exotic and indigenous fruit trees.• The \"Socioeconomic context ofland-use change\" was published and distributed.Person in charge. Dr L. Norgrove, IlTA Summary. To know the charncteristics of existing cocoa system to enable the smallholder to maintain the integrity in the ecosystem. The project is intended to conduct an ecological and economic characterization of existing systems; to examine the landscape level function of cocoa systems within a mosaic of different land uses; to establish cocoa systems in degraded land and assess the carbon stock and to examine the effects of management (shade/fungicide) on thc ecosystem function and calbon and nutrient cycling. Trials are being conducted to look at: comparison of decomposition rates of plant material in secondary forest fragments. mature cocoa fanns and young fallows and the effects of fungicide upon decomposition; effects of fungicide application upon pod COlmts and soil fauna~ effects of shade tree reduction upon sustainability criteria~ decomposition dynamics in canopy gaps; effecls of fertilization uJX>n decomposition rates of plant material in lnga edulis cocoa agroforests established on degraded land.Progress. Some early tentative conclusions have been achieved over the fungicide use. shade and other management: • Material placed in mature cocoa systems decomposes at a similar rate to that in forests and much [Clster than in [allO\\\\'s. This suggests that ecosyskm integrity is potentially maintained by cocoa.There are more uninfected cocoa pods in the treatment ''''here fungicide is applied at the recommended rate.Fungicide application at the recommended rate has a negative impact upon earthworm cast production.A reduced application is no different from the no-spray control.In canopy gaps, decomposition rates of fast material are reduced, however. slow-decomposing material is lUlBffected.Establishing agro forests on degraded land is initially a disturbance and, even two years laler, the decomposition ability of the soi1 is impaired. Fertilizt.!T hCls no effect so far. The three main components of the project goal are poverty alleviation, biodiversity protection, and enhanced environmental services. The working hypothesis is that the conversion of degraded Chromolaena odorato.and Imperata cylindrica fallow lands to agronomically sustainable agroforests would favorably affect each of these components.Activitie •. On-fann establishment trials on degraded/deforested lands for cocoa and plantain to address the key agronomic constraints of soil nutrient management, weed and pest management, and the related issue of shade management. Fanners will select treatments frpm the initial set offered, on the basis of their analyses of problems, opportunities and constraints.On-fann establishment trials on degraded/deforested lands for improved exotic and indigenous fruit trees. Improved gennplasm available for testing with fanners includes avocado, mango, guava, citrus, cassamango, papaya, and oil palm.Understanding the socioeconomic context sUIToWlding agroforestry decision-making. To ensure appropriate and equitable interventions in cocoa agroforests, socioeconomic factors affecting decision-making and access to resources will be investigated.Output. and the difficulty of application farmers mrcly use recommended spray programs. The insecticides used are a risk to bwnans and also kill nontarget and even beneficial organisms, thereby decreasing the biodiversity in the cocoa ecosystems.To develop an effective mycoinsecticide against the two main species of cocoa mirids, Distantiella theobroma and Sahlbergeila singulari is the objective of this activity, as well as providing training for scientists from CRIG, Ghana, and IRAD. Cameroon, in the use of entomopathogcns in the management of cocoa myrids, and to extend ongoing research activities in Ghana to Cameroon. This work supplements ongoing collaborative research between CABI and CRIG on the 'Development of my coin sec tic ide and pheromones for cocoa myrids in Ghana' funded by DFID (UK).Progress. Training was provid~d in Nairobi for one scientist each from Ghana and Cameroon. Surveys were then conducted in Ghana to obtain pathogens of cocoa myrids from farms and forests in the Eastern region. Myrids were collected from some of the fanns. hut no pathogens were isolated. However, within the DFID-fWlded project, an isolate of Beauveria bass;ana was isolated from coooa myrids collected in Ghana. This isolate was mass produced, as were others collected from cocoa myrids in Papua New Guinea, and the spores harvested in Britain and packaged and shipped to CRIG. These ,,\"'ere then tested for their pathogenicity. This work is to be completed in 2002, to select the best isolate, the best formulation and application methods for its use~ and to assess its efficacy in the field. More work also needs to be conducted in Cameroon to supplement that in Ghana.Future work. The effects of mixing pesticides to combat black pod disease and myrids on the other prob]em~ evaluating the use of cocoa pod husks as a substratwn for the mass production of B. bassiana~ and sUIVeying for natwal enemies (especially pathogens) of, and using them to manage~ the cocoa stem horer (Eulophonotus myrmeleon) and other major insect pests of cocoa.Start date. 2S October 2000Country. Cameroon. Ghana Activity 13. Development phase for the biological control of black pod Person in charge. Mr P.Tondjc, lRAD Summary. A strategy for increasing fanners' incomes through reducing cost of black pod disease cuntrol is necessary and could be achieved in this activity. In Cameroon, black pod disease can cause 80010 losses in coooo limns when these are lett untreated by chemical fungicides. However, heavy use of chemicals can cause disease resistance, and non.targct effects on beneficial microorganisms. humans. and the environment.In addition to this, the prices of chemical fungicides are becoming prohibitive for the cocoa farmer.The biological control strategy, through the mass production and release in cocoa plantations of one or more natural microbial antagonists isolated from cocoa agmforest1; is expected to become a valuable tool in combating this disease, known to be the most damaging cocoa disease in Central and West Africa.Progr-ess. Field sampling, isolation, ami screening of micT(X)rganisms for their biooontrol potential against P. megakarya have been oonducted, with particular emphasis on endophytes, microorganisms which live within the plant tissue and arc thus not affected by radiation (UV or visible). The work is being conducted in four sites throughout Cameroon's cocoa-gro\\\\'ing zone, at different times of the year, to take accoWlt of changes between the dry and rainy seasons.Fungal and bacterial endophytes have been isolated and stored using the leaf disc method, the preeolonizcd plate method and cocoa pods. Some of these have been identified as potential biocontrol strains against P. megakmya.A biocontrol workshop, organized hy IRAD in collaboration with UTA, and with expert assistance from USDA, ARS, CABI Biosciences, and Mars Inc. was held in Cameroon in 2001 to provide practical training for scientists from Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote d'lvoire in the methodology of biocontrol of plant diseasc:s, with particular emphasis on cocoa black pcxl disease. A working group on the biocontrol of plant diseases was set up by the African participating countries to work on: the collection, evaluation, and sharing of materials and infonnation between institutions and countries~ the extension of known cultural control practices such as crop sanitation; developing short-tenn strategies to reduce the impact and cost of chemical fungicide: inputs; and the promotion of techniques to evaluate and improve soil health.Constraints. Lack of vehicle. and the need for more laboratory equipment and larger laboratory space.Future wOlk The field-testing of effective bioconLrol agents, in collaboration with fanners and extension workers. Four of the fungal endophytes found have been identified as \\\\'ood decay fungi. The use of these on diseased cocoa pods in cocoa farms should stop the spread of P. megakarya through cocoa pods. and speed the composting of cocoa pod husks. The composling of the husks associated with these fungal biocontrol agents could themselves be a very good strategy to combine organic fertilization and biocontrol of black pod disease in cocoa famIs. Such a program could be implemented in collaboration with fanner organizations_ Budget. US$31 ()()()Country. Cameroon quality) must be available to safely conserve biodiversity and any utilization must aim at improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the region. The efforts of the University of Reading, England, to evaluate genetic cocoa materials and include this in a database (International Cocoa Germplasm Database, lCGD), should be linked and supported by STep. Also, the \"Intermediary Quarantine\" facility at Reading is the only recognized source of cocoa genetic materials for West Mrica.Activity reports are provided in activities 14-16.West Mrican countries, as many other developing countries, need a rapid agricultural growth in order to increase food production for their populations and supply exports (mainly when supplies are regionally or globally scarce and/or highly appreciated and locally abundant).The vision is to transform cocoa production through several technological innovations and a delivery service using participatory methods, such as farmer field schools, to ensure their dissemination amongst farmers. At the hearth of this transformation is to connect research with economic growth and develop critical links to pilot projects that will be implemented in the future in each country. There is a need for profitable agribusinesses, sustainable quality cocoa supply and efficient land use.A key issue in this component is how does STCP translate technology into real income for smallholders.Economic growth depends on the ability of agents to innovate. Innovation is anything new introduced into an economic process, and it is defined as the ability to use knowledge in response to market opportunities or other human needs. Most of the innovations required to overcome market failures in cocoa (such as integrated pest control, or natural resource use) are dependent on collective action, since each farmer's productivity depends on what the neighbors do. The social issues involved in the dissemination of innovations must be considered to increase chances for success of STCP. The partnership has to make sure that the strategy implemented for technology dissemination is not a reflection of the biases of the RTI team. With these preventive measures STep will avoid the risk of negative externalities.A regional best practices package could include technical training for the growers, using participatory approaches like the Farmer Field School training method and other participatory methods for technology transfer with emphasis on sustainability (such as it is pursued in the activity of \"On-farm testing of cashew and cocoa varieties\"). Ex-ante evaluation (with mathematical models and simulation models) is recommended as a priority to estimate the value of this new technology alternative. The experimental and validation phase will come after. In the experimental phase we may find problems with the producers such as: refusal to do something that is unusual; a conflict between selling and personal consumption and a tendency to abandon the innovation proposed.The investigator or extension agent could include a suggested compensation cost for the possible failure.Diffusion and impact must be measurable for the transfer of technology processing. The first can be through a 'training curve' where a model with two parameters will show which one of them has the most weight. (bO = percentage of producers using the technology alternative for the first time and b I = a constant to express the information interchange rate by action of the transference of technology specialists). We can link this with the use of different methods of extension and with time (mainly if the production is subjected to seasonal change).Activity 14. Regional cashew survey Person in charge. Dr C. Topper, Biohybrids Summary. At the STep Regional Implementation Workshop in Ghana in May 2000, it was agreed that a survey of the constraints and opportlmities facing the cashew industries in five West African countries would be a crucial starting point. to facilitate the establishment of a regional plan of action for cashew research and development in the area. TIlls survey was conducted in January (in Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Cote d'Ivoire) and February (Ghana and Nigeria) 200 I. Its main findings were:Pe5ts and diseases. Insect pest damage is currently of much greater significance than disease problems, although this situation may change with any expansion of cashew productiun in the region. Two Hemiptera sucking pests and thrips wcre identified as probably the most economically damaging pests in the region, with other insects causing serious damage on an isolated scale or sporadically. There is an urgent need for quantitative data on the economic status of pests and diseases, including their distribution in each country, the frequency and intensity of damage caused~ and the loss of farmer income due to the different pests and diseases.Other constraints. Flowers drying out with no production: this is sufficiently serious and widespread to warrant immediate research. Bush fires and the subsequent damage to the crop is one of the major constraints to the production of cashew, which fruits towards the end of the dry season when fires are at their most devastating.Experience in other countries has shown that, as more and more farmers grow cashew, rues are almost automatically brought Wlder controLA study is required of the economics of high density planting in each of the countries, since yield potentials and input costs (such as labor for weeding) will vary considerably.More quantitative yield information is also required from a representative number of farms from the main cashew growing areas, in order to determine the yield potential and profitability of cashew in the different areas.GennplasID 3\\'ailability and impro,\"ement. There is enthusiasm for cashew in all the countries. the fanners often expanding their production with little or no support. Only in Nigeria is there some evaluated seed for sale, and even this could be substantially improvcd. The universal complaint is lack of good planting material: much needs to be done with regard to selection, introducing new material~ establishing germplasm trials for the short, medium, ami long tenus, breeding and finally distribution of planting material to fanners. Because of the long time frame for evaluating cashew material. the need to multiply good material for distribution and the importance of providing farmers with the right material, funding for a futurc regional breeding program must have the highest priority. In this connection, the techniques of tip or bud grafting to produce clones need to be introduced; without these, any trials are subject to an undesirable level of variability. It is proposed that an experienced eashew grafter give a workshop for scientists andlor technicians from each cmmtry, so as to transfer the technology as quickly and reliably as possible.Research. extension. and training. All the countries concerned (althuugh to a lesser extent in Nigeria) suffer from lack of staff. experience. and funds for cashew research and extension ClIlTent approaches are not necessarily appropriate and various proposals are made for change. The need for training at every level is highlighted, from tertiary throngh to farmer associations, most of which currently receive no support at all.Recommendations are made concerning: a workshop. trials, the production of pest and disease manuals, a literature review, the collection of quantitative data on the economic status of pests and diseases, the establishment of a network of coordinators, and an improvement to the level of commtmication. The specific objectives of this research are to: 1. Acquire fanners' knowledge about ecology and management of cocoa muItistrata systems creating explicit knowledge bases that are a durable and dynamic record 7 for a range of contrasting sites in Cameroon.2. Compare knowledge across sites with contrasting agroecological and economic coIKIitions lIT Cameroon and them more broadly across STep member countries. 3. Evaluate the implications of this local knowledge. and its distribution nationally and regionally, for planning research and extension activity. In association with achieving these research objectives, three specific capacity building aims will also be met: to educate a Cameroonian scientist in methods of knowledge acquisition and interpretation~ to raise awareness of loeal knowledge about multistrata cocoa and its relationship to scientific and technical objective~ and to develop a regional network of people and institutions working on developing knowledge about multistrala cocoa through \"mch knowledge and experience can be exchanged amongst STep members.Progress. Capacity building: a Cameroonian scientist has received extended education in agroforestry research and methods of knOWledge acquisition. A national workshop on knowledge acquisition was held at the UTA humid forest ecoregional center in Yaounde. Knowledge acquisition: Local knowledge has been acquired on the establishment and management of cocoa agroforests in four different localities distinguished by agroecological zone, popUlation density and market access.Future work. Year 2: educate the Cameroonian scientist in methods of knowledge analysis and interpretation; validate the local knowledge hase with a large stratified random sample and map knowledge rustribution across the entire cocoa producing region of southern Cameroo~ and hold a regional training workshop on knowledge acquisition.Year 3: the research would be completed in year three when it is intended to: compare fanners' knowledge across STCP member countries in the region (in conjunction with DFIDand BCCCA-funded projects in Ghana); and consider the implications of local knowledge for research and development with goverrnnent bodies and fanner organizations.It ;s anticipated that the rmdings will shape both the design and delivery of extension messages and the scope of national research programs. The nature ofth. research will deliver sustainable capacity in participatory research methods in the region, as well as the research outputs.Budget. USS35 000 Start date. 12 January 2000 COUDtry. CameroonThe first presentation was: \"A conceptual framework for a pilot project for farmers: USGS products available and the pilot integrated production and marketing information system in southern Cameroon\". This presentation can be linked to the complementary activities of West Africa Land Information System. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) gives support to producers' associations in Cameroon to develop GISsupported information systems for tree crop production and marketing. It provides information to potential buyers and increases the transparency of the cocoa market. Cocoa is produced by low-income farmers in tropical regions, and consumed in richer countries. Therefore, the demands of consumers must be taken into full account. Consumers want total transparency in \"process\" attributes, as well as the social and environmental context of production. Labor practices are of major concern.STCP should guide efforts to include securing the databases that will allow the development of web-based information systems to document the package practices. These objectives are included in an assessment of the viability of carbon sequestration in sustainable cocoa. Given the small sizes of farms, tracing of products to origins must be provided at a level of aggregation covering several thousands of farms. The unit being traced or checked for quality could be a farmer organization or aggregation of farmer organizations within a given area. The challenge here is how large the \"unit\" should be, how the quality checks can be implemented near to farm gate, and how will this be funded.\"Identity preservation and improved market conditions in West Africa\" was another presentation, linked with \"Tree crops supply chain information systems\" (numbers 17 and I &) including \"MISD activity report\" and \"Trce crops information and quality management center\" by P. Sigley, \"Nigeria tree crops information and quality management center\" by C. Akinola, and \"Quality management system pilot\" by S. Hogsbro.After the elimination of parastatal marketing boards and the appearance of new institutions, it was necessary to study the effects of competitiveness on the marketing chain, product quality and share of cocoa price received by smallholders. STCP needs to know the viability and the impact of trade policies, the innovative marketing institutions and the new market conditions in order to provide access to a strategic market for smallholder tree crop producers. Additionally, there are problems in supply and in raising the quality of cocoa beans. The most innovative proposal in the market system is identity preservation (based on product attributes and process attributes), which, with modern computing technology, it is now possible to achieve.A draft project document has been produced for introducing tools to modernize cocoa marketing. A quality management center with audit trails has been proposed to provide a commercial framework for the cocoa trade and other tree crops under the warehouse system. Its functional areas are information connections; integrating the warehousing program; management strengthening of farmer organizations (managing resources that require collective action is more difficult for farmers than individual actions and for this constraint, donor funds would be better spent strengthening the efficiency and business competence of the farmer organizations which can benefit from the inefficiency of the traditional marketing sector); trade development; transportation and handling and inputs supply.In order to know the prototype supply chain in the cocoa market in West Africa and its linkages, there is a need to assess the cost and marketing margins in each link. STCP needs to establish the links between trade and environment (both consequences of human economic activities) to ensure the sustainability of sustainable economic growth.The key issue for future STCP activities is how to develop a national or regional agency that provides product information to consumers, as well as market information to farmers. That is, to build confidence at all levels. The identity preservation system should deliver benefits to farmers as well. That is, to reduce distribution chains and increase incomes by enabling farmers to finance their harvests and sell through their own organizations. STCP needs to assess with its partners how these features influence the chocolate product marketing plans of the future.Key issues that need to be further address in this component:• Can quality identity be preserved in the cocoa supply chain?• How does STCP address traceability beyond the farm gate?• Are industry or consumers willing to pay for this information?• Will returns from such systems be sufficient for their sustainability?• lfthe current supply chain does not encourage the adoption of best practices, what do we do?• Where will costs of additional quality checks fall? On the producers?Activity 17. Tree crops supply chain information systems Penon in charge. Dr P. Sigley. CALfDr C. Akinola, EFDIlDr S. Hogsbro, ECOMINDS Summary. The payoffs from developing an M&lSD objectives are likdy lo increase the ability of farmers to improve their sharc in market decisions. Price discovery and transparency; better finance upstream, and reduced credit risk through performance visibility arc mechanisms through which ohjectivcs could be achieved.A strategy would involve the following components: quality management and identity preservation in the fonn of tagged hags or contnmers, an audit trail to cover the physical location and assessed quality, and market transparency; licensee performance, with participant perfonnance registered against contracts, independent arbitration, market supervision and a disciplinary regime; collateral management and market information, covering the current O\\\\TIt:r and inlert:sted parties, control over the process, stock positions, and research infonnation; a fanner intonnation portal, providing infommlion on world prices, extension support, environmental conditions, discussion forums, and ~upportjng fann diversification; an international licensing organization, providing standardization of processes and regulation, local agency representation in each country, sustainable funding through subscription and transaction fees, and a system licensor; a system operator, in thc fonn of an independent organization, operating tmder license, providing service-level agreements, and ensuring integration with supplychain systems.Progress. A draft project initiation document has been produced, with thc following components• quality management and identity preservation; licensee performance; collateral management and market infomlation; a farmer infonnation portal; international licensing org,mization; and a system operator.Constraints. Funding; regulatory framework at nationallcvcl; the existing up-country framework; political sanctions.USGS work on land registr)• and extension management; IW'UNDO, AfricaLink, and Busy]nlt.:met on the upcountry infrastructure; guarantee rmd clearing infrastructure; local IT initiatives; link to futures and physical exchanges; ICCO projects, including a pilot project on price risk management for cocoa farmers; and the improvement of cocoa marketing and trade in liberalizing cocoa-producing countries.2001-2002 activities: QMS pilot project; dctailed evaluation of donor support; presentations to trade and industry; licensing organization; system o\\\\Tlership.Quality center would be managed by independent warehouse keepers amI regulated by independent organizations. It would share a satellite link with the local fanners' group and consist of an administrative center and a testiIlg center~ dealing with \\'arious qualities of cocoa, coffee~ cashew, fruits, vegetables, and other crops. It would be located near to the headquarters of the farrnt!rs' group and a bank olTering facilities for individual farmer's accounts or a central account. Such a center ,,,'ould offer independence of m.magement, and would have the support of farmers, cooperatives Dnd the government; as well as that of the donor institutions, and the banking amI finance sector. It would need to operate with \\vell organized farmers' groups. It would represent an opportunity to share infrastructure (telecommunications, roads, electricity supply, ctc.), link farmers' groups, require the development of sound market practices and have a progressive impact on business conduct, and would provide a basis for the Sustainable agricultural development depends to a great extent on sound economic policy to address adequately the problems of natural resource management. Because of their nature (smallholder based and linked to world markets), tree crops can generate both macroeconomic gains and increases in smallholder incomes. ITo identity and promote policy and strategy options that improve the efficiency of the tree crops sector, several steps have been made by STCP: discussion with researchers, donors, NGOs, and industry; experts have been selected; the child labor issue has been incorporated in STCP in order to examine and formulate a plan, and studies about the impact of technological change and policies have been developed.\"Cocoa marketing in West Africa and child labor issues in cocoa system\" (numbers 19 and 20) activity includes \"An action plan to address child labor issues in cocoa systems\", by J. Hill; \"Economic assessment of new institutions for cocoa marketing from West Africa: bulk transport and identity preservation\" by Abbott and Masters, and \"Increasing farmers incomes from cocoa production in West Mrica: some notes\". The two presentations in this session, \"Analysis of alternative approaches of marketing in West Mrica, policies, and economic impact\" and \"Social responsibility and agricultural systems in West Africa: cocoa labor studies\", were based on those activities.The suggested policies must be addressed to increase environmentally friendly practices, to discourage abusive labor practices for children, and to create product differentiation (improving quality control and obtaining premium payments to farmers and others in the supply chain). However, the policies for development must cover household food security and, only after this, assure long-term sustainability. Poverty alleviation and sustainable natural resource use will be complementary but this may take generations.Tree crops like cocoa and cashew have the potential to be a major force in reducing poverty. Four policies have been suggested to enable such potential to be realized: (1) removing taxation of exports (2) providing reliable currency for saving during booms, (3) unlocking the collateral value of perennial crops, and (4) branding and price discrimination to increase the market share without depressing the prices 2 In addition, there is an increasing need for:• Macropolicies to stimulate the rural sector (including monetary policies), to better the management of price spikes, and price declines; and, better national governance of the revenues.• Policies that promote development and strengthening of farmer organizations.• Policies that promote adequate use of inputs. Sanders showed how increasing farmers' incomes through price formatting cooperatives in marketing and transport and in management of household requirements allow farmers to find the best option for selling. Also, in order to get rid of the high share of price taken by middlemen, the farmer organizations must work to decrease the links in the chain ancl/or the marketing margins in each link.Improved quality control at the farm and maintaining this along the supply chain makes greater returns to the farm. The benefits of tagging, warehousing, and computerized information systems (increased guarantee of quality in the process, reducing costs, and increasing market margins for producers) must be valued and industry and national government need to finance this innovation.There are as well policies from importing countries that may be implemented in the near future and that may impose a bad-case scenario for tree crops and smallholders. For example, Europe might raise the standards on its imports, which smallholder farmers could not meet. Policy reforms then must be implemented both at the national and intemationalleve1. 1Policies that address reinvestments in tree crops should address two dichotomies: the first, over space, reflects the combination of dispersion of producers. The second dichotomy applies over time dimension: long-and short-term interests and perspectives must be reconciled?Since May 2000 the cocoa industry has been under pressure to ensure that the cocoa products they import are not produced under child traffic or exploitative practices. Cocoa industry representatives and other stakeholders signed a protocol about this situation on 19 September 2001, a framework for cooperation was identified and baseline surveys for compiling information about producers and their employment practices are being developed.Employment elasticity of agriculture in most STep participating countries and in Africa in general is low, and rural as well as non-rural areas are abundant in labor. 3 Promotion oflabor-intensive innovations will be desirable in tree crops. This will generate employment and income within the non-farm economy (demand for inputs, food services, sewing, processing, flour, pottery, etc.). Policies should search to stabilize household income to pay for children's education and avoid child labor. In addition, households will have income to allocate reserves for low price cycles or climatic adversities. There is also a need to avoid policies that will lead to premature mechanization off arming practices in tree crop smallholdings.Person in charge. Dr J. Hill, USAID Summary. There is a growing concern that some agricultural goods in developed country markets are being produced WIder exploited fonns oflabor practices in West Africa. Cocoa and chocolate have become a focal point to gamer attention on the child labor issues. At the ~e time, at present, monitoring and trade systems do not exist to allow products to be traced to origins, making it difficult to differentiate products in terms of social, economic 2 or environmental practices used in production and harvesting of cocoa. And~ given the lack of information, it is difficult to develop appropriate interventions to address constraints or circumstances allowing unscrupulous or irresponsible practices to be engaged in.In order to better understand the type of problems that exist, generate information useful in designing and monitoring the success of interventions, and provide a framework under which an international coUaborative working effort can be mOWlted, our approach is to use the Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STep) as a framework to conduct additional studies and consultations in West Africa. The initial studies that will be conducted over the next six months (phase I) will look at developing the database of knowledge required to design future substantive activities targeted at the community level (Phase II) by early 2002.Perhaps the single most important outcome of these research efforts •will be to put into place new methods for product identity preservation, thereby providing a system to docwnent key aspects of cocoa production. harvesting. and handling, including labor practices on the farms.It is envisioned that international consultations and collaboration will be needed, and is critical to the successful outcome of this program. A special working group of labor practices under STCP will be fonned and can SClVe as the coordination vehicle. Consultations with the following groups (but not limited to these groups) will be necessary: USAID. US Department of Labor, ILO, ICCO, UK Task Force, CAL, international and local West African NGOs, CMAIACRI, CAOBISCO Task Force, UNICEF, West Africa governments, and various international foreign affairs ministries. In addition, close collaboration and input will be needed from implementing groups that are on the ground delivering goods and services, such as UTA and other international research groups, international and local West African NGOs, national trade and industry groups, government p()licy markets, national agricultural research systems, and national and community-based producer organizations. Under the premise that the tree crop system is a social ecological system that must be sustainable, standards of sustainability will allow a developing system under a desirable trajectory, appropriate thresholds, and correct elasticity.Causes of unsustainable resource management were identified as population growth (additional demands for subsistence goods which put pressure on resources), property rights (focused in the allocation of property rights), poverty (a lack of resource regeneration), and prices and government policies (ambiguous effect of input subsidies, land taxation).The elaboration of standards of sustainability will include indicators of agroecosystem performance and will draw on the results obtained by STCP.With the key elements identified, the future work will be established in three stages: technical roundtable with review papers, consultation on feasibility and multilevel implications identification before arriving at the goal which is to deliver more efficiently what a consumer wants and, at the same time, to ensure a robust supply. The implications of implementing the standards will be evaluated with research institutions, NGOs, social organizations, and the chocolate industry both at national and regional levels.Information and communications technology at the STep Dr Carol Knight presented \"The STep web site, uses and perspectives\".The concept behind the leT strategy of STCP is not complex, and connects the supply chain, which involves producers, processors, traders, the industry, and consumers. The Steering Committee will approve sufficient funding for this activity. Facilitating coordination and cooperation among program partners for efficient implementation is part of the concept. The components in this strategy are the STep web site (http://www.treecrops.org), the tree crops intranet (http://treecrops.intranets.com), the list server, and a database. The lack of complexity of the system will make it easier to teach to STep participants. The goal is to promote information sharing amongst partners and globally. Databases of standard sets of information will be developed and housed at the STep regional office. Email conferences on key issues will be part of the strategy. I It is expected that each country will develop \"Country nodes\" to increase the flow of information sharing?Activity 21. Developing standards of sustainability for sustainable tree crop systems Per,on In charge. Dr S. Weise, lIrA Summary. Social ecological systems (SES) go through cycles of reorganization, conservation, exploitation, and collapse. They evolve over time, and cycles occur at different temporal and spatial scales or levels. It is necessary to Wlderstand what drives the system, and to identity thresholds of resilience in order to avoid catastrophic system collapse. T lee crop systems are REB.The system rnlL~t be sustainable in three ways: socially. economically, and ecologically_ Sustainahility is a dynamic conccpt~ there is no single optimal combination of the components, and there is continuous change along sustainable development trajectories. When working towards sustainability. \\ve must: not force systems into a static state; keep the evolution of the system on a desirable trajectory~ identify key system thresholds; build flexibility and resilience into the systcm~ and develop adaptive capacity.Standards of sustainability are necessary to create conditions to allow systems to develop along desirable pathways \\\\ithin desirable boWldaries; to monitor systems, including pilot activities; to promote programs to strengLhcn weaknesses in systems; and to design approaches for identity preservation and product traceability.The goal of this is to deliver what the conswner wants more efficiently, while ensUring a sound basis for a robust supply. We must focus on the bulk of the production, but not ignore niche opportunities.Future work. The key elements to be considered arc: production system resilience~ environmental externalities; labor practices (in the whole sector); farmer organization and management; knowledge and information transfer pathways; credit and fInancial systems; profitability and equity; market chain efficiency; and product quality. This will be done in three stages:Phase}: a tcclmical round table, with a commission reviewing papers by component before the round table; a meeting oftcchnical resource persons at the round table; the identification of technical components and the basis of the sustainability factors; and a set of standards proposed and possible knowledge gaps requiring investigation identified.Phase 2: a consultation on feasibility, with commercial and developmental institutions and organizations, to review the practicality of the standards proposed and integrate those elements necessary to implement and promote the standards.Phase 3: multilevel implications identification with producer, government, trade, and industry representatives to review the significance of the proposed standards for the dit1'erent interest groups and identify the implications of the proposed standards at the local, national, and international levels (economics, trade, etc.).Budget US$SO 000Start date. 1 December 2001Country. Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire. Guinea, Ghana, and Nigeria 6.0 Plenary session Future direction of the STCP Jeff Hill opened this plenary session with a review of the previous two days and an introduction to the day's activities. The first speaker was Jose Luis Rueda: \"The performance measurement plan (PMP) at the STCP: importance and benefits\". The document had been prepared by STCP consultant Leslie Fox.The performance measurement plan (PMP) is an element of a strategic plan for STCP. However, STCP needs to develop two of the elements incorporated in all PMP' s in order to measure its performance at the program andlor activities level:• Results framework: hierarchy of results (strategic objectives, intermediate results and sub-results) linked by causal relationships. Could be constructed during the strategic planning. • Performance indicators for each result, • Developing an approach and methodology for data collection (baseline and progress).A strategic plan allows an approach for the program to be focused on:• Objectives (to improve the well-being of smallholders and to develop sustainable tree crop systems). These are strategic objectives and contribute towards achieving a program goal. • Results (increasing productivity of high quality, improved efficiency in the marketing chain, increased competitiveness of African tree crop product in the international market, improved livelihoods for farmers and conservation of the natural resource base and biodiversity). These are intermediate results and subresults and contribute towards achieving a strategic objective program.The key achievement indicators at the strategic objective level have been defined as:STCP strategic objective: \"Improve the ecollomic alld social well being of smallholders and the sustainability of tree crop systems\"Indicator 1The number of smallholders that indicate increase in rural incomes, and reduced vulnerability to major threats to their livelihood assets,The number of countries that have implemented socially acceptable labor systems in the production of agriculture based raw materials.Since May 2001, STCP has been concerned to incorporate a new expected result: 'socially acceptable labor practices are used in cocoa production in West Africa' and the PMP may be used to design the results framework.The planning for PMP includes the following steps: preparation, approval by the Steering Committee, implementation, developing of performance targets, validation exercise (results, indicators and targets), performance monitoring data sheets, stakeholder training, baseline data collection, an annual report and a performance external review (USAID).The following points were suggested for future actions on the PMP:• When can we say that one objective has been achieved if this achievement was in a small area? (issue of hierarchical levels). • What is the responsibility of STCP?• Without good quality definitions of objectives, we cannot measure them.• We need practical, clear and measurable indicators.• The child labor issue.The last presentation in this plenary session was' Identification of Key Elements of Program Review and the Future Direction of STCP' by 1. HilL This was an assessment of the activities implementation and a first step towards the future of STCP. The session began with an overview for testing the success of activities. Key elements of the program were identified and future directions and challenges were added, with particular reference to cocoordinating efforts (both in cooperation with regional and international organizations and with service agencies and groups at country level), and the necessity to access other expertise within STCP. A call was made for improved organization and increased effort.Finally, the first steps for developing a framework pilot project were formulated:• A pilot project in each country may be focused on a geographic area, which already has producer organizations and where technology transfer and synergy is possible.  A pilot phase of efforts is proposed that will provide a framework for implementing and, in tum, testing the feasibility and impact of technical interventions and services aimed at raising the social and economic circumstances of workers, households and communities involved in tree crops production. The pilot phase will include a three-year period, with the initial two years committed to implementing the interventions; and one year aimed at assessing the impact of the alternative approaches being tested, developing the national and international alliances and mechanisms needed to scale up the efforts. The pilot phase will include seven integrated community-based pilot projects, regional (cross country) projects to support and harmonize efforts of individual pilot projects, and strategic analysis activities to develop indicators of sustainability and assess the social and economic impact of the interventions on workers, households, communities, local and multinational trading systems, producing country revenues, as well as chocolate manufacturers. The focus and heart of the effort will be the community-based integrated pilot projects. In Nigeria, Guinea, Cameroon, and Ghana there will be one pilot project implemented in each country. In Cote d'Ivoire, which accounts for nearly half of the world supply, three pilot projects will be implemented. To benefit from the ongoing studies, the pilot projects will not be initiated until findings from the studies are available. However, initial planning will proceed to ensure timely implementation, so that activities are on the ground by the next crop campaign. The pilot phase will make important contributions to the efforts being taken by industry, governments, and development agencies to address and implement the \"Protocol\". They will help establish what approaches and systems are credible in systemically tackling the problems of child trafficking, the worst fonns of child labor, and the poverty that underpins these problems.A key commitment of the STCP is then to get child labor issues addressed in the pilot project locations, focusing on workers, households, and communities where cocoa is produced and marketed. Six types of interventions need to be in place and servicing the pilot project locations. They include: (a) monitoring the conditions of work, (b) trafficking interventions, (c) labor recruitment and placement, (d) community-based social production, e) community-based basic education, and (f) research to assess the severity of problems and the impact of anti-child labor and trafficking activities. This does not include the full range of child labor issues or efforts that will need attention in West Africa. There are strategic needs for building national and regional capacity to tackle child trafficking and labor issues for rural and urban areas across West Africa.The national networks were created to ensure the participation of all the stakeholders and to coordinate STep activities at country level. Each national network has about 15 members from the affiliated organizations and works in the four components of the STCP program. The chairperson is elected for a two-year period and represents the network on the Steering Committee. Since their nomination and formal inauguration, the national networks have been represented at all meetings and workshops concerning STCP. With regard to tree crops within an agricultural production system, the STep is a social, economical and ecological sustainable system; it develops a strategic plan to produce measures (parameters, surveys, bio-mathematical testing methods, indicators) that provide a important number of reports, briefs and summaries. These made possible assessment activities at the Ibadan workshop and will contribute to future evaluations.Grower business support and services has delivered a package of activities to strengthen the capacity of the rural poor and their organizations.In the first year of operation, substantial progress has been made in organizing and developing tools to strengthen community based producer organizations. In Nigeria, the Tonikoko Farmers Organization was established, involving tree crop producers in 80 villages in Ondo State, and representing at least 2000 tonnes of cocoa. And the concept for a model tree crops information and quality management center was developed to help connect producers with other parts of tree crops (especially cocoa) supply chain. In Cameroon, the farmers' organization, FORCE with a membership of 50000 cocoa producers, joined and led GB&SS activities. A Farmer Field School model was developed to engage farmers in production and marketing activities. A pilot production information system was established involving 900 farmers And producers were organized to do collective marketing of their produce that generated a 15-20% increase in producer prices for those participating. In Cote d'Ivoire, activities were initiated with two cooperatives, SCAB a and Aleh-Ahun (Alepe). A model information system to support management of the cooperatives was developed and tested in the cooperatives.A model and approach for improving product quality was established, and training completed. In Guinea, the project covers several thousand farmers in two great basins of cashew production in the Northwest (Boke basin) and the Center-East (Mandiana basin).As producers become more familiar with their associations, buyers start to trust in them. However access to credit and finance must be more focused on the activities and the development of proximity rural financial services. Informal sources of credit are too costly for the smallholders. They want credit that is available on acceptable terms and when they need it. Community-based credit programs with farmers actively participating in the making oflending decisions are successful in various countries. The World Bank has considerable experience with micro-enterprise finance and its evaluations show that this form of borrowing is particularly beneficial for poor women.Problems identified with communication are important for extension elements and an effort to improve major roads and technological communication must be made (farmer isolation is compounded by a lack of communication). The activity package must be more intensified in cashew farmers where the lack of associations seems more evident.The aims of research and technology transfer are to increase the productivity and sustainability of the tree crop smallholders and that of the natural resource base of which they depend for their livelihoods. Links between technology transfer, sustainability, prices, and improved well being should be studied in greater depth in the program activities to find out the real impact of the technology changes. In any case, advances have been made in in vitro activities and in agronomic best practices.Indicators have shown that a number of technological mechanisms in place lack funds according to the constraints in activities. Meetings held during year one show a high level of institutional collaborations and multi-institutional consultations (for example, the !PM Workshop in Cotonou, November 2001)Technology transfer is an appropriate way to:• Increase productivity levels to the extent where the current' sustainable poverty' IS overcome • Move producers into upper levels, for example resource-poor producers to subsistence agriculture, smallholders to more competitive agriculture, etc. • Choose a product with both high demand and high elasticity price, such as organi c products.The challenge appears to be the development of options for highly competitive product development initiatives in rural areas. Such product differentiation should enable farmers to better compete in selected market niches. Organic products appear as one viable solution for West Africa's smallholders as it is in other parts of the world with shaded-coffee. I Technology transfer activities can be geared to address organic production of cocoa as has been done in Ecuador. Little or no use of pesticides, and increasing nutrient cycling in their fields using organic fertilizers, can be proposed to smallholders.Issues and needs that have emerged during the first year include: a) the need for improved communication among the research partners, b) the need for technical packages to be formulated (articulated) that can be extended through the GB&SS community groups, c) the need for stronger linkages between the focus community groups and the research groups, and d) the need to place a priority on the relative importance and potential impact of technical interventions that are or can be developed by the research community.This has profited from several interesting partners who have offered a series of papers (\"MISD activity report\", \"Tree crops information and quality management center\" by P. Sigley; \"Quality management system pilot\" by S. Hogsbro; \"West Africa land information system\" by E. Wood) to improve access markets and the efficiency of the tree crops sector. The United States Geological Survey is providing a new information system to achieve the objectives in this area. Transparency in the market and information about demands, price, trends and supply chain will playa basic part in the process of improving the smallholders' income and economy development However, more emphasis should be placed on urban internal demands as a way to diversify and limit the risks of the volatile international market.Issues emerging from the first year include:• The need to integrate market and information systems activities with GB&SS efforts. • The need to collect and synthesize the information that has been generated during the first year of operation, and make it available to the whole STCP coalition. This might include things such as mapping and graphic presentation of various characteristics of tree crop systems and ecologies, the amount of inputs used, characterization of types of cocoa produced by linking with the breeding and germplasm characterization activities, tree age (distribution) in different systems, characterization of environmental services in various systems, characterization of types of cashew production systems, mapping of STCP potential pilot project areas, characterization of the type of producer organizations. • The need to assist national networks with connectivity and training on new electronically based information system tools, -Africalink may be able to assist with this, and it should be coordinated with USGS to determine what types of information the national networks can be set up to provide and handle through the info systems, • The need for trade information systems support services to be provided at a regional level, and e) the need to complete and circulate the STep newsletter on a regular basis.Policies must be found to improve the well-being of farmers and sustainable systems, avoiding persistent high levels of rural poverty and simultaneously avoiding rural popUlation escaping poverty by migrating to the cities.In the first year, several studies were completed, including an examination of marketing system options for promoting the preservation of product identity, systems; baseline studies were completed or are now underway to provide quality data on the current circumstances of tree crop; analysis of the profitability of alternative technology packages were examined; and child labor studies were initiated. Further, a framework and process to develop indicators of sustainability for tree crop systems in West Africa was designed. And, a position paper on the environmental goods and services of tree crop systems was commissioned. In the next year, increased attention will be given to putting in place the analytical framework to assess the impact of alternative interventions that will be tested in the pilot projects. Analysis and studies on the labor markets and dynamics of tree crop systems will be completed. And, detailed analysis of baseline survey data to examine causal linkages between household and producer level behavior in various policy and trade systems will be examined.Policy needs to address also issues such as how to influence governments for the implementation of interventions in the tree crop sector. The child labor component will require strong governmental support. Thrce aspects should be considered: (1) how does STCP create awareness of both, the value of research, and how policy can improve the impact of interventions;(2) STep has to develop strong linkages with policy makers in all participating countries. STep should not be perceived as implementing a \"top-down approach\" but rather as a participatory program at all stages of planning and implementation; and (3) STep should make use of all information and communications technology to develop linkages with policy makers as well as with civil society.Policy needs to be focused on child labor issues in cocoa systems. Efforts have been made by special working groups to elucidate the current situation oflabor practices through credible surveys. STep will be used as a framework to conduct additional studies and consultations in West Africa. The initial studies will look at developing the","tokenCount":"15099"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9a4cf935745b4c97bcc49471aec08a5e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c12f9ba5-e143-4b9b-ba57-2472e4e26cda/content","id":"1493016110"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c2a631a8-fa37-46e5-84f4-1702c0e16501","pagecount":"9","content":"Most spiders are generalist predators and important biological control agents of various insect pests of agricultural crops. A study was conducted to determine the impact of cultural practices on the abundnace and diversity of soil surface-dwelling spiders (Araneae). Two experiments were conducted at the Chinhoyi University of Technology experimental farm, Zimbabwe, over the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 cropping seasons. The two experiments were conducted using a split-split-plot design arranged in randomized complete blocks using tillage, mulching, fertilizer and weeding management as factors, with spider diversity being a response variable. Tillage and mulching had strong effects on spider composition. In the first experiment that involved tillage system as the main plot factor, conventional tillage had a negative effect on ground dwelling taxa as evidenced by high negative taxon weights of Lycosidae, Gnaphosidae and Salticidae. In the second experiment, mulching had strong positive effects on ground dwelling spiders with the strongest being Lycosidae followed Gnaphosidae and Thomisidae. The no-tillage option increased richness by 14.5% compared to conventional tillage. The effective number of species was higher in the no-tillage option (exp^Hʹ = 2.2) than in conventional tillage (exp^Hʹ = 1.8). Our results suggest that no-tillage and retention of plant residue on the soil surface facilitate the abundance of ground and plant wandering spiders. More research is required to assess the specific benefits associated with this increased abundance, such as biological pest control.Spiders are beneficial predators that have been reported to prey on a variety of insect pests in agroecosystems including aphids, caterpillars and beetles, forming an important component of biological pest control (Clough et al., 2005;Menalled et al., 2007). In agroecosystems, the distribution pattern, abundance and diversity of spiders is usually negatively affected by high external input farming systems such as mechanical tillage, crop residue removal, fertilizer application and high weeding intensity (Butt and Sherawat, 2012). Agricultural management activities frequently cause structural degradation of habitats, followed by a concomitant loss in spider abundance and diversity. Farming systems that conserve biodiversity can play an important role in the enhancement of important ecological processes such as biological pest control (Scherr and McNeely, 2008). Evidence shows that production systems such as no-tillage, reduced use of chemical fertilizers and reduced weeding frequency support abundant and diverse communities of both predators and prey (Chaplin-Kramer and Kremen, 2012). When no-tillage is combined with retention of about 30% plant residue on the soil surface, it can provide some benefits such as increased crop yields and biological activity (Thierfelder and Wall, 2010;Soane et al., 2012;Boscutti et al., 2015;Thierfelder et al., 2015). Ground surface dwelling spiders normally take refuge and sometimes overwinter in the soil and plant debris. Their survival, diversity and distribution are strongly affected by structural disturbances and distribution of resources (Chaplin-Kramer and Kremen, 2012). It follows that no-tillage, which provides stable microhabitats, preserves nesting sites and reduces the mortality of arthropods, enhances increased spider abundance, diversity and other associated ecosystem services (Stinner and House, 1990). However, little is known about the impacts of tillage on spider dynamics under sub-humid conditions in the sub-tropics.Weeds can contribute to plant diversity in croplands, providing suitable habitats for diverse populations of herbivorous arthropods (Haddad et al., 2009). It has been shown that weed control practices destroy food resources for herbivorous insects, resulting in reduced population and diversity of available prey for spiders (Butt and Sherawat, 2012). On the other hand, fertilizer application increases plant biomass production, supporting high numbers of herbivores as well as detritivores, thus enhancing predator abundance (Siemann, 1998). Whilst plant biomass production increases under high fertility conditions, plant diversity has been shown to decline due to thinning of less competitive species (Suding et al., 2005). Evidence suggests that optimum combinations of tillage system, fertilizer application rate, mulching rate and weeding intensity can enhance spider conservation and biological pest control (Shennan, 2008). Spiders occupy a high trophic level and are classified into three main functional groups: web builders that trap their prey using silk webs, ground -and plant wanderers which wander around on soil and plant surfaces in search of their prey (Stinner and House, 1990;Kromp, 1999;Uetz, 1999). Ground wanderers, which require ground surface substrates for shelter and ambushing prey, may respond more readily to changes in ground surface architecture than plant wanderers. On the other hand, plant wanderers may be affected by plant density because they require standing plant biomass, especially during the humid season when spider and prey activity is generally high. Moreover, seasonal changes in environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture and humidity influence the response of spider community diversity to habitat manipulation.The intermediate hypothesis predicts that community diversity is high when the frequency and intensity of disturbance is at an intermediate scale (Connell, 1978). Studies from different parts of the world, mostly Europe, America and Australia, have shown the positive effects of no-tillage on agroecosystem biodiversity (Whitehouse et al., 2009;Rendon et al., 2015). Although increased arthropod species richness and diversity have been found to be beneficial for biological activity, the impact of agroecosystem complexity on arthropod diversity and natural enemy populations is not fully understood (Kerzicnik et al., 2013). Reports of work in no-tillage systems, especially from the developing world such as sub-Saharan Africa, are very scarce. The present study was conducted to determine the response of spiders under different management practices involving no-tillage systems in Zimbabwe. We tested the hypotheses that spider abundance and diversity: (1) decrease with increasing intensity of mechanical soil disturbance, (2) increase with increasing amount of plant residue cover, (3) increase with increasing amount of fertilizer application, and (4) decrease with increasing intensity of weeding.Two experiments (Experiment 1 and Experiment 2) were conducted at Chinhoyi University of Technology experimental farm, Zimbabwe, (17 ○ 20′S, 30 ○ 14′E). The site is situated in a sub-tropical environment with an altitude of 1140 m. The mean annual rainfall for the study period is 850 mm whilst mean maximum temperature during summer is 27 ○ C and mean minimum temperature during the cold dry season is 7 ○ C (Climatemps.org, 2017). The soils found in the study site are Cambisols (WRB, 1998). The site has three distinct seasons: (1) the rainy season that occurs from mid-November to mid-April each year and is generally hot and humid (hot-humid season), (2) the cool, dry and sunny season which occurs between mid-April to mid-August (cool dry season), and (3) a short dry season of intense heat which occurs between mid-August and mid-November (hot dry season) (Climatestotravel.com, 2017).The two experiments were designed as a split-split-plot in randomized complete blocks with three replications. The treatments used in the two experiments are summarized in Conventional tillage (CT) Land preparation was done using a disc plough as primary tillage followed by secondary tillage using a disc harrow.Land preparation was done using a disc plough as primary tillage followed by secondary tillage using a disc harrow. In particular: (1) the main plot factor was tillage system comprising basin planting, rip-line seeding and conventional tillage (CT); (2) the sub-plot factor was fertilizer regime comprising the no-fertilizer option, micro dosing (low fertilizer rate), medium fertilizer rate and high fertilizer rate and (3) the sub-sub-plot factor was weeding regime (i.e. weeding twice, weeding four times and clean weeding). There were, therefore, 36 treatment combinations resulting in a total of 108 plots. Crop residue was removed after harvesting in the CT plots and retained in the no-tillage plots.In particular: (1) the main plot factor was a tillage system comprising basin planting and CT; (2) the sub-plot factor was mulching rate (no-mulching, low mulch, medium mulch and high mulch) and ( 3) the sub-sub-plot factor was weeding regime (weeding twice, weeding thrice, weeding four times and clean weeding). In this experiment, there were 32 treatment combinations resulting in a total of 96 plots. Crop residue was completely removed from all plots. Mulching treatments were applied immediately after planting the test crop.Basins were made using hand-held hoes; each basin measuring about 15 × 15 × 15 cm (Sims et al., 2012). Rip-lines were made to a depth of about 10-15 cm using a tractor-mounted ripper. Conventional tillage was done using a disc plough to a depth of 25-30 cm as primary tillage followed by secondary tillage using a disc harrow. Primary tillage was done in May soon after harvesting the test crop and secondary tillage was done in October of each year. An initial fertilizer (7% N, 14% P 2 O 5 and 7% K 2 O) was applied at planting, about 5 cm below and 5 cm beside the crop seed. Top dressing fertiliser (ammonium nitrate, 34.5% N) was applied 4-6 weeks after crop emergence (WACE), on the condition that at least 40 mm of rainfall had been received. Weeding was done using a hand-held hoe according to treatments (Table 1). In the first experiment, all the fertilizer was applied according to treatments (Table 1). In the second experiment initial fertilizer was applied at a rate of 400 kg ha −1 , being compound fertilizer (7% N, 14% P 2 O 5 , 7% K 2 O) and top dressing fertilizer at 400 kg ha −1 , that is ammonium nitrate (34.5% N). In each experiment, treatments were applied on the same plots every rainy season since the establishment of the tillage trials in the 2012/2013 cropping season. In the 2013/2014 and 2014/ 2015 cropping seasons, a local medium maturity maize hybrid variety (ZAP61) was used as the test crop, planted at four seeds per planting position at a plant spacing of 0.9 m inter-row by 0.5 m intra-row. The crop was thinned to two plants per planting position at three WACE to give a plant population of 44,444 plants ha −1 . Sub-sub plots were 7.2 m wide × 8 m long and separated by 1.8 m pathways. Measurements were taken from the four central rows of the sub-sub plots after discarding 0.6 m from either side of each row.To determine the effect of tillage, fertilizer, mulching and weeding on spider abundance and diversity in the agroecosystem, spiders were sampled using unbaited pitfall traps placed within each net plot (4 central rows). Pitfall trapping is a method that is widely used in sampling of soil surface dwelling spiders (da Silva et al., 2008). The traps were made of plastic jars measuring about 13 cm diameter and 1000 cm 3 in volume. The traps were half filled with a mixture of 20% alcohol to collect and preserve fauna samples. Two pitfall traps were randomly set up within each net plot at least 2 m apart, and sampling was over two crop growing seasons in the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 agricultural calendar years. During each sampling period, traps were left in place for seven days, and were emptied after every two days by filtering out arthropod specimens through a strainer. For each seven day sampling period, spider catches from the two traps in each plot were pooled together to form one sample. The traps were then rested for 14 days by covering them with plastic sheets to avoid continuous trapping of arthropods during the resting period. A total of 216 pitfall traps in experiment 1 and 192 in experiment 2 were maintained throughout the period of study, giving a combined total of 408 pitfall traps for both experiments.Arthropod specimens were placed in 70% alcohol for further processing. Spiders were counted and identified to family level in the laboratory according to (Dippenaar-Schoeman and Jocque, 1997). Three main functional groups were identified: ground wanderers, plant wanderers and web builders (Uetz, 1999). Ground wanderers and plant wanderers wander around on soil and plant surfaces in search of their prey whilst web builders trap their prey using silk webs (Whitmore et al., 2002).A direct gradient analysis, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA), was used to establish the relationship between management practices (tillage, fertilizer rate, mulching rate and weeding regime) and spider family composition for each experiment separately. Data analysis using CANOCO 5 (ter Braak and Smilauer, 2012) indicated that the spider data had gradient lengths of 3.6 SD (experiment 1) and 4.8 (experiment 2) units which suited further analysis using CCA (Šmilauer and Lepš, 2014). CCA analyses also showed that tillage (experiment 1) and mulching (experiment 2) had the strongest effects on spider community composition. Spider data was further examined using principle response curve (PRC) analysis in CANOCO 5 (ter Braak and Smilauer, 2012). PRC is a multivariate technique which is suitable for the analysis of repeated measures which is designed to test and display the effects of treatments and their changes over time (Whitehouse et al., 2005). In the PRC, treatment curves are presented relative to a standard. In this study, the standard treatments were conventional tillage for experiment 1 and no-mulching for experiment 2. The PRC is derived from partial redundancy analysis (RDA), with the Y-axis representing axis 1 of the RDA, whereas the X-axis represents the sampling period (Whitehouse et al., 2005(Whitehouse et al., , 2014)). Permutation tests were conducted on the first canonical axis of the RDA using the Monte Carlo method to test if the PRC explained significant treatment variance. A second graph showing taxon weights was plotted together with the PRC. The taxon weight represents the weight of each single taxon for the response given in the PRC diagram. A taxon with a high weight shows that its actual response is more likely to follow the response that is shown in the PRC. A high positive value of a taxon weight shows that the contribution of the taxon to the accomplishment of the PRC is also high whilst a taxon with a high negative value shows a reversed image to the PRC (Moser et al., 2007). In this study, taxa whose weights occurred between -0.5 and 0.5 had little effect on the PRC and were not considered for further statistical tests (Whitehouse et al., 2014).Diversity indices, i.e., Shannon-Wiener entropy index, richness and evenness were computed using Paleontological Statistics (PAST) package version 3.14 (Shannon and Weaver, 1949;Hammer et al., 2001). The Shannon-Wiener entropy index was converted to true diversity using the formula: exp^Hʹ, in order to estimate the effective number of species (Jost, 2006).Damaged spiders that could not be identified to the relevant taxonomic levels were excluded from the diversity index estimation. According to Shapiro-Wilk's test for normality and Bartlett's test for homogeneity of variances, respectively, spider diversity data were found to be normal and needed no transformation. However, abundance data required transformation and were log(x+1.5)-transformed.The mixed model (Residual Maximum Likelihood, REML) repeated measures procedure was used to determine the effect of tillage, fertilizer, mulching and weeding on spider diversity data and abundance of those spider families whose taxon weights were above 0.5. Tillage, fertilizer, mulching and weeding treatments were used as fixed effects while sampling season (hot humid, cold dry or hot dry) was used as a random effect. In each experiment, the models included the three treatments and all their interactions as fixed effects. For the first experiment, the fixed model was: The 2013/2014 cropping season was slightly more humid than the 2014/2015 season (Table 2). A total of 4425 spider (Order: Areneae) specimens representing three functional groups (ground wanderers, plant wanderers and web builders) from 13 families, were collected between January 2014 and August 2015. Of all the spiders collected during the study, 88.3% were ground wanderers from four families (Corinidae, Ctenidae, Gnaphosidae and Lycosidae), 10.7% were plant wanderers from four families (Oxyopidae, Salticidae, Thomisidae and Philodromidae), whilst web builders (Araneidae) comprised 1% (Table 2).Constrained ordination using CCA showed most spider families were associated with no-tillage (Fig. 1). The first Axis accounted for 45.44% variability (eigenvalue = 0.0157) whilst the second Axis accounted for 24.15% variability (eigenvalue = 0.0095) of the cumulative explained fitted variation. Tillage had a strong effect on species composition, as both conventional tillage (Conv) and rip lines (Ripping) align with the first axis in the ordination diagram. No-fertilizer treatment, though short, aligned in the illustration, with clean weeding giving indications that the environmental variable Cle had a stronger but similar effect on species composition. High fertilizer (HF) had little effect on species composition. The family Ctenidae with a low abundance of the seven individual spiders (Fig. 1) was strongly associated with rip line seeding and low fertilizer (LF) application.In the second experiment, Axis 1 explained 45.02% (eigenvalue = 0.0125) and Axis 2 explained 24.15% (eigenvalue = 0.0067) of the cumulative explained fitted variation, respectively (Fig. 2). CCA showed that mulching had the strongest effect on community composition; medium mulching (MM) and no-mulching (NM) align with the first axis whilst low mulching (LM) and high mulching (HM) align with the second axis (Fig. 2). Weeding three times had a weaker but similar Functional groups of the spiders are: Ground wanderer (GW), plant wanderer (PW) and web builder (WB). effect on community composition than medium mulching. High fertilizer (HF) had little effect on community composition. The family Salticidae was associated with no mulching whilst Oxyopidae was associated with high mulching.The PRCs showed a significant effect of tillage system (F = 30.4, DF = 7, P = 0.002) and mulching rate (F = 11.4, DF = 7, P = 0.04) on spider community composition (Figs. 3 and 4). Throughout the study period, the two no-tillage treatments tracked together and the highest deviations in spider community composition were observed during the hot dry season of 2014, that is two years after commencement of the experiment (Fig. 3). Two ground wanderers, Lycosidae and Gnaphosidae, and a plant wanderer, Salticidae, had the highest, second highest and third highest negative taxon weights respectively, implying that the families were more abundant in no-tillage than in conventional tillage treatments. Their activity densities were correspondingly found to be significantly (P < 0.05) higher under minimum than conventional tillage in both the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 cropping seasons (Table 3). Differences in spider community composition between mulched and no-mulch treatments were most evident during the hot humid and cold dry seasons of 2014 (Fig. 4). The highest deviation in spider community composition was observed in the low mulch treatment. However, this trend was not consistent across the sampling seasons. Lycosidae had the highest positive taxon weight, followed by Gnaphosidae and a plant wanderer, Thomisidae, suggesting that these three taxa had stronger effects of increasing spider abundance. In the 2013/ 2014 cropping season, abundance levels of Gnaphosidae and Thomisidae were significantly (P < 0.05) highest in plots treated with 4 t ha −1 of mulch (Table 4). However, mulching had no effect on spider abundance in the 2014/2015 cropping season (Table 4).In the first experiment, no-tillage significantly increased spider diversity by 27.8% (F-value = 6.87, df = 2, P = 0.051). However, there were no significant differences across the tillage treatments for spider diversity in the second experiment (F-value = 2.38, df = 1, P = 0.263) and evenness in both experiments (Experiment 1: F-value = 4.98, df = 2, P = 0.082; Experiment 2: F-value = 6.96, df = 1, P = 0.119). Moreover, the species richness of spiders was significantly different across the tillage treatments (experiment 1: F-value = 52.67, df = 2, P = 0.001; experiment 1: F-value = 18.75, df = 1, P = 0.049). The three diversity measures for the spiders across the fertilizer, mulching rate and weeding rate treatments were not significantly (P > 0.05) different (Table 5).Our study focused on the response of spider community composition to tillage, mulching, fertilizer and weeding management. We found a complex community of spiders comprising different families from different feeding functional groups. Ground and plant wanderers were numerically the most dominant, together contributing 99% of the total spider catches. The observed trend is similar to the findings of Weeks and Thomas (2000) who reported spiders from these two functional groups to be most abundant (85%) relative to other spider groups. It should be noted that the trapping method used in our study results in collection of more ground than aerial arthropods, and this partly explains the reduced abundance of aerial spiders such as web builders in our study sample (da Silva et al., 2008).Our results also showed that spider faunae, particularly ground wanderers and plant wanderers, were associated with no-tillage. Significant differences were also observed between conventional tillage and the two no-tillage treatments. These results are consistent with previous observations (Hatten et al., 2007;Mutema et al., 2013;Henneron et al., 2014) and further demonstrated that besides its enhancement of total spider abundance, no-tillage increases abundance of spider taxa such as Lycosidae, Gnaphosidae and Saltisidae. The observed effects of tillage on wandering spider groups (ground wanderers and plant wanderers) are most likely related to their impact on the physical structure of the soil microhabitat. Conventional tillage breaks the soil and buries crop residue, destroying suitable habitats for reproduction, shelter and ambush points for wandering spider groups. Additionally, it has direct negative impacts on arthropods, including crushing and exposure to desiccation and predators. On the other hand, non-disturbance under no-tillage reduces spider mortality and hence enables proliferation and sustenance of a stable spider population growth (Gavish-Regev et al., 2008;Benhadi-Marin et al., 2013). Some species of Lycosidae such as Geolycosa fattier, G. missouriensis, G. rogersi and Hogna lenta construct burrows in the ground that serve as retreats in the advent of predators and adverse weather conditions (Suter et al., 2011;Dippenaar-Schoeman et al., 2013). Tillage destroys these burrows yet the burrows are more persistent under no-tillage, leading to proliferation of spiders under no-tillage as opposed to conventional tillage. Tillage also destroys the vegetative food resources of herbivorous arthropod prey of spiders. Previous studies showed that ground wanderers such as Lycosidae play an important density-dependent role in controlling agricultural pests that include Helicoverpa spp., aphids (Aphididae), Trichoplusia spp. and Plutella spp. (Zhao et al., 1989;   -15), control (no mulch applied), high mulch (12 t ha −1 mulch applied), low mulch (4 t ha −1 mulch applied), medium mulch (8 t ha −1 mulch applied). Suenaga and Hamamura, 2015;Rendon et al., 2016). Plant wanderers such as Salticidae are polyphagous predators of insect pests including Helicoverpa zea, Tetranychus spp., Spodoptera spp., leaf hoppers (Cicadellidae) and weevils (Coleoptera) (Randall, 1982;Mansour et al., 1995;Dippenaar-Schoeman et al., 1999). Nyffeler (1999) showed that insects constitute about 75-90% of total prey of ground wanderers and plant wanderers combined.In the second experiment, Lycosidae had the strongest effect of increasing abundance in mulched plots, followed by Gnaphosidae and Thomisidae. These results concur with results from Whitmore et al. (2002), Dippenaar-Schoeman et al. (2013) and Hossain and Begum (2015). The effect of mulch could be tracked to its ability to provide refugia which act as ambush points for ground wandering spiders, as well as for shelter and construction of silk sacs for trapping prey. Furthermore, it is possible that the mesic microhabitat created by mulch provided suitable conditions for the ground and plant wanderers' ecological requirements, concomitantly resulting in their increased survival and reproductive capability. Our results show that in the more humid year of the 2013/2014 cropping season, application of 4 t ha −1 of mulch fostered the highest spider abundance whereas during the drier 2014/2015 cropping season, application of 12 t ha −1 of mulch had the highest spider abundance. It is, therefore, possible that higher mulching rates above 4 t ha −1 may dampen the effect of tillage in reducing spider abundance.Fertilizer application and weeding regimes did not significantly affect spider abundance and diversity in this study; contrary to the findings of some studies done under temperate environments in Portugal, Germany and United States of America by Benhadi-Marin et al. (2013), Haddad et al. (2000) and Hertzog et al. (2016). There is no evidence from our study to support that fertilizer increased plant biomass production, herbivorous arthropods and subsequently influencing spider community structure. It is most likely that the variance between our results and those cited above can be explained by the differences in climatic conditions of the study sites, particularly tropical versus temperate regions.Our results suggest that Lycosidae, Gnaphosidae, Salticidae and Thomisidae are among the potential drivers of the ground spider community response to agricultural management practices. These spider faunae are among some of the most numerous generalist   Means with different superscripts in the same column are significantly different (treatment means were separated using standard error of the differences of means (SED) at P ≤ 0.05). SED: standard error of difference between means. Exp^Hʹ: effective number of species.invertebrate predators that prey on arthropods (Rahman et al., 2007). They survive, disperse and find their prey in field crop ecosystems better than web builders (Plaza et al., 2011). The higher abundance of these spider families in no-tillage and mulching regimes suggests the potential of these management practices in enhancing natural biological pest control efficacy in CA-based agroecosystems. The consistently high density of overall spider faunae under no-tillage and mulch addition further suggests that these families can be a reliable biological control agent under no-tillage.Even though our research plots were just three years old, our findings show that the trajectory of predator diversity in an agroecosystem can be detected at such early stages of no-tillage and should therefore be an important early indicator of improved soil quality under no-tillage systems. Previous studies suggested that agroecosystem biodiversity increases with the age of the no-tillage plots (Tabaglio et al., 2009). Increased spider richness due to no-tillage suggests that this practice has the potential to increase diversity. Hypothetically, the migration of new families into the young no-tillage-based agroecosystem should compensate for any loss in taxa evenness caused by the dominance of species that already exist in the microhabitat. This has potential for a net increase in the community diversity index.The present study confirmed our first hypothesis and showed that no-tillage increased abundance of some predatory ground wanderers (Lycosidae and Gnaphosidae) and plant wanderers (Thomisidae), whilst also increasing spider diversity. Moreover, our results partly supported the second hypothesis and found increased abundances of Lycosidae, Gnaphosidae and Thomisidae in mulched plots. However, mulching had no effect on spider diversity. Furthermore, in contrast to our third and fourth hypotheses, we found no effect of both fertilizer addition and weeding intensity on spider abundance and diversity. Our results form a strong basis for promoting integrated pest management under no-tillage combined with crop residue retention. This is because predatory ground and plant wandering spiders such as Lycosidae, Gnaphosidae and Thomisidae were increasingly enhanced as soil disturbance through tillage was decreased and crop residue was retained. The spider families are important natural enemies of agricultural crops. We recommend that no-tillage and mulch retention should be employed for enhancement of spiders for natural biological insect pest control in cropping systems. Further studies are required to determine if increases in predatory ground wanderers and plant wanderers under no-tillage may help to suppress the insect pest activity associated with no-tillage.","tokenCount":"4437"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1dddbbd3b224d8ae7c2b46e5d3c0b39e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dea3d576-bbc5-4986-a7fb-da06eb49b52e/retrieve","id":"-236970030"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f25e769a-c4f5-4c36-812a-71d7796c305e","pagecount":"2","content":"Limited market infrastructure is often cited as a constraint to livestock sales in the Horn of Africa. In general, infrastructure means livestock sale yards and associated facilities, holding grounds, stock routes and watering points en-route to terminal markets. This has justifi ed large-scale investments in market infrastructure in the Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia by aid agencies. Yet today, many such facilities have fallen into disrepair through lack of use. Meanwhile, domestic livestock markets have been functioning well without such facilities, while a steady growth has been recorded in livestock and meat exports from the region, except in times of bans.The building of market infrastructure has often been externally driven. The underlying assumption has been that infrastructure increases livestock sales and streamlines the functions of livestock markets. There is little evidence to support this however. In some cases the opposite appears to be the case, as local authorities see new markets as a means to impose new taxes and levies which dissuade livestock traders and pastoralists from using the facilities. In nearly all cases, new market infrastructure is created without the development of management capacity or long term plans. For example, A survey of ten new livestock markets in Ethiopia • in 2009 revealed an average taxation rate increase of 33%, but no management plans or budgets for maintaining the facilitiesIn Sudan, 21 types of livestock taxes were • recorded between secondary markets in Darfur and Omdurman, on the grounds of supporting market facilities that have, in fact, been nonfunctional for many years Furthermore, evidence from the fi eld indicates pastoralists and livestock traders are rarely consulted on the need for such infrastructure nor on its preferred location. For these and other reasons, mew markets soon become abandoned.The usefulness of trade stock routes with watering points may be less relevant these days as animals destined for major domestic markets and exports are generally transported on vehicles. Similarly, although holding grounds may once have been of value to parastatal trading monopolies, the modern structure of the sector is based on smaller scale livestock and meat traders for whom they may not be economically justifi able. The IGAD LPI's purpose is to strengthen the capacity in IGAD, its member states, and other regional organisations and stakeholders, to formulate and implement livestock sector and related policies that sustainably reduce food insecurity and poverty. This means raising capacities to do things differently, in terms of making the policy making process inclusive of the poor, evidence-based and livelihoods focused.To achieve its purpose, IGAD LPI has established multidisciplinary stakeholder fora in all IGAD member states, through which the project supports engagement with two policy areas; This is not to say that improving market infrastructure is not of value under any circumstances.Indeed, as the medium of exchange becomes more sophisticated, for instance operating through auction, according to breed, grade, age or weight the need for supporting infrastructure may well become apparent. . Until that stage is reached, basic market centres are adequate for the prevailing exchange modalities, where simple, face-to-face negotiations are the norm.Roads, mobile phones and more basic market centresIn the short to medium term, the infrastructure related needs of pastoral markets are generally not specifi c to the livestock sector. For example;Developing secondary roads and mobile phone • network in pastoral areas assist remote and poorer households to access local traders more easily and to negotiate prices more effectively.With new roads in place, basic livestock • markets in formerly inaccessible areas can operate under lower transaction costs and are more likely to be economically sustainable, in some cases being established anew.Such livestock market centres can be seen in • turn to attract commodity traders to the area, allowing pastoralists to purchase household consumables and thereby providing a broader economic basis to the area's economic development.","tokenCount":"630"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a01667194eb6cbf890003193931af12","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0bd58219-aae0-422c-ac00-d63c831c0786/retrieve","id":"1707188420"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aab89c36-605d-4596-9fec-2dbd471b3556","pagecount":"28","content":"In early 2014 as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems' (WLE) Managing Resource Variability and Competing Use (MRV) research theme, a decision was made to establish a SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) Community of Practice. The MRV research theme seeks to integrate future water needs scenarios in key sectors and the environment to improve water security through:• Managing water resources' variability and re-thinking storage in basins • Resource allocation and benefit sharing • Water and energy for food • Water data and accounting in basinsIn addition, within WLE, there are three cross-cutting themes on 1) Gender, Poverty and Institutions and 2) Ecosystem Services and Resilience 3) Decision Analysis and Information Systems. These themes seek to support more gender equitable access to water, land and ecosystem services and establish more holistic ecosystem based approaches to management, including the development of methods and measurements for assessing ecosystem service status and delivery.Across many of the CGIAR Research Programs and projects, SWAT has become a common tool that researchers implement to assess alternative land use management scenarios at multiple spatial and temporal scales and under expected potential future climates. Adhering to the old modeling adage put forth by mathematician George Edward Box that \"All models are wrong, but some are useful\", several researchers across CGIAR centers began discussing the need to insure SWAT model use was being undertaken with scientific rigor, that researchers new to the SWAT model were provided with adequate training and support, and that there was a way for researchers to meet and communicate with one another about the challenges and opportunities faced when working with the model in data scarce regions. An exploration was then undertaken to determine if there was enough interest and need across the CGIAR to establish a Community of Practice dedicated to these purposes. The response was overwhelmingly positive across all regions and results from the survey clearly indicated that Ecosystem Services assessments were one of the primary reasons that researchers were using SWAT.To establish guidelines and best practices for using SWAT to assess ecosystem services, WLE, led by IWMI, organized a three-day workshop for advanced members of the SWAT Community of Practice to meet on the ILRI Campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Twelve members of the Community of Practice, representing IWMI, CIAT, ICARDA, IFPRI, and ICRISAT attended the workshop. During the workshop, participants heard about efforts under way on projects throughout regions where the CGIAR centers work (sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, Middle East and Northern Africa, India, South Asia, Southeast Asia, as well Global Applications). Participants then engaged in activities to help tease out the first set of critical ecosystem services that will be discussed in guidelines for using SWAT to assess ecosystem services, and finally they began writing those guidelines using the collaborative CGxChange work environment.Due to the success of the 2014 workshop, participants will continue with WLE support to engage in building the CGIAR SWAT Community of Practice, introducing an initial set of guidelines for using SWAT to assess Ecosystem Services during 2015. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is an international, non-profit research organization dedicated to improving the management of land and water resources for food, livelihoods and the environment. IWMI is a member of CGIAR, an international consortium of agricultural research centers. IWMI's mission is to improve the management of land and water resources for food, livelihoods and the environment. IWMI's vision, as reflected in the Institute's Strategic Plan, is water for a food secure world. IWMI targets land and water management challenges faced by poor communities in the developing world. The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) is an ambitious twelve-year program that brings together innovative thinking on agriculture, natural resource management and poverty alleviation to deliver effective solutions for food security and environmental protection. Unmatched in CGIAR, both in terms of its scope and range of partners, the Program brings together specialists in CGIAR subject matter to solve pressing problems in specific focal regions. The vision of WLE is \"a world in which agriculture thrives within vibrant ecosystems, and where communities have higher incomes, improved food security and the ability to continually improve their lives.\" For more information, please visit http://wle.cgiar.org/This report provides an overview of the development and planning for a SWAT Community of Practice within the CGIAR as well as summaries of presentations and discussions held during the Workshop to Establish Guidelines for Using SWAT to Assess Ecosystem Services.Part 1 describes the reasoning and process undertaken for establishing the SWAT Community of Practice in early 2014. Part 2 summarizes the workshop held at the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa. Appendices are included that detail the survey and subsequent meeting agenda as well as participants.Part 1: Establishing the Community of Practice A Community of Practice is a theory of learning or social participation whereby people, often professionals, come together to share experiences they have in a common trade or craft. People within the community do not just have an interest in, but active practitioners and experts in craft or trade of focus. Members of the community share their knowledge with one another and provide support for one another in supporting best practices. Perhaps most importantly, Communities of Practice are participatory in nature, allowing members to share their experiences in a commonly understood language natural to its members and resulting therefore in more of a storytelling environment.With this in mind, goals in establishing and fostering a Community of Practice within the CGIAR system around the SWAT model are:1. To provide an environment, both in person and virtually, for CGIAR researchers working with SWAT to discuss challenges, propose solutions, and establish best practices. 2. To identify needs for model development to improve SWAT model usage in the developing world. 3. To explore opportunities for collaborative research activities using SWAT among CGIAR Centers and Programs as well as with external organizations.To meet these goals, a survey was carried out in February, 2014 that was sent to researchers at all 15 CGIAR Centers worldwide (Appendix A     The first day of the workshop was intended to formally introduce colleagues to one another and discuss the role of Communities of Practice as well as allow participants to give informal presentations about their work with SWAT or Ecosystem Services.Session 1: Welcome and Opening  • Ecosystem services are benefits to humans ! Landscapes fulfill different functions and provides different services that have to be provided at the same time, for example assessing whether it is possible to provide the same agricultural yield but protect more water provisions for biodiversity • Tendency is look only at local benefits rather than macro scale• Hawizeh Marshland is saltier than sea and feeds a large community of people in Iraq and Iran; it is largest in the world (4000 km 2 ); largest river basin in Middle East• Basra is just below the marsh • Reported just on quantity, not quality of the river basin • Most flow comes from Euphrates in Turkey (21% of area but 98% of flow); Tigris is only 18% of area and 53% of flow from Turkey • Explored the analysis and implications of the dam and water control in the basin • Everything in this system is severely affected by human intervention -nothing natural remains • Most existing dams are for hydropower and not storage, though some divert water for irrigation• Mardin (Ilisu) Dam could currently hold enough water to control the entire water supply from Turkey to Iran ! 6 month lag from snowfall / runoff to water availability • 28 current dam and 15 planned • Dates have high water requirement, more than beets; however, people are all converting lands to dates because the labor inputs are low • Water budget in Kutt Barrage have severely decreased from 1980s until present day (both rainfall is slowing down / natural availability is decreasing and dam is diverting a large amount of water • From 15,000 mcm (1980s) to 3,000 mcm (now)• 9 out of 10 years they cannot meet the needs of the Hawizeh marsh • No consistent treaty or relationships between Turkey (controller of dams, water capacity of multiple-year flow) and other countries, which is a major socio-political factor • If all proposed dams are constructed, it will drastically shrink marsh land and there will also be an overall 50% reduction in water availability • 500,000 people live in the marshland and rely on fishing for livelihoods • If you want to maintain 75% of the original marshland, you can only maintain 10% of the current available water • Amount of water just from evapotranspiration from the man-made lakes could feed 50% of the original marshland • At the current rate of planned development, the marshland will shrink from 4,000 km 2 to 600 km 2 Session 2: Africa • There are cautions, however:• Who participates and why?• Maps contain private information and make it public • Maps have the power to marginalize as well as empower • How does SWAT fit into this?• Male and female maps at Jeldu were drastically different • Women focused on soil fertility and men on land usage• None and all of the maps are \"correct\" because all maps, including the researchers' maps have bias. \"Correct\" is wrong term to use in this context. • The area is a unifying source of livelihoods • 90% of Nairobi's water comes from the basin, though Nairobi is not in the basin • 60% of Kenya's hydropower comes from the basin • Upper basin impacts lower basin: flood recession agriculture and Tana Delta is of international significance (Ramsar site) • Upper Basin is highly prone to erosion and sedimentation • The goal of the project is to protect vulnerable landscapes at the course of the issues and decrease costs of water purification • Private industry is contributing to this effort financially because they see the tradeoff benefit • The project is also putting in efforts to look beyond agriculture as the culprit and identifying point sources such as quarries or roads • They are also using the RIOS model and InVEST in this work; linking with SWAT Session 3: Latin America • Using InVEST linkages to SWAT • Majority of irrigated agriculture is around Turkestan • Chandara Reservoir is the focus • Volume of water fluctuates 10 -12 times from winter to summer • Major ESs looked at here are food / water, erosion control, nutrient cycling / pollution, recreation / tourism ! All are supported by the dam • Working to identify the users and abusers of the water by mapping all the different water users • Idea here is that the people benefitting from decreased sediment should have to pay somehow ! Donate 8 hours of their time to plant trees • There have been a lot of activities in this basin, but none seemed to have any scientific basis • Need to move people away from degraded areas and move people from flood to drop irrigation • By improving efficiency of agricultural management, this will improve many different ecosystem services downstream • There is a need to find farmer incentives • They have focused a lot on locally available technologies for female farmers • Indus Basin; transboundary issues: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and China • Quantifying nitrogen dynamics and flows • This presentation showed that there can be highly complex linkages within a river system, that also included a network of human-made canals and so the question was, is SWAT able to address this? • To set up SWAT, the canal command areas and river reaches were combined to delineate the overall system.• Issues that cropped up were how to route the water within SWAT.• There was an irrigation water deficit meaning that some HRUs received no water • This meant that additional methods has to be integrated to more accurately describe the system • For the canals, the parameterized as user-defined streams • Other issues that came up in the model are that areas with light soils were receiving more recharge • GW recharge was determined at the HRU • Crop yield data were used to calibrate the model, though data were difficult to come by • Ultimately there was a large gap between supply and demand, even when groundwater was added into the system • Next phase is to look at nitrogen dynamics and flows to mitigate losses from agricultural systems Session 5: India, South Asia, and Southeast Asia Presentation: SWAT work past, present and future in India By: Rajesh Nune, ICRISAT Visiting Scientist -Resilient Dryland Systems• This is another complex system to mode because there are many small structures throughout the basin such as tube wells and dug wells • To address this, all small structures were aggregated at the Subbasin level • During the time of interest rainfall patterns showed no significant reduction and so it does not explain the decrease in stream flow • A simply groundwater bucket model was used in MATLAB and linked to SWAT• At this stage, the model still used the same boundaries for groundwater and surface flows • There was a clear impact of all the small structures when aggregated on streamflow • During the time, it was noted that irrigation had doubled, recharge had increased, AET had increased, but that streamflow decreased significantly Presentation: Defining and measuring watershed sustainability using SWAT By: Aditya Sood, IWMI Senior Researcher -Integrated Hydrological Modelling• A hypothetical case study was presented • Recharge potential • Small watershed in Delaware where the land use is highly fragmented• Areas with good recharge potential should be left natural and those will low recharge potential should be used for agriculture • Develop the watershed in such a way to provide minimum ecosystem services to stakeholders without prohibiting access to future services • Systems need to be able to recover from extreme perturbation • The index proposed combines reliability, resilience, and vulnerability and then a range of this index is considered acceptable • A wide variety of indicators are combined in the index: social, environmental, biodiversity• All are indicators that can be developed from SWAT outputs • Index uses an additive weightage • Ultimately this index allows you to measure changes in ecosystem services that a watershed provides and this index can be compared across different scenarios for development of the watershed Presentation: Ganges aquifer management for ecosystem services By: Lal Muthuwatta, IWMI Regional Researcher -Hydrological Modelling & Remote Sensing• Goal: during the dry season, create sub surface storage and during the wet months, recharge this storage • Desired outcomes: reduce floods downstream, increase flows during low flow periods and increase overall water supply for irrigation • SWAT was linked to MODFLOW and pumping was simulated near the river• Challenge is the need for more data to calibrate the model • This work looked not just at topographically delineated areas but also politically delineated management areas • It was a nested scale study that focused on exceedance probability Session 6: Global Applications• The work is carried out at the country or continental scale using public domain data • Data acquisition is primary challenge • Themes addressed: irrigation analysis and global water quality assessments • Agricultural water management solutions: investment options for smallholder irrigation• This used an integrated GIS-SWAT-DREAM approach • SWAT was chosen to estimate crop yields, runoff groundwater recharge, and water requirements for irrigation • Model was fit to GRACE and generally in sub-Saharan Africa SWAT and GRACE are in agreement • There is a potential for different irrigation • In South Asia (NW India), SWAT was used to replicate groundwater decline trends• Also to assess groundwater under climate change • Work has also been carried out to look at global nutrient loadings• Model building: topography, soil, precipitation, temperature • Linked to global loadings of nitrogen by 2050 • Future work will include coupling SWA with decision models on socioeconomic side / results interpretation Day 2: Establishing the Ecosystem Services to be addressedThe second day of the workshop was intended to facilitate discussions among members about needs they see across the various CGIAR centers, present ideas on opportunities for collaborations or model development, and finally to work on developing an initial set of ecosystem services for which guidelines will be generated in 2015.Session 1: DiscussionThe day opened with a discussion of any general SWAT questions that people may have, as well as concerns, challenges, or different approaches being undertaken. Main points are captured below. DataA discussion was had about working in data scarce regions and how other models that have been calibrated and validated can prove useful in SWAT calibration efforts. For example, SEBAL, GRACE, and MODIS ET have a potential use at basin scales in particular to judge the performance of SWAT. This is an area the community of practice would like to work on more.A discussion was then had about CFSR data. Rainfall poses the greatest uncertainty in a model and in many regions rainfall data are lacking. This leads many people to using global datasets such as CFSR; however, people are noting there are many issues with these data in mountainous regions or in areas with few than 400 mm of annual rainfall.Another topic discussed in terms of overcoming data shortfalls is to work more with social scientists to gather information through famer interviews (Local knowledge about systems), as well as work more closely with government experts (e.g., extension agents) as well as use government statistics to develop model inputs. Some of this is donor driven because funding is often contingent upon meeting milestones and so people inflate data to continue receiving funding. Large political changes in countries can also interfere here.Usman (ICARDA) brought up the issue that different centers have different data access policies and this can be a problem when trying to work together. Some of this should dissipate as we begin to move toward Open Source data management policies.Next the group explored complimentary models people are using. Some presentations already discussed this and had examples of using SWAT with other models to assess ecosystem services. Some examples of models discussed were InVEST, FRAGSTATS, MODFLOW, AQUATOX, RIOS, ARIES, APEX, AquaCrop, and CROPWAT (bolded tools represent tools participants discussed in their presentations). It was decided by the community members that some information on SWAT co-use with other models should be included in the CGIAR SWAT Ecosystem Services Guidelines.This was an issue cited by many members as a problem. In many of the countries where we work there is a lack of planning or any records. Some pointed out that they find governments often inflate data in a positive way, making it very difficult o model things correctly or to know where errors are in the model. This is a challenge that we need to overcome.It became clear that some challenges can be more effectively overcome by working more closely with social scientists. There is a give and take between culture and agricultural best practices sometimes. There is a clear need to better account for multiple levels of stakeholders when developing scenarios. This is not happening and so we need to work on making this a priority in projects that require scenario development.We decided this will be by invite only and that Tracy and Srini will take care of this. Mostly the meeting will again consist of CG people; however, there is always a need for some focused outside perspectives both outside CG as well as outside of hydrology.In 2015, more focus should be put on idea sharing and developing cross center projects. This is an area the community of practice would like to work on more.We looked at the IWMI Water Portal and how IWMI puts models up on line and that some of this may be helpful to others. Also, maybe other members of the community would like to upload models here. Permissions can be set as required. People liked this idea and we discussed how in the United States all basins are online and users can download basic data files and work with these to further develop and refine models. The group agreed that we need to move toward this type of system rather than continually recreating models. Also, we want a way to provide feedback on models or data downloaded and the technology must be low bandwidth. This is an area the community of practice would like to work on more.We learned that QSWAT is under development. This was a good announcement to hear as the CGIAR system moves toward a completely Open Source environment. There are opportunities to get involved if people want to do so.This is an area that Vinay (ICARDA) is actively on with Srini. They are looking at ways to capture this in SWAT.Srini informed the group that there are developments under way for producing CMIP3 and CMIP5 climate change scenarios that are downloadable similar to CFSR data sets and preformatted for use in SWAT. The following data are available:• CMIP3 -9 models, 3 scenarios, Downscaled using BCBS • Available from SWAT website • Through 2095 daily • 0.5 x 0.5 degree gridded • CMIP5 -they are working on this but only two models and two scenarios are available for Africa and MENA regions. These will be 22 km grids. The US and Europe will be available as 11 km grids with two models and all scenarios, and, the rest of the world will be available as 44km grids with 2 models, and all scenarios.Crop suitability under climate change Fred (CIAT) indicated to the group that there are opportunities to work on this together and to look more closely at some of the work IFPRI is doing in this arena, make contributions. Fred is going to work with Srini on applying degree days for crop growth in the Tana. Wendy (CIAT) and Hua (IFPRI) are going to work on a paper with Srini on assessing crops that will be most suitable in the future.Aditya (IWMI) identified this as a high priority area that the community of practice can work on together. CIAT is already working on Big Data issues and creating databases. We need to collectively look more into this and how to contribute because these databases will be useful for developing our models going forward.Fred (CIAT) suggested that we have a section on how to use different types of data and approaches in the guidelines document that we will develop. We have discussed some of these in the workshop and need to make sure we capture them in the final guidelines document.This is an area where we need to focus more attention (Tracy -IWMI) so that we can develop a set of regional parameters for use in SWAT (Aditya -IWMI). It should be a high priority area.Tracy (IWMI) stressed the need for developing a database of indigenous land use practices. This was well received and considered a high priority area that the community would like to address soon. The group agreed that modern doesn't always mean better and so we need to work more on this. This is an area the community of practice would like to work on more.Fred (CIAT) suggested that we look more closely at the WEAP databases and harvest data from there as well. The database is quite large.Tracy (IWMI) suggested that we mine data from the Tropical Plants Database (prota4u.info).To collectively decide which ecosystem services the SWAT Ecosystem Services guidelines should focus upon, there needed to be a common understanding of the language of ecosystem services. During this part of the workshop, the facilitator employed a Gallery Walk discussion technique. Gallery Walks are useful in that they get participants walking around and being actively engaged. For the Gallery Walk, four stations were set up around the room. At each station was an easel with a large piece of paper and a photo of an agricultural landscape. Participants were divided into group of 4 -5 people, with each group containing at least one volunteer member who was not a hydrological modeler but were instead focused on either ecology or social systems. The facilitator used the image (Figure 6) from \"Figure 1  Groups were assigned to an initial photo and given two minutes to write as many ecosystem services as they could identify. This would take place over four rounds with the first round being for the identification of provisioning services, the second for regulating services, the third for habitat services, and the fourth for cultural services. After each two minute round, groups rotated to a new photo such that each group visited each photo once and identified one category of ecosystem services. Results of the exercise are shown in Figures 7 -10, with notes on post discussions about each picture and potentially linkages to SWAT shown as sidebars.    Flow extremes, sedimentation, and eutrophication• .res, .sed Biomass and provisioning with tradeoffs among tree cover, crop land and wetlands• HRU, .mgt Cultural• What have you gained and lost?• Do people have access to more fishing?• What was on this landscape before?• Are there problems resulting from eutrophication? What about migration? Will more people move into this area now? What is consequence? During this portion of the workshop, it was particularly beneficial for the community to have several volunteers from outside not only the community of practice, but outside of hydrological sciences. We had scientists who focus on water policy and governance, technology implementation, gender, sanitation, and ecology. During the exercise, their role was to \"ask the tough questions\" and not allow the modelers to stay focused on biophysical aspects only. The exercise was well received and resulted in participants expanding their discussions to think more about the application of models and in particular how results can influence people.After completing the Gallery Walk and further group discussions, a brain storming session was held to establish 2 -3 ecosystem services within each of the four broad categories of Provisioning, Regulating, Habitat, and Cultural. First, generalized services were selected and then as the writing process began; community members would have the opportunity to refine or specify in the context of how SWAT can produce a quantitative measurement either directly or as a proxy for the more specific ecosystem service.General services decided upon for the guidelines were:• Provisioning • Food (fish, game, fruit)• Water (hydropower, drinking water, industrial, irrigation)• Raw materials (building -timber, bamboo) Day 3: Write ShopThe final day of the workshop was a continuation of writing collaboratively about the ecosystem services selected on Day 2 for the initial SWAT Ecosystem Services guidelines. Priority ecosystems to be worked on during day three of the workshop were selected; they were: Hydropower, Crops (human food, livestock feed, biofuels), Water (water conservation, storage, domestic water use, and industrial), carbon sequestration, other food (fish, game, fruits).The community members worked in the CGxChange to begin developing the SWAT Ecosystem Services Assessment guidelines. This will allow the group to continue working collaboratively on the guidelines once they are no longer together.For each service, they are including short description that includes the landscape capacity to produce a given service. For example, in the case of food this would mean some understanding of calories and dietary/nutritional diversity that would happen with an alternate landscape composition and configuration (WLE). For each service, photos will be included for illustrative purposes or there may be other types of graphical representations given. SWAT outputs will be detailed for a given service such as biomass yield in tons / ha, maps, indicators of temporal and spatial scale, model connections, and SWAT inputs. The group also decided that associated constraints should be included. This could mean the development in SWAT of an \"environmental file\" as an output (where both space and time can be assigned).Recommended guidelines for undertaking ecosystem services assessments using SWAT will be published by the CGIAR SWAT Community of Practice with the support of WLE in 2015. ","tokenCount":"4633"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d1901e1632ae0e24473bac80231d7a45","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4fbb009e-b50e-46b0-8461-27a896c7d48d/retrieve","id":"916199207"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a08f443f-0b6d-4b83-9e02-f6fd432fe42b","pagecount":"1","content":"Prior to the establishment of the Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI), Zambia used to implement its One Health (OH) activities through temporary \"Task Forces\", that aimed at specifically responding to specific public health emergencies and threats. However, these got disbanded immediately the \"threat\" was over. However, the country continued to experience public health threats that required OH coordination, surveillance, preparedness and response apart from the critical need of a viable OH workforce able to operate utilizing a multi-sectoral platform. Consequently, COHESA seeks to assess the adoption and delivery of OH solutions in Zambia.One Health in Zambia: coordination, collaboration and implementation • OH is a Very Powerful and Integrated concept, approach and way of handling Public Health threats which can save resources and enhance coordination, response and intervention activities in a timely and cost-effective manner. • When well utilized, the OH approach is efficient and saves/reduces operational costs for central governments (Anthrax outbreak lessons -Zambia), as it on one side adds the combined strengths from all the respective government and supporting agencies. • Data sharing [Lag-effect, i.e., in Anthrax situation], can save lives, mathematical models from animal and human sectors pinpointed critical intervention routes. • FLEXIBILITY: \"Learnt that the scope of COHESA goes beyond those prescribed in the Work packages, even Standard Countries can go beyond the activities prescribed for them.\"Existence of Silos: Both within & outside sectors silos still exist. OH champions in these sectors have made progress in breaking them.Communication Channels: OH communication channels hampered by not easily being accepted within and outside sectors-Advocacy needed Funding inequalities: across sectors hampers collaboration. Some sectors are better funded than others. Under OH, a common basket for all sectors is needed to remove this inequality. Top-down approach: OH is still considered a top-down concept -there is critical need to get buy-in from ground staff at operational level.For COHESA Zambia, the following are the planned activities for 2024-2025;• COHESA Zambia working with Other Key OH actors in Zambia, among them ZNPHI, FAO, WHO, UNEP as well as with support from the COHESA consortium won Pandemic Fund & Nature for Health (N4H) projects. Several activities associated with these projects have been outlined and COHESA will be playing a key role in these projects.• COHESA Zambia has been invited by BREAKTHROUGH TRUST to Co-design OH activities for the 2024 activity year.• COHESA Zambia has been invited by an NGO-ANIVO-Zambia to Co-conduct a vulnerability assessment of areas with high public health emergencies associated with livestock keeping, drought as well as other climate change ramifications.• Other KEY CORE COHESA activities to be completed in the 2024-2025 year will include the following:• ","tokenCount":"435"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"27cb969d53774631120ff758c9d6293e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b2e00222-92fb-460c-aab6-1325ed660a1d/retrieve","id":"260316846"},"keywords":["cepas recomendadas para 'inoculación de leguminosa~","otraje>' ' .",".'. ' . ' : \" , \" , , ' . ' ji ras tropicales en sabanas, 'i .: )","-, :\" \" ,\" , r ¡. 'o, f:. ,-:,.~, ,.",",",". . ¡"],"sieverID":"c97afb92-6f59-498e-86b1-656241287066","pagecount":"118","content":"Cepas recomendadas para legumi-, .! r \" I ~. \" • \" ;.: ¡ . \".' \". nosas forrajeras tropicales en bosque Otras cepas que se ~eccimiend'an para ensayos paralelos Cuadro 3.4 Cepas recomendadas para inoéu-, . , . , ~ .. ,.Las leguminosas forrajeras tropicales fueron inicialmente clasificadas en: 1) efectivas promiscuas 2) i~~fectiv~ promiscuas ó 3) especificas (Date, 1977). sinerobargo debido a la can\\idad de cepas de rhizobium que se han extendido y probado con diferentes le!;¡umi~osa~ ~uespedes, este sistema de clasificación ha tendida a perder su utilidad al incrementarse el número reportado deexcepcionali' lil esquema de clasificación.\",1 ... En au~ncia de un eS9uema confiable de clasifi-cación~S9t:lSeable realizar un test de respuesta a la inoculaci6~ c6lÍ1o el' déscrit9 p~ir Vincent (1970), (Sylvester-Bradley (1984), en aquellas areas donde sean . , , ' introducidas leguminosas forrajeras y donde no se , -\" j .conozca de la existencia anterior de leguminosas. En esta prueblas un control no inoculado revelará la presencia de rhizobium nativos y su efectividad colTlparándolos con tratamientos inoculados y :,,' , , \" 1 : . . , , . . fertilizados con N. El tratamien,to inoculado debe hacerse con algún conocimiento previo de la efectividad de las cepas tal como el descrito pro Sylvester-Bradley el al. (1989) para cepas de leguminosas forrajeras.El tratamiento inoculado examinará la efectividad de las cepas seleccionadas por comparación con el tratamiento ferlizado con N. (Ver Date (1977) para posteriorIn the absence of a reliable scOOme of classi-fication it is advisable lo carry out a simple need-to-inoculate test such as that described by Vincent (1970), Sylvester-Bradley (1984) wherever forage legumes are introduced into areas with no prior history of legume use. In these tests an uninoculated control will reveal the presence of native rhizobia and their effectiveness when compared with an inoculated or N fertilized trealment. The inoculated treatment should be basad on some prior knowled,ge of strain effective-ness such as those describEld by syivester-Bradley el al. (1989) for strains of forage legumes.The inoculated treatment wiU examine the effectiveness of the chosen strain by comparison with the N fertilized treatment (sea Date (1977) for further interpretation of the results obtained from such trials). sinónimos de las cepa, la producción de acidez o alcalinidad en el medio de cultivo LMA (Vincent, 1970) y la categoría asignada por el CIAT según el tipo de colonia que presente la cepa.En la parte 111 del catálogo se presenta una lista de cepas recomendadas para la inoculación de leguminosas forrajeras tropicales y otra de las cepas sugeridas para los ensayos de selección de cepas bajo condiciones locales.Para fines e investigación, las personas inte-resadas pueden obtener gratuitamente en el CIAT cultivos y/o inoculante de las cepas que se incluyen en el presente     y = Watery (wet) colonias at both pHs though ganerally more watery (wettar) at pH 5.5 than 6.8 Z = Wa colonies at pH 5.5. aqp. small opaque dry buttery colonies at pH 6.8.     ' __ '_'_1                                      ,,1                  Con base en las respuestas a la inoculación observadas en suelo de Carimagua y, en algunos casos, en solución nutritiva con arena, se han seleccionado ciertas cepas para la inoculación de las leguminosas más promisorias para pasturas mejoradas en América tropical (Cuadros 3.1 y 3.2).En el Cuadro 3.3 se describen algunas cepas adicionales que se pueden utilizar en \"ensayos paralelos\" para evaluar la efectividad de las cepas recomendadas bajo condiciones locales.  '---'   .. \" _\"_ ... ,_\",,..,.,,~ ,.\". .. -\",\".,,\" , 1,., ,'''' '\" \"\"\",-\".ry\"\"\"\"'~~'''.'\"''''~'''''''' \"'\"'~~~ ____ \".\"\"' __ ~\"\"~~_\"_\"\"\"\"~r'_,~_\",~\",\"\",...\",,,.~,,,,,'~~\"'\"~.\".~~,~,~\" '.   ,,\",.,,,,,,,,\", ','''''~~' __ ~ --.'\" --\"c,,\"_\"'_~~ ... ,\"\"\"\"\"\"_,,,._ .-~~\"-\",_.\",,'''' \",~,,,,,_, '\",_,,,\" _.\"\",_~ \",.,~\"\", ''''-'',''''-)_''',,\" ,\" _% =,~,M,t\"\"\"\"\"\",,,\" ... ,,,,. __ \", ~\"\"_~ __ ~ __ ,_...,,,.    ' .~","tokenCount":"611"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"710cc62e56dbc5a3f3c28405fb705518","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c5b61197-6d17-464f-8c2f-126801a63167/content","id":"-2087116578"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"35ffcad7-cc48-47c1-95a8-2b60647890d4","pagecount":"17","content":"Key message Elevated expression of nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat proteins led to closer vein spacing and higher vein density in rice leaves. Abstract To feed the growing global population and mitigate the negative effects of climate change, there is a need to improve the photosynthetic capacity and efficiency of major crops such as rice to enhance grain yield potential. Alterations in internal leaf morphology and cellular architecture are needed to underpin some of these improvements. One of the targets is to generate a \"Kranz-like\" anatomy in leaves that includes decreased interveinal spacing close to that in C 4 plant species. As C 4 photosynthesis has evolved from C 3 photosynthesis independently in multiple lineages, the genes required to facilitate C 4 may already be present in the rice genome. The Taiwan Rice Insertional Mutants (TRIM) population offers the advantage of gain-of-function phenotype trapping, which accelerates the identification of rice gene function. In the present study, we screened the TRIM population to determine the extent to which genetic plasticity can alter vein density (VD) in rice. Close vein spacing mutant 1 (CVS1), identified from a VD screening of approximately 17,000 TRIM lines, conferred heritable high leaf VD. Increased vein number in CVS1 was confirmed to be associated with activated expression of two nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) proteins. Overexpression of the two NB-LRR genes individually in rice recapitulates the high VD phenotype, due mainly to reduced interveinal mesophyll cell (M cell) number, length, bulliform cell size and thus interveinal distance. Our studies demonstrate that the trait of high VD in rice can be achieved by elevated expression of NB-LRR proteins limited to no yield penalty.Rice is a major staple crop that feeds more of the human population than any other crop. The rice yield needs to be significantly increased to secure food supplies in the next few decades. As a C 3 plant, rice productivity has reached a ceiling due to its inferior photosynthetic capacity to harvest sunlight, and traditional breeding methods have difficulty achieving a substantial increase in food production. One important strategy to significantly enhance rice productivity is to introduce C 4 photosynthesis into rice, as C 4 crops have higher photosynthetic capacity, reduced water loss, increased nitrogen (N) use efficiency and higher yields, particularly when grown in hot and dry environments (Furbank et al. 2009;Hibberd et al. 2008). Recent developments in engineering C 4 photosynthesis into rice to promote photosynthetic efficiency and yield potential have led to renewed interest in this area (Ermakova et al. 2020;Hibberd et al. 2008;von Caemmerer et al. 2012a, b). However, introducing the C 4 trait into rice is a highly challenging project and requires multifaceted modifications to leaf development and metabolism (Kumar and Kellogg 2019;Sedelnikova et al. 2018). The alteration of internal leaf architecture is one of the key prerequisites for establishing the \"Kranz anatomy\" (Lundgren et al. 2014;Sage et al. 2014).Close vein spacing with Kranz anatomy in leaves is a distinctive feature of the majority of C 4 plant species (Kajala et al. 2011;Kumar and Kellogg 2019). Kranz anatomy is generally composed of a double concentric layer of chlorenchyma cells. The outer mesophyll (M) cells are positioned close to the intercellular air spaces, and the inner specialized bundle sheath (BS) cells surrounding veins are positioned adjacent to M cells in leaves. Such an anatomical arrangement allows the CO 2 fixation and decarboxylation steps of photosynthesis to be compartmentalized within the two distinct cell types, M and BS cells, respectively. An increased frequency of veins per unit leaf area in C 4 plants reduces the space between two veins and facilitates the rapid transport of metabolites between M and BS cells (Langdale and Nelson 1991). While the physiology and biochemistry of C 4 photosynthesis are well known, the genetic basis of Kranz anatomy remains largely unknown.In addition to being an imperative part of C 4 anatomy, vascular tissues function as circulatory organs for supplying water and nutrients to the plant. Vascular tissues are present throughout the plant body from the shoot tip to the root tip (Scarpella and Meijer 2004). Increased VD also has physiological benefits including better hydraulic performance to keep leaves cool and to support photosynthesis in a warm climate. In dicot leaves, veins run in every direction, forming a complicated network, whereas veins are arranged in parallel in monocot leaves and follow basipetal (from tip to base) and acropetal (from base to tip) developmental patterns (Sedelnikova et al. 2018). In monocots, there are three types of longitudinal veins of leaves: the midrib, large veins and small veins (Sack and Scoffoni 2013). Large and small veins are connected by several lateral commissural veins. Molecular and genetic studies on C 4 plants, mostly in maize and sorghum, have provided insights into the function, regulation and biological consequences of vein pattern modification in monocots (Kumar and Kellogg 2019). These studies reveal that vein development is regulated by a complex interplay among the hormones auxin and brassinosteroid and the transcription factors SHORTROOT 1 (SHR1)/SCARECROW 1 (SCR1) and INDETERMINATE DOMAIN (IDD) (Kumar and Kellogg 2019;Linh et al. 2018;Sedelnikova et al. 2018). Several mutants with defects or improvements in vein and BS cell development, have been identified in rice (Feldman et al. 2014(Feldman et al. , 2017;;Scarpella et al. 2003;Smillie et al. 2012), which suggests that rice does possess genetic plasticity for altering vein spacing.A major requirement for engineering Kranz anatomy in a C 3 leaf would be a decrease in the BS-to-M cell ratio, ideally accomplished by increasing the number of veins to effectively increase the BS cell area and decrease the M cell area (Langdale 2011;Sage et al. 2014;Sedelnikova et al. 2018). Since C 4 photosynthesis occurred via a series of evolutionary modifications from C 3 photosynthesis on multiple independent occasions over the last 30 million years (Sage et al. 2011), it is likely that rice already contains all the genes required to induce these changes. Introduction of C 4 genes into C 3 plants, pyramiding C 4 -specific genes in one plant, and loss or editing of genes of ancestral C 3 genes are feasible approaches to C 4 evolution (Clayton et al. 2017;Peng and Zhang 2021;Schuler et al. 2016;Sen et al. 2017;Wang et al. 2016a, b). The rice leaf anatomy is intermediate between these anatomy of most C 3 and C 4 grasses, indicating that the introduction of Kranz anatomy into rice may not require radical changes (Sage and Sage 2009). However, it is unclear whether the rice genome possesses sufficient \"plasticity\" with respect to the alteration in leaf morphology that is required to raise photosynthetic rates.As a first step toward manipulation of rice leaf architecture to phenocopy, a Kranz anatomy into rice, this study set out to identify relevant mutants and genes governing the change in VD in rice by screening a large mutant population. Insertional mutagenesis, whereby T-DNA vectors containing multimeric CaMV35S enhancers are inserted randomly into the rice genome, can be used to activate gene expression, thereby leading to gain-of-function mutations (Hsing et al. 2007;Lo et al. 2016). Screening these mutant populations will facilitate the identification of the missing genetic components regulating the C 4 Kranz anatomy.Members of the nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) protein family have been found to serve as crucial regulators of inflammatory and innate immune responses in animals and plants, respectively (Ye and Ting 2008). The majority of plant disease resistance (R) proteins conferring resistance to bacterial, fungal, oomycete or viral pathogens encode proteins belonging to the NB-LRR protein family (Dangl and Jones 2001). The central NB domain has a role in signal transduction mediated by nucleotide phosphorylation and is the most conserved part of the gene; the C-terminal LRR domain is generally required for specific recognition of pathogen effectors; and the N-terminal coiled-coil (CC) domain is present only in NB-LRRs from monocots involved in signaling and likely pathogen recognition (Takken and Goverse 2012). The Arabidopsis and rice genomes contain 150 and 480 NB-LRR genes, respectively (Yang et al. 2006) and to date, most of them have not been studied. Ectopic expression of several CC-NB-LRR and NB-LRR genes isolated from Arabidopsis, maize and rice can confer resistance to blast disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae in rice (Li et al. 2019;Ma et al. 2015;Singh et al. 2020;Xu et al. 2018), indicating the functional conservation of NB-LRRs against pathogens.We screened a total of approximately 17,000 TRIM lines for alterations in vein patterning and leaf cellular architecture. Using a simple, high-throughput screen for leaf VD, we identified mutant lines with a heritable increase in the number of veins per unit leaf width due to a reduction in the interveinal distance, a phenotype designated as close vein spacing (CVS). Part of the TRIM population was screened previously along with rice variety IR64 deletion mutants to determine the range of VD in rice, although the causal genes were never identified (Feldman et al. 2014). In the present study, CVS mutants from the TRIM population were identified and characterized in terms of their potential to engineer C 4 leaf anatomy in rice. We further demonstrated that ectopic expression of each of two NB-LRR and CC-NB-LRR genes makes the interveinal distance closer by reducing the interveinal M cell number, M cell length and bulliform cell size, leading to increased VD in rice leaves. The increase in VD in G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR transgenic plants was highest at the seedling stage and became insignificant when the plants entered the reproductive stage, which avoided adverse effects on grain yield. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the function of NB-LRR genes in the regulation of leaf internal architecture.For gene expression analysis and seedling morphology characterization, seeds were surface sterilized in 2.5% sodium hypochlorite and germinated on half-strength MS agar medium (Murashige and Skoog Basal Medium with Vitamins; Phyto Technology Laboratories®) (Murashige and Skoog 1962) at 28 °C with 16 h of light and 8 h of darkness for 10-20 days. For yield analysis and vein spacing evaluation, plants were cultivated at the National Chung-Hsing University experimental farm under natural growing conditions.  S1). The population used T-DNA pTAG8 containing an enhancer -tetramer and selectable markers (Supplementary Fig. S1), which function in gene trapping, knockout and activation tagging (Hsing et al. 2007;Lo et al. 2016) in the genetic background of Oryza sativa cv Tainung 67 (TNG67).Sterilized seeds were germinated on sterile damp filter paper in Petri dishes in the dark at 30 °C for 3 days, followed by 2 days in the light at the same temperature. Seedlings were transplanted into pots maintained in a screen house or in the field. Pots were filled with soil from the IRRI upland farm mixed with 25% coco-coir and 0.4 g/L Osmocote Plus 15-9-12 (The Scotts Company Ltd., Thorne, UK). One of the high VD candidate mutants, M0104656, was grown in successive generations (T 2 -T 7 ) in pots with soil in the screen house at IRRI.Leaf VD is defined as the total number of veins per mm leaf width. A 5-cm-long piece of the mid-section of the fully expanded fifth leaf was sampled for VD quantification. VD was counted in a 1-mm field of view at four locations on both the left-and right-hand sides of the leaf using a Meade Read-View Portable Microscope (Meade Instruments Corp. CA, USA). For experiments conducted in Taiwan, leaf samples were fixed in formaldehyde alcohol fixatives and imported to IRRI. The VD of each line was counted in ImageJ and recorded in a Microsoft Excel Workbook (Microsoft Corp, USA). Any mutant plant found to have > 7.0 veins in a 1-mm field of view was considered to have a CVS phenotype and was subjected to detailed microscopic examination. Mutant lines with a heritable CVS phenotype were further characterized in successive generations.Leaves were examined using cleared sections, thin sections or fluorescence images to detect chloroplast positions.Fluorescence images of leaf cross-sections were captured using fresh leaves to detect chloroplast positions as described (Chatterjee et al. 2016). Leaves were fixed in FAA solution [3.7% (v/v) formaldehyde, 5% (v/v) acetic acid, and 50% ethanol] and were later used for preparation of cleared sections. Leaf sections were cleared as described (Lux et al. 2005) and stained with 0.05% toluidine blue.For a detailed characterization of leaf anatomy, thin sections were prepared from leaves fixed in a 2.5% glutaraldehyde solution as described (Chatterjee et al. 2016). Leaf discs were dehydrated in a graded ethanol series (McKown and Dengler 2007) and embedded in Spurr's resin (Spurr 1969). Samples were sectioned using a Sorvall MT2-B Ultramicrotome (DuPont-Instruments-Sorvall, Newtown, CT, USA) and stained in 0.05% toluidene blue. All sections were viewed under an OLYMPUS BX51 or motorized BX61 and/or BX63 microscope (Olympus Optical, Tokyo, Japan). Leaf section images were acquired with an Olympus DP71 digital documentation system attached to the microscope.All images of leaf anatomy were analyzed with Olympus cellSens software (www. olymp us-lifes cience. com/ en/ softw are/ cells ens/) and ImageJ software v.1.43 (https:// imagej. nih. gov/ ij/ index. html) to determine leaf VD, leaf thickness (µm), interveinal distance (µm), M cell length (µm), M cell number between two minor veins, M cell total area (mm 2 ), M cell lobing (the ratio of the actual cell perimeter to the minimum circumference of the cell), BS cell number, BS cell area (µm 2 ), vein area (µm 2 ) and bulliform cell area (µm 2 ). Measurements were made only at the middle portion of transverse leaf sections. M cell length and lobing were examined as described (Chatterjee et al. 2016;Giuliani et al. 2013). Measurements were made on 25 random segments from 3 sections per leaf and 3 leaves from 3 plants per line. Leaf width (mm) was measured prior to leaf sectioning.Leaf gas exchange measurements were made at IRRI (mean atmospheric pressure of 94.8 kPa) using a Li-6400XT infrared gas exchange analyzer (LI-COR Biosciences, Lincoln, NE, USA) fitted with a standard 2 × 3 cm leaf chamber and 6400-02 B light source. Measurements were made at a constant airflow rate of 400 μmol s −1 , leaf temperature of 30 °C, leaf-to-air vapor deficit between 1.0 and 1.5 kPa and relative humidity of 60-65%. Data were acquired between 0800 and 1300 h in a room with the air temperature maintained at approximately 30 °C. Measurements were made on the mid-portion of the leaf blade of three fully expanded leaves formed during the tillering stage from two plants. Leaves were acclimated in the cuvette for approximately 30 min before measurements were made. The response curves of the net rate of assimilation (A, µmol m −2 s −1 ) to changing intercellular CO 2 concentration (Ci, µmol CO 2 mol −1 ) were acquired by increasing the Ca (CO 2 concentration in the cuvette) from 20 to 1500 µmol CO 2 mol air −1 at a photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of 1000 µmol photon m −2 s −1 . Light response curves were acquired by decreasing the PPFD from 2000 to 0 µmol photons m −2 s −1 at Ca 400 µmol CO 2 mol −1 . The CO 2 compensation point (Γ) and maximum carboxylation efficiency (CE) were calculated from the intercept (Vogan et al. 2007) and slope (Wang et al. 2006) of the CO 2 response curves. The quantum yield for CO 2 assimilation (φ) was calculated from the slope of the light response curves (Farquhar and Wong 1984). The maximum carboxylation rate allowed by Rubisco (V cmax ), rate of photosynthetic electron transport based on NADPH requirements (J), triose phosphate use (TPU), daytime respiration (R d ) and mesophyll conductance (g m ) were calculated using the curve fitting tool as described (Sharkey et al. 2007).Genomic DNA of mutants was extracted with CTAB extraction buffer as described (Doyle 1987). T-DNA flanking sequences were recovered using a built-in plasmid rescue system (Upadhyaya et al. 2002) and analyzed with an ABI Prism 3100 DNA sequencer (Applied Biosystems) using DNA sequences 100 bp upstream of the T-DNA right border (Hsing et al. 2007) as an RB primer (Supplementary Table S2). T-DNA flanking sequences were blasted against the Rice Annotation Project Database (RAP-DB, https:// rapdb. dna. affrc. go. jp/ viewer/ gbrow se/ irgsp1/) or MSU Rice Genome Annotation Project 7 (RGAP 7, http:// rice. plant biolo gy. msu. edu/) (Kawahara et al. 2013) for identification of the T-DNA insertion site. Gene loci within a 40-kb region up-and downstream of the T-DNA insertion site were obtained from the RAP-DB or RGAP 7 database.For analysis of the T-DNA copy number in CVS1 and the T-DNA insertion site that associates with the CVS phenotype, genomic DNA was extracted from leaves of CVS1, digested with Sph I, and subjected to DNA gel blot analysis using the hygromycin phosphotransferase gene (Hyg) as a probe.Total RNA was extracted from the first fully expanded leaf of the main tiller of two plants per line using TRIzol Reagent (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA). Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analyses were conducted as described (Lo et al. 2008).All statistical analyses were performed in STAR, an R-based software developed by IRRI or with Student's t test using SigmaPlot software (version 11.0, Systat Software, Inc.). All results are presented as the mean ± SE. Significance levels were determined with the t test: *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.Full-length cDNAs of genes flanking the T-DNA insertion site in CVS1 were PCR-amplified from rice (TNG67) mRNA based on their putative open reading frames annotated with the RGAP 7 database (Kawahara et al. 2013). cDNAs were ligated into the pGEM®-T Easy cloning vector (Promega), and their sequences were confirmed by DNA sequencing analysis. Plasmid pAHC18 (Bruce et al. 1989), derived from plasmid pUC18, contains the maize ubiquitin gene (Ubi) promoter and nopaline synthase gene (Nos) terminator. cDNAs were excised from the pGEM-T Easy vector and ligated into a site between the Ubi promoter and Nos terminator in plasmid pAHC18. Plasmids containing Ubidriven cDNA of various genes were individually linearized with HindIII and inserted into the same site in pCAMBIA1301 (Hajdukiewicz et al. 1994). The resulting binary vectors were transferred into Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA105. Calli were induced from immature rice seeds of Oryza sativa cv Tainung 67 for rice transformation. The calli were cocultured with A. tumefaciens with binary vectors. The T 0 transgenic plants were regenerated and screened from calli following the method described (Chen et al. 2002).To calculate the vein density of transgenic plants in various generations, we screened out the segregated wild type of transgenic plants. All analyzed plants were heterozygous/ homozygous, and the uppermost fully expanded leaf was collected for all VD data calculations.Phylogenetic analysis of NB-LRRs in rice and other plant species was performed with full-length amino acid sequences by MEGA X software (Kumar et al. 2018) using the neighbor-joining method (Saitou and Nei 1987). The evolutionary distance was computed using the Poisson correction method (Zuckerkandl and Pauling 1965) and is reported as the number of amino acid substitutions per site. All ambiguous positions were removed for each sequence pair (pairwise deletion option). The accession numbers of the genes are listed in Supplementary Table S5.All primers used for DNA sequencing, quantitative RT-PCR and genome typing are provided in Supplementary Table S2.The VD of wild-type (WT) plants ranged between 4 and 6.5 veins per mm of leaf width, with 84% of the population having a VD of either 4.5 or 5.0 veins per mm (Fig. 1a). The range of VD was broader in the mutant population, numbering between 2.5 and 10 veins per mm (Fig. 1a). Approximately, 0.32% of the mutant population had a VD lower than 4 veins per mm, and only 0.05% had a VD of 7 or more veins per mm leaf width.The threshold VD for a mutant to be considered as a CVS candidate was set at 7 veins per mm leaf width, which is above the maximum VD of the WT population. From a total of 17,324 TRIM lines screened (Supplementary Table S1), 100 candidates were identified as having the CVS phenotype (Fig. 1b). A total of 49 candidate lines were prioritized for secondary screening by selecting only those with the CVS phenotype on both sides of the leaf. Of these, 23 mutant lines could not be rescreened, as the CVS phenotype was associated with seed sterility or was lethal. Only 7 of the 26 remaining lines showed a heritable phenotype in the T 2 generation, and only 3 in the T 3 generation exhibited the phenotype (Supplementary Table S3). Due to low yield in one of the three mutant lines (M0110124), only two CVS mutants, M0104656 (CVS1) and M0105588 (CVS2), were screened beyond the T 4 generation. CVS1 was further characterized in this study.In the T 1 generation of CVS1, 2 out of 12 progenies exhibited the CVS phenotype, with an average VD of 7.00 ± 0.01 (Supplementary Fig. S2), which is consistent with the photo showing that the VD was 8 in WT and 13.5 in CVS1 within a 2 mm leaf width (Fig. 2a). As VD was considered likely to exhibit phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental changes, the progeny of this mutant were advanced to successive generations through single seed decent by selecting only progenies with the highest VD in each generation until a predominant CVS phenotype was obtained (Supplementary Fig. S3). We did not observe a clear Mendelian inheritance in the early generations, which was attributed to the small population size screened and the lack of colinking information on T-DNA insertion and copy number in CVS1. However, by the T 6 generation, progenies of CVS1 could be clearly distinguished from the WT (Supplementary Fig. S3). CVS1 also has a semidwarf stature and low grain yield phenotype compared to WT (Fig. 2b, Supplementary Fig. S6).  Interveinal distance is reduced and M cell architecture is altered in CVS1We found that compared with WT, vein number was increased by 2 ~ 3 per mm leaf width (~ 35%), and interveinal distance was reduced by 32% in CVS1 (Fig. 2a, Table 1).There was no change in leaf thickness, BS cell number and area, or vein area. The average leaf width and bulliform cell area of CVS1 were reduced by 37 and 40%, respectively (Table 1). Leaf VD was negatively correlated with leaf width in both WT and CVS1 (Supplementary Fig. S4).The CVS phenotype in CVS1 was found to be associated with abnormal M cell development. There was a reduction in the length (by 26%) and total area of M cells (by 30-50%) (Table 1, Fig. 3a, b) in CVS1. A marked decline in M cell lobing in CVS1 was also detected (Fig. 3a), with an average M cell lobing of 1.1 ± 0.01 in CVS1 compared to 1.4 ± 0.04 in WT (Fig. 3b), which is accompanied by the abundance and positioning of chloroplasts (Fig. 3c). There was an almost complete absence of chloroplasts from M cells in the middle of leaves and an aggregation of chloroplasts around the periphery of M cells on both abaxial and adaxial leaf surfaces, suggesting that the development of chloroplasts was inhibited in CVS1 (Fig. 3c).The rates of CO 2 assimilation (A) were decreased in CVS1 at all intercellular CO 2 concentrations (Ci) (Fig. 4a) and stomatal conductance (g s ) (Fig. 4c, d), reflecting a statistically significant lower CE, higher R d and lower g m (Table 2). There was no apparent difference in V cmax , J or TPU and no consistent statistically significant difference in Γ. The response of A to PPFD was also altered (Fig. 4b), with saturation of A occurring much earlier than normal at 750 µmol m −2 s −1 in CVS1 compared to > 2000 µmol m −2 s −1 in WT. The quantum efficiency of CO 2 assimilation in CVS1 was also lower than the quantum efficiency of CO 2 assimilation in WT (Table 2). Southern blot analysis of CVS1 showed that two copies of T-DNA were inserted in the CVS1 genome (Fig. 5a). The 2 T-DNA insertion sites were blasted to chromosomes 9 (locus 8,282,951 bp) and 12 (locus 22,42,9649 bp). The CVS and semidwarf phenotypes cosegregated with the T-DNA insertion on chromosome 9 but not the insertion on chromosome 12 (Fig. 5b-d) based on genotyping of homozygous lines (Fig. 5c, d). A more extensive genotyping analysis of T 5 and T 6 generations showed that both heterozygous and homozygous progenies possessed HVD morphology, which demonstrated that the CVS phenotype is likely due to a dominant mutation in CVS1 (Fig. S5). Another TRIM line, M0125469, is a neighboring mutant of CVS1 chromosome 9 (M0104656), as it contains a T-DNA inserted at a position 22 kb upstream of the T-DNA insertion site on chromosome 9 of CVS1 (Fig. 5e). M0125469 exhibited a slightly higher VD than WT (Fig. 5f).A total of 7 genes (designated G1-G7) were predicted to be present within a 70 kb region up-and downstream of the T-DNA insertion site on chromosome 9 of CVS1 (Fig. 6a). These genes include hypothetical and NB-LRR proteins (Supplementary Table S4). Semiquantitative RT-PCR showed that only G4 was expressed in WT leaves under normal growth conditions. G5 is a putative transposon protein; thus, its expression was not analyzed. Expression of the G1, G2, G6 and G7 genes was activated in CVS1, expression of the G4 gene was activated only in the allelic mutant M0125469 but not in CVS1, and expression of G3 was not detected in any line (Fig. 6b). G6 was not expressed in M0125469. T-DNA was inserted at a position 16 bp downstream of the stop codon within the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of G4. We excluded G4 from further analysis, as it was activated only in the allelic mutant M125469 and did not lead to a higher VD phenotype in CVS1.G1, G2, G6 and G7 were individually overexpressed in transgenic rice under the control of the Ubi promoter. The mRNA of these genes accumulated into much higher levels in transgenic lines than in WT (Supplementary Fig. S7a-d). We found that only transgenic plants carrying the Ubi:G2-NB-LRR and Ubi:G7-NB-LRR constructs displayed the CVS phenotype; however, the increase in VD was not as high as that the increase in VD in CVS1 (Fig. 7a,   Supplementary Fig. S7e). We further screened the increase in VD at different stages and found that the increase in VD was highest at the earlier seedling stage, with 12% and 13% higher VD in G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR than in WT, respectively. As transgenic plants grow and mature, the increase in VD decreases from 12 and 13% to 4%. (Fig. 7a, Tables 3, 4). The T 3 transgenic plants overexpressing G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR possessed slightly higher chlorophyll content and photosynthesis rate (the value of photosynthesis rate was not statistically significant), and limited to no yield penalty, thus the negative phenotypes of CVS1 were eliminated (Supplementary Fig. S6). Seedlings and mature plants overexpressing G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR exhibited normal shoot and root growth, plant height, leaf width and leaf color in contrast to the semidwarf and narrow leaf phenotype in CVS1 (Fig. 7b, c, Table 4). This study demonstrated that overexpression of two NB-LRRs increases VD without affecting plant growth from seedling to mature stages. As the seedlings of G2-NB-LRRand G7-NB-LRR-overexpressing lines exhibited the highest  4). However, the M cell size and lobing were normal, which resulted in only a slight reduction in interveinal distances in these transgenic lines compared to WT (Fig. 8b).Phylogenetic analysis of other rice NB-LRR proteins that have been reported to control disease resistance in rice shows that the three G2-, G6-and G7-NB-LRRs are classified into one distinct clade (Fig. 9). G2 and G6 are CC-NB-LRR-type proteins, and G7 is an NB-LRR-type protein (Supplementary Table S5). Amino acids of G2-and G6-NB-LRRs share higher identity and homology of 84 and 91%, respectively, with each other, compared to the identity and homology of 57-58 and 73-74%, respectively, with G7-NB-LRR (Supplementary Table S6). Surprisingly, G2-, G6-and G7-NB-LRRs share a very low identity and homology of less than 15 and 37%, respectively, with other NB-LRRs (Supplementary Table S6). Amino acid sequence alignment revealed the presence of conserved structural domains, i.e., NB and LRR, in G2-, G6-and G7-NB-LRRs and two other randomly selected rice NB-LRRs known to control disease resistance in rice (Supplementary Fig. S8). We further predicted the expression potential of G2-, G6-, G7-NB-LRRs and six other similar rice NB-LRR genes by GENEVESTIGATOR (v. 8.3.2) (Hruz et al. 2008), the expression potential of G2-, G6-, G7-NB-LRRs is relatively lower than the expression of the other six rice NB-LRRs in all developmental stages and different tissues, suggesting that these three NB-LRRs may play unique roles different from the other NB-LRRs. The highly efficient carbon fixation in leaves of C 4 grasses relies partly on the combined anatomy of close vein spacing and functionally distinct photosynthetic cell types (Kumar and Kellogg 2019). Consequently, the increased VD is one of the key factors laying the foundation of a C 4 anatomy in rice (Feldman, et al. 2014;Kajala et al. 2011;Langdale 2011). In rice, an increase in VD can be achieved by increasing vein number with no alteration in leaf width or by reducing M cell number to bring the BS cells surrounding two adjacent veins closer. In the present study, the VD of the TRIM mutant population ranged between 2.5 and 10 veins per mm leaf width. This result is significantly different from the result of WT TNG67, which consistently has a VD range between 4 and 6 veins per mm leaf width (Fig. 1). Heritable changes in VD in the TRIM  n = 18, 17, 39, 29, 40, 25 for WT, CVS1, and transgenic plants overexpressing the flanking genes G1, G2, G6 and G7, respectively. b The seedling morphology, leaf color and width of 30-day-old transgenic rice seedlings overexpressing Ubi:G2-NB-LRR and Ubi:G7-NB-LRR were similar to the seedling morphology, leaf color and width of the WT. The scale of seedlings and leaves = 3 cm and 1 cm, respectively. c Mature transgenic rice plants overexpressing Ubi:G2-NB-LRR and Ubi:G7-NB-LRR grew similarly to the WT Table 3 Comparison of vein density between WT, G2-NB-LRR, and G7-NB-LRR transgenic plants in different developmental stagesThe transgenic plants of G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR are T 3 generation. All plants were planted in the 2020-drying season, sample sizes (n) of WT, CVS1, G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR were 12, 12, 24, 24 for 34 DAI; 5, 4, 8, 9 for 50 DAI; 13, 14, 19, 21 for 73 DAI; and 24, 24, 48, 24 for 114 DAI, respectively DAI days after imbibition a G2/WT, G7/WT (%): WT was set as 100%, and the impact of G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR were calculated relative to this value Table 4 Comparison of leaf anatomy between WT and G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR transgenic plants at the seedling stage G2/WT, G7/WT (%): WT was set as 100%, and the impact of G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR were calculated relative to this valueValues are the means ± SE. Significance levels were determined with the t test: *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001The sample sizes (n) of WT, CVS1, G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR were 12, 12, 24, and 24 for vein density; population revalidated the genetic control of this trait in rice, as has been proposed (Feldman et al. 2014). However, a high number (53%) of apparently false-positive candidates indicated environmental control over vein development (Sack and Scoffoni 2013). The CVS phenotype identified in ~ 47% of mutant lines was associated with seed sterility or lethality, which made it difficult to screen for more mutants for the identification of genes regulating VD and related anatomical traits (Supplementary Table S3).Fortunately, CVS1 showed a stably inherited increase in 2-3 veins per mm leaf width over WT, which clearly indicated that VD can be increased in rice (Fig. 2a, Table 1).CVS1 provides a foundation to study aberrations in M cell structure in rice. Despite having negatively impacted traits such as leaf width, photosynthesis and growth, which appear similar to those in other rice VD mutants identified earlier (Smillie et al. 2012), CVS1 plants were viable and produced seeds. CVS in rice is a primary requirement for introducing Kranz anatomy in the leaf. To date, a few genes regulating leaf width and leaf rolling have been reported (Guo et al. 2019;Li et al. 2010;Qi et al. 2008;Schuler et al. 2018;Wang et al. 2016a, b), but no genes able to regulate VD without affecting yield have been identified in rice (Schuler et al. 2018;Sims et al. 2021). A leaf VD screen of the TRIM population was originally undertaken to understand genetic plasticity and identify genes regulating vein spacing development in C 3 and C 4 plants (Feldman et al. 2014;Luo et al. 2018). In the present study, we identified the CVS1 mutant exhibiting a CVS phenotype with a gain-of-function C 4 -like leaf anatomy. Anatomical examination of M cells revealed that both reduced cell expansion and cell division account for the CVS phenotype in CVS1.A key feature of C 4 leaf anatomy is an increased ratio of veinal to interveinal regions (Dengler et al. 1994;Muhaidat et al. 2007). CVS1 showed a 35% increase in VD, because the interveinal space was reduced by ~ 32%, and an average reduction in individual M cell length by ~ 26% (Table 1). In a typical C 4 leaf, veins are separated by 2-3 M cells compared to up to ~ 9 M cells in C 3 leaves (Sheehy et al. 2008). Therefore, an 'ideal' rice mutant with Kranz-like internal leaf architecture would possess a significantly reduced internal M cell number. In the beginning of this study, we hypothesized that activation of gene expression could lead to changes in M cell number, a basis for the identification of VD mutants through the simple screening of a large mutant population. We found that CVS1 shows a CVS phenotype due to a reduction in both M cell size and number (Figs. 3 and 8). Suggesting that both cell division and lateral M cell expansion have been affected in the mutant, in contrast to a study in which screening of a gene-deleted IR64 rice mutant population showed altered VD resulting from changes in M cell size rather than M cell number (Smillie et al. 2012), Trees are drawn to scale, with branch lengths in the same units as the units of the evolutionary distances used to infer the phylogenetic tree. All ambiguous positions were removed for each sequence pair (pairwise deletion option). There were a total of 2044 positions in the final dataset. The scale value of 0.2 indicates 0.2 amino acid substitutions per site. The yellow background highlights the clade harboring G2-, G6-and G7-NB-LRR indicating that M cell development is under complex genetic control.M cell lobing is a special characteristic of the chlorenchyma structure of rice and related warm-climate C 3 grasses and has been implicated in refixation of the carbon that is lost during photorespiration in leaf tissues (Sage and Sage 2009). The presence of these specialized anatomical features is associated with high mesophyll conductance (Flexas et al. 2008;von Caemmerer et al. 2012a, b) and photosynthetic activity (Giuliani et al. 2013). The periphery of M cells with deep lobing is usually covered by chloroplasts and stromules to increase the cellular surface exposed to the intercellular airspace and maximize diffusive CO 2 conductance and light transmission into the chloroplast stroma in rice (Giuliani et al. 2013;Sage and Sage 2009). Reduction of lobes, chloroplast number within M cells, and M cell size (Fig. 3) indicates a significant defectiveness in the coordinated development of chlorenchyma structure in CVS1. As a consequence, a reduction in the degree of M cell lobing was associated with reduced g m and A, which resulted from a reduction in CO 2 concentration within the intercellular air space and chloroplasts in CVS1 (Fig. 4 and Table 2).In the CVS1 mutant, the multimerized CaMV 35S enhancers on the T-DNA led to the enhanced expression of three genes encoding NB-LRR and other genes of unknown functions. The three NB-LRR genes (G2, G6 and G7) are present in a cluster on chromosome 9 and are activated to different extents by the T-DNA inserted in CVS1 (Fig. 6). Transgenic rice overexpressing an Arabidopsis NB-LRR gene, RPS2, exhibits a semidwarf habit, fewer tillers per plant, and lower seed setting rate phenotypes (Li et al. 2019), which are similar to these seed setting rate phenotypes found in CVS1 (Fig. 7c). Elevated accumulations of H 2 O 2 and callose deposition are considered fitness costs for maintaining broad-spectrum resistance against pathogens and pests in transgenic rice overexpressing Arabidopsis RPS2 (Li et al. 2019). However, in the present study, transgenic rice overexpressing the individual rice NB-LRR gene grew normally and limited to no yield penalty (Fig. 7b, c, Supplementary Fig. S6). It is unknown whether these rice NB-LRR genes have similar functions to Arabidopsis RPS2 for conferring disease resistance. Interestingly, we found that only the overexpression of G2-NB-LRR or G7-NB-LRR led to an increased VD phenotype (Fig. 7a, Tables 3, 4), indicating that the regulation of vein development and plant growth is genetically separable. Auxin transporters play a crucial role in controlling vein development by auxin transport pathways (Sawchuk et al. 2013). The importance of auxin levels and polar transport in VD has been thoroughly discussed (Huang et al. 2017;Jiajia et al. 2020;Kumar and Kellogg 2019;Wang et al. 2017). Recently, the VD of G2-NB-LRR or G7-NB-LRR transgenic plants was found to increase significantly in the seedling stage, and the increase in VD decreased when the plants entered the reproductive stage (Table 3), consistent with the level of endogenous IAA, which is synthesized mainly in immature and meristematic tissues (Kasahara 2016;Leyser 2006). In most reports, auxin was classified as a negative regulator of innate immunity (Singh et al. 2018;Yang et al. 2013). A recent report showed that NB-LRR proteins activate multiple transcription factors via the regulation of auxin, JA and ET plant hormones to switch on defense responses under pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). NB-LRR proteins are the largest gene family and play pleiotropic roles in plants, such as cell growth, differentiation, signaling, and biotic and abiotic stress defense (Li et al. 2017;Meteignier et al. 2016;Uchida et al. 2011;Uchida and Tasaka 2011;Yang et al. 2010). The expression potentials of G2-and G7-NB-LRRs are also different from the expression potentials of other NB-LRR genes at all developmental stages (Fig. S9), indicating G2-and G7-NB-LRRs may have unique roles in rice. It is worthwhile to further study whether these G2and G7-NB-LRRs have any functional link to the auxin signaling network.Although overexpression of G2-NB-LRR or G7-NB-LRR increased VD in transgenic rice, the extent of the increase was much lower than the extent of the increase in CVS1 (Supplementary Fig. S7e). One possibility is that overexpression of multiple genes that have been activated in the cluster on chromosome 9 is required for a significant increase in VD. This notion is supported by a study showing that constitutive overexpression of 60 known developmental regulators from maize individually did not confer an increased VD phenotype in transgenic rice (Wang et al. 2017). Alternatively, the leaf width and the interveinal distance were reduced by 37 and 32-34%, respectively, in CVS1 compared with these leaf width and the interveinal distance in WT (Table 1, Fig. 8b), suggesting that a combination of the reduced leaf width and interveinal distance contributes to the significantly higher VD in CVS1. The chlorophyll content of transgenic rice overexpressing G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR is also slightly higher, but there is no significant difference in photosynthetic rate, which indicates that further introduction of C 4 genes into transgenic rice with anatomical changes is necessary for functional C 4 like rice creation (Ermakova et al. 2020;Sen et al. 2017). Studies with gene loss-of-function mutagenesis have identified numerous mutants with alterations in leaf anatomy associated with pleiotropic phenotypes (Fladung 1994;Rizal et al. 1 3 2015), suggesting that the establishment of C 4 leaf anatomy is regulated by a complex regulatory network. Nevertheless, we found that the number but not the size of interveinal M cells was significantly reduced in the leaves of G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR transgenic rice plants, revealing an important factor controlling the interveinal distance in rice (Fig. 8, Table 4).The significant reduction in interveinal distance in CVS1 also resulted from a combination of several internal morphological changes, including a reduction in M cell size and number and bulliform cell size (Fig. 8, Table 4). Bulliform cells are large, bubble-shaped epidermal cells that are present in groups on the adaxial surfaces of leaves in grasses. These cells are essential for water storage and are involved in the rolling of leaves to avoid water loss through transpiration under severe drought and salinity conditions (Grigore and Toma 2017). Loss of function of the narrow leaf 7 (NAL7) gene, which controls auxin biosynthesis, results in reduced bulliform cell size and number and leaf width and slightly reduced interveinal distance, but not other phenotypes, in rice (Fujino et al. 2008). Supporting the notion that the phenotype of narrow leaves and reduced interveinal distance in CVS1 could be related to bulliform cell size. CVS1 and G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR transgenic rice exhibited increased VD and shortened interveinal distance by sharing altered phenotypes of reduced M cell and bulliform cell sizes. However, reduced lobing in smaller M cells was not detected in the G2-NB-LRR and G7-NB-LRR transgenic lines, indicating that the development of lobing is likely associated with M cell development. It is unclear whether the narrow leaf width along with the semidwarf plant architecture found in CVS1 are regulated by multiple genes flanking the T-DNA or by somatic mutation linked to the T-DNA insertion.","tokenCount":"6901"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c9b6d7f453227607e15353be94527f9d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/428aed5e-3770-474f-925f-d10325e8150f/retrieve","id":"-1944056581"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ecaaedd0-5cbb-4e59-b1d6-f3a34ca03b5e","pagecount":"4","content":"A informação contida neste guia pode ser livremente reproduzida para fi ns não-comerciais sob condição que se mencione a fonte. Caso esta reprodução se destine a fi ns comerciais, é necessária uma autorização prévia do CTA.1Em África a baixa fertilidade dos solos levou a um declínio dos rendimentos das culturas nas pequenas explorações, causando uma insegurança alimentar e um aumento da pobreza. Os solos, de um modo geral, apresentam uma defi ciência em azoto e fósforo, que são elementos indispensáveis para as plantas se desenvolverem bem. Pode-se aumentar a fertilidade do solo utilizando fertilizantes químicos, mas estes não são acessíveis para a maioria dos agricultores e nem sempre estão disponíveis. Uma alternativa mais barata é produzir um composto de boa qualidade a partir dos desperdícios domésticos e da exploração agrícola.O composto é o resultado da decomposição de desperdícios vegetais ou combinados com desperdícios animais ou outros.A compostagem só pode ter lugar quando existem as condições propícias para o crescimento de microorganismos (bactérias e fungos, apenas visíveis com o uso dum microscópio). Quando estes microorganismos decompõem os desperdícios vegetais e animais, produz-se calor. Após alguns dias, a pilha de composto aquecerá e, caso for aberta, dela sairá vapor. À medida que os materiais se decompõem, libertam nutrientes numa forma que podem ser utilizados pelas culturas.Os resíduos das culturas ou desperdícios orgânicos domésticos podem simplesmente ser • atirados em valas e deixá-los decompor durante três ou quatro meses, tempo após o qual o composto está pronto para ser utilizado. Os desperdícios são postos numa pilha, à sombra duma árvore, deixando-os a decompor. • Ainda que com estes dois métodos se produza composto, a qualidade deste é normalmente baixa. Este folheto ensina a como fazer um composto com uma melhor qualidade, designado como « composto enriquecido », que tem um teor mais elevado de matéria orgânica e que contém mais nutrientes. A utilização deste composto permitirá aumentar os rendimentos das suas culturas sem ter que recorrer à aplicação de fertilizantes químicos dispendiosos.Transforma os produtos de desperdício, tal como os resíduos das culturas, estrume animal, • ervas daninhas provenientes do jardim ou quintal, capim, as aparas resultantes da poda das sebes, restos da cozinha e lixo doméstico e outros desperdícios orgânicos. Como fazer composto enriquecido em 3-4 meses?Etapa 1 : Fazer a pilha Delimite um espaço de, pelo menos, 2,5 m de comprimento por 2 m de largura num lugar 1.conveniente, por exemplo perto do seu talhão cultivado. Disponha de uma área similar para revolver a pilha. Marque os cantos da pilha com os paus/ 2.estacas.Corte os resíduos da cultura em pedaços 3.de cerca de 30 cm de comprimento para aumentar a área de superfície de decomposição e faça uma camada de cerca de 15 cm de profundidade.Espalhe uma camada fi na de estrume 4.animal, com cerca de 2 cm de altura, para cobrir a primeira camada. Acrescente uma segunda camada de 5.material vegetal de cerca de 15 cm de espessura que inclua, de preferência, adubos verdes como sejam os arbustos provenientes da agrossilvicultura (não utilize ramos grossos). Espalhe cinzas de madeira ou poeira de 6.carvão vegetal sobre esta camada de vegetação verde.Se o tempo estiver seco, regue esta 7.camada com cerca de 4 litros de água para a manter húmida. Repita estas etapas referidas acima de forma a obter cinco camadas com uma altura de cerca 8.de 30 cm cada, quer dizer, uma pilha com cerca de 1,5 m de altura. Cubra a pilha com 10 cm da camada superfi cial da terra para evitar a perda de nutrientes. 9.Revolva a pilha depois de um mês com uma forquilha.• O material de cima e dos lados da pilha fi ca, agora, no centro da nova pilha. • Se a pilha estiver seca, regue-a para a humedecer. • Revolva a pilha de duas em duas semanas até que o composto fi que de cor cinzenta escura. Na Ásia desenvolveu-se um método mais rápido de fazer composto. O processo de decomposição é acelerado, acrescentando-se grandes quantidades de estrume animal fresco e revolvendo-se frequentemente a pilha. O estrume de aves de capoeira é superior a outros estrumes.Corte os desperdícios vegetais (secos ou verdes, ou ambos) em pedaços. 1.Misture-os completamente com quantidades iguais de estrume animal fresco. 2.Com esta mistura, faça uma pilha de, pelo menos, um metro de altura e um metro de largura e 3. disponha de uma área similar para revolver a pilha. Cubra a pilha com folhas de bananeira ou sacos velhos para reduzir a perda de calor. 4.Ao terceiro ou quarto dia o interior da pilha deverá estar quente. Se este não for o caso, 5.acrescente estrume animal e misture-o com outros materiais.Três ou quatro dias mais tarde, revolva a pilha, de dois em dois dias de maneira a que os 6.materiais dos lados e de cima fi quem no centro da pilha. Dentro de 14 a 18 dias o composto estará pronto a ser utilizado. 7.O composto utilizado é insufi ciente.Não são seguidas na íntegra as práticas recomendadas de cultivo agrícola Aplique as quantidades de composto recomendadas (um punhado de composto por covacho, quer dizer 400 a 600 kg por hectare) Para além de se utilizar uma quantidade de composto sufi ciente, observe as outras práticas recomendadas, tais como sejam a preparação de uma boa cama de sementes, sementeira atempada das sementes melhoradas, monda e medidas de controlo de doenças e pragas.Cave covas de plantio, em linhas, com cerca de 10 cm de profundidade. No caso do milho, 1.o espaçamento entre as fi las deve ser de 75 cm e a distância entre as covas de 30 cm. Ponha mais ou menos um punhado de composto em cada cova de plantio e revolva bem com 2.a terra. Coloque a semente no covacho e cubra com terra.O composto também pode ser disseminado ou espalhado a lanço, de maneira homogénea e 4.incorporado na cama de sementes, antes da sementeira.No caso de não utilizar imediatamente o composto, guarde-o à sombra ou cubra a pilha com 5.uma camada de 10 cm da camada superfi cial da terra para evitar a perda de nutrientes. Em 2002, ele aplicou o seu primeiro composto enriquecido em cerca dum hectare da sua terra, na altura das primeiras chuvas. Nesse ano o rendimento das suas culturas foi muito mais alto. Ele colheu num total de vinte sacos de milho e seis sacos de amendoim. Desta colheita excepcional, guardou cinco sacos de milho e um saco de amendoim para a sua família e vendeu o resto por um total superior a 300 US $. Em 2003 continuou a fazer composto enriquecido que aplicou numa área ainda maior, cerca de 3 ha.Com o rendimento adicional proveniente do aumento da produção, conseguiu construir uma casa semi-permanente para a sua família. Actualmente o Sr. Bwibo ensina os seus vizinhos a fazerem composto enriquecido para que eles possam também compartilhar este sucesso.","tokenCount":"1137"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"99f8382adcb569c7a820836bece7c486","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e7a0c95d-8a20-4ecf-ab70-99405ad20a22/retrieve","id":"967441663"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"904e4889-5051-4443-8dad-3b367a72c666","pagecount":"3","content":"La producción de semilla prebásica en Ecuador se la realiza en sustratos sólidos (Velásquez et. al. 1998). Sin embargo, los rendimientos son bajos y existen problemas sanitarios como rhizoctoniasis (Rhizoctonia solani) y agrietamiento (probablemente causado por Streptomyces scabies) (Navarrete 2004). Por ello es importante buscar alternativas que permitan incrementar el rendimiento y mejorar la calidad de la semilla prebásica. En la rizósfera existen microorganismos benéficos que estimulan el crecimiento de la plantas y producen sustancias antagónicas a patógenos del suelo (Ramos, 2000). De allí que esta investigación tuvo como objetivo evaluar el efecto de bacterias benéficas en la calidad y rendimiento de semilla prebásica de papa en dos sustratos.Esta investigación se realizó en la Estación Experimental Santa Catalina del INIAP. Se utilizó la variedad INIAP-Fripapa y se trabajó con 17 cepas de zonas paperas de Ecuador (provenientes de INIAP) y Perú (provenientes de CIP) de los géneros Bacillus (5 cepas), Pseudomonas (3), Azospirillum (5) y Azotobacter (4). Los sustratos evaluados fueron pomina (S1) y pomina más tierra (S2) en parcelas de 1.0 x 1.5 m. Las bacterias fueron evaluadas solas o en mezclas (referidas como Conjuntos Bacterianos). Para el aislamiento de las bacterias se utilizó un medio específico de acuerdo a cada género. Las bacterias se cultivaron en medio TSB líquido de 24 a 48 h antes de la inoculación. Se realizaron 5 inoculaciones durante el ciclo de cultivo.Se realizaron dos experimentos en el año 2010. Primero se realizó un experimento preliminar utilizando un diseño de bloques aumentados en parcela dividida (parcelas grandes sustratos y parcelas pequeñas bacterias) para evaluar 2 bacterias solas y 8 mezclas. Luego se realizó un experimento de evaluación con las 2 mejores bacterias y las 2 mejores mezclas utilizando un diseño de bloques completos al azar. En ambos experimentos se mantuvieron testigos sin bacteria y el número de repeticiones fue 4, salvo en el caso del experimento preliminar en el que algunos tratamientos no tuvieron repeticiones. Las variables evaluadas fueron rendimiento por planta (kg), número de tubérculos por planta y rendimiento de semilla (%) como un indicador de calidad sanitaria. Se realizaron análisis de variancia, análisis de efectos simples (en el caso de interacciones significativas) y pruebas de Tukey al 5% para comparar medias.En el experimento preliminar no se encontraron diferencias significativas de las bacterias en relación al testigo, pero se seleccionaron dos mezclas bacterianas (Azospirillum sp., Bacillus subtilis y Azotobacter sp.; y 2 cepas de Azospirillum sp.), y dos bacterias solas (Bacillus subtilis y Bacillus sp.) (todas provenientes de Ecuador) por presentar los mejores valores promedios de las variables evaluadas.En el experimento de evaluación, el análisis de variancia mostró que la interacción Conjuntos Bacterianos x Sustratos fue significativa solo para rendimiento de semilla (Tabla 1). El análisis de efectos simples mostró diferencias altamente significativas entre conjuntos bacterianos en el sustrato pomina más tierra (S2). En este sustrato se encontró que el mejor conjunto bacteriano fue la mezcla de dos cepas de Azospirillum sp. (C3) y la mezcla de Azospirillum sp., Bacillus subtilis y Azotobacter sp. (C4) (Tabla 2). Es decir, las plantas inoculadas con estas bacterias produjeron tubérculos de mejor calidad sanitaria (menor daño de R. solani y agrietamiento) que el testigo sin bacteria y por lo tanto un mayor porcentaje pudieron calificar como semilla prebásica. En relación a sustratos, se encontraron diferencias altamente significativas para número de tubérculos por planta y rendimiento de semilla (Tabla 1). En ambas variables el mejor sustrato fue pomina (S1) (Tabla 2). Incluso, el testigo sin bacteria en pomina tuvo un porcentaje de rendimiento de semilla (86%) similar al mejor tratamiento de bacteria en pomina más tierra (84.5%) (Cuadro 2), indicando que solo al usar el sustrato pomina se tendría similares resultados (en calidad de semilla) que usando bacterias, e incluso se tendría mejores rendimientos de tubérculos por planta (Cuadro 2).Las bacterias con mejor desempeño fueron las mezclas C3 (2 cepas de Azospirillum sp.) y C4 (Azospirillum sp., Bacillus subtilis y Azotobacter sp.), las cuales mostraron efecto en rendimiento de semilla (usado como indicador de calidad sanitaria) y no en rendimiento por planta (kg) y tubérculos por planta. El efecto de las bacterias fue evidente solo en el sustrato pomina más tierra, y no en el sustrato pomina. También se observó que el sustrato pomina produce mejores rendimientos y mejor calidad sanitaria de semilla.Tabla 1. Análisis de variancia para rendimiento por planta, número de tubérculos por planta y rendimiento de semilla en la evaluación de bacterias en la producción de semilla prebásica de papa en Ecuador (experimento de evaluación). Tabla 2. Promedios y rangos de pruebas de significancia (Tukey 5%) para rendimiento por planta, número de tubérculos por planta y rendimiento de semilla prebásica de papa en la evaluación de bacterias en Ecuador (experimento de evaluación).. ¶ ¶ : S1 = pomina; S2 = pomina más tierra.","tokenCount":"799"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"365f4c440cc4d3ca0a358235b3a6188d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/Guide-Methods-Covid19-EN.pdf","id":"935741103"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9e57b42a-84dd-4b68-9397-07b2256f5029","pagecount":"32","content":"We would like to thank all funding partners who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund. For a full list of the 'CGIAR Fund' funding partners please see: http://www.cgiar.org/our-funders/ Any views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of CIFOR, the editors, the authors' institutions, the financial sponsors or the reviewers.Over the past 10 years, the Government of Vietnam has developed many policies towards wildlife conservation. The introduction of the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy for 2021-2030 and vision to 2050 outlines strategies and priorities in biodiversity conservation and implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). However, effective implementation of these strategies requires context-relevant actions that address issues currently facing central and local governments and people.Since 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic has had many economic, environmental and social impacts around the globe, including in Vietnam. Although the exact origin of Covid-19 remains unknown, the hypothesis that the outbreak was linked to captive wildlife has led to changes in policies, consumer markets and the likelihood of people participating in wildlife product supply chains. However, there are very few studies investigating the impacts of Covid-19 on the management and livelihoods of people in Vietnam.In 2021, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) conducted a study to assess the current status of wildlife conservation and wildlife farms in the context of the Covid-19, and to find solutions to support the Vietnam government and communities in coping with the pandemic. Specifically, the aims of the study were to determine: Please kindly determine what opportunities there are for wildlife conservation and management in the area you are managing. Please assess the extent to which you agree with the following statements, where 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree. Among the above opportunities, which three do you think are the most important? (Just enter three numbers. For example: 1, 2, 4; 2, 8, 11.04 Pham Thu Thuy, Tang Thi Kim Hong, Nguyen Thi Kieu Nuong, Dang Hai Phuong, Duong Ngoc Phuoc and Le Thi Thanh ThuyPlease can you tell me, what challenges are there for wildlife conservation and management in the area you are managing? Please assess the extent to which you agree with the following statements, where 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree. Please tell us how Covid-19 has impacted wildlife management and conservation. Please assess the extent to which you agree with the following statements, where 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree.08 Pham Thu Thuy, Tang Thi Kim Hong, Nguyen Thi Kieu Nuong, Dang Hai Phuong, Duong Ngoc Phuoc and Le Thi Thanh ThuyPlease tell us what the solutions are to be able to implement wildlife management and conservation? Please assess the extent to which you agree with the following statements, where 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree. Other comments, contributions and suggestions.3 Focus group discussions with villagersIn each village, group meetings will be held for the following groups: The moderator starts the meeting and thanks the participants for attending.Briefly introduce the project and delegation as well as the purpose and content of the group meeting. Explain that the group meeting is voluntary and free and ask for the consent of the participants.Thoroughly explain the content of the group meeting, the steps it involves, and how long it takes. Encourage participants to ask questions.This step has the following objectives: i) to help understand the history of the village; ii) to get information about major events in the village, programmes and projects including contents related to forestry; and iii) to ascertain the impacts of forest protection, wildlife protection and programmes on the socio-economic situation and environment in the village. After completing the village history step, we will use the collected information to further investigate and understand major changes to environmental, livelihood and social conditions in the village.Note: participants may not remember the exact time of each event, for example when forest was allocated for management by the community. In such cases, suggest they recall it in relation to a significant event (for example, a major drought or forest fire), and then ask how this forest allocation and prevention of wildlife poaching has affected people in the village.Key questions used in this step include: As with the above step, it is necessary to determine from the village history when it was affected by Covid-19.Then select the main issues (corn, roads, forest protection, forest product harvesting, wildlife exploitation, wildlife protection…) and ascertain differences between women and men in relation to these issues.Cut 5-10 small pieces of cardboard for each participant and then write the names of 12 people participating on those 12 pieces of cardboard. On a sheet of A0 paper, draw three columns with the following headings:Poor household, Average household, Well-off household. Participants will discuss with each other to place households in each column.After the group has categorized the households, ask them why they classified the households as poor, average or well-off. The research team needs to determine the criteria the participants used. For example, they may consider having a home, a means of transport, or arable land as criteria for distinguishing between poor, average and well-off households. These criteria may differ from the poverty line in use, however, understanding them is important for understanding the local situation. Or perhaps the rich are the wildlife traders, while the poor are the ones that will exploit and hunt wildlife. Also from these criteria, people will be asked more deeply about the criteria for ranking poor, average, and well-off households. We will use the following table:• What are the situations surrounding hunting, trading, using and captive breeding wildlife in the area? ","tokenCount":"953"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3188845b1ab0516b41f71ea13bd3aeb8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5118d64f-590a-470d-8d8a-5491e2a4a3ad/retrieve","id":"365597343"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bff0ca8b-379d-4a5b-beab-e1ce54ef3d62","pagecount":"31","content":"Mradi wa kina cha tathmini ya mifugo na mazingira katika minyororo ya thamani (CLEANED VCs) 2015 Shukrani Kazi hii ilifadhiliwa na shirika msingi la Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, kama sehemu ya mradi wa 'Kina cha tathmini ya mifugo, viungo vingine kwenye maji na mazingira kwa lishe bora na maendeleo endelevu katika minyororo ya thamani (CLEANED VCs)' na kuendelezwa kwa kushirikiana na mpango wa Maziwa Zaidi (MoreMilkIT). Maoni yoyote yaliyotolewa katika chapisho hili ni yale ya waandishi. Wao sio lazima kuwakilisha maoni ya taasisi waandishi, mashirika au shirika la Bill Melinda Gates Foundation.Huu uchapishaji umehatilimikiwa na Taasisi ya Mazingira ya Stockholm (SEI) na taasisi ya kimataifa ya utafiti wa mifugo (ILRI). Imeleseniwa kwa matumizi kwa ajili ya chini ya Creative Commons Attribution -yasiyo ya kibiashara -Share Alike 3.0 liseni isiyo na sheria za mamlaka (Unported). Kuona leseni hii, ione kwa mtazamo tovuti: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/. Isipokuwa ibainishwe vinginevyo, wewe uko huru kufanya nakala, kuchapisha (duplicate) na kusambaza, kuonyesha, au kusambaza sehemu yoyote ya kitabu hiki au sehemu yake bila ruhusa na kufanya tafsiri, marekebisho au matendo mengine chini ya masharti yafuatayo:MAELEZO: Kazi ni lazima ihusishwe lakini sio kwa njia yoyote yenye inapendekeza kuidhinishwa na taasisi ya mazingira ya Stockholm (SEI), taasisi la kimataifa la utafiti wa mifugo (ILRI) au mwandishi / waandishi.YASIYO YA KIBIASHARA: Kazi hii haiwezi kutumika kwa madhumuni ya kibiashara.Kushiriki Sawa: Kama kazi hii imebadilika, imebadilishwa, au kujengwa juu yake, matokeo ya kazi hii lazima isambazwe tu chini ya leseni hii au leseni kama hii moja.Translation from English: Yabarila Chiza Kamele.Taarifa hii ni matokeo ya warsha ya wadau mbalimbali iliyoandaliwa na taasisi ya kimataifa ya utafiti wa mifugo (ILRI) na kufanyika wilayani Lushoto kwa lengo la kuendeleza mifumo ya wafugaji wadogo wadogo wa ng'ombe wa maziwa katika wilaya za Lushoto na Handeni. Mifumo hii inahusisha ufugaji, uzalishaji wa malisho na vyanzo vyake, miundobinu inayosaidia upatikanaji wa huduma za hii mifumo na masuala ya mazingira kwa ujumla wake. Takwimu zilipatikana kwa njia ya kazi ya vikundi vidogo vya washiriki waliofanya majadiliano na kuanisha maeneo ya ufugaji, vyanzo vya malisho na miundobinu ya mifugo iliyopo kwa kutumia mfumo wa habari kwa jinsi ya ramani zilizochorwa kwa kutumia teknonolojia ya PGIS. Majadiliano hayo yaliwezesha kupata taarifa sahihi kutokana na kwamba wao ni wadau katika shughuli za ufugaji na wanaelewa vizuri mazingira ya maeneo ya wilaya walizotoka. Taarifa za kina na zenye kulenga matumizi sahihi zilizopatikana katika vikundi kwa njia ya majadiliano imefupishwa na kuwasilishwa kwenye Jedwali 1. Matokeo ya utafiti huu yatakamilisha takwimu zilizokusanywa katika ngazi ya kaya na ufahamu wa wataalamu ikiwa ni uthibitisho wa dhana ya utekelezaji wa tathmini endelevu ya kina juu ya mazingira ya mifugo na samaki kwa uboreshaji wa lishe, ulinzi wa mazingira ya mifugo, viumbe vya majini na mpango kazi wa maendeleo endelevu wa raslimali hizo ujulikano kama \"CLEANED'' Jedwali 1: Kuonesha taarifa zilizokusanywa wakati wa warsha na kutumika kama hadidu za rejea kwa utafiti huu wa maziwa zaidiMtindo wa ufugaji Mgawanyo (% kwa eneo kiwilaya) na kiasi cha malishoMifugo haiachwi kamwe nje ya banda, chakula hukusanywa au hununuliwa: Lishe asili lililokusanywa na mabaki ya mazao hukatwakatwa na kuchanganywa nyumbani. Chakula chenye virutubisho vya ziada kilichonunuliwa au kusindikwa katika viwanda vidogo au kutokana na kununua mabaki ya mazao kwa mfano alizeti na pamba.Mfano wa ufugaji huu: idadi ya ng'ombe huwa wawili hadi kumi (2-10)Lushoto: Asilimia hamsini hadi sitini na tano (Lushoto: 50-65%)Handeni: Chini ya asilimia tano (<5%) (maeneo matatu)Nusu huria /nusu ndani Mifugo huachiliwa huria wakati wa mchana na kurudi kwenye banda jioni, Chakula cha ziada hutolewa hasa katika msimu wa ukame na kipindi ng'ombe anapokamuliwa. Malisho (nyasi) ya ziada hukusanywa na kuletwa nyumbani, hukatwakatwa na kuchanganywa na mashudu au vyakula vilivyo sindikwa katika viwanda vidogo vyenye mashine za kusindika za wanajamii wenyewe. Mabaki ya mazao kwa mfano alizeti hununuliwa (kama ipo)Idadi halisi ya ng'ombe wafugwao katika mfumo huu ni : Wawili hadi kumi na watano (2-15)Lushoto: Asilimia kumihadi thelathini (10-30%) (kulingana na vikundi)Handeni: Chini ya asili mia tano (<5%) (maeneo manne hufanya ufugaji wa namna hii)Aina nyingine (Subcategory):Misimu hubadilishana kati ya ufugaji huria (wakati wa mvua , kuchunga tu) na ufugaji wa ndani (wakati wa jua, hulishwa kwa malisho ya kukata na kubeba)Handeni: Chini ya asilimia tano (<5%); Maeneo mawili (Mzundu, Negero) Huria Hulishwa malishoni tu, malisho ya asili, mifugo huachiliwa na huchungwa kwenye mabaki ya mazao kwa gharama ndogo sana sana katika Handeni.Idadi ya ng'ombe wafugwao katika mfumo huu ni : Ishirini hadi zaidi ya mia tano (20->500 na zaidi)Lushoto: Asilimia ishirini hadi ishirini na tano (20-25%), Handeni: Asilimia tisini na sita (96%)Maeneo yasiyo ya jumuiya na yenye malisho ya kusimamiwa, mifugo hupatiwa lishe ya nyongeza yenye virutubisho. Ranchi kwa kawaida ni kwa ajili ya uzalishaji wa nyama.Iko ranchi moja uwanda wa kufugia mifugo (Mzeri) ranchi hii iko nje kidogo ya mji wa Handeni.Aina ya lishe Aina/jamii ya malisho Uzalishaji lishe Malisho ya asili Nyasi aina za mabingobingo (napier/elephantgrass),Guatemala, majani ya nyati (buffalo grass); jamii ya mikunde ikiwa ni pamoja na mikunde miti (Leucaena),magugu na malisho ya nyasi za asili Hukusanywa kando kando ya barabara, ukingoni; kuchunga mifugoNyasi aina za mabingobingo (napier/elephant grass), Guatemala, majani ya nyati (buffalo grass); jamii ya mikunde ikiwa ni pamoja na mikunde miti (Leucaena),mikunde laini (Desmodium)Yanaoteshwa kwenye mitaro na kwenye ukingo wa shamba (Lushoto), na malisho machache ya kutunzwa (Handeni) Mabaki ya mazao ya mimea Mabaki ya mazao ya mahindi, majani ya mpunga, ngano, maharagwe, mbaazi, viazi vitamu Ng'ombe hulishwa mashambani au mabaki ya mazao hayo hukusanywa kisha ng'ombe hulishwa ndani ya banda, majani ya mpunga hutoka kwenye maeneo mawili hadi matatu (2-3) ya umwagiliaji maji katika ukingo wa eneo la wilaya ya LushotoPumba ya mahindi , mashudu ya mbegu za pamba, mashudu ya alizeti, madini na machujo ya miwa (molasses) Ripoti hii inaeleza matokeo ya tathmini ya aina ya mifumo midogo ya uzalishaji wa maziwa katika eneo la Morogoro nchini Tanzania. Kazi hii ni sehemu ya mradi wa taasisi ya kimataifa ya utafiti wa mifugo inayojulikana kama tathmini endelevu ya kina juu ya mazingira ya mifugo na samaki kwa uboreshaji wa lishe, ulinzi wa mazingira ya mifugo, viumbe vya majini na mpangokazi wa maendeleo endelevu wa raslimali hizo na minyororo ya thamani (CLEANED VCs) Utafiti huu unachangia kwenye mradi wa Maziwa Zaidi 1 kwa kutathmini athari zinazoweza kutokea kutokanana na uzalishaji wa maziwa kwa kutumia rasilimali zilizopo.Mradi wa maziwa zaidi umelenga kuboresha maisha kwa wananchi kwa njia ya uzalishaji wa maziwa kwa sasa na katika siku zijazo (ILRI 2014) kwa kuhakikisha ni endelevu (kimazingira, kijamii na kiuchumi) Maboresho ya muda mfupi kwa shughuli za ustawi wa maisha yanayohusisha ufugaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa ni yenye manufaa madogo kama rasilimali za mazingira haziwezi kudumisha maboresho hayo au kama shughuli nyingine za kimaisha hazitakuwa na mtazamo chanya juu ya suala la uharibifu wa mazingira.Tathmini iliyofanyika katika warsha ya mwezi Juni mwaka wa 2014, lengo lake lilikuwa ni uwakilishi wa kijiografia juu ya uzalishaji wa maziwa na uhusiano wa mambo ya mazingira katika eneo la utafiti.Hii ilifikiwa kwa kuuliza wataalam wa ngazi ya wilaya kuelezea na kubainisha kwenye ramani, mifumo ya uzalishaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa na uzalishaji vyakula vyake wilayani na kubainisha mtawanyiko wa uzalishaji ukihusiana na rasilimali zilizopo.Warsha hii ililenga katika maeneo ya mradi wa Maziwa Zaidi wilayani Lushoto na Handeni katika mkoa wa Tanga nchini Tanzania.Kumbuka: Mipaka iliyotumika katika ramani ya msingi (kielelezo1) ilionekana kuwa ilikuwa imepitwa na wakati. Hii iliyo kado, inaonyesha iliyo sahihi na pia mipaka ya sasa itakayotumika kwenye ripoti hii. Aidha, wataalam waligundua namna mbalimbali za kuingilia kati kubadilisha mifumo ya uzalishaji na kujadili athari zinazohusiana na mazingira. Washiriki waliohudhuria walitoka wilaya za Lushoto na Handeni, wakiwakilisha mashirika ambayo yanafanya kazi zinazo husiana na maendeleo ya mifugo wilayani na wafugaji wadogo wa ng'ombe wa maziwa katika mnyororo wa thamani.Lushoto na Handeni ni wilaya mbili zinazotofautiana sana katika mambo kadhaa wa kadha. Mfano Lushoto ina milima na hupata mvua za wastani wa mililita (800-1400mm) kwa mwaka na iko katika mwinuko wa kati ya mita 1200M-1900M juu ya usawa wa bahari, ina idadi na msongamano mkubwa wa watu kwa eneo na shughuli nyingi za kilimo hufanyika.Maeneo mengi ya wilaya hii ni yenye miinuko na miteremko mikali.Handeni kwa upande wake iko katika uwanda wa chini kati ya 500M-900M kutoka usawa wa bahari na maeneo mengi ni kame sana na hupata wastani wa mvua kati ya mililita 600-800 kwa mwaka, idadi na msongamano wa watu kwa eneo ni ya chini na huwa na shughuli chache za kilimo zinazofanyika ukilinganisha na Lushoto. Kutokana na tofauti zilizopo kati ya maeneo haya mawili, haitawezekana kutoa taarifa za ujumla katika maeneo haya. Pale itakapoonekana ni mhimu, taarifa hii itahusisha maeneo haya mawili moja baada ya lingine.Takwimu zilikusanywa kwa kutumia njia shirikishi ya washiriki wa warsha kuhusishwa kwa matumizi ya mfumo wa GIS. Katika njia ya ukusanyaji wa takwimu mambo kadhaa yaliyofanyiwa uchunguzi, kujadiliwa na kuoneshwa kwenye ramani na wadau kutoka maeneo husika ili kwamba elimu iliyopatikana iwe imetoka kwao wenyewe katika jamii husika na iwe inajieleza kinaganaga (Cinderby et al, 2011). Kwa mujibu wa warsha, wadau walitembelea maeneo ya wilaya za Lushoto na Handeni wakiongozwa na maafisa mifugo wenyeji wa wilaya hizo, walitembelea vituo vya kukusanyia maziwa, maeneo yanayofuga ng'ombe kwa mfumo wa huria na nusu huria, vyanzo vya maji na miundobinu yake, uzalishaji wa vyakula, ukusanyaji na usindikaji wa maziwa, maduka ya vyakula na madawa ya mifugo, vituo vya tiba za mifugo na mashamba ya mfano ya kuzalisha nyasi au malisho ya mifugo. Mbinu hii imeonyeshwa katika kielelezo 2.Kielelezo 1: Maeneo yenye ufugaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa -Mkoa wa Tanga (Lushoto na Handeni) (Chanzo cha takwimu: FAO-Mtandao wa kijiografia, wakala wa takwimu)Kielelezo 2: Mbinu ya vikao shirikishi kwa wadau kwa kutumia mfumo wa (GIS) na matokeo yake iliyopatikana kwa muundo wa (CLEANED)Kabla ya warsha, eneo la utafiti lilikaguliwa kwa njia ya kukusanya takwimu katika ngazi za kijiji na kaya. Takwimu za ngazi ya kaya zilikusanywa katika tafiti za awali (secondary data) kwa zaidi ya familia elfu moja (>1000) katika mikoa ya Morogoro na Tanga nchini Tanzania. Katika utafiti huu taarifa mbalimbali juu ya uzalishaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa, malisho, ukubwa wa kundi la mifugo, mavuno ya maziwa, aina ya malisho yanayozalishwa na uwiano pamoja na matumizi ya mbolea katika uzalishaji wa mazao. Muhtasari wa takwimu zilizokusanywa (Jedwali 3) zilitumika kutoa ufahamu juu ya aina za ng'ombe wa maziwa wanaofugwa katika eneo la utafiti ikilinganishwa ukandani mzima.Jedwali 2: Makundi yoliyotambuliwa ya ng'ombe wa maziwa ikiwa ni kutokana na takwimu zilizopatikana katika ngazi ya kaya ^ Tofauti ya takwimu isiyo ya kawaida (inahitaji kurekebishwa/ kuondolewa) * Mavuno ya maziwa kwa mwaka imekadiriwa kwa kutumia kigezo cha maziwa yanayozalishwa wakati ng'ombe anapokuwa amezaa, maziwa yaliyokamuliwa siku iliyopita na kwa wastani wa kundi la ng'ombe wanaokamuliwa **Katika Tanzania, takwimu za watafiti zimechukuliwa katika maeneo ya wilaya za Lushoto, Handeni, Mvemero na Kilosa Taarifa za kiutafiti zilizopatiana (secondary studies) katika rejea mbalimbali zimesaidia kuongeza ufahamu katika utafiti huu ikiwa ni pamoja na: Ripoti za (FEAST), tathmini katika ngazi ya kijiji na mapitio ya taarifa za tafiti katika sekta ya mifugo/maziwa zilizowahi kufanyika na wataalamu wengine.Warsha ya wataalam na wadau mbalimbali wa sekta ya mifugo ilifanyika kwa zaidi ya siku mbili kwa vikao kadhaa vya majadiliano juu ya takwimu za mifugo na malisho kwa kutumia mfumo wa habari za kijiografia kwa njia ya picha za ramani (PGIS). Washiriki waliwakilisha maeneo mbalimbali ya utaalamu wa mifugo na malisho na lengo likiwa ni kuwakilisha wadau wote. Washiriki walihusisha wenyeviti wa vikundi, wakulima wanaozalisha maziwa , watoa huduma za pembejeo, maafisa ugani kutoka halmashauri za wilaya na wafanya biashara za maziwa na / au wachuuzi ambao hununua maziwa freshi kutoka kwa wakulima na kukusanya, ama huuza kwa wenyeji walaji katika ngazi ya kaya au kwenye vituo vya kukusanyia maziwa na maduka ya bidhaa za kawaida. Taarifa zaidi zilipatikana kupitia vikao shirikishi kwa kufanya mahojiano na wahusika wakuu, kwa kutumia zana ya mfumo wa habari za kijiografia kwa njia ya picha za ramani (PGIS), kutembelea maeneo husika na kujionea hali halisi.Wakati wa warsha, palikuwa na vikao vitatu vya mazoezi shirikishi vilivyofanywa kwa muda wa siku mbili. Malengo kwa jumla ya mazoezi haya yalikuwa kutambua na kuweka kwenye ramani mifumo ya ufugaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa, kilimo, uzalishaji malisho na vyanzo vyake, maliasili na miundobinu iliyopo katika maeneo haya mawili.Washiriki waligawanywa katika makundi matatu madogo, kila kikundi kikipatiwa ramani ya eneo lake kilichowakilisha. Katika kila zoezi, wana kikundi waliulizwa kuonesha kwenye ramani mambo tofauti juu ya mifumo iliyopo ya uzalishaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa katika wilaya za Handeni na Lushoto. Uainishaji wa mifumo ulifanywa na washiriki kwa kuchora kutumia kalamu za rangi za kudumu ili kuonesha ukanda unaofuga ng'ombe wa maziwa (karatasi asili ya plastiki) iliwekwa juu ya ramani ya msingi ya wilaya husika. Mbinu hii iliwezesha kuzalisha ramani kadhaa mpya zenye kuonesha mambo mbalimbali yaliyochorwa juu ya ramani za msingi. Kila hali/jambo jipya (new feature) iliyoonekana iliwezekana kuoneshwa kwenye karasi tofauti ya plastiki. Hizi karatasi za plastiki hazikuwa na mchoro wowote isipokuwa zilionesha tu mtandao wa barabara na miji kama vitu mhimu kwa rejea au kumbukumbu za kijiografia ili ziweze kuwekwa katika mfumo wa digitali katika programu ya mfumo wa habari ya kijiografia (GIS) na kuhusianishwa kijiografia na ramani ya msingi baada ya warsha.Makundi yote yaliulizwa maswali yaliyofanana na kutoa majibu yake kwa kila kundi kulingana na uhalisia wa eneo lake, kisha vikundi viliwasilisha muhtasari wa taarifa za matokeo ya kazi zao mwishoni mwa kila zoezi. Mtoaji wa huduma za pembejeo 1 0 1Mwakilishi wa usindikaji maziwa 2 2 4Shughuli za kipindi cha kwanza zilithibitisha aina ya kawaida ya ufugaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa na uzalishaji malisho na kuulizwa maswali yafuatayo kuhusu mifumo tofauti ya uzalishajii:1.1 Unaweza kupata wapi kila aina ya ufugaji, katika eneo nzima la utafiti?1.2 Zinapatikana wapi huduma nyingine zinazo saidia uzalishaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa?1.3 Kwa kila aina ya ufugaji, ni chakula gani hutumika?1.4 Ni wapi katika ramani nzima vyakula hizi hupatikana?Baada ya kupatikana kwa mgawanyiko wa uzalishaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa na malisho yake katika ngazi ya wilaya, makundi yalijadili rasilimali za kimazingira ambazo ni muhimu, au zilioathiriwa na uzalishaji wa maziwa , kwa kujiuliza pia maswali yafuatayo:2.1 Je raslimali hizi zinapatikana na zinafikiwa kwa kila moja? 2.2 Je kuna utofauti katika ubora wa kila moja ya raslimali hizi? 2.3 Je kuna watumizi wanaoshindana kwa matumizi ya kila moja ya raslimali zenye zilizopo? 2.4 Je, kuna maeneo hasa ya hatari au fursa ya mpango endelevu kwa kila raslimali iliyopo?Katika kikao cha mwisho, uchunguzi ulifanywa katika matukio (scenarios) mawili ya uendelezaji wa kufuga ng'ombe wa maziwa. Kundi la kwanza lilijadili tukio (scenario) la \"A\", wakati kundi la pili na la tatu likijadilia tukio la \"B\":Eneo A: Kuwezesha uzalishaji wa maziwa kwa kiwango sawa bila kushuka mwaka mzima pasipo kuathiri raslimali za misitu zilizopo Eneo B: Kuboresha pato la wastani la ng'ombe kutoka lita moja hadi mbili (1-2) za maziwa kwa siku mpaka wastani wa kati ya lita tatu hadi nane (5-8) kwa siku katika mifumo ya kufuga hurai, ama kutoka wastani wa lita nne hadi nane kwa siku (4-8) mpaka wastani wa lita kumi hadi kumi na tano (10-15) za maziwa kwa siku katika mifumo ya nusu huria na nusu ndani ifikapo mwaka wa 2020.Lengo lilikuwa ni kufanikisha kazi zilizo azimiwa katika kila eneo (A na B) na jinsi shughuli zilizopendekezwa zitakavyo tekelezwa kwa kuzingatia usalama wa mazingira na rasilimali kwa kuongozwa na maswali kama yafuatayo:1. Je kuna rasilimali zozote zilizopo? Ni nini vikwazo vilivyopo? 2. Nini ubora wa rasilimali iliyopo? Jinsi gani inaweza kubadilika? 3. Nini ubora wa raslimali zinazotarajiwa kuwepo? Ni mabadiliko gani ya ubora yanayotarajiwa kuwa? 4. Je, kutakuwa na mahitaji makubwa kwa watumiaji ya raslimali? Kiwango cha mahitaji kitabadilika aje?Jua vyema: Ingawa wilaya za Tanga, Muheza na Korogwe zilikuwa zimewekwa katika ramani ya msingi iliyotumika kwa warsha, washiriki hawakuwa na uhakika wa maarifa ya maeneo haya ili kuelezea kwa usahihi habari juu ya ufugaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa. Kwa hivyo maeneo yaliyo wazi katika ramani wilayani Tanga na Korogwe yanaonyesha \"kutokuwa na twakwimu\" badala ya \"kutokuwa na ufugaji wa mifugo\". Wilaya za Lushoto na Handeni zilielezewa kikamilifu.Wakati wakuelezea mgawanyo wa mifumo ya mifugo, kwa mfano; washiriki waliyatambua vyema maeneo yaliyopo hususa katika wilaya za Kilosa na Mvomero kwa njia ya kijiji au kata.Warsha hii ilifanyika hasa katika lugha ya Kiswahili, pamoja na baadhi ya tafsiri kuwa katika lugha ya Kiingereza ambapo ilikuwa muhimu kwa ajili ya wana timu na washiriki ambao hawakuweza kuongea na kuelewa lugha ya Kiswahili. Maelezo yote yalinaswa na kinasa sauti na hatimaye kunukuliwa na kutafsiriwa kwa lugha ya Kiingereza. Maelezo yote yaliandikwa katika mabango (flipcharts) kitita zilizokuwa zikitumiwa katika kuwasilisha mada mbalimbali, na ramani zilizo chorwa kwenye tabaka za karatasi za plastiki na washiriki na zilipigwa picha mwishoni mwa kila siku.Ramani ziliwekwa katika mfumo wa digitali wa Q-GIS (ambayo ni programu wazi isiyolipiwa, inayopatikana katika tovuti ya (www.qgis.org/en/site/), kwanza kwa kuweka picha kwa njia ya kijiografia na kisha kufuatilia makala katika tabaka mpya na kukusanya kwanza sifa wakati huo huo.Uchambuzi wa kwanza wa ramani ulihusisha kuchambua ramani ya mada moja zilizochorwa na makundi mbalimbali na kuunganisha habari katika tabaka moja. Migogoro ya tofauti katika takwimu zilizochorwa zilitatuliwa kwa njia ya majadiliano ya pamoja, maelezo ya majadiliano kutoka kwa makundi binafsi, na majadiliano kati ya washiriki yalikuwa ya muhimu. Kwa ujumla, Kama kulikuwa na pointi karibu kabisa (kama vile miji iliyokaribiana sana) pointi hizo ziliunganishwa, na muungano huo mpya kuchukuliwa.Msingi wa taarifa ya warsha hii ni kutokana na tafsiri ya kiingereza, maelezo ya mabango , ramani zilizo digitiwa na tafakari za washiriki.Kikao cha 1: Mgawanyo wa uzalishaji wa maziwa, mifumo ya uzalishaji maziwa na upatikanaji wa malishoUfugaji wa mifugo umegawanyika katika makundi manne: i. Ufugaji wa ndani ya banda muda wote (kufuga ndani): Mifugo hufugwa katika banda kwa masharti maalum, bila kuachiliwa nje ya banda. Lishe lote hukusanywa katika hali ya kukata na kubeba (Cut and carry) au kununuliwa: lishe lilokusanywa hukatwakatwa na kuchanganyiwa nyumbani, chakula cha ziada hununuliwa au kusindikiwa katika viwanda vidogo vya kutoka kwa mkulima mwenyewe au kutoka kwa mabaki ya mazao yaliyonunuliwa, kama vile alizeti (kama ipo). Lishe la kawaida ni nyasi ya mabingobingo, Mulato, 'Cenchrus ciliaris', nyasi kutoka mchanganyiko wa malisho, mabaki ya majani ya mpunga, mazao ya mahindi, maharagwe na chakula cha ziada.ii. Ufugaji wa nusu huria nusu ndani: Mifugo hufunguliwa nje katika mabanda yao asubuhi na kuachwa huria wakati wa mchana na kurudishwa kwenye mabanda yao jioni, Wao huongezewa chakula zaidi wakati wa kiangazi na wakati wa kukamuliwa (sana sana chakula cha madukani chenye virutubisho vya ziada). Malisho ya ziada hukusanywa na kuletwa nyumbani ili ikatakatwe na kuchanganywa; chakula cha ziada hununuliwa au kusindikiwa katika viwanda vidogo vya kinu kutoka kwa mkulima mwenyewe au kutoka kwa mabaki ya mazao yaliyonunuliwa, kama vile alizeti (kama ipo).iii. Ufugaji huria (malishoni): Huchungiwa katika malisho ya asili, mifugo huachiliwa kwenye mashamba yaliyovunwa ili wale mabaki ya mimea ya mazao kwa malipo ya fedha kidogo (hasa wilaya ya Handeni). iv. Ufugaji katika ranchi: Eneo kubwa la kibinafsi, nusu huria na nusu ndani na malisho yake hudhibitiwa na kufunga nyasi kavu (hay). Ufugaji wa aina hii kwa kawaida huwa ni kwa ajili ya uzalishaji wa nyama, ranchi mbili zilibainishwa: Mzeri (Handeni) na Nerwa (Lushoto), hata hivyo mahali hili ranchi lipo katika eneo la Nerwa halikuweza kuthibitika. Katika wilaya ya Lushoto, kadiri ya asilimia hamsini hadi sitini na tano (50-65%) ya mifugo iliyopo hufugwa ndani, katika nyanda za ufugaji; wakulima huwa na wastani wa ng'ombe kati ya 2-5 , na hupata kati ya wastani wa lita 3-5 ya maziwa kwa ng'ombe kwa siku hadi wastani wa lita 8-10 za maziwa kwa ng'ombe kwa siku na hata zaidi. Mfumo wa kufuga ndani kamili umo na ni wa kawaida hasa katika kitongoji na tena katika vijiji ambavyo wakulima ni wafanya kazi (wameajiliwa) na huwa wanafuga mifugo michache kwa ajili ya uzalishaji wa maziwa . Maeneo haya yafuatazo yalitambuliwa katika wilaya ya Lushoto: Lushoto, Ubiri , Ngulwi , Kwemashai , Gare, Kwai , Lukozi , Malindi, Shume , Mahoro , Rangwi , Sunga, Mtae, Mwangoi, Dule 'M', Mlalo , Kwemshasha, Hemtoye,Ngwero, Kwekanga , Malibwi , Mbuzii , Soni , Mamba , Bumbuli,Mgwashi, Boga na Mponde. Ufugaji wa mifugo katika maeneo ya ukanda wa chini ya sehemu ya Lushoto ni ufugaji huria (kwa mfano maeneo ya Mnazi , Miharo, Mungalo, Lunguzo, Mlola, Makanya na Milingano) na pia ikiwa na mfumo wa nusu huria na nusu ndani katika maeneo ya chini ya milima ya mashariki. Mfumo wa nusu huria na nusu ndani katika kilimo cha ng'ombe wa maziwa ulikuwa wa kawaida katika baadhi ya maeneo haya katika wilaya ya Lushoto: Vuga, Tomota, Mahezangulu na Mbaramo. Hiari mbili za viwango vya mfumo wa ufugaji wa nusu huria na nusu ndani zilidokezwa, katika sehemu ya mashariki ya wilaya (angalia Kielelezo 2); Kiwango kilicho kikubwa kimeonyeshwa kama kunaweza kuwa na 'uwezekano wa mfumo wa nusu huria na nusu ndani '. Kielelezo 3: Mifumo ya ng'ombe wa maziwa wilaya ya Lushoto, Tanzania Katika wilaya ya Handeni, kwa kulinganisha, wafugaji wengi hufuga mifugo yao kwa mfumo wa ufugaji huria tupu , ikiwa ni kati ya (85-90%) kwa wenye makundi makubwa ya ng'ombe yenye idadi kati ya 80->500 na zaidi kwa kila familia (Kielelezo 3). Ufugaji huria ulitatambuliwa katika maeneo ya Kang'ata , Kwaluguru, Kiva, Sindeni, Ndolwa , Kwamatuku, Segera, Kabuku , Kwamsisi , Kwasunga, Mkata, Mazingara , Kwamkonje, Kwachaga, Misima na Kwamgwe, kwa kuzungukia maeneo haya ya makazi, ufugaji wa ndani kwa wakulima wa mifugo wachache bado ni wa hali ya kienyenji katika maeneo ya Handeni , Kabuku na Chanika. Mfumo wa nusu huria na nusu ndani ulithibitika kuweko katika maeneo ya Magamba, Sindeni, Handeni mjini, Mkata, Kidereko na Vibaoni. Wastani wa mavuno ya maziwa katika wilaya ya Handeni ilibainika kuwa ni kati ya lita 2-3 kwa ng'ombe kwa siku na pia mkulima mwenye kukamua maziwa mengi hupata kati ya lita 5-8 kwa ng'ombe moja kwa siku.Katika eneo la wilaya ya Lushoto, samadi kutoka katika banda la mifumo ya mifugo wafugwao ndani (hususa ni ng'ombe) nusu huria na nusu ndani, hukusanywa na kurundika mahali pamoja na kuachwa kwa muda wa miezi sita (6) hadi itakapohitajika mashambani, wakati ambapo huwa imeoza kiasi. Mbolea hii ya samadi yote hutumiwa na wafugaji wenyewe, au wakulima wengine, kwenye mashamba. Hakuna ulinzi au hifadhi maalumu yoyote inayofanyika, kwa hivyo kuna uwezekano wa kupoteza virutubisho kunaponyesha mvua, lakini hii haikuonekana kama ilikuwa ni tatizo kwa washiriki.Katika wilaya ya Handeni, samadi hukusanywa kutoka banda la ng'ombe wa kienyeji. Wakulima wachache ndio wanaotumia samadi hii mashambani yao na wanaweza kwenda kuikusanya kutoka kwa wale wafugaji walionayo lakini hawaihitaji wala hawaitumii. Teknolojia ya biogesi imeanza kutumika lakini kwa kiasi kidogo hasa kwa wale wakulima wenye kufuga kwa mfumo wa nusu huria na nusu ndani na ufugaji wa ndani katika mji wa Handeni.Vipengele vya miundobinu ya sekta ya mifugo ni pamoja na: Mianya ya masoko ya maziwa, masoko ya mifugo, majosho, vituo vya afya ya mifugo na wauzaji wa pembejeo (Jedwali 4; Kielelezo 5).Jedwali 4: Miundobinu inayopatikana katika wilaya za Lushoto na Handeni Maduka ya pembejeo za kilimo na madawa ya mifugo yako katika kila mtaa au miji midogo ambapo wafugaji wanaweza kununua pembejeo na kupata huduma za afya ya mifugo. Mara nyingi maeneo haya huwa na idadi kubwa ya wafugaji walio pamoja.Wakulima kwa ujumla hutumia maziwa nyumbani yakiwa freshi, au yakiwa yamegandishwa na kasha kuuza maziwa yanayobakia. Masoko ya maziwa katika wilaya ya Lushoto na Handeni ni pamoja na vituo vya ukusanyaji maziwa, vifaa vya kuweka/ kupozea maziwa, wasindikaji wadogo na wasindikaji wa kiwango kikubwa. Kampuni ya Tanga Freshi ndiyo mnunuzi mkuu katika eneo hilo, ambayo iko katika jiji la Tanga, hata hivyo maoni miongoni mwa wakulima ilikuwa kwamba bei yao ya maziwa haikuwa yenye mapato, wakulima pia huuza maziwa mtaani kwa wachuuzi wa maziwa na hoteli za watu binafsi. Katika eneo la Lushoto vipo vituo vitano (5) vya kukusanyia maziwa navyo ni (Bumbuli , Lushoto, Mwangoi , Shume na Mlalo),vyote viko na matenki ya kupozea isipokuwa Bumbuli ambacho hupeleka maziwa yake kituo cha Lushoto mjini cha kupozea.Hii ni tofauti na eneo la Handeni ambalo lina vituo viwili (2) vya kupozea (Handeni mjini na ranchi ya Mzeri) hata hivyo vituo vingine vinne (4) zaidi vilikuwa kwa mpango (juni 2014): nazo vituo vya Kwasunga na Kabuku zilikuwa bado katika hatua ya ujenzi alafu Kwamsisi na Sindeni zilikuwa tayari zimekamilika ujenzi lakini hazikuwa zimeanza kufanya kazi).Washiriki walidhibitisha kwamba ni maziwa ya asubuhi pekee yanayopelekwa kwenye vituoni, mojawapo na wakulima binafsi au na wakusanyaji wa maziwa ambao wanaweza kukusanya hadi lita mia mbili (200) za maziwa kwa siku kutoka kwa wastani wa wakulima ishirini (20) au zaidi. Maziwa huuzwa mtaani, au hukusanywa na Tanga Freshi kila siku baada ya kati ya siku mbili hadi tatu (2-3). Tanga Freshi husidika lita elfu sitini (60,000) kwa siku katika msimu wa mvua , kutoka kwa vituo vya ukusanyaji wa maziwa katika mkoa wa Tanga pamoja na kiasi kingine kidogo kutoka mkoani Morogoro.Tanga Fresh pia hutengeneza maziwa ya mgando (yoghurt) na siagi na maziwa yanayozidi kiasi husindikwa na kutengeneza jibini ya ''Mozarella''. Pia wapo wasindikaji wachache wadogo wadogo katika wilaya ya Lushoto waliotambuliwa, kama vile; kiwanda kidogo cha kutengeneza jibini (cheese) katika (Lushoto mjini kituo cha Montessori), shamba la Kilimo la Irente, Kifungilo na Sakarani pia katika wilaya ya Handeni kipo kituo kimoja cha usindikaji katika ranchi ya Mzeri.Kielelezo 5: Huduma zinazosaidia kwa ajili ya mifumo ya mifugo wilayani Lushoto na Handeni, Tanzania Katika majira ya kiangazi, wafugaji huhamia maeneo yaliyo mbali na miji. Muundo huu wa kuhamahama huwa ni changamoto kwa uuzaji wa maziwa kwa sababu wafugaji hulazimika kusafiri umbali mrefu zaidi kuyafikia masoko. Changamoto hii inapelekea suala la vituo vya kukusanyia maziwa kuonekana kutokuwa na faida wakati wa usambazaji hasa wakati wa msimu wa kiangazi. Bei za juu wanazozipokea katika kipindi hiki, hufanywa kwa upande mmoja kuwa motisha kwa umbali mrefu wafugaji wanaotembea kupeleka maziwa, lakini bado inaonekana kutokuwa na faida kwa baadhi ya wazalishaji wa maziwa.Malisho mengi katika eneo la utafiti ni kwa njia ya kuchunga au hukusanywa, chanzo kikubwa ni malisho ya asili na ya kupandwa (nyasi, mikunde na magugu). Chakula cha ziada huwa ni pamoja na mabaki ya mazao ya mimea na chakula cha madukani. Muhtasari wa aina ya kawaida ya lishe na vyanzo vingine vya lishe vimeoneshwa katika Jedwali 5 na maeneo yao ikionyeshwa katika Kielelezo 6.Lishe: Nyasi za asili na magugu hukusanywa kutoka maeneo ya kawaida, kama vile kando kando mwa barabara. Katika wilaya ya Lushoto wakulima wanajulikana kwa kupanda nyasi lishe na mikunde kama vile mabingobingo (napier/ elephant grass, Pennisetum purpureum) na mipopote/Lukina (Leucaena) kwenye mitaro na ukingoni mwa mashamba. Miti ya lishe (kilimo mseto) pia hukuzwa kwenye kingo za mashamba ya kilimo hasa maeneo ya (Huzini, Kunguli, Mlalo, Shume). Hata hivyo, ni mashamba machache ambayo wafugaji wamedhamilia hasa kulima malisho kwa ajili ya kulisha mifugo, utengenezaji wa nyasi kavu (hay) au kivunde (silage) yalitambuliwa ambapo katika Handeni malisho ya kupandwa yalionekana kuwa ni ngumu kupatikana, hali hio ililionesha kuwa mwenendo huo ni wenye kutia 'hofu'. Nyasi kwa ajili ya nyasi kavu (hay) zinazalishwa katika baadhi ya maeneo ya Lushoto , eneo kubwa la uzalishaji wa nyasi kavu (hay) ni katika ranchi ya Mzeri iliyopo Handeni ambapo wao huzalisha nyasi hizo kwa ajili ya matumizi yao wenyewe na ya ziada kuuzia wakulima katika ukanda huo. Nyasi za ziada za nyasi kavu (hay) pia hununuliwa na wafugaji kutoka wilaya za jirani. Katika Ubiri, shamba la maonesho ya miradi yenye nyasi za mabingobingo (napier) iliyochanganywa na mgandaganda (desmodium) imeanzishwa hivi karibuni ili kuhamasisha kuenea kwa malisho kwa wafugaji.Uhifadhi wa nyasi kwa ajili ya kutengeneza nyasi kavu (hay) ni jambo la kutiliwa manani, ambapo inaweza kuoza kutokana na hali ya unyevu nyevu (Lushoto) au kuathirika na wadudu (Handeni).Mabaki ya mazao: Mabaki ya mazao ya mahindi, maharage na kunde ni vyanzo vikuu vya chakula cha mifugo kwa wafugaji wilayani. Majani ya mpunga hutumika kwa kiasi fulani, lakini majani mengi kwa wakati huu huteketezwa au huachwa ioze shambani.Chakula cha ziada: Baadhi ya bidhaa zinazotokana na usindikaji huuzwa kwenye vituo vya pembejeo za kilimo (mfano mashudu ya mahindi na alizeti) pamoja na lishe inayouzwa madukani ya kusindikwa inayotoka nje ya wilaya (mfano mashudu ya mbegu za pamba, pumba za mpunga na machujo ya miwa (molasses). Vyakula hivi hupatikana zaidi katika maeneo ya mikoa ya Dar es Salaam, Moshi, Iringa na Tanga. Machujo ya miwa (Molasses) hasa hupatikana Morogoro; pembejeo zinazotoka Arusha mjini zinaweza kuwa chanzo chake zimetoka nchini Kenya. Ni wakulima wachache wanaochanganya baadhi ya vyakula vya ziada mbali na kutengeneza mchanganyiko maalumu kama chakula chao wenyewe walicho jitengenezea kwa ubunifu. ardhi. Katika nyanda za juu za Lushoto, kwa mfano, ambapo hali ya hewa kwa uzalishaji wa malisho huwa inafaa zaidi kwa ufugaji wa ndani wa ng'ombe wa maziwa na uzalishaji wa maziwa upatikanaji wa ardhi ndiyo sababu kubwa inayojitokeza kwa kuweko na mifumo ya kufugia ndani ya banda na mfumo wa nusu huria na nusu ndani. Wilaya ya Handeni, inajulikana kwamba ardhi ni kubwa, ambayo imevutia wakulima wahamiaji kutoka mikoa ya jirani, kama vile Arusha na Kilimanjaro.Kilimo kwenye miinuko ya Lushoto kinasababisha hatari kubwa ya kutokea kwa mmomonyoko wa udongo, kwa mfano katika Ubiri, Kwemashai, Mbuzii na Soni, na hii inaweza kuathiri mito muhimu kwa kuijaza mchanga hata hivyo, katika sehemu nyingi za Lushoto hali ya udongo imeboreshwa (Mlalo na Mtae zilitajwa kama mifano), kwa sababu ya kampeni za muda mrefu juu ya hatua madhubuti za uhifadhi wa udongo kama vile matuta, fanya juu na upandaji kwa njia ya mitaro. Mpango wa wilaya nzima wa kuchimba mitaro ulifanywa na mradi wa kuzuuia mmomonyoko wa udongo na kuhamasisha upandaji miti (SECAP) katika mwaka 1984 kupitia ofisi ya kilimo wilaya, moja ya maeneo machache ambayo bado ina hitajika kuchukua hatua za uhifadhi wa udongo ni Ubiri (Kielelezo 7). Jinsi ya kufanya udongo uhimili ni kupanda nyasi za lishe na miti kwenye mitaro na kuzungukia mashamba.Katika Handeni , ufugaji wa mifugo kupita kiasi na kukanyanga eneo moja kwa muda mrefu husababisha kushikamana na uharibifu wa ardhi hasa karibu na maeneo ya maji , kwa umbali wa kuzungukia umbali wa kama kilomita nusu (0.5 km). Maeneo maalum yaliyowekwa alama katika Handeni, ambapo uharibifu wa mazingira umetokea kutokana na ufugaji wa mifugo ilijionyesha wazi ni: (Sindeni, Magamba na eneo la (Mzundu). Kwa upande mwingine, matumizi makubwa ya samadi katika Wilaya ya Lushoto ilionekana kudumisha rotuba ya udongo katika mashamba.Uwepo wa mimea ya mashona nguo (Bidens pilosa) ni ishara ya kutambua kuwepo na wingi wa rotuba (pia hutumika kama mboga katika hali ya uchanga wake) nayo kidente hutumika katika eneo la Handeni kuonesha uhaba wa rotuba ya udongo.Uoto huhusishwa na rasilimali za ardhi, mimea ni rasilimali muhimu kwa sababu inatoa malisho na mazingira mengine ya huduma kwa viumbe anuai : katika Soni na Ubiri / Kwemashai wilayani Lushoto, washiriki walionesha kujali kwamba kumekuwa na ukataji miti bila kupanda upya (haikuwa wazi kama inahusiana na ufugaji wa mifugo). Misitu ilitajwa kuwa ya muhimu kwani hushawishi mitindo ya mvua .Kuchoma kwa maandalizi ya mashamba badala ya kulima na plau (ploughing), pia ilionekana kama tatizo katika baadhi ya maeneo ya Lushoto (karibu na eneo la Mbuzii), hii pia ilionekana kuwa ni tatizo katika baadhi ya misitu ya wilaya (Kielelezo 7). Kuchoma moto mashambani tena ilionekana kupendelewa katika sehemu kubwa ya wilaya ya Handeni.Baadhi ya maeneo ya Lushoto yalionyesha maeneo ambayo uoto haudumu wakati wote katika msimu wa kiangazi, na kusababisha uhaba wa lishe. Kwa mujibu wa washiriki walibainisha kuwa kupanda aina ya jamii ya malisho yanayostahimili ukame itakuwa ya manufaa, na hasa aina ambayo ina -mizizi mirefu na isiyongolewa kwa urahisi na mifugo wakati wa kuchunga/kulisha.Maji pia ni muhimu kwa ajili ya ufugaji wa mifugo, hasa kwa ajili ya uzalishaji wa chakula na tena kwa kiwango kidogo maji ni muhumu kwa ajili ya kukunywa. Kwa Wilaya ya Lushoto, watu wengi wanafikia maji ya mifereji, au visima na mvua nyingi kutosha kutoa maji mengi kutosheleza kwa mwaka mzima. Katika Handeni, mito mingi ni ya msimu na washiriki walionesha kuwepo hifadhi ndogo (mabwawa) na chemchem chache kama vyanzo zaidi vya maji (Kielelezo 8).Kuboresha upatikanaji wa maji katika msimu wa kiangazi kwa ajili ya mifugo, serikali imejenga mabwawa tharathini na tisa (39) katika Handeni kwa muda wa miaka kumi iliyopita, ambayo isipokuwa katika vipindi kadhaa vya ukame, maji haya huwa ya kutosha na hudumu hadi mwisho wa msimu wa kiangazi. Hata hivyo, wafugaji bado wanaweza kutumia kiasi kikubwa cha muda kwa ajili ya kutafuta maji. Ubora wa maji huimarishwa kwa kuweka mifugo mbali ya maeneo ya maji. Mferenji wa maji umesongezwa chini ya ukuta wa bwawa kwa sehemu kwa kunywesha mifugo (trough) ambapo mifugo inaweza kunywa. Kama bwawa/hifadhi lina kauka, kuna maeneo (points) yanayotoa maji kutoka kwenye mferenji mkuu wa Korogwe ambapo wafugaji wa mifugo pamoja (na watumiaji kwa matumizi ya nyumbani) wanaweza kuyafikia kwa kulipa fedha kidogo. Isitoshe, serikali ina mipango ya kuchimba bwawa (chacco dam) katika kila eneo la makazi katika wilaya ya Handeni.Wakulima/ wafugaji pia hushiriki katika usimamizi wa maji kwa mfano, katika msitu karibu na Sindeni, kuna chemichemi inayojulikana kama Kibaya ambayo ilikuwa tishio kubwa. Ilikuwa wazi na haikuwa na usimamizi mzuri. Eneo hili sasa limezuiliwa na wenyeji ili kulilinda, kutokana na uchafuzi.Wanyama sasa wanaweza kunywa maji bila kukanyanga na kuingia ndani kwa sababu kuna eneo fulani limetengwa kwa ajili ya mifugo na binadamu. Katika Handeni, maji ya visima virefu pamoja na maji ya mifereji kutoka Korogwe huwa ni ya chumvi na yanahitaji matibabu kabla ya kutumika kwa matumizi ya binadamu. Maji ya mvua hupatikana kwa kununua lakini bei ni ghali zaidi. Mifugo, hata hivyo, wanapendelea maji ya chumvi zaidi kuliko maji ya mvua kwa sababu ya maudhui ya madini. Mito ya msimu kwa ujumla huwa na chumvi zaidi kuliko ile ya kudumu. Kuna maeneo kadhaa ambayo mito hupitia kwa mashapo ya chumvi, haya maeneo yanapendelewa na wafugaji kwa ajili ya mifugo kunywa maji.Vyanzo vya uchafuzi wa mito ni: mmomonyoko wa udongo unaosababisha matope na mchanga kujaa katika mabwawa (ambayo ilikuwa imetajwa kama jambo zuri kwa sababu huzuia upotevu wa maji chini ya mabwawa na hivyo kuwezesha kushikilia maji kwa muda mrefu) na pia madawa kutokana na kilimo cha kando ya mito. Kama mifugo wanaweza ruhusiwa kuchungwa malishoni wakati bado wako na maji maji baada ya kuogeshwa au wametoka kuogeshwa kwenye josho dawa au kemikali zinaweza tiririka na kuingia mtoni, ingawa tu katika kiwango kidogo na kwa hivyo hii haikukuchukuliwa kama tatizo. Chanzo kikuu cha uchafuzi wa mito ni taka kutoka makazi ya watu.Mashindano ya watumiaji: matumizi ya nyumbani na kilimo cha umwagiliaji kando ya mto.Katika siku ya pili, makundi haya matatu yalipewa kila moja lengo/shabaha ya uzalishaji wa maziwa na kubuni mbinu za namna ya kufikia lengo hilo.A. Kuwezesha uzalishaji wa maziwa katika kiwango sawa kwa mwaka mzima bila kuhifadhi misitu B. Kuboresha pato kwa ng'ombe kutoka wastani wa lita 1-2 kwa siku hadi lita 5-8 kwa siku katika mifumo ya ufugaji huria, au kutoka wastani wa lita 4-8 kwa siku hadi lita 10-15 kwa siku katika mfumo wa ufugaji wa nusu-ndani (nusu huria)Malengo yaliyojadiliwa yalikuwa:Mbinu za uboreshaji zilizojadiliwa:(i) Kuboresha wingi na aina tofauti za malisho -Ili kutoa lishe bora zaidi ili kuongeza kiwango cha uzalishaji wa maziwa, na / au kutoa lishe zaidi katika msimu wa ukame ili kuwezesha upatikanaji wa mazao ya maziwa kwa mwaka mzima;(ii) Kuboresha kinasaba /kizazi (genetic improvement) cha mifugo na kuongeza uzalishaji wa maziwa zaidi na (iii) Kuboresha huduma saidizi za ugani na miundobinu ya mifugo 1: Mikakati ya kuongeza uzalishaji wa maziwa kwa kiwango sawa mwaka mzima i. Kuzalisha aina bora ya malisho: Kama vile, yenye kutoa mazao mengi ya maziwa na yanayostahimili ukameii. Kuhifadhi lishe la mifugo kwa kuandaa nyasi kavu (hay) : kuongeza maeneo ya uzalishaji wa malisho kibiashirisha, na kutoa mafunzo juu ya mbinu bora zaidi za kutengeneza na kuhifadhi nyasi kavu (hay) (dhidi ya unyevu katika Lushoto na mchwa katika Handeni)iii. Kuhifadhi mabaki ya mazao ya kilimo: Kutoa mafunzo ya mbinu bora ya kuandaa na kuhifadhi mabaki ya mazao iv. Kuhusisha aina tofauti ya lishe na chakula cha ziada: kama vile kuongeza matumizi ya mashudu ya mpunga mashudu ya alizeti, kuhakikisha habari zinapatikana juu ya uchanganyaji wa vyakula katika uwiano bora, kwa wakati fulani na jinsi ya kutumia virutubisho v.Matumizi bora ya ardhi: Kuweka uwiano mzuri wa mahitaji ya matumizi ya ardhi kwa mazao ya chakula na malisho kwa wilaya ya Lushoto, na kuongeza uzalishaji Handeni, kupanda zaidi malisho kwenye mitaro na matuta, kuwekea umuhimu mkubwa sehemu ya ardhi kwa ajili ya malisho, kuhamasisha uanzishaji wa ranchi kwa vikundi vya wafugaji kuitenga ardhi kwa ufugaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa kwa mfumo wa nusu huria na uzalishaji wa malisho;vi. Umwagiliaji maji kwa ajili ya kupanda malisho kwa mwaka mzima: kuyapanua maeneo ya sasa ya umwagiliaji, ama kwa ajili ya malisho au kupanua maeneo yanayolimwa mpungakuongeza mabaki ya mazao ya mpunga zaidi; kuhamasisha uvunaji wa maji kwa umwagiliaji wa malisho wakati wa msimu wa kiangazi vii. Kuboresha maeneo ya malisho ya mifugo: na kuongezeka kwa aina tofauti ya lishe viii. Kuagiza vyakula vya mifugo vya ziada: kutoka nje ya wilaya kama vile: Arusha, Iringa, machujo ya miwa (molasses) kutoka Morogoro ix. Kutoa elimu juu ya ugafugaji mifugo inayozingatia kuwa na idadi ya mifugo kulingana na eneo lililopo (Idadi ya mifugo kwa eneo)2. Kuboresha kinsaba/kizazi cha aina ya mifugo iliyoko sasa (yenye kuzalisha maziwa kidogo) na kupata kizazi cha mifugo yenye kuzalisha maziwa mengi.i. Madume bora ii. Uhamishaji (kupandisha kwa njia ya chupa /Artificial insemination (AI))iii. Kuanzisha mashamba ya kuzalisha mitamba iv. Kutoa mafunzo /elimu juu ya mbinu za ufugaji bora 3. Kuboresha miundo mbinu ya mifugo na huduma za ugani i. Kuchimba madibwi, visima vya maji, mabwawa kwa ajili ya mifugo ii. Vituo vya tiba za mifugo iii. Majosho ya ng'ombe / au upatikanaji wa vifaa na madawa ya unyunyuziaji iv. Mabanda ya ng'ombe v. Soko la maziwa na bidhaa nyingine zinazotokana na maziwa vi. Kuongeza vituo vya ukusanyaji wa maziwa vii. Kuongeza idadi ya maafisa ugani viii. Kuhamasisha ufugaji wa ng'ombe wa maziwa kama shughuli ya kiuchumi na sio ufugaji wa kujikimuMawazo na mtazamo wa washiriki wa warsha Washiriki walihusishwa kwa makini katika zoezi hili, kazi ya kuchora ramani ilitoa fursa ya kuunda rasilimali ya kimamlaka juu ya sifa ya eneo husika katika wilaya. Washiriki walieleza kuwa uchoraji ramani na kuainisha sifa za maeneo ndani ya wilaya zitakazo kuwa na manufaa katika kazi yao, kwanza kwa kuwaeleza wadau wengine na kwa kutoa mapendekezo, taarifa ya warsha hii katika lugha za kiswahili na kiingereza zilihitajika kwa lengo hilo. Zaidi ya hayo, washiriki walionesha shauku ya kuona shughuli mbalimbali za maendeleo ya mifugo zinafanyika kutumia msingi wa shughuli hii kwa faida ya wakulima katika mkoa wa Tanga Kuboresha zoezi hili washiriki walitoa maoni juu ya kasoro zinazoweza kujitokeza kutokana na kutokuwa na usahihi wa mahali kijiji na barabara zilipooneshwa kwenye ramani.Kupitia mchakato shirikishi wa mfumo wa habari kwa uchoraji ramani (GIS), sekta ya uendelezaji ng'ombe wa maziwa na msingi wa mazingira katika wilaya za Lushoto na Handeni ilioneshwa kwenye ramani. Mchakato pia ulithibitisha mabadiliko katika wilaya zote na ingependa yafanyike kutambua maono yaliyopo ya programu ya Maziwa Zaidi. Madhumuni ya kwanza ya kufanya shughuli hii, ilikuwa ni kutambua athari za mazingira katika hali ya mabadiliko haya kwa ukanda wote. Faida ya pili ya zoezi la utafiti huu ya kufanya/kuandaa ramani ni kutaka kuonesha fursa iliyopo kwa wadau na watetezi wa sekta ya maziwa, kufikiri kupitia mahitaji ya sekta kwa wakati ujao na kuwa imetoa rasilimali ya kujengea msingi kwayo na kuwasiliana. Matokeo ya taarifa hii inafanana na takwimu zilizokusanywa na hivyo zinaweza tumika kwa madhumuni hayo.","tokenCount":"6502"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a6abc674b6bbe0151dbc49a86fb94422","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5b5c4926-de14-4196-be9f-fe9703be4e7a/retrieve","id":"61000567"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"edb6861d-97a8-467e-b09c-316a9cdfa8cf","pagecount":"10","content":"Social protection benefits (cash, food and food + BCC) support shorter-term coping capacity in the face of rapid onset climatic shocks………………………….5For social protection benefits to potentially build and support longer-term adaptive capacity, SP and complementary program design must integrate a combination of components…………………………………………………………….5Impacts of climate change, COVID-19, and rising prices compound vulnerabilities and shape capacities of the rural poor, differentiated by gender, livelihood, ownership and access to resources, and type of social protection (SP) benefit received. Despite a substantial body of evidence on the role of SP in addressing gender inequality (see Camilletti 2020), and a growing recognition of the 'adaptive' social protection (ASP) approach in helping vulnerable groups absorb and adapt to effects of climatic shocks and stresses (see Tenzing 2020), there remains an evidence gap in sufficiently integrating gender perspectives on SP's role in shaping shorter and longer-term capacities. Viewed through a gender and climate lens, how SP benefits might shape longer-term resilience capacities and well-being of women remains less well understood, especially in the face of overlapping crises and slow-onset events, like salinization (see Nesbitt-Ahmed 2023).The deltaic region of southern Bangladesh is a well-recognized climate hotspot where impacts of sudden events like cyclones and floods are juxtaposed with gradual effects of salinization. This provides a backdrop for examining the role and potential of SP to shape resilience capacities of climate vulnerable groups. Adaptive social protection (ASP) has been recognized as important for this context, with the aim to integrate social protection (SP), climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) to support climate resilience (Bangladesh Planning Commission 2020). However much remains to be known about the effect of SP programs on resilience and well-being outcomes of beneficiaries, especially women, to effectively assess, address and budget for gendered needs and challenges (Kundo et al. 2023, Bangladesh Planning Commission 2020).The research featured in this brief aims to address the following questions: Do social protection and complementary programs targeting rural women and their households in southern Bangladesh help strengthen their capacities to cope with and adapt to climate impacts?Two SP programs-Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) 1 , considered the largest social safety net program of the Government of Bangladesh for ultra-poor rural women, and Transfer Modality Research Initiative (TMRI), a pilot safety net program (2012)(2013)(2014) by IFPRI and the World Food Programme targeting rural women with a child aged 0-24 months-were purposively chosen. These programs, with women as designated beneficiaries, primarily emphasize gender-responsive protection, particularly centered on cash, food and nutrition components in their design and implementation. Although not explicitly crafted with a climate perspective, their focus on food and nutrition allows identification of potential effects on resilience capacities and overall well-being.A multi-sited fieldwork was conducted in 2022 in the villages of Khulna, Bagerhat, and Patuakhali districts of southern Bangladesh. Data was collected through 6 focus group discussions (FGDs) and 31 semi-structured interviews (SSIs) with women and men from households where women were direct beneficiaries of either the Transfer Modality Research Initiative (TMRI) with cash only or food + nutrition training as benefits, or the Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) program with food transfer benefit 2 . The selection of study sites was guided by location of villages with TMRI and VGD beneficiaries, and the aim to include diverse local contexts with varying exposures to rapid and slow onset climatic events.First, 6 FGDs were conducted, with an average of 5-10 women participants for each session. Complementing the FGDs, 31 interviews were conducted, tailored primarily towards women beneficiaries of TMRI and VGD, and including men from households with women beneficiaries. Qualitative analysis involved deductive and inductive processes of coding, followed by identification of key themes and interpretation of findings.Climate impacts, coupled with shocks like COVID-19 and rising prices, compound vulnerabilities for rural communities. Rapid onset events, such as cyclones and floods in combination with slower onset effects of salinization, generate unique challenges whereby a region of abundant water experiences water insecurity, as saline water is unsuitable for cultivation and consumption. In such a context, near-term coping from cyclone and flood damages cannot be neatly separated from the long-term adaptation needs brought on by rainfall variability and saltwater intrusion. Compounding impacts of climate change, COVID-19 and price rises exacerbate insecurities in rural households spanning health, food, income, and education.Apart from cash transfers (TMRI), food transfers (TMRI and VGD), and Behavior Change Communication (BCC) training (TMRI), participants reported receiving other forms of support including water tank, tube well, and house through government project after cyclonic destruction. Mapping the use of SP benefits (Table 1) reveals that uses that were frequently reported, prominently consuming and purchasing food, are primarily reactive, geared towards shorter-term absorbing and coping with shocks. Those not as frequently mentioned, including buying assets, saving money from not having to buy food, educating children, and using learning from the BCC training to cope with shocks can contribute to longer-term adaptive capacities.Adapted from Davies et al. (2013) and Bangladesh Planning Commission (2020). Themes and subthemes in Table 1 correspond to themes and subthemes emerging from the data through coding process.Social protection benefits (cash, food and food + BCC) support shorter-term coping capacity in the face of rapid onset climatic shocks.Receiving food transfers helped beneficiaries cope with the immediate aftermath of cyclones when land gets flooded, and water does not recede. Having food in the house positively impacted food and nutrition security and overall well-being of household members, including children. A TMRI beneficiary from Bagerhat explains, \"when I got it, I ate and slept, and it was a very good day. Children had gone to school. After school they could come to eat. And in the time that I did not get it, there was a poverty in the family.\"Though food transfers do not last for long, the time during which they are received has been reported by beneficiaries as a time when life overall would be better, and they could cope with impacts of climatic shocks.\" Then getting that food benefited us. That we didn't have to starve. If nothing else, we could eat pulses and rice somehow. At that time, it was a great benefit.(TMRI beneficiary, Patuakhali)In comparison, women reported resorting to negative coping strategies like having to skip meals for times without food transfer.Even while receiving other kinds of support, like construction of a house or shelter by the government, not having food impacted women beneficiaries during storms. A VGD beneficiary from Bagerhat recalls: \"It is the time when there is a storm and rain. I was in trouble. I could not eat, I could not cook. There was no rice in the house.\"Receiving food + nutrition BCC helped TMRI beneficiary households cope with impact of storms and floods. When asked if food relief helped during disasters, a participant from Bagerhat recalled, \"Yeah. We had received the training during a storm time too…That was a huge help then.\" Participants acknowledged the training has been valuable for them. They reported that the lessons on nutrition, hygiene, childcare, and health they received through this training were useful to cope with impacts of storms and floods as well as shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic.Social protection benefits like cash and food transfers have the potential to support longer-term adaptive capacity. For instance, cash saved from recurring transfers was reportedly invested in agriculture and livestock, apart from being used as expenses for healthcare and children's education. In the case of food transfer, money saved from not having to buy food could be used for loan repayment and acquiring assets like land and livestock.\" As we were getting the food as relief, so I get to save some money in those two years.From that savings I've bought a calf (Husband of TMRI beneficiary, Bagerhat)By facilitating savings and access to assets, the benefits could potentially build resilience of not only women beneficiaries as individuals but also their households. TMRI beneficiaries receiving the nutrition BCC along with food transfer usually participated in the training together with their husbands and/or mothers-in-law. Husbands remembered the training, understood its value, and reported using the learning to cope with shocks. They also shared the learning with others in the community.The ending of SP programs that not only helped cope with shocks but also supported climate-sensitive livelihoods, brings challenges. In the near term, when transfers stop, trade-offs and prioritization follow-whether to buy food, pay installments, or send children to school. However, in the longer term, it becomes difficult to hold on to assets acquired through program support.For instance, when cash transfer stopped from TMRI, a beneficiary household from Khulna could no longer maintain the land they were leasing.\"R: I harvested paddy…We brought it home and ate the rice. We didn't have to buy rice. My husband worked and we repaid the money with his income… I: Didn't you keep that paddy field after that? R: No, we couldn't harvest that land anymore. I mean we did not get enough cash again so we couldn't do it further.\"Maintenance of assets is also tied to the capacity to anticipate and prepare for shocks. For instance, preparing for cyclones by moving temporarily to a safe shelter would mean leaving assets like livestock behind. So even when the assets acquired through programs might support livelihood and bolster adaptive capacity, they can also influence coping and preparation, often in gendered ways-based on whether women or men might be the ones staying back to look after the assets and elderly family members. As a TMRI beneficiary from Patuakhali describes, \"We don't go because everyone has cows, goats, chickens, or a lot of other goods in the family. How will we go there by leaving them?\"Social protection bolsters shorter-term coping in the face of climatic shocks. However, SP's potential to support and sustain longer term adaptive capacities are less clear because when SP programs end, it becomes difficult for rural women and their households to maintain asset bases.Learning from these challenges, SP and complementary program design could be improved by integrating a combination of components as highlighted below.• Scheduling one-time cash transfers: Rather than recurring smaller amounts, participants expressed preference for one-time lump sum cash transfer 3 to buy assets like livestock, land, tractor, or water tank.• Providing livestock asset transfer: When asked what could help them adapt in future, women participants in the present study notably expressed their preference for livestock 4 among other assets. In the words of a VGD beneficiary from Bagerhat, \"I will have a cow. This is best for me. If that happened, I could rear it a little.\"• Installing water tanks and tube wells: Water tanks to store rainwater and tube wells were mentioned as critical support to help cope with water insecurity in the region which disproportionately affect women and enhance their labor burden.Installing water tanks and tube wells could not only benefit women and their households as designated beneficiaries, but the broader community as well. For instance, a TMRI beneficiary in Khulna, who received a water tank through another program shares, \"We don't send back anyone. Whoever comes, we give them water.\"• Facilitating skill-based trainings on livelihood recovery and diversification: SP and complementary program design can focus on supporting livelihood recovery and diversification through asset transfer + skill-based training components (e.g., sewing machine and tailoring, as reported by women participants).• Layering technical trainings with sensitization on gender norms, practices, and relations: Designing genderresponsive trainings (e.g., focusing on skills, nutrition) that not only aim for behavioral change among women but also consider intra-household relations and men's engagement can be potentially transformative.In southern Bangladesh, slow onset salinization occurs together with lingering and recurring effects of rapid onset events like cyclones, storm surges and floods. In this context, moving from shorter-term absorptive (coping) capacity to longer-term adaptive capacity brings complex challenges. It is thus not enough to talk about improving the design of SP programs, but rather plan for graduation out of the program. This can involve a transition period when transfers stop, but there is continued engagement through training and capacity building. Improving SP design to be more climate-sensitive and gender-responsive demands a shift from providing transfers to supporting trajectories. As graduating from coping to adaptive capacity involves a leap that may not happen during the life cycle of a program, building capacities during a transition period with focus on anticipatory rather than reactive strategies could be the way forward.Networks and relations can be leveraged after graduating out of SP programs to proactively, and where possible collectively, prepare for shocks. As articulated by the husband of a VGD beneficiary: \"…if people live side by side, of course, one sees the other.\" Leveraging community support systems and networks could be useful for complementary program design. For example, program participants can be encouraged to share knowledge, a key resource acquired through training and capacity building, with their family members and neighbours. This can help potentially reach and benefit community members not directly covered by the program. Integrating understanding of household and community relations in social protection design features would be critical for pathways towards socially inclusive and transformative climate resilience. ","tokenCount":"2162"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8c1f14c7e5738249881215ebc44b0e0b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/793fa3ba-f923-4e76-b6e3-25ec396b20ba/retrieve","id":"-396638833"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"54b09952-23c3-499a-9e32-e3d55de6090a","pagecount":"66","content":"Cassava, a tropical root crop, is increasingly important as a food and income source for the rapidly expanding rural and urban populations in Africa and Latín America, playing a key role in poverty alleviation. The storage roots are processed, usually by women, into various food products and animal feed ingredients for domestic use and export. Cassava is also an emergency food reserve under adverse environmental and socio-political conditions when most other crops fail. However, pests 1 and poor agronomic practices reduce cassava crop production by an estimated 50%. The losses affect more than 300 million of the world's poor, including as many as 43 million malnourished children. The diversity and geographic range of cassava pest constraints require comprehensive regional R&D approaches to develop and implement holistic intervention technologies that improve cassava plant health, increase yields and ensure good production environments. A previous UNDP-sponsored project \"Ecologically Sustainable Cassava Plant Protection in South America and Africa\" (known as ESCaPP in Africa and PROFISMA in South America) executed by liTA and CIAT in collaboration with the NARS in Benin, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria in Africa and Brazil in Latín America made significant achievements in this regard. However, there remains the need to address further plant protection constraints to cassava production at regional and national levels in new regions, and on prioritized constraints in previously served regions.At the request of regional organizations and participating countries, the ESCaPP /PROFISMA paradigm will be implemented in three regions with a mix of five previously served countries and four new countries. This geographic coverage includes the previously served countries Benin, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria (West and Central Africa), new countries Uganda and Mozambique (East and Southem Africa), and in Latín America, Brazil (previously served), Cuba and Paraguay (new countries). Working through existing national R&D structures in the three regions, the project will establish innovative models for the development of integrated pest management (IPM) in cassava by diagnosing, prioritizing and investigating key plant protection constraints; develop, test and adapt sustainable IPM technologies to control the most important cassava plant protection problems; extend and adapt biological control and other IPM teéhnologies which have reduced key pest populations and increased root yields by at least 30% in targeted agroecological zones; and strengthen participatory research and training expertise to address current and subsequent pest problems.The proposed new project has a modular structure focusing on regional R&D activities to underpin• country-specific modules in six countries in Africa and three countries in Latín America.• Regionally, extensive diagnoses by multi-disciplinary teams will provide inputs needed to establish R&D priorities. In Africa, the strategy is to concentrate on collaborative activities in the six targeted countries and with potential NARS collaborators in associated countries. Plant protection themes that cut across major agroecological, environmental, production or socioeconomic concerns, the development of postharvest processing and marketing micro-industries, specialized training of researchers and extensionists in IPM disciplines and in participatory methods and processes will be emphasized. Also, cassava information resources will be updated and distributed world-wide. In collaboration with NARS and donor partners, the project will evaluate its capacity to deliver planned activities and to increase cassava productivity on small farms with mínima! environmental degradation.• In country-specific modules, project activities will be contingent upon and incremental to underpinning regional modules. The activities focus on training and technology implementation, are restricted to targeted countries but, subject to modular funding, can be extended to associated countries where regional modules exist. Specifically, country modules will institutionalize participatory methods and processes for cassava IPM research, training and implementation; promote cassava IPM implementation, particularly in stem cutting (vegetative planting material) sanitation, biological and cultural control, evaluation of germplasm, postharvest IPM and pilot postharvest processing plants; train extensionists and farmers groups in cassava IPM; promote experimentation by farmers at Farmers Field Schools (FFS) in Africa and farmer participatory research committees (COPALs) in Latín America targeting more women farmers; and prepare decision support materials for cassava IPM research, training and implementation.The targeted beneficiaries of the project are farmers, extensionists and researchers associated with participating national and international research institutions. These partners will benefit from reduced pest load, increased IPM capacity to manage cropping systems and to increase and stabilize cassava productivity, provide income and food security, and foster a pesticide-free environment. R&D organizations will benefit from international collaboration and exchange of information and genetic resources.To increase and stabilize the productivity of small-scale cassava-based agricultura! production systems to alleviate rural poverty and increase food security in Africa and in Latin America.To enhance national and regional capacity in integrated pest management (IPM), biological control, training and participatory methods and processes to reduce cassava losses caused by pests, poor production and postharvest practices.l. Principal constraints to cassava production and postharvest IPM identified and sustainable intervention technologies developed, tested and implemented against national/regional priority constraints and adopted by farmers to reduce cassava losses in targeted regions.2. Human resources enhanced through training, participatory methods and processes to integrate farmers, extensionists and researchers as partners in cassava plant protection and post-harvest technology development.3. Cassava information resources developed, tested and adapted for sustainable cassava plant protection and post-harvest interventions and to facilitate future implementation of similar efforts in other regions.4. National multidisciplinary teams assembled and equipped with technical and material resources needed to foster interdisciplinary approaches to integrated cassava plant protection R&D activities in participating countries and regions.Four years beginning in 1998Budget: (Regional and country-specific activities)West and Central Africa 2 East and Southern Africa 3 Latin America 4 $4,122,600 $2,527,900 $5,281.,700A. CONTEXT.Cassava, Manihot esculenta Crantz (Euphorbiaceae), a woody perennial shrub from the Neotropics, occurs worldwide, generally between latitudes 30°N and 30°5 from sea leve! up to 2300 m near the equator. The crop is common in lowland tropical regions receiving between 750 to 3000 mm rainfall. It is a key component of the traditional cropping system in most of the lowland humid and sub-humid tropics in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) and in many poor regions in Latin America. The crop is relatively easy to grow, even under harsh agronomic conditions. It is cultivated by planting vegetative cuttings, usually during the wet season, and optimally harvested 8 to 18 months after planting, but sometimes up to 36 months after planting. Although cassava grows best in deep loamy soil of reasonable fertility, it is capable of providing a reliable food source in soils too depleted to support most other food crops. Consequently it is often planted in marginal areas. Once rooted, cassava can withstand prolonged periods of drought and pest attacks by reducing biomass production and remobilizing food reserves from the stems and roots. Cassava is frequently an emergency food reserve crop under adverse environmental and socio-political conditions when most other crops fail and there is insufficient altemative food supplies.Cassava is a plant of indeterminate growth, both the aerial portion of the plant and the storage roots increase in biomass simultaneously. It has no distinct critica! period during which fruit and/or seeds must develop prior to harvest, therefore cassava is more tolerant to pest attacks compared to many other crops. However, there is considerable genetic variation in the production and allocation of dry matter within plants between cassava cultivars. Thus, the impact of the major cassava pests on cassava production depends largely on the time of attack relative to the age of the host plant, the genetic susceptibility of the cultivar, length of drought stress and soil conditions. These various attributes of cassava have largely contributed to the crop's widespread adoption as an important and dependable source of calories in the poorer regions of the developing world.Cassava is increasingly important as a food and income source for the rapidly expanding rural and urban populations in Africa and Latin America. The storage roots are used mainly as food (fresh, boiled or in processed forros) and animal feed ingredients (chips and pellets as substitutes for grains in feed rations in poultry, pork and fish farming), and, to a lesser extent, as industrial and domestic products. The major processed food products are gari, lafun,foufou and attiéké in most of West and Central Africa, farinha de mandioca mainly in Brazil and its neighboring countries or various breads such as casaba , pan de bono, pao de queijo and chipa in Latín America. The liTA project, \"Collaborative Study of Cassava in Africa\", COSCA 5 estimates that gari alone accounts for 70% of cassava consumption in Nigeria and 40-59% in Ghana, Cameroon and Cote d'lvoire. Cassava leaves are also consumed as vegetables to provide proteins and vitamins in most of West and Central Africa. According to FA0 6 , Africa's average shares of the global use of cassava as food increased from 57% in 1982-84 to 65.7% in 1992-94. In 1982-84 and 1992-94-94, the average annual per capita cassava food consumption in Africa were 87.8 and 96.5 kg., respectively. On a national basis, the 5 highest annual consumption rates in 1992-94 were 382, 240.6, 207.3, 203 and 178.4 kg., in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Tanzania, Ghana, Mozambique and Nigeria, respectively. In Latin America the annual per capita cassava food use in 1982-84 and 1992-94 were 28.4 kg., and 23.7 kg., respectively. Paraguay showed highest annual per capita consumption in Latín America at 158.7 kg., and 140.3 kg., in 1982-84 and 1992-94, respectively, followed by Brazil at 58.6 kg., and 48.0 kg. Export of cassava, through increased private sector awareness of intemational market opportunities for cassava chips and pellets as animal feed ingredients, is strengthening the value of the crop and provides another too! in the fight against poverty. Africa and Latín America are, however, relatively small suppliers of cassava to the world market, compared to Thailand (80%) and Indonesia (10%) which together supply most of the export cassava in all its forros. Africa's average share of the global feed use increased from 6.3% in 1982-84 to 11.6% in 1992-94, but still far less than in Latín America which accounted for 37.1 o/o and 33.1 o/o in the respective time periods 6 • The main African exporters of cassava feed ingredients are Ghana, Madagascar, Nigeria and Tanzania. In Ghana, the initial export of 500 tons of cassava chips in 1993 increased to 19750 tons in 1996 with export eamings of ca. US $2m 7. Cross-border/inter-regional cassava trade may also add to the economic value of cassava, but reliable records on such transactions are largely unavailable in both Africa and Latín America.In cassava growing households in Africa, COSCA 8 estimates that approximately 26% of cash income from all food crops can be del'ived from sale of cassava. In such areas, cassava frequently forros the basis of cottage industries to produce gari, lafun,foufou ~nd attiéké for domestic consumption and local/export markets. According to COSCA 9, the proportion of cassava sold by small scale producers is positively correlated with the proportion of fields owned by women. Women groups also increase their returns on cassava through an emerging import substitution for cassava flour and industrial starch in parts of Nigeria. Nigerian biscuit manufactures put a higher premium on \"improved\" cassava flour produced by a new method than on the traditionally produced lafun 6 Anon (1997): The World Cassava Economy: Recen! trends and medium-term outlook. Chapters liT and V. FAO working notes, \"Workshop on Global Cassava Development Strategy\", IFAD, Rome, 10-11 June 1997.  7 Anon (1996): Cassava the Old Crop Rebom. Ministry of Food and Agricluture, Ghana. 8 Nweke, F. I (1996): COSCA Working Paper #14. liTA. 9 Nweke, F. I (1994): COSCA Working paper #12. cassava flour. Sorne women's groups which had concentrated on gari production are taking advantage of this more lucrative market. Estimates indicate that with a 15% substitution rate of wheat flour with cassava, Nigeria could save up to $14.8 million in foreign exchange annually, with $12.7 million going to cassava processors and $4.2 million to cassava farmers 10• Expanding the types of cassava products and markets would therefore further increase farmer income and local employment, especially in postharvest processing.An example of how cassava can play a role in development is the project \"Agroindustrial Development of Cassava in the Atlantic Coast of Colombia\" executed by CIAT and the Colombian Integrated Rural Development Program (DRI) with additional financing by CIDA (1981CIDA ( -1996)). This project established 2 pilot plants to produce dry cassava chips to use as animal fodder. This created a stable bottom price for cassava, which motivated farmers to independently increase their production. Within two years the price of cassava in a nearby city, Baranquilla, dropped by 27% from 4.5 to 3.3 (1978 Colombian pesos), with total benefits of about US$4 million per year to the urban population. The success of the pilot plants stimulated an expansion of small agroindustries, which numbered 192 by 1992. The region now has at least 40 plants and is selling about US$1 million of dry chips per year. Economic studies have shown, that this integrated project generated a return of US$18 for every dollar invested. The benefit to rural farmers has not been measured, nor have been the secondary profits to the users of the chips.FAO medium term outlook 6 indicates that global demand for cassava as direct food is likely to rise by 2.2% annually, from 95 million tons in the early 1990s to 124 million tons by the year 2005, mainly as a reflection of demographic pressures in developing countries. In 1990, for example, Africa accounted for 19% of the world's poor, and this figure is expected to rise to 28% by the year 2005ll. The demand for cassava as food on the continent is projected to rise at an annual rate of 2.5% to reach 84 million tons by the year 2005. In Latín America and the Caribbean, cassava food use is expected to increase at a far lower rate (0.8% per year) than in Africa. However, the overall trend in Latín America is towards increased use of cassava in processed products, including starch and animal feed 12• The global demand for cassava as animal feed is likely to decline atan annual rate of 2.8% by 2005. This will largely be in response to changing trade policies favoring grain feed use in European Union countries, . traditionally the major importers of the world total cassava feed ingredients, which will primarily affect the Asían export market. Use of cassava feed ingredients in developing countries is likely to increase in Africa and Latín America.Ensuring food security and sustained productivity are primary objectives of developing countries where cassava is grown. Cassava plays a critica! role in many regions providing a secure source of calories; however, it is also a cash crop, which offers the possibility of increasing farmer income. Improving processing, utilization and markets will foster increasing productivity, which will help supply a growing population with nutrition and employment. The development of ecologically sustainable plant protection for these cassava ecosystems contributes both to country objectives and to the sustainability of agriculture in areas which are at risk of environmental degradation. Most national programs have insufficient resources and few trained personnel with enough research experience to develop, test, and implement plant protection strategies which contribute to sustainability. Equally important, national programs, isolated by political and geographical boundaries, do not have access to ecological and information resources present in other countries and other parts of the world. These deficits will be addressed in this project through the extensive collaborative research and training activities with participating national programs. The project will be a model for developing and implementing ecologically sound plant protection technologies that can be used for other crops and other pests.A.3 Prior and Ongoing Assistance liTA and CIAT both maintain regional R&D activities directed at the production, processing, utilization and marketing of cassava. In an effort to develop a ínterregional strategy for sustainable production based on.improved plant protection, a joint liTA and CIAT project was recently implemented. The Ecologically Sustainable Cassava Plant Protection (ESCaPP) project began in 1993 as a regional project to develop, test and adapt sustainable cassava plant protection technologies for the most important pests in Benin, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria with a parallel component in northeastern Brazil involving CIAT. Multi-disciplinary teams of national plant protection experts joined regionally with intemational experts to share expertise and pool efforts across agroecozones. Project activities were divided into three interrelated and overlapping phases. The major cassava pests were identified in targeted agroecozones through initial diagnostic surveys. In the second phase, farmers' participation highlighted the development and testing of appropriate intervention technologies. Concurrently, in-service training was provided to researchers, extension agents, and farmers in the principies and practices of sustainable crop production and protection. Postgraduate training was offered to women to strengthen their professional resource base in plant protection development activities. The third phase has been an evaluation of the training objectives and technology implementation. Unique features of the project included nationally seconded multi-disciplinary teams, shared local expertise on a regional basis and activities based on local diagnoses. The project has become a model for integrating multidisciplinary plant protection R&D. The original ESCaPP 1 PROFISMA project built on a long collaboration between liTA and CIAT in cassava development that included exploration in Latín America for natural enemies of cassava pests introduced into Africa, mapping of climate homologies between the continents, evaluation of natural enemies, and exchange of germplasm, expertise and knowledge.ESCaPP created a paradigm for addressing cassava plant protection that never befare existed in the participating countries or in the region. The project established local networks of scientists, extension agents and non-govemmental organizations (NGOs) to respond to the demands of client farmers. Thus, scientists and their technologies had direct access to interested farmers through existing national structures. The research, training, implementation and evaluation paradigm of ESCaPP /PROFISMA is a model for appropriate sustainable crop management. Specific accomplishments of the PROFISMA/ ESCaPP project by 1997 include:  • Identified research and implementation priorities for specific ecozones based on the results of diagnostic surveys.• Established 27 collaborative research activities with NARS scientists for technology validation and generation and to strengthen existing institutional capacities in the region. On a competitive basis, 29.6% of the activities were in each of Benin and Nigeria, 25.9% in Ghana and 14.8% in Cameroon.• lmplemented classical biological control of the cassava green mite and the pest's populations declined an average of two thirds and yields increased by a third in the target areas where the exotic natural enemies were established -an added value estimated at US $70 per hectare, which when extrapolated over the region may be as much as US $50 million per season.• Decentralized to the NARS partner institutions appropriate biological control technologies for local mass rearing of imported natural enemies.• Discovered two new cassava diseases (Curvularia leaf and stem blight and Nattrassia root and stem rot) in Benin, Ghana and Nigeria.Human Resource Development:• Prepared a unified currículum for sustainable cassava plant protection training based on identified needs of farmers, extensionists and researchers.• Conducted in-country training of over 194 extension trainers, 1800 extension agents and 2400 farmers' groups in the region; and established at least 25 cassava Farmer Field Schools within the NARS extension and NGOs systems for action leaming and research by farmers.• Conducted specialized training of over 24 national researchers in various NARS cassava R&D need areas.• Increased the professional human resource base of women agriculturists through training of 12 African women scientists at post-graduate leve! in various plant protection and rural development disciplines.lnformation Resource Development;• Developed a CD-ROM of hyper-linked cassava information resources which includes directories of personnel, institution, cassava projects; databases of grey literature, existing bibliographies, field guides, handbooks, general cassava references and databases for cassava plant protection decision making, most of which were initially created by the project.• Mapped ecosystem-based national and regional incidence and severity of pest, agronomic and socioeconomic cassava production constraints.• Prepared a new set of didactic cassava IPM materials targeted at extension trainers and farm-level use for training, awareness and management of pest and agronomic cassava production constraints.• Compiled indigenous knowledge on cassava plant protection and production in 2 target countries.Mechanisms for Coordination:• Established and equipped multi-disciplinary national project teams to work in interdisciplinary approach with other collaborating NARS researchers, extensionists and trainers for cassava R&D activities. This model has been adapted for other R&D activities at liT A and in participating countries.Biological Control:• Introduced and established 3 species of parasitoids for control of the cassava mealybug Phenacoccus herreni in Northeast Brazil.• Established a phytoseiid predator mite from northem South America m Northeast Brazil for control of the cassava green mite.• Developed methods for the production and genetic characterization of the fungal pathogen Neozygites for control of the cassava green mite in Africa.• Participated in the biological control of cassava green mite in. Africa in collaboration with ESCaPP through climate homologue mapping, and collection and biological and genetic characterization of pest and predator mi tes.• Identified whitefly parasitoids including 4 new species and mapped whitefly and parasitoid distributions in northem South America.• Identified antagonistic microorganisms for control of root rot pathogens.Genetic Control:• Identified sources of host plant resistance to the cassava green mi te.• Developed inoculation (bioassay) and genetic characterization methods to screen germplasm for resistance to root rot pathogens.• Conducted genetic characterization of cassava vein mosaic virus (CVMV), providing the basis for creating a test kit to determine if plant material is infected.• Identified sources of host plant resistance to whitefly (Aleurotrachelus socíalís).Farmer Participatory Research (FPR):• Conducted extensive and intensive participatory diagnostic surveys of > 1,600 cassava growers in NE Brazil through which the biotic and abiotic production constraints in small-scale cassava production systems were identified, emphasizing farmers' perceptions and priorities.• Trained 51 state extensionists and national program scientists in FPR methods.• Established 20 Local Agricultura! Research Committees (COP ALs) in 4 states of NE Brazil.• COP ALs planted and evaluated two cycles of experiments in their communities addressing production constraints identified by their communities.• Intemalized farmer participatory research approach into national program and state agency development strategies.IITA's mission is to improve the nutritional status and well-being of poor people in the humid and subhumid zones of sub-Saharan Africa by conducting research and related activities in collaboration with other institutions to increase sustainable agricultura! production. The research focus is on food crop production, and soil and crop management. liTA maintains a comprehensive cassava production strategy through plant protection, commodity improvement and crop management R&D activities in three complementary research divisions. The Resource and Crop Management Division (RCMD) has relevant activities in projects designed to 1) arrest resource degradation through the development of short fallow systems and 2) to increase the productivity and cash income of smallholders through the diversification of farming systems. The Commodity Improvement Division (CID) has relevant activities in projects that 1) develop, evaluate and promote improved and adapted cassava germplasm, and 2) increase income-generating capacity and improve the nutritional status of farmers, processors and consumers. The Plant Health Management Division (PHMD) has five projects to develop and implement sustainable plant protection technologies for a range of commodities and agroecosystems. Linkages between divisions is maintained through research on constraints and socio-economic factors that affect the entire production system.At liTA, there is an evolving strategy for an institutional approach to cassava R&D. The ESCaPP project falls within this approach in which related core and special projects compliment each other to enhance farm-level cassava production, plant protection, post-harvest and utilization in Africa. The projects are components in an institute-wide system of \"interna! producers and consumers\" in which results of discipline specific projects feed into others. In the control of the cassava green mite, for example, ESCaPP integrates host plant resistance with biological control through collaboration with another IIT A project to evaluate cassava germplasm with sources of the pest's resistance into agronomically acceptable cultivars offering a further potential for control of the pest. Similarly, to increase the profitability of cassava producing systems, another liTA project which generates a range of postharvest technologies to provide competitive commercial options for farmers, processors and consumers in the food, feed and agro-industrial sectors will serve as an interna! source of input into ESCaPP. These kinds of linkages enable liTA projects to focus on their respective core identities whilst tapping into interna! expertise/resources to impact on specified development objectives. Project implementation planning tools (e.g., a detailed Plan of Operations) identify key areas in which the system of \"interna! producers and consumers\" provide the desired synergy between projects to enable liTA to impact on its agricultura! development objectives. The project is, therefore, a cassava plant protection project with existing and potential linkages with other liT A projects which ha ve a compara ti ve advantage in specific areas to further increase the productivity and profitability of cassava production systems in SSA.PHMD has evolved from a project targeting two pests of cassava to a full division dedicated to sustainable plant protection of primary food crops in Africa. The division's research philosophy is to identify the ecological imbalances in the system causíng pest problems and to provide environmentally and economically appropriate solutions. Consequently, the approach is interdisciplinary and often multi-institutional. Pests are carefully evaluated for their real pest status before extensive research commitments and control campaigns are initiated. Division activities include basic research, intervention technology development, training, implementation, technical support to national programs, and postimplementation follow-up. • Presently, besides the work on cassava pests, investigations are in progress on stem borers and the larger grain borer on maize, cowpea pests, mango mealybug, weevils on banana and plantains and a range of foliar, stem and root diseases of the mandate crops.Recent independent reviews of PHMD in general, and ESCaPP in particular, praised the \"increasing involvement of NARS scientist as genuine collaborators, and the stronger links being developed in the field\", and recommended ESCaPP as a model for other liTA IPM collaborative activities with NARS. The evaluation report 13 of the liTA Centre Commissioned Externa! Review of PHMD, commended the mixed portfolio of basic, strategic and applied research, and in particular, the emphasis on strategic or applied research was regarded as. appropriate given specific NARS capacities. In a report by the UNDP commissioned Externa! Advisory Committee 14 on ESCaPP, the experts observed that \"The achievements of ESCaPP have already yielded economic, social, scientific and environmental benefits for West Africa\". The same team recommended that \"Because of the remarkable success of the first phase of [the project], and the probability of continuing success in the future, the Project Leaders of both ESCaPP and PROFISMA should be encouraged to apply for support of a second phase of the project.\"CIAT's mission is to contribute to the alleviation of hunger and poverty in tropical developing countries by applying science to the generation of technology that will lead to lasting increases in agricultura! output while preserving the natural resource base. The emphasis of this mission is on growth, equity and enhancement of the resource base. In order to fulfill this mission, CIAT pursues various avenues of research related to sustainable crop production, plant protection, postharvest processing, market development and natural resource protection. Gender and equity .play increasing important roles in influencing research objectives and activities. Scientists working on cassava collaborate closely with national programs, such as EMBRAPA, the Brazilian national agricultura! research agency, in the local development and adaptation of technologies and in the training of national scientific and extension personnel. CIA T has also worked closely with liT A in the deployment of classical biological control of the cassava mealybug and the cassava green mite in Africa, exchange of cassava germplasm, and in basic research on cassava pests. The interna! organization of research at CIAT has changed from one focusing on programs (such as the former Cassava Program) to one involving projects, of which there are currently 16. The objective of this change was to design a system that encouraged more interdisciplinary collaboration, provided more transparency of our CIAT's activities to donors, and permitted flexibility to focus research on specific problems only so long as they justified attention. Sorne of the projects involved in cassava research include:• Integrated Conservation of Neotropical Genetic Resources (SB-1), CIAT has found FPR to be extremely productive because early input from farmers helps to prioritize research objectives and identify potential solutions that are most likely to be adopted. Farmer-conducted field trials reduce research costs, and participating farmers become teachers of their peers and accelerate the dissemination of the new technologies.CIAT has also pioneered a highly successful demand-driven integrated approach to crop commodity research and development, which is currently being applied in cassava R & D projects. First, local market opportunities for various cassava products are identified and characterized, with particular emphasis on valueadded products that can increase the income of farmers and rural processors, and that have elastic demand, which helps to stabilize prices in the presence of seasonal and annual fluctuations of supply. Given access to such markets, farmers have incentives to increase production and adopt new technologies for production, crop protection and postharvest processing. Meanwhile, surveys of farmers identify principal local constraints to production and increasing prosperity. Farmer participatory methods are used to identify, develop and test technologies to solve farmer problems in selected communities (pilot sites). Technologies approved by these farmer research committees are then disseminated over the surrounding area by farmer field days and extension programs. Input from farmers is repeatedly used to evaluate effectiveness and adoption of the new technologies and tQ target new research objectives.The Land Uses Unit at CIAT provides geographic information systems (GIS) capability, which is used to define and map cassava microregions in Latin America, integrating edaphoclimatic and socioeconomic data. This has greatly facilitated targeting regions to explore in the search for biological control agents that would be best adapted for release in Africa or other Latín American Women have primary responsibility for food production and a major influence on the natural resources associated with agriculture in Africa. Presently, they occupy only 7% of government extension services and hold fewer than 4% of the professional agricultura! positions, even though they produce as much as 70% of the domestically consumed food. The liT A/Winrock collaboration aims to improve women's credentials, skills, positions, and influence in four arenas of agriculture and the environment: policy, management, research, and extension by preparing a critica! mass of African women as professionals and leaders with credentials, management training, and long-term professional support who will be guided in the application and relevance of their work to women farmers. The program emphasizes building an enabling environment for these women to gain access to leadership positions and institutionalizing the program through networks, monitoring activities, and professional support mechanisms for successive generations. In 1993-97, 12 women candidates were provided with academic training post-graduate fellowships.CIAT -Cassava-related training activities at CIAT have been progressively changing their focus and content. Intensive multidisciplinary and plant protection courses targeted at young research workers and extension leaders with little or no previous experience are being supplanted by periods of in-service training. Forty-seven Brazilian professionals have received this type of intensive training to date. Extension/development personnel and on-farm researchers with severa! years of experience with cassava require greater skills in problem and opportunity identification so as to respond to the changing needs of their client farmers. This target group is served by participation in integrated modular courses on cassava production, processing, and marketing, followed by a period of disciplinary specialization. In addition to technical aspects of cassava research, project management, farmer and institutional organization, and methods of evaluating technology with farmers are also included. Eighteen courses of this type have been held to date in Brazil serving 262 Brazilian professionals.While the population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) continues to grow at about 3% at year, per ca pita food availability, currently only 82% of the average for • developing countries, is not keeping pace. In 1990, SSA's share of the world's poor was 19%11. This is projected to increase to 28% by the year 2000-more than 300 million people including as many as 43 million malnourished children.Investment in agricultura! research by the public sector as a share of the agricultura! GDP has also declined drastically, as has overseas development assistance in recent years. There is also concern that as much as 10% of the overall consumption in the region is based on consumption of assets, particularly natural resources.. SSA is characterized by vast areas of low fertility, fragile soils and erratic rainfall. As much as 65% of the agricultura! land is affected by degradation with more threatened. Addressing these problems will require interventions in natural resource management, sustainable food security and poverty alleviation.In Latín America the 1980s were considered a lost decade in which the region's debts took on unmanageable proportions, reaching US$415 billion by 1989. Economic growth stopped, inflation became rampant and by 1990 people were lOo/o poorer than in 1980. Poverty affects about 37% of the population and more than 55 million people are malnourished or at serious nutritional risk. However, agriculture maintained a growth rate of 2.2%, which was higher than that for industry (1.0%). Nevertheless, the increase in food production has barely kept pace with population growth rate. During the 1990s exchange rates became realigned, generally increasing local prices, protection against imports was lowered, increasing competition, and free markets have been encouraged. A large portion of the rural poor have moved to cities; however, those remaining in the countryside occupy regions with poor soils, dry climates and hillsides, where eros ion, soil degradation and deforestation are serious threa ts to sustainable production and conservation of natural resources. Food security for both the rural and urban poor depends on sustainable and economic production of basic staples such as cassava.An interesting development in many parts of Latin America is the appearance of more medium-sized farms that are producing crops for local markets and export.The agricultura! sector is widely regarded as an essential contributor to future economic growth, but it needs cost-reducing technologies to increase productivity, methods to add value to farm products, and methods to help conserve natural resources and restore damaged agroecosystems. Cassava has great potential to provide raw material for value-added products ranging from foods for people, feed for livestock and chickens, starch for industry and processed foods.Increasing food supply should improve food security, increase income, generate opportunity for new products, lower food costs, and contribute to increased commercialization. Cassava is an important crop in both Africa and Latín America. For instance, FA0 6 estimates that 50.6% and 18.2% of the global production of 162.3 million• tons between 1992-94, occurred in Africa and Latin America, respectively. The higher supply in Africa was due more to area expansion than to increased productivity. Africa's average shares of the global land area under cassava increased from 54.5% in 1982-84 to 60.9% in 1992-94, while in Latin America it is 19.1% and 15.5% respectively. In Africa, over 60% of the total production of root and tuber crops is produced in the moist savanna zone, and the remainder in the humid forest zone 17• Cassava pest incidence and damage are generally higher in these moist and humid zones than in drier ecozones (see Table 1).The main cassava producers in Latin America are Brazil, Paraguay and Colombia followed by Peru, Haití, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Argentina, Dominican Republic, and Ecuador, with Brazil accounting for almost 80% of the region's cassava output. Cassava production in Latín America had remained almost unchanged at 29 million tons with a growth rate of 0.2% per year between 1983-936. This stagnation has been attributed to the lack of production incentives and rising demand for cereals for food and feed. In 1992-94, Brazil was the world's second largest cassava producer at 22736 tons with Nigeria (in Africa) topping the list at 30030 tons6. Approximately half of Brazil's cassava production is concentrated in the Northeast, one of the poorest parts of the country. Cassava is important in this region because the environmental conditions are unfavorable for the cultivation of most other crops. In the Northeast, most cassava farmers cultivate plots of less than 1 ha., with generally low soil fertility in a region with only a mínimum infrastructure of roads, electricity, and services. Cassava productivity in the northeastern states is 37% lower than the average for the rest of Brazil. The average yield in the region is 10.8t/ha. FAO considers that a major calorie deficit problem exists in the area. The states of Bahía, Ceará, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Maranhao and Piauí are targeted for this project because of their importance as cassava producing regions, the widespread incidence of cassava pest problems, and beca use of complementary CIAT /EMBRAPA activities in the area.The 5 biggest cassava producers in Africa are Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Ghana, Tanzania and Mozambique, in that order. Between 1965 and 1995, the biggest increase in the share of production on the African continent occurred in Nigeria which increased its share from 22% to 38%, and in Ghana which increased its share from 4% to 8%. The reasons for the observed increase in production on the continent vary according to ecozones. According to liTA-COSCA databases, the 6 main reasons are the reliability upon cassava in time of famine/hunger (19.6%), pests and diseases tolerance (13.5%), higher prices and market access (9.4%), increasing population growth (8.6%), high yields (8.5%) and crop's tolerance to drought (3.2%). COSCA found that farmers across al! ecozones consistently indicate the reliability of cassava in times of famine/hunger and the crop's better tolerance to pests and diseases as the most important reasons for the increasing trend. This supports the view that cassava is planted as a food security crop. Within this context, however, market related factors and trade policies drive increases in production. For example, in Nigeria, the agricultura! trade policy which banned wheat and rice imports in 1987 largely stimulated cassava production from 11.2 million tons in 1982-84 to 30 million tons in the early 1990s, amounting to a 10.4% annual rate of growth within the period.Between 1982 and 1994, the global average yields of cassava remained under 10 tons/ha., associated with an annual growth rate of 0.6% to 9.9% for the decadé. In Africa, most cassava farms are less than 0.5 ha., risk prone and with average yields only occasionally exceeding 9 tons/ha., (e.g., in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Tanzania). Current average yield in Latín America is 11.2 ton/ha., while the estimated potential yield is 21.3 ton/ha 18 • The yields in Northeast Brazil (which is less-developed and drier) range from 4-10 ton/ha., whereas South Brazil (which is more developed and more humid) produces 20-25 ton/ha. Current rates of production are 5.2 ton/ha., in Cuba, 14.8 in Paraguay, and 4.3 in coastal Ecuador. Yield and area planted remained constant for all of Latín America during 1984-93. However, in Colombia the annual growth rates for the same period were 2.3% for yield and 1.2% for area cultivated. These increases occurred primarily in the North Coast, which is seasonally dry. The increases can largely be attributed to the impact of joint CIAT-Colombian projects that helped evaluate and distribute new cassava varieties and develop postharvest processing plants using the methods of farmer participatory research. The PROFISMA project in Northeast Brazil, which focused more on pest management, has increased yields on participating farmers' fields by up to 50%. In Africa, yields rose by 1.4% a year in the 1980s compared to 1.7% a year in the previous decade. The higher yields in the 1980s are highly associated with the provision of new higher yielding varieties and successful classü;al biological control of the cassava mealybug by liTA.According to FAO's medium term outlook 6 , world cassava production is projected to grow at 1.9%, from 162.3 million tons in 1992-94 to 202.7 million tons by the year 2005. The increased growth is expected to be more rapid in Africa (2.4% per year) than in the other cassava producing regions, Latín America (1.5% per year) and Asia (1.1% per year). As in the past, most of the production increase in Africa is expected to be due more to area expansion than to yield increases. In Latín America, however, the projected 1.5% growth rate will be a result of both area and yield expansion. The area under cassava is projected to increase by 1.5% and 0.7% in Africa and Latín America respectively. In Brazil, a previous reduction in area under cassava is expected to be reversed, largely in response to increased demand for both food and animal feed. In Paraguay, the area cultivated is decreasing but yield improvements are expected to compensate for the diminished area.Increasing production demands together with finite agricultura! resources threaten the sustainability of the cassava agroecosystems. The productive land available for cultivation will decline as the traditional fallow periods are being shortened. The poor agronomic conditions and practices ultimately degrade the natural resource base of the cassava agroecosystem and combine with pests to reduce the actual/potential value of cassava as a food security and poverty alleviation crop. In an ESCaPP participatory project planning workshop 19  , the focal cassava plant protection problem in West/Central Africa was identified as \"unhealthy cassava\" which leads to yield and production losses. The workshop participants from liT A, Winrock International and four national programs analyzed the problem environment and summarized that the focal problem was caused by pest infestations and introductions, use of pest prone varieties, poor production practices, low soil fertility, poor cassava storage practices and inadequate farm-level cassava plant protection training and practices. Being mobile, and frequently transported via infested planting material, cassava pests pose significant threats to the further development of national and regional cassava sub-sectors.Although cassava is native to Latin America and has co-evolved with pests and natural enemies of these pests for a long time, there are severa! regions where pests are locally common and appear to lack predators or parasites which are found in other regions. This creates an opportunity for implementing classical biological control of such pests. In Africa, the economically important pests have mainly been exotic arthropods that were accidentally introduced from the Americas. A variety of foliar, stem and root damaging pathogens, and weeds also cause varying degrees of crop damage and yield losses in both regions.Various yield loss data are available for most of cassava pests in Africa and Latin America. These data are invariably discipline-/pest-/location-specific, and inherently provide information more on the pests' potential to reduce food supply and income from cassava than on the actual production losses caused. In Africa, cassava pests including arthropods, pathogens and weeds reduce crop production by an estimated 50% 20 • Depending on cassava variety, cultural practices, local agroecological conditions, and pest strains, estimated pest-specific root yield losses are 30-80% for the cassava green mite in Latin America Africa 22 and 16-100% 23 for the cassava mosaic disease, with actual annual production loss due to this disease alone estimated at 28-40% 24 in Africa. The cassava bacteria! blight can cause a reduction in yield of 50%, while the larger grain borer can reduce stored cassava chip biomass by up to 74% after 4 months of infestation 25• It is estimated that weeds can cause as high as 80% production losses 26  , if left unchecked, particularly during the first 3-4 months after planting. In Latin America, the native mealybug, Phenacoccus herreni, can cause 80% yield loss in northeastern Brazi1 27• In low soil fertility areas, the cassava hornworm causes 15 to 46% yield losses after one attack, and up to 64% after two consecutive attacks 28• The virus diseases (Cassava Common Mosaic Virus, CsCMV; Cassava Vein Mosaic Virus, CVMV; Cassava Frogskin Disease, CFSD) can cause 30-100%, especially where any of the diseases are endemic; and yield losses by root rots of 40% are reported for at least 300,000 ha., of cassava in northeastern Brazi1 29The key components of pest-induced yield and production losses are area covered (site incidence), proportion of plants infested (plant incidence), proportion of the field plants in various pest damage categories and season/ duration of peak attack. In Africa, the ESCaPP multidisciplinary diagnostic survey database provides these kinds of information for the target countries (Benin, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria) and on a regional basis (Table 1). Table 1 provides a basis for setting comprehensive cassava plant health targets against which the effectiveness of intervention technologies can be monitored.  2). The themes for production (10 of 37) and socioeconomics (8 of 37) generally provided support to proposed protection activities. Among the future themes, half concerned characterization, a third adaptive/strategic research, and the remainder, implementation (Table 3).Cassava in Africa was neglected by agricultura! researchers early in the 20th century. Work on cassava eventually began with resistance breeding on African cassava mosaic virus in the 1930s and continued that way for the next 30 years. In the 1960s, research on cassava in Africa expanded beyond disease resistance and yield improvement to include agronomy and early farming systems research.Research on cassava became multi-disciplinary in the 1970s, but lacked the interaction with the client farmers needed to assure adoption. Research to develop, test and adopt \"appropriate\" technologies on-farm flourished during the 1980s. And by the 1990s, a systems approach with biological control and farmers' participation as the center pieces became the basis for developing environmentally sound and economically feasible plant protection for basic food crops in Africa and Latin America.The cassava plant protection technologies available for testing and adaptation can be grouped into three categories of sustainable interventions -biological control, host plant resistance and cultural practices. Chemical controls are impractical, uneconomical, non-sustainable, and hazardous to the environment and to the farmers, and therefore, are not considered.Biological control consists of three basic strategies. These include classical biological control where ecologically adapted natural enemies are introduced from outside the target area, conservation of natural enemies present in the system through cultural practices which enhance their activity, and augmentation where local natural enemies are multiplied and released to increase their impact. liTA and CIAT collaboration has focused largely on classical biological control of the exotic pests, cassava mealybug, and cassava green mite. Maintenance and mass production of the natural enemies used in classical biological control requires a unique technical capacity and infrastructure. liTA and CIAT have developed these capacities over the years while working on a wide variety of natural enemies including parasitoids, predators, and pathogens. Small-scale cultural methods appropriate for implementation by national programs in both continents and by farmer cooperatives in Latin America are under development for severa! species of natural enemies. These methods can be used in the regional dissemination of exotic species and in augmentation of native species or strains.Cassava pests have been studied for many years in view of developing host plant resistance. Plant breeding for resistance was the earliest plant protection technology pursued. Although, recent breeding efforts by both national and intemational research institutes are been put into developing varieties which are high yielding and early maturing fast producing, selection for pest resistance is being integrated into the breeding programs as proactive pest management measures.The role of cultural practices in enhancing cassava production is well known, but poorly documented where pests are concerned. Pest constraints to cassava production are frequently related to other production practices, although their effect on pest populations are only now being investigated. Appropriate cultural practices can already be identified based on systems' research, even though much work remains to be done. Good cassava production starts with quality planting material free of avoidable plant pathogen and pest contaminants. Other potential production constraints such as weeds, mulching, time of planting, spacing, intercrops and time of harvest are usually moderated by appropriately timed and properly implemented agronomic practices. Fallow management can reduce undesirable weeds, while maintaining desirable refuge for natural enemies.The Enhanced national research capability in sustainable crop protection will be evident in the target countries and regions. Farmer knowledge of sustainable crop protection principies and practices will be greater as a consequence of basic training provided to the farmer. Technology adoption will be facilitated by direct farmer participation in training and its development, testing, and adaptation. This will lead to significant reductions in the key components (site incidence, plant incidence, and damage levels) of pest-induced yield and production losses, as quantified by multidisciplinary diagnostic survey databases. In addition, ecological crop protection technologies should help prevent the need for, and consequently, the use of pesticides. This approach will conserve the efficacy of natural enemies by avoiding the lethal contact and residual toxicity of most pesticides, and preserve the environmental integrity of water resources and the food-chain within targeted agroecosystems.Table 1 provides a basis for setting comprehensive cassava plant health targets against which the effectiveness of intervention technologies can be measured. liTA, CIAT and their NARS partners will aim to effectively implement intervention technologies against at least two targeted pests in at least one affected ecozone per participating country. Through a multiplier effect, the implemented sustainable technologies, practices, training and information dissemination will significantly reduce plant incidence and proportions of plants showing moderate/severe damage in the years following project termination. Cassava yields and/or root quality will improve significantly on targeted farms where technologies have been adopted. For example, recent evaluations in Benin on the impact of the establishment of one mite predator introduced from Brazil show an increase in yields equal to US $70/ha/year, which corresponds to about $50 million per year for the four original target countries (Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon & Ghana), if the predator becomes widely established and remains equally efficient. Another example is the 90% reduction in root rot incidence and 3-fold increase in yields achieved by a similar project executed by Centro de Pesquisa Agroforestal da Amazonia Occidental, EMBRAPA, and CIAT, through the adoption of appropriate •cultural practices and tolerant cassava varieties in the Amazon. Adoption of new pest and crop management technologies will increase the prosperity of poor rural families and reduce environmental degradation associated with cassava production. Development of postharvest processing and markets for cassava products by closely affiliated projects at liTA and CIAT will help increase and stabilize the incomes of rural communities. Farmer communities (including women who play important roles in cassava production and processing) will have greater control over their well being as a result of leaming how to work with others to define their problems, develop solutions and test them. Information resources developed during the project will facilitate the implementation of similar efforts in other areas in the future. Skills and effectiveness of national program research and extension staff will be improved by training and practice of farmer participatory research methods.The immediate beneficiaries of this project are the participating farmers, extensionists and researchers of the state, national and international research institutions involved in this project. Poor, small-scale farmers (many of whom are women) in the cassava-belts of Africa, Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador and Cuba struggling to grow cassava under tropical, rain-fed, low soil-fertility conditions, often in semi-arid regions, will benefit from the technologies that will be adopted to control their principal pests. The adoption of methods to control pests and diseases and manage their cropping system will increase and stabilize their productivity and income, provide food security, and foster a pesticide-free environment. lt will also help prevent further environmental degradation of both their fields and the surrounding vegetation that is subjected to slash/bum agriculture. Staff at national, regional, and international organizations involved in research and implementation of sustainable plant protection for cassava will benefit from the international collaboration and exchange of information that this project provides. Hiring and training of personnel will emphasize gender equity. The open flow of communication between scientists, extensionists and farmers is critica! to target efficient research goals and develop technologies that suit the local needs of farmers. National program scientists and extensionists are extremely isolated from the information that exists in other countries and regions and benefit greatly from the knowledge and experiences of others. All of the countries involved in this project have actively sought involvement and participated in planning and development of this proposal. Indirect benefits of improving sustainability of agriculture in fragile agricultura! environments will extend to neighboring regions and countries which have access to publications, information and experiences generated by this project.Collaboration between liTA, CIAT and national programs for exploration and introduction of natural enemies for control of introduced pests in Africa will target additional ecozones of East and Central Africa, Brazil, Paraguay and Cuba. Because other countries in Africa and Latín America have requested participation in projects similar to the previous ESCaPP /PROFISMA project, the geographic range of this proposal has expanded. Experience gained on both continents in participatory methods and on-farm testing will be shared through training workshops for national and regional extensionists and researchers. Global research strategies for cassava green mite, cassava root rot pathogens, bacteria! blight and viruses, and the production of quality planting material will be developed through research, workshops and scientist exchanges. Compilation and dissemination of information will make available diverse resources to a wide audience of cassava workers. IITA and CIAT will provide overall project coordination and will liaise with national programs, regional research thrusts, training and implementation activities, and other interested organizations. In the original regions, the project will shift from pest characterization (mainly completed) and focus Jargely on strategic research on previously prioritized themes which cut across major environmental, production or socio-economic concems (see Tables 2 and 3, section B.4). While most of the identified themes are plant protection oriented by design, activities in production and socioeconomics will provide essential support. In the new regions, intervention technology development activities will. be divided sequentially into characterization (largely by extensive and intensive diagnosis), strategic research and implementation, but will begin in the series according to the available knowledge. Pest constraints will be characterized for their importance through multidisciplinary diagnostic surveys. The original survey protocols will be adjusted to account for locationspecific/village leve! ethnocentric differences between regions/countries. While the list of themes in Tables 2 and 3 is comprehensive for West and Central Africa and would be relevant to regions with ecological similarities, additional themes will be identified in the new regions following pest diagnoses.In both regions intervention technology development activities will be conducted through collaborative laboratory and field studies, decentralized intervention technologies, and participatory on-farm trials. Progress in achieving research objectives and technology impl.ementation will be routinely evaluated throughout the life of the project, with a particular focus on consumer acceptance and farmer adoption of recommended technologies. The specific research themes are the following:Stem cutting sanitation and management practices. This theme will seek to develop and implement a strategy to produce and maintain clean and vigorous cassava planting material given the specific requirements of the major cassava growing ecozones. The unavailability of stem planting material with sufficient vigor and clean from pests is often a factor limiting cassava production. This is due largely to insufficient knowledge conceming criteria appropriate for vigorous and • clean cutting selection, propagation, and maintenance. Whereas transmission of cassava mosaic virus and cassava bacteria! blight in stem cuttings is well documented, little is known concerning the dissemination of a whole range of fungal pathogenic agents through this medium. Protocols for identifying and eliminating pests and poor plant vigor in cassava stem cuttings will therefore be developed in collaboration with participating national programs to select, propagate and manage clean cuttings by extension agents and farmers in a sustainable manner.Cassava green mite biological control. In parts of West Africa, the exotic predatory mite, T. aripo reduces populations of the cassava green mite by half and increases yields by a third in targeted areas. However, much still remains to be done to achieve similar success in other ecozones, countries and regions of the continent. The strategy will be to address the mite problem on a regional basis where local experiences and ecological constraints are similar. This project will therefore collaborate with the liTA project on biological control of the pest to support classical biological control of the pest by enhancing national capacities to mass produce, release and monitor the establishment, spread and populations dynamics of exotic natural enemies; test new candidate natural enemy species selected for targeted ecozones; quantify the ecological, agronomic and economic impact of natural enemies, and enlighten extension agents and farmers with knowledge on the benefits of biological control. T. aripo and other phytoseiid predator species which have shown promise in the field given specific agroecological conditions will be the pt\"imary agents for implementation. Other natural enemies, including pathogenic fungi, will be selected and tested in specific ecozones. In collaboration with related liT A project this project will also seek to incorporate sources of cassava green mite resistance into agronomically acceptable cultivars offering a potential for control of the pest through host plant resistance. Furthermore, appropriate cultural practices will be identified based on systems research. These methods will be tested, adapted and evaluated with farmers in a participatory manner.Cultural and biological control of diseases. This theme will seek to identify and establish appropriate cropping systems and biological control techniques to effectively manage cassava diseases in targeted ecozones. The project will elucidate the effect of cultural practices such as seedbed preparation, field management practices, crop density and time of planting, harvesting procedures, and types of intercrops on the incidence and severity of cassava mosaic disease, cassava bacteria! blight and other leaf diseases, and Curvularia Ieaf and stem blight. Appropriate cultural and biological control methods (e.g., use of antagonists against root rot pathogens) and cropping systems will be developed, tested and established mainly through Farmer Field School networks. In all ecozones, this project will characterize fungal, bacteria! and virus pathogens and develop respective quick detection methods.Ecosystem-specific pests. This theme will seek to characterize the importance of ecosystem-specific pests in each ecozone, and initiate strategic research on those diagnosed as important or already known to be a problem. During prior extensive diagnostic surveys in Africa, a number of pest constraints were identified as being associated with specific ecozones, but not exclusively on cassava. These include weed species (e.g., Imperata cylindrica, Panicum spp., Andropogon spp., Pennisetum spp., Mimosa spp., and Comme/ina spp) in all ecozones, the weed Chromolaena odorata in the humid forest, the variegated grasshopper in the transition forest and moist savanna, termites in the moist and dry savanna, nematodes in all ecozones, vertebrates pests and root rots (e.g., Fusarium, Phytophthora, Diplodia, Botryodiplodia, Scytalidium and Verticil/ium spp) in the rain and transition forests. Pest constraints such as these are usually relegated to orphan status when R&D activities are targeted to specific commodity. This project will take the lead in diagnosing these problems, but may require additional expertise to develop and implement sustainable control strategies. The strategy here will be to identify and liaise with individuals and institutions that have a comparative advantage in working on the specific pests.Postharvest pests. Although cassava is relatively easy to grow, the storage roots are difficult to keep after harvest because they quickly deteriorate. Sorne of the microorganisms, (e.g., Aspergillus flavus, and Fusarium moniliforme) which invade and reduce the quality of stored products produce mycotoxins which have been shown to be carcinogenic to humans. This theme will seek to impróve the harvesting and processing of cassava, the preservation of stored fresh cassava and processed products. In collaboration with related liTA projects, this project will establish an inventory of existing indigenous and '\"improved'\" cassava handling and processing methodologies in the regions; elucidate farmers preference for the methodologies; identify pests and microorganisms associated with the existing processing and preservation methodologies; investigate the extent of the damage of stored products and the types and quantities of mycotoxins produced; quantify the economic losses; reduce losses due to poor handling and storage of cassava and cassava products; and seek to generate a range of postharvest technologies to provide competitive commercial options for farmers, processors and consumers in the food, feed and agro-industrial sectors. Through participatory methods and processes, this project will reduce constraints to farmer adoption of the irnproved methodologies.Cassava root scale. This theme will seek to identify the extent and severity of the cassava root scale problem in Africa. The pest status of the cassava root scale, Stictococcus vayssierei, which is native to Africa, is yet to be fully quantified. However, it is generally regarded as an important cassava production constraint in the Central African region. Research on the pest is scanty and little is known about its natural hosts or indigenous natural enemies. This project will conduct intensive diagnosis to elucidate the pest's biology, ecology, crop and farming systems interactions in targeted agroecozones affected by the scale. This project will also evaluate indigenous knowledge with the aim of developing, testing and implementing sustainable interventions.Natural enemy and germplasm resources. This theme will seek to characterize and preserve desirable local natural enemies and germplasm, and identify, select and import promising exotic natural enemies and germplasm for subsequent intervention technology development. The germplasm will be evaluated for specific pest and disease resistance by ecozones to provide inputs into on-going breeding programs. This project will elucidate knowledge of the pest control capacity of indigenous natural enemies of the variegated grasshopper, termites, cassava root scale and nematodes and provide a basis for evaluating foreign exploration needs. In the control of the introduced spiraling whitefly in Africa, this project will continue to monitor the establishment, spread and impact of the parasitoid, Encarsia ?haitiensis, on the continent. This project will collaborate with the IIT A-based project on the larger grain borer to monitor the establishment, spread and impact of the introduced predatory beetle Teretriosoma nigrescens against the pest in stored dry cassava chips in Africa. IITA/CIAT foreign exploration will be focused on cassava green mite predators and fungal pathogens.The focus of the human resource development activity in the original and new project regions in Africa will continue to be training in the principies and practices of sustainable cassava plant protection. In new project regions, training needs will be assessed through participatory processes with NARS trainers, extentionists and Farmer Field -5chool (FFS) groups. Curricula will be developed and revised to capture emerging needs during project implementation. In both old and new project regions national extension systems will continue to provide the opportunity for incorporating cassava plant protection training within existing NARS authority and operational structures. The project will build upon the cassava IPM knowledge base it had improved through previous training of researchers, extensionists, farmers and NGO participants to strengthen participatory approaches in the development of cassava IPM technologies and practices.Farmer Field School training model will be used for action leaming and research within the extension systems. Researchers and extensionists will be trained in facilitation skills, methodologies and processes to understand the organization and functioning of farmers groups. Through FFS, the project will increase farmers' ability to improve on their experiments and experimental methods; develop, test, adapt and evaluate cassava IPM technologies and practices; encourage the participation of women farmers in IPM decision making; integrate research with training and extension; integrate indigenous knowledge in IPM technology development; ensure that research and extension services target resources at farmers real needs; and increase the chances of farm-level adoption of technically feasible technologies. Specialized training courses will be provided according to the expressed needs of the NARS and to promote the integration of the project's research into training and implementation activities. The project will strive to institutionalize FFS models within national extension systems and constitute FFS participants into regional farmers networks for in-country and inter-country exchange of ideas and farmers as training resource persons.In collaboration with the NARS, pertinent IARCs and NGOs, the project will continue to prepare training and extension support materials stressing the need for farmers to focus on growing a healthy crop of cassava. Source books will be provided/prepared as training reference manuals for extension trainers and FFS facilitators. Didactic materials will be designed to promote the understanding and application of cassava IPM technologies and practices. Participants will be trained in the art of preparing these didactic materials to foster a \"self-help\" approach in training material preparation at national levels. Selected print materials will be adapted into a multimedia cassava IPM software on growing a healthy cassava ero p.There is an plethora of information available for many crop production systems including cassava. The problem is how to access and use these data to make informed management decisions. Large multi-disciplinary databases like those generated during the regional diagnostic survey of the original project are examples of information that are best exploited by a systems approach specifically designed to update, manage and interpret dynamic data. The project will continue to develop pertinent information resources to facilitate processing, summarization, interpretation and communication of the large amount of multi-disciplinary data anticipated from old and new project regions. Relevant databases already compiled will be updated. Strategic and tactical models will be developed to identify critica! interactions, and evaluate the potential impact of tested technologies. Validated inter-disciplinary systems models will provide the tools for evaluating the response of simulated agroecosystems under a range of conditions, and a basis for day-to-day decision-making in cassava plant protection. A cassava systems model developed by liT A, the University of California, Berkeley and ETH, Zürich will provide the basis. The project will improve and update its cassava plant protection information CD-ROM developed with the University of Florida during the first phase of the project, and place the same information in a web site available over the Internet. Additionally, liTA staff will be trained to prepare documents for conversion into an interactive format and to develop an independent capacity to create interactive cassava information resources.Project coordination provides the structure for organizing and managing project activities within and between participating regions, countries and individuals. This will include identification, selection and preparation of multidisciplinary national teams and planning country activities, organization of regional workshops, evaluations and reporting. The preliminary organizational activities will involve presentation of the project to new collaborating countries at consultative meetings with national cassava scientists and farmers, the selection of national counterpart teams following country consultations, the preparation of work plans and budgets and the provision of technical and material logistics support.Project implementation agreements signed between liTA and participating countries will continue to guide the project's operations at national levels. In addition to stipulating responsibilities, commitments and other contractual obligations, the agreements will also stipulate contractual agreements for the participating NARS scientist seconded to form the nucleus of national multidisciplinary project teams. Additional contracts will be needed to implement, natural enemy quarantine, digitized information resources, and decision support systems. Regional workshops will provide a formal structure for participating scientists to meet and exchange ideas. Regular international scientific and technical interactions will be conducted among regional staff, international collaborators and national teams. Through these interactions various resources, opportunities and features of national programs and other country institutions relevant for project activities will be identified.Research activities will be supported and coordinated through a competitive collaborative research program. The program encourages strategic and innovative scientific inquiry and fosters research collaboration with a wide range of individuals from universities, government ministries, other national research systems, and NGOs in the region; it also increases contact between scientists and cassava farmers. A committee representing each regional project team will convene to select proposals previously short listed within discipline groups for support. Awards will be made in areas relevant to the overall framework of the project, with the highest priority given to proposals addressing farmers' plant protection problems.Strategic and applied research at CIAT in entomology (including cassava green mite, mealybug, homworm, whiteflies, etc.), plant pathology (including root and stem rots, bacteriosis), virology (CsCMV, CVMV, ACMV, frogskin disease), biotechnology, geographic information systems, and participatory research will collaborate directly with research at liT A to help develop solutions to principal cassava pests and cassava production problems on both continents. Emphasis will be on biological control and integrated pest management (which involves resistant crop varieties, cultural management, and sanitation of planting material). Fungal, bacteria! and virus pathogens will be characterized, and detection methods developed. Cultural control methods and cassava varieties resistant to key pests and diseases will be developed and tested through COP AL (Farmer research committee) networks. CIAT scientists will also work directly with national program scientists in Brazil, Paraguay and Cuba to solve regional and local problems and to provide training. National program capacity to massproduce, store and distribute hornworm baculovirus will be developed. New activities to evaluate market possibilities and develop postharvest processing and micro-industries through COPAL (farmer research committee) networks will help stabilize the price and profitability of cassava production in rural communities and improve rural prosperity.CIAT will be directly involved in \"satellite\" bilateral projects in Brazil, Paraguay and Cuba that will be closely linked to this project. However, each of these satellite projects is for \"integrated crop development\"; i.e., they include management of soil, crop, and pests and development of postharvest processing and markets. Initial surveys of. markets and of farms will be conducted (where prior information is not available) to prioritize constraints and opportunities. In selected communities, farmers will be organized into participatory research committees (COP ALs) and trained in farmer participatory research methods (FPR). National program scientists and extensionists will receive similar training, and together with farmers and international scientists will identify, develop and test practica! solutions to their problems.• The region in Northeast Brazil targeted by the preceding PROFISMA project (Bahia, Ceará, Pernambuco and Paraíba ) will be expanded to include Maranhao and Piauí. Satellite project activities will expand to include emphasis on the principal constraints identified by the preceding PROFISMA project_ (soil quality, planting material, cassava green mites, hornworms, whiteflies, root rots, witch's broom, viruses, development of postharvest processing an~ markets). This project will also have direct interaction with an IFAD development project in Sergipe, which specifically requested collaboration with former PROFISMA personnel, and with another CIAT-CNPMF IFAD-sponsored project on improving cassava varieties for semiarid conditions.• A new satellite project will begin in Paraguay with particular emphasis on developing postharvest processing and markets. It will also include diagnostic surveys, development of COPALs, farmer participatory research on crop production and pest management, and training. There will be direct collaboration with a CIRAD economist.• A new satellite project will begin in Cuba, starting with diagnostic surveys of constraints and opportunities for production and markets. National program scientists and extensionists and existing farmer cooperatives will be trained in farmer participatory research methods and will help develop and test crop production, pest management, and postharvest processing technologies.Research on sustainable plant protection technologies is a relatively recent phenomenon. Few institutes work specifically in this area. liTA and CIAT, the CGIAR institutes concerned with cassava, have joined forces to develop environmentally sound plant protection technologies with the collaboration of national programs and farmers for• a crop that, un ti! recently, attracted little plant protection attention. This project fills a gap in the development and implementation of ecologically sound plant protection technology. It links national programs with similar cassava plant protection problems and experiences through international institutes, and provides access to ecological (natural enemies, germplasm) and information (expertise, research and implementation experiences) resources that are otherwise out of reach. UNDP and FAO have supported training and implementation components of this collaborative effort since 1984. However, support for sustainable plant protection projects has been limited. It is for this reason that donors are requested to help maintain the momentum gained between collaborating institutions in the development, testing, and implementation of successful intervention technologies by supporting this project.The current crop protection situation in Africa and Latín America has been analyzed as a consequence of long-standing collaboration between national and international institutions in Africa and South America. Particularly important is • the decade of continuous collaboration by liT A and CIAT to control exotic cassava pests in Africa. CIAT has the CGIAR world mandate for cassava and cassava germplasm outside Africa, and liT A .has the manda te for cassava in . Africa. Benefits of this collaboration applicable to current crop protection efforts include development of severa! sustainable pest control technologies, knowledge of critica! interactions and production constraints in cassava agroecosystems, and practica! field experience in both continents. It also provides a link between national programs, ecologically similar subregions and continent-restricted resources needed in the development and implementation of ecologically sound cassava plant protection.Use of this accumulated knowledge to benefit small-scale farmers will require an intensive implementation process involving the integration of researchers, extension workers, and farmers.The integration of extensionists with researchers and farmers will continue within the context of human resource development through training as described in sections B 1.4 and 0.2, especially through participatory methods and processes. The success of the activities in both continents will depend on sharing complementary expertise and information held by the collaborators, and on extensive links to other disciplines of direct importance to development and implementation of crop protection (e.g., breeding, agroecological studies, biotechnology, agronomy, socioeconomics, training, and communications). The unified approach to developing, testing, and implementing the plant protection technologies which has been developed by liT A and CIAT is unique and will con tribute to efficient use of resources for achievement of the objectives of this project.Because cassava is a hardy crop that withstands drought and tolerates poor soil quality, it often plays a critica! role in providing a reliable source of food to poor people who live in marginal agricultura! environments. Increasing cassava productivity using ecologically sustainable crop protection methods increases food security and income. It also reduces or avoids the need to apply pesticides, thereby helping to protect local biodiversity. Ecologically sustainable crop management methods also help to conserve and improve soil quality, reduce erosion and slow down the destruction of forest in slash-burn agricultura! systems. Processing cassava into starch, chips and other food products in local artisanal milis provides an important source of employment and income, especially to women. The farmer participatory methods employed by this project help empower individuals and communities to define their problems and begin to find their own solutions and develop skills which can be helpful in other areas of their lives.liTA and CIAT will be responsible for coordination of ESCaPP and PROFISMA project activities in Africa and Latín America respectively. Research at liT A and CIAT is organized on a project basis, and there is a project coordinator responsible for the coordination and integration of the cassava plant protection activities in each institute. The project coordinators report to their respective Directors of Research and/or Division Director (as at liTA) who are each responsible for their respective Director General and Board of Trustees. Accountability for project expenditures remains the responsibility of liT A for the Africa component and CIAT for the Latín America component of the project, respectively. Project leaders appointed by liT A and CIAT will be the institutional contact personnel responsible for coordinating project activities in Africa and Latín America, respectively and for liaison between the two regions.At the national leve!, this project will be coordinated and managed through multídisciplinary national teams to reach the various stakeholders. At intervals, the national teams will join regionally to identífy and develop management tools guiding project implementation, prepare technical protocols and set R&D priorítíes based on prior diagnoses. Earlier, in 1993, ESCaPP conducted a Goal Oriented Project Planning workshop in Africa wíth participants from the NARS, liTA and Winrock International. The workshop participants developed and harmonized regional and country-specific plan of operations and budgets; set performance indicators for a monitoring and evaluation plan; related targets to avaílable inputs, personnel, funds, equipment, materials, etc.; set deadlines by when activities should begin and end; and assigned responsibílities to team members and/or collaborating agencies. These kinds of consultative planning tools which remove ambiguities about responsibilities during project implementatíon will contínue in the future.Additíonally, implementation agreements, between liT A and the respective Governments, which stipulate responsibilities, commitments and other contractual obligations to guide project operations will contínue to be adhered to. Natíonal project coordinators will be responsible for the management and administration of project activities in the particípating countries and liaison with liTA or CIAT. Other team members will ensure interdisciplinarity in national project planning and implementation. National scientists, in Africa, other than the seconded team members, will be províded wíth an opportunity to contribute towards the project's overall goal and purpose through a competitive collaborative research program addressing aspects of the problem environment and to serve as national/regional training resource persons. In Latín America, national programs participated in development of this proposal and the bilateral satellite proposals, and they will also conduct annual reviews of their actívitíes and revise their work plans and budgets. Exchange visits will be organized between project partners to enhance technical interactions, supervision and monitoring of project activities.Working within existing national systems will have the advantage of enabling structured access to farmers, extensionists and researchers to avoid duplication of efforts and provide for sustainability of the project's developed R&D processes and results. The national teams will form a \"hub\" around which the project will link partner NARS institutions to natural enemy, germplasm resources, regional and intemational expertise and experiences for cassava R&D. Additionally, the collaborative mechanisms will provide for cost-sharing with relevant NGOs for farm-level training, technology and technical material testing and implementation, appropriate targeting of resources and technologies, and sharíng of hitherto \"unidentified\" regional expertise between the NARS. The NARS capacity to undertake independent cassava R&D activities will be increased through technical and material support and training.Project collaborators will hold a yearly interna! review meeting for the purposes of exchanging information and setting priorities. This meeting will be attended by the liT A Plant Health Management Division Director, the Project Leader for the African Component, associated participating liTA scientists, the Project Leader for the Latín American Component, participating CIAT scientists, and the Project Coordinators from each of the national programs. Responsibility for organization of the meeting will rotate between CIAT and liTA. A project advisory panel comprising of NARS, liTA and CIAT representatives will be set up and expected to meet at yearly intervals. The panel will approve the annual work plans and subsequently review progress made on technical matters, provide advice on the relevance of the work undertaken, and recommend changes when needed. The project will be advised by national Governments on the status of national progress towards the agreed goal and purpose through the advisory panel.liTA will have primary responsibility for all financia! matters in Africa. National program funds will be disbursed by liT A following institutional accounting procedures. Each national program will be responsible for the management and administration of these funds and will provide financia! status reports to IITA's chief financia! officer on a quarterly basis. International collaboration, e.g., with universities and technical development organizations, will continue to be conducted strictly through sub-contractual agreements with liTA. CIAT will have primary responsibility for all financia! matters in Latín America. National program funds will be disbursed by CIAT following institutional accounting procedures. Each participating national program in Latín America will be responsible for the management and administration of these funds and will provide financia! status reports to CIA T's chief financia! officer on a semi-annual basis. Both liT A and CIAT will provide financia! progress reports to the donors as required.This project is built on the long collaboration between liT A, CIAT and, national and international programs in cassava research and development. Both liTA and CIAT maintain strong links with advanced research institutions that have a comparative advantage in carrying out specialized research and training, or facilitating the dissemination of information. Postgraduate training of candidates selected from national programs par-ticipating in the project is also an important contribution to our objectives. liT A provides scientific, technica!, and financia! assistance (both direct and indirect) to African countries with a desire to develop biological and other ecologically sound pest and disease control approaches to plant protection. This project wi!l also provide African national programs a link to natural enemy and germplasm resources, plus expertise and relevant cassava p!ant protection experiences found in national and international institutions in South America. • Current!y, liTA has an informal network of 24 countries in the cassava belt of Africa participating in a Biological and Integrated Plant Protection Network. liT A also actively participates in subregional networks in West and Central (CORAF), East and Southern (EARRNET and SARRNET), and parts of East and Central (ASARECA) Africa. liT A's goal is to develop and transfer the expertise and technologies needed for plant protection research and implementation to national or regional programs. This is being achieved by working with national programs on collaborative research activities, providing institutional infrastructure and support, and by training technical staff.In Latín America, the principal collaborators in this project are CIAT; national research and extension programs in Brazil, Paraguay and Cuba; and state agricultura! institutions in Bahia, Ceará, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Maranhao and Piauí. See list in appendix VIII.A recently approved IFAD prbject in Sergipe, Brazi!, specifically requested that participants interact with personnel participating in this project to take advantage of the existing COPAL (farmer research committee) network and to work on solving cassava root rot problems. CNPMF p!ant pathologists, plant breeders and trainers who worked with the preceding PROFISMA project are collaborating directly with the new IFAD project. COPALs developed by PROFISMA also collaborated with the evaluation of cassava varieties being funded by another IFAD project in northeastem Brazil. Activities of the satellite project in Paraguay are being coordinated with an IFAD development project directed at developing \"panaderías\", small bakeries that use cassava flour.Each of the national programs participating in this project in Africa and Latin America have operating programs for research and agricultura! extension on cassava production. Many key personnel have received previous training from liTA and CIAT in various aspects of cassava production, pest management and postharvest processing over the past 20 years. Previous participants in the PROFISMA project in Northeast Brazil (at CNPMF and the state extension agencies of Bahía, Pernambuco, Paraiba and Ceara) are particularly advanced in their training as a result of that project. However, many of the national research personnel lack training in farmer participatory research and the use of recently developed integrated pest management technologies. Their laboratories often lack key equipment such as microscopes, computers or software which are needed to meet the objectives of this project.The development objective of this project is to increase the productivity and profitability .of small-scale cassava based agricultura! systems in Africa and Latin America, and thereby contribute to increased food security and poverty alleviation in the regions. This will be done through the development and implementation of ecologically-sustainable cassava production and plant protection intervention technologies, mostly through participatory methods and processes. The key areas of intervention will be integrated pest and crop management, biological control, postharvest and marketing. The national and regional cassava research and extension capability of participating countries will be strengthened through training, intemational collaboration and access to more technical information. At least 15 CIAT scientists and other senior staff will be directly involved in project activities. CIA T's annual contribution, including senior and support staff, expendible expenses and operation and maintenance of laboratories, greenhouses, library, computing facilities, field plots, vehicles and general infrastructure represents at least $2 million. This does not include the capital investment in the facilities, accumulation of cassava germplasm and biological control agents, and accumulated knowledge and experience.The national programs in each participating country will provide the necessary research and extension staff and research and training facilities needed to meet within country objectives. This will include the basic salary, allowances and social benefits normally accrued to national staff, plus office space and most of the necessary laboratory facilities, rearing rooms, and vehicles needed to carry out the proposed research and implementation activities. Each country will also provide about 50% of the operating expenses budgeted for the project activities within their country.The donors are requested to provide a total of US $11,932,200 ($4,122,600 for West and Central Africa, $2,527,900 for East and Southern Africa, and $5,281,700 for Latín America) to support the proposed sustainable plant protection R&D activities in at least 6 countries in two regions of Africa and three countries in Latín America from 1998 to 2001.The testing and adaptive research proposed in this project involve technologies which are well known, widely accepted as safe, and already practiced in various forms around the world. In additíon, all natural enemies imported from abroad for use in Africa or Latín America are passed through authorized and recognized quarantines before being certified as free of plant and animal contaminants before being released. Therefore, no major constraints are foreseen that could impede the proposed activities or threaten the livelihood of either the project team members or participating farmers and the environment. The goals of liTA are to increase the productivity of key food crops and to develop sustainable agricultura! systems that can replace bush fallow, or slash-and-bum cultivation in the humid and subhumid tropics. Crop improvement programs focus primarily on cassava, maize, and cowpeas. Yams, soybean, and plantain are also major research concerns.Research, findings are shared through international cooperation programs, which include training, information, and germplasm exchange activities.ClAT's mission is to contribute to the alleviation of hunger and poverty in tropical developing countries by applying science to the generation of technology that will lead to lasting increases in agricultura! output while preserving the natural resource base. ClAT has global responsibility for cassava, field beans, and tropical forage species in acid soils and ecoregional responsibility for rice and other selected agroecosystems in Latín America and the Caribbean. The center shares its research results and germplasm with national programs, intemational centers, research institutions and the general public.The Africa component is dívided into separate West and Central, and East and Southern region budgets. Each budget is comprised of costs associated with Regional Coordination provided by liTA, Regional R&D activities opened to all interested collaborators in a region on a competitive basis, Implementation activities designated for selected priority countries in each region, Central Services reflecting the overhead costs to liTA for project operations, Implementation Capital also designated for targeted countries, and Regional Capital for liTA and collaborating NARS. A 5% cost of living increase is anticipated in personnel costs during the project. Future. increases affecting other costs are expected to fall within the proposed budget.Regional R&D and Implementation activities are budgeted to reflect priorities and project scope. While precise budget allocations by expected line item expenditures e.g. supplies and expenses, per diem, travel and capital are not possible for proposals yet to be developed by participating NARS and, exceptionally by international collaborators, the rule of thumb expected to be applied here comes from the successful proposals in the first phase of the project e.g. 25% for supplies and expenses, 35% for per diem, 25% for travel and 15% for capital.About three quarters of the Africa budget is designated for participating NARS, and is divided approximately evenly into Implementation, Intervention Technology Development, Human Resource Development, Information Resource Development, and Coordination. Line items in the summary and itemized budgets below refer to project outputs as follows:Implementation: national and international expertise, associated supplies, expenses, travel and capital for implementation of proven technologies, and associated coordination costs.Interventjon technologies: national and international expertise, associated supplies, expenses, travel and capital for diagnosis, strategic R&D, and associated coordination costs.Human resources: national and international expertise, associated supplies, expenses, travel and capital for needs assessment, currículum development, inservice, farmer, bench/specialized, and associated coordination costs.Information resources: national and international expertise, associated supplies, expenses, travel and capital for information resource needs assessment, update and development of reference resources and other didactic materials, publications, decision support, and associated coordination costs.Coordination: national and international expertise, associated supplies, expenses, travel, capital and central services for• project management; planning meetings, workshops, exchange visits, and evaluations.     H Goal-oriented project planning -workshop to be held during the first year of the project to harmonize detailed national work plans into a single regional plan of operations.Collaborators workshops -region-wide workshops to facilitate interactions and information exchange planned for the first and fourth year. Smaller specialized workshops on topics of strategic importance planned for the second and third year. O NARS overheads -5% of Implementation costs for NARS hosting project coordination in each country. P Central Services -18.8% of Regional Coordination costs and 4% of Regional R&D and Implementation costs for UTA operations.Q Implementation Capital -includes a vehicle, computer, training and office equipment as required to support a national coordination office .in targeted countries.Regional Capital -includes vehicles, computers, training and office equipment as required for liT A, NARS and international collaborators to support coordination, information management, collaborative research and training activities in a given region (scaled by 0.8 for East and Southern Africa).The budget designated for CIA T involves tranportation to and participation in planning and training workshops, scientist exchanges, backstopping research activities and development and distribution of information resources. These activities will benefit not only the direct participants, but also other scientists and extensionists around the globe who depend on this type of technical information. Human resources:national and international expertise, associated supplies, expenses, travel and capital for needs assessment, currículum development, inservice, farmer, specialized and postgraduate training, and associated coordination costs.Information resources:national expertise, associated supplies, expenses, and capital for information resource needs assessment, update and development of reference resources and other didactic materials, publications, decision support, and associated coordination costs.Coordination:national and international expertise, associated supplies, expenses, travel, capital and central services for project management; planning meetings, workshops, exchange visits, and evaluations. ","tokenCount":"14801"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e7f867d9c1782bd82a390f09634415e5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b3995d71-236e-45cc-b722-0748736025e4/retrieve","id":"-608704234"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"46a75bbe-de99-4b48-827a-f3a42006a7ed","pagecount":"1","content":"In the study area the majority of households (90.1%), find it difficult to access seed of improved bean varieties.Farmers, particularly small farmers, were involved in multiple kinds of seed systems, which helped them to produce and obtain the seed they needed.In Mozambique, farmers experience severe constraints in accessing quality bean seed at planting time, because the seed industry hardly supplies seed of legume crops. To address this issue, a project on bean seed production and delivery systems was launched in the country to improve farmers' access to seeds of improved bean varieties. This poster characterizes the existing seed systems in Mozambique with the objective of identifying how farmers acquire and disseminate bean seed. It explores problems farmers faced in seed acquisition and dissemination before project implementation. A total of 116 smallholder bean farmers were randomly sampled from six pilot sites across Tete and Zambezia Provinces. Results showed that on average farmers realised below 900 kg ha -1 from growing local varieties and using their management systems, which is far below the potential average yield of improved varieties of 1500 -2500 kg ha -1 under optimal management conditions. The majority of households (90.1%) found it difficult to access seed of improved bean varieties because of limited sources and lack of information on the varieties. The most common means of seed acquisition was farmer to farmer (72.7%), either for free, cash or in kind -exchange for labour or other products. The majority of men (45.9%) preferred varieties with a potential market while women (46.4%) preferred high yielding varieties meeting both consumption and market qualities. Bean production was markedly affected by pests and diseases (47.5%), as well as drought, poor soils, and inadequate knowledge of bean production technologies. Farmers lacked skills and knowledge that could enable them meet expected produce standards for the markets. The majority of smallholder farmers needed basic training (45.0%) and access to improved seed and other new technologies (53.8%) to gain greater knowledge of bean production, and build more productive and sustainable bean seed systems.1) The survey was conducted at 7 sites across Tete and Zambezia Provinces (Fig. 1).2) The study largely used primary sources of information which included: a) Surveys of bean producers using semistructured questionnaires; b) Focus group discussions with farmers in farmer groups using checklist c) Key informants interviews with local leaders, government/public institutions, private sector (industries), non governmental organizations using checklists.3) Through use of purposive and simple random techniques (Scott, et al., 2003, Longley, et al. 2001) a total of 116 smallholder bean farmers were sampled.The common indicators used were possession of household assets (hoes; livestock; clothes; bicycle); land and type of house (built with burnt bricks; roofed with iron sheets versus grass thatched). Based on these indicators the majority of the study households (50.4%) were poor.Results showed that on average farmers realised below 900 kg ha -1 from growing local varieties and using their management systems, which is far below potential average yield of improved varieties of 1500 -2500 kg ha -1 under optimal management conditions.The majority of households (90.1%) found it difficult to access seed of improved bean varieties because of limited sources and lack of information on the varieties.The most common means of seed acquisition was farmer to farmer (72.7%), either for free, cash or in kind -exchange for labour or other products.The majority of men (45.9%) preferred varieties with a potential market while women (46.4%) preferred high yielding varieties meeting both consumption and cash needs.It was also learnt that bean production was largely (47.5%) affected by biotic constraints such as pests and diseases.The other constraints were drought, poor soils, and inadequate knowledge in bean production technologies.Farmers in the study area lacked skills and knowledge that could enable them meet expected produce standards for the make markets.The majority of smallholder farmers needed basic training (45.0%) and access to improved seed and other new technologies (53.8%) to gain greater knowledge of and control over their environment and build more productive, and sustainable bean seed systems.The common indicators used were possession of household assets (hoes; livestock; clothes; bicycle); land and type of house (built with burnt bricks; roofed with iron sheets versus grass thatched). Based on these indicators the majority of the study households (50.4%) were poor.Results showed that on average farmers realised below 900 kg ha -1 from growing local varieties and using their management systems, which is far below potential average yield of improved varieties of 1500 -2500 kg ha -1 under optimal management conditions.The majority of households (90.1%) found it difficult to access seed of improved bean varieties because of limited sources and lack of information on the varieties.The most common means of seed acquisition was farmer to farmer (72.7%), either for free, cash or in kind -exchange for labour or other products.The majority of men (45.9%) preferred varieties with a potential market while women (46.4%) preferred high yielding varieties meeting both consumption and cash needs.It was also learnt that bean production was largely (47.5%) affected by biotic constraints such as pests and diseases.The other constraints were drought, poor soils, and inadequate knowledge in bean production technologies.Farmers in the study area lacked skills and knowledge that could enable them meet expected produce standards for the make markets.The majority of smallholder farmers needed basic training (45.0%) and access to improved seed and other new technologies (53.8%) to gain greater knowledge of and control over their environment and build more productive, and sustainable bean seed systems. The baseline study characterized the existing seed systems; sources of seed; constraints in bean production; means of seed acquisition; and accessibility of improved bean seed.The study population was dominated by poor households.The study revealed that on average, farmers realised 915 kg/ha from growing local varieties. Yield of improved varieties varied from 1500 -2500 kg/ha under optimal management.","tokenCount":"960"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9972f1b9ef2e095d8324dd8ad8841e00","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c3d55cea-bdf7-43d7-898a-0dd0b3ac7e6e/retrieve","id":"-2011921649"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"af605909-76e6-4911-9056-40c08fc5f7f8","pagecount":"4","content":"The CGIAR Initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity (SAPLING) Initiative addresses poverty, malnutrition, and gender inequality in northwest Vietnam's ethnic minority communities through improved smallholder livestock systems. Focused on Mai Son and Phu Yen districts, the initiative includes packages for sustainable productivity, safe consumption, gender equity, competitive value chains, and evidence-based decision-making. Stakeholder engagement in Son La Province initiates implementation. Read moreThe CGIAR Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems, also known as Mitigate+, works to equip key actors with the knowledge, information, and tools they need to make robust evidence-based decisions as they develop policy and implement actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Multi-stakeholder Dialogue on Carbon Markets in Agriculture Workshop on 24-25 August 2023 aimed to identify priorities for inclusive engagement in the carbon market and define the gaps and technical support for the carbon accreditation of Vietnam's rice sector. Read more Factoring externalities in the true cost of food in Vietnam CGIAR Nature Positive Solutions works to create sustainable food systems in Vietnam by assessing the true costs of food production through True Cost Accounting (TCA). The initiative aims to raise awareness about environmental and social impacts, influencing policies and investments for sustainable solutions without escalating food prices. Read moreThe CGIAR One Health Initiative is addressing pork safety in Vietnam's traditional markets, where over 60% of samples are contaminated with Salmonella. Through a randomized trial in 68 markets, vendors received training and a food safety rating program to incentivize better hygiene practices, aiming to improve public health, sales, and market standards. Read more The CGIAR Initiative on One Health, active in seven countries including Vietnam, is conducting research in Lao Cai and Dong Nai provinces to assess zoonotic disease risks in wildlife farming. Findings will inform interventions and enhance public health authorities' capacity. The collaborative research aims to mitigate health risks and improve overall disease management. Read more A civet is kept on farm in Thai Nguyen Province, Vietnam for consumption (photo credit: ILRI/Vu Ngoc Dung). ","tokenCount":"327"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3f56cff5d1f1dd15c2a5476677eed2e2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/92eee885-6eed-422d-b124-fde59586898b/retrieve","id":"449187826"},"keywords":["Singh","A. K.","A. Singh","J. Barb","& A. A. Mahama. (2023). Genetic Variation and Germplasm Usage. In W. P. Suza","& K. R. Lamkey (Eds.)","Crop Improvement. Iowa State University Digital Press Mamo","T.","A. K. Singh.","& A. A. Mahama. (2023). Participatory Plant Breeding and Participatory Variety Selection. In W. P. Suza","& K. R. Lamkey (Eds.)","Crop Improvement. Iowa State University Digital Press"],"sieverID":"6d7f6db3-61fe-450f-be95-d8adf009fd42","pagecount":"165","content":"The Plant Breeding E-Learning in Africa (PBEA) e-modules were originally developed as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Contract No. 24576.Building on Iowa State University's expertise with online plant breeding education, the PBEA e-modules were developed for use in curricula to train African students in the management of crop breeding programs for public, local, and international organizations.A detailed breakdown of this resource's licensing can be found in Back Matter/Detailed Licensing.1: Chapters Protandry/Protogyny 4. Protandry/Protogyny: Cross-pollination is often observed in crop species that show protogyny (i.e., the pistils/stigmas of a plant mature and become receptive before the anthers of that plant) and protandry (i.e., stamens/anthers of a plant develop and the pollen grains mature and are shed before the pistils/stigma of that plant mature and become receptive). Protogyny is typical in cassava (although this crop is not typically seed propagated) (Fig. 6), and it has also been used to make hybrids in pearl millet (Andrews et al., 1993). Sunflower and coconut are examples of crops that display protandry. Mechanical obstructions such as a membrane around the anthers in alfalfa (also called Lucerne) flowers may also limit normal dehiscence of pollen and limit selfpollination. Breeders must understand the reproductive system of the crop they are working on to make knowledgeable decisions about which breeding methods (i.e., crossing techniques, population maintenance, isolation distances, line and population development) are suitable and which type of cultivar (i.e., hybrid, pure-line, synthetic, clone) is appropriate. The modes of pollination and reproduction of some major crops are shown in Table 2. More information on the reproductive systems of crops is found in Allard (1960;pp. 40-41).  Populations Genetically speaking, a population is a group of individuals that share a common gene pool. If all individuals within the population have the same genotype the population is homogeneous; if the individuals have different genotypes the population is heterogeneous. For example, gene A has alleles A and A (assuming a diploid). If a population is homogenous then all individuals are the same; all are A A (homozygous), or all are A A (heterozygous), or all are A A (homozygous). If a population is heterogeneous then some individuals have different genotypes; a combination of A A , A A , and/or A A .The genotype of a population and individuals within a population varies depending on the reproductive system of a species. A natural population of a cross-pollinated species consists of a heterogeneous mixture of individuals some or most of which will be heterozygous (A A ) for individual loci. A natural population of a self-pollinated species will usually also consist of a heterogeneous mixture of individuals, but each individual will be mostly homozygous (A A and/or A A ) at individual loci.Populations of an asexually reproducing species may be homogeneous or heterogeneous and individuals will likely be heterozygous (A A ) at many loci.Some examples of populations are (1) a commercial maize hybrid cultivar (allogamous) which is homogeneous (single cross hybrid) and heterozygous, (2) a commercial soybean pure line cultivar (autogamous) which is homogeneous and homozygous, (3) a commercial maize synthetic cultivar which is heterogeneous and heterozygous, and (4) a commercial potato cultivar (clonal), which is homogeneous and heterozygous.Clonal, synthetic, and hybrid cultivars are heterozygous. Pure-line cultivars are homozygous. Self-pollination is used to achieve homozygosity in an autogamous species. In allogamous species self-pollination is used to develop inbred lines that are used as parents to create hybridsClonal Cultivars: Most commercial crops are propagated through seed. However, a significant number of agriculturally important species are propagated by using plant parts other than seed which include: stem cuttings, suckers, tubers, and stolons (Fig. 7). As the term 'clone' implies, offspring are identical to the mother parent clone plant and are therefore homogenous in the absence of pollination and mutation. Clonal cultivars, although homogenous, are typically heterozygous, therefore 'hybrid vigor' is fixed and maintained, unlike a maize hybrid, which is propagated through seed, and loses hybrid vigor with each generation of selfing or sibmating.The steps to create/develop a clonal cultivar are:1. develop a genetically variable base/source population; 2. evaluate and select superior clones from the population; and 3. multiply the new cultivar for commercial use.Examples of clonal cultivars include: cassava, sweet potato, potato, cacao, and yam. The cultivars of these crops are homogeneous and heterozygous Fig. 1 Homozygous biparental cross to create heterozygous F1 progenyIn the example above (Fig. 1) , both parents were developed by the breeder after undergoing several generations of selfing so that they are homozygous at all loci. The cross between these two unrelated parents produces F progeny that are all uniformly heterozygous (Aa), and F progeny population (all F from this cross) will be homogeneous since each F will be 'Aa' type at this locus.When an F plant is self-pollinated or when two F plants are crossed with each other, F seed is produced. If the parents were homozygous then the F generation is the first generation when the offspring are heterogeneous (i.e., segregating for different parental alleles). The F generation is typically the generation when selection for simple traits begins. Self-pollination of F plants produces F plants, self-pollination of F plants produces F plants, and so on as shown in Fig. 2.Fig. 2 Production of F progeny from a biparental cross by self pollination of the F and F progeny.In cross-pollinated species, 'S ' is used instead of 'F '. The symbol S can be used to describe the progeny from a single cross between two homozygous parents as either:1. Similar to F (in self-pollinated) which indicates that the plant was not derived from self-pollination or 2. Similar to F (in self-pollinated) which indicates that the population is formed by random mating and is therefore heterogeneous and heterozygous Therefore, it is important that the breeder clearly describes what she/he is referring to in a particular situation and then be consistent in usage.Learning Objectives Each organization follows a different standardized system for recording pedigrees. In this section, we will describe the system adapted from Purdy et al (1968) modified and used by wheat breeders at CIMMYT (CGIAR institute). Depending on the crop you work on and where you are employed you may use a modified system.The female parent is designated by listing it first (starting from the left) followed by the male parent (on the right). For example, A is the female parent and B is the male parent in an (A x B) cross. An (A x B) cross can also be written as A/B.If an F (A/B) plant is pollinated with parent C, and the F is used as the female and C as the male, the resulting three-way cross would be designated as A/B//C. Subsequent crosses with parental materials D, E, F, and G used sequentially (all as males) are indicated using a number to record the cross order in the following way: A/B//C/3/D/4/E/5/F/6/G.If the example above is changed to use D & F as female parents, with E and G remaining as males, the cross would be recorded as follows:Step 1: A/B is the first cross,Step 2: A/B//C is the second cross, where A/B is the female.Step 3: D/3/A/B//C is the third cross, with D as female, and A/B//C as male.Step 4: D/3/A/B//C/4/E, with E as male, and the 4-parent cross as the female. NOTE: bold and underline text is for information and instructional purpose only. In writing a pedigree, you will not have to bold text. One will simply write the pedigree as D/3/A/B//C/4/EThe inclusion of \"5/F\" as the female and 6/G as a male completes the pattern.In multiple backcrosses, the sequence of these letters from left to right corresponds to the sequence in which the backcrosses are made. Backcross pedigrees include an asterisk (*) and a number indicating the dosage of the recurrent parent. The asterisk and the number are placed next to the crossing symbol (/) that divides the recurrent and donor parents. The following are examples of pedigree formats involving backcrosses:A is the recurrent parent: A*2/B of the initial cross and has been used as a parent two times. Therefore, A*2/B indicates one backcross or a BC cross. B is the recurrent parent: A/3*B, and has been used as a parent three times. Therefore, A/3*B indicates a BC cross.An example of this system is provided below (using CIMMYT's wheat breeding program).Each BCID begins with a letter designation for the origin of the cross (e.g., CM = crusa Mexicana; Spanish for 'Mexican cross'). This is followed by an indication of the kind of cross (e.g., BW = bread wheat x winter wheat, SS = spring x spring wheat; SW = spring x winter wheat), an abbreviation of the year when the cross was made (e.g., 00 = 2000), an abbreviation of the location where the cross was made (e.g., Y = Yaqui Valley), and finally a sequential number representing the order in which that cross was made within the crossing cycle (e.g., 0124). The table below shows the letter codes used to indicate the locations in Mexico where crosses were made and the different environmental conditions where CIMMYT breeders carry out selection in wheat. Note that more than abbreviations than shown in table are used to describe locations or nurseries. Location codes for other countries were determined by the cooperators/breeders in those countries to ensure that everyone was aware and compliant. Hypothetical examples of BCIDs and selection histories are presented below.Table 2 Examples of BCIDs and selection histories for a simple cross using the pedigree method, the modified pedigree/bulk method, and the selected bulk method.n/a n/a n/aExample 1: BCID = CMBW08Y0199, a single cross was made in Mexico (\"CM\") in 2008 between a bread and winter wheat at location 'Y' and this was cross# 0199 that year. The pedigree method of selection was followed for the development of the genotype. The selection history for this example indicates that in the F , the 35 plant was selected at location \"Y\", and in the F generation this was the 15 plant selected at location \"M\", etc. Finally, in the F the \"0M\" indicates that a single plot was grown at location \"M\" and harvested in bulk (i.e., all plants in the plot were harvested into one bag or packet). This created the genotype CMBW08Y0199-35Y-15M-7Y-5M-12Y-0M. 1.2.4https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111051Example 2: BCID = CMBW08Y0124, a single cross was made in Mexico (\"CM\") in 2008 at location \"Y\", with 0124 designating that this cross was number 0124 in the series of crosses made at that location and year. The selection history reflects that a modified pedigree/bulk selection method was used. In the F the \"81Y\" indicates that this genotype was the 81st individual plant among those selected at location \"Y.\" The F designation of \"010M\" indicates that 10 plants were selected and harvested in bulk from the F progeny row grown at location \"M.\" Seed from the bulked F progeny row was planted at location \"Y\" in the F and 10 plants were selected and harvested in bulk. Similar scheme was used in F . In the F a single plant was selected from this genotype (15th plant) at location \"Y\" and constituted the seed for the next generation. In the F (or more appropriately, F ) all plants in the progeny row at location \"M\" were harvested in bulk, as shown by the designation \"0M\". This created the genotype CMBW08Y0124-81Y-010M-010Y-010M-15Y-0M. Example 3: BCID = CMSS07Y051, which describes that a single cross was made in Mexico (\"CM\") in 2007 at location \"Y\", with 051 designating that this cross was number 051 in the series of crosses made at that location and year. The cross was of type \"SS\", spring wheat x spring wheat. The selection history indicates four generations (F -F ) of selection in which 30 plants were bulked from the progeny row (or plot) for each season at either the \"M\" or \"Y\" locations. In the F generation the genotype selected was the 53rd plant from the bulk plot at the \"Y\" location. In the F a complete plot bulk was harvested at location \"M\". This lead to the creation of the genotype CMSS07Y051-030Y-030M-030Y-53Y-0M.After the BCID, the selection history is presented in which the numbers identify the number of individual plant(s) selected and the letter indicates the location where selection took place and/or under what specific conditions selection was conducted.The zero-letter combinations (e.g., 0Y, 0M, etc.) are reserved for populations harvested in bulk during that generation (i.e., the entire plot was cut and threshed as one unit). A zero followed by a number (e.g., 05…, 010…) and then by a letter indicates that the modified pedigree/bulk selection method was used in which a certain number (e.g., 5 or 10) of selected heads are bulk (0) harvested. The location where the selection was made and, in some cases, the special type of selection performed, is indicated by a letter code.1.3.1 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/1110521.3: Genetic Variation and Germplasm Usage Asheesh Singh; Arti Singh; Jessica Barb; and Anthony A. MahamaThe presence of genetic variation is a key prerequisite for genetic improvement in plant breeding and plays a pivotal role in germplasm usage in breeding programs. Therefore plant breeders and students in plant breeding can benefit immensely from an understanding of sources of genetic variation present, and ways of creating genetic variability where it is limited. The source of genetic material in a breeding program may come from one's own breeding program, a colleague's breeding program with the same or different organizations, or gene banks, among others. Good stewardship needs to be followed by plant breeders to utilize the genetic material.Know processes that create genetic variation Gain an understanding of the concepts of types and origin of genetic variation Become familiar with plant genetic resources and working with variability in hybridizations Know the legal issues with germplasm usage and exchangeCreating Genetic VariabilityNatural selection requires three main processes to function:A. Processes that create genetic variability: gene mutation, recombination, chromosomal segregation, gene flow are some of the ways to create genetic variability. This provides the potential to change the composition of individuals in the population. Mutations are considered random as they are not created to address a \"need\" of the organism. Therefore mutations can be neutral, harmful, or beneficial. Somatic mutations (occurring in the non-reproductive cell) are not useful to genetic variability. Gene flow can be an important source of genetic variation if genes are carried to a population where those genes did not previously exist (Fig 1). As the term implies, random genetic drift is random and uncontrollable. For example, in a population, some individuals may leave more offspring by chance than other individuals. Let us consider a hypothetical situation in a forest where there are 50% each of two tree species. Species A is predominant in the western part of the forest and species B is predominant in the eastern part. If fire destroyed 80% of trees in the western part of the forest, species A will be significantly reduced in number, and so species B will leave more offspring, leading to a genetic drift. It is important to note that preponderance of offspring of species B is due to the chance destruction of species A, and not necessarily because species B is healthier or more productive. Unlike natural selection, genetic drift is neutral to adaptation. In the forest fire example above, if species B had wood properties that made them fire-resistant (remember this is a hypothetical example) then a fire will destroy species A and reduce the number of species A offspring in the next generation compared to species B. Because this trait of fire protection is genetic, after repeated fires, species B will have more off-springs and will evolve due to natural selection. This example can be extended to a crop plant and disease.C. Processes that maintain the product (minimize disturbance).These processes or mechanisms serve to protect the integrity of a population's gene pool. This functions to maintain the genetic identity of the product, for example, due to reproductive isolating mechanisms. Examples of reproductive isolating mechanisms include sterility or failure of mating due to asynchrony (where males flower and shed pollen before the stigma of the females are receptive or vice versa).Fig. 2 Evolution of teosinte to modern maize.Artificial selection describes the deliberate choice of individuals for breeding in each generation and the advancement of select individuals. Directional selection is a form of artificial selection in which phenotypically superior plants are chosen for breeding. Artificial selection has been practiced for thousands of years by humans to make improvements in plant species. For example, artificial selection led to the rise of modern maize from its progenitor, teosinte (Fig. 2). Numerous studies show that teosinte (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis, a grass species) is a progenitor of maize (Zea mays L. ssp. mays). Very small differences in morphology (under genetic control) differentiate maize and teosinte. For example, teosinte has a cupulate fruit case protecting each kernel and the rachis segment (internode) and glume (modified bract) cover the kernel (Fig. 3). The cupule and glume are present in maize but they are significantly reduced in size and therefore do not surround the kernel. In maize, these organs form the cob. Ears of teosinte disarticulate at maturity such that the individual fruit cases become the units of seed dispersal. Ears of maize remain intact at maturity, which allows for easy harvest by humans. In teosinte, each cupulate fruit case holds a single-spikelet (kernel-bearing structure). In teosinte, the cupulate fruit cases are borne in two ranks on opposite sides of the longitudinal axis of the ear. In maize, the cupules are borne in four (or more) ranks.Previous work by George Beadle has shown that primitive maize can be recreated by crossing teosinte and modern maize. While some of the changes between teosinte and maize may have happened naturally, the rest resulted from domestication and artificial selection as these differences made maize suitable for production for humans. Today we continue to improve the yield of maize using directional selection.Learning Objectives 1.3.2 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111052 Fig. 3 (A) A 'Reconstructed' ear of primitive maize (left). This small-eared form of maize was bred by George Beadle by crossing teosinte with Argentine popcorn and then selecting the smallest segregants. (B) Ear of pure teosinte (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis) composed of eight cupulate fruit cases.Artificial selection in genetically heterogeneous populations always leads to a successful outcome (i.e., mean change in population phenotype over generations in the direction of selection). This is true unless a biologically constraining limit is reached. The mean of a trait can be altered in both directions (i.e., an increase or a decrease in a trait's arithmetic mean value) if genetic variability exists in a population.Genetic variation is ESSENTIAL for making progress using artificial selection.Can we change the mean phenotype of a genetically uniform population (or completely inbred genotype) over generations?What will happen if mutations occur in the genetically uniform population? Will the mean phenotype change over generation in the same genetically uniform population (now with mutations)?In 1896, C.G. Hopkins started long-term artificial selection experiments looking at oil (Fig. 4) and protein (Fig. 5) content in maize. The open-pollinated corn cultivar Burr's White was used as the founder population. Four strains were established: Illinois High Oil (IHO), Illinois Low Oil (ILO), Illinois High Protein (IHP), and Illinois Low Protein (ILP) with high and low referring to the direction of the selection. After 48 generations, reverse selection was started in each strain to establish the Reverse High Oil (RHO), Reverse Low Oil (RLO), Reverse High Protein (RHP), and Reverse Low Protein (RLP) strains. After seven generations of selection in RHO, selection was again reversed to create the Switchback High Oil strain (SHO) to study the effect of selection. The effects of selection on oil content ceased (i.e., Generation 85) in the ILO strain when the oil content reached a level that was no longer measurable with the analytical tools used in this experiment. Protein content reached a lower limit after approximately 65 generations, likely due to biological (i.e., physiological) limit in this crop species. An upper limit was not reached for oil content in IHO and SHO indicating that significant genetic variance still existed in these strains even after 100 generations of selection. Figure 6 presents a broad outline of plant breeding process. For a detailed flow chart on breeding process see Simmonds, 1979.The three main phases of the plant breeding process are:1. Germplasm development: Generally one trait is improved at a time. Crossed are made between wild accessions or related species and/or between elite breeding line or cultivar. Considerations on commercial suitability is low or non-existent. The intention of the work is to develop improved parental germplasm, not a cultivar. Genetic conservation and genetic variability is improved. Genebanks are more heavily relied on for parental stock material.2. Cultivar development: Generally several traits are improved simultaneously. The finished product is a genotype or population that has desirable characteristics for release as a cultivar. Crosses are made between elite lines as parents and may include a germplasm line (see above) as one of the parents. In general, both parents are elite lines (See Steps in Cultivar Development). Considerations on commercial suitability are primary. The intention of the work is to develop an improved cultivar to be grown by farmer(s). Breeder will make phenotypic and genotypic selection decisions on multiple traits and in several generations (pure-bred and inbred lines). Wide adaptation and performance testing is done prior to commercialization. 3. Technology Transfer: For germplasm development, there are smaller components of technology transfer for scientists and breeders. For cultivar development, there is a larger component of technology transfer for scientists, breeders, agronomists, pathologists, entomologists, seed merchants, and extension scientists. In the public and private sectors, the same individual may be responsible for germplasm development and cultivar development phases. In other situations, two or more individuals may be engaged in these two phases independently but collaboratively within the same or different teams. Germplasm developers will be more interested in working on one or few traits (to transfer them from unadapted or wild relatives) and would not be as concerned about its overall suitability for a fit into a commercial release market. On the other hand, a cultivar development breeder has to consider the commercial requirements of his/her crop and its overall suitability.In the cultivar development strategies, elements that are common in all programs are:1. Setting objectives 2. Identifying available parents? 3. Creating breeding populations 4. Evaluating and selecting in these population in appropriate environments to meet the objectives 5. Identifying the most suitable genotype for commercial releaseBreeding objectives are based on a mandate (market segment needs), organizational focus, farmer requirement, industry needs, profitability, and sustainability. Objectives need to be clearly defined and based on importance, feasibility and cost-effectiveness. It is not sufficient to set an objective as 'increase yield'. The breeder should put some quantifiable description, such as \"increase yield by x% over check ABC\", where the comparison has to be made head-to-head. Plant breeding is an expensive activity and careful consideration needs to be made prior to setting objectives. The breeding team needs to engage growers, industry, and consumers to decide on objectives. In a large company, this may be done by a different team and the results communicated to the breeder to help her/him define the objectives. A breeder may develop the highest yielding inbred or hybrid parents or population, but without growers' ability to grow it, this product (inbred, hybrid, population) will not be a commercial success. For example, if a very high yielding genotype has poor storability, growers and industry will not accept this genotype. In plant breeding, multiple objectives are generally set and a prioritization made to decide on 'must to have' versus 'nice to have' trait. 'Must to have' are traits that absolutely need to be included in the product (pure line, or hybrid, or OPV) for it to be suitable for commercial release, whereas 'nice to have' are traits, which are not essential but may add value to the product.Pick three crops common to your agro-ecological zone, and list 2-3 traits that are 'must to have' and 'nice to have' for each crop.An important consideration for setting breeding objectives is to identify parents for hybridization that have the necessary traits that the breeder will want in the cultivar to be developed. Sources of parental material will be genotypes or populations from your own program, your colleagues' programs (within or outside of your organization), international breeding centers, and gene banks. We will learn a little more about sources of parental material in the next few sections.After setting of objectives, a breeder will create breeding populations (i.e., create genetic variability) by crossing two or more parents. In crop species with sexual reproduction, generation advancement is generally occurring in parallel with selection for traits as per defined objectives. Once a finished product (genotype) is ready, broader adaptation testing is performed prior to picking the most suitable cultivars for commercialization.In the next section, we will learn about gene banks, which contain accessions that may be useful to a breeder as sources of genetic variability for use in breeding.GeneBanks: Role, Procedures, Acquisition, and StewardshipFor decades, local, regional, and international efforts have been attempting to preserve valuable agrobiodiversity for future generations by setting up collections of genetic resources, called genebanks. Genebanks contain 'landraces' or local varieties of cultivated and non-cultivated wild relatives. This serves to protect and preserve seed diversity as well as provide an accessible source to plant breeders to obtain seed of interest. There are currently about 1,750 institutional crop collections around the world, as well as a number of community-based seed bank initiatives. CGIAR Research Program for Managing and Sustaining Crop Collections is dedicated to maintaining the 706,000 samples of crop, forage, and agroforestry resources held in \"genebanks\" at 15 CGIAR research centers around the world. Species which include cereals, legumes, roots and tubers, trees, and other essential staple crops are stored in CGIAR international collections. All accessions within these collections are for the international public good, available under the terms and conditions negotiated by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.In the USA, the National Plant Germplasm System aids scientists and addresses the need for genetic diversity by: acquiring crop germplasm preserving crop germplasm evaluating crop germplasm documenting crop germplasm distributing crop germplasmFor example, for the USDA's Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), the steps are to search for genotypes that you are interested in and then place an order to receive seed: Access GRIN's Seach Query interface. Access GRIN's Order Form.1.3.4https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111052The breeder should determine which genebank has the collection of material in their crops, proceed to search the genebank and order seed. This process involves numerous paperwork (agreements, seed importing or exporting permits and customs documents) and planning ahead is critical to ensure that you receive seed on time.[Note: Many times it is useful to contact the curator or other scientists at a genebank as they can sometimes help to make suggestions on a specific trait or accession you may be looking to obtain. However, one needs to do their groundwork first.]Natural Variability -The Gene Pool ConceptFor plant breeders, it is very important to be aware of available germplasm resources that will be useful to improve traits. The gene pool concept was proposed by Harlan and de Wet (1971) as an attempt to provide a practical guide to place existing classifications into genetic perspective. This information on the relatedness among crop plants and their relatives could be useful to breeders and geneticists wishing to make crosses among them. It is important to note that the gene pool concept did not attempt to change the taxonomy. Its purpose is to serve as a guide to plan breeding activities.Various genetic resources are assigned to different gene pools of a crop species based on ease of hybridization, i.e., ability to move genes between them. The three major gene pools are: primary, secondary and tertiary. Gene pools are not static but change as more information becomes available or as new technologies become available to manipulate genomes. For example, in their paper soybean was reported not to have a secondary or tertiary gene pool. However, we now consider that 26 perennial Glycine species are in tertiary gene pool and G. tomentella has now been used to transfer genes to G. max (Singh et al. 2014; R.J. Singh, USDA-ARS, IL, personal communication). Therefore breeders need to be aware of what is going on around them with the use of unique genetic material. Species in primary gene pool can be cultivated, landraces, farmer developed or maintained population, ecotypes, and spontaneous races (wild or weedy). Among forms of this gene pool, crossing/gene transfer is easy; hybrids are generally fertile (i.e., no sterility issues) with normal chromosome pairing and gene segregation. Most breeders work exclusively within this gene pool which is also the major source of genetic variation for improvement programs. Remember that most breeding programs that are engaged in developing cultivars for commercial production work on elite material exclusively and would spend very little direct efforts on unadapted or wild relatives (because of undesirable linkage blocks, breaking of desirable linkage block and epistatic interactions with undesirable genes from wild relatives).Crop's secondary gene pool will include species between which gene transfer is possible, but difficult. Hybrids tend to be sterile; chromosomes pair poorly during meiosis; F plants are weak and develop to maturity with difficult; because of some sterility in F 's , recovery of desired types in advanced generations is generally difficult. The secondary gene pool includes related species within the same genus, although all species within a genus won't be in the secondary gene pool and it is also possible that species outside the genus can be in this gene pool.Gene transfer between a crop and a species in its tertiary gene pool is very difficult (will require embryo rescue, chromosome doubling, bridging species to obtain hybrids). This gene pool includes distant relatives in other genera or distantly related species within the same species. Hybrid sterility is common, although chromosome doubling may restore fertility by providing homologues for each chromosome. The boundaries of this group are poorly defined and shift as new hybridization techniques are developed.A bridging species is a third species that facilitates exchange of germplasm between the other crop species and tertiary gene pool species by developing complex hybrids. In their paper, Harlan and de Wet (1971) described a classic example of the use of bridging species where there was an interest to cross Elymus x Triticum. As expected, hybrid seed could not be obtained. When embryo rescue was used, very few hybrids were obtained and even then these were sterile. However, these researchers found out that if they used Agropyron x Triticum derivative as female parent and then crossed the hybrid to Elymus, introgression of Elymus alleles was possible without need for special technique (See Harlan and de Wet, 1971).Wide Hybridization or Interspecific/Intergenetic Hybridization 'Wide cross' refers to crossing that involves individuals outside of cultivated species. This typically involves the secondary and/or tertiary gene pools. Even though it is difficult, it may be useful to transfer vitally important traits, including disease resistance, or other traits simply not found in cultivated genotypes. Many examples exist in wheat and rice.Example 1: In wheat, the T1BL.1RS wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) -rye (Secale cereal L.) has been of particular interest and was widely used in bread wheat breeding programs worldwide. At one point, it was estimated that several million hectares of wheat were planted to cultivars possessing this translocation (tertiary gene pool: rye to wheat crop). This segment had disease resistance cluster for leaf rust, stem rust, stripe rust and powdery mildew, all of which are important diseases of wheat. Additionally, this segment was reported to possess genetic factors that improved grain yield and kernel weight. Resistance to specific genes in the translocation segment have been overcome in some parts of the world, which shows the continual nature of plant breeding where better genetic packages (cultivars) need to be developed.      Novel genes are produced by several methods, commonly through the duplication and mutation (Fig. 8) of an ancestral gene, or by recombining parts of different genes to form new combinations with new functions. Lethal mutations do not carry their germline forward, however, nonlethal mutations accumulate within the gene pool and increase the amount of genetic variation. The abundance of some genetic changes within the gene pool can be reduced by natural selection, while other \"more favorable\" mutations may accumulate and result in adaptive changes. A germline mutation gives rise to a constitutional mutation in the offspring, that is, a mutation that is present in every cell. Deletions lead to loss of gene(s) and duplication can lead to an additive effect due to added gene(s). In inversion, linkage block changes occur and other genes in close proximity will co-segregate. In insertion and translocation, a gene moves to a new chromosome, and can have similar effect as duplication.[Note: Mutations can be subdivided into germ line mutations, which are passed on to descendants through their reproductive cells, and somatic mutations, which involve non-reproductive system cells and are therefore not usually transmitted to descendants].Quality Protein Maize (QPM). Maize endosperm protein is deficient in two essential amino acids, lysine and tryptophan. The opaque 2 mutant gene, together with endosperm and amino acid modifier genes, was used for the development of QPM varieties. Compared to regular maize, QPM has about twice as much lysine and tryptophan, and 30% less leucine, which makes it suitable and useful for human and animal nutrition. QPM varieties are now estimated to be grown on millions of hectares. The high protein content and better amino acid profile is achieved by \"opaque-2\" single gene mutation. In the early 1960s, a mutant maize with similar total protein content but double the amount of lysine and tryptophan was developed. Subsequent conventional breeding efforts generated numerous cultivars with improved agronomic characteristics, and these were referred to as QPM. Dr. Evangelina Villegas and Dr. Surinder Vasal were awarded the 'World Food Prize' in 2000 for their work on development and advancement of QPM cultivars in the world.If the goal of mutation breeding is to alter only a single trait, the plant breeder needs to be aware that other regions of the genome (i.e., other genes) may have been mutated and also that, that one change may alter other aspects of the plant. Hence extensive agronomic testing of that single mutant is required prior to commercialization or extensive use as a parent in the breeding program.Traditionally, chemical or physical agents were used to induce mutations in crop genomes, and included radiation (X-rays, gamma rays, fast neutrons, etc.), chemicals such as ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) and others. These mutagens can disrupt chromosomes, causing deletions, insertions, breakage, etc., and will create genetic variation. Major disadvantage of this approach is the non-targeted mutation events. After receiving your M seed (one has to send several thousand seed of the same cultivar) plant breeder has to increase the generation to achieve homozygosity (mutant allele will segregated initially) and constantly phenotype for the traits of interest. This can be very resource intensive depending on the cost to phenotype the trait of interest (field for morphological trait or lab for quality trait or chemical component). At low doses, chromosomal changes are not as dramatic (it is desirable not to use high doses as major chromosomal aberrations and lethality can occur) and the mutation frequency is low, therefore warranting large population sizes to be screened. This leads to high expenses to phenotype and sometimes very difficult to identify a target mutant event.Some of the newer approaches include, space light ion irradiation, use of restriction endonucleases, Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas-based RNA-guided DNA endonucleases. These techniques lead to genetic modifications by inducing DNA double-strand breaks that stimulate error-prone nonhomologous end joining or homology-directed repair at specific genomic locations leading to site targeted mutation. 1.3.6 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111052The procedure to create a mutant population is briefly as following: Seed (M ) of an inbred (homozygous, homogenous) genotype is subjected to treatment (chemical, physical, etc). The treated seed are then grown and plants grown from these seeds (treated with a mutagen) form the M population (where M stands for Mutant and '1' refers to first the generation in development similar to the concept of filial generation we learned in previous chapter). It is important to realize that although we started from an inbred line, after seed treatment the resultant M generation will consist of plants that are heterogeneous, as each M plant may have different mutation (or several mutations) in its genome. Each plant will also be heterozygous (or hemizygous) at numerous loci. This would mean that M is similar to an F developed from noninbred parents. The step includes, self-fertilization of the M plants to develop the M generation. This will allow the recessive mutants to be made homozygous in order to produce observable phenotypes. Identifying mutants generally requires large populations of M plants. Other considerations are size of M and M family to recover the mutant type, ploidy level, genetically effective cell (GEC) present in germline (these are those cells of the germline that contribute towards formation of gametes and so to offspring), frequency of chimeras. After several M generations, mutant phenotype is confirmed and established as stable (non-segregating). Mutant line then can be used in a forward or backcrossing program to transfer the favorable mutant to elite cultivars using multiple but separate crosses to ensure recovery of the elite phenotype together with the mutant trait.Transgenic technology involves the transfer of cloned genes via transformation or particle bombardment so that the transformed plant expresses the foreign gene. Theoretically, the genes can come from virtually any living organism -from within the same primary gene pool to beyond the tertiary gene pool. Over the past few years, mainly only single genes have been transferred, such as herbicide tolerance in various crops, or corn borer resistance in corn.Creating Breeding Populations -Types of CrossesOnce objectives are set and the breeder has done background investigation to pick the parents that possess the traits that will help meet the objectives, she/he will move to the next step in plant breeding process, which is to develop breeding populations. While some breeding population may start from landraces, most populations will be made by making planned hybridizations (crosses). The primary purpose of crossing is to expand genetic variability by bringing together genes from the parents in the cross to produce offspring that contain genes that will help meet the objectives. Sometimes, multiple crosses are made to generate the variability in the base population to begin the selection process in the program. In most self and cross pollinated species where the product is an inbred line or a hybrid, single crosses are made, while complex crosses are made in population improvement schemes. Parents are selected to have the maximum number of desirable traits and minimize undesirable traits (what is generally called an 'elite by elite' cross). This way, recombinants that possess both sets of desirable traits will occur in significant numbers in the F , the generation of maximum variability (in self-pollinating and inbred line development programs). Several factors will impact the population size include number of genes differing among parents in a cross, number of alleles per locus, and linkage of the gene loci.1. Single cross. This is attempted when a breeder is making a cross between two elite lines. (Line A x Line B).2. Three-way cross. If two lines are not sufficient to bring together all the necessary traits to meet the objectives, multiple cross with three parents can be used to provide an opportunity to obtain recombinants with all the desirable traits. Three way cross is (Line A x Line B) x Line C. If cultivar development is targeted in a three way cross, the third parent 'Line C' in our example, should be an elite and adapted genotype to get at least 50% of favorable genetics. the number of entries) excluding reciprocal crosses where the female/male order is reversed. For example, where n equals 9, 36 crosses will be made.This method requires making a large number of crosses and it is more suitable for cross-pollinated species. This method is generally used for genetic studies and not for population development. Sometimes, a partial diallel is used in which only certain parent combinations are made. For n equals 9 example, not all 9 parents will be used in crosses. 5. Back cross. The primary goal of this crossing method is to incorporate a specific trait (from a donor parent) into an existing elite cultivar (referred to as recurrent parent in back crossing). The donor parent has one trait that a breeder desires to include into an elite cultivar, which is considered to possess all necessary traits except this one trait. The resultant product (after successive crossings to recurrent parent) is a cultivar that is similar to the recurrent parent with the additional trait from the donor parent. This methods is more efficient if the interest is to improve a current popular cultivar which has an obvious deficiency. Molecular markers have improved the efficiency and reduced the time to develop cultivars through backcrossing. Seed or plant part material transfer agreement (MTA) is an agreement that allows for transfer of seed or plant part without transfer of title. The agreement is between the provider (one who provides seed) and the recipient (one who receives seed). Provider maintains ownership of the seed transferred at all times during the agreement dates and beyond. Transferred seed is received and used by the recipient according to the terms listed in the legally binding contract. In the agreement, the provider may impose conditions of audit or term bound reports on the usage of material and the recipient has to bind to these conditions. When a plant breeder makes request for seed, she/he will work with their organizational designate in the office of intellectual Property and Commercialization or the office that manages Intellectual Property (IP) and Technology Transfer. Similarly, the plant breeder should discuss with the same office when she/he receives a request for seed/plant part and should NEVER give out material without going through proper steps. MTA is signed by the sending breeder and his/her organizational representative, as well as recipient breeder and his/her organizational representative. Plant breeder or researcher utilizing the material (i.e., seed/plant part) is ultimately responsible for fulfilling the obligations of the MTA and therefore has to follow the regulations. Remember: MTA is a legal document.Introduction: short text on the type of material or purpose Parties: describes the sender and recipient and their organizational affiliations Definitions: describes scientific terms such as material (seed and genotype etc.) Description of use of the materials: conditions on what can and cannot be done using the material Confidential information: lists any specific confidentiality clauses Intellectual Property rights: this is where licensing, royalties, inventions conditions are listedInternational Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and AgricultureThe Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) is a mandatory model for parties wishing to provide and receive material under the Multilateral System. It is the result of lengthy negotiations among the Contracting Parties to the Treaty and may not be varied or abbreviated in any way. However, as a template, it contains some paragraphs and sections that need to be completed for each use.The material transfer agreements that use the standard template are private agreements between the particular providers and recipients, but the Governing Body, through FAO as the Third Party Beneficiary, is recognized as having an interest in the agreements. The standard template has been developed to ensure that the provisions of the Treaty regarding the transfer of PGRFA under the Multilateral System are enforceable on users.\"\"Farmers' Rights: In its Article 9, the International Treaty recognizes the enormous contribution that the local and indigenous communities and farmers of all regions of the world, particularly those in the centers of origin and crop diversity, have made and will continue to make for the conservation and development of plant genetic resources which constitute the basis of food and agriculture production throughout the world. It gives governments the responsibility for implementing Farmers' Rights, and lists measures that could be taken to protect and promote these rights:The protection of traditional knowledge relevant to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture;The right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilization of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; andThe right to participate in making decisions, at the national level, on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.The International Treaty also recognizes the importance of supporting the efforts of farmers and local and indigenous communities in the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, including through a funding strategy. In this strategy, priority will be given to the implementation of agreed plans and programs for farmers in developing countries, especially in the least developed countries, and in countries with economies in transition, who conserve and sustainably utilize plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.\"It is important that breeders realize that if an MTA was signed to send or receive seed, it is a legal document and they are legally bound to follow the conditions.Uses of germplasm: Methods to use germplasm in breeding programs include direct release as cultivars [less likely in species with breeding efforts, more likely in orphan crops where some selection may be done on a plant introduction or landrace prior to release as a cultivar]. The second and more appropriate use of germplasm is for introgression of single-gene traits from the wild species or unadapted germplasm into the elite cultivars.1.4: Refresher on Population and Quantitative Genetics Asheesh Singh and Anthony A. MahamaThe presence of genetic variation is a key prerequisite for genetic improvement in plant breeding. Creation of breeding populations with sufficient variability among individuals is key to success of breeding programs. Behind the visual variability in populations are underlying genetic variations and interactions, the understanding of which the plant breeders and students in plant breeding can benefit from to ensure successful use of the sources of genetic variation and their manipulation to maximize improvement of programs.Demonstrate understanding of the different populations in plant breeding Distinguish between qualitative and quantitative traits important in plant breeding Demonstrate understanding of the concept of variability, phenotype, genotype, and genotype x environment interactions Describe the concept of heritability and its importance in plant breeding Discuss selection theory and response to selection (breeder's equation) Distinguish between specific versus general combining ability and their calculations Describe the concept of heterosis and write the equation for estimating heterosisPopulation genetics deals with the prediction and description of the genetic structure of populations as it relates to Mendel's laws and other genetic principles. Fundamentals of population genetics were developed for natural outcrossing species, but it is important to note that plant breeders utilize population genetic theories because the breeding methods they use are designed to increase the frequency (proportion) of desirable alleles in the population.The difference between population and Mendelian genetics is that population genetics principles are applied to the total products of all matings that will occur in the population, not just to one specific mating (as is the case with Mendelian genetics).Population refers to any group of individuals sharing a common gene pool.Gene pool refers to the sum total of all genes present in a population.Simple populations consist of two to four parents. The simplest type of population is created by developing a segregating population from a cross of two elite lines, i.e. a two-way cross population. An F generation can be produced by self-fertilizing the F . F and higher filial generations are developed (and selections made in these populations) in commercial breeding programs of self-fertilizing crops (such as wheat, rice, and soybean). In many cross-pollinated crops like maize, the commercially marketed products are single cross hybrids (F ) from inbred parents developed following generations of selection and selfing.Another type of segregating population is a backcross population, which can be made from the F by crossing it to one of the parents, producing a BC F , which can be selfed to form a segregating population. The backcross population is particularly useful if one parent is superior to the other in most traits and the objective is to combine one or two genes from unadapted (or overall undesirable) parent into an elite line. Each backcross F seed will be heterogeneous and therefore phenotypic testing or marker-assisted selection will be required to select the desirable plant to use in subsequent backcrossing to fix or enrich for favorable genes.A cross involves two parents (Fig. 1), for example the crossing of two elite lines for F 's from which an F population can be produced by self-fertilizing the F . Parent 'A' and 'B' contribute 50% each (genetically)Fig. 1 Single cross between two parents for F1 progeny.Crossing the single cross F to a third parent (inbred line) and self-pollinating the resulting three-way hybrid creates a three way cross population (Fig. 2). The generation resulting from the selffertilization is generally called the F population. Note that the third parent contributes 50% of the alleles to the final population therefore should generally always be one of the best parents. A three way cross is useful if one of the parents is less desirable and one or two are more desirable. A double cross or four-parent cross population can be produced by crossing two single cross F hybrids, each formed from two inbred lines (Fig. 3). Each of the resulting individuals in the double cross generation will be genetically distinct.Learning Objectiveshttps://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111053 Some of the reasons to use complex populations include: developing good information for parents and full-sib families, identification of heterotic groups, estimation of general and/or specific combining ability, develop estimates of additive, dominant, and epistatic genetic effects and genetic correlations. Complex populations deriving from more than four parents can be constructed in several ways:A North Carolina Design I (nested design) involves mating of each of the male parents to a different subset of female parents as shown in Table 1. A North Carolina Design II (factorial design), Table 2, involves mating each member of a group of males (A, B, C, D) to each member of the group of females (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8).Table 2 Mating of four male parents each to eight female parents in a factorial design.n/aMale Parent (♂)Table 2 Mating of four male parents each to eight female parents in a factorial design.n/aMale Parent (♂)Note: X means \"cross\". n/a means cell is blank.A diallel refers to a crossing scheme in which all pairwise crosses among the parents are made as a series of single crosses (Table 3). Diallels can be \"complete,\" in which crosses are made in both directions i.e., including reciprocal crosses, as well as self-pollinations of parents. In other words, each parent is mated with every parent in the population (including selfs and reciprocals).Table 3 Mating of a group of eight individuals each crossed to every other individual both as male parent and female parent, and also self-pollinated. Female Parent (♀)Note: X means \"cross\". n/a means cell is blank.From a breeding standpoint, selfs do not contribute any interesting recombination if the parents are inbred, and because crosses in different directions are functionally the same in terms of recombination in later generations (unless there are maternal and paternal effects), the complete diallel is usually used only as a research tool. In the example given above, Parent 1 will be selfed, as well as used as male and as female in crosses with the other parents, e.g. parent 2, thus doubling the number of crosses with parent 2, i.e. 1 x 2 and 2 x 1.In a half-diallel cross, each parent is mated with every other parent in the population excluding selfs and reciprocals (Table 4). Note: X means \"cross\". n/a means cell is blank.Partial diallel refers to a crossing scheme in which only selected subsets of full diallel crosses are made (Table 5). A partial diallel could be made among a large number of parents, followed by a diallel among the single crosses, allowing for sampling more recombination events among favorable parents. This would allow incorporation of a diversity of germplasm without having to make a massive number of crosses. Female Parent (♀)Note: X means \"cross\". n/a means cell is blank.Practically making crosses for a diallel (or other methods of population formation) in the field requires careful planting arrangements. There are several things to consider: such as flowering time, length of time pollen and stigma will be viable, and susceptibility to drought or pest. From a planting perspective in the field, the considerations are: (1) physical distance between parents, i.e., distance between rows or plants (how close do you want to have each of the two parents you are crossing), such as side-by-side or not; and (2) how much land area is available for the population development. Planting arrangements vary from unpaired parents, in which parents are not very close to each other but less land is required for example circular crossing (aka, chain crossing), in which parents are crossed in pairs sequentially, A x B, B x C, etc., with the final parent crossed back to A.; or paired parents, in which all parents to be crossed are grown in adjacent rows, however, a large area is required for crossing nursery.Polycrosses are used to intercross a number of selected plants. Polycrosses are primarily used for cross-pollinating crop species allowing natural conditions (e.g., wind or insects) to make the crosses. Thus, the pollen for a polycross comes from the population of selected (or unselected ) individuals as pollen parent source, and no control on the success of any particular parental pairing is known. Some plants will undoubtedly produce more pollen than others, thereby resulting in a higher percentage of pollinations than others. In a clonal crop, parent genotypes may be replicated in a manner to ensure each genotype is adjacent or surrounded by all other genotypes to provide equal frequencies of crossing among all genotypes. If sufficient land is available and not too many entries are included in the crossing, a Latin Square arrangement (each parent is present in each row and each column of the design) is a good way to enhance the equal chance of pollination among the genotypes. Another option will be a randomized complete block design if the number of parents is large. A higher number of replications are planted (two or more); however, each parental genotype will not be surrounded by all other genotypes in equal frequency therefore non-random and unequal mating occurs. A number of other aspects need to be considered for successful intercrossing which include flowering time, wind effects, and insect pollinator activity. Flowering time needs to be similar among the parents to prevent certain parents intercross more frequently (due to overlapping flowering time) than they should by random chance. For polycrosses done in the greenhouse by hand (e.g., in alfalfa), flowering can be controlled more easily than in a field planting and this is something breeders can consider using, resource permitting. If a breeder is relying on wind pollination, the dominant direction of the prevailing wind will affect pollination and lead to a non-random pollination.For insect-pollinated crops, placing bee hives near the field is often done to ensure successful pollination.1.4.4https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111053To ensure harvested seed of the polycross is representative of seed from random and equal pollinations (which is what is intended) three major procedures exist for harvest:1. Bulk harvest the entire plot. This is the easiest method but will result in unequal contributions by both paternal and maternal parents to the population because maternal or paternal parent that produces more seed will represent a higher proportion of seed in the lot. 2. If replications were used in the crossing design, bulk each parental genotype's seed across all the replications. Composite equal amounts of seed from each parent to make the population. This is the most commonly used method but there is an element of unequal contribution. Different clones (or inbred or doubled haploid) of the same parental genotype may not produce the same amount of seed, so this method will skew the population toward the pollen parents surrounding the highest yielding maternal clone. 3. One method that will overcome the problem listed in #2 above is to composite an equal amount of seed from each clone in the polycross -that is, equal amounts from each parental genotype in each replication. This method provides the most balanced contribution to the population possible. If there is a replication that didn't perform to provide the minimum seed, some adjustments (in either among sample per replication or pulling more from other reps for that genotype) will be needed, leading to some un-equal contribution.Qualitative traits are traits that are generally controlled by a single or few genes, the expression of which have phenotype that can be classified into distinct categories. These traits are generally not influenced by environment and are recorded/scored as presence versus absence, or yes versus no, different color, seed shape type, etc. Examples include the presence of awns in wheat (awned versus awnless), flower color (purple versus white), round versus wrinkled seed (Mendel's garden pea experiment). These traits will be in the 'yes versus no' classification and their expression will be the same irrespective of the environment the plants are grown, that is, genotypes with round seed will produce round seed in all environments.Quantitative traits are controlled by several genes, whose expression produce a phenotype that cannot be classified into distinct categories, i.e., there will be a continuum of phenotypes. These traits are influenced by the environment, such that the same genotype will produce different phenotypes in different environments. Examples of such traits are yield, protein %, oil %, and seed weight.Traits such as plant height are described as qualitative because they can be classified as short versus tall. However, it is important to note that plant height can occur across a range of values (cm) meaning that these are not innate categories and most appropriate measurement is on a numerical scale, which makes plant height a quantitative trait from a trait measurement perspective. In most crops, several plant height genes have been identified, again validating that plant height is not a truly qualitative trait.Disease resistance can be qualitative or quantitative, and this distinction between them will be driven by genetic control, influence of environment, and phenotypic expression. Most traits that a plant breeder works to improve are quantitative.Expression of genes can be described as additive or non-additive (dominance or epistatic).A gene acts in an additive manner when the substitution of one allele for another allele at a particular gene locus always causes the same effect. For example, A1A1 -A1A2 = A1A2 -A2A2 Fig. 4 Linear regression with common slope between genotypes to describe the additive effects.That is, for this case, the effect of substituting A1 for A2 is the same whether the substitution occurs in genotype A2A2 or in genotype A1A2 (Fig. 4, Table 1). Thus the effect of substituting an A1 allele with an A2 allele is +4.As shown in Table 7, if we assume genotypic values at 'B' locus as: then, as shown in Table 8, the effect of substituting allele B1 for B2 is +1, indicating an additive effect. When a gene acts additively, the maximum trait expression will occur in the genotype which possesses all the \"favorable\" alleles.Non-additive gene action results from the effects of dominance (intra-locus interactions, i.e. A1/A2) and/or the effects of epistasis (inter-locus interactions, i.e. A1/B1 or A2/B2).Dominance effects are deviations from additivity, therefore A1A1 -A1A2 ≠ A1A2 -A2A2. This deviation results in the heterozygote being similar to one of the parents rather than the mean of the homozygotes (Table 9). Note that A1A2 can take different values, and that genotypic values are hypothetical for the purpose of explaining the concept here.Non-Linear Regression  If we consider a hypothetical example of two gene loci (no linkage), the proportions of F genotypes are as shown in Table 10. Let's assume genotypic value as:Also assume complete dominance at A and B loci. Then, the genotypic values are as shown in Table 11. If a breeder makes selections based only on phenotype, she/he will select plants that have the following genotypes (A1A1B1B1, A1A1B1B2, A1A2B1B1, and A1A2B1B2) in the proportions listed below (with the assumption of independent assortment at the A and B loci). A1A1B1B1 = 1/16 of the total population, A1A1B1B2 = 2/16 of the total population, A1A2B1B1 = 2/16 of the total population, A1A2B1B2 = 4/16 of the total population, In this case, the breeder is not able to distinguish between homozygous and heterozygous individuals of the four genotypes above as they have similar phenotypes.Therefore, if a breeder only wanted homozygous dominant (A1A1B1B1) plants and they only used phenotype to make their selection, they will end up selecting 9 out of 16 plants; however, only 1 out of 16 plants should have been selected.In a self-pollinated species where a cultivar is an inbred line, non-additive gene effects can rarely be fixed, and therefore, selection response is unpredictable when a trait is controlled by genes acting in a non-additive manner. In a cross-pollinated species where hybrid cultivars are used, non-additive gene effects, especially dominance effects, are important.In the example below (Table 7; Fig. 6), we will look at a hypothetical case of two genes controlling plant height to demonstrate epistatic effects (i.e., the interaction of genes at different loci).Assume that 'A' and 'B' loci both affect plant height (shown in cm in Table 12). Epistatic interactions can be additive*additive, dominance*dominance or additive*dominance, or a higher order for three loci or more. These interactions are important for most traits as these interactions are common.If you received a seed lot that had variable seed size, you can select for small and large seed types and grow these seed as individual plants. Each individual plant can be harvested separately and a unique ID given to each row of plants of these individual plants. If you grew each row and measured seed size, what will you expect to find among and within lines in the progeny generation if the original seed lot consisted of a homogenous mixture of purelines (true breeding = homozygous)?Johanssen, in 1903, conducted an experiment in beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), a highly self-pollinated species, to study the effect of selection for seed weight using a seed lot from the cultivar 'Princess'. His experiments showed that: a) selection for seed weight was effective in the original unselected population (i.e., lines selected for differences in seed weight showed consistent differences in seed weight in subsequent generations; large seeded parents produced large seeded progeny and small seeded parents produced small seeded progeny), and b) selection within a line was not effective (i.e., irrespective of whether the parent was small or large seeded, all of the progeny of the selected seed always showed the average seed weight typical of the parent line).Johanssen concluded from this experiment that the original seed lot was composed of a mixture of different genotypes/purelines (that were each homozygous for genes controlling seed weight), and even when the progeny of a seed lot differed phenotypically, each seed of that line possessed the same genotype for seed weight.Mathematically, the phenotypic value for an individual (i.e., a single seed in Johanssen's experiment) in a population is equal to its genotypic value plus an environmental (non-genetic) deviation:where: P = phenotype (observed seed weight) G = genotype (genetic potential for seed weight) E = environment (environmental effects, i.e., factors determining the extent to which genetic potential is reached)For a population of seed, the phenotypic variability is represented mathematically by the equation below:where: V = phenotypic variability (total variability observed) V = genotypic variability (variability due to genetic cause) V = environmental variability (variability due to environmental causes) Genetic variability is heritable, i.e., variability that can be manipulated by plant breeders and transmitted to progeny. The presence of genetic variability (as we saw earlier) is ESSENTIAL for selection to be effective.Environmental variability is not heritable and it can mask the true expression of a trait.If we assume that the mean value of \"E\" for all individuals across the population is zero, then the mean phenotypic value equals the mean genotypic value. Thus, the population mean is both the phenotypic and genotypic value. To prove this, consider a theoretical experiment using replicated genotypes -either as clones or as inbred lines -and measure them under \"normal\" environmental conditions. The mean \"E\" will be zero across the population, so that the mean phenotypic value would equal the mean genotypic value.However, in reality, plant breeders deal with segregating populations that are not genetically uniform when they are selecting. So let's explore the types of gene actions and their importance to breeding.Phenotype, Genotype, Environment, and Genotype X Environment InteractionsPhenotype is governed by Genotype ( ), and Genotype × Environment interactions ( ). Not all variation for a phenotype is accounted for by Genotype and GxE interaction with the remaining variation attributed to error. Any trait that you observe for a plant, a plant family, or population is a phenotype. Genotype is the genetic basis of a trait (e.g., gene or gene × gene interactions). GxE interaction is the interaction of genotype with environment, where each genotype may perform or look different in different environments. The environment of a single plant consists of all things other than the genotype of the individual.The environment includes differences in soil, temperature, humidity, rainfall, day length, solar radiation, wind, salinity, pathogens, pests, etc.https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111053Environment can be micro-environment or macro-environment. A micro-environment refers to a unique set of factors that alter the development of a single plant. Groups of plants growing at the same time in the same space each encountering similar micro-environment are classed under experiencing a macro-environment (i.e. a class of micro-environments). For example, if a field of beans is exposed to excessive moisture stress (i.e., water logging), individual plants may suffer slightly different levels of water logging (micro-envirionment), but all plants would suffer some degree of water logging (macro-environment). This beans field's macro-environment will be described as water logged. In breeding, we are more interested in the macro-environments and these are classified as location or year, or a combination of location x year, or simply environment.To describe the phenotypic value of a genotype in terms of microenvironment and macro-environment, let's consider the equation below:where: = effect of the genotype = effect of the macro-environment = effect of interaction between genotype and macro-environment = residual composed of deviation of the micro-environment from the mean of such effects in the macro-environment , and deviation of the interaction from the mean of interactions.Assume two genotypes are tested at two locations. On the y-axis, we present yield/ha, and the x-axis is environment (i.e., locations). Figs. 7, 8, and 9 show different types of GxE interaction:Crossover interaction is the most important type of genotype x environment interaction because different genotypes will be selected in different environments. Crossover interactions are often due to differences in how genotypes respond to different environments. For example in Figure 6, let's consider that environment 1 is disease free, while pathogen 'A' is present in environment 2. Genotype 2 is a high yielding, disease susceptible genotype and genotype 1 is a lower yielding, disease resistant genotype. Genotype 2 will yield higher in environment 1, while genotype 1 will yield higher in disease prevalent environment 2. The goal of a breeder should be to combine the better response to both environments into a single genotype. However, a breeder needs to first determine if yield and disease resistance are mutually exclusive. For example, it's possible that the gene for disease resistance could be linked to gene(s) that reduce yield. In this case, a breeder would need to grow a large segregating population to identify progeny with useful recombination that combines high yield and disease resistance. If however, a single pleiotropic gene controls both disease resistance and yield, a breeder can only improve both traits by complementation (i.e., the building or bringing together of other useful genes to improve the responses).1. Breeders working at international institutions (CGIAR institutes such as CIMMYT, ICARDA, IRRI, and CIAT) have a mandate of a wider adaptation, while a provincial or state breeding institute's mandate will be more localized (specific area, perhaps one macro-environment). CGIAR breeders often utilize many (more than 20) diverse locations to identify cultivars with wider adaptation, while breeders at a state breeding institute use fewer environments that are representative of one or two macro-environments. 2. If the mandate of the program is to develop cultivars for specific purposes (i.e., disease resistance, stress tolerance, or quality traits), then the testing sites need to be selected by breeders for this objective. For example, malt barley has a very specific crop quality requirement. Stable performance on quality (malt quality for consistent and high quality and better taste for beer-making) is a must and breeders will discard cultivars if they show specific adaptation for malt quality, i.e., only very specific sites produce good malt. 3. Resource allocation: A breeder should be aware of the relative importance (i.e., magnitude) of G × Location, G × Year, and G × Location × Year interactions in order to appropriately allocate resources for cultivar testing. This information will help a breeder decide on how many locations and years should be used for testing materials. 4. While we have not discussed different stability analysis methods, these methods (such as AMMI type analysis) will help to determine which environments are more similar to each other. Each mega-environment will consist of several individual locations or sites. Within a mega-environment, the genotypes perform more similarly compared to genotypes in different mega-environments.In other words there is little or no G×E interaction among environments within a mega-environment. In such a scenario, breeders will gain little by testing in more similar environments, and should aim to test across dissimilar environments to test for stable performance of genotypes in a range of environments. Breeders should therefore aim to sample one or more locations from each mega-environment (or testing zone). Environmental parameters such as rainfall, soil type, pH, etc., may also be a good way to cluster environments. If there are larger agro-ecological regions that grow predominantly a single cultivar and you as a breeder are targeting for that region, the cultivar acreage map may also serve as a good source to identify mega-environments to develop a better yielding alternative to that large acreage cultivar. Another useful exercise is to perform genetic correlations (genotype means analysis) to see if the correlations are high or low. High correlation will mean that predictive ability of those environments is similar and a breeder does not gain as much information on stability as he/she would gain by testing in environments with lower correlation among genotype means. 5. If G×E cannot be measured (due to lack of resources to have more than one site), a breeder should still consider putting that test in two dissimilar conditions, for example dryland versus irrigated nurseries.The site where you grow your trials may have seasonal patterns, such as cycles of drought at seedling stage, heat stress at flowering stage, and years with no apparent stress. It is advisable to keep track of this information (through the use of long term checks that have known and consistent response to these stresses and weather parameters) and use this site for selection to improve tolerance for these factors. If you are breeding for another trait, say salinity tolerance, a new site more appropriate for screening of this trait will be required.Factors to consider in the selection of testing site include the following:1. Good correlation with the performance in farmer growing conditions. 2. Ability to handle different tests (infrastructure) and ability to respond to mitigate threats (such as an ability to irrigate if needed to avoid impact of water deficit on response to the selected treatment). 3. Low environmental error, i.e., higher heritability to differentiate 'keeps' (i.e., desirables) from discards. 4. Infrastructure to implement breeding decisions of timely planting, maintenance, harvest, processing etc.As we previously covered, the debate on wide versus specific adaptation is still ongoing among breeders and really boils down to: the mandate of the program target region, and farmers.  Ultimately, breeders need to remember that their job is to ensure that the product (cultivar) that reaches farmers can help them to make a profit, and that it meets the requirement of end-user (e.g. the processing industry) who buys from farmers.If you, a breeder, produce the highest yielding cultivar but it lacks the necessary quality or protection against biotic or abiotic stress, farmers will not grow this variety. Therefore, always think of the cultivar you develop as a \"package\". A package needs to have all the ingredients that will make it ready to be adopted by farmers as well as the processing industry.Definition: Heritability can be defined as the degree to which the characteristics of a plant are repeated in its progeny. Mathematically, we have seen already that it is the proportion of total variability for a character due to genetic causes.Further theoretical information can be obtained here.Broad sense heritability:Narrow sense heritability:where: is total genotypic variance and is the additive component of the genotypic variance.Narrow sense heritability is more valuable since it indicates how much of the total observed variability is due to additive gene action (which can be selected for effectively and fixed in homozygous condition).Broad sense heritability is less valuable since it also includes dominance and epistasis (these gene actions cannot be fixed and occur only in specific gene combinations).It is important for breeders to have a sense of the heritability of traits that they are selecting for in their programs. This can be obtained by using data from their own experiments, or for a new program, using information available in literature or from previous experiments. The reason heritability is important is that selection response is related to heritability. The higher the heritability, the more the phenotype reflects the genotype and the more effective selection will be. More extensive testing (more environments, more replications) reduces the phenotypic variance and increases heritability. Heritability can be increased more by using higher number of locations rather than by increasing the number of years [this is due to smaller variance component of Genotype × Year, relative to other component such as Genotype × Location]. This suggests that in most cases, a breeder does not need to do selection based on more than one year of data [except in cases where selections are made in each generation as plants are achieving 'true breeding' status].1. Variance Component method: Comparison of segregating and homogenous populations is applicable to only self-pollinated or clonally propagated species. This method estimates broad sense heritability. This method involves estimating the magnitude of various types of genetic and environmental variability.In such experiments, In a self-pollinated species, parent 1 and parent 2 being inbred, their estimates of genetic variability will be similar to each other ( ) as well as to F ( ), and these will be equal to environmental variability (as these three are genetically uniform and therefore any variability observed will be due to environment). Variance of F or any other segregating generation can then be used to obtain ), where is variance estimated from the segregating generations. 2. Covariance between relatives (or resemblance among relatives as measured by regression analysis): Examples are, parent-offspring regression, covariance between half-sibs and full-sibs, covariance between inbred or partially inbred families. Variability estimates can be obtained in other ways such as special mating designs (half-sib, full-sib, North Carolina designs, etc.), or analysis of trials conducted in a range of environments.Example 1 Table 13 is an example of analysis of variance (ANOVA) where a random set of genotypes were evaluated over ' ' locations for ' ' years, and ' ' replications used in each test. Multiple locations, years and reps. where:(phenotypic variance of genotypic means) =and if we substitute for Mean squares we will obtain, Broad Sense heritability can be calculated using the equations above. 1.4.9 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111053Example 2 Table 14 is an example of analysis of variance (ANOVA) where a random set of genotypes were evaluated over ' ' environments (can be locations, years or combination of years and locations), and ' ' replications used in each test. Multiple environments and reps within a year. Note: all factors considered random in ANOVA.If we substitute for Mean squares we will obtain,Heritability on individual experimental unit basis is:Heritability on genotypic mean basis is:This estimate of heritability is obtained if the genotypes represent the population and are chosen randomly. If the genotypes are not chosen randomly (e.g. selected genotypes), the ratio between genetic and phenotypic variation is called repeatability and this estimate is a measure of the precision of data and a measure of the proportion of genetic variation, which helps breeders to detect significant difference among genotypes.Each heritability estimate is unique and reflective of the method of calculation, testing environment, generation used in estimation, and genotypes studied. While the heritability estimates are going to somewhat differ based on different conditions described above, a plant breeder can get a good handle on heritability based on published literature, and their or their predecessors' experiences working on the crop and for various traits.Heritability is used to estimate the expected response to selection and to choose the best breeding approach to improve the target trait(s). Traits with high heritability can be selected on a single-plant basis in an early generation and in fewer (even single) environments.A breeder should consider a range of heritability (rather than absolute value) as well as have some precision around their estimate (confidence interval). Higher heritability, say, 0.7, or higher narrow sense heritability means a breeder can expect that selection in early generation can be effective for that trait. High broad-sense heritability only indicates that effect of environment is smaller but does not provide insight into the relative importance of additive (which can be fixed) or non-additive (which cannot be fixed) gene effects.When individuals are selected based on their individual phenotypic value, we call this artificial selection or individual selection. Truncation is a type of individual selection and very common in plant breeding programs. The curve in Figure 10a represents the normal distribution of a quantitative trait in a population, and the shaded part 'T' (i.e., truncation point) represents the individuals selected for the next generation of breeding -could be cross-or self-pollinated. µ is the mean of the unselected population (or mean of the population in generation 1) and µ is the mean of selected parents. If these selected parents are mated at random, their offspring will have the phenotypic distribution in Figure 10b and a mean equal to µ'. Generally, µ > µ' > µ.µ' is greater than µ because some of the selected parents have favorable genotypes and therefore pass favorable genes on to their offspring. µ is greater than µ' because some of the selected parents did not have favorable genotypes, but instead had superior phenotype due to the favorable environment where they were tested (chance exposure to favorable environment, e.g., low spot in the field that received more water, a spot in the field that received more fertilizer, or a spot in the field that was not exposed to high winds). Secondly, alleles, not genotypes, are transmitted to the offspring and favorable genotypes may segregate or recombination may cause breakage of favorable linkages.The difference in mean phenotype between the selected parents ( ) and generation 0 ( ) is called selection differential ( ). Equation 1The difference in mean phenotype between the progeny generation (generation 1) ( ) and generation 0 ( ) is called the response to selection ( ). Equation 2The prediction equation defines the relationship between and . For truncation selection, the prediction equation is: Equation 3where, is heritability of the trait. z/A = frequency at the truncation point (in a normal distribution)/Area under the selected portion of the curve. This is equal to selection differential/phenotypic variance, i.e., Equation 4assuming that the effects of each allele are small relative to phenotypic variation, and phenotypic values are normally distributed.We cannot get into detailed calculation, but it can be shown that: Equation 5where:= genotypic effect = measure of dominance = allele frequency of A1 = allele frequency of A2 = mean phenotype of progeny generation = progenitor generation Substituting z/A = (µ -µ)/ σ and Δp, equation can be written as:\\ Equation 6Since, S = µ -µ and R = µ' -µ, Equation 7Additive Genetic VariationWe already have seen that R = h S (Equation 3), therefore, we can now define heritability in the genetic terms of: a, p, q, d, σ as: Equation 8This heritability definition is valid when the trait is under single gene control. This is hardly the case for most of the traits, therefore heritability (narrow sense) can be defined as: Equation 9Σ2pq[a + (q -p)d] = additive genetic variation of the trait = σSelection Intensity and Response to Selection Equation R = h S can also be written as: Equation 10Equation 11Intensity of selection depends on the proportion of the total population selected. For example, Table 15 shows some selection intensities based on % selected (assuming a completely normal trait distribution). The full table can be seen in most plant breeding books. This equation R = iσh (Equation 10) is fundamental in plant breeding. Plant breeders generally do not use it to calculate an actual numerical value for selection response. However, this equation is important as it shows that selection response depends on:1. Selection intensity 2. Heritability 3. Phenotypic variability present in the population, say from a cross.The equation R = µ' -µ can be written as Equation 12which clearly indicates that to maximize the expression of a trait in the offspring generation, a breeder needs to start with high expression of the trait, maximum heritability, and high selection intensity (although diminishing returns apply beyond a certain level).Square root of heritability (h) is a measure of the correlation between the observed phenotypic value and the underlying genotypic value. In a breeding program, a breeder will try to maximize these factors (higher standardized selection differential, genetic variation, heritability). One has to keep in mind that optimum balance needs to be obtained between increased expected response (which is a good thing and what a breeder is after) and increased variability of that response (undesirable characteristics of selection). We will look at a few examples below to understand the concept of variability of response.Equation 13 (From Baker, 1971.) where These calculations show that while the response to selection equation is an essential equation for any breeder to consider for trait improvement, it is also worthwhile to consider the extent of variability in relation to the mean of the population (CV).One of the ways to maximize genetic standard deviation is to cross diverse parents. However, if crosses between diverse parents have lower unselected means than crosses between adapted (elite) parents (which will have lower genetic variability between them, generally), then a breeder may be reducing the mean genotypic value of the subsequent population by crossing diverse parents. 1.4.12 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111053Therefore, best x best (or elite x elite) crosses is one way to maximize genotypic mean of the starting population although it may reduce the genotypic variance and even response to selection, R. Most cultivar development programs will work with best x best configuration, or have at least 75% elite, for example, (best x exotic) x best.Standardized selection differential can be increased by selecting fewer lines (but we saw earlier that this can cause increased variability of response, which is undesirable) or testing more units but selecting fewer units (this will require more resources). If a breeder makes compromises between testing more lines to advance a few, it will likely be done at a compromise of not doing a thorough evaluation of units. Less thorough evaluation will result in lower correlation between phenotypic and genotypic values (lower h), therefore a breeder should not compromise on proper trait measurement protocols. Optimum balance needs to be achieved for each trait for more thorough testing to increase the correlation between phenotypic and genotypic values (higher h) as well as increase the standardized selection differential.Expected genetic gain formula is shown below. Equation 14This formula is an extension of response to selection: Equation 15and includes two additional variables: number of years (y) and parental control (c) (Eberhart, 1970) compared to what we have seen so far.Heritability equation is Equation 16where: =number of replications =number of environmentsWe have already looked at i, which is standardized selection differential, c = parental control, and y = seasons per cycle.1. Increase the numerator of this equation by increasing genetic variance (larger population sizes, diverse parents (but keep the proportion of elite parents high), increasing selection intensity (without getting genetic drift problem). 2. Parental control will allow for increased response to selection. Parental control, c, can be increased by recombining genotypes where both sources of gametes originated in selected genotypes (c = 1), which will be generally true in self-pollinated crops. In cross-pollinated species, c = 0.5 if the male gametes are coming from unselected genotypes. Therefore, it is recommended that if possible, conduct selection before pollination so that only selected genotypes contribute to the next generation. C = 2.0 if the selected seed of selected genotypes is used for establishing the next generation. 3. Another way to increase genetic gain is to decrease the value of the denominator. This can be achieved by decreasing the number of seasons per cycle or the phenotypic variance (which can be decreased by reducing g x e and e variances. The phenotypic variance can be decreased by increasing the number of locations (or environments) and by increasing replication. Increasing locations is generally considered to play a more important role in reducing phenotypic variance rather than replications. 4. Usage of proper experimental methods and field design and analysis will reduce error variance and improve confidence in estimate of progeny performance. These methods may include augmented designs, or moving means in earlier generations where no replication is used per environment and using incomplete lattice (for example, alpha-lattice) or RCBD in replicated tests. 5. Different generations and type of progenies have different genetic variance components and therefore affect the equation. The theoretical proportion of additive variance to total genotypic variance of half sib is 0.25, full-sib is 0.5 and 1 for S progenies. 6. The number of seasons required to complete a cycle can be reduced by using off-season nurseries, or by using an off-season nursery with high correlation to the home environment to facilitate selection for high to moderate heritability traits and to reduce the 'y' in equation above. If resources permit, greenhouse or growth cabinet can be used instead of off-season nursery and complemented with marker assisted selection to increase 'i' as well as reduce 'y'.One way to obtain higher heritability is to reduce environmental effects (remember, higher heritability implies that selection will be more effective as 'what you see is what you will get').Here are some recommendations to reduce the effect of environment:1. Use best quality land (uniform area -less gradients in field, highly productive) if selection will be performed (on single plant, rows, or yield trials; in early or later generations).2. Use best management practices (reflective of the recommended fertilizer, irrigation, crop rotation, time of planting, weeding, harvesting). An advice is to avoid pest or pathogen control as this will provide another trait to select for if naturally present]. 3. Use check cultivars frequently (this will allow breeders to have a better handle on variability). 4. Use appropriate statistical designs (lattice, RCBD, augmented designs as needed). 5. Use replication (improves precision, and provides better handle to measure variation) and randomization (improves accuracy).1. Tandem selection: A breeder selects sequentially for each trait in successive generations. In this scenario, population is improved first for one trait, then for the next trait and so on. This will lead to improvement over generations. One disadvantage of this strategy is long selection cycle, and is generally not followed in commercial plant breeding. Another disadvantage of this strategy is the potential reduction in the level of performance of the first trait selected. 2. Independent culling (or truncation selection): Selection is practiced successively in the same generation. This is probably the most common selection strategy deployed by breeders worldwide.In this scheme, a breeder will discard all individuals that fail to meet the desired level for one trait, irrespective of the value for any of the other traits. This will be followed by selecting among the surviving lines for the second trait and the process is repeated until all selections are made. Experienced breeders will know the culling point keeping in mind the trait value of the most important trait, and may allow some relaxation for major traits when culling for traits that have less significance or importance. One issue with independent culling is that with each successive trait cull, the population size and genetic variability is reduced. 3. Index selection: An index is developed based on the combination of the heritability and economic value of each of several traits under selection, simultaneous selection is happening for every trait in the same generation. Each line is given an index score based on the trait expression and weight given to the trait. Most breeders use a \"mental\" index selection. For example, visual selection may be done for a number of traits, an overall mental assessment done, and selection is made. For example, in a space planted nursery where single plants are growing, a breeder may make a mental assessment on the criteria for different traits such as height, seed fill, plant health, lodging, inflorescence and either keep or discard. Since there are likely several thousand plants in a nursery, \"mental\" index approach needs to be used, as the most feasible. There are more sophisticated methods described such as Pesek baker index (Pesek and Baker, 1969) but these require estimation of variance and co-variances. Using economic weights is a good compromise to remove the need to know variance and co-variances. However, it is still not an easy task to develop an index.Combining AbilityCombining ability of inbred lines is of paramount importance in determining future usefulness and commercial potential of the inbred lines for hybrid production. Combining ability can be divided into general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) (Sprague and Tatum, 1942). This concept has been very important in the commercial success of maize breeding and hybrid development.GCA is defined in terms of the average performance of a line in hybrid combinations. The GCA is calculated as the average of all F s having this particular line as one parent, the value being expressed as a deviation from the overall mean of crosses.SCA is defined in terms of instances in which performance of certain hybrid combinations (between two inbred lines in a single cross) is either better or poorer than would be expected based on the average performance of the parent inbred lines. That is, each cross has an expected value that is the sum of GCAs of its two parental lines. However, each cross may deviate from the expected value to a greater or lesser extent, and the deviation is referred to as the specific combining ability (SCA) of the two lines in combination. Estimates of GCA and SCA are applicable to the particular set that a breeder has used in the crossing. These crossings are generally in a diallel design (full or partial, or other designs such as NC designs). Sprague and Tatum (1942) reported that for unselected inbred lines, GCA was relatively more important than SCA, whereas for previously selected lines SCA was more important than GCA. GCA is an indication of genes having largely additive effects (differences of GCA are due to the additive and additive × additive interactions in the base population) and therefore more important in a population such as synthetics, while SCA is indicative of genes having dominance and epistatic effects (differences in SCA are attributable to non-additive genetic variance) therefore more important in a hybrid combination.Calculations NOTE: GCA is the average performance of a plant in a cross with different tester lines, while the SCA measures the performance of a plant in a specific combination in comparison with other cross combinations.Let us look at some calculations:As we previously described, deviation of the parent mean (X) from the mean of all crosses or population mean (μ) is the general combining ability, therefore we can calculate GCA as:GCA of a parent A can be defined asBelow is an example to show GCA calculation using an experiment where eight inbreds were mated to produce 16 crosses. Response variable was grain yield. GCA -6.5 (=86 -92.5) GCA -1.5 GCA -0.5 GCA 8.5 GCA -2.5 GCA 4.5 GCA -11.5 GCA 9.5 SCA = 3 (i.e., full-sib mean -(mid-parent value)) or [91 -(86+90)/2] SCA = 0.5 Etc.In the case of a diallel, the calculations of GCA are shown in Table 17 below. Note: \"n/a\" means cell is blank.Expected value of a cross between inbred lines 'A' and 'B' is and where: A represents a specific inbred T = Mean of hybrid performance across each parent for a trait1 The SCA is calculated as follows: SCA = 91 -86.3 = 4.7Heterosis is the superior performance of crosses relative to their parents (Shull 1910;Falconer and Mackay, 1996). Mid-parent heterosis is the difference between the hybrid and the mean of the two parents used in developing the hybrid and can be calculated as where: μ = trait mean of the hybrid μ = trait average of the two parents High-parent heterosis is the superiority of a hybrid over the better parent.Heterosis is dependent on the presence of dominance and summation of allele frequency differences across loci. In maize and other cross-pollinated crops, heterotic groups have been created such that they maximize the difference in allele frequencies in genes affecting target trait(s) thereby maximizing heterosis.Examples of hybrid cultivars include: commercial single-cross maize hybrids, commercial three-way cross maize hybrids, and sunflower hybrids. Hybrid cultivars are usually utilized for allogamous species but some hybrids are produced for some autogamous species (i.e., sorghum, tomato, rice). Single-cross hybrid cultivars are homogeneous and heterozygous. Three-way hybrids are both heterogeneous and heterozygous. Cultivar development is one of the four plant breeding projects (other three are genetic improvement, trait integrations and product placement) of many breeding programs. The end product depends on the specific objectives, the mode of propagation and commercial production, and like most other processes, specific steps need to be followed in succession (in parallel in certain cases) to ensure the set objectives are met.Describe the basic steps in the development of clonal, inbred, synthetic, hybrid, multilines, and blended cultivars Distinguish among the different clonal types and source of variation Know the application of male sterility in hybrid crop developmentIn Chapter 1, we looked at different types of cultivars that are grown by farmers. These cultivars may be sexually or asexually propagated. Clones are types of cultivars that are asexually propagated. We also learned in this module the concept of heterogeneous versus homogenous and heterozygous versus homozygous. Clonal cultivars are heterozygous and homogenous and can be maintained through vegetative plant parts. Figure 1 depicts the gradation of heterogeneity and heterozygosity in different types of varieties. Clones, as the name implies, are identical copies of a genotype. A population of clones of the same genotype is homogeneous (since they are identical). However, individually, they are highly heterozygous. Asexually or clonally propagated plants produce genetically identical progeny. Since the cultivar can be asexually propagated, heterosis can be fixed as long as the propagation continues. Clones can be the product of inter-generic or inter-specific crosses because even sterile hybrids can be maintained in clonally propagated crops.One of the biggest challenges in clonal crops production is to keep parental lines and breeding stocks free of virus and other disease that can be transmitted through vegetative propagation.In-vitro methods (such as, tissue culture) are often used to rapidly increase clonal stocks which can be kept disease free. The tissue culture methods of plant propagation, known as micropropagation, utilizes the culturing of apical shoots, axillary buds and meristems on sterile suitable nutrient medium to grow new clones. Micropropagation offers an ability to continually produce clones (all year round), produce and propagate hybrids, and produce disease free plants. It is a cost effective technique and requires small space.Learning Objectives 1.5.2 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111054Clones are products of mitosis. Any variation occurring among them is environmental in origin. Micropropagation or tissue culturing can lead to somaclonal variation (SV). SV can be defined as genetically stable variation generated through plant tissue culture (Larkin and Scowcroft, 1981). It has been used by breeders as an approach to create and exploit greater genetic diversity and provides a mechanism to expand germplasm pool for plant improvement and cultivar development.While the resultant success of SV has not been as great as initially promised, it has led to identification of valuable genotypes, for example, Aluminum tolerance in rice (Jan et al 1997). SV can also cause negative effects, therefore mechanism of genotype purity is desirable in clonal crops. Whether natural (spontaneous) or artificial (induced), somatic mutations are characterized by tissue mosaicism, called chimerism. In a chimera, an individual consists of two or more genetically different types of cells, i.e. mosaics, which can only be maintained by vegetative propagation (not transferable to progenies by sexual means as clones are products of mitosis and change did not happen in sex cells).Many clonal cultivars are in use. Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show some examples. Clonal cultivars are developed using the micropropagation method, which involves the following steps.1. Selection and maintenance of stock plants for culture initiation, 2. Initiation and establishment of culture -from an explant like shoot tip, on a suitable nutrient medium, 3. Multiple shoots formation from the cultured explant, 4. Rooting of in vitro developed shoots, and 5. Transplanting and hardening, i.e., acclimatization before transplanting to the field.Clean (disease-free) clonal material is essential starting material for multiplication for propagation. It is very important in clonal crops to maintain disease-free and/or purify an infected cultivar (Fig. 4). Infection can occur due to bacteria or viruses. Viruses are more damaging due their systemic nature. In order to screen for disease-free material plant material is visually inspected for the presence of pathogens, however this is not the most effective method for viruses as there may be no obvious symptoms.Two main methods are used to detect the presence of specific pathogens:Serological, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) Nucleic acid based, such as Real Time-PCR.These techniques can detect latent viruses as well as other pathogens. Note that a negative test may not always be proof of the absence of pathogens, and could just be due to ineffective assay.If diseases or viruses are detected, it is important to eliminate them. Methods used include:Tissue culture: Even when the pathogen is systemic, tissue from the terminal growing points can be used for further propagation as it is often pathogen-free.Heat treatment: works well for fungal, bacterial, and nematode infections. For viruses, a longer treatment is required relative to other pathogens. Chemical treatment: surface sterilization with chemicals can be used to eliminate pathogens. Use of apomictic seedFig. 4 Virus-indexing of potato. Meristem tissue is isolated and small explants (circled) are collected and placed in sterile test-tubes containing the appropriate growth medium. The tissue culture-derived plantlets are later transferred to the greenhouse and monitored for disease symptoms (middle panel). The tubers produced in the green house (right panel) will be grown in the field for tuber increase. Photos by Shui-zhang Fei, Iowa State University.Apomixis is the formation of seeds without meiosis, and two forms are present.1. Gametophytic apomixis in which the asexual embryo is formed from an unfertilized egg; and 2. Adventitious embryony, in which the asexual embryo is formed from nucellus tissue.Apomictically produced seeds are genetically identical to the parent plant. Breeding of apomictic species requires developing population improvement by sexual reproduction and subsequent variety development by apomixis.Example of plant species in which apomictic cultivar has been produced is Kentucky bluegrass.Step 1: Defining objectivesStep 2: Develop a segregating populationStep 3: Select superior plants (clones)Step 4: Preparation of seedstock for commercial planting After objectives are clearly defined and are considered biologically feasible, genetic improvement in clonal crops starts with the assembly and evaluation of a broad germplasm base, followed by production of new recombinant genotypes derived from selected elite clones and careful evaluation in a set of representative environments.In a crop with few years of breeding efforts, the divergence between landraces and improved germplasm is not as wide as in crops with a more extensive breeding history. As a result, landrace accessions play a more relevant role in clonal crops such as cassava (with fewer years of directed breeding efforts compared to other crops such as potato).With longer term breeding experience, a breeder will have a better understanding and handle on combining ability of different clones as well as more information on other traits such as quality and pest resistance. Thus it is essential to pick parents that will have a higher chance to produce offspring that will be superior and a commercial success. It is important to recognize the difference between botanical (or biological) seed and vegetative (clonal) parts (used for propagation).The F obtained from crossing is biological seed, while the plant parts used from that F for further testing in subsequent generations is are clones (identical to the F plant).Several cuttings or plant parts taken for testing from a single F will be identical to each other and to the F , while plant parts taken from different F plants will be dissimilar to each other. In the case of Cassava, the botanical seed obtained after crossing is either planted directly in the field or first germinated in greenhouse conditions and then transplanted to the field when growth is suitable to transplant. Root systems in plants derived from botanical seed and vegetative cuttings may differ considerably in their starch content and therefore selections should not be made for traits that will differ between biological seed and cuttings due to low correlation between trait data from plants developed from biological seed and vegetative cuttings.Since the commercial product is derived from vegetative cutting, root data from biological seed is not relevant for use in selection (unless the correlation is high). One way to overcome this issue is to germinate the biological seed and then transplant, which then develops a root system similar to what will be observed with vegetative cuttings. In clonal crops, the area of plant used to get cutting also influences the performance. Therefore plant breeders should be aware if these are issues in the crop they are working on. In Cassava, vegetative cuttings from the mid-section of the stems usually produce better performing plants than those at the top or the bottom. This variation in the performance of the plant, depending on the physiological status of the vegetative cutting, results in larger experimental errors and undesirable variation in the evaluation process. Consistency in vegetative cutting is important to remove this unwanted source of error. Breeders should also be aware of the number of cuttings that can be obtained per plant as one of the biggest constraints in getting to multi-location trial is the inability to produce enough cuttings per plant to put them into replicated evaluations across several locations.Crossing block can be in the field for over a year. In the case of Cassava, synchronization of flowering may require that crossing blocks are maintained for as many as 18 months and on average only one or two seeds per cross can be obtained (in directed crosses). The first selection can be conducted in the third year in the nurseries with plants derived from botanical seed. Due to low correlations between the performance of individual plants and yield plots, selections should be done only on traits with high heritability. Traits with higher heritability can be plant type, branching habits, reaction to diseases. Breeders will be able to reduce their population by up to 60-80%, making the numbers suitable for clonal evaluation trials (generally based on 6-10 vegetative cuttings in Cassava). At this stage, breeders may just use spray paint or tags or another method to identify the discards as some of the traits are visually assessed, and data collection may not be feasible in all cases. From about 100,000 F plants a breeder will be able to use single plant selection to reduce the entries going to clonal evaluation trials to about 2,000 to 3,000 clones, where each clone is going to consist of 6-10 plants (coming from vegetative cuttings). In each trial, care is taken to ensure that the same number of plants are grown (for each entry) to avoid bias in selection.As in row crops, plant breeders will use ways to ensure that plots are of the same size (length and width) so that no plot is given unnecessary advantage just because it had a larger area. Either a GPS planter is used so that plots are of the same size, or a trimmer is used to cut the plots to be equal size, or proper measurements are made prior to planting (i.e., if hand planting).These clones are planted in an un-replicated single row trial generally. Since there is going to be a lot of variability in canopy coverage, height, branching (plant architecture traits), breeders will either try to group more similar entries into same test, or select for high heritability traits (as mentioned above, including harvest index, plant type, branching habit, leaf type, or some other higher heritability quality trait).To reduce this problem of inter-plot competition, the distance between rows can be increased and plant-plant distance reduced, or leave an empty row between plots. This planting strategy increases the competition among plants from the same genotype and reduces the competition between plants from different genotypes.It is also advisable to consider dividing fields into smaller blocks and conducting selection within a block (with commercial or elite checks present regularly across the field within each block). It is advisable to record all trait data as it helps a breeder to assess within (all clones from a cross) and among (between different crosses) family performance, and gives an indication of the parents used in crossing.Traits with intermediate to lower heritability can be selected for in the evaluation trials including root or tuber dry matter (which are the economic part and most important breeding objective). The clones keep getting included in advanced trials (from clonal evaluation tests > Preliminary yield tests > advanced yield test > regional tests; number of entries reducing at each stage, vigor of 1 testing increasing in terms of locations, replication, traits) to assess their yield and stability. Also processing and consumer preference (i.e. end-use quality) traits are assessed, and since such traits are most expensive or cumbersome to test, only the most advanced material is tested for these traits. As the most promising material is getting evaluated for processing and end use quality, the breeder needs to start the steps to multiple the stock for commercial planting.It is generally accepted that at the PYT and AYT stages, testing at more locations will be more beneficial than using more replications, and 2-3 replications per entry should suffice in most cases.Steps in Development of Self-Pollinated Cultivars Pure Line CultivarsPure line cultivars are developed in self pollinating species. Pure line cultivars are homogeneous and homozygous and, once created, can be maintained indefinitely by selfing. Inbred lines are different from pure lines, although sometimes people use the terms interchangeably.Inbred lines are developed in cross-pollinated species through inbreeding and these lines are used as parents in the production of hybrid cultivars and synthetic cultivars. Inbred lines are not meant for commercial release to farmers for commercial production because inbred lines suffer from inbreeding depression (yield will be lower than in hybrid and even an open-pollinated variety (OPV). Inbred lines are homogenous and homozygous, similar to pure lines; however, artificial selfing needs to be done at each generation to maintain or increase seed. Sib-mating can be used to avoid severe inbreeding depression.Step 1: Define objectivesStep 2: Form the genetic base by creating segregating population(s)Step 3: Perform selection to make pure linesStep 4: Conduct Trials (testing of experimental lines) and Seed MultiplicationStep 1: It is critical that a plant breeder has clearly defined objectives before any other activity happens. Objectives need to be clearly defined and biologically possible. Also consider the following when defining objectives:1. Will it meet the needs of the producer, processor and consumer? The best way to accomplish this is by having direct interactions with these three groups. Reading news print and other sources will also give a breeder an indication of the requirements by these groups. If possible, a breeder should attend farm shows, farm group meetings, meet and visit processing companies, colleagues in other disciplines, and marketing companies. 2. Available resources. Do you have the necessary resources to achieve the objectives? For example, if you would like to select for resistance to a disease using molecular markers very closely linked to the gene as you don't have disease nursery available. However, if you don't have access to either the disease nursery or marker screening lab, it will be near to impossible to meet the objective of developing cultivars with resistance to that disease.Without clear and logical objectives, a breeder is working aimlessly. It is analogous to driving a car without knowing the destination.Setting objectives allows a breeder to make strategic decisions, such as:1. Picking parents that have the necessary complementation of traits to develop progeny that possesses desirable traits from both parents. 2. Which breeding method to use 3. Determine selection strategy and plan for any specialized nursery or tools. 4. Breeder can also make decisions on which traits to select for and in which generations.Step 2: Based on the objectives, a breeder can pick the parental material which can be:1. Advanced lines from the breeding program 2. Advanced lines from another breeding program 3. Released cultivars 4. Germplasm line from gene bank or a pre-breeding program 5. Introductions (from other countries) from colleagues or genebank 6. Mutant lines, populations (unselected or selected) 7. Wild relative (need to be crossable or resources available to do embryo rescue if needed) Crops that have a long history of breeding efforts will rely on cultivars and advanced breeding lines and in specialized cases, introductions as the choice of parent material. Crops with less breeding effort will rely on populations and introductions. Majority of parents in a breeding program will be best lines (advanced lines or newest cultivars) derived from the continuous breeding cycle of the program.All the traits desired in the cultivar you want to develop need to be present in the parents. Parents selection has to be based on reliable and complete data (yield testing, adaptation testing, specialized nurseries for stress assessment, end use quality, etc.). If a breeder does not have the specialized nurseries, she/he would collaborate with other breeders in the same or different organizations to send material for testing and characterization (material transfer across organizations may need a material transfer agreement (MTA).The number of crosses made by a breeding program depends on various factors, such as objectives, resources available, breeding method (determines number of breeding lines that will be generated). In self pollinated crops with pure-line cultivars, it is assumed that the parent seed being used is a pure-line (homogenous and homozygous), but in case a breeder decided to accelerate incorporation of a trait and uses a line that is still segregating visually for a trait, more number of plants will need to be used to increase the probability of recovering desired recombinants. Cross configuration will also dictate how many F 's to create. If a cross is made between two pure-lines, all F 's will be heterozygous but homogenous. If a three way cross is made using three different pure-lines, F 's of the three way cross will be heterozygous and heterogeneous, necessitating large population size of F 's to be created. There is considerable debate about the relative importance of number of crosses versus population size per cross. In most scenarios there will be an inverse relationship between number of crosses and population size, primarily due to resources available in a breeding program. In their review on this topic, Witcombe and Virk (2001) suggest that the strategy is to make fewer crosses (but very careful decisions need to be made based on prior information and scientific principles to pick parents) that are considered favorable and produce large sized populations from them to increase the probability of recovering superior genotypes.Step 3: Once the crossing scheme is decided and crosses made, the next stage is to choose an appropriate breeding method to develop inbreeding populations which will be composed of an array of different inbred homozygous lines (pure-lines) where genetic variability exists among but not within lines. All breeding methods in pure-line breeding lead to an increase in homozygosity, a reduction in the genetic variance within families, and an increase in the genetic variance between families. Cultivar development is aimed at identifying the best homozygous lines.Selection should commence in an early generation and preferably as early as F because it is the generation of maximum variability, and the minimum population size required to observe desirable type is lowest in F and progressively increases. This means a breeder will not have to evaluate larger populations as the generations advance in order to recover the desirable types.It is also important that a breeder makes selections in each generation (if possible) so as to continue with the development of purelines and to eliminate undesirable types. This may be accomplished through phenotypic or genotypic selection with molecular markers. If a high value marker is, or set of markers are, available and linked to the trait of interest, it will be very beneficial for a breeder to use the marker(s) to enrich and advance the desirable types while eliminating the undesirable types.Consider for example, a trait under recessive gene control, which, in fixed homozygous recessive state, will never segregate to give the desirable dominant allele. Evaluating lines with the undesirable homozygous recessive genotype in this case will be a drain on resources. Therefore, the use of molecular markers (which are not influenced by environment) lends a breeder confidence in the selections made, provided the molecular marker is robust, tightly linked to or is on the gene, and not background dependent.For selections in early generations, a breeder will likely handle several thousand plants, hills, or rows. It is therefore very important to handle this material in a selection environment that is very similar to the target region or is representative of the target environments of different agro-ecological regions if breeding for a sub-region. In other words ensure that the environment is ideal for selecting for targeted traits. For example, choose dryland environment if breeding for drought tolerance, or irrigated field nurseries if breeding for high-input environments.It is best to grow these early generation trials at a location where a breeder has easy and quick access to observe the material to facilitate making breeding decisions, and also from a logistical viewpoint, to better manage the trial location.It is extremely important that a breeder eliminates controllable sources of variation such as weeds, non-uniform land, animal damage, non-uniform application of chemicals.In early generations (F to F ), selection is restricted to traits of high to moderate heritability, whereas in later generations (F to F or F depending on the complexity of the crop genome), evaluation is more detailed and involves multi-location testing and replication.In situations of relatively large number of entries but limited resources, in early generation trials, single replication yield plots may be used to identify material to advance. Statistical approaches such as running mean, partial rep or augmented designs can be used to identify promising lines. As generations advance, more seed is available and population sizes are sufficiently reduced to allow for increased replications and locations. Selection is then done for traits of lower heritability, such as yield (in larger or paired rows) and for end use quality. However, techniques that require small sample sizes such near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can be effectively utilized in earlier generation testing of end use quality traits to select and remove the undesirables based on cut-offs developed in comparison with checks or industry requirement. Note that cut-offs for traits are variable in every test as they are generally developed based on checks or industry requirement.Step 4: Final stages in the breeding cycle will involve lines that are considered pure-lines (non-segregating). At this stage, more extensive testing of few best recombinants from a cross is done for agronomic performance and end-use quality. Multi-environment testing is done for adaptation and stability, and environments may be locations or a combination of locations and years. At this stage, trials will be grown using lattice design (incomplete block if the number of entries is large) or RCBD, and detailed observations made and data taken. Since fewer number of lines is tested, more detailed assessment is feasible for an increased number of traits.For optimal use of resources and to ensure timely adoption of pure-lines, a breeder needs to pro-actively initiate seed multiplication alongside advanced yield testing for production of sufficient quantities of certified seed for the launch of pure-lines.In the case of doubled haploid (DH), steps 3 and 4 are very closely aligned and can even be considered as one because once the doubled haploid is generated, lines can go into multiple location replicated testing where seed quantity permits.Cross-pollinated species have two main types of cultivars: Hybrids and Synthetics.Hybrids are generally a product of a single cross (or two way cross; A x B), and to a much smaller extent three-way crossesSynthetic cultivars consist of a mixture of heterogenous and heterozygous individuals (parental lines are generally clones or inbred lines). Synthetics are more common in some developing countries. These parental lines are maintained so that synthetic cultivars can be re-constituted when needed. These parental lines (clones of inbreds) are assessed for their general combining ability and lines exhibiting superior combining ability are crossed in a polycross configuration to produce S . The S plants are allowed to intermate to produce S , which, in the case of asexual propagated crops such as alfalfa, can be sold as a synthetic cultivar. Sometimes S may be sold as commercial cultivar but maximum heterosis is observed in S and is therefore a more favorable generation for cultivar development. In annual crops such as maize, asexual propagation is not feasible therefore the progression from Breeder Seed to Foundation Seed to Certified Seed production is done from S to S to S , respectively.A synthetic cultivar differs from open-pollinated variety (developed by mass selection). A cultivar developed by mass selection is made up of genotypes bulked together without having undergone preliminary testing to determine their combining ability. This makes an open-pollinated cultivar the same as a landrace cultivar.Hybrids are preferred over synthetic cultivars in crops where hybrids can be created economically and commercialized. However, in crops that show heterosis but hybrid production is difficult, synthetics are important and preferred. Synthetic varieties are known for their hybrid vigour and for their ability to produce usable seed for succeeding seasons. Because of these advantages, synthetic varieties have become increasingly favored in the cultivation of many species, for examples forage crops such as alfalfa.Step 1: Define objectivesStep 2: Form the genetic base by creating segregating population(s)Step 3: Perform selection to make pure linesStep 4: Conduct Trials (testing of experimental lines) and Seed MultiplicationWe have already covered in details how to set up objectives. Similar principle can be applied to synthetic cultivars to set reasonable synthetics.Assembly of parental lines can be from a previous synthetic cultivar or from other experimental populations. Parental lines can consist of different clones (forages) or inbred lines (maize). Clones will be highly heretogenous and heterozygous and each clone will be unique. These clonal lines are used to establish a source nursery with several thousand individual plants generally grown in a space planted grid system to reduce environmental variance and enable meaningful comparisons of experimental clones amongst each other or to a check within smaller grids. A breeder will select for higher heritability traits such as disease reaction, and morphological traits. Once the superior clones are identified, they are grown in a polycross nursery to either facilitate random pollination among clones or carefully set up clones to facilitate equal chance per clone to contribute pollen to other clones. Clones may be replicated to ensure uniform pollination. Further evaluation may be done, and seed is harvested (in equal amount per clone per replication). In a perennial species, clones may be grown for more than one year and seed harvest each year. This polycross nursery is used to produce seed for progeny testing in performance tests (in corn, one year but several locations and can be replicated; in forages and perennials, one or more years in several locations and can be replicated). Based on the progeny testing, superior clones from the polycross nursery are identified and crossed to each other to produce the synthetic. Syn1 or Syn2 may be released as a synthetic cultivar in a forage species (with clonal propagation). While in maize, two or three more rounds of pollination may be needed to have sufficient seed for commercial launch of a synthetic cultivar.Half-sib selection is widely used for breeding perennial forage grasses and legumes. A polycross mating system is used to generate the half-sib families from selected clones maintained vegetatively. The families are evaluated in replicated rows for 2-3 years. Selecting of traits with high heritability, e.g. oil and protein content in maize is effective.Full-sib mating involves the crossing of pairs of plants from a population in which case control is exerted on both male and female parents.A half sib is a plant (or family of plants) with a common but unknown pollen parent (i.e. pollen source). Therefore, in half-sib mating, the pollen source is random from the population, but the female plants are identifiable. Half-sib selection is based on maternal plant selection without pollen control, therefore half-sib selection is less effective for changing traits with low heritability. The methods used by plant breeders in population improvement may be categorized into two groups: one group is based on phenotypic selection alone (no progeny testing), and the second group is based on genotypic selection (with progeny testing).The specific methods include:2. Simple recurrent selection or mass selection. The procedure does not involve the use of a tester so there is no estimation of general or specific combining ability. Selection is based on phenotypic observations and therefore this method is also known as phenotypic recurrent selection. 3. Recurrent selection for general combining ability. In this method a wide genetic base cultivar (i.e., a population) is used as a tester to cross with identified females, therefore deploying a half-sib progeny test procedure. Based on the test cross progeny 1.5.9https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111054 performance in replicated or multi-environment trials, selections are made. Selected lines are advanced into the next round of testing. Generations may be advanced by sib-mating while the progeny test is on-going. 4. Recurrent selection for specific combining ability. In this method a narrow genetic base line (i.e., inbred line) is used as a tester to cross with females, also deploying a half-sib progeny test procedure. Similarly, based on the test cross progeny performance in replicated or multi-environment trials, selections are made. Selected lines are advanced into the next round of testing and here also, generation may be advanced by sib-mating while the progeny test is on-going. 5. Reciprocal recurrent selection. This scheme is capable of exploiting both general and specific combining ability. This is achieved by using two heterozygous populations, where each population serves as a tester for the other.[Note: The difference between a synthetic and an open pollinated cultivar is the ability to re-constitute the seed in a synthetic because the parents (inbred, clones, hybrids) are used in a pre-determined manner and configuration, while in an OPV the original population cannot be created due to no control on parent configuration. After a limited number of generations, seed needs to be reconstituted for a synthetic using the breeder selected parental stock, while in OPV the random mating happens in each generation and population can be propogated indefinitely]Steps in Development of Hybrid CultivarsHybrid maize (Zea mays L.) in USA is an example of a success story in cross-pollinated crops. Up until the 1930s, open pollinated varieties were the more common type of cultivars in cross-pollinated crops. However since then in USA almost all commercial maize cultivars are hybrids.A hybrid cultivar is the F offspring of a planned cross between inbred lines, cultivars, clones, or populations. The hybrids may be the product of a single cross, a three-way cross, or a double cross hybrid. One absolute requirement for a hybrid cultivar is its superior performance over the parents (heterosis) and an ability to economically generate the seed for commercial seed sale. In the case of maize, farmers moved from OPV to hybrids due to several advantages offered by hybrids which include higher yield, improved tolerance to stalk lodging (i.e. better standability), and improved response to drought. Development of hybrids in maize was easier due to the ability to follow a configuration of males and females for seed production -female rows were detasseled and seed was only collected from female rows (in later years, male rows destroyed post-pollination to ensure no contamination). Therefore, the role of male rows is to serve as pollen source, with requirements that the male needs to be a good combiner to the female (higher SCA) and must possess good pollen shed, nicking well with the female, i.e, must have close flowering time to that of the female.Discovery of cytoplasmic male sterility (Fig. 5) has also helped in the development of hybrid crops in those species. Plants with sterile cytoplasm plus nuclear non-restorer genes are male sterile; plants with sterile cytoplasm plus nuclear restorer genes produce fertile pollen (fertility restoration). In contrast to plants with sterile cytoplasm, plants with normal cytoplasm are male fertile when they carry either of the nuclear genes: restorer or non-restorer. Fertility restoration may not be needed for crop species in which the vegetative part is of economic value. In addition to straight crossing (male on female) and male sterility, chemical agents have been used to create hybrid cultivars. An important consideration of hybrid cultivars is the expression of heterosis and efficiency (i.e., cost, labor, time) of seed production.Fig. 5 The CMS system used for hybrid seed production. Rf refers to fertility restorer genes in the nucleus and rf refers to nuclear genes that cannot restore the fertility of a plant with sterile cytoplasm.Some practical considerations for hybrid systems:1. Farm production of field crops such as wheat, barley, rye, sunflower, grain sorghum requires large amounts of seed for planting the crop and return per unit area is relatively low compared to most horticultural crops or oilseed crops (such as canola), so expensive labor intensive methods of producing hybrid seed (such as hand emasculation) are not preferred. Cytoplasmic male sterility is one approach that is useful in field crops to develop hybridization techniques in which seed parents and pollinators could be grown on a field scale. 2. Pollination also needs to be on a field scale, such as with wind or with bees. Successful hybridization via wind pollination requires that males shed abundant amounts of pollen and female lines be receptive (e.g. florets should open at appropriate times). There is a need to synchronous flowering times between females and males. 3. Female inbred line should generally be more productive and with a higher capacity to produce more seed. Male and female need to be chosen for their superior specific combining ability, and are generally distinct i.e. belonging to different heterotic groups as for example stiff stalk and non-stiff stalk in maize in North America, or origins as for example indica and japonica in rice. 4. Expression of heterosis needs to be sufficient to overcome the cost of development and hybrid seed production. For example, in wheat heterosis is not sufficient to warrant development of a hybrid. Floral morphology also prevents easy pollinations.A good example in hybrid rice breeding in China was produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute (Li, Xin, & Yuan, 2009). The three-line system (Fig. 6) includes the following lines:The cytoplasmic male sterility trait is controlled by both cytoplasm and nucleus; this line is used as female in hybrid seed production.This line is used as a pollinator to maintain the male sterility. The maintainer line has viable pollen grains and sets normal seed.Restorer line (R line): Any rice cultivar that restores fertility in the F when it is crossed to a CMS line. Rice hybrids made with cytoplasmic nuclear male sterility have been grown for several decades in both developed and developing nations. Traditionally, three-line system was used to produce hybrid rice, but more recently an innovative kind of genetic male sterility has been used as well, to make 'two-line' hybrid rice. Seed is produced on female inbred lines that are homozygous for environmentally sensitive (photoperiod or temperature or both) recessive male sterility genes. Seed production fields are planted in an environment (e.g. long day and/or high temperature) that enables expression of the male sterility gene in the female and enabling successful hybrid seed production. Seed increase fields of the female lines are grown in an environment (e.g. short day and/or cooler temperatures) that represses expression of the male sterility genes, allowing the female lines to reproduce via selfpollination.Two-line system hybrid rice included the following two lines (Fig. 7):Male sterile line: nuclear gene(s) and environmental conditions such as photoperiod and/or temperature control male sterility. Male sterile lines can be environmental-conditioned genic male sterile (EGMS), photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterile (PGMS), thermo-sensitive genic male sterile (TGMs) or photoperiod-and thermo-sensitive genic male sterile (PTGMS) lines Restorer line (R line): any rice cultivar that restores fertility in the F when it is crossed to the male sterile line. Two-line system has several advantages over three-line system:1. It is simpler as the need of maintainer is removed, 2. It is more applicable in diverse genetic background and easier to implement, 3. It has reduced cost of breeding program and seed production, 4. There is no detrimental effect of CMS system.However, due to the dependency of trait expression to environmental conditions, problems may arise in hybrid seed production. An important requirement is that environments be chosen that have more consistent temperature and day length at critical times of crop growth.Hybrid Maize Cultivars Inbred lines can be developed by inbreeding selected heterozygous plants until sufficient homozygosity is reached without severe inbreeding depression. Sib-mating may be used to maintain inbred lines. With the advent of doubled haploid (DH) technology, this problem is minimized. DH lines provide genetic homozygosity in one generation. Because haploids carry only a single copy of every gene, any gene or genes that have deleterious effects for seed or plant development will have immediate genetic effects to depress or inhibit normal seed or plant development so these plants will be quickly eliminated at the haploid stage. Haploids also provide an advantage of better response to marker assisted selection as markers can be used to identify and select for desirable genes, and upon chromosomal doubling these genes are fixed. This provides an efficient and rapid tool to eliminate unfavorable genes and to enrich favorable genes to improve the genetic pool. DH lines have 100% genetic homozygosity, and the technique significantly reduces the time taken to develop inbred parents for crossing. These DH lines do not show inbreeding depression in the following generations, and in the absence of spontaneous gene mutations or transpositions that may cause certain deleterious influences and segregation, DH lines provide a powerful tool in maize breeding. In the DH process only one round of recombination happens thereby minimizes breakage of desirable linkages, as well as also reduces the chances to break undesirable linkages. Therefore a breeder needs to recognize the need for population size optimum, and so larger population sizes may be useful.Traditionally, open pollinated varieties of maize were the source of inbred lines. However, as the cultivars moved away from OPV to double crosses, three-way crosses or single crosses, which boosted maize yields (Fig. 8), the source of inbred lines also changed.Recurrent selection programs were also a popular source of inbred lines in public breeding programs, but private programs have moved away from recurrent selection programs as sources of inbred.In North America, for example, heterotic groups have been developed to classify inbred lines, and modern hybrids are the result of crossing a line from one heterotic group with a line from a different heterotic group (Fig. 9). Classification of heterotic patterns is generally based on several criteria such as pedigree, molecular marker based associations, and performance in hybrid combinations. Most conventional inbred line development involves making crosses within a heterotic group and as the population (within a cross) is advancing, testers belonging to different heterotic groups are used in crosses. Inbred Line Development The majority of inbred development activities in North America involve the use of the pedigree method of breeding (Fig. 10) Breeding crosses tend to be made by crossing inbred lines within a heterotic pattern. Inbred lines from the other heterotic patterns are used to improve the heterotic pattern represented by the breeding cross.Two-parent cross (parents belonging to the same heterotic group) are most common in maize inbred line development. An F population is formed from the breeding cross, which is then followed by several rounds of inbreeding using ear-to-row with each family tracing back to different F plants. During the inbreeding process, genotypes with obvious defects are eliminated. Early generation testing occurs around the F or F generation, which involves forming topcross hybrids between the F lines and an inbred line from a contrasting heterotic group. This cross can be made in the off-season nursery, and then in the summer (in North America), the resulting topcross hybrids can be tested in two or more environments (Fig. 11). Selection will be based on yield, lodging or stalk strength, maturity, test weight, and height, or other trait of interest. Inbred lines can be advanced in the same season through another round of inbreeding. Lines that produce hybrids considered to have merit (similar or better than commercial checks) are advanced through another round of breeding in the off season nursery and perhaps a round of crossing with inbreds of complementary heterotic group. In the summer, selection is made as described above. At this stage, the superior inbreds are forwarded to hybrid development teams for commercial testing with specific testers and in more environments. [Adapted from: Lee and Tollenaar 2007]. In the hybrid development process, more hybrid combinations are tested in fewer environments during the early testing phase, while in the later testing phases fewer hybrid combinations are tested in more environments. Generally, testing involves growing the hybrids in more locations while reducing the number of replications, thus allowing for more vigorous evaluation for adaptation.Several requirements need to be met for inbred lines classified as good parents in hybrid production. For example a female parent must be vigorous and produce high quality, healthy seed, and male parents should produce abundant and good quality pollen. An important consideration for choice of testers in the pedigree type breeding approaches is that testers be from a complementary heterotic group, maximize variance (among test crosses), as well as possess high mean (Bernardo 2010; see chapter 9).The History of Canola Seed Development Hybrid Rice and Seed Hybrid Rye BreedingMulti-lines are generally a set of isolines (traditionally created using backcrossing; or can be through transformation) that differ for one trait or more. These are grown in self-pollinating crops, where cultivars are pure-lines, so a mixture of pure-lines (if they are isolines) can form a multi-line cultivar. This approach has been used to provide control over a prevailing pathogen, such as a multiline cultivar with different rust resistance genes in wheat. This should theoretically provide better protection against pathogen races and prevent a total crop loss. The pure lines are phenotypically uniform for morphological and other traits of agronomic importance (e.g., height, maturity, photoperiod), in addition to genetic resistance to a specific disease (or any other trait, for example, abiotic stress). See Breth (1976).Backcrossing is used to develop isogenic lines which are then combined in a predetermined ratio.A blend or composite cultivar, like a multiline, is a mixture of different genotypes. The difference between the two lies primarily in the genetic distance between the components of the mixture. Whereas a multiline consists of closely related lines (isolines), a composite may consist of different types of cultivars. It is intended to pick genotypes in a blend to minimize differences in maturity, growth habit, lodging, and disease resistance in the package. This consideration is critical to having uniformity in the cultivar. However, a different approach would be to pick blends that can be phenotypically different if the intention is to maintain some level of percentages.WB Seed Company provides additional information to familiarize yourself with examples of a blend cultivar system in commercial production.1.6: Breeding Methods Asheesh Singh; Arti Singh; and Anthony A. MahamaThe results of breeding and selection may be new varieties or clones that are superior to currently used standard commercially grown genotypes (checks) according to some criterion or criteria, or populations that are superior to previous ones. Several breeding strategies exist and though some methods are generally commonly accepted, different methods are applied in different crops as they are more efficient and effective based on the type of mating of different crops, resources and objectives. In other words different breeding strategies are deployed and used to maximize superiority per unit cost and time. Also depending upon the goals of the breeding program, different strategies may be used simultaneously or at different stages of the program.Identify and describe different plant breeding methods relevant to crops grown in Africa Mention and describe innovation used to enhance backcross breeding method Explain innovation used to enhance recurrent selection methodMethods Used in Self-Pollinated CropsIn self-pollinated crops, the following breeding methods are commonly used to develop pure-line cultivars:Bulk method Pedigree methods Single Seed Descent Doubled HaploidExample of self-pollinated crops in which these methods are used include: common bean, soybean, cowpea, groundnut, rice, wheat, barley, millet, and sorghum.In specific situations, for example, when a breeding program is converting pure-lines to contain a specific gene or 2-3 genes (of qualitative inheritance), the backcross breeding method is used.The doubled haploid method is not used in legume crops as these species have so far been recalcitrant to tissue culture and haploid induction and rescue.In cross-pollinated crops, the following breeding methods are used to develop cultivars: Recurrent selection (for example, maize) Development of hybrids: a 2-step process where first inbred lines are developed and assessed for their specific combining ability, followed by crossing of the inbred lines (generally, 2 inbred lines, but can be 3 or 4) to produce hybrid, as for example, maize, rice, sorghum, cotton.Few self-pollinated species (such as rice, sorghum, and cotton) have some level of outcrossing and expression of heterosis, which is exploited to develop hybrid cultivars.Recurrent selection methods are used to develop open-pollinated varieties or synthetics.The crop species that can be clonally propagated present unique advantages:1. Heterosis can be fixed in F and in subsequent crop production cycles, and its clones can be propagated to preserve the high yield advantage.2. Farmers can harvest the crop and use the vegetative plant part to grow the next crop. For example, potatoes, sugarcane, cassava.In breeding clonal cultivars, hybridization is made between two clones and a large F population (remember that parental clones are heterogeneous and heterozygous) is screened as each F is unique and different from other F s. This process is repeated over different crop cycles to identify the superior clone for release as a new cultivar.Pedigree MethodThe pedigree method of breeding is used in development of both self-pollinated (to develop pure-lines) and cross-pollinated crops (to develop inbreds). It is one of the most commonly used breeding methods. Selection of highly heritable traits is practiced in early generations on individual plants. Yield testing is generally done once homozygous lines are developed (Fig. 1). However, in an early generation testing procedure or a modified pedigree method, yield testing is done in early generations while within-family selection is still ongoing. Explanation of steps in Fig. 1 Select in F and later generations. Selected F plants (or seed from inflorescence of selected plants) grown in next season (in winter nursery if available).Selected F rows (or selected plants within rows) grown as F in rows (or yield plot).Selected F plants (or seed from inflorescence of selected plants) grown in next season (in winter nursery if available) as F . Repeat this process until selection is effective (remember, additive genetic variance among lines increases but decreases within lines as selfing is used).Bulk harvest the last generation when a row is grown (and appears homogenous), F or F and plant in the next season as a yield plot.Learning Objectives 1.6.2 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111055Grow through successive seasons of yield testing to select the genotypes that are superior to checks. Pedigree information is kept to maintain family information, which allows selecting more plants from families that are superior performing or to advance families for yield testing if those families are superior.Number of plants/row and population sizes vary between programs and some estimates can be obtained from text books or plant registration documents. These numbers will depend on the objective of the cross, number of crosses made per year, available resources (technical, infrastructure). Selection for other specific traits is simultaneously happening (on harvested seed, or specific nurseries). Single plants or inflorescence per plant are selected at each generation, but in some visibly inferior rows, breeder may not make any within rows selection (i.e., practice among row selection).Selection can be practiced in winter nursery if genetic correlation is high among home location and off-season location (i.e. winter/dry season nursery locations).A breeder may combine two or more methods of breeding and these methods will then be called modified pedigree (or modified bulk, or modified single seed descent etc.).Bulk method allows natural selection to act and remove undesirable genotypes from the population (i.e., per cross) (Fig. 2). The choice of growing environment will dictate what kinds of traits will be selected for or against, therefore care needs to be exercised to use environments that are suitable for realizing the objectives of the program. Explanation of steps in Fig. 2 Generations are advanced to homozygosity through bulks.It is a low cost, less technical method of breeding. Natural selection is used to remove undesirable plants.Artificial selection environment can be used to select for a trait of interest. Bulks can be grown in a disease or another stress nursery to select for that trait. Markers can also be utilized to select for desirable traits to constitute the bulks. These variations will make the scheme as a modified bulk method.Early generation testing of bulk may be done for yield testing and to make a decision on retention of populations based on ranking among populations.In modified bulk method, single plants or inflorescence per plant are selected at each generation; while in bulk method, plants from the entire population are harvested and seeded (all or subsample of seed) in next generation.Lighter shade yield plot = grown, tested, not selected; darker shade yield plot = grown, tested, selected and advanced to next generation testing.Single Seed Descent (SSD) was developed as a breeding method to rapidly advance lines to homozygosity so that selection can be practiced on homozygous lines (Fig. 3). The original intent of this method was to maintain a large population size to mimic the genetic variation in F generation for effective selection. However, this method is now used to reduce the time to develop cultivars. (Sleper and Poehlman, 2006). Explanation of steps in Fig. 3 Generations are advanced to homozygosity rapidly. In case of small grain crops (such as wheat, barley, oats), three seasons can be completed in artificial growing conditions (greenhouse etc.), and limited space is needed to keep a population size of 250-300 seed per cross.If true single seed descent is practiced (where one seed per plant is grown in successive generations, population size is reduced in each cycle due to losses due to no germination and emergence. As an alternative modified, single seed descent can be used where 2-3 seed per plant are planted in hill plots in each cycle, and 2-3 seed from each hill are collected from an inflorescence. SSD plots can be grown in a disease or another stress nursery to select for that trait. Doubled haploids are generated from heterozygous plants, typically F plants derived from crossing of two pure-lines or inbred lines. DH can also be developed from selected F individuals from a cross. This method is used in development of both self-pollinated (to develop pure-lines) and cross pollinated crops (to develop inbreds). Process is shown in Fig. 4.Generations are advanced to homozygosity in single generation. DH genotypes are true homozygous. Specialized lab is needed to create doubled haploids. Can be generated through a service provider.Population size is an important consideration because only one generation of meiosis occurs (at F ). This method is suitable for marker assisted breeding to select for traits that are fixed. Can develop cultivars most quickly. If sufficient seed is available, can go to advanced yield trial in season 3.It is becoming a preferred method of inbred line development in maize. The backcross breeding method is used if the objective is to introgress a gene into an elite cultivar or breeding line. Examples are disease resistance gene(s) and herbicide tolerance gene(s) (Fig. 5). By crossing to the recurrent (adapted) parent, the newly developed cultivar will contain the majority of the recurrent parent genome and only the gene of interest from the donor parent.If the gene to transfer is recessive (rr), progeny of crossing with RR recurrent parent will segregate as RR and Rr, and therefore progenies are selfed for one generation to determine the Rr type versus RR types (RR are discarded) before making the next backcross. With the application of molecular markers, this extra step has become redundant and F plants can be grown, DNA extracted from young plant tissue to determine Rr and RR types. RR types can be removed and crosses can be made with Rr types.For a backcross breeding program, if the gene to be moved comes from an unadapted or related species, the breeder has to be aware of inadvertently bringing in undesirable genes linked to the desired target gene (termed linkage drag). Larger population sizes will need to be grown to identify recombinants. Innovations, e.g. marker assisted backcrossing, marker assisted recurrent selection, and genomic selection, exist that reduce the need for large population sizes. Marker-Assisted Recurrent SelectionReliability for Selection 1.6.4https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111055 In Target gene/QTL selection, markers may be used to screen for the target trait, which may be useful for traits that have laborious phenotypic screening procedures or recessive alleles. In Recombinant selection, select backcross progeny with the target gene and tightly-linked flanking markers in order to minimize linkage drag. In Background selection, select backcross progeny (that have already been selected for the target trait) with background markers. In other words, markers can be used to select against the donor genome, and this will accelerate the recovery of the recurrent parent genome.Steps of Marker-Assisted Recurrent Selection Early Generation Testing (EGT) describes the procedure for selecting superior lines or families before they are homozygous. It also refers to a specific use where a genetic worth of a population is determined by analyzing yield data from a segregating (early generation) plot and removing entire populations. EGT is used in self-and cross-pollinated species.In the pedigree breeding method we looked at individual plant selection for highly heritable traits in early generations. With high heritability, individual plant selection is still effective, for example traits such as plant height, disease resistance, and morphological traits. Several breeding programs, however, follow a modified method (such as modified pedigree method), in which yield testing is started in an early generation (for example, F or F ) to make selections. The early generation lines are grown on yield plots (2 or 4 row plots), therefore, more resources are required to handle EGT. Nonetheless, EGT allows elimination of materials (lines) that are inferior due to use of replication and multi-environment testing. Also, selection for lower heritability can be practiced to discard inferior lines.Other breeders may choose to perform a yield test on populations derived from early generation bulks to identify superior bulks (inferior bulk populations are removed completely from further generation advancement). Thus, EGT testing in this scenario can be done for one or 2 generations followed by selection of superior plants, and then starting yield testing of these lines.Plant breeders working with cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) systems will aim to develop new 'B-lines' and 'R-lines'. In crops where CMS system is used to produce hybrids, different 'R' restorer genes are identified and breeders will improve 'R-lines' that will be used as males in creation of hybrids. 'B-lines' and 'R-lines' are developed using the self-pollinated breeding methods we learned about earlier in this module (pedigree, bulk, SSD, DH etc., or a modified method that combines more than one method in the development of breeding line of cultivar).An outline of a CMS system is shown in Fig. 8. Note that the 'R' and 'r' genes are in the nucleus and the 'S' and 'F' genes are in the cytoplasm.A breeder who develops 'B-lines' will use the backcross method to develop 'A-lines' using available CM sterility genes. A hybrid cultivar is produced by crossing of 'A-lines' with 'R-lines'. The A/B and R gene pools are considered separate gene pools (reproductive gene pools) similar to heterotic gene pools we learned about in maize systems.1.6.5https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111055 In the chapter on Steps in Cultivar Development, we looked at the development of maize hybrids using two-way crosses. Crosses are made within a heterotic group to develop superior inbred lines in the heterotic group. These inbred lines are crossed to testers from other heterotic groups to decide on the best specific combing ability. This process is repeated for all heterotic groups that the breeding institution or company works with internally.For evaluation, superior inbred lines from dissimilar heterotic groups are crossed to produce hybrids. Several 100 or 1000's of hybrids are evaluated each year to finally pick the most superior hybrid(s) for commercial release based on their performance and target area of adaptation (maturity, stress, environment etc.).Hybrid seed is produced by growing inbred female rows (say 6 to 8) from one heterotic group and inbred male rows (1 or 2) from a dissimilar heterotic group interspersed among the sets of female rows, and de-tasseling the female rows (that is, removing male inflorescences from female plant rows) before pollen shed. Manual or mechanical tools are used to de-tassel (prior to pollen being ready or shed to avoid any selfing of plants of the inbred female line). Cobs from female rows are harvested and these constitute the hybrid seed. In some programs, but routinely done in private seed industries, the male rows are usually destroyed when pollination is completed to avoid contamination from cobs from inbred male plants if allowed to grow and produce cobs.In recurrent breeding and selection, parents of a crop species are crossed to develop populations using various mating designs described in the chapter on \"Refresher on Population and Quantitative Genetics.\" Based on one or more selection criteria, and using within family and among family selection strategies, individuals are selected and inter-mated to produce the next generation. This procedure of selection can continue for an indefinite amount of time, hence the term \"recurrent\". Recurrent selection method is employed in order to achieve the following:The goal of recurrent selection is to improve the mean performance of a population of plants and to maintain the genetic variability present in the population.The underlying principle of recurrent selection is to increase the frequency of desirable genes that the breeder is attempting to improve.Recurrent selection is used to improve populations in cross pollinated species. Open pollinated varieties are one type of cultivar developed using recurrent selection.Mass selection: Female plants are selected after pollination with unselected and selected pollen source. Phenotypic recurrent selection: Male and female are both controlled. ONLY selected plants are intercrossed to obtain seed for the next cycle of selection. Expected genetic gain from selection of only the female parent is one-half compared to expected genetic gain when both parents are selected.Note that the terms mass selection and phenotypic recurrent selection are sometimes used interchangeably and one would have to look at the breeding scheme for details in order to determine which method is being referred to.The difference between genotypic and phenotypic recurrent selection is that Genotypic Recurrent Selection is selection based on progeny performance (combining ability), while Phenotypic Recurrent Selection is selection based on the phenotype of the individual.Fig. 9 Recurrent selection schemes for bulk method versus individual plant methods.There are several problems with selecting individual plants in the field:Micro-environment variability does not permit assessing breeding value.Competition effect due to uneven planting.Solutions to these problems include:Gridding designs (selecting plants within a grid) Not selecting plants that have missing neighborsThe generalized recurrent selection method consists of the following steps: development of a base population (for selection).evaluation of individuals from the population selection of superior individuals from the population intercrossing the selected individuals to form a new population.A base population can be an existing population (for example a maize synthetic) which may not have been previously selected for your trait of interest.More commonly, a base population will come from outstanding families from a recurrent selection program. It may also be created with elite inbred lines. Smaller number of inbred lines will ensure use of elite material that are similar morphologically, but inbreeding depression will be greater.Superior inbred lines are identified based on their performance in multi-location tests and superior general combining ability (specific combining ability is not as important in the performance of OPV; it is most important if one is developing a hybrid cultivar).These superior inbred lines are crossed using an appropriate mating design from among available designs (for example, diallel design).Individuals are evaluated for selection when advancing generations following crossing, and the type of cross made play a key role in the phenotypic and genotypic schemes employed in selecting individuals (Table 1). Progeny are produced by self-fertilizing the individuals that are evaluated for selection.Full-sib families are created by crossing the individuals to be evaluated in pairwise combinations. Since in each pairwise cross both parents are common for that family, individuals of that family are full-sibs.Half-sibs are formed by crossing the individuals to be evaluated to a common parent (which can be a population or an inbred line as a tester. Since all progeny have the tester as a common parent, they are half-sibs.As the name implies, the breeding populations creating from crossing parents, need to be improved in performance of the desired traits, in order to continue to make progress in breeding programs. Different methods are used for population improvement, and depending on the breeding program's specific project goals, can described as intra population or interpopulation improvement. Table 2 shows some methods that are used. Steps include:1. Plant a population (space planting individuals to facilitate note taking on individual plants).2. Evaluate for trait of interest and identify the best individuals (higher heritability such as flowering time or morphological traits are suitable for this method).3. Harvest seed of the best individuals and reconstitute seed to form the next cycle of recurrent selection. 4. In this example, pollen control can be exerted if the trait can be evaluated prior to flowering. Undesirables can be removed before they contribute pollen to the rest of population; and this ability to control parental pollen helps improve the response to selection.An intra-population improvement method: cross the individuals in a population to a common tester (population per se, or inbred tester), evaluate the half-sib progeny of each plant, select the best individuals, and intercross the selected individuals. The main step is evaluation of individuals through their half-sib progeny. There are numerous variations within and among crops based on what is used as a tester (population vs inbred), parental control, intercrossing.Where possible, it is desirable to control both parents. This can be achieved by evaluating in one season and recombining in another generation (in winter nursery or second season). This necessitates an extra season but genetic gain per year will be higher. While the half-sib are being evaluated, the remnant seed of the individual needs to be kept as reserve so that this seed can be used if the individual is selected based on the half-sib performance to intermate and create material for the next cycle of selection.In maize, obtaining selfed and half-sib seed from the same plant can be accomplished by self pollinating the single ear on the individual to be tested and using pollen from that individual to pollinate several individuals of the tester (bulk of population per se, or inbred line). The ears on the tester, bulked together from that individual as pollen source, represent the half-sib family to be tested for that individual.Recombining selfed progeny will require three seasons: (1) selfing and crossing to the tester, (2) evaluation, and (3) intercrossing selfed progeny.Female parent selected; population used as tester.Start with a random mating population Harvest ears of each plant (say, 200). Grow 200 half-sib progeny plots (with checks) at multiple locations (can be unreplicated or replicated). Traits of interest is yield (for example). At one location, grow in isolation as seed source for the next cycle. At this location, select plants within a half-sib row. At other locations, use for testing. At the location with isolation, grow the male rows (bulk seed of all half-sib families) adjacent to female half-sib rows. De-tassel the female rows.At the location where grown in isolation harvest ears from each selected plant by hand. Make selections to pick the best half-sib families. These ears will form the next cycle seed. Season 2, conduct random mating of selected plants.One can use an inbred line as tester instead of bulk seed of population used as male.1.6.7https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111055Female and male parent selected; population used as tester.Cycle 0: (intermate population)Harvest ears from each plant (selection may be performed) Divide the seed of half sib plants into two: part 1 for next season field testing, part 2 for remnant to reconstitute selected half-sibs.Season 1: Each half sib (using part 1 seed) is a separate entry in replicated or unreplicated trials with 2 or more locations, with checks.Select superior half-sib families based on performance. These selections will be used in crossing.Season 2: remnant seed (part 2 of seed bag) of selected individuals is used for intercrossing to form next cycle.Cycle 1: Seasons 3 and 4 -repeat as above.One can use an inbred line as tester instead of bulk seed of population used as male.Recurrent Half-Sib (Testcross Progeny)Start with an intermated population Season 1: plants in an intermated population are selfed and pollen used for selfing and pollinating a tester. Season 2: testcross progeny are evaluated in replicated tests. Selections made to identify superior performing progenies. Season 3: selfed seed of selected families are used to form the next intermating cycle. Cycle is repeated as above.The main steps are listed below.End of first year:Season 1: Make paired crosses between individuals in the population. Season 2: Evaluate the full-sib families in the field and identify the best families. Season 3: Recombine (intercross) the best families using remnant seed from the first season.Start of second year:Season 4: Begin the second cycle with paired crosses between individuals in the population.An advantage is the completion of one cycle per year. A disadvantage is less recombination between cycles of selection.Start with an intermated population. Make selections. Recurrent Selection Among Selfed Families This completes cycle 1 and S plants are obtained. The cycle is repeated as described above in season 4-6 for cycle 2, and so on.Variation can include more than one generation of selfing if more seed is required for evaluation.Reciprocal recurrent selection (RRS), as a breeding method for open-pollinated crops was first proposed by Comstock et al. 1949 to take advantage of both additive and dominance genetic effects. In brief, plants from one population are mated to plants of another population, and selection of individuals for the next cycle of selection is based on the performance of progeny in hybrid combination. For this breeding method, each cycle requires one generation for selection of individuals and a second generation for intermating of selected individuals to produce materials for the next generation. RRS is a procedure to improve both the general and specific combining ability of two populations simultaneously, and steps involved are as below:Plants are selected in each of two populations Plants of population#1 are selfed and outcrossed as the tester to the selected plants in population#2 to generate test cross progeny. Plants of population#2 are selfed and outcrossed as the tester to the selected plants in population#1. The resulting test cross progenies are evaluate in each season. Superior plants are identified based on their test cross performance. Selfed seed from these selected plants are used to intercross within each population to generate materials for the next generation. Cycle is repeated.Development of a Maize OPV Maize OPV Cultivar Evaluation Table 3 OPV advantages and disadvantages.Seed can be re-cycled (if grown in isolation or middle field harvested without a significant yield reduction due to inbreeding depression) Yields lower than hybridsCan have much more broader adaptability compared to hybrids (that are developed for targeted areas) Is not comparable to hybrids in areas where land is fertile and inputs are available to maximize yield May be less costly than hybrid Plants are less uniform May require less inputs than hybrids Seed needs to be harvested properly to use for next year, and even then there will be a yield reduction.OPV may be more accessible in areas where no hybrids are available or seed availability channels are poor n/aSince each clone breeds true (i.e., no gene segregation because no sexual recombination), breeding programs can evaluate a clone in several different tests simultaneously (field testing, disease nursery etc.). In clonal crop breeding, each cross produces unique and distinct F seed (true seed). True seed plants are transplanted into field testing and selection commences to identify which F of F 's are suitable for cultivar release.Step-wise reduction process is used to discard undesirable F clones each testing season (remember, clones can be propagated for more extensive testing once smaller number of desirable clones are identified. Shown in Table 4 below is an example of sugarcane cultivar CP 03-1912 developed in Florida. Synthetic cultivars are formed by using clones of inbred lines in pre-determined proportions for released to farmers. Farmers can use a synthetic for several generations (as open-pollinated population) but once inbreeding depression causes yield reduction, farmers need to use seed from the breeding institution or company. Therefore synthetics are reconstituted regularly by the breeder. Maize is an example where synthetics have been developed. In crops with self-incompatibility, synthetics are the preferred types of cultivars as the method exploits heterosis for a few generations.Clones or inbred lines used in the formation of synthetic are chosen on the basis of their general combining ability. Crossing is made to ensure random pollination allowing gametes of each component (clone of inbred line) to be equally represented.Teshale Mamo; Asheesh Singh; and Anthony A. Mahama Formal or conventional plant breeding programs (centralized breeding programs) are often designed to meet specific requirements of different groups of farmers in different growing environments (regions, countries, soil, or climatic conditions). Formal or conventional plant breeding programs have generally been more beneficial to those farmers who either have good crop growing environments or have the capacity to modify growing environments through the application of additional inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation to create more favorable growing conditions for new varieties. However, the results of formal plant breeding may sometimes not meet the requirements of those farmers who grow their crops under marginal soils and high-stress environmental conditions (Sperling et al., 2001) thus necessitating different breeding approaches to be created to meet the needs of poor farmers.Participatory plant breeding (PPB) and participatory variety selection (PVS) have been developed and implemented over the past 10 years as an alternative and integral part of the breeding approach in traditional plant breeding. It has been mainly implemented in developing countries where farmers with limited resources grow their crops in marginal lands of remote regions. It is practically implemented in areas where the technology transfer or adoption of modern cultivars is low (as farmers are not comfortable with taking the risk to replace their well-known and reliable traditional varieties with new varieties) or where modern cultivars are not available. Therefore PPB has emerged to address the agricultural problems of poor farmers in developing countries where resources and modern technologies are limited. PPB has been widely considered to be more advantageous to use in areas where low yield potential, high stress (drought), and heterogeneous environments exist. The various aspects of PPB described above are depicted in Fig. 1 below.State the different types, stages, and requirements of participatory plant breeding Describe the roles farmers play in participatory plant breeding Articulate the outcomes and impact of participatory plant breeding and participatory variety selection Learning Objectives It is an approach involving different participants including scientists, farmers, along with consumers, extension agents, farmers' cooperatives, vendors, traders, processors, government and non-government organizations in plant breeding research (Sperling et al., 2001). It is considered as \"participatory\" because of the mixture of different people from different organizations involved, especially end-users, having significant research roles in all major stages of the breeding, evaluation and selection process. These different actors participate in setting PPB goals, setting breeding priorities, selecting genotypes from a heterogeneous population, helping in evaluation and selection of cultivars in the farmers' fields and on research stations, releasing and popularizing high yielding cultivars, and helping in seed multiplication and distributing (McGuire et al., 2003). Participatory plant breeding is grouped into the following categories:1. Formal-led Participatory Plant Breeding describes a situation when farmers are asked to join in PPB activities which have been initiated, managed and executed by formal breeding programs such as National Agricultural Research System (NARS) or International Agricultural Research Center (IARC). 2. Farmer-led Participatory Plant Breeding describes a situation when scientists and/or development workers seek to contribute or support famers own controlled, managed and executed breeding systems. Scientists can support their own varietal selection and seed system.In any PPB approach, the first activity involves carrying out a diagnostic survey. The diagnostic survey allows an effective discussion between breeders and farmers and also enables breeders to better understand:1. agricultural problems of the local farming conditions, 2. farmers' crop management practices, 3. farmers' specific needs and preferences.The goals of PPB are to:1. Increase production and productivity in non-commercial crops in environments that are unpredictable and under abiotic and/or biotic stress. 2. Enhance biodiversity and increase germplasm access to local farmers. This provides benefit to local farmers, especially to disadvantaged user groups (women and poor farmers), for developing adapted genotypes. It also makes the breeding program cost-effective and output-oriented through decentralization that can address more niches. 3. Increase farmer skills to speed up farmer selection and seed production efforts.The types of participation in PPB are: Conventional: In this approach, there is no farmer participation. Consultative: Farmers are consulted at every PPB stage but the breeder makes the decisions. The consultation of farmers starts from identifying breeding objectives and selection of appropriate parental materials. In this approach, farmers participate in making joint selections with a breeder among genotypes in breeders' plots on station. Collaborative: In this approach, decisions are made jointly by farmer and breeder. Farmers and breeders know each other regarding selection criteria and their priorities for their research through two-way communication. To revoke or override the joint decision made earlier, both farmer and breeder need to agree on the change(s). Usually this type of participation is effective for self-pollinated crops. Collegial participation: Farmers grow genotypes in their farm fields and make their own plant or genotype selections. In this approach farmers can make decisions in a group or individually but in an organized communication with the breeder. In this approach farmers voluntarily supply some of the seeds of selected genotypes to the breeder for further evaluation and seed multiplication. Farmer experimentation: In this approach breeders do not participate in selection of genotypes or in any farmers' research activities. Farmers make their own decision either in a group or as individuals on how to implement their research activities with new genotypes without organized communication with breeders.In general, participation approaches to choose and implement depends on the resources availability and type of the crop which could be used in PPB.1. Set the breeding objectives/targets: Farmers' participation in setting breeding objectives begins from the participatory rural appraisal. 2. Generate (access) genetic variability from local landraces or using collections for testing with complementary characteristics. 3. Determine the approach (consultative/collaborative). This depends on the availability of resources and on the type of the crop (it is more easily done for collaborative participation if the crop is self-pollinated species) and selecting among segregating populations. 4. Evaluate cultivar and discard inferior genotypes (culling) (this is participatory variety selection if the farmer is involved in selection of genotype). 5. Collaborating with seed system (cultivar release, popularization, diffusion and seed multiplication and finally distribution).For PPB to be successful, the following requirements must be met:1. The local farmers should be interested in active participation during plant breeding/ selection process 2. Breeders and farmers have to collaborate with each other during each stage of PPB 3. Importantly, PPB has a better chance of success if: locally adapted parents are used in the development of crosses made for PPB selection of desirable or superior genotypes is made in the local environments cultivars that are selected by farmers should have traits important to the farmersFarmers:1. provide technical leadership role in testing cultivars to specific environmental niches. They also contribute their knowledge and experiences. 2. play a role in organizing farmer research groups. 3. provide information on cultivar preferences and important traits that could be maintained or introduced to the existing land races. 4. are involved in skill building through farmer-farmer interactions. 5. provide their landraces or their genetic materials that could be used for further breeding work. 6. provide land for testing the PPB genotypes.1. Production gain: significant production gains would be expected through increased yield, increased stability of crop yield, faster uptake of released cultivars, wider diffusion of the varieties and better identification of farmer-preferred quality traits (e.g. taste, ease of processing, etc.). 2. Biodiversity enhancement: Farmers communities get more access to different germplasm, more information related to germplasm as well as getting related knowledge, increases access to inter and intra cultivar diversity.The time of selection is short so cultivars are identified within shorter timeframe (3-4 years), i.e. cultivars identified faster. This reduces research cost. The released cultivars do not take a long time to disseminate to the farmers so less expensive for diffusing cultivars. Figure 2 is a timeline comparing conventional and PPB systems in bean breeding and clearly shows the fewer number of years involved in selection for the next cycle or variety release with PPB system. 4. Farmer knowledge increase and capacity is enhancement: this facilitates the development of more PPB lines, gain in extensive experience and increase in agricultural knowledge dissemination, including agronomic practices. 5. Farmers' needs are met. Farmer satisfaction increases due to fulfillment of their demand. A broader range of users, such as women, men, elders and young, is reached.Generally, participatory variety selection (PVS) is a continuation of PPB. Once potential cultivars are identified through PPB process, farmers can test those cultivars using PVS approach. Usually farmers participate at the end of the cyclical process.More specifically, PVS is an approach where selection of finished or near finished cultivars is made by the farmer on her/his own fields. The finished products/genotypes include released cultivars, advanced stage cultivars, advanced non-segregating lines in selfpollinated crops or advanced populations in cross pollinated crops.PVS includes research and extension methods that help to deploy genotypes (promising advanced lines/released cultivars) on farmers' fields. Therefore, cultivars that are developed through PVS, would meet the demand of different farmers (men and women, old and young).Participatory variety selection comprises three phases to select farmer preferred cultivars.1. Clear identification of farmers' needs.2. Search for suitable advanced lines or cultivars to test in farmers' conditions.3. Implementing the experiment on farmers own fields and dissemination of preferred cultivars.Importance of PVS In Fig. 2, conventional and participatory breeding methods are shown, comparing the steps and duration for cultivar release, using beans as an example. The impacts of participatory breeding are shown in Fig. 3 below. Genetic analysis using DNA marker diversity and Amplified Fragmented Length Polymorphism (AFLP) suggest that there are four wild bean gene pools, centered in: (1) Middle America (Mexico and Central America); (2) Colombia; (3) Western Ecuador and Northern Peru; and (4) the southern Andes (Tohme et al., 1996). The cultivated bean gene pool is derived mainly from the southern Andean wild bean gene pool and the Middle American gene pool. Wild stands are shown in Fig. 2. The major gene pools in turn have been divided into different races based on plant morphology, adaptation range and agronomic traits (Fig. 3). Biology of the Crop The biological cycle of the bean plant is divided into a vegetative phase and a reproductive phase following that. The vegetative phase starts from germination of the seed and ends when the first floral buds appear in cultivars of determinate growth habit, or the first racemes in cultivars of indeterminate habit. The reproductive phase ranges from the moment the first floral buds or racemes appear, to maturity. In plants of indeterminate growth habit, vegetative structures continue to appear when the vegetative phase has ended, which makes it possible for a plant to produce leaves, branches, stem, flowers and pods simultaneously. In determinate growth habit, the vegetative phase ends when the floral buds appear.Growth stages of common bean are categorized into four groups (Schwartz et al., 2010). Beans are classified in a C photosynthetic pathway. The maximum leaf photosynthetic rates at ambient carbon dioxide (CO ) concentrations is estimated from 12 mg CO dm h to 35 mg CO dm h . Recent report showed relatively high photosynthetic rates in common beans, and this might be due to improved measurement techniques, but still lower photosynthetic rates than soybean (White and Juan, 1991).Common bean, like most plants, flowers only in response to a certain amount of exposure to sunlight or photoperiod (termed the critical photoperiod), and are described as being photoperiod-sensitive, while others flower regardless of exposure time, and are described as photoperiod-insensitive or day neutral. Whereas day neutral genotypes occur, most common bean cultivars show a short day response for flowering (i.e. plants of such cultivars flower when the length of night exceeds their critical photoperiod). Genotypes of a high proportion of large seeded and highland germplasm are photoperiod-sensitive. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) reported that the photoperiod effects on common bean phenology increases with temperature. Higher temperatures cause a greater overall rate of growth and development. In general, both temperature and photoperiod have strong effects on growth and development of the bean plant. The inheritance of photoperiod-temperature response of flowering is controlled by few major genes. green or snap beans are horticultural beans grown for, and consumed as, fresh or processed pods green shell or fresh beans are grown for, and consumed as, fresh, full-sized seeds dry beans are grown for dried ripe seeds.Dry common beans are primarily characterized by the great diversity of seed types within the species: a rainbow array of colors and color patterns, varying degree of brilliance, and several seed shapes and sizes exist as shown in Fig. 4.Seed type (color, size, shape, and surface texture) is the character most commonly used to classify beans. Seed size of commercial cultivars may vary from 17 grams (navy beans) to 100 grams per 100 seeds (Faba beans).Seed shape varies from round to oblong to kidney-shaped with many combinations of color patterns. Surface texture may be shiny (brilliant), opaque, or intermediate. Growth habit in beans varies from determinate dwarf beans to very vigorous indeterminate climbing beans. Common classification often divides beans into two or three groups: bush and climbing beans, or bush, semi-climbing, and climbing beans (Fig. 5). Bean varieties are usually grouped as early or late, however, the range of duration of growth-period varies from one region to another, or among varieties of different growth habits. According to growth habit and region, days to maturity among bean cultivars range from 60 to 300. The difference is not only varietal but also environmental, especially for the factors of day-length and temperature.Common bean is a widely cultivated grain legume crop in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Bean is adapted to a wide range of environments, and grows in latitudes between 52 N to 32 S in humid tropics, in the semi-arid tropics, and even in the cold climatic regions (Fig. 6).It is a short-day tropical crop that requires between 300-600 mm precipitation to complete its life cycle, depending on soil, climate, and cultivar (Beebe et al., 2013).Optimum crop production requires temperatures of between 21-24 C during the growing season and soil pH of between 6.3-6.7.According to figures from FAO, world production is around 27.7 million tons (FAO, 2021). Latin America is the largest common bean-producing region, followed by the continent of Africa. Brazil, Mexico, and the USA are the three largest common beanproducing countries in the western hemisphere. In Africa, the majority of bean production is concentrated in the eastern and southern highlands extending from Ethiopia to South Africa. In this region, Kenya is the largest common bean-producing country.Common Bean production mainly occurs on dryland (i.e., depending on rainfall), with smaller land area under irrigated systems. Common bean is mainly grown for human consumption. In some countries it is one of the food security crops providing protein and fiber to more than 100 million people in Africa (Kimani et al. 2001). Common bean is mainly consumed as a mature grain in most parts of the world. Immature seeds, young pods and leaves are also consumed as a vegetable by some communities in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Plant protein is the largest source of protein in human diet of poor people in the developing countries. Common bean therefore plays an important role in human diet due to its high protein content. Common beans are also a key source of minerals in human diet, especially iron.In Africa, common beans are traditionally grown by farmers with small land holdings. This crop is often grown in complex farming systems as intercropped or in rotation with maize, sorghum, bananas, or other crops (Fig. 7).The range of growth habits (from determinate bush types to vigorous climbers), and the range of growth cycles (from 3 to 10 months in length) allow common beans to fit many production niches.In East and Central Africa, 23% of the production area is monocropped and 77% is grown in association, that is intercropping, with other crops (Katungi et al. 2010). Monocropping is dominant in southern Africa with only 47% of the production area assigned to intercropping with other crops. In this cropping system, common bean has the capacity to break disease and pest cycles usually associated with cereals. The ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen (N) for subsequent crops has made common bean a valuable crop in many smallholder cropping systems. Lunze and Ngongo (2011) reported that climbing beans have the capacity to fix 16-42 kg ha of atmospheric N per season and this can be further increased with good agronomic and cultural practices, thus boosting yields of non-legume crops. For example, in East Africa, sorghum yield improvements of 40-57% were reported when sorghum was grown in rotation with climbing beans. In the eastern region of Central Africa, yield of cereal crops grown after climbing beans increased by 25-40%. In this region farmers have no capacity to purchase inorganic fertilizers, neither do they have enough animals to supply organic fertilizer in the form of manure. As a result, common bean acts as a source of N supply to primary cereal crops. Common bean is therefore important in improving the soil health and helps maintain soil fertility.Biotic stresses such as diseases and pests are universal constraints to common bean production, especially fungal pathogens. Under favorable disease conditions, fungal pathogens cause significant yield losses. Yield losses also occur due to insect damage (Table 1).Anthracnose, rust, and angular leaf spot are widely distributed, while rhizoctonia web blight and ascochyta blight can be locally intense in warm-moist environments, respectively. In recent years, root rots have emerged as a significant problem for common bean production, especially those caused by Pythium spp. and Fusarium spp. Insects are occasional problems. In Central America the bean pod weevil, Apion godmani and A. aurichalceum, is the most important pest, while in East Africa the bean stem maggot, aphids, and pod borers cause the most serious problems.Abiotic stress is the major constraint to bean productivity in most tropical countries. Abiotic factor such as extreme limited water stress (drought) cause yield loss in Mexico, Brazil, Central America, and Eastern and Southern Africa. Heat stress adversely affects the cultivation of beans in Central and Southern America and Africa (Beebe et al. 2011). Nutrient deficiencies of phosphorous (P) and nitrogen (N) also reduces yield, while Aluminum and Manganese toxicity associated with acid soil, as well as low Calcium availability, cause significant common bean yield loss (Table 1). The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) was established in Cali, Colombia, under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system (in 1971) with the mandate to work on common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). CIAT coordinates all common bean research programs at the national level. Strong collaborative and active breeding programs are found in many countries throughout the tropics of the Americas and Africa, with interchanging of improved germplasm among countries.The primary mission of CIAT's bean program is to contribute to global food security. Their goal includes making bean production more profitable for small scale farmers in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean countries.CIAT has successfully developed bean varieties with genetic resistance to major diseases and pests, which have helped to minimize yield losses for farmers. More recently breeding programs have focused on breeding for improved bean tolerance to abiotic stresses such as drought and soil problems. These efforts have gained more significance due to more erratic climatic conditions that change the patterns and intensity of both abiotic and biotic stresses. CIAT's breeding strategy for beans focusses on priority bean grain (market class) types.The CIAT's bean program uses tools that allow them to support the broad goals including exploiting the biodiversity of more than 35,000 accessions in CIAT collection, biotechnology, particularly marker assisted selection, and gene discovery.CIAT outlines the technical contributions and responsibilities for various regional bean breeding centers such as ECABREN (East and Central Africa Bean Research Network) and SABREN (South African Bean Research Network), and national bean breeding programs, universities and advanced research institutions.Common bean is a self-pollinating crop, and thus breeding methods to improve seed yield and other important traits have followed methods similar to those applied to autogamous crops. These include pedigree selection (most commonly used breeding system in common bean improvement), back cross (for highly heritable traits, usually under single gene control), inbred back cross (1 or 2 back cross, followed by selfing), congruity back crossing (alternate crossing to each parent in alternate generations -maintains heterozygosity), recurrent selection (Fig. 8), single seed descent (among closely related elite lines), gamete selection (individual F plants of multiple parent crosses give rise to families) have been used. The breeding strategies of common bean have also followed approaches similar to those applied to other crops (Gepts, 2002). These approaches are described in Fig. 9. In addition, a threetiered breeding strategy has been proposed to accommodate gene exchange between distantly related parents and to have more success for integrated genetic improvement of common bean (Fig. 10). General Steps  1.9: Cowpea Breeding Arti Singh; Teshale Mamo; Asheesh Singh; and Anthony A. Mahama Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) (2n=2x=22) belongs to the Leguminosae family. Cowpea is an important legume crop ranked second after groundnut. It is grown for food and feed in multiple continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, the United States, and Central and South America). The center of origin and domestication is Southern Africa from where is was later carried to East and West Africa and Asia. Wild relatives of cowpea are found all over Africa. With grain comprised of 25% protein and several minerals and vitamins, it is another important crop that is vital for tackling current global food security challenges facing the world.Become familiar with the Cowpea crop List breeding institutions working on it Know classification system Describe adaptation and usage Outline production constraints Discuss breeding method used to develop pureline cowpea cultivars Outline a step by step breeding procedure using CB-27 cowpea cultivar as an exampleCowpea was domesticated in southern Africa and later spread to East and West Africa and Asia. Baudoin and Marechal (1985) classified domesticated cowpea into five cultivar groups (cultigroups).1. Unguiculata (seed testa thick and shiny) is the major group. Cowpea is a warm-season, annual, herbaceous and similar in appearance to common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) except that the leaves are generally darker green, shinier, and rarely pubescent. It has twining stems varying in erectness and bushiness. The trifoliate leaves develop alternatively, and petioles are 2 to 12 cm long. A wider range exists for leaf shape and size in cowpea than in common bean.Plant growth habit is categorized as erect to semi-erect, prostrate (trailing type) or climbing, and indeterminate to determinate, depending on the genotype. However, most cowpea accessions have the indeterminate type of growth habit. Cowpea has a strong taproot system and the depth of the root has been measured up to 95 inches after 8 weeks of seeding. Flowers are born in axillary racemes on stalks with 15 to 30 cm peduncles. Usually, a single peduncle has two to three pods, however, under favorable growing conditions, a single peduncle often carries four or more pods. The presence of long peduncles is a unique feature of cowpea among legumes, and this characteristic facilitates hand harvesting. The cowpea flowers vary in color from white, cream and yellow to purple, and the seeds, which are smooth or wrinkled, range in color from white, cream or yellow to red, and are characterized by a marked hilum surrounded by a dark arc (Fig. 1).Cowpea is a short-day plant and like other grain legumes, cowpea processes its food using a C3 photosynthetic pathway. Different cowpea genotypes show photoperiod sensitivity in connection with floral bud initiation and development. Some genotypes are day-neutral, while other genotypes display a wider range of photoperiods (Craufurd et al. 1997). In addition, few cowpea genotypes exhibit various degrees of sensitivity to photoperiod (extent of delay in flowering) and temperature (Ehlers and Hall 1996). Warmer temperatures speed up flowering time in both photoperiod sensitive and insensitive cowpea genotypes. The development of improved cowpea genotypes for warm environments requires an understanding of the developmental responses to heat and photoperiod. Cowpea cultivars show a wide range of reproductive characteristics. The flower initiation ranges from 30 to 90 days after planting, and attaining physiological maturity (dry seed maturity) ranges from 55 to 240 days after planting (Wien and Summerfield, 1984). Wien and Summerfield (1984) reported that cowpea cultivars that flower early have a shorter or more concentrated flowering period than cultivars that flower late. In Sub-Saharan Africa, selection for different degrees of photosensitivity has occurred in different climatic zones and this resulted in pod ripening coinciding with the rainy season in some given locations. This condition helps the plant during pod set and ripening to escape damage from excessive rainfall and diseases attack. Therefore, photoperiod and temperature responses of particular cowpea genotypes allow cowpea breeders to make parental choices to best utilize exotic and adapted germplasm to serve particular environments.Cowpea is used as food as well as feed, including forage, hay and silage for livestock in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Europe, USA and Central and South America. In Africa, people consume young leaves, immature pods, immature seeds and dried seeds. The stems, leaves, and vines of the cowpea serve as animal feed. Cowpea is also used as green manure and cover crop for maintaining the productivity of the soil. The grain contains 25% protein and several vitamins, minerals and fibers. Breeding efforts at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and national programs have resulted in dual-purpose varieties (with good grain and fodder yields). The dual-purpose varieties have provided both grain and fodder while fitting the different cropping systems, economic, and climatic conditions encountered in Africa. In addition, cowpea has great flexibility in terms of its use as farmers can choose to harvest the cowpea for grains or for forage to feed their livestock, depending on economic or climatic conditions.Cowpea seed size ranges from small wild types to 0.5-1 cm long. The 1000 seed weight of cowpea is 150-300 grams. Most of the time, seeds develop a kidney shape if not restricted within the pod. If the development of seed is restricted by the pod, the seed becomes more globular. The seed coat in cowpea can either be smooth or wrinkled and an assortment of colors has been observed (including Learning Objectives1.9.2 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111058 white, cream, green, buff, red, brown and black). Sometimes, the seed is either speckled or mottled. Many of the cowpea seeds are also referred to as eye bean (black eye, pinkeye purple hull) (Fig 2)where they are covered with a white tissue, with a blackish rim-like aril. In cowpea, the seed size is important because it directly influences productivity, and together with different color standards, can determine grain quality for the market. Therefore, seed size and color should also be considered as major traits of interest for breeding programs. In the United States, different cowpea cultivar classes with a broad range in characteristics are grown for horticultural use. All cultivars that are grown in USA are day neutral members of the subspecies Unguiculata cultivar group Unguiculata. The cultivars grown for seed are classified as Blackeye beans, are known for good yield production), the Crowders type are known for their largest peas, and are often used for canning. Cream peas are the most popular and have become increasingly important for home gardening, while field types have few popular cultivars and most cultivars are old agronomic types.Cowpea has substantial genetic diversity for growth habit. The major growth habits are categorized as erect to semi-erect, prostrate (trailing) or climbing types. Growth habit in cowpea ranges from indeterminate to fairly determinate with the non-vining types tending to be more determinate. Meanwhile, some of the early maturing groups have a determinate growth types.Cowpea is grouped into early, medium and late maturity group. However, the range for growth-period duration varies from one region to another or among varieties of different growth habits.According to growth habit and region, cowpea cultivars range from 55 to 240 days to physiologically mature. The difference is not only varietal but also environmental, especially for the factors of day-length and temperature.Cowpea is widely cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics between 35°N and 30°S, across Africa, Asia and Oceania, the Middle East, Southern Europe, Southern USA and Central and South America. Cowpea is a crop adapted to hot and dry tropical conditions. It is also considered drought tolerant compared to other legumes. They grow best at low altitude with a precipitation of 400 to 700 mm per annum. Optimum crop production requires temperatures between 20-35°C during the growing season, and soil pH between 5.5 and 8.3. Cowpea is grown on a wide range of soil textures but the crop shows preference to sandy soil. It has low tolerance to salt but somewhat tolerant to aluminium. Like other legumes, the crop does not withstand waterlogged or flooded conditions. Cowpea is sensitive to chilling conditions. The crop is grown in 45 countries across the globe. An estimated 14 million ha is planted to cowpea each year across the globe with total annual production of about 6 million MT, the current average is estimated at about 0.45 tonnes/ha (FAOSTAT, 2010). The production trend of cowpea across the world is shown in a Fig. 3. Cowpea is primarily an African crop. The largest producers are Nigeria, Niger, Brazil, Haiti, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Australia and the United States. Among these high cowpea producing countries, Nigeria and Niger each grow over 4 million ha and account for 45% and 15%, respectively, of the total world production (FAOSTAT, 2010). Cowpea is one of the most widely used legumes in the tropical parts of the world. It can be used at all growth stages as a vegetable crop. The grain is mainly used for human nutrition, making cowpea one of the most important dual purpose legumes. The nutritional content of cowpea grain is comparable to common beans, with relative low fat content. The protein in cowpea grains is rich in tryptophan compared to cereal grains. In Africa, immature green pods are used similar to snap bean in common bean.Cowpea grows well in association with cereal crops through intercropping. Cowpea is a major component of the traditional cropping system in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, where it is mainly grown with other crops in various combinations. It is grown as a millet-cowpea mixture (exhibit 22% of the field sampled), a predominant crop mixture system in the Sudan savanna of Nigeria (Henriet et al., 1997). In the dry savanna cropping system, millets have been grown with different crop mixtures including millet-sorghum-cowpea (represent 19%), sorghum-cowpea (10%) and millet-cowpea-groundnut (8 %) (Olufajo and Singh, 2002). Cowpea grain yield in the mixture is lower than under sole crop condition. The factors contributing to low yields under intercropping systems include low plant population, shading effects, and competition for nutrients. Cowpea is also used as green manure, where it is incorporated into soil and can provide nitrogen to subsequent crops, minimize soil erosion and suppresses weeds.Several biotic factors that cause yield reduction in cowpea include insect pests, fungal, bacterial, viral diseases, plant parasites, other organisms. Nematodes -Nematode also causes root damage to the crop and result in significant yield loss.Cowpea is a true diploid species with a chromosome number of 2n = 2x = 22. It is primarily a self-pollinating crop in most production environments, although up to 5% outcrossing can occur in some environments, possibly associated with pollen transfer by insects. Different cowpea breeding programs have their own priority of target production zones including the cropping systems, consumption preferences and major constraints to cowpea production in their agro-ecological zones.Most Cowpea breeders at IITA and National programs use bulk, backcross, and pedigree breeding methods to deal with large numbers of segregating populations because cowpea is an autogamous crop and most cultivars grown by farmers are pure lines. The primary objective in all cowpea breeding programs is higher grain yield and improved grain quality. In addition, to yield and quality traits, most breeders seek to breed in a wide range of abiotic and biotic stress resistance traits. The breeding strategy of IITA and regional breeding program is to develop broad range of breeding lines with high yield and adapted to different agro-ecological zones that possess regionally preferred characters for plant type, growth habit, days to maturity, seed type, combined with resistance to biotic and abiotic stress, along with quality. In general, the main focus of breeding programs is to develop extra early maturity (60-70 days) and medium maturity (75-90 days), non-photosensitive lines with good grain quality and possibility for dual purpose use, either for use as sole crop or as intercrop in multiple cropping systems.  Note: all cells in Tables 1-20 with \"n/a\" are blank cells.1.9.4https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111058Year -1989 Year -1990   Year -1992 The blackeye cowpea cultivators follow three management schemes:1. Single-flush main crop cut after ~ 100 days 2. Single-flush double crop, sown later and cut after ~ 100 days 3. Double-flush main crop, sown early and cut after ~ 140 days Short-term goal -to develop blackeye varieties with resistance to the: 1. common race of Fusarium wilt in California (race #3) 2. wide range of root knot nematodes 3. heat tolerance 4. increased yield potential Medium-term goal -to develop blackeye varieties that have resistance to early cut-out and greater ability to produce pods over an extended season (140 days from planting to cutting)Long-term goal -resistance to lygus, resistance to cowpea aphid Year -1994 Year -1995    Year -1996  Year -1997  1995, 1996, and 1997Kearney mean Yield 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997 Overall Mean  Year -1999 Recent example of Cowpea cultivar released by IITA in parts of Africa using participatory varietal selection.1. In Burkina Faso, two improved cowpea varieties developed by IITA have been released.i. IT99K-573-2-1 and ii. IT98K-205-8, 2. Using participatory varietal selection approach, local farmers and researchers choose varieties from various options after two years of trial in the central and northern regions of Burkina Faso.3. Selected varieties are early maturing (60 days), high yielding (2170 kg/ha), resistant to parasitic weed striga along with big size, preferred color, and cooking qualities pertaining to farmers' taste. 4. New cowpea varieties also have better adaptability to climate change and can be grown successfully in drier regions with low rainfall.Example of Participatory market-led cowpea breeding in Sub-Saharan Africa (Tanzania and Malawi) in assigning importance to traits (Fig. 5) Farmers' and consumers' preferences of traits in a variety or cultivar play a critical role on the release and adoption of new varieties. It is important to note that the preferences of the two groups differ and therefore, require the close attention needed to address those preferences (Fig. 6)..051.9.11 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111058 1. Alectra vogelii is a parasitic weed that causes considerable damage to cowpea plant by attaching to it and tapping nutrients.2. In Tanzania and Malawi, Alectra is one of the major weed growing in almost all cowpea growing areas.3. In Figure 4 is shown important traits of cowpea required by farmers. Out of 11 traits used in selection of best cowpea lines by farmers, only five traits (brown seed color, white seed color, good taste, large seed, many leaves and tender leaves) are specific to the final consumer, while the other six traits (early maturity, high yield, resistance to Alectra, resistance to diseases, tolerant to pest, drought tolerance) are agronomic traits. Large seed size is the most important trait from marketing perspective, whereas high yield, early maturity, and resistance to A. vogelli are the main agronomic traits which are the deciding criteria used by farmers to select varieties for growing on their farm. 4. In Figure 5 is shown an example of value chain approach used to develop cultivars (for example-IT99K-573-2-1) 5. This approach resolves biases and takes care of farmers, consumers and market preference and will not let breeders effort go waste like in past where outstanding varieties with excellent agronomic traits failed due to inability to satisfy needs of farmers, consumers and market at the same time.Marker-assisted selection approaches are being developed in cowpea with high-density marker maps and SNP markers becoming available. As cowpea is gaining acreage globally more investment is being made for breeding and marker development. This will assist in further development of MAS in cowpea. Genetic loci controlling important pest and disease resistance genes and agronomic traits have been placed on the genetic map (for example, Kelly et al, 2003). Closely linked markers to some of the biotic traits have been identified (Gowda et al., 2002). Most of these traits are governed by major genes and are potentially good candidates for MAS. Along with MAS for simply inherited traits, the genomic selection approach offers usefulness in future breeding efforts. Currently, joint efforts are being made by IITA, Bean/Cowpea Collaborative Research Support Program (Bean/Cowpea CRSP), advanced laboratories in the USA, Australia, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), Network for Genetic Improvement of Cowpea for Africa (NGICA) and Monsanto Corporation to exploit tools to complement conventional breeding methods for improving resistance to diseases and insects.Teshale Mamo; Asheesh Singh; and Anthony A. MahamaMillets are tall and vigorous grasses with panicles containing small seeds, and are grouped in the cereal family Gramineae, same category as sorghum and maize. Millets are adapted and used as staple food in the semi-arid tropics of Africa and Asia where other crops generally cannot be grown. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.), finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.), foxtail millet (Setaria italic L.) and proso millet (panicum miliaceum) are among the millet species grown widely in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Millet is one of the ancient staple human foods and believed to be the primary domesticated cereal crop. Although the exact origin and domestication of millet remains unclear, it is believed that millet was domesticated and cultivated over 7000 years ago during the Neolithic era in Africa and then distributed throughout the world as human food. To date, a total of 161,708 accessions of millet species have been collected and preserved in gene banks across the globe, and these collections comprise 98.1% of cultivated types (Sangham et al., 2012). Fig. 1 shows a field of millet with a path through it, in the Upper Region of Ghana, which is characterized by generally sandy soils and limited rainfall regimes.Globally, millets are grown in over 90 countries from 2004 to 2008 and on average contribute 32.3 million tons of food production annually (http://faostat.fao.org/). Major producers of millet include India, China, Nepal, Pakistan, and Myanmar in Asia, and Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mali, Uganda, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Togo, Senegal, Chad and Zimbabwe in Sub-Saharan Africa (Sangham et al., 2012). Pearl millet is mainly grown in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa while Finger millet is grown mainly in South and Southeast Asia and East Africa. Foxtail millet is grown mainly in South and Southeast Asia, while Proso millet is grown mainly in Asia, Europe, and North America. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), commonly known as bulrush millet, is a member of the grass family and originated in the semi dry land tropics of western Africa. The diversity and current distribution of the crop indicate that a large number of cultivated and wild forms of pearl millet is found from western Sudan to Senegal. In western Africa, a higher morphological diversity of pearl millet is found particularly in the south of the Sahara desert (Harlan, 1971;Harlan et al., 1975;Tostain et al. 1987). It is believed that the evolution of the crop under the pressures of high temperature and drought made pearl millet tolerant to moisture stress and high temperatures, in addition to low soil fertility. Such tolerance makes pearl millet a very important crop to farmers in the hot dessert parts of Africa and Asia.Pearl millet is grouped into four races based on grain shape.Race typhoides: This race is typically identified by obovate caryopsis in which the cross sections are obtuse and terete. The shape of the inflorescences is cylindrical and has more diverse morphology among the four races. This group occurs widely in all Africa and it is widely grown in India (Brunken et al. 1977).Race Nigritarium: the cross-section in caryopsis is angular with three and six facets in each grain. It has candle-like inflorescence and mature grain is longer and protrudes beyond the floral bracts compared to other group of races. Western Sudan and Nigeria are the main places where this race is found. Race Globosum: It has spherical caryopsis with candle shape inflorescence. It is mainly found in central Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Togo and Benin Race Leonis: It has an acute and terete caryopsis. The unique character of this race is its acute apex, which is ended by the remnants of the stylar base. It has candle-like inflorescence shape. It is mainly grown in Sierra Leone but also produced in Senegal and Mauritania.Pearl millet is a warm season grass that uses the high efficiency C type of photosynthesis to fix carbon and thus has the ability to produce high dry matter. It is a short day plant requiring long nights before flower initiation. It is produced mainly for grain and forage in the semi-arid tropics of Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The crop grows on different types of soil including, light textured soils, sandy, and on acidic less fertile soils.In Pearl millet, a wide variation is observed for vegetative, reproductive and physiological features, and these variations are advantageous in the development of cultivars adapted to different climates, environments and cropping systems. Knowledge of Pearl millet has three well defined growth phases: the vegetative phase; reproductive phase; and the grain filling phase.This phase is from emergence to floral (panicle) initiation of the main stalk. The seed of pearl millet takes 2-3 days to germinate under optimum temperature and moisture. The root has monocotyledonous type of root system consisting of a primary root, and adventurous type roots. It has deep root system penetrating up to 180 cm below the soil surface to absorb water. A research report indicated that in heavy-tillering pearl millet plants, the root system tends to have more horizontal spread than deep penetration.Similarly, those cultivars tolerant to early season moisture stress (3-15 days after sowing) have a 35% more root length than the susceptible cultivars.Pearl millet is an upright annual grass that tillers from the base. The main stems are 1-2 cm in diameter and are solid, attaining a height of 2-4 m with a round and oval shape. Pearl millet stem has slightly swollen nodes with a ring of adventitious roots at the basal end. Usually the internodal length increases upwards from the base of the stem. Pearl millet leaves appear as single leaf on each node in alternate orientation with leaf sheaths open and hairy ligules. Pearl millet has high potential to produce effective tillers enhancing the probability of producing more seeds from the same plant if flowering of tillers is synchronized with that of the main shoot. Different tillers arise from different branches and all can potentially bear productive panicles, a situation that can be important during unfavorable environmental conditions such as extreme drought. Reproductive stage is started by the formation of a dome-like structure which leads to the development of spikelets, florets, glumes, stigma and anthers, and finally stigma emergence (flowering) and pollination occurs. This is the time that marks the end of the reproductive stage. The critical time for grain number determination in pearl millet is the period between panicle initiation to anthesis. The inflorescence in pearl millets is a compound terminal spike known as panicle and is often similar in size and shape for a particular genotype.Usually the panicle is compact and cylindrical or conical in shape, 2-3 cm in diameter, and usually 15-45 cm long.1.10.4https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111059Grain Filling Phase This is the stage that fertilization taking place in the panicle of the main shoot and continues until the plant matures. During this phase, plant dry weight increases in the grain (seed). However, in some cultivars, elongation and flowering of tillers takes place during this time and in this case there is some dry matter translocation to the non-grain components, mainly to stems of the tillers. The end of physiological maturity or grain filling stage is clearly marked by the development of a dark layer of tissue on the grain. For most cultivars, this dark layer of tissue occurs in an individual panicle 20-25 days after flowering.Adaptation, Economic Importance and Uses Pearl millet is produced annually on about 29 million ha in the dry land tropical regions of which 16 million hectares are grown in Africa), 11 million hectares in Asia, and 2 million hectares in Latin America (FAO data, 2005). Pearl millet accounts for about half of the world's millet production. Africa accounts for about 60% of the area under millet cultivation, followed by 35% in Asian countries (primarily India), 4% European countries, and 1% in North America where millet is mainly used as forage and for poultry feed. Pearl millet is the third major cereal crop produced and used as staple food in sub-Saharan Africa which spans Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Sudan, and Uganda.Pearl millet is referred to as subsistence staple food of the poor people living in semi-arid and arid environments in Asia and Africa. Ninety-three percent of pearl millet grain is used as food in developing countries of Africa and Asia while the rest (7%) is used for animal and poultry feed in USA, Australia and South Africa (Sangham et al., 2012). The crop is traditionally used to prepare food products such as flat bread, stiff roti and porridge. It is used for bakery products and snacks.Pearl millet is grown on wide range of soil types, but light sandy soil is the best suited for the crop with rainfall of 350 to 700 mm per annum. Its high tolerance to drought allows pearl millet to regrow and produce tillers to compensate for losses due to drought stress thereby resulting in faster regeneration of yield of about 4000-5000 kg/ha when conditions are favorable. However, severe drought conditions result in yield reduction in the range between 500 to 600 kg/ha. In marginal areas, pearl millet is more reliable than other cereals such as sorghum and maize. In some parts of the world, pearl millet is produced in warm areas overlapping with other cereals such as sorghum, but it is less tolerant to waterlogging and flooding.Biotic stress: Diseases and insect pests are the major biotic factors significantly reducing grain yield and quality in pearl millet. Among bacterial diseases, bacterial spot (caused by Pseudomonas syringae) and bacterial leaf streak (caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. pennamericanum) are the major causes of yield loss in pearl millet. Fungal diseases including downy mildew (caused by Sclerospora graminicola and Plasmopara penniseti), blast (caused by Pyricularia grisea), smut (caused by Moesziomyces penicillariae or Tolyposporium penicillariae) and rust (caused by Puccinia substriata var. penicillariae) cause more yield loss than other fungal diseases. Among insect pests, millet head miner and stalk borer cause serious problems to pearl millet plants. Parasitic weeds such as Striga hermonthica and Striga asiatica are major plant pests contributing to yield reduction in pearl millet. These two parasitic weeds are serious problems in sub-Saharan African countries. Parasitic nematodes are also major problems in pearl millet production regions.Abiotic stress: Significant yield losses can result due to abiotic stresses which include drought (in all pearl millet growing regions), high soil salinity and soil acidity, and extreme high temperature at seedling stage and during flowering. Pearl millet (chromosome number of 2n=2x=14) is a diploid hermaphrodite with a protogynous type of flower development.Protandry (the stigma is receptive before the anthers are ready to shed pollen) in the hermaphroditic flowers of pearl millet enhances a high rate of cross pollination (> 85% outcrossing). Breeding of pearl millet began in Asia, particularly in India, in the early 1930s with an emphasis on high yield production and productivity, while in the USA the focus was on forage and biomass yield production. In West Africa, early breeding for pearl millet started in the 1950s emphasizing increases in grain yield. The discovery of A1 cytoplasmic-nuclear male sterility (CMS) system in Tifton, Georgia, USA and initiation of breeding of a commercially viable male-sterile line (A-line) is a breakthrough for hybrid cultivar development in pearl millet and this led to the release of the first F grain hybrid for production in India.Cytoplasmic-nuclear male sterility also provides control over outcrossing, enabling the application of testcross method where a large number of inbred lines could be crossed with few, better and high general-and specific-combining ability CMS inbred lines.Breeding objectives of pearl millet at ICRISAT include:1. high grain yield with compact head, more tillers, earliness and reduced plant height; 2. high forage yield with high biomass and good digestibility; 3. resistance to diseases, insect pests and striga; 4. tolerance to drought, heat and acid soils.Pearl millet breeding programs employ both hybrid and population improvement approaches at ICRISAT and West Africa and these methods help breeders to develop open pollinated cultivars (mainly in Africa) and hybrid cultivars (India and China).Mass selection: This is the most common type of cultivar development method being used in several African and Asian countries.In this method, a group of pearl millet plants are selected from an open-pollinated population and the seeds from selected plants are mixed and planted to begin the next cycle of selection. Mass selection in pearl millet has helped to improve traits with high heritability. The main criteria that have been taken into consideration to improve grain yield in pearl millet are head characteristics such as compactness, length of ear, the weight of grain, and uniform maturity. The hybrid breeding program at ICRISAT and West Africa includes the development of inbred lines and pure line selection and the use of cytoplasmic male sterility. Cytoplasmic male sterility in pearl millet has been used to produce a hybrid for grain production in India and for forage production in the USA. Several sources of male-inducing cytoplasm have been discovered in pearl millet including A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5. A1 is the most commonly used male sterile line for hybrid grain production in India. The CMS system involves the development of three-line systems (A, B, and R) in order to produce hybrid seeds. Line A is male sterile and serves as the seed parent, line B has the recessive form of the fertility restorer gene in the nucleus and does not have the capacity to restore fertility in A system; it maintains sterility. The R line has the dominant form of the fertility restorer genes, and so reverses the effects of the CMS cytoplasm of the A-line, therefore resulting in fertile hybrid seeds when used as a male parent. B and R lines should be multiplied in separate and isolated fields to maintain purity. For details, refer to Crop Improvement modules 5 (Steps in Cultivar Development) and 6 (Breeding Methods).Arti Singh; Asheesh Singh; and Anthony A. MahamaRice is grown on all six continents in the world except Antarctica. The two cultivated rice species are Oryza glaberrima, commonly known as African rice, and Oryza sativa L., commonly known as Asian rice, which has two major subspecies (japonica and indica). Cultivated rice is a diploid species (2n=2x=24) with basic chromosome number of 12. Twenty-one different wild varieties exist.Rice is one of the most important food crops in the world and is the staple food in numerous countries, particularly in Asia.Become familiar with the rice crop Demonstrate knowledge about the crop's biology and classification system Know the origin and domestication of the crop Outline the classification of the different production systems List breeding institutions working on the crop Discuss the breeding methods used to develop pureline and hybrid rice cultivarsRice has three distinct cultivated species and 21 different wild varieties. Information on the origin of glaberrima and the two oryza subspecies is as below:Oryza glabberima -domesticated in West Africa between about 1500 and 800 BC or about 2,000-3,000 years ago (Linares, 2002). Oryza sativa japonica -domesticated in central China about 7000 BC or about 8,200-13,500 years ago (Molina et al 2011;Huang et. al., 2012;Harris, D. R., 1996;Vaughan et al, 2008) Oryza sativa indica -domesticated in the Indian subcontinent about 2500 BC (Londo et al, 2006) Major CategoriesRice is grouped into four major categories worldwide:indica is the long-grain type and is non sticky when cooked japonica is the short-grain type which becomes sticky when cooked aromatic is the medium to long-grain type which when cooked has nut-like aroma and taste. glutinous is the type that is especially sticky and glue-like when cookedWild Ancestor of RiceThe wild ancestor of cultivated rice (Oryza rufipogon) existed over a broad range of geographic regions across Asia (Fig. 1). Domestication of O. rufipogon in response to human selection resulted in complete transformation of morphological and physiological traits of the plant. Consequently, cultivated rice (O. sativa) displays reduced dormancy, grain shattering and outcrossing, and reduced loss of pigmentation in the hull and seed coat. Transformation to Cultivated Rice In addition, there is a better synchronization of tiller development and panicle formation in modern rice cultivars along with an increased number of secondary panicle branches (Fig. 2), higher grain yield and weight, improved photoperiodic response.NERICA stands for \"New Rice for Africa\" developed using interspecific hybridization of O. glaberrima (African rice) and O. sativa (Indian rice) at the Africa Rice Center (WARDA) (Fig. 3). NERICA was developed for the purpose of raising the yield of African rice cultivars. Since inter-specific crosses do not result in viable seed, embryo-rescue technique was used for the production of NERICA rice. The resulting hybrid rice cultivar has a higher yield due to increased grain size, better growth and also resistance to biotic (diseases and pest) and abiotic (drought) stresses. Dr. Monty Jones won the 2004 World Food Prize for creating a rice cultivar specifically bred for the ecological and agricultural conditions in Africa. The new rice cultivar was suitable to African drylands including and is grown in Guinea, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, and Uganda. The growth of rice plant can be divided into three developmental stages (Fig. 6):1. vegetative (germination to panicle initiation) 2. reproductive (panicle initiation to heading); 3. grain filling and ripening or maturation (milky stage to maturity) In a tropical environment, approximately half of the days of growth (from seeding to harvest) are in vegetative phase, and onequarter each in the vegetative phase and the ripening phase.In The sequence of normally occurring seedling developmental events is presented, noting that there are exceptions to the sequence given.Seedling development can be further divided into four stages (Fig. 7):  Reproductive development consists of 10 growth stages based on distinct morphological measures as shown in Table 9.  However, plot yield weight remains the best way to determine the yield of lines or genotypes.Rice is a C3 plant. C3 photosynthetic pathway is not very efficient at transforming inputs to grain, in comparison to the C4 pathway. In order to increase rice yield there are ongoing efforts on development of C4 rice to create a new type of rice with enhanced photosynthetic capacity (Susanne von Caemmerer et al, 2012). The effort to develop C4 rice is worth it as rice is the staple food source in many Asian countries like India, China and Japan, and also it is grown in places where maize cannot be grown.Oryza sativa is classified as a short-day plant (i.e., requires long nights to flower). This means that heading date (the number of days it takes for the panicle to begin to exert from the boot, that is, the flag leaf sheath) is accelerated under short-day conditions, while heading date is delays when long-day conditions exist (Garner and Allard, 1920).According to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), rice can be classified into four major production ecosystems (Fig. 10):i. Irrigated rice -Rice is grown in well watered condition and is flooded throughout the rice growing season.ii. Rainfed lowland rice -Rice grown under this condition is dependent on rainfall only, and land is prepared such that it preserves the rain water. iii. Upland rice -Rice grown without irrigation water and relies completely on rainfall. iv. Flood-prone rice -Rice grown in river areas is deep water rice, with no inbuilt water control system.   There is huge diversity in Oryza species for shape, color, size as can be seen in  The procedure of milling and consequently polishing rice, results in the highly valued white rice which removes nearly all the outer layers and germ and leaves a product deficient in thiamine. Through fortification and parboiling, adequate quantities of thiamine and other B vitamins can be retained in rice. Parboiling is usually done in the mill where unhusked rice is generally steamed, so that water is absorbed by the whole grain providing an even distribution of vitamins in the whole grain. However, in conventional methods, the paddy is dried and dehusked prior to milling. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has three centers:The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has a global mandate to work on rice and its headquarters is in Los Baños, Laguna in the Philippines. The West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) has mandate to work on rice in West Africa.The International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has the regional mandate to work on rice in Latin America.Heterosis refers to the superiority of the F hybrids resulting from a cross of diverse parents, over their parents in performance of desired traits, for example, vigor, yield, number of productive tillers, panicle size, number of spikelets per panicle.The crosses (×) between rice subspecies showing heterosis in decreasing order are as follows (Fig. 14): Intrasubspecific heterosis: It is the most commonly used heterosis which provides around 15% to 20% more yield than the best check grown under similar conditions. For example The cross between these two subspecies shows maximum heterosis in the F hybrid. Major limitation in intersubspecific heterosis is the high spikelet sterility and long growth duration. The discovery of wide compatibility (WC) genes has provided a solution to overcome these problems allowing the utilization of these type of crosses.The crosses in cultivated species refer to only O. sativa and O. glaberrima. However, heterosis of yield is very high and plant stature remains a problem.In rice, the interspecific F hybrids cannot be used commercially. Examples of interspecific hybrids as a result of wide hybridization, generates genetic variability and bring together several biotic and abiotic stress resistance genes. For details on hybrid rice research at public and private commercial sectors, refer to the following links:The commercial rice crop grown as a hybrid crop is an F hybrid developed from the cross of two genetically diverse pureline parents. Good rice hybrids have the potential to yield 15-20% higher than the best pureline cultivar when these two (hybrid and pureline parents) are grown under similar conditions.Since rice is a self-pollinated crop, the male sterility system has been used to develop commercial rice hybrids. Commercial companies are more interested in developing hybrid cultivars because of the profits accrued from farmers returning each year to buy new seed. The higher cost of hybrid seed is partly due to the increased cost of development of the parents used to make the hybrids.Male sterility is defined as the inability of a plant to produce functional pollen grains. The use of male sterility in hybrid seed production has a great importance as it eliminates the process of mechanical emasculation. Three forms of male sterility that can be Hybrid Seed Production Using CGMS Hybrid seed production involves two steps:The seed of the CMS line (A line) is multiplied by crossing with the maintainer line (B line) either by hand (in plant breeding programs where a small quantity of seed is required) or in the field under isolation by space or time (to produce breeder seed for commercial seed production). Remember that the A-line is only a parent in hybrid production and it is not for commercial seed sale for farmer production. Seed companies may be interested to obtain marketing rights of A-line for their hybrid breeding program). Generally, A-line seed production field consists of 6 or 8 rows of A-lines alternating with 2 rows of B-lines. This pattern is repeated throughout the field as depicted below (6 rows of A-lines, alternating with two rows of B-lines and repeating pattern in field).2. Hybrid seed production (AxR): Hybrid seed is produced by crossing the A line with the R line in isolation. The hybrid seed is sold to farmers for commercial production so a large increase of parent seed and hence hybrid seed is necessary. More than one location may be planted to make the hybrid seed to minimize the impact of loss of field due to an environmental event or other causes. In the field, 8-10 rows of A-lines are grown interspersed with two rows of R-line to produce hybrid seed.Additional Information For Hybrid Seed ProductionThe planting dates may need to be staggered to achieve synchronized flowering of the two parents.For better pollen dispersal (from male parent) and seed set (on female parent), ropes or sticks are often used.Hormone treatment, such as Gibberellic acid (GA), can increase the receptivity of female to accept pollen. This happens due to better emergence of female panicles from the sheath, exposing the ovary to male pollen. Hybrid Rice Breeding using EGMSIn the two-line method, the male sterile line is (male sterility controlled by a recessive gene) crossed to a pureline that is male fertile (i.e. it possesses the dominant gene for sterility). Male sterility in the female line is genetically controlled by recessive genes and sterility expression is influenced by environment (temperature, photoperiod, or both), and the male parent is selected to be good pureline pollen producer.Types of EGMS Systems Used in Two-Line Hybrid Rice Breeding 1. Thermo-sensitive genetic male sterility (TGMS) -In TGMS lines, the sterility or fertility expression is controlled by temperature. Regardless of photoperiod, TGMS lines are usually highly sterile under high temperature and highly fertile under low temperature. The first TGMS line was reported by Japanese Scientist in the rice variety Remei where gamma ray induced mutation resulted in sterility (31-24ºC) to partial fertility (28-21ºC) and complete fertility (25-15ºC). 2. Photoperiod-sensitive genetic male sterility (PGMS) -In PGMS lines, the sterility or fertility expression is controlled by daylength. Under long-day conditions, most PGMS lines remain male sterile. Under short-day conditions, they revert back to being fertile. The first spontaneous PGMS mutant, Nongken 58S (NK58S), was reported in 1973 from the japonica (O. sativa ssp. japonica) cultivar Nongken 58 (NK58). NK58S retained male sterility under long day length (longer than 13.75 h) during anther development, while under short day length (less than 13.5 h), partial or complete male fertility was observed. Temperature response was also observed for this line. Under long-day conditions at high temperatures (~29°C) slightly more male sterility was observed. 3. Reverse photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterility (rPGMS) -PGMS lines express sterility under short day length and under long day length revert to being fertile. This system is known as reverse PGMS (rPGMS). 4. Photo-thermosensitive genetic male sterility (PTGMS) -PTGMS lines are sensitive to both photoperiod and temperature.Temperature is the important factor since PTGMS lines become completely male sterile or fertile beyond (over or under) a threshold temperature range, without any influence of photoperiod. In this system the effect of temperature and photoperiod is difficult to separate and under natural conditions both factors interact to determine sterility or fertility.1. There is no requirement for seed multiplication of a maintainer line, therefore making the seed production system cheaper. 2. No need for backcross breeding to develop a CMS A-line from B-lines.3. Hybrid breeding efficiency is higher in two-line breeding than three-line breeding since it allows use of any fertile line as a pollen source parent. 4. Undesirable effects of sterility-inducing cytoplasm do not occur. 5. It is ideal for developing indica by japonica hybrids as there is no requirement for restorer lines.Disadvantages of the EGMS Systems 1. The sterility trait is under the control of environmental factors, and any variation such as temperature fluctuation because of a storm, rain etc., will impact the sterility of EGMS lines. 2. Seed production can be done in the latitudes with optimal photoperiod length, therefore limiting options in some cases for which locations can be used. The seed multiplication (lines and hybrids) are constrained by space and season.Two-Line System Production Flowchart (Fig. 17) In conventional breeding, and for rice programs as well, two parents are crossed and segregating generations are screened for the trait of interest, for example, disease resistance, maturity, height and protein. Uniform lines are tested for yield and along with resistance, desirable varieties are selected and released. The development process from making the initial cross to variety release is shown in Fig. 18. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is an ancient crop that originated in North Eastern Africa. These places are also areas where greatest diversity of wild and cultivated species of sorghum are found to this day (Fig. 1). Domestication of sorghum probably took place in Ethiopia and some parts of Congo by selecting wild sorghum, approximately 5,000 years ago. India, Sudan and Nigeria are considered as secondary centers of origin. From these centers of origin, sorghum was probably distributed to other parts of the world (Acquaah, 2007). This early distribution and introduction of the crop helped generate further genetic diversity in other continents, such as Asia. The genus Sorghum has greatest genetic diversity ranging from 20 to 30 species. Cultivated sorghum along with the two perennial species [Sorghum halepense L (2n=40-forage sorghum) and Sorghum propinquum (Kunth)] are included in the genus sorghum. Based on morphological classification, all cultivated sorghums (Sorghum bicolor spp.) are grouped in five races along with ten intermediate races. The five races are: durra, kafire, guinea, bicolor, and caudatum.Most of these races differ mainly in their panicle morphology, grain size and yield potential. Durra type of sorghum originated primarily in Ethiopia and the horn of Africa, and then spread to Nigeria and other parts of West Africa where it became popular. Kafir types of sorghum developed in the eastern and southern parts of Africa where they grow well. Guinea types developed in West and Central Africa and grow well in that region, while the bicolor type originated in East Africa but is less important to African production. Sorghum is an annual grass, and belongs to the graminae family. It reaches up to 5 m in height with one to several tillers, and these tillers emerge first from the base of the plant and sometimes later from the stem nodes. The tillers on stem notes form when growing conditions are favorable. These tillers form on upper or lower nodes and are undesirable because they form later and produce small amount of grain that is unripe by harvest with higher moisture content. This can cause delayed harvest, as well as problems in storage, delivery and sales. Lower plant density (i.e. sparse planting) causes more tillering and higher plant density in field planting suppresses tillering. Tillering is suppressed when growing conditions are unfavorable.Optimum temperature for germination ranges from 27-35 C, and after germination the plant goes through root and leaves development rapidly. Sorghum has a fibrous root system which is mostly concentrated in the top 90 cm of the soil, but root growth can extend twice that depth under dry environments. Sorghum leaves are alternate with the leaf sheath and ranges from 15-35 cm in length. Total number of leaves on the plant varies between 7 to 24 depending on the variety and environmental conditions. Sorghum leaves have rows of motor cells along the midrib on the upper surface of the leaf which is unique characteristic of sorghum leaves as these cells can help the leaves to roll up rapidly during drought stress to minimize water loss from the leaves. In addition, morphological and physiological characteristics of sorghum such as extensive root system, wax on the leaves (minimize water loss) and the ability to stop growth during moisture stress and resume growth when moisture levels increase (from rain) are inherent characteristics of sorghum to adapt to drought conditions.The inflorescence or head of sorghum is called panicle that may be loose or dense. Under favorable conditions, initiation of panicle takes place after one third of the growth cycle. Each fully developed panicle can contain 800 to 3000 grains, each one usually enclosed by glumes. The color of the seed is variable. Sorghum flowers usually open during the night or early in the morning with those flowers at the top of the panicle opening first, and it takes 6 to 9 days for the whole panicle to flower. Sorghum is a self pollinated crop due to its flower structure but cross pollination (approximately 2-25 %) occurs naturally.In general, once the sorghum seedling emerges, the plant goes through three distinct growth stages represented as growth stage I, II and III. The first growth stage (GS I) is recognized as vegetative growth. During this stage, the plant develops leaves, internodes and tillers. This stage helps the plant to prepare for grain formation and growth. At this stage the plant can tolerate drought stress, heat and freezing temperatures. The second growth stage (GS II) is the reproductive phase in which the panicle is developed and maximum number of seeds per plant are set. This growth stage starts with panicle initiation and it continues to flowering. It is reported that it is the most critical period that determines the level of grain production. This is the stage when the crop's water requirement is high. Hence if severe moisture stress occurs at this stage, panicle initiation is hindered or delayed, leading to o 1.12.3 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111061 incomplete flowering, seed set and loss in grain yield. The third growth (GS III) is the grain filling period which starts with flowering and continues until the grain is filled with dry matter.Sorghum is one of the C4 grasses with high photosynthetic efficiency. It is a short day plant requiring long nights before flower initiation (start of reproductive stage) (Craufurd et al., 1999). The optimum photoperiod for flower initiation ranges from 10 to 11 hours and a photoperiod beyond 12 hours can stimulate vegetative growth. Tropical cultivars are more photoperiod sensitive than short-season sorghum cultivars (quick mature).Sorghum is a dry land crop requiring high temperature ranges from 27 to 30 C for its growth and development (Craufurd et al., 1999). Increased day and night temperature beyond plant requirements can delay flower initiation and development of flower primordia, and this reduces yield. The sorghum plant can tolerate a temperature as low as 21 C without significant effect on growth and yield.Grain sorghum is the most widely cultivated type of sorghum in the world, and it is the main staple food in dry land (semi-arid tropical region) areas of Africa and Asia. It is an important part of diet that is prepared in the form of boiled porridge, unleavened bread (pancake), popped (like maize), dumplings, beers and non-alcoholic fermented beverages. Sorghum grain is also used as animal feed, and the stems and leaves are used as green chopped animal feed, hay and pasture feed. It is grown as grain and fodder crop in the USA, Europe and Australia (Berenji and Dahlberg, 2004).In Africa and Asia, many people consume sorghum grain in unfermented and fermented pancake (breads), porridges, dumplings, snacks, and malted alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. White grain sorghum is mostly preferred for cooking while red and brown grain sorghum are preferred for beer making. In some parts of Africa, e.g., around Lake Victoria, where bird pressure is high, farmers may grow red and brown grain sorghum instead of white grain types, because these types of sorghum are rich in tannin and are bitter tasting thus preventing bird feeding and associated losses.In the USA, sorghum is primarily grown as a fuel crop (for ethanol production) and there are few food products available to consumers; however several researchers have developed and introduced products from sorghum into the food market. In addition, several researchers have been working on health benefits associated with sorghum grain that might increase its use in the health food industry. For example, food products made from sorghum grain did not show toxicity to celiac patients (Ciacci et al., 2007), and several gluten-free sorghum products have been developed and are being popularized (Schober et al., 2005).In the United State, Central and Southern America, Europe, Australia and China, sorghum grain is mainly used as cattle, pig and chicken feeds. Similar to the use of silage corn, the sweet sorghum type is also used as cattle feed in Europe. The problem with sorghum as cattle feed is the presence of prussic acid (HCN) which causes death in cattle if the animal consumes fresh sweet sorghum. This problem is eliminated through cultivar choice and proper agronomic practices.Sorghum is one of the crops that can be used for production of renewable fuels in temperate regions. It is unique among grasses in being used as feed stocks for renewable energy because it can be used in various forms for biofuel production. Starch and sugar are converted to ethanol, and lignocellulose (composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin -inedible parts of the plant) is converted to biogas, making sweet sorghum a unique biofuel crop that is also used as food and fodder.Sorghum is classified into four major groups based on the applications.1. Grain sorghum: this group is used as staple food in the tropical areas of Africa and Asia and is often used as raw materials for making alcoholic beverages, sweets and glucose. 0 o 2. Sweet sorghum: this group is mainly produced for sugar production. This sugar is used as material to produce sweet syrup, which is similar to molasses. 3. Broom sorghum: this is recognized by long panicles with fine, elastic branches called fibers with the seed on their tip which is used as material to making brooms. 4. Grass sorghum: this is mainly grown for green feed and forage purpose.Commercial grain sorghum is classified into seven groups.1. Kafir sorghum: this group of sorghum is originally from South Africa. In this group, the stalk is thick and juicy, have large leaves, and the panicles are cylindrical in shape without awn. The seed are medium in size, color could be white, pink or red. Sorghum is a small cereal crop adapted to wide range of environmental conditions, but is particularly adapted to a warm weather. Sorghum is mainly grown between 40 N and 40 S in arid, semi-arid tropics and subtropics, and it can also be grown at an altitude of up to 2300 m above sea level in the tropics with annual rainfall ranges from 300 -1200 mm. It is also widely grown in temperate regions mainly in South China and USA and some parts of Europe. Cold tolerant sorghums are also grown successfully in Central America.Sorghum is a short day plant requiring 90 to 140 days to mature depending on climate and type of cultivar. Its genetic variation in response to photoperiod and temperature contribute to its adaptation to the wide range of growing environments. Sorghum's most outstanding characteristics are its heat and drought tolerance and it can also be grown on a wide range of soil types from vertisol (clay soil) in the tropics to light sandy soil. The soil pH requirement ranges from neutral to high pH (5.0 to 8.5) and it is tolerant to salinity compared with corn. Sorghum can be grown in poor soil and can produce grain where other crops fail to produce fruit.Intercropping is a cropping system involving the growing of two or more crops in the same space and at the same time. It is a common practice among small scale farmers in the semi-arid areas of Africa and Asia in order to increase productivity per unit area of the land (Kidane et al., 1989). Sorghum is one of the important cereal crops being used for intercropping. It is commonly intercropped with a legume crop such as sorghum-chickpea, sorghum-common bean, sorghum-pigeon pea, sorghum-cowpea and sorghum-mung bean. It is also intercropped with other cereals such as sorghum-millet and maize-sorghum. Several researchers have reported that a significant yield was obtained from intercropping compared to pure stands. Sorghum yield was increased 8-34% in a sorghum-legume intercropping system compared to sole sorghum crop stand (Singh, 1977). In Ethiopia, sorghum-mung bean intercropping gave extra yield of 495 kg/ha of sorghum compared to sole sorghum crop (Kidane et al., 1989). Striga infestation on sorghum was reduced when mung bean was intercropped with sorghum. In general, intercropping of sorghum with legumes has a benefit in that the legume crop allows efficient use of both space and time to optimize effects (increased land o o1.12.5 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111061 productivity). Intercropping promotes diversification of crops so that the farmers can harvest two or more different crops from the same piece of land, and it provides better weed control and reduces diseases and pests incidence.Diseases and pests are the main causes of significant yield losses in sorghum. The fungal disease Smut, caused by Sphacelotheca spp., may cause more yield losses than other fungal diseases and is widely important in the eastern, central and southern parts of Africa where sorghum is used as major staple food. The different types of smut are: loose smut, kernel smut, head smut and long smut. They are controlled by seed treatment with fungicides. Through breeding, use of resistant cultivars provide protection against this disease. Rust, which is caused by Puccunia purpurea, is another important fungal disease and is widely distributed in many parts of sorghum producing regions particularly in Africa. Grain mold is caused by several fungi, Curvularia lunata, Fusariumspp, and anthracnose (Colletotrichum graminicola) are the most important sorghum diseases that infect the grain during grain development and can cause severe discoloration of grain and loss of seed quality. Continued rainfall throughout grain maturity period increases the occurrence of grain mold and causes delayed harvest. Grain mold control measures include the use of resistant cultivars and adjustment of planting time to avoid long maturation period during prolonged rainy season. Downy mildew, ergot and bacterial streak are occasional important constraints.Sorghum insect pests important in tropical Africa are stem borer (particularly, Busseola fusca and Chilo partellus) and shoot fly (Antherigona soccata). Yield losses due to these insect pests are significantly high and the problem is widespread in major sorghum producing African countries.Other biotic constraints such as Striga, weeds, and quelea are also considered as major production contains. Striga is rated as causing high yield losses in all regions in Africa. In some countries, the yield losses were estimated to be more than 50%, particularly in Rwanda and Kenya (Wortman et al. 2009).Abiotic stresses such as extreme drought (in all sorghum growing regions), saline soil (some parts of India and Middle East countries) and acidic soil (mostly in Latin America) are major production constraints.International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), based at Patancheru, India was established in 1972 with sorghum as one of its five mandate crops.A total of 36,774 accessions have been collected from 90 countries (Reddy et al., 2008) and maintained in a gene bank, and these collections exhibit 80% of the diversity present in the crop.ICRISAT coordinates all sorghum research programs in the semi-arid (dry land) tropics of the world. It has strong collaboration and active breeding programs covering over 55 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a mission to reduce poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation in the dry land areas of the tropics. ICRISAT has been addressing national, regional and global concerns for sorghum improvement through developing sorghum cultivars with genetic resistance to major diseases and insect pests.ICRISAT is also developing intermediate breeding products such as a wide range of male sterile lines that are widely used by public and private breeding centers for hybrid cultivar development. ICRISAT is more involved in diversification of sorghum breeding populations through incorporation of major abiotic and biotic resistance traits that have not previously been used in sorghum improvement programs. The traits that are currently being given emphasis at the global level include tolerance to drought, heat, Aluminum toxicity, salt, head and stem pests, and grain molds. Earliness with high grain and biomass yield, and tillering capacity are also emphasized. Breeding Opportunities and Objectives Sorghum (2n=2x=20) is predominantly a self-pollinated crop with out-crossing ranging from 2 to 25 %. It has a small genome size (730 Mbp) compared to maize or sugar cane. Sorghum genome is a fully sequenced and provides many useful opportunities to plant breeders and genomics researchers.Breeding objectives of sorghum include: high grain and fodder yield potential, resistance to diseases (smut, rust, grain mold, bacterial blight, anthracnose, and downy mildew etc.), resistance to insect pests (stalk borer, shoot fly, and midge), resistance to drought and extremely acidic soil, wide adaptation and improved quality (for use in bread, porridge, snacks, and beverages).In sorghum breeding programs, breeders are developing two kinds of cultivars: 1) open pollinated (OP) or pure line cultivars (mainly for developing countries), and 2) hybrid cultivars (mainly for industrialized countries where the seed system are well developed).The breeding methods for open pollinated variety (OPV) is different from pure-line or hybrid cultivar development. Recurrent selection schemes are used for OPV, while breeding methods that we learned for self-pollinating crops are used to develop purelines. Hybrid development programs will also use pure-lines, however, they use three different kinds of pure-lines: A-line (cms line), B line (maintainer line) and R-line (restorer line) details presented in Breeding Methods module.Open Pollinated and Pure Line Cultivars -Development MethodsPopulation improvement: This is the most common type of breeding method being used in developing countries (Africa), and it includes a group of sorghum plants sharing a common gene pool. Sorghum population improvement program is mainly used for developing broad-based gene pools through recurrent selection methods. In population improvement, the recurrent selection methods are the most useful methods for improving quantitatively inherited traits by increasing frequency of genes that effect trait/traits under selection and to maintain genetic variability by recombining superior genotypes for further and continuous improvement. The method of population improvement is grouped into Intra-population improvement (practiced within specific population for its improvement), and Inter-population improvement methods (selection is based on the intercross performance between two populations). The most convenient population improvement methods in sorghum are mass selection, S1, and S2 progeny testing (ICRISAT annual report, 2010). Details of these methods are covered in the chapter on Breeding Methods. 2. Pedigree method (or another method applicable to self-pollinated crops): In this method, sorghum breeders are hybridizing between desirable complementary parental lines (Fig. 2), followed by selection of desirable plants from segregating populations until homozygosity is achieved. It is applicable for improving specific trait such as disease and insect pest resistance, plant height, early maturity, etc. These methods will lead to the development of pureline cultivars.Note: This method is used to develop B-line and R-lines for Hybrid development and production programs.3. Backcross breeding: Backcross breeding in sorghum is used to transfer favorable single or few genes including resistance to diseases (grain mold, rust and smut), and resistance to insect pests (stalk borer and shoot fly) from donor genotype, which generally has poor agronomic performance, into elite genotype (recipient).Note: This method is used to develop A-line version of B-lines for Hybrid development and production programs. This method of hybrid cultivar development in sorghum closely resembles that of hybrid corn breeding. The two major differences are that (a) heterotic groups are not well defined in sorghum as in maize, so groups are based on fertility restorer genes, however more recently, reproductive groups are emerging with the differentiation and use of nuclear fertility genes. The other difference (b) is that sorghum utilizes cytoplasmic male sterility system (3-line system) to facilitate hybrid seed production unlike maize where manual detasseling, which works very well is employed (detassel female inbred line and allow male inbred line pollen to pollinate) to create hybrid seed on female ears.Briefly, a plant breeder will develop B-line (maintainer) and R-line (restorer) under two separate reproductive groups (to maximize heterosis) using pedigree or Single Seed Descent approach or any other method suitable for a self-pollinating crop. Once new and superior B-lines are developed, backcross breeding is used to convert them to A-lines (CMS lines). As the backcross breeding program continues, general combining ability (GCA) or specific combining ability (SCA) may be assessed to decide which B-line conversion to continue and also to generate information on suitable R line parent in combination. The A-line is cytoplasmic male sterile and serves as the seed bearing parent. The B-line has recessive form of fertility restorer gene and is used as a maintainer for the A-line. The R line has the dominant form of fertility restorer gene in the nucleus and has the capacity to restore fertility in the A system and it is used as the pollen parent. For details, see the Breeding Methods e-module for diagram on fertility and restorer genes in cytoplasm and nucleus, respectively.Sweetpotato is grown for human consumption (i.e., table stock), processed starch, bioethanol, colorants/dyes, and for foliage for human and animal consumption.Examples of breeding goals include: resistance to sweetpotato virus disease (SPVD) and Alternaria stem blight, weevil resistance, improved yield, improved size, shape, and uniformity of roots, yield stability, high dry matter content, orange-flesh varieties with high nutritional value [i.e., beta-carotene content for combating vitamin A deficiency, improved chemical composition (i.e., starch, cellulose, sugars, protein content, carotenes, anthocyanins), improved micronutrient content (e.g., Zn and Fe)], extended harvest for subsistence cropping, drought tolerance, dense foliage with high protein content, improved palatability, and digestibility, vine survival and vigor after planting (especially during periods of drought), improved storage, resistance to skinning, and lower acrylamide potential.Breeding Centers in Africa and Elsewhere The lack of improved varieties of sweetpotatoes is mostly the result of limited investment in sweetpotato breeding programs in Africa, though this trend is changing as government and NGO's are now focusing more efforts towards the training and support of plant breeders working on secondary crops including sweetpotato. Additional effort is also now being focused on linking farmers with breeders to ensure that varieties produced by breeding programs are meeting the needs of farmers and consumers of sweetpotato. The rate of progress that is achievable for a breeding program is dependent on the gene frequencies in the base population, the effectiveness of the breeding methods that are used, and the access the breeder has to field sites, greenhouses, lab equipment, and trained personnel needed to conduct a breeding program.A breeder should consider the following when deciding on which breeding method to use:The germplasm that is available The inheritance of the target traits (if known) Biological constraints of the species (i.e., low seed set per plant, self-incompatibility, etc.) To better understand the impact of using different methods to generate progeny, CIP breeders and collaborators compared the population means (i.e., unselected and after one cycle of selection) of sweetpotato progeny created by 3 different pollination designs (I, II, and III) to determine which method of generating progeny produced the best results. For this experiment the breeders used the same 22 clones but crossed them in different ways: (I) using an open-pollinated polycross nursery, (II) using a partial diallel design where 4 of the best clones were crossed by hand to each other and to the rest of the clones (4 x 22), and (III) using a factorial design where the best 5 clones were crossed by hand to rest of the remaining clones (5 x 17) (\"the best by the rest\"). The progeny of each of these designs were planted in unreplicated plots in a single location and the population mean was determined for each = average performance of the unselected population. The breeders then selected the best 100 genotypes from each population and averaged their performance as a measure of the achieved increase in root yield after one cycle of selection. The standardized response to selection (R) was then calculated for each method by comparing the unselected mean to the mean of the 100 selected genotypes. The results for this experiment showed that the average root yield of the progeny created by method (II) (18.4 t/ha) and the average root yield of the 100 selected genotypes (23.5 t/ha) after one round of selection were both higher than the unselected and selected progeny generated by the other methods (I and III) (Table 4). These results indicated that for this scenario, controlled crosses made by a breeder guided by a partial diallel design (II) produced better progeny and more genetic advancement per cycle than an open-pollinated polycross nursery (I). The factorial design (III) was the least successful method though it only differed from the partial diallel design in that it did not include progeny from the intermating of the top 5 clones. This suggests that much of the success of the partial diallel design may be attributed to the successful performance of the progeny created by crossing the top 5 clones.Case Study: Comparing the Use of a Polycross Nursery vs. Controlled Crosses Considering Other Factors Despite the gains made using controlled crosses vs. a polycross nursery in this particular scenario a breeder must also consider other factors as well when deciding which method to use for their program. For example, not all programs have enough staff to make all of the hand pollinations necessary for a partial diallel design so a polycross nursery may be a better option. If a breeder does choose to use an insect-pollinated polycross nursery it is important that all clones be equally represented so experimental design and replication are crucial. If a polycross nursery contains ten or fewer clones a Latin square design is recommended (Table 5). For a large number of clones a randomized complete block design with replication is recommended (Table 5).Table 5 Recommended planting designs for polycross nurseries to ensure equal contribution from all parents.Latin square -n × n array, each genotype occurs exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column Randomized complete block design Label each stake with the clone number to make identification easier Avoid using a high N fertilizer to promote flowering Monitor plants for insect and disease problems, but avoid using pesticides that may injure bees, and other pollinating insects Most clones of sweetpotato are self-incompatible and do not produce selfed seed Each flower opens early in the day just after sunrise and lasts for only a few hours before fading around noon Each pistil contains 1 superior ovary with two carpels and each carpel has two locules that contain 1 or 2 ovules, so a single capsule can produce 1 to 4 seeds Flowers that are hand-pollinated usually produce 1 or 2 seeds and capsules that are open-pollinated produce 2 to 3 seeds.Seeds mature 4 to 6 weeks after pollination. The capsule and pedicel will both turn brown and dry and begin to shrivel when the seed is ready to harvest. Capsules that are left too long will dehisce (split open) so care must be taken to harvest seeds before they are lost.Seeds can be hand-scarified by scratching a small notch in each seed coat with a sharp needle or a small, 3-cornered file or acid scarified with concentrated sulfuric acid for 40 minutes followed by a 5-10 minute rinse under running water.Self-fertilization is rare because sweetpotato possesses a homomorphic, sporophytic type of self-incompatibility that is not affected by environment, chemical treatment, and cannot be overcome using bud pollination. This system is likely controlled by a single S-locus with multiple alleles with a dominant-recessive relationship. Heterostyly also occurs in sweetpotato; however, it does not appear to affect fertility.Cross incompatibility among different varieties can limit recombination and seed production and hinders targeted breeding especially when the parents with desirable traits of interest, such as disease resistance, drought tolerance, enhanced levels of protein, vitamins, macro-and micro-nutrients and dry matter are closely related and belong to the same incompatibility group. As a result breeders must maintain large populations that contain non-related accessions with complementary traits. Three types of cross compatibility (Table 6) exist depending on the success or failure of reciprocal crosses: reciprocal fertility occurs when fertility is present in both directions, reciprocal incompatibility occurs when incompatibility occurs in both directions, and unilateral fertility/incompatibility occurs when fertility occurs only when a genotype is used as the female but not when used as a male and vice versa. Incompatibility and sterility are often used interchangeably although this is done incorrectly. Sterility is the failure of reproduction due to the failure of a plant to produce viable gametes and incompatibility is the failure of viable gametes to fertilize one another. Sterility or reduced fertility in sweetpotato is not uncommon as aneuploidy due to multivalent formation among non-homologous chromosome pairs can often lead to an unbalanced number of chromosomes in the gametes. Sterility is also caused by gene action.Women are responsible for most of the labor when it comes to growing sweetpotato. Although men are usually involved in land preparation, especially when land needs to be cleared or soils are heavy, and in marketing, particularly where sweetpotato is a significant cash crop. Men also significantly contribute to weeding and harvesting, particularly when sweetpotato is intercropped.Traits that are important to farmers (e.g., piecemeal harvest for subsistence farming and resistance to regionally important abiotic and biotic stresses, etc.) are difficult to select for outside of the target environment(s), therefore, it is helpful to cooperate with local farmers/growers to gain access to additional testing locations and to gain insight into farmer/grower preferences. Participatory plant breeding practices are beneficial especially during the earlier steps when genetic diversity is high and most traits (e.g., quality characteristics, disease resistance, plant architecture, etc.) are visually evaluated. PPB practices are less useful at the later stages of selection because those traits that are usually selected based on visual evaluations are typically highly heritable and are already fixed in the population. The involvement of farmers and consumers also helps facilitate the rapid adoption of new varieties and lessens the chance that superior varieties are rejected because they fail to meet the expectations of the farmers. Regional and local preferences for flesh color, dry matter content, and texture, as well as adaptability to the local environment are critical traits in sweetpotato and should be considered during the early stages of selection.CIP breeders are currently using a convergent-divergent approach that is designed to meet the regional needs of growers by developing widely adapted cultivars and promoting collaboration among breeders and consumers (Lebot 2010). Due to the difficulty of breeding for adaptation across multiple agro-ecological zones in Africa a program must be conducted in a decentralized way. Therefore programs in different countries can develop cultivars that work best for their region. This method starts with a diverse base population composed of genotypes from a wide range of sources. This base population is evaluated in a single centralized 1.14.1 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/1110631.14: Groundnut Breeding Groundnut or peanut (Arachis hypogaea L. Millsp) is a self-pollinated species belonging to the Fabaceae family. Groundnut is a disomic allotetraploid (2n = 4x = 40). The two sets of chromosomes of A. hypogaea are highly diplodized, meaning there is little recombination between the A and B genomes except when the infrequent quadrivalent is formed. Groundnut is found in the Arachis section along with A. monticola, also a tetraploid, and ~25 diploid species (Dwivedi et al., 2007). Arachis is subdivided into nine taxonomical sections: Arachis,Erectoides, Rhizomatosae, Extranervosae, Heteranthae, Trierectoides, Triseminatae, Caulorrhizae, and Procumbentes with groundnut classified in the Arachis section (Dwivedi et al., 2007).The genus Arachis originated in South America and is comprised 68 species (Dwivedi et al., 2007;Krapovickas and Gregory, 1994). The species of Arachis are easily delineated from other closely related genera because they flower above ground but set seed below ground (Holbrook and Stalker, 2003).There are six centers of diversity for groundnut in South America including geographic regions in Paraguay-Paraná, the upper Amazon, the west coast of Peru, Brazil, and the southwest Amazon region in Bolivia. A secondary center of diversity also exists in Africa (Holbrook and Stalker, 2003;Wynne and Coffelt 1982). Arachis hypogaea is believed to have originated in the South American region encompassing southern Bolivia to northern Argentina (Holbrook and Stalker, 2003). Arachis hypogaea is thought to have arisen ~4000 years ago from a single hybridization event between two diploid Arachis species (i.e., A genome from A. duranensis, B genome from A. ipaensis) followed by a spontaneous chromosome doubling of the sterile hybrid to form a fertile allotetraploid (i.e., AABB) (Kochert et al., 1996;Young et al. 1996). Though the fertility was restored in the resulting allotetraploid it was reproductively isolated from its progenitor species creating a strong genetic bottleneck, which is partially responsible for the low allelic diversity present in modern cultivated peanut (Dwivedi et al., 2007;Kochert et al., 1996;Stalker et al., 2013;Young et al. 1996).    1.15: Cassava Breeding Shui-Zhang Fei and Anthony A. Mahama Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a dicot perennial shrub, belonging to the family of Euphorbiaceae. It is also known as tapioca, manioc, mandioca or yuca in different parts of the world. It can reach a height of 1-4 m (Fig. 1). Its tuberous storage roots are rich in starch (20-40%) and are harvested either for direct human consumption, animal feed, or industrial uses.Become familiar with cassava, its biology, center of origin and domestication, utilization, breeding objectives and methods, and the application of molecular tools in cassava improvement.The growth habit of cassava has important implications in cassava breeding as it can affect root yield. There are two growth types:1. Erect growth type, with or without branching at the top. 2. Spreading type, which is not cultivated.Branching occurs as a result of flower induction (Ceballos et al 2010), therefore the branchings are often called \"reproductive branchings\". The branches can undergo further branching when flowering occurs, resulting in high order branchings (Fig. 2).Cassava roots are true roots, therefore cannot be used for propagation. Cassava root is the most economically important organ of a cassava plant because of the starch-containing cells in the parenchyma tissue, the edible part of the root. Only 3-10 of the fibrous roots of a cassava plant will eventually bulk and become storage roots through secondary growth while the rest of the fibrous roots remain thin and serve to function in water and nutrient absorption (Fig. 3). Cassava is the sixth-most important crop in the world following wheat, rice, maize, potato and barley. It is a staple food for over 500 million people, most of whom live in developing countries where food security is a major concern. Cassava is grown successfully between latitudes of 30°N and 30°S. It is drought tolerant and can grow under annual precipitation of 600mm. Cassava can also be grown on marginally fertile soils with a pH ranging from 3-8. Its roots can be left in the ground without harvest, serving as a good food security crop in cases where other crops fail.  The main cassava production areas in the world are Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and South America. Fig. 4 describes the share of each main production area in 2014. Fig. 5 shows the production in tonnes in ten countries in 2014.Cassava roots are either directly consumed by humans as food, used as animal feed or for industrial use.  Cassava roots can be eaten raw, cooked after removing the skin and rind or even baked and the charred skin removed before consumption. Cassava roots have numerous culinary uses around the world. Cassava leaves can also be consumed as a vegetable.   All parts of the cassava plant can be used for animal feeding. In particular, the high energy content of cassava roots makes it an ideal carbohydrate ingredient in animal diet. The majority of the cassava produced in south Asia are used for animal feed in the form of chips and pallets. Cassava is monoecious, producing separate male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowering in cassava is highly genotype and environment dependent. While some early-flowering genotypes can flower one month after planting, others may take 24 months to flower, consequently, synchronization of flowering time can be challenging in cassava breeding programs. Flowering rarely occurs during long dry period, thus irrigation is required for crossing blocks during an extended drought.  Cassava inflorescence is developed from the fork of the branchings (Fig. 9). The female flowers (Fig. 10) which are larger in size but smaller in numbers than the male flowers are situated at the base of the inflorescence while the male flowers, often numerous are located on the upper part of the inflorescence.Female flowers open 1-2 weeks earlier than the male flowers on the same inflorescence. However, male and female flowers located on different inflorescences of the same plant can still open at the same time. Consequently, selfing can occur.Despite the occurrence of self-pollination, cassava is considered a cross-pollinated species and cross-pollination is done by insects. The average size of cassava pollen ranges from 122-148 µm, much larger and heavier than pollen of most other species. The longevity of cassava pollen is relatively short, lasting no more than 2 days. 1.15.4 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111064The degree of self-pollination depends on genotype, environmental conditions, and the presence of pollinating insects. Inbreeding depression is severe in cassava, thus seedlings of selfed progeny typically exhibit low vigor and lack competitiveness. Cassava fruit is a trilocular capsule (Fig. 11), with each capsule containing a single seed (Fig. 12). It takes 75-90 days after pollination for a cassava fruit to become physiologically mature. Dehiscing of mature cassava fruits is explosive, therefore bagging must be done before fruits become mature to collect seed in controlled crosses. Freshly harvested seeds are generally dormant and a 3-6 month of dry storage at ambient temperature is necessary to break the dormancy. Physiologically active cassava seed can germinate readily in about 15 days. The optimum temperature for germination is between 30-35°C. Cassava seed can be stored at 4-5°C and relative humidity of 60%. A germination percentage of greater than 80% has been reported for seed stored under such conditions for a year.Cassava can be propagated by either seed or stem cuttings (stakes). Because cassava plants are highly heterozygous, seed propagation will result in highly heterogeneous offspring that no longer possess the desirable traits of the seed parent. Consequently, cassava propagation is done mostly through stem cuttings. Multiplication rate is one of the determining factors that affect whether a new improved cultivar is successfully adopted or not. After one year, a typical mature cassava plant will produce 10-30 stakes sized at about 25cm (Fig. 13). Reducing the stake size to include only two nodes or one per stake will likely produce 100 or 200 stakes from a single plant per year, resulting a multiplication rate of 100 or 200. Such multiplication rates, although high may still not be sufficiently rapid to produce a large quantity of stakes in a short period of time to meet the consumer demand. Even higher multiplication rates have been achieved by growing 2-node stakes in high density in moist chambers and continuously removing sprouting shoots of 15-20cm long for rooting in boiled water. Rooted plantlets are transferred to soil and after a brief period of hardening are transplanted to the field for production. Such a system can produce a multiplication rate of 36,000.1.15.5 https://bio.libretexts.org/@go/page/111064 Tissue culture methods have also been developed for rapidly multiplying desirable cassava germplasm. Plantlets can be regenerated from either pre-existing meristem or through somatic embryogenesis (Fig. 14). Virus-indexed plants can be obtained by culturing very small meristems and regenerating plants.Cassava is widely believed to be originated from the southern rim of Amazonia. It is domesticated about 5,000-7,000 years BC (Allem, 2002) and was introduced to Africa by Portuguese and Spanish explorers, likely in the sixteenth century. Cassava did not become popular in Asia until in the 1960s.The genus Manihot contains more than 100 species, all naturally occurring between 33°N (southwest USA) and 33°S (Argentina). Wild relatives that have been used for interspecific hybridization include M. catingae, M. dichotama, M. glaziovii, M. melanobasis and M. saxicola. Among these, M. glaziovii (ceara rubbertree) is the only species that has made significant contributions in developing cassava germplasm resistant to cassava mosaic disease.Cassava has 36 chromosomes, forming 18 bivalents at meiosis. However, there are cytological and sequence information supporting the paleotetraploidy nature in cassava.Developing high-yielding cassava cultivars remains the highest priority of most, if not all cassava breeding programs. Root yield in cassava is, however, a complex trait and is affected by both genetics, environment, and their interactions. Cassava plants with an intermediate branching height have been shown to be highly correlated with high yield. Similarly, plants with good leaf retention (longer leaf life) are also found to be correlated with high root yield.Root quality is very important as it affects consumer acceptance and successful adoption of a cultivar. Cultivars with highly reduced cyanogenic glucosides and increased dry matter in the roots are desired. Cassava roots are naturally low in protein, therefore cultivars with enhanced protein content are desirable if they are used for animal feed. Cultivars with altered starch content and composition may be developed for specialty use. Cassava production is constrained by many biotic stresses including some of the most devastating viral diseases such as cassava mosaic disease (CMD) (Fig. 15) and cassava brown streak disease (CBD) that can cause significant yield loss. Bacterial diseases such as cassava bacterial blight and root rot can also cause damages.Developing cassava germplasm with resistance to a number of insects including cassava mites, mealybugs, and whiteflies which are responsible for transmitting the devastating CMD is of great importance. This page titled 1.15: Cassava Breeding is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Shui-Zhang Fei & Anthony A. Mahama via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.   Seed is a basic and fundamental input for agriculture. Accessibility of high-quality seed is one of the basic requirements to increase crop productivity, production and use (Pelmer, 2005). The dissemination and use of high-quality seeds have great benefits to increase and continue crop production, improve household incomes, minimize risks of insect pests and plant diseases, and enhance the crop production patterns, which would increase agriculture sustainability. Therefore, viable seed supply system strategies are important to ensure the availability of good quality varieties of seed to farmers in a timely and affordable fashion (FAO, 1999).Differentiate between formal (commercial), informal, and semi-formal (integrated) seed systems and their development Develop knowledge of seed regulation systems Know the International Union For The Protection Of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) Demonstration knowledge of Breeders' Right Know the different classes of seed Current Seed System in Sub-Saharan Africa Formal Seed SystemThe seed system represents involvement and interconnection among different organizations, institutions, and individuals associated with the development of new varieties and producing, testing, processing, storage, certifying and marketing seed to the farmers. Public and private sectors are highly involved in the production of different classes of seed for domestic/local use and export market. In sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of smallholder farmers are involved in various kinds of seed systems, which benefit them to produce and obtain the seed they need. There are three broad categories of seed systems in sub-Saharan Africa: Formal (commercial) seed system, informal seed system (local seed supply system), and integrated seed system (community-based) (Table 1). The detailed description of each seed system is outlined below.The formal seed supply system is highly regulated and covers seed production and supply mechanisms. This system involves a chain of activities leading to clearly defined products, i.e., certified seed of verified cultivars (Louwaars, 1994). It involves formal plant breeding, multiplication by seed companies, following established procedures including processing, bagging, labeling, and marketing. The formal systems also follow the standard of distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) of varieties. The system also assures that the cultivar identity and purity are kept throughout various levels of seed multiplication (Breeder/Prebasic to Foundation/Basic to Registered and/or certified seed). The main participants in a formal seed supply system are private and public sectors, and mainly focus on major economically viable crop species with good recurrent seed demands, such as hybrid maize. This kind of seed system is dominant in developed countries. It is a more complex system compared to the informal seed system. The formal seed system produces about 10-20% of the seed demands in Africa (Wekundah, 2012).Informal seed supply system is also sometimes called as 'farmer seed system' or 'traditional seed system'. It is a chain of seed multiplication and marketing steps that involve farmers who produce, disseminate or access seed through farmer-to-farmer seed exchange based on barter system and through local grain/seed markets mainly based on indigenous knowledge and local diffusion mechanism. In addition, small private companies and farmers cooperatives are involved in seed production in many countries for example, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi. The informal seed supply system is mostly characterized by its flexibility and operates under non-law regulated conditions. Cultivars may be landraces/local varieties or mixture of different varieties of the same races or may be heterogeneous. Besides, the seed may be of variable quality in terms of purity, physical and physiological quality (Almekinders and Louwaars, 1999). Though the informal seed supply is not formally framed, it covers the majority of seed related activities in most of sub-Saharan Africa and contributes about 80-100% of seed supply to the farmers (Maredia et al. 1999;Wekundah, 2012). It can also enhance wide diffusion of seed over relatively wide areas and promote the small scale seed businesses in the region (Sperling and Cooper, 2004). However, little is known about the system, production and marketing chain due to lack of regulation. The informal seed system is believed to help the farmers due to the following factors:Retain seed on farm from previous harvest/farm saved seeds Farmer-to-farmer exchange networks The seed do not go under certification process so it is less expensive This is a mix of informal and formal seed supply systems. Small farmers and community-based organizations such as small famers' cooperatives multiply and sell a small amount of good affirmed seed of improved cultivars to other farmers within a restricted production area with the least possible quality control (Alemkinders and Louwaars, 1999).Seed Regulation SystemsMost sub-Saharan African countries differ highly in seed regulation systems. This seed regulation system is comprised of seed quality control/certification and cultivar regulation. Cultivar regulation system follows steps to control the release of cultivars both by private seed companies and government-owned research institution breeding programs. The cultivar registration requires new cultivars to show distinctiveness, uniformity and stability (DUS), and value for cultivation and use (VCU) before being officially registered (Setimela et al., 2009). Each cultivar registration is performed by national and private breeding programs. Meanwhile, the national cultivar releasing committees have different criteria to register a new variety. Depending on the country's variety release regulations, the DUS and the VCU tests may take one to three years (three seasons) before enough data are available for cultivar registration. The seed law in terms of evaluation and release of varieties are different and inconsistent among sub-Saharan African countries. These different regulations and inconsistent seed laws (and implementation) among countries make it costly and discouraging for private seed companies to release and market their new cultivars.Most crop breeding programs in sub-Saharan Africa differ in their capacity. Some national and regional crop breeding programs focus on testing lines introduced from other countries, while others have established their own crossing/hybridization programs to develop breeding lines targeting specific and wide crop growing environments.  (David and Sperlings, 1999).In most African countries the following common features of regulations for cultivar release have been established:Developed guidelines and standard procedures for testing cultivars proposed for release. Independent national varietal releasing committee (NVRC) formed with a mandate to recommend for release or reject based on test results.","tokenCount":"45805"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"57ebcb3bfed8ed8aa781e0e194a21ec2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e8710f7f-73b7-474a-9657-7d50ad3e0eb2/retrieve","id":"-1734300245"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2631bfd8-d776-4f42-83d7-c03a2ee35866","pagecount":"26","content":"Rice is one of the main crops grown in Cameroon, and has become the most rapidly growing food source for millions of people In Cameroon, rice production is estimated at about 362,294 tons per year, while, importation is estimated at 850 949 tons to meet the country's demand (MINADER 2020).•Since 1973 there has been a significant change in rainfall pattern with excesses that leads to floods and less rains that leads to drought in the different rice basins in Cameroon.•Women, the backbone of the rice sector in Cameroon, are the most affected during stressed periods 1. Characterize local climate conditions, identified trends in climate variability and assess the impact on rice production.2. Assess farmers' perceptions on changing climate and their effects on sustainable livelihoods, food security and gender roles in rice based agricultural systems.Highlight constraints faced by the communities and coping and adaptation strategies that rice farmers use to ensure sustainable livelihoods in response to climate change.    • Overall, the study reveals how gaps between men and women in access to information, credit, and income have resulted to the increased vulnerability of women to climate change-induced food insecurity.• A gender-responsive policy should be formulated that requires closing the gap in access to information and empowering women to improve their livelihood situation and food security. ","tokenCount":"214"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"161a4910ad9fd89f81409f3e3517d1ec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d4c6c04c-5885-4e91-87f6-7ad01b93cef1/retrieve","id":"-26312200"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"947cbb22-95fd-4db5-afd4-7b117957ab6f","pagecount":"85","content":"The results of the same questionnaire in Mozambique (case 2) show that the majority of the farmers started spraying too early after sowing the cotton crop. They were unaware that such sprays reduce natural enemies and may not lead to increased cotton yields.Farmers often do not realize that their unsprayed fields are full of beneficial insects (parasitoids and predators) which keep pest numbers under control. However, these natural enemies are much more vulnerable to pesticides than the targeted pests. So when pesticides are used, natural enemies are killed and pests can develop unchecked. It is therefore essential to use non-chemical crop protection methods instead of pesticides. This booklet describes a number of tactics that can be used. It demonstrates how to work with nature to keep pests at tolerable levels. The booklet also draws attention to the Farmer Field Schools that have been set up world-wide. In these field schools, farmers learn to become active, self-reliant practitioners of nonchemical crop protection. This booklet, written by very experienced scientists, is highly recommended to farmers, extension officers and pest management practitioners. As a farmer of arable crops or vegetables, you strive to achieve the highest yield and the best quality product possible. Of course you would prefer to do this with a minimum investment of energy and resources, but you are continuously bothered by all kinds of harmful organisms (pests) that threaten to reduce the quality and yield of your crops. Protecting your crops from these pests is extremely important, but it is difficult to achieve maximum results with a minimum of effort. You have to look not only at a measure's immediate effect, but also at its long-term effect. This booklet gives an overview of the main non-chemical measures you can take to protect your crops from pests. Most of these measures are preventive: they involve planning and farming practices that will help you to keep pest numbers down and limit the damage they do.Non-chemical methods of crop protection have always been practised, but the introduction of chemical pesticides a few decades ago seemed to make crop protection a lot easier. As a farmer, you suddenly only needed to know which particular pests you were dealing with, which pesticides were available to control them, and how to apply these products safely. These products were so effective that it looked at first as though all pests could be eradicated in this way. In practice, however, the pests were not actually eradicated, because they came back every growing season. Many natural enemies were temporarily wiped out along with the pests, which gave the pests the opportunity to multiply even more explosively than before (see case 1 for an example).To ensure a healthy crop, it was often necessary to spray several times per season just to control one type of pest. Eventually, some pesticides did not even work anymore because the pests just became resistant to them. This happened first with pesticides used against insects and mites (insecticides), but eventually pesticides used to control diseases (fungicides and bactericides) and weeds (herbicides) also became ineffective. And since pests became resistant to frequently used chemicals, there was a continuous need for new chemicals, chemical compounds and mixtures.Case 1: Killing predators of pest insects makes farmers more dependent on pesticides (see also case 7)Brown Plant Hopper, Nilaparvata lugens, occurs in lowland rice in Asia. Before the introduction of insecticides it was hardly noticed in the crop because of its size of less than 3 mm. Its numbers were kept low by natural enemies, particularly the spider Lycosa pseudoannulata. One spider eats up to 20 Brown Plant Hoppers per day. Spraying insecticides early in the growing season kills most of the Brown Plant Hoppers, but the spiders are even more sensitive to the chemical. In the absence of its natural enemies, Brown Plant Hopper can recover and damage the crop. Since the introduction of pesticides, Brown Plant Hopper has become one of the most damaging insect pests in rice.Some pesticides are also extremely poisonous for people (see case 2). Farmers are expected to know how to handle these chemicals safely, but in practice many accidents have occurred.A questionnaire among 100 cotton farmers in Mozambique revealed that half of them had suffered from insecticide poisoning (Javid et al., 1998. Insect Science and its Application 18, 251-255.).More than any other factor, these disadvantages of pesticides have sparked renewed interest worldwide in non-chemical methods of crop protection. Fortunately, small-scale farms in the tropics never completely abandoned the use of various non-chemical methods. Based on what we know about the biology of pests, this booklet attempts to explain:? how these non-chemical pest management methods work and ? how various types of methods reinforce each other.We hope this will enable you, as a farmer, to apply these methods more effectively and to use your own observations to optimise them.It is not easy to compare the profitability of chemical and nonchemical crop protection. Especially if they look at one crop or one year, many people tend to under-estimate the costs of chemical control and over-estimate the costs (especially the labour costs) of nonchemical control. The costs of chemical control include not only the pesticides, but also equipment, protective clothing, safe storage and depreciation costs. And don't forget the doctor's bill if there is an accident. In remote areas the price that the crop will get on the local market may not cover the costs of the pesticides.Chemical pesticides are often very effective against the target pests, but sometimes they do not work at all because the pest has become resistant to the pesticide or because of unfavourable weather conditions. In that case, costs have been incurred and there is no crop yield to pay for them.Non-chemical crop protection is often less effective than chemical crop protection, but it is usually less expensive and is based on locally available inputs and interventions.The undesired side effects of chemical pesticides make it difficult to combine them with many non-chemical methods. We present one example in case 3.This booklet explains how to keep your crops healthy without using any chemical products, and provides you with some examples. It suggests that you only consider using chemicals if all else fails, and then always choose the chemicals that have the least toxic effects on nontarget organisms.Another booklet in the Agrodok series, Pesticides: compounds, use and hazards (No. 29), may be useful if you want to apply pesticides.This booklet does not give ready-to-use formulas on how to respond to pest X in crop A or to pest Y in crop B. It provides a more flexible way of thinking and working, which you can adapt to the crops you cultivate and to local conditions.Whether a farmer applies non-chemical crop protection methods or chemical pesticides, he or she must be able to recognise the most important pests that occur on the farm. It is also important to know more about their life cycles and how they are affected by local conditions. You may find Agrodok No. 28: Identification of crop damage helpful in identifying organisms that cause crop damage.Chapter 2 summarises the most important characteristics of pests and explains how you can learn to control them in a responsible way. The intention is not to eradicate pests, but to minimise their harmful effects.Chapter 3 describes how you can organise your farming activities in such a way that pests have less chance of multiplying at an explosive rate. Many of these measures are effective for several years and help to control more than one type of pest.Many measures to protect crops from pests are taken before or during cultivation. These measures are usually directed towards keeping down the numbers of a specific type of pest or category of pest organ-isms. One example is the use of healthy seed to prevent a crop from becoming diseased in an early stage of growth. Another example is sowing a crop in rows so that weeds can be removed using a hand tool. Yet another example is planting a Neem tree, which keeps many pest insects at bay.Since the effect of control measures depends to a large extent on a pest's life cycle, we treat pest management in this booklet per category of pest organism. In Chapter 4 we will look at the life cycle, prevention and control of insects and mites; in Chapter 5 we will look at disease-causing moulds, viruses and bacteria; and in Chapter 6 we will look at weeds. Chapter 7 is devoted to the parasitic weed Striga.This booklet discusses the general principles of non-chemical crop protection. To apply them effectively, you will need additional knowledge about the crops you are growing, the pests they may harbour and how they interact under local conditions. Farming communities often already have a lot of this valuable knowledge, but sometimes also have ideas and beliefs that are inaccurate or incomplete. For efficient production of healthy crops with little or no pesticide use, it is important to strengthen and upgrade the knowledge in farming communities.It is also important that farmers learn to make decisions based on this knowledge and on observing crops. Farmer Field Schools have proven to be an excellent means of applying and improving non-chemical crop protection. Successes have been reported from many parts of the world. For an example, see case 4 and figure 1.Case 4: Farmers in Ghana benefit from Farmer Field School 250 farmers participated in the programme, and went on to increase their yields by an average of over 50% per hectare, raising seasonable profits by 30% and reducing pesticide use by 95%. With the increased income, they improved their housing conditions, paid school fees for their children, bought new clothes, and contributed to their churches. Some farmers expanded their farm and turned it into a more business-oriented enterprise. Participants from the savannah zone were able to produce enough crops to store food throughout the lean season. Farmers from more food-secure districts could afford more meat and fish in their diet.Farmers especially valued the improvement to their health due to reduced pesticide poisoning. Female participants who were trained as farmers or extension staff members felt they had strengthened their organisational ability, leadership skills and self-esteem. Farmers working together also pushed local authorities and agricultural district offices to put more effort into community development.In Chapter 8 we will discuss Farmers Field Schools and how they can be used in a community to reinforce crop protection knowledge and experience.2 Pests and pest managementWhen we speak of crop pests, we mean all organisms that threaten the quality and yield of crops. These can be higher animals, such as rats, mice and birds, but they are more often lower animals, such as insects, mites, nematodes (microscopically small worms) or snails. Microorganisms, such as fungi, bacteria and viruses, can also cause harmful plant diseases. Higher plants, acting as weeds, can be classified as pests as well. However, the mere presence of these organisms on your farm does not make them pests. In principle they are not pests until you and other farmers are bothered by them. Plants can be especially bothersome in one situation, but quite useful in another. Plants growing wild on a field are often weeds, but in another situation they can be a useful source of animal feed or compost. Seeds, bulbs or roots left on a field after a crop is harvested can grow into bothersome weeds for the following crop.Of course not all plants and animals found on your farm can develop into pests. All potential crop pests share the following characteristics: ? They can damage individual plants in a crop. ? Under favourable conditions, they can multiply very rapidly. ? They harm the farmer because the damage they cause reduces the yield or quality of the harvested product, or can only be controlled at great expense.Pests differ in the way that they damage crop plants. Three groups of pests will be discussed in this booklet: insects, micro-organisms and weeds.Insect pests either eat plants or plant parts (see case 5 for an example), or they pierce the plants and feed on their juices.  Micro-organisms can be a pest because they can make plants diseased. These are called disease-causing or pathogenic organisms. The symptoms of such diseases can include malformation, spots on the plants' leaves, or rotting stems, fruit or roots. In figure 3 (case 6) you can see several diseases on a tomato plant. In reality you will seldom see so many diseases on one plant.The tomato plant is shown in figure 3. You do not see the micro-organisms that cause the diseases, but the reactions of the plant to the disease-causing micro-organisms. We discuss plant diseases further in Chapter 5.  The damage caused by one single pest organism is barely noticeable in a crop. But pests are often present in large numbers, because they can multiply very rapidly within one growing season. In the early stages of a pest infestation, very little appears to be happening because only a small number of individuals are multiplying. This initial stage is then followed by a stage during which they multiply at an explosive rate. This growth pattern is characteristic not only of insects, but to a certain extent of all living organisms.At a certain point, the size of the population will level off and even start to decrease. This happens either because the food supply runs out or because the population is eaten by its own natural enemies, which also increase in numbers. Case 7 and figure 5 show the effects of insecticide on Brown Plant Hopper and its natural enemies.Case 7: Insecticides trigger explosive growth of Brown Plant Hopper (see also case 1)Figure 5 shows the numbers of Brown Plant Hopper (BPH) and predatory spiders per square meter in an Indonesian farmer's field, and how these numbers vary over time (in days after transplanting of wetland rice).The upper diagram shows the results from a plot that was sprayed four times with insecticides during the first 40 days after transplanting rice. The insecticide applications are shown as vertical arrows. The population of spider predators decreases to less than 75 per square meters. Although the population of Brown Plant Hopper also went down slightly, it recovered faster than the spiders. Its numbers reached a peak of more than 1000 animals per square meter after 75 days. In the presence of so many Brown Plant Hoppers, spiders also increase in numbers, but too late to prevent crop damage.In the untreated plot, shown in the lower diagram, the farmer applied no insecticides. Before transplanting and in the early growth stages of the rice, spiders found enough alternative prey to multiply to 300 per square meter at 40 days after transplanting. With so many spiders, Brown Plant Hopper could not reach numbers that are damaging to the crop.The greater damage caused by insecticides to the natural predator than to the target insect explains how Brown Plant Hopper could become a pest in Asia. As a group, the pest organisms in an infestation can eventually have a big effect on the yield and quality of a crop. The damage is felt by a farmer in the form of a smaller crop yield or a lower-quality product that will have to be sold at a lower price.To prevent such damage, the farmer can take measures to control pests. But these measures cost money, so it is not a good idea to implement them automatically. The decision as to whether or not to take action has to be based on regular inspections of the crop. Weekly inspections will be sufficient in most cases.Case 9 shows how a field can be inspected. The purpose of the inspections is to identify which pests and how many are present in the crop, and to determine whether they are increasing in number.Crop protection using a lot of pesticides is primarily reactive. As soon as the first individuals of a pest are sighted, or when the population has reached a certain size, farmers (like you, probably) consider what pesticide they can use to reduce the number of pest organisms. The advantage of this method is that the desired result is achieved quickly and will continue for as long as the pesticide remains effective.In the past few decades, more and more pests have become resistant to chemical products. Besides, chemical pesticides often have a very broad impact, which means they kill not only pests but also useful organisms, and they are sometimes poisonous to humans too. For all these reasons, protecting crops through regular applications of chemical pesticides has become less and less effective.Protecting crops with little or no use of pesticides is possible, but it requires a way of thinking that takes into account the life cycle of pests. We will discuss life cycles of insects, diseases and weeds in chapters 4, 5 and 6, respectively. Rather than choosing to eradicate a pest as soon as you see a small number of individuals, you can also ask yourself why the pest comes back again every time you plant a new crop and why it reproduces so rapidly in that particular crop. It will soon become clear that pests take advantage of certain circumstances. These circumstances may be related to the pest, to the crop, to environmental conditions, or to a combination of the three.This knowledge forms the basis for a more pro-active (preventive) approach to crop protection. You have undoubtedly gained a great deal of knowledge already through your own observations in the field. Being pro-active means that you accept the presence of pests on your farm, but that you have organised your farming activities and adjusted your cultivation techniques so that pest populations generally do not become too large and the damage they cause remains within acceptable limits. In the unusual event that the population of a particular pest threatens to reach an unacceptable level, pesticides with the least unwanted effects can still be applied as a last resort.If you want to apply non-chemical crop protection, you must be able to recognise the pests that are the most harmful on your farm: the key pests. When you understand under which conditions they will cause most damage, you can take pro-active action to prevent that damage.Once the pest management measures you choose to take are all in place, they will reinforce each other to provide sufficient protection from these key pests. Remember that the measures you take should not be too expensive or require more labour than you can spare.Pro-active pest management is not a recipe that works everywhere and at all times. It is a flexible approach that you will continue to adapt to the circumstances on your own farm. You will have to think ahead about which measures you have at your disposal and how you will implement them. Some measures are effective for several years and help control various types of pests. For example, you might want to make a planting schedule in which you indicate the type and order of crops to be cultivated per field (crop rotation). This is discussed further in Chapter 3.In practice, you will continuously make small improvements. We recommend that you experiment on a limited scale, for example by planting a different variety or a different combination of crops on a small portion of a field. During the growing season, you will have to inspect your crop weekly to observe the main pests and get an idea of how quickly they develop.In case 9 we explain how you can inspect a crop systematically and thoroughly. We suggest that you make drawings of the crops and the pests you find several times in a year. You can then later see which pest you can expect at which development stage of a crop.If you share the farm labour with your husband or wife, it is also important to make a schedule for the observations, so you know who will do what. See case 10 for the observations on Striga.For insect pests, it is also important to know how their natural enemies develop. If the pest develops much faster than its enemies, you may still be able to take corrective action. At the end of the season you can evaluate the yield and quality of the crop.The field is inspected systematically by walking across it in a zigzag pattern (see figure 6, picture above). It is inspected thoroughly by detailed observations of a few plants (see figure 6, picture below). Men and women often share the farm work, but not at the same time. Therefore it is important to work out who should do which observation. And it is important to share not only the work, but also the knowledge.In Northern Ghana, field workers discussed germination of Striga and attachment to the host plant (see chapter 7) with a mixed group of men and women.The women are regularly in the field at this stage of crop development. Because they dig into the soil, they are able to observe the Striga-attachment.They distinguish two species of Striga. They used their hands to communicate this knowledge during a session of the group (see figure 7). Every season you will have to evaluate how effective your total set of measures has been in controlling the key pests on your farm. For each crop and pest, look at what worked well and what could have worked better. Use your findings to adjust your plans for the coming season.Farming enterprises, especially large ones, often look monotonous, with large fields of the same crop. This uniformity makes it easier to perform various tasks in the fields, but it is also a major cause of the explosive growth of pest organisms. One large field of a single crop is a nearly inexhaustible source of food for pests. Often the same crop is cultivated year after year on the same field, and this enables soil-borne pathogens and certain weed species to multiply unchecked.Small farms are usually more diverse, with various crops planted sideby-side in one field. Farmers have often developed their own methods to keep harmful pests, especially animals, away from their crops. These farms are also a lot less attractive to pests. So if you grow a variety of crops, then you already have a head start in pro-active pest management.One of the main pillars of pro-active pest management is making your farm less attractive to pests. A key requirement for this is that you create the greatest possible variety of plant and animal life above and below the ground. This variety of life forms is what scientists call biodiversity. Biodiversity severely hampers the growth of pests.A number of measures you can take to improve the biodiversity on your farm are discussed in section 3.2. They affect not only one crop in one specific year, but all crops over many years. They do not target just one type of pest, but are effective for a broad range of animal pests, pathogens and weeds.The main consequences of improving biodiversity are the following: ? Varied plant growth in and around the fields creates a favourable environment for the natural enemies of animal pests (insects and mites in particular). In many cases these natural enemies keep the pest populations from reaching a harmful level.Higher plants surrounding crop fields are important as windbreaks (figure 8).Live fences or other vegetation have several functions. They protect crops from large animals. They also shelter small animals that eat pest insects. An example from Sri Lanka is the Greater Coucal (figure 9), a bird which is or should be the farmer's best friend, because it eats a range of insects and snails.  ? Varied plant growth in and around the fields limits the spread of pathogenic fungi, bacteria and viruses, but also the spread of insects and mites. ? Varied plant growth in the fields can provide faster-growing and more widespread ground cover, which prevents weeds from germinating and growing. ? Multiple crops, which are cultivated at the same time or in rotation, stimulate a rich and varied soil life. This helps control the growth of soil-borne pathogens and weeds. ? A varied soil life, created in part by varied plant growth, is also good for the soil structure. Good soil structure and balanced fertilisation ensure the optimal growth of crops that have a maximum resistance to diseases and animal pests and that can compete successfully with weeds.The measures listed above not only help control pests, but often have other positive effects as well, which is all the more reason to implement them. Additional advantages can include the following: ? Ground cover crops protect the soil from rain and intense sunshine.? Keeping the ground covered with plants prevents soil loss, or erosion, caused by heavy rains or strong winds. This is particularly important on hilly terrain. ? Combining leguminous crops with other crops allows both to profit from the nitrogen fixation of the leguminous crops. See in case 12 and figure 10 how maize and a legume can be grown together with optimal utilisation of sunlight. ? Combining a shallow-rooted crop with a deeper-rooted crop makes better use of the applied manure or fertilisers. ? A well-balanced crop rotation also ensures that the fertiliser applications incorporated in the planting schedule are optimally utilised.Farmers in Kenya have intercropped maize with beans for many years, as in the upper row of figure 10. Root nodules on the bean crop provide Nitrogen for both crops, and both crops suffer less from pest insects.A problem of traditional systems is that the tall maize plants block out a lot of light, inhibiting the growth of the smaller legumes. The solution proved to be another arrangement of the two crops. You can see this in the lower row of figure 10. Instead of alternating single rows of maize and legumes, the two crops are planted in alternate double rows in the 'Mbili' (two) system.Legumes that are used in this Mbili maize-legume intercropping system are common bean, mung bean, groundnut and soybean. The Mbili system also resulted in greater returns on fertiliser inputs and provides food security when the maize crop fails due to drought. The alternation of beans with other legumes instead of growing beans every year reduces the incidence of insect pests and diseases in the bean crops. You won't need to implement all the measures that can improve the biodiversity on your farm, and certainly not all at the same time. You know yourself which pests are the biggest problem on your farm. If they are insects and mites, then the best thing is to stimulate their natural enemies. If they are pathogens that multiply above ground, then measures to control their spread will be most important. If they are soil-borne pathogens or soil-borne animal pests, then crop rotation is the most effective measure. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 will focus more on the effects of these measures on insects and mites, diseases, and weeds, respectively.Plant growth alongside fields and ditches Vegetation borders along the edges of fields and ditches can serve to ward off pests arriving from elsewhere. A combination of tall-growing trees and bushes with an undergrowth of grasses and herbs is sufficient for this purpose. Since many pests are carried by the wind, it is particularly important to plant these borders along the edges of the fields that face the prevailing winds. Many natural enemies of insects depend for part of their life cycle on nectar and pollen. It is therefore also important to plant trees, bushes and herbs in your borders that are rich in flowers. Unfortunately, vegetation may also offer food and shelter for some crop pests, so you may need to adapt it to make it more attractive to the natural enemies and less attractive to pests.It is best to use plant species that grow well under local conditions, because you can be sure that they will thrive. You may create a permanent border by using a mixture of grass seeds with annual and perennial herbs. You will probably have to maintain the border by cutting it once or twice a year for the first two to three years, primarily to suppress the growth of undesirable plants. Mow the border after the annuals have produced seeds. Do not fertilise the border because this will stimulate the growth of grasses, which will eventually take over. If you want to include annual herbs, or herbs that are not native to the area, you will have to weed them in the early growth stages, just as you do with your crops.The simultaneous cultivation of two or more crops on one field is called intercropping or mixed cropping. Mixed cultivation enables you to make optimal use of the available space in the field, and also offers advantages for the prevention of pests. Unfortunately, it is often not done because it hampers the use of mechanical equipment.There are three ways to cultivate two crops on one field: ? Companion planting is a system in which two or more crops are sown or planted together randomly in a bed or in a row; ? Row intercropping is a system in which individual rows of one crop are alternated with individual rows of another (The upper row in figure 10 is an example of row intercropping); ? In strip cropping a number of rows of one crop are alternated with a number of rows of another. (The lower row in figure 10 is an example of strip cropping).In theory, companion planting produces the highest yield per square metre and the greatest benefits, as long as care is taken to ensure that the crops do not compete too much with each other. These benefits are somewhat less pronounced with the other two systems, but the crops are easier to manage and to weed. With strip cropping the two crops can be managed completely independently.Case 13: The push-pull effect protects maize in Kenya fromStem borers (caterpillars of moths) are the major insect pests of cereal crops in eastern and southern Africa. Losses can reach as high as 80%, while those due to Striga range from 30 to 100% in most areas.Researchers in Kenya found a way to grow maize together with two other crops. One attracts stem borers. This is the pull effect. The other intercrop repels the stem borers, causing the push effect. Together they effectively protect the maize crop from stem borers. In figure 11 you can see how the three crops are arranged in the field.Both domestic and wild grasses can cause the pull effect. Napier grass is the most effective. It is planted in the border around the maize fields where invading adult moths are attracted to it. Instead of landing on the maize plants, the insects are attracted to what appears to be a tastier meal. Napier grass has a particularly clever way of defending itself against the pest onslaught: once attacked by a borer larva, it secretes a sticky substance that physically traps the pest and effectively limits its damage. And so the natural enemies lurking among the grasses go into action.The legume Desmodium repels stem borer moths and 'pushes' them away from the main crop (maize or sorghum). Desmodium is planted in between the rows of maize or sorghum. Being a low-growing plant, it does not interfere with the crops' growth and has the further advantage of maintaining soil stability and improving soil fertility through nitrogen fixation. It also serves as a highly nutritious animal feed. Other legumes have this effect as well, but Desmodium also effectively suppresses Striga.Figure 11: Intercropping maize with Napier grass and Desmodium to protect maize from stem borers. For details, see case 13.Crop rotation means that various crops are cultivated in successive planting seasons. Crop rotation is important for soil fertility, but also for controlling various pests such as soil-borne diseases and perennial weeds.Ideally, you should rotate grain crops with vegetables and root crops. Be careful not to grow two crops from the same family (such as potato and tomato or celery and carrot) right after each other. It is possible, however, to grow a grain crop more frequently than others in a rotation, because soil-borne diseases do not thrive in grain crops. Of course your regular crops have to be taken into consideration when planning a rotation. If you need 70% of your land to grow cereals, the possibilities for crop rotation will be limited. In this case, you could try to plant the crops that are most readily affected by soil-borne diseases or by particular weeds on 'new' ground every year.Cotton attracts a large number of insect pest species. That is why conventional cotton growing is associated with intensive spraying with insecticides.Benin cotton farmers, associated in the NGO OBEPAB (Organisation Béninoise pour la Promotion de l'Agriculture Biologique) have switched to a system of organic cotton production. They use no synthetic pesticides and no inorganic fertilisers. Another difference with conventional farming is that crop residues are recycled instead of burnt, to increase soil fertility. In most years they attain lower yields than 'conventional' cotton farmers. But for the year 2006 yield levels comparable to conventional cotton have been recorded. Additional advantages are that organic farmers don't need to buy pesticides, and they get a better price for their cotton.The basis for organic cotton is a three year crop rotation. The cotton crop in the first year is fertilised with cottonseed press cake and is grown on ridges of decomposing crop residues on the contour line. The cotton crop is followed by grain (maize, millet, sorghum) and oil plants (peanuts, sesame or safflower).Other possibilities include spices and vegetables like chilli or onion. In the third year, pulses like pigeon pea, mung bean, chick pea and cowpea are grown. The following cotton crop (in year 4) profits from the Nitrogen provided.In longer periods between two growing seasons, the soil is not left bare, but cover crops are grown instead, to prevent soil erosion, to suppress weeds and to supply food and shelter for beneficial insects that control cotton pest insects. Popular cover crops include alfalfa, sweet clover, red clover, white clover, vetch, cowpea, buckwheat and mustard.In addition, trap crops are grown on the edges of cotton fields. They attract pest insects from the cotton crop. Trap crops include sunflower, cowpea, alfalfa, okra and early sown cotton.The top 10-20 cm of the soil are the most important for crops. This top soil has a relatively loose structure, which makes it easier for plant roots to grow and provides them with air and water. Nutrients that the plant needs to grow are taken up through the water. The soil also contains many animals such as worms, and micro-organisms. Among other things, they are responsible for fertilising the soil by releasing the nutrients stored in plant residues and minerals. The soil is an important ally in pest management. Some of the soil micro-organisms and other natural enemies directly attack the pests. Besides, good soil quality ensures optimal plant growth, which maximises the plants' resistance to pest attacks.The crops you cultivate have a big impact on soil quality. The roots hold on to the soil, thus protecting the soil from being washed away by heavy rains. Above-ground plant growth ensures that soil particles are not blown away by the wind. Above-ground plant growth or a ground cover made of mowed plants and plant residues (mulch) also protects the soil from becoming overheated by the sun and keeps it porous after heavy rains. These factors ensure that the growing conditions for the plant's roots and other soil life remain optimal.Depending on local conditions, it may be necessary to take extra steps to protect the soil from water or wind erosion and to maintain the soil's structure and fertility. As noted above, these measures will ensure optimal crop growth, thus increasing the crop's resistance to pests. If it rains often and hard in your area, you may have to dig a system of water ditches to minimise surface runoff. This method of erosion control can best be carried out in collaboration with the village community.? During the rainy season, make sure that the soil is covered as much as possible with plants or residue from the previous crop. If the main crop is still small and a lot of surface area is exposed, you can consider cultivating a second crop that is sown earlier or that covers the ground quicker.? Add as many plant residues to the soil as possible. They improve the soil structure, soil life and soil fertility.If you add extra nutrients in the form of a fertiliser, be careful not to add too much nitrogen (N), because it makes the crop grow too quickly and become less resistant to pests. Phosphate (P) and potassium (K), on the other hand, increase the crop's resistance to diseases.(See Agrodok 11 on Erosion control and Agrodok 2 on Soil Fertility Management for simple non-chemical techniques).4 Insects and mitesAlmost every insect starts its life as an egg, out of which comes a larva. The larva progresses through 3-6 development stages and grows a bit larger with each stage. The insect becomes an adult after the final larval stage. This change in appearance is called metamorphosis. In one group of insects, the adults look very much like the larvae. They are called insects with an incomplete metamorphosis. Their larvae are also called nymphs. Only the adults have wings and can reproduce. Brown Plant Hopper belongs to this group. We show its life cycle in figure 12, on the left. The nymphs (larvae) usually consume the same food. For instance, the nymphs and adults of Brown Plant Hopper both feed on rice plants.Another group of insects goes through a complete metamorphosis; their larvae look a lot different from the adults. Their last larva stage is followed by a dormant stage, after which the adult crawls out of its pupa. On the right of figure 12 we show the life cycle of a lady beetle, which is an example of an insect with a complete metamorphosis. In the case of the lady beetle, both the larvae and the adult beetles eat insects. However, in most other cases, the larvae consume more and different food than the adults. Examples are cotton pink bollworm (case 5) and maize stem borer (case 13). In both these cases, only the larvae (caterpillars) are damaging to their host plant, while the adult moths feed on nectar and pollen.Adult insects are responsible for the reproduction of the species. If they have wings, they can fly from field to field and spread the population over longer distances. Plant-eating insects normally lay their eggs directly on a host plant on which the larvae can feed. The larvae stay on this plant or on neighbouring plants. Predator insects like lady beetles lay their eggs on plants with many prey insects. The mouthparts of insects are adapted to their food preferences. Plantsucking insects have pointed mouthparts with which they can pierce the plant and suck its juice. Biting and chewing insects have hard jaws with which they can cut and grind their food. Some insects eat many species of plants, but most of the insects that harm crops are specialised for one plant species or just a few related ones. The form the insects take through the period between two crops when no food is available (whether it be as an adult, egg, larva or pupa) varies according to its species.Mites are more closely related to spiders than to insects. They are smaller than 1 mm, so you would need a magnifying glass to see them. For a picture, see Figure 13. Just like insects, mites begin their life as an egg. They progress through several development stages be-fore they become adults and can reproduce. A group of individuals on a plant often forms a kind of silk web to protect them.Mites have mouthparts that are adapted to pierce individual plant cells and suck them dry.If there are many sucking spots next to each other, the leaf will lose colour and will often drop off prematurely. Seriously affected plants will remain small or may even die. Mites often survive the period between crops as eggs, but in some species they survive this period as adults.Mites do not have wings. They travel on the plant and between plants by walking. They can be carried over greater distances by the wind.The natural enemies of crop-damaging insects and mites are also your allies. There are two groups of natural enemies: predators and parasites. Predators eat their prey. The most important predators are harmless to crops and people. Well-known predators include spiders, predatory mites, lady beetles, ground beetles and hoverflies. The advantage of these predators is that they can multiply just as rapidly as their prey.The most common parasites are wasps and flies. They lay eggs in the pest insect's larvae and their larvae then eat the host from the inside out. Predators eat many different species of insects or mites, but parasites are often specialised for one type of pest insect. As adults their diet consists entirely of pollen and nectar of (often wild) flowers. If there is a sufficient number of natural enemies present at the start of the growing season, they will normally keep the pest insects and mites under an acceptable level, so that the crop can remain healthy. See in cases 3 and 7 how this is true for Brown Plant Hopper.The farmer can take measures to help the natural enemies out a bit. Diverse vegetation around pieces of land offers shelter where they can survive between growing periods. You can stimulate their growth even more by sowing plenty of flowering herbs around and in the fields where your crops grow. You can also build additional housing for predator insects or parasites, as we demonstrate in case 15 and figure 14.Case 15: Simple housing for predator wasps to provide shelter for their hatchlingsPredator wasps are present all over the world and they are particularly abundant in the tropics. They are very efficient predators, attacking a wide range of insects, but they especially target caterpillars to feed their offspring.A novel technique has been developed in Vietnam, enhancing the control of the cotton leaf roller, Sylepta derogata, by trap-nesting wasps. Leaf roller is a major pest for cotton crops in Vietnam. These solitary wasps hunt caterpillars, and enclose them in their nest as living food reserve for their hatchlings.The idea is to multiply nesting sites close to the fields where predatory wasps are needed. Artificial nesting devices vary in design, but the principle remains the same, as we have illustrated in figure 14. Cylinders of 6 to 12 mm diameter are plugged with mud at one end to enable wasps to build their nests. They can be made of bamboo, reeds, drilled wood board or even cardboard.Several traps are then tied together in a sheet of plastic or metal and placed close by the fields. One efficient method is to hang them in small trees. It is important to put some kind of glue on the string in order to deter ants and termites that might damage the nests.Besides being reliable and simple, this technique is also effective against leaf rollers. Assessments made in South Vietnam showed a trap colonisation rate of 30%, and an average of 570 caterpillars removed from the field per 100 nests installed. Preventing the spread of pests Vegetation in and around crops does more than just supply shelter for natural enemies. High vegetation around fields keeps flying insects away, as well as mites that are transported by the wind. A second crop in a field can also serve as a physical barrier, in addition to the advantages mentioned in Chapter 3.2. Rows of specific crops can deter or attract pest insects with their smell: these are known as repellent crops and trap crops. We have seen this before in case 13 and figure 11 in section 3.2In a crop rotation, you can alternate crops that are eaten by a certain pest with crops that are not eaten by that pest. Crop rotation is part of a multi-annual strategy to minimise the number of pest insects on a farm.If you are mainly growing one crop, and crop rotation is not a viable option, it is especially important to extend the period between crops as long as possible. The number of pest insects will decrease during the crop-free period. You can also enhance this decline by working the plant residues containing the pest insects deep into the soil, or by bringing the pests to the surface where they are vulnerable to attack from their natural enemies. You can keep the growing season short by sowing or planting over as short a period as possible. The same is true for harvesting. It may also be better not to wait until the last plant can be harvested or the last fruit is ripe, because the longer you wait to harvest, the more surviving pest insects there will be when you plant the next crop.If there are many pest insects left after harvesting the crop, it is better to remove the crop residues together with the pest insect than to leave the residue in the field. However, if there are relatively few pest insects present on the crop residues and many natural enemies, it may be useful to leave the crop residue in the field.It is important that you fertilise in a balanced way, with enough P and K and not too much N. Too much N makes the crop appetizing for insects, and leads to a dense crop, in which it is more difficult for pest insects' natural enemies to find them.Even with all the preventive measures mentioned above, the number of pest insects could become too high and threaten to cause unacceptable damage to your crops. It is important to inspect the crops every week to see whether critical levels are being reached. Information on critical levels (such as the number of pests per square metre or per metre of a row) should be available for your area. As soon as the number of pest organisms is too high, you can consider taking corrective action.Catching by hand If their population is not large, relatively big insects can be caught by hand and squashed between your thumb and forefinger, or in another way.It is of course less labour intensive and less tedious to control these pests by luring them into traps. The most common types of traps either give off light to attract night insects, are made of yellow strips covered with glue, or contain some kind of bait.If it appears that the natural enemies of the pest insects and mites are staying in the margins of the field rather than moving into the centre, you can carry them by hand into the field. We present an elegant example in case 16 and figure 15.Weaver ants, Oecophylla smaragdina, build their nests in trees. From there they hunt insects. Vietnamese growers of citrus and other fruit trees know that trees with weaver ant nests are well protected against pest insects. The establishment of new weaver ant colonies is hampered by the presence of black ants, because weaver ants and black ants fight each other. Figure 15 shows how farmers can help weaver ants to establish new colonies.Farmers lure Soldier weaver ants by putting a rope from a tree with nests to a container with food such as shrimps (a). The farmer then puts a bag over the container, carries it to a tree with black ants, climbs to the top of the tree and releases the weaver ant soldiers (b). When the soldier ants have defeated their enemies, the farmer collects a whole nest of weaver ants and attaches it to the newly conquered tree (c).Sometimes natural enemies that are bred elsewhere are offered for sale. These can be predators or parasites, but also nematodes or disease-causing fungi, bacteria or viruses.Nematodes are primarily used to combat soil insects. Viruses, bacteria and fungi are sprayed over the entire crop and work against the pest insects that are present on the plants. In case 17 we present an example how farmers can control a pest insect by introducing and enhancing the growth conditions of a disease-causing fungus.Case 17: Farmers in The Philippines fight palm beetle with a diseaseThe Rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros is one of the most damaging insects to coconut and oil palm crops. After mating, the female lays her eggs in decaying organic materials like rotting stumps, compost and sawdust heaps.Farmers chop up such materials and bring them together in open boxes (about 0.5 m high). They then introduce the insect-killing fungus Metarhizium anisopliae into the boxes. As soon as the beetle's eggs hatch, they become infected by the fungus and subsequently die. It is a remarkably simple technique, and the fungus only has to be introduced once. The composting fibre that has been inoculated with infected larvae is the basis for establishing new boxes.Many plant species, both cultivated and wild, contain substances that can kill insects. You can easily make a spraying liquid out of these plants yourself. Plant extracts have both advantages and disadvantages compared to chemical pesticides. The most important advantages are: ? They are inexpensive.? They decompose faster, so no residue is left on the crop.Various non-chemical crop protection methods and products have been tested under local conditions in Cameroon. First, an inventory of traditional methods of pest control was conducted with small-scale farmers in the North-West, South-West and West provinces of Cameroon. Information was gathered from their answers and from literature, and a booklet was prepared for distribution.At the rural training centre, Mfonta, groups of farmers were trained in nonchemical crop protection methods for controlling pests on their own farms.The training methodology was based on a participatory approach and Farmer Field Schools. Farmer Field Schools are discussed in Chapter 7.One of the promising preparations subjected to field-testing after this inventory was castor oil (Ricinus communis). The preparation is as follows: 0.5 kg shelled or 0.75 kg fresh unshelled seeds are mashed and then heated for 10 minutes in 2 litres of water. 2 teaspoons of kerosene and a bit of soap are added. The solution is sifted (through a cloth) and diluted with 10 litres of cold water. The preparation is then ready for application on the leaves, to control leaf-eating caterpillars, aphids and true bugs on vegetable crops.Beware: Castor oil is poisonous for humans as well as for the natural enemies of pests.Extracts from the Neem tree, Azadirachta indica, are also widely used. Neem extracts have an effect on nearly 400 species of insects, including major pests (moths, weevils, beetles and leaf miners). They do not kill insects directly, but effectively prevent their reproduction. Neem extracts can be prepared from leaves, but the seeds contain higher concentrations of insecticidal components. 75g of seeds (including the seed coat) should be used per litre of water. The seeds should be at least 3 months old but no older than 8-10 months.The pounded kernel powder is gathered in a muslin pouch and soaked overnight in water. The pouch is then squeezed and the extract is filtered. Some soap is added to the filtrate (1 ml per litre of water) to help the extract to stick to the leaf surface of crop plants.Papaya leaves can also be used: Pick 1 kg of fresh leaves, shred and soak in 10 litres of water, add 2 teaspoons of kerosene and a bit of soap, and leave it overnight. Sift the decoction through a cloth, and the spray is ready for application on the leaves of vegetables, against leaf-eating caterpillars, aphids and true bugs.The main disadvantages of plant extracts are: ? They often have a weaker effect than synthetic insecticides. This could mean that many insects survive or that the insects just become ill and then recover. ? The required dosage differs per insect species. Because you manufacture the spray yourself, you will have to determine the optimal dosage through experimentation. ? Some extracts (such as tobacco juice that contains nicotine) are very poisonous to humans and their pets. Just as with chemical pesticides, you have to handle these extracts with extreme care. ? Most plant extracts are toxic to natural predators or parasites of pest insects, so the 'natural balance' will be disturbed when using these bio-insecticides.Some micro-organisms among the many fungi, bacteria and viruses can cause disease in plants. These micro-organisms are not visible with the naked eye. What you see with the naked eye is not the microorganism itself, but the reaction of the plant to the micro-organisms.In dealing with plant diseases, it is important to understand that a huge number of very small organisms (pathogens) are responsible for making a plant diseased and that they spread throughout the plant and from plant to plant. Once a plant is infected, it is nearly impossible to cure it. It may sometimes be possible to halt the disease, but only by removing the affected parts of the plant. It is much better to do everything in your power to prevent plants from becoming infected by these pathogens. Even though you cannot see the pathogens, it is important to realise that they are there so that you can understand how to prevent diseases effectively. We distinguish between two groups of diseases: those that spread above ground (air-borne diseases) and those that live at or below the soil surface (soil-borne diseases).Air-borne diseases are often not very noticeable, and may even be invisible early in the growing season, but they can become serious very quickly. This slow start has to do with the following three conditions, which all have to be met for a crop to become diseased:1 The plant has to be susceptible, which means that it will react with disease symptoms once it is infected by a bacterium, fungus or virus. 2 There must be an infection source present that contains pathogens. 3 The conditions must be favourable for the disease to spread.Every plant species can be affected by only a limited number of diseases caused by specific micro-organisms; no other micro-organisms cause plant diseases. Moreover, micro-organisms capable of making plants diseased can usually only do this to one species, a group of related species, or varieties of one species. Susceptibility of individuals within one species to a particular disease can also vary considerablyone may be highly susceptible while another is only mildly so.At the start of the growing season, there are usually a few sources of infection present from which a disease can spread. Seed or planting material is often an important source of infection. The pathogens are located in or on the outer surface of seeds, tubers or other organs that are planted in the field. The plants that grow from these sources will be diseased rather than healthy. Crop residues from the previous growing season can also be a source of disease. A third possibility is that a disease survives the period between two crops on living crop plants or weeds that remain in the field after the harvest.A disease can be spread from one plant to another in a number of ways. Bacteria and some fungi can be spread over a small area of no more than half a metre through the splashing of raindrops. Other fungi can be carried by the wind over distances of up to hundreds of metres. Air-borne diseases that are transported by raindrops or wind can spread quickly within a crop during a long period of wet weather. A crop that is very susceptible to the disease can be completely destroyed in a short period of time.Many diseases can also spread through a crop by means of plant juices. In this way, insects with piercing mouthparts can carry many viruses, but also bacteria and fungi. They suck up the juice of a diseased plant and then infect the next plant that they feed on. You can unwittingly become a carrier yourself if you come in contact with a diseased plant and then transfer the pathogens to the next healthy plants you come in contact with. Diseases that are transferred exclusively through plant juice are generally not very dependent on wet weather conditions. In the previous section we said that air-borne diseases can develop if three conditions are met simultaneously: the presence of a susceptible plant, pathogens and favourable conditions. To prevent these diseases you have to ensure that at least one of these conditions is not met. In this section we discuss the possibilities for doing this (1) by increasing crop resistance, ( 2) by decreasing the number of infection sources, and (3) by influencing external conditions.(1) Crop resistanceThe crop varieties cultivated nowadays often produce a higher yield than traditional varieties. This is because all the plants have the same genetic characteristics that lead to higher yields.Unfortunately, all the plants are usually also uniformly susceptible to diseases. Through selective breeding, new varieties can be created that produce a higher yield and are resistant to a certain disease. In practice, however, we often see that the pathogen then adapts itself and can make the new variety diseased as well, which necessitates the creation of another new resistant variety. The farmer is then forced to regularly buy seed or planting material of new varieties in order to continue to grow healthy plants.Traditionally cultivated indigenous crops are not usually uniformly susceptible to diseases. There are two advantages to simultaneously cultivating varieties that have varying resistance characteristics. Firstly, individual plants that are moderately or highly resistant will develop few or no disease symptoms. Secondly, just like plants from an entirely different species, they will catch spores spread from diseased plants, thus keeping them away from more susceptible plants. We present an example of this principle in case 19. The other advantage of this method is that new strains of the pathogen do not arise as quickly. It also makes it possible for you to select your own seed and planting material rather than having to buy them regularly. If you collect your own seeding seed, it is important to collect it only from healthy plants.Rice blast is a plant disease caused by the fungus Pyricularia grisea. The fungus kills plant tissue. This is visible as darkened spots and stripes on leaves and flowers. Under humid conditions it can be very destructive and cause great losses in crop yield.Chinese farmers have rice varieties that are resistant to rice blast, but these varieties are not much appreciated by local consumers. They value the local 'sticky' rice much higher. However, 'sticky' rice is very susceptible to rice blast. Farmers protect the susceptible rice by surrounding each row by 4 rows of a resistant variety. In this way, the disease develops much slower, and farmers are able to produce enough sticky rice for the local market without using fungicide or with one application at the most.Vietnamese farmers also suffer great yield losses caused by rice blast. Farmers who participated in Farmer Field Schools learned how the disease develops and how to manage it without using fungicides. (We explain Farmer Field Schools further in Chapter 7.) The best solution to protect their rice crops is a combination of resistant varieties with lower seeding rates and less Nitrogen fertilisation. These practices slow down the development of the disease within the crop field.(2) Reducing sources of infection ? Make sure you use healthy seed and planting material. This is always important, because diseases arising through infected seed and planting material will develop early in the season and can cause considerable damage by the end of the season. The best method is to select seed and planting material from fields with few diseased plants or fields from which diseased plants have been carefully removed. ? Remove crop residues. This is especially important for highly contagious pathogens that are known to cause infections early in the season through crop residues. ? Continue to remove diseased plant parts as long as the level of disease is still low. ? Keep levels of insects or other animals that carry a disease at low levels. An insect or animal that can carry a disease from one plant to another is called a vector. We give an example in Case 20.Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl virus has many host plants, but it is particularly damaging for young tomato. Infected plants become severely stunted and produce small, distorted leaves. They do not produce marketable fruit. The disease is transmitted from one plant to another by the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci. The disease can be kept within limits by controlling the whitefly.In Sudan, not many farmers use insecticides. Instead they plant coriander as a companion crop with tomato. Coriander acts as a repellent; it keeps the whitefly away from the tomato plants. Tomato yields are even higher than those achieved using insecticides.(3) Influencing external conditions ? Good soil quality ensures optimal crop growth. Good drainage and soil structure play an important role in this. A crop that is growing optimally is less susceptible to many pathogens. ? Balanced fertilisation (not too much N, and sufficient P and K) fulfils two objectives. It ensures that the crop plants are more resistant to disease and that leafy crops do not become too dense. ? You can also create a less dense crop with fewer plants per square meter. The humidity of the air in a dense crop is often high, which promotes the development of diseases. ? Vegetation around a field protects the crop from fungi spores carried by the wind and from flying insects that spread viruses. The higher the vegetation is, the more effective this barrier will be. ? A second crop cultivated in the field (mixed cropping) is even more effective than vegetation planted around the field in catching fungal spores from the air.Soil-borne diseases penetrate plant roots or the base of the plant's stem. By remaining in the soil, they survive the period when there are no susceptible crops in the field. Not many pathogens are capable of doing this. Most soils contain various small animals, but also many micro-organisms that are in a constant life or death struggle with each other. Soil-borne diseases have special inactive (dormant) forms, which allow them to survive in this hostile environment. These dormant forms can become active and penetrate the roots of susceptible plants in their direct environment as soon as they start to grow.Depending on the disease, the resulting symptoms can include death of seedlings (damping off), root rot, wilting and death of the entire plant. New dormant forms are produced on the diseased plants and these eventually reach the soil.Soil-borne diseases spread slowly over a field. At first the disease remains limited to individual plants or to small areas of affected plants in a field. These areas grow only slightly larger as the growing season progresses. However, if the same crop, or another susceptible crop, is cultivated on the same field in subsequent years, the number of pathogens will increase each year or crop season. The number of diseased plants will also increase. You may inadvertently speed up the spread of the disease yourself by carrying around soil particles and plant material.Soil-borne diseases are much less influenced by humid weather conditions than air-borne diseases. The emphasis in preventing these diseases is largely on cultivating crops that are not (or are only slightly) susceptible to them. There are two advantages to cultivating resistant crops: The resistant crop stays healthy despite the presence of pathogens in the soil, and the number of pathogens in the soil will decrease while the resistant crops are growing. So a more susceptible species can be planted again after one or two growing seasons.Applying more crops in a rotation Soil-borne diseases become more serious if you cultivate a susceptible crop or related varieties on the same field in consecutive seasons. The more often you include resistant crops in a crop rotation, the faster the number of pathogens in the soil will decrease and the less chance there will be for diseases to develop. Bacterial wilt (case 21) is a typical example of a soil-borne disease for which crop rotation is an important component of disease prevention.Bacterial Wilt is a soil-borne disease caused by Ralstonia solanacearum (formerly called Pseudomonas solanacearum). It attacks a broad range of plant species, and is particularly damaging to tomato and potato. On tomato, the first symptoms are a sudden wilt of the youngest leaves (as shown in figure 2) and a slight yellowing of older leaves. As the disease progresses, the plants wilt permanently and die. To confirm that the disease is Bacterial Wilt, farmers cut a piece of stem 2-3 cm long from the base, and put it in clear water in a glass container. Within a few minutes, smoke-like milky threads exude from the cut stem (see Figure 18).Resistant varieties of tomato and potato are not common. Resistant varieties that also have a good food quality are not available at all. Therefore, Bacterial Wilt is difficult to eradicate, but farmers in Asia and South America have found ways to suppress it. Crop rotation is one of the most effective measures for managing this disease. Rotation of tomato or potato with at least two (and preferably three) non-susceptible crops is recommended. Thereafter, if available, a tolerant or moderately resistant variety of potato or tomato should be planted. Avoid crops of the same family as tomato and potato, such as eggplant, pepper and tobacco. Also avoid banana, ginger and groundnut. Suitable crops to rotate with tomato or potato are: pastures or cereals; onion, garlic, leek; cauliflower, broccoli, mustard and other members of the cabbage family; most legumes, including pea and bean, but not groundnuts; pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini.Because Bacterial Wilt is easily carried over from field to field and from one season to the next one, additional care should be taken to prevent the disease from spreading:? During harvest and prior to rotating, harvest remains must be removed and buried outside the plot far from irrigation channels. ? During crop rotation, removing weeds and volunteer plants of tomato and potato is important.? Likewise, irrigation or rainfall water flow from an infested field into neighbouring fields must be prevented. For this purpose, drainage ditches can be built. ? Tools, shoes and animal hooves must be cleaned. Cultivating resistant varieties Less resistant varieties do not become diseased as often as varieties that are highly susceptible. They also slow down the growth of the disease in the soil or even reduce its level. One alternative is to graft a susceptible variety to a resistant root system.If a disease is already present in the soil, it will not make much difference if a small number of the same pathogens are added through seed or planting material. Using only healthy seed and planting material is still important, however, in order to prevent the disease from spreading to clean fields.Seed and planting material can be protected by treating them on the outside with a bacterial or fungal preparation. The fungi or bacteria produce substances that protect the plant against soil-borne diseases in its seedling stage. We give an example in Case 22, where a fungus is added to planting material or directly to the soil.Trichoderma is present all over the world in the soil and decomposing plant material. It does not attack and kill living plants. In fact it is beneficial for farmers. It helps to decompose organic matter, releasing fertiliser for the crops. It also protects crop plants from soil-borne diseases and animals that attack plant roots. It does so by living close to plant roots, where it attacks -or strangles -these crop pests. It also produces chemicals (antibiotics) that are toxic to other micro-organisms.Trichoderma is not just one strain or one species. In fact it consists of many strains, and each one is more or less adapted to certain temperatures or a certain task, such as protecting plants from disease or decomposing dead plants.In Cuba, some strains of Trichoderma with good properties are selected. They are then grown in large quantities in tanks in a laboratory. Farmers spray the fungus directly on the soil where crops have been planted. Sometimes, they mix it with manure, compost or other organic fertiliser. Trichoderma is used in several other countries besides Cuba. In most cases, selected strains are grown in tanks and distributed to farmers. This case study shows that naturally occurring fungi can be a great help in controlling diseases. For most farmers, no Trichoderma from the lab is available. But they can experiment with their own Trichoderma from a welldecomposed compost heap. They can put the compost directly onto the soil or they can put it in water for some hours and spray the water on the soil containing a disease.If you take steps to ensure that the soil structure is good, your crops will be more resistant to diseases. This also stimulates the soil life so that the pathogens' natural enemies will have a better chance of controlling them.Solarisation is labour intensive, so it is only useful for small cultivation areas such as in nurseries. The ground is loosened to a depth of 15-25 cm (the entire top soil), well watered and covered with plastic sheets. Heat from the sun warms the top layer of soil up to a temperature at which most organisms will die. This method works against disease-causing bacteria and fungi, and also against weeds.Before or during the sowing or planting of a crop, you often prepare a sowing bed by loosening the top layer of soil and removing plant growth. This creates the right conditions for the crop to germinate and grow. These conditions are also ideal, however, for the germination and growth of weeds. Weeds compete with the crop, because they share the same space and make use of the same light, nutrients and water. This competition leads to stunted crop growth. Weeds can also be harmful because they host diseases and animal pests that threaten the crop. Like pathogens, some parasitic weeds, including Striga, infect the crop's roots and extract water, nutrients and sugars from them.Weeds can be annual or perennial plants. Annual weeds (such as Barnyard grass, Echinochloa crus-galli: figure 19 on the right) produce seeds within one year and then die. They are well adapted to survive in unstable conditions, such as on a field used for the cultivation of annual crops whose soil is therefore tilled more often. Annual weeds multiply exclusively by means of their seeds, and almost all of the seeds fall directly on the ground around the mother plant. The seeds of a few species have appendages, which allow them to adhere to the fur of animals or get carried by the wind over distances of hundreds of metres. Ripe seeds that fall from the plant do not germinate immediately, but lay dormant for at least a few weeks. Following this dormant period, and if the conditions are favourable, they will germinate. Germination almost always takes place in the top 2 cm of the soil. After the sowing bed is prepared, a large percentage of the weed seeds present in the soil will germinate.Perennial weeds also produce seeds, but usually far fewer than annual species. An example of a perennial weed is Cogon grass (Imperata cylindrica), shown in figure 19 on the left side. Perennial weeds survive the dry season by storing food in vegetative organs, such as roots, rhizomes, tubers or bulbs. This food is produced in the above-ground shoots in the rainy season. They can continue to survive for quite a while even after these shoots have been removed. New shoots will emerge from these organs at the beginning of the new growing season. Because of their food reserves, these plants usually grow more vigorously than annual plants. They can even sprout new shoots from depths of 10-20 cm. Once they have sprouted, these young shoots also grow faster than annual plants in their seedling stage. If you do not take any measures to control weeds, the crop and weeds will (at best) mature together. The weeds will always grow at the expense of the crop, however, so the crop's yield at the end of the growing season will be reduced. Another possibility is that the weeds completely overgrow the crop plants at the start of the season, thereby destroying the entire crop.In practice, you will almost always have to remove most of the weeds at an early stage to prevent serious damage. Non-chemical weed control is labour intensive but necessary. Preventive measures are intended to ensure that less manual labour will be required to control weeds later for the same crop or for subsequent crops.The most important non-chemical weed control method on small farms is pulling the weeds out by hand or cutting them off using simple hand tools (for examples, see Case 23 and figure 20). You can only use tools if there is enough space between the crop plants. Once the crop is planted, it is important to disturb the soil as little as possible when pulling and cutting weeds. Most of the germinated weed seeds are located in the uppermost layer of soil; if deeper soil is brought closer to the surface the as yet ungerminated seeds located there will also be given the opportunity to germinate.Different tools are available for different tasks. Here we present 4 groups of hand tools. ? The cutlass or machete is used to slash or cut off aboveground parts of tall weeds. ? Digging hoes are well suited to soil cultivation and ridging; they are less suited to weeding because they stimulate weed germination. ? Pushing and pulling hoes are useful for cutting the weeds just under the soil surface. They are less suited to harder soils. ? Wheeled hoes can only be used in row-planted crops. They can come with a range of attachments. You will have to continue weed control until the crop's canopy closes.The resulting lack of light will prevent many annual weed species from germinating. Some species will still be able to germinate, but the plants will remain small and will not be strong enough to compete with the crop.It is more difficult to control perennial weeds than annual species. After the shoots have been pulled out or cut off, the plant can sprout again from the same source, or reproductive organs at greater depths will begin to sprout. These plants will have to be controlled a number of times per season until their reproductive organs are exhausted and they are no longer able to sprout.Preventive measures will never be enough to keep a crop completely free of weeds. It is possible, however, to reduce the time required to control weeds in the crop. Some measures are directed toward all plants that can potentially cause problems, and others specifically target one or more species that often cause problems. In either case, four general principles should be applied: ? Exhaust the seed supply of annuals and the remaining organs of perennial species present in the soil. ? Prevent new weed seed supplies from entering the soil. ? Minimise the space available for weeds to germinate and grow. ? Plant crops in a way that makes it easier to use weed control equipment. In case 24 we show an example from Mexico of how several weed prevention methods can be combined.Provide shelter for seed-eating animals Vegetation around fields offers shelter to seed-eating mammals, birds and insects. Growing more than one crop on the same field at the same time will also increase the population of seed-eating animals. The effects on later weed growth vary and cannot be accurately predicted.If measures are taken to improve biological activity in the soil (see Chapter 3) more seeds will be eaten by soil-dwelling animals and killed by micro-organisms.The topsoil of fields that are planted or sown with a new crop without first being ploughed is always rich in weed seeds. Mixing the upper layer of soil with deeper soil reduces the number of seeds that can germinate. A ploughing method that turns the entire upper layer of soil and replaces it with deeper soil is therefore the most effective way of combating annual weeds. The weed seeds will of course be brought back up to the surface in the following season, but their number will be significantly reduced by then through natural dying off, consumption by animals and damage by micro-organisms.If the crop is sown directly after preparing the sowing bed by loosening the top few centimetres of soil, the weeds will start to grow before or at the same time as the crop. An alternative is to make a false seedbed, by preparing the soil but not sowing the crop right away. Most of the weed seeds located in the upper layer of soil will germinate and can then be removed with a hoe. If enough time is available, this process can be repeated before the crop is actually sown.A well thought-out crop rotation ensures not only that the existing weed seed supplies are exhausted, but also that fewer seeds are added to the soil. It is best to alternate between crops that quickly develop a closed canopy and crops that can be hoed for a longer period of time. If perennial weeds are increasing in spite of your control measures, crop rotation is one of the few options available for reducing the number of weed plants.Simultaneous cultivation of a variety of vegetable crops is an ancient agricultural practice in Mexico. Farmers use flattened cardboard to cover the bare soil between crop plots, In the crop plots they remove weeds by hand and with simple tools for digging. Once the crop canopy is closed, its shade slows or stops the growth of weeds.When temperatures become too high in summer for vegetable growth, they clear the plots of vegetation. Then they stretch out pieces of used plastic on the soil to facilitate solarisation. Black plastic is ideal, but any waste plastic works. Adding moisture to the solarised area allows weeds to germinate; these will then perish in the scorching temperatures under the plastic.As the temperature cools down, faba beans are planted. This cover crop allows remaining weed seeds to germinate. The crop becomes so dense that weed plants remain very small and do not produce new seeds. The beans are harvested and consumed locally. The plants are allowed to grow until early spring, when they are cut down and allowed to decay, providing nutrients for subsequent vegetable crops.During the growing season, a certain number of weeds can grow without seriously harming the crop. It is advisable, however, to do as much as possible to prevent these weeds from producing seeds or other reproductive organs. This is especially true for species that often cause problems for other crops.After a crop has been harvested, there may be a period during which plant growth is possible but no other crop is being cultivated on that field. You can take advantage of this fallow period to control perennial weeds -and of course you can control annuals at the same time to prevent them from producing seeds. You could also choose to plant an extra crop that quickly covers the ground. This ground cover will suppress the growth and production of the weeds' reproductive organs.Weed-free seed and planting material Cleaning seeds and planting material to ensure that they are free of weeds is an important part of farming hygiene, especially because seed can be highly contaminated with weed seeds. Even though the number of weed seeds is usually small compared to what is already present in the soil, thorough cleaning of the seed is still important. Remember that most of the weed seeds in the seed come from species that are optimally adapted to cultivation of that crop. If the seed comes from elsewhere, it may also introduce new weed species onto the farm that you are not familiar with. In case 25 we give an example of how not only seeds but also young plants from a nursery can be contaminated with weeds.Barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli) is a serious problem in rice and other cereal crops. This grass weed competes for light with the crop. It also prevents rice plants from tillering, which is the production of new shoots from the stem base. In the early growth stages, Barnyard grass is often mistaken for rice. It may even be transplanted together with young rice plants. To remove Barnyard grass from rice nurseries you need to learn the differences between a rice plant and a Barnyard grass plant. A rice leaf has a pronounced ligule, which is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leaf stalk. It also has small but pronounced auricles, which are ear-like outgrowths at the junction of the leaf blade and the leaf sheath. Barnyard grass has neither ligule nor auricles, as you can see in figure 21. Furthermore, a Barnyard grass leaf has a smooth blade whereas that of rice is toothed and can be as sharp as a razor. Living ground covers and mulch If a crop with a lot of space between the plants is cultivated together with a second crop (mixed cropping), then the ground will be covered more quickly, and less effort will be needed to control weeds. Another possibility is to combine a tall-growing crop with one that remains much lower. The second crop's growth will be stunted at first, but as soon as the first crop begins to ripen or is harvested, leaving more space for weed growth, the second crop will begin to suppress the weeds. Plant residues, used as mulch, can also be used to cover the soil and prevent weed growth.We present two examples in case 26 and case 27.Rice roots contain air pores through which oxygen can diffuse to the roots. Through this capacity, it can grow under anaerobic, muddy and flooded conditions. The roots of Barnyard grass lack this characteristic. So transplanting Rice into a well prepared muddy or flooded field prevents the development of an abundant weed population. In direct seeding, rice is given an advantage by using pre-germinated seed.Many farmers grow Rice by direct seeding. To give the crop a competitive advantage over the weed, they can use pre-germinated rice seeds. They can also increase the seeding rate. In the Philippines, this would mean increasing the seed rate by 50%. A third option is to place fertiliser below the rice seeds, so that the crop benefits from it more than the weed does.In sub-Saharan Africa, rainfall is often growth-limiting. For that reason, farmers apply a system of double ridging to grow their cereal and legume crops. They make ridges with the top few centimetres of the soil, which contains most of the Striga seeds. Then they sow the cereal and legume crop below the ridge, where the moisture conditions are much better than on the top. As a consequence, most of the Striga seeds do not germinate or attach themselves to the crop roots.If the soil is not well fertilised, the crop's canopy will not close and the crop will be very susceptible to weeds for a long time. If a crop is grown in rows, fertiliser can be applied exclusively to the crop rows, so that only the crop benefits from it.Planting pattern and plant distance Through experimentation, experts have determined the optimal distance between the plants of every crop in order to maximise yield. However, for weed control, it may be desirable to adjust this distance slightly. Crops that are distributed uniformly over a field can be sown a little closer together so that weeds will have less chance to germinate. If this does not suppress weed growth enough, the crop can also be sown in rows with small spaces between the plants in a row and larger spaces between the rows. This makes it possible to remove the weeds between the rows with a hoe or other tool.7 Life cycle of Striga and options for controlStriga is an enormous problem in cereal and grain legume production throughout Africa and South-Asia. The estimated average yield reduction due to Striga is about 40%, and on infested fields, complete crop loss can occur. Striga, also known as Witchweed, is a common name for a family of plants that parasitize on the roots of cereals and grain legumes and survive at the expense of the crop to which they are attached.In figure 22   Striga control depends on a combination of measures taken throughout the season, including: ? Exhausting the stock of seed in the soil through planting trap crops in crop rotation, and by developing 'living' soil. ? Choosing crop varieties that are tolerant or resistant to Striga. ? Adopting cultivation and planting practices which diminish the effect of Striga. ? Weeding out as many plants as possible before Striga sets seed. ? Preventing contamination of next year's seed with Striga.In the next paragraph we will further discuss these measures in relation to the life cycle of Striga.Crop rotation and using less susceptible crop varieties are helpful because: ? Striga species are specific to certain crops, and do not develop on some others; ? Susceptibility to parasitism by Striga varies according to crop varieties: Some are more tolerant or resistant to than others; ? Continuously growing susceptible crops and crop varieties leads to a rapid build-up of the seed stock.The Striga problem is biggest in areas with low rainfall and soils with low fertility. In these areas the Striga seed in the soil survives relatively well. In wetter and richer soils, natural enemies of Striga survive and reduce the viable seed stock in the soil by destroying or damaging the seeds. These natural enemies of Striga are various nematodes and fungi. It is therefore particularly important to improve the organic matter content, even though that will be hard to achieve in sub-humid and semi-arid areas. Moreover, improved soil conditions will increase crop vigour. In the absence of a suitable host crop, the number of living Striga seeds slowly decreases. This gives fallowing and crop rotation with resistant crops a role in exhausting the seed stock in the soil.When the crop plants are germinating, their roots release substances into the soil which stimulate Striga to germinate, and other substances which enable Striga to attach to the roots of the host plant. The Striga seed thus germinates and the seedling then will become attached to the root of the host plant.  Clean seed Striga produces its own flowers and these produce many seeds, sometimes up to 500,000 per plant. The seeds are so tiny that people find them difficult to identify as seeds (see figure 24).  Crop seed can be cleaned by steadily shaking the seed in a large pan. Due to differences in size and weight, the Striga seed will detach itself and 'sink' to the bottom, while clean crop seed is left on the top. If it is not shaken off, the Striga seed stays attached to the crop seed.All the measures mentioned above reinforce each other. The measures targeting the depletion of the seed bank are preventive measures for improving the sustainability of cropping systems through rotation and intercropping, and by improving soil conditions.Many control programmes are seriously hampered by lack of access to reliable information and to local knowledge systems. Yet there is a lot of information on Striga control, both in research centres and in villages. Contrary to common belief again, experience has shown that many communities as a whole have a thorough understanding of Striga and opportunities for its control (see figure 7). The Striga problem is an indigenous problem, and there is a wealth of knowledge about it hidden in local communities. However, due to the division of tasks in crop production, the relevant knowledge is often scattered across gender and age groups. Bringing these groups together is an important step towards applying local knowledge in local interventions for a more sustainable production.To use non-chemical crop protection methods effectively, you need to take preventive measures in good time. On the other hand, measures such as spraying with chemical pesticides or 'biosprays' must be delayed as long as possible, to allow natural enemies to build up and perform their role. So timing is all-important.Farmers have knowledge and experience regarding crops, pests, and local conditions. But they can also learn to ? observe crop growth better; ? distinguish between causes and effects of pests; ? distinguish between pests, which are 'enemies' of farmers and natural enemies of pests, which are 'friends' of farmers.By learning 'on the job', farmers can improve their crop protection.Non-chemical, sustainable crop protection methods depend very much on local conditions. It is therefore impossible to provide simple solutions that work always and everywhere. Instead farmers must learn to observe how pests develop and behave on their farm. Based on their observations and possible solutions, they must make an independent decision on how to act. To decide between various possible solutions, they learn to set up simple experiments. Their ultimate goal is not to learn mere facts, but to become skilled in deciding which methods or measures to apply at which growth stage of the crop. Farmer Field Schools have proven to be very effective for improving these skills.In a Crop Protection Farmer Field School, a group of 20 farmers in one location meet almost every week throughout the cropping season. As a rule, each weekly FFS session is designed to cover eight activities. We will explain these activities in section 8.3.In the FFS, learning-by-doing, observing and discussing are always combined with the central question: 'What measures need to be taken now, if any?'Not a classroom, but a school in a crop field FFS are a means of education for groups of adults. They assume that farmers already have a wealth of experience and knowledge. They also assume that some of this knowledge may be based on misconceptions, and that some essential knowledge may be missing. There is not a teacher like in primary school, who tells the pupils everything they should know. Instead, the facilitator aims to use a participatory approach to integrate the farmers' knowledge into the programme. For example, when observing in the field, facilitators will ask farmers what something is (e.g. a natural enemy) and ask: 'Who knows what it might eat?' Farmers give their response, and the facilitator adds his/her own knowledge. If there is a disagreement, the facilitator and participants will set up simple studies to find the correct answer.In one Field School, farmers were discussing whether a certain lady beetle was a predator of pests or a pest of the plant. Two farmers laid bets on their opinions. The facilitator showed the farmers how to put two of the lady beetles in jars -one with pest insects and the other with crop leaves. The result was that the lady beetle ate the insects and the loser had to carry the winner around the village on his back!The activities of the FFS are guided by a facilitator, who is a specially trained FFS extension worker. The extension worker knows how to measure and judge the numbers of pests or of plants with pest symptoms. She or he can inform the group what would be the expected damage if the group decided not to intervene, and to calculate whether measures like spraying would pay off.The facilitator should be willing to lead the actual field work, showing both symptoms of diseases or pests and the predators present in the farmers' fields. The facilitator should be able to steer the group process so that the farmers participate and contribute their observations and experience. And she or he must keep the discussion focussed on crop protection issues.The term Farmer Field Schools (FFS) was first used in Indonesia in 1989 for training rice farmers to manage rice pests (mainly insects) with fewer pesticide sprayings. FFS were a success from the beginning, because farmers discovered that they could often rely on the activity of natural enemies instead of pesticides (See case 3: BPH). By carefully spraying on the basis of field observations, they reduced pesticide inputs and saved money. With some variations, FFS have since been introduced in other parts of the world. Many of them are concerned with sustainable crop production and crop protection methods that are less dependent on external inputs.In order to effectively link existing and new knowledge, FFS are physically situated in the farmers' community, and the facilitator joins the group at every session. They include a field where the usual crops are grown during the course. One course lasts for at least one cropping cycle.   Either in the same meeting or in a subsequent one, FFS participants are selected by the community itself. The participants are invited to prioritise the activities proposed for the FFS. They can also discuss problem-solving ideas and compare these with potential solutions originating outside the village. This process should result in the preparation of a realistic work plan for conducting a Crop Protection FFS in the village.The work plan should specify: ? the date and time of the weekly FFS meeting ? the location of the field study site ? the list of FFS participants ? a schedule of weekly activities for the entire season ? designs for field experiments to compare currently used methods with new ones It depends on local habits, and can best be decided by the village leaders, whether men and women participate as one group or two subgroups of the same gender.Each of the weekly sessions includes the following 8 activities: ? field observation (about 30 minutes) ? charting the growth and development of the crop (5 minutes) ? agro-ecosystem analysis (30 minutes) ? presentation of results and discussion (30 minutes) ? economic analysis (10 minutes) ? observing insect behaviour (10 minutes) ? group dynamics exercise (10-30 minutes) ? special topic (30-60 minutes)We can illustrate this schedule with reference to a FFS on Sweet Potato held on Java, in Indonesia, in 1997. Beforehand, farmers and researchers had worked together to analyse the problems in Sweet Potato cultivation within the context of the whole farm enterprise. They concluded that pests caused considerable losses in some seasons. Lack of fertilisation guidelines was seen as a bigger problem than crop damage by pests, and this issue was included in the FFS programme.The FFS had 25 participants as a maximum. They were divided into workgroups of 4-5 people each.Each workgroup evaluated 10 locations at each session. Observations consisted of: Soil conditions, symptoms of nutrient deficiency in the crop, symptoms of diseases and insect damage, number and types of insect pests and natural enemies. The age of the crop was noted, together with general observations on weather conditions, weeds in the field and vegetation around the field. Unknown insects and plant parts with unknown symptoms were collected in containers for further observation and identification.The lengths of stems (vines) and storage roots were measured weekly and charted. At the end of the course, the data were used to demonstrate how dry matter is distributed between aboveground and underground plant parts during the season.The Agro-Ecosystem Analysis (AESA) is the FFS's core activity, and other activities are designed to support it. In the Sweet Potato FFS, all data from the field observations were pooled per group. Samples or elements that were supposed to have a positive effect on the crop were pinned on the left side of a triplex board, and elements with a negative effect on the right. Participants were further encouraged to draw a Sweet Potato plant in the middle, showing the development stage of the foliage and storage roots. The drawing should also show whether the plants had stress symptoms or looked healthy.Each workgroup in turn presented and explained their agro-ecosystem analysis to the whole FFS (see figure 27 for an example). After the workgroups had finished, the facilitator guided the group in summarising the overall plant and soil conditions, drawing conclusions and making recommendations. An economic analysis is used to develop the analytical skills of the participants. Once the Sweet Potato farmers had recognised the factors that determine the profitability of their Potato enterprise, they were better placed to choose between individual management options.The purpose of this exercise is to discover the role of insects, especially the behaviour of crop-eating insects and their natural enemies. Workgroups put insects in a jar together with what is believed to be their preferred food. We show an example in figure 28.Group dynamic exercises develop group cohesiveness and problemsolving skills. They also encourage collaboration and creativity. Usually, the exercise begins with an introduction by the facilitator, who sets up a problem or challenge for the FFS to solve. Many are physical and active, while some are real brain teasers.The special topic is chosen from a list of suggestions from the participants. The topic should support the agro-ecosystem analysis, and should include carrying out experiments. infection process in which an organism enters, invades, or penetrates, and establishes a parasitic relationship with a host plant (5.2) infestation the presence of a large number of pest organisms in an area or field, on the surface of a host or anything that might contact a host, or in the soil intercrop to grow two or more crops simultaneously on the same area of land (synonymous with mixed cropping, 3.2) life cycle the cyclical stages in the growth and development of an organism (1) mixed cropping see intercrop mulch layer of material, such as organic matter or plastic, applied to the surface of the soil for purposes such as retention of water and inhibition of weeds (3.2) parasitic (of an organism) living in intimate association with another organism on which it depends for its nutrition (2.1) pathogenic (of an organism) producing a disease (2.1) perennial plant that survives for a number of years (3.2) pest control any measure or set of measures aimed at reducing the numbers of a pest or pest complex in an area; it often refers to measures that have an immediate effect on a pest or pest complex (4.3) pest management means the same as pest control, but it includes both preventive measures and measures that have an immediate effect (2.2) pest any organism that damages plants or plant products (1) pesticide a chemical used to control pests. The term also applies to a biological control agent, normally a pathogen or micro-organism, formulated and applied in a way similar to a chemical pesticide (1) population total number of a species living in an area (2.1) pro-active pest management instead of waiting for a pest problem to develop or to become widespread, there is a planned and designed process in place to enable early detection or prevention (2.2) resistant (of a plant) possessing properties that prevent or impede disease development (the opposite of susceptible, 3.2). The term is also used for pests that have become insensitive to the action of a pesticide (1) soil-borne (of a disease) present on or beneath the soil surface (as opposed to air-borne, 5.3) solarisation disease or weed control practice in which soil is covered with polyethylene sheeting and exposed to sunlight, thereby heating the soil and controlling soil-borne plant pathogens and weeds (5.4) strain a variant of a plant or micro-organism, used for a certain purpose (5.2) strip cropping the growing of two or more crops in alternating strips (3.2) susceptible (of a plant) can become diseased after contact with a pathogen (the opposite of resistant, 5.1) trap crop crop planted around a field to protect the inner crop from diseases transmitted by certain pest insects or a parasitic plant (3..2) variety a plant type within a species, resulting from deliberate manipulation, which has recognisable characteristics (colour, shape of flowers, fruits, seeds, height and form); synonymous with cultivar (2.2) vector a living organism (e.g., insect, mite, bird, higher animal, nematode, parasitic plant, human) able to carry and transmit a pathogen and disseminate disease (5.2) vegetative referring to asexual parts of a plant, which are not involved in sexual reproduction (6.1) wind break a row or other grouping of trees or shrubs used to provide protection against the effects of high velocity winds (3.1) ","tokenCount":"16673"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"41f48987b06d00ef464fb4e59e69e2ad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5fb6f7c7-857d-4c1f-860c-69e2e25aad4a/content","id":"-1545465203"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1454884f-707f-49c1-b3c0-6d369751bca0","pagecount":"23","content":"Why so important?• Pathogen + host monitoring P√ , H (some) Some?Early warning / forecasting -difficult but high value √ (increasing) X Need to handle politics of disease! √? Some?• Made some advances regarding stem rust surveillance. Probably most comprehensive, operational monitoring system for major crop diseases • Multi-disciplinary partnerships are critical to success (and also community building) • Ug99 investments / learning now being applied to other important races (and other rusts and other diseases e.g., MLN) • New pathogen threats continuing to evolve / future incursions likelywe must have sustained, long-term effective monitoring, sharing of information + strong connections to breeding programs (role of durable resistant cultivars critical) • Pathogen surveillance at large-scale is challenging, but possible and increasingly important!","tokenCount":"122"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1a31e58f8586eea8716f23f812afb815","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/234b00eb-1906-45ea-a960-578c763bd815/retrieve","id":"-1341587165"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d93680e3-95ad-4372-b9ed-224f244469f1","pagecount":"85","content":"The CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes had its second full year of operation in 2014 and this saw implementation of its product orientated structure and the implementation of its gender strategy. The year was also marked by developments presaging the future plans for the program: the Plan of Work and Budget prompted a request from the Consortium Office for the redescription of the program in terms of activities (Flagship Projects) rather than outputs and outcomes. As for other Research Programs Grain Legumes was requested to prepare a plan for 2015 and 2016, the Extension Phase, and it was decided to defer the implementation of the Flagship structure until the Extension Phase of the project. Accordingly the Annual Report for 2014 retains the Product Line format, and individual Product Line Reports, describing the project in more detail can be found at the URL http://1drv.ms/1Eyu0bo. The year saw major upheavals in terms of the W1+W2 budget with this being reduced from $23.2M in 2013 to $14.7M at the start of 2014 and further reduced to $13.8 in November of that year, these changes being due to a decline in W1 funding. The W3 and bilateral budget was more stable at $36.8M. This 18% drop in funding caused severe difficulties for the program as a whole, as the W3+bilateral funding is not redeployable and is fixed by the relevant centre's contract with a donor. In effect the reduction in the budget that is under the control of the research management committee was reduced by 64%. This trend has continued such that the 2015 W1+W2 budget is now reduced by 75% from that of 2013 (and is 51% of the W1 budget from the extension phase). This reduction in W1 funding places great strain on the ability of the Research Program to manage the program of work effectively diminishing the authority of the Research Management Committee and trust in this structure as a mechanism for coordinating the CGIAR's activities in this area. Despite these difficulties a significant event outside the CGIAR was the UN declaration (A/RES/68/231) of 2016 as the International Year of Pules 1 . Grain Legumes is actively involved in the preparation and planning for these events.(Cicer arietinum) and lentil (Lens culinaris). The first two crops are outside the scope of this CRP (although they were originally considered in the project proposal) and so are not discussed here. In Bangladesh lentil represents a considerably greater volume of production (though chickpea is of greater significance in neighbouring parts of India); lentil in Bangladesh is the focus of this report. Grain Legumes has strong partnership with the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) which is the national body responsible for variety production and release. Farmers have good reasons for leaving land fallow in the winter season as harvesting a successful winter crop is a challenge because of depleting soil moisture and terminal drought with sudden rise in temperature. If even a part of this land could be cultivated, food security would improve substantially. Grain Legumes scientists from ICARDA and ICRISAT together with their colleagues in Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Myanmar have developed effective, low-cost technologies for cultivating fallow land. New varieties and crop management methods are now available and farmers in all these countries are beginning to use these technologies, with strong support from government agencies. The approach has already proven its potential in Bangladesh (and elsewhere). The major example of documented uptake of lentil varieties in Bangladesh, which grows about 165,000 ha of lentil and has traditionally imported more than half of its consumption. A key scientific enabler in establishing a thriving rice-lentil system Bangladesh is new higher-yielding short duration varieties (BARI Masur 4, BARI Masur 5, BARI Masur 6 and BARI Masur 7, which draw on ICARDA breeding lines) of lentils resistant to common diseases (rust and stemphylium blight), and extensive training of rice farmers in managing lentil crops. This has led to increase in lentil production from 126,000 tonnes in 2001 to 210,000 t at present, mainly because of yield increase from 790 kg/ha in 2001 to 1270 kg per ha. The improved technology has spread to more than 85 percent of the lentil area in Bangladesh alone, bringing in an additional annual income of US $26.6 million. For small-scale farmers numbering ~ 1 million, obtaining a harvest of lentils from the same piece of land has not only improved their livelihood but also nutrition for their families.Product Line 2 'Heat tolerant chickpea, common bean, faba bean and lentil' addresses yield loss due to elevated temperature, particularly at seed set or seed filling. Surveys of germplasm accessions of Phaseolus at CIAT, Cali identified sources of heat tolerant lines that can resist at least 3°C higher average temperatures; many of these correspond to lines generated from interspecific crosses between tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) and common bean (P. vulgaris). While pollen fertility seems to be indicated by pod and seed formation, grain filling must also be improved since high temperatures inhibit proper translocation of photosynthates to developing seed. In earlier studies S. griseoplanus SAI-25 had been identified as a bacterial strain with insecticidal activity against H. armigera. In the current reporting period the nature of this insecticidal activity was traced to a single metabolite, shown by a combination of techniques (http://1drv.ms/1byCWlS Activities under OT 5.7) to correspond to the cyclic dipeptide cyclo(-Trp-Phe).Financial details are given in section I, below the distribution of expenditure among Product Lines (etc.) is summarised. Product Lint -PL, M -Management, G -centrally funded gender activities.With the exception of Management costs which are exclusively W1+W2 funded, the proportion of W1+W2 funding represents about 30% of project costs, with a minimum of 24% (PL8) and a maximum of 42% (PL7). Centre funds were contributed exclusively by CIAT.The CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes organises its activities according to two orthogonal principles: Product Lines and Strategic Components. Product Lines (PL) have been developed to identify those interventions that are most likely to have a significant impact. These have been identified based on an analysis of demand, constraint, region and opportunities, so Product Lines focus on outputs. This analysis is presented in the project description document. Strategic Components (SC) represent enabling pathways to achieve our goals of improving the production, sale and consumption of grain legumes, and so focus on outcomes. These are also described in the project description document, which is available at: http://1drv.ms/1iesUse. These Strategic Components are closely allied to the Flagship Projects proposed in the extension Phase (see the extension phase proposal at: http://1drv.ms/1JNop1s).In combination these identify activity clusters and define the pathway to achieving our five Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDO).IDO1 Food Security: Improved and stable access to grain legumes by urban and rural poor IDO2 Income: Increased and more equitable income from grain legumes by low income value chain actors, especially women IDO3 Nutrition & Health: Increased consumption of healthy grain legumes and products by the poor for a more balanced and nutritious diet, especially among nutritionally vulnerable women and children IDO4 Productivity: Improved productivity of farming systems, especially among smallholder farmers IDO5 Environment: Minimized adverse environmental effects of increased production and intensification of grain legumes See http://1drv.ms/1fahduM for a description of the IDOs, Theory of Change and Impact Pathway and http://1drv.ms/1P9xcMc for a description of our Value Proposition.Biocontrol agents: It was demonstrated by olfactometric studies that female egg parasitoids Gryon fulviventre use olfactic cues emitted by adult male Clavigralla tomentosicollis, possibly aggregation pheromones whose nature is being investigated.Chickpea: Heat tolerance (ICCV 93054, ICCV 91007, FLIP97-263C, S090694, S090812, S091352, S090315, FLIP93-146C, FLIP07-329C, S090243, S090341, FLIP07-310C); machine havestability (ICCV 03205, ICCV 03112, ICCV 04111 and ICCV 08102); machine harvestabilty combined with ascochyta blight resistance (ICCV 86836); resistance to herbicides -imazethapyr (ICCV 03104, ICCV 03402, ICCV 95138, ICCV 97115, ICCV 10), pendimethalin and alconifen (FLIP07-33C, FLIP08-256C, FLIP07-28C, FLIP07-344C, FLIP08-69C and FLIP08-69C), and fusarium wilt (IG70283, IG 8914 and IG 9630); 11 lines with combined resistance to fusarium wilt and ascochyta blight (FLIP-01-40C, FLIP-01-47C, FLIP-01-52C, FLIP-01-57C, FLIP-03-125C, FLIP-01-24C, FLIP-01-58C, FLIP-92-148C, ICCV-96836, ICCV-10515, ICC-4182). The chickpea breeding line NBeG 47 which will be proposed for release in 2015, is suitable for mechanical harvesting as a candidate variety for release in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States of India. It was at par in yield with the most popular cultivar JG-11 in 21 demonstrations conducted on farmers' fields Common Bean: Most notable are the heat tolerant lines discussed in section A. Most are derived from interspecific crosses with tepary bean (P. acutifolius); more such crosses are being generated. Pythium resistant lines (required at high temperature) were identified in heat tolerance nurseries. Cowpea: Seven cultivated cowpea varieties (TVu-12432, TVu-5957, TVu-997, TVu-16514, TVu-15011, TVu-4806, TVu-13297) and five cowpea wild relatives (TVNu-1070;TVNu-1537;TVNu-1589;TVNu-1762 and TVNu-37) were identified as resistant to Striga gesnerioides. Faba bean: Tolerance to herbicide metribuzin [F5 /(Fam2-1-1 X F7/8984/05)-THTRTR-93-4, F5/(F7/8975/05 X sel2004latt.47-1)-THTRTR-23, F8/HBP/SOD/2000-2415/2009 and F5 (F7/8983/05 X sel2004lat393-1)-THTRTR-76]; suitability to machine harvesting and tolerance to herbicide metribuzin (TERPYT-016-1, TERPYT-016-3, TERPYT-017-6, TERPYT-032-4, TERPYT-032-5, TERPYT-038-8, TERPYT-049-1, TERPYT-058-4, TERPYT-058-6, TERPYT-064-4, TERPYT-067-1, TERPYT-071-4); resistance to parasitic weed Orobanche crenata (12B70024-2, 12B70028-3, 12B70031-1 12B70037-1 12B700463 12B70051-2, 12B70061-1, 12B70082-1, 12B70085-1, 12B70085-3). Groundnut: Two transformation events #5 and #6 overexpressing lipoxygenase gene (PnLOX3) have been evaluated under challenge infection in India by A. flavus under confined micro-sick plots. They are promising candidates for Aflatoxin management. The differentially expressed proteins of target genes are being characterized as possible new sources of low aflatoxin contamination. Genome wide introgression lines developed based on One interspecific cross, Tifrunner x ISATGR 40. 40 F1 seeds were generated have been used to generate BC1F1 seeds in 2014.Screening of a total of 120 markers covering entire genome completed on four parental genotypes of two wide crosses. A total of 94 polymorphic SSRs were identified. MAGIC population based on eight-way crosses were completed, F1's raised in 2014 5800 F2 plants will be raised in 2014/15. Phenotyping for oil content in the F2:3 population derived from ICGV 07368 X ICGV 06420, and for fatty acids in F2:3 population of ICGV 06420 X SunOliec 95 R is completed Lentil: Screening of lentil germplasm and breeding material against heat, key diseases (wilt, stemphylium blight and rust), machine harvestable traits (pod drop, pod dehiscence, first pod bearing node height, plant height and tendril), parasitic weed (orobanche), and post emergence herbicides (Imazethapyr and Metribuzin) has resulted in identification of useful donors as mentioned in the detailed report. Suitability to machine harvesting (010S 96131-2, 010S 96134-3, 06S 53110-02, 010S 96130-1, 010S 96155-2, 06S 53110-03, 08S 40111-01, 08S 40106-01, 2009S 96102-7, 2009S 96501-5); resistance to herbicides -imazethapyr (ILL8112, ILL10865, GCP25, GCP54, GCP85, GCP95) and metribuzin (GCP95, GCP23 and GCP124); resistance to parasitic weed broomrape (Orobanche spp.) (ILL7686, ILL468, ILL590, ILL9951, ILL10657, ILL8114, ILL7990, ILL6015, ILL7946, ILL960090, ILL88527, ILL7726, ILL8107, ILL8111, ILL7982, GCP 15, GCP 35, ILL6991, ILL7934, ILL8068, AKM196, ILL8089), heat tolerance (ILL 221, ILL4902, ILL 8026, ILL4258, FLIP2009-55L, andILL2507). Pigeonpea: Candidate gene(s) for A4 derived cytoplasmic male sterility were identified. Four-way multi-parent advanced generation inter-crosses (MAGIC) were completed during 2014. Stable obcordate leaf shape male sterile lines were identified and used to develop heterotic hybrid combinations. Seven waterlogging tolerant genotypes/hybrids were identified (ICP 5028, ICPH 2431, ICPL 87119, ICPH 2740, ICPL 149, ICPL 20241, andMAL 15). In Tanzania, among 102 (42 medium duration and 60 long duration) genotypes evaluated for yield and drought tolerance, eight genotypes were found promising. In Malawi and Mozambique, a total of 95 (35 medium and 60 long duration) genotypes were evaluated for yield and disease resistance, 18 genotypes were found promising. A total of 250 breeding and germplasm lines were evaluated for Phytophthora blight and eight lines (ICPLs 87, 85063, 11264, 11227, 11273, 99048, 99044, 20136) exhibited resistant reaction (<10% incidence).The Grain Legumes website has featured seven 'lead point' articles achieved at http://grainlegumes.cgiar.org/lead-point/. In addition to these the regular 'Grain Legumes FEED' newsletter has been circulated among our stakeholders. A total number of 63 news articles, blogs and announcements were updated on the Grain Legumes website in 2014. (Complete list with the links can be accessed from http://1drv.ms/1DGpIej or the main index at http://1drv.ms/1Eyu0bo).Chickpea: Chickpea reference set (300 accessions) was re-sequenced at 5X to 13X coverage using whole genome re-sequencing (WGRS); a comprehensive genetic map comprising of 1,013 marker loci and spanning a distance of 723.64 cM was developed from ICC 4958 × ICC 1882 RILs and the \"QTL-hotspot\" earlier identified for drought tolerance traits was saturated with 49 SNP markers (Mol Genet Genomics, DOI 10.1007/s00438-014-0932-3), Four SSR markers (TA37, TA34, H4F03 and NCPRG48) associated with leaf miner resistance in chickpea. Lentil: lentil specific 57 EST-SSR markers have been developed (P-6 report). Lentil genome sequence is expected soon with Canada and US as partners (http://knowpulse2.usask.ca/portal/project/Lentilgenome-sequencing-%28LenGen%29%3A-establishing-a-comprehensive-platform-for-molecularbreeding). Pigeonpea: Promoter region of NAD7 candidate gene for A4 cytoplasmic male sterility was isolated and cloned in pCR8/GW/TOPO TA entry vector. F2 mapping population segregating for fertility restoration were developed. To understand the molecular basis of heterosis, bisulfite sequencing libraries of two hybrids and their parental lines was generated. For construction of heterotic pools a total of 104 pigeonpea hybrid parental lines were re-sequenced (3X to 5X sequencing data generated per line). Re-sequencing data analysis of 20 parental lines (18 cultivated lines and 2 wild species accessions) resulted in identification of 4,686,422 SNPs and 779,254 InDels.Annex 4 records progress by Output Target, and this is summarised diagrammatically below for Output Targets that were expected to be achieved by year 5 of the original program. Each horizontal bar represents an Output Target, those missing were expected to be delivered more than 5 years after the start of Grain Legumes. The bar 'ahead of schedule' would be maximal if this was completely achieved already, while the bar 'behind schedule' would be minimal if no progress had been made whatsoever. Note that in this version there are many of these, but that is because the progress is not recorded in Annex 4.Progress towards achievement of the outcomes corresponding to our IDOs is described in the individual PL Reports, but these can be summarised in several broad categories:1) The release and adoption of improved varieties and technologies. All PLs (except 5) have participated in the release of new varieties, 42 in all, including one pigeonpea hybrid, 13 common bean, 8 chickpea, 4 faba bean 3 lentil 10 groundnut and 3 soybean varieties. In PL1 adoption studies have been undertaken and it has been shown that farmers in Tanzania and Zambia grow an improved variety in one season and local varieties in another season or may grow improved varieties in mixture with local varieties, presumably for risk management. PL2 A bean variety released in Nicaragua was subsequently demonstrated to have a degree of heat tolerance. Heat tolerant varieties of faba bean which can tolerate as high as 35 o C temperature at flowering turned out to be a boon to small holder farmers in Sudan, resulting in 50200 ha area under faba bean with total production elevated to 122,000 tons in the last decade. Around 25000 families are benefited from the usage of those cultivars with an average income of 4000 US$. In PL3 technology promotion for promoting groundnut rosette management and aflatoxin technologies and population and water management have been implemented in Tanzania. In Malawi for PL3 we tracked adoption rates from 2012 to 2014 for groundnuts and found that area under the crop had increased by 12.5 %; with groundnuts contributing about of 6% to agricultural GDP in 2014. This is a remarkable contribution for a crop with a cost benefit ratio 4.6 compared to maize, tobacco and soybean. This is well above the threshold of 1 required to benefits of any enterprise. PL6 Over 161,882 metric tons (MT) of quality seed (breeder, foundation, certified and truthfully labelled seeds) of improved chickpea cultivars was produced in South Asia (125,499 MT in India;113 MT in Bangladesh) and ESA (34,335 MT in Ethiopia;1935 MT in Tanzania and Kenya). For lentil, 26 VBSEs established producing 18.9 MT foundation and TL seeds of improved varieties in Nepal, 16.7 MT of certified and TL seeds in Bangladesh and 970 MT in India. Adoption study of improved chickpea cultivars in Dharwad and Gulbarga districts of Karnataka, India revealed 65% and 1% of the total cropped area under JG 11 and BGD 103, respectively. In Andhra Pradesh state, adoption of improved varieties (JG 11,JAKI 9218 and JG 130) has reached ~98%. Adoption study in Sub-Saharan Africa indicated 57269, 18887 and 20683 ha area under improved varieties of chickpea, lentil and faba bean in Ethiopia and 50050 and 16800 ha under faba bean and chickpea in Sudan. PL7 Over 382 MT tonnes of quality seeds of chickpea improved varieties, 73.7 MT of faba bean and 19.2 MT of lentil produced for distribution among farmers in Ethiopia. Adoption of faba bean varieties (Misr3, Giz843) in Egypt has resulted in 25% increase in area and 30% in production. PL8 In 2014 a large area of hybrid pigeonpea was cultivated in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Odisha, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. The NARS partners, Department of Agriculture, private seed companies, NGOs and progressive farmers played a key role in this mission. The state governments of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra distributed hybrid seed on subsidy to farmers to encourage hybrid cultivation. This has led to increase in productivity to 2.5 t/ha compared to 1.5 t/ha by varieties and 1 t/ha by local types in an area of 100,000 ha.Farmer participatory selection together with technology demonstrations either as cultivation practices (eg PL5) or on-farm variety evaluations for groundnuts as well as production technology evaluations (PL3) are widespread approaches within Grain Legumes. In PL1 Farmer Participatory Selection (FPVS) was conducted in the 7 countries involved in TL II in PL6. PL6: FPVS were conducted on improved chickpea varieties in India, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya in addition to 1992 on-farm demonstrations on chickpea and 5169 on lentil. 26 village based seed hubs were established in India, Bangladesh and Nepal for lentil seed production. PL8 3,200 on farm demonstrations were conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh states of India to demonstrate the performance of hybrids over local and improved varieties and create awareness on hybrid cultivation among small and marginal rainfed farmers. In association with an EU-IFAD project several IPM sites in Romani province of Morocco are used for demonstrating management options for diseases.We have highlighted two major impacts in section A above. 1.1 Gender inequality targets defined In 2013 we established the Gender Strategy for Grain Legumes 2 , while in 2014 Grain Legumes engaged Esther Njuguna-Mungai as gender specialist, who engaged in discussions with the Product Line coordinators to establish 'priority gender research' in the CRP. After a series of meetings, the gender specialist documented a proposed 'Gender Implementation Framework' 3 for the CRP, which was presented to and adopted by the RMC in November 2014. The main focus of the research in the CRP is proposed to be 'gender gap in grain legumes production'. Activities identified to support this focus include: (i) Generation of evidence of the gender gap (ii)Identification of indicators for tracking and monitoring the gender gap (iii)Capacity building in support of the gender gap activities Since this proposal was adopted in November, further activities will be reported next year.Institutional architecture for integration of gender research in the CRP In 2014, the CRP Grain Legumes appointed a gender specialist who joined service in the month of April. The gender research component in the CRP has an allocated gender budget. The Gender specialist has joined the CGIAR Gender Network and is representing the CRP in network wide activities. The CRP grain legumes is participating on a global study on Gender Norms and Agency in Agriculture and Natural resources management by doing case studies in Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia.Gender research in the CRP The CRP is starting a process of identifying focal points for gender research in each of the product lines and forming a CRP Level network with them for capacity building activities and implementation of gender research in each product line. Consolidated reports of gender activities are available at http://1drv.ms/1J9iuD0. An example of gender related findings from activities initiated under 1.1(i) above, from PL6, are where the study on the evidence of a gender gap in lentil and chickpea value chain in Ethiopia has found significant involvement of women in all aspects of farming activities in addition to their reproductive (domestic) chores. The study found that extension service is male dominated. Agricultural development would be more successful when extension agents pay attention to gender issues, so training of extension workers in gender issues and communication skills with women is important. Women's access to extension services was less than men. Therefore, gender responsive training (changing approach of training, timing of training and center of training) is important to meet the needs and preferences of men and women for sustainable increase in production of the crops and improve livelihood. For diffusion of information, social network is an option like Lemlem Chefe kebele 4 extension is given monthly through Idir 5 , particularly important who have less access to formal extension service. In some areas team work (One to Five) approach is established and it can be used as a means of technology and information dissemination. These mechanisms that enable women to join groups include allowing women in MHHs and FHHs, non-land owners to be group members; time arrangement to accommodate women's workloads; ensuring that all women have equal opportunities to say their concerns in group meetings. Women have limited bargaining power on lentil and chickpea marketing, hence there is a need for smart gender-sensitive ways of linking women farmers to markets through market information, linking with major commercial actors, organizing women marketing groups, and training in marketing. FHHs and MHHs had different access and control over resources and face different problem and will require different types of agricultural technology, extension and development interventions. Women's empowerment is also important (women specific organization, like women cooperation) for the sustainable development in the study areas which contribute to realize poverty reduction goals, millennium development targets and sustainable development in Ethiopia. (FAO, 2011) argue that achieving gender equality and empowering women in agriculture is not only the right thing to do. It is also critical for agricultural development and food security. The results of the analysis indicate that both men's and women's are knowledgeable about crop production and management, however most women do better than that of males in lentil and chickpea production using indigenous knowledge. Level of skill and knowledge and understanding of women on technology is limited due to their low level of education. There is a need to include practical and field trainings, equip women's knowledge particularly women in MHHs through extension service on crop production and management The major risks to the program derive from its financial instability. For 2014 the project was 28.5% supported from W1+W2 funding and this has declined to 26.5% in 2015. W2 funding has remained constant and supportive of the program, but W1 funding has declined considerably. In the extension phase it is 25% of what was anticipated in the proposal document.The CRP has had many logistical, organisational, governance, and research issues to deal with, but the ability of the Research Management Committee to coordinate the program has been seriously undermined by the loss of flexibility because of the increased reliance on W3 and bilateral projects that are constrained by the agreements between the funder and the lead institution. This leads irrevocably to a fragmentation of the program and loss of opportunity for synergistic interactions. It seems almost inevitable that this will result in the break-up of the research on grain legumes within the CGIAR in the second phase of CRPs which would institutionalise this fragmentation, reverting to the pre-reform structures. These indicated that the planning for the POWB missed some important intentions and that the communication channels between the centres and the Research Management Committee need to be strengthened.The reports: L101 L106, L111,L121, L131 and L211 are presented in Annex 3. • Chickpea breeding lines (e.g. ICCV 03205, ICCV 03112, ICCV 04111 and ICCV 08102) suitable to mechanical harvesting and yield levels similar to or higher than the check cultivars developed.• A chickpea breeding line ICCV 96836 with suitability to machine harvesting and resistance to ascochyta blight identified.• Twenty-two faba bean genotypes suitable to machine harvesting and tolerance to herbicide metribuzin identified.• Several chickpea breeding lines (e.g. ICCV 03104, ICCV 03402, ICCV 95138, ICCV 97115, and ICCV 10) tolerant to herbicide imezeathapyr identified.• Six chickpea breeding lines tolerant to herbicides pendimethalin and aclconifen identified.• Thirty-two fababean genoypes tolerant to metribuzin identified.• Seven lentil genotypes tolerant to herbicide imazethapyr and 4 to metribuzin identified. Glossary: Technologies to be counted here are agriculture-related and NRM-related technologies and innovations including those that address climate change adaptation and mitigation. Relevant technologies include but are not limited to: • Mechanical and physical: New land preparation, harvesting, processing and product handling technologies, including biodegradable packaging • Biological: New germplasm (varieties, breeds, etc.) that could be higher-yielding or higher in nutritional content and/or more resilient to climate impacts; affordable food-based nutritional supplementation such as vitamin A-rich sweet potatoes or rice, or high-protein maize, or improved livestock breeds; soil management practices that increase biotic activity and soil organic matter levels; and livestock health services and products such as vaccines;• Chemical: Fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides sustainably and environmentally applied, and soil amendments that increase fertilizer-use efficiencies;    The CRP has defined and collected baseline data on the main dimensions of gender inequality in the CRP's main target populations relevant to its expected outcomes ( IDOs)The collation of this information remains fragmentary and will be addressed further in the Extension Phase. For 2014 we have initiated the analysis of gender gaps together with the establishment of baselines and indicatiors. Our Gender Specialist has initiated relevant gender training and awareness building within the Research Management Committee.Sex-disaggregated social data collected and used to diagnose important gender-related constraints in at least one of the CRP's main target populations See the CRP GL Product Line Reports http://1drv.ms/1Eyu0bo And The CRP has defined and collected baseline data on the main dimensions of gender inequality in the CRP's main target populations relevant to its expected outcomes (IDOs) And CRP targets changes in levels of gender inequality to which the CRP is or plans to contribute, with related numbers of men and women beneficiaries in main target populations 2. Institutional architecture for integration of gender is in place -CRP scientists and managers with responsibility for gender in the CRP's outputs are appointed, have written TORS.This was been done for the RMC and PMU and Gender specialists in 2013 -Procedures defined to report use of available diagnostic or baseline knowledge on gender routinely for assessment of the gender equality implications of the CRP's flagship research products as per the Gender -CRP scientists and managers with responsibility for gender in the CRP's outputs are appointed, have written TORS and funds allocated to support their interaction. This has been done see the financial summary in sections A and I The CRP has revised its management structure for the extension phase this has brought in new people who contribute a greater diversity of experience, age from the previous committee. Four of the six new appointments were women -Procedures defined to report use of available -CRP scientists and managers with responsibility for gender in the CRP's outputs are appointed, have written TORS and funds allocated to support their interaction.The CRP gender specialist has initiated her programme of work (qv) and has been influential for example in shaping the form of gender work in the extension phase.-Procedures defined to report use of available diagnostic or baseline knowledge on gender routinely for assessment of the gender equality implications of the CRP's flagship research products as per the Gender Strategy This is not yet fully implemented throughout the CRP, but the PABRA framework (developed at the start of the current phase 5 -CRP M&E system has protocol for tracking progress on integration of gender in research Although the CRP M&E system is not fully functional, PABRA has an M&E official who systematically compiles gender disaggregated data, although responsibility for data collection is distributed among research staff. For example, data on seed distribution is collected based on gender of seed recipients. This practice is implemented widely with partners in seed dissemination, although it is less practical with private sector partners who sell seed commercially.-A CRP plan approved for capacity development in gender analysis This is part of the Gender Implementation Strategy.-The CRP uses feedback provided by its M&E system to improve its integration of gender into research The CRP M&E system is not fully functional Budget figures in all of the attached forms should be the annual confirmed budget (POWB) for the year. W1/2 total will be as the Financing Plan notified by the Consortium Office, and W3/Bilateral the forecast prepared internally. Actual events since the signing of the PIAs result in the budget per PIA no longer being a meaningful measure of performance.For reporting purposes, please delete from L121 and L131 Centres not relevant to your CRPNB W3 funding from CGIAR Centres represent an internal transactionIn section C1 the information below was summarised diagrammatically to illustrate progress at a glance. This is not a quantitative estimate, but is a subjective estimation. The basis of the estimate is as follows: If an activity is expected to deliver the output target N years after 2014, then it is expected to be about 1/N complete. A degree of completeness is assigned, and the ration of these is an estimate of how the OT is performing against expectation. Note that this is not always expected to be a linear progression. In this ratio the values below 1 are behind schedule and those ahead of schedule are greater than 1. The bars are then normalised in length so that fraction ahead and fraction behind schedule are equivalent. ","tokenCount":"4975"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2a4c959287748076b886720027ce6c98","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0ae3f782-ea7e-40b4-9c0c-ed1aa58cf13a/retrieve","id":"460491911"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"535795d7-44de-4a98-9bec-73ff1808b8a0","pagecount":"12","content":"Climate change and variability remain a challenge that poses a serious threat to people's livelihoods, particularly in smallholder farming systems. Rainfedreliant smallholder agriculture is especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change (Deressa et  al., 2009; Simane et al., 2016). When these challenges are compounded with non-climate stressors, the effect would be devastating.Climate adaptation through the Agro-climate Advisory Service (ACAS) offers smallholder farmers the potential to improve evidence-based decisionmaking. Access to climate advisories potentially curbs the effect of climate risk and uncertainty on crop production and increases the resilience and adaptive capacity of farmers (Ouédraogo et al., 2018). However, the availability, accessibility, affordability, and reliability of advisory services remain concerns.As part of ongoing agro-climate advisories provision efforts and improve service provision efficiency, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) has been implementing the Ethiopian Digital Agro-climatic Advisory Project (EDACaP) in collaboration with Green Agro-Solutions (GAS) PLC since 2019. The objective is to provide tailored ACAS to targeted smallholders to improve their livelihood by enhancing informed decision-making that reduces uncertainty involved in production decisions. ACAS has been channelled through the novel digital platform called LERSHA developed by GAS mainly in wheat-dominated production systems. The provision of ACAS involves investments and operational costs incurred by service providers. The profitability of the ACAS investment hasn't been studied from the service providers' (CIMMYT and GAS) point of view, and remains an empirical issue.. To analyze whether investments in ACAS are profitable or not, the policy brief used two waves of survey datasets collected from 1,842 farm households that cover the Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Sidama regions. Investment outlay data was obtained from the GAS financial model and expert estimation was used for calculating operational costs relevant to climate advisory services.A discounted cash flow -Net Present Value (NPV) is used to analyse whether the multiperiod ACAS investments are profitable or not as it accounts for the time value of money compared to other methods.The result shows that the expected economic return (NPV) from investing in ACAS is 93,840,389,067 birr. On average, the additional return is 15,640,064,845 birr over six years @12% loan interest rate for the 2,950,000 target farmers targeted by the project over the years.The economic return analysis shows investing in ACAS is profitable. Averaged over six years, each recipient of the advisory service receives an additional return of about 12,000 birr/ha annually from the wheat value chain compared to those who don't receive and utilise ACAS.Based on the results, it is suggested that digitalbased agro-advisory provision needs to be further strengthened and mainstreamed as it is beneficial for farmers. This is one of the pathways through which agricultural advisory provision would be modernised and gradually commercialised. On top of that, the bundled business model of GAS needs to be scaled up, where target farmers receive not only ACAS but other complementary services such as farm inputs and mechanisation services to address multifaced farmers' needs.The collaboration of CIMMYT-GAS (a private sector player) in the provision of ACAS implies that they can play a crucial role in revitalising the agricultural extension service provision. This justifies the need to move onto a pluralistic extension system approach in the country under the oversee of the Ministry of Agriculture and relevant public institutions.Small-scale agriculture is the backbone of the economy of most rural areas. However, smallholder farming systems are severely affected by climate change and variability which poses a serious threat to people's livelihoods. Rainfed smallholder agriculture is especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change (Deressa et al., 2009;Simane et al., 2016), more so when compounded with other non-climate stressors.Climate adaptation through the Agro-climate Advisory Service (ACAS) offers smallholder farmers the potential to improve evidence-based decision-making. Better access to agro-climatic advisory services can empower farmers to make informed decisions on when to plant and harvest, irrigate and fertilize and how to invest in droughtresilient crops and associated varieties. It can help to better plan crop production, cattle feed management and herd movement.Accurate, timely, reliable, tailored ACAS is regarded as a powerful tool to support informed decision-making of smallholders by reducing problems related to accessibility and availability of key resources and information. Moreover, access to climate advisories potentially curbs the effect of climate risk and uncertainty on crop production and increases the resilience and adaptive capacity of farmers (Ouédraogo et al., 2018). Despite its importance, the advisory service still has limitations in its availability, accessibility, affordability, and reliability.As part of ongoing agro-climate advisories provision efforts and to improve service provision efficiency, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) has been implementing the Ethiopian Digital Agro-climatic Advisory Project (EDACaP) in collaboration with Green Agro-Solutions (GAS) PLC since 2019.The project has been engaged in providing customized ACAS to targeted smallholders with the overarching objective of improving their livelihood by enhancing informed decision-making that reduces uncertainty involved in production decisions. ACAS has been channelled through the novel digital platform called LERSHA, developed by GAS.CIMMYT is responsible for developing content for ACAS such as generating forecasts and developing advisories. The developed information content is translated into the local languages and disseminated via the LERSHA platform.The main channels of delivery are voice blasts and short message service (SMS) via the LERSHA mobile application (for development agents and booking agents) and call centerers on a seasonal and every two weeks. The intervention is mainly implemented in wheat-dominated areas and gradually expanding to maize and other production systems.Wheat is one of the important food security crops in Ethiopia. According to the CSA (2022) annual report, in terms of total area share, wheat ranked 3 rd among major cereals, after Teff and Maize. It covered 18% of the area of cereals in the 2021 production season. In terms of the national volume of production, it ranks 2 nd next to maize among cereal crops with a national average production of about 3 tonnes per hectare.In capturing, generating, creating and disseminating ACAS, investment and operating costs are incurred, which are expected to provide crop yield gains for the service recipients and improve resilience. From the service providers' (CIMMYT and GAS) point of view, whether an ACAS investment is profitable or not has not been studied and remains an empirical issue. This policy brief is prepared from the economic analysis results of multiperiod investments on ACAS in the wheat-dominant production systems in Ethiopia.Two datasets were used to compute returns on investment of ACAS investments. The first dataset is a baseline study which was collected in 2022. The second dataset is from a household survey collected in 2024. Overall data were collected from 1,242 and 600 households in 2022 and 2024 respectively. Among the many farm and household level data, the survey covers climate profile, intensity, frequency and livelihood impacts. It also covers the access, utilization and usefulness of ACAS in making farm decisions. Both datasets cover fairly similar areas but the 2022 baseline survey covered a wider area and a larger number of households. Both surveys were conducted in four regional states, i.e., Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Sidama. These survey data were used to compute yield gains and price trends of wheat. Investment outlay data was obtained from the GAS financial model and expert estimation was used for calculating operational costs relevant to advisory service provisions. The GAS financial model contains the investment amount needed and the number of target households for the coming six years.A discounted cash flow -Net Present Value (NPV) is used to analyse whether the multiperiod ACAS investment was profitable. It has an advantage over other farm investment analysis methods as it considers the size of cash flows and the time value of money over the entire life of the investment (Kay et al, 2012).Table 1 depicts the number of target farmers over the years, operations cost items per assumed area of wheat (0.83 ha per farmer) for 1ha/farmer and annual advisory costs. Among the cost components of the advisory services, the share of training provision is 34% over the six years followed by the development of content for communication (voice blast), 28%, advisory content development which includes generating forecasts, developing advisory and troubleshooting which is 15% over trajectory periods. The economic return analysis result shows that investing in ACAS is profitable. Each recipient of the advisory service receives an additional return of about 12,000 birr/ha annually from wheat production compared to those who don't receive and utilise ACAS.It is recommended that digital-based ACAS provision should be further strengthened and mainstreamed as it is beneficial for farmers.Besides providing ACAS, farmers also need other services like provision of seed, mechanization and fertilizer in the form of a package. Thus, a bundled business model of GAS which encompasses the digital-based provision of complementary inputs and mechanisation services needs to be strengthened and scaled up in wheat and other production systems. This approach addresses the multifaced needs of farmers which increases productivity and builds resilience.The collaboration of CIMMYT-GAS (a private sector player) in the provision of ACAS, implies that the private sector can play a crucial role in revitalising the agricultural extension service provision. This justifies the need to move onto a pluralistic extension system approach in the country under the oversee of the Ministry of Agriculture and relevant public institutions. Such a shift in approach is expected to revitalise agrifood systems in general and advisory service provisions in particular by reducing publicdominated extension provision systems in the country. ","tokenCount":"1556"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f296e20d3cdd97918b24b9fe4973a662","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/91aa4d04-d1e0-4b29-8056-dc9ba058c01b/retrieve","id":"-1298264745"},"keywords":["enteric fermentation","greenhouse gasses","in vitro gas production technique","ruminants"],"sieverID":"71ef797a-4e0b-4767-8b7f-6455d5763a64","pagecount":"17","content":"in vitro study was carried out to measure methane (CH4) production and ruminal fermentation parameters of tropical forages either commonly used and with a potential for inclusion in Colombian livestock systems. The forages evaluated wereUrochloa hybrid cv. Cayman, Leucaena leucocephala, Leucaena diversifolia, Megathyrsus maximus cv. Mombaza, Urochloa brizantha cv. Toledo, Canavalia brasiliensis,Urochloa decumbens, Tithonia diversifolia and Dichantium aristatum. which were incubated using the in vitro gas technique for 96 h. Treatments with higher neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and crude protein (PC) contents had higher gas production, dry matter (DM) degradability and the highest CH4 production (ml/g DMd) at 24 hours. Methane at 24 hours of incubation varied between 4.69 and 8.10 ml and increased by 43% on average at 48 hours. In all treatments, the highest proportion of volatile fatty acid (VFAs) corresponded to acetate, which was more than 50% of the total VFAs produced. Treatments with Urochloa hybrid cv. Cayman and their associations with Leucaena diversifolia had the lowest CH4 production values at 24 h. Similarly, treatments with Cayman grass, its associations with Leucaena and Toledo grass alone showed the highest DM degradability values. In conclusion, the inclusion of Leucaena and Tithonia diversifolia on a diet based on forage grass (Cayman or Toledo) had a positive effect on nutrient content and degradability and the group of treatments that included Cayman grass and its associations had lower CH4 production values and higher degradability than the rest of the treatments.Livestock production in the low-land tropics of Colombia (below 1.500 m.a.s.l) is based on the grazing of natural and introduced pastures without supplementation of concentrates or other types of forage (Ibrahim et al 2007). As a result, there is generally a low intake of nutrients and energy (Barahona and Sánchez 2005), which leads to low production efficiency and high negative impacts on the environment (Rivera et al 2017).Global population growth and climate change have generated intense pressure and bad publicity for livestock production in recent years, primarily due to increased demand for livestock products and increased methane (CH4) emissions from cattle, mainly of enteric origin. However, while it is currently impossible to de-couple livestock production with CH4 emissions, several feed-based mitigation options have been suggested (de Souza et al 2021; Arango et al 2020). Although CH4 production may be higher under grazing and animals receiving no concentrate supplementation, this feeding system is attractive to farms due to low production costs. However, the use of high nutritional value fodder to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit product (i.e., meat or milk), is attractive for production systems in the low-land tropics (Ku-Vera et al 2020).Quantification of the benefits of mitigation actions requires reliable estimates of GHG emissions from enteric fermentation. However, most of the default Tier 1 emission factors (IPCC 2019) used to estimate emissions were developed with breeds and feeds in temperate countries, and there are huge uncertainties associated with their use in the tropics. Despite recent revisions of such factors (Gavrilova et al 2019), it remains unclear whether these emission factors reflect CH 4 emissions from cattle across different tropical locations. Thus, several developing countries are now aiming to develop local emission factors that will reduce uncertainties in GHG emission inventories and will also bring clarity on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). Yet, few facilities are available, and the costs are often beyond available analytical infrastructure, financial and personnel resources despite efforts to develop low-cost analytical methodologies (Gaviria-Uribe et al 2020a).To reduce the uncertainty of emission estimates it might be necessary to focus research efforts on studying the nutritional value of feeds and in evaluating possible associations between increased quality of cattle diets, increasing productivity and GHG emissions. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to quantify in vitro CH4 production and ruminal fermentation parameters of several commonly used pastures and forages with potential for widespread use in livestock production systems in Colombia.The following forages were evaluated in this study: Urochloa hybrid cv. Cayman-CIAT BR02/1752, Leucaena leucocephala, Leucaena diversifolia, Megathyrsus maximus cv. Mombaza, Urochloa brizantha cv. Toledo,Canavalia brasiliensis, Urochloa decumbens, Tithonia diversifolia, Dichantium aristatum. The composition of the treatments and the percentage of inclusion (base dry matter-DM) of each forage are shown in Table 1. The inclusion of each forage corresponds to the proportion of intake as fresh weight basis calculated in previous in vivo experiments (Gaviria-Uribe et al 2020b).  (1985). Crude protein (CP) was determined using the Kjeldahl method (AOAC 984.13;1990) and gross energy (GE) content by the bomb calorimeter method ISO 9831(1998). The following equation was used to calculate the metabolizable energy (ME). , where: is organic matter digested at 96 hours (Lindgren 1983).An in vitro gas production procedure was carried out using the technique described by Theodorou et al (1994). The forage samples were dried and ground to pass a 1mm sieve and stored for later analysis. Samples were accurately weighed (1 g) into 110ml glass flasks. Four repetitions for each sample were incubated, and additionally, twelve flasks containing only the rumen fluid/buffer solution (blanks) were included for corrections of gas production.The culture medium used in trials consisted of buffer solution, macro-mineral solution, micro-mineral solution, reductive solution and resazurin (Goering and Van Soest 1970). The solutions of the culture medium were prepared the day before the experiment and were mixed in the following order: distilled water, buffer solution, macro-mineral solution, micromineral solution and indicator solution (Menke and Steingass 1988). Rumen fluid collected from three rumen-cannulated brahman steers was filtered, mixed and transferred into pre-warmed thermos flasks for transfer to the laboratory; 10 ml of this fluid was mixed with 89 ml of culture medium at 39°C under constant stirring and continuous CO2 flow.Gas production was recorded at 3,6,9,12,24,36,48,60,72 and 96 hours of incubation using a pressure transducer (Lutron Electronic Enterprise Co. Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan) connected to a digital wide-range manometer (Sper Scientific, Arizona, USA). To convert the pressure values obtained in psi into units of volume (ml), the equation from the Laboratory of Forage Quality and Animal Nutrition of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture: Y = 0.49x -1.51; where: Y= Volume in ml and x = Pressure in psi was used.The dry matter in vitro degradability (DMd) was determined at different time points by weighing the residue recovered from the fermentation. First, bottles were removed after 24, 48 and 96 hours of incubation and cooled 4ºC to stop the fermentation process. The contents of each bottle were then filtered and dried for 48 h at 65ºC in an oven with forced air circulation (Memmert® UF 750, Schwabach, Germany). Finally, the final DM content of each bottle was weighed on an analytical balance (Mettler Toledo®, USA). Degradability was calculated by the difference between the initial and final DM content (undegraded DM) and expressed as a percentage of the initial DM.The concentration of acetic, propionic, butyric and isobutyric acid was determined for each treatment; samples of the effluent of each bottle were taken from the in vitro gas production at 24 and 48 hours after incubation and were deposited in 2 ml eppendorf ® vials. A deproteinization and acidifying solution was added (10% metaphosphoric acid). The obtained solution was centrifuged at 13.000 rpm for 12 minutes at 4°C, and the supernatant was placed on a vial and stored at 4°C for later analysis by Shimadzu ® ultrafast liquid chromatograph (Prominence UFLC, 20 series), equipped with an UV/Vis detector (SPD-20AV) and a 300mm x 7.8mm BIO-RAD Aminex HPX-87H column.Methane concentration was determined from the gas samples accumulated on each incubated bottle at 24 and 48 h post-incubation. The gas samples were stored in 5-ml glass vials under vacuum, until their subsequent concentration analysis at the Greenhouse Gas Laboratory of CIAT using a Shimadzu GC-2014 gas chromatograph (Shimadzu GC-2014, Shimadzu ® , Japan), equipped with a flame ionization detector and an electron capture detector.The Gompertz non-linear model was used to describe the dynamic of cumulative gas production over time (Casas et al 2010). The curves were adjusted with CurveExpert professional 2.0.0. program. The nutrient content for each evaluated treatment is shown in Table 2. The observed nutrient content of the treatments with only grass is typical for low-tropical grasses in Colombia, which are generally low in protein and high in NDF contents. Protein content in grass-only treatments varied between 39.4 and 93.5 g/kg DM, while CP contents in treatments with other forages were in average 1.7 times greater. While NDF decreased in the evaluated forage mixes, differences were not as striking as in CP content. Gross energy values ranged from (14-18 Mj/kg DM), and no significant variations were found between treatments. Metabolizable energy values ranged from 5.8 to 8.99 (MJ/kg DM), with the HA treatment showing the lowest content. Gas production per gram of incubated organic matter (iOM) accumulated at 96 hours, varied between 215 and 297 ml (Figure 1) with TIP being 16 h on average, going from 12.5 to 20.8 h (Table 3). Colonization time of the feed particles by bacteria or phase Lag varied between 1.16 and 2.00 hours. The Maximum gas production rate had its highest values in the To (P<0001) and Ca2Ld (P<0001) treatments and the lowest values in theCa2, Mo, DeTd and HA treatments.  As expected, degradability values showed great variability and differences (P<0001) between treatments due to differences in nutritional value. Thus, the treatment with the lowest degradability was HA, which was different (P<0001) from all other treatments, having a maximum degradation of 48.3% after 96 hours. Treatment (To) had the highest degradation values (P<0001), reaching a degradability of 62% at 48 h and 68% at 96 hours, despite having 11.4% more FDN content than HA (Table 2 and  4).The treatments with mixtures of U. cayman grass and Leucaena ( Ca1, Ca2Ll, Ca2 and Ca2Ld) did not show differences between them in degradability values. However, these treatments had higher degradability values (significant statistical difference, P<0001) than treatments of mixtures with Mombasa and B. decumbens grasses (Mo, MoLl, De, DeTd) at 24 and 48 hours (Table 4). Treatments with lower CH4 (ml/g DMd) production were Ca1, Ca2, Ca2Ll and Ca2Ld at 24 h (P<0001). However, at 48 h, there were changes, with treatments showing the lowest emissions of CH4 being Mo and MoLl that at 24 h were not classified as such. On the other hand, at 24 h, the higher values of CH4 (ml/g DMd) were for HA,Mo, MoLl, To,ToLdCn (P<0001) and at 48 h, treatment HA showed the highest value of CH4 (P<0001) (Table 5).Treatments such as To had the highest DMd values and one of the highest CH4 production values in ml and ml/kg DM at 24 h. In contrast, Ca1, Ca2 and Ca2Ld had degradability values within the lowest range and a CH4 production value within the low production range. However, other treatments such as HA and Mo had lower degradability values than these treatments.Content of VFAs total at 24 h varied between 35.27 and 45.64 mmol/L. These values increased on average by 34.6% at 48 h (41.73 and 56.27 mmol/L). Propionate concentrations were more variable than those of acetate. At 24 h, propionate proportions varied between 14.28 and 27.62% and at 48 h between 19.58 and 30.04%. In all treatments, the highest proportion of VFAs corresponded to acetate, which was more than 56% of total VFAs, and the acetate to propionate ratio was higher than 1.98 in all treatments. The highest acetate to propionate ratio at 24 h were for Mo and MoLl (P<0001) and the lowest for Ca2 (P<0001). At 48 h, the highest values were for Mo, MoLl and HA (significant statistical difference with the other treatments, P<0001) and the lowest for Ca2, Ca2Ld, To and De (P<0001) (Table 5). In tropical livestock systems, fodder resources provide more than 90% of the energy consumed by the animals. However, compared to any other animal feed, forages have a highly variable nutritional value affected by factors such as NDF content and degradability, among others (Barahona and Sanchez 2005). As mentioned above, in the present study, a large variability was found between the values of the variables studied. Thus, it was found that for the same pasture with different harvesting times (Ca1=45 and Ca2=65 days), there was a significant difference in fiber and protein contents as harvesting time increased, fiber values increased, and protein values decreased (Table 2).Treatments with U. cayman grass alone and mixtures of U. cayman grass and Leucaena had high gas production values per iOM and high degradability at 24 and 48 h. Also, in these treatments CH4 (ml/ g DMd) production did not show significant differences during the first 24 h of fermentation between them. However, after 48 h, there was a remarkable change, with greater production of CH4 in treatments Ca2 and Ca2Ld, probably due to slower degradation rate. This trend suggests that this relationship in values responds to forage digestibility, mainly due to NDF contents (Durmic et al 2010). Jayanegara et al (2011) obtained values between 0.43 and 0.56 when correlating cell wall compounds and in vitro dry matter digestibility. Thus, an increase in cell wall components (NDF and FDA) suppresses microbial activity by reducing the availability of fast fermenting carbohydrates and is negatively related to gas production (Doane et al 1997;Torres-Salado et al 2018). Soluble carbohydrates such as free sugars and starch result in lower CH4 production than structural carbohydrates because the latter are fermented more slowly. Thus, the inclusion of feeds with high structural carbohydrates increases methanogenesis (McAllister et al 1996;Yan et al 2006). In addition, fermentation of structural carbohydrates produces a high acetate:propionate ratio. However, depending on the rate of fiber degradation, CH4 production levels may change (Relling and Mattioli 2003).Treatments that included other fodders and grass had reduced fiber content (Table 2). However, this reduction was not associated with increases in DMd for all treatments (Table 4) and probably, for this reason, there was no decrease in CH4 production in treatments likeTo vs. ToLdCn and De vs. DeTd (Table 5). In this study, MoLl and HA were associated with higher CH4 production values, lower degradability, and high acetate:propionate ratio values. In general, in the present study, no differences were found in CH4 production associated with the inclusion of forages such as Leucaena leucocephala, Leucaena diversifolia, Tithonia diversifolia or Canavalia brasiliensis. However, there is evidence of a positive effect on the nutritional value of the diets that could influence the productive behavior of the animals consuming these diets and that are shown when emissions per unit of product are reported (i.e., CH 4 production per dry matter intake or unit of meat and/or milk produced). These are parameters that, although cannot be evaluated with in vitro assays, have already been reported in vivo studies (Molina et al 2015;Gaviria et al 2020).On the other hand, it is known that VFA production is directly related to the degradability of the forage. Thus, a forage of higher quality and higher degradability will have higher VFA production. (Judd and Kohn 2018). The acetate:propionate ratio is one of the essential factors affecting CH 4 production as it regulates the availability of H2 and, therefore, the production of CH4. Acetate and butyrate generate CH4 due to greater availability of CO2 and H 2 for methanogenic archaea, while for propionate formation in the rumen, it is considered a competitive form in H2 uptake that causes less CH4 synthesis (Gidlund et al 2015). Values of this ratio can vary from 1.99 to 4.35, and it is known that the utilization of available energy in the feed is more efficient if the ratio is close to 1.0 (Danielsson et al 2017). On the contrary, a high value of this ratio is related to low efficiency in energy use, which generates higher CH 4 production. However, for treatment To, this ratio was lower, and CH4 production was within the range of highest emissions and coincided with high digestibility values. Possibly, these findings could be explained by the fact that CH4 production does not depend on a single variable. That is, CH4 emissions are related to the type of carbohydrate fermented, the type of carbohydrate fractions in the forage and their digestibility, among other factors (Yan et al 2006;Singh et al 2012).With the inclusion of Leucaena in a Cayman grass-based diet, there was no significant change in CH4 production or DMd, However, these treatments performed better compared to the other treatments such as Mombasa-grass and B. decumbens mixtures. Other authors have reported differences in CH4 production associated with legume inclusion and changes in nutritional quality and degradability (Chaves et al 2006;Donney's et al 2015;Rivera et al 2015;Jiménez-Santiago et al 2019).Reported results are variable, and no clear-cut conclusions can be derived, because in some cases, the addition of the legume increases CH4 production (Carulla et al 2005), in other cases, no differences are found (Donney's et al 2015), and in other cases, CH4 production decreases (Ley de Coss et al 2018). The differences in in vitro CH 4 production among forage species may be explained by differences in the proportion of digestible carbohydrates in forages and cellulose (Hess et al 2003).In most cases, and the current study, the addition of legumes or other forages of high nutritional quality such as Tithonia diversifolia to grasses increases the concentration of CP and decreases the concentration of total carbohydrates in the mixture (Hess et al 2003;Durmic et al 2017). In practice, the impact of including legumes in the diet has been promoted due to the positive effect they have on feed intake, animal production and the positive environmental impacts on the system (Castro et al 2008;Tiemman et al 2008;Gaviria et al 2015;Molina et al 2016).Differences in nutritional quality generated changes in diet degradability, gas production, methane emissions, and VFAs production. In the present study, the inclusion of forages such as Leucaena and Tithonia diversifolia had a positive effect on nutrient (fiber and protein) content and degradability of the diets. However, these changes were not reflected in decreases in CH4 production, as significant differences were observed between treatments of grasses alone and associations with other forages. However, it is noteworthy that the group of treatments that included Cayman grass and its associations had lower CH4 production values and higher degradability than the rest of the treatments. Due to the good performance observed in this study with Cayman grass, future evaluations are recommended as a possible option in mitigating methane emissions and increasing the nutritional quality of animal diets. The CH4 production and fermentation parameters depend on many factors, some of which were not evaluated in this study, such as type of carbohydrates and ruminal microorganisms; therefore, it is suggested to extend the analysis to these variables. Although the gas technique is a valuable tool for evaluating the kinetics of fodder fermentation and methane production and also allows the simultaneous evaluation of many forages it is recommended to evaluate emissions in vivo and to estimate the intensity of emissions per unit product to better visualize the benefits of legume inclusion in the diet of grazing ruminants.","tokenCount":"3145"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4c25d301743a9feefdeee96ce8d791bd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2216ea27-c892-49d4-83d0-a60e9f3b9415/retrieve","id":"1583258196"},"keywords":["rice","Krishna Hamsa","marker-assisted introgression","bacterial leaf blight","blast","drought","intercrossing","forward breeding"],"sieverID":"0ce45a43-dc01-4270-b5c5-ff0f3ed9dbcd","pagecount":"21","content":"Major biotic stresses viz., bacterial blight (BB) and blast and brown plant hopper (BPH) coupled with abiotic stresses like drought stress, significantly affect rice yields. To address this, marker-assisted intercross (IC) breeding involving multiple donors was used to combine three BB resistance genes-xa5, xa13 and Xa21, two blast resistance genes-Pi9 and Pi54, two BPH resistance genes-Bph20 and Bph21, and four drought tolerant quantitative trait loci (QTL)-qDTY1.1, qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1 and qDTY12.1-in the genetic background of the elite Indian rice cultivar 'Krishna Hamsa'. Three cycles of selective intercrossing followed by selfing coupled with foreground selection and phenotyping for the target traits resulted in the development of 196 introgression lines (ILs) with a myriad of gene/QTL combinations. Based on the phenotypic reaction, the ILs were classified into seven phenotypic classes of resistance/tolerance to the following: (1) BB, blast and drought-5 ILs;(2) BB and blast-10 ILs; (3) BB and drought-9 ILs; (4) blast and drought-42 ILs; (5) BB-3 ILs; (6) blast-84 ILs; and (7) drought-43 ILs; none of the ILs were resistant to BPH. Positive phenotypic response (resistance) was observed to both BB and blast in 2 ILs, BB in 9 ILs and blast in 64 ILs despite the absence of corresponding R genes. Inheritance of resistance to BB and/or blast in such ILs could be due to the unknown genes from other parents used in the breeding scheme. Negative phenotypic response (susceptibility) was observed in 67 ILs possessing BB-R genes, 9 ILs with blast-R genes and 9 ILs harboring QTLs for drought tolerance. Complex genic interactions and recombination events due to the involvement of multiple donors explain susceptibility in some of the marker positive ILs. The present investigation successfully demonstrates the possibility of rapid development of multiple stress-tolerant/resistant ILs in the elite cultivar background involving multiple donors through selective intercrossing and stringent phenotyping. The 196 ILs in seven phenotypic classes with myriad of gene/QTL combinations will serve as a useful genetic resource in combining multiple biotic and abiotic stress resistance in future breeding programs.Rice, an important crop for human sustenance, occupies a prominent place in the Indian agriculture. It is the cheapest source of calories for the developing countries and is a staple food crop for more than half of the global population, despite the changing climatic, social and economic scenario. The major biotic stresses like bacterial leaf blight (BB), blast, sheath blight, brown plant hoppers (BPH), stem borer, etc., result in a severe yield reduction in rice. In addition, abiotic stresses viz., drought, salinity, temperature extremities, etc., hinder growth and development of rice plant [1]. Development of climate resilient varieties with multiple stress tolerance is needed for preventing yield losses and increasing the income of rice farmers in an environmentally sustainable manner.Conventional and marker-assisted backcross breeding has traditionally been used to introduce useful agronomic traits into elite cultivars; however, combining high yield with multiple stress tolerance using these approaches is tedious. The simultaneous occurrences of multiple abiotic and biotic stresses have demanded the development of climate-smart rice by combining quantitative trait loci (QTL) and genes for tolerance or resistance to various stresses in the genetic background of high yielding cultivars to confer a wider range of tolerance or resistance [1]. Enhanced capability of climate-smart cultivars would enable the crop to thrive under adverse environmental conditions. During the last 40 years, molecular marker systems have become well established, enabling precision in selection. Gene/QTLs conferring resistance/tolerance for various biotic/abiotic stresses are well characterized, and the recent advances in molecular marker technology and genomics have played an important role in developing single [2,3] and multiple stress-tolerant rice cultivars [1,[4][5][6].Among the biotic stress, BB caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae with about 22 pathotypes identified from diverse geographies [7] significantly reduces the rice yields.To date, at least 45 BB resistance genes [8,9] have been identified, and 11 of them have been cloned (Xa1, xa5, xa10, xa13, Xa21, Xa23, Xa25 and Xa27 [10,11]) and characterized [12], and 7 genes (Xa4, Xa7, Xa22, Xa30, Xa31, Xa33 and Xa34) have been fine-mapped. Some of them have been introgressed in genetic background of elite cultivars and few of these have been released as cultivars. The obvious difference in the level of resistance among the genes to a number of virulent pathogens encouraged plant breeders to pyramid two or more genes. Xa4 from TKM6 and xa5 from DZ192 [13], xa13 from long grain [14] and Xa21 from O. longistaminata [15] were used as donors in the development of near isogenic lines (NILs)-IRBB60 (Xa4+xa5+xa13+Xa21) and IRBB62 (xa5+xa13+Xa21), with four and three genes introgressed, respectively, in the genetic background IR24 [16]. Further, an improved version of 'PR106' an elite cultivar with xa5+xa13+Xa21 introgression was developed from IRBB62 [17] and improved PR106 (SS1113) was used in the transfer of xa5+xa13+Xa21 into the background of Samba Mahsuri, a fine grain medium slender grain type variety quite popular in Southern India, which resulted in the development of NILs 'RP Bio226' released as a variety in the name of 'Improved Samba Mahsuri' (ISM) with xa5+xa13+Xa21 [1]. The incorporation of Xa33 alone in the background of 'Akshayadhan' and Xa38, in combination with xa5, xa13 and Xa21 in the background of Improved Samba Mahsuri, has proved to provide broad-spectrum resistance to BB, and the same varieties have been released as DRR Dhan 58 [18] and DRR Dhan 53 [7,19], respectively.Blast, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae Barr, is the most devastating fungal disease in rice causing up to 50% yield losses [20]. It is also referred as rice fever disease and has been reported in approximately 85 rice growing countries across the world [21]. Several (>100) blast-R genes have been identified and 31 genes (Pi37, Pit, Pish, Pi35, Pi64, Pib, pi21, Pi63/Pikahei-1(t), Pid2, Pi9, Pi2, Pizt, Pid3, Pi25, Pi50, Pigm, Pid3-I1, Pi36, Pi5, Pikm, Pb1, Pi54, Pia, Pikp, Pik, Pi1, Pi-Co39, Pike, Pita and Ptr) have been cloned and characterized [22][23][24][25]. Pi1 from West African cv. LAC23 and Pi2 from cv. 5173 [26], Pi9 from O. minuta [27] and Pi54 from Tetep [28], when deployed in elite varietal backgrounds either singly or in combination, are effective against a wide range of blast pathotypes. Enhanced resistance to blast disease was observed in IET 25484 (RP 5960 Patho 7-5-9) with Pi2 and IET 25480 (Pusa 1850-27) with three genes-Pi54, Pi1 and Pi ta , now released as DRR Dhan 51 and Pusa Samba, respectively, in India [29]. Many of the resistant genes have been incorporated in modern rice cultivars [30]. These studies indicate that the use of multiple blast resistance gene combinations could be effective against blast disease.Among the insect pests, BPH is the most devastating insect pest of rice with symptoms popularly known as hopper burn. Bph20 and Bph21 from O. minuta in the introgression line, IR 71033-121-15-B, showed BPH resistance [31]. The pyramided or single-gene introgression lines with six dominant BPH resistance genes (Bph3, Bph14, Bph15, Bph18, Bph20 and Bph21) showed enhanced resistance to the recurrent parent line Jin 23B [32].Water scarcity consequent to climate change is the most serious climatic challenge, particularly to the rainfed area of rice cultivation in Southern and southeastern Asia, affecting >23 million ha of rice area [33]. The reproductive stage is the most sensitive to drought stress with significant yield loss [34]. As many as 14 QTLs for drought tolerance (qDTY1.1, qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1, qDTY6.1, qDTY3.2, qDTY12.1, qDTY2.2, qDTY4.1, qDTY9.1 and qDTY10.1) have been identified [35][36][37][38][39]. qDTY1.1, qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1 and qDTY12.1 have been effectively used in the development of rice cultivars with 10-30 yield advantage over the recurrent parents under drought stress [40][41][42].Recently, efforts have been directed in sequential introgression of two or more biotic and abiotic traits. In the background of Improved Samba Mahsuri with inherent xa5, xa13 and Xa21, and DRR Dhan 58 (IET 28784), DRR Dhan 60 (IET 28061) and DRR Dhan 62 (IET 28804) have been developed and released as cultivars with introgression of Saltol QTL for salinity tolerance, Pup1 QTL for low soil P tolerance and Pi2 and Pi54 for blast resistance, respectively [6,18]. Additionally, there are successful examples of simultaneous introgression of multiple QTL and genes for biotic and abiotic stress in rice like drought and submergence tolerance in the background of Swarna [41], blast, BB, gall midge and drought tolerance in the background of Swarna [1] and Naveen [4], and blast, BB and drought tolerance in Lalat [5]. In India, boro season is a highly productive rice growing ecology in the Eastern and northeastern regions of the country from November to April. \"Boro\" means a special type of rice cultivation on residual or stored water in low-lying areas after the harvest of wet season (kharif ) rice. Farmers have a limited choice in this ecology as only 35 cultivars have been released for cultivation to date, compared to several hundreds of cultivars in other rice growing ecologies of the country. Hence, the present study is aimed at improvement of 'Krishna Hamsa', an elite cultivar suitable for boro areas, by combining resistance against BB, blast, BPH and drought tolerance. Repeated cycles of intercrossing to combine traits from different donors, genotyping with foreground markers to track alleles and stringent phenotyping were deployed at different generations.In the genetic background of the elite rice cultivar, 'Krishna Hamsa' genes and QTLs conferring tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses were combined using selective intercrossing approach and forward breeding aided by marker-assisted selection. In kharif 2013, six simultaneous single cross F 1 's were generated with 63 to 126 seeds by crossing 'Krishna Hamsa' with each of the six donors. Hybridity of 595 F 1 plants was confirmed using gene-specific or tightly linked polymorphic SSRs for target genes and polymorphic markers at peak and flanking regions of the QTL (Supplementary Table S1). The first cycle of intercrosses were attempted during rabi 2014 among three pairs of single cross    The four IC 2 F 1 plants with eight gene/QTL combinations of xa5+xa13+Xa21+Pi9+Pi54+ qDTY1.1+qDTY3.1+qDTY12.1 and five IC 3 F 1 plants with all the 11 target alleles of xa5+xa13+ Xa21+Pi9+Pi54+Bph20+Bph21+qDTY1.1+qDTY2.1 +qDTY3.1+qDTY12.1 were advanced by selfing up to IC 2 F 6 and IC 3 F 6 generations, respectively. Out of 3328 F 2 plants from the two sets of populations, 578 single panicle selections were made and genotyped. In F 3 generation, 49 plants were selected with five to nine target alleles in homozygous condition and grown. A total of 251 plants in F 4 generation of both IC 2 and IC 3 populations were selected with desirable agronomic traits, genotyped and further advanced as families up to F 6 generation (Figure 1).   1).All the 251 IC2F6 lines were genotyped with foreground markers and phenotyped for BB, blast and BPH during kharif  The introgression of gene/QTL in various combinations in the 196 ILs is given in Tables 1-3. Yield evaluation of all the 196 ILs under non-stress conditions and 97 ILs under reproductive-stage drought stress revealed significant phenotypic differences among the ILs, their recurrent parent-Krishna Hamsa-and four checks (Supplementary Tables S2 and S3). Broad sense heritability (H 2 ) for the grain yield was 86.00 and 70.73 under the control and reproductive-stage drought stress conditions, respectively. The introgression of gene/QTL in various combinations in the 196 ILs is given in Tables 1-3. Yield evaluation of all the 196 ILs under non-stress conditions and 97 ILs under reproductive-stage drought stress revealed significant phenotypic differences among the ILs, their recurrent parent-Krishna Hamsa-and four checks (Supplementary Tables S2  and S3). Broad sense heritability (H 2 ) for the grain yield was 86.00 and 70.73 under the control and reproductive-stage drought stress conditions, respectively. The descriptive statistics and critical difference (CD) at 1% and 5% level of significance (p-value) for days to 50% flowering and grain yield under the control and reproductive-stage drought stress are summarized in Supplementary Tables S4 and S5.     S7) with a yield of 560 g/m 2 under non-stress conditions (Supplementary Table S6) (Figure 3). Similarly, IL-19247 was resistant to BB (SES score 1), moderately resistant to blast (SES score 4) and recorded +131% yield advantage over Krishna Hamsa under drought stress conditions and with a yield of 598 g/m 2 under nonstress conditions. The remaining three ILs-19174, 19193 and 19196-were moderately resistant to both BB and blast with yield advantage of 82%, 68% and 120% over Krishna Hamsa under reproductive-stage drought stress (Supplementary Table S7) and a yield of 737, 374 and 544 g/m 2 under non-stress conditions, respectively (Supplementary Table S6). Interestingly, only one IL-19196 has at least one gene Xa21 for BB and Pi9 for blast and two QTL-qDTY2.1+qDTY3.1 for drought (Supplementary Table S6). Resistant alleles for blast were not observed in ILs 19174 and 19193, while resistant alleles of both BB and blast were absent in ILs 19246 and 19247 (Table 1).Plants 2022, 11, 622 9 of 21 ately resistant to both BB and blast with yield advantage of 82%, 68% and 120% over Krishna Hamsa under reproductive-stage drought stress (Supplementary Table S7) and a yield of 737, 374 and 544 g/m 2 under non-stress conditions, respectively (Supplementary Table S6). Interestingly, only one IL-19196 has at least one gene Xa21 for BB and Pi9 for blast and two QTL-qDTY2.1+qDTY3.1 for drought (Supplementary Table S6). Resistant alleles for blast were not observed in ILs 19174 and 19193, while resistant alleles of both BB and blast were absent in ILs 19246 and 19247 (Table 1).    4b and 5b,c). IL-19030 has resistant alleles Pi54 for blast but no resistant alleles for BB (Table 1), and IL19031 has resistant alleles for BB but not for blast. Except for xa5 for BB resistance, none of the blast-R genes were introgressed in the remaining five ILs in this group viz., ILs-19007, 19020, 19025, 19406 and 19039, but they were seen with Bph20+Bph21 introgressions. Grain yield varied from 311 in IL 19406 to 1010 g/m 2 in IL 19030 under non-stress conditions (Supplementary Table S6).IL 19030 with Pi54+Bph20+Bph21 and two ILs 19019 and 19471 with xa5+Pi9 were resistant to both BB and blast (Table 1) (Figures 4b and 5b,c). IL-19030 has resistant alleles Pi54 for blast but no resistant alleles for BB (Table 1), and IL19031 has resistant alleles for BB but not for blast. Except for xa5 for BB resistance, none of the blast-R genes were introgressed in the remaining five ILs in this group viz., ILs-19007, 19020, 19025, 19406 and 19039, but they were seen with Bph20+Bph21 introgressions. Grain yield varied from 311 in IL 19406 to 1010 g/m 2 in IL 19030 under non-stress conditions (Supplementary Table S6). The target resistant alleles of BB were missing in all except IL 19233, 19245 and 19248, and all 10 ILs were resistant to BB (SES score 1) (Figure 4c-f) and recorded +30 to +232% yield advantage over Krishna Hamsa under reproductive-stage drought stress (Supplementary Table S7) and 395 to 693 g/m 2 of grain yield under non-stress conditions (Supplementary Table S6). ILs 19241, 19248, 19238 19240, 19232 and 19239   The target resistant alleles of BB were missing in all except IL 19233, 19245 and 19248, and all 10 ILs were resistant to BB (SES score 1) (Figure 4c-f) and recorded +30 to +232% yield advantage over Krishna Hamsa under reproductive-stage drought stress (Supplementary Table S7) and 395 to 693 g/m 2 of grain yield under non-stress conditions (Supplementary Table S6). ILs 19241, 19248, 19238 19240, 19232 and 19239   S6).A total of 42 ILs with one to five introgressions of three genes (xa5, Xa21 and Pi9) and four QTLs (qDTY1.1, qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1 and qDTY12.1) in 25 different combinations were resistant to blast and tolerant to drought (Table 1) (Figure 4g,h). In as many as 19 ILs, resistant alleles of BB were without positive phenotypic reaction, while 17 ILs without resistant allele of blast were with positive phenotype to blast disease (Table 1). In this ILs, percentage yield advantage over Krishna Hamsa under reproductive drought stress varied from +14.88% to +261% (Supplementary Table S7) and yield levels varied from 180 to 1736 g/m 2 under non-stress conditions with 19 ILs viz., 19185, 19211, 19249, 19273, 19221, 19191, 19201, 19267, 19263, 19237, 19176, 19195, 19274, 19178, 19264, 19214, 19271, 19250 and 19189, showing a higher yield than Krishna Hamsa under non-stress conditions (Supplementary Table S6).  2). Except IL-19379, the other two ILs with resistance to BB recorded a high grain yield of 2244 and 631 g/m 2 in ILs 19046 and 19460, respectively (Supplementary Table S6).  All the three ILs were resistant to BB with SES score of 1; however, only two ILs-19379 (Figure 5a) and 19460-have resistant alleles of Xa21 for BB along with resistant alleles of Pi54 for blast. None of the target resistant alleles of BB were seen in IL-19046; instead, Bph20 and Bph21 were introgressed in them (Table 2). Except IL-19379, the other two ILs with resistance to BB recorded a high grain yield of 2244 and 631 g/m 2 in ILs 19046 and 19460, respectively (Supplementary Table S6).In this class, 84 ILs were resistant to blast with one to five introgressions of 10 gene/QTLs (xa5, xa13, Xa21, Pi9, Pi54, Bph20, Bph21, qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1 and qDTY12.1) combined in 31 different combinations (Table 2) (Figure 6). Out of 83 ILs with resistance to BB, 38 ILs recorded a high yield (>500 g/m2 to 2998 g/m 2 ) and 7 ILs recorded comparable yield levels with Krishna Hamsa under non-stress conditions (Supplementary Table S6).In this class, 84 ILs were resistant to blast with one to five introgressions of 10 gene/QTLs (xa5, xa13, Xa21, Pi9, Pi54, Bph20, Bph21, qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1and qDTY12.1) combined in 31 different combinations (Table 2) (Figure 6). Out of 83 ILs with resistance to BB, 38 ILs recorded a high yield (>500 g/m2 to 2998 g/m 2 ) and 7 ILs recorded comparable yield levels with Krishna Hamsa under non-stress conditions (Supplementary Table S6). The percentage yield advantage in 43 ILs ranged from 23.47% to 276% over the recurrent parent Krishna Hamsa under reproductive-stage drought stress (Supplementary Table S7) and yield levels of 282 to 1282 g/m 2 under non-stress conditions (Supplementary Table S6). Introgression of one to five gene/QTLs in 18 different combinations of three genes-xa5, Xa21 and Pi9, and three QTLs-qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1 and qDTY12.1, was observed in these ILs (Table 3). Among the 43 drought-tolerant ILs, 31 ILs recorded high yield and 6 ILs recorded comparable yield with Krishna Hamsa (Supplementary Table S6)  The percentage yield advantage in 43 ILs ranged from 23.47% to 276% over the recurrent parent Krishna Hamsa under reproductive-stage drought stress (Supplementary Table S7) and yield levels of 282 to 1282 g/m 2 under non-stress conditions (Supplementary Table S6). Introgression of one to five gene/QTLs in 18 different combinations of three genes-xa5, Xa21 and Pi9, and three QTLs-qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1 and qDTY12.1, was observed in these ILs (Table 3). Among the 43 drought-tolerant ILs, 31 ILs recorded high yield and 6 ILs recorded comparable yield with Krishna Hamsa (Supplementary Table S6).Parental polymorphism between pairs of Krishna Hamsa and each of the six donors revealed 26 to 58 polymorphic markers out of the 687 SSRs screened between them with a total of 124 polymorphic markers (Supplementary Table S8). A subset of 27 ILs viz., 19202, 19206, 19211, 19019, 19020, 19021, 19022, 19023, 19024, 19026, 19027, 19181, 19182, 19185, 19198, 19247, 19396, 19030, 19241, 19471, 19002, 19004, 19009, 19016, 19017, 19025 and 19186 with days to 50% flowering in the range of 88 to 100 days, plant height of 81 to 87 cm and a long slender grain type similar to Krishna Hamsa were selected and screened with polymorphic background markers. Background selection (BGS) revealed 73.32% to 96.43% recovery of the RP genome in the subset.Several high yielding crop varieties have been developed in the past using conventional breeding approaches but combining high yield with multiple stress-resistant/tolerance using this approach is tedious. Use of molecular markers not only enables trait(s) introgression from multiple donors into a single background, but also ensures retaining desirable agronomic traits of the elite recurrent parent by way of marker-assisted breeding (MAB). There are a few recent reports about effective utilization of marker-assisted breeding for the improvement of multiple stress tolerance in the background of the varieties Lalat [5],Naveen [4], Swarna [1] and ASD16 and ADT45 [43]. In the current study, a simultaneous but selective intercrossing strategy, assisted by gene-specific and tightly linked markers for target genes and peak and flanking markers of the QTLs, was deployed to combine multiple biotic and abiotic stress resistance into the genetic background of the elite rice cultivar, Krishna Hamsa.We employed both molecular and conventional breeding strategies in the development of multiple stress tolerance. Selective intercrossing of multiparent-derived F 1 's was adopted in stacking multiple genes/QTL into a single background assisted by foreground selection (FGS) up to IC 3 F 1 followed by stringent phenotypic selection for the desirable agronomic traits in the later segregating generations. Accumulating maximum gene/QTL introgressions in a common background was the main challenge in the entire process, and several hundreds of selective intercrosses in pairs were attempted from 2013 to 2015 in five consecutive seasons. Intercrossing has its own limitations, as it led to constant re-shuffling of the earlier achieved gene/QTL combinations. However, large populations were generated, which enabled the efficient selection of phenotypically acceptable plant type in the populations.The widespread prevalence of numerous genetically distinct virulent Xoo strains demanded pyramiding of multiple BB-resistant genes, which can provide broad-spectrum, durable resistance in BB-prone rice growing areas. An additional BB-R gene, Xa33, was introgressed into Improved Samba Mahsuri possessing xa5+xa13+Xa21 to enhance and provide broad-spectrum resistance to BB and has been released as 'DRR Dhan 53' for cultivation in BB endemic areas of India [7]. Additionally, recently the ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR-IIRR) released an improved version of 'Akshaydhan' as 'DRR Dhan 58' introgressed with a single BB-R gene, Xa33, as a cultivar. Among the several resistant genes identified for blast, Pi2, Pi9 and Pi54 were mostly used in the development of blast-resistant cultivars. Improved versions of 'Swarna' with intorgession of Pi2 have been released as 'DRR Dhan 51' for cultivation [29]. Similarly, in the present study, a combination of three BB-R genes, two blast-R genes, two BPH-R genes and four droughttolerant QTLs was targeted, but we observed a positive phenotypic response to both BB and blast in t2 ILs, BB in 9 ILs and blast in 64 ILs despite the absence of corresponding R genes. Inheritance of resistance to BB and/or blast in ILs without corresponding R genes could be due to the unknown genes from other parents of the breeding scheme. Genes other than those targeted could be responsible for the tolerance, as multiple parents were involved in the development of ILs. For instance, IRBB60 was used as donor for BB genes, but it also has moderate resistance to blast [44]. Sometimes resistance pathways of different stress genes may influence each other in phenotypic expression. Expression profiling of stress-inducible genes was carried out in rice varieties and reported variability in gene expression patterns indicating the complex network of pathways for regulation of multiple stresses [45]. Detailed studies on crosstalk between defense pathways are essential [46] when genes are pyramided to engineer plants resistant to multiple stress conditions [47].In the present study, we observed a negative phenotypic response in 9 ILs that were marker positive to blast-R genes, 9 ILs harboring QTLs for drought tolerance, 44 ILs that were marker positive to BPH-R genes and 67 ILs that were marker positive to BB-R genes. Significant variation was observed in the phenotypic response of the ILs in the background of Swarna despite the presence/absence of corresponding R genes and BPH susceptibility in ILs with Bph3 and Bph17, which could be due to the difference in the genome recovery and background interaction of genes/QTLs of the ILs [1]. Negative interaction is specific to the recurrent parent background 'Triguna' and might be due to still unidentified modifier gene/s that affect the expression of resistance in plants, having the gene combinations of either Xa21, xa13 and xa5 or Xa21 and xa5 [48]. Lines with single gene introgression of Bph20, Bph21, Bph3 or Bph18 in the background of rice maintainer line 'Jin 23B' had a moderate susceptible level [32]. The real effects of genes cannot be compared using the original source genotypes due to the diverse genetic backgrounds [49]. The negative phenotype in marker positive plants in our study can be the effect of varying expression of a specific gene in different background genomes. Many of these genes or QTLs were identified in different varietal or subspecies backgrounds and will not always show a consistent performance in every background; similarly, the varying pest biotypes, pathogen strains or stress load also can explain the negative phenotypic expression. Interestingly, it was observed in our lines that there is a selective exclusion of BPH resistance genes especially when BB genes are present. However, such interactions are not observed with Pi genes, and this requires further validation in different backgrounds to confirm the results. Multiple genes introgression in single background may result in the selective combination of compatible genes or selective exclusion of some combinations due to recombination events or chromosome-related factors [50].We targeted four QTLs-qDTY1.1, qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1 and qDTY12.1-for reproductivestage drought tolerance. In previous studies, the introgression of these four QTLs in different combination along with Sub1 for submergence tolerance resulted in development and release of drought-and submergence-tolerant versions of mega varieties like Swarna as CR dhan 801 (qDTY1.1 +qDTY2.1 +qDTY3.1 +Sub1) and CR Dhan 802 (qDTY2.1+qDTY3.1+Sub1) and Samba Mahsuri as DRR Dhan 50 (qDTY2.1+qDTY3.1+Sub1) as new cultivars in various rice growing countries of Southern Asia [41, [51][52][53]. In the present study, we identified five ILs viz., IL 19,196  Generally, crosses involving landraces or wild species of distant gene pools are difficult due to delayed flowering or no flowering in rabi season. Consideration of elite donor background helped in attempting several hundreds of intercrosses in both the seasons (i.e., twice a year). Using the same recurrent parent in multiple crosses, selective intercrossing with intensive genotypic/phenotypic selection and morphological similarity among recurrent parent and donors has led to the selection of ILs with close proximity to Krishna Hamsa despite using multiple donors and not following the typical marker-assisted backcross breeding strategy. In the present study, a subset of 27 ILs were similar to Krishna Hamsa in plant type features and the data are supported retrospectively by BGS. Stacking of multiple QTLs and genes in one step with the use of a simultaneous crossing program coupled with marker-assisted forward breeding is an effective breeding approach using the elite donors used in the crossing program [5].Resistance to two or more biotic and abiotic traits was achieved earlier by sequential introgressions. In the background of Improved Samba Mahsuri with inherent xa5, xa13 and Xa21, DRR Dhan 58, DRR Dhan 60 and DRR Dhan 62 were developed and released as cultivars with introgression of Saltol QTL for salinity tolerance, Pup1 QTL for low soil P tolerance and Pi2 and Pi54 for blast resistance, respectively [6,18]. The present study successfully illustrates simultaneous introgression of BB and blast resistance and reproductive-stage drought tolerance, adopting selective intercrossing assisted by foreground selection and stringent phenotyping. Similar to our findings, there are successful examples of simultaneous introgression of multiple QTL and genes for biotic and abiotic stress in rice like blast, BB, gall midge and drought tolerance in the background of Swarna [1] and Naveen [4], as well as blast, BB and drought tolerance in Lalat [5].In the present study, as mentioned earlier, we observed a negative phenotypic response in a total of 85 ILs marker positive to resistant/tolerant gene/QTLs (67 BB+9 blast + 9 drought). However, we also witnessed a positive phenotypic response to BB and/or blast in as many as 75 ILs despite the absence of the target-resistant allele for the corresponding genes. Marker-assisted selection enables rapid introgression of targeted gene/QTLs and recovery of recurrent parent genome but does not always ensure a positive phenotypic response. Marker-assisted selection-derived genotypes resulting from the breeding strategy involving multiple parents are not always a true reflection of the targeted phenotype due to complex genic interactions and recombination events. Genome shuffling and complex recombination events due to repeated cycles of intercrossing result in an altered phenotype. Our findings suggest the need of stringent phenotyping for the targeted traits and not relying only on FGS, even more so when multiple parents are involved. Stringent phenotyping of all the lines is imperative irrespective of the targeted gene introgression when multiple donors are involved in the breeding scheme. It is also equally important to validate the marker-trait associations for each marker before venturing into such studies. The genotypes other than the donors of targeted genes may harbor unknown resistance genes, which could be the possible cause of inheritance of resistance in the ILs.The present study demonstrates that simultaneous introgression to multiple biotic and abiotic stress resistance/tolerance can be achieved following marker-assisted selective intercrossing among multiple single cross F1's and their intercrossed F1's, followed by forward breeding coupled with stringent phenotyping for the target traits. Maintenance of many plants and progenies in the early segregating generations and phenotypic selection for desirable agronomic traits enabled us to get all combinations of a positive phenotype for target traits with superior plant types. Six promising ILs-IL 19,246 with resistance to BB, blast and tolerance to drought stress, IL 19,241 with resistance to BB and drought, ILs 19,471 and 19,378 with resistance to BB and blast, IL 19,177 with resistance to blast and tolerance to drought, and IL 19001 with resistance to blast-are currently under evaluation in All India Coordinated Improvement Project (AICRIP) trials. Furthermore, several other promising ILs in various phenotypic classes from the present study will be nominated to AICRIP and once available for cultivation will benefit the farmers of boro areas. The 196 ILs from the present study falling into seven major phenotypic classes serve as a repertoire of genetic resource to choose from the myriad of gene/QTL combinations to combine resistance to more multiple abiotic and biotic stresses. The use of these ILs in future breeding programs owing to their elite cultivar background and preferred plant type traits will enable in avoiding background noise and undesirable linkage drag.The present investigation was taken up at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR-IIRR), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, India. In the introgression scheme, the elite recurrent parent chosen was the variety, 'Krishna Hamsa', which was released in 1998 for cultivation in Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, West Bengal and Bihar states of India. It has a mid-early duration (115 to 120 days) and is suitable for cultivation both in kharif (i.e., wet season) and rabi (i.e., dry season) and is tolerant to low temperatures during the vegetative phase; hence, it is suitable for the highly productive Boro season in the Eastern and northeastern states of India. It also has very good grain quality and fetches good price in the local markets.Initially, Krishna Hamsa was simultaneously crossed with six different donors in kharif, 2013.  6) IR 74,371-46-1-1-13 with qDTY 12.1 were used as sources for incorporating drought tolerance in the background of Krishna Hamsa. In rabi 2014, intercrosses were attempted in three pairs of single cross F1's. Two more cycles of selective intercrossing were attempted in the subsequent seasons by selecting sets of intercrossed F1's with different gene/QTL combinations up to kharif 2015 to generate IC 2 F 1 and IC 3 F 1 progenies. The IC 2 F 1 and IC 3 F 1 progenies with maximum number of targeted gene/QTLs in various combinations were advanced further by selfing. At every generation of crossing and selfing, individual plants were genotyped using tightly linked foreground markers for the target alleles for selecting plants possessing maximum gene/QTL combinations. Stringent phenotypic selection for desirable agronomic traits was performed from IC 2 F 2 to IC 2 F 6 and IC 3 F 2 to IC 3 F 6 . In IC 2 F 6 and IC 3 F 6 generations, lines were both genotyped and phenotyped for target traits. The introgression scheme is graphically represented in Figure 1.Genomic DNA was extracted by the cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method [54] from fresh leaf samples collected for all the donor and recipient parents and progenies in each generation at 2 weeks after transplanting to check for the presence of targeted gene/QTLs. For all four qDTY varieties (qDTY1.1, qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1 and qDTY12.1) and eight genes (xa5, xa13, Xa21, Pi2, Pi9, Pi54, Bph20 and Bph21), polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based genotyping was performed. Both peak and flanking markers were used for QTL, while gene-specific and linked markers were used for genes. Here, xa5, xa13, Xa21 and Pi9 are functional markers, whereas Bph20 and Bph21 are gene-linked markers. QTL and genes were surveyed between recurrent parent and donors, and the markers with clearly distinguishable polymorphism between them were selected for foreground selection (FGS) (Supplementary Table S1). Additionally, a set of 687 SSRs spread across the rice genome were surveyed among the parents to identify polymorphic markers for use in background selection (BGS).PCR reaction was performed in a total volume of 10 µL containing 50 ng of DNA template, 1 µL 10XPCR buffer, 2.5 picoM of each forward and reverse primer, 75 µM of each dNTP and 0.5U of Taq DNA polymerase (Geneilabs, India). The PCR amplification cycle was performed based on standardized annealing temperatures specific to each marker representing the gene/QTL. Products were resolved in a 3.0% agarose gel stained with EtBr and the gel images were captured using Gel documentation unit).The ILs were evaluated against BB resistance during kharif 2019 and 2020 both under field conditions and glass house conditions using the artificial clip inoculation method along with Krishna Hamsa, Improved Samba Mahsuri (resistant check) and TN1 (susceptible check). A highly virulent, local isolate of BB pathogen, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) IX-020 maintained at ICAR-IIRR, was used for screening the ILs under field conditions at two locations, the ICAR-IIRR farm, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telangana State, India and the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Ramachandrapuram, Hyderabad, Telangana State, India in kharif 2019 and the ICAR-IIRR farm, Rajendranagar in 2020, while glass house screening was done at the IIRR farm, Rajendranagar. Under field conditions, leaf tips of three plants in each IL were cut with scissors dipped in a BB suspension of 10 9 cfu/mL at 40 days after transplanting (DAT), coinciding with the maximum tillering stage. Similarly, under glass house conditions, 45-50-day-old seedlings were inoculated. Inoculated plants were scored at 20 days after inoculation (DAI) on a 0-9 SES scale according to the Standard Evaluation System, IRRI [55], based on lesion length measured from the cut end of the leaf. A plant was classified as resistant if the average lesion length was shorter than 3 cm, moderately resistant if the lesion was >3-6 cm, moderately susceptible if the lesion was >6-9 cm and susceptible if the lesion was longer than >9 cm [7].Blast screening was performed in universal blast nursery (UBN) facility at ICAR-IIRR, Rajendranagar during kharif 2019 and kharif 2020. In raised nursery beds with a row spacing of 10 cm, one row of the susceptible check (HR-12) was planted between every four entries and also along the borders to facilitate the build-up of inoculum for uniform and rapid spread of the disease. The inoculums with the concentration of 1 × 10 5 spore/mL were sprayed onto young seedlings at four leaf stages using fine sprayer, and high relative humidity was maintained for disease development. Tetep was used as resistant check, and plants were scored for blast disease reaction at 20 DAI on a 0-9 SES scale IRRI [53]. SES scores of 0-3 were considered resistant (R), 4-5 as moderately resistant (MR) and 6-9 as susceptible.The seedling box technique was used for screening of ILs against BPH during kharif 2018 at ICAR-IIRR, Rajendranagar. BPH biotype 4 from IIRR Rajendranagar was used to screen BPH under controlled glass house conditions. Newly hatched nymphs or adults were utilized for screening ILs during kharif 2018 along with recurrent parents and TN1 and PTB33 as susceptible (S) and resistant (R) checks, respectively, following the standard protocol [56]. Seedlings were sown in a tray in three replications with two border rows of the S check and one row of R check in the center. Seedlings of 3-4 leaf stage at 10 days after sowing were infested with 6-8 instars nymphs per seedling, and the evaluation of damage was based on SES scores on a scale of 0-9 [57].The ILs were evaluated for their agronomic performance both under control and drought stress situations during kharif 2019 at the IIRR farm, ICRISAT. For the non-stress experiment, the ILs along with their recurrent parents were sown in raised nursery beds on 19 June 2019. Each line was sown in a 1 m row length with spacing of 10 cm between the rows. Seedlings at the age of 31 days were transplanted to the main field on 13 July 2019. Since the drought trial in 2019 was conducted during kharif, sowing and transplanting were delayed by 20 days to prevent the crop experiencing rainy days during reproductive stage. The standard agronomic package of practices was followed while growing the rice plants. Irrigation was supplied continuously in a non-stress experiment until maturity. In drought stress trial, reproductive-stage drought stress was imposed by withholding the irrigation at 30 DAT and draining out the remaining water in the field. Perforated PVC pipes of about 1 m length were inserted diagonally in the drought trial plot to monitor the below ground soil moisture content. The decline in water table depth was measured on a daily basis with a meter scale inserted into the PVC pipes. Lifesaving irrigation was provided for 24 h when the water table level reached 100 cm below the soil surface and most lines were wilted and exhibited severe leaf drying. Then, a second cycle of the stress was initiated that continued until maturity.In both the trials, the experiment was laid out in an augmented randomized complete block design with repetition of Krishna Hamsa, MTU1010, IR 64 and DRR Dhan 44 as checks. Each entry was planted in two rows with a row length of 3.45 m following the spacing of 20 cm between the rows and 15 cm between the hills. The experimental material was evaluated for days to 50% flowering and grain yield in g/m 2 .Yield data from non-stress and drought stress trials were subjected to statistical analysis using R Studio (Version 3.5.2, R Core Team, Vienna, Austria) using R-scripts. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and critical difference (CD) at the 1% and 5% level of significance (p-value) were used for assessing the variance and testing of significant differences among the ILs, respectively, and to understand the variation and descriptive statistics, the broad sense heritability (H 2 ) and F test were calculated. CD, representing confidence intervals of all levels for a parameter of interest, was calculated using CD = SE (d) × t, where S.E (d) = √ EMS/r and t is the critical value for a specified level of significance and error degrees of freedom. Heritability in broad sense was computed by using the following:","tokenCount":"6497"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0cea1844d0483183fa3385d23c1a638d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b30d95aa-d4ca-40ec-98b7-3823e1c75850/retrieve","id":"188313282"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6a705ff7-cf9f-41fc-a73f-2d9da72532c7","pagecount":"2","content":"The Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI) recognizes that to meet its target of reaching ten million households with improved varieties of sweetpotato by 2020, there is a need for a strong seed system that ensures multiplication and dissemination of good quality and virus-free vines to root producers. A major strategy has been to identify and train decentralized vine multipliers (DVMs) who can serve their local communities. Potential institutional and individual buyers need to be linked to the multipliers, since they may not be aware where to get vines. Annually, the DVM registration exercise verifies that DVMs are producing vines for sale. Interested parties can find their location and contact information on the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal's View Progress Dashboard.Before 2015, records on vine multipliers were not easily accessible to the public domain. Most projects lacked a clear strategy of sharing information about \"their\" DVMs with other projects or programs. As a result, multipliers were isolated and highly dependent on the projects that supported them to buy the vines. There is a need to do a better job of training DVMs in business skills and linking them to buyers prior to a project closing. Moreover, use of available information technology would facilitate potential new clients to find where they can get quality planting material.We want to ensure that all sweetpotato stakeholders can access information about the vine multipliers in all the sub-Saharan African countries where multipliers have been trained. This implies, a farmer X or an NGO \"Y\" can access the contact of a vine multiplier in a particular location and buy vines. We seek to ensure that the contact information for each multiplier is easily accessible, with their permission. We are committed to updating the information concerning multipliers annually, registering new ones and noting multipliers that have stopped. From a research standpoint, we will be able to identify situations where multipliers are dropping out and/or expanding and follow-up to understand why so that improvements can be made.The International Potato Center (CIP) currently is working in 8 of the 17 SPHI target countries 1 and backstopping partners in 5 more.The exercise involves the registration of the newly recruited DVMs, registering the old multipliers that had not been registered before, and updating the records of those that are already registered. We are using the Open Data Kit (ODK) technology to register new DVMs. This uses android based data collection forms that enable registration of DVM bio-data and automatically records the geo-location specific information at the DVMs plot. Data on the methods of vine multiplication, general management and sales of the vines are also recorded. For the DVMs already registered, the information was updated during field visits until 2018, when we are testing updating, at least initially, through phone interviews. Most of the CIP Monitoring Learning and Evaluation (M&E) officers in each country and some partner M&E staff have been trained to collect this information (Fig. 1). Then it is processed and the key contact information is loaded on the SPHI dashboard under View Progress (http://www. sweetpotatoknowledge.org/sphi-dashboard/).  Norman Kwikiriza (CIP) n.kwikiriza@cgiar.org Luka Wanjohi (CIP) l.wanjohi@cgiar.org What have we achieved so far?As of September 2017, we have registered about 1,191 DVMs in 11 out of the 17 SPHI countries since 2015 (Fig. 2).Statistics reveal that about 30% of the DVMs are women and most DVMs are above 40 years of age. Most (over 90%) of the DVMs are individual DVMs, and we observe a higher dropout rate of the group DVMs compared to individual DVMs.The Dashboard on the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal is running (see Dashboard brief ) and any interested stakeholder can access it. The dashboard relays important contact and demographic information of the multipliers. It also shows the type of multipliers by scale of management, i.e., small-scale or large-scale multiplication.We keep records on the names of varieties being multiplied.Figure 3 shows that Kabode, Awasa-83, Naspot 8, Naspot 9 and Olympia varieties occupy the largest acreage in sub-Saharan Africa.We record good practices in vine management and the aspects that the multipliers need to improve on. We emphasize labelling of the vines, weeding, pest management, irrigation, etc.We assess progress towards making vine multiplication an annual activity by recording the different vine outlets from the DVMs (Fig. 4). Table 1 shows the proportion of vines sold to different buyers by the newly registered DVMs in 2017.  We will continue to register new multipliers and update information on the existing ones. As the sweetpotato seed system develops, new challenges emerge. We intend to improve on the interaction between the DVMs and their actual and potential buyers. We seek to have greater use of our Dashboard for locating vine multipliers, interact with the DVMs on a regular basis through phone text messages or other interactive apps such as WhatsApp.","tokenCount":"792"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bcfabb40a38eea05133b5dbb53ea88d7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c470ece-0617-4257-945f-22295d57bc0e/retrieve","id":"-868120189"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9ead221b-f3cd-41e6-b124-0e63dc63f8fd","pagecount":"98","content":"The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) is a partnership collaboration led by the International Potato Center (CIP) implemented jointly with Bioversity International, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), that includes a growing number of research and development partners. RTB brings together research on its mandate crops: bananas and plantains, cassava, potato, sweetpotato, yams, and minor roots and tubers, to improve nutrition and food security and foster greater gender equity especially among some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable populations. RTB ended in December 2021. www.rtb.cgiar.org CIP would like to thank all CGIAR Trust Fund contributors who supported this research during this and previous years.The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) catalyzes research and development organizations to maximize the contribution of these crops to tackle hunger and malnutrition, reduce poverty and make smallholder farmers more resilient to climate change. An RTB commissioned study of trends noted that production of root, tuber and banana crops is surging in the least developed countries, where they are currently consumed as key staples by over three billion people with an estimated annualized market value of US$ 339 billion (link).Through an agile response by program participants and partners RTB was able to adjust to very adverse and changing circumstances with the COVID-19 pandemic, and produce remarkable end of term results. Specific details of research on COVID are reported in section 1.2.2.B.In 2021 RTB consolidated and launched 13 golden eggs featuring major collective innovations, supporting all three action areas in the One CGIAR (link). The golden egg concept was subsequently adopted by the CGIAR as a whole and featured in an online workshop. Amongst the golden eggs, Scaling Readiness has been embraced by the CGIAR to operationalize its 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy, and all 32 CGIAR initiatives consequently developed an Innovation Package and Scaling Readiness Plan.Additionally, RTB has documented its underlying programmatic structures and progress in a book about innovation in food systems published by Springer (link). The book is comprised of 17 chapters, divided into four innovation sections: Institutional, Processing and Marketing, Enhancing Productivity, and Improving Livelihoods.As mentioned in the foreword by Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank this book, \"written by over 70 authors, documents an impressive array of research and development innovations that have contributed to helping millions of farmers to achieve higher yields, food security and nutrition.\"RTB work over both phases to develop innovations relevant to farmers and other food system actors came to a culmination with the development of a Catalog of RTB innovations (link) which makes RTB innovations accessible to users and contributes to One CGIAR efforts to document innovations and their impact. The Catalog is an online platform that offers a comprehensive, single-entry point for exploring a selection of 100 agricultural innovations developed by RTB. It allows diverse types of users to quickly and easily find innovations which fit their needs and expectations. The golden eggs and the catalogue will ensure the continuity of innovation processes for impact in the new One CGIAR structures.The G+ Tools for gender responsive breeding piloted successfully in 2020 were expanded in 2021, with multidisciplinary breeding teams. The G+ tools were used in country expert-consultation workshops (link). and shared with the community of breeders from the Excellence in Breeding Platform (link).The RTB Toolbox for intervening in the seed systems of roots, tubers and bananas (link) was successfully launched in an online event with 160 participants from the CGIAR, national stakeholders, private sector, donors and other seed sector initiatives (link). Training in the RTB Toolbox was completed during 2021 with teams from Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda (link).In 2021 RTB made excellent progress towards its 35 milestones in all five of its flagship projects, involving collaboration with 51 organizations. Good progress was made in developing and delivering 103 innovations. Almost 77% of the milestones were completed, 18 outcomes were reported as well as four policies including Bungoma county (Kenya) potato strategy, the successful adoption of the Farmer Business School approach by the Department of Agriculture in the Philippines, the development of seed potato certification protocol for Uganda and Rwanda and the inclusion of rooted apical cuttings (RAC) into national seed certification protocols. Capacity development activities were organized for more than 88,940 trainees including 49 PhD students.Part A: NARRATIVE SECTIONSince 2017, RTB provided rigorous evidence of the program contributions towards the achievement of system level outcomes (SLO) targets as reported in the CGIAR Results Dashboard (link) 1 and summarized in the table below. A reduction in CGIAR investment in adoption studies meant that in recent years there has been little to report in this table, so these figures should not be confused with the very much larger impact achieved but whichhas not yet been documented. promoted by CIP as evidenced by impact assessment of OFSP varieties in Malawi. The results generated by the first OFSP adoption and impact study in Malawi using a stratified random sample of 2,492 households in areas where OFSP dissemination had occurred (link) show broad adoption country-wide: 66% of participants in nutrition-agriculture interventions cultivated OFSP, vitamin A consumption scores are higher for participants, and young children and caregivers of participating households consumed more diverse foods. These results were shared with key stakeholders and policy makers in Malawi and provided useful information for the design of public and private agriculture nutrition-sensitive interventions.NB: RTB preferred not to develop an overall short text for the CRP and add more insights in the flagship sections (see also executive summary).The objective of FP1 is to develop and apply leading-edge science for faster and more precise development of user-demanded varieties, overcome the limitations of conventional breeding for clonal crops, and enhance the long-term conservation and use of genetic diversity.Modernization of breeding programs. The RTB breeding community of practice (BCoP) continued working closely with the gender team to ensure that the information generated by the G+ tools for gender responsive breeding informs product profiling. Citizen Science approaches, using the TRICOT method and participatory varietal selection, were expanded to include food product testing in addition to agronomic traits (link). In both Ghana and Uganda, TRICOT made it possible to robustly identify superior sweetpotato genotypes from consumers' perspectives. Furthermore, crop ontologies are being expanded to capture end-user preferences using digitized databases (link). The Breedbase databases are now being used to collect data on quality traits, such as lab measurements of boiling time or texture, and 4283 near-infrared reflectance spectrophotometry (NIRS) spectra have been uploaded (link).Collaboration between breeding programs of CIAT and IITA combine essential genes for virus and whitefly resistance. In cassava, the introgression of cassava brown streak disease resistance (CBSDR) and whitefly resistance (WFR) from Latin American landraces into advanced breeding lines in Africa is leading to the development of advanced pre-breeding material for the African cassava breeding programs (link).Genomics tools tackle the flowering constraint to accelerate breeding in cassava and yam. Transcriptomics was used to identify genes related to poor and delayed flowering in cassava that lead to longer breeding cycles. Genes encoding central flowering time regulators were identified (link; link). In addition, combining pruning and growth regulator treatments led to an additive increase in flower abundance; transcriptomic analysis revealed this was accompanied by downregulation of several genes associated with repression of flowering (link). In yam, progress continues in developing markers to control flowering, to help design effective crossing blocks and predict hybridization success. A kompetitive allele-specific PCR marker (KASPar) assay as a diagnostic tool for sex determination was designed, paving the way for identifying future parental combinations (link). Genomic regions linked to cross-compatibility were identified on chromosomes 1 and 17 of water yam (Dioscorea alata L.; link).Genomics continues to provide key markers to accelerate breeding. Using transcriptomics to identify candidate genes controlling critical processes, including storage root formation and disease resistance, accelerates breeding by providing targets for molecular marker development. In cassava, the control of metabolic processes dealing with the start of storage root formation was elucidated (link), showing pronounced signaling events and extensive regulation of cell wall biosynthesis genes. In banana, genes expressed in response to Fusarium infection in susceptible and resistant banana genotypes were identified and can help breed resistant varieties (link). Transcriptomic studies revealed the responses of sweetpotato to the major viral disease sweetpotato virus disease (SPVD) (link). A dominant molecular marker for root-knot nematode (RKN) resistance in sweetpotato, which explained 58.3% of the phenotypic variation in RKN counts, was identified (link). For cassava mosaic disease (CMD) resistance in cassava, markers for use in global breeding programs have been validated (link) and KASP assays designed representing an important step towards marker-assisted selection. In banana, at least two loci associated with weevil resistance in a triploid banana population were identified using diversity arrays technology sequencing (DArTSeq) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and an alternative quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping strategy called continuous mapping (link) identified 43 putative genes co-localized with weevil resistance SNPs. In potato, QTL for multi-environment resistance to foliar late blight were identified (link), thus providing environmentally stable and globally predictable resistance. This allowed genotypes with high levels of resistance in all environments to be identified.In situ conservation has been validated as a golden egg of the RTB program (link). New tools will help to conserve root, tuber and banana landraces selected for their distinctive characteristics and allow scientists to monitor landraces using robust tools and protocols in contemporary hotspots, to increase our understanding of conservation dynamics, discover genetic diversity, and compensate farm communities for the ecosystem services they provide.An in situ conservation knowledge base is now available (link). It provides various resources, including a descriptor of crop wild relatives (CWR) conserved in situ (link). CWR are essential for the improvement of key traits in related crop species. A baseline catalog documenting the potato genetic biodiversity in the Huancavelica region of Peru was released (link). It documents over 200 landraces and their conservation state in detail morphologically, which will assist the future monitoring of biodiversity of potato. The methods and tools used to develop baselines e.g. for cassava landraces managed by the Yanesha indigenous peoples of central Peru, are available in an in situ toolbox. This repository contains flexible procedures to track diversity at gene, variety, species and landscape levels.Importantly, collaboration with the Asociación of Potato Guardians of Peru (AGUAPAN) developed a novel benefit sharing model, and a tangible example of how genebanks and custodian famers can collaborate toward gap filling (link).The distribution of wild banana species (Musa spp.) in their native distribution area, ranging from the northeastern states of India to north-eastern Australia was surveyed to assess their risk and conservation status (link).The surveys showed that little banana CWR is sufficiently conserved in and ex situ, and 11 out of 59 assessed species were considered as vulnerable and nine as endangered. A participatory rural appraisal survey in Ghana showed that D. praehensilis is largely an in-situ conserved species in Ghana (60.0%) (link), guiding genetic resource conservation and utilization for bush yam. Innovations in breeding programs of sweetpotato result in increased genetic gains. An overview of the CIP and national partners' sweetpotato breeding progress in 14 African countries spanning 2009 to 2020 (link) showed the redesigned accelerated breeding scheme increased genetic gains for vitamin A, iron and zinc content, and virus resistance. The overview documented the release by sub-Saharan African countries of 158 varieties; 98 of them orange-fleshed; 55 varieties bred by an accelerated breeding scheme; 27 drought-tolerant and two with enhanced iron and zinc content (link). The hybrid breeding population approach taking advantage of heterosis demonstrated large genetic gains in sweetpotato yield (link) and opens the possibility of increased efficiency in population improvement and speed of dissemination of elite crosses using botanical seeds instead of vegetative plantlets.Climate-smart potato varieties in Kenya. 84,000 Kenyan farmers were reached with climate-smart, diseaseresistant potato varieties provided by CIP and released by the government of Kenya (link). The stress-tolerant potato variety Unica, bred by CIP and partners in Peru, was released in Kenya in 2016 and is grown by thousands of farmers. The varieties thrive at mid-altitudes and are resistant to late blight and viral diseases. Unica is being tested in extremely dry environments in Kenya where potatoes are not traditionally grown and achieved an acceptable yield under these conditions of over 14 ton/ha.New cassava germplasm for food and nutritional security in Central and East Africa. Cassava breeding programs in Africa are delivering products addressing major production and nutrition constraints. Two varieties were selected for yield, disease resistance, provitamin A content and quality of non-fermented products, using advanced statistical models from multi-location trials in Cameroon (link). In Uganda, breeding trials were established combining dual resistance to cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) and cassava mosaic disease (CMD) with other farmer/end-user preferred characteristics such as high dry matter and mealiness. COL 40, the landrace from Latin America that has been identified to be \"immune\" to both cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) and Uganda cassava brown streak virus (UCBSV) is being used to develop mapping populations to understand the genetics of the resistance and develop molecular markers. In Tanzania, multi-location trials identified three genotypes for further evaluation under on-farm conditions. The best will be tabled for official release after being evaluated under national performance trials (NPTs) during the 2022/2023 season. Eleven improved genotypes resistant to CMD and tolerant to CBSD were selected from participatory varietal selection (PVS) trials over three seasons in four agro-ecologies in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).There has been progress in expanding the genetic base of resistant genotypes against major fungal diseases of banana. 22 NARITA East Africa Highland Banana hybrids were evaluated for resistance to Black Sigatoka under natural field conditions in four locations in Uganda and Tanzania for three crop cycles (link). Five were resistant and the most stable hybrids across locations. A representative site in Tanzania was identified for evaluating banana against Black Sigatoka to minimize costs of disease evaluations. To broaden the pool of resistance sources to Black Sigatoka, 95 banana accessions were evaluated under field conditions in Uganda (link). Eleven accessions were found to be resistant. To find resistance to Fusarium race 1 that infects Cavendish bananas, 258 genotypes of different ploidies and genomic constitutions were tested (link) in Tamil Nadu, India. 19 genotypes were found to be immune; eight were highly resistant; and nine were resistant.Preferences and needs of farmers can inform the design of seed systems. A special issue in Outlook in Agriculture (link), explores how different needs of end-users can inform seed system interventions. A study on cassava seed in Rwanda shows once farmers had obtained NASE14 which combined dual resistance for CMD and CBSD they wouldn't make additional purchases, which limits opportunities for sustaining a commercial business model around early generation seed (link). However, for seed yam in Nigeria, low multiplication rates and degeneration of seed yam led to high demand for yam seed (link). The identification of strategically positioned farmers and traders can offer opportunities and entry points for introduction of new varieties and improved seed production techniques, and the study suggests building on the existing farmer-based systems.The objective of FP3 is to close yield gaps arising from biotic and abiotic threats and to develop more resilient production systems, thereby strengthening food security and improving natural resource quality.Great progress has been achieved with digital diagnostics. Cassava mosaic disease and its management in Southeast Asia using resistant material from CIAT and IITA. CMD-resistant cassava genotypes are essential to responding to the outbreak of the viral disease in South-East Asia. A Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) project to establish healthy seed production and dissemination systems for cassava in South Vietnam and Cambodia, and to develop management systems for plant diseases and insect pests of cassava was launched in 2016 (link). To achieve these goals, model systems of healthy seed production in Vietnam and Cambodia have been developed incorporating CMD-resistant planting materials through international networks with CIAT and IITA.Integrated management of bacterial wilt in Ethiopia. Bacterial wilt (caused by Ralstonia solanacearum) has become a serious problem, reaching epidemic levels in some of the major potato growing districts in Ethiopia.As part of an integrated management strategy, studies were carried out to examine the relationship between soil acidity and bacterial wilt incidence (link). Lime application significantly increased soil pH (p < 0.001) and reduced bacterial wilt incidence (p < 0.001). Therefore, using lime application needs to be considered as an additional component of an integrated package to deal with bacterial wilt in potato under acidic soil conditions.The development and scaling of SDSR to control bacterial wilt in banana in East Africa has been supported by RTB throughout phase 2. A comparative assessment of the two control practices, SDSR and complete diseased mat uprooting (CDMU) was carried out to foster uptake and support by policy makers in countries like Rwanda where SDSR had not been tested or scaled (link). In Rwanda SDSR was equally effective as CDMU for BXW control, with initial BXW incidences of 3.0 to 9.4% being reduced to <0.5% within 3 months of using either method. SDSR strongly reduced labor costs.Simulation models provide insights for crop management in banana and cassava. The impact of leaf pruning on environmental and nutritional indicators in banana-legume intercrop performance was explored using the multi-objective optimization FarmDESIGN model (link). The model maximized operating profit, protein yield, and soil organic matter, and minimized nitrogen input. The FarmDESIGN model made the trade-offs and synergies in this complex intercrop system explicit, thus was also helpful for field-level decision making. In cassava, a recalibrated LINTUL-Cassava simulation model provided adequate estimates of storage root yield across major cassava growing agroecological zones in Nigeria (link) with a strong correlation between simulated and observed storage root yields (R 2 of 0.92) and showed that potential yields are greater and yield gaps larger than expected or previously reported. Selecting the appropriate genotypes for particular planting dates may help increase cassava productivity. The CSM-MANIHOT-Cassava model was used to simulate the performance of four popular cassava genotypes in SEA for different planting dates (link). There was a good agreement between simulated and observed total crop, stem, and storage root dry weights with values above 0.8 for almost all four genotypes and five planting dates. The results also demonstrated the potential of the model to help identify promising cassava genotypes.Crop management options examined for improving yields in RTB crops. The effects of tillage intensity, fertilizer application, plant density and weed control were tested in 230 cassava farmers' fields in southwestern Nigeria over two years (link). The results provided concrete recommendations for plant density, tillage and herbicide use for different regions. In yam, mutual leaf shading can inhibit growth, reducing tuber yield. To improve light utilization, approximately 25% of leaves in a plant were thinned during the period of maximum shoot growth (link). Although leaf thinning caused higher shoot growth rates, it reduced tuber yields. Results indicated that a high shoot biomass is more important than improving light utilization for increased tuber yields. In Kenya, low nutrients have been reported in potato-growing areas. On-farm nutrient omission trials were set during the long rains and short rains (link). Results showed that for a potato-specific fertilizer to be formulated for the Kenyan highlands, N and P should continue to be included, while K and B should only be added based on soil test or just for fertility maintenance.The objective of FP4 is to broaden the nutritional potential of RTB crops, expand their utilization, and add value through postharvest innovation.Unpacking gender-differentiated end user preferences for RTB food products. The RTB golden egg that captures consumer preferences for root, tuber and banana food products (link), continued to generate knowledge, tools and protocols to identify and screen for user-preferred quality traits, thus increasing the chances for adoption of new varieties. The golden egg featured in a special issue including original research papers by food product type covering all RTB crops, review papers and one methodology paper (link). For example, one paper presents Matooke (mashed, boiled banana) characteristics using survey data from 123 farmers, 40 traders and 14 focus group discussions in Uganda (link). The main characteristics driving variety preferences for both men and women were agronomic (big bunch, big fruits) and quality (soft texture, good taste, good aroma, yellow food). Another paper from the special issue in Northwest Uganda, where heap fermentation is used to make cassava flour, which is then used to make Kwon, a local paste, evaluated genderdifferentiated preferences for improved varieties and landraces (link). Higher proportions of women preferred quality attributes such as white color of the flour and stickiness of the Kwon, and the physicochemical paste properties exhibited strong association with Kwon product thickness, a key quality attribute, that can be used for screening breeding material.NIRS validated to screen roots and tubers for quality traits. The profile of good quality pounded yam (Dioscorea alata) was defined and screening tools based on predictive models using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) were developed (link). NIRS quantitative prediction models provided good prediction for chemical aspects but not for texture attributes (R 2 < 0.58). However, convolutional neural network classification models enabled good qualitative prediction for all texture parameters except hardness. Using a cheap and simple sampling approach, robust results were obtained from the calibration of a portable NIRS device for total carotenoids content and dry matter content on cassava genotypes (link). This can benefit resource-constrained research institutes that cannot afford high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and other expensive reference methods for NIRS calibration, and supports the existing effort in the deployment of the portable NIRS device for rapid, accurate, and flexible phenotyping alternatives in cassava.Improving the nutritional value of cassava and sweetpotato products. Ten popular improved varieties of cassava in Nigeria, used for making fufu, gari, gari dough and lafun, were studied for their resistant starch (RS), rapidly digestible starch (RDS) and glycemic index (GI) (link). Fufu, showed higher RS than the other processed products and may be better suited in the dietary prevention and management of diabetes. OFSP puree-wheat composite breads were prepared at 10% to 50% OFSP puree concentrations for estimating bioaccessibility of βcarotene and determining fractions of slowly digestible starch (SDS), RDS and RS (link). The OFSP-wheat composite bread was shown to hold adequate amount of provitamin A carotenoids, while significant reductions in the RDS coupled with increases in SDS and RS fractions were observed, highlighting its usefulness as novel functional food for combating both vitamin A deficiency and diabetes.Energy-efficient small-scale flash dryers increase production capacity and income of processors of high-quality cassava flour (HQCF). Small-scale flash dryers were reengineered to optimize energy efficiency (https://flashdryer.cirad.fr/), and the resulting innovations were scaled with equipment manufacturers and cassava processors in Democratic Republic of Congo (Agrimac, Nutripro, Layuka, Ecosac), Nigeria (Lentus Foods), Ghana (Windwood Millers), Tanzania (Intermech Engineering) and Colombia (Enso). Testing in commercial conditions demonstrated a 23-50% increase in production capacity and 10-15% decrease in production costs, creating opportunities for higher incomes and employment as part of more efficient cassava value chains. 41% of firms using flash dryers in Nigeria indicated willingness to pay for technical improvements (link).Street interviews in Maputo, Mozambique confirmed that OFSP is widely known mainly via informal channels (relatives and retailers) (link). Key findings were that adoption of OFSP is associated with consumers' perception that it is a source of vitamins that builds up muscles and improves physical appearance and self-fulfillment. Nonadoption could be the result of the positioning of OFSP as food exclusively for young children and sick people. Therefore, future marketing should exploit informal channels such as vendors and emphasize its nutritious value for all consumers instead of focusing on mothers and young children only.Expanding of utilization of sweetpotato in west Africa. Ten elite high dry matter, medium sugar content genotypes of sweetpotato were evaluated in Ghana for diversified utilization and commercialization (link). As in Ghana many communities have indicated the desire for nonsweet or low-sugar sweetpotatoes for adoption as a staple in their diets, the elite genotypes may have an advantage over some of the already released high βcarotene varieties. In addition, based on functional diversity and unique combinations of quality traits identified, the genotypes were found to offer broader processing options to potential entrepreneurs for value adding and commercialization.Feed millers incorporating High Quality Cassava Peels mash into their feed products. A collaboration between RTB and the Livestock CRP led to the development of high-quality cassava peel (HQCP) products to be used as animal and fish feed and reduce the environmental impacts of waste peels. Two major feed millers in Nigeria, Premium Fish Feeds and Premier Feeds, incorporated HQCP fine mash into their rations. A survey in 2020 revealed that over 10,000 farmers (mostly fish farmers followed by poultry farmers) have used HQCP products.Farmer business school (FBS) helps smallholders benefit from value chain opportunities. FBS, an RTB golden egg that supports smallholders' value adding and market linkages (link) continues to be used by the Philippine Department of Agriculture for supporting the livelihoods of farmers and fisherfolks. MSc research was conducted with WUR to draw lessons about the FBS impact on participants' business and social lives and provide recommendations for enhancing the methodology (link).The agrobiodiversity of Andean crops: options to build sustainable, nutritious and inclusive food systems in mountain regions through partnership. The unique cultural, social, nutraceutical and economic potential of Andean roots, tubers and other native crop species were systematically documented in a two-volume book set, featuring 50 Andean foods and 50 local recipes using these foods developed with local communities and chefs. The book involved well over 100 collaborators, including chefs, scientists and photographers. The book provides evidence of the potential of agrobiodiversity to achieve social inclusion, planetary health and adequate nutrition in mountainous areas (link). Strengthening alliances with the gastronomy community and changing consumer's perspectives to leverage greater use of biodiversity will be essential for conserving agrobiodiversity, achieving healthy diets and to enhance the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.The objective of FP5 is to improve livelihoods by supporting the scaling of RTB innovations in agri-food systems for all RTB actors and their RTB agroecologies.Tracking impact, and mainstreaming foresight and impact methods in CGIAR. In 2021, the foresight and impact assessment cluster of RTB focused on finalizing delivery and documentation of findings. In partnership with national agricultural research systems (NARS) and key universities, cluster team members published more than 70 papers summarizing learnings about adoption and impacts of RTB systems across the world. For instance, the results generated from the first orange flesh sweetpotato adoption and impact study in Malawi (link) were shared with key stakeholders and policy makers in Malawi, providing useful information to design public and private agriculture nutrition sensitive interventions.The experience of RTB in conducting a major priority setting study, using cost benefit analysis was documented in a paper in Research Policy (link). Drawing on this approach FP5 provided key inputs to develop a harmonized approach for the projection of benefits and ensuring greater coherency in CGIAR ex-ante impact assessment for the Genetics Innovation Science Group.ICT community-based monitoring and collective action in RTB pest and disease management. The EVOCA project (link) provided insights on how enhanced information and connectivity may contribute to addressing pest and disease challenges in RTB crops. Pest and diseases such as late blight and bacterial wilt in potato as well as banana Xanthomonas wilt should be regarded as collective action challenges or 'public bads' (link). This collective dimension is because individual farmers cannot successfully prevent or combat the disease without the cooperation of other farmers in their community (link; link; link).Experimental research work in Ethiopia with potato farmers and Rwanda with banana farmers contributed understanding about how (digital) communication interventions may have both positive and negative effects for individual and collective action and performance, depending on the design of the intervention (link; link). This implies that face-to-face interactions remain critically important (link). More specifically, a proof of principle study with potato farmers in Ethiopia found that social media type platforms can support collective action by offering a space in which community members can encourage each other to contribute to the common good instead of opting for free-riding (link; link). Social media platforms also appear to play meaningful roles in enhancing knowledge exchange between extension organizations and applied research in combatting disease outbreaks (link). An additional insight is that community-based monitoring systems are important in fostering conducive conditions for collective action in response to pests and diseases, and mobile phones and social media can play useful roles in capturing and sharing information (link). A new conceptual model for analyzing community-based monitoring systems has been developed in the context of potato diseases and can be used to diagnose and strengthen responses to them (link).Although ICT can play useful roles, it remains a challenge to design applications that meet user demands and contexts (link). Research indicates that participatory design approaches do not necessarily solve challenges related to power and (digital) capacity, and neither guarantee that the resulting digital innovation is inclusive (link; link). These insights have informed the design and implementation of a GIZ-funded scaling phase of the ICT4BXW project (link), that is aimed at managing BXW in Rwanda. The CGIAR project team joined forces with digital service delivery companies such as VIAMO (link) and Arifu (link) to integrate and deliver banana agronomy and BXW management advice to over 200,000 farmers in Rwanda.Gender-responsible scaling of RTB innovations. Through an iterative, user feedback driven process, a more gender-responsible scaling support tool and methodology has been developed over the past year. Two literature reviews were conducted focusing on anticipating gender impacts in scaling agriculture for development technologies and how to consider ex-ante impacts of scaling activities on women and other marginalized populations. From this starting point, the discussion based, 5-stage 'GenderUp' scaling tool was developed. The GenderUp methodology allows teams to systematically go through their baseline scaling strategy, identify diversity relevant to their innovation, better understand how diversity intersects with gender, and how intersection impacts user-groups ability to access the benefits of an innovation. This informs more genderresponsible scaling of innovation.Scaling readiness (link) has been embraced by the CGIAR (link) to operationalize its 2030 research and innovation strategy. All 32 CGIAR initiatives developed an innovation packages and scaling readiness plan (link).Approximately 150 CGIAR innovations will be undergoing scaling readiness assessment during 2022-2024. In addition, scaling backstopping and capacity development based on scaling readiness principles (link) will be mainstreamed as part of a CGIAR system-wide effort to grow the CGIAR's scaling culture. Several RTB products such as the RTB innovation catalog (link) and an online course on innovation and scaling (link) are expected to make an important contribution to this.The RTB scaling fund continued to support RTB innovation teams in setting up for impact at scale. Both the AKILIMO (link) and TRICOT (link) innovations have been embraced by scaling partners, and have found their way into new research and delivery initiatives and programs. A large agricultural service provider, One Acre Fund (link), confirmed that they will begin shifting their variety selection work towards TRICOT in Rwanda (link) and will encourage its use across their global operations. Funding under the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) \"1000 Farms\" project will scale TRICOT to other countries and other crops. AKILIMO has provide a basis for sitespecific agronomy recommendations that will be further developed across crops and countries as part of the CGIAR Excellence in Agronomy initiative (link).Not relevant for discovery research.No studies reported.No studies reported.No studies reported. Team members are currently involved in studies on impact of and responses to COVID-19 in RTB value chains in Africa and Asia; however, these have been funded by and will be reported to the CGIAR COVID-19 Hub.For Bangladesh, research using panel data found that COVID-19 had significant and heterogenous effects on livelihood outcomes (link). Agricultural production and share of production sold were reduced, especially for rice crops. Further, diet diversity and education expenditure were reduced. Households primarily affected by (fear of) sickness had a significantly lower agricultural production, share of crop market sales, and lower health and education expenditure, compared to households affected by other COVID-19 effects, such as travel restrictions.In Have any promising research areas been significantly expanded? If so, for each example, please explain clearly where the demand came from (promising research results, demand from partners etc.). Where has the money for expansion come from? (max. 150 words)More emphasis has been given to the fast transition to molecular markers into breeding pipelines for nearly all RTB crops. The high throughput screening of the banana biodiversity for drought tolerance has been expanded and funded bilaterally by the Belgian DGD 'More fruit for food security: developing climate-smart bananas for the African Great Lakes region'. In cassava, the introgression of CBSDR and WFR from Latin American landraces into advanced breeding lines in Africa have attracted the attention of funders and created a strong collaboration among CIAT, IITA, Cornell, NRI, RHUL, UCR and the Leibniz Institute along with national research programs in Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Nigeria and DRC-Congo. Particularly, WFR researchers have delivered on F2 and F3 advanced pre-breeding material which incorporates insect resistance.Through its golden eggs, Flagship 5 has ventured into some new fields of work. FP5 successfully expanded its collaboration with the CGIAR system management office (SMO). This work mainly focused on strengthening the CGIAR's impact orientation, and developing capacity on innovation and scaling. All initiatives received training and guidance on how to develop their innovation offer, and innovation packages and scaling readiness plan, and included a dedicated monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact assessment (MELIA), management plan and budget in their proposals. The innovation packages and scaling readiness plans will provide a basis for broader innovation and scaling culture growth in the CGIAR between 2022-2024. Based on initial submissions of CGIAR initiative proposals, approximately 150 CGIAR core innovation will be assessed for their scaling readiness as a starting point for scaling strategy design between 2022-2024. In addition, all CGIAR initiatives will invest in developing their innovation and scaling capacities.FP5 contributed heavily to the development of the CGIAR initiative proposal entitled \"Foresight and Metrics to Accelerate Food, Land, and Water Systems Transformation\" under the System Transformation Action Area.Similarly various products of FP5 gender work contributed to the CGIAR Gender Platform and Global Science initiatives, including tools for gender-responsive breeding (link, link).More information is available on the CGIAR performance dashboard (link) and RTB golden eggs site (link).As reported in 2019 and 2020, the Earmarked work under the sustainable intensification and diversification cluster in FP5 did not materialize and was stopped.A co-investment by RTB and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has been made to develop climate scenarios for RTB crops for East and Central Africa. The paper that was submitted in 2020 was published (link) and the crop and climate suitability modelling approach that uses biophysical and socio-economic variables has attracted the interest of several CGIAR Global Science and Regional Integrated initiatives.Research in FP2 in potato in Asia has broadened from a strong breeding focus to include sustainable farming practices. For instance, zero tillage and mulching are promising conservation practices and important in ricebased systems with huge potential for sustainable intensification.Collaboration with other CGIAR actors such as the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Excellence in Breeding (EiB), CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) and the GENDER Platform, and partnerships with WUR, University of Oxford, Cornell University, University of Otago, University of Ngaoundere, NRCRI and Abacus Bio Limited was strengthened in 2021. A broad group of RTB gender researchers contributed to four chapters in a CGIAR system wide book that analyzed the history and progress made on advancing gender equality through agricultural and environmental research, and projecting an agenda for the future (link). In close collaboration with technical teams from different flagships, the RTB gender team advanced the co-development, piloting, adaptation and use of different tools and protocols to enhance gender responsiveness of technologies for RTB crops. The tools, methods, publications and stories of implementation curated and published in the Gender R4D Portal (link) were updated in 2021. This space has received enhanced attention in social media and will transition to the GENDER Platform Methods module.G+ Tools for gender responsive breeding piloted successfully in 2020 were expanded in 2021, with multidisciplinary breeding teams. The tools were shared with the wider EiB community and their adoption was supported. The G+ tools were used in a series of expert-consultation workshops with the potato and sweetpotato breeding programs in Uganda, and the cassava breeding team in Nigeria (link). The tools were implemented with national partners, creating awareness and developing capacity in national breeding programs. The lessons learnt from previous and current implementation were analyzed and published in a theoretical overview paper (link), a cross case paper and in the RTB Innovations book. The G+ Tools were showcased as one of the RTB golden eggs (link) in the One CGIAR market place and integrated as part of the design in the new Market Intelligence for Product Profiling Initiative (link).Gender analysis was incorporated effectively to analyze varietal preferences of RTB crops (link), and specifically in cassava to understand how gender, social difference and household characteristics influence trait preferences (link). Different studies analyzed how gender shapes varietal preferences (link), influences specific trait preferences (link) and quality characteristics of processed foods (link). Gender differences in crop diversity choices were also studied in Papua New Guinea showing that in this highly diverse context, most women are motivated to enhance diversity by marketing opportunities whereas men favor diversity on the basis of tradition and status.Gender was integrated in the Toolbox for RTB Seed Systems: the multi-stakeholder framework tool, and experimental auctions included elements of gender analysis. During 2021 social and gender issues in commercialized seed systems were assessed in Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda. Results were presented at the webinar series (link) that captured significant attention from leadership across different partner and donor organizations.Two case studies were conducted to understand gendered access to quality planting materials in Kenya (potato) and Vietnam and Laos (cassava), and Vietnam (sweetpotato) (link). Data was collected in 2020 and 2021 and will be published in early 2022. An e-learning video on gender in agriculture and seed systems was made available on-line and broadcasted through a local TV program in Georgia reaching an audience of 503,765 people (link).Integrated pest and disease management: the RTB team explored how a gender perspective can broaden aspects of pest and disease management (link), working extensively on characterization of gender roles for RTB crops (link). The gender team worked collaboratively with the technical and communications team in the webinar series \"Unleashing the Potential of Plant Health\" for the international year of plant health (link) presenting approaches and examples of how to integrate gender in a) Germplasm health in preventing transboundary spread of pests and pathogens, and b) Integrated pest and disease management.A study on the determinants of women's decision-making power in pest and disease management was conducted with potato farmers in Uganda (link), and the evidence shows that having experience in farming, using hired labor and membership in farmer's groups positively influenced women's autonomy in decision making for pest and disease management. The study shows that higher levels of education, farm income and age consistently improve women's authority. The study highlights that women face considerable challenges accessing information and capacity building and should be equally targeted during pest and disease management training.Nutritional gains for women with RTB crops: different experiences were studied analyzing the economic and nutritional gains for women. Results show that the introduction and commercialization of OFSP increased income for women who had access to seed (link). In accessing seed, both women and men preferred face-toface communication channels with women also accessing radio and video messaging. A study in southern Bangladesh analyzed the impact of community nutrition scholars (CNS) on changes in mothers' and fathers' knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to child feeding, consumption and nutrition and hygiene issues (link). Findings show that training by community nutrition scholars enhanced women's attention on improved child nutrition and care but also showed an enhanced engagement of fathers and their support in developing awareness within the broader social network.Scaling. FP5 teams collaborated to design an innovative approach to mainstream gender in the scaling of RTB innovations. A literature review was conducted to understand unintended gendered consequences of scaling and to identify relevant diversities and typologies and guide tool development. A gender responsible scaling tool was developed to help practitioners think critically and incorporate gender avoiding unintended consequences.The tool uses a stepwise approach and enables teams to specify and define the choices they make for scaling a particular innovation (link).Understanding agriculture in intergenerational relations can help shape research and development interventions in the agricultural sector. A study with ethnic Thai youth in northern Vietnam (link) showed how young people are deeply embedded in reciprocal support with their parents through farming, and how this is masked by the economic focus of research on agriculture. The research concludes that unpaid youth labor in agriculture should be viewed as more than a simple problem of unemployment, a lack of formal access to farmland or a lack of individual skills. Instead, gendered experiences of ethnically marginalized youth should be reflected in relevant policies and agenda settings to prevent exclusion of youth who engage in agriculture as a means of ensuring safety nets and to create future economic independence.Rural youth simultaneously navigate schooling, farming, low paid vocational work and family obligations in ways that are highly gendered. A study in southern Nigeria (link) showed how colonial rule penetrated local social relations, introducing new classifications that intensified social stratification and a patriarchal structure of inequality that affect multiple dimensions of life. The study argues for a need to further explore the intersections of education, work and family. This analysis can help design new interventions that facilitate the equitable engagement of young people in agriculture, reducing gender bias.RTB's youth-oriented approaches to agricultural interventions created community role models for young women and men farmers. In Bangladesh, a salt-tolerant potato variety was distributed to young men farmers, while nutrition-rich sweetpotato planting materials were given to young mothers in response to their expressed priorities, needs and opportunities. Narratives confirm successful change with an increased community recognition and respect for young women and men (link). In Georgia, youth participated in seed multiplication of high-yielding potato varieties which were highly profitable, providing incentive to young men to be full-time farmers (link). In Nigeria, a project closely engaged with youth associations that offer multiple capacity development opportunities and support (link). Those interventions demonstrated a great potential of involving young farmers in RTB technology adoption. However, youth, especially women, often do not have access to and control over family farms. It is important to identify and design relevant technologies which require only minimal investment and resources, to address processes that often require intense resource investment such as postharvest technologies and seed multiplication.More than 88,940 trainees have been reached through capacity development activities under RTB in 2021. Longterm trainees include PhDs (49 in total, 8 women and 41 men), MSc (22 in total, 7 women and 15 men), and BSc (6 total, 1 woman and 5 men). Trainees who attended short-term trainings included farmers, NARS partners, development organizations, non-governmental organizations, and private sector. The total number of trainees in short-term training was 88,868 with a greater participation of men (58%) than women (42%).Highlights of activities realized in 2021 are:COVID-19 was a major disruption for capacity development activities, although interaction across digital platforms supported events with an online delivery method to disseminate 48 workshops, seminars, and training courses among the internal and external CGIAR community and key stakeholders. Essential field work and operations picked up compared to 2020 in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia, as sanitary restrictions eased.RTB launched the toolbox of 11 seed system tools designed to help researchers, extension workers, and smallholder farmers tackle the challenges to higher productivity. In this event outcomes were highlighted from applying both bio-physical and socio-economic tools from the seed system toolbox. Key stakeholders from sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean participated (link).Uganda and Rwanda. The use of soap and water as an alternative to household bleach or fire for sterilization of tools used on infected plants; the correct and timely use of the single disease stem removal technology component packages and the use of the Tumaini app for banana disease detection were provided (link).The Gates-funded RTBfoods project identified several key user-preferred quality traits for both boiled and pounded yam that have not been traditionally included in breeding pipelines. Skills of 23 partner institutes coming from the AfricaYam breeding program have been strengthened to integrate new quality traits into their crop improvement schemes (link).See Table 7 for additional details.Sweetpotato and cassava contribute to household resilience in extreme weather events. Primary data were collected from 423 households affected by a super-typhoon that wreaked havoc in the northern parts of the Philippines in 2018 (link). The study showed that the root crops, being underground, were only marginally affected, and that the households exploited the short production cycle of sweetpotato and cassava and planted them in the typhoon aftermath, to gain faster access to food. Burundi and the USA. The LINTUL4 model was used to study the sensitivity effect of five temperature levels, three precipitation changes, and five CO 2 levels on potato yield under nutrient and/or water limited conditions as well as the potential yield in high-input Washington, USA and low-input Gisozi, Burundi production systems (link). The results suggest that nutrient supply will continue to be the major limiting factor for potato production under elevated CO 2 in low input conditions, and water availability will limit yield in rain-fed production in high input conditions.Independent Steering Committee (ISC). The ISC held three 1.5-hour telemeetings and a virtual annual meeting (July 15-17). The ISC reviewed and provided feedback on the 2021 plan of work and budget (POWB) and the 2020 annual report and recommended submission to the SMO, subject to Board of Trustees (BoT) approval. In its annual report to the BoT, which was welcomed and approved by the BoT in December, the ISC noted that roots tubers and bananas are key poverty reduction crops, contributing to food and environmental security, especially important in Africa as well as Southeast Asia and Latin America, and require future investment in the One CGIAR. The report included the following RTB-ISC observations submitted to the One CGIAR Executive Management Team (EMT) and Science Global Directors (SGDs) jointly with MAIZE-ISC, and WHEAT-ISC: 1) The mechanism for working collaboratively with clonally propagated crops should be maintained in Genetic Innovation to retain the momentum and collaboration amongst the clonally propagated crops considering common challenges for breeding and seed systems. The MC held nine one-hour meetings, including the longer virtual annual meeting when the performance of flagship project leaders was reviewed, and challenges in the functioning of clusters addressed. The MC met more frequently than in 2020 to monitor risks related to a) budget; b) retention of staff and c) migration of RTB activities into the new One CGIAR portfolio.CIP, IITA Bioversity and CIAT members of the MC agreed to meet quarterly on an informal basis to pursue collaborative opportunities for the root, tuber and crops. External partnerships have played a critical role in advancing RTB research from discovery through to field implementation levels at local, national, and regional scales.Partnerships with India (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) and Bangladesh (Agriculture Research Institute) implemented accelerated breeding for OFSP and purple flesh sweetpotato, multiplication of seed stocks of elite breeding material, including H1 populations derived from heterosis breeding for 90-day OFSP, and varietal dissemination.Partnership with Wageningen University and Research (link) created valuable opportunities for PhD and MSc students as an integral part of RTB research and innovation, most through the Netherlands Senior Expert Programme (SEP). This achieved , among others, three main results: the science of scaling innovations (link) have been rolled out for the entire CGIAR and promoted exchange with key donors such as GIZ (link), seed systems transformation (link) and digital communication and collective action (link; link).Collaboration between Beijing Genomics Institute, and CIAT used whole genome sequencing to discover genome-wide markers from cassava breeding populations (link).National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) of Uganda partnered with RTB since its start. A crossing program in banana with IITA reached better offspring (link) that are even better than the superior parents (heterobeltiosis). The joint work resulted in more than 31 NARITA hybrid bananas embedding disease resistance from wild bananas with the preferred qualities of East African Highland bananas and promising uptake.Collaboration over the years has also resulted in development and release of sweetpotato (link) and cassava (link) varieties and evaluation of end-user traits.Strong collaboration with KEPHIS around virus detection methods was expanded as they used the sustainable early generation seed business analysis tool (link) to turn sweetpotato seed production into a financially viable enterprise. With this new capacity to define prices for commercial seed producers, NGOs and other organizations in the initial years, KEPHIS is supporting scaling of existing technologies and further developing capacity in local actors (link).More examples are provided in Table 8: Key external partnerships.EiB and RTB: the RTB Gender and Breeding Initiative translated insights from the G+ tool implementation to an operational EiB template co-owned by breeders which has inclusion of sensory trait information and social differentiation.Livestock and RTB: led to the development of HQCP to be used as feed and reduce environmental impacts of waste cassava peels. The use of HCQP as a component of animal feed, partially replacing imported grains is continuing to expand, with hundreds of tonnes of HCQP mash per week being used by feed millers in Nigeria. A survey in 2020 revealed that over 10,000 farmers (mostly fish farmers followed by poultry farmers) have used HQCP products. The project received funding from the RTB Scaling project, which led to the identification of unforeseen potential bottlenecks and the incorporation of novel partners to address them, such as the Bank of Industry (to facilitate access to credit and developing bankable business proposals).PIM and RTB conducted joint work on policy options for vegetatively propagated crops in Vietnam, Kenya and Nigeria (link) as well as join development of an e-learning course for FBS facilitators, accessible through IFPRI Food Security Portal.CGIAR Systems Office and RTB developed an online Innovation Catalog that provides a comprehensive, singleentry point for documenting and exploring agricultural innovations. The Innovation Catalog supports the uptake of innovations by fostering mutual awareness and increasing connectivity among scientists, governments, the private sector and farmers, and delivery or scaling partners. This should enhance scientists' awareness of client needs and improve the access of delivery or scaling partners to information on state-of-the-art innovations (link).CCAFS and RTB: jointly developed climate scenarios for RTB crops for east and central Africa, with insights into localized changes in crop suitability, planting dates, and identifying potential 'climate-proof' variety types for the Great Lakes Region (link). In addition, a collaboration between IITA, CIP, ILRI, African Plant Nutrition Institute (APNI), and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, with joint funding from RTB and CCAFS developed an associated dashboard that visualizes crop specific impacts (link).Other examples of cross-CGIAR collaborations are provided in Table 9.Centers participating in RTB directly manage their intellectual assets by handling open access publications, delivering data management plans, variety release through national partners and implementing invention disclosure processes, which was properly reported in their annual Center's intellectual assets e-Report through MEL (link). As part of RTB strategic management, all RTB program participant agreements contain appropriate clauses that require the program participant to comply with the CGIAR intellectual assets principles and the CGIAR Open Access and Data Management (OADM) Policy. During 2021 all information was made publicly available as part of the dissemination strategy and no patent nor plant variety right applications over intellectual assets were filed under the scope of RTB. RTB participant centers did not face any critical issue in the management of their intellectual assets.During 2021 a wide variety of MELIA activities were conducted. Out of 27 studies 8 are reported as completed while 14 remaining studies are expected for publication in 2022 however they are reported as cancelled in accordance with CGIAR reporting requirements. 5 studies were truly cancelled due to data collection limitation and/or departure of key staff responsible for them. The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT continue producing evidence on BXW disease long-term impact on the livelihoods of banana-producing households in Uganda despite continued exposure to BXW, farmers' income increased over time (link & link).CIP completed a study delayed in 2020 due to COVID on the impact of OFSP varieties distributed by the program in Malawi. Adoption rates of promoted OFSP varieties at least 2 years post OFSP distribution was higher for project participants (~66%) and non-participants (~48%) who lived in intervention villages, compared with the counterfactual households (~31%) who were not beneficiaries of OFSP interventions (link). An additional study on potato variety C-88 spread in Yunnan, China estimated a total impact to be around $2.5 billion for the 1996-2015. Among C88 growing farm households, the economic advantage of the variety is likely to have contributed to poverty reduction. The aggregate impact of C88 diffusion occurred during a period of rapid poverty reduction in Yunnan and yield and disease-resistance benefits of C88 likely contributed to this reduction (link).CIP and WUR developed a learning note/ brief presenting how implementation of Aqua-based business school (ABS) in the Philippines has stimulated farmer entrepreneurship and participation in value chains, diversified income opportunities and contributed to enhanced resilience, including capacity to adapt to climate-related shocks (link). ABS is derived from farmer business schools (FBS) and was featured in the CGIAR annual report 2020.For more details, please refer to Table 10.As consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic the program organized its annual science meeting and annual ISC meeting virtually. The PMU, and Flagship and Cluster Leaders shifted to virtual events with significant savings.Additional efforts to harmonize standards with a common web service (link) led to more efficient data flow and a working example for future applications developed in the CGIAR. The PMU team supported the CGIAR SMO to improve data access for the CGIAR result dashboard (link).PMU supported SMO to automatize the review of journal articles needed for one of the reporting indicators.The new tool developed helped RTB to screen its publications and at CGIAR level processed more than 2,500 publications detecting automatically more than 90%. This saved more than 40 working days and improved accuracy (link).The work in 2020 to support the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification COSAI (link) in estimating investment in innovation for sustainable agriculture intensification (link) using MEL data and optimizing the data collection effort has been presented in a dynamic interface for the RTB portfolio (link).The largest operational risk remained COVID-19, reported earlier.Two financial risks characterized 2021. The 2020 use of carry-over funds was not confirmed until the second quarter and initially carry-over was expected to be subtracted from the 2021 allocation. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) W2 contribution was not finally confirmed until January 2022. PMU retained USD 0.5 M as buffer to be later distributed or if not spent to be returned to the One CGIAR to support the new initiatives.The development of the new CGIAR portfolio in parallel with the closure of the CRP reduced staff time dedicated to ensuring quality contribution to these activities. CRP developed a detailed close-out plan and started the reporting process in the second quarter of 2021, continuing until December 2021. This approach ensured delivery of the 2021 annual report despite limited time to collect all information and achieve high quality standards in documenting outcomes usually scheduled the first quarter of the next year. The limited time impacted in the number of outcome impact case reports and policy contributions presented in this report.The closure of the CRP presents a risk in terms of loss of human resources due to uncertainty of 2022 funds. Centers implemented different strategies to retain staff, including shifting their time on bilateral projects. Risk mitigation however lies beyond the scope of the RTB program.Risks related to migration of RTB activities into the new One CGIAR portfolio have been analyzed by the PMU, Flagship Leaders and MC and included in the observations the ISC shared with EMT and SGDs mentioned in section 2.1. CIP, IITA Bioversity and CIAT members of the MC agreed to meet quarterly on an informal basis to pursue collaborative opportunities for the root, tuber and crops.W1&2 funding strengthened RTB as a partnership collaboration while focusing on results-oriented, and adaptive CRP management. The allocation of funds supported high-quality research through the internal competitive selection process open to clusters and scaling projects. The scaling fund fostered the scaling of RTB innovations with a high level of scaling readiness, generated an evidence base around the scalability of these innovations and improved scaling strategies, approaches and tools. The RTB scaling fund was highly innovative in design and should be considered as a potential financing mechanism in One CGIAR.Allocation of the W1&2 fund is based on programmatic priorities defined in the program proposal, competitive calls for earmarked projects and scaling fund projects, and annual performance assessment.The graph below presents the distribution of W1&2 in 2021. Percentage distribution has been calculated based on the total budget and includes carry over funds. Funds allocated based on competitive calls represents 44% of the total budget.In 2021, as the RTB scaling fund concluded with a final batch and two innovation packages were supported using the TRICOT approach for varietal testing and AKILIMO which provides data driven agronomy recommendations to farmers and other users.W1&2 funds supported the developers of golden eggs enhanced to prepare nurturing plans ensuring their inclusion in the new CGIAR portfolio. The gender responsive AR4D portal (link) is used by different stakeholders and sustained by the gender platform. The seed system toolbox was launched in 2021, promoted by key donors including BMGF and included in the new One CGIAR portfolio. All the golden eggs have been positioned into the new portfolio at initiative level in addition to scaling readiness that was adopted across all initiatives.The program invested resources in the transition process to One CGIAR through cataloging innovations (link) and enhancing knowledge on theory of change approaches (link). Additionally the program allocated small grants for science teams to support six new ideas to bridge RTB research to the One CGIAR with a total budget of USD 120,000:1. Identifying new investment opportunities in breeding and seed systems development for roots, tubers and banana crops. 2. Toolbox with standard procedures for RTB landrace-level hotspot baseline assessment.3. Raising the online profile of the tricot approach. 4. Post-harvest innovation catalogue. 5. Online platform to promote FP4 small-scale efficient flash drying. 6. Collection, genotyping and metabolomics of wild guinea yams (Dioscorea spp.) .Please, note that amounts and % marked in red will be updated by the lead center once audited financial records are accessible.The total 2021 budget for RTB was USD 81.5M, USD 21.M (27%) from W1&2, and USD 59.6M (73%) from W3 and bilateral. RTB has worked with a budget of USD 18.9M based on the 2021 Revised CGIAR Research financing plan (FINPLAN). This budget has maintained during the year. Carry over funds from 2020 represented USD 2.9M. RTB total expenditure for the period was USD XXM, or X% of the budget, of which USD 21.9M (X%) was from W1&2, and USD XXM (X%) from W3 and bilateral funds. W1&2 expenses reached 100% execution of the final budget and W3, bilateral and centers' other own expenditure, reached X% execution. All Program activities have been completed until 31 December 2021. The Participants Centers have not presented unspent funds.The PMU savings of USD XXM will return to SMO and be available for new initiatives, especially those closely aligned with RTB research activities. The accrual of up to USD 0.060 permitting by the SMO will be to cover part of PMU to complete 2022 tasks, digital assets handover and financial activities.    The study investigated whether the adoption of practices for cassava farmers were sustained in influence of the project. Our findings suggest that, despite a long time has passed, farmers are still using SFEC practices, and that social capital has influenced their adoption decision. They also suggest that farmers carefully choose the type of social capital to use for different practices, suggesting that traditional dissemination channels, for instance agricultural extension services, are not the main learning source when it comes to innovative soil conservation practices. The journal article was submitted to Word Development journal however it will not be published until 2022. The study aimed to identified bottlenecks, challenges and opportunities of COVID-19 impact on rural livelihoods and potato and coffee value chains. The study took place in both the Andes and the Amazon where potato and coffee production take place. The study was conducted between May and July 2020, in the beginning of the pandemic in Peru, but at the end of the potato cropping season. Conclusions of the study revealed availability of labor was restricted. income was affected because of lower sale price because farmers must sell in local markets, food consumption patterns also affected due to lack of production diversification, low availability of vegetables and meats, and high prices of the. Also, we found that liquidity was diminished for potato households, and there was a potential pressure to forest due to expansion of agricultural frontier.https://doi.org/10 .1016/j.agsy.2020. 103033Assessing the impacts of the adoption of improved cassava processing equipment on household income in the lake zone of Tanzania Cancelled 3.Program/pro ject adoption or impact assessmentThe study conducted by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) measures the impact of improved cassava processing equipment on household income in Tanzania. This study is cancelled because there were not enough farmers who adopted the processing technologies. Comparative analysis of socioeconomic status in the cassava starch value chain between 1995 and 2018 ject adoption or impact assessment 2018) also covers the difficult period of conflict (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004) in the region that influenced the described transitions. The study was canceled due to departure of the relevant team members.Improving scalable banana agronomy for small scale farmers in highland banana cropping systems in East Africa: monitoring, learning and evaluation insights Cancelled -Expected in 2022 3. Program/pro ject adoption or impact assessment Report summarizes midterm results for the project \"Improving scalable banana agronomy for small-scale farmers in highland banana cropping systems in East Africa\", detailing outputs and outcomes achieved during the reported period including detailed measurable indicators and targets. The work will be finalized in Q1/2022. This study provides evidence on the impact of BXW shock on the welfare of banana producing households as well as the alternative livelihood strategies pursued to improve welfare over time in addition to adopting BXW control practices. Utilizing panel data from over 1000 households in four banana-growing regions drastically affected by BXW in Uganda, we examined the likely coping strategies that they employ once hit by the pandemic. The key coping strategies employed include increased production of annual crops mainly maize and beans, reduction in consumption of bananas, diversifying into livestock production and off-farm activities to earn a living. The baseline evaluation was to be conducted by CIP in collaboration with NCSU, which has a lot of experience in the same product in USA. This is a new product which is still not yet on the Kenyan market. Due to delays in finalization of the SGA between CIP and NCSU, this work could not be conducted. In addition, the delays in installation of the equipment at the private processors site has also hindered progress. The equipment installation is still in progress. ","tokenCount":"10588"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4aa64a57652bd25366971b12a12f3022","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f47f9ffb-109e-4ead-b529-88b94dbc46b0/content","id":"1452728814"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"291d2373-8bd2-4ba5-869f-cb67bc96c02f","pagecount":"8","content":"Leaf rust and stripe rust are important diseases of wheat and can be controlled by growing resistant varieties. We investigated the genetic basis of resistance to both rusts in 198 F 5 recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross between 'Avocet' and 'Francolin#1'. The population was phenotyped in greenhouse and field, and genotyped with known gene-associated molecular markers. Seedling resistance of Francolin#1 to leaf and stripe rusts was attributed to the loosely linked genes Lr16 and YrF, respectively, with a recombination frequency of 0.36. Field segregation indicated that adult plant resistance (APR) to leaf and stripe rusts was conferred by three and five additive genes, respectively. Among them, Lr46/Yr29 was associated with resistance to both rusts in Francolin#1, Lr16 reduced field leaf rust severity by 8 to 9%, and YrF contributed to 10 to 25% reductions in stripe rust severity. The Lr16 region was also associated with a 5 to 16% reduction in stripe rust severity, which is likely due to its linkage with YrF or another unidentified stripe rust APR gene. Significant additive effects on stripe rust were detected between YrF and Yr29. We conclude that APR in Francolin#1 to leaf and stripe rusts involves a combination of seedling and APR genes.Leaf (or brown) rust and stripe (or yellow) rust, caused by Puccinia triticina and P. striiformis f. sp. tritici, respectively, are important diseases of wheat worldwide. Stripe rust is currently receiving increased interest due to the detection of more virulent and aggressive races, which are more destructive to common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) than older races (2,26). In addition, both rusts have been reported in areas where these diseases were previously rarely detected (2). Yield losses of up to 50 and 70% have been reported in wheat for leaf rust (12) and stripe rust (4), respectively. Planting resistant cultivars is the most efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly way to manage these diseases.Resistance to wheat rusts can be categorized as either race specific, which results from a range of hypersensitive responses to infection and is detected at the seedling or adult growth stages (7), or as slow-rusting adult plant resistance (APR) that is exhibited in the postseedling growth stages with delayed infection, reduced growth, and reproduction of the pathogen (1,37). Race-specific resistance is generally qualitatively inherited, exhibiting hypersensitive reactions, with a resistance gene that interacts with the pathogen in a gene-for-gene manner, and rust fungi readily adapt with the emergence of new virulent races (13). In contrast, APR genes are usually quantitatively inherited, often non-race-specific, and have remained durable (37). Thus, identifying and characterizing sources of slow-rusting APR is essential for appropriate deployment in wheat breeding.To date, more than 72 leaf rust and 56 stripe rust resistance genes have been officially designated (23) and several have been mapped with linked or diagnostic molecular markers. In addition, 80 and 140 quantitative trait loci (QTL) for leaf rust and stripe rust resistance, respectively, have been identified primarily through molecular markers and mapped to the wheat genome (9,23). How-ever, traditional genetic analysis plays an important role in determining the genetic basis for resistance and identifying new sources of resistance. Some wheat cultivars, including 'Frontana', 'Pavon 76', 'Strampelli', 'Libellula', 'Capo', 'Bainong 64', and 'Claire' (19,21,29,30,39,40) have provided durable resistance to rusts over several decades in different wheat production areas. Resistance to leaf or stripe rust in these and other wheat cultivars is often estimated to be caused by three to five genes, acting cumulatively with small to medium individual effects (19,21,29,30,39,40).The CIMMYT-derived common wheat 'Francolin#1' (pedigree: 'Waxwing*2/Vivitsi') is a high-yielding stem rust resistant line that also possesses resistance to stripe rust and leaf rust. Francolin#1 was released in India under the name 'Ufan' and in Bangladesh as 'BARI Gom 27'; in Nepal it is in the process of being released and it has performed outstandingly, with high yield and good rust resistance in the northeast Gangetic Plains of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh (14,34).This study aimed to (i) investigate the genetic basis of leaf rust and stripe rust resistance in an 'Avocet-YrA' × Francolin#1 recombinant inbred line (RIL) population at the seedling and adult plant stages, (ii) investigate the detection of known leaf rust and stripe rust resistance loci using molecular markers, and (iii) explore the interaction between seedling and APR loci.Plant material. The 198 F 4 -derived F 5 RILs used in this study were developed from a cross between common spring wheat parents Avocet-YrA and Francolin#1. The susceptible parent Avocet-YrA is a reselection line from Australian 'Avocet' that lacks the temporarily designated stripe rust resistance gene YrA and also showed susceptibility to leaf rust. For simplicity in this article, the two parents will be referred to as Avocet and Francolin. The RIL population was derived from three different F 1 plants. We used the pedigree approach for generation advancement; thus, random spikes were harvested in each generation and sown as hills. During population development, plants received fungicide applications to ensure that all genotypic representatives were kept in each generation. The tester line 'Avocet*3//Lalb Mono1*4/Pavon', with Lr46/Yr29, Waxwing, and Vivitsi, were also included in the study.Greenhouse trials. Leaf rust. Seedling tests to phenotype leaf rust resistance in Avocet, Francolin, Waxwing, Vivitsi, and 198 Avocet/Francolin F 5 RILs were conducted in greenhouse conditions in August 2011 with P. triticina race MBJ/SP, and repeated in September 2011 with races MBJ/SP and TBD/TM. Race TBD/TM was used to confirm the phenotyping results for Lr16, postulated to be present in Francolin, because Lr16 confers a lower infection type with TBD/TM compared with race MBJ/SP. The avirulence/virulence formula of MBJ/SP is Lr2a, 2b, 2c, 3ka, 9 , 16, 18, 19, 21, 24, 25, (26), 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36/1, 3, 3bg, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 20, 23, 27+31 (11); and the avirulence/virulence formula of race TBD/TM is Lr9, 11, 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36/1, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3, 3bg, 10, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 27+31, 28 (32). A set of 48 differential lines with known leaf rust resistance genes (most lines in the 'Thatcher' background), including 'RL6005' with Lr16, were included in the seedling tests as a check to compare the infection types of parents and RILs with known resistance genes. Each race was evaluated separately and 8 to 10 seeds of each RIL were sown as hills in trays containing 48 entries each. Inoculations were conducted when plants were at the two-leaf stage by spraying urediniospores suspended in lightweight mineral oil Soltrol 170 (Chempoint.com) using an atomizer. In order to let oil evaporate, the inoculated plants were left in an open place for around 30 min before transferring them into a dew chamber overnight, then transferred to a greenhouse. A data logger (LogTag analyzer. Ver. 1.9) was installed in the greenhouse and programmed to measure air temperature every 15 min.The minimum, maximum, and mean postinoculation temperatures for the leaf rust greenhouse experiments were 16.8, 29.1, and 23.0°C, respectively. Leaf rust infection types were recorded 11 days postinoculation and were based on a 0 to 4 scale modified from Roelfs et al. (31), where 0 = no visible symptoms, 1 = small uredinia surrounded by necrosis, 2 = small to medium uredinia surrounded by chlorosis or necrosis, 3C = medium uredinia with chlorosis, 3 = medium-sized uredinia without chlorosis or necrosis, 34 = medium to large-sized uredinia without chlorosis or necrosis, 4 = large-sized uredinia without chlorosis or necrosis, ; = necrotic or chlorotic flecks, X = random distribution of variable-sized uredinia, and + and -were used when uredinia were somewhat larger or smaller than normal for the infection type.Stripe rust. Greenhouse seedling trials to phenotype stripe rust resistance of Avocet, Francolin, Waxwing, Vivitsi, and RILs were conducted three times (February 2011, August 2011, and September 2011), using the predominant Mexican P. striiformis isolate Mex96.11. In these experiments, 27 differential lines with known stripe rust resistance genes (mostly in Avocet background) were also included. The inoculation method was the same as described for leaf rust but the incubation temperature in the dew chamber was 7°C. Inoculated plants were placed in the dew chamber for 48 h, then transferred to a greenhouse.The minimum, maximum, and mean postinoculation greenhouse temperatures were 10.8, 24.6, and 17.2°C, respectively. Infection types, recorded about 2 weeks postinoculation, were based on a 0to-9 scale modified from McNeal et al. (25), where 0 = no visible infection, 1 = necrotic or chlorotic flecks without sporulation, 2 = necrotic or chlorotic pustules without sporulation, 3 = necrotic or chlorotic pustules with trace sporulation, 4 = necrotic or chlorotic pustules with light sporulation, 5 = necrotic or chlorotic pustules with intermediate sporulation, 6 = chlorotic pustules with moderate sporulation, 67 = pustules without chlorosis or necrosis and with small sporulation, 7 = pustules without chlorosis or necrosis and with moderate sporulation, 8 = pustules without chlorosis or necrosis and with sufficient sporulation, and 9 = pustules without chlorosis or necrosis and abundant sporulation.Field trials. Leaf rust. The parents, Avocet/Francolin RILs, and tester line for Lr46/Yr29 were evaluated for APR to leaf rust at Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 crop seasons. Field plots consisted of 0.7-m paired rows with approximately 60 plants of each line in the plot. The susceptible wheat 'Morocco' was planted around the experimental area and as hill plots on one side of each experimental plot, in the middle of a 0.3-m pathway, as the leaf rust spreader plots. The spreader plots were inoculated around 20 January 2009 and 2010 with an equal mixture of urediniospores of P. triticina races MBJ/SP and MCJ/SP, suspended in Soltrol 170. The main difference between the two races is partial and complete virulence for Lr26 in MBJ/SP and MCJ/SP, respectively. Disease severity on parents and RILs was recorded once in 2009 and twice in 2010 according to the modified Cobb scale after anthesis, when the susceptible parent displayed 80% or higher disease severity (28), and host response to infection was determined according to Roelfs et al. (31), where R = resistant, or miniature uredinia surrounded by necrotic tissues; MR = moderately resistant, or smaller to moderate-sized uredinia surrounded by necrotic or chlorotic tissues; MS = moderately susceptible, or moderate-sized uredinia without necrotic or chlorotic tissues; and S = susceptible, or large uredinia without necrotic or chlorotic tissues. Leaf rust severity was rated when the disease severity on Avocet reached a maximum level, around the middle of March in both years.Based on the disease severity and phenotypic responses, RILs were classified into three different categories, according to the methods of Singh and Rajaram (39): homozygous parental type resistant (HPTR), homozygous parental type susceptible (HPTS), and lines with different responses than the two parents (OTHER).Stripe rust. The parents, Avocet/Francolin RILs, and tester line for Lr46/Yr29 were sown at the CIMMYT research station near Toluca, State of Mexico, Mexico, around the third week of May in 2009 and 2010. Field trials were established in a similar way to the leaf rust trials. Spreaders consisted of a mixture of six susceptible wheat lines derived from the Avocet × 'Attila' cross known to carry the stripe rust resistance gene Yr27. Spreaders and hills were inoculated with a mixture of P. striiformis isolates Mex96.11 and Mex08.13 approximately 1 month after sowing. The main difference between the two isolates is virulence for Yr27 and avirulence for Yr31 in Mex96.11, and the opposite in Mex08.13. The percentage stripe rust severity (28) and host response to infection (31) on the parents and RILs were recorded once in 2009 and twice in 2010, where R = necrotic or chlorotic stripes without sporulation, MR = necrotic or chlorotic stripes with some sporulation, M (or MRMS) = necrotic or chlorotic stripes with intermediate sporulation, MS = stripes without chlorosis and necrosis but with moderate sporulation, and S = stripes without chlorosis or necrosis and with abundant sporulation. Stripe rust severity was evaluated when the susceptible parent Avocet had reached 90 to 100% severity at milk stage onward for Avocet and middle dough stage for Francolin. RILs were then classified into the three phenotypic stripe rust response categories, as explained for leaf rust.Molecular analysis. Genomic DNA was extracted using the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide method described by CIMMYT (3) from approximately 20 plants per line. In total, 11 molecular markers previously reported to be associated with known slowrusting APR genes were used to screen the parents. These markers included simple sequence repeats (SSR)/sequence-tagged site molecular markers such as Xgwm533 and csSr2 linked to Sr2/Yr30 (8,20), Lr34/Yr18 gene sequence-based markers cssfr1-cssfr5 (18), csLV46 closely linked to Lr46/Yr29 (17), Xgwm192 and Xgwm165 closely linked to Lr67/Yr46 (10), and csGS associated with Lr68 (11). In addition, because Francolin was postulated to carry racespecific leaf rust resistance gene Lr16, based on infection type and pedigree, three previously reported Lr16-linked SSR markers-Xwmc382, Xwmc764, and Xgwm210 (22) were also tested on the parents. Markers csLV46, Xgwm533, Xgwm210, Xwmc382, and Xwmc764 were found to be polymorphic between the parents and used to screen the entire RIL population. Polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) were performed in volumes of 10 µl containing 0.06 µl of Taq DNA polymerase (Promega Corp.) at 5 µ/µl, 2 µl of 5× PCR buffer (Promega Corp.), 0.74 µl of 25 mM MgCl 2 (Promega Corp.), 0.7 µl of dNTP, 2.5 µl of 1 mM SSR primers, and 4 µl of template DNA at 15 ng/µl. The PCR conditions were a denaturation at 94°C for 3 min; followed by 35 cycles of 94°C for 1 min, 55 to 65°C (depending on primer pair) for 1 min, and 72°C for 1 min; and a final extension at 72°C for 5 min. Each sample was loaded on 10% polyacrylamide gels (29:1) with silver staining used to visualize the amplification products (3).Genetic and statistical analysis. The number of genes segregating for leaf and stripe rust resistance in the Avocet/Francolin RIL population was estimated using Mendelian segregation analysis (15,39), where the observed frequencies for each category (HPTR:HPTS:OTHER) were tested against the expected frequencies for different numbers of additive genes using χ 2 analysis. Calculations for phenotypic effects of leaf and stripe rust seedling resistance genes, response of molecular markers, their additive combined effects, and tests of statistical significance for pairwise comparisons of the means were conducted using the PROC GLM and t test in SAS software (SAS Institute). For the analysis of phenotypic effects, leaf rust infection types 1, 1+, and 3C were considered resistant and 3+ and 4 were susceptible; for stripe rust infection types, 34 to 6 were considered resistant and 67 to 9 as susceptible.Resistance phenotyping of seedlings in greenhouse. Leaf rust. Seedling infection types were 4 and 3+ for Avocet, 3+ and 3C for Vivitsi, and 3C and 1 for Francolin and Waxwing with P. triticina races MBJ/SP and TBD/TM, respectively (Table 1). For both P. triticina races, Francolin and Waxwing had resistance reaction similar to the Lr16 tester RL6005 (Table 1), and this seedling resistance gene was also closely linked to molecular marker Xgwm210 (within 2.7 centimorgans in 198 F 5 RILs). This indicates that Lr16 conferred seedling resistance to leaf rust in Francolin and that it was most likely derived from the Waxwing parent. For both races in the greenhouse tests, the number of resistant and susceptible RILs in the population conformed to the expected frequency of a single gene based on χ 2 analysis, using three sets of seedling phenotypic data with races MBJ/SP and TBD/TM (Table 2).Stripe rust. The infection types that developed with P. striiformis isolate Mex96.11 on Avocet, Francolin, Waxwing, and Vivitsi were 78, 34, 67, and 56, respectively, at the seedling stage in the greenhouse (Table 1). The distribution of RILs corresponded to the segregation of a single gene (Table 2), temporarily designated as YrF. The distribution of 159 homozygous RILs for leaf rust and stripe rust (namely, 48 Lr16YrF, 53 lr16yrF, 29 Lr16yrF, and 29 lr16YrF) was significant (χ 2  1:1:1:1 = 11.94, P < 0.007) for the segregation of two independent genes, indicating that Lr16 and YrF are linked, with a recombination frequency of 0.36.Resistance phenotyping in field trials. Leaf rust. The final disease severity and reaction to leaf rust for Avocet and Francolin were 90 to 100% S and 0 to 1% MS, respectively, at the adult plant stage (milk stage onward for Avocet and middle dough stage for Francolin) during the two crop seasons, whereas leaf rust severity of the tester line for Lr46/Yr29 was 20 to 30% MS-S reaction. The frequency distribution of RILs for leaf rust severity indicated quantitative inheritance of APR (Fig. 1A), though the distribution was     skewed toward the resistant parent. Assuming that resistance genes acted in an additive manner, the frequencies of RILs in three phenotypic categories (i.e., HPTR, HPTS, and OTHER) were in accordance with segregation at three independent loci (Table 2).Based on closely linked molecular markers, one of the resistance loci was identified as the slow-rusting APR gene Lr46. The leaf rust severity of RILs with this gene was 1 to 60%, whereas severity of RILs without this gene was 5 to 100% (Fig. 2A). A mean disease severity reduction of 34 to 55% was obtained for RILs with Lr46 compared with RILs without this gene across three readings and mean final disease severity (Table 3). Leaf rust severity of RILs with and without the seedling effective race-specific resistance gene Lr16 showed similar ranges in the adult plant stage (Fig. 2B). Although the leaf rust severity means of RILs with Lr16 were about 7 to 9% lower than RILs without this gene, the difference was not significant, except for the early reading recorded in 2010. YrF appeared to have no significant effects on leaf rust severity (Table 3).Stripe rust. The final stripe rust severities and reactions for Avocet and Francolin were 90 S and 1 to 10 R-MR, respectively, at the adult plant stage during the two crop seasons. Stripe rust severity of the Lr46/Yr29 tester was 60 to 70%. The frequency distribution of RILs for stripe rust severity also showed continuous variation, suggesting quantitative inheritance of APR to stripe rust (Fig. 1B). The frequencies of RILs in three phenotypic categories (i.e., HPTR, HPTS, and OTHER) concurred with segregation at five independent loci, based on the assumption that resistance genes act in an additive manner (Table 2).Yr29 was one of the stripe rust APR genes that contributed to overall resistance. Mean disease severity of RILs with Yr29 was 10 to 80%, whereas disease severity of RILs without this gene was 15 to 100% (Fig. 2C). A mean stripe rust severity reduction of 18 to 31% was obtained for RILs with Yr29, compared with RILs without it (Table 3). Gene YrF that conferred moderate seedling resistance also had a significant effect on stripe rust resistance at the adult plant stage in both crop seasons, with a mean reduction of 11 to 25% in disease severity (Table 3). The mean disease severity of RILs with YrF was 10 to 60% whereas, for RILs without this gene, the range was 15 to 100% (Fig. 2D). Moreover, a significant mean reduction of 5 to 16% in stripe rust severity was associated with the presence of Lr16 in RILs (Table 3). The mean stripe rust severity for RILs was 10 to 90% when Lr16 was present, compared with 15 to 100% when absent (Fig. 2E).Correlation analysis. Leaf rust severity of Avocet/Francolin RILs was significantly correlated between the 2 years and was 0.85 to 0.93 (Table 4). Stripe rust also correlated significantly across the 2 years and was 0.68 to 0.93 (Table 4). There was a significant correlation between leaf rust and stripe rust severities of 0.52 to 0.74 (Table 4). The high correlation might be due to common pleiotropic APR genes such as Yr29/Lr46, or linkage between other pairs of leaf rust and stripe rust resistance genes such as Lr16 and YrF.Additive interactions between the detected resistance genes.Lr46/Yr29 and seedling resistance genes Lr16 and YrF were investigated using leaf rust and stripe rust severity data from field trials. We used the closely linked molecular marker csLV46 and infection type at seedling stage to determine the presence or absence of the three resistance genes. Although slight reductions in leaf rust severity occurred when Lr46 and Lr16 were present together, the additive interaction was not significant (Table 5). In contrast, significant additive interactions were found between Lr16 and Yr29, and between YrF and Yr29, with mean stripe rust severity reductions of 8 to 10% (Table 6) and 9 to 17% (Table 7), respectively.Francolin was highly resistant to leaf and stripe rusts in field trials at two different field sites in Mexico. The resistance in Avocet/Francolin F 5 RILs was shown to be controlled by a combination of seedling and APR loci. We detected three and five loci that conferred leaf rust and stripe rust resistance, respectively, in adult plants, and one gene for each rust disease in the seedling stage. Among these, slow-rusting APR gene Lr46/Yr29 and seedling resistance genes Lr16 and YrF could be identified using molecular markers or seedling infection types. Lr16 and YrF were loosely linked with a recombination frequency of 0.36.Although the race-specific resistance gene Lr16 may have a small effect in reducing leaf rust severity in adult plants to the same avirulent races as at the seedling stage, the mean difference was not significant except in 2010, when data were recorded at an earlier phase of disease development. Singh and Huerta-Espino (35) reported that Lr16 confers only moderate resistance to the Mexican P. triticina race TCB/TD in adult plants and behaves like a slow-rusting resistance gene, with final leaf rust severity of 70 to 80% in the adult plants stage, when present alone (35). Leaf rust severities and reactions of 28 Chinese varieties possessing Lr16 were 10 MS-S to 100 S in the field trials in Mexico using avirulent races (33). Similarly, Lr16 had no significant effect on leaf rust severity in the adult plant stage in Avocet/Francolin F 5 RILs, indicating that, although Lr16 is effective in the seedling stage, it confers only slight resistance to leaf rust in adult plants, which is difficult to detect in the presence of other resistance genes. Lr16 showed small but significant effects in reducing stripe rust severity in adult plants, which could be attributed to possibly another stripe rust APR gene present that is closer to Lr16/Xgwm210 region, because YrF is probably too distant to account for the effect of the Lr16/Xgwm210 region on stripe rust severity. Lr16 in Francolin is derived from the resistant parent Waxwing, because the other parent Vivitsi was susceptible to P. triticina race MBJ/SP in seedling tests. This gene is more effective at higher temperatures and is linked to Sr23 (5,24). The frequency of Lr16 has increased in CIMMYT germplasm in recent years, with a greater number of lines derived from Waxwing parentage (36). According to Huerta-Espino et al. (12), Lr16-virulent races were detected in northern America, Canada, China, India, Iran, and Syria but the frequency of virulence to Lr16 has decreased from 35.5 to 0.6% during the last 10 years in Canada. Even if Lr16 virulence dominates fields in the northern Great Plains region of the United States, the Thatcher tester line carrying Lr16 remains resistant in the field, and the hard red spring wheat cultivars with Lr16 were also highly resistant for more than 10 years in Minnesota and the Dakotas (16). In our study, Lr16 displayed infection type 3C against the predominant race MBJ/SP; this infection type could easily be misinterpreted as a susceptible response, resulting in an accidental identification of the race as virulent.The stripe rust resistance gene YrF effective in Francolin in seedlings may derive from the Vivitsi parent, because Waxwing was susceptible to P. striiformis isolates Mex96.11 and Mex08.13 at the seedling stage. The seedling reactions of RILs postulated to carry YrF varied from 34 to 6, indicating that YrF had only a small effect in reducing seedling reactions to stripe rust, and that it can be influenced by the genetic background and environment. We had to repeat seedling tests three times to convincingly postulate the presence and absence of YrF in RILs. The effect of YrF was also moderate in field trials: about a 40% reduction in stripe rust severity when present alone, based on the distribution of F 5 RILs for severity responses. However, we did not detect any significant effects of this gene on leaf rust. Further mapping analysis will confirm whether YrF is a previously reported or a novel gene.The slow-rusting APR gene Lr46/Yr29 present in Francolin was originally identified in Pavon 76 by Singh et al. (38) and located to chromosome arm 1BL by William et al. (42). It has provided slowrusting APR to leaf and stripe rusts for more than 40 years. In our field trials, the reductions in leaf and stripe rusts severity for the tester line containing Lr46/Yr29 were 70 to 80% and 30 to 40%, respectively. F 5 RILs predicted to carry this APR gene alone had approximately 40 and 20% reductions in mean leaf rust and stripe rust severities, respectively. Similar effects were found by William et al. (42), who reported that Lr46/Yr29 reduced leaf and stripe rusts severities by 41 to 54% and 19 to 39%, respectively.Singh et al. (34) reported that the APR gene Sr2/Yr30 could be present in Francolin due to the incidence of pseudoblack chaff, which is a morphological marker closely linked to this gene. Molecular marker Xgwm533, closely linked to Sr2 (8), was present in Francolin and segregated in the RIL population. However, singlemarker analysis did not indicate associations between Xgwm533 and stripe rust resistance in the RIL population. Another molecular marker, csSr2 (20), was also tested on parents to confirm the presence of Sr2/Yr30. However, the two parents were not polymorphic and lacked the positive allele. We did not detect significant additive effects between the genes Lr16 and Lr46/Yr29 in reducing leaf rust severity in field trials, though a small but significant additive effect was found for stripe rust. The lack of interaction effects for leaf rust is likely due the fact that the effect of Lr16 was small in reducing leaf rust severity of the two races used in our field trials (Fig 2B). Oelke and Kolmer (27) indicated that high levels of leaf rust resistance in hard red spring wheat cultivars from Minnesota and the Dakotas involved combinations of the seedling resistance gene Lr16 or Lr24 with additional APR genes. Vanzetti et al. (41) also reported that 9 of the 11 wheat cultivars with high levels of resistance to all pathotypes in Argentina showed combinations of seedling resistance genes, among which Lr16 played a central role in developing germplasm with high level of resistance to leaf rust in Argentina. In Canada, a positive interaction for leaf rust resistance was also found between Lr16, Lr13, and Lr34, with lower seedling infection types and higher field resistance than either of the seedling or APR genes alone (6), indicating that Lr16 plays an important resistance role in the adult plant stage in the United States, Argentina, and Canada. This does not apply to the P. triticina races currently dominant in Mexico but a significant additive effect was detected between Lr16 and Yr29 for adult plant stripe rust resistance in our study.Since Francolin's original distribution by CIMMYT in 2008, it has continued to confer resistance worldwide to all three rusts. Singh et al. (34) reported that the stem rust severity of Francolin was around 10% for the Ug99 race group in Kenya. Our study shows that resistance to leaf rust and stripe rust is complex in Francolin, which makes it a valuable parent in breeding programs for achieving durable resistance to the leaf rust, stripe rust, and stem rust. The chromosome location, effect and interaction between seedling resistance genes (Lr16 and YrF) and slow-rusting APR loci (Lr46/Yr29 and other) in Francolin are under further investigation.","tokenCount":"4637"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d7a55d85aa3a0cf210d8601f79ec8a19","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/014d69b3-1d35-44d0-9181-64bad1e7e388/retrieve","id":"-548383990"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c1a48006-6265-41d5-b05e-a571ad7f4408","pagecount":"41","content":"To enhance the capacity of agricultural researchers to forge effective and efficient partnerships with other relevant stakeholders in the agricultural innovation system for achieving greater impacts Objectives At the end of this session participants will be able to:List and explain the changing paradigms in research for development Reform agenda (cont'd...)• Increased recognition of cross-sectoral linkages• Globalization of research and emerging regional and continental bodies• Increased use of networks and partnerships • Changes in the organizational context 2.9Emerging agri-food systems Organizational analysis• NARIs• NARS (loose conglomerate of agencies and actors involved in agricultural research)• AKIS (R,E,T in one system; knowledge triangle)  • Successful application of the concept in the industrial sector• Inadequacy of the existing framework to be all inclusive in terms of coverage               Innovation system• An innovation system is:• a group of organizations and individuals involved in the generation, diffusion, adoption and use of new knowledge and their actions and interactions• the context and institutions that govern the way these interactions and processes take place• associated learning • Not a theory, but an organizing principle • Can be defined at different levels  • Those institutions that affect the process by which innovations are developed, delivered and adopted (laws, regulations, customs, norms)• Incorporates actors, processes as well as products 2.24National innovations systems (cont'd...)• Reveals that R&D organizations are one type of knowledge agents in a larger system    • An intervention-based innovation system incorporates • the invention system, as well as • the complementary economic processes required to turn invention into innovation and subsequent diffusion and utilization• intervention-based Innovation systems do not occur automatically• it is the problem situation that defines a particular innovation opportunity 2.30 • Suggests the analysis of three elements • Components (organizations and actors)• Relationships and interactions (institutions)• Competencies, functions and result of such interactions 2.32Key features of ISP Major thrusts of IAR4D approach Why is value chain analysis important?• Value chain analysis plays a key role in understanding the need and scope for systemic competitiveness-growing division of labor, global dispersion of production of components• Efficiency in production is only a necessary condition for successfully penetrating regional and global markets• Entry into the various markets: national, regional, and global requires an understanding of dynamic factors within the whole value chain• Commercialization of smallholder production system and market orientation• To reap the maximum benefit it is important to understand the nature, structure and the dynamics of the value chain 2.41Value chain analysis (cont'd…)• In the real world, value chains may be much more complex Emerging challenges (cont'd…)• Changing expectations from science, technology and innovation• Underinvestment in agriculture and agricultural research• Technological advances in biotechnology and ICT• Globalization of private agricultural research and innovation• Meeting commitments and targetsEmerging challenges (cont'd…)• Changing expectations from science, technology and innovation• Underinvestment in agriculture and agricultural research• Technological advances in biotechnology and ICT• Globalization of private agricultural research and innovation• Meeting commitments and targetsMain messages(organizations and institutions) has changed• Emerging challenges require R4D systems to be dynamic and flexibleSession 2: Challenges of the R&D systems and changing paradigms: Summary of presentationDuring much of the 1970s and 1980s, investments in agricultural research were largely motivated by concerns about growing population, a finite resource base, import substitution and food security at both global and national levels that required a clear focus on increased food productivity. In the 1980s, natural resources management and environmental preservation received much higher priority in the research agenda, as well as food safety in the industrialized countries. In the recent past, with the advancement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), poverty alleviation has come to the forefront as one of the developmental goals. At present the major goals of agricultural research are:to produce agricultural technologies to contribute to rapid economic growth; to provide options for effective adaptation to a rapidly changing global economy and changing policies; to address emerging environmental concerns and to contribute to the reduction of poverty (and food and nutritional security) by increasing the supply of staple products and by increasing the international competitiveness of national economies (Rajalahti et al. 2008).For a considerable period the public sector research investment and research policy has focused on national agricultural research organizations/institutes (NAROs/NARIs). In this paradigm, public funds were provided as a block grant, usually through the Ministry of Agriculture, to a centralized research department or institute who then set research priorities and executed research through a network of research centres under the control of NARO/NARI. In the 1990s, this paradigm has been challenged, since it failed to consider a variety of other public and private organizations that are involved in research policymaking and research execution (Byerlee 1997).The research approach was also challenged as the traditional approach (often referred to as the topdown approach) to agricultural research and development was not having significant impact on the development of small-scale agriculture. The researchers and development practitioners argued that an appropriate technology could only be developed if it was based on full knowledge of the existing farming system and livelihood system, and technologies should be evaluated not only in terms of their technical performance in specific environments, but also in terms of their conformity with the objectives, capabilities and socio-economic conditions of the target group of farmers. As a response to these challenges, there is a gradual evolution of the central source model of innovation of the 1970s and 1980s to the current agricultural innovation systems approach. This evolution occurred as a result of the identified weaknesses of the predominant paradigm of the time, and the emerging challenges and needs of the society.Over the years, the agricultural R&D arena has seen a number of paradigm changes and transformations. In this chapter, first we will discuss the reform agenda within the agricultural R&D arena, then the paradigm shifts and the changes in the global food systems. Currently, the knowledge generation, dissemination and the utilization process within the agricultural sector is guided by four complementary and mutually reinforcing principles. They are the innovation systems perspective, value chain approach, impact orientation and research for development. These concepts are briefly discussed so that the reader is familiar with these developments and effectively use this understanding in designing and implementing research. However, it is worth noting that impact orientation and research for development are implicit in the concept of innovation.The policy and institutional context within which agricultural research and innovation occurs have Given the sweeping reforms that are taking place, the R&D systems are facing a transition period in which they will need to restructure themselves, confront new demands, and adjust to new political, scientific, institutional and economic environment.The last several decades have also seen a profound change in the nature of the global food system. Development of new forms of (contractual) relationships between suppliers and buyers • These changes offer both challenges and opportunities to the smallholder producers. In some instances they can force small producers to exit certain markets, contributing to greater poverty and inequality.On the other hand if the smallholder farmers respond positively, this can offer new sources of income and a marked improvement in the quality and safety of food.Agricultural research and development has been undergoing paradigm shifts over the years which is in fact affecting their organizational structure, management style, as well as the way the research is done.We have seen a shift from a single commodity and mono-disciplinary base to an innovation system and a multidisciplinary based approach together with a change from top-down research model to participatory approach to research for development.The system thinking is not new to agricultural research and development. It has been applied since 1970s when a significant shift in paradigm occurred by moving away from the top-down, linear, technology development and transfer model to the introduction of Farming Systems Approach (FSA).Since then, the application has evolved gradually to the various participatory approaches to the current innovation systems approach. Now the use has been extended to the application in the organizational analysis resulting in the 'Agricultural Innovation System' concept. This evolution is traced in Figure 1, and it is the result of the changing needs and expectations of the society.The origin and application of the Innovation systems perspective (ISP) in agricultural research can be traced to a number of sources. These include: the successful application of the concept in the industrial sector of the developed economies, the multiple source of innovation model for agricultural research and technology promotion as suggested by Biggs (1989); the inadequacy of the linear model to explain the actual process of innovation in the real world; the inadequacy of the existing organizational frameworks to be all inclusive in terms of the coverage of the various actors; and the increasing demand for demonstrated developmental impacts and the expanded mandate and expectations from the R&D communities (Research for Development).The main attraction of Innovation Systems Framework stems from the fact that: it recognizes innovation as a process of generating, accessing and putting knowledge into use; explicitly recognizes the interactions and knowledge flows among different actors in the process; emphasizes that institutions are vital in shaping the nature of these innovations and learning as a means of evolving new arrangements specific to local contexts (Sulaiman 2008).In the literature, different authors have defined the term innovation differently (ECm 1995;Drukker 1998;OECD 1999;Quintas 1977cited in ISNAR 2001). The simplest definition is 'anything new introduced into an economic or social process' (OECD 1999). The most useful definition of innovation in the context of R&D is 'the economically successful use of invention '(Bacon 1998). Here invention is defined 'as a solution to a problem'. This allows us to make the distinction between knowledge and innovation. Taking a brilliant idea through, on an often painful journey to become something which is widely used, involves many more steps and use of resources and problem solving on the way. In the past, science and technology generation were equated with innovation. It is crucial to recognize that innovation is strongly embedded in the prevailing economic structure, which largely determines what is going to be learned and where the innovations are going to take place. Moreover, such innovations are not limited to technological (both product and process) innovations, but also include institutional, organizational, managerial and service delivery innovations. This also emphasizes the notion that the responsibility of agricultural research organizations does not end with the production of new technology or knowledge. They can claim success when their 'innovations' are being disseminated, adopted and used (Chema et al. 2001).Innovations are new creations of economic significance. They relate to the production of new knowledge and/or new combination of existing knowledge. The critical point to note is that this knowledge cannot be regarded as innovation unless it is transformed into products and processes that have social and economic use (Edquist 1997). This transformation does not follow a linear path but rather characterized by complicated feedback mechanisms and interactive relations involving science, technology, learning, production, policy and demand. The use of the term 'innovation', in its broadest sense, covers the activities and processes associated with the generation production, distribution, adaptation and use of new technical, institutional and organizational, managerial knowledge and service delivery (Hall et al.The thinking up to early 1990s was that innovations were created by knowledge and technology production process and through formal R&D initiatives by firms and technology creating agents such as universities and public-private research institutes. The assumption was that the market would draw upon the technological resources it needs, as and when necessary. The demand for knowledge would be identified by the formal R&D systems, produced and passed down to those who necessarily apply it because of its usefulness (Hartwich and Meijerink 1999). In reality, however, innovations are not only associated with or stem from major scientific discoveries, but also often develop as a fairly minor scientific and technological advances and can occur without any research (e.g. through learning and adaptation process). Therefore innovations can be generated by different organizations, group or individuals and the conventional research institutions is only one such entity amongst them.An innovation system is a group of organizations and individuals involved in the generation, diffusion, adaptation and use of new knowledge and the context that governs the way these interactions and processes take place. In its simplest, an innovation system has three elements: the organization and individuals involved in generating, diffusing, adapting and using new knowledge; the interactive learning that occurs when organizations engage in these processes and the way this leads to new products and processes (innovation); and the institutions (rules, norms and conventions, both formal and informal), that govern how these interactions and processes takes place (Horton 1990). People working on similar issues, be it in a specific commodity sector, at a particular location or in any problem area tend to form a chain or network that can be described as innovation system.A collaborative arrangement bringing together several organizations working towards technical change in agriculture can be called 'Agricultural Innovation System'. Such a system may include the traditional sources of innovations (indigenous technical knowledge); modern actors (NARIs, IARCs, Advanced research institutions); private sectors including agro-industrial firms and entrepreneurs (local, national and multinationals); civil society organizations (NGOs, farmers and consumer organizations, pressure groups); and those institutions (laws, regulations, beliefs, customs and norms) that affect the process by which innovations are developed and delivered. Agricultural innovation system can be defined at three levels: national, commodity-based, and intervention-based. A typical national agricultural innovation system is presented in Figure 2. AIS within an agrifood chain is presented in Figure 3. An interventionbased innovation system can be developed based on the nature of the problem and the context in which the innovation is applied. Source: Anandajayasekeram et al. (2005). Figure 3. AIS in an agrifood chain/agri business system.It is important to make sure that the innovation system is not confused with the invention system.Innovation system incorporates the invention system as well as the complementary economic processes required to turn invention into innovation and subsequent diffusion and use. Innovation systems do not occur naturally; it is the problem situation that defines a particular innovation opportunity. Hence, innovation systems are created for a purpose. They will change in content and patterns of interaction as the problem sequence evolves and they can be constructed at micro-and macro levels. Thus, although the innovation systems can be defined at different levels (national, sectoral, commodity and problem/intervention), the most relevant innovation system is the one that is constructed to address a particular problem. As Antonelli (2001,2005) argues, innovation systems are constructed to solve 'local' innovation problems and are constructed around a market problem (along the value chain).Innovation systems are constructed to address specific problems. These systems are very specific in nature and they deal with the connection between the relevant components of the ecology as well as ensure that the flow of information is directed at a specific purpose. Depending upon the problem at hand, there can be multiple innovation systems supported by the same innovation ecology. Moreover, since the solution of one problem typically leads to different and new problems, we would also expect that as the problem evolves the actors in the system as well as their interconnectedness will also vary. Thus, while the ecologies are more permanent, the problem-focused innovation systems are transient or temporary in nature. Once a particular problem sequence is solved, the associated system can be dissolved. The dynamism of an economy/value chain depends on the adaptability with which innovation systems are created, grow, stabilize and change as problem sequence evolves (Metcalfe 2008, 442). A problem-focused innovation system can be transboundary in nature or cut across national boundaries and may be spatially unconstrained. This problem-focused, transboundary, dynamic nature of the innovation system is the most relevant one for the R&D community.Innovation systems perspectives implies the use of innovation lens in the design, implementation and evaluation of the activities of the various actors involved in the innovation process. Innovation systems perspective (ISP) sees the innovative performance of an economy as depending not only on how individual institutions (firms, research institutes, universities etc.) perform in isolation, but on how they interact with each other as elements of a collective system and how they interplay with social institutions such as values, norms and legal frameworks. ISP suggests the analysis of three elements: the components of the system, principally its actors; the relationships and interactions between these components and the competencies, functions, process and results such components generate.Therefore the analytical implications of ISP are that there is a need to consider a range of activities and Emphasize that partnerships and linkages are integral part of the innovation system; • Emphasize that learning and the role of institutions are critical in the innovation process; and •The dynamics do not depend on the agents 'expanding the frontier of knowledge' but on the • innovative abilities of a large number of agents. This dynamics depends on the strength of information flows and the absorptive capacity of the individual agents of institutions and of society as a whole. The innovation processes depend on the interactions among physical, social and human capital, but mostly on the absorptive capacity of individual agents (Ekboir 2004).A good understanding of the concept of innovation, innovation systems and the innovations systems perspective is vital to design and implement successful research; as most of the funding agencies are looking for developmental impacts of research.Agricultural research for development takes a systems approach that goes beyond integrated natural resources management to encompass the domains of policies and markets and the effects that these have on the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of agriculture. The four pillars of agricultural research for development and their important interactions are presented in Figure 4. The procedure recognizes that the general approach to rural transformation involves intensification of subsistenceoriented smallholder farming systems, better management of natural resources while intensifying their use, developing more efficient markets and enabling policies. The AR4D procedure starts from the assumption that one or more organizations (including your own) and other stakeholders have identified a problem or area of concern, or an idea for intervention.It also assumes that addressing this problem requires concerted action of these organizations and stakeholders. This may require a team of professionals from these organizations, comprising specialists in the various disciplines needed to address the problem. It is assumed that by using the various diagnostic procedures the 'clients' and stakeholders have agreed on a sufficiently well-defined specific problem. Clear planning requires that your team develops a good understanding of the problem statement and the output that the client expects at the end of the process.As the end of this phase the team should have produced the following outputs:Team is composed, mandates are defined, and resources are made available (at least for planning) • Agreed upon team work procedure established • Problem is clearly stated and the expected output is clearly defined • Work plan is formulated and approved by all partners • Mechanism for monitoring is established. • (based on the operational plan), monitoring, evaluation and the eventual impact assessment of the intervention needs to be worked out as part of the planning process. As most of you are familiar with the participatory approaches to knowledge/technology development and transfer process, it may be possible to easily integrate the missing elements from the AR4D process described in this section. But a clear understanding of the process will certainly assist in the development of convincing/winning project proposals.It is important to ensure that the innovation system perspective, value chain analysis, research for development and impact orientation are effectively integrated in the research design.A value chain describes the full range of activities which are required to bring a product or service from conception, through the different phases of production, delivery to final consumers, and final disposal after use (Kaplinsky and Morris 2000). It is worth noting that production is only one of a number of value added links in the agrifood chain (Figure 6). Some people refer to this chain as from hoe (plough) to the finger (fork). A simple value chain has four basic links. In the real world, value chains are much more complex than this simple depiction. In many circumstances, the intermediary producers in a particular value chain may feed into a number of value chains.Agricultural value chains are defined by a particular finished product or closely related products and includes all firms engaged in input supply, production, transport, processing and marketing of the product, and their associated activities, interactions and institutions governing the activities and interactions. It entails the addition of value as the product progresses from input supply to production to consumption. It includes input suppliers, producers, itinerant collectors, assembly traders, transporters, wholesalers, processors, exporters, and retailers. The key issue addressed in value chain analysis is vertical coordination: the way of coordinating and harmonizing the vertical stages of production, transformation and marketing Porter (1985) distinguished two important elements of a modern value chain analysis:The various activities which are performed in a particular link in the chain and • Multilinked value chain or the value system. • Both these elements are subsumed in the modern value chain descried in Figure 7. term effects of climate change; trade liberalization making many developing nations depend on food imports (subsidized) which are cheaper; loss of crop lands due to mainly soil erosion, water depletion and urbanization and finally declining investments in agriculture.The continuing increase in fuel prices is pushing countries towards biofuels. As a result of rising energy costs, inputs such as fertilizers become more and more unaffordable for small farmers who are at the centre of response to the world food crisis. The transport costs have become higher and higher once again resulting in higher consumer prices. Thus the rising fuel prices and the emerging food crisis are closely linked.Since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, it is generally accepted that the environmental agenda is inseparable from the broader agenda of agriculture for development. Both intensive as well as extensive agriculture lead to environmental consequences. To address the expected climate change challenges and impact, R&D need to play a major role in increasing the adaptive capacity of the most vulnerable groups in The global and national food systems are increasingly being driven by consumer interests, changing consumption patterns, quality and safety concerns and the influence of transnational corporations and civil society organization. The changes in the emerging food systems such as rapid rise and economic concentration in supermarkets need for quality standards; a shift towards non-price competition among supermarket chains, biosafety issues and the development of new forms of (contractual) relationships between suppliers and buyers offer both challenges and opportunities. They can either squeeze small producers out of certain markets contributing greater poverty and inequality or can offer new sources of income and market improvement in the quality and safety of food.The incidence and impacts of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria are well documented. Additional threats and challenges are posed by emerging diseases. Approximately 75% of emerging diseases are transmitted between animals and human beings; the increasing demand for meat increases this risk of transmission. Serious socio-economic consequences occur when diseases spread widely within human and animal populations.Growing need for intersectoral linkages Over the last several years countries in the regions are committed to a number of targets and goals.Under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals targets are set for: reducing hunger and poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, improving maternal health and nutrition, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and ensuring conservation and the enhancement of basic life-support systems including land, water, forests, biodiversity and the atmosphere. There is increasing evidence to show that we will not meet any of the targets set for 2015.In 2001, African heads of state adopted the strategic framework to develop integrated socio-economic development framework for Africa-the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) under the auspices of the African Union (AU). The agricultural agenda of NEPAD is driven by the comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP). This strategy calls for an annual growth rate of 6.5%. At least 10% of the national budget as defined in the Maputo Declaration (February, 2003) should be allocated to agriculture.The current financial crisis is contributing significantly to the slow down of many countries resulting in reduction in the capital availability at a time when accelerated investment is urgently needed in the agricultural research and development arena. Although the current food and financial crisis developed from different causes, these two crises have fed into each other and could have significant impact on financial and economic stability and political security (von Braun 2008).The projected low economic growth is likely to have negative second-round effects for investment and productivity with direct ramifications for food prices and food security around the globe. IFPRI (2008) has projected that under slow growth and declines in agricultural investment, the prices of major cereals increase significantly. According to the projections in SSA, the per capita consumption would be 10% lower in 2020 and its share of the number of malnourished children will increase from one fifth in 2005 to one fourth in 2020. The study concluded that if developing countries and investors can maintain agricultural productivity and investment under recession, they can avoid many of the negative effects of slower growth.To sum up, there is a need for agriculturalists to grow intellectually and operationally from a narrow focus on agriculture and technological research and dissemination to a better understanding of rural societies and their needs. There is a need to seek greater understanding of alternative pathways for rural economic development, placing the role of agriculture in perspective, and redefining the role, mission and strategy of the agricultural institutes and agents as facilitators of rural economic growth.This calls for change in the mind sets of the change agents and greater flexibility and creativity in defining the agenda as well as in defining new public-private-civil society partnerships on the basis of whatever is necessary to improve opportunities, productivity and income generation capacity of poor rural households.Anandajayasekeram P and Dixon J. 1998. Evolving methodological considerations, empowerment and capacity building in the farming systems approach. An invited paper presented at the 6 th annual conference of the Southern African Association of Farming System Research and Extension, Lusaka, Zambia, 2-4 February 1998. (5 minutes)Each group should identify one familiar project and respond to the following questions. 2.Was the project planned and implemented using innovation systems perspectives? a.If yes, please explain how the concept was used in planning? i.If no, please indicate how you would modify the project design to incorporate innovation ii.systems perspectives?The rapporteurs present the group responses (20 minutes).The facilitator asks feedback on this exercise and closes the session (10 minutes) 4.A case study is included in the Annex for your leisure reading to better understand the concept being discussed.","tokenCount":"4439"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f437458e0b1f352e1fce3ffdbac04813","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3a9502b2-4161-47f7-bd94-201555805fd8/content","id":"-1772475525"},"keywords":["Nuambote-Yobila, O.","Bruce, A.Y.","Okuku, G.O.","Marangu, C.","Makumbi, D.","Beyene, Y.","Mahungu, N.-M.","Maruthi Prasanna, B.","Marion-Poll, F.","Calatayud, P.-A native resistance","antibiosis","antixenosis or non-preference","maize inbred lines","FAW","Africa"],"sieverID":"b14ab4fe-4c9a-480a-9545-287bb249ad72","pagecount":"17","content":"The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, a pest of maize native to the Americas first reported in West and Central Africa in 2016, severely threatens maize production and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. Native genetic resistance is one of the best methods of control of insect pests as it is contained in the seed making it more amenable for use by farmers compared to other interventions and it is also compatible with other integrated pest management (IPM) options. An intensive screening against FAW was carried out by artificial infestation in greenhouse conditions in Kenya between 2017 and 2018 on about 3000 inbred lines available in the germplasm collection of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Among these lines, only four showed to be resistant to FAW, but the mechanisms of resistance are not yet known. The objective of this study was to determine the resistance mechanisms specifically non-preference and antibiosis to S. frugiperda in these four selected resistant inbred lines. The studies were conducted under laboratory and net house conditions in Kenya from April 2020 to November 2021. Non-preference was assessed estimating the feeding preference by counting the number of FAW neonates found on each leaf portion, silk portion and grain using binary and multiple choice methods under laboratory conditions, while antibiosis was assessed through the relative growth rate (RGR) and developmental time of FAW larvae on leaves, silks and grains under both laboratory and net house conditions. Among the four resistant maize inbred lines tested, two, namely CML71 and CKSBL10008, exhibited the highest level of antibiosis resistance on leaves. Under laboratory conditions, the larval RGR reduced from 13 mg/d on the most susceptible line to 8 mg/d on CML71. CML71 also showed a good non-preference on leaves compared to other tested lines. Only 6% of neonates choose to feed on CML71 whereas more than 10% choose to feed on the other lines (and 15% on the most susceptible) in multiple choice tests. The non-preference for feeding and lower RGR of larvae on CML71 suggest a biochemical involvement resistance to FAW. Through this study, CML71 is revealed as a highly promising line for use in breeding for native genetic resistance to FAW in tropical maize.Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most important food crop in terms of production volume and provides more than 20% of food calories for the human population in sub-Saharan Africa [1]. The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (JE Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a pest of maize native to the Americas first reported in West and Central Africa in 2016 [2], is severely threatening food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Day et al. [3] estimated maize production losses due to FAW at between USD 2.481 and 6.187 million per annum. In the African context where most maize farmers are smallholders with limited access to knowledge and adequate inputs to manage this pest [4], host plant resistance is one of the most effective means of control and is compatible with other integrated pest management strategies [5]. Farmers in African countries are resource-constrained smallholders and already face problems in effectively controlling FAW using insecticides [6]. Environmentally safer pesticides are usually costlier than toxic pesticides. In addition, most of the smallholders are not aware of pesticide risk management, and do not have proper personal protective equipment. Therefore, development and deployment of insect-resistant maize will provide a major boost to maize production in sub-Saharan Africa.Development of insect-resistant maize germplasm is a difficult process, but some progress has been made over the years. In the Americas, some maize inbred lines resistant to FAW have been developed such as Mp708, Mp78:518 [7,8] and Mp716 [9]. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) embarked on the development of maize germplasm with insect resistance beginning in the 1980s resulting in multiple borerresistant (MBR) and multiple insect resistance tropical (MIRT) populations, and more recently, germplasm was developed under the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) initiative [6,10]. Between 2018 and 2019, CIMMYT carried out intensive screening of maize inbred lines under artificial FAW infestation in Kenya and identified several promising FAW-resistant inbred lines that had low leaf and ear damage [11]. Among the best inbred lines in terms of FAW resistance were CML71, CML125 and CML370 which were derived from the multiple borer-resistant (MBR) population, and CKSBL10008, a resistant line to stem borer developed through the IRMA Project. However, the resistance mechanisms to FAW larvae in these lines is not yet known. Painter [12] defined three basic resistant mechanisms in plants towards herbivorous pests, namely antixenosis (or non-preference), antibiosis and tolerance.The objective of this study was to determine the antibiosis and antixenosis to FAW in selected inbred lines CML71, CML125, CML370 and CKSBL10008 under laboratory and net house conditions.The four selected FAW-resistant maize (CML71 CML125, CML370, and CKSBL10008) were used in this study. In addition, a known FAW-resistant maize inbred line from USDA (Mp716) was used as a positive check; and two most susceptible (CML444 and CKSBL10025) inbred lines highlighted from the intensive screening by CIMMYT were used as negative checks. Seed of the inbred was obtained from the CIMMYT maize breeding program in Kenya.A colony of FAW was established from samples collected in the field. Twice a year, about 200 larvae and pupae of FAW were collected from maize fields of Kiboko (02 • 21 S, 037 • 70 E, 945 m.a.s.l.) and Machakos (01 • 57 S, 027 • 25 E, 1568 m.a.s.l.) in the Eastern region of Kenya. The colonies were maintained at 25 ± 1 • C, RH of 75% ± 5 and a photoperiod of 12:12 (L:D) h., at the CIMMYT/Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) insectary at Katumani, Machakos, on an artificial diet using a protocol optimized by CIMMYT [11]. First-instar larvae (neonates) of third laboratory-reared generation were used for all experiments.Plants for the laboratory experiments were grown in plastic pots (26.2 cm high × 25 cm in diameter) filled with a mixture of soil and farmyard manure at the rate of 3 /4 + 1 /4 in a greenhouse at KALRO Katumani (30 • C, 50 % RH, 12L: 12D). One seed was planted per pot. Five days after plant emergence, 10 g of diammonium phosphate (DAP) were applied to each pot. Irrigation was carried out when needed. For the leaf bioassay, leaves of plants at the V5 maize's growth stage were infested with 5 neonates of FAW each, as described by [11]. In addition, ears at the R1 silking stage (7 days after silking) and at R3 milk stage were used for all laboratory experiments [13].The net house experiment trial was conducted at the FAW Screening Facility at Kiboko. The plants were grown on the ground in complete randomized blocks with three repetitions, with plant spacing of 0.75 m between the rows and 0.25 m within rows, in a net house of 326.25 m 2 (15 m × 21.75 m × 5 m) (see Figure 1) at KALRO, Kiboko Research Center (Kenya) at 28 • C, 48% RH, 12 L:12 D. One week before planting, Emamectin benzoate (19 g/L) insecticide was sprayed on the ground and walls of the net house against insects that might interact with the experiment. Two seeds were sown per hill and thinning was carried out at 2 weeks after planting, leaving one plant per hill. Approximately 10 g of diammonium phosphate (DAP) was applied to each hole five days after emergence of plants; 10 g of calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) was added to each hole at the tasseling stage of the plant for top dressing. Manual weeding was carried out when necessary. The plants were regularly irrigated. Plants were used at the V5, R1 silking (7 days after silking) and R3 milk stage. To assess antibiosis among the inbred lines, young leaves were collected every day from V5 to V10 growth stages from each potted plant of each inbred line and fed to each larva until the pupal stage. Three leaf portions, each approximately 5 cm long and 3 cm wide, and a single neonate were placed in a 25 mL plastic vial (8.3 cm long × 2.3 cm diameter) and closed with cotton wool to prevent the escape of larvae but allow air circulation. Similar to [14], a single neonate was used since FAW is known to be cannibalistic when the larvae are reaching the older stages [15]. Vials and leaf portions were changed after 2 days at the beginning of the experiment and then daily from the fourth larval instar up to the pupal stage. Each pupa was kept in the 25 mL vial until adult emergence. From each inbred line, a freshly emerged adult male and female were paired in a jar of 20 cm high, and 11 cm diameter sealed with a paper towel and a perforated plastic cap. In each jar, a piece of cotton wool soaked in a 15% sucrose solution was added to feed the moths, together with two portions of leaves of 15 to 20 cm each from the corresponding inbred line for oviposition. The sucrose-soaked cotton wool was renewed after 2 days while the leaf portions used for oviposition were renewed daily. Batches of laid eggs were collected daily and stored in a vial closed with cotton wool for counts of eggs and time of hatching. To estimate the sex ratio, a minimum of 200 neonate larvae (a minimum number giving a chance to represent the sex ratio of a progeny) from the total hatched eggs of each female from each inbred line were randomly reared on an artificial diet until pupation using the protocol optimized by CIMMYT in Kenya [11]. The sex ratio was calculated as the number of females/the total number of adults.The following parameters were recorded from insects from each inbred line: relative growth rates (RGR in mg/d) after 10 days of feeding, larval development time (days) from neonate to pupa, percentage of larval survival, weight (mg) of male and female pupae, female pre-oviposition period (days) after mating (in days), the female oviposition period, total number of eggs laid per female, percentage of eggs hatched (i.e., related to females' fertility) and the sex ratio. The percentage of larval survival is calculated as the number of alive larvae/total number of larvae used for the infestation. The percentage of eggs hatched is calculated as the number of eggs hatched/total number of eggs laid by female.The RGR value of a larva on each plant was calculated using the equation of [16]: RGR (mg/day) = (M2 − M1)/D; where M1 is the mass of the larvae at infestation, M2 is the mass of the larvae at the end of the experiment and D is the duration of the experiment (in days).The same protocol was used for larval development on ear and silk. For each inbred line, a single larva and a whole shelled ear were placed in jars of 500 mL. The shelled ears were changed after 3 days. In addition, for each inbred line, approximately 150 mg of silk and a single neonate larva were placed in vials of 25 mL. Silks were changed every day. On shelled ear and silks, only RGR (the most significant parameter between lines for plant's leaves, see results) after 7 and 10 days of feeding, respectively, were assessed. All experiments were carried out at 25 ± 1 • C, RH of 75% ± 5 and 12 L:12 D. A total of 140, 75 and 20 larvae were evaluated per inbred line for leaf, silks and shelled ear, respectively.Antibiosis was assessed under net house conditions using leaves, silks and ears. The three experiments were conducted separately in different net houses. Using a camel brush, five neonate larvae, the minimum number of infestation to see differences between susceptible and resistant maize inbred lines (personal observations), were applied to the whorls of each plant. Open plastic sheaths filled with water were placed around each plot of Figure 1 to minimize larval movements between different plots or inbred lines. Two neonate larvae, the maximum number of infestation for silks and ears to avoid to be completely eaten after 14 days of infestation (personal observations), were used in the silk and ear experiments whereby plants in stage R1 (7 days after silking) and R3 (milking) [13] were used. In the ear experiment, the silk was removed. Silks or ears were covered with a small net bag upon infestation to minimize larval escape from these plants' organs.The RGR of larvae after 7 and 14 days of feeding on leaves and after 14 days on both silks and ears were evaluated for each inbred line.For each inbred line, a total of 40, 35 and 140 larvae were assessed for leaf, silks and ears, respectively.Antixenosis was evaluated in the laboratory on leaves, silk and grain. The experiment was performed under binary and multiple choice conditions in Petri dishes (9 cm). A Petri dish with wet filter paper was divided equally into two compartments for binary choice experiments following the protocol described by [17,18]. For multiple choice experiments, since there were seven inbred lines to be tested, a petri dish was divided into seven compartments to test the seven inbred lines together. A leaf portion of 3 cm 2 , 100 milligrams of silk and a single grain was placed in each compartment of the petri dish for the leaf, silk and grain experiments, respectively. Ten neonate larvae were released in the center of each dish [19]. Each dish was covered with aluminum foil. After 1 h, 6 h and 16 h, the number of neonates found on each leaf portion, silk and grain were recorded. For the binary choice experiment, the feeding preference tests were first validated using non-preferred (neem) vs. preferred plant (maize) leaves for feeding.The experiment was repeated 24 and 80 times for the binary and multiple choices, respectively.The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted using the generalized linear model (GLM) for data on insect development parameters in the antibiosis experiment. The GLM with the Gaussian distribution was used to analyze data on RGR, larval development time, weight of the male and female pupae, female pre-oviposition period and female oviposition period. The GLM with the Poisson distribution was used for the total number of eggs. The GLM with the Binomial distribution was used to analyze data on the number of eggs hatched and larval survival. Mean separation using Tukey's contrast test was performed for various parameters of the maize inbred lines using the multcomp package [20].To compare inbred lines for percentage of FAW neonates, data were analyzed using non-parametrical tests by the Wilcoxon rank sum test for the binary choice experiment and the Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test for the multiple choice experiment. The dunn.test package version 1.3.5 [21] was used for these analyses.All statistical analyses were performed using R statistical software version 3.5.1 (R Core Team, 2018) [22].There were significant differences in larval development on leaves of the different inbred lines (Table 1). The three resistant lines (Mp716, CML71 and CKSBL10008) showed a significantly longer larval development time compared to the susceptible lines CML444 and CKSBL10025. The weights of male pupae from the resistant lines Mp716, CML71, CML125 and CKSBL10008 were significantly lower. Larval survival, sex ratio and weight of female pupae did not vary significantly among the tested inbred lines. The pre-oviposition period varied significantly among the inbred lines (Table 2). A longer pre-oviposition period was found on Mp716 and CML71 as compared to the females coming from the susceptible lines CML444 and CKSBL10025. Female fecundity (reflected to the number of eggs laid per female), fertility (reflected by % of eggs that hatched) and the oviposition period did not vary significantly between inbred lines. Table 3 presents the RGR of larvae fed on leaves, silks and ears under both laboratory and net house conditions. On leaves, the larvae exhibited a significant lower RGR on the resistant inbred lines CML71 and CKSBL10008 after 10 days under the laboratory conditions, and 7 days and 14 days under the net house conditions as compared to susceptible lines CML444 and CKSBL10025. The larvae that fed on Mp716 also showed a significantly lower RGR as compared to CML444 under laboratory conditions. Under laboratory conditions, larvae had a highest RGR on silks of the resistant line CKSBL10008 than on silks of the other inbred lines. No difference was found on larvae feeding on silks under net house conditions. On shelled ears under laboratory conditions, the highest RGR was obtained in the susceptible line CKSBL10025. The feeding preference tests were validated using a non-preferred plant for feeding (neem leaves) vs. a preferred plant for feeding (maize leaves). After 1 h of bioassay, 70% of the larvae preferred to feed on maize leaves followed by 90% after 6 h and 100% after 16 h respectively (Figure 2).  Among the inbred lines tested, CML71 was less preferred after 1, 6 and 16 h of bioassay than the other inbred lines respectively (Figure 2). Mp716, CML370 and CKSBL10008 were less preferred than CML444 after 1 and 6 h. At 1 and 6 h, there was no difference between CML71 and Mp716. There was no significant difference observed between CSBL10008 and Mp716 after exposition for 1, 6 and 16 h.In the multiple choice tests, significant differences were also found among the inbred lines (Figure 3). The resistant CML71 was less preferred after 1, 6 and 16 h of bioassay than the other inbred lines. Mp716 and CML125 were less preferred after 1 and 6 h than the susceptible CML444. CKSBL10008 was also less preferred than CML444 after 1, 6 and 16 h. However, CML370 did not show a lower preference than CML444 as found in the binary choice test and was even the most preferred after 16 h. CKSBL10008 was less preferred than CML444 after 1, 6 and 16 h. There were significant differences between the inbred lines for feeding preference on silks (Figure 4) and grains (Figure 5). On silks, Mp716 and CML125 were less preferred than CML444 after 6 h and 16 h. On leaves, CKSBL10008 was less preferred than CML444 after 6 h. On grains, only CKSBL10008 was less preferred after 6 h as compared to CML444.  On silks, a significant difference of feeding preference was observed (Figure 6). The inbred lines Mp716 and CML71 were less preferred than CKSBL10008 after 6 h. The resistant inbred lines Mp716, CML71, CKSBL10008, CML125 and CML370 were less preferred than the susceptible inbred line CML444 after 16 h of bioassay. Feeding preference assessed on maize kernels did not reveal significant differences among inbred lines in multiple choice tests (Figure 7) after 6 and 16 h. Overall, the percentage by inbred lines was between 10 and 15% after 6 or 16 h of exposure. Larvae fed with leaves from the resistant inbred lines Mp716, CML71 and CKSBL10008 weighed significantly less and took longer to pupate than those fed with leaves from the susceptible inbred lines under both laboratory and greenhouse conditions. Among the maize inbred lines tested, CML71 and CKSBL10008 showed the same level of antibiosis as the \"resistant\" control, Mp716. A long development time and low weight of FAW larvae was reported by [23] and [24] for an FAW-resistant inbred line (Mp708), which is a parent to Mp716 [9]. Wiseman et al. [8] also reported a high level of antibiosis in population MpSWCB-4, which is derived from population Antigua Gpo2 [25] the source germplasm for inbred line CML71 [26]. Larval development times of the three resistant inbred lines in our study (Mp716, CML71 and CKSBL10008) are slightly higher than that of the resistant Mp708 and like that of the resistant FAW7050 maize inbred reported by [24] in the United States, but higher than those obtained by [19] on maize cultivars used in Kenya. The results of the net house experiment showed that RGRs of larvae fed on three resistant inbred lines were approximately two to three times lower than that of the susceptible inbred line, CML444. These decreases are similar to those reported by [24] for larvae fed for one week on the resistant lines Mp708 and FAW7050 and the susceptible genotype Ab24E. Although, reported as \"resistant\" to FAW in field tests [6], the inbred lines CML125 and CML370 did not show a reduced larval development in the laboratory as compared to the susceptible inbred lines CKSBL10025 and CML444.Under laboratory conditions, the lowest RGR was obtained on CML71 whereas it was obtained on CKSBL10008 under net house conditions. This can be because the larvae fed on portions of leaves in the laboratory while in the net house they were feeding on whole plants. Plants fight herbivores by morphological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms. This fight involves constitutive and induced defenses (see [27] for review). In maize, [28] found that FAW feeding induced foliar RIP2 protein accumulation, a protein which retarded larval growth considerably. Similarly, [29] showed that resistant varieties of maize can produce a resistance factor(s) to inhibit the chymotrypsin activity of Ostrinia furnacalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) and suppress larval growth. Shivaji et al. [30] also showed that jasmonic acid, a compound that plays an important role in the defense of maize against FAW, is produced constitutively in certain genotypes, suggesting that they are \"primed\" to respond rapidly to an attack and this is visible when the plants are entire but not in pieces. In this context, although antibiosis resistance of CML71 and CKSBL10008 found under laboratory conditions was confirmed under net house conditions, CKSBL10008 would have had a better induced defense capacity on whole plants than on leaf portions, which could explain the difference in results obtained between the laboratory and the net house.Among all the parameters evaluated in this study, only RGR and the larval development time were found to be the most relevant to assess antibiosis resistance but surprisingly not the larval survival, confirming results by [31] who reported significant effects on larval weights and on the duration of larval development but not on larval survival in their study using other maize genotypes.Maize silk has been reported to resist FAW larvae because of their maysin concentration [32]. This could not be verified in our study. Similarly, silk of lines (Dixie 18 and 471-U6 X 81) resistant to Helicoverpa zea (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) was not shown to affect weight and survival of larvae [33,34]. The resistance of the kernels of these resistant genotypes was explained by the presence of tight husks, long silk channels and large amounts of silks that maintained a high moisture content [35]. In fact, [36] later found little or no maysin in silks of these cultivars. This may explain why in our study, inbred lines that showed resistance in leaves did not show this resistance in silks and grains. Interestingly, the most resistant genotypes (CML71) were the least preferred for feeding on leaves (i.e., antixenosis resistance) in both binary choice and multiple choice tests, after 1, 6 and 16 h of bioassay. CML71 is considerably less preferred by FAW neonates compared to the susceptible inbred lines CML444 and CKSBL10025, which is similar to the feeding preference results obtained by [37] between the resistant and susceptible maize hybrids. Likewise, [8] found a nonpreference for feeding in leaves of the resistant genotypes Antigua 2D-118 and MpSWCB-4. Yang et al. [38] found that cuticular lipid was involved in the non-preference of MpSWCB-4; this genotype has a similar genetic background as CML71 as both are derived from Antigua Gpo2 [25,26]. Similarly, a low feeding preference of FAW larvae was also observed in fresh leaf portions of a resistant inbred line Mp708 compared to a susceptible inbred line Tx601 [39]. These authors identified (E)-β-caryophyllene as the volatile compound involved in this non-preference.Wiseman et al. [40] found that silks of a resistant genotype Zapalote Chico were less preferred by the larvae H. zea compared to those of susceptible genotype Stowell's Evergreen. In our study, the silks of the resistant inbred lines Mp716 and CML125 were the least preferred, followed by CKSBL10008. As for the antibiosis, inbred lines that were less preferred by neonates on leaves did not show non-preference on silks and grains, suggesting that the resistance factors (chemical or physical) linked to antixenosis are most probably located in leaves.As highlighted by [41], our study also showed that FAW resistance is acting through antixenosis and antibiosis mechanisms in germplasm lines. Among the inbred lines studied here, CML71 is revealed as a highly promising line for use in breeding for native genetic resistance to FAW in tropical maize. Its resistance to FAW can be due to chemical characteristics present in the leaves as shown by [42] from a specific maize race to red spider mite. Chemical characteristics have been reported to confer resistance to FAW damage in maize such as the presence of jasmonic acid [30], (E)-β-caryophyllene [39], cuticular lipids [38,43,44], silica [45,46], high induced defensive transcriptomic signatures and higher levels of benzoxazinoids [47].In conclusion, the inbred line CML71 showed good antibiosis and good non-preference for feeding (or antixenosis) as a mechanism of resistance to FAW larvae on leaves, but it did not show resistance on silks and grains. CKSBL10008 also showed good antibiosis on leaves and some non-preference for feeding on leaves, silks and ears. Ortega et al. [48] mentioned that knowledge of the mechanisms involved in plant resistance can help in the selection of genotypes with this characteristic, in order to increase the efficiency of the breeding program. The information on the resistance mechanism of these inbred lines is relevant to the program initiated by CIMMYT-Kenya to develop FAW-resistant tropical maize hybrids, and local and exotic lines can contribute on that [49]. Moreover, our study shows that it is important to complement the screening of plant resistance based on the assessment of damage and injury caused by the insect pest with a more accurate assessment, as was carried out in this study. However, it is not necessary to study the effect of a plant's genotype on all biological parameters of the insect to detect resistance, only the assessment of larval RGR after 10 days and the feeding preference after 16 h appears to be sufficient under laboratory conditions. This is important to know in a context to find out low time-consuming and low-cost assays to identify plants potentially carrying resistance traits, within a high number of traditionally bred varieties or material derived from global germplasm [50].In addition, the reduced development and non-preference for feeding of larvae on leaves of the resistant inbred line CML71 in our study suggest the involvement of chemical characteristics present in the leaves. Future studies are needed to identify the chemical compounds involved and to study their mode of action on the feeding behavior and development of FAW larvae. ","tokenCount":"4429"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"53b8ed468f085801102fe35dff640890","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/42bfacce-7db1-4c95-8687-3e659c02a119/retrieve","id":"-714042318"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"154bd7ed-12e3-42df-b4a8-fcad5f519758","pagecount":"11","content":"The economic viability of any business is dependent on the number and quality of the products it produces, the cost to produce the products and the price paid for the product. The South African sheep and goat producers have no influence on the price paid for their products. In order to survive economically, they must produce more at lower cost. To achieve this, the hardiness, adaptability and survival rate of their animals are of the utmost importance. It was for these reasons that the Dorper and Boer goat breeds were developed and became popular, not only nationally but also internationally.Breed standards and characteristics were the major focal points of most of the sheep and goat breeders in South Africa during the last few decades. The main aim was thus to breed national champions and/or rams that would fetch record prices at auctions. Buyers from communal areas compared their animals against these big and well-managed animals and were willing to purchase these animals. Some breeders are concerned that the breeds may loose some of their desirable attributes (hardiness, adaptability and reproductive ability under adverse conditions) due to the emphasis placed on breed standards and shows. The aim of the National Small Stock Improvement Scheme (NSIS) is to genetically improve economic production traits in a 'holistic' manner while breed standards are maintained. This means that the perceptions of breeders have to be changed to focus on traits of monetary value to their clients (commercial producers and not other stud breeders, at present). With this in mind, the most important trait to be improved is net reproduction rate under natural production environments. The shortening of the production cycle while maintaining fibre traits and/or carcass quality is also of major economic importance. The improvement of these traits has to be achieved in animals with an acceptable conformation and conforming to minimum breed standards.For a performance testing scheme to be successful, a minimum number of relevant records has to be kept. Also the results to be interpreted by breeders and their clients have to be as simple and as understandable as possible. Commercial farmers are not concerned with breed improvement, and would prefer one (preferably objective) value describing the 'best' animal in terms of monetary yield. The standardisation of performance results would also avoid confusion among stud breeders and commercial farmers. With the development of the NSIS, these and other principles were kept in mind.With the current economic environment in South Africa, reproduction is by far the most important trait in sheep farming. Net reproduction rate per ewe (defined as total weight of lamb weaned, accumulated over the lifetime of a ewe) can be increased by improving some or all of its components. Heritability estimates for net reproduction rate in South African Merino and Afrino flocks ranged from 0.13 to 0.26 (Snyman et al. 1997). It was possible to demonstrate that litter weight weaned per ewe increased by 0.69 kg per year where both rams and ewes were selected on the basis of total weight of lamb weaned (Ercanbrack and Knight 1998). Selection for total weight of lamb weaned would also, in theory, keep reproductive rate within optimum bounds. Selection would be directed against a component of reproduction where undesirable change would result in a reduction of either lamb or ewe fitness, expressed as a reduction in litter weight weaned per ewe (Ercanbrack and Knight 1998).Under the extensive conditions typical of the South African production environment, optimal net reproduction per flock within the constraints of the environment is important. In years of drought and in arid regions, the environment often cannot support marked increases in litter size. In such cases the quality of the lambs produced may become more important than the number of lambs produced by ewes. The major objective of the NSIS is therefore to increase the marketable weight of lamb produced per ewe. Huge variation was recorded within a flock for this trait (see Figure 1). All the ewes incorporated in Figure 1 were maintained in the same environment, they were mated at the same time and reared their lambs on the same pasture. The best 17 ewes (out of a total of 126) weaned on average 203 kg of lamb per ewe over a period of four production years as compared with 48 kg of lamb weaned by the poorest 15 contemporaries. The difference between these two groups amounted to 38 kg of lamb/ewe per year. It is feasible to record weaning weight at 100 days of age since the number of animals normally culled before this age is negligible. The recording of weaning weight forms the basis of the calculation of total weight of lamb weaned per breeding ewe. Age differences within a flock are accounted for by the regression of total weight of lamb weaned per ewe on her number of productive years. The number of productive years is calculated from the date of the last lambing (or the last possible lambing date for ewes that were barren in the reference year) and her own birth date. The weaning weights of individual lambs are adjusted for age and sex prior to the computation of weight of lamb weaned per breeding ewe. Total adjusted weight of lamb weaned per ewe is subsequently presented as a deviation from the mean of all the ewes within the same lambing season and present in the breeding flock for the same number of production years. This enables the comparison of ewes irrespective of age and production level. These calculations result in a single measure of excellence in a breeding ewe, which is easily interpreted by both stud breeders and commercial farmers. Selection against poor producers is likely to result in current gains as well as gains in future generations.Selection for growth is important to enable the shortening of the production cycle. Growth under natural production environments can also be an indication of adaptability, particularly in the adverse South African environment. Weaning weight as such can potentially be used as a selection criterion for growth. It is, however, of low heritability and is also influenced by maternal effects. Live weights at older ages, however, have certain disadvantages as selection criteria, because of preliminary culling and resultant small contemporary groups. It is therefore recommended to record an additional weight at 270 or 365 days of age as a measurement of postweaning growth. To avoid confusion among commercial farmers, it was decided to combine the 270-or 365-day weight and weaning weight in a selection index with equal economic weights.Weights are adjusted for age, rearing status and age of the dam. Within contemporaries, subgroups (lambs born in same season but managed as different groups) are allowed. Age differences between individuals within a contemporary are limited (between 75 and 150 days for weaning weight etc.).The reproductive performance of the dam of the animal, namely the deviation in total weight of lamb weaned per breeding ewe compared with contemporaries, is also supplied as additional information on the growth reports.The existing wool performance scheme is incorporated into the new NSIS. It provides body weight after shearing, fleece weight, fibre diameter, staple length, crimp frequency and clean yield. Body weight, clean fleece weight and fibre diameter can be combined (and animals ranked) in a selection index according to individual participant's breeding objectives.Research in Australia (Greeff et al. 1999) showed a correlation of -0.47 between the coefficient of variation (CV) of fibre diameter and staple strength. Due to the additional cost of measuring staple strength, the deviation of CV of an animal from the mean CV is also calculated and can be used as indirect selection for stronger staple strength. As in the case of growth traits, reproduction performance of the dam is also supplied in the fibre reports.At present, most participants already record parentage, sex, birth type and date. Additional information to be recorded includes weaning weight and date, as well as 270-or 365-day weight and date. Both reproduction and growth can be computed from these records. No carcass traits on live or slaughtered animals are presently being recorded, mainly due to associated costs. However, investigations are under way to incorporate carcass traits into the scheme.The major prerequisite for a viable livestock recording system is correct identification of contemporary groups. A contemporary group is defined as all animals born on a farm within a mating season, limited to 60 days. Within this group, subgroups for different management strategies are allowed, provided that a specific minimum number of animals is included in each subgroup. Presently participants are being advised on the importance of correct identification of contemporary groups. Currently also the adaptation and availability of computer software for onfarm recording of data has high priority.Different levels of participation are catered for depending on the amount of data available and also the level of recording. can be a visual description or code according to the type/conformation of the animal. Optional.For fibre data a sample of 50 g, and the greasy fleece weight (if available) must be submitted for analysisThe central testing of rams on natural pasture forms an integral part of testing rams for growth traits (referred to as veld ram tests in South Africa). At present, five tests are in operation at various locations throughout South Africa. Because of age differences at the start of tests, as well as marked differences in initial live weight at the commencement of a trial, all tests must conform to specified criteria. The testing period must exceed 140 days, following an adaptation period of at least 14 days. The difference in the initial live weights of all the rams in a group is not allowed to exceed 12 kg, and all rams must be born within a 60-day period. The minimum number of rams per test group is 20 and an average daily gain exceeding 50 g has to be achieved over the test period.According to a study by Fourie (1999), the objective information available to prospective buyers at the time of the public auction of the veld rams had little effect on sale price. One of the reasons for this was the fact that objective information changed from time to time. In general, heavier rams normally fetched higher prices. This tendency forced breeders to feed their rams in the pre-testing period to ensure a higher body weight at intake onto the trial, which was eventually reflected in a higher weight at the end of the test. To combat this, a maximum intake weight was set at 50 kg for all tests.The correlation between results in a central test (under feedlot conditions) and progeny performance in a commercial environment was found to be less than 2% for Suffolk sheep in the mid-western USA (Waldron et al. 1990). In a preliminary investigation, the progeny of three Dorper rams with an average selection index 22% higher than the mean of their contemporaries was compared with that of three low index contemporaries. The index was a combination of average daily gain and body weight at the end of the test. These rams were mated to a total of 300 commercial ewes (150 ewes to high and 150 ewes to low index rams) and the progeny were raised under extensive conditions. At weaning age, progeny of the high index rams were 2.14 kg (9%) heavier than progeny of the low index rams. This investigation is now being extended to other breeds.As for weaning weight and 270-day weight, the reproductive performance of the dams of rams subjected to central testing is also available.Progeny data received from participants have to be in a prescribed format. Each animal should have a unique identity, consisting of its breed code, stud number, year of birth and sequence number. Sire and dam identities are mandatory for Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) analyses. Birth status and date, rearing status, weight code, environment and management group, weaning and subsequent weights and dates are also mandatory. Birth weight, scrotal circumference and subjective grade score are optional records. Upon receipt of the data, checks are made for group size, weight and age limits, pedigree discrepancies (born as female, as male etc.), days between lambings and numerous other possibilities.Data are stored in interlinked tables for pedigree information, ewe reproduction, lamb growth, fibre traits and central testing performance. Various reports are availed by accessing the appropriate table. Specific reports presently available on groups of animals or on an individual are as follows (contents of the reports are given in parentheses):• Reproduction summary (all ewes available within the same mating period, averaged per age group). • Ewe reproduction report (the number of times lambed, total number of lambs born and weaned, ewe reproduction deviation, average weight index of all lambs produced, age at first lambing and inter lambing period -see Appendix I). • Growth (weaning and last recorded weight of a lamb, its sire and dam identities, the number of productive years of the dam, lambs weaned by the dam and her reproduction deviationsee Appendix II). • Sire growth summary (the average index of the progeny of a sire in a specific contemporary group as well as the rest of his progeny). This scheme is available to all sheep and goat farmers in the SADC (Southern African Development Commission). Different levels of participation are available, from only the weights of five or more animals per group to across flock BLUP analysis. BLUP breeding values are dependent on the amount of information and linkages between contemporaries. Data can be submitted on paper as well as electronically. Reports are generated on paper and depending on the software available, are also available in electronic format. The usefulness of the reports is linked to the type and accuracy of the data received.A cost of 0.45 South African Rand (R) (US$ 1 = R 9.15) is charged per weight analysed. For fibre analysis the cost varies between R 3.60 and R 5.00 per sample. BLUP analysis is more expensive and varies from R 200-500 per analysis.The full scheme has been operational since April 1999 and currently 131 members representing 13 sheep and goat breeds are participating in the growth and reproduction sections. The scheme is available to all sheep and goat farmers on different levels of recording (from only the weights of animals to national BLUP analysis) and data submission (submitted by paper or electronically). Up until May 2000, data from 89,340 lambs with weaning weights and 34,158 ewes with reproduction records were available. Annually, approximately 60 thousand wool samples are received for fibre diameter and clean yield analysis.Participants are reluctant to record post-weaning weights of lambs. The importance of this on the efficiency of selection needs to be clarified. The heritability of total weight of lambs weaned as well as its correlation with other production traits also needs to be investigated. The main stumbling block preventing better participation is the perceptions of breeders and their clients. In future, this must be addressed by appropriate training. The grouping of animals into contemporary groups, confusion with animals' identities, wrongly recorded sex and missing birth dates are some of the major data errors.The lack of participation by communal farmers is a function of lack of appropriate training, missing identifications, small contemporary groups and lack of facilities (weighing scales). Most of these can be overcome by undertaking a form of nucleus breeding project whereby superior sires (bred under the specific communal environment) can be distributed among members.• Why is total weight of lambs weaned per ewe used instead of lambs weaned per ewe?• In what way are the reproduction performances of ewes of different ages compared?• For what reasons are pre-and post-weaning weights combined into a selection index?The NSIS is an uncomplicated scheme that is affordable and easily comprehended by both stud and commercial farmers alike. It emphasises the traits with the greatest monetary value under the current economic climate. Moreover, the system is evolving continuously, allowing the inclusion of new technology as it becomes available. In this way, the South African sheep and goat participants can be kept at the forefront of advances in the scientific breeding of small stock.   Identity (ID) of ewe. Format is stud number, year of birth and sequence number.The possible number of productive years of the ewe. It is divided into half-year intervals. This is calculated from the last lambing date and the birth date of the ewe.Number of times an ewe actually lambed. 4.Total number of lambs born (dead or alive) to the ewe. 5.Total number of lambs weaned by the ewe. 6.(EPI) Ewe productivity index deviation. This is calculated from the mean ewe productivity index (EPI) (see value in 'Group Summary Report') for each productive year subgroup. For example, a value of 6 means that a ewe's EPI was 6 points above the average EPI for her age group. 7.The mean index of all her lambs. In this case the weights of her lambs were corrected for age and sex. 8.Age at first lambing. 9.Average inter-lambing period of the ewe.  Rearing status of animal.Weaning weight deviation. This is the first weight recorded for the animal. In this case, it was weaning weight. The deviation is the corrected weight of the animal, minus the mean corrected weight for the group, multiplied by the heritability of the trait. In effect this value is a predicted breeding value based on the animal's own performance. 4.Index for weaning weight of the animal. This weight is corrected for management groups, age of the animal, rearing status and age of dam. 5.The same as in 3 for the last recorded weight of the animal. 6.The same as in 4 for the last recorded weight of the animal. 7.Selection index percentage. A selection index (expressed as a percentage) which combines the first and last recorded weights of the animal. Not available if only one weight was recorded. 8.Scrotum deviation. If the scrotum circumference was measured, this is the deviation from the average value of the group. 9.Grade : If the breeder classes the animals in visual groups and submits the grade with the weights, this value is then displayed on the report. 10.ID of dam of the animal. 11.Number of productive years of the dam. 12.Total number of lambs weaned by the dam. 13.The ewe productivity index (EPI) deviation of the dam. 14.ID of sire of the animal. ","tokenCount":"3037"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8f904ca5b39587be38320f0d91bde370","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c4b3808b-46aa-4660-a65e-7681954fbc70/retrieve","id":"-1428695450"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d0178b3d-a399-43cc-89e1-1f946b8daab5","pagecount":"1","content":"Links to the Strategic Results Framework: Sub-IDOs:• Gender-equitable control of productive assets and resources • Enhanced capacity to deal with climatic risks and extremes (Mitigation and adaptation achieved)Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Yes SRF 2022/2030 targets:• # of more farm households have adopted improved varieties, breeds or trees Description of activity / study: CCAFS supported development and scaling up of PICSA approach through funding for methodology testing and innovation, development of PICSA Field Guide, resource mobilization, and project implementation (OICR 2583.) PICSA makes use of historical climate records, participatory decision-making tools and forecasts to help farmers identify and better plan livelihood options. This approach was implemented in 2016 in two sites in Senegal and Mali, with 57 and 47 farmers, respectively. At the end of the growing season, these farmers were surveyed to explore their perceptions on PICSA. In Senegal and Mali, respectively 97% and 76% of respondents found the approach 'very useful'.Geographic scope: ","tokenCount":"158"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0df1b66333fd8d07a2d28cd4508c7a0b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b1f1c44f-d4c5-4e38-bc86-f91efc2d1f42/retrieve","id":"1823230564"},"keywords":["agroforestry","cocoa","flower visitors","forest proximity","hand pollination","pollen","pollination services","shade cover Vansynghel","J.","Ocampo-Ariza","C.","Maas","B.","Martin","E. A.","Thomas","E.","Hanf-Dressler","T.","Schumacher","N. -. C.","Ulloque-Samatelo","C.","Tscharntke","T.","&"],"sieverID":"115c31fa-753d-4d20-89d6-27275bc731ae","pagecount":"9","content":"1. Pollination services of cacao are crucial for global chocolate production, yet remain critically understudied, particularly in regions of origin of the species. Notably, uncertainties remain concerning the identity of cacao pollinators, the influence of landscape (forest distance) and management (shade cover) on flower visitation and the role of pollen deposition in limiting fruit set.2. Here, we aimed to improve understanding of cacao pollination by studying limiting factors of fruit set in Peru, part of the centre of origin of cacao. Flower visitors were sampled with sticky insect glue in 20 cacao agroforests in two biogeographically distinct regions of Peru, across gradients of shade cover and forest distance. Further, we assessed pollen quantities and compared fruit set between naturally and manually pollinated flowers.3. The most abundant flower visitors were aphids, ants and thrips in the north and thrips, midges and parasitoid wasps in the south of Peru. We present some evidence of increasing visitation rates from medium to high shade (40%-95% canopy closure) in the dry north, and opposite patterns in the semi-humid south, during the wet season.4. Natural pollination resulted in remarkably low fruit set rates (2%), and very low pollen deposition. After hand pollination, fruit set more than tripled (7%), but was still low.Despite pollination services being central to successful fruit production of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao L.), the underlying processes and limiting factors are still poorly understood (Klein et al., 2008;Toledo-Hernández et al., 2017). This is striking, considering that the tree is an important tropical cash crop used to manufacture chocolate and cacao cultivation sustains ∼6 million farmers globally, most of which are smallholders (Clay, 2004). While being an understorey tree native to the Amazon basin, cacao is nowadays mainly cultivated outside its native distribution range (Thomas et al., 2012). As a consequence, most research on cacao pollination services has been restricted to non-native countries (Toledo-Hernández et al., 2021). Yet, in recent years, cacao production in Amazonian countries has been on the rise (FAO, 2020), but yields of native cacao are often low (Romero & Vargas, 2016). Therefore, identifying limitations of pollination success (Figure 1) and closing the multiple knowledge gaps concerning fruit set in the native range of cacao is crucial for improving livelihoods of rural smallholders.Productivity of cacao is, amongst others, limited by the plants' reproductive biology, for example entomophily and low abundances of presumed cacao pollinators reported by older studies (reviewed by Toledo-Hernández et al., 2017). Half of all cacao flower-visiting species worldwide are midges from the Ceratopogonidae and Cecidomyiidae families, yet, relative abundances observed on cacao flowers in Latin America can be as low as 2%, while other visitors such as thrips and ants have been found to be more abundant (Chumacero de Schawe et al., 2016;Toledo-Hernández et al., 2021). For example, in a study in Indonesia not a single Ceratopogonid was trapped visiting flowers (Toledo-Hernández et al., 2021). Owing to the variation in observed visitation patterns across study locations, the taxonomic identity of the main pollinators remains debated; it is likely that several arthropod taxa beyond midges contribute to pollination in cacao. Studying patterns of flower visitors across different cacao geographies is thus crucial to clarify pollination potential of different insects, as to improve pollination services.Landscape properties and management features are known to drive pollination services of tropical agroforestry crops, including cacao, but patterns are still not fully understood. In Asia, flower visitation by potential coffee pollinators increased with forest proximity (Klein et al., 2008), but thus far, no such association has been detected for cacao (Toledo-Hernández et al., 2021). The integration of shade trees in cacao agroforests can provide multiple economic and ecological benefits (Blaser et al., 2018;Jezeer et al., 2017), such as increased Dipteran visitation rates under higher canopy closure detected in Indonesia (Toledo-Hernández et al., 2021). However, forest distance and shade cover patterns remain to be studied in cacao agroforestry outside of Asia.Only a small fraction of the thousands of flowers receives a sufficient quantity of pollen to result in fruit set (Groeneveld et al., 2010).Because low pollen deposition can be linked to suboptimal cacao fruit set (Falque et al., 1996;Mena-Montoya et al., 2020), it is important to better understand the link between pollen deposition rates in the field and actual fruit setting rates. Limiting effects of pollen quantity and compatibility on yield can be alleviated by hand pollination (Toledo-Hernández et al., 2020), particularly so in self-incompatible cacao varieties . Manual pollen supplementation has been found to triple yields and increase cacao farmers' incomes by up to 69% (Toledo-Hernández et al., 2020). However, yield gains through hand pollination depend on environmental factors, cross-compatibility levels and timing (de Almeida & Valle, 2009;Forbes et al., 2019). Successes also might fluctuate locally, but no large-scale studies have addressed hand pollination gains in countries of origin of cacao.In spite of decades of research on cacao pollination, our general  (Toledo-Hernández et al., 2021). Pollen deposition can be influenced by visitation rates of insects and the amount and quality of pollen carried by different visitor species. When sufficient viable and compatible pollen is deposited on the style of a cacao flower, pollen tubes are formed, and the sperm nuclei migrate to the ovary for fertilization (Claus et al., 2018;Falque et al., 1995). Finally, pollen compatibility and resource availability can affect setting of fruits even until after fertilization (de Almeida & Valle, 2009;Ford & Wilkinson, 2012) gradients of forest distance and shade cover in biogeographically distinct regions; (Q2) how much pollen is deposited during natural pollination and how does this affect fruit set rates in the field; and (Q3) to what extent does hand pollination improve cacao fruit set rates. Drawing on our findings, we discuss next steps to improve knowledge on pollination services in smallholder agroforestry systems in cacao's native range.Research was developed under permit number 0519-2019-MINAGRI-SERFOR-DGGSPFFS.We conducted our research in two cacao-growing areas in Peru with a distinct climate, vegetation type and biogeography: the dry north- In the northern study region, 12 smallholder organic cacao agroforests were selected, between 0.2 and 2 ha in size, consisting of 5to 10-year-old trees mainly from the native Piura white cacao. During the dry season, these agroforests are irrigated every 15-20 days by means of gravity-fed flood canals. In the southern study region, we selected eight organic smallholder agroforests, smaller than 3 ha and ranging between 5 and 65 years old. Here, gravity-fed flood canals and aspersion were used for irrigation, mainly during the dry season.We calculated forest proximity, that is the shortest distance from each study site to the nearest forest (km) using ArcMap 10.5.1. To this end, we used updated versions of land-use map of Piura in the north (Otivo Barreto, 2010) and the vegetation cover map of Cusco in the south (MINAM, 2015). Canopy closure, assessed with a spherical densitometer, was used as measure for shade cover. For the northern agroforests, we averaged canopy closure over 25 readings spread out over an area of about ∼0.2 ha, and in the southern agroforests, we averaged 20 readings over ∼0.15 ha, to account for slightly larger subplot sizes in the north. Cacao tree density and abundance were comparable throughout the study: in most of the agroforests, trees were planted following a 3 × 3 m grid, with few exceptions of 3.5 m grids.To trap arthropods visitors of cacao flowers, we applied non-drying, odourless and colourless insect adhesive (Schacht Raupenleim) on the reproductive parts of cacao flowers (mainly around the style), between 5:15 AM and 11:30 AM. We retrieved the flowers about 24 h later. In the north, we sampled flowers during the dry season (Oct-Dec), and in the south, during the rainy season (Jan-Feb) in 2018/2019.All agroforests were sampled three times, with minimum 4 and maximum 40 days between sampling rounds. During each sampling round, we selected 50 flowers distributed among 10 trees and covered the reproductive parts with glue, totalling to 150 flowers per agroforest.Upon flower retrieval, 24 h after glue application, most of the flowers had abscised, a process that is normal in cacao (24-36 h;Toledo-Hernández et al., 2017). Therefore, not all flowers could be recollected and numbers of retrieved flowers differed among trees and farms (Table S1). Arthropod specimens were retrieved from the flowers, and sorted into morphological and functional groups, based on general taxonomic keys (Gibb & Oseto, 2006) and keys to family level for Diptera (Brown et al., 2009). Cecidomyiidae and Ceratopogonidae were lumped, representing potential cacao-pollinating midges, hereafter referred to as midges. Other dipteran families were categorized as other Diptera; Hymenopterans were either classified as parasitoid wasps, ants or other Hymenoptera.To study how pollen deposition affects fruiting success in northern Peru, we took ultra-macro photographs of flowers directly on the tree and estimated the amount of pollen grains deposited on the style, following Macinnis and Forrest (2017).Pollen deposition is usually quantified destructively, that is by removing pollinated flowers or flower parts. Here, flowers were monitored whilst developing further on the tree and as such, we avoided the risk of interfering with pollination success. We used a DSLR camera with ultra-macro lens (LAOWA, five times magnification) and a LED lamp and ring to increase light intensity. Photographs were taken at ISO 400 with shutter speed 1:40 and aperture F8. Of each flower, two series of photographs with different focusing depth were used for capturing the two opposite sides of the style (Figure S2).We took 7704 macro photographs of 518 flowers, spread over five agroforests and different shooting days. Data of two consecutive years were included (Table S2). Normal cacao flower lifetime is about 24-36 h (Toledo-Hernández et al., 2017). Cacao buds show a slit between petals in the late afternoon when they are about to open the next day, early in the morning. To standardize the time flowers were exposed to visitors, we marked flower buds about to open by checking for the petal slit in the afternoon. These marked flowers were receptive for pollen from the next morning onwards, and the photographs were taken between 7 and 11 AM, 24-28 h after opening. To protect the styles from pollen deposition after photographing, flowers were isolated with caps covered with fine mesh adhered to the stem with modelling clay. Two days later, isolation caps were removed. We assessed fruiting success 7 days after photographing and counted the number of flowers that abscised (fruiting failure) and set fruit (fruiting success).To compare natural pollination with manual pollination, we handpollinated flowers of eight receptor trees in each of the 12 northern agroforests and monitored the subsequent appearance of young fruits, hereafter referred to as cherelles. On each of the 96 experimental trees that served as pollen receptors, we selected sections of 35 cm on two branches per tree and assigned a natural or hand pollination treatment to these sections. Once a week, we manually pollinated all open flowers on the respective 35 cm branch section on each tree and followed the development of all open flowers on the other branch section over a period of 7 weeks during the dry season, which is the typical flowering period of Piura white cacao.Flowers were pollinated between 6:30 AM and 1 PM. At 6 AM, freshly opened pollen donor flowers were collected from five genotypes of the native variety Piura white cacao established in a clonal garden managed by the cooperative Norandino. These genotypes were different from the ones present in the agroforests, thus lowering potential cross-incompatibility issues between donor and receptor of pollen.First, the petal hoods were removed from donor flowers before pollinating. Next, each of the five anthers were rubbed onto the stigma of the receptor flower. By rubbing multiple times with several anthers, we ensured that large pollen quantities were transferred onto the style of the receptor flowers. Before starting the experiments, we visually confirmed that pollen deposition was over 100 grains with a microscope (Figure S3). Following similar study designs used in Asia, flowerswere not isolated from flower visitors before or after hand pollination (Groeneveld et al., 2010;Toledo-Hernández et al., 2020).Six days after manual pollination, we counted the young fruits smaller than 1 cm (hereafter cherelles), as this size corresponds with All statistical analyses were performed with R (R Core Team, 2020); plots were built with the package ggplot2 (Wickham, 2016). Spatial analyses and maps were performed and created with ArcMap 10.5.1.We used generalized linear mixed effect models (GLMM) with the package lme4 (Bates et al., 2015) to investigate the effect of region, dis-  S1). Because surveys were conducted during the dry season in the north, and during the wet season in the south, seasonality is implicitly included in region.In all three models, identity of agroforest was included as random effect variable to account for multiple sampling in each agroforest.Data from one southern agroforest were excluded from all models, because of incomplete canopy closure assessments (Q14; Table S1; Figure S1b). Aphid visits were modelled with a Poisson distribution.Due to over-dispersion in the models constructed for thrips and other visitors, we used a negative binomial distribution. All model residuals were inspected with package \"DHARMa\" (Hartig, 2018); no significant deviations were detected.In our models, we integrated the differences in retrieved flowers per agroforest by including this value as offset, which is a good way to standardize count data of visits per flower (Reitan & Nielsen, 2016).For plotting, we used visitation rates (i.e. total visitors/retrieved flowers) instead of total visitors, and held the offset held constant at one to obtain predictions that are easy to compare.We recorded extremely low fruit sets during the experiment: the proportion of successes and failures was unbalanced (1:128). Although unbalanced data is a common phenomenon in ecological data (Salas-Eljatib et al., 2018), the success events were too rare to perform any meaningful statistical analysis.To examine differences in fruit set rates (proportion ranging from 0 to 1) between naturally and hand pollinated flowers, we used a generalized linear mixed model (package \"lme4\"). Fruit set rates were pooled over seven counting rounds and compared between pollination treatment (fixed effect variable) using a binomial distribution, whereby the total number of open flowers was included as weights argument.DHARMa residual plots signalled no model violations. Since counts of cherelles and flowers were performed on eight trees per farm (Table S3), we included trees nested in farms as random effect variables. Trees with incomplete counts were excluded: only 93 were considered in this analysis (N Manual = 90, N Natural = 91; Table S3).In total, 304 flower visitors were collected from 1179 flowers (1 visitor per 3.88 flowers); 7% of the entire visitor community were midges In the north (Figure 2a), the most abundant visitor groups were aphids (38%), ants (13%), thrips (10%), other Diptera (6%), immature arthropods such as larvae, pupae and nymphs (5%) and midges (5%). In the south (Figure 2b), the dominant visitors were thrips (65%), followed by midges (14%), parasitoid wasps (10%), other Diptera (9%), ants (7%) and immature arthropods (6%).Overall, visitation rates of flower-visiting arthropods increased along higher canopy closure in the north and decreased in the south, whereas forest distance did not play an important role in flower visitation patterns (Table S4). Thrip visitations increased with canopy closure in the north and decreased along this gradient in the south (GLMM: z = 5.74, P = 0.028; Figure 3a), although patterns might be influenced by outliers. Further from forest, thrip visitations appeared to increase in the south and decrease in the north, but this is supported by weak evidence only (GLMM: z = −1.91, P = 0.056; Figure 3b). Neither canopy closure nor forest distance influenced visitation rates of aphids, which was the most abundant visitor in the north (Figure 3c,d). Visits by all other arthropods (excluding thrips and aphids) seemed to increase with higher canopy closure in northern Peru. In the south, visitations decreased along the canopy closure gradient, but this trend could only be weakly confirmed by analyses (GLMM: z = 1.87, P = 0.062; Figure 3e). Finally, visits by other arthropods did not seem to be affected by increasing forest distance (Figure 3f). Visitations rates per round are calculated by dividing total visits by number of collected flowers per round in the 19 agroforests and are shown with dots (green for the south, yellow in the north). Full lines are simulations of significant interactions from generalized linear mixed models; dashed lines represent simulations of marginally significant interactions (Table S4)We found an average of 31 ± 1.2 (mean ± SE) pollen grains deposited per flower (n = 517), and only four flowers (0.8%) set fruit (Figure S4).On these four flowers, an average of 111 ± 19.2 pollen grains were deposited, while an average of 30.7 ± 1.2 pollen grains were deposited on styles of flowers that did not set fruit (n = 513).Fruit set was remarkably low in both pollination treatments, but significantly higher for hand-pollinated flowers (GLMM: z = −6.76, P < 0.001;Figure 4; Table S5). Under natural pollination, 2% of the observed open flowers set fruit in total (39 out of 1952), whereas manual pollination resulted in a total fruit set rate of 7% (70 out of 968).  S5)In this study, we aimed to reveal key drivers of cacao pollination services (Figure 1) by sampling flower visitors, quantifying pollen depo-  et al., 2016;Toledo-Hernández et al., 2021). Herbivores-aphids in the north and thrips in the south-were the most abundant flower visitors. Although both groups have been reported to transport cacao pollen grains, it is more likely that their net effect on fruit set is neutral or adverse (Entwistle, 1972). Aphids are likely to negatively affect fruit set, because of their sap-sucking diets and association with honeydew-collecting ants (Maas et al., 2013). Thrips might contribute to pollination mainly through their high relative abundances which may compensate for the minimal amount of pollen they typically carry with their hairy-fringed wings, although a substantial part of pollen transported by thrips might be self-pollen (Entwistle, 1972;Mound, 2005). In our study, the functional role of midges, aphids and thrips remains unconfirmed. In the light of these uncertainties, methodologies that allow to demonstrate transport of outcross-pollen should be developed to confirm functional roles of flower visitors in future investigations.The lack of a strong relationship between forest distance and visitation rates was contrary to our expectations of finding higher visitation rates in forest vicinity, as was the case in studies carried out in Asia (Klein et al., 2008;Toledo-Hernández et al., 2021). Possibly, other management variables, such as canopy closure and habitat management, play a bigger role in insect visitation to flowers of native cacao.In the north, visitation rates tended to be associated with increasing canopy closure, while in the south, during the wet season, an opposite trend prevailed. Shade trees decrease transmitted radiation, lower air temperatures and increase relative humidity (Niether et al., 2018;Tscharntke et al., 2011). Especially under intensely dry circumstances as in the north, buffering of extreme environmental conditions in the agroforests could have benefited flower visitation. In the south, the high cloud cover during the wet season might have limited transmitted radiation. Under denser canopies, the radiation could have been below the threshold necessary for insects to visit flowers (Liporoni et al., 2020).We were not able to relate fruit set with pollen quantities measured directly on cacao trees in the northern study region, because fruit set rates were extremely low (0.8%) compared to the 10% reported from Indonesia (Groeneveld et al., 2010). This could be problematic for final yields, because in cacao, the majority of pollinated flowers do not develop into harvestable fruits (Bos et al., 2007). Considering that we observed several cases of pollination failure in spite of high amounts of pollen deposited, other factors such as pollen viability, pollen compatibility and resource availability may be limiting fruit set even more than previously thought. Pollination failures are also commonly caused by low pollen viability (Wilcock & Neiland, 2002) and viability in turn can be affected by high temperatures and drought. Potentially, extraordinarily high temperatures in our northern study region have induced more pollination failures than expected. Alternatively, and more likely, the narrow genetic basis of the native variety used for our experiments (Thomas et al., 2012) resulted in limited compatibility (Rodger & Ellis, 2016), while climatic conditions could have aggravated fruit set failures. It is critical that future studies aim to understand the relative contributions of pollen quantity, resource availability and compatibility to pollination failure to allow designing locally adapted (hand-)pollination strategies that improve fruit set.The average pollen deposition on freely pollinated flowers (30 grains) was much lower than the threshold for pollination success (115 grains) established from experimental evidence (Falque et al., 1995), indicating there might be a severe pollination deficit in Peruvian cacao agroforestry systems. Low relative abundance of pollinating flower visitors, lack of pollen deposition by the most frequent visitors and regular incompatibility might have contributed to this deficit. To be able to identify the pollination dynamics of this crop, it is necessary to determine whether and how much pollen different flower visitors carry during a visit. For example, female ceratopogonids can carry over 700 pollen grains (Entwistle, 1972), but data of pollen loads of other frequent cacao flower visitors are lacking, potentially because the appropriate methods still need to be developed. We did not detect pollen in the glue (with stereoscopes), and previously, only one insect was found to be carrying pollen by visual inspection (Chumacero de Schawe et al., 2016). Combining pollen estimation from macro photography with controlled insect visitation would be ideal for confirming pollen loads, visitation frequencies and ultimately, pollinator identity of flower visitors.Our results show a limited dependency of cacao on pollen deposition: hand-pollinating flowers alleviated observed fruiting limitations, though fruit set remained low (increase from 2% to 7%). Larger gains were observed in Indonesia, where fruit set increased from 10% to 51%, though only 6.3% of the initially formed fruits was eventually harvested (Toledo-Hernández et al., 2020), which is a common observation in cacao (Bos et al., 2007). Properties of cacao varieties might influence contrasts between continents: outside of the Americas, plantations consist mainly of hybrid varieties bred in clonal design for steady production and auto-compatibility (Zhang & Motilal, 2016), whereas productivity of the native variety we studied is more variable, and potentially more reliant on cross-pollination than hybrid varieties. Conducting inter-and cross-compatibility trials with planted varieties to maximize gains is therefore strongly recommended. In the light of pollinator uncertainty, hand pollination could be applied to mitigate pollen limitations in the field and improve fruit set rates, though thorough assessments would be needed to calculate yield gains in the longer term.Despite years of intensive research on the pollination services in cacao, multiple knowledge gaps remain, underpinning the difficulty of related research. Based on the dominance of herbivore visitors and the low pollen deposition and fruit set rates we found, we urge the confirmation of the main cacao pollinator in regions of origin of cacao, and the cause of low fruit set rates. Our results demonstrate that with hand pollination, it is possible to alleviate fruit set limitations, although only partly. The limited hand pollination gains in native cacao might be due to pollen incompatibility-and it will be crucial to determine the relative importance of limitations other than pollen quantity (i.e. pollen compatibility and resource availability) to increase fruit set rates. Confirming pollinator identity will also be key to make recommendations on farm and landscape management to maximize visitation rates. To ","tokenCount":"3877"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ae90b5f2b81f7cd2a9fed5a531fd1ea2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bb96fd68-031a-4184-b147-0e9482286c0e/retrieve","id":"589224956"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8f55349a-b6ff-498c-a726-50b4a7cad51f","pagecount":"2","content":"Many of the basins are developing a range of internal and external sharing mechanisms that can be used at different levels. It has been seen that these mechanisms are an important way to kick start and improve communication within the research programs. This Klinic (Knowledge Clinic) will explore theInternational Forum on Water and Food range of tools that are being developed and the lessons learned in their implementation. We will get feedback from participants and learn together how best to use them to reach different audiences. As has been seen, one issue the is the need to ensure greater coherence in the tools that are used. Many CPWF partners have complained of the profilieration of different tools. So we will also look at who they are intended for, how they are used and if they are meeting their objectives. Finally a focus will be placed on helping communication people to self-reflect on the effectiveness of communication tools being used and to get feedback from target audiences.","tokenCount":"166"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5c5567ad7b43781d9ac989a7648c683e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3785dadd-7d2d-4f28-add3-122ba6376e40/retrieve","id":"276131909"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"578d4783-2672-49d7-a099-d8075198dff7","pagecount":"8","content":"Gebregziabher Gebreyohannes -host country representative, Ethiopia Shirley Tarawali -secretary Others: Members of ILRI's senior management team, the chief financial officer and the head of internal audit joined for the program, finance and audit and risk committees.The Board chair opened the meeting and noted that all members had completed a confidentiality reminder and conflict of interest form prior to the meeting, which had been compiled and reviewed by the chair and director general. The chair confirmed there were no material conflicts of interest that precluded any member participating fully in the meeting.The Board chair welcomed Harry Kimtai, Principal Secretary for Livestock, Kenya to his first meeting as the representative of the Government of Kenya, replacing Andrew Tuimur who had moved to other government responsibilities.The Board chair highlighted the process and appointment of Elsa Murano as the chair designate which had been reviewed and confirmed by the nominations and governance committee. The Board formally welcomed Elsa Murano as the chair-elect.The chair noted and the Board confirmed that while dates for forthcoming Board meetings are identified, and a face-to-face meeting would be supported, the present circumstances preclude making any further plans.The chair highlighted that the processes for One CGIAR continue to advance and Board members have been appraised of the progress. The Board chair, director general and CRP director have roles in various Technical Advisory Groups, and Martyn Jeggo has been appointed as chair of the nominations committee overseeing the process of recruitment and appointment of the new One CGIAR Common Board members.It was noted that given the present exceptional circumstances, there would be no evaluations of the meeting or of Board members at the current meeting. The Board's evaluation of the director general would proceed.The chair noted that given circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, a face-to-face Board meeting was not possible at this juncture, and the Board would thus address essential and time-bound matters through a series of short virtual meetings. It was noted that in addition issues requiring Board decisions and major strategic issues, the Board had received the usual set of comprehensive material for review two weeks prior to the virtual meeting. The Chair advised that a face-to-face meeting (perhaps of a sub-set of the Board depending on travel restrictions) should be scheduled should it be possible, but that in the meantime (and should this not be possible) the executive and the full Board would continue to work virtually. It was noted that pending the SMO-supported legal review, changes to the constitution would require Board engagement in the coming months.Items approved electronically since the last Board meeting were formally noted as follows.2.1 Minutes of the 52 nd Board meeting 2.2 Amendments to ILRI's data protection and privacy policy Changes to ILRI's data protection and privacy policy were approved on a no objections basis by email to all Board members, 25 -31 January 2020.Clause 1.2.1 amended to include data collected from beneficiaries of ILRI Development activities as personal data.Clause 3.1 to include definition of Development Project as \"means an activity with participants receiving benefits (e.g. livestock interventions, training etc.) from the said activity without an element of research (e.g. characterizing, testing, evaluating)\"At its meeting on 26 February 2020, the Board Executive Committee recommended for approval to the full Board the 2020 budget with income of US$95.8 million, expenditure of US$96.2 million, resulting in a deficit of US$0.4 million.The 2020 budget was approved electronically by the full Board and that approval is officially noted here.The Board executive committee, at its meeting on 26 February 2020 approved the decisions and inputs below with regard to One CGIAR. Both of these matters were subsequently approved on a no-objections basis (by email before the 28 February 2020 deadlines) by the full Board and these approvals are formally minuted here. 2.5 Other material reviewed 2.5.1 Summary and disposition of matters arising from BOT523 Report from the DG The DG's report covered matters relating to the CGIAR as a whole and to ILRI internally. However, given the importance of the current pandemic caused by COVID-19, this emergency was addressed first.In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, ILRI has established several processes to ensure staff remain safe and ILRI's business is able to continue to the extent possible. This includes three interlocking committees each of which meet weekly (CMT -crisis management team; CRTs (crisis response teams) for both campuses and a task force), a SharePoint resource for all staff, an additional Employee Assistance Program (including online counselling) and weekly Roundup meetings with all ILRI and hosted institute staff. All units have developed business continuity plans and meet regularly virtually. Staff are engaged in work-from-home activities, with programs planning for various future scenarios to guide implementation and forecasting. ILRI is a member of CGIAR task force and along with other centres is engaged in financial forecasting based on different scenarios.The current scenario, specific to ILRI and a risk matrix specific for COVID-19 are included in Board finance and audit and risk committee materials respectively.Implementation of One CGIAR recommendations, approved late 2019 has advanced, and ILRI is engaged in several of the Transition Advisory Groups (TAG1 and 7 -DG; TAG3 -Board chair; TAG5 -Tom Randolph). Repositioning of the BecA-ILRI Hub is being developed in the context of One CGIAR, which offers the Hub a unique opportunity to ensure that the value proposition is crafted around aligned opportunities of national and regional significance, effective partnerships and collaboration and an intentional drive towards development outcomes.Several visits to Kapiti with senior Kenyan government officials have taken place over the past weeks, all of whom have supported ILRI and Kapiti's position.As is customary at the April Board meeting, indicators for ILRI's five critical success factors were presented using a dashboard format for Board review.  The Board agreed that the program dashboards provide an excellent format for the Board to review the programs and in this regard:-Agreed that dashboard reports for all programs should be provided at both Board meetings, April (for the entirety of the previous year) and November (for the first six months, January -June of the year).The Board may request further detail on any of these assembled parameters. -Noted that the relationship of the dashboards to the institute strategy through the monitoring of critical success factors is an important way to assess the institute's progress.Management confirmed that the ongoing challenge regarding global distribution of germplasm from the Addis forage gene bank is being addressed.Efforts to harvest the CRP MARLO information to assemble into a system level dashboard are ongoing. Within ILRI there are ongoing discussions with the MARLO programmers to configure/harvest the information at an ILRI centre-wide level.The Board approved seven high risks and mitigations, noting that one high risk was an amalgamation of two previous high risks.Chair: Richard Golding; Vice-Chair: Jing Zhu; Secretary: Michael Gerba; Members: Full Board.Throughout the year 2019, the cash holding was low compared to prior years -averaging $37 million. Despite this, ILRI was able to fund its operations, invest in high interest-bearing instruments, and keep within its investment policy.The Board noted that, for 2019, ILRI had operated within its investment policy, which is fully compliant with CGIAR guidelines.For the year ended 31st December 2019, ILRI recorded a surplus of $0.1 million. This is based on an income of $73.8 million and an expenditure of $73.7 million. Income recorded includes accruals amounting to $0.8 million.The results for the year are driven mainly by investment income -$1.3 million, write back of old accruals $0.8 million, favourable forex market -$0.4 million, and various cost savings from support units.With a total expenditure of $73.7 million, overall expenditure burn rate is 85% against the board approved budget of $87.8 million. The low burn rate arises mainly from research under-execution which is related to late receipt of budgeted proposal funds, delayed recruitment of new positions and non-CG collaborator expenses.The Board noted the unqualified opinion from the external auditors and approved the 2019 financial statements subject to subsequent review in the audit and risk committee following the presentation from the external auditors.The Board approved 2020 budget has income of US$95.8 million, expenditure of US$96.2 million, resulting in a deficit of US$0.4 million. At this Board meeting, the 2020 expenditure up to March 2020 and forecast for the year, considering COVID-19 pandemic, was reviewed, noting that this will make full execution of the $96 million 2020 OPEX budget highly unlikely. ILRI will need to reforecast at the beginning of June or as conditions change through the course of this crisis. An optimistic financial forecast based on several assumptions (including limited recruitment, reduced proposal revenue, and that all ILRI locations are likely to work from home with no travel and field work at least through to the end of July 2020) was presented.The Board took note of the latest 2020 forecast and that this would be subject to further ongoing management review as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic evolves.Management presented a revised CAPEX request for an additional $1.4 million (in addition to the $3.7 million approved by the Board at its 52nd board meeting). The Board approved the additional $1.4 million for 2020 CAPEX.The Board received the following materials for review: 5.4.1 Corporate services update Business continuity and disaster recovery The Board commended management on the very sound and comprehensive business continuity plan presented, recognising that it is a 'living document' that will continue to be developed.The Board reviewed ILRI's key financial indicators including funding trends, funding types, expenses by cost category, net assets, liquidity and reserves, cash/payables/receivables and CAPEX vs depreciation.The Board reviewed the risk matrix and approved four high risks and mitigations, three news risks added to the high-risk category and given the mitigation actions in place, two risks de-escalated from high risk category.Board members raised several strategic issues for discussion during the meeting.The Board discussed the risks that may arise in relation to ILRI's reserves.The Board reiterated its concern regarding the ongoing reported deficits of research facilities and appreciated that management continues to monitor these units, and to address the deficit issues. Management stressed that these facilities are essential for ILRI research, and there are plans to use them for both ILRI's research and for contract research. These plans are advancing but are affected by COVID-19. It was acknowledged that there will always be variation in the different areas and their resourcing.The Board reviewed the 2020 forecast presented by management, based on several assumptions. It was further noted that the present scenarios are made 'top down' and an exercise is on-going to review implications project-by-project which may lead to further revisions. The Board noted that management will continue to review and revise the forecast as the situation unfolds and will appraise the Board and/or Board Executive Committee as needed.Chair: Li Lin Foo; Vice-Chair: Judith Lungu; Head of Internal Audit: Peter Getugi; Secretary: Shirley Tarawali; Members: Full Board (non-voting: Jimmy Smith).EY was represented (virtually) by Nancy Muhoya (Engagement Partner), Lucy Atieno (Associate Director), Gregory Oduor (Senior Manager), Jacqueline Ndichu (Audit Senior) and Dorine Nalo (IT Audit Senior Manager) who presented a summary of their audit report for the consolidated financial statements of ILRI for the year ended 31 December 2019. Observations, according to the three management Letters for ILRI, ILRI IT and Kapiti Plains Estate Limited were reviewed.In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of International Livestock Research Institute as at 31 December 2019, and of its financial performance and cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with the Institute's accounting policies.The Board met virtually in closed session with the external auditors. No additional matters were raised.Noting that the financial statements have been discussed and accepted by the Finance Committee, and following discussions with the External Auditors, the Board approved the adoption of the 2019 financial statements.ILRI's Head of Internal Audit presented an update of activities.A. 2020 Internal Audit plan and 3 year rolling plan (2020 to 2022). Ten audit areas are planned for 2020 and are currently on schedule apart from one for ILRI's operations in Mali which is likely to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Timing will depend on how the situation evolves.For the seven audits conducted between October 2019 and March 2020, there were no conditions that represent material deficiencies in internal controls to the institute system from a financial and operational standpoint. The head of internal audit further acknowledged that management has the ultimate responsibility for establishing internal controls to manage risks, and there were no circumstances identified in which management's decisions resulted in the acceptance of unreasonable levels of risk. It was also confirmed that management is cognizant of their responsibility for internal controls and takes seriously the need for controls and accountability, there is respect for the objectives of the Internal Audit Plan; a good level of cooperation is received, and there is no interference with the accomplishment of the tasks. Furthermore, managers actively participate in the identification of risks and work collaboratively with internal auditors to address issues raised during audits, risk assessments, advisory services engagements, and investigations.C. Summary and status of October 2019 to March 2020 audits Seven audits have been conducted in this period, with five internal control issues identified for management attention.D. Follow up of past audit recommendations. Of ten audit recommendations from past audits, six are implemented and four are in progress.The Board confirmed its approval of the 2020 audit plan.The Head of Internal Audit confirmed that with the possible exception of the audit of ILRI's Mali office (which may be moved to later in 2020), the audit plan would go ahead despite the COVID-19 situation.The Board noted that the Head of Internal Audit's participation in the community of practise of CGIAR internal audit and the engagement of the chair of ILRI's audit and risk committee with the audit chairs of the CGIAR (both virtually and in a face-to-face meeting earlier in 2020) ensures that ILRI will continue to be informed and to adjust so as to remain well aligned as changes related to One CGIAR are rolled out.6.5 Other material reviewed 6.5.1 Review of audit and risk committee risks The Board reviewed the risk matrix and approved two high risks and mitigations and one risk de-escalated from the high risk category.The Board reviewed the risk matrix and approved two new high risks and mitigations.The Board reviewed nine high risks and mitigation actions related to the ongoing pandemic. The comprehensive matrix was appreciated by the Board. Management confirmed that through the outcomes of weekly meetings of the Crisis Management Team, the Crisis Response Teams and the Task Force, the matrix is regularly updated.The Board met virtually in closed session with the head of internal audit. No matters of concern were raised.In this closed session the chair formally welcomed Harry Kimtai to the Board, noting that ILRI has been well supported by Kenya, and with Harry's appointment, this continues. Harry Kimtai was invited to introduce himself and thanked ILRI for the opportunity to serve on the ILRI Board.The Board also conducted an in-camera evaluation of the DG, and matters arising from the deliberations of the nominations and governance committee, as well as One CGIAR developments and evolving discussions on centre alliances.The concluding statement from the Board chair is included verbatim below.Thank you all for a constructive virtual meeting. We have covered the main governance issues, but at a time when so much is going on in addition to normal ILRI governance matters, it is clear that infrequent virtual meetings are not a substitute for in-depth in-person meetings. I had hoped that we could have some sort of face-to-face meeting within the timeframe of the creation of One CGIAR, but unless that schedule slips, this now seems unlikely. The ILRI Board Executive will carry forward those matters minuted and other matters that arise and inform the full Board as always.On behalf of the Board, I commend management for their diligence during this trying time of increased risks in health security and resources reliability. The duty of care extended to ILRI's more than 630 staff by management is consistent with CGIAR suggestions and the Board is satisfied that all that can be done is being done. Having approved a significant growth budget that, together with the major increase in resources promised by BMGF and other donors, confirmed the viability of ILRI's strategy, management is now faced with delaying these ambitions for enhanced ILRI livestock research owing to the current pandemic. The Board accepts and supports these responsible actions, as minuted.As we move into the step-wise creation of One CGIAR, first with the creation of the Executive Management Team and the naming of the One Board members by the end of July to be active in September/October, there will be many issues that require the ILRI Board's attention. Revisions to the ILRI Constitution will need to be considered, and further changes to the System Charter that governs the working together of the 15 centres are decision points that will require our close attention. I am confident that we will approach them with the same professionalism as has been shown through the lead-up to this period. This means that we continue to keep sometimes confounding thoughts in mind -the first, to participate actively in the creation of One CGIAR in order to assist it to be effective, with the second, ensuring that the interests of livestock research and ILRI's assets are at least maintained and preferably enhanced.","tokenCount":"2893"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ea45bf51030aa972f8cb02e3c2dae598","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/add0e8de-1ec0-4d83-a477-7ede977355fe/retrieve","id":"-659502211"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"22fc971d-21eb-4cb2-848e-833c7e74e5f5","pagecount":"26","content":"About the CGIAR Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP) A4IP is the venture space that leverages CGIAR's legacy in research and innovation to co-design, accelerate, and de-risk the development and deployment of science-based solutions for sustainable agriculture and climate action. A4IP entrepreneurs pioneer models to bridge research products from lab to market, create demand for CGIAR science, and strengthen its role in the innovation ecosystem. The initiative plays a catalytic role for entrepreneurial scientists, startups, and other strategic partners driving innovation that will make our agri-food systems healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable. A4IP is an initiative powered by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT; a CGIAR research center.The AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge 2024 is driving Kenya's agrifood systems transformation by facilitating the development, deployment, adoption, and scaling of high-impact science-based agritech solutions tailored to the needs of the nation's smallholder farmers and value chain stakeholders. Employing a participatory and demand-oriented approach, the initiative provides comprehensive support to establish effective go-to-market strategies through business mentoring, scientific validation, market access, financial support, and on-the-ground pilot opportunities. Through these efforts, it aims to foster an enabling environment conducive to testing, validating, and disseminating knowledge and technological solutions for Kenya's agricultural sector.The project's Consultation Workshop held in Nairobi in April 2024 catalysed dialogue among key players from within Kenya's agri-food sector, including government officials, academicians, researchers, incubators, accelerators, venture funds, startups, and farmers, and centered on three key outcomes:• Fostering Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue: The workshop emphasized the pivotal role of multi-stakeholder collaboration in addressing critical issues confronting Kenyan agriculture, particularly those related to climate change and food security. By bringing together representatives from government agencies, private enterprises, NGOs, research institutions, and financial bodies, the event fostered robust discussions and partnerships. This collaborative approach aimed to forge synergies that could drive collective action and policy alignment towards sustainable agricultural practices and enhanced food system resilience.• Bridging Research and Innovation: A cornerstone of the workshop was the exploration of synergies between cutting-edge research, technology, and entrepreneurial ventures in the agritech space.Participants delved into leveraging scientific advancements and technological innovations to bolster the scalability and impact of agritech solutions in Kenya. The discourse focused on identifying pathways to effectively translate research findings into practical applications that empower farmers, improve productivity, and promote sustainable agricultural practices across the value chain.• Tailoring the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge 2024: The workshop served as a strategic platform for refining the thematic focus of the upcoming AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge, creating space to collate and integrate diverse stakeholder perspectives on the most pressing challenges, needs and opportunities facing Kenya's agricultural landscape. This participatory approach ensured that the innovation challenge would catalyse actionable solutions aligned with the priorities and aspirations of Kenyan farmers and value chain actors.The workshop resulted in the formulation of six priority areas affecting food security and climate resilience in Kenya, which will ultimately shape the overall scope of the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge 2024:I. Sustainable Agricultural Production II.Improved Market Access and Supply Chain Efficiency III.Knowledge Sharing and Capacity Building for Gender Equality and Social Inclusion IV.Livestock Health and Disease Management V.Equitable Finance and Investment Mechanisms VI.Water Use Efficiency and Sustainable Irrigation PracticesThe Consultation Workshop showcased the power of science-based agritech solutions to transform Kenyan agriculture for a food secure future. Through multi-stakeholder collaboration, the development of contextspecific and demand-driven solutions, and the prioritization of capacity building within value chains, the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge 2024 will empower local food systems, enhance productivity, promote sustainable development, and enhance rural livelihoods.Kenya consistently imports more than USD 1.1 billion worth of food each year. In 2022 alone, food imports rose from 13.4% to 15.5% i . This marks a notable paradox given the country's abundant fertile land. The heavy reliance on imports, coupled with the ever-growing challenges of climate change, poses significant obstacles to Kenya's food security and economic and agricultural development. Water scarcity is a particularly critical impediment to Kenyan agriculture, with prolonged dry seasons severely minimizing yields and subsequently affecting both livelihoods and food security ii . Additionally, the dominance of traditional agricultural practices grapples with resource constraints and yield inconsistencies and exacerbates productivity shortfalls iii . With 15 research centers globally, a network of over 9,000 scientists, researchers, technicians and staff, and Impact Areas in 'Nutrition, Health and Food Security' and 'Climate Adaptation and Mitigation', CGIAR is strategically positioned to address Kenya's critical challenges.The Government of Kenya's initiatives -including the Big 4 Agenda iv and the Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy v within the Vision 2030 vi -underscore the imperative for research-driven innovation to bolster food security and climate resilience. The transition towards sustainable agricultural practices necessitates the harmonious integration of science-based innovations, equitable finance, improved market access, and capacity building within the agritech ecosystem. This multifaceted approach, supported by research institutions and agrifood technology acceleration programs, is essential for empowering entrepreneurs and transforming Kenya's agricultural landscape into a robust pillar of food security, rural development, and economic growth. Investing in agritech innovations not only holds the potential to revolutionize agriculture in Africa but also contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Through success stories from organizations like UjuziKilimo, and Farmshield, it is evident that agritech innovations are driving positive change, enhancing agricultural productivity, resilience, and sustainability across the continent.The global downturn in agri-food technology investment in 2023, however, highlights the urgent need for targeted support and investment to revitalize the sector. A collaborative effort from the government, private sector, civil society, and farmers is needed to transform Kenya's agricultural sector into a powerful engine of innovation for food security, rural development, and economic prosperity. vii CGIAR's 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy prioritizes innovation and scalability as key components of its mission and emphasizes the significance of innovative public and private partnerships in bolstering cutting-edge solutions, thus optimizing its current participation in thousands of innovation and scaling projects.In the above context, the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge 2024 emerges as a catalyst for Kenya's agrifood systems transformation by supporting the development, deployment, adoption and scaling of high-impact science-based agritech solutions smallholder farmers and value chain players that are context-specific. The project supports early-stage innovators (including practitioners, entrepreneurs, researchers, and CGIAR scientists) with a Minimum-Viable-Product or Proof-of-Concept by accelerating the journey from conception to market-ready solutions through effective market mechanisms.This is an initiative powered by Kenyans, for Kenya. Through a participatory and demand-driven approach, the project offers comprehensive support to build a solid go-to-market strategy through business mentorship, scientific technical validation, market opportunities, access to finance, and on-the-ground experimentation with end-users to pilot solutions. In doing so, it aims to create an enabling environment for testing, validating, and transferring knowledge and technological solutions that enhance the sustainability, resilience, and efficiency of Kenya's agricultural system, unlocking the nation's potential in line with its strategic objective to be food secure by 2033.The Challenge's design phase follows a thorough assessment of Kenya's agricultural landscape and local innovation ecosystem, considering prevailing trends, needs, bottlenecks, regulatory environments, and key opportunities within the sector. This encompasses the mapping of and engagement with active stakeholders in the agricultural domain, the Consultation Workshop, and desk-based research.Overall, the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge will expose innovators to new market dynamics and support their effective transition from lab to market, thereby delivering concrete solutions to farmers and value chain actors in Kenya, raising national awareness and capacity around resilient agri-food systems, generating economic opportunities from local to regional levels, and improving livelihoods.The AgriTech4Kenya Consultation Workshop set the stage for a pivotal dialogue among key stakeholders, including government officials, academicians, researchers, incubators, accelerators, venture funds, startups, and farmers, to explore and enhance the agrifood and climate-tech innovation landscape in Kenya. The workshop aimed to:• Encourage Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue: Foster discussions on the transformative impact of agri-food and climate-tech innovations in addressing climate and market challenges impacting food security in Kenya.The Consultation Workshop was inaugurated by Kevin Dowling, Knowledge Management and Communications Specialist of the CGIAR Accelerate for Impact Platform, who articulated a vision to unlock the potential of Kenya's agri-food sector and drive sustainability, resilience, and equity therein. By underlining the collaborative ethos of the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge 2024, he emphasized that the Workshop's objective was to foster multi-stakeholder dialogue and shape the project through an inclusive process, ensuring that -in design -it is participatory and demand-driven, and responds concretely to the needs of Kenya's farmers and value chain players. Noting that 86% of attendees were Kenyan nationals, Dowling reiterated that this will be an initiative powered by Kenyans and for Kenya.Gianpiero Menza, Senior Manager of Partnerships and Innovative Finance at the Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT, expressed gratitude to the project partners and to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for making the event and the overall project possible. He outlined the overarching vision of the workshop: bringing together representatives from the diverse facets of the Kenyan agritech ecosystem to facilitate collaborative exchanges aimed at tailoring solutions to Kenya's agricultural landscape.Menza emphasized that the strong attendance reflected a shared interest in creating a supportive environment for testing, validating, and deploying technological solutions to enhance sustainability, resilience, and efficiency within Kenya's agricultural system.In recent years, Kenya's agri-food tech sector has flourished, catalyzing youth engagement, job creation, and economic growth. Menza highlighted that Kenya has positioned itself as a dynamic hub for agri-food tech innovation in East Africa, with a thriving startup ecosystem driven by digitalization and supported by public agencies, universities, research institutes, incubators, accelerators, venture capital firms, and corporate players. Yet, despite the growing interest in innovative solutions, many remain stuck at the pre-commercial stage.As Kenya's tech landscape evolves, Menza offered three stand-out critical issues:− prioritizing farmer-centric innovation − ensuring market viability and sustainability of these innovations, and − enhancing access to these innovations.The CGIAR Accelerate for Impact Platform's objective through the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge is to bridge this divide, accelerating the journey from conception to market-ready solutions through effective market mechanisms.Maya Rajasekharan, Managing Director of the Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT, Africa, reiterated the CGIAR's dedication to sustainable development, emphasizing the pivotal role of science and innovation in fostering impactful collaborations across ecosystems. She emphasized the importance of private sector engagement, highlighting three critical elements necessary for success.• The shaping of an enabling environment by the Kenyan government that encourages private enterprises to participate and invest in sustainable agricultural initiatives.• The collective aspiration to achieve scalable impact through innovative solutions. Rajasekharan stressed the importance of prioritization and the necessity for constructive dialogue to navigate the challenges faced by promising innovations. Such dialogue enables stakeholders to identify and focus on initiatives with the highest potential for broad-scale impact.• The value of knowledge-sharing through multi-stakeholder dialogue. She acknowledged that selecting priorities among many impactful innovations can be challenging but emphasized that constructive exchange is essential for effective decision-making.Rajasekharan stressed that \"good tension leads to good outcomes\", reflecting the belief that constructive discussions and diverse perspectives ultimately lead to ground-breaking innovative solutions to complex challenges in agriculture and sustainable development. During her keynote address, Makokha delved into the challenges surrounding the translation of innovative ideas into scalable solutions within the agritech sector and emphasized the importance of coordinated efforts and specialized roles in achieving scalability.Makokha highlighted two primary barriers to scalability:• Uneven Distribution of Risk: There is a disparity in risk exposure across different levels of the pyramid, emphasizing the need for teamwork and collaboration to address challenges collectively.• Disconnect Between Human Agency and Systemic Dynamics: Makokha emphasized the interplay between human actions and systemic influences, stressing the importance of considering humans as integral parts of the scaling process.In addressing these challenges, Makokha outlined key roles for stakeholders:• Innovators and Researchers: Collaboration is essential to overcome isolation and tackle challenges collectively.• Marketers and Facilitators: Understanding systemic operations and identifying necessary incentives are crucial for successful scaling efforts.• Investors and Capital Holders: The deployment of patient capital is vital for sustainable growth and scalability.Makokha concluded by reiterating the need for actions that incorporate a nuanced understanding of risk and human-centered design principles. By fostering collaboration, understanding systemic dynamics, and deploying resources thoughtfully, stakeholders can effectively drive innovation and achieve scalable impact in the ecosystem.The opening session featured esteemed representatives from key institutions in the agritech sector, each providing insightful perspectives.• Nixon Gecheo, Senior Digital Officer, AGRAGecheo highlighted the challenges facing Kenya's agricultural and agritech sector. These include bridging the gap between technological advancements and farmer accessibility, especially smallholders. This digital disparity poses a notable obstacle to optimizing agricultural production and efficiency. He emphasized the government's efforts to address these challenges through policies aimed at increasing smallholder incomes, enhancing food security monitoring, promoting gender inclusivity, and facilitating financing. Gecheo stressed the potential benefits of such initiatives in fostering sustainable and scalable systems while building capacity.Oniang'o raised crucial questions about persistent food insecurity and the apparent gap between available funds and their on-the-ground implementation. While there are substantial investments allocated for agritech initiatives, the translation of these financial resources into tangible outcomes and impact on the field often falls short. This gap emphasizes the critical need for robust project management, capacity-building efforts, and efficient monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure that funds are optimally utilized and projects are successfully executed to drive meaningful change.• Catherine Kileli, Head of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security Programme, ACTSKileli discussed initiatives such as the establishment of the Green Digital Hub at Konza. This hub aims to support capacity building, particularly for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), enabling them to scale. Kileli also emphasized the focus on responsible AI through a scholarship program.Wambani provided insights into initiatives focused on Kenya's Big 4 Agenda and Vision 2030, highlighting their efforts to address climate resilience from their base in Cairo.• Elisha Meeli, on behalf of the Senator of Narok County, Distinguished Hon. Ledama OlekinaMeeli underscored the government's commitment to supporting initiatives aimed at addressing challenges in agriculture and technology. We must embrace sustainable agricultural practices harnessing the power of science and technology to overcome the challenges we face. • Kenya stands out as the region's top destination for agritech funding, attracting over $800 million in the past decade. This represents 60% of all publicly known agritech funding in Africa.• With 200 deals, Kenya boasts roughly one-third of the continent's total agritech deals. Notably, many companies have secured multiple funding rounds.• It's important to note that this data focuses on publicly disclosed funding and excludes private sources like bank loans.• The report identifies three key areas attracting the most funding: o Farm Management Solutions: Tools and services that help farmers optimize their operations.o Agricultural Marketplaces: Platforms connecting farmers directly to buyers, improving market access.o Foodtech: Technologies impacting the food supply chain, from production to consumption, retail-tech and restaurants.• There has been a significant rise in funding for solutions across the value chain, with a notable jump in restaurant-level information systems and retail technology.• Collaboration plays a crucial role in the ecosystem. Agritech companies are not operating in isolation, but rather leveraging networks to accelerate growth. Fostering connections between innovators and various support systems is essential for success at different business stages.• On-farm activities, including advisory services and market access solutions, have received the most significant share of funding over the past decade.• Post-farm services are gaining traction, with a rise in funding for logistics solutions connecting farms to markets (both personal households and distributors). This reflects an expansion of the value chain and an increasing focus on post-harvest solutions.• A deeper dive into on-farm activities reveals a range of innovative solutions, as below. These innovations require ongoing support for development and adaptation to ensure their practical application on the ground. • The report highlights a trend of earlier-stage funding for agritech startups, which can impact their ability to scale effectively. Mergers and consolidations among startups are a potential consequence of this funding pattern.• A more detailed analysis of the funding landscape, including pre-seed funding data, is recommended for a comprehensive understanding.• The report acknowledges that Kenya boasts a higher percentage of female leadership in agritech compared to other African regions by over 20%. This is a positive indicator for inclusivity and diverse perspectives within the sector. AgriTech4Kenya stands as a conduit for unlocking the potential of ambitious entrepreneurs and scientists, providing resources, mentorship, and networking avenues essential for scalable and impactful solutions. The initiative motivates innovators and early-stage startups to address critical agricultural challenges through the provision of technical, scientific, and business support, as well as access to investors and on-the-ground piloting opportunities, fostering beneficial industry transformations.To refine strategies for developing priority risks and unlocking innovative, demand-driven solutions, stakeholders must engage in collaborative, iterative processes. Thorough needs assessments, stakeholder consultations, and feasibility studies are pivotal in comprehending underlying challenges and opportunities within the agricultural sector. Moreover, fostering partnerships across government, private sector, academia, and civil society organizations is essential for knowledge exchange, resource mobilization, and collective action towards sustainable food systems transformation.Establishing an enabling environment within the agrifood ecosystem is paramount for promoting sustainable agriculture, ensuring food security, and fostering economic development. This entails a suite of policies, regulations, institutions, infrastructure, financing mechanisms, and social norms conducive to innovation, investment, and collaboration. The following elements contribute to this enabling environment:• Policy and Regulatory Frameworks: Clear, supportive policies incentivize sustainable practices, promote food safety standards, and foster fair market competition.• Access to Finance and Investment: Financial incentives, grants, and investment mechanisms support agrifood innovation, value chain development, and market access.• Infrastructure Development: Investments in infrastructure enhance agricultural production, processing, and market connectivity.• Research and Innovation: Allocation of resources to agricultural research enhances productivity, resilience, and sustainability.• Capacity Building and Extension Services: Training and technical assistance empower stakeholders with agricultural skills and business acumen.• Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration: Collaboration among diverse stakeholders promotes inclusive and sustainable agriculture.By cultivating an enabling environment conducive to innovation, investment, and collaboration, the agrifood ecosystem can unleash its full potential, contributing to food security, poverty reduction, and sustainable development.• Financial Constraints: Balancing fundraising activities with research and development efforts poses a significant challenge for agritech start-ups.• Limited Access to Finance: Traditional financing mechanisms favour established entities, leaving start-ups with restricted capital access.• High Cost of Technical Assistance: Affordability of technical support remains a barrier for start-ups and small businesses.• Translation of Scientific Research: Bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and practical applications poses challenges for researchers.• Securing Impact Funding: Obtaining funding for research projects with societal impact is challenging due to prioritization of academic metrics or commercial applications.• Streamlining Registration Processes: Simplifying administrative procedures expedites venture launch.• Clarifying Taxation Policies: Fair tax regimes incentivize entrepreneurship while ensuring compliance.• Establishing Dispute Resolution Mechanisms: Efficient dispute resolution safeguards intellectual assets.• Ensuring Data Protection: Robust data protection regulations foster trust among stakeholders.• Investing in Infrastructure: Accessible infrastructure promotes operational efficiency and global competitiveness.• Prioritizing ROI for Farmers: Tailored solutions ensure tangible benefits for farmers.• Building Human Capital: Capacity-building programs equip entrepreneurs with requisite skills.• Acknowledging Start-up Realities: Understanding and addressing factors contributing to start-up failures is essential.• Fostering Realistic Business Approaches: Emphasizing sustainability and market viability ensures long-term success.• Collaborative Workshops: Facilitating cross-sectoral workshops fosters innovative problemsolving. • Agritech Profiling: Comprehensive profiling showcases start-up innovations to potential investors.• Tailored Funding Instruments: Specialized funding mechanisms support agritech start-ups and R&D initiatives. • Collaborative R&D Platforms: Access to shared research facilities and mentorship accelerates technological advancements.By addressing pain points through such actionable solutions, stakeholders can nurture an environment conducive to innovation, collaboration, and impact in the agritech, finance, and science sectors, driving positive change in the agrifood ecosystem.• Holistic Approach: Collaboration among stakeholders is pivotal in developing solutions meeting end-user needs.• Patient Capital Prevails: Success in developing solutions hinges on patience and dedication. The willingness of investors to commit for the long haul is essential for sustainable progress.• Mission-Driven Innovation is crucial: Effective solutions tackle real-world challenges with purpose and affordability in mind. Startups must identify clear demand-driven problems to solve to ensure relevance and impact.• Economic Viability Matters: Long-term success and impact require solutions that are not only scientifically-valid, but also economically viable. Prioritizing viability ensures sustainability and lasting positive outcomes.• Realistic Approaches: Maintaining pragmatic business strategies ensures sustainable growth and resilience.Q&A Questions:• How can program design incentivize ecosystem players to collaborate with one another?• How can collaboration be incentivized?• Extension services have traditionally been considered a public good. How can farmers be encouraged to contribute financially?• What is the impact of affordable credit on start-ups?• Where are Farmer Lifeline Technologies located?In designing programs to foster ecosystem collaboration, it is imperative to facilitate a framework where stakeholders recognize and pursue shared interests from their respective perspectives. Effective program design acts as a facilitator, empowering agritech entities to perceive opportunities for solutions and intelligence exchange, thus fostering a comprehensive understanding of interactions among all involved parties.Strategies for incentivization necessitate the creation of an ecosystem where incentives are not only offered but also committed to being fulfilled. Historically, extension services have been deemed a public good. However, motivating farmers to contribute financially presents a challenge. Addressing this challenge requires the development of mechanisms where farmers perceive tangible benefits from participation. Additionally, the issue of affordable credit is paramount, particularly for start-ups, as high credit costs amplify risk. Exploring alternative funding sources and implementing policies that influence credit distribution are vital aspects to consider. Furthermore, initiating engagements with equity rather than loans can mitigate financial burdens.The affordability of credit, influenced by high-interest rates, significantly impacts farmers' willingness to engage. Farmers prioritize value and are more inclined to invest when provided with opportunities to test innovations before making long-term commitments. Strategies to address this issue include exploring alternative credit sources and implementing policies that facilitate equitable credit distribution. Moreover, initiating engagements with equity investments can be more conducive to fostering initial collaborations, thereby reducing the burden of debt on stakeholders.Geographically, Farmer Lifeline Technologies are primarily situated in Kiambu and Nyandarua with the objective of reaching a minimum of 5,000 small-scale farmers in these regions. This targeted approach allows for concentrated efforts to deliver impactful solutions to farmers in specific geographical areas, maximizing the effectiveness of interventions and promoting sustainable agricultural practices.Topic: AgriTech4Kenya Innovation ChallengeThe AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge aims to catalyse agri-food systems transformation in Kenya by supporting the development, deployment, adoption, and scalability of high-impact innovations that are contextspecific, beneficiary-centered, and market-viable. Its target being:• What: Early-stage (pre-seed & seed stage), science-based innovations with a Minimum-Viable-Product or Proof-of-Concept.• Who: Practitioners, entrepreneurs, PhD/post-doc students, researchers, and CGIAR scientists • Why: Deliver concrete, deployable, and sustainable solutions for smallholder farmers and value chain playersThe consultation workshop therefore convenes various key stakeholders to leverage on their collaboration and shape the future of African agriculture by maximizing the impact of Kenyan agritech solutions specifically through:• Pipeline Development: Create a pipeline of high-impact market-viable science-based Agritech innovations (including CGIAR-led solutions) that can be deployed and scaled to meet farmers' and value chain actors' needs.• Food Systems Transformation: Drive agrifood systems transformation in line with the Government of Kenya's strategic objective to be food secure by 2033.• Ecosystem Building: Facilitate connection and build community among key players of Kenya's agritech innovation ecosystem, leveraging knowledge-sharing for customized scaling approaches and funding opportunities.• CGIAR Portfolio Enhancement: Unlock the potential of CGIAR-led innovations by leveraging existing data and technology from the external ecosystem, allowing for swifter and more impactful program/project deliver.The table below showcases the project phases, methodology, and timeline for the Agritech4Kenya Innovation.Develop an in-depth understanding of the local innovation landscape to identify the priority areas of the innovation challenge through the stakeholder mapping exercise, that will lead to a Consultation Workshop.Jun A call for agri-food and climate-tech innovations followed by a selection process based on the criteria of the value proposition, sustainability and scalability, scientific relevance and maturity. This phase is supported by the expertise and networks of partners.Sep 25 selected teams (that include CGIAR-led innovations) benefit from a bootcamp, offering technical guidance and mentorship to prepare for the pitch day.Sep-Dec 12 teams engage in the acceleration program, combining business training and technical assistance to support them in developing an actionable pathway to scale.The acceleration program ends with a demo day where teams pitch their solutions to scientists, industry experts, agribusinesss and investors.Support innovators with strategic guidance, technological due diligence, mentorship and access to CGIAR and partners' networks.Work with beneficiaries to ensure deployment and adoption. Three breakout sessions commenced in parallel, each session lasting 30 minutes. Upon completion, moderators then rotated to the next group for the next 30 min session, while attendees and rapporteurs remained in place.Flip charts and stationery were provided, and participants were encouraged to take notes on cards for submission to event organizers thereafter.The breakout sessions set the stage to rethink business-as-usual in terms of how cutting-edge agrifood and climate-tech innovative solutions were developed and deployed in Kenya. The aims were to:• Explore the Kenyan food system and innovation ecosystem as they stood, identifying key bottlenecks to achieving security, resilience, and equity within, as well as the conditions and mechanisms necessary to allow start-ups to flourish as solutions to these.• Apply recommendations and lessons learned from diverse perspectives to the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge, exploring insights into how the project could achieve maximum impact in unlocking the potential of ambitious entrepreneurs and scientists.• Validate information collected during the Assessment & Design phase of AgriTech4Kenya and ultimately facilitate the refining of the project's priority areas for the scouting of demand-driven innovations/solutions.The role of the moderator was to guide and steer the discussions within their assigned theme, ensuring that participants delved deeply into the specified topics. Moderators encouraged active participation, managed time effectively, and maintained a positive and inclusive atmosphere throughout the breakout sessions.The role of the rapporteur was to capture key insights, ideas, and discussions that unfolded during the breakout sessions. Using the provided template, they were responsible for summarizing and documenting the key takeaways and recommendations raised by participants. Rapporteurs played a crucial role in ensuring that the outcomes of the breakout sessions were well-documented for further analysis and dissemination.Once all breakout sessions were finished and all participants had reconvened, the documents completed by the rapporteurs, as well as the notes taken by participants, were handed over to the moderator of their theme, who then reported back on the key takeaways from the discussions held on their assigned theme. • Considering Kenya's diverse farming landscapes, what agritech solutions can effectively address regional challenges (aridity, smallholder farms) while ensuring accessibility and adaptability for all farmers?• For successful agritech adoption in Kenya, what non-technological factors are crucial alongside the technology itself?• How can we design the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge to identify solutions with the highest potential for real-world impact on Kenyan agriculture, considering context-specific?Key Takeaways:• Collaboration: Foster cooperation among stakeholders (e.g., businesses, governments, innovators) to co-create solutions that address policy challenges and institutional barriers.• Tailored Solutions: Develop solutions that are customized to specific farmer needs, considering factors like farm size, geographical location, and ecological challenges.• Diversity and Inclusivity: Embrace diversity among innovators (age, experience, demographics) to encourage fresh perspectives and ensure that solutions are inclusive and relevant.• Soil Health: Implement practices to improve soil health and fertility, which are fundamental to enhancing agricultural productivity and resilience.• Avoiding Duplication: Encourage diversity and prevent duplication of agritech efforts to stimulate innovation and prevent resource redundancy.• Non-Technical Factors: Consider social, economic, and institutional factors alongside technological solutions to ensure scalability and impact.• Geographical Representation: Support innovation networks in rural and remote areas to address localized agricultural challenges effectively.• Due Diligence: Conduct thorough assessments of innovators and their solutions to ensure credibility, viability, and accountability.• Working together is a challenge for researchers and private sector alike.• What is success for a startup? Sometimes the scale can be 2-3 counties, but serving them very well, but programs try for everyone to reach national scale.• Who is a farmer? Most farmers are just people trapped in poverty and given another opportunity; they would do something else. • Within Kenya's agritech accelerator landscape, how do programs uniquely support startups, and where are critical gaps or collaboration opportunities for a more holistic approach?• If we envision a forum for Kenyan agritech accelerators, what specific actions could we implement to create a seamless support system for startups across their growth journey, including idea validation, funding, and mentorship?• How can we collaborate to ensure that these interventions are market-ready and deployable in a sustainable way?Key Takeaways:• Validation and Feedback: Establish a system for validating agritech solutions through pilot programs and farmer feedback mechanisms before full-scale deployment.• Funding Flexibility: Design funding mechanisms tailored to different growth stages of agritech startups, exploring alternative financing models beyond traditional grants.• Mentorship Matching: Connect start-ups with mentors possessing relevant expertise in both agribusiness and technology to provide guidance and support.• Market Access Facilitation: Partner with corporates and traditional players to create effective market channels for agritech solutions and facilitate adoption by farmers.• Policy Engagement: Collaborate with policymakers to develop regulations that promote innovation, ensure data security, and improve access to finance for the agritech sector.• Scalability and Sustainability: Encourage the development of solutions that can be scaled efficiently to benefit a broader range of farmers and maintain financial sustainability.• Focus on Smallholder Farmers: Prioritize solutions that address the unique needs and challenges of smallholder farmers, who form a significant portion of Kenya's agricultural sector.• Farmer-Centric Design: Conduct in-depth research to understand farmer needs and preferences, ensuring that agritech solutions are user-friendly and culturally appropriate.• Lack of collaboration among stakeholders. Suggestions include coordinating at county and national levels to establish a database of all agritech players for facilitating collaboration.• Data is held in silo by various stakeholders who do not want to share it due to fear of competition from other players in similar sectors.• Unsustainable solutions from acceleration programs who offer support to the same agritech players as well as offer curricula that is not tailor to enable startups to address their pain points and scale.• Market access issues for agritech solutions • Policy hurdles for agritech businesses • What are the broad components of the Kenyan food system and what are the core challenges within?• What components of the Kenyan food system should be considered priority areas for innovation going forward?• How can we refine the innovation scouting process to support these interventions and build resilience?Key Takeaways:• Needs Assessment and Contextual Analysis: Conduct thorough assessments to understand specific regional challenges and tailor interventions, accordingly, ensuring relevance and effectiveness.• Stakeholder Engagement and Participation: Foster meaningful collaboration with diverse stakeholders to promote ownership, collaboration, and sustainability in agricultural initiatives.• Multi-disciplinary Approach: Integrate expertise from various disciplines (agronomy, economics, sociology, etc.) to address complex agricultural challenges comprehensively.• Technology Appropriateness and Adaptability: Select and adapt technologies that are suitable, affordable, and compatible with local contexts and farming practices to ensure successful adoption.• Scalability and Replicability: Design interventions with scalability and replicability in mind, aiming to expand impact across different regions and farming systems.• Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer: Prioritize capacity building and knowledge transfer activities to empower farmers and stakeholders with necessary skills and information for technology adoption.• Partnership Development and Collaboration: Forge strategic partnerships to leverage strengths, share resources, and maximize collective impact through collaboration.• Inclusive and Gender-responsive Approaches: Ensure inclusivity and gender responsiveness in program design and implementation to address the needs of diverse groups and promote gender equality.• Policy Advocacy and Enabling Environment: Advocate for supportive policies and regulations that facilitate the adoption and scaling of agritech solutions, promoting sustainable agricultural development.• Limited Access to Technology: Many small-scale farmers in Kenya lack access to modern agricultural technologies such as precision farming tools, IoT devices, and data analytics platforms, which limits their productivity and efficiency.• Financial Constraints: Access to affordable financing options is a significant challenge for farmers and agritech start-ups in Kenya. Lack of capital inhibits investment in technology adoption, infrastructure development, and scaling up operations.• Infrastructure Deficiency: Poor infrastructure, including inadequate road networks, unreliable electricity supply, and limited access to water for irrigation, hampers the efficiency of agricultural activities and the delivery of agritech solutions to remote areas.• Knowledge and Skills Gap: Many farmers lack the necessary training and skills to effectively utilize agritech solutions. There is a need for comprehensive education and training programs to empower farmers with the knowledge to leverage technology for improved agricultural practices.• Market Fragmentation: The agricultural value chain in Kenya is highly fragmented, with numerous intermediaries between farmers and consumers. This fragmentation leads to inefficiencies, price distortions, and difficulties in scaling agritech solutions across the entire value chain.• Climate Change: Increasingly erratic weather patterns and climate change pose significant challenges to agricultural productivity and food security in Kenya. AgriTech solutions must be resilient to climate variability and capable of mitigating the impacts of climate change on farming operations.• Policy and Regulatory Hurdles: Inconsistent or outdated agricultural policies and regulatory frameworks can impede the adoption and deployment of agritech solutions. There is a need for supportive policies that promote innovation, investment, and collaboration within the agritech ecosystem. The workshop concluded with gratitude expressed to all participants for their active engagement and valuable contributions. The next steps of the AgriTech4Kenya project were outlined, including the upcoming call for applications. Participants were strongly encouraged to stay engaged with the project to consider collaboration therein.The AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge workshop resulted in rich discussions that explored scaling strategies for agritech startups, giving valuable insights from real-world examples. The breakout sessions tackled critical challenges facing Kenyan agriculture, identifying how various technologies could be harnessed as solutions. This resulted in six refined priority areas around which the AgriTech4Kenya project overall will focus:Smallholder farming methods often lack precision, leading to resource overuse and environmental degradation. Precision technologies and climate-smart solutions can optimize resource use, enhance yields, and encourage sustainable land management. Farmers can employ sensor networks, drones, and data analysis for real-time insights and informed decisions. Farmers also require affordable yet effective tools such as handheld soil testers and drip irrigation systems to boost crop yields and reduce water usage. To support the circular economy, new waste management systems, conservation agriculture practices, greenhouse technologies, and renewable energy sources are essential. Clean energy sources like biogas and solar power are crucial for climate-smart food production. These innovations support agroecology and equip smallholder farmers for a future of increased productivity, sustainability, and climate resilience.Improved Market Access and Supply Chain Efficiency:Smallholder farmers often struggle to connect with buyers, leading to low prices and post-harvest losses. Digital technologies offer a powerful solution. Creating online marketplaces can help farmers bypass intermediaries and access fairer pricing. Data-driven logistics solutions streamline transportation and warehousing, while affordable storage facilities minimize waste. Improved food processing and packaging extend shelf life, further reducing spoilage. Blockchain and traceability systems ensure transparency throughout value chains such as coffee, tea, mango, avocado, and horticulture, building trust with consumers. Efficient first-and last-mile delivery solutions ensure quality agricultural products reach markets quickly and cost-effectively.Traditional methods of sharing agricultural knowledge often leave some behind. Mobile technologies and digital platforms offer a powerful solution to bridge this gap. Digital platforms provide farmers with a convenient and accessible way to access a wealth of information, connect with experts, and participate in online communities that encourage knowledge sharing. Utilizing mobile technologies enables individuals to receive real-time updates on weather patterns, market prices, and best agricultural practices, empowering them to make informed decisions and improve their productivity. These digital tools promote inclusive knowledge transfer and empower women and marginalized groups to fully participate and contribute to the agricultural sector's overall growth and sustainability.Existing methods for detecting and managing livestock diseases are often slow and miss critical windows for intervention. This results in significant animal losses and economic hardship for farmers.Innovative technologies offer a powerful solution. By implementing wearable sensors and data analytics, farmers can monitor animal health in real-time, allowing for early detection of potential problems. Additionally, rapid diagnostic tests enable on-farm disease identification, leading to faster intervention and improved animal health outcomes. Biosensors contribute further by detecting pathogens early, preventing outbreaks, and safeguarding the overall health and well-being of livestock.Financial systems often exclude smallholder farmers due to limitations like collateral requirements or a lack of credit history. Technology offers a powerful solution to bridge this gap. Mobile money platforms provide secure and convenient access to financial services, including payments and money transfers. Digital platforms specifically designed for agriculture offer dedicated savings, lending, and payment options. Furthermore, we can harness data analytics to develop more inclusive credit scoring models for loan applications. These innovative solutions empower underserved populations with greater access to financing, fostering financial inclusion and boosting agricultural development.Water scarcity is a growing threat to Kenyan agriculture. Advanced technologies offer a solution for sustainable water management. By implementing smart water harvesting, conservation, and irrigation systems, farmers can optimize water use and minimize evaporation. Additionally, data collection and monitoring systems provide early warnings on drought conditions, allowing farmers to proactively manage their water resources and adapt to changing weather patterns. These innovations empower farmers to thrive in a water-scarce environment.The Consultation Workshop showcased the power of science-based agritech solutions to transform Kenyan agriculture for a food secure future. Through multi-stakeholder collaboration, the development of contextspecific and demand driven solutions for local farmers, and the prioritization of capacity building, the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge will empower local food systems, enhance productivity, and promote sustainable development.The Consultation Workshop paved the way for the call for applications for the AgriTech4Kenya Innovation Challenge 2024. An intensive bootcamp and acceleration program will ensue thereafter, leading to the final Demo Day where three winning innovations will be selected. These winners will then receive post acceleration support from the CGIAR Accelerate for Impact Platform and wider CGIAR network.Learn more here | Connect with the CGIAR Accelerate for Impact Platform on LinkedIn | Reach out at innovations@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"6254"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"80e17879dba141fdd1cf260e65ad2ef5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/T9GGYA/IG4LQ6","id":"1794079434"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a8df2b41-5b42-42f9-860a-24d4e26fbf1f","pagecount":"10","content":"The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), established in 1975, provides evidence-based policy solutions to sustainably end hunger and malnutrition and reduce poverty. The Institute conducts research, communicates results, optimizes partnerships, and builds capacity to ensure sustainable food production, promote healthy food systems, improve markets and trade, transform agriculture, build resilience, and strengthen institutions and governance. Gender is considered in all of the Institute's work. IFPRI collaborates with partners around the world, including development implementers, public institutions, the private sector, and farmers' organizations, to ensure that local, national, regional, and global food policies are based on evidence. IFPRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium.Responding to a request from the Government of Pakistan, the Pakistan Strategy Support Program (PSSP) was launched in July 2011. This program is a flexible country-led and country-wide policy analysis and capacity strengthening program, which provides analytical support on a range of economic policies affecting agricultural growth and food security in the country. The core purpose of the program is to contribute to pro-poor economic growth and enhanced food security through strengthened national capacity for designing and implementing evidence-based policy reforms.PSSP's four primary research priorities are as follows: a.Agricultural production and productivity b.Water management and irrigation c. Macroeconomics, markets and trade d.Poverty reduction (Income dynamics) and job creation (social safety nets)Pakistan Rural Household Panel Survey (Round 1.5) 2012, a sub-sample consisting of agricultural households captured in Round 1 of the Panel Survey, gathers detailed information on agricultural production and related issues from rural households in Pakistan. Round 1.5 covers 942 agricultural households in 76 primary sampling units in the rural areas of three provinces namely: (i) Punjab; (ii) Sindh; and (iii) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). This survey covers information of households, who either managed or cultivated agricultural plots, during the production year 2011-12, and two crop seasons 1 , namely: (i) Kharif 2011; (ii) Rabi 2011-12. It gathers information on agricultural production (including inputs and outputs or crop and livestock production), agricultural water use, farm and household assets, access to extension services, climate change, credit, employment and income, household consumption and expenditures, and the linkage between pesticides and health. The sample is nationally representative of the rural areas of the three provinces. Data was collected at household, individual and crop level using a household level questionnaire.Round 1.5 focuses on only those households that were involved in agricultural production in the first round of the Rural Household Panel Survey (RHPS) 2012. The first round of the Rural Household Panel Survey (RHPS) was conducted in 76 villages in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) in March-April 2012. The sampling frame was based on the 1998 Census of Pakistan. Household and population data were available for 1998 at the national, provincial, district, tehsil, union council and mouza (revenue village) level. The population and number of households were projected to 2011 for each of these levels using district and tehsil-level population growth rates.All enumeration blocks classified as urban in the 1998 Census were removed from the sampling frame, as this is a rural household survey. All enumeration blocks with projected population greater than 25,000 in 2011 were also considered urban and removed from the sampling frame. The sample excludes rural areas in Balochistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas because they were considered unsafe for the enumeration. Additionally, 13 districts of KPK were excluded from the sampling frame due to safety concerns. The remaining 11 districts of KPK were part of the sampling frame.The multistage stratified sampling technique was used to select the sample. We first used the proportion of rural households in each province to determine the number of districts that would be chosen from that province. A total of 19 districts were selected from within the three provinces; 12 from Punjab, 5 from Sindh and 2 from KPK. We then used Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) to select districts from each province. PPS ensures that within a province, districts with more rural households have a greater probability of being selected in the sample.For each province, the total number of households was calculated, and then the districts were arranged in a random order. The sampling interval was calculated by dividing the total number of households in the province by the number of districts that were chosen from the province. For example, for Punjab the sampling interval is 10,143,181/ 12 = 845,265.The next step was to generate a random start 'r', which was a random number between zero and the sampling interval. The cumulative number of households was calculated in each province across districts.The district that contained 'r' within the range of its cumulative number of households was selected. The district that contained the sampling interval plus 'r' within the range of its cumulative number of households was selected as the second district. The nth district selected contained the sampling interval plus n-1 multiplied by 'r'. The process was repeated until the required number of districts was chosen from within the province.Within each district, 4 mouzas were chosen using an equal probability systematic selection. In other words, mouzas with smaller populations had the same probability of being selected as highly populated ones. Using PPS at this stage would have ensured that each household had same probability of being in sample. However, that would bias our sample towards more populous mouzas, and possibly ignore the smallest mouzas. Since our survey aims to understand the dynamics of different kinds of villages in rural Pakistan, it is imperative to include mouzas of different sizes.The mouzas were arranged in a random order, and were assigned a serial number. The sampling interval was calculated by dividing the total mouzas in the district by 4 (the number of mouzas chosen from each district). A random start 'r' was generated, which was a random number between zero and the sampling interval. The mouza with the serial number 'r' was selected as the first mouza. The mouza with serial number sampling interval plus 'r' was selected as the second mouza. The third mouza had serial number sampling interval plus two 'r', while the fourth mouza had serial number sampling interval plus three 'r'.For each mouza in the sample, the enumeration team conducted reconnaissance and created a map. All mouzas were divided into enumeration blocks. Each enumeration blocks were of the same size, containing 200 or fewer households. If there were fewer than 200 households in a mouza, the entire mouza was considered a single enumeration block. In each mouza, one enumeration block was randomly selected for enumeration.A complete household listing was conducted of the enumeration block that was selected. Twenty-eight households were then randomly selected from this list using an equal probability systematic selection. The listing form gave every household a serial number. The sampling interval was calculated by dividing the total number of households in the enumeration block by 28 (the number of households chosen in each mouza). A random start 'r' was generated, which was a random number between zero and the sampling interval. The household with serial number 'r' was the first household selected for enumeration. The household with the serial number sampling interval plus 'r' was the next household selected for enumeration. The nth household selected for enumeration had a serial number of the sampling interval plus n-1 multiplied by 'r'. The process was continued until 28 households were chosen in the mouza. Of these, households engaged in agricultural production were sampled for Round 1.5. There was no replacement for households that refused or were not available to participate in the survey. The sample selected for the survey is summarized in Table 1. Seven selected mouzas had to be replaced for various reasons. Two mouzas in Sanghar were replaced because a dam had been built on the mouza and households have been relocated. One mouza in Nowshera was replaced because it was in a military area. Two mouzas in Dera Ghazi Khan and two mouzas in Mansehra were replaced due to security concerns.Though 980 households were sampled and contacted, information on 38 households could not been collected. There were 5 households in Punjab, 7 households in Sindh, and 3 households in KPK that were not available to participate in the survey. 3 households in Punjab refused to participate. 14 households in Punjab, and 1 household each in Sindh and KPK turned out to be agriculture wage workers, rather than agricultural households. 4 households in Sindh migrated, and could not be surveyed. As mentioned above, these households were not replaced. Overall, 521 households participated in the survey in Punjab, 305 in Sindh, and 116 in KPK. Thus, a total of 942 households were surveyed for detailed agricultural modules.The following is an overview of analysis completed using the RHPS Round 1.5 data. The household survey collected information on a large number of topics pertaining to agricultural production.Most of the farmers are marginal farmers. Based on net cultivated land, farmers are divided into four groups based on net cultivated land, namely, marginal farmers (up to 5 acres), small-scale farmers (more than 5 and less than 12.5 acres), medium-scale farmers (more than 12.5 and less than 25 acres), and large-scale farmers (more than 25 acres). Most of the farmers (71.2 percent) in the three provinces are marginal farmers. Twenty-one percent of the farmers are small-scale farmers, 6.3 percent are medium-scale farmers, while only 1.6 percent are large-scale farmers. The percentage of marginal farmers (88.8 percent) is the highest in KPK, and the lowest in Punjab (64.3 percent).Majority of the plots are owned. Out of 1,659 plots of the surveyed households during the production year of 2011-12, 56 percent of the plots are in Punjab, 27 percent are in Sindh, and 17 percent are in KPK. Most of the plots in our sample are owned (66%) and the second highest tenancy type is shared-in (just over 20 percent).11 percent of the plots are rented-in, while only two percent are rented-out. A much smaller proportion of plots are shared-out (0.6 percent), and 0.2 percent are mortgaged but self-cultivated. Sindh differs in comparison to Punjab and KPK with regards to tenancy status as shared-in plots constitute the majority (53%), rather than owner operated as is the case in Punjab and KPK.Wheat is the predominant crop grown in the Rabi season. Wheat is the main crop in the Rabi season in all three provinces, however in the Kharif while cotton is the major crop in Punjab (taking up 45% of the land); rice takes up most of the cultivated area in Sindh. In KPK nearly 51% of the land in Kharif goes to the Maize crop, followed by a far off second in the form of sugarcane (13% of the land).Also interesting to note is that while most of our sample prefers to grow just one crop for the entire season, farmers are more likely to grow multiple crops in the Rabi season as compared to the Kharif. (42 percent compared to 35 percent).Production loss for cotton is high. For the Rabi 2011-12 and Kharif 2012 seasons for which data was recorded in our survey it appears that cotton with an average yield of 707 kg/acre suffered the most from pre and during harvest losses, estimated at 58% by the respondents. Wheat losses were estimated at 56 while sugarcane was estimated at 42 percent.Sugarcane generates the most revenue per acre. Sugarcane yields the most revenue per acre, Pakistani Rupee (PKR) 87816, but it also has the longest growing season (nine months). Therefore, farmers growing sugarcane have limitations growing alternate crops during this time. This is followed by cotton which generates PKR 43879 per acre. Following these are maize which gives PKR 35502 per acre, rice (PKR 27949), and wheat (PKR 21541).Use of chemical fertilizer is high. Almost all households utilize some kind of fertilizer or manure on their plots, however, there are no households utilizing compost. 90 percent of plots in the sample applied some form of chemical fertilizers. The most commonly applied fertilizer is Urea, probably due to subsidies in production, followed by DAP. Potash and micro-nutrients like zinc have a relatively small presence in the sample. Sindh has the highest rate of Urea and DAP application and Punjab has the lowest rate of Urea use in terms of kg/acre.Although 96 percent of households produced livestock related commodities during our survey time frame, only 40% of these households sold these products. Amongst these transactions about 92% occur within the village and average at PKR 20000 per household. This is also reflected in data which shows that 43% of these transactions are directly to the customer themselves, 25 percent are with wholesalers and retailers respectively and just 7 percent are with private companies.Canal water is the primary source of irrigation water. Canal water is the main source of water for the majority of the plots (57%) followed closely by groundwater which is the key water source for 40% of the plots. 64% of the plots utilize at least two sources of water while 16% utilize three sources to meet their water requirement. Sindh relies more heavily on canal water as compared to Punjab and KPK, where both groundwater and canal are primary water sources. 82 percent of farms in Punjab, 77 percent in Punjab and 60 percent in Punjab use flood irrigation method, and while furrow irrigation is also utilized, bed and furrow method rarely makes an appearance in our sample.Households have low access to extension services. Only twenty-four percent of surveyed households indicate that they interacted with an extension agent during our survey time-frame. Majority of these households are in Punjab with 27% of the households in Punjab reporting they had met and agent followed by 24% of the households in Sindh, with only 6% of the households in KPK reporting such interactions.Most households received information on aspects related to crop production, while the households in Punjab reporting a relatively greater diversity in the information received, including information on agrochemicals, crop varieties and fertilizer.The collaborative partner in Pakistan was Innovative Development Strategies (IDS) in Islamabad, Pakistan. The funding for the survey came from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). IDS served as the data collector and handled all of the survey logistics, from enumerator training to the processing of the completed questionnaires.The survey was designed and supervised by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and was administered by Innovative Development Strategies, Islamabad, Pakistan.The questionnaires design team was led by Dr. Claudia Ringler of IFPRI and Dr. Hina Nazli of PSSP with substantial contribution by Ishfaq Muhammad of PSSP and Elizabeth Bryan of IFPRI. Thanks are also due to Arshad Khurshid and his team at IDS for their efforts in producing the dataset.Gratitude is owed to the 39 enumerators who worked diligently in extremely difficult circumstances. Despite several security issues, they put out exemplary efforts to collect the data. Additionally, the 942 households who participated in this survey and provided their valuable time and useful information also deserve commendation. This work would not have been possible without the guidance and support provided by Dr. Sohail Jehangir Malik, Chairman of IDS, and Dr. Paul Dorosh, Director of the Development Strategy and Governance Division at IFPRI. Their invaluable input and advice at each stage of this process, from survey design to the production of these discussion papers, is gratefully acknowledged.Additionally, the following individuals contributed to the production of the dataset: Dr. David Spielman, Madeeha Hameed, Hamza Syed Haider, Dawit Mekonnen, and Edward Whitney of IFPRI; and Asjad Tariq, Hassan Shafiq, Saqib Shahzad, Amina Mehmood, Asma Shahzad, Nishat Malik, Arshad Khurshid, Azhar Amir, Amjad Iqbal, Danish Javaid Satti, Muhammad Awais, Anees Majeed, Mubashir Ijaz, Muhammad Imran, Zahid Masood, Munazza Saboohi, and Beenish Jabeen of IDS. The support provided by the PSSP team members-Saira Malik, Sheheryar Rashid, Wajiha Saeed, Faryal Ahmed and Hira Channa-is gratefully acknowledged. Further gratitude is owed to Col. Imran Afzal Malik and his team, including Tahir Ahmad, Haji Afsar Khan, Afzaal Ahmed, and Asjad Iqbal, for providing logistic and administrative support.Finally, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is recognized for their generous funding, without which this survey would not have been possible.The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) requests that users of the data acknowledge the source of the Pakistan Rural Household Panel Survey 2012 dataset in all publications, conference papers, and manuscripts, as described under preferred citation. IFPRI adheres to the principle of unrestricted public access to its own final research outputs and will make such outputs freely available. The Institute encourages the use of the Pakistan Rural Household Panel Survey 2012 dataset; for detailed information on its use, please refer to IFPRI's Intellectual Property Policy. The data files in this dataset are unit record or 'raw' data files. Information that would allow survey respondents to be identified has been deleted from the files, but all other information remains. IFPRI's decision not to alter the contents of the data files means that the user of these files will need to take care in handling missing observations, outliers, and violations of logical consistency.The data are provided 'as is' and in no event shall IFPRI be liable for any damages resulting from use of the data. While great effort was taken to obtain high-quality data, the accuracy or reliability of the data is not guaranteed or warranted in any way.","tokenCount":"2868"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"db29ff10bc979d1666e25d62210f40c9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ffd16c75-8b47-4340-bda7-be3eb1722c01/retrieve","id":"1911457920"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d98dedd5-2f25-4adc-8793-a3d4ec178363","pagecount":"2","content":"The Irish potato famine was responsible for around 1 million deaths and caused mass emigration in the mid-1800s. The culprit was an outbreak of late blight disease. The disease devastated the crop since only a limited number of late blight resistant varieties had been cultivated. This lesson remains relevant today, with scientists continuing to focus on maintaining or increasing the genetic diversity of staple crops like potato, thereby mitigating the risk of mass yield losses.CIP scientists have been working on late blight for decades and have already incorporated sources of resistance from wild relatives into their breeding programs. However, the late blight pathogen thrives in warm, humid conditions and can develop new strains that overcome existing resistance. It is, therefore, important to have a broad range of resistance genes available for use in potato breeding, especially as we face warmer conditions due to climate change.This project builds on prior work to evaluate collections of potato landraces and wild relatives for new sources of resistance to late blight disease. The sources identified will be used in breeding programs to build the resilience of farmers in Peru and around the world.The project's goal is to identify resistance to late blight in potato landraces and potato wild relatives by fulfilling the following objectives:• To evaluate the phenotypes of potato landraces and South American wild Solanaceae species related to potato for resistance to late blight, and make the Late blight disease in potato is possibly the most devastating crop disease in history.This project seeks to identify new sources of resistance in landraces and wild relatives, which could be used in potato breeding programs around the world to mitigate the risk of future disease outbreaks.© CIP/H. TesfayReaction to Phytophthora infestans in potato plants: susceptible (left) and resistant (right).information publicly available through CIP's genebank information system and public databases; and• To increase capacities of national agricultural research systems, universities; and non-governmental organizations to evaluate potato germplasm for resistance to late blight.Conducted at CIP headquarters in Lima, the project team screened 352 potato landraces and 57 accessions from 30 potato wild relatives for resistance to late blight.The project also included a capacity-building program for national partners in Peru, including the hosting of a workshop providing hands-on training on pathogen management, inoculation and evaluation. Two BSc students also received scientific support to help them complete their theses.Although this research will be conducted under experimental station conditions, the results of the project will have gender implications since women are mostly in charge of conserving biodiversity in the Peruvian highlands. In addition, gender was considered during capacity-building activities by promoting the participation of women and young people.The identified resistant potato landraces will be disseminated to smallholders who had already participated in CIP development projects in the Andes, and to indigenous communities in Peru, where late blight presents a significant problem. This dissemination is likely to be accomplished within one to three years after the resistant varieties have been identified. Within three to five years, the new varieties should be ready for distribution throughout Peru. Wider distribution of the wild relatives (as progenitors) and resistant clones to international breeding programs should be accomplished within three to ten years. The project, therefore, has potential to benefit millions of farmers across the world by contributing to the development of improved varieties. ","tokenCount":"548"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8eeaa06ae9abef0df9c17b229fd09076","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/788d2bc2-12ba-4d4e-ae82-81a95db18a89/retrieve","id":"-1451252265"},"keywords":["École d'agro-développement internationale (ISTOM), Francia 13","2 Inicio pendiente Trachypogon sp",") M","O","2","1 (1G) Altillanura plana Sabana herbosa Arcilla: 35","5 ? (Suroeste Yopare) (Trachypogon sp",") Arena: 29","1 Pendiente M","O","1","5 (1H) Bajo Sabana herbosa Arcilla: 32","9 Ene","85 (Suroeste Yopare) (Cyperaceae) Arena: 9","9 M","O","3","0 (1I) Bajo-Sural Sabana herbosa Arcilla: 30","6 Feb","85 (Suroeste Yopare) (mal drenada -'sural') Arena: 21","3 M","O","2","2"],"sieverID":"237a0d2e-3260-4458-bd51-abd31bb91b07","pagecount":"308","content":"La misión del Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) es reducir el hambre y la pobreza en los trópicos mediante una investigación colaborativa que mejore la productividad agrícola y el manejo de los recursos naturales.El CIAT es uno de los 16 centros internacionales de investigación agropecuaria, conocidos ya como los Centros de la Cosecha del Futuro, que son auspiciados por el Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (GCIAI).El trabajo del CIAT es financiado por un gran número de países, organizaciones para el desarrollo regional e internacional y fundaciones privadas. En el 2001, los siguientes países son donantes del CIAT: Alemania,v El ecosistema de sabanas reviste importancia mundial porque, en primer lugar, cubre aproximadamente el 20% de la superficie terrestre. Tiene particular importancia en América del Sur porque ocupa el 45% del subcontinente y ha sido teatro de la expansión agropecuaria ocurrida en él en los últimos 40 años.Los Llanos Orientales de Colombia son parte de los 250 millones de hectáreas de las sabanas tropicales de América del Sur; pertenecen a éstas, además, los llanos de Venezuela, el cerrado de Brasil y las sabanas de Bolivia y Guyana. Estas regiones han estado sometidas, en diferente grado, a un rápido proceso de cambio en el uso del recurso tierra. El cerrado brasileño, por ejemplo, se ha convertido, de los años 70 para acá, en parte importante del notable desarrollo de la agricultura y la ganadería de ese país. En efecto, la transformación de la sabana cubierta de vegetación nativa en extensas áreas sembradas con gramíneas introducidas -de ellas hay ya alrededor de 40 millones de hectáreas-ha sido el origen del impresionante ritmo de crecimiento de la ganadería de esa región, donde a la fecha se concentra el 50% del hato ganadero de Brasil. Asimismo, la conversión de otras áreas del cerrado nativo en zonas agrícolas manejadas intensivamente ha hecho de Brasil uno de los exportadores de soya más importantes del mundo.En las otras regiones de la sabana neotropical, el impacto de la intervención humana ha sido considerablemente menor que en Brasil. No obstante, la expansión de las fronteras agrícola y ganadera continúa, muchas veces acompañada del desarrollo de la infraestructura vial, otras veces inducida por la explotación petrolera -como es el caso de Venezuela que se está repitiendo en Colombia-y otras apremiada por la necesidad de aumentar los productos exportables, como ocurrió en Bolivia. En Colombia, además, los cuatro departamentos administrativos que pertenecen a la Orinoquia (Meta, Arauca, Vichada y Casanare) constituyen el 22% del país y contienen una enorme reserva de tierras y recursos naturales.Conviene recordar también que las sabanas de la Orinoquia están situadas en la cuenca binacional del río Orinoco, que ocupa aproximadamente 900,000 km 2 . El Orinoco es el tercer río del mundo, en términos del flujo de aguas que corren por él hacia el oceáno, y el sexto del mundo en cuanto a su aporte de sedimentos (a la cuenca y a la desembocadura). El uso de esta cuenca tendría, por tanto, un efecto ambiental internacional de considerable magnitud.vi La intensificación de la agricultura y de la ganadería en todas esas regiones despoja el suelo de la vegetación nativa, al menos en los sitios en que las condiciones del suelo y la topografía lo permiten. Donde no sea posible este proceso de cambio, es probable que ocurran, a nivel de la finca y del paisaje en general, impactos indirectos en la vegetación nativa. Estos impactos provienen de la intensificación general de los sistemas de producción y de la necesidad de integrar las especies forrajeras nativas con las introducidas y con las que se siembran en áreas destinadas a la agricultura.La publicación de esta obra presenta el trabajo de numerosos colaboradores y encaja bien y oportunamente en el contexto anterior. Hay en ella un inventario exhaustivo de las especies nativas que crecen en áreas muy representativas de la Altillanura bien drenada de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, y una descripción completa de las principales comunidades vegetales en que se agrupan dichas especies. Estudios como éste son fundamentales, sin duda, para caracterizar parte de la riqueza fitogenética de la región mencionada antes de que sufra mayor deterioro.Este trabajo no se detiene en la parte descriptiva de la sabana. En él se reseña también la experimentación con que se ha establecido que esas comunidades vegetales son afectadas por las herramientas disponibles para el manejo de la sabana, es decir, el fuego y el pastoreo. Trata luego de identificar las normas mínimas que hacen compatible el uso productivo de la sabana con el mantenimiento de la diversidad de especies y comunidades que en ella habitan; donde esto no es posible, ilustra las ventajas y las desventajas de un uso más intensivo de ese recurso.La utilización de la vegetación nativa afecta también, sin duda, otros recursos genéticos de la región, como la fauna. En particular, la fauna del suelo ha sido uno de los objetivos del presente trabajo; este estudio ha conducido a la identificación de especies antes desconocidas para la ciencia y cuyo potencial aún debe ser estudiado, resultado éste de particular relevancia. Hay además aspectos del ambiente que pueden recibir el impacto del uso dado a la vegetación nativa; en particular, los procesos de captura y liberación del carbono son susceptibles a ese impacto en cuanto son influenciados por prácticas como la quema, por el crecimiento de la biomasa aérea y subterránea, y por la actividad biológica. Esta obra hace además referencia a estudios relevantes en el campo mencionado y presenta muchas posibilidades de estudios futuros en aspectos aún poco estudiados.La publicación de este trabajo contribuirá a que Colombia y, en especial, los técnicos y productores agropecuarios de los Llanos Orientales aprecien más la abundancia de los recursos disponibles en esa región, y el impacto que puede tener su uso en otras áreas del desarrollo.Agroecología y Biodiversidad de las Sabanas...Los Llanos Orientales de Colombia u Orinoquia colombiana tienen 17 millones de hectáreas y contienen tres sistemas de tierras o paisajes: el piedemonte, las llanuras aluviales y las altillanuras (las bien drenadas y las inundables). Pertenecen a un macrosistema de importancia global (las sabanas tropicales) cuya topografía permite la mecanización agrícola y cuyos suelos exigen un manejo cuidadoso. Su población escasa comprende etnias indígenas y colonos inmigrantes.Sus suelos (Oxisoles y Ultisoles) son ácidos y poco fértiles, están sometidos a temperaturas altas durante el año y a excesos de humedad, y se caracterizan por la lixiviación de minerales y por la formación de laterita (gleyzación). Desde hace años, esta sabana herbácea y poco arbustiva se ha destinado a una ganadería extensiva de carga baja. Actualmente manifiestan estos suelos un alto potencial agrícola comercial y han permitido la introducción de especies forrajeras mejoradas. El subsuelo es muy rico en hidrocarburos.Las sabanas tropicales ocupan, aproximadamente, un 20% de la superficie terrestre; de ellas, el 45% se halla en América del Sur. Las sabanas suramericanas, que ocupan cerca de 269 millones de hectáreas, se conocen como Cerrados en Brasil (76%), Llanos en Venezuela (11%), Llanos Orientales en Colombia (6%), sabanas en Bolivia (5%) y sabanas en Guyana (1.5%). Este macrosistema es considerado como un área importante del mundo porque su topografía plana lo hace potencialmente apto para la mecanización agrícola; no obstante, las condiciones físicas de sus suelos exigen un uso cuidadoso de esa actividad.La región de la Orinoquia colombiana, también llamada Llanos Orientales de Colombia, tiene aproximadamente 17 millones de hectáreas. Limita al norte con el Estado Apure, en la frontera suroeste de Venezuela; al sur, con el río Guaviare; al oeste, con la Cordillera Oriental; y al este, con el río Orinoco. La división administrativa de los Llanos Orientales comprende los departamentos de Meta, Vichada, Arauca y Casanare. El estudio presentado en esta obra se hizo en el área indicada en la Figura 1-1.Orientales pertenecen a la cuenca del río Orinoco que contiene tres sistemas de tierras ('paisajes'): el piedemonte, las llanuras aluviales inundables y la altillanura; este último se subdivide en dos ecosistemas: la altillanura bien drenada y la llanura inundable o mal drenada.-El primero (altillanura bien drenada, ABD) tiene potencial, si se maneja racionalmente, para la producción de pastos y la agricultura comercial e industrial (Figura 1-2).-El segundo (llanura mal drenada, LMD) puede dedicarse a la ganadería tradicional extensiva y a actividades de zoocría, piscicultura y de protección y conservación de la fauna y flora silvestres.Una gran extensión de la ABD está cubierta por una sabana herbácea, típica de los suelos de baja fertilidad, que está drenada por una multitud de caños y surcada por vallecitos estrechos que se alargan como franjas angostas de bosque de galería denominados localmente 'morichales'.La densidad de población es baja. La región está habitada por una población indígena en la que sobresale la riqueza cultural de las etnias Sikuani, Sáliva, Piapoco, Puinave. Hay también inmigrantes recientes de otras regiones del país que se instalan, en su mayoría, en el Piedemonte y en la llanura aluvial a orillas de los grandes ríos.Se ha desarrollado en la ABD, en las últimas décadas, una agricultura comercial basada en palma africana, arroz, maíz, sorgo, soya y en frutales como el aguacate, el mango, los cítricos y el marañón. Es común en sus ríos la pesca artesanal y comercial. El uso casi ancestral de la sabana nativa de Figura 1-1.División administrativa del departamento del Meta y área de sabana nativa estudiada. los Llanos Orientales es la ganadería extensiva de muy baja capacidad de carga (Figura 1-3). La introducción de pastos y leguminosas forrajeras adaptadas a las condiciones naturales de baja fertilidad de los suelos dominantes (Oxisoles y Ultisoles) ha propiciado el establecimiento de ganaderías cada vez más intensivas (CIAT 1985).Figura 1-3. Tierras de la formación Serranía al sur del río Meta, dedicadas a la ganadería.Figura 1-2. Foto del satélite SPOT del área de Meta en que se halla Carimagua; el perímetro dibujado encierra los terrenos de la estación experimental.Los Llanos Orientales de Colombia se consideran -por su vasta extensión y por el tipo de explotaciones que podrían establecerse en ellos (silvopastoriles, agroforestales, agrícolas intensivas)-una región de alto potencial agroecónomico. Actualmente se lleva a cabo en esa región la mayor explotación de hidrocarburos del país. El potencial agropecuario atribuido a las sabanas necesita sistemas de uso y manejo del suelo que se ajusten a las condiciones naturales del suelo, detengan la tasa de degradación de éste, impidan el deterioro de los recursos naturales, y propicien el desarrollo de sistemas agrícolas y pecuarios sostenibles.Las sabanas tropicales son el resultado de la evolución de diversos procesos geológicos, entre ellos, las fuerzas tectónicas, la sedimentación, la erosión y los cambios climáticos drásticos. La interacción entre la historia geomorfológica, el tipo de material original de la corteza terrestre y el clima han determinado, a través del tiempo, el tipo y las características de los suelos. Las sabanas presentan, por tanto, una gran variabilidad geológica y topográfica (Figura 1-4).Según el IGAC (1991), la Cordillera Oriental de los Andes colombianos emergió de las aguas oceánicas en un tiempo situado entre 140 y 100 millones de años atrás, en el período geológico Cretáceo Inferior. Después de un proceso de transgresión, se depositaron en esa región grandes cantidades de sedimentos que rellenaron las depresiones y formaron así extensas planicies. Desde los 100 hasta los 65 millones de años, durante el período Cretáceo Superior, se acentuó la sedimentación marina sobre la Cordillera Oriental, mientras que en el área ocupada actualmente por los Llanos Orientales se depositaron arenas litorales provenientes del escudo de Guayana.Desde los 25 hasta los 12 millones de años, en los períodos Mioceno Inferior y Mioceno Medio, se presentaron nuevas transgresiones que moldearon el área de la Orinoquia. Durante estos 13 millones de años, dominaron masas de agua relativamente superficiales que presenciaron las estratificaciones, en esa área, de nuevos depósitos de sedimentos.De 12 millones de años para acá, la compresión y la presión ejercidas por la placa tectónica oceánica durante el Mioplioceno provocan, en el choque de ésta contra la placa continental sólida del Escudo Guayanés, un plegamiento que dio origen al penúltimo levantamiento de la Cordillera Oriental, cuyo piedemonte emerge en esta época. El levantamiento final de esa cordillera ocurrió durante el Pliopleistoceno y, simultáneamente, los sedimentos desprendidos de ella se depositaron en la región actualmente ocupada por los Llanos Orientales.Una vez creada la estructura de la región, comienza a ser modelada por los agentes climatológicos. Las lluvias, que en la última glaciación del Cuaternario fueron abundantes, abrieron profundos cauces y transportaron enormes cantidades de sedimentos que se acumularon en la parte baja y plana; este proceso dio origen a la actual topografía y a los numerosos ríos de los Llanos Orientales (IGAC 1991).La actividad de numerosas fallas paralelas a la Cordillera Oriental permitió el levantamiento y el plegamiento de la zona más cercana a ella y el hundimiento de la zona más oriental, lo que originó la región conocida hoy como la Orinoquia mal drenada, situada entre la Cordillera Oriental y el río Meta. En contraste, la margen derecha del río Meta inicia la Orinoquia bien drenada.Los suelos de los Llanos Orientales se desarrollaron sobre un espeso manto de sedimentos aluviales arcillo-limosos proveniente de la Cordillera Oriental (Brunnschweiler 1972). Son suelos de los órdenes Oxisol y Ultisol, según el Key to Soil Taxonomy; son también Orthic, Rhodic y Humic Ferrasuelos, según la clasificación de la FAO ('Sols ferralitiques', según la taxonomía francesa).Estos suelos tienen las características típicas de una formación debida a condiciones de temperatura alta y continua, a exceso de humedad en la época lluviosa, a una alta concentración de óxidos de Fe y de Al en las capas de las cuencas de sedimentación. La continua pérdida de minerales esenciales de fácil intemperismo, causado por la lixiviación, origina un alto grado de acidez en el suelo.La alternancia entre estancamiento de las aguas (con reducción y solución o lavado de minerales) y la desecación del suelo (con oxidación y precipitación de minerales) generó procesos de gleyzación o de formación de laterita en esos suelos. Estos procesos se manifestaron en el perfil del suelo por cambios de coloración (gris, amarillo o rojizo) y por la presencia de capas continuas de plintita (en parte de la superficie de la Serranía, p.e.) que al quedar expuestas al aire se transforman en petroplintita o en laterita.El Cuadro 1-1 presenta los resultados del análisis de muestras tomadas en varios sitios del Centro Nacional de Investigación (CI) Carimagua manejado por el ICA y el CIAT. El Cuadro 1-2 muestra los resultados del análisis de suelos de la Altillanura y de la Serranía en un área entre Puerto López y Puerto Gaitán.Los datos consignados en los Cuadros 1-1 y 1-2 indican, en síntesis, lo siguiente:• Hay una gran diversidad de texturas, tanto dentro del paisaje como entre uno y otro paisaje.• Los suelos de la Serranía son más arenosos que los de la Altillanura.• La fertilidad química de casi todos estos suelos es baja: la tasa de M.O. es baja, la C/N entre 15 y 20 indica una M.O. mal descompuesta, la capacidad de intercambio catiónico (CEC) es baja.• Todos los suelos son muy ácidos (pH entre 4.5 y 5.0).• La concentración (o saturación) de óxido de Al y de óxido de Fe (a veces, también de Mn) es alta.• Hay una deficiencia general de P asimilable (Bray II: 0.5 a 3.7 ppm).• Hay deficiencia de Ca.Muestran, además, los datos una dominancia textural del limo y un contenido variable de M.O. El nivel bajo de P y el pH bajo correlaciona bien con una fase de cambio dominada por la actividad del ion Al +++ sobre el Ca, el Mg y el K. Los niveles de S son también bajos y de los elementos menores sólo pueden hallarse trazas.Estos datos provienen de suelos que soportan diferente cobertura vegetal natural. En todos los sitios muestreados, la fertilidad natural y las condiciones físicas no son óptimas para el establecimiento de cultivos o de explotaciones agropecuarias a nivel comercial. Por tanto, estos suelos serán rentables si se les hacen correcciones previas que generen una capa superficial de suelo capaz de soportar cultivos y pastos, y si éstos son variedades adaptadas al estrés nutricional propio de esa región.Cuadro 1-1. Propiedades texturales y químicas de algunos suelos cubiertos con diferente tipo de vegetación, en la Altillanura plana del CNI Carimagua manejado por ICA/CIAT, en Meta, Colombia. Las buenas propiedades estructurales, especialmente las de la Altillanura, compensan en parte estas deficiencias químicas en los proyectos agropastoriles que se establecen en los Llanos Orientales.En esta unidad fisiográfica hay también una gran diversidad en la estructura de los suelos. En las Figuras 1-5 y 1-6 se comparan, en parte, las medidas tomadas en diferentes sitios de la Altillanura plana de Carimagua, en los que crecen distintos tipos de vegetación de la sabana nativa o diferentes especies de forrajes sembrados (por ejemplo, las que contienen las asociaciones de gramíneas y leguminosas). Se observa lo siguiente:• Una diferencia significativa en la densidad aparente y en la humedad (volumétrica) entre los suelos arcillosos y los suelos arenosos (de los 'bancos') en todo el perfil estudiado. Los suelos arcillosos tienen una densidad aparente y una humedad más altas y, por consiguiente, mejor estructura. Los suelos de los 'bajos', de textura arcillosa y con vegetación nativa, tienen características que los acercan más a los suelos arenosos que a los suelos arcillosos de los bancos.Estos suelos han sido muy compactados.• En los suelos arcillosos, el cultivo de especies forrajeras mejoró la estructura del suelo, pero no ocurrió lo mismo en las capas poco profundas (0 a 50 cm) de los suelos arenosos. Ahora bien, en estos últimos la densidad aparente es un poco más baja que en la sabana nativa, y la humedad volumétrica (o reserva de agua del suelo) mejora cuando hay cultivos. Estos datos indicarían que los cultivos de especies forrajeras ensanchan los poros del suelo y, por tanto, aumentan la disponibilidad de agua en el suelo.Figura 1-5. Características físicas de la sabana de los Llanos Orientales: densidad aparente respecto a la profundidad de cinco suelos de tres sitios (ALG, TABAQ., INTR.) de Carimagua. Las medidas de penetrabilidad modifican la imagen antes descrita de estos suelos y de su vegetación (Figura 1-7). Se observó lo siguiente:• En los primeros centímetros de suelo (0-3 cm), los resultados son muy similares para todos los tipos de suelo y de vegetación.• A una profundidad de 3 a 10 cm, la penetrabilidad varía: en los suelos arcillosos es más alta y en los arenosos es, generalmente, normal.En el sitio 6 (B. humidicola + A. pintoi en un suelo arcilloso), los datos se apartan de la distinción anterior; la diferencia se explica, quizás, por la relativa juventud (algunos años) de este cultivo asociado.• A partir de los 10 cm de profundidad, la penetrabilidad varía mucho de un sitio a otro y también según la profundidad. Se distinguen siempre los valores de penetrabilidad para los dos tipos de suelos: más alta en los arcillosos y más baja en los arenosos. Hay efecto de compactación a los 10 cm de profundidad donde se ha trabajado el suelo por los cultivos.Figura 1-6. Características físicas de la sabana de los Llanos Orientales: humedad volumétrica respecto a la profundidad de cinco suelos del área de Carimagua. Características físicas de la sabana de los Llanos Orientales: penetrabilidad respecto a la profundidad de cinco suelos del área de Carimagua. • En los suelos arcillosos, el cultivo no afecta la penetrabilidad en las capas de suelo por debajo de los 10 cm.El principal problema de los suelos de la Altillanura (Typic haplustox hisohyperthermic, Kaolinitic) cuando se utilizan para la producción de pastos es su susceptibilidad a la degradación. Este concepto se define como la pérdida de algunas propiedades físicas, químicas y biológicas del suelo por causa de una inadecuada intervención humana; esa pérdida genera factores de producción negativos que afectarán más tarde la sostenibilidad agrícola.El Cuadro 1-3 presenta el efecto que tiene el uso continuo del suelo con arroz de secano en algunas propiedades físicas de ese suelo, cuya alteración negativa depende de la intensificación del uso (Amézquita et al. 1998).Un sistema inapropiado de labranza (intervención humana) afecta principalmente las propiedades físicas del suelo relacionadas con el comportamiento volumétrico de éste, como la porosidad total y la diversidad de tamaño de los poros, las cuales están íntimamente ligadas con la estructura del suelo. Cualquier cambio en la distribución del tamaño de los agregados del suelo y en la estabilidad estructural de éste debido a la labranza, afectan la infiltración, la capacidad de almacenamiento de agua en el suelo, la penetración de las raíces en el suelo y su crecimiento (al cambiar la distribución de los poros según su tamaño). El sellamiento superficial del suelo es un efecto del desmoronamiento de los agregados y del desprendimiento y salpicadura de partículas del suelo (Le Bissonnais 1996); está relacionado, además, con la labranza en los Llanos Orientales. El efecto de diversos usos en la estabilidad estructural de algunos Oxisoles (Amézquita et al. 1998) se presenta en el Cuadro 1-4.Los principales problemas de orden físico que se han observado y evaluado en los suelos de los Llanos Orientales son los siguientes (Amézquita et al.-sellamiento superficial; -encostramiento superficial; -alta densidad aparente; -aumento de densidad y endurecimiento del suelo en la época seca;-compactación; -baja velocidad de infiltración;Cuadro 1-3. Efecto del tiempo de uso del suelo (Oxisol) con arroz de secano en algunas propiedades físicas de dicho suelo en los Llanos Orientales, en Casanare, Colombia. -baja estabilidad estructural;-deficiente distribución de los poros según su tamaño;-deficiente continuidad del espacio poroso;-poco espesor del horizonte A;-alta susceptibilidad a la erosión (en suelos recién preparados);-alta producción de escorrentía.La Figura 1-8 muestra el efecto del uso del suelo en la distribución de los agregados superficiales (0-25 mm). Si se compara la sabana nativa con los Figura 1-8.Comportamiento del D50 de los agregados superficiales en el suelo de varios tratamientos de uso y manejo de un suelo Oxisol en dos localidades: Matazul y Primavera. R/A = renovación con arroz (se sembraron el pasto y el arroz al tiempo); R/T = renovación y manejo tradicional; SR = sin renovación. El pasto ensayado (asociado o puro) fue Brachiaria dictyoneura. tratamientos de uso del suelo, se observa que el diámetro medio (D50) de los agregados se ha reducido en los tratamientos. El desarrollo de sistemas de labranza que propicien la sostenibilidad agrícola en los Llanos Orientales requiere, por tanto, de las siguientes acciones:-entender los procesos actuales de degradación del suelo en función del tiempo de uso del suelo, del tipo de suelo y del sistema de manejo que éste recibe;-determinar las propiedades físicas, químicas y biológicas del suelo que sufren más el efecto de las prácticas de manejo y establecer los valores críticos de dichas propiedades para varios cultivos;-desarrollar metodologías de campo y de laboratorio que permitan evaluar, con criterio realista, las condiciones del suelo que limitan el buen desarrollo de los cultivos;-diseñar prácticas de manejo de los suelos que preserven la sostenibilidad de este recurso y contrarresten los procesos que llevan a su degradación.La región de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia tiene tres características: su latitud es baja (de 2° a 5° de latitud N), su altitud es también baja (100 a 300 m.s.n.m.), y su cielo está abierto a la acción de los vientos en todas direcciones excepto al oeste, donde se levanta la barrera de los Andes (Figura 1-9).El clima de los Llanos está definido por el ritmo de los vientos y de las lluvias y su régimen térmico es elevado (Brunnschweiler 1972). La cantidad de lluvias y su frecuencia siguen un gradiente diferencial que va de los Figura 1-9.La sabana de los Llanos Orientales está abierta hacia todas las direcciones, excepto al oeste donde se levanta la Cordillera Oriental de los Andes colombianos.Figura 1-10. Datos climatológicos de Villavicencio, localidad del Piedemonte de la Cordillera Oriental de los Andes, donde comienzan los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Andes en dirección al este. Al pie de los Andes las lluvias anuales superan los 3000 mm y en Carimagua, en el centro de los Llanos Orientales, pasan de 2200 mm.Las lluvias se concentran en la época lluviosa, que dura 8 meses del año (abril a noviembre) y en la cual cae un 95% de la lluvia del año. La época seca dura de 2 a 4 meses (diciembre a marzo), según la distancia del sitio a la Cordillera Oriental de los Andes (junto a ésta es más breve). Esta región nunca ha sido ecológicamente seca. La estacionalidad muy definida de las lluvias es una consecuencia del cambio de latitud del sistema de convergencia intertropical (ITC). La sequía orinocense coincide con el tiempo frío del hemisferio norte y los puntos máximos de la actividad pluvial con la posición zenital del sol sobre el Trópico de Cáncer (Figuras 1-10 y 1-11).En enero de cada año, los Llanos Orientales están bajo la influencia de los vientos Alisios que soplan del suroeste al noreste, mueven las nubes y crean en la región las condiciones que tienden a establecer la época seca. A partir de marzo, la depresión atmosférica se mueve en dirección norte y las nubes se acumulan sobre los Llanos.La temperatura promedio anual es relativamente elevada y es estable: la región de Carimagua tiene aproximadamente 26 °C durante el año, lo que le vale la denominación de 'sabana isohipertérmica' (Sarmiento 1990). Las temperaturas son un poco más altas en el interior de los Llanos Orientales que en el Piedemonte andino (ver Figuras 1-10 y 1-11). La amplitud de la temperatura (diferencia diurna/nocturna) puede ser alta (5 a 6 °C) en la época seca, pero es muy atenuada en la época lluviosa.La humedad relativa supera el 80% en la época lluviosa y es relativamente alta (60% a 65%) en la época seca. Durante esta época, en el centro de los Llanos la evaporación es relativamente alta (> 200 mm) (Figura 1-11), siendo relativamente baja (100 mm) en el Piedemonte (Figura 1-10).La Figura 1-12 presenta las diferentes unidades fisiográficas de los Llanos Orientales en la cuenca del río Orinoco, basadas en imágenes del satélite Landsat (CIAT 1985).Los principales 'paisajes' (o sistemas de tierras) están en la parte bien drenada de la sabana; son los siguientes: la 'Altillanura plana', de 3.5 millones de hectáreas; la 'Altillanura ondulada y Serranía', de 6.4 millones de hectáreas; y las 'Terrazas fluviales', de cerca de 1.25 millones de hectáreas.Es el sistema de tierras de mayor extensión (9,823,000 ha) y el más heterogéneo en términos de relieve. Comprende principalmente los siguientes paisajes; Altillanura plana, Altillanura ondulada y Serranía. La Altillanura plana ocupa el 35% del área (Hoyos 1995).Los suelos de la Altillanura son los más antiguos de los Llanos Orientales. En sus áreas plano-convexas estables hay Oxisoles de tres tipos: Haplustox, Haplorthox y Acrorthox. Las áreas cóncavas han acumulado materiales y ceniza volcánica de las partes más altas y se clasifican como Inceptisoles (por ejemplo, Andaquepts, Plinthaquepts, Tropaquepts) y Ultisoles. Figura 1-12. Principales sistemas de tierras de la sabana bien drenada de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (adaptada de Cochrane et al. 1985).Altillanura onduladaSerranía arboladaAltillanura plana. Por su relieve, es la zona de los Llanos Orientales más favorable para la agricultura, aparte del Piedemonte. Está situada al sur del río Meta, desde la ciudad de Puerto López hasta la frontera con Venezuela, en un área de 60 km de largo por 6 a 15 km de ancho.Está conformada, principalmente, por sedimentos aluviales del Pleistoceno primario. El paisaje comprende bancos altos y planos que ocupan, más o menos, 90% de la superficie total de la zona, y está cortado por bajos y ríos que constituyen un sistema de drenaje.Serranía. Estas dos formaciones constituyen una franja extensa al sur de la Altillanura plana, con un paisaje de pequeñas colinas redondeadas (Figura 1-3), con pendientes de 1% a 30%. De la superficie total, las cimas y las pendientes hacen el 54%, los bajos secos el 24%, los bajos húmedos el 14%, y las partes inundables el 7%. Cada uno de estos tipos de relieve tiene un uso y un potencial particulares (Cuadro 1-5).Orinoquia mal drenada o 'bajillanura'. Al norte, desde la margen izquierda del río Meta hasta el río Arauca, que define la frontera con Venezuela, se presenta un paisaje de bajos inundables mal drenados (unos 5 millones de hectáreas) que comprende dos subpaisajes: la llanura de desborde y la llanura eólica.Es un relieve plano en el que sobresalen los bancos, que son diques naturales de los cauces. Según su posición en el dique, los suelos varían: van desde Quartzipsamments, pasando por Dystropepts hasta Tropaquepts.Llanura eólica. Se superpone a la llanura de desborde, principalmente, y en sus áreas más arenosas hay suelos Quartzipsamments. Las partes que tienen mayor contenido de limo se clasifican como Dystropepts y las áreas de mayor depresión como Aquepts.En general, los suelos de la Orinoquia mal drenada son poco favorable para la agricultura. La sabana nativa se utiliza para el levante extensivo de bovinos.Algunos sistemas de mejoramiento de los bajos, denominados 'Módulos', se establecieron en las proximidades de Orocué, en Casanare, pero fueron abandonados, como ocurrió también en Venezuela (Tejos et al. 1990), porque eran muy costosos y de difícil manejo.La vegetación 'nativa' de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia y de Venezuela es, en general, la de una sabana herbácea cuyas especies características son Trachypogon vestitus y T. plumosus (Blydenstein 1967;Medina y Sarmiento 1981) y que tiene un estrato herbáceo bajo (< 50 cm) en el que sobresalen árboles como Curatella americana (ver Capítulos 2, 3 y 4 de esta obra).Cuadro 1-5. Tipos de relieve y uso potencial del 'paisaje' denominado Altillanura ondulada y Serranía en los Llanos Orientales. A ambos lados de los ríos se observa una vegetación generalmente arbolada o arbustiva (la selva de galería) que puede tener una anchura de varios cientos de metros. La mayoría de las especies de interés comercial de esta selva son utilizadas para levantar cercas; sufren, por tanto, una explotación intensiva y, con frecuencia, desaparecen localmente.Hay dos teorías principales sobre el origen de las sabanas nativas de la cuenca del Orinoco:• Las sabanas fueron naturalmente inducidas por el clima y las condiciones edáficas.• Las sabanas son el resultado de la acción del hombre sobre una vegetación original que bien pudo ser la de una selva.Brunnschweiler (1972) hizo una lista de las diferentes respuestas dadas a esta pregunta:• Lauer (1952( ), citado por Brunnschweiler (1972)), demostró que 2200 mm de lluvia en 9 meses son necesarios y suficientes para mantener una selva en los trópicos. Tal es el caso de gran parte de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Brunnschweiler (1972) responde a la tesis de Lauer: este investigador no tiene en cuenta las pérdidas de humedad de los suelos de la región por evaporación y por evapotranspiración; tampoco considera que las reservas de agua del suelo disminuyen rápidamente durante la época seca.• Según Goosen (1971), los límites de la selva no están muy lejos. La frontera entre selva y sabana sería la isoyeta 2500 mm, al sudeste de los Llanos. En Africa, en cambio, la frontera entre selva y sabana coincide con la isoyeta 1500 mm (Aubreville 1949).En opinión de los autores, la diferencia estaría en las condiciones edáficas muy pobres de los Llanos Orientales.• Según un informe de la FAO (1965), una selva cubría la región desde las primeras edades del continente, pero el fuego la habría destruido. La erosión que siguió transformó tanto el paisaje que fue imposible el regreso de la vegetación selvática. El hombre sería el responsable de la extensión de la sabana y la destrucción de la selva porque hace un uso controlado de la quema (para la ganadería) y no controlado (para la cacería, particularmente). Esta teoría se apoya en el hecho de que los arbustos y las especies de árboles de la sabana se encuentran también en la selva.• Cole (1986) piensa también, estudiando los trabajos de la Estación Biológica de los Llanos de Calabozo, al norte de los Llanos de Venezuela, que la quema o su ausencia serían responsables de los cambios de fisonomía y estructura de la vegetación de esa región.• Los trabajos de San José y Farinas (1983) y las observaciones hechas en parcelas protegidas en Carimagua muestran que, en efecto, el descanso de larga duración que recibe la vegetación cuando se la protege contra la quema inicia la arborización del área protegida.• Blydenstein (1967) considera también la sabana de la cuenca del Orinoco como un derivado de la selva donde la quema es un factor de 'sabanización'. La quema debida a la acción del hombre no sería la causa principal o primaria de la formación de esta sabana, sino un modo de mantener las pasturas naturales limpias de árboles leñosos. Reconoce, sin embargo, la existencia de la sabana nativa en algunos sitios que serían sabanas 'edáficas' y que se pueden encontrar en la selva amazónica (Demangeot 1976).• Los trabajos de Wijmstra y van der Hammen (1992) y de otros investigadores sobre el análisis del polen (palinología) indican que las sabanas actuales, en especial, fueron precedidas hace miles de años por una selva húmeda o una sabana arbolada y cerrada; la fisonomía actual de la vegetación de los Llanos Orientales sería el efecto de un cambio del clima (sequía) relativamente 'reciente'.• Khobzi et al. (1980) citan trabajos en que se muestra también que la cuenca amazónica, durante los últimos milenios, presenta épocas secas y húmedas alternas. Durante estas épocas, la mayor parte de los Llanos Orientales se cubría alternativamente de vegetación de sabana o de selva.• Sarmiento (1990;1996)  En síntesis, los análisis del polen de los Llanos, las condiciones climáticas y edáficas actuales, el manejo con quemas dado a los pastos antes y ahora, y los ensayos de descanso de la sabana, permiten concluir que la sabana nativa actual de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia es una formación herbácea o muy poco arbustiva, inestable, que tiende hacia una sabana arbustiva o arbolada o hacia una formación de selva si no interviniera la acción del hombre. El medio residencial está conformado por la suma de factores climáticos, edáficos y bióticos que obran en forma integrada como una unidad de lugar en la superficie terrestre. Cualesquiera de estos factores puede ejercer mayor influencia que los otros en el establecimiento de una comunidad. Un suelo seco se considera una residencia y un suelo húmedo otra distinta; en este caso, el factor humedad del suelo, al variar, altera la suma de factores y cambia el carácter de la residencia. Puede inferirse, además, que es el factor determinante puesto que delimita la existencia de una vegetación típica que es diferente de otra, las cuales pueden diferenciarse fisonómicamente o florísticamente.En las sabanas se pueden observar comunidades vegetales diferentes, respecto a sus características físicas, químicas y biológicas, por causa de la conformación del relieve y de ciertos factores edáficos. Si se estudian en profundidad esas características, se encontrarán asociaciones vegetales que permiten interpretar y manejar de manera integral la sabana, con el fin de lograr el máximo provecho de la productividad de los pastos que crecen en ella.En 1986, el antiguo Programa de Pastos Tropicales del CIAT inicia, en la estación experimental de Carimagua, en Meta, Colombia, una serie de estudios para enriquecer el conocimiento de la sabana nativa con miras a comprender integralmente ese ecosistema, principalmente en sus aspectos florístico y ecofisiológico. Con tal fin, se estableció un convenio cooperativo interinstitucional entre el CIAT y la Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Sede Palmira, con dos objetivos específicos:• Publicar una primera obra con la clave de las principales especies presentes en la sabana en 20 comunidades estudiadas (Escobar et al. 1993).• Desarrollar una segunda publicación sobre la parte ecológica y fitosociológica del ecosistema mencionado, partiendo del análisis de la relación suelo-aguacomunidad vegetal.La presente obra, que servirá de ayuda a los técnicos dedicados al uso de la tierra y al manejo de las sabanas del trópico americano \"en particular de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia\", responde a este último objetivo.Muchos trabajos se han escrito sobre las sabanas africanas y las de América del Sur, no sólo relacionados con la definición del término \"sabana\" sino también con la clasificación de este ecosistema desde el punto de vista florístico y ecológico. Cuatrecasas (1958) hace un bosquejo de la vegetación típica de la \"formación sabana\" tanto en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, en el área de Apiay (Meta), como en los Llanos situados al sur de Neiva, departamento del Huila. Dugand (1973) describe la vegetación de las sabanas subxerofíticas del departamento del Cesar y hace la siguiente división del ecosistema sabana:-sabana abierta o limpia, \"sabana de pajonal\";-sabana arbolada;-sabana de cardonal;-sabana de matas;-sabana de matorral; -sabana de palmar; y -sabana subdesértica. Blydenstein (1967) reconoce 10 tipos de sabana y los clasifica según el elemento florístico. Tres de ellos son distintos desde el punto de vista florístico, aunque teniendo en común el bosque relictual; los otros siete son distintos según el gradiente de humedad y considerando los términos sabana seca, húmeda o inundable.Los estudios anteriormente citados no unifican la terminología ni son una propuesta metodológica técnica que procure proporcionar una idea mejor del uso o del aprovechamiento del agua o del suelo en relación con la vegetación, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. La opinión anterior no pretende demeritar el esfuerzo hecho por los autores citados.El presente estudio se llevó a cabo en los años 1986 y 1987, en el Centro de Investigación (CI) Carimagua, manejado por el Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA) y por el CIAT, que está situado en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (lat. 04° 36' N;long. 71° 19' O;altitud: 167 m.s.n.m.). La superficie de la estación es de 23,000 ha (Figura 2-1).Se establecieron cinco transectos de 1 a 5 km, representativos de la zona de estudio y consistentes en líneas que seguían el rumbo este-oeste. Se tomaron en ellos puntos de observación distantes entre sí 100 ó 200 m. En cada punto se hicieron muestreos (20 a 50) que consistían en arrojar marcos metálicos de 2.5 m². Los puntos muestreados constituían una comunidad.Todos los tipos fisonómicos de vegetación fueron estudiados menos el bosque, que se estudia en el Capítulo 4 de esta obra. Las especies recolectadas fueron colocadas en prensa de madera y sometidas a secado y montaje. Fueron determinadas por comparación con ejemplares del \"Herbario Valle\" de la Universidad Nacional-Sede Palmira, y del \"Herbario Nacional Colombiano\" de la Universidad Nacional-Sede Bogotá, con ayuda de algunos especialistas vinculados a este último herbario y con ayuda de la bibliografía consultada.Los parámetros que se fijaron para observación y análisis fueron los siguientes: a. Vegetación: frecuencia y abundancia por familia, género y especie (25 a 50 puntos de muestreo por comunidad).b. Suelo: muestreo (un punto por comunidad) a tres profundidades (0-10, 20-30 y 40-50 cm) de las variables físicas (textura) y de 13 variables químicas por muestra (pH, materia orgánica [M.O.], P, Al, Ca, Mg, K, S, B, Zn, Mn, Cu, Fe), según la metodología utilizada por el CIAT (Salinas y García 1985).c. Agua en el perfil: muestreo mensual de disponibilidad de agua (diciembre a mayo) a nueve profundidades (cada 20 cm).Fitosociología-ecología. Esta metodología se deriva de Braun- Blanquet (1979) y de Boudet (1984). Permite hacer la comparación de las comunidades vegetales y de los datos ecológicos, para identificar las especies características y las más frecuentes en cada comunidad y las que son comunes a los grupos de comunidades más o menos idénticas. Estos datos se obtienen mediante una tabla fitosociológica (matriz de doble entrada con las especies y los levantamientos ecológicos y florísticos para cada sitio uniforme). Actualmente, la clasificación de las comunidades se facilita gracias a algunos programas de computador, por ejemplo, ANAPHYTO, ADDAD 1983 y SAS 1989.Análisis estadístico de frecuencia de la vegetación. Se consideró el número de veces que una especie estaba presente en cada comunidad; con estos datos se conformó una tabla de doble entrada, donde las hileras eran las especies y las columnas eran las comunidades. Con el fin de describir el comportamiento de las especies con respecto a las comunidades, se hizo un análisis de correspondencia (AC).El AC (Guinochet 1973;Johnson y Wichern 1982;Lebart et al. 1984) es una técnica que permite reducir la dimensionalidad en el número de categorías de una variable (por hileras o columnas), de tal manera que se pueda representar en un plano la correspondencia o similitud de las categorías de cada variable. El AC requiere de una tabla de datos cuyas hileras y columnas correspondan a las categorías de dos variables bajo estudio, y los datos de cada celda de la tabla correspondan al número de observaciones en que haya combinación de hilera por columna. Partiendo de la tabla de doble entrada, se calculan los valores de ? 2 ('chi'-cuadrado) según las frecuencias de cada celda y las frecuencias marginales. Estos valores se transforman en distancias métricas y con ellos se hace un análisis de componentes principales, el cual permite identificar el número y la importancia de las dimensiones o ejes factoriales. Finalmente se representan las categorías de las dos variables en planos de dos o tres dimensiones, cuyos ejes corresponden a los ejes factoriales que explican la mayor variabilidad; la proximidad de dos puntos indica asociación entre categorías de hileras o de columnas.Se calculó también la diversidad de las comunidades vegetales mediante los índices de Shannon (1984) y la Estadística Q (Kempton y Taylor 1978).Según los 25 a 50 puntos muestreados por comunidad, en los 20 estudiados (Cuadro 2-1) se encontraron 183 especies correspondientes a 108 géneros y pertenecientes a 43 familias (ver Apéndice). La composición florística (número de especies por familia) se establece en los histogramas de la Figura 2-2.  Hay que considerar, además, la gran riqueza florística de la sabana y su diversidad. Tenemos un promedio de 28 especies por comunidad en un área de 100 m², pero la diversidad es importante según las comunidades consideradas.El cálculo de los índices de biodiversidad (Cuadro 2-2), según Shannon (Shannon 1984) o según Estadística Q (Kempton y Taylor 1978), muestra la más alta diversidad de vegetación en los bajos húmedos (comunidad 1: sabana arbustiva) y la más baja en la sabana herbácea de la serranía alta (comunidad 19: Altillanura ondulada) o en las pendientes de los \"bancos\" de la Altillanura plana (comunidades 5 y 6) \"o en una y otra\" donde dominan Trachypogon spp. y Andropogon purpusii. En estas comunidades de baja diversidad de vegetación es muy probable que ocurra el pastoreo excesivo (sobrepastoreo).Para comparar las 20 comunidades y para agrupar, dado el caso, las comunidades similares o muy parecidas -y determinar además las especies características y más frecuentes de cada comunidad y de cada grupo-se hizo un análisis factorial de correspondencia (AF) con la vegetación de estos 20 transectos. La metodología empleada permite clasificar dichos transectos (en los planes 1 y 2) en ocho grupos, tal como se aprecia en la Figura 2-3.Esta figura presenta 'grupos' o 'asociaciones' de vegetación de Carimagua. Cada grupo está delimitado por un 'círculo' o 'papa' (del I al VIII) y en cada círculo aparecen las especies 'características' del grupo en las comunidades vegetales de la sabana nativa de Carimagua. En el Cuadro 2-3 se presentan los ocho grupos de vegetación mencionados y se agrega una síntesis de los resultados del análisis de los suelos de la zona.Cada grupo de vegetación presenta, en efecto, características específicas respecto al suelo y al contenido de agua (Cuadro 2-4); en él se establecen asociaciones definidas y se pueden determinar subgrupos que poseen también asociaciones vegetales características o típicas.Cada grupo lleva un título que resume la fisonomía de su vegetación, su ubicación en el relieve y la característica más notable del suelo correspondiente.Se estudió una parte representativa de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, principalmente la zona bien drenada o Altillanura plana. Se observó una gran diversidad florística y una gran diversidad de 'tipos' de vegetación o de pastura nativa.Esta diversidad se relaciona con la diversidad de los suelos, la del relieve -que siempre existe, aunque no parece muy importante-y la del uso o manejo de la sabana nativa, especialmente el pastoreo y la quema. Estos últimos usos, que se integran a la dinámica de la sabana nativa, se estudian en los Capítulos 6 y 8 de esta obra.El inventario y la tipología de la vegetación presentados en este capítulo serían muy útiles para mejorar el conocimiento de la diversidad florística de la región y el uso que conviene darle a ésta. Se conocen aquí mejor, por ejemplo, las especies raras o útiles para el hombre o para la ganadería en aspectos como frecuencia, dinámica, producción, ecología, valor alimenticio. Figura 2-3. Muestra de la metodología con que se analizó la vegetación de la sabana nativa del CI Carimagua. Mediante análisis factorial de correspondencia, 20 transectos (M0 a M20) se clasificaron en ocho grupos o asociaciones de vegetación (ver Cuadro 2-3) que los investigadores delimitaron en la figura con 'trazos' circulares o elípticos aproximados. Los números dentro de cada área definida por el trazo señalan la posición de algunas de las especies \"características\" de cada grupo y las identifican en el Cuadro 2-3. Cuadro 2-3. Grupos o 'asociaciones' de especies (especie y familia) observados en las comunidades vegetales de la sabana de Carimagua, Meta, Colombia. Las cifras entre paréntesis (1, 2, etc.) indican la posición de la especie en el grupo que le corresponde del análisis de la Figura 2-3.Cuadro 2-3. (Continuación). Areno-arcilloso y limo-arcilloso. Muy bajo nivel de M.O. (0.6%-1.3%) y de P (1 ppm). Muy bajo nivel de agua (reserva) en las épocas seca y lluviosa.Sabana herbosa húmeda Bajos húmedos. Comunidades vegetales 17, 18Clidemia rubra (1) Melastomataceae características:Especies más frecuentes:Arcilloso pesado y arcilloso (>50% arcilla). Muy alto nivel de agua en las épocas seca (26%) y lluviosa (42% Las especies, o grupos de especies, son también un indicador del tipo de suelo (de sus características o sus carencias) y, en consecuencia, del potencial del suelo, de su uso posible para otros cultivos y de aspectos similares.Los datos de frecuencia y de abundancia de las especies, que fueron utilizados para crear una tipología de las comunidades vegetales, sirvieron también para desarrollar la cartografía y hacer el inventario de esas formaciones vegetales; una y otro son muy útiles para la ubicación, la planimetría y el manejo ulterior de esas formaciones (Girard y Rippstein 1994;Rippstein y Girard 1994). Rippstein G.;Girard C. 1994 La diversidad biológica o biodiversidad es un concepto difícil de definir que contiene dos componentes (Magurran 1988;WCMC 1992):• La riqueza de especies, que se expresa generalmente por el número de especies en una unidad de muestreo definida. En general, la biodiversidad se refiere a la variedad y variabilidad existentes en los organismos vivos, en los sistemas ecológicos que los albergan y en las interrelaciones que se establecen entre estos componentes (UICN 1992, citado en Almanza 1994). La diversidad biológica puede ser abordada, por ello, en diferentes niveles jerárquicos: genes, especies, niveles taxonómicos superiores, comunidades y procesos bióticos, ecosistemas y biomas, tanto a escala temporal como espacial (Almanza 1994). En este capítulo, y desde un punto de vista conceptual, adoptaremos un enfoque de la biodiversidad partiendo desde el nivel específico que considera las especies como unidades comparables de diversidad en cuyas poblaciones, a causa de su diversidad genética, actúa la selección natural.Medida de la diversidad de especies. Cada uno de los dos componentes de la biodiversidad (riqueza y equitatividad) provee información sobre la misma. Sin embargo, la relación mutua entre ambos parámetros da pie para combinarlos en índices basados en la abundancia proporcional de especies.Hay tres formas principales de evaluar la diversidad de especies (Magurran 1988):• Indices de riqueza de especies. Se puede diferenciar entre la riqueza numérica de especies, que se define como el número de especies por número determinado de individuos o de biomasa (Kempton 1979, citado en Magurran 1988), y la densidad de especies, que es el número de especies por área de muestreo (Hurlbert 1971, citado en Magurran 1988) (Figura 3-1). En las sabanas, la abundancia de una especie se caracteriza, generalmente, por su porcentaje de cobertura (Bulla 1996).• Modelos de abundancia de especies. Utilizan toda la información obtenida en una comunidad y hacen la expresión matemática más completa de los datos. En este caso, la diversidad se relaciona generalmente con cuatro modelos principales: la distribución normal logarítmica, la serie geométrica, la serie logarítmica y el modelo de la \"vara interrumpida\" de MacArthur (Giller 1984;Pielou 1974, citado en Especies (no.) Area de muestreo Figura 3-1. Diversidad de especies medida por el incremento en la riqueza de especies, según el tamaño del área de muestreo. Magurran, 1988) (Figura 3-2). Estos modelos representan una progresión que va de la serie geométrica -donde unas pocas especies son dominantes y las demás son poco comunespasando por las distribuciones de las series logarítmica y normal logarítmica -en las cuales son más comunes las especies de abundancia intermedia-y finaliza con el modelo de la 'vara interrumpida' -en el cual la abundancia es similar para todas las especies.Otro acercamiento a la medición de la diversidad que tiene en cuenta la distribución de las especies, aunque no se ajusta a modelos, es la Estadística Q (Kempton y Taylor 1976;1978, citados en Magurran 1988)). Esta medida es un indicativo de la diversidad de la comunidad que no da ningún peso a las especies muy abundantes ni a las muy raras.• Indices basados en la abundancia proporcional de especies. Ofrecen una alternativa de más fácil manejo para medir la diversidad cristalizando, en una sola medida, la riqueza y la equitatividad. Los índices más ampliamente utilizados son los relacionados con la teoría de la información (p.e., el índice de Shannon) y el de dominancia (p.e., el de Simpson).-Los índices de la teoría de la información hacen esta racionalización: la biodiversidad o la información contenida en un sistema natural se puede medir de manera similar a la información encerrada en un código o en un mensaje (Magurran 1988). El índice de Shannon, por ejemplo, supone 100 10 1 0.1 Individuos (no.) 5 1 0 1 5 2 0 Rango de especies Figura 3-2. Diversidad de especies según los modelos de distribución de la abundancia de especies. FUENTE: Giller 1984.Serie logarítmica Serie geométrica Distribución normal log que se toman muestras al azar de los individuos de una población 'indefinidamente grande' y que todas las especies están presentes en la muestra (Magurran 1988). Se calcula según la siguiente ecuación:(1) donde:= contenido de información de la muestra (bits/ individuo) = = índice de diversidad de especies S = número de especies p i = proporción de la muestra total correspondiente a la i-ésima especie Cuanto mayor sea el número de especies o la equitatividad en la distribución de las especies, mayor será la diversidad de especies evaluada mediante este índice (Krebs 1985).-El índice que mide la dominancia da mayor peso a las especies más comunes. El más usado es el índice de Simpson, D, que evalúa la probabilidad de que dos individuos escogidos al azar en una comunidad infinitamente grande pertenezcan a la misma especie (Krebs 1985): D = 1 -(probabilidad de escoger dos organismos de la misma especie)(2) donde: p i = proporción de individuos de la especie i en la comunidad.En este capítulo se estudian diferentes aspectos de la biodiversidad de la vegetación nativa en el área comprendida entre Puerto López y Puerto Gaitán y en el área de Carimagua, zonas representativas de la Serranía y la Altillanura, respectivamente, de Colombia.La Altillanura plana es una franja de unos 60 km de ancho, en promedio, que se extiende al sur del río Meta, desde Puerto López hasta Venezuela. Tiene sectores altos y planos con pendientes inferiores al 1%, cubiertos por una vegetación de sabana abierta y 'limpia' o 'herbosa' (o sea, con escasos árboles y arbustos). Estos sectores comprenden cerca del 90% del paisaje. El 10% restante (ver Figura 1-12, del Capítulo 1) está ocupado por bajos y vías de drenaje de la Altillanura (Botero 1989).La Altillanura ondulada y la Serranía constituyen una franja situada al sur de la Altillanura plana en un paisaje dominado por colinas. Tienen pendientes del 1% y 30% y bajos húmedos que ocupan cerca del 25% del área (Botero 1989). Sarmiento (1983;1994;1996a) define este tipo de sabanas como estacionales o secas, porque en ellas ocurre un período de estrés por sequía; tienen un estrato arbóreo diversificado, y los principales géneros de gramíneas que se encuentran en ellas son Andropogon, Aristida, Axonopus, Leptocoryphium, Panicum y Trachypogon.Otro tipo de sabanas bien representadas en los Llanos Orientales, aunque menos importantes en el área específica que nos atañe en este capítulo, son las sabanas hiperestacionales que presentan cuatro S H = -5 p i ln p i i=1 S D = -5 l -5(p i ) 2 i=1 períodos contrastantes. Carecen, generalmente, de componentes leñosos, a excepción de algunas especies de palmas. Los principales géneros encontrados en estas sabanas son Andropogon, Leersia, Panicum, Paspalum, Sorghastrum y, además, los de las Cyperaceae (Sarmiento 1996a). Estas sabanas están ampliamente distribuidas en las llanuras mal drenadas al norte del río Meta.Están, por último, las sabanas semiestacionales que se hallan en sitios de relieve más bajo. En ellas, la principal causa de estrés es el exceso de agua. Los géneros más frecuentes en ellas son Hymenachne, Leersia, Oryza, Panicum y los pertenecientes a las Cyperaceae (Sarmiento 1996a). Una de las formas más conocidas de estas sabanas son los llamados 'esteros'.Bordeando los cursos de agua, es usual la presencia de 'bosques de galería', que alcanzan una anchura de cientos de metros (generalmente son inferiores a 1 km); están constituidos por un dosel que puede llegar a 20 m de altura y tienen estratos bien definidos (ver Capítulo 6 de esta obra). Otras comunidades vegetales comunes son los 'morichales', que están dominadas por Mauritia flexuosa, M. minor o Mauritiella spp., principalmente (o por varias de ellas); los morichales se presentan como formaciones largas y angostas al lado de los caños que corren en suelos húmedos o en bordes de laguna o en esteros.Están, finalmente, las 'matas de monte' y los bosquetes, que son comunidades de selva bien estructuradas o incipientes, presentes en sitios con nivel freático alto y mejores condiciones químicas de suelo.Los suelos de sabana provienen de sedimentos aluviales originarios de los Andes y tienen baja fertilidad a causa de su avanzado estado de meteorización y del bajo nivel de los nutrientes. Son suelos muy lavados en razón de su permeabilidad y de la alta precipitación de la región comprendida.Presentan baja capacidad de intercambio catiónico y una elevada acidez, condiciones ambas asociadas con la toxicidad debida al Al y, en algunos casos, al manganeso (Botero 1989). El contenido total de P en estas sabanas varía de 200 a 600 ppm, mientras que el P disponible (Bray II) va de 1 a 3 ppm (Botero 1989).Los suelos de la Altillanura plana son profundos, bien estructurados, muy porosos y permeables, y se clasifican como Haplustox típicos, Caoliníticos, Isohipertérmicos (Oxisoles). Los de la Altillanura ondulada y la Serranía son generalmente pedregosos por la abundancia de plintita y cantos rodados de cuarzo. Los horizontes superficiales son arenosos, mientras que los profundos son arcillosos; la presencia de plintita los preserva de la erosión, pese a las pendientes fuertes (Botero 1989;Peters 1994).Los suelos de los bajos presentan, generalmente, mayor contenido de materia orgánica (M.O.) y mayor capacidad de intercambio catiónico, aunque son deficientes en la mayoría de los nutrientes esenciales. Se suelen clasificar como Inceptisoles (Botero 1989;Peters 1994). En el Cuadro 2A-7, del Capítulo 2, se presentan las principales características fisicoquímicas de estos suelos.El clima de los Llanos Orientales está determinado por el ritmo de los vientos y de las lluvias. Estas últimas se concentran en un período de 8 a 10 meses al año y representan alrededor del 95% de la precipitación registrada, la cual varía de 1800 mm en el norte de Vichada a más de 3500 mm cerca a Mitú, en Vaupés (Khobzi et al. 1980, citados en Grollier, 1994). La estación seca comprende de 2 a 4 meses; la frecuencia de las precipitaciones disminuye al alejarse de la Cordillera Oriental (Botero 1989) y aumenta proporcionalmente durante la época húmeda.El área estudiada tiene una altura promedio de 150 m.s.n.m. Presenta un período de lluvias que va desde abril hasta diciembre y un período seco desde mediados de diciembre hasta finales de marzo. La precipitación anual es, aproximadamente, de 2200 mm y disminuye hacia el oriente. La temperatura media anual es de 26 °C, razón por la cual estas sabanas son clasificadas como 'isohipertérmicas bien drenadas' con clima típico de sabana: A w en la clasificación climática de Köeppen (Sarmiento 1996a).La humedad relativa es de 80% en la estación de lluvias y de 50% a 60% en la estación seca. Durante este último período es alta la evapotranspiración potencial cuando el agua disponible en el suelo alcanza valores mínimos, especialmente durante los meses de febrero y marzo (Botero 1989).Se tomaron muestras de la vegetación de sabana nativa mediante transectos representativos de las zonas en estudio (Serranía en el área que se extiende entre Puerto López y Puerto Gaitán, y Altillanura en el área de Carimagua) utilizando la metodología del punto cuadrático (Paladines 1992) o la de los marcos metálicos de 2.5 m 2 o ambos métodos (ver Cuadro 2A-1, del Capítulo 2).La información de campo permitió conocer el nombre de las especies y su agrupación en géneros y familias, su frecuencia y su cobertura. La frecuencia se refiere al número de veces que una especie se presenta en un número dado de parcelas de muestreo o de puntos de muestreo (Müller-Dombois y Ellenberg 1974). La cobertura es la fracción proporcional de la superficie del suelo que está ocupada por la proyección perpendicular de las partes aéreas de los individuos de la especie considerada (Paladines 1992).Los listados de todos los levantamientos, que contienen información sobre la composición de especies y sus variaciones cuantitativas, se transfieren a una tabla única, conocida en fitosociología como tabla de síntesis (Müller-Dombois y Ellenberg 1974) la cual, organizada mediante pasos sucesivos, permite reconocer tanto los grupos de especies que tienen una distribución similar entre los levantamientos como los levantamientos que presentan una composición similar de especies.Se ha establecido que son especies 'constantes' o más frecuentes las que están presentes en un alto porcentaje de los levantamientos (p.e., superior al 60%); que son especies diferenciales o características aquellas cuya distribución está restringida a algunos levantamientos (se excluyen las especies de baja frecuencia o raras).Actualmente, la clasificación de las comunidades vegetales es facilitada por programas de computador, por ejemplo, ANAPHYTO, SAS, TWINSPAN, CLUTAB (Rippstein et al. 1994;1995). La información obtenida permite determinar grupos de vegetación de la zona estudiada: para ello se utilizó el Análisis de Correspondencia (AC).Este tipo de análisis representa en un espacio de dos ó tres dimensiones otro de muchas dimensiones y permite visualizar en un plano la correspondencia o similitud de las categorías de cada variable. Requiere la elaboración de una tabla de doble entrada, en la que cada celda corresponda al número de observaciones de dicha combinación de variables.A partir de la tabla de doble entrada, se calculan los valores de ? 2 utilizando la frecuencia de cada celda y las frecuencias marginales. Estos valores se transforman en distancias métricas y, mediante un análisis de componentes principales, se identifican los ejes vectoriales que contienen la mayor información (Rippstein et al. 1994;Falissard, 1996). La proximidad de dos puntos indica la asociación de las variables de una categoría a otra. En general, en la Serranía disminuyen las Cyperaceae y aumentan las Poaceae (gramíneas) y las especies arbustivas pertenecientes a las familias Myrtaceae, Flacourtiaceae, Malpighiaceae, Annonaceae y Erythroxylaceae; todas ellas dan un aspecto de sabana arbustiva al paisaje. Estas familias incrementan su presencia porque la precipitación es mayor y el drenaje del suelo es mejor (Cuadro 3-3), ya que la Serranía se encuentra a mayor altitud que otros sistemas (Rippstein et al. 1994).La diversidad de especies de gramíneas y leguminosas en la Altillanura y la Serranía colombianas puede considerarse elevada en comparación con la observada en otros ecosistemas (Cuadro 3-4). Entre los diversos géneros de gramíneas de la Altillanura están Paspalum (12 especies y variedades), Axonopus (7 especies), Panicum (6 especies) y Andropogon (5 especies). Pott y Adamoli (1996) reportan, en las sabanas del Pantanal de Piaguás en la región del Mato Grosso brasileño, varias especies de gramíneas: 14 en las sabanas de Vochysia, 23 en las de Byrsonima, 28 en las de Elyonorus y 17 en las de Curatella; registran los autores, en cambio, 1, 3, 14 y 4 especies de leguminosas relacionadas, respectivamente, con los grupos de gramíneas anteriores. Sin embargo, la riqueza de especies es similar a la de la  et al. 1995).Otros trabajos realizados para la Altillanura colombiana (Rangel et al. 1995) muestran un gran cambio en la diversidad y en la representación florística de los principales taxa; una de las razones del cambio es que estos trabajos se basaron en una revisión bibliográfica y de herbario y no discriminan la flora según los diferentes ecosistemas representados en la Altillanura colombiana (p.e., sabanas, selvas de galería, morichales, 'matas de monte'). Es, sin embargo, importante la contribución de los principales taxa a la diversidad florística general (Cuadro 3-5).Llama la atención la diversidad de especies que tienen fuera de la sabana las rubiáceas, las leguminosas, las melastomatáceas, las asteráceas, las orquídeas y las euforbiáceas. En las rubiáceas se debe principalmente a la gran diversidad específica de los géneros Psychotria y Palicourea, especialmente en el sotobosque de las 'matas de monte' y en las selvas de galería. En las melastomatáceas y compuestas, la mayor diversidad está en las comunidades arbustivas, como los bosquetes. En las euforbiáceas y leguminosas, la mayor diversidad se encuentra, respectivamente, en los estratos arbustivos y arbóreos de las selvas de galería. Las especies de orquídeas epífitas prosperan en las selvas de galería y en las 'matas' de buen tamaño porque allí es mayor la humedad.En la Altillanura, en la región de Carimagua, se registraron, en total, 20 comunidades vegetales que fueron agrupadas, mediante análisis de correspondencia, en ocho tipos de vegetación (Cuadro 3-6, Figura 3-2); estos tipos reflejan una gran diversidad florística de los ecosistemas (ver Capítulo 2 y su Apéndice, esta obra).Las zonas bajas presentan un mayor porcentaje de reserva de agua en el suelo, mayores contenidos de M.O., un contenido de P total de bajo a intermedio, y suelos con tendencia a ser arcillosos. En estas zonas se observan dos grupos: en uno de ellos (grupo IV) hay especies características, como las dicotiledóneas Clidemia rubra (Melastomataceae) y Rotala ramosior (Lythraceae), esta última capaz de soportar inundación durante largo tiempo; sus suelos son arcillosos y presentan el mayor contenido de M.O. que se halló en los grupos evaluados. El otro grupo (grupo I) está florísticamente poco relacionado con el anterior, es de gran amplitud y presenta también niveles intermedios de M.O. y de P, una moderada reserva de agua en el suelo, y especies características de monocotiledóneas que requieren niveles freáticos elevados; probablemente es uno de los grupos de mayor productividad vegetal.Los demás grupos están conformados por sabanas secas. Los grupos II, III y VI presentan un contenido de M.O. y P de bajo a muy bajo, e igual nivel de humedad en el suelo; son limo-arcillosos y arenolimosos (grupo II), areno-arcillosos y limo-arcillosos (grupo III) y arenosos (grupo VI). El componente edáfico arenoso y el nivel de M.O. (de bajo a muy bajo) que comparten estos tres grupos son, tal vez, responsables de la baja capacidad de retención de agua de éstos, especialmente en la época seca. Es de esperar, además, una baja productividad vegetal.El grupo III, especialmente y, en menor grado, los grupos II y VI presentan formas de vida predominantemente erectas y en macollas (véanse las especies más frecuentes en el Cuadro 2A-6, del Capítulo 2). Esta característica causa un sombreado del terreno en el cual se producen tipos de sabana; éstos, al ser quemados, dejan muchas veces una fracción considerable del suelo descubierta y, por ello, sujeta a procesos erosivos importantes por efecto del viento y de la lluvia. En general, estas condiciones edáficas y de bioforma pueden redundar en una baja productividad y en gran fragilidad del medio, situación que debe ser considerada para el manejo y la conservación de la biodiversidad de este tipo de sabanas.Los restantes tipos de sabana (V, VII y VIII) se presentan en suelos arcillo-limosos, cuyo contenido de M.O. es bajo (entre 2% y 2.9%), tienen niveles muy bajos de P (0.5 a 0.8 ppm) y una retención moderada del agua, tanto en la época seca como en la lluviosa. El grupo V, de gran amplitud florística, presenta una gran diversidad de familias y de especies características, algunas con reconocido potencial forrajero, como Axonopus purpusii; esta poácea, gracias a su crecimiento cespitoso y a su elevada frecuencia de aparición, puede conferir un gran potencial para la ganadería a dicho tipo de sabanas.En la Figura 2-3, del Capítulo 2, se observa que los grupos IV, V y VII comparten características en su composición florística, mientras que el grupo VII las comparte con los grupos VI, IV y VII.Muchas plantas de sabana son empleadas por comunidades indígenas o criollas de manera diferente, según el manejo que ellas dan al ecosistema. La etnobotánica de los Guahibos o Sikuanis, principal etnia de esta área de estudio, se expresa mejor en el aprovechamiento y manejo de la biodiversidad existente en el 'conuco', Cuadro 3-6.Especies características y condiciones edáficas relacionadas con ellas en la vegetación de sabana de la Altillanura plana en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. ES = estación seca; EL = estación lluviosa. una zona cultivada en el interior de las 'matas de monte'; se aplica el sistema de tumba y quema en un área aproximada de 1 a 2 ha.En estos conucos se cultivan especies que entran en producción rápidamente y especies perennes. Entre las primeras se destacan las siguientes:• La yuca (Manihot esculenta), base de la dieta alimenticia guahiba. Llama la atención la gran diversidad de cultivariedades que los guahibos reconocen y seleccionan (p.e., más de medio centenar de variedades de yuca).Al interior del conuco, cada planta se cultiva en las condiciones microclimáticas que genera la tumba de los árboles. Una vez que estas plantas, cosechadas a corto plazo, crean un dosel protector del suelo, se pasa a la siembra de plantas que permanecerán en producción durante largo tiempo, principalmente los frutales. Estos entran en producción en algún momento entre el tercero y el quinto año de edad (p.e., Lacmellea edulis, lechemiel; Pouteria caimito, caimito, madura verde; Annona muricata, anón) (ver Cuadros 3-7, 3-8 y 3-9). A medida que transcurre la regeneración natural en el conuco, se cultivan en él los frutales, algunos de los cuales son especies heliófitas propias de etapas sucesionales tempranas, como la uva caimarona, (Pourouma cecropiifolia); simultáneamente habrá otros conucos en producción. Muchos frutos silvestres han sido domesticados de esta manera (p.e., el caimito, Chrysophyllum auratum; la papaya o lechosa, Carica papaya; la uva caimarona o llanera, Pourouma sapida, etc.) (Romero 1994).Hay muchas especies no cultivadas que están presentes en las selvas de galería, en las matas de monte o en los ecotonos sabana-selva; estas plantas, principalmente las palmas, se explotan recolectando sus frutos comestibles.Otras especies son utilizadas en diferentes rituales culturales o médicos por chamanes o curacas, p.e., el yopo (Anadenanthera peregrina, Piptadenia sp., Leguminosae/Mimosoideae); el yagé (Banisteriopsis caapi, Malpighiaceae) y otras. Muchas plantas utilizadas en labores artesanales son explotadas de manera destructiva. Las palmas son el grupo que tiene mayor diversidad de usos y mayor número de especies utilizadas (Balick 1986).Conviene mencionar los 'cotos de caza', que son conucos especiales o parte de un conuco tradicional, utilizados para la ceba y atracción de animales salvajes que periódicamente son cazados. Finalmente, junto al sitio de vivienda hay huertas familiares en las que se cultivan plantas de consumo diario en pequeñas cantidades, p.e., el ají (Capsicum sp.).Las etnias de sabana han sufrido un brusco cambio cultural al pasar de una condición seminómada a otra sedentaria. Los asentamientos humanos han aumentado de tamaño, pero los conucos y huertos familiares conservan una estructura que no se adapta a las nuevas condiciones sedentarias de vida, es decir, no hay períodos de descanso para las 'matas de monte'. En el pasado, cuando la comunidad migraba o se fragmentaba, ocurrían esos descansos, que actualmente están restringidos por la creación de resguardos territorialmente limitados. La ausencia de descansos somete el ecosistema a degradación y ha traído consigo la pérdida del conocimiento cultural en el manejo de los recursos, porque se traspasan los límites de la capacidad de carga y de la homeostasis del ecosistema. De continuar el proceso, se alcanzará un punto de no retorno (en el sentido que le da Odum 1987).Parte de este conocimiento etnobotánico ha sido transformado por los criollos de la región, quienes han incorporado en él elementos propios de todo proceso colonizador. Los llaneros utilizan plantas de las 'matas de monte' y de la 'selva de galería', principalmente maderables, alimenticias y artesanales. Usan también plantas de la sabana con fines principalmente medicinales; p.e., los mastrantos (Hyptis spp., Labiatae), el pepaemato (Aristolochia nummularifolia, Aristolochiaceae), el alcornoco (Bowdichia virgiliodes, Leguminosae/Papilionoideae), el chaparro (Curatella americana, Dilleniaceae) y otras. Algunas plantas utilizadas por los indígenas en rituales mágico-religiosos son usadas actualmente por los llaneros en conjuros, rezos y sanaciones; con este último fin se usa el bototo (Cochlospermum vitifolium).Los llaneros han convertido la ganadería en actividad prioritaria y gran parte del valor actual de uso de la sabana está en su valor pastoril. Polo (1969)  La biodiversidad afecta el comportamiento de las sabanas por su efecto en la productividad, los ciclos de nutrientes, la economía hídrica, las propiedades edáficas y, posiblemente, en la capacidad de recuperación (resiliency) del ecosistema a largo plazo (Solbrig et al. 1996). En general, una mayor diversidad específica mejorará el funcionamiento de un ecosistema; sin embargo, esa relación continúa siendo confusa y no es posible hacer una afirmación definida sobre el tema (Schulze y Mooney 1993, citados en Sarmiento 1996b).Esta controversia (biodiversidad vs. estabilidad en el ecosistema) se plantea mediante dos hipótesis principales (Tilman y Downing, 1994):• La hipótesis 'diversidadestabilidad' predice que la biodiversidad promueve la resistencia a la perturbación porque aumenta la probabilidad de que haya más especies que puedan prosperar durante una perturbación ambiental dada; de este modo se compensa por la reducción de competencia que cause el disturbio.• La hipótesis de la redundancia de especies afirma, en cambio, que muchas especies son tan similares que el funcionamiento del ecosistema es independiente de la diversidad, con tal que estén presentes los principales grupos funcionales.Tilman y Downing (1994) evaluaron durante 11 años el efecto de la biodiversidad en la recuperación de ecosistemas perturbados consistentes en pastizales de sucesión y nativos de Minnesota, E. U. Encontraron que la composición y la diversidad de especies y el funcionamiento del ecosistema dependían de la tasa de suministro de N. Parcelas con mayor diversidad de especies presentaron mayor resistencia a la sequía, producción de biomasa más alta y más velocidad de recuperación (elasticidad).Otro de los factores que genera baja estabilidad en las sabanas y los pastizales tropicales es el pastoreo, porque esos sistemas han evolucionado en el neotrópico sin las grandes presiones que ejerce el pastoreo de los herbívoros mayores (Sarmiento 1992, citado en Sarmiento 1996b). Por otra parte, la introducción de varios géneros de pastos de origen africano ha causado una disminución drástica de la biodiversidad de las sabanas neotropicales (Baruch 1996).Todas las especies tienen un período de existencia finito; sin embargo, el hombre puede acelerar la tasa de extinción esperada de las especies, bien sea por causas directas o indirectas.Entre las causas directas están los métodos extractivos empleados en la recolección y el uso de plantas. La palma de cumare (Astrocaryum vulgare) es muy utilizada en labores artesanales por las comunidades indígenas de la Orinoquia colombiana. Con tal fin se derriban estas palmas (así como las de muchas otras especies) y se obtienen de ellas los siguientes elementos:-sus hojas, para techar viviendas y extraer fibras artesanales;-sus frutos, que son comestibles y producen aceite;-los meristemas apicales o 'cogollos' para consumo y para extraer fibras artesanales; y -los estípites, que se dejan descomponer para cultivar en ellos larvas comestibles de ciertos coleópteros ('mojojoyes').Las consecuencias de esta práctica son la desaparición, por uso cultural, de la biodiversidad y, en menor grado, el desplazamiento del uso de la misma, aunque a nivel etnobotánico pocas especies se usan como equivalentes de otras. Esta situación se mantendrá mientras el entorno sea manejado de manera \"parcialmente tradicional\", como se explicó anteriormente.Entre las causas indirectas están la destrucción o la modificación de un hábitat (WCMC 1992). En la Altillanura plana, estos efectos ocurren por la introducción de pasturas mejoradas u otros cultivos y por diferentes formas de manejo del ecosistema, en particular, la ganadería extensiva. Esta es la principal actividad económica de la región y presenta varios aspectos: manejo de la carga animal, descanso de los lotes, frecuencia y época de las quemas. Aun la ausencia de quemas periódicas puede convertirse en una perturbación de un ecosistema que ha estado sujeto a dicho tipo de disturbio (Archer et al. 1996). Todo esto trae consigo cambios en la composición botánica (ver Capítulo 9 de esta obra).La destrucción de los hábitat ocasionará fragmentación de muchas comunidades vegetales que, al quedar aisladas, podrían quedar sometidas a restricciones poblacionales predichas por la teoría de la biogeografía de islas (MacArthur y Wilson, 1963, 1967, citados en WCMC 1992), según la cual la tasa de extinción de especies tiende a ser inversamente proporcional al tamaño de los parches de vegetación nativa. Por tanto, para conservar especies durante períodos relativamente largos de tiempo, se deben mantener poblaciones de tamaño grande (de cientos a millones de individuos, según la biología de la especie) o numerosas (Schaeffer 1987, citado en WCMC 1992); es necesario, por tanto, crear reservas naturales de los diferentes tipos de ecosistema de sabana.Los estudios botánicos y ecológicos básicos, iniciados en la Altillanura colombiana, deberían hacerse en otros tipos de sabana, p.e., en las sabanas mal drenadas ubicadas al norte del río Meta. Esta información, aunada a los estudios biogeográficos, permitirá identificar en los Llanos Orientales las zonas de mayor diversidad biológica y el alto endemismo de especies y comunidades. Estas zonas serán prioritarias para la conservación de especies y llegarán a ser declaradas Reservas de Manejo, con las cuales se podrá garantizar un adecuado suministro de agua, disminuir el riesgo de inundaciones, detener los procesos erosivos y los procesos concomitantes de sedimentación.Paralelamente, es necesario evaluar el impacto que tienen en la biodiversidad y estabilidad de ecosistemas como la sabana en sus diversos tipos, actividades como la ganadería, la introducción de pasturas mejoradas, el manejo de las quemas y otras similares. Asimismo, es necesario conocer aspectos de la dinámica de la sucesión de comunidades vegetales y de su capacidad de recuperación (resiliencia) frente a diversas formas de manejo.Aunque existen observaciones aisladas, la valoración y la recuperación sistemáticas del uso de la biodiversidad en términos etnobotánicos, ecológicos y económicos es una prioridad. Es importante evaluar en la sabana el potencial forrajero de géneros que poseen gran diversidad, como Paspalum, Axonopus, Panicum y Andropogon.Dentro de las comunidades indígenas, finalmente, se deben promover y apoyar los procesos que permitan una adaptación efectiva y sostenible a las nuevas estructuras territoriales. En el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria Carimagua, en Meta, Colombia, se investigaron los cambios en la estructura y en la composición florística que se presentan en el proceso de sucesión vegetal sobre áreas con diferentes edades de descanso después de haber sido sometidas a quemas (sucesión a largo plazo) y la dinámica de la regeneración a lo largo de 6 meses después de efectuar quemas controladas. En la sucesión a largo plazo, la diversidad y riqueza vegetal aumentan desde la etapa I (1 año después de la quema) hasta la IV (15 años después de la quema); al avanzar el proceso, igualmente aumenta la complejidad estructural. Después de 4 años de reposo, se diferencia un estrato subarbustivo, los estratos arbustivo y subarbóreo aparecen en los sitios que han permanecido más de 8 años sin quema. En esta serie, entre las especies con valores mayores en los índices de importancia ecológica (IPF e IVI) figura Vismia baccifera (Clusiaceae).Sobre los sitios que han permanecido cerca de 15 años en descanso, se presenta invasión de especies propias del bosque de galería.En la dinámica de la regeneración (sucesión a corto plazo) se diferencian especies como Axonopus purpusii y Schizachyrium sanguineum (Poaceae) y Rhynchospora nervosa (Cyperaceae), que una vez regeneradas permanecen en las áreas, y otras como Leptocoryphium lanatum y Otachyrium versicolor (Poaceae), que predominan en una etapa y luego desaparecen. La requema favorece el establecimiento de nuevas especies e influye en un grupo de especies con ciclo de vida corto, entre las cuales aparecen Lindernia crustacea (Scrophulariaceae), Sipanea pratensis (Rubiaceae), Hyptis atrorubens (Lamiaceae), Xyris laxifolia (Xyridaceae), Macroptilium monophyllum (Fabaceae), Galactia glaucescens (Fabaceae), Merremia aturensis (Convolvulaceae), Peltaea speciosa (Malvaceae) y Eugenia punicifolia (Myrtaceae). No se encontró variación significativa en cuanto al número de especies, valores de presencia y permanencia en los ensayos sobre los efectos del fuego y la remoción de la parte aérea.Los diferentes ambientes que engloba la Orinoquia colombiana están sometidos a la influencia de valores altos en temperatura, radiación solar y evaporación, particularmente durante la época de sequía, lo cual, sumado al frecuente lavado de nutrientes de los suelos, favorece el establecimiento de varios tipos de vegetación fácilmente afectados por los incendios, como los pastizales o pajonales, que tienen una cubierta casi exclusiva de gramíneas, y los matorrales mixtos, donde hay una capa más o menos continua de pastos debajo de los elementos leñosos.El fuego es un factor ecológico determinante en la fisonomía de varias de las comunidades y formaciones vegetales. En la Orinoquia, su uso se relaciona con el aprovechamiento económico de los pastizales para mejorar el contenido proteínico y la palatabilidad de los elementos dominantes, condición que se logra al obtener los rebrotes después de haber provocado las quemas.El proceso de sucesión vegetal comprende varias etapas que conducen hacia estructuras y composición florística cada vez más complejas, puesto que cada etapa o fase tiene niveles estructurales diferentes que contribuyen a aumentar la diversidad.El Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) adelanta en el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria (CI) Carimagua el programa de ecología y manejo de la sabana nativa, en el cual desde hace varios años se realizan ensayos sobre el manejo controlado del fuego. Los esfuerzos del programa se han dirigido a optimizar el manejo de vegetación herbácea destinada a la alimentación de ganado vacuno y, simultáneamente, a controlar la degradación y el impacto de la ganadería sobre la sabana.En esta contribución se evalúan los patrones estructurales y los cambios en la composición florística en parcelas que han estado protegidas de las quemas durante diferentes lapsos (sucesión a largo plazo); igualmente, se evalúan los patrones de regeneración después de inducir quemas en estas mismas parcelas (sucesión a corto plazo). A modo de complemento se efectúa una caracterización química de los suelos de las áreas de estudio.El CI Carimagua se halla en el departamento del Meta (ver Capítulo 1 de esta obra). Descansa sobre altiplanicies formadas por sedimentos depositados por ríos que descienden del sistema orográfico andino, evento posterior al levantamiento de la cordillera Oriental (Khobzii et al. 1980).Los subpaisajes que integran el área de Carimagua son diques pequeños y algunos bajos y vegas de reducida superficie en las orillas de los ríos Tomo y Muco, en los caños Caviona, Mapiria y Almorzadero y en la laguna Carimagua (IGAC 1974).Los suelos presentan, en general, baja fertilidad debido al avanzado estado de meteorización y al continuo lavado de nutrientes. Se generan además condiciones de toxicidad para las plantas y otros organismos por la acentuada acidez y por las cantidades altas de aluminio que contiene.La temperatura media es de 26.1 °C, la máxima de 33.6 °C y la mínima de 21.5 °C. La precipitación media mensual es de 189.5 mm y el monto anual es de 2344.7 mm. En Carimagua se registra el valor extremo, para la Orinoquia, de brillo solar mensual: 166.9 h (Rangel y Aguilar 1995).Se siguieron dos procedimientos: el primero tenía por objeto reconstruir el proceso de sucesión vegetal en el tiempo; el segundo conducía a evaluar las fases iniciales de la dinámica de regeneración, después de la quema, en las parcelas donde se evaluó la sucesión.Con la colaboración de los funcionarios del CI, y revisando la estadística del centro respecto a frecuencia de quemas, se seleccionaron sitios representativos con diferentes edades de reposo luego de haber sido quemados, cuya vegetación variaba desde los pastizales hasta los matorrales altos. Adicionalmente, se seleccionó un parche de bosque de galería adyacente al sitio que correspondía a la etapa IV. El tiempo transcurrido desde la quema hasta la época del inventario (1995) en cada sitio se indica en el siguiente cuadro:Edad después de la quema (años)IV 15Parche de bosque Sin quema de galería Los aspectos de la estructura y de la composición florística que se estudiaron se presentan a continuación:Este análisis considera la cobertura, la altura, el diámetro a la altura del pecho (DAP) y el área basal de la vegetación.Cobertura. En los estratos bajos se utilizó el método del punto cuadrático (Paladines 1992) que evalúa el valor porcentual de cada especie en relación con el valor de todas las especies. En los estratos altos se midieron los diámetros mayor y menor de la proyección de la copa sobre el suelo (Rangel y Velásquez 1997).Area basal. Se midió el DAP en individuos de altura (h) superior a 1.2 m y luego se estimó el área basal. Por tanto, los valores obtenidos corresponden a poblaciones con pocos individuos.La altura y la cobertura se midieron a partir de la segunda etapa de sucesión, cuando ya había individuos con tallas superiores a 0.5 m. Las mediciones del DAP (h > 1.2 m) se hicieron a partir de la tercera etapa de sucesión.Los valores representados en las figuras corresponden a los siguientes levantamientos de vegetación: el 2 (etapa III), el 4 (etapa IV), el 6 y el 7 (bosque de galería). Los detalles de estas mediciones aparecen en Torrijos (1996).La distribución en clases para cada uno de los caracteres sociológicos sigue la siguiente formula: c = (X max. -X min. )/m(1) (3) área basal relativa (%) + densidad relativa (%) Se calculó también el Indice de Valor de Importancia (IVI) (Finol 1976):La similitud florística entre las etapas de sucesión se evaluó mediante el Indice de Jaccard (Ij), donde el valor más cercano a 1 indica mayor semejanza: Otra medida empleada fue el coeficiente de distancia euclidiana, que se corrió en el paquete estadístico multivariado (M.V.S.P., v.1.3.), en el que un valor de cero significa que las comunidades son idénticas (Ludwig y Reynolds 1988).En los lugares donde se hicieron los levantamientos de vegetación, se extrajeron muestras por triplicado en los siguientes intervalos: 0-10, 10-20, 20-40, 40-60 y 60-80 cm (Torrijos 1996). Las tres muestras de cada nivel se secaron al aire, se tamizaron y se mezclaron. Posteriormente se hicieron análisis de textura, pH, M.O., fósforo, aluminio, calcio, magnesio, potasio, azufre, hierro y nitrógeno. Los métodos químicos para el análisis de las muestras siguen el procedimiento de Salinas y García (1985). En el Cuadro 4-1 se relacionan los resultados que solamente cubren los niveles entre 0-10 y 10-20 cm.La dinámica de la regeneración de plantas en áreas recientemente quemadas se conoce como sucesión a corto plazo. En las mismas parcelas en donde se habían realizado los levantamientos de vegetación para detectar patrones en la sucesión a largo plazo, se aplicaron dos tratamientos para conocer la regeneración de la cobertura vegetal después de la perturbación. Las parcelas se marcan como II-R, III-R y IV-R. Se aplicaron dos tratamientos:• Remoción total de la parte aérea de la vegetación, que representa un testigo sin quema.• Quema de las partes aéreas de la vegetación.Cuadro 4-1.Caracterización química de los suelos (0-20 cm de profundidad) en las etapas de sucesión y en el bosque. En ambos casos se evitó remover el suelo para no afectar los propágulos, los xilopodios y las raicillas. Los dos tratamientos se aplicaron en las etapas de sucesión II, III y IV. En la etapa I no se practicó la quema por la ubicación de la parcela dentro del paisaje local. Se utilizó el cuadrado permanente (Gómez y del Amor 1979), el cual se subdividió internamente en 24 subunidades y permaneció instalado en cada una de las parcelas durante el tiempo de seguimiento del ensayo (6 meses). Cada tratamiento se aplicó por triplicado. El diseño de los cuadrados permanentes se muestra en el siguiente esquema: Para registrar la composición florística (sustitución y renovación de las especies) y las respuestas a la quema, en cada intervalo de observación se evaluaron las 24 subunidades de cada repetición. Se calcularon dos parámetros: permanencia y presencia.Aunque se relaciona con la presencia, este parámetro estima la abundancia y dominancia de una especie que se ha establecido y perdura en el tiempo después de la quema (Vidal y Rangel 1987). Los estimativos se hicieron en la totalidad de las subunidades que se evaluaron así: Rhynchospora nervosa, por ejemplo, en la etapa II, presentó un valor de permanencia de 0.25, es decir, fue registrada en 144 interacciones (de un total de 576).Se fundamenta en la presencia de la especie al menos en una de las tres repeticiones de cada etapa, sin que importe el número de subunidades en que se podría encontrar la especie. No considera parámetros de abundancia y dominancia. Durante el tiempo de muestreo (160 días) se realizaron ocho observaciones. Se calcula así:x 100 (7)Total de intervalos (N) donde: N = 8 intervalos En la etapa III, por ejemplo, Mesosetum loliiforme tiene un grado de presencia de 1, es decir, la especie se presentó en todas las observaciones realizadas (8) en esa etapa.Se hizo una prueba de independencia para saber si había diferencias significativas en los resultados de los dos tratamientos (remoción y quema) con respecto a los valores de presencia, de permanencia y al número de especies. Los valores obtenidos no tuvieron significancia; por consiguiente, los resultados que se incluyen en la sección sobre dinámica de la regeneración se refieren a las parcelas donde se efectuó la quema controlada.En el Cuadro 4-2, Col. A, se consignan los valores máximo y mínimo de los parámetros altura, cobertura y variación general del DAP, en las etapas II, III y IV de sucesión y en los estratos arbóreo y subarbóreo del bosque de galería. En forma complementaria se incluyen las variaciones del 90% de los individuos que se agruparon en las primeras clases (Cuadro 4-2, Col. B).En la Figura 4-1 se muestra la distribución por clase del 90% de los individuos con el tamaño de muestra (n), la amplitud de la clase (c) y el número de clases (m). En altura, la distribución de los individuos de las etapas II, III y IV es de tipo normal en forma de jota invertida, es, decir la mayoría de los individuos se concentran en las clases inferiores. En el estrato arbóreo del bosque de galería, el comportamiento de la distribución se presenta de manera inversa, con mayor concentración de individuos en la clase más alta; esta condición se esperaba en razón de que se evalúa aquí la distribución de los individuos en el estrato dominante de un bosque de galería.En cobertura, las diferencias entre clases son muy marcadas, pero hay la misma tendencia del parámetro anterior: en las clases inferiores se concentra el mayor número de individuos.La distribución del DAP (etapas III, IV y estratos subarbóreo y arbóreo) es muy regular; solamente en el estrato subarbóreo del bosque de galería se nota una ligera tendencia de los individuos a concentrarse en la clase inferior.La Figura 4-2 muestra, a manera de síntesis, la diferenciación de estratos y los cambios en la cobertura a lo largo del proceso de sucesión. Es evidente que cuando avanza la recuperación, aumenta la complejidad estructural; en la etapa I solamente había un estrato (el herbáceo), mientras que en la etapa IV ya se han desarrollado cuatro estratos. El estrato herbáceo presenta el mayor valor de cobertura (100%) en la etapa II (con 4 años sin quema), que disminuye drásticamente en las etapas III y IV, quizás por el desarrollo de elementos leñosos y la sustitución de la capa de macollas por dicotiledóneas que no tienen este tipo de crecimiento.El estrato subarbustivo se desarrolla a partir de la etapa II y alcanza su máximo valor en la IV. Los estratos arbustivo (1.6 a 5.0 m) y Cuadro 4-2.Variación de los valores (mínimo y máximo) de los parámetros altura, cobertura y DAP en las diferentes etapas del proceso de sucesión en sitios en que hubo quemas antiguas.  subarbóreo (5.1 a 12 m) se diferencian en la etapa III y muestran su máximo vigor en la etapa IV, en la que forman pequeños \"bosquetes\" con manchas hasta de 6 m de diámetro que favorecen la proliferación de plántulas en un medio protegido por el fuego.En la Figura 4-3 se presentan los valores del IPF en las etapas III y IV y en el bosque de galería, junto con los de la especie más importante según este parámetro. En la etapa III, el valor de IPF fue de 1.62 y la especie con el valor más alto fue Vismia baccifera (Clusiaceae) (1.05). En la etapa IV, el valor del IPF fue de 1.75 y la especie con mayor valor fue Curatella americana (Dilleniaceae) (0.416).También cobran importancia especies arbóreas propias de la transición sabana-bosque como Simarouba amara (Simaroubaceae) y Xylopia aromatica (Annonaceae), con valores de IPF de 0.30 y 0.29, respectivamente.En el bosque de galería, el valor del IPF fue de 1.95 y la especie con el valor más alto fue Protium calanense (Burseraceae) (0.43). En general, V. baccifera alcanzó el valor más alto (etapa III), más del doble del valor de cualquiera de las especies dominantes en las etapas restantes.La Figura 4-4 muestra los valores de IVI para las etapas III y IV y para el bosque de galería, así como la especie con el valor más alto de este parámetro. En la etapa III, el IVI fue de 1.02 y la especie con mayor valor fue Vismia baccifera (Clusiaceae) con 0.62, seguida por Davilla nitida (Dilleniaceae) con 0.16; estas dos especies forman pequeños bosquetes. En la etapa IV, el IVI fue de 1.58 y la especie con mayor valor fue Miconia albicans (Melastomataceae) con 0.26; esta especie es propia de la sabana y muy sensible a la quema, ya que aumenta su densidad y vigor en la medida en que avanza la sucesión. En el bosque de galería, el IVI fue de 2.56 y la especie con mayor valor fue Pseudolmedia laevis (Moraceae) con 0.50, seguida por Virola elongata (Myristicaceae) con 0.23.En general, los valores mayores en ambos parámetros los mostró V. baccifera; esta tendencia puede servir para interpretar patrones de distribución en otros parches de vegetación en el mismo paisaje.En las áreas investigadas en Carimagua, se registraron 132 especies de 101 géneros y 46 familias, de las cuales 36 familias son Dicotiledóneas, 8 Monocotiledóneas y 2 Pteridofitas. Las familias con el mayor número de especies son Poaceae (27), Melastomataceae (10), Fabaceae (9), Rubiaceae (8), Burseraceae (5), Annonaceae (5) y Cyperaceae (4). Este espectro es similar al del patrón general del paisaje de altillanura (Rangel et al. 1995), excepto por la importancia que tienen las Burseraceae y Annonaceae en Carimagua. Los géneros más ricos son Miconia (5), Paspalum (5), Guatteria (3), Casearia (Flacourtiaceae, 3), Desmodium (Fabaceae, 3), Hyptis (3) y Andropogon (3).En la Figura 4-5 se muestran los cambios en la composición florística en la medida en que avanza la sucesión; del análisis detallado de la figura se pueden extraer las siguientes conclusiones:• El número de especies, géneros y familias aumenta al avanzar el proceso de sucesión; la etapa III es la excepción.• Hay un aumento significativo (explosión) de la riqueza, al pasar de la etapa I a la II; los valores casi se duplicaron de una etapa a la otra.• El descenso en diversidad registrado en la etapa de sucesión III (con 8 años sin quema) quizás se deba al éxito reproductivo y a la Alude a las especies exclusivas en cada etapa de la sucesión (Figura 4-6); en la etapa IV se registró el mayor número de especies exclusivas, resultado que es un reflejo del aumento tanto en la composición florística como en la complejidad estructural de la vegetación en la medida en que aumenta el período de reposo (sin quema); la excepción se presentó en la etapa III. El comportamiento del parámetro es similar al de la diversidad florística (Figura 4-5).Según el Indice de Jaccard (Magurran, 1988), que es exclusivamente cualitativo y no considera el grado de participación de cada especie en la dominancia ecológica, la mayor semejanza la muestran las etapas I y II (Ij = 0.39), seguidas por las II y III (Ij = 0.27). El valor menor de semejanza lo mostraron la etapa IV y el bosque. La mayoría de las especies compartidas entre las diferentes etapas se ubican en el estrato herbáceo, que es más vigoroso y variado en las etapas iniciales.En la Figura 4-7 se muestran los valores de semejanza con base en el número absoluto de especies comunes. En las etapas I y II se presentaron los mayores valores (8.6%). La tendencia, como era de esperar, es inversa a la de la Figura 4-6.Si se relacionan estos resultados con los de selectividad, se puede afirmar que al aumentar la complejidad estructural de la vegetación, disminuye el número de especies compartidas y obviamente aumenta el de las restringidas. En las primeras etapas predominaron especies como Andropogon bicornis (Poaceae), Rhynchospora barbata (Cyperaceae) y Schizachyrium sanguineum, que se caracterizan por producir gran cantidad de semillas, tener estructuras de propagación vegetativa como estolones, formar macollas que en caso de una eventual quema protegen las estructuras de renovación, y lograr sincronizar los ciclos reproductivos con la estación seca, época en la cual se inducen las quemas (Sarmiento 1990). Igualmente, figuran como ventajas, los ciclos de vida cortos como se presentó en Ruellia geminiflora (Acanthaceae), o el desarrollo de estructuras subterráneas de propagación vegetativa (xilopodios y estolones) como se observó en Vismia baccifera, Davilla nitida y en varias especies de la familia Melastomataceae. Estos grupos de especies estuvieron presentes en todos los muestreos después de inducir la quema, lo que confirma su alta capacidad de recuperación después de una perturbación.Miconia albicans, M. trinervia (Melastomataceae), Simarouba amara y Siparuna guianensis (Monimiaceae) se registraron solamente en las etapas III y IV, donde presentaron mayor cantidad de individuos y crecimiento más vigoroso en individuos maduros.En la etapa IV se registraron especies presentes también en el bosque de galería, como Dendropanax arboreus, Heliconia sp. (Heliconiaceae), Licania apetala y Protium calanense. Estos resultados contrastan con los registrados por Eiten (1972) en San José y Fariñas (1983) para la vegetación del cerrado brasileño; allí, en áreas abiertas, después de 30 años de protección del fuego, no se observó la invasión por especies del bosque, a pesar de la proximidad del mismo. Para el área de estudio se podría plantear entonces que los factores edáficos y climáticos no son limitativos del desarrollo de la vegetación arbórea.Otro índice de semejanza utilizado fue la distancia euclidiana la cual, además de la presencia, considera la variación de un parámetro fisonómico como la cobertura. Las etapas con mayor afinidad florística y fisonómica fueron la III y la IV, con 8 y 15 años de descanso, respectivamente, puesto que presentaron el menor coeficiente de distancia euclidiana (32.31). El coeficiente para las etapas II, III y IV fue 39.07 y para las etapas I, II, III y IV fue 74.80.Según esto, para lograr cambios fisonómicos en etapas avanzadas de la sucesión, se requiere mayor tiempo que en las etapas tempranas. Una parcela con 3 años de recuperación se diferencia fácilmente de una de 4 años de recuperación, lo cual no es tan evidente entre parcelas de 8 y 15 años de recuperación.Las concentraciones altas de nitrógeno en las tres primeras etapas pueden deberse a la presencia y dominancia de leguminosas en esas etapas o al aumento de radiación incidente a nivel del suelo. Los contenidos altos de azufre en la etapa IV se explican por una compensación del elemento por diferentes vías durante el tiempo de descanso (Kauffman et al. 1994). Los valores de calcio y de potasio, no presentaron tendencias definidas en la sucesión.Los contenidos de fósforo, hierro y magnesio tienden a aumentar de acuerdo con el incremento en la complejidad estructural de la vegetación, evento que corresponde a lo señalado por Kellman (1984), quien encontró que los suelos de las sabanas arboladas con largos períodos sin quema eran muy ricos en fósforo y cationes intercambiables, lo cual se reflejaba en el aumento de la fertilidad. Kauffman et al. (1994) encontraron en la vegetación del cerrado brasileño, que el fósforo, el nitrógeno, el azufre y el calcio aumentaban donde había un componente importante de hojarasca de dicotiledóneas, condición similar a la que se presenta en la etapa de sucesión IV y en el bosque de galería de nuestro estudio.Cuando se hizo un solo evento de quema, se registraron 84 morfoespecies distribuidas así: etapa II-R, 60; etapa III-R, 48; etapa IV-R, 47. Aunque 6 meses como tiempo de seguimiento es un período muy limitado que no permite consolidar los valores absolutos de riqueza, se puede decir preliminarmente que en un evento de requema la diversidad florística tiende a disminuir.En la etapa de sucesión II-R, en la que se presentó el mayor número de especies, estructuralmente dominó el estrato herbáceo donde se encuentran las especies con estructuras de resistencia al fuego.En la Figura 4-8 se muestran las especies con mayor valor de permanencia. Axonopus purpusii alcanza figuración en las etapas II, III y IV, con mayor valor en la etapa III; Schizachyrium sanguineum y Rhynchospora nervosa repiten el mismo comportamiento, pero los valores mayores los alcanzan en la etapa II. Davilla nitida y Miconia albicans tienen valores importantes en las etapas III y IV. Leptocoryphium lanatum y Otachyrium versicolor logran valores altos en la etapa II, en la que se encontraron -en términos generales-los valores más altos de este parámetro, ya que allí predominan especies con estructuras subterráneas de propagación como rizomas, xilopodios y meristemos enterrados, que en situaciones adversas les confieren la posibilidad de regeneración después del daño (Noble et al., citados en Vidal y Rangel 1987). Algunas de estas especies poseen alto valor nutritivo y son apetecidas por el ganado, especialmente durante las cuatro primeras semanas luego de la quema.Especies de los géneros Adiantum y Phaseolus se establecieron gracias a los cambios físico-bióticos producidos por el fuego de requema, ya que no se presentaron en los inventarios iniciales y son elementos que han sido considerados colonizadores rápidos de las chacras y conucos indígenas después de las quemas. En parcelas que permanecieron 15 años sin quema (etapa IV), la aparición de las especies fue más lenta; quizás en esto influye la escasa cobertura de gramíneas y ciperáceas, que en otras etapas de la sucesión aseguraron un restablecimiento rápido del estrato herbáceo. A primera vista, los resultados encontrados encajan con los hallazgos de Jones (Blondel 1985); según este autor, en un proceso de sucesión secundaria en vegetación de sabana, la asignación de energía para la reproducción tiende a disminuir en la medida en que avanza el proceso. En las etapas tempranas, después de la perturbación, la estrategia es producir muchos individuos y establecerlos en el medio, mientras que en las etapas maduras se seleccionan mecanismos que aseguran la permanencia de los individuos en un medio saturado. Un grupo de especies con valores bajos de presencia, mostraron ciclos de vida cortos y produjeron semillas a los 40 días de quema; entre ellas figuran las siguientes: Lindernia crustacea, Sipanea hispida (Rubiaceae), Hyptis atrorubens, Xyris laxifolia, Macroptilium monophyllum (Fabaceae), Galactia glaucescens, Merremia aturensis, Peltaea speciosa, y Eugenia punicifolia (Vidal, 1986). El grupo fue sustituido por Schizachyrium sanguineum, Eriosema simplicifolia, Clidemia rubra, Axonopus purpusii, Otachhyrium versicolor, Sabicea villosa, Rhynchospora nervosa, Trachypogon vestitus y Paspalum pectinatum.Las diferencias que se encontraron en los tratamientos remoción y quema, se relacionan con el aspecto fenológico; especies como Sipanea hispida, Hyptis atrorubens, Xyris laxifolia, Galactia glaucescens, Merremia aturensis, Peltaea speciosa y Eugenia punicifolia, florecieron en las parcelas que habían sido quemadas, mientras que en las parcelas donde se había removido la vegetación, permanecieron en estado vegetativo (Figura 4-9). • El desarrollo de elementos leñosos se evidencia luego de 8 años de permanecer un sitio en descanso (sin quema). En las etapas II y III, el patrón de crecimiento de las especies leñosas es agregado y favorece el crecimiento de plántulas en su interior; éstas, en su mayoría, conformarán los estratos subarbóreo y arbóreo, evento igualmente reseñado por San José y Fariñas (1983) y por Bergeron y Leduc (1998).• En la etapa IV se puede presentar invasión de algunas especies propias del bosque de galería, la cual no se presenta en paisajes con rasgos fisonómicos y florísticos parecidos, como los del cerrado brasileño.• En las parcelas con 8 años sin quema (etapa III), la diversidad florística disminuye en relación con la etapa anterior; esto se debe, probablemente, al éxito reproductivo y a la alta productividad de especies como Vismia baccifera, Tococa guianensis y Davilla nitida, que aportan el 82% de la cobertura total, se tornan dominantes y, en cierto sentido, evitan el arraigo o el desarrollo de otras especies. pobreza de nutrientes como factores ecológicos.Estos ecosistemas constituyen uno de los grandes biomas característicos del cordón intertropical y ocupan cerca de 10 millones de km 2 de la superficie terrestre (3 millones de km 2 en América del Sur y Central). En América se extienden desde México y Cuba, en el norte, hasta Bolivia y Paraguay, en el sur, y alcanzan mayor superficie y más importancia nacional como fuente de recursos económicos y como unidad natural en Colombia, Venezuela y Brasil (Hernández et al. 1994).Las sabanas son ecosistemas de bajo potencial productivo y alta biodiversidad (Serna-Isaza et al. 1996) y se dedican a ganadería extensiva, principalmente. El impacto que reciben las sabanas de diferentes formas de manejo (sobrepastoreo, quemas, etc.) y la necesidad de aprovecharlas en forma sostenible requieren de conocimientos sobre la distribución espacial y la dinámica de la vegetación y sobre el potencial forrajero de las comunidades vegetales, entre otros aspectos relevantes. La cartografía de las sabanas puede abordarse mediante la teledetección, una herramienta de estudio de los paisajes, las formaciones y las comunidades vegetales (Girard y Girard 1989).En este capítulo se presentan algunas técnicas de teledetección empleadas para hacer la cartografía de la vegetación, la evaluación de las quemas y de la biomasa, la fenología, el uso y la cobertura de los ecosistemas de sabana. Esta información se organiza en cinco diferentes niveles: zona biogeográfica, formación vegetal, sucesión vegetal, comunidad vegetal y población vegetal. Al final del capítulo se revisan algunos trabajos de teledetección realizados para los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.Este estudio se hace principalmente a escala continental dadas las dimensiones de estas zonas. Los satélites NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) de los Estados Unidos obtienen imágenes de un tamaño de pixel de 1 x 1 km o de 4 x 4 km; pueden hacer, por tanto, este tipo de estudios a escala muy pequeña disminuyendo así el número de imágenes empleadas. Cuando se utilizan imágenes de mayor resolución espacial, como las de Landsat, para cubrir un continente (Africa, por ejemplo), son necesarias 1100 escenas de 185 x 185 km (Girard y Girard 1989).Varios satélites NOAA toman imágenes cada 12 horas de un mismo sitio de la tierra (una de esas dos veces con luz diurna), empleando un campo de visión utilizable de 3000 x 3000 km. La resolución es de 1 x 1 km en el espectro visible y de 17 x 17 km en el infrarrojo, aunque los productos pueden proveer datos con una resolución de 1.1, 4, 15 y 25 km. El sensor utilizado es el AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer). Estos satélites adquieren datos digitales de emisividad y reflectividad de la superficie de la tierra en el rojo visible (0.580 a 0.680 mm), en el infrarrojo cercano (0.725 a 1.10 mm), en el infrarrojo medio (3.55 a 3.93 mm) y en el infrarrojo termal (10.3 a 11.3 y 11.5 a 12.5 mm) (Stone et al. 1994). Completan 14.1 órbitas por día (cada una dura 102 minutos) y las trayectorias orbitales, aunque no se repiten, se asimilan a nodos ecuatoriales cada 8 días (Montoya 1997). Esta baja resolución, tanto espacial como espectral, permiten manejar un menor volumen de datos; la mayor resolución temporal, por su parte, ofrece ventajas para hacer análisis globales de la cobertura, en comparación con otros sensores (p.e., los programas de los satélites Landsat y SPOT) (Brown et al. 1993).Entre las bandas más utilizadas están la 1 (C 1 ) y la 2 (C 2 ) que son, respectivamente, las usadas para el infrarrojo y el rojo (Chuvieco 1995). El mayor valor obtenido en el curso de una semana para cada uno de los índices C 2 /C 1 (Indice de Vegetación Normalizado, NVI en inglés) y C 2 -C 1 /C 2 +C 1 (Indice de Vegetación de Diferencia Normalizada, NDVI en inglés) es retenido para caracterizar cada malla de la rejilla de datos del AVHRR. El mayor valor de cada uno de esos índices, para un período de 3 semanas, es retenido para calificar cada malla. Así se descartan las peores condiciones de 'irradiancia' debidas a la nubosidad o a los aerosoles en suspensión en la atmósfera (Girard y Girard 1989).Con esta metodología se ha realizado el mapa de la cobertura terrestre a escala pequeña (Sylvander et al. 1988;Millington et al. 1992). Se han utilizado datos NOAA/AVHRR del Indice Global de Vegetación (GVI, resolución 15-25 km) para hacerle seguimiento (monitoría) a la cobertura terrestre mundial, mediante una clasificación no supervisada (Murai et al. 1991; Tateishi y Kajiwara 1991) o para hacer el mapa de la cobertura terrestre de diferentes biomas partiendo de datos NOAA/AVHRR LAC (Cobertura de Area Local, resolución de 1.1 km) (Nelson y Horning 1993;Stone et al. 1994). Se ha empleado también el análisis multitemporal de las series de Fourier para obtener una clasificación de la cobertura terrestre (Andrés et al. 1994).Para investigar el cambio de la cobertura terrestre global, es necesario utilizar datos complementarios de múltiples fuentes, incluyendo aquí los de altitud y región ecológica; de este modo se marcan y refinan las clases de cobertura terrestre que presenten diferentes tipos de cobertura para una única firma espectro-temporal (Brown et al. 1993).En otros trabajos se cuestiona la confiabilidad del NDVI por estar influenciado por los cambios climáticos de corta duración. En su lugar se usan datos de Cobertura de Area Global (GAC) obtenidos del AVHRR durante 8 a 9 años, con los cuales se logra una clasificación de la cobertura vegetal. Se logra también, empleando datos promedio multianuales del NDVI y la temperatura superficial (TS) para obtener la relación NDVI/TS, relación que es menos influenciada por variaciones interanuales de las condiciones climáticas (Mather 1992;Ehrlich y Lambin 1996;Malingreau et al. 1996).Otra aplicación ampliamente difundida de los datos del AVHRR en ecosistemas de sabana es la evaluación de la distribución espacial de las quemas de la vegetación de la sabana (Frederiksen et al. 1990;Riggan et al. 1993;Pereira y Setzer 1996), la emisión de gases de dichas quemas (Kaufman et al. 1992) y las implicaciones que éstas tienen en el cambio climático y la ecología de los ecosistemas terrestres (Levine 1991;Lindsay 1992). No obstante, la mejor discriminación de las cenizas y las áreas quemadas se logra con datos de alta resolución espacial, p.e., Landsat MSS (Multi-Spectral Scanner) o TM (Tematic Mapper) (Riggan et al. 1993).En la época seca, la vegetación se ha desecado, en gran parte; por ello, en el infrarrojo próximo, la 'reflectancia' del suelo desnudo es frecuentemente superior a la de la vegetación; lo contrario se observa en las zonas templadas. Es posible poner en evidencia formaciones vegetales con una composición en color realizada mediante tres canales MSS, pero empleando una combinación diferente a la que comúnmente se usa para obtener una composición coloreada que represente el infrarrojo. Bajo esta composición coloreada, las sabanas arbustivas más o menos densas no pueden distinguirse entre sí y son codificadas en rojo; se confunden así con la quema reciente de la maleza que se codifica también en rojo. Las sabanas arboladas, más densas y un poco clorofílicas, aparecen en amarillo verdoso, lo mismo que los bosques de galería que bordean los ríos. Hay que extraer entonces las quemas recientes de la maleza; una forma de hacerlo es seleccionando todos los pixeles cuyo valor de luminiscencia sea el más débil para los tres canales MSS (Girard y Girard 1989).El cálculo del NVI pone en evidencia el suelo desnudo y las diferentes clases de vegetación, p.e., maleza recientemente quemada, barbechos, sabanas herbáceas, sabanas arbustivas, sabanas arboladas y selvas de galería. Una clasificación realizada a partir de los componentes principales daría las mismas unidades (Girard y Girard 1989). Partiendo de los datos Landsat MSS, por tanto, pueden distinguirse formaciones vegetales en función de la mayor o menor abundancia de los estratos herbáceo, arbustivo y arbóreo, a condición de que éstos presenten estados fenológicos lo suficientemente diferenciados para que puedan exhibir diferentes comportamientos espectrales (Armand 1986; Girard y Girard 1989; Townshend y Justice 1990).Ahora bien, es difícil diferenciar entre las diversas sabanas arbustivas, ya que sus valores de luminiscencia son muy próximos y las diferencias estructurales que podrían diferenciarlas no son perceptibles a causa de la resolución geométrica de los datos (Girard y Girard 1989).Se ha usado también con éxito, para discriminar formaciones de sabana, el satélite difusómetro de viento Seasat-A el cual, mediante técnicas de superposición parcial (solapamiento) de imágenes, permite incrementar la resolución de éstas (Hardin y Long 1994).Una etapa de vegetación ocurre en una zona geográfica en la cual el clima condiciona la presencia de uno o varios grupos vegetales (definidos mediante arreglos de especies particulares y diferenciables) y de agrupaciones de igual naturaleza pertenecientes a otra etapa. Una serie de vegetación corresponde a un arreglo de grupos vegetales que se suceden después de estar el terreno desnudo (o desprovisto de agua) y llegan a alcanzar un estado de equilibrio (climácico o no) en una sucesión progresiva o regresiva. La primera de estas unidades corresponde a la región ecológica y al paisaje vegetal, y la segunda a la formación vegetal y a la comunidad vegetal (Girard y Girard 1989).Es posible diferenciar en un territorio relativamente grande, y para una fecha determinada, las etapas de vegetación correspondientes, p.e., a las diferentes fases fenológicas; asimismo, dentro de una serie de vegetación pueden distinguirse los estados de evolución presentes cuyas fisonomías son diferentes. Los datos que entregan Landsat MSS y TM son los más indicados para diferenciar las unidades antes descritas y para seguir su evolución (Girard y Girard 1989).El uso de datos NOAA/AVHRR ha permitido también evaluar la productividad de comunidades herbáceas (Bauliés y Pons 1995). Asimismo, permite distinguir los siguientes aspectos:-las fases fenológicas y los aspectos fisiológicos y fisonómicos de la vegetación empleando el NDVI (Justice et al. 1985;Gregoire 1990;Lloyd 1990;Gond et al. 1992);-la clasificación supervisada o no supervisada (Jackson y Gaston 1994);-la relación entre el NDVI y la Radiación Saliente de Longitud de Onda Larga (OLR), especialmente en el cambio de una fase de reposo ('lag') o una de crecimiento vegetativo (Shinoda 1995).Se pudo establecer, además, mediante el análisis de las series de tiempo, una correlación positiva entre el NDVI y la precipitación como factores condicionantes de las fases fenológicas de los ecosistemas de sabana (Davenport y Nicholson 1993;Fuller y Prince 1996). Se proponen de nuevo las ventajas del uso de la relación multitemporal NDVI/TS (TS = temperatura de la superficie terrestre) para la cartografía de la vegetación sometida a variaciones estacionales, como en las comunidades de sabana (Achard et al. 1989;Achard y Blasco 1990;Mather 1992;Ehrlich y Lambin 1996;Malingreau et al. 1996).La definición de etapas de vegetación y de series de vegetación se hace a partir de observaciones y registros hechos en el campo. Los datos del MSS no pueden servir para este fin. Una vez que se definan y describan las diferentes unidades, éstas pueden ser reconocidas en las imágenes satelitales, cartografiadas posteriormente y acompañadas en su evolución, es decir, en el establecimiento de cultivos, la regeneración vegetal y otras acciones similares.Los datos satelitales, recolectados en fechas en que la vegetación presenta diferentes estados fenológicos, son útiles en una fase preliminar de reconocimiento y en la cartografía e inventario de las series de vegetación. Sin embargo, no pueden remplazar, en ningún caso, los datos y las observaciones de campo que se necesitan en la fase de definición de las series.Una comunidad vegetal puede definirse como un arreglo estructurado y definido de la vegetación, que ocupa un hábitat determinado, homógeneo en sus condiciones físicas y biológicas y con el cual interactúa.Los objetos que se estudian son de dimensiones más pequeñas que las zonas biogeográficas y las formaciones vegetales. Las comunidades vegetales pertenecen, frecuentemente, a una misma formación vegetal y presentan, por ello, fisonomías semejantes. Para distinguirlas, es necesario entonces disponer de información sobre las bandas espectrales más finas y de datos adquiridos en diferentes fechas. Los sistemas de teledetección deben poseer, por tanto, mejor resolución geométrica.La teledetección puede usarse para el estudio de una comunidad vegetal sólo cuando la mayoría de las especies presentes en esa comunidad, cuya descripción y clasificación fitosociológica se busca, contribuyen con su comportamiento espectral a la caracterización radiométrica de la comunidad. Esta situación se presenta cuando la comunidad no tiene estratificación vertical simple y cuando el recubrimiento del suelo tiene importancia para ella. Tal es el caso de las formaciones herbáceas y de los matorrales: rastrojos, estepas, sabanas herbáceas densas, pastizales, praderas seminaturales, etc. (Girard y Girard 1989;Choudury 1993).La metodología desarrollada para una región dada puede aplicarse a otros casos, es decir, a comunidades vegetales herbáceas densas que crecen bajo diferentes tipos de climas (Girard y Girard 1989).Esta caracterización se hace con observaciones y medidas radiométricas de campo (terrestre) y es indispensable hacerla antes de cualquier clasificación o cartografía ya que ésta se apoya principalmente en datos satelitales de teledetección.Los levantamientos florísticos de las comunidades de sabana se hacen, principalmente, por el método del punto cuadrático (Boudet 1991;Paladines 1992) en estaciones ubicadas en posiciones topográficas diferentes que corresponden a diferentes condiciones ecológicas. Debe haber suficientes estaciones para que representen los principales tipos de sabana permanente que existen en un área dada.Estos levantamientos se someten luego al análisis factorial de correspondencia, el cual los reagrupa según la presencia o ausencia de la totalidad de las especies descritas (Boudet 1991). Estos grupos de levantamientos se asignan entonces a alianzas, asociaciones o subasociaciones, según diversos métodos fitosociológicos (Müller-Dombois y Ellenberg 1974).Las mediciones de reflectancia se hacen a baja altura (1.5 a 2 m) sobre las parcelas de muestreo y en diferentes etapas fenológicas de la comunidad vegetal; estas etapas condicionarán las fechas de adquisición de los datos radiométricos (Mueksch 1983;Benoit et al. 1988;Girard y Girard 1989). Pueden tomarse muestras en un amplio espectro de longitudes de onda, según el sensor que se utilice (Girard y Girard 1989); asimismo, las unidades de tierra pueden equiparse con sensores de longitud de onda específica, p.e., para medición de la Radiación Fotosintéticamente Activa (PAR) o del Flujo de Radiación en el Infrarrojo Cercano (NIR), con el fin de conocer el comportamiento espectral durante la época de crecimiento (Begue et al. 1996).Se pueden analizar medidas espectrométricas y densidades ópticas de fotografías aéreas multizonales sintetizadas (escala 1:10,000), según las diferencias en color, el tono y la estructura, con el fin de calcular la disponibilidad de biomasa en los pastizales, de detectar y delimitar áreas de interés específico y de identificar especies vegetales (Ferrer et al. 1988). Para las bandas de infrarrojo cercano (IR) y de rojo (R), de un lado, y para la relación IR+R, del otro, se ha detectado una correlación significativa e inversa con la biomasa seca y con la densidad de la clorofila, respectivamente (Torres et al. 1991). El uso de negativos fotográficos ha permitido compilar índices de vegetación que revelan diferencias en la disponibilidad de las especies de una comunidad de sabana (Torres et al. 1994). Para hacer mapas de la distribución de la fitomasa forrajera y de las comunidades vegetales se han usado también fotografías aéreas pancromáticas e infrarrojas en falso color, mediante la aplicación del programa SIG Terrasoft (Toure et al. 1994).Los datos radiométricos se tratan numéricamente, fecha por fecha, utilizando el Análisis de Componentes Principales (ACP). Generalmente, la información más útil para la cartografía de la vegetación, utilizando los satélites Landsat TM y SPOT, se obtiene de las bandas del visible y del IR cercano. Por ejemplo, si se hace un ACP con datos adquiridos en 12 bandas espectrales repartidas entre los 500 y los 1400 nm, este análisis mostraría que se puede trabajar con sólo 4 bandas espectrales cuyas longitudes de onda serían de 550, 675, 850 y 1400 nm. Esta última longitud de onda se emplea en el campo, pero no puede usarse en el registro satelital, ya que la atmósfera terrestre, rica en agua, no permite pasar suficiente señal. Los canales 5 (1570 a 1780 nm) y 7 (2100 a 2350 nm) de TM, sensibles al agua de la vegetación, deben aportar una información más o menos equivalente a la anterior. Para caracterizar radiométricamente los grupos vegetales previamente definidos, debe calcularse el valor promedio de reflectancia, fecha tras fecha, en cada una de las cuatro longitudes de onda, a partir de los valores de reflectancia correspondientes medidos en las diferentes estaciones. Un ACP hecho con valores de reflectancia de diversos grupos vegetales, en función de las fechas, permite representar los tipos de evolución fisiológica y fenológica según los dos primeros ejes, los cuales corresponden a las cuatro longitudes de onda retenidas en el espectro visible y en el infrarrojo próximo (Girard y Girard 1989).Cada grupo diferente de sabana tiene un comportamiento espectral diferente. Una vez definidas en el tiempo las clases radiométricas cuyos valores de reflectancia en fechas determinadas se conocen, es posible asignarlas a los tipos de sabana.El interés agronómico de las especies de sabana depende de la naturaleza de éstas y de la cobertura que den al suelo. Estas especies pueden convertirse en parte más o menos importante del material de pastoreo y reflejan además, como elementos de cobertura, las condiciones de clima y suelo y la explotación de la comunidad vegetal.Se establece entonces una nueva clasificación de las comunidades herbáceas en función de un número limitado de especies que presenten los mayores coeficientes de abundanciadominancia en los levantamientos. Los conjuntos así definidos se denominan unidades agroecológicas. Los datos radiométricos obtenidos en el terreno sirven para medir el comportamiento de las unidades agroecológicas (Girard y Girard 1989).El estudio de los valores de luminiscencia y reflectancia obtenidos en estaciones de diversos pastizales indica que los valores medidos no son siempre los mismos en las estaciones que pertenecen a una misma unidad agroecológica. Por ello, para determinar las variaciones ocurridas en el tiempo, la evaluación se hace dentro de una unidad agroecológica (Girard 1987b, Girard y Girard 1989).El comportamiento espectral servirá así de base para la clasificación y la cartografía a escala mediana (p.e., 1:100,000), partiendo de valores de luminiscencia suministrados por datos de Landsat TM (Warmick-Smith 1981; García y Alvarez 1994) y de SPOT, principalmente (Girard y Girard 1989, Girard y Rippstein 1994;Rippstein y Girard 1994), utilizando clasificación híbrida (supervisada/no supervisada) y definiendo el sello espectral de cada una de las unidades; cuando se acopla este proceso con fotografías aéreas e información de campo, es posible hacer una diferenciación muy precisa de los tipos de vegetación (Ferrer et al. 1988;Torres et al. 1991Torres et al. , 1994;;Brondizio et al. 1993;García y Alvarez 1994).Los datos de Landsat TM o de SPOT permiten hacer cartografía a una escala de mediana a grande (p.e., 1:100,000 a 1:25,000). Puesto que aquí el pixel tiene grandes dimensiones, las unidades son poco detalladas y se pueden reagrupar en función del drenaje del suelo, por ejemplo (Girard y Girard 1989).Si se aplica el modelo de comportamiento espectral en el espacio de la imagen, se pueden definir diferentes unidades cartográficas. Para caracterizar estas unidades desde un punto de vista agronómico, es necesario hacer el estudio fitosociológico de base (1º) según presencia-ausencia de especies y según la abundancia de un número menor de especies (2º). Este estudio permite colocar una leyenda al mapa (Girard y Girard 1989).Con dos escalas cartográficas, en algunas partes del mapa las unidades pueden reunir varias unidades agroecológicas que corresponden, por tanto, a un mosaico.A escala 1:150,000, por ejemplo, puede tomarse la decisión de reagrupar las pasturas y los cultivos para asegurar una coherencia espacial de la unidad, ya que, en ciertos casos, la resolución geométrica de Landsat no permite hacer una diferenciación confiable (Girard y Girard 1989).A escala 1:25,000, la resolución de SPOT permite diferenciar sin ambigüedad los cultivos en las sabanas. El modo de explotación de las parcelas se puede detectar mediante el satélite; para ello, se reagrupan algunas unidades agroecológicas diferentes que tengan una explotación semejante.Esta escala se usa mucho para evaluar los cambios que experimenta el uso de la tierra en los ecosistemas de sabana (Jadhav et al. 1993;Lovett y Prins 1994). Se aplican, en este caso, diferentes técnicas como el análisis digital de bandas incrementadas con imágenes de Landsat TM, que permite no sólo discriminar el suelo desnudo de los pastizales en diferentes etapas de uso (Movia y Navone 1994) sino también evaluar el impacto que ejerce en la sabana la introducción de germoplama exótico (Boutrais y Lortic 1983). La teledetección se ha utilizado también para definir, según algunos aspectos fisiográficos y edáficos, el uso óptimo de las unidades de tierra (Alcántara et al. 1989); esta información se enriquece, en muchos casos, con técnicas que combinan datos a diferentes niveles (Mackel et al. 1989).La evaluación de la sucesión vegetal en los ecosistemas forestales -los cuales forman parte de las 'matas de monte' en los ecosistemas de sabana (sensu lato) y son manejados principalmente mediante sistemas de tala y quema por los grupos aborígenes-ha sido abordada mediante el análisis de imágenes Landsat TM multitemporales. Con tal fin se utilizaron, como parámetros indicativos de la etapa de sucesión, la reflectancia del infrarrojo cercano, el índice de diferencia, el verdor de Kauth-Thomas, el porcentaje de cobertura foliar, y los índices espectrales del brillo del dosel (Mausel et al. 1993;Steininger 1996).La cantidad de materia seca (M.S.) se establece a partir de medidas y observaciones de campo y mediante la relación IR/R a partir de datos de luminiscencia de SPOT HRV; con estos cálculos se traza un mapa en donde figuren, a escala 1:25.000, las unidades según la cantidad de M.S. Estos mapas, que se obtienen en muy poco tiempo gracias al tratamiento de los datos numéricos espaciales, dan una evaluación casi instantánea del estado o potencial de un territorio (Grouzis y Methy 1983;Girard 1987a;Girard y Girard 1989;Girard et al. 1990).A escala pequeña se han utilizado datos AVHRR para estimar la biomasa de grandes áreas y, en consecuencia, la capacidad de carga de las pasturas (Harrington y Wylie 1989).Una población de individuos de la misma especie puede estudiarse mediante teledetección, siempre y cuando esa población cubra una superficie de dimensiones compatibles con la resolución geométrica de los datos aéreos o espaciales (Girard y Girard 1989). Aquí se aborda el estudio de poblaciones monoespecíficas o pauciespecíficas, seminaturales, ya que las poblaciones naturales son generalmente muy pequeñas.En las zonas templadas o en la intertropical, sólo las plantaciones industriales y algunas masas forestales exóticas cubren varias decenas o centenas de hectáreas cuyas dimensiones permiten una identificación de datos satelitales a mediana o pequeña escala (Landsat MSS). Son ejemplos las plantaciones de caucho (Hevea sp.) y las pasturas de gramíneas introducidas en los Llanos Orientales (género Brachiaria, principalmente).Por lo tanto, es posible hacer identificaciones con fines de inventario empleando solamente datos multiespectrales de buena resolución geométrica (TM o SPOT) o con fotografías a gran escala. La identificación mediante datos multiespectrales se hace partiendo de valores de luminiscencia. En las fotografías aéreas se emplea el criterio de la escala de grises o de la escala de color, así como los criterios de forma, ligados ambos con las características morfológicas de los límites. La identificación de especies será más confiable cuando se definen sus fases fenológicas, que son responsables de los valores de luminiscencia y de fisonomías particulares. Por ello, para obtener una buena identificación es importante la elección de la fecha en que se toman las imágenes. En los pastizales permanentes se pueden reconocer ciertas especies (o grupos de especies) en diferentes períodos del año porque en ellos se presentan estados fenológicos particulares formados por poblaciones densas (Ferrer et al. 1988;Torres et al. 1991Torres et al. , 1994)).Este tipo de evaluación puede hacerse con fotografías aéreas; sin embargo, se necesita un gran número de fotografías para cubrir un área grande, la duración del análisis es muy larga y los resultados se volverán obsoletos rápidamente. Se utilizan, por ello, datos multiespectrales, los cuales ofrecen ciertas ventajas según la resolución geométrica de los diferentes sistemas (Girard y Girard 1989). Cuando se emplea información de satélites Landsat MSS, incluso la relacionada con poblaciones forestales monoespecíficas, el promedio de los valores de luminiscencia de muchas parcelas presenta una desviación elevada debida a la fuerte heterogeneidad de las parcelas, aun suponiendo que las medidas se toman en la misma fecha. Esta heterogeneidad está ligada a las diferentes fisonomías provenientes de los tratamientos silvícolas. La baja resolución espacial le da poca importancia a los estratos del sotobosque.En la cartografía forestal realizada con imágenes SPOT y Landsat TM (p.e., en plantaciones comerciales y 'matas de monte'), la diferenciación no se puede hacer en las mismas condiciones antes mencionadas puesto que el pixel tiene, en este caso, dimensiones mucho más pequeñas. Los estratos arbustivo y herbáceo tienen mayor importancia, ya que su comportamiento espectral puede influir en los valores de luminiscencia. No se puede hablar, propiamente, de reconocimiento de especies, sino de una interpretación de las especies en función de su comportamiento espectral estacionario.Es importante seleccionar, según el objetivo del estudio, los documentos de teledetección que se usarán. Para un estudio de estructura de poblaciones, es conveniente disponer de datos bastante sintéticos, como los que aporta el Landsat MSS. Para una identificación muy precisa y para poblaciones pluriespecíficas, hay que utilizar datos de buena resolución geométrica. Son preferibles las fotografías aéreas a escalas grande y mediana; los datos SPOT y Landsat TM corresponden a la mínima resolución necesaria (Girard y Girard 1989).La teledetección se ha usado en los Llanos Orientales principalmente en aspectos fisiográficos, y poco énfasis se ha hecho en la discriminación de la cobertura vegetal de esa región (Forero 1977(Forero , 1978;;Khobzi 1981). Montoya (1977Montoya ( , 1978) ) utiliza el procesamiento digital de imágenes Landsat MSS por transformación de los componentes principales de las cuatro bandas producidas por el barredor multiespectral; se definen así grupos fisonómicos de vegetación según clases espectrales diferentes.Se parte de una primera distribución general de las unidades fisiográficas por zonas, lograda por interpretación preliminar de las imágenes Landsat (bandas 5 y 7, con escala aproximada de 1:1,000,000) y se hace luego una caracterización de la vegetación de sabana. Se hacen primero inventarios de la vegetación en algunas de las unidades fisiográficas, teniendo en cuenta las plantas dominantes y subdominantes. Las unidades incluidas en los mapas se ajustaron según la información del mapa geomorfológico; sin embargo, la parte contenida en el estudio se apoya en la revisión bibliográfica hecha para Colombia, Venezuela y Brasil (Salamanca 1983).Botero y Serrano (1992) confrontan la información extraída de diferentes tipos de imágenes, como las fotografías aéreas, el radar y los satélite (Landsat TM y SPOT). Se utilizó una cartografía básica de 1:100,000 a la cual se le transfirió la interpretación temática. Estos autores concluyen que las composiciones en color de las imágenes Landsat (escala 1:250,000 a 1:100,000) o SPOT (escala 1:100,000), de las fotografías aéreas pancromáticas (escala 1:60,000 a 1:10,000), de las infrarrojas (escala 1:80,000 a 1:10,000) o de las tomadas en color (escala 1:80,000 a 1:10,000), son buenas para discriminar los tipos de bosques, pastos y cultivos, así como las áreas taladas en el interior de los bosques.En la altillanura de los Llanos Orientales se ha realizado, con la ayuda de datos SPOT HRV (escala 1:50,000), un inventario del uso de la tierra, del manejo de la vegetación y del estado fisiológico de ésta. Paralelamente, se tomaron datos de la reflectancia de la cobertura vegetal, con ayuda de un radiómetro CIMEL (terrestre) en las mismas frecuencias que el sensor SPOT XS (satelital). Estos datos se utilizaron para definir parcelas de verificación, que fueron analizadas más tarde según las imágenes SPOT; la reflectancia a nivel de campo se usó para hacer una clasificación del uso de la tierra en categorías mayores y un inventario de la vegetación de sabana (Girard y Rippstein 1994;Rippstein y Girard 1994).La región de la altillanura está cubierta principalmente por vegetación natural (sabanas y bosques), de relieve bajo, cuya principal característica es la disección de los planos sedimentarios causada por los patrones de drenaje; por ello, Botero et al. (1996) consideran fácil el levantamiento de los mapas de diferentes unidades, ya que se dispone de una cobertura total del área mediante teledetección (hay imágenes de Landsat, especialmente TM; de SPOT en algunas partes; de Radar SLAR; y fotografías aéreas, principalmente de áreas de muestra).La información presentada permite encontrar algunos puntos comunes para la cartografía de la vegetación de sabana, según el nivel de evaluación con que se esté trabajando; estos puntos se resumen en el Cuadro 5-1.La teledetección contribuye a la cartografía de la vegetación de sabana de la siguiente manera:• Localiza mejores puntos de observación sobre el terreno.Cuadro 5-1. Características generales de algunos sensores y procesos desarrollados con ellos para hacer la cartografía de la vegetación de sabana. • Permite extrapolar la información obtenida sobre el terreno. Es un instrumento útil para la cartografía de objetos cuyas dimensiones estén entre 10 y 10 6 m (y más).• Ayuda a seguir la evolución y los cambios experimentados por las comunidades, las formaciones y los paisajes vegetales, mediante el seguimiento intraanual e interanual durante varias decenas de años.• Se convierte en herramienta valiosa para el ordenamiento, la gestión y la protección del medio ambiente, ya que permite resaltar las relaciones entre el ecosistema y las formas de uso.• Es un dato complementario indispensable para refinar distintas clases de cobertura, cuando éstas presentan una misma firma espectral.• Señala que la reflectancia espectral de la sabana está determinada por las especies más abundantes.• Permite diferenciar comunidades de sabana florísticamente diferentes gracias al cambio estacional en la reflectancia. Los análisis estadísticos que se hicieron con las medidas tomadas en las épocas seca y lluviosa permitieron clasificar la vegetación en diferentes tipos. Se hizo así un trabajo de clasificación e inventario de la vegetación de los Llanos Orientales por control remoto.Una caracterísitica de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia es que, en la zona de los bancos de la Altillanura, están cubiertos por una vegetación nativa de sabana que, a primera vista, es muy homogénea.Los estudios ecológicos (Blydenstein 1967;Grollier 1994;Rippstein et  biomasa, el uso que se da a esta vegetación y otras variables. Se obtuvieron tres imágenes del satélite SPOT-HRV tomadas en enero, marzo y octubre de 1991. Se habían hecho previamente mediciones de radiometría terrestre de los diferentes tipos de vegetación del CIA Carimagua.• Distinguir y clasificar en el CI Carimagua, empleando radiometría terrestre, las diferentes comunidades vegetales nativas y de pastos introducidos, y el tipo de explotación (quema, carga animal, fertilización y otras) que se da a estas comunidades.• Clasificar e inventariar, con ayuda de los datos del satélite SPOT y con los datos de radiometría terrestre, la vegetación de la zona de Carimagua y, con esta experiencia, la de otras partes de los Llanos Orientales.El ecosistema en que se halla el CI Carimagua pertenece a la Altillanura plana de las sabanas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Su superficie es de 3.5 millones de hectáreas (Vera y Seré 1985), es decir, ocupa el 3% del territorio de Colombia (20% de las sabanas de los Llanos Orientales). Es una franja de 60 km de ancho y 580 km de largo, aproximadamente, que se extiende al sur del río Meta entre la localidad de Puerto López, al oeste, hasta la frontera con Venezuela, en el este. Su suelo está formado por sedimentos aluviales del Pleistoceno antiguo.El paisaje de la Altillanura está conformado por extensos sectores altos y planos, denominados 'bancos', que alternan con los bajos; éstos son estrechos y prolongados y constituyen las vías de drenaje del ecosistema. Los bancos tienen una topografía ligeramente convexa cuya pendiente es inferior a 1% y se calcula que ocupan el 93% de la superficie total del paisaje.La región tiene una época seca de 4 meses (de diciembre a marzo) en que casi no cae lluvia (171 mm) y una época lluviosa de 8 meses, cuyo promedio anual, medido en el lapso 1974-91, es de 2171 mm.Las temperaturas máxima y mínima son, en promedio, de 33.5 y 21.5 °C, respectivamente, en la época seca, y de 31.7 y 21.5 °C, respectivamente, en la época lluviosa. No habiendo mucha diferencia entre las temperaturas de la época seca y de la lluviosa, la humedad relativa es, en promedio, de 70% en la primera y de 85% en la segunda.Los suelos de la Altillanura se clasifican como Oxisoles, así: Haplustox, típico, arcilloso, caolinítico, isohipertérmico. En general, son suelos ácidos (pH: 4.1 a 5.1), que tienen alta saturación de aluminio (82%), baja disponibilidad de fósforo (1 a 2 mg/kg) y baja capacidad de intercambio catiónico (3.4 meq/100 g de suelo) (Spain 1979).La vegetación de los bancos es de sabana, es decir, tiene muy pocos árboles y arbustos. Alrededor de los bosques de galería hay bajos que pueden inundarse, tienen vegetación arbustiva o herbácea y son de muy poca amplitud. Alrededor de las lagunas, en cambio, hay bajos más amplios que tienen importancia para la alimentación del ganado durante la época seca.En los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, Blydenstein (1967) reconoce la existencia de 10 tipos de sabanas. En el estudio reportado en el Capítulo 2 de esta obra se identificaron ocho grupos de vegetación en la region de Carimagua. Predominan las especies pertencientes a los géneros Andropogon, Axonopus, Paspalum, Schizachyrium, Trachypogon y Rhynchospora, casi todos poáceas (gramíneas) y ciperáceas.En el estudio de la vegetación a nivel del suelo se observó el comportamiento espectral de la vegetación nativa y de los cultivos forrajeros sembrados en parcelas de 0.25 a 5 ha de área o en sitios muy conocidos. Esta medida se hizo, aproximadamente, a 1.5 m de altura sobre la superficie del terreno, con un radiómetro CIMEL que capta las ondas reflejadas por los objetos en la banda del verde (500-590 nm), en la del rojo (615-680 nm) y en la del infrarrojo cercano (790-890 nm). Estas mismas bandas son captadas por un radiómetro similar instalado en el satélite SPOT-HRV.Se observaron 60 parcelas, la mitad de ellas cubiertas por sabana nativa y la mitad con diversos cultivos forrajeros. Se tomaron al azar 30 medidas en cada parcela, entre las 10:00 y las 14:00 GMT del día y cuando el cielo estaba despejado. Las medidas se hicieron primero entre el 18 y el 23 de enero de 1991 y luego entre el 23 de septiembre y el 5 de octubre del mismo año.El radiómetro CIMEL registra un porcentaje del reflejo máximo de los objetos. Ahora bien, para comparar las parcelas, corregimos su reflejo ya ajustado según el porcentaje de reflejo emitido desde una hoja de papel blanco (unidad de referencia) en el momento de las mediciones, así:Se determinaron las principales especies vegetales, su fisonomía, su altura promedio, su edad, su biomasa y su porcentaje de materia seca (M.S.). Se precisaron también el estado fenológico de esas especies, los tratamientos y el tipo de manejo que han recibido, y se hizo un cálculo del porcentaje de suelo descubierto en sus parcelas.En primer lugar se empleó un análisis estadístico de multivariables (SAS 1990) en las dos fechas y con las tres bandas, para distinguir grupos ('clusters') de determinados tipos de vegetación. Se empleó además el análisis de componentes principales (ACP) para formar grupos.Se compararon, finalmente, los grupos de tipo de vegetación diferente; se hicieron por ello confrontaciones estadísticas en el interior de cada grupo (análisis de varianza con Prueba de Duncan). y para cada banda de energía (verde, rojo e infrarrojo), para las especies, los géneros y los diferentes tipos de sabana nativa.Se presentan en cuadros los análisis de las medidas tomadas en la época seca (enero) y al final de la época de lluvias (octubre).Los Cuadros 6-1 y 6-2 muestran los resultados de un análisis multivariado (para 'clusters') de las medidas realizadas en los tres canales del Reflejo en vegetación, Reflejo promedio corregido =x 100 (%)Reflejo en papel blanco, promedio(1)Cuadro 6-1. Clasificación de la vegetación de Carimagua según su reflejo en las tres bandas de un radiómetro terrestre CIMEL. Análisis multivariable con las muestras de enero de 1991 (época seca).  Cuadro 6-2. Clasificación de la vegetación según su reflejo en las tres bandas de un radiómetro terrestre CIMEL. Análisis multivariable con las muestras tomadas en octubre de 1991 (fin de época lluviosa). Las medidas tomadas en octubre (Cuadro 6-2) permiten formar clases más heterogéneas; sólo la clase 5 contiene únicamente especies cultivadas. Además, los datos confirmaron una fuerte correlación (0.843) entre la banda verde (XS1) y la roja (XS2), relación que señalaría la posibilidad de prescindir de una de estas bandas en los análisis. Esto fue sugerido por Lallemand y Legendre (1984).La comparación de las mismas parcelas en las dos épocas del año muestra (Cuadro 6-3) lo siguiente:• Las pasturas nativas tienen, generalmente, un reflejo muy diferente según la época, mientras que los cultivos muestran pocas variaciones en el tiempo.• Las formaciones vegetales naturales muy maduras dan, en general, un reflejo en el espectro visible (verde y rojo) más elevado en la época seca, porque esa vegetación es menos clorofílica. Lo contrario ocurre en una sabana joven.• En los 3 ó 4 primeros meses después de la quema, el reflejo es muy débil (6%). Las formaciones nativas, 5 meses o más después de Cuadro 6-3.Comparación del reflejo terrestre (por CIMEL) de diferentes tipos de sabanas nativas y de cultivos forrajeros, en la época seca y en la lluviosa. la quema, tienen pocas diferencias de reflejo en el verde y prácticamente ninguna en el rojo, onda en que el reflejo es relativamente elevado (>11%).• La sabana joven de la Altillanura ondulada -que tiene un relieve notorio y un suelo arenoso y pedregoso-da un reflejo idéntico al de la sabana vieja de suelo arcilloso. La diferencia aparece en el IR cercano, banda en que la vegetación da un reflejo notablemente inferior.• En el IR cercano y para todos los tipos de vegetación (excepto para B. dictyoneura menor de 1 año), el reflejo en la época lluviosa es más fuerte que en la seca.En la Figura 6-1 se presentan los resultados de un ACP con las 53 muestras radiométricas de octubre. En los ejes 1 y 2, la contribución de la variación total es de 67.4%. Esta representación gráfica permite distinguir 10 grupos. Ahora bien, en los Cuadros 6-1 y 6-2 algunos grupos no son homogéneos. Los grupos 3, 6, 8 y 9 son mezclas de sabana nativa y de cultivos forrajeros, los conjuntos 1, 2, 7 y 10 están constituidos únicamente por sabana nativa, y los conjuntos 4, 5 y 8 tienen solamente praderas cultivadas.En los Cuadros 6-4 a 6-9 se compara el reflejo, en cada banda del espectro, de diferentes cultivos forrajeros, así: de un mismo cultivo (Brachiaria dictyoneura) implantado o explotado de diferentes formas (Cuadro 6-4); de dos tipos de suelo (Cuadros 6-5 y 6-6); y de pasturas nativas de edades diferentes o explotadas con diferentes cargas Figura 6-1. Agrupación de la vegetación, y su representación correspondiente, según su reflejo en las tres bandas del radiómetro terrestre CIMEL. Se hizo un análisis de componentes principales con las muestras de octubre (fin de época lluviosa). Parcela no. 44 = Sabana nativa de 2 a 3 meses (después de la quema). Altura: 30-40 cm; biomasa seca: 50 g/m²; MS: 38%; carga: 0.5 an./ha. Parcela no. 45 = Sabana nativa de más de 1 año. Altura: 90 cm; biomasa: 280 g/m²; MS: 57%; carga: menos de 0.2 an./ha. Parcela no. 46 = Sabana nativa de más de 1 año. Altura: 110 cm; biomasa: 327 g/m²; MS: 52%; carga: 0.5 an./ha. Parcela no. 47 = Sabana nativa de más de 1 año. Altura: 110 cm; biomasa: 322 g/m²; MS: 54%; carga: 0.2 an./ha. Parcela no. 48 = Sabana nativa de 3 meses. Altura: 50 cm; biomasa: 70 g/m²; MS: 38%; carga: 0.2 an./ha. b. Promedios con letras iguales (en las columnas) no son estadísticamente diferentes, según la Prueba Duncan, a nivel del 5%.Cuadro 6-8.Comparación del reflejo de la sabana nativa después de la quema y sin quema (observaciones de octubre).Reflejo en la banda:Verde cercano, el orden de clasificación es diferente del visible, aunque también en esta banda B. humidicola da el reflejo más débil.• La comparación de los reflejos que da B. dictyoneura en suelo arenoso, después de recibir diversos tratamientos (fertilización y cargas), y tanto en asociación como no asociada con una leguminosa, indica lo siguiente:-En el espectro visible, la gramínea pura da un reflejo relativamente más fuerte que asociada con una leguminosa.-La gramínea B. dictyoneura, asociada con la leguminosa S. capitata y sometida a la carga más baja, tiene el reflejo más débil registrado en el espectro visible; el incremento de la carga trae consigo un aumento de ese reflejo.-El reflejo en el IR cercano no parece estar relacionado con el manejo de las parcelas; lo está, probablemente, con factores que no fueron muestreados, como el agua, el porcentaje de cobertura, la estructura de la vegetación (es decir, hábito y porte de las plantas, leñosidad, diversidad).• Las observaciones hechas respecto a los datos del Cuadro 6-5 no son válidas para el suelo arcilloso (Cuadro 6-6). Se observa, de otra parte, que la amplitud de la reflectancia en las tres bandas del espectro es menor si proviene de este tipo de suelo.• En lo que concierne a la vegetación nativa, observamos lo siguiente:-grandes amplitudes de reflectancia (en cualquiera de las tres bandas del espectro);-no hay relación evidente entre reflectancia, biomasa en pie (viva o muerta) o contenido de agua de la biomasa, un resultado que confirma los datos del Cuadro 6-8.Se han obtenido datos de radiometría terrestre que permiten agrupar o discriminar estadísticamente los diferentes tipos de vegetación nativa y los cultivos forrajeros, así como los tratamientos o el manejo diferente (fertilización, fuego, carga animal) que unos y otros hayan recibido.Esta discriminación no es siempre posible, especialmente en relación con la vegetación nativa (Cuadro 6-8) o con la vegetación que tenga diferentes edades, es decir, cuya biomasa y contenido de agua sean muy diferentes. No fue posible diferenciarlas estadísticamente en ninguna de las tres bandas del espectro, sobre todo en la época de lluvias.Los cultivos forrajeros, en cambio, pueden discriminarse más fácilmente mediante la combinación de los datos obtenidos en las tres bandas y de las observaciones hechas en la época de lluvias y en la época seca.Las causas de las diferencias en reflectancia no son siempre fáciles de explicar, particularmente de la reflectancia obtenida en la banda del IR cercano. Para tratar de encontrar una explicación, hemos medido algunos parámetros, como las especies dominantes, la altura de la vegetación, la biomasa en pie y su contenido de agua o de M.S., el estado fenológico de la especie vegetal, la carga animal, la fertilización, la edad de la vegetación (época de la quema), y el tipo de suelo.En los Cuadros 6-1, 6-2 y 6-3 (última columna) hemos clasificado la vegetación según los grupos establecidos por Benoit et al. (1988). Estos grupos o clases se adaptan bastante bien a nuestros datos y observaciones (Cuadros 6-1 y 6-2). En la clase D, en que aparecen inflorescencias, pueden incluirse, para nuestro estudio, los cultivos forrajeros invadidos por malezas (generalmente, poáceas en floración) y las sabanas jóvenes en la época de lluvias y en estado de floración, unos 5 meses después de la quema (Cuadro 6-4).Los cultivos forrajeros son difíciles de clasificar, en este caso, cuando tienen un buen porcentaje de M.S. en pie o en el suelo y una carga animal grande tanto en la época seca como en la lluviosa; los datos de las bandas son V débil, R fuerte e IR intermedio para B. humidicola y V fuerte, R fuerte e IR intermedio para B. decumbens.Algunos factores tienen un papel evidente en el reflejo, aunque otros parecen menos importantes. Al final del estudio se percibió la falta de algunas observaciones. Se ha podido observar, o deducir, por ejemplo, que la edad o el manejo de la vegetación son importantes por el aspecto de la clorofila (reflejo en las bandas verde y roja del espectro visible) en los cultivos forrajeros pero no en la vegetación nativa. En ésta, al parecer, la cobertura del suelo desempeña un papel muy importante en la banda visible del IR cercano; este factor (la cobertura) no fue observado con suficiente precisión y no pueden extraerse aún conclusiones más precisas.La edad de las plantas y la biomasa aérea no muestran correlación en el reflejo medido en la banda del IR cercano, en las especies del género Brachiaria (Cuadro 6-4); sin embargo, parece que hay una correlación entre ellas respecto al contenido de M.S. Esta correlación negativa no apareció en las observaciones hechas en B. dictyoneura (Cuadros 6-5 y 6-6).El reflejo observado en el IR cercano no parece estar relacionado tampoco con el manejo de las parcelas (Cuadros 6-5, 6-6 y 6-9), aunque hay cierta relación con factores no medidos en este estudio, como la cobertura o la estructura de la vegetación. El ACP de la Figura 6-1 confirma esta observación.No parece que haya buena correlación entre la reflectancia y las características observadas o medidas (biomasa seca, porcentaje de M.S., edad de las plantas y otras). No obstante, se notó lo siguiente en los grupos constituidos:• El Grupo 1 está formado por pasturas de biomasa importante.• El Grupo 2 contiene la sabana nativa joven después del fuego (biomasa débil).• El Grupo 3 contiene la sabana joven o de cultivos degradados con débil cobertura; este grupo sería muy importante para inventariar las zonas degradadas en que aparece el suelo desnudo y estudiarlas luego.• El Grupo 4 está integrado por cultivos forrajeros jóvenes en que se mezclan gramíneas y leguminosas.• El Grupo 5 contiene parcelas cultivadas en que hay hasta un 50% de suelo descubierto.• Los Grupos 6 y 8 están conformados, principalmente, por parcelas en que hay una mezcla de gramínea y leguminosa; son bastante parecidas a las del Grupo 4, pero difíciles de distinguir por las observaciones hechas en el campo o por el manejo.• El Grupo 7 contiene únicamente parcelas de sabana; el Grupo 9 contiene parcelas de cultivos forrajeros y por ello las reflectancias son idénticas en las tres bandas.• El Grupo 10, por último, tiene dos parcelas sembradas con Andropogon gayanus, que poseen una estructura y una fisonomía particular: hierbas altas muy verdes, en varios estratos.• La radiometría terrestre debe hacerse al mismo tiempo que las observaciones de satélite para que éstas puedan clasificarse mejor; así podrán elaborarse bien los mapas que muestren vegetación nativa y cultivos (de especies forrajeras y otros).• La radiometría terrestre es también una herramienta indispensable para conocer bien la vegetación y poderla clasificar. Tiene, sin embargo, límites respecto a la clasificación de la vegetación nativa; los especialistas deben, por tanto, mostrarse prudentes en la interpretación de datos de satélite y evitar interpretaciones erradas.• A nivel terrestre, es necesario estudiar grandes superficies (más de 5 ha) con buen contraste en cuanto a especies sembradas, época de floración, estructura de la vegetación, manejo de las parcelas, cobertura del suelo y otros factores. Estas características pueden tener una fuerte influencia en el reflejo de la superficie y afectarán, por tanto, la relación que se establezca entre las observaciones terrestres y las obtenidas por el satélite. Las actividades de estos organismos conducen a la creación de estructuras biogénicas, las cuales influyen en la agregación, las propiedades hidraúlicas y la dinámica de la materia orgánica del suelo. Dichas estructuras influyen, a su vez, en la composición, la abundancia y la diversidad de otros organismos del suelo. La abundancia y la diversidad de los macroinvertebrados del suelo son factores importantes en la sostenibilidad de la producción primaria de la sabana nativa y de los agroecosistemas derivados de ella.Las comunidades de macroinvertebrados responden a las diversas intervenciones humanas realizadas en el medio ambiente del modo siguiente: (1) Los sistemas tradicionales de ganadería extensiva tienen un impacto despreciable sobre ellas. (2) Los cultivos anuales causan una reducción dramática de las comunidades de macrofauna del suelo.(3) Las pasturas introducidas y los cultivos arbóreos mantienen la cobertura herbácea del suelo y favorecen el desarollo de una biomasa importante de lombrices nativas de la sabana. Investigar el manejo conservativo de la macrofauna del suelo es una etapa importante del trabajo de sostenibilidad y durabilidad de los agroecosistemas tropicales.En el trópico húmedo, los macroorganismos del suelo (raíces e invertebrados de tamaño mayor que 2 mm) desempeñan un papel clave en los procesos que determinan la fertilidad del suelo, ya que regulan la disponibilidad de nutrientes asimilables para las plantas y la estructura del suelo. Las esferas de actividad de estos organismos se han definido como los sistemas de regulación biológica del suelo, los cuales están constituidos por una fuente de energía (materia orgánica, M.O.), una población de descomponedores (microorganismos) y una población de reguladores (macroorganismos) (Lavelle et al. 1992). Estos sistemas de regulación se distinguen según la naturaleza de los macroorganismos implicados: el sistema artrópodos de la hojarasca y raíces superficiales, la rizosfera para las raíces; la drilosfera, para las lombrices; y la termitosfera, para las termitas.Ciertos organismos del suelo, principalmente las lombrices, las termitas y las hormigas, se han definido como ingenieros del ecosistema (Jones et al. 1994;Lavelle 1996). Estos producen estructuras (turrículos, nidos y galerías) por medio de las cuales pueden modificar el ambiente donde viven, causando dos efectos contrastantes en la descomposición y la dinámica de la M.O. (Lavelle 1996):-aceleran, por un lado, su velocidad de reciclamiento, lo que facilita la actividad microbiana;-favorecen, por otro, su conservación a largo plazo porque la inmovilizan en estructuras biogénicas estables en el tiempo.Se han establecido también relaciones entre las actividades de los ingenieros del ecosistema y la formación y el mantenimiento de la estructura del suelo. Finalmente, influyen en las condiciones de vida de otras communidades de organismos del suelo, más pequeños o menos móviles, y determinan su abundancia y su estructura. Por lo tanto, la diversidad y la abundancia de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados y la importancia relativa de los grupos de organismos de mayor interés pueden ser utilizados como indicadores de la calidad del suelo (Stork y Eggleton 1992).Las actividades de la macrofauna afectan, a veces de manera considerable, el crecimiento de las plantas (Brown et al. 1999). Pueden ser también vectores de microorganismos simbióticos de las plantas, como los fijadores de nitrógeno o los hongos de micorriza, o pueden digerir, de manera selectiva, microorganismos patógenos (Brown 1995). En los ecosistemas naturales, las lombrices y las hormigas afectan también a la dinámica de la vegetación, ya que pueden influir, de manera selectiva, en la diseminación de las semillas y en la composición de los bancos de semilla del suelo (Klaus and Delascio 1991;Thompson et al. 1994;Willems y Huijsmans 1994).Desde el año 1993, la Unión Europea, a través del Proyecto Macrofauna, colabora con el CIAT y la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Palmira, en el estudio de la macrofauna del suelo en diferentes lugares de Colombia. Se prestó una atención especial a las lombrices de tierra por su función clave en los procesos que determinan la fertilidad de los suelos de las sabanas intertropicales (Lavelle 1983b). Se hicieron, por tanto, varios trabajos de investigación en los Llanos Orientales con el fin de identificar los agroecosistemas que conservan, en forma sostenible, las comunidades de macroinvertebrados del suelo. Algunos de los objetivos específicos del estudio fueron: describir las comunidades nativas de macroinvertebrados, definir sus funciones en el ecosistema, y evaluar su respuesta a las perturbaciones inducidas por las actividades humanas.Los estudios se realizaron en el CNIA Carimagua (CORPOICA-CIAT), localizado en el municipio de Puerto Gaitán, Meta, a 175 m.s.n.m. La precipitación anual es de 2250 mm y la temperatura media anual de 26 °C (datos del CIAT), con una época seca bien definida de diciembre a marzo. Los ensayos se realizaron principalmente en suelos de tipo Oxisol (clasificación USDA) y en algunos Ultisoles que corresponden a la selva de galería. Son suelos de textura arcillolimosa, bien estructurados y caracterizados por su baja fertilidad química (acidez y saturación de aluminio altas, bajo contenido de fósforo y de calcio, y baja capacidad de intercambio catiónico) (Cuadro 7-1).El tipo de vegetación está determinado por la topografía del paisaje. A los lados de los ríos y en las depresiones (los bajos), se encuentran los bosques de galería dominados por las especies Mauritia minor Burr. (el platanote) (FAO 1996). Las partes más altas (altos, planos y bancos) están cubiertas por formaciones vegetales de sabana abierta dominadas por las especies Trachypogon vestitus Anders. (la saeta peluda), y los pastos Andropogon bicornis L., Gymnopogon sp. e Imperata sp. (Rippstein et al. 1994;Torrijos et al. 1994).La caracterización de la estructura de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados en las formaciones vegetales nativas es de gran interés científico porque es necesario establecer el papel que dichas comunidades presentan en el funcionamiento del ecosistema. Este estudio permite también hacer una estimación de la calidad de los suelos y de su susceptibilidad a la degradación, cuando son usados para la producción agrícola, porque la macrofauna edáfica es indicador de la calidad del suelo, como se dijo antes (Lavelle 1996; Stork y Eggleton 1992).La comunidad de macroinvertebrados del bosque de galería de Carimagua presentó una densidad comparable a la que generalmente se observa en las selvas húmedas tropicales (Cuadro 7-2), aunque su biomasa fue inferior a la de éstas (Decaëns et al. 1994). Esta diferencia se explica, principalmente, por la presencia de especies de lombrices de tamaño reducido, abundantes en términos de densidad pero que arrojan una biomasa baja relativa (Fragoso y Lavelle 1992). Los habitantes del mantillo o de los primeros 10 cm del suelo, que son transformadores de la hojarasca según Lavelle (1996), son el componente dominante de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados (Figura 7-1). En efecto, de la biomasa total, el 40% está compuesto por artrópodos epígeos y 4 de las 7 especies de lombrices presentes en los bosques de Carimagua pertenecen a esta misma categoría ecológica (Jiménez et al. 1995). La variedad de microhábitats, de hojarasca, troncos descompuestos y corteza de los árboles favorece también la diversidad taxonómica alta de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados.La sabana nativa sin manejo presenta poblaciones de macroinvertebrados dominadas por los grupos endógeos y anécicos (Bouché 1977), principalmente, las termitas y las lombrices de tierra (Decaëns et al. 1994;Jiménez et al. 1995). Los grupos de invertebrados epígeos, que dependen más específicamente de las capas de hojarasca de los bosques, no encuentran en la sabana un medio favorable para establecer poblaciones importantes. Por esta razón, la distribución vertical de la macrofauna tiende hacia los horizontes más profundos (Cuadro 7-2; Figura 7-1). La biomasa, tanto de la macrofauna en su totalidad como de las lombrices, es baja en comparación con los datos obtenidos en las sabanas africanas (Kouassi 1987;Lavelle 1978;Lavelle 1983a;Lavelle 1983b;Lavelle et al. 1992). Las termitas, por su parte, están muy bien establecidas en este medio y representan más del 45% de la biomasa total de macroinvertebrados frente al 30% que corresponde a las lombrices de tierra.Estos resultados demuestran la riqueza de la fauna edáfica en los ecosistemas de sabana natural intertropical y el papel predominante de las termitas y las lombrices de tierra en el suelo. Sin embargo, falta todavía ampliar estos conocimientos y llegar a una buena caracterización de la macrofauna de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, ya que hay variabilidad dentro de un mismo tipo de vegetación (Cuadro 7-2) (Schneidmadl y Decaëns 1995). Hasta ahora ningún estudio ha descrito los macroinvertebrados de otros tipos de suelo y de vegetación, como las regiones de suelos arenosos (serranía de la Altillanura ondulada) o de suelos mal drenados, muy frecuentes en la Orinoquia colombiana (Cochrane et al. 1985).Las lombrices son el componente predominante de la macrofauna del suelo en las sabanas nativas o manejadas de Carimagua (Decaëns et al. 1994). Desempeñan, además, junto con las termitas, un papel clave en los procesos de fertilidad del suelo (Lavelle et al. 1992). La caracterización de la diversidad y ecología de estos grupos es una etapa indispensable para conocer sus funciones en el suelo (Lavelle 1996).En todos los tipos de vegetación de Carimagua se encontraron 21 especies de lombrices de tierra (Cuadro 7-3); las  La diversidad de las lombrices de la sabana se cuantificó según los índices l de Simpson y H de Shannon a partir de los valores de biomasa, como sugieren algunos autores (Hurlbert 1971;Barbault 1992). En la sabana, el valor obtenido para el índice de Simpson fue 0.40, mientras que para el de Shannon fue 1.13; la equitatividad (Pielou 1975) fue 0.54. Estos valores muestran la desigual contribución que cada una de las especies aporta a la biomasa total de lombrices.La comunidad de lombrices de las sabanas de Carimagua se caracteriza por la presencia de especies de tamaño variable. Tanto a nivel taxonómico como a nivel funcional, la diversidad de lombrices está dentro del rango encontrado en otros lugares tropicales (Fragoso 1993). Las especies pertenecen a grupos funcionales distintos (Bouché 1972;Lavelle 1981), lo que permite a la comunidad aprovechar diferentes fuentes de energía. Las epígeas, por ejemplo, consumen exclusivamente hojarasca, las endógeas M.O. del suelo y las anécicas una mezcla de los dos sustratos. En general, la diversidad taxonómica y funcional de la comunidad de macroinvertebrados produce efectos diversos en los diferentes compartimentos edáficos y permite, de esta manera, regular al máximo los procesos de fertilidad del suelo.La densidad media anual de lombrices obtenida en la sabana fue de 114.5 ind./m 2 ; el valor mínimo obtenido fue de 20.4 ind./m 2 (en la época seca) y el máximo de 292.4 ind./m 2 (en mitad de la época lluviosa). La biomasa media anual fue de 4.8 g/m 2 y los valores extremos fueron 1.2 g/m 2 , obtenidos al inicio de la época seca en enero, y 15.7 g/m 2 en la época de lluvias en julio (Jiménez J. J., datos corregidos, sin publicar).En la sabana, las especies endógeas fueron las más abundantes, tanto en términos de densidad como de biomasa. El 88.3% de la densidad total de lombrices corresponde a las especies endógeas: Andiodrilus n. sp., Andiorrhinus n. sp., Glossodrilus n. sp. y Ocnerodrilidae n. gen. (Cuadro 7-4). El 11.5% proviene de la especie epígea Aymara n. sp. y sólo el 0.3% corresponde a la especie anécica Martiodrilus carimaguensis.La densidad y la biomasa de las lombrices son máximas al inicio de la época lluviosa, de mayo a agosto, y mínimas en la época seca, de diciembre a marzo (Figura 7-2). Dos especies endógeas, una polihúmica (Lavelle 1981), Glossodrilus n. sp., y una mesohúmica, Andiodrilus n. sp., dominan la comunidad en cuanto a la biomasa total (63.2% y 16.8%, respectivamente). Casi un 10% de la biomasa total se atribuye a M. carimaguensis, especie interesante desde el punto de vista ecológico (Jiménez et al. 1998a), ya que su gran tamaño le permite ingerir cantidades considerables de suelo que deposita luego en heces superficiales grandes. Estas heces, llamadas turrículos, influyen en diversos procesos físicos, químicos y biológicos del suelo (Decaëns et al. 1999a;1999b). Lavelle (1978) y Kouassi (1987) encontraron, en las sabanas africanas de Lamto, Costa de Marfil, que las lombrices eran también el principal componente de la biomasa de la macrofauna. En el Cuadro 7-5 se comparan los valores de densidad y biomasa de las lombrices encontradas en la sabana de Carimagua y su relativa contribución a las categorías ecológicas, con los valores medios obtenidos en el trópico húmedo. El número de lombrices encontradas en Carimagua es bajo, comparado con el de otros ambientes tropicales de sabana; la comparación debe realizarse, no obstante, con precaución, pues los datos fueron obtenidos empleando métodos diferentes.La aparición de una época seca muy severa de 4 meses de duración juega un papel fundamental en las variaciones de la densidad y de la biomasa de la sabana (ANOVA, p < 0.001). Tanto la densidad como la biomasa presentaron fluctuaciones temporales importantes (Figura 7-2). Las poblaciones fueron más abundantes al comienzo de la época de Cuadro 7-4.Densidad, biomasa y tamaño medio de los adultos de algunas especies de sabana, Colombia (media ± desviación típica). PF = peso fresco. Figura 7-2. Evolución durante el año de la densidad y de la biomasa de la comunidad de lombrices de tierra en una sabana nativa de Carimagua. Las sabanas tropicales se caracterizan por una fuerte estacionalidad ambiental. En Carimagua se presenta un período muy seco de 4 meses que marca el ritmo de actividad de las poblaciones de lombrices, ya que la humedad del suelo sufre una fluctuación estacional importante (de 14.4% a 23.4% en la sabana, en los primeros 10 cm del suelo); no llega, sin embargo, al pF 4.2 o punto de marchitamiento (11.6%). Todas las lombrices de la sabana permanecen inactivas durante la época seca, desde diciembre hasta marzo, aunque hay ciclos de actividad diferentes según las especies. Casi todas las especies de lombrices de tierra son capaces de suspender su actividad en respuesta a los cambios estacionales de temperatura y de humedad del suelo.La actividad de las lombrices se lleva a cabo, generalmente, en los primeros centímetros del suelo, donde los niveles de M.O. son más altos. Las especies han desarrollado diferentes adaptaciones a la fuerte estacionalidad ambiental. Ocnerodrilidae n. gen. se encuentra asociada, durante la época lluviosa, con lugares ricos en M.O., por ejemplo, nidos de coleópteros de la subfamilia Scarabeinae y heces de M. carimaguensis (Jiménez et al. 1998b). Esta especie forma, a consecuencia de su actividad, agregados mucho más pequeños que las otras y puede influir de manera positiva en la estructura física del suelo.• M. carimaguensis ha mostrado un comportamiento muy sorprendente, hasta ahora inexplicado y único entre las lombrices de tierra: los individuos juveniles se inactivan en la mitad de la época lluviosa, mientras que los adultos permanecen activos hasta el final de ésta (Figura 7-4), exactamente después de pasar el período reproductor y de depositar los capullos (Jiménez et al. 1998a). Antes de iniciar este período de diapausa, los individuos vacían el contenido intestinal, tabican el final de la galería con sus propias heces (4 a 5 paredes delgadas), forman una cámara de estivación esférica y se enrollan. Este proceso es desencadenado por un factor ambiental, pero el abandono está condicionado a escala fisiológica ya que, a diferencia de la paradiapausa, no hay respuesta cuando, de manera artificial, se introducen individuos en tierra que ha sido humedecida hasta capacidad de campo (pF 2.8). La lombriz pierde peso pero no sufre deshidratación; hay regresión de los caracteres sexuales pero no experimenta crecimiento durante este período (Jiménez et al. 2000). La combinación de estos patrones de comportamiento permite reducir el alto riesgo de mortalidad de la especie durante la época seca. En la Figura 7-5 se observa la distribución vertical de la inactividad de M. carimaguensis.Los individuos más pesados, que se ubicaron en los estratos más profundos del suelo, pierden casi el 80% de su peso durante este período (ANOVA de Kruskal-Wallis, p < 0.01).Las fuertes variaciones climáticas estacionales en Carimagua limitan la deposición de los capullos a los 8 meses de lluvia al año; en los demás meses las poblaciones están inactivas. Las estrategias reproductoras difieren también, según las especies. Se ha observado que, en general, cuanto mayor es el tamaño del adulto mayor es el capullo que produce, tanto en las lombrices tropicales como en las de latitudes templadas (Figura 7-6). Los adultos de Andiodrilus n. sp. y Glossodrilus n. sp. invierten casi el mismo porcentaje de su peso (6%) en la formación del capullo; los adultos de M. carimaguensis, en cambio, invierten un 16.1%, o sea, casi tres veces más que las dos especies anteriores. Este valor, el más alto obtenido hasta la fecha, muestra la estrategia adaptativa tan compleja y evolucionada de esta especie (Jiménez et al. 1999).Como se mencionó antes, las lombrices, termitas y hormigas forman en el suelo estructuras como los turrículos de las lombrices, los nidos de los insectos sociales, las galerías y cámaras, que son consideradas nexo directo entre la biodiversidad y la función realizada en el suelo (Lavelle 1996).La diversidad de organismos de las diferentes comunidades del suelo se organiza jerárquicamente según el esquema propuesto en la hipótesis de las \"biodiversidades encajadas\" (Lavelle 1996). Esta hipótesis propone que la diversidad de la vegetación epígea determina la diversidad de los ingenieros del ecosistema y que éstos, a su vez, condicionan la diversidad de otros organismos más pequeños.Las especies de lombrices anécicas de tamaño grande son buenos ejemplos del concepto de ingenieros del ecosistema. En las sabanas de los Llanos Orientales, M. carimaguensis deposita turrículos superficiales de gran tamaño (más de 10 cm de diámetro y de alto) debajo de los cuales habitan poblaciones de macroinvertebrados (Cuadro 7-6) más abundantes y diversificadas que las del suelo cercano (Decaëns et al. 1999b). Las galerías y las heces de las lombrices grandes constituyen, en efecto, microhábitas privilegiados para algunas especies de termitas y de hormigas, que aprovechan los macroporos de dichas estructuras para establecer sus colonias. Otras especies (termitas y pequeñas especies de lombrices) pueden utilizar directamente las deposiciones como sustrato alimenticio porque en éstas encuentran un contenido alto de M.O. (Jiménez et al. 1998a;Rangel et al. 1997).Los ingenieros del ecosistema influyen, recíprocamente, en la diversidad de la cobertura vegetal. Las hormigas y las lombrices, por ejemplo, pueden afectar la dinámica y la germinación de las semillas de las plantas superiores (Klaus y Delascio 1991;Thompson et al. 1994). Martiodrilus carimaguensis ingiere cantidades importantes de semillas mezcladas con el suelo y la hojarasca (Decaëns et al., sin publicar). Durante el tránsito intestinal se produce una destrucción, por digestión, de parte de las semillas. La lombriz provoca luego el movimiento vertical de las semillas, que sobreviven cuando son depositadas con las heces dentro del perfil o en la superficie del suelo (Cuadro 7-7). Las semillas enterradas por la lombriz pueden formar parte del banco de semillas permanente del suelo. Las semillas que la lombriz excreta en los turrículos encuentran condiciones favorables para la germinación (niveles de N mayores que en el suelo y acidez reducida) y tienen más oportunidad de influir en la distribución de la vegetación epígea después de la destrucción del turrículo. La gran diferencia existente entre la composición del banco de semilla del suelo y la vegetación epígea se reduce, por tanto, en las heces de la lombriz. Las mejores condiciones para la germinación explican también la mayor riqueza de especies y la diversidad encontradas en los turrículos en comparación con el suelo adyacente.Cuadro 7-6.Efectos de la actividad de M. carimaguensis en la densidad (individuos/m 2 ), en la riqueza taxonómica (número de especies) y en la diversidad (índice de Shanon; equitatividad de Pielou) de otros organismos del suelo en un suelo de la sabana nativa de Carinmagua. Las letras indican diferencias significativas con p < 0.001. Los ingenieros del ecosistema cumplen un papel primordial en los procesos físicos que ocurren en el suelo de un ecosistema natural y son, además, unos de los pocos organismos capaces de participar activamente en los fenómenos de pedoturbación. Su acción afecta notablemente la rugosidad de la superficie, la porosidad y la agregación del suelo y tiene efectos en las propiedades hidraúlicas del suelo (Lavelle 1997). Muchos trabajos de investigación han comprobado que los macroporos debidos a los movimientos de los macroinvertebrados del suelo (galerías y cámaras) ejercen un efecto positivo en la infiltración del agua, a pesar de que no representan más del 1% del volumen total del suelo (Lee 1995). En una sabana de Africa Occidental, Casenave y Valentin (1988) encontraron una relación directa entre la velocidad de infiltración del agua y el porcentaje de la superficie del suelo cubierto por turrículos de lombrices y por colonias de termitas. Las propiedades físicas del suelo observadas en los pastizales introducidos en Carimagua son mejores que las de la sabana nativa, diferencia que se atribuye, al menos parcialmente, a la importante actividad de las lombrices de tierra en estos sistemas (Decaëns, sin publicar; Gijsman y Thomas 1997).En la sabana de Carimagua, el suelo consumido por las especies M. carimaguensis y Andiodrilus n. sp.1 es de más de 30 t suelo seco / ha por año (Fisher et al. 1995) y de 100 t suelo seco / ha por año si se considera la comunidad entera de lombrices; las dos primeras especies no representan más del 40% de la biomasa total de los suelos de la sabana nativa. Sólo el 35% del suelo ingerido es depositado en turrículos superficiales, en tanto que el restante se deposita dentro del perfil del suelo (Decaëns, sin publicar). Este consumo es relativamente bajo si se compara con el observado en otros tipos de pastizales nativos tropicales (de varias centenas a 1250 t/ha por año) (Lavelle 1997). Otros grupos de macroinvertebrados crean estructuras y, por tanto, la cantidad de suelo movilizado cada año por todos los ingenieros del ecosistema debe ser considerablemente mayor. Después de su formación, las estructuras biogénicas quedan expuestas a ataques de diferentes factores, por ejemplo, las lluvias fuertes, las quemas y el pisoteo del ganado. Estos procesos causan poco a Cuadro 7-7.Similitud en la composición entre los bancos de semilla del suelo, los bancos de semilla de los turrículos de M. carimaguensis y la vegetación epígea en una sabana nativa de Carimagua. aSituaciones comparadas Indice de similitud de Sørensen (Cs)Semillas del suelo vs. semillas de los turrículos 0.50Semillas del suelo vs. vegetación epígea 0.05 Semillas de los turrículos vs. vegetación epígea 0.41 a. Indice de similitud de Sørensen: Cs = 2 j / (a + b), donde j = número de especies comunes a las dos situaciones; a y b = número total de especies en las dos situaciones.FUENTE: Decaëns et al. 1999a.poco la destrucción de estas estructuras y afectan así la agregación del suelo (Blanchart et al. 1989). En Carimagua se han descrito, hasta la fecha, 14 estructuras biogénicas de superficie con propiedades físicas muy diferentes entre sí (Decaëns et al. 2001): aquellas constituidas por agregados de gran tamaño (> 5 mm), producidas por lombrices (M. carimaguensis y Andiodrilus n. sp1) y termitas y aquellas constituidas principalmente por microagregados (< 0.250 mm) o por macroagregados de tamaño pequeño (0.250-2 mm), que provienen de los hormigueros (Figura 7-7). La densidad aparente de los turrículos frescos es alta si se la compara con las estructuras producidas por otros invertebrados del suelo (de 1.3 hasta 1.4 g/cm 3 y de 0.5 hasta 0.9 g/cm 3 , respectivamente). El efecto de cada especie sobre la agregación del suelo es diferente y conduce a la formación de agregados de tamaño y densidad variables.Las estructuras biogénicas superficiales perduran a veces mucho tiempo en la superficie del suelo, varios años en el caso de los termiteros. Los turrículos de M. carimaguensis pueden permanecer intactos durante más de un año en la sabana y sus propiedades físicas presentan una dinámica temporal muy notoria (Decaëns 2000). La densidad aparente de los turrículos frescos recién depositados es de 1.4 g/cm 3 y su diámetro medio ponderado es de 13 mm. Durante el envejecimiento del turrículo, ambos parámetros disminuyen gradualmente; después de un año llegan a 1.1 g/m 3 y 5.6 mm, respectivamente. La colonización de los turrículos por otros invertebrados de tamaño pequeño (termitas y hormigas), que excavan galerías dentro de ellos y los descomponen en agregados más pequeños es, sin duda, la causa de esta evolución (Figura 7-8). Las actividades antagónicas que ejercitan las especies de macroinvertebrados de diferente tamaño mantienen en equilibrio la agregación del suelo (Blanchart 1992). Las especies pequeñas disgregan los turrículos compactos y evitan así su acumulación excesiva, la cual puede, en ciertos casos, afectar negativamente el crecimiento de las plantas (Rose y Wood 1980).Martiodrilus carimaguensis, igual que otras lombrices, afecta de diverso modo la dinámica de la M.O. del suelo, según la escala de tiempo considerada (Blanchart et al. 1993;Lavelle 1997;Lavelle et al. 1992b;Trigo y Lavelle 1993).En la fase inicial, M. carimaguensis selecciona e ingiere el suelo rico en M.O.; por lo tanto, sus heces presentan un contenido de carbono total mayor que el del suelo cercano a ellas (Rangel et al. 1999). En una escala de tiempo corta (algunas horas), la lombriz mezcla activamente el suelo con agua y moco intestinal en su tracto digestivo; esta operación facilita una alta actividad microbiana y la mineralización de la M.O. En las heces frescas, las poblaciones importantes de microorganismos desarrollan una intensa mineralización (Figura 7-9) que libera nutrientes asimilables por las plantas (Cepeda et al. 1998;Rangel et al. 1999). Se ha observado también una difusión importante de los nutrientes del turrículo hacia el suelo cercano, donde pueden ser asimilados por las raíces superficiales (Decaëns et al. 1999c).En una escala de tiempo intermedia (días a meses), la M.O. es integrada en agregados estables en las heces secas y queda así protegida de una mineralización rápida. Así, la liberación de nutrientes que ocurre en los turrículos intactos (Figura 7-9) se reduce y desaparece totalmente después de 3 semanas (Rangel et al. 1999). El efecto de factores externos como la lluvia, las variaciones de la humedad, el pisoteo del ganado o la colonización de otros invertebrados modifican poco a poco los turrículos que, finalmente, se incorporan al suelo cercano convirtiéndose en una reserva de nutrientes potencialmente utilizable por las plantas (Decaëns et al. 1999c). Falta todavía información que permita determinar si dichos factores externos pueden movilizar de nuevo la M.O. de los turrículos y reactivar la liberación de los nutrientes asimilables.En una escala de tiempo larga (años o decenios), la actividad de las lombrices forma una reserva de carbono en el suelo y puede mejorar la calidad de la M.O.; en efecto, facilita la descomposición de la parte más vieja y resistente de esa materia y protege, a su vez, la fracción más reciente (Barois et al. 1993;Lavelle 1997;Lavelle et al. 1992). Las actividades de la macrofauna, a través de los efectos producidos en la fertilidad del suelo influyen considerablemente en el crecimiento de las plantas (Lavelle 1997;Brown et al. 1999). Las comunidades de macroinvertebrados pueden considerarse entonces como un recurso natural importante para la sostenibilidad de la producción primaria, ya sea en ecosistemas naturales o en agroecosistemas. Este recurso es altamente sensible al impacto de las actividades humanas (Lavelle 1997); por tanto, los sistemas de producción agrícola sostenibles deben considerar como objetivo esencial la conservación de la abundancia y la diversidad de la macrofauna.Los Llanos Orientales de Colombia han sido utilizados tradicionalmente como praderas nativas de explotación ganadera extensiva. La carga animal es baja y la quema se emplea como medio de renovación del pasto (Rippstein et al. 1996). Sin embargo, durante los últimos 10 años, se ha observado una tendencia a la intensificación agrícola, mediante la introducción de pasturas mejoradas o la siembra de cultivos anuales, en las áreas más accesibles de la región (Cadavid 1995). Los efectos de dichos sistemas sobre los suelos están aún bajo estudio. En Carimagua, el manejo de la tierra para la producción agrícola afecta dramáticamente las comunidades de macroinvertebrados del suelo (Figura 7-7). Los dos factores ambientales más importantes que explican esta respuesta, extraídos de un análisis multivariante (Decaëns et al. 1994), son los siguientes:-las modificaciones en la estructura y tipo de la vegetación (42.0% de la varianza total)-los cambios en la calidad del recurso natural, principalmente de la hojarasca y del estiércol del ganado (24.4% de la varianza total).Las prácticas de manejo tradicional de la sabana no afectan la biomasa de la macrofauna, pero disminuyen ligeramente su riqueza taxonómica. Como ocurre en otras pasturas nativas (Lavelle 1983b), la presencia del ganado y la práctica de las quemas favorecen a las lombrices, pero actúan en detrimento de las termitas. La quema practicada en la época lluviosa causa un efecto negativo inmediato y de corta duración en la macrofauna, aunque las comunidades se recuperan en menos de 6 meses (Figura 7-10). Un resultado diferente se observó en las sabanas de Costa de Marfil (Athias et al. 1975) La conversión de la sabana nativa en pastura mejorada, bien sea de gramínea sola o asociada con leguminosa, mantiene la riqueza taxonómica de la macrofauna y aumenta hasta en casi 13 veces la biomasa de ésta. Este cambio de sistema de manejo reduce notablemente la diversidad de las lombrices según los resultados obtenidos en los índices de diversidad (Jiménez et al. 1998b). El desarrollo de las poblaciones de lombrices nativas generado por el cambio es espectacular, especialmente en el caso de M. carimaguensis, cuya biomasa, durante la época lluviosa, puede pasar de 1 t/ha en una pastura de Brachiaria decumbens asociado con Pueraria phaseoloides (Jiménez et al. 1998a  Lavelle et al. 1981).Un punto importante de este estudio es la conservación de la riqueza de especies de la macrofauna nativa y, en consecuencia, el equilibrio entre las diferentes acciones con que los macroinvertebrados influyen en el suelo. No hay, por tanto, problemas de degradación del suelo como resultado de la proliferación de una especie exótica de lombrices, que es justamente el caso de otras regiones tropicales (Lavelle 1997).Los cultivos anuales causan un dramático descenso, tanto cuantitativo como cualitativo, de las poblaciones de invertebrados. Este fenómeno tiene tres explicaciones posibles: el efecto de la labranza, el uso indiscriminado de pesticidas y la disminución de las reservas de carbono disponibles en el suelo a consecuencia de la desaparición de la vegetación perenne (House y Parmelee 1985;Lavelle y Pashanasi 1989). Los cultivos arbóreos de baja densidad de árboles, por el contrario, ofrecen condiciones favorables para el desarrollo de una alta actividad biológica, ya que conservan una cobertura herbácea permanente, aumentan el grosor del mantillo de hojarasca y tienen un efecto amortiguador sobre el microclima, gracias a la sombra de los árboles. La densidad de estos árboles no es aún lo suficientemente alta para crear un verdadero microclima forestal que permita el mantenimiento de la fauna sabanícola. En un cultivo de marañón (Anacardium occidentale L.) se registró una biomasa de lombrices de tierra nativas que era de 3 a 4 veces superior a la encontrada en la sabana nativa; las lombrices se localizaban, de preferencia, debajo de los árboles (Decaëns, sin publicar). Estos resultados confirman los estudios de Lavelle y Pashanasi (1989) en Perú.En primer lugar, los resultados presentados en este trabajo provienen exclusivamente de las sabanas bien drenadas, cuyos suelos son arcillolimosos, que se encuentran en la región de Carimagua, en Colombia. Cualquier extrapolación a otra región, así tenga las mismas propiedades de suelos y de vegetación, deberá hacerse con cautela, porque las características biogeográficas propias de cada especie (de lombriz, por ejemplo) determinan su presencia en un lugar determinado y su ausencia en otro, sin razón aparente. Además, falta información sobre la composición y la estructura de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados en las regiones de suelos arenosos e inundables, dos formaciones edáficas bastante representativas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.La macrofauna del suelo en los ecosistemas del bosque de galería y la sabana nativa presenta una biomasa globalmente inferior a la registrada (datos disponibles) sobre tipos de vegetación comparables de otras regiones del trópico. Sin embargo, la diversidad taxonómica y funcional es grande porque hay especies representativas de todos los grupos funcionales definidos en los invertebrados del suelo (Bouché 1972;Lavelle 1981). Estos grupos utilizan, para su desarrollo, diversas fuentes de energía que van desde la hojarasca hasta la M.O. del suelo en diferente grado de descomposición. Se localizan, además, en diversos estratos horizontales, concentran sus actividades en sitios específicos y logran una buena homogeneización en el espacio de los efectos que regulan los procesos determinantes de la fertilidad del suelo.Las sabanas tropicales son ecosistemas sometidos a una fuerte sequía estacional que influye directamente en la humedad del suelo que es uno de los factores determinantes de la actividad y de la dinámica de las poblaciones de lombrices (Lavelle 1983b). Las especies encontradas en Carimagua poseen diferentes estrategias adaptativas a dicha severidad ambiental y evitar así que sus poblaciones desaparezcan. Estas adaptaciones son la respuesta a los factores limitantes del suelo, o sea, las escasas reservas de nutrientes, el movimiento en un ambiente compacto y las condiciones climáticas desfavorables.Las termitas y las lombrices de tierra son el componente dominante de las comunidades de la macrofauna en las formaciones vegetales nativas de la Altillanura plana, en Colombia. Las actividades de estos organismos afectan la parte abiótica del suelo porque levantan construcciones mediante las cuales modifican profundamente la estructura del suelo y la dinámica de la M.O. Los efectos producidos difieren, además, según las especies y la escala de tiempo consideradas y, a veces, son antagonistas; por consiguiente, la acción global de la macrofauna favorece una regulación efectiva de las características físicas y químicas del suelo. Por tal razón, las estructuras biogénicas se han considerado como un verdadero intermediario entre la biodiversidad y los procesos que determinan la fertilidad del suelo (Lavelle 1996).Las relaciones existentes entre la vegetación epígea y los diferentes grupos de fauna del suelo apoyan la hipótesis de las biodiversidades encajadas de Lavelle (1996). La abundancia y la diversidad de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados está determinada por dos factores ambientales relacionados uno con la estructura y otro con la naturaleza de la vegetación. Se hizo evidente también el papel ecológico desempeñado por las estructuras biogénicas de superficie de los ingenieros del ecosistema, las cuales afectan la abundancia y la diversidad de otros grupos de organismos (Decaëns et al. 1999b). Su acción comprende una redistribución de recursos, principalmente una concentración de la M.O. y la creación de microhábitat específicos. Las interrelaciones entre diferentes grupos funcionales que pertenecen a un mismo taxón o a varios de ellos son estrechas y complejas, como lo demuestra el efecto recíproco de las lombrices anécicas en la vegetación por medio de los bancos de semilla del suelo. Falta todavía realizar investigación para comprender mejor estos fenómenos y para estimar la participación de otros grupos importantes, como las termitas y las hormigas, las cuales cumplen también, sin duda, un papel relevante.Sería necesario investigar también la agregación de las partículas de suelo más pequeñas en las heces de M. carimaguensis que han sido ingeridas por individuos de Ocnerodrilidae n. gen. Este proceso puede constituir un modelo análogo al de las especies compactantes y decompactantes de Blanchart et al. (1997) que favorecen la estructura física del suelo.La macrofauna es un recurso natural altamente sensible a la conversión de la sabana nativa en un sistema de producción agrícola que responde de manera directamente proporcional a la intensificación. Esta respuesta se relaciona principalmente con las modificaciones de la cobertura vegetal, que determina directamente la cantidad y la calidad del recurso orgánico.• Tanto las pasturas nativas como las introducidas mantienen una vegetación cuya estructura vertical es similar a la que posee la sabana y resguardan, además, una macrofauna nativa diversificada. Asimismo pueden, como en el caso de las praderas mejoradas, aumentar la calidad y la cantidad de la M.O. fresca que se incorpora al suelo y mejorar, por tanto, la actividad de la fauna.• Los monocultivos anuales, por el contrario, traen consigo una disminución dramática de la macrofauna porque crean condiciones desfavorables -como la destrucción de la vegetación nativa y la disminución de la cantidad de material vegetal restituido-o causan directamente la muerte de los organismos mediante la labranza y el uso indiscriminado de los pesticidas.Las sabanas bien drenadas de los Llanos Orientales poseen una macrofauna con una buena capacidad de adaptación a los ambientes perturbados. La próxima etapa de esta investigación será la determinación de opciones de manejo de las poblaciones de macroinvertebrados en los diferentes agroecosistemas. Este trabajo se está realizando en Carimagua, enfocado especialmente hacia las lombrices de tierra; el objetivo general es optimizar y aprovechar este recurso para aumentar la sostenibilidad de los sistemas agropecuarios. Se presta atención especial al manejo de las prácticas agrícolas, a la forma y a la disposición de las parcelas y al uso de rotaciones a corto o a largo plazo. Se ha estudiado también la capacidad de movimiento de las lombrices para poder evaluar sus facultades de recolonización del suelo en sistemas de producción destructivos. Por último, se ha desarrollado un modelo de manejo integrado de una finca para formalizar las reglas de interacción entre las lombrices y las prácticas agrícolas empleadas (L. Mariani, sin publicar). Esperamos que el modelo permita ahondar en nuestro conocimiento del ecosistema y comprobar, mediante simulación, la sostenibilidad de las opciones de manejo.  Durante 5 años se llevaron a cabo ensayos de pastoreo con bovinos en pasturas naturales utilizando dispositivos experimentales, en el CIA manejado por el ICA y el CIAT en Carimagua, Meta. Se estudiaron allí la dinámica de las especies, el valor pastoril de la sabana, la productividad animal y la de la cubierta herbácea, la biomasa de las raíces y la fertilidad del suelo bajo el efecto de fuegos periódicos, las diferentes cargas animales y los diferentes períodos de descanso después de la quema y antes del pastoreo. Se propusieron luego a los finqueros modelos mejorados de explotación de la sabana nativa.Se presentan aquí algunos resultados de la dinámica de la vegetación sometida a diferentes tipos de manejo y se hacen propuestas para la recuperación de los pastos degradados.La respuesta de la vegetación, como aumento o disminución de la presencia de la cobertura o biomasa aérea, a cualquier tipo de estrés es inmediata (desde el primer año). Posteriormente, esa respuesta evoluciona más lentamente.Las quemas anuales de la vegetación que estuvo protegida durante varios años producen una reacción muy diferente, dependiente de la época de quema. Las especies más sensibles (entre las más frecuentes) son: Andropogon bicornis, Otachyrium versicolor y, sobre todo, Axonopus purpusii, Gymnopogon foliosus y Trachypogon vestitus.Quemas efectuadas cada 16 meses durante 5 años (o con menor frecuencia) no afectan tanto la sabana y permiten mantener la biodiversidad, la productividad y el valor pastoril. Combinaciones de estas formas de manejo fueron utilizadas para experimentar modelos de explotación de la sabana nativa en Carimagua.Las distintas cargas animales afectan de manera diferente la presencia y la dinámica de las especies botánicas. La explotación de la sabana ocasiona una disminución de todas las especies importantes, sobre todo en el primer año. Sólo A. purpusii aumenta su presencia y su cobertura (o su biomasa).El descanso después de la quema y antes del pastoreo (0, 2, 4, 8 semanas) ocasiona también importantes cambios en la dinámica de todas las especies, especialmente en el primer año. Aumentan también en esta etapa la frecuencia y la cobertura de A. purpusii, mientras que disminuyen las de las demás especies.En los Llanos Orientales de Colombia han ocurrido siempre cambios de vegetación. A lo largo de la historia geológica, ecológica y climática de esa región hubo cambios considerables en la relación proporcional entre sabana abierta, bosque de sabana y selva.Los diagramas de polen realizados por Thomas van der Hammer (1992) muestran los cambios mencionados, especialmente ocurridos durante la era del Cuaternario (Holoceno y Pleistoceno), es decir, desde el Paleolítico hasta nuestra época. Se registra, por ejemplo, entre 4000 y 3800 años antes de la época actual, un período en que casi no existía la sabana abierta que se conoce actualmente. Hubo luego un período más húmedo y frío, cuando cambios importantes modificaron la fisonomía de los Llanos; por ejemplo, la selva y la sabana arbolada o arbustiva dominaron el paisaje.Hace menos de 2000 años había, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, más de 50% de bosque y de sabana arbustiva; esta condición no sobrepasa hoy el 5%.La fisonomía actual de la vegetación de los Llanos, o sea, una sabana abierta casi sin arbustos en los bancos y con bosques a lo largo de los ríos (bosques de galería), es muy reciente. Esta sabana es el resultado del cambio de clima ocurrido durante los últimos miles de años, en que el clima se tornó más seco y las temperaturas se hicieron más altas.La sabana 'estacional' actual, según Sarmiento (1990), es una consecuencia de la interrelación de varios factores:-aparición de la estacionalidad del clima: una época seca de 3 meses que alterna con una época lluviosa el resto del año;-régimen hídrico del suelo: el nivel freático es bajo en la época seca;-pobreza físico-química de los suelos; y -efecto de la quema sobre la vegetación: puede ser un factor ecológico natural o un factor antropológico (la quema se emplea para manejar los pastos, como sucede actualmente).Aparte de la quema, otros factores antropológicos de manejo de los pastos nativos influyen en la vegetación. Los más importantes son el pastoreo (con diferente tasa de carga animal), el descanso después o antes de la quema, la siembra de leguminosas forrajeras asociadas con los pastos, y los cultivos anuales. Durante 6 años se estudiaron estos factores en el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria (CI) Carimagua, en Meta, Llanos Orientales. Los autores se preguntaron además si estos factores influían de manera positiva, es decir, mejorando la productividad, o de manera negativa en los pastos nativos.Los objetivos de este estudio de la dinámica de la vegetación de los Llanos son una respuesta a las siguientes preguntas específicas:• ¿Qué efectos tienen la carga animal (sobrepastoreo o subpastoreo) y el descanso de la vegetación después de la quema (el tiempo de descanso, la época de la quema u otro manejo) en la vegetación?• ¿Cuáles son los mejores índices o parámetros que pueden indicar los cambios experimentados por la vegetación? Se sugieren los siguientes: biodiversidad, frecuencia de las especies, aparición de arbustos o especies no deseables, valor pastoril, porcentaje de cobertura del suelo, reflectancia terrestre o por satélite de la vegetación?• De estos índices, ¿cuáles son los que mejor pueden utilizar los técnicos o productores para indicar degradación o mejoramiento de la vegetación?• ¿Es posible manipular la vegetación (con la quema, por ejemplo) para recuperarla después de su degradación?• ¿Hay alguna posibilidad de combinar, en modelos nuevos, estos factores de manejo para mejorar la productividad de los pastos nativos y, por consiguiente, para aumentar la producción animal de manera sostenible, o sea, sin que se degrade la vegetación?Para responder estas preguntas se hicieron varios ensayos en diferentes lugares y con distintos tipos de suelos del CIA Carimagua, entre 1990 y 1996.Los materiales empleados para el ensayo (sitios, suelos, tipos de vegetación, muestreos, tratamientos) se presentan esquemáticamente en el Cuadro 8-1. La dinámica de la vegetación de los Llanos se estudió durante más de 5 años aplicando una metodología de tipo evolutivo basada en los siguientes parámetros:• Frecuencia de las especies.Número de veces que una especie se presenta en un número dado de parcelas de muestreo o de puntos de muestreo. Se evalúa aquí la contribución de cada especie a la constitución de la pastura mediante la fórmula calculada por Daget y Godron (1995):CS i = FC i / åFC i * 100 = n i / ån i * 100 donde:CS i = contribución de la especie i; FC = frecuencia centesimal (es decir, en porcentaje respecto a 100 muestras) de la especie i;åFC i = sumatoria de la frecuencia centesimal de todas las especies;n i = número de unidades de muestreo donde se encuentra la especie i; ån i = sumatoria del número de unidades de muestreo en que está i.• Cobertura que da la especie. Es la fracción proporcional de la superficie del suelo que está ocupada por la proyección perpendicular de la parte aérea de los individuos de la especie que se considera (Paladines 1992). Se expresa mediante una frecuencia centesimal:FC i = n i / N * 100 donde:n i = número de unidades de la muestra donde hay presencia de la especie i; N = número total de unidades de la muestra.Esta cobertura es un índice relativo de la biomasa aérea de la vegetación. Puede usarse también(1)(2) a. Indica que se tomaron muestras de raíces a diferentes profundidades y que se practicaron análisis convencionales de suelos. b. Se refiere al ganado bovino presente en los ensayos y a los datos de ganancia de peso que pudieron tomarse. como un índice de la degradación de la vegetación. La frecuencia de las especies se establece aplicando la metodología de los \"puntos cuadrados alineados\" (Daget y Poissonet 1991) a lo largo de transectos fijos de 20 m en la pastura, donde la unidad de muestreo (o superficie de la muestra) es el punto de una aguja. 1• Productividad del pasto nativo.Se mide haciendo cortes de la vegetación en pequeñas parcelas y determinando la producción y la productividad en la M.S. de los cortes (Daget y Godron 1995); se emplean dos expresiones:Prod. = kg/ha, de M.S.;Prod. = g/m 2 por día, de M.S.• Valor alimenticio. Se obtiene mediante análisis bromatológicos (Salinas y García 1985).• La dinámica de una especie proviene, principalmente, de su contribución específica y de su valor pastoril. El Cuadro 8-2 presenta la frecuencia relativa, es decir, la contribución de cada especie en porcentaje (frecuencia centesimal), y el 'valor pastoril' de las especies dominantes de una pastura nativa de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, que ha sido manejada con quema en diferentes épocas del año y pastoreada con diferentes cargas durante 10 años.Se observa, en primer lugar, la influencia de la época de quema en la frecuencia relativa:• La quema anual en abril favorece la dominancia de las gramíneas Gymnopogon foliosus (34.8%) y Trachypogon vestitus (38.0%).• La quema anual en agosto causa una 'explosión' de Axonopus purpusii (45.1%), la desaparición de G. foliosus, una disminución de T. vestitus (cae hasta un 19.5%), y la aparición de Andropogon selloanus (11.7%), cuya presencia era mínima en el tratamiento de quema en abril.• La quema anual en diciembre modifica la frecuencia relativa de las especies, así: la gramínea dominante es T. vestitus (51.5%); la siguen Andropogon leucostachyus y Otachyrium versicolor, ambas con casi un 11%. Estas dos últimas especies están poco representadas en los dos tratamientos anteriores.Un transecto lineal de 20 m se hace con una cinta métrica y dos varillas que la sostienen a una altura de 1 m sobre la superficie del suelo. Cada 20 cm en la cinta se deja caer hacia el suelo una aguja fina de cobre de 120 cm de largo y las especies vegetales que toquen la aguja son registradas (censadas). Ninguna especie tocará la aguja (y no habrá 'lectura' en ese punto) si el suelo está descubierto.(3)Cuadro 8-2.Frecuencia relativa (%) y valor pastoril (VP) de las especies dominantes de una sabana nativa manejada con quema (en diferentes épocas del año) y con diferente carga durante 10 años. Se observa también en esta quema la aparición de Andropogon bicornis, una gramínea poco deseable por su bajo valor pastoril.La carga alta trae consigo, en la quema de abril, un aumento adicional de la presencia de G. foliosus; en la quema de agosto, un gran aumento en la frecuencia de A. purpusii (62%); y en la quema de diciembre, la dominancia de Andropogon selloanus, una especie cuyo índice de valor pastoril (1.7) es regular.La frecuencia de una especie, combinada con su IVP -que se toma aquí cuando las plantas tienen 4 semanas de edad-permite calcular el VP de la pastura y comparar pasturas de la misma área conformadas por las mismas especies. En el caso estudiado (Carimagua), se observó una diferencia en el valor pastoril del pasto según la época de quema y una disminución de este valor al establecer la carga alta, especialmente en las quemas de abril y diciembre. Este resultado implica una diferencia de productividad en estos pastos y, probablemente, diferencias de producción animal.En las Figuras 8-1A, 8-1B y 8-1C se observa tanto la dinámica de la vegetación pastoreada como la influencia de la carga; en las Figuras 8-2A, 8-2B, 8-2C y 8-2D se muestra el descanso de 0, 2, 4 u 8 semanas después de hacer una quema cada 16 meses.• La Figura 8-1A presenta la dinámica de la sabana nativa; la Figura 8-1B ilustra la influencia de la carga (baja, media o alta) en la vegetación de la sabana; la Figura 8-1C describe la contribución específica de las especies, en porcentaje.En estas figuras se observa el cambio que experimentó la frecuencia de las especies durante 5 años por efecto del cambio de carga animal:-En el primer año, generalmente, hay muchos cambios; en los años siguientes la vegetación es estable. Como en el ejemplo anterior, la carga afecta la contribución específica de cada especie. Este año se nota también un aumento de las especies secundarias, de diverso orden, en todos los tratamientos.-Pasados 5 años, los cambios más importantes ocurren en A. purpusii y en A. bicornis, en todos los tratamientos.• La Figura 8-2A presenta la dinámica de la sabana nativa; la Figura 8-2B ilustra la influencia del descanso (0, 2, 4 u 8 semanas después de la quema) en la vegetación de la sabana; la Figura 8-2C describe la contribución específica de las especies, en porcentaje.Este descanso (después de la quema y antes del pastoreo) ocasiona también cambios importantes durante el primer año y un aumento espectacular de la contribución de A. purpusii.• La Figura 8-3A presenta la dinámica de la sabana nativa; la Figura 8-3B ilustra la evolución del valor pastoril y la influencia de la carga y el descanso después de la quema. En ambas se observa un aumento de este índice en todos los tratamientos.No se observó una disminución del valor pastoril a causa de la carga alta porque los animales no pastorearon las parcelas de este tratamiento (ya degradadas) en la época seca, por falta de pasto. En los tratamientos de 'descanso', el valor pastoril mejoró en el tratamiento de descanso de 4 semanas, entre 1991 y 1996; asimismo, no se degradó el pasto en el tratamiento en que no hubo descanso (cero semanas), aunque podría esperarse una degradación.La cobertura del suelo, en porcentaje, puede considerarse una muestra relativa de la biomasa de la vegetación o del suelo descubierto; es decir, es una muestra o índice de la degradación sufrida por la vegetación, o sea, del peligro de erosión del suelo.• Las Figuras 8-4A, 8-4B y 8-4C presentan la dinámica de la sabana nativa, indicando la influencia de la carga animal (A = carga baja, B = carga media, C = carga alta ) y la relación cobertura/biomasa aérea (de las plantas de las especies).En estas figuras se muestra, para las tres cargas, la dominancia de dos especies o de un grupo de especies: Paspalum pectinatum, A. purpusii o las gramíneas diversas o secundarias. Podemos observar también la disminución de la cobertura de casi todas las especies. Solamente para A. purpusii y G. foliosus la cobertura aumentó entre 1991 y 1995.Al llegar el descanso (Figuras 8-5A, 8-5B, 8-5C y 8-5D) se observa la misma tendencia en la dominancia de las mismas especies. La razón es que todas las especies que dominan aquí la pastura tienen un porte más o menos igual.• Las Figuras 8-5A, 8-5B, 8-5C y 8-5D presentan la dinámica de la sabana nativa, indicando la influencia del descanso después de la quema y la relación cobertura/ biomasa aérea (de las plantas de varias especies, en %).• Las Figuras 8-6A y 8-6B presentan la dinámica de la sabana nativa, indicando la influencia de la carga animal (A) y del descanso (B) después de la quema, así como la relación cobertura/biomasa aérea.La cobertura o biomasa aérea total de la vegetación (Figuras 8-6A y 8-6B) disminuye drásticamente en todos los casos, es decir, la biomasa (o la productividad de los pastos) disminuye en todos estos modelos de manejo de los pastos nativos, especialmente en las cargas alta y media.La degradación de la productividad se observa también en los rebrotes después de la quema (Cuadro 8-3). La productividad disminuyó drásticamente entre 1991 y 1994. Se observó que disminuye cuando aumenta la carga y también cuando llega la juventud de los rebrotes.Se estudiaron también algunos medios para recuperar los pastos nativos degradados. En las figuras siguientes se presentan los resultados de algunos ensayos en que hubo descanso de la vegetación y también quema de la vegetación.Cuadro 8-3.Productividad de los rebrotes de los pastos de la sabana nativa después de la quema mostrando la influencia de la carga animal en este fenómeno. • La Figura 8-7 ilustra la recuperación de la sabana nativa degradada en 1991 y la influencia del descanso (sin quema) después 1991.La pastura presentada en la Figura 8-7 se degradó porque se hicieron cortes de los rebrotes cada 4 semanas durante 1 año. Después del primer año se observó la degradación de la pastura, que se manifestó en los siguientes fenómenos:-aparición del suelo, que quedó descubierto en un 15% (0% antes de los cortes);-disminución del número de especies forrajeras;-aumento considerable de la contribución de poáceas poco productivas, como Mesosetum pittieri, y de ciperáceas (Rhynchospora podosperma);-disminución de la contribución de especies de VP bueno, como Paspalum pectinatum y T. vestitus.En 1995, o sea, 4 años después del descanso, la vegetación se recuperó: no se observó entonces el suelo descubierto y las especies hacían casi la misma contribución que en 1990.El Cuadro 8-4 presenta la dinámica de la vegetación nativa protegida de la quema durante 2 años, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Este cuadro muestra el efecto de 2 años de descanso en la vegetación, o sea, la recuperación del VP del pasto nativo al cabo de ese tiempo.Otro ejemplo de recuperación es una pastura nativa invadida por la especie Panicum rudgei; ésta tiene poca aceptación entre los animales, aun siendo muy joven, porque sus hojas están cubiertas de pelos que no gustan al ganado. Además, se ha reportado que causa fotosensibilidad en el ganado (Escobar 1995).En este ensayo se recurrió a la quema para recuperar la pastura.• La Figura 8-8 ilustra la recuperación de la sabana nativa degradada por Panicum rudgei y el efecto del descanso en las especies nativas.Se presenta aquí el efecto de la quema anual en la vegetación La mejor época para la quema fue la época lluviosa, antes de la madurez y de la dispersión de las semillas.El pastoreo de la sabana nativa de los Llanos Orientales y el uso de la quema como práctica de manejo de esa sabana producen, a mediano y largo plazo, dos efectos en una vegetación que no haya sido pastoreada con intensidad anteriormente:-una disminución de la productividad;-la degradación de la vegetación, a veces, cuando ésta es mal manejada.Ejemplos de mal manejo son una carga animal muy alta o un descanso demasiado corto después de la quema y antes del pastoreo. La degradación puede conducir a la pérdida de la biodiversidad o a la aparición del suelo (despojado de vegetación) en la superficie del terreno.La vegetación puede ser recuperada si se le da descanso y, a veces, se le hace una quema combinada con descanso.Se ensayaron modelos de explotación de la sabana con ganado bovino en Carimagua. Se concluyó que existe la posibilidad de obtener una producción animal igual o mejor que en el sistema tradicional manteniendo la biodiversidad, la productividad y el valor pastoril de la sabana a largo plazo (Figura 8-9). Estos modelos se describen en el Capítulo 9 de esta obra (ensayos de Caribey, Corin, Pasoganado I y Pasoganado II). La productividad y el valor alimenticio de los diferentes tipos de pastos nativos de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, manejados sin la práctica de la quema, son generalmente bajos durante todo el año. En condiciones de manejo tradicional, la ganancia de peso de los bovinos de carne es baja en la época lluviosa y muy baja o negativa en la época seca.En el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria Carimagua, manejado por el ICA y el CIAT en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, los ensayos arrojaron diferencias significativas en la productividad de los animales, que dependía de la composición botánica, o sea, del 'valor pastoril' de los pastos nativos.Se obtuvo una ganancia de peso significativa durante todo el año haciendo quemas secuenciales cada 4 meses en la época lluviosa y quemas mensuales en la época seca, pastoreando los rebrotes de 4 semanas de edad después de la quema, haciendo rotaciones y duplicando la carga animal tradicional. Este sistema evitó la degradación de la vegetación.Estos modelos mejorados de explotación de la sabana tienen un límite; por ello, puede ser necesario intensificar la pastura en la época seca sembrando pastos mejorados y haciendo reservas de forraje; ambas prácticas complementan la nutrición animal.Los estudios ecológicos y fitosociológicos realizados en los Llanos Orientales revelaron una gran diversidad de paisajes, de suelos, de condiciones hídricas y, naturalmente, de tipos de sabana nativa (Blydenstein 1967;Broekhuijsen 1995;Grollier 1995;Rippstein y Girard 1994;Rippstein et al. 1995; Capítulos 1 a 10 de esta obra). La sabana nativa se considera de inferior calidad y su productividad es muy baja (Fisher et al. 1992) (Cuadro 9-1).La explotación tradicional de bovinos, con quema de la sabana nativa o sin ella, no permite que los animales adquieran mucha ganancia de peso, a pesar de que, siendo jóvenes, pastorean los rebrotes de buena calidad nutricional producidos después de la quema, especialmente durante la época seca (Hoyos 1987) (Cuadro 9-2).Parecía posible, sin embargo, mejorar la productividad o ganancia de peso diaria de los animales (GPD, medida en kg/ha) en estas sabanas nativas, empleando modelos de manejo que incluyan las siguientes prácticas:-buen uso de la quema; -cargas de pastoreo adecuadas tanto en la época seca como en la lluviosa, adaptadas a la productividad y a la calidad de la vegetación;-rotación de los animales por diferentes parcelas;-descanso de la vegetación después de la quema y antes del pastoreo.Se evaluaron, por tanto, para explotar mejor la sabana nativa, varios modelos de manejo en el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria (CI) Carimagua entre 1991 y 1996.Los ensayos se realizaron en cinco sitios diferentes: cuatro tenían suelos 'arcillosos' (los sitios Caribey, Corin, Pasoganado 1 y Pasoganado 2) y uno tenía suelo 'arenoso'.Los suelos arcillosos son relativamente fértiles. Su composición porcentual, en el horizonte de 0 a 20 cm, es el siguiente: arcilla 37%, arena 18%, limo 45%, pH (en H 2 O) 5.5, M.O. 3.44%, N disponible 6.23 ppm, N (total) 1008 ppm, C (total) 2.0%, C/N 19.8, Al 2.6 meq/100 g, Ca 0.21 meq/100 g, K 0.06 meq/100 g, saturación de Al 89%, P (Bray II) 3.9 ppm.Este tipo de suelo arcilloso es muy representativo de la Altillanura plana y ocupa cerca de 3.5 millones de hectáreas en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (Cochrane et al. 1985).Los suelos arenosos son relativamente escasos en nutrientes. Su composición porcentual es la siguiente (0-20 cm): arcilla 17%, arena 65%, limo 18%, pH (H 2 O) 5.1, M.O. 0.89, N disponible 3.7 ppm, N (total) 339 ppm, C (total) 0.52%, C/N 15.5, Al 0.7 meq/100 g, Ca 0.13 meq/100 g, K 0.03 meq/100 g, saturación de Al 77%, P (Bray II) 2.0 ppm.Este tipo de suelo arenoso es muy parecido a los suelos arenosos de la Altillanura ondulada o de la Serranía de los Llanos Orientales, que ocupan 6.4 millones de hectáreas. La vegetación de Carimagua se describe detalladamente en el Capítulo 2 de esta obra.Las especies que predominan en los suelos arcillosos y su contribución específica (en porcentaje) a la vegetación de la sabana son:-gramíneas: Trachypogon vestitus (41%), Axonopus purpusii (20%), Paspalum pectinatum (11%), Andropogon leucostachyus (7%), Schyzachyrium hirtiflorum (5%), Trasya petrosa (5%);-diicotiledóneas diversas (2%);-ciperáceas diversas (3%);-leguminosas (0.5%).En suelos arenosos, las especies que predominan y su contribución específica (en porcentaje) son las siguientes:-gramíneas: P. pectinatum (14%), S. hirtiflorum (13%), A. purpusii (10%), T. vestitus (10.5%), Mesosetum pittieri (9%), Leptocoryphium lanatum (6.5%);-otras gramíneas (13.8%);-ciperáceas: Rhynchospora podosperma (13.2%), R. confinis (9.2%);-algunas dicotiledóneas (0.1%);-leguminosas (0.7%).Se emplearon dos modelos de manejo:• El Modelo 1 es el sistema tradicional mejorado con quema. La quema se hace en secuencia, en cuatro parcelas, cada 4 meses (o sea, en diciembre, en abril y en agosto). La carga de pastoreo es diferente en cada período. En consecuencia, cada parcela es quemada de nuevo a los 16 meses de la primera quema, tiempo que permite la recuperación de su vegetación y evita su degradación (ver Capítulo 8 de esta obra).• El Modelo 2 es el sistema mejorado con quema y rotación. La quema se hace en secuencia mensual, en 20 parcelas distribuidas en dos bloques. Cada mes, después de 4 semanas de descanso, los animales pasan de un bloque a otro.En la época seca (diciembre a marzo) se quemaron dos parcelas contiguas en el mismo bloque a causa de la menor productividad de los rebrotes durante esa época (Cuadro 9-2). Cada parcela, por tanto, experimenta una quema cada 16 meses.Se aplicaron las siguientes cargas animales o de pastoreo:• En suelo arcilloso:-carga baja: 6 ha/animal -carga media: 4 ha/animal -carga alta: 2 ha/animal • En suelo arenoso:-carga media: 6 ha/animal -carga alta: 4 ha/animal Se ensayaron, además, diferentes tiempos de descanso después de la quema y antes del pastoreo: 0 semanas (pastoreo inmediatamente después de la quema), 2, 4 y 8 semanas. En el Modelo 2 se ensayó una rotación alterna en dos bloques, después de 4 semanas de descanso.Se ensayaron novillos y vaquillas de 2 años de edad, de raza criolla o de cruces Criollo por Brahman, que tenían un peso vivo (PV) inicial de 180 kg (en promedio).Se tomaron las siguientes muestras cada mes:-el peso de los animales (kg PV/animal; kg PV/ha) -la productividad de la vegetación, o sea, la biomasa aérea neta del pasto muestreada en un cuadrado de 1 m² (g M.S./m² o kg M.S./ha).Se tomaron también muestras para estudiar la dinámica de la vegetación (parte aérea y raíces) en transectos permanentes, pero no se reportan en este capítulo.En la Figura 9-1 y en el Cuadro 9-3 se compara el comportamiento de dos tipos de suelo, el arcilloso y el arenoso, en un mismo sistema: el tradicional mejorado en sabana.Al principio del ensayo y durante 1 año (julio 1991 hasta julio 1992), las cargas aplicadas a los pastos fueron de 6 ha/animal en el suelo arenoso y de 4 ha/animal en el suelo arcilloso.A partir de julio 1992, la carga fue de 4 ha/animal para el pasto de ambos tipos de suelo.Durante este primer año, la ganancia de peso por animal fue casi igual (40 kg PV/animal) en ambos suelos, el arcilloso y el arenoso, aunque más irregular en el segundo; fue muy diferente, en cambio, la productividad animal en ambos suelos: 10 y 6.6 kg PV/ha al año, respectivamente.Durante el segundo año (agosto 1992 a septiembre 1993) y empleando la misma carga (4 ha/animal) para ambos tipos de sabana, la diferencia entre los dos suelos fue notoria: la ganancia de peso en el suelo arcilloso fue significativamente diferente (más de 90 kg).En suelo arenoso, la GPD fue débil durante la época lluviosa (E.L.) de 1992 (Cuadro 9-3); fue negativa en la E.L. de 1993 (-47 g) y baja (+21 g) durante la época seca (E.S.) de 1992-93. En suelo arcilloso, la GPD, ya sea en la E.L. de 1992 y 1993, o en la E.S. de 1992-93, fue relativamente buena (+167, +367 y +35 g, respectivamente). En ambos sitios no se obtuvo una ganancia de peso alta durante la época seca, a pesar de la quema de diciembre, cuando se produce rebrote de buena calidad, aunque de escasa biomasa.La diferente ganancia de peso de los animales, especialmente en la E.L. se explica por la diferencia significativa de la calidad de los pastos, no sólo respecto a su contenido de proteína sino principalmente por su diferente composición botánica que se muestra a continuación:-en suelo arenoso, la presencia de las ciperáceas (más del 22%) era importante y estas plantas son muy poco apetecibles por el ganado y tienen un índice de valor pastoril (IVP) muy bajo (ver Capítulo 8 de esta obra; Daget y Godron 1995; Rippstein 1989); asimismo, había gramíneas poco apetecibles, como S. hirtiflorum.-en suelo arcilloso, especies como T. vestitus y A. purpusii, que constituyen el 60% de la biomasa total del pasto, son muy apetecibles y tienen un IVP alto.Figura 9-1. Comparación de la productividad de diferentes tipos de sabana nativa manejados con quema, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Se presentan la ganancia de peso de bovinos y las lluvias caídas. El VP de la sabana en suelo arcilloso es de 58.7% y en suelo arenoso es de 42.8%.En la Figura 9-2 y en el Cuadro 9-4 se comparan los dos modelos: el Modelo 1 es el sistema tradicional mejorado con quema, en que la quema se hace cada 4 meses y cada una de las 4 parcelas experimenta la quema cada 16 meses recibiendo diferentes cargas (alta, media y baja); el Modelo 2 es el sistema mejorado con quema y rotación, en que se hace quema mensual en 20 parcelas.La comparación permite sacar las siguientes conclusiones:-En los dos modelos (o sistemas) no existe una correlación general entre la producción de rebrotes 4 semanas después de la quema y la ganancia de peso de los animales.-En el Modelo 1, en la E.S., la ganancia de peso es baja o negativa, a pesar de que hay rebrotes importantes; en el Modelo 2, en cambio, la ganancia de peso es relativamente alta.-En ambos sistemas hay una alta correlación entre ganancia de peso y producción de rebrotes al principio de la E.L.(especialmente entre abril y junio de 1995).-En el Modelo 1, durante la primera E.L. (abril a diciembre de 1994), la carga baja o la media permite obtener mejor ganancia de peso que la carga alta.-Durante la misma época, el Modelo 2 no permite obtener una ganancia de peso alta.-Durante la E.S. del primer año (diciembre de 1994 a marzo de 1995), la GPD fue negativa en el Modelo 1 con carga alta (-111 g) y ligeramente positiva con las otras dos cargas; en el Modelo 2, con cargas media y baja, fue muy alta (+289 g).-Al final del primer año (febrero a marzo de 1995), en el Modelo 1 (sistema 1) la GPD con carga alta (2 ha/animal) fue muy inferior a la obtenida en el Modelo 2 (sistema 2) con esa carga y significativamente inferior a las obtenidas en el mismo Modelo 1 con las cargas media y baja.-Durante el segundo año del ensayo (1995-96), las ganancias de peso obtenidas en los mismos Cuadro 9-3. Ganancia de peso por día (GPD) de bovinos en dos tipos de sabana nativa de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, en un sistema tradicional mejorado (Modelo 1 del ensayo) que experimenta quemas cada 16 meses en cuatro parcelas. -47 +57 (areno-arcilloso) Figura 9-2. Comparación de la productividad de dos sistemas de 'manejo mejorado' de la sabana nativa en la Altillanura plana de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (quema secuencial cada 4 meses y quema mensual) que se practica en ellos, con diferente carga animal. Se miden la ganancia de peso de los bovinos y los rebrotes del pasto 4 semanas después de la quema. sistemas fueron, durante todo ese año, inferiores a las del año anterior.-En la E.L. de 1995, el modelo que produjo menos ganancias fue el Modelo 2 (+135 g/animal por día); en el Modelo 1, en cambio, la ganancia fue de +164 g, +147 g y +210 g para las cargas alta, media y baja, respectivamente. Durante esta epoca lluviosa, el sistema 1, con carga baja, es el más eficaz en términos de ganancia de peso por animal (pero no por hectárea), -Durante la E.S. del segundo año (diciembre de 1995 a abril de 1996), todos los animales perdieron peso en el Modelo 1, en todas las cargas: la GPD fue de -289 g, -102 g y -133 g para las cargas alta, media y baja, respectivamente. En el Modelo 2, la GPD fue relativamente muy alta (+211 g ).-Durante todo el segundo año (1995-96), el Modelo 2 (sistema 2) es significativamente más productivo que el Modelo 1, para todas las cargas.-Al final de los 2 años, la ganancia de peso fue significativamente más alta en el Modelo 2, gracias a la ganancia de peso obtenida en él en los últimos meses de la E.S. del segundo año; en esa época, los animales perdieron peso en el Modelo 1.-En el Modelo 1, la GPD es inversamente proporcional a la carga animal.-En el Modelo 2 hubo siempre ganancia de peso en la E.S.; en la E.L., en cambio, la ganancia fue inferior a todas las variantes del Modelo 1.Cuadro 9-4. Ganancia de peso diaria de bovinos (g PV/An. por día) que pastorean en diferentes modelos o sistemas de manejo de los pastos nativos de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, en un suelo arcillo-limoso.Ganancia de peso (g PV/An. por día) en período: a -La quema mensual produce ganancias más regulares, en el tiempo, que la quema cada 4 meses.En el Modelo 1 (sistema 1), donde hay quema de cuatro parcelas cada 16 meses (abril, agosto y diciembre), los animales pastorean rápidamente \"durante un poco más de un mes e inmediatamente después de la quema\" los pequeños rebrotes de la parcela recién quemada; terminados éstos, se reparten por toda el área de la pastura para aprovechar también los rebrotes más jóvenes (tallos) de las macollas más viejas.En el Modelo 2 (sistema 2), y durante la E.L., los animales pastorean, en los 10 primeros días de la rotación, principalmente, las parcelas en que la quema es más reciente, es decir, los rebrotes que tienen de 4 a 8 semanas (29% del día) y de 12 a 16 semanas (55% del día); luego hacen un pastoreo total de la biomasa aérea de esas parcelas, pero no consumen los rebrotes de las parcelas más antiguas (Cuadro 9-5). Durante el período siguiente, de más o menos 10 días, los animales pastorean principalmente las otras parcelas, así: 37% del tiempo prefieren los rebrotes de 20 a 32 semanas y 26% del tiempo los de más de 36 semanas. Solamente durante los últimos 10 días, los animales pastorean todas las parcelas del bloque sin atender a la edad de la parcela.En consecuencia, en la E.L. (según el Modelo 1), los animales ingieren más M.S. que en el Modelo 2, porque en este último tienen a su disposición solamente la mitad de la superficie total del sistema aplicado en el modelo.En cambio, en la E.S. (según el Modelo 1), los animales consumen menos M.S. porque se quedan en la parcela más joven (quemada en diciembre) durante toda esa época, es decir, ocupan solamente 25% del área total del sistema 1. En el Modelo 2, los animales pueden usar 40% del área del sistema 2 (4 x 2 parcelas, ya que 2 parcelas son quemadas cada mes durante los 4 meses de esta época). Este resultado explica la mayor ganancia de peso obtenida por los animales durante la E.S. en el sistema 2.El muestreo de la vegetación (composición botánica, cantidad de biomasa), su análisis químico (calidad), la observación de los animales pastoreando la sabana nativa (preferencias, gustosidad de las especies vegetales) permiten proponer Cuadro 9-5.Comportamiento de los animales en la sabana nativa manejada con quema mensual y rotación (Modelo 2). Se midió el comportamiento por el tiempo de pastoreo de los rebrotes de diferente edad (% de un día de 12 horas, de 6:00 a.m. a 6:00 p.m.), durante un período de 1 mes. algunas explicaciones a las diferencias en productividad que exhiben las pasturas y los sistemas de producción.• Las diferencias en productividad de los animales (ganancia de PV por día) que pastorean la sabana nativa de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, en tipos diferentes de suelo, provienen principalmente de la diferente composición botánica de la pastura y, en menor grado, de la diferencia del valor alimenticio global de dichas pasturas.• Por consiguiente, para conocer el valor de una pastura es necesario medir no sólo su productividad y su valor nutritivo, sino también su VP; éste es un buen índice para evaluar y clasificar los pastos de una región.• La comparación de diferentes modelos de manejo de los pastos nativos, en los que la quema es un elemento esencial e indispensable, indicó que la quema secuencial mensual \"es decir, poner a disposición de los animales, cada mes, una porción de la pastura que tenga rebrotes de 1 a 2 meses de edad\" permite obtener ganancias de peso durante la E.S. Una sola quema, al principio de esta época y solamente en una cuarta parte de la superficie requerida por el sistema, no permite obtener esas ganancias.• No parece útil hacer quemas cada mes en la E.L. porque los animales se reúnen en las parcelas donde la quema ha sido más reciente y no pastorean los rebrotes de otras parcelas más antiguas. En la E.L., la quema cada 4 meses (como en el Modelo 1) es suficiente para el Modelo 2.• Hacer rotación entre dos bloques, lo que permite a los animales pastorear rebrotes de 4 semanas de edad y de buena calidad, es una práctica necesaria para prevenir la degradación de la pastura (ver Capítulo 9 de esta obra). En efecto, en una parcela sin descansos, 4 semanas después de la quema, los animales pastorean continuamente y a raz del suelo, hasta arrancar las macollas. Las especies más apetecibles que no hayan sido arrancadas no pueden producir reservas subterráneas (raíces), se agotan y desaparecen; queda entonces el suelo desnudo o cubierto con especies anuales de baja producción o especies perennes poco apetecibles.• En una finca no será necesario tender una cerca entre dos bloques cuando hay suficiente distancia entre ellos. Sin embargo, las rondas de 2 m de ancho, como mínimo, son indispensables para controlar la quema en las parcelas, especialmente en la E.S.; esta anchura depende de la cantidad de biomasa seca del bloque, de la dirección y la velocidad del viento, de la humedad del suelo, y de la humedad atmosférica, entre otros factores.El manejo de la sabana nativa con quema, descanso, rotaciones y variación de la carga animal tiene un límite (Lascano 1991;Rippstein et al. 1996). En la Altillanura plana o en los bajos de la Serranía de los Llanos Orientales, donde es posible desarrollar cultivos, estos modelos tienen que integrarse, cuando las condiciones socioeconómicas son favorables, en sistemas más complejos. En tales sistemas se asocian la sabana nativa, los cultivos de especies forrajeras para la época seca o para reservas de forraje, como heno o ensilaje, y los suplementos a base de subproductos agrícolas o agroindustriales, que desafortunamente son escasos en esta región. El crecimiento y el ciclo de renovación de las raíces son dos componentes clave en el estudio, en los pastos nativos o introducidos, tanto del reciclaje de nutrimentos como del secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por la planta. En las pasturas sometidas a pastoreo, los nutrimentos cumplen un ciclo que va del suelo a las plantas de la pastura y luego de ésta al suelo, ya sea por muerte del tejido vegetal o mediante los excrementos de los animales en pastoreo. Las especies forrajeras tropicales mejoradas usan en forma eficiente los nutrimentos porque los extraen de las capas más profundas del suelo y los reciclan luego en la planta.La evaluación de la dinámica tanto de la biomasa como de la longitud de las raíces de las pasturas basadas en leguminosas, en comparación con esa dinámica en las pasturas de gramínea sola o en las pasturas de especies nativas, es un elemento clave para entender el papel de las raíces tanto en la obtención de nutrimentos y en el reciclaje de éstos en las pasturas como en el secuestro del carbono antes mencionado. Se hicieron, por tanto, ensayos sin pastoreo, en pequeñas parcelas, en las pasturas nativas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia para conocer mejor ese comportamiento de los pastos.Estos estudios eran parte de un proyecto más amplio cuya meta fue diseñar modelos de pasturas para predecir el efecto, a largo plazo, de las opciones de manejo en la persistencia y en el reciclaje de nutrimentos de las asociaciones de gramíneas y leguminosas sometidas a pastoreo en las sabanas latinoamericanas.La mayor producción de carne, leche y cultivos de sabana, en sistemas sostenibles, que exigen el acelerado crecimiento demográfico urbano, la pobreza extrema y la degradación ambiental vendrá de sistemas de pastura que contengan gramíneas y leguminosas introducidas, ya que éstas obtienen y reciclan nutrimentos en forma eficiente sin que sea necesario agregar al sistema grandes cantidades de insumos o fertilizantes. El uso predominante dado a las sabanas sudamericanas (cuya extensión es de 225 millones de hectáreas) es la ganadería extensiva, aunque en Brasil los cultivos de maíz y soya y las pasturas introducidas han cobrado importancia durante los últimos 30 años (Vera et al. 1992). Esos suelos son, principalmente, Oxisoles y Ultisoles, cuyas características (pH, aluminio y nutrimentos) se discuten en el Capítulo 1 de esta obra). La precipitación anual es de 1500 a 3000 mm y su distribución estacional es unimodal (Cochrane 1986). Las pasturas de la sabana nativa están dominadas por especies de gramíneas de los géneros Andropogon y Trachypogon, que son poco productivas y tienen un valor nutritivo muy bajo.Por consiguiente, el comportamiento animal, 'medido por las ganancias de peso vivo del ganado', es deficiente (de 7 a 20 kg/ha por año). Si se introducen asociaciones de gramíneas y leguminosas forrajeras tropicales mejoradas, se puede lograr que estas praderas tropicales se vuelvan productivas, es decir, que permitan al ganado obtener ganancias de peso vivo hasta de 500 kg/ha por año (Fisher et al. 1996;Lascano y Euclides 1996).La creciente presión ejercida por el crecimiento demográfico urbano, unida a la pobreza y la consiguiente degradación ambiental, exigen una mayor producción de carne, leche y cultivos en las sabanas aplicando sistemas sostenibles (Vera et al. 1992). El aumento en estos rubros vendrá de los sistemas de pastura que contengan gramíneas y leguminosas introducidas, las cuales obtienen y reciclan nutrimentos en forma eficiente sin que sea necesario agregar grandes cantidades de insumos o fertilizantes (Fisher et al. 1996;Rao et al. 1993;Thomas et al. 1995).Los estudios sobre la productividad primaria neta de los ecosistemas de gramíneas naturales en el trópico han indicado que, cuando se toman en cuenta todas las pérdidas de la parte aérea de la planta y de sus raíces, estos ecosistemas son mucho más productivos de lo que se había estimado antes (Long et al. 1989). Si se considera el ciclo de renovación de la parte aérea y de las raíces sólo en los primeros 20 cm de profundidad del suelo, se obtiene una productividad primaria neta cinco veces superior a la obtenida mediante el procedimiento estándar recomendado por el Programa Biológico Internacional. Los cálculos de la biomasa presente bajo la superficie del suelo fluctuaron entre 0.61 y 5.68 Mg/ha. Los ciclos de renovación anual de la biomasa presente bajo la superficie del suelo, calculados dividiendo la producción de la planta por la biomasa media, oscilaron entre 1.7 y 4.0 Mg/ha (Long et al. 1989).En los estudios sobre producción máxima de biomasa epígea 1 en los Llanos de Colombia o de Venezuela, los autores Blydenstein (1967), Paladines y Leal (1979), San José y García-Miragaya (1981), San José et al. (1985), San José y Montes (1989) encontraron, en los diferentes sitios, una producción natural de 1227 a 4821 kg/ha, sin ningún tipo de fertilización. Con fertilización (100 N-100 P-100 K) en una sabana nativa de Trachypogon-Axonopus en la Estación Ecológica de Calabozo, en Venezuela, García-Miragaya et al. (1983) midieron una biomasa máxima de 3686 kg/ha. Rony-Tejos M. (1980), en el Módulo Experimental de Mantecal, Apure, Venezuela, localidad muy parecida en clima a los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (Carimagua), obtuvo una producción máxima de 8884 kg/ha con una fertilización de 330 N y 200 P, cuando la producción del testigo fue de 5659 kg/ha; no hubo restricción o limitación de agua en este ensayo.Recientemente, Jackson et al. (1996) analizaron los modelos de enraizamiento de los biomas terrestres y compararon la distribución de las raíces de diversos grupos funcionales, utilizando una base de datos de 250 estudios de raíces. La distribución de las raíces, medida como promedio global en todos los ecosistemas, indicó que 30%, 50% y 75% de las raíces se localizaban en los primeros 10, 20 y 40 cm de profundidad del suelo, respectivamente. Esos autores compararon la información obtenida sobre raíces en todos los biomas de los grupos funcionales de plantas y encontraron que el 44% de las raíces de los pastos se encontraban en los primeros 10 cm de suelo, mientras que apenas el 21% de las raíces de las especies arbustivas se hallaban a esa misma profundidad. Se requiere información cuantitativa sobre la variabilidad del enraizamiento en función del tiempo y del lugar, para desarrollar modelos sobre las relaciones suelo-planta-animal en las pasturas sometidas a pastoreo. Sin embargo, la mayor parte de la información disponible actualmente sobre la producción y distribución de las raíces de especies de pastos tropicales trata de la biomasa de las raíces y no de la longitud de éstas.El crecimiento y el ciclo de renovación de las raíces son dos componentes clave en el estudio tanto del reciclaje de nutrimentos en los pastos como del secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por la planta. En las pasturas sometidas a pastoreo, los nutrimentos cumplen un ciclo que va del suelo a las plantas de la pastura y luego regresan al suelo, ya sea por muerte del tejido vegetal o mediante los excrementos de los animales en pastoreo (Rao et al. 1992;Haynes y Williams 1993;Boddey et al. 1996). Las especies forrajeras tropicales mejoradas usan en forma eficiente los nutrimentos porque los extraen de las capas más profundas y los reciclan luego en la planta. Además de la obtención de nutrimentos y del reciclaje de los mismos, los sistemas radicales profundos contribuyen también al secuestro, en esas raíces, del carbono atmosférico fijado en la planta (Rao et al. 1993;Fisher et al. 1994).La evaluación de la dinámica tanto de la biomasa como de la longitud de las raíces de las pasturas basadas en leguminosas, en comparación con esa dinámica en las pasturas de gramínea sola o en las pasturas de especies nativas, es un elemento clave para entender el papel de las raíces tanto en la obtención de nutrimentos y en el reciclaje de éstos en las pasturas como en el secuestro, en aquellas raíces situadas en capas profundas del suelo, del carbono atmosférico fijado. Se considera que las diferencias en biomasa y en longitud de las raíces, a través del tiempo, reflejan el resultado neto del crecimiento de nuevas raíces y de la pérdida de raíces por muerte y descomposición. De este modo, el ciclo de renovación de las raíces a través del tiempo contribuye, no sólo con el reciclaje de nutrimentos, sino también con el mejoramiento del suelo mediante el secuestro del carbono fijado por la planta (Deinum 1985;Long et al. 1989;Veldkamp 1993;Fisher et al. 1994;Rao et al. 1994).Para completar los resultados ya obtenidos por otros autores (Paladines y Leal 1979) sobre el potencial de bioproducción y la calidad nutricional de la sabana de los Llanos de Colombia, se hicieron ensayos sin pastoreo, en pequeñas parcelas, en las pasturas nativas de los Llanos Orientales.Los datos reportados en este artículo responden a los siguientes objetivos:• Conocer la dinámica de la producción epígea, la productividad de la sabana nativa y su valor nutritivo, a lo largo del año, con corte y cosecha de la biomasa aérea y con corte a intervalos variados (de 1 a 56 semanas) de descanso de la vegetación.• Conocer la biomasa vegetal en diferentes sitios de los Llanos Orientales, con diferentes tipos de suelo (suelo arcilloso, suelo arenoso en la Serranía o en la Altillanura).• Conocer la producción vegetal de la sabana a diferentes alturas de corte, simulando diversas cargas animales o distintos tipos de manejo.• Conocer el potencial de producción de la sabana nativa con fertilización; esta fertilización, sin embargo, no corresponde mucho a las condiciones reales de manejo de la sabana nativa.• Conocer la dinámica de la producción y distribución de las raíces de las especies de la sabana nativa, en condiciones de pastoreo.• Determinar el papel de las raíces tanto en el reciclaje de nutrimentos en las pasturas como en el secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono fijado por la planta.• Comparar la producción y distribución de las raíces de las especies que componen las pasturas introducidas, ya sea de gramínea sola o de gramínea + leguminosa.Estos estudios eran parte de un proyecto más amplio cuya meta fue diseñar modelos de pasturas para predecir el efecto, a largo plazo, de las opciones de manejo en la persistencia y en el reciclaje de nutrimentos de las asociaciones de gramíneas y leguminosas sometidas a pastoreo en las sabanas latinoamericanas (Fisher et al. 1993).Los ensayos se llevaron a cabo en el CIA Carimagua, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia; este centro fue manejado por el ICA y el CIAT hasta fines de los 90; se hicieron también ensayos en algunas fincas ubicadas en la Serranía y en la Altillanura plana de los Llanos Orientales.Los cortes y cosechas se hicieron en pequeñas parcelas de 4 a 12 m 2 de superficie, con 4 a 10 repeticiones y con una altura de corte de 5 a 15 cm, según el tipo de ensayo. Después de la cosecha de la materia bruta (M.B.), la materia seca se determinó por secamiento de la M.B. en un horno a 70 °C hasta tener un peso constante. El valor nutricional fue obtenido mediante análisis químico en los laboratorios del CIAT, en Cali, Colombia (Salinas y García 1985).Los tratamientos de fertilización consistían en la dosis mínima o en la máxima, y se prepararon teniendo en cuenta las carencias químicas de los suelos. En algunos tratamientos no hay N. El Cuadro 10-1 muestra los nueve tratamientos aplicados. Se hizo finalmente un análisis estadístico (ANOVA) para comparar los tratamientos.El Cuadro 10-2 presenta la producción y la productividad de la sabana nativa de suelo arcilloso (Carimagua, La Vitrina) durante un año (época lluviosa + época seca). El Cuadro 10-3 presenta los datos obtenidos en el suelo arenoso de Carimagua, en La Alegría, en iguales condiciones. Estos datos permiten llegar a las siguientes conclusiones:• La producción (durante un año o en período mayor) y la productividad (producción por hectárea durante un día) de la sabana nativa son, en casi todos los tratamientos de descanso, más altas en los suelos arcillosos (arcillo-limosos) que en los suelos arenosos (areno-limosos), excepto en el caso del descanso de 8 semanas. Es bien conocido el hecho de que los suelos arcillosos de los Llanos Orientales son más fértiles que los arenosos.La productividad anual bruta (productividad diaria x 365 días) más alta es la correspondiente a 32 semanas de descanso en suelo arenoso (4672 kg MS/ha). Sin Cuadro 10-1. Fertilización de la sabana nativa en ensayos de biomasa epígea, en Carimagua. embargo, en este suelo la producción anual obtenida con cortes cada 4 semanas también es alta (cerca de 4 t MS/ha) y se considera de mejor calidad. Esta producción es un poco más alta que la biomasa obtenida con un solo corte después de un año de descanso (biomasa anual = 3764 kg MS/ha). En suelo arenoso, la producción anual más alta se obtiene con cortes de 16 semanas, aunque los cortes de 4 semanas permiten una producción anual de 2810 kg MS/ha. La biomasa anual aquí es un poco más baja que la de 4 semanas.La producción o productividad (neta) en ambos sitios es muy baja cuando se hacen cortes de 1 semana (3.2 y 4.2 kg MS/ha por día) o cortes de 2 semanas en suelo arenoso (3.9 kg MS/ha por día). La productividad es relativamente alta al principio de los cortes, pero disminuye mucho después de 2 ó 3 cortes, especialmente cuando hay descansos de 1 ó 2 semanas.Los análisis químicos y la digestibilidad de los rebrotes (ver Cuadro 9-2, Capítulo 9 de esta obra) permiten afirmar que los rebrotes mas jóvenes tienen, sin duda, mayor valor nutritivo (energía + proteína). Sin embargo, los rebrotes de 4 semanas tienen todavía buena calidad nutritiva.En el Cuadro 10-4 se presentan los resultados, en kg MS/ha, de biomasa anual (bruta) obtenidos en la Serranía y la Altillanura plana (ver Capítulo 1 de esta obra).Cuadro 10-3. Producción por área (rendimiento) y productividad (rendimiento en el tiempo) de biomasa en la sabana nativa, en un suelo 'arenoso' (Carimagua, en La Alegría) durante un año (época lluviosa + época seca). Estos datos muestran que el valor más alto de biomasa se registró en los bajos de la Serranía y el más bajo en las cimas de la colinas de los mismos sitios. La biomasa de la Altillanura es intermedia entre los dos sitios anteriores.La humedad de la materia verde es relativamente elevada en los bajos así como en la Altillanura plana.Con el fin de simular las diferentes cargas de bovinos y también de conocer la relación entre las variables altura de corte y rendimiento de la pastura, se cortó mensualmente la vegetación, durante un año, a tres alturas: 5, 10 y 15 cm. La Figura 10-1 muestra la dinámica de la producción acumulada cada 6 semanas (kg MS/ha). Se observa allí que la producción obtenida en un año, haciendo un corte a 15 cm, es de 800 kg MS/ha, y con un corte a 5 cm es de 2000 kg MS/ha. La Figura 10-2 muestra la productividad mensual (kg MS/ha por día x 30 días). Estas productividades no son semejantes: en los primeros cortes de 10 y 15 cm (hasta 5 ó 6 cortes) la productividad aumenta y, a partir del corte 7, disminuye progresivamente a medida que disminuyen las lluvias. La productividad de los cortes a 5 cm es menos regular, aunque siempre superior, a la de otros sitios altos. El índice foliar, en cortes a 5 cm, es suficiente para un buen crecimiento de los pastos.Los datos de los ensayos de fertilización de la sabana nativa se presentan en las Figuras 10-3 y 10-4. La producción más elevada se obtiene siempre con el tratamiento en que hay alta mezcla de fertilización y 150 kg de N/ha. Después de 1 año, la producción Figura 10-1. Producción acumulada de la vegetación de sabana en la Altillanura de los Llanos Orientales cortada cada mes a diferente altura. en estas parcelas es de 6790 kg/ha. Esta producción es altamente diferente (P < 0.001) de todos los demás tratamientos.La producción más baja ocurre en el testigo, en la fertilización sin N y en los tratamientos de muy baja o baja mezcla de fertilización (tratamientos 1, 3 y 4). La sabana tiene una producción, después de un año, de 4 a 4.3 t MS/ha. Estos valores de producción son significativamente diferentes (P < 0.05) de la producción con N (tratamientos 2, 5, 6, 8 y 9). El N es, entonces, el elemento más importante para aumentar la producción.En sentido descendente de la producción, los tratamientos se ordenan así: En las Figuras 10-3 y 10-4 se presenta la fertilización de la sabana nativa de los Llanos y la producción epígea acumulada durante 1 año con corte cada 6 semanas. El Cuadro 10-5 presenta la fertilización de la sabana nativa y su efecto en la producción durante las estaciones lluviosa y seca. Se observa la influencia predominante del N sobre la producción y el papel importante del K, seguido en importancia por el P y, solamente  MesesFigura 10-4. Producción epígea de la vegetación de sabana fertilizada en la Altillanura de los Llanos Orientales, en cortes hechos cada 6 semanas. Biomasa, MS (g/m 2 por 6 semanas) después, por la alta dosis de Ca. Los fertilizantes no aumentan mucho la producción en la época seca (Cuadro 10-5), cuyo valor representa del 6% al 7% de la producción anual.Estos ensayos de producción y productividad de las sabanas nativas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia muestran la extrema pobreza de todos los tipos de suelos que se encuentran en esa región, sin que importen el sitio o el paisaje.La fertilización permite aumentar la producción. Con dosis muy altas de N y una mezcla completa de todos los elementos necesarios para las plantas, la producción no aumentó más del 66% con respecto al testigo.En agosto de 1990 se estableció un experimento de campo en el CIA Carimagua, una estación manejada por CORPOICA y el CIAT en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (Fisher et al. 1993). Carimagua pertenece al sistema de sabanas iso-hipertérmicas y tiene un clima estacional seco, con una precipitación anual de 2200 mm que disminuye desde mediados de diciembre hasta finales de marzo. El suelo es un Oxisol franco-arcilloso (franco-fino, caolinítico, haplustox típico isohipertérmico) de pH bajo, con alta saturación de aluminio y con baja disponibilidad de nutrimentos. Se tomaron muestras de raíces a los 10,15,19,22,27,32,35 y 39 meses después de la siembra de las pasturas. En cada época de muestreo, las muestras de raíces se tomaban un día antes de que los animales entraran al potrero. Se tomaron utilizando un sacamuestras electrónico que extraía cilindros de suelo sin compactación. Se tomaron, en total, 20 cilindros de suelo en 5 cuadrados (4 cilindros de cada cuadrado) en cada potrero. Los cilindros de suelo de cada 2 cuadrados se mezclaron para tener, en total, 5 muestras de cilindros de suelo para cada profundidad de suelo; esto se hizo con el fin de reducir la intensidad de las mediciones. Este método nos permitió obtener un total de 40 cilindros de suelo de cada tratamiento, con los cuales se reducían al mínimo los efectos de la variabilidad espacial.A las raíces de los cilindros de suelo se les limpió el suelo mediante un sistema de elutriación hidroneumática (Rao et al. 1996). A las muestras de raíces se les determinó la longitud en un 'escáner' de longitud de raíces, empleando el método de intercepción de líneas (Rao et al. 1996). Las raíces se secaron en un horno de aire forzado (60 °C) y se pesaron. Las muestras de raíces se molieron para que pasaran por una malla de 1 mm en un molino de ciclón UDY. Se determinó la composición nutricional de las muestras de raíces según los métodos analíticos estándar (Rao et al. 1996).Se empleó un modelo de distribución vertical de raíces presentado por Gale y Grigal (1987) que se basa en la siguiente ecuación asintótica:Y = biomasa acumulada de raíces o fracción de longitud de éstas (una cantidad entre 0 y 1) desde la superficie del suelo hasta la profundidad 'd' (cm); > = 'coeficiente de extinción' fijado.El único parámetro calculado en este modelo es >, que proporciona un índice numérico simple de la biomasa de las raíces o de la distribución de la longitud de las raíces. Los valores altos de > (por ejemplo, 0.98) corresponden a una mayor proporción de biomasa de las raíces o de longitud de las raíces en lo profundo del suelo y sus valores bajos (por ejemplo, 0.91) suponen mayor proporción de biomasa de las raíces o de longitud de éstas junto a la superficie del suelo. Los valores de > se ajustaron a los datos de cada pastura (Jackson et al. 1996).La cantidad de raíces de leguminosa en las asociaciones de gramínea + leguminosa se determinó mediante la técnica de isótopos estables de carbono (Svejcar y Boutton 1985). La distribución del carbono orgánico del suelo (COS) en la profundidad del suelo se determinó utilizando un espectrómetro de masas. El análisis de varianza se calculó mediante el programa de computación SAS. Un nivel de probabilidad de 0.05 se consideró estadísticamente significativo.El primer muestreo de raíces (10 meses después de la siembra, junio de 1991) se realizó antes de empezar el tratamiento de pastoreo y se tomó como punto de partida. Se determinaron los cambios en la biomasa viva de las raíces de plantas bien establecidas (Mg/ha) según la edad de la pastura y para profundidades del suelo entre 0 y 80 cm (Figura 10-5). Los resultados de las pasturas de gramínea sola introducida (Bd) y de gramínea + leguminosa (Bd + Ca), con niveles iniciales bajo y alto de fertilizantes, comparados con los de la sabana nativa sin tradición alguna en la aplicación de fertilizantes, se presentan en la Figura 10-6A. Los pastos de la sabana nativa tenían niveles de biomasa de las raíces notoriamente inferiores en comparación con los hallados en los pastos introducidos. Entre las pasturas de especies introducidas, la de gramínea sola con baja aplicación inicial de fertilizante presentó mayores cantidades de biomasa de la raíz durante los 2 primeros años del desarrollo de la pastura. Los cambios en longitud de la raíz (km/m 2 ) durante la edad de la pastura, para capas individuales del suelo, se muestran en la Figura 10-6B. Las especies de sabana nativa presentaron una longitud de raíces notoriamente inferior, si se compara ésta con la de los pastos introducidos.La distribución media de la biomasa de las raíces, de 10 a 47 meses después de la siembra de los pastos mejorados, indicó que la pastura con gramínea sola introducida (Bd) tuvo más biomasa en las raíces en estratos profundos del suelo que los pastos de la sabana nativa (Figura 10-7, A y B). La biomasa de la raíz disminuyó al aumentar la profundidad del suelo en ambos tratamientos de pastura. Los pastos de la sabana nativa tenían relativamente menos raíces en los estratos de suelo de mayor profundidad (en particular, entre los 20 y los 80 cm de profundidad) en comparación con la pastura mejorada. La media de la distribución de la longitud de las raíces según la profundidad del suelo, de 10 a 47 meses después de la siembra de las pasturas mejoradas, presentó una tendencia similar a la observada para la biomasa de la raíz (Figura 10-7, C y D). La longitud específica de la raíz (LER), que es una medida de la finura del sistema radical, fue mayor en la pastura de la sabana nativa que en la pastura mejorada (Figura 10-7, E y F).Para obtener la diferencia entre el patrón de enraizamiento de los pastos de la sabana nativa y de los pastos introducidos, se calculó la biomasa acumulada de las raíces y la longitud de éstas (fracción) para cada época de muestreo y para cada capa de suelo. Los promedios de la biomasa acumulada de las raíces y de las fracciones de la longitud de éstas se calcularon para los pastos introducidos y se compararon con los de los pastos de la sabana nativa. Los datos se muestran en la Figura 10-3. Los valores de ß para la biomasa de las raíces y para la longitud de éstas indicaron que tanto los pastos de la sabana nativa como los introducidos presentaban un enraizamiento profundo. Sin embargo, el enraizamiento de los pastos de la sabana nativa fue relativamente más profundo si se considera, proporcionalmente a la profundidad, la longitud de las raíces encontradas. Figura 10-5. Cambios en la biomasa de las raíces y en la longitud de las raíces para diversos valores (de 0 a 80 cm) de la profundidad del suelo, durante el desarrollo de la pastura hasta los 47 meses de edad, en un Oxisol franco-arcilloso de Carimagua. Estas pasturas se establecieron en agosto de 1990 y fueron sometidas a pastoreo 10 meses después (junio de 1991). Los pastos introducidos soportaron una tasa de carga intermedia durante el pastoreo. Bd = B. dictyoneura, Ca = C. acutifolium, SN = sabana nativa, FB = fertilización inicial baja, FA = fertilización inicial alta, S = sin aplicación de fertilizantes. Las tasas de carga se discuten en el texto. El análisis del carbono estable de las raíces en una pastura de gramínea (C4) sola comparado con el obtenido en pasturas basadas en leguminosa (C3), permitió calcular la fracción de raíz de leguminosa según la profundidad del suelo en las asociaciones de gramínea + leguminosa de 22 meses de edad, con niveles iniciales bajo o alto de fertilizante (Cuadro 10-6). La proporción de raíz de leguminosa fue de menos del 10% de la biomasa total de las raíces en las dos pasturas basadas en leguminosa. Fue superior (de 11% a 21%) en las capas más profundas del suelo (de 60 a 80 cm de profundidad), si se compara con los valores obtenidos en las capas superiores del suelo (de 4% a 11%).Las diferencias en la composición nutricional media de las raíces (de 0 a 80 cm de profundidad del suelo) entre pastos nativos e introducidos se muestran en el Cuadro 10-7. Aunque no hubo diferencias notorias entre las pasturas con especies nativas o introducidas, la aplicación inicial alta de fertilizantes a los pastos introducidos mejoró su estado nutricional, lo que redujo las relaciones C:N y C:P de las raíces.Los cambios, a través del tiempo, en el tamaño de las reservas de nutrimentos de las raíces de los pastos mejorados y de los pastos de sabana nativa se muestran en el Cuadro 10-8. Los cambios en las reservas de N y P reflejaron, en parte, los cambios ocurridos en la biomasa de las raíces de estos pastos. La cantidad de N presente en las raíces de los pastos mejorados llegó hasta 18 kg/ha, mientras que en los pastos de la sabana nativa no superó los 6 kg/ha.Las diferencias en la distribución del COS según la profundidad de éste (de 0 a 80 cm) a los 32 meses después de la siembra, entre las pasturas de especies introducidas y la sabana nativa, se muestran en la Figura 10-8. Mayores cantidades de COS se midieron en las pasturas de gramínea sola; asimismo, el aumento de los niveles de COS en las pasturas de especies introducidas, comparadas éstas con las de la sabana nativa, reflejó hasta cierto punto las diferencias en la producción de biomasa de las raíces con el transcurso del tiempo. La cantidad total de COS adicional, entre 0 y 80 cm de profundidad del suelo, de las pasturas de gramínea sola, comparadas con la sabana nativa, se calculó -empleando valores de densidad global del suelo para cada capa del mismo-en 31.6 Mg/ha.Las mediciones de campo de los sistemas radicales durante el desarrollo de los pastos indicaron que, en los Oxisoles franco-arcillosos de baja fertilidad de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, los pastos introducidos producían, en plantas bien establecidas, una cantidad de biomasa viva de las raíces mayor que la producida por los pastos de la sabana nativa. La mayor abundancia de raíces profundas (biomasa) de los pastos introducidos, comparada con los pastos de la sabana nativa, no sólo podría contribuir a la absorción más eficiente de nutrimentos y de agua de los horizontes más profundos del suelo sino también a mejorar el reciclaje de nutrimentos. Además, la mayor cantidad de raíces observada, a medida que aumenta la profundidad del suelo, estaría agregando materia orgánica y nutrimentos al suelo mediante un ciclo rápido de regeneración.Se dispone de pocos datos de campo sobre la distribución y la producción de raíces de los sistemas de praderas tropicales que sean comparables a los de este trabajo (Long et al. 1989;Candell et al. 1996;Jackson et al. 1996). Aunque se ha observado que las raíces de los pastos introducidos penetran en el suelo hasta una profundidad de 8 m (Nepstad et al. 1994), la mayoría de los estudios, incluyendo éste, han encontrado que la mayor parte de la biomasa de las raíces está localizada en los primeros 30 cm del perfil del suelo (Goedert et al. 1985;Svejcar y Christiansen 1987;Spain y Couto 1990;Rodríguez y Cadima-Zevallos 1991;Rao et al. 1992;Cadisch et al. 1994;Nepstad et al. 1994;Jackson et al. 1996). Una de las principales razones que explica la concentración de las raíces en la capa superficial del suelo es que casi todos los nutrimentos de que puede disponer la planta están ubicados allí; en efecto, en esa capa el reciclaje de nutrimentos es más eficiente y la actividad biológica del suelo es más intensa (Rao et al. 1992;Haynes y Williams 1993;Thomas et al. 1995;Boddey et al. 1996). Cuando se compararon los valores de la longitud específica media de la raíz (LER) en la sabana nativa y en las pasturas de especies introducidas, la LER de los pastos de sabana nativa fue notoriamente mayor que la de los pastos introducidos Bd (B), Bd + Ca (FB) o Bd + Ca (FA). Los valores altos de LER de los pastos de la sabana nativa dan un alto valor a la zona de raíces superficiales en lo referente a la absorción de nutrimentos y a la capacidad de explorar el suelo para obtener los nutrimentos disponibles.Fue posible calcular las diferencias que distinguen las estrategias de enraizamiento de los pastos introducidos y de los de sabana nativa, gracias a un modelo desarrollado por Gale y Grigal (1987). Los valores altos de >, en particular para la distribución de la longitud de las raíces en las especies de sabana nativa y en los pastos introducidos, corresponden a la presencia de mayor cantidad de raíces a medida que la capa de suelo que las aloja es más profunda. Los valores más altos de ß y la mayor LER -registrados a una profundidad del suelo entre 30 y 80 cm en los pastos de sabana nativa que no recibieron fertilizante-indican que éstos pueden ser parte de un mecanismo adaptativo para extraer cantidades muy bajas de nutrimentos mineralizados (por ejemplo, N) que hayan sido lixiviados en el perfil profundo del suelo y que sirven, además, para tolerar la sequía. Esta observación señala que la comprensión de las estrategias adaptativas de la vegetación nativa puede contribuir al desarrollo de germoplasma superior de forrajes y de cultivos para condiciones de baja fertilidad del suelo. Deben explorarse las diferencias genotípicas entre las accesiones del germoplasma de Brachiaria y los recombinantes genéticos para este rasgo adaptativo, si se pretende reducir la degradación de las pasturas en los suelos ácidos de baja fertilidad de las sabanas sudamericanas.La gran cantidad de raíces vivas de plantas bien establecidas de los pastos introducidos podría contribuir a intensificar el reciclaje biogeoquímico de nutrimentos y el secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por la planta, una vez ocurridas la muerte y la descomposición de las raíces o como efecto de su ciclo de regeneración. Se espera, en cambio, un aporte inferior de los pastos de la sabana nativa en razón de que la biomasa de sus raíces bajo la superficie del suelo es menor. La dinámica de la biomasa y de la longitud de las raíces, durante los 4 años de producción de la pastura en condiciones de pastoreo, indica que el pasto introducido Bd (B) habría explorado un mayor volumen de suelo durante los 2 primeros años si no se hubiera beneficiado del suministro de N de la leguminosa. La relación C:P de las raíces de las pasturas de la sabana nativa es muy alta, indicando así su adaptación a la baja disponibilidad de P en el suelo. Esta característica de la raíz puede servir como un índice de selección para identificar genotipos de Brachiaria que sean excelentes para suelos ácidos de baja fertilidad. Asimismo, los valores altos de C:N y C:P observados en las raíces de los pastos introducidos indican la eficiencia metabólica de estas especies en el uso del N y del P absorbidos.Los cambios que experimenta, con el tiempo, el nivel de las reservas de nutrimentos de las raíces indicaron que la cantidad de N presente en las raíces de los pastos introducidos ascendía a 18 kg/ha, mientras que en los pastos de la sabana nativa fue un poco mayor que 6 kg/ha. Las reservas de otros nutrimentos, como el P, en las raíces de los pastos introducidos pudieron alcanzar también niveles nueve veces superiores a los de los pastos de la sabana nativa. La cantidad de nutrimentos reciclados mediante la hojarasca que depositan las pasturas de Bd + Ca (FB) en la superficie del suelo fue de tres a cuatro veces mayor que los reciclados en la pastura de Bd (FB) (Thomas et al. 1993). Esta diferencia se atribuyó a las tasas más rápidas de descomposición de la hojarasca de la leguminosa debidas a su menor relación lignina:N y a la mayor concentración de N, P, K y Ca en sus tejidos (Thomas et al. 1993;Thomas y Asakawa 1993).Entre los 19 y los 32 meses de desarrollo de la pastura de Bd (FB), se observó que el ciclo de renovación o reconversión de las raíces era muy intenso. Se calculó la cantidad de carbono (proveniente de la fijación atmosférica) secuestrado en las raíces profundas a los 32 meses y se halló que la pastura de Bd (FB) había acumulado 31.6 Mg/ha más de COS que los pastos de la sabana nativa, probablemente porque la producción y el ciclo de regeneración de las raíces de la pastura de Bd (FB) fueron mayores. Estos resultados confirman otros anteriores sobre el potencial de secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por la planta, potencial que poseen, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, los pastos introducidos (Fisher et al. 1994). En las pasturas de gramíneas introducidas, la masa de lombrices de tierra era cinco veces mayor \"y 10 veces mayor, si había leguminosa\" que en la sabana nativa (Decaëns et al. 1994). Esta mayor actividad de las lombrices de tierra en las pasturas de especies introducidas debe tener un impacto considerable en los procesos de movilización del carbono desde la superficie del suelo hasta sus capas más profundas.Estos resultados tienen implicaciones importantes para el manejo de los pastos introducidos en lo referente al mejoramiento tanto del reciclaje de nutrimentos como del secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por las plantas. Las características de la raíz serían un criterio importante en la selección de forrajes tropicales introducidos que se usarían en sistemas agropastoriles tales como la rotación de cultivos y pasturas. La combinación de arroz de secano adaptado a suelos ácidos y de algunos forrajes tropicales en la rotación agropastoril ha demostrado ser una práctica viable, desde el punto de vista agronómico y económico, en los suelos ácidos de baja fertilidad que son representativos de las sabanas sudamericanas (Vera et al. 1992;Rao et al. 1993;Thomas et al. 1995). Un ciclo de rotación que tenga de 3 a 5 años de pastura y una fase de cultivos de 1 ó 2 años aumentaría el reciclaje de los nutrimentos y el secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por las plantas. Los agroecosistemas que incluyan las características benéficas de los pastos introducidos -tales como el crecimiento extensivo de las raíces hacia las capas más profundas del suelo y la cobertura permanente de éste-reducirían las pérdidas de nutrimentos porque almacenarían grandes cantidades de éstos en la biomasa acumulada bajo la superficie del suelo, aumentando así la materia orgánica del suelo y protegiéndolo. Estas características benéficas de las pasturas de especies introducidas pueden incorporarse ventajosamente en el diseño de sistemas agropastoriles apropiados para las sabanas sudamericanas, en las que puede haber tasas de pérdida de nutrimentos por lixiviación y erosión de nivel significativo.• La producción epígea de la vegetación nativa herbácea está limitada, en particular, por la composición química del suelo (es débil en N y otros elementos esenciales), por su pH muy bajo, cualquiera que sea el tipo de manejo que reciba la sabana (altura de corte y fertilización), y por la escasez de agua en la época seca. La fertilización no es rentable para el manejo de esta vegetacion nativa; por ello, la introducción de especies exóticas permite obtener mejores rendimientos de biomasa cosechable que es de mejor calidad.• Las medidas empleadas en Venezuela (Martín et al. 2000), en relación con otras sabanas nativas de la región, indican que las especies de las sabanas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia están bien adaptadas a estos suelos pobres y que estas especies deben ser sustituidas por especies exóticas de mayor potencial para obtener rendimientos más elevados.• Los resultados de este estudio indican que los pastos introducidos producen, durante su desarrollo, mayor cantidad de raíces vivas activas en los estratos profundos del suelo que los pastos de la sabana nativa, en los Oxisoles de baja fertilidad de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.• El estudio de las diferencias de enraizamiento, basado en la distribución proporcional de la longitud de las raíces según la profundidad, indicó que el enraizamiento de los pastos de la sabana nativa era relativamente más profundo que el de los pastos introducidos.• El análisis del carbono estable de las raíces de los pastos introducidos señaló que la fracción correspondiente a las raíces de la leguminosa, en una asociación de gramínea + leguminosa, era inferior al 10% de la biomasa total de las raíces.• Los pastos introducidos, con su abundante sistema radical a profundidades del suelo que van de 30 a 80 cm, tienen capacidad de lograr dos efectos:-reciclar los nutrimentos acumulados en las capas profundas del suelo;-secuestrar, en las raíces situadas bajo la capa arable del suelo, grandes cantidades de carbono atmosférico fijado por las plantas.• Los agroecosistemas que incorporen las características benéficas de los pastos introducidos, tales como el crecimiento extensivo de las raíces a gran profundidad y la cobertura permanente del suelo, reducirán las pérdidas de nutrimentos por las siguientes razones:-almacenan cantidades grandes de nutrimentos en la biomasa acumulada bajo la superficie del suelo;-aumentan la materia orgánica del suelo;-protegen el suelo con la cobertura que le proporcionan.CAPÍTULO 11 La introducción de pasturas mejoradas y su establecimiento son prácticas que se extienden rápidamente en la Altillanura plana de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia con el propósito de mejorar el nivel nutricional del ganado. La vegetación dominante en esta región consiste en pastos nativos de sabana de baja productividad y poca calidad forrajera.El cambio de la vegetación nativa por monocultivos extensos de especies forrajeras introducidas favorece la aparición de nuevas condiciones agroecológicas y de manejo. Un aspecto importante de estos nuevos cultivos es su posible degradación por la aparición de 'malezas', es decir, de especies no deseadas (END) en la pastura.Una pastura se degrada cuando disminuye su potencial productivo y se reduce el rendimiento del producto animal. Spain y Gualdrón (1991) explican que los siguientes factores son los que más contribuyen a esa degradación:• Mal manejo de la pastura, desde su establecimiento hasta su utilización.• Invasión de malezas, plagas y enfermedades en la pastura.• Pérdida de fertilidad del suelo.• Falta de adaptación de las especies sembradas.• Incompatibilidad entre las especies asociadas.'Maleza' es el término común que designa ciertas especies como 'malas hierbas' en un cultivo. Para un agrónomo, una planta se considera maleza cuando dificulta el desarrollo de las plantas cultivadas o aparece inoportunamente entre ellas (Doll 1989a;1989b). Desde el punto de vista botánico, taxonómico o ecológico, este concepto pierde validez porque todas las especies forman parte de un ecosistema. Como tales, pueden propiciar el control de la erosión, favorecen la presencia de la fauna benéfica, conservan la humedad del suelo, contribuyen a la formación de materia orgánica y al reciclaje de nutrimentos, son germoplasma útil como fuente de alimentos y medicinas, y preservan la vida silvestre.En la naturaleza, por tanto, no existen las 'malezas'. Los agrónomos aplican prioridades de productividad a ciertas especies y les atribuyen a otras, en determinado ciclo de la vida de éstas, la categoría de malezas; la categoría END sería, en cambio, la más apropiada. Estas especies exhiben las siguientes características:-crecen espontáneamente; -están adaptadas al medio; -tienen ciclos reproductivos cortos;-producen muchas semillas de dispersión principalmente anemófila, de mayor latencia que las de los cultivos y de excelente germinación;-son, además, de fácil propagación.Las END se caracterizan principalmente por su capacidad para obstaculizar el desarrollo de especies cultivadas ya establecidas, por los siguientes medios: competencia por agua, luz, nutrimentos y espacio; efectos alelopáticos; invasión del campo y, en el peor de los casos, desalojo de las especies forrajeras cultivadas. Se valen, además, para su supervivencia, de dos mecanismos: el ganado las rechaza y algunas poseen sustancias tóxicas.Consideradas a nivel económico y productivo, las END se convierten en un grave problema cuando superan el umbral de daño económico al cultivo y cuando las pasturas introducidas pierden su potencial forrajero en términos de productividad y calidad.En este capítulo se identifican las END o especies contaminantes de las pasturas y de los cultivos que se siembran en los Llanos Orientales. Se hizo el inventario de las END determinando además su cobertura, su frecuencia y su diversidad. Se midió además el nivel de degradación de diferentes tipos de pasturas establecidas en el CI Carimagua situado en el departamento de Meta, Colombia. Este es un centro piloto en investigación, introducción, establecimiento y adopción de nuevas especies forrajeras destinadas a las sabanas bien drenadas de los Llanos Orientales.Las evaluaciones se hicieron entre agosto de 1993 y marzo de 1994 en el CI Carimagua; la región de este nombre se conoce como sabana alta de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia; su altitud oscila entre 150 y 175 msnm.La región recibe una precipitación anual de 2200 mm, en promedio, distribuidos entre los meses de abril y diciembre. Las temperaturas máxima y mínima promedio son de 32 y 23 °C, respectivamente. La humedad relativa anual promedio es de 76%. Los suelos son de fertilidad baja, profundos, bien estructurados, muy porosos y permeables, y se clasifican como haplustox típico, caolinítico, isohipertérmico (Oxisol).Se evaluaron 36 pasturas (cada una en su lote); en los 36 lotes se establecieron, en monocultivo o en asociación, especies cuyas características se detallan en el Cuadro 11-1. El muestreo se hizo mediante transectos lineales de 20 m y con lecturas hechas al azar cada 20 m, en cada lote; son siete por hectárea, para un total de 700 puntos por tratamiento. Se analizaron las siguientes variables:Se rige por la expresión X i = (m i /M t ) x 100. La fracción proporcional de puntos con que una especie está presente (m i ), derivada de un número infinito de unidades de muestreo (M t ) posibles, equivale a la cobertura de dicha especie (X i ) (Matteucci y Colma 1982).Según el porcentaje de cobertura, se han establecido categorías o grupos para clasificar el tipo de invasión de las END en una pastura. Alemán (1991) usa una escala de cuatro grados cuyos valores generales se presentan a continuación: Se aplicó la prueba de Duncan con un nivel de significancia del 5% y se usaron datos no transformados para estudiar esta variable. La evaluación consistió en comparar tratamientos vs. cobertura de END, de un lado, y lotes vs. cobertura de END, del otro. Se agruparon 10 tratamientos según el tipo de pastura establecida, incluyendo un testigo de sabana nativa.Según los porcentajes de cobertura y los resultados de la prueba de Duncan (Cuadro 11-4), 62% de los lotes se encuentran medianamente invadidos por END, 15% presentan una invasión fuerte y 24% tienen una invasión muy fuerte; entre estos últimos se encuentran los lotes más jóvenes.Esta variable compara el número de veces que cada una de las 91 especies incluidas en el inventario se encuentra en los 36 lotes evaluados. Según la distribución de Huguet del Villar, se obtuvieron los datos que aparecen en el Cuadro 11-5.Especies constantes. Son el 4% del total. La especie Hyptis conferta (mastranto) es la más común; aparece en 33 lotes (92% del total) y nunca es pastoreada en forma constante (Blydenstein 1976). Axonopus purpusii (guaratara) está presente en un 81% de los lotes, tiene excelente valor forrajero y resiste el pastoreo; estas características le hacen perder el carácter de maleza o END (Blydenstein 1967). Están finalmente Galactia glaucenses (guayabo sabanero) con 77% de frecuencia y Lindermia diffusa con un 69%.Especies accesorias. Son el 30% del total. Comprenden 27 especies, de las cuales Andropogon bicornis (rabo de zorro) se destaca con un 61% de frecuencia.Especies accidentales. Son el 60% del total y contienen 60 especies.Esta variable mide la abundancia florística de los lotes comparados. Cuanto menos especies comunes haya en los lotes mayor será el valor de la diversidad (Cuadro 11-6).Del inventario realizado y del análisis de las variables cobertura, frecuencia y diversidad se puede concluir que las pasturas de los 36 lotes evaluados en el CIA Carimagua tienen las siguientes características:• Hay 28 lotes (78%) en fase de productividad media.• La cobertura del terreno con END (presencia de malezas) es, en promedio, de 34%.• La capacidad potencial de carga de los lotes es de 1 UA/ha. y manejo de la pastura (rotación, carga, control mecánico con guadaña, quema).Las asociaciones de gramínea y leguminosa tienen los menores porcentajes de cobertura de END; son, por tanto, un método importante de control de END, además de dar mayor cubrimiento al suelo y mejorarlo en su estructura.La distribución florística de las END en las pasturas mejoradas es la siguiente: dominan las especies accidentales (66%), siguen las accesorias (29%) y, por último, están las constantes (5%).La quema es una práctica de manejo empleada en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia con el fin de promover el rebrote en la época de verano; es además una herramienta de control de END en la sabana nativa y, a veces, en las pasturas mejoradas. Sin embargo, no se recomiendan las quemas continuadas porque el suelo queda descubierto y expuesto a la erosión, lo que afecta su contenido de materia orgánica y su microfauna. Cuando sea necesaria, hay que hacerla racionalmente y muy espaciada en el tiempo (con descanso largo para el lote).Una especie de las Poaceae, Panicum rudgei (paja tigre), se encuentra ocasionalmente en la sabana nativa; causó, sin embargo, graves problemas en los lotes evaluados, por las siguientes razones:-apareció en 21 lotes evaluados (58%);-es altamente invasora y puede desplazar la pastura establecida;-es un forraje tosco cubierto de pelusa que no es consumido por el ganado;-tiene poco valor nutritivo;-su frecuencia aumenta en el lote cuando éste es sometido a pastoreo;-es tóxica para el ganado porque contiene glucósidos cianogénicos que causan el síndrome de caída del ganado: los animales son más susceptibles al envenenamiento en la época de transición de verano a invierno (Tolkamp 1972;Moreno et al. 1976);-está adaptada a la quema, como la mayoría de las especies de los Llanos Orientales, y por eso rebrota muy bien: la quema favorece la escarificación de las semillas y el nacimiento de nuevas plantas.-su agresividad es tal que se mimetiza con las especies de la pastura mejorada: a veces su presencia es tan abundante en el lote que puede confundirse con una pastura introducida.Se destaca también Imperata brasiliensis (víbora o guayacana), una END que exhibe el siguiente comportamiento:-forma grandes manchones (o parches) en la sabana nativa;-sólo fructifica después de la quema y ésta, por tanto, favorece su dispersión;-crece emitiendo estolones subterráneos muy fuertes que tienen forma de punta cuando salen a la superficie: con ellos destroza las otras especies sembradas en el lote.Los productores empiezan a reconocer estas dos especies, junto con Emilia sonchifolia, como END de alto riesgo en los cultivos y en las pasturas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.Es necesario investigar la biología y la ecología de las END mencionadas para conocer su capacidad de interferir con otras especies y su potencial de daño económico. Sólo así podrán desarrollarse programas y estrategias para evaluar tanto las prácticas de manejo de pasturas y cultivos, aplicadas durante largo tiempo, como el impacto ambiental que pueden causar esas estrategias.El impacto de las END puede ser mucho mayor en los campos de los productores de ganado que en el centro de investigaciones donde se hizo este estudio, en condiciones controladas y con muchos recursos. Por consiguiente, la evaluación descrita aquí debe hacerse en esos campos para establecer el estado de las pasturas, el manejo que se les da y, lo más importante, el nivel de degradación que puedan presentar esas pasturas por la presencia de las END.Las END son parte de un ecosistema global y su control debe evitar la aparición de un desequilibrio mayor. El buen manejo de estas especies es la mejor solución al problema. Una propuesta interesante de manejo es la asociación de gramíneas y leguminosas en las pasturas.Resumen Histórico de la Investigación Desarrollada por el CIAT en la Sabana Nativa G. Rippstein* y R. Vera**Las sabanas nativas (sensu stricto) de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia ocupan el 80%, aproximadamente, de la superficie total de esa región. Las sabanas nativas se usan para la cría de ganado bovino destinado a la producción de carne, principalmente, y, en menor grado, a la producción de leche. Estos pastos son poco productivos; sin embargo, son la base de la alimentación animal en la mayoría de las fincas de la sabana, situación que se mantendrá todavía durante mucho tiempo por razones ecológicas o geomorfológicas, principalmente. Las sabanas son, además, una reserva importante de biodiversidad vegetal y un refugio para la fauna.A fines de la década del 70 se iniciaron algunos trabajos esporádicos sobre el manejo y la productividad animal de la sabana nativa. En 1986, el CIAT dio comienzo a los primeros estudios de largo plazo sobre la ecología de la sabana nativa de Carimagua; en 1989, extendió ese estudio a otras áreas de la sabanas nativa, o sea, a la Altillanura de los Llanos Orientales.El objetivo principal de este proyecto era incrementar el conocimiento sobre las especies y grupos de vegetación nativos (inventario, ecología, funcionamiento, productividad, valor pastoril) y mejorar el uso que se da a estos pastos nativos incluyendo aquí su integración a los sistemas agropastoriles. Estos sistemas se encuentran actualmente en pleno desarrollo.El proyecto se halla en su fase final de síntesis y publicación de los resultados de 6 años consecutivos de investigación; en este capítulo se presentarán los avances realizados hasta la fecha. Uno de los resultados es el desarrollo de métodos para caracterizar el estado de degradación de la sabana nativa basados en la interpretación de imágenes del satélite SPOT y para verificar ese estado a nivel de campo; otro, son los estudios detallados sobre la dinámica de la vegetación en respuesta a la época y a la frecuencia de la quema, y a la intensidad del uso que hacen de ella los animales en pastoreo.Se anticipa, hacia el futuro, la necesidad de identificar sitios y áreas de particular riqueza de especies y genotipos empleando una combinación de detección remota ('remote sensing') y de investigación de campo y de laboratorio, con la finalidad de identificar las áreas cuya conservación es prioritaria. Se considera también de alta prioridad la descripción y el análisis cuantitativo de las funciones ecológicas de los bosques de galería y la valoración económica de los servicios ecológicos ofrecidos por la sabana y los bosques.Las sabanas nativas (sensu stricto) de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (ver Figura 1-11, Capítulo 1 de esta obra) ocupan alrededor del 80% de la superficie total de esa región; el resto está ocupado por cultivos (principalmente, especies forrajeras y arroz), por bosques de galería y por ríos.Las sabanas nativas son pastoreadas generalmente por bovinos que producen carne y, en menor grado, leche: estos últimos se hallan cerca de las ciudades.Estas sabanas tienen suelos pobres (Cochrane et al. 1985) y, aunque son poco productivas, son la base de la alimentación de los animales en la mayoría de las fincas. Esta situación se mantendrá todavía mucho tiempo en la región, principalmente por razones ecológicas o geomorfológicas relacionadas con las llanuras mal drenadas y la Serranía. Las sabanas constituyen, además, una reserva importante de biodiversidad de plantas y un refugio de la fauna salvaje.Por estas razones, desde la creación del Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria (CIA, antiguo CNI, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones) Carimagua, manejado por el ICA y el CIAT, en Meta (Figura 12-1), el CIAT investiga sobre el uso dado a la sabana nativa y el posible mejoramiento de ésta.Desde su creación, en 1970, el Programa de Pastos Tropicales del Figura 12-1. Vista aérea del área de Carimagua.CIAT ensayó varios sistemas de producción para aplicar con mayor eficiencia la quema en el manejo de la sabana nativa. Se ensayó entonces la introducción de leguminosas forrajeras en la sabana para mejorar su calidad y alimentar mejor los bovinos (CIAT 1974).En 1986, el Programa antes mencionado inicia el primer estudio botánico y ecológico de las 20,000 ha de sabana nativa del CIA Carimagua (ver Figura 1-2, Capítulo 1 de esta obra), bajo la responsabilidad del líder del Programa José (\"Pepe\") Toledo, ya fallecido. Lo acompañaron en esta tarea el auxiliar en botánica, Javier Belalcázar, el agrónomo y botánico Rainer Schultze-Kraft, el ecofisiólogo Myles Fisher y el ecólogo Jeff Herrikc; colaboró además en el proyecto el botánico Eugenio Escobar, de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Palmira.En 1989, la sección de Pastizales Naturales (del Programa mencionado) desarrolló un proyecto más amplio para estudiar las sabanas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, pero enfocado hacia el CIA Carimagua. Este proyecto fue financiado por el Gobierno Japonés y con él se inició también la colaboración con el CIRAD-EMVT de Francia.En 1992, el proyecto se incorporó al Programa de Sabanas del CIAT que a finales de 1993 se fusionó con el Programa de Márgenes del Bosque y conformó más tarde el Programa de Trópico Bajo.Esta reestructuración institucional no ha afectado mucho los objetivos y el desarrollo de la investigación sobre sabanas. Con ella se incorporaron un poco más en este trabajo los sistemas de producción de Carimagua y de Matazul.Desde un principio, el objetivo general del proyecto fue caracterizar, conservar, mejorar y (si fuere necesario) regenerar los ecosistemas nativos sometidos a pastoreo en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.Los principales objetivos específicos del proyecto y sus actividades conexas se resumen en el Cuadro 12-1. Los principales fueron los siguientes:• Incrementar los conocimientos básicos y el inventario de la vegetación nativa de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (botánica, ecología vegetal, fitosociología).• Entender y explicar las causas de la forma fisonómica actual, de la composición florística y de la dinámica de la vegetación natural pastoreada por bovinos, es decir, describir el funcionamiento del ecosistema pastoreado, para evitar su degradación. Este proceso de degradación se ha iniciado ya en sitios como las áreas contiguas al río Meta y a la carretera Puerto López-Carimagua.• Estudiar la dinámica de la productividad y de la calidad (valor alimenticio) de las especies vegetales consumidas, así como la dinámica del 'valor pastoril' de los diferentes tipos de vegetación manejados con quema, en rotación, con diferentes cargas.• Estudiar el comportamiento alimenticio de los bovinos en los pastos nativos.• Estudiar los sistemas mejorados de manejo de las praderas nativas adaptadas a las condiciones naturales e integradas a los sistemas de producción intensivos (cultivos y pastos mejorados), que se desarrollan rápidamente en zonas favorables de los Llanos Orientales.• Una vez integrado el proyecto en el Programa de Trópico Bajo, estudiar las especies no deseables (malezas) en los cultivos del proyecto CULTICORE, en Carimagua.Las actividades de investigación sobre el inventario de la vegetación y de la tipología de la sabana fueron llevadas a cabo en los siguientes sitios de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia:-parte de la Altillanura plana del CIA de Carimagua (25,000 ha, 300 km al este de Villavicencio, Meta) y de sus alrededores, en suelos relativamente más fértiles (suelos arcillosos) y más pobres (suelos arenosos);-los municipios de Puerto López y Puerto Gaitán (120 km al este de Villavicencio), que comprenden zonas de Altillanura plana, de Altillanura ondulada (al sur de la anterior) y de la Serranía formada por la erosión y la acción de los ríos.Estas formaciones corresponden, respectivamente, a los sistemas de  Cochrane et al. (1985). La región considerada tiene una superficie cercana a los 2500 km².Las actividades de investigación de la productividad y la calidad de las especies y de la vegetación, de los sistemas de producción y del uso de la tierra fueron realizadas en el CIA de Carimagua en suelos relativamente fértiles (arcillo-limosos o arcilloarenosos) y en suelos pobres (arenosos).Las metodologías empleadas generalmente en estos estudios de pastos -o sea, inventarios, productividad, dinámica, valor alimenticio-fueron las utilizadas por el CIRAD-EMVT (Boudet 1991;Daget y Godron 1995), en particular, la metodología fitosociológica de Braun-Blanquet (Guinochet 1973) y la de los \"puntos cuadrados alineados\" para los estudios de la dinámica de la vegetación (Daget y Poissonet 1991).Para los estudios de uso de la tierra se utilizaron los Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG), en particular los datos del satélite europeo SPOT HRV (Girard y Girard 1989;Girard y Rippstein 1994).El proyecto llegó a su fin en 1997. Los estudios de campo terminaron en 1996 y la fase actual es el análisis de los datos y la publicación de los resultados.Durante el taller regional Agrociencia y Tecnología Siglo XXI: Orinoquia Colombiana, reunido en Villavicencio (Meta) en noviembre de 1996, se presentaron los siguientes resultados:-información parcial sobre el inventario de la vegetación y su diversidad;-parte de los estudios sobre la dinámica de la vegetación manejada con quemas;-influencia del pastoreo y de diferentes cargas en los pastos, y otras formas de manejo de la sabana.Se presentan también resultados sobre la productividad de los diferentes sistemas de manejo de los pastos nativos. La mayor parte de esta información se publica en este libro. Algunos resultados aparecieron en revistas, reuniones científicas y en tesis de estudiantes.La descripción detallada de la vegetación (inventarios, dinámica, tipología) y las metodologías desarrolladas pueden ser aplicadas a otras zonas de los Llanos Orientales y a otras sabanas. Hay que pasar del nivel localizado al nivel más amplio (por ejemplo, la cuenca, el municipio, toda la Serranía o toda la Altillanura mal drenada) para que estos resultados sirvan a los productores, a los servicios de desarrollo del departamento o a los de transferencia de tecnología de los municipios o los departamentos.• Los pastos nativos estarán siempre presentes en las fincas de los Llanos Orientales, especialmente en las zonas no arables: Serranía, Altillanura mal drenada y Bajos. Se sugiere investigar, por tanto, en las fincas, la integración de esos pastos en su sistema forrajero y en sus sistemas de producción, es decir, con los pastos mejorados y con cultivos como el arroz y el maíz. Se han hecho ya varios de estos experimentos en el CIA Carimagua (Fisher et al. 1992) y en la Altillanura plana (formación 201), pero se carece de información sobre otros sistemas de tierras más extensos y, posiblemente, más frágiles.• Esta iniciativa implica la evaluación de la productividad de los pastos y de los animales, y el cálculo de los efectos de esa integración en la biodiversidad, tanto de la flora como de la fauna; hay efectos en la biología de los suelos que ya han sido documentados por Decaëns et al. (1994). Es necesario, además, desarrollar modelos y programas geo-referenciados que ayuden a los productores a tomar decisiones.• Identificar e investigar sitios particularmente ricos en especies vegetales y animales que deban ser protegidas. Definir la tipología ecológica y el uso actual y potencial de las tierras a nivel regional. Producir mapas que muestren la diversidad de la vegetación y de los suelos, en los que puedan identificarse las siguientes clases de tierras: las más favorables, para desarrollar cultivos; las menos favorables agrícolamente, para la producción animal; las más pobres, para mantenerlas con bosque; y las que sean ricas en biodiversidad, para dedicarlas a reserva natural.• Esta investigación debe realizarse con la ayuda de los SIG y de indicadores ecológicos (especies indicadoras, por ejemplo) que es preciso desarrollar.• Determinar el grado de vigor del ecosistema de los Llanos Orientales y la medida en que se le aplican el concepto de los nuevos sistemas 'complejos' y el modelo de 'estado y transición', haciendo una comparación con los conceptos clásicos de sucesión.• Hacer una descripción y un análisis cuantitativo de las funciones ecológica y económica de la sabana y de los bosques de galería, es decir, considerar las reservas de biodiversidad, la protección contra la erosión y las inundaciones, la explotación de las especies maderables o aptas para cercas y otros aspectos similares.• Establecer sistemas de observación continua, por ejemplo, el seguimiento ('monitoreo') por imágenes de satélite, de la dinámica tanto del uso de la tierra como de la degradación de la vegetación y de los suelos (erosión); estos sistemas ayudarán a tomar decisiones políticas sobre el uso de los recursos de tierras.• Hacer estudios ecológicos básicos de los Bajos y de las zonas mal drenadas, es decir, la zona periforestal, al sur de río Meta, y la Altillanura mal drenada, al norte de dicho río. Esta investigación contemplaría el inventario botánico (tipología y mapa de la vegetación), el estudio de los suelos y el mapa respectivo, el régimen hídrico, las condiciones climáticas y otros factores.• Evaluar, en colaboración con investigadores de Venezuela, las consecuencias ambientales y socioeconómicas de los cambios significativos en el uso de la tierra que ocurran a lo largo de la cuenca del río Orinoco. En esta investigación se desarrollarían modelos que permitirán simular diferentes escenarios de desarrollo. Para estudiar la composición botánica y la dinámica de la vegetación de la sabana nativa (sabana alta o Altillanura) es necesario conocer las especies nativas en su estado vegetativo, ya que éstas, generalmente, no presentan floración por tres razones principales: la dinámica de su fenología, las quemas y el manejo de la sabana con animales.Para determinar el género y la especie de una gramínea, los especialistas emplean, como unidad taxonómica básica, la variación morfológica de las espículas, las cuales son, muchas veces, microscópicas y difíciles de observar. Las Claves Sinópticas Ilustradas (CSI) que aquí presentamos se basan, en cambio, en caracteres morfológicos de fácil observación en las gramíneas nativas halladas principalmente en las sabanas del departamento del Meta, Colombia. Estas claves se desarrollaron a partir de la experiencia adquirida por los autores en el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria (CI) Carimagua, situado en Meta, Colombia, y son un complemento de la Clave Estribada publicada por Escobar et al. (1993).La principal ventaja de las CSI es que permiten \"entrar\" en sus tablas por las características vegetativas más evidentes de cada especie. En las gramíneas (poáceas), varias de esas características son importantes (ver B. Características…, Cuadro B1), aunque sólo se utilizarán algunas de ellas en las CSI.El tallo sostiene la planta poácea y define el hábito de crecimiento de la especie a que ésta pertenece (ver B. Características…, Cuadro B2). Se compone de segmentos denominados entrenudos que están delimitados por los nudos. Tiene consistencia herbácea o leñosa y puede ser hueco o macizo, erguido o postrado y de tamaño variable.Las poáceas (gramíneas) tienen tallos aéreos y subterráneos. Losprimeros pueden ser erectos, decumbentes o rastreros. Los tallos decumbentes crecen 'recostados' sobre el suelo y pueden enraizar a partir de los nudos inferiores. Los tallos rastreros crecen en forma horizontal sobre el suelo y, como los decumbentes, pueden emitir raíces en los nudos. La planta que se desarrolle en un nudo enraizado se denomina estolón. Los tallos subterráneos pueden ser rizomas, tubérculos o bulbos.Las hojas de las poáceas tienen, por lo regular, tres áreas principales (ver B. Características, Cuadro B2, y D. Clave 2):Vaina. Es la parte de la hoja que se inserta en el nudo y que rodea el tallo, en forma más o menos estrecha, uniéndose a él. Puede ser cilíndrica, aplanada o aquillada. Sus márgenes pueden parecer sobrepuestos (vaina abierta) o juntos (vaina hendida) o pueden estar unidos formando entonces una vaina entera o cerrada.Lígula. Es un ápice membranoso o piloso que se halla entre la vaina y la lámina, en la cara superior o haz de la hoja.Lámina. Es la superficie libre de la hoja. Normalmente es lineal y acintada en las poáceas, aunque muchas veces hay variaciones de esa forma. Es paralelinervia según la disposición de la nervadura. Presenta una cara superior (el haz) y una inferior (el envés).Las hojas de las poáceas pueden presentar otras estructuras que permiten caracterizar muchas especies. Son las siguientes:Aurículas. Estas estructuras aparecen en las hojas en forma de apéndice o de dilatación situada frecuentemente en la base de la lámina o en la parte distal de la vaina.Cuello o cordón ondulado. En la zona donde la vaina se funde con la lámina foliar se observan, en el envés de ésta, una coloración de matiz diferente del entorno y una vellosidad: constituyen el cuello de la vaina. En algunos casos (Homolepis aturensis), el cuello presenta además (por el envés de la lámina) una pequeña estructura semicircular membranácea o pilosa.Las CSI presentan gráficamente, como su nombre lo indica, las estructuras vegetales que les sirven de elementos identificadores. Para facilitar más su manejo, la Clave 1 (ver C. Clave 1) divide las poáceas en cinco grupos según dos características: la presencia o ausencia de indumento o pilosidad en la lámina foliar (haz, envés y márgenes) y en la vaina, y la forma de esta última (cilíndrica, comprimida o aplanada). El proceso de identificación tiene tres pasos:Primer paso: reconocer las principales características morfológicas de esa especie (ver B. Características, Cuadros B1 y B2).• Segundo paso: definir el grupo al cual pertenece la especie de poácea (sección C. Clave 1).• Tercer paso: entrar en la tabla que contiene la clave principal del grupo (ver D. Clave 2) para identificar -aplicando por contraste las demás características allí consideradas-el ejemplar que se estudia. Este se identificará, al final, como una de las 31 especies presentes en la Clave 2, que son las más comunes en la Altillanura plana de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.Cuando no hay un interés particular en conocer todas las características morfológicas de la especie en cuestión, puede obviarse el primer paso. El grupo elegido en B. conduce directamente a las tablas de la sección D., donde están las características más específicas del ejemplar que se desesa identificar.La presencia o ausencia de pilosidad en las hojas es importante para la identificación de una especie. Ahora bien, la pilosidad puede variar con el estado del desarrollo de la planta; por ejemplo, parte de la pilosidad puede perderse por la edad, en las hojas viejas, o también por el estrés que causa la sequía, en hojas viejas y jóvenes. La Clave 2 repite, además de las 31 especies clasificadas, seis especies que pueden manifestar esta variación; están marcadas con un (*).Con ayuda de las claves y por apreciación visual, es posible diferenciar varias especies según las siguientes características: la relación entre la longitud y la anchura de las hojas, la orientación de los vellos en las estructuras pilosas, y las características de los márgenes de las hojas.El Cuadro B2 plegable (p. 253) ilustra las características usadas para identificar las poáceas; sirve también para entrar en la CSI 2 (ver D. Clave 2).Las características morfológicas generales y el hábitat se usan para identificar especies de poáceas. Una descripción de estas características y las estructuras vegetales relacionadas con ellas se presentan en el Cuadro B1.El hábito de crecimiento es una característica importante para identificar especímenes de poáceas (gramíneas). El Cuadro B3 (p. 255) presenta ocho hábitos de crecimiento de especies de poáceas que crecen en la sabana nativa de los Llanos Orientales, y sirve también de ayuda para entrar en la clave sinóptica principal, CSI 2.Cuadro B1. Características de las poáceas (gramíneas).-Arenoso, arcilloso o de arrecife (Altillanura, Serranía) -Según forma: Cilíndrica, comprimida, aplanada -Según envés: Glabra, pilosa, escabrosa -Según AM e : Abierta, en V, cerrada, superpuesta -Según dorso: Lisa (simple), carinadaAusente, vestigial, pronunciadoLaminares, de la vaina Lígula:-Según tipo: Ciliada (pilosa), de cilios cortos, membranosa (simple, ciliada, franjeada o truncada, con corona de pelos largos)-Según forma: Triangular, cimbiforme (aquillada), ovada, oblonga (transversalmente angosta), con mechones laterales de pelos Sinflorescencia:-Según ejes: Solitaria, conjugada (pareada), digitada, subdigitada, racemosa -Según espícula: Sésil, pedicelada, lisa, pilosa, aristada, triaristada, alada -Según UE f : Espiga (esp. sésil), racimo (esp. pedicelada), seudoespiga (esp. sésiles y pediceladas), panícula laxa (abierta, pedicelada), panícula contraída -Los céspedes estoloníferos presentan estolones y culmos.-Los céspedes rizomatosos tienen rizomas y culmos.  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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7b7d723d5747d6d54d093c70da6e4ad5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8212eccd-0ebd-4049-b45b-3dd217a35b74/retrieve","id":"1345687545"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c27fa083-c084-4264-a355-ce178dd405f8","pagecount":"36","content":"timeframes for long-term adaptation, which involves transformation of entire agricultural and food systems, and the one to five year planning horizons of most governments and development agencies. Over these timeframes, farmers are experiencing climate change mainly as increasing risk associated with less predictable weather, or a growing frequency or intensity of extreme climatic events.CCAFS is structured around the reality of this external environment. FP1 and FP2 focus on CSA, i.e. the co-achievement of food security, climate change adaptation and reduction of GHG emissions associated with agriculture. FP1 deals with the over-arching policy context, aiming to assess how enabling policy environments and priority-setting for targeted investment can support the scaling of CSA technologies. FP2 addresses the level of technologies and practices, aiming to provide evidence on the synergies and trade-offs of different practices and technologies towards the achievement of the three goals of CSA across a range of agro-ecologies and social contexts. FP3 focuses on how low emissions development pathways can deliver globally significant mitigation outcomes in tandem with gains for adaptation, food security and national development. FP4 tackles current climate variability, aiming to foster the longerterm transition towards CSA in high-risk environments by supporting the development of climate information services and climate-informed safety nets that enable smallholder farmers to adopt more climate-smart production systems.The CCAFS LP on Partnerships and Capacity for Scaling CSA provides the central mechanism for cohesion across FPs at national, regional and global levels. It provides both synthetic learning functions and pathways to impact at scale, working with partners in each region as well as at the global level. It is designed to deliver these impact pathways for all CCAFS FPs and for the full body of CGIAR research on climate change. The LP on CSA, Gender and Social Inclusion provides for a rigorous treatment of gender and equity, in a climate context. It works across the full CCAFS portfolio. The pathway to impact for CCAFS depends critically on its capacity to integrate the adaptation-led Flagship Programs FP2 and FP4 with low emissions strategies (FP3) and institutional approaches to food systems (FP1), and to align all of these within an informed approach to social inclusion, to increase the CRP's contributions to IDOs, SLOs and SDGs.While CCAFS has programmatic research content, it also has a major role to integrate climate change across all CRPs, and in fact across a range of partnerships. The CCAFS strategy for achieving a fully integrated CGIAR portfolio, from farmers' fields to global processes, involves five mechanisms, as follows:(1) Impact pathways. CCAFS established integrated regional impact pathways, involving numerous partners and Centres (including scientists already participating in other CRPs). These will be revisited in relation to ongoing Site Integration planning. An integrated impact pathway focus helps to shape partnerships, cross-CRP collaboration and build common purpose. Annex 3.6 provides an example of the approach.(2) Learning Platforms (LPs). CCAFS will host six LPs -these will involve a body of research activities within their thematic area, exchange of lessons learnt on methods and tools, events focusing on emerging results, synthesis of results across CRPs, and communication. It is estimated that 44% of the overall CCAFS budget is allocated to LPs. The six LPs are as follows (each is linked into specific Site Integration plans -see Annex 3.6 for more detailed roles and linkages).LP1: Ex-ante evaluation and decision support for climate-smart options (including downscaled climate data, regional climate outlook, prioritization frameworks) LP2: Participatory evaluation of CSA technologies and practices in Climate-Smart Villages (including integrated assessment of CSA options) LP3: Identifying priorities and options for low-emissions development (including guidelines for GHG measurement, identifying priority mitigation options) LP4: Weather-related agricultural insurance products and programs (including global analyses to identify constraints and opportunities, lessons from pilots) LP5: CSA, gender and social inclusion (supporting CSA gender specialists on climate-specific topics) LP6: Partnerships and capacity for scaling CSA (position CGIAR as leading global research organization for developing country food systems and climate change; manage national to global partnerships for climate change policy impact and scaling CSA)(3) Climate Change Contact Points. CCAFS has established Contact Points in each Centre. Many Contact Points have roles in other CRPs so will be familiar with the activities in other CRPs. Contact Points will facilitate two-way flow of strategic information between CCAFS and other CRPs in their Centre and identify additional opportunities for collaboration. Specific roles for each Contact Point have been established (Annex 3.6).(4) Project Activity Planning. Each CCAFS project, and future CCAFS projects, will identify in the \"Planning and Reporting System\" (MARLO) the linkages with other CRPs, including levels of coinvestment. Project collaboration often starts at the concept stage, through interactions between individuals from different CRPs.(5) Internal Learning. To ensure success in the Cross-CRP collaboration strategy, attention will be given to internal learning. This will consist of two elements. (1) Cross-CRP collaboration will be one element in MELIA (Annex 3.5). For example, annual work plans for each LP will be developed, and will be annually assessed by relevant participants. MELIA will also feed into decisions on which LP to phase out and which to start, as resource limitations preclude a focus on more than the six topics selected. For example, once work on index-based insurance is well advanced (LP4), it may be opportune to shift focus to another topic. (2) The effectiveness of the above mechanisms will depend on the skills of the individuals, e.g. Contact Points, leaders of LPs. All these individuals will have annual appraisal (including Review Strategic approach Review of the regional strategy and target countries -should the focus change? All regions USD 60,000Coordinating unitImpact pathways, and associated theories of change, have been established at multiple levels, in projects, for particular CSVs, in target countries and for regional programs. They can help diverse stakeholders agree on objectives, tactics and roles. An example of one of these is shown in Annex Figure 1 -for the region WA. In some cases these have been supplemented by scenarios exercises, to help frame future scenarios and develop common visions. Within WA, for example, there are also national impact pathways. For instance, in Burkina Faso, a number of CRPs have been trialing working together based on common scenarios and impact pathways.LPs will be a fundamental mechanism to build collaboration across all CRPs. Annex Table 6 summarizes the roles of each LP, while Template 1 shows the cross-CRP linkages. Each FPL will have the responsibility to ensure the success of one LP (LP1 to LP4), with the GSI Research Leader responsible for LP5 and the Global Research Leader on Scaling CSA for LP6. Regional Program Leaders will have a major role in LP2 on facilitating Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs), and in LP6 on fostering links to national and to regional impact pathways.CCAFS target countries are where CCAFS has the resources to support CSVs and national policy processes related to climate. Many CGIAR Site Integration countries are also target countries for CCAFS (see * in Annex Table 6), but there are additional countries -not earmarked for Site Integration -where there is coordinated work involving several Centres and CRPs (Annex Table 7). While CCAFS does not work in all Site Integration countries it will provide some services to other CRPs in those countries through LPs, as shown in Annex  Tools for integrated assessment of CSA option X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X  Support implementation and approaches for CSVs X X X X X X X X X X X X LP3 Identifying priorities and options for lowemissions development  Guidelines for GHG estimates  Global analyses and tools to identify priority mitigation options relevant to particular countries, and their scalability X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X  Regional and national analyses of selected mitigation options X X X X X X X   Support gender activities in CSVs; and in programs involving climate information services and weather-based insurance X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X   In June 2013, a meeting of WLE, FTA and CCAFS agreed to explore areas of synergy (both issue and place-based) in Burkina. In August 2013, CIFOR organized a first internal meeting between ICRAF and CIFOR in Ouagadougou to review the expected outcomes of the joint initiative. A committee was set up and tasked to establish a database of CGIAR projects in terms of targets, locations, partners.A 2 nd meeting (Dec 2013) with participation of a broader set of partners (FTA, CCAFS, WLE, Drylands, national and other international research institutions, including universities, state and nonstate development partners, international NGOs) convened to review the quality of previous partnerships with CGIAR and to work out a new partnership framework. A 3 rd meeting (Feb 2014) with the same set of partners defined a vision and action plan for the partnership framework. It was also agreed to develop a common theory of change aligned to the strategy for accelerated growth and sustainable development of Burkina Faso (SCADD), particularly the national programme for the rural sector (PNSR). The CGIAR-led initiative for building a database of all CGIAR projects and those of non-CGIAR actors has been merged with a similar initiative led by the SP/CPSA (Permanent Secretariat for Coordination of Agricultural Sectoral Policies).The CRPs' joint initiative has also partnered with the CCAFS Scenarios group and the SP/CPSA in a specific process aimed at examining the PNSR in the context of multiple socio-economic and climatic scenarios, to improve its robustness and feasibility in the face of possible diverse futures. This scenario-guided policy revision workshop (July 2015), offered a unique opportunity to CGIAR experts (FTA, CCAFS, Dryland, WLE) and national policy experts to identify research through which CRPs could contribute to the expected outcomes of the upcoming revised PNSR. The CRPS' joint initiative in Burkina Faso has followed a participatory approach involving CGIAR, national actors, and other international actors intervening in Burkina Faso, to frame partnerships, map research interventions and define development and research priorities to be considered. From the mapping and review exercise, the SC identified potential thematic areas for CGIAR collaboration in Ghana.Two key national partners are the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). These institutions coorganized the National Consultation workshop, attended by 60 persons from different stakeholder groups. The workshop revealed how the integrated efforts of the CGIAR Centres can complement national priorities and those of other partners, towards agricultural transformation. Following MoFA's presentation on the priorities for driving Ghana's Shared Growth and Development Objectives, the participants identified key themes that could be the CGIAR strategic focus. The workshop also suggested ways of working effectively together. The workshop further provided insight on tracking progress and impact of integration, as well as the coordination mechanism.Next steps are: (i) finalise the Site Integration plan with information gathered during the workshop; (ii) engage in regular consultation and exchange with the national partners through their representation in the SC and (iii) sharing information at national platforms. The SC agreed that sharing of information, as well as collaboration in joint activities and resource mobilisation is paramount to strengthen integration. Collaboration will commence on the identified themes and with a joint visit to the National Development Planning Commission. The RPL is a member of the SC, and has contributed to SC meetings through sharing information on CCAFS-related projects and success stories, in preparation for the national consultation meeting.  In Phase I CCAFS developed that involved projects from 5 Centres (4 CRPs). CCAFS also developed national and district-level CSA science-policy platforms where multiple Centres participated.  RPLs are responsible for ensuring integration of CSA actions from site to regional level, and for integrating activities of different FPs, Centres, CRPs and partners involved with CCAFS. One of their TOR is to ensure that CCAFS activities are integrated in Site Integration Plans.  CCAFS attended the national consultation meeting and made presentations on CCAFS success stories.  The consultation workshop identified (1) the national science-policy dialogue platform, (2) the CSV approach, and (3) the scaling up of climate information services through ICTs as relevant areas for Site Integration.  The 2 CCAFS CSVs have been considered as research sites for DCL, FTA and Africa Rising project. The CSV baseline data and information have been shared with CRPs/Centres.  CCAFS is expected to play a key role in the one of the Site Integration thematic area (climate change adaptation and resilience, through CSA, climate information services and safety nets).  CCAFS will also contribute towards jointly raising bilateral funds with the centres/CRPs for the thematic area. By August 2016, CCAFS will have prepared a funding strategy for each country of its target countries. This strategy will be shared with the Site Integration coordinator and partners for comments and discussion.  Each Learning Platform will prepare a brief annual workplan in December of the previous year for discussion with the Site Integration coordinator, other CRPs and partners. The main outputs and conclusions of the integration workshop were as follows:  Improvement of the inventory of research programs and project partnerships.  Opportunities for more efficiency and increased impact through stronger coordination and collaboration were highlighted.  Better understanding of what the gaps and opportunities are in Mali for AR4D.  Clear need for research to go beyond the production stage and focus on empowering farmers and NGOs to develop value chains.Working groups were formed to progress on the following five main issues: (i) key features of integration, (ii) principles for selecting sites, and integrating actions, (iii) towards effective collaboration and cooperation, (iv) communication and (v) progress tracking and impact assessment.The Site Integration plan will be submitted on or before April 29 th , 2016. RPL is member of the SC and contributed to the technical preparation and facilitation of the consultation meeting.  In Phase I CCAFS developed CSVs that involved projects from 3 Centres (3 CRPs). CCAFS also developed national and district level CSA science-policy platforms where multiple Centres participate.  RPL is responsible for ensuring integration of CSA actions from site to regional level, and for integrating activities of different FPs, Centres, CRPs and partners involved with CCAFS. One of their TOR is to ensure that CCAFS activities are integrated in Site Integration Plans.  RPL attended the national consultation meeting and made presentations on the mapping of CGIAR intervention sites in Mali.He also shared CCAFS success stories (CSVs, partnerships, national platforms...)  The consultation workshop considered lessons learnt from (1) the national & district level science-policy dialogue platforms, (2) the CSV approach and the partnerships developed by CCAFS for its action research, as relevant experiences that could inform Site Integration.  The 2 CCAFS CSVs in Segou region have been considered as research sites for DCL, FTA and WLE. Baseline data and information have been shared with CRPs and Centres.  The SC will facilitate further work planning based on the lessons learnt from existing experiences, including those from CCAFS.  CCAFS will contribute to the thematic and geographical database of all CGIAR and partner projects.  By August 2016, CCAFS will have prepared a funding strategy for each country of its target countries. This strategy will be shared with the Site Integration coordinator and partners for comments and discussion. The Roadmap for agricultural and economic growth in Ethiopia is spelt out in Ethiopia's GTP II. The CGIAR should continue to align its programs to that (and there have been many meetings to do that planning) (Oct-Dec 2015).One the key recommendation is the need to establish a joint CGIAR-national agriculture research system collaboration and communication mechanism. Other areas of collaboration were: the development of joint research proposals, sharing of equipment and resources, streamlining policy engagement, and improving opportunities and modalities of capacity development. Nine CRPS and 10 Centres have participated in the Site Integration. A national stakeholders' consultation workshop was organized in Dec 2015, with over 70 participants representing: 1) research institutes and government agencies, 2) universities, 3) NGOs-private sector agencies and associations, 4) international organizations and donors, and 5) CGIAR staff.Stakeholders agreed on an eco-regional framework to facilitate in-country collaboration. The target regions are: 1) Northwest, 2) Northeast, 3) Red river delta, 4) North central coast, 5) Central highlandssouth central coast and southeast, and 6) Mekong river delta. In addition, CRPs with national and local development plans were considered a key dimension of country collaboration. For each region, the stakeholders identified: 1) development priorities as set by government policymakers/ decision-makers, 2) key research gaps which are recommended for the CGIAR to address, and 3) potential partners for specific research and development initiatives.From Dec 2015 to March 2016, CRPs/Centres also engaged in bilateral discussions on specific collaboration needs and opportunities. Several CRPs also organized their respective country/regional planning and consultation events.A follow-up meeting by the CGIAR Vietnam team was held on 7 March, with 8 CRPs and 7 Centres represented. The 8 participating CRPs re-confirmed that Vietnam is a target country for CRP II proposals. As next step, it was also agreed that subnational targeting will be undertaken for higher-resolution Site Integration plans, i.e. within each agroecoregion. A draft agenda for the 10-element Site Integration report was prepared. In phase II, CCAFS will also participate in the planned joint annual review and planning at agro-ecological zone level.  Each CCAFS Learning Platform will prepare a brief annual workplan in Dec of the previous year for discussion with the Site Integration coordinators, other CRPs and partners.  The 3 current CSV sites of CCAFS have been identified possible Site Integration areas. In the plan being drafted, the lead Centres in the 3 CSV sites (CIAT, ICRAF & IRRI) have been identified as lead Centres in the eco-regions where the CSV sites are located.  CCAFS will contribute to the thematic and geographical database of CGIAR and partner projects.  Current resources will be applied to these actions. By Aug 2016, CCAFS will prepare a funding strategy for each of its target countries. This strategy will be shared with Site Integration coordinators and partners.","tokenCount":"3010"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"567119016cd95061afaef54c1a76a591","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ea110977-b8d5-4934-840f-921565051357/content","id":"1152272472"},"keywords":["agrarian change","forest transition pathways","landscape restoration","reforestation","rural livelihoods"],"sieverID":"8f74c559-aac1-431c-aa32-210f9e5b5345","pagecount":"12","content":"Despite global commitments to forest restoration, evidence of the pathways through which restoration creates social and ecological benefits remains limited. The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to generate insights on the relationship between forest cover change and key provisioning ecosystem services and reforestation pathways. In Southern Ethiopia, three zones along a gradient of decreasing land cover complexity and tree cover were examined. The land cover change was assessed using satellite remote sensing and complemented ground-based tree inventory. Perceptions of land cover and ecosystem services change and farmer responses were evaluated through three Participatory Rural Appraisals and eight Focus Group Discussions. Since the 1970s, a landscape shift from a forest-grassland to a cropland mosaic was associated with increased food production, improved food security, and higher incomes. However, this shift also coincided with reductions in livestock, construction materials, fuelwood and water availability, prompting reforestation efforts designed to recover some of these lost ecosystem services. In particular, some households established Eucalyptus woodlots and encouraged natural regeneration. Natural trees, Eucalyptus woodlots, Ensete plantations (a type of plantain), and grasslands were positively associated with homestead proximity; thus, homestead establishment resulting from population increase in this predominately agricultural landscape appeared to foster a viable forest restoration pathway-that is, 'more people, more trees'. This is a reforestation pathway not previously described in the literature. A return to a more diverse agricultural landscape mosaic provided more secure and diversified income sources along with better provisioning of construction materials, fuelwood, and higher livestock numbers.current biodiversity extinction crisis (Ceballos et al., 2015). Biodiversity loss impacts people's livelihoods in many ways. For example, in landscapes composed of agricultural-forest mosaics, forests and trees provide fuelwood, fodder for livestock, construction materials, and nutrients for crops (e.g., Baudron et al., 2017). Forest products are also an important source of income as well as food, particularly for the poor, and particularly during times of crises (Arnold et al., 2011;Beck & Nesmith, 2001;Wunder et al., 2014). Similarly, because on-farm trees may provide provisioning and other ecosystem services-that is, products and other benefits from the ecosystem to humans-critical for agricultural production, they are often integrated within mixed crop-livestock systems (Reed et al., 2017). Therefore, deforestation along with general loss of trees tends to have negative consequences for rural livelihoods.Despite claims to the contrary (Boyd & Slaymaker, 2000;Gibbs et al., 2010), reforestation can occur in conjunction with a growing human population and also be associated with increased agricultural productivity (Tiffen et al., 1994). For example, farmer-managed natural regeneration dramatically increased tree density and household income in Niger (Haglund et al., 2011). In a heavily degraded and densely populated region of Northern Ethiopia, rural communities have restored tree cover and improved soil protection over the last 140 years, largely through the support of environmental recovery programs during the 1980s (Nyssen et al., 2009). In the Ethiopian Central Rift Valley region, farmers have also recovered tree cover, ground vegetation and related ecosystem services by implementing livestock exclosures (Baudron et al., 2015). In Southern Ethiopia, farmers actively manage their trees to promote ecosystem services and reduce disservices (Ango et al., 2014).The forest transition literature describes several, sometimes interacting, reforestation pathways which lead to contrasting environmental and societal outcomes (Lambin & Meyfroidt, 2010;Meyfroidt et al., 2018). Understanding these transitions is key to guide interventions for improved sustainability of land systems while avoiding negative outcomes (Meyfroidt et al., 2018). Indeed, global forest and landscape restoration efforts are often assumed to lead to improved livelihoods and wellbeing, yet evidence on this remains limited. Our understanding of the direct and indirect pathways by which restoration creates social benefits is also limited (Erbaugh & Oldekop, 2018).Examining restoration activities undertaken and led by communities and farmers can provide a useful perspective and potentially, actual evidence of such benefits.The objectives of this paper are to explore empirical evidence that: (a) generates insights on the relationship between forest cover change and key provisioning ecosystem services; and (b) helps identify forest transition pathways leading to overall forest gain and its socioecological outcomes. For this, three agricultural landscapes spanning a gradient of tree cover and land cover complexity in Southern Ethiopia were examined. A suite of integrated methods-from participatory surveys to remote sensing to biodiversity inventories-designed to capture spatial and temporal dynamics of ecosystem services and human wellbeing was used (Sunderland et al., 2017).The study landscape is located between the Munesa State Forest and the town of Arsi-Negele-between 38 42.14 0 and 38 49.92 0 East and 7 15.05 0 and 7 22.57 0 North-in Oromia Region, Ethiopia (Figure 1).Munesa forest is considered a dry Afromontane forest, it is owned and regulated by the Ethiopian State and it can be accessed and used by the neighboring communities with certain limitations. Mixed croplivestock farming is the main livelihood strategy with the main crops being maize, wheat, potato and Enset (Ensete ventricosum), an endemic perennial from the Musaceae (banana) family used to produce starchy food. Unharvested annual crop residues become a communal resource available for communal grazing after grain harvest.Three zones, each with two villages, were identified along a gradient of decreasing tree cover and land cover complexity (i.e., increasing agricultural specialization; Figure 1). The zones were otherwise similar in social context (land tenure, farm area, ethnicity, local and religious institutions, transport services, population density) and environmental conditions (soil type, elevation, agroecological zone). The first zone borders the State forest of Munesa, which residents can access for grazing and collection of firewood, but live trees cannot be brought down; this zone has a high tree density and is referred to as 'complex' (in land uses and farming system composition) hereafter. The second zone is located 5.5 km away from Munesa Forest and its residents do not have access to the forest due to distance and local regulations.However, they have access to a large communal grazing area; this zone has a relatively high tree density and is referred to as 'intermediate'. The third zone is located about 11 km away from Munesa Forest and its residents do not have access to it or any other common land; it has a lower tree density and is referred to as 'simple'. The complex, intermediate and simple zones are located about 16, 11.5 and 6.5 km away from the main market of Arsi Negele Town, and their total area is 100.1, 164.9 and 110.5 ha, respectively. More information on the context and household and farm variables can be found in Baudron et al. (2017, 2019), Duriaux Chavarría et al., (2018) and Duriaux and Baudron (2016). Site selection occurred before the remote sensing analysis based on a coarse aerial assessment using Google Earth, consultation with Ethiopian scientists and field expeditions, to select a study set up as described by Sunderland et al. (2017).To explore historical changes in land cover, satellite imagery (LANDSAT MSS, TM and OLI) captured in January of 1972January of , 1986January of , 1999January of and 2013  landscape was classified into cropland and bare soil, Enset, grassland, natural forest and tree cover and woodlots using a combination of object-based and maximum likelihood supervised classification as well as manual delineation of Enset homegardens and woodlots. Training sites were verified using a mix of high spatial resolution imagery from Google Earth and ground verification.Between May and September 2015, tree basal area and tree numbers were assessed in the three zones. In each zone, 24 sampling points were randomly selected from a grid (of 150 m sized cells) across the zone (Baudron, Schultner, Duriaux, Gergel, & Sunderland, 2019).Within a 50 m radius of each point, all trees >10 cm of diameter at breast height (DBH; at 135 cm from ground level) were identified to species level and their DBH were recorded. For each circular plot, the relative basal area was determined using the cumulative basal area of all trees divided by the total ground surface within the circular plot, and then represented as m 2 /ha. Tree density was calculated by dividing the total tree count by the total ground surface of the circular plot and then represented as trees ha −1 .A participatory rural appraisal (PRA) was held in each zone with 50 to 60 community members of different households and of diverse age, gender and wealth, recruited with the help of the village leaders (Baudron et al., 2011). The PRA goal was to understand the current and historical context through the generation of a timeline of historical events, natural resources and land use maps, diagrams of access to major resources, Venn diagram of major institutions, value chains of main commodities and household typologies based on selfcategorization (Duriaux & Baudron, 2016).Two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were held in each zone with groups of 12 to 14 elders. In the first set of FGDs, trend lines were drawn and discussed by participants describing changes over the last 40 years (Geilfus, 2008). During the second set of FGDs, historical diagrams of land-use change (Geilfus, 2008) for five points in time during the last 40 years were created (see Figure 4).Another FGD was held with 33 elders from the three zones to identify the main land use and land cover (LULC) change events, discuss their impact on the most important wellbeing elements as considered by the group and identify differences between the zones.Results from this FGD were similar across all zones and therefore are presented as one compiled table. Finally, a last FGD was held with adults of different ages from the three zones to present key results to the community and receive feedback which was used to improve the results. PRA and FGDs were held between October 2014 and December 2015; equal proportions of male and female participants were invited to the events, having similar proportions in attendance.Land use classification and spatial analysis were undertaken using ENVI 5.0 and ArcGIS 10.3. Change statistics were calculated by comparing the values of the dataset in one period with another (1972-1986, 1986-1999, 1999-2013). Current land use area within a radius of 50, 100 and 250 m of each household was calculated from the 2015 RAPIDEYE classification and based on household positions (N = 266; see Baudron et al., 2017) recorded with a handheld GPS Garmin Etrek 10.For each zone over three periods, annual net forest change was calculated as the change in tree cover area as a percentage of the total surveyed area, using the formula X = ((A 2 − A 1 )/A * 100)/(t 2 − t 1 ),Where: A represents the total surveyed area, while A 1 and A 2 and t 1 and t 2 represent the tree cover areas and the year for the first and second period, respectively (Puyravaud, 2003). For tree basal area data, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the medians among zones, while Chi-squared contingency tables were used to compare proportions of tree cover. Both were conducted using R software. At different periods and extents for each zone, there was a shift from rapid tree cover loss to slow tree cover gains (Figure 3). Between 1972 and 1986 tree cover in all three zones declined, with the fastest deforestation rate in the complex zone (−4.33% yr −1 ). Between 1986 and 1999, tree cover gain rate increased in the simple zone (0.66% yr −1 ), while deforestation virtually stopped in the intermediate zone and drastically reduced its rate in the complex zone (−0.72% yr −1 ).Between 1999 and 2013 tree cover gains occurred in all three zones with highest gains in the intermediate zone (0.48% yr −1 ) with lower (similar) gains (0.10% yr −1 ) in the complex and simple zones.The different patterns of LULC change in the three zones led to differences in landscape composition in 2015, in particular concerning tree and grassland cover. A much greater proportion of the simple zone was represented by cropland (89%) compared to the complex (60%) and intermediate (55%) zones. Conversely, a greater proportion the intermediate zone was represented by grassland (22%) compared to the complex (15%) and simple zones (8%). Natural tree cover was higher in the complex (21%) and intermediate (20%) zones compared to the simple zone (1%). Woodlot cover was similar in the three zones:1.5%, 1.2% and 1.8% in the complex, intermediate and simple zones, respectively. Ensete plantations decreased with increasing cropland specialization, occupying 2.5% of the area in the complex zone, 0.7% in the intermediate zone and 0.2% in the simple zone. The classification accuracy was 96%.The area covered by perennial vegetation-that is, trees, grassland, Ensete and woodlots-tended to increase with increasing proximity to the homesteads (Figure 4). Home gardens generally include Enset and trees, and together with grasslands, are often found near the homestead. Eucalyptus woodlots in the simple zone showed to be an exception, as their area increased with increasing distance to the homestead.Of the 50 tree species inventoried, two are endemic to Ethiopia and four are considered of high conservation value by the Ethiopian government. While seven non-native species were encountered, only Eucalyptus species were particularly widespread and often found in woodlots. Tree basal area was highest in the complex zone, followed by the intermediate, then the simple zone (Table 1). The proportion of Eucalyptus from the total number of sampled trees was higher in the simple zone than in the other zones, but there were no significant differences in the proportion of the total basal area or the total tree density represented by Eucalyptus.According to FGDs (Figure 5) forest and grassland were said to be the  some cropland was converted to Eucalyptus woodlots between 1995 and 2005, but cropland still expanded through grassland conversion.In general terms, cropland has increased continuously at the expense of forest and grassland, while Eucalyptus has increased mainly through conversion of grassland.During the set of FGDs that created historical trendlines, elders estimated the population in 1970 to be 20, 37 and 30 people for one of the villages in Zone 1, Zone 2 and Zone 3, respectively. In comparison, household surveys carried by the research team in 2015 (Baudron et al., 2017) showed a total population of 359, 369 and 255 inhabitants for the same villages in Zone 1, Zone 2 and Zone 3, respectively. This represents an approximate population growth ranging from 850% to 1795%.The most important elements for wellbeing mentioned during the FGDs were, from the most to the least important: food availability (in amount and quality), access to water in rivers and streams (for both human and livestock), construction materials, livestock ownership, income, and fuelwood (Table 2). The shift from forest and grassland to cropland was perceived to have increased food production, dietary diversity and income but to have led to a decline in livestock numbers, and a reduced availability of construction materials, fuelwood and water.During the period of intense forest clearance, livelihoods shifted from herding to crop production; income increased while construction materials were readily available. Livestock numbers-both per farm and per village-were said to have decreased constantly because of conversion of grasslands and forests to cropland and woodlots. The establishment of Enset in homegardens was the only LULC change process that impacted livestock numbers positively but was not enough to offset the loss of the other feed sources. Overall, the changes in livelihoods and LULC that have taken place since the 1970s were perceived as positive, especially for food production, dietary diversity and income.During the study period, farmers changed their land uses to increase the livelihood benefits they derived from the landscape, provisioning ecosystem services in particular-that is, material goods obtained from the ecosystem. Deforestation improved food and income provisioning, at the expense of water, construction materials, livestock and fuel.Through reforestation (Figure 3), farmers recovered some of the services lost during land conversion (Table 2). Although this study cannot provide direct attribution of the causes of LULC change, it does showcase the importance of accounting for landscape multi-functionality and ecosystem services when understanding forest transitions and LULC change in human-dominated landscapes.Although the LULC change that took place in the study area since the 1970s resulted in increased income and improved food securitythat is, adequate household food provisioning described during FGDs as \"...enough food throughout the year for all household members\"-they also resulted in a decrease in water availability in rivers, livestock numbers, construction materials and fuelwood availability (Table 2). As a response to the decreasing availability of these resources-highlighted as key to wellbeing during FGDs-farmers started a reforestation process through farmer-managed natural regeneration and Eucalyptus establishment (Table 1). In Ethiopia, Ango et al. (2014) demonstrated that farmer managed trees and forest actively to promote ecosystem services and reduce disservices. The sum of these farm level decisions will impact the overall landscape and again the livelihoods of its inhabitants.Our results echo those of other studies in overlapping and nearby areas in terms of LULC change and its impact on ecosystem services: an increase of cropland and food production occur at the expense of forest, tree rich areas and grassland and their related services (Ariti et al.,   The elements more important for wellbeing are ranked from left to right following FGD participants perception. The impacts are considered positive (+), neutral (0) or negative (−).that the complex zone might represent an optimal landscape in terms of outcomes for the farm and household such as livestock ownership and productivity, fuelwood availability, diversity of income sources, equality, and dietary diversity. During the FGDs, the key elements for rural livelihoods (Table 2) were compared among the three zones with the goal of elucidating which mix of land cover types (e.g., Figure 6a,   b) is likely to provide the most desirable bundle of ecosystem services.The simple zone was perceived as having higher crop and overall food productivity compared to the other zones, but fewer crop types such as Ensete, lower dietary diversity, and reduced livestock products. The complex zone was perceived as having more livestock, livestock productivity and higher dietary diversity. Duriaux Chavarría et al. (2018) found no differences in overall farm or crop productivity between the zones as suggested by farmers, but their measurements agree with the perceptions of larger livestock herds and greater livestock productivity in the complex zone. Baudron et al. (2017) agree in that dietary diversity was greatest in the complex zone due to higher livestock density and more homegardens.Construction materials and fuelwood were perceived to be readily available in the complex zone, very limited in the simple zone, with the intermediate zone somewhere in between. Baudron et al. (2017) found that fuelwood consumption was higher in the complex and intermediate zones while in the simple zone households needed to purchase fuelwood. Although the access to fuelwood from the forest from households in the complex zone might have a positive impact on their livelihoods, it is paramount to further study the sustainability of the extraction over time to ensure that the forest resource base is not degraded.Participants in the FGDs could not define which zone generated better incomes, mentioning that this varied by household. Yet they reported higher availability of livestock, Enset, trees on farms, and access to common forest in the complex and intermediate zones allowing for greater income diversity and availability in times of need-e.g., in an emergency, when needing to invest in crop inputs, support for children going to school-and thus overall more stability in the household income. Duriaux Chavarría et al. ( 2018) found a more equal distribution of livestock in the complex zone, suggesting that this could translate into a better availability of income in times of need; they also found farming systems in the complex zone to be more resilient, suggesting a more secure and diverse production, likely to impact income positively.Overall, the landscape configuration in the complex zone-that is, a diverse agricultural matrix with high tree cover and forest presencewas the most beneficial for local livelihoods. Our results suggest that promoting more complex landscape configurations can translate into improved local livelihoods through the provisioning of key ecosystem services, highlighting the role of landscape approaches for development.Still, promoting the abovementioned benefits might prove difficult to reproduce in other zones without access to common areas and especially forests, which were mentioned as a fundamental source of the services.It is commonly believed that population increase leads directly to deforestation (Boyd & Slaymaker, 2000). However, our study demonstrated that population may grow in parallel with increased cover of perennial vegetation. The proportion of trees, grassland, Enset and woodlot cover tends to increase closer to the homesteads (Figure 4).Based on the association between trees, grassland, Enset, woodlots and the proximity to the homestead, it can be hypothesized that a population increase will lead to an increase in cover by perennial vegetation types. Indeed, it was mentioned during the FGDs that an increase in grazing area and homegardens-which include trees and Enset (Figure 6c)-is expected as younger families establish new homesteads. The aforementioned land uses are associated with daily tasks-fuelwood collection, tending to livestock, milking, collection of manure and cultivation of Enset fields-and this spatial arrangement might be a strategy to centralize assets to guard livestock against theft/wildlife and reduce labour burden by reducing the travel time to carry out daily tasks. Tiffen et al. (1994) in their book \"More people, less erosion\" described the processes that lead to a natural regeneration and improved environment due to population increase and their actions.The same phenomenon has been observed in Guinea, where local communities were blamed for a shift in vegetation from pristine humid forest to savannah. It was later demonstrated that population increases actually promoted reforestation in locations where edaphic conditions would otherwise not allow natural establishment and regeneration of humid forest (Fairhead et al., 1995). Nyssen et al. (2009) showed that in Tigray region of Ethiopia, land rehabilitation occurred through an increase of vegetation cover-mainly Eucalyptus-in parallel with a tenfold increase in population. Desalegn et al. (2014) found that in another area of Ethiopia, Eucalyptus cover increased with settlement expansion, resulting in decreased burden of fuelwood transport over long distances-especially for women-and an increase in income as well as provisioning of other ecosystem services such as wind breaks.Another example of restoration associated with population growth is farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR). FMNR is based on the regeneration of native trees (Haglund et al., 2011), and although the planting of Eucalyptus was observed as the main mechanism for vegetation regeneration, natural regeneration of native trees also played an important role according to FGDs (Figure 6a, b and d).Many individual stems of native tree species had small basal areas, an indication they were not remnants of the original forest but likely the result of regeneration. FMNR is more effective when benefits to local communities are the main driver, used in combination with easy and accessible technology to promote diffusion through the community (Rinaudo, 2007). Similarly, in Ethiopia Eucalyptus was established largely without extension efforts because of its economic value and attractive traits; highlighting the 'demonstration effect' in others' farms (Ango, 2010).Our results demonstrate a compelling juxtaposition with some of the literature on forest transitions. Often, forest transitions occur through interacting reforestation pathways described in the literature as 'forest scarcity', 'state forest policy', 'economic development', 'globalization' and 'smallholder intensification' (Lambin & Meyfroidt, 2010;Meyfroidt et al., 2018). Although in the study area the 'smallholder tree-based intensification pathway' occurred as described in the literature: 'under the influence of smallholder land use systems that actively manage the multifunctionality of ecosystems' (Lambin & Meyfroidt, 2010), restoration did not occur on abandoned land but on productive land. It did not evolve over millennia but occurred within decades. In addition, its main objective was not risk reduction through diversification but the recovery of key provisioning services.Furthermore, a different reforestation pathway was identified in this study. Homestead establishment was a pathway identified by farmers during FGDs and supported by the remote sensing analysis (Figure 4). This pathway is characterized by new homesteads being established in areas with low tree densities-that is, cropland, grasslands-whereby households then establish trees, grassland, Enset  et al., 2009). There is much discussion about the negative implications of novel ecosystems in general (Miller & Bestelmeyer, 2016) and Eucalyptus in particular (Poore & Fries, 1985;Sunder, 1993). On-the-otherhand, in Ethiopia Eucalyptus establishment has been found to have an indirect positive impact on soil and water conservation mainly through the reduction of soil runoff (Mhiret et al., 2019;Nyssen et al., 2009). Jenbere et al. (2012) studied Eucalyptus expansion in nearby farms and found expansion occurred despite farmers' awareness of the detrimental ecological effects of Eucalyptus. They also mentioned that tree planting in this area is a strategy \"...employed by rural households to diversify income sources, meet their own wood products demands and secure more sustainable livelihoods\" and that the main reasons driving expansion of Eucalyptus were \"...rising demand for wood, desire for income from selling poles, increasing distance from the forests and woodlands to access wood products for subsistence, and increasing frequency of drought that affects crop and livestock production\" (Jenbere et al., 2012). Similar results were found in a study by Milkias et al. (2014), in which farmers ranked construction materials, income and fuelwood provision as the main reasons for plantingEucalyptus. Indeed, the products of Eucalyptus not only recover the diminishing availability of construction materials and fuelwood due to previous deforestation, but also reduce the pressure on forest and native trees allowing conservation and regeneration. According to FGD participants, Eucalyptus were planted primarily in waterlogged grasslands, followed by cropland areas with low agricultural potential.Future research should quantify the possible biodiversity trade-offs resulting from the plantation of exotic tree species like Eucalyptus, but also compare scenarios with or without Eucalyptus reforestation to understand its overall effect on biodiversity and the bundle of ecosystem services it provides.This study provides empirical evidence of restoration pathways where farmer-led reforestation leads to the recovery of key provisioning services, with simultaneous population increase. LULC changes are affected by the changing need for ecosystem services of landscape users. After two decades of deforestation and cropland expansion, residents of the study area shifted to reforestation through Eucalyptus planting and farmer managed natural regeneration. This was as a response to the growing scarcity of fuelwood and construction materials resulting from deforestation. In a landscape dominated by cropland, the benefit of such reforestation appears disproportionately high for people-for example, greater livestock numbers, improved resilience and diversification of income sourcesbut also for biodiversity (Baudron et al., 2019).Population increase promoted reforestation ('more people, more trees'), as the multiplication of homesteads also led to an increase of the number of natural trees, woodlots and Ensete plantations, which are all traditionally maintained around the homestead to provide key services for the household. This could represent a forest transition pathway (Meyfroidt et al., 2018) applicable to other landscapes with similar situations. However, it is incorrect to assume that an increase in population will always lead to environmental regeneration. We Previous studies in the area identified the importance of common-access forest, grazing areas and trees for sustainable intensification of agriculture (Duriaux Chavarría et al., 2018) and dietary diversity (Baudron et al., 2017). However, it is important to identify the threshold of extractions before resource degradation occurs as well as the rules and institutions (local and state governance) that would allow this. Further research is needed in the study site to identify this knowledge gap and ensure the sustainability of the system.Finally, while regeneration may occur in ways not always approved by conservationists-e.g., Eucalyptus-these 'novel ecosystems' might be a better option than simpler agricultural configurations with scant trees and perennial land uses (grassland, Ensete). Interdisciplinary landscape approaches could be a framework guiding regeneration in agricultural landscapes that help identify the land use balance that brings the most positive impact to both livelihoods and biodiversity. Further research using this approach could make use of 'natural experiments' to provide better scientific information to guide policy making and landscape re-designs to maximize the parallel development goals of humankind.We appreciate the help of researchers, field assistants, community ","tokenCount":"4622"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c1ce8d90d3cf89c19d1c6438b4a09fad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c0e703cd-7187-43a7-8b9f-f2d79470dc98/retrieve","id":"2132095462"},"keywords":["Coordinateur Regional","CIAT","Programme Regional pour"],"sieverID":"4632399a-8d51-4c8c-a0ee-f6f195dcf55e","pagecount":"56","content":"This publication is a working document on bean production in Africa. It classifies 70 major bean production areas according to environmental criteria and provides information for each bean production area on physical and socio-economic characteristics, cropping systems, producer and consumer preferences, and on the major biotic and abiotic constraints. The data were gleaned from many sources including the observations made over the last ten years by CIAT and national program bean researchers.Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) are an important food crop in eastern and southern Africa. Beans were probably introduced te the eastern Africa coast by Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century (Greenway, 1945).These traders called at Sofala (Mozambique),Zanzibar and Mombasa and their goods, including various new food plants, were carried to the interior by Arab slave traders and by Swahili merchants (Binns, 1976;Merril, 1954;Oliver & Mathew, 1963).Beans became established as a food crop in Africa befare the colonial era, but there is little clear indication of the status the crop attained.The wealth of local names given to distinctive cultivars, and the genetic variátion, are together evidence of the long establishmentof beans as a crop. Beans are now recognized as the second most important source of human dietary protein and the third most important source of calories of all agricultural commodities produced in eastern and southern Africa (Pachico, 1993).The bean-growing ecosystems of Africa are numerous and highly diverse (Allen & Edje, 1990). Their potential for production and their management requirements are determined by the interplay of many factors, including climate, soil type and a range of socioeconomic and biological factors.Research is concerned with adapting germplasm (Smithson, 1989) and means of production more precisely to specific environments. Development of appropriate technologies requires a good understanding of constraints and opportunities of the bean growing ecosystems. Such understanding is needed for:the identification of problems and the setting of research priorities undertaken by national institutions and regional research networks; establishing collaborative research efforts; identification of suitable locations for research;targeting technology that is agroecosystem-specific; and the interpretation of results of regional and pan-African trials.This document provides a review of the distribution of bean production in Africa and gives information on the important bean producing areas.The review is often limited by the paucity and poor quality of available information wich comes from a variety of sources; much is derived from observations of bean researchers made over the last ten years, including results from at least 20 diagnostic surveys, numerous on-farm trials, an African network of more than 150 researchers at over 40 experiment stations in 18 countries, and a series of national and regional planning workshops for bean research. Also, conditions and constraints are not static but subject to perpetual change. Therefore, this document should be considered as a first attempt to present information on African bean production areas.We eneourage researehers to add to this information base and to suggest necessary revisions in order that a more accurate revision ean be made.The document begins with the distribution of bean production in Africa, with a second approximation of a bean map included in the Appendix.The major African bean environrnents (AFBE) are characterized and the area of beans sown are presented with physical information for each of the major bean producing areas (MBPAs). Characteristics of the bean cropping systerns, of soeioeconornic factors and of produeer and presented in sequence for each MBPA.consumer preferences are Sections follow on the distribution and importance of agronornic constraints, including diseases, insect pests and edaphic constraints, the overall importance of which is addressed.A map showing an approximation of bean production in Africa is presented in the Appendix. This is a revision of a map prepared by the CIAT Agroeeological Unit (Gray, 1990). Information from several sourees was used to estimate the distribution of bean production.National data were used when available.In some cases, FAO data were used. The information for Ethiopia largely from farming systerns' surveys.Reliable statisties on bean production are generally laeking for Zaire and the estimates given are a consensus of data from researchers production in Zaire.The distribution of beans in Afriea is obviously irregular but there are sorne notable concentrations: Other notable concentrations include the Tall Grass Zone of Uganda, the Northern and the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, and Kagera Region of Tanzania. In this document, 70 bean growing areas have been characterlzed, with are as of annual bean production ranging from 2000 ta 220,000 hectares.The criteria on which we have based the AFBEs herein defined are altitude, amount of rainfall and soil pH.rainfall per bean growing season, mode of While the levels of these criteria are arbitrary, the cut-off points are of biological significance to the bean crop.Altitude affects temperature and therefore affects times to maturity, incidence and severity of both disease and insect pests, and rates of evapotranspiration. Three levels were used in classifying the AFBE: >1500, 1000-1500 and <1000 meters aboye sea level (masl).Amount and mode of rainfall determine the probability of soil moisture deficits and the numher of important bean producing seasons per year. Environments were classified as having more or less than a mean of 400 mm of precipitation available to the bean crop. Rainfall in the low latitude zone between approximately 7 0 S to 7°N is effectively bimodal as a consequence of the movements of the Inter-continental Convergence Zone.The unimodal rainfall pattern of the higher latitudes is associated with significant photoperiod effects.Boil pH relates to the soil's capacity to supply nutrients as well as to aluminium and manganese toxicity problems. Environments were classed as having a mean soil pH of aboye or below 5.5.Thirteen important AFEEs resulted from this classification (Table 1). The MBPAs are listed for each AFEE with its are a of bean production, latitude range and major soil types according to the FAO legend (FAO, 1977). These AFBEs account for an annual total of 3,830,000 hectares of bean crop.Two AFBEs account for 50% of the hectares of beans. The subhumid, low latitude highlands of high potential in eastern Africa account for 1,012,000 hectares and the sub-humid, low latitude, mid-altitude high potential areas account for 885,000 hectares.An alternative classification of bean growing areas defined primarily by geographic location with consideration to altitude differences might be more useful for regional planning. Beans are compatible with numerous cropping seasons.Beans are primarily other erops in mixed a crop of small-scale produeers and generally few inputs are used. The result is a wide range of bean produetion systems.The major eropping systems inelude beans intercropped with maize, sorghum, tuber and root erops, or bananas, or beans grown in sole crop (Table 2).Generally, two crops per year are harvested in the low l.atitude areas where the main sowing times are March or April and September or October.In the northern mid-Iatitude areas, the main sowing time is June to July.In the southern mid-latitudes, the main sowing time is in November and December. Relay intercropping is often practiced in the mid-Iatitude areas if rainfall is sufficient.Produeers are concerned about risk avoidance and yield of good quality beans (Allen et al., 1989). They recognize the importance oí good adaptation of cultivars and resistance or tolerance to the major constraints. They are also concerned about culinary quality and taste, and sorne qualitative traits such as seed size and color major constraints. They are also concerned about culinary quality and taste, and sorne qualitative traits such as seed size and color and plant growth habito Generally a wide range ef seed colors and sizes is acceptable (Grisley and Munene, 1992, Grisley and Mwesigwa, 1991, Voysest and Dessert, 1991)  Graf et al., 1991).Human population density is a major determinant of intensity of bean production. Population tends to be rnost concentrated in highland are aa (Table 4).In moat MBPAs, wornen are prirnarily responsible for bean production. Most beans are produced for home consumption by srnall-scale farmers (Woolley et al., 1991).However, considerable amounts are marketed for local consumption and for export to neighboring countries (Grisley, 1990) .Production of dry beans for specialized markets ia rare, but include the production of white-seeded Navy beans in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, high quality bean seed in northern Tanzania for export to Europe, and yellow grain types in N. E. Zaire for the Kinshasa domestic market. Beans are generally allowed to mature and dry in the field before harvest. In some MBPAs, the consumption of \"fresh beans\" (i.e.beans not yet physiologically mature) is common and may account for as much as 40% of the beans consumed and a larger proportion of the marketed crop value (Grisley and Mwesigwa, 1991).Use of bean leaves is less common, but locally and seasonally important.Ratings of the importance of various bean diseases are presented in Tables 5-6  All the rest of the many diseases recorded on beans in Africa are either sporadic or local (Allen, Buruchara and Smithson, in press;Beebe and Pastor-Corrales, 1991). The ratings given are based on observations made by researchers in recent years.In very few cases are there yield los s data to support these ratings (Wortmann, 1992). An exception is common bacterial blight for which Opio (1993) estimated yield losses in Uganda ranging from 26.6 to 61.7%, and 6.2 to 7.8% , for a susceptible and a tolerant cul ti var, respectively.Solving the many disease-related problems is further complicated by the occurrence of pathogenic variation. The geographic distribution of races of halo blight and of the pathogenicity groups of bean common mosaic virus are shown in Tables 7 & 8.The ratings of importance are related to estimated mean reduction in yield potential as follows: high importance indicates a reduction in sole crop yield potential of more than 300 kg ha\"; moderate importance is equivalent to 100 -300 kg ha\" reduction;and low importance is equivalent to less than 100 kg ha\".  & 11) The importance of aphids may at times be underestimated due to inadequate consideration of their role in transmission of bean common mosaic virus. The importance of thrips may also be underestimated as these small insects often go undetected. Sorne pests are of localized importance, including: whitefly (Bemisia tabacil in northern Sudan;Apoderus llUmeralís (\"Le cigarier\". a bean leafroller) and Pyrameis cardui Madagascar (Rabary. 1993); and Meloids (pollen and blister beetles. often referred to as 'CMR beetles') in Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa.The importance of edaphic stresses was determined prímaríly through interpretation of information provided in the FAO soil map of the world (FAO. 1977).More precise information was used for Kenya (Jaetzold and Schmidt. 1982;FURP. 1987).In interpreting ratings of importance of edaphic constraints, it must be appreciated that the ratings were confined to the major soíl types of the area. Therefore, emphasize the importance of in sorne cases, the ratings may overthe problems, as farmers avoid sowíng of beans on soils where little production can be achieved.Especially where the intensity of crop production is not high, most of the bean production may be concentrated on the moderate to good soils.In such cases, the ratings may be more relevant to the future, as increasing preaaure on the land causes more intensive use of marginal landa. 80il organic carbon levels for representative soil profiles and researcher obaervationa were considered for the ratings of the importance of low soil N, P and K supp1y. A1so, avai1ab1e P and exchangeab1e K were considered, as wel1 as soi1 pH, in estimating the importance of these deficiencies.The importance of low avai1abi1ity of exchangeable bases and toxicitiea of aluminum and manganese were determined from representative profile deecriptions of major soil types ueing criteria of the Fertility Capability Classification 8ystem (Buol and Couto, 1980). The importance of P fixation by iron oxides (FeP) was determined from resu1ts of chemica1 ana1yses or from soil color of representative eoi1s. FeP fixation was considered to be important when the free Fe 2 0; I clay ratio was more than 0.15, or when the soil color was redder than 7.5 YR according to the Munsell 80il Color Charts. these edaphic constraints are presented in Table 10.The importance of bean production constraints in Africa is shown in Table 11 for Africa as a whole, and in Tables 12-15 for four bean production regiona.Data on constraints in western Africa, wherein beans are of generally little importance, were too scarce for most MBPAs to attempt to evaluate the importance of the biotic constraints for the region.The importance of the constraints is indicated in the tables as area in hectares, and as percent of bean production area, where the constraint is of high or moderate importance. As there were insufficient data on certain constraints for sorne MBPAs to hazard an estimate, total land area considered differs for constraints but the estimates of percentage area affected is determined from the area which received a acore for the constraint in Tables 5, 6, 9 & 10. Values of importance were calculated as the sum of the products of the percentages of are a affected multiplied by assumed mean seed yield los ses of 0.4 and 0.2 Mt ha-1 for high example, the score for as: and moderate importance, respectively. For the importance of angular leaf spot (Table (67 * 0Angular leaf spot was found to be 'the most important overall in Africa . (Table 11). This low soil nitrogen availability and constraint to bean production is followed in importance by bean stem maggot.Other problems of major overall importance in Africa, in order of descending importance, are low available phosphorus, anthracnose, bruchids, common bacterial blight, aphids, bean common mosaic and aluminum and manganese toxicities.Phosphorus fixation by iron oxides appears to be a major problem as it is a cause of low supply of phosphorus to the bean crop, but also complicates the use of phosphate fertilizers.In the highlands of eastern Africa (Table 12), bean production is found to be most constrained by anthracnose and angular leaf spot.Low soil nitrogen and phosphorus follow. Other major constraints in these highlands, in order of descending importance, are bean stem maggot, aphids, halo blight and bruchids.Angular leaf spot and common bacterial blight were determined to be the major constraints in the mid-altitude zone of eastern Africa (Table 13).Other important constraints are low soil N, mid-season drought, bean stem maggot, bruchids, bean common mosaic and rusto Bean production appears to be most affected by low soil P in southern Africa, followed by low soil N and bean stem maggot, angular leaf spot, bruchids, anthracnose, rust and Al and Mn toxicities (Table 14). Lowland bean production is dispersed throughout southern and northern Africa and appears to be most affected by low soil nitrogen, mid-season soil moisture deficits, aphids, bruchids, low soil phosphorus, late season drought, rust and bean stem maggot (Table 15). Bean production data from western Africa are insufficient to evaluate the importance of constraints in those MBPAs.The information presented in Tables 11 to 15 is potentially useful in planning research and development efforts at a regional or pan-African level. However, many constraints are very important locally while of lesser importance regionally and may deserve the attention of regional collaborative research efforts as well as of the national research institutes.An annual are a of 3,830,000 hectares of bean production have be en accounted for in 13 AFBEs. Two of these AFBEs account for 50% of the production while four have less than 100,000 hectares of annual production.The three main AFBEs are favorable environments for crop production, with moderate to very high rural population densities. Major biotic constraints in these AFBEs in order of descending importance, are angular leaf blight and bean stem maggot. to produce good bean crops. spot, anthracnose, common bacterial Generally, soil moisture is adequate Low soil N and P availability are major constraints, but they are potentially manageable with organic and inorganic fertilizer use, accompanied by cultivars efficient in the use of nutrients and resistant or tolerant to the major biotic stresses.Bean little input use.production is primarily on a small-scale with As demand for beans increases and varieties with resistance or tolerance to the major biotic stresses become increasingly available, input use is likely to increase so leading to substantial increases in productivity.Increases in production will be more difficult to achieve in those AFBEs where constraints associated with low soil pH and inadequate soil moisture are of major importance. In addition to improved varietal resistance or tolerance to the biotic stresses, tolerance will be needed to toxicity problems associated with low soil pH as well as to the low nutrient supply (or to the occasional soil moisture deficits). Only then will there be much response to input use or to the adoption of high yielding varieties. While the returns to research may not be as great in these AFBEs as in the higher potent areas, their problems need to be addressed as dependence on thes~ AFBEs is likely to inerease as bean erops are further extended to more marginal soils in response to growing land pressure.As the pieture of eurrent and projeeted future role of the bean erop beeomes elearer, the direetion of researeh and the orientation of poliey will be determined with greater eonfidenee.Data bases sueh as this one need constant revision, with input from the many users oE this doeument, to remove inaceuraeies and to allow better analyses of factors affecting bean produetion intensity, yields and trends. FURP. 1987       Intensity of bean production and level of input use are qualitatively rated as very high (VH), high (H), moderate (M) and low (L). Intensity of production refera ta the eeonamic importance af beans in the systerns. Input use intensity refera to the amount of purchased inputs used.    ,25 ,30   Tabla 4, continuad.Woman's responsibility for bean crop (tlUganda:Zaire:Short grass zone Tall grass zone N.R.      Short grass zone Tall grass zone AFBE 8: Semi-arid areas at mid-altitude and lo\", latitudeN. fringe areasAFBE 9: Semi-arid areas at mid-altitude and mid-latitudesAFBE 10: Sub-humid areas at rnid-altitude on acid 90i1s at mid-latitudes  Tanzania:Zaire:The relative importance of the stresses is indicated H = high or >300 kg ha• 1 loss in mean yield potential, M = moderate or 100 -300 kg ha-1 loss, and L = low or < 100 kg ha-1 loss. A = absent or not reported.                   Table 12.Importance of various bean production constraints in the Eastern Africa Highlands as indicated by number of hectares ('000), and percent of area, having a constraint of high or moderate importance '. Constraint _. __ .. ------- ","tokenCount":"3027"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5306886bd8821ac256329f4d2a5150ff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/97d005b1-139d-4387-8b9f-d4ba52af7877/content","id":"246660907"},"keywords":["TRITICUM.2.FITOMEJORAMIENT0.3.RESISTI:NCIAALAENFERMEDAD PRECOZ","N= NORMAL","T=TARDIA ** GERMINACION : B= BUENA. R= REGULAR","M=MALA ***VIGOR INICIAL : 1-2 =POBRE","3=MEDIO","4-5=BUENO QUl738-95 L.ANCERO/NAOFENlit.1AD8RA\"S''/TN:>ORNA C1393-3C-1C-OC"],"sieverID":"acc55464-b6ab-4f46-95e4-3e6d544fa3c1","pagecount":"66","content":"Quisieramosregistrarnuestrosagradecimientosa todoslos programas detrigo de la regi6n, sus coordinadores y el personal tecnico, por su constante apoyo en proporcionar los materialesdealtopotencialderendimientoysobresaHentesa nivel nacionalparasu indusi6n en TIFCOS. Asimismo, su colaboraci6n en evaluarlos viveros yenviarlos resultados para el analisises ampliamente reconocida. Apreciamos de manera especial la colaboraci6n de las colegas y dirigentes del INIA La Estanzuela, Uruguay, par las facilidades proporcionadas en multiplicaci6n de semilla y distribuci6n de las viveros. Tambien agradecemos a laExiste un buen nivel de resistencia para el ofdio entre los materiales considerando que sobre 12% de lfneas mostraron casi inmunidad para esta enfermedad. Sin embargo la gran mayoria de los materiales tuvieron alta susceptibilidad que va de 30 a 80% de infecci6n. Considerando que el ordio es una de las enfermedades en incremento en la regi6n, las diferentes fuentes de resistencia incluidos en el vivero pueden ser muy Utiles en los programasde mejoramiento.La gran mayorfa del material es moderada a altamente susceptible para las manchas foliares y de la espiga. La mancha foliar evaluada individualmente Septoria tritici, mostr6 apenas 7 materiales (123, 132, 141, 142, 163,   205 y 304) con Cl < 30. Casi totalidad de estos materiales demostraron alta susceptibilidad para roya de la hoja, ofdio y mancha de la espiga. A Pesar de que hay un grupo grande de 157 Uneas entre 30 y 50% de infecci6n, los remanentes tienen el Cl> 50. Por otra parte, los materiales evaluados para el complejo de las manchas de la espiga, principalmente Septoria nodorum y Helminthosporium spp. no mostraron ningun materiales con alto grado de resistencia. Solo 20 trneas fueron clasificadas como moderadamente resistente.Las evaluaciones de BYDV hechas en Chile califican alrededor de 30% de materiales como resistentes a moderadamente resistente. Dadas las condiciones secas del aflo, las infecciones de BYDV han sido muy severas en Chile. Los estudios de cepas del virus realizadas por Dr. Monique Henri de CIMMYT, Mexico, consideran a PAV como principal causante de las infecciones.Debido al interes en incrementar la variabilidad genetica de los materiales facultativos en los programas de mejoramiento, los cooperadores seteccionaron cantidades importantes de lineas. Alrededorde 30% de materiales fue seleccionado por mas de 25% de los colaboradores. Entre el mejor grupo hay unas 20 If neas seleccionadas por mas de 40% de los colaboradores que incluyen 11 If neas seleccionadas por 50% o mas. Este ultimo grupo se compone de las lfneas provenientes de Chile, EEUU, Este de Europa y de CIMMYT.En base a su mejor comportamiento general que incluye indice de selecci6n y resistencia a las enfermedades, las siguientes lfneas fueron consideradas como las mejores del vivero: Winter and Facultative Nursery of Southern Cone has started three years ago in response to the demand by National Wheat Breeding Programs, to increase the availability of genetic diversity in germplasm pertaining to this class. The 3rd. TIFCOS was prepared by CIMMYT Regional Wheat Program in collaboration with INIA-Uruguay and contains 328 advanced lines and varieties received from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania), U.S.A., CIMMYT-Turkey and others. Approximately 50% of the germplasm in the nursery was classified as winter type and the remaining as facultative.The nursery was sent to 14 collaborators in the region and outside and 12 of them returned the evaluation records.In spite of being a dry year in the region, good disease and agronomic notes were taken.The results demonstrate that a large majority of the germplasm included is semi-dwarf and not very strong in its vamalization requirement. Given a wide spread of the germplasm in its heading, it provided good opportunity of suitable selection at each location. Yet highest group of selection was concentrated between 140-145 day to heading.In teffilS of disease resistance, gennplasm of 3rd. TIFCOS showed some excellent variability for stripe rust and powdery mildew. However, it was quite weak on leaf rust, leaf and head blights as well as Barley yellos dwarf virus resistance. Some sources of resistance were identified. Based on their average selection index and combined diseaseresistancepattem, entriesnumber22,47, 50, 52, 53,55, 102, 111, 112, 115, 167and304wereconsidered outstanding. Most of these include germplasm from Chile and Eastern Europe.          CBME7-KVZ/GV//TITOl3/TEMU32. 7814/86551T5N MRV870744-2H-@P-1VllM-1WM-4WM-OWM CBME7-06:.Dl/HEINEVll//ERN.3/BUCWD887.741P8N WR.Q870649-6H-@P-3WM-1WM-4VllM-OWM CBME7-06:.Dl/HEINEVll//ERAf3/BUC/41D887. 7 4/PEW WR.0870649-10H-@P-3VllM-4WM-2WM.tNVM CBME7-VONA//KS75210/TAM101 X8034-5-1 ~OYC-OTUR-03WMCBME7-TAM200 TX81V6607.2-3WM-'3WM-CNllM CBME7-Jl.75.2534             . .","tokenCount":"695"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0af0463299af31b0ef7eeee30349c01c","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://ciat-library.ciat.cgiar.org/Articulos_Ciat/Digital/SB191.R5_T37C.3_Taller_sobre_la_Red_Cooperativa_de_Investigaci%C3%B3n_de_Arroz_en_el_Caribe.pdf","id":"1792228376"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"470907be-8765-4560-8343-1dbb62fa90b3","pagecount":"133","content":"Con mucha satisfacción deseo dar a los participantes en este Taller sobre Cooperación Arrocera en el Caribe la bienvenida a Santiago y al Instituto Superior de Agricultura. Quienes trabajamos en este Instituto consideramos un honor el que se haya escogido nuestro campus para la celebración de esta reunión y por eso agradecemos sinceramente aJos organizadores de la misma. Asimismo deseo reconocer con satisfacción, por considerarlo también un honor, que el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical seleccionara un miembro de nuestro cuerpo docente para participar activamente en la organización de esta actividad.Esta reunión es singular y muy importante. Singular porque es raro en verdad ver personas del Caribe hablando sobre cooperación científica y tecnológica en un mismo lugar. Importante porque hay, en mi opinión, áreas de colaboración aún no exploradas y resultados que se podían compartir, acerca de las experiencias de cada país del Caribe en la producción de este cultivo, el arroz, el cual ha venido a ser alimento por excelencia de nuestros pueblos.El Instituto Superior de Agricultura ISA se siente orgulloso de poder trabajar con el Centro d4! Investigaciones Arroceras (CEDIA) colaborando en las áreas de fitomejoramiento, tecnología de alimentos yeconomía arrocera. Por ser el alimento más importante del palg, el arroz es el cultivo más importante en las pequeñas actividades de investigación que realizamos siguiendo las orientaciones del CEDIA y, en general, de la Secretaría de Estado de Agricultura.Quiero finalmente desearles muchos éxitos en los trabajos, y que esta reunión se desarrolle con el entusiasmo y la gran expectativa con que se inícia y que termine con la misma buena voluntad de cooperación caribella con que ha sido preparada.El arroz es el cultivo que mayor y más continuado apoyo ha venido recibiendo por parte del Gobierno Dominicano durante los últimos afias, en razón de la importancia capital que este producto tiene en la canasta familiar del pueblo dominicano. La alta incidencia del arroz en la dieta diaria de nuestro pueblo se demuestra fácilmente con sólo señalar el alto consumo per cápita, el cual ha alcanzado niveles de hasta 54.8 kilogramos en el afio de 1980.Gobierno Dominicano ha ejecutado ambiciosos planes de investigación y traosferencia de tecnología, cuyos frutos hao permitido al paJs alcanzar durante los últimos tres años uoa meta largamente acariciada: la de autoabastecer la demanda arrocera oacional.El esfuerzo realizado ha permitido aumentos en la producción y en la productividad que resultan altamente positivos. AsI, tenemos que en 1983 los volúmenes de producción nacional aumentaron eo un 25 por ciento con relación a los años 1981 y 1982, mientras que la superficie dedicada al cultivo para el periodo 1981-1983 se incrementaba en un nueve por ciento. La comparación de estas cifras muestra que los niveles de rendimiento han crecido muy positivamente; en 1983 el promedio nacional fue de 3.91 toneladas métricas por hectárea.El producto obtenido ha sido el fruto de la conjugación de anhelos y aspiraciones de todos los técnicos nacionales ligados a la investigación (área en la cual se ha trabajado intensamente desde 1962), a la transferen-Taller sobre la Red Cooperativo de lnl'euigación de Arroz en el Caribe dade tecnologías y al fomento del arroz en el país, así como de la decisión política de apoyar en forma determinante las labores en este cultivo, procurando que cesaran lo más rápidamente posible las cuantiosas importaciones que veníamos realizando.Conviene destacar que esa situación de oferta deficiente no se compadecía con la importancia del arroz en el país~ cuyo cultivo ocupa el 33.8 por ciento de la superficie total dedicada a ia producción de alimentos básicos, ni con los hechos de que los organismos del sector público agropecuario mantuvieran un adecuado parque de maquinarias y equipos y una estructura sólida de venta de insumos para atender los requerimientos de producción en este sector. En 1983 el Banco Agricola de la República Dominicana destinó un 77.6 por ciento de su cartera de préstamos al financiamiento de este cultivo, Hemos querido inicíar estas palabras señalando algunas cifras porque creemos que resultan significativas para entender mejor cuán importante es para este país y para el gobierno mantener y aumentar los niveles de producción y productividad. El propósito ya establecido es consolidar en forma definitiva toda la infraestructura de producción para asegurar al pueblo dominicano una oferta de arroz de origen nadonal capaz de enfrentar lademanda t sin que surjan dudas en cuanto a la decisión técnicopolítica de no importar este grano básico.La ocasión que hoy se nos ha presentado es brillante. Y lo es, porque con este Taller sobre Red Cooperativa de Investigación de Arroz en el Caribe se está empezando en esta fecha a dar cumplimiento al mandato surgido de otra actividad similar celebrada en 1983 en Puerto Espalla, Trinidad y T obago. En esa oportunidad, directores de investigación agricolade países miembros del Comité de Desarrollo y Cooperación para el Caribe (CDCC) recomendaron el establecimiento de una red para facilitar la cooperación en cuanto a la investigación en las áreas de interés común. recalcando que la misma merecía una atención prioritaria.Con la participación de distinguidos representantes de paises miembros del CDCC, vale decir, de los más connotados especialistas en arroz de Belice. Cuba, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Surinam, Trinidad y Tobago y la República Dominicana, hoy damos inicio a esta reunión cuyo propósito y objetivo principal es que se expongan propuestas detalladas para la. actividades de cooperación y se presenten disellos de políticas necesarias para su implementación, teniendo como marco orientador lineamientos trazados por la Comisión Económica para América Latina de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas. cuya sede subregional para el Caribe se encuentra en Puerto Espaila, Trinidad y Tobago.Los lineamientos que hemos mencionado no han sido el fruto del capricho de algunos técnicos o especialistas. Por el contrario, ellos han surgido como resultado de detallados estudios de campo sobre la investígación en arroz realizados en los países que se consideran de mayor importancia en cuanto a' este cultivo se refiere, dentro del área geográfica que involucra el CDCC.Ahora se cuenta con estudios profundos y analíticos que sirven como documentos de base para los trabajos que habrán de conducirse dentro de esta reunión; además~ se cuenta con un importante documento constituido por el resumen de la situación arrocera en los países del Caribe! elaborad'o por los organizadores y patrocinadores de este evento internacional En nombre del Gobierno Dominicano de Concentración Nacional, de la Secretaría de Estado de Agricultura y en el mío propio, doy la más cordial bienvenida a todos los profesionales y especialistas en el cultivo del arroz que hoy se reunen en esta hospitalaria tierra dominicana. Quiero a la vez aprovechar la ocasión que se nos presenta para hacer una exhortación, en el sentido de que pongamos nuestros mejores empeños en lograr la conso~ Iidación y desarrollo de esta Red Cooperativa de Investigación para el Caribe, la cual está naciendo como consecuencia del interés común de nuestros paises y de los siguientes organismos internacionales: Comisión Económica para América Latina (CEPAL), Consejo de Ciencia y Tecnología del Caribe (CeST) y Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).Muy pocas veces se presentan oportunidades como ésta para aunar esfuerzos y propósitos en interés del bienestar común de nuestros pueblos caribeños. Hagamos lo imposible para que lo que hoyes sólo un embrión se convíerta rápidamente en una planta de arroz con alto potencial genético, mejor reslstencia a plagas y enfermedades y, mucho más, con altos rendimientos y precocídad.Reciban, pues, la más calurosa acogida del gobierno y de todos los dominicanos~ a la vez que les deseamos que el tiempo que han de pasar con nosotros sea lo más fructífero posible para todos y cada uno de nuestros paises.Gracias.Objetivos del Taller c. Walter* Sefiores Subsecretario de Agricultura, Director del ISA y Director del Departamento de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, damas y caballeros, compañeros participantes: Primero deseo expresar mi agradecimiento al gobierno de la República Dominicana y a la administración del Instituto Superior de Agricultura por proveemos estas excelentes facilidades para llevar a cabo el Taller sobre Red Cooperativa de Investigación de Arroz en el Caribe.Este es el resultado de un esfuerzo cooperativo entre el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, el International Rice Research Institute, la Secretaria de Estado de Agricultura yellnstituto Superior de Agricultura de la República Dominicana, y la Comisión Económica para América Latina, Subsede Regional para el Caribe. Su celebración me trae un gran sentimiento de satisfacción; fue apenas en septiembre de 1983 cuando, en una reunión con los secretarios permanentes de agricultura y los directores de investigación agrícola, se recomendó organizar una red cooperativa para la investigación de arroz en el Caribe.La red propuesta tiene como objetivos colaborar en la investigación de problemas de interés comón y facilitar las consultas y el intercambio de información entre loo eientlficos. Ladecioión de todos los paises productores de arroz del Caribe de participar en esta reunión y en las actividades de la red, así como la cooperación recibida de varias agencias en la organización de esta actividad, ya se puede considerar como un logro, aunque sólo sea el primer paso.La importancia del arroz en la dieta de los habitantes del Caribe, su importancia en la economla de los paises productores y los costos financie-• Funcionario Agrlcola de la CEPAL. Subsede Regiona! para el Caribe, Trinidad Tobago.Taller SQbre la Red CoopermivtJ de Investigación de Arroz en el Caribe cantidad vendida se redujo de 1503 t en 1981 a 763.4 t en 1983. Puesto que el consumo per cápita se ha mantenido en 22.7 kg por año, parece que la gente está comprando arroz de otras fuentes: se cree que ha habido un incremento en el mercadeo de arroz mexicano, especialmente después de la devaluación del peso de ese país, la cual ha dado como resultado importaciones baratas para Belice.El arroz bajo riego está fundamentalmente limitado al BFR, mientras el arroz de secano tiene mucho potencial, debido al patrón de precipitación del país; la precipitación total aumenta de norte a sur (Figuras 1 y 2), con una epoca lluviosa que va de junio a noviembre, En la actualidad, el arroz de secano se siembra bajo el sistema de milpa de Jos indios mayas o bajo el sistema mecanizado. Los Mayas definen la milpa como una porcíón de tíerra en la cual se han eliminado los árboles y quemado los desechos, se ha sembrado maíz seguido por una cosecha de fríjol en la época seca y luego se ha dejado descansar para que el bosque se regenere. El sístema de mílpa produce alrededor de la cuarta parte del arroz de Bel1re y su producto se considera como el de mejor calidad.Un agricultor maya prepara normalmente 2.8 ha, de las cuales siembra 2.0 de malz y 0.8 de arroz; el arroz se síembracon el objetivo deenvíarlo al mercado, ya que los Mayas raras veces lo consumen. La milpa se inicia en enero con el corte del bosque; después de dejar secar los desechos vegetales por uno o dos meses, el área se quema entre finales de abril ji principios de mayo. La siembra se inicia a mediados ese mes, usando el sistema de puyón o chuzo.La semilla que se utíliza proviene de la cosecha anterior, y según estíma~ cíones del Proyecto para el Desarrollo Rural de Toledo [Toledo Rural Development Proje.t (TRDP)], la densidad de siembra es de 27 kgJ ha. Comúnmente las variedades amerÍCanas viejas. corno la Blue Donnet 50~ son las más usadas.Todas las prácticas agronómicas se hacen a mano. aunque algunos agricultores usan trilladoras proporcionadas por el Departamento de Agricultura. En la Figura 3 y el Cuadro 6 se presentan el calendario del cultívo y los costos de producción. Se puede observar en la figura que la cosecha se inicia en septiembre (parte de la época l1uviosa); este hecho afecta la humedad del arroz cosechado, la cual afecta a su vez el precio de venta del producto. -;::,1_-::',--::-:-_:Ene. Feb. Mar. Abr. Mayo Jun. Jul, Ago. Sep, Oct. Nov. Die.Figura 2. PhwiosidaJ en los distritos de Belice.Según indica el Cuadro 6, los costos de producción por bectárea se estiman en B$496.59 (US$248.29). Con una productividad de 2 tlha, en promedio, el costo de producción por kilogramo de arroz seria de B$O.25, (US$O,12) lo cual indica que los agricultores de milpa pueden obtener beneficios aun vendiendo al precio mlnimo garantizado de 8$0, t4/tb (US$O.15fkg).El gobierno está incentivando el cultivo mecanizado, con el objetivo de aprovechar la gran cantidad de tierras baldias y las buenas condiciones climatológicas existentes. Este sistema de cultivo convertirla a Belice en un exportador de arroz con impacto en el mercado del Caribe. Las fincas mecanizadas son más grandes que las de milpa, con un tamaño de 40 ha en promedio.  , THa de cambio: US$l.00 8$2.00 (nov.jB4)., 27 i:giha, BSO 35!kg, Fuente; EooIlOrnlC Analysls of Lowland Fllrmmg Syitems., Toledó Rural Developrnent Projeet, 1983.El calendario' de cultivo es similar al que se sigue en el sistema de milpa, pero actividades como el desmonte~ 1a siembra y la cosecnason mecanizadas) y se usan insumos tales como fertilizantes, herbicidas e insecticidas.En el distrito de Toledo, el Ministerio de Obras da servicio de maquinaria a precios subsidiados, Los precios por hectárea son: B$740 a 1480 (U5$370 a 740) por desmonte, B$110 (US:&55) por arado, B$69 (U5$34.50) por rastra y B$11O (US$55) por la cosecha, Est';. precios se han estimado de acuerdo con un promedio de eficiencia, ya que el servicio se computa según las horas de trabajo.En el Cuadro 7, donde se presentan los costos de producción de1 agricultor Adolfo E, Norales de Punta Gorda, Toledo, se observa un costo total por hectárea de B$1293,34 (US$646,67) de los cuales e150% corresponde a uso de maquinaria, Este agricultor produjo 3500 lb/acre (3923 kg/ha) y por lo tanto su costo de producción por kilogramo de arroz fue de BS0.33 (US50, 16), Para poder obtener ganancias, este agricultor tendría que vender el arroz con 17,9% de humedad a B$O,16/1b (US$0,08), o sea a B$O,352fkg (US$O, 165), Para lograrlo, la cosecha debería retrasarse, lo cual traeria problemas de desgrane y de malezas,  , Calculado suponiendo tru afiO.'> de uro de la tierra.La mayoría de los agricultores siembran la variedad CICA 8, pero la semilla disponible está fuertemente contaminada con arroz rojo. Los problemas con arroz rojo son tan grandes que los agricultores usan cada porción de tierra por un máximo de tres años, después de los cuales deben moverse a una nueva área para evitar la infestación.La investigación arrocera era principalmente responsabilidad del BFR, y como resultado de ella, la variedad CICA 8 se extendió en el país; sin embargo. esa investigacíón se ha reducido, debido a problemas financieros. En la actualidad hay dos instituciones que realizan investigaciones; TRDP (Toledo Researcb and Development Project) y Caricom Farms Limited.TalJer sobre la Red Cooperativa de Investigación de Arroz en el Caribe El TRDP es un proyecto de investigación y desarrollo finandado por el gobierno brúánico que tiene su sede en el distrito de Toledo. En el pasado, el objetivo del proyecto era desarrollar tecnología para las áreas bajas de Toledo y atraer a los agrícultores de las zonas altas; ahora los objetivos han cambiado y se trata de mejorar el sistema de m¡(pa y el mecanizado, COn énfasis en el control de arroz rojo. Elequipo del TRDP está compuesto por agronómos y científicos sociales jngleses~ con una limitada contraparte locaL La duración del proyecto está prevista para un par de años más, y no se sabe aún si va a continuar.El Caricom Farms Limited es un proyecto que tiene como objetivo el establecimiento de fincas piloto de arroz en el centro yen el norte de Belice. Para lograrlo, se están realizando experimentos agronómicos e intentando establecer fincas de producción de semillas. Un agrónomo guyanés conduce los experimentos, pero también tiene que atender experimentos en otros cultivos; así, la investigación arrocera es muy limitada.No hay un servicio de extensión específico para arroz, aunque hay mucho interés en nombrar un extensionista arrocero en Toledo. En estos momentos la transferencia tecnológica en este cultivo se logra mediante el servicio de maquinaria del Ministerio de Obras o a través de canales informales.La infestación de arroz rojo por el uso de semilla de mala calidad es una de las mayores limitaciones para la producción arrocera, especialmente si se piensa en incentivar la exportación. Si la calidad de la semilla no se mejora. se corre el riesgo de seguir contaminando las nuevas áreas arroceras.El sistema de mercadeo, especialmente en cuanto a los requerimientos sobre contenido de humedad. contribuye a reducir los rendimientos de molinería y a aumentar la infestación de malezas en los campos y en el arroz comercializado. Se deben aumentar las facilidades de secado, molienda y almacenamiento del Consejo de Mercadeo para poder incentivar la producción y la exportación.El uso de unasola variedad (CICA 8) Yí o de variedades del mismo ciclo representa un cuello de botella al momento de la cosecha y trae como consecuencia que ésta se efectúe bajo condiciones desfavorables. Es necesario evaluar germoplasma para ídentíficar variedades con diferentes ciclos y mayor potencial de rendimiento. Se deben identificar variedades que se puedan cosechar en los meses más secos.El Departamento de Agricultura reconoce que hay un déficit de personal entrenado para apoyar un aumento en las .iembras de arroz. Es necesario entrenar pOr lo menos dos agrónomos, tanto en investigación como en producción.J-a colaboración regional puede contribuir a la solución de las limitaciones mencionadas, especia,lmente en la identificación de germoplasma apropiado para las condiciones ecológicas, climáticas y de sistemas de cultivo del pals.Cuba está situada en el Caribe y es la mayor isla de esta zona, con una extensión de 114,000 km'. La agricultura es uno de los renglones más importantes en la economía del paIs, y el arroz uno de los granos preferidos por la población cubana para su alimentación. El cultivo de este cereal se hace con fines de consumo interno, y es una actividad rentable. Los costos de producción se estiman en 140 a 150 pesos cubanos I por tonelada de arroz húmedo, La politica para el desarrollo de la industria se basa en el aumento de la producción mediante el incremento de los rendimientos.En los Cuadros I y 2 se resume la información sobre área, producción, productividad y rendimientos industriales en los últimos años. El beneficio y molinada de la cosecha se efectúa en dependencias del Ministerio de la Industria Alimenticia.En el mercadeo del arroz intervienen tres ministerios: el de la Agricultura, el de la Alimentación y el de Comercio Interior. El Ministerio de la Agricultura produce el arroz y lo vende al Ministerio de la Alimentación, El precio de venta del arroz húmedo, al entregarlo a las plantas beneficiadoras, es de $206/t, precio que se corrige después según el contenido de granos enteros y partidos. El Ministerio de la Alimentación vende el arroz procesado al Ministerio de Comercio Interior y éste lo ofrece a la población, al precio minorista de $O.52fkg.  Las áreas arro_as se encuentran ubicadas fundamentalmente en la parte sur de las provincias de Pinar del Rlo, La Habana, Matanzas, Sto Splritus, Camaglley y Granma. Los diferentes componentes del clima, a excepción de la temperatura, favorecen el cultivo durante todo el año.La temperatura es más baja de noviembre a marzo y especialmente de diciembre a febrero cuando ocurren las mínimas más bajas del año, fundamentalmente en horas nocturnas; tales temperaturas afectan negativamente el arroz en la fase reproductiva, provocando esterilidad. Debido a ese hecbo, las siembras del cereal en Cuba se bacen en el siguiente calendario: en las provincias occidentales de diciembre hasta julio y en las provincias orientales de diciembre basta mediados de agosto.Los rendimientos presentan diferencias significativas según los meses de siembra; las siembras que se efectúan entre diciembre y enero resultan más productivas que las realizadas en agosto y parte de julio. El ciclo evolutivo del arroz también varia según los meses de siembra (Cuadro 3).Variedades y semillas. En el país se cultivan comercialmente cuatro variedades, J-l04, IR 880, Caribe-l y Naylamp. Todas responden al tipo de planta semienano mejorado. El Ministerio de la Agricultura produce y certifica las distintas categorras de semilla, mediante un programa que garantiza que todas las áreas comerciales sean sembradas con material de buena calidad. Este programa funcÍona de la siguiente forma: las estaciones experimentales producen las categorías original y básica, mientras una empresa especialízada produce las categorJas registrada y certificada y envía semilla a las diferentes empresas arroceras; en éstas hay una granja especializada para reproducir la semilla certificada y obtener una de segunda generación, la cual se destina para las siembras comerciales.La certificación de cada categoría y área de producción es fiscalizada por un grupo de especialístas responsables de esta actividad; dicho grupo funciona como contraparte de los especialistas que producen la semilla.Preparadón del suelo. En la preparación del terreno se practican cualro tecnologias con diferentes propósitos y composición de labores: en seco, seco-desínfección, seco-fangoeo y fangueo-doblaje. Estas teenologías representan el 50, 20, 20 Y 10% del área arrocera respectivamente.La preparación en seco se usa para garantizar las siembras en el perlodo no lluvioso. Con ella se obtienen los rendimientos más altos. Esta tecnología incluye la roturación del suelo con gradas a profundidades superficiales, excepto en aquellas áreas donde la incidencia de malezas haga necesario el uso del arado; también incluye el cruce con grada, la aplicación de fertilizantes incorporados al suelo, el alisamiento, y la compactación con rodillo antes y después de la siembra. La siembra se hace a chorrillo en forma cruzada.La tecnología seco-desinfeccí6n se utiliza en áreas infestadas con mezclas varietales o malezas muy agresivas al cultivo. En este caso. el suelo Se prepara en seco, luego se levantan los diques y se provoca la germinación de las malezas medíante el riego o las lluvias, para controlarlas después con herbicidas. La síembra se hace al voleo, sobre una lámina de agua clara.Taller sobre la Red C(JOperal1Wl de InveSJigación de Arror en el Caribe e)La preparación en seco-fangueo se utiliza para garantizar las siembras en el período lluvioso. Se rotura el terreno, se hace fertilización y se levantan los diques (labores en seco en el perlado no lluvioso). Luego se inundan los campo. en el período lluvioso y se ejecutan pases continuos de fangueo hasta eliminar la. malezas y nivelar las terrazas. Se siembra al voleo sobre una lámina de agua.Elfangueo-doblaje es una tecnología que se aplica para permitir una segunda siembra por año en la misma área. Consiste en el entronque 2 de los diques dañados y en fangueos continuos, como en la tecnologla seco-fangueo, Siembra. Las tecnologías practicadas en la siembra SOn: a chorrillo para las áreas preparadas en seco (con sembradora), y al voleo para las áreas preparadas en seeo-desinfección, seco-fangueo y fangueo-doblaje (con avión), Control de malezas, plagas y enfermedades. El control de las malezas es pre-emergente en el caso de gramlneas muy agresivas al cultivo, y post-emergente~ en general contra gramíneas, ciperáceas y malezas de hoja ancha. Todas las aplicaciones SOn aéreas.Las plagas y enfermedades se detectan mediante inspecciones y jameos continuos que personal calificado para el efecto realiza en los campos, Este trabajo permite determinar la necesidad de tratamientos qulmicos, así como seleccionar los productos y las dosis que conviene aplicar; también permite la evaluación de la efectividad de las aplicaciones.Fertilización, Los requerimientos de P, K Y Zn se establecen de acuerdo con los cartogramas agroquímicos que caracterizan todas las áreas de producción. El nitrógeno se usa fraccionado en tres aplicaciones y en dosis que dependen de las variedades.La aplicación se hace antes de la siembra en el caso del P, el K Y el Zn, incorporándolos al suelo; la primera fracción del N también se aplica antes de la siembra si ésta es en seco, O cinco dias después de la germinación en las otras tecnologías, Las dos fracciones restantes del N se aplican a mediados del ahijamiento' yen el punto de algodón 4 , Riego y drenaje, El consumo del agua se calcula en 15,000 m'/ha y el manejo de la misma funciona en la siguiente forma:Un riego de germinación (durante 24 a 36 horas) Drenaje del agua (24 horas después del riego) Entronque = reparaci6n o arreglo.) M.callamiento.Iniciación de la panicula.Pases de agua' (según sea la humedad del suelo, hasta cuando la altura de las plantas permita establecer aniegos). Aniego permanente hasta la cosecha Coseeba y almacenamiento. La cosecha se efectúa según el porcentaje de humedad de los granos, en concordancia con las recomendaciones surgidas de los ensayos experimentales y según las diferentes variedades.El perlodo óptimo de la cosecha generalmente coincide con los 35 dias posteriores al 50% de la floración. El arroz cosechado se envia a los secaderos donde se lo procesa hasta cuando alcance 12,5% de bumedad; luego se almacena o pasa al molinado.Las investigaciones en arroz se desarrollan mediante una red compuesta por una estación central y tres centros experimentales. Participan en ella el Ministerio de la Agricultura, el Ministerio de Educación Superior y la Academia de Ciencias. Hay 4() profesionales y 75 técnicos medios de distintas especialidades dedicados a la investigación.La e\"tensión agrícola funciona mediante una estrecha relación entre la estación central, los centros experimentales y las empresas arroceras.Mejoramiento por hibridación y selección de variedades de ciclo intermedio y corto, que combinen resistencia genética a las principales plagas y enfermedades con buena calidad industrial y de cocción y adaptabilidad a las condiciones agroambientales del cultivo. Determinación de recom~ndaciones sobre prácticas de cultivo para la explotación comercial de las variedades más promisorias. Pruebas de productos pesticidas. Racionalización de las labores para la preparación de suelos y las siembras de arrOl .. Control integral del Sogatodes. Deternúnación de los niveles de dallo causado por insectos, para el control respectivo. Rotación de cultivos. Enmiendas del suelo.Las posibles limitaciones de carácter tecnológico y agrotécnico se abordan por las instituciones nacionales a corto y largo plazos.Lomas K Tulsíeram* y Harrí Persaud** Guyana tiene un área total de 214,970 !cm' y una población de 797,000 habitante •. El 64% de la población vive en la zona rural y el 36% restante en la zona urbana.El país se puede dividir en cinco regiones naturales: i) llanuras costeras, ii) llanuras aluviales y tierras bajas, iii) planicies arenosas, iv) alturas rocosas y v) montañas y planicies. Las llanuras -costeras, con un ancho que varia de 16 a 25 !cm, se extienden por el noreste y ocupan 1.& millones de hectáreas; 0138% de esta área contiene las tierras agrlcolas más fértiles de Guyana (FAO' UNSE SoB Survey, 1966), pero sólo 102,540 ba( 14.6%) son aplas para la siembra de arroz; de ellas, aproximadamente el 65% se encuentra bajo cultivo mientras que el resto requeriría infraestructura de riego y drenaje.Guyana está dividida en 10 regiones administrativas, seis de las cuales comparten las llanuras costeras, en las que se concentra el cultivo de arroz. El área disponible en las seis regiones yel porcentaje dedicado a arroz se presentan en el Cuadro l.La llegada del arroz a Guyana se remonla a principios del siglo XVIII, cuando se introdujo desde Carolina. Las introducciones subsiguientes no tuvieron éxito, pues no lograron convertir el cereal en un alimento barato para suplementar la dieta de los esclavos; esle fracaso pudo deberse a la falta de conocimiento sobre el cultivo por parte de los esclavos, y a la negativa de los hacendados a permitir la siembra del arroz fuera de las plantaciones azucareras (Ramgopaul, 1964).• Fitómejorador, Programa de Arroz., Geor¡el.OWtI .  Los inmigrantes traídos de la India lograron la introducción exitosa del arroz, pues trajeron consigo el conocimiento sobre su cultivo; además, el producto formaba la parte central de su dieta, La siembra se extendió rápidamente y en poco tiempo trascendió más allá del limite de las plantaciones, En 1853 se cultivaban 62 ha y en 1908 Guyana se habla convertido en exportador neto de arroz (Pawar, 1971). La producción y la exportación siguieron aumentando, y en 1953 se sembraban 30,612 ha.Situación general de la industria arrocera en Guyana Perspectiva económica. El arroz; el azúcar y la bauxita son los tres productos príncipales de exportación de Guyana. El arroz 'J el azúcar domínan el sector agrícola y representan apro\"imadamente el 44% de todas las e\"portaciones; el 27.3% del total exportado de los dos productos durante el -periodo 1977-1981  Además de ser una de las principales fuentes de divisas, el arroz es el alimento principal de la mayoría de la población, con un consumo per cápita de 90 kg por año; también es fuente de empleo para 150,000 personas aproximadamente, tanto en los campos de cultivo, como en la industria, los almacenes y oficinas.Estrudura institucional. La industria arrocera está administrada por el Consejo de Arroz de Guyana (GRB), cuyas responsabilidades son: a)Desarrollar la industria y promover el crecimiento de la exportación.b) Supervisar el manejo del arroz en cáscara y blanco.e) Controlar el procesamiento, compra, venta y distribución del arroz y sus subproductos, y participar en todas las operaciones de la industria arrocera.El GRB se relaciona con el gobierno a través de dos organismos: el Ministerio de Agricultura y la Corporación Estatal de Guyana (GUYS-TAC). El primero revisa las actividades del GRB que se relacionan con la agricultura, como son la investigación arrocera y la producción, almacenamiento y transporte del arroz; la GUYSTAC tiene autoridad en el manejo financiero y de personal.El GRB está dirigido por un consejo de directores que incluye agricultores, molineros, representantes de GUYSTAC y empleados y personal administrativo del GRB. Su principal ejecutivo es el director general, quien responde ante el consejo de directores, y tiene asu cargo la ejecución de sus pollticas y la supervisión de las operaciones del GRB.El sistema de organización y administración integra a los gerentes de división a nivel nacional (seis), y a los gerentes regionales (cuatro}. Los gerentes regionales responden ante el jefe de división correspondiente, el cual, a su vez, responde ante el director general.La División de Producción, Investigación y Extensión, y la de Mercadeo juegan un papel central en las operaciones diarias del GRB. La primera de ellas tiene la responsabilidad de dirigir las operaciones de las fincas estatales, as! corno de proporcionar las facilidades de secado y almacenamiento, y los molinos. Hasta hace poco) esta división supervisaba y coordinaba las actividades de investigación y extensión, así como la importación y distribución de todos los insumos agrícolas (fertilizantes, pesticidas, equipo de aplicación, etc.)~ los cuales se vendían a precios subsidiados. La División de Mercadeo 1 además de establecer los mercados, tiene la responsabilidad de controlar el grado del arroz que se ofrece en venta; a El precio que se paga a los agricultores se determina mediante una recomendación que el GRB prepara de acuerdo con la información disponible sobre costos de producción; el Comité de Acción Arrocera, el Minis• teriode Agricultura y la Asociación de Productores de Arroz colaboran en la recopilación de la información, la GUYST AC revisa la recomendación, y el Gabinete la aprueba.Los precios se establecen así de acuerdo con el grado y la variedad, 10 cual incentiva a los agricultores a producir arroz de buena ealidad. Como consecuencia, se paga un sobreprecio por el arroz proveniente de variedades mejoradas (Cuadros 3 y 4).La capacidad de molienda del GRB equivale aproximadamente al 50% de la de los molineros privados (Cuadro 5); sin embargo, el GRB controla más del 50% de la molienda del arroz, debido a que los molinos privados no están totalmente en operación y además no cuentan con facilidades de secado y a1maoenamiento proporcionales a su capacidad de molienda.Las ventas locales y la exportación han variado a través de los años como se observa en el Cuadro 6. En la actualidad, el mercado local absorbe aproximadamente el 33% del total del arroz vendido por el GRB; los precios paraeSle mercado se establecen de acuerdo con los grados (Cuadro 7) y reflejan, por lo tanto, un premio a la calidad. ------------------ , Incluye otros paIses.te! Caribe, la República Democrática Alemana, Holanda 'i Libia.Fuenle: Consejo de Arroz de Guyana tGRB).Tamaño de la IInca y rendimiento. La mayoria del arroz de Guyana es producido por agricultores pequeños y medianos; como se observa en el Cuadro 9, 0173% de las fincas tienen menos de 6,1 ha (15 acres) y 17% tienen entre 6, 1-10, 1 ha (15 Y 25 acres). La encuesta de la familia rural de 1978 reveló que estos dos grupos producían poco más del 60% del arroz y que el primero de ellos respondía por aproximadamente el 45% de l. producción totaL Durante el periodo 1970-1983 hubo fluctuacíón en la producción total de arroz y ésta alcanzó su máximo en 1977 (Fig. 1), En cambio, el rendimiento por hectárea se mantuvo relativamente estable a principíos de la década del 70, y presentó un aumento gradual durante el periodo 1974-I 983 (Cuadro JO); esto se debió principalmente al mejoramiento en el control del agua en algunas áreas y al rápido aumento en el área sembrada Con variedades mejoradas de alto rendimiento (Cuadro 11). Figura l. ATea C()$t!chada y produccwn de arroz en cáscara en Guyana, 197(J..1983 Sistemas de cultivo. Casi todo el arroz se siembra en monocultivo. La temperatura favorable (promedio anual entre 20 y 290C) Y el patrón de precipitación han hecho posible la siembra de dos cosechas al afio en 44% del área disponible; sólo en alrededor del 18% se realiza una cosecha (Small, 1982).Generalmente el árca sembrada durante la segunda cosecha es mayor (Figura 2); sin embargo, la primera cosecha ha venido aumentando hasta llegar a representar entre el 40 y el 45% de la producción total de arroz. Un acre = 0.4047 ha.Las dos cosechas están definidas por las épocas lluviosas, durante las cuales se establece el cultivo. Asi, la primera cosecha se inicia durante la época lluviosa más corta, de mediados de noviembre a enero, y la cosecha se realiza en marzo-abril. El período lluvioso más largo comienza en mayo, cuando se hace la segunda siembra; la cosecha se realiza normalmente en septiembre-octubre (Fig. 3).La preparación de terreno se hace en suelo inundado t principalmente por su efecto en el control de malezas, Normalmente se queman primero los restos de la cosecha y el terreno se ara inmediatamente; después se inunda, se fanguea y se nivela. La siembra se realiza de 48 a 72 horas después, usando semilla pregerminada. Cuando se decide drenar el terreno después de la siembra, el campo se inunda de nuevo a los cinco o siete días después. (Nov. Dic. Ene. Feb. Mar. Abr. May. Jun. JuL Ago. Sep, Oct. Nov.MesesFigura 3, Calendario de aclividades en el cultivo de arroz en Guyana.Los estudios de fertilidad de suelo han permitido recomendar a los agricultores la aplicación de 60 kg/ ha de N y 13.20 de P. La cantidad recomendada se distribuye en dos o tres aplicaciones, la primera de las cuales se realiza 21 días después de la siembra con todo el fósforo y con 20 kgde N.Entre los insectos de mayor importancia económica se encuentra el hiedevivo (Oeba/us poecilus) que causa pérdidas cuantitativas y cualitati~ vas, El mirador de la hoja (Hydrellia spp.) y la larva de Rupela albinella tienen importancia económica, especialmente en los años en los cuales las condiciones ambientales estimulan su reproducción.Taller sobre lú Red Cooperativa de Inwsligación de Arroz en el Caribe La pirieularí. es la enfermedad foliar más importante; también está la mancba marrón (Helmilllhasparium aryza,,), que es de menor importancia.Las pérdidas causadas por píricularia varían de acuerdo con la localidad, la época y la variedad. Las variedades comerciales son susceptibles a moderadamente susceptibles, pero los agricultores las pueden sembrar porque la mayoría de las áreas arroceras están en las proximidades del Atlántico y la brisa del océano reduce la infección; las áreas tierra adentro presentan infección severa, especialmente durante la segunda cosecba. Los agricultores realizan control químico tan pronto como observan los primeros síntomas.La incidencia de malezas gramíneas y ciperáceas es alta, especialmente en las áreas con problemas de riego o donde las prácticas culturales son deficientes; la yerba maraina (lschaenum rugosum) es la principal, seguida por jussia (Fimbristylis miliaceae). Las malezas de hoja ancba, especialmente las acuáticas, pueden reducir la producción si no se emplean medidas de control adecuadas.Costos de producción. Como se observa en el Cuadro 12, el costo total de producción por hectárea es en promedio de 0$773.00 (US$187.62)'. Si se toman en cuenta los casIos de la cosecha, a razón de 0$6.65 (US$1.61) por coslal de 140 lb (63.64 kg) Y se considera un promedio de rendimiento de 3.4 tlba, el costo total se aumentaría en G$355.28, (US$86.23) o sea que alcanzaría un valor de G$1128 (US$273.78). Los agricultores que producen arroz de calidad A a G$O.501kg (USSO.12) tendrían un ingreso de G$17001 ha (US$412. 72), en tanto que los que producen arroz de calidad e a G$O.44/ kg (US$O. JO), recibirian G$1496/ba (US$363. JO). La ganancia bruta por bectárea equivaldría a G$571.72 (US$138.76) y G$367.72 (US$89.25) considerando estas dos calidades.Los servicios de investigación y extensión estaban bajo la administración de la División de Producción, Investigación y ExtensiQn del Consejo de Arroz de Guyana, pero fueron transferidos al Ministerio de Agricultura desde el •• de enero de 1984.Investilación. Las actividades están centralizadas en la estación de investígación arrocera del Proyecto de Desarrollo Arrocero de Mabaicony-Abary. La estación está organizada en diferentes secciones y departamen-, Tasa de cambw: U$$LOO GS4,l2 tos de acuerdo con las diferentes disciplinas: fitomejoramiento, fitopatolog!a. entomología, fertilidad de suelo, control de malezas, manejo de agua y producción de semilla fundación.Los objetivos del programa de mejoramiento de variedades tienen que ver en primer lugar con la selección y desarrollo de materiales para las áreas de riego; tales materiales. deben ser superiores a Jos existentes, especialmente en cuanto a comportamiento en los suelos de los llanos costeros, resistencia a enfermedades, tolerancia a pestes, a deficiencias de agua y a suelos salinos~ y calidad de grano y de molinería, Otro objetivo es mantener y multiplicar suficiente semilla genética y de fundación de las variedades comerciales.Entre las variedades que se han desarrollado se encuentran S, T, N, Champion y Rustic; esta última ocupa más del 50% del área arrocera en Guyana.Puesto que una de las características básicas de las variedades mejoradas es la necesidad de altas aplicaciones de fertilizante para desarrollar su alto Taller sobre lo Red Cooperativa de llli'esligación de Arroz en el Caribe potencial de rendimiento, se requieren cuidadosos estudios en cuanto a su respuesta a la fertilización. Las investigaciones incluyen: el tipo de fertilizante a aplicar, la dosis de aplicación, el nÚmero de aplicaciones y el tiempo de las mismas.Para las recomendaciones finales se toman en cuenta, además de los resultados de las investigaciones, las limitaciones de los agricultores para conseguir los fertílízantes.El trabajo del programa de protección vegetal se concentra en el control efectivo y económico de los insectos, enfermedades y malezas del arroz. Esto incluye la evaluación de los agroqulmicos disponibles para uso comercial, con los propósitos de identificar los más apropiados en cuanto a efectividad, economla y protección del usuario y del ambiente, y determinar las dosis minimas efectivas y la época de aplicación.Los estudios sobre manejo de agua tienen como principal objetivo investigar los efectos de la lámina de agua en el control de malezas y en el crecimiento de la planta. También se estudian el efecto que tienen en el control de malezas el sistema de preparación y la secuencia que se sigue en esta labor.Extensión. Se cuenta con los servicios de un equipo de extensión en las diferentes regiones arroceras; este equipo tiene las funciones de transferir la nueva tecnología arrocera, trabajar con los agricultores en la identificación de los problemas de producción y recomendar las medidas correcti• VaS. Debe participar además en las pruebas de campo de nuevas variedades, fertilizantes y pestícidas, as! como de las prácticas de manejo de agua,y de preparación de terreno recomendadas por la estación de investigación arrocera para sus respectivas localidades.La información obtenida de estas pruebas se usa para formular recomendaciones para regiones específicas.Consultores extranjeros. Se han obtenido los servicios de consultores extranjeros a través de varios programas internacionales. Estas personas trabajan en áreas específicas en la estación de investigación, o realizan investigaciones aplicadas en las principales regiones arroceras.El grupo de consultores del Instituto Internacional de Investigación (IR!), con sede en los Estados U nidos, ha estado trabajando en Guyana conjuntamente con contrapartes nacionales desde 1980; su área de trabajo incluye mejoramiento de variedades, fertilidad del suelo y producción de semilla. Uno de los logros de este trabajo ha sido la identificación de una nueva variedad de alta productividad en siembras comerciales. Se trata de la variedad Díwani, que es resistente a piricularia, produce consistentemente mejores rendimientos que las variedades comerciales y parece tener amplia adaptación, Futuras áreas d.ln~ .. tlgaclón. En el futuro se debe investigar el desarrollo de sistemas que mantengan o mejoren los rendimientos y reduzcan los costos de producción, La investigación comprende las siguientes actividades: a) Mejoramiento de variedades. Esto incluye la selección y el desarrollo de materiales con potencial de rendimiento de moderado a alto, pero que requieran menor cantidad de fertilizantes, así como la selección y el desarrollo de materiales tolerantes o resistentes a los principales insectos y enfermedades, b) Estudios sobre el uso más eficiente de los fertilízantes.e) Estudios sobre la fijación y utilización biológica del nitrógeno, como los referentes a la presencia de alga. verde-azules o azolla en lo. campos arroceros.Estudios sobre la reducción en los costos de preparación del suelo, evaluando labranza mlnima y nuevos implementos agrícolas.e) Estudio de prácticas de manejo de agua más eficientes, 1)Estudio del impacto de las dos pruebas anteriores en la población y el control de malezas.g) Desarrollo de nuevos sistemas para mejorar las prácticas culturales, con el fin de mantener los rendimientos y reducir el uso de pesticidas,Se puede decir que Guyana tiene el potenéÍal y la capacidad para aumentar su producción de arroz. Esto se puede observar en el desarrollo de sistemas de riego y drenaje para su producción, como son los del Proyecto de Riego de Tapakuma y de La Autoridad para el Desarrollo Agrlcola de Mahaicony-Abary (MMA/ ADA), Se espera que al incluir la investigación arrocera bajo el Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrícolas, esa actividad se intensifique para servir a la creciente industria del arroz.Jean René Bosso* Situada entre los 18 y 2t)U de latitud norte y 72 Y 74° de longitud oeste, la República de Haití ocupa la parte oeste de la isla Hispaniola. Cubre una superficie total de 27,750 km', yen 1983 tenia una población estimada en 5.3 miUones de habitantes. Su relieve es muy montañoso.La agricultura representa una parte importante enla vidaeeonómica de la nación haitiana y es la fuente principal de divisas. Emplea el 61 % de la población activa (l.4 millones de personas) y cubre un total de 907,800 ha, e. decir el 32.6% del área del pals. Las explotaciones agrleolas tienen un tamaño reducido; en efecto, como se observa en el Cuadro 1, el71 % de las fincas son menores de un carreau (1.29 ha) y sólo el 0.3% tienen un tamaño superior a los 10 carreaux (13 ha).En 1971 el producto interno bruto (PIB) de la República de Haití era de US$167.58 miUones y en 1978 ascendió a US$186.90 millones, con una contribución del sector agrícola equivalente a147 mente; esa reducción se debió indudablemente al bajo crecimiento del sector agrícola en comparaci6n con otros sectores de la eeonomla nacional.El arroz ocupa un lugar importante en la agricultura haitiana, y su consumo.e mantiene en aumento, como se aprecia en el Cuadro 2. Una de las prioridades de la política agrieola actual es alcanzar rápidamente la autosuficiencia arrocera.Desde el punto de vista del consumo humano, el arroz está en la tercera posición después del malz y del sorgo. cuyos consumos per cápita son de 34.4 y 22.0 kg, respectivamente; ese consumo de arroz debe aumentar todavía más a medida que el pals se desarrolle y que aumente el poder adquisitivo de los ciudadanos haitianos. Sin embargo, desde el punto de vista de la superficie cultivada, el arroz ocupa s610 el séptimo puesto entre los principales cultivos alimenticios, como se aprecia en el Cuadro 3. Durante el período 1977-1981 el promedio de la produc.::ión anual fue de 113,981 t Y el del rendimiento de 2.31 tlha (Cuadro 4).El arroz en cáscara se procesa principalmente en más de 200 molinos pequeños diseminados en todas las regiones arroceras del pals y en do. molinos estatales localizados en el Valle del Artibonite; también se usa el pilón tradicional. Los dos molinos estatales, administrados por el Organismo para el Desarrollo del Valle del Artibonite (ODV A), procesan sólo el 25% de la producción, es decir, unas 17551; el otro 97.5% depende de los molinos privados y del pilón tradicional, según la región. En 1981, los dos últimos sistemas de procesamiento absorbieron cerca de 117,000 t de arroz en cáscara.Cuadro 2. Conaumo de IJ'I'OZ en Hatti. tgg.I982. Una gran parte de la producción arrocera se vende en los mercados de L'Estere, Ponte Sondé y Jean Denis a precios que varían de acuerdo con el mes del año y con el tipo de arroz. Los agricultores discuten las condiciones de venta con los intermediarios a fin de vender a precios favorables. Las Figuras I y 2 dan una idea de la situación del mercado de L'Estere.  El precio del arroz casi duplica el del maíz y el del sorgo, lo que explica en parte el mayor consumo de los dos últimos productos, como se observa en el Cuadro S.El gobierno haitiano está muy interesado en promover el desarrollo del cultivo de arroz en las regiones tradicionalmente arroceras, y con este propósito reactivó el ODV A en 1971; esta entidad tiene la responsabilidad de desarrollar las tierras arroceras del Valle del Artibonite.En Hait! el arroz es un indicador de la disponibilidad de agua, ya que este cultivo se encuentra en todos los lugares donde haya una fuente para la inundación del suelo, o en zonas pantanosas.Areas productoru. Como se observa en el Cuadro 6, hay siete zonas arroceras principales; el Valle del Artibonite, con 42,000 ha, representa más del 80% de la producción nacional.En la Figura 3, que representa la pluviosidad de do. lugares del Valle del Artibonite, se puede observar que la precipitación mensual de esta región casi nunca excede los 200 mm, 10 que permite concluir que el arroz de secano en esta región no es muy popular.  caso de las fincas que arrienda el Estado; éstas se benefician de la ley de excepción del 28 de Julio de 1975 y pagan al aDVA (encargado de la administración de dichas fincas) una renta que varia deIS al 10% de la cosecha. En el caso de los medianeros, éstos entregan a los propietarios el SO% de la cosecha.Sistemu de cultivo. Los sistemas de cultivo mlls COmunes en el Valle del Anibonite se presentan en la Figura 4. Nótese que algunos agricultores pueden hacer tres cosechas por año, utili2Rndo variedades de ciclo cono; sin embargo, la expansión de esa práctica está limitada porque el menor error puede resultar catastrófico; ademlls, hay necesidad de controlar las ratas. En general, los agricultores obtienen dos cosechas por año, siendo junio a diciembre la época mlls imponante; despues de la segunda cosecha de arroz, algunos agricultores siembran un cultivo de secano como cebolla, frijol, tomate, o melón, pero el de batata es mlls comnn.La cantidad de semilla varia entre 65 y 125 kgjha seg(¡n sea la variedad y la época del ailo. El uso de semilleros e. de rigor, pero pese a los esfuerzo. VariédAdes y semlUas. En el Valle del Artibonite se siembra un gran número de variedades, la mayoría con nombres pintorescos (Cuadro 7). En términos de calidad cultnaria,la variedad Dawn, comúnmente llamada Mme. Gougouse (MGG), tiene mucha demanda en el mercado local; debido a su buen precio, los agricultores la siembran donde ella pueda desarrollarse, a pesar de ser una variedad muy susceptible al mal drenaje y de tener bajo potencial de rendimiento. La variedad Quisqueya se obtuvo localmente de un cruzamiento entre MGG y \"Chía Seng\" realizado en la fmca experimental de Maugé. Se pretende extender su cultivo con el fin de aumentar los rendimientos, ya que puede rendir de 5 a 6 ti ha en menos de 120 dlas y tiene una calidad culinaria similar a la de M GG.Los agricultores obtienen la semilla de arroz de la cosecha anterior o de productores de semilla. El proceso de producción de este insumo es el siguiente: el ODVA obtiene la semilla básica en la finca experimental de Maugé y lo. agricultores de las fincas estatales Deseaux y Troi. Bornes las multiplican. El beneficio y distribución de la semilla certificada está a cargo de técnicos especializados del OOV A. La variedad Mm •. Gougouse ocupa el primer lugar en el programa de semílla (Cuadros 8 y 9). Durante 1982-1983 se sembraron 45,000 ha de arroz en el Valle del Artibonite, 19,000 de ellas durante el periodo de enero ajunio y 26,000 en julio a diciembre (OOV A, Rapport Annuel, 1983). Si los agricultores utilizaran .ólo la semilla mejorada del OOV A a una densidad de 75 kg/ha, la cantidad de semilla producida por dicha entidad podria cubrir sólo el 4.4% (alrededor de 2,000 ha) de las necesidades de los agricultores del Valle del Artiboníte.El ODV A vende el kilogramo de semilla certificada a USSO.57 si es de las variedades superiores y a USSO.48 si es de las ordinarias. El mismo organismo compra semilla a los productores de este insumo, pagándoles una prima de US$O.04/ kg sobre el precio del arroz comercial (USSO.48 superior y USSO.35 ordinario).Preparación del suelo y práctic .. cultara1es. La preparación de terreno para la siembra de arroz se bace a mano, con la ayuda de una azada en terreno húmedo (la preparación en seco es escasa o inexistente); se dan do. pases con dos a tres semanas de intervalo.Recientemente, el ODV A empezó a ofrecer servicios de motocultores para la preparación de tierras, a través de un Centro de Maquinaria Agrlcola (eMA); durante 1982-1983 este centro preparó s610 825.62 ha (ODVA, Rapport Annuel, 1983). Por otra parte, el mencionado organismo está tramitando la introducción de búfalos de agua para sustituir la fuerza bumana por fuerza animal en la preparación del suelo. El Arroz en Haiti 57El control de malezas también se hace a mano, y regularmente comprende dos desyerbas. La cosecha es asimismo manual y se realiza cortando paulcula por panlcula y trillando enseguida con los pies; también se realiza cortando los tallos a 4 o 5 cm del suelo, y golpeándolos contra un objeto o trillando con una trilladora. Durante el periodo 1982-1983, el CMA dio servicio de trilladora para 1959 ha (ODVA, Rapport Annuel 1983).La tecnologla mejorada más diseminada es la aplicación de fertilÍ7.antes químicos. En 1982-1983 los agricultores del Valle del Artibonite compraron un total de 2059 t de ese insumo, principalmente de fertilizante completo, sulfato de amonio y Urea (Cuadro 10); durante ese periodo, 0130.5% del abono comprado se pagó con alguna forma de crédito of!cial.Los precios del OVDA para la urea yel abono completo son USSO.31 y USSO.29 por kilogramo respectivamente, mientras los precios de particulares alcanzan a USSO.44 y USSO.35/kg. Los agricultores que adoptan la tecnologla mejorada aplican generalmente 150 kgl ha de fertilizante completo en la primera '\\Plicación y 107 kg de urea en una segunda aplicación. Usando el grado 15-15-15, los agricultores estarlan aplicando 22.5 kg de NPKI ha en la primera aplicación y 49.22 kg/ha de N en la segunda.De acuerdo con investigaciones de la estación experimental de Maugé, las variedades MCI 3, CICA 8 Y Mme. Gougous. responden a altas dosis de nitrógeno; según informe. del ODV A, el máximo rendimiento de CICA 8 se obtiene con aplicaciones de 180 kgl ha de N, el de MC! 65 con 80 kg de ese nutrimento, y Ti-Pide)e con 60 kg/ha. Taller sobre b;¡ Red Cooperaliva de Investigación de Arroz en el Caribe COItos de produeelóD. En estos costos cabe destacar la fuerte contribución de la mano de obra (59% del costo total). De acuerdo con las cifras del Cuadro 11, para cubrir los costos del cultivo, el agricultor debe producir un promedio de 1.8 11 ha de arroz superior y 2.6 t de arroz ordinario; en la práctica, sin embargo, esos costos resultan generalmente menores, ya que gran parte de los agricultores no aplican toda la tecnología mejorada, y además, el 60% de ellos son propietarios de la tierra. El único gasto que hacen los agricultores para el control de pestes es el correspondiente al oontrol de ratas y aves, ya que ellos no creen que la incidencia de enfermedades merezca atención especial; sólo se menciona el hiedevivo (Oebalus spp.) como causa esporádica de daños de consideración económica, que justifica el control químico.La investigación arrocera en Haití se desenvuelve principalmente a nivel del OOV A, particularmente en la finca experimental de Maugé. Esta finca tíene una extensión de 15 ha, y en ella se realizan investigaciones sobre todos los cultivos importantes del Valle del Artibonite (arroz, batata, frijol, tomate, cebolla y otros); sin embargo, los mayores esfuerzos se concentran en el cultivo de arroz. La finca experimental cuenta con la asesoría permanente de una misión agrlcola de la República de China (Taiwan).La investigación trabaja en estrecha relación con la extensión, y los extensionistas son los que proponen los temas que se deben investigar; el producto de la investigación va al agricultor vía extensión. En una reunión extraordinaria, los responsables de la investigación presentan a las instancias superiores del OARNOR', la CRDA6, la FAMV7, el OOVA y la Misión Agrlcola China los temas propuestos por los extensionistas y se seleccionan los que ban de formar la estructura.Cabe mencionar que el programa anual debe estar en armonía con el plan quinquenal de investigación arrocera. En 1984 la investigación arrocera presta atención a los siguientes problemas: selección de nuevas variedades y líneas, respuesta a fertilizantes químicos, preparación de terreno, identificación de malezas e insectos, control de ratas y aves, y descripción de los sistemas de cultivo.Los investigadores haitianos y chinos han introducido las variedades MC! 3, MC! 65 Y CICA 8. Actualmente trabajan en la extensión de la variedad Quisqueya, obtenida en cruce simple entre Mme. Gougouse y Chia Seng.Ayudado por la investigación y la extensiÓn, el OOVA trabaja para perfeccionar la formación de agricultores con la organización de cursos Limitaciones para el aumento de la producción de arTOZ en Haiti a)Los sistemas de producción arrocera se han estudiado poco, ' Y la documentación es escasa, en general.La utilización de poblaciones en lugar de variedades impide que el arroz desarrolle toda su capacidad productiva, aun bajo las mejores condiciones. Una buena identificación de las variedades podría ayudar en la producción de semilla certificada.e) La mayoría de \\as tierras del Valle del Artibonite tienen problemas de drenaje y/o de salinidad. Aunque el ODV A está trabajando en su rehabilitación, la investigación puede jugar un papel muy importante a corto plazo en el aumento de la producción en las zonas con problemas, logrando la aplicación de paquetes tecnológicos apropiados.El entrenamiento de personal representa una de las prioridades del Plan Quinquenal 1981-1986 del Sector Agrícola. Dicbo documento señala que actualmente trabajan 300 agrónomos en el DARNDR y que se necesitarían 700 más para satisfacer la demanda del sector agricola del pals. Además, dicho documento afirma que hay un deficit de 1450 extensionistas par~ lograr la transferencia de la tecnología mejorada a los agricultores.La creación de una Red Caribeña de Investigación Arrocera podrla contribuir grandemente a la solución de los problemas del arroz en Halt!. Jamaica tiene una poblaci6n de 2.2 millones de habitantes y un área total de 10,987.60 km' (Cuadro 1); en su mayor parte (55.2%) estas tierras son arables y están actualmente bajo un programa de recuperaci6n agricola.El sector agricola mostró crecimiento en los últimos años pese a que el producto interno bruto estaba descendiendo. Sin embargo, la situación de los principales cultivos tradicionales (caña de azúcar, banano, cítricos, cacao) ha ido deteriorándose, de tal manera que las cifras de crecimiento se han logrado con cultivos no tradicionales como las hortalizas, los frutales, yel ñame.La principal estrategia del gobierno para alcanzar un rápido crecimiento en el sector agrlcola radica en el programa Agro 21; éste se describe como:\"un nuevo enfoque naciona] para la agricultura, que combina la puesta en marcha de tecnologia moderna con una planificación adecuada y mercados previamente determinados, con el fin de darle un tratamiento comercial a la agricultura. Se trata de un vehiculo para cumplir seis objetivos vitales para el sector agrlcola\". Tales objetivos son: a)Aprovechar la capacidad de las tierras no utilizadas o subutilizadas del pals.b) Aumentar la exportación de una gama de cultivos especificos.e) Permitir nuevas oportunidades de empleo en la agricultura, d) Integrar a los pequeños agricultores dentro de las oportunidades que ofrecen las diferentes áreas del Proyecto Agro 21, y hacer que la nueva tecnologia esté disponible para ellos con el propósito de ayudarles a mejorar su producción, e) Desarrollar cultivos no tradicionales sobre bases más amplias, mediante el aumento de la producción de cultivos ya existentes y la introducción de nuevos cultivos, 1)Disminuir las importaciones donde .ea posible, con el objeto de reducir al mínimo la dependencia de las importaciones de aquellos cultivos que el pal. puede producir.Dentro de este marco de prioridades del gobierno se analiza la presente situación del arroz en Jamaica.El cultivo del arroz en Jamaica empezó hace poco más de un siglo (en 1874) cuando, según los registros, se importaron de India 31/4 bushels(1I4 kg) de semillas de arroz. Aunque no existen registros que lo confirmen, ,e tiene el convencimiento de que el cultivo empezó en el siglo XVII.Las semillas importadas en 1874 se distribuyeron entre los agricultores que mostraron interés, y en 1889 se consideró que ésta había sido una aventura exitosa. Fue entonces cuando se identificaron muchas zonas del pals ideales para el cultivo del arroz.Después del periodo comprendido entre 1874 y 1889 el cultivo ha tenido altibajos, con picos elevados durante las dos guerras mundiales, cuando la importación era incierta debido a los riesgos de transporte.En 1952 se designó a un agrónomo especializado en el Departamento de Agricultura quien, junto con un consultor de la FAO, empezó un trabajo de investigación y desarrollo del arroz a gran escala. En 19531a Corporación para el Desarrollo Agrícola (ADC, por su nombre en inglés) comenzó a participar en la producción de arroz, con el establecimiento en 1954 de un molino. Se cultivaron áreas de arroz en Clarendon, St. Catherine, St. Elizabeth y Westmoreland, así como extensiones menores en SI. Mary, St. Thomas y Trelawny.Durante las últimas tres década¡; ha habido una disminución en la producción de arroz, pese a la introducción de variedades de alto rendimiento como IR 8, CICA-4, CICA-9 y otras, y pese a la visita de un especialista en arroz del CIAT, al establecimiento del Proyecto de Arroz Jamaica! Japón en Elim, y al aumento del precio del arroz con cáscara. No obstante, existen excelentes posibilidades de recuperación, dado que hasta el momento el pals dispone de la mayoría de los materiales básicos y de la tecnología necesaria para hacerlo.El mismo esfuerzo que se está haciendo en la agricultura en general se está haciendo en la induslria del arroz en particular. Sin embargo, los resultados están aún por verse debido a dos razones: en primer lugar, la industria del arroz se ha deteriorado en gran medida; de los 2600 agricultores que cultivaban esle cereal en 1966, en los condados de Westmoreland y St. Elizabeth, solamente 341 permanecían en esta actividad en 1979 (Cua. dro 2). Se requiere un gran esfuerzo para volver a los niveles anteriores de producci6n y, aún más~ para incrementarJos hasta contribuir de manera significativa a la reducción de la importación (Cuadro 3).Taller sobre /o Red CooptrmivQ de InW!sligación de Arroz en el Caribe En segundo lugar, el cultivo del arroz se ha hecho tradicionalmente a pequelia escala y, por lo tanto, si se desea aprovechar los beneficios de la tecnolog!a moderna, es necesario hacer modificaciones especialmente en lo que respecta al riego y al drenaje. Estas mejoras se están adelantando y .us efectos se podrán apreciar dentro de un tiempo relativamente corto.Las principales áreas arroceras actuales se pueden abarcar en tres proyectos: Corporación para el Desarrollo de Black River Upper Morass (BRUMDEC), Meylersfield y la finca Bogue, BRUMDEC es una corporación gubernamental autónoma; Meylersfield es un proyecto del Ministerio de Agricultura para el desarrollo del cultivo del arroz, en colaboración con el gobierno de Holanda, la finca Bogue es una empresa privada. En 1983 estos proyectos cosecharon un total de 446 ha (1102.77 acres) con un promedio de rendimiento de 3 J 40 kg/ha (Cuadro 4), El proceso de molinería está asociado con los proyectos mencionados arriba, dado que los pequellos molinos disponibles en el medio rural no Cuadro 2. Número de productores de arroz en dos condados de Jamaica, 1%6 y 1m. podrian satisfacer la creciente producción. BRUMDEC tiene un molino con una capacidad de 0.5 t/h; M.yler.field tiene otro de 1.0 tI h Y la finca Bogue tiene un viejo molino de 0.25 tI h. Tanto BRUMDEC como la finca Bogue reconocen que una capacidad limitada de molienda y almacenamiento puede restringir sus planes de expansión del cultivo de arroz; por lo tanto, están tratando de adquirir nuevos molinos y facilidades de almacenamiento, que se instalarán en un futuro cercano.Tanto el precio del arroz en cáscara como del arroz blanco son fijos. El arroz en cáscara se vende en la finca a un precio de US$0.12/kg OSO. 55 / kg) 1 Y el arroz blanco tiene un precio fijo de USSO.35! kg (J$L65f kg), al detalle. Sin embargo, estos precios deben revisarse ya que hay quejas de los agricultores; algunas personas informan que cuando se presenta escasez de arroz blanco, el precio puede aumentar hasta US$0.51 (J$2,42f kg).El precio del arroz es bajo en comparación con los del ñame, el plátano y otras fuentes de almidón; a nivel de finca tales precios oscilan entre US$0.18 y 0.23/kg (J$0.84 y JSUO/kg) para el ñame y entre US$0.12 y 0.14 (JSO.57 y J$0.70f kg) para el plátano. Si se considera que los jamaicanos consumen tanto atroz como otros productos amiláceos, y que una libra de ese cereal sirve para, alimentar a más gente que una libra de cualquiera de los otros cultivos, se deduce que el consumo de arroz tiende a aumentar; entre 1970 y 1983 el promedio de consumo per cápita aumentó de 19 kg en el primer año a 24.8 en el último. ! Tasa. de cambiu: US$LOO := J$4.73.El promedio del área de las fincas arroceras en Jamaica solla ser de un acre (0.4047 ha), pero con el nuevo desarrollo ese tamaño va a aumentar.El Proyecto Meylersfield empezó a cultivar arroz hacía finales de 1982, mediante la asisnación de tres parcelas de 2.02 ha (5' acres) a un grupo de cinco agricultores; de esta manera, cada agricultor disponla en total de 1.21 ha (3 acres) en tres partes de la finca. Después de dos cosechas, las parcelas se están entregando sólo a dos agricultores, distribuyendo a cada uno 1.01 ha (2.5 acres) en dos partes diferentes de la finca, de tal manera que el área para cada agricultor ha aumentado a 2.02 ha (5 acres). eultivo en Meylersfleld. El sistema general de producción para esta área se representa en 1'1 Figura l. La preparación del suelo yel trasplante de la primera siembra se hacen entre febrero y abril y la cosecha tiene lugar durante los meses de julio y agosto. La segunda siembra se trasplanta de septiembre a octubre y se cosecha en enero y febrero.Se debe resaltar el hecho de que la recolección se hace a mano y que la trilla se realiza con una trilladora fija. En 1983 el primer cultivo del año coincidió con la época de lluvia y, como consecuencia, una parte del arroz no se pudo procesar debido a la imposibilidad de secarlo. En Meylersfield la preparación del suelo se hace con tractores; las otras actividades se ejecutan a mano, con excepción de la trilla y de la aplicación del herbicida (Basagran). Las prácticas de fertilización incluyen cuatro aplicaciones: a)Una aplicación basal (a la siembra) de 25.80 kgjha de urea, 80.70 kg de fosfato de diamonio y 15,69 kg de muriato de potasio (26.40 kg de N, 17.04 de P y 8.07 de K).Una segunda aplicación de 25.80 kgj hade urea (11.86 kgf ha de N) en la época de máximo macollamiento, el Una tercera aplicación similar a la basal, a la iniciación de la panlcula.d) Una cuarta aplicación de 25.80 kg{ha de urea cuando la floración llega a 50%.La aplicación tolal de nutrimentos por hectárea es de 76.48 kg de N, 34.10 de P y 16.15 de K, El costo total de producción para Meylersfield se muestra en el Cuadro 5. Es necesario resaltar el hecho de que el precio de la semilla es de J$ I.OOj lb (US$O.4ófkg) y que ella se importa parcialmente. Con el precio actual de J$O.25 ¡lb (US$O.III kg) para el arroz comercial, los agricultores tendrian que producir 40241bl acre (4514 kg/ha) para cubrir los costos de produccióo.Cultivo en BRUMDEC y Bogue. El sistema de cultivo es muy similar al de Meylersfield en lo que respecta a las fechas de siembra. Sin embargo, sus prácticas culturales son un poco diferentes, puesto que tanto Bogue corno BRUMDEC utílizan más maquinaria e insumas y manejan parcelas más grandes. BR UMDEC ha tenido algunos problemas con el control de malezas y el volcamiento, debido a factores relacionados con la prepación y la nivelación del terreno, unidos a la siembra al voleo.El control de malezas se lleva a cabo mediante la aplicación de Propanil y 2.4-D; sinembargo, con un adecuado manejo del agua no hay problemas con el control de malezas. No obstante lo anterior, parece existir un problema latente de arroz rojo; se piensa que éste viene con la semilJa, y BRUMDEC presentó quejas en el sentido de que algunas de las semíllas que obtuvo de la Corporación para el Desarrollo Agrlcola estaban contaminadas. Los campos también parecen estar contaminados con arroz rojo, pues anteriormente se cultivaba arroz y los agricultores\" tuvieron que abandonarlos. La fertilización se realiza en dos aplicaciones: una basal con 1121b{ acre (125.52 kg{ha) de 12-24-12 y la otra durante la iniciación de la panlcula, con 125.52 kg de sulfato de amonio. De esta ~orma, la aplicación real de nutrimentos es de 41.36 kg{ha de N, 13.25 kg de P y 12.50 kg de K. Las investigaciones de BRUMDEC a nivel de finca indican que tanto los niveles utilizados de fósforo como los de potasio son demasiado altos. No obstante, se consideró que la fórmula disponible más conveniente era la de 12-24-12. BRUMDEC está produciendo su propia semilla y también la venderá a otros proyectos al precio de JSO.97{kg (USSO.20). CICA 8 es en la actualidad la única variedad que se está distribuyendo, aunque su susceptibilidad En el Cuadro 6 se muestran los costos de producción que tuvo BRUM-DEC en 1982. Es importante observar que una alta proporción del costo total se debió a la mecanización en la preparación del terreno y a la fertilizacion. También es de importancia el hecho de que haya sido necesario aplicar quelato de zinc, lo cual significa que los elementos menores pueden ser un problema en Upper Moras •. Taller $(Ibré la Red Cooperauva de lni'tstigación de Arroz en el Caribe Uso de agua y presencia de plagas y enfermedades. En Meylersfield, el agua utilizada para riego se bombea desde el río Cabarita, mientras que en BRUMDEC yen la finca Bogue se utiliza el riego por gravedad tomando el agua del Black River.La enfermedad que más ataca al arroz en Jamaica es la piricularia, la cual se ha combatido media,nte el uso de variedades resistentes como CICA 8, en contraposición con el uso de químicos. Otras enfermedades son la helmintosporiosi. y la cercosporiosi., las cuales no son de importancia económica, y por lo tanto no se han tomado medidas para combatirlas.En Meylersfield, la plaga más severa es el hiedevivo (Oebalus spp.) el cual se puede controlar por medios químicos. Este insecto se observó en BR UMDEC y en Bogue; sin embargo, en esas fincas no es de importancia económica.La investigación de arroz en Jamaica es responsabilidad de BRUM-DEC, la cual cuenta con un área de experimentación de 12.14 ha. Tanto la investigaci6n como el desarrollo han ido creciendo en la corporación, que ha sido résponsable de la identificación de las variedades que se siembran actualmente en la finca de BRUMDEC.BRUMDEC ha realizado algunas pruebas de fertilización, utilizando elementos mayores y menores, y ha usado equipos nuevos para la siembra. Las variedades sometidas a prueba se indican en el Cuadro 7. Se debe señalar que la mayoriade los ensayos de variedades se hace en parcelas más o menos grandes, si hay suficiente semilla disponible, Los experimentos de fertilización en la estación empezaron antes de que BRUMDEC se viera involucrada en la investigación, con la colaboración de una misión japonesa. Posteriormente, el grupo de investigadores de BRUMDEC, encabezado por Derrick Srnith y el consultor del IlCA, Vivian Chin, ha venido realizando ensayos de fertilización en diferentes suelos.Algunas de ¡as pruebas se realizan con la ayuda de una trasplantadora mecánica, con la cual se espera aumentar los rendimientos sin que se requieran mejoras ulteriores en la preparación de la tierra.El mayor interés investigativo de BRUMDEC es generar tecnología para suelos de turba. Se está tratando de identificar una variedad que exhiba un buen comportamiento bajo esas condiciones, y hasta el Los agrónomos que trabajan en Meylersfield también tienen ya preparados algunos experimentos de fertilización, como el destinado a identificar los mejores tratamientos de fertilización para las condiciones del lugar.La extensiÓn está relacionada con los tres proyectos, y los hallazgos de BRUMDEC se discuten informalmente con los miembros de otros proyectos. Meyersfield es un caso especial en lo que respecta a la extensión, puesto que para poner en marcha sus operaciones seleccionaron un grupo de pequeños agricultores y están tratando de enoefiarles a trabajar con la Taller mbre la Red Cuoperaliva de ¡\" . . . . eS/igación de Arroz en el CarIbe nueva tecnología; se espera que estos agricultores seleccionados pasen la tecnología a otros agricultores; una vez que se reunan con ellos fuera de Meylersfield.Factores que limitan la producción de arroz Con la actual política en favor de la expansión del cultivo y del aumento en la producción de arroz, la disponibilidad de agrónomos capacitados en este cultivo tendrá que aumentar para poder satisfacer las demandas generadas por tal política. Es pues urgente que se capaciten varios de estos profesionales tan rápIdamente como sea posible.La preparación de la tierra es también un problema. Con excepción de Meylersfield y de algunas partes de BR UMDEC, las demás tierras dedicadas a! arroz no han sido adecuadamente niveladas para proporcionar el máximo retorno en términos de rendimiento y eficiencia en las prácticas de cultivo. También existen suelos con problemas (los suelos de turba) en los dos proyectos principales (BR UMDEC y Meyersfield), donde se requiere más investigación para adaptar variedades adecuadas para utilizar estas áreas en forma apropiada.El precio de J$O.55jkg (US$O.12) que se paga a los agricultores por el arroz con cáscara, y que se mantuvo durante los últimos cinco años, se encuentra en este momento en proceso de revisión y se cambiará definitivamente. Se procura con esto ofrecer un incentivo para que los agricultores arroceros del pasado reinicien la producci6n.La polltica del gobierno en materia de arroz es incrementar la producción hasta que el país sea autosuficiente. Para alcanzar esta meta se hace necesaria una producción de 60,000 t anuales aproximadamente.Hoy día, el promedio de rendimiento en los principales proyectos es de 3362 kg/ha (3000 lb! acre) de arroz en cáscara, ysehademostradoquecon tenología mejorada (nivelación de la tierra) es posible obtener en un futuro próximo cerca de 4500 kg/ha (4000 lb/acre); en Meylersfield ya se han obtenido más de 7000 kg/ ha. Para un promedio de productividad de 4500 kg¡ ha yuna producción final de 60,000 I se requerirla un área de 10,117 ha, suponiendo una recuperación del 60% de arroz blanco y dos cultivos por afio en la misma parcela.Actualmente se está abordando el problema de la tierra, la cual se ha constituido en el factor limitante entre los componentes de la producción. Se han identificado áreas con potencial para el cultivo del arroz, y con disponibilidad de agua, as!: 3439 ha en Sto Elizabeth (de BRUMDEC y privadas), 688 en SI. Catherine (privadas y de Amity Hall) y 971 ha en Westmoreland (Meyersfield y privadas). La más importante de esas áreas está en Sto Elizabeth, en Lower Morass, junto con algunas tierras en la finca de Hollan Sugar; se estima que cuando ella se desarrolle aproximadamente 2000 ha estarán disponibles para el cultivo del arroz.En total se han identificado más de dos tercios (7122 ha) del área requerida para satisfacer el objetivo de alcanzar el autoabastecimiento de arroz, junto con sus fuentes de agua.El cultivo de arroz a gran escala ofrece la posibilidad de rotaciones interesantes, especialmente con leguminosas. Dentro de este grupo laso)'a parece ser el cultivo más promisorio, puesto que disfruta de un mercado asegurado y requiere un equipo muy similar al del arroz; adicionalmente, la soya permite aumentar la fertilidad del suelo en las áreas arroceras.La soya, sin embargo, es más apropiada para las siembras a gran escala; por lo tanto, para la rotación con arroz en parcelas pequellas es mejor emplear otras leguminosas como el frijol. Por otra parte, Jamaica ba venido cultivando hortalizas para el mercado de invierno de Am6rica del Norte, y en este caso el arroz tiene también una alternativa de rotación, Este sistema general de cultivo incrementarla considerablemente la rentabilidad agricola.La producción local de arroz como sustituto de las importaciones economizará divisas a Jamaica. Como el costo de divisas para producirlo localmente es sólo una fracción de lo que se requiere para comprarlo en el extranjero, es recomendable que Jamaica se comprometa a aumentar su producción nacional.Taller solJle In Red Cooperativa de Investigación. A\"o:: en el COTibe eoonomia del pals. Los cultivos más importantes en República Dominicana durante 1980 fúeron los que presenta el Cuadro 2. La caña de azúcar ocupaba el primer lugar en área sembrada, seguida por el café, el cacao y en cuarto lugar por el arroz.El arroz, cuyo cultivo ocupó 111,000 ha en 1980 tiene mucha importancia en la vida dominicana, tanto en el orden económico como en el alimentario. Así. su producción se comercializa en un 84%. y provee el 27% de las calorías que consumen las familias con ingresos mensuales de ROS 100; estas familias representan el 45% de la población. El 80% de las actividades asociadas con el cultivo corresponden al componente mano de obra. El cultivo del arroz experimentó un gran desarrollo en el perlodo 1973-1982, durante el cual el área sembrada aumentó de 84,848 a 103.030 ha, mientras el rendimiento lo hizo de 3.22 a 3.91t1 ha (Cuadro 3). A pesar de este aumento en área y en rendimiento, el pals no fue autosuflCiente durante ese perlodo; tuvo que importar cantidades variables de arroz blanco (Cuadro 4), debido principalmente al aumento que alcanzaron en 1979 y 1980 tanto la población como el consumo per cápita. Este alto consumo, que sobrepasÓ los 50 kg de arroz blanco por habitante por año, pudo haber sido causado por la reducción que se presentÓ en la oferta de bienes sustitutivos (plátano, yuca y batata), como resultado del ciclón David de agosto de 1979.  La polltica actual del gobierno dominicano es lograr la autosuficiencia en la producción de arroz. En tal sentido se han prohibido las importaciones del cereal desde agosto de 1982 y se han tomado medidas para asegurar la rentabilidad de la cosecha arrocera.En 1976 República Dominicana contaba con 127 faetorlas para el procesamiento de arroz, distribuidas en todo el pat\". La capaeidad total de molienda era de 137.3 t por hora (Cuadro 5). La capacidad de almacenamiento de las factorias sellatadas era de 215,349 t. Después de 1976, la capacidad de almacenamiento de arroz se aumentó con el establecimiento de silos en diferentes puntos del país por parte del Instituto de Estabilización de Precios (INESPRE). Este instituto tíene una capacidad de almacenamiento que se estima en 85,000 t.Los agricultores comercializan su arroz en cáscara a través de los molineros o directamente a través del INESPRE, que es el centro del sistema de mercadeo de arroz. INESPRE compra todo el arroz blanco procesado por los molineros bajo un sistema de cuotas mensuales, y lo vende a la cadena de distribuci6n; también tiene ventas directas al consumidor bajo un programa de \"ventas populares~'.En junio de 1984 el precio de sustentación del arroz en cáscara con 20% humedad y 5% de impurezas era de RD$34.79 (US$11. 79) por 100 kg; el precio del arroz blanco fijado para el consumidor era de RD$O.84 (US$O.28) por kilogramo de arroz natural (con alrededor de 20% grano partido).El cultivo del arroz está diseminado por todo el territorio dominicano (Figura 1), con una mayor concentración en las zonas situadas al este de la ciudad de La Vega (alrededor de 50% del área) y al noroeste de la ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros (alrededor de 25% del área). Las fincas arroceras tíenen un tamafío de 6.2 ha en promedio.'.-..  El 50% del área arrocera corresponde a fincas colectivas y de asociaciones de productores, organizadas bajo el Instituto Agrario Dominicano (IADJ. En las fincas colectivas los agricultores ejecutan todas las actividades del cultivo de arroz en conjunto y se reparten luego los beneficios generados por la explotación como un todo; en las asociaciones, en cambio, los productores tramitan el crédito, la compra de insumos y la comercialización del arroz colectivamente, pero cada agricultor es responsable directo de la productividad y de la eficiencia de su propia parcela, y recibe los beneficios de acuerdo con su propio rendimiento.La institución crediticia más importante es el Banco Agrícola de la República Dominicana, el cual otorga crédito a los arroceros siguiendo un plan de inversión. El plan de inversión contempla desembolsos en diferentes etapas, de acuerdo con el desarrollo del cultivo.Producción de semilla y variedades. La semilla de arroz se comercializa siguiendo los pasos indicados en la Figura 2. El Centro de Investigaciones Arroceras (CEDIA) produce la semilla básica y multiplica las variedades aprobadas para certÍÍlcación, hasta la categoria registrada. El Departamento de Fomento Arrocero (DFA) compra toda esta semilla y la vende a productores de semilla seleccionados y a las compallias procesadoras.Equípo Tecnológico Arrocero rr- ----------:1 El Ano:: en RepúbJ¡ca DomimwntJLos productores de semilla producen la semilla certificada y la venden al DFA. que se encarga de procesarla y comercializarla. Las procesadoras privadas, como Productora de Semillas Dominicanas C. por A. (PRO• SEDOCA) y Semillas Sureñas, S.A., compran al DFA semilla registrada y la venden a los productores vinculados a ellas para que produzcan semilla certiíkada, que luego les compra para procesarla y comerclaHzarla.Cada paso en la multiplicación y procesamiento es inspeccionado por inspectores de) DFA. de las compafiías procesadoras, en el caso de Jos productores de semilla vinculados a ellas, y, en todos los casos, del Depar. tamento de Semillas de la Secretaría de Estado de Agricultura.Además de comercializar la semilla de las variedades aprobadas para certificación, el DFA y las procesadoras también comercializan semillas de variedades no autoriz.adas, pero demandadas por los agricultores. En este caso la semilla se llama «mejorada» y su sistema de comercialización incluye la venta al DF A por parte de las compañías procesadoras.El Cuadro 6 resume la información sobre la semilla comerciahlada por el DFA durante 1983. Cinco de las ocho variedades señaladas (Juma 58, Juma 57, Juma 51, Tanioka e IR 6) están aprobadas para certificación. ~6tese que las variedades con mayor demanda de semilla son Juma 58, Juma 57 y Tanioka; la variedad tradicional Mingolo(única de ese tipo en el sistema formal de comercialización de semillas) ocupa el cuarto lugar. con 276.8 t vendidas en su totalidad durante la primera etapa (noviembre 1982 a abril 1983). Siembra. Las fechas de siembra recomendadas para el arroz son diciembre a marzo (cosecha de primavera) y mayo ajulío (cosecha de invierno); los meses de cosecha respectivos son mayo a julio y octubre a noviembre (Figura 3). La cosecha de primavera es mayor que la de invierno, ya que los agricultores que siembran tarde (abril) no tienen la oportunidad de hacerlo de nuevo y algunos aprovechan los rebrotes de la primera siembra para hacer una segunda cosecha llamada \"retoño\" (Figura 4). La variedad más popular para este sistema de cosecha es Mingolo, lo cual explica que sólo se venda su semilla durante la primera etapa.El 95% del arroz dominicano se cultiva bajo riego, aunque en algunas zonas hay déficit de agua para el efecto. La mayor parte del área (alrededor del 60%) sigue el sistema de trasplante manual. En los últimos tres años se ha venido introduciendo el trasplante mecanizado con tanto éxito que ya se ba constituIdo una compañIa privada, Agrocentro C. por A., para dar servicio de trasplante a los agricultores. La preparación de terreno para la siembra de arroz comienza con pases de arado y rastra en seco, seguidos por fangueo en terreno inundado. Aunque algunos agricultores usan equipo pesado, el fangueo se hace normalmente con tractores manuales pequeños (motocultores). El control de malezas incluye la aplicación de Propanil y 2,4-D, seguida de una o dos deshierbas manuales: éstas son necesarias debido a problemas en el control de agua, El Departamento de Fomento Arrocero está llevando a cabo una campaña para aumentar el uso de herbicidas precmergentes.Prácticas culturales y cosecha, La fcrtiJI7.ación que se recomienda para la mayor partede las áreas arroceras es de 100,35,20 y 66.40 kg/ha de N, P, K respectivamente, Se recomienda aplicar 50% del P, 50% del K y 40% del N a los 7 a 10 días después del trasplante; el resto del P y del K y el 40% del N se aplican tres semanas después; el 10% de N restante se debe aplicar a la iniciación de la panícula. Una encuesta reciente demostró que los agricul-Taller sobre la Red Cooperativa de Investigación de Arroz ;;Off el Caribe tores aplican más nitrógeno (120 kgj ha) y menos fósforo (26.40 kgl ha de P) y potasio (49.80 kgj hade Kf ha) que las cantidades recomendadas; ellos normalmente aumentan la dosis de nitrógeno a la iniciación de la panícula, Los problemas de insectos y enfermedades no son muy serios, Los agricultores aplican insecticidas (Azodrin y/o Lorsban) contra el hiedevivo (Oeba/us spp.). en ocasiones hasta tres veces. Las enfermedades más comllne~ SDn plriculanu : hdmmtosporiosis, las cuates pueden requerir ap¡icacione~ preventi\\-a'> de funglcída':>, La cosecha se realiza con combinadas y lo manualmente. La cosecha manual se hace cortando con hoz y el trillado se hace golpeando las panículas contra un banco de madera o con un palo.El Cuadro 7 resume los costos de producción estimados por el DFA para marzo de 1984, para los agricultores que utilizan una tecnología más moderna con mayor productividad. El DFA utilizó estos costos para determinar los precios de sustentación del arroz, los cuales estaban bajo revísión en ese momento; según este departamento los agricultores que tenían tales costos (RD$I771.87 íha) producían 5.7 tfha de arroz en cáscara. Nótese que el mayor componente del costo es la mano de obra (34%), seguido por los insumos de producción (29%).La investigación y la extensión del cultivo del arroz en República Dominicanaestán íntimamente relacionadas, yaque las diferentes instituciones oficiales encargadas de ambas actividades tienen sus oficinas en el mismo lugar. La investigación está a cargo del Centro de Investigaciones Arroceras (CEDIA), mientras la extensión está a cargo del Departamento de Fomento Arrocero y del Centro de Capacitación Arrocera (CENACA), todas con oficinas en Juma. Bonao.Aunque las tres instituciones señaladas corresponden a diferentes departamentos de la Secretaría de Estado de Agricultura (el CEDIA al Departamento de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, el CENACA al Departamento de Extensión y Capacitación. y el DFA a la Subsecretaria de Producción), en conjunto forman el Equipo Tecnológico Arrocero Dominicano.u ( LUI:\\ e'> la in~tituClón otidalmente encargada de la investigación ;JI ;,üCI:f<l. L'llá \"rganínuJa en :-,rctc dl\\ isiol1es; Variedades) Agronomía, SClmlla Bá:-'¡;.\",L MCCanll,udóll. Riego. Prott:cción Vegetal y Suelo y Para el cumplimiento de su mandato el CEDIA cuenta con la asesoría de una misión agrícola de la República de China (Taiwan) y dellnstítuto Superior de Agricultura (ISA). La misión china ha sido responsable de la fundación (noviembre 1962) y desarrollo del CEDIA, y cuenta con cinco técnicos que asesoran directamente 1a conducción de investigaciones. El ISA participa en la investigación arrocera bajo un acuerdo de colaboración en las áreas de fitomejoramiento, socioeconomia y calidad culinaria, El CEDIA liberó en 1972 las variedades Juma 58 y Juma 57; estas variedades son las que más se siembran en la República Dominicana, El programa de mejoramiento varietal continúa, y el número de cruces ha aumentado en los últimos años hasta llegar a 102 en 1981. Los objetivos principales del programa de mejoramiento son producir variedades resistentes a piricularia y 10 tolerantes a suelos salinos.La investigación arrocera se concentra en la estación central del CEDIA en Bonao (45 ha) y en dos subestaciones, una en Nagua (15 ha) y otra en Laguna Salada (6 ha). La subestación de Nagua sirve como campo de selección para resistencia a pirícularia y la de Laguna Salada para probar ¡a tolerancia a suelos salinos.El CE\" ACA cumple su función de adiestramiento por medio de cursos a técnicos y productores. Hasta 1983 este centrO de capacitación había organizado 11 cursos para técnicos arroceros nacionales, con una duración de tres meses por curso, en promediu.Las príncipales limitaciones para la producción arrocera son de infraestructura, ya que hay problemas de escasez de maquinaria, deficiencias en el control del agua de riego y problemas en los desembolsos del crédito que impiden la doble siembra; a nivel nacional sólo se logran J .28 cosechas.Como posible solución a muchos de los problemas para la doble cosecha. en las áreas con mejor control de agua se ha planteado la liberación de variedades tempranas. En ese aspecto, el CEDIA está tratando de identificar materiales con un ciclo de 120 días aproximadamente. es decir. una, dos o tres semanas mas tempranas que Juma 58 y Juma 57.El déficit nacional de maquinaria para la preparación del terreno a tiempo explica en parte la popularidad del sistema de retoño en la zona al noroeste de Santiago. Este sistema, aunque asegura la producción de arroz durante la segunda etapa del año, produce menos que una siembra normal.Los problemas en el control del agua se traducen en problemas de malezas y de poca eficiencia del fertilizante nitrogenado. En los últimos años el problema del arroz rojo (flechú), unido a otros en cuanto a la calidad de las semillas, se ha venido empeorando; esto hace todavía más dificil el control de malezas.Se cree que la expansión del área arrocera va a hacer necesaria la utilización de tierras con serios problemas de salinidad, y para el caso el CEDIA trabaja en la identificación de variedades tolerantes.La República de Surinam se encuentra ubicada en la costa norte de América del Sur, entre los 20 y 60 de latitud norte y entre los 54 y 58° de longitud oeste. Su clima se clasifica como ecuatorial húmedo. con un promedio anual de 27\"C de temperatura, y una precipitación que oscila entre 2000 y 3000 mm. Existen dos estaciones secas y dos lluviosas.El área total de Sunnam es de 163,830 km', pero solamente se encuentra habitada una pequeña proporción de las planicies costeras del norte. La poblaCÍón total es de aproximadamente 4OO~OOO habitantes, compuesta por personas de diferentes grupos étnicos.La bauxita y el arroz son los príncipales productos de exportación en la economía de Surinam.El producto nadona! bruto (PNB) de Surinam depende principalmente de la industria de la bau\"ita, y debido a factores de orden interno y externo, su crecimiento se ha detenido prácticamente. El sector agrícola es muy importante dentro de la economía del país, aunque su importancia ha venido disminuyendo con el tiempo. En 1953, la agricultura contribuyó con el 20.1% del total del PNB, y en 1971 tal contribución babía disminuído al nivel del 7%; actualmente está entre 8 y 10%. El PNB del sector agrícola ha aumentado de Sf51' millones en 1973, a SflO8 millones en 1978.La agricultura es uno de los sectores más importantes en la generación de empleo. Aunque el número de personas con empleo de tiempo completo en agricultura ha dísmínuído continuamente desde !973~ su total equivale todavía a más del doble del que emplea el sector de la minería y la bauxita.Taller sobre la Red C()()peralh'Q de lnvesligaci&n de Arroz en el Caribe En 1979 se emplearon 19,600 personas en el sector de la agricultura, la mayoría de las cuales eran productoras de arrOz. Tanto la producción de arroz, como la de camarones, banano y palma aceitera se orientaban principalmente hacia la exportación, El valor de la exportación agrícola (a precios actuales) y su contribución a la generación de divisas aumentó sustancialmente durante la década del 70: mientras en 1970 las exportaciones agrícolas llegaron solamente aI4%, esto es a SIIO,3 millones (US$),9 millones) del total de exportaciones, para 1979 su contribución llegó al 17.4%, o sea SI 137,6 míHones (US$4L05 millones),En 1982 el total de tierras dedicadas al cultivo del arroz alcanzó 40,000 hectáreas, distribuídas según el tamaflo de las explotaciones, así: 17,800 ha en minifundios (12 ha), 2200 ha en fincas de tamaño mediano (12-50 ha) y 20,000 ha en fincas grandes (más de 50 hai, La Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Agricultura Mecanizada en Surinam (SML), que es una entidad semioficial, es la finca más grande, con 10,000 ha, Dicha Fundación siembra cerca de dos cosechas de arroz por año, con un promedIO de rendimiento por cosecha de aproximadamente 4,5 tlha, en 1982, Las insta1aclones para procesamiento del arroz, tales como seeadores> silos y molinos, no están en manos de 10s pequeños agricultores sino, por lo general, en manos de intermediarios y exportadores de arroz. La S ML es la única unidad de producción que dispone de todo lo necesario para el procesamiento y la exportación.Mercadeo del arroz, Desde 1919 Surinam es un país que se aUloabasteee de arroz y exporta el excedente a Europa y a la región del Caribe. El Cuadro 1 muestra el total de las exportaciones de las diferentes categorías para el periodo 1977 a 1981, ye1 Cuadro 2 presenta las cantidades utilizadas para varios propósitos en 1982, Actualmente Ia.'i exportaciones de arroz incluyen las categorías: integral, blanco, partido y precocido; el gobierno nO permite la exportación de arroz en cáscara, El consumo per cápita es de 8S kg.El mercadeo del arroz no está muy organizado, y algunos molineros que tienen licencia de exportación operan independientemente dentro del mercado internacional. Por supuesto, esta situación no es nada deseable y el gobierno está tratando de organizar las exportaciones; probablemente en un futuro cercano se haga cargo de ellas SUREXCO, la Compañía de Exportaciones de SUTinam, de la cual harán parte el gobierno, los exportadores privados y las organizaciones de agricultores. El segundo proyecto más importante es el LOC en el Distrito de Commenwijne, el cual cubrirá 3300 ha, En el Distrito de Saramacca también hay planes para incrementar el área de cultivo de 3900 a 8300 ha, Situación financiera, Entre lodos los problemas que dcbe enfrentar el cultivo del arroz~ el más serio es el del incremento en los costos de producción. La disminución en los precios de las exportaciones, por otra parte, produce una reducción de la rentabilidad del sector arrocero.Los pequeños agricultores se encuentran en una situación muy dificil, ocasionada principalmente por el aumento en los costos de producción; esta situación se ha visto empeorada por economías de escala negativas, a nivel de finca, En el Cuadro 4 se resumen los retornos netos en tres unidades productoras de arroz que representan las categorías de minifundio, tamano mediano y tamaño grande de la explotación, Cuadro 4, Retornos netos de tres tipos de unidades producloras de arroz en Surinam.Valores según tamaño de finca (SOl Cerca del 95% del cultivo del arroz eo Surioam se siembra bajo condiciones de riego; rugunos agricultores que practican agricultura de subsistencia en el interior del país producen arroz en condiciones de secano. La mayor parte del agua de riego en el distrito Nickerie proviene del embalse de la ciénaga de Nanni, y llega a su destino por gravedad. El agua fresca de los ríos también se bombea para inundar los arrozales.Variedades y semillas. En la actualidad existen tres variedades comerciales: Camponi, Diwani y Elooi (Cuadro 5). La semilla genética y la semilla de fundación de estas variedades se producen en la estación de mejoramiento genético. La producción de semilla certificada y registrada no se encuentra muy bien organizada.Existe en Surinam solamente una estación productora de semillas mane~ jada por el SML. Hay algunas compañías que venden semilla de arroz pero. debido a la ausencia de estándares de calidad, ésta es muy deficiente; el precio que tienen establecido de cerca del SfO.50/kg (lJSSO.IS) representa 15 centavos menos que el de la semilla del SML.Siembras. Tan pronto como empiezan las lluvias; los agricultores comienzan la preparación de la tierra para proceder a la siembra. En Surínam existen dos estaciones lluviosas; la principal de eUas empieza a mediados de abril y continúa hasta finales de agosto, y la segunda empieza en diciembre y dura hasta mediados de febrero (Figura 1).Sin embargo, algunos agricultores no tienen en cuenta la estación lluviosa para sembrar, y lo hacen durante todo el año; esto obviamente les ocasiona todo tipo de problemas durante la cosecha, además de disminuir sus rendimientos y disminuir la calidad de la cosecha. Por otra parte, por no estar muy difundida la práctica de sembrar dentro de fechas determinadas en ciertos momentos se utilizan las facilídades existentes para la cosecha, el trasporte y el secado, independientemente de la capacIdad de las instalaciones.Puesto que existe escasez de agua de riego, particularmente durante la segunda estación, sería de gran utilidad el establecimiento de fecha> fijas para la siembra del arroz.Toda la siembra comercial se hace en forma directa con semilla pregerminada, y para tal efecto se inundan los campos hasta una profundidad de 15 cm. Después de la siembra se drena el agua tan rápidamente como es posible. haciendo algunos canales si es necesario para drenar las partes bajas de los campos.Las fincas grandes utilizan aviones para sembrar, pero en las pequeñas esa actividad se efectúa manualmente. La densidad de siembra es de 120 kg/ha en promedio, pero se aconseja aumentarla cuando la semilla no es suficIentemente buena.Normalmente los campos se aran en la estación seca~ utílizando arados y rastras con tractores de ruedas o de oruga.De ser posible, los campos se aran dos veces antes de inundarlos; una vez inundados se fanguean con rastras de discos tiradas por tractores de oruga o por tractores de ruedas. Para obtener una cama plana para las semi1las, se arrastra sobre los campos un objeto plano y pesado.Si es necesario, se controlan los caracoles antes de la siembra.Control de malezas, insectos y enfermedades. Existen varias gramíneas nocivas, las cuales se controlan como de cos.tumbre, o sea con Propanil (3 a 4Itjha), en tanto que el arroz rojo se controla mediante aradas repetidas. Las malezas de hoja ancha y las ciperáceas se controlan con 2,4-D Amina (0.5-1.0 liha). También se usan insecticidas para controlar plagas como Laphygma spp., Hydrellia spp., Sagatodes spp., barrenadores del tallo y chinches.Comúnmente los insecticidas y los herbicidas se asperjan con aviones, pero los pequeños productores usan también bombas de espalda y nebuli• zadores. Las concentraciones de los pesticidas que se utilizan en Surinam se prueban primero mediante investigación locaL Todas las enfermedades ocasionadas por hongos que se conocen en el país están ya descritas, pero hasta el momento no ha sido necesario ejercer ningún control sobre ellas, El daño económico que causan no es alto, y la resistencia de las variedades, por lo general, es estable. Se presenta la enfermedad de la hoja blanca, pero su incidencia no es muy alta. No se conocen enfermedades bacterianas.Fertilización. Ya que investigaciones previas han demostrado que no hay respuesta a las aplicaciones de fósforo y potasio, normalmente los fertilizantes que se utilizan para la producción de arroz son a base de nitrógeno.Se usa especialmente urea, a razón de 250 a 300 kgi ha en tres aplicacio-nes~ la primera se hace al voleo sobre el campo drenado, mientras la segunda y la tercera se hacen al voleo en los campos inundados. La época de aplicación y la cantidad que se debe Usar se han determinado mediante la investigación a largo plazo. En las fincas grandes la aplicación al voleo se hace con avionetas, en tanto que los pequeños agricultores deben realizar esta labor manualmente.Cosecha, secado y almacenamiento. Normalmente la cosecha de arroz tiene lugar 35 días despues de la floración, cuando el contenido de humedad de los granos es de aproximadamente 20 a 22%. Se realiza con TaJler jobre la Red Coopmuiva de Investigación de Arroz en el Caribe combinadas, a excepción de la que se produce en secano. Durante el proceso de mecaniz.ación se probaron varias marcas de combinadas y se identificaron las más adecuadas para las condiciones de Surinam, Para efectuar la cosecha, los campos se deben drenar dos o tres semanas antes~ porque de 10 contrario la combinada se puede resbalar o atascarse; esto redundaría en grandes pérdidas durante esa labor. El arroz en cáscara se transporta a los secaderos en bolsas de yute o en bultos, Existen dos tipos de secadores: uno de ligaduras, de fabricación local, y el otro de columnas, el cual se importa de los EE. UU, o de Alemania; el primero maneja un volumen más bajo y requiere más tiempo que el segundo; eo los quemadores se utiliza por lo general combustible diesel. El arroz se seca hasta un cooterudo de humedad del 13 al 14%, Después del proceso de secamiento, el arroz en cáscara se almacena en sHos de dos tipos: uno es plano, horizontal, de piso de concreto, y el otro es de tipo vertical, que consiste sencillamente en un cilindro con paredes de metal o de concreto. Por Jo general se realiza un buen control de los insectos propios del almacenamiento. eos!\"\" de producción. Aparte de la tierra, la mano de obra, la semilla y el agua~ los demás insumas son importados. La mano de obra es extremadamente cara en Surinam, lo que trae como consecuencia un aumento de los costos de producción.En el Cuadro 6 se muestran los costos de prodUCCIón que debe asumir un pequeño agricultor. En las fincas de tamaño mediano los costos son ligeramente menores, mientras las fincas grandes tienen Jos costos de producción más bajos, Cuadro 6. Costos de produceMn por heetírH. en fincas de a1rededor de 24 hectáreas. Para permitir un mejor uso del agua, los campos deben estar muy bien nivelados; también es muy importante la puntualidad, y ésta es más fácílde lograr si los agricultores disponen de bombas individuales, Existen en Surinam dos grandes fuentes de agua: el embalse Nanni que ladistríbuye por gravedad, y los ríos de los cuales se bombea hacia arriba. En un futuro cercano se dispondrá de otra fuente por medio del P: llyecto del Canal Corantyne de Propósitos Múltiples; en este caso, el agua del río Corantyne se bombeará y conducirá por uneanal de 65 km hacia las fincas arroceras de Nickerie. Cuando el proyecto esté terminado. se habrán habilitado para el cultivo del arroz, unas 12,500 ha.La investigaci6n en arroz siempre se ha hecho en pequeña e~cala y h\", estado en manos de la Estación Agrícola Experimental de Paramaribo. Sin embargo. esta investigación se ha visto interrumpida muchas vece~ debido a la falta de investigadores.Con la introducción de la mecanización. la Fundación para el Desarrollode la Agricultura Mecanizada de Surinam (SML) empezó su íll\\c\"igación enfocando su actividad hacia ja producción mecanizada a groí:-;: 'C:-cala: sin embargo, los resultados fueron importantes también para lo~ agrit:ul-lOres pequeños y medianos. La investigación se lleva a cabo en dos localidades: Prins Bernhardpolder (investigación en suelos y fertilizantt:>s y en mejoramiento genético) y Wageningen (protección vegetal). De,de 1970, la investigación del SML se ha reducido ligeramente.En 1978 Se inició un proyecto de investigación (POR) promovido principalmente por el gobierno. proyecto que esta dirigido primordIalmente a los pequeños agricultores.Actualmente no se dispone de suficientes facilidades para establecer un amplio programa de investigación; sin embargo, tanto el programa de mejoramiento genético como el de investiga<:i6n en proteccÍón vegetal se encuentran bien equipados. La mejor localidad para llevar a cabo la investigación sería la de Prins Bernhardpolder, donde se encuentra ubicada la estación de investigación y mejoramiento de arroz del SML El área total de esta unidad de explotación es de 800 ha, y hay algunas Taller subre 'a Red CooperaU.,o de lnvcsligación. de Arroz en el Caribefacilidades de las cuales se puede disponer ya para iniciar un buen programa de investigación.Como la investigación sobre arroz en Surinarn se encuentra repartida en diferentes localidades y organizaciones} es importante coordinar toda esa actividad bajo una sola institución nacional de investigación arrocera~ a fin de permitir un uso eficiente de la capacidad disponible. De esta manera también habría mayor control en el total de operaciones para el cultivo de arroz, desde la labranza hasta el mercado. En este momento se está elahorando un proyecto con esa idea.También existe un proyecto sobre producción de semillas de arroz, cuya rentabilidad permitiría cubrir gran parte de los costos de investigación; sin embargo, todavía no existe legislación sobre esta materia.Uno de los mayores problemas para el establecimiento de un amplio programa de investigación en Surinam es la consecución de personal calificado, ya que éste deja la investigación por otros trabajos mejor renumerados~ adicionalmente, los científicos que vienen del extranjero permanecen durante algún tiempo y luego de adquirir buena experiencia dejan el país. El gobierno de Surinam debería tratar de elevar los salarios de los científicos para mantenerlos en la investigación durante mucho tiempo.  1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1916 1977 1978 1919 1980 Años.Figura 1. Personal empleado en el seNor ágrico}a, en térmiJíos de porcentaffi! tkl empleo tolal, Trinidad y Tobago, 197tJ..I980.  Se estima que el agricultor y su familia consumen entre ellS y el 60% de la producción local, y que la contribución del arroz producido localmente al consumo total bajó de 45% en 1954 (1363 t) al 22% en 1981 (9000 t)', Esta disminucíón en la producción se ha asocíado con la reducción en el área sembrada de aproximadamente de 8000 ha en 1951 34535 ha en 198 L Se estima que el promedio de los rendimientos oscilaba entre L 7 Y 3.5 tlha (1981), La principal fuente del arroz importado ha sido Guyana, país con el cual Trinidad y Tobago firmó en 1962 un acuerdo de importación portres años (1963)(1964)(1965); este acuerdo se ha extendido y renegociado en diferentes oportunidades, En el Cuadro 2 se presentan las importaciones del cereal (empacado y sin empacar) para el período 1973-I 981, El valor de las importaciones de arr07 aumentó de TT$27 millones (USSI 1,25 millones)' en 1978 a TTS37 millones (US$15.42 millones) en 1980, lo cual representó un 0,50% de las importaciones totales; el arroz ocupó el cuarto lugar entre los artículos alimenticios importados después de la carne y sus productos (1.4%), la leche (0,90%) y el trigo (0.80%), Hasta 1977, cuando el gobierno decidió centralizar la molienda del arroz en un gran molino en Carlsen Fíeld cerca de Chaguanas, la producción local del cereal se enviaba a más de 200 molinos pequeños. El molino actual se compró a una empresa metalúrgica colombiana y tiene capacidad de 4 ti h; durante el perlado 1977-1980 procesó un promedio de 1250 ti año, También se obtuvo un secador de arroz con una capacidad de 33.6 tI h; sin embargo, éste no se ha instalado aún en forma adecuada, La operación física del molino es responsabilidad de la división de ingeniería de campo del Mínisterio de Agricultura. El arroz en cáscara Sín embargo, la respuesta de los agricultores a estas medidas no ha cumplido con las expectativas.El cultivo de arroz en Trinidad se puede clasificar como de secano inundado puesto que la siembra se hace durante la estación lluviosa en las áreas bajas cerca de las lagunas (Figura 3). La mayor parte del arroz se trasplanta; los semílleros se establecen en el mes de mayo, esto es, a comienzos de la estación lluviosa (Figura 4). Se utiliza alrededor de 113 kgl ha de semilla, y se trasplanta cuando las plántulas tienen 35 dias de edad.Los suelos se clasifican principalmente en los grupos Al (suelos hidromórficos profundos con drenaje interno restringido) y A4 (suelos aluviales profundos con drenaje interno restringido).El alto contenido de arcillas (arcilla de pantano, aluvial arcilloarenoso y aluvial arciUollmoso) y el drenaje restringido favorecen la inundación durarae la mayor parte de la estación de cultivo. Los campos se cosechan en octubre a diciembre, cuando el suelo aún se encuentra saturado o inundado; este hecho, junto con la posibilidad de que llueva. causan retrasos en la triHa aun después de haber cortado el arroz, y hacen que el producto se despache al molino relativamente húmedo.Siendo el cultivo de secano un sistema tradicional, la mayoría de las operaciones, excepto la preparací6n del suelo, requieren mano de obra; a ella se le atribuye alrededor del 70% del costo total de producción. Aproximadamente e135% de las fincas utilizan serní11as de cultivares y selecciones mejoradas; el uso de ferti1izantes y productos químicos no está difundido.El Minister10de Agricultura suministra aproximadamcnte un I Oo/ó de la semilla requerida al año y los agricultores tambien utilizan sus propias semítlas. Las variedades que actualmente se distribuyen son IR 5. IR 22, Dima, D 110 Y seleccíones locales; se incluyen arroces de porte alto debido a las inundaciones periódicas. En la finca piloto en Caroni~ se están utilizando do, variedades desarrolladas en los E. U. La variedad CICA 4 era un material promisorio de alto rendimiento que se estaba distribuyendo, pero se descontinuó debido a su susceptibilidad a piricularia. En las principales áreas productoras de arroz se ha observado incidencia de tres enfermedades principales: piricularia (Pyricularia orizae), escaldado de la hoja (Rhynchosporium oryzae) y carbón de la hoja (Entylama oryzae).Las dos plagas de importancia son Conocephalus spp. y los cangrejos de tierra; la incidencia esporádica de Oebalus .pp. puede causar daños al grano en el estado de leche.Durante 1983 el costo estimado de producción fue de TfS7000fha (US$2.916.66) y el promedio de rendimiento de 3925 kgfha.La división de Investigación de Cultivos del Ministerio de Agricultura ha sostenido un programa durante las últimas tres décadas, el cual se está revisando constantemente para satisfacer las tendencias actuales en la producción de arroz. Los trabajos y esfuerzos de investigación son de naturaleza cOlaborativa, e incluyen las diferentes disciplinas de la investigación, los servicios de .xtensión y, en alguna medida, a los agricultores.La política de investigación tiene como principal objetivo el beneficio y .1 bienestar de los productores de arroz, es decir que los programas de investigación sirvan para mejorar su nivel de ingresos y de esta manera contribuyan a su mejor nivel de vida. Los esfuerzos están dirigidos en• primer término hada el pequeño agricultor que produce arroz en tierras de pantano.La investigación actual es de naturaleza aplicada y toma dos formas; una dirigida al aumento de la producción en fincas pequeñas y otra a estudios de factibilidad sobre la producción a gran escala, totalmente mecanizada.El objetivo primordial de la investigación para fincas pequeñas es promover el cambio de Jos sistemas tradicionales de cultivo por sistemas modernos y actualizados según se puedan aplicar en el país. Estos cambios incluyen la sustitución de las variedades tradicionales por variedades y selecciones introducidas y probadas, la aplicación de mejores métodos de siembra (incluyendo densidades de siembra), el uso de fertilizantes y de productos químicos para el control de malezas, plagas y enfermedades, la introducción de equipos a pequeña escala para la cosecha y operaciones posteriores y, de suma importancia. el establecimiento de dos cultivos por año.En cuanto a los estudios de factibilidad sobre la producción en gran escala, se puede decir que, al poner en práctica el plan de racionalización del azúcar, aproximadamente 6500 aCres (2650 ha) Se convertirán en tierras inundables para la producción de arroz. Se prevé que los tamaños de las fincas sean relativamente grandes (2000 acres o sea 809 ha), bajo un sístema de producción totalmente mecanizado. La agencia existente (Caroni-1975 Lid.), está evaluando actualmente un proyecto piloto de 150 acres (60 ha) con mecanización total, a fin de determinar la factibilidad de este sistema y su aplicación en unidades mucho más grandes, Propuestas y planes de acción Se espera que para 1990 la demanda de productos agropecuarios tales como cereales y granos (entre otros) aumente sustancialmente si continúan los niveles actuales de consumo (Cuadro 3). En general, se acepta que con la actual disponibilidad y las condiciones de la tierra, no seria posible satisfacer los aumentos proyectados mediante la producción local; según estas previsiones, la meta para 1990 es suplir con producción local el 38% de la demanda esperada para cereales y granos'.Varias agencias gubernamentales y dos compañías públicas (Caroni~ 1975 Ltd, Y Ríce Company de T rinídad y Tobago Ltd.) tienen a su cargo un plan de aceión con la responsabilidad de satisfacer las demandas proyectadas 4 • El capital necesario para recuperar o convertir tierras para la producción de arroz bajo riego es cada vez más alto, y por esta razón se han iniciado estudios sobre la factibílidad de producir arroz de secano tanto en fincas pequeñas como en las medianas (hasta de 10 ha), Una posible alternativa para la siembra del arroz de secano con un mínimo gasto de capital es racionalizar el uso de las tierras actualmente con cafia de azúcar, o el uso de fincas de cultivos arbóreos abandonados para sembrar el arroz. Esto no elimina la posibilidad de recuperar antiguas tierras inundables~ sino que permite aumentar más rápidamente el área de producci6n con menores recursos de capital Se le está prestando gran consideración a este sistema de: producción, Sin embargo, una de las principales limitaciones al desarrollo de ese  propósito es la negativa de los antiguos productores a reactivar la producción, y la falta de motivación de los agricultores más jóvenes para entrar a producir arroz, debido a los niveles más bajos de rentabilidad de este cultivo en comparación con otros cultivos alimenticios y con otras formas de producción. Posiblemente esa situación se puede atribuir también a un problema socioeconómíco que ha sido y sigue siendo el factor primordial del estancamiento de la producción agrícola local.Para aliviar este problema, se prevé la institución de un esfuerzo cooperativo entre las actividades de investigación y extensión~ que inc1uya también aspectos sociológicos de la producción de cultivos alimenticios.Principales factores que limitan la producción de arroz y enfoques de Investigación El principal factor limitativo de la producción es el alejamiento del agricultor de sus tierras, hecho que ha redundado en una disminución significativa tanto en el Areade cultivo del arrOz como en la producción de cultivos alimenticios. Entre las acciones que sugieren varios informes para revertir esta tendencia están el mejoramiento de los sistemas de drenaje y riego} la organización de la tenencia de la tierra, el mejoramiento de la eficiencia del CMA y la finalización de la instalación del molino de arroz.La mayoria de los informes concuerdan en que si la producción de arroz ha de continuar, es obligatoria su mecanización. Sin embargo. el tamafio de las fincas parece indicar que es con maquinaria pequeña como se puede resolver el problema de la dependencia de la mano de obra, que es escasa y costosa. Por esta razón, el gobierno ha iniciado trahajos so ore trilladoras manuales! las cuales reducen en una tercera parte la mano de obra requerida para la cosecha; pero se sigue necesitando aquélla para el corte yel •transporte del arroz bajo condiciones adversas de trabajo.El proyecto piloto de arroz en Caroni-1975 Limitada está trabajando en una operación altamente mecanizada que incluye siembra directa y cose~ cha con combinada, lo cual demanda más investigación y personal capaci• tado a corto plazo. En las áreas bajas inundables. la mecanización de la cosecha requeriría la programación oportuna de esta operacíón para realizarla en los meses más secos.Se debe evaluar la posibilidad de sembrar variedades mejoradas sensibles al fotoperíodo.La realización de dos cultivos al año en las áreas que se pueden regar, y la evaluación de la factibilidad de un cultivo de retoño podrían requerir 110 Taller sobre la Red Cooperativa de Investigación de Arroz en el Cáribe mayores ensayos de variedades, puesto que el germoplasma disponible para los agricultores no incluye las variedades de alto rendimiento recientemente desarrolladas.La capacitación tanto de personal de investigación como de extensión tiene que fomentarse puesto que el trabajo requerido para aumentar la producción demandará mucha más experiencia técoicaque la actualmente disponible.Federico Cuevas Pérez* La región del Caribe incluye un grupo de islas que están diseminadas en el mar de ese nombre desde el extremo sur de la Florida hasta la costa norte de América del Sur. Hay además tres países continentales que, por razones históricas, se consideran parte del Caribe; Surinam y Guyana en la costa norte de América del Sur y Belice en América CentraL Las harreras de idioma han restringido tradicionalmente la colaboración entre los distintos países; los de babIa inglesa tienen bastante experiencia en colaboración mutua, pero los de los de habla española, francesa y holandesa se relacionan más con países de fuera de la región.La actividad económica está dominada por la agricultura y la minería; el sector turismo representa, asimismo, una fuente importante de divisas para algunos países, La caña de azúcar es el cultivo dominante en la agricultura del área, especiaímente en las islas más grandes.Aunque no todos los países del Caribe tienen tradición en la siembra de arroz, este cereal forma parte integral de la dieta en la mayoría de ellos, El presente trabajo describe las características generales del área arrocera, la cual incluye a Belice, Cuba, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, República Dominicana, Surinam y Trinidad y Tobago; también resume las principales limitaciones para el aumento de la productividad en la región.El área sembrada varía considerablemente entre los diferentes paises, desde un máximo de 146,000 ha en Cuba hasta un mínimo de 450 en Jamaiea(Cuadro 1), La mayor parte del arroz se cultiva bajo riego, aunque .. Consultor del Centro lntemacional de Agricultura Tr<>pical y Subdirector de investigaCIOnes en el Instituto Superior de Agricultura{lSA), Santiago, Repúbhca Dominicana. Actu.umente Coordinador dellRTP para América Latina, Cali., Colombia. Existen dos modelos básicos para la investigación y la extensión en el Caribe: a) ambas actividades son responsabilidad de una institución gubernamental involucrada en la producción y lo el mercadeo de arroz; b) el Ministerio de Agricultura forma un grupo técnico arrocero que incluye extensionistas, investigadores y agentes de desarrollo.El primer modelo se puede encontrar en Guyana, Haití, Jamaica y Surinam, Las instituciones responsables son respectivamente el Consejo de Mercadeo de Arroz de Guyana(GRB), el Organismo para el Desarrollo del Valle del Artibonite (ODV A), la Corporación para el Desarrollo del Upper Morass (BR UMDEC) y la Fundación para la Mecanización Agrícola (SML). Guyana y Surinam están tratando de reorganizar sus programas de investigación, en el caso de Guyanacon la fundación de un instituto nacional de investigaciones que incluirla el arroz, y en el caso de Surinam con la organización de un instituto nacional de arroz.El segundo modelo se encuentra en Cuba y República Dominicana, Aunque la investigación arrocera es responsabilidad de la Estación Central de Investigación Arrocera (ECIA) en Cuba y del Centro de Investigaciones Arroceras (CEDIA) en República Dominicana, la organización del Ministerio de Agricultura permite la interacción constante entre todos los técnicos arroceros, ya sea colocando la estación bajo la Dirección de Arroz (Cuba) o concentrando todos los técnicos en el mismo lugar (República Dominicana), Belice y Trinidad y Tobago na lienen un grupo para la investigación arrocera como tal. Belice tiene a Toledo Research and Development Projecl (TRDP) que, manejado por británicos, realiza algunas investigaciones en arroz~ pero su futuro no está bien definido, En el pasado~ Big Falls Ranch (una compañia privada) realizaba investigaciones en arroz, pero debido a problemas financieros sus esfuerzos ban disminuido considerablemente, La investigación agricola en Trinidad y Tobago está muy bien organizada, pero la correspondienle al arrOl no ha sido prioritaria; ésta ha estado bajo la responsabilidad de la división de Cereales de la Estación Central, con poco personal y recursos.En términos de capacidad y experiencia en investigación arrocera, el Caribe se puede dividir en dos grupos: el de aquellos países que han tenido programas de investigación por más de diez afios (Cuba, Guyana, República Dominicana y Surinam) y el de aquellos quc apenas inician sus programas de investigación (Belice, Haití, Jamaica y Trinidad y Tobago), En el primer grupo, Guyana está teniendo problemas para mantener su programa de investigación, debido especialmente a cambios en su personal y a escasez de recursos. Por lo tanto, Guyana se puede considerar como caso particular, en términos de entrenamiento de personal.La producción agrícola depende de varios componentes, los cuales actúan conjuntamente en el mejoramiento de la productividad y la rentabilidad; por lo tanto, el impacto de las variedades mejoradas depende de los demás componentes de la producción. La investigación debe generar tecnologías apropiadas para la infraestructura presente y futura, y consistentes con la experiencia de los agricultores.Muchas de las limitaciones para la producción de arrOlen el Caribe son de infraestructura y no se pueden vencer con investigación solamente. Las mayores de tales limitaciones tienen que ver con disponibilidad de infraestructura para riego y maquinaria, y con políticas de mercadeo; algunos de los problemas son especlficos de ciertos paises y se deben manejar como tales. Sin embargo, la colaboración regional puede contribuir al aumento de los rendimientos si se concentra en las siguientes actividades: Producción de semilla, Muy pocos países del Caribe tienen una ley de semillas y personal capacitado para asegurar la disponibilidad y buena calidad de este insumo. La mayoría de los problemas con arroz rojo son el resultado de semilla de mala calidad. La cooperación y el entrenamiento a nivel regional, el asesoramiento ttcnico en multiplicación de semillas y en métodos adecuados para el control de arr07. rojo pueden contribuir a aumentar los rendimientos y a mejorar la calidad, sin cambios significativos en las prácticas agronómicas. Investigación agronómica. Los cambios económicos están incrementando los costos de pTOducción, lo cual crea la necesidad de paquetes tecnológicos baratos. Las investigacíones sobre preparación de terreno, métodos de control de malezas, fertilización y equipos de cosecha podrlan reducir los costos y aumentar los rendimientos por unidad de área.Otra área de investigación que podria aumentar el rendimiento por área y por unidad de tiempo es el uso más intensivo de la tierra. A1gunos países, como Cuba, República Dominicana y Trinidad y Tobago, han tratado de aumentar el número de cosechas por año reduciendo el ciclo de las variedades y mediante el cultivo del retoño; en este último aspecto la República Dominicana tiene una experiencia considerable que deberiacompartir con Jos demás paises del área. Evaluadón de germoplasma. Aunque la mayoría de las variedades que se siembran en el Caribe son mejoradas, existe la posibilidad de aumentar el potencial de rendimíento~ se~eccionando materiales con características especiales para cada pals en cuanto a ciclo, calidad, y tolerancia a problemas de suelo, asl:Las variedades tempranas serían de utilidad para Cuba, Jamalca y República Dominicana, mientras que las variedades fotosensitivas mejoradas podrían resultar útiles a Trinidad y Tobago y, posiblemente, a Belice. Actualmente algunos países cosechan el arroz bajo condiciones desfavorables debido al uso de variedades tardías y lo al retraso en la siembra.Debido a la realización de cosechas tardías o bajo condiciones desfavorables, a las preferencias del mercado, y a las exigencias de la exportación, se requieren variedades de arroz que den buen rendimiento en el mo1Íno, aun cuando se cosechen con humedad muy baja. Debe destacarse el caso de Guyana y Surinam, donde se siembran variedades de grano extra largo, cuyos rendimientos en el molino son regularmente bajos; con la esperada expansión en área y en producción mercadeable, estos paises podrían utilizar variedades con más altos rendimientos de molino.Fundamentalmente hay dos problemas de suelo en el Caribe: salinidad y suelos orgánicos. El germoplasma que se supla a Cuba, Haití y República Dominicana debe incluir materiales con tolerancia a salinidad, y el enviado a Jamaica debe tolerar suelos orgánicos.Las actividades regionales podrían incluir la realización de cruzamientos especificos para algunos paises y la colaboración en el manejo de las poblaciones segregantes. Países como Belice, Cuba, Guyana, Haití, y Trinidad y Tobago podrían utilizar estos cruzamientos regionales.Entrenamiento. Con la probable excepción de Cuba y República Dominicana, la mayoría de los paises del área tienen poco personal entrenado en el cultivo de arroz. El entrenamíento de personal de investigación asegurada programas nacionales dinámicos y los capacitaría para realizar experimentos especificos dentro de cada país.Los investigadores de Belice, Guyana, Haití y Jamaica pueden entrenarse en los cursos organizados por el CIAT, ya sea en Colombia o usando las facilidades de República Dominicana y Surinam. Los investigadores de Trinidad y Tobago se podrlan beneficiar de entrenamientos en el IRRI, donde podrían familiarizarse con el ecosistema de secano inundado.Los esfuerms de entrenamiento para Cuba, República Dominicana y Surinam deben concentrarse en cursos cortos sobre áreas específicas, especialmente en mejoramiento y control de malezas. Para Beliee, Jamaica, y Trinidad y Tobago, paises que están desarrollando su industria arrocera, se requerirían esfuerzos adicionales~ incluyendo entrenamientos a nivel de finca.De igual manera, los arroceros de Belice se podrían beneficiar si intercambiaran experiencias con agricultores centroamericanos, y los de Jamaica y Trinidad lo podrían hacer con agricultores de Guyana, así como con los de Colombia y República Dominicana, si el idioma lo permite. El intercambio de conocimientos agronómicos entre los paises debe incentivarse, especialmente en relación con el uso y desarrollo de maquinarias. Las reuniones regionales podrían ayudar a estimular dicho intercambio.Conclusiones y Recomendaciones del Primer Taller de la Red Cooperativa de Investigación de Arroz en el Caribe Después de discutir cuidadosamente los informes de los países y el resumen de la situación del arroz en el Caribe, así como las propuestas que se presentaron, los participantes en este Primer Taller de la Red Cooperativa de Investigación de Arroz en el Caribe conduyeron que es necesario desarrollar una colaboración regional significativa para lograr las metas nacionales de producción de arroz. Se observó que varios países de la región cuentan con germoplasma y con tecnología sobre arroz que pueden compartir con los demás países, y que sin embargo este tipo de interacción no es frecuente debido a la falta de mecanismos de colaboración y agentes catalíticos.De acuerdo con la recomendación de la reunión de trabajo celebrada en Puerto España, Trinidad y T obago, en septiembre de 1983, sobre políticas de investigación agrícola, la manera más apropiada y efectiva para fortalecer la colaboración entre Jos países del Caribe y con los programas de los centros internacionales es la creaci6n de una red de investigación de arroz, Por lo tanto, los participantes en este Taller de la Red Cooperativa de Investigaci6n de Arroz en el Caribe respaldaron plenamente dicha recomendación y concluyeron que la red se debe establecer tan pronto como sea posible. Para el efecto proponen los siguientes objetivos, estrategia, actividades~ organización, sede, investigación regional y financiamiento.Fortalecer la capacidad de los programas nacionales de investigación de arroz.b) Estimular la colaboración para la investigación de problemas comunes que afectan la producción arrocera.Tal1er sobre la Red CooperaJiYQ de Investigación de Arroz en el Caribe c) Facilitar la transferencia horizontal de tecnología de producción y de semillas generadas por las instituciones participantes.d) Facilitar una colahoración más efectiva de CIATIIRRI con los programas nacionales en la región.el Facilitar la cooperación técnica entre los países del Caribe como un mecanismo para promover la producción de arrOZ.Los objetivos indicados contribuirían al desarrollo de los componentes de una nueva tecnología arrocera, adecuada para las condiciones ecológicas y económicas en cada zona de producción y sistema de cultivo en el Caribe.La estrategia central no es reemplazar la investigación de los programas nacionales, sino aumentar su capacidad y mejorar su efectividad, mediante un esfuerzo colectivo. Se espera que cada país conduzca su propia investigación de acuerdo con las prioridades nacionales y dentro de sus posibilidades, y que contribuya a la investigación de interés regional. Las actividades de la red deben diseliarse para ofrecer apoyo técnico a los esfuerzos nacionales y no para reemplazarlos.Coordinar la investigación en problemas arroceros comunes, tratando de dividir responsabilidades entre los programas partícipantes, cuando se considere necesario.Probar germoplasma en una serie de experimentos coordinados, diseñados para resolver limitaciones de producción específicas, importantes para el área. Este comité: se reunirá una vez por año con ocasión de los talleres regionales, en general para desarrollar sus funciones, y en especial para analizar los programas de investigación y las propuestas específicas de colaboración regional y para proveer apoyo a las actividades de la red.Científico Regional de Arroz en el Caribe (CRAC). Dedicado de tiempo completo a las actividades de la red, deberá ser designado como funcionario internacional para gozar de libertad de acción dentro de la región. Debe ser bilingüe, y sus responsabilidades incluyen; 1.Organizadas reuniones del CT A y dar el apoyo requerido para su realización.2.. Coordinar los experimentos de interés regional apoyados por la red.Organizar el intercambio de germoplasma entre los países participantes y desde los centros internacionales y otras instituciones extra regionales.Conducir investigación en apoyo de los programas nacionales.Organizar cursos de entrenamiento, talleres regionales, visitas de observación y demás actividades de apoyo a la red, incluyendo las concernientes a la realización de estudios socioeconómicos.6. Servir como cientifico de enlace con programas de arroz extraregionales, particularmente con los de los centros internacionales.Se recomienda que el .ientifico regional de arroz en el Caribe tenga su sede en el Centro de Investigaciones Arroceras (CEDIA) de la República Dominicana. Esta recomendación se basa en; a) la ubicación geográfica central de la República Domínicana; b} la investigación en arroz que se adelanta en el CEDIA y la integración que existe allí entre las actividades de investigación, fomento, capacitación y producción de semilla; e) la diversidad agroecológica y de sistemas de producción que se encuentran en la República Dominicana; d) la infraestructura y capacidad de apoyo científico disponibles en el CEDIA; y e) la generosa oferta hecha por el CEDIA para hospedar al científico y proveer el apoyo logistico requerido dentro de sus posibilidades.","tokenCount":"21047"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1efeb2c987829c371a9aa87124378022","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/50d6c008-764b-427a-9fa3-577cee113224/content","id":"-19919314"},"keywords":["F30","H50 Dewey decimal classification: 633.1532 P<0.05","+P<0.10","ns P>O.10"],"sieverID":"4d2a40c4-a1a8-42dc-b3f0-5c75b709720b","pagecount":"332","content":"CIMMYT is an internationally funded, nonprofit scientific research and training organization. Headquartered in Mexico, the Center is engaged in a worldwide research program for maize, wheat, and triticale, with emphasis on improving the productivity of agricultural resources in developing countries. It is one of 16 nonprofit international agricultural research and training centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which is sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The CGIAR consists of some 40 donor countries, fnternanonal and regional organizations, and private foundations.CIMMYT rece,ives core support through the CGIAR from a number of sources, inc1udingthe international aid agencies of Australia,service agencies, as well as local farmer groups, NCOs, and other rural associations, is needed to This is a tale of a growing CrISIS in African ensure that priorities are set correctly, that the right agriculture.It -deals with a riddle, whose questions are asked, and that the solutions found are dimensions have grown increasingly apparent over delivered quickly to those who need them. While the years, and which is generating great volumes of the agenda is complex, and the organisation needed literature dealing with possible causes and solutions. difficult, there is clear evidence that these In this paper, a small piece of the overall puzzle is approaches can yield substantial benefits to examined. Maize is a major food crop in southern smallholders and that they are practical in the and eastern Africa.It is widely grown by unpromising world of African agricultural smallholders, and forms an important part of the improvement. transformation of smallholder agricultural systems that has taken place this century. But, despite THE BREAKDOWN OF TRADITIONAL considerable and commendable efforts in technology SYSTEMS development at both the national' and the This story is well known and only-requires summary international level, agricultural productivity here. African countries have an economic structure performance is well below that necessary to help heavily reliant on agriculture. The sector typically create strong, healthy African economies.generates around 40% of GNP, employs 70 to 90% of No single quick solution is apparent for this the labour force, and, except for oil or mineral problem. Nor is one likely to be found. But there exporters, provides a similar proportion of exports. are actions which can be taken today, and which, if Population growth rates are high, with limited carefully planned and coordinated, can lead to a opportunities for industrial or urban employment reversal of the present undesirable trends. In this (World Bank, 1993). In most countries, much of the paper, two major possible foci are outlined. Firstly, population still lives in the countryside but the there is a need to match the advances in crop opportunities for increased incomes there also are improvement (through breeding) with scarce. Thus it is on agricultural growth that developments in crop management. Too often poor development strategies that embrace broad based agricultural productivity is blamed on poor enhancements to employment, export earnings, management methods by farmers. If that is the case, income distribution, and human nutrition will then the methods accessible to the farmer are clearly depend. deficient --few farmers choose to be poor. The The emphasis in this paper will be on smallholder obligation is on the researcher to work with the agriculture. In Africa, smat1holders occupy much of farmer to find and refine management methods that the available agricultural land (although, in southern address real farmer problems.Africa particularly, historical factors, until recently, Secondly, and directly associated with the search for closed the more productive ecologies to them). improved crop management methods, a concerted Smallholders are also the largest employers of effort, involving public and private agricultural labour. The numbers of smallholders, their latent xi xii contribution to national development, and the apparent potential for productivity improvements in existing smallholder farming systems suggest the need for concentrated research on this group.In addition, African countries face two problems of increasing importance. Firstly, there is growing evidence that a substantial number of rural families are unable to produce sufficient food for their own annual needs (Weber et ai., 1988). Secondly, the rising market prices of the main food staples mean that the poorest urban and rural families cannot afford to purchase sufficient food requirements to cover their production deficit.Solving the conundrum of raising smallholder farm incomes, while producing food at a price affordable to the poor, is essential to the peaceful development of sub-Saharan Africa (Blackie and Conroy, 1993). Agricultural research has an important contribution to make to the solution of this dilemma. If higher food crop productivity can be combined with lowering unit production costs, then it is possible to increase farm incomes while reducing the cost of food (CIMMYT, 1990).The traditional source of increased agricultural output in Africa has been through expanding the area cultivated. While few countries in Africa do not have ample land into which farming populations can continue to expand, the long term consequence of widespread, low productivity agriculture is likely to be a continuing decline in the natural resource base of the continent. In the traditional land surplus economy of Africa, soil nutrients have long been recognised as a seriously limiting factor (Lynam and Blackie, 1994). African farmers, particularly in southern and eastern Africa, have traditionally maintained soil nutrients (mainly associated with organic matter) through shifting cultivation. Cleared land is cultivated for a few seasons and the site is then abandoned and left fallow for an extended time. During the fallow period, the natural vegetation becomes re-established and nutrients are gradually accumulated in the rooting zone of annual plants.Under traditional long fallows, this system served African farmers well. With good vegetation cover leading to a hot bum, under traditional African farming systems, farmers could feed their families adequately in most years with a modest input of labour. But, if the length of the fallow period is reduced, the equilibrium levels of soil organic carbon and organic nitrogen quickly and significantly decline -markedly reducing the_ productive capacity of the soil (Brossler, 1991). The poorer soil (and the cooler bum) means that more digging and weeding are needed to produce a crop, Blackie reducing the labour productivity of the farmer. Crop productivity is reduced through soil erosion (exacerbated by the exposure of bare soil during the dry season and early rains) and by weeds, as the frequency of cultivation, relative to fallow, grows (Sanchez, 1986).Sustainable systems require that fertility lost through agriculture be replaced. But few African smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa use fertilizers on anything like a consistent basis. The exceptions are smallholder farmers in the better ecologies of Zimbabwe, Kenya, and, to a lesser extent, Zambia. Even in those countries, overall soil nutrient losses are high (Smaling, 1993). Cattle manure, composts, and other organic nutrient sources are often used but rarely is there sufficient of any of these materials to fertilise more than a small proportion of the area farmed each year. The shortage of organic materials is compounded, in many cases, by poor quality. Where soils are depleted of nutrients, organic manures produced from these soils can only be low in nutrients themselves. Poor storage r~ults in further losses of nutrients through leaching or breakdown.Rapid population growth over much of Africa has overwhelmed the farmers' ability to adapt tradition to more intensive land use practices. Farming practice has moved along a continuum of shortening fallows until, in some countries, fallows have disappeared entirely. Concurrently, land holdings have declined in size or families have moved into more marginal areas. As the land deteriorates, the traditional agriculture of Africa becomes poor husbandry.African smallholders recognise the importance of soil fertility for crop production and have modified their practices (often radically) as the available sources of organic nutrients have declined. A well documented example of a massive shift in farming practice (significantly with little input from agricultural scientists or extension workers) is the change from the 'Chitemene' system (which involves harvesting wood from around 10 hectares of land for each hectare cultivated; burning the wood on the land adds fertility in the form of ash and also helps to kill weeds through the action of the fire)found in some parts of northern Zambia and southern Tanzania, to an organically based composting system, known as 'Fundikila' (Blackie and Jones, 1993). Harrison (1987)ohas documented many other valuable efforts by African farmers to adapt their farming practices to changing circumstances. Tiffen and Mortimore (1994) show how farmers in Machakos, Kenya, have improved the quality of Maize productivity for the 21st century their land through investments in new technologies, knowledge, and improved management techniques.However, adaptation usually starts at overall productivity levels that are already too low for the existing human population. There is some evidence to suggest that African smallholders are often too scattered, and without sources of off-farm income to enable them to move to higher management input systems (Haggeblade et al., 1989; Tiffen and  Mortimore, 1994). Typically the altered farming practices slow, rather than reverse, the declining trend in soil organic matter and are insufficient to meet the challenges of the future. In addition, the poorer households, to whom organic manures offer a potential low cost alternative source of fertility, often find that labour is a major constraint. They do not have sufficient labour to collect and compost organic materials, such as leaf litter and stover, and they do not own sufficient (or any) livestock to produce manure (Carter, 1993).The increase in vulnerability to food insecurity at both household and national levels is evident from the continuing food crises in Africa.African smallholders, almost wherever they live, face conditions of difficulty and stress for which both tradition and science have few real answers. While there are technically sound solutions to most of the problems faced by African smallholders, all too often these turn out to be financially or managerially unsound under the circumstances faced by many such farmers.For much of this century -and certainly since World War II, plant breeding has led the way to productivity gains in agriculture. The logic is simple. Traditional crop materials have evolved to survive and produce reliably even in poor seasons. But this resilience comes at a cost. The physiological \"buffering\" which enables them to survive and produce under poor conditions prevents them from offering much of a yield response to improved conditions -such as being planted with additional fertiliser.The potential of the plant to respond to improved husbandry can be dramatically altered through plant breeding.Much agricultural research has concentrated on developing crop varieties with the consistent capacity to respond to improved management and to inputs such as fertiliser and water.Through the introduction of attractive pricing and marketing (and other) policies, and the education of the farmer in the correct use of the new inputs, agricultural productivity can be markedly xiii enhanced. Empirical evidence for the success of this approach comes from the Americas and from Asia where major productivity gains in wheat and irrigated rice farming systems have been achieved over the past half century (Lynam and Blackie, 1994).But for rainfed crops, which predominate in Africa, the results have been less convincing.Few purchased inputs are used, and, in many cases, the policy environment has been unhelpful. Incomes of rural families are low; illiteracy and innumeracy are common. Poor infrastructure and communications contribute to making inputs costly. There is an important exception. Byerlee (1992) shows that, although there has been some farmer adoption of improved cassava varieties in Nigeria, and of improved climbing beans in Rwanda, it is improved maizes that have been most widely adopted by African smallholders. Ranging from the land scarce environments of Kenya, Zimbabwe (and, more recently, Malawi) through to more land abundant countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, and Zambia, smallholders have increasingly turned to improved maize varieties (Byerlee and Heisey, 1993).The success of maize breeding for the rainfed environments of Africa is a substantial achievement. The change has been more gradual than with rice and wheat in the higher potential irrigated areas of Asia, but the trend, nevertheless is evident. Because in Africa, as opposed to Asia, the improved maizes are not being introduced into a few large uniform irrigated areas, the potential for the rapid spread of a single, widely adaptE!d cultivar is more limited. But, given time, the same model applies. The germplasm that gave rise to the Zimbabwe variety SR52 has been the source of many improved maize cultivars throughout southern and eastern Africa a.Evidence of adoption of improved maize varieties, once these have been tailored to specific smallholder requirements, is encouraging. In Zimbabwe and Kenya, early maturing varieties, which can tolerate drought stress at silking, have been instrumental in increasing levels of adoption in those countries. In Malawi, an important consideration in choosing maize for home consumption was grain hardness or flintiness. The introduction of a semi-flint maize (the outcome of an exceptional piece of collaborative work ~tween the Malawi national programme and CIMMYT), has led to an impressive uptake of hybrid technology (Smale and Heisey, forthcoming).While the growth in adoption of improved maize varieties gives rise to some optimism, the absence of a consistent growth trend in average per hectare maize yields is worrying (CIMMYT, 1992;Lele, xiv 1992). Such a picture might be expected if farmers adopting new maize varieties were not using fertiliser. But recent data show little aggregate 12 §: hectare yield increases even where there has been significant growth in fertiliser use by smallholders. In Zimbabwe, smallholder fertiliser use grew from around 27000 tonnes at independence to 125000 tonnes a decade later yet smallholder maize yields have stagnated at an unimpressive 1.2 tonnes/hectare over the last decade (Conroy, 1990). This reflects, in part, an increase in maize cropping in the semi-arid areas (where lower yields are expected) as well as an improvement in information on smallholder production since independence. Nevertheless, there is evident room to increase average maize yields. The food crisis in Zimbabwe following the 1991/2 drought has been attributed, not only to the catastrophic season, but also to poo~ smallholder maize productivity (Eicher and Rukuru, 1993). In Malawi, smallholder fertiliser purchases rose by around 15 per cent per annum between 1982/83 and 1990/91 but per hectare yields have remained stuck at around 1 tonne/hectare (Conroy, 1993). The average yield of hybrid maize in Malawi is higher, at around 2.5 tonnes per hectare. As farmers have made the switch from 'local' maize to hybrid, average aggregate yields have started to improve. But, despite the increa~e in ~.e use of fertiliser, hybrid yields show no eVIdent rlSIDg trend (Blackie and Conroy, 1993).In conclusion to this section, the big jump in potential maize productivity has been made in the switch from local open pollinated materials to modern high yielding hybrids. But the growth in yields is clearly much less than is reasonable to expect. The causes of this phen~menon are comple~. The remainder of the paper will focus on what 15 probably the main cause of low maize productivity, which is compromised crop management, and on the complementary technologies and policies that need to be put in place to build on the very real success in crop improvement in maize.The image of an unproductive smallholder sector is not new to sub-Saharan Africa. In many countries of southern and eastern Africa, colonial policies and restrictions have been identified as a major factor in the decline of smallholder agriculture over the first half of this century. The truth of this statement may be less evident than commonly assumed. Certainly, the most spectacular declines in smallholder producitivity in Africa have occured p~st independence.With the removal of colomal constraints, few, if any, countries have managed consistent growth in smallholder ma~e productivity. The growth in smallholder maiZe production in Zimbabwe and Kenya has largely Blackie been confined to a minority of smallholders living in the higher potential areas (Stanning, 1987;Rohrbach, 1988;Howell, 1992).Generally, throughout the region, seed/ fertiliser technology uptake by smallholders has been concentrated mainly in the higher potential areas, where risks are lower and returns higher (Byerlee and Heisey;1993). Over large areas, the productivity gains from this technology have been much poorer than would be expected from onstation experimental data -or from information derived from large scale farms. The narrowness of the adoption pattern leaves open the problem as to how to address the increasing constituency of resource poor farmers who are either liVing in marginal areas, or in areas which are rapidly becoming marginal as soils erode and decline in fertility, and who have largely been bypassed by the conventional seed/ fertiliser technology.There persist long standing, and seemingly intractable, problems associated with low productivity African agriculture (Lipton, 1988).Crop improvement through plant breeding represents a technology that saves on land. In many of the more marginal areas, lack of moisture, usually associated with poor soil nutrient status, is likely to be a key constraint. This suggests that greater returns to research may be achieved through interventions that enhance moisture and nutrient conservation, and that improve the efficiency of use of these two important factors (Byerlee and Morris, 1993).Addressing the soil fertility constraint. The most important threat to sustainabili~ ~f s~allho~~er maize-based systems is the decline ID soil fertility associated with falling levels of organic matter and soil nutrients as traditional farmer practices become untenable under growing population pressures. There is much to learn about African soil fertility management.The intensification of African cropping systems will require the integrated use and management of both organic and inorg~c manure~. But the maintenance of soil orgamc matter 15 possibly the most crucial element in eliminating the ecological and social decline evident in so much of African smallholder agriculture.In most areas of the world, chemical fertilizers have played a major role in maintaining and increasing soil fertility. A range of factors mitigate against the widespread use of inorganic fertilisers in southern and eastern Africa. Particularly important are the highly variable responses to fertiliser use under smallholder conditions, which make the technology risky and difficult to use by ~~rmers with. ~inimal resources. In addition, the effiCIency of fertilizer use is typically unsatisfactory, often related to Maize productivity for the 21st century inadequate levels of soil organic matter and nutrient imbalances (caused by past farming practices) (Brossler,l991). The traditional unimproved millets, sorghums, and maizes have such low grain harvest indices that they cannot provide an attractive return to fertiliser except at highly subsidised input fertiliser prices. Despite the uptake of hybrid maize in southern and eastern Africa, improved varieties still only make up a minor proportion of the land planted to cereal crops (5. Carr, personal communication).The old and already highly leached soils of the humid and subhumid zones in Africa, frequently damaged through lengthy exploitation without adequate fertility replacement, present a particular challenge for fertiliser management. The, rapid reintroduction of organic materials to smallholder agriculture is needed -through a focused combination of new science and traditional agricultural wisdom. Options include rotations, green manures, animal manures, reduced tillage techniques, intercropping, strip cropping, relay cropping, and agroforestry. All of these form components of many traditional agricultures, but usually fail, under high population pressures, to produce sufficient organic materials for today's ,needs. Associated with this effort, there will need to be coordinated studies into the judicious use of chemical fertilizers, pest and weed management techniques and practices, and the introduction of improved crop varieties.And, finally, such interlinked work will need continually to focus on those factors which enhance the prospects of eventual adoption by smallholders.Increasing yield response reliability. Fertiliser is an expensive input, particularly in Africa. Foreign exchange for imports is often difficult to obtain, communications are poor, and transport costs high. The richer economies of the developed world can afford to ,subsidise inputs, such as fertiliser, because intensive agricultural practices form only a small part of their economies. It is much more difficult for poor, donor dependent, African countries to divert their limited resources to making fertiliser use financially a'fuactive to farmers. In addition, all too often, the only data on fertiliser response rates are derived from experiment station data which typically overstate the likely response under smallholder conditions. xvi Malawi, due largely to its geographical position, has one of the most unfavourable maize/nitrogen price ratios in the region. Data from that country show that, even in such an unpromising market environment and over a period which included a serious drought, fertiliser use can be financially attractive to smallholders. A financial analysis has been made of 110 on-farm fertiliser demonstrations in Malawi which were done over a three year period including the 1991/2 drought year. The data in Figure 1 represent actual yields possible when farmers, on reasonable soils, receive fertiliser (of the correct type) on time, and have the resources and knowledge to use this fertiliser according to existing recommendations. With fertiliser subsidised at the present rate, and assuming a minimum economically acceptable marginal rate of return of 100 per cent, it was economic to use fertiliser, on these soils, with both local and hybrid maize in Malawi (Byerlee and Heisey, 1993). Similar findings have been reported by Sahn and Arulpragasam (1991) and Conroy (1993)/ but these reflect a situation where the Malawi currency was significantly overvalued (reducing the cost to the farmer), and where, in addition, there was a substantial subsidy on the fertiliser.Yields of around 3500-4000 kg ha-1 should be achievable under smallholder circumstances in the better maize growing ecologies.Reliable and profitable yield increases using seed/fertiliser technology under smallholder conditions are both necessary and achievable. But to. make them happen, the farmer requires dependable supply and . , ..,~V'ery of the necessary inputs/ together with greatly enhanced information on their use.However, most smallltoider farmers in Africa do not live in these favoured environments, nor do they have the capital and labour resources to make use of these technologies. Farmers on poorer soils and more marginal rainfall areas, for whom fertiliser as presently recommended is not financially attractive, need sensible and useful guidance in the use of fertiliser under their circumstances. Many recommendations on input use and crop management are impractical from the smallholder perspective. Farmers simply cannot complete the operations of planting, weeding, and fertilising their crops in the short period available to produce optimum results. Research prOVides little advice on how to manage the necessary trade-offs (Carr, 1989). While the 1980s saw a major effort to address this problem through adaptive research methods, the lack of real commitment by scientists and administrators to this effort has meant that little real impact has been noticed, although there has been a change (but all too small) in researcher perceptions Blackie of the need for greater farmer involvement in their work.Settled agriculture is a new phenomenon in much of Africa. The maintenance of fertility through added manures (either inorganic or organic) represents a major break with tradition. The decline in soil pH under continuous cultivation represents one of the most intractable problems faced by African farmers (S. Carr, personal communication). But there are few long term studies on fertiliser use in Africa, or of the long term effects of various systems of land management. One such experiment, at Kabete in Kenya, suggests that inorganic fertilisation alone may not be sufficient to sustain yields (Swift et aI., in  press). The experiment raises many questions of significance to smallholder agriculture.For . example, all treatments, even those where apparently sufficient farmyard manure was added, show a significant decline in organic matter. After the tenth year, yields tended to decline more sharply in the treatment where only inorganic fertiliser was used, than in those where farmyard manure was used. There is little information available which can be used to assess the changes over time caused by African farmers to their soils. Without such knowledge, it is difficult to provide sound advice as to how the clear and disturbing trends of soil degradation -and the associated low crop productivity --can be reversed (Carr, 1989). A coordinated regional effort should be initiated to provide a firm basis for appropriate long term soils experimentation in Africa, and to ensure the best and most effective use of the data which already exist (Swift et aI., in press).Existing experimentation should be carefully reviewed to improve its 'fit' with smallholder circumstances. Crops respond to fertiliser up to the level at which a nutrient becomes limiting. Beyond that point/ regardless of the amounts of the other nutrients, yields are constrained. The problem may be addressed by feeding the plants better, or reducing the number of plants. Malawi data show that, on moderately fertile soils, maize plant populations of 27000 plants per hectare consistently outyield the recommended population of 37000 plants per hectare (the opposite being the case under high fertility situations) (Carr, 1989). The obvious, but missing, recommendation is that farmers on poorer soils who cannot afford fertiliser should reduce their plant populations. There is widespread evidence from the field that farmers are, in fact, adopting this practice regardless of continuing advice to the contrary from research and extension services.Where smallholders are growing crops on depleted soils but are using fertiliser, it may be necessary to provide a wider range of crop nutrients than is conventionally assumed, in order to achieve optimum yields. Malawi researchers have shown impressive yield increases to small additions of minor nutrients --such as zinc, boron, and sulphur -in certain regions of the country. Where organic fertilisers are used, balancing with inorganic sources may be necessary.For example, tree litter is typically low in phosphorus so agroforestry systems may work best where inorganic phosphorus is applied to the crop (Wendt et aI., 1993).It has long been recognised that blanket recommendations for fertiliser use are inadequatealthough progress on addressing this issue has been painfully and unnecessarily slow. Blanket recommendations result in the inefficient use of an expensive and usually imported commoditywhich is costly for the nation and the farmer. It is possible, through modem fertiliser blending systems, to produce small 'runs' of fertiliser to given specifications. It is also possible, through a focused and carefully planned investigative and verification programme, to produce fertiliser recommendations for quite localised areas at a surprisingly reasonable cost. In the medium term, with improved access to modem data base management, exciting opportunities exist to refine such recommendations still further.Blanket crop management recommendations likewise are unhelpful. Research staff need the opportunity to gain greater exposure to smallholders and smallholder situations, and the resources to undertake diagnostic investigations and remedial experimentation of direct relevance to the problems that the farmer encounters regularly. Putting the resources together to make this happen requires, not only careful (and regularly reviewed) priority setting, but also effective liaison and communication with others who can contribute to the process.Just as there is no single technology that will transform smallholder agriculture in southern and eastern Africa, so there is no single technology transfer mechanism. Support will need to come from a coordinated effort involving public, private and non-governmental agencies. Gaining the vital understanding of smallholder agriculture will involve researchers in doing more than periodic diagnostic survey work amongst farmers; they will need to become part of the fabric of the rural community. This is no small task, but can be materially assisted by making active use of existing rural structures.Van Oosterhout (1993) has xvii demonstrated how this approach can use rural peoples' knowledge of farming practices to create a well focused and rigorous scientific investigation. Farmers are no different from workers in other spheres and are almost always members of local associations qr groups. These groups can be invaluable for gaining access to the farming community.In Zimbabwe, Agritex (the Department of Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services; and its predecessors) has long promoted 'Master Farmer Clubs' and 'Group Development Areas'. Agricultural supply firms have assisted in the formation and operation of savings clubs. Religious organisations have encouraged 'mushandire pamwe' associations (Bratton, 1986).Most indigenous farmer groups are reported by Bratton (1986) to be composed of what he terms 'middle peasants'. Group members have holdings in land, cattle and labour that are slightly above average, but have not developed to their full potential for productivity and income. Two-thirds of the membership of farming groups is female, with women predominating in groups with a production focus (Bratton, 1986).The data reported by Bratton indicate the value of the group based approach to smallholder extension. He found that farmers working in groups consistently outperformed farmers working alone. This advantage, in fact, increased in the lower potential agricultural areas -where most Zimbabwe smallholders live.The productivity of group farmers was 137% higher than that of individuals in Region IV as opposed to 64% higher in Region II. The most consistent effect of group membership was to increase the access of group members to outside service agencies -whether private or public. But the service that the groups consistently do not interact with is the research service.On a wider and more ambitious scale, Global 2000 have developed this practice of linking researchers, extension workers, policy makers, and farmer groups in several countries in Africa (Borlaug, 1991). The Global 2000 effort focuses on a small number of well proven technologies -seed, fertiliser, crop chemicals, and draft power -which have the potential of creating a major boost to crop productivity.The emphasis is on a delivery mechanism to bring these resources to the smallholder in a manner that encourages their uptakel! The published results are impressive with average crop yields increasing by 20-40% in project areas in selected countries (Dowswell, 1993). But this does not represent an approach with widespread applicability. The effort depends upon juggling with prices to make the technologies xviii financially attractive to participating farmers. Few African countries have the resources to support the costs involved into the long term. Global 2000, in common with many other NGOs and community based agricultural development efforts, have struggled with the problems associated with scaling up from a pilot programme to an activity with widespread and lasting impact. As the size of the project grows, the work must move out of programme hands and into conventional existing institutions. This exposes the work to the greater uncertainties of the wider world, often with disappointing results (Lynam and Blackie, 1994). There is a real need to learn how to transfer the many valuable project efforts run by organisations such as Global 2000 and various NGOs into a more general framework:Even the group based approach leaves the poorest rural dwellers with little effective support. The better off farmers appear to prefer a more independent mode of operation, while the very poorest generally do not join groups -because they are unable to contribute time or resources to the group, or they lack confidence, or because they do not have an interest in improved farming. Typically, in the past, many agriculturalists have assumed that the best option is for them to move off the land into other employment. Their growing numbers indicate that not only are the employment opportunities limited, but that the problem needs a more positive solution.Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and religious missions have a long record of working with the poorest rural dwellers. This gives these bodies a particular strength in understanding and articulating the problems of the poorest smallholders.Their weaknesses are those of charitable organisations everywhere -a lack of professional depth and expertise, together with very focused objectives and mandates which can inhibit the enrollment of wider interests in their programmes. While NGOs have a record of possibly responding more rapidly and more radically to farmer problems than more conventional research systems, their experimentation is generally poorly disseminated, weak in scientific rigour, and inadequately documented (Copestake, 1990). Moreover, the coverage of NGOs is modest in terms of the overall rural population. Copestake, 1990, reviewing data from Zambia shows that although there were 43 separate NGOs working in agriculture, they served no more than 2.5% of ~e rural population of that country. NGOs can aSSISt but their impact may be too local for widespread impact unless they form part of a large whole.However, thoughtful collaboration between selected NGOs and public sector agricultural service agencies can only benefit the farmer. At the very least, the best of the NGOs should be able to articulate the technology needs of neglected smallholder groups, helping to bridge the gap between researcher and farmer. More ambitiously, NGOs could form a part of a comprehensive research and extension network for smallholders -but this will require much careful development given the multiple objectives of the network participants, and the variability in professional skills of both NGO and public sector organisations (YVellard et al., .1990).When most African public sector research departments were established, both international and private sector support for agricultural research in Africa was modest compared with the present day.Today, in the major food crops, both transnational and indigenous private sector companies playa major role in the development and dissemination of improved materials. This trend has long been apparent in the cash crop area -especially with tobacco and cotton (Blackie, forthcoming). There are instances of the better off farming groups setting up their own research system. In Zimbabwe, the Agricultural Research Trust was established by the large scale farming sector to work specifically on agronomic and other research issues of direct concern to this sector.Fertiliser and agricultural supply firms employ their own agronomists and extension staff to reach largeand small-scale producers alike, prOViding a well developed system of support and advice for those producers in the higher potential areas who can afford purchased inputs.The Kohwa Pakuru scheme run by Ciba-Geigy and Agritex in Zimbabwe since 1981 has raised cotton yields from participating farmers to some 2600 kg ha-1 as opposed to the national average of 1750 kg ha-1 . There are now some 10000 farmers nationally participating in the scheme (Anon, 1990). Zimbabwe fertiliser companies have used 'savings clubs' as a method of assisting smallholders purchase crop inputs. The rewards from a well thought out collaborative research effort between private firms and public sector research can be substantial. In Mali, the Ciba Foundation has been instrumental in developing the Cinzanp. Agronomic Research Station into a well run, productive institution, with a focused and practical on-farm research programme and excellent technology adoption results (J.  Scheuring, personal communication). Eicher (1994) has pointed out the value of \"cooperation, synergy and spillovers between black and white farmers, researchers, and farm support organisations\" in the mobilisation of smallholder production that took place in Zimbabwe following independence.International science has also become an important player in technology development in the past several decades. The International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs) are providing substantial inputs into crop breeding in Southern and Eastern Africa. CIAT, CIMMYf, ICRISAT and IITA all have major programmes based around crop improvement interventions in southern and eastern Africa. Continuing efforts are being made to ensure that national programmes have the opportunity to draw upon the very considerable potential that this effort represents.There not only is potential, but a desperate need, for an effective coordination mechanism to bring together the best talents into a powerful, prioritised research effort tightly linked to skillfully identified farmer problems. The additional resources needed for such an exercise are not great and could easily be mobilised, given the right environment.Real progress would soon be evident on what are today apparently intractable long term resource husbandry issues facing smallholders in Africa.There has been a long, and often acrimonious, debate regarding the role of cash crops in the African smallholder economy. Space does not permit an adequate review of this literature here.Frequently, the opposition to cash cropping arises from a concern that it encourages farmers to neglect their own food needs -to the detriment of the nutrition and welfare of their families. The evidence from the southern and eastern Africa region suggests otherwise. Chigume and Jayne (1990) found that those farmers that were selling oilseeds from their survey areas in Zimbabwe were those that had a grain surplus. The grain deficit families were not growing cash crops in place of food, but lacked the resources to grow enough food for themselves. Lele (1992) reports similar findings from the World Bank MADIA work.Kenya, for example, encouraged smallholders to participate fully in both food and cash crop production. Lele, 1992, shows that, not only did the output of all crops in Kenya increase, but also that the relative share of smallholders in that output increased compared with that of large scale producers.Smallholders have become major producers of tea, coffee and horticultural crops, resulting in improved incomes and food security amongst smallholders (World Bank, 1989).xix Horticulture has become the third biggest foreign exchange earner in Kenya, as well as providing over 90% of the domestic market for fruits and vegetables. By contrast, Malawi has shown little improvement in smallholder productivity in either food or export crops. The bias in Malawi policy towards large scale production has meant stagnation in smallholder agriculture.The encouragement of cash cropping will be an essential component of smallholder development policies. Smallholders are major producers of cotton in Zimbabwe -as the result of a highly focused campaign introduced in the 1960s (Anon, 1990). Private firms are encouraging the production of tobacco amongst smallholders in suitable growing environments. Recent data show that oilseed crops can be valuable cash crops for smallholders in the drier areas of the country (Chigume and Jayne, 1990). However, even today, many smallholders have little chance of participating in the cash economy through cash cropping, mainly due to the absence of technologies suitable for their circumstances. In addition, as will be shown in the following paragraphs, participation in the market is not always a reliable proxy for smallholder advancement.One of the critical inputs to agricultural production is labour. In southern Africa, the tradition of seeking work in urban areas has left many rural households without able bodied young males. Agricultural production is seasonally labour intensive, and the timing of certain operations --especially planting and weeding -has a considerable influence on crop yields. Many families have difficulties meeting these labour requirements, particularly those female headed households who have neither remittances nor a cash income with which to buy fertiliser, draft power and labour: Those that are unable to provide timely and adequate labour are rewarded by seriously reduced yields. Typically, those families that cannot feed themselves undertake temporary agricultural work on other people's fields, with payment usually in food rather than cash. While this provides some short term alleviation of the immediate problem of how to feed the household, the poorest families become caught in a vicious circle. The greater the food deficit of the family, the more off farm work has to be undertaken, most of which is at the expense of timely operations on the home sardens.These families also face the additional problem of obtaining cash for essential household purchases. They cannot generate enough income and food from their own production for family needs, yet their off farm work does not generate cash. Consequently, xx such households often are net sellers of maize as this is the only method they have of raising needed cash; which only adds to their food deficit problem (Peters  and Herrera, 1989). The absence of cash crop cultivation opportunities which can be exploited by low resource farmers leaves them in a 'subsistence trap'.Critically, what is needed are reliable and timely input markets, and reasonably stable and fair output markets for smallholder produce. Farmers remote from the main centres face very real problems in gaining access to modem inputs. Chiduza et al. (1994) document that farmers in the northern Sebungwe region of Zimbabwe (one of the poorest regions of the country) pay local suppliers Z$80 per 10 kg of hybrid maize seed as opposed to Z$15 in the main centres. Conroy (1990) noted that regulated transport rates, the absence of storage facilities, and the high costs of vehicle maintenance combined to ensure that few traders would undertake the service of input distribution in the remoter communal areas of Zimbabwe, a relatively developed country in the region. The absence of adequate input and output markets, in which the private sector has such an important role to play, acts as a serious drag on the ability of smallholders to improve their productivity.The priorities that face the agricultural industries of southern and eastern Africa have changed dramatically in the last decade.Many rural communities are no longer food self sufficient, requiring many of the poorest families to purchase food. The stagnation or decline in real incomes (especially for the rural and urban poor) requires that the cost efficiency of food production must rise. Central to this scenario is a productive, flOUrishing smallholder agriculture providing a broad base for income growth in the rural areas.Such a productive smallholder agriculture will require the expanded use of purchased inputs. At present, the economic returns from the major technologies on offer, the associated risks, and the problems of input supply, all combine to constrain the ability of smallholders to move to higher leveJs of production. Smallholders face many important production constraints for which agricultural scientists have few solutions.Surveys of smallholder production systems show a consistent pattern of difficulties in meeting optimum planting dates and plant populations, and in managing weeds. Farmers' ignorance -whether chosen or not -of research recommendations is legendary. Although there are instances of impressive aggregate maize production increases (such as post independence in Zimbabwe), there are few of Blackie productivity -maize yields remain mired at a little over 1 tonne per hectare. The overall unexploited yield increase is much less than that frequently asserted by plant breeders. Well focused agronomic research which, amongst other improvements, will need to point the way for smallholders to build up and maintain soil fertility levels, is essential even to realise this modest potential.Modem science combined with traditional wisdom will be needed to break the logjam preventing Widespread and long term improvements to smallholder agricultural productiVity.The identification of the problems, and the implementation of the subsequent research requires imagination, dedication, and a high degree of professionalism. Despite a very real need to build up national scientific skills, it remains true that most countries in the region have an adequate manpower and infrastructure base on which to build a quality agricultural research programme which is carefully focused on priority smallholder problems. The dimensions of the problems are such that collaboration with regional and international science will be essential if adequate resources are to be brought to bear on them. Much can be achieved through a small, but motivated team of researchers who have the requisite access to operational funds, and with established links with the best scientists in the field internationally.International science has the potential to play an even greater role in technology development than in the past, but needs imaginative direction from African agriculturalists.The International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs) have encouraged a strong bias towards plant breeding in their efforts to revitalise African agriculture but have shown less capacity for addressing the more complex crop management problems. The overall support from international science for the development of high quality crop husbandry research in southern Africa is dwarfed by that for crop breeding -to the detriment of long term sustained agricultural productivity across a broad base of smallholder farmers.Frequently, the poor policy environment, and the inability of researchers to influence such policy is cited as a reason for a perceived lack of impact of agricultural research on productivity. High quality research can create good policy, and certainly poor research offers little defence against poor policy. But clearly high quality research will not, in itself, necessarily result in better agricultural policies. The adoption of maize varieties by smallholders has played an important role in convincing governments to reduce their involvement in the seed industry.The major agronomic constraint to maize production in the well watered regions of southern and eastern Africa is soil fertility. Shifting cultivation is no longer possible as the bush-fallow period is too short to restore soil conditions to the same state as in previous cultivation-fallow cycles. Sedentary agriculture without the addition of nutrients depletes the soil nutrient reserve, decreases soil organic matter and increases the risk of soil erosion. These factors combine to reduce crop yield. Inorganic fertilizers play an important role in maintaining and increasing soil fertility, but many smallholder farmers either do not obtain the necessary returns from fertilizer use to justify the costs or cannot afford to use inorganic fertilizer. Existing fertilizer recommendations are over-simplistic. They do not differentiate between agro-ecological zones or the socio-economic circumstances of farmers. The way in which fertilizers are applied to crops (placement), the time of fertilizer application. the types of fertilizer used, the response to fertilizer by different maize genotypes and the organic matter status of the soil are factors that can potentially be managed by farmers to increase fertilizer use efficiency. The improvement of soil organic matter is critical for resource poor households. Where inorganic fertilizers are not applied, soil organic matter supplies most of the nitrogen and sulphur to plants, maintains the cation exchange capacity and forms complexes crucial to the supply of micronutrients. It is also important in supplying phosphorous to plants and blocking phosphorous fixation sites. The active fraction of soil organic matter increases the efficiency of nutrient availability by reducing leaching losses and providing a steady buffered nutrient supply. Agroforestry has the potential to produce sufficient high quality biomass to increase soil organic matter and improve crop yields. Progress in soil fertility research is dependent on having good soil and plant analytical facilities. Agronomic field trials are needed to understand the interactions between different nutrients and to describe the response to applied nutrients. Such trials need to be carefully designed and sited to build an understanding of soil nutrient deficiencies that can be used to develop appropriate fertility recommendations. Results from fertility experiments need to be interpreted with an understanding of the socio-economic circumstances faced by farmers so that affordable and practical technologies can be designed and tested that are relevant to the farming community.between different nutrients, as inorganic fertilizer is the main source of plant nutrients for both large-The major agronomic constraint to maize production and small-scale farmers. There is a good in the well watered areas of southern and eastern understanding of maize nutrient requirements and Africa is soil fertility. The use of inorganic fertilizer the critical periods of growth for nutrient and hybrid maize seed has been widely promoted to application. boost maize yield as intensification of land use becomes the only route to increased productivity. Despite this large body of work, the main Despite the advent and adoption of these beneficiaries of soil fertility research have been technologies, the eastern and southern African large-scale commercial farmers concentrated in the region as a whole failed to achieve maize high potential, secure rainfall areas. These farmers productivity growth rates in excess of population have clearly demonstrated that it is possible to growth (typically between 3 and 4 percent annually) produce consistently high yields with the over the period 1951-87. Average production per appropriate maize hybrids and inorganic fertilizers. hectare in the region rose from 0.85 tonnes in the There are many high potential areas in the region period 1951-60 to 1.24 tonnes in the period 1981-87 that are cultivated by smallholders where the (CIMMYT, 1990).growth in smallholder maize productivity has not been sustained beyond\"the introduction of improved The use of inorganic fertilizers on potentially high germplasm (Howell et al., 1987). In Malawi, the yielding hybrid maize varieties has been the major average hybrid maize yield has stagnated around 2.8 focus of soil fertility and agronomic research on t ha-1 for the last decade (Blackie and Conroy, 1993). maize. Studies have concentrated on the types of The yield gap, defined as the difference between fertilizers required, application levels, timing of average maize yields obtained by farmers and the application, method of application and interactions yields possible with improved practices (FAO, 1984),has been calculated at 53 percent in Malawi when comparing national average yields with those obtained in maize variety trials conducted on farmers' fields. When yields obtained on research stations are used for comparison, the yield gap approaches 100 percent (Zambezi et al., 1993). This paper will examine the way in which soil fertility research can contribute to increasing maize yields for smallholder farmers in the high potential areas. The interactions between climate, pests and fertility will be dealt with in different sessions of the conference and are therefore not considered in this paper.Maize breeding has a long and proud history in the region. The development of hybrid varieties like SR52, which was released in 1960 by the Zimbabwe Programme and H611, released by the Kenyan Programme in 1964, were important milestones in breeding work. The uptake of hybrids by smallholder farmers gave an impressive boost to maize productivity in those countries where hybrids were widely adopted (Howell et al., 1987;Rohrbach, 1986). Unimproved (local) maize is tall and late maturing. It has low yield potential, poor standability and responds poorly to fertilizer. In contrast, hybrid maize is shorter and matures earlier than local maize. It has high yield potential, is less prone to lodging and responds well to fertilizer. Despite the release of high yielding hybrid varieties, a considerable area is still planted with unimproved maize landraces in the Eastern Province of Zambia and in Malawi. It is now recognized that the lack of hybrids with a semi-flint grain similar to local maize has been a major constraint to hybrid adoption by smallholder farmers, because of the inferior storage and processing characteristics of dent maize (Ellis, 1958). For this reason some agronomic research has been done on local maize.Research in Malawi aones et al., 1993) and in Eastern Province, Zambia (ARPI') to investigate the response of local maize to fertilizer has confirmed that local maize does respond to nitrogen, although the Malawi data show that there is little response above 30 kg N ha• 1• Results from 136 demonstration plots on farmers' fields planted in the 1992/93 season showed that a farmer could expect to get 16 kgs of maize per kilogram of nutrient (10 kg P205 ha• 1 + 40 kg N ha• 1 ) from local maize. The equivalent return from hybrid maize was 18 kg with the same nutrient package. Similar figures are found in Zambia where Jha (1991)  In Malawi, fertilizer use as recommended for local maize is not very profitable. It is usually assumed that farmers require a value:cost ratio (VCR) of over two in order to adopt yield increasing technologies (CIMMYT, 1990). Conroy (1993) found that, on average, smallholders got VCRs of 1.3 for fertilizer use on local maize. Forty percent of smallholders failed to cover the cost of fertilizer application on local maize. Jha and Hojjati (1993) examined the average value-cost ratio in Eastern Province, Zambia. In 1989/90, the VCR for local maize was 1.92. Although local maize responds somewhat better to fertilizer in Malawi, very high relative fertilizer prices reduce the economic returns to fertilizer and this has restrained growth in fertilizer consumption (Lele et al., 1989).Structural adjustment programmes in both countries have resulted in further price increases.Fertilizer technology for local maize is marginal, with little prospect of improvement because of the lack of response of local maize to improved fertility management.In the same study, Conroy (1993) found that, on average, smallholders got VCRs of 1.7 for fertilizer use on hybrid maize, with 25 percent of smallholders failing to cover the cost of fertilizer application on hybrid maize. In Zambia the returns have traditionally been much higher, but there was a decline in the value-cost ratio from four to 3.31 in 1989/90 because the average price per kilogram of plant nutrient rose by 315 percent while the maize price only increased by 100 percent aha and Hojjati, 1993). Even with hybrid maize, the returns to fertilizer technology achieved by smallholders are not great. The future of these technologies without an increase in productivity is in jeopardy unless fertilizer use efficiency can be increased.If returns to fertilizer use are to be improved, it should be clear that attention needs to be focused solely on hybrid maize. However, CIMMYT (1992) have stated that for environments where current yields are less than 2.5 t ha-1 , it is unlikely that farmers would purchase hybrid maize, since the expected yield gain would be unlikely to compensate farmers for the cost of hybrid seed (and associated risks). In marginal areas with current yields of 1.5 t ha-1 or less, the yield advantages of using hybrids is unlikely to exceed 10 percent (CIMM'Yr, 1987). It is a coI1Ullon perception that hybrids require the use of complementary inputs, especially fertilizer, to express their yield superiority. No fertilizer Recommended fertilizer practices practices 9 kg PO 2 S ha\" 40 kg Nha\" (from DAP and urea) Source: Guide to Agricultural Production in Malawi 1992Malawi •1993 On-farm research in the well watered mid-altitude ecology of Malawi has shown that hybrids without the application of fertilizer significantly outperform unimproved local maize, where local maize yields averaged less than 1 t ha-1 . Data were obtained over four seasons from field demonstrations conducted on farmers' fields. Each field demonstration was made up of four plots (see table 1) each 10 m x 20 m. Data were combined over the four seasons to determine whether there was a Significant season by treatment interaction. The results of this analysis were significant and are presented in Figure 1. Unfertilized local maize gave the lowest yields. When fertilizer was added at the recommended rate, the yield increased but was not significantly more than that from unfertilized hybrid maize, except in the 1992/93 season. In the other three seasons, there was no significant yield difference between fertilized local maize and unfertilized hybrid maize.These results are important because they dearly demonstrate that improved germplasm can benefit smallholder farmers even on depleted land without nutrient inputs, where maize yields are presently less than 1 t ha-1 . Maize yields can be Significantly increased with a modest investment in hybrid seed. 37 kg P 2 0 S ha\" 95 kg Nha\" (from DAP and urea) In all four seasons, fertilized hybrid maize gave significantly higher yields than the other three treatments. The amount of fertilizer applied to hybrid maize was more than double that applied to the unimproved germplasm (see Table 1). Soil fertility research on local and hybrid maize has shown that the total amount of fertilizer that can be economically applied to hybrid maize is much greater than for local maize. Trials to investigate the shape of the maize nitrogen response curve show that for hybrid maize on soil that is deficient in nitrogen, there was a linear relationship to applications up to the maximum of 160 kg N ha-1 that was applied. The peak response for local maize was found to be about 30 kg N ha-1 Oones et ai., 1993). As nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient in the majority of maize based systems, the potential to increase yields by applying high levels of nitrogen fertilizer is dearly much greater for hybrid than for local maize.Despite the large number of agronomic field trials that have been designed and implemented to investigate the response of maize to different Raising maize production through soil fertility research nutrients, there are only a very limited number of fertilizer recommendations for smallholder farmers and, as will be shown, these recommendations are of marginal value to most farmers.Simplistic fertilizer recommendations have two problems. They either do not take into account the full range of nutrients that are known to be regionally deficient or they recommend nutrients that are not necessary for increased productivity. Both problems lead to reduced fertilizer use efficiency.Malawi has a blanket fertilizer recommendation for hybrid maize (Extension Aids, 1992) that fails to differentiate between different maize growing ecologies, soil types and socioeconomic circumstances of the farmers such as labour availability and land holding size. Kenya has only two recommendations for hybrid maize, one for Central/Eastern Kenya and the other for Western Kenya (Qureshi, 1987). Tanzania has a more sophisticated set of recommendations with 20 ecological zones, 13 of which have their own maize recommendations. The establishment of the agroecological zones was based on dominant soil type, length of growing season, and annual rainfall, dis~ibution and reliability, so that the major envIronmental conditions which affect fertilizer response were taken into account (Harrop and Samki, 1984). However, in all three countries the only nutrients that are included in the recommendations are nitrogen and phosphorous. Sulphur is recognised as being deficient in some countries, but it is assumed that deficiencies will be addressed by applying nitrogen or phosphorous fertilizers that contain this nutrient. In Zimbabwe, zinc is included in some basal dressing fertilizer formulations together with potassium. Different compound fertilizers are recommended for different areas based on soil fertility research. There are very few examples of existing recommendations being modified according to a systematic programme of soil fertility research being conducted at a local level. Soil fertility is dynamic in space and time. Research conducted in previous years at one or two sites is of little relevance to land with a diverse range of soil types that has been cropped continuously with few if any nutrient inputs. This last fact is well recognised by commercial farmers. Although many fertilizer recommendations were derived for the benefit of commercial farmers, this group uses these recommendations as a guide only. Modifications are made based on research, experience and economics. Access• to good quality soil and plant analytical facilities is an important pre-requisite for effective research and facilitates fertilizer management decisions for the more progressive farmer.Fertilizer mixtures are 5 purchased to satisfy nutrient requirements whilst obtaining the most cost effective formulations that achieve the necessary nutrient balance. In contrast, smallholder farmers are reliant on outmoded and very often inappropriate recommendations. The choice of fertilizer is usually determined by the government procurement agency and supply systems so that there is virtually no feedback to refine recommendations. The result is that fertilizer, where it is used, is used inefficiently and smallholder productivity fails to respond.In Malawi, the blanket fertilizer recommendation suppl,ies, only nitrogen and phosphorous. DefICiencIes of sulphur are now universal and regional deficiencies of zinc, potassium and boron have been identified (Sillanpaa, 1982;Wendt, 1993). L~ck o~ these minor nutrients is markedly reducing y~elds m some areas and depressing the response to mtrogen and phosphorous application.The nationwide blanket recommendation needs to be adjusted to address these regional deficiencies.Significant yield responses have been obtained from application of zinc, sulphur, potassium and boron containing fertilizers. A yield increase of over 200 percent was obtained by the addition of zinc, sU:~hur and ~oro~ to maize fertilized with 80 kg N ha . The yIeld mcrease from the application of nitrogen alone was only 72 percent. These results were obtained from a missing nutrients trial conducted at several sites throughout Malawi over two seasons (Wendt, 1993). They confirm that nutrients other than the recommended nitrogen and phosphorous are constraining yields. These findings clearly demonstrate the importance of addressing all the soil fertility constraints to achieve an economic return to fertilizer use. However, extrapolation of such results from a site to a wider geographical area is complex as soils are very heterogenous and can differ markedly because of previous cultivation history, soil erosion, fertilization etc. Ideally soil and plant sampling should take place at a farm level and the results used to guide fertilizer recommendations. Yields should be recorded and the recommendations reevaluated based on the results achieved. While in most countries the capacity to undertake such detailed work does not exist, it is entirely possible to proceed to the development of locally based fer~er recommendations through carefully planned and well focused soil fertility research. Farmers, extension workers and commercial companies concerned with the manufacture and distribution of fertilizers should all be involved. Rect\">mmendations should be modified on a local bas•.;; with information collected from different trials  being used to make informed decisions that are appropriate for smallholder farmers.The maize agronomy team in Malawi has established a process to develop such recommendations. In the 1992/93 season Malawi researchers cooperated with the extension agents managing the demonstration programme originally deSigned to teach farmers about hybrid seed and fertilizer technology. Modifications were made to the demonstration plots in Table 1. The modified layout is presented in Table 2.The addition of four extra plots allowed the following comparisons to be made:1. Hybrid seed versus local farmers maize at the recommended rate of fertilizer for local maize (plot 2A and 2B). The existing demonstration plots permit this comparison only without fertilizer.2. The effect of phosphorous on local and hybrid maize at the recommended rates at individual sites (plot 4A and 3B for hybrid and plot 2A and 1B for local).3. The effect of a nutrient supplement, based on earlier missing nutrient investigations, on the yield of hybrid maize fertilized according to the 37.95 plus supp Hybrid Hybrid Hybrid Treatment existing recommendation (plot 4A and 4B). All sites received the nutrient supplement of sulphur, zinc and boron and selected sites received potassium.The addition of a micronutrient supplement was effective in increasing hybrid maize yield (see Figure 2). Malawi is divided into eight Agricultural Development Divisions (ADDs). ADDs are further sub-divided into Rural Development Projects (RDPs), Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) and Sections. Each section is staffed with a Field Assistant (FA) who is responsible for delivering extension messages to farmers. The demonstration programme was implemented in eight rural development projects (RDPs).There was a significant treatment by RDP interaction. The results are presented by RDP in Figure 3. In Kasungu, Lilongwe West and Lilongwe East RDPs, the addition of the fertilizer supplement did not significantly increase yields over the plot where the recommended rates of nitrogen and phosphorous were applied to hybrid maize. These results are important because they illustrate the need to develop area specific fertilizer recommendations.In addition to the micronutrient supplement, treatments were added to assess the effect of phosphorous (see Figure 3). In Kasungu RDP the Raising maize production through soil fertility research addition of phosphorous had no significant effect on the yield of hybrid maize, but local maize responded to the lower rate of phosphorous applied. In Dowa West and Ntcheu local maize did not respond to the phosphorous applied when compared with plots where nitrogen only was added. Maps have been made that show regional deficiencies identified to date (Wendt, 1993). The demonstration programme, replicated at over 100 sites in two agricultural development divisions (ADDs), was a very effective way to identify nutrient deficiencies. This work has been expanded in the 1993/94 season with over 3000 soil samples being collected and analyzed from every EPA in the country. A set of three verification trials were designed and, implemented to test different fertiliser mixtures, application methods and\"rates. The results from this work will be used to develop area specific recommendations.Soil fertility improvement work is greatly hampered by the strong tendency to use existing fertilizer compounds in soil fertility and agronomic trials. There is very little evidence of soil fertility research being used to direct the formulation of fertilizer compounds that can then be targeted to specific areas to address localised nutrient deficiencies. In Malawi, negotiations are being held with commercial fertilizer companies to formulate  fertilizers that address identified deficiencies. Two compounds have been formulated on a trial basis both of which contain sulphur and zinc and one which contains potassium (Optichem, 1994). The importance of working with fertilizer companies cannot be overemphasized. The choice of fertilizer must take into account many considerations including the cost, compatibility for formulation, fertilizer dynamics in the soil and the efficiency of soil supply and uptake by plants. Soil fertility research is needed to identify and quantify nutrient deficiencies, but more importantly, to understand nutrient dynamiCS and the relationships to crop performance, in a predictive fashion that allows the formulation and testing of appropriate agronomic recommendations.Fertilizer application technology affects the way in which fertilizers are taken up by plants. The labour associated with fertilizer application has important implications for smallholder management. These issues will be examined using the example of Malawi where dollop application (point placement) is universally recommended.The current recommendation for fertilizer application is the dollop method, with two dollops per planting station, 10 cm away and 10 cm deep.  Basal dressing fertilizers are applied soon after emergence and top dressing fertilizer two to three weeks after emergence. If diammonium phosphate is used for basal dressing, top dressing needs to be done earlier to avoid Nitrogen starvation. Calcium ammonium nitrate and urea are the fertilizers available for top-dressing, although urea is considerably cheaper per unit of nitrogen.Two problems exist with the dollop method: it results in reduced nutrient uptake, and it is labour intensive. Dollop application of basal dressing fertilizer containing phosphorous was shown by Brown (1966) to be inferior to broadcast or band placement of phosphorous in the ridge. Experiments to compare methods of applying triple super phosphate (TSP) illustrate the importance of phosphorous placement. Banded TSP applied at the rate of 20 kg P20S ha-1 gave similar results to dollop applied TSP at 80 kg P20S ha-1 (Wendt and Jones, 1993). However, when phosphate rock was tested, broadcast application was superior to banding which was superior to dolloping. Research has been conducted in Zimbabwe on phosphorous placement. Experiments evaluated the effect of nitrogen under different methods of phosphorous application and time of planting. The response to nitrogen was higher where phosphorous was banded and depended on time of ploughing, the early ploughing doing better than late ploughing. In Tanzania, Uriyo et ai., (1977), found that only half the quantity of fertilizer phosphorous was required to produce the same amount of maize grain when side-dressed or drilled as compared to broadcast application. Dolloping reduces the uptake efficiency of other nutrients also. This is particularly the case when nitrogen is supplied as urea. The conversion of urea to plant usable forms is dependent on an enzyme, urease. High rates of urea in a dollop create conditions restrictive to the enzymatic action of urease. The supply of nitrogen to plants is delayed and consequently yields are reduced (Tisdale et al.,  1985).Not only is the dollop method an inefficient method of applying soil nutrients, but the evidence suggests that it is difficult for farmers to apply the correct amount of fertilizer. Calibrated: fertilizer cups are sold, but the vast majority of farmers use arbitrary measures such as bottle tops and teaspoons. Most farmers do not have access to fertilizer cups and are not familiar with the cup sizes for the different fertilizer types or for the reasons for using different cup sizes. This results in over-or under-application and waste.Dollop fertilizer application is very labour intensive. At the recommended plant density, more than 24,000 holes have to be made per hectare. Do~ieralla (1974) recorded a total of 174 man-hours ha-for fertilizer application on a maize crop in Malawi. This compared with 144 man-hours for land preparation and 342 man-hours for weeding.Fertilizer application conflicts with planting and weeding and hence farmers are faced with the choice of either fertilizing or weeding late, and of deciding whether to plant an additional area or weed or fertilize the area already planted. Farmers have to prioritize their operations. Weeding is given top priority followed by fertilization. The resultant compromises typically mean reduced yields because of increased weed competition, delayed planting or reduced nutrient availability. These are important factors that need to be considered when designing technologies appropriate to smallholders. Furthermore, the onset of the rains leads to an increase in malaria and diarrhoeal diseases (Carr, personal communication).Labour constrained households can be incapacitated by these problems which delay essential field operations.Survey work by the maize commodity team in Malawi (Zambezi and Jones, 1991;1992) has found that the vast majority of farmers do not apply their basal dressing fertilizer containing phosphorous until well after the maize has emerged. In Zambia, the Adaptive Research Planning Team (ARPT, 1986) found that the proportion of fertilized plots on which the timing of basal application was done within a month after planting averaged 37 percent for the plateau region. The effect on yield of delayed basal dressing is shown in Figure 4. Mengel and Barber (1974) studied the nutrient requirement of maize under field conditions. They found that the nutrient requirement per m root length per day is especially high in the early stage of growth and rapidly declines as the crop develops.The young plant has a small root system. The level of nutrients in the root zone therefore needs to be high to facilitate uptake. Adequate plant nutrition in the early growth stages enables the plant to develop an extensive root system which can help to prevent drought stress and also enables the plant to realize its full yield potential. As the mobility of phosphate in the soil profile is comparatively low, the uptake of fertiliser phosphorous depends much on root growth and the root morphology of the crop. As the phosphorous demands of the young plant are high, phosphorous fertilisers must be in close proximity to the seed. The placement strategy should therefore be aimed at maximising the root surface area in contact with the phosphorous.Early application of phosphorous containing fertilizers at the time of land preparation is one strategy to improve timeliness of application.Because phosphorous is largely immobile in soil, there is no risk of leaching. Labour is less critical at the time of land preparation and anyway, application in bands before ploughing or ridging is less labour intensive than dollop application. Certainly where compound fertilizers containing nitrogen fertilizer are used, there is a risk that the nitrogen will be leached, but the potential yield loss is far greater than the value of any leached nitrogen fertilizer especially where timely planting is practised. .Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient for maize production. This element is the primary constituent 9 of maize fertilizers for smallholder farmers. Maize response to nitrogen has been widely studied and simulati.on models developed that can predict yield when different rates of nitrogen are applied (IFDC, 1989).Craswell and Godwin (1984) developed an index, Agronomic Efficiency, which is based on the difference between the grain yield from a fertilised and unfertilised crop divided by the fertilizer nitrogen applied. High agronomic efficiency is obtained if the yield increment per unit nitrogen applied is high. This is generally the case when the soil is low in available nitrogen and the rates of nitrogen application are not too high. A satisfactory recovery is obtained if the fertilizer applied is not lost from leaching, denitrification or immobilized, but largely taken up by the crop.If elements other than nitrogen are constraining yield, there will be a significant interaction between the elements when the critical constraint is alleViated. Fertilizer response trials are importanUo understand these potential interactions. In the 1992/93 season, a fertilizer response trial was planted at 25 sites in Lilongwe and Kasungu ADDs in Malawi to run concurrently with the demonstration trials described earlier. A central composite design was used to study the response of maize to individual nutrients and the two-way interactions between nutrients. The results showed that there was a significant and positive interaction between nitrogen and sulphur, but a negative interaction between sulphur and potassium. The implications of this are important. The application of nutrients that are not deficient can reduce the uptake of nutrients that are limiting. Apart from the additional costs, the fertilizer use efficiency is reduced.Traditionally, farmers maintained soil fertility by shifting cultivation. This system involves the clearing of small forested areas followed by 'the burning of debris just before the rainy season. The bUrning helps to control pests and diseases, and accelerates the decomposition of organic matter in the top layers of the soil. About half of the nitrogen and phosphorous in the burnt material, and nearly all the remaining nutrients, are released to the soil from the ash after burning. These nutrients are flushed from the ash by the rain and have the effect of raising the pH of the upper layer of the soil as well as incorporating the nutrients. Nutrients in concentrated form are thus available for one or two years after clearing. The quantity and quality of these nutrients depends on the native fertility of the soil (Okigbo, 1984;Seubert et al., 1977;Lal et al., 1986). As nutrients are removed by crop harvests or lost through leaching and volatilization, soil fertility declines.The secondary forest grows rapidly during the fallow, using the nutrients remaining in the soil (Nye and Greenland 1960;Ramakrishnan and Toky 1981). Essential minerals are extracted from lower soil layers during regrowth and brought to the surface by trees.Unlike nitrogen fixation, nutrient replacement is a slow process that concentrates nutrients where they can be used to grow a crop, but does not add nutrients to the system. Ruthenburg (1980) distinguishes between different systems on the basis of vegetation. Shifting cultivation of the forest is confined largely to humid areas, while bush and savannas are commonly found in the drier climates typical of Eastern and Southern Africa. In the Miombo woodland of Zambia, two years of cropping were followed by 25 years of fallow, demonstrating the importance of long-term regenerative fallows under drier conditions.As the length of the fallow period is reduced, the equilibrium levels of soil organic carbon and organic nitrogen decline. The maintenance of organic matter is therefore essential for agricultural systems where inorganic fertilizer is not used. Soil organic matter in such systems supplies most of the nitrogen and sulphur to plants, maintains the cation exchange capacity and forms complexes with micronutrients. It is also important in supplying phosphorous' to plants and blocking phosphorous fixation sites (Greenland and Dart 1972).As populations have increased, shifting cultivation has largely been replaced by sedentary agriculture. Malawi provides a good example of the problems that can be expected. It is one of the most dense~ populated countries in Africa (± 75 people km-) with an average of only 0.48 ha arable land person-I. Only Nigeria, Rwanda and Burundi have higher population densities; neighbouring Zambia has about five people km-2 while Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania have about 15 people km-2 . Once population densities exceed about eight persons per square kilometre, the length of the fallow period is insufficient to allow adequate accumulation of soil nutrients in the upper layers of the soil (Sanchez, 1976).As bush fallow systems have been replaced-by sedentary agriculture, there is a tendency to ignore soil organic matter in favour of inorganic fertilizers. Soil organic matter is important in both systems.First, it has the potential to increase fertilizer use efficiency even where inorganic fertilizers are used. Second, where inorganic fertilizers are not used, soilJones & Wendt organic matter can supply nutrients to crops just as in shifting cultivation systems already described. Blackie (1994) has described the problems facing many smallholder farmers in eastern and southern Africa. The first section of this paper has focused on soil fertility research and inorganic fertilizers. Although there is good evidence to show that fertilizer use efficiency can be improved, there is a growing constituency of resource poor farmers for whom inorganic fertilizers are just not affordable. It should also be evident that the use of inorganic fertilizers is a sophisticated technology that needs to be monitored and refined to ensure high fertilizer use efficiency. Simple fertilizer recommendations with little or no monitoring of soil fertility changes can result in reduced fertility use efficiency to levels that make the technology unprofitable. Farmers are aware of these problems, but do not have the experience or access to resources to rectify them. Farmers in the southern region of Malawi made the astute comment that ''fertilizers damage soil\" (Jones and Sakala, 1991).The role of soil organic matter in traditional farming systems has been described. Soil organic matter plays a key role in crop sustainability, primarily through its interactions with soil chemical and physical properties in relation to nutrient release, cation retention and soil structure. The value of soil matter is well recognised, but little is known about the processes that contribute to its three key roles. It is essential to improve understanding of the functioning of soil organic matter for low-input systems.Organic fertilizers, defined here as originating from decaying plant material, have been studied as components of fallow systems. Growing of green manure crops on fallow land has largely been rejected by smallholders because of labour and land constraints. The use of animal manures has long been promoted to increase soil fertility in smallholder agriculture. Grant (1967a/b) working in Zimbabwe studied the fertility of Sandveld soils under continuous cultivation with particular emphasis on effect of manure and nitrogen fertilizer on the base status of soil. In the first five years, exchangeable K, Ca, and pH levels of the plough layer were maintained. However, exchangeable Mg was depleted and this was reflected in foliar concentrations of Mg that had decreased to almost deficiency levels in•the fourth season. Annual applications of three and six tons ha-1 manure raised fertility of the soil by progressively increasing cation exchange capacity, exchangeable bases, and pH. Work by the Chemistry and Soil Research Institute (CSRI, 1964(CSRI, /65-1968/69) /69) showed that the effect of \\ . . ~... incorporating maize stover into the soil each season was negligible. Similar findings were reported by MacColl working in Malawi (1989;1990). Conflicting results were obtained with manure over the same period. Mugwira (1985) and Mugwira and Mukurumbira (1985) carried out chemical and physical analysis of manure and found that the nitrogen and sand contents varied widely, hence the nutrient supplying power of manure was not only based on quantity but on quality. Despite the beneficial effects there are problems in producing both the quality and the quantity of manures and composts needed to affect soil fertility noticeably. Not all farmers keep livestock and therefore many do not have access to this resource. Much of the organic matter that is readily available to farmers is of poor quality and makes little, if any, difference when applied to soil.In recent years, agroforestry research has shown potential for the appropriate production of quality organic fertilizers under smallholder circumstances.In Malawi, research into alley cropping maize with Leucaena leucocephala has demonstrated that organic fertilizers can increase maize yields, although the biggest yield increase was obtained when both inorganic and organic fertilizers were applied. An experiment was conducted for three seasons to investigate the effect of maize plant population, inorganic nitrogen, and phosphorous on maize yield in plots where three Leucaena leaf application histories had been in effect for three years. These histories were: 1) leaves applied, 2) leaves removed, and 3) leaves removed with 100 kg N ha-1 added as inorganic fertilizer. In the 1990/91 season leaves were applied only to plots that had received leaves in the past, while in the 1991/92 and 1992/93 seasons leaves were applied equalll to all plots. The application of 18 and 36 kg P ha-increased maize yields in plots where leaves and inorganic nitrogen at 30 and 60 kg N ha-1 were applied, with the highest yields being obtained where both leaves and inorganic nitrogen were added. In the 1991/92 and 1992/93 seasons, leaf application history had no significant effect on yield. The addition of inorganic nitrogen up to 30.kg N ha-1 increased yield in all plots, and plots where phosphorous was applied in the 1990/91 season gave higher yields than those where no phosphorous was added. Plant population did not have a significant effect on yield in the first two seasons. In 1992/93 the highest yield was obtained at the highest population. Maize planted on ridges next to the Leucaena alleys yielded less than maize planted away from the hedgerows. The results show that the application of Leucaena prunings increased maize yields, but yields were still constrained by phosphorous that was not 11 present in sufficient quantities in the applied biomass.Although maize grown on ridges 45 cm away from the Leucaena hedgerows yielded less than maize further away from the hedgerows, trials carried out in previous seasons have shown that maize yields in the hedgerow. position are influenced by pruning management (Bunderson et al., 1991). In the three seasons that this trial was conducted, the hedgerows were pruned late relative to the growth of the maize, resulting in a slight yield reduction. However, it should be noted that the land area available for crop production in this system is the same as that where no Leucaena alleys have been planted.The interactions between maize position, nitrogen level and plant population suggest that there was considerable competition between the Leucaena hedges and the maize.Soil and plant analysis data confirmed that phosphorous was not cycled in large quantities by the trees, but that Ca, Mg, K and S were cycled in substantial quantities.Although nitrogen is supplied by the application of tree leaves, this nutrient was still a constraint on yield (Wendt et al.,  1993).The results from this trial support the hypothesis that organic inputs produced from an alley cropping system can have a beneficial effect on maize yields. However, a total reliance on organic manure could have limitations in areas where nutrients, other than nitrogen, are limiting, at least in the short term. This qualification is important as it applies to a large part of the area cultivated by smallholders. If the potential benefits of organic manure are to be realised, a fertilisation strategy needs to be adopted to satisfy the nutrient requirements from inorganic sources.Agroforestry may• therefore have its greatest impact on those farmers who can afford some fertilizer. However if inorganic fertilizers can be formulated and supplied to complement the nutrients from organic sources, then farmers will only need to buy smaller amounts of inorganic fertilizer that will be substantially cheaper because they contain fewer nutrients. The success of this strategy is just as dependent on soil fertility research to identify and quantify nutrient deficiencies as the research that has already been described for inorganic fertilizers.Despite the long history of soil fertility research in eastern and southern Africa, the profitability of inorganic fertilizer use for many smallholder farmers is low. Simplistic fertilizer recommendations that either fail to address the full range of nutrient deficiencies, or advocate the application of nutrients that are not limiting, reduce fertilizer use efficiency~ Existing fertilizer application methods and timing recommendations need to be re-evaluated with an understanding of the constraints faced by smallholders. Research is needed to better understand the interactions between nutrients and to identify nutrient deficiencies so that fertilizer recommendations can be tailored on an area basis. Soil fertility research needs to be backed up by effective soil and plant analytical services. Analytical methods to quantify the active fraction of organic matter and its contribution to improved fertilizer use efficiency are beginning to be developed. This will allow an important step forward in the ability to assess which agroforestry management techniques and residue inputs are most effective.The role of organic matter to increase fertilizer use efficiency and to supply nutrients where inorganic fertilizers are inappropriate needs to be studied. The production and management of organic manure is labour intensive. A detailed understanding of the labour constraints by farmers is needed to ensure that the full benefits of this technology can be realised.harvesting damages the soil structure and increases compaction. It disrupts and destroys the large andM aize (Zea mays L.) is one of Uganda's principal small soil pore space, essential for air and water staple cereal food crops and it occupies about movement and storage. 400,000 hectares. It is mainly grown in the districts of Masindi, Iganga, Kapchorwa, Arua, Tororo and Minimum tillage (MT) is associated with higher Lira. Maize production occurs at low altitude «900 rates of water infiltration, less soil resistance to m elev_ation), mid-altitude (900-1,500 m elevation) penetration, less soil compaction and less soil and high altitude (>1,500 m elevation) but the erosion besides resulting in equal or greater yields majority is in the mid-altitude areas. Beans cover than Cf (Gallaher, 1980;Michieka, 1985). Indirect about 380,000 hectares mainly in the above districts. effects of MT are less weeds, more root growth, The two crops are key in the barter trade better vegetation growth, and less lodging. The arrangement within the preferential trade areas. effect on soil and water conservation has been Although for years intercropping has been regarded directly related to the presence. of mulch (plant as a primitive and disorderly farming practice, residues). approximately 90% of the beans in Uganda are Greater nutrient uptake by interctopping has been produced in association with other crops especially reported for nitrogen (Wahua, 1983), potassium maize (Baguma et ai., 1993). (Dalal, 1974;Wahua, 1983), calcium (Dalal, 1974; Seedbed preparation and the control of weeds Wahua, 1983) and and for magnesium (Dalal, 1974). continue to present severe limitations to the This leads to a more rapid depletion of natural soil improvement of food crop production by fertility and might necessitate higher fertilizer smallholder farmers in Uganda. In general about application rates (Mason et ai.; in Waddington et ai., 52% of their seasonal farm inputs are allocated to 1989). Research was intiated to establish whether a these two production operations. The commonly maize/bean system would respond to Rhizobium used implement for opening up land and weeding is inoculation and fertilizer application under two a hand hoe. This method is slow, tedious and exerts tillage methods. a lot of drudgery to the user. The number of OBJECfIVES weedings is a function of the method of land preparation. Some farmers use tractors in order to 1. To compare the effect of muumum and open up land but they do not often get the tractor at conventional tillage methods on the yield of the time they need it. maize and beans.Frequent conventional tillage (cr) operations are 2. To determine the effect of minimum and rarely beneficial, and frequently detrimental, in conventional tillage on the response Rhizobium addition to being costly. Paradoxically, the same and fertilizer applications. equipment used for tillage, planting, cultivation and 16 Baguma et ai. The trial was conducted on farmers' fields in two Results for season 1992a indicate that tillage sites (Mityana and Masindi) during both seasons of methods were not significantly different in their 1992 (1992A and 1992B). A split-plot design was effect on the yield of maize and beans (Table 1). used with the tillage method as the main plot. Fertilizer application significantly (P a O.05) increased Rhizobium (with and Without) and fertilizer (with maize yields but reduced bean yields. Higher bean and without) were sub-plot treatments. Fertiliser yields were obtained with Rhizobium alone but was was applied to both crops in the plots that received not significantly different. The application of this treatment. Rhizobium was applied only to beans Rhizobium and fertilizer resulted in lower bean in plots that received this treatment. Each plot had 7 yields, although they were higher than fertiliser maize rows of 5 metre length with a space of at 75 alone. cm x 50 cm leaving 2 plants/hill. Six bean rows were The different systems were not significantly different equidistant between pairs of maize rows and beans in their productivity as indicated by the nonwere spaced at 15 cm intra-row. Nodule counts significance of gross benefit. Productivity, as were taken on the 2nd and 5th bean rows and the 2 indicated by the gross benefit and LER did not middle bean rows were used for final yield data. significantly vary from one treatment to another.The maize data were taken on the 3 middle rows. The treatments did not significantly affect the yields Land equivalent ratios (LER) were computed using of maize and beans. Fertilizer significantly increased the largest yield value of each crop. Gross benefit maize yields (P-0.003) irrespective of the tillage was computed using Shs.100/and 300/method. (December 1992) per kg of maize and beans, respectively. In 1992b, bean yields were similar on both tillage systems and with Rhizobium inoculation (Table 2). For the minimum tillage plots, glyphosate herbicide The productivity of the various systems was not was applied and' the soil was opened only where significantly different as indicated by the gross seeds were to be planted. For the conventional benefit and the LER values. tillage method, a hand hoe was used to make the final seedbed.  A series of laboratory, greenhouse and field experiments were carried out to assess the effect of application of different levels of lime and phosphate on soil zinc availability, zinc uptake and the yield of maize using a sandy soil and a sandy clay loam soil. The laboratory incubation studies showed a very significant decrease in zinc availability with lime application. An increase in pH by 1.0 was found to increase zinc sorption by about 125% in the sandy soil and by 2900% in the sandy clay loam. The stud.y also showed that phosphate applications at the rate of 100 J&gP/g soil increased zinc sorption by about 28.8 per cent in sandy soil and 16 per cent in red clay soils. We conclude that application of P affected zinc sorption by an indirect pH effect and a possible CEC effect. Both pH and phosphate application reduced zinc uptake by maize. Increased response to zinc was observed at higher phosphate application rates. Zinc concentration of maize grown on sandy soils was observed to be about 2.3 times higher than that grown on sandy clay soils.INTRODUCfION concluded that the \"dilution\" effect did not seem to prOVide a credible explanation for the reduced zinc Zimbabwean soils are known to be acidic and concentration in plants upon P application in deficient in phosphate. Most local management Zimbabwean soils. practices concentrate on liming the soils to correct pH and fertilizing the soil with the recommended Some of the variations observed in P-Zn amount of N P K fertilizer. In most cases the effect relationships may be explained by the differences in the liming and phosphate fertilization has on zinc chemical properties of the different soils, especially availability and uptake by crops is rarely considered. those of the temperate and warm climates. In soils of variable charge, adsorption of P may alter surface Research has been carried out to determine the effect properties of soil colloids and thereby change the of liming on zinc availability in soils. As pH effective CEC of the soils. Mekaru and Uehara increases, with liming, zinc availability has always (1972) observed an increase in CEC from 26 to 127 been observed to decrease. On the other hand, Cmol kg-1 with addition of NaH2P04 in soils high in reports on the effect of phosphorus on zinc free Fe oxides. These changes in chemical properties availability have been variable. Some researchers brought about by P addition can, therefore, change have observed that increasing P levels reduces zinc the equilibrium of zinc in soils and therefore affect uptake and yield as a result of an assumed P zinc uptake. induced zinc deficiency while others have reported the reverse. Still other researchers have concluded The objectives of the present study were (a) that zinc uptake and yield are unaffected by P-Zn determine the significance of lime and phosphate interaction (Tagwira, 1992).application on zinc availability and uptake by maize on the two most important Zimbabwean The P induced zinc deficiency, as this interaction has soils, and (b) attempt to explain the effect of P come to be called, has been attributed to soil or plant application on soil zinc availability. factors, such as either (a) a P-Zn interaction in soil, (b) a slow rate of zinc translocation from roots to MATERIALS AND METHODS shoots, (c) a \"dilution\" effect of zinc concentrations Experiment 1: Effect of lime and P addition on in plant tops due to growth response to P, or (d) zinc retention by soil. metabolic disorders within the plant cells caused by Soil samples were \"mixed with lime at three P and Zn imbalance in the plant. Among the plant treatment levels of 0, 1200, 2400 kg ha-1 (0, 0.48 and factors the \"dilution\" effect has had greater support. 0.96 g kg -I) for sandy soil and 0, 4000, 8000 kg ha-1The \"dilution\" effect occurs when the rate of plant (0, 1.6 and 3.2 g kg-I) for sandy clay soil). The growth exceeds the rate of uptake of a plant nutrient differences in the liming rates for the two soils was and, in tum, the concentration of the nutrient in the due to the differences in the buffering capacities of tissue is reduced. In a study of two Zimbabwean the soils. The samples were incubated at 34.5 °C at soils we (Tagwira, Piha and Mugwira, 1993a;1993b) field capacity for 14 days. The soils were then mixed with P (KH2P04) at 0, 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 !J.gP per gram of dry soil and incubated for a further 14 days. After the soils were air-dried, CEC was determined for each sample using the method described by Russell (1973).Zinc adsorption was determined for each sample by the following method. Five grams of each sample were placed in centrifuge tubes and mixed with 50ml solutions of O.OlM CaCl2 containing the following zinc concentrations:-0, 0.001, 0.005, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0mM (as Zn504)' The samples were shaken at 25°C for 24hrs. A drop of alcohol was added to prevent growth of algae. After filtration the zinc concentration in solution was measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Phosphate in each sample was determined by the method of Murphy and Riley (1972).Experiment 2: P effect on zinc sorption under controlled pH conditions. First equilibration. Duplicate five gram soil samples were equilibrated with 25ml solution containing P in the form of KH2P04 at a and 9mM concentrations in 50ml stoppered polypropylerte centrifuge tubes. The ionic strength of each solution was controlled using 0.03M KCI0 4 . The mixtures of soil and solution were adjusted to initial pH values of 4.5, 6.0 and 7.0 (in O.OlM CaCIV for the sandy soils and 5.0, 6.0 and 7.5 for the sandy day soil, using HCI0 4 or KOH. The pHs were maintained or monitored for 2 hours before shaking. Centrifuge tubes were weighed before and after adjusting pH, to determine the volume change introduced by adjusting pH. The tubes were mixed for 72 hours on a reciprocating shaker to achieve near equilibrium conditions. The solutions were centrifuged at 12 000 rpm for 10 minutes and filtered through Whatman no.2 filter paper.Supernatant solutions were analyzed for pH and zinc.Second equilibration. The tubes containing the residues from the first equilibration were weighed to determine how much P remained in the interstitial and phosphate (Murphy and Riley, 1972).From the amounts of zinc and P in solution, adsorption values were calculated. The experiment was repeated.Greenhouse Experiments. The two soils (a sandy soil from Chiota and a clay soil from Gw~bi), as characterized in Table 1, were used in the greenhouse experiments. Soils were air dried to pass through a 2mm stainless steel sieve. Ten kilogrammes of soil was placed in each pot. Three levels of P: 0, 120 and 240 kg ha-1P20S (0, 0.48 and 0.96 g P20S/10kg pot of soil) together with three zinc levels: 0, 30 and 60 kg ha-1 Zn504 (0, 0.12 and 0.24g Zn50 4 /10kg pot of soil) were applied to the soils. Since the two soils had different textures and buffering capacities (Table 1), different levels of lime were required. For the sandy soil the lime rates used were 0, 600, 1200 and 2400kg ha-1 (0, 2.4, 4.8 and 9.6g/10kg pot) while for the sandy clay soils the rates used were 0, 2000,4000 and 8000kg ha-1 (0,8.0, 16, 32g/10kg pot). The other nutrients were added according to a fertilizer recommendation.The greenhouse experiments were arranged in completely randomized block designs with three replicates. Maize was grown in the pots and watered using distilled water passed through a deioniser. The maize was harvested six weeks after date of seedling emergence. Shoots and roots were harvested separately and oven-dried before weighing. Total P, and Zn were determined in each sample. The experiment was repeated three times in the case of the sandy soil and twice for the sandy clay soil. Field experiments. Two sandy soil sites and two clay soil sites were selected for the field experiments. The sandy soil sites were at Zvimba and Makosa while the sandy clay soil sites were Gwebi and Panmure. The following factors and levels were used:Lime: 0/800 and 3200kg ha-l in sandy soil Lime: 0/ 2000 and 8000kg ha-l in sandy clay soil P 2 0 S : 0/80/ 160 and 800kg ha-l Zinc: 0/ 30kg ha-l znS0 4 .Treatments were a factorial combination of lime, P and Zn factors arranged in a randomized complete block design. The treatments were replicated three times' and the plot sizes were 22.5m 2 .  Lime was applied 30 days before application of P and Zn to allow it to react with the soil. Other nutrients were applied according to a fertilizer recommendation. The maize hybrid, R201, was planted.Ammonium nitrate topdressing was applied 6 weeks after crop emergence. Maize yield per hectare was recorded after harvest.Effect of pH and P on zinc adsorption by soil. The physico-chemical properties of the soils used in the experiment are given in Table 1. In experiment 1/ application of phosphate as I<H2P0 4 increased pH in treatments where lime was not applied in both soils (Table 2). Where lime was applied, phosphate did not have a Significant effect on soil pH. The phosphate material used had a neutralizing effect and therefore affected low pH soils. Table 3 shows that pH increased due to liming and P application increased zinc adsorption in both soils. Table 2 shows that at zero P applied, the application of 1200kg ha-llime increased pH by 1.90 in the sandy soils and 4000kg ha-llime increased pH by 2.1 units in the red clay soil. Assuming a linear increase in zinc adsorption with pH, zinc adsorbed (Table 3) increased by 125 per cent in the sandy soil and 2904 per cent in the sandy clay soil per unit increase in pH.Where no lime was added, the addition of 100J.1g P g-l soil increased zinc adsorption by 62.5% in the sandy soil and by 100 per cent in the red clay soil. Where soils were limed, the addition of 100J.1g P g-1 soil increased zinc adsorption by 28.8 per cent in sandy soil and 16.3 per cent in the red clay. An explanation for the greater effect of P in limed soil can be obtained from Table 2. Where lime was not applied the application of phosphate had a significant effect in changing soil pH. Where soils had already been limed, the application of phosphate did not change the soil p;H. The significant difference in zinc adsorption with P application in the limed and unlimed soil is therefore explained by the pH changing effect of the phosphate material.The above results showed that pH had a very strong effect on zinc adsorption. Small changes in pH resulted in large changes in zinc adsorption and thus zinc availability. It is therefore noted that any phosphate material that has an effect on pH will affect zinc adsorption through an indirect pH effect resulting from the P application. Apart from the pH effect caused by P application, there was also a phosphate effect which was not governed by pH changes. These conclusions were confirmed by the results of Experiment 2 (Table 4). In this experiment the pH of soil solutions containing different P levels was controlled. Results showed that even if P did not alter pH of the soil solution, there was still another smaller but significant effect of P on zinc adsorption.In Table 5 we show that application of phosphate also resulted in an increase in the effective CEC of the soil. That increase is consistent with results obtained by Gillman and Fox (1980); Kuo and MacNeal (1984) and Mekaru and Uehara (1972). Application of 100j.1gP g-l increased the CEC by 3 per cent in the sandy soil and by 9 per cent in the clay soil. Table 6 shows a strong correlation between CEC and zinc adsorbed (0.87 in sandy soil and 0.84 in clay soil). In the greenhouse experiments a strong relationship between zinc concentration in maize plants and CEC of the different soils was also found (Sandy soil R2 • -0.712; Sandy clay soil R2 • -0.930).The increased zinc adsorption with P addition is possibly a result of changes in CEC. Saeed and Fox (1979) and Xie and Mackenzie (1988) observed an increase in CEC with phosphate application and concluded that this increased negative charge was responsible for the increase in zinc sorption.Effect of pH and P application on zinc uptake by maize. In the greenhouse experiments, both pH and applied phosphate significantly decreased zinc uptake by maize. In the sandy soil a pH change of 0.8 units (from 4.4 to 5.2) reduced zinc concentration by about 65 per cent in shoots and 61 per cent in roots (Figure 1). At pH 4.9 the application of 240kg ha-1 P20S reduced zinc concentration in maize shoots and roots by about 50 and 31 per cent, 21 respectively. In the clay soil (Figure 2) a pH change of 1.1 units (4.9 to 5.9) resulted in a decrease in zinc concentration of about 40 per cent in shoots and 50 per cent in roots. P application also significantly reduced the zinc concentration in maize tissue.In the sandy clay soils the maize plants generally took up less zinc than in the sandy soil (Figures 1  and 2). At pH 4.9 the concentration of zinc in maize grown on sandy soils was 2.3 times greater than the concentration in maize grown on clay soils. The difference in zinc uptake was due to the differences in the CEC and clay content of the soils. In the sandy soils the low clay content and CEC meant more zinc was in solution and more likely to be taken up by plants. The implication of this is that in situations where stover in not returned to the same field, as in Communal Areas, the sandy soils will become zinc deficient faster than the clay soils.Effect of P and Zn on yield. Figure 3 shows that the dry matter yield response to applied zinc increases with increase in phosphate applied. This is a result of more plant growth where P was applied, and therefore a greater demand for zinc. Zn-s =zinc sorbed       7 shows yields of maize in field trials. In the Gwebi trial there was a very significant response to applied phosphate in the second and third year. Response to applied zinc was observed in the third year. The zinc response in the third year shows that zinc level in the soil decreased during the first two cropping seasons. In the Makosa trial there was also a response tO I zinc application. The available zinc status at Makosa was below a critical level (Madziva, 1981) of 0.5 ppm. No yield response to zinc application was observed at Panmure and Zvimba. The lack of response to zinc on these sites was because the zinc status of those sites was above the critical level.The results of this research show that any fertilizer application that causes a small change in pH causes significant changes in zinc adsorption. This means that any soil management practice that affects soil pH will have an effect on zinc adsorption. The relationship between CEC and zinc adsorption needs further research to determine whether it may playa part in increased zinc adsorption. The high zinc uptake by maize grown on sandy soil means that in communal areas where stover is given to livestock feeding, the zinc depletion rate for a sandy soil will be much higher than for a clay soil, if manure is not returned to the same fields.The observed increased response to zinc with P application shows that adequate zinc levels in the soil will enhance maize response to fertilizer phosphate. The response to zinc in the third year at Gwebi supports the current Zimbabwe recommendation of applying a fertilizer containing Zn once every three to four years. Tagwira, F., Piha, M. and Mugwira, L. 1992a Two field trials were carried out simultaneously on a high phosphorous (P) fixing Mollie Andosol to determine the effects of soluble P, banded P and residual P on maize (Zea mays, L.) yields at 0 (-N) and 80 kg N ha-1 (+N). In one trial, six treatments of 0, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 kg P ha-1 were applied by broadcasting and incorporation, and left to equilibrate in the soil. After 5 months, the top soil from the plots was sampled and analysed giving 9, 11.8, 21.4, 30.3, 57.2 and 72 I1g P g-l at planting. A second trial was laid adjacent to the first trial and comprised of 0 (PO), 20 (PI), 40 (P2), 60 (P3), 80 (P4), 100 (P5) kg P ha-1 of banded P at planting. Forty two days after germination (DAG), strong synergistic effects were observed between P and early growth dry matter yield EGDMY, and Nand (EGDMY). Dry matter yield increased progressively with amount of soluble P up to the highest level of 72.0 Ilg g-l.For banded P, no resronse was obtained beyond 80 kg P ha-1 in the +N treatment. Grain yields increased to 8.59 t ha-at 72.0 Ilg P g-1 in +N treat~ent and 6.84 t ha-1 in -N treatment. Each unit of soluble P gave an estimated grain yield of 0.2 t ha-. When P was banded, nitrogen influenced grain yield up to P3. Maximum yield (7.26 t ha-1 ) was attained at P4 in +N treatment and 7.0 t ha-1 at -N treatment. In the second season, P was not applied however the residual P at planting was 9, 10,22, 31,40,46 I1g g-1 soil respectively. DMY, grain yield were lower in comparison. GY being 6.10 t ha-1 for residual broadcast Pat 46 ~g g-l soil +N, and 3.65 t ha-1 at P6 +N.Although the Rift Valley of Kenya has for a long The field experiments were conducted at the time taken the lead in food production, there have National Plant Breeding Research Centre, (NPBRC) been reports of declining yields from this area in Njoro, which is 2160 m above sea level and receives recent years. The declining production has been an average annual rainfall of 931 mm. The reflected in national food production. An example is experimental field was previously under grass for 2 maize whose bulk production comes from this area. years. The soil is classified as a mollie Andosol The national average yield was 1.92 t ha-1 , 1.87 t ha-1 Gaetzold and Schmidt, 1983), with 9 !Jog g-! P and 1.84 t ha-1 in 1989, 1990, 1991, 'respectively (Kamparanth, 1967)).The clay (44%), is (Shaw, 1992). Besides adverse weather, farmer characterized by the high percentage of allophane practice have contributed to declining production. (amorphous hydrated Al silicates) which contributes There has been a continuous monoculture of high to a high P-fixing power (Muchena, 1981), copper yielding varieties with little or no fertilizer applied. deficiency (Butters, 1945), pH of 5.6, sand 50% Phosphorus is second to nitrogen in limiting yields organic carbon 2.4%, and base saturation of 81 %. in Kenya (Olsen and Drier, 1956; Muriuki and Five months before planting in March 1990 the site Barber, 1980). The later has been shown to enhance was ploughed and harrowed 4 times. There were 2 crop response to applied P (Parks and Safely, 1977). trials in one site. For each trial the design was 2x6 Fertilizers have become very costly which results in factorial RCB replicated 3 times, with 36 plots of 4.5 farmers reducing the amount applied per unit area m x 6 m. Broadcast P (TSP 46%P) was applied at 0, or the area cultivated. Too little or too much 50, 100, 200, SOD, 1,000 kg ha-1 incorporated at 15 cm fertilizer result in a loss of profits. Presently, depth soon after harrowing to react and equilibrate recommendations for fertilizer P rates on the soil are with the soil from November 1989 to March 1990 empirically based on soil test values and crop before planting. During this time, there was a total history of land. However, field trials that correlate of 355.6 mm of rain. In wet conditions like this, soil analyse P and yields would give better reaction between soil and P is increased (Barrow, recommendations. Such trials may be conducted in 1972). Banded P was applied at seeding time at diverse areas where the soil has not had liberal P o ~O), 20 (Pl), 40 (P2), 60 (P3), 80 (P4), 100 (P5), kg applied and N, Cu, and other elements are available ha-in furrows. At planting, all of the 72 plots were sufficiently so as not to limit yields. The objective of dug into 15 em depth then had a basal ,?plication of this experiment was to investigate the effects of copper at 4 kg ha-and zinc at 4 kg ha-, to alleviate banded P, soluble P and residual P on early growth Zn deficiency that may be induced by high rates of P and grain yield of maize grown on a mollie Andosol (Gitonga, 1980). The furrows were dug at 75 cm of Rift Valley.spacing and 15 em depth. The first dose of N (CAN 25 26% N) was applied in the furrows at 0 or 40 kg ha-1 .In the banded P trial, P and N were mixed and applied in the same furrow. Then all the furrows were filled with the soil up to 5 em depth. Two maize seeds (H625) were placed 25 em to the side of the band such that the fertilizer was 10 em below the seed for efficient utilization (Toews, 1984). Forty two days after germination (OAG), fifteen plants per plot were sampled and oven dried at 60°C for dry matter (OM) yield. Soil samples (0-15 em depth) were taken from plots which received broadcast p/ for soluble P determination and were analysed using the Me~lich method (Mehlich, et ai., 1962). All plots were thmned to 1 plant/hill, in order to achieve a density of 55,000 plants ha'l and a second dose of N at 0 or 40 kg N ha'l top dressed the same day. At harvest, grain yields were adjusted to 12.5% moisture content. Stover was removed and plots kept weed free until the next planting in 1991. No P was applied at the next planting. OMY and grain yield data were analysed by ANOVA using MSTATC.Early growth. In early growth (42 OAG), there was no response to applied N for plots with no applied P. There was a slight response to applied P with -N. For applied P or soluble P with N / there was splendid crop response to both nutrients, indicating a strong interraction between P and N (P<0.05) (Tables 1 and 2). The EGOMY at highest P rate was 168 g per plot. The EGOMY potential for banded P was attained at 40 kg P ha-l being 90.2 g per plot but was much lower than that. for broadcast P, which evidently lay beyond 168 g per plot. It was argued that there may be some spatial limitations that hinder plant roots from maximum utilization of a localised fertilizer band. It was reasoned that in early growth stages, the vegetation yield is higher for broadcasted P than for banded P because P moves very little, and where broadcasted, more plant root surface area will intercept, contact and   Mwangi exploit P to increase both OMY and grain yield.Grain yields. Banded P, levels above P3 at +N treatment did ~ot significantly increase grain yield (P<0.05). MaXimum grain yield (7.26 t ha-l ) was attained at PS, with +N treatment but P3 could be the most economical amount of P that could be banded in this soil for efficient utilization by maize (Table l):tor broadcast P, the h~hest grain yields (8.59 t ha ) were at 1,000 kg P ha' (72.0 J.lg g-l) with +N. tre~tment (Table 2)/ and is among the highest gram yield ever recorded for the soil. Each unit of soluble P gave an estimated grain yield of 0.2 t ha-l .In earlier work with a humic Nitosol it was found tha~ .mixing. individual phosphorus and nitrogen fer~hze~s With a larger volume of soil gave higher gram yield than mixing individual fertilizer with more soil in the absence of the other (Gitonga, 1980).Others working with high P fixing soils came up with similar findings (Kamparanth, 1967).There was lower DMY and grain yield from residual P than the previous season for both broadcast and ba~ded (fables 5 and 6). Highest grain yield (6.10 t ha ) for broadcast P at 46 J.1g gol, +N and 3.65 t ha-l where soil had previously received banded P at P6, + N.. This was attributed to P-fixation, leaching, and nutrient removal by the previous crop. In another study a harvested maize crop was found to remove 139 kg K ha-l , 23 kg Ca ha-l , 16 kg P ha ol , 11 kg Mg ha-l (Qureshi, 1990).Finally the yields are dependent on initial available P and N; a soil with higher amounts would give lower crop response to applied P and N. This fact makes it difficult to compare the two methods of P application and the yields. Nevertheless, table 2 can be used to give an estimate of grain yield potential of the Andosol; after determining the initial amount of soluble P when no P is applied. Similarly  through volatilization and leaching), through immobilization and mineralization of N in Per capita food production in Sub-Saharan Africa synchrony with crop demand (Swift, 1985;1986). continues to decline (Van Reuler & Prins, 1993).The Apparent N Recovery Efficiency (ANRE) Increased and sustained production in Tropical (Fageria, 1992), provides a useful index of this Africa requires appropriate soil management Residues may also conserve nutrients by protecting practices, involving the integrated use of organic the soil from erosion, through surface protection as a and inorganic resources Ganssen, 1993). A recent mulch, and/or through improved soil physical survey in countries of Sub-Saharan Africa shows structure, water infiltration and moisture status. that on average, soils are being depleted of 22 kg N, 2.5 kg P, and 15 kg K ha-1 per year (Stoorvogel et al., Maize stover, the most abundant crop residue, has a number of uses in Eastern and Southern Africa, 1993). In Kisii, a high potential area in Kenya, it has including as a livestock feed, for animal bedding, been estimated that nutrients are being depleted shelter and fuel (Bationo and Mokwunye, 1991). Use from the soil at a rate of 110 kg N, 3 kg P, and 70 kg of stover as a soil amendment is often limited due to ha-1 per year (Smaling, 1993). Improved crop its impediment to mechanical and hand tillage, and residue management is an essential part of the negative effects on crop productivity arising from strategy to reduce the nutrient deficit. For example, incidence and carryover of pests (Macharia, 1988), crop residues are a valuable source of nutrients; a diseases (Osunlaja, 1990), al1elopathy (Cochran et al., tonne of maize stover contains between 4-8 kg N, 1991), and short-term nutrient deficiency (Ocio et al., 1.5-1.8 kg P, 13-16 kg K, 3.8-6.6 kg Ca, and 1.5-3.4 kg 1991). For these reasons, much stover in burnt in Mg (Nandwa; unpublished data). Crop residues, situ in areas with few cattle. The return of stover to often regarded as low quality resources, also have soil can however, have beneficial effects on soil the potential to reduce losses (in the case of N, fertility, and crop productiVity in the longer term. A Placement of maize stover affects N use and yield long-term trial in Kenya shows that stover return, initially suppresses yields, but later increases yield and more than compensates for the earlier losses (Qureshi, 1987). This initial yield suppression seriously restricts the adoption of stover return, particularly by smallholder farmers who can illafford short-term losses in productivity. Can this yield suppression be overcome by improved management practices to allow farmers to reap the benefits from longer-term improvements in soil fertility?Improved stover management practices can be best developed from an understanding of the soil biological processes that regulate nutrient availability. The frequently-observed initial yield suppression which follows stover application is attributable to nutrient immobilization (nutrient deficiency stress),. through the application of crop residues of low nutrient availability index (ANI), and high organic stability index (051) (Parr et ai., 1986). It is generally reported that crop residues with a wide C:N ratio (e.g., >35) or N content of less than 1.5-1.7%, usually decompose sloWly, and cause immobilization. Apart from the quality of residue, decomposition (and nutrient availability) is a function of the physical environment (primarily moisture and temperature), and the actiVity of soil organisms (Tian, 1992).Management practices can influence soil biological processes. For example, N fertilizer application can overcome immobilization (Bahl et ai., 1986;Aulakh and Renie, 1986;Aulakh et al., 1984). Other options include• the timing of application (Mulongoy and Akobundu, 1992) or placement of stover to improve synchrony of nutrient release with crop demand, or avoid the release of phytotoxins at sensitive stages of crop growth (Guenzi et ai., 1967). As far as placement is concerned, the rate of crop residue decomposition and mineralization can be increased through incorporation in contrast to surface (1) According to Jaetzold and Schimdt (1983) (2) According to FAO UNESCO (1990) 29 placement (Bandara, 1991), due to more rapid catabolism (Swift et ai., 1979;Eijsackers and Zehnder, 1990) resulting from the greater contact of residue with the decomposer organisms (Holland and Coleman, 1987).There have, to date, been few field studies aimed at improving the management of stover through the manipulation of soil biological process under Sub-Saharan African conditions. This paper reports on research aimed at formulating recommendations involving stover placement and N fertilization for the management of stover in two different agroecological zones in Kenya. The study was conducted within the framework of the TSBF African Network which uses standard methodology (Anderson and Ingram, 1989) to improve the understanding of the soil biological processes that regulate the fertility of tropical soils. The following hypotheses were tested: Yields and N use efficiency are not influenced by different stover placement practices in the absence and presence of N fertilizer; and optimum stover management practice does not differ between the two sites.Experimental sites were chosen to represent two different agroecological zones (AEZ) in Kenya: the National Agricultural Research Institute Laboratories (NARL) at Kabete, Nairobi in the Subhumid AEZ, and National Dryland Farming Research Centre (NDFRC) at Katumani, Machakos in the semi-arid AEZ. Details of the sites are given in Table 1. The soil at NARL has the greater clay and soil organic matter content.An experiment was laid out at each site in a randomized complete block design, with four replicates.There were five stover placement treatments, selected to vary the soil mulch cover in the absence and presence of N fertilizer (Table 2).Stover was applied at a rate of 4 t ha- experiment was continued for three seasons (1991 SII;1992 SI;1992 SII), with the stover and N applied to the same plots each season. Maize (KCB, planted both seasons at NDFRc, and short rains at NARL; H511, planted during the long rains at NARL), was sown a day after stover application at an inter-and intra-row spacing of 75 cm and 50 cm (60 cm at NDFRC) respectively, in plots measuring 6m x 6m. P, as triple superphosphate, was applied at a rate of 22 kg ha-1 , at planting, and 25 kg N ha-1 , as CAN, was applied twice: two weeks after emergence and at knee high stage. Weeds were controlled by hoeing, and insect pests (especially stalkborer) using recommended pesticides. Plants were harvested (4% of the total plot plant population) for dry matter and N content at monthly intervals during vegetative growth, and also at maturity. Oven-dried samples (80°C for 72h), were ground to pass through a 1.5 mm mesh. The samples were analysed for N content follOWing the TSBF Handbook of Methods (Anderson and Ingram, 1989). N uptake was calculated as the product of dry matter and tissue N content. Stover and grain yields were recorded at maturity.Apparent N Recovery Efficiency (ANRE) was calculated according to Fageria (1992):nutrient uptake by • nutrient uptake by fertiliZed crop unfertiliZed crop Nfertilizer applied Agroclimatic conditions, including temperature and precipitation, were also measured, and soil mois~re content and soil organic N concentration were determined at two-weekly intervals (Nandwa et al., 1994).Grain and stover yields. Maize grain and stover yields are reported in Tables 3a and 3b. The application of N resulted in significantly higher yields at both NARL and NDFRC. At NARL, N Nandwa et al.increased the grain by between 20.6-48.4% and the stover by 27.7-68.6%.Respective increases at NDFRC were 12.2-35.7% and 18.247.5%. At NARL, in the absence of N fertilizer, there was no significant difference in yields between placement treatments in all three seasons; with N, maize production was significantly higher in the mulch and deep incorporation treatments in the second season.At NDFRC, deep incorporation was significantly superior to other treatments in the first season, both in the presence and absence of N fertilizer; but in the second and third seasons, there were no significant differences between stover placement treatments.Nitrogen use efficiency. At NARL, the ANRE pattern (Table 4) was closely related to the dry matter yield trend (Table 3a). During 1991 SIl, N recovery efficiency was found to improve with increasing rate of surface mulch cover (%); a pattern which was reversed during the follOWing two seasons. This was consistently in the order of deep incorporation > shallow incorporation > mixed > mulch> control> (removal) at NDFRC throughout the experimental period. In the second season, ANRE was lower at both sites than in the first and third seasons.This was attributed to poor distribution of rainfall through the season.The effects of maize stover placement and N fertilization may be explained through process measurements which accompanied those of N uptake and maize productivity reported in this paper.In the absence of N, incorporation of stover in the first season at NARL resulted in N immobilization. This is in agreement with Azam et al. (1986), Sidur and Sur (1993), and Amarasiri and Wickrama Singh (1988), who have shown that incorporation of large    Yield suppression, even in the presence of 50 kg N ha-1 in the first season, raises the question of how much N needs to be applied to overcome this effect. Evidence in the tropics is scarce, but Parr and Papendick (1978) report that N requirement for straw decomposition is greater in warmer than in cooler soils. In Alaska, Cochran (1991) found that no N was needed in the first year, but 9 kg N ha-1 and 4.5 kg N ha-1 was needed to compensate for surface and incorporated barley straw accrued from a 3 t ha-1 barley crop during the second year. In tropical Australia, Ladd (1981) found that one tonne of low quality material (C:N ratio of 55) immobilized 4.5 kg N during the first year.In the absence of N, there were no significant differences in grain and stover yields between stove placement treatments at NARL, with the exception of stover yield in the second season (1992 51)/ in which there was an extreme decrease due to surface mulch. This may have been due to the low mean soil temperature in the 0-5 cm soil layer under mulch (21.1°C), which is below the optimum soil temperature (25-30°C) for the growth and development of maize (Fageria, 1992). The corresponding temperature of the soil in the incorporated treatment was 26,SOC. Cooper and  Law (1977), from work in Kitale, found a substantial reduction in yields of maize of about 0.6 t ha-1 week Nandwa et ai.when planting was delayed, a consequence of decreased soil temperature follOWing the onset of rains. It is also hypothesised that surface mulch may have had phytotoxic effects on maize growth, resulliilg in lower plant populations. For example, the number of plants which died after thinning at NARL were 9.7/ 20.5, 16.4 and 10.4% of the total plant population in the control, mulch, mixed and deep incorporation treatments respectively.It would have been expected that, as in the +N treatments, incorporation would have resulted in immobilization of native soil N. There was however a trend in the opposite direction with greater grain yields due to deep incorporation in all three seasons (although not significant).This effect was particularly evident at NDFRC, where yields (grain and stover) were significantly greater due to deep incorporation in the first season. Results are difficult to explain, but may have been due to improved soil physical conditions resulting in better soil moisture status. Infiltration measurements at the end of the ~second season were 0.6, 0.9, 1.5 and 2.4 cm per hour , . . for the removal, mulch, mixed and deep incorporation treatments respectively. Also, termite activity was noticeably greater at NDFRC than at NARL, which could have accounted for the faster mass loss of stover at NDFRC, removing the C source for microbial immobilization of N.Results of cumulative grain yields for the three successive seasons indicate that, in general, incorporation is superior to the mixed and mulch practices in the sites representative of the semi-arid and sub-humid agroecological zones. In the absence of N, incorporation was superior to all treatments (including removal) at both sites. However, in the presence of N, by the end of the third season at NARL, stover removal was still superior to the incorporated treatment.At NDFRC, maize productivity (in terms of grain and stover yield) was consistently greater in the order of deep incorporation > mixed > mulch > control in each of A detailed economic analysis of these results is being done by Paul Heisey ofCIMMYT. Hawever the responses we have had at some sites suggest that FUE is increased by such a large amount that the VCR will be increased. Also at many sites the amount of P fertilizer can be reduced which decreases the cost offertilizer and therefore increases the VCR. A. Chivinge, V.H. Kabambe, D.T. Kumwenda: There were no significant differences in yield between 1153 kg ha-1 and over 3000 kg ha-1 . What is the source of the high CV? What is the implication as far as the farmer is concerned because the gap is large?The yield figures presented are for the overall three factor interaction. This was not significant. However, .fertilizer application significantly increased maize yields: 1151 kg ha-1 without fertilizer and 3645 kg ha-l with. Response:In the broadcast-P trial, we applied P five months before planting to give the P and the soil time to react and reach equillibrium. Such reactions are P fixation, P immobilization, dissolution in soil water etc. We were interested in the amount ofP in the soil after these reactions reach equillibrium.M.Mudhara: How applicable will your findings be to farmers since they can not apply fertilizer five months before planting?Farmers can broadcast high rates ofP and incorporate it at planting. They need not wait five months. The yield potential for broadcast P was found to be higher than• where P was banded. Low rates ofP can be banded at planting,• but farmers cannot expect very high yields.A. Chivinge: Why did you keep the plots weedfree to get the effects of residual P? Farmers do not remove all the weeds.The plots were kept weedld (weedfree). If left unweeded weeds would deplete the level ofresidual P in the soil, the parameter that was under investigation.Was N applied on plots where P and N were applied in the previous trial?Response: Yes.Questions to Stephen Nandwa F. Tagwira:The problem with studies on stover use as a source of nutrients for growing crops is that stover application does not only affect soil nutrient dynamics but also moisture availability.That is true. We have tried to look at stover effects on soil moisture and temperature and found that all these factors affect yields. I could not highlight all those results due to time constraints. Reponse:Organic matter and microbial populations are certainly related.INTRODUCfION from organic matter, and nitrogen inputs from biological fixation and atmospheric deposition. Improving agricultural sustainability involves Many agronomic researchers are using this reducing dependence on externally purchased and approach.The second approach, rather than non-renewable resources, and minimizing harmful concentrating purely on nitrogen supply, would be environmental impacts of agricultural systems, to lower crop demand for nitrogen through while maintaining or improving their productivity breeding.This approach could help address and profitability. In maize (Zea mays L.) production, productivity limitations in nitrogen-poor areas and synthetic nitrogen fertilizer represents an input from problems of nitrate leaching, and may help reduce a non-renewable source which can cause harmful reliance on the finite resource used to produce environmental impacts.In many areas, crop synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. It also may help productivity is limited by nitrogen availability, improve farmers' economic status, if reductions in either from organic or inorganic sources. In others, fertilizer expenditures are greater than the value of nitrate leaching and the resulting groundwater any reductions in saleable maize yield resulting pollution (Wild and Cameron, 1981) and coastal from reduced nitrogen fertilizer use. eutrophication (Howarth, 1988) are serious problems. Known global reserves of natural gas, the Coffman and Smith (1991) point out that \"breediilg primary feedstock for producing synthetic nitrogen for sustainability is mostly a process of fitting fertilizers, are projected to be depleted in 50 years varieties to an environment instead of altering the (Hough, 1987). It is likely that new reserves will be environment by adding inputs such as fertilizer, discovered, but such reliance on a finite, non-water, and pesticides.\" Breeding maize for better renewable resource for food production has long-productivity under lower levels of available nitrogen term implications for feeding people, and short-term contributes to this process. Maize response to economic implications given the linkage between additional nitrogen at fairly high soil nitrate levels fertilizer and energy costs (Mudahar and Hignett, has been investigated extensively (e.g., Larson and 1982). Hanway, 1977;Lemcoff and Loomis, 1986), and for many ye,ars, crop breeders have selected varieties for Two basic approaches can be taken to improve crop their capacity to respond to high fertility levels. The productivity in a sustainable fashion in areas with high yielding varieties of wheat and rice which low nitrogen fertility. First, innovative agronomic , provided the' basis for the \"Green Revolution\" were practices can be developed to better use nitrogen novel, in part, because of their ability to take advantage of high fertility conditions. Maize has been selected for adaptation to high fertility conditions as well, simply through use of high fertility levels in maize breeding nurseries and varietal evaluation trials. Although considerable research has focused on maize varietal response to increased levels of nitrogen fertilizer, very little work has focused on responses at the lower end of the nitrogen curve. Genetic differences which affect ability to maintain yield under reduced nitrogen availability have not been studied in depth.Results of selection studies. Those few studies reporting results of selection in maize under high and low nitrogen availability show significant alterations in nitrogen efficiency (plant nitrogen uptake and utilization) and yield of the resulting populations. Muruli and Paulsen (1981) conducted one cycle of selection under high and low nitrogen fertility, and found Significant differences between the resulting populations for nitrogen efficiency traits and yield under nitrogen limiting conditions. In another study, two cycles of selection for high yield under both low and high nitrogen availability resulted in improvements for both nitrogen regimes, but greater improvements under the low nitrogen conditions (Lafitte and Edmeades, 1991). Short (1991) selected divergently for good performance in both high and low nitrogen regimes (\"nitrogen efficiency\") vs. good performance under high nitrogen and poor performance under low nitrogen (\"nitrogen inefficiency\"). The \"nitrogen efficient\" selection was higher yielding under both optimal and low nitrogen regimes than the \"nitrogen inefficient\" selection.These studies all indicate that useful genetic variation exists for performance under low nitrogen conditions, and that breeding for this trait can be successful if selection is carried out under low nitrogen availability. Significant interactions of commercial varieties with nitrogen availability levels provide additional evidence of genetic variation affecting maize performance under nitrogen limiting conditions (J. van Beem, T.e. Barker and M.E. Smith, unpublished data).That such variation exists among commercial U.S. hybrids, which undoubtedly have been selected and tested with ample available nitrogen, suggests that much greater differences might be apparent if comparable genotypes selected and tested for nitrogen stress tolerance were available to evaluate.A primary difficulty in selecting for nitrogen stress tolerance is the high environmental variation (an~ associated high genotype by environment interaction) which Smith et ai.manifests itself in nutrient-stressed environments. This environmental component of variation could be reduced by carrying out selections in a more controlled environment, or by selecting for component processes (which are generally less affected by environmental variability and genotype by environment interaction).Although these approaches may be limited by low correlation between the traits measured• and actual field performance under nitrogen stress, they may allow preliminary screening to limit the number of genetic materials which must be field tested.Working with sweet maize, Miles (1993) developed a sand culture screening method to evaluate plant growth under nitrogen stress in the growth chamber. Different nitrogen levels were generated using a modified Hoagland's solution, with Ca(N03h plus KN03 as the nitrogen source, and HEDTA rather than EDTA to improve iron chelation and prevent deficiencies. Varieties responded differently to nitrogen levels (optimal and low) at 30 days after planting, in terms of plant height, fresh and dry weight of above-ground biomass, and plant greenness measured with the SPAD-502 chlorophyll meter.How well these differences relate to performance under adequate and nitrogen-stressed conditions in the field remains to be determined. Efficient use of nitrogen, like any other crop performance character, is the product of numerous genetically-controlled metabolic processes. Selection based on these component processes rather than based on yield under stress conditions is attractive, because the components may be less affected by environmental variability and genotype by environment interaction, and simpler and/ or less costly to measure. Unfortunately, selection for individual physiological or biochemical processes often does not prOVide a reliable estimate of final accumulated nitrogen or final yield, due to the complexity of these latter traits (Blum, 1988;Cregan and van Berkum, 1984).However, an understanding of the processes which contribute to efficient nitrogen use and higher yield under low nitrogen availability is essential to long-term improvement in these traits, and may provide more rapid or efficient screening approaches for use in conjunction with complex measures such as yield under nitrogen stress (Bramel-Cox et al., 1991). Many component trait;; related to efficient nitrogen use show genetic variation (Bramel-Cox et al., 1991). Pre-flowering nitrogen accumulation influences kernel number and overall nitrogen economy of the maize plant (Kamprath et al., 1982;Lemcoff and Loomis, 1986).Protease activity is another component which shows particular promise because Improving maize for N use of its relationship to remobilization of nitrogen compounds during grain filling (Dalling et al., 1976;Reed et al., 1980). One recent study showed that nitrate reductase activity of maize leaves in vitro was quite highly correlated with nitrogen uptake in the field, and indicated that selection for nitrate reductase activity might accelerate progress towards improving nitrogen acquisition and maize yield (Feil et al., 1993). Study of how these component processes have changed duting selection for nitrogen efficient varieties will provide needed insight into the basis of efficient nitrogen use in maize.Identification of whole plant traits which are correlated with yield under nitrogen stress, and are rapidly and inexpensively measured, would facilitate the breeding process. Miles (1993) used 84 families of sweet maize to investigate use of the SPAD-502 chlorophyll meter to assess plant nitrogen status, and stem diameter measurements to predict plant biomass and yield.Chlorophyll meter readings were significantly correlated with plant nitrogen concentration and content in one year (values of the correlation coefficient ranged from r=0.15 to r=0.57), and to yield in another year (range of r=O.11 to r=0.25). In other studies, correlation coefficients between chlorophyll meter readings and maize yield under nitrogen stress ranged from r=0.14 (significant at P<==0.05) for breeding families to r=0.65 (significant at P<==O.Ol) for hybrid varieties (T.e. Barker and M.E. Smith, unpublished data). Measurements of stem diameter (along both axes at the base of the stem) and of plant height allow calculation of stem volume, using the formula for the volume of a cone with an elliptical base. Stem volume calculated in this way was highly significantly correlated to above-ground plant biomass (r=0.83 to r=0.96), and to husked ear weight (r=0.22 to r=0.26) (Miles, 1993). Although significant positive correlations were obtained for chlorophyll meter readings and stem volume with yield, they were not strong enough to advocate using these traits as sole selection criteria. However, they may be useful as part of a selection index for nitrogen use efficiency. The high correlation between stem volume and plant biomass may facilitate selection of materials with vigorous plant development under nitrogen-limiting conditions.Root characteristics important to superior performance under low nutrient status are largely unknown and unexploited (Smith and Zobel, 1991). Zobel (1975) demonstrated the remarkable ability of some varieties to modify their root systems in response to stress, while other varieties were less able to adapt, and suffered much more extreme yield losses. Much of this variation appears to be heritable, and thus amenable to improvement via breeding (Zobel, 1986;1991). Initial studies of maize inbreds under different nitrogen levels showed large differences among the inbreds in root system plasticity in response to nitrogen levels a. van Beem, unpublished data). Many methods for studying roots in the field have been reported (see Bohm, 1979 for a review), but most are destructive, time consuming, and! or very expensive. Chloupek (1972Chloupek ( , 1977) ) proposed use of electrical capacitance for measuring rooting volume in breeding studies. This is a rapid, inexpensive, and non-destructive method to \"observe\" roots in the field, particularly the lateral and determinant roots which account for 90% of the total root absorbing surface (Zobel, 1989;Zobel and Voland, 1990). Preliminary assessments of root system surface area using this approach show distinct differences among genetic materials which respond differently to nitrogen availability (J. van Beem, unpublished data). Whereas the genetic variation in above-ground plant traits has been extensively refined through maize breeding,. rO(lt system variability has been exploited only indirectly through breeding efforts to date. Direct, nondestructive selection for root system traits may lead to important gains in maize productivity, particularly in soil-related stress environments. Future challenges. Concerns which remain to be resolved in breeding maize for improved nitrogen use efficiency include interactions between nitrogen and water supply, and effects of plant nitrogen nutrition on protein content and quality of grain and forage. Both drought tolerance and nitrogen use efficiency are complex traits, and they are clearly not unrelated. In the absence of adequate water, plants cannot take up nitrogen regardless of the theoretical soil nitrogen availability. Both water and nitrogen availabilities vary during the course of the growing season, and timing of shortages may be unpredictable. In many areas, the combination of drought and nitrogen stress, rather than either individually, may be the primary limitation to improved maize yields. Approaches for jointly addressing these two complex traits need to be developed.Although maize is not a major protein source in human diets, when consumed as a staple food it may contribute significant amounts of protein. To date, we have little information on the nitrogen conteqt of grain and stover from genetic materials with improved nitrogen use efficiency. We do not know whether better plant performance under nitrogen limiting conditions results from better soil nitrogen extr~ction capacity or from more efficient translocation of stored plant nitrogen to harvestable yield, or whether such plants are simply lower in overall plant nitrogen content. Each possibility poses different potential limitations to the utility of the materials developed.In order to manage nitrogen use efficient genotypes appropriately, we will need to assess the mechanism for that efficiency and use care and foresight in placing these genotypes within cropping systems. Improving maize for N use stress and deficiencies of other nutrients. It would also be beneficial in reducing root lodging, or Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient in maize overcoming mechanical soil constraints. production in the humid and subhumid tropics. Soils are typically low in organic matter and N is Seasonally, wet and dry environments are readily leached out of the rooting zone. Fertilizers characterized by a major flush of N when microbial are not always available or are too expensive for activity is stimulated by the onset of the rains. Early small-scale farmers.N availability and N use root growth may affect the plant's ability to catch the efficiency can be improved by better management of first flush of mineralized N. The importance of early N resources, inclusion of legumes in the cropping root growth in determining N use efficiency will system and use of highly efficient varieties. Genetic depend on the potential to synchronize root growth variablity for N use efficiency has been widely with downward nitrate movement, the N uptake reported (SAFGRAD/IITA, 1986; Lafitte and and storage capacity of young maize plants, and on Edmeades,1987). Development of tropical varieties the relative effect of N deficiency at early compared with improved capacity to capture and utilize soil N to later growth stages. Yet, detailed information would be cost effective and sustainable. about these factors is limited. A field experiment was conducted to see if genetic variation in root In the lowland tropics of West and Central Africa, growth characteristics can be detected in tropical experience has shown that selection for yield under maize. An additional objective was to determine if low N supply alone may not be precise enough, root growth, especially at the early stage, affects since deficient plants are more sensitive to other nitrogen uptake and yield. In a pot experiment, the constraints, which can mask differences in N use genetic variation in the ability of maize seedling efficiency. Several traits including Nitrate Reductase roots to penetrate soil impediments was determined. activity, chlorophyll content in the ear leaf, and In addition the effect of soil bulk density on root reduced anthesis-silking interval were proposed as growth and its vari,bility was investigated. Of selection criteria.Selection for root growth particular interest was the comparison of root characteristics may provide a direct means for parameters at the seedling stage and in the field. improving N uptake. Uptake efficiency was shown to be the most important factor contributing to N use MATERIALS AND METHODS efficiency under N deficient conditions in the West Field experiment.The field experiment was African tropics (Akintoye, 1994). A vigorous root established in the first season of 1993 on a deep, system could provide better tolerance to drought 44 L fertile Alfisol in the forest zone of South Western Nigeria, with bimodally distributed, reliable rainfall. The experiment was designed as a split plot with 4 replicates, 3 nitrogen levels (0, 30 and 90 kg N ha-1 ) as main treatments and 11 varieties as subtreatments (Table 1). Among the varieties were 7 improved populations, two local varieties and two commercial hybrids. Root samples were taken in all plots at the suboptimal N level (30 kg N ha-1 ) with a root auger (core bore method, radius 4.0 cm, 4 profiles per plot), between rows and 19 cm distance from• the plants, down to maximum rooting depth. The soil was washed from the roots and root length estimated by using the line intersect method according to Tennant (1975). At 32 days after planting (DAP) and at silking the following parameters were determined: maximum rooting depth (MRD), root length densities (RLD) in 15 cm increments down to MRD, root length per area of soil surface (RLA), dry matter production and N uptake.At maturity, yield and dry matter production, N uptake and distribution were measured. Roots sampled at silking and N samples taken at harvest are still being processed. Seedling screening. The pots consisted of two tube sections, 5.7 cm in diameter and 5 and 15 cm long, with a filling height of 3 and 12 cm, respectively. A . wax sheet (0.6 mm thick paraffin wax, melting point 710c) was placed between the two sections, touching the soil on both sides to provide a defined impediment. The ability of varieties to overcome the impediment was quantified by counting the number of holes left by penetrating roots. The same 11 varieties as in the field experiment were compared at 3 different bulk densities (1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 gcm-3) in 4 replicates using a randomized complete block design. A sandy topsoil, high in organic matter, was compacted in the pots according to treatments, and a constant moisture regime of 22.5 % volume was maintained during the experiment. In each pot, 2 pre-germinated seeds with radicles of 0.5 to 1 em were planted and grown until the second leaf was fully extended. Total root length (RL) in the top and bottom tube sections was determined.Field experiment. Varieties differed clearly in dry matter production, plant N concentration (unpublished data) and N uptake 32 DAP and at silking, and in grain yield at maturity (Figures 1 and  2). Nitrogen by variety interactions were not significant for these traits, so the averages over N levels are presented. However, varietal differences in N uptake 32 DAP were more significant under low N (P=0.01 %) than under higher N supply (P30kgN-l.20%, P90kgN-43%). Grain yield (15% moisture) was correlated with dry matter production (r=0.82, Figure 1) and N uptake (r-0.68, Figure 2) at silking. Considering only improved late varieties and hybrids, dry matter production and N uptake 32 DAP were related to grain yield. The correlation was most pronounced at low N (roM-0.80, and rNup-0.79), but not significant for the two higher N levels. This suggests that N uptake capacity early in crop development is an important factor for N stress tolerance.It was not possible to detect significant varietal differences for any root growth characteristics investigated i.e., MRD, RLD at each depth, and RLA. Maximum RLD observed at 32 DAP was 0.36 cm cm-3 , which is rather low compared to values obtained by Roeckel (1991) in Benin, but similar to results of Akinnifesi (personal communication, lITA, 1993) in Nigeria. The C.V.'s for RLD's ranged from 47.0% to 66.3%, which is typical for this trait, especially at low densities (Wiesler, 1991). All varieties attained the same MRD of 60• cm. There was no consistent relationship between RLD at any depth and N uptake at the suboptimal N level (Figure 3). EV872S-SR, reported to be N use efficient, and the drought tolerant Poo116-DR had highest RLD in 30 to 45/ and 45 to 60 cm depth, respectively (Figure 3). The hybrids, especially 8644-27/ appeared to have less dense root systems. However, 8644-27 had the highest N uptake of all varieties at silking. Although significant differences Figure 1. Grain yield and dry matter production (tlha) 32 DAP and at silklng of 11 maize varieties In the field; means over N application rates.4.00 1 -------------------------_ _---, Differences among root data e.g., compare only improved varieties of varieties in number of holes occurred only at the similar maturity; increase replication; choose an medium bulk density, which had the highest experimental site with fewer biotic constraints and average number of pores (Figure 4). RL both in the higher yield potential but low natural fertility; and upper and lower section was clearly reduced with   increasing bulk density, but differed among varieties method and a wider range of bulk density needs to only at low bulk density (1.5 g cm-3 ). The varietal be investigated. An experiment of longer duration, means of RL in the upper and lower part were not using larger, sectioned tubes may show a closer associated with number of holes in the wax sheet. relationship to root growth in the field and will give None of the seedling root traits were correlated with information about rooting depth at the seedling RLD at any depth in the field. The lack of a stage. relationship of any seedling root parameter with CONCLUSIONS field root growth may be due to different soil Genotypic differences in N uptake capacity and dry conditions (differing bulk densities, soil types, matter production were clearly established. High moisture, and nutrient content), comparison of uptake of N and dry matter production during early plants at different developmental stages, or the fact growth was related to N stress tolerance. Although that field root data were imprecise. The influence of trends in root growth among varieties were N level and thickness of the wax layer in this apparent in the field, modifications in the experimental procedure are required to detect possible relationships to N uptake and use efficiency. Differences in root growth of seedlings and in their ability to penetrate a wax layer were identified with a screening technique in pots. Further investigations are needed to determine if this can be an effective screening method for N use efficiency. The effectiveness with which nitrogen is used by maize (Zea mays L.) and other non-legume crop plants has become increasingly important because of increased costs of fertilizer (Moll et al., 1981). The screening of maize varieties and inbred lines at a routine level of 120 kg N ha-1 in the Malawi Maize Breeding Programme is, therefore, being reviewed. Differences in N utilization among maize genotypes have been demonstrated, not only in the genotypes' differential responses to N fertilizer (Smith, 1934), but also in the differences in absorption and utilization of absorbed nitrogen (Beauchamp et al., 1976;Chevalier and Schrader, 1977;Moll and Kamprath, 1977;Reed et al., 1980). Thus, the potential for developing superior, N-efficient genotypes seems to exist.This trial was designed to evaluate the performance of experimental and commercial hybrids at low rates of nitrogen fertilizer. The objective was to select hybrids that would perform well at both zero an~ 80 kg N ha-1 , simply by ranking them on the bastS of grain yield within each nitrogen level. This is a quick way to screen for \"N-use e ificleney. . \"The trial was conducted in the 1991/92 season at Chitedze, Mbawa and Meru Research Stations, Malawi.Fifteen hybrids, consisting of 10 experimental 3-way cross hybrids and 5 commercial hybrids, were evaluated. Two of the commercial hybrids, MH17 and MH18, were 3-way topcrosses. A randomized complete block design was used with split plots. Fertilizer was applied to main plots and genotypes allocated to sub-plots. There were 3 replicates per site. Nitrogen was applied at two levels, zero and 80 kg ha-1 . In addition, 40 kg P20S ha-1 was applied to all plots. Both fertilizers were applied as a basal dressing. Plot size was two rows, 5.1m long, with an inter-row spacing of 90cm and 30cm within the row, giving a plant population density of 37000 plants ha-1 .Grain yield. There was a significant interaction between genotypes and fertilizer (P-O.OS) at Chitedze Research Station, indicating that the response of the hybrids to the two fertility levels was variable.MH15xPR8432, Z13534-3xAx1S8 and IP25/73-3-4 performed well without fertilizer. MH15xPR8432 outyielded MH18 by 30%, but the difference was not statistically significant. MH16, IP25/73-3-4 and MH12 were the highest yielders at 80 kg ha-1 N. However, these results were confounded by drought (Table 1). The site mean for the unfertilized treatment at Chitedze was significantly (P=O.OS) higher than that of the fertilized treatment (Table 2).Initially plants in the fertilized plots grew faster than in the unfertilized plots, but as the drought started to take effect, the vigourous plants in the fertilized plots consumed soil moisture much more rapidly, than the unfertilized plants. Visual observations were that plants in fertilized plots started to wilt earlier than in the unfertilized plots. Considering the overall variety mean yields (across the two fertility levels), MH15 x PR8432 was the best followed by IP25/73-3-4x158xA, MH16, Z13534-3xAx158 and MH18, but again the differences were very small.Ear height. As expected, fertilizer significantly improved ear height, indicatin\"g that fertilized plants grew faster. However, these plants wilted earlier than those in the unfertilized plots, apparently due to higher demand for moisture.Cobbing percentage. Fertilizer x Genotype interaction was not significant. There were highly significant differences in percent cobbing between the two fertilizer levels, with the unfertilized treatment producing significantly more cobs than the fertilized treatment. There were, however, no differences in cobbing between the genotypes within each fertility level. We concluded that the poor yield in the fertilized plots was a result of a high incidence of barren plants. One of the effects of drought on maize is a delay in silking.Selection for good synchrony of flowering is one way to improve varieties for drought tolerance (Fischer et al., 1982). This trial was planted early in December, 1992. Tasselling and silking coincided with drought in February (Table 1). This caused poor synchrony between silking and tasselling.Lodging. Theire were highly significant differences in lodging between the two fertilio/ levels. Application of fertilizer caused significantly more lodging.Zambezi et al. Grain yield. At Mbawa the interaction between genotypes and fertilizer for yield, was not significant, indicating that the hybrids performed similarly at each fertility level. However, highly significant differences (P=O.Ot) were observed between the fertilizer treatments, with the fertilized treatment giving double the yield of the unfertilized treatment (Table 3). This trend was different from that observed at Chitedze indicating that drought was not a major factor at Mbawa. The variety means across the two fertility levels showed that 19071xAx158 was the highest yielder, followed by MH17, I13534-3xAx158, and 1P25/141-5-1x158xA, even though the difference was not significant.Ear height. Highly significant differences (Table 3) were observed in the ear height of the hybrids within each fertility level and among the genotypes.Fertilizer significantly (P-O.05) doubled ear height.Cobbing percentage. There were highly significant differences in cobbing rate between the two fertilizer treatments. As expected, lack of fertilizer resulted in more barren plants. Among the varieties, MH18 showed high incidence of multiple cobbing, particularly in the fertilized treatments (Table 3).Lodging. Fertilizer x ~enotype interaction was not signmcant, indicating that regardless of the fertility level, genotypes were equally affected by lodging. There were also no significant differences between the fertilizer treatments. Meru Research Station between the genotypes and the interaction was also Grain yield. Highly significant differences were not sigIlmcant. observed in grain yield between the two fertility Ear height. As for ear height (Table 4), among the levels and the fertilized plots gave double the yield genotypes there were no significant differences of unfertilized plots (Table 4). Meru was the best of between fertilized and unfertilized treatments, and the three sites. There were no significant differences the Fertilizer x Genotype interaction was also not Zambezi et ai. significant. This is an indication that the site was fertile. The site received ample rainfall (Table 1) and plant growth was good.Cobbing percentage. The difference in cobbing rate between fertilized and unfertilized treatments was highly significant. Application of fertilizer significantly reduced barren plants.Lodging. This site experienced the lowest lodging compared to Chitedze and Mbawa. Unfertilized plots had significantly the highest number of lodged plants (Table 4).The Fertilizer x Genotype interaction was however, not significant. This was to be expected because of the good rainfall and fairly fertile soils of the site.Ranking of genotypes. On the basis of a pooled analysis of the three sites, the genotypes were ranked within each fertilizer level (Figure 1) to pick out any genotypes that would perform reasonably well at both fertilizer levels.In the unfertilized treatment, the best five hybrids (which included MH15 x PR8432, MH17, Z13534-3xAx158, IP25/73-3-4x158xA and 11787xAx158), yielding over 2t ha-I , although the cut off point was 1.8t ha-I , below which the differences were significant from the top yielder. This indicates that 10 hybrids exhibited good yield performance at zero fertilizer. Interestingly, MH17 ranked second from the top yielder, whereas NSCM4l and MH18, ranked sixth and seventh, respectively.In the fertilized treatment, the best hybrids included I907lxAx158, IP25/141-5-1x158xA, IP25/73-3-4x158xA, MH17, Z13534-3xAx158 and MH16. The  difference in yield between the top yielder and MH16 was not Significant. Among the checks, MH17 ranked fourth, and MH16 sixth. Only three hybrids were able to perform outstandingly at both zero and 80 kg ha-I N. These were MH17, Z13534-3xAx158 and IP25/73-3-4x158xA. The tendency for hybrids to yield well with and without fertilizer indicates high fertilizer use efficiency. This is the trait that many breeders are interested in.Because of the drought, these results are not conclusive. However, they are an indication that some of the genotypes tested, particularly MH17, Z13534-3xAx158 and IP25/73-3-4x158xA, seem to yield relatively satisfactorily with and without nitrogen fertilizer.fertilizers cause more harm than good to their maize crop. Nitrogen is the most limiting soil nutrient for maize yields worldwide (Rhoades and Bennett, 1990). With these concerns in mind, and encouraged by Tropical soils are frequently deficient in N due to progress from a full-sib recurrent selection program high rates of leaching (Anderson and Ingram, 1989), conducted by Lafitte (CIMMYT-Mexico, personal denitrification (Keller et aI., 1986; Matson et aI., 1986), communication) for improved grain yield for low decomposition of organic matter, and the erosive and high soil-N conditions, maize breeders at action of rainfall. Small-holder farmers and those CIMMYT-Zimbabwe initiated a program to improve farming marginally productive fields are often N use efficiency of a maize population (Short and limited in their options for providing supplemental Edmeades,1991). ZM609 is a white grained maize N to their maize crops. Many farmers use mulches population adapted to mid-altitude tropical or manure, but these are seldom available in ecologies, has short plant stature, is semi-prolific, sufficient quantity to reverse the yield reducing has good level of resistance to maize streak virus effects of N-deficient soils. Crop rotations and and corresponds to a Tuxpeno heterotic pattern. fallowing schemes are viable options only when Genetically, population ZM609 is comprised of population pressure is low on farm lands, a situation 'EV7992' (also known as 'Kilima' in Tanzania) and which can only become increasingly rare.'EV8449-SR', a streak virus resistant version of an experimental variety from CIMMYT population 49 Use of inorganic fertilizers in sub-saharan Africa is (Tuxpeno Planta Baja or Tuxpeno short plant). quite limited, and in southern Africa an average of only 4 to 25 kg N ha-1 is applied to maize crops Population ZM609 has been improved by S1 (Low and Waddington, 1989). Many factors are recurrent selection. For each cycle of selection, 500 responsible for these low rates of fertilizer use. S1lines were evaluated at 2 sites and at 2 N topdress Farmers may fail to purchase fertilizer for lack of levels, 0 and 120 kg N ha-1 . We have defined N use cash or access to credit. In other cases, poor efficient and inefficient lines as follows: infrastructure for production and distribution results • N use efficient • high grain yield for both N in inadequate or untimely supply of fertilizer to topdress treatments. farmers. Still other farmers regard fertilizer as a risky investment, since it must be purchased with no • N use inefficient • high grain yield only for 120 guarantee that a successful crop will be harvested.kgNha-1 . Untimely application or misuse of fertilizer has also Trials. Lines from cycle 1 were evaluated in 1990 fostered the belief among some farmers that and those from cycle 2 in 1992 (Table 1). Results for cycle 1 of selection were reported by Short and Improvement of N use efficiency in ZM609 Edmeades (1991). The 1992 growing season was extremely dry for Zimbabwe, so the evaluation trials were stressed both by limited moisture and soil N fertility. Lines selected from cycle 2 yielded more grain than those selected from cycle 1 despite lower mean yield of cycle 2 relative to cycle 1 lines. These results are likely confounded by the effects of moisture stress, but they do indicate that our 51 recurrent selection scheme produced some lines with improved performance for both low and high N topdress treatments. Lines from cycle 3 of ZM609 are currently being evaluated at 3 sites. Several trials are presently underway to assess the progress form selection for N use efficiency for population ZM609. These trials form the basis for a Ph.D. thesis study at CIMMYT-Zimbabwe. Evaluation of hybrids from 2 diallel mating designs will provide information regarding the type of gene action controlling several traits associated with N use efficiency. The parent lines for these diallels were 53 lines from cycle 2 of selection for ZM609. Diallel1 included 10 lines, 5 of which were selected as N use efficient (NUE) and the other 5 were identified as N use inefficient (NUl). Diallel 2 was formed with 8 parent lines, 4 of which were NUE and 4 NUl. We are evaluating Diallel 1 at 6 sites and Diallel 2 at 4 sites.We are also evaluating trials of testcross hybrids for NUE and NUl lines from ZM609 cycles 1 and 2. Our objective is to determine whether NUE lines produce a greater frequency of NUE hybrids than NUl lines. For experiment 1, 18 cycle 1 lines were crossed as females with 'N3' and 'SC.' In experiment 2,18 cycle 55 2 lines were crossed as females to N3, 5C, 'K64R' and CIMMYT population 'DR-B' (drought tolerant population of heterotic group B, or ETO-type). The 2 additional males were included for experiment 2 to test whether use of males selected for \"stress\" tolerance would contribute to performance of the NUE or NUl x tester hybrids. Both experiments are being evaluated at 3 sites.A third type of experiment is a simple evaluation of progress from 3 cycles of selection in population ZM609. This study compares cycles 1, 2 and 3 of ZM609, plus NUE and NUl synthetics from cycles 1 and 2. This cycles of selection trial is being evaluated at 3 sites.The traits we are measuring for each of these studies include above-ground plant biomass at flowering and S weeks after flowering, leaf chlorophyll density at various phenological stages, leaf and aboveground plant N content, leaf senescence or \"stay green\", ear-leaf area, and grain yield. Most trials are being evaluated with 2 levels of N topdress application, 0 and 120 kg ha-1 . A few sites with poorest soil fertility levels received topdress treatments of 30 and 120 kg N ha-1 . A basal fertilizer of 4, 34, and 30 kg N, P20S, and K, respectively, was applied at planting to minimize P and K deficiency symptoms that could confound differences for N use efficiency.Research plans. We are interested in implementing a seedling screening procedure for N use efficiency. Two approaches which we are exploring are hydroculture and sand culture of maize seedlings. For both methods, proper nutrient solution can be provided during first weeks of seedling development and N deficient solution can be provided subsequently to identify genotypes least susceptible to N deficiency stress. The effect of N deficiency can be qualitatively assessed by visual rating of seedling chlorosis, or several quantitative measures can be taken (e.g. chlorophyll density, root biomass or seedling biomass). Transplanting NUE seedlings to the field would allow pollination of the best plants.Seedling screening for N use efficiency is appealing because it is rapid (4-6 weeks), a large number of genotypes can be tested, it can be performed during the winter or summer seasons, and most importantly, it allows greater control of envirol\\IDental factors than possible when evaluating germplasm in the field. This latter attribute suggests heritability of N use efficiency traits may be higher for controlled seedling screens than for field evaluations.Preliminary hydroculture studies conducted at CIMMYT in collaboration with the African Center for Fertilizer Development (ACFD) provided some encouraging results. Of 8 lines identified as NUE in field evaluations, 5 were classified as NUE by hydroculture techniques. Similarly, 6 of 8 lines identified as NUl in field evaluations were also found to be inefficient according to hydroculture evaluation. We would like to emphasize that these are only preliminary results and further testing is necessary before we can confidently recommend this methodology.It is critical to determine whether seedling performance under N limiting conditions correlates well with grain yield.Vigorous, dark green seedlings may not necessarily produce the most grain yield.We are presently completing the third cycle of 51 recurrent selection for improved N use efficiency in CIMMYT population ZM609. Meanwhile, current evaluations of a wide array of genetic materials with ZM609 background should give a fair indication of progress to date, and will allow a more detailed reporting. Scientists at CIMMYT-Mexico have been improving N use efficiency of lowland tropical populations using a full-sib recurrent selection scheme. Finally, we are interested in introducing . hydroculture or sand-culture seedling screening into our N use efficiency breeding program. Never-theless, after 5 years of research on selection of maize cultivars with increased N use efficiency, we still have more questions than answers. The facts remain that maize will not grow without N and that maize yields for smallholder farmers are commonly limited by low soil-N levels. We intend to continue a modest research effort exploring options for Pixley et ai.genetically improving performance of maize under N-limiting conditions. REFERENCES Anderson, I.M. and Ingram, 1.5.1. 1989 In 1986, a selection programme for performance under low N was initiated in the lowland tropical experimental variety 'Across 8328'. The selection criteria used reflected a specific ideotype for low N environments which was expected to be compatible with high yield potential. The features of the ideotype were high grain yield under both -N and +N, high N uptake prior to flowering under -N (expressed as greater production of vegetative biomass estimated from leaf area and plant height), and synchrony of male and female flowering and delayed senescence under -N. An effort was made to maintain the original maturity and height of the population at +N unchanged. The weights assigned to each of these traits varied from year to year, based on the extent of observed variation in each trait. For example, flowering synchrony was emphasized in only two of the six progeny evaluations that have been conducted. A preliminary evaluation of phenotypic correlations among these traits indicated that they could be combined in a selection index, since they were not negatively related.After three cycles of full-sib recurrent selection with a selection pressure of approximately 20%, we conducted an evaluation of progress. Cycles 0,1,2, and 3 (CO, Cl, C2, and C3) were sown along with 8-20 other entries in replicated trials in four seasons, each of which included a high (200 kg N ha-1 ) and low (0 kg N ha-1 ) N level. All evaluations were conducted in Poza Rica, Mexico (20 0 N, 60 masl).The linear change in yield with Selection from CO to C3 was 75 kg ha-1 cycle-l (2.8% cycle-1) under -N, and was 137 kg ha-1 cycle-l (2.3% cycle-I) under +N conditions. In a traditional stability analysis, where grain yield of the entry is plotted against the mean yield of all entries in the trial, the superiority of C3 is observed at all yield levels (Figure 1), though the two lines are not parallel. Cycles 0 and 3 were also compared in a different environment (Thailand) under N-limited and +N conditions (R. Thiraporn, personal communication).There, the yield improvement in the five N-limited environments was 119 kg ha-1 cycle-l (2.5% ~cle-1), and in the +N trials, the gain was 219 kg ha-cycle-l (3.4% cycle-1). These results indicate that the gains observed in Poza Rica were not simply due to specific adaptation to that location, and confirm the hypothesis that yield improvement under low N is not necessarily associated with a loss of yield potential in +N conditions.Other traits included in the selection index included plant height, the date of male flowering, ear leaf area,ear leaf chlorophyll concentration shortly after flowering, and the number of green leaves below the ear at three and five weeks after silking. The ear leaf area and the ear leaf chlorophyll concentration did not change with selection. The date of male flowering was delayed slightly, plant height increased at both N levels, and the rate of senescence declined (Table 1). Selection resulted in an increase in the amount of biomass accumulated in the period before flowering, and in the amount of N moved 57 from vegetative parts to the ear during grain-filling (Table 1), but the total quantity of N absorbed by the plant did not change. This result indicates that the yield improvement with selection is due to improvements in the efficiency with which N is utilized to produce biomass, not in the efficiency of N uptake by the crop. A study of ear growth in CO and C3 in both Nlimited and +N environments revealed additional differences in the patterns of dry matter accumulation in the ear; The number of florets ear-! declined with selection (Table 2), a response also observed with selection for tolerance to drought at flowering (Edmeades et al., 1993). The length of time between pollination and the onset of the linear grain-filling period was increased with selection (Figure 2), and that change, combined with the reduction in the number of florets ear-I, resulted in a greater biomass kernel-! for C3 (Table 2) at that critical point when the number of final grains ear-l is determined (Tollenaar, 1977). The kernel growth rate during the linear grain-filling period tended to be greater for C3 than for CO, These results indicate that selection pressure for performance under low N has had an effect, not only on the patterns of biomass accumulation and N mobilization, but alsoLafitte & Bfutziger on basic patterns of ear development. In addition, these changes were similar to those observed in the patterns of ear growth after eight cycles of selection for tolerance to drought in the population Tuxpefto Sequia (data not shown).After we evaluated the first three cycles of selection, we continued the selection programme with a selection index which has been gradually modified. We no longer select for ear leaf area and chlorophyll concentration. The number of grains ear-! under-N now receives direct selection pressure. We have reduced the use of plant height at -N as a selection criterion, and have placed negative pressure on plant and ear height at high N, in order to recover the original plant height of the population. We have attempted to reduce tassel size by including a score of that trait in the selection index. We have also included a score of husk colour, and are placing a slight pressure on maintaining green husks for a longer period after flowering. These changes in the selection criteria appear to have resulted in some yield instability in C~ similar to results observed after the initial selection cycle in the original population. The population will be reevaluated after the sixth cycle of selection is completed.  Screening of progeny under conditions of abiotic stress is generally associated with an increased level of environmental variability. In the case of low N stress at our experiment station in Poza Rica, the extent of soil variability in N supply has been extreme. For example, the yield of check plots planted in an area measuring 42 m by 52 m varied by 470% (0.7-4.0 t ha-1 ) under low N, compared to a variation of 115% (3.0-6.4 t ha-1 ) for a similar area under high N. Estimates of organic matter in the upper O.~ m of the profile in one low N block ranged from 0.66% to 1.38% in an area measuring 12 m by 68 m. We have used several different approaches in attempts to minimize the effect of soil variability in 59 our progeny trials and evaluations under low N.The use of a simple alpha 0,1 lattice design with a small incomplete block size improves the experimental efficiency by 70-110% relative to a randomized complete block design. This approach has worked well in progeny trials, where each plot is represented by a single row. In evaluations, where multiple-row plots are used, it is less successful because each incomplete block encompasses a larger area, and soil variation within the block becomes important.For trials with large plots, we have found that a useful covariate is the grain yield measured in adjacent check rows. The use of yield in adjacent check rows as a covariate improved the efficiency of an evaluation of 12 entries in four replications by 280% relative to a randomized complete block design, compared to an increase of 55% over the randomized complete block design when a lattice design was used. When check values from an experiment sown seven or eight seasons before were used for other trials, the improvement in efficiency relative to a randomized complete block design was 40-55%, compared to 0-20% for the lattice design.The underlying soil factors responsible for the variation observed in Poza Rica appear to be reasonably stable from season to season, so check yield measured in one experiment may be used as a covariate for a trial sown several seasons later. This avoids the additional costs in land and labour incurred when check rows are planted each season.Other approaches to reducing the effects of environmental variation include nearest-neighbour designs and trend analysis (e.g. Brownie et al., 1993).    While the best statistical approach will vary PERFORMANCE OF DROUGHT TOLERANT depending on the site and the computational MATERIALS UNDER LOW N resources available to the researcher, we have found There is evidence that. certain plant characteristics that it is essential to use some statistical procedure to have adaptive value across a range of abiotic control the effect of environmental heterogeneity stresses. For example, when 75 St progenies were when working under low N. Before embarking on a evaluated under drought in one experiment and selection programme under low N, it is also under low N in another, measured values of the important to identify reliable low N sites which are anthesis-to-silking interval, grain yield and grain as homogeneous as possible. number planr1 were significantly correlated across the two environments (Table 3a). The magnitude of the correlations measured among these traits within an environment was similar (Table 3b). In the search for efficient ways to select genotypes tolerant to low N, we evaluated the extent to which selection for drought tolerance, as performed at CIMMYT, has helped to improve grain yield under low N.We evaluated four populations which had been improved under drought: Tuxpefio Sequfa, La Posta Sequia, Pool 26 Sequfa and Pool 18 Sequfa. These populations have never been selected under low N. Tuxpefio Sequia is a late-maturing population which has been selected for drought tolerance over eight cycles in a full-sib family structure. La Posta Sequfa and Pool 26 Sequfa, also late-maturing, have been selected on the basis of Sl family performance for three cycles. Pool 18 Sequfa is an early-maturing material in which only two cycles of st selection had been conducted when the evaluation was initiated.The experimental variety Pool 18 C2BA (:= best all traits) was used as the advanced cycle in this population, while cycle bulks were used for the other populations. For details in the selection procedure, we refer to the contribution from Edmeades et aI., (1994) 'Recent evaluations of progress for drought tolerance in tropical maize' in these proceedings.The original and most advanced cycle of each population was grown at 0 kg N ha-1 (-N).and 200 kg N ha-l (+N) in three seasons. Due to hIgh rates of soil N mineralization in the -N block in one season, the N level obtained was inten;nediate. The evaluations were conducted in Poza Rica.The progress in grain yield under low N which resulted from selection for drought tolerance varied among populations (Figure 3). Grain yield in Tuxpefio Sequfa increased at -N by 123 kg ha-1 cycle-l (4.9% cycle-I), and in Pool 26 Sequfa the increase was 326 kg ha-1 cycle-l (11.7% cycle-I; 163 kg ha-1 year-I). These gains are similar to (in Tuxpefio Sequfa) or greater than (in Pool 26 Sequia) those observed under drought or under non-stressed conditions (Edmeades et al., 1994, these proceedings). Gains under low N by La Posta Sequfa were non-significant (64 kg ha-1 cycle-I; 2.5 cycle-I), and were about one third of those observed under drought. Pool 18 Sequfa C2BA yielded less than cycle 0 in one -N experiment.The variation in the response of drought tolerant materials to -N conditions can be interpreted through an examination of yield components (Table 4). The drought tolerant selections of the late 61 materials (Tuxpefio Sequfa, La Posta Sequfa, Pool 26 Sequfa) generally maintained a higher grain number plant-I under -N as compared to their original cycles. A similar result was observed for Tuxpefio Sequfa under drought stress (Bolanos and Edmeades, 1993). A combined analysis of the three late maturing drought populations over the various N levels shows that maintenance of a higher grain number planr l became more important as N stress became more severe (Figure 4). We conclude that the increased yield under low N after selection for drought tolerance is probably due to reduced grain and ear abortion in the advanced cycles of selection, perhaps because of an increased partitioning of current photosynthate to the ear during early grainfilling (Edmeades et aI., 1993). It seems that these changes are constitutive, and that they represent a strategy which reduces grain and ear abortion under both drought and low N. This conclusion is consistent with the observed changes in ear growth and floret number observed in Across 8328 with selection under -N.Single grain weights of Tuxpefio Sequfa and Pool 26 Sequfa under -N remained fairly constant with selection for drought tolerance (Table 4), suggesting that the photosynthetic capacity of these genotypes was sufficient to meet the demand of the larger 'sink' (more grains). Single grain weights of La Posta Sequta measured under -N decreased with selection, resulting in the lower yield advance of this population under -N. Since La Posta Sequfa and Tuxpefio Sequfa showed similar increases in staygreen due to selection, stay-green parameters could not explain the reduced grain-filling capacity of La Posta Sequfa C3. An increase in stay-green under -N was observed in all of the late populations (P = 0.03).Selection for drought tolerance in the early population Pool 18 Sequfa was less successful in improving yield under -N than it was in the late populations, even though yield gains were observed under drought. While changes in one season (93A) under -N were similar to the changes observed in the late populations, the results of 93B (when lodging was severe) were contradictory. The advanced cycle of Pool 18 Sequfa represents only two cycles of selection. We do not think that we have sufficient data to decide whether selection for drought tolerance in Pool 18 Sequfa led to different changes under -N than those observed with the late materials.• '62Lafitte &: BanzigerMean yield of environment (t ha• l ) Figure 3a. Stability of Tuxpeno Seq and Pool 26 Seq over various N Levels.Mean yield of envll(Qnm.nt (t ha• l )Figure 3b. Stabiltty of Tuxpef'lo Seq and Pool 26 Seq over various N Levels.Mean yield of environment (t ha-1)  Selection for tolerance to low soil N and good yield at high N using an ideotype approach has resulted in improved yield at both N levels after three cycles of full-sib selection. These gains were associated with changes in the patterns of N and biomass accumulation, and with changes in ear growth parameters.In the selection site we have used, problems of extreme soil heterogeneity appear when N is not applied. This undoubtedly decreases the efficiency of the selection process, though statistical procedures can be used to reduce the severity of this effect.Breeding for drought tolerance as conducted at CIMMYT has the potential to increase grain yield under low N as well, and it appears to affect key parameters of ear growth and senescence which are also affected by direct selection for tolerance to -N conditions. In cases where the uniformity and severity of drought can be more easily managed than can N stress, it may be an efficient route to the development of materials with reduced grain and ear abortion under low N conditions.Questions to Margaret E. Smith A. Tadesse: Besides the genetic improvement for NUE do you include other stresses like pests and diseases?Response: At present our nitrogen effort focusses only on nitrogen stress tolerance, to identify and accumulate alleles for this complex trait. Ultimately, varieties also will need tolerance to other biotic and abiotic stresses if they are to be ofuse to farmers.Can you measure the layering of roots in the soil profile with the conductance technique?Response:No, this technique cannot indicate root distribution; only root system surface area. 'One of your slides showed NUE at 0 N and at 50 kg N ha-t . Also, the measurements at flowering time show variation in leaf greenness below the ear. Can we use a rating scale of green leaves below the ear and the final grain yield at 50 kg N ha-1 for the selection of NUE varieties?This may be an excellent approach. How it compares to alternative screening approaches is something we do not know yet. At present, our approach is to selectfor yield under nitrogen stress. Once we have obtained materials with convincing differences in performance under nitrogen stress we will be able to identify traits that would comprise efficient selection schemes.Have you tried, or do you know of data that use, high plant density for screening for NUE?Response: I have not tried this, but to the extent that stress tolerance mechanisms are parallelfor various physiological stresses, it might work. CIMMYT's data on drought tolerant selections and their performance under nitrogen stress provides the most pertinent information at present.When breeding for NUE do you keep other nutrients constant so that they can not be limiting?At present, we are varying only nitrogen levels, because we need to determine whether and how nitrogen use efficiency can be improved. Once we know how to manage nitrogen stress, we can consider improvement for additional nutrient stresses.P. Setimela: How easy will it be to transfer some of these genes to other lines, since traits like \"stay green\" are not influenced by one gene but many?As for any genetically complex trait (yield, insect resistance, etc.), improvement ofnitrogen stress tolerance will likely be a gradual process, with short-term products showing some improvement and medium-or long-term products showing more improvement.Question to Heidi Heuberger J.P. Shikulu: You have indicated that N-uptake at silking was highly correlated with yield. Could you comment on how much N-uptake occurs at this stage? Is it not true that at silking most of the N taken up is being translocated?Response: Absolute values across varietiesfor N uptake at silking were: 0 kg N ha-l gave 39.38kg N uptake; 30kg If that is the case, it may not be necessary for farmers to even go up to 80 kg ha• 1 . system. Ifmarkets for soyabeans can be developed in east and southern Africa, ifgood cultivars ofsoyabeans are available, and good growing practices are known, there seems no reason why maize/soya rotations, so stable throughout the U.S.A., could not find an important place in this region.direct Significant research dollars in a deliberate breeding effort toward drought resistance per se. Breeding for drought resistance in maize is a very After all, it is easier to pick the winners under high complex subject, and yet it is only a part of the even yield conditions; heritabilities are higher, test errors more complex field of maize breeding in total. This are lower, and if the same hybrids win under stress paper will discuss some of the important issues of as under good growing conditions, obviously the breeding for drought resistance only in the context good growing route is the way to go. These are of their being important to maize breeding in some of the issues that need to be addressed. general. It is difficult to discuss the one without the other. Some of the questions that I will try to cover My own interest in this subject probably was are as follows:instilled at a very early age. I was born and raised in South Dakota, one of the more arid areas of the 1) Is drought resistance an important trait in maize United States on the western edge of the central com germplasm? belt. My childhood years coincided with the dust 2) Is there useable genetic variability in maize for bowl years of the 1930's. My memory of dust resistance to drought stress and, if so, is this an blackened skies and blistering heat left me with a important fraction of the total genetic variance healthy respect for the ravages of drought. available?As a student at South Dakota State University, I 3) Assuming the answers to the first two questions learned about the emphasis in that state on drought are positive, how does one go about utilizing research -growing crops in a manner to conserve genetic material and moving it onto farms in the moisture, growing the more drought tolerant crops, form of an improved commercial product.? and breeding more drought resistance into those crops. It was there that my interest in maize IS DROUGHT RESISTANCE AN IMPORTANT breeding in general and for drought resistance in TRAIT IN MAIZE? particular was developed. It was at least partly Most breeders would agree that drought resistance because of that interest that I was hired by Pioneer in is an important trait in maize. They have seen crops 1954. There was a felt need at that time in breeding dry up during prolonged dry spells. Breeders know for the drier areas of the western com belt. that some genotypes are better than others under I moved to Nebraska, also an arid state, in 1958 and those kinds of conditions. They also know that the began to develop a program with a strong emphasis interaction between the genotype and the on drought tolerance. It was about that time, environment is high and effective selection is however, that irrigation was developing rapidly. difficult.One cannot depend on repeat Water had been discovered under the western performances over locations and years. As a result plains, and in the next 20 years over 75,000 irrigation breeders would not agree on whether one should    \"\" wells were placed in operation in that state. Center pivot systems put irrigation on farms that could not otherwise have used supplemental water. Irrigation changed the way farmers grew maize, and it changed the type of plant that was needed. Supplemental water created an environment that would effectively utilize higher plant densities and higher fertilizer rates. Thus there was a need for hybrids that would tolerate plant density stress and respond to higher fertilizer levels. Stalk quality became more important. Large eared genotypes became less important.The irrigation age also changed our approach to breeding. With 75 to 80% of the maize hectares (about 4.2 million hectares) on the western plains irrigated we needed to pay more attention to the needs of those growers. Hybrids that performed well only under stress conditions had limited potential and a shift in priorities was in order. For the dryland farmer, who was becoming more sophisticated in his farming practices, we needed hybrids that would respond to good management in years when rainfall was favorable and tolerate drought stress when it was not. For farmers using irrigation, we needed hybrids that would respond to good irrigation management, but also tolerate a reasonable amount of stress on those acres with poor soils or that were improperly irrigated. In addition, we needed heat tolerant types for years when excessive heat prevented normal pollination and grain fill in sensitive genotypes. These same hybrids needed cold tolerance for sub-optimal temperatures in the spring and sometimes again in the fall.Finally, the new hybrids also needed resistance to prevalent diseases and good root and stalk strength to stand up to the frequent severe summer storms.Our program became and continues to be a compromise in that it has attempted to cover two significantly different types of farming practices.We have compromised in our selection for the ultimate in drought tolerance in order to achieve higher yield potential. And we have compromised our selection for top yield in order to incorporate higher levels of drought tolerance. Successful plant breeding is the art of intelligent compromise.The U.S. is blessed with large areas of highly productive agricultural land capable of producing high yields of com. Much of this land is also located in areas where annual rainfall is over 750 mm which is adequate for producing yields of 12t ha-1 . However, yields of this magnitude are not common, primarily because the rainfall is not ideally distributed.Most years significant maize growing areas in the United states will suffer major crop losses due to aImproving maize for drought tolerance shortage of rainfall (Newman, 1978.). Even in the most productive areas maize will respond to supplemental irrigation most years. In addition, the poorer soil types suffer more commonly; these are sandy soils, those with low organic matter, eroded hill sides, clay pans, and heavy soils that accept and give up stored moisture rather grudgingly.There is no insect pest, disease problem, or nutrient deficiency that reduces maize yields in nearly every field. So the answer to the question of whether drought resistance is an important trait in maize is \"Yes!\". It is important in temperate zones, it is important in the subtropics, and it is no doubt important in the tropics. Soil moisture stress for maize is not unusual, it is the usual. Drought stress is the normal condition and maize breeding programs must recognize this and be designed accordingly to be successfulPrior to the introduction of double cross hybrids, maize yields in the U.S.A. over a period of many years were essentially constant at about 1.5 t ha-t per year -about the same as many of the developing areas of the world today (Figure 1, Troyer, 1990).With the advent of hybrids, maize yields in the U.S.A. began to increase rapidly, and for the next 30 years, maize yields increased at the rate of about 0.06 t ha-t per year. Since single cross hybrids were introduced in the 1960's, yields increased at the rate of 0.118 t ha-t per year. There seems to be little indication that this rate of gain has leveled off.In the decade of the 1980's there were three years when drought stress was quite severe over the main maize growing regions of the U.S.A. However, even though average yields were well below the trend line, they were well above the toughest years of the 1970's and well above the average years in the 1960's. Some of these gains under stress conditions are no doubt due to improved cultural practices, and some to genetic improvement.I remember seeing a field of hybrid maize for the first time. It was on our family farm in South Dakota. It was in the mid 1930's, and I was 8 or 9 years old. I recall seeing that hybrid planted in a field next to my father's open pollinated variety.The hybrid clearly yielded more and stood better. These were the dust bowl years during the Great Depression. There was very little money, but somehow my father found a way to purchase hybrid seed. Previously, his seed came from ears that he carefully selected and placed in a box on the side of his harvest wagon while he was hand-harvesting his fields. This seed was essentially free, but my father 69 never went back to saving his own seed. Even for free, it was no bargain. By most estimates hybrids out-yielded open pollinated varieties by 20%. A yield boost of 20% and a 1.5 t ha-t average yield in the U.S.A., at that time, meant the average farmer received a 0.3 t ha-t gain and better standability. Nearly 100% of U.S. farmers shifted over the next 10 or 15 years to higher priced hybrid maize seed.Farmers were pretty happy with their double cross hybrids when I started with Pioneer in 1954. However, double cross hybrids were destined to become obsolete very soon. Seed producers liked the high yielding single cross parents of double cross hybrids, but high seed production field yields could not compensate for the 10% loss in genetic potential (0.3-0.5 t ha-t ). In SWitching to single cross hybrids the price of seed doubled, but once again farmers chose higher yields over a cheaper product, and in a 10 year period U.S. farmers shifted nearly 100% to higher priced single cross hybrids.Genetic gain over the last 60 years. An important question for us is how much of our total U.S. yield gain is genetic. Most studies designed to estimate genetic gain suggest something over half of the overall yield increases are genetic, and the remainder are due to cultural improvements (Russell, 1974;Duvick, 1977). Pioneer was interested in the difference between genetic gains under irrigation as opposed to dryland culture, so we copducted a study involving hybrids released between 1930 and the late 1980's. Trials were grown side by side under dryland and irrigated conditions\" using three densities. Such direct comparisons had not been made previously.Under irrigation average yield gains from 1930 to 1960 were 0.043 t ha-t , and from 1960 onward were 0.084 t ha-t per year, or about an 85% additional gain dUring the single cross years compared to the double cross period. In the dryland tests, yield gains were similar to the gains under irrigation during the double cross period. During the single cross era, dryland yield increases were considerably less than they were under irrigation -0.049 t ha-t per year dryland Vs 0.08 t ha-t per year irrigated.The density studies show that older hybrids were better at low densities than high densities (Figure 3). Modem hybrids are better at high densities. There has been a strong genetic gain at high plant densities in recent years.These studies agree with our experience. Genetic gains for yield have been increasing faster under high yield conditions than under stress. But genetic gains under stress conditions have been steady and have shown no signs of reaching a plateau. There is some shifting among dryland farmers on the western plains from the traditional dryland crop of grain sorghum to dryland maize. Maize hybrids with improved stress tolerance and higher yield potential are considered a berter choice.Multi location/multi year testing. One of the most difficult problems in breeding for drought tolerance and breeding in general, is evaluation. Our multi location/ multi year testing program has evolved over time to expose a hybrid to most conditions that it will face when grown on hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of hectares if it becomes widely sold. The Pioneer program calls for roughly 100 locations of small plot research testing over two years and 500-1000 locations of strip testing before a hybrid is advanced to commercial status. Often, however, hybrids with winning records even after this kind of intensive testing may have a bad year and on occasion a hybrid with a winning record for several years will find itself exposed to certain stress conditions with which it cannot cope. Pioneer hybrid 3475 is a good example. After several years of outstanding performance and becoming the most widely sold hybrid in Pioneer history, this hybrid became a below average performer in the wide spread drought of 1988 and 1989. We over estimated its ability to tolerate the overpowering effects of those kinds of conditions. Farmers were upset, sales people were unhappy, and breeders were embarrassed and confused. Pioneer 3475 was not a bad hybrid under drought stre!\\s. It was at least adequate most of the time. It simply was not good enough for severe drought conditions accompanied by unusually high temperatures that happen every decade or so.Side by side irrigated/dryland testing (Figure 4) A system that we developed in our testing program in Nebraska involves the use of limited irrigation testing adjacent to fully irrigated testS. There are some significant advantages to this kind of controlled stress testing program. Some of these are as follows:1. Water is essentially the only difference between the two treatments. Planting dates, rainfall Jensen patterns, insects and disease problems -all of the other factors that may confuse the breeder in selection are the same whether watered or not watered.2. Since these locations are in lower rainfall areas significant levels of drought stress almost always allow the breeder to select from two different yield levels.3. High yielding irrigated tests permit the breeder to make informed judgments in the compromise between yield potential and stress tolerance.4. Since both tests are at the same site the system reduces travel time and simplifies planting and harvest, however it needs to be said that extra management is required to water them properly -to prevent water from getting where it's not supposed to be, and to allow a proper amount of stress -not too much, not too little.that have contributed to widely sold hybrids in recent years and in adding stress tolerance to our overall genetic base. They have also been useful in sorting out hybrids with less than adequate stress tolerance from entering the market place.Regression analysis. The Eberhardt and Russell regression analysis (1966) has, in the last few years, gained considerable respect for it's ability to place drought tolerance ratings on our hybrids. A reliable analysis requires a range of yield levels in the test sites, and unless there are a large number of reps, meaningful differences are difficult to uncover. Pioneer varieties 3379 and 3343 are examples of hybrids for which the regression analysis prOVided useful data.The average yield in 523 paired comparisons of the two hybrids over three years of testing was about identical at 9.6 t ha-1 (Figure 5). However, the slopes of the lines were quite different, -3343 with the steeper slope would be predicted to yield better than 3379 at high yield levels and lower at lower yield levels. Wide spread drought in 1988 and 1989 resulted in a much stronger demand for 3379 which this data accurately predicted.Improving maize for drought tolerance Pioneer 3394 is an example of a hybrid with a steeper slope than in 3379, but the two lines never cross (see Figure 6). Pioneer 3394 will be the most widely sold hybrid in the world in 1994. The reason for this is that it is a hybrid with a rare combination of high yield potential under high yield conditions and a high level of drought tolerance for stress conditions. 3394 performs well under a wide range of stress to non-stress conditions.Genetic material. One of the most important decisions a breeder makes is the genetic material with which he is going to work. If he makes bad choices at this level he will not be successful. It will  ....------,. ..,., M,. .-. ..,. - material. It was thought that these narrow based populations did not fit quantitative genetic theory which was popular at the time. There was too little genetic variability within the F2 and little opportunity for crossing over for genetic recombinations to occur. Why then should elite by elite F2's work as well as they do? One of the reasons in the opinion of this writer is because they allow the breeder a better opportunity to manipulate the strengths and weaknesses of the parental genotypes in a positive direction.Working with lines with known combining ability values, not only of the parental lines but the grandparents as well, is important information in choosing F2's. Adding an under-standing of the stability values of these parental lines the breeder has a very powerful knowledge base from which to make his selections.Combining ability values without any understanding of stress tolerance leaves a large gap in the breeder's understanding of the potential of that germplasm. Genetic potential for high yield without a high level of stress tolerance is an accident waiting to happen, and that accident will happen. You can count on it.Selection schemes. Another important decision the breeder must make is choosing the most efficient selection scheme for exploiting' the genetic variance of his breeding material. If he has good genetic material, but a poor selection scheme he will still lose. Decisions on selection schemes have been influenced by the kind of hybrid we are trying to develop. In the double cross era we were interested in general combining ability and additive gene action. We used broad based testers to develop inbreds with good general combining ability, used a large single cross testing program to predict double crosses which after being developed and tested were not as good as the single crosses we already had. It was a very inefficient program when compared to today's standards.We were slow in getting into selection programs that were well designed for commercial single crosses.We were led down the path of S2 per se testing on the basis of a genetic model that had not been tested. When it was tested, it didn't work or at least did not   (1908). This is excellent advice for us today. It suggests that we should be looking for the favorable heterozygotes rather than the favorable homozygotes. It means. concentrating on the nonadditive fraction of the genetic variance available to us. It means looking for specific combining ability and identifying those combinations early in the inbreeding process. The most successful programs of the future will be those that take best advantage of specific effects. In addition to utilizing a testing scheme that takes of specific combining ability a selection program for drought resistance should contain selection pressure in the breeding nursery as well as the yield test field for drought resistance. A side by side irrigated dryland breeding and testing program is an effective way of maintaining effective selection for stress tolerance and high yield potential simultaneously.New technologies. So far in this discussion of exploiting genetic variability, no mention has been made of the new technologies for enhancing the process. Our goal in plant breeding is to develop superior genotypes to add value in the farmer's field. Superior genotypes are unique combinations of many traits and many geneS control most of these traits. This has broad implications for the future direction of plant breeding research.Most molecular marker applications being pursued at present are related to single gene selection. This strategy in the past has had very limited success. The same can be said for transformation where a single gene affecting only one trait is of interest The fact is that single gene selection has had little, or no impact on overall genetic gain in maize breeding.Selection methods that have resulted in the highly successful products currently available to farmers have been based on whole plant performance. The whole plant is a unique combination not only of the additive effects of the many thousands of genes involved, but of the infinite number of dominant • • -IIIVIN*IIINT MIMI ---1\"\"\"\" • • IIW\"\" DATA• AMA : ALL and epistatic effects as well. It might be said that the whole genotype is greater than the sum of its parts.Biotechnology obviously has a valuable place in plant breeding research. A better understanding of the genome at the molecular level will be useful toward more efficient whole plant selection in the future. Biotechnology will likely be involved in the development of tools that will be used to understand the genetics, biochemistry and physiology of yield gain. The implication is that selection based on component traits or individual genes will never be as efficient as selection based on the complete genotype.In summary, I want to reiterate that drought tolerance is important for maize and all breeding programs should consider this trait. Breeding material should be selected and evaluated for stress tolerance and yield potential simultaneously.Breeding schemes that exploit the non-additive fraction of the genetic variance are essential to achieve the highest degree of genetic gain.The final question has to do with where this high degree of genetic gain is going to take us. We have seen that improved genetics and improved cultural practices build on each other to achieve higher and higher yields. Where will it end? Most of us have lived with the assumption that our ability to increase maize yields would some day plateau and further improvements would not be possible. But how about considering another assumption, an assumption that maize improvements will never plateau and will continu~ on and on indefinitely.We have learned that the maize genome is much more plastic than was thought just a few years ago. The evolution of the maize plant has been going on for 100,000 years and will continue. The demands of environmental change will force selection in different directions. The use of the maize plant as something other than a solar collector for the production of starch is likely. The maize plant is a marvelously efficient system that will continue to be utilized indefinitely to meet the changing needs of society. Is it worth pursuing? Absolutely. Maize improvement has paid huge dividends to the world's farmers and to the people that these farmers feed.We need to continue to search for genetically improved maize and for better cultural practices for utilizing these genetic improvements. Drought tolerance is an important part of this effort.INTRODUCTION good rainy seasons at Katumani (Table 1). The improvement achieved so far has been by matching The area devoted to maize production in semi-arid crop phenology with the rainfall pattern and has areas of eastern Kenya accounts for 7% of the largely been the result of early maturity and its effect national maize acreage. Production at farm level is on productivity and variability in maize yields low, being 0.5 t ha-1 while available improved (Keating et al., 1992b). varieties have a potential production of 3-4 t ha-1 . Farmers view drought, stemborer and weeds as the Recent evaluation of early maturing commercial major problems limiting maize production (Mugo et cultivars indicate that further reduction in maturity ai., 1993a).below that of MC the may not offer greater gains than are already available (Empig et al., 1992; Farming is at a subsistence level, and farm sizes are Keating et al., 1992b). The option is to develop mostly 2-4 hectares. Farmers use a hand hoe or oxen cultivars with increased drought tolerance. plough for tillage, purchase little inputs and have limited credit facilities (Mugo et al., 1993a). Drought Drought stress in eastern Kenya may occur at establishment, pre-flowering, flowering and posthas resulted in recurring food shortages and flowering. During the April rains, establishment famines. The rainfall is low (500-800 mm per and pre-flowering stresses are common while annum), occurs in a bimodal pattern, is of irregular flowering and post-flowering stresses are generally distribution and short in duration falling in about 60 days.This paper reviews strategies and common during the October rains (Mugo and Empig, unplished). There is need to and identify technologies developed for maximizing maize production, the extent of adoption of the and define traits useful in selecting genotypes for recommended technologies, and the availability of tolerance to drought occurring at these different stages of growth. Genotypes that have minimum seed of the recommended maize varieties. . anthesis-silking interval (ASI) under drought stress STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING MAIZE conditions have been found to have greater grain YIELDS yields when subjected to drought stress at the Germplasm improvement. Improved cultivars are flowering stage (Balanos and Edmeades, 1992). a relatively low cost technology to adopt by the An attempt was made to identify traits associated farmer, though germplasm development is costly for with drought toleranc~ during the entire growth the research agencies. Improved early maturity cycle of maize in semi-arid Kenya. Eight genotypes composites Katumani composite B (KCB) and were grown at Katumani (1,600 masl), Kitui (1,097 Makueni Composite (MC) have been developed masl) and Kiboko (995 masl), during the long rains (Njoroge, 1985). These composites utilize earliness and short rains 1992 seasons (Table 2). The short to attain yields of 3.6 and 3.0 t ha-1 respectively in a rains were wetter (679 mm) than the long rains poor seasons and 5.5 and 5.0 t ha-1 , respectively in season (251 mm). Data were recorded on stand 76 Increasing maize production in moisture stress areas count at establishment (SAT), days to 50% pollen emerge under moisture stress and have higher grain shed (D1'5), days to 50% silking (D1'5), number of yield per unit of grain moisture would be suitable ears per plant (EPP), ear height (Eht), plant height for increased grain. production. D1'5, DTS, Pht and (Pht) and grain moisture content (MC) and grain MC have negative though non-significant correlation yield (YLD). Derived data were calculated for seed coefficients with grain yield. Thus, early flowering, weight per ear (SWIE) and the grain yield to: grain shorter plants with fast grain drying are suitable moisture content ratio (liE). Phenotypic under such moisture stress environments.In correlations and regression analysis were calculated contrast, during the wetter short rains 1992 season, on the various traits against grain yield. Eht, Pht, D1'5 and SWIE were highly significantly correlated with grain yields. D1'5, DTS and MC are During the unfavorable long rains season, only SAT positively correlated with grain yields. As expected, (0.717**) and liE (0.966**) had Significant genotypes that are later flowering and taller and phenotypic correlations with grain yield, indicating with high SWIE are suited for high grain yield that genotypes that have ability to germinate and Ngure production. However, such good seasons are not common.Regression analysis was done for yield components (SWIE, EPP and Ears), plant numbers and sizes (SAT,Eht and Pht) and for phenological traits (OPS, DTS, ASI, liE and MC) (Equations 1-3). Only SWIE and EPP showed significant regression coefficients, during the two seasons, showing that these are useful traits for selection of maize for growing in semi-arid eastern Kenya. For drought tolerance useful traits are therefore, high SAT, YLO and liE and reduced OPS, DTS, ASI and Me. -0.048 0.642Following the identification of these traits, selection will be done on drought tolerant pools which are being developed. Germplasm reputed for drought tolerance has been gathered from CIMMYT and other national programs. This germplasm has been evaluated and grouped according to maturity and grain type. Selection for sustained yield will be initiated under both drought and non-drought environments. We plan to eventually develop populations with tolerance to drought occurring at the four stages of maize growth.Response farming and climatic risk management. Stewart and Kashasha (1984) defined response farming as the manipulation of the cropping system in accordance with rainfall predictions based on the date of on-set of the rains and actual amounts received in the early part of the season. Its based on potential of the pending growing season using rules based on time of season onset and early cumulative rainfall (Wafula et. aI., 1992). The technique includes tactical responses, such as adjustments in crop densities, and nitrogen fertilizer, to match with seasonal potential.This strategy however, has limitations in application.Firstly, the technique requires a high level of skill, judgement and effort on the part of the farmer. Secondly, evaluation does not consider low input level since the model and tactics are only relevant when at least some inputs are in use (Wafula et aI., 1992). While the adoption rate is high for plant density (41%), that of fertilizer use (9%) is limited (Table 5). However, manures are used by 67% of farmers (Mugo et aI., 1993a). Farmers may find it difficult to practice response farming in terms of alternative inputs like manures and modifications may be required.Crops failures (maize yields of less than 300 kg ha-1 ) can be expected about one season in every six seasons, 16% for the agro-ecological zone UM4 (Keating et al., 1992a). In the absence of irrigation schemes there is little farmers can do about production in the worst 10-20% of the rainfall seasons. Under these circumstances, farmers must ensure the best possible production in the remaining 80-90% of seasons when maize production is possible. Good production in the better seasons then needs to be combined with strategies to cope with the crop failures. Such coping strategies might include storage of a reserve grain from one season till the next, sale of livestock, planting of a portion of the land with more drought tolerant crop e.g cassava and sorghum, and intercropping with grain legumes.Crop management strategies. Increased maize production has• been dependent on improved crop management technologies which incude: weed control, fertiliser application, insect and disease control, reduction of runoff and evaporation from the soil, use of adapted varieties and appropriate plant application density (Table 4).Soil loss and fertility degradation is high due to the nature of the soils. Tillage technologies for reducing Farmers not using 66.0 91.4 Source: Mugo at a/., 1993a.soil loss and increasing rainfall infiltration have been developed.These include terracing, ridging, mulching and trash lines.Sixty six percent of the farmers prepare their land using ox-drawn ploughs, 22% use hand hoes, 8% use both oxen and hoe and only 4% farmers use tractors (Mugo et ai., 1993a). Attempts have been made to develop an appropriate ox-drawn multi-purpose tool frame that can be fitted with different implements, thereby reducing the costs to the farmer.Recommendations on timing of tillage operations have also been made.There is a need to revise fertilizer rates and levels of other purchased inputs in order to reflect increased price levels following the recent liberalization of maize and maize products in Kenya.Improved technology adoption in maize production in semi-arid Kenya farmers who adopted these improved technologies did so after attending agricultural shows, farmers' field days, field demonstration plots field visits and through participating as cluster farmers.Seeds of Katumani and Makueni Composites are produced by the established seed company in Kenya. Seed unavailability and high costs are issues affecting small scale and subsistence farmers. Onfarm seed availability for the open-pollinated composites is a constraint especially in seasons following tho~e seasons where rains fail (Ngure et. ai.,•l993). Following crop failures, farmers consume seed and demand from the seed companies rises dramatically. Planning for adequate seed supply for the coming season after a crop failure during the current season will remain a challenge for seed producing agencies.Useful traits in selection for drought tolerance were identified as increased SAT, SWIE and IjE and reduced PPS, OTS, ASI and Me. Genotypes with tolerance to drought occurring at establishment, pre-flowering, flowering and post-flowering stages of maize growth would be useful as drought can occur at any of these stages. Germplasm pools with tolerance to drought are being developed with selection based on the traits identified. This is being done under controlled drought environments. Adoption of the response farming technique is limited due to the skills required of and efforts placed on the farmer and lack of flexibility on input levels and alternative inputs. Recommendations on land and crop management technologies require review due to the recent liberalization of the market for maize.recurrent selection for yield in two open-pollinated maize varieties. Reciprocal recurrent selection in maize was proposed by Comstock et al. (1949) to provide a MATERIAL AND METHODS method that would exploit both additive and non-The well known South African open-pollinated additive genetic variance in genetically divergent maize varieties Teko Yellow (T) and Natal Yellow populations. Although this method made provision Horsetooth (N) were used as base populations in for the exploitation of overdominance, if it should be this programme of reciprocal recurrent selection of importance, it would also be effective for (RRS) because, initially, high heterosis values and characters that are predominantly controlled by genetic divergence were observed in their cross additive gene action. The method provided a (Gevers, 1975). rational basis for the evaluation of gain from selection as the performance of the cross between the The essential feature of reciprocal recurrent selection two populations in reciprocal selection, which is the (Comstock et al., 1949) is that an array of plants ultimate aim of this procedure.derived from one population (serving as male parents), are each self-pollinated and at the same The announcement of this method by the North time outcrossed to a sample of plants from the other Carolina School (Comstock et al., 1949) coincided population (serving as tester), a procedure that is with an ongoing debate on the relative importance repeated in a reciprocal way with the other of overdominance and other types of gene action in population. In its simplest form, this will provide the inheritance of yield in maize (Gevers, 1975). two sets of half-sib families, which are evaluated in Selection for yield, a relatively complex character, replicated yield trials to allow for the ranking of would therefore be best accommodated in a method testcross yields according to male parents. We used that recognised the importance of both types of ten (10) ,male parents from each set (kept as selfgene action, while the results obtained would pollinated seed), which gave the highest testcross provide further insight into the predominant type of yields, to intermate in all possible combinations to gene action involved in this and other characters, provide the source populations for the ensuing, and and particularly those closely associated with yield.operationally similar, selection cycle. Crosses Number of ears per plant (prolificacy index) or, between the base populations and between conversely, number of barren plants, as well as silk populations derived at each cycle of selection, delay (difference between days to silking and together with the corresponding populations tasseling) and days to physiological maturity are obtained for each cycle of selection, prOVided the important co-variants of yield which have been final te:lt material for the evaluation of selection associated with yield stability, stress tolerance and progress. adaptability (Gevers,1975). Two distinct procedures were followed in choosing It was of interest to evaluate the responses and the male parents to be used in testcrosses. correlated responses when using two variations of Employing numerically equal populations (usually initial parent selection in a programme of reciprocal 2000) for the two varieties, the crossing field was 81 Table 1: Experimental material available after three cycles (C) of reciprocal recurrent selection between populations Teko Yellow (T) and Natal Yellow Horsetooth (N).• See text for description of selection methods. # TO, population Tcycle 0; TU1 population Tunselected (random) method cyde 1; TS1, population Tselected (agronomic) method cycle 1.stratified into rows of 20 hills each and planted in The following data was collected on all plots: such a way that paired rows of varietal source T and (a) Grain yield per plot at a moisture of 125 % was source N followed each other in a regular sequence. routinely obtained by means of standard techniques In the one case, male parents were indicated by and expressed as quintals (100 kg ha -1 ). random numbers, one for each 20-plant row, the (b) Number of ears per 100 plants was derived from intention being to apply no selection at all in the counts of the number of grain-bearing ears per choice of male parents prior to testcross evaluation.plot. In the other case, male parents were preselected on a basis of visual agronomic merit, a procedure that (c) Silk delay. This is an estimate of the difference in was to simulate as best possible the methods days between the silking date (50 % silks) and employed by maize breeders when doing initial the tasseling date (50 % pollen-shed).Although all the experiments were designed and field of maize. The visual preselection of parents carried out in the field as simple or balanced lattices, was based on the following criteria: (1) plant vigour, they were finally treated as randomised block (2) absence of lodging, (3) freedom from designs by excluding the additional entries and Helminthosporium turcicum leaf blight at flowering analysed jointly over localities and years according and (4) freedom from ear diseases at harvest. No to a model and ANOVA provided by Cochran and intentional selection was done for a specific plant Cox (1957).. For each combined analysis a test of type, while every attempt was made to select on a homogeneity of variances was carried out on the uniform basis during the different cycles of selection. error variance by means of Bartlett's test (Kenny and The following numbers of testcrosses obtained for Keeping, 1954) and a regression analysis of selection each cycle of selection and parent selection type (and progress over three cycles of selection was carried controls, if necessary) were evaluated at Cedara, out according to methods outlined by Eberhart Natal, in different seasons in lattice trials of the (1964) and Draper and Smith (1966). order indicated (Gevers, 1975). ObViously, theselection differential varied slightly, in this case 10%, 8.5% and 8.6% for cycles 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Unrestricted selection for yield (random parent After three cycles of selection in maize varieties T selection) is showing a similar, highly significant, and N with random (U) and agronomic (S) parent linear response over cycles in both the cross TU x selection the materials listed in Table 1 were NU and the variety NU (Table 2 and Fig shown an overall selection progress of 8.3% per cycle in regression analysis. These trends present no obvious departure frpm additive gene action. These 21 materials and an additional four entries were evaluated in yield trials at Ukulinga Research Farm and Cedara College for two years. All data were collected for net plots of 40 plants spaced at 36,000 ha-1 . Estimated actual selection progress for yield over three cycles is 6.5 for the cross and 8.3 and 6.9 % for the varieties TU and NU, respectively. In contrast, regression analysis for agronomic parent selection (designated S) indicate yield gains of 4.2,4.1 and -1.0 % and similar actual yield gains ()f 4.0, 4.6 and 0.6 % for the corresponding material. Agronomic parent 83 selection is therefore meeting with a lesser response than random parent selection, the most striking example being the variety NS which has shown no gain from selection (Table 2, Fig. l). The yield gains per cycle are considerably greater than those of 3.5% and 4.6 % reported by Moll and Stuber (1971) and Eberhart et ai. (1973), respectively, but are lower than the advance of 10% reported by Darrah et ai.  (1972). Variable selection differentials may have contributed to these differences.The results obtained with random parent selection, where the linear selection response in the two varieties is closely reflected in the cross, not only indicate very good progress but also suggests no obvious departure from an essentially additive type of gene action. Further, the lesser response or no gain obtained with agronomic parent selection, indicates that a restriction on progress is imposed by this method, presumably due to close type selection or even inbreeding (Gevers, 1975), a conclusion that generally corroborates the findings, for instance, of Moll and Stuber (1971) and Eberhart et ai. (1973).The question arises whether selection for yield alone (as represented by random parent selection) is to be preferred to selection for yield accompanied by visual parental screening or selection based on agronomic criteria, which is more acceptable to the breeder. In this case the characters ears per 100 plants, silk delay and maturity criteria were considered, which although important, exclude other important characters, such as lodging, plant and/ or ear height, etc., for which no accurate data could be obtained.The characters number of ears per 100 plants and silk delay have given a clear indication of their association with yield as reflected in actual and regression data (Table 2 and Figs decreased as a correlated response to selection for yield with random parent selection while agronomic parent selection is meeting with a reduced or no gain from selectio. The selection trends correspond closely with those for yield and may be similarly interpreted. Both these characters are therefore recognised as important co•variants of yield. Data obtained on the responses for date to silking and tasseling, although mostly non-significant, were less consistent.Number of ears per plant (or prolificacy) has been recognised here as an important co-variant of yield, which confirms this widely established character association in maize (see Gevers, 197~, for a review). It has been specifically associated with stress tolerance by numerous authors (e.g. Collins et al.  1965, and Theron et al. 1970). In this case, the number of barren plants is reduced by an estimated Gevers 3,2 and 5 ears per cycle in the cross TU X NU, and the populations TU and NU, respectively, while responses obtained with the alternate method agronomic parent selection is usually lower or absent (Table 1).Silk delay, is showing a linear reduction over cycles (Table 2, Fig. 3) while, as for the other characters, agronomic parent selection is meeting with a lesser response. Whatever the underlying physiological basis, it would appear that a reduced silk delay is of advantage in the expression of yield. An obvious effect is that pollination would be more uniform and complete and yields therefore higher in populations with a reduced interval between tasseling and silking.A reduced silk delay has been recognised as an important factor in overcoming periodS of moisture stress, particularly as stress periods had the effect of  I.• b,. O. 59: 0.14--5).,i 3 t--=:-Yield co-variants as stability factors increasing silk delay (Dijkhuis, 1965;Du Plessis and Dijkhuis, 1967). However, in this case, no stress was• observed, and the association between yield and silk delay may reflect a more profound biological and adaptive significance. Seen differently, these data infer a positive association between silk delay and incidence of barrenness as found by Buren et al. (1974), which adds significance to this association, particularly under conditions of stress.The interrelationship of these three characters, namely, yield, ears per plant and silk delay, therefore suggests an association conducive to stress tolerance as well as characterising the old varietal breeding sources and suggesting useful selection criteria in population and inbred-hybrid breeding programmes. The study was carried out between 1986 and 1988 to investigate the relationships between flowering habit, plant phenotypic appearance, seedling vigour and grain yielding ability while breeding early maturing maize. Four rainfed and four irrigated trials were conducted in a semi-arid area of eastern Kenya with two growing seasons per year, the long and the short rains. In the first group of trials, comprising Experiment I, relationships between the various traits of interest were studied within cultivars that have been developed by the programme at Katumani, a breeding centre located in the area of interest. In Experiment 2, SI selection was practiced on the same materials looking for early and for late flowering plants within a population of 2,000 plants per cultivar. Results from both experiments showed similar relative changes, although of lesser magnitude in Experiment 2. Seedling vigour was positively correlated with grain yield and was not correlated with flowering time and, therefore, maturity. Unlike grain yield, seedling vigour interacted little with the environment of growth. Experimental precision seemed to increase with additional water applied as irrigation. It was concluded that current cultivars have scope to be improved using good plant type and seedling vigour as the major selection criteria for yield. It was also concluded that selection could be aided by irrigating some of the trials to increase the environmental range covered, especially during the long rains season which was evidently the less reliable.In selection experiments done under optimal conditions of growth, such as under irrigation, Grain maize (Zea mays L.) is the most widely heritability for grain yield is commonly higher than cultivated and consumed food crop in the shortunder sub-optimal environments. Although season, semi-arid areas of eastern Kenya. One preferable, selection in situ shows great variability hundred per cent of the farmers grow and eat maize and low heritabilities for yield in drought prone as a basic dietary staple. Drought, mainly through areas. Breeding under both optimal and subinsufficient rainfall and poor distribution during optimal conditions may offer the more attractive growth, is cited as the greatest hindrance to option for the breeder (Arboleda-Rivera and increased production of maize in these parts (Hassan Compton, 1974). et al., 1993). This is the main reason why this region is a net importer of food maize dUring most years.Earliness is usually as important as yield in breeding varieties for cultivation in short season semi-arid Breeders have attempted to develop quick maturing areas. Tolerance to water stress is also a very maize varieties for these farmers by selecting for important attribute to build into such varieties if the early flowering types (Dowker, 1981); this feature is yields are to be stabilized under erratic rainfall known to be positively genetically correlated to conditions common in these areas. Yield is a length of maturity (Rosielle and Hamblin, 1981). complicated character to select for, especially under However, early maturity, as measured by early droughted conditions (Reitz, 1974;Blum, 1988). flowering alone, has its limitations for success in Although both highly heritable (Mutisya, 1986) and improving grain yields. This is because duration of responding readily to selection (Dowker, 1981; maturity is expected to be positively correlated to Inone, 1985), flowering in maize is also a complex grain production, as this is generally a function of trait (Cloninger et al., 1974). Progress in genetic the period that the crop has stayed in the field fixing improvement could be made easier therefore, if carbon-dioxide. This is not always so, and the traits were found to help the breeder in selection for challenge for the breeder is to develop a cultivar these attributes in combination. The possible use of which ,does this efficiently despite serious limitations plant vigour during early growth was investigated such as soil moisture. It would be desirable if easily in these studies to asoertain the usefulness of this measured and genetically controlled traits were trait in selection for early maturing maize under found to assist the breeder in selecting for high and water stress. stable yields in cultivars for drought-prone, short growing seasons. An efficient breeding strategy and The study described here was part of a larger correct selection criteria are critically important to research project undertaken between 1986 and 1988 ensure the desired success (Hassan et al., 1993).in eastern Kenya to identify and assess selection traits associated with earlier flowering and high grain yields in maize. In this paper, the possible role of seedling vigour as an indirect selection criterion for increased grain yield, accompanied by earliness to flowering in water stressed environments, is reported. Irrigated and non-irrigated conditions were used in this study.Breeding materials from Katumani Research Centre, Kenya, and chosen to represent the range of breeding stocks available at this centre were used.The following six dryland varieties were used:1 KCB CO was a widely cultivated variety in the area covered by this study, whereas KCB Cll was a later improvement of this variety advanced through earto-row selection. DLC 1 was also an early cultivar grown in this area under the name of Makueni Composite, and HC78 was a varietal F hybrid between two synthetic lines, KS7 and KS8. Both Taboran and MLW were land-races originally collected from farmers' fields in East Africa and subsequently used in development of KCB CO. (Two other varieties, H511 and Naples, were also used, but their results are not reported here on account of their outlier qualities; H511 was a late wetland variety, whereas Naples was an accession with poor adaptation.Experiment 1. Eight trials were grown during two seasons (1986 and 1987) and at two sites, Katumani and Kiboko. Employing randomized complete blocks in 3 replicates, each variety was grown in Srow plots at 7.4 plants per square meter. To ameliorate inherent soil moisture deficits and to increase the environmental range of available water regimes, one trial at each site and during each season was prOVided with 50% more water through sprinkler irrigation.Data were recorded from the middle 3 rows of each plot for the following three traits: a) Seedling Vigour: From each planting hole one plant was randomly removed at 3 weeks of growth.After oven-drying the harvested seedlings for 72 hours at 75 °C, the weights of these seedlings were recorded for each plot. In 87 addition, seedling vigour was Visually scored by 3 observers independently on each plot using a 1-10 scale (minimum vigour 1, maximum vigour 10). This was done weekly on 3 occasions beginning the fifth day after seedling emergence. b) Flowering Date: At flowering, daily record of counts were kept of those plants that had exuded pollen and also for those whose silks had emerged.c) Yield Data: The harvested grain at maturity was expressed in tonnes per hectare at 15% moisture content.The data was then subjected to standard analysis of variance followed by correlation and regression analyses among variates.Experiment 2. KCB Cll, DLC 1, MLW and the parents of HC78 (i.e. KS7 and KS8) were subjected to two cycles of 51 selection. From each population, 2,000 plants were planted and the 5% of the earliest and 5% of the latest to flower were selected for selfing, but only if they had good phenotypic appearanceThe early and late selections of each population were evaluated in trials during two seasons (1987 and 1988) at two localities, Katumani and Kiboko, under similar water regimes and crop husbandry practices as in Experiment 1. The same experimental design and statistical analyses were followed.These experiments studied the relationships between three traits of early maturing maize varieties: grain yield, flowering habit and ability to grow vigorously early in the season. Drought stress effects could be assessed as the differences between irrigated and non-irrigated treatments in these trials. Results from both Experiment 1 and 2 are presented in Tables 1 to 10. Data shown in Tables 1, 2, 6 and 7 confirm previous findings (Dowker, 1981) that the short rains season is more reliable than the long rains season with respect to crop production in eastern Kenya. The coefficients of variation were consistently smaller, and the grain yields consistently higher, during the short rains compared to the long rains, even among the irrigated trials.Irrigation improved experimental precision as measured by the coefficients of variation by 30% for the grain yields. The other traits were affected less by water regimes (Table 1). Similar results occurred in Experiment 2 (Table 6). On average however, drought decreased grain yields by 53%, delayed silking by about 3 days, decreased seedling vigour by 8%, seedling weight by 14.8% and had no effect Njoroge  8 and 9). Variance ratios for differences between genotypes and environments were highly significant (P<O.OOl) for all variates reported.Only small GxE interactions were detected for most traits, whereas this interaction was not significant for days to silking and seedling weight (Table 4). In Experiment 2, these interactions were only Significant for grain yield (Table 10). The correlations between grain yield and seedling vigour were large and positive (Table 5). Earliness was not correlated to yield, nor days to flowering with seedling vigour, results which were generally repeated in Experiment 2.The highest yielding variety, HC78, was not the latest to flower, but it exhibited the highest vigour during early growth (Table 3). Actually, the latest variety to flower was MLW which had the least vigour. The results also indicate that seedling vigour was increased when KCB CO was advanced to KCB Cll. This increase was concomitant with increased earliness and raised grain yields.The results of Experiment 2 corroborated those of Experiment 1, which showed that the varieties used ,in these trials, generally called the Katumani varieties, yielded and flowered differently when grown in different water regimes. In addition, seedling vigour of• these varieties changed correspondingly with changes in crop yields, which were apparently controlled principally by the total amount of water received. Each improved cultivar seemed to have been altered for each of these traits in the course of development from the general genetic background of Taboran and MLW, the undesirably correlated with either pollen shed or original landraces grown by farmers. For example, duration to silking. Thus, these results show that HC78 grain yields have been increased by an grain yield, flowering behaviour and seedling average of 70% over those of MLW, while days to vigour have desirable correlations for selection. silking and pollen shed have become earlier by Experiment 2 investigated the use of seedling vigour about 7 and 6 days, respectively (Table 3). Seedling in selecting for high yield in semi-arid environments vigour was at the same time increased by more than using supplementary irrigation (Arboleda-Rivera 30%. Because seedling vigour is less affected by and Compton, 1974). The selection traits were environment than is grain yield, it might be a useful seedling vigour, early maturity and good trait to select for if the strong and positive phenotype. To increase the range of the measured correlation with yield is found to be genetic in origin traits, selection for later maturing plants with good and if heritability is greater for seedling vigour than phenotype was also attempted. The results in Table for yield. 8 show clearly that it is possible to improve grain Seedling vigour should be a useful phenotypic yield using this method. In KCB Cll and OLCI, selection criterion for yield because it has large and selection for earlier flowering can apparently be positive correlation with grain yield and is not achieved only at the expense of grain yields. However, later flowering types with increased grain most productive. In the semi-arid areas of eastern yields could be derived from these composites Kenya, however, farmers' preferences would within a relatively short period if the method probably favour improving the parents of HC78, suggested here were to be used. Both earlier and especially I<S8 as a cultivar, rather than HC78. The later maturing versions of MLW and HC78 could earlier type of I<S8 developed in the course of these easily be obtained, although the greater scope studies out-yielded the various versions of KCB appears to lie in developing earlier types. The mean (Table 9). It is to be noted that yield trends were yields under the whole environmental range of these closely followed by seedling vigour, which did not trials were also improved, similar to the theoretical have undesirable consequences on flowering. Vigour expectations of Rosielle and Hamblin (1981). The did not have large GxE interaction, unlike yield very good performance of HC78 in these (Table 10), similar to the results in Experiment 1. experiments raises the possibility of developing Genetic improvement of drought resistance in maize varietal Fl hybrids for this area. An analysis of yield requires effective and efficient criteria (Martiniello, stability across the various environments of this 1983) which should be genetically correlated to study, using the method of Finlay and Wilkinson drought response of the plant. Traits that are easily (1963), showed that HC78 was also the most stable measurable are needed to assist in breeding varieties among all the test varieties used (data not shown). tolerant to drought stress. lf such traits are highly Stability of performance is perhaps more important heritable, then rapid improvement can be made than yield itself to farmers, especially in semi-arid (Jinahyon, and Russell, 1969). It seems that seedling zones. Both HC78 and KCB Cll exhibited the vigour in the genotypes used in these experiments higher degree of tolerance to stress and were the should be assessed in this respect According to the results presented here, there is good scope to improve yield using current Katumani genetic gene pools if selection for early flowering is practiced in the company of good plant type and seedling vigour. Seedling vigour score, as defined here, was easier to measure than seedling weight; the score proved to be the more reliable attribute and seemed to be more closely correlated to grain yields. Also, it was more easily measurable under irrigation. An index of selection which combines seedling vigour, earliness and grain yield should be developed.Questions to Stanley Jensen soil infertility as the most using three water regimes, and the best 50 families severe limitation to maize production in the less are recombined thus completing a cycle of selection developed world. Annual average yield losses are every 2 years. The main selection traits are high thought to be about 17% per year, but can be much shelled grain yield, constant anthesis date, short ASI greater (up to 70 %) some years, with potentially and high ear number per plant (EPP) under severe large losses due to drought around flowering (see stress, and reduced leaf senescence under moderate Waddington et al., these proceedings).The stress. Other, secondary traits, are also considered CIMMYr maize physiology sUb-program has been (small tassels, erect unrolled leaves and lodging selecting germplasm to tolerate this type of drought. resistance). The first CIMMYr tropical drought tolerant In the trials discussed here, we evaluated cycles of population, Tuxpeno Sequia, was derived from a selection for drought tolerance from three latelate white lowland tropical population (Tuxpeno maturing tropical maize populations and check Crema 1 Cycle 11)/ and underwent 8 cycles of genotypes developed from similar germplasm. The recurrent full-sib selection under different drought latest cycles of two broad-based source populations treatments in the dry winter season at Tlaltizapan, for drought tolerance were also evaluated. We Mexico (18 0 N, 940 masl). Families were selected for aimed to evaluate selection progress for yield and recombination on the basis of grain yield (for for characteristics used during selection. Yields moisture treatment), and in the drought treatments across sites were examined to evaluate the relative on on the basis of short anthesis to silking interval performance of germplasm in irrigated and (ASI), low canopy temperature and reduced leaf droughted environments. From a separate trial, we senescence, Selection also favoured families with present some results of divergent selection for high relative stem and leaf extension rate in the well drought traits in La Posta Sequia. watered d. severe stress treatment. Each cycle took 1 year to complete.A similar methodology, but using recurrent St Ten trials were conducted in Mexico (Tlaltizapan, selection, has been used to improve two other late-Obreg6n and Poza Ric4) to evaluate the performance maturing lowland tropical populations, La Posta of germplasm from several late maturing tropical Sequia (white dent) and Pool 26 Sequia (yellow maize populations selected for tolerance to drought dent), and to continue improvement in cycle 6 of near flowering and during grain-filling. Five of the Tuxpeno Sequia (1'56). A large number of families trials subjected the plants to drought while the other (600 to 1500) are screened under summer heat and five were well-watered. Each trial was of 3 drought stress at Cd. Obreg6n in the Sonoran Desert replicates of 16 entries (all F2) and was grown in an alpha 0,1 lattice design, with 4 plots per sub-block. The entries included: cycles of selection 0 to 3 for drought tolerance for La Posta Sequia and Pool 26 Sequia, cycles 0 and 8 of Tuxpeno Sequia, TS6 Cl' We included checks for La Posta and Pool 26 from populations improved under unstressed conditions, two earlier-maturing drought tolerant source populations (DTPI and DTP2 (DTPl with introgressions» and an experimental variety selected for erect leaves (TLWD-EL). The plants were grown at a density of 52 600 plants ha-1 in plots of 4 rows x 5 m long. Measurements included: anthesis and silking dates (from which ASI was calculated), total leaf number; plant and ear height; tassel branch number, leaf erectness scores and estimates of leaf senescence during grain-filling. Leaf rolling was scored for stressed plots and canopy temperature was measured in two trials. At the final harvest we measured lodging, plant and ear number, grain yield and 100 grain weights. In 3 trials we also measured total plant biomass.Linear regressions were fitted through the yield data for La Posta Sequia and Pool 26 Sequia to estimate changes in yield per cycle (relative to the mean of all cycles (Cl.5». Gains for Tuxpeno Sequia C8 compared to CO were calculated by subtraction.The mean yields for genotypes across 9 of the environments (excluding Obreg6n) were also subjected to ANOVA, cluster analysis (Fox and Rosielle, 1982) and principal coordinate analysis using the AMMI (Additive Main effects and Multiplicative Interaction) model (Gauch, 1988). Standard deviations from mean yield and PCA (principal component analysis) scores were used to describe differences in genotype performance and stability (Crossa et ai., 1990).In the 3 lowest yielding environments, low grain yields in checks and early cycles of selection were associated with longer ASI and fewer EPP (data not shown). In all drough~ environments yields of these genotypes were depressed due to a low grain number (Table 3), whether or not EPP was affected. Differences among entries for ASI, EPP and grain number, including between cycles of selection or checks of similar germplasm background, were often significant even for higher yielding environments.In another trial, conducted in the 1992 winter cycle in Tlaltizapan, we evaluated the performance of 40 entries, mainly comprised of 10 line synthetics that 95 had been selected divergently for various individual drought tolerance traits (e.g. ASI, leaf rolling, canopy temperature and leaf senescence). A brief summary of some of these results is given.Field results.Grain yields (at 0% moisture) averaged by environment ranged from 1.0 to almost 10.5 t ha-1 (Table 1). In the low yielding, droughted environments «5.0 t ha-1 ), the most recent cycles of selection in La Posta Sequia, Pool 26 and Tuxpefio Sequia almost always significantly surpassed Co and the respective checks. In these environments, yield gains per cycle were 229 kg ha-1 in La Posta, 288 kg ha-1 in Pool 26 and 80 kg ha-1 in Tuxpefio Sequia (Table 2). As cycles of selection in La Posta Sequia and Pool 26 Sequia take 2 years to complete, the gains per year (approx. 114 to 144 kg ha-1 ) in the lower yielding environments are similar to those observed in Tuxpeno Sequia in these and previous trials (Bolanos and Edmeades 1993). The yield gains were seen in all droughted sites, even where. tbe(~ was relatively little stress before flowering (e.g. in 1992).Average anthesis dates (AD) of the latest cycles of selection were 1 to 1.5 days earlier than those of Co (data not presented). However, the check materials, improved from the same original backgrounds, were 2.5 to 4 days later in AD. In drought environments, regressions of AD on yield accounted for 115 kg ha-1 d-l of the differences (data not presented). Thus, while the lateness of the checks contributed to their poor performance under drought, differences in AD did not account for all of the variation among genotypes.Differences among similar genotypes in any of the 4 Tlaltizapan drought environments were related strongly to grain number per unit area (Fig. la). Where pre-anthesis drought was severe, barrenness (low ear number per plant -EPP) of non-drought tolerant genotypes was greater than that of related tolerant germplasm (Table 3). The low grain number (due to barrenness or to decreased grain number per ear) was associated with a longer ASI (Fig. 1b) and decreased partitioning as evidenced by a lower harvest index (data not presented). Differences in kernel weight accounted mainly for differences across environments, but not among genotypes (data not presented).The source populations DTPl and DTP2 had the highest yields of all genotypes in the 1993 drought • , I I \\;1000 treatments. Their earlier flowering dates probably (accounting for 45.5 and 25.9 % of the variation, allowed them to escape some of the pre-anthesis respectively) (data not presented). Fig. 2 plots the drought as evidenced by their shorter ASI and yields of three of the extreme groups. Group 25, higher EPP (Table 3). And, their performance under which had relatively poor performance in all irrigated conditions was also promising, considering environments (group 25 -two checks), (group 24: that both populations contain a broad mixture of three early drought tolerant genotypes) good germplasm. Similar high yields for these materials performance under drought and relatively poorer have• been measured in other trials (Edmeades and under irrigation and group 18 that was relatively Chapman, unpublished data). stable across all environments (group 18: La Posta Seq. C2 and C3)' Pattern analysis.Environment mean effects dominated the across site ANOVA, although G, E In an AMMI analysis, the relative PeA (principle and GxE effects were all significant (data not component axis) scores for 2 points in the plot presented). As GxE was substantially greater than indicate the influence of GxE interaction (Fig. 3). For G, interpretation of performance based on G alone example, if a genotype has a large positve score and would ignore a large proportion of the variation in so does an environment of interest, then their GxE genotype response. Five genotype groups were well interaction will be relatively large and positive. In distinguished by the first 2 principal coordinates of an environment with a large negative score, the the GxE squared Euclidean distance matrix same genotype will have a negative interaction. A o Group 25:5,12 t::. Group 18:3,4 genotype with a PCA score close to zero is stable across environments -having a small interaction. The magnitude of indicates its overall environments tested.the mean perfor of the mance genotype in theWe found that droughted and irrigated environments had PCA1 scores that differed in sign: > 0 for drought and < 0 for irrigated (Fig. 3). This suggests that it would be difficult to sel«t in either of these types of environments and expect to make• gains in the opposite type, i.e. genotypes selected for a good interaction in one type of environment would have a negative interaction with the other type of environment.Genotypes also differed in mean yield and PCAl score. In cycles of Pool 26 Sequia and Tuxpeno Sequia, the genotype PCAl score indicated a bias toward positive interactions with the drought environments, and negative interactions with irrigated ones (i.e. that these populations were moving toward better adaptation in droughted than in irrigated environments). Selection in La Posta Sequia increased mean yield and shifted the PCAl score toward zero -considered the ideal value to minimise interactions across environments (Crossa et al., 1990). All checks yielded less than the trial mean, and they differed for stability across environs.Divergent selection for drought tolerance traits.When evaluating traits such as ASI, leaf rolling and leaf senescence we were almost always able to separate divergent synthetics that had been formed on the basis of those individual traits (Table 4). This was also the case when measuring yield (data not presented) or using an index to select the 'best all' or 'worst all'. A poorer success rate with traits such as canopy temperature, may indicate a lower heritability or greater difficulties in selection based on the trait (in the case of canopy temperature, probably related to the measurement itself). Yields of the 'best' single trait divergent synthetics did not always exceed those of the 'w9rst (data not presented). In some cases, there were yield penalties in irrigated environments for synthetics selected on facultative drought traits. For example, selection for short ASI alone under drought tends to result in an earlier flowering synthetic that cannot fully exploit a well-watered environment.Selection in all of the drought tolerant populations used an index that included high yield in drought and irrigated environments, and shortened ASI (less barrenness) in droughted environments. During selection, we attempted to hold anthesis date constant with mild selection pressure for erect andEdmeades et al.   non-rolling leaves, and a decreased rate of leaf senescence. These criteria have succeeded in reducing the susceptibility of these populations to drought stress around flowering and during grainfilling and give excellent rates of progress in low and high yielding environments.The two methods of examining GxE interactions clearly separated response patterns of germplasm differing in drought tolerance. As the germplasm included cycles of selection, these analyses are interesting in that they provide evidence of improvement in drought tolerance with selection with little or no loss of stability in the environments used. Some of this germplasm is currently under test in a greater geographical range of sites, again to be exposed to drought.The grouping patterns found, and the interaction components identified, indicate that in 3 late tropical maize populations it is difficult to improve yields for conditions of mid-season drought by selection in irrigated environments. The extreme differences in the interaction components of drought and irrigated environments emphasise this result.Divergent selection for individual drought-related traits demonstrated potentially high heritabilities. At the same time, these results indicated that a selection index was required to maintain yields in irrigated as well as improve performance in droughted environments. REFERENCES Bolanos, J. and Edmeades, G.O. (1993). Eight cycles of selection for drought tolerance in lowland tropical maize. I. Responses in grain yield, biomass and radiation interception. Field Crops Res., 31: 233-252. Crossa, J., Gauch, H.G. and Zobel, RW. (1990).Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction analysis of two international maize cultivar trials. Crop Sci., 30: 493-500.     Vision Mozambique is actively involved in the rehabilitation of family sector agriculture in central The National Institute for Agronomic Investigation and northern Mozambique through the re-(INIA) had conducted variety trials throughout the establishment of self sufficiency. Fifteen years of region until the eighties, when the network of INIA armed conflict have destroyed rural infrastructure stations was drastically reduced as a result of the and drastically reduced agricultural production. The armed conflict. Consequently, little information on 1991/92 drought further crippled agriculture. Many variety performance was available for crop varieties farmers, particularly the displaced, simply did not developed in the last 10 years. In collaboration with have the tools and seeds to prepare and plant family INIA, the ARP established a number of variety trials \"machambas ll at project sites in Tete and Zambezia provinces. This• paper reports the results of two seasons of multi-The ARP, initiated in 1990, has focused on the location maize variety testing in limiting and nonprovision of seeds and hand tools (Ag-paks) to limiting environments. farming families in the provinces of Zambezia, Tete, Manica, Sofala and Nampula. However, very large MATERIALS AND METHODS quantities of seed of acceptable and adapted Trial locations. The environments (agro-ecologies) varieties were of limited availability or were non and the number of trials conducted at each location existent for many crops. Maize has been the major in the project area are indicated in Table 1. Maize is component of the seed distribution effort. In the a major crop in the midland and upland areas, 1993/94 growing season over 2,000 tonnes of maize considered to be regions of high yield potential. seed were purchased at a cost of over USS 1.5 million to benefit 250,000 farming families. Clearly, Varieties. The fourteen varieties tested in the trials decisions on the choice of varieties can have very are listed in Table 2, together with their growing significant economic consequences, as well as cycle, grain type, source and status.  The number of varieties evaluated in individual trials varied from 8 to 20. Four row plots were used. The plot length was 8 m and row width was 0.8 m. A density of 36,000 plants/ha was achieved by planting four seeds every 70 em and thinning to 2 plants per station. Data were collected from the two central rows of each plot after a meter was discarded on both ends. Grain yields were adjusted to 12% moisture. An analysis of variance was performed on individual site data and appropriate across location analyses were also conducted.Mozambican family sector farmers do not use chemical fertilizers, insecticides, or herbicides as they are either not available or are too expensive to purchase. Trial inputs were therefore restricted to the application of Thiodan granules to control stalk borers as no genetic resistance was available in the varieties and previous experience indicated that infestation could be non-uniform and act as a confounding factor in the trials.The results of the 1991/92 and the 1992/93 trials are summarized in Tables 3 and 4. Means separations are indicated for each trial series and for the combined data and the total number of trials is indicated in the table heading. The data is from a total of seventeen trials and the varieties differed between the provinces in 1991/92 and between trial series dUring the 1992/93 season.Central Mozambique experienced a severe drought during the 1991/92 season. Conditions in the trial sites ranged from a slight to severe level of moisture stress. The overall mean yield was low (1.65 t ha-1 ) and at only one site was the trial mean yield above 2.30 t ha-1 . Table 3 shows that, averaged over all 1991/92 trials, Matuba.CW1, CW2, I<EP and Manica were the top-yielding varieties.The histogram in Figure 1 summarizes the data for two trials in the semi-arid region of lowland Tete that were under severe drought stress conditions and gave the lowest yields (mean 0.52 t ha-1 ). In these two trials the earlier maturing variety Matuba and the genetically similar composite CWI gave the highest yields (1.05 t ha-1 and 0.95 t ha-1 respectively). Matuba gave a 308% yield increase over I<EP. I<EP performed similarly to the regional, UCA and MMV 600; the varieties CW2 and Manica gave intermediate yields. Figure 1 also shows yields for a slightly different set of varieties at the two sites that gave the best yields, at Gurue in a low-lying organic soil and an upland site. In these situations rainfall was marginally acceptable and the major limiting factors were considered to be nitrogen deficiency, not yield potential. The performance of Matuba under these more favorable conditions was equal to the other dent varieties and was markedly superior to the other flint grain type varieties with a 38% yield improvement over Umbeluzi and a 77% yield improvement over the local variety.Overall, from the set of trials conducted during the 1991/92 drought season, the shorter season varieties Matuba and CWI produced yields that were higher than the varieties with a longer cycle. There was a significant negative correlation (r--0.974, p-0.001) between yield and days to mid silk, as shown in Figure 2. In the 1992/93 seasons' trials the pattern of rainfall was near normal. The overall mean yield was higher than in the previous season (1.93 t ha-1 ), with mean yields in excess of 2.30 t ha-1 at three of the nine trial sites. Despite a longer growing season with little or no moisture stress, the yield of Matuba was similar to that of Manica and superior to the other varieties tested. The performance of Umbeluzi was variable, due in part to susceptibility to Northern Leaf Blight, but was equal to the mid season, dent grain varieties KEP and MMV600. The yields of Obregon were low due to poor plant stands as a result of poor seed germination. The regional varieties were consistently low yielding.Figure 3 illustrates the mean performance of seven varieties across the four highest yielding situations (mean yield 2.95 t ha-1 ) and the other five trials from the 1992/93 season (mean yield 1.12 t ha-1 ). Again, Matuba-consistently gave the highest yield together with Manica. Umbeluzi yielded less than Matuba in the more stressed environments. The other short cycle variety EV8430, that matures 10 days earlier than Matuba, yielded less in both environments and was inferior to the mid-season improved varieties Sperling et aI.  than the improved varieties, Matuba was superior to KEP as shown in Table 5. Over all seventeen trials Matuba was Stability of yield over locations was investigated by comparing the size of the mean squares for varieties with the size of the mean square for the location x variety interaction for the two summaries in Table 5. Both mean squares were statistically significant; however the size of the interaction mean square was very small relative to the variety mean square (7.0% for 12 trials, 3.4% for 17 trials). Therefore, selection of varieties on mean yield would result in selection of the appropriate variety over 90% of the time. The use of one or two varieties over extensive areas is warranted.It is concluded that Matuba is the highest yielding variety of choice when grown under the zero input conditions that predominate over central Mozambique. The major constraints to higher yields are believed to be nutrient deficiency and moisture stress in the regions of lower elevation. The high degree of resistance to streak virus is a contributing factor to the stable performance of this variety over a wide range of agro-ecological conditions. The flint grain type and short cycle combine to make Mafuba the variety of choice in all circumstances except those where the harvest period of short cycle varieties coincides with a period of high rainfall. In longer season areas, a variety with the maturity of Umbeluzi offers considerable promise as the major grain variety. The Northern Leaf Blight susceptibility of Umbeluzi limits its use in higher elevation, higher rainfall areas. However, a variety with a similar maturity, flint grain type and adequate resistance to Northern Leaf Blight is desired since such a variety would mature at the end of the rams. In such areas, Matuba is an option to provide green ears to fill the hunger gap between harvests and for late planting. The flint grain type and very early maturity of EV8430 makes this variety of interest as a companion to other varieties for green ear production and catch cropping in lowland conditions.The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude and appreciation of the cooperation and assistance provided by the following: Dr. The climate of the South East Lowveld is characterized by low and erratic rainfall, high temperatures and high evaporation rates. The major crops grown (and recommended by the extension service) are sorghum and pearl millet but for some reason the production of maize, a crop more susceptible to drought than sorghum and pearl millet, is on the increase. Maize hybrid trials were carried out from the 1984/85 to 1990/91 seasons under rainfed conditions. The objective was to find the most suitable hybrid among released ones and to compare these with new lines supplied by the Crop Breeding Institute, DR&SS. In four out of seven seasons, there were zero yields from all hybrids at Chiredzi and in two out of seven seasons at Chisumbanje. The commonly grown hybrid, R201. gave a seven year mean yield of 1498 kg ha-1 at Chisumbanje and 1070 kg ha-1 at Chiredzi. PNR473 was tested for five seasons and gave the highest mean yield of 1860 kg ha-1 at Chisumbanje and second highest, 1437 kg ha-1 , at Chiredzi. In a good rainfall season, 1984185, the long season varieties gave the highest yields. I conclude that one of the reasons why farmers in this region continue to grow maize, contrary to the recommendations, is because in some years the yields are relatively higher than with the recommended crops of sorghum and pearl millet.INTRODUCfION potential of the marketed maize hybrids and to compare them with new lines. The South East Lowveld receives low and erratic rainfall averaging about 500 mm per annum. In MATERIALS AND METHODS most years the rainy season is characterised by short The trials were carried out at Chiredzi and rainy periods separated by up to six weeks of hot Chisumbanje. The crop was sown in furrows of dry weather. Under such conditions even drought ridges 1.5 m apart, that were tied. There was one tolerant traditional crops like sorghum and millets crop row per furrow giving a between row spacing fail to produce grain in some years. .However, in of 1.5 m and withinrow spacing of 0.3 m. The target recent years the area under maize, a relatively plant population was about 22 000 plants ha-1 . This susceptible crop to drought, has been on the population was used because the area has low increase.rainfall and Shumba (1984) reported that a low In the Agricultural Survey of Zimbabwe (then pORulation of 24 691 did better than 37 037 plants Southern Rhodesia) Part I, Agro-Ecological Survey ha-l in drought years. by Vincent and Thomas (1960), the rainfall of this The released hybrids used in the trials were R201, region was described as too low for the reliable R215, R215, PNR473, ZS229, ZS225 and SC501. In all production of even drought tolerant fodder and seasons the trials had 20 entries, except in 1985/86 grain crops. In Part II of the survey, Agra-Economic when nine hybrids were tested, and the new lines Survey by Staples (1962), the area was said to be varied from season to season. The trials were sown suitable for the cultivation of extremely drought at the earliest sowing opportunity in each season resistant varieties of sorghum and pearl millet. and the sowing dates ranged from 11 November in Despite the recommendations from the survey, 1984/85 to 15 January (Chisumbanje) in 1990/91. communal farmers in this region have been growing No fertilisers were applied at Chisumbanje due to cereal crops for decades, especially sorghum. This the high inherent fertility of the soils. At Chiredzi 42 shift to maize is evident in other countries, and kg ha-l P205, as single superphosphate, was Muchow (1988) suggested that it could be due to applied before sowing and top dressings of nitrogen, socia-economic reasons and because maize grain is as ammonium nitrate, ranged from 30 to 60 kg ha-1 , better protected from birds. In Zimbabwe people's depending on the nature of the rains in each season. tastes are changing in favour of maize partly Records taken included days to 50 percent because drought relief in the semi-arid areas is flowering, days to physiological maturity and grain mainly in the form of maize and maize flour is the yield. only type sold in both urban and rural shops.It was against this background that trials were started in the 1984/85 season to evaluate the yield  (Nyamudeza, 1993),48 percent lower than the mean of the maize trial. Such yield differences between sorghum and maize can easily influence farmers to shift to maize in the follOWing season. However in later years maize yields were much lower than sorghum yields and in 1986/87 and 1987/88 maize at Chiredzi failed, but adjacent sorghum trials yielded 754 and 687 kg ha-1 respectively (Nyamudeza,1993).In 1985/86 fewer hybrids were tested and the results are shown in In 1989/90, there was high variability in the trial at both sites, but especially at Chisumbanje where 27 out of 80 plots produced no yield. The Chiredzi trial had a C.V. of 51 % (Table 3). The low yields and high  Table 5 presents a summary of the yields of the released hybrids during the' seven seasons. Maize failed completely in two years at Chisumbanje and in four years at Chiredzi (Table 5). The high number of seasons in which the maize failed clearly shows the risk of growing maize in this region. Farmers know this and the question then is why do they continue to grow maize in such areas? Johnson (1991) attempted to answer this using sorghum and maize yield data from work done at Makoholi Experiment Station in Natural Region IV. The data showed that for four seasons maize outyielded sorghum and pearl millet and the four season mean was 115 percent more than for sorghum. A similar trend occurs in the south east lowveld (Natural Region V) during the good rainfall years, but such years are rare and during the period when these trials were running there was one good year in seven. Because of the high failure rate for maize, maize production is very risky, and the area that farmers plant to maize should be small relative to the area planted with sorghum and other drought tolerant crops. The question, IIWhy do farmers grow maize in Natural Region V,II can partly be answered by the high yields they obtained in years with good rainfall such as 1984/85, and the long term mean yield of slightly over 1 t ha-l per year. Unfortunately the maize hybrids available at present cannot store well for over a season and the years similar to 1984/85 are rare in Natural Region V, but farmers are tempted to keep trying to produce maize.The results given here have several implications for maize breeders. The ntlmber of days to flowering and maturity in the south east lowveld were much lower than what the breeders expect when the hybrids are grown in.the major maize producing areas of Zimbabwe. These hybrids do not give their full potential because they are forced to mature earlier than normal. There was some indication in all the low and poorly distributed rainfall seasons that the hybrids which flowered first gave the better Sidama is one of the major maize growing areas of southern Ethiopia. During a 1985/86 survey of Sidama, maize was identified as the most important food crop grown with more than 90% of the farmers growing maize. However, maize yield was reported to be less than 1 t ha-t which compares to a potential yield of improved maize varieties for moisture stress areas of greater than 4 t ha-t . The major problem of maize production, especially in the low altitude area, is reported to be uncertainty in the amount and distribution of rainfall. One early, Katumani, and two intermediate maize varieties, Awasa-8047 and Awasa-511, were compared to the long maturing farmer variety Asmara for performance and yield potential under farmer's management conditions. Katumani and Awasa-8047 were the best performers in moisture stress areas while Awasa-511 did well under reliable rainfall condition.Sidamo is located in the southern part of Ethiopia.In this region, 65% of the total area is affected by low moisture stress (Haile and Mohamed, 1990). This region is characterized by mixed farming where crops and livestock both play an important role in the economic activities of the farming community.Farmers use these enterprises to satisfy their food and cash requirements and other social objectives.A diagnostic survey was conducted in 1985/86 in some parts of the region (Sidama/ Awraja). Maize was identified as the most important food crop of the area with 92% of the farmers in the mid altitude and 98% in the low altitude growing maize (Abagodu, 1988). However the yield reported is very low averaging only 1 t ha-l .The major problem of maize production, especially in the low altitude areas, is reported to be the uncertainty in the rainfall which leads to a short growing season for the late maturing maize variety used by farmers. According to farmers, erratic rainfall is the major cause of low maize yield compared to other problems like pests and low soil fertility. Hence, a maize variety verification trial was initiated in order to compare maize varieties with different maturity periods. The objectives of the trial were to compare early maturing maize varieties that can fit into a short growing period in moisture stress areas and to determine the yield potential of different maize varieties grown using current farmer practices.The on-farm trials planned for the area were designed on the basis of screening technological alternatives available from previous on-station research which addressed the priority constraints identified during the survey. This experiment was initiated in 1986 on farmers' fields selected by the development agents of the Ministry of Agriculture.The experimental variables were different maize varieties: Katumani (90 -120 days maturity), AW -8047 (90 -120 days maturity) and Awasa 511 (150 -160 days maturity). They were compared with the local (Asmara) farmers' variety which requires more than 160 days to maturity.Management practices varied for each individual farmer. Planting, weeding and harvesting were carried out as per farmers' traditional practice. Field staff took the necessary observations on agronomic, economic and farmers' assessments. Plots were 10mx 10m for each treatment. A randomized complete block design was used for the analysis. The trial was conducted for three years, 1986-88. Even though the trial was designed for areas where moisture is inadequate, other areas were also included for comparison purposes.Because of seasonal differenceS a separate analysis was carried out for each season.The results obtained are presented in Table 1. Average yield of the improved varieties was 110% higher than the local check in 1986. There were no Significant differences between the early maturing (Katumani and AW-8047) and intermediate maturing (A-511) varieties for grain yield. Katumani did well in areas where moisture was erratic, while A-511 performed best in the areas where the moisture was adequate. In general, the statistical analysis shows no significant yield differences between the improved varieties. There was a significant difference in yield between the improved 110 Moisture stress Areas and local variety with all of the improved varieties giving better yield than the local. (Table 1). Farmers preferred Katumani and AW-8047 for earliness, better yield potential and for using as a cash crop in times of food shortage during June when the farmers run out of food. Farmers indicated that they used the early varieties for food at the green cob stage. They also kept seed to share ,with the neighboring farmers.Farmers also considered the size of the stem (thickness) which was tolerant to lodging for the variety AW-8047. However, AW-8047 variety was susceptible to rust, 111 so the farmers had reservations about accepting it. The local variety was highly affected by stalk borer while the early varieties Katumani and AW-8047 were damaged by birds and wild animals. Seed of Katumani should be available for wider production as it is liked by farmers and also has given good yield under unreliable rainfall conditions.In the marginal areas of Zimbabwe maize is cultivated on about 60 per cent of the total arable land available to smallholder farmers (Mackenzie, 1987). Its production varies from year to year causing the maize industry in the country to go through cycles of surplus and shortfalls. Drought during the 1981/82, 1982/83, 1983/84, 1990/91 and 1991/92 seasons resulted in low crop yields. The worst of these drought seasons, in 1991/92, compelled Zimbabwe to import about two million tonnes of maize grain to feed the nation.Irrespective of persistent droughts, farmers prefer to grow maize, compared to drought tolerant cereals such as sorghum and millets. The need to develop strategies that minimize the effects of drought has been well documented (Shumba, 1984; Jones et ai.,  1987; Agronomy Institute Annual Report, 1992 and  Shumba et ai., 1993). The most sensitive phases of maize growth to water deficits are during crop establishment and flowering. It is essential that tillage practices that conserve soil moisture ate developed to ensure moisture availability especially during these critical phases of crop growth. Potholing, especially on heavy textured soils, has given large yield benefits in maize and cotton in Zimbabwe (Lowveld Research Stations Annual Report, 1983;Cotton Research Institute Annual Report, 1990). Chivinge (1984) reported that excessive weed growth is one of the most important single factors that limits crop production on small-scale farms within the communal areas of Zimbabwe. Weed research has focused mainly on crop-weed competition and the evaluation of herbicides under conventional (flat)planting (Mabasa and Rambakudzibga,1993). Weed control methods that involve tilla.ge and disturbance of surface soil to enhance catchment and retention of rain water in the soil have to be investigated.The objectives of this study were to:• Evaluate weed control methods for maize planted on the flat and pot-holed land.• Determine the optimum time for soil disturbance and pot-holing using hoes to enhance maize production through moisture conservation.• Assess the effects of tied-ridging and crop density on yield performance of five maize cultivars.Experiment 1: Effect of weeding and tillage systems on maize grain yield. Maize hybrid R201 was used. Basal fertilizer was 150 kg ha-1 of Compound D (8N : 14P20S : 71<20 : 6.5S) placed at planting. Top dressing was 150 kg ha-1 ammonium nitrate (34.5 % N) applied as a split dressing at four and eight weeks after planting. Maize stalk borer was controlled using Thiodan (endosulfan granules, 1 per cent active ingredient) at 4 kg ha-1 . A randomised complete block split-plot design was used, with weeding systems as main plots and tillage systems as sub-plots, replicated four times. The gross plot area was 6 rows, 10 m long (54 m 2 ). Yields were estimated from a nett plot of 4 middle rows, 8 m long (28.8 m 2 ). Treatments were combinations of six weed control methods (preemergence herbicide, hand-hoeing, hand-push weeding, ox-cultivation, ox-ploughing and preemergence herbicide followed by ox-cultivation at six weeks after crop emergence) and two tillage systems (flat and pot-holes constructed at planting between rows). The pre-emergence herbicide used was Atrazine applied at 1.8 kg a.i. ha-1 using a bicycle wheel sprayer calibrated to deliver 2271 ha-1 of liquid. All weed control methods except the herbicide were carried out at two and six weeks after crop emergence. Before each weeding, weeds were identified and counted in five quadrats (0.6 m x 0.9 m) per plot. Crop and weed data were subjected to an analysis of variance for each site and season.Treatment comparisons were done using the Least Significant Difference (LSD, at P<0.05).Experiment 2: Effect of time of soil disturbance and pot-hole construction on maize grain yield.Th~ experiment was carried out at the same ~ites and seasons as Experiment 1. A randomJSed complete block design with three replicates was used. Gross plots were 5 rows x 8 m long (36 m 2 ) and nett plots were 3 rows x 6 m long (16 m 2 ).Treatments included soil disturbance at planting, at two weeks after crop emergence, at six weeks after crop emergence, at 50 per cent silking, and no soil disturbance, no weeding (the control). Pot-hole construction was carried out at the same times as soil disturbance. Pot-hole construction in the no weeding treatment was done at planting. In all treatments except no-weeding, a pre-emergence herbicide (Atrazine 1.8 kg a.i.ha-1 ) was used to control weeds. All other cultural practices, measurements and statistical analyses were as for Experiment 1.Experiment 3: The effect of tied-ridging and plant population on different maize cultivars. This trial 113 was conducted at Matopos and Makoholi c.P.V. on medium grained light textured sandy soils during 1991/92 and 1992/93. Four maize hybrids R201, SC501, 2S225 and PNR 473, and one open pollinated variety, Kalahari Early Pearl (KEP), were planted at 37000 and 44000 plants per hectare on the flat (control plots) and on top of tied-ridges constructed before the start of the early rains. Plot sizes were similar to those of Experiment 2. All plots received a uniform application of 300 kg ha-1 of Compound M (10N : 10P205 : 10K20: 6.5S) and 8 t ha-1 of manure as basal dressing. Ammonium nitrate (34.5 % N) was applied at 87 kg ha-l as top dressing. The experimental design was a 2x2x4 factorial arranged in randomized complete blocks with four replicates. Statistical analysis of grain was similar to that of Experiments 1 and 2.Experiment 1: There was no interaction between tillage system and weeding method, nor main effect of tillage system or weeding method at either site or season. Maize failed to produce grain at c.P.V. in 1991/92 (Table 1). In 1992/93, maize grain yields ranged from 1827 to 2173 kg ha-1 at c.P.V. whilst at Drewton yield ranged from 73 to 210 kg ha-1 in 1991/92 and from 3591 to 4602 kg ha-1 in 1992/93. Labour requirements for weeding were significantly different within sites and seasons (Table 2). In most cases hand-hoeing following ox-cultivation required the least labour.The dominant weeds at c.P.V. and Drewton were Richardia scabra (Moq) Gomez, Hibiscus meusei (L.) and Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertn. The number of weeds were significantly different only in 1992/93 when hand-hoeing was assocoiated with the lowest number of weeds at both sites (Table 3). Hand-push weeding produced the highest number of weeds at c.P.V. while at Drewton ox-ploughing gave the highest weed count Experiment 2: The effect of soil disturbance was significant only in 1992/93 at both sites (Table 4). Compared to the no soil disturbance, no weeding treatment, disturbing the soil at 50 per cent maize silking increased grain yield by 27% at c.P.U. and 44% at Drewton. Pot-hole construction did not influence maize grain yield within sites and seasons. Maize grain yields were 2330 to 3737 kg ha-1 at C.P.l1. in 1992/93, 35 to 181 kg ha-1 at Drewton in 1991/92 and 1500 to 5035 kg ha-1 at Drewton in 1992/93. Dhliwayo et al. Experiment 3: In the 1991/92 season, maize failed 0.0001) whilst at Matopos the interaction was to produce grain at Makoholi due to drought but Significant up to P < 0.05 only. At Makoholi, ZS225 gave some yield at Matopos, possibly due to planted on the flat yielded the most, at 3458 kg ha-1 , planting a month earlier than at Makoholi (fable 1). with PNR 473 the second lowest at 2925 kg ha-1 . On At Matopos there was no interaction between the tied ridges PNR 473 yielded the highest. 4336 kg ha-1 , treatments and neither plant density nor cultivar 48% higher than when it was planted on the flat. In affected maize grain yield. Tied ridges significantly contrast, ZS225 was the lowest yielder on tiedincreased maize grain yield by 70% compared to ridges with 33% reduction in yield compared to planting on the flat (Table 5). when it was planted on the flat (Table 6). At Matopos tied-ridges did not affect the yields of all In 1992/93 there was a significant interaction cultivars except PNR 473, which again responded between cultivar and moisture conservation positively, with a 19% grain yield increase compared technique for maize grain yield. The interaction was to when it was planted on the flat. Overall at this more pronounced at Makoholi (significant at P< site ZS225 was still the highest yielder (fable 6). Tillage and weed control in moisture stress areas The extreme differences in rainfall between the two seasons influenced maize grain yield production at Makoholi and Matopos. The drought in 1991/92 resulted in no or very little yield. The high rainfall in 1992/93 generally gave grain yields above average for the locations.Rainfall did not influence the yield effects of tillage practices and weed control methods. Our lack of maize grain yield benefits from pot-holing and weeding practices used as micro-catchments for soil moisture conservation in sandy soils confirms findings from previous work done on granitic sands (Agronomy Institute Annual Report, 1992 and1993;Institute of Agricultural Engineering, 1988;Mataruka, 1985;and Shumba et ai., 1993). In contrast large increases were seen with soil disturbance at 50 per cent silking. The implication of these results is that soil disturbance using hoes is better able to raise maize grain yields than pot-hole construction, through soil moisture conservation.In the wet season (1992/93) there was an interaction between cultivar and tie-ridging, with PNR 473 responding more to tie-ridging at both sites compared to other cultivars. This is a new and interesting finding. In most of the reported tiedridges studies, R201 was the main cultivar used and it may be worthwhile repeating more tied-ridging studies with PNR 473. A study looking at the rooting pattern of the two hybrids under different ridging and tillage systems would help.Seasonal differences in rainfall caused the number of weeds to be low in 1991/92 and high in 1992/93. Mabasa and Rambakudzibga (1993) showed that the emergence of weed seedlings, especially those of R.scabra and E. indica (dominant weeds at Makoholi) was more protracted in a wet season than in a dry one. This directly affects the weed population in a given season.Tillage practices and weed control methods did not interact to influence maize grain yields in both seasons at Makoholi. Although weed control methods produced similar effects on maize grain yield, hand-push weeding. and ox-ploughing were associated with high numbers of weeds in the wet 1992/93. Hand hoeing following ox-cultivation required the least amount of labour when compared to other mechanical methods of weed control. Planting on the flat and with pot-holed plots had similar effects on maize grain yield. Soil disturbance around silking raised maize grain yield on lighttextured sandy soils when soil moisture was sufficient. In a drought season (1991/92), tiedridges increased grain yield by 70 percent at Matopos only, whilst maize failed completely at Makoholi. In a wet season (1992/93), there was an interaction between tied-ridges and cultivar, with PNR 473 responding more to tied-ridges compared to other cultivars. The characteristics of PNR 473 that make it yield better on tied-ridges need to be investigated.. Drought stress accounts for approximately 17% of global average yield losses. The worst drought experienced in southern Africa was during 1991-92 and resulted in a 60% maize grain yield reduction in the whole region. Drought resistance is complex in both its physiology and genetics. Physiological components that are relevant for a given crop and its environment have to be addressed and incorporated into the selection index during development of drought tolerant genotypes. A short Anthesis~ilking Interval (ASI) under drought stress is a useful selection criterion in maize. Eight early to medium maturity maize genotypes were evaluated under two management levels in a split~ plot arrangement during the 1991-92 experimental season. The study was aimed at evaluating the yield potential of the maize genotypes relative to management levels and time of planting in Zambia. Four hybrid combinations and four open pollinated varieties (OPVs) were used. The hybrids were developed from early inbred lines that have some tolerance to drought. The OPVs were introductions from the CIMMYT Maize Programme. This study showed that genetic gains for drought tolerance and earliness during the breeding of the hybrids occurred simultaneously with reduction in ASI; resulting in good grain yield potential for these genotypes when grown under moisture deficit.\" '.adapted than late ones. The short Anthes~Silking Interval (ASI) under drought stress is a useful Drought stress accounts for approximately 17% of selection trait in maize because it is important for the global average yield losses (CIMMYT, 1988). successful pollination (Dow et ai., 1984). \"Selection The worst drought experienced in Southern Africa against silk delay is the most effective means of was during the 1991~92 cropping season and it breeding for drought tolerance\" (Troyer, 1983). resulted in 60% maize grain yield reduction in the whole region (Rosen and Scott, 1992). The climate Grain yield under stress is normally more highly and soil combination in Zambia shows potential for correlated with kernel number per plant than with high maize production. EXferimental maize yields individual grain weight (Edmeades et ai., 1993). The generally average 7-8 t ha-, while farmers achieve barrenness under drought conditions arise from an average of 4-5 t ha-1 . This indicates the pollen shortage or desiccation caused by over 8 days availability of maize genotypes and technology to delay in silking (Tatum, 1954; Hall et ai., 1981).exploit the production potential in the country.Open pollinated maize varieties (OPVs) with greater flowering date variability could probably tolerate Improved genotypes or use of hybrid seed, 10-12 days ASI before the pollen supply can limit the production technology, and management practices grain set (Moss and Downey, 1971). Pollen viability account for increased grain yield (Shaw and Durost, is reduced by temperatures above 38-40 0 C (Schaper 1965). Thompson (1969) observed that 11% of the et al., 1986), but normally little affected by plant increase in maize grain yield could be attributed to water status. However, severe water stress before weather, and 83% to improved genotype and flowering can result in failure of the developing technology.ovule (Moss and Downey, 1971). Since labile Drought resistance is complex in both its physiology carbohydrate reserves in maize are relatively small and genetics (Blum, 1983).Physiological at silking (Westgate and Boyer, 1985), and the components that are relevant for a given crop and its capacity of the newly fertilized ovules to extract environment have to be addressed and incorporated these reserves is limited (Schussler and Westgate, into the selection index during tailoring varieties for 1991); the greatest reduction in grain numbers per drought tolerance (Byrne et al., 1990). Breeding for plant under drought stress occurs within two weeks drought tolerance requires knowledge of the target after pollination (Grant et al., 1989). Selection for environment. Mean rainfall may appear adequate short ASI both under stress and unstressed for production, but its distribution might be variable conditions has improved the ability of the newly within and between years. A short growth duration fertilized ovule to withstand sudden reduction in constitutes an important attribute of drought escape. labile carbohydrate assimilates during the two week Late season drought stress conditions have shown period following 50% anthesis (Edmeades et al.,  that earlier maturing maize genotypes are better 1993). 117 The Zambian maize breeding programme had concentrated on developing medium late and medium early maturing maize varieties during the 1980s. This was to satisify the immediate need of the majority of the farming community who happen to be within the medium rainfall Agro-ecological region.However, our current approach is to diversify the maturity range to include very early genotypes for drought prpne areas, and late full season genotypes for Northern Zambia.This study was aimed at evaluating the yield potential of different medium early maturing maize genotypes, relative to management levels and time of planting in Zambia.Eight different medium maturing maize genotypes were evaluated under two management levels in a split-plot arrangement during the 1991-92 experimental season. The four hybrid combinations used in the study; MMS01, MMS02, MMS04 and MM441 were developed from early inbred lines that have some drought tolerance background. The four open pollinated varieties; MMV400, Across7844, Pirsaback(2)7930 and Pool 16 were introductions from the CIMMYT maize programme. The high management level represented early timely planting, 44,440 plants ha-1 recommended plant density, LIMA (Learn Improved Methods of Agriculture) recommended fertilizer level of 200 kg ha-1 \"0\" compound (10:20:10, N:P20S:K20) and ammonium nitrate (34% N), and adequate weeding. The low management level represented late planting, 22,220 plantS ha-1 , half of the LIMA recommended fertilizer rates, and inadequate weeding.Five combinations of locations were considered random samples of environments and treated as random variables in a combined analysis of variance (ANOVA). Two management levels and eight maize varieties were considered fixed effects.The ANOVA for each location and combined over five locations were done to obtain treatment means for performing Duncan's Multiple Range Tests for mean separation.Two traits, grain yield and ASI, were considered in the evaluation of the experiments. The ANOVA for management levels in individual locations showed Significant yield differences between the two management levels only at Mochipapa site where \\ . ..~~ the environment was apparently drier than other locations.There were no significant yield differences between varieties at high management level, but MM441, MMS04 and Across7844 yielded significantly (P-O.OS) higher than all others at low management (Table 1). Early planting with 44,440 plants ha-1 and good management seemed to have improved grain yield of those varieties which perform poorly under drought stress.The combined analysis of variance across locations showed highly significant differences (P=O.OS) in grain yield between management levels (Table 2). There were no Significant difference between single crosses and open pollinated variety, Across7844, at low management level. However, MM502 yielded significantly (P-O.OS) higher than Across7844 at high management level, indicating the hybrid response to improved management. MMS01 and MMS02 single cross hybrids yielded significantly lower at low management level than at the high management level while open pollinated varieties gave no significant yield differences at both high and low management levels. This was probably so because the pollen shed variability of open pollinated varieties would 'have given the open pollinated varieties higher possibility for effective pollination than was achieved by hybrid varieties at low management and under moisture stress. Late December planting under low management resulted in flowering about February, which was a drier month in Mochipapa. The ASI was not significantly different between management levels at any of the test locations. However, the combined analysis of variance over locations showed that ASI was significantly (P = 0.05) shorter for hybrids at high lines for short ASI and drought tolerance. management than at low management level under The interaction between management levels and moisture stress conditions (Table 2).maize varieties was significant (P=0.05) only at Varieties yielded highly significant (P=O.Ol) at all Mochipapa (Table 1). At Mochipapa the mean sites (Table 3). Mean separation for individual sites comparison between management levels and showed highly significant (P=0.05) varietal yield varieties showed no significant differences between differences (Table 3), with the double cross MM441 varieties for grain• yield at high management level, ranking top followed by the three-way cross but MM441, MM504 and Across7844 significantly MM504, and then the single crosses MM502 and 501. out yielded all others at low management level. The ASI were highly significantly different between February dry spells during pollination could have varieties at all sites except at Mansa (Table 4). affected ovule development of single cross hybrid Probably being in the Northern high rainfall region, MM501 more severely than that of the open Mansa might have received adequate and well pollinated variety Across 7844, resulting in their distributed rainfall during the 1991-92 drought similar yields under low management. Moss and compared to other parts of the country. It is of Downey (1971) observed that open pollinated special interest to note that varieties that yielded varieties tolerate ASI of 10-12 days before pollen highest within locations had the lowest number of supply can limit the grain set. Management levels days for ASI (Tables 3 and 4, respectively). This seemed to be of small magnitude as compared to the trend was same between varieties for the combined effect of varieties on grain yield at most sites, except analysis of variance across locations. Barrenness at Mochipapa where management levels were of under drought stress arises from pollen shortage or greater magnitude as compared to the effect of desiccation caused by the delay in silking (Tatum, varieties on grain yield. 1954;Hall et al., 1981). The hybrid varieties used in Highly Significant (P=O.Ol) interactions between this study were from early parental lines that have environments X varieties (Table 1), and good drought tolerance background. Since selling environments X management levels (Tables 1 and 4) relies on a short ASI for success, selection for in a combined analysis of variance mean separation earliness should have had an impact on parental indicate some magnitude of varietal response to  different environmental conditions. The earlier maturing double-cross hybrid, MM441, performed better than single-cross hybrids, MM501 and MM502, at drier sites than at Mansa; and vice-versa. Thus, the importance of knowledge of target environments when developing a breeding programme for drought stress. The interactive effect of management levels and locations seemed to have had greater magnitude on grain yield than that of varieties and locations. The ASI differences between hybrids and open pollinated varieties were more marked under the high management level than under the low management level (Table 2). The performance of MM441, which is an earlier hybrid compared to the others, has indicated the need to emphasise on developing earlier maturing and drought tolerant maize hybrids for the drier areas. These could tolerate within growing season dry spells or escape the terminal drought.This study has shown that selection for drought tolerance and earliness occurred at the same time as reduction in ASI; resulting in good yield potential for the developed hybrids when grown under drought stress.The grain yields were more associated with reduced ASI than with management levels, but differences in the management of stress environments exposed genetic variation for grain yield and the ASI. Early planting at optimum plant density and good management improved grain yield of varieties that would perform poorly when late planted under water stress.Considering the diversity of available maize genotypes within the National breeding programme, this study indicates that a lot of potential exists for developing earlier maturing maize varieties that could be drought tolerant. The exploitation of this genetic potential is one of our immediate objectives within the Zambian national breeding programme in view of the current erratic rainfall within the southern African region.We are grateful to Dr. Dusan Ristanovic and Dr. Catherine Mungoma for their input in developing the genetic material used in this evaluation, and for reading the manuscript. Mr. Kalipochi Kawonga's contribution with computer graphics and reading the manuscript is highly appreciated. Sincere thanks go to maize technicians Margaret S. Kashengula, George Kanga, Hildah Nampelwe, Watson J.Longwe, and Albert M. Sianga for trial management and field data collection.and their particle size distribution generally features loamy sands, in the topsoil to sandy loams in the Results from three (1988-89 to 1990-91) subsoil (FAO, 1988). These soils have little inherent rainfall! growing seasons (October to April) of tillage fertility and are prone to waterlogging in times of research on granitic soils in Zimbabwe had shown high rainfall and to hard-setting in the absence of that the low topsoil water-holding capacity (9% by rain (Vogel, 1992). volume) of these coarse-grained soils minimises the benefits of rainwater harvesting (Vogel, 1993a). For this study, two conservation tillage systems, Average soil water data by treatment had revealed ripping into maize residues and no-till tied ridging little or no differences between tillage treatments for (Elwell and Norton, 1988), were compared to the a particular rainfall season except for (a) the pre-conventional system of mouldboard ploughing. All planting period and (b) waterlogged conditions that three techniques were animal powered. With the occur in above-average rainfall years. It was conventional system, ploughing was done decided to continue soil water recording throughout immediately after harvesting (winter ploughing). the dry season (for the entire calendar year) to With mulch ripping, planting lines were ripped complement data collected earlier that applied to the open between the previous season's crop rows rainfall seasons only.during mid to late winter. Ploughing and ripping was to 200-250 mm depth. In the case of tied A parallel lysimeter study carried out during the ridging, ridges were permanent and only re-ridging 1991-92 and 1992-93 rainfall seasons was aimed at and re-tying (at 1 to 1.5-m intervals) was practiced: quantifying percolation water and nutrient leaching once after harvesting the previous season's crop and in tied ridged versus ploughed fields.again four to six weeks after sowing the new METHODS AND MATERIALS season's crop. The crop was planted into the crest of the ridges using a digging hoe (badza). The study site is located in Natural Region na (750-1000 mm of seasonal rainfall) at Domboshawa Soil water content was estimated with a CPN 503DR Training Centre (17\"35'5, 31°10'E), approximately 30 Hydroprobe on field plots measuring 20 x 35 m. km north of Harare. Soils are derived from granite Each plot had four access tubes installed to a depth of 1.5 m. In the case of tied ridging, however, the plots measured 9 m in width and 160 m in length and, because of the larger area, had six tubes each installed through the ridges. Weekly observations were made at six depth levels (0.15, 0.3, 0.45, 0.75, 1.1, and 1.4 m). These depth readings were taken as count ratios and were converted into volumetric soil horizon water contents using field calibrations. Soil water content over the top 0-0.1 m was determined gravimetrically and converted to a volumetric basis by field-determined bulk densities. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized block design with the blocks separated from each other by contour bunds. All treatments were applied in triplicate.Percolate volume and nutrient leaching (N03-N, K) from the root zone of tied ridged and ploughed field plots were evaluated with simple non-weighing lysimeters located on a reasonably well-drained Areni-Gleyic Luvisol (FAO, 1988). One lysimeter tank was installed for one ridged plot, one ploughed plot, and one bare plot. They measured 0.9 x 1.5 m in surface area and 0.5 m in height and were buried at 0.25 m depth below the ploughed soil surface (which corresponded to the maximum depth of cultivation) and furrow bottom respectively. A hose pipe connected to an outlet pipe at the bottom of each tank collected the leachates into buckets sited in pits, so that the flow out of the lysimeter tanks was by gravity. The leachate was collected on a daily basis, the volume assessed and a small sample of 300 ml taken for nutrient analysis whenever the leachate volume exceeded one litre. Nutrient analyses were carried out using a HACH spectrophotometer after calibration with standard solutions.The ponding capacity for the micro-catchments created by the cross-ties in the ridge-furrow system was also determined weekly from four adjacent ties in each tied ridged field plot. A sheet of plastic was placed into each tie and a measured amount of water poured in until overflow occurred.Maize (Zea mays L.) was grown at a density of 44000 plants ha-l (at a spacing of 0.9 m x 0.25 m). Planting was to approximately 50 mm depth for all treatments. Fertilizers applied were 300 kg ha-1 of Compound 0 (containing 8% N, 14% P20S, and 7% K20) as a basal application and 200 kg ha-l of ammonium nitrate (containing 34.5% N), top dressed in two split applications.Maize growth was recorded weekly on a total of 16 crop research field plots. Twenty plants were selected randomly on each plot after complete emergence. Plant height was measured as the distance from the ground surface to the top emerging leaf. Yields were determined from sample 123 plots of 4 crop rows by 6 m long from all field plots in both experiments. For final analysis, grain yields were corrected to a uniform moisture content of 12.5%.Results reported here are for the severe drought season of 1991-92 (Figure 1a) and the average rainfall season of 1992-93 (Figure 2a). Soil water analyses are for the same periods but include the two dry seasons follOWing the 1991-92 and 1992-93 rainfall seasons.Maize production. During the 1991-92 drought season, grain yields were poor for all three tillage treatments (Table 1). Conventional tillage had the highest yields, although the difference was statistically insignificant. The poorer performance of tied ridging during this severe drought season suggested that this treatment has climatic limits on sandveld soils because of increased soil temperature and dryness on the ridges (Vogel, 1993a(Vogel, , 1994a)). The poor performance of mulch ripping was attributed to an unknown pathogen which reduced grain yields to nil on two research field plots (Vogel, 1993b).In contrast to the previous 1991-92 season, grain yields for 1992-93 were high with tied ridging yielding significantly highest (Table 1). Similarly, the tied ridging technique had resulted in significantly highest grain yields at the Domboshawa site in earlier trial years (Vogel, 1993a). Parallel root excavations at the beginning of tasseling in January 1993 revealed that maize plants grown on ridges featured not only deepest root proliferation (to approximately 750 mm depth) but also twice the root length density of maize plants grown in ploughed plots (Vogel, 1994b). always significantly lower than from the ploughed field plots (Table 2). While ploughed field plots lost between 2% (1991-92) to 13% (1992-93) of the total seasonal rainfall due to surface runoff, only 0.02% (1991-92) to 1.6% (1992-93) of the total seasonal rainfall ran off the tied ridged field plots. Surface water retention in mulch ripped plots was nearly as good as in tied ridged plots.  , c). After the severe drought season of 1991-92, the effect of treatment on soil water content became significant as early as early July 1992, but a month later in August 1993 after the average rainfall season of 1992-93. The significant treatment effect for both periods extended down to 750 mm soil depth, which coincides with the observed maximum root penetration depth (Vogel 1993a(Vogel , 1994b). In the 1991-92 drought, the treatment effect remained significant at the 750 mm depth for the whole drought plus dryseason period between February 1992 to late November 1992. Soil water content at this depth level remained at approximately 14% by vohlme (0.14 m 3 m-3 ) under conventional tillage while the soil water content at 750 mm depth below the ridge tops dropped to a significantly (P < 0.05) lower level of only 8.5% by volume (0.085 m 3 m-3 ). However, soil water contents monitored in the two lower depth levels, that is 1.1 and 1.4 m respectively, showed no Significant treatment effect at any time over the entire 26-month period.In spite of the significantly better rainwater harvesting by tied ridging, topsoil water levels in the ridges generally were between 5 to 25% lower than those recorded in ploughed soil throughout the rainfall! growing seasons. On the other hand, surface mulching with maize residues raised topsoil water levels 5 to 10% above those measured in ploughed field plots. During the severe drought period in February and March 1992, water levels in the top 0-150 mm of the soil under maize residues were 20% higher than in ploughed soil (Figure 1b) while, in the ridged treatment, they dropped to less than 60% of the ploughed soil at 300 mm depth (major root concentration) (Figure 1c).Deep percolation and associated nutrient leaching.Due to the severe drought conditions (Figure la) no leaching occurred during the 1991-92 season.During the following 1992-93 season (Figure 2a), the lysimeter tanks yielded drainage only after receiving a total weekly rainfall of 60 mm (Figure 2b), of which 43 mm fell in one heavy rainstorm on 16 December 1992. In the two weeks thereafter, more heavy rainfall was received resulting in continued drainage from the lysimeter tanks, in particular from the tied ridged field plots. The higher percolation on the tied ridged plots during this time period was confirmed by weekly water budgets. The soil water balance for the week (23-30 December 1992) with the highest weekly rainfall total (109.9 mm) in 1992-93 (Figure 2a), and with a weekly pan evaporation of 16.3 mm (assumed to be the same for all treatments because of prevailing wet soil surfaces during this period), showed conventional tillage to produce 39.4 mm of surface runoff, to store an additional 34.4 mm in the soil profile, and to lose 19.8 mm through deep percolation. During the same period of time, tied ridging produced only 7.3 mm of runoff, stored an extra 46.6 mm in the profile, but lost 39.7 mm through deep percolation. This supports earlier findings (Vogel, 1992(Vogel, , 1993a) ) which indicated that, in the presence of crops demanding little water, the pondin~capacity of tied ridging (which was approx. 171 m-between 23-30 December 1992) encourages deep percolation and thus groundwater recharge. As a result, virtually all seasonal N03-N deeppercolation losses of 50.5 kg ha-t from tied ridged plots had occurred by 30 December 1992. Even from conventionally tilled plots, however, virtually all of the total seasonal N03-N losses were recorded by 30 December 1993, albeit at a much lower absolute level of only 30.7 kg ha-1 . In both cases it is assumed that the loss mainly affected the ammonium nitrate fertilizer top dressed on 26 December 1992 when maize stands were still low (Figures 2b, c), yet rainfall frequent and heavy (72 mm on 29 December 1992, followed by 15 mm the day after). Unlike at Makoholi (Hagmann, 1994), nitrate losses from the unfertilized bare plot were lower than for the fertilized cropped plots by 30 December 1993.  ------------------------------- After the second top dressing (11 January 1993) virtually no deep percolation of water, and hence no leaching of N0 3 -N, was recorded for both tied ridging and conventional tillage (Figure 2b) while continuous leaching occurred from the bare plot. Due to less frequent and less intense rainfall, maize growth was very vigorous between mid January and late February thus utilizing most of the ammonium nitrate fertilizer applied on 11 January 1993. Only towards the end of February 1993, when rainfall was plentiful again (Figure 2a), with single events delivering 38 mm (23 February) and 45 mm (26 February), did percolation of water and some leaching of nutrients occur again. This coincided with the start of crop senescence (Figure 2c), which is a time when uptake of water and nutrients through maize plants is close to nil (Geus, 1973). At the end of the season, tied ridged field plots had lost 54% (50.5 kg ha-1 ) of the ap~lied N03-N (93 kg ha-1 ) while only 33% (30.7 kg ha-) was leached down the soil profile from ploughed plots. Similar proportions of the applied K (17 kg ha-1 ) were leached, i.e., 36% (6.2 kg ha-1 ) from mouldboard ploughing and 58% (10 kg ha-1 ) from tied ridged plots. It should. be noted, however, that lysimeters have limitations in accurately mimicking field conditions (Webster et al., 1993). Thus, the accuracy of the absolute values should be treated with care.Results conflicting with these findings from Domboshawa were obtained at Makoholi Experiment Station where similar studies have been conducted since 1991-92 in a low-rainfall area. The results for 1992-93 indicate substantially lower nutrient losses from tied ridged field plots than from conventionally tilled plots at Makoholi. Recorded losses of N03-N and K were 40% and 56% respectively lower from tied ridged than from ploughed plots (Hagmann, 1994), yet the percolate volume for the two treatments was similar as had been the case at Domboshawa. This difference may be attributable to less frequent rainstorms and, possibly, more upward movement of nutrient salts due to the higher atmospheric demand for water at Makoholi. From this discrepancy between the two sites, one in the semi-arid south and the other in the subhumid north, it is apparent that the results must not be extrapolated prematurely.Tied ridging and mulch ripping proved very efficient rainwater-harvesting techniques. Yet, in spite of losing significantly less rainwater due to surface runoff than conventional mouldboard ploughing, the effect of tillage treatment on soil water levels was statistically insignificant during the rainfall/ growing seasons. Only during the second 127 half of the dry seasons (and the mid-season drought in 1992) did tillage have a significant effect on soil water content. From this we conclude that the minimal soil disturbance caused by the two conservation tillage techniques allowed continued evaporation of water from the soil during the dry season. Thus, the conservation tillage techniques entered the growing season significantly dryer than the ploughed treatment. In contrast, conventional tillage, through winter ploughing, is likely to have created an effective topsoil buffer against further soil water evaporation.Since the tied ridged treatment has consistently produced higher biomass yields over the 5 years of the tillage experiment at Domboshawa (except for the 1991-92 drought season), it appears that the equally consistently lower soil water contents are, apart from higher soil evaporation, a reflection of higher transpiration rates from the better crop.The lysimeter results highlighted that nitrogen losses due to downward leaching can be excessively high,. in particular from tied ridging. Although total seasonal deep percolation losses from tied ridging and conventional tillage were similar, a major difference occurred early in the 1992-93 season when intense rains fell shortly after first top dressing. Because of its surface ponding capacity, tied ridging experienced substantially more internal leaching of applied plant nutrients than conventional tillage during that time. It must be borne in mind, however, that conventional tillage is likely to have lost possibly even higher proportions of applied fertilizer nutrients in the observed significantly higher surface runoff. In any case, the lysimeter results emphasise that nitrogen applications have to be timed carefully, and split as much as is practically possible, to minimise loss of this crucial plant nutrient.We begin with the water resource, which in almost Severe drought occurs each year in at least one all cases in this region is rainfall. Seasonal rainfall country within eastern and southern Africa. In this (RF) is accounted for in the crop rooting zone in the region maize is pushed to the limits of its adaptation following ways: by the specific food demands of farmers. Crop failures may occur as often as one year in three, and RF• E + T crop + Tweeds + WS + Runoff + Leaching the need to stabilize maize grain yield provides one where E is seasonal evaporation from the land area of the most significant research challenges faced by on which the crop grows, T is transpiration from national programs anywhere in the maize-growing crop and weed surfaces, and WS is the change in world.water stored within the soil profile. The E and T terms can be increased by reducing runoff, In this presentation we will focus on eastern and increasing infiltration and by water harvesting southern Africa, and establish an analytical techniques. framework to examine the extent of losses of maize yield caused by drought, and then establish the The energy balance of crop land surfaces drives nature and types of water stresses encountered, as evaporation from soil and crop surfaces: affected by climate and as modulated by soils. We Rn • L e '* A + Storage + Conduction [2] will then consider the prospects for genetic improvement of maize as a means of reducing the where R n is the net radiation input during the impact of drought, and examine means by which season; L is the latent energy lost in E and T, and e agronomic practices can conserve moisture and normally accounts for 90% of Rni A is sensible heat increase water use efficiency. We conclude with an loss, which can become a positive energy input to a overview of priorities for future research to improve crop under high advection, when hot winds from a water use by maize crops grown in dry areas.surrounding arid area blow onto an irrigated crop.129 Thus, where levels of R n are high, or advection occurs, water usage will be high. As the crop runs out of water the L e term declines, A increases, and so do temperatures. The loss of energy through evaporation keeps crop surfaces cool, and slows the rate of senescence. Storage and conduction terms are very minor.Water will always be lost from a green crop surface because plants expose a moist membrane to the atmosphere so that C02 can enter solution during photosynthesis. The degree of exposure of that surface determines both the loss of water through T, and the production of biomass (B). There is no free lunch: plants with low T also have low production, and only rocks use no water at all. Thus the ratio, B/T, is relatively constant for a species (Tanner and Sinclair, 1983) and is termed water use efficiency (WUE) in a physiological sense, since only T is considered. From an agronomic viewpoint, E must also be considered in WUE estimates, and it is this measure of WUE that will be considered in the rest of this paper.What are the factors affecting WUE from a given land area? Tanner and Sinclair (1983) developed a description of WUE of crops in the period when the green crop canopy is closed (for maize LAI > 3):where kd == a complex coefficient that is relatively constant and is related to biochemical conversion efficiencies, C02 partial pressures and proportion of LAI that is brightly lit, and is similar to radiation use efficiency; and (e -e) represents the water vapour pressure deficit. Equation 3 predicts that as vapour pressure deficit rises, as with dry air or when air warms up, radiation use efficiency will fall ( StockleWaddington et ai.and Kiniry, 1990) and so will WUE. This suggests that lower WUEs will occur when crops are grown in the lowlands rather than in the cooler highlands, and points to problems if global temperatures rise the 24 °C currently predicted (Muchow and Sinclair, 1991). Water use efficiency is maximized when E/ET is made small by ensuring that the crop (not weeds!) intercepts incoming radiation, when water is not lost from the soil surface, and when radiation use efficiency is high. Typical WUE values for maize from temperate areas when LAI > 3 are 0.0040, indicating that it takes about 250 kg of water to produce 1 kg of biomass (Tanner and Sinclair, 1983).We are interested primarily in grain yield per unit area (GY):GY\"W*WUE*HI [4] where W is the total water available to the crop (i.e., E + T), and HI is the harvest index (the proportion of the total above-ground biomass which is grain; typically 0.40 for tropical maize).It requires therefore about 620 g water to produce 1 g of grain, where LAI > 3. One mm of rainfall, equal to 1 kg water m-2 , should produce 1.6 g grain m-Z. Consequently, an annual rainfall of 500 mm, if it were all available to the crop, has the potential to produce 20 t ha-1 of biomass and a grain yield of 8 t ha-1 . Note that the relationship between total biomass and grain yield does not pass through the origin. Bolanos and Edmeades (1993a) observed that maize grain yield tended to zero when aboveground biomass declined below 4 t ha-1 . The presence of: a large evaporative component caused by low radiation interception by th~\\ crop; weeds; low radiation use efficiency caused by nutrient deficiencies and diseases; or stresses which reduce HI, all further reduce grain yield below its waterlimited potential described by equation [4]  (Boyer, 1992).In summary, in water-limited crops it seems sensible to consider yields per unit water available, rather 1 than per unit land area. Thus units of t mm-, modified by its distribution in relation to cro~ development, may be more sensible than t hawhen comparing grain yields in semi-arid environments.• In the southern and eastern Africa region (excluding South Africa) a total of 14 million t of maize are produced on 10.9 million ha, for an average yield of about 1.3 t ha-1 . About 19% of that area is lowland tropical « 1000 masl) (Gebrekidan and Gelaw, 1989). Average national maize yields vary from 1.9 to less than 0.5 t ha-1 within the region (CIMMYf, 1992). There are no rigorously-established estimates of losses due to drought in southern and eastern Africa.CIMMYf surveyed national program cooperators and its own outreach staff to estimate the annual frequency of water stress by major maize production environment (megaenvironment), and rate it on a scale of 1-4 (CIMMYf, 1988). We estimated percentage grain yield losses for each class (in parentheses), where 1 was rarely stressed (5% loss), 2 was sometimes stressed (10% loss), 3 was frequently stressed (25% loss), and 4 was usually stressed (40% loss). When these losses were applied to average grain yields in each megaenvironment, we concluded that drought causes losses of 13% per year (compared with an average of 17% for all of the tropics) (Table 1). This represents a total loss of 1.8 million t, worth about US$ 180-200 million annually.In the absence of drought, average annual maize yields would be expected to increase from 1.3 to 1.5 t ha-1 . We acknowledge that these estimates of loss are crude, but we now have the tools from crop modelling and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) available to refine our knowledge of the severity and nature of drought stress in the region, and to predict more accurately which technical interventions will yield the greatest benefit (see following section). The pragmatic application of these new tools will assist us considerably in assessing breeding goals and agronomic research priorities.Current knowledge. In southern Africa, semi-arid areas (defined here as areas with 350-700 mm annual rainfall) are found at elevations ranging from 100 to 1500 masl. Rainfall is unimodal, with a 90-130 day season. Rainfall totals are highly variable. In most years, heavy storms, with losses of water by runoff, are coupled with dry spells that may occur during any part of the season. As a consequence, interannual variation in grain yields is large. For example, semi-arid smallholder areas of Zimbabwe gave maize yields in 1991/2 (a severe drought season) of 445 kg ha-1 in Chiwundura, 53 kg ha-T in Gutu, while farmers in Chivi could not plant. In 1992/93,' an above-average rainfall year, the same areas yielded 3.56, 1.68 and 1.38 t ha-1 , respectively (DR & SS/CIMMYT unpublished data). Further characteristics of this environment and means of modelling it for crop growth are given by Monteith and Virmani (1991).Maize is grown under semi-arid conditions in most smallholder areas of Zimbabwe, parts of central and most of the interior of southern Mozambique, the lowveld of Swaziland, parts of eastern and northeastern Botswana, parts of southern Zambia (especially the Zambezi and Luangwa valleys), parts of southern Malawi and parts of Tanzania. Farmers in these areas are often short of draught power resources and plant some of their crop well after the. start of the rains, thus shortening the growing season further. Soils are usually sandy, with low water holding capacity (70 mm or less) and a relatively shallow rooting depth of around 50 cm (Vogel, 1993), which increases the risk of yield loss due to drought.The Future: Developments in defining drought target environments. In recent years, improved technologies have led to an explosion in the amount of weather information, both for weather monitoring and as studies of global climate change. Satellite and ground monitoring are used by agencies such as USAID's Famine Early Warning System to monitor drought conditions as they develop.These databases can complement the extensive research on simulation of crop and soil processes to help make better research decisions in current agricultural research. A familiarity with the data and methods availfible for analyzing data is required to appreciate the types of questions that might be posed as they relate to drought research. Data and databases. Several types of climatic data, differing in resolution and coverage can be found. National programs can obtain daily and long-term data from their own climate monitoring stations. Sources of long-term average station data with global coverage include Jones (1988), CROPWAT (Smith, 1992) and the WorldWeather Disc (1990). Recently released CD-ROMs include climate data by year, rather than long-term averages (Vose et al., 1992;NASA, 1992). Most of these data sources contain monthly means for rainfall and temperature from which weekly values can be derived. The FAa andCIAT data also include many stations with global radiation, relative humidity or potential evaporation. At CIMMYr, we have placed data from these sources (except Vose et al., 1992 andNASA, 1992) into databases where they can be searched for and extracted by station position, name or country.Daily data is desirable for the operation of many simulation models of crop and soil processes. These data can be obtained from weather generators using monthly means, but this requires that generation parameters be known or estimated for a site. A database\"Of long-term daily data from 8000 weather stations is currently being assembled by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Stations (P. Dyke, pers. comm.). This, combined with soils data, provide suitable inputs for cropping system simulation models.Another class of climate data, only recently available, is climate surfaces, created by interpolation of data from many climate stations using complex procedures, such as the fitting of Laplacian (or thin-plate) smoothing splines (Hutchinson, 1991). Given an accurate map of elevation, splines can then bt: used to generate accurate maps of monthly climate variables for use in a GIS (Hutchinson and Dowling, 1991). Climate surfaces developed by these techniques are now available for Africa (CRES, 1993) and several other regions or continents. The distribution of average annual rainfall for southern Africa from such a surface is shown in Fig. 1.Water budget models and simulation models require soil information to estimate changes in seasonal Waddington et al.water availability. On a global scale, the FAa soil maps are available in digital form (EPA, 1990), while extensive surveys are underway in many countries to update their soil maps.Tools to analyze climatic risk. A better regional definition of the crop production environment is needed. An examination of the target environment begins with an analysis of rainfall distribution, using more than 10 years of data where available, to zone rainfall and moisture availability and define the length of the growing season. A good early example of this approach has been the development of Zimbabwe's Natural Region concept, which seeks to zone the country principally on the basis of rainfall (e.g., see Hussein, 1988)..0-350mm • 350 -700 mm (SAT) • 700 -1000 mm mmm > 1000mmAlgorithms describing the lengths of growing seasons, onset of rains and drought severity indices are common in the literature (for examples, see Sivakumar et al., 1992; Stewart, 1991). Simple manual and modelling techniques (e.g. Stern et al., 1982a;1982b;Coe and Stern, 1987) have long been available for agronomists to analyze and interpret rainfall data from localized research zones, but are still not routinely used. A simple examination of 5day rainfall totals from 10-20 years of records gives an idea of the probability of seasons with adequate length and the probability and severity of dry spells at specific growth stages of the maize crop.Crop simulation models have been used to assess the potential value of genotype traits (e.g., Meinke et al., 1993) and of seasonal rainfall predictors (McCown et al., 1991) in dealing with climatic risk associated with drought.. These can help in environmental definition, by assessing the impacts of dry spells at specific growth stages on biomass and grain production. Models have improved the link between rainfall and crop yield and response to inputs such as fertilizer (e.g., Keating et al., 1991;Thornton et al., 1994), and helped greatly to understand the level of risk faced by smallholder farmers because they can be useo with historical weather sequences. Other models can provide good estimates of erosion risks associated with specific slopes, soil types and rainfall events (e.g., EPIC; Williams et al., 1984). Cumulative probabilities of outcomes (e.g., of grain yields of a given level) are an extremely useful derivative from crop models applied to a time sequence of rainfall data (Monteith and Virmani, 1991), and allow the researcher to quickly estimate an answer to \"what if...?\" type questions (e.g., Keating et al., 1991). At a regional level, statistical tools such as clustering, can be used to identify environments suitable for particular germplasm, depending on patterns of temperature and rainfall (e.g. Pollak and Corbett 1993). In the past, many of these larger scale studies were generalized for all crops (e.g. FAa Agroecological Zones -AEZ) and their definitions of seasonal limits for specific crops were not always suitable. Today, this situation has greatly improved because of increasing access to databases and cheap computing power, and researchers can link regionalscale climate databases, crop-specific simulation models and GIS (Chapman, 1992).Simple models addressing limiting factors, such as water, should not be ignored. In drought research simple water budget models and stochastic descriptions of rainfall patterns can accurately identify the historical extent and severity of droughts (e.g., Hutchinson, 1991;Zucchini et al., 1991), and may be an appropriate method to compare technological alternatives such as ridging versus flat planting.Using these tools and databases in drought research.Identification and quantification of megaenvironments to determine the characteristics of these large-scale environments has been used by CIMMYT (and other centres) as a means of I prioritizing plant breeding or agronomic research. The Kenyan Maize Database Project (KARl and CIMMYT) is an excellent example of how environmental information can be combined with survey and production data to aid country-level decision making (Hassan et al., 1994). At a lower level of aggregation, accurate identification of production environments can help to:• select representative sites for agronomic and plant breeding research.• interpret results from different sites in terms of their site characteristics, and to extrapolate these . results to other areas with a similar environment.• select appropriate source germplasm for drought tolerance, based on climatic characteristics of their place of origin.We have developed some simple examples using the climate surfaces for southern Africa (CRES, 1993). These surfaces include average maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall for each month. Assuming a constant planting date of November 1, we simulated the anthesis date of a genotype with 18 leaves (this defines its relative maturity) for each 3' x 3' cell in the surface, as used by Chapman (1993). The anthesis date was obtained by calculating thermal time (or heat units) for each day of the year (from monthly data) and accumulating this number until 18 leaves were produced (Muchow et al., 1990). We then calculated the average rainfall that occurs between the dates of 3 weeks before and 1 week after anthesis for each cell (Fig. 2a). Given the particular susceptibility of maize to drought at flowering (Westgate and Bassetti, 1990), we have a map of a simple drought index. We can see that regions where the accumulated rainfall is below about 150 mm (or < 5.5 mm day-1 on average) are at relatively high risk of drought at flowering and indicate where the use of drought-tolerant germplasm could be most appropriate. This simple model weuld be improved by including actual data from soil water holding capacity and fotential evaporation (ranges between 4-6 mm day-for this period for stations in Zimbabwe).The same simulation for a planting on January 1 (Fig. 2b) indicates a greater risk of drought at flowering for much of the region.However, in northern Mozambique, for example, there is actually more rainfall around flowering for the later planting. Several extensions of this example might be considered. For example, we could use moving means to estimate rainfall for each 3 or 4 week Waddington et ai.period during the year. Selecting the interval with the highest rainfall total, we could then \"back\" calculate the sowing date required to flower on this date and thus determine the appropriate genotype maturity. This could be done by district, country or by region, weighted by area planted to maize, and thus be used to help set breeding objectives related to maturity and to drought tolerance. Similar applications, especially as they relate to quantifying the economic risk from given practices, are described elsewhere in this paper. Model outputs can be interpolated to develop surfaces (Chapman, 1994), or extrapolated to similar environments, and could serve as one basis for grower recommendations on a large scale.In the follOWing sections we consider present technologies and prospects for future technological solutions that will allow smallholder farmers in semi-arid areas to improve the stability and productivity of their maize enterprise at cost levels compatible with their resource base. We first consider genetic solutions, and then examine production technologies for maize aimed at improving WUE in southern Africa. Included among these are technologies addressing soil infertility and shortages of labour and draught power, since these affect yield levels and this in turn affects WUE.Genetic solutions. The first and most obvious genetic solution is to promote the use of crops that are more drought-tolerant than maize. Throughout much of the region there is gradual replacement of maize by sorghum ,and pearl millet (crops with a longer history of use in the region) as the mean annual rainfall diminishes, with pearl millet taking over from maize at about 400-600 mm, depending on elevation and soil type. Both sorghum and pearl millet are known to be well-adapted physiologically to drier environments, but both have serious production and adoption shorocomings. Johnson (1991) pointed out that maize is easier to process for food, farmers prefer the taste of maize, maize production has a lower labour requirement and suffers less from pests (sorghum seedlings often suffer die-back, sorghum and pearl millet grain are attacked by birds), and surpluses are more marketable. In Zimbabwe maize tends to outyield other cereals in better semi-arid (Natural Region III and IV) communal areas except when severe moisture deficits occur around flowering (Mataruka and Whingwiri, 1988;Mudhara and Low, 1990). In severe drought years sorghum and pearl millet are also badly affected. In the drought year 1991/92 for example, in trials comparing the species, maize failed to give grain at three of five sites, but sorghum and pearl millet also failed to yield at two of those sites (DR&SS/CIMMYr unpublished data). The crops could not be planted at two other sites because of early drought.As maize researchers, our responsibility is not to promote the use of maize indiscriminately, but rather to stabilize and increase its production in areas where it is already grown, and where demand for its use as human food among smallholders is high. That is the case in much of this region.Present status of genetic improvement. Historically there has been relatively little direct effort in southern Africa (excluding the Republic of South Africa) to breed maize for drier environments, though undoubtedly there was considerable farmer selection within local cultivars in the past (Arnon, 1992). Breeders have concentrated on developing materials for the wetter, input-intensive zones. Most of the extra breeding effort for semi-arid areas has been on sorghum and pearl millet. Nevertheless, some maizes are available for drier areas with shorter rainfall seasons.In Zimbabwe, the maize hybrids R201 and PNR473 are appropriate for the semi-arid environments (e.g. Whingwiri and Harahwa, 1985;Nyamudeza, 1994). These hybrids take around 120 days to reach physiological maturity at an elevation of 800 masl, i.e., they are some 20-25 days earlier to maturity than the full season hybrid, SR52. They are also more drought tolerant, in part because of their earliness. In on-farm trials in semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe in 1980/81-1982/83 they outyielded SR52 by 32% (Whingwiri and Harahwa, 1985).The Zambian maize programme released three shorter season hybrids (MM501, MM502 and MM504) in 1984 (Ristanovic et al., 1986). These materials are similar to R201 and R200 in maturity and drought tolerance. An earlier maturity white seeded double cross hybrid, MM441, was released in 1992 (Research Branch, 1992). The very early maturing (90-100 day) open pollinated variety, MMV4oo, was released to Zambian farmers in 1985 and is recommended for growing in the semi-arid Zambezi and Luangwa valleys. In Mozambique, Matuba, a short season OPV with flint grain, outyields other genotypes in dry years, e.g., in onfarm trials in the severe drought year, 1991/92, and yields well with zero inputs in wetter seasons (Sperling et al., 1994).In Kenya, considerable emphasis has been placed on Katumani Composite and, to a lesser degree, Makueni Composite, as sources of drought tolerance fol' areas with a seasonal rainfall as low as 350 mm. CIMMYr's experience suggests that the drought tolerance enjoyed by these cultivars derives from their earliness rather than their tolerance to drought which occurs at flowering (CIMMYr, unpublished data, 1993). In Tanzania, the early-maturing variety Kito shows considerable promise under drought.Recent initiatives in germplasm improvement under drought.National programs and the CIMMYT breeding program in southern Africa are now placing greater emphasis on developing shorter season maizes that escape terminal drought, and on breeding for characters that confer greater resistance to water deficits experienced during the growing season. In Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi and perhaps even Zimbabwe such materials should include OPVs so that resource poor farmers do not have to purchase new seed each year.Genetic variability for performance under drought is well-known in the temperate maize growing zones of the world (e.g., Jensen and Cavalieri, 1983;Jensen, 1994), and there are a number of drought-adaptive traits that have been identified (e.g., Ludlow and Muchow, 1990). For tropical maize there are two important periods when maize grain yi~ld can. be badly affected by drought -just after sowmg durmg establishment, and later, during flowering. A failure of the rains immediately after sowing can result in severe loss of stand.Farmers have some management alternatives in this circumstance: they can often replant, but costs will rise and the shortened season usually results in lower yields. Alternatively they may choose to sow a shorter duration species such as sunflower,. but each course of action usually results in income loss.Several attempts are being made to improve the ability of maize to germinate and establish under drought. In southern Africa, variability for this trait is being sought among genotypes thought to vary in drought tolerance. They have been established in the dry season under a line source ~gation syste~ installed on uniform sandy soils at Makoholi Research Station. Another project, using St families from the Drought Tolerant Population..1 (DTP-I), is in its second cycle of screening dlU'ing the dry season at Tlaltizapan, Mexico. In this prQject, two replicates of S1 families are sown into very dry soil in rows along a gradient of water availability, and observations of emergence, leaf rollin~ survival, and recovery after rewatering are used to identify superior and (inferior) St families (M. Binziger, pers. comm., 1994). The emphasis dUrin~ seedling selection is on traits associated with surv.val under drought (such as leaf rolling, osmotic adjustment, retention of green leaf area and recovery wh~n rewatered), and traits associated with production (such as rapid leaf area expansion, non-rolling under stress) are considered to be less valuable. The fractions identified are immediately recombined from remnant seed, and a new set of St families created. One complete cycle requires one calendar year to complete using this scheme. Observations of the most and least tolerant fractions from Co Waddington et al.   indicate that differences for these traits are heritable, and that progress is possible.The second period of susceptibility (for grain yield) to drought is flowering. In evaluations of more than 2000 progenies, grown under drought timed to occur at flowering or during grain-filling, the correlation between grain yield under drought and kernel number per plant was 0.90, versus 0.46 for weight per ker.nel (Edmeades et al., 1992). Our major focus at CIMMYT has therefore been on events which 'occur during the flowering period, when ears per plant and kernels per ear are determined. We also recognize the importance of maintaining functional leaf area during grain-filling (Aparicio-Tejo and Boyer, 1983).Among cereals, maize is unusual in that its male and female flowers are separated physically, and this makes it unusually susceptible to drought stress at flowering (NeSmith and Ritchie, 1992).A characteristic of maize under environmental stress is an increase in the anthesis-silking interval (ASI) (Dow et al., 1984). Barrenness arising from drought is not usually associated with pollen shortage or pollen desiccation, since it is only when. pollen production is reduced by 80%, or when silks are delayed by more than 8 days, that direct effects of pollen supply on grain number per plant can be expected (Westgate and Bassetti, 1990). Pollen viability can be significantly reduced by temperatures greater than 38-40 0 C (Schoper et al.,  1986). Tassel blasting (failure to extrude anthers; Troyer, 1983) is also observed in the field at these temperatures when the atmosphere is dry.When stressed at silking the fertilized ovule may abort (Westgate and Boyer, 1985), resulting in patchy grain formation on the ear or in complete barrenness. Silk growth is very sensitive to turgor and follows leaf water status quite closely (Herrero and Johnson, 1981).Nonetheless, when lateemerging silks on drought stressed plants are pollinated, fertilization can be shown to have taken place, but grain development is arrested shortly afterwards (Grant et al., 1989).The greatest reduction in grain numbers per plant under d~ou~ht occurs within the first 2 weeks after pollination (Grant et al., 1989). We conclude that the continuing development of fertilized ovules is related to the flux of assimilates from current photosynthesis (Schussler and Westga.te, 1991~ rather than t~ the concentration of carbohydrates m the stem or m the developing kernel (Westgate and Boyer, 1985). Silk delay may be more a symptom of inadequate assimilate flux than the direct cause of barrenness.Reference has already been made in this conference (Edmeades et al., 1994) to u:\"provements in grain Table 2. Gains per year in grain yield under droughted, low Nand wellwatered conditions, arising from recurrent selection for improved grain yield under drought (sources: Bolal'ios and Edmeades, 1993a;Edmeades et aI., 1994;Lafitte and Banziger, 1994).Number  The key points learned from these studies (see also Bolanos andEdmeades, 1993a, 1993b;Bolanos et al., 1993;Edmeades et ai., 1992;1993;1994)  are: a) Yield gains of around 100 kg ha-1 (about 5%) year-l are possible by either breeding method, under drought that coincides with the flowering and grain-filling periods (Table 2). This is associated with smaller gains under well-watered conditions, but no less than in normal breeding programs. There was no evidence that loss of yield potential was associated with increased drought tolerance.b) It is essential to conduct selection under managed drought, preferably by establishing a dry season yield test location with irrigation facilities. If this is not possible, then planting dates should be adjusted such that drought stress will occur over the flowering period. If cold weather eliminates this possibility, then planting under high densities (>100,000 plants ha-1 ) will provide a level of competitive stress that reveals part of the genetic variation for anthesis-silking interval, but the risk of lodging is high. c) Gains in grain yield under drought are associated with an increase in biomass partitioning to the developing ear. This is manifested by a short anthesis-silking interval and reduced barrenness under drought, and increased ear growth rates and harvest indices under both drought and well-watered conditions (Bolanos and Edmeades, 1993b).d) Although increased grain yield under drought is associated with increased kernels m-2 , selection has reduced the number of florets per ear but increased their mean size; at the same time tassel size has been reduced, and biomass of roots near the soil surface has also declined (Bolanos et al., 1993). Some 60% of DTP-2 is made up of an elite fraction of DTP-1, introgressed with known sources of drought tolerance. Both populations are structured as S1 families, and DTP-1 is being improved through an international Drought Network comprising interested cooperators (including from this region). It• is at present being split into white and yellow fractions. Both DTP-1 and DTP-2 have performed well. in CIMMYT's Preliminary Evaluation Trials (fable 3). In general we consider that these sources of tolerance, and the lines that are derived from them, will not be used directly. Rather they will form 1 or 2 lines in a 3-way hybrid, or one component of a varietal cross, in combination with locally adapted germplasm.Future germplasm improvement for improved drought tolerance in S & E Africa: Given the high cost and uncertain returns of most agronomic interventions, improved seed remains one of the cheapest and most easily adoptable ways of raising the productivity of maize in semi-arid parts of southern and eastern Africa. If drought tolerance can be combined with efficiency of use of limiting nutrients such as N, as reported by Short and Edmeades (1991) and at this meeting by Lafitte and Banziger (1994), and Pixley et al. (1994), this will further reduce the risk associated with cropping in marginal areas and will open new opportunities for agronomic research.We believe that future germplasm improvement in the region will be characterized by: (i) A better characterization of the types and frequencies of drought, since this will determine the emphasis breeders will give to specific traits. A combination of GIS and modelling techniques, using regional climate and soils databases, can provide this general information, validated by field observations.(ii) Development of testing locations in the region where the timing and severity of drought stress can be carefully managed.Sites will be characterized by uniform sandy soils and access to reliable irrigation facilities providing a uniform water distribution. Winter sites are acceptable, providing testing is also carried out in the normal rainy seas.on. Where possible these traits will be combined with a tolerance of low soil N and acid soil conditions.(v) Development of a regional network of interested maize breeders in 5 & E Africa who are committed to developing sources of drought tolerance and who are willing to contribute to the development of sources of resistance through testing and contribution of germplasm.(vi) Testing of promising varieties in farmers' fields under farmer management and inputs under semi-arid conditions, accompanied by farmer assessments of their worth, before release.Such an initiative would be supported by CIMMYf, Mexico, which would assist with selection methodologies, estimates of likely gains from recurrent selection, sources of tolerance to drought occuring at seedling establishment and during flowering in semi-elite backgrounds, improved inbred lines, and information on the inheritance of drought tolerance traits. One important issue currently being addressed in Mexico, and of vital importance to this region, is the role of heterosis in stress tolerance. Is hfiterosis a source of drought tolerance per se? How can we purposefully select drought-tolerant hybrids? These are important questions, and ones which CIMMYf can assist in providing answers.What return on investment might we expect from research aimed at increasing drought tolerance?CIMMYT's research (Table 2) indicates that gains from 3-8 cycles of recurrent selection in elite germplasm have resulted in a yield increase of about 30% over a yield reduced to 2-3 t ha-1 by mid-season drought (down from a ~otential under well-watered conditions of 6-10 t ha-). In the same studies, these gains were also accompanied by yield increases under well-watered conditions of 180-800 kg ha-l . If we assume 50% of the yield losses due to drought are due to stress during flowering and grain-filling, and the rest to pre-flowering stress; that yield gains from selection are halved in farmers' fields by poor crop management practices; then the expected increase in yields from the use of drought tolerant germplasm would be about 180,000 t of grain per year (1.3% of 14 million t) in southern and eastern Africa combined, with a market value of approximately $20 million. This is without considering the added yield under well-watered conditions (perhaps another 900,000 t grain annually) that results from selection for improved biomass partitioning under drought.Crop management requirements needed to produce stable and relatively high grain yields (2.5 t ha-l or more) of rainfed maize under semi-arid conditions in southern Africa are relatively well known. As yield rises, so too does WUE (Eqn. [4]). An optimum production package would include practices like post-harvest ploughing, occasional deep ploughing, chiseling, use of animal manure and inorganic fertilizers, the construction of tied ridges, planting with the onset of the first good rains or perhaps even dry planting, and the control of weeds early in plant development. Earlier maturing cultivars should also help increase yield stability with time, though there is an accompanying loss of yield potential in wellwatered seasons. The production benefits from most of these maize technologies are well known (Metelerkamp, 1988), but adoption is low and grain yields remain in the 400-1000 kg ha-l range in most communal areas of Zimbabwe (550-650mm rainfall per year, elevation 800-1200 masl; e.g. Shumba, 1984;Rohrbach, 1987). The following parts of this section draw heavily on Waddington and Kunjeku (1989).Plant population density. Crop monitoring data from three typical semi-arid communal areas of Zimbabwe during 1992/93 showed maize plant population densities at 21 days after planting from 30,700 to 34,340 plants ha-l , with a variation of 13,490 to 62,200 plants ha-1 at Chivi, the driest of the three areas (Agronomy Institute and FSRU of DR&SS, and ClMMYT, unpublished data).Perhaps the most comprehensive attempt at developing recommended planting densities for cereals in the semi-arid parts of southern Africa was by the Dryland Farming Research Scheme in Botswana (for maize, DLFRS, 1985;Jones, 1986;for sorghum, Jones, 1987a;1987b). The DLFRS applied a model of the relationship between grain yields and site rainfall from multilocation trials to long-term rainfall records for the maize hybrid, NPPxK64R, and derived target populations ranging from 10,000 plants ha-l in the dry southwest and extreme east of Botswana where yields of below 500 kg ha-l are normal to 30,000 plants ha-1 in the wetter northeast where yields over 4 t ha-1 are possible.Zimbabwe Natural Region V (300-500mm annual rainfall) . recommend a relatively low plant population of 20,000 plants ha-l to ensure that some grain yield is produced in the drier seasons in that area Oanes et al., 1988). In the wetter semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe (Natural Regions III and IV (450-700 mm annual rainfall), plant densities of up to 48,000 plants ha-l have been reported to give the highest yield (Mataruka and Whingwiri, 1988), but at these densities yields vary greatly from year to year. Nevertheless, with the popular hybrid, R201, there seemed to be little evidence to support adoption of plant population densities under 33000 plants ha-l (Metelerkamp, 1988). However, typical farmer levels of fertilizer and weed control are lower than those employed in most of the trials on which these conclusions were based, suggesting that a lower density may be appropriate for many farmers.Establishment problems resulting in poor stands can decrease maize yield by 40-100% in Zimbabwe (Olver, 1987). Establishment of maize can be difficult on either the widely distributed sandy soils of southern Africa or the less common heavy clay soils. Poor emergence of cereals on sandy soils often occurs because adequate moisture is not available in the seedbed for a long enough period to complete germination and coleoptile emergence, or because of crusting. The simplest approach to overcoming a shortage of moisture in the seedbed, and perhaps crusting, is to plant only with the reliable onset of good rains, but this often leads to delays in planting, which in tum may give lower yields. Speeding up the planting operation and emergence helps alleviate both of these constraints. In some semi-arid areas of Botswana, mechanical planters or combined ploughplanters have been introduced to speed up planting. The careless use of plough-planters has led to large reductions in seedling emergence in some cases (EFSAIP, no date). Soaking maize seed for 12-24 hours before planting has resulted in earlier emergence in some cases, but there is a higher risk of failure if the soil dries out rapidly after planting, since non-imbibed seed remains viable and will germinate on the next good rains, while pre-soaked seed will die (DLFRS, 1985). Pressing down soil above each planted hill by foot during sowing, and planting deep often improves soil-seed contact, slows moisture loss, and discourages bird damage to seedlings (Akposoe and Edmeades, 1981), but takes additional time when planting.Placement of hygroscopic fertilizer near the maize seed at planting removes moisture from surrounding soil and reduces germination, and has been cited by many farmers as a reason for the normal practice of waiting until after seedling emergence before they apply basal fertilizer.Soil crusts can be broken just before emergence with an implement such as a spike tooth harrow or cultivator, or even a hoe. Hill planting (3-5 seeds per hill) also facilitates the emergence of maize coleoptiles through a crusted soil (DLFRS, 1985), though the cost is in increased seed used, labour for thinning, and competition for moisture in the early stages of plant development. Farmers often prefer to plant more land with the extra seed, where land is not limiting, rather than thin. Tillage. In semi-arid areas tillage functions to improve the entry of water into soil, to facilitate the deep growth of plant roots to where moisture may reside, and to control weeds. The sands of southern Africa have little or no crumb structure, are often compact when dry and some are prone to crusting. Compaction of undisturbed subsoils tends to impede root penetration. For the sandy loam soils of eastern Botswana bulk densities of 1.8 Mg m-3 are common before tillage, well above the threshold value for the normal growth of maize roots (Willcocks, 1981). Some form of tillage is therefore considered essential for crop production, but constraints on draught power and the need to avoid losses of moisture while cultivating dictate that minimum tillage, sufficient to maintain good rooting and water infiltration, is appropriate.The ox-drawn mouldboard plough is the most common implement for land preparation in those semi-arid areas that have draught animals, but ploughs to a depth of only 10-15 cm. Deeper ploughing to 20-25 cm on hard sandy soils in semi-arid areas has improved yields of maize by up to 25% in Zimbabwe and Botswana, by promoting deeper rooting and thus increasing access to water (Grant et al., 1979;Willcocks, 1981;Ivy, 1987). Since reduced bulk densities persist for two to three years with deep ploughing, farmers may have to deep plough only once in three years, interspersed with minimum tillage. Such rotational tillage systems give only slightly reduced yields Waddington et al.   compared to conventional tillage, but provide savings in labour and energy input (Norton, 1987).Reduced tillage. To prepare one hectare of land with a mouldboard plough takes about seven times the time and about double the draught required to prepare the land with a shallow ripper tine. Chisel ploughs also require a lower power input than conventional ploughing but also need a toolbar mounting and cannot be used for the combined plough-plant operation practiced by many resourcepoor farmers in dry areas. To reduce tillage power requirements even further, strip tillage over the crop row has been used with the chisel plough in Botswana (Willcocks, 1981;DLFRS, 1985). The chisel plough produces a narrow but deep (25 cm or more) disturbance of soil along the line of the intended crop row. The untilled inter-row space can act as a micro-catchment to channel additional water to the tilled strip. Yields are no different than with mouldboard ploughing, but draught requirements of this system are only 14% that of mouldboard ploughing. Similar work has been done with a shallower ripper-tine on post-harvest ploughed land planted with maize in the Chivi communal area (550 mm annual rainfall) of Zimbabwe (FSRU, no date). With tine tillage, crop residues are left on the surface, and those not eaten by cattle act as a mulch aiding infiltration and reducing evaporation. Interrow ripping in the first half of the rainy season is advocated as a means of controlling crusting, reducing runoff-induced erosion, improving infiltration and controlling weeds (Norton, 1987). Reduced draught requirements may mean that nonowners of oxen will get earlier access to oxen, thus permitting earlier planting dates and higher yields (Shumba,1989).Post-harvest ploughing. A major reason for delays in planting is the need to wait until the soil is moist before ploughing can begin. Post-harvest ploughing (otherwise known as winter ploughing) in the early part of the dry season is an established technology that reduces the time and energy needed to prepare the land at the start of the rains (e.g., Norton, 1987), and results in a firmer seedbed. Winter ploughing may eliminate weeds during the dry non-cropping season (May-November) and thus conserve soil moisture, though differences in moisture between winter ploughed and control unweeded plots were not observed in Botswana (EFSAIP, no year). Most farmers winter-plough•only a small proportion of their land each year, because standing maize crop residues are a vital food for livestock, and collecting and storing residues is labour intensive. As well, many soils are hard to plough when dry, even just after harvest. Farmers have insufficient draught power and cannot jUstify the excessive wear on implements.Mulches. In semi-arid areas, between 20% and 50% of the total of E + T from a crop can be lost as E from the soil surface (e.g. Unger and Stewart, 1983). Losses are greatest during early crop growth when T per unit land area is low, when the soil surface is wet and when the soil is exposed to sun and wind. Erosion control is an obvious but important aspect of mulching (Amon, 1992). The beneficial effects and practicality of crop residue mulches have been well researched in Africa, and they are widely used by farmers in wetter more productive areas, especially where animals form only a minor component of the . system.Crop residue mulches are less useful for extensive, low output cereal production in the semi-arid areas. The amounts of plant residue produced are small, and almost all of it is used for livestock feed. Similar problems have been observed in Latin America, and the threshold level of mulch for effective control of moisture loss and improved infiltration is about 3 t ha-l (E. Scopel, pers. comm., 1993). In semi-arid southern and eastern Africa, termite activity and burning ensure that most residues not used as feed disappear before the start of the next rains.Ridging systems. These are designed to reduce runoff from soil and to increase infiltration in specific areas of the field (Vogel, 1994). Nu.merous changes in soil micro-topography have been tried in southern Africa. These include the construction of ridges and furrows (of various widths), and tied ridges and potholes, all combined with variations in plant placement. Runoff is concentrated in the furrows or potholes where it infiltrates slowly into the soil.In four years of trials conducted in the Chiredzi area of. southern Zimbabwe, using 1-2 m wide ridges wIth plants placed in the furrow to conserve and ~oncentrate water, average maize yield Improvement was 15% over a flat planting, which yielded about 1.5 t ha-1 Gones et al., 1988). Planting on top of the ridge can lead to poor emergence and poor establishment of the crop because of high soil temperatures and dry soil (DLFRS, 1985), and best results have been obtained when plants are established on the ridge slope. Compared with planting in the furrow, this leads to improved germination and growth, since waterlogging after heavy rains was reduced and plants were not growing on exposed hard pans and infertile subsoils at the bottom of the furrow. Furthermore, planting on the ridge slope facilitates weeding, and creates ample space for relay cropping.Although ridging often increases yields on vertisols sandy c~a~ soils and paragneiss, it rarely improve~ productiVIty on the sandy soils of southern Africa (e.g. Jones et ai., 1988;Mataruka and Whingwiri, 1988), supposedly because during intense rain storms excess water collects in the furrow and floods the plants (FSRU, no date) while the low water holding capacity of these soils means little extra moisture can be held in the root zone in dry years Gones et al., 1988). Similar inconsistencies were reported for southern Zimbabwe by Shumba et al. (1993), where tied ridging reduced yield in low and high rainfall years but improved yields in average rainfall years. Ridges on sandy soils may be destroyed by rainfall and by livestock during the dry season. Variability in response with pot-holing on sandy soils in semi-arid zones is also reported (Dhliwayo et al. 1994).In addition to uncertain benefits, ridging systems have obvious fixed costs from high draught and human labour needs to construct ridges and ties, made worse by the lack of appropriate implements for use by small-scale farmers. On vertisols, tractors are needed to make the ridges, and this effectively prevents adoption by small-scale farmers.Intercropping. The intercropping of maize is not common in the semi-arid areas of southern Africa. Some cowpeas are associated with maize. Reasons commonly cited for intercropping -risk insurance, maintenance of soil fertility, fodder production, and increased income -are less convincing in semi-arid areas than in well-watered zones. The intercropping of cowpeas with sorghum in Botswana can reduce the land eqUivalent ratio to less than one, and yield stability can decrease (Rees, 1986). In dry years, intercropping of cowpeas with maize in semi-arid parts of Zimbabwe will reduce maize yields more than yields of cowpeas, while in wet years maize severely shades cowpeas (Shumba et al., 1990a). Nevertheless, low densities of bush-type cowpeas and reduced plant populations of maize may assure a cowpea yield that more than compensates for the loss of maize yield.In relatively dry environments in Central America intercropping or relay cropping of maize with forage legumes such as Canavalia ensiformis shows promise. Here the legume is sown 15-30 days after the maize, between every second maize row, and provides high ~ualitr. cattle forage and about 50 kg N ha-1 mcremental fertility without significantly reducing maize yields (Gordon et al., 1993). Similar results appear likely from studies reported here by Zewdie et ai. (1994) with Cajanus cajan in Ethiopia. Promising results from cropping maize beneath Acacia aibida trees, which obligingly shed their leaves in the rainy season, have been reported by Itimu et aL. in Malawi (1993).Weed control. Since weeds transpire water that could otherwise be used by the maize plant, their control is essential in semi-arid areas (Amon, 1992). In semi-arid areas of southern Africa, farmers use animal traction for early weed control, and often fail to remove the within-row weeds until later by hoe. It is these within-row weeds that cause the largest losses of maize yield (Metelerkamp, 1988). Although it is commonly supposed that in semi-arid areas competition for water by weeds is more severe than in wetter areas, on-farm studies of this problem are hard to find. The use of uprooted weeds as mulch should help in controlling both T and E.Soil fertility and fertilizer use. Low and declining soil fertility (Wendt, 1993) is considered the most significant threat to sustained production in much of southern Africa (Blackie, 1994). Crops grown on most soils in the southern and eastern Africa region respond to Nand P, and the application of fertilizers can improve yields (see Ivy, 1987;Metelerkamp, 1988), which increases WUE.Because of the relatively high cash cost of inorganic fertilizers and the risk of a poor response in dry years, application rates of inorganic fertilizers are low. In Zimbabwe, a country with relatively high fertilizer use, average amounts of fertilizer applied to smallholder maize crops monitored in 1992/93 were 30 kg N ha-1 and 10 kg P20S ha-1 in Gutu (Natural Region IV), and 12 kg N ha-I and 3 kg P205 ha-1 in Chivi (Natural Region IV and V) (DR&SS/CIMMYT, unpublished data). While yield responses to high doses of N fertilizer (over 100 kg N ha-1 ) can be demonstrated with maize in the semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe in wet years, economic analyses of trials over a wider range of years suggest that only an application of < 30 kg N ha-1 is economic and basal dressings of NPK compound fertilizer are uneconomic (Whingwiri et ai., 1988;Mataruka et ai., 1990). From experiments in Natural Region IV, Shumba et ai., (1990b) demonstrated that 34 kg N ha-1 and 14 kg P205 ha-1 was economic in only 50% of years.Local sources of mineral nutrients and organic matter, such as cattle manure, compost, wood ash, tree leaf litter, soil from termite mounds are all valued and used by smallholder farmers in semiarid areas (e.g. FSRU, 1993), but all are in short supply.Cattle manure gives sign!ficant yield responses if applied at 5-10 t ha-1 , but such application rates are clearly not possible for all cropped land, given the area of arable land per family in dry areas (1.5-4 hal and relatively low cattle numbers. Manure and compost help increase water retention by soils, but very large amounts are Waddington et ai.needed. For example, 45 t ha-1 of organic material are needed to raise the organic matter of the top 30 cm of the soil by 1%.Future research opportunities for production technology components. In addition to breeding work to introduce plasticity in the production of ears per plant, long term studies (done over 6-10 years) are still required to determine the best maize densities for the follOWing: a) maximum stability of yield for subsistence farmers, and b) long-term maximum output for farmers who are cashorientated. Such studies are necessary when new varieties differing in stress tolerance and height are released.Simple modelling approaches, such as those employed by Jones (1986Jones ( , 1987b) ) in Botswana, provide valuable empirical estimates of appropriate plant population densities from rainfall data. More complex simulation models (see Jones and O'Toole, 1987;Keating et al., 1991;Thornton et ai., 1994), are finding important uses as they are validated for southern and eastern Africa. For example, Keating et ai. (1991) were able to demonstrate with model predictions the need for a lower plant density under water-or N-limiting conditions in the Katumani area of Kenya.An examination is required of interactions between seed placement, method of covering, mulch, and the timing and amount of rainfall, in relation to planting date for different soil types.Decision-making guidelines for farmers planting into drying seedbeds are necessary, and should be based on research under farmer conditions. Some has been done by EFSAIP in Botswana for sorghum, but more is required for maize.Monitoring the rate of fertility decline of sandy soils under continuous maize production in semi-arid areas merits attention. There has been recent interest in sustainable cropping systems characterized by high internal cycling of mineral nutrients and conservation of organic matter in the soil (e.g. Ingram and Swift, 1989, and see Jones and Wendt, 1994). While long-term benefits from such effects in semi-arid areas may be considerable, it is not clear how they might be achieved. For example, is intercropping .of cereals with legumes, or agroforestry, practicable in semi-arid areas where short term benefits from such systems are slight? Agronomic and socioeconomic research are needed to examine options for cycling mineral nutrients and preserving soil organic matter in semi-arid areas in ways that benefit the long-term and short-term incomes of small-scale farmers.Long-term studies (of 6-10 years duration) are needed on the benefits from retuming raw crop residues, manure, leaf litter and composts to the soil in semi-arid areas, and how these can be supplemented through agroforestry. Work should concentrate on the amounts required, efficiency of utilization, and distribution strategies. For example, do repeated inputs of manure, concentrated on a small part of a farmer's arable land to build up water holding capacity and fertility, represent the best strategy, or should small amounts be spread over much of the land area each year? Models again can help. Keating et al. (1991)/ using a modified version of the CERES-maize simulation model, was able to quantify the economic risks associated with N application under a range of rainfalls and initial soil water levels. The risk of economic loss from fertilizer application clearly rose as crop available moisture declined, and indicates how simulation models and long-term weather and soils databases can be used to derive recommendations.Better-designed fertilizer response trials are needed to look at low levels of N and P fertilizer and crop residue and manure use under farmer management. Although 'Response Farming' techniques (Stewart and Kashasha, 1984;Stewart, 1991)/ which use early rainfall eventS to decide on the amount of inputs (especially fertilizer) to apply, have been tried in southem Africa (e.g. around Chiredzi in southem Zimbabwe), more widespread evaluations are needed.Careful adjustment of fertilizer application, according to an estimate of maize yield potential based on future expected rainfall and crop production functions, has resulted in increases in maize profitability of 21-41 % on smallholder farms within Zimbabwe's Natural Regions III and IV (Piha, 1993).The sandy soils of southern Africa are acidic (a pH range of 4.2-6.0 with CaCl2 extraction). In Chivi, typical of large parts of Zimbabwe that are marginal for maize growing, most of the granitic sands have a naturally-occurring pH below 5 (Shumba, 1985). Experiments are needed to quantify yield losses (hence loss in WUE) that occur now because of this acidity, and likely losses from continued use of acidifying nitrogenous fertilizer.Given the resource constraints of farmers in semiarid areas, the risks involved in cropping there, and the small areas planted to maize (often 1-3 ha), many farmers will continue to plant maize crops late. Thus, there is a need to develop agronomic technologies specifically for late plantings, and for improving the timeliness of late plantings. This will mean emphasis on shorter season cultivars and on materials that can establish in wet soils and on weedy seedbeds and that can tolerate lower levels of irradiance. Technologies so developed may have uses also in the sub-humid areas of southem Zambia and in Zimbabwe's Natural Region II, where late plantings (6-10 weeks after the rains start) of part of the maize crop are normal.Emphasis is needed on the development of oxdrawn and hand-operated equipment for making ridges and ties. Power requirements -draught, tractor and human -should be considered before and during an experimental programme, not after. How can the adverse effects of excess rainfall with tied ridges be reduced on shallow sandy soils?Better quantification of losses to be expected from weeds is required in semi-arid areas. It is important to look at low cost/ low labour requiring methods of controlling weeds within the crop row, e.g., banding of granular herbicides.Termites can devastate maize by attacking roots and stem bases of maize from silking onwards, in preference to sorghum or millet, especially in the lowlands of southem Africa. Work to determine the frequency and extent of losses under smallholder agriculture is needed to justify efforts to develop resistant germplasm or control measures.More systematic economic analyses of technologies for semi-arid areas and assessments of risk are required urgently, particularly for technologies involving costly inputs.Analyses should be updated periodically to ensure that recommended practices continue to benefit farmers.These require a catchment basin, a storage facility, a means of conveying the water and a cultivated field. Considerable expertise in developing these schemes is available (Perrier, 1990). Catchment systems can also be used to control erosion in areas with > 300 mm of rainfall. Storage dams constructed of earth could be used to store water temporarily as a buffer against prolonged dry spells a few weeks later in the season.Finally, draught power is a major limitation to timely cultivation, ridging and weeding of smallholders fields in semiarid zones. Ways of providing more dry season feed for draught oxen need examination, e.g. forage legumes such as Vigna and Canavalia undersown in maize and alley crops. Ways of establishing fodder crops in the dry years when t1)ey are most needed merit further research.What increase in yields and yield stability might be expected from these interventions?Research elsewhere indicates that gains in yield from investments in crop management research are roughly similar to those obtained from plant breeding in high yielding environments, but may be two times greater in low-yielding environments (Edmeades and Tollenaar, 1990). This suggests that yield increases of perhaps 50% are likely from improvements in crop management methods, when widely employed in semi-arid zones.Appropriate research methods and measures of progress. Until the mid 1980s most agronomic research for the semi-arid environments of southern Africa concentrated on technical options but neglected socioeconomic aspects crucial to adoption by the resource-poor and risk-averse farmers typical of semi-arid areas. Technologies have usually been evaluated in terms of production per unit land area, occasionally per unit water used, but rarely per unit labour or draught power, which often are the most limiting factors. Farmers are also concerned with ways of ensuring that crop production does not fall below a minimal level required for subsistence. As a consequence, many technologies have had technical shortcomings when tested on-farm. Small-scale farmers in semi-arid areas are not all alike, and researchers need to target technologies to specific groups, e.g., specific models of mechanical planters offer advantages to farmers with a certain level of cash, oxen and land (EFSAIP, no date). The technologies developed have to be compatible with longer term issues related to the sustainability of production, which although often perceived by farmers as of marginal importance, nevertheless has the future welfare of those farmers at heart.Appropriate research sites. On-farm research (OFR) or farming systems adaptive research (FSAR) has improved the research focus for semi-arid areas towards real needs and circumstances of smallholder farmers. There is a continued role for OFR in merging technical options with farmers' preferences and economics, but it must successfully sample the variability of both sites and farmers to retain relevance. Without this, OFR has been unable to provide a way that promising technologies could be extrapolated across large recommendation domains (Waddington, 1993a;1993b). This is exacerbated by logistical difficulties when sites are remote (Chiduza and Nyamudeza, 1990). In some semi-arid areas large numbers of on-farm experiments conducted over almost a decade have led to little that can be recommended to farmers (see Jeranyama, 1992, for Chivi, Zimbabwe). Emphasis should be on reducing costs of OFR by focusing on a few pre-tested technological alternatives at key sites, preferably under farmer management, rather than on complex factorials aimed at developing response Waddington et ai.surfaces. Pre-testing and key site identification will be aided by GIS and crop modelling technologies.Pre-testing technological choices and extrapolating results. Crop models coupled to GIS databases can help reduce the need for empirical on-farm trials by predicting approximate outcomes from input conditions that vary from year to year. GIS data and model outputs can be used to delineate target agroecological areas or groups of farmers for which a particular technology is appropriate (e.g. Dent and Thornton, 1988;Keating et ai., 1992). All is not sweetness and light: such models have, at present, several major limitations. First, there is a lack of confidence in outputs from crop models in semi-arid areas of southern Africa because of lack of validation, and because complex input requirements for the models can often not be met (Chiduza and Nyamudeza, 1990). Second, most current models are insensitive to crop-livestock interactions, rotations, weed competition and intercropping (Dent  and Thornton, 1988; Thornton et ai., 1990), though this is rapidly changing. Third, adequate GIS databases of soils and cropping systems are either not complete or are at too large a scale to be useful at a village or sub-district level. As constraints are resolved, models will become an even more unportant tool for agronomists. When thoughtfully applied to smallholder farming in Africa, crop models may lead to beneficial modifications to farmer practices.The modified CERES-Maize model, applied to semi-arid Kenyan conditions at Katumani has already provided agronomists with empirical evidence of responses to N and plant density as functions of water availability that would have taken many years to assemble using OFR techniques, but at a fraction of the cost (see Keating et al., 1991;Keating et ai., 1992;Wafula et aI., 1992). Such benefits however, remain difficult for farmers to appreciate, and few farmers have adopted the predicted optimal practices in the area (Wafula et al., 1992;Muhammad and Parton, 1992). This suggests that now is the time to integrate models and GIS technology into the mainstream of agricultural research for smallholders in this region (e.g., Thornton et al., 1994). There is a continuing need for simple robust models that consider specifically the interactions between rainfall, soil water and N, without the complex input requirements characteristic of the more sophisticated crop models.An integrated approacJ1 to research and extension. Extensionists and on-farm researchers will increasingly have a role in focusing breeding, pathology, entomology, soils and agronomy research towards important real problems faced by farmers in semi-arid zones. Their role will also be to test and adapt station research results to farmers' needs.Such an integrated approach is essential if smallholders' production problems in semi-arid zones are to be addressed by practical, economically attractive, sustainable and adoptable technical solutions.The close link between crop production and water use confirms that we will never completely close the gap between well-watered production levels and those obtained under water-limiting conditions. It seems possible, however, that regional yields could be improved by at least 10% by improving the drought tolerance of existing germplasm using known techniques. Selection methodology will focus on increased partitioning of biomass to the developing ear at flowering, a change which has also resulted in increased yields under well-watered conditions. Yields under drought will be increased further if selection for improved establishment under dry soils continues to show significant gains.Improvement of management practices under semiarid conditions increases WUE by increasing maize yields and reducing water losses by evaporation from soil surfaces and transpiration through weeds. Maintenance of soil fertility is fundamental to increasing WUE.Expected gains from crop management research are at least twice those obtained from improved germplasm performance under drought, but to some extent will not be achievable until farmers adopt germplasm that is more tolerant of drought. The combined effects of improvements in germplasm and agronomy suggest that 30% of the yield gap between well-watered and semi-arid areas could be eliminated by well-targeted research over the next decade. Using figures presented in Section 3 above, this would amount to an annual increase in grain yields of over 500,000 tons in the eastern and southern Africa region, without accounting for spillover effects of this research such as improved production under wellwatered conditions.Past adoption trends suggest, that improved cultivars are more readily adopted than changed production practices, and imply that investments in breeding for drought tolerance may bring a better return at the farm level than will investments in agronomic practices aimed at increasing WUE under semi-arid conditions. There is an increasing need to integrate agronomic research with extension activities and with socioeconomic studies, and the need remains to sample representative farmers' circumstances through an efficiently run and welltargeted on-farm research program.Research on increasing the stability and level of production in semi-arid areas is being helped by newly emerging tools. One of these is the use of GIS databases and crop modelling, which can now provide estimates of temporal risk faced by farmers at a fraction of the cost of an on-farm trial program conducted over many years. There is a need to develop robust models that are less demanding in input requirements, and which focus 6n limiting factors, such as the crop water balance. While such models will never replace field-based agronomy, they will surely help focus its research orientation and help extrapolate its results to similar environments within this complex region. How did the resistance of Matuba to maize streak virus and downy mildew affect the high yield that you reported?The disease resistance ofMatuba has added to yield stability and therefore has contributed to its overall performance.Please clarify what you mean by a zero-input farming system. To me such a system will result in zero output. Seed and labour are inputs. Perhaps call it a \"low external input farming system\" instead?In our paper, zero input indicates no use offertilizer and pesticides, except as noted. Response: Leafrolling conserves moisture, but also reduces radiation interception. It is a valuable survival trait in seedlings, but may not contribute to improved grain yield in the face ofmoisture stress which concides with flowering. At CIMMYT we select against leaf rolling during midseason stress in the belief that non-rolling genotypes are enjoying a higher water status and hence a higher growth rate.INTRODUCTION (Koehler, 1959;Hooker, 1956;Sivasankar, et al., 1976;Jain et al., 1979;King and Scott, 1981;Odiemah and The start of the recent maize ear rot problem in Manninger, 1982;Gendloff et al., 1986). South Africa was during the 1985/86 growing season in the Natal province when there was a Gevers et al. (1990) stated that the relative significant increase in the incidence of ear rot differences in ear rot resistance between some of the (primarily Stenocarpella maydis). However, it was heterotic groups used in South African breeding during the 1986/87 growing season that the South programmes are significant. It is impo~tant that ear African maize producing area as a whole suffered rot susceptible heterotic groups either be improved severe losses as a result of an ear rot epidemics. It for ear rot resistance or possibly be eliminated from was this relatively sudden and significant problem breeding programmes. However, some of the more that made maize breeders in South Africa re-assess susceptible heterotic groups are those with above the importance of resistance to the ear rotting fungi . average heterosis when test crossed. Gevers et al. in their breeding programmes. There are a number (1990) showed that the traditional U.S.A. inbreds are of important factors contributing to ear rot usually significantly more susceptible to ear rots epidemics, such as climatic variation, maize than many of the locally developed public lines. monoculture, conservation tillage, and ear rot Heritability of ear rot resistance is complex, with susceptibility of hybrids. Improving cultural and many types of inheritance mechanisms having been sanitation practices are essentially short to medium reported (Hooker, 1956;Wiser et al., 1960; Ooka and term solutions to an ear rot problem, whereas Kommendahl, 1977; Sivasankar et al., 1976; Warren, breeding for ear rot resistance is a medium to long 1978; Boling and Grogan, 1965). Most resistance term solution. A good breeding programme for ear mechanisms are additive in nature and relatively rot resistance has to be backed-up by effective, large genetic gains in resistance can be made in a practical screening and evaluation procedures.relatively short period. Progress in developing RESISTANCE resistance to the ear rot complex and the heritability of the resistance is significantly influenced by the When breeding for ear rot resistance, it is important base level of resistance of the germplasm and the to realise that resistance to the three main causal severity of the selection pressure (both inoculum fungi in South Africa, namely Stenocarpella maydis, S. pressure and quantitative or qualitative selection). macrospora and Fusarium graminearum, is in general Useful resistance can be overlooked if the inoculum inherited independently to each other (Koehler, pressure is too great ~d/ or the breeder practices 1959). However, Mesterhazy (1982) and Mesterhazy qualitative selection instead of quantitative selection and Kovacs (1986) suggested that there are specific practices. instances when there is a correlation between resistance to more than one fungus. Most maize NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL EPIDEMICS breeders believe there are large _and consistent The South African climate is very variable and it is differences in ear rot resistance between genotypes unlikely that natural epidemics are consistent  enough to give sufficiently high infection levels to ensure good selection pressure, which is necessary to make accurate assessments of ear rot resistance of lines and hybrids among or within seasons. Therefore, it is important that artificial epidemics be created to ensure adequate and uniform selection pressure. The introduction of inoculum into the plants by injection, or similar methods, circumvents mechanical \"resistance\" barriers which can be significant (Koehler, 1959), and may cause useful resistance and/ or avoidance mechanisms to be overlooked. In addition, these inoculation methods do not always give results that correlate well with resistance under natural epidemics (Nowell, unpublished).After extensive experimentation, the most natural, practical, and effective way to induce epidemics was found to be the introduction of infected plant material onto the plant to ensure infection. This can be done by introducing the fungi through old naturally infected material (such as ground-up rotten ears) or through pure cultures either grown on maize kernels specifically for this purpose or for use as pure spore suspensions. This material can be placed in the whorl, shortly before flowering, or at the base of the ear, although the latter has given rise to infections that are too severe for meaningful differentiation between hybrids. Using this method, in association with irrigation in dry seasons, we have found it is possible to control the rate of application (inoculum pressure), time of application, fungal species/biotype inoculated and free moisture once the inoculum has been applied. By applying inoculum to the soil surface and/or to the whorl of the plant at an early stage of plant growth, it is also possible to increase the amount of stalk rot. By using this method it is easy to apply inoculum to a large number of plants in a relatively short space of time.DISEASE ASSESSMENT Nowell (1988) and Nowell and Kaiser (1989) suggested that ear rot data for hybrids be collected as the percentage visibly rotted kernels (by mass), and reported as a percent rot relative to the mean of the trial. There are other methods of ear rot evaluation, such as differential. apparent infection rates (Enerson and Hunter, 1980), but these methods are usually used for genetic studies and are very time consuming. It is also important to get data from as many seasons and planting dates as possible before conclusions are drawn as to the relative susceptibility / resistance of a hybrid.In a breeding programme a simple 0 to 5 rating scale can be used effectively. to eliminate very susceptible germplasm in the preliminary testing phase. During the intermediate testing phase (more accurate data needed), the amount of ear rot can be determined as the percent ears that have more than 10 percent rotten grain. The final testing phase must be as accurate as possible and should be based on the percent diseased grain to give maximum, accurate differentiation between hybrids or inbreds. The use of the different systems will be influenced by the need for accurate data, work load and the practicality of the exercise (Nowell and Kaiser, 1989).Data in Table 1 show that currently marketed hybrids generally are improved for ear rot resistance relative to previously marketed hybrids e.g. PAN 6528. This information was taken from trials in a national trial series run by PANNAR (Pty.) Ltd. The percent diseased grain was calculated by visually separating the diseased grain from the healthy grain, then calculating the percent diseased grain based on mass. To compare hybrids amongst themselves, data are presented as a percent of the mean infection for each trial. It is important to realise that no effort was made to separate the different ear rotting fungi, but the predominant fungus was always S. maydis.It is now more important than ever that \"problematic,\" ear rot susceptible hybrids be identified as soon as possible to avoid excessive loss in grain quality on the farms.It can be meaningful to present ear rot data in the form of frequency distributions. This can be done for hybrids over locations, areas and/ or seasons. It is very important that only trials with meaningful infection levels be used. Accuracy of the information on hybrid response to ear rot pathogens will increase as more locations and seasons of data are used (Nowell, 1988;Nowell and Kaiser, 1989). Nowell and Kaiser (1989) / Nowell (1988) and Flett and McLaren (1994) noted that a hybrid/s response to ear rot infection was not linear with increasing inoculum potential. It was postulated by Nowell and Kaiser (1989) and Nowell (1990) that there was an inoculum threshold level above which a hybrid increased unexpectedly in susceptibility. This phenomenon was shown statistically, using nonlinear regression of the number of Stenocarpella sp. infected ears, to be a non-linear response in hybrid resistance to increased inoculum pressure (Flett and McLaren 1994). Using this non-linear model, it is relatively easy to predict a particular hybrid's response to ear rot infection at a given ear rot potential, and it is easy to explain the rank variation normally encountered with standard analysis procedures. It is very important to use this model on multi-location and multi-seasonal data as the accuracy of the model will largely depend on the number of trials used and the range of the levels of infection in these trials. This ear rot regression model can also be used to predict a particular hybrid's response to a given inoculum potential.This paper presents information on maize yield losses due to turcicum leaf blight and common rust caused by the fungi Exserohilum turcicum, Leonard & Suggs, and Puccinia sorghi L. respectively, and will present the status of resistance to these diseases in CIMMYT maize germplasm.CIMMYT divides maize germplasm into major agroecological zones, based on its adaptation. To assist in prioritizing activities for maize improvement, CIMMYT carried out a study in 1988 to determine the constraints to maize production in developing countries in the different ecological zones. This study helped quantify the importance of diseases for each ecological zone, and to group into mega-environments maize production areas with similar germplasm needs including grain type and maturity. Within the midaltitude, transition zone, and highland maize ecologies of east and southern Africa, turcicum leaf blight (TLB) and common rust (CR) were reported to be the most important foliar diseases affecting maize production. These ecological zones encompass maize production at elevations from 900 to over 2000 masl.The estimated area of maize affected by these diseases in the different maize ecologies are presented in Table 1. For TLB this represents approximately 56, 96, and 100% of the area devoted to maize production in midaltitude, transition zone, and highland ecologies, respectively. For common rust this is 50, 55, and 100% of the area for maize in the same ecologies. Most of the studies on environmental conditions favoring TLB and CR, and the calculation of yield losses associated with infection, were performed on hybrids and inbred lines in temperate environments. Environmental conditions favoring disease development would be similar in non temperate environments, though specialization of fungal isolates for different maize growing environments could occur.Optimum conditions favoring TLB are temperatures between 18-27 °C and dew periods greater than 6 hours (Berger, 1970) with disease development occurring between 9 and 30 °C (Leach et aI., 1976). Berger (1970) developed a disease forecasting system for predicting epidemics in sweet com. At temperatures of > 15 °C and close to 100 % relative humidity, 7-8 hours gave light to moderate epidemics and > 11 hours lead to severe epidemics. Fitness factors related to aggressiveness of fungal isolates were also found to be important in TLB epidemics (Levy 1989(Levy , 1991)).Yield losses reported for TLB range between 0-70% for hybrids (Ullstrup and Miles, 1957) and 5-44% for susceptible inbred lines (Bowen and Pedersen, 1988). Yield reduction caused by TLB is related to the susceptibility of the germplasm, and to the stage of plant development when initial infection occurs. With highly susceptible germplasm, disease onset shortly after flowering led to losses up to 70% while resistant hybrids had no more than 18% reduction in yield (Ullstrup and Miles, 1957). In a moderately resistant maize sweet com hybrid less than 8% infection in the upper 75% of the canopy at senesce:r\\ce led to little yield loss (Pataky, 1992). Increases in yields of up to 40% were reported with the improvement of resistance to TLB in subtropical maize pools at CIMMYT. Using recurrent selection for the improvement of 8 early and intermediate CIMMYT pools for TLB resistance, Ceballos et aI. (1991) reported yield increases of 20-40%, though 158 yield increases can not only be attributed to improved TLB resistance.Common rust can also cause epidemics in midaltitude, transition zone, and highland maize areas of Africa. The optimum conditions favoring the development of CR are temperatures between 16-25 °C, with> 98% relative humidity for more than 4 hours. Disease development is reported to occur betwe~n 4-32 °C (Weber, 1922), and due to this ability to develop at lower temperatures, CR can occur when temperatures are too cool for TLB. Yield losses due to CR are reported up to 35% (Kim and Brewbaker, 1976), and under severe infection of temperate germplasm at ClMMYT headquarters in Mexico, 100% yield losses have been observed (personal observation).Using maximum and mm1Illum temperature requirements for these two maize pathogens, and by estimating dew formation, geographical information systems (GIS) can be used to determine locations with environmental conditions favorable for disease development on susceptible maize germplasm. Verification studies in representative locations would need to be made to determine the actual area with TLB and CR conducive environments. Unfortunately, not enough international testing data is available for this region at present to determine the extent of disease conducive environments using GIS techniques.Resistance to TLB and CR. Both monogenic and polygenic resistance to E. turdcum are available. Four dominant to incompletely dominant genes have been described for conferring resistance to TLB and include Ht1, Ht2, Ht3, and HtN. These genes also improve the level of disease resistance when used in combination with polygenic resistance. The Htl gene has been widely used in temperate environments. The Ht1 gene reduces lesion size and the amount of sporulation in lesion tissue, and has chlorosis associated with the lesions (Hooker, 1961). Both Ht2 and Ht3 (Hooker 1977(Hooker , 1981) also reduce lesion size and sporulation, but have been used less than the Htl gene. The chlorosis associated with the Ht1, Ht2 and Ht3 genes can be extensive under severe infection. The HtN gene (Gevers, 1975) reduces lesion number, but not the size, and increases the period between infection and lesion development (latent period) prior to flowering. Races of E. turdcum have been found which overcome these four sources of monogenic resistance.Polygenic resistance is reported to reduce lesion number, increase the latent period, and to reduce lesion size (Sigulas et ai., 1988) with resistance factors being mapped to at least 3 different chromosomes (Brewster et ai., 1992). A Jeffers & Chapman source of polygenic resistance in temperate environments, Mo17, was not found to be useful as source of resistance in Uganda (Adipala et al., 1993).Monogenic and polygenic resistance are also known for P. sorghi. Monogenic resistance can be found at a large number of loci for wich many alleles are present in maize. The genes controling monogenic resistance to CR are known as Rp genes, some acting in a dominant manner while others are recessive. Resistance is expressed, both in seedlings and adult plants, as chlorotic or hypersensitive flecks which support little or no sporulation (Hooker and Saxena, 1971).Polygenic resistance has many genes involved and is observed in adult plants and not seedlings. With this form of resistance there is a reduction in the number of pustules or uredia numbers prodl.1ced (Hooker, 1969;Kim and Brewbaker, 1977).Maize being developed at CIMMYf for subtropicalj midaltitude, transition zone and highland environments is screened for resistance to E. turdcum and P. sorghi. In Mexico both summer and winter nurseries are used for TLB screening activities with evaluations performed at the El Batan and Poza Rica research stations, respectively, using artificial inoculation with E. turcicum that has been colonized on sorghum grains that are then placed in the whorl at the V5-V6 growth stage. Depending on environmental conditions severe epidemics can often be generated for evaluating the resistance to TLB. Only the summer nursery at El Batan is utilized for CR screening under natural infection. The Oxalis plants present at CIMMYf's El Batan station are the alternate host for P. sorghi and severe epidemics are possible on a yearly basis. In the Harare program, germplasm is also evaluated for resistance to these two diseases. Artificial inoculations are also used for generating TLB epidemics. The attributes described above for polygenic resistance to TLB and CR are used in the selection process for improving disease resistance, while those attributes associated with monogenic resistance which do not possess adverse effects such as extensive chlorosis are also utilized.At present there is sufficient resistance to both TLB and CR available in CIMMYT germplasm at both Harare and in Mexico however most of the germplasm coming from Mexico lacks resistance to the maize streak vinis. In collaborative research activities with KARl, Kenya, the University of Hohenheim, Germany, Bar-l1an University, Israel, and CIMMYT, E. turcicum resistant lines are being evaluated at several locations in Kenya. Of these materials, several CIMMYf lines have proven to have high levels of resistance under high disease Yield losses with E. Turcicum and P. Sorghi pressure produced by artificial inoculations and conducive environmental conditions for disease development.All germplasm in development does not carry the same level of resistance to both pathogens at this time, and work with the CIMMYT breeders in the region will help in obtaining the best materials for your location.The maize streak virus (MSV) disease is endemic in the coastal and mid-altitude areas of Kenya causing infections of from 15 to 87% since the early 1970's (Bock, 1980;Theuri and Njuguna, 1988). The most common vectors (MSV) in the country are Cicadulina storeyii, C. mbila and C. latens (Okoth et aI., 1989). Studies on the inheritance of resistance to the disease started in Kenya during the early 60's and continued on to the 80's with results varying from partial dominance of susceptibility due to a major gene (Storey and Howland, 1967), polygenic (Bock, 1984) and dominance for resistance (Rasaiah, 1984). In 1979, IITA developed a resistant inbred line, IB32. Resistance in this source is governed by two or three major genes and some modifiers (Kim et aI., 1989).In late 1989 the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARl) started a breeding program to develop streak resistant (SR) cultivars for the midaltitude and lowland areas of Kenya. Resistant sources were obtained from IITA and screened using the greenhouse method (Storey and Howland, 1928) and field methods using artificial and natural infestations. The objectives of the program were as follows:-1. To identify a \"stable\" source of resistance for the conversion of Kenyan inbred lines to SR forms.To identify open-pollinated (OP) genotypes that can be used as parent materials of variety crosses; and/ or components of a breeding population.The greenhouse evaluation aspects of the project are reported in this paper.Various accessions were screened for resistance tolerance (R/T) to MSV, using the greenhouse method (Storey and Howland, 1928). The steps involved are the following. Test materials were arranged in trays holding 50 pots. The trays are then placed in glasshouses large enough for four trays. C. mbila vectors were fed for 48 hours on infected plants and used to infest the test materials by confining them on 6\" xI\" glasstubes clipped on the first or second leaf of the seedlings. Two hoppers were placed on each glass tube. Infestation was done for two days on seedlings 10 days after sowing. Hoppers from the test materials were then transferred to the susceptible check to verify that they had acquired the virus. If no symptom was observed, the process was repeated after six to seven days.Three to four weeks after infestation, the test materials and the check were rated for their reaction to MSV using the following scale.No symptoms 2Mild infection (no stunting)Moderate infection (with or without stunting) 5Severe infection and stunting A weighted mean rating (WMR) was calculated for each genotype based on the frequency of the plants in each class, as follows:-where -Xi -class rating (CR) f i -frequency of CR.Test materials with ratings of 1 or 2 were transplanted in the field for agronomic and R/T observations. In the fi~ld, agronomically desirable plants were selfed for further testing and/or used in development of synthetics.The first concern was the \"stability\" of H511 as the susceptible check even though it was used for thisResistance to M5V disease purpose since the 70's. Table 1 shows the population parameters of the WMR's from 29 samples. The mean WMR of H511 is 4.15 and the standard error of the mean was 0.115. The CV of the mean was 2.76%. The 29 sample WMR's did not significantly differ from a normal population based on skewness and kurtosis parameters. The above data shows that H511 is a stable check although it will be desirable to look for an inbred line as a check when inbreds are screened. When the project was started in 1989, the first source of resistance were brought in from lITA but were grown in the greenhouse for one season under quarantine. The lines had abnormal growth and few seeds were obtained. The high temperatures in the greenhouse affected nicking. The second problem encountered with lITA materials and their derivatives was that when transplanted to the field for observations they succumbed to Exserohilum turcicum and Puccinia sorghi. This led us to conclude that using Tzi lines would slow down progress because we have also to select for tolerance to the above two diseases.Our results using Reunion 56 showed that even at BC1, the plants were agronomically poor. The synthetic, MU Syn 1, developed from HASR, did not perform well in yield tests with the local variety Kikuyu, although it has an acceptable field resistance.On the other hand, the materials obtained from CIMMYT-Harare had good field resistance and fair agronomic performance except, for E. turcicum disease.Therefore, we focused on these materials by selecting for earliness, resistance to E. turcicum and against bare tips. Resistance to MSV disease We have no reason to believe that the IITA and CIMMYT sources are different because they were all derived from IB32. If R/T is governed by two major genes, which we think is true based on our own experience, why do the two sources behave differently in Muguga (Table 6 and 7) which is about 1950 MASL? This is probably because of the background of the recurrent parent used. As shown in Table 7, the group mean rating of sources from Harare with mid-altitude backgrounds is 1.93 while those with lowland backgrounds have a mean of 4.14. It is possible that the modifiers of the major genes differ depending on the background used. It would be desirable if variability in R/T due to the major genes are known in both the mid-altitude and lowland backgrounds. We have no problems with the lITA sources in the coastal areas of Kenya, and in the semi-arid areas when u~ed as a male parent of a variety cross. Therefore, we recommend that when developing R/T varieties for an area, one should use a source adapted to the target environments.We have two reservations in our screening procedures, namely that by discarding plants with a rating of more than 2, we may be too strict and thus eliminate good materials that will have desirable 163 field resistance. The second problem is that we have a very poor correlation between our greenhouse and field infestation data on materials with ratings of less than 4 (Table 8). On the other hand, field rating and yield are well correlated when infestations are moderate to severe (Kim et al., 1989).However, with basic studies on the disease now being done by three PhD students in Kenya we hope to improve our techniques.In Nigeria there appear to be two distinct strains of P. sorghi which infect maize: a \"sorghum\" strain in Downy mildew (DM) on maize, caused by the the northern savanna regions and a \"maize\" strain in fungal pathogen Peronosclerospora sorghi ((Weston some of the more humid southern states. The latter and Uppal) e.G. Shaw), has been widely reported in is so aggressive that infected plants produce no Africa (Frederiksen and Renfro, 1977) and has grain.Incidence of DM in susceptible maize become a serious threat to maize production in parts varieties may be as high as 90% under natural of Nigeria, Zaire, Mozambique, and Uganda. Host conditions, resulting in up to 90% yield loss in plant resistance has been shown to be an extremely farmers' fields. In contrast, symptom remission of effective and cost-efficient means for controlling OM the sorghum strain has been observed on maize throughout the world.(Olanya and Fajemisin, 1992). The sorghum strain This paper describes and compares several produces two types of spores; conidia and oospores. inoculation methods for screening for OM resistance Oospores can withstand dessication and can be seed which have been used in the maize breeding transmitted. In the south where the maize strain programme at lITA.Progress in developing occurs, only the more ephemeral conidia have been resistant varieties adapted to the lowland tropics in observed, which germinate and lose viability within Africa is also reported. hours after sporulation. Maize seed that is dried below 12% moisture content most likely can not A great deal of research has been conducted on the transmit this strain of DM. It is thought to survive biology and epidemiology of the DM diseases in the dry season in hydromorphic areas, where maize cereals. Some aspects relevant to resistance breeding is produced throughout the year. Since 1990 the and control of P. sorghi in Africa are presented here southern strain has spread over 200 km west of the as background information. For a comprehensive original endemic zone and is now threatening maize reference to the literature on DM, the reader is in the neighbouring Republic of Benin (Cardwell, referred to a review by R.J. Williams (1984).Conidia production and infection. DM is an Epidemiology. Symptoms of OM include white, obligate parasite and therefore cannot be cultured. powdery conidia on the underside of maize leaves; For screening purposes, inoculum must be collected half leaf chlorosis; narrow, stiff, erect leaves; and and applied directly to test material. P. sorghi malformations of both female and male requires high relative humidity (>85%) and cool inflorescences referred to as \"crazy top\". temperatures (20-21 0 q to sporulate. Conidia are released at night when the necessary combination of relative humidity and temperature normally occur. Although spores can only be produced in the dark, a period of at least one hour of light is a prerequisite for sporulation, which begins 7-8 hrs after the light is removed. The level of spore production is affected by the quantity and quality of light received.To cause systemic infection, OM spores must germinate and penetrate meristematic tissue. Since the maize strain produces no oospores, the earliest possible infection under natural conditions occurs when the seedling emerges from the ground ana is exposed to airborne conidia. Penetration of leaves by conidia occurs through open stomata. Probability of infection is greatest when the temperature is dropping and there is condensation on leaf surfaces. Typical half-leaf symptoms result from infection of expanding leaf blades in the whorl of the plant. By about 30 days after planting (DAP), depending on the developmental stage of the plant, systemic infection with OM is no longer possible.Field inoculation and use of spreader rows. To achieve a high level of infection in breeding nurseries, plants are inoculated 10-14 DAP. When spreader rows are utilized, test materials are planted about 10 days after inoculating the spreader rows. A mix of susceptible varieties should be used for the spreader rows to attain a consistent, high level of spore production during the period when test materials are susceptible to systemic infection which produce large quantities of spores beginning about 2 weeks after inoculation and continuing for 3 weeks or more (Cardwell et ai., 1994). Test material can be evaluated for percent OM by 4 weeks after planting, when spreader rows are utilized. For the maize strain of OM, it is sufficient to record incidence of OM, since infected plants produce no grain. In other regions it may be desirable to obtain yield data to assess the severity of the disease.Until recently, resistance breeding at lITA depended entirely on a night-time inoculation method which utilizes the natural cycle of spore production (Siradhana et ai., 1976;Fajemisin, 1988), which was adopted from procedures developed in Thailand in 1968. To use this technique, large quantities of infected leaves are collected at 1700 hrs. The leaves are washed to remove old spores and debris and incubated in large trash barrels with water in the bottom. At about 0300 hrs, the leaves are washed in water to collect new conidia. The spore suspension is transferred to backpack sprayers, carried to the field, and sprayed into the whorls of the plants. This technique is labour intensive and costly in terms of overtime manhours.If there is rainfall shortly after inoculatiOll, the procedure must be repeated. Ory conditions also reduce infection. Spreader rows need to be inoculated up to three times to attain acceptable levels of infection (Fajemisin, 1988). Consistent, high levels of infection in breeding trials are essential if progress is to be made in breeding for DM resistance.In 1991, an incubator was purchased and laboratory space was made available at the Federal College of Agriculture in Akure, in the endemic DM zone in southern Nigeria. A day-time inoculation method was adopted (Schmitt and Freytag, 1974) which has been shown to provide levels of infection at least as high as the night-time procedure (Cardwell et al., 1994). Infected leaves are collected in late afternoon, washed, placed in bell jars with water at the bottom, and kept under flourescent light throughout the night. At 0900 hrs the following morning, leaves are placed in a dark incubator at 21 0c. Spores are collected and field inoculation is carried out at 1530 hrs using backpack sprayers.Studies undertaken at lITA indicated additional means for improving spray inoculation methods. Natural biota in water supplies rapidly reduce the viability of conidia in the spore suspensions. Boiled or distilled water should be used to make initial, concentrated suspensions, which can be diluted to a concentration of 1 x 105 conidia ml-1 immediately before inoculation. Keeping the suspension at 4-6 °C also greatly reduces the germination rate of conidia and consequent losses in viability in solution (Cardwell et al., 1994).Seedling inoculation method. To overcome some of the limitations of the spray inoculation methods, a method for inoculating germinating seeds has been developed. Craig (1980) compared incidence of OM obtained by inoculating maize at different developmental stages. Highest incidence of OM was observed when sporulating leaf disks were pinned to each seed. This approach was modified and simplified at lITA so that it can be utilized for largescale breeding programmes.Maize seed for spreader rows are germinated in an incubator in the laboratory. After 72 hrs, when the radical and coleoptile have just emerged, infected leaves are placed on a wire mesh above the seedlings and allowed to sporulate overnight. Seedlings are transplanted to the field the following day and test rows are planted 10 days later. Average disease incidences of 85% (1992) and 90% (1993) were obtained in susceptible test rows with this method. Requirements for labour and inoculum have been greatly reduced. The method may be applied without an incubator, making it readily transferable to national agricultural research programmes.Incubator screening method. A modified version of a system developed by Craig (1987) for collecting spores and inoculating 7-day-old seedlings in an Kling et al.incubator was installed at IITA in 1992 (Cardwell et al., 1994). .Some relatively expensive equipment is required, which may limit the utility of the method for national programmes. The benefits of the system are that year-round screening is now possible, and that less than 5% of susceptible plants escape infection.Plants are scored 1-2 weeks after inoculation. At this stage symptomless plants can be transplanted to a crossing block or isolation for selfing or recombination.Development of OM resistant varieties for the lowland ecologies of west and central Africa has been a major priority in the breeding programme at IITA since the early 1980's (Fajemisin et al., 1985;Anon., 1986;Kim et al., 1990)  (Frederickson and Renfro, 1977;Renfro, 1985). Nonetheless, there are also reports of species and strain specificity and genotype by location interactions for resistance (Williams, 1984), which implies that we should continue to incorporate additional genes for resistance into our materials as they become available. We have recently obtained some new introductions from Thailand and the Philippines which will be introgressed into existing OM resistant populations to widen their genetic base and ensure that a high level of resistance is maintained.Although results of studies on the mode of inheritance of resistance to P. sorghi in maize have varied depending on the material used, experience has shown that the trait is relatively easy to manipulate through selection, prOVided reliable screening methods are available. Singburaudom and Renfro (1982) determined that a polygenic system was responsible for resistance in a study of 10 inbred lines under heavy disease challenge in Thailand. Susceptibility was dominant for seven of the resistant lines and incompletely dominant in one resistant line, indicating additive' gene action for P.sorghi. The authors agreed with the conclusions of Kaneko and Aday (1980) in studies with P. philippinensis that DM infection is mediated by threshold conditioIis. Expression of the disease depends on the inoculum load, genetic background, condition of the maize plant, and environmental factors. Experience in Nigeria has shown that under mild disease pressure, resistance appears to be dominant, whereas under heavy infection, resistance is recessive. Resistance is additive at intermediate levels of infection (Fajemisin, unpublished data). The hybrid has about 22% susceptibility under heavy disease pressure (Table 2). By 1992, the other inbred parent, TZi18, had been converted for DM resistance and KU1414 had been converted for resistance to maize streak virus (MSV). Now both parents confer resistance to DM and MSV. Crosses between KU1414 from Thailand a'nd MIT2, a resistant inbred line from the Philippines, showed very high levels of resistance. Incorporation of new sources of resistance into the breeding programme can thus enhance the levels of DM resistance and increase the durability of resistance.under heavy inoculation with Cicadulina sp.) and finally recombined.Although HASR was Burundi is located in central Africa and is developed, a streak resistant cultivar with higher surrounded by Rwanda in the north, Tanzania in the yield potential was a research priority. east and Zaire to the west. The country is very hilly and three altitude zones can be distinguished. These To solve these maize problems, six cultivars from are: low altitude (800 m to 1,200 m), middle altitude CIMMYT-Harare were compared to the check (1,200 m to 1,800 m) and high altitude (1,800 m to HASR (released variety) and to the local variety of 2,600 m). In the high and middle altitude zones, the farmer in valley farmers' fields. hills are far apart and valleys separating them are MATERIALS AND METHODS cultivated in the inter-season where maize is intercropped mainly with beans.The marsh where six farmers' fields were chosen was located near the research station of Kisozi at an Maize streak disease has been known in Burundi for elevation of 2,000 mas!. Streak had been seen there at least 30 years, but mainly in the warm lowland for the last five years causing big yield losses. areas of Imbo (Malithano et al., 1987). Since 1992, a high prevailence of streak was observed in valleys of Six high yielding, streak resistant, cultivars from the high altitude zone and is now observed in all CIMMYT Harare were compared to HASR and to regions of the country. Maize planted in the valleys the local variety provided by the farmer. The suffers from streak because it grows in the dry CIMMYT Harare materials were: S2SYNF4 [GPLA], season. Moreover, the disease may spread more 2M 601 C1F3, 2M 609 C2F2, SNSYNF3 [89 Elite], rapidly in those valleys than in the lowlands because SNSYF3 [GCA-A/B-90] and 2M 607 C2F2. in warm environments, the flight period of The different varieties were planted in a Cicadulina sp. is much shorter; but at high altitude randomized complete block design and each farmer zone where cold nights prevails it may also be was considered as a replicate. The planting date extended (Rose, 1987).was July 1992. July is the common planting period Selection for streak resistance has been a big concern for maize in these valleys, because the soil is dry in the ISABU maize program for almost ten years. enough at that time to plant. Backcrossing was applied to three cultivars released The farmer had to decide about the density of in the three altitude zones using an exotic material planting. but each variety had to cover an area of from lITA to introduce streak resistance. two rows of five meters long. The farmer had to Additionally, a local-selection material called HASR bring his own seed (the local) and all the eight (high altitude streak resistant) was developed. entries were planted the same way. The farmers Resistant plants were found in farmers' fields and managed the trial and no farmers applied chemical afterwards they were combined under 52 selection. fertilizers or insecticides. This means that resistant families were selected and selfed twice (while planting was done ear to row 169 Just before flowering all plants were counted and yield than the check. In the field it looked strong evaluated using the following UTA scale (Bosquewith a potential to bear more than one ear per plant.Perez and Alam, 1992): 0 =plant without symptoms, The cultivar ZM 601 CIF3 came in the second 1 = plant with few streaks, 2 .. plant with chlorotic position with 35% more yield than the check. The streaks on old leaves, 3 ,. plant with moderate streak' variety ZM 607 held the third position with 9% more on young and old leaves, 4 ,. plant with severe yield. The local variety produced only 23% of the streaks covering 65% of the leaf area and plant yield of HASR. This was mostly due to streak shortened, 5 ,. plant with severe streaks on 75% of disease since very few plants were harvested. the leaf area, with the plant shortened, sterile and Table 2 shows that all plants of the local variety are almost dead. in the class 5. No other variety had a plant in class During that season, streak disease was widely 5. Percentage of susceptible plants (rating 3, 4 and spread in these valleys. Harvest was done. in 5) is the highest in the local variety (100%) and in the January 1993. The total number of plants and ears, SNSYNF3 [89 Elite] (45.3%). The percentage of number of rotten and uncovered ears, field weight plants with symptoms is also the highest in the local and percentage of moisture were recorded for each vareity (82%). Significant differences exist between entry.means of those percentages.In general, other constraints such as borers were not observed in those farmers' fields located in valleys. Results of the trial are presented in Tables 1 and 2. All data shown are mean values of the data collected DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS in four locations in Table 1 and five locations in In general, we consider the introductions from Table 2.OMMYT Harare as very interesting, with higher Only four fields were harvested because stealing of yield than HASR, and a fairly good level of streak ears was observed in the other two. The mean for resistance as well.Considering the poor the four plots was 5.0 kgs for the check HASR which performance of the local variety, the valley bottoms was about 4 tonnes per hectare (yield given in kgs of in Burundi highland areas where the trial was grain at 14% of moisture and an 80% shelling conducted are stress environments mostly because assumed).The cultivar SNSYNF3 [89 Elite] of high streak disease pressure. Maize production in appeared to be the highest yielding with 59% more Burundi has declined from 286,000 tonnes in 1985 to Streak resistant maize in Burundi 167,000 tonnes in 1990 (Anon, 1990). This decrease is due to streak disease in part. Those valleys are surrounded by overpopulated hills. With time the size of each farmer's field will be reduced because parents share their land among their children.Farmers have then to switch to root crops (potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava or colocasias) which give higher yield but are less nutritious than maize. These alternative crops also produce under less fertilizers and tend to exhibit less diseases (especially for sweet potatoes and colocasias).The reality is that after a poor harvest due to streak disease, the farmer will plant less maize and more root crops in the following season. If in another year the harvest is better, he will try again with maize but with a slower speed due also to limited availability of seed. Several seasons will be then necessary to reestablish the original production.In 1). B. fusca infested the crop at early and mid growth On the latter two sampling occasions, there was no stages while, C. partellus infested maize throughout Significant difference in the level of borer infestation the study period although the numbers decreased on the crops, although early planted maize tended to with stage of growth. E. saccharina larvae were be more infested. A similar infestation pattern was found from the second sampling date (7-8 WAE), recorded for the maize stalk borer (B.fusca), but no while S. calamistis infested the crop at late stages larvae were found during the last sampling period only.(13-14 WAE).In the first sampling period, there was a Significant In contrast to the above two pests, infestations of E. (P=O.OS) effect of time of planting on the number of saccharina and S. calamistis on maize were not larvae found on maize, with the first and third recorded until the second and third sampling plantings having significantly higher numbers of periods, in both seasons respectively (Table 1 and larvae per plant than the other maize crops (Table 1). 2). There was no significant effect of time of Time of planting and stem borers planting on the level of maize infestation by S. calamistis. Similar infestation trends were observed in the long rains although higher infestations were observed during the second sampling period as compared to the short rains (Table 2).The present study demonstrated substantial variability in the incidence of the four lepidopteran stem borers of maize in central Uganda. A major factor in the pattern of occurrence of these is their preferences on the crop. While C. partellus attacks both vegetative parts and cobs, and B. fusca seems to prefer the vegetative parts only, among the late occurring borers E.saccharina attacked vegetative parts and cobs and S.calamistis mostly attacked cobs (Girling, 1978).The results also showed that time of maize planting influences the relative incidence of these pests as reported by earlier workers (Khan et al., 1969, Panwar et al., 1979). This time related variation in stem borer incidence greatly influences the control strategy to be used against these pests. The study also demonstrated the qualitative and quantitative differences in the borer population throught the season.This means that to breed maize resistant to stem borers, selection should be carried out at two levels. The first selection should be against the early stem borers, C. partellus and B. fusca, at an early stage of crop growth when they are abundant and most destructive, and the second one during flowering, since E. saccharina and S. calamistis tend to occur post-anthesis pests (Okoth et al., 1990).The results further suggest that screening of maize for stem borer resistance under natural infestations in Uganda should be based on early planting of maize as suggested previously by Taneja and Nwanze (Taneja et al., 1990) since the susceptible stage of the crop coincides with peak activity of stem borers.Integrated pest management (IPM) was defined about a quarter century ago and since then has been studied, tried, and implemented with varying degrees of success in different crops and parts of the world. It has been defined many times, by many authorities, but in simple terms means utilizing all possible means and measures to reduce pest populations and damage to a minimum, or below the 'economic injury level' in a crop or cropping system. It is most widely practiced and successful in developed countries, where all the necessary components and infrastructure to implement an IPM program exist. Based on its success in various crops in developed countries, IPM has been highly promoted in developing countries as a solution to the over-reliance and misuse of chemical control measures. Much has been written on how to 'transfer the technology' (Brader, 1979;1980). One of the earliest and comprehensive attempts to develop an IPM program for maize for small farmers' in developing countries was that of van Huis (1981). It is an impressive work, containing a wealth of information on which an IMP program could be based, and lead to its success; yet in a country where political and social turmoil still exists (author's personal observation, 1994), it is little more than a theoretical indication of potential which is not presently contemplated or widely practiced. An important clarification of the definition of IPM was made by van Huis (1981): \"Integrated pest management should as much as possible use other than chemical methods taking into account the small farmer's conditions. \"The author's participation in an IPM workshop recently (Isles, 1994)   et al., 1991;Markham, 1993) and some research at international centers on the use of biological control.Andrews and Bentley (1990) list and discuss the many reasons why rPM is favored and accepted 'philosophy', but not 'practice' in the Central American region by small scale, mostly subsistence farmers. Among the many reasons for its lack of adoption, perhaps the foremost is that for low value, basic grains, there is little margin for small scale farmers to risk any capital expenditure for crop protection. For most maize farmers in developing countries, the lack of capital, or credit, and the high risk of loosing their crop to drought and pests prevents the use of control measures beyond minimal cultural practices. The minimal investment is the cost of seed and planting and little, if any, pesticides or fertilizers are used in maize production, even if they are subsidized by government or other organizations. Though it may not be well publicized or well known, if the farmers have such inputs available to them, they more commonly apply them to a planting of a higher value (usually a cash crop) where there are prospects for a greater financial return. It is basically for this reason, that CIMMYr philosophy has been, and will continue to be, to work to develop host plant resistant germplasm to aid the resourcepoor, small scale, developing country farmers.Twenty-five years ago, when CIMMYr and other organizations were just beginning to look for and improve maize host plant resistance to pests, resistant varieties and hybrids were goals to work towards. In the years since, a great deal of progress has been made (CIMMYr, 1989). Materials that serve as sources of multiple resistance to insect pests have been developed, tested and verified on a reasonably wide scale (Davis, et al., 1988;Mihm, et al., 1988;1995, Amason, et ai., 1993)). In a very few cases, national programs have been able to use these 'exotic' sources and develop varieties which show economic levels of HPR «10% yield reduction in the case ot attack by com borers) on an experimental basis (Konak, 1988b). After achieving adequate levels of resistance to maize insect pests, of multiple species, in the last 5 years, we have had closer collaboration within an integrated team of entomologist, pathologist and breeders, and have placed considerable effort on developing multiple pest (insect and disease) resistance in acceptable agronomic backgrounds. Varieties with resistance to a single pest species are of little utility as nearly every farm, or field, has a complex of both insect and disease pests that affect the crop. In order for a variety or hybrid to be useful (and accepted or adopted for planting by a farmer), it must be better than what the farmer already has. A new release should be better for at least one pest and must NOT be worse (more susceptible) to other pests of equal or similar importance. With this knowledge, efforts in recent years in the CIMMYT HPR maize stress program have focused on improving maize to develop materials with the following multiple resistance combinations:• Stem borer and downy mildew, both major pests in the Asian region. To the extent possible, all materials are selected for resistance improvement to the common foliar diseases. However, because progress has been slower, or efforts begun later, selection for resistance to single pest species is being continued at CIMMYT for the following:• Spider mites.• Com rootworms (Diabrotica complex).• Maize weevil.• Larger Grain Borer (Prostephanus truncatus).Once adequate levels of resistance are achieved, these materials serve as sources and provide an opportunity to combine these resistances. Some examples, where the prevailing combination of stresses indicate a need to develop multiple resistance are:• Spider mite resistance and drought tolerance.• Com earworm and fine stripe virus resistance.• Stem borer and fall armyworm resistance and acid soil tolerance. • Stem borer, fall armyworm, com earworm and resistance to Aspergillus flavus ( the fungus that produces aflotoxin). • Com rootworm, stem borer, and fall armyworm resistance. • Stem borers and stalk rot complex resistance.Varieties that have sufficient levels of resistance to the major pest(s) can serve as the major and in some cases the. sole factor in successfully managing pest populations and resultant damage. This protection is at little or no cost to the farmer. If HPR levels are not ideal, even low levels are helpful and are completely compatible with other IPM practices and strategies, including minimal use of pesticides.Based on preliminary results presented in Table 1 (extracted from Pixley, 1994, see Jewell et al., 1994) and Tables 2a and 2b (extracted from Mihm, et al., 1995) some selected experimental varieties and hybrids from CIMMYT populations 390 and 590, Multiple resisitance -the key to success and top-cross hybrids utilizing lines from these populations with varying levels of multiple resistance to stem borers, foliar leaf diseases and maize streak virus complex, have shown better yield performance than local commercial varieties and hybrid checks. The yield reduction and leaf damage ratings are significantly lower in resistant materials (Table 1) and the best yields of partially inbred lines (extracted from the germplasm with multiple borer resistance) testcrossed to two lines from southern Africa has been highly competitive (Table 2a and  2b). These data help dispel the popular notion that there is a yield cost associated with resistance to pests, and validate the hypothesis that HPR can serve as the sole means of IPM, whether used in developed or developing country farming systems.In developed countries, where IPM, induding all its components, are feasible and workable, it is the strategy to be followed, and it has the potential to be fine tuned to complex pests and problems. Galinat(1994) has designed a wheel diagram which illustrates the relationships between breeding (for HPR), rPM and other segments of society. Wiseman (1992) has similarly stated that HPR should/can serve as the \"hub\" of IPM. It is this author's contention that a few materials currently exist, and more are likely to be developed in the near future, which increase the size of the \"hub\" to a wheel diagram much more appropriate to IPM for developing countries. In reality, the connections \"spokes\" between the resource poor, small scale farmer in developing countries and institutions and societal sectors is better depicted by the diagram presented in Fig. 1. The resistant variety (the \"hub\") is sufficient to provide adequate pest management and sustained crop production, at least until such time as the farmer, country or region, develops, or is able to apply, manage and successfully adopt a full IPM program in all its complexities.Figure 1. A wheel diagram showing the author's perception of the role of functional maize IPM components for developing country, resource poor small-scale farmers; a wooden, ox-cart type wheel, with a rubber rim to represent developed country technology.  , 1990a;Shanower et al., 1991;Gounou et al., 1994). Control of stem borers can only be achieved through integration of various control practices such as biological and cultural control, as well as host plant resistance. Resistance breeding has been an effective approach for control of insect pests in other parts of the world (Gracen, 1989;Smith et al., 1989). Scientists at IITA have been conducting research on and developing control practices for stem borers for several years. Screening and breeding for resistance to the above two stem borer species are an integral part of these efforts.Sesamia calamistis adults lay their eggs between the leaf sheaths of young maize plants and upon hatching most larvae penetrate the stem below the growing point. Larvae may also penetrate the whorl, resulting in leaf, tassel and upper stem damage. Serious yield reduction from S. calamistis occurs as a result of dead hearts, stem tunneling, lodging and direct damage to the ears. Tunneling of the stem commonly results in early leaf senescence, reduced translocation and lodging (Bosque-Perez and Mareck, 1990aMareck, , 1991)). In contrast to S. Three populations with moderate resistance to S. calamistis were formed between 1987 and 1988 (Table 1). The population TZBR Sesamia 2 was eventually discontinued as it did not show adequate levels of resistance to this pest. The remaining two populations, TZBR-Sesamia 1 aild 3, are undergoing selection for resistance to S. calamistis .Screening for resistance to E. saccharina has received major emphasis. After intensive screening from 1985 to 1987, three populations with moderate resistance to E. saccharina were formed between 1988 and 1989 (Table 1).In 1985, 102 accessions introduced mostly from CIMMYT were screened for resistance as test crosses with the hybrid 8338-1; superior materials were selected and backcrossed to their original introduction. TZBR (Tropical Zea Borer Resistant) Eldana 1 was formed from the best 14 of these backcrosses. Additionally, inbred lines with tropical adaptation were screened for resistance and the' best five recombined to form the population TZBR Eldana 2.Tropically-adapted, early, intermediate and late-maturing open-pollinated populations were also screened for resistance in 1988-89 (Fig. 1, Table 2). SI lines from the three most resistant late populations (La Posta, DMR-LSRW and TZSR-W-l) were screened and superior lines were selected and recombined to form the TZBR Eldana 3 population. Eldana resistance levels in tropically adapted populations. Among the early, tropically-adapted populations screened in 1988, two early composites undergoing improvement at lITA (TZE Compo 3 and 4) and an experimental variety from CIMMYT's population 30 (EV 8730-SR) showed the least ear damage under E. saccharina infestation (Fig. 1). An experimental variety derived from CIMMYT population 49 (IK (1) 8149-SR) had very low stalk breakage. The resistance of TZE Compo 4 is  4Or- ------------------------------  At maturity, the following assessments are made: percent of plants with broken stalks, ear aspect (size, uniformity, freedom from diseases, etc.) and plant aspect (plant and ear height, uniformity, freedom from diseases, etc.) using 1-5 scales, ear damage, an estimate of the percentage of grain consumed or damaged by the borer using a 1-5 scale (1= 0-5; 2 = 6-25; 3 = 26-50; 4\" 51-75 and 5\" 76-100%) and grain yield. Measurements on agronomic characters (days to silk, plant and ear height) are also taken. The relative weights assigned to agronomic characteristics and E. saccharina resistance traits vary depending on the population and severity of infestation in a particular year.TZBR Eldana 3 was developed from elite, adapted populations and therefore may be more immediately transferred to NARS. Cycle 2 of this population performed well in multilocational yield trials in Nigeria and COte d'Ivoire in 1993. It will be included in our International Variety Trials for the first time this year. The selection index applied to this population is shown in Table 3. Family means for each trait are standardized by subtracting the overall mean and dividing the difference by the standard deviation. The index value for each family is obtained by multiplying the adjusted means by the assigned weights and summing across traits. Adjustments to the weights are made if selection appears to be having undesirable effects on other agronomic characteristics. TZBR Eldana 1 is derived from exotic germplasm and is less adapted to the region, thus agronomic characteristics are given less weight in the index since the population is intended for use as a source of E. saccharina resistance by national breeding programs.To evaluate the progress achieved in selecting for resistance to E. saccharina, cycles of selection trials are periodically conducted. In 1991, Cycles 0 to 4 of TZBR-Eldana 1 and CO to C2 of TZBR Eldana 3 were evaluated under infestation along with a susceptible check and two hybrids. Ratings for ear damage were significantly lower (P<0.05) for later cycles compared to early ones, shOWing that increased levels of resistance to this pest have been obtained in these populations (Fig. 2). Time to maturity has also increased in TZBR Eldana 1. The use of a selection index should prevent further inadvertent increases in maturity in the future.Sesamia calamistis. The development of screening methods and the selection of Sesamia resistant materials was enhanced by the identification of resistant (TZi 4) and susceptible (TZi 19 or TZi 25) inbred line checks (Mareck et aI., 1989). To screen for resistance to S. calamistis, 21-day-old plants are infested with 25-30 eggs (black head stage) obtained from a laboratory colony. Eggs are placed between the leaf sheaths at the base of the plant. Damage ratings are taken 2 and 6 weeks after infestation using a 1-9 rating scale (Bosque-Perez et al., 1989).We had observed that plant vigor influences the plants' reaction to S. calamistis attack. We were therefore concerned that differences in inbreeding depression among 51 families could make it difficult to detect resistance that would be expressed in' a noninbred background. A split-plot experiment was conducted in the screenhouse to simultaneously compare the resistance performance of 51 families from TZBR Sesamia 1 C1 with test crosses derived from the same families (TC). There was no average difference in damage ratings between 176 51 families and theil TCs. This could be explained by the fact that a highly susceptible inbred was used as the tester, in order to maximize expression of resistance among the test crosses. Highly significant differences were observed among families for resistance, but the family x type (51 or TC) interaction was not significant (Table 4). Analysis within types showed that genetic differences were significant among the 51 families, but not among the TCs. More replication would therefore be required to make comparable progress from selection based on TC evaluation. Vigor ratings (1 = very vigorous to 9 = not vigorous) were obtained on a subset of 112 families. Correlations between damage ratings and vigor were obtained both for 51 families (r = 0.39, p<O.Ol) and TCs (r = 0.51, p<O.Ol). Although the correlation was greater for the TCs, the difference between the correlations was not significant. These results suggest that 51 family selection for S. calamistis resistance will be more effective than TC selection.However, since the correspondence between 51 families and their TCs was very poor, one cycle of selection will be carried out separately for both types of families to determine actual progress that can be obtained from the two selection methods.Due to the relationship between S. calamistis resistance and plant vigor, hybrids tend to be more resistant than open-pollinated varieties. Among the Sesamia populations, TZBR Sesamia 3 CO appears to have the greatest resistance, which was comparable to hybrid 8321-18 in one experiment (data not shown). Figure 3 shows the distribution of 51 families from this population averaged over two replications. Genotypes to the left of the distribution are most resistant. Twenty families had better ratings than the resistant check, TZi 4. One limitation of TZBR Sesamia 3 is that it is relatively susceptible to Puccinia polysora. Some attention will be given to agronomic characteristics and disease resistance in the future, while continuing to place greatest emphasis on developing Sesamia resistant source populations for national breeding programs. In the present investigations, field experiments were conducted at Embu Regional Research Centre during the 1990/91 cropping seasons. Evaluation of possible sources of resistance to Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) and Busseola fusca (Fuller), were carried out on local germplasm, CIMMYT populations and breeder lines under natural infestation. Parameters used for evaluation were foliar damage, stalk tunnelling, borer exit and entry holes, and. the number of stem borer larvae and pupae present.Results indicated that there were significant differences between cultivars in the components (parameters) of resistance that were measured. These differences were evident, not only on the relative indices for resistant components, but also in their overall resistance and susceptibility values.CIMMYT germplasm was found to be moderately resistant to stem borers. Single cross hybrids of SR 52 lines (line 7 and 11) and open pollinated cultivars (Embu 11 and 12) showed high overall resistance/susceptibility index (ORSI) reflecting high susceptibility for almost all the parameters used.From the data presented, I conclude that some of the parameters, especially foliar damage, will allow the identification of sources of resistance and may subsequently be used during selection.INTRODUCfION successful breeding for multiple borer resistance depends mainly on the development of suitable The maize improvement program in Kenya is procedures to be used in screening and identifying divided into four sub programs based on rainfall, physical traits that are responsible. altitude and maturity periods where the maize is grown. These are; high altitude late, mid-altitude The objectives of this screening program were to: intermediate maturity, mid-altitude early and (i) Identify sources of resistance to stem borers. coastal lowland breeding programs (Anon. 1990). All these programs have, in the past, paid attention (ii) Develop procedures to be used in resistance to yield improvement with most of the cultivars screening in breeding nurseries. developed being susceptible to stem borers. This MATERIALS AND METHODS problem is a manifestation of the breeding techniques that rely heavily on insecticides in Field studies were conducted at Embu Regional selection nurseries. This is more so in the mid Research Centre during the 1990/1991 cropping altitude program where most of the high yielding seasons. lines developed are very susceptible to stem borers, During the 1990 cropping season, a total of 9 maize particularly Busseola fusca (Fuller) and Chilo materials from different sources were used. These partellus (Swinhoe).were inbred A, and the following CIMMYr The central, eastern and some parts of the western materials were included: PR86MBR, PR8523SCB and provinces of Kenya are heavily dependent on maize PR86CHILO (obtained from CIMMYr Mexico). The which features very prominently in the cropping second group was made up of three open pollinated systems. Strategies to reduce losses due to stem cultivars Embu 11, DLC1 and KCB (Katumani borers have in the past relied heavily on the use of Composite B), obtained locally, while the third insecticides (Warui and Kuria, 1983). This method group consisted of mid altitude hybrids H511 and of control is expensive and not very practical, H512.During the 1991 growing season, a particularly with the subsistence farmers, due to the completely new set of cultivars were used. The new timing of application and the cost of the insecticides. lines were inbreds derived from a single cross The innate quality of a plant that renders it hybrid SR52, together with inbred A. All these lines unsuitable as food or shelter for insect pest or were obtained from the stations' breeding nursery. otherwise referred to as host plant resistance (HPR) The second group of cultivars were similar to the (Herzog and Funderbark, 1985) still remains the previous years' materials with the inclusion of most practical, environmentally safe, and cultivar Embu 12. Similarly, as in the previous economically feasible method in borer control. It season, one H511 was used. During the two years of was therefore found necessary to look for ways of field screening, inbred A was used as a susceptible incorporating HPR in the currently recommended check. hybrids and open pollinated cultivars. However, 188 Gethi Each material was planted in the field in double-row infestation levels). Then relative indices of the plots at a spacing of 70 cm by 30 cm between and resistance components for each materials were within rows respectively, in a randomized complete calculated for each parameter as a ratio of its block design and replicated four times.damage and infestation level to that of the reference cultivars (inbred A). The average of all the relative The parameters tested as indicators of resistance indices of the components gave a level of the were: materials overall resistance susceptibility index i. Foliar damage rating -This was done weekly (ORSI).The lower the ORIS the greater the from 10 plants selected at random using a scale of estimated resistance (Ampofo et al., 1986). 1 to 9 where 1 was no damage and 9 meantsevere foliar damage (Guthrie et ai., 1960).From Table 1 it was evident that there were ii. Stalk tunnelling -Five plants per treatment were significant (P\"'0.05) differences between cultivars in selected at harvest and split open to asses the their responses to damage and infestation levels. length of the tunnels made by the feeding larvae. Materials obtained from CIMMYf, together with the This parameter was later expressed as a local open pollinated cultivars had lower levels of percentage of the total length. infestation and damage. Embu 11 and H511, which iii. Stem borer number and species -This was done are genetically related, had significantly (P\"'0.05) three times in the course of the season from higher infestation and damage levels than inbred A another set of 5 plants selected at random. for all the parameters that were used.iv. Exit/entry holes -This was assessed from the Figure 1 and Table 2 show the ORSI comparisons plants that were used in iii. the holes were between cultivars and their relative indices of the distinguished by the presence or absence of frass components of resistance and ORSI respectively. deposits.Embu 11 and H511 showed the highest ORSI indicating their susceptibility with the CIMMYf v. Internodes bored -These were taken as the entries and the open pollinated cultivars (KCB and number of internodes tunneled from the plants OLC 1) showed a moderate level of resistance that were dissected for borer counts. compared to the susceptible check inbred A. An analysis of variance was done for the various However, the index values for the parameters .used parameters measured (damage ratings and differed in different cultivars with some of them having a low value for one parameter but higher pollinated cultivars KCB and DLCI showed values for other parameters.moderate resistance when all were compared to inbred A. Table 4 shows differences in relative This trend was the same on the other entries used indices of individual components and ORIS values. during the following cropping season. Table 3 indicated that, as in the previous year, there were The overall data for the two years of screening significant (P=0.05) differences between cultivars on indicates that sources of resistance are different in all the infestation and damage parameters used for different cultivars. evaluation. Foliar damage rating ranged from 1.26 DISCUSSION in H511 to 2.75 in Embu 11. Tunnel length and the number of exit/ entry holes on the stems were also The results presented show that locally grown open significantly (P = 0.05) more in the same cultivars pollinated maize cultivars (composites) for example (Embu 11) and least in KCB. SR52 lines, when all KCB and DLCI have a better level of stem borer parameters were considered, performed poorly resistance that is comparable to multiple borer when compared to the open pollinated cultivars. resistance• from CIMMYT. Omolo (1983) attributed this to their early maturing nature, escaping the Figure 2 and Table 4 shows the ORSI and damage second borer generation. It is also evident from the and infestation levels indices for all the entries. data that the most susceptible cultivars in mid Figure 2 indicates that Embu 11 and line 14 of the altitude regions were Embu 11 and 12 and also SR52 were highly susceptible while the open Gethi  ---------------------------------  --------------------------------------- H511. These cultivars, together with the lines from single cross hybrid SR52, showed higher values for almost all the parameters used thus resulting in a higher ORSI (>1).As regards sources of resistance, in those cultivars that showed moderate levels of resistance, parameters used to measure resistance or susceptibility were varied. Some cultivars had a lower value for one parameter but a higher value for another parameter. For KCB showed higher values for foliar damage but a very low value for stem borers that were recovered. Ampofo (1986), using lowland maize cultivars, found that other than foliar damage, other parameters combined together may result in yield reduction though their individual effect, were not large.-The overall conclusion that can be drawn here is that the cultivars showing low values for foliar rating and low number of internodes bored could be used as sources of resistance in breeding for higher yields.Characters that contribute to susceptibility should be removed from the already existing commercial hybrids to produce more tolerant heterotic materials for the mid-altitude regions.INTRODUCTION commensurate improvement in resistance or tolerance to each of the damage parameters, is The use of resistant maize genotypes is a basic desired. approach to insect pest management particularly for small scale subsistent farmers in Africa.The methods and strategies being used at ICIPE to develop maize genotypes with improved levels of Chilo partellus (Swinhoe), an important stem borer in resistance to the three types of damage by C. the lowland region of eastern Africa, has been partellus is hereby highlighted. The critical feature of extensively studied in the host-plant resistance the approach at ICIPE has been the hand-in-hand programme of the ICIPE. Damage symptoms due to working together of the plant breeder and the the insect attack include foliar lesions, deadheart entomologist at every stage of evaluation and and stem tunnelling. All these types of damage, if development of genotypes. caused at the respective vulnerable stages of crop growth lead to grain yield loss. The magnitude of Evaluation methods. Screening of maize genotypes such yield loss varies (Walker 1967; Warui and is done either naturally or artificially. Since uniform Kuria, 1983;Seshu Reddy and Sum, 1992) according infestation level is desired, an artificial method of to the resistance, susceptibility or tolerance levels of infestation is generally employed. Insects from the the genotypes and their growth stages at the time of mass rearing procedure described later in the paper infestation.are used to infest genotypes at three weeks after crop emergence (WAE). Infesting earlier, results in It is opined (Mihm, 1985) that the vulnerability to deadheart formation while later results mainly in stem borers from early seedling stages to near foliar damage (Figure 1). However, any of the three maturity of maize plants is due to overlapping damage characteristics of foliar lesions, deadbeart generations of the pests in a year. However, in one and stem tunnelling result in yield loss (Mohyuddin generation of C. partellus, different larval instars and Attique, (1978); Ampofo 1986;Kumar 1988; cause distinct types of damage; the early instars Ajala and Saxena, 1994). While the use of \"bazooka\" causing mostly foliar lesions while the later ones is being standardized, artificial infestation is feed within plants to cause deadheart and/ or stem currently being done with either first instar larvae or tunnelling. In addition, the time of infestation and egg masses at the black-head stage. Either way, a borer population levels determine the type of certain level of experience and expertise is required primary damage caused to the plant. In effect, to to uniformly infest contending genotypes. achieve an overall increase in resistance levels,Breeding strategies to improve resistance to spotted stem borer 193 Scoring and counting for foliar damage and deadheart respectively are at four weeks after infestation. Foliar lesion is on a 1=resistant to 9=susceptible scale while deadheart is estimated as the percent of plants in a plot showing the symptom. Extent of stem tunnelling is estimated at harvest by measuring the actual length tunnelled and expressing this as a percentage of the plant height. Results obtained from artificial infestation at 3WAE has been encouraging and effective in discriminating resistant from susceptible genotypes. It has also shown that relative ranking of the genotypes were not consistent for the damage parameters that is; genotype-by-parameter interaction exists. For example, Inbred A was consistently the most susceptible while the damage levels of the other entries were variable (Table 1). Due to the significance of genotype-by-parameter interaction, an overall resistance susceptibility index (ORSI) was Foliar lesions ..proposed (Ampofo et al., 1986a). A basic limitation to the use of ORSI is that parameters were assumed to have equal weighting. Nevertheless ORSI as proposed, and indeed the use of any other index, implies that commensurate improvement in each of the resistance parameters would be needed to effect an overall improvement in resistance level. This approach was also echoed by Mihm (1985) for stem borer resistance in subtropical and tropical areas.One very important step in evaluation of crop genotypes for insect resistance involves challenging the plants artificially with an adequate number of insects at appropriate developmental stages and then observe/ measure parameters of susceptibility resistance. For this it is important to have a mass culture of the insects. Many insects species can be reared on artificial diets specific to them. But a major qualification for such a rearing is the quality of insects produced and they must have their biophysical processes as well as activity as close to wild insect as possible.The rearing of C. partellus on artificial diet has been possible for a long time (Pant et al., 1960) and with various modifications (Chatterji et al., 1968; Siddiqui  and Chatterji, 1972; Siddiqui et al., 1977; Sharma and  Sarup, 1978; Seshu Reddy and Davies, 1978; Ochieng  et al., 1985; Singh and Sarup, 1985). Seasonal infusion \"from the wild is important to prevent inbreeding and maintain vigour and to eliminate the pOSSibility of ending with insects adapted to the laboratory conditions.A summary of the ingredients needed for mass rearing as being carried out at the ICIPE is given in Table 2. Although  and Saxena, 1988;Kumar, 1990;Ajala, 1993). The damage at 3WAI and tagging plants with rating of different modifications to the preparation method <3 for selting, while extent of stem tunnelling is have been used, the method detailed by Ochieng et estimated for the selted plants at harvest. Equal  al. (1985) is adequate.number of seeds from selted plants with <10% tunnelling is then composited for recombination in It is also possible to rear Chilo on a modest scale the following season. In effect, one year (or two using natural diet of four week old sorghum or seasons) is required to complete a cycle of selection. maize leaves, changing the leaves every other day Two cycles of selection have been completed in the until the larvae are at the third instar stage. five populations. Experience from the selting and Thereafter, six to eight week old stem chops should selection has shown that three of the five genotypes be used. The rearing facility at the ICIPE can now have very narrow genetic bases and a third cycle supply over 40 million insects annually and cheaply was performed with only MMV 400 and Poza Rica at ambient room temperature.7832. Results from evaluation of the cycles (CO to C2) The critical element in the mass rearing of Chilo for for progress are as shown in Table 3. our screening purposes is the maintenance of quality Although the very high proportion of linear through the monitoring of life-cycle parameters and component from the table suggests that changes in the use of pupa and adult indices of quality gene frequency is occurring, the non significance of (Ochieng'-Odero et al., 1991;Ochieng'-Odero, 1991).mean squares due to cycles is an indication that such Selection and breeding for resistance. Resistance in changes are indeed very slow thus suggesting that, to a large extent, some form of progeny testing may maize to the spotted stem borer is quantitative and preponderantly additive (Pathak and Othieno, 1990; be necessary before recombination. The procedure Ajala 1992Ajala , 1993)). Susceptibility is also partially has therefore been modified to include 51 testing but, three rather than two seasons will now be dominant over resistance (Ajala, 1992) In effect, required to complete a cycle. 51 selection has been identification of resistant genotypes shoul~ be reported useful in shifting gene frequencies for relatively easy and gradual improvement in  A total of 84 desirable 54 lines have been identified and tested in topcross trials for general combining ability (GCA). Out of these, ten lines have been selected and are currently at the 56 generation of inbreeding. Resistance data and grain yield, in top cross trial of the ten lines, are presented in Table 4.Full and half-sib selection. At the initiation of our breeding programme in 1990, two maize populations (ICZ3 and ICZ4) were composited from some maize genotypes with varying levels of resistance to C. partellus attack (Ajala and Saxena 1994b). To improve on levels of resistance and noting that gene action conditioning resistance was predominantly additive, both full-and half-sib family selection were initiated in ICZ3. Evaluation of the progenies for both resistance parameters and agronomic traits were recently concluded and a summary of the results obtained is presented in Table 5. The very wide range in values for each of the resistance parameters and grain yield is an indication of the feasibility for selection for reduced levels of resistance parameters and high grain yield.Breeding for tolerance. Tolerance, which is the ability of genotypes to produce and yield adequately despite infestation and damage, is a much better option than breeding for resistance per se in sustainable production systems. Nevertheless, breeding efforts for its utilization have been seriously hampered by lack of criteria to adequately quantify it as a parameter. Although Ampofo (1986) using the approaches of Ortega et aI. (1980) and Panda and Heinrichs (1983) separated some maize genotypes into four groups (quadrants) of (a) both antibiosis and tolerance operating; (b) antibiosis and no tolerance; (c) tolerance and no antibiosis and (d) both antibiosis and tolerance absent. The approach is rather flawed because it assumes yield loss to be linearly related to extent of foliar feeding/ damage by the insect without adequately considering other damage parameters such as stem tunnelling. Therefore, further studies have been conducted and concluded that stem tunnelling is actually the most important damage parameter causing yield loss (Ajala and Saxena, 1994a). Consequently, we defined tolerance as Tolerance = 100[(YC-YI)/YC]/ST where YC = Yield of control, YI = Yield of infested and ST =stem tunnelling (Ajala, 1992;1993).It is however known that other damage parameters affect yield although to a lesser extent than stem tunnelling. In effect, the equation as described above may also be inadequate to quantify tolerance. Perhaps, genotypes showing no significant yield loss despite infestation and damage may be considered as tolerant until a better measures of tolerance is determined. Among the several factors highlighted by Ampofo and Saxena (1986) that are needed for the development of breeding procedure for durable resistance to stalk borer, two are particularly important and can readily be modified by breeding.The first is the suitability of the host plant for feeding, growth and development of the insect, and the insect ability to exploit it, while the second is the reaction of the host plant to insect infestation and!or damage. The first is a measure of antibiosis while the later measures tolerance. Guthrie (1989) concluded that successful host plant resistance projects depend on efficient (a) insect rearing technique, (b) artificial infestation of maize plants, (c) evaluation of the plants, (d) genetic and breeding techniques. As of now, breeding for reduced levels of damage (antibiosis) is feasible. Perhaps, no significant difference between yield of uninfested and their infested counterparts can serve to screen for tolerance in materials developed for higher levels of antibiosis until a better weighting factor is determined.Although it is now recognized that extent of stem tunnelling is the most important damage parameter causing yield loss in maize, breeding for leaf feeding is also important to appreciate resistance in a genotype. Breeding for stem tunnelling resistance involves the splitting of stems and measuring the extent of tunnelling in a number of plants, a very laborious process. There is therefore, an urgent need to develop an efficient and rapid screening technique. Mechanisms of resistance to C. partellus in maize are mainly non-preference and antibiosis (Ampofo, 1985;Kumar and Saxena, 1985;Kumar, 1988), however, the effect of factors such as DIMBOA, a chemical known to confer resistance to first generation ECB in temperate maize, is yet to be determined. Thus, approaches at using indirect selection for rapid screening using the relative levels of a resistance factor is still needed. Such an approach may include identification of factors(s) which confer or indicate resistance early in the life of the plant to enable rapid elimination of susceptible genotypes and screening of several sets of materials in a growing season.The use of genetic engineering approaches, especially the development of transgenic plants using Bt endotoxin genes for resistance to insect pests has been extensively discussed by Guthrie (1989). Such high-tech approaches may be desirable when conventional or alternative approaches using indirect selection have been exhausted. Other approaches such as restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay, random amplified Ajala et ai.polymorphic DNA (RAPD), quantitative trait loci (QTL) and marker assisted selection need to be investigated for their role as selection tools for resistance. Ajala, 5.0.1992 Twenty-six 3-to IS-day-old weevils were allowed to infest each replicate of the different The use of resistant varieties is the single most genotypes for seven days. At the end of the sevenimportant component of an integrated pest day oviposition period all adult insects were management system which utilizes a combination of removed. The grains were retained at the same cultural, chemical, and biological control methods. condition for the emergence of Fl weevils. The The most attractive feature of using pest resistant grains were inspected daily until all the Fl varieties is that virtually no skill in pest control or generation adults were emerged. Duplicate controls cash investment is required of the grower (Adkisson were set up in exactly the same manner except for and Dyck, 1980).the introduction of weevils in order to correct for Maize varieties differ greatly in their intrinsic grain weight changes due to changes in moisture susceptibility to stored cereal grain pests (McCain et content. Grain weight losses were calculated as a al., 1964;Vanderschaaf et al., 1969;Dobie, 1974; percentage of the difference between the uninfested Ivbijaro, 1981) allowing the possibility of selecting control of a given genotype and the infested grains resistant lines against these pests. In Ethiopia, no of the same genotype. attempt has been made to assess the available maize Progenies emerged, median development period, genotypes for their resistance to storage pests indices of susceptibility, grain damage and weight particularly to the maize weevil. The objective of losses were recorded. An index of susceptibility was this experiment was therefore, to evaluate some of derived which is given as log e F/0 x 100, where F is the available maize genotypes for their resistance to the total number of Fl adults and D is the median the maize weevil in the laboratory.development period, estimated as the time from the MATERIALS AND METHODS middle of the oviposition period to the emergence of 50% of the F1 generation (Dobie, 1974;1977). Twenty five maize genotypes (Table 1) received Weight loss assessment was made by finding the from different local sources were cleaned and difference in dry weight between the uninfested disinfested by freezing at 0 to -3°C for about two grain of a test variety and the infested grain of the months as suggested by Dobie (1977) and Wright et same variety at the end of the test period. Data al. (1989). The moisture contents were adjusted by obtained were analyzed after transformation where adding water or by slow drying as recommended by necessary and Duncan's New Multiple Range Test Horber (1989) and Wright et al. (1989). Each of four was used to test differences at 0.5% significance 90 g replicates of the different genotypes were put in level. a 3S0 ml glass jar (with screw lid allowing ventilation) and arranged in a randomized complete Genotype number 4a and 4b seeds were too few to be treated separately and because of their similarity in kemel characteristics these were mixed and treated as genotype No.4progeny emergence in the different maize genotypes was negative and significant (r = 0.52). The mean number of Fl weevils emerged from each maize genotype is presented in Table 2. The The difference in mean development time was not genotypes may be grouped as high, intermediate significant. However, highly significant differences and low in terms of progeny emergence. The in the median development periods were detected variation between genotypes within the high and (Table 2). Moreover, highly significant variations intermediate categories was not significant. among the genotypes in their indices of Similarly, variations between genotypes in the high susceptibility were observed (Table 2). Based on and intermediate categories and between genotypes these indices the different maize genotypes may be in the intermediate and low categories were not classified into three general groups, susceptible significant.However, differences between moderately susceptible and resistant. In order of the genotypes in the high and low categories were decreasing value of the indices, genotypes 11, 7, 14, significant.There was highly significant and 6, 8, 16, 9, 18, 1, 10, 3, 13, 12, 15, 21 and 2 were positive correlation (r -0.76) between the categorized as susceptible; genotypes 17, 20, 4, 19 susceptibility indices and the number of progenies and 25 as moderately susceptible and genotypes 22, emerged from the various maize genotypes 5, 23 and 24 as resistant. However, although the evaluated. As the extent of damage during storage genotypes were categorized in three reaction groups, depends upon the number of emerging adult during there were similarities among genotypes in the each generation and the duration of each life cycle, different groups. grains permitting more rapid and higher levels of Highly significant variation in the percentage of adult emergence will be more seriously damaged. damaged-kernels was observed among genotypes Vanderschaaf et al. (1969) and Dobie (1977) indicated (Table 2). Based on this parameter, the genotypes that in general a material is classified as resistant if may again be classified generally as susceptible, the percentage of emergence of adults is reduced moderately susceptible and resistant. Genotypes 6, and/or the emerging adult number is low. The 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,17,18 and 21 were highly correlation between parent weevil mortality and damaged, genotypes 1, 2, 3, 4, 15,19,20 and   and 24 were less damaged or resistant. Differences between genotypes within a group were not significant. The categorization of genotypes based on the percentage of kernels damaged coincided with the grouping based on the susceptibility indices. However, genotypes 1, 3, 15, 16 and 17 were found to be in different categories when different criteria of classification were used. All the dent kernels were susceptible, almost all flints were moderately resistant, semi-dent and semi-flint kernels were either resistant or moderately resistant or susceptible.In general, it appeared that neither the kernels size nor the endosperm character being runt or dent were the main factors influencing infestation and damage by the weevil since no consistent relationships of these factors to susceptibility were detected. However, although not consistent, it was observed that genotypes with bold and relatively soft and floury kernels were found to be more liable to multiple infestations and damage than genotypes with relatively \"hard\" kernels.The percentage losses in weight were significantly different among genotypes. The difference between the control and infested grains was also Significant within a given genotype (P < 0.001, LSD • 0.96, S.E.• 0.34). The losses observed during this assessment were very close to losses reported by Dobie (1974) in thirty different maize materials tested for their relative susceptibility to the maize weevil. He also indicated that it should be noted that even after sieving, the pupal chamber in the grain will contain frass, and so the weight loss measured will be minimal, and the error will vary according to the number of insects developing in the grain. He further pointed out that comparative results between varieties, however, should be valid.According to the overall performance, genotypes 5, 22, 23 and 24 consistently showed resistance to weevil damage; genotypes 2, 4, 17, 19, 20 and 25 were moderately resistant and genotypes 6, 7, 8, 11, 14 were highly susceptible to weevil damage.Genotypes 1, 3, 9, 10, lZ, 13, 15, 16, 18 and 21 did not show consistency in their category based on the different parameters. But based on their indices of susceptibility all of them were in the susceptible group. However, further investigations are necessary in order to make valid conclusions.Significant differences among maize genotypes indicated substantial genetic variations for resistance to weevil feeding. Therefore, cultivars should be screened for susceptibility to weevils during their development in order to ensure that their storage characteristics are acceptable. It remains necessary for entomologists and plant breeders to collaborate increasingly in the identification and subsequent incorporation of insect resistance as a desirable varietal trait together with other desirable agronomic characteristics in the breeding of maize.The senior author would like to extend his sincere thanks to Ato Adane Kassa and Ato Sewagegn Tariku, entomologist and technical assistant respectively of the Bako Research Center, for their substantial contribution to the successful completion of this study. The late Dr. J. Singh, senior maize breeder/ agronomist and the World Bank consultant characterized the various maize genotype kernels for which I am grateful. A previously unknown disorder of maize is described from farmers' fields in Uganda. In severe examples, plants were stunted, leaves were short and stubby with a ragged rather than straight margin; leaves were also curved upwards both laterally and longitudinally to form an ear-like shape, and had prominent, galled leaf veins. Sometimes symptoms were restricted to only lower leaves or parts of lower leaves. In one field near Namulonge about 25% of plants were affected to some degree; affected plants have also been found elsewhere in Uganda. Leathoppers identified as Cicadulina niger (Ghauri) were present on affected plants, associated with ants which appeared to attend them. In laboratory tests, feeding by one or a few C. niger induced a similar disease symptom in young maize seedlings of the variety Kawanda Composite A and, when removed, new foliage was sympyomless. Thus, like maize wallaby ear caused by C. bimaculata (Evans) and C. bipunctata (Melichar), these symptoms result from feeding by C. niger. Field-collected adults allowed 2 days access to maize streak virus (MSV), on infected maize leaves, also transmitted MSV to maize seedlings of Kawanda Composite A, a first record of transmission by this species.INTRODUcrlON regions and on upper leaves. Symptoms were, however, quite variable in severity. Some plants Maize is planted during both first and second rains were only a few centimetres tall with all the leaves in Uganda, often mixed with other crops and severely affected, whilst other plants had only the generally in smallholdings. During October 1993, a lower leaves or only parts of lower leaves affected. farmer growing second rains maize near Namulonge These plants were apparently growing away from (Mpigi District) drew our attention to deformed the \"disease\" . plants in his crop. The symptoms were unfamiliar to the author and Dr. N. Bosque-Perez (personal Presence of leafhoppers. The presence of Cicadulina communication), senior maize entomologist at the niger (Ghauri) was consistently associated with International Institute for Tropical Agriculture.\"diseased\" maize plants in the field. Populations of leafhoppers were of the order of 1-10 adults plus This paper describes the disorder, identifies the associated nymphs per affected plant. Cicadulina causal agent and gives a limited assessment of its niger were not observed on unaffected plants. The occurrence in Uganda.adults and nymphs were found aggregated within OBSERVATIONS the curled up leaves and restricted to affected parts. Ants, were associated with C. niger, and appeared to Symptoms. Plants were stunted with reduced palpate them. internodes and relatively thick stems. A sample of ten plants with symptoms had a mean height of 50 Occurrence of affected plants.In the field +/ -32 em and unaffected plants in the same crop originally identified near Namulonge, Mpigi were 170 +/ -44 em tall. Leaves were short and District, counts of 50 plants along each of four rows stubby; a sample of 20 affected leaves had a mean had on average 25% of plants affected. Affected length of only 14 +/ -6 em compared with 91 +/ -26 plants appeared to be more frequent around crop cm for unaffected leaves whereas mean width of edges, perhaps influenced by the distribution of ant affected leaves was 6.1 +/-1.7 cm compared with colonies. Maize seedlings subsequently planted 8.6 +/ -2.8 cm for unaffected leaves. Leaves were along the edge of a neighboUring smallholding were rolled upwards laterally and to some extent all affected. However, severely affected plants and longitudinally to form an ear-like shape and held normal plants were observed growing side by side. upright at an acute angle to the stem.Affected plants were subsequently also found about 3km away from the original affected site and in two Affected leaves often had a ragged rather than the other districts (Masindi in the West and Luwero in normal evenly and slightly curved edge, with very Central Uganda). prominent galled, and often twisted, veins. Affected leaves were also chlorotic, especially in interveinal A new maize disorder in Uganda Other host plants. Inspection of the weeds found growing in affected fields revealed that some grasses showed similar symptoms.These included Pennisetum purpureum, Panicum maximum, Sorghum helepanse, Digltaria abyssinica and some Setaria species. Maize plants showed more pronounced symptoms than these weeds.Experimental production of symptoms in maize seedlings. About six adults were caged on seedling maize of the variety Kawanda Composite A. In this initial experiment, C. niger died within a day or so but despite this, symptoms of leaf curling, prominent veins, and galling developed within 4 days on young leaves.Subsequent foliage developed in the absence of C. niger was symptomless.When C. niger adults were caged in pairs on fully expanded leaves of seedlings for just two days, no symptoms appeared on these fully expanded leaves but the new leaves were severely affected on 15 of 20 plants.Transmission of maize streak virus (MSV). It was observed that some field plants showed symptoms of MSV in addition to the C. niger induced disorder. Therefore, field-collected adults of C. niger were allowed 2 days access to MSV-infected maize leaves and then caged in pairs on 15 maize seedlings of Kawanda Composite A for a further 2 days. Plants were retained in an insect-proof screenhouse throughout. Three seedlings developed symptoms of MSV whereas 20 control seedlings remained uninfected.In a second experiment, C. niger previously allowed 2 days access to MSV-infected maize seedlings, were caged in pairs on 25 seedlings for 2 days. Five seedlings developed symptoms of MSV.From the above observations, it is evident that feeding by C. niger can induce the symptoms of stunting, leaf rolling and galling observed in the field plants. The observation that affected plants can produce normal foliage again following the removal of the leafhoppers indicates that the disorder is unlikely to result from a virus transimitted during feeding and electronmicroscopical examination of plant tissues revealed no particles (P. Jones; personal communication). Similar symptoms, named maize wallaby ear, have been observed in Australasia; these were originally considered to be caused by a leafhopper-transmitted virus (Grylls, 1975; Bocardo,  Hatta, Francki & Grivell, 1980), but have now been shown to result from feeding damage by C. bimaculata (Ofori & Francki, 1983) in Australia and by C. bipunctata (cited as C. bipunctella) in the 203 Philippines (Maramorosch, Calica, Agati & Pableo, 1961). However severely affected plants in Uganda were chlorotic whereas plants with wallaby ear are reported to be dark green (GryUs, 1975). Furthermore, large populations of C. bimaculata are required to cause wallaby ear (Greber, 1983) whereas a few individuals are required to cause the disorder we have observed. We tentatively suggest the disorder we have observed in Uganda should be termed \"Maize Rhino Ear\" both to distinguish it from the related maize wallaby ear and to indicate its African occurrence. However, it is appreciated that the different symptomatology could result from the use of different maize varieties, as well as the different leafhopper species involved.CicaduIina niger is distributed throughout east Africa (Webb, 1987) although this is the first report for Uganda. This is also its first report as a serious pest in its own right and as being a vector of MSV (Van Rensburg, 1983). This also appears to be the first report of Cicadulina spp being associated with ants. The pygophores of male C. niger are short compared with other Cicadulina spp, and specimens of C. niger sent as part of this present study to the British Museum (Natural History) had shorter pygophores and a narrower aedeagus than Sudanese specimens (M.D.Webb, personal communication). Significantly, the first description of C. niger was entitled \"A remarkable new species of Cicadulina chinai (Hom., Cicadelloidea)\" (Ghauri, 1971) even without a knowledge of the characteristics reported here.In view of the importance of maize within Africa, the consequent attention this crop receives, and the dramatic symptoms of this disorder, it seems surprising that it has not been described previously. C. niger is indigenous to east Africa and there have been no recent changes in cultural practices or plant variety that seem able to explain its upsurge. It is possible that a new biotype able to colonise maize more aggressively has developed, but this is difficult to test in the absence of \"old\" cultures or extensive previous observations on this species. . Our observations at Namulonge suggest that the species is thriving and spreading locally, and that it also is widespread in Uganda.Whether this is the start of an epidemic of a new biotype or just a temporary upsurge of an indigenous minor pest is impossible to distinguish from current evidence, but the situation is being monitored.sustainability of developing countries' agroecosystems. Agriculture has been developed around the world to provide mankind with food and raw materials for his During the past three decades, a series of livelihood. After subsistence the majority of grain developments have caused post-harvest pests to harvested is retained and stored as a food or feed become more important and wide spread. These are: source until, the next harvest season.Storage 1. Development of local agricultural markets: The commodities are subjected to the ravages of insects, development of high yielding varieties has rodents and fungi. The net summary from over two increased production of food grains leaving some hundred scientific projects carried out world-wide farmers with excess food grains to be sold in the indicate that a conservative loss estimate throughout market.With the development of local the post-harvest system is in the region of 25 to 40% agricultural markets, farmers are able to sell even (De Lima, 1987). Many insect pests (grain borers, small quantities of excess grain. In these markets, weevils and moths) damage grain directly by feeding grains from different producers come together and indirectly by increasing susceptibility to and form one bulk. If the grain from even one secondary insect pests and fungi, significantly producer is infested with insect pests and not reducing both the quantity and quality of the grain. treated, it serves as a source of infestation to the In severe cases, the market value of the grain is clean grain in the bulk. reduced. If damaged grains are used as a seed source for planting a new crop the following season without 2. Development of transport facilities:The adjusting seeding rate, it can result in poor plant development of new and improved roads, and stands, hence reduced crop yields that season.availability of quick long distance transport (trucks, railways, ships etc.) has increased transfer Post-harvest food grain losses are a significant of food grains from the surplus regions to the nutritional and economic burden to developing regions of shortages. With the increased and countries' small scale subsistence farmers (Boume, more rapid transfer of food grains, insect pests 1987). The harvested crop is the net result of all the have ~pread widely and more often into new prior efforts of production. Any losses incurred postregions. harvest are absolute losses with no possibility of compensation. A plant can tolerate some damage 3. Food imports and food aid: Despite increased from pests but a seed, once damaged has no tolerance food production, many countries with increased mechanism to pest damage. Post-harvest food losses population pressures have not been able to seriously threaten the food security and in tum the remain or become self sufficient, requiring large imports or food aids from other countries. Pests spread from one country to another with these imports.4. Exchange of germplasm and development of high yielding varieties: With the advances in plant breeding, the exchange of improved germplasm has increased tremendously worldwide. Pests get accidently introduced with the germplasm exchange. Also, advances in plant breeding have changed the nature of food commodities stored such that through the efforts in producing crop varieties for higher production, their susceptibility to storage insect pests has sometimes been increased.With the development of short duration varieties, multiple cropping has become common in many parts of the developing countries. In many cases farmers are required to harvest the crop earlier with higher moisture content in order to have sufficient time for land preparation for new planting. Once the new crop is planted, less attention is given in drying and proper storage of the harvested commodity.Post-harvest food losses occur at farm level, market level and government level with many different social and economic circumstances. Food grains should be protected at all three levels. Thus different packages of integrated pest management should be developed to protect grains at each of the three levels. Farm level would include management practices to protect grain stored by the farmer as a food source. Market level management would include protection of grain in the markets before it is sold to consumers. Government level would include protection of grain in governmental food reserves, buffer stocks and imported grain before it is distributed to consumers. This paper mainly deals with the integrated stored grain insect pest management strategies which could be utilized at the farm level.There are two major sources of post-harvest insect problems. These sources should be considered while designing integrated stored grain pest management strategies.1. Field source: Some insects infest grain in the field when the crop has gained physiological maturity and is drying in the field before it is harvested.2. In-house source: Some insects hide or rest (diapause, aestivate) in cracks and crevices in storage facilities when the food is not available and infest the fresh grain after it arrives from the field. Also, the leftover grains from the previousseason, if infested with insects, can serve as a source of infestation to the freshly stored grain.Integrated management of storage grain pests would include both preventive and curative measures.Using the philosophy of 'Prevention is better than Cure', preventative measures form the foundation of stored grain pest management.Preventive measures. These would include control of field (production) pests to minimize ear, head damage prior to storage, growing of resistant varieties, cleaning and proper drying of grain before storage, sanitation of storage facilities, repair and proper sealing of storage facilities to prevent pest entry, treatment with botanicals, vegetable oils, or low mammalian toxic insecticide, if available and affordable. Precautions should be taken while mixing the fresh harvest with the previous season's harvest.Curative measures: If the preventive measures are not followed adequately the grains may get infested with pests. In these circumstances, curative measures become necessary to prevent further losses. The first step in making such grains free from insects is to sieve and clean them to remove different stages of pests. Followed by solar disinfestation and treatment of grain with suitable botanicals, vegetable oil or insecticides. If the storage facility is or can be made air tight, fumigation of grain with suitable fumigants can be done.The storage facility should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfested before grain is restored in the same facility.Breeding for resistance to stored grain insect pests. Breeding for resistance to stored grain pests offers a long term solution to post-harvest losses from insect pests. Varietal resistance represents the most simple and readily diffused response to post-harvest insects.If adequate levels of resistance can be found, the resistance can serve as the sale, or principle strategy or management component Unfortunately, breeding for resistance in the past has largely focused on increased yield and on resistance of vegetative growth to insect pests. Resistance to storage pests has received little attention, resulting in an increased severity of storage problems as traditionally used varieties are replaced by improved and more susceptible ones (Dobie, 1974; Serratos et al., 1987).There is a concern, and some evidence, that without a specific focus on storage pests/ the adoption of improved varieties will result in increased postharvest losses.With this realization many international and national research programs have initiated screening germplasm for resistance to stored grain pests. For example, beginning in 1987, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYr), Mexico, began a collaborative program with scientists from Mexico, Zimbabwe and Canada in screening some of its germplasm and improved varieties for resistance to the maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais, the most significant post-harvest pest of maize world-wide, and the larger grain borer, Prostephanus truncatus, a destructive pest of Central American origin, that is spreading very rapidly in the African continent after being accidently introduced.Three main factors responsible for seed resistant to stored grain insect pests are: a) Grain hardness b) Sugar content and c) Phenolic compounds in the aleurone layer of the grain.The results of maize germplasm screening at CIMMYT indicate a range of susceptibility in both normal and Quality protein maize (QPM). QPM materials in general are more susceptible than normals. Breeding efforts in improving endosperm hardness in QPM (while maintaining protein quality) have reduced their susceptibility to stored grain insect pests. Fortunately, some of the less susceptible materials include varieties formed from CIMMYf's improved high yielding germplasm. Mathur (1983) screened several maize varieties for resistance to three stored grain insect pests in India and found significant differences among varieties in terms of their susceptibility to insect pests.In the case of maize, the husk cover on the ears is considered to be the first line of defense against the pest attack in the field and during storage (Dobie, 1977). Both length and tightness of husk are very important. If maize ears are variable for extent of good husk cover (closed to open) even the simple process of sorting ears for storage and using the ones with open tips was found to reduce overall losses (Santos and Fontes, 1990). Improvement of this aspects through breeding would increase resistance to storage pests. In field trials at CIMMYT, Mexico, maize stored with husks intact suffered 22% less damage compared to maize stored in the form of shelled grain. In case of rice, barley and oats, the seeds with gaping or damaged husks are more susceptible.In sorghum, it has been found that the hardness of the grain, which is correlated with the proportion of vitreous endosperm, is the principal factor responsible for resistance to rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzea, attack (Egwuatu, 1987). In cowpea, it has been shown that 207 seeds with smooth testa are more susceptible to attack by cowpea weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus, because of the larger number of eggs deposited on the testa (Egwuatu, 1987). Murdock and Baboule (1990) screened several cowpea varieties for pod and seed resistance to cowpea weevil, and reported that several cowpea varieties developed by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (!ITA), Nigeria, possess seed resistance to C. maculatus. Numerous seed resistant lines also gave evidence of having pod resistance.Most crops that have been investigated have shown a certain amount of variation in resistance to major storage pests and breeding programs could and should be designed to exploit such variation and to produce more resistant varieties. In some developing countries, resistance to damage in storage is of equal or greater importance to farmers for food security reasons than high yield potential.Grain drying. Drying food grain is not a new concept. In fact it may be our oldest form of food preservation. Grain must be adequately dried ~fo.re storage. The moisture content of grain is an important factor for survival of stored-product insects. In most grains moisture contents between 10-14% are generally considered safe moisture contents for storage to prevent insects, fungus or other micro organism buildup. For example, in case of maize, the moisture content of grain at maturity is greatly in excess of 12%. It is commonly necessary to harvest the grain at moisture contents of between 20% and 30%, and it is therefore necessary to find some means of drying the grain down to a safe moisture content.Grain can be dried after harvest by spreading it on a piece of cloth or plastic, or on a platform in the field or near the house or on the concrete house roof under the sun during dry warm period of the day. This type of drying is practiced by people all over the world. This method has its advantages. A small capital investment is required for equipment and large quantities of food grain can be dried at one time.Additionally, the sun's ultraviolet rays have a sterilizing effect which slows the growth of microorganisms. The main disadvantages of this method is the time and the labor required to move the grain in and out of the shelter. Moreover, if the grain is left unattended, birds would consume some of the grains leading to direct total food losses.An alternative to sun drying that is time and labor saving, is the use of mechanical drying. However these techniques are normally not available to small scale farmers. There is a need to develop low-cost, energy saving techniques for drying grains at farm level. There is a great potential for using unlimited and free solar energy to power low cost simple farm dryers. Another alternative heat source for drying is bioconversion of agricultural residues to produce methane gas.Storage facilities. At a farm level, storage is necessary to retain a supply of food and feed for the family and its livestock, to service a trading system when prices go up and to retain seed for planting in the follOWing cropping season. Storage of food grains by the indigenous people of the developing countries is mostly traditional.These traditional storage methods include pits dug in the ground, jute sacks, mud granaries, tins, drums, and baskets. In a few cases, modem storage methods for grains such as cribs and silos have been adopted. In any case, adequate low-cost storage facilities should be developed to hold grain at the requisite moisture content for good storage. A good storage structure prevents insects, rodents and birds from gaining entry into the stored products and helps maintain the moisture content of the grain. Climate, available local natural resources and customs of the people must be considered while designing a storage facility. It is essential to practice store sanitation before introducing fresh grain into the store.Botanicals and vegetable oils. Plant derivatives possessing insect repellent and antifeedant properties offer a novel approach in the management of stored grain pests. Several indigenous plant materials have traditionally been used as stored grain protectants against insect pests in various parts of the world (Burroughs et al., 1988). Many researchers have investigated the potential of plant materials to control stored product insects and have characterized effective compounds.Plants such as neem, Azadirachta indica A. russ, turmeric, Curcuma longa L., sweet flag Acarus calamus, woodapple Feronia limonia, and lagundi Vitex negundo have been found to possess insect repellent, antifeedant, insecticidal and growth inhibition properties.Neem is one of the most promising known botanical insect control agents (Saxena, 1987;Schmutter, 1990).It is widely distributed in Asia and Africa and has been successfully introduced in many Latin American countries. Many farmers in India and Pakistan mix neem leaves with grain kept in storage to repel insects. 'A study conducted at CIMMYf, Mexico (Maredia et al., 1991) using neem oil (5 to 10 ml kg-I of seed) demonstrated that neem oil was very effective in controlling maize weevil. Neem oil was relatively more effective than the vegetable oils. The effects of various botanicals on bean weevil C. maculatus adult emergence and oviposition have been studied in Cameroon. Neem oil and shea nut oil have been found effective against this pestMaredia & MihmA number of edible oils ego groundnut oil, palm and coconut oil have been used against bruchid pests of beans, cowpeas and pigeon peas. Results of a study conducted at CIMMYf, Mexico (Bahena et al., 1987) using vegetable oils has shown that seed treatment with vegetable oils such as maize oil, groundnut oil and sunflower oil (10 ml kg-1 of seed) protect maize seed from maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais, the most Significant pest of maize world-wide.Physical shocks and disturbance (eg. tumbling).Insects can be killed by physical stress and damage experienced during the handling and processing of grain and cereal products. Quentin et al, (1991) and Spencer et al. (1991) reported 97% reduction in bean weevil Acanthoscelides obtectus population from brief daily tumbling of beans held in jars, buckets and gunny sacks. The bean weevil larvae bore entry holes in individual bean surfaces and eat the insides, leaVing empty shells. It takes at least 19 hours for weevil larvae to bore an entry hole. Occasional tumbling of stored beans dislodges the larvae before they finish strapping their entry holes. These kind of techniques can be very useful to resource poor subsistence farmers of developing countries since the only external inputs are knowledge, and little bit of time and labor.Admixture of inert materials. Developing countries's farmers traditionally use clay powders, sands, woodashes, silicates, lime and dianamite to protect stored grain from insect pests (Ebling, 1971;De Lima, 1987;Snelson, 1987). Inert materials desiccate the insect body by sorptive or abrasive mechanisms. Sorptive powders remove (absorb) the epicuticular wax while abrasive powder disrupt the continuity of the epicuticular wax. In both instances, they bring about a lethal rate of moisture loss from the insect body. If the grain is comparatively dry, the insects will not get enough moisture to replace the moisture loss.In preliminary trials at CIMMYf, Mexico, dUring 1988, maize seed treatment with a new formulation of lime called 'Micronized lime' (particles that pass through a 600 mesh) at the rate of 1 to 3 g kg-I of seeds) provided significant control of Maize Weevil, S. zeamais. Toxicity of inert materials to humans and animals should be evaluated before using any inert materials.Biological control. Biological control has limited applications in stored grain pest management. Farmers in developing countries do not have facilities to mass culture and release biological control agents. However, efforts should be made to conserve and utilize existing natural biological control agents where they occur. Also, the search for indigenous and exotic natural enemies should be continued and, if found, they should be introduced. Efforts should be put in searches for biocontrol agents in the place of pest origin.Less toxic chemical insecticides and fumigants. If available, affordable, and sufficiently safe to use; insecticides and fumigants are used either to minimize or cure the stored grain insects problem. Searches for effective and less toxic chemicals should be continued. They can be incorporated as one of the components of an integrated stored grain pest management scheme. Maredia et al. (1989) screened several chemicals and their combinations against Maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais, and found that a new formulation name Reldan (Chlorpyrifos-methyl) was more effective than traditionally used Malathion and Actellic insecticides.Fumigation is the treatment of commodity or space with a gaseous materials to kill the insect pest present. Fumigation with toxic gases should only be done if the storage facilities are airtight and should be done with great caution.Air-tight storage structures, use of anoxeous atmospheres. The simplest form of this type of storage is the air-tight container. Pests die out as oxygen supply is depleted. This can also be done through the introduction of carbon dioxide (C02) or other atmospheric gases to displace normal air. Since C02 is heavier than air, it can be used to displace normal oxygen bearing atmosphere in even semi-tight containers, asphyxiating storage insect pests. With this simple knowledge, where fermentation of local \"brews\" is done, the C02 byproduct produced can be piped into storage containers and silos as a non-toxic preventive or curative measure.Containers theoretically need only be cylindrical and can range from one liter to more than 1000 liters in size, and probably only need to be semi-air-tight. This is a little understood, less well-known but theoretically secure, fail proof technique. Purposeful fermentation of vegetables and fruit wastes to produce CO 2 could and should be investigated.During last few decades, increased production, genetic uniformity and increased distribution of food commodities have Significantly contributed towards increased stored grain pest problems. In addition warm and humid climates of tropics, where most of the world's subsistence farmers live, are conducive to proliferation of pests both in storage and in the field. The need to develop sustainable integrated postharvest pest management programs is urgent. The safe and lasting protection of food grains after harvest 209 is a cost effective way of increasing food supply in developing countries and thus securing local and global food supply.The reduction of these losses will require the adoption of a variety of pest and commodity management approaches and techniques. These strategies must be based on a thorough understanding and basic knowledge of biology, behavior and ecology of pests and ecosystems in which they exist. If this does not exist, research efforts must be invested in studying indepth basic biology, behavior and ecology of the pests and to better understand the ecosystems. Basic research may reveal completely new approaches to pest management and will certainly bring significant improvements in techniques which are already known. These strategies must also be ecologically sound, economically feasible and socially acceptable and should largely involve locally available resources.A. Tadesse: You are recommending late planting to escape stem borer attack. In Ethiopia we recommend early planting because borer population levels are low because they are in their 1st generation. Later, the population builds up (2nd generation) and causes severe damage. What is your comment on this difference in recommendation?Response: I am not recommending late planting, but do point out that late plantings are less vulnerable to stem borers. In Uganda early planted maize coincides with the 1st generation of stem borers, hence the high infestation. We therefore recommend appropriate control strategies at this stage, one ofwhich could be crop residue management.Questions to Abraham Tadesse T. Farwell: Within an individual genotype did you look at the effect of seed size on weevil infection (i.e. small vs large seeds; and round vs flat seeds within single genotypes)?I did not make comparisons within an individual genotype but from the observations I made between genotypes seed size has no effect on weevil attack. It is the hardness of the seed that appears to be important. In many cases more progenies emerged from larger sized kernels but this is not related to susceptibility. It appears that in smaller seeds the weevil lays fewer eggs than in larger seeds to avoid competition between individuals or to avoid running out of food.G. Bigirwa: Did kernel colour affect the level of infestation?No.M.Ngure: . Were there any differences in response to weevil between hybrids, open-pollinated genotypes or breeding lines?Response: Generally, yes there were differences. Hybrids, particularlY those with soft kernels, were more susceptible than openpollinated genotypes. As to breeding lines, some were 211 resistant and others susceptible.C. Mungoma: Was there a correlation between grain type and resistance?Response: Yes. Most flint types were moderately resistant, dent types were susceptible and semi-flint or semi-dent ones were either resistant, moderately resistant or susceptible. But generally it seems that neither the endosperm being flint or dent was the main factor influencing infestation and damage by the maize weevil since no consistent relationships between this and susceptibility was detected.M. Nijimbere: Your results show that most flint type maize is less susceptible to the maize weevil than the dent types.Why is this?I do not know exactly why the flint types are resistant. I have not studied the factors contributing to resistance.Can you determine the susceptibility to weevils by just determining kernel texture?Response:No, it appears that there are many factors contributing to resistance.A comment. In some areas of west Africa the preferred local types are floury, with very soft grain.Although these are more susceptible to weevils as shelled grain, they are more resistant to weevils than most improved varieties due to their better husk cover. Farmers generally store maize on the cob with the husks on.Questions to David Hoisington D. Giga: What potential has the trypsin inhibitor gene?The trypsin inhibitor is another non-Bt gene for insect resistant maize. It demonstrates a more non-specific toxicity. The gene by itselfhas not proven to be that effective; however, it may be useful in combination with other genes.D. Giga: Given that there are already several reports of resistance to Bt. Can you comment on resistance gene management?As with any \"single gene\" mechanism of resistance, there is a greater possibility of insects developing tolerance. Various methods have been proposed but not enough actual field data collected to determine which, ifany, will be appropriate. It is clear that the use ofgenetically engineered insect resistance will require an effective integrated pest management system which should also include host plant resistance.In the insect resistance backcrosses, how many plants are needed to cross in order to recover resistant plants?Response:The number of plants depends upon the number ofgenes and their linkage in the genome. Theoretically, the number can be calculated as (O.5)n, where n equals the number of genes. If the genes are linked then a much larger number must be used. In addition, the rest of the genome needs to be considered. In the experiment described in my presentation we analysed 289 BCl Fl plants. Of this number, three plants contained all five regions desired. These will be backcrossed further to decrease the size of the introgressed segment. As new methods are developed for molecular analysis, larger numbers could be handled and, therefore, the efficiency ofintrogression increased. Comment on the role of and relationship of disciplines -whether entomology, pathology, physiology (and others) should be a service function to breeders or should work independently within a team.Having experienced both situations at the same institution, disciplinary researchers working as a service to breeders does not usually acieve much. The gains that have been achieved in the HPR program recently are the result of a truly interdisciplinary team approach, where breeder, entomologist, pathologist and biotechnologists have worked as equal partners, side by side in the field and laboratory with common interests and objectives.Some comments. To improve interdisciplinary teamwork each member of the team should have background in several disciplines. For example, the \"\"' breeder should have breeding/genetics as a major and pathology or entomology as a minor. The entomologist needs a minor in breeding. routine due to the low efficiency. of stable transformation events, the lack of suitable genes for insertion, and the many biosafety and regulatory issues involved. Still, genetic transformation will be important for incorporating new genetic material into maize, especially for traits for which sufficient variation does not already exist within the species.CIMMYT's activities in genetic engineering center around a project whose main objectives are to:1. Use advanced biotechnology to generate tropical maize germplasm that possess enhanced and effective resistance to major insect pests of the crop.2. Provide the improved germplasm to breeders and farmers in developing countries.The principal activities are to:1. Develop protocols for screening toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) strains against tropical borers species.2. Define the culture conditions necessary for regenerating a range of maize inbreds relevant to the CIMMYT Maize Program.3. Transform selected genotypes with Bt and other gene constructs.4. Evaluate the resistance of the transformed plants to insects.Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a commonly occurring soil bacterium which produces a variety of endotoxins that are toxic to a wide range of insect species, including Lepidopteran pests of maize (Hofte and Whiteley, 1989). These toxins show a very narrow range of toxicity, affecting usually only one species of insect, have no effect on humans or many beneficial insect species and, therefore, are considered more environmentally safe than most insecticides in use today. The toxins (termed Cry proteins) are encoded by a gene present in the bacterium and many Cry genes have been isolated and sequenced. The gene can be inserted into a plant genome along with the necessary sequence modifications, promoters, etc. and is then expressed by the normal plant protein synthesis machinery (Fischoff et al. 1987;Umbeck et al. 1987;Perlak et al., 1990). Koziel et al., (1993) recently demonstrated that transgenic maize containing the CryIA(b) gene (active against European com borer) was protected against insect attack. Many more trials will be needed before \"Bt maize\" will be available commercially; however, one might expect such varieties to be available within the next 3-5 years.CIMMYT is interested in using Cry genes as well as other insect targeting genes in its efforts to increase Hoisington the resistance of tropical maize germplasm to a wide array of insect pests. Since the majority of these pests have not been bioassayed with Bt toxins, our first step has been to screen known Cry gene toxins as well as partially purified spore/ crystal complexes from Bt strains isolated by researchers at CINVESTAV, Irapuato, Mexico for toxicity against two com borer species: Diatraea grandiosella, D. saccharalis, Fall armyworm (Spodoptera jrugiperda), and Com earworm (Heliothis zea). To date, no previously isolated Cry gene toxin has shown activity against the two Diatraea species although activity against both Heliothis and Spodoptera has been found as previously described in published reports (Hofte and Whiteley, 1989).In addition to the attempts to identify active gene products, the group is evaluating a range of maize germplasm for its regeneration response in tissue culture. This is a first requirement for the successful . transformation of the germplasm. Approximately 80 inbred lines representing tropical, sub-tropical, highland and African germplasm have been screened in the lab. Several lines with high regeneration potential have been identified and are now being used in experiments to establish the proper transformation protocols.Once these conditions have been defined, Cry and other genes will be transformed into these varieties using the biolistics device, transgenic plants selected and regenerated, and stable transgenic lines evaluated for their lev~l of resistance to the targeted insect(s).These newly inserted genes will also be incorporated into varieties containing host-plant resistance factors in order to provide a \"multigenic\" source of insect resistance. While many hurdles must be overcome before transgenic maize varieties will be available through CIMMYT's maize program, we are optimistic that the ability to insert novel characteristics, or to modify existing genes via transformation, will be extremely important in solving future problems in maize improvement.Breeders and geneticists have long proposed the use of genetic markers as indirect selection tools for tracing desired traits. Unfortunately, the types of markers available for such efforts have proven difficult to manipulate in breeding programs. Over the past several years, molecular markers such as restriction fragment l~gth polymorphisms (RFLPs) have been utilized by several workers to identify segments of plant genomes responsible for traits of agronomic importance (McMullen and Louie, 1989;Paterson et al., 1989).The majority of CIMMYT's efforts for the past few years has focused on the molecular tagging of the factors involved in two traits of importance in maize, insect resistance and drought tolerance. As part of these mapping projects, the Applied Molecular Genetics Laboratory has established techniques for large-scale molecular mapping of plant genomes which involve non-radioactive protocols. In addition, efficient computer programs for data input and analysis have been developed and are used on a routine basis.CIMMYT breeders have developed tropical maize lines resistant to south western com borer (D. grandiosella, SWCB) and sugarcane borer (D. saccharalis, SeB); however, progress has been slower than desired due to the complexity of these traits. Resistance to both insects appears to be polygenically controlled and involves primarily additive gene action (Smith et aI., 1989). Some of the components of resistance seem to also confer resistance to other important Lepidopteran maize pests. In addition, screening for resistance is both costly and labor intensive. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) is therefore a promising tool for transferring insect resistance.One prerequisite for applying this technology is to identify genetic markers flanking the genomic segments responsible for the expression of the trait(s) of interest. Over 100 genomic and cDNA maize probes were used to genotype each population and F3:4 families were evaluated over two years for several yield components, morphological traits and insect resistance at both a tropical and a subtropical site in Mexico. Traits analyzed included grain weight, cob weight, plant height, ear height, kernel row number, and female and male flowering date. The genotypic data were used to construct an RFLP linkage map for the two populations and quantitative trait loci (QTL) analyses conducted using single-factor ANOVAs and a maximum likelihood approach (MAPMAKERjQTL; Lander and Botstein, 1989).QTLs for each trait have been identified in both crosses and over all chromosomes. Although for some traits more than half of all the regions detected were not shared by the two populations, common QTLs were detected for every trait. All the QTLs detected showed both additive and dominance effects.All chromosome arms identified by MAPMAKER as carriers of QTLs were also detected with single factor ANOVAs. Finally, more than 50% of the genetic variance of anyone trait could be explained in terms of the set of regions detected for that trait.We have now embarked in a pilot experiment in which we shall be comparing the relative efficiencies of MAS and more conventional strategies to transferring insect resistance from a resistant inbred into susceptible African germplasm. We believe that some of the intricacies of the expression of regions detected in the mapping study may well be clarified as we backcross them in specific combinations into susceptible backgrounds. Thus, in a very pragmatic fashion, we shall determine the feasibility and value of MAS for such complex traits as insect resistance. These traits have required many years of intensive, laborious and costly breeding to advance to the current levels of resistance and MAS may increase the speed and effectiveness of transfers to a wider germplasm pool.While it is difficult to cover all of the possible applications of biotechnology to improving the resistance of maize to stresses, it should be apparent that the tools of biotechnology will have a rolli!. to play in improving maize germplasm in the future. It must be stressed that due to the time and resources that must be invested for the tools of biotechnology to be applied, it is extremely important that priorities be set before embarking in the use of biotechnology. Equally important is to make sure that an effective breeding program is already available to provide the necessary starting germplasm and to perform the field evaluations of the products derived through biotechnology.thinned to one plant per station two weeks after crop emergence. At all sites, all of the K and P and one-In Zimbabwe, farmers in communal areas farm third of N were applied at planting. The balance of about 2.5 ha of land per household. Most communal N was applied as a top dressing at six and eight areas are characterised by low rainfall and soils of weeks after crop emergence. The treatments used low fertility. Small-scale farmers often remove were as follows; weeding at two, four, six and eight weeds late due to labour pressure. At the beginning weeks after crop emergence and as required, and no of the wet season land preparation, planting and weeding. A randomised complete block design first weeding all compete for available labour consisting of five treatments replicated three times (Hammerton, 1974).The mechanical methods was used. The gross plot measured 6.0 m x 4.5 m commonly used to control weeds in communal areas and the net plot 5.1 m x 2.7 m. The weed species are time consuming.This results in delayed found at each site were recorded and maize grain weeding in some fields or parts of fields. Nonyield per hectare was measured at the end of the owners of cattle experience the largest delays season. Weeds were sampled in 30 cm x 30 cm because they rely entirely on hand weeding quadrats placed three times at random in the net (Shumba,1986).plot. Analysis of variance was done on the maize Information concerning crop losses due to weeds is grain yield and treatment comparisons were especially short in marginal environments (Chiduza performed using the Least Significant Difference and Nyamudeza, 1991). The objective of this study (LSD, P<0.05). was to determine the major problem weeds, losses RESULTS due to weeds and the optimum time to weed a maize crop in communal areas situated in three Weed spectrum. At Rushinga, 17 weed species were agroecological zones of Zimbabwe.recorded in 1988/89 and six in 1989/90 (Table 3). In 1988/89 the major weeds were grasses; Rottboellia MATERIALS AND METHODS cochinchinensis (Lour) W.O. Clayton and Panicum In 1988/89 the experiment was conducted at four maximum Jacq., but in 1989/90 the major weeds were communal area sites: Rushinga, Zvimba, Mutoko broadleaves; Acanthospermum hispidum D.C. and and Chiwundura (Table 1). In the 1989/90 season, Leucas martinicensis R.Br. At Zvimba nine weed the experiment was repeated at Rushinga and species were observed in 1988/89 and 12 in 1989/90 Zvimba. Rushinga had heavy soils while the other (Table 3).Richardia scabra (Moq) Gomez and sites had light sandy soils. Details of planting dates, Cynodon dactylon (L) Pers were the dorminant weeds fertilizers applied and rainfall received at the sites in both seasons. Six weed species were recorded at are in Table 2.Land preparation involved both Chiwundura and Mutoko (Table 3). At these ploughing with the first rains in November. The sites A. hispidum and R. scabra were the major weeds. maize cultivar R201 was planted at a spacing of 90 A. hispidum and R. scabra were recorded at all the cm x 30 cm. Two seeds were planted per station and sites.  4). Delaying At Zvimba weeding from two weeks up to six weeks weeding from two weeks up to 21 weeks (no did not affect gJain yield in 1988/89 (Table 4), but weeding) was followed by a decrease in gJain yield. from eight weeks onwards there was a decrease in There were no significant changes from weeding at gJain yield. In 1989/90 weeding at two weeks six weeks up to the no weeding treatment. The produced the highest gJain yield compared to the Maize competition with natural weed infestation other treatments. Weeding as late as four weeks had a similar effect on grain yield as did no weeding. No weeding reduced grain yield by 38.9% in 1988/89 and 52.7% in 1989/90. At Chiwundura there were no significant grain yield changes when weeding time was varied from two to four weeks (Table 4), but there was a decrease in grain yield from weeding at six weeks up to the no weeding treatment. At Mutoko treatment effects were not significant (Table 4). No weeding reduced grain yield by 57.9% at Chiwundura and 34.4% at Mutoko.R. cochinchinensis, P. maximum, A. hispidum, L. martinicensis, R. scabra and C. dactylon appeared to be the most important weeds across sites and seasons. Thomas (1970), Budd (1975) and Chivinge (1983) reported A. hispidum to be among the top most aggressive and difficult weeds to control in the large scale farming sector. A. hispidum was the most aggressive in six out of eight provinces in communal areas in Zimbabwe (Chivinge, 1988).In Mangwende, R. scabra, A. hispidum, Striga species and C. dactylon were among the most important weeds (Shumba, 1986). In Zimbabwe R. cochinchinensis seemed to be restricted to Mashonaland Central (Chivinge, 1988). This weed was recorded in Rushinga Communal Area, Mashonaland Central.P. maximum and L. martinicensis were not very imporatant weeds in communal areas.Rainfall affected maize grain yield. At Rushinga, higher grain yields obtained in 1988/89 were Table 4. Treatment effects on maize grain yield (t ha-1 ).221 associated with high rainfall (Table 1). A similar trend occured at Zvimba. Chiwundura, which received the least rainfall, had the lowest grain yield.Site and season seemed to influence the period when the maize crop tolerated weed competition. At Rushinga treatment effects were more or less similar in both seasons. Maize could not tolerate weed competition beyond two weeks. Although the total amounts of rainfall received at Rushinga were different the amounts which were received in December were more or less the same (Table 5).Probably this is why treatment effects had no seasonal differences. These results are in agreement with those of Meggit (1970) and Marais (1985). In 1988/89, maize mainly competed with R. cochinchinensis. Whereas in this study maize could tolerate competition from weeds for little more than two weeks, Thomas and Allinson (1975) found that maize could stand competition for eight weeks. Seasonal changes in weed spectrum did not influence competition. Maize yield losses were nearly the same in 1988/89 and 1989/90.Seasonal effects on time of weeding were very marked at Zvimba. In a high rainfall season (764 mm) maize tolerated weed competition for six weeks but under lower rainfall (669 mm) for only two weeks. Similar results were obtained in a cotton crop (Schwerzel and Thomas, 1971). In 1989/90, December rainfall of 111.8 mm was received at Zvimba. This was close to what was experienced during the same month of each of the two seasons at Rushinga (Table 5). This may explain why the 1988/89 results at Zvimba were similar to those obtained at Rushinga. Rainfall could have influenced yield losses at Zvimba. Lower maize yield loss in the no weeding treatment in 1988/89 compared to 1989/90 was related to high rainfall.At Mutoko there were no significant treatment effects, possibly due to low weed pressure observed at the site. Vernon and Parker (1983) reported similar results in Zambia. At Chiwundura maize tolerated weed competition for up to four weeks. Since this site experienced the lowest rainfall we expected a Significant decrease in grain yield at four weeks.On 15 February, 1989 serious wilting induced by Striga asiatica (L.) Ktze was noted at the site. This could have influenced the grain yield of maize. Weeds left to compete with maize for the entire season reduced yields by 40 to 85% (Meggitt, 1970). In this study yield losses due to no weeding ranged between 34.4 and 96.3%.major weed species and their population in the field was uniform. Average monthly rainfall during the The current status of maize production in western growing season (late March to October) was 137 Ethiopia is comparable to other major producing mm. The design of the experiment was a RCBD in 4 regions in southern Ethiopia. However, the present replicates. Plot size was 4.5m (0.75m x 6 rows) x 8m production level is very low, 1.6-1.8 t ha-1 (IAR, = 36m 2 and net plot size was 1.5m (0.75 x 2 rows) = 1984). Weeds have a great effect on maize 12m 2 . As indicated in Table I, 13 treatments were production in the region and compete directly for carried out. light, moisture space and soil nutrients. There are also indirect effects such as increases in cost of In Table I, C =cultivation with oxen, H =hoeing by cultivation by machinery and labour, reduction in local tool called \"Checki\", P = pulling by hand. 0,1 /2 value of land and also they may act as hosts of and 3 denotes the frequency of operations arranged pathogens and insects, thus reducing crop yields in growth stages. (Shetto et al., 1990;Starkey, 1981). Data shows that All cultivation was done by oxen between rows, the yield losses from weeds alone in Africa is almost except treatment 7. That was cultivated across rows equal to that caused by pests and diseases combined at 3-4,5-7 and 8-10 leaf stages. Stand and agronomic (Fesshaie, 1985).data were recorded, such as, weed counting 1.25m 2 Yield losses due to weeds in maize range between before maize was harvested. Weed biomass was 20-100% in the Philippines, Brazil, America, Gambia, also taken on air and oven-dry samples basis. NQ. of Sierra Leon and Nigeria (Starkey 1981). In Ethiopia plants damaged during each weeding operation; NQ. Tadious and Bogale, (1989) reported a loss of 30-56% of plants lodged, plant population, plant height, and in Illubabor region. In western Ethiopia weeds are grain yield were recorded. Yield data for each controlled by frequent oxen cultivation. This paper experimental year and the 3 -4 year average were looks at several weeding methods, in particular the analyzed using analysis of variance. Mandays ha-1 use of inter-row oxen cultivation, as partial or a for hand weeding and increase benefit over complete alternative to hand weeding maize in unweeded check in grain and ETB ha-1 from each of western Ethiopia.the treatments were used to calculate the net benefit assuming 1.95 ETB man-day-l to labour cost 46.32 MATERIALS AND METHODS ETB 100 kg-l selling price of maize. In addition The experiment was carried out from 1990 -1993 on correlation coefficients between grain yield and a nitosol. Land was prepared by tractor ploughing. weed biomass and Total Cost that Vary (TCV) were Mixed broad and grass-leaved annuals were the compared (Levitt, 1990). Partial budget analysis 223 and P1 HOC3' respectively (Table 4). In the high rainfall areas of western Ethiopia farmers have developed a complex system for controlling weeds including hoeing, oxen cultivation, hand pulling and slashing.The 1992 cropping season had an exceptional problem; lack of weed infestation. The checks (POHOCO) yielded 3.6 t ha-l to 4.4 t ha-l from POHC2 (Table 5). But in 1991 the management showed high response. The check (POHOCO) gave the lowest yield 16 t ha-l whereas 3.4, 3.2, 3.2 and 3.1, t ha-l were obtained from POH2CO, P1HOC3,P2HOC3 and P1HOC1 respectively (Table 5).In 1993, zero weeding (POHOCO) was damaged by weed infestation and gave the lowest yield 2 t ha-l whereas from P1HOC1, POH2CO, P1H1C1 and P1HOC3; 4.1 , 4.2 , 4.1 and 41. t ha-l was obtained (Table 5). A statistically highly significant yield difference was observed at both P < 0.05 and P < 0.01.Generally from 1990-1993 the average yield was between 1.6 -4.4 t ha-1 (Table 5). Across seasons, season, weeding operation and season x weeding operation gave statistically significant yield differences. Treatment numbers 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10 yielded higher than treatment 2 and 7 (Table 6). Based on partial budget analysis of treatments (Table 7) the marginal benefits obtained from POHlC1, P1 HOC1, POH2CO, and P1HOC2 weeding were found to be much higher than the other treatments with the average local price of Ethiopia Birr 46.32/100 kg maize. This is because the choice of time and number of weeding is largely dependent on what farmers gained from their investment. Marginal analysis of selected treatments that gave higher net benefit than the one weeding treatments was calculated.All except POHOC2' POHOC3' POH1C2, P2HOC3 and POH1C2 weeding were dominated. Any treatment was assumed to be dominated if the net benefit obtained was less than, or equal to close treatments with lower cost. POHOC1' P1HOC1, POH2 C O and P1HOC2 weeding were acceptable (Table 8). Correlation coefficient was calculated between yield and cost of weeding and the result was positively correlated but nonSignificant (r a 0.54). Oxen cultivation alone cannot contol weed population efficently (Table 3). The same trend was observed on maize (Fesshaie, 1985;Shetto, et al., 1990). Treatments involving oxen cultivation that were not supplemented by either hand hoeing or hand pulling gave a higher yield weed biomass (Table 3). However, oxen cultivation decreased the weeding labour requirement in the hand hoeing and pulling systems by 84 and 72% (Table 9) respectively. Oxen cultivation saved 160 hours labour ha-1 over the hand hoes and 100 hours labour ha-1 on hand pulling (Table 9). The same trends were achieved by Starkey (1981) andShetto (1990).Based on the economical advantage of the farmers from 960 -488% MRR, Le. (PIOOCl, PoOZCo and PlOOCZ) for every 1 Eth. Birr invested 9.6,8.16,7.10 and 4.88 Eth. Birr marginal return could be obtained (Table 8). Similar trends were obtained at Asosa. A MRR of 639% and 433% were recorded for weeding once at 20 to 25 days and weeding twice at 20 to 25 and 40 to 45 days after planting relative to no weeding. Two weedings gave a MRR of 543 % relative to one weeding. In case of shortages of oxen then the farmer could use hoeing 2-3 times, 2, 3, and 4 weeks after emergence. In the 1986/88 cropping seasons, three times hand labour requirement (Table 9) and has added benefits weeding 3 weeks after emergence gave a 41.5% yield of thinning, ridging to improve lodging and advantage in the region, whereas zero weeding drainage to improve aeration etc. In western region, resulted in a reduction in grain yield of 30 -50 % the standard maize herbicide in the large-scale (Fes~aie, 1985). mechanized farms is atrazine and its mixtures. 1-2 times oxen cultivation followed by one time hand Many researchers who conducted research on maize pulling tended to give better yield than 3 times oxen weed control showed that removal of weeds 2 -3 cultivation followed by 2 times hand pulling (Table weeks after emergence or 40 days after crop 5), but other investigations show hoeing is better emergence is essential (IAR, 1985). The same trend than hand pulling.The tendency was more was observed in OUI: investigation 15-20, 30-35 and pronounced when one considered the difference in 40-45 days after emergence or 3-4, 5-7 and 8-10 leaf costs, resulting in a better profit per ha. For maizestages. Oxen cultivation followed by hand pulling, row-planting, the introduction of animal drawn hand pulling followed by hoeing and oxen implements are worth considering to further cultivation, 1 time hand pulling followed by 2 times simplify weed control. oxen cultivation and 2 times hoeing are economically desirable. Oxen cultivation, has a low Table 7. Partial budget for the different frequency combination cultural weed control methods of maize at Melka (1990Melka ( -1993))   requirement but more produce only where conditions for response to fertilizers are optimal. Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most important cereal crop produced and consumed in Tanzania. Over 80% of Evidence exists that suggests labour constraints the maize produced in Tanzania is intercropped during peak demand periods limit the hectarage for with a legume. The main intercropping system in small-scale farmers. Furthermore, the competition northern Tanzania is maize and beans (Phaseolus for labour often results in untimely weed control vulgaris L.) (Koinange et al., 1983).In this and thus low yields (Miller and Burril, 1984). intercropping system, maize is the major crop and Ransom (1989) documented that labour required for beans are considered as a bonus crop. Maize is a maize -bean intercrop is greater that for a maize therefore planted at the optimum plant density and monocrop and estimated that hand weeding may beans at half or two thirds the optimum density.utilize 35-70% of total agricultural labour. It is therefore, necessary to look for some form of labour-Intercropping has persisted in the region because of saving technology like the use of economically maximum land productivity, variety in food efficient herbicides for weed control in maize -bean production, minimum risks, uncertainties associated intercrops. with pests, unreliable rainfall, and because of weed suppression.In a maize-hean intercrop, it was found that there is a yield advantage when both crops are planted at Despite its persistence, intercropping has some the same time and an advantage in net benefits is constraints associated with it. First, yields of each realized (Mongi et al., 1976), hence the necessity to component are lower than monocrops, especially use pre-emergence herbicides. the secondary crop.Secondly, there is more competition for moisture in an intercrop than in a In a preliminary herbicide screening, Matowo and monocrop during dry years. Furthermore, extra Mmari, (1988) concluded that a combination of labour for weeding is required in an intercrop herbicides could be beneficial at half the compared to a monocrop. Weed control methods recommended rate. employed for intercrops include land preparation In Kilimanjaro region, 90% of total farmers are (by hand hoe, tractors or animal traction) inter-and small-scale and they practice intercropping. Weed intra-row cultivation, herbicides, and integrated control by most of these farmers is done by hand weed control. hoes and hand pulling, which requires a lot of Herbicides are not widely used in Tanzania, labour. Coffee, the main cash crop is labour especially under intercropping. This is because the intensive and competes with food crops for labour common herbicide.s used in each crop singly, will allocation; hence this experiment. almost always injure the other crop (Ransom, 1989). The objective of this experiment was to evaluate Herbicides are powerful tools in weed management herbicides at different rates and combinations for and there seems to be great potential for increased economic weed control in a maize-bean association. use of herbicide by small-scale farmers, who because of little capital and little knowledge of proper MATERIALS AND METHODS technique, do not benefit from them. Haswell (1973) Three herbicides were evaluated each at three rates argued that herbicides are more valuable than in a randomized complete block design at Lambo fertilizers in subsistence farming since the estate (1020 masl) for two seasons. The evaluation in elimination of weeds results in a low labour the third season was done in a representative requirement and more produce.The use of farmers' maize field (1200 masl) on a clay loamy soil. fertilizers, on the other hand, means more labour Calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) was the nitrogen source applied to maize at 100 kg ha-1 and phosphate was applied at 50 kg ha-1 as triple super phosphate (TSP). All TSP was applied at planting and CAN was sylit-applied, 30 kg ha-1 at planting, and 70 kg N ha-at 6th leaf stage. All the herbicides were applied pre-emergence.Weed assessment was done by scoring weed cover on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is completely clean and 5 represents the ground completely covered by weeds. Two weed scores were done, one just before first weeding (two weeks after germination) and the second six weeks after germination just before the second weeding. The data was subjected to analysis of yariance and economic analysis.In three, years, the evaluation of herbicides at different rates indicated that maize yield is not greatly affected by weeds when intercropped with beans (Table 1 and 2). Maize yields for 1991 were not significantly different from each other except for Galex at 2.5 I ha-1 . The 1992 data showed that Panter-treated plots yielded lower compared to other treatment combinations. Panter at the higher rate of 5 I ha-1 lowered maize yields compared to the lower rates of 3.75 and 2.75 I ha-1 for both seasons.Intercropping maize with beans can have a positive effect on weed competition. It can be due to the fact that beans give a better ground coverage that smothers weeds. This explains the consistent similar maize yields for all treatments for three seasons. Similar trends have been shown by Mugabe et al. (1982) where the intercropping of maize and cowpeas results in less harvestable weed dry matter than monocropping. Evans and Streedharan (1962) also observed that intercropping had a greater competitive advantage over weeds caused by high population pressure provided by the component crops.Bean yields were more affected by weeds than those for maize, for all three seasons. This is shown in the bean yields and weed scores in Tables 1, 2 and 3. Hart (1974) reported on the effect of weeds on a bean monocrop. In his report, weeds accounted for 83% of the total biomass. Similarly, beans in associated culture suffered more from weeds than did maize. It is likely that beans suppress weeds due to better ground cover at the expense of the maize crop. This was comfirmed in the unweeded plots, where maize yields did not differ significantly from hand weeded plots while for beans the difference was about five times.When the two outputs are aggregated in the form of income ha-1 . . (Table 4), several treatments were singled out to have a comparatively higher income. However, since income alone cannot be used to recommended a technology, the minimum cost analysis was employed (Tables 5 and 6). Smallholders in Malawi intercrop maize with pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), Knowledge about the critical period of weed cowpea (Vigna sinensis, L.), cassava, soyabean competition is important for the development of (Glydne max) and other crops. Weed control in these appropriate weed management strategies since it is intercrops is based on that for solecrop maize. neither economic nor feasible to keep a crop weed-Because of different growth habits of component free all season. Such information is also important crops, intercropping systems could be better at for labour constrained smallholders so that they can suppressing weeds than are pure stands. schedule farm operations, such as fertilizer application and the planting of other crops, that The objectives of the present studies were to: often conflict with weeding.• determine the magnitude of weed interference in pure maize, maize/pigeonpea and Weed-erop competition during the first 30 days after maize/ soyabean intercrops; crop emergence is reported to be critical for most crops (Zimdahl, 1980). Competition after that time • define the critical period of weed competition in should be less critical with crops that give good pure maize and maize-based intercropping ground cover within a short period from planting, systems. and also in warm areas where crops develop their MATERIALS AND METHODS canopies and cover the ground quickly. Yet the Weed interference in solecrop maize. This critical period may extend beyond 30 days with slow experiment was conducted at Chitedze Research canopy forming crops and in cool areas. The Station which is at an elevation of 1097 masl, with an planting of such crops at a close spacing or annual mean rainfall of 892 mm and an annual mean intercropping them with other crops should allow temperature of 20.1 0 C, and on a farmers' field the crop canopy to cover the ground more quic;kly.outside the research station, in the 1987/88 and Lal (1980) showed that when cassava (Manihot 1988/89 growing seasons. The experiment was esculenta) was intercropped with maize (Zea mays L.), planted in December of each year. Fourteen weed 50% of maximum ground cover was reached in 50 control treatments were laid out in a randomized days compared to 63 days for solecrop cassava.complete block design with four replicates. Two In Malawi, it is recommended to weed twice in sole types of treatment ~chemes were used in this maize, one weeding within 21 days and another experiment. One scheme maintained weeds below before 45 days after planting. This recomendation is interference level from planting time by keeping the well suited for cool mid-altitude areas where weeds crops weed-free for various periods of time from do not grow as fast as in the hot low-lying areas of planting and then allowing weeds to grow until the country.harvest. These treatments were weeding the crop from zero to 10 days after planting (DAP), 0-20 DAP, 0-30 DAP, 0-45 DAP, 0-60 DAP, 0-90 DAP and the control, O-harvest. The other scheme allowed weeds to emerge from planting time and interfere with the crop for different periods, after which the crops were maintained weed-free up to harvest. This comprised keeping the crop weed-infested from zero to 10 days after planting (DAP), 0-20 DAP, 0-30 DAP, 0-45 DAP, 0-60 DAP, 0-90 DAP, and the control, O-harvest. Each plot had six ridges, each 6.3 m long, with 0.9 m between ridges.Hybrid maize (MH15) was planted at a rate of 37,000 plants ha-1 . Maize received a basal-dressing of 40 kg ha-1 P205 and 16 kg ha-1 N, from DAP, and a top-dressing of 76 kg ha-1 N from urea.Weed interference studies in maize/pigeonpea, and in maize/soyabean intercrops. The maize/ soyabean experiment was conducted at Mbawa (1255 masl, 800 mm rainfall, mean temperature 21°C), and the maize/ pigeonpea experiment was planted at Chitala (604 masl, 760 mm rainfall, mean temperature 300C).Both experiments had similar treatment schemes to those in the previous experiment, but with a 14 day interval, up to 84 DAP. Treatments of pure stand of maize, soyabean and pigeonpea were included. Intercrops were weeded at 21 and 42 DAP. The 17 treatments in each experiment were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Each plot had six rows, each 6.3 m long and 0.9 m apart.Maize was planted on the ridge, 90 cm between hills, at 3 seeds per hill (37,000 plants ha-1 ). Hybrid maize, MH-17, was planted at Mbawa, while MH-18 was planted at Chitala. Soyabean \"Magoy\" was planted at the same time as maize, at three hills between maize hills, three seeds per hill (111,000 plants per hill). Pigeonpea (ICP 9145) was planted in one hill between maize hills, at two seeds per hill (37,000 plants ha-1 ).Maize received a basal-dressing of 40 kg ha-1 P205 and 16 k~ ha-1 N, from DAP, and a top-dressing of 76 kg ha-N from urea. Maize and soyabean grain yield was determined by harvesting the two middle ridges, 5.4 m x 0.9 m in each plot, and converted to 12.5% moisture content. Pigeonpea data are not reported because the crop was damaged by insects.Weed interference in sale maize, 1987/88, 1988 Data in Figures 1 and 2 show the effects of duration of weed competition on maize yield. Compared to plots kept weed free for the first 90 days after emergence (DAE) uncontrolled weed growth up to 90 DAE resulted in significant (P < 0.05) grain yield losses of 4.2 t ha-1 (66%) at Chitedze Station (Fig. 1), and 3.9 t ha-1 (57%) and 2.8 t ha-1 (66%) for two seasons on the farmers' field (Fig. 2a and 2b). Data in Figures 1 and 2 also show that maize yields declined as days before the first weeding increased, while yields increased as weed-free days increased.Results from Chitedze Station (Fig. 1) show that leaving plots unweeded up to 20 DAE reduced yield greatly, while weeds present after 56 DAE had little effect on maize yield. Thus, the critical period of weed competition at Chitedze Research Station occurred between 20 and 56 DAE. On-farm, the critical period was on average for the two seasons, between 20 to 45 DAE (Fig. 2). These results confirm those reported elsewhere (Zimdahl, 1980) that the critical period for weed competition is within the first six weeks of maize growth.Weed interference studies in maize/soyabean, maize/pigeonpea intercrops. At Mbawa, the most dominant weeds that we observed in the weedy control plots were Hyparrhenia sp, B. pilosa, and E. indica which germinated after the crop mixture was well developed.When the weedy crop mixture was kept weed-free from 56 DAP up to crop harvest, the grain yield of the maize/ soyabean intercrops was reduced markedly when compared with the weed-free up to harvest control treatment. This suggests that the critical period for weed control in the intercrop at this site is within 42 DAP.Weeding the maize/ soyabean intercrop at 21 and 42 DAP gave yields that were similar to the weed-free control. This also shows that the critical period for weed control in the intercrop is less than 42 DAP.When the solecrop maize was weeded at 21 and 42 DAP, the yield was significantly (P < 0.05) higher (by 1338 kg ha-1 ) than the intercropped maize weeded at similar times. Similar trends were seen for sole and intercropped soyabeans. This suggests that intercrops competed for soil water and mineral nutrients, which often occurs under intercropping systems (Kurtz et al., 1952; Bray, 1954; Snaydon and  Haris, 1979; Manson et al., 1986). Also the reduced yield of intercropped soyabean could be due to the lower soya plant population (111,000 plant ha-1 ) in the intercrop compared to the sole soyabean crop (444,000 plant ha-1 ), and shading by the intercropped maize (Kumwenda, 1993).At Chitala, the most common weeds were E. indica, Digitaria ternata, C. benghalensis, Tridax procumbens, Ocimum canum, Celosia trigyna, and Trchodersma zeylanicum. Keeping the maize/ pigeonpea intercrop weed-free for the first 28 DAP was sufficient to give maize yields similar to the weed-free control. On the other hand, when the crop mixture was weed-free from 42 DAP, yield of intercropped maize was significantly reduced. This suggests that at Chitala the critical weed control period in the maize/ soyabean intercrop is within 28 DAP.The intercropped maize yield was reduced markedly when weeded just twice, 21 and 42 DAP, compared to the weed-free control. Again, this suggests that at Chitala a much earlier weeding operation than 21 DAP is essential for optimum yields. At Chitala weeds grow very fast and become competitive at an early stage due to the high temperature (mean of 30 0 C). A similar observation was made at Baka, which has a similar mean annual 237 temperature, so that by 14 DAP, weeds had overgrown and completely smothered the maize/ pigeonpea intercrops in all plots.These results show that weeds whether in pure maize, maize/ soyabean or maize/ pigeonpea intercrops, should be controlled within 20 to 56 DAP and that earlier weeding is needed at warmer sites and with sole crop maize. Since this critical period coincides with other field operations such as fertilizer application, and planting of other crops, weed control methods that save labour, and time such as the use of animal draught to supplement the hand hoe, should be encouraged in Malawi.In Malawi, the beginning of the rainy season is followed by a period of peak labour demand. Survey results at Chisasa in Mzimba (Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, 1977) confirm this. Maize is planted first, followed by millet, then groundnuts. During this same period thinning, weeding and fertilizer application must also be done. This affects activities of farmers in all socioeconomic categories. For the smaller farms, family labour competes with off-farm employment. For the larger farms there is need to hire extra labour. Unavailability of labour delays critical operations such as weeding and fertilizer application. Reports by Vengris et al., (1955) and Knake and McGlamery (1984) indicate that if weeds are not well controlled, the application of fertilizers can enhance weed-crop competition for nutrients. Because weeds are a major factor in reducing both fertilizer use efficiency by the crop and grain yield, information on crop• response to weeding management becomes very valuable in resource management decisions for all type~ of farmers. The trial we report here examined maize yield response to several weed management levels and N application rates in Malawi.The trial was conducted at Chitedze and Meru Research Stations in 1991/92 and at Chitedze and Mbawa Research Stations in 1992/93. All sites are in the mid-altitude ecology of Malawi, favourable for maize production.The experiment was a randomized complete block design, arranged in a 4 x 3 factorial with 4 replicates in 1991/92, and in a 5 x 3 with 4 replicates in 1992/93. The first factor was weed management (W) at the following levels:• W1: Weeding 3 times, at 21 days after planting (DAP) in 1991/92 and 14 DAP in 1992/93, then at 45 DAP followed by banking (pulling soil over ridges with a hoe) at 54 DAP;• W2: Weeding 2 times, at 21 DAP in 1991/92 and 14 DAP in 1992/93, and at 45 DAP;• W3: Weeding once at 14 DAP, applied in 1992/93 only;• W4: Weeding at 28 DAP;• W5: No weeding control.Actual dates of the weeding operations are in Table 1. The other factor was N (as urea) at 0,45 and 30 kg N ha-1 . All tots received a blanket P application at 17 kg P ha-in the form of triple superphosphate.All fertilizer was applied soon after emergence in holes 10 cm deep and away from planting stations and covered.Maize (MH17, a hybrid) was planted on ridges at stations spaced 90 cm apart, with three plants per station, for a density of 37,000 ha-1 . The net plot size was 11.34 m 2 .Data reported are grain yield adjusted to 12.5% (storage) moisture, number of ears plant-1 , and grain yield planr 1 . The nllmber of ears was those ears with at least one grain at harvest. Data were analysed according to analysis of variance procedures and mean separations were done according the Fisher's least Significant difference, LSD). important for optimum yields. Weeding once at 28 DAP resulted in significant (P<0.05) yield loss of Grain yield. Data in Table 2 show that at all sites 1627 kg ha-1 at Meru and 757 kg ha-1 at Mbawa, and m • both seasons there was no signifi'cant when compared to weeding twice. At Chitedze difference (P-0.05) in grain yield between weeding yield loss with one weeding was 340 kg ha-1 in two times or three times. This suggests that only 1991/92 and 381 kg ha-1 in 1992/93, but these were two weeding operations at 14 and 45 DAP are not significant. Response of grain yield plant-1Kabambe & Kumwenda Effect of weed management and N rate on maize. Weed management and nitrogen rate effects (Figure 1b) followed a similar pattern. Higher yield plant-1 was closely associated. with higher yield ha-1 .Yield response to N was observed at Meru and Mbawa only. At both sites significantteld increase was observed with the first 45 kg ha-. At all sites yield from the no fertilizer (with weeding) treatment was much better than yield from the no weeding treatment, showing that weeding should receive high priority in maize production. Significant WxN effect on yield ha-1 and yield plant-1 was detected at Meru in 1991/92 only (Figure la). The interaction showed that the optimum N rate was 45 kg N ha-1 when weeding was done two or three times. There was a positive linear response to N rate up to 90 kg ha-1 when weeding was done once or not at all. This indicates that weeds decreased N availability to maize. At Mbawa weeding once at 14 DAP drastically reduced yields. This loss was due to successful re-establishment of weeds. The yield results are in agreement with those of Vengris et ai., (1955), who observed that with adequate Nand P application, the ability of weeds to compete with maize was increased. Knake and McGlamery (1984) indicated that with crops such as maize, N can only help the crop compete against weeds if it helps the crop grow vigorously compared to the weeds. In Malawi, weeds begin growth with the onset of rains, such that early weed control is necessary for the crop to obtain the greatest benefit from applied N. Number of ears per plant. In Table 3 data show that the number of ears per plant was lowest in the uncontrolled weeding treatment. Except for Meru in 1991/92, the number of ears per plant was not affected by N rate. At Meru effects of W x N on ears plant-1 (Fig. 1) show that within each weeding regime (except for the unweeded control), there was a positive response to the first increment of N applied, suggesting that N per se has a role in ear development. The unweeded control gave the fewest ears plant-1 for each N rate. At the zero or 45 kg N rate, the number of ears plant-1 was significantly reduced by weeding once in comparison to three times, while there was no difference amongst weeded treatments at the 90 kg N rate. Claassen 241 and Shaw (1970) reported that water stress at 75% silking combined with fertility stress resulted in a yield reduction of 13% per day with a large reduction in the number of ears developed. Thus poor ear formation is likely the factor causing reduced yield since stress from weed competition results directly in water, N and light stress. Prine (1971) found that a poor light environment at very high plant populations could cause ear barrenness. In these trials there was tall weed growth in unweeded plots, (mainly Nicandra physaiodes, Ageratum conyzoides L. and Digitaria abyssinica) and in plots weeded at 14 DAP.From these results, it is clear that maize yields could be optimized at 45 kg ha-1 N (half the recommended rate) if weeds are properly controlled in Malawi. Farmers should aim at a minimum of two weeding operations 14 and 45 DAP since this has greater returns to investment. Weed competition reduces the number of harvestable ears and the grain yield per plant.In the dry areas of Ethiopia, maize is one of the In low rainfall areas, moisture is more critical than major food crops grown by peasant farmers. plant nutrients for yield. To alleviate this problem Farming systems diagnostic survey reports from IAR several experiments were conducted at Melkassa indicated that 93% of the farmers in the lowlands of where the effect of tied ridges on soil moisture Ethiopia grow maize.conservation and yield of maize was evaluated.Despite the importance of the crop in the semi-arid Considerable yield increase was obtained by use of areas of the country, the yield levels are very low tied ridges compared to flat planting (farmer (800-900 kg ha-1 ). practice), particularly in drier years.This low yield is due to the following primary The major limitation to adoption of tied ridges by constraints: lack of suitable technology for maize small farmers was the amount of labour required to production under low and erratic rainfall and make them by hand. It was estimated by the moisture stress conditions; lack of drought farming system group at Melkassa that it would take tolerant/ resistant maize cultivars; poor soil fertility; between 26-30 man-days ha-1 to construct tied high weed incidence and lack of appropriate ridges by hand with the small hand hoe. However cropping systems to suit maize production. the Agricultural Implements Research and Improvement Center of IAR developed a prototype To alleviate these problems our agronomic research animal drawn \"maresha\" attached with a tie ridger. within the dryland farming research program A saving of about 400% in the time required to make focuses on the following objectives :tied ridges was obtained with this prototype 1. Identify appropriate moisture conservation compared to the manual ridge method. On-farm practices for maize production. testing of this implement as a means of moisture 2. Explore the possibility of inter<ropping, alley conservation was carried out at four on-farm cropping or relay cropping of maize with locations (Boffa, Wolenchity, Wonji and Melkassa) in different legumes. 1992. 3. Develop appropriate crop rotation systems for Combined analysis (Table 1) shows that yield was maize production. increased by 598 kg. ha-1 when the tie ridger was 4. Identify weed management practices (cultural or used. chemical) that are economical for small scale farmers. 5. Study nutrient requirements of maize and derive economically acceptable recommendations for nutrient applications.  41/46 kg ha-1 NPzOs ha-1 respectively (Table 2). FERTILIZER RESPONSE STUDIES Tied ridges, as a means of moisture conservation, Poor soil fertility is one of the major constraints to facilitated nutrient uptake in the below normal maize production in Nazret area. The soils are rainfall year (1993) whereas, in 1992, an above particularly deficient in N and P. Experiments normal rainfall year, tied ridges did not produce a conducted during the 1983-86 cropping seasons to significant yield increase over flat planting. This determine the optimum N and P rates resulted in no might be due to the water-logging effect created by positive response to fertilizer application due to water collected in the tied ridges. Any rate above residual effects and the long history of fertilization 41/46 kg N-PzOs ha-1 did not increase yield of the experimental fields at the research center.significantly. Fertilizer interacted positively with Therefore, a fertilizer response trial was conducted moisture conservation practice. The increase in during the 1992-93 cropping seasons on farmers' yield ranged from 407-1197 kg ha-1 . Moisture conservation alone, without any application of fertilizer, produced 302 kg ha-1 grain yield difference compared to the check.The net benefit curve (Fig. 1) clearly shows that a farmer willing to spend 214 Birr ha-1 on fertilizer application will get a benefit of 2246 Birr ha-1 . A poor farmer (who can spend only 50 Bir ha-1 ), every one Birr spent will fetch him 28 Birr.In semi-arid areas of Ethiopia where maize is among the major crops grown, farmers traditionally practice monocropping of maize. The inclusion of a legume crop, although highly recommended, is not widely practiced. In view of the lack of response of crops to fertilizer application in moisture stress areas, croppin~ sequence experiments were conducted at Melkassa during 1986-87. The different precursor crops included in the sequence were sorghum,• tef, maize, Dolichos lablab and sunflower, followed by a test crop of maize. The results indicated that maize growth was enhanced and produced a 60% higher grain yield when grown after haricot bean or tef. Unfortunately these trials did not include other improved cropping system treatments, such as intercropping or alley cropping, involving cereals and legumes during the same year. Hence, a systematic long-term crop rotation trial with the objective of developing promising crop rotation systems for maize production was initiated in 1992. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with fertilizer rates as main plots and cropping sequence as sub-plots. A maize bean intercrop and maize/Sesbania alley cropping system were evaluated along with maize-maize, tef-maize, and bean-maize rotation systems. Results from 1992-93 seasons are presented in Table 3. The lowest yield was obtained when maize was planted following cereals (maize or tef) where a yield reduction of 836 kg ha-1 was observed. On the other hand, 446 kg ha-1 additional yield was recorded by rotating maize after beans. Even though the study is not complete, the two years of results have clearly illustrated the benefit of bean/maize and maize/sesbaniamaize/sesbania rotations in terms of improved maize productivity. During the second season (1993) grain yield of maize which was depressed, was raised by 100% by addition of 100kg ha-1 DAP basal application + 50kg ha-1 urea top dressing.The sequence of cropping, if supplemented by fertilization, added to the effect of rotating crops. When this report was prepared, soil analysis datawere not yet available. Hence the yield differences and soil nutrient changes after a second year crop cycle could not be evaluated together. By the end of this experiment (1995) this issue will be worth considering. Severe weed incidence is a major bottleneck to maize production. Critical time of competition and yield reduction are usually related to differences in competing weeds. An experiment with the objective of finding out the critical period of competition and indicating the proper time when maize should be weeded was carried out at two locations (Wolenchiti and Melkassa) for two years (1992)(1993). The experiment was laid out in a RCBD with three replicates. Results are in Table 4. From the data a 100% yield increment was observed if maize was weed-free compared to unweeded. Weeding once during the early season of maize (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25) increased yield by 1200 kg ha-1 compared to the unweeded check. The yield loss was 13% (436 kg ha-1 ), which is minimal. Late weeding (60-65 DAE) incurred the highest yield loss (44%) next to the unweeded check (49%). The lowest yield loss was registered (5%=190kg ha-1 ) when maize was weeded twice, first at an early stage of development (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25) and the second at the mid growing season(40-45 DAE).Farmers' awareness about the relative importance of each package component to the overall yield give farmers flexibility in the step-wise adoption of technology based on their conditions and resources. Information on the contribution of each component of the package facilitates better communication between farmers and extension agents.An experiment was carried out at three on-farm locations (Wolenchiti, Melkassa and Wonji ) for two years during 1992 and 1993 to test the relative contribution of selected agronomic practices on the production of maize on-farm. In all the three locations, the trials were laid out in a RCBD with 3 replicates. The results in (Table 5) show that across locations and years, yield response increased with the addition of each component. The highest yield increase of more than 100% was obtained by using all the four components of the package (row planting, recommended fertilizer, early weeding and Therefore another experiment was conducted to examine the relative benefits of mixed and intercropping systems under farmers' field conditions. The experiment was carried out at four on-farm locations (Wonji, Boffa, Wolenchiti and Melkassa) laid out in a RCBD with four replicates during 1992 and 1993. Results presented in Table 6 indicate that, averaged over four on-farm locations and over two years, intercropping beans in a row pattern of 2 maize : 1 bean gave the highest land equivalent ratio (LER-1.57). The intercropping advantage expressed in terms of total LER from different combinations ranged from 18-57%. As an average of all locations and years the intercropping benefits were promising, indicating that improved biolOgical productivity is possible from improved maize-based intercropping systems.Zewdie et at.The results illustrate that beans show good compatibility with maize, while maintaining almost 80-100% of the sole maize yields. A reasonable legume yield was obtained by maintaining 100% of the maize population and 50% of the bean population in all intercropping systems.An economic analysis was carried out for all treatments. Results presented in Table 6 indicate that the highest net benefit of 1887 Birr ha-1 was obtained when one row of beans was intercropped with two rows of maize. Sole maize gave the lowest net benefit, followed by the sole bean treatment.Generally, the trend was that the higher the LER, the better the net benefit. Mixing maize and beans and broadcasting both at the same time was the second best treatment, both for biological productiVity and economic returns, giving 50 % advantage over sole crops and a net benefit of 1851 Birr ha-1 .\"Incidence of weeds was generally low in intercropped treatments as opposed to sole crops. We also observed that in intercropping treatments where both crops were planted simultaneously, the weed incidence was lower than\"in the relay planted treatments.Questions Response: Through the yields. Maize yields did not differ significantly between treatments while bean yields had highly significant differences.A. Mashiringwani: From two of your graphs it is not clear why your critical period is 20 to 56 days and not 30 to 56 days.Response: In Fig. INTRODUCTION in Ghana and Togo there was a positive correlation between population density and farming intensity Striga asiatica and S. hennonthica are root parasites with Striga intensity. They also reported that low which seriously constrain cereal production in subsoil moisture, high gravel and low organic matter Saharan Africa. Striga attacks susceptible host crops content were correlated to the level of Striga. like maize and sorghum shortly after germination. After attachment it draws all of its water and There is little detailed information on the nutrients and part of its carbohydrate requirements extensiveness of the Striga problem in Kenya, and from the host. Additionally, it exerts a potent environmental and management practices associated phytotoxic effect on the host which causes yield with its spread and build-up. The present study losses far in excess of those expected by a pure combined agro-climatic data and survey information competitive assocatiation (Ransom et ai., 1990).to examine the geographical distribution and significance of Striga infestation on maize in Kenya Striga related yield losses can be considerable. Based and analyze sources of variation and determinants on a wide range of experiments, Parker and Riches of its spread and intensity. Findings were used to (1993) estimate that about 5% yield loss occurs for assist maize researchers identify the best strategy for every Striga plant per m 2 • Yield losses of 30-50% are effective technological intervention to reduce losses common under typical field infestations and losses caused by Striga and to limit its spread. over a whole region may average 5-15% (Parker, 1991). In western Kenya, 100% yield losses are METHODS common in on-farm and on-station experimental Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques plots.were employed to design a spatially referenced Striga spp. are estimated to infest 21 millon ha in survey of maize farmers in Kenya. Data ()n farmers' Africa, with a potential to spread to a further 23 practices and constraints to maize production were million ha (Sauerborn, 1991).The main collected from a sample of 1407 farmers in 30 environmental constraint to the spread of Striga in districts using a structured questionnaire. Survey cereal crop farming systems is low soil temperature sites and respondents were referenced by (Patterson, 1987).The build-up of Striga is agroclimate and sampled proportional to percent of associated with the continuous cropping of total area under maize and density of population in susceptible cereals and the associated decline in soil each zone. Additional information on the survey fertility (Parker, 1991). Vogt et al., (1990) found that design can be found in Hassan et aI, 1993. Interview  data were then incorporated into the GIS format together with the maize-specific agroclimatic classification. The statistical package SPSS was used to analyze the integrated data set.Distribution and economic significance of Striga. A number of different agroclimatic zones for maize production were developed by the Kenya Maize Data Base Project (MDBP) and were used to explore the geographic distribution of Striga on maize in Kenya (Corbett, 1992). Table 1 presents the criteria and boundary conditions for the MDBP zonation scheme. According to table 1, Striga was found to be an important weed pest on 39% of the maize land in the moist mid-altitude (MAT) zone where 118,000 ha are sown to maize Le. about 12% of the total maize area. More than 40% of the farmers in this zone stated that they loose half of their maize production due to Striga infestation.While Striga was not reported in the relatively cooler climate of the high tropics (HT), it was observed to be moving into the moist transitional (TNZ) zone. Although Striga infestation is not yet severe in this zone, the fact that it is creeping into the largest maize producing zone in Kenya where about 40% of the total maize area lie, is alarming. On the other hand, Striga was found confined only to the moist parts of the MAT and TNZ zones and not reported in the dryer segments of these zones. Based on observations that Striga is able to emerge and reproduce in dryer seasons within the moist MAT, we believe that moisture levels in the dry parts of MAT and TNZ zones are sufficient for Striga development (Table 1). The fact that Striga is not found in the dry MAT is probably due to the fact that it has not yet been introduced into these zones and not because of restriction in development due to climate. Fortunately, the moist and dry segments of these zones are widely separated by a large area of Hr. The moist MAT and TNZ zones concentrate around lake Victoria to the western border of Kenya, where~s the dry segments of the two zones fall towards the eastern side of the country with the Rift Valley in between.It is therefore believed that history and spatial separation rather than variations in agroclimatic conditions are the main reason for the confinement of Striga to the moist parts of the MAT zone where it was probably first introduced (Figure 1). However, the fact that Striga is creeping into adjacent environments indicate that, unless contained it is only a matter of time before Striga seed banks buildup and spread to other zones.While the survey did not report Striga infestation at the coast of Kenya, we have observed Striga asiatica in isolated areas of several coastal districts. The fact that S. asiatica was not identified as an important constraint suggests that it is less aggressive and less likely to spread than S. hermonthica. Furthermore, by the nature of its country-wide coverage, this survey is expected to miss regional patterns that are highly localized with a very low chance of being observed.Farmers' practices and control measures. It is clear from Table 2 that Striga infestation is higher in the moist MAT zone especially in areas of higher population density and intensive cultivation i.e. continuous maize and no rotation. These results are consistent with the thesis that population pressure leads to more intensive farming and less fallow periods and consequently lower fertility of the soil, hence increasing Striga incidence (Vogt et al., 1990;Parker, 1991).Experimental data has shown that planting date does not appreciably affect Striga parasitism in maize and sorghum (Ransom and Osoro, 1991). Nevertheless, the fact that on average, maize was planted two weeks earlier in areas heavily infested with Striga compared to relatively Striga free areas (Table 2), indicates that early planting could be one strategy used by farmers to reduce Striga.The fact that more animal manure and .less inorganic fertilizer is used in areas of high infestation indicate that farmers rely on organic fertilizers to limit the build-up of Striga. On the other hand, it could also indicate that farmers with fewer resources and who are less likely to buy fertilizer, are the most susceptible to the build-up of Striga.Farmers' identified animal dung as the third most used measure of control against Striga on maize (Table 2).Results of experimental research conducted in the survey area on the direct effects of nitrogen on Striga population were also consistent with farmers' assessment (Ransom and Odhiambo, 1994). Table 2 also shows that high infestation of Striga is associated more with mixed cropping especially between rows. This is contrary to the notion that mixed cropping can reduce Striga emergence (Parkinson et ai., 1987). Hand weeding (of weeds in general) and poor land preparation were also associated with high Striga levels. While 57% of. the farmers did not indicate the use of a Striga-resistant material, many (32%) indicated that the lake region local yellow maize variety, Nyamula, possesses some tolerance to Striga. This was the main reason why Nyamula was preferred by most farmers in the moist MAT zone (Hassan et al., 1993).  Figures in brackets denote percent of total maize area (Hassan et. al. 1993). ( 3) Percent farmers reporting Sirigs as one of the three most serious problems facing maize production. (4)Represents farmers' estimation of the percent production lost due to Sirigs infestation (percent loss in infected fields). ( 5)Figures in brackets denote number of months with more than 80 mm of rains (during the main growing season). ( 6)Sirigs was reported only in the lower parts of Kakamega, Nyamira and South Nyanza districts in this zone. significance in reducing the severity of Striga damage. The effect of agroclimate, population density, genotype selection (variety), planting criteria (date) CONCLUSIONS and cropping system in reducing losses due to Striga Striga hermonthica is wide-spread and seriously were highly significant (Table 3). On the other hand constrains maize production in one of the most crop rotation, intensity of cultivation, use of organic important maize growing regions in Kenya. fertilizer and tillage methods did not show statistical Furthermore, Striga is moving into other more important zones, indicating the need for a concerted  1991;Ramaiah, 1991;Ejeta and Butler, 1992). The environment, hence it cannot be a reliable index for number of emerged Striga plants has been the major polygenic resistance. Striga rating score was a stable selection criteria for resistance. Two additional and reliable parameter because of its high selection criteria employed were host plant damage association with grain yield (Adetimirin et al., 1994; symptoms using a 1 to 9 scale (1-no damage Kim, 1994). symptoms regarded as highly tolerant, 9-plant severely damaged or dead, highly susceptible) (Kim,   ARTIFICIAL INFESTATION   1991; 1994) and grain yield (Kim, 1991). The term Lack of uniform infestation has been a major bottle tolerance has been used to describe the ability of the neck to progress in Striga resistance breeding (Kim et host to withstand the effects of parasite that are al., 1985;Kim, 1991;Ramaiah, 1991;Vaidya et al., already attached. The tolerance ensures an increase 1991; Ejeta and Butler, 1993). Observation from 19 in grain yield and stover weight under similar levels different research sites and farmers' fields in west of initial infection (number of underground Striga Africa revealed a decline of Striga infestation under attachments). One'possible disadvantge of tolerance continuous cropping of maize (Fig. 1). In 1988, a is the build up Striga seed if the tolerance is simple and reliable infestation method was associated with high Striga emergence. However, developed at IITA by reducing N application (zero tolerant plants described in this paper had less Striga at planting and 30 to 60kg of N ha-1 after Striga emergence and thus, would contribute less to Striga infection), increasing Striga seeding rates (10,000 seed multiplication than susceptible host plants. The cleaned seeds with about 30% germination per growth of Striga was slower on tolerant maize plants maize plant or hill), and ridge sowing (Kim and than on susceptible plants (Kim, 1994). Many \"high Akintunde, 1990;Kim, 1991;Kim and Winslow, resistance\" traits are controlled by single genes 1991). The original plant spacing for rows and hills (monogenic resistance) and are often not durable was 0.75m x 0.25m (one plant per hill) and later (Kim, 1994;Kim et al. 1992). In contrast, \"tolerance\" modified as 0.75m x O.SOm (two maize plants per is controlled polygenically and is considered 25S   1).A special effort was directed to reducing the of emergence Striga. Attempts have also been made to further improve the infestation method (Berner et al.,1994).We found sources of tolerance and resistance in IITA streak resistant temperate line conversions such as TZi 11 (Mol7), TZi 12 (N28), and TZi 25 (B73) (Table 1). Other sources were from tropical and subtropical inbred lines, TZi 3 (Tuxpeno) and TZi 30 (Hi29  (Kim, 1991). Average host plant damage ratings (1 .to 9) of tolerant and susceptible hybrids were 3.2 and 7.5, respectively. Striga damage rating is a much more reliable criteria for assessing host plant tolerance than Striga emergence counts (Kim, 1991;Adetimirin, 1994;Adetimirin et al. 1994)  (Kim, 1991). Other traits affected were stover weight and stalk lodging.Inheritance of maize tolerance and resistance to S. hermonthica were studied under Striga seed infested field conditions at Mokwa, Nigeria using both diallel crosses (five years) and the generation mean analysis (two years) (Kim, 1994). Host plant damage ratings (tolerance) of a 10 x 10 diallel crosses were taken based on 1 to 9 rating scale. Ratings for the 45 Fl crosses ranged from 3.6 (TZi 11 x TZi 12) to 8.3 (TZi 9 x TZi 10) (I<im, 1994). General combining ability (GCA) mean square was twice the specific   5). To understand the mechanism of host plant Significant interactions were present in experiments resistance and tolerance of maize to S. hennonthica, x time, time x line and experiment x time x line. it is important to know the level of initial infection of Mean squares of the Striga emergence counts were Striga, which is indicated by the number of significant for all sources except experiment x time x underground root attachments. Thirteen maize lines line interaction. At' 3 WAP, differences were not (8 resistant and 5 susceptible) were studied in pots great though some significance was present (Table inside a screen house for underground attachment 6). At 5 WAP, resistant lines had an average of 10.9 and emergence of Striga, plant height, stover dry underground Striga per pot and the susceptible lines matter, and root dry matter of maize. The had 19.2. Average emergence counts for resistant experiment was repeated twice. Data for the traits and susceptible lines were 5.7 and 11.2. At 7 WAP, was taken at 3/ 5/ and 7 weeks after planting (WAP) x time x infest were highly significant (p =0.001). At 3 WAP, average root dry matter weights of eight resistant lines under infested and uninfested conditions were 0.5 and 0.4 g and those of five suscetible lines were 0.7 and 0.4 g respectively (Table 7). At 5 WAP, average root dry matter of the 13 lines under Striga infested condition was three times greater than that under Striga free condition.At 7 WAP, resistant lines had significantly greater root dry matter than the susceptible genotype under Striga infection (Table 7). The increased root development of host plants under Striga infestation may be a survival response of the host to Striga attack.Twelve samples of S. hermonthica seed were collected from four host crops; millet (4), sorghum (4), sorghum/millet intercrop (3) and maize (1) from all the main areas of S. hennonthica infestation in Nigeria and were tested on eight genotypes of three test crops; maize (4), sorghum (2) and millet (2). Plants of each test genotype were sown in pots infested with Striga from the 12 sources. Emergence of the parasite, test crop daMage score (1 to 9), and plant height were measured at 9 WAP. The results showed that the effects of genotypes, samples, and their interaction for all traits measured were highly significant (p=O.OOl) (Table 8) (I<im et al., 1994). Of the 12 samples of S. hermonthica, all had high emergence on both maize and sorghum. Seven samples had low emergence on millet genotypes and two none at all. Three of the four samples from millet sources gave higher Striga emergence on sorghum and maize than on millet. Millet had the lowest average damage rating, followed by maize. The responses of maize genotypes to samples from millet and sorghum sources were significantly different (Table 6). Millet genotypes also responded differently to the si1¥\\Ples from millet sources. In plant height, maize genotypes interacted differently to Striga samples collected from sorghum fields, and sorghum genotypes to Striga samples collected from millet fields. The resuts of this study showed that both inter-erop and intra-erop strains of S. hennonthica were present in Nigeria. Thus, breeding Tolerance and resistance to Striga cereals for resistance to S. hermonthica should aim at polygenically controlled tolerance or resistance.In addition, the results indicate millet as a possible original host of S. hermonthica. However, since sorghum became the dominant host for Striga in the savanna zone, it is likely to be the key contributor to the increased Striga problems in Africa. Most of the strains attacking maize would have co-evolved with sorghum (Kim et al., 1994).STRIGA ASIATICA RESPONSE Six genotypes of maize were tested under artificial infestation of S. asiatica in Togo (Table 9) (Kim et al., 1992). The method of artificial infestation was same as described for S. hermonthica. A leading S. hermonthica tolerant hybrid, 8322-13 showed the highest level of resistance with the lowest damage score, 3.3 on the scale 1 to 9 and with the highest grain yield (6.96 t ha-1 ). The yield of tolerant and resistant hybrids was 355% higher than the susceptible local variety. Four resistant hybrids had significantly less Striga emergence. A tolerant genotype, 8329-15 had TZi 30 as parent, which was reported as a source of Striga asiatica resistance in North Carolina (Ransom et al., 1990). A susceptible genotype to S. hermonthica, 8321-21 showed low S. asiatica emergence and relatively high grain yield. Based on these findings, we felt that a longer-term approach was needed in order to provide effective, Striga hennonthica is the most constraining pest to adoptable control strategies for Striga in maize based maize production in western Kenya, where it infests cropping systems. 46,000 ha, causing yield losses in excess of 50% (Hassan et al., 1994). Striga is difficult to control as it The objectives of this research were therefore to look causes much of its damage before it emerges from at the longer-term effects of Striga hand-pulling, the soil and emerges after most other weeding stover management, soil fertility and trap cropping operation have been completed.In 1990, a on the control of Striga. KARI/ CIMMYT collaborative research project MATERIALS AND METHODS funded by the CIDA/CIMMYT East African Cereals Program, on Striga control was established. The General. Experiments were initiated during 1991. initial activities of this project were to adapt Once established all plots received the same technologies that had been identified as effective in treatment season after season. Each plot was controlling Striga elsewhere.approximately 60 m 2 • Land was prepared by hand to minimize mixing between plots. Striga counts and From the screening of locally available germplasm, grain yield were obtained from the center rows of the sorghum genotypes Serena and Seredo were each plot. Soil samples were taken at the end of each found to be relatively more resistant to Striga than season and consisted of composite of approximately the maize cultivars (Ransom and Odhiambo, 1992). 15 cores, 1.5 cm in diameter 15 cm deep. From this Katumani and other earlier maturing maize cultivars bulk sample, Striga seed numbers were obtained were also found to support less Striga than the fullfrom a 500 g sub-sample after processing through an season types (Ransom and Odhiambo, 1994). The elutriation system (Eplee and Norris, 1990). The reduced parasitism of Katumani was associated with experimental design was a randomized complete reduced root growth in the top 10 cm of soil (Baltus block with 3 replications. Data were subject to an et ai., 1994).analysis of variance, with seasons considered as a Dicamba, applied at 0.75 kg a.i. ha-1 either over-the-sub-plot of the other factors included in the top or post-directed to the inter-row at 45 days after experiments. Only the results from the first and last planting gave relatively good control. However, the seasons of experimentation were included in the control did not persist long enough to make dicamba analysis and presentation in this paper. economical (Odhiambo and Ransom, 1993a). Stover, fertility and Striga hand-pulling. Intercropping with cowpeas between the rows of Experiments were conducted at the National Sugar maize significantly reduced Striga numbers, but did Research Center-Kibos, near Kisumu and at the not consistently result in increased maize yield Homa Bay sub-center near Homa Bay. Treatments (Odhiambo and Ransom, 1993b HP =Slrigs hand-pulling• consisted of a factorial combination of 2 levels of were: no hand-pulling of Striga, and hand-pulling at stover management, 2 levels of soil fertility, and 2 the early flowering stage of Striga with further levels of Striga pulling. The stover levels were: handpulling when n~essary to ensure that no Striga complete removal after harvest or incorporation of seed production occurred. the stover into the soil at the time of land-Trap cropping experiments. Experiments were preparation.Fertility levels were: no added conducted at the Alupe Research Sub-Center, Busia fertilizer, and 80 and 40 kg ha-1 N and P, and at Kibos. The treatments were: cowpeas, respectively, all applied at planting. Weeding levels Long terms strategies for Striga control cowpeas plus fertilizer, cotton, cotton plus fertilizer, natural fallow, maize without fertilizer plus handpulling of Striga, maize plus fertilizer plus handpulling, and maize with no additional management. For the fertilized treatments the rate of fertilization was 50 kg ha-1 Nand 20 kg per ha-1 P. Only Striga seed numbers in the soil will be reported here.Fertility, stover and Striga hand-pulling trial. Locations differed significantly so the results will be discussed for each site separately. At Homa Bay, the level of Striga infestation was high (averaging 23.3 plants m-2 ) and fairly uniform during the first season of the experiment (Table 1). Fertilizer reduced the level of Striga emergence during the first season and primarily in treatments where stover was removed. During the fourth season, however, hand-pulling, fertilizer and stover management significantly affected Striga emergence. Hand-weeding consistently reduced• Striga emergence, with the largest decline noted when combined with fertilizer. The incorporation of stover in fertilized plots with no hand-weeding was as effective as treatments that included handweeding.Maize yields generally increased with the application of fertilizer in the first season (Table 1). In the fourth season, hand-pulling resulted in higher yields in treatments receiving fertilizer or stover incorporation. The stover incorporated, fertilized, no weeding treatment yielded as well as the same treatment with hand-pulling.Striga seed numbers varied considerably during the first season, possibly due to the natural variation in the experimental area (Table 1). In all except the combined stover and fertilizer treatment, allowing Striga to seed (no hand-pulling) resulted in significant increases in the number of Striga seeds in the soil. Seed numbers in weeded treatments tended to decline in the fourth year.At Kibos, Striga counts were generally higher than those measured in Homa Bay during the first season (Table 2). Although there were large difference between treatment, they were not statistically significant. During the third season, the Striga density was considerably less than both the first season and the second season in Homa Bay. The reduced emergence could possibly be explained by the dry conditions that prevailed during this season at this site and the reduced Striga seed numbers in the soil.Fertilizer significantly affected Striga density, with all treatments receiving fertilizer supporting less Striga. Yield was affected by fertilizer in both seasons. Unlike Homa Bay, hand-weeding did not consistently result in increased yields (Table 1). The effect of hand weeding may become more pronounced in subsequent seasons. Perhaps most interesting at this site is the rather large universal decline in Striga seed numbers between the first and third seasons (Table 2). This decline is unexpected since continuous cropping is generally considered a significant factor in the build-up of infestations (Parker, 1991).There was a significant fertilizer by weeding interaction, resulting from reduced seed numbers from hand weeding in treatments receiving fertilizer. This is consistent with the results of Homa Bay where hand-weeding is more effective in reducing seed numbers in the treatments receiving fertilizer or stover.Trap cropping experiments. Very high levels of Striga seeds were recovered from the Alupe soils after the 1st season of experimentation (Table 3). Seasons differed significantly with the fourth season having less Striga seed than the first. This large decline, even in the maize treatments that were not hand-weeded, indicates that the rate of natural Striga seed demise is fairly high in this soil. This decline is similar to that noted in the previous study at Kibos (Table 2). There was a significant cropping system by season interaction. This was probably a result of the higher rate of Striga seeds in the maize based treatments.The results at Kibos were similar to those of Alupe (Table 3). The only effect that was Significant was season, resulting from the large decline in seed numbers between the two seasons. Nevertheless, maize based treatments generally had more Striga seeds than other crop systems after the third season. The lack of treatment response in these two experiments could be related to the general low fertility status of these soils. Crop growth was relatively poor in all treatments, especially at Alupe. These data do suggest that under the conditions of these experiment, trap cropping seems to be only marginally more effective than maize in reducing Striga seeds in the soil even after 3 or 4 seasons. The large natural demise of Striga seeds in 2 of the 3 sites needs further attention to see if it can be exploited in other systems. This is particularly important in view of the fact that this effect was greater than the effect of any of the crop management treatments included in the research.The data from the two long term experiments reported here suggest that inputs of fertilizer and organic materials are essential in the control of Striga, even while hand-weeding to stop Striga reproduction. Furthermore, the productivity of land infested with Striga may take a minimum of 4 cropping seasons with the best management identified here, to become truly productive again.Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria (IITA). Three maize seeds of susceptible medium Striga hennonthica (Del.) Benth. is one of the most maturity cv. 8338-1 were planted in 20-cm-diameter serious constraints to cereal production in Africa pots containining ca. 2.1 kg unsterilized field soil. (Ogborn, 1987;Lagoke, et ai., 1991). Because of After emergence, plants were thinned to one per pot. increasing population pressure, African farmers are To approximate differential infection times, 14 relying on continuous and mixed cropping of treatments were set up by infesting soil in pots with relatively high yielding cereals, like maize and ca. 1,500 germinable S. hennonthica seeds either at sorghum, to meet their food needs. This cropping planting or weekly at 1-13 weeks after planting. Soil pattern favours build-up of S. hennonthica, which is in pots was infested by making 20 2-cm-deep holes now threatening cereal production in many areas around each plant and filling the holes with a (Lagoke, et al., 1991). Practices that were developed mixture of S. hennonthica seeds and sand. The holes for S. asiatica (1.) Kuntze control in the U.S.A. have were arranged in 4 radii, at right angles, around not worked in Africa because they generally require each plant stem. Each radius contained 5 holes so substantial chemical inputs and application that there were 20 holes around each plant. Distance equipment (Sand and Manley, 1990) that are not between holes was 2 cm. Four pots were used at available or are prohibitively expensive for the each infestation time. Time of parasite emergence, African farmer. To put effective S. hennonthica maximum number of emerged parasites, and maize control within the reach of farmers in Africa, simple dry stover yield were recorded. measures need to be developed that require relatively inexpensive inputs. Development of such Screenhouse trial -sorghum. A second trial was controls necessitates a clearer understanding of the conducted on two susceptible cultivars of sorghum. epidemiology of S. hennonthica to ascertain when, in The 90 day CV., CK60B, and the 180 day cv., Mokwa the build-up of S. hennonthica populations, minimal Local, were grown on the soil floor of a screenhouse amounts of intervention can be most effective. The at IITA during the dry season of 1993. Seeds of the studies herein were designed to: (a) determine cultivars were planted on 2-m-Iong ridges spaced 75 whether there is a period of infection for S. cm apart. Within ridge spacing was 25 cm with 8 hennonthica, on maize and sorghum, that could be hills per ridge. Five seeds were planted per hill and disrupted by relatively minor external manipulation, then t}\\inned to 1 plant after emergence. The soil and (b) elucidate possible methods for delaying around individual plants was infested with 3,000 infection beyond this period.germinable S. hennonthica seeds in the same manner as previously described. Infestations were at the MATERIALS AND METHODS time of host planting, or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 wk later. Screenhouse trialmaize. This experiment was Four ridges (replications) were used for each conducted in a screenhouse at the International infestation time for each cultivar. Maximumnumber of emerged parasites per plant, individual sorghum plant height, per plant grain yield at 13% moisture, and per plant dry stover yield were recorded.Field trial -maize. Another trial using two cultivars of 120 day growth duration maize, cv. 8338-1, susceptible, and cv. 8322-13, resistant, was conducted in the field during the 1992 rainy season in Abuja, Nigeria (southern Guinea savannah). Field plots were 2 rows x 10 m long spaced 75 cm apart with an unplanted row between plots. Spacing of hills within rows was 25 cm giving 80 hills per plot. All hills in each plot were indiVidually infested with 10,000 germinable S. hennonthica seeds. Infestation was done as previously described with 7 treatments of infestation either at planting or weekly at 1-6 weeks. after planting. Each infestation time was replicated 4 times for each cultivar. Maximum number of emerged parasites and maize grain yield at 13% moisture were recorded for each plot.Root age trial. This trial was conducted in the laboratory at lITA to determine the effects of root age on induction of S. hennonthica seed germination. Sorghum cultivars (cv. CK60B, susceptible and cv. ICSV 1007, resistant) were grown in sterile sand in 200 ml styrofoam coffee cups for 1-6 weeks. Three cups of each cultivar were used for testing each week. Each week seedlings were removed from the cups and washed free of sand. The roots of the seedlings were then cut into 1-cm-Iong pieces and 1 g of these pieces was transferred to individual petri dishes containing conditioned S. hennonthica seeds. 5. hennonthica seed conditioning and germination induction by the cut roots were conducted according to the method described by Van Mele et al. (1992). Percentage S. hennonthica seed germination induced by different aged roots of each cultivar were recorded.Results of the maize pot study are in Table 1. Parasite emergence decreased beginning at 9 weeks after planting. Dry stover yields were highly variable and no increase was observed with delayed infestation.Results of the screenhouse study on sorghum showed significant decline in parasite emergence and significant increase in grain yield with delayed infestation (Figures 1, 2). Dry stover yield of only the tall cv., Mokwa Local, significantly increased (Figure 3). No significant increase in plant height was observed (Figure 4). Decreases in parasite emergence and increases in sorghum yields were most pronounced with delayed infestations of 4-6 weeks after planting.Results of the field trial on maize also showed significant decline in parasite emergence and an overall increase in grain yield with delayed infestation (Figures 5,6). Decreases in parasite emergence and increases in maize yields were most pronounced with delayed infestations of 4-6 weeks after planting. There were no significant differences between the resistant and susceptible cultivars, for parasite emergence and maize yield, at infestation delays of 5-6 weeks.Results of the root age trial are shown in  With the exception of an aberrant peak at 5-week delay for Mokwa Local (Figure 1), S. hermonthica emergence inexorably decreased with delayed infestation. Grain yield of the susceptible cultivars correspondingly increased. These data provide evidence of decreased parasitic ability with delayed infestation, and subsequent infection. There appears to be a critical window of infection prior to 4 weeks plant age, beyond which parasite emergence decreases and host yield increases. From the results of the root age study, older sorghum roots stimulate as much or more S. hermonthica seed germination than younger roots. This implies that the critical window of infection is not due to a decrease in germination stimulant. The phenomenon of the infection window may be attributable to two factors which appear to be independent of host phenology: either decreased germination of S. hennonthica seeds, through reentry into a dormancy period, or decreased ability of germinated parasite seeds to penetrate older roots.. Further studies are underway to determine the specific cause of the critical period of infection. In the absence of determination of a specific cause, this pheomenon can still be used to control S. hermonthica in both sorghum and maize.A critical window of infection implies that protection of the host from parasitism, through this critical period, should result in sustainable S. hermonthica control. Delays in infection generally result in both increased host yield and decreased parasite emergence. Since emergence is decreased, so too is flowering and seed production. If practices that significantly reduce S. hermonthica seed production are used over time, then a gradual, but inexorable, reduction in parasite inoculum (soil seed density) would be expected. Since the roots of older sorghum plants still retain the ability to stimulate S. hermonthica seed germination, a rapid reduction in inoculum might be expected with control practices that protect the host through the critical infection period while allowing induction of germination. Some practices that can be used to protect the host through the critical infection period are host-seed treatments and transplanting.Maize does not transplant well, but sorghum, which is frequently cropped with maize can be transplanted. Through trials on experimental and farmers' fields (Berner et aI., 1993) we have consistently demonstrated significant reduction in S. hennonthica reproduction through the use of transplanting (Figure 7). Cowpea seed treatments, using acetolactate synthase inhibitors, have been developed at lITA for protection against S. gesnerioides (Willd.) Vatke and Alectra vogelii Benth. (Berner et al., 1994). Because these chemicals are inexpensive and safe to both man and environment, there is considerable potential in using these materials for control of S. hermonthica in maize, if host phytotoxicity can be overcome. Currently we are working on developing seed treatments on maize selected for resistance to these chemicals. This area of maize breeding in Africa has not been greatly explored, but seems to offer the opportunity for rapid progress in Striga control. If the overall level of inoculum can be decreased annually through either, or both, of these practices, then S. hermonthica control can be put within the reach of African farmers.Questions to John Ojiem D. Berner: Did you look at Striga distribution on sorghum? The area of sorghum infested with Striga is larger than with maize. I suggest you expand your study to look at infestation due to movement on crop seeds.We focused on maize. I agree that movement on crop seeds may be a major reason for the expanding area infested with Striga.Did you include or seek information on crop rotations -maize-cotton, maize-cowpea -effects on the control of Striga in the next seasons' crops?Response: Yes, our study examined the effect ofcrop rotation (number ofyears ofcontinous maize) on the incidence of Striga infestation and found out, contrary to our expectation, that crop rotation did not significantly influence Striga infestation. Hcnvever, we did not look at the effects of the specific rotations you have mentioned. Response: Since these are long term experiments, we have not reached the stage where economic analysis can be done. Hcnvever data continues to be taken especially on labour costs for hand pulling of Striga and these will be used Ninety percent of farmers said that they sell a portion of their harvest and consume the rest at home. Nearly all farmers said that they mill their maize at a commercial milling facility. Maize for consumption at home is normally stored on the cob in traditional silos.Sixty-one percent of the maize grown in the region is intercropped with other food crops. The most popular companion crop is cowpea (58% of those who intercrop maize), followed by common bean (28% of those who intercrop).Varietal selection. Most farmers (75%) said that they use two or more varieties of maize each season. The most commonly used varieties are shown in Table 1. More than that, however, (40%) indicated they had lost a variety within recent years, most often due to displacement of farmers from their homelands during the war. In nearly 2/3 of cases, the variety lost was the local variety, 'Chimanhica'. A fifth of interviewees also reported that they had lost Zimbabwean hybrids during that period.When asked to identify the advantages of the improved varieties they were using, most of farmers (61 %) cited yield, followed by improved resistance to plant diseases (22%). The most common disadvantages of these improved varieties were lack of storability (72%), followed by late maturity (22%). The major advantage of the local variety, Chimanhica, was said to be storability. The principal disadvantage of the local variety was cited as late maturity (66% of respondents). Two-thirds of farmers indicated that they prefer maize with large grain size. Although the local variety and all improved open pollinated varieties used in Mozambique are of medium grain size, some of the Zimbabwean hybrids have large seed size. Use of these hybrids may have created a preference for larger seeds. About half of farmers (52%) said that they select their seed for the following season on the basis of plant performance and appearance. Selection on the basis of vegetative characters was significantly correlated (Pearson's correlation coefficient = .33) with having received some form of advice or assistance from extension agents. Farmers had a strong preference for flint grain type for use in the preparation of the main maize dishes (Table 2). Preference for hard grain appeared to be related to the manner in which the family prepared the maize porridge. Although flint grain was the preferred type for all uses, this preference was greatest among those who remove the pericarp before milling. Those who performed this operation prior to milling preferred flint grain 4 to 1. Those who consumed the whole grain preferred flint to dent grain by a margin of only 2 to 1.Land use. Almost half of farmers(48.5%) said they had been farming their present fields for more than 10 years and 60% said they had been on their farms for more than 5 years. Nevertheless, only 18% of farmers reported having interrupted maize culture on their farms since initial land clearing and only half reported noting a reduction in yields with time. Among those who did fallow their fields, the normal cropping period was approximately seven years.The average length of the fallow period was 4.5 years.About 15% of farmers said they used some chemical fertilizers in Manica District. An additional 30% said they used animal manure on at least part of their fields. Farmers who had received some technical assistance were four times as likely to use chemical fertilizers and three times as likely to use animal manure than those who had never received assistance. The use of fertilizers was well correlated with having sensed a decrease in soil fertility. Those who had noted a reduction in maize yields were nearly twice as likely to apply fertilizers or manure as those who had not noted a decrease in productivity.Overall constraints to production.The most significant problems encountered in producing a maizE!' crop in Manica District (Table 3) were pests and low soil fertility (both 59%). Although the survey did not attempt to identify the most important pests, those mentioned included rats (56.1%), stem borers (43.9%), and termites. The fourth most frequently cited problem was undependable rains (54.5%). As an alternative method for obtaining similar information, but more directed at crop improvement activities, farmers were asked to select from a list of selection criteria which would be the most important characters to include in order to obtain better maize varieties. Nearly all respondents (76%) identified higher yields as being a major potential improvement, followed by tolerance to drought (70%), resistance to post-harvest losses (64%), improved taste (49%), milling quality (44%), and resistance to lodging (34%). Early maturity was omitted from the list of possible selection criteria, but was a criteria identified, without prompting, by 7% of those interviewed. More intensive studies of the economics of maize production in smallholder conditions in Mozambique would be useful in determining the cost-benefit ratios implicit in the use of OPVs and hybrids to determine when, or whether, hybrid varieties are likely to become popular and useful among Mozambican smallholder farmers. Finally, intensified maize breeding efforts should be considered at a regional or national level to target increased resistance to drought, low soil fertility, and maize stem borers. Breeding programs should continue to place substantial emphasis on selection for resistance to foliar diseases on maize.smallholder credit system in 1992 and 1993. The reduced use of fertilizer and hybrid seed will lead to Smallholder agriculture in Malawi is dominated by a sharp decline in maize production and will maize cultivation at very low levels of productivity. exacerbate problems of food security for the bulk of Maize accounts for over 85 percent of the the rural population. smallholder cultivated area. Between 1980 and 1993, there was substantial growth in the use of fertilizer Fertilized hybrid yields have averaged around 2,800 and hybrid seed by smallholder households and in kg ha-1 during the past decade, and a yield gap of 1993, hybrid maize accounted for 25 percent of the over 50% exists between average yields obtained by maize area and 50 percent of maize production. farmers and yields possible with improved practices. Despite these successes, there has been little growth The wide yield gap between average yields obtained in the productivity of smallholder maize production by smallholders and those from research stations is a during the past decade. The growth in the hybrid result of many factors. Some of these include: 1) the maize area compensated for the decline in the dominance of unimproved, late maturing and low productivity of unfertilized local maize. Because of yielding local maize varieties in the cropping pattern the severe land constraint and rapid human rather than improved hybrid maize. 2) Growing population growth, averaging around 3 percent per maize without fertilizer due to lack of money or annum, achieving national and household level food access to credit to finance fertilizer purchases. Less security in Malawi will be dependent on the than 35% percent of smallholders use fertilizer, and increased adoption of hybrid seed and fertilizer.these are typically those with above average incomes, above average holding sizes and access to In 1994 the situation was extremely serious; the seasohal agricultural credit (Conroy 1993). 3) Poor share of hybrids in the maize area declined for the soil fertility; most soils in Malawi are low in soil first time in eight years, and fertilizer use decreased nitrogen and organic matter, and yields of to less than 70,000 metric tonnes compared with unfertilized maize average between 700 and 900 kg 180,000 metric tonnes in 1992/93. The reduction in ha-1 and the yields of unfertilized local maize have input use was caused by the collapse of the been declining for the past decade (Conroy 1993). 4) As a result of land pressure, smallholders have expanded cultivation onto steep hillsides which has contributed to serious soil erosion. Because of the small farm size, the bulk of farmland is allocated to the production of basic food staples. There is little opportunity to fallow land to restore soil fertility. The need to satisfy maize consumption requirements from small holdings precludes the use of rotation on much of the land. S) Poor crop management (late planting and fertilizer application, late weeding etc.) is common.There are several aspects of existing fertilizer recommendations and fertilizer use which reduce the efficiency of fertilizer use on maize. These include i) the optimum rate of nitrogen application to maize, ii) the optimum rate of phosphate application to maize, iii) the impact of micro nutrient deficiencies on maize response to nitrogen and phosphate, iv) fertilizer timing issues, and v) fertilizer placement issues. Each of these issues is discussed and recommendations are made.The current blanket fertilizer recommendation for hybrid maize is to apply 40 kg ha-1 P20S, and 92 kg ha-1 N. As nitrogen is universally limiting, any nitrogen fertilizer applied to hybrid maize will be beneficial. The response to nitrogen will tend to be linear at the lower end of the nitrogen response curve, becoming curvilinear as other factors become limiting.We examined four years of trial data on the response of local and hybrid maize to N and P under demonstration and farmer conditions. These trials were implemented by agricultural extension staff in the ADDs with the support of FAO and the Department of Agricultural Research. The original design of the FAO fertilizer demonstrations was to Jones et al. (1993) prOVided an agronomic analysis of the results from the four seasons of MOA/FAO fertilizer demonstrations. Hybrid maize grown without inorganic fertilizer performed significantly better than unfertilized local maize in three out of four seasons. This conclusion was made by comparing the yields from treatments one and three. Yield differences between these two treatments are attributable to the maize genotype and clearly show the yield advantage to be gained from using hybrid maize seed over unimproved local material, in the .absence of inorganic fertilizer. Local maize that was fertilized according to the national recommendation did not yield significantly more than unfertilized hybrid maize.Trials were conducted to determine the response of maize to nitrogen and phosphate for the past four agricultural seasons. The trials involved applying different levels of nitrogen and phosphate to the new semi-flint hybrids MH17 and MH18 and measurement of the yields obtained. Fertilizer application rates were 0,30,60,90 and 120 kg N ha-1 with different phosphate application levels (20,40,60  kg ha-1 ) for each level of N. Each trial was replicated three times at each site.The average yield of hybrid maize without fertilizer was 1,117 kg ha-1 • The maize response per kg of N varied at different levels of nitrogen application. As anticipated, the response rate to low levels of nitrogen application was substantially higher than the response rate at higher levels of N.   Brown (1966) found that many virgin soils in Malawi were not deficient in phosphorus. Because some soils in Malawi are not phosphate deficient, the existing fertilizer recommendation of 40kg P20S is probably too high for some soils in Malawi. The application of recommended rates of phosphate reduces yield and profitability on some soils. In addition, over application of phosphorus can inhibit zinc and copper uptake and so reduce maize yields. Matabwa and Wendt (1993)  Four years of FAO trials have suggested that there is not a maize response to phosphate at over 20 kg ha-1 • These results are confirmed by Wendt and Jones (1993) who noted that the lowest rate of phosphate application in their trials (20 kg ha-1 ) resulted in higher yields than hybrid fertilized at 40 and 80 kg P20S. These data call into question current fertilizer recommendations for phosphate.In addition to the recommendation for P being too high, the current recommended high analysis fertilizer (DAP) is not appropriate. The majority of farmers have complained that they experience lower maize yields when using DAP as a basal dressing fertilizer than 23:21:0+45. The main reason for lower yields with DAP is because farmers top-dress nitrogen fertilizers after DAP basal dressing much later than 2 to 3 weeks after maize emergence. When applying the recommended 40 kg ha-1 P20S with DAP, only a small amount of N (16 kg ha-1 N) is applied, while 23:21:0+45 supplies 44 kg ha-t N, 28 kg hat more N than with DAP. The 16 kg ha-1 N .from DAP is not sufficient to sustain maize growth for a long time, particularly on soils with very low initial soil N (Conroy 1993).With 23:21:0+45, the time of top-dressing is less crucial since more N is applied (44 kg hat N) as the basal dressing than with DAP. The other limitation of DAP as a basal dressing fertilizer is that it does not contain sulphur which is also deficient in some soils of Malawi.Recommendations i) Fertilizer recommendations for P should be reduced to 20 kg P20S ha-t . This would result in a saving to the farmer of MKSS.OO ha-1 (at current prices) and would raise the profitability of fertilizer use on maize.ti) The existing recommended basal fertilizer (DAP) is a high analysis fertilizer but with a very low N content. Lack of N limits maize yields more than Further delays are caused when there is drought (common after maize emergence), when members of the household become sick, and because farmers usually decide to weed their fields before applying fertilizer. Thus basal dressing fertilizers are often not applied until four or more weeks after planting. Top-dressing fertilizers are also applied late, even as late as tasseling. Late fertilizer application reduces the efficiency of fertilizer use and reduces maize yields because nutrient demand by the crop is not met by supply.Recommendations i) Fertilizer recommendations should be adjusted to ensure that the maize crop receives N in the first three weeks after seedling emergence. The basal application of fertilizer should contain a high proportion of N. This implies that Urea should be mixed with OAP if OAP continues to be the basal fertilizer of choice. An alternative recommendation is that Malawi should import basal fertilizer which contains a higher proportion of N than OAP.ii) Smallholders should be advised to band basal dressing fertilizer before old ridges are broken and remade.iii) To promote timeliness in fertilizer application by smallholders, demonstration plots to compare applying basal dressing fertilizers early or late should be conducted at each EPA or on club gardens.The way in which fertilizers are applied to crops (placement), the time of fertilizer application and the types of fertilizer used are important factors in determining fertilizer use efficiency. The recommended method of placement, dolloping, is both inefficient and time-consuming, both for basal and top-dressing. This results in labour shortages and consequent delays in fertilizer application and weeding, which reduce yields. Two problems exist with the dollop method. It results in reduced nutrient uptake and it is labour intensive.Oolloping is not an effective application method for urea. The conversion of urea to plant usable forms is dependent on the enzyme urease. High rates of urea in a dollop create conditions that restrict urease activity. The supply of nitrogen to plants is delayed and consequently yields are reduced (Tisdale et ai., 1985 andZambezi et ai., 1993).The Maize Commodity Research Team should implement trials to test the hypotheses suggested by Jones (1993). These are that: 283 a) the application of basal dressing fertilizer by banding in the furrow before planting can increase maize yields and reduce the labour requirement associated with basal dressing fertilizer application, b) at many sites, the application of basal and top dressing fertilizers at planting is as effective as split application, and c) the efficiency of urea can be increased by surface application instead of dolloping.There is an urgent need to modify fertilizer recommendations to increase the efficiency of fertilizer use by smallholders. Malawi faces a major challenge to increase the productivity of maize production. This will be critically dependent on increased use of hybrid seed and fertilizer. Because of the collapse of the credit system in 1991/92 and 1992/93, hybrid seed and fertiIizer use declined dramatically in the 1993/94 season. This is because most smallholders have extremely low cash incomes (averaging around MK250 per annum) which limits effective demand for fertilizer and hybrid seed. The current cost of a one hectare maize package is MK454 per hectare or MK181.6 per 0.4 hectare. This is too expensive for the majority of Malawi's smallholders.There has been a 50 percent devaluation of the Malawi Kwacha, which implies that fertilizer prices are likely to increase by 45 percent next agricultural season. This implies that the maize producer price has to increase by 35 percent simply to maintain VCRs at their current levels. However, an increase in the maize producer price would have an adverse impact on the urban poor and on maize deficit producers (the majority of smallholders). The only way forward is to increase the efficiency of fertilizer use by the recommendations outlined in the paper. This would decrease the price of the maize/hybrid package and increase returns to fertilizer use. In tum this would imply that the Government of Malawi would not have to increase maize producer prices to maintain the profitability of fertilizer use on maize. The lower cost and increased returns to the hybrid/fertilizer package would also reduce the risks associated with adoption and would lead more farmers to use hybrid seed and fertilizer (albeit at lower rates of N and P). This will increase the productivity of smallholder maize production. with the complete range of circumstances within Chivi were selected.Individual farmers were selected on the basis of the following criteria:• with/without cattle• with/without access to remittance income• with large/ small fields • old/young households • female/ male headed households.The receipt of remittances, cattle ownership and gender of the head of the household were determined objectively by the informants. The other criteria, basically subjective, were left to the key informants to decide on e.g. size of fields and age of the household. For example, age of the household in most cases was based on the age of the eldest child in the household. Key informants considered households with eldest children above 18 years of age as old.Another criteria for selecting the farmers was whether the farmers fields were predominantly located on light or heavy soils. Four classes of soils finally emerged. These were the red soils (dzvuku), the black clay soils (chidhaka), the sandy soils (musheche) and mixtures of any of the three. However since the red (dzvuku) and sandy soils (musheche) predominate, farmers were selected that had these soils.A sample of 144 households (48 per cluster) was eventually chosen. Data collection. Data were collected by three enumerators that had received training before data collection.The first survey collected details about farmer practice per field. Information included the crop and the seed variety grown, the soil type in the field, ownership of the field, crops planted in the field in the 1988/89 and 1989/90 seasons. Second plantings were also recorded. All crop husbandry practices that went into the field and their timing were detailed. These included weeding, thinning and fertilizer application. The area of each of the field was measured. This survey was to be repeated for two more seasons i.e. 1991/92 and 1992/93. However no data could be collected in 1991/92 due to drought.A questionnaire to collect basic household data was designed and administered. These data included the household demographic structure, household assets i.e. farming equipment, livestock holdings, dwelling types possessed by the household. A question to determine remittances (cash or otherwise) received by the household over the immediate past year was also included.For the analysis, the area is divided into three parts. These are Ngundu, which lies in the south and is in Natural Region IV, Chivi Central which lies in Natural Region V and Takavarasha, also in Natural Region V but with the harshest climatic conditions.Soil types. Table 1 shows the relative avalilability of the various soil types in the three clusters. Sandy soils are most predominant in Chivi Central and Ngundu. Black soils also occupy Significant areas in those two clusters. In Takavarasha they are equally dominant with the deep red soils.The distribution of maize on these soils types clearly reflects the availability.of the soil types (Table 2).Maize planting strategies. On average, households in Takavarasha planted the smallest area to maize compared to those in the other areas (Table 3) and the highest proportion of their fields to pearl millet and sorghum. The highest proportion of maize was found in Ngundu, where the lowest percentage of pearl millet was also found (Table 4).Planting of maize usually began by the first week of November and continued over 55 days (Figs. 1 and 2). During 1990/91, \"useful\" rainfall fell during the first week of December only (Fig. 3). By that time farmers had already planted about 40% of their maize fields. This implies that many farmers are willing to take the risk of dry planting even when faced with unreliable rainfall. However, this unreliability makes farmers unwilling to plant all their maize at one time, hence the spreading of maize plantings over a long period.Weeding of maize fields. The extension service recommends that farmers weed their maize crop by the third week after planting (Mavedzenge, unpublished). During the study, weeding began during the fourth week of November and continued until the end of January (Figs. 4 and 5). In general, the first weeding occurred about four weeks after planting. Allowing one week after planting for germination to occur, the weeding seems to have occurred within an appropriate time. Almost all the area under maize got at least one three seasons. A possible explanation for this is that weeding. In some cases farmers have to weed their farmers have certain pieces of land which they have maize for a second and even a third time. In ear-marked for the growing of maize. This may be 1990/91, more than 40% of the fields in Takavarasha due to certain unique characteristics of these pieces were not weeded at all. This was due to the early of land which farmers have found to be favourable termination of the rains. Farmers realised that they for the growing of maize. During a Soil Fertility were not going to reap any crop from their fields. Management Participatory Rapid Appraisal by the FSRU in Chivi, farmers indicated that some soils Soil fertility management. Generally the soils in were preferred for the growing of particular crops Chivi are of poor nutrient status. To get a good such as maize. maize harvest, some form of fertility management needs to be done. Extension recommends in Chivi Farmers rotated about 40% of the area planted to that, for basal fertiliser, 6-8 t ha-1 of animal manure maize in the 1989/90 season with other crops, or 200 kg ha-1 of Compound 0 (8:14:7) should be especially finger millet, pearl millet, groundnuts and applied.For top dressing, 100 kg ha-1 of sunflower. This is more so in Takavarasha were ammonium nitrate should be applied to good crops there is less emphasis on maize. (Mavedzenge, unpublished). CONCLUSION Table 5 shows the sources of soil fertility used on Due to the low and unreliable rainfall in Chivi and maize in Chivi. The amounts of both organic and the poor resource endowments of these farmers, inorganic sources of fertility is very low. Manure maize production strategies pursued by farmers was mostly used. Across the seasons, in excess of sometimes vary from extension recommendations 55% of the maize crop did not receive any direct for the area. While dry planting of maize is input to raise soil fertility. common, 35-40% of the maize area was planted after In 1992/93 soil fertility inputs were even lower the first effective rains. Planting was completed because of the drought in the previous season. over about 55 days. There is a need for maize Farmers expected the crop to utilise the fertility that varieties with a shorter growing length and more had been applied during the drought season and not drought tolerance than the materials currently used.available to the farmers. Weeding was generally done on time. Nearly all the maize fields were A cultural practice that can contribute to the fertility weeded at least once, except in years when the rainy of the soil is the rotation of cereal and leguminous season ended very early. crops. Extensionists recommend the planting of cereals on the same land for no more than two Animal manure and basal inorganic fertiliser were consecutive years (Mavedzenge, unpublished). the common sources of soil fertility even though Table 6 shows the area under different crops before they were only applied to small percentages of the and after the 1989/90 maize crop. There were area. The low application of manure was coupled examples of the same land planted to maize over the with bad rotational practices on some fields. MaizeAll agricultural activity involves the management of risk. The difficulties of quantifying production risk are often considerable, as are the problems of identifying biophysically viable and socioeconomically acceptable methods of ameliorating its effects. Some headway towards treating these problems can be made through the use of appropriate, validated crop simulation models. A maize modelling initiative was undertaken in Malawi from 1989 to 1992. The objectives were to assess the suitability of modelling techniques for helping to prioritise research activities, and to use the modelling to produce useful information for research and extension activities.CERES-Maize, a model that simulates the growth, development, and yield of maize (Ritchie et al., 1989), was validated for a number of sites in central Malawi.Field trials, designed to collect the minimum data set defined by lBSNAT (1990), were carried out on experiment stations and in farmers' fields over three seasons. Some of the results from the project have been reported elsewhere (Singh et  al.,1993). Yields obtained in the field varied widely, depending on treatment and season. In general, simula.tions with the crop model successfully reproduced the yields obtained in each season from the planting of both local and hybrid maize varieties with nitrogen applications ranging from 0 to 240 kg N ha-1 as urea. Once we had confidence that the model was working satisfactorily in Malawian conditions, we carried out some model experimentation, including the following:• Investigation of planting windows: optimum planting windows were identified for the sites where field experiments were run.• Identification of optimal planting densities: simulation results confirmed that the nationall~ recommended planting density of 3.7 plants mfor local varieties and 4.4 plants m-2 for shortstatured hybrids such as MH-16 in Malawi is wen suited for current management systems.• Nitrogen fertiliser management on maize: simulated optimum nitrogen application rates based on grain yield for both local and hybrid varieties varied from 80 kg N ha-1 at 3.7 plants m-2 to 150 kg N ha-1 at 6.4 plants m-2 . Split nitrogen applications were found to be beneficial on the sandier soils of the Kasungu Plain.• The economics of fertiliser use: simulations for conditions at Chitedze Research Station, using prices and costs for late 1992, indicated that economically optimal applications of fertiliser ranged from 60 to 100 kg N ha-1 . Gross margins of fertilised hybrid maize were approximately twice those obtained from fertilised local maize.In this paper, we investigate some of the weather risks associated with maize production in the central region of Malawi.We classify season types according to a simple criterion; then we derive yield distributions for these season types. Prospects for the use of simulation models in risk assessment are discussed, particularly with respect to the provision of season-specific management recommendations.For the simulation study, we chose the site of M'Ximba, located in Kasungu Agricultural Development Division (KADD) at an elevation of 1050 m above sea level. Its agroecology is described as medium-altitude plain (Pike and Remington, 1965).Soils are typically weathered ferralitic latosols of the Kamphuru series and are very coarsetextured in places (sandy loams). Annual rainfall is 291 292 Thornton et ai. generally between 700 and 1050 mm, •with a for central Malawi. We used the historical data to coefficient of variation of 29%. We had access to generate coefficients for the statistical daily weather eight years of daily historical weather records for model WGEN (Richardson, 1985), and then Kasungu township, the nearest meteorological generated 50 years of synthetic daily weather. station to Mwimba that collects the required weather WGEN produces time series of weather variables variables for CERES-Maize (daily rainfall, maximum that are statistically similar to the historical series; and minimum air temperatures, and sunshine hours the means of the variables match well although or solar radiation). Weather records for Kasungu monthly and annual variances, especially of rainfall, were complemented by data collected at Mwimba are often seriously underestimated in the tropics from 1990 onwards using an automatic weather data (Jones and Thornton, 1993). logger.Solar radiation data, not collected at The next step was to classify these simulated Kasungu, were calculated from sunshine hours weather years according to a simple criterion of using Angstrom's formula (Linacre, 1992)  Climatic risk and maize in Malawi season type. We proceeded as follows, after the method of Jones (1987). From the daily rainfall data, we simulated a daily water balance and the ratio EalEs (actual to potential evapotranspiration) for the 5 years of weather data. We then calculated a set of variables that we took to be proxies for growing season characteristics:• The \"start\" of the growing season; this was defined as the day of year of the fifth consecutive day with Ea/Ep greater than 0.8.• The \"end\" of the growing season; this was defined as the day of year of the eighth  • The number of \"stress\" days during the growing season, defined as days with Ea/Ep less than 0.5.The number of \"growing\" days was then calculated as the length of the growing season minus the number of stress days. From the original 50-year sequence, we defined 49 growing seasons (as the rains start towards the end of one year and continue into the next calendar year). The distribution of the start of growing season (as defined above) for these 49 seasons is shown in Figure 1. The sample mean was day 339.6 (6 December), with a standard to 359 (25 December). We divided thiS distribution into three equi-probable ranges to give three season types (Figure 1):• \"Early rains\" (E), if the growing season started before day 335 (1 December).• \"Normal rains\" (N), if the season started between days 336 (2 December) and 345 (11 December).• \"Late rains\" (L), if the season started after day 345 (11 December).Each season type has a probability of 1/3 of occurring in any year. The relationship between the start of the rains and the number of growing days as defined above is shown in Figure 2. These variables are highly correlated (r= 0.75). Two outliers (the circled points in Figure 2) represent years in which the rains started early but there were comparatively few growing days; during these two seasons, there were 19 and 24 stress days, respectively. Thus in some seasons, the rains begin early but are particularly erratic.We used CERES-Maize to simulate maize growth and yield for each of the 49 seasons, using the same treatment for each season with the exception of planting date, which was set to the start of each growing season (as defined above). The variety grown was MH-16, at 37,000 plants ha-1 , and 30 kg N ha-1 as urea was applied.We divided up simulated maize yields according to the three categories of season type, E, N, and L. These yields are plotted in Figure 3 as box plots, showing the Oth, 25th, 50th, 75th and 100th percentile of the yield distribution for each season type. The figure also shows the overall yield distribution for all years in the sample (n-49). The mean yield was 1,832 kg ha-1 for the early season type, 1,377 kg ha-1 for the normal season type, and 947 kg ha-1 for the late season type. The overall mean yield for all years was 1,394 kg ha-1 .Figure 3 highlights the marked change in median yield as the season type changes.It is also noteworthy that the maxima and minima of these distributions did not change greatly. In other words, it was still possible to obtain a high yield even with late planting, but it was much less probable than if the crop were sown earlier. For example, the probability of a yield in excess of 2.5 t ha-l with early planting was 0.31; with late planting, it was 0.06. One of the reasons for this is shown in Figure 4, where a water stress factor calculated in CERES-Maize is plotted against planting date. This stress Thornton et ai.   factor varies from 0 to 1. A value of 0 signifies that there was no water stress during the grain filling period; a value of 1 indicates extreme stress during the same period. Again, note the two circled outliers identified above, where rainfall started early but drought periods occurred sporadically during the season, including dUring grain filling.The distribution of maize yields, all other things being equal, changes markedly depending on the start of the rains; the distribution that pertains in any particular season can be derived once the start of the season is known. Although we have not done this for the data derived above, the economically and agronomically optimal fertiliser schedules will also vary markedly depending on the season type (see Thornton and MacRobert, 1994). There are thus potential benefits to be gained from tailoring maize crop management to season type; in late-starting growing seasons, for example, it may not be economical to apply much, if any, fertiliser. A similar approach could also be taken to investigate optimal planting densities and row spacings that offer the best-bet management practice for the season that has just begun. This type of analysis could also be used to help select maize cultivars for a region based on the length of the growing season. Since season length appears to be influenced by the date of the start of the rains, farmers could be advised, in a late-starting season, to grow short-duration maize cultivars or, alternatively, to grow other more drought-tolerant crops such as cassava.The approach could also be used fot decisions that must be made repeatedly during the growing season. Irrigation schedules that optimise economic returns, for example, could be identified on a regular basis, using historical weather records for the season to date and simulated records thereafter. If reliable 10-day weather forecasts were available, these could be incorporated in the analysis also, to improve the accuracy of the predictions. Some caution is needed when interpreting the data derived above. First, this type of analysis would benefit from using historical rather than statistically generated weather records. As noted above, WGEN does not simulate the extremes of weather distributions very well. Other statistical weather models can be used that partially bypass this problem (Jones and Thornton, 1993), but if sufficient historical data exist, they should be used. Second, it may be necessary to refine the criteria that define the start and end of the growing season. The proxies used may not be the most appropriate for Malawian conditions. Third, there may be other factors that impinge on maize production with late planting. An example in Malawian conditions is the increased incidence of streak virus when the crop is planted late. This could be taken into account with even a simple model of the virus and its effect on crop growth and development, but this submodel still has to be built. The reduced soil-water content of the root zOI\\e may often be the major contributing factor to the reduced yields observed in late-planted maize, however (Lungu, 1971).Clearly, maize production in central Malawi is greatly affected by rainfall patterns. Simulation modelling is a tool that can be used to help quantify the risk involved; simple analyses of rainfall records can be used to classify season types, allowing season-specific management recommendations to be derived. The models can also perform regional analyses that take account of local differences in environmental conditions. A start has been made on this, linking CERES-Maize to a Geographic Information System (GIS) with digitised maps of soils, climatic zones and land use (Nanthambwe and Eschweiler, 1992) for two agroclimatic zones in Kasungu ADD. Work is in progress to extend the coverage of this GIS to the entire country and thus provide timely information that will not only help researchers and extension services in advising farmers on the best-bet management practices for the current season, but will also help policymakers in estimating likely regional production and agricultural input use.These households retain an ambition to produce surplus grain for the market. They maintain an interest in cash crops and commercial livestock operations, and are concerned about product price levels and market access. If one asks a farmer why he plants a given amount of land to maize he or she will commonly tell you to meet his family food requirements and sell a surplus. But in practice, few achieve this objective.Recent data from Zimbabwe indicates more than 50% of farmers virtually always purchase grain, even following relatively favourable rainfall years. In drought years upwards to 95% of farmers are net buyers of grain. In Namibia, similar surveys have found that 75 percent of farmers operating in the main smallholder farming areas of the north never sell grain. Virtually all farmers almost always purchase a portion of their grain supplies. In Tanzania, similarly, more than 50% of the smallholders in semi-arid areas are net grain purchasers, even in favourable rainfall years. In Zambia, some of the largest beneficiaries of the historical maize subsidies were farmers operating in outlying semi-arid zones.Limited market infracstructure. In part as a result of their low productivity, and in part due to the fact of low population densities, most semi-arid farming areas in eastern and southern Africa tend to be deficient in basic market infrastructure. These regions also tend to lie distant from major urban markets. The costs of assembling surplus crops are high because fewer farmers have a surplus to sell and sales tend to be in small quantities. Incentives to invest in the provision of grain transport are limited by the variability of market deliveries. Until recently, many of these households benefited from pan-territorial prices. In effect, they did not have to pay the full costs of grain marketing. But as grain markets are liberalized, transport subsidies are being eliminated with the result that many semi-arid farming systems are being cut off from the national market.Many of these farmers have also depended upon the subsidies contained in low, pan-territorial retail prices for maize meal. As these subsidies are being lifted, the largest increases in prices per kilogram occur in outlying semi-arid regions. This raises the costs of production deficits.As grain movement restrictions are lifted, surplus maize from high potential zones has started to move through private channels into the semi-arid regions. But these flows have not significantly reduced the cost of food to farm households experiencing grain deficits.The combination of high transport and distribution costs and limited cash for investment also limits access to agricultural inputs.Seed companies commonly remark on the lack of demand for improved varieties, though there is ample evidence that farmers will readily purchase seed of recognized quality. It is generally difficult to find fertilizer on the retail market in semi-arid areas except for limited quantities sold nearby irrigation schemes. Insecticide use is rare except, in some areas, for grain storage.Limited demand for transport of grain or agricultural inputs translates into high transport costs and limited transport access.Even the availability of bus servicei are more limited than in higher potential areas.Most market infrastructure is built around a retail trade in maize meal, oil, sugar, clothing and soft drinks. Advancement beyond the sale of consumer goods will require significant gains in agricultural productivity. ' Low levels of technology adoption. Improved varieties of maize have been broadly adopted in the region and the adoption of improved varieties of sorghum and pearl millet appears to be increasing. But less than 1% of the farmers in southern Africa's semi-arid areas consistently use fertilizer. While many have tried this input as a result of distribution under drought relief schemes, most either cannot afford chemical fertilizer or believe it will lower rather than increase average yields. Manure use is more common, particularly in areas with larger concentrations of cattle and lower labour costs. But this tends to be applied at such low levels of concentration that the nutrient benefits are limited.Most semi-arid regions also obtain limited support from national extension agents. The number of visits tends to be small and the majority of farmers never see an agent. Further, the value of these visits is limited by the lack of messages suited to semi-arid conditions. The lack of appropriate technology and low adoption rates tend to demoralize extension agents posted to these zones.Correspondingly, average grain yields are low and highly variable. Maize yields commonly average less than one t ha-1 . Sorghum and pearl millet yields average 600 to 800 kg ha-1 .Enterprise diversification. Farmers respond to these circumstances (limited technology, high production costs, low production returns and high production risk) by diversifying their farming enterprise. In the driest regions, sorghum or pearl millet make up the principal cereal grain enterprise, though a small plot of maize may be attempted as a vegetable crop. More commonly, sorghum or pearl millet are grown in addition to maize.---Groundnut is grown in addition to small concentrations of cowpea. In some areas cassava is important. Most households own livestock (goats, donkeys, cattle and chickens), though the distribution of such holdings is highly skewed. In most semi-arid areas, the majority of small-scale farmers do not have enough cattle to plough on a timely basis. Though priority is placed on the allocation of labour to crop production, the highest returns commonly come from the livestock enterprise. Most households have at least one member working away from home and maintain an ambition to get their children through school and into wage earning jobs off the farm.Characterization of technological options. Yet most farmers operating in semi-arid regions are clearly interested in new technologies. The rapid adoption of maize hybrids in Zimbabwe, particularly as these became widely available in the immediate post-independence period, testifies to the value these farmers attach to cultivars offering productivity gains. These hybrids offered a cheap, and relatively risk free means to improve grain yields. Farmers perceived the hybrids did not perform appreciably worse than their openpollinated varieties in the event of drought or under low soil fertility conditions. But when these hybrids had adequate water and nutrients, they offered substantially higher average yields than the varieties previously available.Farmers have similarly shown a strong proclivity to test new sorghum and millet varieties.In circumstances where these varieties have been acceptable, adoption has been rapid -e.g. 30-40% of the pearl millet area in northern Namibia is planted to a pearl millet variety released in 1990. While farmers have commonly tested and rejected cultivars with inferior grain or plant traits, seed access and availability often appear more significant constraints to adoption than seed cost or quality.In contrast, farmers operating in semi-arid areas have shown less interest in chemical fertilizer. Manure use is rising as population densities rise and opportunities for crop-fallow rotations have declined. But nutrient deficiencies seem likely to expand.While many scientists claim that low rates of technology adoption are the result of poor dissemination or inadequate market and pricing policies, questions remain about the appropriateness of many recommended technologies. The constraint function needs to be better defined. If the adoption of chemical fertilizer is restricted by the lack of supplies or the high price of the input, must the Rohrbach technology be modified or must the infrastructure and policy be modified. Many scientists would argue that they have produced the 'best possible technology' and it is now up to policy makers to 'create the appropriate conditions for adoption'. Yet the options for policy and infrastructural change are often severely limited. Over the last decade, policy makers have widely learned the costs of panterritorial pricing, price controls at levels above those allowing market clearance, infrastructural investments with negative returns and market subsidies. Many interventions designed to favour the small-scale farmer have proven unsustainable.While there is scope for policy change favouring technology adoption, the strength of these commitments must first be built upon a strong verification of the value and adoptability of proposed technologies. Within this context, it is possible to characterize some of the parameters most influencing the appropriateness of technology for these regions.Low cost. Small-scale farmers in semi-arid areas have shown ample proclivity to test low cost technolOgies such as new seed varieties. While many policy makers, and even some breeders, raise concerns about the willingness of farmers to pay for new seed, such costs are rarely a major constraint in areas where seed is of proven value.It is difficult to identify technologies offering the prospect of such significant changes in crop productivity at such a limited cost. Some management technologies require limited cash investments but substantial investments of household labour.Changes in the timing of management may not add costs to the system but may conflict with farmers' perceptions of the relative returns to the allocation of resources to competing farm enterprises. The most common example of this is the seemingly costless recommendation to plant early. Yet draft resources are commonly limited and difficult to obtain on a timely basis. Also, early planting of one crop competes with time which might be allocated to another crop. Further, farmers often aim ,to spread the period of planting to offset early and mid-season rainfall risks and to distribute the labour profile.Limited labour demands. Labour bottlenecks often represent the greatest constraint to the adoption of changes in crop management practices. The returns to timely and effective weeding are particularly high in environments where water is severely limited. Yet weeding is often delayed because of the lack of labour. Recognition of this constraint has stimulated strong interest in the introduction of herbicides. Yet these are commonly too expensive for•• farmers to Improving farmer well being in semi-arid areas purchase (they do not meet the low cost criteria) and problematic to manage.Labour constraints have increased in recent decades as more children are sent to school. Children who previously were involved in planting and weeding are commonly allocating only a small portion of the day to these activities. The allocation of time to such operations peaks during school holiday periods.Limited access to labour for bird scaring is commonly cited as a justification for the shift of land out of pearl millet and sorghum toward maize. Once this shift occurs, it is difficult to build up the sorghum and millet hectarages back to levels at which the bird damage in any given field are negligible.Production stability. In semi-arid cropping systems subject to food insecurity, higher priority may justifiably be attached to efforts to increase levels of minimum yields in comparison with efforts to maximize average or potential yield. This implies the need to test technologies under the low input conditions characterizing the operations of smallscale farmers. These analyses need to be matched with an understanding of how farmers make adoption and resource allocation decisions in risky environments.In crop breeding programs, special efforts may be merited in evaluating cultivar performance under the combination of drought and low nutrients. While controversy seems to persist regarding the probability of cross-over of production functions under low input conditions, recommendations must allow for the fact that most seed is adopted, at least initially, without other changes in crop management.Technology testing under circumstances of severe water and nutrient constraints cannot be left to the verification stage of technology performance. Breeding strategies, in particular, need to allow for early selection of germplasm under resource limiting conditions. Otherwise, germplasm with exceptional tolerance to such constraints may be lost.Higher probabilities of investment returns. The level of returns to technology adoption are based on the costs and benefits associated with adoption and the 'likelihood of adoption.Technologies are commonly recommended for adoption because they maximize the possible level of net returns. Yet adoption levels remain limited because, for a wide range of reasons, these technologies do not fit the resource constraints of the semi-arid farm system. In order to increase the probability of adoption technologies may need to be chosen which maximize the likelihood of positive net benefits under the most 299 likely circumstances of adoption. Oftentimes this requires the exploitation of second-best options. Among cultivars, for example, farmers in semi-arid regions have shown a tendency to adopt early maturing varieties, though higher average yields may be achieved with medium or later maturing varieties. Recommendations to plant early are commonly ignored because of ploughing constraints or concerns about risks.Few farmers operating in the semi-arid regions of eastern and southern Africa use chemical fertilizer. Yet the consistent lack of adoption has had no impact on the rates and types of fertilizer suggested in extension recommendations. Farmers are advised to apply large quantities of farm yard manure on their fields -levels rarely available to any individual household. Farmers are advised to use insecticide when insect problemS are limited and no insecticide is available.Inappropriate recommendations lead farmers to distrust extension workers and lead extension agents to become disheartened. In some cases, higher returns may be achieved from withdrawing extension support altogether and concentrating these resources in areas where recommendations are useful, than in the standoff inherent in the contrast between recommendations and adoption patterns now evident.Prospects for technological change. Impoverished and food insecure small-scale farmers operating in semi-arid regions need input efficient technologies. They need to maximize the returns to limited labour and scarce cash investments. But only limited gains are achievable withrlimited inputs. Further, the facts of poverty and food insecurity create a need for technologies offering the large productivity gains. Better targeting of technological improvements may improve the prospects for meeting both requirements. Relatively smaller productivity gains obtainable from cultivar improvements must be matched with larger productivity gains made possible through improvements in crop management.Limits of genetic gains. There is ample evidence that changes in cultivars will provide only limited gains in productivity without corresponding changes in crop management. Yet changes in cultivars are much simpler to achieve than changes in management. Farmers are more likely to change their seed than change a management practice. Though average incremental returns to seed adoption tend to be low, the higher probability of adoption justifies investment in crop improvement research.The second common advantage of improved varieties is that they raise the response to management inputs. New maize varieties commonly offer higher returns to given levels of fertilizer application than landrace materials. Hybrids offer higher responsiveness than openpollinated varieties.Additional gains can be obtained through the development of cultivars with greater insect and disease resistance.As new varieties become available, however, the investment equation shifts.Large gains may accompany a shift from the production of landrace cultivars to the production of improved varieties. Smaller gains generally accompany the shift from one improved variety to another.Research managers must then reassess the relative return to continuing investments in crop improvement. In so doing, they must compare the costs and returns of crop improvement programs offering incremental yield gains of 3-5 percent with resource management programs offering the possibility of 50 to 100 percent yield improvements.The largest justification for continuing crop improvement investments may be the effort to cope with second generation pest and disease problemsoften reinforced by the widespread adoption of cultivars with narrow genetic backgrounds. But pest and disease problems tend to be more limited in semi-arid systems, and changes in crop management practices may offer better prospects for limiting pest incidence than efforts to identify sources of genetic resistance.Emphasis on investments in crop breeding may also be justified because of a shift in breeding targets as new varieties enter the cropping system. Instead of seeking incrementally higher yields under favourable environmental conditions, breeders, in conjunction with plant protection scientists, can pursue new targets embodied in a wider range of grain and plant traits.Farmers have often shown a willingness to trade average or maximum potential yield for other grain and plant traits. Farmers in semi-arid areas may prefer cultivars with greater 'drought tolerance, and a higher probability of achieving a given minimum yield to supplement or replace a variety offering higher average returns. Farmers operating under low input conditions may be more interested in varieties making more efficient use of limited nutrients than varieties offering the prospect of large gains with large quantities of chemical fertilizer. Farmers have proven their willingness to sacrifice yield gains for earlier maturity and improved palatability.Tradeoffs may also need ,to be considered between grain yield and stover yield, Rohrbach grain hardness and storability, processing ease and such traits as late senescence.Yet few national breeding programs attach much value to traits other than grain yield. Narrowly based selection criteria create circumstances in which cultivars passing through advanced testing are all similar to cultivars already released. There appears to be substantial scope for refined targeting of varieties toward better defined production niches. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can help characterize these production niches. Adoption surveys targeted toward the collection of a broader range of information on the evolving structure of demand for alternative grain and plant traits can also assist.Resource management improvements. There is little question that in most farming systems in eastern and southern Africa, particularly semi-arid systems, changes ,in crop management offer the prospect of substantially higher productivity gains than changes in cultivars. This is particularly the case as new cultivars offering higher levels of response to improved inputs are adopted.Renewed efforts are reqUired to improve the probability of adoption of changes in crop management practices. These should start by diagnosing the failures of current extension recommendations. Research and extension services then need to work together to target the development of technologies which are likely to be adopted.Here again, the concept of second best solutions may be useful. This does not mean aiming to give farmers limited options. Rather it implies th~ provision of options falling within a stricter set of well defined operational constraints. If a farmer has limited cash to invest in his or her cropping enterprises, how is this best allocated. If a farmer has $50 to invest in a limited quantity of fertilizer, where is he or she best off placing this -in a basal application likely to be applied 2-4 weeks after emergence or in a nitrogen based top dressing likely to be applied later in the season? How should extension workers respond to the widespread perception of farmers that fertilizer will bum their crop when early rains stop? How should they respond to the probability that farmers will plant a portion of their maize in November, a portion in December and a portion in January? Should blanket recommendations still apply or should cultivar and management practices change for these distinct crops?Much of the gain inherent in the green revolution varieties of wheat and rice resulted from their Improving farmer well being in semi-arid areas capacity to make better use of .larger and more consistent applications of water and nutrients. The green revolution of the future is more likely to be built on the provision of improved options for crop management under a wider range of resource limited conditions. This. will require substantially greater sophistication in the diagnosis of resource constraints and management options. It will require special attention to the problems of longer term sustainability of evolving crop systems.A critically important tool in this enterprise will be crop and crop systems models. These models help remind us of important plant-environment relationships.But they can also speed the experimental process by testing research hypotheses before large investments are made in field verification.Models improve our capacity to develop technologies for environments characterized by low and variable rainfall. Larger systems models can facilitate testing of hypotheses underlying increasingly complex relationships between sets of crops, livestock and resource parameters.Concerns are often raised about the potential costs of calibrating crop models. Yet if one measures the relative costs and returns of much agronomic research in low rainfall zones and the costs of continuing recommendations of technologies which will never be adopted, the costs of calibration appear more reasonable. A more serious constraint, in the context of semi-aid farming systems may be the inability of most models to cope with complex relationships between multiple crops, livestock and non-farm enterprises. Each of these enterprises competes for limited household and farm resources. The efficient allocation of these resources must account for the relative costs and returns associated with investments in each of these enterprises, both as independent units and as components of the larger farm system. Further, crop and farm system models need greater sophistication in their capacity to account for the constraint functions underlying household decision making.Finally, the advisability of searching for genetic solutions to problems more easily solved through improvements in crop managemeI\\t----' merits assessment. Should investments of scarce research resources be directed toward improving the nutrient use efficiency of new cultivars or toward improving the efficiency with which available levels of nutrients are applied? Should we be investing in the development of more drought tolerant maize varieties or in moisture management systems assuring more efficient use of available water by existing cultivars? The ease with which cultivars are 301 adopted may justify better exploitation of cultivar traits. But larger and more immediate gains may be achieved by allocating these same resources toward improving the probability of management changes.Recognize virtues of the system. Assessments of options for maize research targeted toward the development of technologies suitable for the semiarid environment must ineVitably account for the range of opportunities for achieving a given set of research goals. In the long run, income growth and food security may best be achieved by expanding job opportunities off the farm and moving farm households to urban areas. In the short and medium term, the largest income gains may be achieved through improving the efficiency of livestock production. The objective of income and food security under conditions of rainfall variability and drought may best be achieved through promoting sorghum and pearl millet production, possibly for sale to the stockfeed industry. Instead of seeking greater drought tolerance for maize, we should possibly be aiming to improve the efficiency of nutrient use in higher or more stable rainfall zones which could allow greater productivity and a decline in food prices. In the mixed crop-livestock system, greater value may be derived from maize offering a 10% gain in the quantity or nutritional value of stover than maize cultivars offering another 5% gain in grain yield. Food security may be more firmly enhanced by improvements in the storability of maize, possibly through cultivars with harder grains, than through marginal gains in yield.The Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has encouraged consideration of eco-regional perspectives in the developme~t of technology to solve eco-regional problems. These perspectives encourage the pursuit of technology options lying beyond the mandates of individual research institutes. They also encourage consideration of more systemic solutions.Agricultural policy. The structure of policy options affecting technology adoption has shifted remarkably in eastern and southern Africa during the past five years. Most countries have embarked on programs of economic structural adjustment. Markets have been liberalized. Grain movements and grain prices have been decontrolled. Private sector grain trade is expanding. Greater competition has been allowed in the seed industry. International companies have expanded investment in seed trade in the region and new private seed companies have been established. Fertilizer markets have also been .decontrolled and competition in fertilizer trade is slowly evolving.Most liberalization strategies have been• aimed toward reducing the costs of government intervention in the market. In the process, input and product price subsidies favoring many small-scale farmers have been removed. Liberalization strategies are backed by the assumption that private sector markets will quickly replace the public sector and will provide low cost and more efficient market services.In practice, however, private sector investment has been heaviest in higher rainfall areas and in the trade of cash crops. Market infrastructure withdrawn from outlying semi-arid areas has not been replaced. Both producers and consumers in these zones often benefitted from the highest levels of price and infrastructural subsidies per kilogram of grain produced or consumed. Many of these farm households now face lower prices for their surplus grain and higher prices for food when local grain supplies run out. Low and variable trade flows constrain private investment in strengthening these market links and reinforce high market transaction costs. As a consequence, many semi-arid areas may be worse off under market liberalization.Efforts simply to deregulate the agricultural sector under structural adjustment programs need to be supplemented by policies targeting support for investments required to raise farm productivity. Narrow targeting around particular hypothesized productivity gains still offers the prospects of high payoffs to public investment.Public involvement in the distribution of improved seed varieties, often in the context of drought relief programs, has had a particularly significant impact on technology change. These are often one-time investments derived from the assumption that farmers eat their seed during years of drought. While the assumption is open to question, the value of the investment is clear. Public involvement in the distribution of improved seed, speeds adoption. Insofar as the new varieties offer yield gains, the returns on this investment can be extremely high.One of the major constraints to the impact of breeding programs producing open pollinated varieties is the limited incentive of' private sector firms to invest in seed multiplication. One of the greatest fears of the private sector is to be left with unsalable seed stocks after the first year\" of distribution. Periodic government support for such seed sales, possibly in the form of investment guarantees, may offset this constraint. In addition, governments can encourage . collabora~ve partnerships between research agencIes producmg breeders seed, seed companies and nongovernmental organizations interested. in multiplying and distributing these seed m the Rohrbach context of location-specific development projects. Farmers also may benefit from specialized assistance with seed selection and storage advice..Government subsidies historically encouraged the broader adoption and use of chemical fertilizer. While the size and distribution of the benefits of these subsidies merit question, strong justifications remain for encouraging more efficient fertilizer use. Fertilizer imports could be taxed to support surveys of nutrient constraints and the better targeting of future imports. Policies faVOUring the sale of smaller units of fertilizer have proven successful in some countries. Funds allocated to fertilizer distribution under drought relief programs could be better used to develop minimum recommendations for households with severe cash constraints and improve distribution channels for these nutrients.Accountability for technological change. As research funding levels decline, the need for accountability for past and future research investments increases. Initially, there is a need for analyses of the returns to past investments. Known successes need documentation to justify continuing investments of funding. Though the relationship of particular successes (e.g. hybrid maize) and the rates of return for research overall are not always clear, there are many examples of high returns to well targeted research. These serve to highlight the past and potential contributions of agricultural research.A second form of impact assessment is the diagnosis of why some research projects are less successful. This most often involves assessment of constraints to the adoption of released technologies, because these technologies are assumed to be appropriate. Yet this is a narrow viewpoint from which to diagnose constraints. Greater gains can be achieved by incorporating a monitoring mechanism into the research process itself. In semi-arid environments, in particular, care must be taken to assure the proper research questions are being asked. While low levels of adoption can be readily blamed on poor prices or marketing problems, greater efforts are also needed to assure technology options fit within some of the constraints characterizing this system. The consideration of a wider range of options must start with a clarification of research targets, hypotheses and probabilities of success. These can then be built into the planning and implementation process.Finally, scientists n~d to be held more firmly accountable for technology adoption. Efforts to develop and release new cultivars must be linked with efforts to multiply breeders seed and encourage commercial distribution. Scientists must be held at least partly accountable for the lack of adoption of crop management recommendations and for the Improving farmer well being in semi-arid areas failure to update these recommendations in the context of large changes in input-product price ratios. Periodically, scientists should be challenged to verify the performance of their best available technologies on the fields of small-scale farmers under their limited resource conditions. Scientists should correspondingly be encouraged to work with input suppliers, extension agents and nongovernmental organizations to promote technology adoption and reassess the evolving need for new technology.Productivity gains are particularly difficult to achieve in semi-arid regions. Returns to research investments tend, correspondingly, to be higher in the higher rainfall zones. But the costs of failing to develop improved technologies suited to these farming areas remain high. Following the 1991/92 drought in southern Africa, over US$1 billion was spent importing grain. Yet this was only a part of the costs of dislocation caused by inadequate food supplies. Many eastern and southern African countries maintain drought relief programs in one or another part of their country virtually every year. Population levels in semi-arid areas continue to rise threatening the balance of the semi-arid agro-ecolo'gy with overgrazing and soil degradation. Yet employment opportunities necessary to absorb this labour force elsewhere in the economy are decIining.Further investments in technology development targeted toward semi-arid regions are essential, including investments in maize research. Yet given the difficulties of this environment and limitations in research resources we must continually reassess our progress toward a set of well defined technology outputs and periodically reevaluate our targets. Genetic gains must be reinforced by improvements in resource management. Measures of average yield gains need to be complemented by measures of yield stability and the value of a wider range of grain and plant traits. Greater sophistication is required in modeling farm management options and the constraints underlying resource allocation decisions. We need to be better prepared to pursue an evolving set of targets influenced by past patterns of 303 technological change, shifting price ratios and increasingly demands placed on shrinking farm resources.Regional crop training course in Kenya of their importance in maize-based cropping systems in sub-Saharan Africa both as monocrops and intercropped. Emphasis is placed on research for smallholder (resource poor) farmers (Shiluli and Palmer, 1994).•The classwork portion of the curriculum has the following components:• Research Methods, including Diagnostic Methods• Field Plot Technique • Economic Analysis• Use of Microcomputers.A farmer-focus is maintained in the classroom and in the field. In such a short course of 6 months duration, important topics are highlighted in the agronomic subject matter. Because the participants' backgrounds are often weak in areas such as statistics and experimental design, data interpretation, diagnostic techniques and economic analysis, extra emphasis is put on those areas of the course. Most of the experimental work is carried out on-farm with smallholder farmers in a mid-altitude location. The Egerton University campus is located just south of the equator but at 2,240masl elevation, so the growing season for maize is too long to be accommodated in a six-month course.In the on-farm research activities, the participants carry out a set of experiments clustered with farmers representative of a target group of farmers (recommendation domain). The factors in the experiments are designed to cover as many variables as possible such as ' variety, tillage, nitrogen, phosphorus, weed control, pest control, plant population, date of planting, intercropping, etc. 305 Because there is a high level of concern about declining soil fertility in much of sub-Saharan Africa, we carry out many experiments on soil fertility and fertilizers and look for innovative ways of maintaining soil fertility under continuous cropping. Weeds are also a serious constraint to crop production in Africa and weed control features as a variable in some of our experiments.Because the project is just three years old, because our major emphasis is on training the participants, and because we have shifted our on farm research to a new location in western Kenya in 1994 from the previous location in Embu District due to three years of drought in Embu, we do not have as much research data as we anticipated. However, I wish to share a few of our conclusions from the information generated by the CMRT participants over the past three years.In general with maize, we have foq,nd many more responses to nitrogen than phosphorus both in the highlands and the mid-altitude areas in which we have worked. Phaseolus beans are apparently inefficient nitrogen fixers and show good responses to nitrogen. Most of our trials with Rhizobium inoculation have not shown significant improvements in yield. However, one experiinent in the highlands in 1993 did show a significant effect from inoculation. There may be a problem of choosing the correct strain of Rhizobium but we sought the best advice and strains available.Question to Maxwell Mudhara H.Ssa1i: What reasons were given by farmers for the extended planting window? What are the reasons for low manure use? Is it availabilty, labour constraints, or other factors?Response: Fanners plant over a long time to avoid risk. They do not want to put all their eggs in one basket. Therefore part of the pattern is intentional and planned in advance. The rest depends on the distribution ofrainfall in a given season. Manure is in short supply, but also fanners are unwilling to use it on some soil types. Farmers said that they only apply manure to sandy soils.A. Runge-Metzger: In order to assess the degree of monocropping the following scheme would be easier to understand and provide more information: Rotation: Maize -Maize -Other; Other-Maize-Other; Other-Maize-Maize; Maize-Maize-Maize Response: This is correct. It has been done for the project report. At this conference a more restricted approach was taken just to highlight the existence ofcontinuous maize cropping over three seasons. Response: I agree. The criteria we used seemed to workfairly well for the mid-altitude site in Malawi. Total season length as calculated agreed fairly well with the FAOagroclimatic clasification of that area of the Kasungu Plain. The criteria may well require changing as we try to apply them to other regions ofMalawi.Questions to David Rohrbach L. Empig: You hint that plant breeders are probably a hindrance to development of stable varieties in the semi-arid areas. I agree, breeders have to find out whether the use of 80 -120 kg N ha-1 , irrigation, ideal planting dates etc., contributes to yield stability. Also, research administrators in NARS have the idea that their breeders have to compete against hybrid breeders from private companies.Response: I believe breeders may need to pay more attention to traits such as yield stability, maturity period, stover yield and palatabilty. Data analysis and selection criteria should not simply emphaSize mean yields.You have done an admirable job of covering a wide range of constraints. You and others mentioned the likelihood of current fertilizer recommendations being too high, yet you also stated that most farmers are not follOWing recommendations anyway, introducing the pOSSibility that many farmers are already applying low rates of fertilizer. Could you consider for us here the possibility that fertilizer at any rate may be too expensive for smallholders and what can we as researchers do about this.Most fanners already apply small quantities of manure. Thus, they know the importance ofinproving soil fertility. Most are less knowledgeable about chemical fertilizer. The only advice they receive is to apply rates they cannot afford. Perhaps we can work with fanners to develop recommendations for chemical.fertilizer use which they can afford and are willing to risk. These may be I second best' solutions, sub-optimal from an economic point of view, but optimal in the context of the fanners' budget constraints and risk preferences. Often, development agencies employ agronomists both as technicians and managers. Programme supervisors are reluctant to lose their managers for six-month long stretches. Would it be possible to offer a shorter, say 3-omonth course which focused on the most applied aspects of your 6 month course?Most certainly we will not restrict ourselves to the 6month course. I would welcome suggestions for other shorter courses with a restricted curriculum. We welcome suggestions for the type ofcourses needed by NGOs, etc. ","tokenCount":"110046"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5f545d3db5b8455cd4f83979b6e8d1a8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/69c8fd8b-e5c6-40c1-b0fe-6a5c593b20c2/retrieve","id":"1236454988"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2c072463-6ad5-49fe-823c-572e89e9149d","pagecount":"8","content":"1. Commercial camera traps (CTs) commonly used in wildlife studies have several technical limitations that restrict their scope of application. They are not easily customizable, unit prices sharply increase with image quality and importantly, they are not designed to record the activity of ectotherms such as insects. Those developed for the study of plant-insect interactions are yet to be widely adopted as they rely on expensive and heavy equipment.2. We developed PICT (plant-insect interactions camera trap), an inexpensive (<100 USD) do-it-yourself CT system based on a Raspberry Pi Zero computer designed to continuously film animal activity. The system is particularly well suited for the study of pollination, insect behaviour and predator-prey interactions. The focus distance can be manually adjusted to under 5 cm. In low light conditions, a near-infrared light automatically illuminates the subject. Frame rate, resolution and video compression levels can be set by the user. The system can be remotely controlled using either a smartphone, tablet or laptop via the onboard Wi-Fi. PICT can record up to 72-hr day and night videos at >720p resolution with a 110-Wh power bank (30,000 mAh).Its ultra-portable (<1 kg) waterproof design and modular architecture is practical in diverse field settings. We provide an illustrated technical guide detailing the steps involved in building and operating a PICT and for video post-processing. 3. We successfully field-tested PICT in a Central African rainforest in two contrasting research settings: an insect pollinator survey in the canopy of the African ebony Diospyros crassiflora and the observation of rare pollination events of an epiphytic orchid Cyrtorchis letouzeyi. 4. PICT overcomes many of the limitations commonly associated with CT systems designed to monitor ectotherms. Increased portability and image quality at lower costs This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Interactions between plants, their pollinators and herbivores have been key in the evolution of flowering plants (Barrett, 2013;Kergoat et al., 2017;Moreau et al., 2006;Schoen et al., 2019).Despite tremendous progress in the fields of pollination biology, quantitative genetics, comparative biology, phylogenetics and genomics, the paucity of empirical data from natural history studies limits progress in understanding pollinator-driven evolution (van der Niet, 2021).Conventional studies of plant-insect interactions typically involve the collection of data using direct (e.g. Suetsugu, 2019;Tang et al., 2020;Varma & Sinu, 2019) or indirect observations (e.g. Boyer et al., 2020;Johnson et al., 2011). However, because observations are time-intensive, limited by environmental conditions and logistics, they are not conducted over large spatiotemporal scales and often underestimate the importance of furtive organisms compared to larger or slower ones (Micheneau et al., 2006). Furthermore, the presence of a human observer and the need to illuminate the study organism at night may influence its behaviour (Opp & Prokopy, 1986).Camera trap (CT) technology can greatly advance the study of plant-insect interactions by providing a convenient replacement to classic human observations. This technique have gained popularity because it allows for non-intrusive observations at large spatiotemporal scales and constant sampling effort (Rovero & Zimmermann, 2016;Wearn & Glover-Kapfer, 2019). Recently, camera trapping of insects has become an active field of research and development but important technical limitations still persist (Pegoraro et al., 2020;Preti et al., 2021). First, although it has been reported that the passive thermal infrared motion sensor of commercial CT systems can be activated by large flying insects (Houlihan et al., 2019;Johnson & Raguso, 2016), most ectotherms, such as reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates, do not trigger motion sensors (Hobbs & Brehme, 2017). Moreover, the initial trigger delay has been deemed excessive in many cases, especially in hot environments (Glover-Kapfer et al., 2019;Meek & Pittet, 2012). To circumvent these problems, researchers have developed CT systems relying on active motion detection based on pattern recognition or changes in the successive frames captured by a camera (Barlow & O'Neill, 2020). This technique has proven to be efficient for obtaining data on insect visit frequency, visit duration and for modelling insect activity (Barlow et al., 2017;Steen, 2017). However, applying an on-the-fly motion detection algorithm to filter the video stream during recording increases power consumption and does not allow one to estimate the rate at which motion events fail to be detected.Second, camera characteristics of commercial CT systems often limit the number of taxa that can be accurately identified, especially when taxonomically relevant traits are subtle. Image resolution can often be modulated in the camera settings, but shutter speed decreases as resolution increases, hence decreasing the sharpness of moving animals. Image quality is ultimately limited by the quality of the sensor and the lens, neither of which are interchangeable in most cases (Meek & Pittet, 2012;Rovero et al., 2013). Most CTs use wide-angle fixed-focus lens that are set so that the depth of field ranges from infinity down to a few metres. As a result, these models are not suited for macro-photography. Finally, the cost of CT units is often the limiting factor in terms of the number of sensors that can be deployed simultaneously, and therefore, the statistical power of the analysis. Currently, a mid-range CT costs 200-500 USD (Rovero et al., 2013;Wearn & Glover-Kapfer, 2017). The unit price of motiontriggered CT systems designed for insect monitoring range from 400 EUR (Pegoraro et al., 2020) to several thousands of euros (Danaher et al., 2020;Houlihan et al., 2019).Here, we propose a new system, called plant-insect interactions camera trap (PICT), that overcomes the above shortcomings. We report results from the deployment of this system under two conditions where manual observation is impossible: (a) in places where an observer cannot remain for long periods of time (pollinator visitation in the canopy of the African ebony tree) and (b) when the time scale involved is too large (low visitation rates of pollinators of an African epiphytic orchid).PICT contrasts with other solutions by its increased portability, reduced cost and low energy use hardware that does not require heavy and bulky lead batteries to operate. Low-energy consumption is mainly achieved by separating the recording and analysis steps.By providing enough memory to the camera and using an efficient H264 compression algorithm, we can record high definition videos continuously in the field and use a computer to search for the frames of interest later in the lab.PICT consists of four main components, a single-board computer, a micro SD card, a camera and a USB power bank battery (Figure 1).A practical guide with detailed instructions for constructing PICT as well as the control programs and codes are available online as Supporting Information (Droissart et al., 2021).allow for large-scale deployment and the acquisition of novel insights into the reproductive biology of plants and their interactions with difficult to observe animals.behavioural ecology, digital video recording, DIY camera trap, e-ecology, low-cost technology, plant-insect interaction, pollination biology, Raspberry Pi To protect the components from natural elements, PICT is sealed in a food storage case of about 1 L in volume. Each component inside the case is fixed in place by adhesive Velcro ® strips. A mount with a standard ¼ in screw is glued onto the case to allow PICT to be fixed to a standard camera mount. At the time of writing, the full cost of building one operational unit is less than 170 USD. The components needed for a PICT with functionality comparable to a retail CT, that is, without a mount, battery or memory card, would cost less than 100 USD (Table 1).The camera is operated through the picamera Python package (https://picam era.readt hedocs.io/) installed on a Raspberry Pi Zero, which is a credit card-sized, low-cost, high-performance single-board computer. All the Raspberry Pi models with an integrated Wi-Fi controller can provide the functionality required, but we recommend on which the operating system, programs and data are stored. It is powered through a 5V mini-USB port that can be supplied by a standard lithium-ion power bank (Figure 1).We used the 5-megapixel Raspberry Pi Camera Module v1(OmniVision © OV5647 sensor), based on a 2,592 × 1,944 photosites, ¼ in format sensor. It comes in customized versions with (a)an embedded 3.3V power output that can be connected to a nearinfrared LED without need for soldering, (b) a 3.6-mm lens with a diagonal field of view of 75 degrees and adjustable focus distance, (c) no embedded infrared filter, improving lens speed and allowing illumination of the night scene with IR light. To illuminate the scene, we used one 850-nm infrared LED equipped with an onboard photoresistor to decrease light intensity with increasing ambient light.An onboard resistor can be tuned to control the photoresistor ambient light threshold toggling the infrared LED. Near-infrared light is preferred because it is invisible to animals thereby not influencing behaviour. Insects' photoreceptors have a large spectral sensitivity range, but the maximal observed peak absorption wavelength is 630 nm (Briscoe & Chittka, 2001). Positive phototaxis of insects to larger wavelengths has been observed but intensity decreases with increasing wavelength (van Grunsven et al., 2014;Wakakuwa et al., 2014), and is relatively small at 850 nm, as shown for aColeoptera (Meyer, 1976) and a Hemiptera (Matsumoto et al., 2014).The image resolution of PICT can be freely determined by the user. Because of the lens characteristics of Raspberry Pi Camera Module v1, the smallest resolvable point is larger than the actual pixel size on the sensor (1.4 × 1.4 µm). For this reason, we recommend setting the resolution to 1,296 by 972 pixels where a 2 × 2 binning is applied by the camera to downsample the image. This camera output resolution has the added benefit of doubling sensitivity and improving the signal to noise ratio. At this resolution, the camera can capture up to 42 frames per seconds (FPS) and up to 90 FPS at 640 by 480 pixels (Barnes, 2020).Low power consumption is essential to avoid the need for heavy or bulky batteries and to provide autonomous operation times that exceed the duration of the targeted phenomenon (the duration of anthesis for instance). To reduce the power drawn by the PICT by about 0.13W, we deactivated the components that are not needed for our application: the HDMI port, Bluetooth and activity LEDs.We used an electronic multimeter (RuiDeng UM25C) to measure the power drawn by a PICT under various operating conditions.The observed power load of each of the components and for different camera settings is given in Table 2. We found that both frame rate and resolution settings have a substantial effect on power use (Table 2; Figure S1). We used a resolution of 1,296 by 972 pixels and 15 frames per second (FPS) to achieve the lowest possible power consumption and storage needs while not affecting the ability to identify insects. With these settings and with Wi-Fi switched off at night, the PICT will draw only 0.76 and 1.87 W, respectively, during the day and at night. This theoretically permits continuous filming for over 72 hr with a 30,000-mAh (111 Wh) power bank, as was confirmed during field deployment. With these settings, PICT would be able to run for almost 9 days if recordings are performed during the day only and the IRD LED is not connected (Figure S1).We advocate the application of motion detection algorithms as a post-processing stage rather than in situ because the processing of the video stream to filter out still sequences is computationally expensive. The additional power drawn will directly depend on the algorithm complexity. before the storage media get saturated. Furthermore, we noticed no compression artefact when reducing file size by a factor of 2 using a higher compression level, thus allowing for further increase in storage efficiency if needed.Processing of videos or pictures is time-and computer powerintensive. The choice of post-processing the data, rather than in situ motion detection, allows for decreasing power consumption and processor temperature and for fine-tuning the motion detection threshold of the algorithms based on the rate of omission. Motion detection techniques applied as a post-process to filter video recordings have been proven effective in detecting pollinator activity (Azarcoya-Cabiedes et al., 2014;Weinstein, 2015). In our study, motion detection post-processing was found useful in the case of rare and brief visits but not when visits are frequent. Two postprocessing algorithms are presented in the practical guide available as Supporting Information (pp. 36-39).To assess the performance of PICT in the field, we studied two plant species with contrasting habits, pollination ecologies and floral char- Cyrtorchis letouzeyi, a sub-endemic orchid primarily found in Cameroon, is remarkable for its ivory white flowers with a nectar spur measuring up to 10 cm in length. The flowers emit a strong lilac/jasmine scent at night. This epiphytic species is easily observed growing at a height of 1-3 m on shrubs bordering the grasslands on inselbergs of the Dja Faunal Reserve (East Cameroon). Pollination syndromes suggest that this species could be visited by long-tongued hawkmoths (Cribb, 1989) We recorded a total of 76. Our results demonstrate that PICT resolves many of the limitations commonly associated with both CTs designed to monitor ectotherms and conventional CT systems (Meek & Pittet, 2012;Rovero et al., 2013)  Clayborn & Clayborn, 2019;Houlihan et al., 2019;Nazir et al., 2017;Steen, 2017). (e) Remote control. The control, live view and data transfer through Wi-Fi with a smartphone, a tablet or a laptop facilitate camera placement and monitoring in places that are difficult to access. (f) Low-cost components. The unit price is less than USD 100 (Table 1) and a suite of free software can be used to operate PICT and analyse the data.We designed PICT so as to maximize power efficiency and portability and to minimize cost. The main limitations of PICT are a consequence of these choices. First, the autonomy is limited to 3 days when recording outdoor videos continuously. PICT autonomy depends only on power bank capacity. Data storage of PICT is not a limiting factor because the widely available and inexpensive 64 GB micro SD card is sufficient to store more than 3 days of film at default compression level and recommended settings (resolution of 1,296 by 972, 15 FPS). The autonomy of PICT can easily be improved by providing extra power to the power bank using a USB solar panel (a process known as pass-through charging technology). When an external power source is available to film for longer periods of time, then the storage capacity might become limiting. In that case, the extra power from the external source might allow active in situ motion detection to save space on the storage media. This could be implemented using open-source libraries available for Raspberry Pi (e.g. https://github.com/Motio n-Proje ct/motion and https://opencv. org/). This technique is relevant when post-processing time or data storage space needs to be reduced. However, in the absence of external power source, either autonomy or portability would be sacrificed to power the motion detection algorithm.Second, the durability of the Raspberry Pi in harsh environments can be affected by electrostatic damage, flaws in the sealing or mishandling of the plastic container. Occasional malfunction of electronic components has not however posed a substantial challenge )in our experiments due to the ease and low-cost of acquiring spare parts to repair possible damages.Finally, PICT is designed to be controlled remotely via Wi-Fi. In open area, we were able to smoothly control PICT from over 100 m away with a smartphone emitting its own Wi-Fi network. We expect this distance to decrease substantially in obstructed environments, and the operator would probably require the use of Wi-Fi repeaters if longer distance wireless supervision is required.A wide range of environmental sensors are available for Raspberry Pi computers. The computational power, versatility and connectivity of the computer allow more complex tasks to be per- ","tokenCount":"2597"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"01740d28dee66916c807aefc8c576d18","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8cae32c9-d58d-4a10-84f1-7b259e23ca52/retrieve","id":"-1557126435"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ca04cdcf-5bc1-4ae6-a36a-889e3a7e4aef","pagecount":"6","content":"A s we say goodbye to the 20th century, we can look back with pride and satisfaction on the revolution that our farm men and women have brought about in our agricultural history. In 1969 I wrote in the Illustrated Weekly of India about the role our farm families played in initiating the Wheat Revolution in India: \"Brimming with enthusiasm, hard-working, skilled and determined, the Punjab farmer has been the backbone of the revolution. Revolutions are usually associated with the young, but in this revolution, age has been no obstacle to participation. Farmers, young and old, educated and uneducated, have easily taken to the new agronomy. It has been heart-warming to see young college graduates, retired officials, ex-armymen, illiterate peasants and small farmers queuing up to get the new seeds. At least in the Punjab, the divorce between intellect and labour, which has been the bane of our agriculture, is vanishing.\"While we can and should rejoice about the past achievements of our farmers, scientists, extension workers, and policymakers, there is no room for complacency. We continue to face several problems: • First, increasing population leads to increased demand for food and reduced per capita availability of arable land and irrigation water. • Second, improved purchasing power and increased urbanization lead to higher per capita food grain requirements due to an increased consumption of animal products. • Third, marine fish production is becoming stagnant.• Fourth, there is increasing damage to the ecological foundations of agriculture, such as land, water, forests, biodiversity, and the atmosphere, and there are distinct possibilities for adverse changes in climate and sea level. • Finally, while dramatic new technological developments are taking place, particularly in biotechnology, environmental and social implications are yet to be fully understood.Because land and water for agriculture are diminishing resources, there is no option but to produce more food and other agricultural commodities from less arable land and irrigation water. In other words, the need for more food has to be met through higher yields per units of land, water, energy and time. We need to examine how science can be mobilized to raise further the biological productivity ceiling without associated ecological harm. Scientific progress on the farms, as an \"ever-green revolution,\" must emphasize that the productivity advance is sustainable over time since it is rooted in the principles of ecology, economics, social and gender equity, and employment generation.The dimensions of the challenges faced by those involved in developing scientific strategies and public policies for sustainable food security are best defined in some statistics on India, which now has a population of one billion. In global terms, India today has 16 percent of human population, 15 percent of farm animal population, 2 percent of the geographical area, 1 percent of rainfall, 0.5 percent of forests, and 0.5 percent of grazing land.The Green Revolution has so far helped to keep the rate of growth in food production above the population growth rate. The Green Revolution was, however, the result of public good research, supported by public funds. The emerging gene revolution, by contrast, is spearheaded by proprietary science and can come under monopolistic control. How can we take the fruits of the gene revolution to the unreached?The Gene Revolution Mendel's laws of genetics were rediscovered in 1900. Mendel had published his work on inheritance patterns in pea in 1865, but it took 35 years for others to grasp their significance. Since 1900, we have witnessed steady progress in our understanding of the genetic makeup of all living organisms ranging from microbes to man. A major step in human control over genetic traits was taken in the 1920s when Muller and Stadler discovered that radiation can induce mutations in animals and plants.In the 1930s and 1940s, several new methods of chromosome and gene manipulation were discovered, such as the use of colchicine to achieve a doubling in chromosome number, commercial exploitation of hybrid vigor in maize and other crops, use of chemicals such as nitrogen mustard and ethyl methane sulphonate to induce mutations and techniques like tissue culture and embryo rescue to get viable hybrids from distantly related species. The double helix structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the chemical substance of heredity, was discovered in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick. This triggered explosive progress in every field of genetics.As we approach the end of the 20 th century, we see a rapid transition from Mendelian to molecular genetic applications in agriculture, medicine, and industry. This brief capsule of genetic progress from 1900 to 1999 adequately stresses that knowledge and discovery represent a continuum, with each generation taking our understanding of the complex web of life to a higher level. It would therefore be wrong to worship or discard experimental tools or scientific innovations because they are either old or new.Just as it took 35 years for biologists to understand the significance of Mendel's work, it may take a couple of decades more to understand fully the benefits and risks associated with genetically improved foods. It would be prudent to apply scientific and precautionary principles in areas of human health and environmental safety.The 1990s have seen dramatic advances in our understanding of how biological organisms function at the molecular level, as well as in our ability to analyze, understand, and manipulate DNA molecules, the biological material from which the genes in all organisms are made. The entire process has been accelerated by the Human Genome Project, which has poured substantial resources into the development of new technologies to work with human genes. The same technologies are directly applicable to all other organisms, including plants. Thus, the new scientific discipline of genomics has arisen, which has contributed to powerful new approaches in agriculture and medicine, and has helped to promote the biotechnology industry.Several large corporations in Europe and the United States have made major investments to adapt these technologies to produce new plant varieties of agricultural importance for large-scale commercial agriculture. The same technologies have equally important potential applications to address food security and poverty of people in developing countries.Work in India has shown that genetic modification can do immense good in agriculture and food security. The 21 st century may witness changes in temperature, precipitation, sea level, and ultraviolet b radiation, as a result of global warming. These changes in climate are expected to adversely affect India and sub-Saharan Africa. All human-induced calamities affect adversely the poor nations and the poorest among all nations the most. This led us to initiate an anticipatory research program to breed salt-tolerant varieties of rice and other crop plants in coastal areas, in order to prepare for seawater intrusion into farmland as a result of an eventual rise in sea level. The donor of salt tolerance was a mangrove species belonging to the family Rhizophoraceae. Transferring genes for tolerance to salinity from mangrove tree species to rice or tobacco is an impossible task without recourse to recombinant DNA experiments. This demonstrates the immense benefits that can accrue from genomics and molecular breeding.What then are the principal concerns? In industrial countries, the major concerns relate to the impact of genetically improved organisms (GIOs) on human health and the environment. These food and environmental safety concerns have been well documented and are widely known. The food and environmental scientists of developing countries are equally concerned about the food and environmental safety aspects of GIOs. The ethical and social issues relating to GM crops were dealt with in detail in a report published by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in May 1999. What issues concern the public and professionals in developing countries?The first issue of concern is biosafety. Why are large biotechnology companies averse to the labeling of GM foods? In spite of over three years of intensive discussion in meetings sponsored by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the negotiations broke down at Cartagena, Colombia, in February 1999. Thus, there is as yet no internationally agreed biosafety protocol, as called for under Article 19 of CBD. The absence of such a protocol will hurt the private sector the most.There are other issues of concern to the general public in India. First, India is a land of small farm holdings. There are now 106 million operational holdings in the country, and about 75 percent of them are one hectare or less. India has 25 percent of the global farming community, and farming provides a livelihood to nearly 66 percent of the population. There is concern that expansion of proprietary science and shrinking of \"public good\" research supported from public funds may lead to a situation where the technologies of the future remain in the hands of a few transnational corporations. Only resource-rich farmers may have access to them, thereby widening further the gap between the rich and poor. This could accelerate social disintegration.Second, monopolistic control over crop varieties could lead to a situation where large areas are covered by very few genetic strains or hybrids.It is well known that genetic homogeneity enhances genetic vulnerability to biotic and abiotic stresses. Biotechnology companies are therefore recommending resistance management strategies, such as growing 30-40 percent non-Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn with Bt-corn (see Gould and Cohen this volume). What will happen to the livelihood of farm men and women operating smallholdings with institutional credit and with no crop insurance, if GM corn, soybean, rice, potato or other crops are affected by serious diseases as a result of the breakdown of resistance? Will the companies agree to compensate them for the loss? This problem could become even more serious if companies incorporate genetic use restriction mechanisms, known popularly as \"terminator\" genes in the new varieties. Small farmers could then experience \"genetic enslavement\" since their agricultural destiny could be in the hands of a few companies if they have to purchase new seeds each year, similar to conventional hybrid seed.A third issue relates to the potential impact of GM foods on biodiversity. This has two dimensions. The first deals with the replacement of numerous local cultivars with one or two new varieties, which could lead to genetic erosion. Modernization of agriculture has resulted in a narrowing of the base of food security, both in terms of the number of species constituting the food basket and the number of genetic strains cultivated (see NRC 1989NRC , 1996)). Local cultivars have often been the donors of many useful traits, including resistance to pests and diseases. Under small farm conditions, every farm is a genetic garden, comprising several annual and perennial crops, and several varieties of each crop. The need of the hour is to enlarge the food basket and not shrink it further.The second dimension is equity in benefit sharing between biotechnologists and the primary conservers of genetic resources and the holders of traditional knowledge. The primary conservers have so far remained poor, while those who use their knowledge (for example, the medicinal properties of plants) and material become rich. This has resulted in accusations of biopiracy. It is time that genetic engineers and others promote and find ways to implement genuine biopartnerships with the holders of indig-enous knowledge and traditional conservers of genetic variability, based on principles of ethics and equity in benefit sharing.Unless R&D efforts on GM foods are based on principles of bioethics, biosafety, biodiversity conservation, and biopartnerships, there will be serious public concern in India, as well as many other developing countries, about the ultimate nutritional, social, ecological, and economic consequences of replacing numerous local varieties with a few new genetically improved crop varieties. To derive benefits from genetic engineering without undue risks, every nation should set up a multistakeholder Commission for Genetic Modification.Knowledge is a continuum. There is much to learn from the past in terms of the ecological and social sustainability of technologies. At the same time, new developments have opened up new opportunities to develop technologies that can lead to high productivity without adverse impact on the natural resources base. Blending traditional and frontier technologies leads to the birth of ecotechnologies with combined strength in economics, ecology, equity, employment, and energy.In water harvesting and sustainable use, for example, there are many lessons to be learned from the past. In the desert area of Rajasthan, India, drinking water is available even in areas with 100 mm annual rainfall, largely because women are continuing to harvest water in simple structures called kunds. In contrast, drinking water is scarce during summer months in some parts of northeast India, with an annual rainfall of 15,000 mm. There is need therefore to conserve traditional wisdom and practices, which are tending to become extinct. The decision of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to explore the intellectual property needs, rights, and expectations of holders of traditional knowledge, innovations, and culture is an important step in widening the concept of intellectual property rights (IPR). Principles of ethics and equity demand that this invaluable component of IPR be included when the TRIPs (Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights) agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) comes up for review.FAO has been a pioneer in the recognition of the contributions of farm families in genetic resources conservation and enhancement by promoting the concept of Farmers' Rights. Like WIPO, UPOV (Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Crops) should also undertake the task of preparing an integrated concept of breeders' and farmers' rights and assisting countries in developing equitable and effective sui generis systems for the protection of new plant varieties, as is required for all members of WTO (Barton, 1999;Leisinger, 1999).The 20 th century produced an impressive array of accomplishments in nearly every field of science and technology. The last part of the century was particularly rich in innovations in biotechnology, and information and space technologies. Such advances have had a beneficial impact on human food and health security. The global population was only 940 million in 1798 when Malthus expressed his apprehensions about human capacity to achieve a balance between food production and population. Human numbers reached 6 billion in 1999, and once in every12 years another billion will be added, if current growth rates continue in developing countries. Science-based technologies supported by appropriate public policies are responsible for food famines becoming rare. The famine of food at the level of an individual today is mostly due to inadequate purchasing power arising from a famine of jobs or employment opportunities.In spite of an impressive stockpile of scientific discoveries and technological innovations, poverty and social and gender inequities are increasing. According to the World Bank, 1.3 billion people lived on less than US$1 per day and another 3 billion lived on less than US$2 per day in 1993. Nearly 1.5 billion of the world population of 6 billion will live in severe poverty at the dawn of the new millennium. Illiteracy, particularly among women, is still high in many developing countries. It is not only in opportunities for education that children of many developing countries remain handicapped, but even more alarming, in opportunities for the full expression of their innate genetic potential for physical and mental development. Between 25 and 50 percent of children born in South Asian countries are characterized by low birth weight (LBW), caused by maternal and fetal undernutrition and malnutrition. The UN Commission on Nutrition in a recent report has warned about the serious consequences of LBW for both brain development in the child, as well as the level of health in later life.New technologies supported by appropriate services and public policies have helped to prove doomsday predictions wrong, and have led to the agricultural revolution (the Green Revolution) becoming one of the most significant of the scientific and socially meaningful events of the 20th century. Four thousand years of wheat cultivation led to Indian farmers producing 6 million metric tons of wheat in 1947. The Green Revolution in wheat helped to surpass in 4 years the production accomplishments of the preceding 4000 years, thus illustrating the power of synergy between science and public policy.There are uncommon opportunities now to harness the power of such synergy to address contemporary development issues such as the growing rich-poor divide, feminization of poverty, famine of jobs, human numbers exceeding the population-supporting capacity of ecosystems, climate change, and loss of forests and biodiversity. Whether in economics or in ecology, experience has shown that a trickle-down approach does not work. Fortunately, modern information technology provides opportunities to reach the unreached. Virtual colleges, computeraided and internet-connected, linking scientists and women and men living in poverty can be established at local, national, and global levels to launch a knowledge and skill revolution. This will help to create better awareness of the benefits and risks associated with genetically improved organisms, so that both farmers and consumers will get better insights into the processes leading to the creation of novel genetic combinations.The future of small farm families will depend on precision agriculture, which involves the use of the right inputs at the right time and in the right way. Biotechnology will play an important role in the major components of precision farming: integrated gene management, soil health care, efficient water management, integrated pest man-agement, integrated nutrient supply, and efficient postharvest management. Ecotechnology-based precision farming can help to cut costs, enhance marketable surplus, and eliminate ecological risks. This is the pathway to an ever-green revolution in small-farm agriculture. This is why increased public support to both the CGIAR and NARS is important for strengthening health and food security.The industrial revolution in Europe marked the transition to a world where technology became a major causal factor in the prosperity gap between developing and industrial nations. How can we now enlist technology as an ally in the movement for social, gender and economic equity in an era of expanding proprietary science? Obviously, public good research supported from public funds must be stepped up. The following indicator of measuring the value of development efforts proposed by Mahatma Gandhi is the most meaningful yardstick for determining priorities in scientific research designed to help in meeting basic human needs: \"Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you have seen, and ask yourself, if the steps you contemplate are going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore to him control over his own life and destiny?\"If biotechnology research can be promoted keeping in mind the guideline Gandhi gave, it will become a powerful tool in ensuring sustainable food security in the world.","tokenCount":"3064"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"79cc2de66297107f566fc3fe223a7669","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/65a17233-3605-4f97-8576-88f67a268bd6/retrieve","id":"250310479"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f1f722f3-8ef9-4cf2-b209-81d3419c316e","pagecount":"22","content":"Front cover photographic credit: TAAT's sorghum and millet toolkit includes an array of new sorghum (upper left) and millet (top center) varieties; water harvesting (upper right) and fertilizer micro-dosing (lower left) are essential accompanying technologies; sorghum and millet are processed into nutritious foods. Crop residues are an extremely important organic resource throughout the Sahel.A grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (the Foundation) led to the rapid establishment and the effective operations of the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Clearinghouse Office in Cotonou, Benin during 2018. TAAT is a flagship program within the African Development Bank (AfDB) Feed Africa Strategy aimed at modernizing African agriculture through the advancement of agricultural technology in a way that improves the business of agriculture across Africa. The developmental objective of TAAT is to rapidly expand access of high yielding agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers as a means toward improving food production, assuring food security and raising rural incomes. The Clearinghouse is the body within TAAT that decides on which technologies should be disseminated. Moreover, it is charged to guide the deployment of proven agricultural technologies to scale in a developmentally-and commercially-sustainable fashion. The Foundation's Clearinghouse project is based upon three Primary Investment Outcomes, six Intermediate Investment Outcomes and twelve Investment Outputs that provide the main structure for this report.The Clearinghouse Office was rapidly established based upon the readily available facilities from the IITA Station in Cotonou, Benin; the rapid acquisition of necessary equipment and supplies; and the timely recruitment of six experienced staff (Intermediate Investment Outcome 1.1). Clearinghouse governance included the establishment of an eleven-member Project Steering Committee (PSC) to provide guidance and oversight over TAAT program implementation (Intermediate Investment Outcome 1.2). A Clearinghouse inception workshop brought together the PSC, the Compact Leaders, the TAAT Program Management Unit, TAAT program coordinating team at the AfDB and some key stakeholders to achieve a common understanding of the vision, goals, objectives of the Feed Africa Strategy and the TAAT program.The Clearinghouse developed a rapid and transparent review and recommendation process leading to the approval of the workplans of the nine Commodity Value Chain Compacts and six Enabler Compacts and their recommendation for funding by the AfDB. Funds from the Foundation enabled the Clearinghouse to play its role as an independent and fair broker during the technology selection, work plan formulation and approval process.Selection of proven technologies and realistic dissemination mechanisms were important early contributions of the Clearinghouse to the TAAT process. The Clearinghouse pioneered a \"Technology Toolkit\" approach that allowed lead and accompanying technologies to be identified and clustered in manners that permitted productivity targets to be better achieved (Investment Output 2.1.1). It recognized that African small-scale farmers seldom specialize in only one commodity value chain, so it identified and explored opportunities for crosscutting interventions. It identified and prioritized the leading technologies (Investment Output 2.1.2). A summary of 47 technologies being championed through 15 Compacts in 28 countries through 396 partnerships is presented in this report.The Clearinghouse also facilitated partnerships across TAAT. This service is important because while the fifteen Compacts are led by CGIAR Centers (eleven) and other Advanced Research Institutes (four), activities are conducted at national level (28 countries) by a wide spectrum of stakeholders (e.g. 262 private sector partners belonging to seven categories). So too, TAAT regards private sector participation as essential to the lasting deployment of proven, modernizing agricultural technologies and the expectations of businesses and investors that must be met. A strategy to communicate with these partners is being established and the mechanisms to reach different stakeholders are being put in place (Intermediate Investment Outcome 3.1). Admittedly, progress related to stakeholder reach is slower than expected, in part because it was uncertain to what extent the Clearinghouse was expected to manage the overall communication services of TAAT and its individual Compacts. Providing rationale for commercial and business benefits through agricultural technology support has also proven more difficult than expected (Intermediate Investment Outcome 3.2). This shortcoming is in large part because of delays in AfDB's disbursement of funds to Compacts, causing them to miss the growing season in many parts of Africa.During 2018, Clearinghouse and Compact staff provided technical assistance to the AfDB's process of formulating agricultural development projects for its lending program by participating in 14 AfDB Missions relating to six compacts in eight countries, leading to the potential investment of $499 million in those countries This approach allows for the Clearinghouse and TAAT to orient agricultural investments far in excess of the resources directly allocated to the program. Clearly, the one-year Support to TAAT Clearinghouse Governance was more an exploratory Proof of Concept than a solidly resourced investment by the Foundation. It investigated how well a small team of experienced professionals are able to catalyze the deployment and adoption of proven modernizing agricultural technologies available as both commercialized input products and extension-led management innovations. A next step by the Clearinghouse provides the rationale for the formulation of a robust mid-term strategy and a Phase 2 proposal (Intermediate Investment Outcome 3.3), both of which are summarized in this report.TAAT is a flagship program within the AfDB's Feed Africa Strategy aimed at modernizing African agriculture through the advancement of agricultural technology in a way that improves the business of agriculture across Africa. Its developmental objective is to rapidly expand access by smallholder farmers to high-yielding agricultural technologies that improve their food production, assure food security and raise rural incomes. This goal is achieved by delivering regional public goods for rapidly scaling agricultural technologies across similar agro-ecological zones. This result is achieved through three principal mechanisms; 1) creating an enabling environment for technology deployment and adoption; 2) facilitating effective delivery of these technologies to farmers through a structured Regional Technology Delivery Infrastructure and 3) raising agricultural production and productivity through strategic interventions that include improved crop varieties and animal breeds, accompanying good management practices and vigorous farmer outreach campaigns at the AfDB's Regional Member Country (RMC) level. The important roles of sound policies, empowering women and youth, strengthening extension systems and engaging with the private sector is implicit within this strategy.The Clearinghouse is the body within TAAT that decides which technologies should be disseminated. Moreover, it is tasked with the responsibility to guide the deployment of proven agricultural technologies to scale in a commercially sustainable fashion through the establishment of partnerships that provide access to expertise required to design, implement, and monitor the progress of technology dissemination campaigns. In this way, the Clearinghouse is essentially an agricultural transformation incubation platform, aimed at facilitating partnerships that reach millions of farmers with appropriate agricultural technologies.The Clearinghouse quickly assigned Investment Output responsibilities as described in the approved project document (OPP1179223) among its international staff. Briefly, the Clearinghouse Manager, together with the Administrative staff undertook the responsibilities within Investment Outcome 1, the Technology Outreach Officer led Investment Outcome 2 and the Partnership Engagement Officer led Intermediate Investment Outcome 3.1 (see Appendix 1). The Technical Adviser initiated the Internal Evaluation of TAAT Compacts for recommendation to the PSC. In this way, the pressing responsibilities before the Clearinghouse began to be addressed. Next, key information was extracted from the approved Compacts related to target technologies and the planned array of partners and stakeholders. The concept of both Technology Compacts (see Box 1) and Technology Toolkits (see Primary Investment Outcome 2) was introduced into TAAT by AfDB late in the formulation process and after the Foundation's Clearinghouse project was approved, so this required a shift in some staff responsibilities.The Clearinghouse identified opportunities to better respond to the needs of smallholder farmers who always plant multiple crops in mixed cropping or in rotation. Agrodealers serving them also stock several technologies together. However, the work program of TAAT has been designed around Compacts focusing on a single value chain. As the Coordinators of the Maize, Bean, and Sweet Potato Compacts, and the Technical Adviser of the Youth Compact (ENABLE-TAAT) are all located in Nairobi, Kenya, the Clearinghouse encouraged the design of combined toolkits that agrodealers could supply at once. Negotiations were held with a network of agrodealers serving over 2,000 farmers in Western Kenya to package mixed technologies recommended by Compacts and have them deployed to their farmer clients, with the Compacts providing training and supervision. These interactions between Compacts to deliver technologies are being used by the Clearinghouse to demonstrate how in-country collaboration and coordination could be managed to create synergies between TAAT compacts.At the same time, responsibilities toward TAAT Compacts started to be realigned between the TAAT Program Management Unit (at IITA HQ in Ibadan) and the Clearinghouse Offices in Cotonou and Nairobi. The Clearinghouse became responsible for TAAT Communication Services (as opposed to only Clearinghouse communications), Monitoring and Evaluation, and Value Chain Analysis. By April 2018, the AfDB revised the TAAT program's budget and awarded more resources to the Clearinghouse to accommodate the increased responsibilities entrusted to it. However, details of some of these activities, including the establishment of a robust Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning System and related Key Performance Indicators, are not covered in this report to the Foundation but are otherwise available through Clearinghouse reports and publications. The element of Commodity Technology Delivery Compacts (full name of the \"Compact\") was added to the TAAT formulation quite late in its approval process by AfDB, and after the Foundation awarded its project to support the TAAT Clearinghouse, so it is no surprise that the concept is controversial and/or poorly understood. From the perspective of the Clearinghouse, a Compact is many things …  A unit of implementation of the TAAT program based upon proven and related lead and accompanying technologies that are readily integrated into agricultural development efforts and agendas.  The recognition among agriculturalists that potent agricultural technologies must not be allowed to stagnate or fall short of their realizable potential and a bridging mechanism for agents of development to better harness the process of technology refinement and dissemination.  An open-ended opportunity for technology providers to buy into larger agricultural development agendas and to showcase technology products and know-how to potential investors and users through brokerage and commercial alliances.  A coordination mechanism that offers a solution to the perennial problem of how to derive greater impacts among well-meaning parties by directing them toward a common purpose in a resource efficient manner.  An opportunity for agricultural loan programs to be better strengthened by potent technologies and profitable rural enterprises in a way that guarantees and amplifies their expected success.  A recognition of the unacceptability of the status quo, meaning different things to different interests as they push together in a loosely-understood but collectively-agreed positive direction towards win-win outcomes. More Clearinghouse staff were recruited through the AfDB's grant for the TAAT program and their activities also contribute to Foundation's investment and Clearinghouse's outputs. These staff include: a M&E Specialist, an Agricultural Value Chain Specialist, a Communication Specialist, an Accountant, an Executive Assistant, and a Clerk/Driver. None of these additional staff were held directly responsible in achieving the Investment Outputs of this Foundation project but all contributed to it.Investment Output 1.1.2: Capital equipment purchased (vehicle, computer work stations and office furniture) and full telecommunication facilities installed.The Clearinghouse purchased one official vehicle used for running office-related errands, as well as transporting Clearinghouse personnel to various meetings and official appointments in and around Cotonou, Benin and to Ibadan, Nigeria. Landline phones were installed in each of the offices. Laptops, office desks, chairs and other office furnishings were procured and provided for each staff member to facilitate their activities and responsibilities. A heavy duty office printer/copy machine was set up in a common workroom and four desktop printers were also purchased and installed in individual offices. A mediumsized boardroom table with eight chairs was procured and a small conference room set up for hosting staff meetings as well as small external meetings. The process for procuring conference calling equipment, projection screen and other necessary audio visual equipment is underway. In addition to improving station facilities, generators were installed in the homes of all international staff and Wi-Fi internet service provided to enable working at home during evenings and weekends. Chain Compact teams that formulate and adapt them, the task of evaluating them as a holistic and crosscutting process falls upon the TAAT Clearinghouse. Toolkits evolve from their basic formulations at the Compact level, differentiate across site-specific conditions, consolidate as they are combined to suit the needs of farming communities, and become formalized as they are promoted and advanced within country programs and development agendas (Figure 1). The Clearinghouse evaluation process tracks toolkits as they are adapted and deployed across countries in a way that allows for lessons to be learned and distributed across agro-ecological zones, levels of agricultural intensification and socioeconomic setting. It provides guidelines to the individual Compacts to ensure commonality of monitoring tools through the development of a Performance Monitoring Plan through four sequential toolkit steps (Figure 1). This plan includes clear indicators of process and purpose, participatory methods, and standardized data collection. Similarly, TAAT Enabler Compacts receive performance monitoring tools that clearly identifies which toolkits they assist and in what ways. The toolkit approach itself greatly facilitates documenting TAAT's progress as a whole because it captures the availability of proven technologies and their successful deployment in terms of their relationship to the Regional Technology Development Infrastructure. Indeed, toolkits and their widespread adoption provide the basis for transforming African agriculture through TAAT, an opportunity described more fully in Clearinghouse Technical Report 2.1.2.Technology portfolios forms the bridging mechanism between TAAT Program operations and agricultural development agendas, particularly the recently-established AfDB's Feed Africa strategy and Regional Member Countries' national agricultural investment plans. They also shape the collaboration with the private sector as input manufacturers, distributors, and agro-industrial food processors. They provide the substance for partnering agricultural extension activities at national levels, and their promotion offer direct incentives to farmer organizations and commodity producers to work with the individual Value Chain Compacts. In this way, these toolkits span all aspects of the TAAT Program as their composition and advocacy require an Enabling Environment, their widespread mobilization relates to the Regional Technology Delivery Infrastructure, and their refinement, local adoption and wide-scale use are the main goals of Technology Delivery. A list of 47 transformative technologies organized by the nine Vale Chain Compacts appears in Table 1. Note that the Compacts are ordered as cereals -root crops -grain legumefish and small livestock commodities so that complementarity among modernizing technologies are more apparent. Also note that technologies championed by the Enabler Compacts, particularly the Emergency Response to Fall Army Worm (FAW), Soil Fertility and Water Compacts, are embedded into the efforts of their nine partnering Value Chains.Table 1. A summary of the 47 technology sets being disseminated in 28 countries a,b .Rice: Six technology sets in 12 countries; 1) improved rice varieties (Advanced Rice varieties for Africa, New Rice Varieties for Africa, aromatic and hybrid rice varieties), 2) improved crop nutrition (soil and foliar diagnostics, localized nutrient targeting), 3) Rice Advice and Good Agricultural Practices (and other IT products), 4) Rice Mechanization (laser land leveling; motorized weeding; axial flow thresher), 5) irrigation services and scheduling (improved access and lifting of water, irrigation network management), 6) rice processing and products (parboiling, biomass gasification, fortified rice-wheat composite flour and products, mineral-and vitamin-fortified rice products, rice-based pasta). Wheat: Four technology sets in 7 countries; 1) improved varieties and seed systems (high yielding, heat tolerant, disease resistant, accelerated seed multiplication and delivery), 2) mechanization (planters and harvesters), 3) improved water management (irrigation systems, water harvesting, raised beds), 4) value addition leading to reduced importation of wheat-based products (flours, pasta, other products). Maize: Five technology sets in 13 countries; 1) improved varieties and seed systems (drought tolerant, improved nutrition, disease and pest resistant, striga tolerant, imazapyr resistant), 2) integrated management (fertilizer blends, conservation agriculture, rotation, striga elimination, ISFM and Good Agronomic Practices, 3) mechanized production (tillage, irrigation and harvest), 4) aflatoxin management (aflasafe, quality control systems), 5) quality protection and post-harvest storage. Sorghum and Millet: Six technology sets in 7 countries; 1) improved varieties (varietal release, community-based seed production), 2) water harvesting (pits, contour and tie ridges), 3) ISFM (fertilizer micro-dosing, legume rotation), 4) pest management (striga elimination, midge control), 5) residue management (feed systems, choppers, stalks), 6) value addition (milling, whole grain substitution). Cassava: Six technology sets in 15 countries; 1) six improved varieties, 2) cassava ISFM (improved mineral fertilizer application, adjustment to local and weather conditions, staggered planting practices, intercropping), 3) cassava pest and disease management, 4) mechanized production (planters, weeding and harvest lifters), 5) improved cassava processing (village-scale operations, mechanical peeling and drying operations, cassava root waxing), 6) improved cassava products (High Quality Cassava Flour and products; industrial cassava starch; new cassava-based foods, cassava peels as animal feed and granular carriers within Aflasafe production). Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato: Six technology sets in 12 countries; 1) improved variety release (firmer flesh, drought tolerance, disease clearing), 2) vegetative propagation systems (vine multiplication systems, handling and marketing), 3) management systems (raised beds, small-scale mechanization, specialized fertilizer blends, organic resource management), 4) IPM (virus reduction, field sanitation), 5) feed systems (fodder, silage), 6) value addition (puree, baked goods, snacks). High Iron Beans: Five technology sets in 8 countries; 1) improved varieties and seed systems (both bush and climbing types), 2) ISFM (specialized fertilizer blends, organic resource management, crop rotation and intercropping), 3) seed coating and rhizobial inoculation (inoculant manufacture and distribution), 4) smallscale mechanization (tillers, planters and weeders), 5) marketing and processing (textured vegetable proteins, fortified flours, feed production). Fish Farming (Aquaculture): Five technology sets in 9 countries; 1) improved breeds and hatcheries (GIFT tilapia, YY catfish, cost effective hatcheries and fingerling distribution), 2) improved production systems (pond-, cageand tank-based systems), 3) improved feed production (growth-staged feeds, increased protein and improved buoyancy), 4) water quality control, 5) processing (refrigeration, freezing, drying and smoking). Poultry, Sheep and Goats: Four technology sets in 6 countries; 1) improved breeds and rearing facilities (disease resistance, layers, broilers and dual purpose, chick, lamb and kid survival), 2) cost-effective housing, production and marketing systems, 3) vaccine technologies and veterinary service delivery, 4) improved feed formulation, processing systems, and goat and sheep fattening.a Note that Enabler Compacts' technologies are embedded within the dissemination campaigns of partnering Value Chains. b See Appendix 2 for distribution among countries.But this approach to technology dissemination is not without challenges and shortcomings. The toolkit concept was included late in TAAT conceptualization process and has not been fully understood and embraced by all. Two tendencies run contrary to the fullest development of TAATs toolkits; \"technology ivory tower\" and \"silver bullet\" approaches. The former is exhibited by partnership cliques that fail to recognize the important contributions of alternative technologies that were developed by \"outsiders\" and are beyond their immediate control. This shortcoming results in less potent toolkits advanced within more confined networks formed prior to the establishment of TAAT. The latter \"silver bullet approaches\" result when Compact activities focus primarily upon a single emergent technology rather than including the accompanying technologies necessary to realize their larger objectives. This case appears for example when campaigns advancing improved crop varieties are conducted that do not include the appropriate fertilizer, weed control and pest management technologies ensuring their success. It also results in skewed alliance to NARES and the private sector where national seed programs and seed companies are viewed as more important than the agrodealer networks that serve as \"last mile\" suppliers of balanced input products composing the toolkits themselves. In fairness, TAAT is a new approach and its Compact leaders were required to quickly assemble their technical and institutional resources, and standard guidelines were not issued on how they could best proceed with toolkit design. The consequences of this pragmatic strategy is now under assessment by TAAT's Monitoring and Evaluation team and corrective measures will be formulated for TAAT Compact Leaders, partners and stakeholders.\"By December 2018, the Clearinghouse develops and validates a plan for stakeholder buy-in and commitment sharing over the larger TAAT Project lifetime\" Intermediate Investment Outcome 3.1: Communicate Clearinghouse rational and outputs to TAAT stakeholders.Between February and September 2018, the Clearinghouse established an office and governance structure, recruited staff, reviewed Compact work plans and budgets, and saw them approved by the Program Steering Committee. As Program funds became available in June 2018, the Clearinghouse supervised the launch of these 15 Compacts in 28 countries (see Appendix 3). These achievements were conducted in rapid succession, but starting September 2018 more time was available to advance Clearinghouse rationale and approaches from a more strategic context. Clearinghouse staff participated in the 2018 African Green Revolution Forum in Kigali, Rwanda (7 September 2018). Interested parties were invited to a TAAT Breakfast meeting which was attended by 126 participants immediately before the Heads of State Summit. Supportive statements were made by Ministers of Agriculture of Togo and Malawi, an AGRA Vice-President, and high-level officials from IFAD and FAO. In this way, the Clearinghouse started to align its strategy to other investments in African agricultural development (beyond the Foundation and AfDB) including those of AGRA, the World Bank, IFAD, USAID, DfID, and the European Union. This process remains ongoing and is reaching out to other investors in African agricultural development such as GIZ, Sasakawa Africa Association, the Syngenta Foundation, etc.Progress towards the formulation of a Communication Strategy (Investment Output 3.1.1) has been slower than expected and has led to some missed opportunities to highlight achievements of the Clearinghouse and TAAT program. Finalizing and following this strategy has become highest priority. Clearinghouse staff have been tasked, with immediate effect, to prepare briefs and updates in the areas of technology opportunities, partnership management and value chain development that are suitable for dissemination on electronic and print media. Furthermore, additional articles or posts will be solicited from other TAAT partners, starting with the Compact Leaders. Communication tools that will result from this adjusted focus include the following:1. Production of a series of TAAT brochures, starting with one that describes the purpose and operations of TAAT intended for a wide range of partners and stakeholders, and to be followed by other more specific topics.2. Production of a quarterly TAAT Update newsletter for release in both printed and electronic formats. The focus of this newsletter is to highlight technology dissemination activities and their impacts. This information will be supplemented with a weekly post available through electronic media. 3. Publication of an Annual Corporate Report that captures key success stories and promotes TAAT to the wider developmental community, featuring both technology dissemination strategies and solid example as case studies. 4. The establishment of a functional website that covers all of TAAT's activities instead of a site that covers developments only from the Clearinghouse perspective. 5. Stronger presence must be achieved across a wide range of social media, both those managed by TAAT and its partners as well as strategic posts into those operated by others. The youth operating ENABLE TAAT have considerable expertise in this area and will be called upon for assistance. 6. Production of branding materials such as calendars, letterhead papers, etc. but this is lower priority and will be funded by sources other than the Foundation.These materials are particularly important for distribution during Technical and Supervision Missions and at international fora where TAAT itself is not well understood. In many cases, important information has been assembled but is not being sufficiently processed for distribution to wider audiences, and this shortcoming is being addressed. It was also determined that greater reliance upon the professional communication services offered by IITA Headquarters is required.Investment Output 3.1.2:Establish Clearinghouse website with linkages to all TAAT partners and other social media.The www.taatclearinghouse.org domain was secured early in 2018. An unexpected development occurred when the TAAT Program Management Unit assigned website responsibilities to the Clearinghouse, rather than expecting the Clearinghouse to regularly contribute to one managed from IITA Headquarters as earlier agreed. This domain was abandoned in favor of www.taat-africa.org. The building of the website was procured following AfDB procedures. A prototype of the website went up on 31 January 2019 and its content is being reviewed before the official launch. Once live, all key events relating to TAAT will be posted and each Clearinghouse officer and TAAT Compact will contribute to a web page within that site. The website is also expected to host electronic fora on TAAT technologies and their adoption at national levels.Intermediate Investment Outcome 3.2: Provide rationale for commercial and business benefits through agricultural technology support and demonstrate their positive socio-economic and macro-economic outcomes.Investment Output 3.2.1: Identify conducive policies for governments and regional agencies to act upon and establish and monitor Key Performance Indicators of agricultural transformation.The Clearinghouse made significant gains in identifying which policies are needed to advance modernization of African agriculture. A stepwise, consultative procedure was followed. First, the Compact Leaders were asked to complete a form that identified likely policy constraints to the dissemination of their technology toolkits. In total, 93 constraints were submitted by eleven of 15 Compacts. Next these responses were compiled, and constraints that lacked a clear policy dimension were removed, and constraints offering similar solutions combined. This approach produced a \"policy response\" short list as follows:1. Reduce restrictions to cross-border trade of agricultural inputs and improved animal breeds. 2. Remove import duty and VAT on farm inputs and equipment, and enforce current exemptions.3. Streamline agro-input dealer accreditation frameworks while ensuring customer protection. 4. Assure protection of property rights to plant varieties and agricultural biotechnologies. 5. Introduce quality control n for vegetative propagation products. 6. Reduce the time and costs of variety registration and release of new pest control products. 7. Streamline regulations for interim registration of pesticides needed to counter biological invasions.8. Offer incentives to the greater availability of livestock health products. 9. Extend quality assurance to purchasers of livestock feeds. 10. Include aquaculture construction materials within import duty and VAT exemptions. 11. Provide domestic producers market protection from imported commodity dumping.At the same time, a framework for policy response is being developed (Figure 2). Briefly, policy response operates at three levels: through regulation, legislation and regional action. Also, policy leverage may be applied by either progressive transformation or through eliminating counterproductive and outdated measures. In many cases, regulatory agencies merely need to alter the manner in which their mandate is interpreted, thus providing simple and rapid leverage. An example of this is when pesticide registration requirements were eased in some countries (but not others) in response to the recent, ominous biological invasion of the Fall Armyworm. Another example is when the excessive delays in clearance of duty free agricultural inputs are corrected. Yet another example is the flexibility with which regulators can offer accreditation to input suppliers, often through easing restrictions on which products may be offered and how, but managed in a way that affords quality assurance and user safety.Often however, policy leverage rests through legislation that assigns or adjusts the mandates of national regulators. For example, legislation is often needed on tax relief, protection of intellectual property, and movement of needed technologies across common borders. So too, perverse policies that relieve duties to large farm equipment, such as tractors, but not to smaller equipment such as hand operated power tiller and weeders must be reconsidered. At the widest scale, policies are best initiated or improved through regional organizations.Without going into detail, the Clearinghouse has contacted many Regional Organizations and participated in highlevel regional fora in manners that highlight the policy dimensions of agriculture technology dissemination, particularly less restrictive movement of farm input products and commodities along established trade corridors. This hierarchical model is being explored with the Policy Support Compact to better identify policy interventions based upon their arena (regulatory, legislative or regional), their potency (e.g. effective or perverse) and recommended action (e.g. promote or withdraw). Clearly, the different policy needs listed above may be readily assigned to one or more of these categories. The next step is to enlist the individual Compacts to engage in policy dialogue as the above short list and other opportunities are applicable to them. For example, this model appears immediately applicable to assist in the emergency response at national and regional levels to the biological invasion of cropland by FAW by fast tracking new bio-rational products that are effective on caterpillar pests.The Clearinghouse exceeded Investment Output 3.2.2 and greatly improved upon its original purpose in a manner that assists the design of in-country activities. Clearinghouse and Compact staff participated in 14 AfDB Missions in eight countries leading to the potential investment of $499 million in AfDB loans.Promote This approach allows for the Clearinghouse and TAAT to influence agricultural investments far in excess of what is available through their available resources.In addition, the Clearinghouse assisted in organizing three workshops that assisted the AfDB to shape its proactive agenda toward the fertilizer industry, the biological invasion of Fall Armyworm, and opportunities for lending to small-scale commercial farming enterprises.A workshop was initiated by the AfDB and organized by the Clearinghouse to identify ways that TAAT, The African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) and The Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM) could work together to accelerate fertilizer access by millions of African smallholder producers. This one-day workshop was titled \"Mobilizing the private sector for fertilizer delivery to farmers through TAAT\" and conducted in Cotonou, Benin on 12 June 2018. It proposed modalities for businesses engaged in TAAT to better meet their roles of producing, blending and distributing fertilizers and other inputs. Representatives from all TAAT Compacts attended and some valuable linkages to the fertilizer industry were forged. For example, immediately after the workshop a new fertilizer blend for root crops was designed by TAAT partners and entered into commercial production. 2.Between June and October, the AfDB and TAAT organized a series of sub-regional Partnership Meetings on FAW for East, Southern and Central/West Africa. The Clearinghouse played a particularly important role within the meetings as this was the opportunity to align national programs to the FAW Emergency Response Enabler Compact, but the Compact itself had not yet been launched because CIMMYT withdrew from the leadership of the Compact in June 2018. Subsequently the Clearinghouse assisted countries by sharing the FAW proposal templates used for loan application from the AfDB to combat the menace. In the loan application process, the Clearinghouse played the critical role of linking countries to the appropriate contacts for successful loan application as requested by countries. Two important technology toolkits emerged from these meetings, Fortenza Duo seed treatment and the FAW rapid curative response. Through these meetings the TAAT and the Clearinghouse emerged as new leaders in technology dissemination and collaborative scaling.In July 2018, the Clearinghouse organized a two-day business meeting between each Compact Coordinator and two of their implementation partners with NIRSAL, the Nigerian Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending. The purpose of the meetings was to understand how the higher performance technologies offered by the Compacts were going to reduce risks and increase the profitability of the farm from the point of view of finance and insurance providers to smallholder farmers. NIRSAL's procedures for providing loan guarantees to cereal farmers was presented and discussed in detail and their expectation was that better technology would improve the profitability of smallholder operations thereby making them more creditworthy.In addition, the Clearinghouse identified opportunities to better respond to the needs of smallholder farmers who always plant multiple crops in mixed cropping systems and integrate them with livestock enterprises. Agrodealers serving these farming communities are critical as \"last mile\" retailers of products that embody Technology Toolkits. As stated previously (Section 3.0), TAAT operates around Compacts focusing on single value chains. In response, the Clearinghouse encourages Compacts to combine their technology toolkits and seek opportunities for distributing multiple products targeting the full range of needs of the smallholder farmer. Negotiations led to a network of agrodealers serving over 2,000 farmers in Western Kenya to package mixed technologies recommended by Compacts and have them deployed to their farmer clients including, for example, a combined maize-bean-FAW technology toolkit containing 12 products from seven input suppliers with these products placed on the shelves of an agrodealer network for test marketing. Furthermore, many potent technologies are needed that have not yet been fully commercialized and this requires a full partnership with the private sector to make them more widely available. The Clearinghouse also recognizes that its private sector partners seek to maintain a competitive advantage and that collaboration through TAAT must not be seen as compromising their larger business interests. 6. Last mile implementation. Agricultural transformation requires management innovation among farmers that is led by agents of change. Government agricultural extension programs are a preferred extension mechanism, but not the only one. TAAT Compacts must have a strong element of agricultural extension but must be prepared to explore all opportunities of delivering extension, including by electronic means; and they must assess impacts derived from these popularizing efforts and adopt the most effective means which may vary from country to country. It should be recognized that extension efforts must be concerned with reaching farmers and their associations first, and then bringing them a stream of technologies, input products and know-how.7. Emphasis on gender equity and youth empowerment. Agricultural technologies and the benefits they offer are intended for all members of the rural community. Often this requires that special consideration be paid to stakeholders that are too frequently marginalized and bypassed. Technologies that improve nutrition and health, as well as those that reduce drudgery are particularly important. The Clearinghouse exists in part to ensure that Compact targets related to women, youth and the vulnerable are upheld. 8. Linkage to country programs. TAAT exists to link productivity-enhancing and farm-modernizing technologies to the agricultural development programs and agendas of African countries. This linkage can be measured in terms of Technology Toolkit adoption and use, documented production increase and numbers of beneficiaries reached. An expedient mechanism toward this end is the inclusion of TAAT technologies and Compact services into agricultural development projects financed by the AfDB and other development agencies in order to expand the reach of the technologies being disseminated through the Compacts. 9. Continuous innovation. The Clearinghouse offers a wide range of on-demand services, and continuously innovates around those demands. It tackles difficult issues such as how best to scale proven technologies to the benefit of an increasing number of stakeholders, how to document these gains and bring them to other regions with similar potential, how to partner around these gains, and what corrections are needed to better achieve greater and more meaningful impact from such gains.It is tackling the challenge of monitoring the implementation of a very complex program implemented by dozens of institutions in over 28 countries and addressing an increasing amount of key agricultural value chains. A Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning framework has been developed and involves the M&E infrastructure of participating institutions and regional economic communities to enable comparisons between Compacts and countries, and a sharing of experiences across Africa.Investment Output 3.3.2: Prepare and submit a proposal to extend the operations of the Clearinghouse.The Clearinghouse has submitted a proposal to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to continue its operations. A summary of that proposal follows.This grant proposal seeks further support for the TAAT Clearinghouse and continuation and expansion of its technical advisory services to the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation Program (TAAT).TAAT is a broad-based, collaborative flagship program led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) aimed at modernizing African agriculture through the advancement of agricultural and agro-industrial technologies. It improves the business of agriculture across Africa, thus raising crop and livestock productivity, mitigating risks and promoting sustainable enterprise diversification. To achieve these goals, TAAT focuses upon the identification, promotion and dissemination of proven technologies and management innovations. The TAAT Clearinghouse was initiated in October 2017 through a one-year \"Proof of Concept\" grant from BMGF titled \"Support to TAAT Clearing House Governance (OPP 1179223)\". This project supported three Primary Investment Outcomes as described in this report. The need for the Clearinghouse and its brokerage functions is widely acknowledged, and now IITA seeks to extend and expand its services through a three-year Phase 2 grant.This Phase 2 Investment is built around four Primary Investment Outcomes, eight Intermediate Outcomes and their 24 associated Output tasks. The essential advisory services to TAAT in terms of technology vetting and partnership management must continue. These Primary Investment Outcomes may be briefly described as: 1) Strengthen in-country coordination of TAAT activities and their linkages to on-going and future agricultural transformation projects; 2) Conduct technology advisory services to the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation Project and other agricultural development initiatives in Africa; 3) Open a TAAT Information Portal, operate it to obtain maximum benefit from TAAT's Regional Technology Delivery Infrastructure and Technology Deployment efforts, and transfer such capability to other organizations; and 4) Advance technology outreach and pathways to scaling up agricultural technologies for agricultural transformation based on the identification of technology packages (toolkits) and associated partnerships for delivery. These services shall continue to identify and deploy proven technologies to large numbers of beneficiaries and provide specialized backstopping at regional, agroecological and country levels. During its next Phase, the Clearinghouse intends to strengthen linkages between TAAT Compact activities and initiatives supported by other investors in African agricultural transformation in a manner that builds synergies and expands the reach of proven technologies to smallholder farmers. These potential partners include the World Bank, IFAD, USAID, the European Union, and more direct involvement with AGRA.The TAAT Clearinghouse will continue to operate along the guidelines established at its inception. It will mobilize only proven agricultural technologies relating to the nine agricultural commodity value chains initiated by AfDB in Tier 1 and the four additional ones planned for Tier 2. TAAT remains an open membership platform, especially with regard to independent technology providers and those seeking to commercialize proven technologies and innovations. The Clearinghouse shall assist TAAT's nine current priority value chains in 28 (and more) countries through the promotion of 86 technology toolkits (= country x value chain interactions). The Clearinghouse recognizes seven main risks to its operations and offers mitigations to each. It will rely heavily upon guidance from BMGF Officers and lessons learned from its past and ongoing projects. It complies fully with the BMGF Open Access Policy. It recognizes the critical relationships for project success and appreciates the external factors likely to condition its sustainable impacts. Through this proposal, the Clearinghouse seeks investment support for three years (2019 through 2021) and requires about $6.07 million.Conclusions and next steps. TAAT is an incredibly complex project, potentially covering 18 agricultural value chains operating in over 28 participating countries. In its first year of implementation, 12 commodity value chains grouped into nine Commodity Technology Delivery Compacts were included, while 6 Enabler Compacts were also added to the program to address cross-cutting issues of importance to enhancing agricultural productivity, promoting inclusivity or responding to an invading pest. In 2019, the number of Compacts will increase from 15 to 19, and at least five more commodities (banana and plantains, soybean and cowpea, and horticultural crops with focus on tomato) will be added. The program's objective remains the same: scaling up the adoption of productivity enhancing technologies to reach millions of farmers. Should this objective be reached, it will usher in an unprecedented change on the African continent, with millions of people escaping poverty and many others joining the middle class. Triggering this change needs to be well planned but at the same time must include a strong component of iterative problem solving. As the Clearinghouse comes to grip with the challenges to TAAT implementation, the expectation from the AfDB that is investing in TAAT, the aspirations of the African people and the philanthropic objective of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it is imperative that a Theory of Change be formulated to take into consideration not only the factors under TAAT Program control but also other influences beyond program control that have a strong bearing its success. This effort has begun in the context of the formulation of a partnership engagement strategy and in the discussion surrounding the framework for Monitoring and Evaluation and a link to TAAT impact assessment. It will also link with the recently revised Communication Strategy. It will require extensive consultation with and investment by the AfDB and other development agencies such as AGRA, the World Bank, IFAD, USAID, AUC-NEPAD, EUC, and others; but the continued strategic support to the Clearinghouse as an independent and honest broker of modernizing agricultural technologies across Africa remains critical.Back cover photographic credit: TAAT's maize toolkit includes an array of new maize varieties (upper left) including those mobilized through the TEGO mechanism (top center); greater access to mechanization services (upper right); and technologies that counter threats from parasitic striga (lower left), healththreatening aflatoxins (bottom center) and the recent invasion by Fall Army Worm (lower right).The developmental objective of TAAT is to rapidly expand access of smallholder farmers to high yielding agricultural technologies that improve their food production, assure food security and raise rural incomes. This goal is achieved by delivering regional public goods for rapidly scaling up agricultural technologies across similar agro-ecological zones. This result is achieved through three principal mechanisms; 1) creating an enabling environment for technology adoption by farmers, 2) facilitating effective delivery of these technologies to farmers through a structured Regional Technology Delivery Infrastructure and 3) raising agricultural production and productivity through strategic interventions that include improved crop varieties and animal breeds, accompanying good management practices and vigorous farmer outreach campaigns at the Regional Member Country (RMC) level. The important roles of sound policies, empowering women and youth, strengthening extension systems and engaging with the private sector is implicit within this strategy. The Clearinghouse is the body within TAAT that decides which technologies should be disseminated. Moreover, it is tasked with the responsibility to guide the deployment of proven agricultural technologies to scale in a commercially sustainable fashion through the establishment of partnerships that provide access to expertise required to design, implement, and monitor the progress of technology dissemination campaigns. In this way, the Clearinghouse is essentially an agricultural transformation incubation platform, aimed at facilitating partnerships and strengthening national agricultural development programs to reach millions of farmers with appropriate agricultural technologies.In collaboration with","tokenCount":"7017"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a1237cb51966bf81bffb0dd398933be6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/898526d4-ed67-444e-bb7c-8f23826fc533/retrieve","id":"1031578141"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ead464bf-39c3-4bc3-a601-525572ceea4d","pagecount":"8","content":"This research brief summarizes results from a cropping systems diversification experiment after the first complete cropping cycle. The trial has been established by the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI) in collaboration with the Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) Initiative in Dinajpur, Bangladesh in August 2022.The average cropping intensity in Bangladesh stands at 200%, with five out of the 316 identified cropping patterns primarily centered on rice, constituting 51% of net copped area (Nasim et al., 2018). While this approach may contribute to food security, particularly with regards to the nation's primary staple crop, it falls short in addressing the issue of malnutrition. Progress toward achieving global nutrition targets remains limited (Global Nutrition Report, 2021). Moreover, environmental challenges, such as climate change, excessive groundwater depletion, biodiversity loss, and environmental quality concerns, necessitates a focused commitment to ensuring agricultural sustainability. To address these complex issues, this research trial seeks to evaluate diversified cropping patterns, considering their potential for increased production, nutritional yields, profitability, and environmental impact variables.where REY = rice equivalent yield; Y = yield; mktpr = market price; NY = nutritional yield; Nc = Nutrient content; DRI = daily dietary reference intake; prod cost = production costs. The subscripts \"i\" and 'j\" refer to the nutrient of interest and crop, respectively. Note that (1) the source of nutrient contents values is the Food Composition Table for Bangladesh, published in 2013. (2) Production cost includes all measured costs for seed, fertilizer, irrigation, pesticides / insecticides / herbicides used and labor for all operations. Not included is land rent, which however for farmers can be substantial, but is nonetheless uniform across treatments.This research aims to discern strategies that can augment farmers' profits and nutritional yields, while concurrently preserving resources and safeguarding or enhancing ecological services. The diverse crop patterns chosen for study were identified therough participatory research with stakeholders in the study area prioritizing production needs. Additionally, this research seeks to address the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions originating from farms and agricultural landscapes. Preliminary results from the first year of crop rotations are described in this research brief.The trial follows a randomized complete block design, with nine treatments (Table 1) replicated three times. Plot sizes are 17 m x 11.5 m. Treatments 4 and 5 include split plots for different leafy vegetables (spinach, red amaranth (lal shak), coriander and napa shak). Agronomic data, all above ground biomass crop production, costs of all inputs including labor and the amount of irrigation water applied are among the data collected (for more information see Cheesman et al., 2022).To allow yield comparison between different crops, rice equivalent yield (REY) was used (eq. 1).Nutritional yield (NY), as a measure of nutritional value of the production, is calculated for nutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates), iron and zinc, as well as Vitamin A and (Eq. 2). Profitability is assessed by calculating net income for each crop (Eq. 3). Data have been computed for each of the three main cropping seasons in Bangladesh (Kharif-2, Rabi, Kharif-1) and combined to represent the entire crop rotation.  Comparing the traditional rice-fallowrice cropping pattern (T1) to a slightly diversified rice-leafy vegetables-rice (T4) rotation, we observe an increase in nutritional yield, especially for vitamins and iron (Figure 1). However, REY increases were variable (Table 1.Profitability was is heavily dependent on which leafy vegetables are grown (Figure 2), and are based on an assumed readily available market for these otherwise rapidly perishable products. Importantly, labor requirements were only slightly increased when adding a leafy vegetable between the two rice seasons (Figure 2). The second most common cropping pattern in the study area, rice-maizefallow (T2), can be intensified by adding a leafy vegetable intercrop during the maize growing phase as well as replacing the fallow period with a fodder crop, in this case sorghum (T5). This improved nutritional yield, largely a consequence of the additional vegetable crop (Figure 1). However, maize yields appear to be negatively affected by the intercrop (Table 1) and labor needs are strongly increased in T5 compared to T2 (Figure 2). Additional calculations are however needed to examine maize yields using land equivalency ratios, which will be reported on in the next research note. Profitability is heavily dependent on which leafy vegetable is grown; a maize napa shak intercrop results in higher net income compared to sole maize but the other three leafy vegetables tested as maize intercrops initially decrease net income (Figure 2). During Kharif-1, growing sweetcorn (T3) or groundnut (T6) instead of maize (T7 or T9) increases REY (Table 1). This is because of higher prices for sweetcorn and groundnut.However, further research and market development will be needed if these crops are to be widely grown in the region. Similarly, T7 (Aman-Carrot-Maize) appears to be more profitable than the common farmers' practice rotations (T1 and T2). T7 did not require more labour (Figure 2), though farmers' feedback in focus groups highlighted the need to address marketing challenges for carrot. Lastly, net income was calculated using local market prices; however in reality prices of vegetable crops may be variable even within cropping seasons. This variability will be factored-in in future calculations to obtain more accurate profitability assessments.     • Kharif-2 values are based on BINA dhan 20 yield (an average across the entire trial area was used as in the first season of trial establishment a BINA dhan 20 cover crop was uniformly planted across the entire experimental area. no plot distinctions were made until after this first season (also see note at the bottom of Table 1).What is nutritional yield: The nutritional yield of a specific nutrient refers to the number of adults equivalents who can fulfil 100% of their recommended dietary refence intake of that nutrient for an entire year from the produce of one hectare land (DeFries et al., 2015).  The findings presented in this research brief are derived from one full cropping cycle conducted over the course of a year. These initial results indicate differences in productivity, nutritional yields, and profitability among the various cropping patterns. Nevertheless, it is premature to formulate definitive conclusions at this stage. A more comprehensive dataset spanning multiple years is requisite for a more comprehensive analysis and results. Furthermore, the assessment of the environmental footprint associated with each cropping pattern is yet to be finalized and must be factored in before making recommendations regarding the optimal cropping patterns.TAFSSA (Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia) is a CGIAR Regional Integrated Initiative that supports actions improving equitable access to sustainable healthy diets, that boosts farmers' livelihoods and resilience, and that conserves land, air, and water resources in a climate crisis.CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future. Visit https://www.cgiar.org/research/ cgiar-portfolio to learn more about the initiatives in the CGIAR research portfolioThe views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily representative of or endorsed by CGIAR, centers, our partner institutions, or donors.","tokenCount":"1149"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c627151df4a037e1c5ed1b0c4e82ba7d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/63623801-d3ca-4d77-8e14-43c4cd0d9e79/retrieve","id":"188864890"},"keywords":["N","•• n","NI\"","..n v .. Ne","I","Rtinhn'lll HO'll'der IInd Hemln Ce b.n.s l. Noo& Lln1 Uni Yefsity (NLU)","Unh TrutI¡. Thu Due","Ho Chi Minh Cit)'","Viel Nam"],"sieverID":"f931d3c9-6476-4a72-91c1-db4891a57fb1","pagecount":"1","content":"II~'IV¡e1. blogspot(l)m 2. Thai NI1\")'('n Un\",ersily of Agricllhure and foresuy (TUAn.Vietnam ('&$U'\" ProGJllm suppon by MARD in dOK CGOp(r31ion wilh CIAT orlh\" Nip¡KIn FOUIIdation proj«1, promoted me rapid mulripliarion and _de dislnbution of hi g!l.yítld,ng .nd high..u.,d! \"\"rieries. and lhe aJopliOJl ofsuswnejo CUUVII produ<:lIon pracnus, especially in !he Cenenl Coast. Cenlr.ll Highlarnb and NOfthem mounuins &lid upllIIds Objttrlws: llIe Sludy aims 10 supply 11 producrion mIp of C&SPVII in Vietnam and Il,~ eenlra1, produc:rion o:ost aM ptOdocrion t«hniquc: offiU'lners II1d supply chains, with a VltW 10 dtKribinglhc lessons leamed (mm past developmenl inl~~nrion5 a!ld LIleir Impliulions for I . ----._--.~P-, -, -~ ..-~ --1K:III\"Srt m ... 1I' _ 1I11-n ~ .... :.;.: .... . ... --.. • , . • f':::::\"\"\" \"' • • '''': • ,.h--.-.. .~ .. MI,\" experiences in linkina: eassava R&D 'CtL\\1I'<::s in V,etnam ,ncludc.1) Establr$hrnent oflbe V,emam Cassava Program (VNCP) includin~ advan~ eas:s.va (amlCf$, rm.rchen. utension worktr, ntanagef$ of CIIS$jIV8 'eseiIrd, and devclopmenr projil>':l$, e&WI\\'l IIade and proeessin¡ compan;es.2) The estabfishlTlCtll ofon•r.rm research and d~monS1fal;oo fic!ds ({arme, ~\";cipauon ,eseatdI FPR¡  ","tokenCount":"175"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"31639d79fab135c63d0d0ca20a54719c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/723f0dab-5a8f-4e2d-a432-e15585de2b5f/retrieve","id":"517215002"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"15762bfe-b3df-404f-9da7-0c67666aa4f4","pagecount":"38","content":"Plantas de secamiento 3)Agronomla meJorada 4) I nvestlgaclOn sobre hallna panificable 5)Investlgaclon para aumentar rendimientos 6)Fomento del uso de yuca en alimentos balanceados 7/ Uso de harlnd panificable La yuca, es un cultivo tradicIOnal en Ecuador En su mayor parte es producida por pequeños agricultores y se vende al mercado de consumo fresco Sus rendimientos de mas de 10 ton/ha estan muy por debajO de Jos obtenidos en ensayos hechos en el mismo Ecua dor Aunque la yuca segUlra SIendo un componente en la dieta de los ecuatorianos, es po esta bastante limitado debido a la tecnologla de secamiento rudimentaria y el abastecl miento erratlco de ralces Esto ultimo se debe principalmente a los precIos Inestables y a la poca garantla de venta para el productor O agncultor Despues de analizar la sltuaclon se hiCieron las sigUientes recomendaciones, en su orden a)Hacel un estudio mas profundo sobre la demanda potencial b)Establecer plantas comerciales de secamiento solar para prodUCir trozos secos y garantizar precIOs de sustentaclon el Probar la mejor (ecnologla de producclOn a nivel de finca d) Desarrollar mejores metodos de secamiento natural para prodUCir harma de yuca pan Iflcable e)Realizar programas de mvestlgaclOn para mejorar los rendimientos f) Mediante polltlCas favorables al cultiVO fomentar la producclOn y uso de la yuca en alimentos balanceados g) Fomentar el uso de la tecnologla para prodUCir harma panificable una vez se d osponga de ellaEn los ultlmos diez años el Ecuador ha venido aumentando sus ImportacIones de tn go y otros granos tanto para la ahmentaclon humana como animal, lo cual trae como con secuencIa una fuga de diVisas Dadas la Importancia y potenCial de la yuca como ayuda en la soluclon de este plOblema, se decid !O, gracias a la iniCiativa y patrocinIO del SerVIcIoInternacional para el Desarrollo Agropecuario (SIDA), realIzar un estudiO Inólcatlvo del rumbo a segUir con este cultiVO en el menCIOnado pals El presente trabajO comprende algunas conSideraCIones generales y un breve ¡¡nallsls de la sltuaclon actual del cultiVO y del mercadeo de la yuca en el Ecuador, aSI como tam bien las recomendaciones mas Importantes para el desarrollo, fomento y comerclalizaclOn de este producto Tales recomendaCIOnes esta n basadas en vanas fuentes de mformaClon, en una gira de reconOCimiento a las pnnclpales areas productoras de yuca de la costa y del sur del pals, 351 como tamblen en entrevistas con agricultores y empresarios de la Industna de alimentos b.¡lancc Idos para animales En la gira participaron dos profeSIonales del InsU tuto NaCional de Investigaciones Agropecuanas (INIAP), y un eqUipo muludlsclpllnano Integrado por CInCO profeSionales del Programa de Yuca del Centro Internacional de Agncultura Tropical (CIAT)La yuca en Amenca Latina La yuca es un culuvo de ongen americano que se cultiva en casI todo el troplcO baJo de las Amencas y el Caribe Aproximadamente un 6 0 }0 de las caloflas que se mgJercn en esta regIO n proviene de la yuca la cual se consume principalmente en las arcas rurales po bres donde la carencia de calorlas es cronlca Este es uno de los cultivoS maS efiCientes en la producclon de carbohJdratos, pero su maneJo postcosecha es dificil La Importancia de la yuca para consumo humano directo depende mucho de su capacidad para competir con otros alimentos energetlcos disponibles en los mercados ur banos Su volumen, su rapldo deterioro despues de la cosecha, y su baJO valor al venderla al peso son caracterlstfCas que resultan en margenes de mercadeo muy altos, estos pueden llegar hasta el 300 0 /0 de los precIOs a nivel de finca En cambiO, cuando la yuca es procesada, como ocurre en BraSil, el producto seco resultante se constituye en la fuente energetlca de menor costo en el sector urbano En la dieta de ese pals la yuca es una de las principales fuentes de calorlas Podrla deCIrse, sm temor a equivocarse, que la yuca una vez procesada es una fuente pflmordlal de carbohl dratos a un costo baJO por unidad de producclOn y tiene un gran potencial en mercados alternativos como suStituto de la harina de trigo, como fuente de carbohldratos en dllmen tos balanceados para animales, como almldon Industrial, como matena prima para la obtenClon de etanol, y otros usos que seria proliJO enumerar Para que la yuca pueda competir en muchos de los mercados alternativos en Amenca Latina es necesano que su precIo disminuya Para que esto suceda es indispensable em picar una tecnologla meJorada que garantice rendllnlentos buenos y rentables, ademas de sistemas de procesamiento adecuados, y mercados estables Aunque la Investlgaclon sobre este cultivo ha sido relativamente escasa, la mas reclcn te Indica que eXiste un potencial enorme para aumentar los rendimientos sobre su nivel promediO actual de 11 ton/ha Sin embargo, de nada servlfla la sola aplicaclon de una tccnologla me)OI<lda en yuca sin una complementarla de procesamiento ya que se correr n el gran nesgo de saturar los mercados con el consigUiente Impacto negativo en los mgresos del agncultor SltuaclOn actual del mercado de la yuca en Ecuador La yuca es uno de los cultivos tradiCionales explotados durante sIglos en el lroplco baja del Ecuador La sJembran princIpalmente los pequeños agricultores qUIenes no cm pican los msumos propIos de la tecnologla agrreola moderna, ademas, los sectores publl co e mdustnal no han mostlado Interes en el cultivo, nt han hecho esfuerzo nmguno por cambiar esta sltuaclon Como consecuencia, los datos sobre prooucclon y uso de la yuca en Ecuador son escasos y poco confiables El Ministerio de Agricultura, por ejemplo, estimo la producclon global para 1974 en 837,000 toneladas por año, con Un promedio de rendimiento de 17 ton/ha, lo cual es rela tlvamente alto SI se campal a con el promedio mundial de 10 ton/ha En cambio, un analt SIS de los datos dd censo agrlcola de 1974 IndlCl una plOducclon lotal de solamente J 37,000 toneladas con un rendimiento promedio tan bajO como 6 ton/ha (Lynam, comu nlcaclon personal) POSiblemente este ultimo estimativo de producclOn total esta mas cer cano a la realidad, aunque el rendll11lento es conSiderablemente mfenor al estll11ado por Luzunaga (1976) de 1012 ton/ha, el cual es mas aceptable Estas Cifras concuerdan con el estimativo de la F AO en 1980 de una producclon total de 185,000 toneladas con rendl miento de 9 ton/ha De estos dalos se concluye que el rendimiento promediO esta cerca de 10 ton/ha, y la producclon total al! ededor de 150,000 ton/al;o Tampoco eXisten el fras faclimente acceSibles sobre los diferentes usos de la yuca prodUCida Aunque esta se considera un cultivo de subsistencia, todo parece indicar que la mayor parte de la produc clon es vendida fuera de la finca Segun mformaclon de vanas fuentes, se estima que el 73°/0 de la producclOn tutal va al mercado fresco, 9 % para secamiento y vwla a la industria de alimentos balanceados para animales o para lIansformaclon en .,mldon, y un 8 % para uso en la propiedad rural y el resto como desperdicIo El afrecho, subproducto en la extracclon del almldon, tamblen se usa como alimento por parte de la Industna de alimentos hlanccldosEl preCIO de Id yuca a nivel de finca es altamente variable (SI 800 3000/ton El mas alto es para cantidades limitadas de yuca fresca de alta calidad para consumo humano, y el baJO al consumidor (S/800 1000/ton) para otros mercados En los centros urbanos la yuca fresca se vende al consumidor a un mlnlmo de S/6/kg (S/6000/ton) o maS Los margenes de mercadeo son muy amplios en el caso de yuca fresca La yuca seca para la mdustrla de concentrados se vende entre 5/4000 y 4800/ton (1 tonelada de yuca fresca , produce 350 370 kg de yuca seca) El almldon que requIere mas elaboraclOn en el proceso de extraCClon, se vende a precIos de 5/10000 12000/ton y el afrecho comO subproducto a S/3500/ton (1 tonelada de yuca fresca produce aproximadamente 200 kg de almldon y 150 kg de afrecho) SltuaclOn de los productos que compIten con la yuca En Ecuador la yuca es actualmente una fuente barata de calon as, particularmente en el caso de yuca seca, y su mayor potencial radica en el aumento de su utJllzaclon como fuente de carbohldratos Para Incrementar su empleo como fuente carbohldratada, su precIo debera competir con el de otras fuentes de carbohldratos usadas en el pals Estas son actualmente el malZ, el trigo, el arroz y el almldon Importado Entre los alimentos, que se consumen como grano, el arroz es el prefendo, parece Improbable que la yuca pueda sustitUirlO, aSI sea a un precIo mas favorable, Sin embar go, las POSIbilidades de sustltuclon son melares en el caso de otras fuentes de carbohldra tos La harma de trigo producida primordialmente con tngo Importado esta altamente subsidiada por el gobierno con algo mas de 5/700 millones al año y consecuentemente sus precIos son artificiales (Cuadro 1) Aunque los mol meros compran el tngo Importado a S/ 3000/lon (aproximadamente 300,000 ton/año) el costo real es de 5/ 6000/ton para el trigo Importado, y SI 7000 para el nacional Esto significa un subsidio de S/2700/ton Los precIOs de la harma estan un poco por encima de los SI 5000/ton, sin embargo, el costo real es algo superior a los SI 7000/ton Los costos de producclon de harma de yuca de alta cahdad no son muy conOCidos en Ecuador, pero los altos precIos pagados por la harma de trigo para panlflcaclon, compara dos con los precIOs actuales de la yuca, sugieren que hay una POsibilidad muy real de sustitUir parCialmente la harma de tngo por harma de yuca En Ecuador se Siembra malz de tipOS hannoso y duro para consumo humano, y para allmentaclon anlm11, respectivamente El precIo mlnmlO del malz duro es sostenido ofiCialmente a un nivel dL S/5600/ton (20 % humedad y 3 0 /0 de Impurezas) pOI la Empresa NaCIOnal de Almacenam.ento y ComerClahzaclOn (ENAC), la cual lo com pra, lo seca y lo IlIopla para luego venderlo al publICO y a fabricantes de concentrados a 51 7300/lOn (12 14 0 /0 de humedad) Estos preCios son mlnlmos y tienden a superar estos nIveles entre octubre y marzo con precIos a nivel de fmea de 5/6500 7000/ton en febrero y abril, cuando 105 compradolcs pagan S/7600/ton por mall seco y limpiO Debido al hecho de que la yuca tiene baJO contenido de protema, la yuca seca se paga normalmente a un preCIO 20°/0 por debajO del precIo del malz Los precIos actuales de la yuca seca la hacen lo sufiCientemente atractiva como para sustltUJr al malz Segun la Asoclaclon de Fabncantes de Alimentos Balanceados (AFABA), sus neceSidades de malz fueron de en el Sistema tradiCIonal ya se introdujo el uso de herbicidas pre y posemergcntes en arcas reducidas Se usa una mezcla de Karmex con Lazo en pre emergencia y Gramoxone con Karmex para el control posemcrgente de las malezas Segun el estudiO de Luzunaga (1976), la cosecha de la yuca en tres zonas del litoral ecuatOriano esta distribuida casI a lo largo del aiío, con 21 0 /0 de los agncultores cose chando en enero febrero, 21 0 /0 en agosto, 22 0 /0 de octubre a diCiembre, y el restante 36 0 lo en los otros meses Estas fechas de cosecha bien repartidas son aparentemente el resultado tanto de las fechas de Siembra variadas como de la Siembra de variedades deLas edades de la yuca a la cosecha vanan entre 5 y 17 meses, con un promediO de lOa 1 J meses Potencial de rendImiento de la yuca En el año 1976 I NIAP iniCIO trabajOS en cooperaclon con el CIA T para medir el po tenelal de la yuca Por mediO de una selle de pruebas regionales se evaluaron la teenolo gla mejorada y nuevas variedades La tecnologla usada fue sencilla y barata y eomprendlO buena preparaClon del suelo, Siembra vertical ° en caballones en reglones con alta prcclpl taelon, buena selccclon y tratamiento de estacas, poblaclon optlma de plan! IS, swmbl a al pnnclplo de las IIUVldS, y control oportuno de malens Los I csultados de estos ensayos estan resumidos en los Cuadros 2 y 3 y demuestran el alto potenCial de la yuca COn teeno logia mejorada, aun con variedades locales y la pOSibilidad de obtener buenos rendlmlen tos con la combmaclon de tecnologla mejorada y nuevas vanedades 20,000 ton/año de ma,z para cubnr la demanda de este ingrediente para el sector aVlcola pecuario Esta sltuaclon ha ocurndo a pesar del aumento de la producclon naCional y, por tanto, de una mayor disponibilidad del grano en los ultlmos años (Sampedro, GaloEn lo referente a las fuentes proteicas, Ecuador ha aumentado conSiderablemente su producclon de harina de pescado a un nivel tal que cubre ampliamente la demanda naClo nal y le permite exportar parte, espeCialmente a Colombia Por lo tanto, la harina de pes cado podrla constitUir el ingrediente proteico prinCipal en la allmentaclOn animal, pero por restriccIOnes practICas no puede utilizarse como la unlca fuente proteica, y normal mente se requlcre la Incluslon de productos que aporten protelna vegetal, prinCipalmente las tortas de soya y de algodon De éstas, la de soya es la mas empleada en aViculturaAunque la dlsporubllldad de la torta de soya ha aumentado en los ultlmos años, la plO ducclon naCional no cubre aun la demanda de las fabricas de alimentos balanceado>, requlrlendose Importaciones para satisfacer las necesidades de la Industria, es aSI como en 1980 se Importaron 5625 ton de torta de soyaSe requieren datos mas precIsos sobre la producclon y demanda reales de materias primas para el sector aVlCola pecuario, espeCialmente teniendo en cuenta que aproxima damente un 44 0 10 de la producclon de alimentos balanceados es preparado por fabricas o aVicultores a nlvel de finca (DaqUl, LUIS 1981) Los datos sobre neceSidades y dlspo nlbllldad de materia pllma son dlflclles de obtener, Sin embargo, la mformaclOn recopila da en este estudiO sugiere que el problema prmclpal del sector aVlcola y pecuario lo constituye el deflclt creCiente de los alimentos energellcos y en mucho menor grado la disponibilidad limitada de fuentes proteicas de origen vegetal El procesamiento de las ralCes de yuca consistente en picarlas en trozos, secarlas al sol, molerlas y luego mcorpo rarlas en alimentos balanceados es uno de los mas promlSOflOS para atender la creCiente demanda de la producclon aVlcola y porcma del Ecuador EXiste amplia infOrmaClon expenmental y practica sobre el secado de trozos de yuca para uso en alimentaclon animal Gran parte de esta mformaclon proviene de Tallan dla (Thanh, N C ,el al, 1979) pals que exporto en 1979 seis millones de toneladas de yuca pelellZada a la ComUnidad Economlca Europea La mayor demanda de yuca pele!! zada proviene del sector porclIlo y aVlcola, en particular de Holanda y Alemania Occlden tal (Anonymous, 1977) El secado de los trozos de yuca usando la energla solar ha Sido estudiado a nivel expenmental en el CIAT y como plan piloto en la costa norte de Colom bla La expenencla adqUIrida hasta la fecha sugiere que el factor limltante es un preCIo de las ralces que permita un mJrgen sufICiente pala cubllr los costos de procesamiento y obtenel un producto fmal cuyo precIo de oferta sea aproximadamente 80 a 85 0 10 del precIo del sorgo o del ma IZ ( d) ConsideracIOnes economlcas La Figura 2 muestra un costo de producclon de aproximadamente S/1000/ton de yuca fresca con un rendimiento de 15 ton/ha utilizan do el sistema tecnificado Para obtener una harma de alta calidad es probable que haya que pelar la yuca antes del secado lo cual dana un rendimiento de aproximadamente 320 kg de harma/ton de yuca fresca, en cuyo caSo el costo de la matena pnma sena de aproxl madamente 5/3125/ton En la Suposlclon de que el costo de secamiento pala harma fina fuera pareCido al de la producclon de almldon, el costo total de producclon sena de SI 4500 500Ofton Esto, mdlCa que el precIo va a ser part-cldo al actual de la harina de trigo pero muy mferlor al precIo real (Sin SUbSidio mas de S/7000/ton) demostrando aSI el potenCial para sustltuclon del trigo, dejando ademas sufiCiente ganancia a los produc tores y procesadores de yuca En la misma forma se pueden calcular los costos de prOducclon de yllca seca para dictas balanceadas En este caso 105 costos de matella prima son de 5/2700/ton y los costos de secamiento son menores, dando un costo de producClon de aproximadamente S/3500-4000/lOn Este costo lamblen da buen margen de ganancia y es lodavla compe!1 tlvo con otras fuentes de carbohldratos F omento y comerClallzaclOn De todos los datos presentados anteriormente se puede sacar como concluslOn que no debenan eXistir mayores dificultades tecnologlcas para aumentar la producClon y pro ductlvldad de la yuca en Ecuador SI el agricultor no Siembra mas yuca es porque no eXiste ninguna segundad de poder vender toda su producclon a un precIo lusto, por otro lado, los compradores y los IOdus trlales se queJan de que no hay una permanente y sufiCiente cantidad de yuca procesada para satisfacer sus neceSidades Agregan ademas que no solo la cantidad no es sufiCiente SinO tamblen que la calidad no es buena, lo cual crea la desconfianza en el industrial qUlen necesita un producto de calidad buena y uniforme los Industnales ecuatonanos conocen muy bien las bondades y ventalas de la yuca seca como matena pnma b,lrala para la claboraclon de alimentos balanceados para anl males Tamblco saben y estan conClentes de que la hanna de yuca se puede almacenar por penodos largos con menos problemas que otros productos, lo cual les asegura una reserva para las epocas de escasez de carbohldratos en el mercado localPor lodo lo expuesto se aprecia claramente que eXiste un Circulo VICIOSO el cual se puede romper con una pollllca sena y firme de fomento y comerclalizaClon por parte del gobierno Esta palluca debe ser Integral y basada en los resultados que produzca un proyecto de producclOn y procesamiento de yuca en Ecuador Es de la mayor Importancra y neceSidad que el gobierno, a lraves del ENAC, garantl ce un precIO mi nllno de sustentaclOn tanto para la yuca fresca como para la yuca seca o procesada con el fin de que los agllcultores se deCidan a sembrar mas yuca para la II1dus tna Tambren es necesario que el Mlnrstello de Agricultura fomente el cultiVO de la yuca para lo cual d~be proveer no solo la aSistenCia tecnlca apropiada Sino tamblen credlto oportuno, ya sea por mediO del Banco Agncola o de la empresa privadaDe no eXlstll este tipO de plan Integrado de producclon, procesamiento y comercia Iizaclon, no habra sufiCiente estimulo al agncultor lo cual traerla como consecuerlCla que la producClon de yuca como fuente energetlca altel nativa progresarra muy poco o perma necefla estalleaPodrra citarse como ejemplo de fracaso cuando no se cumplen los requIsitos ante flores de una polltlca sana de fomento, producclon y comerclallzaclon, el caso de la fabn ca naCIOnal de cervezas con su planta \"Agnlsa\" en Quevedo, prOVlnCI. de Los RIOS, para la extraccJOn de alm,don de yuca Los agricultores de la reglon aumentaron cautelosa mente el area sembrada en yuca con la esperanza de que la compañ ,a respetana al fmal el preeJO pactado antes de las siembras Esto no sucedlO pues el mdustrlal ofreclo un preCiO de compra inferior al esperado por el agricultor Esta actitud un tanto caprichosa y contramdlcada del comerCiante traJo como consecuencia grandes perdidas al agricultor qUien pref,no perder su producclon antes que venderla Sin el margen de lucro necesano como para perSlsUr en este tipo de empresa Este eJemplo demuestra las pOSibles consecuencJas de un monopolio de compradores En el caso del malZ se eVita esta pOSlbll.dad con un precIo m'OImo garant,zado El ENAC compra el mal2 humedo y SUCIO, lo procesa y despues lo vende seco y limpiO con el ajuste apropiado para el producto fmal Sin duda alguna es necesano f'lar un precIO mlnlmu para la yuca seca, y ademas eXISte la pOSibilidad de que el ENAC monte plantas secadoras de yuca y que compre la yuca fresca con un precIo mlnlmo garantizado Sin embargo, SI eXistiera una pol.t,ca que fomentara un elevado aumento del numero de patios de seca miento en las fincas productoras, es poco probable que se produzca un monopoliO de compradores de yuca frescaAntes que todo se debe cambiar la actitud de que la yuca es un cultiVO de subSisten cla que no neceSita ninguna tecmca en su producclon y procesamiento El futuro desarro 110 de la yuca en Ecuador depende de su comcrclalllaclon como una fuente barata de energrJ para d,velsos usos ¡ales como sustituto del trigo Importado en harma pan,flca ble, )' como fuente de c.!rbohldrdlos en alimentos balanceados para la industria aVleola y porcina La comerclali¿aclOn de la yuca requiere una tntegraclon vertICal de la IIldus tna que abarque no solo aspectos de producclon y procesamiento SinO tamblen un am b,ente polltlco favolable Para alcanzar la meta de una mdustna Integrada se reqUiere la cooperac,on de diversos grupos del sector publiCO (MAG, INIAP, BAE, ENAC, liT), de aSOCiaCiones (p el AFABA), de empresas pnvadas, y de los agncultores En todos los grupos entrevistados durante la gira se noto gran IOleres pero al mismo tiempo falta de mtegraclOn entre ellos Lograrla es fundamental para el eXlto de un programa de yuca Aunque las recomendaciones siguientes estan divididas en diferentes seCCiones, se debe destacar que es necesariO el esfuerzo Integrado para que el proyecto funCione A grandes rasgos se pueden diVidir los esfuerzos en los SigUientes renglones refina miento de la tecnologla de producclon, refinamiento de tecnologla para producclon de han nas para alimentos balanceados, desarrollo de tecnlcas de producclon de harma panificable, estudiOS de factibilidad mas profundos, y la mcorporaclon de todo lo ante nor en un programa de fomento apoyado con una pohtlca favorable El desarrollo de un programa de fomento de la yuca reqUiere una sene de pasos Cada uno dependera del antenor, y por lo tanto la programaclon de las acciones a segUir es de gran Importancia En termlnos generales consisten ellas en lo SigUiente 1 Ana\"srs economlco El grupo hiZO un anahsls economlCo de la factibilidad de aumentar la produccron de yuca para uso en alimentos balanceados y para reemplazar trigo Importado con harma panificable baslcamen!e Antes de emprender un programa de fomento de la YUC¡l, sella aconselable hacer un estudiO de factlbrlidad mas profundo Este estudiO estar la drngrdo a obtener mejores datos sobre los costos de producclOn de la yuca y de otros cultiVOS en las zonas donde se prensa cultivar aquella, para aSI determl nar su rentabilidad COmpetitiva, y a su vez, obtener una Idea mas real del preCIo probable de oferta de la yuca a nivel de finca Con la tecnologla melorada El segundo aspecto del estudiO serra recopilar datos mas pleclsos sobre produc tos competitivos (p el trigo, malz). complementariOS (harma de pescado, torta de soya), y productos fmales (pan, pollos, huevos) Estos datos formarlan la base de un modelo Como primer paso se recomienda la coo5I1 ucclon de patios de secamiento para produc clOn de trozos de yuca scca en tres zonas cllmatlcas del litoral (escasa preClpltaclOn con alta radlaclon, preClpltaclon Intermedia con nubOSidad durante todo el año, preCipita clan intermedia a alta con elevada radlaclon durante la epoca seca) Los patlOs deben ser comercIales para poder determinar 105 costos de secamiento y los problemas propios de esta tecnologla en los diferentes climas Se sugIere que seln plOPledad de [NAC, lo cual al mismo tiempo podna establecer precIOs mlnlmos para la yuca flesca en las zonas de producclOo (SI el precIo de suslentaclCm eS para yuca fresca puesta en la pl\"Ola, hay poca pOSibIlidad de que esta se Inunde de yuca procedente de otras zonas debido a su alto costo de transporte) Con la expenencla en estos patios se deflnlra la neceSidad de hacerIOvestlgaclon en secamiento natural para producclOn de trozos Se espera que esto no sea necesariO, y que se podra fomentar directamente el uso de la nueva tecnologla CIAT cuenta con un eqUipo de profeSIonales con experiencia en la tecnologla de secamiento qUienes podnan ayudar en el monta¡e de los patios Se estima que cada patio costarla SI 300,000, Incluyendo picadora y otros elementos    ","tokenCount":"4036"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"54b07647f8ad99dd38b339a1f6a11a43","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/34358289-dddf-4c48-8919-e9436b302d04/retrieve","id":"591036359"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"955708a1-e889-44b9-a3a9-dc9ac7b39ec4","pagecount":"8","content":"The project covered by this EMP is the 2006 programme of technology packages being introduced in Alaba Wereda, SNNPR, a Pilot Learning Wereda (PLW) of IPMS Ethiopia, that are considered likely to have potential environmental impacts.Three types of potential impact of the programme of intervention are considered in the Environmental Screening and Assessment Report (EASR) for this PLW:  Principal environmental impacts, defined as potential effects directly attributable to the concerned IPMS activity (see Table (i) of the EASR);  Cumulative environmental impacts, defined as the possible long-term effects of the concerned activity, including the accumulated effects of multiple activities that may arise in association with, or encouraged by, the concerned activity (see Section 5 of the EASR);  Impacts of the environment on the performance of the concerned activity (see Section 6 of the EASR).A follow-up program to ensure that the recommended mitigating measures are implemented as required will be conducted by the staff of the Environment and Natural Resources Unit in the Wereda Office of Agriculture, with support from IPMS as appropriate. This EMP provides the basic framework for the follow-up.The following Tables set out the potential impacts and related mitigating measures, and the monitoring to be conducted for each mitigating measure.    Crop production imbalance, leading to food shortages within, or outside, the PLW.Loss of species diversity, leading to undue narrowing of the genetic base of the crop concerned. This could mean, for example, that in the event of an outbreak of disease, there is no alternative strain available.Uncontrolled adoption of zero-grazing in peri-urban and high-density urban areas, leading to health hazards, noise and smell pollution.Ensure that the Wereda Agriculture Office and the Regional Food Security Bureau have planning systems to address such a trend before it becomes a problem.Regional or Wereda Agricultural Office should monitor the production rates of new crop varieties, and should liaise with the Biodiversity Institute to ensure that the gene banks contain alternative varieties.The project will liaise with the urban Public Health authority and will include their representative in training workshops, in order that any regulations controlling the keeping of cattle in the urban areas are recognized and enforced.The project will draw upon the results of the specialized research into this issue being promoted by IPMS, and implement as appropriateExistence of Wereda/Regional food production planning system  Note that the mitigating measure indicators listed in Tables (a) to (c), and summarised in Table (d), are designed to verify that the mitigating measures are being implemented as intended. It is not intended that the long-term effect of the mitigating measures on the environment should be formally monitored within the scope of the IPMS project, particularly as in most cases such 'state of environment' changes will be measurable only in the long-term. Such monitoring is normally the responsibility of the Wereda authorities. However, the IPMS staff concerned will be alert to any significant environmental change that may occur during the implementation of the programme.There may be exceptions to this general rule. In the case of special topics of environmental concern on which IPMS is arranging for special research to be conducted, the monitoring will include actual environmental impacts. In the case of Alaba Wereda, The Potential Cumulative Environmental Impacts of the Promotion of Peri-Urban Zero-Grazing is one such topic. Depending on the outcome of this research, additional environmental indicators may in due course be generated for inclusion in the regular monitoring programme outlined in the present EMP.The sources of information used for this Environmental Monitoring Plan are as follows: ","tokenCount":"583"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/7660981284.json b/data/part_3/7660981284.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d22501d2fbbd6088fce8ea017b8dd35a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/98741ff4-bab8-4618-8156-c6bcd4f26363/retrieve","id":"-101841220"},"keywords":["Sigatoka","east African highland bananas (EAHB), NARITAs","stability","genotype by environment interaction (GEI)"],"sieverID":"491b364e-1391-4478-967e-83de2524c81b","pagecount":"16","content":"Growing bananas resistant to Pseudocercospora fijiensis, the cause of black Sigatoka, is the preferred disease control strategy for resource-poor farmers. Banana breeding programs in east Africa have developed 27 Matooke hybrids (commonly known as NARITAs) with higher yields than local landraces. To assess the response of NARITA hybrids to P. fijiensis, 22 hybrids were evaluated under natural field conditions in four locations-Kawanda and Mbarara in Uganda, and Maruku, and Mitarula in Tanzania-between 2016 and 2018 for three crop cycles. Black Sigatoka was visually assessed and the area under the disease progress curve calculated for each plant over time. Significant differences (p < 0.001) were observed between genotypes, environments, and their interaction. The highest contributor to black Sigatoka severity (39.1%) was the environment, followed by the genotype (37.5%) and the genotype X environment interaction (GEI) (23.4%). NARITA 2, 7, 14, 21 and 23 were resistant and the most stable hybrids across locations. If other attributes such as the yield and taste are acceptable to end-users, these hybrids can be released to farmers in the region to replace highly susceptible landraces. Mitarula was identified as an ideal site for evaluating banana against black Sigatoka and should be used as a representative location to minimize costs of disease evaluations.Banana is an important staple crop in developing countries, especially in the tropics and sub-tropics, where it is ranked fourth in importance after wheat, rice and maize [1]. In Africa, banana is mostly produced by smallholder farmers, primarily for home consumption, while the surplus is sold in local and regional markets [2][3][4]. Banana provides up to a fifth of the total calorie intake in east and central Africa (ECA), with per capita consumption ranging between 250 and 600 kg annually [2]. The east African highland bananas (EAHB) include a genetically uniform triploid (AAA) group of cooking banana belonging to the 'Mutika-Lujugira' subgroup, called Matooke bananas [5][6][7][8] bananas are a product of hybridization between Musa acuminata ssp. zebrina and spp. banksii, with a contribution from M. schizocarpa [5,9]. Matooke are the preferred banana in Africa's Great Lakes region [10].East African highland bananas account for 80% of all bananas produced in ECA [3]. However, productivity is low due to declining soil fertility, pests (weevils and nematodes) and diseases [11]. One of the most important diseases is black Sigatoka, a foliar disease caused by the ascomycetous fungus Pseudocercospora fijiensis (Morelet). The disease manifests as necrotic lesions that aggregate to cover entire leaf surfaces and reduce photosynthesis [12][13][14]. This results in small bunches with poorly filled fingers [13]. Yield losses can be over 50%, depending on the cultivar affected and the prevailing environmental conditions [13][14][15].Black Sigatoka can be managed with fungicides [14,16] but this is not an option for smallholder farmers in Africa, especially because banana are grown close to the homestead, and also due to the high costs and limited availability of the chemicals. Furthermore, the use of fungicides is a risk to human health and is harmful to the environment [13,14]. Therefore, the use of resistant banana varieties is the most desirable and environmentally friendly approach. Resistant banana hybrids can be developed through conventional breeding [17][18][19], which is a slow process. It takes more than seven years to develop a banana hybrid and may take up to 17 years for a hybrid to be planted by farmers [19]. Banana breeding is complicated by low genetic variability, the limited production of viable seeds, female sterility and differences in ploidy levels [17,20,21]. Disease-resistant bananas can also be developed through genetic modification [22,23]. Transgenic plants with reduced black Sigatoka symptoms have been developed [24][25][26]. However, their cultivation has been hampered by the lack of regulations governing adoption of transgenic plants and opposition from governments and the public. Genome editing using CRISPR/Cas has emerged as a robust tool for improving crop traits like enhanced yields and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses [27,28]. This technology is yet to be applied in developing black Sigatoka resistance in banana. There are, however, biosafety concerns with genome-edited cops; thus, conventional breeding remains the widely acceptable strategy for developing disease-resistant bananas.Matooke bananas are highly susceptible to black Sigatoka [29,30]. The development of black Sigatoka-resistant banana varieties, therefore, will greatly benefit smallholder farmers. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) breeding programs in Uganda developed hybrids by crossing Matooke cultivars with Calcutta-4 (AA), which is a donor of black Sigatoka resistance [30,31]. The resulting tetraploids were then crossed with improved diploid hybrids derived from different parents to generate triploid hybrids known as NARITA bananas [21]. Tushemereirwe [30] evaluated 25 NARITA hybrids at Sendusu in Uganda and reported that they had higher yields and better resistance to black Sigatoka than 'Mbwazirume', a preferred local Matooke cultivar. However, these hybrids have not been evaluated in other locations.The development and severity of black Sigatoka is dependent on prevailing environmental conditions [13,32], and the local P. fijiensis population [33]. It is, therefore, important to understand the effects of the environment (E), genotype (G), and their interactions (GEI), in response of the host to P. fijiensis. Such information can be obtained by evaluating hybrids across sites over multiple years. This information is useful for selecting hybrids that are stable and perform well across locations [33,34]. In this study, we evaluated 22 NARITA hybrids for response to black Sigatoka under four agro-ecologies in Uganda and Tanzania. These experiments were used to study the effect of GEI on hybrid stability and adaptability, and to identify an ideal test site in ECA to screen banana germplasm against P. fijiensis.Twenty-two NARITA hybrids were planted at two sites in Tanzania (Maruku, Mitarula in Kagera and Mbeya districts, respectively) and 17 hybrids in two test sites in Uganda, Kawanda and Mbarara (Table 1). At each test site, 10 subsamples were randomly collected from each block at a depth of 0 to 20 cm. The subsamples were pooled and thoroughly mixed to make a composite sample per block. From each composite sample, 200 to 300 g of soil was placed in sample bags and oven dried for two to three days at 70 to 80 • C. All samples were then submitted to the Soil and Plant Analytical Laboratories at the National Agricultural Research Labs (NARL), Kawanda in Uganda for mineral analysis. Four susceptible banana varieties-Cavendish cv. Williams (AAA), Cachaco (Bluggoe, ABB), Gros Michel (AAA) and Mbwazirume (AAA)-were included as controls. Pisang Ceylan (Mysore, AAB), a black Sigatoka-resistant check, was only planted in Uganda. The trials were established using greenhouse-hardened tissue culture-derived plantlets obtained from KilimOrgano Limited in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and BioCrops Limited in Kampala, Uganda. Due to challenges with tissue culture multiplication, only 19 cultivars (15 NARITA hybrids and four checks) were common across all sites (Supplementary Table S1). NARITA 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27 were only planted in Tanzania, while NARITA 24 was only planted in Uganda. NARITA 17 was only planted in Kawanda.Trials were planted between March and May 2016. The experiments were laid out in a completely randomized block design, with four replications. Three-month-old plants were planted in 0.4 m deep and 0.6 m wide holes, with 3-m intra-and inter-row spacing. Before planting, 10 kg of decomposed cow manure was applied in each hole. Each accession was planted in two-row plots, with 12 plants per replication. The black Sigatoka-susceptible Cavendish cultivar Williams was planted as a guard row and spreader of P. fijiensis at all locations.The trials were mulched with dry grass three months after planting. Weeding was carried out by hand. The trials were rainfed with no supplemental irrigation. No chemical or biological control products against black Sigatoka were applied. Weather data for the period of experiment was extracted from the World Weather Online website (https: //www.worldweatheronline.com, accessed on 22 October 2019).During the evaluations, infected leaf samples were randomly collected from different genotypes for pathogen isolation and identification. Fungal DNA was extracted directly from banana leaves and the presence of P. fijiensis confirmed using the species-specific MFActF/ACTR primer set, as previously described [35]. In addition, single-spore isolates of P. fijiensis were obtained using the ascospore-discharge method, and the pathogen identified using P. fijiensis-specific primers.Disease evaluations started six months after planting when the susceptibility check had developed black Sigatoka symptoms. Three plants per genotype per replication were randomly selected, tagged and evaluated every three months until the plant was harvested. For each mat, evaluations were performed on the mother (cycle 1), the daughter (cycle 2) and granddaughter (cycle 3) plants. Each of the cycle lasted 9 to 12 months, depending on the cultivar. The number of standing leaves and the youngest leaf spotted (YLS) were recorded at flowering and used to calculate the index of non-spotted leaves (INSL). Black Sigatoka severity was scored visually by estimating the leaf area with symptoms for each standing leaf using the method of [36], where 0 = no visible symptoms, 1 = less than 1% of leaf area infected, 2 = 1 to 5% infected, 3 = 6 to 15% infected, 4 = 16 to 33% infected, 5 = 34 to 50% infected and 6 = 51 to 100% of leaf area infected (Figure 1). The index of non-spotted leaves was computed for each plant using the following formulae The black Sigatoka disease severity index for each plant was computed using the following formula [38]:where: n = number of leaves in each disease severity group, b = % severity group; N = number of severity groups used in the scale (7); T = total number of leaves scored.The disease severity index (DSI) at different evaluation times was used to calculate the area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) [39], per cycle, using the formula:where X i = disease severity index at ith day, t i = the time in days after appearance of the disease at ith day, and n = the total number of observations. A Pearson's correlation was performed to determine the association between Sigatoka evaluation parameters, mean DSI, YLS, INSL and AUDPC.Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for disease scores was carried separately for each location to determine the effect of genotype, cycle, and genotype x cycle. For across-test-location (environments) comparison, only genotypes that were common across environments were included in the analysis. Multiple comparisons were performed using Fisher's least significant difference test (p < 0.05).An additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) model was used for GEI analysis using genotypes that were common across environments. The relationship among test environments, genotypes and GEIs, genotype main effects and genotype envi-ronment (GGE) was visualized using biplots generated from plotting the first two principal components (PC1 and PC2) derived from single value decomposition of environmental data [40][41][42]. The stability of a genotype to black Sigatoka infection was visualized using the average environment coordinate (AEC) axis [41]. The AEC is plotted by taking the mean of PC1 and PC2 in all environments. A performance line passing through the origin of the biplot is used to determine the mean performance of the genotype. The stability of each genotype was shown by its projection onto the line drawn through the average environment and the biplot origin, the average environment axis (AEA; X-axis).A regression analysis was performed to determine the influence of different weather variables-rainfall, minimum temperature, maximum temperature and relative humidityon disease severity. All the analyses were implemented in GenStat software version19 and XLSTAT version 2019.Soils at all test locations were sandy, except at Maruku, where the soils were of clay type. The highest organic matter content was reported at Mitarula (7.1%), while the lowest was reported at Mbarara (1.8%) (Table 1). Maruku had the highest amounts of phosphorous and potassium at 18.0 ppm and 964.8 ppm, respectively, while Maruku had the least at 4.2 and 176.8 ppm (Table 1).DNA extracted from leaves with black Sigatoka symptoms in Kawanda, Mbarara, Mitarula and Maruku amplified a 500-bp fragment using P. fijiensis-specific primers, confirming that the leaf spot symptoms were caused by P. fijiensis.A significant positive correlation was obtained between the AUDPC and DSI (r = 0.83) and INSL and YLS (r = 0.60), while a significant negative correlation was observed between DSI and INSL (r = −0.85), AUDPC and INSL (r = −0.66) and AUDPC and YLS (r = −0.49) (Table 2). AUDPC had the highest coefficient of determination (R 2 = 0.87), followed by DSI (R 2 = 0.86) and INSL (R 2 = 0.84), while YLS had the lowest (R 2 = 0.78). AUDPC was thus used for further analysis. Disease severity differed significantly (p < 0.001) among banana genotypes and cycles at all sites. More disease was recorded in cycle 2 at all evaluation sites, and the mean AUDPC was 261.8 at Kawanda, 195.4 at Mbarara, 111.7 at Maruku and 135.2 at Mitarula. The lowest mean AUDPC was observed in cycle 1 at all locations except Maruku, where cycle 3 plants developed the least disease symptoms (Table 3).The genotype X cycle interaction led to an inconsistent genotype ranking at the same location. Due to the higher and consistent disease severity in cycle 2 across the testing sites, data from this cycle was used for genotype ranking. * Genotype mean (between the three cycles in a trial location) followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (p < 0.05).Response of cultivars to black Sigatoka differed significantly at all sites (Table 4). Overall AUDPC was highest at Kawanda, ranging from 126.8 to 419.0 with a mean of 261.8, and the lowest at Maruku, ranging from 50.6 to 184.9 with a mean of 111.7 (Table 4). The best performing hybrids at Kawanda were NARITA 2, 4, 8, 14 and 22, while the most susceptible ones were NARITA 12, 13 and 15 (Table 4). In Mbarara, the best performing hybrids were NARITA 2, 4, 6, 14 and 16, and their response to P. fijiensis did not differ significantly from the resistant check, Pisang Ceylan.The most susceptible hybrids in Mbarara were NARITA 10, 18 and 24. At Maruku, NARITA 2, 4, 14, 22 and 26 developed the least leaf lesions and NARITA 10, 18 and 19 the most. Similarly, at Mitarula, NARITA 2, 4, 14, 25 and 26 performed best, and NARITA 10, 13 and 19 the worst (Table 4). Most of the hybrids were ranked similarly across sites, except for NARITA 6, which was the best hybrid in Mbarara and not at other locations (Table 4).Disease severity differed significantly between the sites in Uganda and Tanzania. The five best performing hybrids in Uganda were NARITA 2, 4, 8, 14 and 22, while the most susceptible hybrids were NARITA 10, 16 and 24. In Tanzania, the five best performing hybrids were NARITA 2, 4, 14, 25 and 26, and the most susceptible ones were NARITA 10, 18 and 19 (Table 4).AMMI analysis revealed that genotype, environment and GEI significantly (p < 0.001) influenced black Sigatoka severity. Most of the variation observed among hybrids was ascribed to the environment (39.1%), while the genotypes accounted for 37.5% and GEI for 23.4% of the variation (Table 5). The first and second interaction principal components (IPCA) axes were significant (p < 0.001), explaining 92.1% of the interaction sum of squares. IPCA1 and IPCA2 accounted for 49.5% and 42.6% of the total GEI sum of squares, respectively (Table 5).The polygon view of the genotypes in the GGE biplot for 19 genotypes (15 NARITA hybrids and four checks) based on environment scaling showed that the first two principal components PC1 and PC2 were significant and explained 74.52% and 18.95%, respectively, representing 93.48% of the genotype and environment interaction. A polygon was formed by connecting the vertex genotypes with straight lines and the rest of the genotypes placed within the polygon (Figure 2).The vertex genotypes placed farthest from the biplot origin were NARITA 4, 6, 10 and 13 (Figure 2). They represent either the most resistant or susceptible genotypes in all or some environments and contributed the most to the observed genotype by environment interaction. For example, NARITA 4 and 6 were the least susceptible to Sigatoka, while NARITA 10 and 13 had the highest disease severity. The test environments fell under three sectors with two corner cultivars. The first sector contains Mbarara, with NARITA 10 as the most responsive hybrid; Maruku and Mitarula made up the second sector, while Kawanda fell under the third sector, with NARITA13 as the most responsive (Figure 2). Ranking of genotypes based on both the mean disease severity and stability performance identified 10 hybrids with low mean disease severity (Figure 3). The NARITAs with the least disease were 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 14, 21, 22 and 23. The most susceptible hybrids were NARITA 10, 12, 13, 15 and 18, and they clustered with the susceptibility checks, Williams, Cachaco, Gros Michel and Mbwazirume. The most stable genotypes were placed adjacent to the AEC abscissa and thus had the lowest projection onto the AEC ordinate. These genotypes were NARITA 2, 7, 14, 21, 18, 23, Cachaco and Gros Michel. Although NARITA 4, 6, 11 and 22 had a low overall disease severity, their response to black Sigatoka was less stable (Figure 3). On the other hand, Gros Michel, Cachaco and NARITA 18, although susceptible, were stable in their reaction to black Sigatoka across sites.Based on the angles between the environment vectors, the four test sites were positively correlated in ranking of hybrid response to black Sigatoka (Figure 4). Environment vectors for Maruku and Mitarula were almost equal in length with a very small acute angle between them, an indication that ranking of genotypes was most similar between the two locations. Mbarara had longer environment vectors than Maruku and Mitarula, indicating an enhanced ability to discriminate between hybrids, while Kawanda had the longest vector, and was thus the most discriminating (Figure 4).Environments can be ranked based on their discriminativeness and representativeness of mega environments. The most ideal is located at the center of the concentric rings. The environment comparison biplot identified Mitarula as the most ideal test site for black Sigatoka screening, followed by Maruku (Figure 5). There was no significant difference in the monthly average rainfall recorded between environments and plant cycles (Table 6). The highest mean monthly rainfall across disease cycles was at Mbarara (78.4 mm), and the lowest was at Maruku (57.2 mm).For all environments, cycle 3 had the highest rainfall and cycle 1 had the lowest (Table 6). The locations and cycles also did not differ significantly in mean relative humidity. Mitarula had the highest RH (72.3%), and Mbarara had the lowest RH (67.7%). At Kawanda, cycle 2 had a higher RH (68.8%) than cycles 1 (68.4%) and 3 (68.7%), while cycle 1 had higher RH at Maruku (72.2%) and Mitarula (73.1%) than cycles 2 and 3. At Mbarara, cycle 3 had a higher RH (68.9%) than cycle 1 (67.3%) and 2 (67.2%) (Table 6). The lowest minimum temperature was recorded at Mitarula in cycle 1 (12.8 • C), while cycle 2 at Maruku had the highest minimum temperature (20.8 • C) (Table 6). The highest maximum temperature was recorded at Kawanda in cycle 3 (26.6 • C) and the lowest at Mitarula in cycle 1 (23.0 • C).A regression model with AUDPC as the dependent variable, which combined RH, rainfall, minimum and maximum temperature, was highly significant (p < 0.001) and explained 45.7% of variation in disease severity among the regions (Table 7).RH, maximum and minimum temperature significantly influenced disease severity, but rainfall had no significant effect on disease development. The regression equation indicated that maximum temperature was the most important factor influencing disease severity (Table 7). Managing banana diseases with host resistance requires the screening of plant material in multiple environments to identify hybrids with stable resistance and superior agronomical traits [43]. In this study, a set of NARITA hybrids were evaluated at two environments in Tanzania and two in Uganda. The test environments differed in disease pressure. In addition, the hybrids showed a range of responses from low disease severity to high susceptibility. Some hybrids responded differently to P. fijiensis infection in different environments. For example, NARITA 6 was ranked the best at Mbarara but not in other locations. This cultivar is a candidate for release in Mbarara. Five of the tested hybrids-NARITA 2, 7, 14, 21 and 23-had a similar response to P. fijiensis across sites. These hybrids with a stable response across environments, including NARITA 4, 11, 14 and 22, were less susceptible than Mbwazirume, the susceptibility check, and can be made available to smallholder banana farmers in the region as alternatives to black Sigatoka-susceptible Matooke cultivars if their agronomic traits and taste are acceptable to end users [44]. Following a preliminary evaluation in Uganda [30], NARITA 7 was selected and released to farmers in Uganda under the name KABANA 6H, code M9, locally nicknamed 'Kiwangaazi', meaning long-lasting [45]. In Tanzania, NARITA 4, 7 and 23 are recommended for release as alternatives to the highly susceptible local varieties.In this study, NARITA 10, 12, 13, 15 and 18 were more susceptible to P. fijiensis than the local check Mbwazirume, contradicting findings of an earlier study conducted at Sendusu in Uganda [30], which reported all the 25 NARITA hybrids evaluated to have superior black Sigatoka resistance compared to Mbwazirume. The response of a cultivar to diseases depends on environmental conditions, the pathogen profile [33,46], and the host genotype. In this study, the environment was the greatest contributor (39.1%) to the variation in black Sigatoka severity. This study and earlier studies [33,47] reported a significant genotype x environment interaction. This interaction did not, however, lead to differential hybrid adaptation, as most of the hybrids were broadly adapted, as evidenced by consistent ranking of the hybrids across test sites. The exception is NARITA 6, which performed well at Mbarara only.Of the weather variables recorded, RH and maximum temperature were strongly associated with black Sigatoka severity, concurring with earlier reports [48,49]. High RH is important in conidia formation. Conidia serves to initiate multiple reinfections during the growing season, increasing the number and size of lesions while maximum temperature influences the lesion formation, expansion and rate of leaf necrosis [50]. Rainfall appeared to have little or no impact on disease severity, contradictory to studies that reported that leaf wetness was critical for P. fijiensis spore germination, symptom development and disease severity [49,50]. Our observations suggest that conidia, whose germination is not affected by leaf wetness [50], is the main source of inoculum and played an important role in the spread and severity of black Sigatoka in this study.Weather variables accounted for 45.7% of disease severity; thus, other environment specific factors such as soil nutrition levels and pathogen profiles may also have influenced Sigatoka severity. It has been reported that plantations rich in organic matter and soils high in silicon developed less disease [15,[51][52][53]. There was, however, no direct relationship between organic matter content reported at each site and disease severity, and this could thus not explain differences in disease severity. The silicon levels were not measured, but this warrants further investigation as they could direct an integrated disease management strategy for black Sigatoka.The presence of pathogen strains differing in virulence can result in different disease pressure between locations [33,46]. Pseudocercospora fijiensis is a heterothallic fungus that reproduces sexually. This mode of reproduction has the potential of creating new pathotypes differing in aggressiveness and virulence [54]. Both mating types of P. fijiensis were recovered among the isolates collected from all four sites, revealing the potential of sexual reproduction [55]. In addition, genetic characterization of P. fijiensis isolates collected from the test sites revealed extensive genetic diversity within and between sites [55]. It is, therefore, possible that the differences in disease pressure between sites could have resulted from pathogens differing in virulence and aggressiveness. Characterization of P. fijiensis isolates from different sites is needed, to better understand pathogenic profiles.Despite differences in the observed disease severity between locations, ranking of the hybrids was similar. This means that the same information on genotypes could be obtained from fewer locations, thus reducing the costs of disease evaluations. The clustering of evaluation sites into mega-environments identified Mitarula, Tanzania as the most discriminating and representative environment for black Sigatoka evaluation. Kawanda, where the Ugandan banana breeding program is based, showed a high discriminative ability but was not representative of all mega-environments. Although this site cannot be used to select the best black Sigatoka-resistant genotypes, it can still be used to discard highly susceptible genotypes [56].The youngest leaf spotted and INSL are parameters widely used by breeders for assessing cultivar response to black Sigatoka [57][58][59]. These methods are, however, dependent on a plant's development stage, making the evaluation process expensive and delaying cultivar selection. AUDPC and mean DSI can therefore be used as alternative black Sigatoka assessment methods, as suggested by [57].This study recommends Matooke hybrid selection for black Sigatoka at cycle 2 due to higher and consistent disease pressure. However, due to cost implications and to hasten the selection of materials for advancement, selection can be carried out at cycle 1 by establishing trials in known black Sigatoka hotspots such as Kawanda. To further increase disease pressure at cycle 1, highly susceptible cultivars should be established as spreaders prior to the trial establishment to act as inoculum sources [60]. In addition, leaves with Sigatoka symptoms can be spread within the trial to initiate disease epidemics [60].In conclusion, this study identified seven NARITA hybrids with good levels of black Sigatoka resistance. These hybrids can be deployed for managing black Sigatoka in ECA. The final decision to deploy a variety should, however, be based on a combination of disease resistance, good agronomic traits such as yield and good culinary attributes for market and consumer acceptability [44]. Similarly, we identified the NARITA 10 hybrids as highly susceptible to black Sigatoka, and this can be used as a susceptibility check in future resistance evaluations. This study also confirmed the effectiveness of conventional breeding in developing banana hybrids resistant to P. fijiensis. The stability of released banana hybrids needs to be monitored over time as P. fijiensis reproduces sexually, which can result in a high genetic diversity of the fungus [55]. To save cost on resistance screening, we recommend a staged evaluation process where Kawanda in Uganda is used as a first testing site for discarding highly susceptible hybrids, and Mitarula, Tanzania, to identify disease-resistant hybrids for wider deployment. The pathogenicity of P. fijiensis isolates in ECA should be determined to select representative isolates that could be used for artificial inoculations.","tokenCount":"4396"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d6e7c14a3eb0a5668fbd51d8819b4615","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/88a4b992-e444-4d14-a305-95fb5af5a965/retrieve","id":"1796187813"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"72a17712-96d1-4a6c-8903-86f08b5ba5f0","pagecount":"67","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above.The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Editing, design and layout-Zoonoses (Haider et al. 2020) A pathogen maintained in a non-human vertebrate host naturally transmissible to humans where the reservoir non-human host is a continuous source of human infection. The majority of zoonoses have limited human to human spread after transmission from the non-human host.A pathogen maintained in human hosts capable of transmitting to non-human vertebrates.The transmission of a pathogen maintained in a 'natural' or 'traditional' host species to a novel host species.Often referring to the first transmission event from a non-human vertebrate host to a human host.A pathogen which, subsequent to a spillover event, becomes naturally maintained in the new human host. Human infection is therefore sustained directly from humans (with no or little zoonotic contribution). These pathogens may be endemic in the human population or may have newly emerged.A framework which aims to foster the health of humans, animals and their shared environment through transdisciplinary collaboration (Gruetzmacher et al. 2021).Globally, wild meat (also known as bush meat, particularly in Africa) has comprised an important protein and micronutrient source for rural communities in addition to being used for medicinal and cultural purposes. The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of the potential role of the trade and consumption of wild animals and meat in creating and expanding risks to people of zoonotic diseases. Based on a literature review, this report seeks to understand wild meat value chains -comprising hunting, marketing, consumption and management of wild meat -and related policies and their implications for zoonotic risks to people. The report synthesizes the assembled evidence to generate recommended research priorities to further mitigate zoonotic risks related to wild meat for specific use by the One Health Research, Education and Outreach Centre in Africa led by the International Livestock Research Institute.The value of wild meat in Africa encompasses domestic consumption in rural communities, rural-to-urban marketing and a considerable and high-value, largely illicit, export trade such as to diaspora African communities and to East Asia. Although value estimates are difficult to obtain, those for individual countries range from 20 million United States dollars (USD) per year in Gabon to over USD 200 million per year in Côte d'Ivoire, and these may not even include the value of rural consumption. Overall, the value of the wild meat trade alone is likely to exceed USD 1 billion per year in Africa and possibly several times that amount. The volume of wild meat extracted is also very large, estimated at between 1 million and 5 million metric tonnes (mt) per year across Africa. That compares to livestock production of about 14 million mt per year so represents a significant share of meat availability. In some countries, wild meat harvest is of approximately the same scale as livestock meat supply. Although some authors suggest that the overall wild meat industry is growing in volume, the available data are not able to clearly support that view, nor even to confirm with any accuracy the scale of the industry, other than to indicate that it is significant and widespread.Ungulates, such as antelopes, tend to be most the frequently hunted animals and the most important in terms of overall biomass extracted. These are generally followed in importance by large rodents and primates. There is enormous variability in relative numbers and biomass in species hunted across sites and ecosystems. Near human settlements, where hunting pressure is greater, larger-bodied animals have been replaced by smaller species (such as duikers and large rodents), which are faster reproducing and thus more sustainably hunted. The species extraction data available, however, rely heavily on market surveys, which may not closely reflect actual hunting levels or species composition. Much wild meat is consumed locally and does not appear in markets. A significant quantity of the data available comes from Central and West Africa, with less from southern and East Africa. From a zoonotic risk perspective, bats, primates and rodents are identified as key species of interest. Bats do not feature strongly in many wild meat market studies, although some studies have reported widespread consumption of certain bat species.Hunting methods both reflect and are driven by the relative importance of species and their susceptibility to specific methods -gun hunting favours large animals and arboreal and nocturnal species, and the more available snare hunting favours terrestrial animals, small and large. Much hunting is non-selective either due to the hunting method used, such as snares, or to the fact that nearly any animal is edible and marketable in many cultures. This constrains targeted policy restrictions on the hunting of certain species. Logging concessions affect both the type of hunting employed and the level of hunting pressure and tend to increase hunting ranges. Access to guns and ammunition has increased pressure on largebodied species and raised extraction rates, including by commercial hunters.The prevalence of hunting among rural households varies enormously from near zero to almost universal, but across Africa nearly half of households participate in some way. The returns to hunting vary greatly depending on setting, markets, species and the type of hunting equipment available. The broadest analysis of the economics of hunting indicates mostly low returns generating a small proportion of income for most hunting households -commercial hunters excepted. Hunting is most prevalent in more remote and rural areas, where alternative proteins are few and hunting is largely for household or community consumption. Non-forest lands, such as agricultural land and savannahs, are often as important as forests for wild meat supply. There is some evidence that the presence of livestock keeping and availability of lowcost livestock meat is associated with less hunting. Larger and wealthier households often hunt more often and more successfully due to access to labour and equipment. Meat consumption needs appear to be the main driver of wild meat hunting by most rural households, and even those which market wild meat retain a significant share for subsistence or community consumption.Value chains are composed of a wide variety of actors pursuing several different livelihood opportunities, from rural hunters and traders to urban venders, retailers and roadside restaurants. These opportunities are often available to resource-poor individuals given the typically low costs of entry, but they often depend on kinship and other social networks to gain access and skills and to be economically viable. For many, these roles are sideline occupations and are sometimes seen as relatively low status except for more successful agents. Hunters are generally men, at least for the main larger species, and are relatively young. Traders are both men and women, and traditional processors (e.g. meat smokers), retailers and chop-bar (prepared meal) sellers tend to be women, depending on local cultural and social norms. The specifics of value chain interactions vary widely by location, proximity to supply and demand areas, and by types of species. In many if not most value chains, the bulk of wild meat supply does not enter recognized market chains but comprises direct sales to consumers and rural households and to travellers along roadsides. For wild meat that travels along the value chain to an urban area and is sold as a prepared meal, a third of the end value of the wild meat may accrue to the hunter, with the rest distributed along the value chain.The consumption of wild meat is clearly important across many settings in Africa and is higher on average per capita than livestock meat consumption in some communities. These include forest zones of West and Central Africa and savannah areas of East and southern Africa, with significant but varying shares of households reporting regular consumption of wild meat. The links between wild meat consumption to household income and wealth are tenuous, so increased disposable income may or may not increase wild meat consumption. For many in more remote rural areas, wild meat is the lowestThere is some level of awareness of zoonotic disease risk to people from wildlife and wild meat in hunting and consuming communities, and public information broadcasting seems to have some impact on raising awareness. Much of the awareness appears to be associated with high profile diseases such as Ebola, and it is uncertain to what extent more general disease risks are understood. Despite some significant degree of awareness of potential disease risk, studies show very low levels of use of safe habits in handling of wildlife and wild meat in addition to a lack of understanding of which practices can be effective. Some studies show higher disease risks to men given their exposure through hunting and initial handling, while others suggest greater risks to women through preparation and marketing of wild meat. There is also significant misunderstanding of both which diseases present risks (e.g. misperception of malaria risk from animals) and which species of wildlife are most risky to handle and eat.Given the evidence that a key driver of wild meat hunting is limited alternative sources of protein and meat in rural areas and that significant constraints to domestic livestock production are present in some cultural and environmental settings, farming wild species may be considered to increase meat supply. Cane rats have some demonstrated production and market success and satisfy consumer tastes for wild meat. Mini-livestock can also be considered where they fit local production systems and cultural consumption practices -cavies (guinea pigs) have been documented as a suitable species for settings where wild meat hunting is practiced.As with many other policy sectors, a top-down regulatory approach to controlling wild meat hunting through bans on hunting and marketing, restricting species which can be hunted, limiting the types of hunting equipment allowed, etc., have not generally been successful. They are difficult to enforce due to inadequate public resources and corruption and are resented or ignored by local communities who see them as undermining their livelihoods and food supply. Regulatory control of hunting does, however, appear to change behaviour and increase the costs of some actors, who may have to hide their activities, particularly in wild meat markets. Limited access to guns and ammunition appears to have some effect on the level and effectiveness of hunting.Community-based approaches to managing wild meat hunting using greater local inputs and sharing responsibilities have been attempted, with mixed success. These face the same resource constraints as the regulatory approach, and a clear legislative framework may not be present to support them. The community-based approach typically differentiates local hunting of small-bodied animals for food supply and community trade from commercial hunting of animals for urban and distant markets. Educational and awareness-raising campaigns have been attempted for purposes of wildlife conservation and to avoid zoonotic risks. The evidence for success is limited so far.Market incentives to reduce wild meat hunting have been explored through simulation analysis, and the evidence is relatively clear that an increased supply of cheaper protein alternatives will likely reduce wild meat hunting.Given the inter-dependencies of livelihoods, food security, markets and zoonotic risks, an integrated strategy is needed which specifically recognizes the objectives of a) wildlife and biodiversity conservation, with attention to valuable and vulnerable species, b) sustaining livelihoods associated with wild meat value chains, at least in a transitional manner, c) maintaining food security and access to animal protein and micronutrients, specifically in rural hunting communities, and d) identifying zoonotic risks, species and practices which affect those risks and which pose the greatest hazards. Elements of such an approach could be:• A community-based approach. Although such an approach faces resource constraints among other barriers, it is clear that because wild meat hunting is primarily locally driven, local communities need to be part of the decision making and be given some authority and responsibility for its management.• Differentiating local from commercial hunting. The evidence is relatively clear that hunting of small robust species (rodents, duikers) can be sustained, even in partly degraded landscapes. With support from local communities, attention and monitoring should be on controlling commercial-scale hunting and the hunting of vulnerable (slow-reproducing) species, addressed both at the source and in markets.• Integrated communication and awareness in rural areas. Engagement with local hunting communities should take the same integrated approach, highlighting the importance of limiting hunting to certain robust species, to obtaining alternative or supplementary sources of protein wherever possible and, importantly, to understanding the zoonotic hazards and how to mitigate resulting risks. Information campaigns in urban areas could similarly highlight conservation, the importance of transitioning to livestock meat, and the zoonotic risks of wild meat handling and consumption.• Introducing alternative animal protein sources. The evidence is clear that when livestock alternatives are available, wild meat is less hunted, and that when livestock meat is cheaper, less wild meat is consumed. Thus, any integrated strategy should include the piloting of some alternative protein sources, either farmed wild animals such as cane rats, small stock such as cavies or pigs, or aquaculture. The choice of species will depend on local resources, husbandry traditions and food preferences.• Integrated public monitoring systems. A range of public assessment may fail to capture the interdependencies which have been demonstrated to be associated with wild meat hunting, communities and the resource base. For example, local poverty assessments may not adequately address community dependence on forest resources, and environmental assessments may not capture the local need for wild meat and food security in general. Existing monitoring systems may narrowly track wild meat from a conservation perspective. Again, an integrated approach should be used so that zoonotic disease monitoring, rural poverty and human nutrition, as well as changes in land use and livestock keeping should be added to such data collection systems. These could be used to map hotspots from multiple disease, conservation and livelihood perspectives.More research should be aimed at zoonotic spillovers from bacterial or other non-virus pathogens, as the study of spillover events related to viruses in particular has possibly received most attention.A broader understanding of wild meat practices, species and zoonotic disease threats beyond West and Central Africa across all parts of Africa would enable better targeting of interventions as well as cross-site learning.Given the lack of awareness in many hunting communities of the actual zoonotic hazards associated with wild meat and of best practices for mitigating those risks, formative research is required to understand the sources of zoonotic risk knowledge and drivers of behaviour, followed by piloting and evaluation of effectiveness of targeted social marketing campaigns.Since the evidence on the success of community-based approaches to managing wild meat hunting is mixed, cross-site and cross-country comparisons of such efforts would allow development of best practices and also the development and understanding of the resource, legislative and regulatory environments needed to facilitate success.Further research is needed into the links between livestock keeping of different types and reduced wild meat hunting and how these patterns differ across production systems and settings. For example, do the livestock constitute a direct consumption effect on wild meat or a wealth effect? A spatial econometric approach could be employed where data are available. Further work using data from CIFOR's 1 Poverty Environment Network may be one possibility.Specialized survey and monitoring techniques may be needed to elicit accurate information on wild meat activities and consumption, which respondents may consider to be illegal, and associated zoonotic risk-related activity. Research could be conducted into improving these tools.Zoonotic pathogens, originating in animals and transmitted to people, cause the majority of an estimated 70-75% of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases 2 in humans. This is largely due to contact with non-domesticated (wild) animal species, although many disease 'spillovers' also occur from domestic animals (Taylor et al. 2001;Wolfe et al. 2005b;Falk et al. 2013;Paige 2014). A comprehensive review of human pathogens by Taylor et al. (2001) found that over 60% of all human pathogens were zoonotic. Jones et al. (2008) conducted an analysis of 335 emerging infectious disease events between 1940 and 2004. Although they found a peak of incidence in the 1980s related to the HIV pandemic, they found that these events are increasing significantly over time. Their review showed that emerging infectious disease events arose largely by zoonoses (60.3% of emerging infectious diseases) and, of those, 71.8% originated in wildlife.The recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the resulting COVID-19 pandemic, apparently from an animal source (Holmes et al. 2021) and possibly from wild animals, has dramatically demonstrated the enormous potential threat of emerging infectious diseases.Bush meat, viande de brousse in Francophone countries, is the term used in Africa for meat from wild animal species for consumption or sale. Following the International Union for Conservation of Nature/World Conservation Union General Assembly Resolution 2.64 (Wiseman and Hopkins 2001), we will, however, use the term 'wild meat' to refer to animal wildlife used for food and non-food purposes including medicinal uses.It has also been widely recognized that the form of contact between people and wild animals mostly likely to give rise to new emerging infectious diseases is use of their meat and other products (Wolfe et al. 2007;Coad et al. 2019). Although humans have long relied on wild meat for an important share of their nutritional needs, as agricultural systems have evolved, those needs have largely been supplied by domesticated livestock. In many communities and economies of developing Asia, Africa and Latin America, however, hunting of wild animals remains important as a source of food, ethnomedicine and income. This largely unregulated activity comprises 'wild meat value chains': the systems for the sourcing and delivery of meat and parts derived from wild animals for human consumption and other uses. As will be described in detail, wild meat can be sourced from a wide range of hunted or gathered animals, such as invertebrates, amphibians, insects, fish, reptiles, birds and most importantly mammals, including as many as 500 species in sub-Saharan Africa (Kurpiers et al. 2016). The wild meat industry has myriad livelihood and economic implications, not just at community levels but also nationally and internationally, all of which underlie the incentives for its continued activity.The concept of a value chain was first described by Porter (1985) as the full range of activities and actors required to bring a product through production, processing, transformation and transport including sourcing of inputs and support services. Value is accrued at each step, by every actor depending on their role and market factors, and at each node in the network. In many agricultural settings, consumption by producing households and the resulting nutritional value or medicinal use value, are an important part of the value realized. Value should not therefore be implied to result solely through sales and financial revenue.Importantly for the context of this report, the governance systems and regulatory environment are a crucial feature of any value chain.The main aim of this report is to understand the implications of wild meat value chains for the research priorities of the One Health Research, Education and Outreach Centre in Africa led by the International Livestock Research Institute, with specific attention on Africa. Some research implications will relate directly to managing zoonotic risks associated with wild meat, while others may more indirectly address wild meat value chain activities, such as hunting, as well as explore alternatives to wild meat consumption thereby impacting more generally the zoonotic hazards related to wild meat. To the extent that this report is of value to others working in the sphere of zoonotic risks associated with African households, communities and market actors, that is extra value. This is not an attempt to conduct a thorough systematic review of wild meat and associated zoonotic risks, but, given limited timeframe and resources, it aims to inventory and synthesize the key evidence needed to achieve the aim aboveproviding guidance on research priorities. It also makes no attempt to explore to any extent the epidemiological aspects of zoonotic diseases in wild animals. The focus is on the actors, communities, and their behaviour, and the driving factors associated with wild meat practices. Other studies cover the epidemiology of wild meat more comprehensively.The literature available through Science Direct and Google Scholar were explored using relevant search terms to find studies on bushmeat/wild meat linked to trade, markets, hunting practices, women/gender, nutrition, consumption, epidemiology, risk, policy, etc. The references in the resulting sources, particularly the major review studies indicated in the acknowledgements, were then used to identify additional sources, particularly those no longer readily available online. A database of some 340 sources was created. Along with additional sources provided by external reviewers, we believe that the literature represented in this study provides a solid background by which to achieve the report's aims.This report thus presents the results of an extensive, although not systematic, literature review focusing mainly on sub-Saharan Africa. We first describe the workings and driving factors underlying wild meat value chains and roles. We consider the incentives and welfare considerations of the various value chain actors, points and practices most likely to create risks of emerging infectious diseases, levels of success of mitigation efforts as well as policies to date. Based on our findings, we then identify areas of research related to wild meat value chains' emerging infectious disease risk that the International Livestock Research Institute and particularly the One Health Research, Education and Outreach Centre in Africa can address. Our aim is to generate a better understanding of wild meat value chains -actors, communities, practices -and inform research to new approaches to mitigating associated zoonotic risks.Although all the evidence available indicates that the scale of the wild meat industry is very large, it is nevertheless not easily measured, in part because some of its activities are illegal. Even though livestock production has grown and is largely industrialized across the world, millions of people across Asia, Africa and Latin America still rely on meat from wild animals for protein, energy and micronutrients, as well as for the many forms of livelihoods associated with the hunting and marketing of wild animal products. The industry not only supplies consumers in the countries where animals are hunted, but the globalization of trade and migration of people from the Global South has led to a trade in wild meat that has been estimated to be worth USD 50-150 billion per year (UNEP 2014, cited by Kurpiers et al. 2016). An estimate values all illegal trade in CITES 3 species, which includes exotic pets, at USD 20 billion per year (Challender and Macmillan 2014). For comparison, the value of total livestock meat exports in 2018 from East, Central, southern and West Africa was only USD 718 million (FAOSTAT). Some studies at European airports found as much as 5 tonnes per week of wild meat in arrival passenger luggage (Chaber et al. 2010), but it is difficult to extrapolate those data to scale over time.In African countries where wild meat plays an important role, the annual value of the wild meat trade has been estimated from USD 5 million per year (in Gabon) (Antsy 1991), or USD 21 million per year when rural consumption is included (Colchester 1994), to USD 205 million per year (in Ghana for 2002) (Davies and Brown 2008), although more recent estimates are not readily available (Table 1. ).These numbers compare impressively with the value of livestock production. In Gabon, livestock production is estimated to be worth USD 112 million, and in Ghana, USD 826 million in 2018. Across East, Central, southern and West Africa, total livestock meat production was about 14 million mt in 2018 (FAOSTAT), suggesting that wild meat harvest comprised at least 10% of livestock production. In Central Africa alone, where most livestock production is not highly developed, total livestock production was in 2018 2 million mt, approximately the same sort of scale as wild meat offtake according to some estimates, such as that by Fa et al. (2003). Several studies have estimated the levels of both mammalian biomass and hunting extraction across Africa, although again largely from West and Central Africa, comprising many different landscapes. It should be noted, however, that comparisons across sites and years are difficult due to differing estimation methods, units and settings. Again, recent figures are hard to obtain but most estimates range from 1 million to 5 million mt per year of wild meat extraction. Fa, Perez et al. (2002) estimated hunting extraction at 2,645 kg per km 2 /year (4.9 million mt per year) for the Congo Basin, comprising 479 million animals, but recognized that these were 4 times higher than those calculated for the region by some other researchers. This figure contrasts somewhat with Wilkie and Carpenter's (1999) study which estimated only one million tonnes from the Congo Basin. It is difficult to ascertain from the figures whether there are growth trends in wild meat extraction, but the slightly more recent estimate of 400,000 mt per year in West Africa by Brashares et al. (2004) suggests that a level of 1-2 million mt per year across West and Central Africa is likely. The numbers are significantly higher in South America in terms of total biomass extracted, but at much lower rate per square km. Fa et al. (2005) used published studies from 36 sites in Central and West Africa (Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Ghana to review and analyse patterns and between-site variation in hunter-kill profiles of mammals in tropical moist forests. Based on surveys of hunters and market agents, the results showed that annual harvest rates per studied site were variable, and per hunter, average extraction was around 100 carcasses/year, close to 1,000 kg/year in weight. The authors suggest that these levels of harvest fall within the range of unsustainable estimates for mammals in African forests. Fa et al. (2006) studied wild meat markets in a large area between Nigeria and Cameroon. In Nigeria, the estimated biomass extracted for sale was 3 times greater (600 kg/km 2 per year) than in Cameroon.In terms of hunting potential, across a range of landscapes, mammalian biomass can range from 1,000 to 6,000 kg/km 2 , the range in productivity due to differences in ungulate, primate, rodent and elephant densities (Barnes et al. 1993, cited in Brown et al. 2007). In some areas, duikers are known to attain a biomass higher than elephants, but, in forest areas, leaf-eating primates often make up a large proportion of the primary biomass (Brown et al. 2007).Higher offtake levels have been reported from humid forests than savannahs in spite of greater productivity of the latter, which may be due to use of land for domestic livestock and the preference for farmed meat in savannahs.Data extrapolation risks Kurpiers et al. (2016) caution that most surveys of hunting extraction as well as wild meat consumption have been restricted to relatively small areas or poorly defined market catchments from which national estimates are extrapolated.Research efforts have focused on Central Africa with some data available for 60% of countries in that region compared to 30% of West African countries (Taylor et al. 2015), with many concentrated in Nigeria and Cameroon. National or regional extrapolation of such survey data is likely to provide only crude estimates, yet the numbers are probably a reasonable overview of the situation. Martins and Shackleton (2019) point out that studies of hunting have not adequately addressed southern Africa, even though there is evidence is that the practice is important in the region. Most studies in the region focus on poaching in or near protected areas, not hunting for consumption in communal farming landscapes.The quality and type of data presented above underlines the fact that accurate information on the scale and scope of the wild meat industry is not generally available. As a consequence, it is unclear to what extent the industry is growing. Cawthorn and Hoffman (2015) make the case that due to population growth in Africa, increased urbanization leading to demand for high-value wild meat plus the high demand value of the international wild meat trade will combine to lead to steady growth in the industry. A survey of households in Gabon found that wealthier households consumed more wild meat along with more livestock meat (Wilkie et al. 2005). However, some recent studies have pointed to lower interest in wild meat consumption among urban African youth (Luiselli et al. 2018), and the same urbanization trend may reduce the largest source of demand and consumption, which is populations in rural hunting communities. Further, many conservation-oriented studies point out that current extraction rates are not sustainable except for some small fastreproducing species such as rodents (Fa et al. 2005). It is thus not clear that the extraction and marketing of wild meat is growing in volume, although changes in hunting and information technology and increasing urban wealth may certainly change the nature and value of demand.The value of wild meat in Africa comprises both domestic consumption in rural communities, rural-to-urban marketing of wild meat, and a considerable, high-value and largely illicit export trade such as to diaspora African communities but also East Asia. Although value estimates are difficult to obtain, they range from USD 20 million per year in Gabon to over USD 200 million per year in Côte d'Ivoire, and these may not even include the value of rural consumption. Overall, the value of the wild meat trade alone is likely to exceed USD 1 billion per year in Africa and possibly several times that amount.The volumes of wild meat extraction are also very large and estimates range from 1 million to 5 million mt per year across Africa. That compares to livestock production of about 14 million mt per year so represents a significant share of meat availability. In some countries, wild meat harvest is of approximately the same scale as livestock meat supply. Although some authors suggest that the overall wild meat industry is growing in volume, the available data are not able to clearly support that view nor even to confirm with any accuracy the scale of the industry other than to indicate that it is significant and widespread.From a zoonotic risk perspective, not all wild meat species may be equal. Several systematic reviews exist which try to answer the question of which hosts pose the highest risk of zoonotic disease transmission to humans or of hosting a pathogen with high pandemic potential.Woolhouse and Gowtage-Sequeria (2005) indicated that of 816 human pathogen species known to be zoonotic, the most important hosts in terms of diversity of zoonotic pathogens supported were ungulates, followed by carnivores, rodents, non-mammalian species, non-human primates, other mammals and then bats. Interestingly a more recent systematic review study examined the role of wild animals on impacting public health. Cupertino et al. (2020) found 245 studies which addressed zoonotic disease and wild animals. Bats and (non-human) primates were the most frequent species among those documented as leading to confirmed zoonotic disease in people, followed by wild rodents and, less frequently, buffalo and wild pigs.The large number of zoonotic pathogens hosted by ungulates and the high frequency of contact with ungulates (both domestic and wild) and their products is probably responsible for many events of zoonotic disease transmission from these species. Many of these zoonotic diseases, however, are likely to be 'classic' endemic zoonoses, where the constant source of infection remains the ungulate host and little or no onward human-to-human transmission occurs. Analysis of emerging zoonoses indicates that the vast majority of pathogens have been of wildlife rather than domestic livestock origin (Jones et al. 2008).Understanding the potential risk posed by specific wildlife species is a product of the number of pathogens for which that species can be host, the likelihood of any one of those pathogens being sufficiently well adapted to transmit to humans and the number of potential exposure events occurring between humans and that particular non-human host. When it comes to non-human primates, the high degree of genetic similarity with humans means the pathogens, although smaller in number, may be more highly adapted for a human host, with a corresponding increase in likelihood of sustained human-to-human transmission after a spillover event. Morse et al. (2012) indicated non-human primate origins were more frequent in pathogens which reached sustained human-to-human transmission than zoonotic pathogens in general.Birds, rats and bats, although hosts with potentially lower zoonotic pathogen diversity, are highly adapted to living within human-dominated environments in large numbers. Specifically, species within these orders known host potential zoonoses have been seen to increase above those which do not host zoonoses within human-dominated landscapes (Gibb et al. 2020). In these environments there is high potential for transmission events due to environmental contamination with excreta and the relatively ease of hunting for meat. In addition to potential opportunities for transmission, bats have been demonstrated to host a high degree of viral pathogen richness, and in turn viruses are over represented among the pathogens with spillover potential, probably due to their ability to rapidly mutate and evolve (Luis et al. 2013).All the groups of potential zoonotic disease hosts appear in wild meat market studies but as indicated above, perhaps not in the same proportion to which they are hunted and consumed in communities.A wide variety of species of mammals, birds and reptiles are hunted or caught for wild meat. The three taxa most important for human consumption are large-bodied ungulates (such as antelopes, bovines, pigs), primates and rodents.Monitor lizards and snakes follow (Brown et al. 2007). In their review of 36 studies from seven Central African countries, Fa et al. (2005) found that 71 mammal species from 8 orders and 22 families were reported hunted. Ungulates (46.6%) and rodents (37.0%) were the most frequently hunted taxonomic groups in terms of number of animals. In terms of weight, for the combined studies, ungulates contributed 73.2% in weight, (Fa et al. 2005), and rodents and primates contributed 12.2% and 12.0%, respectively. Large-bodied species (those animals weighing 15-100 kg) represented over half (54.4%) of the total hunted biomass.In an earlier review of 13 previous studies, Wilkie and Carpenter (1999) found that duikers, pigs, primates and rodents are the most commonly hunted forest animals, duikers being the most important both in numbers and biomass. Again, ungulates were the most common species (34-95% across the studies), followed by primates (1-40%) and rodents (1-31%). Rodents were observed to become more important close to urban markets, presumably because duikers were depleted in nearby forests. They suggest that in these forest settings, the ratio of duikers to rodents found in urban markets may provide a rough indication of wild meat overexploitation or diminishing hunter access to dense forests.Bowen- Jones et al. (2003) also found that in West and Central Africa, duikers are the most numerous species taken and make up 42-84% of the marketed off-take by weight. Primates account for an estimated 8-22% of the catch (Bowen-Jones and Pendry 1999). Smaller-bodied mammals such as cane rats and porcupines are also important in Africa and are becoming more so as larger game is depleted (Bowen- Jones et al. 2003).In a specific Central African example, in the central market of Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, ungulates (including all antelopes, pigs, bovids) are the most sold (40%) followed by primates (38%), (mostly guenons) (Basa et al. 2017). Fa et al. (2006) found that of the approximately one million carcasses marketed in the Cross-Sanaga region of Nigeria and Cameroon, 99% were mammals, of which around 40% were ungulates, 30% rodents, and nearly 15% were primates. Further highlighting the diversity of wild meat consumed, a survey in Cross River State, Nigeria, found that 48 types of wild vertebrate animals had been consumed by respondents within the past 30 days (Friant et al. 2020).In savannah areas of southern Africa, wild meat species differ significantly from Central Africa, with hares, jackals, bushbucks and even rock hyrax featuring among a list of 17 hunted species (Kaschula and Shackleton, 2009).In the largest such study, by Taylor et al. (2015), a systematic review of 67 primary sources of the West and Central African wild meat literature including market, offtake and consumption surveys, documented 177 species from 25 orders that were harvested for wild meat, comprising 134 (76%) mammal species, 24 (14%) bird species, 18 (10%) reptile species, and 1 (<1%) amphibian species. Among mammals, the largest number of species were primates (48 species) including western lowland gorillas, bonobos and common chimpanzees, followed by ungulates (34 species), carnivores (22 species) and rodents (16 species). Only one species of bat is listed, likely to be the straw-coloured fruit bat, which is commonly eaten, and no relative market share is indicated. The sources identified were biased towards Central Africa, in part because the authors suggest that West Africa may largely be in 'post-depletion phase', since many large-bodied species have been significantly reduced in number there. Alade and Onadeko (2017) found that mammals led to the highest profits among wild meat traders in Lagos State, Nigeria. In Gabon, it was found that the top five species numerically provided over 70% of the biomass hunted, and that blue and red duikers and porcupines are always among these (Abernathy and Obiang 2010). It is unclear whether any novelty among buyers and consumers associated with rarity of a species drives demand, at least in Africa. In Equatorial Guinea, East et al. (2005) found no evidence of specific demand for rare animals. In contrast, in parts of Asia, the rarity of species can raise the market value of wild meat (Volpato et al. 2020).These data largely reflected market studies because of the relative ease of collecting market data compared to data on rural hunting and consumption, so the reported species may not reflect species composition in the forest, nor the species or levels actually hunted and consumed within hunting communities, which are likely to be driven in part by non-market objectives. Birds, reptiles and invertebrates are likely to be underrepresented since they may not be marketed as much or may be caught by women and youth and inadvertently missed by surveys (Taylor et al. 2015).A wild meat literature review by Mickleburgh et al. (2009) found that 31 comprehensive studies of wild meat hunting and trade did not mention bats. The same study, however, found evidence that consumption of bats was widespread, both of larger fruit bats and insectivorous species, particularly in West Africa, although the greatest prevalence was found in Madagascar, Asia and the Pacific. However, a study in Ghana estimated that at least 128,000 bats were sold in markets reaching up to 400 km away (Kamins et al. 2011). As with other small animals, those often caught by women and youth may not feature in market studies. Reflecting the potential bias in species reports from market studies, in one study in Gabon it was found that only 19 of the species in the original catch were represented in the animals destined for market, and three species accounted for 90% of the individual animals sold, the rest being consumed locally, so indicating that marketed offtake is somewhat selective (Coad 2007). In Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, only six species of wild meat were observed traded, with the cane rat comprising the largest volume of wild meat on the market (Jacob et al. 2018).Pangolins are also of interest from a zoonotic disease perspective as a possible host of pathogens. However, their presence in wild meat markets in Africa is not clearly reflected in the above studies, and Boakye et al. (2016) indicate that although they are apparently frequently hunted in Ghana, for example, they do not appear in some major wild meat market surveys. They thus conducted a market study for some 15 months (2013-14) and reported only a total of 341 pangolin traded by 153 respondents during that period. These were mostly observed close to source areas in protected forests, suggesting in this case that pangolins appear not to enter longer distance supply chains. The authors suggest that market surveys thus underestimate what is anecdotally known to be a preferred wild meat species due to its dark meat. However, some recent studies point to an increasing trade in pangolin scales within Africa to Asia for decorative or traditional medicinal use, such as reflected in shipment confiscations in Zimbabwe (Shepherd et al. 2017) and more generally reported by Soewu and Sodeinde (2015).Ungulates generally tend to be the most frequently hunted animals and are sometimes the most important in terms of overall biomass extracted. These tend to be followed in importance by large rodents and primates but in varying order. In general, there is enormous variability in relative numbers and biomass in species hunted across sites and ecosystems. Near human settlements, where hunting pressure is greater, larger-bodied animals have over time tended to be replaced by smaller species (such as duikers and large rodents), which are faster reproducing and thus more sustainably hunted.The species extraction data available, however, rely heavily on market surveys, which may not closely reflect actual hunting levels or species composition, much of which is consumed locally and so does not appear in markets. Much of the data available comes from Central and West Africa, with less from southern and East Africa. From a zoonotic risk perspective, bats, primates and rodents are identified as key species of interest, but bats do not feature strongly in many wild meat market studies, although some studies have reported widespread consumption of certain bat species.Wild meat huntingThe type of hunting mechanisms employed influences the types of species hunted, but is also driven by species availability, although not all hunting methods may be locally available (e.g. guns). Greater importance of land species means easier hunting via snares. Hunting with guns facilitates more selective and efficient hunting of large-bodied and arboreal animals, particularly daytime hunting of primates. Nocturnal hunting with shotguns is practiced commonly when hunting duikers, porcupines and civets because they freeze to torchlight and their shining eyes are easily spotted; nets are also used. Animals are often killed in proportion to their presence and not necessarily targeted. This creates some degree of 'by-catch' since all animals are killed if encountered, even if rare and/or protected by law, although in many cultural settings, any animal caught can typically be eaten or sold for meat (in the Fang language of southern Cameroon and northern Gabon, the same word is used interchangeably for meat and animal). Snaring, using wire cables, local plant fibres or tough plastic snares is regarded as the most widespread method but may be wasteful and is non-selective of species. Some 27% of snared animals are reported in one study to be lost to decomposition and scavenging due to the inadequate frequency of monitoring of snares (Noutcha, Okiwelu, et al. 2016). In Nigeria there are reports of group hunting using trained hunting dogs, hunting being carried out for several days and preserving the products along the way (Eniang et al. 2008). Across several sites in South Africa, a review by Martins and Shackleton (2019) reported the use of wire snares, but the favoured method (up to 80% of hunting) was hunting by groups of men and boys with dogs and clubbing the cornered animals. Guns were reported used less frequently: 11% of the time.The non-selectivity of many hunting methods implies that efforts to reduce hunting of certain species for either conservation or zoonotic risk mitigation reasons are unlikely to be effective. On the other hand, the association of certain hunting methods with some species may also provide opportunities: reducing access to guns and ammunition may reduce the hunting of some primates and large-bodied species.The choice of hunting method is likely to be driven by the return to effort, material and labour. Blake (1994) compared estimated rates of return to alternative types of shotgun hunting in a logging concession in northern Congo. The estimated rates of return for hunters travelling into the forest by vehicle was higher than for hunts conducted on foot from settlements because animal densities increased with distance from settlements. In addition, night-time flashlight hunting was more efficient than daytime shotgun hunting due to reduced fear/awareness of game. They found that in these settings, rates of return to shotgun hunting are 7 to 25 times higher than for hunts using traditional weapons such as bows and nets, results also found by Wilkie and Curran (1991), cited in Kurpiers et al. 2016. Hunters' access to guns may be increasing in part as a by-product of civil strife and in part because of the increase in the supply of ammunition and shotguns by professional wild meat traders (Gadsby 1990, cited in Bowen-Jones et al. 2003). In rural sites in Cameroon, Lebreton et al. (2006) found that most hunters used wire snares (81%) and 31% used guns.Wild meat hunting is often associated with logging concessions and with the new roads that are inevitably built to support them and have become a significant driver of wild meat extraction. The new roads increase hunters' access to deeper parts of the forest, typically gun hunting, lowering transport costs to markets including on returning logging trucks, and the logging settlements increase the demand for wild meat (Wilkie and Carpenter 1999;Wilkie et al. 2000;Bowen-Jones et al. 2003). Blake (1994) found that rates of return to hunting were higher outside of logging concession areas where hunting pressure was still low, but also declined quickly with time (25% over a three-week period). The expansion of logging is closely intertwined with the dynamics of wild meat hunting in those parts of Central Africa where logging of new forest remains important. Other studies also found association of remoter forest with better hunting. In Gabon, analysis found that snare catch rates for larger-bodied, commercial species were highest in traps furthest from the village, in good quality forest, with low hunting pressure (Coad 2007).Hunting methods used both reflect and are driven by the relative importance of species and their susceptibility to specific methods -gun hunting favours large animals and arboreal and nocturnal species, and the more available snare hunting favours terrestrial animals, small and large. Much hunting is non-selective, either due to the hunting method used, such as snares, or to the fact that nearly any animal is edible and marketable in many cultures. This constrains targeted policy restrictions on the hunting of certain species. Logging concessions are related to both the type of hunting employed and the level of hunting pressure, as well as increased hunting ranges. Access to guns and ammunition has increased pressure on large-bodied species and raised extraction rates, including by commercial hunters.The multi-country and multi-continent analysis by Nielsen et al. (2017) shows that wild meat hunting is widespread and common in the tropics but varies significantly by location and is more prevalent in Latin America and Africacorresponding to larger forest zone populations -than in Asia. For Africa overall, among sampled households in their dataset, there was 44% prevalence of hunting, from a low of 3% of sampled households in Ethiopia to a high of 97% in Cameroon (Table 2). Another study by Nielsen et al. (2018) based on a survey of some 8,000 households across 24 countries in the Global South found that 39% of households consumed wild meat, representing 150 million households. The economic importance of wild meat markets would suggest that market demand may be a major driver of wild meat hunting. Wilkie and Carpenter (1999) point out that a number of writers suggest that consuming wild meat is a cultural preference and point to the willingness by some consumers, including in the international diaspora, to pay a price premium over domestic livestock meat. A recent study among Ghanaian communities in the Netherlands and United States of America found that demand for wild meat was driven by perceptions of health benefits and low disease risk, cultural traditions, a taste for the flavour of wild meat and even spiritual beliefs, as well as a desire to retain a connection with community and geographical origins (Morrison-Lanjouw et al. 2021). Some studies suggest that wild meat behaves as a 'luxury good' in that demand may increase with a rise in price (particularly for primate meat), reported by Brashares et al. (2011) among diaspora communities in Europe, by Wilkie and Godoy (2002) in Central and South America, and by Drury (2011) in Vietnam. As in the description of wild meat value chains later in this report, urban African markets provide relatively high-value markets for preferred species of wild meat, often in the context of specialty restaurants. In Gabon, Abernathy and Obiang (2010) reported that some 60% of urban and 90% of rural respondents indicated preference for wild meat over domestic meat. It is unclear whether increased urbanization coupled with rises in disposable income is leading to a relative increase in urban demand for wild meat, but several authors suggest that to be occurring (Brashares et al. 2011;Cawthorn and Hoffmann 2015).The overall evidence available, however, suggests that local consumption and nutrition needs are also important and that incentives for hunting are complex and vary significantly by location. There is evidence to indicate that in some settings, particularly in those parts of forested Africa which have little to no tradition of livestock keeping, wild meat is often the most readily available and least-cost meat. The large investment costs needed to establish some types of livestock production may also be a barrier to supply when wild meat is relatively available. Other studies reported by Nasi et al. (2008)  (Takforyan 2001;de Mérode et al. 2003) show that most people in tropical forests hunt and that meat sales within the community can be significant (30% in Cameroon, up to 90% in the Democratic Republic of Congo), suggesting that external markets may not uniformly be a key incentive for hunting but that intra-community transactions also play a role. Brown et al. (2007) point out that wild meat is more consumption oriented than other forest products, such as timber and beverage crops, which are more market oriented; thus, a large share of the wild meat product is retained by hunting households or within communities. A study in Ghana estimated that the ratio of commercial to subsistence hunting of wild animals was 1:4 in terms of volume (Hofmann et al. 1999). Table 3 outlines the destination of wild meat in a number of African countries.  The evidence available suggests that in urban areas where demand from higher income consumers for traditional meats is high, wild meat may often cost more per unit weight than livestock meat alternatives (Table 4). The situation is often reversed, however, in rural areas, particularly in countries where livestock keeping is not a traditional practice. Alternative proteins may be rare in rural villages with rudimentary livestock production, unless close to coastal regions supplying fish. In Gabon, Abernathy and Obiang (2010) found that in forested areas, livestock meat alternatives were limited and sold at over twice the price of wild meat, whereas in the capitol Libreville, wild meat was 6 times the price of the cheapest livestock meat. Across a mix of rural and urban households in Madagascar, Jenkins et al. (2011) found that livestock meat was preferred over wild meat.Market price formation may be relatively competitive, with little evidence of information asymmetry. A market study in Cross River State, Nigeria, found that for common species such as cane rats and porcupines, transactions followed somewhat standard prices, and negotiation only affected prices if demand was unusually high (Eniang et al. 2008). The evidence on household returns to hunting are mixed at best shows some of the studies available which measure returns to hunting. In a study in Gabon, Abernathy and Obiang (2010) found that successful hunters can make up to USD 5/day, but only around 5% of households that hunt achieve these sorts of returns. Instead, 90% of hunters make less than USD 2/day for all sales averaged over the year. With relatively few wealthy households hunting most of the meat, and given that the average rural household income in Gabon (an upper-middle-income country) is around USD 12/day from all activities, wild meat hunting may be regarded as not being a major economic activity at the level of hunting households (Abernathy and Obiang 2010) -although value addition along the supply chain is more concentrated and so important for participating market actors. In general, however, they estimate that wild meat is a significant part of the rural economy, with nearly 80% of rural families dependent, in part at least, on the benefits.In spite of the case studies indicating relatively high economic importance to households in selected sites, the wider data does not confirm that level of importance more broadly. In a wide-ranging study using data from forest margin sites across Africa, Asia and Latin America, Nielsen et al. (2017) found that for those African households that reported hunting, overall wild meat income, including consumption, was about USD 55 per adult equivalent per year, although it was much higher in Latin America. That result meant that household reliance on hunting for total income was very low -about 1.9% on average of total household income in African sites, although the average was 4.3% for those households that generate cash from hunting versus those that only consume the meat. This cash versus consumption difference underlies the important differences in hunting for market versus hunting for home and community consumption. Nielsen et al. (2017) further found that among the African households sampled, the cash income was only 10.7% of total wild meat value, with the largest share by far being the consumption value of the meat. The authors suggest that some other studies of returns to hunting fail to estimate the subsistence value of hunting, thus inflating the cash returns in relative importance (e.g. Kümpel et al. 2010;Golden et al. 2014), even though the Nielsen et al. (2017) sample showed that some 40% of income for rural agricultural households is derived from consumption of their own products.Similarly, a study by Nielsen et al. (2018) across 24 countries found that wild meat comprised only 2%, on average, of household income, nearly all in the form of consumption. Along the same lines, Abernathy and Obiang (2010) found that hunters in Gabon sold about 40% of the animals they catch, comprising about 50% of the caught biomass, reflecting the market value of larger animals and the importance of household consumption. The same study estimated that wild meat supplied up to 90% of the protein consumed by more remote rural households and that other non-market hunting objectives were also important, including the traditional use of wild meat in ceremonies, which can increase hunting by up to 30% during certain seasons. In a study in one community in Congo which appears to be an outlier, de Mérode et al. ( 2004) found that wild meat and wild foods play a small role in household consumption but an important role in household income, with over 90% of both sold to the market. In a set of rural villages in Gabon, income from hunting was 15-72% of total household income, the highest found in the more remote communities (Starkey 2004, cited by Coad et al. 2010).Some studies in East and southern Africa have shown a more market-driven wild meat hunting system. For example, in Zimbabwe, Lindsey et al. (2011) found that wild meat hunting of large animals is conducted in or near protected wildlife areas, mainly by unemployed young men using dogs and/or snares. The wild meat was sold in nearby population centres, the cash in turn used mostly to purchase food, apparently reflecting the higher value of wild meat versus domestic meat alternatives. They found the key drivers of that wild meat trade to be poverty, unemployment and scarcity of food, but also weak enforcement or disincentives for poaching and so relatively good access to animals. Similarly, in Tanzania, Nielsen et al. (2016) found that wild meat hunting, again of large animals including buffalo and hippo, was commercialized and constituted a year-round economic activity. Cost-benefit ratios for hunters were estimated at less than 0.5, somewhat higher for traders and retailers along the supply chain. Inadequate or ineffective enforcement was a factor in access to large valuable animals, with the meat of some species such as bush pigs and warthogs obtaining premium prices. These cases illustrate that in settings where large valuable animals are accessible and market demand exists, largely commercial wild meat hunting can be the norm.The Nielsen et al. (2017) study is apparently the widest and most comprehensive examination across countries of wild meat hunting practices and the factors driving them, or at least associated with them, as well as the observed outcomes. They used a data set from the Poverty Environment Network 4 which was aimed at proximity to forests and forest margins.Greater importance of wild meat hunting in terms of prevalence and incomes was found to be associated with:• smaller and more remote communities (distance to district market and lower population density)• places with higher rainfall• communities in the middle of the cash income distribution• communities with few domestic animals• countries characterized by poor governance• countries with rising costs of living.On average in Africa, 51% of wild meat was derived from forests compared to agricultural and fallow land, grassland and swamps. However, the proportion of household wild meat income in cash was higher from forest than non-forest areas, which suggests that forest hunting is more commercialized and may be associated with larger-bodied and more marketable animals. However, the authors found only a weak correlation between wild meat income, including consumption, and wild meat trade. Greater use of wild meat for subsistence in non-forest areas may be associated with hunting for both pest control and consumption. The numbers of livestock kept was significantly and negatively correlated with both the prevalence of hunting and wild meat income at the community level, although Africa-specific results were not presented. This mirrors the data showing the importance of wild meat for subsistence, which apparently declines when livestock protein alternatives are more available.A study across 10 ecoregions of Tanzania, however, found that livestock-keeping was not significantly associated with wild meat consumption either way, although cattle-keeping and availability of sheep and goats were weakly associated with less frequent wild meat, and it is important to note that results differed by ethnic community (Ceppi and Nielsen 2014).Another study across 24 countries by Nielsen et al. (2018), however, found statistically strong evidence that reliance on livestock meat was associated with less reliance on wild meat. The presence of crop cultivation was not associated with reduced hunting, again suggesting the importance of animal-sourced portions for consumption even when staple crops are more available.Distance from the community to district market was associated with an increase in prevalence of wild meat hunting and in total wild meat income. However, distance to market was not associated with differences in level of wild meat trade (cash share of income). This suggests that in relatively remote rural areas, wild meat animals may be more available, but also that alternative rural enterprises may be less remunerative due lower market access. Increased human population density was associated with lower levels of wild meat hunting and importance but did increase the cash share of wild meat income suggesting that the presence of more people locally offered a better market for that wild meat which was caught. The authors found evidence that older settlements have depleted neighbouring wildlife populations, a long-term negative effect of increased human populations.In some sites there were controls or bans on wild meat hunting and trade, and generally natural resource management strategies which included forest lands. The authors (Nielsen 2017) looked at the association between a national corruption perception index and wild meat hunting and trade and found positive correlations. The immediate inference may be that corruption reduces the effectiveness of enforcement of any control or management strategy, but in addition poor governance is also likely to be associated with weak services and poor rural infrastructure, hampering alternative enterprises and increasing the reliance on natural resources, including wild meat.The links between household wealth and the importance of wild meat are complex. Nielsen et al. (2017) found that wealth in terms of land owned was correlated with increased wild meat income. Other studies have found a positive association between household size and assets and wild meat hunting and income, such as Coad (2007) who found that hunters were predominantly from the top half of households in terms of wealth. In a related study, Coad et al. (2010) found that hunting households were significantly wealthier than non-hunting households. Wealthier households, typically those with more land and in some cases more wives, may have access to better hunting equipment and may also have more labour and time available for specialized hunting. Nielsen et al. (2017) also found that a weak positive relationship between total income and wild meat income but also point out that like other environmental sources of income, wild meat income was unreliable. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bakkegaard et al. (2017) found evidence that larger households with greater assets showed greater risk-taking capacity associated with hunting. In one community in the Democratic Republic of Congo, de Mérode et al. ( 2004) found that households with a higher wealth index had better access to more and higher value wild meat, pointing to social and economic constraints. Nielsen et al. (2017) hypothesized that wild meat hunting and trade were likely to increase in times of economic stress, such as during periods of inflation in food prices. Their data set was not able to address that issue specifically but, based on other studies (e.g. Coad et al. 2010), they found evidence of a positive correlation between increased hunting and trade when food prices increase. The inference could be that during those periods the relative value of wild meat as a substitute to higher price domestic meat increased, thus providing new incentives for both additional hunting and for sales of wild meat.Based on studies such as Nielsen et al. (2017), the evidence suggests that wild meat is not essential to rural households generally as an income source, although exceptions can be seen in specific settings (East Africa, Nigeria, Indonesia) where there are high levels of trade, large species are available and wild meat consumption has unique cultural importance. However, wild meat appears to remain important to rural households, particularly the more remote, as a source of protein and micronutrients, particularly where livestock production is constrained by disease or not traditionally practiced.The prevalence of hunting among rural households varies enormously from near zero to almost universal, but across Africa on average of nearly half of households participate in some way. The returns to hunting vary a great deal depending on setting, markets, species and the type of hunting equipment available. The broadest analysis of the economics of hunting indicates mostly low returns generating a small proportion of income for most hunting households, except commercial hunters. As might be expected, hunting is most prevalent in more remote and rural areas. In those areas, where alternative proteins are few, hunting is largely for household or community consumption purposes. Non-forest lands such as agricultural land and savannahs are often as important as forests for wild meat supply. There is some evidence that the presence of livestock keeping and availability of low-cost livestock meat is associated with less hunting. Larger and wealthier households often hunt more often and more successfully due to access to labour and equipment. Meat consumption needs appear to be the main driver of wild meat hunting by most rural households, and even those which market wild meat retain a significant share for subsistence or community consumption.Actors, livelihoods and practices in the wild meat value chain Brown et al. (2007) point out the following characteristics of the wild meat value chains system.• Generally high social inclusivity due to few barriers to entry such as capital costs, relatively low risk and the fact that skills can be obtained through familial and community ties. Kinship networks can be important for market entry and access to credit and to low-cost family labour.• Wild meat value chains are composed of many stakeholders and actors, from hunters to traders (including long distance traders), to restaurants (chop bars) to venders/retailers and exporters.• Wild meat, when smoked, as it often is, can be stored for relatively long periods and is easily transportable and has a high value/weight ratio.Wild meat value chains as described in the literature are seen to vary widely and by market and environmental setting (Table 6). Participation in wild meat supply chains can be quite widespread. Abernathy and Obiang (2010) found that around 11% of all Gabonese families make some money from the wild meat trade in some way. In the many locations where wild meat is consumed mostly by hunting households or their communities, the chain is very short. Longer and more complex chains of three to four steps occur where market demand is more readily expressed due to access to urban markets. Commercial or farmer rural hunters may supply traders, who are often women operating along roads to urban centres, or wholesalers using vehicles and linked to restaurants (either simple road-side eateries (e.g. chop-bars) or higher-end specialty restaurants) or to retailers, either open air or in market stalls (also typically women) (Gideon 2014). Ethno-medicine sellers also play a role, and in Nigeria, Soaga et al. (2014) found that they outnumbered wild meat retailers. The importance of chop bars as the end of the value chain is highlighted in a number of studies in West and Central Africa (Cowlishaw et al. 2005;East et al. 2005;Brown et al. 2007). Commercial group hunters may deliver in bulk directly to middlemen (Eniang et al. 2008), and in South Africa, Martins and Shackleton (2019) reported no visible presence of wild meat markets, but instead hunting occurred on order from customers. Typically, market activities are largely unregulated, although retail marketers may pay local market licenses. In Cross River State, Nigeria, Eniang et al. (2008) found that market actors took steps to mitigate risks from authorities where trade was banned or restricted by relying on early morning and weekend sales by hunters to traders. However, these supply linkages are flexible and opportunistic and may not include all links in the chain. For example, in Lagos State, 74% of hunters sold exclusively to wholesalers or traders, but the rest sold directly to end consumers (Alade and Onadeko 2017). In Gabon, around half the catch was found to be commercialized, with a smaller share (18%) entering a recognized market chain -being sold at fixed wild meat markets. Much of it is sold by commission-order hunters or opportunistically on roadsides or to restaurants (Abernathy and Obiang 2010).In a study in Taraba State, Nigeria, which the author suggests is typical of many parts of West Africa, wholesalers comprise the smallest group of market actors but handle the largest per capita market share, with chop bars being the most numerous group accounting for 85% of retail sales (nearly all of the proprietors being women) (Gideon 2014). Kin support networks play an important role, such as with market entry; the author indicating that almost half of all wild meat traders inherit their business, use of low-cost family labour and also knowledge sharing and supply of credit. In an example of the estimated returns along the supply chain, Gally and Jeanmart (1996), cited by Wilkie and Carpenter (1999), traced the sale of three monkeys killed: the hunter achieved 30% profit from the sale, the trader 19% profit, and the restaurant 21% profit. This demonstrates that, as is typical in rural supply chains, a relatively small share accrues to the primary source, in this case the hunter. In Gabon, it was found that carcasses of wild meat may double in value between initial sale from the hunter and the price paid by retailers in the capital (Abernathy and Obiang 2010).Some of these occupations are side lines to other sources of incomes, including salaries. In Nigeria, Alade and Onadeko (2017) found that most traders had other occupations, such as working as civil servants, teachers or clothing merchants. This extends to hunters as well. Noutcha, Okiwelu et al. (2016) found that in Rivers State, Nigeria, nearly 70% of hunters were involved in other occupations and only 30% were unemployed before taking up hunting. More than 35% of vendors were civil servants. A study of determinants of income among wild meat traders in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, found that better educated males generated higher incomes than other traders (Jacob et al. 2018).Wild meat trading, at least for domestic markets, may nevertheless be regarded as a low status occupation, as Gideon (2014) points out for in Nigeria, but one that may depend on the level of individual achievement. The author also suggests that there is little evidence of market power by individuals or groups of market actors through collusion.These value chains are composed of a wide variety of actors pursuing several different livelihood opportunities, from rural hunters and traders to urban venders, retailers and roadside restaurants. These opportunities are often available to resource-poor individuals given the typically low costs of entry, but they often depend on kinship and other social networks to gain access and skills and to be economically viable. For many, these roles are sideline occupations and are sometimes seen as relatively low status except for more successful agents. Hunters are generally men, at least for the main larger species hunted, and are relatively young. Traders are both men and women and traditional processors (e.g. for smoking of animals), retailers and chop bar sellers tend to be women, depending on local cultural and social norms.The specifics of value chain interactions vary widely by location, by proximity to supply and demand areas and by types of species. In many if not most value chains, the bulk of wild meat supply does not enter recognized market chains but comprises direct sales to consumers and rural households and to travellers along roadsides. For wild meat which travels along the value chain to an urban area and is finally sold as a prepared meal, a third of the end value of the wild meat may accrue to the hunter, with the rest distributed along the value chain.In many ways, wild meat hunting and value chains can be seen to offer important positive opportunities for women. We have already reported the relative roles of men and women along different points of the value chain, although they vary by locale and system. In all zones, men are reported to do the bulk of the hunting, particularly the more commercial forms such as with guns. However, it is clear that women often play an important role in trapping of small animals such as birds (Ceppi and Nielsen 2014; Taylor et al. 2015) and in gathering other wild animal foods such as snails and insects.Among rural hunting households, although women's roles in hunting may be smaller, the access to wild meat has consequences for women and their children, the most obvious being the nutritional benefits (discussed in detail below).In a study in central Gabon, Coad et al. (2010) looked at the relationship between hunting, wealth and spending patterns and found that most purchases by women were of (non-wild meat) food but those purchases were lower in absolute terms and as a share of total purchases in households which hunted more. This reduced dependence on food purchases by women confirms the importance of the availability of wild meat, even if hunted by men, and that important benefits accrue to women.The largest economic role of women is, however, seen along the downstream parts of the value chain: as wholesale or retail vendors and processors, all of which comprise important value addition roles and livelihood opportunities. In a survey of community members in rural southern Cameroon, men reported being 39 times more likely to hunt than women and women were 2 times more likely to butcher than men, highlighting the latter's role post-harvest (LeBreton et al. 2006). As seen in Table 6, women typically comprise 50-100% of venders and sellers of wild meat, aged 30-50 years, with mixed educational levels. The relatively low barriers to entry to these enterprises in terms of capital requirements and women's access to social and kinship networks to make contacts and gain skills, along with the fact that food preparation and selling are often associated with women in many settings, means that wild meat value chains may offer better opportunities for women than other available enterprises.On average, per capita meat consumption globally has increased by approximately 20 kg since 1961, much of it in developing countries. The average person globally consumed around 43 kg of meat in 2014. Consumption trends across Africa are varied; some countries consume as little as 10 kg per person, around half of the continental average (Ritchie 2017). FAOSTAT data indicates that daily (annual) per capita livestock meat supply in Africa (in 2013, the most recent available) was on average 5.2 g (19 kg), ranging from a low of 3 g (11 kg) in East Africa, 3.5 g (12.8 kg) in West Africa, and 6.6 g (24 kg) in Central Africa to 16.4 g (60 kg) in southern Africa, where average incomes tend to be higher than much of the continent.A number of studies have estimated the overall importance of wild meat for consumption across parts of Africa, focusing particularly on rural households for which it is often a staple source of protein but some making urban estimates as well. As has been emphasized, wild meat provides an important protein, vitamin and energy source for many rural communities in Africa that have few alternatives. Estimates of wild meat consumption, which are not included in the FAOSTAT data, in comparison to livestock meat consumption, are remarkably high (Table 7). Wilkie and Carpenter (1999) carried out a review of studies in Central Africa and found that rural people consumed about 10 times as much wild meat as urban consumers but across the population the average was some 35 kg/capita per year, much higher than the average level of livestock meat consumption in the same countries and across nearly all of Africa. Other estimates for Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo found consumption as high as 100 kg/capita per year. It should be noted that some of these studies are based on hunting extraction rates and may reflect body weight rather than butchered meat, so may exaggerate amounts actually consumed. Nevertheless, the general levels of consumption, which are apparently confirmed by a number of studies, emphasize the enormous importance of wild meat as a source of food for many rural people in Africa. One estimate for the Congo Basin found that 30-80% of protein in rural communities was sourced from wild meat (Blaney 2008, cited by Coad et al. 2010). Urban consumers have greater choices of meat but may value wild meat for its traditional taste, cultural connotations and as a luxury food given its high cost in urban markets (Fa et al. 2009, cited in Kurpiers et al. 2016). However, there may be some product differentiation based on consumer demands and price.Wealth as a driver of wild meat consumption Van Vliet et al. (2015) found in the Democratic Republic of Congo that poorer urban households consume wild meat more often than wealthier ones but overall consumed less meat in general. Those poor urban households consumed common wild meat species more frequently, presumably due to price, while wealthier households more often ate larger, threatened species. In contrast, East et al. (2005) found no evidence in Equatorial Guinea of a luxury wild meat market based on rare species. A consumption study in Cameroon showed that wild meat is important in the diets of the poor and is not a luxury product eaten mainly by the rich. The study found that the poorest two quantiles in terms of income spent 16% and 17%, respectively, of their meat budgets on wild meat, versus 7% for the richest quartile and 9% overall (IITA, unpublished data, cited by Wolfe et al. 2005a). Meat budgets of the rich are likely to be significantly larger overall, but these data demonstrate the relative importance of wild meat for the poor. In Delta State, Nigeria, Ebewore et al. (2015) found that increased levels of education and income were associated with somewhat lower wild meat consumption.A taste test among consumers in Gabon by Schenck et al. (2006) (cited in Nasi et al. 2008) found that generally only poor rural people indicated a preference for wild meat; the study concluding that taste is not the primary determinant of demand. Respondents interviewed in market centres in Ghana by Kuukyi et al. (2014) were a mix of hunters, traders and consumers, 29% of whom indicated a preference for wild meat to domestic meat, 51% expressed no preference and 20% preferred domestic meat.In Equatorial Guinea, Fa, Juste et al. (2002) found that age and sex of the respondent did not affect wild meat consumption, but different ethnic groups reported statistically different preferences for species. The study concluded that consumption was driven mostly by availability (as did Ebewore et al. 2015) and that price of the meat did not appear to be a determinant. In the Manyara-Tangire ecosystem of Tanzania, close to conservation areas, the low price of readily available wild meat compared to livestock meat resulted in no wealth effect on consumption (Kiffner et al. 2015). In rural Gabon, Foerster et al. (2012) found that wild meat consumption per household member was higher in wealthier households and lower in households more removed from park boundaries. The level of consumption at the village level was lower in villages where wild meat was more valuable on average across species. Again, the indication is that a lack of alternative protein leads to higher wild meat consumption independent of household wealth.Wild meat as a source of protein Fa et al. (2003) suggests that up to 90% of animal protein consumption is comprised of wild meat in some West and Central African countries, with smaller but still important shares observed across all (cited in Kurpiers et al. 2016). Bennet (2000) estimated that in West Africa, 25% of protein consumption was of wild meat, and in Liberia the figure was as high as 75%. One estimate for Gabon, which is well known for consumption reliance on wild meat, found that about one quarter of meat came from wild sources (Ritchie 2017) but had declined from about 70% in the early 1960s. Also in Gabon, Abernathy and Obiang (2010) estimated that wild meat comprised up to 90% of the protein in the diet of some remote rural households. Specific localities can also be heavily reliant on wild meat, both in rural areas and nearby towns.In rural areas near Dja reserve in Cameroon, 98% of meat consumption was wild meat and 80% in the nearest town (Muchaal andNgandjui 1995, cited by Bowen-Jones et al. 2003). Wild meat and wild animals more generally are also used in many communities for medical purposes. Van Vliet et al.(2017) conducted a systematic review of evidence on the zootherapeutic uses of wild meat to either treat or prevent illnesses and identified studies conducted in India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Brazil and Colombia indicating the use of a total of 76 wild meat species. They reported that many different parts of the animals were used: the entire animal, the meat, various organs and inedible parts such as bird bills. Prepared with other ingredients from plants or other animal products, they were used to create medicinal products to treat a range of diseases.The consumption of wild meat is clearly important across many settings in Africa and is higher on average per capita than livestock meat consumption in some communities. These include forest zones of West and Central Africa and savannah areas of East and southern Africa, with significant but varying shares of households reporting regular consumption of wild meat. The links between wild meat consumption and household income and wealth are tenuous so that increased disposable income may or may not increase wild meat consumption. For many in more remote rural areas, wild meat is the lowest cost form of animal protein, but for some urban consumers it is a relatively high-priced luxury item. There is some evidence in some regions, for example, West Africa, of lower preference for wild meat consumption among younger people, which might point to reduced demand in future as diets modernize and increasingly westernize.Wild foods generally are important in many settings. Hickey et al. (2016) examined a database from rural households in 24 developing countries across three continents, and found that 77% of households collected wild foods. The wild foods, however, comprised only 4% of total household income, although the share was higher in poorer households. State land was the main source of wild foods in forests, while private lands such as farmland were most important elsewhere. The study by Nielsen et al. (2017) showed that low diversity and availability of wild animals has been linked to child stunting in Central Africa and points out that even though restricting hunting may have limited impact on incomes, it is likely to impart child nutrition.Given the demonstrated importance of wild meat in the diets of many people and communities across Africa and the generally high nutritional content of animal protein, it is likely that access to wild meat will have implications for food and nutritional security. One estimate found that the average protein content of wild meat is around 30% (Ntiamoa-Baidu 1997, cited by Nasi et al. 2008). Cawthorn and Hoffman (2015) assembled nutritional composition data for meat from a range of wild meat species and found protein values of 17-26% among African antelopes and a high of 45% in porcupine.In terms of energy, while some species are low in fat (e.g. monkeys), others, such as rodents, have a high energy density (Cawthorn and Hoffman 2015). In many African forest settings in particular, where disease threats to ruminants are many, dairy production is not generally practiced so milk is often not available as an alternative.Nasi et al. ( 2008) reviewed the literature on wild meat contributions to diet and found that in at least 62 countries, wildlife and fish contribute at least 20% of the animal protein in rural households' diets, providing calories, essential proteins, fats and micronutrients. 5 De Mérode et al. ( 2004) suggest that wild meat does not make a major contribution to nutrition in poor forest households.Seasonal food security may also depend on wild meat, with several studies showing that hunting and reliance on wild meat increases during the dry or lean seasons when other food sources are scarce (Lindsey et al. 2011 in Zimbabwe; Alade and Onadeko 2017 in Nigeria) Wild meat can provide a general consumption safety net in times of economic hardship and community emergency or shock situations or for migrant workers without the time to plant (Cawthorn and Hoffman 2015).A study specifically aimed at examining the implications of wild meat consumption for household food security indicators was conducted by Friant et al. (2020). Interviews near Cross River National Park in Nigeria found 75% of households experience some degree of food insecurity related to food access. Animal foods were the most common items obtained from the forest. Wild meat consumption was significantly associated with higher household food security status, with rodents playing a particularly important role. Food-secure households consumed more wild meat, but food-insecure households consumed a greater variety of species. They concluded that, in that setting at least, the consumption of wild meat, especially rodents, was uniquely related to improved food security.One study looked closely at stunting among children in rural areas across Central Africa and found that households closer to denser and species-diverse forest settings, which were also more remote from urban areas, exhibited lower levels of stunting. Households in less dense and less animal-diverse settings exhibited more stunting (Fa et al. 2015), suggesting a direct role of availability of wild meat for children's consumption in reducing stunting.Efforts to reduce hunting for consumption in places where meat and protein alternatives are not available and affordable may lead to increased malnutrition in children, leading not just to stunting but to long-term negative effects on cognitive development.5. Nasi et al. (2008) point to Hladik et al. (1996) and Froment et al. (1996) for a comprehensive review of the importance of wildlife for nutrition.In many rural African settings, wild meat continues to play an important role as a source of high-quality animal-source food, rich in protein and micronutrients. This is particularly important in more remote settings and close to protected areas, where wild meat is more available and alternative animal proteins are scarce. Small animals such as rodents may play an important part of the wild meat supply, which may be sustained even in degraded environments and farming landscapes. Efforts to mitigate hunting and/or the consumption of wild meat to avoid zoonotic risk need to be balanced with the nutritional role that wild meat may play in rural households.Recent outbreaks of zoonotic disease epidemics/pandemics among people have centred attention on the role of the marketing and handling of wild animals either for wild meat or for medicinal, cultural and recreational purposes. However, the consensus is that such disease risks are more broadly a result of a wider set of actions: that human exploitation of the environment, as well as increased trade links, leads to increased incidence of animal-human contact via multiple channels (IPBES 2019). Globalization and the interconnectedness of markets and the freer movements of people driven by increased South-South investments and business, such as between China and Africa, all lead to increased incentives for movement of animals and thus opportunities for disease spillovers (Brashares et al. 2011;Kurpiers et al. 2016).Increased road infrastructure for logging and general rural development in previously remote areas leads to greater ease of rural-urban movement of people and animals but also leads to environmental degradation and the intrusion of human habitation into wildlife-rich zones, increasing human-animal contact. Kurpiers et al. (2016) cite several studies which provide evidence of the link between infectious diseases and land-use changes and associated fragmentation of habitats (Gottdenker et al. 2014, cited by Kurpiers et al. 2016;Maganga et al. 2014) A recent study found that increases in outbreaks of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases in tropical countries between 1990 and 2016 were linked to deforestation (Morand and Lajaunie 2021). Human-managed landscapes appear to harbour greater zoonotic risk than undisturbed natural environments. Gibb et al. (2020) found that known wildlife hosts of zoonotic diseases were more abundant in secondary forests and agricultural systems than in undisturbed habitats and that that effect is most strongly associated with the presence of rodent, bat and passerine bird species.Extraction of high-value species may sustain greater diversity of wildlife and the diversity of zoonotic pathogens (Wolfe et al. 2005a). Hunting that alters the wildlife species mix may also change zoonotic hazards. For example, a reduction in large species may lead to more hunting of and even population growth of rodents, which are more likely to represent zoonotic disease risks given that the order Rodentia has the largest number of zoonotic hosts (Ripple et al. 2016;Johnson et al. 2020). A study of a database of 58 studies in eight countries found that rodent reservoirs were significantly more abundant in human-modified habitats (Mendoza et al. 2019).International trade in wildlife can cause the emergence of viruses and other pathogens in areas far outside their natural range (Karesh et al. 2005, cited in Daszak et al. 2007). This was demonstrated when retroviruses and herpesviruses 6 were found in confiscated primates at American airports (Smith et al. 2012, cited in Kurpiers et al. 2016). Contributing to this risk is the fact that carcasses can carry viable pathogens for an extended period. Prescott et al. (2015) demonstrated that the Ebola virus remains viable on monkey carcasses for at least seven days.6. E.g. simian foamy virus and cytomegalovirus and lymphocryptovirus.Further factors affecting the zoonotic risk Wolfe et al. (2005a) describe three factors which largely shape the risk of emergence of new zoonotic pathogens from wildlife: a) the existing 'zoonotic pool', which is the diversity of wildlife microbes in a region; b) the effects of environmental change on the prevalence of pathogens in wild populations, particularly those related to human activities such as deforestation and agricultural expansion; and c) the frequency of human and domestic animal contact with wildlife reservoirs of potential zoonoses. The second and third of these factors are directly linked to rural development of land use and to markets and related infrastructure.The main avenues by which zoonotic diseases can be transmitted, 'spill', between animals and humans are also described by Wolfe et al. (2005b): a) via shared disease vectors, such as mosquitoes in the case of malaria; b) through indirect contact in a shared environment, such as exposure to rodent faeces; or c) through direct contact by people with animals through consumption, animal bites, scratches, body fluids, tissues and excrement. Some analysis suggests that consumption of wild meat is less of a pathway for disease spillover and that the main risks are actually through exposure to animal body fluids and faeces during handling and butchering (Kilonzo et al. 2014, cited by Kurpiers et al. 2016).A large proportion of wild meat is smoked shortly after harvest, including entire carcasses, mainly to preserve the product against decay. Whether or not these practices reduce the hazards or risks from viruses is not clear, and at least one study suggests that there are no reliable data on the issue (European Food Safety Authority, 2014).Many animal pathogens which are transmitted to humans are not further transmitted between humans or do so at a low rate which does not allow the pathogen to be established in the population. This apparently common phenomenon is described as 'viral chatter'. Genetic sequencing of samples of HIV-1 and HIV-2, for example, indicate that there may have been up to 10 prior animal-to-human transmissions over many decades before the human epidemic occurred (Wolfe et al. 2005b).The point when a new pathogen persists in the human population is the next stage of zoonotic risk (Daszak et al. 2007). That persistence of pathogens has led to an estimated 33% of zoonotic pathogens to be transmissible between humans (Taylor et al. 2001), but the resulting share of new emerging infectious diseases in humans from zoonoses is larger than that. An analysis of a database of 335 emerging infectious disease origin events between 1940 and 2004 by Jones et al. (2008) found that they rose in frequency over that time, peaking around the HIV epidemic in the 1980s. Some 60% of those events were zoonotic in origin, with just over 70% of those originating in wildlife rather than domestic or companion animals, a trend which increased during this period. Just over half (54.3%) were caused by bacteria or rickettsia; however, they listed every drug-resistant strain as a separate pathogen, thus increasing that percentage. They found that viral or prion pathogens constituted some 25% of the recorded emerging infectious disease events. Jones et al. (2008) tested whether the increase in emerging infectious diseases over time could have been a result of improved reporting of infectious diseases resulting from improved diagnostics or surveillance. Controlling for reporting by using numbers of published articles, they still found a significant and positive relationship with time, suggesting that global emerging infectious disease threats are increasing. They also found that the number of emerging infectious disease events originating in wildlife also increased significantly with time and represented 52% of events in the most recent decade available (1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000). They similarly report an increase in vector-borne emerging infectious disease events (29% in the last decade), which they hypothesize could be associated with changes in the environment resulting from climate change and other human-associated factors. Finally, emerging infectious disease events associated with drug-resistant microbes (21% overall) also increased over time, probably as a result of increased use of anti-microbial drugs. Jones et al. (2008) went on to examine spatial patterns of emerging infectious disease events and found that overall the highest concentrations were not in the tropics but rather in the 30-60 degrees north latitude and 30-40 degrees south, probably as a result of human population densities and use of anti-microbial drugs. Of interest from a wild meat perspective, zoonotic emerging infectious diseases originating from wildlife were associated with human population density (but not with population growth) and particularly with the richness of wildlife species density, irrespective of latitude or rainfall, an association also reported by Gibb et al. (2020). As expected, these results suggest that increased co-location and interaction generally between people and wildlife is a key driver of zoonotic emerging infectious diseases. They conclude that wildlife-derived emerging infectious diseases constitute the largest growing threat to global health of all emerging infectious diseases, and that efforts to reduce human activity in wildlife-rich areas will mitigate some of that threat. The role of wild meat hunting, consumption and marketing is clearly central to that threat.Wild meat hunting, trade and consumption are just one set of factors driving zoonotic spillovers from wild animals, others being greater human-animal contact through expansion of human populations, roads and logging activities, and environmental degradation. Spillovers can occur through shared vectors, such as mosquitoes, indirect contact in a shared environment, such as via animal faeces, and direct contact through wild meat consumption, animal bites and exposure to blood and fluids while handling and butchering both wild meat and pets or animals traded live. Many zoonotic transmission events do not lead to further transmission among humans, but repeated transmissions have led to that outcome. An analysis of emerging infectious disease events over several decades found that 60% were zoonotic in origin, with 70% of those originating in wildlife. Bacteria comprised just over half of emerging infectious disease events, with 25% resulting from viral/prion pathogens. Emerging infectious disease events have been increasing over time. Spatial analysis of emerging infectious disease events show that zoonotic events linked to wildlife were associated with both human population density and wildlife species density.Although a wide variety of pathogens pose zoonotic risks, including bacteria and various parasites, much of the attention on risks through wild meat seems to be focused on viruses. Kurpiers et al. (2016) provide an extensive list based on a review of studies of pathogens in wildlife and indicate the associated animal species, ranging from viruses to protozoa to bacteria and helminths. LeBreton et al. (2012) highlight the key viruses of interest as simian immunodeficiency virus, human T-cell lymphotropic virus, simian foamy virus, monkeypox virus, Ebola and Marburg filoviruses, anthrax, herpes viruses, hepatitis viruses and paramyxoviruses.The groups of species which are recognized to play important roles as sources of zoonoses include primates of course, whose genetic similarities with humans may facilitate spillover of disease, as well as bats and rodents, which have high zoonotic viral richness (Friant et al. 2015;Johnson et al. 2020). Wolfe et al. (2005a) described three criteria which may predict which microbes, although apparently referring specifically to viruses, are most likely to emerge as emerging infectious diseases. These include microbes that have a proven ability to a) lead to human pandemics, b) lead to panzootics in (non-human) animal populations, and c) mutate at high rates and recombine with other similar or dissimilar microbes. The high mutation rates of ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses and their predominance within zoonotic emerging infectious diseases that are transmitted from human to human suggest that this group is a key candidate for future emergence. Simian foamy viruses are members of this group, and the high rates of viral chatter observed in Cameroon suggest a strong potential for their emergence as a human-to-human transmitted pathogen.While the above factors of increased human-animal interaction are general drivers of zoonotic transmission, the actual pathways lie at a more granular level in the types of practices which lead people to be directly exposed to pathogens in wild animals. Evidence suggests that that Exposure takes place not only among wild meat hunters and immediate consumers, but also those who butcher animals and handle meat. where transmission can be facilitated as a result of bites, cuts and other exposures to fluids or tissue (Wolfe et al. 2005a). Outside the wild meat value chain, handling of animals and their parts destined for markets for medicinal uses and as exotic pets presents similar risks.Butchering Kurpiers et al. (2016) suggest that the greatest risk of disease transmission occurs during the butchering of animals, which may include skinning, removal of organs and cutting up of the meat. More people butcher than hunt animals (83% and 42%, respectively), in a study by LeBreton et al. (2006) in Cameroon, and since butchering involves the use of sharp tools, cuts to practitioners may occur during the process, increasing risks. In Sierra Leone, a survey by Subramanian (2012) of rural wild meat hunters and traders found that 38% of respondents cut themselves on a regular basis during butchering, and that women are especially at risk of disease transmission since they more often undertake butchering and food preparation than men, although in other settings men are more likely to undertake initial dismembering. The same study also found that 24% of respondents reported awareness of disease transmission risk to humans from animals. Kamins et al. (2015) found that respondents who participated in butchering associated less risk from wild animal contact and consumption than those who did not, suggesting some rationalization of their practices (cited by Kurpiers et al. 2016).Interestingly, a study in Guyana found that indigenous hunters did not regard cuts during animal butchering as injuries, further reducing the perception of disease transmission risk (Milstein et al. 2021).Changing these wild meat practices may require some understanding by wild meat value chain actors of disease transmission and awareness of the risks associated, not just with specific practices but with specific species of wildlife. The evidence of the levels of this type of awareness is mixed.In a survey of wild meat hunters and women cooks in Uganda, both types of respondents indicated that primates were the most likely to carry diseases that pose risks to people. However, neither group took precautions while handling wild meat and regarded gastro-intestinal disease as the greatest risk. Most women cooks did not believe that hunters and traders disguised primate meat as something else, but most hunters indicated that they usually disguised primate meat, thus increasing risks from those pathogens more common in primates (Dell et al. 2020).Similar results were found by Subramaniam (2012) in Sierra Leone, who found that 24% of wild meat hunters and traders had some knowledge of disease risk to people from animals, a level of awareness which did not vary by degree of formal education.Again, those actors involved in preparation and trading of wild meat were more likely to report accidental cuts to themselves than those who were primarily hunters. Although bats are known by science to be carriers of zoonotic diseases, that fact is not necessarily perceived in indigenous knowledge systems. A study by Kamins et al. (2015) of hunters, sellers and consumers of straw-coloured fruit bats found little perception of disease risk, except among those who did not consume them.At market centres in Ghana, a survey of wild meat hunters, traders and consumers found that just over 50% were aware of the possibility of zoonotic diseases from wild meat consumption, but 33% were not aware. Of those aware, Ebola was cited most commonly, with a few citing anthrax. Nearly half had obtained information through radio on zoonotic disease risk from wild meat , but a third had not received such information from any source (Kuukyi et al. 2014).In a study in Western Uganda, Paige et al. (2014) examined both general injuries from animals and contacts with primates. Most animal injuries were dog bites. Among those reporting physical contact with primates (mostly red colobus monkeys), 77% involved touching a carcass, 20% butchering, 10% hunting and 10% touching a live primate. Statistical analysis indicated that men who lived adjacent to forest fragments were at higher risk of primate contact.Participants living close the Taï National Park in Côte d'Ivoire were surveyed to understand the risks through contacts with non-human primates (Mossoun et al. 2015). Monkeys were cited much more frequently than chimpanzees, reflecting availability and hunting effort. Overall contact rates were high and increased as a proportion of respondents along the value chain. For example, some 8% reported hunting primates, while about 60% reported consumption of the meat. In addition, 17% indicated interaction with primate pets. As in the Uganda case, men were at highest risk of contact with primates. The analysis suggested that unlike in some other studies, men were reported to also be more likely to carry out the initial dismembering and butchering, thus increasing their disease risk. The authors cite Paige et al. (2014) as showing similar risks to men, in particular in Cameroon.A survey of both hunters and non-hunters among rural communities in eastern Nigeria near forest reserves assessed the factors which influenced the zoonotic disease risks associated with hunting of wild meat and levels of risk awareness (Friant et al. 2015). Risky behaviours that were reported included butchering (37%), being injured by animals (14%), using body parts for traditional medicine (19%), collecting carcasses found in forest or farms (18%) and keeping wild animals as pets (16%). The main species hunted ranged from rodents (the most frequent response, 95% of respondents), to ungulates, carnivores, primates and, interestingly, because they do not appear in many market surveys, 43% reported hunting bats, particularly younger hunters. Hunters came into contact with wildlife significantly more often than nonhunters, including through pathways not associated with hunting. Increased contact with wildlife was associated with hunting at night, and/or hunting with guns or dogs.In terms of level of awareness of disease risk, 55% of respondents (both hunters and non-hunters) indicated awareness of wildlife zoonoses via broadcast news, forestry/conservation workers or by word of mouth. Of those who indicated awareness, however, only 26% reported taking measures to mitigate risks, including avoiding eating wild meat, touching blood, or eating fruit from trees where monkeys had been feeding. Only 5% of respondents reported the use of safer meat-handling practices, such as cleaning or cooking meat well before eating. A few indicated the use of additional clothing or gloves when in contact with animals. About a third reported using traditional and/or commercial medicine as a treatment or prophylaxis. Diseases which respondents believed posed risk from animals included HIV as the most cited (over half), followed by cough and malaria. The species they believed posed most risk were monkeys (55% of respondents), pythons and pigs among others, with only 7% indicating chimpanzees.A similar study was carried out in 17 rural villages in southern Cameroon to understand disease-risk-related practices and level of risk awareness among community members, irrespective of hunting habits (LeBreton et al. 2006). Hunting in the area was reported to be mainly for local consumption given the remote setting and poor market access. The proportion of the communities indicating habits associated with zoonotic risk was quite high, with nearly all (98%) of respondents reporting eating wild meat, 83% reporting butchering and 42% reporting hunting. A large proportion of respondents (74%) also reported awareness of disease risk associated with contact with animal blood or body fluids. Despite that level of awareness, only a negligible proportion of respondents (4% of hunters and 2% of those butchering) reported taking any precautions to mitigate risks, mainly by simply being careful and washing hands. Curiously, individuals who perceived disease risk were 27% more likely to butcher wild animals, presumably driven by livelihood necessities despite risk awareness.Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus has garnered global attention due to its disturbingly high mortality outcomes, and outbreaks of the disease in humans have repeatedly been linked to the handling and, potentially, the consumption of infected apes (Leroy et al. 2004). A recent study (Onyekuru et al. 2020) examined risk perceptions and practices associated with the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which they describe as one of the longest, deadliest and most complex epidemics documented. Consumption of wild meat from primates was believed to have played a central role, although fruit bats have been indicated as the primary host, with the disease transmitted to primates through bat droppings, among other pathways (FAO 2014). The authors surveyed wild meat sellers and consumers in Nigeria for practices and risk perceptions during and after the Ebola outbreak. They found a significant decrease in the levels of sales and consumption of wild meat during the outbreak, including reported zero sales or zero consumption in some cases.Women were 25% more likely than men to consume wild meat during the outbreak, for reasons that were not identified. Before the outbreak, about a quarter of respondents did not perceive eating wild meat as posing Ebola disease risk, but that increased to nearly half after the outbreak. Risk was associated instead as primarily due to touching an infected person. Respondents were aware of some practices that help to prevent Ebola transmission, but these related almost entirely to mitigating risks through human contact, and there was little to no awareness of risk avoidance practices related to wild meat, and respondents reportedly did not practice them to any significant extent.These results suggest a relatively low level of awareness of zoonotic risks, in addition to even less frequency of changes in behaviour, if any, to mitigate risks among those with some awareness. There is some evidence, however, that information campaigns by radio, for example, could create greater awareness, if only at a superficial level. Similar to risk mitigation of food-borne zoonoses in general, an approach consisting of both educational and infrastructural improvements is likely to be required to empower actors to take risk mitigation steps (GAIN 2020).There is some level of awareness of zoonotic disease risk to people from wildlife and wild meat in hunting and consuming communities, and public information broadcasting seems to have some impact on raising awareness. Much of the awareness seems to be associated with high-profile diseases such as Ebola, and it is uncertain to what extent more general disease risks are understood. Despite some significant degree of potential disease risk, studies show very low levels of use of safe habits in handling of wildlife and wild meat, in addition to a lack of understanding of which practices can be effective. Some studies show higher disease risks to men, given their exposure through hunting and initial handling, while others suggest greater risks for women through preparation and marketing of wild meat. There is also significant misunderstanding of both which diseases present risks (e.g. misperception of malaria risk from animals) and which species of wildlife are most risky to handle and eat.The evidence that has been presented regarding the key factors driving the continued hunting of wild meat shows clearly that the limited availability of alternative sources of meat and protein are among the most important reasons for hunting. Additionally, in much of the forest and forest margin areas across Africa, there is a very problematic animal disease environment, especially for ruminants, largely due to the endemic presence of trypanosomiasis, but also to other diseases, such as lumpy skin disease, East Coast fever, and the frequent and lethal outbreaks of African swine fever in pigs and Newcastle disease in chickens. Partly as a result, there is little-to-no indigenous tradition of livestock keeping in many West and Central African societies, apart from relatively small numbers of adapted breeds of animals poorly fed under scavenging conditions with high rates of mortality and low levels of productivity and in frequent conflict with crop growing due to the typical absence of fencing (Nasi et al. 2008). The sustainable production and supply of alternative meat and protein sources are thus very likely to be an important feature of any integrated strategy to reduce the hunting of wild animals.Given the constraints to livestock production in some settings and the adaptive characteristics of wild meat animals to local practices, diseases and feed resources, one option for increasing the supply of animal protein is to promote the development of wild species farming.The best-known examples of farmed wild animals are cane rats (Thryonomys spp) also called grasscutters; however, giant African snails (Achatina spp) and even porcupines and duikers are farmed in West and Central Africa (Steel 1994, cited in Wilkie andCarpenter 1999). Capybara (Hydrochoerus spp) have been successfully farmed in South America. In Southeast Asia, many other species are farmed for meat including indigenous deer and pigs and snakes/reptiles. Game ranching has long been a feature of some East and southern African systems, typically various species of antelopes for markets, often jointly with raising livestock. Some farmed species are raised specifically for markets, often for high-end specialty restaurants, or tourist outlets in the case of game ranching. Game ranching as a separate enterprise has, however, in some cases proved to be uneconomic unless premium prices are available from tourist outlets (Kenya) (Wilkie and Carpenter 1999), or where alternative commercialization opportunities exist such as ecotourism, trophy hunting or live animal sales as seen in South Africa (Musengezi 2010).Here we describe species which may be best suited for alternative protein supply in African forest margin settings, where wild meat hunting is arguably most prevalent.Two species of cane rats are found in the rainforest and savannah zones of West and Central Africa. These are strongly built rodents which feed on roots and stems of grasses and valuable crops such as sugarcane, rice, maize and cassava. In the wild they can reach up to 60 inches in length and 10 kg in weight, although farmed animals are typically smaller when harvested. Controlling their pest behaviour, in addition to sourcing meat, has long been an incentive for hunting cane rats through trapping, shooting, etc. (Fayenuwo and Akande 2002). Even before the development of systems for farming cane rats, they have played an important wild meat role. Somewhat dated estimates suggest that annual hunting of cane rat in Benin amounted to 500 mt, and in Ghana 70% of the estimated wild meat revenue of USD 247 million in 1997 was thought to be derived from cane rats (Fayenuwo and Akande 2002). Now, with the addition of small-scale and even commercialized cane rat farming, the species has increased in value and importance.Cane rat farming has been well established in parts of West Africa, building on previous traditions of sometimes capturing and fattening the wild animals. They can be reared with relatively low capital outlay or intensively in cages and fed Napier grass and agricultural scraps and food wastes (Wilkie and Carpenter 1999). They are prolific, reaching sexual maturity at six months, with females producing at least one litter per year of three to six young (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_ rat). The meat has higher protein and lower fat content than livestock meat, and the tastes suit those consumers with a tradition of wild meat consumption. Analysis by Chardonnet et al. (2002) of cane rat farming shows higher returns than poultry or rabbit production and was comparable to the most profitable cropping enterprises. Promotion by extension services of cane rat production has been observed in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_rat).Studies of commercial cane rat 'colonies' in Ghana and Nigeria, each of which raised up to and over 90 animals at a time, found a number of constraints as well as relatively high farmer dropout rates. Difficulties encountered included lack of training on management practices and housing design, feeding and health management, sex determination and the acquisition of initial stock (Adu et al. 1999;Anamayi et al. 2018). Considerable investment has been made into improvement of stock through selective breeding (Jori et al. 1995), particularly in Benin in collaboration with Germany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_rat), but it is recognized that research needs to continue into all aspects of the productivity of captive cane rats (Adu et al. 1999).The farming of capybara, a large rodent native to semi-aquatic settings in hot and humid lowlands in Latin America, is well established. Breeding programs started in the 1970s have generated foundation stock of suitable genotypes for farming. When domesticated they are easily handled and can be raised on a variety of vegetation, including grasses such as Napier grass supplemented with concentrates. They thrive in high-temperature settings where some livestock species are constrained. Annual productivity may exceed that of cattle in their native range. The white meat produced contains only 4.5% fat but 25% crude protein. Females reach sexual maturity at about 1.5 years, and offspring can reach a live weight of more than 40 kg in about 18 months. However, limitations include aggression and disease among animals housed together and the need for access to a semi-aquatic environment. They are also susceptible to brucellosis and Trypanosoma evansi and may harbour foot and mouth disease. There is no clear evidence that farming of capybara has been established to any extent in Africa, but it may remain an option to be explored (Moreira et al. 2012).The farming of giant African snails is a relatively well-established enterprise in parts of Africa. Growing to over a foot in length, they have long been part of the harvested meat supply in relatively moist areas of the continent. They require little capital investment or space requirements, and labour requirements are minimal, so the enterprise is suitable to the resource poor and even those with disabilities (Agbogidi and Okonta 2011). They can subsist and grow on a wide variety of household food waste, crop residues, vegetables and fruits. In many settings, such as in Nigeria, they are regarded as a nutritious delicacy and are ascribed a number of medicinal and cultural/social values (Abdogigi and Okonta 2011)At least in terms of mammals, the evidence is relatively clear that farmed wild species are generally less productive than domesticated animals, which of course have been bred for centuries for productivity, disease resistance, docility and reproductive traits. Feer (1993, cited by Wilkie andCarpenter 1999) asserts that in terms of meat productivity, pigs are more productive than local cattle, which are in turn more productive than cane rats or duikers. The decision as to whether to promote domestic livestock species or some proven farmed wild species will largely depend on local preferences, tastes and demand but also, importantly, on the disease challenge for domesticated species and whether local traditions exist for animal husbandry beyond simple scavenging systems.Farming of wildlife species which are also targeted for conservation creates another risk in that the markets for farmed animals may be infiltrated by wild-caught animals and their products sold as farm sourced. Thus, the development of markets for farmed wild animals could contribute inadvertently to increased hunting of the same or related species, threatening conservation status and potentially contributing to zoonotic risks. Similarly, expansion of a market for a particular species that may have been relatively small previously may increase overall demand for the species. A study in Vietnam found that farming of wild species was not an effective tool in reducing demand for illegal wildlife products (including in this case bear bile) and may instead stimulate greater demand for wild-sourced products (Drury 2009).Some types of mini livestock, or micro livestock could be considered as an alternative means of increasing protein supply in rural communities and potentially easing the pressure on wild meat hunting.Species that are considered as mini livestock, such as rabbits, are typically characterized by a high reproduction rate and so can provide at least some meat in a relatively short period of time. They may also complement and integrate well into agricultural and household systems by making use of household and farm waste for feed and providing manure for vegetables, etc. Keeping of rabbits has been demonstrated effectively in Cameroon, especially in areas where wild meat is already scarce (HPI 1996, cited by Wilkie andCarpenter 1999). Since such species have a long history of domestication, they also offer the advantage that methods of husbandry and veterinary care are well established. In addition, many small stock are kept and managed largely by women and youth, offering potential benefits to them. Mini livestock also have the advantage of resembling in some ways the wild meat species they are meant to replace in terms of size and morphology, which means that they fit well with traditional dishes and cooking practices. Where they suit local systems, tastes and practices, the promotion of mini livestock may, however, require some change in mindset among public officials, investors and veterinarians away from the traditional livestock which have typically been the basis of their training and experience.Cavies, also known as guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus), are a rodent native to South America that are a well-document as an established mini livestock species in parts of Africa where wild meat has otherwise been a source of protein. They are well establishedIn eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over two million animals are estimated to be regularly kept by hundreds of thousands of households in both rural and urban areas, possibly as many as half of all farmers (Maass et al. 2014;Klapwijk et al. 2020). They are also raised in Cameroon (about half a million animals (Odenthal 2019)), and in both regions were apparently introduced some decades ago through NGO and development agency efforts, in some cases as part of 'rehabilitation kits' in conflict-affected areas. Those conflicts also contributed to livestock destocking and deforestation, reducing the supplies of both domestic meat and wild meat, so providing further incentives for raising cavies (Draulans andVan Krunkelsven 2002, cited by Maass et al. 2014;Klapwijk et al. 2020). Their suitability as a replacement for wild meat in the local diet is demonstrated by adaptations of traditional Democratic Republic of Congo recipes, such as 'smoked cavy in groundnut sauce' and 'cavy in tomato sauce' (Celtnet 2013, cited by Maass et al. 2014). Home consumption is reported as the main incentive for keeping cavies, but they are also sold, and sometimes raised by youth for income generation or, more generally, by women in the households (Niba et al. 2012;Klapwijk et al. 2020). A study in the Democratic Republic of Congo found that poorer households in particular participated more in marketing of cavies compared to wealthier households, suggesting both protein consumption and income-generating objectives.Cavy manure, which is relatively dry and rich in nitrogen, is valued by some for horticulture, and there are beliefs of medicinal benefits associated with their consumption (Mugisho 1995, cited by Maass et al. 2014).Reflecting their productivity, in a study of cavy production among smallholders in the western highlands of Cameroon, Manjeli et al. (1998) documented reproduction rates of just over nine kids per doe per year, and average weight at 15 weeks of over 400 g, with males being larger. Cavies are easily fed since they eat a range of grasses and vegetation, as well as kitchen and farm waste. They are often raised in a semi-scavenging manner as they remain close to the homestead. There remain considerable constraints to sustainable production. Mortality rates among young animals are high if birth weights are low due to inadequate feeding of pregnant females. Large, higher productivity breeds imported from South America to Cameroon were apparently not observed within the target communities a few years later, suggesting inadequate local expertise to manage these improved breeds (Niba et al. 2012). In South Kivu, farmers reported constraints due to lack of knowledge of breeding and feeding, as well as predation and theft, which the use of cages by some farmers was able to mitigate (Klapwijk et al. 2020).Although constraints exist, the significant presence of cavy culture in several parts of Africa suggests that for some vulnerable households, raising these mini livestock may be an affordable way to mitigate malnutrition and provide income for rural women and their families while potentially reducing demand for wild meat. The significant experience and wealth of research on commercial cavy production in South America could be a resource that could be applied in more African settings.As an alternative protein source to wild meat, some mention should be made of the potential for aquaculture, more specifically fish raised by smallholders in stream-fed ponds in a semi-intensive manner. In the relatively moist tropics where wild meat hunting is important, the relative abundance of surface water not only makes aquaculture generally feasible, but guarantees that consumption of fish is a cultural tradition. The most common aquaculture species across Central Africa is Nile tilapia, although often raised in combination with higher-market-value African catfish (Clarius), sometime inadvertently due to the latter's ability to migrate to ponds across land. Feeding is generally a combination of fertilizing ponds with compost to create an algal bloom, supplemented with brewers' waste, cassava leaves, rice bran and even wild termites. Tilapia reproduce prolifically, often leading to overstocking, which is controlled by regularly draining ponds and by the presence of catfish. Smallholder aquaculture development programs are found across a number of African countries and could be considered wherever protein alternatives to wild meat are viewed as part of the effort to mitigate hunting (Gupta and Acosta 2004;Toguyeni 2004).This section addresses the various strategies which have been developed and implemented to ban, limit or control the hunting of wild meat, with a focus on Africa. Most of these have as their objective the conservation of wildlife for purposes of retaining biodiversity, for tourism, and in compliance with international agreements on restricting trade in endangered species under CITES. In some cases -such as banning the hunting of primates, especially apes -restricting the spread of zoonotic diseases is also an objective.Reviews of wildlife legislation, including implications for wild meat, find that the objective of conservation of important or vulnerable wildlife species is typically approached through the designation of protected areas or through species-specific regulations against hunting and marketing (Brown andEgbe 2003, cited by Brown et al. 2007;Ly and Bello 2002. This sort of 'fortress conservation' was typical of the 20 th century (Noutcha et al. 2016) and has been characterized by some as addressing the symptoms of the problem, which include wild meat hunting, but not the root causes (Rentsch and Damon 2013).Such legislation typically does not include a regulatory framework for managing sustainable harvesting or trade in those wild animals that may not be among the most vulnerable.Enforcement of these policies and regulations is severely limited by the availability of public resources, as well as political will, particularly in cases where species conservation is viewed as an internationally imposed goal without strong national support, and particularly in locally affected communities (Wilkie et al. 1999). Although such regulations may make wild meat hunting illegal in formal terms, the large majority of the population may not perceive it as illegitimate.Given that wild meat is among a number of forest and landscape resources or products which people harvest and depend on to some extent for livelihoods, one might expect wild meat hunting to appear in national poverty reduction strategies. A review of such strategy papers in 16 countries of West and Central Africa by Dickson and Bird (2004) found little mention of the links between poverty and forest resources in general, and even less regarding wild meat specifically or the importance of the consumptive use of wild meat. Recommendations regarding forest resources were process oriented, such as increasing community participation and management, without initially identifying the issues, possibly due to lack of data or the informal or illegal nature of forest resource extraction. This lack of profile of forest resources in key poverty strategy documents is very likely associated with the lack of political will to address them, including wild meat management, although the direction of causality may be either way.Some studies have investigated the extent to which wildlife laws and regulations are effective in protecting the target species. One study looked at the species found in wild meat markets and hunters' catches in eight countries in West and Central Africa and compared them to list of protected species. Only in two countries was the influence of speciesspecific laws apparent in the harvest of wild meat (Rowcliffe et al. 2004). In Tanzania, where hunting is often of large game animals, anti-poaching patrols were found to reduce wild meat consumption near national reserves, and the proximity to and the protection level of the nearest protected area had the most significant negative effect on consumption (Ceppi and Nielsen 2014). Lemurs are illegal to hunt in Madagascar, whereas fruit bats are not. A survey of a large number of rural and urban households found that the much more common consumption of fruit bats suggested that the illegality of hunting of lemurs can have some intended impact on reducing their consumption (Jenkins et al. 2011).Recognizing the importance of wild meat for local livelihoods, some approaches differentiate local hunting for community consumption from commercial hunting. In Gabon, 'village hunting' laws allow year-round subsistence hunting using traditional methods. Hunting with shotguns and wire snares is only legal in certain seasons for village hunters with licenses, the numbers of animals caught are limited and certain species are protected, as are some female and juvenile animals. Surveys found, however, that in and around protected areas, the laws are generally not respected (Abernathy and Obiang 2010). Among bat hunters in Ghana, Kamins et al. (2015) found that most did not have accurate awareness of the dates of the legal hunting season, suggesting limited usefulness of imposing seasonal limits.Some have suggested the use of schemes to legalize and then tax trade in wild meat, which would allow hunters and value chain actors to maintain their livelihoods, make wild meat available for consumption and also generate tax revenue. Selective rules on species would allow conservation of vulnerable species. However, analysis by Wilkie et al. (2006) using wild meat prices and volumes in Gabon and Cameroon found that the tax revenue generated by such an approach would not even cover the costs of tax collection, much less the additional costs of enforcement of the laws.There are many constraints to the enforcement of wildlife laws beyond limited public resources. Nielsen et al. (2016) conducted a study of the value chain for wild meat in the Kilombero Valley of Tanzania, where illegal hunting is widespread, often of large animals. Limited access to firearms creates an entry barrier but also raises wild meat prices and allows those with access to capture above-normal profits, which also incentivizes rent-seeking by officials. Decentralization of management rights and responsibilities to communities, supplemented by improved firearms control, appears the most realistic option for regulating the trade and preventing further declines of wildlife. In Nigeria, Eniang et al. (2008) found that operations to protect parks were constrained by lack of staffing, lack of equipment including communications, few vehicles and lack of arms and ammunition. Operations often ran into physical confrontations with rural communities who objected to the rules and restrictions. Some researchers suggest that within the more controlled environment of logging concessions, enforcement of hunting rules may be more effective (Wilkie and Carpenter 1999).By the 1990s, a frequent recommendation for more effective management of wild meat hunting and forest resources in general was for greater local community involvement and consultation (Noutcha et al. 2016) in line with broader community-based resource management strategies, such as for fisheries (Bissonette andKrausman 1995, cited by Wilkie andCarpenter 1999;Dietz et al. 2003). The top-down regulatory approaches to conservation cannot easily resist the economic and consumption drivers of hunting and poaching and in many settings the increasing relative poverty between rural supply areas and growing urban centres of demand can lead to more organized hunting and marketing. Challender and MacMillan (2014) call for mechanisms to incentivize and build capacity within local communities to conserve and manage wildlife. In theory, community-based approaches would better tailor implementation approaches to specific community needs, could leverage the roles of traditional authorities, and also reduce alienation of traditional hunters who, under the regularity approach, had often been regarded as poachers. Booth, Arias et al. (2021) highlight the importance of participatory processes in managing wildlife in terms of improved data and information gathering, better valuation of tradeoffs among community members and market actors, co-learning, and increasing the legitimacy of policy strategy decisions.Some of the advantages of community involvement in wildlife management are the same as another form of forest management and, more broadly, of shared community landscapes and resources. Local populations can be regarded as the immediate custodians of the resource and, since they are dependent on it for multiple livelihood strategies, are key stakeholders. The typical understaffing and distance of governmental officials provides a strong rationale to make better use of local residents, including their intimate knowledge of wildlife (Bowen- Jones et al. 2003).A study in the Democratic Republic of Congo demonstrated the effectiveness of involvement of local authorities in wild meat markets near protected parks (de Mérode and Cowlishaw 2006). During periods of conflict, when protective military forces fled an area, urban wild meat markets were observed to significantly increase trade in protected species (including elephant), a change which was not observed in rural village markets, which remained stable. The difference was apparently a result of the fact that the latter were administered by traditional chiefs, who discouraged use of automatic weapons.There may be a number of constraints to greater community involvement in wildlife management beginning with the fact that rarely does the necessary legislative framework exist. That framework would need to identify the relevant 'community', provide them with some recognized authority and address competing claims by other agencies and actors over land, forest and other resources. The same resource constraints and remoteness factors which impede the regulatory approach would also impact any more-participatory approach, leading to high transactions costs of engagement and management (Bowen- Jones et al. 2003).Attempts have been made to adopt a two-pronged approach to differentiate commercial hunting from village-level hunting for local consumption, or to focus protecting vulnerable or important species, which may allow more robust species to provide a potentially sustainable harvest and even trade (Cowlishaw et al. 2005). For communities which depend significantly on wild meat for local consumption, the sustainability of some level of wild meat harvest could be critical for any management strategy. One study in Ghana tested that hypothesis based on analysis of wild meat market profiles and hunter reports (Cowlishaw et al. 2005). They confirmed that large-body species -slow reproducers -were mostly depleted and that smaller species -fast reproducers such as rodents and small antelopes (e.g. duikers) -were those that were now mostly traded, sourced from largely agricultural areas. Biological assessment was that these more robust smaller species were being hunted sustainably, confirming the potential viability of the two-pronged approach.That sort of approach has been implemented in Gabon, but Abernathy and Obiang (2010) reports mixed results. The use of guns and wire snares are not allowed in village hunting, except under limited and licensed circumstances, which have instead to rely on traditional methods including snares made from plant material. Village hunting is also officially limited by catch size, and restrictions on age and sex of animals. Animals hunted according to these rules can be legally marketed. These restrictions are not popular so are often ignored, and the lack of implementation detail accompanying the legislation make them almost impossible to enforce.In one example, an integrated community-based approach met with some success. In a part of northern Kenya where giraffe meat consumption was threatening the giraffe populations, a community-based program for giraffe conservation used ecological monitoring, community outreach and education, and collaboration with wildlife security teams to successfully reduce giraffe meat consumption (Ruppert et al. 2020).Despite the constraints and shortcomings, Nielsen et al. (2016) conclude that some degree of decentralization of management rights and responsibilities to local communities, accompanied by better firearms control, is likely the most effective means of regulating at least the trade in wild meat, if not the full scope of hunting.Some of the studies reported so far have suggested that public information efforts can influence the level of awareness within rural and urban communities of the issues around the wild meat trade, including implications for both conservation of wildlife and zoonotic risks to people. Relatively few studies on this topic were located for this review.Verissimo et al. ( 2018) tested the effectiveness of a public information effort aimed at reducing demand for wild meat in northern Tanzania [unable to access full text to see if zoonotic risk was included in messaging]. The intervention comprised multiple short awareness-raising episodes on a local radio show followed by interactive call-in discussions.The before-after evaluation of volunteers, including a control group, did not reveal any differences in outcomes, probably due to relatively low listening frequency. They infer from this failure that more careful behaviour change analysis would be required to guide such mass media interventions.In contrast, in a situation where people are confronted with stark risks, the effects of raising awareness are more visible. In Nigeria in 2014 following the Ebola outbreak, Akani et al. (2015) linked the sharp decline in the wild meat trade, including the disappearance in markets of the species most closely associated with the disease (monkeys and fruit bats) to the strong public information campaign carried out by the Nigerian authorities on the risks of the spread of the virus.In a region where wild meat hunting is deeply ingrained, the Central Amazon, Brazil, Chaves et al. ( 2018) also used before-after and control design to assess the effects of social marketing with and without an economic incentive (discount coupons for chicken) on wild meat consumption. The social marketing included both information campaign and direct community engagement, the emphasis being on wildlife conservation and the advantages of livestock meat rather than on zoonotic risk. Including coupons increased chicken consumption, as expected, but did not reduce wild meat consumption, since apparently consumers did not regard them as substitutes. However, the social marketing without the coupon incentive reduced wild meat consumption by some 62%, suggesting that social marketing alone may be effective. This study demonstrates that social marketing, which in this case was carefully designed and multi-faceted, may be effective in reducing demand for wild meat, even when zoonotic risks are not emphasized. Wilkie and Carpenter (1999) suggest that due to greater ability to absorb information and also give greater weight to social objectives like conservation, consumer education is likely to work better among more educated populations and among diaspora communities, particularly on issues of conservation and zoonotic safety, and from the authors' perspective, especially with regards to primates. However, given that the greatest zoonotic risks have been demonstrated to occur among those hunting and butchering wild animals, interventions to reach those actors will need to be designed and demonstrated to be effective.In terms of economic incentives, the livelihood implications of wild meat hunting and marketing have already been well demonstrated, as well as the implications of wild meat price and availability on consumption decisions. A number of studies have thus explored the use of market and economic incentives to manage or at least influence the hunting and consumption of wild meat. An interesting and potentially important example of how market behaviour can impact wild meat consumption and zoonotic risks is addressed in a recent preprint by Xia et al. (2021). They analyse the effects of culling pigs in China in 2019 in response to an outbreak of African swine fever that led to shortages of pork and, consequently, to unusual movement of animals and meat, including wild animals, in southern China. They suggest this might be linked to the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2.In a simulation analysis on incentives affecting hunting behaviour using data from Ashanti, Ghana, Damania et al. (2005) found that an increase in wild meat prices due to demand would lead to more efficient hunting as hunters switched to using guns rather than snares. Improving farm prices for agricultural products would shift labour effort from hunting to agricultural production.Several studies examined wild meat hunting around the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. One found that hunters arrested by authorities were mostly subsistence farmers who sold wild meat for incomes. Individuals with greater wealth (more sheep and goats) and those with alternative sources of income or protein were less likely to participate in illegal hunting, suggesting that hunting was not a preferred activity if alternatives were available. However, illegal hunting was not reduced by participation in community-based conservation programmes (Loibooki et al. 2002). Another study in the same region also confirmed that higher numbers of livestock kept was associated with lower levels of hunting (Mfunda and Roskaft 2010).Substitutability of other livestock meat with wild meat has been examined as a market-based avenue to influence demand for hunting. Using a stated preference analysis in northern Tanzania, Moro et al. (2015) found that if other protein alternatives, such as fish and poultry, were cheaper, then demand for wild meat would decline but only slightly. However, a 10% increase in wild meat prices would reduce demand more significantly, by 6-7%, suggesting that restricting hunting and access to wild meat could have a larger effect. Another study of protein alternatives, used 30 years of data from Ghana to examine the impact of spatial and temporal availability of fish on wild meat hunting (Brashares et al. 2004). They found that years of poor fish supply were associated with increased wild meat hunting, indicating that hunting is in part driven by demand for protein. Rentsch and Damon (2013), using detailed household food consumption and price data from the Serengeti region of Tanzania, estimated that a rise in the price of wild meat associated with curbs on hunting would have a direct and large effect in reducing wild meat consumption.Under the hypothesis that external markets can be key drivers of wild meat hunting, de Mérode et al. (2003, cited in Nasi et al. 2008), suggest that banning external market sales and restricting consumption to local communities may have limited impact, since the evidence is that external markets are not the key drivers of hunting.As with many other policy sectors, a top-down regulatory approach to controlling wild meat hunting through bans on hunting and marketing, restricting species which can be hunted, limiting the types of hunting equipment allowed, etc., have not generally been successful. They are difficult to enforce due to inadequate public resources and corruption and are resented or ignored by local communities who see them as undermining their livelihoods and food supply. Regulatory control of hunting does, however, appear to change behaviour and increase costs of some actors, who may have to hide their activities, particularly in wild meat markets. Limited access to guns and ammunition appears to have some effect on the level and effectiveness of hunting. Community-based approaches to managing wild meat hunting and using greater local input and shared responsibilities have been attempted with mixed success. These face the same resource constraints as the regulatory approach, and a clear legislative framework may not be present to support them. The communitybased approach typically differentiates local hunting of small-bodied animals for food supply and community trade from commercial hunting of animals for urban and distant markets. Education and awareness-raising campaigns have been attempted for purposes of wildlife conservation and to avoid zoonotic risks. The evidence for success is limited so far. Market incentives to reduce wild meat hunting have been explored through simulation analysis, and the evidence is relatively clear that an increased supply of cheaper protein alternatives will probably reduce wild meat hunting.Recommended strategiesA number of authors come to a general consensus on what are likely to be the most effective means of managing wild meat hunting while addressing needs of rural communities. However, until recently most authors have focused on biodiversity and conservation, with little attention to zoonotic risks. A report to the British government on research recommendations for wild meat does not mention zoonotic risks (Brown et al. 2007). Recent analysis by Booth, Arias et al. (2021) shows the importance of wildlife hunting and trade generally for several sustainable development goals in diverse ways, including facilitating synergies among them. They conclude that hunting restrictions could lead to severe trade-offs for some sustainable development goals, with limited benefit in terms of reduced zoonotic risk. For example, increased livestock production to replace the loss of wild meat could significantly increase deforestation and require some 124,000 km 2 of additional agricultural land (Booth, Clark et al. 2021). Overall, given the inter-dependencies of livelihoods, food security, markets and zoonotic risks, it appears that an integrated strategy is needed, one which specifically recognizes the objectives of a) wildlife conservation and biodiversity, with attention to valuable and vulnerable species; b) livelihoods associated with wild meat value chains, at least in a transitional manner; c) food security and access to animal protein and micronutrients, specifically in rural hunting communities; and d) zoonotic risks, awareness and practices which affect them, and those species which pose the greatest hazards. Nevertheless, feasibility in terms of resource availability, stakeholder interests, political will and legislative frameworks need to assessed objectively (Booth, Arias et al. 2021). Elements of such an integrated approach could be:• A community-based approach. Although such an approach faces resource constraints, among other barriers, it is clear that because wild meat hunting is primarily locally driven, local communities need to be part of the decisions and to be given some authority and responsibility for its management. In addition, zoonotic risks are likely to be mostly at the community level, where hunting and butchering mostly happens. The type of community-based authority which is feasible and effective may depend in part on the legislative framework available.• Differentiating local from commercial hunting. The evidence is relatively clear that hunting of small robust species (rodents, duikers) can be sustained, even in partly degraded forests, and that what Kurpiers et al. (2016) refer to as the 'farmbush' can provide a significant supply of protein, the demand for which has been shown clearly to be the main driver of hunting. With support from local communities, attention and monitoring should be on controlling commercial-scale hunting and the hunting of vulnerable (slow-reproducing) species, both at source and in markets. This would allow both the supply of needed meat to rural communities and some degree of local livelihoods in wild meat value chains (Noutcha, Okiwelu et al. 2016;Nielsen et al. 2017).• Integrated communication and awareness in rural areas. Engagement with local hunting communities should take the same integrated approach, highlighting the importance of limiting hunting to certain robust species, to obtaining alternative or supplementary sources of protein wherever possible and, importantly, to understanding the zoonotic hazards and how to mitigate resulting risks. That could include information on which species pose the most risk and best practices for butchering, handling and cooking (Friant et al. 2015). Following formative research to understand practices, this could take the form of social marketing (Drury 2009), with specific attention to women. Information campaigns in urban areas could similarly highlight conservation, the importance of transitioning to livestock meat, and the zoonotic risks of wild meat handling and consumption.• Introducing alternative animal food sources. The evidence from multiple sources is clear that when livestock alternatives are available, less wild meat is hunted, and that when livestock meat is cheaper, less wild meat is consumed. Thus, any integrated strategy should include the piloting of some alternative protein source, either farmed wild animals such as cane rats, or small stock such as cavies or pigs, or aquaculture. The choice of species will depend on local resources, husbandry traditions and food preferences.• Public monitoring. A range of public assessment may fail to capture the interdependencies which have been demonstrated to be associated with wild meat hunting, communities and the resource base. For example, local poverty assessments may not adequately address community dependence on forest resources, and environmental assessments may not capture the local need for wild meat and food security in general (Davies 2002). The implication of wild meat management strategies for key sustainable development goals should be specifically monitored (Booth, Arias et al. 2021). For the monitoring of wild meat specifically, Taylor et al. (2015) point out that few studies have tracked wild meat hunting, offtake and sustainability, or consumption over time. What monitoring systems exist, such as SYVBAC, 7 narrowly track wild meat from a conservation perspective. Wolfe et al. (2007) propose a monitoring system focused on zoonotic disease risk, including people and domestic animals. Instead, an integrated approach may allow better assessment not only of the threats but also the underlying causes. Data collection systems focused on conservation should include zoonotic disease monitoring, rural poverty and human nutrition (Taylor et al. 2015) and changes in land use and livestock keeping. These could be used to map hotspots from multiple disease, conservation and livelihoods perspectives. Booth, Arias et al. (2021) suggest that integrated monitoring is incorporated into community-based management using both quantitative data gathering and stakeholder perceptions.The following are some nascent research ideas emerging from the review.• Given that zoonotic spillover events related to viruses in particular have received the most attention, more research should be aimed at spillovers from bacterial or other non-virus pathogens (Kurpiers et al. 2016).• Much of the research on wild meat hunting and value chains has focused on West and Central Africa. A broader understanding of wild meat practices, species and zoonotic disease threats across all parts of Africa would enable better targeting of interventions as well as cross-site learning (Kurpiers et al. 2016).• Given the rather dramatic lack of awareness in many hunting communities of the actual zoonotic hazards associated with wild meat and also of best practices for mitigating risks, there is need for formative research to understand the sources of zoonotic risk knowledge and drivers of behaviour, followed by piloting and evaluation of effectiveness of targeted social marketing campaigns.• Since the evidence on the success of community-based approaches to managing wild meat hunting is mixed, cross-site and cross-country comparisons of such efforts where they have been tried would allow development of best practices and highlight the resource, legislative and regulatory environments needed to facilitate success.• Further research is needed into the links between livestock keeping and reduced wild meat hunting and how these patterns differ across production systems and settings. For example, do livestock constitute a direct consumption effect on wild meat or a wealth effect? A spatial econometric approach could be employed where data are available. Further work using Poverty Environment Network data (from CIFOR) as utilized by Nielsen et al. (2017) is one possibility.• Specialized survey and monitoring techniques may be needed to elicit accurate information on wild meat activities and consumption that respondents may consider illegal and also on associated zoonotic risk-related activity (Ruppert 2020). Research could be conducted into improving these tools and assessing those which exist, particularly where integrated information is gathered and forms part of community-based management.7. The système de suivi de la filière viande de brousse en Afrique Centrale (SYVBAC) is a monitoring framework under the Central African Forests Observatory (van Vliet et al. 2010). SYVBAC collects data at sites across Central Africa to track wild meat offtake, trade and consumption, impacts of wild meat hunting on wildlife populations and sustainability.","tokenCount":"24420"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b5aac4432298b400189ba42d97f9b52c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c7169ffc-f105-43d8-a1cd-56e6ef3bee8a/retrieve","id":"-1947059297"},"keywords":["CERES-maize","planting date","early maize","sensitivity analysis","Northern Nigeria"],"sieverID":"b0b09bfc-2dac-424d-88c6-a187c7eb228f","pagecount":"14","content":"Field trials were carried out in the Sudan Savannah of Nigeria to assess the usefulness of CERES-maize crop model as a decision support tool for optimizing maize production through manipulation of plant dates. The calibration experiments comprised of 20 maize varieties planted during the dry and rainy seasons of 2014 and 2015 at Bayero University Kano and Audu Bako College of Agriculture Dambatta. The trials for model evaluation were conducted in 16 different farmer fields across the Sudan (Bunkure and Garun-Mallam) and Northern Guinea (Tudun-Wada and Lere) Savannas using two of the calibrated varieties under four different sowing dates. The model accurately predicted grain yield, harvest index, and biomass of both varieties with low RMSE-values (below 5% of mean), high d-index (above 0.8), and high r-square (above 0.9) for the calibration trials. The time series data (tops weight, stem and leaf dry weights) were also predicted with high accuracy (% RMSEn above 70%, d-index above 0.88). Similar results were also observed for the evaluation trials, where all variables were simulated with high accuracies. Estimation efficiencies (EF)-values above 0.8 were observed for all the evaluation parameters. Seasonal and sensitivity analyses on Typic Plinthiustalfs and Plinthic Kanhaplustults in the Sudan and Northern Guinea Savannas were conducted. Results showed that planting extra early maize varieties in late July and early maize in mid-June leads to production of highest grain yields in the Sudan Savanna. In the Northern Guinea Savanna planting extra-early maize in mid-July and early maize in late July produced the highest grain yields. Delaying planting in both Agro-ecologies until mid-August leads to lower yields. Delaying planting to mid-August led to grain yield reduction of 39.2% for extra early maize and 74.4% for early maize in the Sudan Savanna. In the Northern Guinea Savanna however, delaying planting to mid-August resulted in yield reduction of 66.9 and 94.3% for extra-early and early maize, respectively.The total annual national production of maize in Nigeria has increased from 0.66 M tons in 1978, to about 11.3 M tons in 2013(FAOSTAT, FAO, 2014). Despite the increased area under maize production, yields have remained quite low. The average yield of maize in Nigeria was 1.4 tons ha −1 in 2013 compared to 9.5 tons ha −1 in the USA and the world average of 5.5 tons ha −1 (FAOSTAT, FAO, 2013). The major factors limiting the yield of maize in Nigeria include the inherently poor soils (Jibrin et al., 2012), frequent droughts (Kamara et al., 2009), lack of proper adherence to improved agronomic practices (especially planting dates and densities) and low use of improved inputs such as fertilizers and seeds (Badu-Apraku et al., 2009). Maize production in Nigeria was initially restricted to the Derived Savanna and Humid Forests due to high amounts of annual precipitation (Sowunmi and Akintola, 2010). In recent years, new early and extra early maturing maize varieties have been developed for the wet and dry Savannas of Nigeria because of the short growing periods in these areas (Badu-Apraku et al., 2011). The Nigerian Savannas are divided into Guinea Savanna and Sudan Savannah. This classification is based on the similarity of climatic elements and the type of vegetation that can be supported (Ogungbile et al., 1998;Sowunmi and Akintola, 2010).It has been generally agreed that in order to increase maize production in the Nigerian Savannas, production practices should be properly designed to tolerate the low precipitation and high temperatures that characterize the zone (Jibrin et al., 2012). Growing adaptable maize cultivars and choosing optimum planting dates are avenues to increase yields that farmers can adopt. Because of the short growing season, early and extraearly maturing maize cultivars with drought tolerance are desired (Kamara et al., 2009). The optimum planting date for early maturing maize in the Sudan and Northern Guinea Savannas has been reported to be the last week of June, while extra-early maturing varieties are planted in first or second week of July (Jaliya et al., 2008;Kamara et al., 2009). In the Savannas of Nigeria, the length of growing season is determined by the date of first rains and thus is highly variable from year to year. Climate change (majorly rise in temperatures) has led to a shift in the onset of the rainy season. In most areas of West and Central Africa, delays in onset of the rainy season has been consistently observed (Graef and Haigis, 2001;Marteau et al., 2011). Also, long dry spells at the beginning, mid and end of the rainy season are becoming more frequent even in the wetter Southern and Northern Guinea Savannas. As a result of these constraints, rainfed agricultural production is becoming more variable, and farmers are faced with more risks during production, as a result, optimal timing of all production practices is becoming more important (Staggenborg et al., 1999). It becomes necessary for producers to know the extent to which planting can be delayed and also the likely yield penalty they could experience as a result of late planting.Recommendations for planting dates of maize are usually based on agronomic field experiments that are specific to fields and regions (Sorensen et al., 2000). Majority of such trials cannot be temporally and spatially replicated because of seasonal variations. Determination of optimum sowing dates for maize by field experimentation entails repetition over long periods of time in order to capture seasonal variability in precipitation. Also, data for one location is not useful for another location because of variation in not only rainfall but edaphic factors as well. Decision support tools (DSTs) therefore remain very important diagnostic tools for analysis of options that relate to sowing date rules and other crop management strategies. DSTs such as crop simulation models are not widely used in sub-Saharan Africa due to lack of knowledge.Simulation models have been developed as tools to support strategic decision-making in research, production, land use and policy (Penning de Vries et al., 1993). These models can be used to evaluate agricultural production risk as a function of climate variability, to assess regional yield potential across a wide range of environmental conditions and to determine fertilizer applications, suitable planting dates, and other management factors for increasing crop yield (Egli and Bruening, 1992;Hunt and Boote, 1998;Kaur and Handal, 1999). There are several different crop and soil simulation models available to simulate maize growth and management, such as agricultural production systems simulator (APSIM; Keating et al., 2003), a cropping systems simulator (CropSyst; Stöckle et al., 2003), erosionproductivity impact calculator (EPIC; Jones et al., 1991;Williams, 1995), and decision support system for agro-technology transfer (DSSAT; Jones et al., 2003). CERES-maize model is a module within the DSSAT cropping system model (CSM). The DSSAT CSM can facilitate the evaluation of the effects of different production practices on crop yields, growth rates, and nutrient losses, and also it helps improve our understandings of crop physiology, genetics, soil management, and weather effects on crop production and environmental quality (Cabrera et al., 2007;Boote et al., 2010). The DSSAT CSM uses common soil C/N and water models, which integrate mathematical equations to describe the transformation and fluxes of various components of the of soil carbon, water and nutrient cycles on a daily or hourly basis. At the same time, it also predicts the temporal changes in crop growth, nutrient uptake, water use, final yield as well as other plant traits, and outputs (Boote et al., 2010). Therefore, the dynamic CSM can integrate the effects of soil management and climate, which enable us to predict the impact on crop production and environmental quality.CERES-maize model has been found to be able to accurately predict yield variability, N uptake and maize growth response to nitrogen (Pang et al., 1997;Bert et al., 2007) and to assess site-specific nitrogen management to maximize field level net return and minimize environmental impact by using spatially variable management practices (Paz et al., 1999;Batchelor et al., 2002;Link et al., 2006;Miao et al., 2006;Thorp et al., 2008). Gungula et al. (2003) employed CERES-maize to simulate maize phenology under nitrogen-stressed conditions in Nigeria, and showed that the model could be reliably used for predicting maize phenology only under non-limiting N conditions and then suggested that an N stress factor is required to predict crop phenology in low-N tropical soils. Jagtap et al. (1993) reported that CERES-maize model predicted grain yield, stalk and leaf weight, and aboveground biomass within 10% of the field observed data, which means that the built-in partitioning rules in the model are robust and adequate. Soler et al. (2008), used CERES-millet model to determine optimum planting dates of millet in Niger Republic. Wolf et al. (2015), used CERESmaize model to identify sowing rules for estimating rainfed yield potential of sorghum and maize in Burkina Faso.The objective of this study is to calibrate and evaluate the CSM-CERES-maize model's ability in simulating yield of early and extra early maturing maize varieties in the Savannas of Nigeria and evaluate the ability of the model in simulating yield of maize under varying planting dates in contrasting environments. The experiments were laid out as a single factor experiment in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Twenty maize varieties (only two were used in the present study due to popularity and utilization in the study areas) were randomized and assigned to plots, plot sizes were six ridges (0.75 m between ridges) each 5 m in length making each main plot 30 m 2 [(8 × 0.75 m = 6 m) × 5 m]. Planting was done at a spacing of 25 cm between stands and 75 cm between rows, two seeds were planted and later thinned to one stand at 2 weeks after sowing. NPK fertilizers were applied according to soil analysis so as to ensure optimum nutrient availability. Detailed soil and weather information from each location and season were collected according to the minimum data sets required for calibration of CERES-maize model as suggested by Jones and Kiniry (1986). All data collections were done in the two inner rows, 50 cm from each end of the ridge were ignored and all plants inside were used as net plot, making the net plot size to be 6 m 2 . Profile pits were dug prior to the start of experimentation for soil characterization in both locations. A Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR, FieldScout TDR300, by Spectrum Technologies, Inc.) was used to measure soil moisture content throughout the period of experiment; and supplementary irrigation was given when readily available water (RAW) was fully depleted in order to ensure optimal moisture availability.The second sets of experiments were conducted for the purpose of model evaluation. On-farm trials were set in 16 farmers' fields across the Sudan and Northern Guinea Savannas of Nigeria in 2014. The experiments were conducted in Bunkure, Garun-Mallam, Tudun-Wada, and Lere local governments. The evaluation trials were set under researcher managed conditions in farmers' field. The treatments for the evaluation trials includes one early (EVDTW2009STR) and one extra-early maize variety (2009TZEEWDTSTR) under four different planting windows (Early June, Mid-June, Early July, and Mid-July). Planting was done on 5th June, 16th June, 3rd July, and 17th July across all locations. Optimum fertilizer recommendations were used in all locations, two seeds were planted at an intra-row spacing of 0.25 m, and later thinned to one seedling per stand at 2 weeks after planting. The plots for evaluation trials were eight ridges (0.75 m apart) by 5 m length which gave a plant population of 53,333 plants ha −1 . All recommended agronomic practices for the areas were strictly followed.Table 1 shows the soil properties of pedons in BUK and Dambatta experimental sites. Pedons 1 and 2 represents the 2014 and 2015 trials at BUK, while pedons 3 and 4 represents the 2014 and 2015 trials at Dambatta. The surface horizon at BUK experimental site had a Loamy sand texture, slightly acidic to neutral pH, low organic carbon content, and medium level of total nitrogen. The available phosphorus was in the medium fertility class while cation exchange capacity was low in both 2014 and 2015. On the other hand, the surface horizon at Dambatta experimental site had a sandy loam to loamy sand texture, moderately acidic to slightly acidic pH, low organic carbon content, and medium level of total nitrogen. The available phosphorus was in the medium fertility class while cation exchange capacity was also low in both 2014 and 2015. The pedons were classified according to the USDA Soil Taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff, 2014).The soils for the evaluation sites were all similar to the calibration experiments. The Ap horizon for the soils in Bunkure had neutral pH of 6.6, organic carbon contents of 2.7 g/kg, available P of 12.72 mg/kg, and total nitrogen of 1.78 g/kg. In Garun-Mallam, the soils had slightly higher pH (6.62), more organic carbon contents (3.0), higher available P (13.0), and more total nitrogen 1.81 g/kg. In the northern Guinea Savanna, the soils from both locations had neutral pH, higher organic carbon contents (3.3 and 3.8 g/kg), higher available P-values (13.1 and 13.3 g/kg), and more total nitrogen (1.87 and 1.92).Weather data for both years and experimental locations are shown in Figure 1. For the calibration experiments, weather data were collected from weather stations (Watchdog 2000 Series, Spectrum Technologies) adjacent to both experimental sites. For evaluation and sensitivity analysis however, weather data were obtained from the IITA Station in Kano and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET). Higher amounts of rainfall were recorded in the NGS for both years as expected, while higher amount of rainfall was recorded in 2014 than in 2015. Figure 2 shows 26 years  total annual rainfall for Sudan Savanna (Bunkure) and Northern Guinea Savanna (Zaria).Plant measurements used for model calibration were: grain yield at maturity, tops weight at anthesis, tops weight at maturity, and harvest index. While for model evaluation, grain yield at harvest, tops weight at harvest, and stalk weight at anthesis were measured. Phenological studies during vegetative stage were conducted by counting the leaves' collar appearance daily for  The eight experiments (four in two locations) conducted in 2014 and 2015 were used for model calibration. The DSSAT model inputs include cultivar coefficients, weather data (min. and max. temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity), initial soil moisture, soil organic C, N and soil inorganic N and P, soil topography/surface information, such as slope, soil color, and crop management details (Jones et al., 1994).The major physiological processes (photosynthesis, respiration, accumulation, and partitioning of assimilates) in the CERESmaize model are governed by six genetic coefficients (Table 3) found in the maize cultivar file (Hoogenboom et al., 2010).The six parameters are user adjustable and they determine growth, phenology, and yield of the cultivars. For the purpose of this calibration, the sequential approach was adopted. Growing degree days (GDD) or thermal time, drive the phenological phase of development in the CERES-maize models. GDD is computed based on the daily maximum and minimum temperature (Equation 1). In some growth stages, day length is also considered (Jones and Kiniry, 1986;Jones et al., 2003).Where GDD is growing degree days, T max is maximum temperature, T min is minimum temperature and T base is base temperature (T base for maize = 8 • C). GDD is cumulative and is measured inFrom the calibration experiments; P1, P5, G2, G3, and PHINT were estimated. In addition to the cultivar coefficients, two genetic coefficients [the soil fertility coefficient (SLPF), and the radiation use efficiency (RUE)] were also calibrated in order to be able to properly simulate above ground biomass and grain yield across locations and seasons. The SLPF was calibrated to optimize the soil variability across fields while the RUE optimized the variation across seasons. The Genotype Coefficient Calculator (GENCALC) of DSSAT 4.6 was used to estimate the maize cultivar coefficients. The statistics used for model calibration were r-square and RMSE, in addition normalized RMSE (RMSEn) was used for multiple targets because it is difficult to use RMSE alone (Anothai et al., 2008). RMSEn is shown in Equation ( 2), and it gives a normalized value that allows averaging over multiple characteristic targets providing a single index for their goodness of fit.The 16 on-farm experiments were used for model evaluation.Experiments were set in 16 locations across the Sudan and the Northern Guinea Savannas of Nigeria. The evaluation experiments were used to test the optimized parameters achieved from calibration experiments. The data used for evaluation were: days to anthesis, days to physiological maturity, grain yield at harvest, stalk weight at anthesis, and tops weight at harvest. Evaluation of model performance was done by calculating root mean square error (RMSE), model forecasting efficiency (EF), and mean error (E) based on previous model evaluation studies (Yang and Huffman, 2004). In addition, an index of agreement (d) statistic was employed in this study. The d statistic is recommended for making cross-comparisons when the d-value is both relative and has bounded measures (Willmott, 1982).(5)Where is the number of measured dataset, S i is the simulated data, m i is the measured data, and m is the mean of the measured data,Sensitivity Analysis (Model Application)Sensitivity analysis was carried out to test the effect of varying planting dates on yield of maize in two locations; Bunkure in the Sudan Savanna and Zaria in the Northern Guinea Savanna. Generally, Bunkure had a shorter growing season with mean rainfall of 825 mm and growing season of 3.5 months. Average rainfall in the Zaria is 1,125 mm with growing period of 5 months. Historical weather records  were obtained from NIMET and used for seasonal analysis. Ten planting dates were simulated using the seasonal analysis tool of DSSAT 4.6. The planting dates started from 20th May and were repeated every 10 days until 20th August. Cumulative frequency plots were used to present the results of simulated yields over 26 years. Stable means for 26 years for each sowing date, variety and location were calculated together with maximum and minimum obtainable.In addition, percentage yield reduction for each planting date, locations, and varieties were calculated.Genotype specific parameters generated from the calibration experiments of the two varieties are presented in Table 2.Thermal time from seedling emergence to the end of juvenile phase (P1) for EVDT was 205 while that of TZEE was 196.1. Calculated value for P2 (Delay in development for each hour that day-length is above 12.5 h) was set as 0.5 for both varieties since both varieties are photo-insensitive. Yield determining parameters (P5, G2, and G3) were also higher for EVDT than TZEE, this makes EVDT to potentially have higher yield and longer maturity period than TZEE. After generating the coefficients, the model was evaluated for its ability to simulate days to anthesis, days to physiological maturity, tops weight at anthesis, tops weight at harvest, and grain yield at harvest maturity of the two varieties. This was done by comparing model simulated variables to actual observed variables from the field experiments and then calculating evaluation statistics. The model slightly over predicted all the parameters for both varieties, although it was within acceptable range. Tops weight at anthesis and at harvest were under-predicted for EVDT (Table 3). The model over predicted grain yield at harvest maturity by 212 Kg ha −1 . The over prediction for days to anthesis and physiological maturity were not up to a full day. The mean observed grain yield for TZEE under rain fed and irrigated conditions were 3,883 and 4,018 Kg ha −1 , respectively with lower RMSE observed under rain fed than irrigated (Table 4). For harvest index, a lower RMSE was observed under irrigated than rain fed.The mean grain yield of EVDT under rain fed and irrigated conditions were 4,989 and 5,216 Kg ha −1 , respectively. Similarly, lower RMSE and higher R 2 -values were recorded for rain fed conditions than irrigated conditions for grain yield, days to anthesis, and days to maturity. Table 5 shows the mean and range for normalized root mean square error (RMSEn) and d index for model evaluation with time series data for maize grown during the 2014 and 2015 Seasons. The mean d index observed for TZEE and EVDT were 0.88 and 0.86, respectively, with a lower RMSEn recorded for TZEE. Figures 3, 4 show 1:1 lines between simulated and observed calibration parameters. For both varieties, better fits were observed for phenological variables when compared with yield and yield attributes. Generally, lower values of RMSEn were recorded for TZEE than EVDT but the ranges were wider for EVDT than TZEE. For stem and leaf dry weight, the d index and RMSEn-values were higher for EVDT than TZEE. Generally, phenological and yield parameters were simulated with higher accuracy than growth and biomass.Table 6 shows the result of model evaluation including evaluation statistics for the two varieties in both locations. There was a good fit in the model prediction for grain yield with D-index and EF-values of 0.93 and 0.94, respectively, for TZEE at all locations in the Sudan Savanna while in the Northern Guinea Savanna, lower values were recorded for the same variety (0.85 and 0.86, respectively). Grain yield of EVDT was also simulated with high accuracy in both environments, with both D-index and EF-values recorded above 0.8. Stalk weight at anthesis and tops weight at physiological maturity also showed good predicted vs. observed fits, with D-index and EF-values above 0.8 in all cases, except for EVDT in Bunkure where D-index value of 0.77 was recorded. For days to anthesis, D-index, and EF-values were observed to be above 0.86 in both environments, with the highest D-index value (0.96) recorded for EVDT in Zaria and highest EF-value (0.97) recorded for the same variety at the same location. The values of D-index and EF for all the measured variables showed that observed and simulated characters were in good agreement with each other, which means that the model is robust and accurate in measuring both phenology and yield/yield attributes.The mean, maximum, and minimum simulated grain yields from 26 years' seasonal analysis for the different planting windows is shown in  ,B, 6A,B shows cumulative function plots for simulated grain yields of TZEE and EVDT in Bunkure and Zaria. The CF plots shows that for TZEE, delaying planting to August produced yields below 3,000 Kg/ha more than 75% of the time in Bunkure. For EVDT however, yields below 4 tons were observed when planting was done in August with probability of 0.5. Planting TZEE in early June and EVDT in late July produced the highest grain yield more than 90% of the time in Bunkure. In Zaria however, planting in early and mid-August leads to low   yields with more than 80% probability. The probability of getting high yields for TZEE was highest (0.8) when planting was done in late July. Highest grain yields were observed for EVDT when planted in early June (probability = 0.75). Planting TZEE in mid and late May at Bunkure produced 0 yields with probability of 0.1. The tendency of having 0 yields as a result of planting in May was higher (0.4) when EVDT was planted in mid and late May at Zaria.Sowing date recommendations for maize in Nigeria are usually based on local knowledge. Recommendations are made from large-scale cropping experiments conducted across regions (NAERLS, 2013). Most of the time, the same sowing date is recommended for multiple years and multiple locations without considering seasonal and spatial variations. Farmers also take risk by planting with the first onset of rain because of the uncertainty of rainfall duration in the Nigerian savannas. Wolf et al. (2015) suggested that sowing rules in Sub-Saharan Africa should have a time window that is at most 40 days around the roughly estimated best date of sowing. The recommended sowing date for maize in  Nigeria is early to mid-June in both SS and NGS (NAERLS, 2013). Findings from our research shows that variations exist between varieties and locations with respect to best sowing dates. The locations are influenced by agro-ecological zones.The close agreement between observed and simulated variables for both calibration and evaluation experiments means that the model can be used to predict performance of the two varieties across different environments in Savannas of Nigeria. The outcomes of simulations resulted in high D-index, RMSE, and EF-values across all treatments and locations and for all tested variables indicating that the efficiency and robustness of the model is quite adequate and the model can be used in the environments under study. In CERES-maize model, flowering and maturity dates were controlled by the coefficients P1 and P5 in the genotype file. Accurate prediction of phenology was observed due to the close agreements between observed and simulated days to tasseling and days to physiological maturity for the calibration experiments. Accurate prediction of maize phenology is the most important stage in model calibration (Archontoulis et al., 2014). When phenology is accurately calibrated, it is expected that models will be able to capture all genotypic variations that affect the leaf area development, biomass production, and grain yield (Robertson et al., 2002). Grain yield is affected by radiation interception by crop canopy, radiation use efficiency (RUE) and harvest index (Lee and Tollenaar, 2007). Pantazi et al. (2016) suggested that yield prediction in crop modeling is the most important variable for the improvement of crop management. The close agreement between observed and simulated grain yield in both calibration and evaluation experiments can be attributed to accurate measurement of G2 and G3 and also to adjustments made to SLPF and RUE in the cultivar files of CERES-maize model. The high agreement between observed and simulated values for the evaluation experiments shows that the model is robust and accurate enough to make wider applications across the ecology under study. The result of evaluation trials using different planting dates indicates that the extra early maize varieties produced higher yields when planted in early June in the SS and in mid and late July in the NGS. The result of both seasonal and sensitivity analysis indicates that the variation in yield for the different sowing dates tested was very high. When earlier (Mid and Late May) and later (early and mid-August) dates were simulated, higher variations in yield were observed. This is an indication that early planting, which is a norm by farmers in the Nigerian Savannas is not only risky, but it could lead to high reduction in yield of maize. Also, early planting at the onset of rainy season is quite risky, as most of the time early rains are followed by long dry periods which could lead to total crop failure. Late planting also leads to a higher yield reduction and has the potential of resulting in total crop failure. Late planting results in yield reduction due to failure of the crops to mature if the rainfall ceases early before the end of the cropping  season. This will also have a detrimental effect on the final grain yield (Lauer, 1998;Jibrin et al., 2012). In the Nigerian Savannas, the rainy season establishes in late June and ends in October. Late plating in August will not allow the plants to complete their life cycle before the end of the rainy season. Maize crops planted in August will therefore experience severe drought stress at flowering stage which is critical for maize productivity. The high yields observed for planting in mid and late July means that maize farmers in the Sudan and Northern Guinea Savannas can get reasonably high yields in seasons where delay in rainfall establishment is experienced. For the early varieties, higher yields were observed when planted in late June in the SS and midlate July in the NGS. This is a clear indication that early and extra-early varieties could be planted in places where delay in onset of rainy season is experienced. The delay in establishment of rainfall is becoming prevalent in the Nigerian savannas, thus the result of the seasonal analysis means that planting early and extra early maize is best delayed until the first or second week of July in both savannas. The result of this work is in agreement with findings by Kamara et al. (2009) who reported higher grain yield of maize in the Sudan Savanna, although on different soils, when planting was delayed to early and mid-July. Also Jibrin et al. (2012) reported that CERES-maize model predicted decrease in grain yield with delay in planting date to early August except for TZB-SR at Azir, North-East Nigeria in 2006 where planting on July 13 gave higher yield than planting on June 29. The reason for differential response to maize planting dates could be attributed to variation in the maturity periods. Extra early and early varieties complete their life cycles earlier as a result there is room to delay planting especially in the Northern Guinea Savanna. Jaliya et al. (2008) made similar findings from field trials with different maturing maize varieties, they reported that planting in mid-June to late July in both Sudan and Northern Guinea Savannas leads to high yields of maize. They also reported that when early planting is done before proper establishment of rains low population as well as poor plant vigor/establishment could be experienced this might lead to reduction in yield. Late planting results in flowering coinciding with cessation of rains, this could lead to reduction in number of kernels/cob and drastic reduction in final yield.The ability of CERES-maize to reasonably predict phenology, grain yield and tops weight of the varieties used in this study is an indication of its usefulness as a decision-support tool for maize researchers and extension workers in the Savanna regions of Nigeria. The Model suggests that both early and extra-early varieties yield higher when planted in mid to late June in SS, and mid-late July in NGS. While both varieties yield higher when planted in mid to late July in the NGS. Delays in planting to August can result in significant yield reductions. In both SS and NGS planting in May and August are quite risky and could lead to total crop failure.","tokenCount":"4963"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7a42caa39692e788091d963fa2c3252c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/623a9d73-49e8-4782-9eed-7776dd3ebb30/retrieve","id":"1124251622"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"04c98cd4-a8c6-4cc7-99a3-613f83e287ae","pagecount":"38","content":"The CGIAR Initiative Transformational Agroecology across Food, Land, and Water Systems develops and scales agroecological innovations with small-scale farmers and other food system actors in seven low-and middle-income countries. It is one of 32 initiatives of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. www.cgiar.org/initiative/31-transformational-agroecology-across-food-land-and-water-systems/CGIAR's Agroecology Initiative (AE-I) has the objective of testing agroecological approaches across different socioeconomic, political, and geographic contexts, and using the learnings on what agroecological innovations work, where, and for whom, to craft replicable agroecological transition models that can subsequently be applied to the food, land, and water systems of other low-and middleincome countries.One of the proposed avenues for accelerating the transition is addressed by the AE-I's Work Package Three (WP3), Inclusive business models and financing strategies, which aims at facilitating the adoption and scaling of agroecological principles through the co-development and upgrading of business models at key segments of agrifood systems (Atta- Krah et al., 2021). The latter requires a general knowledge of the actors, products, and their interactions within their corresponding value chains, as well as an understanding of their current alignment with agroecological principles.For this reason, in this guideline, we present a framework that integrates traditional value chain analysis methodologies with the agroecological principles proposed by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security (HLPE, 2019) (Table 1), which include interventions and practices across various levels of value chains and food systems.The framework has been designed to provide a rapid and systematic approach for (a) identifying opportunities, bottlenecks, and promising business models across different value chain levels; (b) identifying the extent to which agroecological principles are currently being incorporated along value chains; and (c) assessing the scaling potential of agroecological innovations currently in place in value chains, with the aim of improving their overall performance and catalyzing their agroecological transition. Multiple tools are available for conducting in-depth value chain analyses (VCAs), and we do not attempt to reproduce or replace any of them with this guideline. Instead, our goal is to integrate an agroecological lens into a rapid VCA framework, while limiting its scope to the achievement of the Initiative's outcomes. For this purpose, we have adopted Although all the actors in a value chain (VC) should be considered when carrying out a VCA, the work in WP3 focuses mainly on the actors and potential partners identified for the establishment of the Agroecological Living Landscapes (ALLs), based on the AE-I's WP1 Guiding Principles for engaging with national and local stakeholders. This set of actors will be henceforth referred to as core stakeholders. Accordingly, the starting point for the analysis should be the group of farmers or farmer associations from a prioritized region and its current trading partner(s), or an enterprise that has operations in the region of interest and demonstrates a solid commitment to adopting agroecological principles (i.e., current exporters, processors, local market representatives, and institutional market representatives, among others).During the assessment process, the group of core stakeholders will most likely be expanded as other relevant actor groups are identified.In view of the above, this document offers a general framework and guidelines for the development of three subproducts (which can also function as the report sections):A rapid VCA provides a visual diagram accompanied by a written description of the value chain actors, products, and information flows within it.This includes a VC map, which is a graphical depiction of the VC structure displaying the different processes, actor groups, and product flows along the value chain. VC maps are living products that can and should be permanently updated to, for example, include newly identified actors and changes in prices, volumes, number of actors, etc.A VC characterization presents a detailed description of each VC element, including quantitative and qualitative information on the number and type of actors in each stage (the generic stages being production, aggregation, processing, commercialization, and consumption), their main characteristics, activities, input and product flows, market demand and prices, types of business relationships, and relevant information on value chain governance. It thus complements the VC map by providing contextual information on each value chain stage.Finally, a VC diagnostic presents underperformances, opportunities, and bottlenecks, which will be the foundation for determining key intervention points for upgrading at the enterprise or governance level.The VC agroecological assessment presents information about the activities and elements along the VC that relate positively or negatively to the HLPE's (2019) three agroecological operational principles: (i) improvements in resource efficiency, (ii) resilience strengthening, and (iii) securing social equity and responsibility, as well as the identification of gaps and opportunities for improvement and scaling.This document (typically a spreadsheet) contains strategic information on the actors currently involved in the VC at the micro, meso, and macro levels (see definitions in the Glossary). Besides the actors currently involved in the core VC, the stakeholder map should include information on actors along the VC that might be of interest because of their potential agroecological alignment with the Initiative or that could significantly influence the Initiative (i.e., among others, potential customers, producers, input and service providers, and NGOs that are, or have expressed interest in, applying agroecological principles in their operations/consumption).Although the different sections in this guideline present the three subproducts mentioned above separately, the data collection and analysis activities are deeply interlinked and many occur simultaneously. Most of the primary data collection will be carried out through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and workshops; therefore, the VCA country teams should plan and prepare the activities and adapted tools in advance to avoid duplication of efforts and respondents' fatigue. In the Annex, we provide examples of the tools, which should be adjusted for each specific context.In addition, the country teams should look out for potential collaboration and/or synergies between Work Packages. Such potentials for collaboration and synergies are highlighted in italics throughout this document.To achieve the objectives of WP3, we suggest limiting the assessment to the core stakeholders and the actors directly relevant to their upstream and downstream operations, as a full value chain analysis might be considerably larger and time-and resource-consuming. Some actors identified during the mapping process will likely be engaged with other actors (e.g., suppliers, producers, and trading partners) beyond the operations that immediately concern the core stakeholders.The team might nonetheless be interested in delving deeper into a particular VC stage (e.g., when presuming inefficiencies that can be turned into opportunities). This is particularly important as root causes for inefficiencies and key binding constraints might emerge from different stages and levels of the value chain.Based on the principles of synergy and economic diversification, farmers are probably involved in more than one value chain or may incorporate additional crops/products in their farming systems as part of their agroecological transition strategy (i.e., integrated crop-livestock farming systems). It is therefore important to conduct a rapid VCA and agroecological assessment for each VC that is (or will be) commercially relevant for ensuring farmers' income and food security. Crops and products destined exclusively for selfconsumption should thus not be included in this analysis.Finally, VCA results are generally used as the basis for the cocreation of a common value chain vision. In turn, this common vision serves as a guide for the co-development of VC and business model upgrading strategies. These activities are not included in this guideline, but more information on how to conduct them can be found in the VCA methodologies referenced above.Potential synergies from the overall rapid VCA: A common VC vision can be co-created in collaboration with the AE-I's WP1, which in its activity plan includes the \"application of participatory methods to build collectively a vision of the desired agroecological transition pathway(s) in each ALL.\"A VC map is a visual representation of the analyzed VC and the foundational element of VCA. It provides a panoramic view of the value chain by illustrating the different value chain stages, identifying the position of the value chain actors, visualizing product flows, and indicating linkages among VC actors. VC mapping is an iterative process in which the design can undergo updates as more information is found throughout the analysis.A round of consultations with key informants should be carried out to prepare the VC map. The informants should have knowledge of the structure of the value chain, product flows, actor types, end markets, governance mechanisms, input and service provision, and enabling environment. To this end, semi-structured interviews should be carried out, starting with representatives from the core value chain, followed by their key input and service providers, and other sectorial experts if necessary.With the information obtained through the semi-structured interviews, the following steps can be followed to develop a value chain map:1. Determine end products, distinguishing between characteristics such as fresh, processed, conventional, organic, etc.Identify end markets, determining different end-market segments (e.g., domestic vs. export market).Identify the successive value chain stages, starting with production and ending with consumption.categorizing businesses into meaningful groups (e.g., organic vs. conventional producers, small vs. large producers, industrial vs. artisanal processors, etc.).Visualize product flows: the product flow from production to consumption should be indicated using arrows.6. Identify main channels: based on the end markets and the different actor types involved at each stage, it is useful to further differentiate the value chain, thereby showing different distribution channels (e.g., informal vs. formal channels, fresh vs. processed channels, etc.).Map the indirect actors: using a separate map that shows only the value chain stages, include the input and service providers as well as governance institutions that play a key role in each step.Because VC mapping is an iterative process, we recommend carrying out the seven steps listed above in the following three phases:{ Using information collected from the desk research (e.g., literature review) and the current knowledge of the sector, draw an initial draft map illustrating stages, direct actors, indirect actors, and relationships in the value chain. The assessment team should not be excessively concerned about the accuracy and level of detail during this phase.{ After the fieldwork phase, update the map using the collected data and insights.{ As a third step, the VC map should be validated with key informants that have a broad overview and knowledge of the value chain. This can be done either in a multistakeholder workshop or through individual meetings and interviews with key informants.The ValueLinks methodology (Springer-Heinze, 2018) proposes a useful set of conventions (see Figure 1) that can be employed to illustrate the different elements of the value chain. In their conventions, value chain operators correspond to the direct actors, which, in our case, would be limited to the individuals and enterprises performing the core functions within the VC of interest (i.e., the core stakeholders). The value chain supporters and enablers correspond to the indirect actors at the meso and macro levels, which in our exercise should be limited to those directly affecting the core value chain.The map can use various types of arrows to display relevant differences in business linkages (i.e., primary vs. secondary channels, formal vs. informal business linkages, commodities vs. processed products, etc.).The VC map should depict the end market (and different market channels, if applicable), VC stages (the generic stages being production, aggregation, processing, commercialization, and consumption, depicted in Figure 2 as hollow arrows), actors, and business linkages. The end markets (depicted as hollow circles at the top of Figure 2) subdivide the VC into different sequences of business operations (i.e., subvalue chains or market channels), highlighting the different supply flows and their corresponding actor types involved in each channel. In the case of production systems with multiple products, we recommend drawing a map for each VC, as many of the actors and channels will differ.  The following example depicts a maize value chain map from a whole region, with a first channel leading to a domestic food market, a second channel to an intra-regional export market, a third channel to domestic flour markets, and a final channel leading to the animal feed market. It is important to note that, in our case, the VC map will be a more simplified version, as the channels will be differentiated according to only the end markets reached by the products of our core stakeholders.Key input providers (such as for seeds) can be mapped at the micro level (as shown in Figure 2), together with the core stakeholders, but we recommend mapping all input and service providers as actors representing common interests of the VC at the meso level. The VC map usually depicts meso-level actors (coded as green rectangles with the upper left corner cut off) and macro-level actors (coded as green octagonal rectangles) placed adjacent to the relevant value chain stages they serve. VC mapping can, but does not necessarily have to, include the macro level of a value chain. Relevant information can be included in the map, such as the number of actors, traded volumes, and traded values per end market, as shown in Figure 2. Potential synergies: The information gathered during the VC mapping and corresponding characterization exercises can include indicators that serve as a baseline for monitoring agroecological transitions. This can complement the baseline (i.e., current conditions of agricultural systems of smallholder farmers in each ALL) contemplated in AE-I's WP2 activity plan. WP3's VC mapping and corresponding characterization include WP2's (predefined) metrics. Moreover, the AE-I's WP4 activity plan foresees mapping key policy stakeholders and key food system actors in each of the ALLs, which could complement the VC map and thus be carried out in collaboration with WP3.The objectives of the VC characterization and diagnostic are (a) to obtain a deeper understanding of each element of the value chain, (b) to identify underperformances and key binding constraints, and (c) to identify upgrading opportunities at the micro, meso, and macro levels.Note: Given that we are interested in the core stakeholders' VC, most of the information will likely be obtained from interviews and workshops. Nevertheless, it is important to include secondary information and regional/local statistics when available on area, production, prices, practices, weather, and traded volumes, as this will provide a context for assessing and comparing the data collected from the core stakeholders. In the Annex, we provide a set of recommended questions for each type of actor to guide the VC characterization and diagnostic.As a first step of the process, the team should conduct an end-market analysis, which provides a rough understanding of the existing and potential end markets, and should broadly cover the following items: market sizes and growth rates (i.e., a 5-10-year trend analysis), (import and export) trade flows, prices and price trends, market drivers (including demographic changes), market segments (price, quality, niche), order specifications (including standards, volumes, payment mechanism), critical success factors, unique selling propositions for domestic and competing products (competitive benchmarking), and consumer perceptions and behavior.The characterization and diagnostic of the rest of the VC should be guided by the VC structure, including a description of the main characteristics, key challenges, and risks and opportunities for the following system's elements:{ At the micro level, for each relevant core stakeholder along the different VC stages.{ At the meso level, focusing on the provision of inputs and services with the highest strategic importance for the VC core stakeholders and for the agroecological transition.{ At the macro level, identifying actors and characteristics of the enabling environment that critically affect the VC performance, distinguishing between natural elements (climate, soil, water quantity and quality, biodiversity, etc.) and societal elements (infrastructure, institutions, organizations, and socio-cultural norms).For the diagnostic, specific questions will be included in the semi-structured interviews and workshops to identify challenges, risks, and opportunities for improvement.Challenges and risks are identified by asking \"why\" questions and following up on \"things are not functioning well\" that might be mentioned during the semi-structured interviews (i.e., to understand the root causes of key binding constraints). These questions might, for instance, be directed at understanding why production is low; why there is limited capacity for maintenance and access to spare parts remains a constraint, despite training and equipment endowment; and why local small-scale producers have no land titles.In the following, guidance is provided with regard to the sections and contents of the VCA. However, because this guideline presents a rapid appraisal approach, it is important to stress that not all listed items need to be covered, whereas it is important to focus on the challenges and risks.When discussing the different topics listed below during key informant interviews, you are likely to quickly find out which of them are critical for a more sustainable functioning of the value chain and should, therefore, be studied in more detail. On account of this, you should follow the rough structure presented below but should also adapt the focus to the specific characteristics of the VC and the needs of the local team.Description of the products and agroecological production system: a general description of the production system based on the three AE operational principles, as well as the product characteristics of all derived products.Regional context: a general description of the region and/or area of interest, with relevant social, economic, and environmental indicators (main economic activities, relevant agricultural products, area, production, prices, and yields of relevant crops/products, poverty indices, land distribution, education level, yearly temperature and precipitation).It should include maps displaying the locations of the production areas and major markets for each product of interest. Highly relevant contextual information such as the presence of ethnic/religious minorities, land use conflicts, armed groups, and political instability, among others, should be mentioned.For each relevant product:• Historical context: how the crop entered the region, key moments in recent history related to the expansion of the crop, and relevant social dynamics.• Value chain map { Final consumer (from fresh and/or processed products): results from the end-market analysis. Estimated market size, locations, characteristics, purchasing prices, and product preferences.{ Input providers: type of inputs, regulations, availability and access, quality, and prices.{ Operational service providers: focus on transport and logistics service providers.{ Support service providers, mainly  Financial service providers: financial products offered, access to financial products by VC actors, products adapted to the needs of the VC, informal financial service providers, and main challenges and risks. Technical assistance and training: type and quality of services offered, financing schemes (public, private, NGO), costs and prices, and scope.{ Other key support service providers: highlight important services for different VC actors, briefly describe the service providers, and provide details on availability, costs, and quality.{ General diagnostic of challenges, risks, and upgrading opportunities for each type of actor.{ Societal enabling environment:  Organizations and projects: identify relevant organizations (e.g., ministries, public agencies, R&D centers, universities, industry and trade associations, etc.) and projects that impact or could impact the value chain and describe how.{ Governance: Horizontal linkages: describe the nature and dynamic of formal and informal relationships, levels of coordination and information exchange, levels of competition, collective action and economies of scale, roles of associations and cooperatives, level of trust, corruption, etc. Vertical linkages: describe the nature and dynamic of formal and informal relationships (e.g., in the channels identified in the VC map), which actors have the power to influence price setting, nature of the dominant transaction arrangements, dependencies and power imbalances, asymmetries in knowledge and information, political power, level of trust, corruption, etc.This assessment should include the information on the actors, products, and practices that align with agroecological principles in each VC stage (e.g., production, processing, and commercialization) and level (i.e., micro, meso, and macro), as well as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of furthering the agroecological transition, followed by a general discussion and recommendations. The agroecological assessment can be included in the different sections of the VC characterization and diagnostic (i.e., within the description of each VC stage and level) or in a separate section.In the Annex, we provide a set of recommended questions and guiding topics for each type of actor based on Biovision's Agroecology Criteria Tool that could help with the agroecological assessment.A stakeholder map is usually developed along with the VC mapping exercise, and thus, the identification of stakeholders and the characterization of actor categories can be considered a VCA by-product. This by-product will populate the stakeholder map that will be led by the AE-I's WP1, which will also be complemented by the political actors and institutions identified by WP4.Actors of potential agroecological relevance that are currently not involved in the core stakeholders' VC can be identified through a combination of desk research (e.g., on the Internet) and snowball sampling (i.e., requesting references and contact information from the interviewed actors). During this exercise, you should also consider identifying different types of actors along the value chain, such as input suppliers, operational service providers, and support service providers 1 with agroecological potential.For ease of access and use, the information collected can be systematized in a spreadsheet (e.g., MS Excel) file. Although the information might vary according to each ALL's objectives, it should at least include the name and description of the mapped actors (including their core activities, services, and role in the value chain), their location, and their contact information. The stakeholder map could also include further information regarding the identified actors, such as their interests, alignment with the Initiative and national/regional objectives, their strengths and weaknesses, potential synergies with other efforts, and conflicts of interest.Potential synergies: A stakeholder map is usually developed along with the VC mapping exercise, yet the former has been included among the AE-I's WP1 activities. It thus offers an opportunity for collaboration and synergies between WP3, WP4, and WP1.1 More information on the type of actors can be found in the Annex.Once the information has been analyzed and systematized, a workshop should be conducted with all relevant stakeholders. The workshop will offer a space to validate findings and fill information gaps that might remain undisclosed. Based on the VCA and AE assessment, a SWOT analysis should be conducted with all stakeholders, considering the AE principles and value chain stages in each of the quadrants (i.e., strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). Specialized facilitation is key in this activity as it will be the facilitators' role to bring up and streamline the AE principles in the discussions in order to prevent the conversation from deviating or overemphasizing, for example, commercial aspects.The results of the SWOT analysis will be used in later workshops and WP3 activities to determine courses of action that could be prioritized by VC actors according to their roles and capacities (i.e., VC upgrading strategy). In particular, the results of this process will be key inputs for the participatory assessment and codesign/upgrading of the AE business model.The role of an AE facilitator is to promote participation and inclusiveness in discussions as the AE principles are mainstreamed in every step of the process. As reflecting on these discussions requires time and the conclusions drawn will have important implications for the core stakeholders' businesses and livelihoods, we recommend dividing the different validation and participatory planning activities into various sessions, giving enough time in between for the actors to ponder, discuss, and validate the shared results.AnnexDirect actors are those directly involved in production processes, postharvest handling, processing, and commercialization. These actors take direct possession of and are owners of the product in one or more links in the chain, therefore running direct risks linked to the product (Gottret, 2011). These actors are also called micro-level actors (Springer-Heinze, 2018).Indirect actors are those who offer operational services and/ or support services to the direct actors at various points in the chain. Even though the product may well pass through their hands at some link in the chain, they do not assume possession of it at any time. They therefore also face indirect risks regarding the product. Indirect actors include suppliers, operational service providers, support service providers, and regulatory bodies (Gottret, 2011). The indirect actors that provide inputs and operational and support services to direct actors are also called meso-level actors, whereas regulatory bodies are categorized as macro-level actors in the ValueLinks guide (Springer-Heinze, 2018).The macro level encompasses the enabling environment, distinguishing between natural elements (i.e., climate, soil, water quantity and quality, biodiversity, etc.) and societal elements, including infrastructure, socio-cultural norms, and institutions and organizations (i.e., financial system, insurance companies, and relevant government institutions that, together with the judiciary and, among others, major providers of public utilities, determine policies and regulate the conditions for doing business in a country or region).Only some of these institutions are particular to a specific value chain.Governance is the setting, monitoring, and enforcing of norms and rules with which the stakeholders in a collectivity manage their common affairs. The collectivity can be a value chain (thus, value chain governance) or a local, national, or global community of people interested in resolving a common problem or promoting a common goal. Basic types of governance are markets, networks, and hierarchies (Springer-Heinze, 2018).A value chain stage constitutes a categorical instrument that allows grouping direct actors with similar characteristics to facilitate their visualization in the value chain and subsequent analyses. Although these stages are specific for each value chain, some generic stages are common to most agricultural value chains and can be used as references and adapted as required:1. Primary production includes producers of the VC commodity, which can be further categorized by size of the enterprise, technification, marketing channel, etc.whose main activity is aggregating and trading the VC commodity (i.e., intermediaries, traders).3. Processing includes formal and informal actors involved in the processing of the agricultural commodity. This could involve first or further transformations into products with higher added value.4. Exporters include primarily the exporters of the agricultural commodity in its raw state or having low value addition. In the case of exporters of processed products, these actors might be better located in the processing stage.5. Wholesalers and retailers are actors who trade the commodity or value-added product directly or almost directly with the final consumer.The differentiation of stages depends on the actor's characteristics and business operations; it might be the case that the producers in a particular VC trade directly with processors and wholesalers, making it irrelevant to include the stage of intermediary trade. The differentiation of stages should be displayed only when they correspond to business operations specific to a relevant group of existing VC actors.Finally, as mentioned before, indirect actors can be placed in four groups: suppliers, operational service providers, support service providers, and regulatory bodies. We suggest that the assessment team consider the following indirect actors in the analysis:1. Input suppliers include suppliers of relevant agricultural inputs, machinery, seeds, propagation material, etc.2. Operational service providers include transport and logistics service providers.3. Support service providers include financial and insurance services, rural extension, technical assistance and training, agricultural research, setting of professional standards, provision of information, trade fairs and export marketing, quality control, political advocacy, and representation of the common interest of a set of actors.4. Regulatory bodies include phytosanitary and zoo-sanitary control, environmental agencies, agricultural agencies, and trade agencies.The following guide contains a list of leading questions and topics for inquiry to explore with key informats for the purpose of conducting a rapid agroecological VCA , with specific questions and themes for the different stages and levels of the value chain.The themes are divided in different modules as follows:1. General information of the actor  What are the commercial arrangements with producers and customers? (formal, informal, special arrangements)Characteristics of service provision (extension, input distribution, financial services)Other important traders-exporters in the region (competitors)Major barriers and weaknessess of the organization. Why?Major barriers and weaknessess of suppliers. Why?Policies and regulations: What are the main challenges/opportunities regarding laws, regulations, norms and standards, support programs, etc.? Which elements are obstructing the functioning of the VC? (e.g., ensured access to land). Which elements are missing? Are regulations, etc. effectively enforced? Are policies aligned or in conflict?Cultural factors: What are the main challenges/opportunities regarding religion, presence of ethnic minorities, conflicts and levels of crime, gender and youth norms, entrepreneurial spirit (openness to new ideas), dietary habits, etc.?Infrastructure: What are the main challenges/opportunities regarding roads, public markets, railroads, water supply, wastewater management, ICT networks, electricity supply, etc.?Opportunities and future plans for the organization4.00 Gender: Are there gender sensitive policies in the company? (related to balanced workforce, provision of services, breastfeeding facilities, cooling facilities for breastmilk, guidelines of maternity leave [national minimum or beyond WHO], paternity leave, free or paid higienic and sanitary products). Are there workforce programs for employees, children or families, such as health and wellness, fitness, trainings, among others? { Other pest management: non-chemical pest management practices that treat pest problems rather than preventing their occurrence or biochemical pesticides that control pests by non-toxic mechanisms (naturally occurring substances). This category excludes biological pest management and cover crop (use of steam, UV treatment, LED lighting, insect sex pheromone, plant extract that attracts insect pests to traps, neem spray, wood ashes).{ Adoption of organic and low-input farming: general organic or low-input systems if not considered in other categories already.Does your organization engage in or promote the management of organic matter and soil biological activity? If not, why not? If yes, how does this happen? (give an example). How does this contribute to your organization's objectives, mission, and financial results?Does your organization ensure animal health and welfare? If not, why not? If yes, how does this happen? (give an example). How does this contribute to your organization's objectives, mission, and financial results?{ Cover crops for improved soil conditions: planting cover crops specifically to reduce erosion and runoff, increase soil organic matter, improve soil drainage and soil structure, alleviate soil compaction, improve overall soil condition.{ Perennial crops: adoption of perennial plant species in place of annual crops.{ Reduced tillage: adoption of conservation tillage or no-till practices. This category includes general or other reduced-tillage practices that are not considered in previous categories already.{ Domesticated pollinators: improved pollination through the temporary introduction of domesticated pollinators or introduction of exotic domesticated species.{ Improved animal welfare and health: improved livestock health and further efforts to support livestock well-being (species-appropriate husbandry, aquaponics).Does your organization maintain and enhance the diversity of species, functional diversity, and/or genetic resources? If not, why not? If yes, how does this happen? (give an example). How does this contribute to your organization's objectives, mission, and financial results?Does your organization enhance positive ecological interactions and complementary interactions in the agroecosystems (animals, crops, trees, soil, and water)? If not, why not? If yes, how does this happen? (give an example). How does this contribute to your organization's objectives, mission, and financial results?Does your organization promote production and income diversification on farms? If not, why not? If yes, how does this happen? (give an example). How does this contribute to your organization's objectives, mission, and financial results?Sample practices for synergy, biodiversity, and economic diversification:{ Non-crop plants: incorporating non-crop plants in agroecological systems for ecological functions such as conservation, water quality, or pest management. This category does not include integration of trees.{ Agroforestry: diversified farming systems integrating crop production and trees.{ Rotational/regenerative grazing: improved grazing methods/management to improve soil quality and forage yield.{ Integrated crop-livestock systems: diversified farming systems including both crops and livestock.{ Use of weeds for food and forage in a maize system, alley cropping with trees, coffee agroforestry, grazing systems based on forage availability and demand, fishduck-rice system, silvopasture, push-pull, system of rice intensification.{ Integrated pest management by habitat manipulation: landscape planning (focused on habitat) or habitat management as systemic precondition for biological pest control.{ Other landscape planning and synchronized landscape activity leading to improved agricultural ecosystem services: consideration and coordination of activities (including land use, land cover, or other components) at the landscape level that optimize ecosystem services that benefit agricultural production. Habitat conservation around agricultural lands, landscape-scale management interventions (reforestation/restoration/preservation of natural habitats with clear benefits for agricultural production, diversified land use, or alternate flowering at the landscape level to improve pollination services, windbreaks, soil erosion control, e.g., using hedgerows, half-moon, terracing, stone bunds, contour bounding, Zaï holes).{ Climate mitigation through a redesigned system (increasing carbon stocks, reducing GHG emissions).","tokenCount":"5309"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2f0d42ff4fa6e118e64e1f8c94f3d340","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7cda4896-5aca-4659-bfad-f1374d9f9749/retrieve","id":"865945521"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9d2ac7dd-9a3b-4af2-8bb0-648a649a136e","pagecount":"4","content":"Localized forecasting requires in-depth knowledge of local weather trends and climatic changes.◼ Farmers have a desire to obtain local market prices as it allows them to make an informed decision on whether to go to market.◼ There is an increase in the use of information and communications technology (ICT) as a communication medium, which opens a new way of disseminating key information to farmers directly.◼ There is a willingness from farmers to pay for such services if they see it fit.Agriculture is the core sector of the Ethiopian economy (Bekabil 2014). However, smallholder farmers that dominate the sector practice rain-fed mixed farming by using unimproved practices leading to low agricultural productivity (Welteji 2018). Ethiopian agriculture is also vulnerable to climate-related risks such as more frequent droughts and flooding, rainfall variability, and heatwaves (high temperatures) (Amsalu 2009). The impacts of hazards related to current weather variability and climate extremes have already been felt in the country. It is projected that by the year 2050, the negative impacts of climate change, under an extreme scenario of higher temperatures and increased intensity and frequency of extreme events, could cost Ethiopia 8-10% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Robinson et. al. 2013).The Government of Ethiopia is making efforts to address these adverse conditions and has designed coping mechanisms (Tadesse et. al. 2018) for the agriculture sector, overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture. One of the coping mechanisms identified in Ethiopia's National Adaptation Plans (NAP) is the dissemination of localized weather forecasts and agroadvisory services to the farmers and pastoralists who are highly dependent on rainfed agriculture for their livelihoods. As a result, accurate and timely weather and climate information are critical for the agriculture sector and the livelihood of smallholder communities.The main objective of the project was to pilot YeZaRe, meaning \"today\" in Amharic, weather forecasts, agroadvisory, and market information dissemination system to smallholder farmers through a mobile phone app and short message service (SMS). Through a mobile app and SMS, location-specific weather forecasts bundled with agroadvisories are disseminated to inform farmer decision-making. Weather information includes 3, 10, 30-day, and seasonal forecast on rainfall onset and cessation. The 10-day forecast includes advisory services with specified management actions. Tailored agrometeorological advisory allows informed decisionmaking for higher agricultural productivity.The project was initiated in the year 2018 in two districts namely, Basona Werana of Amhara Region, and Doyogena in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region. They are also sites where the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for Next-Generation (Africa RISING) project is undertaken. The Africa RISING project has worked on sustainable intensification of mixed crop-livestock systems as a key pathway towards better food security, improved livelihoods, and a healthy environment in the sites since 2011.In the year 2018, a baseline survey was conducted in the two project districts targeting a total of 60 households (30 from each district). The baseline included an assessment of the farmers' previous experience and challenges in accessing and utilizing weather forecasts and market information. The required information was collected through a household survey and focus group discussions. Thereafter, by using the YeZaRe system, localized weather forecasts, and climate information with respective agroadvisories were disseminated to these farmers. These households received market price information of key commodities in the Addis Ababa, Debre Berhan, and Hossana major markets. The market information mainly included wholesale and retail prices that were collected two or three times a week depending on the market location and market days.Apart from the dissemination of district specific weather forecast and market information, a longitudinal study was also conducted to assess the farmer's experience, perception, and understanding as well as challenges in accessing and utilizing such information. The findings provided feedback to guide the process of adjusting the packaging and dissemination of the information.The baseline assessment showed that 97% of the households had already accessed weather information from Ethiopia's National Meteorology Agency (NMA). This information was mainly disseminated through radio, Ministry of Agriculture extension agents, development organizations, television, friends, and relatives in nearby villages (Figure 1). The same number of households also use indigenous traditional knowledge forecasts to complement the forecasts from NMA.Farmers indicated the need for weather forecasts that have related agroadvisory information to deal with climate change-related risks such as expected incidence of pests and diseases, and suggestions for appropriate remedial actions.The provision of market information services is expected to increase the bargaining power of farmers, reduce the cost of transportation, and create a fair transaction process with farmer cooperatives. Most of the farmers sell their products in local markets within their villages or nearby urban centers. Typically, on market days in urban areas, farmers travel for long distances to sell their farm produce. While price tends to fall on such market days as the number of suppliers increase, the middlemen or traders gain unfair advantage of buying products at a lower price. Unfortunately, most of the farmers who travel long distances to sell their farm produce on market days usually get to the market without prior knowledge of the commodity prices. Thus, at the end of the day, they are also forced to sell their produce at a lower price rather than returning home with the goods. This cycle negatively affects farmer's income hence the need to have prior knowledge of the local market prices to allow them to make prior decisions with regard to either going to the market to sell their goods or waiting for the right time.The baseline study analyzed farmers' experience in accessing market information for major agricultural products (Figure 2) by focusing on the sources of information, communication channels, content of the information, and the preferred means of accessing the market information. These households have access to both village and urban area marketplaces. Typically, village marketplaces are approximately 1 to 3 kilometers from their homes while the urban markets are further away.Following the project intervention, these households have access to market information such as commodity selling prices, and the potential marketplaces. From the survey, 48% of the households get this information from traders via mobile phone communication, while 23% and 20% of respondents receive information from neighbors and relatives, and cooperatives, respectively. Few of the households receive such information through radio and extension agents. The challenges faced by households in accessing markets are numerous. The traders share information based on market speculation i.e. by just calculating their profit margins. The seasonal nature of farm production cycles is a challenge whereby farmers usually require market information during harvesting seasons where the majority of their produce is ready for markets. Farmers also face a limited number of market outlets to sell their goods, making them sell farm produce either to cooperatives or traders during market days. Farmers earn a small profit when they sell to cooperatives and they do not often get the payment immediately. This is mainly because cooperatives collect the products from farmers and sell the goods only when they secure certain minimum quantities. Thus, it forces farmers to wait for long, sometimes up to six months, to get their payment. On the other hand, middlemen and traders pay the farmers immediately, allowing them to have access to cash instantly. Conversely, farmers have very little bargaining power when dealing with traders.Thus, in addition to market price information, farmers need to have information about the existing alternative market outlets. This could provide them better bargaining power and additional options to increase their income from produce. This requires identifying possible alternative market outlets for commodities.By using YeZaRe SMS platform, market information was disseminated to 47 farmers (Figure 3) consisting of 28 from Doyogena district and 19 from Basona Werana district. Out of the 28 farmers from Doyogena, 25 farmers received the information sent, while three did not receive the information due to mobile phone network problems. In Doyogena, 24 farmers managed to read the messages. In the Basona Werana district, 17 of the 19 farmers received the information and of these, 14 farmers read the information. The farmers who did not read the text messages could be either illiterate or deliberately ignore SMS due to fatigue from being bombarded by unsolicited messages from marketing agencies through Ethio Telecom, the national mobile phone company. The farmers who received and read the message were asked whether they understood the market information (Figure 4). Accordingly, 24 farmers out of 28 from the Doyogena district confirmed that they did understand the information, while about 14 farmers out of 19 from the Basona Werana district clearly understood the message. The farmers were also asked whether the information was helpful or not. Based on their feedback, 23 farmers from Doyogena and 15 farmers from Basona Werana districts confirmed that the market information they received was helpful for more informed decision making on selling harvested products. From this study, the following key lessons were learned in terms of designing as well as implementing weather and market information services for smallholder farmers. First, it is essential to emphasize delivering locally specific weather forecasts and agroadvisories. This helps farmers to make a better decision on the appropriate climatesmart agriculture (CSA) practices to use. Secondly, standalone weather forecasts and agroadvisory may not be helpful. Farmers need detailed information packages, for example, sources of mechanization equipment, alerts on pest and diseases and their management options, and sources of credit for farm inputs. Thirdly, farmers preferred to learn more about the nearest local market information compared to the far-off regional markets that have higher travel costs to access. Finally, market information by itself is not enough, and farmers benefit more when it incorporates innovation and technologies to enhance their production, post-harvest handling, and market linkage opportunities with the existing or new market outlets.","tokenCount":"1606"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"49873bfcb07979aa6f73fdec2cd72e97","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3ef02fb9-8830-406e-8375-1e9a4c7d92e9/content","id":"9611394"},"keywords":["Heterogeneity index","optimum plot size","plot shape","rectangularity","replication RÉSUMÉ"],"sieverID":"162239c7-c0f2-4fa3-bbd4-2bbfec5de741","pagecount":"13","content":"Bread wheat was row and broadcast sown using uniform crop management practices on a research station soil classified as a haplic Nitisol, situated in a major wheat producing region of Ethiopia, during the 1996 and 1997 crop seasons. The harvested area was divided into basic units measuring 1 m by 1 m. Resultant basic unit grain yields were combined to simulate different plot sizes and shapes, and Smith's empirical model and subsequent derivations were used to estimate soil heterogeneity. The broadcast sown trials generally resulted in lower estimates of soil heterogeneity, higher coefficients of variation, and higher values for adjacent plot correlation due to both modified inter-plant competition, and a more variable distribution of wheat plants and basal fertiliser within plots. Parameter estimates from the broadcast sown trials were less consistent over the two year trial period relative to those from the row sown trials. The analyses suggested a marginal superiority for square plot shapes for broadcast sown trials, while for row sown trials rectangular and square plot shapes were equally precise in measuring soil heterogeneity. A comparison of the trial design parameters currently favoured by wheat researchers in Ethiopia with the optimal parameters estimated in the current study suggests that: (a) the design characteristics of broadcast sown wheat agronomic trials appear close to optimal, but (b) the net plot areas harvested from row sown wheat breeding trials are markedly suboptimal.Wheat (Triticum spp.) is one of the most important cereal crops grown under rainfed conditions in the highlands of Ethiopia (Hailu, 1991). The Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organisation (EARO) and collaborating institutions conduct a multi-disciplinary national wheat research programme directed towards improving the productivity, yield potential and quality of wheat in Ethiopia (Desalegn et al., 1996).The conduct of cost-effective agricultural research necessitates the efficient use of limited research resources; research trials should attain an acceptable level of experimental precision with minimal cost. The major factors that determine the cost of a field experiment are the size and shape of plots and blocks, and the number of replications used, since these factors are directly proportional to the area occupied by the field trial (Mohamed, 1987). The choice of plot size and shape is influenced by field management techniques, which are related to prevailing agricultural technologies, and the extent of within site variability, which is related to the degree of soil heterogeneity. Therefore, it is important to develop and utilise appropriate methodologies for field experimentation in order to optimise both experimental precision and the efficiency of research resource usage.Research to determine optimum plot size and shape for specific field crops, based on uniformity trials, has been conducted for many years; considerable progress has been achieved, however, since Smith (1938) developed a method to estimate soil heterogeneity. Kock and Rigney (1951), Federer (1955), Hatheway and Williams (1958), and Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty (1983) modified Smith's methods.The two most widely used methods for selecting optimum plot sizes are those suggested by Smith (1938) and Hatheway (1961). Utilising these techniques, crop scientists have recommended optimal plot sizes and shapes for specific crop-soil combinations. For example, Mohamed (1987) reported an optimum plot size and shape for Dura sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) in the Gezira irrigation scheme in Sudan, and Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty (1985) identified an efficient plot size for pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) under dryland conditions in India.The relationship between the coefficient of variability (CV) and plot size can be used for the optimisation of plot size. Subsequent to representing this relationship graphically, the optimum plot size has been obtained in one or two ways by different authors. Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty (1985) considered optimum plot size to be represented by the point on the curve at which the maximum rate of change in the estimate of CV per incremental unit of plot size occurs. However, this method may be affected by the scale of the co-ordinates used in plotting. The second method (Lessman and Atkins, 1963) is based on a derivation of the variance per basic unit area, or similar measures of variability, in relation to plot size. This method was further simplified by introducing the concept of critical plot size: the critical plot size corresponds to the point of maximum curvature on the graphical relationship between variance and plot size (Lessman and Atkins, 1963).Another method previously considered in the determination of optimum plot size was based on cost factors associated with the number and size of plots within a trial (Smith, 1938). However, this method often identified an impracticably narrow plot dimension as optimal (Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty, 1985).Wheat researchers in Ethiopia strive to improve the experimental precision of field trials in order to obtain unbiased and accurate estimates of treatment effects. However, information on the degree of soil heterogeneity and on optimum plot dimensions for wheat experimentation is lacking. By convention, wheat breeders in Ethiopia manually sow wheat in rows within long and narrow plots; gross plot areas are 3.0 m 2 and net plot areas (i.e., harvested areas) are 2.0 m 2 for variety trials, and four replications are normally used (Desalegn et al., 1996). By contrast, wheat agronomists conduct their research trials under small-holder conditions; the agronomists customarily establish trials by manually broadcasting wheat seed and basal fertiliser and subsequently incorporating the broadcast inputs with one pass of the local ox-plough (i.e., similar to the conventional practice of peasant farmers in Ethiopia). Agronomic trials, both on-farm and on-station, generally consist of individual plots characterised by gross and net plot areas of 25 and 9.0 m 2 , respectively, with two or three replications being common (Tanner et al., 1992).The objectives of this study were to estimate the degree of soil heterogeneity on a typical research station soil in the central highlands of Ethiopia, and to determine the associated optimum plot sizes and shapes for broadcast and row sown wheat experiments.Two sets of soil uniformity trials, broadcast and row sown, were established on a soil classified as a haplic Nitisol at the Holetta Research Center (altitude 2400 m a.s.l., latitude 9°03' N, and longitude 38°30' E) which is located in a major wheat producing region of Ethiopia (Hailu, 1991). The trials were conducted during the 1996 and 1997 cropping seasons. Both sets of trials were hand sown using the popular local bread wheat (T. aestivum) cultivar \"Qubsa\" (=Attila, a CIMMYT-derived, semi-dwarf with high yield potential in the central highlands of Ethiopia). The trials were sown on June 20 in 1996 and June 18 in 1997 with uniform application of the inputs and cultural practices recommended for the area (Tanner et al., 1991). For row sown trials, fertiliser, in the form of urea and triple superphosphate at the rate of 60 kg N and 60 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 , was placed in rows spaced 20 cm apart and then seeds were sown in the rows at the rate of 150 kg ha -1 : rows were subsequently covered manually. For broadcast trials, 60 kg N, 60 kg P 2 O 5 and 175 kg seed ha -1 were broadcast by hand and then were covered by one pass with the local ox-plough. Weeds were controlled by post-emergence spray application of fenoxaprop-p-ethyl at 69 g a.i. ha -1 and 2,4-D at a rate of 1.08 kg a.i. ha -1 .At emergence, each trial was subdivided into basic unit plots measuring 1 m x 1 m by fixing sisal strings on permanent pegs spaced at 1 m intervals along all four sides of the trial. At maturity, border strips measuring 3 m for broadcast sown and 2 m for row sown trials were manually removed along each trial perimeter leaving a net area of 12 x 60 m for broadcast sown and 12 x 80 m for row sown trials in 1996, and 10 x 72 m for both trials in 1997. Thus, a total of 720 and 960 basic unit plot areas were harvested from broadcast and row sown trials, respectively, in 1996; in 1997, a total of 720 basic units were harvested from each trial. Each basic unit plot was hand harvested separately by sickle, placed in cloth sacks, tagged, sun-dried in the open air, and then threshed by manually beating the sacks. Grain yield was determined for each basic unit plot area and recorded on a g m -2 basis. The grain yields from adjacent basic unit plots were subsequently combined to derive values for different plot shapes and sizes. Plot sizes ranging from 1 to 240 m 2 with various shapes were considered in the study.For grain yield (GY), variance among plots, V (X) , was computed as the variance among plots for each specific plot area X. From this value, the variance per basic unit area, V X , was determined by the formula: (Mohamed, 1987) and comparable variance, V, was calculated as: (Keller, 1949) Coefficient of variation, CV, was estimated using grain yield on a basic unit area:The coefficient of soil heterogeneity, b, was estimated using Smith's heterogeneity index (Smith, 1938):Using linear regression on the log scale and solving for b results in the following equation (Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty, 1983)where V X is the variance of yield per unit area of X and V 1 is the variance per basic unit of 1 m 2 area.The values of b were subsequently used in the computation of optimum plot sizes and shapes. For plot sizes having more than one shape, the homogeneity of comparable variance was tested to determine the significance of plot shape (i.e., plot orientation): for plot sizes having two shapes, the F-test was applied; for plot sizes having more than two shapes, the Bartlett's chi-square test was used (Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty, 1982) to test for homogeneity of multiple variances (Gomez and Gomez, 1984). The b coefficient was adjusted for infinite field size using the table of adjusted values of Smith's index of soil heterogeneity given by Gomez and Gomez (1984) and the ratio of the size of basic units, 1 m 2 in this case, to the total area. Interpolation was applied to tabular values in order to obtain adjusted values.The coefficients of rectangular heterogeneity, which are indicative of the level of correlation between adjacent plots, were determined from the equation of Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty (1982):Depending on the magnitude of the coefficients (b1 and b2), the rectangular heterogeneity equation can be rewritten as:The shape of a plot was represented by the ratio of L/W or W/L. The coefficient B2 represents heterogeneity due to square plot shape, whereas B1 represents heterogeneity due to rectangular plot shape. A greater divergence between b1 and b2 values indicates enhanced efficiency due to rectangular plot shape.For a given plot size and number of replications, the true treatment difference, d (i.e., the least significant difference at the 5% probability level for yield measured in g m -2 ), was determined using the following equation (Hatheway, 1961):This equation may be simplified to:where t 1 = the tabulated value of the student-t test of significance t 2 = the tabulated value of t corresponding to 2 * (1 -p) where p is the probability of obtaining a significant result (5% in this case)C 1 = the coefficient of variation of basic unit size plots r = the number of replicationsUsing modifications suggested by Lessman and Atkins (1963) and Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty (1985), the optimum plot size, or X critical value, was determined at the point of maximum curvature on the graphical relationship between plot size and true treatment difference using the following formula:where b is the soil heterogeneity index.The total number of plots for each plot size and shape considered for row and broadcast sown wheat trials in 1996 and 1997, and the associated measures of variability, are given in Tables 1 and 2. Small plots consistently exhibited higher degrees of variability than larger plots as indicated both by the variance per basic unit area and the CV. The coefficient of variation decreased markedly for both row and broadcast sown trials as plot size increased. However, the rate of change was more pronounced for row sown than for broadcast sown trials, especially for plot widths greater than 4 m. Variability was higher for broadcast sown than for row sown trials for the larger plot sizes in both years and for all plot sizes in 1996. The change in CV for a constant width (W) while varying length (L), or vice-versa, was small and similar for both row and broadcast sown trials, indicating a similar degree of soil heterogeneity along both sides of the trials. Plot lengths of 1 to 2 m exhibited the highest degree of variability, particularly as plot widths increased. Variance per basic unit area was consistent for row sown trials in both years, whereas for broadcast sown trials, the variance in the 1996 trial was markedly higher than in the 1997 trial.TABLE 1. Number of plots, variance among plots (V (X) ), comparable variance (V), variance per basic unit area (V X ), and coefficient of variation (CV) for all plot areas and shapes for row and broadcast sown wheat in 1996 Shape Row sown Broadcast sown   Row sown trials consistently measured a greater degree of soil heterogeneity than broadcast sown trials as indicated by the larger b coefficients (Table 3). Heterogeneity coefficients corre-sponding to variable dimensions of width and length for row sown trials were also consistently larger than those for broadcast sown trials in both years (Table 3); in row sown trials, coefficients related to plot width were slightly smaller than those related to the length of plots, while the reverse trend was observed for broadcast trials. For row sown trials, b coefficients of 0.476 and 0.455 with associated R 2 values of 74 and 98% were estimated in 1996 and 1997, respectively; the corresponding coefficients for broadcast sown trials were 0.240 and 0.270 with R 2 values of 95% and 96%. These coefficients indicate that the degree of heterogeneity within a trial is influenced not only by soil variability and plot orientation, but also by crop geometry resulting from the sowing method used.In the broadcast sown trials, the estimated value of the heterogeneity coefficient, b, could have been reduced due to: 1) modified inter-plant competition within plots and higher correlation between neighbouring plants; 2) lack of uniformity in plant density within plots which amplified crop geometry effects; and 3) uneven distribution of broadcast fertiliser which introduced heterogeneity and affected crop performance within plots. Values in parentheses are standard errors of the coefficientsThe b coefficient was adjusted for infinite field size (i.e., to represent fields larger than the trial area used for this experiment) in order to extrapolate the results to the Holetta area as a whole. Adjusted b values were 0.504 and 0.324 for 1996 and 0.481 and 0.352 for 1997 for row and broadcast sown trials, respectively; mean b values were 0.493 and 0.338 for row and broadcast sown trials.The analysis of variance indicated a significant log-linear relationship between variance per basic unit area and the width and length of plots for all trials. Examination of the residuals of the fitted model also indicated adequacy of the model for these data sets (data not shown). Hence, we considered b1 and b2 to be non-zero measures of heterogeneity along the width and length of both the broadcast and row sown trials.The coefficients B1 and B2 measure incremental heterogeneity due to the use of rectangular or square shaped plots, respectively (Table 4). Heterogeneity coefficients due to rectangularity were non-significant (P > 0.05) in both years for both sowing methods. The heterogeneity of comparable variance for plots of equal size was found to be non-significant (P > 0.05) for both row and broadcast sown trials, suggesting that differing plot shapes of equal size are equally efficient for both sowing methods on the Holetta Nitisol. Hence, increasing the plot size of both rectangular and square plots reduced the magnitude of error variance at approximately the same rate. The t-test of the mean difference between b1 and b2 also exhibited non-significance (P > 0.05) for both row and broadcast sown trials, corroborating the previous observation that heterogeneity due to rectangularity was non-significant. For a given plot size X, V X exhibited a minimal decrease as rectangularity increased, but this reduction, as already seen from the interpretation of the B1 value, was not sufficient to warrant long and narrow plots. Comparing the two sowing methods, row sown trials exhibited a much lower index of heterogeneity due to rectangularity than did broadcast trials. Thus, irrespective of shape, plot size was paramount in the optimisation of plot dimensions for wheat experimentation.The heterogeneity coefficient, b, was also estimated for fixed values of W by varying L and vice-versa for the row sown (Table 5) and broadcast sown trials (Table 6). The mean coefficients related to L and W for broadcast sown trials were 0.281 and 0.266 in 1996 and 0.263 and 0.288 in 1997; for row sown trials, the mean estimated coefficients were 0.582 and 0.581 for L and W in 1996 and 0.469 and 0.467 in 1997. The similarity of the b values estimated for fixed levels of L and W indicates equal soil heterogeneity along the width and length of the trial area; this indication agrees with the non-significance of B1. To broadly assess the effect of plot shape on the measurement of soil heterogeneity, the plots were divided into three groups on the basis of W, W=L, or W>L (Table 7), as suggested by Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty (1985). For the row sown trials, estimated b coefficients were similar for the three groups each year, indicating that square and rectangular plot shapes are equally efficient in reducing error variance.For broadcast sown trials, the b coefficients for the square (i.e., W=L) group seemed higher than for the two rectangular groups (i.e., W and W>L). However, model fit, as indicated by the R2 values, was poor due to the low magnitude of the degrees of freedom for error. The small numerical discrepancy between the results of the equation of Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty (1983) and the method of dividing plots into three groups might be related to the unequal numbers of widths and lengths used in estimating b1 and b2. When the equation of Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty (1983) was fitted to the row sown data, L seemed to be associated with a marginally higher index of heterogeneity, but when Smith's index of heterogeneity (Smith, 1938) was fitted to the three groups, square plots exhibited a marginal superiority, although not significant, relative to rectangular plots. For the broadcast trials, although an equal number of plots were used for the estimation of the effects of L and W, application of the Narayana Reddy and Ramanatha Chetty (1983) equation revealed a considerable rectangular effect due to W, while the method of Smith (1938) seemed to favour square plots. This is probably due to the inclusion of a higher proportion of small plots for the estimation of W, since small plots exhibited relatively greater heterogeneity in the broadcast sown trials.Optimum plot size, corresponding to the point of maximum curvature on the graphical relationship between true treatment difference and plot size, was estimated for replication numbers ranging from 2 to 12 for both sowing methods in each year (Table 8). The value of d, the true treatment difference expressed as a percentage, is presented graphically against plot size for r=2 (Figs. 1 and 2 for the 1997 row and broadcast sown trials, respectively). Estimated optimum plot sizes for both row and broadcast sown wheat were smaller for the 1997 trials relative to the 1996 trials across the range of replication numbers simulated (Table 8). This is probably due to variation in the degree of soil heterogeneity of the different fields used each year. Figure 1. Relationship between plot size (x) and true treatment differences to be detected as significant, expressed as percentage (row sown, 1997).Figure 2. Relationship between plot size (x) and true treatment differences to be detected as significant, expressed as percentage (broadcast sown, 1997).As the number of replications was increased, estimated optimum plot sizes decreased (Table 8). Increasing the number of replications from two to four reduced the estimated optimum plot size by 28 and 27% for row and broadcast sown trials, respectively. However, increasing the number of replications beyond eight for both row and broadcast sown trials had a minimal effect on optimum plot size (i.e., reducing optimum plot size by < 10%); thus, this level of replication could be considered as a point of convergence. This suggests that the use of replication numbers greater than eight for either sowing method would not increase precision, representing an unnecessary cost of experimentation.The trial design parameters currently used by wheat agronomists in Ethiopia, viz., broadcast sown trials with net plot areas of 3.0 by 3.0 m and Tanner, D.G., Amanuel Gorfu, Lemma Zewdie and Asefa Taa. 1992 ","tokenCount":"3485"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"edbef9268b6667b2a47ffe1625edd3aa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9ca584f6-dab2-4a3d-bd24-2e16b8dc0f43/retrieve","id":"1026967110"},"keywords":["Cover image","Beans. Source","CGIAR"],"sieverID":"39eb0596-99dd-4e77-a3e9-422ef3f8a34c","pagecount":"27","content":"Despite disruptions to intergovernmental meetings in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CGIAR maintained an active participation in meetings organized under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and other relevant international treaties that govern access and equitable benefit sharing associated with CGIAR's genetic resources. The Policy Module of the CGIAR Genebank Platform which coordinates CGIAR's engagement in international treaty fora also coordinated a wide range of activities and resources which strengthen CGIAR's engagement with and implementation of these international treaty frameworks. Committed to being transparent in our actions, this 2020 CGIAR Intellectual Assets Management Report (CGIAR IA Report) and the 2019 CGIAR IA Report will be submitted at the 9 th meeting of the Governing Body which has been postponed until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All past reports are made publicly available on CGIAR's website.¡ 4 provisional patent applications ¡ 1 plant variety protection application ¡ 35 Limited Exclusivity Agreements ¡ No Restricted Use Agreements ¡ Justifications: The justifications provided by Centers for the above were generally deemed acceptable by the CGIAR System Organization and the CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group according to the criteria as outlined in the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets.An Internal Audit Function assurance engagement undertaken in 2020 to assess the adequacy of the management of intellectual property and assets in CGIAR complemented early thinking and discussions within CGIAR regarding how intellectual property and assets could be managed more effectively as CGIAR's entities move towards operating as 'One CGIAR' -with an integrated operational structure across entities under the global leadership of a CGIAR Executive Management Team. One of the options discussed in the assurance engagement included the potential integration of the management of intellectual property and assets into a broader technology transfer function in the ongoing One CGIAR transition and the potential need to review and update the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets pursuant to which this report is issued. This work will be undertaken in 2021 in close collaboration with key internal and external stakeholders, and with strategic counsel from the CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group.This annual report is published pursuant to the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets (CGIAR IA Principles, effective on 7 March 2012) which govern the management of Intellectual Assets produced or acquired by the CGIAR System Organization or CGIAR Research Centers to maximize their global accessibility and/ or ensure that they lead to the broadest possible impact on target beneficiaries in furtherance of CGIAR's vision. The CGIAR IA Principles establish a comprehensive framework for reporting and oversight, which culminates in an annual report providing insights regarding the implementation of the framework in the preceding year.The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (International Treaty) establishes rights and obligations which have implications for farmers, research organizations, non-governmental organizations, plant breeders, seed companies and governments related to conserving, improving and sustainably using Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and to equitably share benefits derived from the use of those resources. CGIAR is committed to fully implementing and complying with the International Treaty. 1 The Policy Module of the CGIAR Genebank Platform coordinates CGIAR activities concerning genetic resource policy issues in international fora. It provides periodic updates and recommendations to CGIAR Research Center Directors General and the CGIAR System Management Board on matters of risk and strategic importance and receives guidance for engagement in international fora from those bodies. The Policy Module of the CGIAR Genebank Platform consults with a range of CGIAR scientists and research leaders through a variety of mechanisms, including the Article 15 Genebank leaders' group, CGIAR Legal/Intellectual Property Network, and the CGIAR Genetic Resources Policy Working Group, which was established in late 2017.In 2020, most of the intergovernmental meetings under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Plant Treaty were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Policy Module of the CGIAR Genebank Platform coordinated CGIAR participation in the following meetings: ¡ Second Meeting of the Working Group on the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (February, 2020). ¡ Meeting of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources (March, 2020). ¡ Third meeting of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Farmers Rights (AHTEG-FR-3) under the International Treaty (August, 2020).Additionally, the Policy Module participated in the following webinars and consultation meetings organized under the auspices of both international conventions: ¡ Special Virtual Session in preparation of the 24 th Session of the of Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the 3 rd Session of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (September, 2020). ¡ Webinar on Farmers' Rights and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture organized together with the Plant Treaty Secretariat (September, 2020). ¡ Series of webinars on Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources organized by the CBD Secretariat (December, 2020).The Policy Module also coordinated the following activities designed to strengthen CGIAR's engagement with and implementation of international treaty frameworks: ¡ A virtual meeting of the CGIAR Genetic Resources Policy Working Group to discuss a range of issues concerning genetic resources policy which are relevant to the implementation of the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets. Article 3 of the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets recognizes the indispensable role of farmers, indigenous communities, agricultural professionals and scientists in conserving and improving genetic resources. Furthermore, CGIAR Research Centers are required to respect national and international efforts to protect and promote farmers' rights as envisaged by the International Treaty and to support the development of appropriate policies and procedures for their recognition and promotion.The Policy Module coordinated CGIAR engagement in a third meeting of the Ad-Hoc Technical Expert Group on Farmers' Rights in 2020. The Expert Group was created through a decision of the Governing Body to, among other things, develop voluntary guidelines on promoting farmers' rights. CGIAR's participation at the third meeting of the Expert Group followed a submission 6 to the second meeting with inputs from seven Centers about how they have contributed to the realization of farmers' rights.Furthermore, a number of initiatives were undertaken by CGIAR Research Centers to promote and strengthen farmers' rights in 2020.Questions and Answers on Genetic Engineering, accessible at https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/113824/QA-genetic-engineering_March-2021. pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Questions and Answers on Genome Editing, accessible at https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/113825) 5 Accessible at https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/96240/Guidelines-for-CGIAR-Research-Centers-to-operate-in-compliance-with-the-Nagoya-Protocol.pdf.Accessible at http://www.fao.org/3/ca4123en/ca4123en.pdfParticipatory breeding by CIP: In a publicprivate partnership with mining company, Poderosa S.A., CIP included a participatory varietal selection methodology in a project designed to release at least one variety of potato with aptitude for industrial processing into sticks and resistance to late blight, in addition to other qualitative and quantitative impact objectives described below. Varieties are anticipated to be released nationally in early 2022 and to be available to all farmers and the agriculture sector. Initially working with approximately 500 smallholder families in Poderosa S.A's immediate mining community over a period of approximately 5 years, the project aims to grow to include 15,400 smallholder families in the immediate mining community and at least 100,000 smallholder families in the broader Peruvian highlands.¡ Potato producers' income will be increased at least 10% by giving added value to their activity of growing a potato variety with good aptitude for industrial processing in addition to its resistance to late blight. ¡ Potato crop yield will be increased by at least 10% compared to traditional varieties. ¡ Improvement of farmer association through seed producer committees to increase the sales of certified seed by at least 15%.Qualitative impact: ¡ The potato variety selected for its processing characteristics and adaptability has potential for internationalization. ¡ The risk of pesticide contamination to farmers, their families, consumers and the environment will be reduced, as the indiscriminate use of these toxic products will be reduced. ¡ Relationships between farmer communities, the mining company, and agricultural research and innovation organizations will be strengthened. ¡ The project will allow diverse groups of farmers to associate with and become suppliers of potato for processing. In response to the Governing Body's resolution, the 2018 CGIAR Intellectual Assets Management Report (CGIAR IA Management Report) included enhanced coverage concerning implementation of the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets as it relates to the germplasm that CGIAR Research Centers manage under the framework of the International Treaty. 14 The report was submitted to the 8 th Meeting of the Governing Body (11-16 November 2019, Rome, Italy) 15 and was well-received by Contracting Parties, who invited the CGIAR System to continue submitting comparable reports. 16 The 2019 and 2020 CGIAR IA Management Reports will be submitted to the Governing Body at its 9 th meeting which was originally scheduled to take place in 2021 and has been postponed until May 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Intellectual Property Group regarding the adequacy of the justifications provided by Centers regarding their restricted arrangements. It also includes additional information about some particular, indicative examples of some Centers' restricted use agreements, limited exclusivity agreements, patents, and plant variety protection in 2020.Pursuant to the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets (CGIAR IA Principles) and the associated Implementation Guidelines for the CGIAR IA Principles, CGIAR Research Centers are responsible for public communications concerning their limited exclusivity agreements, restricted use agreements and other IP-related information reported on a confidential basis, and are expected to use their best efforts to make publicly available key information regarding these arrangements. 18 These public disclosures are compiled and published on the intellectual assets management section of the CGIAR website. 19 This framework for accountability and transparency seeks to balance the expectations of donors and other stakeholders with the needs of CGIAR Research Centers and their partners to ensure confidential information is preserved and that communications are contextualized and strategically managed in terms of timing and content-taking into account the particular circumstances of each arrangement. The CGIAR System Organization reviews Center public disclosures and ensures, in coordination with Centers, that recommendations for improvement are made as appropriate. In light of the Governing Body's Resolution 4/2017, the System Organization now also confers with the Policy Module of the CGIAR Genebank Platform concerning these disclosures and recommendations. 13 As per Resolution 4/2017 available in the Report of The Seventh Session of the Governing Body, accessible at http://www.fao.org/3/MV606/mv606.pdf. 14 Report by the CGIAR System on the Status of Implementation of the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets that Relate to Germplasm under the Framework of the International Treaty, is accessible at http://www.fao.org/3/nb208en/nb208en.pdf. 15 IT/GB-8/19/08/Inf.2 accessible at http://www.fao.org/3/nb208en/nb208en.pdf and the 2018 CGIAR IA Management Report is also at https://cgspace.cgiar.org/ handle/10568/103816. 16 As per paragraph 10 of Resolution 2/2019 accessible at http://www.fao.org/3/nb918en/nb918en.pdf. 17 Article 10.3 of the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets requires the annual CGIAR System Intellectual Assets Management Report to be general and aggregated and that such general information is not expected to be agreement -or IP Application -specific. 18 Pursuant to the Implementation Guidelines of the CGIAR IA Principles in the case of Limited Exclusivity Agreements, Restricted Use Agreements, and as per the System Council IP Group's recommendations in the 2016 CGIAR IA Report for CGIAR Research Centers to publicly disclose all published patent applications on their website once they are registered in the applicable patent database(s) and include information on how the patent protection will further the CGIAR Vision. 19 Accessible at https://www.cgiar.org/how-we-work/accountability/cgiar-intellectual-asset-management/.Throughout 2020, the CGIAR System Organization and the Policy Module of the CGIAR Genebank Platform continued to work closely with CGIAR Research Centers to strengthen their public communications regarding restricted arrangements permitted pursuant to the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets. This built on their coordinated efforts in 2018 and 2019 to raise awareness of Resolution 4/2017 to the CGIAR System Management Board, Directors General, Intellectual Property Focal Points, and others within the CGIAR system. These earlier efforts included a consultative process to develop an internal Guidance Note to assist Centers with their public disclosures related to limited exclusivity agreements, restricted use agreements, and intellectual property applications in ways that address issues raised by the Governing Body's resolution.Agriculture with a pre-established framework for access and benefit-sharing (as reflected in the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA), the Nagoya Protocol reinforces a bilateral system of access and benefit-sharing requiring prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms for benefitsharing for the access and use of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge on a case-bycase basis.In 2020, the Policy Module of the CGIAR Genebank Platform developed an online learning course, 'Genetic Resources Policies for CGIAR Scientists' together with the UK Open University. The CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets require that CGIAR Research Centers carefully consider whether to register/apply for (or allow third parties to register/apply for) patents and/or plant variety protection over the Centers' respective intellectual assets. Under the policy, as a general rule, such applications will not be made unless they are necessary for the further improvement of the intellectual assets or to enhance the scale or scope of impact on target beneficiaries, in furtherance of the CGIAR vision. As part of their justifications, Centers are required to provide information concerning the foreseen or actual strategy for dissemination, including elements related to global access, impact, and communication to promote transparency. The justifications in support of nonprovisional patent applications 20 are expected to be more detailed than those for provisional patent applications 21 , as the latter typically require further effort (e.g. to strengthen proof-of-concept and to evaluate technical developments and prospective commercial markets) to support the additional steps involved in securing a patent.In 2020, four provisional patent filings were reported: one by CIAT In such cases, Centers' licensing arrangements for patent-protected inventions are consistent with the SMTA requirements that intellectual property rights are not enforced in a manner that could limit facilitated access to the native traits, and concerning benefit-sharing if the commercialized downstream products incorporate materials from the Multilateral System. In the case of IRRI, if a patent license is granted for a trait derived using materials from the Multilateral System, the license will be designed to trigger benefit-sharing consistent with the SMTA, irrespective of whether there is incorporation of Multilateral System materials in the product that is commercialized. 27 Justifications provided in support of CGIAR Research Centers' patent applications can vary. For example, in developed countries, Centers focus on the desire to prevent free-riding (e.g. by organizations that have the capacity to pay market rates for premium technology) and to generate revenue that can be used to fund the further development of the technology and/or be reinvested in the Center's mission. For developing countries, justifications for patents may include conferring the leverage to implement dissemination strategies designed to ensure that any products or services derived from the protected technology, benefit smallholder farmers. Centers also typically apply a differentiated approach to revenue generation whereby particular users (e.g. public sector organizations, smallholder farmers, etc.) are intended to access the technology on a royalty-free basis or at no cost.In justifying their patent applications, CGIAR Research Centers typically explain that patent protection is necessary to create incentives for partners to invest the significant funds that are required to further develop the technologies concerned into commercial products or services and make them available to farmers. It is important to recall in this context that Centers generally undertake the breeding and research to develop products/technologies, not the final stages of testing bred lines to prepare them for release. Additional investments are necessary for further development and dissemination -sometimes quite substantial investments -at least to prove that candidate cultivars are sufficiently novel, distinct, uniform, and stable to qualify for registration as cultivars, and that they have sufficient value for commercial use to justify their commercial release in the target markets. They may also undertake further genetic development, incorporating CGIAR lines and optimized traits in plant varieties that are ready for use. Substantial investments may also be necessary to ensure that the new varieties effectively reach smallholder farmers as the main target beneficiaries of CGIAR. These investments are related to developing and maintaining foundation seed, multiplying seed, packaging, pricing and delivery conditions adapted to poor farmers living in remote areas. For all of these reasons, in the absence of a patent that gives private actors incentives for embarking in the development and delivery of the new technologies, the Centers concerned would be unable to achieve these outcomes.The justifications for the patent and plant variety protection applications reported in 2020 were deemed acceptable by the CGIAR System Organization and the CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group according to the criteria for maximizing global accessibility and impact as outlined in the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets.In 2020, IRRI filed a provisional patent application in India concerning 'Methods of increasing outcrossing rates in Gramineae'. Heterosis, also called hybrid vigor, is the phenomenon whereby F1 hybrids derived from diverse parents have superior traits compared to their parents. Hybrid varieties with heterosis are popular in many crops, including rice. In comparison to inbred rice cultivars, hybrid rice varieties often have remarkable traits, including high grain yield. However, the production cost of F1 hybrid seeds in rice is much higher compared to other crops due to rice being an essentially inbreeding crop, with a very low rate of outcrossing, which is a consequence of the morphology of the female organ (stigma) in rice floret. To produce hybrid F1 seeds, the stigma of the female parents should capture pollen grains from the male donor plants for fertilization, but the stigma of cultivated rice is short and stays inside the hull during pollination, limiting pollen access. This results in poor hybrid seed production (seed set of ~25%), and thus in high costs for hybrid rice seeds. Enhancement of outcrossing rates is a major challenge to produce superior F1 hybrid variety seed at a lower cost and make it available to rice farmers at a more competitive price.In the last 10 years, IRRI has led an ambitious research project aiming at developing rice female lines with a long-exerted stigma. A long-exerted stigma trait was found in the African wild relative of rice Oryza longistaminata (accession number IRGC110404; GLIS doi:10.18730/4Q3H3; held byIRRI as part of in trust collection under Article 15 of the Plant Treaty). Recently, the dominant gene controlling the long-exerted stigma phenotype in the wild relative was successfully identified through genetic analysis, and transferred to popular hybrid parental backgrounds using marker-assisted selection. New female parental lines exhibiting a long-exerted stigma have been produced together with their near-isogenic counterparts which have a normal (wild type) stigma. This material will allow comparing outcrossing rates for long stigma with normal stigma parental lines.Fine mapping and gene validation experiments using CRISPR/Cas9-based candidate gene knockout and complementation test made it possible to clone the single dominant gene controlling the stigma phenotype from O. longistaminata. These advances have a great potential to facilitate the development of new rice female lines with long-exerted stigma and, ultimately, the production of elite hybrid rice seeds at a price affordable for smallholder farmers.Further breeding and testing investments are necessary to advance the innovation. In particular, the high outcrossing trait needs to be introgressed in a number of elite female lines representing a wider range of genotypes from both two-line and three-line hybrid systems, and hybrid seed production trials have to be performed in a number of different agro-climatic Patent Example: IRRI's provisional patent application in India concerning 'Methods of increasing outcrossing rates in Gramineae' (continued)   conditions in order to generate robust data showing the extent to which the high outcrossing trait results in improved hybrid seed production for different genotypes. Finally, commercial actors will need to make investments to produce good quality hybrid seeds, using the new high outcrossing lines, and to make the seed available to smallholder rice farmers, at a price these farmers can and are willing to pay.Several years of further development will be necessary to produce a range of new female lines and generate performance data from production trials. This will require additional financial resources and testing capacities which are beyond IRRI's capacity. For these reasons, IRRI needs to attract partner organizations that can contribute financial and technical support for further development and utilization of the high outcrossing trait.As part of the strategy to attract public and private partners and investors, since 2016, IRRI has applied for patents in several countries, the most recent one in India, in 2020. The patents will allow IRRI to grant limited exclusivity rights over the innovation to research and development collaborators that could not make the necessary investments if the technology was completely open access and available to all potential competitors within their target territories.The patent application family includes the following claims as the scope for patent protection: ¡ The cultivated rice plant comprising an introgression including at least one O. longistaminata quantitative trait locus (QTL) associated with stigma traits.¡ Parts of the plant. ¡ Products derived from the plant. ¡ The method for producing a cytoplasmic or genic male sterile rice plant comprising a long stigma trait of O. longistaminata ¡ The method of introgression the long stigma trait of O. longistaminata.IRRI intends to provide non-exclusive, royaltyfree licenses to public research organizations interested in using the technology, and nonexclusive commercial licenses for private companies. IRRI licensees will be required to comply with all obligations of the SMTA.As per IRRI's Intellectual Property and Commercialization Policy, private licensees are required to make contributions to the Benefit Sharing Fund of the Plant Treaty, even when the materials are managed in ways that do not 'trigger' the mandatory benefit-sharing conditions set out in the SMTA. In addition, as per IRRI's guidelines, 20% of the royalties paid by future licensees to IRRI will also be shared voluntarily by IRRI with the Benefit Sharing Fund.The patent claims do not restrict access to the O. longistaminata accessions that are the source of the high outcrossing trait. They continue to be freely available under the Plant Treaty's multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing. IRRI will not enforce the patent against farmers if and when landraces and other varieties developed by farmers express the high outcrossing trait.IRRI will require its partners and licensees to use the invention for mass production of hybrid seed at a competitive cost in developing countries, for the ultimate benefit of rice growers in these countries.In 2020, CIAT applied for PVP application over a new brachiaria hybrid in Colombia developed by a CIAT breeding programme using forage genetic resources from the international collection. As the global population grows, so will demand for animal protein, making livestock farming intensification a central part to a sustainable food future. Breeding and mainstreaming of tropical forages are essential for improving productivity and lowering the environmental footprint while reducing the number of hectares dedicated to livestock production and the pressure over highly valuable ecosystems.CIAT has a history of more than 45 years on forage research. Starting from the genetic resources conserved at CIAT's genebank as in trust and under Article 15 of the Plant Treaty, and applying cutting-edge technologies in phenotyping, genotyping and breeding, the forage breeding program generates new hybrids under three grass-breeding programs (Brachiaria humidicola, B. interspecific and Panicum maximum). Supporting these programs implies a significant investment, including for evaluation of the new lines in a wide range of sites under different agroecological conditions, and for conducting livestock digestibility tests. In addition, ensuring that the resulting products reach the farmers requires huge investments in multiplication and dissemination of the new cultivars. Here is where interaction with partners is key! The biology of tropical forages, characterized by the need for long days and temperature shifts to induce flowering, requires the involvement of a partner who is able to work both in a latitude sufficiently distant from the equator for seed production, and across tropical regions for commercialization and distribution.In 2018, CIAT and Grupo Papalotla signed an agreement for the further development, testing and commercialization of CIAT tropical hybrid forages on a limited exclusivity basis. Grupo Papalotla, a worldwide leading company in theof improved seeds for tropical hybrid pastures, has a long-term collaboration with CIAT, achieving a wide dissemination of hybrid pastures developed by CIAT and distributed by Grupo Papalotla, such as Cobra, Cayman, Mulato and Mulato II. Since the release of Mulato, the first hybrid bred and selected through this partnership and launched in 2001, it is estimated that CIAT-Papalotla hybrids have been planted in more than 900,000 hectares worldwide. To date, the Grupo Papalotla has disseminated CIAT hybrids in over 50 countries around the world to meet the growing demand for improved forages, technology, and knowledge that guarantee profitable and sustainable livestock production and thus improve farmers' livelihoods.CIAT's PVP application in 2020 was made in connection with this agreement. The PVP will ensure CIAT's capacity to grant limited exclusivity rights to Grupo Papalotla, and in this way decrease the financial risks the Grupo needs to face to multiply and disseminate the new hybrid at a wide scale, with the necessary seed quality, and at a price that smallholder farmers can afford to pay.CIAT and Grupo Papalotla design distribution strategies together, being the final approval of both parties necessary for implementing the strategies. For example, as part of such distribution strategies, seeds of hybrid forages are being packed and sold in small bags, which respond to farmers' preferences and needs in relation to seed quantities.In relation to this new brachiaria hybrid, CIAT and Grupo Papalotla have agreed that they will not exercise CIAT proprietary rights against smallholder farmers who multiply the hybrid in a vegetative way.Finally, the hybrid protected by PVP will remain available for further research and breeding and in case of food emergencies. In justifying their limited exclusivity arrangements, CGIAR Research Centers typically explain their rationale on a comparable basis to their patent applications, as mentioned above, that exclusivity is necessary to create incentives for partners to invest the significant funds that are required to further develop the technologies concerned into commercial products or services and make them available to farmers.In 2020, 35 limited exclusivity agreements were reported by CGIAR Research Centers: 32 by CIMMYT 28 , 2 by IITA 29 and 1 by IRRI 30 . As has been the case since 2017, CIMMYT's exclusivity arrangements account for the substantial number of limited exclusivity agreements observed, whereas for the remainder, Centers, arrangements were as typically observed in the years 2012 through 2019.The justifications for the 35 limited exclusivity agreements reported in 2020 were deemed acceptable by the CGIAR System Management Organization and the CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group according to the criteria for maximizing global accessibility and impact as outlined in the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets.. In 2020, UPL Corporation Limited and IITA signed a one-year limited exclusivity agreement for the distribution of Aflasafe GH01 and Aflasafe GH02 in Ghana. Aflasafe GH01 and Aflasafe GH02 are biocontrol products that reduce the prevalence of aflatoxins in treated maize and groundnut, and derived products by 80% -100%. Aflatoxin is a poison that affects approximately 25% of the world's food supply and disproportionately impacts the poor. Aflatoxins are a major concern because of their acute and chronic health effects on humans and domesticated animals, at very low concentrations. Moreover, countries lose market opportunities both domestically and internationally due to crops unable to meet aflatoxin standards.The technology was initially developed by the United States Department of Agriculture -Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). It was then adapted and improved for use in Ghana by IITA, USDA-ARS, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and the Ministry of Agriculture. The active ingredient fungi (i.e., the non-toxin producing strains of Aspergillus flavus) of the two Aflasafe products were isolated from Ghanaian soil and maize and groundnut crops collected in 2013. IITA is the official registrant of the two products; registration was granted by Ghana's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ghana's biopesticide regulator.The agreement with UPL will serve to develop the market for the products and may lead to a manufacturing and supply arrangement forseveral West African countries if the initial one-year agreement gives good results. UPL Corporation Limited is one of the international arms of UPL Limited, a leader in global food systems and one of the top five companies worldwide that produce agricultural solutions. UPL has a presence in over 130 countries. The exclusivity granted to UPL creates incentives, and reduces attendant risks, for the company to invest in the market development for a new product. In the case of Aflasafe, this involves constructing a manufacturing plant capable of producing at scale, raising awareness among farmers and the food industry about the benefits of the product, and developing the necessary distribution channels-, all of which is beyond the capacity of IITA to undertake on its own.According to the agreement between IITA and UPL, Aflasafe remains available to the public sector for research and development activities within Ghana and also in the event of a food security.IITA works with UPL and other development partners to create awareness about the negative effects of aflatoxins and the integrated management practices, including the use of Aflasafe, to significantly reduce aflatoxin accumulation and exposure. IITA is supporting UPL in this regard to train various actors, including public extension officers, representatives of farmer's organizations, and the farmers themselves. IITA also supports the development and dissemination of communication tools at community, district, and national levels.Restricted use agreements arise pursuant to Section 6.3 of the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets, which permit CGIAR Research Centers to acquire and use third-party intellectual assets on terms that restrict the global accessibility of the resulting products/services for commercialization, research, and development, provided that certain conditions are fulfilled. Centers must confirm that they are, to the best of their knowledge, unable to acquire equivalent intellectual assets from other sources under no or less restrictive conditions, and that the resulting products and services will further the CGIAR Vision in the countries where they are made available. They must also confirm their best efforts to ensure that such third-party intellectual assets are only used in relation to, or incorporated into, such intended products/services. As part of their justifications, Centers are required to provide information concerning the foreseen or actual strategy for dissemination, including elements related to global access, impact and communication.In 2020, no restricted use agreements were reported by CGIAR Research Centers. This is consistent with the relatively small numbers observed in the years 2012 through 2019. A 2020 CGIAR System Internal Audit Function assurance engagement 31 undertaken to assess the adequacy of the management of intellectual assets across CGIAR concluded that existing arrangements and activities are closely aligned with the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets. It also acknowledged that while good progress in Intellectual Assets/Intellectual Property (IA/IP) management has been made, there is significant variation across CGIAR regarding their IA/IP management experience and resources. Management accepted Internal Audit's recommendation that CGIAR's IA/IP management capability could be further optimized by considering how a coordinated system-wide approach to IA/IP management and technology transfer could be established.Findings from the assurance engagement complemented early thinking across CGIAR regarding how the organization of a world-class intellectual assets management function could look like in the context of the ongoing transition to operating as 'One CGIAR' -the integration of CGIAR's capabilities, knowledge, assets, people and global presence under a unified operational structure, for a new era of interconnected and partnership-driven research towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. 32 The working group considering the design elements of the transformation to operating as One CGIAR across 2021 have as their design brief ensuring the maintenance of effective linkages between Intellectual Assets/Intellectual Property management, legal affairs, tech transfer activities, research delivery, partnerships and CGIAR's engagement with International Treaties relevant to the management of CGIAR's genetic resources more broadly.Consideration is thus being given to whether CGIAR would benefit from integrating Intellectual Assets/Intellectual Property (IA/IP) management into a broader technology transfer function akin to models typically found in the university research sector, with appropriate adaptations to reflect CGIAR's global footprint and primary focus on maximizing access and impact. As the transition to One CGIAR continues into 2021, and CGIAR pivots to being operationally organized and driven by its three Global Science Divisions, where CGIAR Research Centers will no longer be the operating units, consideration will need to be given to how to adapt the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets and the IA management reporting cycle to continue to ensure transparency and effective oversight of CGIAR IA/IP management.Overall, the CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group finds that the CGIAR Research Centers have substantially complied with the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets and that the justifications provided in the Centers' reports have been adequate in many respects.The CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group notes, however, that in the initial round of reports three CGIAR Research Centers did not adequately report all arrangements involving restrictions to global access in 2020. The CGIAR System Management Organization ultimately worked with Centers to address all oversights and complete the reporting before the end of the review process. These omissions underscore the ongoing need for routine training and awareness of both the requirements of and the policies behind the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets along with capacity-building within the system regarding proper IA management. They also point to the ongoing need to establish an efficient and routinized monitoring and compliance/ assurance system under One CGIAR.Yet despite this ongoing need for regular trainings and capacity-building, at this critical juncture of transition to One CGIAR, the activities of the CGIAR Legal/IP Network (CLIPNet) were very limited in 2020, with one CGIAR Research Center specifically considering their capacity for management of intellectual assets to be insufficient.Group is confident that, with strong investments in a well-designed structure that is adequately funded, One CGIAR can achieve both compliance with international frameworks and strategic management of intellectual assets.Below please find more detail along with specific findings, observations and recommendations from this year's review.This year, the Policy Module of the Genebank Platform has continued to work in close collaboration with the CGIAR System Management Organization concerning the implementation of the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets in the context of international treaties governing ABS associated with genetic resources, including through its Helpdesk for CGIAR Research Center enquiries about genetic resource policies. In line with our previous recommendations to promote system-wide learning and alignment of best-practices in relation to (inter)national ABS laws, the CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property (SC IP) Group is pleased to see that several training modules and guidance documents are being developed. These are, amongst others, the online training course 'Genetic Resource Policies for CGIAR Scientists', the 'Guidance Note for CGIAR Genebanks on Improving Accession Management', and the draft 'Guide for CGIAR Centers' Operations under the Framework of the Plant Treaty'. With respect to the latter, the SC IP Group recommends CGIAR to consider adopting a default policy of requiring licensees to make 'voluntary' payments to the Benefit-Sharing Fund of the International Treaty in case of receiving plant materials from the Multilateral System under (semi-)exclusive terms.As referenced above, initially three CGIAR Research Center reports did not include requisite reporting for their accurate number of Limited Exclusivity Agreement's, Restricted Use Agreements or intellectual property (IP) applications for patent or plant variety protection. These omissions were inferred by the CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group and the CGIAR System Management Organization through their reviews of separate narrative sections, however, and all were subsequently fully reported following System Management Organization intervention and Center coordination. These omissions underscore the need for ongoing training and awareness about the purpose of the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets (CGIAR IA Principles) in bringing transparency to the IP restrictions of CGIAR and better understandings of what constitutes a restrictive arrangement under the CGIAR IA Principles.One CGIAR can build upon critical steps now being taken to pursue the long-standing objectives of both the funders and this Group to see more effective sharing of best practices for CGIAR system-wide benefit. Specifically, CIMMYT has an extensive maize hybrid licensing program which currently includes a total of 199 Limited Exclusivity Agreements with downstream partners. Africa Rice is in the process of branding for a future hybrid rice allocation and licensing program and has yet to enter into any downstream Limited Exclusivity Agreements. To its credit, Africa Rice has expressed interest in learning from existing best practices through the CGIAR System Management Organization and CLIPNet. And CIMMYT, for its part, responded to CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group's request to review its model templates (both public and private sector versions).One CGIAR also provides a unique opportunity for CGIAR to embrace the high level of global transparency demanded by the funding community and civil society alike, through One CGIAR's management of public disclosures for all forms of restrictive arrangements -including Limited Exclusivity Agreements, Restricted Use Agreements and applications for intellectual property applications concerning patent or plant variety protection.The CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property (SC IP) Group is pleased to note that in general, the breadth and quality of information provided in CGIAR Research Center's public disclosures (i.e. communication concerning their restricted arrangements) have continued to improve, with virtually all new public disclosures being fit-forpurpose from a transparency and accountability perspective. Still, some public disclosures are pending, and the SC IP Group makes an urgent request to Centers to make sure that all restrictive agreements and intellectual property (IP) applications since 2017 are clearly described on their respective websites as soon as possible, and at the latest before the 9 th meeting of the Governing Body of the International Treaty. In this way, Centers can explain to the outside world why IP applications and/or restrictive agreements are entered into and how they can contribute to the CGIAR mission, increasing transparency and opportunities for linking and learning in the process.We note that previous CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group annual requests for missing or delayed public disclosures have been a persistent pattern from year-to-year and we recommend this as an area for ongoing close coordination between integrated One CGIAR functions and all CGIAR Intellectual Property Focal Points throughout the system on a 'real-time' basis rather than annually.The CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group supports the conclusions of the CGIAR System Internal Audit Function 2020 assurance engagement that a coordinated system-wide approach to technology transfer be established as a way of building routine expertise into the One CGIAR system to ensure both legally compliant and strategic management of intellectual asset resources. We note that any terms of reference of this technology transfer function should be grounded in the specific objectives of CGIAR to reach smallholder farmers in the developing world, ensure global food security and support environmental sustainability.Group further recommends the following with respect to the future state management of intellectual assets within One CGIAR:Assets 33 core dual policies of legal compliance and strategic IA management and should commit to strengthening both. CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group recognizes that the ultimate detailed internal structure for One CGIAR has not been finalized and that questions remain as to how the policies of both legal compliance under (inter)national treaties and laws, and strategic management of Intellectual Assets for advancing the CGIAR mission will be built into routine management of One CGIAR. Funders and global stakeholders alike are broadly invested in the preservation of ensuring these two policy objectives behind the CGIAR IA Principles.The CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group's professional composition has enabled us to coordinate both compliance reviews and strategic tech transfer evaluations in our reviews. Conducting these integrated reviews has minimized the risk that these distinct policies could be viewed as being in opposition (e.g. the false dichotomy that compliance with ABS laws is inconsistent with strategic management of intellectual assets). We hope, therefore, that there is an intentional effort to maintain this integrated approach into the future.Any technology transfer activities (including especially the protection of intellectual property and negotiation of arrangements restricting global access) should be grounded in the central purpose of advancing CGIAR's Vision and achieving impact. It will be of utmost importance to organize any future integrated technology transfer function in such a way that overall coordination and oversight is promoted while expertise in strategic intellectual asset management is 'localized' in order to have full knowledge of specific research and development contexts and to be in close contact with relevant actors both within and outside CGIAR.Initiatives has many virtues. First, it would enhance the implementation of practical approaches for how licensing strategies of Limited Exclusivity Agreements can best achieve the Initiatives' targets. Partnership agreements can transparently detail: 1) which downstream partners are being engaged (e.g. small seed companies, farmer coops, multinational corporations etc.); 2) which territories/regions are being reached; 3) which technologies will be disseminated and under which conditions; 4) what price points apply; and 5) what are the required timeframes and milestones for dissemination.Second, close coordination with Research and Development Initiatives will enable better visibility and accountability for assessing which strategies are most effective. It is challenging to determine how much restriction is 'too much' vs. 'appropriate' to achieve the CGIAR mission when considered in isolation from research program objectives. By contextualizing the stated justifications for arrangements restricting global access, their adequacy can more effectively be assessed, and licensing strategies be adjusted accordingly.In that spirit of ongoing learning and improvement, we recommend that One CGIAR take a good critical look at whether current management of IA's have been a useful lever for achieving the CGIAR impact envisioned and evaluate the strategic impact of the approaches outlined in the current CGIAR IA Principles. The evaluations that have taken place since the adoption of the CGIAR IA Principles have not evaluated what the impact of the various approaches which permit CGIAR Research Centers to enter into restricted arrangements under the CGIAR IA Principles (e.g. the Limited Exclusivity Agreements, Restricted Use Agreements and applications for patent and plant variety protection) has actually been on the ground, leaving open the crucial question whether the CGIAR IA Principles are conducive for reaching the CGIAR mission. Specifically, CGIAR might routinely assess the broader effectiveness of: 1) intellectual property protection; and 2) agreements restricting global access-both upstream (Restricted Use Agreements) and downstream (Limited Exclusivity Agreement's) to determine if these have performed effectively against achieving targets of the current CGIAR Research Programs and how such agreements could be improved to perform better against the new research Initiatives from 2022.Another challenge experienced in 2020 (which the CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property (SC IP) Group and the CGIAR System Management Organization have underscored for CGIAR Research Centers in previous years), is the need to ensure that confidentiality obligations assumed by Centers are consistent with the SC IP Group's oversight role, in particular, its right to review the terms of specific agreements (as enshrined in the SC IP Group's Terms of Reference). The SC IP Group recommends that this unified governance and coordination of One CGIAR enable increasingly meaningful substantive reviews of all deals: both public sector and private sector, and that One CGIAR overcomes traditional Center-specific confidentiality silos.Approaching 10 years since the implementation of the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets, it has become clear that awareness raising about intellectual assets (IA) management amongst all researchers and developers within the CGIAR system, and capacity building of, and investments in, both legal and strategic intellectual property staff is strongly needed to secure proper oversight and to make the CGIAR research trajectories fit for purpose. Given the fact that it will take time before both legal and strategic IA management are fully entrenched within the new system structures, the CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group recommends that the existing CGIAR Legal/IP Network is revived or that its successor community of practice is used as stepping-stone towards transitioning into One CGIAR.Finally, we have observed that annual intellectual assets reporting has provided vital assurance within the global community and One CGIAR should continue to prioritize building stakeholder confidence. In this context, it is important to continue professionalizing both internal and external reporting procedures. We look forward to the CGIAR System Management Organization's ongoing consideration of how the implementation of the new structure might best serve to continue to build this critical confidence. CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group continues to be willing to engage in ongoing discussions in this regard at the discretion of the System Management Organization and other stakeholders.This section provides updates on the three recommendations of the CGIAR System Council Intellectual Property Group presented in the 2019 CGIAR Intellectual Assets Management Report. 34 Recommendation 1: Guidance provided bilaterally by the CGIAR System Management Organization and the Policy Module concerning best practice or compliance associated with access and benefit-sharing (e.g. pursuant to the International Treaty or the CBD and its Nagoya Protocol) should be shared more broadly with CGIAR Research Centers-and the wider international research and development community-in order to facilitate and leverage system-wide learning and alignment of best practices.The Policy Module of the Genebank Platform has led the development of a number of CGIAR resources in 2020, and also in recent years, which address best practice or compliance associated with access and benefit-sharing, as further elaborated in detail above in the context of CGIAR'S 2020 engagement with International Treaty frameworks.The development of guidance materials concerning best practice or compliance associated with access and benefit-sharing are routinely communicated to Contracting Parties through CGIAR's periodic reporting to the biennial meetings of the Governing Body. Except for materials that are designed for internal operational guidance and implementation, most of these materials are published online.Recommendation 2: The CGIAR System Management Organization and the Policy Module should synchronize their efforts to support CGIAR Research Centers' public disclosures in future years so that all relevant public disclosures are in place before the annual IA review cycle.In 2020, the CGIAR System Management Organization updated the online reporting platform used for submission and review of CGIAR Research Centers' annual Intellectual Asset Management Reports to facilitate updates to public disclosures on an ongoing basis, independently of the annual report cycle. It also synchronized efforts with the Policy Module of the Genebank Platform to offer Centers ongoing support in developing their public disclosures and to review the status of pending public disclosures on a periodic basis. These efforts resulted in most of public disclosures which had been pending for restricted arrangements reported in 2020 and also from previous years to be regularized by the end of June 2021 when the annual report cycle review drew to a close. Continued support by the System Management Organization and the Policy Module in 2021 will be provided to Centers to undertake their best efforts to finalize and submit their disclosures before the annual intellectual assets review cycle commences in March 2022.Recommendation 3: Further improvements to online reporting to facilitate system-wide historic tracking and monitoring of existing activities (e.g. intellectual property filings, restrictive or exclusive agreements), with a simple view of any updates for the reporting year.Response: In addition to the updates undertaken in 2020 to the online reporting and review functions mentioned above, the CGIAR System Management Organization coordinated with the developers of the online reporting platform to facilitate 'at a glance' review of updates to the patent register tracking applications by CGIAR Research Centers and also to updates concerning restricted arrangements reported in previous years.All 11 CGIAR Research Centers that host germplasm collections in CGIAR Genebanks (termed Article 15 Centers) have agreements with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, placing these collections within the purview of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing established under the International Treaty. Pursuant to these agreements, Article 15, Centers hold and manage these collections in trust, for the benefit of humanity. ","tokenCount":"7953"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ea811403757df8657c8efdd7b401ea20","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e7178846-e290-4e5f-909c-29af089eaef9/retrieve","id":"-769466223"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3283a5c0-2058-437a-aa87-5356142e42e3","pagecount":"1","content":"This initiative aims to show how a One Health approach -which recognizes the interconnections between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment -can help reduce antimicrobial resistance, improve food and water safety, and manage zoonotic diseases, leading to better human, animal, and environment health. It forms part of CGIAR's new research portfolio, delivering science and innovation to transform food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.• Intensifying food systems • Informal food systems • Wildlife-livestock-human interface #OneHealth_initiativeFoodborne disease takes a toll comparable to that of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS and costs US$110 billion a year.The objective is to protect human health by improving detection, prevention, and control of zoonoses, foodborne diseases and AMR in lowand middle-income countries by • generating evidence on risks and public and private returns to action;• evaluating impacts of technologies, tools and approaches on health risks and economic outcomes; and • integrating innovations into policies and programs.","tokenCount":"152"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"965b3ab6117c4077fe18dfc6af8bdf52","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/816dcd1f-35ff-4e17-ab76-7187062e957a/retrieve","id":"1068325141"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d6cebf53-0b33-42a9-842b-84607d40670d","pagecount":"90","content":"WA water availability WASAG Global Framework for Water Scarcity in Agriculture WASH water supply, sanitation, and hygiene WAZ weight-for-age Z-score WBG World Bank Group WEAI Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index WHO World Health Organization WS water stress WSS water supply and sanitation WUA water user association © JULIEN HARNEIS 1. Stunting is defined as a height-for-age Z-score (HAZ) below minus two standard deviations from median HAZ of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards. 2. Wasting is defined as a weight-for-age Z-score (WAZ) below minus two standard deviations from median WAZ of the WHO Child Growth Standards. 3. Underweight in adults is defined as a body mass index (BMI) below 18.5.This framework for action was developed to support the inclusion of nutritional considerations in the design of water operations and to help formulate nutrition-enhancing water policy. Chronic undernutrition early in life can cause cognitive and physical impairments that prevent children from achieving their full potential and have lasting consequences on the human capital that is essential for economies of the future to be competitive.Water is at the core of healthy growth and development. It is a driver of better nutrition but, when poorly managed, can lead to negative impacts. The role of water for early child nutrition has centered on ensuring a hygienic living environment through clean water, adequate sanitation, and good hygiene. However, the importance of water for nutrition is much broader. A reliable water supply is needed to grow food to feed families, secure livelihoods, and provide income for other nutrition inputs. Yet water has become more variable as climate change accelerates, leading to more frequent and more damaging droughts and floods. Mismanagement of water resources results in shortages, pollution, and in some cases conflict, each of which impact a child's ability to thrive. These relationships call for a more nuanced recognition of the role that water plays in early child nutrition, as well as the need for guidance on ways to mitigate the risks and boost the benefits of water investments for nutrition.We present an integrated water and nutrition framework to aid in understanding the various ways that water impacts early child nutrition, drawing on the three dimensions of water security: water quantity, adequate supply of water resources; water quality, water that is free of contamination; and water accessibility, reliable availability to all people, economies, and ecosystems. Each of these in turn affects the underlying drivers of poor nutrition outcomes in children: Water determines disease environments and therefore the ability to physically utilize nutrients for healthy growth; water impacts the supply of food and nutrients that people have access to in their homes; and water influences livelihoods, which indirectly affects nutrition through income, time use, and education of caregivers. Challenges associated with water-related conflict and water resources in the context of fragility cuts across each of the drivers of undernutrition.Although the need to harness water sector investments to improve nutrition is urgent, the level of need varies by country, within countries, and by socioeconomic status. At the same time, financial resources are limited. To support countries achieving water security and improved nutrition, evidence on where to target these scarce resources can aid in decision-making. We present several diagnostic tools to help shape the design of interventions, identify areas most in need of investment, and help prioritize among multiple interventions when addressing a multisectoralx WATER AND NUTRITION A Framework for Action Executive Summary outcome like stunting. We demonstrate how diagnostics of water-related factors at a regional level can help identify \"hotspots\" in the region where low levels of access to water and sanitation intersect with high levels of stunting or which countries experience both water stress and high levels of stunting. This hotspot analysis helps to identify countries where further investigation could look at trends across time, variation at subnational levels, and potential underlying drivers of outcomes.The guidance notes that accompany this framework describe the evidence of how water sector investments across irrigation, water management, and water supply and sanitation impact early child nutrition and summarize recommendations on how to design interventions for greater impact.Often, it is necessary to enhance current approaches to service delivery and water management because these have mainly been designed with more upstream outcomes in mind, such as improvements in access and use for water and sanitation services and improvements in availability of food and income for irrigation investments. It is also necessary to identify ways to coordinate with other sectors to help ensure that children receive all the necessary nutrition inputs that lead to better outcomes, not only water-related inputs.Results at the project level require a supportive policy environment. Therefore, we conclude with three recommendations to help move the water and nutrition policy agenda forward. First is the need to harvest evidence on nutrition-sensitive water investments, particularly in water for agriculture, and feed this evidence back into policy actions. Second is the need to draw attention to the water-related threats to nutrition that are intensified by climate change, especially in regions already facing a high burden of child stunting. Finally, there is a need for more experience and guidance to support equitable and nutrition-sensitive use of water resources both within and across countries. With the right policies in place, countries will be better positioned to harness the power of water for improving nutrition and strengthening human capital.Water sustains all forms of life and nurtures the well-being of populations-protecting them from hunger and disease and shaping livelihoods and productivity. It is at the crux of human development. Although there are multiple ways in which water affects well-being, this framework centers on water's complex relationship with nutrition.Improving nutrition is a smart investment that yields economic returns. In Africa and Asia, where levels of stunting are highest, reducing stunting is estimated to increase economic productivity by 4 percent to 11 percent, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (Horton and Steckel 2013). Such economic analyses still fail to capture the rippling physical, mental, and societal benefits that improvements in nutrition contribute to a country's stock of human capital and that accrue to the next generation. Good nutrition in the early years is a child's springboard to success later in life and an instrument to cut the cords of intergenerational poverty transmission.Undernutrition is present in various forms, affecting both children and adults. More than a quarter of children younger than age 5 are stunted 1 worldwide (150 million), and wasting 2 affects 50 million young children. An estimated 9.7 percent of women of reproductive age are underweight, 3 and anemia affects 613 million women of reproductive age, 35 million of them pregnant (Global Nutrition Report 2018). At its worst, extreme forms of undernutrition lead to organ damage and eventual death; and in its more silent form, chronic undernutrition or stunting can cause cognitive and physical impairments later in life, preventing children from achieving their potential. The effects of undernutrition have lasting consequences on the human capital that is essential for economies of the future to be competitive.In its various roles, water is an upstream driver of better nutrition and, when poorly managed, can lead to negative impacts. Consuming unclean water, whether contaminated with fecal pathogens or other pollutants, causes diarrhea and other ailments. In 2016, diarrheal diseases were the second leading cause of death in low-income countries, killing nearly 60 out of every 100,000 people (WHO 2018a). During periods of drought, farmers without a reliable source of water to grow food cannot feed their families or make income from selling crops. More frequent and heavier flood events Introduction attributable to a changing climate create breeding grounds for disease-carrying vectors, causing illness, anemia, and energy deprivation. In the political space, mismanagement of water can lead to shortages and even destabilize entire regions, disrupting economies, essential services, and children's ability to thrive. Recognizing both the dramatic and subtle relationships between water and nutrition underscores the need to formulate policy and investments that help mitigate risks and boost the benefits of water investments.CHAPTER 2Overview of the Framework CHAPTER 2This document outlines a water and nutrition framework to support the rationale for and the design of operational engagements across the water sector to address early child nutrition.  The framework paper proceeds as follows: Chapter 3 begins with a background on the range of water and nutrition challenges facing the world today, followed by how water insecurity in its various forms influences early child nutrition through three underlying forces that lead to stunting in chapter 4. Chapter 5 looks at the role of diagnostics in identifying exposure and risk profiles and how these can inform the prioritization, design, and targeting of interventions. Chapter 6 reviews the governance and policy environment that supports a role for water in nutrition and vice versa and provides examples of global-, institutional-, and national-level policies and governing bodies that have enabled synergies between water and nutrition. Chapter 7 outlines the contents of two companion guidance notes on how to design and evaluate water investments and interventions where improving nutrition in vulnerable populations is a specific objective. Chapter 8 profiles four water and nutrition engagements supported by the World Bank and its partners to demonstrate how these recommendations have been put into action. Finally, chapter 9 concludes with recommendations for advancing water and nutrition policy.CHAPTER 3Childhood stunting is a persistent global development challenge with severe, irreversible effects beyond short stature. It is an indicator of compromised health that interferes with the body's ability to fight off disease and perform basic biological functions (Dewey and Begum 2011).Stunting is also a marker of significant interruptions during critical stages of cognitive development. The brain is deprived of energy that goes toward building basic neural infrastructure needed for acquiring good motor, learning, and socioemotional skill sets to succeed in life (Kar, Rao, and Chandramouli 2008). Stunting is considered the greatest risk factor for increased mortality and morbidity and is responsible for 2.2 million deaths per year and more than a third of the disease burden for children younger than 5 (Black et al. 2008). Stunted children are likely to perform worse in school, have higher rates of school dropout, and go on to earn lower wages compared with their healthy counterparts (Alderman, Hoddinott, and Kinsey 2006;Dewey and Begum 2011;Hoddinott et al. 2008).Micronutrient deficiencies are another form of undernutrition caused by a lack of intake, absorption, or use of essential vitamins and minerals. Iron deficiency anemia is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world and is highly prevalent in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). Iron can be absorbed through diet, but undernutrition can inhibit its absorption. Blood loss and inflammation as a result of infections related to water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), including malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, and hookworm infection (Stoltzfus et al. 1996), are a major cause of anemia (Weiss and Goodnough 2005). If left untreated, this can lead to chronic conditions that include poor fetal development, delayed cognitive development, higher risk of infection, fatigue, weakness, dizziness, and drowsiness.Addressing undernutrition is a complex challenge requiring more than nutrition interventions alone.It is estimated that a core set of proven nutrition interventions implemented at 90 percent coverage in high-burden countries would still only decrease global stunting rates by 20 percent (Shekar et al. 2017). Similarly, interventions that focus on dietary intake alone, such as iron supplementation, have resolved fewer than half of the burdens of childhood anemia globally (Stoltzfus, Mullany, and Black 2002).CHAPTER 3Although inadequate dietary intake and disease are the direct causes of stunting and undernutrition, poor diet and disease are caused by multiple underlying factors (figure 3.1). These include food insecurity, poor childcare practices, low maternal education, lack of access to health services, unsafe water and sanitation, and poor hygiene practices. Political, cultural, social, and economic factors likewise play a role.The global demand for water is projected to increase between 30 and 50 percent by 2050 (Damania et al. 2017). At the same time, water is becoming increasingly scarce as a result of climate change, urbanization, population growth, and poor management of water resources. Water insecurity could drastically affect the way water is used in the future to sustain livelihoods, provide basic services for human well-being, and support economic activities and development.For example, parts of Asia and Africa are projected to lose as much as 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050 as a result of losses in agriculture, health, incomes, and property (World Bank 2016).We outline three dimensions of water security through which the risks and impacts will be felt most strongly in the future: water quantity, adequate supply of water resources; water quality, water resources free of contamination; and water accessibility, reliable availability to all people, economies, and ecosystems (figure 3.2).Adapted UNICEF Conceptual Model, 1990 Poorer health, cognitive development, schooling, livelihoodThe supply of water is finite. Although it is a renewable resource, current practices of overuse and unsustainable withdrawal in some areas, coupled with increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns and changes in water flows because of climate change, make resource recharge more uncertain. India and China, for instance, are now estimated to extract groundwater 56 and 25 percent faster than it can be replenished, respectively (Rasul and Sharma 2016). Today, agriculture accounts for 70 percent of freshwater withdrawal, making it the largest consumer of water (Khokhar 2017). But farmers now must contend with decreasing freshwater availability and higher demand for water from other sectors. One of these is energy, which is projected to consume 85 percent more water by 2035 (World Bank 2016). Moreover, the demand for water for domestic consumption and Water security is the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socioeconomic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.Reliably available to all people, economies, and ecosystemsSource: UN-Water 2013.Background on Water and Nutrition Challenges industry is increasing, especially in less developed regions as incomes rise and populations continue to grow. Current estimates suggest that high fertility and population growth in some parts of the world will have a greater impact on water availability than climate change.The declining quality of water resources is a significant contributor to water stress. Contamination is both naturally occurring and caused by human activity, and it includes industrial waste, fertilizers, pesticides, sewage, heavy metals, and salt, among others. Data suggest that the quality of freshwater resources has degraded globally, particularly in regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For example, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that between 1990 and 2010, fecal coliform bacteria and organic pollution has worsened in more than half of all river stretches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and salinity intrusion has worsened in nearly a third (2016). Rising temperatures and more aggressive water cycles from a changing climate will exacerbate the environmental fate of contaminants.The accessibility of water resources by populations, economies, and ecosystems is a third dimension of water security. Governance over water resources and the efficacy of institutions that hold responsibility for management of water resources are key determinants of water accessibility and strong predictors of the stability and resilience of water resources in response to political and environmental shocks. Water-and fecal-borne disease outbreaks, transboundary water disputes, ecosystem degradation, drought, flood, and famine are all symptoms of the mismanagement of water (Sadoff, Borgomeo, and de Waal 2017).The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG2) will not be achieved without careful attention to safe and sustainable availability of water supply and sanitation for all (SDG6). Safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene are key contributors to end various forms of undernutrition. The productivity and sustainability of agricultural systems rely on the quantity and quality of water supply though water and related agroecosystems embedded in sustainable landscapes are keystones of sustainable agriculture. Indeed, a comprehensive assessment on the link between water and nutrition illustrates that progress cannot be achieved in isolation and that there is a need for the water and nutrition sectors to formulate joint policy and programmatic approaches-considering interdependencies and synergies where they exist-to achieve more rapid progress and better outcomes. A Framework for Linking Water Security and NutritionGrounded in the quantity, quality, and accessibility dimensions of water security, the framework centers on three pathways through which water influences nutrition outcomes, supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) conceptual model of the determinants of childhood undernutrition (figure 4.1). Although other nutrition and food security frameworks have been adopted, the UNICEF model is one of the few that articulates the various intermediate and underlying causes of undernutrition and recognizes the need for a multisectoral response to improve nutrition outcomes.The framework outlines the intricate role that water plays in each of three underlying determinants of undernutrition: (a) health and hygiene, where water determines disease environments and thus the ability to physically utilize nutrients for healthy growth; (b) food security, where water impacts the supply of food and nutrients that people have access to in their homes; and (c) care, where the influence of water on livelihoods indirectly affects nutrition through income, time, and education of caregivers. Finally, we address the challenges of water-related conflict and water resources in the context of fragility, which cuts across each of these underlying determinants. It is important to note, as this framework illustrates, water security alone will be insufficient to largely impact stunting. Evidence shows these impacts are best achieved when children have access to a full range of nutrition-related inputs, such as a supportive care environment, food security, access to health care, and a hygienic living environment. Countries that attain Water, Health, and Hygiene• Water security is essential for the practice of good hygiene behaviors and maintenance of sanitary environments to block pathways of fecal exposure. The convenience of water collection, the quantity of water available for consumption, and the microbial and chemical quality of water supply are each linked to health and hygiene. Extreme water-related events such as droughts and flooding exacerbate water insecurity and its subsequent health and hygiene effects.• Exposure to water-and fecal-borne pathogens causes a variety of health ailments that are associated with undernutrition. Diarrheal disease, soil-transmitted helminth infections, and environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) cause the body to dispel nutrients or limit intake and absorption of nutrients.• Water security influences health and nutrition beyond infectious disease. Heavy metals such as arsenic and lead found in water supply can impact cognitive and physical development. Water collection burdens are also associated with injury, high caloric expenditure, violence, and mental stress.Water insecurity threatens the ability of families and communities to practice good hygiene. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that an average of 20 liters per capita of water per day are needed to take care of basic hygiene needs and basic food hygiene. Yet average daily per capita domestic water consumption ranges between 4 and 15 liters in some of the least-developed countries (Sorenson, Morssink, and Campos 2011). Critical hygiene behaviors like handwashing, which is one of the most cost-effective interventions for reducing the global burden of disease (Cairncross and Valdmanis 2006), are dependent on the availability of water. Many modern sanitation technologies rely on water for the treatment and disposal of human waste. Although there are on-site sanitation technologies that are waterless (for example, pit latrines), depending on installation, materials, maintenance, and hydrogeological factors, these can degrade the microbial quality of groundwater through leaching, inadequate treatment, and unsafe disposal (Graham and Polizzotto 2013). Water security is also central to strong health systems and achieving quality of health care services under universal health coverage targets. Highly contagious infections like tuberculosis, pneumonia, Ebola, and cholera need to be controlled using stringent hygiene and waste management practices.CHAPTER 4A Framework for Linking Water Security and NutritionWater insecurity is also characterized by extreme water-related weather events such as droughts or floods that hinder the practice of good hygiene and exacerbate the spread of infectious disease.Droughts cause households to ration water supply, with water for drinking and hygiene being the least prioritized (Sorenson, Morssink, and Campos 2011). Households are also more likely to store water during times of drought, which creates breeding grounds for mosquitoes or increases contamination of drinking water (Clasen and Bastable 2003). Dry spells may cause water supply systems to become dysfunctional, leading households to revert to unimproved water sources (Tucker et al. 2014).Flood events have similar consequences. In most countries, the incidence of diarrheal disease spikes during the rainy season (Hashizume et al. 2008). Standing water caused by floods can mix with sewage and other effluents, increasing the population of disease-causing vectors.Diarrheal disease is perhaps the most well-documented consequence of poor sanitation, drinking water quality, and hygiene practices. Recent analysis estimates that 58 percent of diarrheal disease is a result of poor water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), causing an estimated 842,000 deaths in 2012 (Prüss-Üstün et al. 2014). However, the overall disease burden from poor WASH is much broader. For example, protozoa and helminths that live in feces are transmitted to humans through infected water and soil, and standing water serves as a breeding ground for malaria and dengue-carrying mosquitoes.These WASH-related exposures lead to infections, which in turn lead to anemia, undernutrition, stunted growth, and impaired physical and cognitive development. Individuals suffering from diarrheal disease lose fluids, nutrients, and their overall energy and appetite during episodes, placing them at high risk of undernourishment (Guerrant et al. 2013). Intestinal worms and mosquito-borne illness can also drain nutrients, leading to anemia. Pregnant women with helminth infections are at higher risk for preterm delivery and low birthweight of newborns, which increases the infants' chances of being undernourished throughout their childhood (Dreyfuss et al. 2000).Some enteric infections caused by poor WASH may be asymptomatic. Repeated exposure to pathogens found in feces may be one of the primary causes of EED, which is characterized by inflammation and physical deformation of the small intestine. This limits the ability to absorb and retain essential nutrients, despite not having any outward symptoms such as diarrhea (Humphrey 2009;Prendergast and Kelly 2012). EED is difficult to diagnose because of its complex pathogenesis and limitations in testing methods but is found to be most prevalent in areas with poor WASH conditions (Guerrant et al. 2013).An important caveat is that infectious disease and undernutrition have a cyclical relationship, making it difficult to disentangle cause and effect. Those who are undernourished have compromised immunity, making them more susceptible to infections and greater loss of nutrients (Caulfield et al. 2004). The mediating role of immunity in the WASH and nutrition relationship is particularly amplified for children in the first 1,000 days of life, a critical and vulnerable stage of growth and development, when children ages 2 and younger are most in need of good nutrition. It is during this stage that children living in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) have the highest incidence of diarrhea. Chronic diarrhea in children living in LMICs during their first two years of life is estimated to have an 8-centimeter shortfall in height and 10 IQ-point decrement by the time they are ages 7 to 9 (Guerrant et al. 2013). This could be a result of interactions between nutritional deficits and gut infections that cause physical changes to the gut, a naïve immune system, or greater exposure to risks as a result of eating, exploratory, and play behaviors (George et al. 2015;Kotloff et al. 2013;Natchu and Bhatnagar 2013).Although most of the literature linking water security and nutrition is mediated through infectious disease, emerging research on groundwater quality shows that heavy metals and minerals in water are associated with metabolic disorders, diabetes, and overall nutritional status. For example, though naturally occurring, arsenic in drinking water has been shown to have direct consequences on cognitive development and early childhood development outcomes (Haque, Joseph, and Moqueet 2017), and it is also linked to impaired growth in utero and low birthweight (Huyck et al. 2007). Industrial and agricultural pollution also introduces contaminants into water resources from pesticides, fertilizers, drug residues, and hazardous waste, which impacts ecosystems and human health (Mateo-Sagasta et al. 2017).Groundwater may also be an important source of macrominerals (Naser et al. 2017).Mineral intake during pregnancy can affect the health and nutritional status of a mother, leading to adverse birth outcomes such as low birthweight and infant death (Shammi et al. 2019). A possible but empirically unexplored link between water collection and nutrition is the amount of physical energy exerted by water carriers and possible stress endured during trips. Injuries, harassment, and micronutrient deficiencies from high caloric expenditure are overlooked even though all are negative outcomes of well-being from household water insecurity (table 4.1). A survey carried out in urban Ghana found that women spent more hours fetching water during times of drought and reported a higher incidence of general sicknesses. A systematic review of studies of water-fetching finds that the task of collecting water places physical and mental stress on female water carriers, including increased risk of injury, micronutrient deficiency, and gender-based violence (Geere et al. 2018).CHAPTER 4A Framework for Linking Water Security and Nutrition• Water security is associated with each dimension of food security: availability, access, stabilization, and utilization of food. Water can affect the way the human body physically utilizes food through reduced health. It is also a direct input for stable agricultural productivity and food distribution.• Water security and food production have a bidirectional relationship. Food systems are threatened by declining availability and quality of water resources, whereas agricultural activity can diminish the quantity and quality of water resources.Food security is a complex challenge that spans issues of health, environmental sustainability, and poverty (Prichard 2016). The concept of food security has evolved over time in recognition of the fact that food security is not simply about producing enough food to supply minimum daily calorie requirements. More recent definitions place people at the center and include availability, access, stabilization, and utilization of food, whereby access considers the economic and social ability to obtain food; availability reflects the supply of safe and nutritious food; stabilization refers to the constancy of the other dimensions; and utilization includes the ability for individuals to consume and use nutrients. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, • Recreational waters free of pollution (for example, schistosomiasis)• Water is reliably available, well-maintained, and resilient to climate-related shocks (for example, flooding causes spikes in mosquito-borne illnesses and diarrhea) food security is achieved \"when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life\" (2002).Water relates to each of these dimensions of food security, either directly or indirectly (figure 4.2) (Cumming 2016). For example, the health and hygiene pathway described previously highlights how water insecurity impacts utilization of food-by interrupting the body's capacity to physically retain and absorb nutrients when suffering from diarrhea and other enteric infections. Water also affects availability and access to food as a direct input into agricultural productivity and food distribution, whereas the stability of food is affected by water management practices and infrastructure such as irrigation and storage.The role of water for cultivation of cereal crops is a prime example of the significant impact that water insecurity can have on feeding the world's population. The Green Revolution is largely credited as enabling countries to overcome food deficits and famine, mainly through the increased A Framework for Linking Water Security and Nutrition production of three cereal crops: maize/corn, wheat, and rice. Although the global population doubled over the period of the Green Revolution (between 1950 and the late 1960s), the production of these cereal crops tripled with only a 30 percent increase in land area cultivated (Pingali 2012). Today, cereal crops provide at least 50 percent of all calories to the world (Awika 2011). Particularly in Asian countries, innovations in irrigation played a critical role in the success of the Green Revolution by allowing farmers to be less reliant on rainfall for growing cereal crops.Increased production of cereals was a cheap way to meet basic global food availability requirements, but there are challenges to sustaining progress in part because of declining water security. Irrigation withdrawals will need to increase by 11 percent by 2050 to meet the global food demand, which is projected to increase by 70 percent (FAO 2008). Yet global water availability for agriculture is projected to decrease by 18 percent over the same period, given the increasing demands from other sectors, the effects of climate change, and water needs for maintaining sustainable environmental flows (Strzepek and Boehlert 2010). A model by Lloyd et al. (2011) estimates that the effect of climate change on crop yields alone will increase the prevalence of stunting by 23 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa and 62 percent in South Asia by 2050.Water security will also dictate the quality of the available food supply. Although the expansion of irrigation during the Green Revolution enabled a significant increase in the quantity of food produced, the crops that were cultivated were not necessarily nutrient-dense. On the contrary, the diversity of crops and the production of nutrient-dense crops like vegetables and legumes declined, which in turn may have decreased dietary diversity for poor rural households. More recent efforts targeting private and smallholder farmers with irrigation and agricultural inputs is seen as a way to encourage crop diversity, but the effectiveness of this approach on dietary diversity and nutrition is still unknown (Sibhatu, Krishna, and Qaim 2015).Human activities disrupt ecosystems and threaten the ability to draw on these for food and nutritional needs. Biological, industrial, and other naturally occurring contaminants that are exacerbated by human activity impact downstream ecosystems and biodiversity and the safety of food produced, while at the same time compromising agricultural productivity and food diversity. Salinity intrusion is estimated to affect as much as 20 percent of all irrigated land, leading to farmers adapting by growing only salt-tolerant crops (Qadir et al. 2014). The presence of enteric pathogens in produce has been extensively linked to irrigation and floodwater. With increased consumption, large-scale production, and more efficient distribution of fresh produce, a greater number of food-borne illness outbreaks have been reported in recent years (Olaimat and Holley 2012). Although contamination can occur at any point along the food distribution chain, preharvest environmental conditions are increasingly recognized as having greater importance.Water security links to food security are summarized in table 4.2.• Nurturing care of a fetus during pregnancy and throughout early childhood supports healthy development. Caregivers need to provide access to good health care, adequate nutrition, responsive caregiving, safety and security, and opportunities for early learning and stimulation.• Water insecurity limits the ability of caregivers to create nurturing environments for early child growth and learning. Water insecurity affects caregiving practices through impacts on time use, educational attainment, mental and physical health, and livelihoods.• Water insecurity and care are intrinsically linked with gender inequities. Water insecurity disproportionally affects women and girls.Nurturing care refers to an environment that enables children to have healthy growth and development to reach their full potential into adulthood (WHO 2018b). Early childhood development specialists identify five components of nurturing care:1. Good health: Monitoring children's physical and emotional condition, practicing good hygiene, and seeking appropriate care and treatment 2. Adequate nutrition: Good health and nutrition during pregnancy, breastfeeding, and complementary feeding practices and diet Water collection falls disproportionately on women and girls, especially in LMICs. In some waterscarce countries, water collection can be a round trip of more than an hour. This has huge opportunity costs for women and families. Having a more convenient and safe water source would free up time A Framework for Linking Water Security and Nutrition that would have been spent on fetching and treating drinking water for schooling, productive activities, and caregiving-all essential inputs for better nutrition. Girls in coastal areas of Bangladesh, for example, were 12 points less likely to be enrolled in school and six points more likely to be tasked with water-fetching responsibilities in water-insecure areas affected by salinity intrusion (World Bank 2018b). Lack of access to WASH facilities in schools may also be a barrier to education, especially for females. A randomized controlled trial in Kenya found that the provision of a water treatment, hygiene, and sanitation program in primary schools showed a 58 percent reduction in the odds of school absence for girls compared with their control counterparts (Freeman et al. 2011).Poor-quality services also result in a higher occurrence of water-and sanitation-related illness, with associated effects on schooling and cognitive achievement. For example, a study in Bangladesh shows that infants growing up in communities with low levels of sanitation were 11 points more likely to delay enrollment in primary school (World Bank 2018b). Water and sanitation insecurity in the home has also been associated with reported school absences (Dreibilbis et al. 2013), whereas improved sanitary conditions in early life are associated with better cognitive achievement (Spears and Hammer 2016). Furthermore, women who were born during periods of below-average rainfall grew up to be less educated (Damania et al. 2017). Frequent disease episodes caused by poor water and sanitation further robs women of the time to engage in productive activities, as they are often tasked with caring for ill family members.  Lack of water for growing crops or feeding livestock reduces the amount of income that can be used toward household nutrition inputs, such as purchase of nutrient-dense food, health, and WASH services. Floods inflict damage on agricultural land, impacting productivity and land asset values. Farmers that lack reliable access to water supply through irrigation may be excluded from growing \"high-economic value\" crops.Water insecurity may set in motion a vicious cycle, whereby poor availability and reliability of water results in lower crop yields and earnings, which leads to food insecurity and undernutrition and lower household productivity (figure 4.4). Several studies have demonstrated a link between poor health and nutritional status of agricultural households, productivity, crop yield, and income (Deolaikar 1988;Haddad et al. 1991;Strauss 1986).Improvements in agricultural productivity do not always translate into improved nutrition but including women in agricultural decisions may encourage behaviors that lead to better household nutrition (Bertri et al. 2004). Female farmers may choose to grow crops with higher nutritional value to feed their families. Women may also be more likely to spend extra income on education, health, and food inputs for the household (Malapit et al. 2015;Straboni et al. 2014).Water security links to adequate care are summarized in table 4.3.CHAPTER 4A Framework for Linking Water Security and NutritionThere are various links between water and nutrition in situations of fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). For example, Sadoff et al. (2017) describe the ways in which fragility and water interact to include (a) failure to provide services, (b) failure to protect from waterrelated disasters, and (c) failure to preserve surface, ground, and transboundary water resources (see box 4.1). In many fragile settings, two or more of these failures are present.In humanitarian settings, where population movement is in constant flux, it is more difficult to plan for long-term infrastructure, resulting in services that are informal, unreliable, and often costlier.Water insecurity in fragile contexts is associated with worse nutrition outcomes (Sadoff et al. 2017), with the risks to nutrition manifested through each of the failures described above. For example, WASH is critical for survival in the first phase of many emergencies and for resilience in succeeding phases. People affected by humanitarian crises, such as natural disasters, or who are displaced by conflict are generally at a much higher risk of illness and death from disease. Inadequate access to WASH infrastructure, as well as poor and crowded living conditions, exacerbate this risk, increasing susceptibility to diarrheal and infectious diseases transmitted by the fecal-oral route as well as by vectors associated with poor sanitation, waste management, and drainage. Recent analysis finds that children younger than 5 are 20 times more likely to die from diarrheal disease than from direct violence in fragile and conflict areas (UNICEF 2019).Water-related disasters can act as risk multipliers in fragile contexts, contributing to conflict, violence, migration, and displacement. Somalia is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, which have devastated livelihoods in the face of nearly two decades of insecurity and humanitarian crises. Since 1960, Somalia has experienced at least 14 droughts, roughly one every four years (Masih et al. 2014). These disasters are especially harmful for the estimated 12 million people who live in rural areas pursuing pastoralist and agro-pastoralist livelihoods. For example, the 2016-17 drought resulted in losses in the livestock sector valued at approximately US$2 billion with herd losses reported between 40 and 60 percent. By February 2017, more than 6.2 million Somalis needed humanitarian assistance. Although famine was averted, there were nearly 400,000 cases of acute child undernutrition and an additional 1 million people displaced to rapidly expanding urban settlements and camps for internally displaced people. Just as Somalia was recovering from the drought, flooding in the upper Shebelle area during the first half of 2018 displaced more than 230,000 people and affected more than 600,000. Between 2006 and 2018, Somalia has experienced five major flood events, impacting hundreds of thousands of people. There is an urgent need to improve water-related services for enhancing nutrition outcomes for children. However, the level of need varies across countries, subnational levels, and socioeconomic status. At the same time, resources are limited. To support countries achieving water security and improved nutrition, evidence on where to target these scarce resources can be a valuable tool for decision making.This section outlines several approaches that have been used to inform decisions about how to prioritize among multiple interventions when addressing a multisectoral outcome like stunting, where to target investments, and how to design interventions to address the needs of the beneficiary population.The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Synergies Analysis developed by the Poverty Global Practice analyzes household survey data to describe inadequacies across four key dimensions of child undernutrition: food security; childcare practices; health; and water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for the population of children younger than 5 in a given country. Regression analysis is used to identify \"binding constraints\" to reducing malnutrition, as well as potential interactions or synergies among the four dimensions. The analysis also reveals levels of inadequacy across these dimensions that is useful for targeting purposes. The level of the analysis depends on the underlying survey data. In most cases, the analysis uses Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), which are representative at the national, regional, and sometimes subnational levels. Disaggregation is also possible by socioeconomic status and rural residence.The Link Nutrition Causal Analysis, developed by Action Against Hunger, takes the UNICEF causal framework for undernutrition a step further to understand locally relevant multisectoral causes of undernutrition, including water-related factors. It combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods and synthesizes these results to make program design recommendations. The method requires access to either secondary data or primary data collection on undernutrition status and known risk factors. Qualitative methods are incorporated to address questions regarding how or why undernutrition or good nutrition occurs and to consider the interactions between causes, common feedback loops, and the evolution of these causes over time, seasonally, and after recent shocks. Finally, the information is triangulated and reviewed using a participatory A simplified approach to identifying priority areas for stunting reduction involves identifying thresholds for underlying drivers, below which stunting prevalence is estimated to be higher than average. This was done in the 2016 Global Nutrition Report (IFPRI 2016). The thresholds are estimated for the underlying drivers by fitting a line to a cross-plot of stunting and each of the underlying drivers using data from all available countries. In the analysis presented in the Global Nutrition Report, for example, countries with less than 76 percent coverage of improved sanitation and 69 percent coverage of improved water corresponded to a predicted stunting prevalence of greater than 15 percent. These thresholds can identify which of the underlying drivers have the widest gap in a country and how this varies by socioeconomic status, region, or residence (rural or urban).For water sector investments to maximize impacts on health and nutrition outcomes, they should be targeted to populations most at risk for disease. The WASH Risk Model was developed to estimate where and for whom the impact of WASH may be the greatest. The approach uses data from the DHS to model overall risk of diarrheal disease and death based on exposure to poor 5. Completed studies and detailed guidelines on conducting a Link Nutrition Causal Analysis are available at http://www.linknca.org. CHAPTER 5More granular data are often necessary to enhance the design of nutrition-sensitive projects. This may include information on levels of stunting and prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies; rainfall patterns and occurrence of rainfall shocks; groundwater availability; existing and potential water storage capacity; seasonal production and income patterns; access to productive resources such as land, water, market infrastructure, and availability of diverse foods; access to drinking water and sanitation; and the presence of other sectors or programs in the area.These data are often available through routine, large-scale household surveys such as DHS, 6  Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), 7 and Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys (HCES). 8 These surveys are representative at the national, regional, and sometimes subnational levels, with more detailed data accessible through the Statistics Office in some countries. Routine monitoring and information systems can be a good source of project-level data in some countries.If resources permit, baseline surveys can be conducted in the project area as part of preparation.Several indicators for nutrition-sensitive project design and the source of data for these indicators are shown in table 5.1. 9The diagnostics in this section provide a visual snapshot of water-related factors associated with childhood stunting and related health outcomes across Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, because one of the key drivers of future water scarcity is population growth, particularly in this area, we present analyses showing patterns of fertility and water availability, which help identify hotspots in the region that warrant further investigation to understand trends across time, variation in these relationships at subnational levels, and potential underlying drivers.The scope of the analyses presented here is limited to Sub-Saharan Africa because of a high burden of childhood stunting, rising water insecurity, and poor performance on WASH access there. For example, in 2015, the coverage of improved sanitation was 28 percent on average, compared with 68 percent globally. Rates of open defecation were 23 percent compared with 12 percent globally, and improved drinking water coverage was 58 percent compared with 89 percent globally. 10  The JMP subdivides the population using improved sources into three groups according to the level of service provided: limited, basic, and safely managed.The JMP monitors WASH at the household level globally and allows for disaggregated analyses by rural and urban areas, subnational regions, and wealth quintiles. Data are analyzed from various household surveys including the DHS, MICS, HCES, and so on.Households that have a handwashing facility with soap and water available on the premises will meet the criteria for a basic hygiene facility. Households that have a facility but lack water or soap will be classified as having a limited facility and distinguished from households that have no facility at all.The JMP monitors WASH at the household level globally and allows for disaggregated analyses by rural and urban areas, subnational regions, and wealth quintiles. Data are analyzed from various household surveys including the DHS, MICS, HCES, and so on.  The sum of the internal renewable groundwater resources and the total external renewable groundwater resources.Aquastat data allows for national comparisons.Access to productive capital (agricultural land, large and small livestock, fish pond, farm equipment, and so on)Household-or farm-level (crop and livestock) indicators on access to land, seeds, fertilizer, water for irrigation, and so on.Agriculture include information on access to land, water, and other farm inputs often disaggregated by gender.The WEAI captures women's empowerment across several different domains including decision making on agricultural production, access to and control over productive resources, control over income, community leadership, and time allocation. A shorter, streamlined version of the WEAI-A-WEAI-was developed to simplify the index and shorten interview time while still maintaining cross-cultural applicability.A household-level indicator based on individual daily intake of 400 grams of fruits and vegetables (or the equivalent of five servings). Provides a measure of diet quality and can be used to understand diet patterns.Analyses can be disaggregated to analyze patterns between regions, income groups, and subpopulations. Sub-Saharan Africa also has one of the highest levels of chronic undernutrition and adverse health outcomes globally-WASH-related deaths accounted for 15 percent of all deaths and 16 percent of global burden of disease in 2004, and an estimated 32 percent of children younger than 5 was stunted in 2018.Children born in Sub-Saharan Africa are 12 times more likely to die before age 5 compared with children in high-income countries (Watkins 2016). A large proportion of these deaths are a result of preventable causes including diarrhea and pneumonia, both of which are associated with WASH access (Liu et al. 2015).Moreover, the region has the highest annual population growth rate (United Nations 2015) and is expected to have the largest number of people younger than 24 years by 2050 (Sow 2018). The population in the region is expected to continue to increase with a current fertility rate of 4.9 compared with the global average of 2.5. The consequent population growth implies growing demands for water in a region where the average water availability is 13,091 cubic meters per inhabitant per year This indicator measures consumption of vitamin A and iron-rich foods in the past 24 hours for children ages 6 to 23 months.Analyses can be disaggregated to analyze patterns between regions, income groups, and subpopulations.The number of distinct foods or food groups available in a local market at a given point in time.This indicator measures the proportion of women ages 15 to 49 who consumed food from five food groups during the previous day.HCES in some countries include these data, which can be disaggregated to analyze patterns between regions, income groups, and subpopulations.One of eight core indicators assessing IYCF practices developed by the WHO, it is a composite indicator based on minimum dietary diversity and minimum meal frequency.Analyses can be disaggregated to analyze patterns between regions, income groups, and subpopulations. a. Data available for Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda.Diagnostics compared with a global average of 19,248 cubic meters per inhabitant per year. Although the average water stress level in Sub-Saharan Africa is only 3.4 percent today, compared with 12.8 percent globally, population growth, combined with overburdened water systems, weak governance structures, mismanagement of resources either because of corruption or low capacity, and low investment in infrastructure, among others, suggests that water scarcity could be an issue in the future.The data used in this section come from multiple sources. Table 5.2 presents these indicators with the definition and data source. DALYs are a composite metric of mortality and morbidity (ill health or disability) and measure the overall disease burden-in this case, for diarrhea.The UNFPA defines total fertility rate as the number of children that would be born to a woman if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and bear children in accordance with age-specific fertility rates of the specified year. water and highest levels of stunting include Angola, Central Africa Republic, Chad, DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, South Sudan, Sudan and Tanzania. Lack of access to piped water supply and stunting also coincide in Angola, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Zambia.WASH behaviors are important determinants of child health and nutrition outcomes (George et al. 2016), and they complement WASH infrastructure such as improved sanitation and drinking water supply. For example, a recent study in Mozambique found that children in households that practice unsafe disposal were 0.6 centimeters shorter nationally and 0.8 centimeters shorter in urban areas (World Bank 2018c). On average, 15 percent of households in Sub-Saharan African countries have basic handwashing facilities in 2015-the lowest level among all regions. Of those with basic handwashing facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa, three out of five lived in urban areas (JMP 2017). An estimated 47 percent of households safely dispose of child feces in the region. Although levels of water stress are low on average for Sub-Saharan Africa, indicating low levels of freshwater withdrawal as a percentage of available freshwater resources, there are wide variations. For example, Sudan has a water stress level of 94 percent with freshwater availability of 940 cubic meters per inhabitant per year. This compares to 3.4 percent and 13,091 cubic meters per inhabitant per year on average for the region as a whole. As described previously, water stress and rainfall shocks in particular are risk factors for childhood stunting. Note: Stunting categories: <20%, 20%-30%, >30%. Access to basic handwashing facility categories: <83.5%, ≥83.5% and <90.35%, ≥90.35%. Unsafe child feces disposal categories: <32.2%, ≥32.2% and <60%, ≥60%.Highest stunting and highest handwashing facilities: Angola, Madagascar, Sudan, Tanzania. Highest stunting and lowest handwashing facilities: Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Rwanda.Highest stunting and highest rate of child feces safely disposed: Burundi, Cameroon, the Comoros, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia.Highest stunting and lowest rate of child feces safely disposed: Angola, Benin, Chad, Ethiopia, Liberia, Niger.CHAPTER 5Map 5.5 illustrates the distribution of water stress (panel a) and freshwater availability (panel b) and levels of stunting for countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania stand out as experiencing both the highest levels of water stress and the highest levels of stunting.Countries that face water stress today will be at even greater risk in future decades given rapid population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is especially the case in countries that already face elevated levels of water stress such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, and Tanzania, where fertility is currently more than five children per woman. These maps (map 5.6) illustrate the urgency of addressing water challenges in these countries, where the combination of water insecurity, population growth, and low levels of human capital create foretell a silent emergency. This map was produced by the Map Design Unit of The World Bank. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of The World Bank Group, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.Source: Food and Agriculture Organization [Accessed on April 15, 2019] http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/data/query/ index.html?lang=en. Note: Stunting categories: <20%, 20%-30%, >30%. Water stress (WS) thresholds: <1%, ≥1% and <5.8%, ≥5.8% net available freshwater resources. Water availability (WA) thresholds: <1,550, ≥1,550 and <6,000, ≥6,000 cubic meters per inhabitant per year. High stunting and highest WS level: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania. High stunting and lowest WS level: Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guinea, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone. High stunting and highest WA level: Cameroon, Central African Republic, DRC, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Zambia. High stunting and lowest WA level: Burundi, the Comoros, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan.Several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa perform consistently poorly across the WASH, water availability, health, and fertility indicators (table 5.3). For example, Burkina Faso has the highest levels of open defecation, lowest levels of improved drinking water, highest water stress, and highest fertility rates, while Eritrea has the lowest levels of WSS access, highest water stress, and high stunting levels. This map was produced by the Map Design Unit of The World Bank. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of The World Bank Group, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.  Diagnostics Diagnostics   There is a robust policy framework for water and nutrition at the global level embodied in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2 and 6 and their associated targets. Cross-sectoral collaboration between water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and nutrition has strengthened in recent years, owing to advances in the evidence base linking them together. Similarly, there is increasing recognition of the interdependencies between water security, agriculture, and food security, which has resulted in greater cross-sectoral dialogue. However, there remains a need for closer coordination between the water and nutrition sectors to further capitalize on the synergies between SDGs 2 and 6 and to mitigate any counteracting effects.Coordination at the global policy level can be achieved by working jointly across development agencies, donors, and in partnership with the United Nations. The United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) has spearheaded an expert working group to outline the links between nutrition (SDG 2) and water (SDG 6) that will aim to drive closer coordination. In parallel, there are several global initiatives that guide these efforts, albeit with a focus on specific links. The absence of a global convening entity that considers the joint challenges, opportunities, and synergies between water security and nutrition is a limitation to a more comprehensive approach.Sanitation and Water for All (SWA)-Launched in 2010, SWA works to achieve safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and good hygiene practices globally. It is a partnership between governments and their development partners to coordinate and monitor progress toward SDGs, including the elimination of malnutrition and hunger through WASH activities. At the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2018, SWA organized a high-level event to discuss how countries could better invest in early childhood development through nutrition and sanitation. In the World Bank, there are several multisectoral initiatives that provide the platform for action:• The Human Capital Project (HCP)-HCP was launched at the Annual Meetings in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2018. It incorporates a Human Capital Index (HCI), which includes core indicators on child survival, stunting, and educational attainment. Starting from working with 28 countries (mainly in Africa and Asia), which are the \"early adopters,\" the World Bank Group (WBG) will ultimately support all the countries in a phased manner to prepare national strategies, accelerating the HCP's progress.   On the other hand, WASH policies and plans nearly always neglected the importance of nutrition integration. And though most WASH policies and plans did not include nutrition goals, some included nutrition-sensitive objectives-for example, prioritizing health centers and schools. Institutional dialogue and joint planning could potentially reinforce WASH plans to incorporate nutrition-sensitive actions.The report identifies nine entry points for greater collaboration between the WASH and nutrition sectors:1. Create a supportive enabling environment and institutional integration mechanisms to drive collaboration.2. Ensure policy coherence through clearly defined roles for each stakeholder to avoid diluted responsibilities. Responsibility for water services spans many sectors, and achieving positive nutrition outcomes requires coordinated action across many stakeholders, both within and beyond the water sector. This means that it is necessary to establish multisectoral platforms to enable dialogue between the main stakeholders and to develop and oversee coordinated plans of action at the country level.Experience shows that multisectoral platforms may be more effective and sustainable if they are hosted by agencies with a governance rather than a service provision role, such as planning; finance; or the office of the governor, prime minister, or president. However, it is important to instill a leadership mentality among the contributing sector stakeholders and, where possible, to identify sector champions to ensure that this dialogue translates into activities on the ground.Country-level policy that recognizes the shared responsibility for nutrition outcomes is common for nutrition policy but is less apparent in water sector policy (box 6.1). For example, though the Lao People  Governance and Policy Framework stunting from current levels to 25 percent by 2025 using a multisectoral convergent approach combining nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions and leveraging common platforms, includes specific targets for WASH services in communities, households, schools, and health facilities.It is also critical to provide fiscal incentives for the water sector to contribute to advancing nutrition outcomes, which may be viewed as the responsibility of the health sector. This implies allocating financial and human resources for water sector-related ministries to carry out nutrition-sensitive investments and activities. Public expenditure reviews in the water sector could provide an opportunity to capture current nutrition-sensitive allocations and public spending and serve as evidence to advocate for additional budget.Finally, shared outcomes like nutrition are ideally measured and monitored through information systems that can be harmonized across multiple sectors. This avoids the problems of differences in definitions and duplicated efforts. Importantly, these data should then be accessible to users in other sectors so they can be used to target investments (such as to high stunting areas) and to monitor select health and nutrition outcomes that cannot be attributed to a particular project or intervention.Program Design and OperationsThe current body of knowledge on the impacts of water on nutrition outcomes provides important clues on ways that water sector investments can be designed to achieve greater impacts on nutrition. It is necessary to enhance current approaches to service delivery and water management because these have mainly been designed with more upstream outcomes in mind, such as improvements in access and use for water and sanitation services and improvements in availability of food and income for irrigation investments. It is also necessary to identify ways to coordinate with other sectors to help ensure that children receive all the necessary nutrition inputs that lead to better outcomes, not only water-related inputs.A companion guidance note on nutrition-sensitive water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) summarizes the evidence of direct impacts of WASH improvements on child stunting and the indirect effects through five pathways of (a) diarrhea, (b) gut health, (c) protozoa and helminth infections, (d) anemia, and (e) time use. Evidence along these pathways can inform the design of nutrition-sensitive WASH interventions.Similarly, a guidance note on nutrition-sensitive irrigation and water management presents evidence for the effects of irrigation and water management on nutritional outcomes through four pathways of (a) food production, (b) income, (c) water supply, and (d) women's empowerment and recommends a series of enhancements for irrigation and water management operations.Although evidence is growing, the potential for water investments to affect nutrition outcomes, especially through irrigation and water management, has not been fully explored. Building this evidence base requires enhancing existing monitoring and evaluation efforts to capture impacts along the key pathways to nutrition outcomes. Each guidance note presents a set of results framework indicators to support nutrition-sensitive monitoring and evaluation in lending operations.CHAPTER 8Profiles of Four Nutrition-Sensitive Water Engagements CHAPTER 8There are many examples of water sector investments that have been designed with an aim to improve nutrition outcomes. Below are four engagements across irrigation, water management, and water supply and sanitation (WSS) that include nutrition as a key aim of the project to help demonstrate the range of opportunities.The World Bank and the Japanese government collaborated for more than five years to support the Mozambique government's Sustainable Irrigation Development Project (PROIRRI), providing about US$ 70 million in financing in addition to the US$ 5.7 million allocated by the Mozambique government and a US$ 14.2 million grant from the Japanese government, bringing the project's total investment to almost US$ 90 million. The objective of the project is to increase agricultural production and raise farm productivity with new or improved irrigation schemes in the provinces of Manica, Sofala, and Zambezia in Mozambique. The project's results framework included targets for crop yields, nutrient-dense crop choices, and established business lines for rice and horticulture crops.Improvements in irrigation systems in the rural district of Vanduzi in the Manica Province have enabled local smallholder farmers to grow maize and vegetable crops on irrigated land. Prior to the project's investments, water collection was insufficient and could barely cover the needs of farmers, which drove some to abandon agriculture altogether and migrate to cities. In the target provinces, the project is expected to ensure irrigation over a total of 3,000 hectares-1,700 are dedicated to rice production, 800 for horticulture, and 500 for contract production. So far, more than 6,000 people have directly benefited from the project in the three provinces where it is implemented. The government has named the development of irrigation as one of its priorities for agriculture and rural development. To that end, it adopted a new national irrigation strategy, whose implementation is materializing with the interventions such as those under the PROIRRI. Three out of 15 hydrogeological basins highlighted by the irrigation strategy (Buzi, Pungué, and Zambezi) are covered by the PROIRRI intervention. Within the scope of the project, the National Irrigation Institute (INIR) benefited from institutional and capacity building to cater to its policy, strategic, and operational mandates. INIR capacities to implement its policies were also reinforced. The project also supported government institutions in the preparation of legislation for irrigation associations as well as the national irrigation plan.  The body of evidence supporting the effects of water security on nutrition outcomes is substantial, and there is increased interest in understanding how water investments could unlock food and nutrition security to reduce stunting and boost human capital. But for success to happen at the project level, a supportive policy environment is needed (figure 9.1). To begin with, there is a need to harvest evidence on nutrition-sensitive investments in water for agriculture that document impacts on health and nutrition outcomes through four key pathways of income; production; women's empowerment; and water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). This evidence needs to influence higher-level policy actions across water, food, agriculture, and nutrition and feed back into the design of interventions Profiles of Four Nutrition-Sensitive Water Engagements undernutrition that may only be exacerbated by climate change-induced water scarcity. Finally, there is the need for more experience and policy guidance to support equitable and nutrition-sensitive use of water resources both within and across countries. With the right policies in place, countries will be better positioned to harness the power of water for improving nutrition and strengthening human capital.Anemia is measured by hemoglobin concentration in the blood. Children (ages 6 to 59 months) with a hemoglobin concentration less than 11 grams per deciliter are classified as anemic. Among reproductive-age women, nonpregnant women with a hemoglobin concentration less than 12 grams per deciliter and pregnant women with a hemoglobin concentration less than 11 grams per deciliter are classified as anemic.Anthropometry refers to the measurement of a human individual. It involves the systematic measurement of the physical properties of the human body, primarily dimensional descriptors of body size and shape.Basic handwashing facility is one where households have a handwashing facility with soap and water available on the premises.Body mass index (BMI) is calculated as weight (in kilograms) divided by height (in meters) squared. Women ages 15 to 49 who are not pregnant and have not had a birth in the two months before the survey are considered to be suffering from \"undernutrition\" if their BMI is below 18.5.Children's stools are considered to be disposed of safely if the child used a toilet or latrine or if the fecal matter was put/rinsed into a toilet or latrine.Country's income level For the current 2019 fiscal year, low-income economies are defined as those with a gross national income (GNI) per capita, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method, of US$ 995 or less in 2017; lower-middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between US$ 996 and US$ 3,895; upper-middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between US$ 3,896 and US$ 12,055; high-income economies are those with a GNI per capita of US$ 12,056 or more.Diarrhea is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having three or more loose or liquid stools per day or as having more stools than is normal for that person. Infection is spread through contaminated food or drinking water or from person to person as a result of poor hygiene.Disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is defined by the WHO as a composite metric of mortality and morbidity (ill health or disability) and measures the overall disease burden.Early childhood development refers to physical, cognitive, linguistic, and socioemotional development of a child from pregnancy to 6 years. Exclusive breastfeeding It is recommended that during the first six months of children's lives, they should be exclusively breastfed, which means they should be given nothing but breast milk. This is because breast milk contains all the nutrients needed by children in the first six months of life and is an uncontaminated nutritional source.Fertility rate is defined by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as the number of children that would be born to a woman if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and bear children in accordance with age-specific fertility rates of the specified year.First 1,000 days between a woman's pregnancy and her child's second birthday is a unique period of opportunity when the foundations for optimum health and development across the lifespan are established. The right nutrition and care during this period will influence not only whether the child will survive but also his or her ability to grow, learn, and get out of poverty, which further contributes to society's health, stability, and prosperity in the long term.Food fortification is often used to meet people's nutritional needs. As defined by the WHO and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, food fortification refers to \"the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient-that is, vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in a food, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and to provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.\"Food security, as defined by the United Nations Committee on World Food Security, means that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.Improved sanitation is one \"that effectively separates excreta from human contact and ensures that excreta do not re-enter the immediate household environment.\" Access to a flush toilet, a ventilated improved pit latrine, a pit latrine with slab, or a composting toilet would be considered an improved sanitation facility if it is not shared with other households.Improved water source is one that is piped into the dwelling, yard, or plot; comes from a public tap or standpipe; comes from a tube well or a borewell; comes from a protected well or spring; or is rainwater.Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices include exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life, continued breastfeeding through age 2, introduction of solid and semisolid foods Glossary at 6 months, and gradual increases in the amount of food given and frequency of feeding as the child grows older.Low birthweight is defined by the WHO as a birthweight of an infant of 2,499 grams or less, regardless of gestational age.Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person's intake of energy and/or nutrients. There are two broad groups of malnutrition, including conditions related to undernutrition (for example, stunting, wasting, underweight, and micronutrient deficiency) and overweight, obesity, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases.Micronutrient deficiency is a major contributor to childhood morbidity and mortality. Micronutrients are available in foods and can also be provided through direct supplementation.Breastfed children benefit from supplements given to the mother.Minimum acceptable diet (MAD) is a combination of minimum dietary diversity and minimum meal frequency. Without adequate diversity and meal frequency, infants and young children are vulnerable to undernutrition, especially stunting and micronutrient deficiencies, and increased morbidity and mortality. Breastfed children ages 6 to 23 months who had at least the minimum dietary diversity (MDD) and the minimum meal frequency (MMF) during the previous day and nonbreastfed children ages 6 to 23 months who received at least two milk feedings and had at least the MDD (not including milk feeds) and the MMF during the previous day are considered receiving a MAD.Minimum dietary diversity (MDD) assesses food intake among children ages 6 to 23 months from at least four food groups. The cutoff of four food groups is associated with better-quality diets for both breastfed and nonbreastfed children. Consumption of food from at least four food groups means that the child has a high likelihood of consuming at least one animal source of food and at least one fruit or vegetable in addition to a staple food (grains, roots, or tubers) according to the WHO. The four food groups should come from a list of seven food groups: grains, roots, and tubers; legumes and nuts; dairy products (milk yogurt, and cheese); flesh foods (meat, fish, poultry, and liver/organ meat); eggs; vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables; and other fruits and vegetables.Minimum meal frequency (MMF), a proxy for a child's energy requirements, examines the number of times children receives foods other than breastmilk. The minimum number is specific to the age and breastfeeding status of the child. Breastfed children are considered to be consuming MMF if they receive solid, semisolid, or soft foods at least twice a day for infants ages 6 to 8 months and at least three times a day for children ages 9 to 23 months. Nonbreastfed children ages 6 to 23 months are considered to be fed with an MMF if they receive solid, semisolid, or soft foods at least four times a day.Undernutrition is an outcome of insufficient food intake and repeated infectious diseases. It includes being underweight for one's age, too short for one's age (stunted), dangerously thin for one's height (wasted), and deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrient malnutrition).Underweight, or weight-for-age, is a composite index of height-for-age and weight-for-height that accounts for both acute and chronic undernutrition. Children whose weight-for-age Z-score is below minus two standard deviations from the median of the reference population are classified as underweight. Children whose weight-for-age Z-score is below minus three standard deviations from the median are considered severely underweight.Wasting is defined as the number of children younger than 5 falling below minus two standard deviations (moderate and severe) and below minus three standard deviations (severe) from the median weight-for-height of the reference population/children younger than 5 in the surveyed population.Water security is defined by United Nations Water as the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socioeconomic development, for ensuring protection against waterborne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.Water availability refers to the total renewable freshwater resources per capita, defined as the total annual actual renewable water resources in cubic meters per inhabitant per year.Water stress refers to fresh water withdrawal (both primary and secondary) as a proportion of net available freshwater resources.","tokenCount":"11746"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e23f6ca5e375924ba38a27a23b82cdf4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/74c0dde7-e8b4-45c9-beb2-8cbd151edc67/content","id":"-1340483135"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cc4cfff5-914e-47c3-b8aa-e4002a36d308","pagecount":"10","content":"A bout 15% of the maize-cultivating areas are affected by severe waterlogging stress or flooding in South and Southeast Asia, causing yearly production losses approximately by 25∼30% (Chen et al., 2014). In general, maize is highly sensitive to excess soil moisture mostly at early vegetative stages. Waterlogging at early vegetative stages results in severe reduction in traits such as plant height, days to flowering and maturity, dry matter accumulation along with grain yield potential (Liu et al., 2010). In India, only 15% of the maize growing area is under proper irrigation (Sah et al., 2020). India projected 0.9 mha as waterlogging affected area (MoA&FW, GOI, 2018). It was reported that 12% of global cultivated land was severely affected by waterlogging stress that resulting in a nearly 20% decline in crop production through limiting plant growth and development by altering morphological, physiological, and anatomical mechanisms (Abiko et al., 2012 andLuan, 2018). The contingent flooding by continuous rainfall coupled with inadequate drainage and elevated groundwater table are the key constraints in maize production in Asian tropics and other parts of the world (Singh et al., 2017). Over the years the total maize cultivating area in South and Southeast Asia alone are frequently affected by waterlogging problems. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on identification of tolerance in maize against excessive soil moisture and waterlogging in India to meet the increasing demand of grain yield production.Several studies reported effect of waterlogging stress in genetic variability in maize for tolerance to excess moisture (Campbell et al., 2015;Zaidi et al., 2003Zaidi et al., , 2004)). Screening of maize genotypes tolerant to excess moisture in field conditions through available abiotic stress tolerance indices could be an ideal approach to provide promising cultivars for maize-growing farmers in the Asian tropics. Mean productivity (MP), stress susceptibility index (SSI) (Fischer and Maurer, 1978), stress tolerance index (STI) (Fernandez, 1992), yield stability index (YSI) (Bouslama and Schapaugh, 1984), relative drought index (RDI) (Fischer and Wood, 1979) and yield index (YI) (Gavuzzi et al., 1997) are useful measures to evaluate the stable performance of cultivars in both the stress and non-stress conditions. Although, several screening techniques and selection indices were available but identification of suitable and precise index for selection of ideal cultivars for target stress conditions at field level is a major bottleneck. However, a vast literature is available on abiotic stress selection indices and their association with grain yields under drought conditions (Jafari et al., 2009;Khodarahmpour and Hamidi, 2011;Kiani, 2013;Naghavi et al., 2013;Barutcular et al., 2016;Arisandy et al., 2017), but very limited literature is available on application of selection indices for screening waterlogging stress tolerant maize hybrids. Hence, the present study was attempted to determine the excess moisture stress tolerance in maize hybrids under field conditions.Fifty medium duration maize hybrids including five commercial checks which include two internal checks (CAH 153 and CAH 1511) and three commercial hybrids (900 MG, P 3502 and Hytech 5106) were procured from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)-Asia office, Hyderabad, India. The material was obtained from an elite pool of 600 diverse maize lines (from the CIMMYT's maize germplasm sourced from Asian tropics) crossed with two testers viz, CML451 and CL02450 through biparental pattern. The testers used were globally released CIMMYT's leading testers belonging to separate heterotic groups with high grain yield potential, high general and specific combining abilities and tolerant to many abiotic stresses.The hybrids were at multi-location trial (MLT) screening under optimal soil moisture, drought and waterlogging conditions.All the hybrids were evaluated along with five checks in two sets viz., set I under optimum or wellirrigated and set II under managed waterlogging stress during kharif -2018 at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (India). Manual sowing was done with 4 m in length and number of rows was two. Both sets of test hybrids were planted in alpha lattice design (0, 1) (Patterson and Williams, 1976) with two replications. All the trials were planted with 60 cm row-to-row and 20 cm within-row spacing. Meteorological data including  maximum, minimum temperatures and rainfall received during crop growing period on standard week bases was shown in the Figure 1. Irrigation was scheduled at critical stages of growth stages of maize such as knee height stage, reproductive periods and followed by grain filling stages. The waterlogging stress treatment was imposed by giving flood irrigation to the experimental field at 'knee high' stage ('V 6 -V 7 ' stage). The water level in the plots was retained stagnant at a depth of 10 ± 0.5 cm continuously for seven days by providing water through need-based supplemental irrigation at a rate that surpassed infiltration and evaporation. Draining of stagnant water in the field was carried out after seventh day and recommended irrigation at critical stages was resumed as per crop needs (Zaidi et al., 2016).Fresh weight of all the plots under both the trials including non-stress and managed waterlogging trials was recorded using electronic weighing balance and converted in to grain yield per hectare under stressfree (Yp) and grain yield under stress (Ys), respectively by using shelling and moisture percent measured. Conversion of grain yield per hectare was standardized at 12.5 moisture percent using the following formula as suggested by ASTM, 2001. Grain yield data under non-stress and stress environments were subjected to the analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the alpha lattice design given by Patterson and Williams (1976). Grain yield reduction due to waterlogging stress compared to optimum-irrigated fields was calculated by the formula given by Oyekunle et al., 2019. Nine selection indices viz., tolerance index (TOL), mean productivity (MP), geometric mean productivity (GMP), harmonic mean (HM), stress susceptibility index (SSI), stress tolerance index (STI), yield index (YI), yield stability index (YSI) and relative stress index (RSI) were computed by the formulae given in the table 2. Estimates of above mentioned stress tolerance indices, genotype ranking and association of these indices with grain yield under non-stress and stress environments were carried out using an online software, iPASTIC: an online toolkit to calculate plant abiotic stress indices (Pour-Aboughadareh et al., 2019).Analysis variation (ANOVA) showed a significant variation (p<0.001) among experimental maize hybrids for grain yield under both well-water and managed waterlogging stress conditions (Table 3). Kachapur et al. (2015), Kiani (2013) and Jafari et al. (2009) reported statistically significant variation in grain yield of maize under stress and non-stress conditions. The results showed that the hybrids viz., G2 (ZH161032, 11.46 t/ ha), G9 (VH12186, 10.46 t/ha), G6 (VH131167, 10.2 t/ ha), G31 (ZH16929-1, 9.97 t/ha) and G14 (VH112926, 9.89 t/ha) had maximum yield under optimal soil moisture while hybrids G38 (VH121082, 5.92 t/ha), G5 (ZH17191, 5.64 t/ha), G6 (VH131167, 5.54 t/ha), G35 (ZH161034, 5.36 t/ha) and G7 (ZH161531, 5.06 t/ha) showed highest yield under waterlogged conditions (Table 4). Decline in grain yield showed an approximate range of 20-85% under waterlogging condition. Lowest yield reduction was observed for the hybrids G12 (VH11129, 20.3%), G3 (VH121082, 27.3%), G40 (VH112888, 29.2%), G32 (ZH161035, 30.8%) and G42 (VH121043, 31.1%). This drastic declination in grain yield was due to the impact of waterlogging stress at early growth stages. Leaf rolling and senescence is a most common symptom of maize plant subjected to waterlogging stress (Yan et al., 1996). Consequently, chlorophyll content and related photosynthetic enzymes that reduced the photochemical efficiency of PSII resulted in a significant yield reduction (Ren et al., 2016).All the nine estimated selection indices and genotype ranking are given in the Table 4. According to selection index TOL, the hybrids viz., G12 (VH11129), G42 (VH121043), G32 (ZH161035), G40 (VH112888) and G1 (VH12148) had maximum tolerance to waterlogging stress whereas MP was highest for the hybrids G6 (VH131167), G2 (ZH161032), G5 (ZH17191), G31 (ZH16929-1) and G49 (P 3502). Based on selection indices GMP, HM, STI and YI, the hybrids viz., G6 (VH131167), G5 (ZH17191), G31 (ZH16929-1), G49 (P 3502) and G38 (VH121082) showed maximum tolerance to waterlogging stress. Similarly, hybrids G12 (VH11129), G38 (VH121082), G40 (VH112888), G30 (ZH161035) and G42 (VH121043) were identified as most tolerant to excess soil moisture stress based on SSI, YSI and RSI. Integration of all the nine selection indices was carried out by the rank-sum (RS) method i.e. the sum of mean rank () of nine selection indices and standard deviation (R sd ) of ranks of each hybrid (Farshadfar et al., 2012). Accordingly, the hybrids G38 (VH121082; R S =10.77, R SD =5.31), G5 (ZH17191; R S =11.47, R SD =5.65), G35 (ZH161034; R S =12.84, R SD =4.02), G33 (ZH16929-2; R S =13.74, R SD =2.92) and G7 (ZH161531; R S =14.97, R SD =4.55) were found to be the most waterlogging stress tolerant with least R S values among 50 hybrids. In contrast, hybrids G26 (VH12263; R S =53.81, R SD =10.62), G23 (VH1230; R S =52.43, R SD =5.15), G43 (VH12254; R S =51.17, R SD =11.98), G46 (CAH153-2; R S =50.08, R SD =11.9) and G12 (VH11129; R S =49.23, R SD =21.14) were identified as least tolerant to excess moisture stress (Table 4). The same set of experimental hybrids was evaluated for stress selection indices to estimate drought tolerance during Rabi 2017 at Varanasi location (Singamsetti et al., 2019) and the study revealed that the hybrids viz., VH123021, 900MG, ZH161529, VH131167 and VH12264 were most drought stress tolerant while hybrids VH11129, VH12132, VH12263, ZH16105 and ZH14435 were most sensitive to drought stress.  Stress tolerance index (STI) Higher value Fernandez (1992) Yield index (YI) Higher value Gavuzzi et al. (1997) Yield stability index (YSI) Higher value Bouslama and Schapaugh (1984) Relative stress index (RSI) Higher value Fischer and Wood (1979) Ys , Yp represent yield under stress and non-stress for each hybrid, respectively whereas Ys and Yp denoted mean grain yield under stress and nonstress conditions for all the genotypes under the trial, respectively.Spearman's rank correlation was performed to study the relationship between stress selection indices and grain yield under both conditions. The association among selection indices assists plant breeders to determine the most desirable waterlogging stress tolerant criterion. The results revealed that the grain yield under non-stress condition had significant positive correlation with MP (r=0.93), GMP (r=0.83), HM (r=0.69), STI (r=0.83) and YI (r=0.83) whereas under waterlogging stress condition, it had strong positive association with MP (r=0.80), GMP (r=0.91), HM (r=0.98), SSI (r=0.71) STI (r=0.91), YI (r=0.91), YSI (r=0.71) and RSI (r=0.71). The indices viz, MP, GMP, HM, STI and YI showed strong positive correlation with yield under stress and optimum soil moisture field conditions. This suggested that these selection indices would be recommended for screening the maize hybrids with maximum grain yield under both conditions. Previous works by Anwar et al. (2011);Richard, (1996); Ramirez and Kelly, (1998) and Saba et al. (2001) reported almost identical genotype ranking pattern for MP, GMP and STI due to perfect correlation. The study involving association between grain yield and selection indices under both stress and optimal moisture conditions revealed that MP, GMP, HM showed similarity with those reported by Singh et al. (2017); Farshadfar and Sutka (2002) and Khodarampour et al. (2011) in maize. In the present study, significant negative (r=-0.74) correlation was found between TOL and Yp suggesting that the selection for decreased TOL should give increased yield under non-stress conditions whereas almost no correlation (r=0.07) was observed between TOL and grain yield under waterlogging stress.Grain yield under both the conditions showed highly positive and significant correlation with GMP, MP, HM, STI and YI especially under waterlogging stress conditions. Hence, selection for high GMP, MP, HM, STI and YI would give positive response in terms of grain yield at both conditions. Similarly, Singh et al. (2017) and Jafari et al. (2009) found that STI and GMP indices showed strong positive association with grain yield under both stress and stress-free conditions, and these could be used as the best selection indices for maize breeding programs. Selection indices viz., SSI, YSI and RSI had negative correlation with grain yield under wellirrigated condition while these had positive correlation with grain yield under managed waterlogging condition. This suggested that these selection indices would be worthwhile where the target condition is waterlogging or flood prone. Similar results were reported by Khalili et al. (2004), Khodarampour et al. (2011) and Singh et al. (2017). Farshadfar et al. (2001), Majid andRoza (2010), Naghavi et al.(2013), Mani and Deshpande et al. (2016) and Arisandy et al. (2017) reported that the stress indices showed relatively significant correlation with grain yield.The relationships among different indices and with grain yield under both the moisture conditions are graphically depicted in a biplot of PCA1 and PCA2 (Fig. 3). The first principal component (PC1) contributed around 64.6% and second principal component explained about 34.3% of total variation. Both the components explained around 98.91% of total variation contributed by all the selection indices and grain yields under both conditions. This suggested the goodness of fit of the biplot constructed. The PCA1 and PCA2 mainly discriminate the selection indices in different groups based on association among them. One of the noteworthy interpretations of biplot is that the cosine of the angle between the vectors of any two indices represents the correlation coefficient between them. The cosine of the angles would be translated precisely into correlation coefficients, since the biplot explained almost all of the variation in the data set. The \"waterlogging resistance\" should be based on yield stability under excess soil moisture stress. Thus the hybrids with low variation under different field conditions could be reflected as \"waterlogging resistant\" hybrids. In our study, MP, GMP, HM, YI and RSI can be considered as the potential surrogates to screen \"waterlogging resistant\" hybrids as they are strongly associated (acute angle, <90 o ) with YSI (yield stability index). In contrast to this, \"waterlogging stress tolerance\" should not be based on stability in yield but it refers to hybrids with acceptable yield potential under excess moisture stress and maximum yield potential under well-irrigated conditions. Thus, the indices viz., TOL and SSI would be more beneficial for screening \"waterlogging tolerant\" hybrids as they are not positively associated with YSI (right angle, >90 o ). Kachapur et al. (2015) conducted principal component analysis and concluded STI and GMP were able to identify maize cultivars producing high yield in both water deficit and well-watered field conditions while TOL and SSI were found to be more beneficial indices in discriminating resistant cultivars under severe stress conditions. Khodarahmpour and Hamidi (2011) also reported similar results by performing PCA for the five stress tolerance indices estimated at different vegetative growth stages of maize inbred lines.Based on the rank-sum approach of all selection indices, the hybrids VH121082, ZH17191, ZH161034, ZH16929-2, and ZH161531 were found as waterlogging stress tolerant. The selection indices MP, GMP, HM, STI, and YI demonstrated a substantial positive connection with yield under waterlogging and optimal moisture conditions, indicating that these indices would be suggested for screening maize hybrids under water logging stressed conditions.","tokenCount":"2470"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5a281fa0799c6334033197df9755b82","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/9beb0070-71b4-4ad2-bce9-5e54cf854795/content","id":"-529419928"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a7d0274e-2e4a-4bf8-93df-c80a3e1e5551","pagecount":"8","content":"Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] is a major tropical legume crop grown in warm to hot areas throughout the world and especially important to the people of sub-Saharan Africa where the crop was domesticated. To date, relatively little is understood about its domestication origins and patterns of genetic variation. In this study, a worldwide collection of cowpea landraces and African ancestral wild cowpea was genotyped with more than 1200 single nucleotide polymorphism markers. Bayesian inference revealed the presence of two major gene pools in cultivated cowpea in Africa. Landraces from gene pool 1 are mostly distributed in western Africa while the majority of gene pool 2 are located in eastern Africa. Each gene pool is most closely related to wild cowpea in the same geographic region, indicating divergent domestication processes leading to the formation of two gene pools. The total genetic variation within landraces from countries outside Africa was slightly greater than within African landraces. Accessions from Asia and Europe were more related to those from western Africa while accessions from the Americas appeared more closely related to those from eastern Africa. This delineation of cowpea germplasm into groups of genetic relatedness will be valuable for guiding introgression efforts in breeding programs and for improving the efficiency of germplasm management.C owpea is the most important grain legume and fodder crop of the semiarid warm tropics and subtropics. Across wide swaths of sub-Saharan Africa and northeastern Brazil, in particular, cowpea is an important component of cereal and starchy tuber cropping systems because it supplies high protein grain and fodder while also helping to build the typically poor and fragile soils that predominate across much of these agro-ecologies (Ehlers and Hall, 1997). In contrast to many other important world crops, relatively little is understood about the domestication history, worldwide dispersal, and distribution of genetic variation of cowpea. Although domestication of cowpea was presumed to have occurred in Africa given the exclusive presence of wild cowpea in Africa (Steele, 1976), knowledge about the general region or regions of origin and number of domestication events within Africa is fragmented. Faris (1965) presented a review of earlier studies investigating the origin of cultivated cowpea and, along with his own extensive work involving morphological descriptors, suggested that there was evidence for a West or Central African center of domestication for cowpea. However, Coulibaly et al. (2002) provided evidence based on molecular markers that early domestication occurred in northeastern Africa; cowpea in these regionscould have been domesticated together with sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] and pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] in the third millennium BC (Steele, 1976).Cowpea and sorghum are adapted to the same agro-ecologies and are often intercropped. Therefore, it is tempting to speculate that cowpea may have followed the same route out of Africa as sorghum, moving first from eastern Africa to the Arabian peninsula and then onto the Asian subcontinent (Faris, 1965;Pant et al., 1982) and to East Asia. Subsequently, cowpea may have moved westward to Europe through the Middle East because cowpea was known in southern Europe during Roman times (Tosti and Negri, 2002). It seems plausible also that cowpea first moved from western Africa to the New World with African people during the slavetrading period, but little or no documentation exists to support the extent of this movement. More recently, during the early 20th century, cowpea germplasm moved to the New World through purposeful informal and formal germplasm collecting and introduction activities conducted by the USDA, particularly from Central Asia as collectors sought germplasm of other major temperate-zone crops such as wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).Hypotheses concerning the relationship of African germplasm to that found in other parts of the world where it has been introduced can be put on a sound footing with analysis of molecular markers. Fang et al. (2007) used amplified fragment length polymorphism markers to examine 15 landrace accessions of diverse origin and 72 advanced breeding lines and improved cultivars from four West African and two U.S. breeding programs. Their results showed that cowpea in Asia and North America did not share common genetic backgrounds with those from West Africa. However, that study used mostly breeding lines in which introgression of extraregional germplasm would have occurred, potentially obscuring more ancestral domestication relationships. In the present study, we used a much larger set of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers applied to a larger panel of cowpea landraces collected throughout Africa and in other cowpea-growing regions of Asia, Europe, North America, and South America (Fig. 1). To minimize the potential inclusion of admixed accessions in the sample set, only cowpea landraces that were entered into germplasm collections before 1975 are included because before this date there was very little international transfer of cowpea germplasm between breeding programs. Our study also includes a collection of African wild annual cowpea V. unguiculata subsp. dekindtiana (Harms) Verdc. from both East and West Africa. The subspecies dekindtiana has been documented as the likely progenitor of domesticated cowpea (Coulibaly et al., 2002;Pasquet, 1999). We aimed to examine the gene pool structure of African cowpea landraces and to determine their relatedness to African wild cowpea and non-African domesticated cowpea to clarify the origin and dispersal of this crop and help guide present-day and future breeding efforts.A total of 422 cowpea landraces collected from 56 countries were used in the present study. Major subdivisions included 323 landraces from North, West, Central, East, southeastern, and southern Africa and the other 99 landraces distributed throughout the rest of the world (Supplemental Table S1). Forty-six accessions of wild cowpea from three countries of West Africa and five countries of East, Southeast, and southern Africa (Supplemental Table S1) were obtained from the USDA germplasm collection in Griffin, GA. Genomic DNA from each line was isolated using Plant DNeasy (Qiagen) starting with 100 mg of young trifoliate leaves. The concentration of DNA was determined using Quant-iTTM dsDNA Assay Kit Broad Range (Q33130) (Invitrogen) and fluorescence (excitation at 485 nm and emission at 535 nm for 1 s) measured using a microplate reader (Wallac Victor2 1420 Multilabel counter; PerkinElmer Life Sciences). The DNA concentration was adjusted to approximately 80 ng μL -1 in a Tris-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid buffer containing 10 mM Tris-hydrochloric acid and 1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid adjusted to a pH of 8.0 using sterile deionized water. Single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping with a 1536-SNP GoldenGate genotyping assay, as described in Muchero et al. (2009), was then performed at the University of California Los Angeles genotyping facility by Joe DeYoung and Marical Almonte.Informative markers were filtered based on their observed minor allele frequency, heterozygosity, and missing genotype calls. Population structure was analyzed using both the full set of these SNPs as well as a random set of SNPs at 3-cM intervals based on a cowpea consensus map (Lucas et al., 2011). An unpublished in-house program MAKE STRUCTURE was used to select different SNP sets based on predefined centimorgan distance and to convert the markers from ACGT calls into numerical genotypes. A Bayesian model-based clustering method was implemented in the software STRUCTURE 2.3.3 (Pritchard et al., 2000) under the admixture model with a burn-in period of 100,000 followed by 100,000 replications of Markov Chain Monte Carlo. The number of clusters (K) was varied from 1 to 10, each including five independent runs. The web-based program STRUCTURE HARVESTER (Earl and vonHoldt, 2012) was used to calculate the rate of change in the probability of data between successive K values (ΔK) to determine the optimum K value (i.e., the number of major gene pools) at which ΔK is highest (Evanno et al., 2005). The software CLUMPP (Jakobsson and Rosenberg, 2007) was used to align cluster assignment from independent runs using the in-files generated by STRUCTURE HARVESTER. Memberships of individuals assigned to specific gene pools were visualized using the unpublished in-house program \"MARK IN MAP\" and the software DISTRUCT (Rosenberg, 2004).The geographical location from which each cowpea landrace was collected was noted. Analysis of molecular variance was performed with the software Arlequin 3.5 (Excoffier and Lischer, 2010) applied to all informative markers. Pairwise genetic distances between accessions were measured with the software GGT 2.0 (van Berloo, 2008) based on the allele-sharing method (Bowcock et al., 1994). Phylogenetic relationships were generated based on the genetic-distance matrix using the neighborjoining method (Saitou and Nei, 1987) and visualized using the software MEGA 5.05 (Tamura et al., 2011).Genotyping of 422 cowpea landraces with the 1536 SNPs showed that 1123 were polymorphic between the accessions (73%), 301 were monomorphic (20%), and 113 (7%) could not be called unambiguously and therefore were not used in any of the analyses (Supplemental Table S2). Genotyping of 46 wild cowpea accessions showed that 869 SNP markers (57%) were polymorphic, 554 were monomorphic (36%), and 113 (7%) could not be called unambiguously (Supplemental Table S3). Combining the two sets, 1133 markers were polymorphic (74%), 292 were monomorphic (19%), and 111 (7%) could not be called unambiguously. Of the 1133 polymorphic markers, 1051 have been mapped on 11 linkage groups representing the 11 cowpea chromosomes, based on a cowpea consensus genetic map (Lucas et al., 2011), while the other 82 SNPs remain unmapped (Supplemental Table S4). Linkage group 3 had the highest number of polymorphic markers. All possible SNP types were found in the world landrace and wild cowpea collection; the majority included A/G (or T/C) followed by A/C (or T/G), G/C, and A/T. In the landrace collection, heterozygosity at each polymorphic marker ranged from 0 to 6.6% (1.6% on average) except for four markers with more extreme heterozygosity (10, 15, 18, and 29%). In the wild cowpea, SNP heterozygosity at each polymorphic marker ranged from 0 to 47% (8% on average). In some cases, two or more accessions were found to have the same SNP genotypes at all loci except those with missing genotype calls (Supplemental Tables S2 and S3). For each of these duplicated sets, one accession with the smallest number of missing genotype calls was kept. Consequently, 397 landraces and 34 wild cowpea accessions with unique SNP genotypes were retained for further analyses.Of the 1123 markers polymorphic in the landrace collection, 904 with minor allele frequency at least 0.05, less than 10% missing data, and less than 10% heterozygosity were used in population structure analysis. Clustering inference using all 904 SNPs showed that the rate of change in the probability of data between successive K values (ΔK) was highest at K = 2 (ΔK = 7088) and a major decline in ΔK occurred at K = 3 (Supplemental Fig. S1). Clustering inference using a customized set of 195 SNPs excluding tightly linked markers (within 3 cM) showed that the rate of change in the probability of data between successive K values (ΔK) was also highest at K = 2 (ΔK = 1887) followed by K = 3 (ΔK = 529) and a major decline in ΔK occurred at K = 4 (Supplemental Fig. S1). The clustering inference indicated the existence of two major subpopulations (gene pools) in the world landrace population. Cluster assignment for each gene pool was highly consistent (r = 0.99, P < 0.001) between the full and reduced SNP sets (Supplemental Fig. S1). Using a likelihood threshold of 0.7, 165 accessions (42%) were assigned to gene pool 1, 146 accessions (37%) were assigned to gene pool 2, and the other 86 accessions (21%) were intermediate (Fig. 2). The majority of accessions in gene pool 1 were from countries in West, North, and central Africa while the majority of accessions in gene pool 2 were from countries in East, southeast, and southern Africa (Fig. 3). In the \"international set\" outside Africa, 29 accessions (31%) were grouped in gene pool 1, 25 accessions (27%) were grouped in gene pool 2, and 40 accessions (43%) were intermediate. Applying K values from 3 to 7 introduced more subgroups in gene pool 1 while the majority of landraces in gene pool 2 were still grouped together (Supplemental Fig. S2); use of 195 SNPs at intervals of every 3 cM improved the clustering assignment by reducing fractional memberships of landraces assigned to specific subgroups.Analysis of molecular variance applied to all 904 informative SNP markers showed that the majority of genetic variance resided among landraces within countries (69%) while relatively small genetic variance (3%) existed between the African collection and the non-African international collection. Pairwise genetic distances based on allele sharing among 397 landraces varied from 0.01 to 0.72, with an average of 0.38 (Table 1). Landraces within East, southeast, and southern Africa were more variable relative to each other (average distance 0.34, ranging from 0.01 to 0.61) than accessions within West, North, and central Africa (average distance 0.31, ranging from 0.04 to 0.67). Landraces from Asia and Europe were most related  to those in West, North, and central Africa (average distances 0.38 and 0.35, respectively) while landraces from North America and South America were closer to those in East, southeast, and southern Africa (average distances 0.41 and 0.38, respectively). A neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree clearly showed a separation between African landraces from the west and the east while landraces in countries outside Africa clustered with the African accessions in most clades that were intermediate between the western and eastern gene pools (Supplemental Fig. S2).A total of 322 polymorphic SNPs with less than 10% missing scores and less than 10% heterozygosity in the wild cowpea collection and that were also informative in landraces were used for genetic comparison. Population structure analyses applied to this SNP set also confirmed the presence of two major gene pools in the world cowpea landrace collection (Supplemental Table S5). Pairwise genetic distances showed that landraces from West, North, and central Africa were closer to wild cowpea from the west (average distance 0.39) than to wild cowpea from the east (average distance 0.43). In contrast, African landraces from East, Southeast, and southern Africa were closer to wild cowpea from these regions (average distance 0.42) than to wild cowpea from the west (average distance 0.48). Phylogenetic analyses involving wild cowpea and \"pure\" representatives of two African gene pools (admixture score less than 0.01 based on structure analyses) showed that wild cowpea were clustered next to each other and there was a clear separation between wild accessions from West Africa and those from East, Southeast, and southern Africa, except for two accessions from West Africa (PI 632895 and PI 632896), which were clustered in the other clade (Fig. 4); wild cowpea from West Africa were clustered next to gene pool 1 while wild cowpea from East, Southeast, and southern Africa were clustered next to gene pool 2.Cowpea landraces used in this study were entered into germplasm collections more than 30 yr ago when there was very little international transfer of cowpea among regional breeding programs and thus little chance of admixture across large geographic regions among landraces. More than 10% of these materials came from the IITA cowpea \"mini-core\" collection, which was designed to capture the genetic variation present in the wider world collection (Mahalakshmi et al., 2007). Other major subsets of germplasm used in the present study included 48 landrace accessions from Mozambique in southeastern Africa and 35 landrace accessions from Angola in southwestern Africa, both areas of the continent that have lacked representation in previous cowpea diversity studies. Another major subset included 40 accessions from India, recognized as a secondary center of cowpea diversity (Faris, 1965;Pant et al., 1982). The remaining cowpea landraces were collected from 50 other countries in Africa and other continents where cowpea has been introduced. Thus, these genetic materials represent a comprehensive sample of diversity in domesticated cowpea. This was confirmed by results from genotyping using the Illumina GoldenGate Assay in which high levels of SNP diversity were observed among these materials (Supplemental Table S4). This SNP assay was developed based on a diverse discovery panel that included 15 domesticated cowpea accessions from different origins (Muchero et al., 2009) and therefore is expected not to bias gene pool assignment of the landraces in this study although it might provide greater sensitivity to detect variation within domesticated cowpea than the species as a whole.Population structure analyses delineated the larger African landrace germplasm into two major gene pools. The two gene pools were distributed in two distinct geographical zones separated by the dense and vast rainforests of the Congo River basin (Fig. 3). This region is too wet and not suited to cultivation of cowpea and represents a significant barrier to movement of germplasm. In our study, wild ancestral cowpea of the subspecies dekindtiana from West and East Africa also formed two distinct groups and these groups of wild cowpea were clustered relatively closer to the cultivated group from the same geographic region (Fig. 4). Therefore, the broad pattern is suggestive of divergent domestication processes from West and East African dekindtiana, respectively, which may be analogous to common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) where the genetic architecture of the species supports the existence of two distinct domesticated gene pools, Meso-American and Andean, each derived from different wild beans (Chacón S et al., 2005;Gepts, 1998). However, because gene flow can occur between cultivated and wild cowpea (Rawal, 1975), introgression with local wild cowpea would tend to result in a similar pattern of relatedness, with the local cultivated types becoming relatively closer to local wild forms regardless of their geographical origin.Given the relatively wider genetic diversity observed among landraces in eastern Africa (Table 1), another plausible hypothesis is that a single early domestication might have occurred in this region followed by movement via human migration to western Africa, bringing cowpea into an area of narrower genetic diversity where gene flow from wild cowpea and directional selection could have led to the formation of a distinct gene pool in the West. There is evidence of only very recent admixture in western African landraces as revealed by structure analyses. Admixed individuals inherit large genome regions from an external population and thus are difficult to separate by structure using tightly linked markers (Pritchard et al., 2000). By applying a SNP set that excluded tightly linked markers we observed a clearer separation of subgroups in the western Africa collection (Supplemental Fig. S2).The small genetic differentiation observed between the African and non-African collections indicated that the entire genetic diversity in the African germplasm might already have spread over cowpea-growing regions in the world as a whole although not completely within any single region. Dispersal probably occurred through different routes as revealed by typical patterns of genetic relatedness between world cowpea collections relative to the two primary gene pools in Africa. Although only nine accessions from North America were included in this study, the majority (6 accessions) were assigned to gene pool 2, implying that much of domesticated cowpea in North America did not move directly from West Africa, in contrast to the popular view that cowpea was introduced directly from this region during the slave-trading period (Whit, 2007). Among 66 Asian landraces, about 50% and 20% of them were assigned to gene pool 1 and gene pool 2, respectively, suggesting that representatives from both gene pools were taken to Asia and have existed there for a long time. It is tempting to speculate that cowpea from West Africa was moved to India and other Asian countries along with sorghum and pearl millet from the same region at the time when these crops are presumed to have been introduced to the Asian subcontinent (Faris, 1965;Steele, 1976) following their domestication in Africa. A logical assumption is that when cowpea moved farther east into Asia and encountered more humid conditions poorly suited to dry grain production, human selection for use of the immature pods gave rise to a unique form of vegetable cowpea called \"long bean\" or \"asparagus bean\" [Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (L.) Verdc.], which is not found in African domesticated forms. Long bean cowpea has extremely long (50-90 cm) pods that are used as a \"snap bean\" when young and tender and have a vigorous climbing growth habit quite unlike other domesticated forms of cowpea that are either prostrate vines or bush types that do not climb readily. Indeed, in a recent study involving 95 asparagus bean accessions collected across China, Xu et al. (2012) also reported two distinct subgroups existing in the collection, which may align with the two major African gene pools of cowpea reported in this study.The description of patterns of genetic relatedness and clustering of relatively similar individuals into groups of gene pools reported here provides important insights that can improve the efficiency of germplasm preservation and breeding efforts for cowpea. The information will enable rational planning by gene banks to help reduce duplicates (as shown in Supplemental Tables S2   and S3) and to ensure an adequate and balanced representation of the major cowpea gene pools. For breeding programs, members within a gene pool or a race within a gene pool may exhibit common adaptive complexes of physiological traits coupled with a relatively restricted range of morphological and underlying genetic variation. Therefore, crosses within gene pools or races are expected to produce a high frequency of relatively similar-looking progeny while crosses between members of different gene pools or races are expected to produce more variable progeny, perhaps with a relatively lower average performance in early generations. Breeding strategies involving one or more backcross steps may be needed to increase the frequency of useful progeny in such cases (Ehlers and Foster, 1993).Breeding programs generally work within restricted pools of genetic variation. If specific attempts are not made to introgress new germplasm into the programs, genetic variation is reduced over time thereby limiting short or longer term genetic gain. From our study, the delineation of the broader germplasm of cowpea landraces into gene pools could help guide introgression efforts to expand the genetic diversity within breeding materials and may lead ultimately to development of more efficient strategies and greater genetic gain within future breeding programs. The SNP genotypic database developed from this study (Supplemental Table S2) also can be useful directly for this purpose by allowing users to conduct genomewide association studies and to generate a customized list of polymorphic SNP markers for a biparental breeding population for application in marker-assisted selection.","tokenCount":"3686"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"45704e0b698b7658322c93240d1f065f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://apps.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/Publications/PDFS/RP21028.pdf","id":"-827810522"},"keywords":["Charcoal value chain","sustainable charcoal","gender in the charcoal value chain","Kenya","energy source","charcoal ban"],"sieverID":"5ac3627e-0b30-494b-b29f-1c0499b9da03","pagecount":"95","content":"We are also grateful for the support received from the CGIAR Programs on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), and Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). The authors would also like to express their gratitude to the stakeholders that contributed to the data collection for this study and the reviewers that contributed their valuable comments to earlier versions of the paper. The content of this paper is the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.viii Geoffrey Ndegwa is a consultant who specializes in renewable energy, environment and natural resource management. Currently, he works with the Norwegian Capacity (NORCAP) as an Energy for Food Security expert to support the World Food Program (WFP), Southern Africa region, on energy access initiatives for sustainable food systems. He has over 10 years of experience working/consulting, teaching and conducting research in the fields of renewable energy, forestry, environment, climate change and natural resource management. He holds a PhD in Geography, focusing on Environment and Natural Resource Management from the University of Passau in Germany.xlabour or at a cost of less than KES 100 2 . All producers produced their charcoal in traditional, inefficient earth kilns.In addition, less than 10% of the producers were members of Charcoal Producers' Associations (CPAs). Most charcoal was sold to retailers and local brokers. Thus, in spite of the ban on charcoal trade outside the county that was in place at the time of the study, the product was being transported from production sites in rural areas to markets in urban centres. The Kitui-Nairobi transport route was the most lucrative for traders, owing to low expenses and the higher price of charcoal. Traders on the Busia-Nairobi route had lower returns due to the higher cost of charcoal sourced from Uganda. Wholesalers and retailers indicated that as much as 85% and 15% of the charcoal sold in Nairobi and Mombasa, respectively, was said to be from Uganda, DRC and/or South Sudan.Generally, all value chain actors had competitive gross profit margins per bag of close to 20%, with over 45% for transporters. Retailers realized even higher gross margins when they sold charcoal in tins than in bags. Women accounted for 43% of the surveyed charcoal producers, though their participation varied along the whole value chain. Surprisingly, men also dominated charcoal retail (86.1%) which could have been a result of the ban and logging moratorium; this presented additional challenges for women.Charcoal was a primary energy source for more than half of the respondent consumers with proportions of 57% in Nairobi and 67% in Mombasa. LPG was the next most used 2 KES 100 = 1 USD The charcoal sub-sector is one of the most important sources of energy in Kenya, especially in urban areas. The sub-sector has been reported to be worth billions of dollars in market value. Between 40-75% of the charcoal is produced in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) using inefficient processing technologies and unsustainable tree harvesting practices. Given the critical role the sub-sector plays in energy provision and economic development, this study sought to assess the charcoal value chain to understand: i) actors and their motivation for engagement; ii) production technologies and processes; iii) the economics of product flow among different actors at different stages of the value chain; and iv) factors influencing performance in the value chain.Questionnaire surveys were conducted with 447 respondents in September to November 2018. Tree and charcoal production data was collected from systematically-sampled landowners and charcoal producers in Kitui, Kwale and Baringo counties. These areas were purposively selected as they were either project sites and/or charcoal hotspots. Data on transportation and trade was collected from transporters, traders (wholesalers, retailers, brokers) and consumers in Nairobi and Mombasa, the two largest urban markets for charcoal in the country.The study findings indicated that over 90% of charcoal producers sourced trees from their own farms. This means that they did not need to pay for the wood, thus, the value of wood is rarely captured in the final farmgate price of charcoal. Most charcoal producers incurred minimal production costs; utilizing trees from family land prepared using family xi primary fuel in both cities as reported by 43% and 33% of the respondents in Nairobi and Mombasa, respectively. More than 60% of charcoal consumers bought the product in small quantities using tins, buckets and small bags, which reflects the low purchasing power of majority of the customers. Charcoal prices in both cities have been steadily increasing with the highest increase recorded from March/ April 2018, the period when the national ban began. We conclude therefore that: i) the charcoal value chain in Kenya is very resilient and adaptive, as there is an insatiable demand for cooking and heating energy sources in both urban and peri-urban areas; ii) income generation and employment is the main driver and motivation for value chain actors to engage in the charcoal business; iii) processes and technologies used are inefficient, leading to unnecessary tree cutting, and finally; iv) charcoal production and trade is a competitive business for all actors in the value chain. Thus, in the short- and mediumterm there is need to invest in making woodfuel value chains green, sustainable and competitive, as transition to cleaner cooking is still a long way off in Kenya and Sub-SaharanAbout 40-75% of the charcoal consumed in Kenya is produced in natural woodlands of the arid and semi-arid lands (KFS, 2017;Iiyama et al, 2014;Burrow and Mogaka, 2007) and especially in the Eastern region (Tharaka Nithi, Kitui, Makueni and Machakos counties), Rift Valley region (Narok, Kajiado, Baringo, Laikipia, Turkana), Coastal region (Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta and Tana River) and North Eastern region (Marsabit and Garissa) (GOK, 2018;MENR, 2015;Burrow and Mogaka, 2007;GOK, 1997). Nairobi is the largest charcoal market in the country, accounting for 10% of all charcoal consumed (Njenga et al, 2013). The supply network of the capital city spreads across the Rift Valley, Eastern and North Eastern (Garissa) regions (Onekon and Kipchirchir, 2016;MENR, 2015). According to Onekon and Kipchirchir (2016), 35% of the charcoal sold in Nairobi comes from Narok, while 20% each comes from Kajiado and Ukambani regions.The aim of the study was to contribute to the development of sustainable charcoal value chains in Kenya by mapping out and analysing their characteristics in selected sites including actors, technologies, profits, costs, benefits and challenges.The charcoal sub-sector in Kenya is one of the most important sources of employment, with reports showing that by the year 2000, the subsector employed about 0.5 million people as producers, traders and transporters (Cheboiwo, 2016;Iiyama et al, 2014;Mugo and Gathui, 2010). These beneficiaries further supported over 2 million people as dependents. In the same year, the sub-sector was reported to have a market value of KES 32 billion (USD 427 million), thus highlighting the important role it plays in the Kenyan economy (Mutimba and Barasa, 2005). By 2013, it was estimated that the number of people employed by the sub-sector was about 0.64 million, while the market value had increased to KES 135 billion (USD 1.6 billion), signifying a growth of 25% in jobs and 150-321% growth in the market value within a period of 13 years (MENR, 2013).By 2000, it was estimated that about 1.6 million tonnes of charcoal was being consumed in the country annually (Cheboiwo, 2016;Mugo and Gathui, 2010). In 2013, the then Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources reported that the figure had grown to 2.5 million tonnes (MENR, 2013). Based on earth mound kilns with 10% efficiency, 25 million tonnes of wood would have been required to meet the demand (IEA, 2015;Mugo and Gathui, 2010).The value chain approach improves the understanding of the direction of economic goods and services flow among different actors at different stages of engagement from production, through distribution/ transportation, trading to consumption (Kaplinsky and Morris, 2002). According to Sepp (No date), the charcoal value chain has six generic stages and categories of actors as shown in Figure 1. Not all these generic elements are found in all value chains. Indeed, MENR (2013) reported that the shorter the value chain, the higher the likelihood of the key actors getting more benefits. Introduction of agents into the value chain leads to sharing of the benefits even further among the actors, thus making the products more expensive for the final consumer (Ndegwa et al, 2011;Ndegwa, 2010). When the key elements and categories of actors have been mapped out in the value chain framework, quantifiable data on income and profit, prices and quantities of the goods handled by the different actors is then added (Ndegwa et al, 2020). Using this information, an economic analysis is conducted to ascertain the distribution of income and profit within and among the groups along the value chain. In the end, the analysis should help to: 1. Better understand the overall economic significance of charcoal; 2. Identify and gauge trends of development, of supply, demand, induced degradation, flow, financial benefits, etc. and, 3. Identify intervention priorities and opportunities for improvement.Tree and charcoal production data was collected from three counties, namely, Kitui, Kwale and Baringo (Figure 2), which are known to supply charcoal to major urban centres in the Coastal, Eastern, Nairobi and Rift Valley regions. Baringo County was selected because it is one of the project study sites.The specific sub-locations were selected randomly from a list of all the sub-locations in each county where production was highly prevalent as guided by the key informants. The final list of selected sub-locations is presented in Table 1.Source: Sepp, no date. Tree/landowners and charcoal producers:A list of all the households in each of the target sub-locations was compiled with the assistance of local administrators and village elders. From each sub-location, the study targeted a sample of 33 households which were selected through systematic random sampling. Since the study was conducted during the logging moratorium, only resident charcoal producers could participate. Of the 345 respondents, 307 were landowners and 252 were both landowners and charcoal producers as shown in Table 2. Traders: Data was collected from tree/ landowners and charcoal producers who were also involved in charcoal trade, as well as from traders based in Nairobi and Mombasa. Both sites were stratified based on the living standards of most residents in each sub-county as presented in Tables 3 and 4. The enumerators visited the charcoal vending sites in each of the sampled wards and interviewed the traders. A total of 92 traders, exclusive of transporters, were interviewed: 66 from Nairobi and 26 from Mombasa (Table 5).Transporters were difficult to identify in the course of the study since transportation was largely done in secret due to the national ban on charcoal. As such, snowballing was used to identify them. Charcoal producers and traders were requested to assist in contacting the transporters after which they were requested to participate in the study. A total of 10 transporters were interviewed: five based in Mombasa/Kwale and five in Nairobi (Table 5).Consumers were interviewed at the charcoal vending sites in Mombasa and Nairobi (as they came to buy charcoal) during the traders' survey using a semi-structured questionnaire. A total of 14 consumers were interviewed in Nairobi and 12 in Mombasa.Data was collected between September and November 2018 for a 12-month recall.The survey used a mixed methods research design which integrates both qualitative and quantitative research tools. A structured questionnaire (Appendix 1) was used to collect data from the value chain actors (tree/landowners, producers, traders and transporters) while a short semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from consumers (Appendix 2). The study also used a spring balance to measure the weight of the charcoal bags at production and vending sites. Qualitative methods used in the survey include: key informant interviews (KIIs) which were conducted using an open interview schedule, and; direct observation (especially on charcoal production and trade processes) recorded either as field notes or photographs. Some of the key informants interviewed included forest officers, local administrators, leadership of the producers' and traders' associations and, county and national government officials.The main limitation of the study is that it was undertaken six months into the national Logging Moratorium and Kitui Charcoal Ban of 2018. This means that some of the responses were confounded and/or influenced by these circumstances as value A new kiln by the roadside in Kitui. Photo by Geoffrey NdegwaCrop production was reported as the main source of household income by 96.8% of all households interviewed. This was followed by charcoal production and livestock keeping which were reported by 93.7% and 81.1% of households, respectively. Notably, 12.6% mentioned business entities such as kiosks, boda-boda and fruit vending as their main sources of income. Crop production was the most important income source, contributing to 46.1% of the households' income. This was followed by charcoal production (26.4%) (Figure 3).Landholding in Baringo study sites ranged from 0.5 to 70 acres with most households having approximately three 2 acres. On average, respondents in the county have been producing charcoal from their own land for the last 5.2 years. However, some households had engaged in charcoal production for almost 20 years. In addition, about 54.5%, and 23.7% of the land was under crops and trees, respectively. Majority of trees harvested for charcoal were mainly on farmlands as reported by 65.3% of households.Majority of the landowners (65.3%) didn't undertake any management practices to support tree regeneration after harvesting. One of the major reasons given was that Prosopis juliflora, which is the main tree species for charcoal production, is a selfpropagated invasive species. Nevertheless, 34.7% reported undertaking different forms of management practices to support regeneration of indigenous trees such as watering to enhance growth, fencing the area to protect seedlings and saplings from animal destruction, and pruning to ensure faster growth.Majority (96.8%) of landowners interviewed had at least one member of the household engaged in charcoal production. They also sold trees or gave to other producers (migrant producers) for a share of charcoal as reported by 35.5% and 8.4%, respectively. Trees were sold for KES 500 to KES 1500 depending on the size, species and status of the producer (local or migrant). Landowners who opted to barter their trees for a share of charcoal received about 20% to 30% of the quantity produced.The study also suggested that, on average, 51.6 bags of charcoal were produced by each individual between October 2017 and September 2018, with minimum and maximum production amounting to eight and 210 bags per year, respectively. There was also a general perception that the preferred tree species for charcoal production were mostly scarce 3 as reported by 71.6% of the respondents. However, a section of respondents (28.4%) felt that the preferred tree species were still in abundance.3 It was explained to the respondents that: Abundant meant there are plenty of trees of the preferred species and size; Scarce meant that there are only a few suitable trees of the preferred species and size left, while; Completely depleted meant there are hardly any trees of the preferred species and size. Majority of the respondents (94.7%) reported that they were aware of the rules and regulations governing tree harvesting for charcoal production. These regulations were aimed at controlling harvesting, production and movement. Eighty percent (80%) of the respondents were also aware of regulations that required acquisition of a permit to harvest trees, produce and even transport charcoal. Another 7.8% were also aware of regulations that prohibit harvesting of trees along riverbanks, while 5.6% were aware of regulations prohibiting clear-felling of trees.Other regulations mentioned by respondents include prohibition of harvesting of immature trees and the requirement to utilize only dead wood and stumps for woodfuel. Moreover, majority of the respondents reported that enforcement of these regulations was the responsibility of the chiefs (73.7%) and KFS officers (34.7%) (Figure 4).Among the landowners interviewed, only 4% reported that they had received some support on tree growing activities. This would include provision of tree seedlings, sensitization on the need to plant trees after felling and the importance of using dead/ windfall wood in charcoal production, training/ information on agroforestry, intercropping and other environmental conservation practices, marketing, and training on pruning techniques.Most people started producing charcoal because they perceived that it was very profitable (58.5%) or was an easy business to get into due to the low level of skills required (55.3%). Moreover, 25% joined the charcoal business because of the low capital requirement compared to other activities. Although large tracts of land in the study sites were colonized by Prosopis juliflora, only 4.3% of the respondents started producing charcoal to control its spread. In 45.7% of these households, it was the husband who was responsible for making the charcoal, whilst wives were responsible in only 6.5% of the households (Figure 5).Most producers (96.8%) in Baringo sourced trees for charcoal from their own farms, harvesting mostly Prosopis juliflora (84%) and Acacia lahai (67%) (Figure 6). Tree preference was mainly based on availability of species (72%) and customer preference (63%). Other influencing factors were that it produced the best charcoal and was easy to work with. However, 77% of producers indicated that the preferred trees were scarce, while others indicated they were abundant (23%). Charcoal production sites were generally located within a mean distance of 1.5 km from a road. They were located about 3 km from a tarmacked road and 2.1 km from a charcoal collection centre where bags of charcoal were being aggregated for the transporters. There were 17 collection centres in the study sites, 10 of them located in Salabani sub-location. These centres were as far as 42 km and 22.9 km from Marigat town, which is the biggest urban centre in the area (Table 6).The survey results indicated that none of the respondents belonged to any producers' association, even though this is a legal requirement. About 70% of the respondents stated that they had not joined any association because they were not aware of any that they could join, while 28% stated that they were not interested. The rest of the respondents gave diverse reasons for not joining CPAs such as lack of awareness of benefits, lack of capacity/facilitation to form an association, and misinformation by brokers who prefer to deal with individual producers who they can easily exploit. All the respondents reported that they used traditional earth mound kilns to produce charcoal. About 90% of them indicated that they were pre-drying their wood before carbonization to improve the overall yield. On average, pre-drying of wood took 5.3 days and a production run, from kiln establishment to offloading was four days. The kiln yield was about six bags per run (Table 7). About 64% of the producers indicated that they produced charcoal between the months of January and March, while 20% produced in the other months. January-March is the agriculture offseason. The highest level of production of about 15 bags per producer was reported between October 2017 and March 2018 which was before the charcoal ban took effect in the country. The production then dropped slightly to about 11 bags per producer from March 2018, which may have been  caused by the national logging moratorium and charcoal ban. Based on actual field measurements, the average weight of a bag of charcoal in Baringo was estimated to be 38 kg. Using Equation 1 below and the parameters in Figure 7, the weighted annual production (W p ) per producer in Baringo was estimated at 49 bags.Charcoal production was undertaken during periods when there were no farming activities (36%), during seasons when the community was struggling to cope with drought (28%) and when there were no alternative sources of income (19%) (Figure 8). Low production in other months was due to commitment of labour in farming activities (81%); unfavourable weather conditions, especially rain that leads to destruction of kilns and makes access roads impassable (12%), as well as low charcoal demand leading to poor prices (9%).Over 95% of the charcoal produced in Baringo was sold to local brokers located in various centres in Kiserian, Mbechot and Salabani sublocations. According to some brokers, charcoal was aggregated at collection points and sold to transporters who transferred it to various destinations including Nakuru, Nairobi and even Where: W p is Weighted annual production per producer Y is the percentage of active producers in quarter n X is the number of bags produced in quarter n 4 is the number of quartersThe main challenges highlighted in the county included: poor road infrastructure (75%), price fluctuations (42%), and extreme weather conditions, especially floods which damage charcoal kilns and make roads impassable (31%) (Figure 10). All the respondents also reported that they had never received any support from either the government or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the course of their charcoal production activities. The top three suggestions by producers to improve the charcoal production business in Baringo were; i) improving access to training and extension services on improved charcoal production technologies and skills (48.9%), ii) improving the road infrastructure to ease transportation (46.8%) and iii) putting in place measures that will lead to improved and stable market prices (38.3%).As many as 63% of landowners' households in Kitui County were maleheaded. The mean age for the household head was 44 years, while mean household size was seven members.Mombasa. The highest producer prices for charcoal as reported over the four quarters in focus was between KES 440 and KES 447 per bag (Figure 9). Likewise, there was a was a negligible difference between the highest and the lowest price paid to the charcoal producers between the four quarters.The price offered by brokers and transporters, and demand and supply for charcoal were key factors that influenced the selling price as mentioned by 50% of the producers. Distance to the market was also reported as another factor that had an impact on the selling price, with producers closer to urban centres attracting higher prices. Majority of producers (81%) reported that they sold charcoal at or near the production site. This was because most of the buyers were local brokers with good knowledge on the location of most sites. However, about 53% of producers reported that they transported their charcoal to common collection centres where it was sold to customers. In addition, 33% reported displaying charcoal by the roadside, especially along roads passing through Mosuro, Ipunyaki, Sokotei as well as those leading to Marigat town.Majority of the traders transported charcoal either on foot (68%) or on motorbikes (19%) as they sold their charcoal at or around the production site. However, 14% reported that they transported the charcoal to clients using a truck or pick-up, signifying the long distance and/or the large quantity required. Of the people who transported the product to clients, 67% did not own the means, thus relied on hiring, while 33% owned the means of transport used. In addition, 11% and 3% of landowners had attained secondary and post-secondary education respectively, whilst 49% and 12% had attained upper primary (Class 5-8) and lower primary (Class 1-4), respectively. However, almost a quarter (25%) had never attended any formal education system. The main source of household income was said to be crop production (89.9%), livestock rearing (70.5%) and charcoal production (40.9%). Moreover, crop production was the main income source for most landowners (39.3%), followed by livestock rearing (17%), and charcoal production (14.4%), as shown in Figure 11.The median landholding in Kitui was about 20 acres. Approximately half (51%) of the land was reported to be under crops and 35% under trees. Most of the trees harvested for charcoal production often came from the land under trees (58%), grazing land (23.5%) and cropland (17%) (Table 8). Majority of landowners (70%) did not engage in any management practice that supports tree regeneration after harvesting. Some of the reasons given were that: they were too old to engage in tree planting and management; they lacked tree planting and management skills; and, the indigenous trees regenerated naturally. However, about a third (30%) were undertaking some management practices to support regeneration, including fencing the harvested area to prevent destruction of saplings by livestock. Landowners were selling their trees to other charcoal producers at costs ranging from KES 100 to KES 3000. The cost of trees in the area was dependent on size, species and type of producer (local or migrant). Landowners also traded trees for a share of charcoal charged at the rate of 30-50% of the total quantity of charcoal produced. Most households interviewed (90%) had at least one member who engaged in charcoal production. In most cases it was the husband (38%), wife (26%) or son (17%) (Figure 12). Only in 1% of households was a daughter involved. Study results further indicated that producers in Kitui produced an average of 43.9 bags of charcoal between October 2017 and September 2018. About 64% of producers felt that their preferred tree species were scarce, with only 25% indicating they were still in abundance. Furthermore, 11% of the respondents reported that their preferred tree species had been completely depleted.Majority of the respondents (90%) reported that they were aware of the regulations governing tree harvesting for charcoal in the study sites. These regulations included the ban on charcoal production (69%), seeking permits from chiefs to harvest mature trees (19%) and restricted use of power saws for mass harvesting of trees (13%). Among the landowners interviewed, only 3% reported receiving support on tree growing activities. The support included training on good tree management practices (planting, caring and pruning) and efficient charcoal production technologies.Crop production was the main income source for many (88%), followed by livestock rearing (70%), and charcoal production (61%). In fact, crop production accounted for 41% of the charcoal producers' household income, followed by charcoal and livestock production at 21% and 17%, respectively. Casual labour and running small businesses such as fruit vending, sale of handicrafts, retail shops, hotels and small kiosks were also significant contributors (Figure 13). Several of the respondents indicated that high profit margins (60%) and lack of alternative income sources (59%) were the main factors pushing people to the charcoal production business (Table 9). However, about 12% joined the charcoal trade as it was a common family business. Majority of the charcoal producers in Kitui (92%) reported that they sourced trees from their own farms. In addition, 13% of respondents sourced trees from neighbouring farms either for free, at a fee or in exchange for charcoal with the landowner at the rate of 20% of charcoal produced. Only 3% said they sourced trees from private forests/ranches. For those who bought trees, a tree with wood that could produce about 10 bags of charcoal was sold for between KES 500 and KES 1000. The most preferred tree species for making charcoal were Acacia tortilis and Terminalia prunioides as indicated by 64% and 53% of producers, respectively. Other trees species used included Acacia gerradii, Delonix elata and Acacia elatior (Table 10).Tree preference was said to be influenced by quality of charcoal produced (74%), customer preference (52%) and availability (48%) (Figure 14). However, 64% of the respondents indicated that their preferred tree species were already scarce, while 19% reported that their preferred tree species had been depleted. All the respondents used traditional earth mound kilns. A majority (83%) were not pre-drying wood before carbonizing. On average, wood pre-drying took 6.7 days and a production run, 8.7 days. A charcoal kiln was said to yield about 12 bags of charcoal (Table 11). Charcoal production sites were located about 3 km from an all-weather road and 77 km from a tarmacked road. The average distance between production sites and collection centres was just over a kilometre (Table 12).Collection centres were located in Ndetani, Katumbi, Nguuni and Malawa sub-locations, which were about 4 km to 92 km from the nearest major towns such as Kitui, Mwingi, Thika and Nairobi.About 88% of the respondents indicated that they often produced charcoal between the months of July and September (Figure 15). The highest rate of charcoal production in the 12 months preceding the survey was between October and December 2017 at 31 bags per producer per month. Very low volumes of production were reported from January 2018. This was attributed to the ban on charcoal by both the County of Kitui and national government which was stringently enforced.Based on actual field measurements, the average weight of a bag of charcoal in Kitui was 46 kg. The weighted production per producer calculated using Equation 1 was 33 bags per annum.Producers engaged in charcoal production for various reasons including: i) when there was no farming (42%) especially between January  and March, and July and September; ii) as a coping mechanism during drought (37%); and, iii) as an income-generating activity (33%) (Figure 16). Conversely, there were some months with low production mainly due to: i) commitment of labour to farming activities, especially between the months of April and May (88%), or ii) unfavorable weather conditions especially during rainy days leading to destruction of kilns besides making access roads impassable.Other reasons for reduced production were adequate household food resources and lack of casual labourers to support production activities.Majority of the producers (66%) in Kitui sold their charcoal to wholesalers while 24% sold to transporters. Only 5% and 3% sold their products directly to retailers and local brokers respectively, while a few (2%) sold to households within their neighbourhood.Charcoal brokers acted as a conduit for transporters or wholesalers. The average producer price was relatively stable at around KES 464, except in the months of January to March 2018 when it stood at KES 479 (Figure 17). However, the lowest price paid to charcoal producers crossed the KES 400 mark in 2018 from KES 394 in the months of October to December 2017. The prices were said to be largely influenced by charcoal demand and supply dynamics (75%), and seasons (21%) with higher and lower prices reported during the wet and dry seasons, respectively. Other factors that affected producer prices were informal taxes (bribes), government ban and lack of transportation, a burden that is mostly passed on to consumers. Thus, the ban created scarcity and increased avenues for informal taxation, resulting in price increases.About 74% of producers sold their charcoal to customers both within and around the production sites. Moreover, 27% displayed some of their products along the roadsides to attract customers who were then led to where charcoal was stocked. Some (less than 5%) transported their charcoal to common collection points, delivered to customers or supplied local markets. The main mode of transportation used by producers was by foot (73%), while others used motorcycles (12%), handcarts or donkey carts (9%). Many transported the charcoal on foot because majority of their customers, charcoal collection points or markets were close to the production sites. For those who used other means of transport, only 33% owned the means of transport, while the rest had to hire.The survey indicated that only 10% of producers were members of charcoal associations. Most respondents indicated that there were no associations to join (82%) whilst others, (around 5%), reported lack of interest, feared demands and/or showed apathy due to poor performance of these groups. However, several associations were identified in the study sites. Joining fees were said to range from KES 100 to KES 500 (Table 13). Sometimes there were additional levies paid for every bag of charcoal produced through the association.Those who were members of associations indicated that they had not yet begun to produce charcoal through their groups.The two main challenges faced by charcoal producers in Kitui include: i) lack of proper equipment/tools (65%) especially power saws; and ii) price fluctuations (22%) (Figure 18). In addition, producers indicated that they were yet to receive any support from either the government or NGOs on charcoal production (97%). Only 3% of the producers interviewed noted that they had received some form of support from KFS - tree seedlings, plus training on tree harvesting and charcoal production using improved kilns.Producers identified some key interventions to improve the industry including: i) increase charcoal prices (42%); ii) formation of CPAs (32%); iii) provision of support/extension services (23%) such as training on improved technologies, and promoting access to loans and tree seedlings (Figure 19). About 87% of households in the survey were male-headed. The average age of the household head was 44 years, while household size stood at nine members. Of those interviewed, 29% and 26% of respondents had attained upper and lower primary education, respectively, whilst less than 6% had attained secondary and post-secondary education. A number of respondents (36%) had never been through any kind of formal education.Crop production, charcoal production and livestock rearing were the main sources of income for 97%, 74% and 48% of respondents, respectively. Other sources of income included small businesses (10%) and formal employment. Crop production contributed the largest share to total household income, followed by charcoal production and livestock rearing (Figure 20).Results from the study showed that the mean landholding in Kwale was 17.1 acres per family with a minimum and maximum of two and 200 acres, respectively. On average, households had undertaken charcoal production in the study area for 8.8 years, with the longest duration reported being 30 years. Most of the land in the study site was under crop production (61%), while 26% and The study indicated that 74% of landowners did not undertake any management practices to support tree regeneration. The main reasons cited include lack of relevant skills, harsh weather conditions that do not support tree planting, water scarcity and competition with other crops. However, 26% reported that they were undertaking various management practices such as manure application, planting tree seedlings and pruning.Most of the respondents (83%) reported that they were not aware of any regulations that governed cutting of trees for charcoal. However, 17% noted that they were aware of some regulations such as, \"cut one tree and plant five trees\"; \"cut one tree and plant 10 trees\"; ban on logging; and, the requirement to apply for licenses. Only 4% of respondents had received some form of support in tree growing either from the government or NGOs. Those who received support stated it was mostly in the form of tree seedlings.Almost all (97%) of charcoal producers were male. In these households, average age of the head was 45 years, and each family comprised about 10 members. About 36% and 34% of producers had attained lower primary (Class 1-4), and upper primary (Class 5-8) education, respectively. Approximately 7% had attained secondary education, whilst 24% had not undergone any form of formal education.Main sources of income for households were: charcoal production (100%), crop production (98%) and livestock rearing (64%). Other sources of income reported by respondents were small businesses such as kiosks. Charcoal production, crop production and livestock rearing accounted for 48%, 39% and 12% of the total household income, respectively (Figure 21). About 94% of the households had at least one member who was engaged in charcoal production. In these households, husbands (54%) and sons (28%) were the ones mainly responsible for charcoal production (Figure 22). Only in rare instances did households sell trees to locals and migrant producers. They produced an average of 54 bags per month between October 2017 and September 2018.Majority of the charcoal producers (97%) were involved in the business because it was the only available income-generating activity in the area. In addition, 51% indicated that charcoal is a common trade practised by the family, while 31% reported that it required little or no capital to start. Producers in Kwale indicated that they sourced trees for charcoal mostly from their own farms (68%) and government forests (34%). The most prefered tree species include Manilkara mochiso (64%), Terminalia prunioides (56%) and Acacia drepanolobium (53%). Others were Diospyros cornii, Mlozi, Grewia bicolor, Mchirangombe, Acacia senegal and Thespesia danis (Table 14).Majority of the respondents (71%) reported that their preferred tree species had become scarce over the years with only a few left on farms. In addition, 22% reported that suitable tree species for charcoal had been depleted. Preference for species was mainly based on the quality (calorific value and burning characteristics) of charcoal produced (95%), preference by customers (61%) and market price (27%) (Figure 23). Factors such as availability of trees and ease of working with trees had little influence on the choices made by producers. All the respondents used traditional earth mound kilns. In addition, most (96.6%) were not pre-drying their wood before carbonization. Those who were pre-drying wood, reported that the exercise usually took 6-14 days. Furthermore, the overall charcoal production process from establishment of kiln to final offloading took about seven days, with an average kiln producing approximately 15 bags of charcoal.The proportion of producers involved in the trade rose steadily from October-December 2017 to April-June 2018, and declined in the third quarter - July-September 2018 (Figure 24). The rise in the number of producers was mainly influenced by: i) high prices of charcoal (54%); ii) it was a more reliable alternative income-generating activity than farming (31%); and, iii) coping strategy during seasons of drought (15%). Equally, some individuals did not produce any charcoal when prices were too low (51%) and when there was high labour demand for farming (47%).The average distance of charcoal production sites was about 5 km from a motorable road and 59 km from a tarmacked road (Table 15). The distance between production sites and charcoal collection centres, the nearest markets and major towns were 20 km, 17.5 km and 63.6 km, respectively.Local brokers were the main buyers of charcoal as reported by 93% of respondents.A few (about 5%) of the transporters and wholesalers purchased from producers. Just like the production levels, charcoal prices rose steadily from the last quarter of 2017 (October-December) to the second quarter of 2018 (April-June), coinciding with the period when the national charcoal production ban took effect (Figure 25), and then declined slightly. The average producer prices for a bag of charcoal ranged from KES 382 to KES 445.  According to some respondents, key factors influencing the price of charcoal in Kwale included type of trees used to produce charcoal (48%) and the dynamics of demand/ supply (37%). Seasons, and availability of food in the locality also had some influence on the price. Almost all producers (98%) reported that they were selling charcoal at or close to production sites. A few others (2%) reported that they either displayed the product by the roadside or transported it to their customers' premises. Out of those who transported charcoal to markets, most (83%) used motorcycles. However, 11% transported their charcoal on foot, as they did not own any means of transportation, while a very small proportion (2%) cycled or used trucks/ pick-ups.The main challenges faced by charcoal producers in Kwale were price fluctuations (73%); exploitation by middlemen (24%); and, lack of proper working tools and equipment (19%). Hunger and diseases, insecurity and the national charcoal ban were also mentioned as minor challenges (Figure 26). Despite all this, none of the respondents had received any support from either a governmental or non-governmental institution. Key suggestions to address the challenges were: i) enhancing access to and provision of training and support services (53%); and, ii) improving the entire market system and charcoal prices (49%). In addition, none of the producers interviewed were members of charcoal-related associations. The reason given was that there was no association to join (100%), and some lacked interest to join/form an association (31%). A total of five transporters based in Nairobi, all male, were interviewed during the study. Two of them were involved in charcoal transport from Baringo to Nairobi, two from Busia (Uganda/South Sudan) to Nairobi and one from Kitui to Nairobi. Results in Table 16 indicate that they were making between two and five trips per month and about one trip per week. Transporters from Kitui and Busia, shipped the highest volume of charcoal per trip (160-170 bags) while those from Baringo transported between 90-110 bags using a smaller truck. One transporter from Busia and another from Baringo used long-distance cargo trucks on their way to Mombasa to transport charcoal at a flat fee of KES 200 and KES 300 per bag transported, respectively. The study further revealed that one of the transporters on the Busia-Nairobi and another on the Baringo-Nairobi route owned the means of transport, while a third one mostly used hired transport. The main clients for all transporters were wholesalers and retailers, although they sometimes sold the product directly to institutions.The Baringo-Nairobi route transporters had their own charcoal yards in the city where hundreds of bags of charcoal were offloaded before selling them at a wholesale price. However, the Busia-Nairobi and Kitui-Nairobi transporters didn't have yards and preferred selling the product from the trucks. They do this by giving the truck to brokers who drive around the city selling the charcoal to wholesalers or retailers at a mark-up of 20-50% on the price demanded by the transporters. This was reported as one of the factors that had resulted in the overall high cost of charcoal in the city.The respondent transporters from Busia were buying charcoal from other transporters who sourced the product from either Uganda or South Sudan. A bag of charcoal was bought at a cost of KES 900 and the transporter had to pay custom duty at the rate of KES 94 per bag to cross the border. A transporter would lodge in Busia for about two to three days as they bought the charcoal and organized for transport. The cost of lodging ranged from KES 4000 to KES 7000 depending on duration of stay and the facility providing accommodation. Other costs associated with procurement of charcoal were loading and offloading fees, cess and market fees as shown in Table 17. The transporters then offload the charcoal onto their vending sites from where they would sell to either wholesalers, retailers or businesses.  25) 7000 ( 41) 1500 ( 14) 700 ( 8) 1200 ( 7)Cess per trip (KES) 1000 ( 6) 1000 ( 6 Before importing charcoal from Uganda, a transporter is expected to apply for a \"Letter of no objection to import charcoal from Uganda\", issued by the KFS and verified by the County Ecosystems Conservator, Busia County. When in possession of this letter, the transporter should be able to transport charcoal without any problems at roadblocks. However, there were reports of demands for bribes from the border crossing, at police roadblocks and from some KFS officials both in Busia and at the destination county, which was estimated to be as high as KES 20,000 per trip.Transporters from Baringo were buying charcoal either from producers or CPAs.Each bag was bought at KES 450 and a fee of about KES 30 to KES 40 charged for loading onto the truck. Each charcoal consolidation trip often took two to three days and transporters spent KES 700-1500 on accommodation. Other costs include car fuel and servicing if one used personal means of transport. Transporters from Busia did not have a selling yard in Nairobi and therefore engaged the services of brokers. They handed over the entire consignment to brokers at an agreed price to sell around the city for a 20-50% mark-up (Table 17). For example, transporters reported that in 2018 they handed over the charcoal to brokers to sell at a price of KES 1500 per bag, and the brokers sold a bag at KES 1700 to KES 2300 which is a 13%-53% mark-up on the transporter price.The transporter from Kitui had not been transporting charcoal since early 2018 when the national ban took effect. However, based on previous activities, charcoal was bought directly from producers at a cost of KES 500 per bag. The transporter hired a truck at KES 45,000 for a trip that lasted about three to four days. During each trip, the transporter would move an average of 170 bags. In addition, they would need to pay for loading, accommodation, parking and market fees per day. As was the case with the Baringo-Nairobi transporters, the Kitui-Nairobi transporter often left the charcoal with brokers to sell at a price of KES 1650 per bag. The broker would in turn sell each bag at KES 1800 to KES 2300 (Table 17). All the traders interviewed engaged in retail; over half of them (55%) were also involved in wholesale trade. In addition, the survey results showed that 84% of the charcoal traders interviewed were male while the rest were female. The average age of those interviewed in Nairobi was 40.7 years. On average, the traders have been in the business for almost 10 years. The results further indicated that 48% and 27%, of traders interviewed had attended secondary and upper primary (Class 5-8), respectively. However, about 7% had never attended formal schools.According to the study results, 88% of traders interviewed in Nairobi reported charcoal trade as their main source of income with crop production also contributing marginally to household earnings. About 76% of them had joined the trade mainly because it was very profitable, while 48% noted that it was the only income-generating opportunity at their disposal (Table 18). Only 5% of the traders interviewed belonged to a charcoal-related association, with majority (81%) indicating lack of associations to join in their locality as the main reason. About 11% indicated that they were not interested in joining any association while 3% noted that they were unable to meet the demands for membership. Traders who were members of a charcoal association were all from Dagoretti Sub-County and belonged to three groups namely: Dagoretti Charcoal Traders' Association, Kawangware Digital Group, and Makaa Youth Group as presented in Table 19.When the respondents were asked to state the benefits of joining an association, 42% reported financial support, especially access to loans at low interest rates, while 29% noted that the associations had been advocating for the welfare of the traders. In contrast, 34% believed that there were no benefits in joining an association, while 31% said they were not aware of any benefits.All traders in Nairobi were buying their charcoal stock in recycled 90-kg bags (polypropylene sacks) each containing about 54 kg of charcoal (Table 20). On average wholesale/retail traders and retailers bought 96 bags of charcoal per month at KES 2101 and 22 bags per month at KES 2096, respectively.The main mode of charcoal delivery to the traders' premises (wholesalers) in Nairobi was largely by truck (97%), with only 3% of retailers reporting that they collected charcoal directly from the sellers' yards (wholesalers). The study indicated that most (86%) of the charcoal traded in Nairobi at the time originated from Uganda/South Sudan/DRC through the Busia border. This was attributed to the national charcoal ban that made it difficult to source the product locally. Other minor sources of charcoal reported include Tana River, Kitui, Garissa and Turkana counties (Figure 27). Most of the charcoal (96%) sold by retailers was packaged in tins, while 4% used buckets.The traders who engaged in both wholesale and retail reported that they sold 76% of their charcoal in tins, 21% in bags and 3% in buckets.As reported earlier, the median weight of a bag of charcoal was estimated at 54 kg. However, Mugo et al (2007) reported that between 10-15% of the content of a charcoal bag consists of charcoal dust. Therefore, using the average figure of 13%, the actual sellable content of a bag of charcoal was 47 kg. This was bought at an average price of KES 2100, which translates to KES 45 per kg (Table 21). Thus, a bag of charcoal was sold at KES 2314, which implies that a kilogram of charcoal costs about KES 49. Each tin of charcoal weighed 1.5 kg and was sold at KES 88, translating to KES 56 per kg. The results further demonstrated that when a trader sold charcoal in bags, their gross margin per bag was 9% compared to when they sold in buckets and tins in which case the gross margin rose to 24% and 31%, respectively. reported that the main challenges they faced were high charcoal prices (40%); poor quality of charcoal (24%) and low charcoal supply (18%), among others, including competition from alternative fuels, especially LPG, and the charcoal ban (Figure 28).The survey established that the average household size of charcoal consumers in the city ranged from three to 10 members. They further indicated that consumers who bought charcoal in tins prepared up to three meals per tin. When charcoal was used together with other forms of energy, a tin of charcoal could prepare up to six meals. Consumers who bought charcoal in bags prepared 42-66 meals. When supplemented with other forms of energy, an average of 81 meals could be prepared. The main clients for both wholesalers and retailers were the consumers (households and businesses). Wholesalers/retailers sold 51% of their charcoal to households, 47% to businesses and the rest to fellow traders, while retailers only sold their charcoal to households (53%) and businesses (47%). The most common expenses incurred by the wholesale/retail traders in Nairobi were: rent and security (KES 56 per bag); transport (KES 19 per bag) and informal payments/ bribes (KES 11 per bag) (Table 22). For retailers, the expenses incurred included: rentals amounting to KES 124 per bag; security costs of KES 27 per bag and business license fee.Based on these estimates, the total expenses, per bag, of charcoal sold by wholesalers and retailers amounted to KES 2243 and KES 2254, respectively. Charcoal traders in Nairobi About 57% and 43% of respondents preferred charcoal and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as their primary source of energy, respectively. In addition, another 43% considered charcoal and LPG as their secondary source of energy. Consumers in Nairobi preferred charcoal as their primary source because of its high calorific value (63%), was readily available and efficient to use (25%), among other reasons.Similarly, the study showed that 67% of the respondents preferred LPG as a primary source of energy due to its availability and efficiency. Other reasons given for preference of LPG use were that it is clean, safe and lasts long (Figure 29).Sixty-four percent (64%) of charcoal consumers in Nairobi bought the product in tins, whilst 36% bought it in bags. Comparatively, the price trend of charcoal using tins steadily rose from KES 66.7 to KES 92.2 over the 12-month period between October 2017 and October 2018. In contrast, the price trend using bags first decreased sharply, then increased at some point during the same period (Figure 30). For example, the cost of a bag of charcoal sharply declined in the month of April 2018 while that of a tin of charcoal increased during the same month. Factors that affected the prices included the ban on charcoal as indicated by 60% of consumers, and the politics around charcoal value chains (Figure 30).  The study established that up to 79% of respondents had no knowledge of tree species from which charcoal was produced; only 21% had some knowledge (they only mentioned Acacia spp). This was because the charcoal from Acacia spp is said to be of high quality in terms of burning for long periods compared to that from other sources. Consumers reported that they use weight (67%) and size (33%) to establish the quality of charcoal and tree species from which it was produced.Majority (86%) of the consumers in Nairobi had one main supplier. Key reasons for preferring charcoal from their main supplier were that they were guaranteed good quality charcoal (57%), their suppliers were friendly (57%), better customer service (43%), and the charcoal was always available (36%) (Figure 31). In Nairobi County, the survey revealed that one could easily encounter about 10-19 charcoal vendors within a 10-minute walking distance, especially in Dagoretti, Kasarani and Lang'ata sub-counties. In other sub-counties such as Westlands, Embakasi, Eastleigh and Njiru, the number of vendors was about 10.  A total of five transporters operating between Mombasa and Kwale were interviewed to understand the operations and associated expenses in the coastal region. Most of them made two trips per month to allow producers to produce enough charcoal and also to be able to sell most of the product. Transporters bought charcoal from producers at a price of KES 400 per bag (Table 23). The charcoal was transported to various locations within Mombasa and Malindi and sold directly to wholesalers and retailers at KES 1700. Only one of the transporters used a personal truck; the rest used hired vehicles. Two of the transporters used lower capacity trucks that could carry 100 bags of charcoal per trip, while the others used trucks that could carry 150-160 bags per trip. The costs incurred by transporters include hiring or fuel cost, drivers' expenses, accommodation, cess, loading and offloading costs (Table 23).Based on the estimates, expenses associated with procurement of a bag of charcoal ranged from KES 616 to KES 777. Most of the transporters were making two trips a month, translating to an overall monthly income of between KES 200,000 and KES 217,000 for the lower capacity truck transporters, while for larger capacity trucks, monthly income estimates ranged from KES 297,000 to KES 326,000. Just like the Nairobi-based transporters, those from the coast reported prevalence of rent seekers along the transport routes and even at the destination markets. However, none was able to give an estimate of such payments per trip. As such, the absolute income for a transporter could be slightly lower than what is estimated in this study.About 35% and 12% of charcoal traders interviewed in Mombasa exclusively engaged in retail and wholesale trade respectively, whilst slightly more than half of them (54%) engaged in both. In addition, charcoal traders interviewed were mostly male (85%). Furthermore, 69% and 15% of the traders had completed lower primary (Class 1-4) and upper primary (Class 5-8), respectively while 8% had undergone secondary education and tertiary education. The mean age of the charcoal traders was 32 years, while average household size was seven members. On average, the charcoal traders had been in the business for eight years. The charcoal business was the main household income source for most traders   5) 2000 ( 20) 6400 ( 40) 2000 ( 13) 7500 ( 50)Offloading labour (KES per bag) 600 ( 6) 2000 ( 20) 8000 ( 50) 2000 ( 13) 9000 ( 60)Vehicle security per trip (KES) 500 ( 5) 1000 ( 10) ---Cost of servicing car per month (KES) 5000 ( 13) ----Accommodation per trip (KES) 1500 ( 15) 1000 ( 10) 1000 ( 6) 1000 ( 6) -Cess per trip (KES) 1000 ( 6)Parking per night (KES) 200 ( 2) 500 ( 5) ---Market fee per day (KES) 500 ( 5) 500 ( 5  32). The study indicated that none of the traders belonged to an association. Reasons given include: lack of charcoal traders' associations to join in their locality (42%); requirements that are very difficult to meet (39%); and, lack of interest (19%). Challenges faced by the traders included high charcoal prices (31%), poor quality of charcoal (31%) and low supply (23%) (Figure 33).All traders in Mombasa bought their charcoal stock in recycled 90-kg and 50-kg polypropylene bags each containing about 47 kg and 22 kg of charcoal, respectively. The average buying price for the recycled 90-kg and 50-kg bag of charcoal was KES 1700 and KES 1250, respectively (Table 24).The charcoal traders reported that 54% of charcoal sold in Mombasa was from Malindi Sub-county in Kilifi County (Figure 34). The second most important source was Tanzania (through the Lunga Lunga border) reported by 27% of the respondents, followed by Kwale County which was reported by 19% of the respondents. Uganda and South Sudan were also reported as a source of charcoal by 15% of the respondents. A wholesaler sold about 208 bags, whilst a retailer sold about 25 bags of charcoal per month.Most wholesalers/retailers sold 71% of their charcoal in bags and the rest in tins, buckets and modified plastic bags. For the retailers, only 12% of their charcoal was sold in bags and the rest in smaller units. A bag of charcoal was sold at KES 2300 whilst tins and smaller bags containing about one kilogram of charcoal were sold at an average of KES 70 (Table 25).The main clients for both wholesalers/retailers and retailers were consumers (households and businesses). The main buyers from the wholesaler/retailers, were businesses (46%) and households (46%), with retailers and brokers accounting for only 8%. Likewise, retailers indicated that 47% and 45% of their clients were the households and businesses, respectively. Traders who were both wholesalers and retailers reported that they had four main monthly costs associated with their operations including rent, trade license, transport and security amounting to just over KES 1,786 per bag per month. Retailers, on the other hand, reported only two costs associated with their operations, namely, rent and trade licenses amounting to KES 1,776 per bag per month (Table 26).The survey established that the average household size of charcoal consumers in Mombasa was seven, with a minimum and maximum size of four and 10 members, respectively. The study results further showed that consumers who bought charcoal in a recycled 2-kg cooking oil tin, dubbed kasuku, cooked about three meals. However, when supplemented with other forms of energy, a kasuku of charcoal cooked up to six meals. Consumers who bought charcoal in buckets of about 8 kg, managed to cook 21 meals. When supplemented with other forms of energy, the bucket of charcoal could be used to cook between 21 and 42 meals. The study indicated that 67% and 33% of respondents preferred using charcoal and LPG as their primary source of energy, respectively. Furthermore, 33% and 25% of the consumers considered charcoal and LPG as their secondary sources of energy, respectively. However, 42% of consumers interviewed used either charcoal or LPG as the only source of energy for cooking. Results showed that majority (32%) of the charcoal consumers in Mombasa preferred charcoal as the primary source of energy mainly because it burns for longer, it is easy to use (25%) and is affordable (25%). Similarly, 43% and 29% of the respondents preferred LPG as a primary source of energy, citing its efficiency and consideration as a clean source of energy, respectively (Figure 35). About 60% of charcoal consumers stated that the ban on the product was the main cause of increase in prices. Furthermore, 20% attributed the price increase to politics around charcoal, while 15% attributed it to transports challenges (Figure 36).The study results established that 75% of the respondents had knowledge of the tree species their preferred charcoal was produced from, while 25% were not aware. Consumers who had knowledge about their preferred charcoal tree species mentioned Acacia spp, Markhamia lutea and Casuarina equisetifolia, in that order. The consumer preference for charcoal produced from the three tree species was informed mostly by the quality produced (67%) and ability to burn longer (33%) compared to charcoal from other species.Consumers identified the charcoal from the mentioned species by using their colour, texture, weight and size characteristics; darker, heavier and bigger pieces were reported to be of better quality. All consumers interviewed in Mombasa bought charcoal from one main supplier. Some of the reasons given included easy accessibility (75%), sold good quality charcoal (68%), friendly (42%) and charcoal was always available (33%). In Mombasa County, the survey suggested that there were up to nine charcoal vendors within a 10-minute walking distance. Charcoal displayed in tins in Nairobi. Photo by Moses KirimiLandowners in the three counties indicated that they neither planted, managed, nor ever incurred any direct investment cost on trees for charcoal production. Over 90% of the trees were used by a member of the family to produce charcoal, hence they didn't need to pay for the wood. Thus, the value of wood was rarely captured in the final farmgate price of charcoal. In the few cases where landowners sold trees for charcoal production, the average price paid for wood to produce one bag of the product was KES 100.Most of the producers incurred minimal costs as charcoal production was done using trees from family land. In addition, they used family labour (Table 27). For the few individuals who bought wood, the cost was estimated at KES 100-220 per bag of charcoal. One expenditure item which cut across the counties was tree felling and chopping. This amounted to about KES 35 per bag of charcoal in Kwale, KES 45 in Baringo and KES 60 in Kitui. Transport cost and CPA levy fees were only reported in Baringo at KES 50 and KES 10 per bag, respectively. In Kitui, some respondents reported engaging casual labour to prepare the kilns at a cost of KES 300 per kiln, which produced approximately 10 bags of charcoal; this translates to KES 30 per bag. In summary, the total expenses incurred by charcoal producers in Baringo, Kitui and Kwale was estimated at KES 105, KES 200 and KES 135 per bag, respectively, when the cost of wood is factored in for Kitui and Kwale. When the cost of wood is not included, as people rarely buy wood for charcoal, the total cost of production in Kitui and Kwale reduces to KES 120 and KES 35 respectively.Based on the expenses tabulated in Table 28 and the weighted annual production per producer, it is estimated that the annual net income of a producer is KES 14,259, KES 8,184 and KES 30,849 in Baringo, Kitui and Kwale, respectively. However, if the wood is free in Kitui and Baringo, the net income rises to KES 11,484 and KES 42,149, respectively.  The income of a transporter was largely dependent on the capacity of the truck as well as frequency of trips made (Table 29). The Kitui-Nairobi route was the most lucrative, owing to minimal expenses and the higher price of charcoal compared to Baringo-Nairobi. The Busia-Nairobi route had low returns principally due to the high cost of charcoal from Uganda. The Baringo-Nairobi route also had relatively low returns mostly due to the low price of charcoal at designated market points in the city as dictated by \"market barons\". The Kwale-Mombasa route was relatively lucrative, with transporters making two trips per month.In Nairobi, the study established that there were two categories of charcoal traders: those who sold in both retail and wholesale 4 , and those who only operated as retailers. Based on the reported sales and expenses, it is estimated that the net monthly income of a wholesaler/retailer in Nairobi was about KES 40,997, while that of a retailer was KES 11,277.In Mombasa, the net monthly income of a wholesaler was estimated at KES 141,112 while that of a retailer was estimated at KES 25,865 (Table 30).Due to spatial and temporal differences in locations where the data was collected, there were some slight differences between the prices reported by different actors.For example, the average selling price of charcoal reported by producers in Kitui was KES 468, while the buying price reported by transporters was KES 450 (Table 31). To harmonize these figures, the average price was calculated from the two given prices, where applicable. Wholesale prices are the calculated prices per bag from specific areas, while retail prices are those calculated when charcoal was sold in smaller units such as tins or using weighing balances.   There were a number of charcoal marketing channels available to producers as shown in Figure 37. The shortest channel was from producers to consumers through rural market centres or roadside display. This was observed in Kitui and Baringo. Longer channels involved local brokers, CPAs, transporters, urban brokers, wholesalers and/or retailers. These were mostly for supplying cities like Nairobi which made charcoal quite expensive compared to other smaller centres. For example, transporters from Baringo reported that they shipped their charcoal to Nairobi and sold through brokers, whilst those from Busia had their own yards.The Kitui-Nairobi supply chain is a long one that includes brokers in the city. The result is reduced returns for both vendors and transporters. The transporter's margin accounts for the largest share of the final price of charcoal in the supply chain at 52% when the product is sold in bags or 43% when it is sold in tins (Figure 38). When retailers sell charcoal in tins, their margin as a proportion of the final price comes in second at 26%, but this reduces to only 11% if the charcoal is sold in bags.The brokers are third when charcoal is sold in bags with 17%, followed by producers with 16% of the share of the final price. For net income per bag, transporters take a large share of KES 710, followed by retailers (when they sell charcoal in tins) at KES 569. Brokers made a net income of KES 400 while producers made KES 239 per bag. Charcoal transporters between Kwale and Mombasa sold directly to wholesalers, retailers and small businesses. The transporters' margin accounted for the largest share of the final price (56%) when the charcoal was sold in bags (Figure 41). The retailer's margin accounted for 41% of the final price when the charcoal is sold in tins, but only 26% when it is sold in bags.The charcoal producers' margin accounted for only 13% of the price share, while the landowners' share was only 5%. If retailers sell their charcoal in tins, they make the largest net income from a bag of charcoal at KES 1103. However, this reduces to KES 514 when charcoal is sold in bags. The transporters also make a net income of KES 941, while the producer and landowner make KES 173 and KES 100, respectively.On 24 th February 2018, the Government of Kenya imposed a moratorium on logging and timber harvesting in the country, which prohibited production or transportation of charcoal. Though this study did not dwell on the ban and its impact thereof, findings indicated that it had a direct impact on the sourcing, production and pricing of charcoal. Further interactions with communities in Kitui revealed that the charcoal trade had been driven underground as the \"3bag policy\" allowed transporters and traders to make several trips. However, this had an impact on the operations of the Charcoal Producers' Associations who were rendered redundant.Visibly empty were the CPA-run collection points and bulking centres (Figure 42). Significant amounts of charcoal was said to be sourced from the neighbouring countries of Uganda and South Sudan, both legally and illegally. This is a typical demonstration of leakage, where internal conservation challenges are transferred to neighbouring countries because parts of the charcoal value chain have been criminalized, and no alternative energy sources availed for the vast majority of the population. Moreover, charcoal is a key source of household income in the three study areas contributing 48%, 26% and 14% of the overall household income in Kwale, Baringo and Kitui, respectively. This dependence on charcoal explains why the proportion of producers did not change significantly during the ban, except in Kwale. However, the quantity produced per respondent dropped significantly especially in Kitui. The charcoal ban therefore had a significant negative impact on the livelihoods of producers, especially those with less diversified income sources (Figure 43).Finally, although the charcoal ban resulted in minimal change in average producer selling price in the three study locations, it led to a substantial increase in consumer prices. For example, the price of a bag in Nairobi was reported to increase from KES 1575 in March 2018 to KES 2200 in October 2018, representing a 40% increase. Likewise, the price of a tin was reported to increase from KES 71.1 in March 2018 to KES 92.2 in October 2018, representing a 30% increase. This translated to a huge financial burden for most charcoal consumers who reside in urban centres. On an aggregate level, women accounted for 43% of the surveyed charcoal producers - a considerably high figure for a sector conventionally perceived as male-dominated (e.g., Zulu and Richardson, 2012). Women also accounted for nearly half (45.9%) of surveyed landowners. Only one of the 10 surveyed brokers was a woman, while women similarly accounted for 10% of the predominantly urban wholesalers surveyed for this study. Charcoal transport was found to be dominated by men, with women accounting for roughly a quarter of transporters 5 .Even more men dominated charcoal retail (86.1%) which could have been a result of the ban and logging moratorium presenting additional challenges for women (Table 32). This is in stark contrast to earlier studies, which have found charcoal retail in Kenya to be heavily femaledominated (e.g., Ndegwa et al, 2016).There are stark differences between counties. In Baringo and Kitui, women accounted for around half of all producers (47% and 55% respectively), while only 17% of producers in Kwale were women. However, most female producers in Baringo lived in male-headed households (93%) while female heads-of-households (FHHs) constituted the majority of female producers in Kitui (65%). In Kitui, women - mainly FHHs - also accounted for more than half (57%)5 20 out of 21 transporters were surveyed in Kwale of all surveyed landowners, compared to 43% in Baringo and 33% in Kwale. A relatively higher share of resident women following a high incidence of male out-migration in Kitui is a plausible explanation for this difference.This study was not able to assess any potential impact that the ongoing charcoal ban might have had on women and men's participation. Profitability and lack of alternative income sources were the key reasons for engaging in the charcoal value chain for men as indicated by 27% and 28% of the respondents, respectively. Slightly higher proportions of female headsof-households, 35% and 33%, gave these two reasons as well. Women in male-headed households, however, placed relatively more importance on ease of entry (33%) and limited capital requirements (Figure 44). Regarding the sourcing of trees, 'own farm' was by far the most common source for both women (87%) and men (84.5%). It was particularly common for women in MHHs (90%, compared to 81% of FHHs). Interestingly, however, no women sourced trees from government forests, while this was reported by one out of 10 men. At the same time, neighbourhood farms were the second most common source for FHHs (14.9%), in contrast to 3.2% for men. Comparing male and female landowners, men were slightly more likely to have a member of the household produce charcoal out of their trees at 65.5% and 52.8% respectively (Table 33). Interestingly, fewer female landowners sold or exchanged trees with 8.3% and 22.6% for women and men, respectively.Regarding producers' reasons for preferred charcoal tree species, availability of the resource was stressed by more women in male-headed households (44%) than men (27%) and women in female-headed households (24%). However, while more female-headed households (47.6%) preferred species that produce the best charcoal, fewer men (19%) valued that attribute. Instead, more of them (35.8%) favoured species preferred by their customers. This could be an indication of weaker links between female heads-ofhouseholds and their customers, as nearly three out of four FHHs reported selling their charcoal near the production site compared to their male counterparts (Figure 45).When asked about the months during which women and men produced the most and the least, the findings suggest a clear peak in production for women between late June and October, with limited activity during the rest of the year. At the same time, production volumes tended to peak towards the end of the year, suggesting a potential mismatch between producers' preferred period of engagement and peak demand for charcoal. Interestingly, while the last quarter of the year was associated with the highest charcoal prices in Kitui, the same period correlated with low prices for producers in Kwale and Baringo. Price fluctuations across the year were found to be far higher in Kitui, where selling prices nearly doubled during the final quarter of the year.Male producers reported producing more evenly throughout the year, although this is likely influenced to some extent by seasonal differences in production peaks between counties. Both FHHs and women in MHHs showed a similar production pattern, suggesting that women's involvement may be more flexible and influenced by seasonal activities and expenses (Figure 46). While no differences were observed in production techniques, male producers produced between two and three times as much as female heads-of-households throughout the year. However, production volumes reported by women in male-headed households were similar to those of male producers, again suggesting some degree of collaboration and labour-sharing within the household.At the same time, average earnings received by both female heads-of-households as well as women in male-headed households tended to be lower throughout the year in both Kitui and Baringo, where most of the surveyed female producers were located. Generally, across all sites, earnings received by men tended to be 11% higher than female headsof-households and 24% higher than women in male-headed households. However, in all the sites, the logging moratorium and ban on movement of charcoal could have influenced pricing, more so in Kitui where there was a local ban (Figure 47).When quizzed about transport, 90% of interviewed FHHs either transported their charcoal by foot (40%) or didn't transport it at all (50%). While no FHHs transported by motorcycle, 22% of women in MHHs did - potentially suggesting some degree of collaboration or coordination within the household. At the same time, more than a third of male charcoal producers reported using motorized transport. The observed gender segregation of transport means is in line with earlier studies in Kenya (e.g., Delahunty-Pike, 2012) and could suggest a greater involvement of women in more localized value chains.However, this pattern became less evident among the interviewed transporters. While the study only identified seven female transporters - constituting roughly a quarter of all surveyed transporters - six of them reported using either a truck or motorcycle (Figure 48). Given the limited sample size and the targeted sampling of individuals, these results are inconclusive in terms of gender equity.As demonstrated earlier, the survey suggests that the charcoal trade is dominated by men. A particularly surprising finding is the considerably low share of women among charcoal retailers (14%), a node identified as female-dominated by a number of earlier studies (e.g., Ndegwa et al, 2016;KFS, 2013). The considerable male dominance in both urban wholesale and retail could perhaps, to some extent, be explained by the fact that during the time of the survey, importation of charcoal into urban areas was inhibited by the ban and logging moratorium. When asked about key challenges in the charcoal business, findings indicated that female traders highlighted low quality, charcoal ban and harassment by law enforcement more often when compared to their male counterparts (Figure 49). The last comprehensive charcoal value chain study in Kenya was conducted almost a decade ago by KFS (2013). Still, the findings confirm the trends reported in these studies. These trends have shown that the charcoal value chains in Kenya are very resilient and adaptive, as there is an insatiable demand for cooking and heating energy sources in urban and peri-urban areas, making charcoal an indispensable energy source for most urban households.High dependence on woodfuel is driven by both lack of alternatives and preferences. A large proportion of the population uses both LPG and charcoal to manage expenditure and respond to diversity of cooking practices and dietary preferences. It is the urban poor who are more reliant on the charcoal as more than 60% of consumers bought the product in small quantities (tins, buckets and small packets) which reflects the low purchasing power of most of the consumers.Thus, charcoal plays a critical role in the energy sector, providing fuel for more than half of the urban households and income for many rural households. It remains the second most important income source, an attractive economic venture after agriculture and a coping strategy for many. Income generation and employment are the main drivers and motivation for value chain actors to engage in the charcoal business. Thus, production and trade of this commodity is a viable business as all actors made more than 20% in gross profit margins, with transporters netting more than 45% per bag. In addition, producers realized 50% to 100% in net profits. However, there are critical issues like lack of valuation of wood used for charcoal production.Although the charcoal value chain is dominated by men, women make up a significant proportion of up to 45% at the production-end, but just about 10% at the trade-end of the value chain. This could have been exacerbated by the logging moratorium and charcoal movement ban. Equally, there were very few women in the middle of the value chain as it requires some means of production, absence from home, and interacting with regulators, thus exposing them to rent-seeking officials (Ndegwa et al, 2020). In addition, this study showed that there were differences between women heads-of-households and women in male-headed households which should be taken into account when promoting gender equity along the charcoal value chain.Improvements in the nature, processes and technologies employed during production cannot be over-emphasized if unnecessary tree-cutting is to be reduced. Value chain actors do not have access to adequate technical services which could catalyze improvements in technological efficiencies in tree-growing and wood carbonization. Charcoal production practices and technologies are still very traditional and wasteful; there is a lot of unnecessary tree cutting and most landowners are not involved in tree planting or any tree management practices that would promote tree regeneration and growth. Production is mostly done using earth mound kilns and producers rarely undertake wood pre-drying to improve the efficiency of their production process. Landowners, charcoal producers and traders require support to address various challenges, and improve operations and efficiency in the value chain in order to retain more trees in the landscape.Legal provisions for formalizing and legalizing charcoal production were hardly complied with. Very few charcoal producers were members of associations, even though it is a legal requirement. The charcoal ban had an impact on the value chain; there was a significant reduction in production, changes in major supply basins, routes and mechanisms most of which resulted in price increases. Charcoal prices had been steadily increasing over time, but the highest increase was recorded in March-April 2018, the period just after the national logging moratorium was announced.Therefore, in the short- and medium-term there is need to invest in making woodfuel value chains green, sustainable and competitive. Transition to clean cooking is still a long way off. Contrary to the long-standing assumptions of the energy ladder, people are falling back or stacking energy sources to manage expenditure, reliability, meal diversity and cultural preferences. Therefore, the solution is not just transition, but reducing the amount of charcoal consumed in the household energy-mix by providing appropriate, affordable and reliable alternatives, and ensuring efficient and sustainable sourcing and production of charcoal.Q14. For the charcoal trees that were planted, what were the costs of planting and how long do they take to reach a size suitable for charcoal production? ☐ Percentage of total sold ………………….☐ Percentage of total sold ………………….☐ Percentage of total sold ………………….☐ Percentage of total sold ………………….5. Business (restaurants, kiosk etc.)☐ Percentage of total sold ………………….☐ Percentage of total sold ………………….☐ Percentage of total sold …………………. ","tokenCount":"13141"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"841388065cf13c56e4c5b32619a298d0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1b379f5-9e91-4ccc-a800-629d34ccd84f/retrieve","id":"-1887462192"},"keywords":["• P1684 -Product Line 3","4","1: Business models and novel knowledge diffusion approaches to enhance feed and forage technology adoption • P653 -Activity 3","4","1 Business models seed supply, feed transaction and processing"],"sieverID":"c3401247-38a2-4dfb-952e-6deff267684e","pagecount":"1","content":"Links to the Strategic Results Framework: Sub-IDOs:• Adoption of CGIAR materials with enhanced genetic gains • More efficient use of inputsIs this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Too early to say Description of activity / study: The evaluated materials are either from the CIAT genebank, the ILRI genebank, or CIAT hybrids. The integration is part of a CIAT German-funded East Africa project which is mapped to the CRP Livestock Feeds and Forages flagship. The main lesson learned from the study is that profit from forages depends on, land size and type/productivity/maintenance practices of the forage crop. Well managed forages result in increased productivity, hence higher yield and more profit. In conclusion, despite the positive impact of forages on milk production, farmers need to improve maintenance of the forage crop to improve their yield. ","tokenCount":"135"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e814e7e913bc4d7642abd583611d2745","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e0a50c7f-1d9c-4259-a461-dadf5bfe2595/retrieve","id":"2017846557"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fdbdcd43-54c3-4e62-84c7-ab80fc0b31ba","pagecount":"42","content":"Passive restoration (without any intervention) has been proposed as an effective strategy for grassland restoration in abandoned croplands. However, whether the vegetation in abandoned croplands can change towards the desired state and the time needed to reach a relative stable state are context-dependent. We investigated three abandoned croplands with different recovery times (5, 15 and 20 years) and one natural grassland in each of two different types of steppe (desert steppe and typical steppe) in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China to assess the restorationpotential of grassland on abandoned croplands. Above-and below-ground biomass as well as species biodiversity increased gradually with increasing recovery time. After 20 years of restoration there was no significant difference between abandoned cropland and natural steppe in the typical steppe site, but above-and below-ground biomass and species biodiversity were still lower in abandoned cropland in the desert steppe site. At the beginning of restoration, the communities were dominated mainly by annual species, especially in the desert steppe. As recovery time increased, the biomass and richness of perennial graminoids and forbs increased significantly and replaced annual species as the dominant species. In both desert steppe and typical steppes, species similarity between restored and natural steppe increased over time, suggesting that previously cultivated grassland recovered towards the desired state.Our results indicate that 20 years was sufficient time for the restoration of croplands in the typical steppe, but more time may be needed in the desert steppe.abandoned croplands; vegetation recovery; desert steppe; typical steppe; species biodiversityThe rapid expansion of agriculture worldwide during the past two centuries has resulted in serious environmental problems, such as soil degradation, biodiversity extinction and loss of soil carbon stock (Guo & Gifford 2002;Lal 2002, Murphy & Romanuk 2014). These problems are especially pronounced in some grasslands in arid and semi-arid regions, where the ecosystems are extremely sensitive to tillage practices. Converting cultivated land into natural vegetation or plantation have been proposed effective strategies for degraded cropland restoration (Rey Benayas et al., 2007;Török et al.,2011). This strategy has been implemented in some related programs and government policies, such as the Grain-for-Green project (Feng et al., 2013) and the Conservation Reserve Program in the United States (Skold 1989).Secondary succession of vegetation in abandoned croplands could rehabilitate ecosystems and reestablish biodiversity and ecological functions (Deng et al., 2014).Along with natural regeneration, varied species composition and biodiversity may have significant effects on the provision of ecosystem services (Stoy et al., 2008).Therefore, understanding vegetation recovery patterns in abandoned croplands is essential for the conservation and restoration of degraded grasslands.Previous studies in abandoned croplands have found that agricultural legacies may persist for many years, with both beneficial and detrimental effects on plant recruitment (Prevosto et al., 2012;Stuble et al., 2017). The use of fertilizer during crop cultivation can lead to higher soil nutrient content at the beginning of abandonment, which may facilitate the restoration of vegetation, while poor soil physical condition resulting from farming activities may retard plant growth.Extensive studies have investigated changes in community structure and function after cropland abandonment. In most instances, productivity and biodiversity gradually increase with increasing fallow duration and eventually attain a state comparable to local natural grassland (Baer et al., 2002;Prach et al., 2014). However, this is not always the case. For example, a unimodal relationship between biodiversity and recovery time has been found in some studies. After a few years abandonment, biodiversity reached a peak but then decreased with continued restoration as competition intensified or litter accumulated (Deá k et al., 2011). In some cases, ecosystems may be dominated by invasive species and thereby convert to an alternative condition (Matus et al., 2003;Kulmatiski 2006).The trajectories of community recovery after farming activities ceased may exhibit great variation in pattern and rate of change. For example, Török et al., (2011) found that native grasses can recover within 10 years but more time was needed for the recovery of forbs in loess grassland in East-Hungary. However, in some studies complete restoration of croplands may require several decades (Albert et al. 2014) or even longer (Isbell et al., 2019). Many studies have shown that the process of vegetation succession is highly site specific and influenced by the comprehensive effects of biotic and abiotic factors, such as the history of previous disturbance (Burt & Clary 2016), the specifics of the restoration practices utilized (e.g., planting, grazing or passive restoration) (Tzanopoulos et al., 2007), the availability and dispersal of propagules (Jones & Schmitz 2009;Albert et al., 2014) and local climate conditions (e.g. mean annual temperature, total precipitation) (Stuble et al., 2017).Furthermore, the importance of these factors may change in different succession stages. For example, in the early restoration process, seed dispersal has been found to be a main limiting factor that constrains plant recruitment, especially for some species with low reproductive rates (Pywell et al., 2002), whereas plant clonal traits may become more important in later stages (Latzel et al. 2011;Bartha et al., 2014).Meanwhile, as succession proceeds, inter or intra-specific competition may become the main factor that shapes community structure and functions (Liu et al., 2017).Consequently, vegetation recovery in abandoned cropland is a complex process.Given the variation in recovery patterns and rates, it is important to determine whether active restoration efforts are required to accelerate the recovery of croplands.The agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China, located in the southeast of the Inner Mongolia plateau and the north of the Loess plateau and covering a total area about 650,000 km 2 , plays a crucial role in maintaining ecological security and socio-economic development (Sun, 2005). However, the ecosystems in this region are fragile and rapid degradation in the last few decades as a result of human disturbance and global climate change has caused serious environmental problems, such as desertification and dust storms (Kang et al., 2007). To effectively mitigate these environmental problems, ambitious programs were launched by local and central governments, including the Grain for Green program which aims to convert former croplands and barren lands to forest, grassland, or shrubs. Since initiation in 1999, the Grain for Green program has re-established 14.7 million ha of semi-natural vegetation on cultivated slopes and 17.3 million ha of abandoned croplands (Zhang et al., 2010a).Spontaneous recovery without human disturbance is one of the most important means of rehabilitating cultivated grassland. Extensive studies have investigated the effects of natural recovery on ecosystem structure and functions, such as the soil seed bank, productivity and carbon storage (Zhan et al., 2007, Zhang et al., 2010b;Tian et al., 2018), providing useful information for abandoned croplands management. However, whether abandoned croplands are able to change toward the desired state and the time needed to reach a stable state in the agro-pastoral ecotone of north China is still uncertain. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the dynamics of ecosystem function and structure along the secondary succession process.In order to assess the restoration potential of abandoned croplands in different type of steppe, we investigated the vegetation composition, biodiversity and aboveand below-ground biomass of abandoned croplands in two steppe types (Stipa breviflora desert steppe and Stipa krylovii typical steppe) differing in climatic conditions, soil environment and species composition in the Inner Mongolian agro-pastoral ecotone in China. Each study site included plots with three recovery durations (5, 15 and 20 years) and an untilled natural grassland area as a reference.Our objectives were to 1) compare above-and below-ground biomass among different recovery durations and with natural grassland; and 2) quantitatively evaluate the effects of recovery duration on vegetation community structure and composition, especially for different plant functional groups.This study was conducted in the Inner Mongolian agro-pastoral ecotone, China. The Stipa breviflora desert steppe was located in the northwest of Wuchuan County, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia (41°09' N, 111°4 5' E, 1550-1588m a.s.l.). Mean annual precipitation and temperature were 250 mm and 1.6℃, respectively. In 2019, total precipitation in the area was 414 mm of which 83 % fell during the period from May to September. In natural desert steppe, the dominant species is Stipa breviflora. The soil is a Kastanozem (FAO soil classification) with a sandy loam texture. The Stipa krylovii typical steppe was located in Duolun County, Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia (42°15' N, 116°48 ' E, 1150-1200m a.s.l.). This region has a temperate, semi-arid and continental-monsoon climate. Mean annual precipitation and temperature were 385 mm and 1.6℃, respectively. In 2019, total precipitation in the area was 450 mm, 75% of which fell during the period from May to September. In natural steppe, the dominant species is Stipa krylovii. The soil is a sandy, calcareous 'chestnut' soil, similar to a cambic Chernozem.Chronosequence approaches have been extensively used in the study of ecosystem succession in abandoned croplands over temporal or spatial scales. In this study, a chronosequence of cropland that had been abandoned since 1999, 2004 and 2014 was selected in both Stipa breviflora desert steppe and Stipa krylovii typical steppe, an untilled natural grassland site was also selected and used as a reference.Before abandonment, the grassland was cultivated with wheat, oats and corn in rotation using the same methods and fertilization practices. In each abandoned cropland three sampling sites that had been fenced without any disturbance and with similar topography, soil conditions and vegetation composition were selected within a distance about 5 km in each site. Given the typicality of the three sampling sites in each area, they can represent the overall changes in abandoned cropland. Ten 1 m×1 m quadrats were randomly located and investigated in each sampling site. Plants were clipped to ground level and separated by species after removing litter within each quadrat. Then, three soil cores (diameter 7.5 cm) at four depths (0-10, 10-20, 20-30 and 30-40 cm) were collected to make a composite sample at each depth. The roots were removed from the soil by rinsing in water and then oven-dried (65℃) for 48 h together with the plant samples and weighed to represent above-and below-ground biomass, respectively.Species were classified into three plant functional groups (i.e., perennial graminoids, perennial forbs and annuals). All species that were present in the two steppes types are summarized in Table S1. Species richness (S) was calculated based on the number of species encountered per unit area. Species diversity indices were calculated using the Shannon-Wiener index (H = -∑pi•ln(pi)) (Shannon 1948), where pi is the relative biomass of species i. Generalized Linear Mixed Effect Models were used to test the effects of abandoned time, study sites and their interaction on vegetation recovery, where the time since abandonment and the steppe type were taken as fixed effect and the sampling site as random effect. Relative Response Indices (RRI, Brinkman et al. 2010;Valkó et al. 2017), were calculated to describe change in the vegetation characteristics between abandoned cropland and natural steppe. RRI was calculated using the following equation:where Cc represents the value of the vegetation characteristic in abandoned croplands, and Cg represents the vegetation characteristic of the natural grassland. The value of RRI ranges from -1 to +1. The closer is the RRI to zero, the higher the similarity of the abandoned cropland to the natural grassland, while the closer is |RRI| to 1, the lower the similarity. Pearson correlation analysis was used to test linear correlations between above-ground biomass and Shannon-Wiener index. To assess the similarity of plant species composition between the abandoned cultivated land and natural grassland, an ordination based on the presence/absence matrix of species per site were performed using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) with scores built on Bray-Curtis dissimilarity index values. Statistical analyses were performed using R version 3.3.2 (R Development Core Team 2016).Overall, our results show that the recovery pattern of community above-and below-ground biomass was different between the two study sites (Table 1). In the desert steppe, community biomass ranged from 67.6 g m -2 to 135.4 g m -2 in the three abandoned croplands and followed the order 5 > 20> 15 years. No differences were found between natural steppe and abandoned cropland, except for the 15-yr-old abandoned cropland which had significantly lower community biomass than natural grassland (i.e., 126.1 g m -2 , Fig. 1). Perennial graminoids biomass was lower at the beginning of restoration and increased with recovery duration, becoming significantly higher than that in natural grassland 20 years after tillage ceased. Perennial forbs biomass on previously cultivated land was lower than that of natural grassland irrespective of recovery duration. However, the biomass of annuals decreased with recovery duration and showed no difference with natural grassland 20 years after abandonment (Fig 1).In typical steppe, community biomass increased with recovery duration and reached the same level as natural grassland after 20 years restoration. We did not find any differences between natural grassland and previously cultivated cropland for perennial graminoids biomass, except for in 20-yr-old abandoned cropland which was significantly higher than natural grassland. Although perennial forbs biomass increased significantly after 20 years abandonment, it was still lower than in natural grassland. There was no linear relationship for annual species biomass after tillage practices ceased, with a climax in 15-yr-old abandoned cropland, after which it decreased to the level of natural grassland (Fig. 1).Although below-ground biomass in the 0-40 cm layer increased with recovery duration in both desert and typical steppe, the recovery rate differed between those two grassland types. In the desert steppe, even at 20 years after abandonment, the previously cultivated land still had 20.4%, 17.0% and 20.5% lower below-ground biomass than native grassland in the 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 0-40cm soil layers, respectively. However, it had recovered to the level of native grassland 20 years after abandonment in all soil layers, except for the 30-40 cm layer (Fig. 2).The 5-yr-old and 15-yr-old abandoned cropland were dominated by annual species, which accounted for 91.5% and 69.2% of community biomass, respectively.Perennial graminoids species increased from 1.08% in cropland with 5 years of recovery to 24.8% at 15 years of recovery. After that, annual species decreased and graminoids increased. Hence, in cropland abandoned 20 years previously, the proportions of perennial graminoids, perennial forbs and annuals functional groups were 78.9%, 15.7% and 5.4%, respectively. In typical steppe, across the three age categories, there was only slight fluctuation in the proportion of perennial graminoids (from 35.6% to 36.8%). The proportions of perennial forbs and annuals remained stable from 5 to 15 years and then increased to 54.0% and decreased to 10.36%, respectively (Fig. S1).The results for species richness and biodiversity showed that for desert steppe, although species richness and Shannon-Wiener biodiversity increased with the duration of abandonment, they were still lower than in natural grassland after 20 years of restoration (Fig. 3 and Fig. 4). In contrast, in typical steppe, no differences were found in species richness among the three recovery durations, which were all lower than natural grassland. Species Shannon-Wiener biodiversity changed slightly in previously cultivated land but reached the level of natural grassland after 20 years of restoration (Fig. 3 and Fig. 4). Analysis of the three functional groups indicated that perennial graminoids and forbs richness increased but annuals decreased with recovery duration (Fig. 3).Combining the two study sites, correlation analysis shows that the relationship between Shannon-Wiener index and above-ground biomass differed with each recovery durations. In particular, Shannon-Wiener index and above-ground biomass had a negative relationship in 5-yr-old abandoned cropland (R 2 = 0.15, p < 0.001), but a positive relationship in 15-and 20-yr-old abandoned cropland (R 2 = 0.31, p < 0.001 and R 2 = 0.12 p < 0.001) (Fig. 5).NMDS analysis showed that the similarity of species composition between abandoned cultivated grassland and natural grassland increased with recovery time (Fig. 6)Ecologists have recognized that vegetation assembly is the main driver of ecosystem structure and function (Chase 2003;Fukami et al., 2005). With respect to abandoned cropland, vegetation recovery is the first and most important step for the rehabilitation of the whole system. The trajectory of vegetation succession determines whether the restoration practices are able to yield the desired outcomes (Prach et al., 2001). Therefore, in order to develop suitable restoration prescriptions, it is necessary to understand the changes in vegetation composition and biodiversity. In the present study, we quantified community biomass, composition and biodiversity along a chronosequence after abandonment of cultivated land and took natural grassland as a reference in each grassland type. Although the chronosequence did not include the early successional phases (1-4 year), the later years are better represented and can still provide useful information for the restoration of degraded grassland after cultivation.Consistent with the classic succession paradigm defined by Clements (Clements, 1961) and other investigations in fallow grasslands around the world (Prevosto et al., 2012;Fensham et al., 2016), our results showed that as succession progressed, short-lived annuals were eventually replaced by long-lived perennial forbs and graminoids, which indicated that the vegetation in these abandoned croplands were developing towards to that of natural grassland. Although the rates of recovery differed, both above-and below-ground biomass of previously tilled land increased with recovery duration in all study sites and the RRI between abandoned cropland and natural grassland close to zero, and the similarity of species composition with that in natural grassland also increased. Together, our results provide evidence that spontaneous recovery is an effective strategy for the restoration of previously cultivated grassland in the studied areas.In the present study, annual species had a higher biomass and richness in the early stage of succession. This is a common phenomenon in abandoned cropland and agrees with many studies around the world. The reasons be that (1) these species are abundant in the soil of croplands, and (2) the high seed production and relatively low single seed weight characteristic of annual species may facilitate the dispersal of their seeds. Furthermore, annual species often have high photosynthetic activity and water use efficiency which enable them grow fast (Albert et al., 2014). Annual species play an important role in enhancing community productivity especially in years with plentiful precipitation. For example, in our desert steppe study site, annual species contributed 91.5% of total above-ground biomass after 5 years of restoration, when biomass showed no significant difference with that of natural grassland. This may be attributed to the high level of precipitation in 2019 (66% higher than long-term average). In addition, colonization by annual species could facilitate the establishment of perennial species by enhancing soil water holding capacity and protecting seedlings from the harsh environment, such as freezing temperature. As succession proceeded, increased plant species richness combined with the depletion of resources may have intensified the competition for light and nutrients among species. As a consequence, the proportion of long-lived, more competitive species (i.e., mostly perennial forbs and graminoids) increased as a function of time and closed to natural grassland.The availability and dispersal of seeds are also critical factor that constrains the restoration of grassland biodiversity (Pywell et al., 2002;Walker et al., 2004) especially for the recovery of perennial graminoids, the seed bank of which may have been impoverished by intensive cultivation (Bekker et al., 1997). Previous studies have found that in some arid and semi-arid regions, seed availability rather than environmental conditions regulate vegetation succession. On the one hand, the soil seed bank is the main propagule resource at the initial stage of restoration (Thompson & Fenner 2000). Near our study site in Stipa krylovii steppes, Zhan et al., (2007) found that the soil seed bank of a 3-year abandoned cropland was mainly composed of annual and weedy species. This may partially explain the higher richness and productivity of annual species at 5 years after abandonment in our study. On the other hand, a previous study found that the distance from natural grassland may affect the rate of restoration, since natural grassland could provide sufficient propagules for recruitment into abandoned cropland (Öster et al., 2009). Most cropland in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China, including our two study sites, are patchily distributed and surrounded by remnant uncultivated grasslands, which may continuously provide grass seeds to fallow plots. The characteristics of seed dispersal may also affect the recovery of vegetation. For example, Fensham et al. (2016) found that the recovery of perennial grasses with appendages for wind dispersal was faster than species with less effective dispersal mechanisms. In the present study, two desirable perennial graminoids, Stipa krylovii and Stipa breviflora, both had needle shaped seeds adorned with a long awn and can disperse through wind and by zoochory. Furthermore, both species can reproduce asexually by tillering which may accelerate the reestablishment of perennial graminoids, especially in the later stages of restoration.Biodiversity restoration is the fundamental objective of ecologist and land owners. Some studies have suggested that local scale species gains resulting from efficient ecosystem restoration can compensate for the effects of global scale biodiversity loss (Sax & Gaines 2003;Rey Benayas et al., 2009). Our study shows that in both study sites, species biodiversityespecially graminoids richnessincreased gradually with recovery duration. At the same time, our result was not in agreement with some other research suggesting that biodiversity has a unimodal, decrease or no directional trend with recovery duration (Sluis 2002;Liu et al., 2017). This difference may be attributed to the following two reasons. Firstly, in some studies, as duration of recovery increased, dominant competitive perennial graminoids (especially some tall growing species) become super-competitors (Todd et al., 2000;Matus et al., 2003). These species compete more effectively for light and nutrients and supress the growth of some short-stature species. Consequently, the expansion of dominant species may come at the cost of diminishing other species (Willems 1983).In the present study, although perennial graminoids dominated the community, 20 years may be too short a period to enable those species to inhibit the growth of other grasses and forbs.Another reason may be due to the small amount of litter accumulation in our two study sites. Previous studies have found that litter is the primary mechanism controlling grassland community structure and could affect species diversity both directly and indirectly (Xiong & Nilsson 1999;Lamb 2008). For example, litter may suppress seed germination and seedling establishment through shading effects (Loydi & Donath 2013). Moreover, in some instances, litter may act as a seed trap that obstructs seed reaching the soil, thus reducing community species diversity (Ruprecht & Szabó 2012). Therefore, some researchers have suggested that to maintain a high level of species diversity, appropriate methods should be taken to remove sufficient amounts of litter after several years of abandonment (Deá k et al., 2011). In the present study, litter only recovered slightly, even after 20 years abandonment. In the study area, meteorological data show that average wind speed was 3 m s -1 , and was more than 17 m s -1 on about 30 days in each year, and there were 10-20 sand storm days per year during the last 40 years (He et al., 2005b). Small bunchgrass in the community may not be able to intercept litter effectively due to the strong wind, leading to a loss of litter from the ecosystem. Litter is the main source of soil organic carbon and moderate litter accumulation can facilitate vegetation restoration by maintaining environmental stability. However, in most Inner Mongolian grasslands, litter loss is a common phenomenon, not only in abandoned cropland but also in grassland used for grazing and hay production. Therefore, further studies should be conducted to enhance the role of litter in maintaining a healthy ecosystem.The relationship between biodiversity and productivity has been a key topic ecological research in recent decades. Most previous studies have shown that there is a positive or unimodal relationship between these two variables (van Ruijven & Berendse 2005; Gillman & Wright 2006). This is consistent with our results at 15and 20-years abandonment croplands. However, this relationship was negative in the early stage of recovery (5 years). This may be attributed to the high plant density in fallow plots. Density is a potentially confounding factor that regulates diversity-productivity relationships (He et al., 2005a). In the early stage of restoration, the community was characterized by a high density of annual species with high diversity but low individual biomass. Consequently, despite the high level of species diversity, community productivity remained low. In addition, the establishment of typical species that adapted to nutrient poor conditions is much more hampered by the nutrient load after agricultural production than species that favor dry but nutrient rich conditions. Determining the duration needed for grassland restoration is a fundamental purpose of ecological research on abandoned croplands. In some abandoned cultivated grassland, this duration has been evaluated by the trade-off between productivity and diversity. For example, Liu et al. (2017) in the Loess Plateau of China found that 20 years is sufficient for natural restoration when productivity and diversity reached equilibrium due to the leading role of dominant functional groups, after which diversity may decrease rapidly. In the present study, even after 20 years community productivity still increased with species diversity and an equilibrium threshold had not yet been reached. Therefore, our results indicate that more time may be needed for the full restoration of abandoned cultivated grassland.Although there appeared to be secondary succession towards a stable climax community in both study sites, it seems that the restoration rate was faster in typical steppe than in desert steppe. For example, after 20 years of abandonment, community biomass, species diversity, perennial graminoids richness and below-ground biomass had all reached the level of natural grassland in the typical steppe. By contrast, in desert steppe, these indicators were all still lower in previously cultivated grassland than in natural grassland. Vegetation recovery is a complex long-term process influenced by many factors (Plieninger et al., 2014;Stuble et al., 2017). We speculate that the following mechanisms may underpin the difference in recovery rate between the two study sites. First, higher annual precipitation in typical steppe may facilitate vegetation restoration since water is the primary limiting factor that constrains plant growth in arid and semi-arid grassland. Some studies have also found that climate has a pronounced role in regulating the recovery of grasslands (Stuble et al., 2017). Second, soil condition was better in the typical steppe than in the desert steppe. In both study sites, quadrat soil samples were taken and analyzed at the same time as the vegetation samples. Preliminary results show that typical steppe had higher soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and microbial biodiversity than desert steppe (data not shown here) when comparing sites with the same recovery duration. Better soil conditions could accelerate plant restoration, which in turn may ameliorate soil status (Kulmatiski et al., 2006). Third, the higher proportion of perennial forbs and graminoids in the early stage of recovery in typical steppe may also speed up vegetation recovery. Previous studies have shown that initial species composition and diversity can have significant effects on the rate and trajectory of vegetation succession.In the present study, we compared vegetation communities between abandoned cropland and natural grassland, and our results suggest that passive restoration (i.e., without any intervention) is an effective strategy for the recovery of previously tilled grassland in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China. Our study found that the recovery rate differed between desert and typical steppe. Twenty years is sufficient for the restoration of typical steppe but more time may be need for the recovery of desert steppe. This highlights the need for the development of appropriate strategies to accelerate the recovery of abandoned croplands in arid areas.            ","tokenCount":"4522"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5ffc5fd75f4d8f5f434e8a3221ef4bee","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/98244016-e6e2-4c7e-a075-bda047141f71/retrieve","id":"2076744101"},"keywords":["Genomics","phenotypic data","breeding Brassica","whitefly","aphid","screening","characterization Hordeum spontaneum","pre-domestication","male sterility","novel genetic diversity Buglossoides; its journey to becoming 'Ahi Flower' omega-3 Fatty acid","Buglossoides arvensis","polyunsaturated fatty acids","crop wild relative","stearidonic acid","Corn Gromwell quinoa","Chenopodium hircinum","Chenopodium quinoa","wild relatives","global change","high temperature stress","water stress","domestication syndrome Gene discover","Rice","iBridges wild rice","gene","introgression Oats","Cereals","Genome zipper","Land race Cowpea","genotypes","Striga gesnerioides","germplasm QTL validation","Introgression lines","Drought stress Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy","germplasm","traits NGS","detection of selection","population genomics Population genomics","Domestication","Diversity","Crops","Wild ancestors potato","single nucleotide polymorphism","genetic resources 2.1 International CWR Conservation Crop wild relative (CWR)","Food security","Complementary genetic conservation","In situ conservation","Ex situ conservation","Conservation planning","Predictive ex situ sampling","High throughput predictive evaluation","GIS-based predictive evaluation","User-based informatics. A regional conservation strategy for European crop wild relative diversity Crop wild relative","Pan-European conservation strategy","Conservation of genetic resources crop wild relative","in situ conservation","food security","gene pool","plant conservation","plant genetic resources CWR conservation","Climate change","Food security The GRIN-Taxonomy crop wild relative inventory gene pools","taxonomy","CWR classification Reproduction system","Oxalis tuberosa","Traditional crop management","Genetic diversity In-situ conservation","Andes","Chiloe Islands 2.3 National CWR Conservation national CWR conservation","design and implementation of national strategies","conservation status of CWR","networks of genetic reserves","in situ conservation","ex situ conservation","management actions Crop wild relative","Conservation strategy","Plant conservation","Food security","Genetic Diversity","PGRFA Policy Site selection for CWR","Phytosociological association","Ecogeographical Land Characterization (ELC) maps Crop wild relatives","a conservation priority for Jordan ex situ","in situ","gap analysis","national strategies crop wild relatives (CWR)","national CWR in situ conservation strategy","CWR checklist","CWR prioritization","Lithuania","genetic reserve conservation priorities","developing strategies","wild species of cultivated crops 2.4 National LR Conservation Landraces","Livelihood","and Community Biodiversity Management Landraces","Livelihood","Community Management Hordeum vulgare","Hordeum bulbosum","crop wild relatives","introgression line","genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS)","exome capture","nextgeneration-sequencing","genotyping willow-leaf lettuce","Lactuca sativa L.","geographic distribution","phenotypical variation","Bremia lactucae resistance","Golovinomyces cichoracearum","molecular polymorphism","interspecific hybridization Use and potential use values","Conservation investment","Marketbased mechanisms for biodiversity conservation","Abiotic stress tolerance tomato landraces","tomato resequencing","breeding data management","semantic web 4.2 Conservation informatics bioinformatics","information technology","genetic resources management","methodology","bioclimatic niche modelling","crop wild relatives","landrace diversity competition","competitive ability","genetic homogeneity/heterogeneity","yield potential experimental error","mean residual","objective evaluation Oryza longistaminata","low-input adaptable (LIA)","sustainable rocket","agronomic traits","molecular markers introgression","recurrent selection","male sterility","barley","Hordeum spontaneum wild species","fruit cultivation","breeding","rootstocks    gene expression","P5CS","proline accumulation","osmotic stress Use of wild species","Marker assisted selection","Cotton","Gossypium hirsutum","Gossypium barbadense","Reniform nematode","Rotylenchulus reniformis local landraces","chickpea (Cicer arietinum)","breeding value Genetic Diversity and Association Mapping Studies in Colchicum L barley","landraces","pre-breeding","resistance","powdery mildew","leaf rust Accession","cowpea","phenotype","variability cultural relict plant","cultivation","semi-natural","conservation","information","utilisitaion","management","in situ","ex situ","gene bank grasses","fruit crops","long term storage Brassica","CWR","GAP analysis CWR/WHP conservation","Italian inventory of CWR/WHP","Priority list of Italian CWR/WHP common bean","landraces","conservation","use Saudi Arabia","Ex-Situ Conservation","55 Crops","KACST-Gene-Bank","Genetic Resources","Indigenous crops Underutilized crops","Traits","China The utilization of a Greek lentil (Lens culinaris L.) landrace diversity through selection for single-plant yield under low density Asparagus acutifolius","genetic resources","germination","gathering crop wild relatives","landrace resources","accession","data DNA","repository","Austria"],"sieverID":"da59736b-03d6-4993-80b8-d4a5c47515f8","pagecount":"149","content":"This conference presents the culmination of the PGR Secure project (www.pgrsecure.org) -a collaborative project involving eleven partners funded under the EU Seventh Framework Programme, THEME KBBE.2010.1.1-03, 'Characterization of biodiversity resources for wild crop relatives to improve crops by breeding', Grant agreement no. 266394. It is jointly organized with the section on genetic resources of the European Association for Research on Plant Breeding (EUCARPIA). This international conference showcases innovative and potential novel characterization techniques and conservation strategies to identify and safeguard crop wild relative (CWR) and landrace (LR) genetic diversity to increase potential options for crop improvement as a means of underpinning food security in the face of climate change. The conference brings together a wide range of biodiversity expertise from the international community to debate current and future enhanced conservation and utilization of CWR and LR diversity for improving agricultural production, increasing food security and sustaining the environment for better livelihoods. The conference represents a landmark in the plant genetic resources science arena, highlighting exotic plant germplasm as a potentially critical but neglected resource for crop improvement.Part 1 of the book of abstracts contains the abstracts of the oral presentations and Part 2, those of the posters. They are organized under the four conference themes, viz. characterization techniques, conservation strategies, facilitating CWR and LR use and informatics development. The oral presentations will be the subject of a book entitled \"Enhancing Crop Genepool Use: Capturing wild relative and landrace diversity for crop improvement\" that will be published by CABI as the conference proceedings. All duly registered participants will be receiving a copy of the book when it is published.We hope you will enjoy the conference.Traditionally, phenotypic characterization and evaluation of conserved diversity involves field trials where breeders select accessions for inclusion in their breeding programmes. However, this method is resource intensive, with the result that the vast majority of conserved CWR / LR diversity accessions remain uncharacterized and largely unutilized. This theme examines novel characterization and evaluation techniques to enhance the exploitation of CWR and LR diversity in crop improvement activities.Abstracts under Theme 1 fall into three sub-themes:1 In contrast to wild species, for crops in situ conservation has been considered less crucial and reliable than ex situ conservation. Notwithstanding, on-farm conservation of landraces is widely distributed in many agricultural systems, in particular in crops' centers of origin. Derived from the ex situ conservation model, too much importance is given to preserve genetic resources for breeders as a main objective for in situ conservation of crops. However, this proposition is unpersuasive because even germplasm banks have had limited use, present gene transfer barriers have been broken by genetic engineering, and including on-farm landraces in breeding programs has high costs. The case of maize landraces in Mexico will be used to illustrate the need to broaden our objectives and justifications for supporting in situ conservation of crops. About three-fourths of maize seed planted in Mexico comes from farmers' own crops and more than two thirds of these seeds are landraces that have evolved without technical or institutional intervention. Success of formal cultivars of maize in Mexico has been limited to lowland environments with good rainfed conditions or irrigation and traditional landraces are dominant in the highlands and midelevations. Several explanations have been investigated for the presence of landraces in Mexico, ranging from better local adaptation to marginal environments to special characteristics and missing markets. Rather than expecting that institutional breeding is indisputable, there are inherent limits to establish formal cultivars for all conditions and purposes due to the complexity of natural and social environments. In situ conservation is done by farmers for their own needs and is the outcome of their successful participation in crop improvement. Benign neglect of farmers' landraces is no way forward, breeders should undertake the challenge to embrace and imagine future crop evolution as a complex interplay of actors where farmers continue as effective players.Keywords: Landrace conservation, Crop evolution, Maize, MexicoValeria Negri *1 , Nigel Maxted 2 , Renzo Torriceli 1 and Maarit Heinonen 31 Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italy 2 University of Birmingham, United Kingdom 3 MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Finland *corresponding author: v.negri@unpig.itThe PGR Secure project revealed that different options for on-farm conservation and different materials suitable for on-farm conservation exist at National and European level. In the Southern and extreme Northern parts of Europe on-farm conservation is based on extant landraces due to the value of the product that is obtained from them, local culture and/or link with educational activities. In other parts of Europe, in general, extant landraces are often extinct or, whether still existing, the geographic/cultural link with them is not as strict. There, onfarm conservation activities are based on introduced (from different areas) or reintroduced (from gene banks) landraces or on variable populations from wide crossing and are mostly purposely developed to satisfy the demand of a more environmentally friendly agriculture.While for Southern and extreme Northern parts of Europe there is the need to widen the demand for products obtained from landraces, in other parts of Europe there is the need to base introduction, reintroduction of landraces and the development of variable materials suitable to the on-farm conservation purposes on materials suitable to the local conditions. Since inventories of onfarm maintained materials are incomplete as well as incomplete/inconsistent/mis-recorded data about materials suitable for on-farm conservation exist in National and European genebank databases, as a first step to achieve an effective and efficient on-farm conservation complete, fully documented and congruent inventories at European level are needed. An efficient and effective on-farm conservation through use can rely on the development from landraces and 'diverse' varieties of typical local products, of new (e.g. environmentally friendly) farming systems, of local food supply systems, including community and home gardens, of companies purposely dedicated produce and sell seed/propagation material and of participatory plant breeding programs.Juozas Labokas* 1 , Bronislovas Gelvonauskis 2 , Birute Karpaviciene 1 and Vilma Kemesyte 3Maarit Heinonen* 1 , Kristiina Antonius 1 , Hilma Kinnanen 1 , Ritva Valo 1 1 MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Finland *Corresponding author: maarit.heinonen@mtt.fiIn Finland agriculture and horticulture are today mainly based on the use of bred cultivars. However landraces and local strains are cultivated to some extent, especially landraces of cereals, forages, fruits, berries and some vegetables. There are no comprehensive statistics on landrace cultivation in Finland. Since 2000 the Decree for the conservation varieties, their seed production, approval and marketing has been applied to cereals, forage, pulses and some other arable land crops. There are 17 registered conservation varieties. Furthermore, 5 local strains of forages and one landrace potato are accepted to the National List of Plant Varieties.The need for landrace in situ inventories has been stressed by international policies and strategies for a sustainable use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, beside by many papers specifically referring to Europe (e.g. Veteläinen et al., 2009). In Finland the first collecting missions were organized by professional plant breeders who collected and studied an extensive amount of landrace samples for breeding material during the early 1900s. The Nordic Center for Plant Genetic Resources (NordGen) conducted its inaugural landrace collecting missions of cereals and forages during the late 1970s and early 1980s in Finland. Later in the mid 1990s and 2000s cereal landrace inventories were conducted by the Seed Testing Department and MTT Agrifood Research Finland (Heinonen & Veteläinen 2009). During 2011-2014 within the EC FPVII funded PGR Secure project and nationally funded the Native Apple -project, MTT Agrifood Research Finland has set up the nationwide in situ inventories on local apples, pears and potato onions as well as updates on landrace cereals, forages and some other arable land crops. The description of landrace inventory process applied will be provided. The general results of landrace inventories will be presented as well as the in situ conservation programme for conservation varieties. The National Landrace in situ Conservation Strategy for Finland (Heinonen 2014) will be also discussed.  The main destination of the plant material was its growing at home-garden for domestic consumption (62.3%), followed by research task (11.8%). Other confirmed uses were production in farm, education, cultivation at restaurants and last breeding. Therefore, the main destination of conserved landraces is own consumption and its use in gastronomy. Only 23.3% of the delivered germplasms were grown under organic agriculture system. Preservation of plant genetic resources is based on the main idea of keeping them for future generations, to be able to breed crop varieties and face new challenges. This proposal is still valid. But, in addition, our experience shows that today consumers, especially those living in European cities, are strongly demanding food quality, flavours and textures from those big collections of old varieties. These landraces are always linked with the tradition of farmers and the gustative memory of folks. They are characterized by a highly remarkable morphological and sensorial diversity. These are some of its strengths in present and future, which may turn these landraces into the basis of an important economic and sustainable activity.Research Centre for Agrobiodiversity, Hungary *Corresponding author: baktay@mail.nodik.huThe  Based on the success of the barley population mixtures of populations of bread wheat were also developed. The EPB mixtures have been shown to produce higher yields and perform better in adverse conditions than their local or improved counterparts. There is evidence that the EPB populations are more resistant to weeds, diseases and pests. One of the most unexpected outcomes of the evolutionary population trials was that some farmers decided to sow all the seed they had harvested, multiplying and cultivating the seed as their main crop. The populations now cover several hundred hectares and are planted in 17 provinces by about 150 farmers. Future priorities include selecting adapted varieties from the populations for use in Participatory Plant Breeding programmes, developing products from the evolutionary populations of wheat (bread), assessing the potential impacts of seed laws and policies on farmers' ability to use evolutionary populations, and exploring options for monitoring the populations. Following the development of a conceptual framework and the identification of variety-level conservation priorities for an Andean grain in Peru and Bolivia, competitive tenders (reverse auctions) were implemented across a number of communities in each country in order to determine willingness to provide conservation services. Selection criteria were developed in order to facilitate the identification of preferred farmers/communities to undertake such services based on efficiency, effectiveness and equity considerations. Findings to date indicate that farmers/communities were indeed willing to undertake a conservation services contract for threatened priority crop varieties and that participation costs vary widely between communities, thereby creating opportunities to minimize intervention costs by selecting least-cost providers. In-kind, community-level rewards were shown to provide sufficient incentives and suggest that a number of them could be provided through existing government agricultural and educational development programmes. Furthermore, targeting payments at a group-level are shown to be a potentially important means to enhance cooperation and build social capital, which is of crucial importance when conservation outcomes depend on collective action. The enthusiasm of the project participants to maintain the threatened crop genetic resources in future years, regardless of any further intervention and their interest in exploring market development opportunities for these varieties, suggests that the potential for PACS to support national biodiversity policy implementation and make a significant contribution to agrobiodiversity conservation and use goals, as well as to improve poor farmer livelihoods, once it is up-scaled, continues to appear promising. A number of future research and development issues are also identified. has never been a field for dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge. The main aim of the research was to connect in situ/on farm conservation and evaluation of minor and woody fruit species with ethno botanical heritage of nations and ethnic minorities, including possibility for enormous germplasm within local varieties in major fruit species to be included.The main outcome of the research is improved in situ/on-farm management and evaluation of genetic resources by the farming sector and derived products with enhanced health benefits for consumer as a foundation for economic benefits for farmers. Diversification of such products comes from the traditional ways of fruit processing in ethno botanical heritage of living nations and ethnic minorities. Socio-economic dimension have its relevance in farming innovations, diverse product outcomes as a foundation for regional networking between farms, within and between regions, leading towards a recognizable food chain. It has all attributes of organic agricultural practice including development of specialized farming systems. It is a precious possibility to improve the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas.Keywords: Genetic resources, Rural development, Woody fruit species, Ethno botanical heritageImproving breeders' access to PGRFARijk Zwaan Zaadteelt en Zaadhandel B.V., The Netherlands *Corresonding author: l.boon@rijkzwaan.nlPlant breeding plays an important role for global food security, by developing varieties with a higher yield, resistant against pests and diseases, better adapted to local conditions and more resilient to deal with climate changes. To be able to meet the demands for such new varieties, it is clear that breeders need access to the biodiversity that the world has to offer. However accessing genetic resources has only become more difficult these last years. In 1994 the Convention of Biological Diversity introduced the concept of sovereign rights of countries over their genetic resources. Consequently, permission is required before collecting genetic resources, whereby breeders are faced with many different, often unfeasible benefit-sharing conditions, if known at all. The entry into force of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources in 2004 provided some relief, by introducing a multilateral system, as part of which access can be acquired upon the conditions of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement. But because the ITPGRFA only applies to 64 crops, not including most vegetable crops, breeders still need to negotiate the necessary permits for collecting genetic resources. These are time-consuming negotiations, facing the difficult task of finding the right person, authorized to grant permission and convincing this person to grant access upon reasonable conditions. Often, the authorities have insufficient knowledge of how plant breeding works, therefore demanding an unacceptably high form of benefit-sharing, not taking into consideration the time and money that needs to be spent by breeders to develop a new variety. And the fact that the new variety in itself is already an important form of benefit-sharing, as it is available for other breeders for further breeding, also when it is protected by a plant breeder's right under the so-called breeders' exemption. In order to improve breeders' access to PGRFA, creating a better understanding of how breeders work seems essential as well as harmonizing national ABS legislation.Keywords: access and benefit sharing, Convention on biological diversity, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and AgricultureDomenico Pignone, Domenico De Paola, Nicoletta Rapanà and Michela Janni* CNR Italian National Research Council, Italy *Corresponding author: domenico.pignone@cnr.it and michela.janni@ibbr.cnr.itA large wealth of genetic diversity is present in the diversity centers of durum wheat. However, modern breeding selection methods are mostly based on improvement of elite lines which have a narrow genetic base; this limits a lot the genetic pool which breeders can exploit for the production of new varieties ready to face the predicted climate changes or adaptation to new cultivation areas. The oncoming changing climatic conditions claim for the need of finding new adaptation traits to both abiotic and biotic stresses to be introduced in modern elite varieties. These traits are often found in landraces stored in germplasm collections. The Eurisco database reports a total of over 17,000 durum accessions, some 6,800 of which are traditional varieties and/or landraces: Besides their incontestable usefulness, their great number hampers the possibility to explore their genepool. A different approach to reduce the number of genotypes to screen for new useful traits to use in breeding programs while maintaining a good representation of the genetic background, is the constitution of a working durum wheat collection selected by mean of a single seed descent (SSD) approach. The working collection constituted by the SSD method, accounts for over approximately 300 genotypes representative of 44 countries mainly concentrated in the Mediterranean area and Horn Africa. In the present contribution we report on the constitution and the phenotypic and genotypic characterization of the working collection in order to share with the scientific community a new \"genetool\" for breeding and research.Keywords: single seed descent, core collection, characterizationAre we almost there yet? A backseat view of the 50 year voyage to develop international systems for PGRFA conservation and useBioversity International, Rome, Italy *Corresponding author:m.halewood@cgiar.orgFor the last 50 years, members of the international community have devised interventions to support the conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. For much of that time there has been general agreement concerning many of the core components that an international PGRFA conservation system should include: virtually pooled PGRFA in ex situ collections around the world with common rules for facilitated public access; an international fund supported by developed country governments and or commercial users, based on recognition of farmers' contributions over millennia, to support capacity building in developing countries; and a complementary information system(s). The place of in situ conservation within the mix of components has been uncertain, and largely overlooked, until recently.What have been controversial and dynamically changing are the 'deep rights of control' over PGRFA that countries and some stakeholders have insisted upon as pre-conditions for fully supporting the establishment of those core components. The paper will briefly review the controversies, compromises, and sea-changes over the last 50 years concerning the 'deep' legal status of PGRFA. The paper will link the evolution of the legal status of PGRFA with the international community's ability to make progress developing/finalizing/implementing the Plant Treaty, which formalizes the 'core' components listed above. It argues that the collective political will to finally agree to international rules for pooling and sharing plant genetic resources and related information coincided with the abandonment of earlier concepts of PGRFA as public domain or heritage of mankind and recognizing instead the primacy of intellectual property rights and national sovereignty over genetic resources. It appears that countries and influential stakeholders were only willing to agree to rules for pooling (some of) their resources after their 'deeper' rights of exclusive control over these resources had been conclusively established. Subsequently, the international community has made a lot of progress, as evidenced in the adoption and coming into force of the Treaty.However, there are still some challenges to be addressed to implement the Plant Treaty and to provide more focused support for in situ conservation. Present and future The second part of the paper will analyze challenges currently being experienced in the implementation of the Plant Treaty's multilateral system, in some cases linked to outstanding disagreements about the 'deep' status of PGRFA. The 5 th session of the Treaty's Governing Body launched an intergovernmental process, currently ongoing, to address this situation. The paper will describe the options being considered by the Working Group. It will provide an overview of the process, highlighting what appear to be potential areas of convergence within the working group, and some outstanding questions that the working group will consider in the lead-up to the Sixth Session of the Treaty's Governing Body. The paper will also consider present opportunities and initiatives to promote in situ conservation as a much more robust component of the evolving international system. Keywords: Plant Treaty, international community, PGRFA, in situ, access and benefit sharingEurope: a stakeholder analysis The result from these activities is a report describing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the European PGR conservation and use sector. Also a vision on how this sector should ideally function in the future is presented, as well as strategies on how to reach this vision. The report is publically available at http://www.nordgen.org/index.php/en /content/ view/full/2490/. Important problems identified were underfinanced gene banks, limited support from agrobiodiversity policies for on-farm and in-situ conservation, short term funding limiting pre-breeding and uncertainty with regards to international agreements (CBD, IT) limiting the use of plant genetic resources. In this presentation the background of the study, the methods used and the identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, will be described. The vision and strategy will be addressed in a separate presentation (\"Towards an improved European Plant Germplasm System\").Our main message is that it is possible to overcome the weaknesses and threats identified in the European gene bank system and that this can best be done via a concerted European effort. This is of vital importance, since an efficient use of genetic resources is essential for adapting our crops to an increasing human population and a changing climate, and thus ensuring food security.Lothar Frese 1* , Anna Palmé 2 , Chris Kik 3 and Lorenz Bülow A SWOT analysis of stakeholder groups engaged in the conservation and use of PGR was performed to better understand how to achieve this goal. The results of this SWOT will be described in a separate presentation (On the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources in Europe: a stakeholder analysis). We then identified desirable states to be achieved (=targets) and proposed strategies on how to reach the targets. Daily management of PGR has become more complicated. Trade relations, IPRs, biosafety, indigenous communities and public-private relations are some issues in need of consideration. This new environment has created both threats and opportunities for countries, especially in the South. In order to capture benefits and protect GR and knowledge countries must formulate efficient policies and engage in international debates. SLU and SEI organized since 2003 an international training program on Genetic Resources and Intellectual Property Rights. The aim of GRIP has been to provide guidance in policy formation of IP and innovation-systems, assist policy makers, researchers and practitioners to understand the regulatory and policy landscape related to IPRs and exchange of genetic resources and contribute to processes of change and development.Result from an assessment of the GRIP program's impact on implementation of GR related international regimes in participants' countries, how this has influenced research and innovation capacities and remaining gaps and needs will be presented. within Wageningen UR Plant Breeding. BreeDB has been used to store data from the EU funded project (EU-SOL), in which a collection of > 7000 tomato cultivars, landraces and wild species were phenotyped and genotyped (https://www.eusol.wur.nl). A core collection was selected and has recently been part of the 150 tomato genome re-sequencing project (http://www.tomatogenome.net). Concepts developed within this resource will be discussed. However, the aspect of data interoperability is not yet used regularly within the Plant Breeding domain. This will require that (different) communities will start talking the same vocabulary (ontologies). For researches, this will mean that 1) They will need to provide metadata of datasets they generated and 2) Datasets needs to be made available using standard formats and descriptors accepted by the community. As a research community, it is already important to invest effort in the formulation of these standards. The EU (H2020, except most of the life science calls) will require that research data will be made available and will enforce minimal descriptors of datasets. The benefit for the research community will be that 1) data can than be integrated easier and might lead to the detection of \"implicit knowledge\", using automated reasoning processes and/or statistical approaches, and 2) data does not need to be aggregated anymore in one large database, but up-to-date datasets can be made available at the site of the (research) organization.Imke Thormann 1 , Mauricio Parra-Quijano 2 , Jose M. Iriondo 3 , María Luisa Rubio-Teso 3 , Dag Terje Endresen 4 , Sónia Dias 1 , Jacob van Etten 5 and Nigel Maxted Novel approaches to enhance characterization of plant genetic resources are being developed, as traditional phenotypic characterization techniques have shown to be insufficient to fully harness crop wild relative (CWR) and landrace diversity. These are genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, high-throughput phenotyping, as well as less resource intensive predictive characterization techniques. The latter build on the hypothesis that the environment influences gene flow and natural selection, and thus spatial genetic differentiation of organisms. CWR populations growing in a specific environment will possess a suite of adaptive traits shaped by selection pressures unique to these environments. Thus information about a CWR occurrence site can be used to approach the utilization of genetic resources in a more rational way. Two predictive characterization methods for CWR were developed within the PGR Secure project, using an agro-ecological approach for optimizing the search for populations and accessions with targeted adaptive traits: The ecogeographical filtering method combines spatial distribution of the target species with the ecogeographical identification of those environments that are likely to impose selection pressure for the selected trait. Edaphic, geophysic and bioclimatic variables most relevant for adaptation are identified and used together with ecogeographic land characterization maps to identify promising occurrences. The calibration method bases the criteria to filter accessions on existing evaluation data for the trait of interest. Ecogeographical data specific to the environment at collecting sites evaluated for the trait are used as input to identify existing relationships between trait and environment. This relationship is then used to calibrate a model through which other non-evaluated accessions can be assessed. The methods were applied to the four project genera, Avena, Beta, Brassica and Medicago to identify subsets of potentially interesting accessions or occurrences, investigating the following abiotic stress factors: The data generated globally are constantly increasing in size, complexity and heterogeneity. The availability of the data to users of germplasm, especially breeders, is increasingly unfit for purpose. While there are great advances being made for collecting and managing ex situ conservation data, there is currently no information system for in situ conservation and on farm management. There is an urgent need for a system with the capacity to store in situ conservation data, provide common and diverse methods, allow for linking, annotation and an easy way to query and retrieve information from different locations, and in multiple types, formats and sources that meet the requirements of the end users.Challenges include: 1) How to build a system allowing constant adaption and flexibility? 2) How to develop a suite of technologies that are technically powerful and challenging and at the same time user friendly? 3) How to drive the system based on easy solutions -allowing and facilitating data sharing, publishing, query and retrieval?The PGR Diversity Gateway vision is to facilitate access to in situ and on-farm, crop wild relatives (cwr) and landrace information. It has a trait information system at its core, but also includes: characterization and evaluation data, QTL data, national inventories, country crop and cwr checklists, national and European conservation strategies and links to other sources of related relevant information. The Gateway will enable breeders to identify the most likely sources of their priority traits and how they can access that material for utilisation. The PGR Diversity Gateway, while facilitating and assisting countries in meeting national and international commitments and responsibilities, also promotes PGR conservation and sustainable use of cwr and landrace diversity.In addition, it strengthens networks and the conservation of biodiversity, which is required if successful variety development is to continue in the face of the challenges posed by climate change, ensuring food security worldwide. Unfortunately, although many crop genetic resources (CGR) are widely recognised as being threatened, there is only limited information available regarding actual status. Only isolated efforts at monitoring have been undertaken. Conventional monitoring efforts, where they exist at all, have been subject to limitations due to ad hoc approaches that lack rigorous survey and sampling approaches, do not adequately account for search effort costs or systematically involve the participation of local-level actors, and are usually based on collections instead of direct observations in the field. Furthermore, the links between specific CGR conservation levels/configurations and the provision of specific ecosystem services are poorly understood.There is thus an urgent need for the development of a systematic approach to the monitoring of CGR. This paper draws on the outcome of a recent Bioversity/CIP international expert workshop aimed at the development of such an approach. The proposed multi-scale approach builds on a wide range of existing monitoring experiences and a review of the literature related to agricultural biodiversity-relevant ecosystem services. A number of proposed indicators that could be used to assess CGR threat levels, be used for monitoring purposes and/or assist in evaluating ecosystem service public/private good trade-offs arising from agricultural intensification are presented, with a view to supporting the potential for prioritizing, designing and implementing onfarm/in situ conservation measures that actively involve farmers, support livelihoods, complement existing ex situ conservation efforts and facilitate access and benefit sharing. Plant evolution under domestication has altered numerous traits, including selfpollination which reinforced fertility barriers between wild and cultivated populations, facilitating fixation of the desired genotype. Consequently, domestication bottleneck has resulted in high degree of relatedness between varieties, which was further pronounced in modern breeding programs, leading to narrower genetic base of cultivated germplasm, prone to pests and diseases. The study of genetic diversity preserved in pea collections showed that although wide diversity is captured among cultivated material, wild material provides yet broader diversity. Highly variable germplasm is found in the secondary and tertiary pools of crop plants, including pea. However, the transfer of genes from wild species, is often accompanied by inevitable genetic drag of undesirable wild material related traits and this has prevented its broader use. To avoid this, the synthesis of exotic libraries, such as introgression lines, near isogenic lines and chromosome substitution lines, containing molecularly defined chromosome segments from wild species in a constant genetic background of the cultivated species has been applied to make the use of alien genomes more precise and efficient. Here we report development of the set of chromosome segment substitution (CSSL) lines, containing genomic segments of wild pea (Pisum fulvum WL2140/P. elatius L100) in the cultivated pea (P. sativum subsp. sativum cv. Terno/Cameor) genetic background, monitored by molecular markers covered all seven linkage groups of pea genome at 2 to 82 cM spacing. These lines have been preliminarily phenotyped for 8 traits (including branching, height, node, pod and seed numbers) showing often transgression. Establishment of such permanent introgression libraries will allow phenotypic characterization of unlimited number of target traits, which, coupled together with higher density markers, will provide means for QTL and gene identification and subsequent incorporation in desired genotypes ultimately leading to better performing pea varieties. Funding from Czech Ministry of Agriculture ME10062 project and European FP7 project Legato ( 613551) is greatly acknowledged.Ioannis S. FAO 2050 predicts that the world population will increase to 9 billion. Therefore, to satisfy the needs of the global population by 2030 is necessary to mutilate the potential yield by 30-40%. For this purpose, it is necessary to increase the potential of 1.6-1.8% annually, including 1% due to breeding and genetic methods. Achieving the latter goal can be in attracting the genetic resources of wild relatives. In present days the main direction for in improving the capacity of this culture laid in increasing resistance to abiotic (drought, Heat-resistant, salinity,) and biotic stresses (diseases and pests). In present days the currently distant hybridization remains is the most effective method of introduction of foreign genetic variability in the wheat genome. Synthetic diploids, including the genomes of different species of grasses, can greatly facilitate the transfer of the properties of the genetic material of wild species to cultivated plants. They also open up the possibility of recombination between genomes isolated at the diploid level. Rust diseases caused by aggressive an obligate parasite of wheat. That's why the best way for control of these diseases is a breeding for resistance.In autumn 2013 we sowed new nursery of new material synthetic hexaploid wheat of breeding of Kyoto University of Japan and CIMMYT. For the first time in Kazakhstan we are going to evaluate this nursery for resistance to leaf and stripe rust in the soil and climatic conditions of the Northern, Central, Southern and Southeast Kazakhstan. Will be held on selective study of the experimental material of synthetic hexaploid wheat breeding Kyoto University of Japan and CIMMYT. (100-120 samples) to identify adapted to this areas lines. Will screened samples of synthetic hexaploid wheat for resistance to common bunt. Will studied the character of the inheritance of disease resistance in crosses with synthetic wheat varieties zoned based on a comparison of the first generation and their parents. Will be identified new sources of resistance synthetic hexaploid wheat diseases.Keywords: screening of genofund, resistance to rusts hexaploid synthetic, wheatDutbayev Y.* 1 , Kuresbek A. 1 , Kampitova G. 1 , Sultanova N. 2 , Morgounov A. Actuality, FAO 2050 predicts that the world population will increase to 9 billion. Therefore, to satisfy the needs of the global population by 2030 is necessary to mutilate the potential yield by 30-40%. For this purpose, it is necessary to increase the potential of 1.6-1.8% annually, including 1% due to breeding and genetic methods. Achieving the latter goal can be in attracting the genetic resources of wild relatives. In present days the main direction for in improving the capacity of this culture laid in increasing resistance to abiotic (drought, Heatresistant, salinity,) and biotic stresses (diseases and pests). In present days the currently distant hybridization remains is the most effective method of introduction of foreign genetic variability in the wheat genome. Synthetic diploids, including the genomes of different species of grasses, can greatly facilitate the transfer of the properties of the genetic material of wild species to cultivated plants. They also open up the possibility of recombination between genomes isolated at the diploid level.Winter wheat is a wide spread cereal crop in South and southeast Kazakhstan.The most harmfulness disease of winter wheat with seed infection is a Common Bunt (caused by Tilletia caries (DC) Tul. (synonym T. foetidia Liro) and T. levis (synonym T. tritici Wint). If wheat was sowed by untreated by treatment seed, yield losses can be from 3-4 to 62%. Infected grain cannot be used for forage and bread production. In present days screening of forms and cultivars of winter wheat with resistance to Common Bunt is one of main direction of wheat breeding. This fungus is an obligate parasite. That's why the best way for control of these diseases is a breeding for resistance. In autumn 2013 we sowed new nursery of new material synthetic hexaploid wheat of breeding of Kyoto University of Japan and CIMMYT. For the first time in Kazakhstan we are going to evaluate this nursery for the soil and climatic conditions of the Southern and Southeast Kazakhstan. Will be held on selective study of the experimental material of synthetic hexaploid wheat breeding Kyoto University of Japan and CIMMYT. (100-120 samples) to identify adapted to this areas lines. Will screened samples of synthetic hexaploid wheat for resistance to common bunt. Will studied the character of the inheritance of disease resistance in crosses with synthetic wheat varieties zoned based on a comparison of the first generation and their parents. Will identify new sources of resistance synthetic hexaploid wheat diseases.Aleksandra Dimitrijević 1 *, Miguel Cantamutto 2 , Mónica Poverene 2 , Darko Stojićević 3 , Dragana Božić 3 , Sava Vrbničanin 3 , Ivana Imerovski 1 and Dragana Miladinović 11 Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia; 2 Uiversidad Nacional del Sur-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas yTecnológicas, Bahía Blanca, Argentina; 3 University of Belgrade, Faculty of Agriculture, Belgrade, Serbia *Corresponding author: aleksandra.dimitrijevic@nsseme.com Abstract Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) wild relatives provide genes valuable for breeding. We studied natural populations of H. annuus in two European regions (Iberian (IBE) and Balkan (PAN) peninsula) and South America (AME). By field trips between 2010 and 2013, the habitat environment, population size and plant morphology of natural populations were characterized. Twenty-six populations in Argentina (9), Serbia (9), Spain (7) and Romania (1) were observed. The estimated total area and population dimensions were >60 ha and >4 10 6 individuals. Natural populations of H. annuus grew between 31-45° latitude and 57-616 mosl. Overall, environmental determinants of H. annuus distribution overlapped in AME and IBE, but differed from PAN. AME and PAN populations grew on ruderal or riparian habitats and differed from IBE, where they appeared as weed (agrestal). In IBE, sunflower was the most frequently invaded crop with H. annuus populations. In AME and PAN, these populations developed near but outside sunflower, corn and wheat. Twelve quantitative traits, measured under natural growing conditions and analysed by PCA, differed among the geographic groups. The PC1 explained 62.1% of variance and was mainly determined by ray flower characteristics. All groups showed over 99% of acuminate bract tip, a trait used in H. annuus taxonomic determination. The AME populations showed the highest frequencies (>90%) of traits typical for wild Helianthus. IBE and PAN populations showed >20% of plants with traits such as anthocyanin pigment absence and yellow ray flowers, indicating introgression of cultivated sunflower genes. The high morphological variability and wide geographic distribution of H. annuus natural populations observed in our study, demonstrated their high value as potential source of agronomically important traits. Appearance of traits introgressed from cultivated sunflower in these populations proves that crosses with cultivated sunflower are possible, thus fulfilling the basic pre-requirement for their successful use in sunflower breeding. ) is an important agricultural crop worldwide, as a main source of protein in human diet and as animal fodder. In Ethiopia, it is the second most important legume crop, next to faba bean (Vicia faba L.). However, its production is suffering from a devastating pest, the pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum L.), which is rapidly spreading to areas throughout the country where field pea is currently grown since its introduction three decades ago. During June-October 2011 a total of 602 pea accessions from Ethiopia were screened for pea weevil resistance at three field sites, where pea weevil is a major pest problem. From this trial, accessions with low mean percent seed damage were selected and evaluated during the following season (June-October 2012), in replicated trials. Some genotypes from selected accessions were also screened in the greenhouse for three consecutive generations. Both in the field trials and greenhouse experiments, a significant level of variation in seed percent damage was observed among accessions/genotypes. In the field trial, accessions GL8440, GL0840 and GV4710 showed a moderate level of resistance with less than 30% seed damage during the F2 while released varieties like Adet, scored nearly 80% seed damage. A similar pattern was also observed in the greenhouse experiments where genotypes 37-3 -VOK-par, 37-3-LGRK-par and 37-3-LGRKpro-1-1 recorded very low or no pea weevil damage. This work is a first step in finding resistance to pea weevil in the gene pool of field pea in Ethiopia.Keywords: resistance, Bruchus pisorum, field pea, pea weevil, Pisum sativum  Linda Mondini 1 , Miloudi Nachit 2 and Mario A. Pagnotta 1 *1 Tuscia University, Tuscia, Italy 2 ICARDA *Corresponding author: pagnotta@unitus.itIn the climatic changes framework, the water resources will be more and more important not only in terms of availability, but also of quality, considering that these led to an increase of water salinity. Landraces are often a reserve of important adaptive allele variants useful to be inserted in pre-breeding activity focused to face the climatic changes. Wheat modern varieties, cultivated over 210 Mha, in spite of its importance and diffusion, has not a specific salt tolerance traits to be introduced in the improved variety. The mechanisms developed by plant to tolerate salinity stress are not simple involving complex and elaborate signaling networks, which could be summarizing in three main strategy adopted by the plants: (i) osmotic tolerance, (ii) tolerance to Na+ and (iii) Na+ exclusion in the tissues. In order, to identify allelic variants able to confer tolerance to water stresses, conserved domains of transcription factors involved in salt tolerance have been multialigned and specific primers of DREB1, WRKY1 transcription factors (TFs) and HKT-1 have been designed. Full-length cDNA extracted from durum wheat accessions treated with solutions containing different salt concentrations were amplified with HRM (High Resolution Melting) technology in order to identify allelic variants revealed by differences in melting temperatures. The different amplicons obtained, have been sequenced and SNPs variants have been identified. Some of them were non-synonymous (nsSNPs) causing changing in peptide sequences. Several SNPs mutations identified, have been found in the highly tolerant durum landraces Jennah Khetifa, treated with the maximum salt concentration (1.5 M). Present results underline the value of these landraces and their mutants, which carry advantageous characteristics never identified before, that are of interest for stress tolerance breeding activities in durum wheat. The high potential oil hybrids show significant yield losses due to drought-heat stress frequently. The typical symptom is that the central flowers of the disk don't able to fertilize, or the zygotes are aborted. In this case there are no seeds in the centre of disk, which may cause yield reduction up to 20% on the field. ISZCS is an ancient Hungarian landrace maintained by Feed Crops Research Institute. This germplasm was selected at the central region of Pannonia (Western Hungary) before Second World War. Typical traits of ISZCS are the color and brightness of achene, the excellent hullability, high protein content of seeds, and specific size and shape of achene. Furthermore, the fertilizing ability of central flowers of disk (FACFD) is highly good and stable. This landrace has several disadvantageous features too, for example: selfcompatibility, sensitivity to several diseases and other pests, low yield potential.Our aim was to build the FACFD character into our new inbred lines and hybrids.The breeding process was started at 1999 from elite individuals of ISZCS. During the breeding cycles has become clear that FACFD is controlled by partial dominant alleles. In this case the trait has to build into both parental lines of hybrids. In S4-S6 generation of third breeding cycle we could select new elite lines (restorers and maintainers) which were homozygous for FACFD alleles and had high level of resistance to drought-heat stress. Yield of our new sunflower hybrids with FACFD alleles from ISZCS landrace, will be more resistant to drought-heat stress.Keywords: sunflower landrace ISZCS, drought-heat stress resistance, fertilizing ability of central flowers of diskLorenzo Raggi 1 , Salvatore Ceccarelli 2 , Renzo Torricelli 1 and Valeria Negri 11 Università degli Studi di Perugia (UNIPG), Italy 2 ICARDA *Corresponding author: valeria.negri@unipg.itThere is a need for the development of new cultivars that better tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses and that realize high performances in low-input conditions for the improvement of barley productivity. This requires a good understanding and management of the genetic diversity existing in both landraces and cultivated barley. However, with the rapid disappearance of landrace populations from their primary and secondary centers of diversity, heterogeneous populations might offer a realistic alternative by producing a modern equivalent of landraces or \"reconstituted\" landraces. Composite cross derived populations (CCP) can be useful materials to exploit genetic diversity in environmentally friendly agricultural systems and provide experimental material for studying effects of natural selection and as a source of locally adapted new varieties. In 1997, barley CCP was produced by crossing seven different F8 progenies, derived from seven crosses of cultivars, landraces and promising lines that were good performers under low-input conditions in Central Italy. The population was then multiplied for 13 years under a low input management system and without any conscious human selection. In 2011, 91 seeds from the CCP were randomly chosen and grown in the field as single plants that were characterized using morphological and molecular markers (\"neutral\" an EST-derived SSR). Data from the molecular analysis underlined that genetic diversity was mainly conserved in the CCP after 13 years of multiplication and, according to the different multilocus genotypes identified, that the population is composed of a minimum of 60 different genotypes. Evidences of selection for key genome areas, known to be involved in abiotic stress response in cereals, were also detected. In addition, results from the morphological characterization indicated that the population contains interesting lines that overcome the best varieties for traits of agronomic relevance like spike weight, number of seeds per spike and kernel weight. Landraces and modern varieties of cultivated plants are not separate units, but rather connected by (at least partly) common alleles and a shared history. Selection in landraces was the dominant breeding method in the early 20th century, but was later replaced by crossings. In the Nordic and Arctic region farmers' access to varieties is restricted. A short growing season and extreme photo-period fluctuations are challenging and require adapted varieties and a regional plant breeding. We have studied seed catalogs and national variety lists over time to gain an overview of varieties available today and in the past. We have also conducted a targeted survey for the Arctic region. The results show a consolidation in breeding enterprises and breeding programs. With one exception, vegetable breeding has vanished from the Nordic and Artic regions. For pulses and for several minor crops breeding in the Nordic regions decreased or ceased completely, including for some important Artic crops. The survey showed that there is a general need for new varieties and increased variety testing. A Nordic or Circumpolar co-operation that offers an opportunity for gene banks' participation is described. From our perspective the chain \"gene bankbreeding -seed companies -farmers\" could be supplemented by other networks and linkages. One such initiative is the Nordic public private partnership, in which the Nordic ministries of food and breeding companies work together on pre-breeding projects. Other initiatives are farmers' and seed savers' networks for evaluation and local marketing of old wheat, pea and vegetable varieties. In Sweden and Norway the gene bank has listed more than 50 conservation varieties and varieties developed for growing under particular conditions. Cooperation with newly emerging non-for profit organisations to share know-how in diversity conservations and utilization is an important genebank activity in Canada. The relevance of participation of lay people and farmer's involvement in the seed system is increasing, especially in marginal regions of the world, such as the Nordic and Arctic regions.Keywords: Genetic resources, Lay participation, Pre-breeding, NetworkLorena Marinoni 1 , Andrés Bortoluzzi 1 , Mauricio Parra-Quijano 2 , Juan Zabala 1 and José Pensiero 11 Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina.2 International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture -FAO, Italy *Corresponding author: marinonilorena@hotmail.com and mauricio.parra@fao.orgStudies on native wild plant genetic resources become important since they may be domesticated or useful for the identification of genes associated with tolerance to biotic and/or abiotic stress. In order to make available these interesting traits, germplasm collections must to capture species' genetic diversity as much as possible. Optimized collecting method is useful to improve the representativeness on germplasm collections through the inclusion of accessions from all type of environments where the target species occurs. Ecogeographical land characterization (ELC) maps make it possible to detect environmental gaps in germplasm collections and locate potential collecting sites where focusing collecting efforts. In Argentina, the genebank of the Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral (FCA-UNL) holds the most important national germplasm collection for Trichloris crinita and Trichloris pluriflora (31 and 21 accessions, respectively) but due to that previous expeditions were not planned according to any collecting strategy, a low representativeness is expected. Both species are native forage adapted to arid and semi-arid environments. The present study shows how the application of optimized collecting method based on gap analysis and ELC maps can make more efficient collecting activities. In 2013, collecting trips were carried out covering a total itinerary of 4000 km. New accessions collected from key environments were introduced, and the ecogeographical representativeness of the FCA-UNL germplasm collection was contrasted (before and after collecting activities). Results show gains and improvement of the representativeness especially for T. crinita.Keywords: Geographic Information Systems, spatial analysis, environment, wild pasture species, semiarid, salinity","tokenCount":"7934"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6e136964a669bc73d9c0b23c90a3e1c5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/998aa571-b2f1-43dd-ab32-c2624b2911bb/retrieve","id":"-1041774172"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"402d4fda-b6cf-4709-bf63-fabb61fd8d7d","pagecount":"13","content":"To facllitate the urxierstanding of the way in which the Bean gemplasn flow maIlagEd by CIAT ls organized, we will briefly review the structure of the Bean PLo;tLam at the Center.Each regional program operates within strict geographical bc:luOOaries for the respective region. The National Programs located within the regien have direct contact analgSt them or through the CIAT' s regional coardinator who acta as contact with CIAT' s headquarters.-2 -The Program in Palmira headquarters operates worldwide. With the exception of the plant breeders, each member of the Program has direct relationships with the Natiooal Programs. The sphere of action of each of the three breeders is limited to certain c:x>Ulltries or regioos with the IXJrpose of having each focusing on given grain types of plant types preferred by consumers and by prcrlucers in well established areas. 'lbls, each plant breeder is respoosible for developing breeder' s material for the following regicns:Breeder I: Central Amarica, the Caribbean, coastal areas of Mexioo, and areas in Brazil where there is preference for black. (preto) and red (roxo, roxinho, roxao) beans.Breeder II: Northwest Argentina, Chile, Brazil (with the exoeption of those areas specifically covered by Breeder I) Highlands of Mexioo and the Middle East.Breeder III: Andean Zone and Africa. Likewise this Breeder is respcnsible for the green beans work worldwide.As you can see, each breeder maintains relationships with a given CXlllIltry whether directly or through the regional program, but none can go beyond their territorial sphere of influence. This provision is to avoid CNerloading the National Programs with a supply of materials developed for other regicns. As a coosequence of this arrangement, Breeder I works with small seeded black. and red beans which are consumed the llOSt in Central Arnerica, the Caribbean, eastern coast of Mexico and large areas of Brazil. Breeder II, concerns himself wi th the whi te seeded beans planted in Argentina. Chile and the Middle East, the carioca, and mulatinhos from Brazil, and the yellow, ojo de cabra, pinto and flor de mayo from Mexico. Breeder IlI, concentrates on large seeded light color varieties that are preferred in the Andean zone in the south, or the red mottled beans preferred in the northern Andean Zone and in Africa.The provision of assigning to each breeder a well established geographical area guarantees the concentration of their efforts on given grain types and varieties. It is also their responsibility to develop genetic material that can be used in breeding projects for specific purposes, this in order to contemplate in breeding work, the llOSt important limiting factors to production. A partial list of work areas or projects which are respcnsibility of each breeder follows: Breeder I:Rust, Ccmnon Bacterial Blight, Dnpoasca, Apion, Nitrogen Fixation, Golden ~ic.Breeder II: Anthracnose, Angular Leaf Spot, Drought, Low P levels, High yield potential.Breeder lII: Ascochyta, Halo blight, Bean fly, Nenatodes. In oxder te guarantee that the germp1asm distributed fulfils certain require:nents te make it appealing for the national programs, CIAT'sBean PrcgLdln developed in , 978 a t.hree-stage evaluation 5ysten that has evolved throughout time te reach the modus operarxli. described below:Brief description of the Gel:n!plasm evaluation am distrihItion scheoe for the Bean Team of CIAT.'rtle scheme of organization, distribution of matarials, data collectioo arrl analysis and dissem.ination of resulta is res¡;xnsibility of the Agror:omy-International Trials section.'rtle evaluation system is made up of three suooessive nurseries eaeh of whieh ca:lStitutes the basis for screening those matarials whieh will entry the follc:w.i.ng nursery. Each nursery has a duration of one year.All of the matarials entering the nurseries are available to all institutions warking on beans¡ the p:¡rpose of the evaluations is to priorly s=een the matarials on the basis of their main traits in order to rationalize the distribution 'in accordance to the user's interests.'!'he three nurseries of the evaluation scheoe are known with the spanish acronym VFJ!' whieh neansNursery of the Bean Team, EP, starrling for Prelim:inary Yield Trials arrl IBY1IN, for International Bean Yield arrl Adaptation Nursery. '!'he matarials of the first two nurseries, VFJ!' am EP, are distributed as observation nurseries (small samples without replications), not necessarily uniform, but adapted up:::n specific request frcm the interested partYi the last nursery, IBYAN, is distributed as a yield trial with three replications and is uniform for eaeh type of ccmoorcial grain category • .In overall teI:ms the scheoe operates as follCM'S:EVery year the three breeders frcm CIAT release their best materials to Agrooany. This release has certain restrictions:It is done on fixed date (February eaeh year)Each breeder can xelease up to 500 lines Matarials must be J:eSistant to camon bean nosaicThe linea must be advanced ones (no segregating) and the grain characteristics to meet ccmnercial standards. Although many linas caning fron other bean research pLogLatnS different te CIAT's Bean PLo:JLdlU, have been distribu~ through the network., it cannot be stated that there is a system by which it may be guaranteed that the very best materials being produced in the world 90 through eva!uation in the netwoLk system. It is an undeniable fact that exd'larges exist indeperñent fran the network, and we believe it is desirable te establish a procedure in arder te systematize improIred germplasm flCM fron other programa te ClAT's network. This in no way is te curtail the right te free bilateral e:x:changes independent fran the netwoLk (oor own researchers llBintain exchanges at personal level), neither is it te institute a a:mnit:.trent te deliver materials which a researcher does not wish te share (our own researchers are free to turn in te VEF only those IlBterials they so wish).The advantages of systematizing the germplasm flOlY would be as follCMS:Evel:y year bean research woIXerS would have the best amnercial type materlals available fran the stock of worlwide breeders.As consequenc:e of inclusian in VEF trials those materials would have been tested fer at least six main diseases.     IBYAN 1976IBYAN -1986 No. of trials ","tokenCount":"973"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4cc3d95cd89298726476ac417a1b34ed","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H042502.pdf","id":"-1048370495"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"00e6aae3-e4a6-4110-897c-e8b311072153","pagecount":"253","content":"The Blue Nile is located between 16 0 2' N and 7 0 40' N latitude, and 32 0 30' E and 39 0 49' E longitude. It has an estimated area of 311,437 sq. km. From its source Gish Abbay in West Gojam, Abbay flows northward as the Gilgel Abbay into Lake Tana. The Blue Nile River (also called Abbay River in Ethiopia) exits from the south east of Lake Tana and flows south and then westwards cutting a deep gorge towards the western part of Ethiopia. A number of tributaries joined Abbay river in Ethiopia: Beshilo, Derame, Jema, Muger, Finchaa, Didessa and Dabus from the east and south; and the Suha, Chemoga, Keshem, Dera and Beles from the north. The Dinder and Rahad rise to the west of Lake Tana and flow westwards across the border joining the Blue Nile below Sennar. In the Sudan, the Blue Nile flows on the plain desert until it reaches the confluence, where it meets with White Nile in Khartoum.The basin is sub divided into 18 major sub basins namely, Lower Blue Nile, Upper Blue Nile, Dinder, Rahad, Tana, Beshelo, Beles, Dabus, Diddessa, Jemma, Muger, Guder, Fincha, Anger, Wenbera, South Gojam, North Gojam and Welaka. Figure 1 shows these 18 sub-basins   Potential Evapotranspiration (PET) in the basin ranges between 1056 mm and 2292 mm per year. High PET is observed between 2200 mm and 2292 mm per year in most parts of Sudan; Al Jasira, Qadarif, and Sennar regions. A relatively lower PET is observed in the other parts of Sudan ranging from 1800 to 2200 mm per year. This is highly correlated with the temperature and rainfall distribution. Higher PET is also observed in the North western parts of Ethiopia, in Dinder and Rihad, ranging from 1800 to 2200 mm per year. The Eastern and southern parts having lower PET ranging between 1200 and 1800 mm per year and the lowest PET below 1200 mm per year observed in the parts of the highlands, see Figure 5. There are 94 meteorological stations in Ethiopia, which are georeferenced, and for some of which there are records. There are also six key stations in Sudan. The meteorological stations are located through out the basin are shown in Figure 6.  . Mean annual rainfall for these stations show 700 mm, 415 mm, and 119 mm respectively, see Figure 7. The stations in Ethiopia have data for 20 years  though some of them are incomplete. Mean annual rainfall for the stations vary between a minimum of 613 mm (at Humera) and a maximum of 1820 mm (at Chagni). The mean monthly evaporation for the stations in Ethiopia ranges between a minimum of 101 mm (at Ambo station) and a maximum of 228 mm (at Gonder station). In the Ethiopian part of the basin, there are some 138 hydrological gauging stations with which 45 stations have some sporadic sediment data. However, there are a number of gauging station records for flow data with a limited number of years. There are five main gauging stations in the Sudan part. These are at Khartoum, Sennar, Dinder, Rahad and El Diem. The main hydrological gauging stations are shown in Figure 13. 1 9 2 0 1 9 2 4 1 9 2 8 1 9 3 2 1 9 3 6 1 9 4 0 1 9 4 4 1 9 4 8 1 9 5 2 1 9 5 6 1 9 6 0 1 9 6 4 1 9 6 8 1 9 7 2 1 9 7 6 1 9 8 0 1 9 8 4 1 9 8 8 1 9 9 2 1 9 2 0 1 9 2 5 1 9 3 0 1 9 3 5 1 9 4 0 1 9 4 5 1 9 5 0 1 9 5 5 1 9 6 0 1 9 6 5 1 9 7 0 1 9 7 5 1 9 8 0 1 9 8 5 1 9 9 0 Annual Discharge (M m 3) J a n -9 3 J a n -9 4 J a n -9 5 J a n -9 6 J a n -9 7 J a n -9 8 J a n -9 9 J a n -0 0 J a n -0 1 1 9 2 1 9 9 3 1 9 9 4 1 9 9 5 1 9 9 6 1 9 9 7 1 9 9 8 1 9 9 9 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1    M ean M onthly Flow M ean M onthly Flow   The administrative regions in Ethiopia consist of three regional states namely, Amhara Regional State, Oromia Regional State and Benishangul-   The Ethiopia part of Blue Nile also called Abay Basin in Ethiopia is located in the northwestern region of Ethiopia between 7 0 40' N and 12 0 51' N latitude, and 34 0 25' E and 39 0 49' E longitude. It covers an area of approximately 199,812 sq km. It shares a boundary with the Tekeze basin to the north, the Awash basin to the east and south east, the Omo-Gibe basin to the south, and the Baro-Akobo basin to the south west. The country's largest freshwater lake, Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile (Abbay) river is located to the north of the basin.The Abbay basin accounts for a major share of the country's irrigation and hydropower potential. It has an irrigation potential of 815,581 ha and a hydro potential of 78,820 GWH/yr. The basin has an average annual run-off estimated to 54.8 BCM (Awlachew et.al., 2007).The basin is subdivided into 16 sub basins based on the major rivers in the basin, the Abbay River and its tributaries.     The Eastern and southern parts having lower PET ranging between 1200 and 1800 mm per year and the lowest PET below 1200 mm per year observed in the parts of the highlands. This is highly correlated with the temperature. Abbay sub basin has 16 sub basins, which covers a total surface area of about 199,812 sq km. The area and gross runoff depth of each sub basin of the Abbay basin is shown in Table 1 below. The runoff for each drainage unit is gross runoff, which does not take evaporation and other channel losses into account.  The agro-ecology of the basin is divided into three major climatic zones, cold to very cold, tepid to cold, and hot to warm, and further divided into moist, sub moist, humid and sub humid, see Figure 43: Major Agro-Ecological Zones in the Abbay Basin.  The geology of the basin signifies different formations such as Basalt, Alluvium, Lacustrine deposit, sand stone, granite and marbles. The dominant rock is Basalt (Tarmaber basalt, followed by Ashange basalt, and Amba Aiba basalt). The administrative structure of the country is hierarchical, from regional states, to zones, Weredas and Peasant Associations (PA) or Kebeles. According to the current regional structure, the basin covers three regional states namely Amhara regional state, Oromia regional state, and Benishangul-Gumus regional state.  The Blue Nile enters the Sudan from Ethiopia flowing downstream until it reaches the Roseries Dam. In addition the Dinder and Rahad rivers rise to the west of Lake Tana and flow westwards across the border joining the Blue Nile below Sennar. In the Sudan, the Blue Nile flows on the plain desert until it reaches the confluence, where it meets with White Nile in Khartoum.The altitude in the basin ranges from 370 masl in the lowlands up to 1480 masl in the eastern and southern parts of the basin. Western part of the basin, from upstream of Sennar up to Khartoum flattens below 450 masl. A slope of less than 3 percent characterizes the basin, while a slope of greater than 15 percent is observed in the south and in the eastern parts of the basin which have an altitude of greater than 500 masl. Rainfall in the Blue Nile of the Sudan part, ranges from 126 mm up to 1288 mm. In the northern part lower rainfall is observed from 126 -300 mm where as higher rainfall greater than 750 mm is observed upstream of Rosaries.  The major dominant soil types in the basin are Vertisols, followed by Cambisols, and Luvisols, with occurrences of Alisols, Leptosols, Nitisols, Fluvisols and Arinosols in smaller units. The altitude in the basin ranges between 1788 meters and 3712 meters above sea level (masl). It is mainly flat around the lake with in a range of 1750-1850 masl, and extending to the highlands up to 3200 masl altitude.  There are a number of meteorological stations in the basin. However, the data availability is not complete for all the stations.   M ean M onthly Flow The agro-ecology of the watershed is characterized by tepid to cool moist highlands and sub moist and sub humid mid highlands.  The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging between 780 mm and 1300 mm. Lower annual rainfall from 780 mm up to 900 mm along the river and higher rainfall greater than 900 mm in the highlands is observed.     The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging between 833 mm and 1326 mm. Lower annual rainfall from 833 mm up to 1000 mm along the river and lowlands, and higher rainfall greater than 1000 mm is observed in the highlands. The annual maximum and minimum temperature in the sub basin varies between 16 0 C -31.5 0 C and 3 0 C -16.5 0 C respectively. Temperature is higher along the river with a maximum of 28 0 C-31.5 0 C and minimum of 13 0 C -16.5 0 C.    The sub basin is characterized by tepid to cool moist mid highlands, the lowlands in the northern parts of the basin being hot to warm moist lowlands.  The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging approximately between 1052 mm and 1957 mm. Lower annual rainfall from 1052 mm up to 1300 mm in the western parts of the sub basin and higher rainfall greater than 1700 mm in the south eastern highlands is observed.  The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging between 970 mm and 1985 mm. Lower annual rainfall from 970 mm up to 1200 mm in the northern parts of the sub basin and higher rainfall greater than 1600 mm in the south eastern highlands is observed.  The geology of the sub basin is mainly dominated by Basalt and granodiorites & diorites. There are also granite, marble and alluvium deposits.  The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging between 1200 mm and 2200 mm. Lower annual rainfall from 1200 mm up to 1400 mm in the northern lowlands of the sub basin and higher rainfall greater than 1900 mm in the southern and eastern highlands is observed. The annual maximum and minimum temperature in the sub basin varies between 20 0 C -33 0 C and 6.5 0 C -19 0 C respectively. Temperature is higher in the northern lowlands with a maximum of 30 0 C -33 0 C and minimum of 16 0 C -19 0 C.  The geology of the sub basin is mainly dominated by Basalt and volcanics. There are also granite, colluvium and alluvium deposits. Fincha sub basin has an area of 4,089 km 2 . The altitude in Fincha sub basin ranges approximately between 880 masl and 3200 masl. The highlands in the western and southern part of the sub basin are higher in altitude, greater than 2200 masl up to 3200 masl. The lowlands have lower altitude less than 1400 masl in the northern parts of the sub basin. The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging between 960 mm and 1835 mm. Lower annual rainfall less than 1100 mm in the northern lowlands of the sub basin and higher rainfall greater than 1300 mm in the western and southern highlands is observed.     Anger sub basin has an area of 7,902 km 2 . The altitude in Anger sub basin ranges approximately between 860 masl and 3210 masl. The highlands of the sub basin are higher in altitude, greater than 1800 masl up to 3210 masl. The lowlands have lower altitude less than 1200 masl in the western lowlands of the sub basin.   Wenbera sub basin has an area of 12,957 km 2 . The altitude in Wenbera sub basin ranges approximately between 575 masl and 2590 masl. The highlands of the sub basin are higher in altitude, greater than 1800 masl up to 2590 masl. The lowlands have lower altitude less than 900 masl in the western lowlands of the sub basin. The Wenbera subbasin drains to Abbay from both sides and the name of the watershed is given to the collective streams draining to the Abbay. The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging approximately between 1090 mm and 1965 mm. Lower annual rainfall less than 1300 mm in the western lowlands of the sub basin and along the Abbay river, and higher rainfall greater than 1700 mm in the highlands is observed.   The geology of the sub basin is mainly dominated by Adigrat Sandstone and Basalt in the highlands. There are also Alluvium, Granite, Granodiorite and diorites, and Clastics deposits. Beshelo sub basin has an estimated area of 13,243 km 2 . The altitude in Beshelo sub basin ranges approximately between 1170 masl and 4260 masl. The highlands of the sub basin are higher in altitude, greater than 3000 masl up to 4260 masl. The lowlands have lower altitude less than 2000 masl.  The geology of the sub basin is mainly dominated by Basalt. There are Rhyolite, and Alluvium deposits. Beshelo sub basin covers 16 weredas; Ambasel, Tach Gayint, Esite, Walda, Dewunt Delanta, Guba Lafto, Lay Gayint, Debresina, Dessie Zuria, Sayint, Mekdela, Kutaber, Tenta, Simada, Meket, and Legambo . The total population of the weredas is 3,309,439 people. Welaka sub basin has an estimated area of 6,415 km 2 . The altitude in Welaka sub basin ranges approximately between 1070 masl and 4200 masl. The highlands of the sub basin are higher in altitude, greater than 2600 masl up to 4200 masl. The lowlands have lower altitude less than 1700 masl. The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging approximately between 800 mm and 1390 mm. Lower annual rainfall less than 1000 mm in the western and the southern parts of the sub basin, and higher rainfall greater than 1100 mm up to 1390 mm is observed in the highlands. The annual maximum and minimum temperature in the sub basin varies between 13 0 C -31 0 C and -0.5 0 C -16 0 C respectively. Temperature is higher in the western lowlands with a maximum of 27 0 C -31 0 C and minimum of 13 0 C -16 0 C.   The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging approximately between 810 mm and 1815 mm. Lower annual rainfall less than 1200 mm in the western and the southern parts of the sub basin, and higher rainfall greater than 1400 mm up to 1815 mm is observed in the highlands. The annual maximum and minimum temperature in the sub basin varies between 13 0 C -31 0 C and -0.5 0 C -16 0 C respectively. Temperature is higher in the western lowlands with a maximum of 26 0 C -31 0 C and minimum of 12 0 C -16 0 C.   The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging approximately between 845 mm and 2030 mm. Lower annual rainfall less than 1200 mm in the south eastern parts of the sub basin, and higher rainfall greater than 1600 mm up to 2025 mm is observed in the northern parts of the sub basin. The annual maximum and minimum temperature in the sub basin varies between 14 0 C -33 0 C and 1 0 C -18 0 C respectively. Temperature is higher in the western lowlands with a maximum of 28 0 C -33 0 C and minimum of 12 0 C -18 0 C. The geology of the sub basin is mainly dominated by Basalt, with the south eastern lowlands dominated by sand stone. There are also Coluvium, and Alluvium deposits. The sub basin has an annual rainfall ranging approximately between 885 mm and 1790 mm. Lower annual rainfall less than 1000 mm in the western lowland parts of the sub basin, and higher rainfall greater than 1300 mm up to 1790 mm is observed in the eastern parts of the sub basin.       The Rahad River rises from western parts of Ethiopia and extends up to Sudan. The Ethiopian part of the Rahad sub basin has an estimated area of 8,651km 2 . Rahad sub basin extends in the Sudan with an estimated area of 25,818 km 2 .The altitude in Rahad sub basin ranges approximately between 500 masl and 2300 masl. The highlands of the sub basin are higher in altitude, greater than 1300 masl up to 2300 masl. The western lowlands have lower altitude less than 600 masl.     Source: (CDE, 1999) ","tokenCount":"2837"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"652dd06c3e75f1f6c7a5147185b16983","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/e8555d75-2b1c-45c2-b312-36a0c6ee1184/content","id":"-1889082242"},"keywords":["Baking quality","loaf volume","Triticum aestivum","Nitrogen"],"sieverID":"633bf32a-7cf1-4585-b1f9-ce22bd515270","pagecount":"6","content":"In Kenya, Nitrogen is the first limiting macro-element on many farms where bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) has been grown continuously for more than a decade. On-farm trials were conducted in Kenya by superimposing the treatments on farmers' fields in Nakuru (5 sites), Uasin Gishu (3 sites), and Timau (2 sites) districts during the main growing seasons of 1997-99. This was to study the effect of rate and time of application of fertilizer nitrogen (N) on bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) grain yield, yield components, and grain quality.Wheat grain samples from the ten (N) nitrogen rates and timing treatments combined across replications were analysed at the Small Grain Institute, Bethlehem, Republic of South Africa for milling and baking quality in accordance with standard analytical procedures (Pyler, 1973;Kent, 1983;Hoseney, 1986). Results revealed that flour protein content (FPC) and grain nitrogen (GN) increased significantly in response to N rate. Nitrogen application increased timing of sedimentation (SDSS) rate and loaf volume, but decreased the kernel weight, falling number (FLN) and flour yield (FLY) percentage. N application had P<0.05 effects only on mixing development time (MDT), FLN and (SDSS). Split application of N resulted in superior quality attributes than when the entire N was applied at once. The sensitivity of rate and time of N application was found to be greater in the wheat quality attributes than the grain yield and yield components. These results can therefore be used in situations where good wheat prices are determined on the basis of grain quality.Nitrogen is a key factor in achieving optimum grain yield. Plant use efficiency of nitrogen depends on several factors including application time, rate of nitrogen applied, cultivar and climatic conditions (Moll et al., 1982). According to Gooding and Davis, (1997) variability in grain protein can be attributed to environments that differ across locations and years with respect to seasonal temperatures, moisture, and soil type. Variability on grain protein can also be attributed to differences to cultivar genetic potential and to management decisions (Smith and Gooding, 1996;Lopez-Bellido, et al., 1998).Among the most important management practices influencing grain protein content is N fertilizer application rate and timing. Increasing N fertilizer rates can result in higher grain protein content (Vaughan et al., 1990;Kelley, 1995). Soil nitrogen (N) is frequently deficient in continuous cereal cropping systems, and this is commonly encountered in soils on which crops are cultivated more than once annually (Hanson et al., 1982). In Kenya, N is the first limiting macro-element on farms where bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) has been grown continuously JAPS for more than a decade (Mwangi, 1995). In spite of this, most wheat farmers in Kenya apply basal fertiliser in the form of MAP (Mono-ammonium phosphate) or DAP (Diammonium phosphate) at an average rate of 130 kg DAP or MAP/ha (Hassan et al., 1992). Thus, the amount of N applied by such applications is insufficient (i.e., only 16 to 23 kg N ha -1 ) for optimal crop production. In Kenya, wheat grain was previously purchased from farmers on a weight, rather than quality, basis. Grain merchants currently tend to pay higher prices for grain of \"hard\" wheat cultivars, and farmers thus are sensitive to the quality of grain. In general, the grain quality of Kenyan wheat cultivars grown at high altitudes (i.e., 2000-2300 m.) is lower than that of the same cultivars grown below 2000 m due to cooler temperatures, higher rainfall, and a longer growing season at the higher elevations. Pinto and Hurd (1970) indicated that the effect of altitude seems to confound the correlation between protein content and baking quality in some cultivars with little evidence to indicate that breeding for higher protein content would improve bread-making quality proportionately. With the advent of market liberalisation, Kenya, like other countries of the world, has had to reassess its agricultural research strategy. Presently, market-oriented interventions, such as industrial quality, have been given a relatively high priority. Farmers must now be provided with the appropriate wheat cultivars and associated crop management practices to meet the demand for standards of high bread-making quality. Agronomic practices pertaining to the appropriate rates and timing of N fertiliser application and the resultant effects on the quality and yield of bread wheat grain in Kenya are discussed in this paper.Field trials were carried out during 1997 and 1999 at ten site-season combinations. The N fertiliser trials were superimposed on farmers fields in Nakuru (5 sites), Uasin Gishu (3 sites), and Timau districts (2 sites) during the main growing seasons. Urea (46% N) was the source of fertiliser N. Host farmers applied DAP (Di-Ammonium Phosphate) basally as the source of phosphorous in wheat fields on which trials were carried out. These farmers planted the wheat using their own preferred seed rates; basal DAP application rate, and sowing date. All trials were superimposed on farmers' fields sown with the recently recommended Kenyan semi-dwarf bread wheat cultivars. Subsequent to sowing by each host farmer, research staff marked out plots on farmers' fields and laid out treatments using three N rates: 20, 40 and 80 kg N/ha. Three N application timings were used in factorial combination with the three N rates as follows;(i) All N applied at planning (i.e., top dressed on the soil immediately after the host farmer's sowing); (ii)All N applied at tillering stage (iii)One-third of N applied at planting and two-thirds applied at tillering stage Thus, with the addition of one control plot (i.e., nil N), there were 10 treatments. The N treatments were applied to gross plots of 5 m x 5 m with three replications laid out in a Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD). Weed control was done by use of herbicide. At crop maturity, net plots of 3m x 3 m were harvested by hand-sickling, and the grain threshed with a Vogel thresher. The wheat grain was sun-dried and weighed and then the grain yield data were converted to 12.5% standard moisture content using the formula as shown below:Grain yield at standard moisture content = [100-standard moisture] x [plot grain weight][100-actual moisture] Data on selected yield components were also collected during the growing season. Grain samples from the ten treatments and ten site season combinations were bulked across replications within sites and sent to the Small Grain institute, Bethlehem, Republic of South Africa for grain quality analysis, in accordance with standard analytical procedures (Pyler, 1973;Kent, 1983;Hoseney, 1986). All data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using MSTATC software, and single degree of freedom orthogonal contrasts were applied to treatment means to assess individual components of the aggregate treatment effects. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe effect on N rate and timing on wheat industrial quality:The effect of nitrogenous (N) fertiliser rate and timing on selected wheat grain quality parameters are summarised in Table 1. Application of N (i.e., the mean effect of the three N rates) decreased thousand kernel weight (TKW), falling number (FLN), and flour yield (FLY), but increased sedimentation (SDSS), flour protein content (FPC), and loaf volume (LV). However, it had no effect on mixing development time (MDT) (Table 2). In general, the measured traits associated with baking of leavened bread were enhanced by N application, while flour milling traits were diminished. Such negative correlations were not common, nor were the absence of an association between FPC and MDT (Kent, 1983). The contrasts between application of whole N rate at planting or split application versus the delayed application of all N at crop tillering stage, exhibited a significant effect on MDT, although the rheological significance of this effect is questionable (Table 3). Contracts between all N at planting versus, splitting revealed significant differences for FLN and SDSS, but not for TKW, FLY, FPC, MDT or FLV (Table 4). MDT was highest with all N applied at tillering versus either all at planting or splitting. FLN and SDSS values were higher with split N application than with all N applied at planting. Increasing rates of top-dressed N clearly enhanced FPC and LFV (Table 1), the important nutritional and baking industry traits. The response of FLN, FPC and MDT to N rate exhibited significant linear and non-significant quadratic components, indicating that peak N response was not attained with the highest rate of N applied in the current study. The suggestion that higher rates of N could be optimal for these traits would only be of practical significance if N response was also positive for grain yield (GY).The effect of N rate and time of application on yield components of wheat: Spike density m 2 (SPM) and biomass yield were not significantly affected by the main effect of N application rate (Table 5); their corresponding linear and quadratic orthogonal components were also non-significant. Plant height (PH) only exhibited a significant difference (P<0.1) between the N treatment (i.e., 90.5cm and the mean of the nine treatments receiving N (i.e., 92.4 cm) GY exhibited non-significance of the main effect of N rate (Table 5); however, the orthogonal contrast for NQuadratic exhibited response (P<0.1), whereas the NLinear contrast was non significant.  Grain nitrogen uptake (GNU) was significantly increased by the main effect of N rate (Table 5); furthermore, the NLinear component was significant (P<0.1), while the NQuadratic component was not. Thus the highest rate of N application was associated with the highest GNU. The GNU increase is consistent with findings by researchers in other countries (Johnson et al., 1973;Fowler et al., 1989;Smith and Gooding, 1996;Lopez-Bellido et al., 1998). Despite the non-significance of the GNU quadratic component, it was obvious that this trait exhibited diminishing response to successively higher rates of N. For the first interval of N application, GNU increased by 5.1 kg ha -1 in response to an increase of 20 kg N applied ha -1 (i.e., 25.5% recovery in the grain); for the second interval, GNU increased by 1.1 kg ha-1 in response to an increase of 40 kg N applied ha-1 (i.e., 2.8% recovery in grain). None of the wheat yield components were significantly affected by the main effect of N application timing (Table 6). However, the application of all N at planting increased PH relative to the split application of N (P<0.05). Noting that the applied rates did not significantly influence the grain yield and yield components it may necessary to carry out a study involving higher rates of N. This may explain just in case the soils are too deficient of N that may require higher rates than those applied in this paper.","tokenCount":"1727"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f6a4d9c65fa1cdf024949e68de63c20d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/005ce189-ba36-4e3b-8705-646166c09399/retrieve","id":"-367999542"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6eb9de6f-5980-4fbe-9b17-519383d71b1a","pagecount":"112","content":"Background lnformation on Sean Production in the Fertile Crescent Zone of Uganda I t , l SESSION l. Background Information on Bean Production in UgandaBackground information on bean production by geographical area is presented in\"this Session. For this purpose, the country was divided into three geographical zones. These zones are the highland, fertile crescent, and other areas.1. The highland region includes the higher elevation areas surrounding Mount Elgon, the Rwenzori Mountains, and the Kabale District.2. The fertile crescent region encompasses the districts adjacent to Lake Victoria from the border with Tanzania to the border with Kenya.3. The remainder of the country is aggregated into the other area category.Research on beans in Uganda dates from the early 1960s. A significant landmark was achieved in 1968 with the release of the cultivar K 20. This cultivar was immediately successful and was widely adopted by farmers across the country. Since introduction K 20 has continued to dominate bean production in the country.National average bean yields in the 1970s ranged from 500 to 800 kilograms per hectare. Ouring the 1980s, bean yields were in the 600 to 700 kilogram range, and by the late 1980s yields were approaching the one ton per hectare level. These figures indicate that Uganda bean farmers are increasing their productivity, but farmer yields continue to lag behind the potential yield of currently used cultivars. Potential yield is believed to be in the 1.5 to 2 ton per hectare range. The observed increase in productivity over the past decade is due to a combination of factors, including research efforts and market developments.Sean researchers in Uganda started collaborating with CIAT in the early 1980s and a formal agreement was signed in 1985. The aim of this collaboration was to increase the productivity of bean production in Uganda, and in eastern Africa generally, through research.The first phase of co-operation between the Uganda Sean Programme and CIAT's Regional Program has now ended. It is thus appropriate to critically review the results of research emanating from th;s collaboration and plan for a second five-year phase.The objectives of the National Research Planning Workshop on beans are: 1. To examine and assess background information on bean production, marketing, and researcn.2. To identify bean production problems and their causes.3. To identify and prioritize opportunities for research in bean production.4. To develop strategies for bean research and dissemination of research results for the next five year period.The purpose of this paper lS to review the cropping systems of the highland areas of Uganda and to identify the production constraints with particular reference to beans.The principal bean producing highland areas of Uganda include the Kabale Mountains and foothills, Mount Elgon, the southwestern volcanic mountains (Rwenzori range), and the southwestern volcanic foothills. The agricultural systems practiced in these highland areas are influenced by climatic conditions, altitude, phys;ography, and human population densities.Atmospheric climatic conditions are a good indicator of the agricultural potential of an area. The highland areas in Uganda tend to have cool temperatures and an adequate level and distribution of rainfall. The soil moisture and temperature regimes of the highland areas indicate that the area is suitable for many crops, including coffea, tea, bananas, beans, sorghum, and potatoes. Steep and highly erodible slopes are one of the major limitations to agricultural land use in these areas.In addition to tha identified environmental characteristics, high rainfal1 are~s tend to haya high population densities. These high population densities often result in intensiva land use which can leed to a break down in soil structure and result in the promotion of soil erosionoThe distribution of the Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA) of Uganda is shown in Figure 1. The establishment of the MLRAs ;s based on the soil, landscape, climate, vegetation, and water resource characteristics of an area (Yost and Eswaran). The Kabale Mountains fall into MLRA unit 1 classification.The topography of the Kabale Mountain area is characterized by steep hills with incised streams and small lakes. Elevations range from about 1,830 to 2,500 m. The lowlands in the valley bottoms are level to gently sloping, while the uplands are characterized by the steep slopes on the mountain sides.Average annual precipitation is about 1000 mm. The area has two wet seasons extending from February to May and August to December. June and July are the driest months. Average annual temperature is 17° e with June and July being the coolest months with an average temperature of 16° e. Because of the cool temperatures, beans require a long growing season. It ;s estimated that beans require a growing season of 87, 95, 96 and 109 days in the Northern, Central, Eastern and Western regions of Uganda, respect;vely (Mukasa).The dominant soil types in the Kabale Mountains are haplohumults, kandiudults and sombrihumults. In general, these soils are fine textured. Narrow ridges of sandstone outcrops are common on some of the steeper slopes. Residual and colluvial soils are on uplands with alluvium and marshes in lowlands and along streams.The natural vegetation consists of a grass savanna with some of the medium-altitude moist areas in evergreen forest and thickets. Most of the area lS, however, under intensive crop cultivation. The main crop grown during the first wet season is sorghum. Other important crops include beans, bananas, sweet and Irish potatoes, peas, maize, tobacco, coffee, millet, and wheat.Mixed cropping is a common practice in this area. Bean cultivars with a bush type structure are generally preferred for intercropping because they do not intertwine with assoclated crops. When intercropped with I~ish pota toes , beans are sown in the inter-ridge spaces. Intercropping w;th sweet potatoes differs in that both crops are planted on top of mounds. Where beans are intercropped with maize, sorghum, pumpkins, or bananas they are sown as a ground cover crop.Most sorghum is sown in the January to February per;od as a relay crop in maize.Many farmers stagger the sowing of beans because they want to avoid the heavy rains and resulting disease infestations which can reduce yiel•ds. Some beans are sown at the onset of the rains, while others are sown after the rains have decreased in intensity. The staggered sowing may a1so be related to a household labour availability.An increase in the land area sown to beans was found over the period 1981-88 (Table 1). Most of the cultivars sown are bush types, but climbers are dominant in the higher elevations around Kisoro. The names of the major cu1tivars sown are shown in Table 2. Beans are consumed in both the fresh and dry form and a few farmers eat snap beans. Consumption of bean leaves is also common in selected areas.The Kabale foothills are label1ed as Unit 2 in Figure 1. The area consists of the moderately steep foothills adjoining the Kabale Mountains. Average annual precipitation is about 950 mm and is evenly distributed throughout the year except for June and July which are the driest months. Average annual' temperature is 19° C with the highest temperature in February and March at an average of 21° C. Dominant soils are residual with rock outcrops and very stony areas on steeper slopes in the uplands. Colluvial soils are at the base of hi11s and in sloping concave areas. The dominant soi1s types are kandiudults, sombrihumults, and lithic dystrochrepts. These soi1s are medium to fine textured. The mean annual soi1 temperature is over 22° C. There is a probabi1ity of soi1 moisture stress for about two months in two out of ten years (Yost and Eswaran).The native vegetation is predominantly grass savanna. Steep slopes are in grass and are used for rangeland. Homes are found on the less steeply sloped areas.Most of the area is under crops. Bananas are grown on the slopes and are typically mulched with banana 1eaves and stems. Beans are interplanted with sorghum and maize on the slopes and with Irish potatoes in the valleys. Farming practices are generally similar to those practiced in the Kabale Mountains.The volcanic mountains of the Rwenzori range fall into this MLRA unit. Elevation ranges from 1,500 to 5,100 m.a.s.l.Rainfall is evenly distributed throughout the year wíth average annual precipitation about 1,500 mm. This rainfall pattern allows for continuous production of beans. The driest month is January. Average annual temperature is 19° C wíth the coolest months dropping to 18° C.The soils at the highest elevations are rieh in organie matter. At 10wer e1evations, residual and eolluvial mineral soils are found. Dominant soi1s at the highest e1evations are umbrepts, udolls, and udands with a medium to fine texture. The mean annual soil temperature ;s between 15-22° C. Soils of the lower elevations are dominated by hapludalfs and kandiudalfs.Most of the Rwenzorl area lS forested, but large areas have been eleared for food erop produetion. Bananas, maize, eassava, sweet potatoes, beans, and groundnuts are the main food crops. Commereial erops ;nelude arabiea coffee and tea. Besns are mainly intercropped with maize.This area has moderate1y steeped foothills as part of the Rwenzor; Mounta;n system. Elevation ranges from 1,700 to 4,000 m.a.s. l. Average annual pree;pitation ;s 1,322 mm. with a d;stinet dry period from Deeember to March. The average temperature ;s about 25° C w;th the warmest month being February with a mean temperature of 27° C.Soi1s developed from voleanie ash adjo;n the mountain range. The nearby hilly areas comprise of residual and eolluvia1 soi1s.The natural vegetat;on lS medium altitude, moist evergreen and semi-deciduous foresto Mo;st areas are in m;xed forest and savanna. Craps grown inelude bananas, sweet potatoes, coffee, cotton, beans, maize, sorghum, and millet.The slopes of Mt. Elgon range from steep to very steep. Elevations range from 1,500 to 4,300 maslo Annual preeipitat;on is 1,100 to 1,500 mm with January to March be;ng the driest months. The average annual temperature ;s 22° C w;th a cool period from Ju1y through September.The dominant so;l types are umbrepts, haplohumults, udolls, udands, and kand;udults. The soils vary depending upon elevation. The mean annual so;l temperature is between 8-15° C at the higher elevat;ons while the lower slopes are at 15-22° C.Large areas are covered with bananas whieh are the ma;n food erop, but are also used for brewing beer. Finger millet is also grown at high altitudes, primari1y for mak;ng beer (Parsons). Beans are the major pulse produeed and are often intereropped with ma;ze. Beans are also re1ay-cropped into maize in August. When beans are sown as a relay crop, the lower leaves of the ma;ze p1ant are removed.As indicated in Figure 2, popu1ation pressure in the highland area is direct1y related to the level of rainfal1. The high population density resu1ts in little cu1tivated land per household. Thus land is cultivated continuously with either a short or no fallow periodo Soi1 fertility is thus declining with the continuous cultivation. In many cases, terraces have been removed and cultivated because farmers do not have enough cropland. After many years of rest the terraces are found to be more productive than the neighbouring plots of land. Cropland parcels are highly fragmented in the Kabale area. This presents problems in 1and management use because farmers are not willing to construct and/or to maintain existing terraces.Due to a land shortage in the highland areas, some farmers cultivate slopes steeper than 20° which shou1d otherwise be under forest or permanent pasture. Cultivation of steep slopes enhances soil erosion which is serious in the Rwenzori and in Kabale Districts. Erosion is also common on communal grazing land, especia11y when rain falls in heavy showers on shallow and silty or sandy soils. Land slides occur on the permeable soils of Mt. Elgon and in areas of Kaba1e. Indiscriminate burning during the dry season also encourages erosiono Methods of erosion control aim principally at reducing run-off by increasing the proportion of rainfa11 percolating into the soil (Webster and Wilson). In the 1960s, it was recommended that on the steep slopes of Mt. Elgon long continuous bunds of 0.9 m wide be constructed at 4-8 m intervals and planted with Paspalum notatum for the purpose of controlling 5011 erosion (Stephens). In Kabale, 3.2 m wide terraces were separated by grass bunds. MUlching coffee and banana plantations is a1so effective in reducing soil runoff. The use of cover crops, such as beans, also acts to control soil erosion while at the same time suppresses weeds.Hail frequently occurs in the highlands, especially in the vicinity of the Rwenzoris and Mt. Elgon. The most likely time for hail is at the beginning of the wet season, after a long dry spel1. At altitudes aboye 1,200 m.a.s.l., crop damage caused by hail can be extensive (Jameson and McCallum).Diseases that reduce bean yields in the highlands are halo blight, ascochyta, anthracnose, bean common mosaic virus, and angular leaf spot. The most economical means oi  The fertile crescent zone of Uganda íncludes the districts of Rakai, Masaka, Mpigi, Mukono and Jinja. This zone lies largely within 100 km of the shores of Lake Victoria. The soils are ferti1e, with sandy clay 10ams and sandy loams of medium fertility covering most of the area. The soils of the Nakabango area through to the Mabira Forest are heavier and more fertile than the rest of the zone due to the presence of basic rock amphiborlites in the parent rock material (Harrop).Annua1 rainfa1l in the fertile crescent zone ranges from 1,000-1,200 mm with two peak period extending from March to June and from September to December. Mean month1y maximum temperatures range from 25 0 te 29 0 C with an overal1 annual mean maximum temperature ef 27 0 C.The farming system practiced in the fertile crescent zone has been classified as the robusta coffee/banana system by the ministry of agriculture. Robusta coffee is the principle cash crop, but'it has recent1y been declining in importance. Bananas eccupy more land in this zone than any other crop and are the main food stap1e. Other important crops are beans, maize, sweét po tato , cassava, groundnuts, sorghum, sugar cane, tea, and fruits and vegetables (Kisakye; Nabacwa; Ugen).Intercropping is the norm in the fertile crescent zone with the maize and beans association as probably the most widely practiced foodcrop production system. In a recent survey in Mpigi District, 93 percent of farmers were reported to be producing beans in association with maize (Kisakye). A similar percentage of farmers are expected to grow maize and beans in an intercropped system in the Mukono and Jinja Districts. A slightly smaller percentage of farmers are expected to be using the system in the districts of Masaka and Rakai.The banana-bean intercropping system is also important in the fertile crescent zone. In the Rakai district, it is the most important system as beans are frequent1y produced underneath bananas. Beans can be produced in this system on young as we11 as old, mulched plantations. In other districts of the ferti1e crescent zone, the banana-bean association is primarily with young, unmu1ched bananas (Ugen).Beans are a1so intercropped with cassava befo re the cassava canopy c10ses and on the top and in between the mounds of sweet potatoes. Other crops commonly intercropped with beans include Irish potatoes and groundnuts.Bean hectarage and production statistics for the ferti1e crescent zone over the decade of the 1980s are reported in Table 1. The annual increase in hectarage and production over the seven year period examined was 1.6 and 5.2 percent, respectively. These growth rates were less than the national average which had an area expansion of 2.4 percent and an increase in production of 5.5 percent over the 1980s.The districts of Rakai and Masaka had the highest growth rates in both area expansion and production in the ferti1e crescent zone. The annual area expansion growth rates were greater than 3.5 percent and the production growth rates were approximately 9 percent. In these two districts, productivity increases were thus responsib1e for more of the growth in production than growth in area expansionoIn the districts of Mpigi and Mukono, area expansion in bean production was 1ess than one percent annua11y, while total production increased in the 2 to 4 pe~cent range. Productivity increases were thus responsib1e for most of the increase in production. In the Jinja Oistrict, the bean production area decreased by -1.2 percent annually while the overall increase in production was 0.5 percent. Beans are primarily produced for home consumption. They form an important component of the diet and are a major source of protein. Farmers harvest and consume both fresh and dry beans. The harvesting of fresh (mature, whole grain) beans allows farmers to extend the period in which households can secure food from bean plantings. Fresh, as well as dry beans, have a ready local market and it is not uncommon to see women selling fresh beans at informal roadside markets.Even though farmers market beans, they are primarily targeted for home consumption by the vast majority of households. Purely commercial bean producers are not comman.The type of bean cultivars found in the fertile crescent zone indicates that farmers prefer large and medium sized grain. Surveys conducted in the area in 1987 revealed that cultivars like Nambale, Kayinja, Kanyebwa, Mutike. Kampulike and White Haricot are widely popular (Kisakye). The colour range of these cultivars are red, brown. purple. and white.Grain size ranges from a high of 0.45 gram for Nambale to a low of 0.20 gram for White Haricot.Farmers in this zone indicate a strong preference for cultivars with grain that is large with red or red mottled seed type. If farmers are asked the question \"why do you prefer specific cultivars,\" responses ran~ from high yield, good taste, tolerance to pests and diseases, quick maturity, and short cooking time to favourable market price. However, there is considerable variation in farmers' preferences both across and within the same cultivar..The major bean production problems as expressed by farmers in the Rakai, Masaka and Mpigi Districts include:1.A range of pests including leaf eaters, aphids, weevils and cutworms. Beanfly are not mentioned by farmers but they are widespread on farmers plots.A range of diseases including angular leaf spot, common bacterial blight, bean common mosaic virus, rust, anthracnose and floury leaf spot.Shortage of labour and lack of mechanical power.Lack of inputs such as good quality seed, pesticides, fertilizers.Poor yields.Declining soil fertility and lack of manure to improve the soil.Unreliable rainfall.Lack of contact with extension staff and hence poor knowledge of improved technologies.Low bean prices and a poor marketing system.Bean prodyction in the northern, eastern, western and central regions of Uganda is investigated in this paper. Districts included in the northern region are Arua, Moyo, Nebbi, Apach, Kitgum, Gulu and Lira. The eastern region districts are Kotido, Moroto, Kapchorwa, Kumi, Soroti, Tororo, Kamuli, and Iganga. Districts in the western region are Hoima, Masindi, Bushenyi, and Mbarara. The two central region districts are Luwero and Mubende.Beans are consumed almost in every home in Uganda. Production, both in acreage and yield terms, fluctuates from year to year depending upon weather conditions, social and economical factors, and general civil security. As has been the trend in the rest of Africa and Latin America over the past decade, increased production has been due to area expansion rather than increases in yield (Janssen).There is a similarity in the cropping systems and the production constraints for beans in the areas under review. However, there is a noticeable variability in seed types preferred and the utilization of grain. gecause all production is generally consumed within the country. the relative importance of beans in any one district depends upon the diet of the people and the environmental adaptation of other grain légumes. Over the past decade, and general1y since the early days of this century, the acreage of beans had always exceeded that of other grain legumes (Rubaihayo).Beans are found intercropped with mai4e, cassava, bananas, sweet potatoes, cotton, and other legumes. In the districts of Kamuli, Bushenyi, and Mbarara intercropping practices are said to be influenced by the scarcity of land, while in other districts where land availability is not a problem intercropping is looked upon as a means to maximi4e diversity of crops on a limited plot of land. Beans are also found in pure stands in variable proportions in most distr;cts.Bean seedbed preparation, planting, and weeding are mainly done w;th a hoe. Plant populations are variable, depending upon whether the crop is planted in pure stand or intercropped. Beans are grown in both rainy seasons, while limited acreages are grown off-season. This is particularly true in the case of cleared swamps in the Bushenyi District and in the Nile River valley in Arua Distríct.In Apach and the neighbouring districts about 50 percent of beans are grown in pure stand. Planting in pure stand is less the norm in Arua District. Fertili4ers are rarely used and, even where animals are kept, manure is not utilized on the bean crop.Increased production was due to area expansion over the period 1981-89. Beans consistently had the largest acreage among the grain legumes and was only exceeded in total acreage by the staple food crops of bananas and sweet potatoas and occasionally mai4e and millat. Securíty problems affectad production in some districts during the 1980s, but production has continuad to risa both in acreage planted and tonnes produced (Table 1). Yialds ranged from 698 to 1,000 kg/ha.Beans are mainly consumed as a sauce accompanying the staple food. In Luwaro and Kamuli Districts it was estimated that over 50 percent of al1 beans are consumed in the boiled fresh formo The remainder is marketed or retained for consumption as dry beans or for seed. In Arua and other distrícts of Northern Uganda, beans are mainly eaten when dry. They are prepared in a variety of methods. In the most popular dish, beans are mixed with pounded groundnuts or simsim to make a sauce. In this preparation, beans would either have the testa removed or 1eft intacto In areas of central, western and eastern Uganda, boiled beans are mashed to make a thick soup (magera) or are mashed with sweet potatoes to make a soft dough (mugoyo). Beans are also commonly eaten as katogo, which is a mix with either bananas or cassava. Beans which provide the dark red soup are preferred for the katogo dish. In sorne areas of western, eastern and central Uganda, steamed bean leaves are consumed. However, this practice is becoming less common.The most common cultivars in the districts of central, western and eastern Uganda are the red mottled K 20, or Namba1e, the brown coloured Kanyebwa, and Mutike which is of various colours. These cultivars are mainly large or medium in grain size. In the northern region, the most common cultivars are the small seeded cream or black types. However, in Arua there is a predominance of white seeded types with grain size ranging between rnedium to small. Farrners maintain genetic variation in landraces. Common grain colours found include black, purple, red, brown, pink, yellow, cream and white. Arare green coloured grain was recently collected from the Arua District. Some grain colour types are preferred for home consumption while others are grown primarily for marketing. Consumer preferences seem to play an important role in the grain types grown for marketing purposes.Diseases are a serious concern in bean production, especially when there ie exceeeive rains. Common bacterial blight is the most widespread disease. The frequent occurrence of this disease has significantly reduced bean production in Masindi District. Seed sorting control methode practiced by some farmers may not effectively control the disease. Other common bean diseases include angular leaf spot and bean common mosaic virus.Variation in soil fertility across the areas studied has an important impact on bean yields. Land tenure 1aws restrict farmers to their plots, thus limiting expansion to less exhausted soils. Soi1 ferti1ity is rarely enhanced with animal manure or composts and inorganic fertilizers are generally unavai1able and when available are uneconomical to use in bean production.Farmers have c1aimed that weather patterns have changed in the recent past, adding to the uncertainty as to when beans should be planted. This has led to losses due to water stress or too much rain. Beans are particular1y susceptible to seed rot when rains are heavy. These and other factors make large scale bean production unattractive when planted in pure stands.The bean cultivars grown by farmers have low yield potential, but they are in high demand because consumers have strong preferences for their culinary characteristics. High yielding cultivars of acceptable grain types would be a major boast to bean farmers. Drought resistance would have to be incorporated into cultivars for the Tororo District. Disease resistant cultivars need to be developed for other areas of the country.A major pest concern in all districts is the storage weevil. The flower eating beetle is also a major problem in the Tororo District and leaf eating caterpillars and beanfly are generally problema throughout the northern districts. The poor marketing system acts to deter farmers from producing greater quantities of bean as they lack sufficient storage facilities. lack of eaay accesa to markets often leads farmers to sell their produce at low prices during the harvesting periodo Political insecurity has also decreased production in the Kumi, Arua, and luwero Districts during various years of the past decade.Beans have become a common constituent in the diet of the people of all districts of Uganda regardless of whether the area is good for bean production or not. The government target for increased bean exports has to be met with increased production. Unless there is improvement in varieties and infusion of better management practices whereby fertilizers and other inputs are utilized, increased bean production can only be continued to be met through increased are a expansiono The purpose of the Session is to present a11 relevant information on past bean researeh in Uganda. The research fields reported upon ínclude breeding, pathology, entomology, agronomy, so11 seienee and plant nutrition, and soeioeeonomics.Research work aimed at breeding new bean cultivars with improved disease resistance, heavier seed yie1d and acceptable seed quality has been underway for 30 years in Uganda, and started in 1962 with the appointment of a plant breeder and pathologist. At this time few Ugandans were using beans as a major food source and campaigns were launched to popu1arize the erop as a cheap source of protein, especia11y in the banana/cassava growing areas where child malnutrition was high.By 1968 a new cultivar, named K 20, a large seeded Rose Coco type, had been re1eased that had the following parentage, viz; (Banja x No 15) x No 77 x No 78. No 77 (Diacol Nima) had the 'ARE' gene for resistance to anthracnose and No 78 (Mexico 11) resistance to Isariopsis. Both Banja and No 15 were local landraces widely accepted in many areas in Uganda and Kenya. After the release of K 20, the breeder was promoted to an administrative position and sUbsequent research was reduced due to civil unrest.In 1983 the Ministry of Agriculture decided to create a centrally coordinated, bean research programme with the present programme starting in 1985. In 1984 a local collection of bean germplasm was initiated in the central and western parts of the country. In 1985 another collection was carried out in the eastern parts of Uganda. These two collections plus introductions from Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and from other bean producing countries and later from CIAT (Centro International de Agricultura Tropical) to form the present germplasm resource collection used by breeders in the crop improvement programme (Anon.).During the germp1asm co11ections the breeders interviewed farmers to ascertain the constraints to increased bean production. Among the'many enumerated the fol10wing were found to be the more important: Yield, especially of non infected seed; availability of a 'good' variety; taste of cooked beans and the colour of the broth; cooking time; seed colour; seed size and ability of the aeed to keep overnight after cooking. Variations in growth habit could be tolerated provided the other variables were favourable. Low soil fertility, poor soil conservation techniques and disease susceptibility were identified as major constraints to increased production.Agriculture production accounts for a significant proportion of Uganda's GDP and 90 percent of this comes from small farmers. These farmers lack the capital to buy fertilizer or other chemical inputs, and cannat even afford to buy certified seed from the Uganda seed's project. Hence, farmers usual1y keep the;r own seed for planting, and in such a situation the development of cultivars with resistance to seed transmitted diseases is of considerable importance. As traditional breeding techniques take a long time to produce results, introductions were seen as the quickest means of obtaining high yielding, disease resistant cultivars for release in Uganda in the shortest possible time. The programme was therefore initiated with the following objectives.1. Introduce and evaluate diverse sourcea of bean material (both exotic and local) for disease resistance and seed yield.2. Identify promising lines for release and use in hybridization prograrnmes.Research work on beans lS mainly conducted at Kawanda Research Station with two other locations at Kachwekano and Serere, with different eco10gica1 conditions from those at Kawanda. acting as sub-stations. Work at S~rere stopped in 1987 due to security prob1ems. Kachwekano is at an e1evation of 2,300 m. about 1,000 m higher than Kawanda.Yie1d trials are regularly conducted each sea san at Kawanda, Kachwekano and a further six to eight locations covering different agro-ecologica1 regions.At the start of the present programme local germplasm col1ections were the maín source of genetic variation available to the breeding programme. Later, introductions from CIAT and other bean producing countries within the region and world wide were made to widen the genetic base of available variation.In the southern part of Uganda where most of the trial locations are situated, there are two annual growing seasons (termed 'a' and 'b'), with breeding and disease nurseries and trials planted in one or both seasons. The replicated breeding triala are commonly grown in randomized complete block or lattice designa. In the disease nurseries spreader rows of susceptible genotypes are included and planted two weeks before the test lines. The reaction of entries to prevalent diseases in all experiments and nurseries are rated on a 1 -9 scale (developed at CIAT) were 1 =no disease (resistant) and 9 = very susceptible. Disease ratings on yield trials are usually taken at flowering and at pod filling. Daya to flowering and maturity, plant vigour and pod load are alao normally recorded.The five most prevalent and serious diseases rated are: angular leaf spot (Isariopsis griseo1a) , rust (Uromyces phaseo 1 i), anthracnose (Co l1etotr i chum 1 i ndemuth i anum) , camman bacteria1 b1ight (Xanthomonas compestris pv. phaseoli) and bean common mosaic virus (BCMV). Other diseases usually rated are ramura1ia, ascachyta b1ight and halo blight.Priar to 1989.Breeding and se1ection work prior to the second season of 1987 (1987b) had identified twenty-four superior genotypes, comprising local land races and introduced breeding lines, for further evaluation. Accardingly, these genatypes and the local cultivar K 20 were tested over the three seasons 1987b, 1988a and 1988b in advanced yield trials conducted at five, five and eight sites respectively. Although overall seed yields were light and a proportion of these trials had relatively high coefficients of variation (CV) due a combination of few resources and poor management, a number of genotypes significantly (P< 0.05) out yielded K 20 at individual sites. The three heaviest yielding línes, with acceptable seed and other consumer characteristics (determined from on-farm testing), were G 13671, Rubona 5 and White Haricot (a selection from a landrace) and showed across site mean yield increases over K 20 of 75, 32, and 66 percent, respectively (Figure 1). These lines also showed considerable yield improvement over local landraces and were released as new cultivars in 1989.With the arrival and additional help of a CIAT breeder (based at Kawanda) from mid-1989 it was possible to markedly increase the amount of genetic material being handlea. The breeding programme was re-structured to allow for an orderly flow of an increased number of breeding lines through an extensive evaluation and testing system. This involves initial screening in non-replicated observation nurseries (OBN), followed by selected lines being advanced through preliminary (PYT), intermediate (IYT) and advanced (AYT) multilocation yield trials. Each of the first three stages involve one sea son of testing, with superior lines retained in the AYTs for threa seasons, whilst entaring on-farm trials to determine their farmer and consumar acceptability. The number of lines and popu1ations were tested in the second season of 1989 (1989b) and the first season of 1990 (1990a) are shown in Table 1.After 1990a the breeding programme was divided with the National Breeding Programme taking responsibility for handling all the breeding lines without the 1 gene for resistance to BCMV' and the CIAT breeder for a11 the lines with the 1 gene. (Lines with the 1 gene produce a hypersensitive reaction (black root) when infected with a necrotic strain of BCMV, usually resulting in premature death.) Trials testing solely lines with the 1 gene have 'Regional' in front of the tria1 title (RAYT, RIYT, RPYT) to distinguish them from trials testing 1 gene lines.With the flow of material from breeding activities in the two previous seasons, over 500 breeding lines and segregating populations, tha majority of which were introductions from CIAT, were tested in the second season of 1990 (1990b) (Tables 2 and 3). Consídering information from both Tables, the number of lines and segregating populatíons tested at the different stages is shown in Table 4.A summary of the yield results from the different replicated yield trials is shown in Tables 2 and 3. In the AYTs and IYTs, 88 to 95 percent of the breeding lines exceeded the mean yield of K 20 across sites in the range of 1 to 104 percent. Amongst the 1 gene lines a substantial number also showed significant seed yield increases over K 20 at more than one site (Table 3). Similar data are not yet available for the non 1 gene lines. The high proportion of lines exceeding K 20 across sites suggest that multilocation testing of PYTs in the previous seasons had successfully identified heavy yielding lines for advancement to these trials.Compared to the AYTs and IYTs, a smal1er percentage of lines in the PYTs exceeded the mean yield of K 20 across sites, although the increases, particularly amongst the 1 gene lines, were of the same magnitude (Table 3). As the PYTs are the first stage of replicated yield testing such a difference between the stages is not unexpected. Howeve'r, and perhaps surprisingly, of al1 the lines tested in replicated trials, one 1 gene and one non 1 gene line in different PYTs recorded the heaviest across site yield increase over K 20 at 162 and 182 percent, respectively (Tables 2 and 3).It is well known, and confirmed by the yield results from the three seasons, that medium to small seeded lines are inherently heavier yielding than large seeded lines which tend to be preferred by consumers. Thus to prevent smaller seeded lines dominating the later stages of testing (AYTs and ITYs) as a result of selection favouring heavy yield, trials are now divided medium/small «0.4 g/seed) and large seeded (>0.4 g/seed) types at the PYT stage, the best of each type then being advanced to the IYTs and AYTs. Figure 2 shows the considerable difference in yield potential between large and medium/small seeded lines in the Regional PYTs for 1990b. It was encouraging, however, that the five heaviest yielding large seeded I gene lines in RPTY-LS exceeded the mean of K 20 across sites in the range of 34 to 71 percent (Table 2 and Figure 2).Figure 1 shows that the three new cultivars released in 1989 had mean yield increases over K 20 of 32 to 75 percent over 18 sites and three seasons. The yield results from 1990b. although based on fewer sites and seasons, strongly indicate that there is now available advanced lines with markedly superior yield to K 20 and these new cultivars; the best four 1 and non 1 gene lines are now being evaluated in on-farm trials at fifteen sites in southern Uganda. Medlum/amall a.ed.dRegional prellmlnary yleld trlal 1990b.Flve heavleat yleldlng linea/tria!.(Mean of two altea)  The purpose of this paper is to report on bean pathology research that has been undertaken in Uganda sinca 1960. When research on beans started in 1960, intensive effort was directed toward discovering the ca~ses of low yield. It was observad that diseases wera the most important factor limiting production (Mukasa). In 1961, a pathologist was appointed to work with breeders to undertake research on bean disease problems.The initial work carried out by pathologists was a survey to identify important bean diseases and their causal organisms. Tha most important diseases found wera anthracnosa (Col1etotrichum lindemuthianum (S,acc. and magn.) Scribner), rust (Uromyces appendiculatus (pers) unger). angular leaf spot (Phaeoisariopsis griseo1í (Sacc. J, and the bacterial blights, í.e., Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli (XCPJ and its fuscous variant, and Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola. Hansford in 1943. During this period, pathologists periodically evaluated useful cultivars as determined by breeders in different parts of the country. The purpose of using different areas was to study and keep watch on the changes on both the incidenee and severity of diseases. In particular, these cultivars were used to detect new anthracnose races.Research in pathology centered on anthracnose. Two major groups of races of Co77etotrichum lindemuthianum were identified by Leakey and Simbwa-Bunya in 1972 from isolates of anthracnose pathogen collected from all over the country. These pathogens were; 1) a group comprising of alpha and related delta races and 2) Beta and related more virulent Gama racas.Later work was carried out on the control of bean diseases. Simbwa-Bunya evaluated four fungicides in 1972. Dithane M45 (Zineb + maneb) was found to be the most effective in eontrolling diseases when arate of 3.4 kg/ha was used. Sengooba tried dithane M45, brestan 60 and benlate using the bean cultivar Banja 2. Angular leaf spot (ALS) was effectively controlled by all three fungicides with benlate giving the best control at arate of 1 kg/ha. Rust was controlled only by dithane M45 and brestan, but not benlate. The resulting yield data, however, revealed no significant differences in plots under different treatments. lt thus was concluded that it was not economícal to use fungicides on Banja 2 under the environmental conditions prevailing at Kawanda.Work on the epidemiology of ALS was carried out by Sengooba in 1980. Her results indicated that there was considerable variation in the pathogenicity of a number of Phaeoisariopsis griseola isolates. The stability of this variation was, however, not confirmed. The fungus was found to be both seed and straw borne, but the main source of inoculum appeared to be from volunteer and off-season crops. The development of ALS was favored by both high relative humidity and high rainfall. The optimum temperature for ALS in both the laboratory and field was between 23-27° C. Temperatures of 30° C and aboye were too high for the disease to thrive. Raee identification of rust isolates collected from Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania was carried out by Howland and MaCartney. Of the eight races identified, six occurred in all three countries.During the 1960-85 perlod no research was carried out on the bacterial blights other than selections.Research Progress in the Period 1985 to Date Since 1985 research in various pathological aspects have been initiated with emphasis being put on the more important diseases. The most important diseases were ALS, common bacterial blight (CBS), bean common mosaic virus (BCMV), rust, anthracnose, halo blight and ascochyta blight. The 1ast three being important only in the higher altitude zones. A summary on the progress of each project follows.1. Effect of Intercropping on Bean Oiseases.Research to determine the level of important diseases in intercropping situations as compared to monocrop situations was initiated in 1987. This research was carried out at Kawanda, Bukalasa, Rakai and Kachwekano stations. The intercrops considered were beans/maize, beans/potatoes, beans/bananas. It was found that the incidence of CBB, BCMV and rust were less in intercropping situations while the incidence of ALS, anthracnose, and ascochyta b1ight were greater in intercropping (Sengooba 1987(Sengooba , 1988(Sengooba , and 1989)).2. Crop Yield Loss in Beans from Disease. Sengooba (1987 and1988) studied the effect of diseases on yie1d of beans using the three chemical treatments benomyl + streptomycin, macozeb 70, and M70 + streptomycin on ten bean genotypes. Although the fungicidal treatments reduced the leve1 of infection, there was no significant increase in yield. This result suggests that diseases do not significantly affect yie1d. However, during the period of this trial the disease pressure was very low. Additional research is needed using varied disease pressures.3. Ascochyta blight Sengooba (1988 and1989) studiad the control of ascochyta blight using two chemical treatments; dress seed with benomyl and spray with dithane M45 (or macozeb) and drass saad with benomyl only and pull out infectad seedlings from emergence to sacond trifo1iate leaf stage (V4). The cultivars Carioca, K 20, and Rushare were used. Seed dressing combined with fungicidal application significantly reduced the ascochyta infection and an increased yield was found. The other two treatments ware not effective in controlling the disease.Recent research has been initiated on producing seed clean of ascochyta blight by using production sites in warmer, lowland areas where the disease does not occur.Research on eSB has focused on control, variation in pathogenicity of XCP, survival of the pathogen, and crop loss (Opio 1987a(Opio , 1988a(Opio , and 1989a)).Seven chemicals (cupric carbonate, cuprous oxide, cupric su1phate, cupric chloride, cupric nitrate, copper oxychloride and streptomycin) were evaluated for their control of CSB.Cupric carbonate and cupric sulphate proved the best of the chemicals tested. They reduced the disease level on leavas and pods and significantly increased yield as compared to other treatments and the control. The other treatments also significantly reduced CBB when compared to the control, but significant increases in yield were not found.Attempts to combine cupric carbonate and cupric su1phate with seed disinfectants did not yie1d better results. The two chemicals were therefore reeommended if it was absolutely necessary to spray as a control measure for CBS. It was noted that a1though the chemicals reduced the 1evel of infection, tney did not comp1etely el iminat.e it. Thus they cou1d not be used in seed production. The potentia1 of us;ng dry areas for the production of disease free seed was investigated at Mobuku in 1988 and 1989. In the off seasons that were dry (November 1988 and November 1989) the crop was very elean. A1most no CSS and even other diseases were found to be presento This suggests that under proper environmental conditions seed production could be a solution to the CBS problem. The off seasons in June of 1988 and 1989 were wet and the CBS diseasa scores were high.Studies on variation in pathogenicity of Xanthomonas comp8strisa pv. phaseoli indicate that about three quarters of CBB infeetion in the areas surveyed in Uganda is actually caused by the fuscous variant. In Ethiopia, most of the isolates were found to be fuscous. In Uganda, it was found that both the common b1ight pathogen and its fuscous variant could be isolates from the same plant and from even the same lesion~ To date, seven phage types have been obtained from forty-five isolates.Research on the surviva1 of the pathogen XCP indicates that several weeds and non-host crops may be important in the survival. The pathogen has been isolated from six weed species (Commelian, Bengha7ensis, Digitaria scalarium, Oxa7is latisoha, Bidens pi7osa, Cassia hirsuta, and Amarathus sp) and a non-host (maize) growing in a heavily infected bean crop. Whether the pathogen survives in weeds after the crop has been harvested is being investigated. The length of time XCP survives in the soil without a bean erop is also being investigated.Investigations as to whether CBB causes economieal loss in bean production in Uganda was initiated in 1990. this researeh ;s still in progress.The halo blight international nursery was used to study the variation in Pseudomonas syriange pv. phaseo7icola. The results indicate the presenee of Race 3 (Opio 1987 and1988). More detailed work is needed to confirm the raees in Uganda.In 1989, Owera identified isolates of BCMV collected from different parts of Uganda. His work revealed that the NL3 (necrotic) strain was predominant in Uganda. A study on the host range of the virus has been started.Two types of nurseries have been evaluated in Uganda. These are; 1) the international disease nurseries from CIAT and 2) regional disease nurseries which are formed within eastern Africa.The international nurseries evaluated to date in Uganda include rust, CBS, halo blight, ALS, ascochyta, anthracnose, and SCMV (black root nursery). Several resistant lines have been selected from these nurseries to feed into the regional nurseries. Lines which are wel1 adapted and have other good characteristics have been selected by breeders to feed into the preliminary yield trials for further advancement.The purpose of these nurseries is to identify and put together entries that are resistant to the relevant diseases in eastern Africa. These resistant entries can be used by breeders in the whole region as sources of resistance to various diseases. The regional nurseries so far formed and grown in Uganda include rust, CSB and ascochyta.Oiseases frequently encountered in bean fields, but for which no research work has been started, include floury leaf spot, bacterial brown spot, web blight, and the root rots.The Beanfly (Ophiomyia spp.) was first described by Tryon in 1895 from specimens collected near Brisbane, Australia in 1888. Since then the pest has besn reported in most tropical and subtropical regions of the old world. In East Africa, three species (O. phaseoli, O. spencerella, and O. centrosematis (Tryon; Greathead; and de Meiji, respectively» have been reported to attack beans. In this region beanfly can cause losses up to 100 percent. The damage is largely caused by the larva, especially the third instar larva which destroys the medullary tissue of the stem at ground level (Oree and Hallman). The area around the pupa díes, dríes up and frequently splits. Infested plants are stunted and yel10w and may die. The role of adult beanfly in transmitting diseases has yet to be verified.A number of control measures have been adopted for beanfly. Chemica1s have been reported to be effective. These include organochlorides (DDT, dieldrin. aldrin, and endrin), organophosphate, and carbamates. From these groups, the systemic members are reported to be more effective when app1ied on the soil or directly on the seed. However, systemic materíals are normal1y toxic to mammals. This could be a serious drawback to their use in Uganda as bean leaves are consumed in selected areas. Residual levels of phorate, disulfoton, and carbofuran in soybean fo1iage and pods were found to be unsafe up to 80 days after treatment with 1.5, 1.25 and 1.65 kg ai/ha, respectively (Handa et al).Other control methods include cultural control, plant breeding for resistance. and biological control. Cultural practices can be effective in reducing beanfly damage. Early plantíng to avoid peak ínfestation. removal of alternate hosts and volunteer crops, and the rotation of beans with non-host crops have been advocated (Al len and Smithson}. In the case of plant breeding for resistance. many varieties have been reported possessing resistant or tolerant traits. The common mechanism being the ability of the plant to produce adventitious roots upon attack. However. the method can only be viewed as a long term strategy.With regard to biological control, most of the work carried out in East Africa is reported by Greathead. He studied and identified natural enemies of the beanfly. However, their effectiveness in controlling the pest remains to be demonstrated.Even with the various control measures prescribed for control of beanfly. damage levels in sorne seasons and areas remain high. Apart from the problems posed by pollutant chemicals, farmers find chemicals uneconomical and thus only a few use chemical pesticides. Without dramatic changes in the relative price of chemicals, their use will likely remain restricted.The possibility of using cultural measures to control pests holds promising prospects for resource poor farmers. However, these methods, such as early planting and rotations, are largely affected by land use competition and availability.Similarly, biological control measures offer a possibility for resource poor farmers beca use , once establishad, natural anemies will not require additional purchased inputs. However, in ephemeral systems inundative releasing of natural enemies is usually thought appropriate. This involves mass-rearing of the natural enemies which can be expensive.In circumstances where resources are limited and the economic value of the crop is low, it is necassary to assess the losses at the subsistence farmer level in order to justify research costs. It is also necessary to identify the causes of the losses in the farming system and, where possible, to analyze and prioritize the losses.The study reported upon here was carried out to assess beanfly incidence, damage, and losses in fields farmers in the Kabale District. It complements studies being conducted in Kenya and Ethiopia. hypothesis to be tested is that beanfly species affected by altitude.The overall objective of the study was to obtain quantitative data on the beanfly and the losses incurred at successive plant ages at varying altitudes.The atudy waa carried out at altitude ranges of 1,600-1,850 m, 1,860-2,110 m, and 2,120-2,370 m. The 1,600-1,850 m range site is located at the village of Nyabugando, Kyobwe sUb-parish and Kayonza sub-county of Buahenyi District. The village is located in the Kabale foothills. The soil is a black, sandy loam with good drainage properties. In all survey study areas,. climatic variabílity was mínimal except that temperatures decreased for increasas in altituda. It was not possible to obtain actual records of the climatic factors in each of the three altitude ranges.Management practices engaged in by farmers varied with regard to bean cultivar and farming system. Most farmers planted bean mixtures, resulting in different plant growth habits and attendant yield levels. There was also variability in farming systems. At the 1,860-2,110 m ranga sites bean cultivation was continuous from the previous season while at the other altitude ranges sites the seasons were completely closed. The intensity of intercropping varied during the season, even within the same locality. Farmers intercropped beans with Irish potatoes (So/anum spp. l, maize, field peas, sorghum, and bananas. Weed control methods also varied. Bean diseases were most common in the 2,120-2,370 m range site while podborera were mostly recorded in the 1,600-1,850 m range site. Fertilizers and pesticides were rarely used.An analysis of variance was carried out for beanfly infestation acroas the three altitude ranges and for the two sampling dates. In all cases there was higher beanfly infestation at the 1,860-2,110 m range than at the other two ranges. Notably, this was the area with continuous bean cultivation. An important characteristic of the area ia that the soil is continuously moist. The nutrient rich and moist soil may contribute to the incidence of beanfly.The distribution of the two species O. phaseoli (brown) and O. spencere/la (black) are shown in Figures 1 and 2. Both species were infesting the crop six weeks after emergency at all altitudes, although O. spencere/la was found in higher densities than O. phaseoli. However, at 9WAE the O. spencere/la populations at the 1,860-2,110 m range increased tenfold, but remained roughly in similar proportions at both the 1,600-1,850 m and 2,120-2,370 m ranges; The population of O. phaseoli did not change significantly at 9WAE. Duncan's Multiple Range Test was carried out on the beanfly population means (brown and black pupae) at both sampling dates and for the three altítude ranges. The results indicate that there was signíficantly (p < 0.05) more beanfly at the 1,860-2,110 m ranga than the remaining two ranges. The dominant spacies was O. spencere7la. At Nyakalindi (1,900 m), the root mealy bug is a commonly found pesto Future Research Proposals 1. Increasing the number of include sites lower than 1,600 m. Kabale Oistrict beca use altitudes Alternative, lower altitude sites elsewhere.altitude ranges studiad to This is not possible in tha ranga aboye 1,600 m. will have to be se1ected 2. Crop 10ss assessment studies: The larga variability in farmer practices makes beanfly crop 10S8 assessment difficult. It may be necessary to undertake pre1iminary crop loss assessment work at research stations in order to reduce the level of variability.3. Increasing sampling dates: From the completed survey it was not possible to know when beanfly infestation commenced. To determine the timing of beanfly incidence it will be necessary to increase both the ear1iness and the frequency of samp1ing dates.There was considerable variation found in beanfly populations on the farms studied. Apart from abiotic factors, which are not selective, there may be selective biotic factors selecting one species against the other. Additional research will be required to determine the impact that biological factors have on beanfly species and population. 5. Farmer Management: As noted aboye, there was large variability in intercropping practices, weed control, plant densities, and bean cultivars sown. To reduce this unmanageable variability it may be necessary to standardize cultivars, inputs, and practices used.  -----------------------------  Research on bruchid problems in Uganda was undertaken in four parts. The four studies undertaken to date are:1. Storage trial for the Zabrotes resistant bean line RAZ 2.2. Bean storage survey to determine the distribution patterns of Zabrotes subfasciatus and Acanthosce7ides obtectus.3. Surveys on farmers' perceptions, practices, and control of bruchids.4. Research on solar heat treatment to control bruchids.The first tWO studies have been completed and results are now available. The third study has been completed, but the results have yet to be analyzed. Study number 4 is underway. The completed studies are briefly reported upon below.Storage Trial on the Zabrotes Resistant Bean Line RAZ 2 Arcelin. a major seed protein discovered in wild beans (Phaseolus vu7garis) in central Mexico, has antibiosis effects on the bean bruchid Z. zubfasciatus. Transfer of purified arcelin to artificial seeds has been shown to result in high levals of insect resistance (Osborn, et al). To date, these highly successful trials on arcelin have been confined to the South American strain of Zabrotes.Research on arce1in in Uganda was undertaken on Zabrotes strains that were collected from commercial stores of beans in Kampala. These strains were bred at Kawanda Research Station. The tests were conducted under simulated storage conditions. The performance of the Zabrotes resistant bean line RAZ 2 from CIAT was compared with the susceptible recurrent líne EMP 175 and the locallY grown cultivars K 20 and White Haricot.Beans were stored in tightly woven cotton bags (20 x 43 cm) and kept at ambient environmental conditions. Five replicates of two kilogram of seed each were used in a complete randomized. block designo Four sexed pa,irs of newly emerged Zabrote insects were introduced into each replication. The control was ona replication with no Zabrote insect infestation.Four months after the introduction of the Zabrote insects, the bags were opened for inspection. The contents ware sievad and the insects, both those alive and dead, were counted and tha percent grain damage and weight loss were determined.All grain and live insects were then returned to their respective bags. The contents of the bags will be reexamined in 8 months time.The results of the experiment are as follows: Four montha after infestation, high levels of Zabrote insacts were found in baga containing the lines EMP 175, K 20, and white haricot. For the RAZ 2 variety, the only Zabrote insecta found were the initial ones placad into the bags at the start of the experimento These insects were dead when the bags were opened. The damage and weigh 10ss were significant for the three 1ines EMP 175, K20 and white haricot. No damage was observed on the RAZ 2 lineo ~efore the end of the eight month time period a reinspection of the bags revealed that the Zabrote insect population was high in bags with the three lines EMP 175, K20 and white haricot. In some cases, the grain had been completely destroyed. No new emer.gence of Zabrote insects were noted in the RAZ 2 lineo The experiment was therefore discontinued.High levels of antibios;e. which lS resistant to the Ugandan strain of Zabrotes, was detected in the RAZ 2 bean cultivar. The cultivars EMP 175, K20 and White Haricot were found to be susceptible to Zabrotes.Research at Cento Internacional de Agricultura Tropical headQuarters in Colombia is concentrating on producing resistant bean lines that are resistant to Zabrotes and that wi11 be acceptable to bean producers and consumers in Uganda.A knowledge of the occurrence and distribution patterns of each of the bruchid species is essential in research on bean storage problems. The bruchid problem was studied by surveying both on-farm and grain warehouse storsge facilities. Grain samples were taken from both types of storage facilities to analyze for the presence of bruchid species.The districts studied were Kapchorwa, Kabale, Nebbi, and Mbale in the high altitude zone, Masindi, Masaka, Hoima, Bundibugyo, Mukono, and Mpigi in the tall grassland zone, and Luwero, Tororo-Palisa, Lira-Apac. and Arua in the short grassland zone. Both species of bruchids were found in al1 zones. The species Z. subfasciatus was more common in urban bean storage warehouses. while A. obtectus was more common in farmers' storage containers.Climatic factors appear to affect the occurrence and pattern of distribution of both bruchid species. Z. subfasciatus was more common in the high altitude zone, while the other species was predominant in the short and tall grassland zones. A. obtectus appears to have been introduced into the country much earlier than Z. subfasciatus.A survey was conducted to determine farmers' perceptions; practices, control methods for bean storage pests. The damage levels were also assessed. Farmers were selected from representative areas of the four agro-ecological zones of Uganda. The farmers were selected using a mU1ti-stage, stratified random samp1ing method. Bean grain samples were co1lected for analyses on grain damage and weight 10ss.A total of 120 farmers were surveyed in nine representative districts of the 4 agro-ecological zones. Districts in the high altitude zone were Kaba1e, Nebbi, Kapchorwa, and Mbale. The northern and eastern zones included the districts of Lira, Apac, and Tororo, southern and western zones included Mukono district, and the district of Luwero comprised the pastoral dry to semi-arid range land zone.The survey has been successful1y completed, but the data have yet to be ana1yzed.Among the practices common1y associated with bruchid control by farmers is solar heat treatment method. The efficiency of this method has, however, yet to be assessed in Uganda.The solar heat study was designed for three phases. Phase one lS to determine bruchid mortality at different temperature levels and different exposure time lengths. Phase two examines different solar treatment methods. The third phase will invo1ve farmer participation. Both bruchid species with be used in the solar heat treatment study.The first and second phases of the study wil1 involve artificial infestation while third phase wil1 be natural infestation. In the first and second phases, mortality at a11 bruchid development stages will be investigated through a two stage infestation at different times.Temperature 1eve1s to be investigated in phase one wi11 be 35°, 40°, 45°, 50°, 55°, and 60° centigrade. Exposure times studied will be 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5 and 6 hours, respectively. There wi11 be four replication for each treatment and a control.Variable parameters to be investigated wi11 be adu1t morta1ity, adu1t emergence, and percentage damaged seeds. Cooking time of cultivars wil1 a1so be investigated.Future work plans include:1. Continuation of breeding for resistance in local cu1tivars against Z. subfasciatus and assessment of their consumer acceptability.2. Initiate A. obtectus resistance research by screening for in-fie1d resistance on bean pod infestations. This in-fie1d work wi11 be undertaken because infestations of A. obtectus begins primarily in the field through pod penetrations.3. Initiate biological studies on both species with special emphasis on field studies. Carry out eco10gic~1 investígations under field conditions on A. obtectus.The purpose of this paper ís to provide readers with a general outline of the research that has been conducted on the control of weeds in crop production in Uganda and make suggestions for further research in this area.Current bean research programme prioritíes in weed management are conditioned by weed problems associated with prevailing crop production situations. long term weed control should involve a management strategy that will integrate two or more weed control measures in order to reduce weed competition. These weed control measures must be low input cost and not labour intensive in order to make them economically attractive to farmers.Because of the need to preserve light textured soils from erosion due to intense rainfall and associated frequent weeding, weed management through conservation tillage is receiving additional attention.More emphasis is being put on cultural practices that tend to influence the dynamics of weed populations in a given cropping system. Research carried out by Koch and others has shown that weed species are adoptable to specific environmental conditions and that weed flora will respond to changes in the type of cropping systems employed (Koch et al. ) •An exploratory survey was carried out by the author in 1989 on the effects of bean based cropping systems on weed composition and populations (Kikoba). The survey confirmed the existence of a link between the dynamics of weed popu1ations and the nature of the cropping systems.As a resu1t of these findings, a pre1iminary experiment was initiated in the second season of 1990 on crop combinations invo1ving beans, maize, and soybeans and the same crops in pure stands. Various crop p1anting densities were explored. The results of this experiment are now being assessed.This research effort is intended to be an on-going experiment whereby crop densities and intercroppíng combínations are var;ed to conform to actual product;on situations in the major agro-ecological zones in the country. The purpose of the research ;s to ascertain the extent of natural weed suppress;on that can be achieved by the various intercropping treatments.Shetty and Rao reported that inter-sowing of cowpea and mungbean into a sorghum or pea crop minimized weed growth after only one hand weeding (FAO). The weed suppression due to the smother effeet of intercropping was equivalent to that obtained from two hand weedings. In contrast to chemical and physical means of weed control, the bio10gícal factors that promote ;ntercrop dominance over weeds in ;ntercrop systems are complex and have not been adequately studied.The underly;ng strategy of utilizing a mult;p1e or intercropp;ng approach against weeds ;s to capture soi1 nutrients and moisture by a crop that would otherwise be captured by weeds. In essence, the intercropped crop ;s substituted for the weed(s). The two or more crops wh;ch are intercropped together would capture a greater share of available resources than would be the case in a monoculture situation with high weed competition. In addition, the intercropped erops often have structural charaeteristies that allow them to occupy different niches both aboye and below the ground (Francis).In the chemieal control of weeds, the threat posed by perennial weeds such as Couch Grass (Dígitaria abyssinica) and Nutsedge (Cyperus spp.) is substantial because most herbicides are specific to broad 1eafed weeds and annual grasses. The perennial weeds noted aboye are more difficult to control with either a pre-or post-emergence herbicide. The broad spectrum herb;cide Glyphosate (Roundup) is currently uneeonom;c for most resource poor farmers.Researeh on herbicides has shown that no single contact or pre-emergence chemical can continuously be applied without evoking a vigorous upsurge of the more dreaded perennial weeds. If a broad spectrum translocated herbicide is applied over even short periods of time, the emergence of perennial weeds is enhanced. Farmers should be forewarned of this problem if a continued use of herbicides is practiced.Because herbicides can be more effective when used in combinations. additional research is required to identify the economically optimal combinations and application levels. 80th pre-and post-emergence herbicides may be required in the development of these optimal combinations. Screening trials with five pre-emergenca herbicidas on pura stand beans and a bean-maize intercrop were conducted in 1990. The results indicate that even when herbicides effectively controlled the weed problem, the hand hoe weeded treatments tended to give consistently higher yield.As expected, these results imply that the use of the herbicides does not lead to an increase in crop yield per se. However, considering that one of the main reasons for having a wider spacing of crops is to ensure ease of hand hoe weeding, a herbicide application may effectively contribute to yield increases only if used as part of an integrated package that a1so involves higher seeding rates.Where labour costs are exceptionally high (e.g., in the control of couchgrass), the use of herbicides is intended to reduce production costs and therefore increase net profits. Further herbicide screening trials are needed to investigate higher seeding rates as well as the economics of herbicide treatments.Results of research on mínimum and zero tillage are inconclusive in sub-Saharan A1rica. Beans are, however, success1ully produced under mlnlmum and zero tillage systems in the Central Province of Kenya, suggesting that these practices may be economically 1easible. These practices should be ínvestigated to determine their feasibility in other areas, including Uganda.In monoculture, the recommended spacing for Uganda ís one bean plant at 30 cm x 30 cm (11.1 plants per m 2 ), or 1 plant at 60 x 10 cm (16.6 plants per m 2 ) (Anonymous). The first recommendation is obsolete and needs to be revised. Research by Mukasa (1965) and leakey indicate that the marginal product of seed is positive up to 30 plants per m 2 , but that 18-20 plants per m 2 may be the most profitable level. This is supported by the results of recent work at Kawanda and it agrees, in general, with 1armers' practice in central Uganda. Higher plant densities do, however, occur in the Kabale District 01 Uganda and in parts of Rwanda ( >30 plants per m 2 ). In parts of Ethiopia, farmers plant at even higher densities (>50 plants per m2), presumably for weed suppression purposes. Recommendations in Kenya and Tanzania are for 20 plants per m 2 , but for Ethiopia higher densities are recommended.Mukasa (1965) and leakey varied plant density, but held row spacing constant at 61 cm. Recommendations in neighboring countries call for a closer row spacing (45-50 cm). Results 01 recent work at Kawanda show a linear increase in yield as row spacing is decreased from 60 to 45 to 30 cm. For mechanized bean production, an alternative may be to alternate spacings of 30 and 60 cm to allow tractor wheels to pass in the 60 cm space.In intercropping, optimal plant densities and planting patterns are di1ficult to determine for two reasons: 1) The relative competitiveness of the associated crops varies by environmental conditions, suggesting the optimal proportion of each species varies over both time and space and 2) farmers' objectives often vary due to variation in the economics 01 production and marketing of the associated crops and result in variation in relative crop preferences over both time and space.In the maize-bean intercropping system in Uganda, bean plant densities are often at monoculture levels, while maize plant densities are at 30 to 50 percent of the optimum. In parts 01 Kenya where farmers are reluctant to sacri1ice maize production for additional bean production, maize densities are near monoculture levels, but bean stands remain low. Willey and Osiru and Osiru and Willey found that intercropping beans with sorghum or maize requ;res a higher total population than under monoculture. Further, they found that the proportion that each crop makes up of the total can be varied. These findings are in general agreement with farmers' practices in Uganda.When intercropping bananas and beans, farmers often have a full stand of bananas, while bean densities are normal1y 50 to 60 percent of monoculture densities. Optimal bean density in the banana-bean system is probably aboye 15 plants per m 2 (Wortmann and Sengooba). When intercropping sweet potatoes and beans in Uganda, farmers give preference to sweet potatoes, while beans are sown at a low density. The plant density of the cassava-bean intercropping system in Uganda is variable, depending upon the relative importance of the two crops.Farmers are capable in adjusting plant populations to fit their particular situation. No further bean plant populatlon research is needed at this time.Weed Control Mukasa (1970) recommended that the bean seedbed should be well prepared and weeding should be kept to a minimum to avoid damage to shoots and roots. Th;s is in line w;th farmers' practice where a s;ng1e timely weeding is the norm. In selected cases, the weeding lS followed by a hand pulling of taller weeds.In southwest Uganda, farmers indicate that they sow both beans and sorghum at high p1ant densities for the purpose of suppress;ng weed growth. Weed growth is a function of the cropping system practiced. Relatively few weeds are normally found in the banana-bean system, whereas an intermediate number are found in the maize-bean system and the most are usually found in the bean monoculture system (Wortmann and Sengooba).Current research is finding substantial differences between bean cultivars regarding their abi1ity to suppress weeds; with leafy, high yie1ding Type II's giving the best weed suppression control. Herbicides are usefu1 in weed control, but their use may now be uneconomical given their impact on yield and current relative input and output prices.At Kawanda, application of pre-emergence herbicides reduce labor requirements, but a hand weeding is still needed to prevent the spread of couch grass. Fallowing cultivated land is an important practice for the control of sorne perennial weeds such as couch grass. Declining prices of suitable herbicides may result in an improved feasibility of chemical control of such weeds.A possible research topic on weed control in beans is:1. The economics of perennial weed control in high value bean production systems with the herbicide glyphosate.Climbing beans are an important traditional crop in the Kisoro area, but are not of importance in other parts of Uganda. The potential for their adoption elsewhere, especially in the highlands, is high due to their greater productivity on fertile soils. Recent efforts to introduce climbing beans to farmers in Kabale and to involve farmers in variety evaluation and production system development have shown promising results. The availability of suitable staking material remains a major production constraint in the prometien ef climbing beans.The intercrepping ef climbing beans with maize, which afferds a suitable support structure for climbing beans, has been found to be a productive system in central Uganda (Wortmann and Ugen-Adrogu) However, farmers have expressed reservations about the system due to difficulties in the harvesting of beans.Several topics need the attention of agronomists and socio-economists with regard to climbing bean production. Research on high yield potential has a role to play in gaining a better understanding of factors affecting yield and resource utilization. For example, the role of the harvest (crop) index and the nitrogen harvest index on bean yields and how these can be manipulated to achieve a higher yield are not fully understood. There is a further need for collaboration in research by agronomists and breeders with physiologists in this important area.Agricu1tura1 production systems are comp1ex and optima1 management 1eve1s require the successfu1 integration of information on many factors. Beans in Uganda are grown in a number of production systems in many different environments. Experiments to examine a11 important factors and their interactions that affect productivity and sustainabi1ity in these different systems and environments wou1d require a significant amount of resources.Simu1ation mode1s are now avai1ab1e to integrate many sources of information and to interpo1ate and extend research finding over a wide range of environmenta1 conditions. Co1e et a7.) reviewed the progress on simulation mode1s in the United States that are used in predicting short-and 10ngterm effects of environmenta1 and cultural practices on productivity and soi1 characteristics. The BeanGro (Hoogenboom et a7.) and other crop growth simulation mode1s are being improved for further research.Future research needs on simu1ation mode1s inc1ude:1. The identification and validation of appropriate mode1s.2. Co11aboration with mode1 deve10pers to improve their use under Uganda conditions.3. Mode1 use to pre-screen techno10gies and extend resu1ts.The app1ication of on-farm and participatory research in bean research in Uganda was reviewed by Wortmann et a7.). Involvement of farmers in research p1anning was found to be on the increase. Methodo1ogies for diagnosis, experimentation, technology eva1uation and transfer aspects of on-farm research have received much attention in many countries. However, methodo1ogies designed for better invo1vement of farmers in research remain in the embryonic state. 2. Elicitation of information from farmers for identifying research topies, designing experimentation, and evaluating technologies.a. Systems of eommunication between farmers and researchers. b. Carefully selected versus typieal farmers. c. Contact with individuals versus groups. d. Improvement of farmers' analytical skills. e. Sex roles and ratios. f. Increasing involvement of extensionists.The commonly held view that Uganda soils are fertile and that most crops can be successfully produced is misdirected and can be misleading. Over 70 percent of the arable land in the country consists mainly of ferralsols (oxisols) and acrisols (ultisols) (Chenery). These are highly weathered and leached soils which generally have low pH, P, bases and sometimes fix high proportions of P. In additíon, they also have low soíl organic matter and thus low N, especially under continuous cultivation. These two soil groups are estimated to make up 40-50 percent of the soils in the bean growing areas of Uganda.Bean yields in Uganda are low in general and are far below the genetic potential of the genotypes sown. Most research in Uganda on soíl fertility and bean nutrition was conducted from the mid 1940s and was reported upon in the 1960s and early 1970s. This research was confined largaly to research stations and district farm institutes. It is clear from these reports that soíl nutrient deficiency is an important factor affecting the productíon potential of beans.Therefore to increase bean production there is urgent need to carry out research on a1ternatives methods to increase or maintain soi1 productivity in areas currently under bean production and in the more marginal areas by either amending the soils or tha introduction of tolerant baan ganotypes.The purpose of this paper is to provida background information on soil fertility relative to bean plant nutrition for resaarch planning purposes. Research on soil fertility and bean nutrition is reviewed and estimates of the relative importance of various constraints are made. Finally, additional research needs are suggested.So;l Productivity So;l productiv;ty depends upon the ava;lability and balance of water and soi1 nutrients. Most soils in Uganda are able to meet the demands of extensive farming systems, but when subjected to more intensive continuous cropping they fai1 to meet crop demands within a short period of time.Research work at Namulonge showed that from the late 1940s, when land clearing was started, until the mid 1950s crop yields were satisfactory. However, during the following decade they dropped markedly. Although ferti1ity was declining, field trials failed to show that fertilizars were effective in either raising or mainta;ning crop yields. By 1972, however, yields were significantly improved through a continued application of fertilizers. Jones (1975) concluded that the consequent decline in yield served a useful research purpose. It emphasízed the need for studies on soil productivity to encompass the whole farming system rather than restricting the research to an investigation of nutrient identification that limits the yield of individual crops.Prior to 1940 most work on soíl fertility was aimed at improving crop management with a special emphasis on the development of appropriate rotations. After 1940 the need to raise the general level of productivity was accepted and the use of inorganic ferti1izers on an experimental basis was introduced. This resulted in a number of experiments in Serere, Namulonge, Kawanda, and the associated upcountry stations (Manning and Griffith;Le Mare;Mills;Jameson and Kerkham;Stephens;and Foster (1970and Foster ( , 1972and Foster ( , 1979and Foster ( , and 1980». ». Conclusions drawn from these experiments were that for the area of the Fertile Crescent Zone no consistent increase in arable crop yieló could be expected from the application of fertilizers, except from N applied to cereal crops in unusually wet seasons and from fertilizers applied to old arable land. Despite these conclusions, the general yíeld levels of all crops were low in relation to the potential yield. It was then accepted that the only certain means of maintaining fertility was to rest the land in sorne form of long-term vegetatíon or to use animal manure (Foster, 1969;Stephens, 1967;Jones, 1968).Given these results, Le Mare initiated a research program on the rhythm of fertílity that occurs withín a 3:3 rotation. The quantity of nutrients involved in the cycle provided a basis for formulating a mixture of fertilizer for supplying five major nutrients. When tested over a period of six seasons, the yield of maize, beans, and cotton consistently increased (Table ll. Thus the inorganic fertilizers tested in the 1950s gave inconsistent results, but when used in the late 1960s they consistently increased yields of the same crops.Bean response to applied fertilizers in Africa was reviewed by Wortmann and Zake. Selected pertinent points emphasized in that review should be noted here. Organic manures have been more successful than any combination of inorganic fertilizers in increasing bean yields on Uganda soils (Stephens 1969); Jameson and Kerkhaml. Response of beans to fertilizers and other soil amendments have been observed, but are less than that for sorne other crops. The response for beans has also been less consistent. Farmers have noted this result and are more likely to fertilize other crops rather than beans.Beans are often grown in rotation with other crops or in intercropped systems. Organic and inorganic fertilizers are often applied to benefit grain crops, which preceed beans in rotation, or to benefit banana, coffee, or maize when intercropped with beans. Little information is available on fertilization of these crop associations for Uganda soi1s.A greater response to fertilizers can be expected when management levels are high (Foster, 1979). Wortmann and Zake's review conc1uded that deficiencies of N, P, and K frequently constrain bean yields in Uganda. Liming was found to be important in selected cases (Stephens (1969);Foster (1970Foster ( , 1972Foster ( , 1979Foster ( , 1980)). Stephens reviewed work done in Uganda and other African countries between 1924 and 1934 and concluded that green manures failed to maintain soi1 ferti'lity. Fallowing with elephant grass was, however, effective in restoring productivity.Results of recent diagnostic on-farm trials conducted in the Luwero, Mpigi, Rakai, and Kabale Districts showed that beans responded to low levels of applied N and P in all districts except of Mpigi (Ugen-Adrogu and Wortmann).The average yield increaae across al1 the on-farm trials was 62 percent. In nutritional screening triala conducted to identify the most limiting nutrients, both N and P were found to be important in Mpigi District while N was found to be eapecially important in Luwero District. In this set of onfarm trials, no response to applied fertilizers was observed in fields near Kachwekano in the Kabale District.The Relative Importance of Different Soi1s Constraints Bean production data for the periods 1963-1964 and 1976-1988 show that the area under beans, bean production, and bean yield have remained relatively constant. The area under production ranged from 300,000 to 350,000 hectares with average yields in the range of 500 to 700 kg. Total production ranged from 230,000 to 260,000 tons. The consistency in these figures could be a result of bean production being confined within soil groups which are basically fertile. These include:1.The deep, red or brown, 10am or clay loam, pediment soils occurring in the \"fertile crescent\" zone which is located in a 40-50 km wide belt around Lake Victoria from Jinja to Rakai, a rectangular block of land about 500 km wide extending north-east from Kabarole into north Mubende, and smal1er areas of land lying between Hoima and Masindi.The Nakabango soil series formed from basic amphibolite rocks extending from Mabira to Kakira with small patches in the Tororo District, around Sunga in Hoima District, and in the north-west cornera of Nebbi and Arua Districts.Soils formed on volcanic ash on the lower slopes of Mt. Elgon, Kadam, Moroto and Iriri, on the triangle south of Lake George and north of Lake Edward, around and south of Kabarole, and around Ki.soro in the south-west of Kaba1e District.The deep sedimentary soils occurring around Bundibugyo, in the neighborhood of Lira and around Doko10 in Lira District, Panyimuri in Nebbi District, and Laropi in Moyo districts.The hydromorphic soils a10ng river valleys.Within these fertile soi1 groups there are pockets or patches of inferti lit Y called \"Lunyu\" in the Luganda language. The causes and characteristics of \"Lunyu\" have not been adequately researched.The general distribution of the bean growing area coincides with the distribution of ferti1e land (Figure 1).Using available secondary sources of soil information and soil maps the hectares of beans produced in the major soil type areas was estimated. The estimates and sorne general characteristics of the soi1 groups are shown in Table 2. Phosphate deficiency was estimated to be a major constraint on 40, 80, 53, and 22 percent of the bean producing areas in eastern, central, western, and northern Uganda, respectively. Low base availability was estimated to be a prob1em on 40, 80, 40, and 20 percent of the bean producing areas in eastern, central, western, and northern Uganda, respectively.Aluminum toxicity was estimated to be a problem on 12-38, O, 14, and ° percent of the soils of eastern, central, .western, and northern Uganda, respectively. Using organic carbon as an indicator of N availability, 41, 20, 0, and 29 percent of land in eastern, central, western, and northern Uganda, respective1y, have low N as a major constraint.Because farmers will use the more productive soi1s in the heterogenous soil groups, the aboye estimates may exaggerate actual soil nutrition problems. These estimates, however, are based on soil information that is now 30 to 40 years old. Current soi1 nutrient 1evels are probably lower.The major soil groups found south of latitude 2 0 north that are now unsu;ted or marginal for bean production, but which have suitable climatic conditions, are shown in Table 3. Low P availability stands out as the most serious constraint in most cases. The soil bases, especially K, are frequent1y found to be low. In some soi1s Al toxicity may a1so be a problem. Sandy textured soi1s with low fertility and low water holding capacity have low levels of productivity. However, these soi1s generally have an adequate depth. In central and western Uganda, Mn toxicity could be a serious problem, although it is not indicated as such here.Further research is needed on the following topics:1.Diagnosis to better define the problems, their causes, and the extent of their distribution.a.Computerized handling of results of so~l chemical analyses to increase their uti1ity. b.Determination of the relationships of soi1 physical and chemieal eharacteristics to productivity. c.Determination of the oceurrence, charaeter, and management of some problem soils. d.Improvement of foliar tissue analysis as a diagnostic tool. e.Use of nutritional screening trials.Chemlcal fertilizer use in the high value production systems of coffee-beans. banana-beans, and climbing beans.a.Input-output studies for responses and efficiencies of use. b.Production sustainability studies.3.Evaluation of agro-minerals in high value production systems.a.Rock phosphate from Tororo (research underway).b.Lime.4. Organic manures.a.Limited, cautious work on high potential green manures crops. b.Cover crops. c.Agro-forestry (research underway). d.Use of organ;c matter or ash harvested from swamps as mulch or amendments. e.Alternative crop residue management practices for improved soil, nutrient, and water management. f. Synchrony of nutrient release from decomposing organic matter and nutrient demand by crops to minimize losses.Nutrient fluxes and losses in important production systems.a.Quantification of important fluxes in nutrient cycles. b.Use and improvement of simulation modela.Soil and water conservation.a.Understanding farmers' knawledg9 and perceptions. b.Investigating alternative management practices in collaboratían with farmers.7. N-fixatíon.Genetic improvement far adaptation to nutrítional disorders.O' b The quantities of majar nutrients (kg/ha) ;n the 0-30 cm and 30-90 cm depths of so;l compared with the requirements of arable and grass crops and the fertilizer mixture. C Based on the average requirements of good maize and cotton erops.d Requirements of grass for a six-month periodo  -c sl  The letters g, s, si, 1, and e nd cate grave, sand, si1t, loam, nd clay soí1 textures, respectively. The 1etters 1, m, and n indicate low, medium, and neutral soi1 pH ~here low <=5.3 and medium is 5.3 to 5.5. The Kiamara so;l series is heterogeneous and eontains fertile oil s.The purpose of this paper ia to review and summarize available information relative to the socio-economics of bean production and marketing in Uganda. The objective of the paper ia to provide information for the Uganda Bean Program to use in setting reaearch priorities. As such, only informatíon that ia highly relevant to the research planning process will be reported. Space Jimitatíons preclude a more extensive reportíng. In addition, ímportant areas in which little or no information exits, but which would be useful in the research planning process, will be identified.Uganda was the third largest producer of beans in sub-Saharan Africa during the 1986-88 period with 272,000 ton s being produced from 368,620 ha (Grisley, 1990a). Only Kenya with nearly 400,000 tons and Burundi with 300,000 tons were larger producers. Uganda's production during this period accounted for approximately 15 percent of al1 beans produced in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding supplies from Cameroon and S. Africa. Per eapita supply averaged 17.3 kg compared to 7.6 kg for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. Average yield in Uganda was 741 kg per ha, 11 percent greater than the sub-Saharan Africa wide average yield of 669 kilogramo Over the 1970-89 period bean production in the aggregate grew at an annual rate of 1.6 percent, or 4,036 tons. This growth was achieved primarily through an increase in productivity as no significant growth in area expansion was found. Using upwardly adjusted yields in 1989 and 1990 and an exponential relationship in estimation, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) estimated a growth rate of production of 2.5 percent over the 1970-90 period with most of the growth resulting from an increase in productivity of 2.1 percent per year. To realize this growth rate the MOA estimated average yield to be 1 ton per ha in 1989 and 1990.During the 1980-89 period Grisley (1990a) estimated that production growth was flato The MOA estimated production growth to be 8.3 percent during the 1980-1990 period, with growth in area expansion at 5.2 percent while the remainder was due to growth in productivity.Growth in bean production during the 1980s was a positive contributor to the Uganda agricultural sector, which overall had a negative growth of -0.5 percent over the period 1980-87 (World Bank). However, Growth in bean production lagged behínd the population growth rate of 3.1 percent when using Grisley's figures, but greater than population growth when using MOA estimates.Beans are produced in all 34 districts in the country. The districts of Bugisu, Busoga, Masaka, Kigezi, and Lango accounted for more than one-half of production by the late 1980s according to MOA estimates. Except for Busoga, growth in production in these districts were negative over the period 1970-80. Decrease in area was the most important reason for the decline in production. During the 1980s, however, production growth was posixive, ranging from a low of 7.4 percent in Busoga to a high of 18.7 percent in Masaka. Again, this growth was largely due to growth in area expansionoBeans are produced in a variety of circumstances from pure stand to intercropping with maize, bananas, or other crops. In production, the competitive position of beans was analyzed relative to that of maize, sweet potato, cassava, all pulses, and bananas over the period 1961-64 to 1984-86 using ratio analysis (Grisley, 1989). Beans were found to be increasingly competitive relative to maize•and all pulses in production. That is, in the aggregate, bean production was increasing (or not decreasing) at a faster rate than both maize and all pulses. Beans were increasingly competitive in both area planted and yield relative to ma;ze and area planted relative to a11 pulses.Beans were decreasingly competitive relative to sweet potato, cassava, and bananas. To a large extent, this was due to faster growth in area expansion of these crops. Beans were also decreasingly competitive ;n production with a combined category of beef and veal.The competitive position of beans relative to that of other crops is a function of the production technology used and relative output prices. From the results of Grisley's (1989) study it can not be determined why beans were increasingly competitive for some crops and decreasingly competitive for others. However, an overriding factor was almost certainly relative changes in output prices. Output prices were probably moving in favor of beans relative to that of maize and all pulses and against beans relative to sweet potatoes, cassava, bananas, and beef and veal. However, beans may, in the future, realize a favorable relationship in output prices when compared to sweet pota toes , cassava, and bananas if the overa11 economy improves.Farmers select among bean cultivars to produce using a complex set of production, consumption, and marketing criteria. Using data supplied by district agricultural officers, Grisley and Sengooba invest•igated for bean cultivars commonly planted. Data were received on 264 cultivars in 29 districts. About 40 cultivars were named in more than one district. The most common cultivars were Kanyebwa, Mutike, Nambale, and Ebyeru. In terms of gra;n size, 37 percent were large seeded, while 28 and 35 percent were medium and small seeded. Sixty-four percent were found to be bush types while 21 percent were semi-climbers. Many of the semi-climbers are, however, expected to be trailing types and not true semiclimbers.By color category, the most common colors were white (51 cultivars), red (50), brown (48), black (25), and purple/maroon (22). The intended use of the gra;n was home conaumption 22 percent, marketing 4 percent, and both home and marketing 72 percent. Forty cultivars were listed ;n the top 5 cultivars in the 19 diatrict reporting data. Both Nambale (K20) and Kanyebwa were in the top 5 in 68 percent of the districts. They were also the moat freQuent cultivars listed in the first and second rank positions. Other cultivars freQuently in the top 5 where Mutike-large (37 percent), White (26 percent), and Kayinja (16 percent).The moat common colora in the top 5 rank were brown, white, red molted and red in that order. By size of grain, the top 5 were rated large 45 percent of the time and medium and small 29 and 26 percent of the time. By plant atructure type, 73 percent of the top 5 cultivara were bush, followed by aemi-climbers at 19 percent and climbera at 8 percent. Sem;climbers only occupied the firat rank in 3 of the 19 districta. Sixty-nine percent of the top 5 cultivara were used for both home conaumption and marketing.Beans are marketed at the farm, wholesale, and retai1 levels in a highly competitive environment. The large number of participants at each marketing level insures the competitive nature of the market. At the wholesale level, the major buyers are merchants, cooperatives, and the government produce marketing board. From the wholesale level, grain is usually treated with chemical additives and then moved to urban centers.Most bean grain goes into retail markets, but increasing quantities are baing targeted for the export market. In 1989, over 20,000 tons of beans were exported (MOA). Even larger quantities are believed to be exported to Kenya and Rwanda through informal channels. Barter trade has been used by government, while prívate sector traders normally engage in cash payment transactíons. The export market is expected to ímprove as the private sector gaíns experience in processing, transporting, and financíng large stocks of grain.There is limited information on the number of farmers that normally sell on the open market and the quantities soldo A recent survey of 50 farmers in 4 districts showed that 39 percent of the farmers sold beans with average sales of 335 kg (Kisakye). The median volume of sales was 250 kg.Over the period 1970-89 the growth rate of producer bean prices in real terms has decreased by -3.3 percent annually (MOA). At the rural wholesale level, growth in prices was 0.1 percent and at the retail level prices rose by an annual average of 0.2 percent. Growth in the farmgate-to-retail price spread was 3.5 percent annually, which is about equal to the rate of decrease in the farmgate price. The widening of the farmgate-to-retail price spread in most likely due to increasing transportation costs.Differences in prices paid for both fresh and dry beans was investigated in 12 major markets in 1990 (Grisley and Mwesigwa). For fresh beans, prices in markets distance to Kampala were lower than Kampala market prices by an average of Ush 39 to 97 per 500ce tino These results were expected because Kampala is a deficit fresh bean area and the transport costs and associated spoilage risks are high when moving fresh beans from outlying districts.However, for dry beans, no significant difference in retail prices were found. Because there is little spoilage risks during transportation, bean storage costs are low and traders have found it profitable to store and move dry beans from lower to higher priced areas. Traders have evidently arbitraged across market locations such that further movement of beans is unprofitable. Thus the market for dry beans is believed to be efficient.Two important issues relating to consumer preferences of beans are whether they are consumed in the freshly hulled or dry state and the color and size characteristics of the grain. Kisakye found that 98 percent of farmers harvested beans in the fresh state. Forty-seven percent of the farmers harvested less than 25 percent of their beans in the fresh state, while 38 percent harvested 25 to 50 percent of their beans in the fresh state. These results indicated that farmers, as consumers, have strong preferences for beans in the fresh state.Grisley and Mwesigwa found that significant quantities of beans were sold in the fresh state. While not determined, the percentage was estimated in the 30-50 percent range. Fresh beans commanded a revenue advantage of 210 percent over the equivalent number of dry beans. If some of this revenue is passed back to farmers through market forces, then fresh beans are probably more profitable than dry beans. Size of grain was not found to be an important factor in explaining prices paid for either fresh or dry beans. In contradiction to conventional wisdom, beans with larger grain size was not bringing significantly different prices than smaller sized grain, holding constant other factors that influence market prices.Of the 11 color grain categories studied, only the color pink and mixture of colors were significant in explaining prices paid for fresh beans, while only the color yellow was significant for dry beans. In general, these results imply that consumers do not place strong preferences on grain color. Notably, beans red or reddish in color were not commanding a premium price. The general result is that consumers probably place greater preference on taste and that grain size and color are not good proxies for taste.The bean seed issue in Uganda can be separated into that of seed for currently produced cultivars and landraces and newly released cultivars (Grisley, 1990b). Farmers access to seed of acceptable quality for cultivars and landraces currently in use is not believed to be a problem because supplies are retained from season to season, or if lost through extraordinary circumstances, purchased on local markets. However, for newly released cultivars there is no institutional mechanism to get the seed into the production system.Under present circumstances, neither the Uganda Seed Unit nor the German sponsored grain legume seed project are producing bean seed and have no plans for large scale seed production in the near future. In addition, there are no private sector firms that produce seed commercíally. There are thus no organizations in a position to produce and distribute seed of newly released bean cultivars.If the seed of newly released cultivars is to be produced and di~tributed, the bean research program may have to take a leading role. However, involvement of the bean research program in the production and distribution of even small quantities of seed will require additional funding.Additional research in socio-economics that will be of use by the bean program in the research planning process are in the areas of yield loss due to diseases and pests and technology adoption and díffusion. Most bean cultivars are suepectable to a variety of diseases and insect pests. Many researchers believe that some of these diseases and ínsects cause economic losses to farmers. In additíon, the insect bruchids is believed to be responsible for significant losses while beans are in storage. While casual observation tends to support these views for selected diseases and pests, few studies have been undertake that have used reliable research methodologies on a large scale. Additional work needs to be done in this area so that research priorities can be seto More research information is needed in the area of technology adoption and diffusion. While technology is being developed, farmer assessment of the technology is needed. The testing of technology by farmers is essential and after release monitoring of adoption and diffusion will be necessary. Information gleamed from farmers both before and after technology is released is important in the dynamics of a research programo SESSION 111. Bean Production Problema, Their Causes and lmportance by Agro-Ecolog;cal ZoneThe purpose of this session is to identify s;gnificant problems in bean production by agro-ecological zone. The agro-ecological zones identified are the short grassland, tall grassland, and highland zones. Workshop participants were divided into three working groups to discuss bean production by zone. 80th biotic and abiotic problems were considered in each agro-ecolog;cal zone. For each problem identified, the souree of the available evidence and any additional evidence needed to further clarify the problem were identified.The findings are reported in Tables 1, 2, and 3 for the short grassland, tall grassland, and highland zones, respectively.The bean produetion problems identified were ranked by order of importance with regard to their severity in reducing bean produetion. The variables considered by agro-eeologieal zone were:1. The percent of fields affected.2. The percent of seasons in which the problem oecurs.Information on these variables are shown in Tables 4, 5, and 6 for the short grassland, tall grassland, and highland zones, respectively.    The purpose of this Session is to rank the solutions to bean production problems that were identified in Session V.Three working groups were used in this Session. The criteria considered in the determination of the rankings were:1. The type of research output.2. Its overall estimated impact on the bean production sector.3. The estimated level of research funds required to attain the solution.4. The estimated period of time needed to attain the solut;on.5. Priority rank.The results of this Sess;on are reported in Table 9 for abiotic problems and Table 10 for biotic problems.Other information summarized in this Session.1. The top ten problems ranked by priority in Tables 9 and 10 are identífied by the three agro-ecological zones in Table 11.2. Participants estimates of the amount of funds and period of time required to attain all solutions that were priority ranked 1, 2, and 3 were considered separately. Participants estimates for each solution by rank and on average are shown in Table 12.3. Estimated staffing requirements to solve each of the identifíed abiotic and biotic problems are shown in Tables 13 and 14.4. The estimated researcher requirements for the top three priority ranked problems are shown in Table 15. b 1 = so vital, easy and potentially useful that it must be implemented, 2 = implement at current level of support, 3 = postpone until increased financial support, 4 = needs to be done, but not by the bean program, 5 = too ambitious for bean programo When fertilizer was indicated to be a possible sOlution, it was assumed that its price per kg was less than the price of one kg of dry beans.  Tabla Percent of total 34 aSee column 5 in Tables 9 and 10.Priority rank,,-a_--=- The workshop participants assigned a priority ranking of 1-2 to the issue of ecological zone based bean research (see footnote b, Table 9).The was a general consensus that the researcher/extension linkage in the bean program was weak and that technology being generated was not reaching farmers. To rectify this situation, the fol1owing suggestions were forthcoming: It gives me great pleasure to be with you this afternoon, even if for only a short period of time. 1 would have wished to be with you throughout this planning workshop, but was unable to do so because of other scheduled activities. 1 look forward to seeing the published proceedings.It is most encourag;ng to see that you have given due attention to the planning of the activities of the bean programme, because this is absolutely essential for an organized approach in the tackling of researchable problems and for the efficient use of scarce resources. Proper planning in the past has helped the bean programme to continuously and steadily focus on the objectives of increasing bean productivity and overa11 production.The composition of the workshop participants is a reflection of the wealth of knowledge on the bean crop and the diversity of experience in research planning available in this country. The information you have generated will be valuable and could act as a model in the research planning process for many of our other commodity research programmes.Research on beans has been going on for the last 30 years in this country. A major breakthrough was made in 1968 when the cultivar K 20 was released. However, the continuous civil unrest during the decade of 1970s and the early 1980s and the scarcity of research resources have hindered progress in agricultural research in general and bean research in particular for nearly two decades. With CrAT's assistance, the bean programme has been making steady progress. 1 am pleased and encouraged to learn that new technologies for increasing bean productivity are in the research pipeline and that they are being refined for release to farmers.As agriculture researchers, we are all under continuous pressure to increase agricultural production. Beans are one of the major crops in which we have focused particular attention. There is, indeed, a great need to increase bean production. Household food demands are increasing daily with the rapid increase in population. In addition, farmers need to increase bean production for generating cash income and the country as a whole needs more bean production for generating exports. While the importance and demand for beans in Uganda iB growing, major problems persist in production. Our national average yield is around 740 kilograms per hectare and we know that potential yield iB about three times this level.There is an urgent need to realize this potential while at the same time sustaining the wealth of our natural environment. 1 am pleased to learn that you have considered research on technologies that will not only lead to higher productivity, but also on the sustainability of the productivity gains.Within the Ministry of Agriculture we are most concerned with both national and household food security needs. Beans are an important food crop in achieving food security. 1 am p1eased that this issue has also been addressed in this workshop.The agricultural sector of this country iB set for an agricultural revolution and the bean programme has organized itself to get the ball rOlling to increase bean production. The collaborative effort between Uganda and ClAT, designed to increase bean productivíty, is in the right place at the right time. We encourage CIAT to participate in our agricultural revolution and, in particular, to assistance us in aChieving our goal of increasíng bean productivity.Your meeting has touched upon the important issue of technology transfer. 1 am pleased that steps will be taken to insure that the technologies your programme develops will be made available to farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture has a mechanism in place to assist in the transfer of technology. Use this mechanism to insure that the developed technology is both quickly and widely distributed to farmers across the country.I believe this workshop to be most usefu1. We all look forward to the results, not only in terms of published proceedings, but also over the longer run in terms of new technology developments and increased bean productivity. 1et us hope that you have both enjoyed and learned from this planning experíence. For those who carne from outside Uganda, we hope that you have had a pleasant stay. You are always welcome.I now declare this workshop on \"National Research Planning for Bean Production in Uganda\" closed.","tokenCount":"17370"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f54471be2f2d99182111c668051f5097","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c93dfcbb-439c-4583-b9eb-7d1b3b863a24/retrieve","id":"881038337"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7fadd729-f096-4858-bc0f-af6c9d89e4b6","pagecount":"1","content":" Livestock production contributes to major environmental impacts on air and climate change, land and soil, water and biodiversity. CLEANED, an ex-ante model, allows users to explore environmental and productivity trade-offs of different livestock enterprises and changes therein.Environmental assessments can inform more sustainable livestock development • Limited context-specific knowledge of the environmental impacts of livestock enterprises in developing countries• Decision makers need to understand the environmental impacts of growth and transformation in the livestock sector, so that they can develop more inclusive and sustainable livestock intensification plans that mitigate the negative impacts and enhance the positive ones• CLEANED virtual training for partners in priority countries and beyond• CLEANED assessments for: Pig, Dairy, Small Ruminant and multi-species enterprises • Develop a user-friendly model for estimating the environmental footprint of livestock enterprises: CLEANED• CLEANED requires minimum data from local statistics, experts etc.• Training and collaborating with local experts to conduct the CLEANED assessments","tokenCount":"151"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7440f094bcfa71fd0317984f71bfd4fb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8ba8cd17-9025-4104-a3d5-b19b32c4b274/content","id":"1934258882"},"keywords":["Carbon isotope composition, ear, flag leaf, grain filling, photosynthesis, shoot ANOVA, analysis of variance","BM, biomass","CIMMYT, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center","DAA, days after anthesis","DM, dry matter","GY, grain yield","HI, harvest index","KW SP -1 , kernel weight per spike","PAR, photosynthetically active radiation","PPFD, photosynthetic photon flux density","SE, standard error","TKW, thousand kernel weight","WSC, water-soluble carbohydrates","WSF, water-soluble fraction"],"sieverID":"5c816c16-4938-4a43-b259-9b1ce272dbc8","pagecount":"17","content":"During grain filling in C3 cereals, the shoot (particularly the flag leaf) and the ear are believed to play major roles as sources of assimilates. However, both the cost and the intrusive nature of most of the methodologies available to investigate this have prevented conclusive results being obtained. This study compared the carbon isotope composition (δ 13 C) in its natural abundance in mature kernels with the δ 13 C of the water-soluble fraction of the peduncle, glumes, and awns to assess the relative contribution of the shoot (understood as the whole set of photosynthetic organs below the peduncle) and ear to grain filling in a set of highly productive wheat lines from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico, under good agronomic conditions. In overall terms, the contribution of the ear was greater in comparison with that of the shoot. The specific contribution of the flag leaf blade to grain filling was also assessed by comparing the δ 13 C of grains with the δ 13 C of the water-soluble fraction of the flag leaf and the awns. The contribution of the flag leaf was minor, ranging between 3 and 18%. Complementary analyses performed such as gas-exchange rates and the accumulated water-soluble carbohydrates in both organs and light intercepted by the canopy at different strata suggested that the ear has a photosynthetic capacity at least comparable to that of the flag leaf. In this sense, selection for a higher contribution of ear photosynthesis to grain yield in breeding programmes could be addressed with the use of stable isotopes.The United Nations prediction for 2050 is that the world's human population will reach 9.3 billion (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013). The challenge to accommodate this world population growth in a context of global (i.e. social and climate) change implies adaptations to secure future feed demand and food supply (Foulkes et al., 2011). Hence, the most direct solution to meet this challenge would be to increase productivity through the use of new cultivars with enhanced genetic yield potential. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the main staple crops. One of the avenues proposed to increase yield potential and improve adaptation to abiotic stresses, such as drought, is to select for higher ear photosynthesis (Tambussi et al., 2005(Tambussi et al., , 2007;;Parry et al., 2011). Indeed, the ear in wheat and other small-grain cereals is believed to play a significant role as a source of photoassimilates during grain filling, not only under drought or other abiotic stresses but also under good agronomical conditions (Araus et al., 1993;Bort et al., 1994;Tambussi et al., 2005Tambussi et al., , 2007;;Maydup et al., 2010) or as response to different fungal diseases that may affect leaves (Robert et al., 2005) more than ears (Tiedemann and Firsching, 2000).Although several studies have analysed ear photosynthesis (Araus et al., 1993;Bort et al., 1994;Tambussi et al., 2007;Maydup et al., 2010), its contribution to grain filling remains unclear. The reported contributions to grain filling vary widely, with estimates ranging from about 10 to 76% of the assimilate being deposited in grains (Gebbing and Schnyder, 2001;Tambussi et al., 2007;Aranjuelo et al., 2011). The variability of these estimates may reflect genetic diversity in the contribution of ear photosynthesis to grain yield combined with different growing conditions, but this is also likely to be the consequence of drawbacks in the methods used. In fact, compared with the leaves, the photosynthetic contribution of the ear has been less studied, in part due to methodological limitations. In addition, the genotypic differences in the contribution of ear photosynthesis to grain filling cannot be accounted for solely on the basis of the net photosynthesis of the ears. Differences in the refixation rate of the ears could also be involved (Tambussi et al., 2007). Indeed, a substantial refixation of respiratory CO 2 within the ear has been reported (Bort et al., 1996), which can contribute to 70% of the sucrose accumulated in bracts (Gebbing and Schnyder, 2001). While gas-exchange measurements are time-consuming, and even more so if respiration also needs to be monitored, there is no proven link between whole-ear photosynthesis and the relative contribution of this organ during grain filling. This is why an array of alternative approaches has been deployed for a largescale evaluation of the ear contribution to grain filling.Most of the methods for inferring the photosynthetic contribution of different plant parts to filling grains have involved intrusive approaches based on a differential (i.e. organ-specific) prevention of photosynthesis of some parts of the plant. Such approaches include, for example, shading the ears, the flag leaf blade, or the entire shoot (Aggarwal et al., 1990;Araus et al., 1993;Peralta et al., 2011), application of herbicides that prevent photosynthesis (Maydup et al., 2010), or simply defoliating leaf blades (Ahmadi et al., 2009). Besides the intrusive nature of such treatments, it should be kept in mind that compensation effects triggered by these treatments may eventually increase the contribution of unaffected photosynthetic organs or of pre-anthesis reserves to grain filling (Aggarwal et al., 1990;Eyles et al., 2013).The use of the stable carbon isotope signature in its natural abundance may help to elucidate the relative contribution of the different photosynthetic organs (Sanchez-Bragado et al., 2014). The carbon isotope composition (δ 13 C; frequently expressed as carbon isotope discrimination, Δ 13 C) in plant matter reflects the photosynthetic performance of the plant (Farquhar et al., 1989) and is one of the most successful time-integrated physiological traits used by plant breeders (Araus et al., 2002). The stable isotope, 13 C, is discriminated against the lighter 12 C during photosynthetic carbon fixation (Farquhar and Richards, 1984). Thus, discrimination of 13 C in a photosynthetic organ depends on the ratio of the intercellular versus the external (atmospheric) CO 2 concentration of CO 2 (c i /c a ) (Farquhar et al., 1989). Whereas environmental factors such as water availability may affect δ 13 C (and thus Δ 13 C), mostly through an effect on stomatal conductance, there are also constitutive differences in δ 13 C associated with the specific plant part considered (Hubick and Farquhar, 1989;Araus et al., 1993). This is the case, for example, for δ 13 C from photoassimilates produced by different photosynthetic plant parts, such as the leaf blades and the ear (Hubick and Farquhar, 1989;Araus et al., 1992Araus et al., , 1993)). Thus, regardless of the growing conditions the δ 13 C of photoassimilates from the flag leaf blade is lower (more negative) than from the ear (Araus et al., 1992(Araus et al., , 1993)). Such variation in δ 13 C among plant parts may be caused by differences in the c i /c a ratio driven by a far lower permeability to gas diffusion in the ear compared with the blades. Thus, the higher constitutive δ 13 C of the assimilates from the ear compared with the leaves may be associated with a lower c i /c a of the former organ.The main photosynthetic organs of the ear are the glumes and the awns (Gebbing and Schnyder, 2001;Tambussi et al., 2007). While in awned cereals this tissue seems to be the main photosynthetic organ of the ear in terms of fixing atmospheric CO 2 (Li et al., 2006;Tambussi et al., 2007), as pointed out above, the glumes may also have a crucial photosynthetic role mainly in refixing CO 2 respired by the forming grains (Gebbing and Schnyder, 2001).This study proposed the use of the δ 13 C of assimilates from different plant parts as a criterion to assess in a non-disturbing manner the relative contribution of ear and shoot photosynthesis to grain filling. In such a way, the δ 13 C of assimilates from the awns and the glumes were analysed at about the mid-stage of grain filling. In order to integrate the δ 13 C of the assimilates produced by the different photosynthetic organs of the shoot and then transferred to the ear along with stem reserves, the δ 13 C of assimilates from the peduncle was also analysed. In addition, the δ 13 C of the assimilates of the flag leaf blade was also analysed, because traditionally this organ has been considered as the main photosynthetic contributor to growing grains, particularly in the absence of water stress (Evans et al., 1975;Araus and Tapia, 1987). The present study was carried out on a set of high-yielding advanced lines of bread wheat from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico, growing under well-managed agronomic conditions.Six advanced bread wheat (T. aestivum L.) lines were selected on the basis of their similar phenology, high grain yield, and biomass, from the CIMCOG (CIMMYT Mexico Core Germplasm) population, which is composed of 60 elite lines generated from CIMMYT breeding programmes (Table 1). The field experiments were conducted during the spring growing season of 2012 at MEXPLAT (Mexican Phenotyping Platform) situated at CIMMYT's Experimental Station, Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB) in the Yaqui Valley, near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, México (27°24′N, 109°56′W, 38 m above sea level), under fully irrigated conditions. The soil was a typic calciorthid with low organic matter composition (0.76%) and a slightly alkaline (7.7) pH (Sayre et al., 1997) with a plant-available water-holding capacity of about 200 mm (Lopes and Reynolds, 2012). The experimental design was a randomized lattice with three replications in 8.5 m long plots consisting of two raised beds (0.8 m wide per bed) with two rows per bed (0.24 m between rows) with an additional shared bed in each plot side. The seeding rates were 108 kg ha −1 . The experiments were sown on 9 December 2011 and 23 November 2012, and immediately irrigated to promote germination. The respective emergence dates were on 16 December 2011 and 2 December 2012. Harvesting was performed by machine on 15 May 2012 and manually on 6-7 May 2013, respectively, about 15-20 d after reaching physiological maturity. The mean rainfall was 14.2 and 15.4 mm and evapotranspiration was 4.6 and 3.8 mm, respectively, during the 2012 and 2013 crop cycles. The maximum average temperatures were 28.0 and 25.9 °C and the minimums were 8. 4 and 8.3 °C (in 2012 and 2013, respectively). The relative moisture ranged from 27.5 to 88.5% in 2012 and from 34.4 to 90.9% in 2013. A total of five auxiliary irrigations were provided totalling more than 500 mm of water applied in 2012 and 2013. In 2012, the auxiliary irrigation dates during grain filling were on 16 March and 31 March, about 8 and 17 d after anthesis (DAA), respectively. For the crop cycle in 2013, auxiliary irrigation dates were on 15 March and 4 April, about 8 and 28 DAA. Appropriate fertilization and weed, disease, and pest control were implemented to avoid yield limitations. Plots were fertilized with 50 kg ha −1 of N and 50 kg ha −1 of P at soil preparation and another 150 kg ha −1 of N with the first irrigation.For each plot, grain yield, biomass, yield components, and plant height were determined in approximately 5.7 m 2 using standard protocols (Pask et al., 2012). In addition, phenology was recorded throughout the cycle using the Zadocks scale (Zadocks et al., 1974).Photosynthetic and respiration rates of the flag leaf blade and the ear were measured as carbon uptake using a LI-6400XT portable gas-exchange photosynthesis system (LI-COR, Lincoln, NE, USA). Photosynthesis measurements were performed approximately 2 weeks after anthesis. The flag leaf photosynthetic assimilation rate was estimated at a saturating photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of 1500 μmol m -2 s -1 and 30 °C. Ear photosynthesis was measured using a hand-made chamber connected to the Li-6400XT as described previously for other purposes (Aranjuelo et al., 2009). Ears were enclosed inside the chamber and ingoing air was passed through the chamber at a rate of 1 l min -1 . The molar fractions of CO 2 and humidity were measured with the infrared gas analyser of the LI-6400XT. The CO 2 partial pressure was maintained as constant with the infrared gas analyser-controlled CO 2 injection system. To ensure steady-state conditions inside the chamber, the system was left to stabilize for a few minutes. An external light source composed of LED lights was placed around the chamber during the measurement achieving a saturating PPFD of approximately 1200 μmol m -2 s -1 measured inside the chamber. The photosynthetic rates presented here are based on the whole organ area measured with a LI3050A/4 (LI-COR). Dark respiration of the flag leaf and the ear were measured immediately after the photosynthetic measurements at a temperature of 30 °C.The potential contribution of the two organs as a source of assimilates was assessed taking into account the instantaneous net photosynthesis plus the dark respiration (here defined as gross photosynthesis) of the whole organs multiplied by the duration of the daylight period with a saturating PPFD and the number of days from heading to organ senescence. For each organ, the active duration of the flag leaf and ear was assessed periodically from heading to maturity. In the case of the flag leaf, chlorophyll content was measured once a week with a SPAD-502 Minolta chlorophyll meter (Spectrum Technologies, Plainfield, IL, USA) in five flag leaves per plot. The active duration of the flag leaf was considered to end when SPAD values went below 20. For the ear, senescence was assessed visually and the active ear duration was considered to end when the peduncle changed colour. In addition, the total amount of assimilates produced per organ was estimated from the accumulated gross photosynthesis from heading to maturity, assuming all the fixed C was converted into carbohydrates (CH 2 O).Incident and transmitted photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) was measured about 1 week after anthesis on clear days as close to solar noon as possible (from 11:00 to 14:00), with a Linear PAR Ceptometer (AccuPAR LP-80; Decagon, Washington, CD, USA). Different strata of the canopy were considered for the measurements of transmitted PAR: the base of the ear, the flag leaf blade (which also included the peduncle), the penultimate leaf (including the sheath of the flag leaf and the first internode), and the third leaf (including the sheath of the penultimate leaf and the second internode). A single measurement was performed at each stratum Table 1. Mean values of grain yield (GY), agronomical components and phenology measured in the six selected genotypes Each value is the mean±SE of three replications. Thousand kernel weight (TKW), harvest index (HI), biomass at anthesis (BM), number of grains per spike (GSP), kernel weight per spike (KW SP -1 ), plant height (Height), and number of days from sowing to anthesis (DTA) and maturity (DTM) were determined. ANOVA for the effect of genotype is shown. Pedigrees of the genotypes detailed in the Genotype column are as follows: in each of the three replicates. The light intercepted by each stratum was estimated from the PAR measured by adapting the equations described by Pask et al. (2012) to each stratum.For the 2012 and 2013 crop seasons, WSCs were analysed in plants around mid-grain filling. Sampling was performed twice in 2012 and once in 2013. In 2012, WSCs were sampled 17 and 24 DAA (before and after irrigation, respectively). In 2013, WSCs were sampled 18 DAA. Ten representative ears, flag leaves, and peduncles per plot were harvested, cleaned, and immediately frozen with liquid nitrogen. Additionally, for the 2013 crop season, the entire peduncle was sampled and thereafter separated into two sections, the upper section (peduncle 1) and the lower sections (peduncle 2). The samples were stored at -20 °C and then lyophilized for 48 h in 2012. For the 2013 crop season, samples were oven dried at 70 °C for 48 h. In addition, the glumes, awns, flag leaves, and peduncles were separated, weighed, and finely ground. WSCs were analysed as described by Yem and Willis (1954) using the anthrone method and following the procedures described in Galicia et al. (2009). Briefly, the anthrone procedure is based on the reaction of anthrone (9,10-dihydro-9-oxoantraceno) with the furfural conformation of carbohydrates (treatment of carbohydrate in strong sulfuric acid) to give a coloured hemi-acetal, which is determined spectroscopically at 630 nm. Total soluble carbohydrates are expressed on a dry-weight basis. In addition, total soluble carbohydrates per whole organ were calculated.Analyses were only performed in the 2012 experiment. The stable carbon isotope composition (δ 13 C) in the dry matter (DM) of glumes, awns, flag leaves, and peduncles was analysed in the same samples used for WSCs and taken before irrigation (17 DAA). δ 13 C was also analysed in mature kernels. For δ 13 C analysis of the DM, approximately 1 mg of each sample was weighed into tin capsules and measured with an elemental analyser coupled with an Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (Delta C IRMS; ThermoFinnigan, Bremen, Germany) operating in continuous flow mode in order to determine the stable carbon ( 13 C/ 12 C) isotope ratios of the same samples. The 13 C/ 12 C ratios of plant material were expressed in δ notation (Coplen, 2008): δ 13 C=( 13 C/ 12 C) sample / ( 13 C/ 12 C) standard -1, where 'sample' refers to plant material and 'standard' to international secondary standards of known 13 C/ 12 C ratios (IAEA CH7 polyethylene foil, IAEA CH6 sucrose and USGS 40 l-glutamic acid) calibrated against Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite calcium carbonate with an analytical precision (standard deviation) of 0.10‰. The water-soluble fraction (WSF) of the flag leaf, peduncle, glumes, and awns was further extracted, as described previously (Yousfi et al., 2013), from the same dry-matter samples used for WSCs and taken before and after irrigation. Briefly, 50 mg of fine leaf and ear powder was suspended in 1 ml of Milli-Q water in an Eppendorf tube (Eppendorf Scientific, Hamburg, Germany) for 20 min at about 5 °C. After centrifugation (12 000g for 5 min at 5°C), the pellet was discarded and the supernatant containing the WSF was heated at 100 °C for 3 min where the heat-denatured proteins precipitated. Subsequently, samples were centrifuged again (12 000g for 5 min at 5 °C) to separate previously denatured proteins from the soluble fraction. An aliquot of 40 µl of supernatant containing the protein-free WSF was transferred to tin capsules for carbon analysis. The capsules containing the aliquots were oven dried at 60 °C for 1 h. Then, the δ 13 C of the WSCs was determined following the same procedure as that used for DM. Isotopic analyses were carried out by the Scientific-Technical Services of the University of Barcelona, Spain.Analysis of the isotopic composition of respired CO 2 was performed as described previously by Nogués et al. (2004). Entire flag leaves and ears were placed separately in the same chamber used to measure ear photosynthesis, and this was connected in parallel to the sample air hose of a LI-6400XT (LI-COR). The measurements were performed in the field in intact plants about 2 weeks after anthesis. Measurements were done twice: during the day (covering the entire plant with a black blanket) and the subsequent night. Ingoing air was passed through the chamber at a rate of 1 l min −1 . The CO 2 respired by the plant was monitored by the LI-6400XT in order to determine respiration rates so that the time of accumulation could be defined to obtain a concentration in the chamber of approximately 350 ppm of CO 2 . The gas-analysis chamber was first flushed with CO 2 -free air to ensure that only the CO 2 respired in the chamber was accumulated. According to the respiration rates, the time required for the plant to respire 350 ppm of CO 2 was calculated and the chamber system was closed until the CO 2 concentration inside the chamber reached the desired concentration. For each analysis, 25 ml of gas sample was collected from inside the chamber with a 50 ml syringe (SGE, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia) and immediately injected into a 10 ml BD vacutainer. The vacutainers were sent for analysis at the Scientific-Technical Services of the University of Barcelona, Spain, and were analysed by gas chromatography combustion isotope ratio mass spectrometry as previously described (Aranjuelo et al., 2009).The relative contribution to grain filling of the different photosynthetic organs of the plant was assessed by a comparison of the δ 13 C of the WSF of the different organs (averaged values before and after irrigation) and the δ 13 C of mature kernels. The approach takes into consideration several assumptions. It considers that the photosynthetic organs fixing CO 2 from the atmosphere are the awns and the green culm parts (leaf blades, sheaths, and peduncles) and therefore it excludes the glumes because this organ mainly fixes CO 2 from grain respiration (Gebbing and Schnyder, 2001). It assumes that the WSF in the peduncle reflects the pooled assimilates produced by the different photosynthetic organs (leaf blades, sheaths and the peduncle itself) during grain filling (plus the pre-anthesis reserves) eventually moving to growing kernels (assuming no downstream fractionation). Analysing only the WSF of the peduncle as an indicator of the pooled photosynthetic contribution of the stem is a way to economize analyses while developing a feasible technique for breeding in terms of numbers of analyses required.The specific contribution to grain filling of the flag leaf blade was also assessed through analysis of the WSF in this organ (averaged values before and after irrigation) compared with the WSF of the awns (also averaged values), in order to estimate the potential maximum contribution of the flag leaf to grain filling. This was based on the fact that the flag leaf blade has traditionally been considered the main photosynthetic organ contributing to grain filling (Evans et al., 1975;Araus and Tapia, 1987).In addition, the approach proposed here considers that the relative contribution of each photosynthetic organ to grain filling varies as a result of water status and that it is reflected in the stable carbon isotope signature of mature grains (Araus et al., 2003). In our study, relative water status was assessed through the δ 13 C of mature kernels (Farquhar and Richards 1984;Ferrio et al., 2007;Araus et al., 2013). Water stress may induce stomatal closure in the different photosynthetic organs and then a decrease in the ratio of intercellular to atmospheric partial pressure of CO 2 , therefore increasing the δ 13 C of assimilates (Farquhar and Richards, 1984;Condon et al., 2004) and finally the δ 13 C of kernels. Thus, we assumed that the relative contribution of the awns in relation to the rest of the organs increased as water stress developed. This agrees with existing reports on the increased role of the ear (compared with the leaves) providing photoassimilates to growing kernels under water stress (Araus et al., 1993;Tambussi et al., 2007). Variability in crop water status may be present even under what are considered good agronomic conditions, with these frequently exposing the plants to mild water stress conditions (Cuenca, 1989).Another assumption of the method proposed here was to neglect the δ 13 C fractionation due to translocation of assimilates from either the culm or the awns to the kernels (Yoneyama et al., 1997). In fact, it has been reported that respiration associated with translocation may only have a minor discrimination effect (Bort et al., 1996;Badeck et al., 2005). Therefore, it was expected that the δ 13 C of the kernels would directly reflect the isotopic signal resulting from the combinations of the δ 13 C of assimilates coming from different photosynthetic sources. This implied that the same slope and origin to zero need to be found between the combined δ 13 C of the culm and the awns and the δ 13 C of the kernels.Data were subjected to one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) using the general linear model in order to calculate the effects of genotype and organ on the studied parameters. Means were compared by Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) test. A bivariate correlation procedure was constructed to analyse the relationships between the measured traits. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS 18.0 statistical package (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). Figures were created using the Sigma-Plot 10.0 program (SPSS).The six selected genotypes were advanced lines that in general presented high biomass (BM) and grain yield (GY). Thus, GY across plots ranged between 6.5 and 7.2 Mg ha -1 (Table 1), but no significant differences across genotypes were observed. Concerning the agronomical components, thousand kernel weight (TKW) ranged from 40.3 to 49.0 g and kernel weight per spike (KW SP -1 ) from 2.0 to 3.1 g. All agronomic components exhibited genotypic variation except for GY and harvest index (HI). The phenology range across genotypes according to date of anthesis was 5 d, and no differences were observed for date of maturity. The duration from planting to maturity was about 130 d, whereas grain filling extended for approximately 6 weeks (counted as the number of days from anthesis to maturity).Instantaneous net and gross carbon fixation were higher in the flag leaf compared with the spike (Fig. 1a). However, total photosynthetic productivities of the flag leaf and the ear (based on the accumulated gross carbon fixation) were calculated as the total carbohydrates produced by each organ from heading to maturity, and while they were comparable to the KW SP -1 , they were not significantly different from each other (Fig. 1b).During the 2012 crop season, the amount of WSCs per whole organ present at mid-grain filling (17 and 24 DAA, before and after irrigation, respectively) in the awns, glumes, and flag leaf blades was similar, whereas in the peduncles the WSCs were significantly higher (Fig. 2, upper panel). In the 2013 crop season, the WSCs (Fig 2, lower panel) were similar in the awns, glumes, flag leaf blades and sheaths and in peduncle 1 (upper section of the peduncles). Conversely, WSCs in peduncle 2 (lower section of the peduncles) were higher than in the rest of the organs studied.The amount of light intercepted at the different crop strata was different among plant organs (Fig. 3). The ear and the flag leaf blade (including the peduncle) strata showed similar percentages of light intercepted (around 30%). The amount of light intercepted by the penultimate leaf (plus the first internode) was lower in comparison with that in the ear and flag leaf but higher than that of the third leaf plus the second internode.The carbon isotope composition (δ 13 C) was different between DM and the WSF, where DM showed higher values (i.e. 13 C enriched, less negative δ 13 C) compared with the WSF before and after irrigation (Table 2). Moreover, the δ 13 C in the WSF before irrigation showed a tendency to higher values (less negative δ 13 C) compared with the WSF after irrigation, but only the peduncle showed significant differences. Significant differences in δ 13 C values were observed across plant organs, with both the DM and WSF of the awns and flag leaf blades having the highest and the lowest δ 13 C values, respectively. The δ 13 C values of the different plant organs were significantly different to the δ 13 C of mature kernels with the exception of the DM and WSF δ 13 C of the glumes. Thus, the δ 13 C of awns and peduncles exhibited slightly higher ( 13 C enriched) and lower ( 13 C depleted) values, respectively, than the δ 13 C of grains. Moreover, genotypic differences were found in the δ 13 C of the peduncle and flag leaf DM, whereas for the WSF only the δ 13 C in the peduncle (before and after irrigation) and the flag leaf blade (after irrigation) showed genotypic differences (see Supplementary Table S1 at JXB online). In spite of no significant genotypic differences in the δ 13 C grain , the range of variation across plots in the δ 13 C grain was about 2‰. Moreover, a negative correlation across plots was observed between the δ 13 C grain and GY (see Supplementary Fig. S1 at JXB online), which suggested that the studied trial exhibited some differences in water status across plots.The δ 13 C grains values were between the range marked by the WSF δ 13 C of the awns (δ 13 C awns ) and the peduncle (δ 13 C peduncle ) at mid-grain filling (Table 2), measured before and after irrigation. The relative contribution of the δ 13 C awns and δ 13 C peduncle that accounted for the δ 13 C grains was assessed through a linear fit. The δ 13 C grains was used as a dependent variable and a combination of the δ 13 C in the WSF of awns and peduncle were used as the independent variables, with assignment of a different weight for the awn and peduncle δ 13 C depending on the water status accounted for by the δ 13 C grains. Thus, the δ 13 C awns had a relative contribution of 90% (δ 13 C awns ×0.90) and the peduncle 10% (δ 13 C peduncle ×0.10) towards the δ 13 C grain , when the δ 13 C grain values were between -25.2 and -25.8‰. Conversely, the relative contribution of the awns was 58% (δ 13 C awns ×0.58) and the peduncle 42% (δ 13 C peduncle ×0.42) when δ 13 C grain values were between -26.4 and -27.0‰. In such a way, a linear fit with a slope of 1 and origin to zero was achieved (R 2 =0.73, P<0.001) (Fig. 4).The same approach was developed to assess the maximum relative contribution of the δ 13 C flag to grain filling. In such a way, a combination of the WSF δ 13 C flag and δ 13 C awns was used as an independent variable and δ 13 C grain as a dependent variable. Thus, the estimated contribution of the flag leaf was 18% (δ 13 C flag ×0.18) and the awns 82% (δ 13 C awns ×0.82) when the δ 13 C grain values were between -26.4 and -27.0‰. By contrast, the relative contribution of the awns was 97% (δ 13 C awns ×0.97) and the flag leaves 3% (δ 13 C flag ×0.03) when the δ 13 C grain values were between -25.2 and -25.8‰. As before, a linear fit with a slope of 1 and origin to zero was achieved (R 2 =0.69, P<0.001) (Fig. 5).The δ 13 C of the CO 2 respired by the flag leaf and the ear was higher ( 13 C enriched) than the δ 13 C in the WSF of all the organs studied (Fig. 6). In fact, the δ 13 C flag of the WSF exhibited values that were far more depleted than the δ 13 C of the CO 2 respired by the flag leaf. On the other hand, the δ 13 C glumes and δ 13 C awns of the WSF and the δ 13 C grains showed values only slightly more depleted than the δ 13 C of the CO 2 respired by the ear.Our study proposes a non-intrusive methodology to quantify the relative contribution of different organs to grain filling. The approach was based on the constitutive differences in natural abundance of carbon isotopic composition (δ 13 C) of assimilates from the different photosynthetic organs active during grain filling. This method aimed to compare the δ 13 C of these assimilates with the δ 13 C of mature kernels (Fig. 7). Since the method was applied in intact (i.e. non-manipulated) plants, the results were not biased by compensatory mechanisms. Moreover, and compared with pulse-chasing approaches, this is a relatively low-cost method that may help to elucidate the relative photosynthetic contribution to grain filling of different plant organs. Further application of this methodology into breeding programmes could be considered when selection for 'high' spike photosynthesis is desirable (Parry et al., 2011).In order to develop a feasible technique for breeding and keeping a balance between economy and accuracy, only a few photosynthetic organs were considered. From the available literature, there is evidence that the flag leaf blade and the ear are considered the main photosynthetic organs that contribute to grain filling (Evans et al., 1975;Araus and Tapia, 1987;Araus et al., 1993;Bort et al., 1994;Tambussi et al., 2007;Maydup et al., 2010). Thus, the awns and glumes, which are the two main photosynthetic parts of the ear (Bort et al., 1994) were analysed separately. In addition, the δ 13 C of the assimilates was also analysed in the peduncle because this organ represents the pathway through which the current shoot assimilates (i.e. produced by the different shoot organs during grain filling, including the blades and sheaths of the flag and the lower leaves) plus the pre-anthesis reserves (assimilates accumulated before flowering) are mobilized towards growing kernels (Gebbing et al., 1999). Because the use of the pre-anthesis reserves is reported to Each value is the mean±SE of three replications. Mean values across plant tissues with different superscripted letters are significantly different according to Tukey's HSD test (P<0.05). Values with different superscript letters between brackets are significantly different between fractions and sampling dates analysed within a given organ according to Tukey's HSD test (P<0.05).After irrigation take place during the first the half of grain filling (Wardlaw and Willenbrink, 1994;Gebbing et al., 1999;Zhou et al., 2009), assimilates present in the peduncle at the time that samples were collected in our study may integrate the potential contribution of such reserves. Therefore, the δ 13 C in the peduncle informs us about the relative contribution of the entire culm to the grains (see Fig. 7). In any case, the potential contribution of pre-anthesis reserves to growing kernels seems at first small because the plants were grown under good agronomical conditions and so the photosynthetic capacity of the plants during grain filling exceeds the sink demand of growing grains (Slafer and Andrade, 1991;Bingham et al., 2007;Dreccer et al., 2009).A basic point of our approach was that water-soluble organic matter is a proper indicator for newly produced assimilates, which agrees with available literature (Brandes et al., 2006;Gessler et al., 2009b). An additional requirement of our approach was that the δ 13 C signature in the sink was the direct consequence of the δ 13 C of assimilates produced by photosynthetic organs. Post-carboxylation fractionation effects in the δ 13 C of the newly assimilated compounds in photosynthetic organs and further fractionation during their remobilization (i.e. phloem loading, unloading, or transport) to heterotrophic tissues have been reported mostly in tree species (Damesin and Lelarge, 2003;Scartazza et al., 2004;Brandes et al., 2006;Bowling et al., 2008;Gessler et al., 2009a) and other woody species (Tcherkez et al., 2004;Badeck et al., 2005). Nevertheless, for herbaceous plants, such post-photosynthetic fractionation appears less evident. Indeed, a lack of a clear diel variation in δ 13 C in the organic WSF has been reported in sunflower (Ghashghaie et al., 2001) and wheat (Kodama et al., 2011). In the same sense, Yoneyama et al. (1997) studied post-photosynthetic fractionation of stable carbon isotopes between plant organs in different species. In their study, sugars in flag leaf blades, petioles, major veins, and phloem (which transport assimilates from source to sink tissues) of wheat were compared. Non-significant differences were found between phloem exudates (-29.5‰), sugars, and organic acids (-29.4‰) in leaf blades during grain filling. Similarly, Badeck et al. (2005) did not show consistent isotopic differences in the δ 13 C of sugars in the leaf blades, petioles, and major phloem veins of French bean concluding that fractionation during assimilate transport, leading to preferential export of heavy carbon isotopes from photosynthesizing leaves, cannot be proven. For herbaceous plants at least, the existence of fractionation during assimilate transport from leaves to sink tissues could not be confirmed from these results. In addition, Gessler et al. (2009b) did not find differences in δ 13 C composition of the phloem compared with the WSF and the assimilates of the leaf in Ricinus communis. Moreover, in our study, the CO 2 respired in the different organs was 13 C enriched compared with the corresponding soluble fractions (Fig. 6). This pattern of enrichment of the respired CO 2 has been reported before in different plants (Klumpp et al., 2005;Ocheltree and Marshall, 2004;Gessler et al., 2009b), including wheat (Kodama et al., 2011), and does not support an enrichment of the remaining assimilates that may eventually be translocated to the sink tissues. Such differences between the δ 13 C of the WSF (more negative) and the respired CO 2 (less negative) were more evident in the leaves compared with other parts of the plants, which agrees with previous studies (Ocheltree and Marshall, 2004;Klumpp et al., 2005).In our study, the δ 13 C of the flag leaf was lower (more negative) than that of the ear parts, whereas the δ 13 C of mature kernels exhibited values in between. Previous studies in durum wheat (Araus et al., 1993) and other cereals Fig. 5. Linear regression of the relationship between stable carbon isotope composition in mature grains (δ 13 C grains ) and the combination of the δ 13 C from the flag leaf blade and the awns (δ 13 C flag +δ 13 C awns ) in the WSF. The individual values of δ 13 C awn and δ 13 C flag used in the linear regression were the average of the δ 13 C in the WSF before and after irrigation. The six genotypes with three replications per genotype were considered. For each plot, the relative weight assigned to the δ 13 C of each of the two organs depended on the water status of the plot assessed by its δ 13 C grains (see inset). Level of significance: ***P<0.001. Fig. 4. Linear regression of the relationship between the stable carbon isotope composition in mature grains (δ 13 C grains ) and the combination of δ 13 C from awns and the peduncle (δ 13 C awns +δ 13 C peduncle) in the WSF. The individual values of δ 13 C awn and δ 13 C peduncle used in the linear regression were the average of the δ 13 C in the WSF before and after irrigation. The six genotypes with three replications per genotype were considered, accounting for a total of 18 plots. For each plot, the relative weight assigned to the δ 13 C of each of the two organs depended on the water status of the plot assessed by its δ 13 C grains (see inset). Level of significance: ***P<0.001. (Hubick and Farquhar, 1989;Araus et al., 1992) have found similar patterns of lower δ 13 C in the DM and the WSF of the flag leaf in comparison with the different ear parts, while the mature kernels exhibited values between them but closer to the ear parts. Differences in organ permeability to atmospheric CO 2 between photosynthetic organs probably explain the constitutive differences in δ 13 C of the ear compared with the flag leaf (Farquhar et al., 1989;Araus et al., 1993). The fact that the δ 13 C values in the WSF of the awns are far closer to the δ 13 C of mature kernels than the WSF the δ 13 C of the flag leaf supports the idea that in our study the ear has a more important role in providing assimilates during grain filling  than the flag leaf. On the other hand, the values of δ 13 C in the peduncle were far higher (less negative) than those in the flag leaf, and closer (even when still more negative) to the δ 13 C of the kernel. These results provide empirical evidence that the contribution of the flag leaf to the growing grains is minor compared with the rest of the shoot (including pre-anthesis reserves).Our results showed that the contribution of the ear represented on average about 70% of the total assimilates contributing to grain filling (Fig. 4), while the role of the flag leaf blade was markedly smaller, with an average contribution of 10% (Fig. 5). Some evidence in the past has shown that only 49% of carbon assimilated by the flag leaf moves to the grain in comparison with 80% of the ear-derived photosynthates (Carr and Wardlaw, 1965). In an experiment carried out by Aranjuelo et al. (2011) in durum wheat, the C fixed by the flag leaf during the beginning of post-anthesis was studied using 13 C labelling. In this study, only a small amount of the soluble sugars coming from the C fixed by the leaf arrived at the ear, and the rest was stored as structural C compounds and starch and then respired. This study also concluded that the C synthesized in the ear was used for grain filling.The potential contribution of the ear during grain filling is also supported by other indirect evidence. For example, the calculated total CO 2 fixed by the ear (including the respiratory losses) was comparable to that of the flag leaf blade and of similar magnitude to the total kernel weight per spike attained at maturity (Fig. 1B) from heading to maturity. In addition, the total WSCs per whole organ at mid-grain filling, which represents the potential amount of assimilates available in this organ, also supports this assumption. Thus, the WSC values were similar in the awns, glumes, flag leaf blades (Fig. 2, upper panel) and peduncle 1 and sheaths (Fig. 2, lower panel) despite the fact that these values were approximately one sixth of the level recorded in peduncle 2 (Fig. 2, lower panel). In this sense, grain filling may be limited by the sink rather than the source in wheat (Slafer and Savin, 1994), especially under good agronomical conditions, and therefore only the assimilates from the upper part of the plant are needed to fill the grains.Moreover, the percentage of incoming light intercepted by the ear was similar to that captured by the flag leaf blade (plus the peduncle), whereas light absorption by the rest of the shoot still accounted for about 40% of the total incoming light (Fig. 3). These results indicate that the ear may have a photosynthetic contribution during grain filling that is at least similar to that of the flag leaf, with the additional advantage that the structures of the ear are physically closer than the flag leaf to the growing kernels (Evans et al., 1975). They also provide indirect evidence supporting the fact that the flag leaf blade is not the only source of assimilates from the shoot. In a study performed in durum wheat under wellwatered conditions, the photosynthetic rate of the whole ear correlated much better with GY than the photosynthetic rate of the whole flag leaf blade (Abbad et al., 2004). On the other hand, the relative contribution of the δ 13 C in the awns against the δ 13 C of the stem (peduncle) varied depending on the water status (see Fig. 7). The results indicate that the awns had a higher contribution to filling grains compared with the stem, especially when the water status was less optimal (i.e. less negative δ 13 C grains ). Indeed, it has been reported that the ear is a photosynthetic organ better adapted than the flag leaf to water stress (Tambussi et al., 2005). In a study carried out by Motzo and Giunta (2002) in durum wheat under Mediterranean conditions, it was concluded that the presence of awns increased the average GY by 10-16%. The positive role of awns may be even higher under drought stress. A study performed by Evans et al. (1972) using 14 CO 2 labelling revealed that the presence of awns doubled the net photosynthesis rate in the ear, and the proportion of assimilate contributed by ear photosynthesis to grain filling was greater in awned ears compared with awnless ears under drought conditions.Our results indicated that total shoot photosynthesis (i.e. combining the contribution of the different leaves plus the peduncle together with the pre-anthesis stem reserves) represents on average 22% of total assimilates going to the grain, and up to 42% of the assimilates during grain filling when water conditions were the most optimal (and thus δ 13 C grains the most negative). In addition, in order to assess which contribution of assimilates of the peduncle was actually due to the flag leaf, the maximum relative contribution of the δ 13 C in the flag leaf compared with the awns was analysed (Fig. 5). The maximum relative contribution achieved by the flag leaf was 18% (when the water conditions were the most optimal and thus the δ 13 C grains the most negative). In addition, from Fig. 5, the relative contribution of the flag leaf blade appeared to be five times lower than that of the awns when water conditions were the most optimal (and thus the δ 13 C grains was the most negative). Extrapolating this proportion to Fig. 4, the contribution of the flag leaf with respect to the awns was 13%. If this calculation is applied to all three water conditions, the contribution of the flag leaf with respect to the awns ranged from 3 to 13%, from less optimal to most optimal conditions, respectively. In summary, this indicates that the flag leaf blade contributes on average only 8% of grain C and that the proportion changes with the degree of water stress (experienced in this study). Moreover, the proportion of grain C coming from the below-spike photosynthetic organs other than the flag leaf blade also decreases as water stress increases. Moreover, genotypes showing higher ear contributions do not necessarily reflect higher GY. In fact, water stress (assessed by δ 13 C grains ) may cause a decrease in GY, and thus an increase in the relative contribution of the ear to filling grains in comparison with non-ear organs (Tambussi et al., 2007). Furthermore, the glumes, which are photosynthetically active, are believed to be a significant source of assimilates for grain filling in wheat and other cereals (Araus et al., 1993;Bort et al., 1994). Hence, the importance of the ear's contribution to grain filling may thus be underestimated because, in the approach presented here, the glumes were not included (Fig. 7). The glumes mainly refix CO 2 (Bort et al., 1996). In a study performed by Gebbing and Schnyder (2001) with labelling of the atmospheric CO 2 surrounding the ear, the view was supported that the CO 2 used for glume photosynthesis was derived mainly from CO 2 respired by the grains.In addition, this view is reinforced by our results where the δ 13 C in the glumes and the grains was not significantly different (Table 2). In fact, no discrimination occurs during reassimilation of CO 2 respired by the grain if the ear parts are completely gas tight (Farquhar et al., 1989). These findings suggest that the ear could potentially contribute more to grain filling as was initially postulated in the approach.Summarizing, it is not only the flag leaf that plays an important role in grain filling, as has traditionally been considered (Evans et al., 1975;Araus and Tapia, 1987); the ear is also an essential organ during grain development. In accordance with the results obtained in this study, even under good agronomical conditions, the ear may be more important than the flag leaf during grain filling. Such a conclusion is also supported by the results of WSC in the whole organs, with the flag leaf blades and sheaths showing similar values to the awns and glumes as well as the similar photosynthetic contribution per whole organ recorded during the reproductive period by the ears and flag leaf blades. Whereas awns may be the organ of the ear that is pre-eminent in fixing atmospheric CO 2 (Motzo and Giunta, 2002), the glumes may also play a major photosynthetic role in reassimilating CO 2 respired by the ear.Previous studies using a simplified version of the δ 13 C approach also support a very limited role for the flag leaf blade in durum wheat under both moisture stresses and low nitrogen conditions (Sanchez-Bragado et al., 2014). Our results are not in conflict with a basic role of the flag and the lower leaves in providing assimilates to the growth and development of the reproductive sink; specifically, shoot photosynthesis may determine the number of fertile florets and even further, the number of kernels and their potential size (Slafer and Savin, 1994). In addition, the flag leaf also plays an important role as a source of nitrogen that is later remobilized to the grain (Bahrani and Joo, 2010).By analysing the δ 13 C of the WSF at the peduncle, the photosynthetic contribution of the complete shoot to growing kernels has been assessed. Therefore, our methodological approach avoids the inherent limitation of not taking into account the potential contribution of other organs such as the flag leaf sheath and the peduncle, as well as the lower parts of the shoot and the pre-anthesis reserves.The main purpose of our study was to estimate the relative organ contribution to grain filling using a non-intrusive and relatively low-cost approach (three δ 13 C analyses per plot). While such an approach may potentially be deployed as a phenotyping tool, the relative contribution of each organ to grain filling is probably strongly affected by growing conditions. Therefore, for breeding, care should be taken to assess all genotypes under similar growing conditions, avoiding as much as possible spatial (across the trial) variability in the level of soil moisture.  ","tokenCount":"8210"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c040ec4e55b5cd85fb05685152b1d2e6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0d6ccbe7-75bc-480d-a2b7-f772bc329df0/retrieve","id":"-1627581095"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c86e9b3b-c8d3-452e-b240-e23071f47c84","pagecount":"12","content":"A. Tamaño óptimo de parcela y el efecto de bordes , , Febrero 19831) o Jeremy H. C. DavisEn CIAT, ~l~irB, se llevaron a cabo tres ensayos para cuantificar elefecto de los bordes de parcelas y el tamaño de la parcela Gtil (Davis, Amézquita y Muñoz, 1980).En asociación, el ma{z fue raleado para dejar una distancia de 25 cm entre plantas por 1 m entre hileras (densidad 40,000 pI/ha), y los frijoles fueron sembrados en surcos a 15 cm a cada lado de la hilera de malz, dejando 16 cm entre plantas (densidad 120,000 pI/ha). Los unicultivos fueron sembrados a las mismas densidades respectivamente, utilizando para frijol una espaldera de postes de bambG con alambre e hilos de polipropileno a una altura de 1.8 m. Se aplicaron 200 kg/ha de fertilizante 10-30-10 para mejorar la uniformidad del lote y se hizo un control adecuado de plagas y enfermedades.Ensayo 1. El objetivo de este ensayo, sembrado en octubre de 1977, fue estudiar el efecto de competencia entre variedades distintas de frijoles volubles en parcelas adyacentes y el efecto de las calles sobre los bordes de las parcelas. El diseño experimental fue en látice 6 x 6 con tres repeticiones, de 36 variedades de frijol voluble asociadas con un ma{z braqu{tico, el hlbrido ICA H-210. Cada parcela contaba con c2atro camas de 6 m de largo con 1 m entre camas (superficie total E 24 ro). Las calles entre bloques tenlan 2 m de ancho. De cada parcela el rendimiento iue medido de cuatro maneras diferentes: de la parcela 2 entera (24 m ); de la parcela me,os SO cm de borde a cada lado (20 m ); de las dos camas centrales (12 m 2 ) y de las dos camas centrales menos el 50 cm de borde a cada lado (10 m ).Los rendimientos correspondientes se aprecian en el Cuadro l. A medida que se aumenta el área de parcela cosechada, se incrementa el valor de la prueba F para el efecto de variedades y se reduce el coeficiente de variación (C.V.).El efecto de los bordes laterales (las dos camas externas vs. las dos camas internas de la parcela) no fue significativo (Cuadro 2), lo que indica una falta de competencia significativa entre parcelas adyacentes. Por otra parte, hubo un efecto varietal sobre el efecto de bordes de cabecera tanto para dos camas cosechadas como para cuatro camas. Algunas variedades aprovechaban más que otras la luz adicional que penetraba de la copa de malz de las calles. Los rendimientos de las variedades de frijol más productivas (con mas capacidad para competir con el ma{z) fueron menos sobre-estimados cuando se incluyeron los bordes de cabecera que los rendimientos de las variedades menos productivas (Figura 1). sr--') LI I!l¡'\", .J eL'J .. , .2 Ensayos 2 y 3. Para investigar el alcance del efecto de bordes se llevó a cabo un ensayo de uniformidad durante dos semestres (octubre de 1977 y marzo de 1978), con una variedad de malz y una variedad de frijol, sembradas en hileras orientadas Norte-Sur, con distancias de siembra iguales al Ensayo l. loa parcela experimental media 11 x 11 m con calles de 5 2 m de ancho alrededor, y la cosecha se efectuó por unidades de 1 m. El análisis de rendimiento se bizo sumando las unidades de cosecha en \"anillos\" de 1 m de ancho bacia adentro, el primer anillo siendo el perImetro de la parcela y el anillo 5 siendo el último anillo interno.El Ensayo 2 se sembró con tres repeticiones utilizando la variedad de frijol voluble P589 y el maiz ICA H-207, híbrido comercial de 2.5 m de altura. El Ensayo 3 tenIa cuatro repeticiones con la misma variedad de frijol asociada con el maiz ICA H-210. hibrido braquItico de 1.8 m de al.tura.Los resultados para el Ensayo 2 se aprecian en la Figura 2, demostrando un efecto de bordes de por lo menos 2 m. con mayor efecto para la asociación que los unicultivos. Los rendimientos de maIz en asociación fueron superiores a los del unicultivo en los primeros \"anillos\" debido a que hubo más volcamiento del ma1z en unicu1tivo que en asociación. El frijol asociado le sirvió como anclaje para los tallos de malz, reduciendo así el volcamiento.Los resultados para el Ensayo 3 se aprecian en la Figura 3, demostrando un efecto de bordes sobre los rendimientos apenas en el primer metro (anillo). Hás adentro de la parcela se mantuvieron constantes. Para calcúlar el tamaño óptimo de parcela se utilizó el método de Hatheway (1961), descrito por Franco (1977). ~l metodo se basa en la agrupación de las unidades de cosecha (de 1 m ) para formar parcelas de varioa tamaños y as! estimar el tamaño óptimo de acuerdo al número de replicaciones y la diferencia mlnima significativa que ae desee obtener. Estas alternativas se aprecian en la Figura 4. Para lograr una diferencia significativa del 24% sobre el promedio. por ejemplo (d -24%~ en un ensayo con tres repeticiones. hay que semh~ar parcelas de 11 m (parcela neta) para el frijol asociado. o de 8 m para el frijol unicultivo. Por lo tanto. para conseguir el mismo nivel de precisión para un ensayo en aaociación como para un ensayo en unicultivo hay que sembrar parcelas un poco mas grandes. Asimismo, para evaluar malz en asociación el tamaño óptimo de parcela es más grande que para el unicultivo.Se sacaron las siguientes conclusiones: l.No habla un efecto significativo de competencia entre parcelas adyacentes y por lo tanto no habla necesidad de dejar bordes laterales entre parcelas.Existla un efecto muy grande de los bordes de cabecera que no fue uniforme para todas las variedades. Se recomienda dejar 1 m, por lo menos, de borde de cabecera a cada lado de la parcela.\" ., ' \", \" B 3.3 Para frijol voluble ,sociado con maíz una parcela útil de aproximadamente 11 m es requerida para detectar diferencias significativas del 24% sobre el promedio, con tres repeticiones.Descripci6n y comparación de distintos métodos para cuantificar la producción del sistema asociado en conjunto v en relación al unicultivo de cada componente El sistema de cultivos asociados presenta una variación en cuanto a la evaluación de su producción respecto a los sistemas de unicultivos, que deriva de la necesidad de sumar distintas unidades o asignar valores a distintos productos obtenidos. Esta evaluación cobra importancia tanto para comparar variedades de las especies en asociación dentro de un sistema dado. a los efectos de elegir la mejor asociación, como para el caso de hacer evaluación entre sistemas, como unicultivo vs. asociación o el comportamiento de variedades en cada sistema.En trabajos anteriores se han introducido algunos de estos métodos, a los efectos de hacer contrastes agroeconómicos de la asociación frijol-maíz vs. los unicultivos respectivos. En la presente conferencia se nombrarán esos y otros métodos atendiendo a los objetivos de la evaluación de un programa de investigación.Comparación entre tratamientos en la asociación maíz-frijol El análisis conjunto de rendimiento de la asociación maíz-frijol se puede realizar utilizando los datos de ambos cultivos y transformándolos según el objetivo. para distintos metodos de evaluación:a.Cuando se trata de comparaciones entre combinaciones de genotipos en las cuales no puede cambiar el costo de producción, se hs venido utilizando el concepto de frijol equivalente para sumar la producción de grano del sistema:La relación de precios para frijol/maíz varía para los distintos países y tambien según el color y tamaño de grano dentro del mismo país.Cuando cambia el costo de producción para cada tratamiento, no se puede usar el rendimiento de frijol equivalente para comparar los sistemas. En este caso, hay que estimar el costo total de producción de cada tratamiento y el ingreso bruto, el 4 cual depende del valor comercial de cada tipo de arano. El inareso neto es el ingreso bruto menos el costo de producción.Conociendo el porcentaje de proteina para cada variedad de frijol y maíz se reali~a el cálculo de la siguiente manera:Producción de proteina = Rend. F x % proteína F + 100Rend. M x % protelna M 100 d.Este valor puede cobrar importancis cuando el objetivo es nutrición en un área y existen alternativas de producción. Se calcula directamente a través de los datos de producción de protelna y el coato total.Comparación entre el sistema asociado malz-frijol y el unicultivo de cada uno Los datos ya mencionados se pueden calcular asimismo para el sistema de unicultivo de cada componente, a los efectos de bacer posteriormente la comparación entre sistemas: Asociación vs. Unicultivo. Normalmente los rendimientos en unicultivo deben corresponder a la densidad óptima en terminos económicos. ya que se trata de lograr que cada cultivo tenga las condiciones óptimas del unicultivo normal. Se ha encontrado en frijol que la densidad óptima en unicultivo es iaual a la densidad óptima en asociación.Por otro lado. el maíz se siembra normalmente a una densidad más alta en unicultivo (55,000 pI/ha aproximadamente vs. 40,000 pI/ha para la asociación).Para evaluar la competencia entre cultivos en asociación. la siembra tiene que hacerse a la misma densidsd tanto en unicultivo como en asociación. Importante para la interpretación fisiológica es el indice de competencia:Rendimiento en asociación Rendimiento en unicultivo Pars comparar la productividad total de la asociación con los unicultivos. se ha usado el Indice de uso eficiente de la tierra VET (LER):VET • Rendimiento frijol asociado +El VET puede interpretarse como el nUmero de hectáreas totales con ambos unicultivos necesario para alcanzar la producción de 1 ha de asociación, a semejanza de tecnoloa1s y condiciones.. ., .5 Sin embargo, normalmente la comparacian mas indicada ea la de ingreso neto y de ganancia neta por peso invertido ya que la rentabilidad de cualquier tecnolog1a es lo mas importante para el agricultor • Cuadro l. Rendimiento promedio (kg/ha) de 36 variedades de frijol voluble en asociación con ma{z en parcelas con y sin bordes laterales y de cabecera. .... • .• .. ","tokenCount":"1641"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bf1e7eaa39f5d075880bb2e186ba3f1f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b82838fb-d3d3-4306-8e7f-d7b9204389bc/retrieve","id":"-1567871186"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9283f0df-5224-46f9-8551-2226bae756c8","pagecount":"10","content":"The effectiveness of maize seed treatments for management of fall armyworm (FAW) (Spodoptera frugiperda) was evaluated under natural infestation conditions in Zambia in 2019, 2020 and 2022. Two seed treatments were tested: cyantraniliprole (Fortenza® 600 FS) + thiamethoxam (Cruiser® 600 FS) (combination marketed as Fortenza® Duo) and Fortenza® 600 FS. Other treatments included each of the two seed treatments supplemented with threshold-based rotational sprays of Denim Fit® 50 WG (emamectin benzoate + lufenuron) and Ampligo® (chlorantraniliprole + lambda cyhalothrin), Denim Fit/Ampligo alone, untreated controls, Ecoterex® 0.5% GR (deltamethrin + pirimiphos methyl) and Mythic® FN SC (chlorantraniliprole). The incidence of FAW-infested plants and plant damage scores were recorded weekly for 4-5 weeks post-emergence. At harvest, grain yield, yield increase over untreated control and cost-benefit ratios were also determined. Although there were some seasonal variations in treatment effectiveness, plots established from Fortenza Duo-treated seed generally had significantly lower plant damage within the first 3-5 weeks of growth. The number of follow-on insecticide sprays were reduced from 2 to 1 in February 2022 plantings in plots established from Fortenza Duo-treated seed. Grain yields were highest in the Denim Fit/Ampligo plots (December 2021 plantings) and Fortenza Duo + Denim Fit/Ampligo plots (December 2021 and February 2022 plantings). In both plantings of the 2021-22 season, mean yield increase over untreated control was highest in Fortenza Duo + Denim Fit/Ampligo plots. Cost-benefit ratios were, however, highest where Fortenza Duo-treated seed was planted without any follow-on chemical sprays and lowest and negative in sole Fortenza plots. Due to method of application and systemic action, Fortenza Duo maize seed treatments may be a perfect fit in FAW integrated pest management (IPM) programs where there is need for judicious pesticide use.Fall armyworm (FAW) (Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith) has unarguably become the most damaging pest of maize in sub-Saharan Africa following the first reports of its occurrence on the continent in 2016 (Goergen et al., 2016;Tindo et al., 2017). The pest is native to tropical and subtropical regions of North and South America and the Caribbean (Sparks, 1979;Mitchell et al., 1991) and is now endemic in every country in sub-Saharan Africa except Lesotho (FAO, 2018). Fall armyworm's lack of a resting stage (diapause), high dispersive capacity and adaptability to a wide range of environment conditions, enables it to closely track its principal hostmaizein space and time. The accompanying high levels of damage by FAW on maize have, for the first time, resulted in smallholder African farmers now needing to budget for chemical control in maize production. Prior to the pest's introduction onto the continent, the major field pests of maize which farmers had to contend with were stem borers (Kfir et al., 2002), and these were rarely controlled using insecticides at the smallholder level.Due to their curative and fast-killing properties, farmers find synthetic chemical pesticides to be the most convenient and effective for controlling FAW. The uptake of biorationals such as entomopathogens and botanicals is much lower mainly because of perceived low efficacy relative to synthetic chemical pesticides, slow action, high cost, and lack of clear registration guidelines. The regulatory role of natural enemies, particularly insect parasitoids (e.g., Caniço et al., 2020;Abang et al., 2021;Agboyi et al., 2020Agboyi et al., , 2021;;Hussain et al., 2021;Mohamed et al., 2021;Otim et al., 2021;Winsou et al., 2022), is also becoming apparent on the continent. Despite the widespread preference of synthetic chemical insecticides for FAW management by farmers, a high propensity by the pest to develop resistance to most insecticide molecules on the market, including to genetically modified maize hybrids (e.g., Van den Berg and du Plessis, 2022), poses challenges to its sustainable management in sub-Saharan Africa.Systemic maize seed treatments are a new group of scalable integrated pest management (IPM) technologies which may have the greatest potential in managing FAW particularly in the early seedling stages of the crop. Oliveria et al. (2022) found treatment of maize seed with chlorantraniliprole, cyantraniliprole or a thiodicarb + imidacloprid combination to be effective in reducing FAW larval damage for 10 days after crop emergence for larvae feeding on the stalk base and 15 days after crop emergence for larvae feeding on whorl leaves. Additionally, surviving larvae that had fed on the seed-treated plants had reduced fitness. In a study to determine the bioefficacy, persistent toxicity, and residual effects of maize seed treated with thiamethoxam, fipronil, tetraniliprole, chlorantraniliprole, cyantraniliprole + thiamethoxam, tetraniliprole + fipronil, Suganthi et al. (2022) reported Chlorantraniliprole 625 FS applied at 6 ml kg − 1 seed as providing the highest FAW protection in terms of reduced plant damage, with residues persisting for >26 days.The current study had four specific objectives: 1) to determine the effectiveness of a binary commercial maize seed treatment comprising cyantraniliprole and thiamethoxam (Fortenza® Duo) against FAW relative to selected synthetic insecticide treatments applied postemergence, (2) to determine duration of effectiveness, (3) to determine if planting treated seed could reduce the number of thresholdbased follow-on post-emergence insecticide treatments, and (4) to determine yield, yield increase over untreated control and cost-benefits arising from planting treated seed.Trials were conducted at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture's (IITA) Southern Africa Research and Administration Hub (SARAH) Campus, Lusaka, Zambia (15 o 18′09.6″S 28 o 18′17.3″E, altitude 1,190 m) in 2019 (2018-19 summer season), 2020 (2019-20 summer season) and 2022 (2021-22 summer season). Zambia's has three distinct seasons: a hot and dry season (mid-August to mid-November), a wet rainy (summer) season (mid-November to April) and a cool dry season (May to mid-August). SARAH Campus is in Agroecological Region II of Zambia. This agroecological region is characterized by annual rainfall averaging 800-1,000 mm, mean annual temperatures of 23-25 • C, 900-1,200 m altitude, and a growing season of length 100-140 days (Bunyolo et al., 1995).Except for 2022, all seed treated with Fortenza® Duo was procured from the market already treated. In 2019, an early maturing (125-130 days) Syngenta hybrid, SY 5944, was planted while in 2020, a medium maturing (130-135 days) Seed Co hybrid, SC 647, and an early maturing (120-130 days) Afriseed open-pollinated variety, ZM 521, were planted. In 2022, a late maturing (135-150 days) and drought tolerant Seed Co hybrid, SC 719, was planted. The trial could not be conducted in 2021 due to a failure to obtain Fortenza Duo-treated seed on the market.Fortenza® Duo is the trade name for a twin-pack of two Syngenta commercial insecticide products in flowable solution (FS) formulation for application on seed. For treatment of maize seed, Fortenza® 600 FS (cyantraniliprole 600 g/L) and Cruiser® 600 FS (thiamethoxam 600 g/ L) are mixed with seed at a rate of 292 ml of each insecticide per 100 kg of seed, or 2.92 L of each product per ton of seed. The mixing and treatment are done by seed companies, so farmers purchase a seedpackaged pest management technology. A sticker is affixed to bags of treated seed to enable their differentiation from untreated seed. According to the Fortenza Duo label, the seed treatment can potentially offer protection against FAW for the first 3-4 weeks of growth. Additional benefits of planting Fortenza Duo-treated seed are stated as including protection against a range of root feeders and Hemipterans thus enabling better establishment of the seedlings and optimized uptake of water and nutrients from the soil. For these trials, seed described as \"untreated\" was only so with respect to Fortenza Duo or Fortenza as it would still have been treated with Maxim® XL (fludioxonil) (1 L/ton) for control of soilborne and seedborne fungal diseases and Cruiser® FS (200 ml/ton) for control of stored grain insect pests.Due to the absence of a true standard on which to base the effectiveness of the seed treatments, four insecticide products (Ampligo®, Denim Fit® 50 WG, Ecoterex® 0.5 GR and Mythic® FN SC) (Table 1) for application post-emergence were included in the trials. A 16-litre backpack knapsack sprayer fitted with a hollow cone nozzle was used to apply liquid-based insecticide products. The knapsack sprayer mixing rates of the liquid-based products were determined from a pre-spray calibration exercise.To ensure that crops would be subjected to high pest pressure, planting was deliberately delayed beyond the normal mid-November to December planting period to January and February of the following year. Planting dates in the respective seasons were as follows: January 11, 2019(2018-19 season), February 6, 2020(2019-20) season, December 2021 (2021-22 season, 1st planting) and 25 February (2021-22 season, 2nd planting). Residues from previous crops were first removed by harrowing and then land was ripped and disc-harrowed to a fine tilth and rows marked out. Planting holes were prepared using hoes and basal fertilizer (7:14:7 N:P:K) applied by hand at a rate of 300 kg/ ha. One seed was placed in each planting hole. Two days after planting, the herbicide Lumax® 537.5 SE (37.5 g/L mesotrione + 375 g/L Smetolachlor + 125 g/L terbuthylazine) was applied at 4 L/ha (320 ml of product per 16 L water) for pre-and early post-emergence control of weeds. In all seasons, crops emerged 6-7 days after planting. After crop emergence, weeds were controlled by hand-hoeing. Supplementary irrigation was provided via a Linear Move system. Crops were split topdressed with ammonium nitrate (34.5% N) (2019 and 2020) or urea (36% N) (2022) at the rate of 300 kg/ha at 3 and 7 weeks after crop emergence (WAE). In all three seasons, plant spacings of 0.75 m between rows and 0.5 m within the row were used. The two outer rows in each plot were designated as guard rows. In the 2018-19 season, the trial field was divided into 24 plots each of which had six 28 m-long rows. Due to the need to obtain as much information as possible from the novel products Fortenza Duo and Ecoterex, a completely randomized design with unequal replications was adopted and treatments randomly allocated to different plots as follows: (i) Control (untreated seed) (3 replications), (ii) Fortenza Duo-treated seed (9 replications), (iii) Ampligo (3 replications), (iv) Denim Fit (3 replications) and (v) Ecoterex (6 replications).In the 2019-20 season, the trial was laid out as a factorial experiment of two varieties (main effects) and three FAW treatments (factors) in three replications. A treatment net plot consisted of eight rows each of length 40 m. The treatments under each variety were as follows: (i) Control (untreated seed), (ii) Fortenza Duo-treated seed, and (iii) Fortenza Duotreated seed + Mythic. In the 2021-22 season, a completely randomized design of six treatments in three replications was adopted with each net plot consisting of 10 rows each of length 25 m. The treatments were as follows: (i) Control (untreated seed), (ii) Fortenza Duo-treated seed with no post-emergence treatments, (iii) Fortenza-treated seed with no postemergence treatments, (iv) untreated seed + rotational sprays of Denim Fit and Ampligo (Denim Fit applied first), (v) Fortenza Duo-treated seed + Denim Fit/Ampligo, and (vi) Fortenza-treated seed + Denim Fit/ Ampligo. The action threshold adopted for post-emergence treatments was 20% infestation (Prasanna et al., 2018), i.e., if mean incidence of FAW-infested plants for a particular treatment was ≥20%, then spraying was conducted across all the plots for that treatment.Parameters assessed included incidence of FAW-infested plants (as a percentage), plant damage score, number of egg masses or larvae per plant, yield (2021-22 season) and cost-benefit ratios (2021-22 season). However, results on numbers of FAW egg masses and larvae per plant will be reported elsewhere and hence procedures for their assessment will not be described in this paper.The incidence of FAW-infested plants and plant damage were assessed starting at 1 WAE (baseline for post-emergence treatments) up to 4 or 5 WAE. Twenty plants were randomly selected in each plot and examined for characteristic FAW injury symptoms and presence of egg masses. To facilitate measurement of the curative effects of treatments, a plant was only considered to be infested if it had fresh damage symptoms in the whorl and/or egg masses. From 2 WAE onwards, only new damage symptoms present in the whorls were considered in the assessment of incidence of infested plants.Plant (whole) damage was assessed using a 0-9 visual scale (0 = no visible damage at all, 9 = whorl and furl leaves almost totally destroyed or plant dead/dying due to \"deadheart\" development) modified after Davis et al. (1992) (Table 2). Thus, unlike incidence of FAW-infested plants, both fresh injury symptoms on the whorl leaves and older symptoms on other leaves were considered when scoring for damage.The crop was left in the field to dry out completely and then 20 plants were randomly selected from each plot. Cobs from each selected plant were dehusked and individually shelled and grain weighed before being placed in labelled khaki bags. If the selected plant did not have a cob, a '0' weight value was recorded against it. If a plant had more than one cob, the individual cob grain weights were determined and added together to come up with the total grain weight for that plant. The weight of shelled grain per plant (wet weight) was corrected for grain moisture content. For grain moisture content determination, grain from each plot was first bulked and thoroughly mixed. Five composite samples (45-50 g each) were then withdrawn, and individual moisture content values of each sample measured using a digital moisture meter (Agratronix® MT-Pro+). The mean moisture content of grain from each plot was then obtained and used to determine the dry weight of grain per plant in each plot:Dry grain weight (g) = wet weight (g) × (100 − mean moisture content) 100Using the plant spacings for the trial, the plant population per hectare was determined:The grain dry grain weight per plant in kilograms (kg) was then extrapolated to tons (t) per hectare by simply multiplying with the plant population and then dividing by 1,000.For each FAW control method, yield increase over untreated (or avoidable yield loss) was estimated by determining the difference in mean grain yield (t/ha) between treated and untreated plots. This was then expressed as a percentage:Fall armyworm whole plant visual damage scores modified after Davis et al. (1992).No visible leaf damage 0 Only pinholes visible on whorl leaves 1 Pinholes and small windowpanes present on whorl leaves 2 Pinholes, small circular windowpanes, and a few small, elongated windowpanes of up to 1.3 cm in length present on whorl and furl leaves 3 Several small to mid-sized (1.3-2.5 cm long) elongated windowpanes present on a few whorl and furl leaves 4Several large (>2.5 cm long) elongated windowpanes present on a few whorl and furl leaves and/or a few small-to mid-sized uniform to irregular shaped holes eaten from the whorl and/or furl leaves; small sections of a few whorl and furl leaves eaten from the margins inwards 5Several large, elongated windowpanes present on several whorl and furl leaves and/or several large uniform to irregular shaped holes eaten from furl and whorl leaves as well as well the margins inwards 6Many elongated windowpanes of all sizes present on several whorl and furl leaves plus several large uniform to irregular shaped holes eaten from the whorl and furl leaves as well as from the margins inwards 7Many elongated windowpanes of all sizes present on most whorl and furl leaves plus many mid-to large-sized uniform to irregular shaped holes eaten from the whorl and furl leaves well as from the margins inwards, and copious amounts of frass filling up the funnel 8Whorl and furl leaves almost totally destroyed with plants assuming a ragged and tattered appearance and copious amounts of frass filling up the whorl; plant drying up due to destruction of the growing point 9Yield increase over untreated (%) = Mean yield in treated plots − Mean yield in unprotected plots Mean yield in protected plots × 100The cost effectiveness of planting treated versus untreated maize seed were estimated by calculating the cost-benefit ratios of the different treatments. Five factors were considered in the calculation of the costbenefit ratios: (i) cost of seed treatment, (ii) cost of chemical insecticides (Denim Fit and Ampligo), (iii) cost of casual labor for spray operations (based on IITA rates), (iv) yield, and (v) prevailing market price of maize grain. Factors (i) -(iii) constituted the cost of protection. The costs of seed, land preparation, fertilizers and weeding were not included in the calculations as these were the same across all treatments. The cost-benefit ratio was calculated (Arbabtafti et al., 2014):Cost of protection (US$)Data on incidence of FAW-infested plants per plot (%), plant damage scores and yield were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) (PROC GLM, SAS Institute, 2013). Percentage data were first checked for normality, and if not normally distributed, were transformed by arcsine square root before being subjected to ANOVA. Where the F-ratio was significant (P < 0.05), treatment means were separated using the Student-Newman-Keuls (SNK) test.In all three seasons and across all treatments, FAW leaf damage symptoms were first noted within 1-2 days of crop emergence. At 1 WAE in 2019, there were no significant (P > 0.05) differences in incidence of FAW-infested plants among all treatments (Table 3). However, subsequent assessments revealed significant differences (P < 0.01) among all treatments, with infestation in the Fortenza Duo-treated plots being lower relative to the untreated control at 2 and 3 WAE.On application of Ecoterex, Denim Fit and Ampligo at 1 WAE, the incidence of infested plants declined thereafter. However, for Ecoterex, this was short-lived and despite a second application at 3 WAE, infestation had increased to 91.7% by the time assessments were terminated at 4 WAE. Of the two chemical sprays, Ampligo offered superior FAW control for the entire duration of assessments. In the case of Denim Fit, although the first spray resulted in a drastic reduction in the incidence of infested plants within one week, by the time a second application was needed at 4 WAE, infestation had rebounded to 86.7%.In 2020, significant treatment (F 2,10 = 4.69, P < 0.05) and treatment*variety interaction (F 2,10 = 7.34, P < 0.05) effects were noted at 1 WAE. While incidence of FAW-infested plants at 1 WAE in untreated control of SC 647 hybrid was above 90%, this was below 50% in untreated control of ZM 521 open pollinated variety (Fig. 1). In SC 647 sole Fortenza Duo plots, infestation was significantly lower than in the untreated control only at 1 WAE. For both maize varieties, a single spray of Mythic at 1 WAE reduced infestation but by 4 WAE this had increased to 100% across all treatments.In the first plantings of the 2021-22 season (21 December 2021), the incidence of infested plants in plots under sole Fortenza Duo remained significantly (P < 0.05) lower than that recorded in the untreated control up to 3 WAE (Table 4). In contrast, sole Fortenza performed poorly throughout the five weeks of assessment. For plots established from untreated seed and in which Denim Fit/Ampligo were applied, sprays were required at 1 and 4 WAE. On the other hand, in plots established from seed treated with Fortenza Duo and Fortenza and supplemented with Denim Fit/Ampligo, sprays were needed in the former at 1 WAE (Denim Fit) and 4 WAE (Ampligo) and at 1 and 3 WAE in the latter.In the second planting of the 2021-22 season (25 February 2022), the incidence of FAW-infested plants in the sole Fortenza Duo and sole Fortenza treatments was significantly lower than in the untreated control only up to 1 and 2 WAE, respectively (Table 5). Where Fortenza Duo was supplemented with chemical sprays (Denim Fit at 2 WAE and Ampligo at 4 WAE), infestation was significantly lower than in the untreated control for the first three weeks after crop emergence and at WAE. In contrast, where Fortenza was supplemented with chemical sprays at 2 and 4 WAE, the incidence of infested plants remained lower than in the untreated control throughout the five weeks of assessment. For plots established from untreated seed and under rotational sprays of Denim Fit and Ampligo (Denim Fit at 1 and 4 WAE and Ampligo at WAE), infestation was significantly lower relative to the untreated control only at 2, 3 and 5 WAE.In 2019, there were significant (P < 0.05) differences in plant damage scores among the different treatments in each of the four assessment periods (Table 6). Relative to the untreated control, damage in Fortenza Duo plots was significantly lower during the first three weeks but had increased to the same level by the time assessments were terminated at 4 WAE. Starting with baseline damage comparable to the untreated control, damage in plots under each of the three postemergence treatments (i.e., Ecoterex, Denim Fit and Ampligo) declined significantly within a week after treatment. Damage in the plots sprayed with Ampligo was thereafter maintained below 1.0 up to termination of assessments. In contrast, plant damage in Denim Fit plots had increased to above that in Ampligo plots by the time assessments were terminated but was still lower relative to that in Ecoterex plots.In 2020, treatment and treatment*variety interaction effects were highly significant (P < 0.0001) for each of the four assessment periods while varietal effects were significant (P < 0.0001) only at 1 and 2 WAE. For SC 647 hybrid, damage in sole Fortenza Duo plots was lower (below 0.5) than in the untreated plots at 1 and 2 WAE only (Fig. 2). Thereafter, damage in the sole Fortenza Duo plots steadily increased and was nearly 7.0 by the time assessments were terminated at 4 WAE. In the Fortenza Duo + Mythic plots, damage remained below 1.0 up to 3 WAE but had increased to nearly 4.0 at 4 WAE.In the case of ZM 521 open-pollinated variety, damage in the untreated control was very low at baseline assessment (1 WAE) and was not significantly different from that recorded in the sole Fortenza Duo and Fortenza Duo + Mythic plots. Thereafter, damage in sole Fortenza Duo plots rose sharply and by 3 WAE, had even surpassed that recorded in the untreated control. By 4 WAE, damage in the sole Fortenza Duo and untreated control plots were just below 7.0 and statistically similar. In contrast, plant damage in the Fortenza Duo + Mythic plots remained below 1.5 up to 3 WAE but had increased to about 4.0 at 4 WAE.In the first plantings of the 2021-22 season, plant damage in sole Fortenza plots was highest compared to all other treatments throughout • Indicates when post-emergence treatments were applied. Means within a column followed by the same letter are not significantly different (SNK, P = 0.05).a Seed not treated with Fortenza Duo.the five weeks of assessment (Table 7). In contrast, damage in sole Fortenza Duo plots remained lower relative to the untreated control up to termination of assessments. When compared to the treatments in which follow-on Denim Fit/Ampligo sprays were applied, sole Fortenza Duo plots had statistically the same level of damage at 1 and 2 WAE but higher thereafter. From 1 to 4 WAE, damage in Fortenza Duo plots supplemented with chemical sprays and in plots established from untreated seed and under rotational sprays of Denim Fit and Ampligo was low (below 1.5) and statistically similar. Compared between themselves, damage in plots under Fortenza Duo + Denim Fit/Ampligo and Fortenza + Denim Fit/Ampligo was below 1.0 and statistically similar during the first three weeks. Thereafter, damage in the former, though less than 1.75, was significantly higher than that in Fortenza + Denim Fit/ Ampligo plots.In the second plantings of the 2021-22 season, plant damage in all seed treatments (sole or needing supplementation with chemical sprays) remained significantly (P < 0.01) lower relative to the untreated control throughout the five weeks of assessment (Table 8). However, damage in sole Fortenza Duo or sole Fortenza plots, though still significantly lower than in the untreated control, was above 5.0 on termination of assessments. In comparison, where threshold-based sprays of Denim Fit/ Ampligo were applied in plots established from untreated seed, the first spray at 1 WAE followed by two more at 2 and 4 WAE ensured that damage was maintained below 1.5 up to termination of assessments.In the December 2021 plantings, grain yields were similar and highest (6.55-6.94 tonnes/ha) in the Denim Fit/Ampligo and Fortenza Duo + Denim Fit/Ampligo plots while the lowest were recorded in the  • Indicates when post-emergence treatments were applied. Means within a column followed by the same letter are not significantly different (SNK, P = 0.05).Incidence • Indicates when post-emergence treatments were applied. Means within a column followed by the same letter are not significantly different (SNK, P = 0.05).untreated control and sole Fortenza plots (Table 9). In the February 2022 plantings, the highest yield (6.96 tonnes/ha) was recorded in the Fortenza Duo + Denim Fit/Ampligo plots and the lowest in the untreated control, Denim Fit/Ampligo and sole Fortenza plots. In decreasing order of magnitude, mean yield increase over untreated was Fortenza Duo + Denim Fit/Ampligo > Denim Fit/Ampligo > Fortenza Duo and Fortenza + Denim Fit/Ampligo > Fortenza in the December 2021 plantings. In the February 2022 plantings, the order was Fortenza Duo + Denim Fit/Ampligo > Fortenza Duo > Fortenza + Denim Fit/ Ampligo > Denim Fit/Ampligo > Fortenza. • Indicates when post-emergence treatments were applied. Means within a column followed by the same letter are not significantly different (SNK, P = 0.05).  • Indicates when post-emergence treatments were applied. Means within a column followed by the same letter are not significantly different (SNK, P = 0.05). • Indicates when post-emergence treatments were applied. Means within a column followed by the same letter are not significantly different (SNK, P = 0.05).In the December 2021 plantings, FAW control through planting Fortenza Duo-treated seed supplemented with Denim Fit/Ampligo sprays resulted in a cost-benefit ratio of 2.17, and this was almost identical to that obtained when only chemical sprays were used on plots established from untreated seed (Table 10). Planting Fortenza Duotreated seed and not controlling FAW at all gave an even higher costbenefit ratio. Meanwhile, the lowest and negative (− 2.82) cost-benefit ratio was obtained when Fortenza-treated seed was planted with no accompanying post-emergence chemical sprays.For the February 2022-planted crop, planting Fortenza Duo-treated seed and not controlling FAW at all gave a cost-benefit ratio higher than that obtained with planting Fortenza Duo-treated seed and spraying Denim Fit/Ampligo as needed (Table 11). In contrast, a negative cost-benefit ratio was obtained when Denim Fit/Ampligo were sprayed in plots established from untreated seed. As was observed in the December 2021 plantings, using Fortenza-treated seed and not controlling FAW at all resulted in the lowest and negative cost-benefit ratio.The use of systemic seed treatments for controlling leaf-chewing lepidopteran larvae is relatively novel compared to their use for controlling sap-suckers. Their integration into IPM programs offers targeted and timely control of insect pests which are highly damaging at the seedling stage. The results of the trials provide evidence of the effectiveness of a cyantraniliprole (600 g/L) + thiamethoxam (600 g/L) seed treatment mixture for fall armyworm management in the early growth stages of maize. Unless they are assessing for crop germination, many smallholder African farmers are yet to appreciate the need to commence scouting for FAW in maize shortly after crop emergence. Thus, by providing significant protection against the pest right from the moment the crop emerges, Fortenza Duo gives the farmer an opportunity to attend to other critical field operations.Although the 2020 results did not follow the same pattern as observed in 2019, there were a pointer on the likely effects of different maize genotypes on the incidence of FAW-infested plants and severity of plant damage. Thus, relative to the open pollinated variety ZM 521, the hybrid SC 647 could be more attractive to gravid FAW moths as well as being more palatable to larvae in the early growth stages hence the higher infestation and damage levels observed in plots of the latter. De La Rosa-Cancino et al. ( 2016) also pointed out the consequent but unintentional loss of natural defensive traits to insect herbivory in many modern varieties of maize due to selective breeding.Changes in incidence of FAW-infested plants and damage over time in the Fortenza Duo plots could provide some indication of the duration of effectiveness of the translocated active ingredients in the seed treatment. Residual efficacy lasting for a period of between three and five weeks after crop emergence is very significant in terms of number of follow-on chemical sprays that may be needed. In the February 2022 plantings, follow-on sprays were needed at 1 and 4 WAE (Denim Fit) and 2 WAE (Ampligo) in untreated seed plots. In contrast, in Fortenza Duo plots, follow-on sprays were needed at 2 WAE (Denim Fit) and 4 WAE (Ampligo), and at 2 and 3 WAE, respectively, in plots established from Means within a column followed by the same lowercase letter are not significantly different (SNK, P = 0.05). Due to cost constraints, smallholder farmers generally cannot afford to buy two insecticides to apply in rotation and rely on expert advice on the best chemical to buy and how to schedule its application. In a study in Ghana to evaluate the effectiveness of two rates of Ampligo (200 and 240 ml/ha) for FAW control in maize, Osaye et al. (2022) reported needing only two sprays of each rate but applied at 1 and 2 WAE to effectively bring down FAW damage from a baseline of 3.0 at 1 WAE and maintain it between 0 and 2.0 up to 63 days after crop emergence. Based on these findings, they went on to conclude that two sprays of Ampligo at 200 ml/ha applied between 14 and 21 days after crop emergence were enough to keep incidence of infested plants and damage low for the entire cropping season. However, caution needed to have been exercised before reaching this conclusion. For instance, no consideration was made of the fact that FAW larval numbers across all treatments, including the untreated control, had also fallen sharply from 35 DAE, with no significant differences among the treatments. In addition, the fact that the results were obtained from a single-season and single-location trial should have been considered as well.An inconclusive result from the current study was on the effectiveness of cyantraniliprole (Fortenza 600 FS) when used alone for treating maize seed. While results from the December 2021 plantings showed Fortenza performing poorly throughout the five weeks of assessment, an opposite result was obtained from the February 2022 plantings. This calls for more multi-location trials before firm conclusions can be made on the effectiveness of cyantraniliprole 600 g/L as a sole seed treatment.In India, Suganthi et al. (2022) reported chlorantraniliprole 625 FS applied at 6 ml/kg of seed as being the most effective treatment against FAW while cyantraniliprole + thiamethoxam 19.8 FS combinations applied at 4 and 8 ml/kg were ineffective. However, a perusal of the tabulated results by Suganthi et al. (2022) showed that these conclusions were reached based on misinterpretations of their own data. The correct inference should have been that in both the first and second seasons, chlorantraniliprole 625 FS applied at 6 ml/kg and cyantraniliprole + thiamethoxam 19.8 FS applied at 8 ml/kg had statistically similar FAW plant damage scores at 6-12 and 20 DAE. A further claim by Suganthi et al. (2022) of chlorantraniliprole 625 FS (6 ml/kg) being more effective and residual action persisting for >26 days based on bioassays using 1st instar larvae may also not be reflective of all field situations where infestations can be initiated by older instars crawling from outside the field. These older larvae would consume more leaf biomass (hence causing elevated damage) before succumbing to the chemical poison. Notwithstanding differences in formulation concentrations between Fortenza Duo (cyantraniliprole 600 g/L + thiamethoxam 600 g/L) used in the current study and cyantraniliprole + thiamethoxam 19.8 FS or chlorantraniliprole 625 FS used by Suganthi et al. (2022), it is clear that seed treatments based on diamides have a role in FAW IPM but more multi-location validations are needed.Although thiamethoxam is known to have a high level of efficacy against hemipterans, its combination with cyantraniliprole in maize seed treatment helps to limit damage by root-feeding insects such as wireworms (e.g., Morales-Rodriguez and Wanne, 2015;Zhang et al., 2017) thus optimizing absorption of water and nutrients and ultimately resulting in vigorous and faster-growing plants. Another benefit of the Fortenza Duo (cyantraniliprole + thiamethoxam) maize seed treatment is that the neonicotinoid protects seed carried over to the next planting season from damage by beetle pests of stored grain of which the lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) and larger grain borer, Prostephanus truncatus (Horn) are the most susceptible (Tsaganou et al., 2021). The vigor-enhancing effects of thiamethoxam as reported by Afifi et al. (2015) were not investigated in the current study.Data on yield, yield increase over untreated and cost-benefit ratios obtained from the 2021-22 season trials were indicative of the relative benefits that may accrue from planting treated or untreated maize seed and with or without accompanying chemical sprays. However, in the absence of multi-location and multi-seasonal validations, the costbenefit ratios obtained with some treatments may be too simplistic and unrealistic for most field situations. Nevertheless, in the case of the Fortenza Duo + Denim Fit/Ampligo treatment, extrapolation of these data to national seasonal hectarages under maize may translate into significant savings in FAW control operations, a rise in national maize production figures as well as income security to many farmers. The need for fewer follow-on chemical sprays in fields established from Fortenza Duo-treated maize seed also reduces potential exposure of millions of smallholder farmers to harmful synthetic chemical pesticide residues.Results of the current study add to the increasing body of evidence on the effectiveness and usefulness of diamides in FAW IPM. Since formulations of these diamides are used both as seed treatments and foliar sprays, it is important to carefully manage their use to lessen selection pressure for resistance development. The use of Denim Fit [emamectin benzoate (an avermectin) + lufenuron (an insect growth regulator)] first followed by Ampligo [chlorantraniliprole (a diamide) + lambda cyhalothrin (pyrethroid)] in the rotational spray schedules adopted for the current study was deliberate. In case FAW larvae being exposed to translocated cyantraniliprole already had some resistance to the diamide, the use of Denim Fit in the same window is expected to eliminate many individuals carrying diamide-resistant/tolerant genes. Having eliminated these resistant individuals, a diamide + pyrethroid combination (Ampligo) would then be applied to quickly wipe out the survivors. By the time Denim Fit is needed again (5-6 WAE), this would likely be the last spray as the crop would shortly thereafter be at tasseling and silking stage. As well as not wanting to leave residues which would harm pollinators, a 6-7-week-old maize crop would be too tall to be sprayed safely without the spray mix drifting into the operator's face.While the IPM strategy investigated in the current trials involved supplementation of Fortenza Duo with action threshold-based sprays of Denim Fit and Ampligo within the first 4-5 weeks of crop growth, this does not preclude the use of other effective plant protection products. Most of these are synthetic chemicals formulated for application as sprays. The inclusion of Ecoterex® 0.5 GR (deltamethrin 0.1% + pirimiphos methyl 0.4%) in the 2018-19 cropping season was aimed at determining if effective FAW control could also be achieved by selective targeting of larvae inside plant whorls using a granular insecticide formulation. Williams et al. (2004) reported excellent control of FAW larvae by ultralow rates of the naturally derived insecticide spinosad applied as flour-based granules to maize whorls. Other eco-friendly technologies such as smearing of grease to the maize whorl or tip of a drooping leaf that touched the soil (Kushwaha, 2022) were reported to be very effective in controlling FAW and require further validation.Variable efficacy results among the different post-emergence insecticides used in the current study may be indicative of differences in susceptibility of local populations of FAW to one or more of the active ingredients in the formulations. In China, Zhao et al. (2020) reported higher susceptibility of FAW to emamectin benzoate, spinetoram, chlorantraniliprole, chlorfenapyr, and lufenuron but lower susceptibility to lambda cyhalothrin and azadirachtin. Bird et al. (2022) reported reduced toxicity of emamectin benzoate, chlorantraniliprole and methoxyfenozide on field populations of FAW in Australia during the first year of its establishment in the country. Denim Fit, Ampligo and Ecoterex are binary formulations for which one or both active ingredients in each product could be slowly losing their toxicity to FAW due to evolving resistance. It is thus imperative to have in place a proper FAW insecticide resistance monitoring and management strategy in a country or within a region. However, the biggest obstacle to such an initiative could be the tendency by many African Governments to include FAW pesticides among the agricultural inputs given to smallholder farmers. These pesticides are generally distributed with no consideration given to the need to rotate the insecticide classes.The value of regular field scouting is also very important not only in effective and timely targeting of FAW eggs and larvae but also in lengthening the lifespans of the few plant protection products that we can still rely on to control the pest (Prasanna et al., 2018;Tepa-Yotto et al., 2021). The action threshold of 20% (range 10-30%) used in the current study for post-emergence treatments was adopted from the recommendation by Prasanna et al. (2018). However, as noted in this study, FAW infestations in all three seasons and across all treatment plots were detected as early as the first day after crop emergence. Thus, it could be that where FAW infestation commences soon after crop emergence, use of the lower limit in the 10-30% action threshold range (10%) rather than the middle rate (20%) would have lowered damage even further.In conclusion, there are two main benefits in harnessing Fortenza Duo and other validated seed treatments for FAW management. Firstly, the technology comes ready-for-use in a seed pack and therefore is easily scalable. Secondly, seed treatments cannot be \"washed away by rain\" as is the case with post-emergence insecticide treatments where incessant rains may hamper application as well as field scouting. Due to method of application and systemic action, Fortenza Duo seed treatment appear to be a perfect fit in FAW IPM programs where there is need for judicious pesticide use. For a pest that is migratory, lacks a resting stage and is adaptable to a wide range of ecological conditions, three key recommendations arise from this study: more multi-location validations, studies to determine the influence of planting dates and edaphic factors, and studies to determine the influence of seed treatments on plant vigor and yield under different IPM treatment combinations and with maize variety as a factor.","tokenCount":"6414"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"11d0c6f38d19105e3a77ab88476d5fa5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ddbab7db-e451-4bb1-a794-effc2d671fd2/retrieve","id":"-393682344"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"35840371-8ff8-4c8b-873a-54c3ebaed9aa","pagecount":"176","content":"deserves acknowledgement, in addition Dessie Urban Agricultural Office for offering my salary. I am greatly indebted to my major advisor Dr Adugna Tolera, co-advisors, Dr. Tilahun Amede and Dr. Katrien Deshemeher for their advice and sharing their invaluable time and ideas and for critically reading the earlier versions of this manuscript.I would like to record my gratitude to Dr. Katrien Descheemaeker for her supervision, advice, and guidance from the very early stage of this research as well as giving me extraordinary experiences through out the work. Above all and the most needed, she provided me unflinching encouragement and support in various ways. She visited me twice in the field and encouraged me to carry out the hard work of primary data collection successfully. I will never forget her kind and friendly treatment. Many thanks go in particular to Ato Mekete Bekele I am much indebted to Mekete for his valuable advice in data collection, supervision in analysis.A special acknowledgment goes to one individual, who saw me through all the joys and frustrations of this research, while helping me stay focused on the present. Thank you, Abdulhafiz Aragaw, for always believing in me and reminding me that the journey to a goal is one step at a time.Where would I be without my family? My parents deserve special mention for their inseparable support and prayers. My Father, Mekonnen Mekuria, in the first place is the person who put the fundament my learning character, showing me the joy of intellectual pursuit ever since I was a child. My Mother, Zinetu Seid, is the one who sincerely raised me with her caring and gently love. Sara and Kedir thanks for being supportive and caring siblings. What else? An extraordinary recognition extends to my beloved, Abdella Kemal for his persistent advising and supporting in all times.Finally I would like to thank Jemila Aragaw, Abdelaziz Aragaw, Selamawit Debel, and everyone who was important to the successful realization of this thesis, as well as expressing my apology that I could not mention personally one by one.PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my original work and that all sources of materials used for this thesis have been duly acknowledged. This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for M.Sc. degree at Hawassa University and is deposited at the university library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the library. I solemnly declare that this thesis is not submitted to any other institution anywhere for the award of any academic degree, diploma, or certificate.Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable with out special permission provided that accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Request for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the dean of the school of graduate studies when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interest of scholarship. In all Productivity in Lencha Dima Watershed, Guba Lafto Woreda, Amhara Region By Semira Mekonnen Mekuria(B.Sc), HU, ACA, Awassa, Ethiopia Major Advisor: Adugna Tolera (PhD), HU, ACA, Awassa, Ethiopia Co-Advisor: Tilahun Amede (PhD), ILRI, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Katrien Descheemaeker (PhD), ILRI, Addis Ababa, EthiopiaThe study aims to estimate the livestock water productivity (LWP) and to examine the effect of grazing area closure and feeding strategies on LWP at farm household level under wealth and intervention categories at Lencha Dima watershed.Results are based on survey of 120 sample households and focus group discussion. Beneficial outputs of livestock and depleted water for producing them were estimated then livestock water productivity as the ratio of the beneficial out puts and depleted water was estimated.LWP shows difference between participant with in the interventions and non participant with the intervention farm households. The value of LWP in ETB was 1.7±0.3 in non participant farm household and 0.79±0.03 in participant farm household and it ranges from 1.7 at better off non participant farm household to 0.7 in very poor participant farm households. The highest livestock feed financial water productivity was estimated at very poor non participant farm households (5.5± 2.3 ETB m -3 per year). Crop residue accounted much in depleted water for livestock feed production and it is also the major contributor for livestock feed resource base, which were found at negative feed balance to the existing livestock holding at household and watershed level. To mitigate this shortage framers use different feeding strategies according to livestock importance and age. Much of the beneficial output valued at the present LWP accounted by traction and transport services and ranked as the primary purpose of cattle. Exclosure can improve the condition of degraded land and can also be used as source of income generation and source of wood for different purposes. But it has negative effect on livestock number, which are at low production level and it is difficult to conclude the effect of area closure on LWP and livestock productivity in short period of time. Strategy of improving livestock productivity through improved feed availability and quality together with livestock management and health care as well as water saving and conservation is crucial for lifting up benefits from livestock and LWP for the farm households.Key words: Lencha Dima watershed, participants, non participants, feeding strategies, depleted water, beneficial outputs, livestock water productivity, area closure.Ethiopia has great potential for increased livestock production, both for local use and for export. However, expansion is constrained by inadequate nutrition, disease, lack of adequate support services such as extension services, and inadequate information on how to improve animal breeding, feeding, marketing, and processing.Water for crop and feed production as well as human and animal consumption is a limiting factor. It is a scarce resource in most parts of Ethiopia, especially during the eight months dry period, which extends from October to May. Both people and their livestock commonly travel long distances daily to obtain the water they need thus impairing agricultural productivity (Astatke et al., n.d.). Due to the dependence of the rural economy on rain-fed agriculture, the income and consumption of the rural population are highly volatile depending on the weather (Alemayehu et al., 2006). Undernourishment and malnutrition in children in developing countries is closely linked to environmental degradation, repeated droughts and poverty (D'souza, 2001). Rainfall is the major source of agricultural water in Ethiopia. The major problem associated with the rainfall-dependent agriculture in the country is its high degree of variability and unreliability. As a result, production capacity varies from region to region each year. The mixed crop-livestock farming system is largely based on plough and draught power, which has created complementarities between crop and livestock production for centuries (Awulachew et al., 2005).Livestock production is an important component of agriculture, but it is largely ignored in water management for food security. There is a great need to understand livestock water interactions for improving productivity of crop-livestock systems.Knowledge of the impact of livestock keeping on water resources has not been adequately synthesized and applied to integrated water management (Peden et al, 2007). Water use to increase production of animal-based food products for people must be balanced with water demand for crop production and other uses. Demands for animal products originate in the same markets that drive demands for other intensified, high valued horticultural crops, and those products likely compete for the same water needed to produce them. Managing this demand for agricultural water for livestock products dictates a need to integrate livestock development with agricultural water development (Peden et al., 2005).The livestock production in general has grown faster than crop production in most developing countries, and this trend is likely to continue with growth rates at about 4.5 % per annum over the next twenty years. The growing need for livestock products and services makes the water scarcity more severe (FAO, 2006).Small streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, springs, and wells are common sources of drinking water for ruminants (McDowell, 1985). Ruminants also take water in via their feed of varying type and moisture content. Generally, these livestock-water interactions differ in different agricultural production systems, like irrigation systems, mixed crop livestock systems, pastoral systems and agro-pastoral systems. In mixed crop livestock systems, animals consume crop residues and drink water either directly from natural sources or at drinking troughs. Limited land constrains both food and feed production by farmers in mixed systems. In pastoral and agro-pastoral systems, animals largely depend on grazing (ILRI, 2005). The widespread perception that livestock production is a wasteful use of the world's water recourses is not relevant to many developing country contexts. Livestock can be efficient and effective users of water while they depend on crop residues and by products and well managed rangelands unsuitable for crop production. Application of livestock water productivity concepts may lead to some of the greatest improvements in efficiency of future agricultural water use in developing countries (Peden et al., 2007).Livestock water productivity ( LWP) is about accounting for water consumption of livestock as a ratio of output functions, including milk, meat, dung, draught power and threshing (ILRI, 2005), over the amount depleted to produce them. It is part of overall food water productivity and is the scale dependent efficiency of direct and indirect use of water for provision of livestock products and services. There are two aspects of livestock water productivity: the livestock impact on water resources and the livestock water use for production (ILRI, 2005). Water productivity can be estimated by the method of Peden et al. (2002):Improvements in livestock water productivity require adoption of four basic strategies.These are feed sourcing strategies that reduce water transpired for production of feed, enhancing animal productivity, water conserving practices and providing quality drinking water. When combined these strategies can increase effective transpiration, infiltration and animal production and reduce evaporation, contamination and discharge of water (Peden et al., 2007).Different interventions were introduced in the study area by AMAREW project in four different disciplines, which include natural resource development, livestock production, crop production and social development. In natural resource development area closure, gully rehabilitation and water conservation practices were held. In animal production sector grazing land improvement and goat revolving fund were practiced. This goat revolving fund was carried out in very poor farm households; the first receiver gives the offspring of the goat to the second selected farmer. At this stage it is important to assess the effects and influences of these interventions on resource use and productivity. Hence, the current study was carried out with the following objectives.The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of interventions related to water resources and integrated watershed management on livestock productivity and on the productivity of mixed crop livestock systems. Specific objectives were to:• Characterize crop-livestock farming systems in terms of livestock feeding strategies, animal husbandry, land and water management• Analyze the balance between feed requirements and feed availability.• Estimate livestock water productivity in terms of products (milk, meat, manure, hides and skins) and services (draught power, transport)In mixed farming systems the inputs and outputs of the crop and animal enterprises are integrated inextricably and help very poor farming households primarily to maximize the returns from their limited land and capital and on the other hand to minimize production risks, diversify sources of income, provide food security, increase land productivity, and improve sustainability (Paris, 2002).Livestock keeping is one of the most important agricultural livelihood generating activity practiced in Africa and particularly so in water scarce arid and semiarid regions.Globally, livestock make up, on average, 45% of the agricultural contribution to GDP and more than half in some African countries (e.g., Sudan and Somalia). Not included in this economic indicator are the difficult to value livestock services, such as the contribution of livestock to traction and transport, which are essential for producing food crops and moving them to markets and consumers. Livestock provide draught power and fertilizer for the crops in the form of manure, and dry animal manure is also used as household fuel.Additionally, crop by-products and residues provide feed for the animals. Milk, meat and eggs contribute significantly to improved family nutrition and health. The sale of animals and their products help to improve and stabilize household income for the purchase of farm inputs, and to offset expenditures on school fees and health care (Paris, 2002).The major contribution of cattle to agricultural production in Ethiopia is through the draft power provided by oxen. The oxen are used almost exclusively for seasonal land PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com preparation in cropping systems and remain unproductive during the remainder of the year (Astatke et al., n.d.).Mixed crop livestock systems are being used by many smallholder farmers mainly in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia to intensify production as they perceive multiple benefits. The integration of food-feed crops in mixed systems can contribute significantly to human and animal nutrition without the need for additional cropland and optimize the allocation of depleted water within the cropping system. Strategies to increase the dual purpose efficiency of these crops are to increase nutritive value of the crop residues and to integrate food-feed legumes with cereal crops (Parthasarathy Rao and Hall, 2003;Singh et al., 2003).Livestock is a form of currency. For many farmers, animals represent savings and sale of livestock manure is quick cash in hard times. Income from livestock products can allow very poor families to improve their nutrition, send their children to school and improve family livelihood. Livestock plough agricultural fields and provide means of transportation and reduce the human load. Considering the importance of livestock in the national economy, the ministry of water resources (MoWR, 2002) has already integrated the livestock water need into its water supply projects for urban areas (MoWR, 2002).In Ethiopia, the sale of livestock and their products is often the major or only source of income. However, productivity per animal is very low, due to mainly very poor nutrition and high mortality rates. Grasses contribute a large portion of the feed but the quantities are limited and the nutritive value is low. Where pasture is the sole source of animal feed, its crude protein content should be above the critical level of about 70% DM and if herbage with protein content below the critical level is fed, low voluntary intake and protein PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com deficiencies contribute to reduced production and retarded growth of animals (MoWR, 2002). Livestock keeping contributes up to half of the agricultural GDP in countries like Sudan and Ethiopia. In addition, livestock provide subsistence farming communities with manure, traction, transport, cultural value and insurance against drought. Managing water resources without due consideration of the contribution of livestock to agricultural production ignores a major component of food security.Animal production depends on access to sufficient supplies of feed, including high quality feed-grains, crop residues and other by-products, pasture, tree fodder, and forage crops. The production of feeds is one of the world's largest uses of agricultural water. The entry point for improving global livestock water productivity must be strategic sourcing of animal feed, an issue that has largely been ignored during the past 50 years of research on livestock and water management. Judicious selection of feed sources is potentially one of the most effective ways of improving global agricultural water productivity.The use of crop residues, coupled with the use of fodder crops and purchased feed, can facilitate the transition from open grazing to a system of stall-feeding. In fact, it can be argued that crop residues have the potential to more than offset reduction in traditional feeds, which results from reduced grazing land in areas where irrigation schemes are established (Dejene, 2005). As the nutritional quality of crop residues is very low, their quality should be improved by appropriate supplementation and/or different treatments, such as urea treatment, which can be afforded and practiced by the farmers.PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comWater is not normally thought of as a nutrient even though it clearly meets all criteria for definition as one. The importance of an adequate supply of potable water for livestock is well recognized and currently is receiving more emphasis in the quest to clean up polluted environments by improving the quality and dependability of water supplies (Pond et al., 2005).The fat-free body water content is relatively constant for many different animal species including cattle, sheep, swine, mice, rats, chickens, and fish. The range is from 70 to 75% of fat-free weight, with an average of 73 % (Pond et al., 2005). Water requirement for animals is affected by numerous dietary and environmental factors. Other factors include, such as ability to conserve water or differences in activity and physiological state (i.e. growth, gestation, and lactation). In very general terms, animal will consume 2 to 5 kg of water for every kg of dry feed consumed when they are not heat-stressed (Pond et al., 2005).Agricultural water used for feed production is much greater than drinking water consumed by animals (Peden et al., 2003). Livestock drink about 25 liters of water per day per TLU (Zinash et al., 2003), but actual water required for daily feed production for livestock is about 100 times the actual daily requirements for drinking water (Peden et al., 2003). This is important because the prime constraint to livestock production is feed shortage, the production of which is often water limited.Animals raised on irrigated forages require much more \"managed\" water than those raised on rain fed grazing land. Even in rain fed mixed farming, production of water demanding feed such as the rhizomatic and deep rooted forages and trees and shrubs may PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com compete with farmers' ability to grow food crops. The challenge is to develop strategies of how, when and where to produce animal feed in order to minimize demand on irrigated water and to reduce competition with rain fed crop production (Alemayehu Mengistu, 2002). Increasing use of crop residues for animal feed and shifting feed sourcing to land unsuitable for rain fed crop production may be part of the solution. The trade-off between using irrigated water for forage production and food crops must be considered.Furthermore, strategic investments in watering points for livestock can help spread grazing pressure to areas where feed production does compete with human food production.Balanced and selected investment in water supply for livestock drinking may complement investment in water development for production of human food and animal feed.Livestock get their water from three sources: drinking water, water contained in feeds and metabolic water (Zinash et.al. 2003). Water contained in feeds consumed (performed water) is highly variable from feed to feed according to the moisture content, which can range from as low as 5% in dry feeds to as high as 90% or more in succulent feeds (Zinash et al., 2003). Water derived from dry feeds may be insignificant compared with the total water intake, while that obtained from succulent feeds can supply all the water needs.When water content of the feed ingested is low, drinking water is the major source of water intake, and its provision for livestock becomes the main concern.Assuming that one m 3 of transpired water would be used to generate 4 kg of dry feed; water for feed production amounts to 450 m 3 /TLU/year, and water for drinking purpose is 9.1 m 3 /TLU/year (Sonder et al., 2005). Transpiration is not the only form of depleted water associated with feed production. Water evaporates from plant and soil surfaces six times more than transpiration, particularly in heavily grazed areas with little vegetative cover.PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comAlthough water accounting models have helped to understand crop water productivity, no systematic consideration has been given to understanding livestock's use of and livestock impact on water resources. In recent years, livestock and livestock products have been exposed to much criticism due to a widely perceived use of large amounts of water for production and due to their negative impacts on water resources and the environment, e.g. according to (Steinfeld, et al) water pollution because of livestock as he explained most of the water used by livestock returns to the environment part of it may be re-useable in the same basin, while another may be polluted or evapotranspired and there by, depleted. Water Polluted by livestock production, feed production to and product processing detracts from the water supply and adds to depletion. Evidence suggests that such criticism is often founded or of restricted validity (Sonder et al., n.d.).Livestock water productivity is defined as the ratio of livestock products and services to the amount of water depleted, diverted or degraded to produce them. Often water related to livestock production is assumed to include only water either directly consumed by the animals or used for cleaning and other service functions during the processing of animal products.Development and governmental strategies often consider only watering needs, environmental degradation and pollution of water sources by livestock (World Bank, 2004;Ministry of Agriculture, 2002). The water needed by the animals for drinking is often a major factor limiting production and has to be available in sufficient quantity and quality, although the amount of water needed to produce the daily feed resources can be over 100 times higher (Peden et al., 2002).Livestock water productivity could be improved through the production of feed sources that efficiently utilize transpired water and the use of livestock species and breeds that have higher conversion rates for the available feed. In all the cases, it will be important to consider the sustainability of the agro ecosystems. Improving the grazing and watering management of livestock will benefit the productive capacity of the land through better soil and water conservation and diminish pollution with positive environmental impacts (Sonder et al., n.d.).The household feed requirements depend on the amount of crop residue produced and number and type of livestock owned by household substantially. Farm systems that depend more on feed coming from hay and pasture have lower livestock water productivity (Wagnew et al., n.d.).The potential for increasing livestock water productivity in mixed crop-livestock traditional systems could be further improved, e.g. through higher efficiency of water use under irrigation, integration of forages and food-feed crops, more efficient use of animal power and management, veterinary services etc., thus making livestock production more attractive and more sustainable in terms of water (Wagnew et al., n.d.). As many livestock production systems rely on crop residues as main feed resource, enhancing water productivity on the plant side can also enhance productivity of the livestock (Sonder et al., n.d.).According to (Peden et. al., 2006), the livestock water productivity framework (Figure 1) demonstrated how feed sourcing, water conservation, crop improvement and animal productivity enhancing strategies can contribute to increased efficiency and effectiveness PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com of water use. When integrated with crop production, increased use of crop residues and reduced overgrazing lead to more productive use of transpired water used for crops and reduced loss from evaporation and run-off. The three major components for increasing livestock water productivity (LWP) are feeding strategies, water conserving strategies and beneficial outputs from livestock. The amount of water used for drinking is strategic in improving livestock beneficial outputs but is very small, 70-100 times less than the water used to produce feed for livestock. The LWP framework is scale independent as it could be used at farm, community or watershed/landscape (Peden et al., 2006).Figure 1: Simplified framework for assessing livestock water productivity (Peden et al., 2006).Water being transpired by the vegetation is water dedicated to production of crops, pastures and other vegetation. Once transpired, water is no longer available to users within the domain.Livestock water productivity could be improved through the production of feed sources that would utilize transpired water efficiently and the use of livestock species and breeds that would have higher conversion rates for the available feed. In all the cases, it will be important to consider the sustainability of the agroecosystems. Improving the grazing and watering management of livestock will benefit the productive capacity of the land through better soil and water conservation and diminish pollution with positive environmental impacts (Sonder et al., 2004). The potential for increasing the livestock water productivity in the mixed crop-livestock traditional systems could be further improved, e.g. higher efficiency of water use under irrigation, integration of forages and food-feed crops, more efficient use of animal power and management, veterinary services etc., thus making livestock production more attractive and more sustainable in terms of water (Wagnew et al., 2005).Livestock water productivity framework has been a useful tool for comparing different schemes. At household level, it was found to be a good way of identifying the contribution of the different components of livestock production to the livestock water productivity (Wagnew et al., n.d.).Watershed development focuses on the regeneration of the catchment of a stream or river.Treatments comprise of developing forests, pasturelands, implementing soil conservation measures and building water harvesting structures (gully plugs, check dams) along water courses. It also includes developing appropriate land use and economic strategies that meet both conservation and production needs. Such an initiative requires approximately 4-6 years for a micro watershed (approximately 10 km 2 ) (D'Souza, 2001).As watershed development advances, the otherwise barren and degraded lands start producing grasses and fodder for livestock. Watershed development requires either a ban on free grazing, or controlled grazing as a soil conservation measure, which results in the added benefit of fodder production. With improving land productivity and the ban on free grazing, marginalized wastelands become a good source of fodder (D'Souza, 2001).In the past, the type of approach in watershed management mainly aimed at building physical structures by mobilizing farmers or sometimes forcing them with little success. Integrated watershed management did not include the role of livestock production systems and grazing systems. Some of the areas were closed without prior planning for livestock grazing options. It is a paradox that even the large irrigation developments have excluded the livestock production systems and solely concentrated on crop production (Girma and Peden, 2002). But AMAREW project followed different strategies when the interventions were practiced. The strategy was watershed based natural resource conservation and agricultural development approach, with farmers' participatory and multidisciplinary problem/constraint identification, planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation will continue to be followed. This approach includes: Natural resource conservation and agricultural development considered for the entire watershed at once; genuine community participation ensured during planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of proposed activities; capacity building of the farmers through training and demonstration; developing and deploying effective institutional linkages for implementing integrated watershed development (AMAREW, 2007).PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com Loss of vegetation promotes evaporative depletion of scarce water. The key to successful crop and livestock production in the dry land areas is therefore first the development of efficient and effective soil water management techniques (Sonder et al., n.d.).Under-nutrition is closely associated with land degradation. Watershed development has a potential for environmental rehabilitation and enhanced land productivity. Enhanced land productivity, can help withstand the effects of drought even in rain-shadow regions or despite lower than normal rainfall. It is generally assumed that with an increase in crop and milk production there should be an increase in food intake that could improve the nutritional status of people in environmentally degraded regions (D'Souza, 2001).The study was conducted in Lencha Dima watershed which is located 16 km east of Weldiya town in North Wello Zone, Guba Lafto Woreda in Amhara regional state. (Figure 2). The watershed is further divided in to three sub-catchments, which are Oromo, Kolokobo and Lencha Dima. Major soil types in the Lencha Dima watershed vary with topography. The distribution of soils is as follows: Regosols and Leptosols on the steep hills and mountains (33% of total watershed area), Regosols on the upper footslopes (6%), vertic Luvisols at the lower footslopes (18%), Vertisols at the valley bottom cultivated areas (35%), and Fluvisols in the plain areas that receive alluvial sediments (8%) (Gizaw et. al., 1999). The geology of the Lencha Dima watershed area, which is located in the marginal graben of the northeast Ethiopian plateau escarpment in the Afar depression, is comprised of varieties of trap series rocks from weathered basalt, graben fill quaternary sediments, and valley-floor later granite intrusions of probably tertiary age (Gizaw et al., 1999).Kolokobo sub catchment is 180 ha and is located at the southeastern corner of the watershed (Figure 3). It is comprised of three villages and different interventions were practiced. The interventions were well protected in this sub catchment. Cropland covered 42.9%, shrub/bush land covered 42.9% and settlement covered about 7.1% of the total land area. Above 30% of the rangeland (hillslope) was closed from livestock grazing, bench terracing and numerous planting was practiced. In addition gully rehabilitation was practiced by treatment with gabion, check dam and planting. (Mc Hugh, 2006) Compared to the other two catchments, Kolokobo sub catchment is better protected. Cropland covered 71.4%, shrub/bush land covered 21.6% and settlement covered about 6.2% of the total land area. Less than 5% of the rangeland (hillslope) bench terracing and few planting was practiced. No gully rehabilitation was done (Oloro, 2006). As a result the width of gully is very wide compared to Kolokobo.PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comLencha Dima sub catchment is comprised of two villages and like Kolokobo hill exclosure (Begido) was practiced and well protected, with area of 33 ha. Like Oromo sub catchment in Lencha Dima sub catchment the width of the gully as we compared from Kolokobo. The farmers in the sub catchment use nine grazing lands.The study area was purposely selected as it is an area where a number of integrated PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comBy selecting farm households in the watershed with and without interventions, it is possible to investigate the influence of applying interventions on livestock water productivity. Households in the watershed were listed and divided into two groups based on their participation in exclosure, gully rehabilitation and water harvesting. Then, the households were stratified in to three classes based on wealth status, using the following division of wealth in the study area: very very poor households, owing one ox and grass thatched house; poor households, owing two oxen, one cow and grass thatched house; better off households, owing more than two oxen, one cow and a house with an iron sheet roof.The sample households were selected randomly from the three sub-catchments (Kolokobo, Lencha Dima and Oromo). The total sample size was 120 farm households: 60 participants and 60 non-participants (20 very very poor, 20 better off and 20 poor farmers both from the participants and non-participant).In this study different data gathering methods were involved. The study involves mainly survey, discussions with key informants, direct observation and direct measurements. A structured questionnaire and check list were used and information was gathered from randomly selected respondents and key informants from each category of interventions. Direct measurements, assumptions and secondary data were used for calculating some of the variables of livestock water productivity.In what follows a more detailed explanation will be given of the different methods and materials employed.A structured questionnaire was prepared and pre-tested with five farmers after which some corrections were made. Seven enumerators who are residing in the area were employed to assist in the household survey. Enumerators were trained and their work closely followed up during data collection. The field work was conducted during September to November 2008.The questionnaire covered demographic characteristics, household socio-economic factors, livestock holding and species composition, draft power services, sales and consumption of livestock and livestock products, feed sources, feeding group, feeding calendar and feed amount for the different feeding groups, water management practices, cropping patterns and crops grown, agricultural input and yields at plot level and livestock production constraints. The questionnaire used is given in Appendix 1.Check list were prepared for discussion with key informants. Key informants were included of the Woreda livestock expert, the development agent and the vice-chairman of the farmers association and farmers familiar with the interventions. Discussions with these groups included topics like land management, dynamics of the grazing area, value of livestock services, constraints and opportunities in livestock health, preference of meat and investment options to increase productivity. The check list used is given in, Appendix 2.In this study the households' plots under the rain fed farming system, cultivated in 2007, were considered. Water supply through direct precipitation and the fraction of applied water that is consumed by evapotranspiration were considered. To calculate water productivity, only the water lost thorough evapotranspiration is used in the denominator of the equations. Other components such as runoff and deep percolation, or losses along the water delivery infrastructure are not accounted for.To relate crop evapotranspiration (ETc) to reference evapotranspiration (ETo) and for calculating evapotranspired water, crop coefficient (Kc, dimensionless) values from the literature were applied.Therefore the crop water productivity relationships can be expressed as (FAO, 1998) Correspondingly LWP can be computed by using the following equations (Peden et al., 2006): In computing water depletion for livestock production only the water used to produce livestock feeds (crop residue and grazing) were considered. Livestock drinking was not PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com considered as it is insignificant compared to water depletion for the production of feeds. It amounts to only 2-5% of the total water requirements (Peden et al., 2005).The depleted water was computed in terms of the amount of water depleted in evapotranspiration (ET) from the cropland and grazing land. The ET was computed for each month from weather data by using CropWat software (FAO, 2003), which uses the penman-monteith method as the standard method for the computation of the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) and Kc value (FAO, 1992). The methods for calculating reference evapotranspiration from meteorological data require various climatological and physical parameters. Some of the data are measured directly in weather stations. Other parameters are related to commonly measured data and can be derived with the help of a direct or empirical relationship. All data required for the calculation of the crop evapotranspiration by means of the FAO Penman-Monteith method are:• Climatic data (min and max temperature, rainfall) and climatic factors (wind speed, air humidity, sunshine, humidity).• Crop data like length of growing period, Kc value, rooting depth, crop height, and crop yield response factor and critical depletion.• Soil characteristics like total available moisture, maximum rooting depth, and initial soil moisture depletion.The kobo climatic weather data was used to get the monthly ETo data, Appendix 3Table 18).The grain yields from cereal crops were calculated based on crop yield data from the literature (CSA, 2004) and farmers' land area cultivated during the reference year. The crop residues yields were then calculated based on the harvest index for each crop type (FAO, 1987;De Leeuw et al., 1997;Tessema et al., 2002), Appendix 3. Table 15. The amount of water depleted for the production of each type of crop residue was based on the crop water requirement calculated using CROPWAT software.To determine the hay and grass consumption the calculated average (see paragraph 3.7) of the exclosure biomass production and the amount grazed by animals was used. The amount of grazing land which was allocated for each household was calculated based on the total grazing area in the catchment and the ratio of the households' tropical livestock unit (TLU) holding over the total TLU of the catchment. For free grazing land a utilization rate of 75% estimated by WBISPP ( 2002), was assumed. And for exclosures it is assumed that 75% of the hay production is utilized by the animals. The amount of water depleted for the production of hay from exclosure and grass from gazing land was based on the grass water requirement calculated using CROPWAT software and the size of land the household owned. The following assumptions were used for calculating grass water requirement: a growing period of six months and four months and a crop height of 0.1 m and 0.8 m for free grazing and exclosure, respectively.The total depleted water for livestock at household level was estimated based on the evapotranspiration and area covered for each crop grown during the previous cropping year and the allocated area of grazing land and exclosure.For calculating crop water requirement the crop coefficient approach (FAO-56, Allen et al., 1998)   3Where ETcil = Crop water requirement in mm per unit of time of the i th crop type at l th location.ETo= Reference crop evapotranspiration [mm d -1 ].ETc of each crop type was calculated.Water depletion for the production crop residues was determined based on crop harvest index of each crop type (using reported crop residue yield). This amount was then adjusted based on the recovery and utilization rates of particular crop residues by the livestock type kept by the farm household. The water depleted on the grazing land was adjusted based on the amount of grass feed assumed to be available for livestock grazing.Utilization and recoverable factor of 50% and 75% were applied for crop residue of sorghum Stover and grazing land respectively (WBISPP, 2000).Crop yield was estimated by;…………………………………………………………. Equation 4Where:CYi = Crop production in kg of the i th crop type Then the water requirement for the total crop residue production for each household was estimated in m 3 .………………………………………… Equation 7Where: WRCRj = the water requirement of total crop residue type in j th household during the reference year (m 3 ) WRCRil = water requirement of i th crop residue in l th location (m) ACil = total area i th crop type cultivated by the j th household in the reference year (m 2 )The water requirement for grazing land and exclosures is calculated as follows:a) For grazing land 8Where:GLWRij= grazing land water requirement in mm per square meter of in j th household (= Depleted water of grazing land that is utilized by livestock) GLAj = Grazing land area in square meter of the j th household GLU = Utilization factor of grazing land by livestock (proportion of the grass biomass production that is available for livestock feeding, 75%).  9Where:EXWRj= Exclosure Water requirement of j th household EXLj= exclosure land area of j th householdLGP= Length of growing periods in days ETo= Reference evapotranspiration in mm per unit time GLU = Utilization factor of grazing land by livestock (proportion of the grass biomass production that is available for livestock feeding, 75%).Kc= crop coefficient for exclosure land (Extensive grazing land Kc value) c) Livestock feed water requirement 10Where:WRfeed= total water requirement for feed production WRCRil= water requirement for i th type crop residue in l th location WRGRil = Water requirement for grazing land WREXil= Water requirement for exclosure ACij= Total area i th crop type/ grazing/ exclosure cultivated by the j th household in the reference year (m 2 ).For determining livestock beneficial output the type and amount of livestock outputs, which include livestock service for the preparation of cultivated land (ploughing), threshing, transportation and the other livestock products like milk, manure, meat, hides and skins (from slaughtered animas) were determined and their value estimated in Birr. For calculating the beneficial outputs in monetary terms their market price in the study area, Appendix 3 Table 16, was used. Specific conversions to tropical livestock unit (250 kg live weight) were used for the different types of animals, Appendix 3, Table 12.Livestock out putsThe total milk production of each household was computed by using this formula  12Where: MYVj = Total Milk production value of the j th household per year, TMYj as defined above MP = price of one liter of milk at the Weldiya market.Meat production from ruminants at the household level was estimated from the number of slaughtered ruminants per year (cattle, sheep and goat) for household consumption. The number of each animal type was converted into TLU. Using the average dressing percentage for each livestock type (Ermias et. al., 2000;Addisu et. al., 2002;Nega et. al., 2002;Negussie et. al., 2004;Jemal, 2004;Moses, 2006;Mesfin, 2007), Appendix 3 Table 13, the meat production per year was estimated. Total meat value was estimated based on the current market price of meat per kg.The following calculations were employed: 13Where: LWij = the slaughtered live weight of i th animal type in j household per year, STij = the number of slaughtered animals of the i th livestock type by j th household per year and, TLUi = TLU conversion factor of the i th type of livestock. 1 TLU is equivalent to 14Where: MYij = Meat yield of the i th type of livestock in the j th household per year DPi = Dressing percentage of i th livestock LWi = Live weight of the i th livestock.( ) 15Where: MVYj = total meat value in birr obtained from ruminants in the j th household per year MYij = meat production in kg per year from i th livestock in the j th household MPi = Market price of meat from i th livestock (market price of Weldya)For estimating the total value of animals which are sold and given to others per household in a year the number of animals sold and given and the current price in the study area were used. was obtained from literature (Lupwayi et. al., 2000;Workneh et. al., 2003;FAO, 2004;Haileselassie et. al., 2006). Appendix 3 Table 15 Based on that, the nutrient production from manure is calculated per year at household level. The total nitrogen and phosphorus produced in each household was converted into equivalent value of fertilizer. To estimate the value obtained from manure the current fertilizer (Urea and DAP) market price was used.The following equations were employed:……….……………… Equation 18Where:  22Where:MRPVj= manure phosphorus value in j th household in birr MRPj= manure phosphorus production in j th household per year (in kg) PP= phosphorus price derived from DAP fertilizer current price. 23Where:TMRVj= Total manure value (Birr) obtained in j th household MRNVj= Manure Nitrogen value in j th household in birr MRPVj= Manure Phosphorus value in j th household in birr PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comTraction service obtained in the households was estimated by the number of days per year the different livestock give service like ploughing and threshing. These were obtained from the household survey and the local hiring price for each service delivered by each type livestock.Ploughing and threshing days required for 1 ha differs for the different crops, Appendix 3  24Where: TSVj = Traction service value (ETB) obtained per year by the j th household STil = Service type l delivered by the i th livestock type DSTil = Number of days per year for the l th service type delivered by the i th livestock type (For Traction / threshing service day, type of crop and land holding of the household was used PSTil = Current daily hiring price (ETB) of the l th livestock type for i th service type.Transport service obtained in the households was estimated by the number of days per year donkeys give service like transport for crop to home and to market, transport to the mill house and fetching water. These were obtained from the household survey and the local hiring price for each service delivered by each type livestock. To estimate the availability of feed from gazing land, exclosure and rehabilitated gully, the dry matter production of grass and five major trees were determined by the following methods.PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comFor exclosures the samples were collected from five different exclosures (Kolokobo, Dolamba, Begido, Minchugora and Dishke). Grass was harvested from the holding of two farmers from each exclosure and three quadrants (1m*1m) per farmer. The harvested grass was oven dried to determine the DM yield. Then the average value of DM yield per quadrant was multiplied by the area owned by each household.For free grazing lands six month data were used, representing the growing period of the grass from July to December. Grass was collected from two quadrants (1m*1m) in each of two grazing lands (Debiso and Kolokobo). The quadrants were located in a fenced off area and the grass was cut weekly to imitate livestock grazing. Samples were oven dried to determine DM yield.The total biomass of grazed grass during the six months period in the 1m*1m quadrant was calculated by;Total production = Weekly yield*24 weeks. Then the average of the two grazing lands was used.For calculating the grass biomass consumed by grazing for each household, the total catchment grazing area and the total TLU of the watershed and the total TLU of the household was used.TTLUw TGAw TTLUj TGAj * = ……………………………………………. Equation 29Where: TGAj = total grazing area for j th household TTLUj = Total TLU of j th household TGAw = Total grazing area in the watershed TTLUw = Total TLU in the watershed For determination of forage biomass production from tree. Five major forage trees were selected based on the key informant information. From each tree species two trees were selected and all the branches of the tree were cut and weighed. All branches were given to animals and the leftovers were weighed. A sample was taken to determine the moisture content so that the DM of the edible part could be determined. The number of each tree species per households was determined from the survey result and multiplied by the DM of the trees.The daily maintenance feed requirement of the animals was calculated as 2.5% of the live body weight (Boudet, 1975). The contribution of each feed resource (crop residue, exclosure, free grazing land and stubble) to feed intake were determined proportionally, in relation to both feed availability and requirements.The feed balance of the household was calculated based on the feed available and the maintenance feed requirement at household and catchment level. Based on the feed balance the annual feed gap of the households is also estimated. Stubble grazing production was estimated at 0.5 t per hectare (FAO 1987).Feed balance at household level was calculated based on the total TLU holding in the household and total available feed in that household:Feed balance at HH level = Total available feed per year -Total maintenance feed requirement per year.At catchment level, first the total available feed from the different feed resources was calculated by using calculated value of each type of crop cultivated area per household then converted to catchment level (multiplying cultivated land of each crop type per HH by the total HH in the catchment) and maintenance feed requirement was calculated for total TLU in the catchments. Then, the above equation was used to calculate the feed balance for the catchment.To compare which feed resource contributes more to the total feed available, feed  33Where: MRi = Mortality rate of i th animal in the study area TNDshi= Total number of i th type of animal died in the sampled household TNShi= Total number of i th type animal in the sampled household at the beginning of the year. The survey and relevant secondary data were organized, cleaned and analyzed using SPSS 13.0 (2003) and MS Excel 2003/07. Descriptive and one way ANOVA (Zar, 1996) were employed in data analysis. Mean and percentage comparison of parameters were done across the households (participants and non-participants as well as wealth categories).PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comOf the sampled participant households 76.7% were male headed and 23.3% female headed and in the non-participant group, 75% were male headed and 25% female headed.This result showed differs from what Mekete (2008) reported in Alewuha and Golina irrigated and rainfed farming system, where the majority (about 92.5%) of the households were male headed.According to the data obtained from the household's survey the average family size of participants and non participants were 4.5 and 4.6 respectively (Table1). The overall mean family size of the sampled households was 4.6 ± 8, ranging from 2 to 8 with an average 2.5(range: 0 -6) males and 2.2 (range: 1 -5) females. The family size in this study is less than what Mekete (2008) reported for Alewuha and Golina irrigation (5.0 ± 0.1) and also less than the national average of 5.2 person per household (CSA, 2003).Mean family size of better off households is generally bigger than that of the poor and very poor households in both participant and non participant groups. A higher proportion of males in the better off farm household in both participation categories than poor and very poor farm households were observed. (Table 1). The result of the present study is in line with what Mekete (2008) reported regarding the proportion of male and female family members for Alewuha and Golina irrigation (51.8% male and 48.2% female). However, some deviation is observed from the male (50.2%) and female (49.8%) proportion for Amhara region, reported by CSA (2007).PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com The majority of the respondents in all wealth categories are married. The proportion ranged from 50% to 90% in the very poor non participant group and in the better off non participant group respectively. The proportion of widowed and divorced respondents ranged from 5%-20% and 0%-20% respectively. The overall marital status of the sample households was found to be 2.5% not married, 75% married, 7.5% divorced and 15% widowed (Appendix 3, Table 1). Then result differ from the findings of Mekete ( 2008), where 91.3% were married, 3.1% divorced and 5.6% widowed.The overall mean age of sample household heads in the watershed is 44 ± 1.4.Generally, the age composition of the population can be described by the fact that 39.3%, In all cases, the literacy level was found to be very low. About 85% of the household heads were illiterate, 8.3% were able to read and write, while the reminder (6.75%) of the population attained formal education, Appendix 3 Family members who have attended 1-4 th grade accounted for the highest proportion of the non-illiterate categories. This showed that there is a good start towards primary education in rural areas, which is supported by the government policy on spreading education in the entire country.Education plays a central role for economic and social development. The educated households tend to have higher productivity as they are able to decode new production technology (Abera et al., 2002). In addition, as the household's attitude towards education changes, this may initiate them to send children to school, which diversifies their knowledge and readiness to adopt new technologies. It is assumed that in the long run this will have positive implications for agricultural productivity and livestock productivity in particular.The present result showed there is need for interventions on formal and informal education programs and integration of those with better management of livestock production. Besides this, the spread of improved or new technologies depends on the decision of individual farmers, which is directly related with education. In support of this  Yisehak (2008) reported that low literacy level was one of the factors blocking women from getting access to productive resources in Jimma Zone.In this particular study the land holding was calculated by considering own, rented out and shared out cultivated land.According to FAO (1997), farm resources generally fall into two broad categories.The first category is fixed resources that provide services over a number of years or at least over a period longer than the production cycle of short-term (seasonal, annual) crop or livestock enterprises. Common examples of this are land, machinery, and an irrigation system. In this category, land is typically the most important that will usually provide its service indefinitely.Significant differences of cultivated land holding were observed between the different household categories. The mean total cultivated land in the two participation categories was 3.34 ha, 3.05 ha, 2.82 ha, 2.67 ha, 2.3 ha and 1.7 ha in better off non participants, better off participants, poor participants, poor non participants, very poor participants and very poor non participants respectively.Livestock in the study area are kept to meet the demand for draft power, milk, meat (to a lesser extent because they use to sell live animals more than to consume meat), as a store of wealth, and as means to relieve debts.The average number of each type of livestock species was less in participant households than in non participants, except in poor households. From key informant's discussions it became clear that this is due to shortage of grazing land (due to the hillslope exclosures in those specific villages) and changed attitude of the farmers towards increasing livestock productivity by decreasing the number of animals. The overall mean and range of each livestock type per household were 4.15 (0-18), 1.75 (0-25), 0.14 (0-9), 0.83 (0.8), 0.87 (1.7) and 0.05 (0-2) of cattle, goat, sheep, donkey, poultry and camel respectively (Table 3).  The main feed resources in the study area are crop residues and grazing lands. In this study the livestock density was considered in terms of cultivated land (own, shared in and rented in), grazing and exclosure land together and cultivated, grazing and exclosure land together.Livestock density per cultivated land of the farm household was calculated to show how many TLU are stocked under the existing land area. The grazing land livestock density in the watershed was 5.8 TLU per hectare of grazing land. Tukey HSD, abc : rows within a column with no letter in common are significantly different (P<0.05), LDC = livestock density on cultivated land, LDGE = Livestock density on grazing land and exclosure together, LDCGE = livestock density on cultivated, grazing and exclosure land.Overall mean of livestock density on cultivated land, grazing and exclosure land together and cultivated, grazing and exclosure land together was 2.9 ± 2.1 TLU/ha, 4.8 ± 1.3 TLU/ha and 1.7 ± 0.9 TLU/ha respectively.There was a significant difference in livestock density under cultivated land among better off non participant (4.7±0.5 TLU/ha), poor non participant (3.3±0.5 TLU/ha) and very poor non participant (1.3±0.5 TLU/ha). In the non participants group the livestock density per hectare was much higher than in the participants group for all wealth categories (Table 4).The livestock density on grazing and exclosure land together in non participant farm household have similar mean value This is because the grazing land holding was calculated based on the livestock TLU holding (expressed in TLU) of the household.Land tenure systems and agreements on sharing land and its produce yield mutual benefits for capable farmers (having sufficient human and animal power for crop cultivation) and farmers, which were unable to cultivate their land due to lack or unavailability of these resources (especially for female headed households and farmers facing unexpected death of oxen).The two land tenure agreements made between land owner and cultivator are based upon sharing the crop yield and renting in monetary terms. The farmer who shared in or rented in land will use his human and animal power and will get the total crop residue.In Table 5 the  As can be seen in Table 5, poor farmers who were in the participant category shared out more of their land (29.7%) than poor non participant farm households (4.3%).This might be due to the fact that most of the very poor participant farmers were female headed, who generally lack human and animal power for cultivation. On the other hand, better off farmers in both participation categories shared out their land to a lesser degree than the other wealth classes. This might be due to better off farmers having more animal and human power. PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comBased on cultivated land result in each wealth and participation category the total cultivated land in the watershed was calculated.The total cultivated land in watershed was 895.4 ha with 2.65 ha per household. Sorghum covered 420 ha (46.8 %) with 1.24 ha per household followed by tef 416.2 ha (46.4%) with 1.23 ha per household, chickpea covered 37.7 ha (4.2%) with 0.11 ha per HH and maize covered 21.5 ha (2.4%) with 0.07 ha per household and. (Figure 4, Table 6).  Farmers mainly planted Sorghum, tef, Chickpea and maize. Mean of the four major crops show significance among the category. The mean cultivated land under sorghum was 1.8 ha in the better off non participant group, followed by 1.4 ha, 1.3 ha, 0.9 ha and 0.7 ha in poor participant, poor non participants, very poor participant and very poor non participant PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com respectively. The overall mean for total cultivated land and land under sorghum, tef, maize and chickpea was 2.7 ha, 1.3 ha, 1.2 ha, 0.1 ha and 0.12 ha respectively, Table 6. The differences in the area of land cultivated per household per year are not due to additional land entitlement allocation through land redistribution, but because of the different land tenure agreements in the study area. Capable farm households with more farm labour force and draught power lease or share the croplands of elders, divorced and widowed female headed households. The land tenure agreement is between the owner and the cultivator. Besides his share of the grain yield (usually 50%), a farmer who rents in or shares in land, gets the total crop residue, which is advantageous for getting more livestock feed in the form of crop residue.PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comBased on the cropping pattern and total area covered by each crop type, the total grain and crop residue production and yield was calculated for each type of crop cultivated under the different wealth status in the two participation categories (Table 8). Sorghum and tef contribute the highest crop residue. These two crops are the major source of animal feed in both participation categories and they account for the major part in water depleted for livestock feed.Sorghum grain (29.13 t) and crop residue (73.0 t) production in poor participant farmers was higher than in poor non participant farmers, with 20.6 t grain and 51.6 t crop residues, which was followed by sorghum grain (26.3 t) and crop residue (65.7 t) in better off participant farmers. This is due to the fact that the categories with higher production have more sorghum cultivated land. In the non participant very poor farmer category, tef contribution with total grain production of 14.6 t and 21.9 t crop residue is low compared to participant very poor farmers.Contribution of chickpea to animal feeds from crop residue is small: 1.7 t in better off participant farmer which is followed by better off non participant farmers (1.5 t).PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com The average grain yield per hectare of sorghum (1.1 t/ha) for better off participant farmers is higher than the average grain yield of sorghum (0.6 t/ha) for better off non participant farmers. But for chickpea the average grain yield of better off non participant farmers (0.5 t per ha) is higher than for participants (0.4 t per ha). For tef the value was equal for both participation categories (0.8 t per ha) with 1.2 t per ha crop residue. In line with this result for tef grain and crop residue yield, Mekete (2008) reported 0.9 t/ha tef grain and 1.3 t/ha tef crop residue for Alewuha rain fed farmers.Total grain production (t) calculated per household was significantly different in the three wealth categories at p<0.05. The highest mean total grain (sorghum, tef and chickpea together) production per household is obtained by poor non participant farmers (3.1±0.3 t) followed by better off non participant farmer (2.6 ±0.3 t) and poor participants (2.1±0.3 t). Similarly, total crop residue per household is higher for poor non participants (6.2±0.6 t) followed by better off non participants (5.3±0.6 t) (Table 9).PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com There was a high significant difference among the wealth classes (p<0.05) for total utilizable grass from grazing and exclosure land. For better off and poor non-participants, the total utilizable grass from grazing land and exclosure was 1.2 t, followed by 1.1 t in poor participants and 0.9 t in very poor participants.In very poor non participant farm households crop residue yield and grain yield show significant difference with poor and better off non participant farm households Generally, non participant farmers in all wealth status have higher total livestock feed production than participant farmers except in very poor farmer households (Table 9).The total grain and crop residue production in the total watershed was 875.2 t and 2178.2 t respectively, which was dominated by sorghum with 504 t grain and 1260 t crop residue. Average sorghum grain yield per hectare was 1.2 t and crop residue was 3 t (Table 10).PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com Crop and livestock production in the study area have complementary benefit from one another as the products and by-products of one serve as an input for the other.Livestock are the only means of draught power for crop production and crop residue is the main feed source for animals. In the study area livestock comprises cattle, sheep, goat, camel, don key and poultry.The purposes of livestock keeping in the study area are shown in Table 11. As goats can tolerate drought, feed and water shortage, farmers prefer goats in the first place for income source and saving. Camels is needed for insurance in the first place and secondly for prestige followed by transport. Chickens are important for immediate cash income and meat. Chickens are mostly owned by women. Cows are kept for production of oxen and milk production for home consumption (milk sale is a taboo in the area). (Table 11)PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com In the watershed the total cattle population (3116.2 heads) is the highest compared to the other livestock types, followed by the goat population (2972.8 heads). This was much higher than the local district data on cattle population for the watershed (2109 heads).in addition to this the oxen population (1268.3 heads) was higher than the population of cows (1220.3 heads). Camel population is smaller than the donkey population, which showed that the farmers use more donkeys for transport than camels.This might be due to the higher purchasing price of camels as compared to donkeys. In the sampled households, the number of cattle is higher than the number of other livestock species. In better off non participant farmers the total number of cattle ( 152) is higher than in better off participant farmers (127) followed by poor participants (94) and poor non participants (66). The cattle population in the participant farmers group was smaller than in the non participant group. The cow population in the participant group was smaller than in the non participant group, except for poor farmers (Table 12). The average cattle population per household in the watershed was 4.3 whish is less than in better off non participant farm households. As can be seen in Table 13 the average cattle population in non participant households was higher than in better off participants but in poor and very poor farm HHs it was the reverse. This shows better off participant farm HHs decreased their livestock number after joining the intervention but the other wealth status increased their livestock number.In Table 13, the importance of livestock types demonstrated in terms of ratios were based on their physical numbers rather than on monetary values. The livestock ratios showed that cattle and goats were kept in larger number than other livestock. This implies cattle on the one hand and goats on the hand are the most important livestock types. Goat can alleviate and overcome the shocks and disasters of drought and more need of draught power from cattle, which are the common problems occurring in the study area. As can be seen from Table 14 there are different proportions within the different wealth classes. For example for every single goat there were 1.6, 0.7, 0.8, 1.6, 0.7 and 0.9 numbers of cattle in better off participant, poor participant, very poor participant, better off non participant, poor non participant and very poor non participant groups respectively.The overall ratio among ruminants showed a goat to sheep ratio of 2.4, whereas the cattle to sheep ratio were 2.5. This shows that the importance of sheep is much lower compared to goats and cattle. The overall ratios of cattle to pack animals were 4.3 and 7.2 for donkeys and camels, respectively (Table 14). The smaller number of immature animals reflects the shortage of home grown oxen in future crop cultivation, even at the existing land entitlement scenario of the farm households.Death rate can give an indication about the management and health service of the animals. In the study area there was one veterinary clinic around the town and investment on livestock production input, especially in veterinary service, was very low. This is due to lack of awareness and scarcity of the services nearby or the inability of the farmers to afford the veterinary costs. Around Dessie, Shiferaw (2004)  Specific causes for livestock death were not extracted, but generally attributed to disease. The total death rates reported to be 18.2% for calves, 8.2% for cattle, 10% for camels, l 7.1% for goats, 6.7% for donkeys and 3% for sheep. Reports of Mekete ( 2008) on studies at Kobo Girana showed somehow higher result for goat (9.8%) and sheep (5.9%) but less for cattle (7.8%). On the other hand, death and other losses for goats flock reported by Workneh (2000) at 22.5% in eastern Ethiopia were between these extreme results.Teshale Sori (2005), reported on top of direct economic loss arising from cattle death and cost of treatment, there had been a significant depression of production (mainly milk production), traction power, manure, body weight, etc. in Ethiopia. This report gave an indication for decreases in beneficial outputs due to diseases and eventually lower livestock productivity and thus appropriate intervention to mitigate such effect would be sought to improve the current livestock disease occurrence and prevention or treatment as one strategy for livestock water productivity improvement.Off take rate was estimated based on the number of livestock sold, slaughtered and given out per household per year. Ruminant off take rate is higher in all cases compared to non ruminants, which indicates that the sale of non ruminants is lower than ruminants. The highest and lowest off-takes rates were recorded for cattle in the non-participant better off households (16.3%) and in the very poor participant HHs (0.6%). Next to cattle, the second highest off take rate was recorded for goats. Goat off take rate is higher in better off participant farmers 15.1% followed by 14.2%, 10.3%, 9.2 %and 4.2% in better off non participant, poor participant, poor non participant and in both very poor participant and non participant, respectively. But the total goat off take was higher than the other livestock off take rate (Table 16)PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com In the study area the major feed resources were natural grazing lands, crop residues and stubble grazing from harvested fields. The types of the crop residues produced were related to the varieties of crops used as staple food in the area.Key informants indicated that during Hailesilase's regime   Figure 5 shows the annual pasture biomass yield (DM) of the five exclosures in respect to their starting year of conservation in G.C. The oldest exclosure in the area is Minchgora (closed in 2004) followed by Kolokobo and Begido (2006) and Dolamba and Dishke (2007).As can be seen in Figure 5 there was a difference in the dry matter production among the different exclosure. Aged exclosure produced more dry matter than newer except in Begido exclosure, which produced highest grass dry matter (DM), followed by Minchgora and As can be seen in Figure 5 there is a difference in the dry matter production among the different exclosures. Aged exclosures produced more dry matter than newer except in Begido, which produced the highest pasture dry matter (DM), followed by Minchgora and Dolamba.Begido exclosure produced more DM pasture biomass yield than the other four exclosures. This might be due to the fact that production of pasture depends on the type of woody vegetation (shrubs and trees). Pasture production may be depressed by developing canopy of shrubs and trees.PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comIn the exclosure important grass types were Sembelet (Hyparrhenia ruffa), Netch Saar (Aristidia spps), Serdo (Cynodon nlemfuensis) Bila(Harpachne schimperi), and tree species included Sebensa (Acacia asak), Dedho (Euclea schimperi ), Arorosi (Grewa mollis) and the likes.Herbaceous dry matter production (1.66 t/ha) in Kolokobo open grazing land was betterthan in Debiso open grazing land (1.48 t/ha). As can be seen in the figure 6 as the time far from rainy season (Kremt) the dry matter grass production became declined gradually. In the study area farmers traditionally group their livestock for feeding based on their livestock preference (Table 17).PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com In this study, the feed balance was based on feed resources production on dry matter basis and the number of livestock at household level entitled to use these resources in a specified period of time.Annually required feed intake for maintenance and the annually available feed in the study area is presented in Table 18. The estimated feed resources from grazing land and crop production show differences in the different wealth categories. The total available feed in the sampled household were 587,802 kg per annum and total feed requirement per annum was 1,188,349 kg. Generally, only 49.5% of feed requirement of the whole livestock herd of the sampled households was fulfilled, which is less than what is reported by Mekete ( 2008) for Alewuha and Golina schemes, where 55.4% of the feed requirement was satisfied (Table19).This study showed that there is a 50.5% feed deficit in the area, illustrating that there is a serious shortcoming to meet the required feed intake of the livestock in the study area. In addition, the nutrient content of the feed source and livestock need was not considered.There was difference in the feed balance among the wealth classes and interventions. The highest feed production was in better off participant farm households (126,287 kg feed DM) and the least was in very poor non participant farm households (59,146 kg feed DM). The total feed requirement per annum for better off non participants (332,013 kg feed DM) was higher than for better off participant farm households (284,221 kg feed DM). This might be due to the fact that the number of livestock in better off non participant households was higher than in better off participant farm households.PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comOn the contrary, feed deficits are higher in better off households, with -55.6% and -66.8% in better off participants and better off non participants respectively. To overcome this feed deficit farmers used different strategies like purchasing feed from farmers who have surplus feed and from Kobo area. In addition to this, they used green feeds like weed, 'Tinkesh' and tree fodder. Participant farmers in all wealth categories, except poor, have better feed balance than the non participants. This might be due to the fact that participant farm households have less livestock than non participants (Table 13), which results in a lower feed requirement than the non participants. In addition to this, participants get additional feed from the exclosures.As can be seen in Table 18 the total available feed in the watershed was 3,752,110 kg which is derived from the sampled household and the total feed requirement was 5,050,687.5 kg and the feed balance was -1,298,578 kg.Various studies in feed balance are reported in the literature. ILCA (1994) reported that farms in the central highlands of Ethiopia produce only 60% of the feed needed by livestock. A feed balance study by Habtemariam (2000) at Kombolcha Woreda of eastern Ethiopia showed that the available feed is only sufficient to cover about one fourth of the maintenance requirement of cattle and about one fifth of the requirement of all livestock in the area. Besides these studies, Kahsay ( 2004) reported feed resources in the central highlands of Ethiopia (Yerer Mountain) could only meet about 68% of the minimum annual energy required plus additional 20% for production by livestock in the study area.PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com Generally, in the study area the available feed was insufficient and the feed requirement and the feed availability were in negative balance. In the whole study area, feed was in short supply by 25% of the annual feed intake requirement on a dry matter basis. Because of this, the productivity of livestock was low together with the health problem, so involvement in the management to improve feed availability and keeping of more productive livestock according to the feed availability is essential for increasing the livestock benefit and livestock water productivity.The contributions of existing feed resources to the feed resource base as well as requirement of livestock were different at participation and wealth category level.In this study, the contribution of crop residues to the total available feed is higher than the other feed sources. The total annually feed production in the sampled household was 587,802 kg of DM of which 64%, 16% and 20% were contributed by crop residue, stubble grazing and grazing land respectively. Alternatively, the contribution of the various feed resources to the estimated DM requirement of which 49.5% was satisfied was 30% by crop residues, 11% by stubble grazing and 7.8% by grazing land (Table 18). On the contrary, CSA (2003) reported that grazing was the major source of feed supply accounting for 60%, while crop residues accounted for 26%, nationally. The contribution of the grazing land was low because of low productivity of grazing lands in the study area.The feed resource contribution result of this study is similar to Bekele (1991), who reported that 71% of the feed supply for Ada district originated from crop residues and only 12% from communal grazing land. The expansion of cropland causing the reduction of grazing land areas and poor productivity was the reason for the low contribution of PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com natural grazing lands to the total feed supply in the study area.. In support of this study, Kahsay (2004) showed that cultivated land increased by 125% in three decades in the central highlands of Ethiopia, mainly at the cost of grasslands. Population increase is one of the major driving forces to these changes and erosion rates increased in due course. The contribution of different feeds to the total available feed showed differences among the wealth classes. Crop residue contribution to the total feed available DM in very poor non participant farm households (71%) was the highest and in better off non participant farm household it was the lowest (59%). This indicates that better off farm households have alternative feed resources. As can be seen in Table 19 Better off farmers in both participation categories gain more feed from grazing land than the other wealth classes.This might indicate that natural resources flows are affected by wealth. As a result of large number of livestock in better off farmers contribution of fertilizer (manure) to the grazing land was higher than the two wealth category.The high proportion of livestock feed coming from crop residue shows that there was strong integration of crop and livestock farming. If more than 10% of the feed for livestock comes from the crop sub-sector, the production system is known as mixed crop livestock farming system (Seré and Steinfeld, 1995). Thus the production system in the study area can be classified as mixed crop livestock production system. In this study crop residue is the main contributor for the total feed available and the required feed in the watershed (43.1%).The water sources in the watershed include three seasonal traditional ponds excavated for each village or neighboring villages (gots) in Kolokobo, Lencha Dima and Oromo. The Lencha Dima pond is in better condition than the other two, which might be due to the fact PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com that a fence keeps the animals away. Besides its use for animal drinking, farmers use the water also for cleaning the house and for smoothing the threshing site. As farmers said the ponds can serve for about 9 months (July-March). At the end of March the animals go to the permanent water sources. Permanent rivers like Alewuha and Chireti, which are located outside the watershed and the kebele administration respectively, serve as dry season sources. According to (Gizaw, et al., 1999) cattle are watered every other day during the dry season; goats are watered once every 1-3 days. The farmers' decisions with respect to livestock watering are based on the animal's value and importance and species and age.In the watershed most of the households get their domestic water (for human drinking, cooking, cleaning and bathing) from water pumps. There was one generator -powered ground water pump (near Oromo village) which delivered to three water distribution points with one in each of the three sub catchments. This water is pumped from the ground water table and people's contribution is used to cover the fuel costs of the pumping station. The other water source was dome-type water harvesting structures Built with the help of AMAREW Project. There are four dome type water harvesting structures were constructed for 19 beneficiaries. The water is used for irrigation of vegetables and fruit garden, domestic uses and animal drinking. According to key informants, due to the hillside closure degraded vegetation and soil were rehabilitated and flood damage was decreased. The availability and quality of feed from harvested hay increased, as well as income from selling the pasture (this is mostly practiced by households without livestock). It has also an indirect effect on the crop production, as the loss of crop due to flood water decreased. But, some farmers blame the exclosure intervention as it reduced the available grazing area. Exclosure also have effect on grazing land size negatively, also exclosure have low grass production than grazing land but exclosure have other benefits like, woody biomass production tree fodder production and environmental protection.About 5.6 ha of gully land was rehabilitated and distributed to 26 farm households in the Kolokobo sub-catchment. According to the key informants, the rehabilitated gully became a source of animal feed, wood for house construction and fuel and also income PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com generation (by selling the pasture). The size of the gully formation was decreased and soil erosion decreased. Generally, the gully was changed to a productive asset. From key informants and direct observation, there were nineteen water harvesting structures in four households. The water is used for vegetable irrigation, livestock drinking.Farmers generate additional income by selling vegetables and get fresh vegetables (like green pepper) for their family.Participant Farmers in Lencha Dima WatershedIn this study, beneficial livestock outputs estimated at the household level include milk from cow, manure from all livestock except poultry, meat from ruminants, traction service from cattle (ploughing, threshing), transport service from donkeys and sale of all livestock.Benefits from poultry as well as amount of depleted water for poultry feed were not considered.As can be seen in Table 19, beneficial outputs at household level showed significant differences among all wealth status. The quantity of meat produced per annum per HH in very poor farm HH in both participation category was significantly different (P< 0.05) from better off farm HH in both participation category (Table 19). The highest mean annual meat production from ruminants off take per household was by better off non participants 35.7 ±7 kg and the lowest for very poor participants 7.8±2.5 kg. Better off participants, poor participants, poor non participants and very poor non participants obtained 31.6± 5.9 kg, 21.3 ± 3.8 kg, 19 ± 3.5 kg and 11± 3.8 kg of meat respectively. This might be attributed to the high livestock off take per household in better off farmers in both participation categories than very poor farmers. The highest meat yield per household per year ( in better off non participants) in this result was in line with what Mekete (2008) reported for Golina irrigator farmers ( 30.58 ± 3.67 kg) and the lowest meat yield was highly deviated from Mekete (2008) result reported for Golina rain fed ( 14.05 ± 2 kg)The mount of milk yield produced per year per HH in very poor farm HH in both participation category was significantly different (P< 0.05) from poor and better off farm HH in both participation category. This difference might be due the fact that very poor farmers have lower number of lactating cows than poor and better off farm households.But milk yield per year per HH was not significantly different (P < 0.05) in poor and better off farm HH in both participations. The reason might be comparable number of lactating cows in both wealth categories.The amount of manure and manure nutrients (N & P) produced per annum per household were significantly different (p < 0.05) among the wealth categories under the participating and non-participating group (Table 16). This might be because of the difference in TLU holdings and livestock composition of farm household.The number of oxen days traction services and donkey transport was delivered per year per HH in very poor farm HH in both participation category was significantly different (P<0.05) from poor and better off farm HH in both participation category.The highest mean number of service days per year by oxen was for better off non participants (184.7 ± 30.3 days per year) and the lowest was for very poor non participants (97.8 ± 10.8 days per year). Based on (Table 16), oxen service days per year by oxen in both participating and non-participating groups was significantly different in all wealth classes at p<0.05. The reason behind this difference possibly would be very poor farm HH lack oxen for cultivating their land; at this time mostly what they did was that they borrow oxen from their neighbor. This system of borrowing locally known as 'Mekenajo' occur between the owner and the borrower with out any payment only what they did is if the owner need more oxen for cultivating or threshing he can borrow. The average cultivated land size was also another reason for the difference in number of days per year on which oxen traction services were delivered to the farm HH.Number of services in days delivered by donkeys to very poor farm household per year was significantly different at p<0.05. As can be seen in Table 17 donkey service in day in better off and poor farmers in both participations was not significant (P> 0.05). The difference might be caused by lack of donkey in very poor farm HH, in addition very poor farmers might not capable of paying for fetching water as a result of incapability of paying they restricted their water demand.PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com Mean traction/transport service values (ETB) obtained per household per year in very poor farm HH in both participations category was significantly different (P< 0.05) from poor and better off farm HH in both participation categories. This difference is due to service day not the hiring price; local hiring prices for traction services were similar in the study area. As mentioned above paragraph 5 and 6, the service day difference might be due to lack of oxen in very poor farm HH and in addition difference in size of cultivated land in the category.As can be seen in figure 9, donkey transport for fetching water contributes more to total donkey service value than the other transport types. For instance in better off non participant farm HH, donkey transport for fetching water was 58%, followed by donkey transport for crops to home and mill 31.3% and donkey transport to market 10.69%. There was significant difference of total value of sold and gifted animals among all wealth status under each intervention category. The highest mean value of sold/gifted animals was obtained by better off non participants (6050.6 ± 561.8 ETB) and the least by very poor participant households (243.8 ± 119.9ETB). As can be seen in Table 19, the mean value of total sold animals was higher in all wealth classes of the non-participation category as compared to the participants. This might be because non participant households have more livestock than participant farmers. As a result of high livestock density, farmers are forced to sell more animals to mitigate feed shortage and also they can maintain a larger herdIn this particular study, service, off take rate, milk value, manure and hide and skin were the main contributors of total beneficial out put in order of importance. Service value was the highest contributor of the total livestock beneficial out puts. The proportional Total water depletion for livestock production was highest in better off non participant households and the least was in very poor non participant farm HH (2955.2±527 m 3 per year per HH) (Table 20). The contribution of water depleted for the production of crop residues to the total water depleted for livestock feed was high everywhere, but varied according to the household category. The contribution of water depleted from grazing lands increased proportionally with the wealth status of the household (Figure 11). The reason for increasing water depleted due communal grazing as wealth status increased might be due to as the grazing land holding was calculated based on the TLU holding, per year) at Gumera watershed. The highest livestock feed physical water productivity in this study was comparable with the value reported by Astatke and Saleem (1998) on different crops and pastures in Ethiopia: for 1 kg DM production 0.25 m 3 water was evapotranspired. On the other hand, (Peden et. al.;2007) summarized available literature,showing that evapotranspiration to produce 1 kg of dry animal feed is highly variable, ranging from 0.5 cubic meter to about 8 kg. The result of this particular study was in line with this range. and lowest for better off non participant farm households (1.5±0.04 ETB m -3 per year)(Table 21).The financial water productivity of crop residue ranges from 1.5 ± 0.3 ETB m -3 yr -1 to 0.8 ± 0.08 ETB m -3 yr -1 for very poor non participants and better off participants, respectively.. Grazing land financial water productivity in very poor participants farm HH differs significantly from poor and better off participants. The lowest financial water productivity of grazing land was 0.2 ± 0.4 ETB m -3 yr -1 for very poor participant (Table 21 & 22). Livestock water productivity shows significant difference between participants and non participants. The overall mean LWP was 1.26 ±0.16 ETB m -3 across all household categories. For non participant households the LWP was higher (1.7±0.3 ETB m -3 ) than for participants (0.79 ±0.03 ETB m -3 ). This is due to the higher value of total livestock beneficial output and livestock off take in non participant households (Table 23).In support of this observation, Haileslassie et al. (2007) reported that LWP is strongly associated with the magnitude of livestock beneficial outputs and the livestock feed related water depletion, whereby the value of LWP will be higher when higher beneficial outputs are combined with lower evapotranspiration. In addition to climatic factors, LWP depends on the quantity and quality of livestock beneficial outputs and livestock feed resources.   In this particular study area the cattle breed was local as key informant information in the area farmers did not practiced breeding practices like artificial insemination, forage plantation and livestock health was not well practiced. If this problems solved and utilization of crop residue and crop residue quality increased (by practicing different crop residue treatment like urea treatment) livestock water productivity will increase as result of increasing beneficial out put increase and feed scarcity decrease.The total number of livestock population before and after area closure in each wealth and participation category was presented in Table 24.As can be seen in Table 24 after the exclosure, very poor non participant farm HH increased their cattle population by 88%. But very poor participant farm HH decreased their cattle population by 28%. In all categories the goat population was decreased by different value of ratio after the intervention was practiced, especially in better off farm HHs. As framers information this was because of lack of browsing area for goats as a result of most of the hillslopes were closed.In participant farm households poor wealth class increased most of their livestock number after joining the interventions except goat population. Interventions like water development, goat revolving fund and area closure were made in response to the recurrent drought, food insecurity and moisture stress in the area. The production system in the study area is generally mixed crop livestock farming, in which rain fed crop livestock production is predominant. The major crops in the study area were sorghum, teff and chick pea in decreasing order. High livestock density was observed in all wealth and participation category. The cattle population was high in all wealth categories followed by goats. This was strongly evidenced by the contribution of cattle for traction services and goats for immediate cash need.One of the greatest livestock production constraints in Ethiopia is not creation of breeds that can give high yields of productivity. It is rather the optimum utilization of potential of existing genome which has high adaptive traits to the Ethiopian agro-ecology by improving efficient utilization of locally available resources as feeds. In this case Lencha Dima watershed is not an exception and has to go through the same step stated above. One who sees this result can confidently speak that the greatest livestock production constraints in Lencha Dima watershed is that of feed shortage especially during dry period which causes tremendous losses to livestock productivity. Most of the feed resources are contributed by crop residue, grazing land and stubble grazing. In land congested and degraded areas like Lencha Dima watershed where the proportion of grazing land and its productivity is highly diminishing (about 1570. 8 kg/ha) and rate of cultivation is taking over grazing lands and major feeds are obtained from crop residues.These feed is not only short in total production obtained and deficient in their nutrient content compared with the total tropical livestock unit of an existing area, but not also utilized to the optimum efficiency by treating with different crop treatment technologies like Urea treatment.Water sources in the watershed is inadequate to the existing livestock population even farmers keep and practice different water conservation practices like creation of pond in each village.Beneficial livestock outputs quantified at household level show difference across the wealth and intervention categories. In this particular study traction/ transport service, off take rate, milk value, manure and hide and skin were the main contributor of total beneficial out put in order of importance. On aggregate highest beneficial output estimated in monetary terms per year was obtained by in better off non participant farm households (17256ETB) followed by better off participant farm households (11240.6ETB).Livestock feed from crop residue was the most water intensive followed by grazing land in most wealth and participation categories. The scarcity of feed resources and competition for scarce water is aggravated by invasion of undesirable plants for feed there by much water will be depleted for small amount of utilizable feed produced from crop residue.Livestock water productivity showed difference among wealth class with each participation categories. Surprisingly LWP was higher in non participant's farm household than participant farm households. This is due to the beneficial out put difference between the two the former beneficial output was higher than the latter this is because of the livestock number as a result of decreasing livestock number after the intervention (exclosure) was practiced.LWP was higher in better off non participant farm households followed by very poor non participant farm households but the beneficial out of very poor farm category was the least, this result clearly shows that conclusion from the value of LWP a loan without the considering prevailing production and biophysical data may lead to wrong conclusion.By considering all factors, improvement in feed availability and quality in one hand and improving livestock production potential by breeding or selection together with improved livestock and feed management and veterinary services as well as could be an area of intervention to increase the livestock productivity as well as the livestock water productivity and it has a direct effect on improving food security of farm households.Natural resource conservation strategies such as soil condition (manuring), area closure to avoid soil and over grazing have along term positive effect on livestock water productivity.2. Household Characteristics 2.0. 2.1. Household Composition   ","tokenCount":"15368"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b510871afe103fc97e80e88b186f18da","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b427bd12-8a5d-4495-a836-505625f5865e/content","id":"-1585854111"},"keywords":["common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)","stripe rust","660K SNP array","GWAS","candidate region association analysis","serine/threonine"],"sieverID":"06f5bc32-e3af-4f98-8e52-572f891118f1","pagecount":"15","content":"The incorporation of resistance genes into wheat commercial varieties is the ideal strategy to combat stripe or yellow rust (YR). In a search for novel resistance genes, we performed a largescale genomic association analysis with high-density 660K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays to determine the genetic components of YR resistance in 411 spring wheat lines. Following quality control, 371 972 SNPs were screened, covering over 50% of the highconfidence annotated gene space. Nineteen stable genomic regions harbouring 292 significant SNPs were associated with adult-plant YR resistance across nine environments. Of these, 14 SNPs were localized in the proximity of known loci widely used in breeding. Obvious candidate SNP variants were identified in certain confidence intervals, such as the cloned gene Yr18 and the major locus on chromosome 2BL, despite a large extent of linkage disequilibrium. The number of causal SNP variants was refined using an independent validation panel and consideration of the estimated functional importance of each nucleotide polymorphism. Interestingly, four natural polymorphisms causing amino acid changes in the gene TraesCS2B01G513100 that encodes a serine/threonine protein kinase (STPK) were significantly involved in YR responses. Gene expression and mutation analysis confirmed that STPK played an important role in YR resistance. PCR markers were developed to identify the favourable TraesCS2B01G513100 haplotype for marker-assisted breeding. These results demonstrate that high-resolution SNP-based GWAS enables the rapid identification of putative resistance genes and can be used to improve the efficiency of marker-assisted selection in wheat disease resistance breeding. Recently, members of the post-Yr26-virulent races group (herein referred to as post-V26) have become the most prevalent forms of Pst that threaten wheat production in China (McIntosh et al., 2018). Unexploited wheat germplasm is a potentially valuable source of genetic diversity that can enhance and enrich breeding germplasm with needed traits for the sustainable improvement of modern cultivars (Hao et al., 2011; Zhuang,  2003). Here, a diversity panel of 411 advanced breeding lines were collected from International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) bread-wheat breeding programmes, which were expected to have effective and novel resistance genes, thus making them ideal for association mapping. Then, they were evaluated for their responses to post-V26 races in seedling and in multi-location field trials with plants either artificially or naturally inoculated over three cropping seasons. Subsequently, we used GWAS to dissect the genetic architecture of these lines and detect QTL associated with variation in stripe rust resistance. Using high-resolution SNPs from the wheat 660K SNP array, resequencing data and PCR-based sequencing data, we attempted to refine the number of causal alleles based on analysis of another independent validation panel of over 1000 wheat accessions, as well as analysis of the estimated functional importance of each nucleotide polymorphism. Our study describes promising results that will accelerate marker-assisted selection for the improvement of stripe rust resistance in Chinese wheat breeding programmes and delineate prospective targets for the cloning of novel resistance genes.Stripe rust or yellow rust (YR) caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) is an important foliar disease that has been associated with up to 100% yield losses in wheat (Chen, 2014). The incorporation of resistance genes into commercial varieties is the ideal strategy to combat YR. With our gradually improved understanding of 'durable resistance', greater emphases are being placed on adult-plant resistance (APR) or high-temperature adult-plant resistance (HTAPR), which are affected by actual growth stage and temperature (Niks et al., 2015). Quantitative genetics analyses have shown that APR is usually controlled by multiple inherited loci (Chen, 2013). The best-known Pst-APR genes are Yr18, Yr36 and Yr46, which confer a degree of resistance to multiple races and have been cloned (Fu et al., 2009;Krattinger et al., 2009;Moore et al., 2015). Studies on the molecular genetics of APR have indicated that there is more than one model for the mechanism of durable resistance (Brown, 2015). Thus, it is vital for researchers and breeders to understand the genetic basis of stripe rust resistance in current elite breeding populations and continuously search for novel genes.However, quantitative resistance is based on multiple loci, each with a small effect, thus increasing the difficulty of identification. The large genome size and allopolyploidy of common wheat result in complex quantitative inheritance of APR and cause slow progress in breeding for APR (S anchez-Mart ın and Keller, 2019). With important advances in high-throughput sequencing and wheat genomic sequencing, large numbers of molecular markers have been developed that facilitate the progress of more efficient mapping techniques (Juliana et al., 2019). In particular, genomewide association studies (GWAS) can identify associations between phenotypic variation and nucleotide polymorphisms using a diverse population panel (Bazakos et al., 2017). As numerous natural allelic variations can be simultaneously detected in a single study and a large number of historical chromosomal recombination events occur over multiple generations of natural populations, GWAS is becoming a powerful tool to dissect the genetic basis of complex agronomic traits and identify potential causal genes (Xu et al., 2017).On the other hand, the identification of causal genes that underlie agronomic traits directly from GWAS results remains difficult. First, population genetic structure can limit the detection ª 2020 The Authors. Plant Biotechnology Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and The Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.of rare allele variants and occasionally generate false associations between phenotype and non-causal genes (Bazakos et al., 2017). Although several statistically robust models have been built, such as population structure assessment and correction, false positives caused by population structure may not be entirely eliminated (Kang et al., 2008;Yu et al., 2006). To address this problem, another independent population can be reconstructed to validate the resulting marker-trait associations (MTAs) (Lipka et al., 2015). Second, a large extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) can give rise to a single LD block that displays a remarkable association with the trait of interest but harbours a variety of candidate genes (Schaid et al., 2018). Typically, the extent of LD in self-pollinating crops spans several hundred kilobases (kb), as documented in rice (Huang et al., 2011), and can occasionally reach megabases (Mb), as in wheat (Cheng et al., 2019;Wu et al., 2020). Thus, with high-level LD, further investigation is necessary to conclusively identify the causal gene(s). Recently, an efficient GWAS method using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was developed in rice for the rapid identification of trait causal genes without the need for additional experiments, based on the estimated functional importance of each nucleotide polymorphism (Yano et al., 2016). Similar practices have been used in wheat. For example, four stem rust resistance genes were rapidly cloned through a combination of association genetics and R gene enrichment sequencing (AgRenSeq) (Arora et al., 2019). Exome association mapping provided another route for the detection of functional SNP variants in wheat leaf rust resistance (Liu et al., 2020). In addition, high-density SNP array analysis has also become an alternative approach for the refinement of candidate genes. The updated version of the wheat 660K SNP array includes 660 009 SNP sites distributed over all chromosomes and encompassing the majority of genes (Sun et al., 2020). It has been widely used in many genetic studies that are focused on gene fine-mapping and cloning in China (Li et al., 2019;Rasheed et al., 2017).After filtering out low-quality SNP markers, a total of 378,441 SNPs were retained and used for the following analyses. A position could be assigned to 371,972 SNPs, which were distributed over each of the 21 chromosomes (Figure S1a; Table 1; Table S2). Marker density varied among chromosomes with a minimum of 7.19 markers per Mb on chromosome 4D and a maximum of 53.54 markers per Mb on chromosome 3B (Table 1; Figure S1b). In addition, these filtered SNPs were used in a BLAST analysis of the 'Chinese Spring' reference genome to analyse and predict their effects on gene structure and function. BLAST analysis revealed that out of the 378 441 SNPs, 41 588 (10.99%) were intron variants and 162 080 (42.82%) mapped within 2 kb upstream or downstream of genic regions. The remaining SNPs were located in gene exons, with 28 728 (7.59%) of these SNPs causing non-synonymous mutations. Finally, we identified the SNPs associated with 57 833 genes, which accounted for 53.6% of all high-confidence genes, and found that 36 042 genes (62.32%) possessed at least two SNPs (Table S3; Figure S1c).Genetic diversity was analysed using markers with known chromosomal positions. Overall, the spring wheat diversity panel showed relatively high genetic diversity, with He and PIC values of all genomes of 0.69 and 0.28, respectively (Table 1; Figure S1d,  e). Although the D genome possessed fewer markers than the A and B genomes, there was little difference in genetic diversity among the three genomes. The mean values of He and PIC for the three subgenomes were 0.68-0.70 and 0.27-0.28, respectively (Table 1). The genetic diversity results of the validation panel of 1,045 accessions with 660K SNP array data are provided in Table S4. Approximately 75% of the markers displayed PIC values exceeding 0.20, demonstrating the informativeness of these markers.According to the DK method of Bayesian clustering, hierarchical clustering, kinship analysis, phylogenetic tree construction and PCA analyses, geographical origin (Africa and America) and historical era (old landraces to modern elite lines) were the two major factors that determined the classification of diversity in this panel. The population of 411 accessions was first structured into two main subpopulation groups based on geographical distribution (herein referred to as Sp1 and Sp2) (Figure 1a-e). Sp1 was frequently associated with Mediterranean countries such as Morocco and Egypt, whereas Sp2 predominantly included accessions from countries in America, South Asia and Oceania, such as Mexico, the United States, India and Australia. In view of different eras, Sp1 and Sp2 were further subdivided into two and three distinct subgroups (herein referred to as Sp1-1, Sp1-2, Sp2-1, Sp2-2 and Sp2-3), respectively (Figure 1c-e). Sp1-1 consisted of 68 early ICARDA varieties, and Sp1-2 included a mixture of 176 modern varieties and breeding lines. Sp2-1, Sp2-2 and Sp2-3 contained a mixture of 88 modern varieties and breeding lines, 37 genetic stocks, and a mixture of 42 landraces and earlier varieties. The STRUCTURE membership coefficients revealed a high degree of admixture in a large number of accessions, particularly among cultivars and modern breeding materials, which was mainly observed in a number of lines from other breeding programmes in each cluster. This result is consistent with the shuttle breeding of CIMMYT and ICARDA and the frequent germplasm exchange that characterizes modern wheat breeding worldwide.LD analysis was assessed based on 717 701 068 pairwise comparisons of 371,972 SNPs, and pairwise LD was estimated using the squared-allele frequency correlation (r 2 ). A plot of the LD estimates (r 2 ) as a function of physical distance in Mb indicated that there was a clear decay of LD with physical distance (Figure S2). Comparison of LD among subgenomes and chromosomes showed that the LD decay was varied. Overall, the average LD decay distance for the whole genome was approximately 3.2 Mb. LD decayed faster in the D genome (1.3 Mb) than in the A (2.6 Mb) and B (5.5 Mb) genomes (Figure S2b-d). We believe that faster LD decay in the D genome is compatible with wheat evolutionary history (Dubcovsky and Dvorak, 2007). The D genome was the last be incorporated into common wheat and was therefore subjected to less artificial selection than the A and B genomes. Several haplotype blocks harbouring favourable alleles or combinations of alleles tend to be stable, and the LD decay distance is increased through artificial selection-driven evolution. For example, in this study, the LD decay of all chromosomes ranged from 0.62 Mb to over 7.45 Mb, indicating that different genomic regions have been subjected to various artificial selections and that the haplotype diversity is expansive in this diversity panel (Figure S2).In the stripe rust resistance tests with six Pst races at the seedling stage, the infection type (IT) distributions skewed towards susceptible scores with mean IT values of 7.6-8.1 on a 0-9 scale (Figure S3; Table S5). In the spring wheat diversity panel assessed here, because less than 5% of individuals exhibited resistant reactions (IT 0-3) to each of the tested Pst races, the seedling phenotypes were not used for GWAS analysis to minimize false positive errors. By contrast, greater stripe rust resistance was observed in the field tests at the adult-plant stage, although the susceptibility checks always indicated high rates of infection. The IT and DS distributions were skewed towards low values in all resistance trials, ranging from 4.4 to 4.9, and 30.0% to 34.7%, respectively (Figure S4a, b; Table S5). IT and DS values were continuous in all environments, indicating that the effects were conferred by APR and the responses were quantitative. Pearson's correlation coefficients were 0.78-0.95 for IT and 0.88-0.96 for DS across all environments (Figure S5a, b). Such significant correlations (P < 0.0001) indicated that stripe rust responses were consistent across the environments and most likely same resistance genes conferred resistance in all environments. As expected, the correlation between IT and DS was highest within the same environment, ranging from 0.80 to 0.91 (Figure S4c). The broad-sense heritability H 2 was calculated as 0.48 AE 0.07 and 0.55 AE 0.07 for the IT and DS data, respectively (Table S5). The extent to which stripe rust responses of the 411 different accessions were influenced by population structure was analysed, SNP based GWAS rapidly identifies trait-associated genes 179 and the accessions in Sp1 generally displayed more resistance than those in Sp2 (Figure S4d, e).The stripe rust responses including IT and DS values of the 411 accessions across nine field environments and the best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) were used in association tests based on univariate linear mixed model analysis. Based on the suggested threshold P-value < 2.90 9 10 -4 , 358-801 significant SNP-trait associations were detected. In order to identify stable loci, only QTL associated with APR within at least seven environments including BLUP were considered as high-confidence QTL, which filtered the common significant SNP-trait associations down to 292 (Table S6). For convenience, tagged SNPs for each QTL were selected based on those exhibiting the strongest association with stripe rust responses alongside the smallest SNP-associated Pvalue, the largest phenotypic variance explained (R 2 ) and the largest number of environments in which significant trait associations were detected. As a result, a total of 19 QTL regions were identified on chromosome arms 1AL, 1BL, 2AS, 2AL, 2BS, 2BL, 3AL, 3BS, 3BL, 4BS, 4BL, 6BS, 6BL, 7AL, 7BL and 7DS (Figure 2a-j; Figure S6a-j; Figure S7). The frequency of SNP marker alleles associated with resistance ranged from 0.06 to 0.93, although marker alleles are not necessarily indicative of functional resistance alleles (Table 2). The phenotypic variation explained (PVE) by individual QTL was 1.5-9.6%, and the total value of PVE contributed by all QTL was 57.8-74.1%. Of the 19 assigned QTL, five loci were potentially novel based on their unique chromosomal locations, determined by referring to the consensus and physical maps, and two of these had been mapped in our previous studies. Among the other 14 QTL, nine were co-located with characterized Yr genes, namely Yr29 on chromosome arm 1BL, Yr17 on 2AS, Yr32 on 2AL, Yr30 on 3BS, Yr80 on 3BL, Yr78 on 6BS, Yr75 on 7AL, Yr39 or Yr2 on 7BL and Yr18 on 7DS (Figure 2a-j; Figure S7; Table 2). The remaining five QTL identified in this GWAS were in agreement with the candidate regions reported in previous QTL mapping or GWAS studies (Figure S7; Table 2). Moreover, YrNP63-2BS, YrSnb.1-2BL, YrRC-4BL and YrSnb.2-6BL had been mapped using CIMMYT-derived bi-parent populations in our previous studies (Wu et al., 2017(Wu et al., , 2018a;;Zeng et al., 2019).To verify the accuracy, reliability and validity of these multienvironment significant SNPs, the cloned locus Yr18 was selected as an example to demonstrate the a priori experiment of haplotype analysis and revalidation. At the proximal end of the short arm of chromosome 7D, there was a peak close to Yr18. A total of 26 polymorphisms were mapped to a candidate region from 47.379 to 47.711 Mb (332 kb) estimated using pairwise LD correlations (r 2 ≥ 0.6) (Figure 3a-c). Among these polymorphisms in the candidate region, only one polymorphism was classified as G1 (AX-94713206) and G3 (AX-111197303), respectively, no G2 polymorphisms were found, two polymorphisms (AX-89378255 and AX-109857040) were classified as G4, and the others were classified as G5. The G1 SNP AX-94713206 corresponded to a C to T change in the twelfth exon of the TraesCS7D01G080300 ORF, which caused a tyrosine to histidine replacement (Figure 3d; Table S7). TraesCS7D01G080300 encodes an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter G family protein that is identical to the resistance allele Yr18 res (Krattinger et al., 2009). Although the SNP AX-109857040 is located in an intron, it was significantly associated with resistance, which is consistent with previous studies (Krattinger et al., 2013). Due to the Yr18 res 3-bp deletion in the eleventh exon, the SNP AX-95209823 (C/G) could not distinguish this site accurately, and thus, it was not a significant MTA. It should be noted that there were two more significant MTAs outside the Yr18 coding region. The accessions carrying haplotype 1 (we herein refer to the haplotype corresponding to Yr18 res as '1' and the other as '2') showed more resistance than those carrying haplotype 2 (Figure 3e), which agreed with previous studies concerning the Yr18 locus. The discriminatory effectiveness of these SNPs was validated in the second independent diversity panel of 1045 wheat accessions, and they performed comparably to gene-specific SNPs (Figure 3e). In addition, a pair of near-isogenic lines (Hap1: +Yr18, Hap2: ÀYr18) in the Avocet S variety background showed different responses to stripe rust in the field (Figure 3f; Table S8). These results indicate that the candidate genes analysis method can identify trait-associated genes or DNA variants, and, furthermore, that combinations of significant MTAs can help to identify SNP based GWAS rapidly identifies trait-associated genes 181 favourable haplotype(s) and improve the efficiency of markerassisted selection in wheat breeding.Similarly, we analysed the highest peak on chromosome 2B, which was mapped close to YrSnb.1 identified in our QTL mapping. The YrSnb.1 region was previously shown to span an interval of 2.2 cM corresponding to <4 Mb (Zeng et al., 2019). In this GWAS panel, LD analysis within the YrSnb.1 region was initially from 707.418 Mb to 712.236 Mb (4.8 Mb) (Figure 4a). As an experimental control and to more accurately identify candidate regions, GWAS was performed on the independent validation panel, following which the above-mentioned candidate region was mapped from 707.668 to 708.346 Mb (612.9 kb) (Figure 4b). Association analysis was also performed in the 612.9 kb region using the set of 63 resequencing common wheat genotypes (Figure 5a; Table S9). There were 45 polymorphisms from the SNP array and over 700 polymorphic DNA variants from the resequencing data in this region, covering all 12 candidate high-confidence (HC) genes (Figure 5b; Table S7).Most of the polymorphisms with significant P-values surrounded three genes (TraesCS2B01G512900, TraesCS2B01G513000, and TraesCS2B01G513100). Further significant sequence variations were not identified the coding regions of TraesCS2B01G512900 and TraesCS2B01G513000 except TraesCS2B01G513100. Among these, three polymorphisms (AX-111730867, Rv-680, and AX-108806204) that were significantly associated with stripe rust responses (Àlog 10 P ≥ 4.85) were classified as G1, all of which were located within the gene TraesCS2B01G513100 (Figure 5e). These SNPs (AX-111730867, Rv-680, and AX-108806204) changed a G to an A, a C to a T, and a G to an A, causing glutamate to lysine, alanine to valine, and alanine to threonine substitutions, respectively (Table S7). In addition, two polymorphisms were classified as G2 (AX-110906149 and AX-109929582) and G3 (AX-95654572 and AX-110363517), whereas no G4 polymorphisms were observed and the others were classified as G5 (Figure 5e). The two G2 SNPs AX-110906149 and AX-109929582 were both located in the promoter region of TraesCS2B01G513000 and likely affect gene expression regulation (Figure 5d; Table S7). The G3 SNPs AX-95654572 and AX-110363517 were located in the 3 0 downstream regions of the genes TraesCS2B01G512900 and TraesCS2B01G513100, respectively (Figure 5c, e; Table S7). Interestingly, TraesCS2B01G513100, TraesCS2B01G513000, and TraesCS2B01G512900 all encode serine/threonine protein kinases (STPKs). The amino acid sequences of these STPKs were compared with those in other subgenomes. The allelic variations in different genomes are presented in Figure S8 and show that the STPK sequences in the B genome are obviously different from those in the A and D genomes.We subsequently analysed the expression levels of all 12 candidate genes using a qRT-PCR assay in wheat flag leaves at the adult-plant stage. We found that only the positive allele of TraesCS2B01G513100 in cultivar XZ9104 was up-regulated sixfold and fourteen-fold by Pst inoculation at 24 and 168 h compared with the negative allele in cultivar AvS (Figure 5h). No other genes were differentially expressed between AvS and XZ9104 at any time point (Figure 5f, g and Figure S9). RNA-seq data indicated that TraesCS2B01G513100 was expressed in flag leaves, spikes and awns, which is consistent with the stripe rust resistance observed at the adult-plant stage (Figure S10). In mutation analysis, eight mutant lines were selected: Kronos3186 and Kronos3312 with a premature stop codon in TraesCS2B01G512900 and TraesCS2B01G513000, respectively; and Kronos1064, Kronos2338, Kronos3557, Kronos3545, Kro-nos2969 and Kronos2619, which carry missense mutations in TraesCS2B01G513100. Following the assessment and comparison of these mutants' responses to stripe rust, only Kronos1064 and Kronos2338 exhibited greater susceptibility than wild type (Figure 5i, j; Table S10). These results indicate that TraesCS2B01G513100 is the most likely candidate gene involved in stripe rust resistance.To identify more genetic variations, TraesCS2B01G513100 was resequenced in 64 accessions with opposite extreme phenotypes and six NILs derived from the HIFs (Table S8). The sequenced region harboured a 3130-bp genomic DNA fragment corresponding to the full-length TraesCS2B01G513100 locus, including its exons, introns and part of primer region and UTRs. In total, 18 SNPs and two insertion/deletions (indels) were identified (Figure 5e and Table S11). An MLM-based association analysis was performed between all SNPs/indels and the previously assigned stripe rust responses for each accession. One new, non-synonymous SNP identified (Rv-686) in the TraesCS2B01G513100 coding region was highly associated with YR (P < 7.69E-07) (Figure 5e; Table S11).Based on the LD distance of 612.9 kb, the candidate region was divided into five blocks, which formed four haplotypes (herein referred to as Hap-1-4). Coupled with the estimation of candidate gene analysis, Hap-1, Hap-2, Hap-3 and Hap-4 had frequencies of 44.88%, 16.34%, 14.63% and 30.97%, respectively, within the GWAS panel (Figure 5k). Estimation of the contribution of each haplotype towards phenotype variation revealed that Hap-1 and Hap-2 had the greatest effect on disease   S12). In addition, the other HIFs from the ZM9023/Snb \"S\" cross were classified into two major groups using the above-mentioned PCR markers that distinguish different haplotypes, and the responses of these two groups to stripe rust in the field were assessed (Figure 5j, l). The HIFs carrying the 'TGCGGT' haplotype displayed greater stripe rust resistance, indicating the efficiency of markerassisted selection in wheat resistance breeding. Moreover, TraesCS2B01G513100 is a promising target for further functional validation using reverse genetics approaches such as virusinduced gene silencing, overexpression or transgenic analyses.Multi-processing environments facilitate the excavation of robust resistance Many previous studies have shown that multiple loci are involved in complex quantitative resistance (St. Clair, 2010). Wheat stripe rust responses and the resulting phenotypes in the field are consistently affected by host resistance levels, pathogen population structure and weather conditions (Chen and Kang, 2017). Therefore, the ability of resistance-associated loci to provide protection against disease is dependent on the coevolution between the host and the Pst population in the field. Effective disease resistance also depends on the application of resistanceassociated loci in integrated disease control practices (Nelson et al., 2018). Dissecting the stability of resistance by combining multi-processing environments with MTAs can provide insights into the long-term durability of resistance-associated loci. From this perspective, the loci characterized as imparting environmentdependent resistance would not be suitable for future markerassisted breeding due to the considerable risk of disease (Bazakos et al., 2017). In our study, a diversity panel of wheat accessions was evaluated for stripe rust responses across multiple environments. In order to eliminate environmental interference as much as possible, we also used a linear mixed model to estimate the BLUPs. As strict control measures within the experiment to identify stable loci, only 33.8% (292) of the resistance-associated loci in this GWAS panel were retained, and some of them were co-localized at several previously reported Yr genes/QTL regions. As extensively reported in past studies, Yr18, Yr29, Yr30 and Yr78 have been widely used in wheat resistance breeding worldwide due to their durability (Rajpal et al., 2016). It is worth noting that these known Yr genes/QTL were not the most significant loci characterized in this study, despite the fact that they were detected in almost all environments. The MTAs of major effect were located on chromosome 2BL in the proximity of YrSnb.1 identified in our QTL mapping. This novel QTL explained the largest phenotypic variation and warranted further investigation.A common fault of GWAS is the generation of false-positive associations due to population structure. In this study, an integrated method involving PCA, structure (Q) and a kinship matrix (K) was used to perform population structure adjustment and correction, thereby minimizing the false positive rate (Yu et al., 2006). Meanwhile, another independent diversity panel comprising a natural population was also analysed to validate the MTA results. The extent of LD is determined by the nature of different species and population structure, but it is not invariable. There are differences in LD decay among different segments of the same chromosome, with segments located close to the chromosome telomeres exhibiting lower LD decay than those close to the centromere. This variation in LD decay is highly correlated with the recombination ability of chromosomal segments (Bazakos et al., 2017). Therefore, LD decay impacts the positioning of candidate resistance-associated regions, depending on whether the significant marker is near the telomeres or the centromere. In this GWAS panel, LD varied across chromosomes and subgenomes, and LD decay ranged from 0.62 Mb to 7.45 Mb. The LD decay of the QTL on chromosome 7DS (Yr18) was 332 kb (r 2 = 0.6), as this region was distant from the centromere. A favourable haplotype carrying gene variants improves the efficiency of marker-assisted selection in breeding. The LD decay of the major QTL on chromosome 2BL (YrSnb.1) was 4.8 Mb, despite the fact that this region was located at the end of the chromosome. Interestingly, the diversity of SNPs and the pattern of LD in this region was different in the validation diversity panel, and independent validation enabled the candidate region to be narrowed down to 612.9 kb (r 2 = 0.8). This method greatly reduced the computing workload for haplotype analysis. A similar result reported recently detailed how an initial extensive 25-Mb candidate region on chromosome 3D was ultimately narrowed down to a 1-Mb region using a validation population (Liu et al., 2019). Here, analysis of different haplotypes and phenotypes of over 1500 wheat accessions, including those from a natural population as well as breeding lines, facilitated identification of favourable allele core sequences. Furthermore, the correlating SNPs were developed into practical PCR markers that can be used to improve the efficiency of marker-assisted selection in wheat stripe rust resistance breeding.The large extent of LD in wheat makes it difficult to analyse candidate resistance genes. The high-resolution SNPs identified using the 660K SNP array covered 57,833 high-confidence genes (53.6% of all genes) and provided insights into the functional causal variant(s) underlying stripe rust resistance. The method of estimating the functional importance of each nucleotide polymorphism serves to predict candidate genes (Yano et al., 2016). First, we identified significant SNPs using GWAS and analysed the LD of the candidate regions containing significant SNPs in different diversity panels. Then, we extracted information for the candidate genes, including the function of polymorphisms, which were validated by their relationships with stripe rust resistance. With this approach, as expected, we delimited the cloned candidate gene Yr18 to within 332 kb and successfully identified Yr18 as a resistance-associated gene. We similarly analysed a QTL-based candidate region on 2BL and found several functional associations within the coding and promoter regions of causal genes. The candidate genes TraesCS2B01G512900, TraesCS2B01G513000 and TraesCS2B01G513100 all encoded STPKs, and their amino acid sequences were quite different from that of their respective homologs in the A and D genomes. STPK is known to play a role in plant defence. For instance, STPK-V, a member of the STPK family in Haynaldia villosa, enhances powdery mildew resistance by decreasing the haustorium index ª 2020 The Authors. Plant Biotechnology Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and The Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 19,[177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185][186][187][188][189][190][191] dramatically and mediating H 2 O 2 accumulation (Cao et al., 2011). Although our gene expression and mutation analysis indicated that TraesCS2B01G513100 was the most likely candidate resistance gene, TraesCS2B01G512900 and TraesCS2B01G513000 should not be disregarded. Resistance genes are generally grouped in clusters in plants, and some may play simultaneous central roles in resistance (Kourelis and van der Hoorn, 2018;Zhao et al., 2016). Therefore, the characterization of these genes using molecular biology methods may reveal further molecular mechanisms of stripe rust resistance in wheat.This study demonstrates the feasibility of predicting causal resistance genes using high-resolution SNP-based GWAS in common wheat. In previous studies, allelic variants of Ppd-D1 (chromosome 2D) and Rht-D1 (chromosome 4D) loci, which were shown to affect plant growth traits during the stem elongation phase, were precisely identified by wheat 90K SNP array-based GWAS (Guo et al., 2018). Coincidentally, the SNP AX-109665328 was found to associate with Rht-D1 and several candidate genes involved in abiotic stress tolerance, such as those encoding WRKY transcription factors, which were co-localized in a candidate region identified through wheat 660K SNP array-based GWAS (Li et al., 2019). The most effective use of wheat 90K SNP-based GWAS was in the identification of the flour-colour gene TaRPP13L1 gene that was successfully identified from a 20-kb candidate region and verified by the functional SNP Excal-ibur_c5938_1703 (Chen et al., 2019). It should be noted that each of the above-mentioned traits is controlled by conserved genes. However, there are abundant variations in resistance traits, including their presence/absence in different genomes (Arora et al., 2019). From this point of view, the candidate genes considered in this study were restricted to those annotated in the Chinese Spring reference genome, and thus, other resistance genes absent in the reference genome cannot be ruled out. In addition, an inevitable limitation of SNP array-based GWAS is that single candidate gene association analysis cannot be performed due to insufficient suitable DNA variants within the gene region. Deep next-generation sequencing approaches, such as Pangenome and 10 9 genomics, or whole-genome resequencing of a diversity panel, can overcome this disadvantage. Nevertheless, the haplotype and candidate gene analyses reported here reveal promising alleles that function in stripe rust resistance and provide potential targets for further functional analysis and inclusion in future wheat resistance breeding.The association mapping panel used in this study comprised 411 breeding lines from CIMMYT and ICARDA (Table S1). An independent diversity panel of 1045 wheat accessions from a global collection, a set of 63 common wheat resequencing genotypes (Table S1), and a bi-parent genetic population from a cross of Zhengmai 9023 (ZM9023) 9 Sunbird 'S' (Snb 'S') were used for validation of the significant MTAs. The wheat lines Avocet S (AvS), Mingxian 169 (MX169) and Xiaoyan 22 (XY22) were used as the susceptible controls.Evaluations of seedling resistance to stripe rust were conducted under controlled greenhouse conditions. The tested Pst races contained pre-V26 prevalent races, such as CYR32 and CYR33, and post-V26 groups collected from different origins, such as V26/Laboratory (V26/Lab), V26/Sichuan (V26/SC), V26/Shaanxi (V26/SX) and V26/Gansu (CYR34). The avirulence/virulence characteristics of the races were reported by Wu et al. (2020). Details of inoculation and disease evaluation were described previously (Wu et al., 2018b). Wheat accessions AvS and Xingzi 9104 (XZ9104) and Pst race V26/Lab were used for gene expression analysis in this study. Xingzi 9104, carrying YrSnb.1, displays resistance at the adult-plant stage. Flag leaves inoculated with V26/Lab or sterile distilled water (control) at the adult-plant stage were harvested at 0, 24, 36, 48, 72, 96, 144 and 168 h post-inoculation (hpi). Time points were selected based on a previous study (Zhang et al., 2012).Adult-plant resistance (APR) evaluations were carried out at Yangling in Shaanxi province (over-wintering region), Tianshui in Gansu province (over-summering region) and Jiangyou in Sichuan province (over-wintering region) during three cropping seasons (2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019). Detailed methods of plant growth, management and evaluation have been published previously (Mu et al., 2019).For each environment, the arithmetic mean of phenotypic observations was used as the phenotypic data. Genotype (411 cultivars and breeding lines) and environment (three years in three locations) were treated as random effects in a linear mixed model to estimate the best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) using the lme4 package in the R 3.5.3 program (Bates et al., 2014). For each trait, each single environment phenotypic data set and BLUP data set were used for analysis of variance (ANOVA). Since there was no replication in this study, it was not possible to estimate the genotype by environment interaction. The broad-sense heritability (H 2 ) estimates for IT and DS were calculated across nine test environments using the lme4 package with the formula H 2 = V G / (V G + V E ), where V G and V E represent the genotypic and environmental variances, respectively. Pearson's correlation coefficients (r) of pairwise environments were computed using the Hmisc package to determine the consistency of stripe rust responses a different environments.Wheat leaf samples including 411 breeding lines and 1045 accessions were collected, and DNA was extracted using an extraction kit (Invitrogen TM , Thermo Fisher, Waltham, USA) following the manufacturer's instructions. Genotyping was performed using the wheat 660K genotyping assay by Beijing CapitalBio Technology Company (http://www.capitalbiotech.c om). SNP genotype calling and allele clustering were processed with the polyploid version of Affymetrix Genotyping Console TM (GTC) software. To ensure the quality pretreatment of genotyping data, SNP markers with minor allele frequencies (MAF) < 0.05, missing data >10%, or Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) > 0.01 were excluded from further analysis. The most up-to-date physical positions of the SNPs were obtained from the Triticeae Multi-omics Center website (http://202.194.139.32/). Polymorphism information content (PIC) and expected heterozygosity (He), representing two genetic diversity parameters, were calculated using a self-written programme in Perl. PIC and He values were calculated for each SNP marker and each chromosome based on the formulas described in Botstein et al. (1980) and Nei (1978), respectively.Population structure was assessed using STRUCTURE software v2.3.4 with unlinked markers (r 2 = 0). The model was applied without the use of prior population information, and the most ª 2020 The Authors. Plant Biotechnology Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and The Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 19, 177-191 likely number of subpopulations was determined using a previously described method (Earl and VonHoldt, 2012). Principal components analysis (PCA) of the population was performed using the software GCTA (Yang et al., 2011). The p-distance was used to construct NJ phylogenetic trees with 1000 bootstrap replicates using the software MEGA-CC (Kumar et al., 2012). The identity-by-state (IBS) relative K-matrix was calculated between pairs of accessions using PLINK (Purcell et al., 2007). Heat maps of kinship were generated on the basis of the K-matrix using the pheatmap v1.0.8 R package. Genome-wide linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis for the A, B, and D genomes was performed using the software PLINK. LD estimation and LD decay analysis were performed as described in Yu et al. (2020). A locally weighted polynomial regression (LOESS) curve was drawn to fit the data using second-degree locally weighted scatter plot smoothing in the R program. The confidence interval of quantitative trait loci (QTL) was defined based on the intersection of the fitted LOESS curve with LD r 2 = 0.1.GWAS was conducted using a univariate linear mixed model with GEMMA software (Zhou and Stephens, 2012). The P-value threshold was calculated using a modified Bonferroni correction (Genetic type 1 Error Calculator, version 0.2) with a suggested threshold of P = 1/Ne (Ne = effective SNP number) (Li et al., 2012). Our results showed that the suggested P-value thresholds ranged from 1.36 9 10 À4 to 9.90 9 10 À4 for each chromosome (Table 1), and thus, we considered the mean value 3.23 9 10 À4 as the criterion for genome-wide significance in this study. Significant markers from the GWAS result were visualized using a Manhattan plot, and important P-value distributions were visualized by a quantile-quantile plot (Q-Q plot), both drawn by the qqman package in R 3.0.3 (http://www.r-project.org/). The phenotypic variance explained (R 2 ) by significant SNPs was evaluated using GCTA software.To date, more than 150 permanently or temporarily designated Yr genes and over 300 QTL have been described across 21 wheat chromosomes, and most of these are listed in the Catalogue of Gene Symbols for Wheat or summarized in integrated genetic maps (Chen and Kang, 2017). To determine the relationships between significant loci identified in the GWAS and previously reported Yr genes/QTL, we compared the physical locations of these loci based on the Chinese Spring reference genome coupled with integrated genetic maps (Cui et al., 2017;Maccaferri et al., 2015). For previously reported stripe rust resistance genes/QTL, the closest flanking markers were used to generate the confidence intervals reported. Whether the loci identified in the GWAS were novel depended on the interval of the haplotype block.To validate the stability and accuracy of significant SNPs located within major QTL regions identified in the first diversity panel, the associated SNPs were retested in the extended independent validation panel and in a bi-parental genetic population. The second panel was phenotyped across multiple environments in field trials and also genotyped with the wheat 660K SNP array. Univariate ANOVA was used to analyse MTAs in the R package.The local LD patterns were visualized on the basis of the LD squared-allele frequency correlation (r 2 ) estimates between markers using the software HAPLOVIEW. Haplotype blocks were identified based on LD, and the effect of each haplotype allele was calculated using the lmer function in R software. In addition, 63 common wheat accessions with resequencing data were also used for association analysis in the candidate region to validate causal genes (Cheng et al., 2019).Association analysis of the STPK gene (TraesCS2B01G513100) was conducted on 64 representative wheat accessions and six near-isogenic lines (NILs) derived from the heterozygous inbred families (HIFs) from a ZM9023 9 Snb \"S\" cross. The STPK gene coding regions (including introns) were amplified and sequenced. These sequences were assembled using DNAMAN and aligned using AliView (Larsson, 2014). Nucleotide polymorphisms, including SNPs and indels, were identified (MAF ≥ 0.05) among these genotypes, and their association with the YR responses and pairwise LD were calculated with the software PLINK.High-confidence genes located within the LD block around significant SNPs were used for candidate gene analysis based on IWGSC RefSeq v1.0 with gene annotations (IWGSC, 2018). Based on the estimated functional importance of each nucleotide polymorphism as described by Yano et al. (2016), all the polymorphisms in the candidate region were classified into five groups, referred to as G1-5. G1 contained significant MTAs in the GWAS (Àlog 10 P ≥ the threshold value in this chromosome) that putatively caused amino acid conversion. G2 harboured significant MTAs in the 5 0 flanking sequences (≤2 kb from the first ATG), which were considered to be promoter regions. G3 included significant MTAs within introns or 3 0 non-coding sequences. G4 contained significant MTAs outside coding regions, and G5 contained polymorphisms but not significant MTAs.Expression data (transcripts per million, TPM) for the potential causal genes from previously mapped RNA-seq samples were downloaded from the Triticeae Multi-omics Center website (http://202.194.139.32/) (Ram ırez-Gonz alez et al., 2018). Total RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis from AvS and XZ9104 samples were performed following Liu et al. (2019). Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) primer sequences for the twelve candidate genes in the 612.9 kb region are provided in Table S12. Wheat TaActin (AB181991.1) was used as an internal reference for normalization, and transcript abundance estimates were based on three technical replicates each of three biological replicates per each genotype.In addition, the function of candidate genes was also verified in a durum wheat mutant pool. The mutants induced by ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) from durum wheat cultivar Kronos have been sequenced using exome capture sequencing and contribute to the analysis of gene variations corresponding to phenotype (Henry et al., 2014). The lines Kronos1064, Kronos2338, Kronos3557, Kronos3545, Kronos2969, Kronos2619, Kro-nos3312 and Kronos3186 were kindly provided by Drs. Jiajie Table S1 Information and stripe rust responses for the 411 spring wheat lines included in this genome-wide association study diversity panel, the 1045 accessions in the validation set, and the 63 resequenced samples. Table S2 Information on 36,324 polymorphic haplotypes (represented by SNP probes) derived from the 660K SNP array. Table S3 Functional location and type of substitution (synonymous and non-synonymous) within the coding sequence for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) present in the diversity panel of spring wheat lines. Table S4 Summary of the genetic diversity in the subgenomes and chromosomes of the 1045 included wheat accessions. Table S5 Estimates of variance components and heritability of phenotypic responses (infection type, IT; and disease severity, DS) to Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) under multiple environments in the 411 spring wheat accessions included in this study.Table S6 Significant SNP-trait associations. Table S7 Analysis of the estimated functional importance of each nucleotide polymorphism in candidate regions on chromosome 7D and 2B. Table S8 The genotype information of heterozygous inbred families (HIFs) from Zhengmai 9023 (ZM9023)/Sunbird 'S' (Snb 'S') on chromosome 2B and near-isogenic lines (AEYr18) in Avocet S background on chromosome 7D. Table S9 DNA variations derived from resequencing data in the candidate genomic region (612.9 kb) of YrSnb.1-2BL. Table S10 Information on Kronos mutants. Table S11 Variations in the TraesCS2B01G513100 genomic region using PCR-based sequencing. Table S12 The molecular markers or primers used in this study. ","tokenCount":"7053"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ceaafa8aaae7c2798392c2d8c0cd80e6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1d82bb0d-bfbe-4513-855e-cb51e4db056a/retrieve","id":"-1742151497"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"00dacff8-ac60-4b25-9b62-14d89835692f","pagecount":"10","content":"The feed assessment tool (FEAST) was used to characterize the feed-related aspects of the livestock system in Kibanjwa village, Budaka parish, Kitoba sub-county, Hoima district. It is located about 14 km northwest of Hoima town along the Hoima-Kaiso road.The assessment was carried out through a focus group discussion (FGD) with 13 farmers (four female, nine male) and then a total of 18 farmers were selected at random from the list of all pig farmers and interviewed individually. The exercise was carried out from January to February 2015. The following are the findings of the assessment for further planning and action.The farming system in Kibanjwa village is typically subsistence mixed cropping and livestock. Farmland holdings are broadly grouped into small (<0.4 ha), medium (0.4-0.8 ha) and large (>0.8 ha). More than 80% of the households have small farm holdings (Figure 1). The average household size is about eight members who live in the home permanently.Land ownership in Kibanjwa is divided into two categories:• Family land: people live on their parents' land and the parents share their land among the children. Under this ownership people own small pieces of land, typically 0.4-1 ha.• Bought land: some farmers have bought land from others and have established their homesteads and farms without land titles. About 80% of households can access irrigation, used for cabbage, tomato and passion fruit. The major crops grown in the village include cassava, groundnut and rice (Figure 2). Other crops include common bean, sweet potato, maize, finger millet, cowpea, pigeonpea, green pepper and banana. Groundnut, common bean, rice and maize are cash crops grown for sale. The largest areas of land are allocated for cassava (0.11 ha), groundnut (0.09 ha) and rice (0.08 ha). Groundnut and sweet potato are the most common food crops grown. Cassava is sold in raw form (sack or heaps), as a field crop before harvesting, or as a dry product either sliced or as cassava flour. It is highly regarded as a food security crop and its yield per hectare is double that of sweet potato. The area is dominated by naturally occurring pasture and livestock entirely depend on it for grazing.Concentrates are given as a supplement during dry seasons when forage is scarce.Households raise a variety of livestock including cattle, pigs and goats, for various purposes (Figure 3). Cattle are kept mainly for milk for the household, milk as a source of cash income or for sale as live animals. Both local and improved dairy cows are kept, with the majority raising improved breeds. About 80% of farmers in the village keep an average of two pigs per household. Ninety-five  Kibanjwa village experiences two cropping seasons and two dry spells in the year (Table 1). The longest rainy season is from July to November and the short rains are between March and May. Planting of crops is usually done during the rainy season and harvesting takes place during the dry season. The longest dry spell occurs in December-February. The second dry season only lasts one month (June). Water is not a constraint in the area as 80% of farmers can access water from shallow wells and spring wells. Small scale irrigation is practiced using watering jugs and watering cans. Irrigated crops include tomato, cabbage and passion fruit. Most households earn their living from small businesses, agriculture, livestock and remittances from friends and relatives (Figure 4). Businesses, including retail shops, bars, selling pancakes and roasting A variety of feedstuff is available, including concentrates, crop residues, kitchen waste, jack fruit and grazing. Figure 5 shows the availability of feed resources and rainfall over an average year. Rainfall was estimated by farmers on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is abundant and 1 is very scarce. Similarly feed availability was estimated by farmers on a scale of 10-100 where 100 corresponds to abundant feed available and 10 denotes very little feed. Availability of feeds varies depending on the season, with plenty of feeds during the rainy seasons and scarcity during the dry season. Concentrates and kitchen leftovers are fed to livestock during the dry season. Rice bran is usually readily available during November to February, with reductions observed in March to October. The fluctuation is due to harvests done from November to January and selling of seeds from November to March. Traders who buy and store maize and rice bran inflate the cost. Green forage is always available in the rainy seasons and reduced in dry seasons. Pig farmers in the area buy rice bran, maize bran and fish meal (Figure 6). The most purchased feeds are rice bran (78%) and maize bran (19%). Rice bran is the most purchased feed because of its low price and availability and forms the biggest part of the animals' diet (especially during the dry season). When stocks are depleted, farmers resort to buying from the feed stockists or processing plants within or outside the village. The diet of livestock in the village is composed of a variety of feeds which include grazing, cultivated fodder, purchased feeds including maize bran, rice bran, fishmeal, and crop residues. The largest dry matter (DM) contribution comes from grazing (44%), followed by purchased feeds (37%). Crop residues contributed the least DM (Figure 7). In terms of metabolisable energy content (Figure 8), the largest contribution to the pig diet is derived from purchased feeds (44%) and grazing (40%). The above feed types also vary in terms of their contribution to protein (CP) supply (Figure 9). Purchased feeds provided the largest CP supply (56%), followed by grazing and crop residues. The FGD included a detailed analysis of the challenges that the smallholder pig farmers face in Kibanjwa village. According to the farmers, the three major constraints to pig production are lack of feeds, attributed to the high cost of purchasing feeds, followed by meagre capital and poor veterinary services ( To overcome the challenge of feeds there is a need to grow crops like rice and maize that provide animal feeds. Supporting local feed formulations using locally available feed stocks will solve the quality problem. There is also a need to grow fodder crops like lablab so that pig farmers do not depend on expensive concentrates. To avoid wastage of feeds it is necessary to preserve forage. Furthermore, it is essential to encourage farmers to start saving and work with credit organizations so they can invest in pig production. Farmers should liaise with their local governments to access service providers within their local community.Farmers need to be trained on how to construct pig houses using locally available materials like timber and poles. Farmers should also form groups and contribute either finance or labour to fellow group members to construct good shelters for pigs.The farming in Kibanjwa village is a subsistence mixed cropping and livestock system. More than 80% of households have small farm holdings of less than 0.4 ha. Households in the village depend more on small businesses than any other income activity, as the village has access to good transport. About 80% of households can access irrigation for cabbage, tomato and passion fruit. The major crops grown in the village include cassava, groundnut and rice. About 80% of farmers in the village keep an average of two pigs per household. Smallholder pig farmers are challenged by insufficient farm-produced feeds and high market costs of concentrates. There is a need to promote the growing of fodder crops specifically for livestock and to preserve excess feeds. Farmers should be encouraged to start saving and work with credit organizations in order to invest in pig production. Farmers should liaise with their local governments to access service providers within their local community.","tokenCount":"1272"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b368e1120e6bfc17631dbd4a9bdcd55f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d85b644a-793c-40f5-b41d-7404f238efb1/retrieve","id":"1636280317"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5e52f3f0-75f7-40aa-9162-18bafe94f4a3","pagecount":"37","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Figura 1. Encuestas realizadas por departamento. ...................................................................................... Figura 2. Percepción de la afectación a nivel nacional por tipo de agricultor. ............................................. Figura 3. Percepción de la afectación en actividades agrícolas a nivel departamental para los distintos tipos de agricultor. ...................................................................................................................................... Figura 4. Percepción de la afectación en los precios de los insumos (promedio nacional por tipo de productor). . ................................................................................................................................................. Figura 5. Percepción de la afectación en los precios de los insumos a nivel departamental para los distintos tipos de agricultor. ....................................................................................................................... Figura 6. Percepción de la afectación en los precios de venta de los productos agropecuarios (promedio nacional por tipo de productor). ................................................................................................................. Figura 7. Percepción de la afectación en los precios de venta de los productos agropecuarios a nivel departamental para los distintos tipos de agricultor. ................................................................................ Figura 8. Percepción de la afectación en el acceso a semillas de maíz por tipo de agricultor. ................... Figura 9. Percepción de la afectación en el acceso a semillas de frijol por tipo de agricultor. ................... Figura 10. Percepción de la afectación en el acceso a insumos para el cultivo de café por tipo de agricultor. .................................................................................................................................................... Figura 11. Percepción de la afectación en el acceso a mano de obra para diversos cultivos por tipo de agricultor. .................................................................................................................................................... Figura 12. Percepción de la afectación en el acceso a mano de obra para ganadería bovina. .................. Figura 13. Percepción de la afectación en el acceso a insumos para actividades pecuarias. ..................... Figura 14. Percepción en el porcentaje de productores que han tenido dificultades para garantizar su seguridad alimentaria a nivel nacional. ...................................................................................................... Figura 15. Percepción de los departamentos en donde más del 50% de los productores tuvieron inseguridad alimentaria. ............................................................................................................................. Figura 16. Percepción en cuanto al porcentaje de productores que han reducido su área de producción. Figura 17. Percepción de los departamentos en donde más del 50% de los productores han reducido su área de producción. .................................................................................................................................... Figura 18. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores de infra-subsistencia bajo condiciones climáticas normales hasta el 2023. ......................................................................................... Figura 19. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores de subsistencia bajo condiciones climáticas normales hasta el 2023. ............................................................................................................. Figura 20. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores excedentarios bajo condiciones climáticas normales hasta el 2023. ............................................................................................................. Figura 21. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores de infra-subsistencia bajo un escenario de ocurrencia de algún evento climático extremo durante el 2021. .......................................... Figura 22. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores de subsistencia bajo un escenario de ocurrencia de algún evento climático extremo durante el 2021. .......................................... Figura 23. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores excedentarios bajo un escenario de ocurrencia de algún evento climático extremo durante el 2021. .......................................................... Figura 24. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores de infra-subsistencia bajo un escenario de ocurrencia de eventos climáticos extremos durante el 2021 y el 2022. ................................ Figura 25. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores de subsistencia bajo un escenario de ocurrencia de eventos climáticos extremos durante el 2021 y el 2022. ................................ Figura 26. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores excedentarios bajo un escenario de ocurrencia de eventos climáticos extremos durante el 2021 y el 2022. ................................................ Figura 27. Asistencias para la recuperación de los agricultores. ................................................................ Figura 28. Medios de comunicación relevantes para compartir información a los agricultores. ...............En la actualidad el mundo está atravesando una de las crisis sanitarias más importantes de la historia, al tener que enfrentarse a la pandemia de la enfermedad COVID -19, que ha afectado a la gran mayoría de países del mundo. América Latina, no ha sido ajena a estas afectaciones y en la actualidad es considerada una de las regiones más impactadas, según cifras de diversas fuentes (ONU, 2020;CEPAL, 2020;FAO y CEPAL, 2020). En Guatemala, a finales de diciembre de 2020, se registraron en el país alrededor de 136,805 casos positivos acumulados y 5,764 muertes, según cifras del Ministerio de Salud Pública y Asistencia Social (2020).Como respuesta temprana de contención y control de la enfermedad COVID -19, el gobierno nacional de Guatemala tomó algunas medidas entre marzo y abril del 2020, que incluyeron el cierre de fronteras, restricciones de movilidad y suspensión de actividades del sector público y privado. Dichas restricciones afectaron directamente a la mayoría de la población y generaron incertidumbre entre diversos sectores de la economía, incluyendo al sector agropecuario, el cual estaba cercano a iniciar las siembras de secano de mayo, época en la que en gran parte del país inicia la temporada de lluvias.Las restricciones mencionadas se extendieron durante varias semanas a nivel nacional y posteriormente, de forma diferenciada en distintas localidades del país. En el sector agropecuario se vieron afectados los ciclos de cultivo de primera y de postrera, ya que las restricciones coincidieron al menos en algún momento del año con alguno de estos periodos importantes para la producción agrícola del país, impactando la producción de alimentos generada a lo largo del año 2020. Lo anterior despertó una gran incertidumbre entre los diversos actores del sector, especialmente al identificar que los impactos habían afectado a varios sistemas de producción y a diferentes tipos de productores, a lo que se suman otros retos que usualmente enfrentan en el ámbito productivo (ej. reducciones en los rendimientos producto de las variaciones en el clima), ocasionando pérdidas económicas importantes de las que tardan mucho tiempo en recuperarse.Por lo anterior, la Unidad de Cambio Climático del Ministerio de Agricultura Ganadería y Alimentación de Guatemala (MAGA) y el Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS, por sus siglas en ingles), diseñaron conjuntamente un instrumento con el propósito de conocer los impactos del aislamiento preventivo en la producción agropecuaria nacional a partir de la percepción de los extensionistas del MAGA.El instrumento usado consta de una encuesta de 30 preguntas dirigida a los técnicos extensionistas del MAGA de diversos departamentos y municipios del país. El objetivo de dicha encuesta fue recopilar información sobre los impactos del aislamiento preventivo decretado por el gobierno nacional, a partir de la percepción de los técnicos extensionistas en sistemas productivos de seguridad alimentaria y de importancia económica para tres tipos de agricultores: Infra-subsistencia 1 Subsistencia 2 y Excedentarios 3 . Con base en la información recolectada fue posible estimar qué tanto podrían afectarse estos agricultores si en el mediano plazo sufrieran algún tipo de impacto climático sobre sus sistemas productivos. En total, se realizaron 213 encuestas durante el mes de octubre de 2020, las cuales se hicieron de manera remota a través de la herramienta \"Formularios\" de Google. La encuesta fue respondida por técnicos extensionistas de 9 departamentos (Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, El Progreso, Guatemala, Huehuetenango, Jalapa, Petén, Quetzaltenango y Zacapa), representando distintos sistemas agropecuarios y zonas agroecológicas del país (Figura 1).Figura 1. Encuestas realizadas por departamento.Impactos del aislamiento por COVID -19 sobre los productores rurales en diferentes regiones de Guatemala Los resultados de la encuesta evidencian diferencias importantes entre los departamentos. En esta sección se describen los hallazgos con mayores contrastes entre departamentos y/o tipos de agricultores para los distintos temas abordados en la encuesta. Los resultados corresponden a la percepción de los extensionistas del MAGA en relación a los diferentes impactos generados Afectación en las diversas fases productivas del sector agrícola A nivel nacional, los encuestados manifestaron que los agricultores de infra subsistencia y los agricultores de subsistencia principalmente tuvieron dificultades para comprar insumos agropecuarios antes y durante la siembra (entre 16% y 19% en cada caso), como consecuencia del aislamiento preventivo (Figura 2). En cuanto a los agricultores de infra subsistencia, el 17 % de los extensionistas manifestó que hubo afectaciones en el manejo del cultivo. El 15% de ellos también manifestó que los agricultores de subsistencia tuvieron dificultades con el transporte. En referencia a los agricultores excedentarios, el 7 % de los encuestados manifestaron que hubo afectaciones en el manejo del cultivo, 19% en el transporte de los productos de la cosecha, 18% en la venta de los productos y 16% en la compra de insumos previo a la siembra.Figura 2. Percepción de la afectación a nivel nacional por tipo de agricultor.A nivel departamental, en Alta Verapaz el 83% de los extensionistas manifestó que los agricultores de infra subsistencia se vieron afectados tanto en el transporte, como en la venta de los productos cosechados (Figura 3A). El 67% consideró que los agricultores de subsistencia se vieron afectados en la compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario, el transporte y la venta de productos cosechados (Figura 3B). En el caso de los agricultores excedentarios, el 50% de los extensionistas determinaron que estos tuvieron dificultad para la compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo (Figura 3C).En el caso de Baja Verapaz, el 67% de los encuestados manifestó que los agricultores de infra subsistencia tuvieron afectaciones en la compra de insumos previo a la siembra (Figura 3A). El 50% expresó que los agricultores de subsistencia se vieron afectados en las compras de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario y la venta de productos cosechados (Figura 3B). El 58% de los extensionistas manifestó que los agricultores excedentarios fueron afectados en la compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario (Figura 3C).En el departamento de El progreso, la mayoría de los extensionistas (73%) determinaron que los agricultores de infra subsistencia tuvieron afectaciones para comprar insumos antes de la siembra y durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario, en el manejo del cultivo y en la cosecha (Figura 3A). En cuanto a los agricultores de subsistencia, el 53% de los extensionistas manifestaron que fueron afectados en la preparación de terreno, siembra y compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario (Figura 3B). Finalmente, el 20% de los extensionistas determinaron que los agricultores excedentarios fueron principalmente afectados en la compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario, en el transporte y en la venta de productos cosechados (Figura 3C).En el caso de los extensionistas del departamento de Guatemala, el 30% de ellos identificaron que los agricultores de infra subsistencia fueron afectados principalmente en la compra de insumos previo a la siembra y durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario, así como en la cosecha (Figura 3A). El 50% también manifestó, que los agricultores de subsistencia fueron afectados principalmente en la compra de insumos previo a la siembra (Figura 3B). Finalmente, el 30% de los extensionistas determinó que los agricultores excedentarios se vieron afectados en cuanto a la compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario y la venta de productos cosechados (Figura 3C).En Huehuetenango, las principales afectaciones de los agricultores de infra subsistencia se dieron en el manejo del cultivo y la venta de productos cosechados según lo manifestado por el 67% de los extensionistas (Figura 3A). Por su parte, el 67% de los encuestados determinó que los agricultores de subsistencia tuvieron afectaciones principalmente en la compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario (Figura 3B). Finalmente, con respecto a los agricultores excedentarios, el 33% de los extensionistas afirmaron que tuvieron afectaciones en el transporte (Figura 3C).Por su parte, el 59% de los encuestados en Jalapa identificaron que los agricultores de infra subsistencia enfrentaron principalmente afectaciones en el manejo del cultivo (Figura 3A). El 62% de los encuestados manifestaron que los agricultores de subsistencia fueron afectados principalmente en la compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario (Figura 3B). Finalmente, con respecto a los agricultores excedentarios, el 42% de los extensionistas determinaron que el transporte fue el factor más afectado (Figura 3C).En el Petén, el 57% de los extensionistas manifestó que los agricultores de infra subsistencia tuvieron afectaciones en cuanto a la compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario (Figura 3A). También, el 65% manifestó que los agricultores de subsistencia se vieron principalmente afectados en la compra de insumos previo a la siembra (Figura 3B) y el 33% afirmó que los agricultores excedentarios tuvieron especialmente afectaciones en cuanto al transporte (Figura 3C).En Quetzaltenango, el 56% de los extensionistas manifestó que el manejo de cultivo fue lo más afectado para los agricultores de infra subsistencia (Figura 3A). De igual forma, el 71% de los encuestados determinó que la compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario fue lo que más afectó a los agricultores de subsistencia (Figura 3B). El 49% de los extensionistas manifestó que la compra de insumos durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario y el transporte, fueron lo más afectado en el caso de los agricultores excedentarios (Figura 3C).Por último, el 65% de los extensionistas en Zacapa manifestaron que los agricultores de infra subsistencia se vieron afectados especialmente en la compra de insumos previo a la siembra y durante el ciclo productivo agropecuario, así como en el manejo del cultivo y la cosecha (Figura 3A). De igual forma, la mayoría de extensionistas (59%) determinaron que los agricultores de subsistencia en gran media fueron afectados en el manejo del cultivo (Figura 3B). Finalmente, el 29% de los extensionistas tuvo la percepción de que los agricultores excedentarios tuvieron afectaciones principalmente en la cosecha y en el transporte (Figura 3C). Figura 3. Percepción de la afectación en actividades agrícolas a nivel departamental para los distintos tipos de agricultor.Afectación en los precios de los insumos y precios de venta de los productosCon respecto a los precios de los insumos para las actividades agropecuarias, debido a la problemática generada por la enfermedad COVID-19 y las restricciones impuestas, la mayoría de los extensionistas manifestaron que estos aumentaron tanto para los agricultores de infra subsistencia como para los agricultores de subsistencia (57% y 52% respectivamente). Sin embargo, también manifestaron (53%) que los precios para los agricultores excedentarios se mantuvieron o disminuyeron (Figura 4). Lo anterior posiblemente dado por las cantidades de insumos que compran y/o almacenan.Figura 4. Percepción de la afectación en los precios de los insumos (promedio nacional por tipo de productor). A nivel departamental, los extensionistas de Baja Verapaz (75%), Huehuetenango (73%), Zacapa (71%) y Jalapa (53%), manifestaron mayoritariamente que los precios de los insumos aumentaron para los agricultores de infra subsistencia (Figura 5A). Por otra parte, en el departamento de Guatemala fue donde más extensionistas (50%), determinaron que los precios de los insumos se mantuvieron (Figura 5A). Esto último pudo deberse a la cercanía de los municipios de este departamento con la capital del país, donde la mayoría de productos se encuentran ampliamente ofertados.En cuanto a los agricultores de subsistencia, los departamentos donde los extensionistas manifestaron en su mayoría que los precios de los insumos aumentaron (Figura 5B), fueron Baja Verapaz (75%), Alta Verapaz (67%) y Huehuetenango (67%). Llama la atención que en los departamentos de Zacapa (59%) y Guatemala (50%) una gran cantidad de encuestados manifestaron que los precios de los insumos se mantuvieron (Figura 5B). Finalmente, en cuanto a agricultores excedentarios, en ningún departamento más del 42% de los encuestados manifestaron que los precios aumentaron, disminuyeron o se mantuvieron (Figura 5C).Figura 5. Percepción de la afectación en los precios de los insumos a nivel departamental para los distintos tipos de agricultor.Con respecto a la venta de los productos agropecuarios como granos, frutas, leche, carne, etc., a nivel nacional (Figura 6), entre el 41% y el 52% de los extensionistas manifestaron que indistintamente del tipo de productor, el precio de los productos aumentó, y entre el 32% y 48% afirmaron que los precios se mantuvieron. Esto es acorde a lo identificado en las ciudades, donde se presentó, en algunos momentos de la crisis, una alta demanda de alimentos que ocasionó el acaparamiento y la reducción en la oferta en las plazas y mercados, provocando una reducción en la oferta que elevó los precios. También en algunos momentos se identificó que los intermediarios especularon con los precios, lo que pudo ocasionar su incremento.A nivel departamental, en el caso de los agricultores de infra subsistencia, los extensionistas de Huehuetenango (60%) y Zacapa (59%), manifestaron mayoritariamente que los precios de venta de los productos agropecuarios aumentaron (Figura 7A). En cuanto a los extensionistas que determinaron que los precios se mantuvieron, resaltan los resultados obtenidos en los departamentos de El Progreso (73%) y Zacapa (65%), como se puede observar en la Figura 7A.Con respecto a los agricultores de subsistencia, los departamentos donde los extensionistas manifestaron en su mayoría que los precios de los productos agropecuarios aumentaron (Figura 7B), fueron Baja Verapaz (58%), y Huehuetenango (53%). Llama la atención que en Alta Verapaz (33%) y Jalapa (32%) una cantidad importante de encuestados manifestaron que los precios disminuyeron, como se puede observar en la Figura 7B.Finalmente, en cuanto a los agricultores excedentarios, en ningún departamento los encuestados manifestaron en su mayoría que los precios de los productos agropecuarios aumentaron, disminuyeron o se mantuvieron (Figura 7C). Afectaciones especificas por tipo de cultivo y de agricultor Con respecto a las afectaciones sobre los productores de distintos sistemas agropecuarios, la encuesta se enfocó en seis aspectos: mano de Obra, acceso a semillas, acceso a otros insumos, acceso a maquinaria, acceso a mercados y cambio en los precios de venta.Afectaciones en cultivos de seguridad alimentaria (maíz y frijol)En cuanto a la afectación en los cultivos de seguridad alimentaria (frijol y maíz), vale la pena resaltar que el acceso a la mano obra fue, en la mayoría de los cultivos y tipos de agricultor, la problemática donde una mayor cantidad de extensionistas manifestaron que hubo afectaciones. Sin embargo, en algunos casos hubo otras afectaciones que tuvieron más relevancia. Específicamente en el caso del cultivo de maíz, según los extensionistas, los agricultores de infra subsistencia se vieron afectados en el acceso a semillas en todos los departamentos (Figura 8), principalmente en Baja Verapaz (92%), El Progreso (67%), Zacapa (65%) y Huehuetenango (60%). Para los agricultores de subsistencia, en Baja Verapaz, también fue donde más encuestados identificaron que hubo afectación en acceso a semillas (67%) y para los agricultores excedentarios fue en el departamento de Zacapa (53%), tal y como se observa en la Figura 8. Figura 8. Percepción de la afectación en el acceso a semillas de maíz por tipo de agricultor.En el caso de frijol, el acceso a semilla también fue uno de los aspectos más relevantes que se vio afectado durante el aislamiento en varios departamentos y para los distintos tipos de productores, según la precepción de los extensionistas. De acuerdo con la mayoría de los encuestados, los agricultores de infra subsistencia pertenecientes a los departamentos de Zacapa (65%), El Progreso (60%) y Baja Verapaz (58%) tuvieron dificultades para acceder a la semilla de frijol, al igual que los de Baja Verapaz (67%) y El Progreso (53%) en el caso de los agricultores de subsistencia (Figura 9).En cuanto a los agricultores excedentarios, en ninguno de los departamentos hubo manifestaciones mayoritarias de los extensionistas con respecto a dificultades para el acceso a semillas (Figura 9). Esto puede deberse principalmente a que este tipo de agricultores tienen una mayor capacidad de almacenamiento de semillas que los agricultores de infra subsistencia y los agricultores de subsistencia. Con respecto al cultivo de café, en ningún departamento y para ningún tipo de productor, los extensionistas manifestaron mayoritariamente afectaciones sobre los seis aspectos evaluados en este trabajo. Sin embargo, el acceso a insumos fue en el que hubo mayores resultados tanto por tipo de productor como por departamento, tal y como se puede observar en la Figura 10, donde resaltan Huehuetenango, Jalapa y Zacapa.Figura 10. Percepción de la afectación en el acceso a insumos para el cultivo de café por tipo de agricultor. En este trabajo también se incluyeron otros cultivos de importancia para el país, ya no enfocándose tanto en los tipos de agricultores, sino en la agroindustria, comercialización y/o exportación. Dichos cultivos fueron frutales, caña y hortalizas, tanto para consumo interno como para exportación.Para estos cultivos, en ningún departamento los extensionistas manifestaron mayoritariamente afectaciones sobre los seis aspectos evaluados en este trabajo. Sin embargo, el acceso a mano de obra fue en el que hubo resultados más relevantes a nivel nacional, tal y como se puede observar en la Figura 11. Al respecto, cobra relevancia la escasez de mano de obra identificada por el 53% de los encuestados para los cultivos de frutales de Zacapa y por el 47% para los cultivos de hortalizas de consumo local en Huehuetenango.Figura 11. Percepción de la afectación en el acceso a mano de obra para diversos cultivos por tipo de agricultor.Otros de los sistemas productivos incluidos en la encuesta fueron los correspondientes al subsector pecuario, de gran de importancia para el país. Dichos sistemas fueron Ganadería Bovina (de carne, leche y doble propósito), Avicultura, Piscicultura, Porcicultura y otras actividades pecuarias. Con respecto a la ganadería bovina, el aspecto donde los encuestados percibieron una mayor afectación, fue en el acceso a la mano de obra (Figura 12). Lo anterior es más evidente en el departamento de Zacapa para el sistema de ganadería de carne, según lo manifestado por el 53% de los encuestados. Otro aspecto relevante encontrado en este trabajo fue para el departamento de Alta Verapaz, donde el 50% de los extensionistas encuestados manifestaron que hubo dificultades para obtener semillas de forrajes para los sistemas de leche y doble propósito, y dificultades en el acceso a mercados y a insumos en los sistemas de carne. Con respecto a otros sistemas pecuarios, el aspecto donde los extensionistas manifestaron una mayor afectación fue en el acceso a los insumos (Figura 13). Dicha afectación fue identificada por el 50% de los encuestados en el departamento de Alta Verapaz para los sistemas porcícolas y por el 47% en el departamento de Huehuetenango para los sistemas avícolas.Figura 13. Percepción de la afectación en el acceso a insumos para actividades pecuarias. Afectaciones en la seguridad alimentaria de los productoresCon respecto a la seguridad alimentaria, en la encuesta se preguntó a los extensionistas en qué porcentaje consideraban ellos que los productores rurales de los distintos tipos, tenían dificultades para garantizar su seguridad alimentaria durante la época de restricciones por la enfermedad COVID -19.Como se puede observar en la Figura 14, las diferencias entre los agricultores de infra subsistencia, los agricultores de subsistencia y los agricultores excedentarios fueron muy evidentes. Los extensionistas manifestaron en su mayoría que, la mayor parte de los agricultores de infra subsistencia presentaron inseguridad alimentaria en algún momento (más del 50% de la población). Por el contrario, para los agricultores excedentarios los encuestados identificaron que una menor cantidad de población habría estado en una situación de inseguridad alimentaria (menos del 50% de la población). Finalmente, en el caso de los agricultores de subsistencia, la mayor parte de los encuestados manifestó que los agricultores con inseguridad alimentaria estarían alrededor del 50%.Figura 14. Percepción del porcentaje de productores que han tenido dificultades para garantizar su seguridad alimentaria a nivel nacional.A nivel de departamentos, se identificaron algunas diferencias entre estos e internamente entre los distintos tipos de productor (Figura 15). En el caso los agricultores de infra subsistencia, en Alta Verapaz el 100% de los extensionistas identificaron que más del 50% de la población perteneciente a este tipo de productores presentó condiciones de inseguridad alimentaria. En los demás departamentos (excepto El Progreso), más de la mitad de los extensionistas encuestados indicaron que más del 50% de los productores tenían condiciones de inseguridad alimentaria, siendo los departamentos de Guatemala, Peten y Jalapa los que tuvieron valores más altos (Figura 15). Con respecto a los agricultores de subsistencia, los departamentos donde más del 50% de la población estuvo en situación de inseguridad alimentaria, de acuerdo al criterio de los encuestados, fueron Jalapa, Petén, Huehuetenango y Alta Verapaz.A nivel de los agricultores excedentarios, solamente en Baja Verapaz más del 40% de los extensionistas identificaron que los productores enfrentaron situación de inseguridad alimentaria.El departamento de Alta Verapaz fue donde se observaron mayores diferencias entre los tres tipos de agricultores evaluados en la encuesta.Figura 15. Percepción de los departamentos en donde más del 50% de los productores tuvieron inseguridad alimentaria.Otro de los aspectos abordados en la encuesta, fue el relacionado con los cambios en el área cultivada, como consecuencia del aislamiento preventivo decretado para enfrentar la pandemia de la enfermedad COVID -19. Para esto, en la encuesta se preguntó a los extensionistas en qué porcentaje consideraban ellos que los productores rurales de los distintos tipos dejaron de sembrar o redujeron el área en producción. Como se puede observar en la Figura 16, las diferencias entre los agricultores de infra subsistencia, los agricultores de subsistencia y los Agricultores excedentarios no fueron muy evidentes. Los extensionistas manifestaron en su mayoría, que gran parte de los productores de los tres tipos no realizaron cambios en el área en producción de sus fincas o parcelas.A nivel de departamentos, se identificaron algunas diferencias entre estos e internamente entre los distintos tipos de productor (Figura 17). En el caso los agricultores de infra subsistencia, en Zacapa el 73% de los extensionistas identificaron que más del 50% de la población realizó cambios en el área de producción. En los demás departamentos (excepto en Jalapa), menos de la mitad de los extensionistas indicaron que más del 50% de los agricultores de infra subsistencia realizaron cambios. Con respecto a los agricultores de subsistencia, en Zacapa el 73% de los extensionistas identificaron que más del 50% de la población realizó cambios en el área de producción. En los demás departamentos (excepto en Petén), menos del 50% de los extensionistas indicaron lo mismo para los agricultores de infra subsistencia.Finalmente, a nivel de agricultores excedentarios, solamente los extensionistas del departamento de Zacapa identificaron que más del 50% de la población había realizado cambios en el área de producción.En Zacapa, llama la atención que fue el departamento donde reportaron más población que pudo realizar cambios en el área de producción agropecuaria indiferentemente al tipo de agricultor. Dado que la encuesta se realizó en el último semestre del 2020, cobró relevancia preguntar a los extensionistas qué tipo de actividades realizaron los agricultores durante el año, como estrategia para contrarrestar los efectos del aislamiento sobre sus ingresos y seguridad alimentaria.Considerando que esta información fue suministrada como una respuesta abierta por cada extensionista, se seleccionaron las más recurrentes y se agruparon empíricamente para determinar las estrategias más relevantes.Al respecto, se identificó que los agricultores de infra subsistencia y los agricultores de subsistencia por lo general tienen estrategias similares, sin embargo, los agricultores excedentarios cuentan con algunas diferentes, más relacionadas con su mayor capacidad de inversión y de medios de vida.Las estrategias más importantes reportadas por los encuestados, que estuvieron siendo implementadas por los agricultores de infra subsistencia y los agricultores de subsistencia fueron:• Reducir o eliminar la aplicación de fertilizantes y pesticidas.• Incrementar las labores manuales y de labranza en el cultivo para evitar la compra de productos químicos y maquinaria. • Implementar actividades grupales, familiares y/o comunales para el manejo de los sistemas productivos. • Apoyar comunitariamente el transporte de productos agropecuarios.• Vender los productos en el mercado local.• Aumentar el autoconsumo de los productos.• Buscar trabajo con los Agricultores excedentarios que haya cerca.• Cambiar la actividad económica principal de la finca.• Dedicar más tiempo y energía a la implementación de huertos familiares con los recursos que hay al alcance, involucrando a los diversos miembros del hogar. • Migrar a otros sitios para vender la mano de obra.• Incursionar en pequeños emprendimientos fuera de la finca.Por otro lado, las estrategias más relevantes mencionadas por los extensionistas, que fueron implementadas por los agricultores excedentarios son:• Reducir la mano de obra contratada.• Almacenar los productos de las cosechas.• Incrementar los precios de venta de los productos.• Comprar insumos al por mayor para reducir costos.• Disminuir la producción.• Diversificar la producción tanto agrícola como pecuaria.Con el objetivo de realizar un análisis de la recuperación económica que podrían tener los distintos tipos de agricultores, posterior a los impactos por el aislamiento, se les preguntó a los extensionistas de acuerdo a su experiencia, cuándo consideraban ellos que los agricultores de su departamento podrían recuperarse bajo tres distintos escenarios. El primer escenario de estos fue en caso de que las condiciones climáticas fueran normales durante el 2021 y el 2022, el segundo escenario fue en caso de presentarse algún evento extremo durante el 2021, y el tercer escenario fue en caso de presentarse eventos extremos tanto en el 2021 como en el 2022.La experiencia de los extensionistas del MAGA fue muy importante para responder a esta pregunta, ya que ellos conocen bien cómo son las dinámicas de los territorios que atienden y de los agricultores con quienes trabajan.Bajo el primer escenario, los extensionistas en su mayoría indicaron que la recuperación se podría dar entre enero y septiembre de 2021. Esta percepción fue similar para los tres tipos de productores, no obstante, fueron más parecidas las respuestas de los extensionistas para los agricultores de infra subsistencia (Figura 18) y los agricultores de subsistencia (Figura 19), que para los excedentarios. En el caso de estos últimos, una mayor cantidad de extensionistas indicaron que el periodo de tiempo de recuperación sería entre enero y septiembre de 2021 (Figura 20).No obstante, una cantidad menor pero igualmente importante de extensionistas respondió que los agricultores podrían recuperarse después de octubre de 2021, esperando incluso que algunos agricultores se recuperen hasta después del 2023. Esto indica que, según la experiencia de los encuestados dentro de cada uno de los grupos de productores, hay algunos que tienen condiciones diferentes que hacen que su recuperación pueda ser más demorada.Específicamente hablando de los departamentos, llama la atención las respuestas dadas por los extensionistas de Zacapa, ya que para todos los tipos de productor indicaron en su mayoría que la recuperación podría darse entre enero y junio de 2022, mostrando así que los productores de este departamento por lo general se demoran en recuperarse después de algún impacto.Con respecto al segundo escenario, según los extensionistas encuestados, la recuperación podría darse principalmente entre enero y septiembre de 2022 en el caso de los agricultores de infra subsistencia (Figura 21). No obstante, los extensionistas de Baja Verapaz y Huehuetenango en su mayoría indicaron que dicha recuperación podría darse del 2023 en adelante. Para los agricultores de subsistencia (Figura 22), hubo una mayor cantidad de extensionistas que estuvieron de acuerdo en que la recuperación podría darse entre octubre de 2021 y junio de 2022, mientras que para los agricultores excedentarios (Figura 23), los encuestados tuvieron respuestas más dispersas (entre octubre de 2021 y septiembre de 2022).Figura 18. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores de infra-subsistencia bajo condiciones climáticas normales hasta el 2023. Figura 19. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores de subsistencia bajo condiciones climáticas normales hasta el 2023. Figura 20. Periodo estimado de recuperación económica de agricultores excedentarios bajo condiciones climáticas normales hasta el 2023.Hablando específicamente de los departamentos, en el caso de los agricultores de infra subsistencia, para el segundo escenario sobresalen tres resultados en donde al menos el 40% de los extensionistas coincidieron en que la recuperación de los agricultores sería entre enero y junio de 2022 (Zacapa), y del 2023 en adelante (Baja Verapaz y Huehuetenango).Con respecto a los agricultores de subsistencia y los agricultores excedentarios, Alta Verapaz fue el departamento en el cual el 50 % de los extensionistas coincidieron en que la recuperación sería en un mismo periodo de tiempo. En el caso de los agricultores de subsistencia, dicho periodo sería entre enero y junio de 2022 y en el caso de los agricultores excedentarios, entre julio y septiembre del mismo año.Finalmente, con respecto al tercer escenario, las respuestas de la mayoría de extensionistas fueron más orientadas a que la recuperación se daría después del 2023 en caso de presentarse eventos extremos en los dos años consecutivos previos. En el caso de los agricultores de infra subsistencia (Figura 24), más del 70 % de los encuestados de todos los departamentos coincidieron en que la recuperación sería después del 2023, en los agricultores de subsistencia (Figura 25) más del 50 % de los encuestados (exceptuando los de Petén y El Progreso) indicaron lo mismo y en el caso de los agricultores excedentarios (Figura 26) al menos el 25% (exceptuando El Progreso) tuvieron una respuesta similar.A nivel departamental, la totalidad de los encuestados de Alta Verapaz indicaron que la recuperación de los agricultores de infra subsistencia no sería sino después del 2023. En el caso de los agricultores de subsistencia llama la atención que El Progreso fue el único departamento en el cual la mayoría de extensionistas indicó que la recuperación sería durante el mismo 2022. En cuanto a los agricultores excedentarios, a nivel departamental la mayoría de encuestados de El Progreso (27%) y Jalapa (41%) indicaron que la recuperación se habría dado antes de los Estrategias que pueden acelerar la recuperación de los agricultores reduciendo la vulnerabilidad agroclimática Adicionalmente a las preguntas ya descritas que se realizaron a los extensionistas, se diseñó un módulo en el cual se les preguntó acerca de asistencias que pudieran ayudar a recuperar a los agricultores en caso de estar afectados por condiciones climáticas, que agravaran los impactos ya descritos generados por las medidas de aislamiento por la enfermedad COVID -19.Al respecto, como se observa en la Figura 27, es evidente que para todos los tres tipos de agricultores es importante tener información, siendo la más relevante aquella en la que se incluyen tanto recomendaciones como información agroclimática local. Vale la pena resaltar que varios técnicos también señalaron que el acceso a recomendaciones técnicas e información agroclimática suministradas por separado, puede tener también el potencial de ayudar a los agricultores. Por otro lado, a los extensionistas también se les hizo una consulta acerca de los mejores medios de difusión que sirvieran para compartir información a los agricultores y así ayudarles a reducir los impactos climáticos y a recuperarse más rápidamente de las afectaciones de la actual crisis por la enfermedad COVID -19. Al respecto, los encuestados dictaminaron en su mayoría (80%), que el medio más eficiente para llevar la información a los productores es a través de los consejos de desarrollo de diferentes niveles (COCODES, COMUDES y CODEDES). También manifestaron que los mensajes radiales y los boletines digitales, pueden tener alcance en gran parte de la población. Esta información puede ser útil para diseñar estrategias exitosas de difusión informativa a futuro. Los resultados del estudio muestran que el aislamiento y demás medidas tomadas por la pandemia de COVID 19 generaron impactos, en su mayoría negativos, sobre los sistemas agropecuarios de Guatemala. Los impactos fueron mayores para los agricultores de infra subsistencia, seguido de los agricultores de subsistencia y los agricultores excedentarios respectivamente. Esto evidencia la necesidad de generar estrategias e inversiones diferenciadas enfocadas en las características de los distintos tipos de agricultor, que permitan la recuperación económica.Uno de los aspectos más importantes que se identificó a nivel nacional, fue la dificultad de los distintos tipos de productores para acceder a los insumos agropecuarios antes y durante todo el ciclo de cultivo.Otro aspecto relevante para los agricultores fue la dificultad para acceder a semillas independientemente del sistema productivo. Al respecto, es importante promover y capacitar a los agricultores (sobre todo a los de infra subsistencia y los de subsistencia), en la conformación y mantenimiento de bancos de semillas locales, de forma que se garantice el suministro permanente y variado de este insumo.Los resultados mostraron que el incremento en los precios de los insumos afectó a todos los agricultores, sin embargo, en mayor medida a los agricultores de infra subsistencia y de subsistencia. Los departamentos en donde hubo mayor afectación por los precios de los insumos para los agricultores de infra subsistencia, fueron Zacapa, Huehuetenango y Baja Verapaz, y en el caso de los agricultores de subsistencia cobró también relevancia Alta Verapaz. Por lo anterior, grandes esfuerzos deberían concentrarse en capacitar a los agricultores para la elaboración de insumos con materiales locales de fácil acceso, tanto de la finca como de la región (por ejemplo, fertilizantes como madrifol, sulfocálcico, microorganismos de montaña, bocashi, lombricompost, entre otros.), de forma que puedan dar manejo a sus cultivos.En la mayoría de los departamentos el precio de venta de los productos agrícolas aumentó. En Baja Verapaz y Huehuetenango el incremento fue importante para los agricultores de infra subsistencia y los de subsistencia, en Zacapa y Jalapa para los agricultores de infra subsistencia, y en Alta Verapaz para los de subsistencia. Esto podría indicar que la rentabilidad de algunos agricultores fue mayor, no obstante, deben considerarse otro tipo de factores como la dificultad del transporte, el mayor costo de los insumos y el acceso a la mano de obra.La reducción en el acceso a la mano de obra fue un hallazgo común para todos los departamentos del país. Esto afectó de manera importante a los agricultores de infra subsistencia y los agricultores de subsistencia, ya que la principal fuente de ingreso suele ser la venta de su mano de obra. Por otra parte, en el caso de los agricultores excedentarios, la reducción en la oferta de mano de obra afectó la generación de excedentes, que es muy importante para el abastecimiento de la población del país en general.El acceso a semillas fue uno de las limitantes más importantes para los cultivos de maíz y frijol. Esto podría afectar el abastecimiento para los próximos años, ya que es posible que las cosechas no tengan la misma cantidad como en años normales. Esto también podría acarrear escasez de semillas a partir del 2021.Con respecto al cultivo del café, el principal impacto fue en el acceso limitado a insumos. Esto mismo sucedió en los cultivos de interés comercial como frutales y hortalizas, donde adicionalmente se encontró que en el acceso a la mano de obra también hubo grandes afectaciones.En los sistemas de producción de ganadería bovina, también las restricciones para acceder a mano de obra fueron importantes, al igual que la dificultad de acceso a mercados. Esto pudo ocasionar pérdidas importantes que valdría la pena evaluar, ya que varios de los productos que se generan en este subsector son perecederos, por lo que necesitan su comercialización rápido o tener acceso a una cadena de frío para mantener las condiciones óptimas de los productos.En lo que respecta a la seguridad alimentaria, según las encuestas, la gran mayoría de los agricultores excedentarios no tuvieron problemas. La seguridad alimentaria de los agricultores de subsistencia se vio levemente afectada sin ser una condición generalizada para todos los productores. Mientras tanto, la mayoría de los agricultores de infra subsistencia estuvieron en situación de inseguridad alimentaria. Con respecto a lo anterior, gran parte de esta situación puede ser explicada por los hallazgos antes descritos sobre los problemas en los sistemas productivos. La situación de este grupo de productores es preocupante dado que normalmente son los más vulnerables y tienen el mayor grado de exposición a diferentes impactos, por lo que claramente la situación generada por la pandemia agravó su capacidad adaptativa.El área productiva agropecuaria no se redujo para ningún tipo de agricultor, lo que indica que tomaron algunas medidas para poder sostener su producción y/o ingresos. Dentro de las principales estrategias que implementaron los agricultores de infra subsistencia y los agricultores de subsistencia para reducir los impactos del aislamiento y mejorar su seguridad alimentaria, se encontraron: el establecimiento de huertos familiares, el incremento del autoconsumo de productos de las fincas y la reducción o eliminación del uso de algunos agro insumos como fertilizantes y pesticidas. Las estrategias llevadas a cabo por los agricultores excedentarios fueron la reducción en la contratación de mano de obra (lo que debió afectar a los otros tipos de productores) y la compra de grandes volúmenes de insumos (lo que pudo afectar la oferta que había en los municipios).Este estudio muestra que los impactos generados por las medidas preventivas decretadas como respuesta a la enfermedad COVID-19 y la posible presencia en los siguientes años de eventos climáticos extremos (sequías, inundaciones, heladas, etc.), pueden exacerbar las condiciones de pobreza de gran parte de la población atendida por los extensionistas del MAGA a nivel nacional. La percepción de los extensionistas es que la capacidad de recuperación de muchos de estos productores es lenta, por lo que esperan que la recuperación económica de los agricultores bajo condiciones climáticas normales requiera de al menos 12 meses, los cuáles podrían alargarse a más de 36 meses en caso de presentarse eventos climáticos extremos que impacten directamente a los sistemas productivos.Sin embargo, también se evidenció que existen estrategias que pueden ser útiles para ayudar en la recuperación económica de los agricultores y en el incremento de la resiliencia de sus sistemas productivos ante condiciones climáticas adversas. Al respecto, la mayoría de encuestados manifestaron que es muy importante el uso y la transferencia de información agroclimática local y de recomendaciones técnicas a los agricultores. Una iniciativa que vale la pena mencionar al respecto, promovida por el MAGA, INSIVUMEH y otras instituciones, es la implementación de las mesas técnicas agroclimáticas -MTA 4 (Giraldo-Mendez, et al., 2018), las cuales son espacios en los que se discuten las perspectivas climáticas a corto plazo (3 meses) y se generan recomendaciones que se recopilan en un boletín agroclimático.Por lo anterior, las MTA pueden ser espacios muy relevantes para la recuperación económica de los agricultores, ya que la información generada en sus boletines podrá ser usada por ellos para que sus cultivos prosperen y estén adaptados a diferentes tipos de condiciones climáticas.Los resultados de este estudio muestran algunos mecanismos de difusión de la información agroclimática a los agricultores sugeridos por los extensionistas encuestados. Dentro de estos mecanismos cobran relevancia el uso de cuñas radiales y la difusión de la información a través de los consejos de desarrollo. Con base en lo anterior, es relevante generar o fortalecer canales o espacios mediante los cuales la información de los boletines llegue de forma sencilla y fácil a la radio y a los concejos de desarrollo, de manera que puedan transmitir efectivamente la información a los agricultores. En este sentido, algunas metodologías y enfoques participativos ya existentes pueden ser de gran utilidad para fortalecer las capacidades y el empoderamiento de los agricultores para incrementar su resiliencia ante posibles eventos climáticos y no climáticos. Algunos ejemplos de metodologías y enfoques ya implementados en el país son: Servicios Integrados Participativos de Clima para la Agricultura-PICSA 5 (Dorwar, Clarkson y Stern., 2017) y el enfoque de Territorios Sostenibles Adaptados al Clima -TeSAC 6 (Vernooy y Bouroncle., 2019), ambos implementados en Olopa.Como conclusión general, se puede afirmar que los impactos del aislamiento por la enfermedad COVID-19 han sido muy fuertes sobre el sector agropecuario y en caso de presentarse eventos climáticos adversos en el corto y mediano plazo, la situación podría empeorar en el futuro.Por lo anterior, una de las formas de ayudar a los agricultores a recuperarse de forma sostenible y rápida de los impactos generados por la pandemia, es incrementando la adaptación de los sistemas productivos a través de información climática y técnica brindada oportunamente; así como la implementación de prácticas agrícolas adaptadas al clima para lograr incrementar y estabilizar la producción y, por lo tanto, su economía.No obstante, de acuerdo a la información generada en este estudio, las estrategias para incrementar la adaptación de los sistemas productivos deberán ser diferenciadas por tipo de agricultor y teniendo en cuenta las diversas condiciones que hay a nivel departamental.También es relevante impulsar medidas que fortalezcan algunas de las prácticas adoptadas durante el aislamiento (como los huertos familiares en el caso de los agricultores de infra subsistencia y de los agricultores de subsistencia, práctica actualmente impulsada por el MAGA) y que a la vez promuevan la generación de empleo rural.","tokenCount":"7215"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d5bf2cb27541e68522a66c3400385b0e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d4be65ff-c572-4bb2-b104-b002e08335a9/content","id":"1608951233"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6a6f7a31-2a35-4ffa-bc46-65ec821050c9","pagecount":"25","content":"Throughout the lowland wet tropics, periodic nonprotracted drought caused by irregular rainfall distribution is responsible for sizable reductions in maize yield. This is particularly true when reduced water availability coincides with the critical stage of crop development--flowering. Such a drought cannot be escaped by genotype maturity or planting date, nor are other species necessarily better adapted. Improving resistance of maize to this particular type c;>f drought, then, could enhance productivity and minimize farmer risk.From a comparison of sorghum and maize under drought, it appears that sorghum maintains photosynthesis and growth at lower water levels and has more developmental plasticity than maize. Increasing the dry matter available for ear development around flowering may help to reduce the detrimental effects of drought occurring at this critical stage in maize.Many morphological and physiological characters have been suggested for modification so as to enchance drought resistance in maize. At CIMMYT, one lowland tropical maize population is being improved for drought resistance through a recurrent selection program. Progenies are selected using an index based on grain yield under no stress and stress, leaf elongation rate, interval between anthesis and silking, canopy temperature and leaf area loss during grain filling. Evaluation of the progress after three cycles of recurrent selection shows a significant increase in yield under severe drought conditions. Improvement is approximately 9.5 percent per cycle and is mainly associated with a decrease in the number of barren plants.Other morphophysiological traits are being evaluated for their effectiveness in changing plant response to drought. Selections for reduced tassel, leaf and height may improve yield under severe stress conditions. Also, through multilocation testing and selection in its Maize International Testing program, CIMMYT has been able to achieve improved tolerance to drought stress.co \"'This paper first defines a specific type of nonprotracted drought which affects large areas of the lowland tropics. It compares the drought-resistance mechanisms of sorghum and maize. The ability of sorghum to continue photosynthesis at lower water levels, along with its developmental plasticity, may account for some of its advantages over maize in this type of drought.It then describes the philosophy of current breeding strategies for drought resistance and reviews techniques used to measure d ifferences between maize genotypes for resistance.Finally , evidence is given for the effectiveness of recurrent selection for drought resistance using a selection criteria of leaf elongation rate, interval between silking and anthesis, canopy temperature, leaf area loss and grain yield under stress and no stress. This method is being practiced at CIMMYT in one lowland tropical material for the specific type of drought mentioned above.Throughout the tropics, periodic drought, caused by irregular rainfall distribution and accentuated by soils with low water-holding capacity, causes sizable reductions in maize yields (Wolf et al. 1974). Estimates reveal that drought may account for an average loss of 15 percent of production in tropical areas, even where total rainfall is reasonably high. Further, the probability of yield loss due to drought influences the use and utilization of fertilizer and other inputs. Drought, therefore, is probably responsible for a much higher economic loss than indicated.Based on greenhouse experiments, field trials and historical analysis of on-farm yield data, agronomists and meteorologists have concluded that drought occurring around flowering has a major effect on grain yield. Deficits of water for periods lasting one to two days during:.tasseling or pollination may cause as much as 22 percent reduction in yield (Robins and Domingo, 1953), while stress during the grain filling stages (McPherson and Boyer, 1977) and vegetative stages (Denmead and Shaw, 1960) may have much less effect on yield.It is clear that the most effective means of reducing the effects of drought on maize would be to escape periods of low moisture availability through the manipulation of genotype maturity and planting date. An example of this is given by Kasam et al. (1975) for maize grown at Ibadan, Nigeria (Figure 1). At this site total rainfall is about 1,140 mm and is spread from March to November in a bimodal pattern. The first season is long enough for a 120-day maize crop; in the second season, however, crop water requirement can be met without high soil moisture deficits in maize with 80-90 day maturity. Plant breeding programs, therefore, should aim at providing high yielding genotypes with a range of maturities to best fit the season as determined by moisture availability.Maize grown in large areas of the tropics, however, is affected by drought occurring during and usually in the middle of the main summer growing season. Total rainfall for the crop season may be adequate, but a reduction in the number of days with rain, particularly around the critical ...... _ flowering stage of the crop, may have a marked effect on grain yield. The first season at Ibadan illustrates this form of drought. Even though total moisture is adequate, the margin between crop water requirement and water availability is small, particularly in the period just prior to flowering. When water stress occurs at this time, there may be a sizable reduction in grain yield. Mosino and Garcia (1968) suggest that summer drought may affect over 7 million hectares of rainfed maize in Mexico, including most of the lowland tropical area where total rainfall is greater than 1,000 mm. In El Salvador, even though monthly rainfall may average 300 mm, summer drought known as canicu/a may be responsible for reducing yields by 20 percent and is cited as the most frequent source of crop loss as compared to insects, lodging and excess water (Walker, 1980).Since the exact timing of this drought during the growing season is unpredictable, it cannot be avoided by either genotype maturity or planting date. Furthermore, maize may be the best adapted cereal for these conditions, since high humidity and rain at harvest could be harmful to an alternative crop such as sorghum. To minimize the risk of yield loss, farmers may stagger their plantings of maize, plant maizes of different maturities or intercrop different species. Improved agronomy, such as better weed control and the maintenance of surface mulch (minimum tillage). will have a substantial effect on maize yields under drought. Maize varieties which are better able to resist the effect of reduced moisture, particularly around flowering, also would help stabilize grain yields under these conditions.This paper therefore examines selection criteria that may be useful in the development of such varieties. It is suggested that for situations where the duration of adequate moisture is limited, yields could be stabilized through the use of genotypes and planting arrangements which escape stress. In situations where moisture availability is predictably inadequate to sustain maize, alternative crop species should be grown or additional moisture provided.Drought resistance in an agricultural sense refers to the ability of a crop plant to produce its economic product with limited available water. Drought resistance in an evolutionary context, however, would normally be the ability of a plant or species to survive and eventually reproduce under limited moisture. It is likely that the mechanisms responsible solely for survival of a species may in fact differ from those which provide for maximum economic production. The fact that the survival of maize has always relied on the intervention of man, therefore, reduces the probability that this species has evolved strong mechanisms for survival under moisture stress (Qualset, 1979).2 Levitt (1972) suggested that the mechanisms for drought resistance (used in the generic sense) be divided into mechanisms of drought escape, drought avoidance and drought tolerance. Drought escape tends to minimize the interacting of drought with crop growth and yield; tolerance gives the ability to produce despite loss of plant water status; avoidance increases the ability to maintain relatively high plant water status despite a shortage of moisture in the environment (O'Toole and Chang, 1979;Fischer and Sanchez, 1979;Fischer and Turner, 1978). However, O'Toole and Chang (1979) note that too often these mechanisms are viewed in terms of either/or (exclusive), implying that a choice is necessary, rather than in terms of and/or (complementary).Drought escape is often the most important and successful form of drought resistance and is usually imparted through the combination of genotype maturity and planting date. However, due to the unpredictability of the drought being discussed here, drought resistance through escape is generally not feasible and the remainder of this paper concentrates, therefore, on selection for avoidance and/or tolerance mechanisms. Fischer and Turner (1978) have analyzed plant productivity under arid and semi-arid conditions in terms of total water transpired (obtained). the efficiency with which this water is used (water use efficiency as g dry matter produced per g water transpired), and harvest index (the ratio of economic yield and total dry matter). They found little evidence for consistent cultivar differences in water use efficiency and, thus, yield under moisture-limiting conditions was determined by total transpiration (root exploration, etc.) and harvest index (these two parameters may be antagonistic, i.e. an increase in dry matter partitioned to the root to allow extra root exploration could reduce harvest index of grain). With wheat there is evidence that there is genetic potential to improve both harvest index and root patterns (Fischer and Turner, 1978;Passioura, 1981).Although the body of information needed to explain the physiological basis for drought resistance continues to grow, it is difficult to discern a major association between a trait (or traits) and drought resistance with application to a breeding program (Fischer and Wood, 1979). One approach used to study the usefulness of a factor for crop improvement is the development of isogenic lines or divergent selections for the character being considered. This approach is time consuming (Moss et al. 1974) but may be necessary to unravel the complexity of drought-resistant mechanisms. To determine which factors are more likely to be of consequence, it is useful to compare two species, such as maize and sorghum, which differ markedly in drought resistance but are otherwise adapted to similar environments. In so doing, it must be recognized that the information provided will be as influenced by the genotype (genotypes) chosen to represent each species as it is by any trait within the species.A number of studies exist in which maize and sorghum have been compared. Under tropical nonstress conditions in Nigeria, Kassam (1976) measured water use efficiencies of 3.9 and 3.7 mg dry matter/g water for maize and sorghum respectively, while Ludlow (1976) reported values of 2.8 and 3.3 mg/g for the two species respectively. There is no comparable data for stress conditions.Insofar as the association between particular traits and drought resistance is concerned, Table 1 lists those characters examined by various workers, together with the importance they place on those characters in explaining differences in drought resistance between maize and sorghum. There is not always agreement as to the importance of any one character and this is noted in the table.Of the traits shown in Table 1, the two that probably are of most importance for the nonprotracted drought are differences in critical water potential (the potential close to zero turgor when stomates close) and differences in developmental plasticity. Neumann et al. ( 1974) measured critical leaf water potentials of -8.1 to -9.6 bars for maize and -11.2 to -13.8 bars for sorghum, while the field data for the two species show values of -16 and -21 bars respectively (Turner, 1974). Thus, sorghum tolerated higher internal water deficits before closing stomata and could continue photosynthesis at lower water potentials (Boyer, 1970a;Beadle eta/. 1973).The species also differ in their developmental plasticity. As to sorghum's being more able to avoid the effects of moisture stress at a critical stage of plant development, Whiteman and Wilson (1965) found that inflorescence development could be suspended during stress and resume development after rewatering. Moisture stress, during various stages of panicle development in sorghum, causes a reduction in grain number but, even under severe stress, plants will exert partial panicles (Eastin, 1980). This is in contrast to maize, where stress initially reduces ear size but then reduces the number of ear-bearing plants (increased barrenness). This may be a special feature of the inflorescences of maize--the staminate flowers are produced in the terminal inflorescence and the pistillate flowers on lateral shoots (ears). Further, in sorghum, individual grains have a greater capacity to compensate for a reduction in grain number (Fischer and Wilson, 1975;Fischer and Palmer, 1980). The ability of sorghum to form paniclebearing tillers makes possible the recovery and grain production of these organs upon relief of water stress.Understanding the factors controlling ear development and barrenness of plants grown under moisture stress should prove useful to developing drought resistance in maize. Shaw (1977) has estimated the sensitivity of various developmental stages to water stress (Figure 2). The critical period includes flowering and coincides with the time of maximum crop transpiration (Downey, 1971;Andre et al. 1978). The pattern of yield reduction due to  Fischer and Palmer (1980) and Prine (1971) . Tollenaar (1977) recently reviewed the control of grain yield in maize and concluded that the irradiance per plant during flowering was a dominant factor determining grain number. Thus maintenance of photosynthesis during this stage was critical to yield.In addition to the influence of total dry matter accumulation at the critical period, the partitioning of dry matter to the developing ear and factors affecting spikelet fertility are important in determining grain yield through control of grain number. Fischer and Palmer (1980) reviewed a number of morphophysiological traits that may affect grain number under nonstress conditions; some of these may ~lso be relevant under nonprotracted drought stress.In tropical maize grown under stress levels of nitrogen, water and density, careful removal of the male inflorescence prior to flowering increased grain yield by 9.5, 21.0 and 17 .9 percent respectively (Poey et al. 1977).Hybrids with heavier tassels had longer anthesis-to-silking intervals (Daynard, 1968) and lower grain yield under density stress (Buren et al. 1974) . The drought resistance of a number of hybrids was also related to less leaf area and a shorter interval from mid-anthesis to mid-silking. In the leafier genotypes, leaf development may be at the expense of growth of the developing ear (Dow, 1981).The interval between anthesis and silking increases under most stress conditions, including drought and high density. This delay in silk development may be related to a decline in nitrate reductase (Hsiao et al. 1976). to a reduction in current assimilate supply (Dow, 1981) or to other factors . A number of authors (Jensen, 1971 ;Duvick, 1977) have advocated selection for reduced interval between anthesis and silking under population density stress for better performance under moisture stress. Genotypes with a tendency toward prolificacy (two ears) also have better population tolerance (Buren et al. 1974). Hallauer and Troyer ( 1972) reviewed the performance of prolific types and concluded that this character contributes to the reduction of genotype x environment interaction through its ability to adjust to environmental stresses, including drought. Dow ( 1981) concluded that hybrids resistant to density stress were also more drought resistant. However, he warned that, while selection for a decrease in the anthesis-to-silking interval under high density, nonmoisture stress conditions would improve drought resistance, other parameters conferring drought resistance could be lost or selected against.BREEDING FOR IMPROVED DROUGHT RESISTANCE Blum (1979) has described two major breeding ph ilosoph ies aimed at improvement of genotypes to stress : \"The first and very common approach accepts that a superior y ield ing variety at the potential level will also yield relatively well under subpotential levels. Drought resistance may be present in such a va riety and expressed as an unidentified component of stability in performance over various env ironments. Duri ng the breeding process, yield and stabi lity in performance are handl ed as one complex . Accumulation of environmentally stable yield genes equates wit h better performance also under stress situations.\" This approach has been successful in sorghum (Blum , 1979), wheat (Worrall et al. 1980) and maize (Russell, 1974;Duvick, 1977). In wheat, improved yield of CIMMYT-derived genotypes over a wide range of conditions is attributed mainly to an increase in yield potential, an increase in environmental stability and a small change in the response of the genotype to environmental conditions (Worrall eta/. 1980). It appears that some traits, for example improved harvest index of short straw wheats, have a sufficiently strong positive effect on yield under all conditions to give them obvious superiority over traditional varieties or collections, even under dry conditions and despite the specific drought-resistant mechanisms the latter group may possess (Fischer and Wall, 1976). However, subsequent work by Fischer and Wood (1979) did not indicate a relationship between harvest index under irrigated conditions and grain yield under drought.Gains in maize yields due to breeding in the US Corn Belt from 1930 to 1970 indicate an increase in yield potential; in the more recent commercial hybrids there is considerable improvement at the lower yielding environments (Table 2) (Russell, 1974). The improved performance at the higher stress environments (in this case probably due to moisture availability) might be due to better stalk and root quality brought about by initial selection under high plant density and to the extensive testing of germplasm for yield stability (Russell, 1974).In view of the lack of sound information on specific drought characters and the considerable scope for improvement of yield potential, a breeding strategy based on selection under well-watered conditions may very likely be the most efficient (in time) for bringing about rapid progress. This system has the advantage that, under optimal growing conditions, heritabilities for yield are higher than under suboptimal conditions (Johnson and Frey, 1967).Testing over a large number of sites with varying moisture availability, although expensive, should enable the elimination of those genotypes which may have negative yield traits under moisture stress. Separation of the effects of drought escape and the identification of traits specifically favoring performance under these test conditions could alsa facilitate selection. For international crop improvement centers such as CIMMYT, testing over a wide geographic range also provides a vehicle for the introduction of improved germplasm into national programs.\"A second approach to breeding for yield performance in a stress environment maintains that indeed potential yield is irrelevant,\" (Blum, 1979). Varieties must be selected, developed and tested under the relevant conditions. There are a few examples of population improvement in maize based on this procedure. One mass selection study was done in Colombia for the rainy season (600 mm) and dry season (300 mm) separately and in combination (Arboleda-Rivera and Compton, 1974). The selection criterion was grain yield. Three cycles of selection in the rainy season increased yield by 10.5 percent per cycle for that season but increased yield during the dry Source : Russell, 1974 season by only 0.8 percent. Three cycles of selection during the dry season increased yield by 2.5 percent per cycle in that season and by 7 .6 percent in the rainy cycle. Another study in Mexico involved mass selection for a number of cycles under irrigated and/or rainfed conditions (Munoz, 1975). Testing of the synthetic derived from these selections showed similar performance at the high rainfall, high yielding site, but a greater yield from the selection made under stress at the low rainfall, low yielding site.An alternative approach to the tWo strategies described is to improve drought resistance in those materials which already have high yield potential. As improvement in yield potential becomes relatively more difficult to achieve, breeding programs might focus more attention on the identification of specific drought-resistant mechanisms. Finlay and Wilkinson (1963) suggested that, in barley, both yield potential and yield stability over environments could be independently manipulated in a breeding program. In maize, data provided by Russell (1974) clearly demonstrate the importance of improved yield potential in improving yields over a wide range of environments. However, in that work, an analysis of the performance of some of the more recently developed hybrids demonstrated that differences in yield at higher stress environments were due to factors other than yield potential (Table 2).-It is inferred, then, that selection must be for increasing, or at least maintaining, potential yield and, in addition, for improving drought-resistant traits. In maize, it is likely that such traits ar~ multigenic and at a low gene frequency in any given population; their frequency needs to be increased through recurrent selection programs. Increasing the frequency of genes for one or two droughtresistant traits while maintaining yield may lead to an improvement in yield under stress. Recurrent selection for a morphological trait which has a physiological relationship with grain yield has been effective in improving grain yield under nonstress conditions (e.g. Johnson and Fischer, 1979). It is interesting to speculate on the effect on grain yield under stress conditions if a program of recurrent selection for a trait associated with drought resistance is carried out. This would depend on an understanding of drought-resistance mechanisms relative to the ecology for which the material is being developed and on the rapid identification of such mechanisms in large breeding nurseries. At the same time, materials should be evaluated under favorable conditions to maintain or improve yield potential.Under the influence of natural selection, a few races of maize in various parts of the tropics have developed drought avoidance and/or tolerance mechanisms. One collection, Michoacan 21, was described by Palacios de la Rosa (1959) as having a distinct response to drought and frost; the mechanism was called /atente. This collection maintained itself under drought without flowering, recovered remarkably on rewatering, was more resistant to permanent wilting at the seedling stage, transpired more than other 6 lines under irrigation, and transpired less under stress due to stomatal closure (Munoz, 1975). This response may be due in part to high levels of abscisic acid (Larque-Saavedra and Wain, 1974). The latente trait has proven difficult to transfer to higher yielding, agronomically desirable germplasm, particularly in the lowland tropics. However, workers elsewhere have successfuly used this material as a source of genes for the improvement of drought resistance in hybrids for the US Corn Belt (Castleberry and Lerette,   1979). In their study, the latente trait did not appear to be simply inherited and the development of the drought• resistant hybrids required the selection of inbred lines under controlled moisture conditions for yield and otrer traits associated with drought resistance.Many morphological and physiological characters have been suggested for modification so as to enhance either drought avoidance and/or tolerance (Moss et al. 1974;Parker, 1968). A number of screening methods haw been used to compare the responses of different genotypes of maize to drought and, while some of these methods appear useful in a plant breeding program, there is a paucity of evidence on their use in a population improvement program (Oualset, 1979). In almost all cases cited, the screening of lines was the end product of the breeding program. There are too few reported programs in which selected materials have been recombined and tested. In many cases, also, results obtained in laboratory tests are not further tested under field conditions. Hurd (1976) has reviewed numerous accounts where plant water stress decreased with increased depth and branching of roots. There may be, however, some ecological conditions where reduced root growth, particularly early in the crop cycle, is an advantage (Passioura, 1972). In maize, Na~s and Zuber ( 1971) measured differences between forty genotypes in terms of total root volume and weight of nodal roots at two growth stages prior to flowering. These characters were correlated with the measured resistance to root pulling of the plants at maturity. Differences in root volume in maize genotypes have also been recorded by Musick eta/. (1965) and Thompson (1968). Spencer (1940) noted large differences between inbred lines of maize in the rate of development of lateral roots and in the ratio of topto-root dry weight of seedlings. Muleba (pers. comm.). using young plants grown in solution culture, selected families for superior root weight and length and recombined them to form experimental varieties. Evaluation of these experimental varieties under water stress conditions in the field showed that selection for larger root weight was useful in increasing grain yield under mild water stress while selection for increased root length was superior under severe stress.The rate of leaf elongation has been shown to be sensitive to changes in leaf water potential (Boyer, 1970b;Watts, 1974) and soil water supply (Acevedo eta/. 1971). Boyer and McPherson (1975) have suggested that the rate of cell elongation in seedlings coulq be used to screen for drought tolerance in cereals. Fischer and Edmeades (1977) used leaf elongation rates to screen maize progenies for drought resistance under field stress conditions.There has been a considerable breeding effort to modify stomata! response and reduce water loss by transpiration. A number of workers in other crops have been successful in reducing transpiration per unit leaf area (Jones, 1979). Selection has been for the frequency and anatomical structure of the stomata and for measured stomata! conductance (Wilson, 1975). Infrared thermometry has been used to screen large numbers of genotypes for canopy temperature; this can be related to stomata! conductance (Jackson eta/. 1977;Kretchmer eta/. 1980). Williams et al. (1967) compared inbreds and hybrids for drought resistance by a) the percentage of seedlings which recovered from a 6-hour exposure to 520C (heat tolerance). b) germination percentage of seeds exposed to a manitol solution of 15 atmospheres, and c) percentage recovery of seed Ii ngs watered 14 days after they had reached wilting. The ratings obtained by each of the three methods were tested by correlation analysis with field evaluations based on the ratio of grain yield under stress to yield under full irrigation. The results suggest that the information from these techniques is correlated with field data and, therefore, any of them would aid a breeding program.Other workers have used similar techniques. Hunter et al. (1936), Tatum (1954), and Kilen and Andrew (1969) showed that the relative differences in response between inbred lines to high temperature coincided with observations of leaf firing in the field. Munoz (1975) conducted three cycles of mass selection of seedlings which showed good recovery upon rewatering after initially being stressed to the wilting point. Kilen and Andrew (1969) used chlorophyll stability as an index of heat tolerance for inbred lines of maize and found it to be correlated with ratings of leaf firing in the field.Screening of seeds or seedlings in solutions of different osmotic potential was used by workers as early as 1930 and has had limited results (Ashton, 1948). Parmer and Moore (1968) have modified this technique for maize by the use of polyethylene glycol solutions, and Johnson and Asay ( 1978) have demonstrated the effectiveness of this osmoticum in differentiating between lines of crested wheatgrass.Abscisic acid has been shown to be important in drought resistance. In maize, Larque-Saavedra and Wain (1974) measured a large difference of in vivo, free abscisic acid between a drought resistant line (Michoacan 21, latente) and two European varieties under nonstress and stress conditions. There are no examples of the screening of a larger number of maize genotypes under field conditions for this trait in maize, although such work is being conducted in other cereals (Austin eta/. 1981).Recently, screening certain amino acids which increase dramatically under stress has been used as a means of evaluating drought resistance. One of these, proline, was suggested as being useful for drought screening by several workers (Singh et al. 1972), but this has been questioned recently (Hanson et al. 1977). Results from work with the compound betaine suggest that it may be a valid indicator of the cumulative stress experienced by plants and, if so, discarding genotypes with high betaine content might be effective in selecting for drought avoidance. In maize, Pinter et al. (1978) reported that the free asparagine and proline content of plant tissue subjected to drought was positively correlated with drought resistance as estimated from the difference in grain yield under stress and no-stress conditions.The objectives of CIMMYT's Maize Program are to increase the realized yield and yield potential of a number of adapted maize populations and to improve their yield stability. The breeding and selection system used is described elsewhere (Johnson, 1974, Vasal et al. 1978, Paliwal and Sprague, 1981 ). In 1976, limited work was begun to assess the feasibility of selecting more directly for drought resistance in tropical maize. The objectives were to demonstrate the improvement, through recurrent selection, of the performance of one tropical population exposed to a particular type of drought. In particular, this work was aimed at improving resistance to drought occurring at the critical phase of plant development-flowering. Escape mechanisms would not be utilized.Data from the 1973 Experimental Variety Trials (CIMMYT, 1974) were used to identify a population with high and stable yield. Only data from sites which were rainfed were used. Mean yield of each site was significantly correlated with rainfall during the growing season (r=0.74*), • suggesting that yield was to some extent influenced by moisture availability. The data were analyzed for yield stability by regression analysis (Finlay and Wilkinson, 1963) and for similarity of response by cluster analysis (Mungomery et al. 1974); the results are shown in Figure 3. Within the group of tropical germplasm entries, those with a preponderance of the race Tuxpeiio had a slope less than 1.0 and a higher than average mean yield across all sites. The Tuxpeiio race has been described by Wellhausen (1956) as one of the most important modern productive races in both the USA and Mexico. Since it is found in areas experiencing limited rainfall during the summer season, it is not unlikely that it may have some natural adaptation to moisture stress. It was therefore decided to use this germplasm as a basis for population improvement for grought. Y~-------r-\"---.--------.4D 5DGrain Yield (t/ha)The emphasis of this work was on field screening. At Tlaltizapan, Morelos, Mexico, there is no appreciable rainfall from October through April; plantings in November are therefore completely dependent on applied water. This site is at 900 m elevation with mean temperatures for the growing season of approximately 280C maximum and 15oc minimum. The soil is a calcareous vertisol of approximately 1.8 to 2.0 m depth, and overlies a moist, calcareous parent material.The response of eight maize genotypes (including Tuxpefio-1 **) of diverse genetic background to simulated drought conditions at this site was used to develop relevant selection criteria. Irrigation was controlled so that treatments of drought stress commenced from floral initiation and developed through to flowering (to span the critical pref lowering-flowering stage), and prior to flowering and continuing through to grain maturity. These treatments reduced grain yield. Fischer and Wood (1979) have defined an index of drought intensity in wheat as one minus the ratio of the mean yield under stress to yield under no stress. Using this index, drought intensities were 0.48 and 0.47 for the stress from floral initiation to flowering and from ten days before flowering to grain maturity respectively. However,-although the stress intensity was similar, the yield components affected by the stress differed. In the early stress, grain number was reduced by 45 percent but, because In the work reported here, the response of the eight genotypes to drought was assessed by a drought index based on yield under both fully irrigated and stressed conditions. (The drought index for any one genotype is the ratio of its yield under stress to nonstress, relative to the ratio of the mean yield of all genotypes under stress to nonstress. Thus, a drought index > 1 .0 suggests relative drought resistance, and an index < 1.0, relative drought suscept ibility.) There were d ifferences between genotypes in both yield potential and drought index; Tuxpeiio-1 had both the highest yield potential and drought index score. The ranking of genotypes by drought index was independent of plant height and maturity, measured under nonstress conditions, suggesting that the observed differences in drought index were not due to escape mechanisms. However, yield under nonstress was correlated with drought index (r= 0 .75*, unpublished data).Measurements of leaf water potential and stomata I resistance were made at various stages of crop development and at different times during the day. There were significant differences between genotypes in leaf water potential measured at 1200 hours at flowering (Table 3). However , differences in drought index were correlated (r= 0.76*) with maximum leaf water potential measured at 0600 hours, not w ith minimum water potential taken at 1200 hours (Table 4). There were significant differences between genotypes in stomat a! resistance measu red at 0900 and 1300 hours at flowering (Table 3). Stomata! resistance , particularly when measured in the middle of the day, was negatively correlated with drought index (Table 4) . Leaf water potential and stomata! resistance also were measured during grain filli ng in the stress treatment from ten days before flowering to grain maturity. Drought index for this treatment was correlated negatively with stomata! resistance, especially when measured at 1000 hours (Table 4).The capacity of genotypes to restore maximum water potential during the night (before sunr ise) and the ability to maintain open stomata during the day appear to be associated with better performance under the particular stress at this site. While it is suggested that the difference in root morphology may explain some of this d ifferent ial response, no observations of roots were made .In this study, two morphological traits--the interval between pollen shed and silking under stress (flowerdelay) and the rate of stem elongation under stress--were also measured. Stem elongation was positively correlated (r=0.84*) and the flower delay negatively correlated (r= -0.66*) with drought index. Both traits would appear useful for selection. In subsequent work, a measure of the rate of elongation of a newly exposed leaf was used, rather than that of the stem. This measurement was made when the plants in the severe water stress treatment were showing midafternoon leaf rolling; the height from the ground to the youngest visible leaf in the whorl was measured. A week later the measurement was repeated on the same leaf. These measurements were made on six plants per plot in both the irrigated and stress treatments. The extension (which includes components of stem and sheath elongation as well as leaf elongation) under drought was expressed relative to the extension under nonstress so as to free it from genetic differences in elongation rate under no-stress conditions. The relative leaf elongation ( R LE) is : RLE = (HS7-HS0) (Hl7-Hlo)x 100Where Hl7 = leaf tip height under irrigation at day 1 Hlo = leaf tip height under irrigation at day 0 HS7 = leaf tip height under stress at day 1 HSo = leaf tip height under stress at day 0 Differences in leaf area duration were not measured in this study. However, if the supply of assimilates during grain filling is important to performance under drought (as suggested by correlation of drought index and stomata! resistance). then duration of active leaf area also may be an important criterion in explaining genetic differences. In subsequent work, plants were scored visually for leaf tissue death using a scale of 1to5 (1--minimum loss, 5--maximum loss) . Ratings were made weekly, commencing three weeks after flowering and continuing on a weekly schedule until harvest.This initial work resulted in the development of a selection index to be used to screen a large number of segregating families. It is based on grain yield under irrigation (yield potential) and drought, flower delay, leaf area loss during grain fill and relative rate of leaf elongation (RLE). The selection index considers these characters in a multi• spatial arrangement and assigns to them relative distances from a selection target. The distance for each character relative to another can be varied by defining the selected target in terms of standard errors from the mean. Each character is further given a weighting in the overall selection index (Schwarzbach, 1976). Correlations among characters are not taken into account.An example of the use of this index in selecting the best 1 O families (for formation of an experimental variety) and 80 families (for recombination of the next generation) in a progeny trial with 256 entries is given in Table 5. Two additional characters, plant height and maturity under irrigation, are included in the selection.Because of the small plot size used, tall progenies had a competitive advantage for light and therefore had higher yields, particularly under irrigation. Similarly, yield under the stress treatment tended to be positively associated with earlier maturity. The object of the study was to select for drought resistance through mechanisms other than escape.Through the selection index, plant height and maturity are kept constant (relative to the mean of the population) and gains are made for the other characteristics.The selection target expressed in absolute values and in standard errors from the mean, and the weighting for each of the characters included in the selection index are shown in Table 5. Selection intensity is highest for grain yield under stress and days to flower; it is relatively lower for all of the other characters. For the eighty families selected for recombination, the selection differentials (mean of selected families minus the population mean) for grain yield under stress and leaf tissue death were approximately one standard error, while those for grain yield under irrigation, flower interval and relative leaf elongation were around 0.5 standard error. The correlations of these characters with grain yield under stress and nonstress conditions are shown in Table 6.Using these criteria, eighty-five full-sib families of the population Tuxpeno-1 were screened under moisture regimes similar to those descr ibed earlier . A profile of the soil mo isture available at flowering and at maturity in the severe stress treatment has been reported elsewhere (CIMMYT, 1981 ). Analysis of yield indicated a significant genotype x water stress interaction. There was, however, a large increase in the coefficient of variation of the t rial under the stress treatment.Exper imental varieties, based on families selected for yield under irrigat ion and yield under drought, and the divergent selection for resistance and suscept ibility based on the selection index, were formed and again grown under similar moisture regimes.The grain yield of the various experimental varieties under stress and nonstress treatments is shown in Figure 4 . There was no significant interaction of variety by water stress level. However, F values for preplanned comparisons among varieties indicate significant varietal differences. When comparing those experimental varieties selected .07 -0.01 mainly for grain yield, a significant increase was shown by the variety selected for better grain yield under irrigation when it was grown under no stress. However, under stress conditions there was no significant difference between those varieties, although the experimental variety selected for better grain yield under stress tended toward be.tter grain yield.A comparison of the experimental varieties based on the selection index for resistance and susceptibility showed a significant difference under stress; the yield of the resistant and susceptible varieties being 2.3 and 1.5 t/ha respectively. There was, however, no difference in yield under irrigation. Under the stress treatment, the grain yield of the resistant selection was also higher than that of the experimental varieties selected for yield alone.These studies suggested that a) there is genetic variation within this tropical maize population for performance under these specific drought situations, and b) the inclusion of plant characters in addition to yield enhances the identification of the drought-resistant families.Based on these findings, a modified recurrent population improvement program was initiated using the Tuxpeno-1 population; it is now in the fourth cycle of selection.Two hundred fifty-six full-sib families are evaluated at Tlaltizapan, Mexico, during the dry season under two water regimes-normal irrigation and severe stress (no irrigation after planting). Family entries are arranged in a simple lattice (16 x 16) with two replications. For the stress treatment, there are two such trials (i.e. 4 replications). Plot size is 2 1/2 m in length and 0.75 m wide; plant density is 52,000 plants/ha (2 plants at 50 cm spacing). These families are screened for characters previously discussed and, in addition, to canopy temperature measured with an infrared thermometer (Barnes lnstatherm Model 14-220 D-4). Measurements are made in the stress treatment prior to tasseling and between 1100 and 1300 hours. The measurement allows for an approximately 1 meter by 0.40 cm section of canopy of each progeny to be evaluated for mean temperature. The usefulness of this measurement can be seen from the data shown in Table 6. The canopy temperature for 256 families, measured before and at flowering, was negatively correlated with their grain yield (r = -0.56* and -0.73* respectively). When used in the selection index, the mean canopy temperature of the 80 families selected for recombination was 1.13 standard error units lower than that of the population mean (Table 5).Of the 256 families evaluated at the Tlaltizapan site, approximately 80 families are selected, with remnant seed planted in summer in a crossing block at CIMMYT's lowland tropical station, Poza Rica. A large number of reciprocal full-sib crosses are made at random among the families and, at harvest, 256 ears are saved to consitute the new selection cycle. These families are again evaluated in Tlaltizapan in the winter (dry) cycle.An evaluation of progress was conducted after three cycles of recurrent selection for drought resistance in Tuxpef\\o-1. In addition, there was an evaluation of various cycles of selection for reduced plant height in the population Tuxpef\\o Crema I, and for reduced tassel (cycle 6), leaf size (cycle 5), and yield and yield stability through the international progeny testing system (Pop. 21, cycle 3), in Tuxpef\\o-1. The selections for reduced plant height had already been shown to affect maturity and optimum plant density for maximum grain yield. In the evaluation, planting dates for the various cycles of selection for reduced plant height were arranged so that all genotypes in the study Planting dates arranged so all cycles flowered at or near (:r 1-2 days) same time 2Selected for yield, stability and wider adaptation through international progeny testing system flowered at the same date; this served to reduce effects resulting from drought escape mechanisms. The planting density of the cycles of selection for short plants was also varied, based on previous experience, in order to provide an optimum density for each cycle. Al I of the other selections in the trial were grown at 52,000 plants/ha. There were four replications of each entry in the no-stress treatment and eight rep! ications under stress. Plot size was eight rows of 5 m with a distance of 0.75 m between rows. All harvests were from a well-bordered area of each plot.The analysis of grain yield under stress and no-stress treatment of various selections grown at their optimum densities is shown in Table 7. The F values for preplanned comparisons show that selection for drought resistance improved grain yield under drought. However, under no stress, there was only a small, nonsignificant increase in grain yield . With 30 percent family selection pressure, the rate of yield increase for the stress conditions was approximately 9 .5 percent per cycle. For the experimental variety, representing a 4 percent family selection pressure in the latest improvement cycle (cycle 3), yield under stress was further improved (4.7 percent higher than for cycle 3).Selection for reduced plant height, tassel size or leaf area resulted in an increase in yield under both water regimes (Table 7). The percentage increase per cycle under moisture stress was 6.3 and 4.1 for tassel and leaf selection, respectively. Maximum grain yield under stress conditions for the height selections was achieved at cycle 15 with an average gain per cycle of 5.8 percent (from cycles 6 to 15). Further selection for reduced plant height (cycle 18) resulted in a reduction in grain yield under stress but not under the no-stress treatment. The population 21 entry had the highest (5 percent per cycle) yield increase under no stress and a 2.8 percent per cycle increase under stress conditions. For the leaf selection, grain yield per unit leaf area increased from 44.4 to 67 .8 g/m2 of leaf surface (unpublished data).Yield was examined in terms of its components-total dry matter and harvest index (Table 8). The selections for drought resistance had a nonsignificant increase (3.0 and 4.5 percent per cycle for cycle 3 and experimental variety respectively) in total dry matter produced under stress. Under irrigated conditions the total dry matter increase was 1.5 percent per cycle for the experimental variety. For the morphological selection for reduced height, tassel and leaf size, there were no significant changes in total dry matter either under irrigation or stress.Total dry matter can be considered in terms of total water transpired and water use efficiency (g dry matter produced per g water transpired) of the crop. The experiment was not designed to measure these components, but there was an attempt to note differences in rooting density between entries by visually scoring the amount of Planting dates arranged so all cycles flowered at or near( ± 2 days) same time 2Selected for yield, stability and wider adaptation through international progeny testing system root found in soil probe samples taken at 30 cm intervals and a depth of 150 cm ( 1--low density, 3--h igh density). Th is was done at the same time (physiological plant maturity) that volumetric soil moisture measurements were made. There were significant varietal effects in both the root scores and the volumetric moisture content of the soil profile at 120-150 cm (Table 9). Although there were no large differences between entries, there is an indication that both selection for drought resistance and international progeny testing has increased root activity at this depth. The early generation of selection for reduced plant height may have reduced perceived root density at th is depth. However, soil moisture was less for the fiftee nth cycle for reduced height.The amount of water used by th e crop from th e profile 0-150 cm was cal cu lated from measurements of gravimetric moisture and bulk dens ity taken fo r each e ntry at germination, flowering and maturity (Table 9). Aga in there were significant differences, with a t endency fo r the drought selection, reduced plant he ight (cycle 15) and the international progeny testing to have increased the amount of water taken up by the crop. Based on these data and those for total dry matter at black layer, an est imate of the water use efficiency for these mater ials was made. There does not appear to be a consistent trend with the various selections. The mean value for all selections under stress was 2.5 mg dry matter/ g H20 which is considerably lower than the value of 3.9 mg/g for nonstressed conditions reported by Kassam ( 1976).Many of the changes in grain yield are associated with changes in harvest index at optimum plant density (Table 8). For the drought selection, harvest index under drought conditions increased by 9.0 percent per cycle; this appears to be associated with an increase in the number of ear-bearing plants (selection for drought resistance reduced the number of barren plants from 33 to 15 percent). Harvest index increased by 7 .7, 6.9 and 10.7 percent for the selection for reduced height (cycles 6 to 15), tassel size and leaf size. For these selections there was also an increase in harvest index under the nonstress conditions (Table 8). However, there may be a limit to the amount of improvement in yield as a result of improved harvest index. Although the harvest index for cycle 18 of the short plant selection was higher under no stress and similar under stress than cycle 15, grain yield and ears per plants under stress were lower. In the drought selections, the higher yield of the Selected for yield, stability and wide adaptation through international progeny testing system experimental variety under stress was associated not with a higher harvest index but with a tendency for greater total dry matter and more ears per 100 plants. Data in Table 10 show the relationships between a number of characters which may influence the number of ear-bearing plants (and hence harvest index) and grain yield under stress. The variation in each character is that which exists between the various selections of Tuxpefio included in the trial . Although not all of the correlations are significant (n=10), the trends in the relationship are similar to those found for the variation between families indicated earlier. Thus, grain yield under stress is correlated with flower interval (-0.71 *), relative leaf elongation (0.65*) and canopy temperature (-0.35*) measured under stress. Tassel and stem dry weight and leaf area index, r:neasured under irrigated conditions, also were correlated with grain yield under stress. Correlation values (r) were -0.58, -0.51 and -0.64* respectively. This study shows that there is an opportunity to select within the population Tuxpeiio-1 for improved yield under stress (drought resistance), while maintaining its relatively high yield potential. While the findings are for only one population exposed experimentally to a specific type of drought, the procedures used are applicable to other maize populations and localities.Improvement in drought resistance is much more rapid when the selection procedure uses more characters than just grain yield per se; many factors are involved in conferring drought resistance. The use of a selection index based on relative leaf elongation, the inverval between pollen shed and silking, canopy temperature, leaf area loss, and grain yield under stress and no stress resulted in maximum gain per cycle in grain yield under stress (9.5 percent).Selection for drought resistance requires a field site with uniform and controlled moisture and sufficient area for adequate replication of progenies. All of the criteria used can be measured rapidly and are therefore suitable for screening a large number of progeny and, with the exception of canopy temperature, require no sophisticated instrumentation. Relative leaf elongation, canopy temperature and the interval between pollen shed and silking can all be measured prior to pollination and, when combined, account for 54 percent (R2 = 0.54*) of the variation in grain yield under stress conditions.Morphological selection for reduced height, tassel size and leaf size, made under nonstress conditions, 16 also improved grain yield under stress. These criteria are easily incorporated into a breeding program and can be used for individual plant selection. Tuxpeiio-1 (Pop. 21). improved for general agronomic characters and wide adaptability through the International Progreny Testing System, showed high gain per cycle in grain yield under nonstress conditions and also improvement in yield under stress conditions (although gain per cycle was lower).In all of the selections studied, most of the yield improvement was a result of those processes which reduced barrenness and increased harvest index. There was, however. some indication that the selection index also changed the rooting pattern and enhanced total dry matter production. Since all of the selection criteria may alter components of drought resistance, there apperars to be a need to incorporate all characters into the selection process. An ideal breeding program would simultaneously evaluate progeny for criteria used in the selection index and make use of within-family (individual plant selection) variation for the desirable morphological traits during the recombination cycle.Significant gains in yield under stress conditions were achieved after only three cycles of recurrent slection. Continuing the selection and accumulation of genes for drought resistance traits, while at the same time maintaining yield potential, should lead to further improvement in yield under stress. There should be ample variation for these traits within the already available productive and well-adapted tropical germplasm.","tokenCount":"8543"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d7d19ced67e50d6483c8b2d20252dd2f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4804a930-4c80-4b10-b28b-506966f68357/retrieve","id":"-636496853"},"keywords":["forest-dwellers","forest concessions","biodiversity","dietary intake","forest foods"],"sieverID":"a4ef51a0-7a2e-43dc-be33-a329f8e0c5cd","pagecount":"17","content":"• A high diversity of forests foods for consumption exists in DR Congo, Cameroon and Gabon • Despite a diverse pool of wild foods, more than 80% of households suffer from food insecurity.• A significant inverse correlation exists between food insecurity and forest foods consumption meaning that forest foods play a role in ensuring food security and nutrition among populations near forest concessions. • Age and business ownership are significant determinants of food security among forest communities.• Investing in strategies to provide income outside unlicensed logging and practicing agriculture on logged land, can contribute to addressing health, nutrition and food security.Les aliments sauvages peuvent-ils contribuer à la sécurité alimentaire et à la variété diététique des populations rurales jouxtant les concessions forestières? Découvertes provenant du Gabon, de la République Démocratique du Congo et du Cameroun R. FUNGO, J.C. TIEGUHONG, D.M. IPONGA, M. TCHATAT, J.M. KAHINDO, J.H. MUYONGA, C. MIKOLO-YOBO, P. DONN, O. TCHINGSABE, A.N. KAAYA, J.L. NGONDI, S. TUTU, R. EMELEME, S. ODJO, J. LOO et L. SNOOK Pour faire face à la malnutrition, à l'insécurité alimentaire et à un apport alimentaire appauvri, le potentiel des aliments forestiers est de plus en plus reconnu. Toutefois, la plupart des données existantes présentent des résultats moyens d'analyse approximative, faisant fi des opportunités de documenter la manière dont les produits forestiers peuvent contribuer à la nutrition, à la sécurité alimentaire et à l'apport alimentaire. Dans cette étude, la sécurité alimentaire a été estimée en utilisant le score HFAIS, alors que l'apport alimentaire était estimé en utilisant les rappels FFQ auprès de 720 foyers autour et au sein de six concessions de coupe au Cameroun, en République Démocratique du Congo et au Gabon. On trouva une haute diversité d'aliments forestiers consommés, la République Démocratique du Congo en enregistrant le plus grand nombre (FFCS=16.2). Le Cameroun comptait le plus grand nombre de groupes d'aliments (HDDS=12.5), alors que le Gabon pouvait se vanter de la plus grande variété d'aliments (FVS=24.5). Malgré la forte diversité d'aliments sauvages dans la région, la plupart des foyers (87%) souffrait d'insécurité alimentaire. Une corrélation inverse importante était observée entre le score HFIAS et le FFCS (r 2 =−0.26, P=0.0002), révélant que les aliments forestiers peuvent jouer un rôle en assurant la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition dans les populations vivant proches des concessions forestières. Le test chi-square révéla qu'un âge >46 ans et l'accès à des revenus provenant de commerce étaient associés à la sécurité alimentaire. Un travail supplémentaire est nécessaire pour documenter la manière dont les aliments sauvages forestiers peuvent contribuer à améliore les régimes dans ces populations, incluant la composition nutritive de davantage d'aliments forestiers, en les intégrant dans les lignes de conduite alimentaires régionales et en encourageant leur domestication.¿Pueden los alimentos silvestres del bosque contribuir a la seguridad alimentaria y a la diversidad de la dieta de las poblaciones rurales adyacentes a las concesiones forestales? Perspectivas de Gabón, la República Democrática del Congo y el Camerún BACKGROUND The most recent global food security report revealed that severe or moderate food insecurity is rising among Central and West African countries, from 45.3% in 2014 to 53.6% in 2019 (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2019). Food insecurity, undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies undermine health, psychological wellbeing, work capacity and economic development (Mbhenyane 2017, Vollmer, et al. 2016). Reports elsewhere indicate that undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies are a persisting public health challenge in Central Africa (Kamgaing et al. 2018), with Cameroon documented to have the highest stunting a measure of height-for-age (HAZ) for individuals, rates of (33%) and iron deficiency (45%). While DR Congo has the highest vitamin A deficiency (42%) among women in the region. For the purposes of this paper, food security refers to the ability of communities, households and individuals to have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (World Food Summit 1996).Millions of people in Central Africa, including the Congo Basin, rely on forests for food and income (Pimentel et al. 1997, Laird 1999, Ndoye and Tieguhong 2004, Tieguhong and Ndoye 2007, Fungo et al. 2016a). The economic growth attributable to forest sourced foods and their products ranges between 6 to 10% per annum (Sonwa et al. 2012). The World Bank additionally estimates that more than 50% of the Congo Basin forest population depends, to varying degrees, on forests for livelihoods, not just for food but also for fuel, livestock grazing and medicine (World Bank 2006). Angelsen et al. (2014) and Tata-Ngome et al. (2017) reported that wild foods obtained from tropical forests are as vital to the livelihoods of rural people in developing countries as agriculture. Forests contribute about 30.3% of household food worth (about $304), including fish, bush meat, fruits, vegetables and mushrooms all of them important sources of proteins, vitamins and essential minerals for the rural poor (Angelsen et al. 2014). The superiority of forest foods in contributing to essential nutrients and bioactive contents as compared to the processed and imported foods has been documented in several African countries (Onimawo et al. 2003, Blaney et al. 2009, Fungo et al. 2015, Fungo et al. 2019). For example, in Gabon and Cameroon, forest foods have been reported to address both macro and micronutrient deficiencies and non-communicable disease disorders related with inadequate intake of bioactive compounds (Fungo et al. 2019, Blaney et al. 2009, Fungo et al. 2005). In Gabon, forest fruits of Poga oleosa, Panda oleosa, Gambeya lacourtiana and Afrostyrax lepidophyllus, if consumed in adequate daily amounts by a non-lactating and non-pregnant woman, can provide their 100% daily nutrient requirements (DRI), for magnesium (1000 mg/day), iron (58.8 mg/day) and zinc (12 mg/day). Also, 100% DRI for vitamin E requirements of 0.4 mg/day for children and 19 mg/day for women can be met by consuming adequate amounts of fruits of Poga oleosa, Panda oleosa and G. lacourtiana. In neighbouring Cameroon, children aged between 1-3 years and women of reproductive age can get considerable amounts of vitamins C, A and E, selenium, calcium, iron and zinc from forest foods (Fungo et al. 2016). Tata et al. (2019), further revealed that forests can provide foods that are protective against anaemia in women and children. Bush meat and fish are major animal source foods providing significant amounts of digestible iron to address anaemia among communities residing near forest concessions (Nasi et al. 2011, Fa et al. 2015). Furthermore, in the last decade, studies have documented positive correlations between household dietary diversity presence of forests (Powell et al. 2012, Johnson et al. 2013, Ickowitz et al. 2014, Fungo et al. 2016a). Ickowitz et al. (2014), reported positive correlations between forest cover and dietary diversity among forest dependent communities in 21 African countries.It has been reported that forests provide food and other subsistence products to approximately 60 million people who live within and near them (De Wasseige et al. 2014, Marquant et al. 2015) as well as contributing to the nutrition of another 40 million people who live in urban areas near the forest estate (Nasi et al. 2011). However, to date few dietary intake and food security assessment studies have documented how wild forest foods can be used to address food insecurity and improve dietary intake among populations residing near concessions. In particular, studies that combine assessment of forest food consumption scores with food insecurity assessment techniques and dietary assessment methods are limited. It consequently remains unclear how forest biodiversity contributes to food security and dietary intake for rural populations in Central Africa. Therefore, the overall objective of this study was to investigate the role of wild forest foods in diet and food security of villagers living in forest environments in Gabon, Cameroon and DR Congo. It describes the dietary indices of women, evaluates their food insecurity security categories and their coping mechanisms and documents the relationship between food consumption indices and food security indicators. Furthermore, the determinants of food insecurity among forest foods consumers were analysed.The study was carried out among communities residing in or around six purposefully selected forest concessions (Table 1), adjoining forests in Cameroon, Gabon and DR Congo. These three countries account for more than 80% of the forest cover of Central Africa (Tchatchou et al. 2015). Study concessions were selected based on: existence of trees of multiple use (timber/food value); ease of access to sites for the research team; the willingness of the forest concessionaires to allow the study to be implemented in or around concession villages; and the presence of village populations and various ethnic groups willing to participate in the study. To determine whether their logging activities were reducing access to forest foods for villagers, concessions that were actively logging were selected.A four-stage cluster sampling technique involving two stages of purposeful selection and two stages of randomization were deployed during the selection of the study villages and households. The first stage involved selecting concessions, following the criteria outlined above. The second stage involved purposefully selecting districts within each concession on the basis of their accessibility, ethnicity and willingness of the community to participate in the study, and ongoing logging activities in the surrounding forests. The third stage involved selecting five villages randomly within the two chosen districts. With the assistance of the village authorities including village chiefs, study villages were mapped using village transect walks. Households and their occupants were listed in each village. The fourth stage involved selecting 24 households randomly within each village. This resulted in a total of 720 households (6 concessionaires*5 villages per district*24 households per village=720 households). The survey was simultaneously conducted in and around the six forest concessions.Structured questionnaire-based interviews were administered to collect data on socio-demographic characteristics, household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS) and food consumption from 720 non-pregnant and non-lactating women older than 18 years who were married or cohabiting. For polygamous households, one respondent among the wives of the household head was selected to respond on behalf of the rest of household members if the entire household (including her co-wives) was preparing one meal for the entire family. If wives were preparing food separately for their children and husband the respondent answered questions with reference only to those she took care of in her household. Women were interviewed because in rural African settings they are responsible for food collection and preparation and are custodians of knowledge on wild and forest foods, that is passed on from generation to generation (Maundu 1992, Becquey et al. 2009). Interviews took place in the respondents' homes, during the months of May-October 2012. The long rainy season in the region commences in May and ends in November (United Nations Environment Programme 1999). The questionnaires were pre-tested and translated into local languages for those that could not speak French by educated and locally recruited Field Assistants.Household characteristics documented included information on the age, gender, economic occupation, and education level of the head of household; source of water used in the household and length of residence in the study area.Dietary diversity scores were obtained using a seven day recall food frequency questionnaire that was designed preceding the survey to capture information. A total of thirteen food groups were assessed including the twelve food groups specified in the FAO guidelines for measuring household and individual dietary intake, in addition to the food group for forest foods (Arimond et al. 2010, FAO 2011). The food groups were: (i) cereals and wheat products; (ii) roots and tubers; (iii) legumes and lentils; (iv) nuts; (v) dairy and fats; (vi) meat; (vii) poultry; (viii) fruits; (ix) fish and seafood; (x) vegetables; (xi) alcoholic drinks; (xii) non-alcoholic beverages; and (xiii) forest foods (including bush meat, honey, caterpillars, wild fruits, roots and vegetables). In the present study, forest foods were defined as foods of plant and animal origin, which were growing wild and collected from forests (Agbogidi 2010). The food items consumed were distributed among the thirteen food groups and the household dietary diversity score (HDDS) was calculated by summing the number of food groups consumed. The food variety score (FVS) was computed as the number of different food varieties or items consumed over the recall period of 7 days. The forest food consumption score (FFCS) was calculated by summing the occurrences and incidents of consuming of forest food items and varieties (FAO 2011). did not have access to protected water sources. Despite living in forests, more than 90% of the respondents in each country were farmers who also practiced unlicensed logging. More than three quarters of the respondents in all the countries were natives of the study sites and 72% or more had lived there for more than 10 years.Respondents' FVS for the seven days preceding the interview ranged from 11 to 23 in Cameroon, 16 to 28 in DR Congo and 17 to 30 in Gabon (Table 3). During the seven day recall period, each individual reported consuming from 11 to 23 food items in Cameroon; from 16 to 28 food items in DR Congo; and from 17 to 30 food items in Gabon. In Cameroon, the majority of the respondents (67%) consumed 15 to 19 different food items over the seven day period, while in DR Congo about 50% of the respondents consumed 17 food items, and in Gabon 67% of the respondents consumed 23 to 25 food items. In terms of food groups, about 50% and 60% of the respondents in DR Congo and Cameroon, respectively, ate items from all the thirteen food groups during the seven day recall period. In Gabon, respondents reported consuming from only 11 food groups. While 94% of respondents in Cameroon had DDS of 12-13 (consumed food items from thirteen food groups), with a mean of DDS 12.5±0.7 food groups, in Gabon 79% respondents had DDS of 9-10 (mean DDS 9.6±0.8 food groups) and in DR Congo 100% of respondents had consumed DDS of 11-13 (mean DDS 11.9±1.0 food groups).As regards forest food consumption, the highest was registered in DR Congo with FFCS ranging from 15 to 18 forest foods consumed during the seven day recall period. Ninetyfive percent of respondents in DR Congo had high forest food consumption (FFCS of 16-17), with a mean FFCS of 16.5±0.59 forest food varieties. In DR Congo animal source foods were the most consumed, including caterpillars (Gonimbrasia belina), snails (Gastropoda) and cat fish (Siluriformes). Wild mushrooms (fungi) were also commonly consumed forest foods. In Cameroon the FFCS ranged from one to eight, with the largest group (31%) reporting having eaten three forest food items (mean FFCS 3.97±1.6) during the seven day recall period. Most consumed forest foods in Cameron included Irvinga gabonensis (bush mango), a wild fruit used for cooking oil production and as a food thickening agent in soups and stews, and wild oranges (Citrus spp). Other forest foods included wild growing yams (Dioscorea spp.) and forest-harvested Bambara groundnuts (Vigna subterranea). Among the forest vegetables, Solanum nigrum was a widely consumed green. Among the meats, porcupine and rats were the most commonly consumed in Cameroon. Gabon registered the fewest forest food varieties and items consumed, with FFCS ranging from one to three. In Gabon, taro (Colocasia esculenta), porcupine and wild birds were the most consumed. Seventy-three percent of the respondents interviewed did not consume any type of forest food.The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) was assessed following the method described by Coates et al. (2007). A set of nine standard questions was posed to women, who responded on behalf of other household members. The HFIAS score is a continuous indicator ranging from 0 (food secure) to 27 (maximum food insecurity) (Coates et al. 2007), with the score categorized into four levels of household food insecurity: food secure (score=0), mildly food insecure (score=1-13), moderately food insecure (score=14-16) or severely food insecure (score=17-27). The household food insecurity access scale score (HFIAS Score) and the household food insecurity access prevalence categories (HFIAP categories) were calculated by country. The household food insecurity occurrence and coping mechanisms and food insecurity categories per concession were also calculated. The HFIAS score was calculated for each household by summing the codes for each frequency of occurrence question. The higher the HFIA score, the more food-insecure the household. The HFIAP categories per country and between consumers and non-consumers of forest foods were also computed by adding the occurrence of different categories of food insecurity.All data were analysed using the statistical software package IBM SPSS Statistics Version 21.0 and statistical significance was set at P < 0.05 for all tests. The mean values were computed for continuous variables while proportions were computed for the categorical variables. Differences between means or proportions were considered statistically significant if P < 0.05. To assess how forest foods are related to food security, logistic regression analysis and Spearman's correlation analyses were performed. Chi-square tests were further performed to assess the determinants of food insecurity among forest food consumers. Respondents were dichotomized into food secure and food insecure, the latter including those who were suffering from mild, moderate and severe food insecurity.A total of 720 households were surveyed. The mean age of the sampled female respondents was 46 years (SD = 10.4) with a range from 17 years in both DR Congo and Cameroon to 89 years in Gabon (Table 2). The majority of respondents interviewed were monogamously married with about 85% of these marriages registered in Cameroon, 58% in Gabon and 100% in DR Congo. In terms of household size, Gabon had the fewest household members (5) while DR Congo had the most (8). About a quarter of respondents in each country had no formal education while three quarters of the total respondents in both Cameroon and Gabon and 100% in DR Congo, According to the HFIAP categorization, nearly half (48%) of the respondents in Cameroon, and 100% and 88% of households in DR Congo and Gabon, respectively, were severely food insecure (Table 4). Cameroon had the highest number of food secure households (20%), followed by Gabon with only 4%. None of the households surveyed in DR Congo were registered as food secure. Categorizing all forms of food insecurity of HFIAS by forest concessions revealed that the average HFIAS scores were significantly different between the two forest concessions in both Gabon and Cameroon (Table 5). For instance, in Cameroon, the proportion of households that were food-insecure around SCTB concession without a forest management plan, was significantly higher (at P  0.0001) than the proportion that were food-insecure in FIPCAM (74% vs. 5%, respectively). In Gabon, the average proportion of households that were food-insecure was significantly higher around CEB without a forest management plan, compared to those registered in Bayonne (96% vs. 89%, respectively) at P  0.03. However, in DR Congo, the populations in and around both concessions were all (100%) food-insecure. With regards to HFIAS occurrences, several coping strategies to address food insecurity were used in varying degrees by the respondents from the three countries. The respondents in Cameroon were the most food secure, thus fewer respondents employed the coping strategies listed under the HFIAS scale compared to the respondents in DR Congo and Gabon. For example, in Cameroon, during food-insecurity episodes, just over half of the households deployed three coping strategies including 53% who reported eating just a few kinds of foods, 62% who ate smaller meals and 54% who ate fewer meals in a day. On the other hand, in DR Congo, more than 80% of the households used seven coping strategies including: expressing anxiety and uncertainties about accessing food; eating few kinds of foods; eating foods they do not want to eat; eating a smaller meal; eating fewer meals per day; and not eating any kind of food. In Gabon all the nine strategies listed in HFIAS were used by more than 70% of the households interviewed.Logistic regression analysis revealed that forest food consumers were 90% (OR=0.9; 95% CI 0.71, 4.01; p=0.001) more likely to be food secure compared with non-forest food consumers (Not in table ). There was no significant difference in the proportion of consumers of forest foods who were food secure as compared to non-consumers (12% vs 11%, respectively; p=0.74) (Table 6). However, fewer consumers of forest food reported severe food insecurity (59% as compared    to 68%, p0.0001; Table 6). When the results were further subjected to Spearman's correlation analysis, it was observed that among forest food consumers, the mean HFIAS score was significantly and inversely correlated with the FFCS (r 2 =−0.26, p=0.0001) (Table 7). This suggests that households that consumed more forest foods were less food insecure. Statistically significant positive correlations between the FFCS and the FVS (r 2 =0.29, p=0.05) and between the FFCS and the HDDS (r 2 =0.25, p=0.0001) further support the association between higher forest food consumption and reduced risk of food insecurity.The chi square test analyses in the present study revealed that among forest food consumers, only a minority of food secure households (31%) had a younger household head (<46 yrs) while the majority of food insecure households (81%) had a younger household head. (Table 8). A higher proportion of respondents (~82 %) who were food insecure relied on unlicensed logging and subsistence farming on previously logged and abandoned land as compared to 65% of foodsecure households. Twenty percent of those who were foodsecure were business owners as compared to 8% of those that were food-insecure.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first regional study in which the relationships between food insecurity and HDDS, FVS and FFCS have been assessed among forest dwelling populations in Central African countries of Cameroon, Gabon and DR Congo, considering all types of foods, both plant and animal. Although Tata-Ngome (2016) quantified food insecurity in Cameroon, he addressed only fruits. Furthermore, Tata-Ngome (2016) did not assess household dietary patterns and nutrient adequacy indicators of HDDS, FVS and FVS. Consuming a variety of foods (HDDS, FVS and FFCS), is considered a useful indicator of household food security (Mbhenyane 2017, Hoddinott andYohannes 2002) and a key proxy of nutrient adequacy (Rathnayake et al. 2012), which is apparent in most dietary patterns across Africa. In the present study, a high consumption score for forest foods (FFCS) was registered in DR Congo and Cameroon, while in Gabon, a high food variety score (FVS) was registered. Previous studies in DR Congo (Termote et al. 2012) and Cameroon (Tata-Ngome 2015, Fungo et al. 2016b), documented how forest foods can mitigate food insecurity and health disorders related to inadequate intake of nutrients, if consumed in adequate amounts. In Benin, a higher diversity score and higher food security were documented among the population residing around the precincts of the government owned forest reserve in the North West of the country, than among the populations in urban centres of Parakou city. This was attributed to increased access to forest tree foods (Van Liere et al. 1995). In Benin, the government grants periodic permits to residents to collect forest foods from the forest reserve.The most recent United Nations food security report revealed that more than half (54%) of the total population in the Congo Basin Region were food insecure (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO 2019). The present study found a much higher prevalence of food insecurity, with 78 % of the populations participating in this study being categorized as severely food insecure, 17% as moderately and 8% as mildly food-insecure. The high prevalence of food insecurity among the respondents in the present study may be due to the majority having low levels of education, to the high proportion of respondents relying on unlicensed logging and subsistence farming on previously logged and abandoned land in the three countries; and having a large number of household dependents. Previous studies in Cameroon (Fungo et al. 2016b, Tata-Ngome et al. 2017) and in DR Congo (Termote et al. 2012) have attributed high food insecurity among forest food consumers to low volumes of forest foods consumed, seasonal availability of forest foods and practicing agriculture on previously logged degraded land. This was corroborated in studies carried out by Levang et al. (2015), Tata-Ngome (2015) and Leakey (2019), who reported that the forest food and fruit gatherers who also practiced agriculture on logged land, suffered worse food insecurity than those practicing agriculture alone. This may reflect the fact that those who are short of food from abandoned formerly agriculture land rely on forest foods as a safety net (Shackleton andShackleton 2004, Kuhnlein et al. 2007). Similar studies conducted among the forest communities of Benin (Boedecker et al. 2014) and Burkina Faso (Maisonneuve et al. 2014) revealed that despite the communities' having access to highly diverse forest diets, low dietary intake and high food insecurity were rampant among these communities. Food insecurity in Burkina Faso and Benin were attributed to the seasonality of forest foods, the annual and regional variations in food availability, and the small portion sizes of forest foods consumed.Coping strategies are the methods used by households or individuals to meet their food and nutrient requirements, or survive when faced with food scarcity (Ellis 2000). In the present study, different coping strategies listed under the HFIAS scale (Coates et al. 2007) were adopted by foodinsecure households. In Cameroon, among respondents who were the most food-secure, fewer employed the coping strategies, as compared to the respondents in Gabon and DR Congo, who were faced with more severe food scarcity. For instance, worrying about not having enough food in the household was experienced by fewer than 50 percent (43%) of the food insecure respondents in Cameroon, compared to 98% and 94% of DR Congo and Gabon respondents, respectively. Communities in DR Congo and Gabon who suffered from severe food insecurity deployed progressively more coping strategies as food insecurity levels increased in these two countries. For example, almost all (94% to 100%) of the food-insecure respondents in DR Congo and Gabon employed four coping strategies: consumption of only a few kinds of foods, not eating preferred foods, eating a smaller meal and consuming foods that the respondents did not really want. In Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon, about 30%, 40% and more than 70%, respectively, of the respondents that were foodinsecure would go a whole day and night without eating and went to sleep hungry; some did not have any kind of food. Tata-Ngome (2016) reported 50% going to sleep hungry. Food insecurity results in decreased nutrient intake (Berman et al. 2014). This was confirmed in this study, with the majority of the food-insecure respondents from Cameroon (62%), DR Congo (~100%) and Gabon (96%) cutting portion sizes, and 54%, 99% and 95%, respectively, consuming fewer meals.Spearman's correlation analysis and regression modelling in the present study revealed that greater forest food consumption was significantly and positively associated with increased dietary diversity and food security among consumers of forest foods. The significant inverse correlation between FFCS and HFIAS, and the positive correlation between FFCS and HDDS and FVS, indicate that forest foods may be playing a significant role in household and community food security and nutrition. These findings are in agreement with findings among forest dependent women of reproductive age from Embolowa region and Bertoua region in the South and East, in Cameroon (Tata-Ngome 2017, Fungo et al. 2016b) and among children and women residing in Awajún forests of Peru (Roche et al. 2008) and among rural household farmers of northern Ethiopia (Maxwell et al. 2014). In Cameroon, Fungo et al. (2016a) and Tata et al. (2017) observed a positive relationship between the forest food consumption score and household dietary diversity score, food variety score and food security. Among the Awajún community of the Amazonian forests of Peru, Roche et al. (2008) reported a positive association between the traditional forest food diversity score and food security, with dietary intakes higher among the forestdependent communities residing in the lower Cenepa River region of the Awajún community. The majority of previous studies relating dietary diversity to household food insecurity focused on assessing household dietary diversity, individual or women's dietary diversity by measuring conventional food groups or individual food items over a fixed period of time (Ruel 2003). However, in the present study and the previous study reported by Fungo et al. (2016b) in Cameroon, the score of forest foods consumption (FFCS) was added to the list of commonly used dietary diversity indicators that assessed household food security. As a result of high biodiversity in the study areas in Cameroon, Gabon and DR Congo, and the high nutrient content of several forest foods (Kana-Sop et al. 2008, Djoulde et al. 2012, Fungo et al. 2015and Fungo et al. 2019), inclusion of the FFCS indicator is a useful complementary measure for assessing dietary diversity and food security among forestdependent communities.The proportion of respondents in the present study that prepared household meals using forest foods (79%) was considerably higher than what has been reported elsewhere in the Congo Basin countries of Cameroon (Fungo et al. 2016) and DR Congo (Termote et al. 2012). In the villages of Turumbu and Kisangani (DR Congo), 22% of the forestdwelling population was reported to prepare meals with forest-sourced foods (Termote et al. 2012) while in the South and East regions of Cameroon, about 40% of the population prepared meals with forest foods (Fungo et al. 2016b). The higher consumption of forest foods documented in the present study may be attributed to the greater number of respondents (720) sampled from villages close to forest concessions, as compared to the 278 in Cameroon and 241 in DR Congo sampled from towns and cities by Termote et al. (2012). The chi-square test analysis in the present study revealed that food security of households consuming forest foods was higher when the head of household was aged 46 years and above. Previous studies have documented improved food security status among older household heads who consumed forest and wild foods (Pelto et al. 2004, Tata-Ngome et al. 2017, Fungo et al. 2016b). A study from eMantlaneni village in the East of South Africa, revealed that elderly household heads were not only more knowledgeable about wild foods but also these households were more food-secure than households with younger household heads (Dweba and Mearns 2011). Other studies revealed that older household heads experience more stable household food security (Egger and Dixon 2014) and associated this with their better access to land and capital, major factors of producing their own foods, than younger household heads (Egger andDixon 2014, Tata-Ngome 2015). This study found, also, that households with income from salaried employment or business ownership, were more likely to be food-secure.The high food insecurity recorded among the younger respondents in the present study may be attributed to rapid westernization of diets in Congo Basin forest countries, easier access to imported and processed foods than forest foods and associating consumption of forest or wild foods with poverty (Rensburg et al. 2007, Fungo et al. 2016a). The aggressive promotion of imported and processed food crops by industrialists, agricultural research centres and government extension officers have been documented as some of the bottlenecks hindering use of forest foods and traditional indigenous foods to address the high food insecurity in rural Africa (Dweba and Mearns 2011, Keller et al. 2006, Rensburg et al. 2007). This is associated with an inability of the older generation to successfully pass on their indigenous knowledge about African forest foods to the younger generation, exacerbating the substitution of forest foods with imported foods in Africa (Fungo et al. 2016a).Studies elsewhere in Africa, including among rural communities in South Africa (Pelto et al. 2004), Cameroon (Fungo et al. 2016a, Tata-Ngome 2015) and Uganda (Tabuti yet it represents an opportunity worth exploring further (Fungo and Tieguhong 2019). Integration of forest foods into agro-forestry interventions and policies for better food and nutrition security coupled with sustainable use of forest biodiversity, could contribute to addressing food insecurity among rural populations in Central Africa (Leakey 2013(Leakey , 2014(Leakey , 2017)). A limitation of this study is that it focuses on forest dependent communities residing around logging concessions. The results can thus not be generalized to all forest dependent communities. Furthermore, this was a crosssectional study and no causal pathways between food insecurity and dietary diversity could be drawn. Although this study has revealed that some socio-demographic factors are associated with food and nutrition security among consumers of forest foods, the study does not provide the reasons for the rampant food insecurity in Central Africa. Longitudinal studies are thus recommended to further explore relationships. Finally, this study was carried out at during the peak of the rainy season within the region, which relates with the most food secure period of the year in Central Africa. Because the availability of forest foods varies by season, the same research could be repeated during the dry season to reveal additional insights.This study points to a serious problem of household food insecurity, affecting about 90% of respondents, among communities residing adjacent to the forest concessions in Congo Basin. The results provide some of the first insights into the food insecurity status and dietary diversity measures among communities adjoining forest concessions. Across the region, a high food insecurity score was found among both those who consume forest foods, who were most frequent in DR Congo, and among those who did not, in Gabon. A high forest foods consumption score (FFCS) in DR Congo did not result in food security. However, fewer consumers of forest foods were severely food insecure than was the case for those who did not consume forest foods. Furthermore, an inverse relationship between FFCS and HFIAS and the positive correlation between FFCS and HDDS and FVS, implies that forest foods have the potential to contribute to addressing food insecurity in the Congo Basin. Given that access to income from sources other than agriculture on logged land and unlicensed logging was associated with higher food security, investing in alternative ways to provide income could contribute to addressing health, nutrition and food security. To sustainably address food insecurity in the three countries, urgent action is required to promote, domesticate and conserve nutrient-rich forest foods that are locally acceptable.This study was funded by a grant from the Congo Basin Forest Fund to Bioversity International; and by the donors to the CGIAR Research Programme on Forests, Trees and et al. 2004) have reported better food security among forestdependent communities with little or no formal education. The findings in the present study corroborate previous findings in Cameroon, which revealed that the uneducated consume more of the wild forest foods than the educated (Fungo et al. 2016a). In contrast, the food-secure coastal Mediterranean populations of Europe, with higher nutritional knowledge, consume more nutrient-rich wild and forest foods than the less educated in Europe (Serra-Majem et al. 2007). Fungo et al. (2016a) further attributed the difference in the results between the Mediterranean study and the present African studies to socio economic status and health consciousness among the populations of the two continents. African elites with higher income have tended to move away from eating traditional forest foods with strong cultural identity, to consuming less nutritious western foods (Pingali 2007). In many such communities in central Africa, forest foods are increasingly being replaced by imported and refined foods that have high saturated fats and sugars (Frison et al. 2006). For instance, in Gabon, where forest foods are widely being replaced with refined imported diets, diet-related noncommunicable diseases including obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardio-vascular diseases are on the rise, especially among the urban elite (Siawaya et al. 2015). Studies among forest populations of Central Africa have suggested that populations residing in or around forests that are designated as concessions for timber logging may be restricted from obtaining nutrient-rich forest sourced foods (Laird 1999, Blaney et al. 2009, Guariguata et al. 2010, Tata-Ngome et al. 2017). This restrictions can have an impact on the food security, health and welfare of these populations. In Cameroon and Gabon, about 50% of the forests are allocated to logging concessions, which are legislatively protected areas. It has been hypothesized that this may, or has, limited the surrounding populations' access to nutrient rich forest foods (Blaney et al. 2009, Rist et al. 2012, Tata-Ngome et al. 2017). For example, in the North of DR Congo, Hardin and Auzel (2001), reported how one logging company that employed about 650 workers, consumed 390 tons of bush meat (live animal weight), or close to 35 000 animals per year, depriving the surrounding communities of an important source of proteins and micro nutrients. Consumption of wild animals by logging company employees deprives communities of important sources of dietary fat and other energy sources, leading to severe food insecurity (Bailey and Peacock 1988). However, recent studies have found that the situation for other forest food resources is not so clear: for one thing, trees below the minimum cutting diameter provide both fruits and edible caterpillars, but are not cut by industrial loggers; for another, not all commercial-sized trees are removed in harvesting operations, as some have poor form and others are inaccessible; and thirdly, local people tend to gather forest foods within a limited radius of their villages (Noutcheu et al. 2016, Muvatsi et al. 2017, Taedoumg et al. 2018).The potential of forest foods to address food insecurity has been neglected by governments, donors, non-governmental organizations and community-based initiatives for decades,","tokenCount":"6189"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c79e1ac80c82ac9758c82c6a8d272ea1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1adf4da4-c0e4-4dda-bd75-83551bfd0a96/retrieve","id":"-1824272319"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"95e8eb7c-a0e5-4496-b2a6-d64273ba2442","pagecount":"25","content":"Andreas Wilkes (UNIQUE forestry and land use, Germany) Shimels Eshete Wassie (UNIQUE forestry and land use, Germany) Derek Baker (University of New England, Australia)To complement an ongoing CCAFS project 'Enhancing capacities for MRV of sustainable livestock action in East Africa (Kenya and Ethiopia)', implemented by UNIQUE forestry and land use, ACIAR is supporting CCAFS to implement a Small Research Activity (SRA) entitled 'Building capacities for an integrated livestock MRV system in Ethiopia'. The objective of the SRA is to support improvements in methods and procedures used to produce and manage the livestock activity data required for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of greenhouse gases (GHG) in Ethiopia. The focus will be on administrative data that is needed for periodic MRV (including both the GHG inventory and mitigation reporting), and data gaps that can be filled through surveys. The SRA will be implemented between June 2019 and the end of December 2020. This report is the first deliverable under the SRA and describes the priority needs for improvement of livestock activity data in Ethiopia's national MRV systems.Section 1 summarizes the international MRV requirements for GHG inventories and reporting on mitigation actions and outcomes, and describes how these international requirements relate to Ethiopian national policies and MRV systems. In addition to GHG inventory compilation, Ethiopia is pursuing GHG mitigation through its Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy (CRGE).The report highlights the indicators tracked in the CRGE MRV system and methods used for calculations of emission reductions and discusses issues related to data sources and institutional arrangements for data management in MRV of CRGE.Section 2 summarizes data needs for the GHG inventory and CRGE MRV, and explains why adopting a more advanced (Tier 2) methodology in the GHG inventory will help meet national policy needs and international reporting standards. It also summarizes results of Tier 2 GHG inventory data gap analysis and uncertainty analysis as well as assessment of the current working procedures (data management procedures, institutional arrangements, capacities) for CRGE MRV systems.Section 3 provides information on the ongoing initiatives related to data improvement for Ethiopia's national MRV system in the livestock sector and potential synergies between these initiatives.Section 4 outlines priority actions for livestock MRV improvement on short-(< 6 months), medium-(6-18 months) and longer-term (>18 months) time frames. The outline roadmap for livestock MRV improvements can serve as a reference for different stakeholders to orient and coordinate their investments and activities in support of livestock MRV improvements.  1 The NC should include a national GHG inventory, 2 and the BUR should include an update to the national GHG inventory. 3 The latest year reported for GHG emissions in BURs should be no more than 4 years prior to the year of submission. In addition, in the NC parties should report information on policies, programmes or other steps implemented or planned to mitigate climate change. BURs should also report information on mitigation actions and their effects, including associated methodologies and assumptions. Under the Paris Agreement, parties have agreed to shift towards a common reporting system applicable to both developed and developing countries, to be implemented from 2024. 4 The core of this MRV system is a Biennial Transparency Report, which is to be submitted every 2 years by each country, including Ethiopia. This report should include a national GHG inventory and a report of progress made in implementing and achieving the nationally determined contribution (NDC). Thus, in summary, countries such as Ethiopia should be able to regularly compile and submit a national GHG inventory and regularly report on the effects of mitigation actions. Ethiopia's national inventories should be compiled using methods consistent with the IPCC Guidelines. For reporting on the effects of mitigation actions and progress towards NDCs, there is more flexibility for Ethiopia to develop its own methods for accounting for emission reductions. However, it is expected that these methods will be consistent with the IPCC Guidelines 5 and that whatever methodologies and assumptions are used, they should be transparently reported.Source: This study.Ethiopia is a signatory to the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. It is also implementing its own national strategy, the Climate Resilience Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy 6 , which has been mainstreamed into the national development plan, the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-II, 2016-2020). A new ten year Perspective Development Plan is currently being developed. Therefore, Ethiopia has both national and international needs for MRV (Figure 1).National GHG inventory: Ethiopia submitted NCs in 2001 and 2016. 7 The 2016 NC included a GHG inventory covering emissions from 1994 to 2013. 8 For livestock GHG emissions, a Tier 1 methodology was used. Ethiopia is currently in the process of compiling its next BUR, including the GHG inventory update, to be completed in 2020. In the GHG inventory for 2013, livestock emissions -including categories 3A1 enteric fermentation, 3A2 manure management N2O and CH4, and 3C4 direct N2O emissions from managed soils, 3C5 indirect N2O emissions from managed soils which include emissions from dung and urine deposited on pasture -are identified as key source categories. Key source categories are defined as those that \"when summed together in descending order of magnitude, add up to 95% of the total level\". 9Good practice in inventory compilation (IPCC 2006) recommends that key source categories should be estimated using a higher tier methodology. According to the key source category analysis in Ethiopia's last national communication, key source categories are taken as those with a 2013 level over about 2,000 Gg CO2e. Ethiopia's key source analysis in the 2013 inventory was also conducted only for broad emission categories (e.g. \"3A1 enteric fermentation\") that include all livestock species. More detailed reporting for the livestock sector estimated enteric fermentation emissions for cattle of 41,850 Gg CO2e, sheep 3,312.5 Gg CO2e and goats 3,125 Gg CO2e using the Tier 1 methodology. Therefore, following IPCC guidance a higher tier (Tier 2) methodology should be applied to cattle, sheep and goats.  • Increased supply and consumption of lower-emitting animal species (17.7 Mt CO2e), assuming that poultry account for 30% of animal source protein supply in 2030; 15• Substituting draft oxen with mechanized ploughing and tillage (11.2 Mt CO2e), assuming 13.2 million households reached;• Rangeland carbon sequestration (3 Mt CO2e), assuming 5 million ha improved.Specific methodologies describing how progress towards these indicators are to be measured (e.g. GHG sinks and sources included, livestock types included, data sources and calculation methods)have not yet been elaborated.The livestock sector has also adopted a Livestock Master Plan (LMP). 16 The LMP is aligned with GTP II. The key activities set out in the LMP overlap with the livestock sector intervention areas in the CRGE, but are not identical. Although the LMP document included an estimate of GHG emission levels under the plan implementation scenario, GHG emission reductions were not estimated and no GHG emission reduction targets were set. Therefore, for MRV in the livestock sector, the orienting strategy is the CRGE rather than the LMP. Alignment of the two is a possible area of future work, but is not formally on the policy agenda at present. 17In addition to national requirements for MRV, it is important to note that there is also interest in estimating GHG emissions and emission reductions at regional level within Ethiopia. In general, this interest is growing because of the increasing awareness at regional level of their roles in delivering on the national GHG mitigation strategy and because of the potential to leverage climate finance if the effects of mitigation actions can be tracked. In some regions, it is also specifically related to climate investments. For example, the World Bank has been developing the Oromia Forested Landscape Program in Oromia Region. 18 Initially, this focusses on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, but recently there is interest to include livestock emissions as part of a landscape-wide approach. Reliable GHG inventories and MRV systems for tracking emission reductions due to change in the livestock sector are therefore also relevant at regional level.Institutional arrangements for MRV are only partially in place. At national level, the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission (EFCCC) is responsible for preparation of NCs and BURs, GHG inventories, and for reporting progress on the CRGE. Collation of data for the national inventory and CRGE reporting related to the agriculture sector is the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture's Environment and Climate Change Directorate (ECCD), as defined in an MoU between the two agencies. Data collection and reporting on the core CRGE indicators that have been integrated into GTP II is also the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture. Figure 2 shows how institutional arrangements for livestock MRV are currently conceived. In theory, this would mean that at national level, the ECCD would compile data reported by each directorate, which would in turn request the data from livestock bureaus at the regional level. The regional level would obtain the data required through the administrative data collection system which provides data from kebele to woreda to zone and region level. In practice, there are a number of barriers to implementing MRV through this system. but is incomplete and not yet implemented at regional level.  Second, there are multiple practical barriers to collection and management of good quality administrative data, including barriers to sharing data from the regional to the national level. Some of these challenges are summarized in Box 2.Extension agent and veterinary officer located at each kebele collect data from each householdExtension supervisor aggregate information from extension agent, veterinary officer per kebele and send to Zone  Third, there are disparities between the official national livestock population data and the data reported in the administrative data system. Official national livestock population data are collected through an annual sample survey by the Central Statistics Agency (CSA). The CSA survey includes data on livestock population, breed type and livestock product yields, and is available for most of the period since 1994. Administrative data, by contrast, is rarely available for the whole time series in all regions, and CSA data rather than administrative data is referred to by some regional governments. Regional governments often remark, however, that there is a disparity between CSA data and their own data. Furthermore, the CSA data does not include animals on commercial farms, urban or peri-urban livestock, and due to security concerns livestock population surveys have not been conducted in 5 out of 16 zones in pastoral zones of Afar Region and Somali Region.With the proposed shift from a Tier 1 to Tier 2 GHG inventory to better reflect Ethiopia's national circumstances and improve the accuracy of the inventory, more country-and region-specific data is required. Data sources will change based on the needs of the Tier 2 inventory, and institutional arrangements should be adjusted accordingly to support data collection, management and reporting from the sources required for a Tier 2 inventory. Therefore, within the existing national institutional framework, there will be a need to revise the specific institutional arrangements for inventory and CRGE report compilation in order to maintain consistency between data sources used in the GHG inventory and MRV of CRGE.According to the GTP-II monitoring matrix, CRGE livestock interventions are supposed to be monitored using administrative data collected and reported by each region to the Ministry of Agriculture. However, disparity between the methods employed by different regions, lack of standardize data collection methodology and manuals to guide data collection and management mean that there is no standardized understanding of the data parameters, data collection tools and methods to be used.Additional challenges include:• Capacities (skills, time, resources) for data collection at the lowest administration level are limited;• Skills of livestock experts to translate raw data into information for input into templates for submission to the planning directorate is a common challenge;• No computer facilities at lower levels so data management is highly dependent on paper-based formats, leading to high risks of errors during data entry as well as limited traceability of errors in the data;• Although the monitoring and evaluation unit at zonal and regional level expected to regularly conduct monitoring practice, the unit perform infrequently due to lack of expertise and budget (costs like transportation of field officers);• There is no continuous system for data sharing between regional and national levels, and data is often not shared even when requested.Data source: regional assessments conducted for this study.Given the constraints on administrative data processes, regional governments are not always able to provide a consistent time series of complete data for many key parameters. For livestock populations and some other key parameters (e.g. milk yields, feed sources), data collected by Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency (CSA) is often used instead of administrative data. CSA conducts an annual livestock sample survey, collecting data on animal populations and key management and animal performance parameters. CSA has 25 branch offices and recruits local enumerators each year, with a supervisor for every 3 enumerators. Supervisors are supervised by statisticians. Data are collected on tablets, transmitted to other devices by Bluetooth and then onwards to CSA central office by a specialized private SIM to the CSA server. While CSA procedures are standardized, and CSA is able to provide a consistent time series for the data collected, there are some data gaps (e.g. no sampling is conducted in commercial farms or urban / peri-urban areas, and no data is collected on some animal performance parameters critical for the GHG inventory such as animal live weights) and local governments often contest the accuracy of CSA data.Overall, this assessment suggests that in the further development of Ethiopia's GHG inventory and CRGE MRV, choices of data sources based on principles for good practice in inventory compilation 19 may require reconsideration of data sources and thus roles and mandates and institutional arrangements. Once data sources, roles and mandates are agreed, irrespective of which organization takes on which roles in data collection and management, needs assessments and capacity building support may be needed to support continuous improvement of data quality.This section describes the key results from analysis of a draft GHG inventory for cattle (Section 2.1) and results of assessments of data needs and institutional procedures for MRV of CRGE (Sections 2.2 and 2.3).Based on the analysis of national MRV needs, it follows that Ethiopia has policy needs to apply the IPCC Tier 2 methodology to emissions from cattle, sheep and goats, and to produce both national and regional GHG inventories at least every two years. Because of the specific interventions proposed in the CRGE, it would be ideal if the national GHG inventory could reflect the GHG effects of the intended changes due to the CRGE interventions. These include: Change in numbers of animals of each species; Change in numbers of animals in different production systems (e.g. production in commercial dairy farms and beef feedlots)  Change in breed; 19 These are transparency, accuracy, completeness, comparability and consistency (IPCC 2006). Change in productivity per animal; Change in reproductive performance; Change in oxen numbers and work hours.By March 2020, draft GHG inventories for cattle, sheep and goats had been prepared. These draft inventories indicate where data is unavailable and thus missing data that needs to be filled. Some parameters were estimated using limited available data, so while the situation cannot be described as 'missing data', there may be data gaps because of poor quality data. Furthermore, uncertainty analysis was applied to these draft inventories to indicate which parameters are most important for improving the accuracy of the inventory. Improving data quality for these key parameters is important even if the existing data has been deemed sufficient for an initial Tier 2 inventory, because improved data quality can reduce the uncertainty of the inventory estimates.Based on the draft inventories, the data gaps (i.e. missing data) listed in Table 2 were identified, and the parameters listed in Table 3 were identified as being based on very limited or poorquality data. In the short-term, an inventory can be completed using proxy data (e.g. live animal and meat export data as a proxy for commercial feedlot cattle populations), or the best available national data or international default values can be where national data quality is limited. Future improvements in data availability would then provide new, improved data and the GHG inventory can be revised accordingly, as stipulated in the IPCC (2006) Guidelines. 20  Uncertainty analysis was also applied to the draft inventories and identified the parameters that contributed most significantly to uncertainty in emissions from cattle enteric fermentation and 20 See IPCC (2006) Vol 1 Chapter 5 on recalculations due to methodological revisions or refinements.manure management methane emissions. 21 The key parameters to reduce uncertainty of cattle enteric fermentation and manure management methane emissions are shown in Tables 4 and  5. The interpretation of the correlation coefficients is: a regression coefficient of 0 indicates no relationship between an input variable and output variable, while a value of 1 or -1 indicates that a 1 or -1 standard deviation change in the input variable will lead to a 1 or -1 standard deviation change in the output variable. It is notable that for both enteric fermentation and manure management, the majority of the most influential variables can be improved with better activity data, especially on feed digestibility and live weight of different cattle sub-categories. It should be remembered that these results were derived from analysis of a draft inventory that does not include full enumeration of cattle in pastoral zones and in the commercial or urban/peri-urban systems. The total proportions of cattle in the commercial or urban/peri-urban systems are likely to be small, but it is possible that the missing population in the pastoral areas is large. If so, animal performance parameters in the pastoral / agro-pastoral system would most likely be important. It is also notable that there is an overlap in some of the influential variables (e.g. digestibility, live weight) on enteric fermentation and manure management emissions, indicating that better data on these parameters would reduce the uncertainty of both emission sources.Parameter Regression coefficient Digestibility, cow, mixed crop-livestock system -0.50 Live weight, cow, mixed crop-livestock system 0.38 Digestibility, oxen, mixed crop-livestock system -0.34 Live weight, oxen, mixed crop-livestock system 0.30 Ym, cow, mixed crop-livestock system 0.29 Cf, cow, mixed crop-livestock system 0.28 Cf, oxen, mixed crop-livestock system 0.22 Ym, oxen, mixed crop-livestock system 0.20 Number of cows, mixed crop-livestock system 0.10 Digestibility, cow, pastoral / agro-pastoral system -0.10 Weight gain, growing female, mixed crop-livestock system 0.09 Digestibility, growing female, mixed crop-livestock system -0.09 Digestibility, growing male, mixed crop-livestock system -0.08 Live weight, cow, pastoral / agro-pastoral system 0.07 Number of oxen, mixed crop-livestock system 0.07 Hours of work per day, oxen, mixed crop-livestock system 0.07 Note: Ym = methane conversion factor; Cf = coefficient for maintenanceRegression coefficient Methane conversion factor, solid storage 0.52 MMS% solid storage, mixed crop-livestock system 0.52 Digestibility, cow, mixed crop-livestock system -0.26 Bo 0.24 Methane conversion factor, liquid storage, 12 months, dairy system 0.19 MMS%, liquid / pit storage, dairy system 0.18 Digestibility, oxen, mixed crop-livestock system -0.18 Digestibility, cow, dairy system -0.16 Live weight, cow, mixed crop-livestock system 0.13 MMS% solid storage, pastoral / agro-pastoral system 0.12 Live weight, oxen, mixed crop-livestock system 0.10 Cf, cow, mixed crop-livestock system 0.09 Cf, oxen, mixed crop-livestock system 0.08 Digestibility, cow, pastoral / agro-pastoral system -0.07 Note: MMS = manure management system; Bo = maximum methane producing capacity; Cf = coefficient for maintenance.Based on the analysis of national MRV needs, it follows that Ethiopia has policy needs to monitor progress in implementing the CRGE strategy in the livestock sector and to account for the resulting emission reductions. The data sources and methodologies used for MRV of CRGE should as far as possible be consistent and comparable with those used in the national GHG inventory, and the GHG inventory should to the greatest extent possible be capable of reflecting the changes targeted by CRGE interventions.The CRGE strategy set out a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, which was based on historical livestock population growth rates, adjusted using other assumptions, using emission factors estimated based on further assumptions. These assumptions could be reviewed in the light of revised Tier 2 emission factors and other activity data, and in the light of subsequent trends in livestock numbers. For each CRGE intervention assessed in the strategy document, with-intervention scenarios were developed that estimated emission reductions on the assumption that increased productivity would result in reductions in herd size. While this may have been a practical method for ex ante analysis, it presents difficulties for monitoring of progress, because reductions in livestock numbers are not observable. International good practices are emerging that calculate emission reductions based on changes in emission intensity (unit CO2e per unit livestock product), where both baseline and with-intervention emission intensity can be calculated using observed data. 22 Therefore, in addition to updating the existing scenarios using Tier 2 emission factors, alternative methodological approaches for scenario setting and GHG accounting should be explored. Methodologies for calculating the existing livestock related CRGE core indicators have not yet been elaborated. However, analysis of the methodologies used to construct the original CRGE scenarios, suggests likely data needs as shown in Table 6. Almost all of the CRGE data needs shown in Table 6 are also data requirements for the Tier 2 GHG inventory. Depending on how alternative CRGE scenarios are designed, additional parameters, such as dressing percentage, milk and meat protein content, and data on sheep and goats as well as data on poultry meat and egg production, protein content and manure management may also be required.The existing proposals for the operationalization of livestock MRV have not been fully implemented, and a Tier 2 inventory and CRGE monitoring would imply some changes in data sources and thus institutional roles (although the overall national framework would not change). This provides an opportunity to review and streamline institutional arrangements and data management procedures and to develop implementation plans to ensure that capacities are built where they are needed. Specific proposals have yet to be developed, but should take into consideration the following: National livestock population data should be expanded from the current rural household coverage to include urban/peri-urban and commercial livestock populations. Data sources used in the GHG inventory and for CRGE monitoring should be as consistent as possible. This would support consistency in GHG estimates and also minimize duplication of efforts. Irrespective of which institutions are responsible for collecting data on which parameters, there is a need to support data quality by developing standardized data collection protocols and manuals to standardize data management procedures across regions in the country. Ensure that roles and mandates for data collection and management are consistent with available human capacities and financial resources. Data management procedures such as quality control and quality assurance should be incorporated at higher administration levels (e.g. zone and region). Investment in improving data availability and quality may be more forthcoming if initiatives are designed to meet other needs in addition to MRV. Technological advances (apps) that are accessible (not expensive) could be used to track the activity data related to livestock performance. For instance, there is a possibility to collect data by means of mobile communications (smart phone or tablet).Ethiopia's national MRV system is still evolving, and there are also several initiatives supporting MRV improvement in the livestock sector. There is general agreement among relevant stakeholders of the necessity to maximize synergies between these initiatives. At national level, several agencies are supporting further development of MRV systems managed by EFCCC and line ministries, including the Global Environment Facility (GEF)/UNDP, World Bank 23 and Global Green Growth Institute. 24 In particular, one project supported by the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) 25 will include support to the national GHG inventory system, including capacity building in the agriculture sector, and the EU-supported 'Tracking and Strengthening Climate Action' (TASCA) project, intends to also provide support at sector level. 26 The following initiatives are specifically related to livestock MRV:Livestock and Fisheries Sector Development Project (2017-2024): LFSDP is a World Bank loan project implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. This project is working in six regions and is focused on increasing efficiency of dairy, beef and poultry value chain, and commercialization of livestock sector, including fisheries. The project results framework requires monitoring of GHG emissions per unit of milk and meat, for which the project will support development of Tier 2 emission factors. There is also a component that will fund the development of an integrated livestock information platform linking with other existing databases in the country. In addition, there are other initiatives related to livestock information systems that may have links to MRV, such as a project supported by ILRI/CIAT that will produce a roadmap for improvement the national livestock information system.The policy needs, data gaps for MRV and ongoing initiatives in Ethiopia were discussed at a stakeholder workshop in February 2020. The workshop discussions resulted in proposed priority actions for MRV improvement on short-(< 6 months), medium-(6-18 months) and longer-term (>18 months) time frames. The outline roadmap presented in  Discuss mandates, roles and responsibilities for data collection, analysis and coordination of medium-term data improvement activities c)Design, test and evaluate methods for filling data gaps and collecting better quality data, including sampling design, data collection protocols, data management and data analysis procedures. ","tokenCount":"4190"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2d3282691884c08dbab5ff8783d11bc0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dab036ea-5ca2-4a51-931d-d27f91591ad2/retrieve","id":"-292531775"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d2f50915-7ec5-46da-abd7-f8274611766a","pagecount":"4","content":"Unsustainable demands on water resources, pollution, and the impacts of climate change threaten our water security, impacting food security, the energy transition, human wellbeing, and ecosystems.Calls for action are growing louder and the world must respond. Maintaining the status quo is not an option.Water insecurity disproportionately affects vulnerable communities in the Global South, and climate change is intensifying water risks. Water security is essential for a safe, just and sustainable future.The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) believes we need a transformative agenda for future water security.Transforming water systems entails delivering and scaling sustainable solutions for water across food, land, energy and ecosystems, reducing future water risks and strengthening gender equality and social inclusion.Convergence on collective action is key, aligning the policy, development, business and science communities to catalyze and scale change in water systems.Driving Action • Propelling ChangeThe urgency of addressing global water security challenges has never been clearer.Water security is complex and multifaceted; it is a 'wicked problem' that cuts across global challenges. With strong local roots in Africa and Asia, our commitment to transforming water systems is deep. We understand the intricacies of waterrelated challenges, and backed by rigorous science, we navigate these complexities through established and emerging partner networks. Our work begins locally, and our approach and results resonate globally.advance the transformation of water systems for sustainable, just and climate-resilient development.Since we were founded 40 years ago, IWMI has been working towards a water-secure world.In 2023, we asked over a thousand representatives from 440 organizations and 55 countries about their priorities for water security.IWMI gathered representatives from national and local governments, youth networks, civil society, the private sector, knowledge generators, investors, and water users across sectors in dialogue.This collaborative effort resulted in a collective call for a high-ambition, missiondriven agenda to transform future water security. From these discussions emerged eight high-ambition missions that guide IWMI and our partners in bridging the science-policy-action gap.IWMI is committed to promoting collective action on water security at all levels.Our new strategy for 2024-2030 emphasizes how important water is for people, the economy and nature.As a water organization, we know we must reach beyond water for truly transformative impact.Our goal is to build relationships that allow us to co-create and jointly deliver solutions. We believe shared challenges require shared solutions and we are committed to making partnership core to our way of working, our organizational culture, and our way of propelling change.At IWMI, we continue to changeWe are immensely proud of our achievements and our ability to respond and evolve in the face of a changing world. We are building on that momentum with our new strategy as we look to increase our ambition.Solutions to complex water problems lie in aligning efforts across disciplines, sectors and local to global levels.Now, as we begin implementing our new strategy, we recognize that convergence on collective action is key. We will work with networks and partnerships to harness the collective strengths of governments, the private sector, civil society and science to design, implement and scale water security.As a research-for-development organization, we bring our proven ability to generate and share impactful science and knowledge. We are making a clear and intentional shift to leverage the power of partnerships and better connect our research and innovation, through collective action, to the implementation and scaling of change in water systems.Our role as a partner is defined by our comparative advantage in knowledge, research and innovation, complementing the efforts of others working on shared goals. Our partnerships span sectors and scales, connecting stakeholders globally to drive action and propel change.The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is an international, research-for-development organization that works with governments, civil society and the private sector to solve water problems in developing countries and scale up solutions. IWMI is a member of CGIAR, which brings together science and innovations, from genes to basins, to help build water security.CGIAR is a network of research centers across the Global South. IWMI is working increasingly closely with other centers and across integrated CGIAR programs, to deliver science and innovation that advance the transformation of food, land and water systems in a climate crisis.IWMI's strategy goes hand-in-hand with the new One CGIAR Water Systems Integration Roadmap (2024-2030), which breaks new ground in leveraging the power of partnership in CGIAR and beyond to apply science in building water security.","tokenCount":"719"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3902aa1dce67e8fe414403afe4a0001f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cbc4af4b-7d92-4372-9778-b42ff2734fc3/retrieve","id":"912197911"},"keywords":["Albizia caribea in Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens, Mauritius","Credit: Bioversity International/P","Bordoni; Inside photo:"],"sieverID":"9349ebe3-4857-4ab6-8c44-ef92a55c0fdf","pagecount":"60","content":"Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization. We have a visionthat agricultural biodiversity nourishes people and sustains the planet. We deliver scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural and tree biodiversity to attain sustainable global food and nutrition security. We work with partners in low-income countries in different regions where agricultural and tree biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation. Bioversity International is a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Consortiuma global research partnership for a foodsecure future. www.bioversityinternational.org The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is a strategic partnership of the CGIAR and Future Earth, led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. CCAFS brings together the world's best researchers in agricultural science, development research, climate science and Earth System science, to identify and address the most important interactions, synergies and tradeoffs between climate change, agriculture and food security. www.ccafs.cgiar.org The ABS Capacity Development Initiative aims to contribute to poverty reduction, food security, technology transfer, social development including equity and rights, and biodiversity conservation through implementing the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization and the third objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Established in 2006, the ABS Capacity Development Initiative is hosted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and funded by the governments of Germany, Norway and Denmark, the Institut de la Francophonie pour le développement durable and the European Union. www.abs-initiative.info/ The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is a crucial instrument in the fight against hunger and poverty in an era of climate change and food crisis. No country is self-sufficient in plant genetic resources; all depend on genetic diversity in crops from other countries and regions. International cooperation and open exchange of genetic resources are therefore essential for food security. The fair sharing of benefits arising from the use of these resources has for the first time been practically implemented at the international level through the International Treaty, its Standard Material Transfer Agreement and the Benefit-sharing Fund. www.planttreaty.org The Convention on Biological Diversity opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entered into force in December 1993. The Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. With 196 Parties up to now, the Convention has near un iversal participation among countries. The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from climate change, through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the full and active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous peoples and local communities, youth, non-governmental organizations, women and the business community. The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (the Nagoya Protocol) is a supplementary agreement to the Convention.The objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) are basically identicalthe conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources and the equitable sharing of benefits derived from their use. 2 However, the access and benefit sharing (ABS) systems that these agreements require member states to implement are very different in orientation. The ITPGRFA creates a multilateral system of access and benefit sharing (MLS) whereby countries agree to virtually pool and share the genetic resources of 64 crops and forages listed in Annex 1 of the treaty, for agriculture and food-related purposes. The CBD and its Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (NP) create mechanisms for the negotiation and enforcement of bilateral ABS agreements. 3 The CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA/MLS are meant to be implemented in mutually supportive ways. However, many national policy actors are uncertain about how to actually implement these agreements so that they really are mutually supportive. One of the factors contributing to this uncertainty is that, in most countries, different lead agencies have responsibility for implementing the respective agreements and these agencies have not had sufficient opportunities to coordinate their activities with one another. The agency responsible for implementing the CBD/NP often has a very low level of familiarity with the ITPGRFA and vice versa. Many policy actors perceive 'grey areas' where it is not clear which regulatory system should apply. And the lead agencies often do not have mechanisms in place to facilitate interaction and exchange of information between them for the purposes of addressing and clarifying those 'grey areas' in the day -to-day implementation of the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA/MLS.The overall objective of this reportand the survey, workshop and follow-up analysis upon which it is based -is to provide national policy actors with a tool to increase their ability and confidence to implement the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA/MLS in mutually supportive ways.The Tandem Workshop for National Focal Points, 3-6 June 2014, brought together national focal points for both the CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA from 20 countries, representatives of the Secretariats of both instruments, independent experts and representatives of stakeholder groups whose daily activities of conserving, providing, accessing and using genetic resources often cut across the regulatory division between the CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA/MLS. The workshop sought to demystify perceptions of 'grey area issues' by providing the national focal points opportunities to work through practical problems related to these issues together, arriving at clear, operable solutions. It also sought to provide participants with the opportunity to consider options for coordination mechanisms and practices 'back home' to be able to address such issues on an ongoing basis.The basic chronology of the workshop was as follows: Experts provided introductions to the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA, with descriptions of their objectives, mechanics, state of implementation and outstanding challenges. Representatives of different stakeholder groupsseed companies, conservation organizations, farmer organizations, public research organizations and international and national genebanksprovided accounts of their experiences operating under the framework of the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA/MLS. Where relevant, they highlighted their experiences 'at the interface' of the two regimes. These presentations were meant to increase the national focal points' appreciation of the practical consequences that flow from the manner in which the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA are implemented (or not implemented, in many cases). Thereafter, 'tandems' (the natio nal focal points for the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA from a single country working together as a team) from a few countries provided accounts of their experiences to date implementing both instruments. These were complemented by presentations from the African Union Commission and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community concerning their efforts at regional levels to support implementation of both instruments.Please send comments to Michael Halewood, corresponding editor (m.halewood@cgiar.org)With the scene thus set, the participants spent 1.5 days in small groups working through hypothetical cases that 'teased out' technical issues that could cause confusion at the intersection of national strategies/mechanisms to implement the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA/MLS. These case scenarios were based on issues raised in relevant literature, in national ABS policy implementation projects, in questions that have been directed to the workshop organizers over the last years and in a survey of all of the participants that was conducted prior to the workshop. On the last day of the workshop, the participants engaged in a highly participatory exercise to identify good practices for the lead agencies responsible for implementing the CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA to coordinate with one another and with other stakeholders who play important roles in the day-to-day roll out and implementation of both instruments.While immediately useful for all of the workshop participants, the organizers' intention was had to be filled in by both the national focal point for the CBD/NP and the national focal point for the ITPGRFA from a single country (that is, a tandem application) in order to be considered. It also requested information about implementation successes and challenges in applicants' countries and why the applicants felt participation in the workshop woul d be beneficial to their domestic implementation efforts. The same invitations to consider submitting expressions of interest were sent to the national focal points in Asian and Central and South American countries that were known to be in the process of addressing related issues. Ultimately, the organizers received more applications than there were spaces in the workshop; so they had to make hard choices about which teams to invite, based on the information provided in the expressions of interest.To ensure that the workshop was tailored to meet the outstanding needs of the participants, the organizers developed an online survey for the participants to fill in in order to get indepth feedback about implementation challenges and successes, coordination mechanisms, factors contributing to the current state of coordination in the countries concerned and so on. The results were used to develop hypothetical case scenarios and workshop design. They were also presented back to the participants in the introductory session. The surveys also provided a useful base line against which future progress in each of the countries concerned could be measured. To ensure that participants came to the workshop with a common understanding of the issues to be addressed, they were provided, one month in advance, with two published papers addressing interface issues and other introductory materials concerning the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA/MLS. 5 To ensure that all participants were equally able to participate in the meeting, simultaneous French/English interpretation was provided. The text that follows is meant to capture those contributions by participants, both individually and collectively, that were most directly related to promoting the national implementation of the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA/MLS in mutually supportive ways. Time and space will not allow for summaries of the presentations and discussionswhile interesting in their own rightthat were tangentially related to the central theme of the workshop.(Links to all presentations that were made are available in Annex 3 to this report.) In this way, we hope this report will constitute an accessible, easy-to-follow resource for policy actors in all countries to use when they are considering options for national implementation of the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA/MLS. The MLS created by the ITPGRFA has been operational since 2007. In addition to undertaking to implement and participate in the MLS, the ITPGRFA contracting parties agree to take actions with respect to conserving, exploring, collecting, characterizing and documenting plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), to promote the sustainable use of those resources and to promote farmers' rights, pursuant to national policy measures. They also agree to cooperate in developing a global PGRFA information system through which, among other things, users can share non-confidential scientific information about PGRFA they have obtained through the MLS, thereby adding value to the system as a whole. Through the MLS, contracting parties agree to provide facilitated access to PGRFA of 64 crops and forages included in Annex 1 of the ITPGRFA, 'for utilization and conservation for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture, provided that such purpose does not include chemical, pharmaceutical and/or other non-food/feed industrial uses.' Annex 1 PGRFA that are 'under the management and control of contracting parties and in the public domain' are automatically included in the MLS. Contracting parties also undertake to create policy incentives for natural and legal persons within their borders to voluntarily include additional PGRFA in the MLS. A third source of germplasm in the MLS is international institutions, which sign agreements with the governing body of the ITPGRFA to place collections under the ITPGRFA's framework.All MLS materials are transferred using the standard material transfer agreement (SMTA) adopted by the ITPGRFA governing body in 2006. The SMTA includes mandatory financial benefit-sharing clauses and prohibits recipients from seeking rights that would limit access to materials 'in the form received, from the multilateral system.' All transfers are reported to Please send comments to Michael Halewood, corresponding editor (m.halewood@cgiar.org) a confidential data base that can be accessed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), which has been accepted to represent the third party beneficiary interests of the MLS, with the authority to monitor transactions and initiate legal actions in the event of suspected non-compliance by recipients of SMTA conditions.Presentation by Kathryn Garforth, CBD Secretariat (prerecorded), and Susanne Heitmüller,The Nagoya Protocol includes a number of linkages to the ITPGRFA including in its preamble and in Article 8 where the parties are required to consider the importance of genetic resources for food and agriculture (GRFA) and their special role for food security in the development and implementation of their ABS measures. Furthermore, paragraph 4 of Article 4 provides, in part, that where a specialized international ABS instrument applies, the Nagoya Protocol does not apply for the party or parties to the specialized instrument in respect of specific genetic resources covered by and for the purpose of the specialized instrument. This was intended to address the relationship between the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol.The Nagoya Protocol's obligations are focused on three aspects:• Accessusers seeking access to genetic resources must get permission from the provider country (known as prior informed consent or PIC), unless otherwise determined by that country. The Protocol's provisions on access go beyond the CBD by providing for the establishment of clear and transparent procedures for access in order to create greater legal certainty. Furthermore, where indigenous and local communities (ILCs) have an established right to grant access to genetic resources, Parties are to take measures with the aim of ensuring that the prior informed consent of the ILCs is obtained for access to such resources.• Benefit-sharingproviders and users must negotiate an agreement to share benefits resulting from the use of a genetic resource (known as mutually agreed terms or MAT).• Compliancethe Protocol obliges Parties to put systems in place to require users in its jurisdiction to comply with the ABS requirements of the country providing access to genetic resources. To support compliance, the Protocol also provides for monitoring of the utilization of genetic resources, which is done primarily through checkpoints and the internationally recognized certificate of compliance.The Protocol also addresses traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources.Parties are required to take measures with the aim of ensuring that traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources that is held by ILCs is accessed with the prior informed consent of those ILCs and that mutually agreed terms have been established.  states that it is in harmony with the CBD and that its objectives will be best attained by linking closely with the FAO and the CBD. The ITPGRFA's governing body has adopted resolutions calling on its own contracting parties to ratify the Nagoya Protocol and implement it in mutually supportive ways with the MLS. They also call on national focal points for both the CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA to enhance their collaboration as well as on the Secretariats of both instruments to work closely together. (The full text of these paragraphs, articles and resolutions is reproduced in Annex 4 of this report.)Indeed, the Secretariats of the CBD and the ITPGRFA have signed a memorandum of cooperation to share information, coordinate technical assistance, hold workshops, and so on. To this end, they have also worked togetherand with the ABS Initiative and BioversityPlease send comments to Michael Halewood, corresponding editor (m.halewood@cgiar.org) 10Internationalin organizing this workshop. They are also both members of the Biodiversity Liaison Group with five more biodiversity-related conventions.The text of the online survey instrumentwhich was published in both French and Englishis included in Annex 5. Thirty-six national focal points responded to the survey. For 16 countries, independent responses were received from both the focal point for the ITPGRFA and the focal point for the CBD/NP, which provided an opportunity to compare different perspectives within the same countries on coordination issues. Most of the tandems (12/16 or 75 percent) had at least one respondent who described the state of coordination between the lead agencies responsible for the implementation of the ITPGRFA and the CBD/NP as 'very limited' or 'limited.' They identified the following contributing factors:• the lead agencies have a long history of working independently of one another, with little information flow back and forth and with low levels of awareness about each other's activities, including their activities related to the implementation of either the CBD/NP or the ITPGRFA;• there are very few mechanismsformal or informalfor interagency coordination for harmonized implementation or, if they exist, they are not active;• there is a lack of human and financial resources for coordination;• there are low levels of political commitment to coordination with other agencies and high staff turn-over in lead agencies;• there is an inequality in status and capacities of the two lead agencies;• the national focal points are powerless to act in absence of executive orders or regulations confirming their mandates;• there is a low level of stakeholders' awareness and demand for the instruments to be implemented;• there is a lack of clarity about the technical inter-linkages between the instruments, and• there are pre-existing national ABS laws that do not leave room for the implementation of the MLS.Three tandems agreed that the state of coordination was 'adequate'; one reported that interagency coordination was 'strong.' They cited the following factors as having a positive influence:• the same lead agency is responsible for implementing both instruments;• both national focal points (for CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA) participate in national biodiversity and genetic resources committees, including those that had previously been struck to develop national biodiversity strategic action plans (NBSAP) under the CBD framework;• the CBD focal point attends international ITPGRFA meetings, and the ITPGRFA focal point attends international CBD meetings;• there is a high level of stakeholder awareness about the issues and instruments;• some stakeholders have the ability to play a role in implementation, and• there are clear national policies and laws setting out rights, responsibilities and processes.Three country tandems reported the existence of official mechanisms for coordinating implementation of the CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA/MLS. They cited multi-agency and sometimes multi-stakeholder committees that had been created to support the implementation of the CBD (with participation from the lead agency for the ITPGFA/MLS) and national commissions for biodiversity and genetic resources. Half of the respondents reported the existence of various forms of informal coordination mechanisms including occasional meetings of focal points, consultations supported by capacity-building projects, the joint participation of local people in activities related to the implementation of both the CBD and the ITPGRFA and non-governmental organizations making functional connections between the lead agencies in their roles as partners in implementation projects for the CBD/NP or the ITPGRFA. Slightly less than half of the respondents reported that there had been awareness-raising sessions within the lead agencies for the CBD about the ITPGRFA and vice versa.Only one tandem team agreed that there were established procedures for referring requests for access from one lead agency to the other (in cases where the request was sent to the wrong agency or where the recipient of the request was unsure about who had authority to Please send comments to Michael Halewood, corresponding editor (m.halewood@cgiar.org) 12 consider the request). No tandems confirmed that the lead agencies had worked together t o develop joint awareness-raising materials about the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA or implementation guidelines or tools. automatically or voluntarily included in the MLS and so on. IRRI provides material s directly to farmers using the SMTA when they will be further researching/experimenting with the materials or with a simple agreement for direct use.Please send comments to Michael Halewood, corresponding editor (m.halewood@cgiar.org) A survey made in Germany of around 80 university researchers that have collected biological material from the wild under the CBD/NP and other regulations, found that 80 percent required a collecting permit, 78 percent required an export permit, 69 percent needed a special permit to work in a protected area, 63 percent required a research permit, 28 percent required ABS contracts and 20 percent required all of the above permits. The research chain that was presented illustrates the numerous interactions and connections requiring coordination with agencies that are responsible for granting these kinds of permits.It is very important that funds for research and coordination between the lead agencies for the CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA are made available. It was also noted that at every step of the research chain, it is important that specific benefits, both monetary and non -monetary, are identified taking into account the different types of providers of genetic resources.The Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) is an independent international organization, founded by the FAO and the CGIAR in 2004. It signed a relationship agreement with the governing body of the ITPGRFA, which recognizes it as an essential element of the ITPGRFA's funding strategy. The GCDT hosts an endowment fund to ensure long -term exsitu conservation and availability of PGRFA collections for global food security. The GCDT recently supported the regeneration of 80,000 'at-risk' PGRFA accessions of Annex 1 crops located in 78 countries; 48,000 duplicates of those regenerated accessions (from 58 countries) were sent for safety back-up in other collections, on the understanding that they could be made further available by the recipients through the MLS. Some of the countries were not members of the ITPGRFA, and many of the ITPGRFA member states had not yet put systems in place to implement the Treaty. Nonetheless, in both cases, the countries exercised their sovereignty, pursuant to the applicable national laws, to decide to allow the recipients of the safety back-up materials to further distribute them through the MLS.Ultimately, compliance with phytosanitary and export/import procedures proved to be more challenging than working through the ABS issues.The GCDT is currently supporting countries to collect crop wild relatives of Annex 1 crops, conserve them in their national genebanks and make them available for research and breeding. The project operates through national partner organizations, which are responsible for the collecting and availability of germplasm. The GCDT appreciates the complexities that partner organizations sometimes face in working through regulatory issues and, hence, the importance of workshops such as this one to develop awareness, capacity and tools to lighten national counterparts' burdens in research and conservation projectsThe plant breeding sector now has many years' experience seeking access to PGRFA from countries that have ratified either the CBD (and, more recently, the Nagoya Protocol) and/or the ITPGRFA, but it has had little success. Only in the case of some collections from the MLS has it been successful. Ultimately, for breeders/seed companies, the biggest overall challenge concerns the lack of legal certainty about what rules apply to the materials they are seeking access to, where to direct requests, who will actually make the decisions, according to what criteria, when the decision will be made, who then has the right to physically provide the resources and where to go if there is no reply at all to a request. Many countries still have not appointed competent authorities responsible for administering either the CBD (and now the Nagoya Protocol) or the ITPGRFA. Additionally, there appears to be no coordination between competent authorities (for the respective instruments) to make decisions about where requests should be directed (and who has right to decide) in borderline cases, with the overall result that requests are left unanswered/undecided indefinitely, and neither agreement seems to be de facto implemented/operational. It is essential that authorities are appointed and empowered to make decisions. For the plant breeding sector, the ITPGRFA's MLS is the preferred approach, in as much as it is designed to minimize transaction costs and recognizes the spill-over benefit of the breeders' exemption to all. That said, plant breeding companies are prepared to work through national laws implementing the CBD/NP, provided they are operable, reasonable and can lead relatively quickly to decisions by competent authorities. However, decision makers not familiar with the plant breeding sector need to understand the complexity of the pedigrees of modern varieties, with hundreds of ancestors identifiable in their ancestry, and the challenges associated with identifying the marginal value that each ancestor provides to the new varieties.Via Campesina includes 164 farmer organizations from 73 countries representing 200 million famers worldwide, most of whom produce their own seed. Such small farmers produce 70 percent of food worldwide with only 30 percent of the arable land. Via Campesina was hesitant to attend this meeting because for 30 years the CBD has not led to any benefits for farmers, and, while the ITPGRFA has given small levels of financial support to farmers from the Benefit-sharing Fund, that money has come from national governments and not from the commercial users who should be sharing financial benefits. Via Campesina does not like the fact that financial benefit-sharing under the ITPGRFA/MLS hinges on patenting. Peasant farmers do not want any patenting because it stops them from exchanging seeds. Benefitsharing should be triggered by any form of commercialization of new varieties, not just by patenting. Via Campesina is also concerned that neither the CBD nor the ITPGRFA appears to have made it any easier for farmers to get germplasm from national governments, including from national genebanks. Farmers' requests for access to germplasm are routinely Please send comments to Michael Halewood, corresponding editor (m.halewood@cgiar.org)ignored or turned down in many countries without any explanation. There is no apparent accountability despite the fact that farmers are clearly the anticipated recipients of materials under both international agreements. This even applies for those PGRFA that are pretty obviously in the MLSnot just borderline cases where it is not clear if the CBD/NP or the ITPGRFA should apply. Alternatively, national governments continue to seek acce ss to PGRFA from farmers, often without any formal agreements, under either the national laws implementing the CBD or the ITPGRFA. Via Campesina has high hopes that the Nagoya Protocol, if effectively implemented, will provide a basis for farmers to effectively negotiate ABS agreements, including the conditions under which they might be willing to put their own materials in the MLS. However, they are concerned that the European Union regulations for implementing the Nagoya Protocol will not actually address the concerns expressed in this presentation. The difficulties of monitoring and enforcing users' compliance with either the SMTA or agreements under the CBD and Nagoya Protocol are also a cause of significant concern for Via Campesina, an issue that has also been raised by a number of would-be provider countries.Please send comments to Michael Halewood, corresponding editor (m.halewood@cgiar.org) As of the date of the workshop, 14 Pacific Island countries had ratified the CBD, five had ratified the ITPGRFA and three had ratified the Nagoya Protocol. At the regional level, SPREP has the mandate for the CBD/NP and genetic resources generally, while the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) has a mandate for the ITPGRFA and PGRFA. In general, at both the regional level and within countries, the agencies responsible for environment and agriculture have worked in isolation, not coordinating their efforts to raise awareness about, promote ratification of or harmonize implementation of the CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA. Regarding the CBD, a regional model ABS law was adopted in 2002 that exempts 'plant genetic resources for food and agriculture covered by a policy approved by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.' The model law is not being followed very closely by the island states. For example, the national ABS laws of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands do not mention the ITPGRFA or PGRFA. The ABS Initiative has supported regional meetings with a diversity of stakeholders focused on the CBD/NP. A Global Environment Fund (GEF) medium sized proposal for the Pacific Region is expected to be finalized in 2015. It will assist Pacific island countries in becoming parties, commence start up activities, and will address the relationship between the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA.In 2010, the regional Heads of Agriculture and Forest Services endorsed the policy that the SPC would act as an agent for the contracting parties in the region to address their needs vis-à-vis the ITPGRFA. The SPC is responsible for ensuring its 22  For trees and other species not included in Annex 1 of the ITPGRFA, the SPC continues to use the SPC material transfer agreement (MTA), which was in use prior to the SPC's agreement with the governing body of the ITPGRFA. The SPC has distributed over 60,000 plantlets under a combination of both the SMTA and the SPC MTA. Thus, while it is an international organization, the SPC operates under the ABS frameworks of both the CBD and the ITPGRFA, depending on the materials involved and the purposes for which they are be acquired or provided.There are a number of challenges to implementing the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA in the region, including a general lack of knowledge of genetic resources that fall under each instrument, restricted access to PGRFA due to some countries not acceding yet to the ITPGRFA, a lack of resources for capacity building and coordination and a preference in some countries to implement one of the instruments instead of the other (for example, preferring the Nagoya Protocol over the ITPGRFA because, under the former, financial benefits are to be shared directly with the provider countries and not routed through an international benefit-sharing fund, as in the case under the ITPGRFA). Some options for improving the coordinated implementation of the agreements in the region would be to have the Secretariats of the ITPGRFA and Nagoya Protocol continue to provide support for the implementation of the two instruments in the region; to have the FAO and the CBD make a short video promoting mutual implementation; to hold more capacity-building meetings for the national focal points for both instruments; to encourage the SPC and SPREP to work more closely together and to have all of the agencies make extra efforts to reach out to non-contracting parties.Over the course of 2013, the EU countries negotiated regulations to implement the Nagoya Protocol. Regulation 511 (or ABS regulation) was formally adopted in 2014 and is scheduled to enter into force upon the entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol. 7 The EU regulation aims to ensure that all genetic resources falling under its scope are accessed in accordance with applicable ABS legislation. It implements the Protocol within the EU's competence. It relates to user measures only, as the regulation of access within the EU is a matter of national prerogative. For the EU, it is important to have regulations: the EU wants its users to access and use genetic resources in a professional and responsible way, share benefits as agreed and be trustworthy partners both as users and providers of genetic resources.The user measures create mechanisms to monitor and track the utilization in the EU of genetic resources within the scope of the EU regulation. The regulations create 'due diligence' obligations to record information about transfers, providing requisite information to checkpoints. The regulations also create enforcement measures to be applied when users do not comply with their obligations under the regulation. It applies to genetic resources over which the parties concerned exercise sovereign rights, acquir ed after the entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol, from other parties to the Protocol. The regulations do not cover genetic resources that fall under the scope of other international instruments (in particular, the ITPGRFA).The interface between the Protocol and the ITPGRFA is acknowledged and implemented in the EU regulation. Most importantly, when countries decide to transfer non-Annex 1 PGRFA under the SMTA, the transferor/transferee will be deemed to have fulfilled their due diligence obligations.  The national regulations on ABS were approved in 2005, and they apply to all genetic resources or parts of genetic resources whether naturally occurring or naturalized, whether in in-situ conditions or ex-situ conditions. According to the regulations, no access to genetic resources is granted unless PIC has been obtained from the lead agencies, local communities and owners of the genetic resources and a MTA and access permit has been issued by the Ugandan National Council for Science and Technology, which is the competent national authority for the implementation of the ABS regulations. The Uganda Cabinet approved the ratification of the Nagoya Protocol in April 2014, and the process for the deposition of the ratification instrument has already been initiated. 10 Uganda acceded to the ITPGRFA in 2003, and after an assessment of the policy environment for its implementation, a draft national policy on plant genetic resources was developed through a participatory process in 2008. However, this policy is still pending approval by the government. The efforts to implement the ITPGRFA at the national level have been supported in part by the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative, led by Bioversity International, and have focused on raising awareness about the ITPGRFA and identifying and linking the different actors involved in its implementation.The mutually supportive implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and the ITPGRFA presents a number of challenges such as the inadequate capacity of both personnel and structure in the lead agencies, the low level of awareness about ABS at the national level and the lack of clarity about, and harmonization among, the roles of the lead agencies (NARO and NEMA).However, there are also a number of opportunities:  Current Brazilian ABS law covers many of the elements of the Nagoya Protocol, but some aspects of the Protocol need to be better reflected. To this end, it is necessary to have additional checkpoints (such as plant variety registration offices and patent offices), better developed mechanisms for fair and equitable benefits with local peoples, transboundary cooperation and the creation of a clearing-house for information sharing and traditional knowledge protection.The facilitated exchange of Annex 1 material under the MLS has not required any particular legislation in Brazil, as the Provisional Act 2186/2001 states that access to genetic resources is subject to facilitated exchange according to the international agreements to which Brazil is a party (and will take place in accordance to such international agreements).This Act provides authority to act under the ITPGRFA until new bill(s) are passed that will provide more details/structure for the implementation of both the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol. In principle, this exception applies only to ex-situ PGRFA since access to in-situ PGRFA is subject to the terms and conditions of the Provisional Act. It is crucial that Brazilian organizations involved in the implementation of the CBD, the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol work together to address access requests that involve all three agreements/conventions, including issues related to the operation of the exception created by the Provisional Act for Annex 1 material. Embrapa's position is that national legislation should move towards a situation in which all PGRFA are subject to special ABS conditions, reflecting the special needs and circumstances of the agricultural sector. Two bills have been submitted by the Ministry of Environment to the Brazilian Congress for the integration of both the Nagoya Protocol and the ITPGRFA in the national ABS legislation. These bills should provide the framework for the harmonized implementation of the CBD/NP and ITPGRFA.Please send comments to Michael Halewood, corresponding editor (m.halewood@cgiar.org)Presentation  recognizes the role of the national genebank in acquiring and providing PGRFA for t he country through the MLS, and the importance of identifying, evaluating and conserving PGRFA that will help the country adapt to climate change. Currently, there are activities in Nepal to (1) identify and raise awareness about the MLS, (2) analyze incentives and challenges for fully implementing the MLS at the national level, (3) identify and notify the ITPGRFA Secretariat about Nepalese Annex 1 PGRFA that are included in the MLS, (4) identify the institutions that have the capacity to respond to access requests that fall under the MLS, and (5) develop policy instruments to support the day-to-day operation/participation in the MLS.As a result of a comprehensive analysis of the existing legal framework, the Ministry of Agricultural Development has concluded that the implementation of the ITPGRFA requires a legal instrument that is different from the proposed bill on ABS, and, therefore, the Ministry is working on a bill that focuses exclusively on plant genetic resources and the implementation of the MLS. Whatever the final approach is (two separate bills on ABS (one inspired by the CBD/Nagoya Protocol and the other one on the ITPGRFA) or one unique ABS Act dealing with both instruments), it is obvious that better coordination and collaboration between the two ministries is necessary to address ABS issues in a comprehensive way and to implement both instruments in a mutually supportive manner.The Nepal Biodiversity Coordination Committee is probably the best forum for the The participants were divided into four working groups. The working groups met twice, addressing a unique scenario each time, working through a total of eight hypothetical scenarios. Each working group included three to four national tandem teams of CBD/NP focal points and ITPGRFA focal points, stakeholder representatives and resource people.Considerable time was set aside for the small groups to present the outcomes of their discussions to plenary sessions and additional discussions with all of the participants. Thus, all participants were able to provide input on all of the scenarios. Awareness raising and capacity building:• create awareness through the media, meetings and workshops;• organize awareness-raising and capacity-building workshops together;• hold a celebration day for genetic resources;• initiate national fora (seed fairs), events, seminars, use social media and public talks;• follow up on tandem meetings;• write a report on this workshop with recommendations for collaborators;• meet high-level persons to provide feedback on this tandem meeting;• foster in-house capacity (among local lawyers) and• with the FAO and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), increase the capacity of regional legal specialists in both treaties.Centralizing and institutionalizing structures:• create only one focal point for the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol on ABS issues;• empower multiple authorities to consider requests, but have mechanisms to share information in real time between such authorities• institutionalize a new committee or another coordination structure, or make existing committees more dynamic.Developing laws and guidelines:• develop a model law that addresses the interface between the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol;• develop/adjust the legal framework (e.g., laws, regulations, administrative guidelines) for implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and ITPGRFA• produce guidelines on coordinated national measures in relation to genetic resources and test the guidelines through pilot projects.Share, exchange information and participate in each other's' events:• develop road maps and annual plans for joint activities/coordination together;• initiate cross-participation in stakeholders' meetings;• hold meetings before going to the meetings of the governing body of the ITPGRFA, the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol and hold debriefing meetings after these meetings;• prepare and submit project proposals together, for raising joint financial resources funds;• participate in national and international meetings in tandem;• compile best practices on the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and the ITPGRFA; and• call each other to discuss particular cases of genetic resource requests, law provisions, the status of different documents, policies and so on.Facilitate sharing of information:• put in place efficient mechanisms for information exchange and • develop regional databases Each tandem team was invited to develop a one-to-two-year plan for the lead agencies to coordinate their implementation efforts with each other and with other stakeholders who need to be involved. The tandems were not asked to share these plans, but it was agreed that a re-survey of the focal points in the following six to 12 months should detect the existence/use of coordination mechanisms that did not exist at the time of the pre -meeting survey.The meeting organizers led a discussion of the plans to follow up and build upon the meeting. Concerning the immediate follow-up on the meeting itself, the following actions were agreed upon.• Reports of the meeting would be made available to the following intergovernmental fora: • The organizers will develop a workshop report, in French and English, that will serve not only as a record of the meeting but also as a tool to be used by policy actors who did not attend the meeting.• As an additional way to 'package' and diffuse the outcomes of the meeting, the organizers will develop a series of fact sheets for use by national focal points/competent authorities/stakeholders concerning interface issues. As a pilot, they will develop six to eight such sheets, and, if confirmed to be useful, they will develop more.• The organizers will conduct a follow-up survey of the national focal points who attended the meeting to see how their implementation and coordination efforts are proceeding.• Concerning longer-term capacity building and research for mutually supportive implementation, the organizers and participants will continue to support ongoing projects in a number of countries to develop mechanisms to implement the MLS and the Nagoya Protocol.• Possibilities to develop new pilot projects in countries where the Nagoya Protocol and the ITPGRFA focal points want to work together to develop mutually supportive approaches to implementation will be investigated.• Possibilities to develop new pilot projects with regional organizations to promote mutually supportive implementation will be investigated. In this context, it was noted that one very interesting option at the level of the AU would be to develop a programme of support for the implementation of the ITGRFA that complemented (and was coordinated with) AU-level support and policy development concerning ratification and implementation of the Nagoya Protocol. It was suggested that similar mechanisms could be explored/supported in other regions.• Some of this piloting work can be supported through existing funds. The organizers will also develop new proposals for financial support for this work.• Spin-off products from the ongoing and planned pilot projects will be developed in the form of new awareness-raising materials, guidelines and decision-making tools.• Additional workshop(s) for national focal points and stakeholders will be developed. In addition to bringing in focal points for the CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA, the meeting(s) will also include some national focal points for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and representatives from the Ministries of Finance.Mutually supportive implementation: challenges and options -views of stakeholders Recognizing that international instruments related to access and benefit-sharing should be mutually supportive with a view to achieving the objectives of the Convention NP article 4: Relationship with other agreements and instruments 1. The provisions of this Protocol shall not affect the rights and obligations of any Party deriving from any existing international agreement, except where the exercise of those rights and obligations would cause a serious damage or threat to biological diversity. This paragraph is not intended to create a hierarchy between this Protocol and other international instruments.2. Nothing in this Protocol shall prevent the Parties from developing and implementing other relevant international agreements, including other specialized access and benefit-sharing agreements, provided that they are supportive of and do not run counter to the objectives of the Convention and this Protocol.3. This Protocol shall be implemented in a mutually supportive manner with other international instruments relevant to this Protocol. Due regard should be paid to useful and relevant ongoing work or practices under such international instruments and relevant international organizations, provided that they are supportive of and do not run counter to the objectives of the Convention and this Protocol.4. This Protocol is the instrument for the implementation of the access and benefitsharing provisions of the Convention. Where a specialized international access and benefit-sharing instrument applies that is consistent with, and does not run counter to the objectives of the Convention and this Protocol, this Protocol does not apply for the Party or Parties to the specialized instrument in respect of the specific genetic resource covered by and for the purpose of the specialized instrument. The results of the survey will be used to identify issues that will be considered during the workshop, and to identify capacity building tools and information that will be useful to develop in the longer term. Responses will be treated confidentially. No respondents or countries will be named in any report based on these responses.A summary of the responses will be presented to the workshop participants on June • ITPGRFA • CBD/NP 5. Do you believe it is important to have close coordination between the agencies responsible for the implementation of the CBD/NP and the ITPGRFA?Yes/no 6. Please explain why you wrote yes or no to the previous question (number 5) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7. select one of the following words to describe the state of coordination between the lead agencies responsible for the national implementation of the ITPGRFA and the CBD/NP: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------","tokenCount":"7384"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cdc1c8190636308b2ce1bc1827de761c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f7ae6719-ba18-4a58-8f2a-d6c6da66f0c0/retrieve","id":"-128994661"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5b797b7f-1cc0-40f1-9ac0-8da91358bab6","pagecount":"106","content":"The African Trypanotolerant Livestock Network and the African Research Network for Agricultural By-products (ARNAB) 1 have long been collaborative research networks. In both, network participants have worked in concert on problems of regional nature using common research methodologies and techniques. The value of this approach is evident from the recent strides taken by the African Trypanotolerant Livestock Network in developing practical selection schemes to improve trypanotolerance.The Pastures Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (PANESA) also has multicountry studies in place. The network has established 12 major sites for screening and evaluating accessions of the important multipurpose tree genus, Sesbania. The sites cover seven countries-Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe-and a wide range of environments-semi-arid to humid, lowland through to high altitude, unimodal and bimodal rainfall distribution and mildly acid to very acid soils.During 1990 the other ILCA-associated networks took steps in developing collaborative research programmes. All of them held research planning meetings at which participants developed portfolios of research protocols. The meetings used the same \"problem-oriented project planning\" methodology used by ILCA in its own thrust planning meetings. Several of the portfolios are being considered by donors for support.Research planning meetings provide a forum at which NARS scientists from different countries can discuss their current research programmes and future research needs. Provision of information and coordination of research efforts among partners reduces the risks of \"reinventing the wheel\" through lack of knowledge of what each other is doing or has done.Partnership involves an exchange of knowledge and skills, with each partner bringing their own expertise to the research process as well as having something to learn from the other. ILCA's national partners can enrich the research process by contributing their detailed knowledge of local production systems and problems and-often-by providing a location and facilities for research. They are also ILCA's main contact with sub-Saharan Africa's farming systems, extension services and training bodies. They are at the user end of the research process, conducting their own research to adapt technology to local conditions and providing vital inputs of knowledge and experience to feed the upstream research process. ILCA, in turn, helps identify scientific methodologies appropriate to tackling specific problems, helps organise and process data and helps mobilise funds. It also provides a focus for manpower development and communication between peers.Training and publications are the vehicles through which knowledge and skills are exchanged. Again, ILCA provides a focal point for these activities. The Centre is ideally placed to bring together scientists, technicians and policy makers from different countries to gain the knowledge needed to conduct better research or promote better policies. The partnership concept encompasses the collaboration and cooperation of numerous participants working toward mutual or complementary goals. No one individual or institution can be, or should be, judged as more or less important to the overall process.In conclusion, partnership-in research, information and training-is fundamental to ILCA's approach to the challenge of its mandate. Only through its partnerships with other institutions and individuals is the Centre able to achieve the multiplier effect needed to make a widespread, lasting impact on the welfare of its major target group-the small-scale livestock producers of sub-Saharan Africa.Partnerships: Achieving a multiplier effect ub-Saharan Africa is vast and has myriad agricultural systems and environments. Addressing even a fraction of the problems facing agricultural development in this region would be beyond the scope of a single research centre such as ILCA, with fewer than 70 senior staff and a budget of some US$ 20 million a year.But by building links with others working toward the same goal-sustainable increases in food production from livestock-ILCA's efforts and influence can be multiplied.ILCA's potential partners in its three mandate activities-research, training and information -include the national agricultural research systems (NARS) of sub-Saharan Africa; international and regional research institutes in Africa; institutes in the developed world; and producers and consumers in Africa. While ILCA has developed links with each of these categories, networking with the NARS is the Centre's primary means of collaboration in sub-Saharan Africa.The extent of the partnerships developed by ILCA can be seen from the long list of collaborators in the Centre's research programme, given in the annexes to this report. It is also apparent from the Programme Highlights. Collaborative research features in several thrust highlights:• with NARS in each of the thrusts• with NARS and developed-country institutions in the Animal Traction Thrust (Using dairy cows as draft animals, pages 20-24) and Livestock Policy and Resource Use Thrust (Land tenure and alley farming, pages 38-40)• with NARS and other international agricultural research centres (e.g. in the Trypanotolerance Thrust, pages 31-34).Partnerships influence ILCA's operations at every level and at every stage. The Centre's strategy was developed in consultation with the NARS. A meeting of the leaders of livestock research. development and training in Africa is held every two years to ensure that this strategy is still in line with their priorities. Regular contacts with NARS through ILCA's zonal sites and regional liaison offices provide continual feedback to the research programme. Increasingly, ILCA's training and information programmes are targeted at, and directed by, participants in the collaborative research networks coordinated by the Centre. These programmes have strong feedback mechanisms to ensure communication between ILCA and the NARS flows both ways.Since ILCA developed its strategy in 1987 it has placed increasing emphasis on networking as a complement to the zonal team approach that dominated its operations in earlier years. One of the gains of this shift in emphasis is a broader geographical impact. By the end of 1990, network research was going on in nearly every country in sub-Saharan Africa -many more than the six countries in which the Centre has zonal teams on the ground. But the biggest changes in the past two years have been the expansion of collaboration in research and involvement of the NARS in planning research for the networks.Livestock research is both costly and highly location-specific. One of the main advantages of networking is that it permits multilocational projects. These allow the introduction of standardised models, providing the basis for drawing more reliable conclusions than can be obtained from isolated experiments conducted with limited resources. In 1989-90, ILCA carried out milk consumption studies in the semi-arid zone of Mali and the humid and subhumid zones of Nigeria. These studies showed that, overall, between twothirds and four-fifths of households regularly consumed milk or milk products. The amounts consumed annually ranged from 12 kg per person in Mall to 47 kg per person in subhumid Nigeria the high figure for the latter area reflecting a large proportion of Fulani pastoralists in the area. The Fulani traditionally depend primarily on their livestock for subsistence, and hence consume large amounts of milk and milk products.The proportion of local products consumed ranged from negligible in humid Nigeria, where the local population has no tradition of keeping cattle, to nearly 80% in subhumid Nigeria. Households in Mall indicated that they preferred local products to imported products, but that local products are scarce and expensive.Marketing studies in Mali, Nigeria and Ethiopia indicated that peri-urban dairy producers have a variety of marketing channels open to them. These include direct sales to consumers and \"end-users\" such as coffee houses; sales to milk collectors, both formal and informal; and sales to retail outlets. Direct sales from producers to consumers accounted for up to 71% of the fresh milk sold. Producers preferred this direct marketing channel because it gave them the highest profit margin.The results of these marketing studies confirm that, given the practical difficulties and high costs of collecting and transporting milk produced in rural areas, peri-urban producers are best placed to produce milk profitably and at a price urban consumers can afford.The coastal region of Kenya holds considerable promise for smallholder dairy production. Much of it has a subhumid climate, which favours forage production. In addition, the region is densely populated and demand for milk considerably exceeds supply.The National Dairy Development Project (NDDP) of the Kenyan Ministry of Livestock Development has for several years been promoting a package of innovations aimed at smallholder dairying in the coastal zone. The package consists of the use of improved dairy cows (mainly crosses between the Sahiwal breed and European dairy breeds), disease control and improved feeding, in particular through growing forages such as Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum).A Fulani woman selling fura (cooked millet balls) and nono (soured skim milk) in northern Nigeria.Studies in 1989 and 1990 of performance records from large, multi-breed crossing programmes in the coastal zone indicated the \"best-bet\" breeding system to support the smallholder dairying system. Although F 1 , Ayrshire X Sahiwal cows gave the highest milk yields, yields from 2/3 Ayrshire-1/3 Sahiwal and 1/3 Ayrshire-2/3 Sahiwal cows were not markedly lower. The rotational crossbreeding system needed to produce the latter two crossbreds fits better into the smallholder production system because fewer purebred breeding stock have to be kept to maintain the supply of milking cows.Crossbred cows must be well fed to produce high milk yields. The NDDP package recommended buying protein supplements such as copra cake to supplement the Napier-based diet. ILCA?s work has looked for ways to produce on the farm all the feed needed, making the system self-sustaining and more robust. The programme has explored two possibilities: interplanting Napier with herbaceous forage legumes, and alley farming -growing Napier and food crops in \"alleys\" between hedgerows of the leguminous browse tree, Leucaena leucocephala.Interplanting Napier with Clitoria ternatea, a climbing, herbaceous forage legume, produced total yields of up to 26 tonnes of dry matter per hectare, 5.6 tonnes of which was Clitoria. This is enough to feed five dairy cattle for a whole year. Napier grown alone yielded about 20 tonnes per hectare.Including Clitoria thus increased both the amount of feed available and its quality. The alley farming trials are still in early stages, but preliminary findings suggest that this system holds promise as the basis of a sustainable production system in this land-poor zone.Feeding trials showed that cows fed Napier grass harvested when 1.0 m tall gave significantly higher milk yields (8.5 vs 6.8 kg per day) and lost significantly less weight (10 vs 45 kg over the 98-day trial period) than those fed Napier cut at 1.5 m tall. Agronomy trials showed that harvesting Napier at 1.0 m tall instead of at 1.5 m tall only slightly reduced annual yields, from 16.7 to 15.7 tonnes of dry matter per hectare. Given the greater feeding value of the shorter grass, early harvesting is being recommended to farmers.Feeding dairy cows young Napier grass gives bigger milk yields and lower weight losses than feeding older grass heep and goats provide as much as 30% of the meat and milk consumed in sub-Saharan Africa and are found on smallholdings throughout the continent. Yet these species have received much less attention from research and development agencies than have cattle.African smallholders usually keep small ruminants under low-input management systems, as an adjunct to crop production. The farmer's main interest lies in the food crops on which the family depends for survival. Nonetheless, sales of sheep and goats and their products are a vital source of cash, especially for smallholders who do not have access to credit or off-farm income. Their small size and rapid growth rates make small ruminants a more flexible shortterm form of investment than are cattle.These highlights focus on opportunities for increasing small ruminant productivity by exploiting the farm-level interactions between animal nutrition and disease, between breeds and their environment, and between crops and livestock.People in sub-Saharan Africa eat little meat-an average of about 10 kg per person each year, compared with over 80 kg per person in Europe. In large part this reflects the small amount of meat produced in the region. Between 1974-76 and1986-88 per capita meat production in Africa declined by 0.7% a year, while consumption increased by only 0.1% a year. Rapid population growth, increasing urban populations, shortages of foreign exchange and slow income growth seem likely to prolong these trends well into the future. Stagnant or declining meat consumption will worsen the existing caloric and protein deficiencies in the diets of the region's people.A study of small ruminant meat production, trade and consumption in sub-Saharan Africa between 1961-65 and 1986-88, based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), showed that: • Over 90% of Africa's small ruminants are found in East and West Africa, with only small populations in central and southern Africa • Africa's small ruminant population grew by an average of 1.7% a year between 1961-65 and 1986-88, with the fastest increases in central (2.8% a year) and southern (2.2% a year) Africa • In general, offtake of animals grew more slowly than sheep and goat populations while carcase weights remained stable, indicating room for increased production and offtake. The exception to this pattern was southern Africa, where offtake increased faster than flock growth, suggesting that current levels of offtake are unsustainable unless flock productivity can be increased • The amount of small ruminant meat available per person decreased throughout sub-Saharan Africa between 1974-76 and 1986-88, by between 0.3% a year in West and central Africa and 2.0% a year in southern Africa, suggesting that small ruminant productivity was not keeping up with the continent's rapid human population growth.Up to half of all sheep deaths and morbidity on farms in the Ethiopian highlands are caused by pneumonia and endoparasites (worms and flukes). More than a third of all the animals that die are lambs between four days and four weeks old, the period when lambs are first turned out into the field. Weaning also sees a peak in deaths, with over 30% of animals dying being between three and six months old.The results of trials conducted at ILCA's Debre Birhan research station in 1990 suggest that better feeding would help prevent these losses. The trials showed that feed supplementation had more effect on the productivity of ewes and on the survival and growth of lambs than did drenching the ewes against gastrointestinal parasites. Supplemented ewes gained 5 kg more than traditionally managed animals, and over 3.5 kg more than unsupplemented ewes that had been drenched. Supplementation also more than doubled ovulation rates (from 17 to 37%), while drenching alone had no effect. Both supplementation and drenching of ewes increased lamb survival, but supplementation had more effect. Ewe supplementation increased milk Yields. lamb growth rates to weaning, and weaning weights; drenching alone had no effect on these characters. There was no interaction between feeding and drenching.In a separate trial, the supplementary feeding of female lambs increased daily liveweight gains by 6 to 26 g a day, increased conception at first oestrus by 9 to 16%, reduced overall mortality by 24 to 31 % and reduced age at first lambing by 2 to 5 months. Again. drenching alone had no effect on any of these characters, and there was no interaction between feeding and drenching.A healthy young lamb-but for how long? ILCA's studies in the Ethiopian highlands show that many lambs die shortly after they are put out to pasture.As in the Ethiopian highlands, gastro-intestinal parasites are an important factor limiting sheep productivity in the subhumid coastal zone of Kenya.Over half the smallholders in the region keep sheep or goats. The animals depend on communal grazing or the limited grazing available on the household plot for much of. their feed, precluding the use of rotational grazing to prevent the build up of worm challenge. The worm burden can be controlled with drugs, but the animals must be treated frequently and the costs are too high for most smallholders. One approach that appears to hold considerable promise is to use animals that are resistant to parasites.Studies comparing the performance of Dorper sheep from southern Africa with their crosses with the local Red Maasai breed indicated that the crossbreds are more resistant to the main intestinal parasite of the area, Haemonchus contortus, a blood-sucking worm. The crossbred lambs had higher survival rates and fewer worm eggs in their faeces, and required fewer anthelminthic treatments. Lambs from different sires of the same breed differed significantly in the number of worm eggs found in their faeces, indicating withinbreed differences in worm resistance.It should therefore be possible to select within breeds for greater resistance to gastrointestinal parasites. ILCA plans to extend these studies to cover other breeds at sites in subhumid and highland zones elsewhere in Africa. In alley farming tree foliage can be used either as mulch, helping to increase crop yields, or as feed for livestock. ILCA's studies in 1990 demonstrated that, at current prices, Nigerian farmers get more benefit from feeding their goats than from mulching their maize crop.Scientists monitored goat feeding in two villages in south-western Nigeria. Visits were made on 17 days a month throughout the year. Among the 22 farmers covered, 10 were classified as \"browse feeders\"-i.e. they offered browse to their goats on at least 10% of the days when visits were made -and 12 as \"non-browse feeders\". Browse feeders kept nearly twice as many goats as non-browse feeders (12.2 vs 6.5 animals per household, and 6.1 vs 3.5 adult does per household).In both villages goats roamed freely during the day, scavenging, grazing and browsing. In the evenings they returned to the vicinity of their owners' houses, where they were offered feed consisting mostly of household wastes and cassava peel and tubers, with or without browse.Animals belonging to browse feeders received browse about twice a week. Those that belonged to non-browse feeders received browse only one day every three months, on average. Browse feeders offered their animals a total of about 400 kg of browse over the year, compared with less than 10 kg offered by nonbrowse feeders. The biggest difference between flocks was in adult survival. Only 8% of browse-fed adults died during the year, while 20% of adults in non-browse feeders' flocks died. As a result, the productivity of browse-fed flocks was 44% greater than that of flocks that did not receive browse (1 1.3 vs 7.8 kg of surviving offspring at 12 months old per surviving doe per year). On the basis of the average number of adult does in browse feeders' flocks, this equates to an extra 21.4 kg of yearling goat per household per year, or roughly two extra animals. Agronomy studies indicate that if the amount of tree foliage fed to these animals were used as mulch it would increase maize grain yields by 22 to 28 kg. At current prices for maize (Naira 5/kg) * , and goat meat (Naira 15/kg liveweight), farmers thus gain more from feeding their goats than from mulching their maize crop. * US$ 1 = N 10 Pruning an alley farm in the Nigerian humid zone. ILCA results show that it is more profitable to use the foliage as livestock feed than to use it as mulch on maize.mall-scale farmers frequently cite labour shortages as one of the major factors preventing them from cultivating more land and so producing more food. The operations that require most labour in smallholder farming systems are cultivation and weeding. Although both tasks can be mechanised, they are still done by band throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa.To many people, mechanisation in Africa conjures up disturbing images of failed tractorisation schemes. But mechanisation need not mean tractors. Instead it can take the form of harnessing animal power, an approach much better suited to the needs of African smallholders.Animal traction is already widely used in some areas of sub-Saharan Africa, but its use is not spreading idly. For a variety of reasons farmers find it difficult to make the introduction of animal traction pay. Increasing the efficiency of animal traction is therefore central to the work of ILCA's Animal Traction Thrust.Scientists have identified several opportunities for increasing the efficiency of animal traction in the smallholder context. Widely perceived as a major problem is the fact that draft animals tend to be in poorest condition just when they are most needed for work-at the beginning of the cropping season. Improving their diets during the preceding dry season would, so the argument goes, increase their work performance during the early rains period, crucial for timely ploughing and sowing. Another problem is that specialised draft oxen work for only a short period each year, but consume valuable feed throughout it. There are two possible solutions to this problem. One is to diversify the use of draft animals, using them for other tasks on the farm besides ploughing. The other is to raise multipurpose animals that can be used for the production of meat or milk as well as traction.ILCA studies in 1990 addressed both problems. Studies in Mali investigated whether the condition of oxen at the beginning of the cropping season affected the amount of land a farmer crops. Studies in Ethiopia examined the possibility of developing a fattening scheme under which oxen would be treated as dualpurpose (work and meat) animals, rather than specialist work animals. The Ethiopian studies also investigated the effect of work and supplementary feeding on the productivity of crossbred dairy cows.The results of the Mali studies challenge one of the basic assumptions about the use of draft animals-that the amount of work oxen do at the beginning of the cropping season is limited by their poor condition at the end of the preceding dry season.Thin work-oxen are a common sight at the beginning of the rainy season in the semi-arid zone of Africa. That thin, light oxen can do less work than fatter, heavier oxen has been demonstrated many times in experimental trials. So it has been assumed that feeding workoxen better during the dry season would increase the amount of work they would do.In 1986, ILCA and the Institut national de la recherche zootechnique, forestière et hydrobiologique (INRZFH) in Mali began a series of studies aimed at quantifying the effect of dry-season weight loss on the working capacity of oxen and on areas cropped in the country?s semi-arid zone.Preliminary survey results came as a surprise few farmers felt they had a problem with their oxen. Subsequent on-farm trials and further surveys confirmed that their feelings were correct.During the 1989 cropping season scientists monitored the performance of 36 oxen belonging to 18 farmers in two villages. The animals were fed one of three diets: their normal unsupplemented diet, urea-treated straw ad libitum, or urea-treated straw ad libitum plus 1 kg of concentrate a day. Records were kept of the animals? activities, including the speed of work and the draft force involved, throughout the 140-day cropping season.Neither the animals? body weight nor their condition had any noticeable effect on their work output. Animals that had lost up to 50 kg, or one fifth of their body weight, over the preceding dry season performed as much work as those in good condition. Oxen pairs usedIn on-station trials, heavier oxen have higher daily work outputs. On farms in Mali there is less apparent effect of liveweight on work performance of oxen. ranged in weight from about 360 to about 760 kg and condition scores ranged from 3 to 7 on a 9-point scale (1 = very thin, 9 = very fat). This lack of effect of body weight and condition on area cultivated is apparently related to the way farmers use their oxen. The farmers have obviously recognised the limited strength and stamina of their oxen and have adopted working practices to suit these. The study showed that the length of furrow the animals ploughed at one go was short. The animals thus had to exert maximum force for only a few seconds at a time, with long rests while the plough was turned. This has the effect of reducing the influence of the animals' weight and stamina on the amount of work done. but it also increases the time it takes to plough a given area of land.The more detailed surveys carried out while the on-farm trials were in progress showed that oxen worked for only a short period each year, with only 22 days spent on ploughing, the most stressful task. Fewer than 1 in 20 farmers said that problems with their oxen limited the amount of land they cropped. Many farmers said that they could cultivate and crop more land, but chose not to because they did not have enough labour available for weeding, a task still largely carried out by hand.Two important points emerge from these studies:• Under the present system of draft-animal use, supplementing the feeding of work-oxen during the dry season is unlikely to increase the amount of land farmers crop• There is a real opportunity to diversify the use of work-oxen by introducing mechanised weeding. This would increase the amount of time oxen spend working each year, and might also increase the amount of land cultivated. At this more intensive level of draft-animal use, better feeding practices might become worthwhile.Many farmers in the Ethiopian highlands use draft oxen. In Ethiopia, as in Mali, these oxen work for only a short period each year. Farmers normally work their oxen for six or seven years, starting when they are about three years old. Once their working lives are over, the animals are usually fattened before being sold for meat.Recent ILCA studies suggest that farmers may not be getting the best out of their animals under the current management system. Feeding trials in 1990 showed that young (4-or 5-year-old) oxen gain weight more rapidly over an 18week fattening period than do older oxen, with those more than 10 years old having the slowest rate of gain. Oxen in poor condition at the beginning of the fattening period gained significantly more weight than those in good condition (69 vs 55 kg), despite their lower daily feed intake (2.15 vs 2.99 kg dry matter/100 kg liveweight).According to these results, farmers should consider fattening their oxen for sale much earlier than at present, after only two or three seasons' work. Also, it appears that the opportunity cost of work as a byproduct of fattening animals may be less than anticipated because animals that are lean at the beginning of the fattening period make better use of the fattening ration.Light oxen in poor condition gained more weight yet consumed less feed than heavy oxen in good condition. Replacing draft oxen with cows could increase farm productivity, since milk and calves would be produced in addition to draft power. Some farmers in the Ethiopian highlands already keep crossbred (Friesian x local zebu) dairy cows, introduced as part of a package to stimulate smallholder dairying. These cows are larger and heavier than the local oxen usually used as draft animals, and should be able to perform the work needed on smallholdings.But producing milk and maintaining a pregnancy already puts these dairy cows under stress. Making them work as well could reduce both their milk yield and their reproductive performance.ILCA has been investigating the possibility of using crossbred cows as traction animals since 1983. A further series of experiments, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), was started in 1989. One of the first trials in this new series examined the effects of work and feed supplementation on feed intake, milk production and body weight of 20 Friesian x Boran and 20 Simmental x Boran crossbred cows. Work consisted of pulling sledges four hours a day, four days a week, starting two weeks after calving. The force needed to pull the sledges was set at about 400 Newtons, roughly the force the cows would have to exert when working in a pair pulling an Ethiopian plough (maresha). The cows worked over a period of 90 days, rested for 90 days and then worked over another 90 days.All the cows in each breed group were fed hay made from local, unimproved pasture. Half of them received in addition a supplement of oilseed cake, wheat millings, salt and bone meal. Half of the cows on each diet were worked, half were not.Cows receiving supplementary feed ate significantly more than cows fed hay alone. Working cows receiving supplementary feed ate most, even during their resting period.Work had relatively little effect on milk Yields. which were influenced more by feeding. Non-working cows that received supplementary feed gave the highest yield during the first 90-day period (6.1 kg of milk a day), followed by working supplemented cows (4.9 kg/day), non-working non-supplemented cows (3.8 kg/day) and working non-supplemented cows (3.2 kg/day).Feed supplementation had a greater effect on feed intake, milk production and body-weight change than did work in crossbred dairy cows.  The milk yields of non-supplemented cows fell to about 1.7 kg a day by six months after calving (during the resting period) and about 1.6 kg a day by nine months after calving (during the second working period). Milk yields of supplemented cows were much higher, at about 5.2 kg a day by six months after calving and 4.4 kg a day by nine months after calving. At six and nine months after calving there was no significant difference in milk yield between worked and non-worked cows in either feeding group.All non-supplemented cows lost weight up to six months after calving, losing an average of nearly 48 kg of body weight. Working nonsupplemented cows continued to lose weight up to nine months after calving, losing a total of nearly 53 kg. Supplemented cows that did not work gained weight throughout the study period, putting on a total of 26 kg over nine months. Supplemented cows that worked lost nearly 18 kg over the first 90day working period, but thereafter gained weight slowly to nine months after calving.Although working had a clear effect on the ability of cows to conceive, this was largely offset by better feeding. Three months after calving only 15% of the working cows had shown oestrus, compared with 45% of nonworking cows. However, by nine months after calving all supplemented cows had shown oestrus, whether or not they had worked. Fewer than a third of non-supplemented cows had shown oestrus by nine months after calving (50% of non-working and 10% of working cows). Among supplemented cows, work apparently delayed return to oestrus after calving by about three-and-half months. Non-working cows returned to oestrus at an average of about 112 days after calving; working cows showed their first post-partum oestrus at an average of about 220 days.Overall, these results show that crossbred dairy cows could be used as draft animals, if farmers could feed them adequately. There would probably be a slight reduction in milk yields and reproductive performance, but this would be more than offset by the value of the draft work done by the cows. In a related piece of strategic research. ILCA and the Institute of Engineering Research, UK, have developed a system for recording physiological and mechanical data on traction animals working in the field. The computerised logging system, completed in early 1990, is now being used to estimate the amount of energy a crossbred dairy cow uses when working, based on measurements of its oxygen uptake. This information will allow more accurate recommendations to be made on feeding these animals for work and production.Another potential use of the logger is in determining the match between animals and implements. Results from the logger will quickly indicate whether an implement imposes undue stress on an animal, making it impractical for use in the field.The traction logger at work, mounted on a working cow.he forage resources of sub-Saharan Africa show considerable genetic diversity. Even plants of the same species growing in different places differ from one another in important traits such as their growth potential, tolerance of water shortages and resistance to pests and diseases. Preserving this genetic diversity and using it to increase the quality and quantity of animal feed available is vital to increasing livestock productivity in the region.Forage genetic resources activities at ILCA support the Centre's commodity thrusts. ILCA's genebank is part of a world-wide network dedicated to collecting. preserving, evaluating and disseminating plant germplasm of potential use for a wide range of purposes.In 1990, ILCA made important advances in research in two key areas essential to germplasm management: in vitro culture techniques for overcoming difficulties in the management of multipurpose tree germplasm; and understanding of the breeding systems appropriate for seed production of several African clover (Trifolium) and Sesbania species held in the genebank.ILCA is testing numerous multipurpose trees for their usefulness under various conditions. Tree species that have been extensively tested include Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium in the alley-farming system in West Africa and at Mombasa on the Kenyan coast, and Sesbania sesban in the Ethiopian highlands. Other potentially useful species indigenous to Africa include Erythrina brucei, Faidherbia albida (also known as Acacia albida) and Acacia tortils. Accessions of tree species vary widely in their productivity and feeding value.Maintaining a collection of tree species poses special problems for genebanks. Trees take several years to mature and produce seed, and occupy large areas of land. Added to that, most of the multipurpose trees ILCA is working with are thought to be outcrossing-i.e. they normally set seed when pollinated by another plant of the same species. To keep each accession pure, it must produce its seeds in isolation from other accessions of the same species.ILCA has been experimenting with in vitro culture of multipurpose tree germplasm for some time with a view to overcoming these problems, and as a way to provide disease-free vegetative material for distribution. In vitro culture involves taking tissue from a plant and growing it in sterile conditions as cultures in the laboratory. In this way. thousands of clones T genetically identical copies-can be produced from a single plant, ensuring that all the offspring will have identical productive and nutritive characteristics. The tissue used in the culture can be treated to eliminate disease organisms.Plants regenerated from meristems-the so-called non-adventitious material found in shoot and root tips-are genetically stable and identical to the parent plant. Meristematic tissue is used when the objective is to produce large numbers of identical plants for distribution and testing. However, plant breeders and geneticists working with a limited range of germplasm may wish to induce increased genetic variability. In this case, regeneration from adventitious materialparts of the plant that do not normally produce roots or shoots-is used.Work on determining techniques suitable for the in vitro culture of tree germplasm started in 1989. In 1990, non-adventitious regeneration was successfully achieved with Erythrina brucei, Faidherbia albida and Acacia tonilis, while shoots were regenerated from adventitious material from Sesbania sesban, Faidberbia albida and Acacia tortilis.Plantlets were grown in in vitro culture and then successfully established in normal soil in the greenhouse using minimum-facility techniques-i.e. simple techniques that require no special equipment and that can be easily adopted by national programmes with limited facilities. The successful completion of the cycle from field to the laboratory and back to the field demonstrates that in vitro culture can be used to distribute multipurpose tree germplasm to national programmes in Africa.A potential spin-off from this work is the use of in vitro culture techniques to screen multipurpose tree accessions for their polyphenolic content. Most multipurpose trees studied by ILCA contain polyphenolic compounds, which affect the nutritive value of the foliage when fed to animals. Accessions that contain large amounts of polyphenolics generally provide poorerquality feed. During the trials on in vitro culture techniques, ILCA's scientists noticed that accessions with high levels of polyphenolics stained the culture medium and tended not to survive in culture. Those with low polyphenolic contents survived and did not stain the culture medium. Thus it may be possible to use in vitro culture techniques as a screening mechanism, following this with rapid clonal propagation to develop, selected lines with better feeding values.The achievements of this work in 1990 were such that ILCA is now developing a training course on in vitro dissemination techniques for national programme staff.ILCA's genebank holds the world's most extensive collections of African clovers and Sesbania, a fodder tree found throughout the tropics. Both clovers and Sesbania hold promise for improving the feeding of ruminant livestock in Africa, and their ability to fix nitrogen will help improve soil fertility and boost the yield of subsequent food crops. Studies carried out by ILCA and African national programmes have identified the highest yielding and most nutritious accessions for a range of environments.But one aspect of these plants that has gone largely unstudied is their breeding systems. Whether they are outcrossing or selfing has important implications for maintaining the purity of accessions in ILCA's genebank. Maintaining purity is essential if promising accessions are to be distributed to national programmes for further evaluation and development as animal feeds. Outcrossing accessions will produce seed carrying some of the characteristics of neighbouring accessions of the same species. Selfing accessions will produce pure seed, simplifying the tasks of germplasm maintenance and dissemination. Six of the clovers-T. quailinianum, T. tembense, T. schimpeiri, T. steudneri, T. baccaiinii and T. pichisermollii-proved to be selfing, pollinating themselves without the involvement of any \"pollinating agent\" such as bees. Growing them in isolation to produce pure seed for the genebank should pose no special problems.In the other accessions-T. bilineatum, T. decorum, T. mattirolianum, T. rueppellianum and T. resupinatum-individual plants did not set seed when grown alone. Plants of these self-incompatible accessions need other plants of the same accession around them. and pollinators such as bees, to produce seed. The fact that individual plants are self-incompatible but that different plants of the same accession are compatible indicates a degree of genetic variation within the accessions, which thus represent a population rather than a single genotype.Producing seed of these self-incompatible accessions poses problems for the genebank. The method used at present is to allow only one accession of any species to flower in the multiplication plots at any one time. The disadvantage of this method is that only a few accessions can be multiplied each year, restricting the stock of seed of each that is available for distribution.Clovers growing in evaluation plots at ILCA's headquarters site, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Studies of clovers' breeding system are aimed at keeping accessions in the genebank pure.Similar work is being carried out in Ethiopia on Sesbania species. A large number of flowers have been observed under natural conditions and when bagged, with and without tripping-manipulating the flower to release pollen-and manual crossing following emasculation. The results (see Table ) clearly show that the most promising species (S. sesban and S. goetzei) are self-compatible but are also able to outcross. Experiments are continuing to determine the amount of outcrossing that occurs under natural conditions. as the first step in developing appropriate seed multiplication methods for use by African national programmes.Sesbania sesban and S. goetzei are clearly self-compatible, but their lowers must be tripped, either by \"Pollinating agents\" such as bees, as under natural conditions, or by band, to ensure reasonable levels of pod set. n many parts of Africa, livestock production is dependent on trypanocidal drugs. But evidence from south-western Ethiopia indicates that the efficacy of these drugs is breaking down.For the past five years the African Trypanotolerant Livestock Network, which ILCA coordinates, has been monitoring the occurrence of trypanosomiasis in some 600 East African Zebu cattle in village herds in the Ghibe river valley in south-western Ethiopia. Analysis of the data showed that trypanosomes were found repeatedly in the blood of many animals despite their having been treated with a trypanocidal drug, diminazene accturate (Berenil). The proportion of animals infected was increasing, and appeared to be higher than expected given the degree of \"tsetse challenge\" in the area. Taken together, these signs suggested that the efficacy of the trypanocidal drug was decreasing.By 1989, in any one month over 30% of the cattle were found to be infected with Trypanosoma congolense, the predominant trypanosome in the Ghibe area. Re-analysing the data to pick up only new infections-taking into account only those animals that had been free of the disease for the previous two months-showed a new infection\" rate of less than 20%. The difference between this value and 30% was taken as an indication of the level of recurrent infection. Thus over one-third of the animals infected with T. congolense were suffering from recurrent infections, i.e. infections that had not been cleared by drug treatment. Samples of T. congolense from Ghibe tested at the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD), Nairobi, Kenya, showed clear evidence of a build up of drug resistance. Of 12 isolates tested, all showed a high prevalence of trypanosomes resistant to Berenil and homidium chloride, another common trypanocidal drug. All but one showed a high proportion of trypanosomes resistant to the third commonly used trypanocidal drug, isometamidium chloride.Studies are now under way at other sites of the African Trypanotolerant Livestock Network to determine how widespread the problem of drug resistance is. The results of the Ghibe study are a portent of what is likely to become an increasingly serious problem. They underscore the urgent need to seek alternatives to drug therapy as a means of maintaining livestock in tsetse-infested areas, pointing to an increasing role for trypanotolerant livestock.The signs of trypanosomiasis infection are the presence of trypanosomes in the blood and anaemia, caused by the destruction of red blood cells by the parasites. Previous studies have shown that the key indicators of trypanotolerance are the abilities to limit the number of parasites in the blood (parasitaemia control) and to maintain relatively high levels of red blood cells when infected by trypanosomes (anaemia control).Network has shown that the degree of anaemia in trypanosome-infected cattle, as measured by the packed red cell volume (PCV) in the blood, is correlated with such production traits as reproductive performance and growth-animals able to maintain high PCV levels are more productive than those with low PCV values.Studies in 1989 demonstrated that an animal's ability to maintain high PCV levels when infected with trypanosomes is a heritable trait and identified conditions for field testing to assess trypanotolerance levels. This opened the way for practical breeding programmes aimed at producing cattle that are both more trypanotolerant and more productive. Such breeding programmes are currently being evaluated at Mushie Ranch in Zaire.East African Zebu cattle in the Ghibe river valley of south-western Ethiopia. ILCA studies of these animals, maintained using trypanocidal drugs, indicate that drug resistance is building up in trypanosomes.While the degree of anaemia is relatively simple to measure, determining the degree of parasitaemia has proved more difficult. In the past, this depended on observation of trypanosomes in peripheral blood using conventional parasitological techniques. However, there is evidence that animals may be infected even when trypanosomes cannot be found by these techniques.In 1990, this problem was overcome by using an antigen-trapping monoclonal-antibody-based ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test for trypanosomes, developed by ILRAD. This test demonstrates the presence of trypanosome antigens in the blood, an indication of infection. Animals that tested positive with the ELISA test but exhibited no trypanosomes by the parasitological test were termed \"antigenaemlc\". This was taken as a sign that the animal was better able to control parasite development than an animal in which trypanosomes were found.A trial at the OGAPROV (Office gabonais d'amélioration et de production de viande) ranch in Gabon showed that parasitaemic animals had significantly lower average PCV and daily weight gain than antigenaemic animals. There were no differences in these characters between antigenaemic and non-infected animals. There were indications from this work that ability to control parasitaemia may also be heritable.The ELISA test thus offers, for the first time, a practical means of identifying animals with a superior ability to control parasitaemia, providing the opportunity for selection based on this criterion as well as on that of anaemia control.Further tests at OGAPROV ranch indicated that the effects on growth rate of ability to control anaemia were similar in both antigenaemic and parasitaemic animals. This suggests that it may be possible to select on the basis of PCV in antigenaemic animals as well as in parasitaemic animals. This would be of major benefit because it would allow selection to be carried out in areas where trypanosome challenge is less severe. he system perspective adopted by ILCA leads to important research external to livestock production. Thus ILCA scientists are concerned both with the sustainable utilisation of natural resources supporting animal agriculture in Africa and with providing policy makers with better information on the likely effects of policies affecting the livestock sector.Government policies are part of the environment in which African farmers work. Policies that favour farmers should help boost production. Those that operate at the expense of farmers can stifle productivity and sound the death knell for innovations, no matter how good they may be technically.Government policies in Africa, especially those affecting the livestock sector, are too often not based on a good understanding of their potential consequences. The multiple objectives of policy makers may lead to conflicts between one objective and another, or the combined effect of a mix of policy instruments may be quite different from what was originally intended. ILCA is well placed to conduct the multi-country studies needed to compare experiences and increase understanding of the potential effects of policies.During the 1980s government policies affecting the livestock sector in Côte d'lvoire, Mali, Nigeria. Sudan and Zimbabwe have moved gradually away from taxing producers, according to an ILCA study completed in 1990. This should encourage increased livestock production and the adoption of improved technology.The study, covering the period from 1970 to 1986, found that national livestock policies had numerous objectives and employed a variety of policy instruments. Objectives included increased self-sufficiency in meat and milk, promotion of exports, stabilisation and control of inflation, generation of revenue for the government, improved nutrition and provision of employment opportunities.Self-sufficiency was the most common objective. Unfortunately, production and consumption trends and self-sufficiency ratios (the ratio of domestic production to total consumption) show that this objective eluded the countries studied for most of the period covered by the study. Consumption of milk, in particular, increased faster than production in all five countries between 1971 and 1985.The policy instruments used included controlled prices, input subsidies, trade taxes, consumer subsidies, import licences and foreign exchange allocations.Zimbabwe made extensive use of controlled prices. These were administered by two parastatals, the Cold Storage Commission and the Dairy Marketing Board, which purchased meat and milk respectively from producers. Consumer prices, particularly of beef, were subsidised by the government. In contrast, Côte d'Ivoire used input subsidies to reduce producers' costs of production. This instrument was used to encourage producers to adopt modern technologies, including feeds and veterinary drugs.The study highlighted the multiple objectives of policies affecting the livestock sector, many of which conflicted with each other. For example, in most of the countries policies were in force with the objectives of both providing producer price incentives and stabilising or reducing consumer prices.On balance, real producer prices increased over the study period, i.e. nominal prices increased faster than the cost of living. The nominal protection coefficient 2 -the ratio of domestic producer price to the border equivalent priceindicated that policies in the study countries implicitly subsidised beef production over the period studied, although in Mali, Sudan and Zimbabwe milk producers were implicitly taxed for most of the study period.Except in the cases of beef in Côte d?Ivoire and Zimbabwe and milk in Mali, there was a gradual shift from consumer subsidisation to taxation during the study period.Official exchange rates were used to estimate nominal protection coefficients. Since official exchange rates in Africa often overvalue the national currency, the results may overstate the actual levels of consumer taxation and producer subsidisation. The analysis thus demonstrated the important implications of exchange rates for domestic pricing policies and highlighted the need to address exchangerate distortions at the same time as tackling direct price distortions.A calculation of the costs and benefits of the policies followed by the countries studied indicated marked effects on production and consumption. The most striking case is that of milk in Mali. The analysis indicated that the \"negative protection\" of milk production between 1970 and 1972 reduced domestic production by 208 000 tonnes and increased consumption by 36 000 tonnes. Thus, in effect, the policies could have increased imports by 244 000 tonnes. Mali actually imported a total of only 13 000 tonnes of milk 2 The nominal protection coefficient (NPC) provides an indication of the taxation or subsidisation rate on producers, and hence of the degree of distortion affecting the market. An NPC of 1.0 indicates that producers are receiving prices equivalent to world market prices and are being neither taxed nor subsidised. A ratio greater than 1.0 suggests that producers are being subsidised and consumers taxed, while a ratio less than 1.0 indicates a tax on production and a subsidy for consumption. Price policies in study countries implicitly subsidised beef production, but in Mali, Sudan and Zimbabwe milk producers were taxed for most of the study period.during this period. Hence, had policies not distorted prices, Mali might well have become more than self-sufficient in milk. Social costs-earnings forgone as a result of suboptimal policies-ranged in 1984-86 from US$ 1.1 million for Zimbabwe to US$ 416 million for Nigeria.Another aspect of the policy environment that markedly influences adoption of technology is the control farmers have over their \"factors of production\"-including their rights and obligations under the prevailing land tenure system.Unclear land tenure discourages farmers from adopting technologies that provide long-term benefit if the benefit is tied to a piece of land. An example of such a technology is alley farming, in which leguminous browse trees are planted in hedgerows to provide nitrogen for the soil and/or highquality feed for livestock. Planting trees is a long-term investment, with the benefits to soil fertility becoming apparent only over several years.In 1989, the Land Tenure Center (LTC) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in collaboration with ILCA, started a study of land tenure systems in Cameroon, Nigeria and Togo. Surveys were carried out in each country by national scientists, with assistance from LTC and ILCA staff. The survey in Nigeria covered areas where ILCA and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria) had already conducted on-farm research on alley farming and involved 84 alley farmers, 49 ex-alley farmers and 107 conventional farmers. The surveys in Cameroon and Togo included only a few alley farmers, because the system has been less widely introduced there.The surveys showed that farmers acquire land through various means, including purchase or being given land (5-10% of fields in each country), divided inheritance 1 (half the fields in Cameroon and Nigeria, a quarter in Togo) and undivided inheritance 2 (a third of all fields in each country).Secondary access 3 was important in Togo, particularly where land was scarce.The relationship between land tenure and the uptake of alley farming was established by comparing farmers who continue alley farming, those who began alley farming but have stopped, and those who have never adopted alley farming. Initial analysis of the data shows that most continuing alley farmers had obtained their land through divided inheritance. In contrast, most farmers who had not adopted alley farming, and those who had stopped, had land obtained through undivided inheritance. In Nigeria, 70% of alley farmers' fields were held under divided inheritance, while 60% of ex-alley farmers' fields were held under undivided inheritance.Characteristics associated with divided inheritance land included:• a higher incidence of tree planting than on other types of land Farmers thus appear willing to invest more in land obtained under divided inheritance than in land held under other types of tenure. Apparently, their greater security of tenure makes them more likely to take a longer-term view, since they can expect to be the principal beneficiary of any investments they make.Feeding browse from an alley farm to sheep and goats in southern Nigeria. Studies of the influence of land tenure system on adoption and practice of alley farming should facilitate the spread of this system.A 10-year study of the Borana production system in southern Ethiopia was completed in 1990. The final report testifies to the profound changes taking place in this once purely pastoral society as its human population continues to increase. It also challenges the commonly held view of pastoral people as reactionary and unwilling to change.The human population of the Borana rangelands is growing rapidly, at 2.5% a year. The population of cattle, from which the Borana traditionally derived almost all their sustenance, has also grown, but more slowly and erratically, owing largely to the periodic setbacks caused by drought. As a result, the ratio of cattle to people has fallen, reducing the Borana's ability to subsist on animal products alone. Milk may have met all the Borana's foodenergy needs as recently as 1959, but by 1983 it provided only 60%. Computer projections suggest that by the end of the century it is likely to meet less than 40% of the Borana's food needs.The Borana have responded to the falling milk supply per person by increasing cropping and milk sales. Selling milk when there is too little for the household's needs may seem illogical. Yet, at 1990 prices, the amount of maize that can be bought by selling a litre of milk provides 18 times as much energy as does the milk itself. This milk-for-grain trade will become an increasingly essential support mechanism for the Borana society.Increased cropping and milk sales have implications for women and their role in the production system. Borana men see livestock herding as men's work, and already complain of shortages of labour for herding. As young men increasingly migrate to urban centres in search of alternative employment, any additional work in rural areas will almost inevitably fall to women and older children. Processing and selling milk is already considered a woman's task, as is tending crops.Caring for calves and fetching water for the household are two labourintensive tasks that women already perform. Both have been studied by ILCA, in collaboration with CARE, a non-governmental relief and development agency working in southern Ethiopia.Traditionally, women collect dry grass during the dry season to feed to calves. CARE proposed haymaking during the long rainy season as a way to ease the burden on women. Trials demonstrated that haymaking was technically feasible and that calves fed hay were able to maintain their weight during the dry season, whereas traditionally managed calves lost weight.It was originally thought that making hay in the wet season would take less time than collecting grass in the dry season, but in fact hay-making did not markedly reduce the amount of work women did. The lack of effect was in part related to an unusually good dry season during the labour studyscattered showers provided ready supplies of feed. But it also seemed that women interviewed during the design phase of the project had exaggerated the amount of time they spent collecting feed in the dry season.Easing the task of fetching water was addressed by installing large (100 000-litre) cement cisterns near homesteads. These cisterns fill with water during the rainy seasons, providing dry-season water supplies.Again, ILCA's studies showed this did not have the expected effect: instead of reducing the amount of time women spent fetching water, it changed the women's behaviour. Those who had to fetch water from distant wells usually did so only once a week. Women who had access to a nearby cistern tended to fetch smaller amounts of water every day, spending considerable periods at the cistern talking with other women. The total amount of time spent did not differ markedly, but fetching water became a pleasanter and more sociable activity.The amount of water used was 74% greater in households with access to a cistern than in those that had to fetch water from a distant well (125 vs 72 litres per family per week). Women with access to a cistern also gave their calves more water than did those who used wells. This may have an important effect on calf growth-ILCA's studies have shown that calves that receive more water grow faster than traditionally managed calves.The synthesis of 10 years' results reveals a pastoral system in flux. Much of the change has been driven by population pressure on available natural resources.The longer-term perspective of the study has highlighted the changing opportunities for intervention, driven both by changes in the livestock population between droughts and by changes in the external environment.For example, interventions such as calf-feeding management or selling livestock to finance the building of water cisterns would be most likely to succeed when the cattle population is high. The fall in milk \"surpluses\" in recent years has rendered milk processing and preservation interventions largely irrelevant to the average Borana household.The changes in the external environment that have had, or are likely to have, marked effects on the Borana system relate to improved communications and policies. Improved communications-in particular, the road running from Addis Ababa to Kenya through the Borana rangelandshave increased the Borana's exposure to external influences and have opened up new market opportunities. The increasing dependence of the Borana on purchased cereals makes it important for them that the central government adopt policies that promote favourable terms of trade between livestock products and cereals.orking in partnership with national agricultural research systems (NARS) is central to ILCA's approach to research. Such an approach presupposes the availability of partners-people and organisations-willing and able to work alongside ILCA, using common methods and from a common base of knowledge.ILCA's training programmes are aimed at making its research partnerships more effective. In this they are, in themselves, the products of a partnershipthat between the Training and Information Department and ILCA's Research Department. Training is provided at a variety of levels, from technicians and field workers through young scientists who have recently completed their doctoral degrees to senior officials and policy makers. Training is targeted at specific needs identified by colleagues in African national programmes, particularly those involved in ILCA-associated networks.Lack of information is a problem for many scientists working in livestock research in sub-Saharan Africa. African national programmes are seriously underfunded. Most of their money goes on staff costs, leaving little for research and less for their libraries and information services. Subscriptions to journals, payable in scarce foreign exchange, are rising, putting ever increasing pressure on library budgets. ILCA's information services are a small bright spot in this gloomy picture. Through these services, more than a thousand livestock scientists in sub-Saharan Africa regularly receive information on the latest developments in their fields of interest. Participants in the networks supported by ILCA can also get access to the unique holdings of the ILCA Library. Specialised bibliographies prepared and published by ILCA provide a ready reference in such diverse fields as smallholder dairying, beef cattle production and land and tree tenure in West Africa. A unique collection of \"nonconventional\" literature, assembled from 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, gives scientists access to national programme documents that might otherwise never have left the offices where they were produced. Graduate associateships offer young scientists, usually Africans opportunities to advance their education through supervised research in Africa. These scientists spend up to three years at ILCA conducting research towards MSc or PhD degrees. But as well as representing a training opportunity, the work of graduate associates is part of ILCA's own approved research programme.The integration of research by graduate associates with ILCA's research programme is well illustrated by the work on smallholder dairying in the subhumid coastal zone in Kenya (see Smallholder dairying in subbumid coastal Kenya, pages 3-6 of this report). The core of this programme, carried out in close collaboration with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), consists of work conducted by three graduate associates. The three, all KARI staff, are working towards their PhDs, with three British universities, in the fields of animal disease control, animal nutrition and forage agronomy. ILCA staff provide local supervision, while visits by the associates' university supervisors bring in outside expertise, further strengthening the programme.Post-doctoral associateships allow recently qualified scientists, usually Africans, to conduct research on problems relevant to livestock production in Africa. This research is conducted in close collaboration with ILCA scientists and normally lasts two years. As with the graduate associates, post-doctoral associates' research is an integral part of ILCA's research programme.One example of the work of a post-doctoral associate reported in these Highlights is the research on cow traction (see Using dairy cows as draft animals, pages 20-24). This work is central to one of the Animal Traction Thrust's main themes, the development of alternative sources of draft power.Short-term trainees come to ILCA for a short period, usually less than three months, to gain skills and knowledge in a specific field or to complete a particular piece of research for which they need ILCA's facilities. Included in this category are undergraduate associates students, commonly from the developed world, working towards their first degree, who come to ILCA to gain experience of working in Africa. Many short-term trainees are involved in the activities of ILCA-associated networks.A total of 28 short-term trainees spent time with ILCA programmes in 1990, receiving training in such topics as improved laboratory techniques in plant and animal nutrition, forage evaluation, genetic resources activities and seed production and handling.Most of the courses offered by ILCA are intended for junior scientists from African national programmes, many of them participants in the various research networks coordinated by ILCA. A major aim of the courses is to provide these people with the skills and knowledge they need to participate fully in the collaborative research programme.During 1990, ILCA offered 12 courses, 9 in English and 3 in French. The courses were attended by a total of 176 people from 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.In the light of feedback from course participants, several courses were completely revised during 1990. The main revisions were to the content, tailoring this to the needs identified by participants, and the adoption of a modular format. The latter will make future revisions easier both for ILCA and NARS staff using the materials as the basis of their own courses.From 1991, five modular courses will be offered under the overall title of Livestock Production Methods. These are: Improving Milk Production in Africa; Ruminant Nutrition and Feeding Systems; Rural Dairy Processing; Forage Evaluation and Production; and Forage Seed Production.The revised courses focus on research for diagnosing and solving production problems. All have a module on the application of farming systems research to the central theme of the course. The emphasis is on using a combination of on-station and on-farm research to develop and apply technology that will improve existing methods of production. Elements covered by each course include:   ILCA's Training Materials and Methods Unit produces slide/tape selfteaching modules, visual aids and training manuals. The aim of this Unit is to strengthen ILCA's training programmes and to provide materials and methods that will allow the courses currently offered by ILCA to be hosted and taught by national programmes. The Unit also collaborates with other agricultural research centres in Africa in the development of training materials on topics of common interest.Communication is increasingly recognised as a key stumbling block in many research, development and training programmes. Starting in 1990, all ILCA's training courses include a module on \"communication skills\". Skills taught by the module include message design, speaking techniques preparation and use of visual aids, and preparation of publications for various outlets. Armed with these skills, participants in ILCA's courses will be better prepared not only to conduct research but also to communicate their findings and expertise to others.Major steps were taken in 1990 to improve the information retrieval services of ILCA, and in particular the use made of the Centre's databases.ILCA's library holds unique collections of information, and is growing steadily. The number of entries on the Centre's computerised database of library acquisitions rose by more than a dozen each day throughout 1990. Bibliographic data relating to ILCA's mandate were received monthly from two major global databases, CABI (Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International, UK) and AGRIS (the agricultural information service of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Details of ILCA's holdings of non-conventional literature, collected from 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, have also been entered on a separate database.The fact that all this information has been held in different forms and on different databases has made comprehensive searches difficult, timeconsuming and open to omissions.Work in 1990 set about putting an end to this babel of databases. The library acquisitions database was restructured to allow import of bibliographic data directly from CABI and AGRIS database tapes. The database containing the catalogue of the microfiche collection was amalgamated with the library acquisitions database.In line with this effort, information services staff worked on new \"search profiles\" of the regular users of the SDI (selective dissemination of information) service provided by ILCA. These search profiles-lists of keywords and other indicators of the research interests of the user-are the key to access to the information stored in the system. In a monthly run, the computer matches a user's search profile with the records added during the past month, selecting only those records that match his or her interests. The new search profiles use a more comprehensive base of information than the old profiles, and will, ILCA hopes, make sure that users are kept abreast of all information that will benefit their work.The new service also provides for user feedback. This is carefully analysed to ensure that the service is meeting needs and to allow search profiles to be further modified as necessary.Professional and supervisory staff   ","tokenCount":"10895"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3fc30d89080a428683f8c02e080b3343","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/871e26c5-8d05-4269-896b-a05821d4d1c9/retrieve","id":"-512335601"},"keywords":["Climacteric fruit","colour","peel","plantain","respiration","ripening","soluble solids","starch"],"sieverID":"f8d04627-8ac4-490f-ad3c-f74b0ac88f22","pagecount":"13","content":"The physicochemical and physiological attributes of three contrasting commercial varieties of Musaceae, Dominico Harton (plantain), Guineo (cooking banana) and Gros Michel (dessert banana), were evaluated and statistically analysed during post-harvest ripening. Quality attributes differed markedly among varieties, both in fresh fruits and during ripening. Variety (V) had a significant effect (P < 0.001) on all attributes except total soluble solids (TSS), carotenes and total chlorophyll. Storage time (ST) had a significant effect on all attributes except colour parameter b* and total carotenes. Starch levels decreased significantly (P < 0.001) during ripening, with nearly complete hydrolysis in Gros Michel, followed by Guineo and Dominico Harton. Discriminant analysis showed that central diameter, TSS of the pulp, colour parameter a* and total starch had the highest weight in the differentiation among varieties. These results point out which parameters may help improve current methods for monitoring ripening of bananas, in particular the commercially important varieties in this study.Bananas (Musaceae AAA, AA) and plantains (Musaceae AAB, ABB) are one of the world's main food resources and play an important socio-economic role in developing countries in tropical and sub-tropical regions. The world production for bananas and plantains in 2017 was 113 and 39 million tons, respectively (FAO (Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), 2019). In Colombia, varieties from the Cavendish subgroup are grown mainly for the export trade, thanks to their characteristics such as slow ripening and tolerance to impacts during handling. Other banana varieties are produced for the national market; for instance, Gros Michel remains popular although it is no longer produced for export following the Fusarium wilt R1 outbreak in the 1960s (Ploetz, 2015;Dita et al., 2018). Plantain varieties are cultivated traditionally as part of the subsistence economy by small producers, with high geographical dispersion and generation of rural employment. Colombia is among the five main producers in the world, with a production of more than 3.5 million tons of plantain (FAO (Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), 2019), of which 3.3% are exported, 1% is used by the agro-industry, 10% are post-harvest losses, and the rest is consumed in rural and urban households (Minagricultura (Ministerio de Agricultura de Colombia), 2019).Bananas and plantains are climacteric fruits. Their ripening is the result of transcriptional regulation (Yan et al., 2019), associated with an increase in the respiration rate and autocatalytic synthesis of ethylene (Johnson et al., 1997;Gamage & Rehman, 1999). The action of ethylene results in softening of the fruit, acceleration of deterioration and shortening of postharvest shelf-life (Saltveit, 1999). The climacteric peak triggers various physiological and physicochemical changes: conversion of starch to sugars (Hill & Ress, 1995), enzymatic degradation of the structural carbohydrates (Kojima et al., 1994) and degradation of the chlorophyll (Thomas & Janave, 1992). These changes affect the organoleptic attributes of the fruit as well as commercial value, and need to be controlled to minimise losses (Liu et al., 2013). Gibert et al. (2009) highlighted a strong relationship between varietal characteristics and consumption patterns, in particular for the plantain subgroup in relation to users' preferences including producers, processors and consumers. Consumers evaluate the quality of the fruit mainly by colour, brightness and size. These criteria are complemented by texture (firmness), total soluble solids (TSS) and acidity, in the case of bulk buyers with access to quality control facilities.In commercial practice, the ripening of banana fruits is controlled by modifying the environment, including temperature (Yang et al., 2011;Zhu et al., 2018), relative humidity, ethylene concentration and ethylene inhibitors (Jiang et al., 1999). Optimum storage conditions typically use temperatures above 15 °C and relative humidity of 92%. Nevertheless, shelf-life also depends on the variety, independently from post-harvest environmental conditions (Nunes et al., 2013). Several studies have investigated post-harvest handling of bananas and plantains with the aim of reducing losses (Lo'ay & Dawood, 2017;Alali et al., 2018;Liu et al., 2019;Lo'ay & EL-Khateeb, 2019;Khademi et al., 2019;Al-Qurashi & Awad, 2019). Other studies have focused on the acceptability, in terms of shelf-life and post-harvest quality (peel and pulp weight, soluble solids, sugars, starch), of bananas from genotypes screened for their tolerance to diseases, such as black Sigatoka (Oiram Filho et al., 2019) and Fusarium wilt R1 and TR4 (Smith et al., 2014). Fusarium wilt TR4 is a major concern in Colombia with the outbreak reported in the north of the country in August 2019. To our knowledge, no studies have been published on the effect of TR4 on post-harvest quality, as affected plants wither quickly without producing fruits.Few studies have been reported on the ripening of Colombian varieties of bananas and plantains, from harvest to post-harvest storage and subsequent senescence. This work characterises the physicochemical and physiological attributes of three contrasting commercial varieties of Musaceae (Dominico Harton, Guineo and Gros Michel) during post-harvest storage, with the objectives of identifying (i) which attributes best discriminate among varieties using multivariate statistical techniques, and (ii) which attributes may be most suitable as predictors of maturity and quality of ripening bananas and plantains.Three commercial Musa varieties were evaluated, including dessert banana (Gros Michel, AAA), plantain (Dominico Harton, AAB) and cooking banana (Guineo, AAA). The fruits were harvested from Armenia, department of Quindıó, Colombia (1360 m above sea level), purchased and delivered to the Post-harvest Quality laboratory at CIAT on the same day, which was recorded as Day 0. On the day of harvest, the fruits were in the entirely green state of ripeness (Wang et al., 2014), between 8 and 10 weeks after flowering. Storage under controlled conditions began immediately upon delivery.In a first experiment, hands of the three Musaceae varieties (i.e. clusters of 5 to 8 fruits close to each other on the banana bunch) were stored at 24 °C and 60% relative humidity and their ripening times were evaluated. The hands were placed with the inside curvature facing up, and the individual fruits (fingers) were numbered from left to right. The fruits were stored in a normal day/night cycle. The colour of the peel at the inner and outer curve of the fruit at midlength, and the total soluble solids (TSS) of the pulp were measured for selected fruits at various ripening time points. These time points ranged from the day of harvest to the fruit senescence, identified visually as the day when the fruits reached a stage of full-ripeness (peel colour entirely yellow with brown spots, Wang et al, 2014). Senescence depended on the variety: For Dominico Harton, 144 fruits distributed among 21 hands were evaluated during 12 days (7 time points). For Guineo, 77 fruits among 11 hands were evaluated during 24 days (9 time points). For Gros Michel, 93 fruits among 19 hands were evaluated during 14 days (5 time points).In a second experiment, more comprehensive analyses were conducted using a smaller number of fruits and the same storage conditions. Based on the ripening kinetics determined in the first experiment, the following storage days were evaluated: 0, 1, 2, 4, 5 days for Guineo, 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 days for Gros Michel and 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 days for Dominico Harton (day 0 was the harvest day). On average, seven fruits per time point were evaluated.Dry matter content and total soluble solids (TSS) Dry matter content was determined for the pulp and peel of each variety, and at each time point, while TSS was evaluated only in the pulp, following the protocols reported by Dadzie & Orchard (1997).Total starch content was determined according to Holm et al. (1986) with some modifications. Total carbohydrates were determined in lyophilised pulp, using enzymatic hydrolysis (α-amylase and amyloglucosidase) followed by GOD-POD reaction and colorimetry at 510 nm. Free glucose was determined using sulphuric acid, amyloglucosidase and GOD-POD. Total starch was calculated as follows:Where, TS: Total starch (% w/w, db). C: Total carbohydrates (% w/w, db). 162/180: Factor to convert C from free glucose, as determined in the aliquot, to anhydroglucose, as occurs in starch. FG: Free glucose (% w/w, db).Finally total starch (TS) was also reported as percentage (w/w) of the fresh weight of the banana pulp, using dry matter data determined as described in section 2.4.1.Fruit peel colour was measured at different time points during ripening using a portable colour reader (CR-410, Konica Minolta, Japan). Results were expressed according to the CIELAB system with D65 illuminant, and 10v iewing angle, which includes three parameters: L* from 0 (black) to 100 (diffuse white), a* from green (negative values) to red (positive values) and b* from blue (negative values) to yellow (positive values). Preliminary tests indicated that peel colour changed at different rates along the length of the fruit during the ripening process. Therefore, peel colour was reported from the central section of the fruit, taken as representative of the fruit as a whole. Measurements were done in triplicates.Chlorophyll and total carotene content Peel samples were taken from the central area of the fruits, then ground in liquid nitrogen, extracted for 1 h with 20 mL of 80% acetone (v/v) under dark conditions and refrigeration and then centrifuged at 4538 × g for 10 min. The supernatant was used to determine the chlorophyll and carotenes content spectrophotometrically according to the method of Lichtenthaler (1987). Results were expressed in μg.g −1 on a fresh sample weight basis.Fruits were selected at each time point, weighed and stored in a sealed glass container kept at 23 °C. Before gas sampling, the varieties were equilibrated between 1 and 2 hours. A sample of the headspace gas was collected and injected in a gas chromatographer (Shimadzu ® GC-2014 #13070, Japan), to analyse ethylene and carbon dioxide simultaneously. The system was equipped with a series of stainless steel packed columns operated at 97 °C. The carrier gas was nitrogen (N 2 ). Ethylene was measured directly with a flame ionisation detector (FID, 250 °C), while carbon dioxide was converted into methane with a methaniser (380 °C), then measured with the FID. Gas concentrations were calculated using calibration curves and GS-Solution software (Shimadzu ® ). Ethylene (C 2 H 4 ) production and respiration rates (CO 2 ) were expressed in µL kg −1 h −1 and mg kg −1 h −1 , respectively, in fresh weight basis.The results of physicochemical and physiological characterisations were reported as the mean of duplicate analyses. Higher number of replicates (constrained by sample availability) was used for those tests with higher inherent variability. Comparison of means was performed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey's multiple comparison tests. Correlations between variables were analysed using Pearson's correlation test. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to compare the different fruit varieties considering all the physicochemical and physiological attributes measured. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to find differences between fruit varieties based on linear combination of the studied variables (discriminant functions) and the determination of the specific weight of each variable in fruit differentiation. The results obtained were validated using classification functions (Alvin, 2002). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to determine which variables were responsible for the largest variance in the data. The statistical analyses were done with JMP software (SAS Institute Inc., Version 13 2.1).points. Between day 0 and day 12 to 14 of storage, luminosity of the peel decreased with the presence of brown patches, and the hue shifted from green-yellow to red-yellow (Table 1). The Dominico Harton variety presented the highest luminosity (L*) and colour parameter values, as well as the highest TSS over the whole period of storage. TSS increased over storage time for every variety. Dominico Harton reached maximum TSS on the last day of reported storage (12 days). Gros Michel reached maximum TSS at 9 days of storage, to plateau until the last day of storage (14 days). Some fruit from the Guineo variety reached maximum TSS as early as day 4 of storage, even though the ripening process continued up to 24 days (Fig. 1). Using the data of the three varieties together, a Pearson correlation analysis identified two positive correlations between the colour parameter a* of the peel and TSS in pulp (0.87, P < 0.0001), and between colour parameters L* and b* of the peel (0.86, P < 0.0001). Non-destructive measurements of the colour of the peel may therefore be used to predict TSS and the degree of ripening of the fruits, as suggested by Ward & Nussinovitch (1996). Measuring L*, a* and b* colour parameters can also potentially replace the subjective colour charts used in Colombia, which are derived from the one proposed by von Loesecke (1950) for Gros Michel. Colour charts, however, have the advantage of evaluating the fruit as a whole, whereas L*a*b* measurements are more localised on the fruit surface, which can lead to higher data variability when fruit ripening is not homogeneous.In the second experiment, the detailed changes during ripening were studied with a smaller number of fruits.The fruit of the Dominico Harton variety was characterised by their significantly larger size and weight, compared to the fruits of Gros Michel (intermediate size) and Guineo (small). Statistically significant morphological changes during ripening were reductions in fruit weight, central diameter and peel thickness (Table S1), while the pulp/peel ratio increased, as was also observed by other authors (Ngalani et al., 1998;Newilah et al., 2009). These changes are explained mainly by water loss from the peel (transpiration), and transfer of water from peel to pulp as starch is converted to sugars that increase osmotic pressure in the pulp (Von Loesecke, 1950;Fernandes et al., 1979). The variety and storage time had a significant effect on the fruit weight, central diameter, pulp/peel ratio, peel (%) and peel thickness. Additionally, the interaction of Variety × Storage time (V × ST) was significant for fruit weight (P = 0.0017), pulp/peel ratio (P = 0.0018) and percentage of peel (P = 0.0038), indicating that the evolution of these parameters during ripening depended on the variety of Musaceae. On the other hand, the interaction of Variety × Storage time (V × ST) was not significant for fruit length, central diameter and peel thickness, indicating that these parameters evolved in similar fashion during ripening, whatever the variety.Dry matter content and total soluble solids The dry matter content of the pulp and peel decreased with storage time for all the evaluated varieties. Dry matter of the pulp of Gros Michel and Guineo was lower than Dominico Harton during the whole storage period (Table 2). TSS increased during fruit ripening for all varieties, in particular in the case of Dominico Harton and Gros Michel varieties. This change is related to the hydrolysis of starch to soluble sugars such as sucrose, glucose and fructose (Marriott et al., 1981). In the case of Gros Michel, TSS increased until the sixth day of storage and then decreased at the end of ripening, which can be explained by the conversion of sugars to alcohol (Dadzie & Orchard, 1997). These results were comparable to observations on another dessert banana (Cavendish variety), which presented a sigmoidal evolution of TSS (Wills et al., 1984). Variety (V), storage time (ST) and their interaction (VxST) had statistically significant effects on dry matter content in the pulp and the peel (P < 0.05, Table 2). However, only ST had a statistically significant effect on TSS, for all varieties (Table 2).The three varieties had significantly different (P < 0.05) initial starch contents, in the following order: Dominico Hart ón, Guineo and Gros Michel (respectively, 36.4% AE 0.1%; 19.7% AE 0.1%; and 14.8% AE 1.0% wb). Starch content decreased during ripening, with different starch hydrolysis rates (Table 2). Starch content in Gros Michel decreased faster, with more than 60% of the initial content hydrolysed by the second day, followed by Guineo and Dominico Hart ón. At the end of storage, starch concentrations were 3.40, 1.00 and 0.02 % (wb) for Dominico Hart ón, Guineo and Gros Michel, respectively, with significant differences (P < 0.0001) between Gros Michel and the other varieties. The degradation of the starch was complete in the Gros Michel variety, whereas Guineo and Dominico Hart ón varieties retained small amounts of starch at the end of the ripening period. Several authors have reported similar results in bananas, plantains (triploids) and hybrids (tetraploids) (Marriott et al., 1981;Sakyi-Dawson et al., 2008). Several enzymes are associated with starch hydrolysis during ripening, such as amylases, glucosidase, phosphorylase, sucrose synthase and invertase (Cordenunsi & Lajolo, 1995). Xiao et al.(2018) identified 38 genes that encode proteins related to the degradation of starch in bananas and found that 27 of these candidate genes were significantly induced during the ripening of banana fruit, with enzyme activities regulated at both transcriptional and translational levels. Variety (V), storage time (ST) and their interaction (VxST) had a statistically significant effect on starch content (Table 2), which we interpreted as follows: (i) Varieties had different levels of starch content, with Dominico Harton presenting approximately twice as much starch as the other varieties at Day 0; (ii) the extent of starch hydrolysis during ripening was significant; and (iii) the progression of starch hydrolysis differed during ripening depending on the variety, with a lower hydrolysis rate observed in plantains (Dominico Harton).Changes in the colour of the peel during ripeningThe fruit colour evolved from green to yellow during storage for the three varieties, as reflected by increases in a* and b* colour parameters (Table 3), with statistically significant effects (P < 0.01) of variety and storage time. On the first day of storage, each variety presented different colour parameters, with average values of luminosity (L*) 49.5, 39.9 and 30.9 for Dominico Harton, Gros Michel and Guineo, respectively (Table 3). L* decreased for the Dominico Harton variety over the first days of storage until day 4, to increase until day 8, and decrease again until day 10. This trend was very similar for the Gros Michel variety, reaching its maximum luminosity at day 6. On the other hand, the luminosity of the Guineo variety steadily decreased over the 5 days of storage. The colour parameter b* was always positive (yellow hues) for all the varieties and followed a trend similar to L*, with gradual increase followed by a decrease at the end of the storage (Table 3). This decrease was related to the appearance of brown patches, a physiological phenomenon that takes place in the last stages of fruit ripening, and the transition of peel colour from yellow towards red and, finally, brown or black (Ketsa, 2000). The colour parameter a* was lower for Dominico Harton, reflecting its intense green colour in the early ripening stages, as observed by Kajuna et al. (1998). For the studied varieties, the transition of a* from negative values to positive values took place at different storage days (Table 3).The different rates of colour change in the three varieties are related to variations in pigments synthesis such as carotenoids, and degradation of chlorophyll (Ammawath et al., 2001). In turn, pigment synthesis and degradation are controlled by the levels of expression or activity of the relevant enzymes, such as pheophorbide A Oxygenase in the case of chlorophyll (Yang et al., 2009). The genes related with chlorophyll degradation (MaSGR, MaNYC and MaPaO) are sensitive to mild thermal stress (30 °C) (Du et al., 2014), so that bananas may develop a brighter yellow appearance when ripened at temperatures below 30 °C, with optimum between 18 and 24 °C. At higher ripening temperatures, the fruit may display a green-ripe colour unacceptable in the market. Optimum temperature for chlorophyll-degrading enzymes activity may also depend on variety, since at the storage temperature studied, the Guineo variety did not develop a fully yellow peel, indicating retention of high levels of chlorophyll (Blackbourn et al., 1990;Yang et al., 2009), in contrast to Dominico Harton.For the colour parameters L* and a*, all sources of variation (V, ST, VxST) presented significant F-tests; however, the storage time did not show a significant effect (P-value = 0.3958) on the colour parameter b* (Table 3).Chlorophyll content in the peel of the three varieties decreased during storage (Table 3). Chlorophyll was highest in the Gros Michel variety at the beginning of storage (126.5 µg g 1 ), followed by Guineo and Dominico Harton (100.7 and 89.7 μg g 1 , respectively). During storage, the chlorophyll degraded 94, 90 and 64% for Gros Michel, Dominico Harton and Guineo, respectively. The concentration of carotenoids did not follow a clear trend, but tended to decrease towards the end of the storage period (Table 3).The ratio between chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, and total carotenoids (xanthophyll (x) + carotenes (c)), (a + b)/(x + c), is a metric to measure the level of green colour in plants, and can be used as indicator of senescence. Common values for this ratio range between 4.2 and 5 for plants under sun exposure. For the Musaceae varieties in this study, this ratio was low, with initial values between 3.2 and 3.7, respectively, decreasing to 0.3 to 0.9 at the end of storage (Table 3).Significant differences in the evolution of chlorophyll a and b and total carotenoids were found for different varieties and storage times. Pearson's interaction analysis indicated a link between total chlorophyll and colour parameter a* (r = −0.69, P = 0.032). Another, less significant correlation was found between total chlorophyll and carotenes (r = 0.49, P = 0.0553). The storage time only had a significant effect on the total chlorophyll content, while the effects of VxST were International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2020 significant for the total content of chlorophyll and carotenoids (Table 3).Dominico Harton and Guineo varieties did not present pre-climacteric detectable ethylene levels, (Fig. 2a), in contrast to Gros Michel with ethylene production of 1.7 µL kg −1 h −1 . For Dominico Harton, ethylene production started on day 3 of storage, with a sharp production of ethylene on day 5 (25.1 µL kg −1 h −1 ) marking the beginning of the climacteric phase (Liu et al., 1999). After the fifth day of storage, ethylene rapidly decreased back to undetectable levels at day 10. For Guineo, ethylene production started on day 2 of storage and reached maximum production on day 4, with 3.2 µL kg −1 h −1 . After the peak, production steadily decreased until undetectable levels at day 6. For Gros Michel, ethylene production increased steadily over the first days of storage until the maximum on day 5 (15.6 µL kg −1 h −1 ). After that, a sharp decrease brought ethylene to almost undetectable levels by day 8.Respiration rate continuously increased after day 1, 2 and 3 of storage for Gros Michel, Guineo and Dominico Harton varieties, respectively (Fig. 2b). At the beginning of storage, fruit were in pre-climacteric state with low basal metabolism and respiration rate (43.6-69.3 mg CO 2 kg −1 h −1 ). When the climacteric phase started, respiration rate increased as well as ethylene production (Fig. 2a), leading to the climacteric autocatalytic peak. The maximum respiration rates were 335.4, 224.7 and 189.0 mg kg −1 h −1 for Dominico Harton, Gros Michel and Guineo, respectively (Fig. 2b). After the peak, respiration rate decreased back to initial values for the Guineo variety, but remained at higher levels compared to the initial values for the other two varieties until the end of storage.The physiological changes observed during ripening are triggered during the climacteric phase (Hiwasa et al., 2003;Inaba et al., 2007). Kader (2002) classified bananas as a high ethylene producer fruit due to the intense metabolic activity inducing ripening. However, in this study, the sharp ethylene and respiration peaks were observed only for the Dominico Harton variety and to a lower extent for Gros Michel (Fig. 2a).   , 1997), in order to reduce or delay the physiological, biochemical and molecular changes that lead to fruit senescence. Some varieties, such as Guineo in the present study, may not produce large amounts of ethylene during their ripening and may be less responsive to ethylene-inhibition treatments. For such varieties, research on alternative strategies to extend shelf-life may be beneficial. Monitoring the respiration rate and intensity is also an option to detect some of the physical and biochemical changes during ripening, such as starch hydrolysis into sugars and CO 2 (Palmer, 1971), and degradation of cell walls. The respiratory intensity and climacteric peak of Musaceae are influenced by storage conditions, age of the fruit and variety, and in turn influence the shelf-life of the product (Kader, 2002). Controlling respiration through hormonal treatments, such as 1-methylcyclopropene, applied before harvest or at the beginning of post-harvest storage, is therefore promising options for controlling shelf-life (Kader, 2002).Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) for physicochemical properties showed highly significant differences (P < 0.0001) between the Dominico Harton, Guineo and Gros Michel varieties (Table 4).These results indicate that varieties evaluated are different based on variation in physicochemical properties. A linear discriminant analysis was performed to determine the most relevant physicochemical parameters contributing to the differentiation among varieties.  Furthermore, the differences among the three varieties (Table 5) were explained by two discriminant functions (DFs). Central diameter, TSS of the pulp, colour parameter a* and total starch contributed most in discriminating the three varieties and accounted for most of the expected variations in physicochemical properties. The classification matrix for the three groups (Table 6) showed that 100% of the cases were correctly classified to their respective groups, confirming that the physicochemical parameters can be used to differentiate among varieties. Principal component analysis of the physicochemical and physiological characteristics reduced the dimensionality of the data from 17 variables to 4 principal components capturing 89.08% of the total data variability (Fig. 3). The bi-plot of the second principal component (PC2) vs. the first (PC1) (Fig. 3a) showed two clusters scattered along PC2: Dominico Harton for positive values of PC2, and Gros Michel and Guineo for negative values. The clustering of Gros Michel and Guineo varieties together reflects their similar biophysical characteristics, in particular the variables related to fruit size (fruit weight and length) and colour parameter (L* and b*), which were the main contributors to PC2 (Fig. 3b). Variables contributing mainly to PC1 were diameter in the central section, total soluble solids in pulp, peel colour parameter a*, peel thickness, peel (%wt.), dry matter content in peel and total starch content in pulp. Principal components PC3 and PC4 did not distinguish further clusters of samples (Fig. 3d and f). Respiration parameters (ethylene and CO 2 production) and carotene content were the main variables contributing, respectively, to PC3 and PC4.This study focused on the physicochemical and physiological differences between Musaceae varieties during ripening. Simple, objective and reproducible tests were identified to characterise the ripening process of bananas and plantains. In particular, non-destructive measurements such as central diameter and colour parameter a* were well correlated with, and can therefore predict, quality indicators of the ripening stage such as TSS and total starch of the pulp. This study contributes to address some important gaps in research on banana post-harvest handling, including the development of novel tests to evaluate more comprehensively the changes during ripening, and the characterisation of the ripening not only of two major varieties Dominico Harton and Gros Michel, but also of Guineo, an economically important variety for domestic markets that is less studied than export varieties. The post-harvest storage conditions in this study were at ambient temperature, to reflect local market conditions and constraints in Colombia and generate practical information for better post-harvest handling processes. Indeed, most banana producers are small farmers who do not have access to storage and transport facilities with controlled atmosphere.Further research may focus on interactions between genotype and storage conditions: Both variety and storage conditions influence ripening and lead to a wide range of ripening behaviours, which are not fully elucidated. In particular, the ripening of banana in bunches can be different from bananas stored as individual fruits or as hands; and the behaviour of bunches of bananas can vary from progressive ripening starting at one end over several days, to sudden ripening of the whole bunch within a few hours. The analytical approaches developed in this study can be applied to better understand the kinetics of banana ripening, by characterising the behaviour of various Musaceae. Further studies to expand the data sets available on ripening of bananas will help developing reliable prediction models of the ripening stages and    ","tokenCount":"4689"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d4651241290f781658c532810114030c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c805c846-b5d4-4581-afe9-ea607ad8d945/retrieve","id":"-332890234"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"94e86c68-d535-418b-b448-c3b3725ca887","pagecount":"1","content":"We are developing farmer-to-farmer scaling networks where pioneer farmers -those who have developed innovative climate adaptation solutions -are the primary drivers of the scaling process, with support from researchers, extension agents, private actors, and development agencies. • We are conducting a landscape analysis to identify indicators of resilience and trends, establishing a national rangelands data platform and reviewing current data collection on rangelands restoration. • Together with partners, we are co-developing a climate information service delivery model that will build on a baseline survey to understand the needs of pastoralists, to create a model that can effectively deliver relevant climate information to them. • We are co-designing a web-based Tracking Adaptation in livestock production systems (TAiLS) with livestock keepers, governments and researchers to enable them to capture adaptation efforts at farm, sub-national and national levels.The TAILS tool captures adaptation efforts at farm, sub-national and national scales. Indicators show adaptation processes and outcomes.Ethiopia country coordinators for the initiative:","tokenCount":"157"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"24729e001d2ee4fa2ecffab57cf6b2d7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a0235a5c-5be8-46f3-8b3f-39314f4dd11c/content","id":"-373073662"},"keywords":["KASP markers","marker-assisted selection","stripe rust","wheat","Yr genes"],"sieverID":"89ae5305-5f6e-42cb-8c25-cbaf5cef4d23","pagecount":"9","content":"Wheat cultivar VL Gehun 892 has shown a high level of resistance against Australian Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) pathotypes. In this study, it was crossed with Westonia, a susceptible wheat cultivar, and digenic segregation was observed in the derived population against Pst pathotype 134 E16A+Yr17+Yr27+. Single-gene recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations were developed from F 3 families (VL Gehun 892/Westonia#1 and VLGehun 892/Westonia#4) that showed monogenic segregations with two distinct phenotypes. Single-gene segregation against Pst pathotype 134 E16A+Yr17+Yr27+ was confirmed in both F6 RIL populations. Bulked segregant analysis using a 90K Infinium SNP array placed YrVL1 in the short arm of chromosome 3D and YrVL2 in the long arm of chromosome 7B. Kompetitive allele specific polymerase chain reaction (KASP) assays were developed for the SNPs linked with YrVL1 and YrVL2 and were mapped onto the respective populations. KASP_48179 (0.6 cM proximal) and KASP_18087 (2.1 cM distal) flanked YrVL1, whereas YrVL2 was mapped between KASP_37096 (1.2 cM proximal) and KASP_2239 (3.6 cM distal). Based on their pathotypic specificities, map locations, and stages of expression, YrVL1 and YrVL2 were demonstrated to be unique loci and named Yr66 and Yr67, respectively. Markers linked with these genes showed more than 85% polymorphism when tested on a set of 89 Australian cultivars and hence could be used for the marker-assisted selection of these genes in wheat breeding programs, following checks of parental polymorphisms.The causal agents of rust diseases in the Puccinia species of wheat were ranked among the top 10 fungal pathogens in a survey of plant pathologists associated with the journal Molecular Plant Pathology [1]. Stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) was estimated to cause A$127 million in losses in Australia [2]. The deployment of resistance is the preferred option for stripe rust control due to environmental and economic considerations [3][4][5]. Genetic control can be achieved by deploying race-specific all-stage resistance (ASR) and non-race-specific adult plant resistance (APR) genes [3,[6][7][8]. The deployment of a single ASR gene in commercial cultivars often leads to the breakdown of resistance due to the acquisition of virulence in the pathogen population [9,10].Although new pathotypes with virulence for stripe rust resistance genes that were previously effective against the predominant pathotypes have appeared recently (pathotypes 239 E139A-Yr17+Yr33+ and 198 E16A-Yr17+YrJ+YrT+), these pathotypes carried avirulence for some previously ineffective genes. For example, the new pathotype 239 E139A-Yr17+Yr33+ possessed virulence for Yr33, Yr57, Yr63, Yr72, and Yr75, whereas it was avirulent for the dominant complementary gene YrA (H.S. Bariana unpublished results). Of these, Yr57 and Yr63 have not even been deployed in any commercial cultivar of wheat yet. This pathotype is also clearly avirulent for the stripe rust resistance gene Yr27, which has led to epidemics in several parts of the world. These features of pathotypic evolution suggest that we should develop markers closely linked with the currently deployed stripe rust resistance genes in international cultivars that are effective against either one or several pathotypes. Hence, releasing wheat cultivars with combinations of ASR genes that show differential pathotypic specificities with APR genes is the better strategy to avoid future epidemics. Combinations of genes with compensating pathotypic specificities are conditioning stripe rust resistance in different geographic regions around the globe. In many cases, the inheritance of stripe rust resistance remains poorly understood. Advances in wheat genomics, such as the development of various genotyping arrays (9K, 90K, DArTseq, etc.) and the availability of reference whole-genome sequences of wheat, have expedited discovery of genetically diverse sources of resistance. These developments have also led to the identification of close marker-trait associations. In many cases, allele specific assays based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms have been developed to facilitate the marker-assisted pyramiding of genes.An Indian wheat genotype, VL Gehun 892, expresses stripe rust resistance under both field and greenhouse conditions. It produced infection type (IT) ;CN under greenhouse conditions when tested against the Pst pathotype 134 E16A+Yr17+Yr27+. We hypothesised that VL892 either carries a new stripe rust resistance gene or a combination of genes with compensating pathotypic specificities. The screening of VL892/Westonia-derived F 3 families against the Pst pathotype 134 E16A+Yr17+Yr27+ indicated the digenic inheritance of seedling stripe rust resistance (H.S. Bariana unpublished results). This manuscript covers the identification of the chromosomal locations of loci conferring resistance in VL Gehun 892 and the development of markers closely linked with each locus for marker-assisted pyramiding in wheat breeding programs.One hundred seeds of VL Gehun 892/Westonia-derived and monogenically segregating F 3 families, VL Gehun 892/Westonia#1 (phenotype 1) and VL Gehun 892/Westonia#4 (phenotype 2), were sown and a single head from each plant was harvested to generate single-gene segregating recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations. The seed of the F 5 single-plant progeny was harvested to develop F 6 RILs. These populations were named VL/Wes#1 (80 RILs) and VL/Wes#4 (77 RILs). In addition, a set of 89 Australian wheat cultivars was used to test the polymorphism of resistance-linked markers.Eight to ten seeds of each RIL from the VL/Wes#1 and VL/Wes#4 populations were sown in small pots in the greenhouse as four lines per pot, inoculated with Pst pathotype 134 E16A+Yr17+Yr27+, and scored using a 0-4 infection type (IT) scale [11]. This scale covers ITs 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4, where ITs 3 or lower are considered resistant and more than 3 are considered susceptible. Symbols '−' and '+' explained slight deviations from a usual IT, whereas more than usual chlorosis and necrosis was denoted by 'C' and 'N', respectively. The parents VL892 and Westonia were included as controls. These pots were moved to a rust-free and temperature-controlled greenhouse room. This material was inoculated with Pst pathotype 134 E16A+Yr17+Yr27+ in the greenhouse at the two-leaf stage to confirm single-gene segregation in the VL/Wes#1 and VL/Wes#4 populations, according to Bariana and McIntosh (11), and the RILs were classified as homozygous-resistant (HR) and homozygous-susceptible (HS).Two HR lines each from VL/Wes#1 and VL/Wes#4, along with the susceptible control Morocco, were tested with four Pst pathotypes, 110 E143A+, 134 E16A+Yr17+Yr27+, 239Agronomy 2022, 12, 318 3 of 9 E237A-Yr17+Yr33+, and 198 E16A-J+T+Yy17+ following the procedure described in Bariana and McIntosh [11].DNA was extracted from VL/Wes#1 and VL/Wes#4 RIL populations using the modified CTAB method described in Bansal and co-workers [12]. DNA was quantified using a Nanodrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer (Nanodrop Technologies, Wilmington, DE, USA).Equal amounts of DNA of 20 HR and 20 HS lines were used to prepare resistant and susceptible bulks, respectively, from both populations. An artificial F 1 was created by pooling equal amounts of DNA from 40 random lines. The DNA bulks and artificial F 1 were subjected to BSA using the 90K iSelect Infinium SNP array. The single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) showing association with resistance in bulks from both populations through comparing normalized theta values were converted to kompetitive allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (KASP) assays and tested on four resistant and susceptible RILs each from both populations following the methodology described in Nsabiyera et al. [13].Chi-squared analyses were conducted to test the goodness of fit of the observed segregation with expected genetic ratios among RIL populations. MapManager QTXb20 [14] and Kosambi mapping function [15] were used for linkage analysis. The MapChart software [16] was used to order markers in the final linkage map.Both VL/Wes#1 and VL/Wes#4 RIL populations were tested at the two-leaf stage with Pst pathotype 134E16A+Yr17+Yr27+. Monogenic segregation for stripe rust resistance in both populations was observed (Table 1). The stripe rust responses of HR lines from VL/Wes#1 ranged from IT 1C to 2C, whereas the HR lines from VL/Wes#4 exhibited IT 23C. The resistance loci conditioning stripe rust resistance in VL/Wes#1 and VL/Wes#4 were temporarily named YrVL1 and YrVL2, respectively. Thirty-four SNPs located in the short arm of chromosome 3D showed a strong association with YrVL1 in the 90K SNP array-based BSA. These SNPs were converted into KASP assays. Out of 34 KASP markers, 11 (KASP_44133, KASP_10496, KASP_23205, KASP_56281, KASP_29499, KASP_48159, KASP_18087, KASP_48179, KASP_6764, KASP_60455, and KASP_4059) clearly differentiated parental genotypes and four homozygous resistant and four homozygous susceptible RILs. These markers were tested on the VL/Wes#1 RIL population (Table 2). The final genetic linkage map for YrVL1 consisted of 11 KASP markers covering a total genetic distance of 12.5 cM. KASP_48179 and KASP_18087 mapped 0.6 cM (proximal) and 2.1 cM (distal) to YrVL1 (Figure 1). Thirty-four SNPs located in the short arm of chromosome 3D showed a strong association with YrVL1 in the 90K SNP array-based BSA. These SNPs were converted into KASP assays. Out of 34 KASP markers, 11 (KASP_44133, KASP_10496, KASP_23205, KASP_56281, KASP_29499, KASP_48159, KASP_18087, KASP_48179, KASP_6764, KASP_60455, and KASP_4059) clearly differentiated parental genotypes and four homozygous resistant and four homozygous susceptible RILs. These markers were tested on the VL/Wes#1 RIL population (Table 2). The final genetic linkage map for YrVL1 consisted of 11 KASP markers covering a total genetic distance of 12.5 cM. KASP_48179 and KASP_18087 mapped 0.6 cM (proximal) and 2.1 cM (distal) to YrVL1 (Figure 1). Of the polymorphic SNP in BSA, 20 markers were identified from the long arm of chromosome 7B that showed strong associations with YrVL2. These SNPs were converted into KASP assays and tested on parental genotypes for polymorphism. Six KASP markers, KASP_37096, KASP_62470, KASP_13220, KASP_2239, KASP_71995, and KASP_61786, showed different parental alleles and differentiated four homozygous resistant and four homozygous susceptible RILs and were tested on the VL/Wes#4 RIL population (Table 2). A genetic linkage map was constructed using six KASP markers spanning a genetic distance of 15.6 cM. YrVL2 was flanked by KASP_37096 and KASP_2239 at 1.2 cM (proximal) and 3.6 cM (distal) distances (Figure 2).Homozygous-resistant lines from both populations were tested against four Pst pathotypes. YrVL2 displayed resistance against all four pathotypes and the ITs varied from ;C to 23C (Figure 3). YrV1 was effective against two (134 E16A+Yr17+Yr27+ and 198 E16A-J+T+Yr17+) of the four pathotypes tested (Figure 3). Continuous evolution in the stripe rust pathogen has restricted the availability of effective sources of stripe rust resistance for the development of cultivars with durable resistance [17]. This emphasises the need for the identification and characterisation of new sources of resistance effective against the stripe rust pathogen for successful utilisation in breeding programs. This study dissected resistance carried by cultivar VL Gehun 892 and the underlying loci, which were temporarily named YrVL1 and YrVL2.Tests on single-gene stocks showed that YrVL1 was effective against two post-2002 Australian Pst pathotypes, whereas YrVL2 showed resistance against all four pathotypes. YrVL1 was flanked by KASP_18087 (3,549,840 bp of the Chinese Spring reference genome) and KASP_48179 (position not known). These SNP markers spanned an interval of 0-4.5 Continuous evolution in the stripe rust pathogen has restricted the availability of effective sources of stripe rust resistance for the development of cultivars with durable resistance [17]. This emphasises the need for the identification and characterisation of new sources of resistance effective against the stripe rust pathogen for successful utilisation in breeding programs. This study dissected resistance carried by cultivar VL Gehun 892 and the underlying loci, which were temporarily named YrVL1 and YrVL2.Tests on single-gene stocks showed that YrVL1 was effective against two post-2002 Australian Pst pathotypes, whereas YrVL2 showed resistance against all four pathotypes. YrVL1 was flanked by KASP_18087 (3,549,840 bp of the Chinese Spring reference genome) and KASP_48179 (position not known). These SNP markers spanned an interval of 0-4.5 cM of the total 95 cM map length of chromosome 3DS [18]. An adult plant resistance gene Yr49 has previously been reported in chromosome 3DS; flanked by markers gpw7321 (12.5 cM) and gwm161 (25 cM; 7,094,923 bp), in a total map length of 154 cM [19]. The comparison of map locations indicate that Yr49 is proximal to YrVL1. Based on the different chromosomal locations and the fact that YrVL1 is a seedling resistance gene, YrVL1, was permanently designated Yr66.Molecular mapping using the 90K Infinium SNP array positioned YrVL2 in the long arm of chromosome 7B (716,966,290 to 721,082,714 bp), and an old Indian cultivar C591 in which YrC591 was mapped appears in the pedigree of VL Gehun 892. YrC591 was flanked by SSR marker cfa2040 and AFLP marker SCP35M48 and was mapped in chromosome 7BL [20]. SSR markers cfa2040 and barc182 were both mapped at the 164 cM position in Somers et al. [19]. YrVL2-linked SNPs were genotyped on cultivars C591 and C306 and amplified the YrVL2-linked alleles. Based on pedigree information, the map positions of SSR markers, and the amplification of YrVL2-linked products in C591 and C306, we concluded that YrVL2 and YrC591 represent the same locus. The other stripe rust resistance genes that are mapped in chromosome 7BL include Yr6 [21,22], Yr39 [23], Yr52 [24], and Yr59 [25]. Yr6 is linked with marker gwm577 [19; position: 157 cM] and is not effective against the Pst pathotype used in this study. On the other hand, Yr39 is a high-temperature adult plant (HTAP) resistance gene that mapped 7 cM proximal to the SSR marker gwm131 [98 cM in 20]. Yr52 was flanked by SSR markers cfa2040 and barc182 (position: 164 cM). Ren and co-workers reported a 36.5 ± 6.75 cM recombination distance between Yr39 and Yr52 [24]. Another HTAP resistance gene, Yr59, was located between cfa2040 and barc182 and Zhou and co-workers [25] estimated a recombination fraction of 5.4 ±7.6 cM between Yr52 and Yr59. These workers also placed YrC591 distal to Yr59 (12.3 cM) based on common markers. Different genetic maps and recombination values reported by various workers demonstrated that YrVL2/YrC591 represented a new locus; it was permanently named Yr67.The closely linked markers for Yr66 and Yr67 showed more than 85% polymorphism among a set of 89 wheat cultivars. These results indicated the usefulness of Yr66and Yr67-linked markers for the marker-assisted selection of these genes in breeding programs following the confirmation of polymorphism between the donor and recurrent parents. These genes have broadened the resistance gene pool. Markers for many seedling stripe rust resistance genes, including Yr47 [14], Yr51 [26], Yr57 [27], Yr63 [5], Yr81 [28], and Yr82 [29], as well as adult plant resistance genes Yr18 [30], Yr36 [31], and Yr46 [32], have been reported. Similarly, markers for several leaf rust and stem rust resistance genes have been reported. The markers identified in this study can be used to develop triple-rust-resistant wheat cultivars through marker-assisted resistance gene pyramiding.The genetic analysis of stripe rust resistance in wheat cultivar VL Gehun 892 led to the naming of two new stripe rust resistance loci Yr66 (chromosome 3D) and Yr67 (chromosome 7B). Markers closely linked with Yr66 (KASP_48179 and KASP_18087) and Yr67 (KASP_2239) were developed and validated on a set of 90 Australian wheat cultivars. More than 85% of wheat cultivars amplified alleles alternate to those linked with Yr66 and Yr67 when tested with these markers. These results supported the use of Yr66and Yr67-linked markers for the marker-assisted pyramiding of these genes with other markertagged rust resistance loci in wheat improvement programs to achieve the durable control of rust diseases. The marker-assisted selection of other marker-tagged loci that control economic/quality traits in wheat can allow the delivery of the total genotypic package in future wheat cultivars.","tokenCount":"2493"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4df72ca85c8dee902788809356d2b25d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9784389e-79b5-416f-abc9-9e63d6d38079/retrieve","id":"-549455633"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"257c6383-6817-4ebe-993d-f152597a2ce0","pagecount":"9","content":"Therophilus javanus is a koinobiont, solitary larval endoparasitoid currently being considered as a biological control agent against the pod borer Maruca vitrata, a devastating cowpea pest causing 20-80% crop losses in West Africa. We investigated ovary morphology and anatomy, oogenesis, potential fecundity, and egg load in T. javanus, as well as the effect of factors such as age of the female and parasitoid/host size at oviposition on egg load. The number of ovarioles was found to be variable and significantly influenced by the age/size of the M. vitrata caterpillar when parasitized. Egg load also was strongly influenced by both the instar of M. vitrata caterpillar at the moment of parasitism and wasp age. The practical implications of these findings for improving mass rearing of the parasitoid toward successful biological control of M. vitrata are discussed.The legume pod borer Maruca vitrata (Fabricius) (syn. M. testulalis) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) is an important pest of cowpea, Vigna unguiculata L. Walp (Fabales: Fabaceae), a widely cultivated legume crop in Sub-Saharan Africa, and can cause yield losses in the range of 20-80% [1]. According to taxonomic and population genetic studies, the putative area of origin of this pest is assigned to South Asia [2]. Therophilus javanus (Bhat & Gupta, 1977) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is an endoparasitoid that develops inside M. vitrata during the early larval stages. High parasitism rates of T. javanus on M. vitrata caterpillars have been reported in soybean and yard-long beans fields in tropical Asia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, and Southern Taiwan [3,4]. T. javanus thus seems an excellent candidate for use as a biological control agent against M. vitrata in West Africa. However, the development of biological control relying on T. javanus releases requires a thorough knowledge of its basic biology, which has not been investigated yet.Therophilus javanus belongs to the Agathidinae subfamily of Braconidae, which includes an estimated two to three thousand species worldwide with a higher number of genera in tropical than in temperate regions [5]. Some species have been employed as biological control agents against various insect pests [6,7]. Although Agathidinae have been Psyche studied for taxonomic or phylogeny purposes, the biology of members of this subfamily remains largely unknown. A few biological and quite ancient studies have been conducted on Agathidinae oviposition and larval development [8][9][10][11]. Most studied Agathidinae species oviposit into special organs (nerve ganglia) [12], but some, including T. javanus, place their eggs directly into the host hemocoel [8][9][10]. Apart from a few studies, that is, the number of eggs laid by Bracon vulgaris (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) [11], and the number of offspring produced by Agathis gibbosa (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) [9], there is a dearth of data concerning Agathidinae reproductive biology.Fecundity is one of the proxies used by biologists to investigate the individual fitness [13] and may greatly vary depending on the species and its life cycle. It can also be affected by a series of abiotic (e.g., temperature) and biotic (e.g., wasp nutritional status, mating status, and age) parameters. Fecundity has been shown to correlate positively with the number of ovarioles, that is, the egg-producing components of the ovary [14]. The number of ovarioles is commonly species-specific, and there is great variation across insects, ranging from less than five per ovary in some flies to hundreds per ovary in some grasshoppers [15]. As such, ovariole number is relatively stable for a given species but can vary due to different environmental or nutritional conditions [16]. In some parasitoid species, adults emerge with their full load of mature eggs (termed \"proovigenic\") while other species mature eggs during their adult life (termed \"synovigenic\") [17]. For the latter, production of the first eggs relates to the amount of nutritional resources stored during larval stages [18,19].In the present work, we investigated T. javanus reproductive biology, ovariole number, egg development, and the potential fecundity, as well as how egg loads vary depending on the wasp female age and how they are affected by parameters such as the nutritional quality provided by the lepidopteran host (i.e., caterpillar instar).The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), Taiwan, Republic of China, and reared for several generations under confined conditions at IITA, Benin research station. The pod borer M. vitrata colony was established from feral populations collected from both cowpea fields and alternative host plants surrounding the IITA-Benin station. Insect colonies were reared under laboratory conditions, with 12 : 12 L : D photoperiod 26 ∘ C ± 1.1 ∘ C average temperature and 76% ± 7% relative humidity. Four-day-old, mated adult females of M. vitrata were transferred in groups of four or five individuals to transparent cylindrical plastic cups (3 cm diameter × 3.5 cm height) and kept for 24 h to allow for oviposition. Ovipositing females were fed using small pieces of filter paper moistened with 10% honey solution. Cups carrying eggs were kept at the same experimental conditions until hatching by the first instar caterpillars, which were subsequently transferred to large cylindrical plastic containers (11 cm height × 16.5 cm diameter) containing sprouting cowpea grains as a feeding substrate.Colonies of T. javanus were reared on M. vitrata first instar (three-day-old) caterpillars submitted to parasitization by T. javanus mated females. Parasitized caterpillars were reared on sprouting cowpea grains until pupae stage. Emerged adults were fed with a honey solution.Three-day-old adult females were dissected in a phosphatebuffered saline (PBS) solution to carefully recover the reproductive system. The specimens were prefixed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde in cacodylate buffer at 4 ∘ C during the night. Once fixed, the samples were washed (3 × 10 min) in cacodylate buffer. Postfixation was performed in 2% osmium tetroxide in the same buffer for 1 h at room temperature. Afterwards, the reproductive systems were carefully rinsed with distilled water and washed (3 × 10 min) in 50%, 70%, 90%, and 100% alcohol. Samples were subsequently placed for 1 h in a solution of EMbed 812 Resin (EMS) diluted at 50% in absolute alcohol, were rested overnight at room temperature, and were then transferred to a second, freshly prepared EMbed 812 Resin for 24 h at +60 ∘ C for polymerization. Semithin sections were then obtained using an ultra-microtome and stained with methylene blue.We also examine the egg development within ovariole by dissecting female wasps in PBS at different time intervals after adult emergence (24, 48, 72, and 96 hours). After dissecting the ovaries, ovarioles were removed and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde. Samples were washed for 5 minutes in PBS and stained either with DAPI (for DNA staining) or phalloidin (for actin staining) by incubation of the specimens for 30 minutes in a solution containing fluorescent phalloidin and DAPI markers diluted at 1/1000 in PBT1%, respectively. Samples were rinsed for 10 minutes in PBS and distilled water and then dried and stored at +4 ∘ C for observation of change in the contents of the ovariole using a fluorescence microscope (Zeiss Axiovert 200M equipped with Zeiss AxioCam MRm). Images were processed with ImageJ software [2020].To examine the effect of the M. vitrata host quality on ovariole number in adult female, one hundred and sixty (160) each of first instar (two-day-old), old first instar (three-day-old), and second instar (four-day-old) M. vitrata caterpillars, respectively, were submitted individually to parasitization by three-day-old T. javanus females. Caterpillars chosen were well-fed and of uniform size. Each was permitted to be stung once and then reared individually on sprouting cowpea grains in plastic cups (diameter: 9 cm on base and 12 cm on top; height: 4.5 cm) until egression of the parasitoid larva from the host and spinning of the cocoon for the pupal stage. Pupae were then collected in the plastic cups until adult emergence. Thirty-one (31) females (per host group) more than 24 h age were dissected in PBS under a stereomicroscope and the number of ovarioles per ovary was counted.Parasitoid females used in this study were mated and fed using 10% honey solution but not allowed to oviposit. Twenty ( 20 dissected in PBS and observed under a stereomicroscope. Because eggs chambers in T. javanus are translucent white, dissected ovaries were placed in red neutral solution for five (5) minutes to easily observe immature and mature eggs that were thus colored in red. Each ovariole was then detached and opened in PBS solution to count the number of eggs per ovariole. Large size individual eggs, still accompanied by nurse cells, were categorized as \"immature eggs\" (indicated by solid black color in Figure 1) and well-formed eggs that displayed an ovoid form and had a slender tapering stalk at their posterior end as \"mature\" eggs (black striped in Figure 1). We counted both immature eggs and mature eggs to estimate the egg production in T. javanus. Small size eggs chambers that were not individually differentiated were not counted (solid white color in Figure 1).Maruca vitrata first instar (two-day-old) and second instar (four-day-old) caterpillars, well-fed and of uniform size, were submitted individually for parasitization by three-day-old T. javanus. Each was permitted to be stung once and then reared individually on sprouting cowpea grains in plastic cups (diameter: 9 cm on base and 12 cm on top; height: 4.5 cm) until egression of the parasitoid larva from the host and spinning of the cocoon for the pupal stage. Pupae were then collected in the plastic cups until adult emergence. Thirty (30) emerged female wasps of increasing age (one, two, three, four, and five days after adult emergence) were dissected in PBS under a stereomicroscope. Ovaries were removed and placed in red neutral solution for five minutes. The total number of mature eggs (black striped in Figure 1) in the ovariole was counted per ovary.  Multiple comparisons were carried out using the glht function of the \"multcomp\" package in the R software [20] to determine significant differences among the mean number of ovarioles per female (at the 0.05 significance level). The statistical software package R 3.3.2 [21] was used for all statistical analyses.Reproductive System. The T. javanus female reproductive system consisted of a pair of globular-shaped ovaries housing several ovarioles, a spermatheca, a Dufour's gland, a venom gland, composed of a venom duct and two venom gland filaments, and the wasp ovipositor (Figure 2).Female. The mean number of ovarioles per female was found to be significantly influenced by host age at the moment of oviposition (GLM: \uD835\uDF12 2 = 3.6358, df = 2, \uD835\uDC5D < 0.05) (Figure 3). In general, the number of ovarioles varied between the three Egg development occurred anteriorly to posteriorly along the ovariole, with two distinctly recognizable regions: the germarium and the vitellarium. The germarium contained a number of spherical cells observed as either free or clustered (Figure 4(a)). Cell nuclei size increased as they progressed along the germarium. The vitellarium is the posterior region of the ovariole, where egg chambers (follicles) are formed and grown. In T. javanus vitellarium, nurse cells were disposed at the top of the oocyte, all being surrounded by a sheath composed of follicular cells (Figure 4(b)). During progression of the follicles from the anterior to the posterior part of the vitellarium, vitellogenesis takes place and the size of the oocyte increases (Figure 4(c)). A cross-section of the entire ovary shows that egg chambers were in different maturation stages within and between ovarioles (Figure 4(d)). Well-differentiated oocytes (with chorion) displayed an ovoid shaped form and had a slender tapering stalk at their posterior end. Mature eggs measured 160.9 ± 6.9 \uD835\uDF07m (\uD835\uDC5B = 20) in length with widths ranging from 25.3 ± 2.6 \uD835\uDF07m (\uD835\uDC5B = 20) (anterior pole) to 9.4 ± 1.3 \uD835\uDF07m (\uD835\uDC5B = 20) (posterior/basal pole) (Figure 4(e)).The number of eggs (both immature and mature) per female ranged from 1 to 88 and from 349 to 476 in 12-hour-old and 72-hour-old females, respectively. The overall mean number per female increased with the female age (GLM: \uD835\uDF12 2 = 6481.2, df = 1, \uD835\uDC5D < 0.001). The number of eggs ranged from 0 Mean number of eggs (immature eggs + mature eggs) per ovariole and per female at 12 and 72 h after adult emergence. Eggs that were attached by nurse cells were recorded as immature eggs (black solid color in Figure 1), and well-formed eggs who displayed an ovoid form and had a slender tapering stalk at their posterior end were recorded as mature eggs (black striped color in Figure 1). Means followed by different letters between columns are significantly different between females at 12 h (\uD835\uDC5B = 20) and 72 h (\uD835\uDC5B = 12) after adult emergence only according to GLM with \"quasi-Poisson distribution\" and log-link function (\uD835\uDC5D < 0.05).to 6 and from 3 to 21 per ovariole, 12 hours and 72 hours after female emergence, respectively (Table 1). As expected, the number of eggs per female was found to be significantly influenced by the total number of ovariole per female (GLM: \uD835\uDF12 2 = 233.4, df = 1, \uD835\uDC5D < 0.001).Overall, the mean number of mature eggs per female was found to be significantly influenced by host age (GLM: \uD835\uDF12 2 = 44.4, df = 1, \uD835\uDC5D < 0.001) and parasitoid female age (GLM: \uD835\uDF12 2 = 16600.9, df = 4, \uD835\uDC5D < 0.001). Females that emerged from four-day-old host caterpillar at oviposition had a higher mean number of mature eggs. (Figure 5).Therophilus javanus belongs to an important braconid family, the Agathidinae, whose reproductive biology is largely unknown. Our study is the first of its kind highlighting major characteristics of T. javanus reproductive biology and provides the basis for deploying this parasitoid as a biological control agent against the cowpea pod borer M. vitrata in West Africa and elsewhere.The female reproductive tract of T. javanus presents a classical basic morphological organization, similar to the one described in braconids and other Agathidinae species, e.g., Agathis pumila (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) (Ratzeburg) [10]. However, differently from other braconids, the follicles are not organized in a string within T. javanus ovarioles but rather appear as \"free\" egg chambers. This kind of organization resembles to some extent what have been described in some Eulophidae parasitoids (e.g., Palmistichus elaeisis (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae)) [22].In contrast to the insect model Drosophila, scarce data is available on oocyte size and number and on ovariole number in parasitoid species [23]. In some parasitoid species (e.g., ichneumonids), the number of ovarioles was shown to be a good indicator of fecundity [24]. Ovariole number is largely species-dependent but may show plasticity as a function of biological or environmental factors [25][26][27]. Our observations suggest that T. javanus displays quite a variable number of ovarioles, which has also been commonly reported in noncyclostome Braconidae subfamilies, including in Agathidinae (from 4 to 30) [6,28]. In T. javanus, the highest number of ovarioles has been observed in females issued from larger hosts (i.e., second instar M. vitrata larvae). Impact of host instar on parasitoids ecological and biological traits has been reported in several studies [29][30][31][32]. For example, the average number of eggs in Microplitis rufiventris Kok (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was higher in females that emerged from Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) parasitized at younger larval stage [33].Our study has demonstrated that, in T. javanus, egg load is influenced by females' age. The largest average number of mature eggs (177.97 ± 2.62) was counted in five-day-old females that emerged from larger hosts (L2, four-day-old). This confirms observations in other Braconidae that larger parasitoids are issued from larger host larvae and larger females lay higher number of eggs [34]. In spite of the uniform size of M. vitrata caterpillars used for parasitization, we did observe a variable number of eggs in T. javanus females, which has been demonstrated to depend on abiotic or biotic factors in the Agathidinae B. vulgaris and A. gibbosa [9,11]. For instance, the number of eggs laid by B. vulgaris varies depending on the size of the wasp female and on temperature at adult emergence, whereas mating is known to decrease egg load in A. gibbosa. In three-day-old mated T. javanus females, the mean number of mature eggs was much smaller than the number of immature ones (50 and 357, resp.), suggesting a large potential fecundity. As generally observed in koinobiont species including some Agathidinae [35], this could be related to the ability of T. javanus females to continue oogenesis after emergence, provided there are sufficient protein sources to maintain oogenesis and complete egg maturation. In fact, the impact of adult life time protein deficiency on oogenesis has been previously documented in Microterys flavus (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) [36]. Like for A. pumila [10], T. javanus females do not host-feed and may probably need to take additional protein from nonhost food sources after emergence, possibly slowing down egg maturation.As described for other koinobiont species that attack hosts at early stages [35], T. javanus displays very tiny eggs (0.1 mm in length and 0.025 mm for its larger width). This minute size and the tear shape of T. javanus eggs correspond to previous descriptions of Agathidinae eggs such as those produced by B. vulgaris (Cress.), A. pumila, and A. gibbosa [9][10][11]. T. javanus females are synovigenic; that is, they emerge with high numbers of immature eggs and only few mature eggs but continue to produce eggs throughout the adult stage, implying that females can start to oviposit in host caterpillars just after emergence. This ability to start oviposition just after emergence has been mentioned in other Agathidinae species, that is, A. gibbosa, A. pumila, and B. vulgaris [9][10][11]. In contrast to what was observed in the ovarioles of A. pumila and most Braconidae, however, both developing and mature eggs were found at the same level in the basal part of T. javanus ovariole. This suggests that T. javanus females might have developed a mechanism allowing them to lay only mature eggs in the host.The current mass-rearing protocol, using three-day-old T. javanus females, stems from a desire to maximize the production of mated females as recommended for parasitoid rearing in biological control programs [37,38]. Our findings, however, show that egg production was relatively low (40.8 ± 8.6) during the first three days following adult emergence, suggesting that better outputs could be obtained using females older than three days. Our results also show that egg production in T. javanus is influenced by the size or instar of the caterpillar host. From a mass-rearing perspective, this suggests that the overall fecundity of T. javanus could be improved by selecting second instar caterpillars. However, under field conditions, the fecundity of foraging T. javanus females could be influenced by the size of the available M. vitrata life stages. Also, along with preliminary observations that T. javanus females did not perform host feeding on M. vitrata caterpillars, it will be important to investigate how feeding on sugar sources may impact the fecundity of T. javanus females. In fact, synovigenic parasitoids that do not feed on host are usually able to use sugar foods for oogenesis [18]. Notably, cowpea itself, the major crop hosting caterpillars of M. vitrata, secretes extrafloral nectar [39], which may provide an adequate source of sugar food for foraging female parasitoids. We expect similar extrafloral nectar to be present on other important, wild-occurring host plants such as Sesbania rostrata (Fabales: Fabaceae) and Tephrosia platycarpa (Fabales: Fabaceae), known to harbor important pod borer populations [40], which might also be visited by foraging T. javanus females.Biological, rather than pesticidal, control of M. vitrata offers numerous advantages, especially in poor rural areas where the cost of pesticides, along with human and environmental exposures, becomes unsustainable or prohibitive. Even with pesticides, however, difficulty in recognizing the presence of M. vitrata prior to destructive crop predation makes conventional crop protection methods challenging. Our findings provide the first baseline information toward elucidating several factors influencing the reproductive biology in T. javanus, a promising biological control candidate against M. vitrata in West Africa. The fact that T. javanus, along with its high level of potential fecundity, may also demonstrate a greater facility for identifying and taking advantage of the presence of M. vitrata potentially enhances its use as a biological control to a great degree, while also affording the many cost, human, and environmental advantages of not using chemical pesticides.","tokenCount":"3329"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"803bb0d29303e7d70d3375095409e25e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/195833d6-9c27-4bbb-b224-a7bae9fd9a17/retrieve","id":"1754217792"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c64b4a9c-d1a2-410d-bbf2-cb11c3dcc976","pagecount":"15","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim research on the scaling of climate services and climatesmart agriculture in Africa in order to stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Ethiopian BirrInternational Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas SNNPR Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' RegionThe International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) launched a pilot radio program to assess the potential of disseminating sheep fattening technologies to smallholder farmers using radio as a communication medium. The program was introduced in three pilot districts (Doyogena, Lemo, and Tembaro) of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region in July 2023. The target groups of the intervention were youths and women farmers who are involved or plan to engage in sheep fattening as a business. This mid-term review aims to provide initial insight about the progress made six months after the program rollout. Data collected from baseline and mid-term surveys were used to measure changes in relevant covariates. The baseline survey included 150 beneficiaries of the program, while the follow-up survey covered 60 participants recruited from the three pilot Districts.The mid-term evaluation shows that the radio program has been effective in communicating improved sheep-fattening technologies to the target population. Between the baseline and mid-term surveys, the proportion of individuals receiving information about improved technologies increased from 80% to 98%. Furthermore, during the mid-term review, over 90% of participants perceived that radio is a valuable or highly valuable medium for disseminating technological innovations to farmers relying on subsistence agriculture. This is a significant increase compared to the baseline and indicates that radio can be used effectively to disseminate innovative farming technologies to youth and women farmers.Although there were no improvements in the accumulation of livestock assets during the study period, average household income increased significantly by 4.7 times during the mid-term survey.The follow-up survey was conducted during the crop harvest season, and crop production is the primary source of income in the study area. Therefore, the main reason for the increase in income could be crop sales. However, part of the change in income could also be attributed to the expansion of business activities in livestock production after being beneficiaries of the radio program. In this regard, approximately 98% of the study participants stated in the mid-term review that they had benefited from participating in the radio program.The assessment also shows that about 32% of beneficiaries have not applied livestock production information to improve their livestock husbandry practices. This implies that the radio lessons need to incorporate topics related to the adaptation and use of modern livestock technologies, taking into account the socio-economic conditions of the study participants. One of the reasons for not adopting technologies could also be due to insufficient working capital. Therefore, to improve the application of improved technologies in livestock production, it is important to provide necessary support to youth and women facing resource constraints to enable them to adopt improved livestock technologies.Problems related to traditional farming systems and inadequate adaptation of agricultural technologies are among the main reasons for low productivity and limited progress made in the livestock production sector in Ethiopia (Henry et al., 2018;Wendimu, 2021) The broadcasts are specifically designed to improve husbandry and marketing practices, focusing on feeding formulation and preparation, animal health and disease prevention measures, entrepreneurial skills, and marketing of fattened sheep. Therefore, the pilot intervention is expected to provide policy-relevant insights into the potential of using radio as a medium to convey information on improved livestock production. This could serve as an entry point for entrepreneurial interventions to enhance the productivity of livestock production and improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia.The main objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot radio program in disseminating livestock production information to smallholder farmers in selected districts of the SNPPR. The evaluation assessed the scope and reach of the radio programs, determining the number of farmers reached and their accessibility to radio broadcasts. It also measured the farmers' level of knowledge acquisition of improved sheep fattening techniques, such as feeding resourcing, formulation and preparation, animal health and disease prevention measures and livestock marketing.The mid-term survey of the radio program included 60 participants from three districts in SNNPR.Table 1 shows the socio-economic profile of the respondents. Most of the participants were males (62%), the rest were women (38%). 5% of them were less than 21 years old, 33% were between 21 and 30 years old, 42% were between 31 and 40 years old, and 20% were above 40 years old. Of the 60 individuals, 8% of them had no education at all, while about 88% had attended either primary education or secondary education. The remaining 3% have completed higher education. The participants belong to the Orthodox (10%) and Protestant (90%) religions. The household size distribution of the sample shows that 33% of the individuals have 1-3 household members, 38.5% have 4-6 members, and 28.9% have more than 6 members.The radio programmes are primarily aimed disseminating improved sheep fattening technologies to smallholder farmers in the study areas. The mid-term evaluation shows that the dissemination of information via radio as a communication medium has improved. During the baseline study, 80% of respondents received information about improved sheep fattening by listening to the radio programs. However, the mid-term evaluation shows that almost all (98%) of them learned improved technologies from the same medium. The result of the chi-square test shows that the proportions of individuals who were informed about sheep fattening technologies through media in the mid-term survey is statistically significant compared to those in the baseline (Table 2). The mid-term evaluation shows that ICARDA's radio program has successfully contributed to increasing knowledge of improved sheep fattening technologies among target group members which include youth and women. Respondents were asked to rate the usefulness of radio in disseminating livestock production innovations to smallholder farmers using a 4-point Likert scale. Table 2 shows that most respondents considered radio to be very useful in disseminating technological innovation, with 76% of respondents holding this view during the baseline study and 88.3% during the mid-term review. Less than 2% of the study participants reported that radio was not a useful medium of communication.Relatively speaking, the proportion of participants who have a more positive attitude towards the role of radio in conveying information about improved sheep fattening is higher during in the midterm than in the baseline period. This could be because they have received new and relevant information that they can use to improve their sheep fattening practices. Table 3 shows the changes in livestock ownership among radio program listeners between the baseline survey and the mid-term surveys. The proportion of households owning cattle increased slightly from 94% to 95%, while the proportion of households owning sheep decreased from 88% to 82%. There was no significant difference (P>0.1) in the proportions of household ownership of cattle and sheep between the baseline survey and mid-term surveys. This suggests that the variations observed between the two periods occurred solely due to random chance (Bangdiwala, 2016;Suresh et al., 2022). Between the baseline survey and the mid-term survey, the proportion of households keeping goats increased slightly from 23% to 29%. In contrast, the proportion of households that owned chickens fell from 85% to 77%, and the proportion of households producing poultry fell from 85% to 77%. The proportion of households owning donkeys remained the same at 63%.There was a decline in the average number of cattle per household, dropping from 3.44 at baseline to 3.09 at mid-term. Conversely, there was a notable reduction in the average number of sheep per household, decreasing significantly from 3.59 to 2.80 (P<0.05), (Table 3). This trend may be attributed to the sale of livestock, especially those kept for fattening. Additionally, the average numbers of goats, donkeys, horses, and bee colonies all decreased from the baseline to mid-term, though these changes are not statistically significant. The mid-term survey generally indicates that there has been a decline in livestock ownership in the households reached by the radio broadcasts. While this seems unexpected as participants are receiving information about improved livestock production, it could also be because they are selling their animals to generate income for household consumption or to expand their working capital. In relation to this, there was a significant increase in household income within six months of the introduction of the radio program in the pilot districts (Table 4). The baseline study reported an average household income of ETB 6,587 (USD 120). After six months, the average income increased (P<0.01) to ETB 31,047 (USD 565). The trend of changing household incomes across the pilot counties is consistent, although the extent of income differences varied during the two survey periods. In Doyogena, the average monthly household income increased (P<0.01) from ETB 7,054 (USD 128) during the baseline to ETB 31,277.78 (USD 569) during the medium term. In the Lemo district, the household income increased 2.6-fold increase. In the Tembaro site, the income change (P<0.001) was ETB 35,149 (USD 639). It should be emphasized that not all economic progress can be attributed solely to the broadcast of livestock production information via radio. The methodology of comparing simple means doesn't support drawing this conclusion. In Ethiopia, the Meher season, spanning from September to February, is the primary season for crop harvesting (Chekol et al., 2023). Given that the mid-term survey took place in December, a significant portion of the income rise might result from the harvesting and selling of crops. Figure 1 also shows that during the mid-term review, crop production was the main source of income for 58% of the sample households in the study areas. The proportion of households that relied on plant cultivation as their main source of income in the mid-term survey is 9 percentage points higher than in the baseline survey. In addition to crop production, household members earned income by engaging in non-agricultural activities and by providing labor. However, parts of the change in income could still be due to improvements in animal production management and entrepreneurial skills, as radio show participants were informed about improved methods of animal production for about six months.Simply getting knowledge on sheep-fattening technologies might not be enough to revolutionize the sheep-fattening industry. It's essential that this information is both adaptable and put into practice to enhance production methods, leading to significant transformation. According to the mid-term review, 68% of the beneficiaries of the ICARDA radio program implemented the improved sheep fattening technologies they learned from the radio broadcasts. However, compared to the baseline, the change is only marginal (P>0.05), (Table 5). This implies that radio lessons need to also incorporate issues related to the adaptation and use of improved technologies, considering the socio-economic conditions of the study participants.  The mid-term review shows that compared to the baseline, more (P<0.01) individuals believed they benefited from the radio program and obtaining information over the radio motivated participants to seek more innovative production techniques (P<0.05). However, the number of participants who shared information received through media with other people fell by about 8%. This indicates that program beneficiaries need to be advised to share the information with individuals in their networks to increase the effectiveness of the program by promoting the spillover effects of improved livestock technologies via radio.Communicating livestock innovations to smallholder farmers through appropriate dissemination channels plays a crucial role in increasing the productivity of the sectors and ensuring that farmers benefit (Damba et al., 2016;Nyokabi et al., 2023). In June 2023, the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) launched a pilot program to disseminate information on improved sheep fattening practices via radio in selected districts of SNPPR. The target groups of the program are youth and women who are engaged or planning to start sheep fattening as a business. This is a mid-term report to review the progress made after six months of intervention based on surveys conducted before and after the intervention in three pilot districts in the region.The review shows that the radio program has made some progress in improving farmers' access to information on livestock production technologies. Compared to the baseline, significantly more respondents stated they have obtained useful knowledge on improved sheep fattening technologies. This implies the potential of radio intervention to reach smallholder farmers who have limited access to other media, such as television and mobile data. In addition to building knowledge about improved sheep fattening practices, participation in the pilot program leads to a more positive attitude towards the role of radio in livestock development. More than 90% of participants believed that radio was helpful in disseminating technological innovations among farmers relying on subsistence agriculture. Compared to the baseline survey, the proportion of people who trust the role of radio is higher in the mid-term survey. The positive perception of radio could be due to the receipt of relevant information that can provide solutions to local specific problems in animal production.As far as economic indicators are concerned, the mid-term evaluation does not show any improvement in livestock ownership after six months of intervention. The average number of livestock farms such as cattle and sheep partially decreased during the study period. This is probably due to the fact that the diffusion of production technologies may not lead to the establishment of livestock stocks in a short period of time. If farmers also focus on ruminant fattening, they can keep their animals and sell them for cash after a few months. In this context, the evaluation indicates that the household income of the program participants was significantly above the initial value in the medium term. It was found that average monthly income during the mid-term review was 4.7 times the baseline. However, because this result is based on simple mean comparisons, we cannot attribute all the change in household income to radio programming. Seasonal differences in harvest season could be the main cause of the significant increase in household income. The mid-term review was conducted in December, the country's peak harvest season, and crop production is the main source of income for households in the study areas. Considering this point, the radio program could help increase revenue from livestock production by increasing commitment and working capital in this sector.The mid-term evaluation shows that more than 50% of the listeners of the radio programs used the information they received from the radio to improve livestock production practices. However, the performance is not satisfactory and considerably lower compared to the baseline. Accordingly, to further promote the adoption of improved livestock technologies, the radio programs need to provide lessons on how to adopt and use improved livestock practices considering the socioeconomic contexts of smallholder farmers in the intervention sites. Furthermore, despite knowledge of improved sheep fattening techniques, the lack of working capital and space could pose a challenge for the youth and women listening to the radio programs. Therefore, it is necessary to provide the necessary support to enable the targeted individuals to enter the sector and expand their business in animal production.Furthermore, no progress was made over time, although most radio show participants shared information about animal production within their networks. During the mid-term review, the proportion of respondents sharing animal production technologies with other people fell by 8%. Therefore, as part of the radio program, it is necessary to encourage participants to pass on improved agricultural practices to their social networks.","tokenCount":"2552"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ea3178601da3f2092d9e4c9ed9e66b71","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8c011187-6fa3-4f99-99c4-f421aeb5424c/retrieve","id":"-519148604"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d12441aa-a232-48b4-8db3-ec80ac53f4c0","pagecount":"2","content":"Late blight disease-caused by Phytophthora infestans-is a major constraint for potato farmers, costing them an estimated USD 3-10 billion per year globally. In Uganda, where about 300,000 smallholder farmers grow potatoes, the disease can destroy as much as 60-100% of the crop. Due essentially to diseases such as late blight, potato yields are four times lower on average in developing countries compared to the yields in industrialized nations.Farmers commonly use fungicides to control late blight, but because the cost of these agrochemicals can represent 10 to 25 percent the total value of a farmer's potato harvest, their use significantly reduces family incomes and their application poses risks to humans and the environment.Over the years, breeders have crossed potatoes with wild relatives to produce late blight-resistant varieties, but those varieties lacked other traits people wanted or had moderate levels of resistance, so adoption was limited. However, the late blight's rapid evolution overcomes many of these resistant varieties. This situation leaves farmers with no option but to grow varieties with little or no resistance to the disease if there is a strong market for them -even if it means they have to spend a significant portion of their earnings on fungicides to ensure a good harvest. In response, International Potato Center (CIP) scientists have taken a new approach using bioengineering to transfer resistance genes from potato wild relatives into varieties that are already popular with farmers and consumers.To develop and deliver bioengineered potatoes completely resistant to late blight to reduce the costs associated with potato production, the losses caused by the disease, and farmers' exposure to harmful chemicals.Targeting East African potato growing countries like Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, CIP scientists have bioengineered four locally-grown potato varieties with three resistance (3R) genes. Working closely with Uganda's National Research Organization (NARO), early research on these varieties has observed complete resistance to disease for the last five seasons.In 2008, scientists at the CIP laboratory in Peru transferred three resistance genes from Mexican and Argentinean wild species into Victoria, a farmer-preferred potato variety in Uganda. Over the next four years, numerous greenhouse tests identified the most productive and diseaseresistant varieties. The bioengineered potatoes were then transferred to the CIP team in Kenya where more laboratory and greenhouse tests were conducted. In 2015, the bioengineered potatoes were then transferred to Uganda and planted in experimental trials by NARO for five seasons.CIP is working in East Africa to breed varieties of potatoes that combine three forms of resistance to late blight --the disease that can exact costly tolls on smallholding farmers.CIP and NARO have operated in full compliance with regulations from phytosanitary and biosafety regulatory agencies in Kenya and Uganda.Confined field trials conducted at NARO's Kachwekano Zonal Agriculture Research Institute showed that the bioengineered Victoria is completely resistant to late blight, surviving exposure to the pathogen, which destroyed conventional potato plants growing nearby.In 2017, CIP and NARO began collaborating on compulsory assessments of the possible human and environmental risks that are required by Uganda's National Biosafety Committee. Confined fields were established, and initial trials completed near Fort Portal (Rwebitaba), Mbale (Buginyanya), and Kabale (Kachwekano).After two seasons of field trials in the three locations, results will be compiled and submitted to Uganda's National Biosafety Committee as part the process to approve the market release of the Victoria variety. Stewardship and commercialization plans of this future product will be developed with national partners according to existing legal regulations.If released to the market, Victoria will benefit smallholder families through higher potato yields, lower production costs, and without exposure to harmful fungicides.Five years of field trials in multiple locations across Uganda offer strong evidence that this bioengineered Victoria potato is virtually 100 percent resistant to late blight disease and requires no chemical spraying. Because it possesses three resistance genes acting in concert, we expect the bioengineered Victoria to hold this resistance to late blight for many years.In the field trials, the bioengineered Victoria potatoes were cultivated without fungicides, while non-bioengineered potatoes were rapidly killed by late blight disease. Farmers who were given the opportunity to visit the fields were impressed by the ability of the well-known Victoria to withstand late blight disease without chemicals.These bioengineered potatoes can be cultivated not only in East Africa (Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda) but also in other African countries, such as Ethiopia, and Nigeria, where CIP intends to test them with national agriculture research partners. Farmers grow potatoes with higher yields, for less money, and without exposure to harmful synthetic fungicides.Bioengineered varieties to cover 30-40% of the total potato area in countries 15 years after release.Outcomes Targets CIP thanks all donors and organizations that globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders This publication is copyrighted by the International Potato Center (CIP). It is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","tokenCount":"803"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/8131357286.json b/data/part_3/8131357286.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1c6e09847032d4905e15f52876a78078036e8a6b
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4f5125d55fb8a99c29aeee9d425f402d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ea9e7825-09b7-4a56-9907-83108cf22ad8/retrieve","id":"-1449350538"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4a8414ae-861d-4694-a84b-cf09347e31ca","pagecount":"66","content":"The Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC) is funded by the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF). It aims to improve the resilience of rural livelihoods in the Ethiopian highlands through a landscape approach to rainwater management. It comprises five linked projects examining: 1) Learning from the past; 2) developing integrated rainwater management strategies; 3) targeting and scaling out of rainwater management innovations; 4) assessing and anticipating the consequences of innovation in rainwater management systems; and 5) catalyzing platforms for learning, communication and coordination across the projects.The NBDC is implemented by a consortium comprising theThe 'Nile 3' project of the Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC -http://www.nilebdc.org) has developed feasibility maps, this are maps that combine biophysical suitability with willingness of adoption, both for single rainwater management practices as well as for combinations of practices at landscape scale. The biophysical suitability is based on suitability condition identified through experts and literature, whereas willingness of adoption is computed based on actual data from a farm household survey (IFPRI) from 2005.To validate these maps, the project needs to understand adoption and non-adoption of rainwater management practices and strategies. A multi-scale approach to capture dynamics from farm and landscape scales was chosen. To capture the farm scale, 600 farmers in 7 different watersheds of the Ethiopian Blue Nile were chosen (2 from the NBDC project). In the 4 new watersheds (Gorosole watershed (Ambo) and Laku watershed (Shambu) were chosen in Oromia as well as Maksenit watershed (Gonder) and Zefie watershed (Debre Tabor) in Amhara region), focus groups were run to capture the landscape scale. These focus group discussions brought together key informants from the community and asked them to imagine the best possible rainwater management strategy for their watershed and then discuss what hampers the implementation of that strategy.This report brings together the information collected during the focus group discussions and transect walks and serves as reference for the validation process 1 .The landscape approach We wanted to understand why farmers do not adopt some rainwater management strategies despite of their potential benefits. Under rainwater management strategies, we understand a combination of rainwater management practices that increases water infiltrations in the up-slope of a landscape, soil and water conservation in the mid-slope, and water productivity in the down-slope. Rainwater management practice is understood in very broad terms and goes beyond water harvesting to include a whole range of practices affecting crops, livestock and trees.A range of practices was selected, making sure that all the zones and land used were covered. The selection was made based on GIZ major activities in Ethiopia. The modeled practices were soil/stone bunds, terraces, gully rehabilitation/check dams, multipurpose trees, orchards (apple and mango), river diversion, wells, water harvesting/ponds, grassland management (enclosure, limiting animal movement, over-sowing).Four watersheds were selected by OARI (Oromia Agricultural Research Institute) and ARARI (Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute) using the following selection criteria:Making sure to encounter all the modeled practices at least in one of watersheds  Having watershed with strong NGO intervention and watershed with little NGO intervention  Size and slope of the watershed: the watershed should be relatively small, i.e. manageable by one or two communities and therefore fit our concept of landscape within a short distance  Existing connection through OARI and ARARIBased on these criteria, Gorosole watershed (Ambo) and Laku watershed (Shambu) were chosen in Oromia as well as Maksenit watershed (Gonder) and Zefie watershed (Debre Tabor) in Amhara region (see Figure 1). Transect walkEach watershed was first assessed with a transect walk, allowing to all the supporting staff of the focus group discussion to understand the boundaries of the watershed, as well as the different landuses and already existing practices adopted in the area.Focus group discussions based on the 'happy strategies' gameThe focus group discussion itself is based on three different steps:1. Participatory mapping exercise in separate groups for men and women; 2.A adapted form of the 'happy strategies' game in separate groups for men and women; 3.A group mixed discussion (men and women together).Preliminary to the whole focus group discussion, an extended introduction made sure that the farmers understood the purpose of the exercise including our broad definition of rainwater management and the no wrong expectations are raised.The participants were given pencil and rubbers as well as flip chart paper and were asked to draw the border of the watershed, the rivers, the roads and the settlement. When everyone agreed on these features, the border was marked in black, the roads in read, and the streams in blue.In a second stage, different land-use/land cover can be indicated with colored post-it: green for forest, pink for degraded land, grey for grazing land, yellow or what is left over (white) represents crop land.Initially the game was conceived for stakeholders and scientists to validate our database of practices and come up with a rational on how to combine practices into strategies. The game consists of cards that describe about 30 rainwater management practices in terms of purpose and feasibility. In its initial form, participants are ask to select a practice and to find other participant to form a 'happy strategies' (inspired by the game known as 'happy families') around a given landscape 2 .For the focus group, these cards were translated into Oromo and Amharic. In a first step the participants were asked to name all rainwater management practices they know of. It not mentioned the 8 modeled practices were explicitly asked for. Participants could then choose their favorite practice independently and come back into the discussion group. Each participant placed the card in the location on the map where it would be most suitable and reached a consensus with the other participants. If a participant had a card that had already been discussed, she/he could change the card.After the first round, one can go for a second round with the 'second favorite practice' until no new practices are suggested. The game contains innovation cards that are empty practice cards that can be filled if the suggested practice is not part of the game. Along the discussion around placing the cards, people can discuss the suitability conditions, the benefit of the practices, if it was adopted, what type of support were available, if not adopted, why and what hampered the adoption. These limitations are captured on the 'intervention cards', which describes support needed for the implementation of the strategy which goes beyond farmer's individual decision making. Finally, beneficiaries and upstream-downstream effect can be discussed when the selected combination is discussed in more general terms.In a final step of the focus group, both group present each other's work and discuss the differences. In this way, the work of each group can be validated and differences discussed.Validating feasibility maps with real observations from the ground is tricky. Indeed, one might find locations in which a given practice is suitable but has not been adopted. This does not automatically imply that the suitability or the feasibility conditions are wrong. It might be that on those locations adoption is hampered by an external issue that could not be captured correctly in the adoption model. Indeed, many factors simply cannot be and might never be represented in a spatially explicit manner, as for example, religious believes, lack of collective action, lack of access to the necessary input or lack of access to relevant and high quality training and advice cannot be mapped out. Also in the Ethiopian context, a practice can be adopted on a non-suitable location. Indeed a practice might have been promoted through a governmental campaign may oblige farmers to adopt practices on not suitable locations. Therefore a practice observed on the ground is not automatically a proof that suitability conditions have been met.In order to identify if the suitability/feasibility maps are built on wrong assumptions or if adoption has been hampered by a constraint that it not 'mapable' (implying that the location is suitable even if no farmer has adopted the practice), the focus group discussion focuses on the practices farmers would like to have regardless of having adopted it or not. In this way, a farmer can indicate that the area is suitable and suggest the intervention needed in order to enable the adoption. Also when a practice has been adopted on a non-suitable location, farmers can be asked about the reason of adoption and perceived benefit.The Gorosole watershed is crossed by the road from Ambo to Bako. The watershed has clearly defined boundaries. It has a hillside on both side and in the middle there is a perennial river fed by non-perennial streams. The up-slope is covered by forest. It is a densely used landscape. Very little soil and water conservation can be seen. The few that are there are not well spaced, are not built correctly, or have not been correctly maintained. Despite that, some good practices can be seen such as keeping some crop residues in the fields.The landscape has gullies that are vegetated and look relatively well maintained. It seems that the vegetation in the gullies is natural, and no big intervention was needed to maintain them, except restricting cutting of the trees in the gully. On one side of the watershed, the fields have spare farm trees, mainly acacia. Also some woodlot of natural forest can be found on religious locations. There is no communal grassland, and livestock intensity seems to be important and therefore access to fodder a real challenge. One of the villages is at the edge of the watershed, only very few settlements can be found in the watershed.Discussion from the women's groupParticipants started with drawing the main river called Kile, then the perennial affluent (blue line) and then the non-perennial affluent (doted blue line).Then they drew the border (black line) and finally they draw the asphalt road (red line) crossing the middle of the basin and the seasonal paths (doted red lines).Then they placed the land uses. They started with the forest (green papers), placing them on the right locations and indicating the name of each location.Then they looked degraded land and grazing land.They mentioned that there is only very little grazing land which is a problem for the community.Table 2 shows the practices proposed by women in the Gorosole watershed as well as their location.Apples were proposed in the up-slope, because they are suitable in the highlands and are perceived as potentially high income generating because apple price is high.Around the perennial rivers, traditional river diversion can be found. On locations around the river where diversion are not feasible, a motor pump could be used for irrigation. On the degraded land, gully rehabilitation including check-dam and tree planning is suitable and has been implemented. Better community mobilization would be needed to maintain the structures.Sesbania is a nitrogen binding fodder tree that can be found in many cropland areas in the watershed.Finally the women mentioned that livestock intensity is a big problem in the watershed and there is not sufficient grazing land.  Orchards: Fruit trees are not grown in the watershed. Women would like to have apple trees, as they can expect some cash income from the apples. They cannot plant apples tree because they don't know where to obtain the seedlings.Roof rainwater harvesting, ponds, wells: Water harvesting is not perceived as necessary, as there is sufficient water the whole year round in the watershed.Gully rehabilitation: Women indicated that the degraded land were very degraded and needed to be rehabilitated. In the upland this has been done by planting sesbania. More could be done in terms of gullies in the lowlands.As there are enough stones in the watershed, it is a relatively easy practice. But as it is very labor intensive, the women expect that those should be built in some kind of community action.The plots that are irrigated thanks to river diversion are used to grow onions. The river diversions are traditional diversion weirs constructed by the farmers themselves. Women perceive that river diversion has been adopted wherever possible. Other areas could be reached if they would have access to a pump. Unfortunately a pump is too costly, as well as the access to the pump and to its spare parts its difficult.Limiting animal movement and destocking: Livestock is very intensive and in seen as a polluting factor in the community. Therefore women think animal movement should be limited and numbers of livestock reduced.The women's group proposed three practices that were not adopted. Apple trees are not planted despite their suitability. Smallholders think that apple trees could improve their livelihoods as apples have a high market price. The reason for non-adoption is the lack of access to seedlings.Livestock intensity is very high in the watershed and fodder is a limitation. Therefore they would like to over-sow their grazing land both communal and private in to produce better quality forage. This practice has not been adopted because they lack access to the seeds. The women also mentioned that even if they get the seeds, they would need some training to exploit them. Finally the women proposed to use a motor pump for irrigation around the perennial river where river diversion is not possible. But a motor pump in out of reach, as it is not possible to access it in the area, even if they could afford it. They would consider this if there would be access to the pump and to credit. Women mentioned that with the river diversion and the proposed pumping downstream, farmers might not get sufficient water anymore.Discussion from the men's groupFarmers preferred to start the sketch mapping by drawing the main river called Kile (in Blue). The main river helps the group as a reference point. Then, the boundary of the watershed that lies across two kebeles Chancho Obi and Kile Borodo was mapped with contributions from all participants. An allweather road and various paths across and along the watershed were subsequently drawn. Settlement and land use/cover were also denoted on the sketch map with relative precision. During the process, farmers commented that virtually all parts of the watershed are characterized by terrain feature or step slope. On top of this, they pointed out that the watershed is largely occupied by crop production. In most cases only pockets of grazing land that seasonally are put under fallow and then back to crop production are privately owned by the farmers. In addition, there are also pieces of grazing land found scattered on the river side and marshy area. Almost all the grazing reserves are privately owned though free grazing during the off season gives access to all. At the end the group categorized the watershed in to three different zones (Z1-Z3) based on the altitude and agro ecology, and also affixed legend for the watershed. This initial exercise ultimately simplified playing the happy strategies game.During the process of describing the preferred landscape, farmers were asked to mention all the rainwater management practices. Farmers in the group mentioned numerous conventional and modern rain water management technologies/practices in their area, including:  Table 3 shows the list of practice that the farmers have selected for their watersheds. During the first round of the game, farmers selected and allocated cards both for the innovation and from existing practices. As an entry to the individual exercise/ game, farmers selected large scheme irrigation (river diversion) in groups as an innovation with which they kicked off the game. Associated interventions like financial support were needed to upgrade the scarce and scattered irrigation endeavor limited to a few farmers. Hence, farmers envisaged the need to outreach the existing benefit to more currently non-benefiting farmers. To this effect the farmers need materials (cement) and technical support l in layout, design and development of the diversions.As a follow-up of the game, practices like highland fruit (apple and peach), grass strips, cut off drain (2), check dam, contour hedge/life fence (2), conservation agriculture, drainage ditch and stone/soil bund were initially opted in that order and allocated by the farmers to the respective sites where the benefit can be accrued if properly implemented by the resident farmers. Large scheme irrigation (river diversion): On the sketch map farmers located the scheme development on the northwest part of the watershed at the bottom side of the main asphalt road. If large scheme irrigation develops in that direction they believe it can command a large area of land and make large community beneficiary. Though they have tried to divert using sandbags during the dry season, rainfall and large volume of river flow collapsed every effort so far. As a result, farmers gave up the efforts because of its unsustainability. Besides, financial and technical shortages were also seen as constraints. The stony nature of the land also hinders the progress.A farmer chose high value crops like highland fruit particularly apple as an innovative practice for zone 2 (midland) and zone 1 (highland). He justified that the agro ecology is ideal for growing apple. Besides, his access to irrigation water would help him to manage the crop efficiently. Another farmer also selected peach as innovation practice to be implemented in similar areas. However, planting material (seedlings) supply from concerned development promoters be it NGO or GOs is welcomed by the farmers as intervention.Grass strips: Grass strips first introduced to the upstream (zone 1) of the watershed by the NGO. Its benefit could also be expanding to the gentle slope area of the middle and lower part of the watershed. Apart from the use for cut and carry system for livestock feed, a farmer described the importance of grass strips for various land management practices. Particularly, reduction of soil erosion and downstream siltation, mentioned among others.Cut off drain: This is largely recommended by the farmers for the upstream and midstream (zone 1 and 2) steep slope area where there is erosion. The implication is that the structure reduces runoff and safeguards the soil structure and fertility by arresting the erosion impact.Check-dam: According to a participant, erosion is a serious problem in the midland (zone 2) of the watershed. The volume of the runoff is largely increased in this area. Hence, landslide and gully formation is aggravated. Therefore, a check-dam is very important to arrest the expansion of gullies.Land slide and expansion of the mouth of the river is also common in this part of the zone extending to zone 1 (upstream) area. To reduce the impact of expansion farmers plow their farmland a bit far away from the damage area to avoid landslides entering in to the heart of their farmland.Multipurpose trees (MPTs) particularly Sesbania were considered as component of contour hedges. Such plantation is favored everywhere in the watershed particularly around the homestead. Introduction of MPTs has been made by the office of agriculture in the mid to lower area and by an NGO particularly on the upstream area of the watershed. Farmers suggested they are using MPT for wind breaks, fencing, animal feed and for fuel wood.Conservation agriculture: CA is largely favored by the farmers in the three watershed zones. Some of the beneficial contributions of conservation agriculture are:  Supply more soil organic matter  Improve soil fertility and crop productivity  Reduce runoff  Improve soil water retention capacity.However, the practice is not yet popularized in the watershed. Stone/soil bund: Bund making was discovered as an ideal practice for all part of the watershed. TheStep slope nature of the watershed attribute for the widespread need of bund. However, stone bund was first introduced in the upper watershed similar to the grass strip and MPTs by the NGO.Currently, however, soil bund targeting the degraded and largely vulnerable area has been implemented on the upper side of the watershed (z1 &z2). From our observation, however, although it is not technically appropriate we have also visited soil bund in the downstream of the watershed. Development agents have assisted the introduction of the practice at larger scale.According to the farmers, the watershed in which they are currently living has been gradually evolving to have more negative features and associated consequences. This implies that the features and the benefits it offered in the past have been completely changed. Elders tried to see the hindsight to recall and relate what the watershed looked like in the old days. Less crop land but higher yield per unit area, more forest cover and massive biodiversity pool, uniform rainfall intensity and distribution, green land, etc., were suggested. Currently, however, the rainfall pattern has become more erratic, reduced crop production and productivity and other climate and land use related anthropogenic calamities are escalating. As a result, several threats confront agricultural production.In contrast, farmers anticipated a positive future as a dream or ideal watershed that could replace the existing one. The dream could become a reality by integrating appropriate rainwater management practices in to the existing system. In such a way the ideal watershed feature mimics the past watershed where the ecosystem was resilient and very less disturbed and ideal to obtain reliable production and ecosystem functioning. Therefore, farmers envisaged the future as the place where food security was ensured while conserving natural resource bases. Among the major expectation list under the dream watershed are green area, food secure community, increased ground water level, reliable rainfall and its distribution, reliable and friendly weather, access to adequate and clean water for both human and livestock.Based on their perception, four practices were not sufficiently adopted in the watershed: improved river diversion, highland fruits (apple and peach), over-sowing, and grass strips.River diversion could be improved, with better design and concrete material. Both the access to the material and to the needed finances hampers the development of better irrigation schemes. Highland fruits are like in the women's group seen as a high potential to improve incomes. Non-adoption is linked to the lack of access to seedlings. Grass strips are adopted only in the up-slope. Smallholders think that it would be appropriate to have them on other locations also, but lack access to grass seeds. Similarly, over-sowing private and communal grazing land was suggested, but cannot be implemented as long as it is not possible to access the right seeds.According to the participants, if all the selected practices are integrated and properly implemented, every farmers residing in different part/zone of the watershed will benefit. However, farmers believed that actions should begin in the upstream (zone1) of the watershed. In line with this, a farmer told us a local saying 'once the water touches the head, it never fails to reach the foot.' Similarly, both the positive and the negative impact of the watershed management equally reach all other zones of the watershed. Explicitly, positive consequence that begins in the upstream would gradually extend down to reach the downstream. Hence, farmers envisaged tradeoff among the integrated watershed management practices. Accordingly, all farmers become beneficiaries of the proper implementation. However, if the practices fail to integrate or are improperly implemented the middle and lower watershed area are highly vulnerable to runoff and siltation. Hence, they would become losers.The suitability map for Ambo district suggested that we should find apple trees, river diversion, grassland management, soil bunds and terraces. All of them were mentioned in the focus groups.Apple trees as well as grassland management were not adopted due to the lack of access to seeds and training but could in principle be adopted with the correct interventions.Final mixed discussion, participant's reflectionAt the end of the exercise, participants reflected on the day. A farmer starts with the statement 'our period is the time to make choice between either to live or not to live'. As crop production is highly vulnerable to climate uncertainty, the future is full of gloom and despair. Hence a country like Ethiopia could only develop if there is integration/sharing of resources and knowledge like this one. Hence, they would be able to think about resilient crop production system that safeguards the natural resource base. On top of this, he added that the lesson they were offered during the exercise is part of the knowledge sharing effort that enable them to have broad insight about the present and the future in terms of rainwater or land management so as to ensure sustainability of the system. They were largely impressed by the exercise and highly grateful for that. Men and women came up with very similar landscapes. The men's group mentioned more practices that are not part of the game cards but were adopted in the watershed, suggesting good knowledge of the area. Women seemed to have a less good knowledge about the watershed, reflected by the less detailed map and the much longer discussion about the maps. Also they have not mentioned practices that have been adopted but were not in the game. Nonetheless they came up with more non-adopted but suitable practices for the watershed, namely the livestock related practices and the motor pump.Shambu watershed can be split into 3 zones, upland midland and lowland. Each can be considered as a landscape with an up-slope, mid-slope and low-slope. The highland area corresponds to our classical landscape where the low-slope is a flat area with grazing land; the mid-slope has agricultural production year-round due to a river diversion, combined with apple trees. The up-slope is forest. The midland has a forested up-slope, soil and water conservation on the mid-slope and no lowslope. The lowland has an important slope and is mainly sparse forest; it has no low-slope at the outlet. Farmers in the upland on the mid-slope, have river diversions that allow them to cultivate around the year, especially high value crops during the dry season. We visited a farmer that had apple trees, irrigated all his land through a river diversion, had modern beehives, a storage room for fodder and collected manure in one place so he could spread it on his land. This farmer seemed very well educated as he understood the questions in English and answered in Oromo. There is no NGO active in the watershed and all the initiatives taken in this watershed is bottom up, supported by the DA and extension service.Many farmers live in the two settlements Laku and Shambu. Both settlements have access to electricity.Discussion from the women's groupIn a first step, the key informants drew the boundary of the watershed and then, after sketching the major river stream, found the watershed. The group selected one active woman farmer who led them during the map sketching. Using different markers and colour cards, the women's group identified in their resource map the upper, mid and the lower streams, the roads (seasonal and all-weather), seasonal rivers, crop land, forest land, degraded land, grazing land. During the focus group discussion, the participants/ key informants also included the most relevant community development institutions found in the watershed. These included the village administration, primary school, cooperatives and farmers training center. The women's group started with defining the mountain that border the watershed.Once they agreed on the watershed boundaries, they added the rivers, perennial and non-perennial (blue dotted line) as well as the gravel road (red line) and walking path. The women's group came up with a landscape composed of the practices found in Table 4. Orchards (Apple and papaya): On the map, farmers put the orchards (apple tree and papaya) at the upper side of the watershed. Farmers perceived these soils as more suitable for planting apple rather than crops, due its high slope/steep. On top of that farmers understood that planting apple on sloping area can reduce high water runoff and increase water infiltration. In other words, it decreases soil erosion when the technology is properly planted on the steep slope of the watershed. Though they have tried to allocate this practice at upper side of the watershed, most farmers have not implemented this practice on their farm due to poor availability of seed, lack of awareness on the benefit of this technology and shortage of finance.River diversion: During the focus group discussions, the women group recommended river diversions for the lower as well as for midlands of the watershed area. The reasoning is that these two zones of the watershed contain most of the crop land and several river streams. The topography in these zones is also suitable for irrigation schemes. Farmers mentioned that the existing irrigation scheme is not efficiently used by the community and they produce only a few horticultural crops. Limited water availability for irrigation during the winter season and poor maintenance of the schemes are the major constraints faced the farmers.The key informants allocated gully rehabilitation to the upper and mid lands of the watershed where there is serious soil erosion due to overgrazing by livestock and frequent ploughing. The land on the upper side of the watershed is more degraded as compared to the mid land of watershed due to high runoff water and overgrazing. Grazing land management: Forage grass is one of the most important rainwater management practices used by farmers in the watershed. During the focus group discussion, farmers selected and allocated this practice for the mid land and upper levels of the watershed. This is mainly due to the suitable land availability in these zones. Overall however, there is a shortage in availability of the improved forage technology in the watershed. In general, in order to increase fodder, grazing land management should come with over-sowing, area enclosure, cut and carry system, and limiting of animal movement.Soil bund/ stone: Thanks to the government campaign this year, many farmers in the watershed have started to make stone/ soil bund on their farm land. Due to this, farmers were already aware about this technology and they easily allocated the practice at the mid and upper levels of the watershed which have steep slopes.Multipurpose tree (Sesbania): Farmers preferred to allocate multipurpose trees, particularly sesbania, to the mid and lower levels of the watershed, specifically around their homestead. This is because the tree is mainly used for forage purposes and as a fence around the homestead. Improved dairy breeds: Farmers allocated this technology to the mid and upper levels of the watershed, because these areas have ample grazing lands with suitable quality type of grass and easily accessible to roads to buy feed and sell products. Farmers living in the upper level of the watershed have already adopted improved dairy technology. However farmers reported that the milk productivity of this breed is not attractive due to limited concentrate feed availability in the area.Fertility management (Crop rotation, intercropping): Farmers allocated technology to the mid and lower levels of the watershed. Farmers justified this according to the suitability of the cultivable land found in these zones. Farmers practice crop rotation several years and they also know the benefit of this practice, though intercropping is not used by farmers in the watershed. This may be due to lack of awareness on the economic and agronomic benefit of the intercropping practices. Crop productivity is declining from year to year mainly due to dominant mono cropping and serious soil erosion in the area. Farmers adopted improved cereals crop like tef, wheat, barley and also horticultural crops like potato and apple to improve their livelihoods. Wells: One farmer owns a well near to the grazing land.Improved seeds: Farmers mentioned they would like to have improved seeds, but they don't have access to them.Many rainwater management practices have been promoted in this watershed regardless of sitespecific biophysical, socio economic and institutional environments, yet their adoption is low. During the focus group discussion farmers reported that the existing natural resources found in the landscape are deteriorating over time. In other word the trends of crop productivity, natural resource conservation (particularly forest, soil and water conservation) and livestock productivity were continuously declining over time. The distribution of rainfall and pattern of rainfall have also changed. Land degradation is another factor aggravated by mono-cropping, deforestation and overgrazing of the land. In the future, farmers wish that appropriate implementation of rainwater management technologies can change these scenarios.Sometimes it is difficulties to get practices that can work across the whole watershed -due to socio economic, biophysical and institutional factors, improper implementation of practices or a lack of integration among the technologies. Some groups benefit from the new technology, while others groups are technology losers. Due to the scarcity of natural resources, conflict may exist between the people living in the upper and lower sides of the watershed. For instance in the Gorosole watershed, farmers perceived that if the river diversion is allocated at the mid lands, the lower side may not benefit as much as the upper. Interventions need to be integrated to benefit all groups. Discussion from the men's groupThe men's group started to draw the boundaries from the west, using mountains and settlements as reference points. Later on they added the secondary school. After the boundaries and mountain and settlements where set, they draw the rivers, starting with the perennial ones and then passing to the non-perennial ones. They identified the forest areas and differentiated between natural forest and planted forest. Then they identified the degraded land and the causes of degradation. The degradation on the left river bank is mainly due to deforestation, whereas the degradation on the right river bank is erosion mainly due to wrong soil management. Finally they identified grazing land and indicated if it is private or communal. Private grazing land in the upland seems to be used as communal grazing land. Farmers identified one non-seasonal road (non-asphalt) from Shamboo town to Sekela and one seasonal road to Gitilo, the highest part of the watershed (red line). Moreover, two main paths (on foot) also cross within the watershed (red dotted lines). One crosses the watershed from Sekela to Shambo and from Gitilo to the same town. Although Lakku River is the main perennial river, there are also nine small tributary (perennial) rivers which flow to the main river and have only one outlet, called chancho. Farmers also identified seasonal tributary rivers. They identified that most of the rivers in the watershed like Lakku, Deju, Aba ingida, Getahun, homi kuro and Gucho offer potential for river diversions. Settlement (around Shambo town and Lakku village) and land use/cover were also denoted on the map.Group members also classified the land as cultivated land, grazing land, degraded land and both plantation and natural forest land. According to their classification, most land is for crops in all zones. There is common and private grazing lands at the upper (shifted from forest land to grazing land due to over grazing and deforestation) and along riverbanks. Farmers complained among one another on the issue of common grazing land. Farmers who have enough land have equal rights to use common grazing as those with very limited land. Occasional conflict happens due to competition on common grazing land. They also categorized some parts of the area, particularly along rivers, to be degraded land due to continuous deforestation and intensive cultivation. Almost all the farmers were aware of rainwater managements options like soil and stone bunds, river diversion, ponds, wells, cut-off drains, cut and carry system, use of multipurpose trees, gully rehabilitations, uses of improved breeds of livestock, poultry production, area closure, conservation tillage (residue managements), different fruit production (like apples), motor pumps and live fence as contour planting. Farmers have also been trained and have experience largely from development agents, agricultural experts from district office and even NGOs.In the game, one farmer selected improved breeds of poultry production as the innovation since it is easy to intensify on small plots of land and needs less initial capital. According to the farmer, poultry production is suitable in the middle parts of the watershed as it has suitable weather condition. He argued that this technology definitely ensures income generation, particularly for households who don't have enough land to produce their annual food requirements. To this effect, the farmers need improved breeds and materials, like incubators and other technical and financial support. The farmers also called for improved access to improved breeds of livestock and seeds, particularly wheat, barley, beans and linseeds.As the game continued, practices like highland fruit (apple), cut off drains, check dams, contour hedge/life fence, conservation agriculture (residue managements), ponds, motor pump, cut and carry system, area closure, stone/soil bund, wells and over sowing on crop land (innovation) were initially chosen and allocated by the farmers to the various watershed zones. The selected technologies and purpose (suitability, benefits and interaction) were:Highland fruit (apple): Even though some farmers practice apple productions in the watershed area, a farmer chose this high value crop mostly for mid land and even for upper land if there is good soil condition and soil depth. His justification is that the agro ecology is ideal for growing apples. Besides, access to irrigation water and mulching practices are other opportunities to grow the crop efficiently. Demand of planting material (seedling), supply of different improved varieties, strong market linkages are the main areas where the farmers need support. Contour hedge (life fence): Multipurpose trees particularly vernonia, Sesbania (but not common) and other bush types which are characterized as co-friendly with crops are considered as life fence/hedge rows. Such is common everywhere in the watershed around the homestead. They indicated that such types of trees are used for animal feeds, to improve soil fertility, life fence, for construction and even for wind breaks.Conservation agriculture (residue management): Conservation agriculture was mainly selected and even practiced in the middle and lower parts of the watershed. They want this particularly on degraded land because of its multiple benefits, which improve more soil organic matter of degraded land, improve soil fertility and crop productivity, reduce runoff and improve soil water retention capacity. High competition for residues by livestock is the main bottleneck to ensure sustainable residue incorporation in the area. A farmer suggested that the main solution is diversion of overstocking livestock production to cut and carry systems using improved breeds and intensification of poultry industry to reduce residue competition. Conservation agriculture improves soil moisture and fertility and contributes to other technologies like fruit and feed production.Stone/soil bund: Both stone and soil bunds were started some time ago though not sustainably practiced. Currently soil bunds targeting the degraded and largely steep areas have been implemented on the upper and along some river sides of the watershed.Cut off drains: These are largely recommended by the farmers for the upper level or steep slope areas where erosion is accelerating in the middle and low slope areas. Most farmers who live in the upper areas believe that cut off drains significantly reduce and save the soil biophysical characteristics and impact on soil erosion.Motor pump: A farmer preferred this technology in the lower parts of watershed areas since there are potential rivers for irrigation. He preferred motor pump as a solution because of the nature of the river, which is in a deep valley and is difficult to divert. However, the farmer needs both technical and financial support for effective utilization of the technology.Ponds: According to the participants, ponds are suitable in middle parts of the watershed since they can easily capture run-off and for irrigation purposes. Though the farmers know the technology, they did not so far practice it in the watershed due to limited awareness and lack of materials, financial problems and even no technical supports.As per the farmers' suggestion, erosion is a serious problem in the middle and upper levels. They prefer to implement check dams in the middle parts. Check dams effectively reduce the speed of soil water erosion, improve soil fertility and increase infiltration rates. This technology has positive effects for other interventions, particularly fruit production, it increases the biomass of feeds, increases spring sources, and it enhances water availability in the watershed. Some farmers explained that they have been constructing such dams in gully areas using wood (woodlot check dam). However, they need additional technical support and inputs for construction of the check dam.Poultry farming: Famers suggested that increasing their amount of chicken would give them good additional income. This would allow them to overcome the losses of livestock needed to decrease the pressure on the land. Destocking would be much easier.The farmers also preferred this technology for middle parts of the watershed areas since there is potential availability of underground water at 12-15 meter depth. Over sowing improved forage crops on crop land: Though some participants who do not have enough crop land reserved themselves, sowing of improved forage varieties on cultivated land is one of the main solutions to reduce the shortage of animal feeds. It is suitable in every watershed area around the homesteads and on good soil so that it is easy to protect from animals. However, the farmers did not get enough improved forage varieties for intensive production in the watershed. Financial and technical support is what they seek.Area closure: This technology was preferred by the participants in the upper mountain where bushes are very common and where diversity of trees and bushes can be regenerated if well-protected. Participants regretted their previous deforestation practices on natural forest that resulted in land degradation. They were eager to close the areas (upper parts) where bushes are very common. They also need to interplant fast growing trees in the closed areas though there is limited access to such trees. According to the farmers, the current watershed has been gradually degraded with negative consequences. Most of the crop lands are less productive, overgrazing and deforestation of the natural forest are also causing soil degradation. Farmers indicated that in the past there was dense natural forest and the soil was very productive. But now, it is declining at alarming rates due to their mismanagement. Consequently, less production per unit area, continuous soil erosion, shortage of animal feeds due to shortage of land, high variability of rain fall are currently observed in the watershed. However, farmers predict future positive consequences on the watershed landscape if all selected water management options are implemented in each watershed area. High production and productivity, improved feed availability and hence high livestock productivity, ensure sustainable land resource managements, more forest cover will be the positive effect if all selected components are practiced at each selected site. One farmer argued that implementing all the selected technologies will make the country green.Though farmers in Lakku watershed are familiar with some of the practices, other options which were not so far practiced include over sowing of improved forage crops, area closure, cut and carry systems, motor pump and ponds. Lack of collective action, particularly for river diversion and motor pump is the main issue that should be in addressed. Diversifying into poultry also seems an interesting option.Participants had two contrasting ideas on the issue of winners and losers (trade-off). Some members explained that if all allocated technologies are well practiced in each watershed slope, farmers who are living in lower area will benefit more than those in the upper ones. In contrast, some farmers believe that if all selected practices are well done in integrated approaches and properly implemented, every farmer living in different altitudes of the watershed will equally benefit. As a general conclusion, most farmers will benefit if integrated water management is successfully implemented in each watershed part. Participants also suggested that if the proposed practices are not implemented in a very good manner, all farmers living in the watershed are also similarly losers since deforestation ( in upper parts), soil erosion and gully formation ( middle and lower parts) and overflows and siltation( in the lower parts) will be aggravated.The project-developed maps in Shambu woreda perform relatively badly. The only prediction for this area is all types of bunds (soil, stone and fanya-juu). The map does not predict apple trees, suggesting that the suitability for apple trees has to be reviewed. Also no river diversions are predicted, because the river map used does not indicate any perennial river in the whole district.Participants generally compared the current feature of the landscape with last three decades. Unwise land use systems resulted in unproductive land, deforestation and uncertain rainfall. They trusted that if they implement all integrated rain water management in the watershed, land resources will recover and become productive. Finally, they promised to teach their neighbors what they have learned during the strategy game.The women's group faced difficulties in mapping the watershed, and the mapping was mainly taken over by the DA. The women were therefore less active, something that was addressed explicitly in the Amhara focus groups. The male group was a great success. The group of farmers seems to have really enjoyed the exercise. They came up with creative solutions and were very keen to learn.Maksenit watershed with its 6000 ha is the largest of the four watersheds and lies at the border of Maksenit town (Southeast of Gonder). It is also one of the driest watersheds we looked at, with 700-800 mm rainfall annually. Its structure is complex, as it is formed by several micro-catchments. In the highlands, there are two ranges of mountains covered with shrubs. There is very little mid land and a large lowland plain. The two mountain ranges make the border of the watershed complex, and only expert eyes can recognize the borders. Only the low land is cultivated.Near to the outlet around the perennial rivers, river diversions allow for double cropping. In other locations around the river the topography does not really allow for diversion. In these locations, farmers sometimes irrigate with motor pumps. One farmer has a pump and rents it out to the others. River diversions can also be found near to the non-perennial rivers. These allow irrigating the plots long enough to have two or three crops. The cash crop is mainly garlic during the dry season. As the plain keeps soils moisture well, sometimes after the main crop, farmers manage to crow peas with the residual moisture. In the non-perennial rivers, micro reservoirs are built in the river bed to capture some water. Wells are also found in these river beds. We met a rich female-headed household which was building a house in Maksenit for rental purposes. This household own 4 hectare of which one is in the lowland and is irrigated the whole year round.The major income comes from garlic, but also honey and from a mobile tree nursery.On what could be recognized as mid land, one farmer had a papaya orchard. Mango is not suitable because it gets attacked by termites. Also in this mid land, we found a nursery for pepper. The farmers carry the water for about half a kilometer from a small reservoir in the river bed. In this watershed, ICARDA is active. Five model farmers have received a rainwater harvesting pond. One farmer got a treadle pump and a drip irrigation system. With this he can irrigate a plot of 30x18 m during the dry season and overcome dry spells with supplemental irrigation. Another farmer uses a simple bucket to irrigate during the dry season from the ponds. After one year, his income has increased significantly. Also ICARDA has built measurement gauges to assess the sediments of a treated and an untreated micro-catchment. Finally ICARDA installed a treadle pump near the bed of the non-perennial river, allowing access to the underground stream for domestic use.On the way to the outlet, but outside the watershed, there is a state run tree nursery that grows multipurpose trees and gives the seedlings away for free. Many farmers also have small mobile tree nurseries where they grow their own tree seedlings. We also found a private tree nursery that was attacked by termites and all the work was lost.Discussion from the women's groupThe sources and sub water sheds of both kebeles are discussed and identified. According to the participants, Bisnit, Welenbay, Chemena and Ayaye are sub-watersheds in Dinzaz kebele. But Ayaye watershed is bordered to both Degola Chinchaye and Das Dinzaz kebeles.   Improved soil nutrient input (organic and inorganic fertilizer): They use both methods and mentioned its use increases crop production, improves livestock feed, improves human feed etc. But they believe that organic compost is very useful in the long run. The reasons why it is not used very widely are lack of awareness, no credit service, lack of labour and due to less number of animals. But one woman said that I have no animals at home but am still using home waste and residues for organic compost.Bunds: uses for soil conservation, keeps water resources, improve crop production.Flood diversion (spate irrigation): It increases crop production, increase cash income. We can plant vegetables (like onion, potato, etc…), crops like barley, chickpea and others. Therefore we can have production of 3 times in a year.Afforestation: Would be needed to recover degraded lands of Degola and Enkre Medhane Alem but did not happen yet Home garden: they prefer home gardens to lowland orchards (papaya, coffee, gesho, …) combined with pepper. These gardens can be a cash income especially for women. Lack of water is a reason why they don't have more home gardens. They should therefore be combined with other practices that give access to water during the dry season, namely wells or ponds.Water tanker, hand dug wells and pond construction: These technologies are adopted by some people. Most of us are carrying water from very far away. Women are always staying around their homes and if we get water we can plant vegetables, fruits, etc… and get a number of uses out of it.Fattening: it would help them us to get additional income but it is difficult to get improved breeds mainly because of the lack of funds and credit opportunities.Beehives: We all have traditional Ethiopian beehives but we need the modern bee keeping technology, planting flowering trees and vegetables around as well as having sufficient water resources. This practice should be combined with the home gardens.Women mainly focused on what happens around their house. They wish to have more home gardens that allow them to feed their families on diversified food and get some additional income. With the home gardens, which have more flowers, they could have beehives and more income. The bottleneck of their perfect landscape is access to water during the dry season and therefore linked to any water harvesting technology such as ponds and tanks as well a wells and motor pumps (to access water from perennial rivers or from the wells).In this watershed Enkri Got (Upstream) have been more users than Aba Kaloye Got (Downstream).The solution which is made by the got judge is to use water in shift basis. Therefore the decision by the kebele judge reduces conflict and makes both users. The water amount is very small to increase technologies/practices. They first put the fords on the relatively exact place along the road before drawing the rivers. The nine fords were very helpful to draw the rivers and manage the connection distance between the rivers crossing the watershed. They put major features like churches, settlements and schools in the watershed. Generally, the members' visualization and interaction was astonishing.There are natural forests scattered mainly in the upper part of the watershed: Tsehay forest (State), Belew Seged forest (communal and enclosed in 2010), Kulkuwal forest (communal and enclosed in 2010), Tila forest (Private), Agmas forest (State). The forests are mainly composed of similar tree/shrub species like Olea europaea (Woyira), Albizia gumifera (Kachona), Dodonea angustifolia (Kitkita), Carissa ed ulis (Agam), Rhus glutinosa (Embus), etc.There are also degraded lands in the watershed. These are owned by the community and concentrated in the central part of the watershed. Deforestation was the main reason for the degradation indicated by the focus group. Actually there are few scattered farmlands in those land covers still being tilled though not productive enough. Free grazing is the main feature of degraded lands in the watershed. A couple of these areas are being enclosed since 2010 for restoration and rehabilitation. Enrichment through tree planting is also being undertaken for the enclosed ones.Grazing lands are another major land cover of the watershed. There are remnant trees scattered over the grazing fields. These are situated in the upper part of the watershed called Agamye and Abozina. Cattle herds coming from inside and outside the watershed freely graze in these areas. Its degradation level is somehow moderate due to its less accessible by people around the area.The rest part of the watershed is covered by agricultural fields and settlement areas especially from middle to the lower part of the watershed.The farmers came up with the following preferred landscape: Stone terraces along the mountain and hill sides has constructed through campaign as of 2004 offseason.Two degraded areas are enclosed since 2012 for rehabilitation. Tree planting has been planted as a means of enrichment. There are also different soil and water conserving structures like micro-basins constructed on the top of newly planted seedlings. The community is also preparing to enclose other degraded areas. This is because people started to observe the multiple benefits of keeping the animals and human beings out.Irrigation practice is expanding from time to time using diversions.Around 37 farmers are using motor pumps. But they raised the recurrent failures of the motors as a serious problem. As a result the maintenance cost is high. They wish durable water pump motors to be delivered. Group members indicated bureau of agriculture should take the responsibility for the delivery of durable ones. Multipurpose tree/shrub and grass species are used as feed and for soil and water conservation. Ficus thonningii, Sesbania sesban, Elephant grass, cowpea were mentioned by the focus group members. Lack of seedling provision is a bottleneck. Multipurpose tree/shrub/grass species plantation is put as a solution for grazing land shortages.Wood lot mainly composed of Eucalyptus species due to its fast growth and high value is a common practice being exercised by the watershed community.Hand dug wells are present in the watershed. But the infrastructure is not enough to support the people and livestock in the watershed. Increasing the number of hand dug wells is a challenge: The rock bed is too near and the wells dry out before the supposed time. Technologies able to penetrate bed rocks should be used to have water wells producing year round.Water harvesting structures for supplementary irrigation is introduced by ICARDA and being implemented. The focus group assured there is huge interest to expand the practice, however the costs hindered the community to take over the practice.Large scale irrigation scheme is a desired practice by the focus group farmers. Constructing a reservoir around the middle of the watershed is suggested as an intervention. There is a large amount of command area down there. Its expensiveness to construct is a major problem. Government, NGOs and projects like ICARDA are listed to fill the gap.Gully restoration was considered as a mandatory practice while not done so far. Cemented and gabion enforced check-dams in the gullies is wished by the focus group. But due to lack of capacity to afford cement and gabion, they couldn't construct the check-dams.The focus group recommended apiculture to be practiced in the watershed. The community didn't adopt the technology due to continuing deforestations and introduction of herbicides. Enclosure, nursery establishment and manual and/or mechanical weeding are suggested interventions to be promoted by the bureau of agriculture in the watershed.Papaya, Banana, Mango, Orange, Coffee productions are the wished practices. Though a big interest and potential, lack of seedling provision, water and termite problem accounted for not implemented by the community. Nursery establishment to produce the above plants by bureau of agriculture and developmental projects is suggested as an intervention.Small poultry farms at household level are wished by the group members. Diseases and lack of medications are the hindering factors. The group recommended delivery of such services by bureau of agriculture.Mill services for grain in the watershed are wished by the farmers. Now they need to go to town. Electricity is needed as an intervention for the mill.The men's group came up with a certain amount of practices that are not yet adopted but they wish to have. Most of them are relatively big infrastructure for which the government or NGOs need to be involved, such as large scale irrigation schemes or gully stabilization with concrete check dams.Obviously the ICARDA experience shows them that it is possible to dream big.Despite modern bee hives being found in the watershed, apiculture seems to be underdeveloped due to the lack of flowering trees. Also farmers indicate that they lack seedlings for those trees. This despite the relative proximity to the governmental nursery, suggesting that the nursery does not produce the trees wished, or that the farmers are not aware of the tree nursery.Farmers would like to have more hand dug wells, and also dig some new wells but face the challenge to reach the water.There are a prospective winners and losers when the optimal watershed gets realized. Use of herbicides would be forbidden when apiculture get started. So farmers who wish to use herbicides will be losers. Honey producer farmers will also be favored.Enclosing a proposed degraded land to be rehabilitated would offend nearby farmers. These neighboring farmers are used to send their cattle to those places. So when enclosure is effected, these farmers would be obliged to keep their cattle off the place. Such upset could be considered as a loss whereas the vast community would benefit from the restoration of the areas and be considered as winners.The focus group recommended area closure around Agamye area. The people who were collecting fuel wood would lose due to the enclosure. The largest Agamye area and of course the watershed community generally do benefit from the intervention recommended.The mixed discussion was relatively short, because the focus group discussion took a very long time and everyone was tired. Each group presented its work and then the group split up. In terms of selection of practices female farmers seemed to be very individualistic following their own interests rather than representing their community. Each woman wanted to have a pump on her specific farm, rather than discussing that the community needs more pumps around the rivers, and to discuss other options for the community. It seems that with the ICARDA experience this community has just learned to ask for things rather than develop and optimal landscape.The game did not work very well, probably due to the lack of training of the facilitator, who found it difficult to handle the cards. The male group finally went through the discussion without using the cards. The necessary data was collected, but it took much longer time to go through the wished landscape, and participants seemed to have much less fun than participants in Oromia.An interesting fact is that most of the farmers in this watershed make their livelihoods from garlic, which is irrigated though a traditional river diversion scheme near to the outlet. Farmers did not mention this at all. This might be the result from not being able to play the happy strategies game correctly.than eight years old. I have got training by regional women's EPRDF conference. We are trying to work in a better way to improve our livelihood.Improved livestock breeds: Not adopted. It is not widely introduced in the area but there are very few in numbers. We know the use but thinking that there will be feed problem for them. There is also economical problem to have improved livestock breeds and manage.Orchards: I just planted apple this year and will see the use in future. We have got lesson from EPRDF conference. In this watershed there are some farmers who have apple fruit ready for sell now.Check dams: We have been doing this practice for the last three years in highlands and midlands. The lowlands are still need it but not used yet. There is an improvement which we can see on soil and water conservation in addition to soil fertility. The practice was trained by EPRDF conference.Community pond: Especially in the upland area we need community pond. It can help us for both humans and livestock. We can plant also potato, onion and other vegetables. We know the practice but do not have money.Pedal pump: It has different advantages. We can use it for vegetables and spices production. It is also less labor need and can be managed by women's. Three practices have not been adopted yet, namely improved livestock breeds, community pond and pedal pumps.Improved livestock breeds are not adopted for two reasons. Firstly it is difficult to access the improved breed variety. Secondly the improved breeds need better quality and more fodder. The watershed at this stage cannot provide sufficient high quality fodder and therefore some fodder oriented practices need to be implemented first. The women imagined a community pond in the up land and allowing farmers to irrigate their fields through a river diversion. Nice idea, but not feasible, as it is not clear where the water would come from to fill the pond. Second, with the river diversion system, most of the water is likely to be lost on its way. Clearly this was a creative idea from one of the women and not an idea pushed by the government. Unfortunately it is not a realistic option.Pedal pumps to pump water from the well are also still missing.Discussion from the men's groupThe farmers started the mapping exercise by identifying the North direction and used the school as bench march. Then they continued to map the Argenit river, then the Zefie river then the Alekit river. In terms of land use they identified the Zefie Forest (1-green) that is composed of Eucalyptus.Fridrew forest (2-green) is a community forest of eucalyptus. It has been planted for rehabilitation of the areas and livestock is kept out of the areas. Tilik meda forest (3-green) is a state owned eucalyptus forest and Kolew mareja (4-green) is a privately owned eucalyptus forest. There is a nursery established by an NGO that produced seedlings for endogenous trees. In terms of degraded area, they identied Zingero gedla (1-pink), despite of the fact that some people still make use of them, the land is very degraded and unproductive both for crop and grazing as well as Chebrew (2-pink) and Nadew (3-pink).In terms of grazing area, Eyensen god (1-grey) is a communal grazing land, where also the tree nursery is located. Model bed (2-grey) is a grazing area which during the rainy season is closed and cut and carry system is applied. claim that they cannot have more chicken, because it is too cold and lots of fecund eggs do not survive. They think that they need an incubator, which does not really help if there are power cuts and no back-up system. There might be option to get more chickens without an incubator, by keeping more chickens together during the breeding. Also as soon as the chicken population increases, disease control in needed. Expert knowledge and training would be needed to enable them to get more healthy chickens at very little costs.Like in Shambu, poultry has been mentioned in Maksenit and the same rationale applies. In addition, the home gardens combined with beehives seems to be a promising practice, as more tree are planted and income of the farmers can be diversified. For those farmers who have access to water during the dry season, the major hampering factor is the access to tree seedling other than the multipurpose tree (which they produce themselves). Cooperation should be sought with the governmental tree nursery and with ICARDA for practices that increase water access during the dry season.In Zefie, similarly to Maksenit, a combination of fruit tree with beehives is a promising combination of practices. Apple trees are already in the watershed and the knowledge is available, but no one is producing seedlings. One could approach Tana-Beles and propose that the new tree nursery also produces apple trees.For both poultry and the tree, it is not sufficient to make sure that the farmer can supply the products but also that they have sufficient market linkages. If too many fruits or chickens come on the local market, the price is likely to fall. Therefore making a functioning market linkage is crucial among the promotion of the practice. The Shambu case showed that it is relatively difficult to sell the apples, despite of their high prices in the major Ethiopian cities.Adapting the happy strategies game for farmers This focus group discussion was the first trial of the happy strategies game with communities. In general the approach went well. The mapping exercise went very well for all the focus group discussions. In Oromia region, involving women and get them actively involved was difficult. Facilitators in Amhara were asked to involve women more actively which worked well. Also women are more likely to be illiterate, making it more difficult to read the cards. After the Oromia experience, women where therefore allocated a card (whereas men could choose their cards). Every card was explained for every woman making sure that she knows what card she has. This worked better than letting them choose the cards.The game worked better in locations where farmers had a clear vision of where they want to be in 5 years from now. As such, the happy strategies tool could be a very interesting tool to involve communities as part of a longer process, if a vision building exercises is implemented beforehand.Finally, working with young people with little experience and variable level of motivation made it sometimes very difficult to implement the focus group. This also explains the difference in quality in the reporting from the different sites. But every person that contributes to the focus group in a second round, made progress. Therefore these focus group discussion should also been seen as a capacity building to our partners and our own staff in facilitation and participatory approaches. Getting a pool of facilitators who know how to implement the happy strategies game for communities could ensure better quality data collection in future.","tokenCount":"10950"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"42b977935e301ebbbd003ee5ab5ce2d0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1cb56dde-d681-4b9c-9d49-a78912d51b8b/retrieve","id":"2093607242"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a3744cf4-4b28-4777-8877-5150955d3547","pagecount":"10","content":"ThThe latest IPCC report indicates food insecurity and nutrition among the most plausible mechanisms linking climate variability and conflict (IPCC, 2022). However, quantitative research has yet to provide evidence on the relationship between climate and conflict through food and nutrition insecurity (see, for instance, Buhaug et al., 2015). This analysis aims at filling this gap in the literature, and carries out a mediation analysis to test whether and how climate variability and conflict risk are indirectly correlated through highly localized food and nutrition insecurity dynamics.In doing so, this approach makes three important contributions to the existing econometric literature. First, it moves beyond approaches that assume unique transmission channels when investigating the climateconflict nexus. Instead, it employs a Structural Equation Model that allows for the existence of a multiplicity of mediating factors to get more accurate estimates of indirect impacts. Second, this approach stands out as one of the first of its kind to employ food and nutritional indicators to identify the indirect contribute of climate shocks to conflicts through the food and nutrition security pathway. Third, this analysis moves beyond standard country-year approaches by employing quarterly socioeconomic survey data combined with climate and conflict information at a fine subnational level to better capture the local and intertemporal dynamics scales.The data used and the approach developed, as described below, are consistent across the countries selected for the ClimBeR initiative, with minor variations due to data and context specificities. .The econometric analysis relies on three major sources of data that respectively contain conflict, climate and socio-economic information. In this section we describe each of those.Geo-localized event-based data on conflict events are extracted from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset (ACLED) -or the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP). When using ACLED, this analysis focuses on two types of conflicts: (i) violent conflicts (including battles, violence against civilians, and remote violence); and (ii) civil unrest (including protests, riots, and strategic developments). While civil unrest assesses the grievances channel of the climate-security nexus, violent conflicts should be able to capture state and non-state communal, ethnic, clan, and religious conflicts that might be linked to resource-based conflict outcomes. When using UCDP, this analysis is primarily focused on onesided, non-state, and state-based violence, where each episode resulted in at least 25 battle-related deaths. In a few cases, self-reported information on perceptions of insecurity and episodes of violence are employed instead of using ACLED or UCDP data. This is only possible with datasets like the Afrobarometer or the Latinobarometro.Climate data are extracted from TerraClimate, a high-spatial-resolution dataset (1/24°4km). This dataset provides information on maximum temperature, precipitation accumulation, climate water deficit, Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), soil moisture and reference evapotranspiration, from January 1958 to December 2021. These monthly climate data are mainly used to create climate anomalies, namely variables that account for spatial and temporal deviations from the longrun means (Maystadt et al., 2014). The anomalies are computed as the difference between the monthly climate data and the long-term monthly mean divided by the long-run standard deviation (Helman et al., 2020;Maystadt et al., 2014).Socio-economic data come from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHSs), Afrobarometer and Latinobarometro surveys, which provide information on food and nutrition security, minimum acceptable dietary conditions, regular food and water access, general living conditions, and malnutrition (stunting, wasting, and underweight) -depending on the data source. The surveys also provide a wide set of information on households' living conditions and social status, such as employment, wealth index, rurality, ethnicity, access to resources, livestock, and agricultural land ownership. Furthermore, we employ commodity price data coming from the World Food Programme Price Database.The dataset's construction entails several steps. First, using the geographical coordinates of the DHS clusters[2], we create buffers to merge household survey data with georeferenced quarterly conflict information registered during and after DHS interviews. Conflict buffers cover approximately a 50-kilometer-radius from the DHS cluster locations and provide a relatively accurate proxy for conflict incidence by accounting for any quarterly event in the proximity of the clusters, including cross-border episodes (Figure 1). Second, we integrate monthly climate data and price data with the survey data at the DHS cluster level. Finally, we rasterize the combined dataset into 20 squared km grid-cells and create an unbalanced panel at grid-cell level covering the study period.[1] Commodity prices are included when DHS is the socio-economic source of data, considering the limited amount of controls available as well as the nature of the dependent variables selected (usually malnutrition variables). For Afrobarometer and Latinobarometro, prices are not added.[2] A cluster is defined as a number of households that participated in the DHS survey and are scattered over one or more inhabited areas. To maintain confidentiality, the locations of the DHS clusters are randomly shifted, up to 5 km for rural locations, and up to 2 km for urban locations. This approach is applicable only when coordinates at the household or cluster level are available.The way the dataset is constructed overcomes several limitations of the DHS data. It allows us for conducting a battery of important econometric exercises at a much granular resolution. Moreover, the buffer zone naturally accounts for spatial clustering of conflicts and cross-border conflicts (shown in Figure 1), while reducing measurement error stemming from the imprecise location of DHS clusters (Wagner et al., 2018).In the final dataset, the conflict variables are computed as the average number of conflicts occurred in the buffers of the households' location in the grid.[3] The food and nutrition variables are expressed as shares or percentages of food insecure or malnourished households in the grid. Similarly, socio-economic indicators are computed as shares or percentages at grid level. The commodity prices are computed as the average price of the closest market to households' location. Lastly, climate variables are averaged at the grid level to identify climate anomalies.[3] In the Afrobarometer, perceptions of insecurity and episodes of violence are captured as households' shares at the grid level.A B C D where is the average number of violent conflicts at the grid and quarter-year level that occurred in Nigeria one-to-three quarters after the DHS interviews; are the climate anomalies averaged over the n months before the DHS interviews (included), where n varies from 3 to 12 months; is the food security and nutrition mediator, mainly captured by the prevalence of stunting, wasting or underweight children in the households, or the average commodity prices to proxy for food insecurity;This analysis investigates the role of food insecurity and malnutrition as a mediator that channels changing climate conditions into more frequent conflicts. However, even if we expect food insecurity and malnutrition to be key channels, they are unlikely to be the only ones. For instance, other factors such as price changes, migratory patterns, or ethnicity, can play a role that disregards malnutrition.We, therefore, employ a Structural Equation Model (SEM) that explicitly identifies: (i) the indirect effect that links climate to conflict through malnutrition (A*B in Figure 2), and (ii) the residual effect that links climate to conflict through any other channel that is not correlated with nutrition insecurity (C in Figure 2). To test these effects, we follow Baron & Kenny (1986) and estimate a system of three [4] simultaneous equations, as follows:[4] The first equation ( 1) is not reflected in the empirical SEM specification, being incorporated in the third one (3) due to SEM features in Stata.is a set of control variables; and are the location (state) and time (quarter-year) fixed effects, to respectively control for unobserved time-invariant state heterogeneity, as well as temporal changes, and common shocks in a given quarter; are the random effects at grid level employed to capture systematic unobserved heterogeneity at grid level through a random intercept term. The choice of a combination of statequarter fixed effect and grid-level random intercept is likely to capture most of the unobserved heterogeneity while avoiding the estimation of large standard errors that are anticipated in a grid-level-quarter fixed effects framework, where grid fixed-effects are likely to absorb almost all the variation in the weather variables (Fisher et al., 2012). Lastly, the error term is ,clustered at grid level.In the above system of equations, the indirect effect is captured by and the residual effect is given by . The rational of the model is that the mediator: i) varies significantly if the treatment variable (climate anomalies) change consistently; ii) affects the variation of the dependent variable (conflict) if the mediator itself significantly varies; and iii) indicates the presence of a strong mediation if the residual effect is zero (Baron & Kenny, 1986). However, we do not necessarily expect a null residual effect because we recognize that climate can influence conflict through a variety of channels. Building on this rational, the model relies on three major assumptions: (i) the treatment is exogenous to the dependent variable; (ii) the treatment is exogenous to the mediator; and (iii) the mediator is exogenous to the dependent, conditional on the treatment. While the first two assumptions are easily met, the third one may be difficult to be fully respected, as there may be other mechanisms that, as a consequence of the climate stressors, could influence both the mediator and conflict variable. We relax these concerns by controlling for potential observed and unobserved confounders. The use of a combination of state-quarter fixed effect and grid-level random effects allows to control for the state and time invariant unobserved heterogeneity as well as the grid-level systematic unobserved factors. In addition, we include a number of grid-level characteristics. Among them, we control for the presence of ongoing violent conflicts, to relax concerns about reverse causality, and to control for the potential spatial autocorrelation and path dependency traditionally characterizing the conflicts. Other controls frequently employed include the commodity prices, female employment and the presence of rural households. Nonetheless, the inclusion of such a comprehensive set of controls does not allow to fully exclude the existence of other unobserved (time-state variant and/or intra-grid subgroup specific) characteristics that may confound the estimation of the indirect association.","tokenCount":"1655"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aa1df37577bd37743f30d344b09b5998","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/571ae015-038b-42d0-91ee-e7e8a09a7f87/retrieve","id":"-1158476369"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aae76a05-a251-4fe2-b965-e8eb3b92218c","pagecount":"157","content":"Tables Table 1:   18: Average livestock holding in intervention and control households (number) ..................... Table 19: Average livestock holdings in male-and female-headed households (number) .................. Table 20: Average livestock holdings in youth-and adult-headed households (number) ................... Table 21: Proportion of households that own lactating crossbred cows (%) ....................................... Table 22: Proportion of households that own lactating local cows (%) ............................................... Table 23: Mean (±SD) crossbred cow milk yield in intervention and control households (litre/day) .. Table 24: Mean (±SD) milk yield of local cows in intervention and control households (litre/day) ..... Table 25:    61: Households that earned cash income from sales of live animals (%) ................................... Table 62: Households that earned income from sales of livestock products (%) ................................. Table 63: Households that earned cash income from non-livestock on-farm activities ...................... Table 64. Households that earned cash income from wage employment (%) ..................................... Table 65: Households that earned cash income from their own businesses (%) ................................. Table 66: Households that earned cash income from miscellaneous sources (remittances, gifts and food aid) ..  98: House roofing used by households, disaggregated by sex of household head (%) .............. Table 100: Flooring materials used by male-and female-headed households (%) .............................. Table 101:     Livestock production in Ethiopia is contributing to household income, economic development and food and nutrition security. It is also a source of export earnings. The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has identified livestock as one of the priority sectors in all its extension and development efforts. However, livestock production in Ethiopia is characterized by low production and productivity due to low levels of management, and availability and quality of inputs. Specifically, it is challenged by insufficient quantity and low quality of feeds; prevalence of animal diseases; lack of access to productive breeds; lack of market infrastructure; and limited extension, veterinary and market services.To transform the livestock sector from subsistence to commercial oriented production, different initiatives have been taken by the government, development partners, nongovernmental organizations, and national and international research institutions. The Livestock and Fishery Sector Development Project (LFSDP), financed through support from the World Bank for its implementation in the mixed crop-livestock production systems in the Ethiopian highlands, is aiming to improve the lives and livelihoods of farmers by supporting innovation in the dairy, red meat, poultry, and fishery value chains in 58 districts in Amhara, Benishangul Gumuz , Gambella, Oromia, SNNP and Tigray regional states. The LFSDP is designed to translate the Livestock Master Plan (LMP) to action so that livestock can contribute to the growth and transformation plan, the sustainable development goals and climate resilient green economy policies of the country.The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has been supporting the MoA in conducting the livestock sector analysis (LSA), developing the LMP, executing different projects and undertaking baseline studies for the drought resilience projects. Considering ILRI's experience in conducting different baseline studies, and the presence of teams of experts and facilities, the MoA and World Bank awarded ILRI a consultancy contract to conduct this baseline study in support of the LFSDP project. The rich data generated from this study will help assess project impacts in transforming the selected commodities and the livelihood of the different categories of project beneficiariessmallholder farmers, youths, women, cooperatives, private sector-in the project and nearby districts. I am sure this report will be an important reference for any ongoing and future development interventions in the mixed crop-livestock production systems in Ethiopia.We are grateful for the opportunity given to ILRI to undertake this study. We remain committed to work with the Ministry and other partners for the development of sustainable livestock systems. The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (GoE) is determined to improve the contributions of the livestock sub-sector towards economic growth, household income, poverty reduction and food and nutrition security. This is evidenced through the priority the government gives to the sector in the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) being implemented from 2016-2020. As a result, livestock and fisheries are now take a critical position in achieving priority goals of the government. The Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), in partnership with the World Bank, is currently implementing the Livestock and Fisheries Sector Development Project (LFSDP).To support the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the project and lay the foundation for subsequent sound and scientific impact assessment, a baseline survey was conducted in the project areas and selected control sites. This report is prepared based on the household baseline survey for the LFSDP intervention woredas and selected control woredas to measure changes among target beneficiaries (in terms of before and after the intervention) and the attribution of changes to the project interventions (in terms of with and without intervention, alongside the before and after comparison). The household survey data, collected between June and July 2019, refers to the previous agricultural season (September 2017-August 2018).Analysis of the household survey data set of 1,350 households revealed interesting results and implications both for development and research in the mixed crop-livestock systems of the highlands of Ethiopia. Households are led by relatively young household heads, with an average age of 45 years, offering potential for higher technology uptake possibilities. More than half of the household heads have formal education, which might provide opportunities for better access and ability to process technical and market-related information. This could in turn enhance livestock development. The average household size was 5.6 people, with corresponding total overall dependency ratio of 0.86. This suggests that a household has about three working age members.Average livestock holding per household was small at 4.5 for cattle, 5.0 for sheep and 4.2 goats. This suggests efforts to improve livestock assets or enhance livestock productivity are imperative for poverty alleviation and food security in the study areas. Livestock holdings are lower in female than male-headed households, suggesting the need for targeted intervention to improve livestock holdings in female-headed households. Livestock productivity is also low with average milk yield of 4.5 litres per day from crossbred cows and 1.2 litres from local cows. Average egg productivity is 176 eggs/year from improved chicken breeds and 54 eggs from local chicken.Adoption of crossbred animals (cattle, sheep and goats) is low, implying the need to intensify efforts to promote higher yielding crossbreeds or adapting specialized local breeds, such as the Begait dairy type animals. Communal grazing lands are an important source of livestock feed in the study areas. However, these communal resources are used in a free grazing system and continue to be degraded over time, as reported by respondents. Overgrazing of communal grazing lands is also accompanied with low quality grass. Conversion of grazing areas into other land uses, especially crop land, is another concern reported by households. Studies suggest that grazing land productivity can be enhanced significantly by introducing grazing land management systems through collective actions.Fish production in the study areas is limited and localized. Overall, only about 3% of surveyed households were involved in fish production during the survey year, although fishing is an important livelihood in the Gambela region. Almost all households involved in fishing practice inland fishing. Aquaculture is very limited, suggesting the need for intensified efforts to promote aquaculture in line with the objective of the LFSDP.Households are more likely to sell than to buy livestock, perhaps as expected. Most of the purchases by households are aimed at maintaining or improving herd size. Households are more likely to buy cattle than to buy other animals. Close to half of the surveyed households sold cattle and chicken.Households are also more likely to sell sheep than goats, perhaps because sheep are more in demand in such highland settings. More than 80% of the egg producers in the survey regions participate in egg market as sellers. However, only about 10% of milk producers sold milk, showing the subsistence nature of dairy production in the study areas. Milk is usually processed into butter and either sold or used for household consumption. The lack of milk collection centres, milk cooling facilities, confounded by the low volume of milk production may be forcing households to resort to home processing. These results imply that efforts to promote market-oriented livestock production are needed, reinforcing the hypothesis of the LFSDP.Average household cash income earnings are low at ETB27,224 per household per year. There is also a wide variation in the amount of cash income earned across households. Most household cash income is earned from the sale of non-livestock farm activities, mainly crops. The second important source of cash income is livestock sales, followed by livestock product sales. The fact that livestock product sales ranks low as a source of cash income indicates the subsistence nature of the livestock sub-sector, again implying the need for efforts to transform the sub-sector into a marketoriented system.More than a third of the households reported saving money, with close to half of the savers using commercial banks to save money. Interestingly, the average amount saved (ETB11, 511) was about half of the cash income of households, perhaps suggesting that improving household cash income may also improve the saving behaviour of households. As with cash income, there is a wide variation in the amount of money saved across households. That male-headed households are more likely to save than female-headed households indicates the need for interventions to improve cash income and saving behaviour of female-headed households. Credit access and use for livestock is limited in the study area, indicating the need for better financial services targeted at livestock farmers.Overall, about a third of producers of the different livestock commodities reported contacting extension service providers for advice and information. Of those who had extension contact, half of them rated the timeliness and relevance of the services provided to them as poor or very poor.These results indicate that the limited coverage of the extension services is exacerbated by untimeliness and inappropriateness of the information provided. These results send a strong signal to extension service providers to evaluate both the delivery channel, as well as the content of the information delivered to livestock producers.Livestock extension agents are also considered as livestock health service providers in the study area mainly because of the challenges in accessing the actual service providers such as CAHWs, veterinary drug stores and public veterinary service providers. Private service providers are among the least accessed service providers, perhaps because they are not widely available or are more expensive than government service providers. These results imply that livestock health services in the rural areas remain weak or non-existent, implying that serious attention needs to be given to improve accessibility of health services. Promoting private livestock health services is an important aspect of improving accessibility.Overall livestock holdings in the study areas are low. Livestock holdings are even lower in femaleheaded households than male-headed households, suggesting the need for targeted interventions to improve livestock holding in female-headed households through better credit facilities, stronger livestock extension services and improved market linkages. The fact that sales of livestock products as source of cash income ranked low in the study areas indicates the subsistence nature of the livestock sub-sector, implying the need for efforts to transform the sub-sector into a marketoriented system. The low livestock productivity across all species undermines the contribution of livestock to household income, welfare and overall rural economic growth. Low productivity levels are related to low adoption of improved livestock breeds, poor livestock husbandry practices, weak extension services and low economic incentives of farmers. These results imply the need for concerted efforts to improve the supply of higher productivity breeds, adequate focus on livestock by extension service providers and market development, all of which reinforce the hypothesis of the LFSDP. Feed stands out as the most important challenge in livestock production in the study areas. Feed accounts for more than half of the livestock production cost. Most farmers use communal grazing lands and crop residues as major sources of livestock feed. The communal grazing lands are used as free grazing resources, resulting in severe degradation and low productivity. Moreover, continuous conversion of grazing lands into crop cultivation and residential sites diminish the size of communal grazing lands. Use of improved planted forage species is low. The supply of agro-industrial byproducts and manufactured feed is limited and expensive to farmers. These results imply that interventions to promote controlled grazing in communal grazing lands, practices to improve the nutritive value of crop residues and promoting the cultivation of improved forage species are urgently needed. Household level feed ration formulation from local resources is another option that could alleviate the problem of livestock nutrition.1 IntroductionEthiopia's remarkable endowment of livestock and fishery resources remains underutilized mainly due to low productivity, subsistence forms of production, weak services and underdeveloped livestock markets. Underlying these apparent constraints are weak institutional capacity of the MoA and regional bureaus, the research system, input supply systems, animal health services, financial services to smallholders and their associations and low genetic potential of the animals.Cognizant of this untapped potential, the GoE seems determined to improve the contributions of the sub-sector to economic growth, household income, poverty reduction and food and nutrition security. As a result, the livestock and fisheries sub-sectors assume significant priorities in the GoE's GTP II being implemented from 2016-2020. Livestock and fisheries are now seen as critical in achieving priority goals of the government including (i) overall economic growth; (ii) increasing the volume and value of exports; (iii) poverty reduction in both the highland and lowland areas;(iv) contribution to improved food security and nutritional outcomes for rural and urban households; and (v) supporting the country's green growth priorities. Recognizing these priorities, the GoE recently approved the Livestock Master Plan (LMP), which is a series of five-year development plans for key livestock value chains and production systems within each value chain.To improve the contribution of the sector, the MoA has been implementing various initiatives. In its determination to scale up its investment and institutional support for the livestock and fisheries sector, the MoA in partnership with the world Bank is currently implementing the Livestock and Fisheries Sector Development Project (LFSDP). To support the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the project and lay the foundation for subsequent sound and scientific impact assessment, a baseline survey was conducted in the project areas and selected control sites.Recognizing recent successful collaborations between ILRI and the MoA in conducting baseline surveys for various projects in the lowland areas of the country, and ILRI's livestock research experiences in the highlands of Ethiopia for several decade, the MoA requested ILRI to conduct the baseline survey for the LSFDP. ILRI management honoured this request and assembled a team of experts to conduct the baseline survey and analysis.ILRI was pleased to engage in this partnership with the MoA since the goal and objectives of the LFSDP are in line with ILRI's mission to improve food and nutritional security and to reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestockensuring better lives through livestock. Moreover, ILRI believes it is critical to work closely with valued partners such as the MoA to achieve development outcomes.The LFSDP is aimed at increasing productivity and commercialization of producers and processors in selected value chains, strengthening service delivery systems in the livestock and fisheries sectors, and responding promptly and effectively to crisis or emergency that affect the livelihoods of livestock keepers. The primary geographic focus of the project targeted value chains in the rural and peri-urban areas of the high potential highland regions where dairy, red meat, poultry, fishery, and aquaculture production systems are important. The project follows the government's cluster approach and intervenes in the existing or planned clusters of dairy, red meat, poultry, fishery, and aquaculture. This approach is believed to enable the project to benefit from synergistic gains which might arise from other investment (infrastructure, private sector, etc.) coming into these clusters.While the crosscutting activities of the project will have a national coverage, the value chain activities will be implemented in 58 woredas of the six regions-Amhara, Tigray, Benishangul Gumuz, Gambela, Oromia and the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP).The project targets four priority value chains: (i) dairy with small-scale mixed crop-livestock systems;(ii) poultry with improved semi-scavenging and small-scale broiler and layers systems; (iii) red meat in small ruminant systems and dairy beef; and (iv) fish with sustainable inland fisheries and aquaculture in selected suitable areas. In addition, the project intends to support the red meat cattle value chain nationwide through its support to the strategic national programs on animal health, access to feed and traceability systems. In Gambela, the focus will be on fishery.The direct beneficiaries of the project include smallholder livestock and fisheries producers, producer associations and processors. The project is expected to support an estimated 1.2 million households, of which 466,000 are expected to benefit from the value chain development subprojects in the selected 58 woredas (component A) and 735,000 households from improved services (component B). Targeted staff of the MoA and associated livestock support institutions at federal, regional and woreda levels (e.g. NVI, NAGII), training institutions and extension services are also expected to benefit from capacity development support provided by the projectThe direct beneficiaries of the project will include smallholder farmer households, traditional and small-scale subsistence producers, farmers and smallholders with improved husbandry practices, and producer organizations. Smallholder producers are being considered around three different levels of poverty, knowledge and practice advancement as described below:Level 1: (i) Livestock and fisheries smallholder subsistence farmers (ii) Non-farm actor groups of unemployed youth, men and womenLevel 2: (i) Improved smallholder farmers/ fishermen(women) and small-scale processors (ii) Improved non-farm actor groups such as unemployed men and women, youth who graduated and organized in primary cooperatives or other forms of interest groups Level 3: Specialized smallholder farmers/fisherman (women) and specialized small-scale processorsOther direct beneficiaries include small-and medium-scale livestock and fisheries processors; vulnerable groups, particularly women and youth; and livestock support service institutions, including public livestock research and extension services and other service providers involved in the targeted livestock value chains in the project areas. Moreover, targeted staff of the MoA at federal, regional and woreda levels are expected to benefit from capacity development support provided by the project.Indirect beneficiaries of the project will include other livestock producers not directly involved in the project activities who would benefit from the national programs (e.g. improved animal diseases service delivery). Value chain actors such as buyers, processors and exporters would benefit from increased and more regular supply of better-quality livestock products. On the consumption side, consumers in Ethiopia would benefit from the increased supply of better-quality national animalsource products. Other indirect beneficiaries would be livestock service providers, including private veterinarians and input suppliers (e.g. feed, veterinary medicines and genetic material suppliers).The project has the following three major components:Component A: linking more productive farmers to markets  Sub-component A. The project's results-based monitoring and evaluation (RBM&E) design includes a survey of beneficiaries in the first year (baseline), third year (mid-term) and sixth year (end of project) of project implementation to track changes in the effectiveness of livestock, poultry, red meat and fishery service provision, productivity and commercialization.The proposed survey was designed as an inter-temporal/longitudinal study allowing revisit of the baseline households and other surveyed units at two follow up stages to help track changes in the expected outcomes of the project based on indicators outlined in the project results framework. The baseline survey forms the basis for evaluation at year three and year six, in addition to helping the project set the baseline values for the project performance indicators as outlined in the project results framework.Moreover, the baseline results will be used as benchmarks to measure changes among the target beneficiaries (before and after intervention) as well as the overall changes in the rural and periurban areas of the high potential highland project areas (i.e. with and without project intervention).Hence, the baseline survey was designed to collect information before and after the project, and with and without the project. Such data will be used to evaluate impact based on the DD impact evaluation approach.The specific objectives of the survey are to:(i) identify baseline information for the national, regional and woreda level project result indicators as outlined in the project results framework disaggregated by gender where appropriate, which will be used to measure project achievements and impact. (ii) undertake a scientific baseline survey at the start of the project and identify, document and report the existing situation of the different classes of project beneficiary households, groups, cooperatives and other beneficiaries at the project baseline to serve as a benchmark for measuring project impacts and outcomes. (iii) enable the project to measure the impact of the project on key socio-economic and technocommercial parameters using the DD impact evaluation approach to test the hypotheses of the project.The baseline study covered a representative sample from the entire geographic focus of the project and control units selected outside the project's geographic focus. The study covered all levels of direct beneficiaries as outlined above and included farmers, youth groups, cooperatives, processors, service institutions and others with stake in the project. The survey integrated household level modules on livestock production, husbandry practices, post-harvest handling and processing, gender and animal-source food consumption, and dietary diversity. Community level modules captured community characteristics, including the general demographic profile, collective action behaviour, social networks, infrastructure, distance to markets, business interests and preferences, and environmental conditions.In this regard, the study will help set the baseline and help track the project development objectives (PDO) level results indicators that have been identified including: (i) change in productivity of small-scale producers (by selected commodity);(ii) increase in sales of primary and processed livestock and fish products by producers and processors; (iii) number of system improvements in support of better livestock and fisheries service delivery achieved; (iv) proportion of trainees applying the newly acquired competencies in their daily work; and (v) time lapse between early warning information and disbursement toward response in case of crisis or emergency (in weeks).Moreover, the study is expected to help the project in establishing the current situation and ascertaining the potential effectiveness of the proposed system improvements that will strengthen service delivery systems in the livestock and fisheries sectors. In addition to technology uptake, productivity increase and sales increase, the performance of the project intervention in terms of its contribution to poverty reduction will also be measured using the SWIFT approach, in the first year (baseline), third year (mid-term) and sixth year (end) of project implementation. The project's contribution to improving the dietary diversity (widely accepted as an indicator of improved nutrition), which has high poverty relevance, will be measured by the change in proportion of women of reproductive age (15-49 years) who have consumed animal-source food for the past seven days.To achieve both its overall and specific objectives, the baseline study employed an appropriate mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to collect, collate and analyse the baseline data. The baseline survey methodology was designed to effectively capture the changes in the status of households and other survey units over time. The control survey units (households) were carefully selected to avoid any spill over effects. In order to avoid externalities, the control units were selected outside the project woredas and not lying adjacent to the project intervention woredas.The overall framework of the baseline survey is based on the planned impact evaluation requirement that promises to establish attribution to project interventions. While there are many impact evaluation methodologies, this baseline survey framework envisions the DD approach to impact evaluation. The DD approach is also implied in the ToR provided to ILRI. Hence, data was collected based on the with-without and before-after framework, i.e. both intervention and control households were interviewed during the baseline survey with the expectation that the same households and communities surveyed during the baseline will be the sample households and communities during subsequent surveys.Moreover, the survey framework is also based on the RBME&L requirements of the project. While resources and activities were captured, the RBME&L focuses more on outputs (products that directly result due to the completion of activities) and outcomes (application and utilization of outputs). Therefore, the survey framework ensures a clear link between the DD impact evaluation approach and the periodic RBM&E activities of the project in that outputs and outcomes are logically connected to project impact as defined by improved productivity and production, increased sales, reduced poverty and improved nutrition. The baseline instruments are designed to capture the spectrum of information needed to address both the requirements of the RBME&L and the DD impact evaluation.The overall survey framework also emphasizes the important role of qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. Issues that were not easily or adequately captured with quantitative methods were addressed through in-depth qualitative methods. The reliability of qualitative information was checked by triangulation by sourcing a piece of information from at least three different sources. To ensure complementarity, the framework made an explicit link between the quantitative and qualitative methods.The selection of the baseline method depends on the target beneficiary group. Individual household survey was used for producers, while focus group discussions (FGDs) were used for groups and cooperatives. Each baseline method and target beneficiary group required different sampling frames which were obtained prior to selecting potential beneficiaries to include in the baseline activity. For example, for producers, the sampling frame was smallholder produces in the selected project woreda, whereas for groups and cooperatives, a listing of all these groups in the sampled kebeles were made.A results framework was prepared in the proposal for the LFSDP. The PDOs were translated into project performance indicators at household, community, woreda, regional and federal levels. The data collection instruments were developed following the performance indicators. Data was also collected on several additional variables that were believed to provide important information on the current situation.The hierarchy of results implies the need to use a combination of baseline data collection methods including household surveys, community FGDs and secondary sources. Survey instruments for household surveys, as well as guides and checklists for FGDs were developed.As much as possible, the qualitative methods preceded the survey in each woreda. Baseline team members who were fluent in local languages and familiar with the agro-ecological and cultural contexts of the woredas, implemented both the qualitative methods and the interviews. CAPI were used to administer the interviews which reduced cost and time and avoided the need for double data entry. Enumerators and supervisors were trained on the qualitative instruments, the survey questionnaires and the use of CAPI.The The community level instruments, and secondary data collected information on the following variables at various levels as appropriate (kebele, woreda and/or region)  livestock and fish population  grazing lands (availability and collective action for grazing land management (provision and appropriation)  community natural resource management focusing on livestock and fish related resources (water sources, enclosures, fodder banks, fodder seeds supply, etc.)  livestock and fish market infrastructure (primary, secondary and tertiary marketplaces; roads; holding sites; veterinary service facilities, etc.)  livestock and fish market institutions (regulations, marketing laws, taxes, fees, market information, etc.)  livestock and fish extension services (farmer field schools, access, timeliness, relevance and reliability)  livestock and fish credit services (size, terms, interest rate and repayment modalities)  public livestock and fish production and marketing support capacity (personnel, laboratories, quarantine services and holding areas)  livestock breeding centres  livestock and fish input supply services (veterinary drug shops, feed markets and improved breed supply)  crop production as sources of animal feedWhile selecting the households for the survey, random/probability sampling principles were used to select representative samples leading to statistically robust estimates. The sampling followed the following principles.(i) Survey was conducted in selected project and control woredas.(ii) All the kebele units in the selected woredas had equal chance of getting into the sample.(iii) No two adjacent kebeles were selected from the intervention and control woreda; this was needed to minimize spill over effects of project activities to non-project woredas. (iv) As much as possible, the ratio of intervention to control kebeles was 2:1 1 . This ratio was used in all sample size calculations to ensure statistically valid comparisons.The project applied the methodology described below to obtain representative and randomized sample of beneficiary households and kebeles. A random sample of households were selected from the sample kebeles, which also served as the locations for the FGDs. This section describes the sampling approach.In order to obtain a representative random sample of potential beneficiaries, a clustered approach was used with two stages of sampling (woreda and kebele) with representation across the six regional states (Tigray, Amhara, SNNP, Oromia, Benishangul Gumuz and Gambela). To adjust for the correlation between data points inherent in this cluster approach, as opposed to a purely random sample across the whole project focus area, the sample size was adjusted upwards. A common sampling frame of all beneficiaries was used across commodities, although it should be noted that the distribution of surveyed beneficiaries across commodities is likely different in each region. For example, in Gambela, most beneficiaries interviewed were fishermen.There was also a need to identify counterfactual areas to provide the 'without project' comparison. These areas should have similar characteristics as the selected project areas in terms of agro-ecology and socio-economy but are not part of the project. These areas were identified using spatial maps and on-the-ground expert knowledge ensuring they are not neighbors with project woreda as noted in the ToR. They were included into the survey in an appropriate ratio at woreda level to be cascaded down to kebele level within the woredas.The following sampling stages were followed:Stage 1: involved randomly selecting approximately 50% of the project woredas, and within these randomly sample three project kebeles per selected woreda equating to approximately 5% of all project Kebele. Sampling for FGDs ended at Stage 1.Exceptions were made in Benishangul Gumuz and Gambela regions where all project woredas were included in the survey since the number of project woredas were very small (2 in Benishangul Gumuz and 1 in Gambela). The selection of project woredas was done in consultation with project coordination units (PCU) to ensure representation across agro-ecologies and farming systems.Reporting of baseline results at region level required weighting the woreda-level estimates by the total beneficiary population. This is because there are three kebeles per woreda but some woredas may have more beneficiaries than others. Reporting of baseline results at project level will use the same weighting for each woreda but will not require further weighting due to the proportional representation of woredas across regions.Stage 2: for household survey, the sampling took place only in a number of potential beneficiaries in each kebele selected in Stage 1. The number sampled in each kebele was the same across all kebeles (ten in each kebele) as the adjustment for size was already carried out in Stage 1.In order to calculate the total household sample size required, key project impact indicators for productivity, sales, technology adoption and dietary diversity were used. The targeted changes in impact indicators for each indicator are provided in the LFSD Project results framework.A standard calculation to obtain an initial estimate of the number of beneficiaries required per group (intervention or control) for continuous variables is:The alternative but equivalent binomial sample size equation for percentage indicators (e.g. mortality, productivity, adoption) was used.2 Groups = Before and After (or With and without) n = number of beneficiaries per Group σ 2 = expected variation in indicator for each group (expressed as a % of the mean); standard deviation squared d = target impact of the project for the indicator, i.e. change before to after (expressed as a % of the mean); Z/2 = 2-sided significance level (taken as 5%, giving Z value of 1.96) Z = power of the test (taken as 80%, giving Z value of 0.84)2 Groups = Before and After (or With and without) n = number of beneficiaries per Group p0 = hypothesised proportion of one sample (expressed as decimal -e.g. 10% = 0.1), p1 = proportion of second sample d = target impact of the project for the indicator, i.e. change before to after; Z/2 and Z defined as above This initial estimate is then adjusted to account for intra-cluster correlation (ICC) between beneficiaries in the same Kebele using:The final N = number of beneficiaries required per GROUP = Initial n x Deff. No finite population correction has been made because the large potential beneficiary population size would not change the required n. A summary showing values used for the above equations is shown in Table 1. Note that the above process is iterative in terms of balancing the number of Kebele and cluster size (beneficiaries per Kebele).The sample size was calculated for the indicators described above and considering an appropriate level of sampling for Kebeles in each Woreda to ensure representative sample across the whole project target domain. The proposed baseline for all commodities was conducted across 84 project Kebele and 51 control Kebele (approximate 2:1 ratio). As some indicators are commodity-based and some apply to the total beneficiary population, the sample size has been adjusted to account for the fact that not all households in the survey will provide data for all indicators. The target change in indicators was taken from the project document results framework, with some adjustments to account for population status prior to intervention (e.g. consumption of at least one animal source food in the week prior to data collection), while the adjustment for intra-cluster (kebele) correlation and estimated standard deviation, or variance, are taken from previous studies and experience. Finally, an adjustment for drop-out to account for the repeated visits to households (baseline, midline, end-line) was made. The indicator requiring the largest sample size and therefore determining the overall sample size is broiler mortality at household level (Table 1). The required sample size of 756 project households and 408 control households (1,164) was then adjusted to allow for dropouts and to provide equal distribution of households across Kebele. In summary, the baseline surveyed 10 households in each project and control Kebele providing a total sample size of 840 project Kebele households and 510 control Kebele households, for a total of 1,350 households (Table 2).  The FGD participant selection was made such that the members of common interest groups (CIG) are represented from the different classes in the community based on gender, wealth status, education, age and roles in the community. Such selection was made in consultation with community leaders. Specific FGDs were used to survey CIG groups (e.g. unemployed youth, women and subsistence farmers) as described in the LFSDP project appraisal document (PAD).To get data that is required for the indicators in the results framework of the project document, we surveyed producers and processing cooperatives available in the project sample woredas from Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and SNNPR. Accordingly, 31 milk collection and processing cooperatives, 11 fishery cooperatives and 9 egg producer cooperatives were surveyed.The field survey implementation was sub-contracted to a private survey company with experience in implementing surveys in the highland areas. ILRI has had experience in sub-contracting the field work when it implemented the baseline surveys for the Regional Pastoral Livelihood Resilience Project (RPLRP), Pastoral Community Development Project (PCDP), and the Drought Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods Project (DRSLP). ILRI has developed a roster of survey firms that have established good track record in implementing household and community surveys. Sub-contracting the field survey to private companies enabled the use of the social infrastructure that these organizations have developed on the ground, which reduced cost and time. It also enabled ILRI scientists to focus on quality control, instrument development, capacity building of field staff, and leadership and supervision of the field work to ensure data quality, timely delivery and subsequent analysis and report writing, including presentation of results. The field survey was conducted from June-July 2019.CAPI, an electronic-based survey method that was expected to reduce cost and time and avoid the need for double entry, was used to administer the interviews. CAPI minimizes errors in data entry as error correction programs are inbuilt in the electronic version of the survey instruments. Moreover, the data from each completed questionnaire was made available daily to a central dropbox and data checking was done daily at ILRI. Feedback was also provided daily to enumerators for correction.3 Household characteristicsThe sampling made sure that female-headed households were represented in the survey. The proportion of female-headed households that participated in the survey ranged from 11% in Benishangul Gumuz to 33% in the Amhara region (Table 3). Overall, about 30% of female-headed households were included. The proportion of female-headed households in the sample was similar for intervention and control households. Intervention households are those that reside in the project woredas. Control households are those that reside outside of the project woredas. The proportion of youth-headed households (aged below 29 years of age) ranged from 4% in SNNPR to 17.8 % in Benishangul (Table 4). Overall, the proportion of youth-headed households in relation to the total sample size was about 8%. As in female-headed households, the proportion of youthheaded households was similar for intervention and control households. The age of a household head is considered an important indicator of farming experience. Younger household heads may be more likely to adopt improved technologies and innovations. In the survey, the average age of a household head ranged from 42 years in Gambela to 47 years in SNNPR, with an overall average age of 45 years, showing most households are led by relatively younger heads (Table 5). The mode of household age is around 40 years. The average age of household heads was similar for intervention and control households, except in SNNPR where we found a statistically significant difference. However, the age range between the youngest and oldest household heads was wide.The lowest age of a household head ranged from 18-21 years, while the highest household age ranged from 70-92 years in all the six regions. Most household heads are married (Table 6) with a proportion ranging between 71% in Amhara and 84% in Benishangul. Overall, about 73% are married. The next highest proportion of household category was widowed with a range between 3.3% in Benishangul and 19% in Oromia. Overall, about 16% of households were widowed. There was no significant difference in the proportion of married households for intervention and control households. Education of household heads is important for technology uptake, improving productivity and market orientation of households. About half of the household heads had some sort of formal education (Table 7). Between 45% in Amhara and 57% in SNNPR of households had formal education. The proportion of illiterate households ranged from 38% in Tigray to 48% in Oromia.Religious schooling and literacy education were not significant. The education structure of household heads was similar for intervention and control households. Household size can be considered as an indicator of household labour supply. Depending on the age structure of the household, household size is also an indicator of dependency ratio. Overall, household size ranged between 5 in Amhara and 6 in SNNPR (Table 8). A minimum household size of one and maximum of 13 were observed. We found statistically significant difference in household size between control and intervention households only in Tigray. Average household size was highest in SNNPR ( 6) and lowest in Amhara (5). As expected, household sizes were lower in female-headed households than in male-headed households, with statistically significant difference in all regions except Gambela (Table 9). Similarly, average household size was statistically significantly lower in youth-headed households than in adult household heads in all regions. 22The age structure of households shows that household members aged between 16 and 64 account for more than 50% of the household (Table 10). Members aged between 7 and 15 years account for 25-30% of the households. The female to male ratio in the surveyed households ranged from 79% in Gambela to 1.04% in Amhara (Table 11). The ratios were not significantly different between intervention and control households. Dependency ratio is an important indicator of the number of household members that have to be cared for by working age household members. Dependency ratio is calculated in three ways: (i) Overall dependency ratio: the ratio of the number of household members of up to 15 years of age and those above 64 years of age to the number of household members aged between 16 and 64 (ii) Young dependency ratio: the ratio of household members up to 15 years of age to the number of household members between 16 and 64 years of age (iii) Elderly dependency ratio: the ratio of the number of household members above 64 years of age to the number of household members between 16 and 64 years of ageThe overall dependency ratio in the sample ranged between 0.67 in Amhara and 1.08 in Benishangul (Table 12). The results show that the most important dependency ratio is young dependency ratio. Elderly dependency ratio is very low in all regions. Dependency ratios were not significantly different between female and male-headed households or between youth-headed and adult-headed households. This section presents the status of formal education of household members above 7 years of age. More than half of the household members had some level of formal education in all regions expect Benishangul, which was 46% (Table 13). Results also show significantly lower proportion of household members in female-headed households have some level of formal education than in male-headed households. Interestingly, even within households, male household members are more likely to have some level of formal education than female members. There was no significant difference between intervention and control households. Proportions for involvement in formal education by age structure is given in Table 14. Overall, the highest proportion of involvement in formal education is observed in the age group of 16-29 years, followed by 7-15 and 30-64 years. One would normally expect the highest involvement would be observed in the age group of 7-15 years. This may suggest that the education environment may not be conducive for children below 15 years of age. 4 Livestock ownership, productivity, and mortalityThe survey included only households who own any of the livestock species which are target commodities of the LFSDP. In this section, we present results of the status of household ownership of the different types of livestock among those households.The most prevalent livestock species owned by households are cattle (Table 15). Overall, about 89% of surveyed households own cattle, followed by poultry (63%), sheep (42%) and goats (22%). The proportion of households owning cattle ranged from 37% in Benishangul to 99% in SNNPR. More than 87% of households in Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and SNNPR also reported owning cattle. The proportion of households who own poultry ranged from 47% in Gambela to 74% in Benishangul and Amhara. The proportion who owned sheep ranged from 13% in Benishangul to 59% in Amhara. Goat ownership ranged from 11% in Amhara to 59% in Benishangul. Fish production is concentrated only in a few places. In Tigray, 3% of the households reported involvement in fish production, while in Gambela 48% reported involvement in the activity. Fish production in other regions was low, perhaps because there is limited aquaculture practice in these areas. The proportion of livestock ownership by female-headed and male-headed households is given in Table 16. The proportion of type of livestock owned in female-and male-headed households did not show much difference. For example, the proportion of poultry ownership was almost the same in both male and female-headed households, contrary to expectations. However, even in male-headed households, poultry production is expected to be mainly the responsibility of female members. The proportion of households owning livestock by youth-and adult-headed households is given in Table 17. We see slightly higher proportions of adult-headed households owning cattle, goats and poultry than youth-headed households, while a higher proportion of youth-headed households own goats. A much higher proportion of youth-headed households are involved in fishing than adultheaded households. The average livestock holding is given in Table 18. Overall, the average holding of cattle, sheep and goats was 4.5, 5.0 and 4.2, respectively. Cattle holding ranged from 2.7 in Benishangul to 17 in Gambela. Goat ownership ranged from about 2 in Amhara to 13 in Tigray, while sheep holding ranged from 2 in Gambela and SNNPR to 12 in Gambela. The average livestock holding by sex of household head is given in Table 19. Overall, holdings are lower in female-headed households than in male-headed households, suggesting the need for targeted interventions to improve livestock holding among female-headed households such as extension services, credit facilities, market linkage and market information services. Livestock holding by youth-and adult-headed households is given in Table 20. Interestingly, there seems to be little difference in holding size between these households. The proportion of households that owned lactating crossbred cows is given in Table 21. Overall, about 12% of surveyed households had lactating crossbred cows. The number ranged from 0% in Gambela to 23% in Tigray. Comparison between male-and female-headed households showed that slightly lower proportion of female-headed households had lactating crossbred cows. Similarly, slightly higher proportion of adult-headed households seem to have crossbreds. The higher proportion of households owning crossbred lactating cows in the intervention than in the control households may be reflecting the targeting of the LFSDP. Table 22 presents the proportion of households who owned lactating local cows during the survey.Overall, about 49% of households owned lactating local cows. The numbers ranged from 34% in Tigray to 76% in Gambela. Similar to the crossbred cows, higher proportion of male-headed households owned lactating local cows than female-headed households. The same was true with adult-headed households over youth-headed households. Table 23 presents results of milk productivity of crossbred cows. Milk yield data was collected for three different lactating periods-early lactating (birth to 3 months), mid lactating (3-6 months), and late lactating (beyond 6 months). Overall, average milk yield from crossbred cows among the intervention households was about six litres during early lactating, five during mid lactating and four during late lactating periods. The average lactating days were 234 days. The average milk yield in intervention households seem to be higher than the corresponding figures in the control households. The overall average milk yield from the crossbred cows was about four litres per day.The average lactating days were 234 days in intervention and 221 days in control households. Average milk yield from local cows is given in Table 24. The overall milk yield averaged about 1.2 litres per day. The average milk yield during the early, mid and late lactating periods among the intervention households was 1.5, 1.2 and 0.8 litres, respectively. There does not seem to be a difference in average milk yield or length of lactation of local cows between intervention and control households. The average lactating length was 183-186 days. Survey of dairy cooperatives from intervention woredas was conducted and the results show an average of 306.8 litres of milk collected per day. The cooperatives are all primary cooperatives where most of the milk collected was from rural smallholder production.The average egg yield per hen per year for improved breeds was about 176 eggs (Table 25), with similar results between intervention and control households. The annual egg yield per hen ranged from 141 eggs in Tigray to 205 eggs in Amhara. The average egg yield per hen for local breeds is given in Table 26. The overall yield per hen was about 54 eggs per year, about a third of the egg yield computed for the improved breeds. The egg yield from local breeds ranged from 41 in Gambela to 59 in Oromia. There was no difference in egg yield between intervention and control households.Survey results from primary egg producing cooperative in Tigray and SNNP found peak laying rate of 63 eggs per 100 hens for improved egg type poultry breeds. The survey did not find any broiler production system in the surveyed areas. But we tried to see secondary data and found a study report by Teshome et al. ( 2019) 2 . This study was conducted at selected sites in Oromia (Adama, Bishoftu, Awash, Modjo, Addis Ababa) and SNNP (Hawasa). These locations are where broiler production and processing establishments are available. The study collected data from 21 broiler producers and reported age of broilers at marketing as 56 days of fattening period with a live weight of 2.5 kg (1.5 kg dressed weight). Birth rates and death rates in small ruminants were computed only for local breeds as the survey team did not come across improved small ruminants in the survey. Birth rates of local lambs and local kids were calculated as the ratio between births and the number of ewes and does, respectively. Overall, we found 34% birth rates in lambs and about 28% in local kids (Table 28). The birth rates in local lambs ranged from 14% in Gambela to 42% in Amhara. The birth rates of kids ranged from 17% in Gambela to 60% in Tigray. Death rates of calves is an important indicator of productivity in cattle production. Death rates in calves were calculated as the ratio of deaths to total births during the year. The study found low death rates in both local and crossbred calves (Table 29). Overall, about 1.3% death rates in local calves and 1.5% in crossbred calves were recorded. The death rates in local calves ranged from 0.5% in Oromia to 7% in Benishangul. There seem to be some important numerical differences in death rates of local calves between intervention and control households in Benishangul, Tigray and SNNPR; and in crossbred calves in Amhara and Oromia. Death rates in lambs and kids seems to be higher than that of calves ( Death rates of total cattle (ratio of deaths to total cattle population) is given in Table 31. Overall, we found cattle death rates of about 6.7%. The death rate ranges from about 2.7% in Amhara to 31% in Benishangul. The second highest death rate in cattle was registered in Gambela (17%). It is important to find out why higher death rates were registered in Gambela and Benishangul. Death rates in total sheep and total goat populations were computed as the ratio between the number of deaths in each sheep and deaths in the total population of goats. Overall, we found death rates of about 4.5% in sheep and 21% in goats (Table 32). It is important to find out why death rate in goats is so high. Death rates in sheep ranged from 1.5% in Gambela to 14% in Benishangul. Death rates in goats ranged from 4% in SNNPR to 39% in Benishangul. While death rates in sheep were similar in intervention and control households, death rates in goats was higher in control households. Data on broiler mortality could not be collected as there was no broiler production in the surveyed areas. However, we tried to investigate secondary data and found an unpublished study report which was conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MOLF 2017) 3 . The study indicates mortality of broilers is 6.39%. This study was conducted to assess the performance of the commercial production system, identify major constraints, and suggest what should be done to address these constraints. The study was conducted in Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Tigray with 58 commercial poultry farms that operated for at least two years before the survey period. Broiler strains considered in this study were Cobb 500 and Ross 308.5 Management of livestock breeding, watering, and grazingLivestock owners were asked whether they used some type of controlled mating for their animals, including natural mating with male selected from within the herd, with male purchased or exchanged, with castrated non-breeding males, artificial insemination, and other breeding techniques. This section presents results of analysis of controlled breeding practices for cattle, goats, and sheep.Table 33 presents results of whether households who own cattle practiced controlled breeding for cattle. Overall, about 28% of cattle keepers reported practicing controlled mating for cattle. Higher proportion of male-headed households practice controlled mating for cattle than female-headed households consistently across regions. No visible difference was observed between control and intervention households. Highest proportion for those who practiced controlled breeding for cattle was observed in SNNPR, followed by Tigray, Amhara, and Oromia, in that order. Not all households who practiced controlled mating incur cost for breeding. Table 34 shows the number of households that incurred cost. Overall, only about 25% of households who practiced controlled mating incurred cost. None incurred cost in Benishangul and Gambela. The highest proportion who incurred cost for cattle breeding was observed in Amhara, followed by SNNPR and Oromia. Among those who incurred cost, the amount spent was found to be low (Table 35). While ETB130 was spent by a household in Tigray, about ETB55 or less was incurred per household in the other regions. This shows the lack of modern breeding services in the study area. Overall, about 9% of sheep owners practiced controlled mating (Table 37). The proportion of sheep owners who practiced controlled mating for sheep ranged from 2% in Gambela to 16% in SNNP. Among those who practiced controlled mating for sheep, only 3% incurred cost for breeding (Table 38). Interestingly, no female-headed household incurred cost. The cost incurred was also very low. This section presents a summary of our analysis of watering frequency and water sources for cows, oxen/bulls and sheep/goats. Milk cows during the dry season are watered mostly two times a day (53% of respondents), and once a day (42% of respondents). A small proportion of households (3.3%) reported watering milk cows once every two days during the dry season. Interestingly and perhaps as expected, during the wet season, watering twice a day is not required because of cooler weather and the watering frequency drops significantly (from 53% to 21% of respondents), and watering once a day rises significant (65% of respondents). Watering once every two days for milk cows also rises moderately during wet seasons (11% of respondents). The most frequently used water source for milk cows were rivers and springs both during the dry and wet seasons; also, the use of these sources drops slightly during the wet season. As expected, use of water harvesting as watering source for milk cows rises during wet seasons (from about 1% in dry seasons to 10% in wet seasons). Wells as water sources for milk cows were used by about 7% of households both during dry and wet seasons. Bore holes were also used by about 6% of respondents, and dams by 2%. The pattern of watering frequency and sources of water for dry cows, oxen/bulls, and sheep/goats was similar to that of milk cows, showing that households water their livestock together. There was no difference in the pattern of watering frequency and sources of water for the different livestock species between male-headed and female-headed households.Livestock keepers used a variety of housing methods for their livestock. Table 39 presents housing types for cattle in the study areas. About 31% of cattle keepers house their cattle inside a house used for animals only, while about 29% of cattle keepers house their cattle in confined sheds. Confined fences are used by about 18% of cattle keepers, while 4% keep their animals in paddocks.The type of housing used for cattle shows differences across regions. Sheds are more prevalent in Benishangul, Tigray and Gambela. Paddocks are relatively more prevalent in Amhara, while fences are used more in Oromia. A higher number of cattle keepers in SNNPR house their cattle inside the house together with humans. Houses meant for cattle only are used more in Amhara, followed by Tigray, SNNPR and Oromia. No household keeps cattle inside a house meant for animals only in Benishangul and Gambela. About 41% in Gambela leave their animals in the open field in the residential compound. The pattern of housing cattle was similar between intervention and control households, as well as between male-and female-headed households. Table 40 presents housing types for goats. About 40% of goat keepers confine their goats in sheds, while 30% keep them in a house meant for small ruminants only. About 13% house goats inside a house together with humans. Type of housing used for goats showed difference across regions. Sheds are more prevalent in Benishangul, Gambela and Tigray. Paddocks are relatively more prevalent in Amhara. Confinement in fences seems to be more prevalent in Gambela and Tigray. Keeping goats inside the house together with humans is used more in SNNPR and Oromia. Keeping goats inside a house meant only for goats is more prevalent in Amhara, Oromia and Tigray. As in cattle, the housing pattern for goats was similar between intervention and control, as well as maleand female-headed households. Results of analysis of communal grazing land management are summarized in this section. Table 42 presents the main uses of grazing lands. About 48% of respondents reported that communal grazing lands are used year-round, while about 25% and 21% reported that grazing lands are used for wet season grazing and dry season grazing, respectively. Other but minor uses of communal grazing lands include conservation, forest land and drought reserves. Main use of communal grazing lands also showed differences across regions. Wet season grazing is higher in Oromia, followed by Tigray and Amhara, while dry season grazing is higher in Tigray, followed by Oromia and Gambela. Use of grazing lands mainly as drought reserves is very low.  A small proportion of households reported paying to use the grazing lands (Table 44). Overall, only about 9% reported paying. The highest proportion (22%) who paid were in Tigray, followed by Oromia (12%). Interestingly, higher proportion of female-headed households paid to use communal grazing lands than male-headed households in Oromia, while higher male-headed household paid in Tigray. Households cited overgrazing (52%) as the top priority challenge of communal lands, followed by low quality grass (17%), and land conversion into cultivated land (11%) (Table 45). Overgrazing seems to be most severe in Oromia, SNNPR and Gambela, although it is quite important in the other regions too. Free grazing as a priority challenge was mentioned only by 8% of households, perhaps because of the lack of understanding of the role of controlled grazing in improving the productivity of grazing land. Free grazing is the most prevalent grazing system as reported by 73% of households (Table 46). Seasonal grazing was reported by about 16% of households. Some grazing lands are used as enclosures where households cut and carry harvested grass (about 8%). A very small fraction (3%) reported rotational grazing. Consistent with results in Table 47, more than half of the households reported that there was no management system of the grazing lands (Table 46). The mentioned management bodies included customary heads (20%), local governments (12%) and elected management committees (13%). 6 Fish production 6.1 Inland capture fishery in the surveyed woredasThe proportion of sample households involved in fish production was very low. Overall, only about 3% of surveyed households were involved in fish production during the survey year. About half of the surveyed households in Gambela reported involvement in fish production, showing that fishing is an important livelihood in the region. The number of households involved in fish production in the intervention areas is more than twice as much as in the control woredas, showing that the LFSDP project may have targeted woredas with potential fish production in the region. About 3% of surveyed households in Tigray were involved in fish production. Among the respondents involved in fish production, almost all households reported that they were involved in inland capture fishing.The survey instrument, following the results framework of the LFSDP project, attempted to collect data on aquaculture; however, no such data was available since aquaculture was very limited. Fish production through inland fishery requires natural water bodies, which limits the activity. This implies aquaculture needs to be promoted. A fish CIG group composed of 46 male and 4 female members in Tanqua Abergele woreda, which is a project intervention woreda, reported that they use the Tekeze river hydroelectric dam for fishing. The CIG reported capturing an average of 4-20 or 5-10 kg of fish per day. The CIG was provided with an eight-centimetre net by the government. Members of the CIG also reported they sometimes use hooks in addition to the net. Fishing in the lake is not allowed between the months of July and November to allow reproduction.A fish cooperative established in Ofla woreda (a control woreda) captures fish from Lake Hashenge, using a 10 cm net. On average, they capture 15-20 fish per day. According to the participants, there are two fish production cooperatives in the woreda. To allow for reproduction, fishing is not allowed between the months of March and June. The CIG owns a refrigerator for storing fish and they do filleting and beheading to avoid spoiling before they sell the fish.The study found a group comprising 12 subsistence farmers (all men) who had organized themselves for fishery in Gozamen woreda. The group reported that inland fishing and aquaculture are practiced in their community. FGD participants in the area reported they use traditional traps and hooks while fishing in the local fresh water. Furthermore, it was reported that there were no reported rules and regulations for fishing in the nearby rivers. The aquaculture is described by participants as a new practice relative to capture fishing. It was reported that some households had started aquaculture in their backyards. These men harvested water in a pond for fish production, as shown in Figure 1. FGD participants reported that shortage of water was the main and constant challenge in running aquaculture activities. It was also reported that there were no storage, transportation and fish processing facilities in the woreda.Figure 1. Addis Ena Gulit kebele fishpondResults show that in Oromia, fishing was practiced in Dugda woreda only, a control woreda in East Showa. The fishing practice was inland fishery. The study found two fishing CIGs in the woreda. There were also more than 30 private businesses involved in fishery in the woreda with fishing capacity of up to 100 kg per day. The fishermen mostly use fishing gears like traditional traps, gillnets, and hooks. The dominant fish types captured in the area were locally known as Ambazza, Koroso, Dube and Jape.Although rules and regulations on fishing gear, mesh size, restriction on fishing season or fishing area, and requirements for permission for fishing are in place, enforcement has been weak. We found no fish storing and processing facilities in the surveyed woredas. However, it has been indicated that fishermen have been beheading, gaiting, filleting, and selling to private entrepreneurs immediately after the fish have been caught.The study did not find the practice of aquaculture in intervention or control woredas in the SNNPR.Fishing cooperatives that practiced inland capture fishery were found around Arbaminch Zuria woreda. These cooperatives are primary cooperatives which harvest fish from Lake Chamo using gillnets. In some cases, the cooperatives harvest fish using spears on the banks of the lake. The cooperatives produce only raw fish.Fishing was widespread in the survey woredas in Gambela. We found fishing was conducted in Lare woreda, where almost everyone in the kebele was somehow involved in fishing. Many people use wooden non-motorized boats to paddle to the centre of the reservoir and cast their net. Varieties of fishing gears such as fishing lines, gillnets and hooks were used. The average production for a given cooperative was 40-60 fish when there is no moon, whereas this number declines to 20-30 when there is full moon. There were no restrictions in the fishing area or time of fishing. In Lare woreda, fishing was mainly done on Baro rivershore and some small lakes. It was reported that fishing was more productive in the rainy seasons. There were no cooperatives, and fishing activities are regulated.Fish capture in Perbong Omanga kebele was practiced on Aliero river and in some small stable waters. There were no cooperatives or groups working together for fishing in the kebele. There was one communal boat that could carry up to five people with their fishing gear. Most fishers catch by standing on the shores of the river. The fishing mesh size commonly used can be as small as one or two centimetres. However, there was no restriction for any mesh size. The fishing gears used to catch fish are hooks, gillnets, fishing lines and a tool locally called 'Ankasie'. In addition, a locally made wooden barrel-like instrument was used to catch fish.Fish are transported in public buses, motorbikes and trucks and handed over to another group engaged in fish marketing. There are no proper storage facilities and fish are transported in a sack. At the local markets, the fish are displayed for sale on plastic mats. Processing (most of the time gaiting and cooking) is carried out by individual consumers, restaurants, or other fish retailers. There were no fish storage and processing facilities, and fish were sold fresh or dried. There was not much knowledge on running a fish business or on fish processing. There were people who transported fish on bicycles or motorbikes, but most people transport fish by carrying them on their backs.There were no fishing practices reported in the intervention households in Benishangul. We found fishing practiced in two of the three control Kebeles where fishing is done commonly by children, usually from rivers during the rainy season using hooks imported from Sudan. However, the fish business is not taken seriously, and productivity is low. There was no fish storage and processing facilities in the control woredas where fishing was practiced.The survey found cooperatives who practiced inland capture fishery in SNNPR, Tigray, Oromia and Gambela. Fishery cooperatives that were involved in capture fishery in Gambela were involved in dried or smoked fish production. The result of the survey showed an average production of 13,410.5 kg/year of dried or smoked fish from Gambela cooperatives and 47,232.14 kg/year average production of raw fish from capture fishery cooperatives in SNNPR, Tigray, Oromia and Gambela regions.7 Livestock market participation, household cash income, savings, and creditThe number of households who owned one of the livestock types assessed in this study and bought livestock during the survey year is given in Table 49. Of all surveyed households, 14% bought cattle, 8% sheep, 4% goats and 20% chicken. The proportion of households who bought livestock is similar between intervention and control households, except for poultry where the proportion is higher by about 6% for control households. Some differences in the proportion of households who bought livestock, especially chicken, were observed across regions. Table 50 presents the number of households who owned one of the livestock types assessed in this study and sold livestock and livestock products during the survey year. The results showed that about 43% of households sold cattle, close to the proportion of households who sold chicken (46%). About 39% and 17% of households sold sheep and goats, respectively. The proportion of households who sold eggs was very high at about 86%. As expected, the proportion who sold milk is low at 11%. The proportion of households who sold livestock and livestock products was similar between intervention and control households. The number of households who owned one of the livestock types assessed in this study, and sold livestock and livestock products, disaggregated by sex of the household head is given in table 52.There does not seem to be significant differences between male-and female-headed households. Table 53 presents results of the proportion of livestock products sold by producing households.Overall, about 68% of total eggs produced (local and improved) is sold. While similar proportion of total eggs was sold in Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and SNNPR (around 70%), lower proportions (about 30%) was sold in Benishangul and Gambela. Higher proportions of eggs from improved chicken seem to be sold by households than eggs from local chicken. Patterns of sales were similar between intervention and control households. Only about 11% of milk produced is sold by households, overall. Slightly higher proportion of milk seems to be sold in intervention than in control households, except in Benishangul and Gambela, which seems to be the opposite. Higher proportion of butter (40%) is sold than milk. The proportion of livestock products sold, disaggregated by sex of household head is given in Table 54. Female-headed households sold 76% of total eggs produced, while male-headed households sold 66%. This trend seems to hold in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia, while the opposite seems to be the case in the other regions. Similar proportion of eggs from improved chicken was sold by male-and female-headed households (71% and 74%). Improved chickens are reared mainly marketable eggs. However, higher proportion of eggs from local chicken is sold by female-headed households (69%) than male-headed households (58%). Milk sold seems to be higher in female-headed than in maleheaded households in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia, while the opposite seems to be true in Gambela. Higher proportion of butter was sold by female-headed than male-headed households in Tigray. Table 55 presents the amount of livestock products sold by intervention and control households.Overall, an average of 281 eggs per household was sold, with higher sales in control (315 eggs) than intervention households (264 eggs). The number of total eggs sold ranged from 46 eggs per household in Gambela to 377 eggs in Tigray. Among households who produce eggs from improved chickens, the average number of eggs sold per household was about 432 eggs. The highest number of improved eggs sold per household was observed in Amhara (about 543), followed by Oromia, Tigray and SNNP. Overall, larger number of eggs from improved chickens was sold in control households than in intervention households. Among those who produced local eggs, an average of 125 local eggs were sold per household.Overall, about 696 litres of milk was sold per household. The average amount of total milk sold per household ranged from 168 litres in Benishangul to about 1,493 litres in Tigray. Higher amount of total milk per household seems to be sold in intervention than in control households. This is particularly true in Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and SNNPR, perhaps indicating the appropriateness of the targeting of the LFSDP for dairy development. About 10kg of butter from local cows was sold per household, with slightly higher average in intervention than control households. Table 56 presents average livestock product sales per household, disaggregated by sex of household head. Female-headed households sold higher total eggs per household than male-headed household. This trend seems to hold in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia, while the opposite seems to be the case in SNNPR. Higher per household average of improved eggs also seem to be sold by femaleheaded than male-headed households, while number sold of local eggs showed no difference.Overall, female-headed households also sold higher amount of total milk per household (about 878 litres) than male-headed households (629 litres). This trend holds true in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia, while the opposite seems to hold in SNNPR. Higher average amount of butter seems to be sold by male-headed households. The average number of livestock sold per household among sellers is given in Table 57. On average, about 1.71 cattle is sold per seller, with similar figures for intervention and control households. The overall average of sheep sold was about three sheep per seller, with similar figures between intervention and control households. Similarly, an average of three goats were sold per seller. About four chickens were sold per seller, with differences between improved and local chickens. Five improved and four local chicken breeds were sold per seller. Table 58 presents the average number of livestock sold per seller, disaggregated by sex of household head. There were no differences in the number sold between male-and female-headed households, except for improved chicken, where female-headed households sold slightly higher numbers (7 versus 6). Household annual cash income earnings are given in Table 59. The overall cash income earning of households was ETB27, 224. The large standard deviation on the average cash income indicates wide difference in cash income earnings among households. The cash income earning ranges from ETB 23,875 in SNNPR to ETB33, 162 in Gambela. Numerically, the control households had higher cash income than intervention households, but the difference was statistically significant only in Oromia and Benishangul. The cash income structure of households is given in Table 60. Overall, cash income from nonlivestock on-farm activities seems to be the most important source of cash income, followed by livestock sales. Sales of livestock products and livestock businesses are the next most important sources, followed by wage employment. Numerically, livestock sales income was highest in Gambela, followed by Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and SNNPR, in that order. Income from sales of livestock product was highest in Tigray, followed by Amhara, Oromia and SNNPR. Non-livestock onfarm activities seem to be the most important sources of income in Oromia, followed by Amhara, and SNNPR. Businesses (such as small shops) do not seem to be very important for farmers as sources of cash income. The Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) was reported as a source of cash income only in the four major region (Amhara, Oromia, Tigray and SNNPR). The cash income structure of households seems to be similar between intervention and control households, except for non-livestock on-farm income in which the income in control households was higher by more than ETB3,000. This may be due to the fact that the LFSDP targeted woredas which have relatively higher potential in livestock production. Data was also collected on the number of households who earned income from the different sources. About 67% of households earned cash income from the sale of livestock (Table 61). The proportion was similar between intervention and control households. The proportion of households earning cash income from livestock sales ranged from 54% in Gambela to 73% in Amhara. The proportion of households who earned income from sales of livestock products is given in Table 62. About 62% of sample households earned cash income from this source, with similar proportions between control and intervention households ranging from 43% in Benishangul to 71% in Tigray. About 72% of sample households earned cash income from non-livestock on-farm activities, with similar proportion between intervention and control households (Table 63) ranging from 47% in Gambela to 86% in Oromia. About 15% of households reported wage employment as a source of their cash income (Table 64).The proportion was similar between intervention and control households ranging from 5% in Oromia to 42% in Tigray. About 19% of households earned cash income from businesses (small shops/trading) (Table 65), with similar proportion between intervention and control households. The proportion ranged from 12% in Amhara to 59% in Gambela. About 22% of households reported earning cash income from miscellaneous sources such as remittances, gifts and food aid, with similar proportion between intervention and control households (Table 66). The proportion ranged from 7% in Benishangul to 47% in Gambela. About 39% of households reported saving money during the survey period (Table 67). Overall, about 39% of households reported saving, with similar proportion in intervention and control households.Male-headed households seem to be more likely to save than female-headed households. Interestingly, similar proportion of youth-headed and adult-headed households saved money. The proportion who saved money ranged from 21% in Gambela to 64% in Tigray. Among those who saved money, the overall average annual saving was ETB 11,511 (Table 68). The amount saved ranged from ETB6, 241 in SNNPR to ETB19, 807 in Gambela. There is very wide gap in the amount of money saved. For example, the amount saved in Amhara ranged from as low as ETB120 to as high as ETB400,000. Similarly, the savings in Oromia region ranged from ETB 50 -300,000. The overall average amount saved was similar between intervention and control households. Savers used different saving modes (Table 69). About 48% of savers saved their money in banks, 26% saved in saving and credit groups and 22% saved in MFIs. About 13% reported saving at home and 10% saved in cooperatives and associations. The proportions of savers who saved in the different places were similar between intervention and control households. These results indicate that rural households are increasingly resorting to commercial banks to save money. The proportion of households who took out loans for livestock production is given in Table 70.Overall, only about 6% of households took out loans for livestock production during the survey year, showing the very low access to and use of credit services for livestock production. The low access to credit for livestock deserves special attention by credit service providers. Most credit services are short-term mainly meant to purchase variable inputs such as seeds and fertilizers. However, livestock requires longer term credit facilities aimed at promoting investment in livestock. There was no marked difference in the patter of loan taking between intervention and control households and between male-and female-headed households. However, there seems to be difference in credit access and use across regions, where Tigray and Amhara had higher proportions of households who took out loans. Interestingly, no household reported taking out loans for livestock production in Gambela.  Table 72 presents the average amount of credit taken by households for specific species. Among credit takers, the average amount of credit used for dairy was ETB 16,758, for cattle rearing ETB 10,430 and cattle fattening ETB 12,040. Interestingly, and perhaps as expected, higher amount was used for small ruminant fattening than for small ruminant rearing.We also found that female-headed households who took out loans for dairy, cattle rearing and cattle fattening took higher average amount of loan than male-headed households. No female-headed household took loan for small ruminant fattening. The proportion of households who sought extension services for the different commodities during the survey year is given in Table 73. Overall, about 30% of households reported contact with extension service providers seeking information on diary production. The proportion of households with extension contact for dairy ranged from 5.6% in Benishangul to 54% in Amhara. Benishangul and Gambela received the lowest extension service for dairy. We also found low extension contact for dairy in Oromia (about 12%). It might be useful to find out why there is low dairy extension contact in Oromia, Gambela and Benishangul. The lack of adequate extension services for livestock could be because of the focus given to crop production, implying that strengthening extension services for livestock and livestock product may be needed. Differences were observed in extension services sought for dairy in intervention and control households.About 28% of surveyed households also reported contacting extension service providers for cattle fattening, ranging from 10% in Gambela to 42% in Amhara. Similar to dairy services, Oromia, Gambela and Benishangul had the lowest extension contact for cattle fattening. About 19% of surveyed households reported contacting extension service providers seeking information on small ruminant rearing. This proportion ranged from 5% in Gambela to 36% in Amhara. Similar to dairy and cattle fattening, Oromia, Benishangul and Gambela had the lowest contact.In the survey, we differentiated between extension service for small ruminant rearing and small ruminant fattening. About 19% of surveyed households reported contacting extension service providers for small ruminant fattening, ranging from 8% in Gambela to 35% in Amhara. Oromia, SNNPR and Benishangul had lower contacts.Since there was no significant broiler production in the surveyed areas, extension contact for poultry was mainly for egg production. About 30% of surveyed households reported extension contact for egg production, ranging from 8% in Gambela to 58% in Tigray. Oromia and Gambela had low extension contact for egg production.Extension contact for fish production is very low, perhaps because of the small number of households involved in fish production. Overall, only about 2% of households reported seeking extension services for fish production.Fodder is an important feed source for livestock in the survey area. Extension service providers in the survey areas have been providing extension services to farmers on improved fodder production. We found that about 22.5% of surveyed households had extension contact for fodder, ranging from 2% in Gambela to 35% in Amhara and SNNPR. Oromia, Benishangul and Gambela had lower extension contact for fodder. The proportion of households with extension contact, disaggregated by sex of household head for dairy, cattle and small ruminants is given in Table 74. Numerically, the proportion of male-headed households with extension contact seem to be higher than for female-headed households. For example, in dairy, while about 32% of male-headed households had extension contact, only 26% of female-headed households reported contact. Similarly, for fattening, the proportion of male-headed households with extension contact is higher by about 9% than for female-headed households. Interestingly, for small ruminant production and fattening, the proportions having extension contact are similar for male-and female-headed households. The proportion of households with extension contact, disaggregated by sex of household head for egg, fish and fodder production are given in Table 75. Interestingly, higher proportion of maleheaded households had extension contact for poultry than female-headed households. About 20% of female-headed households reported extension contact for improved fodder production, which is similar to male-headed households. Extension service for fish was very low. We sought the opinion of the surveyed households that had contact with extension service providers on the timeliness and relevance of the services they received. Perceptions were sought in four-scale responses-very poor, poor, good and very good. There were no important differences in farmer perceptions by intervention and control households for all commodities. The responses for dairy extension are summarized in Table 76, disaggregated by sex of household head. About 40% of those who had extension contact rated the timeliness of the extension service for dairy as poor, 49% said it was good and 11% said it was very good. We found higher proportion of male-headed households rating the timeliness of extension for dairy as poor, and higher proportion of female-headed households rating the timeliness as good. Overall, about 40% of households that contacted extension service providers rated the relevance of the service as poor, 44% rated it as good and 17% as very good. Lower proportion of female-headed households rated relevance of dairy extension as poor than male-headed households. Concerns about the timeliness and relevance of the extension service seem to be highest in Oromia. Responses on farmer perceptions on timeliness and relevance of extension services for cattle fattening is summarized in Table 77. Overall, about 44% of households who had extension contact for cattle fattening rated the timeliness of the service as poor, 45% rated it as good and 11% said it was very good. Lower proportion of female-headed households rated timeliness of services as poor and higher proportion of female-headed households rated the timeliness as good. Regarding relevance, overall, about 42% rated the service as poor, 43% rated it as good and 15% rated it as very good. Similar to extension services for dairy, there seem to be important differences across regions, with higher concerns manifested in Oromia. Response of households with extension contact for small ruminant rearing is given in Table 78.Overall, 50% of respondents rated timeliness as poor, 38% said it is good and 12% said it's very good. Important differences across regions were observed for timeliness of extension services for small ruminant rearing. Regarding relevance, about 50% of households rated the service as poor, 37% rated it good and 13% very good. Slightly higher proportion of households rated the timeliness and relevance of the extension service for small ruminant rearing as poor, and higher proportion of female-headed households rated the service good. Responses of households on the timeliness and relevance of extension services for small ruminant fattening is summarized in Table 79. Overall, about 50% rated the service as poor, 38% rated it good and 12% rated it as very good. The proportion of male-headed households who rated the timeliness of the service poor is higher by 20% compared to female-headed households. As in the other commodities, important differences were observed across regions.Regarding relevance of extension service for small ruminant fattening, overall, about 51% of those with extension contact rated the service as poor, 36% rated it as good and 14% rated it as very good.Higher proportion of male-headed households rated the service poor than female-headed households. Table 80 presents results on the timeliness and relevance of extension services for egg production. Overall, about 43% rated the timeliness of the service as poor, 44% as good and 13% as very good. Slightly lower female-headed households rated the service as poor, with higher proportion of female-headed households rating the service good.Regarding relevance of extension service for egg production, overall, about 40% rated the service poor, 45% rated it good and 16% very good. The difference between female-and male-headed households was similar to their responses for timeliness of the service. Table 81 presents results on the timeliness and relevance of extension services for fish production. Overall, about 85% rated the timeliness as poor, 11% rated it good and 5% very good. The responses of male-and female-headed households were similar. The same picture holds for the relevance of the service. These results indicate the urgent need to improve extension services for fish in the fish producing areas. Perception of respondents on the timeliness and relevance of extension services for fodder production is summarized in Table 82. Overall, about 46% rated the timeliness as poor, 39% rated it good and 15% very good. Higher proportion of male-headed households rated the timelines as poor, while a higher proportion of female-headed households rated the timeliness as good. Regarding relevance, overall, about 44% rated the service poor, 41% rated it good and 16% very good. As with timeliness, higher proportion of male-headed households rated the relevance of the service poor, while a higher proportion of female-headed households rated it good. Overall, across the six regions, 66.5% of the respondents reported the availability of vaccination services, the highest availability being in Amhara and Tigray and the least in Gambela (Table 84).Various reasons were given for the unavailability, the major reason for Gambela respondents being vaccine shortage and unavailability of both vaccine sellers and vaccinators (Table 85). While cattle vaccination coverage is relatively better, with 32 to 80% of households getting their cattle vaccinated, the coverage of sheep and goat vaccination is very low (Table 85). The available vaccination services (vaccines for different diseases) and per cent of livestock keepers using cattle, goat and sheep vaccination services in the six regions are presented in Figure 2. Public and private veterinary services and services provided by NGOs, received the highest average satisfaction scores, which was calculated as the average of respondents scoring five and above out of 10 averaged over the four criteria of availability, accessibility, affordability, quality and timeliness of the services (Table 86). About 40% of the respondents scored five and above for the public veterinarians and NGOs, whereas only 22% scored five and above for extension agents, which provided the least service. Cattle diseasesDisease priorities were determined based on the frequency of respondents who reported to be affected by certain diseases. It must be noted that diseases reported here reflect the perceptions of respondents and in, most cases, have not been diagnosed properly. Diseases reported by respondents were grouped into five categories or disease complexes-respiratory, skin, gastrointestinal, external parasites, and systemic diseases. This helped to minimize bias due to misclassification, especially misdiagnosis of diseases.Overall, across regions, systemic diseases, respiratory diseases, and external parasites were the top ranked (Table 87). The top diseases across regions from the three important disease categories were black leg (systemic diseases), contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) (respiratory diseases) and ticks (external parasites).Regional importance of diseases varied slightly. Skin diseases were more important than external parasites in Oromia and Gambela. However, symptoms of skin diseases and effects of external parasites could be similar and classified differently by the respondents in the region. In Benishangul and Tigray, gastro-intestinal diseases were more important than external parasites. The top respiratory disease named was CBPP, reported by 36.2% of the respondents (among those who were affected by one or more of the diseases) and Pasteurellosis (30.7%). The other respiratory diseases were unspecified coughing and pneumonia, that were reported by 19.2% and 8.8% of respondents, respectively (Figure 5). There was some variation across the regions with Pasteurellosis being more important than CBPP in Tigray, Oromia, SNNPR and Benishangul. Among the systemic diseases (Figure 6), black leg, trypanosomiasis and anthrax were the top diseases and were reported by 38.6%, 24.5% and 17.6% of the respondents, respectively. The priority is similar across regions, except trypanosomiasis is by far the most important disease in Benishangul. Tick infestation is the most important external parasite in all regions, except Gambela (Figure 7).Figure 5. Households that reported respiratory diseases (among those affected by one or more of the diseases) (%) Figure 6. Households that reported systemic diseases (%) Overall across regions, 60.2% of the respondents reported that 0-15% of their cattle were affected by respiratory diseases, 88.0 by neurological diseases, 75.5% by skin diseases, 79.7% by gastrointestinal diseases, 71.4% by external parasites and 67.4% by systemic diseases (Table 88). However, the proportions of cattle affected could be as high as 76-99%, as reported by 4.5% to 60% of the households in the different regions. The proportion of cattle herds affected by the top three diseases (Pasteurellosis, black leg and tick infestation) as a percentage of respondents is shown in Figure 8.  The average cattle herd mortality rate due to diseases during the survey period was 7.5%. The highest and lowest mortality rates were in Benishangul (17.0%) and Amhara (3.0%). In order of importance, the most important killer disease categories across regions were gastro-intestinal, respiratory and systemic diseases (Table 89). However, the mortality rate due to gastro-intestinal diseases was inflated due to the extremely high mortality rate in Benishangul. The mortality rates due to the five top killer diseases are presented in Figure 9. Overall, across regions, gastro-intestinal (mainly parasites), respiratory and systemic diseases were priority disease categories in order of importance (Table 90). Regional importance of diseases varied slightly (Table 89). The top respiratory and gastro-intestinal diseases and proportions of households that reported them are shown in Figure 10 and Figure 11.Some of the disease syndromes mentioned by respondents (known by their local names like Koyoo in Figure 10) could not be assigned to any specific disease name. Based on their meaning and description of clinical signs provided by respondents, Koyoo was classified under respiratory diseases. Similarly, Allabati and abdominal fluid (Figure 11) were classified under gastro-intestinal diseases. Across regions, 75.4% of respondents reported at least 0-15% of their sheep were affected by respiratory diseases, 80.5% by neurological diseases, 61.7% by skin diseases, 78.0% by gastrointestinal diseases, 64.8% by external parasites and 63.8% by systemic diseases (Table 91). However, the proportions of sheep affected could be as high as 76-99%, as reported by 7.0-67.0% of the households in the different regions. The percentages of respondents reporting different proportions of their sheep affected by the top three respiratory and gastro-intestinal diseases are shown in Figure 12. Figure 12. Respondents estimates of the proportion of their flocks affected by the most frequently reported respiratory disease (mostly described as coughing) and gastro-intestinal diseasesThe average mortality rate across regions was 12.95% (Table 92). The highest and lowest mortality rates were in Benishangul and Gambela with rates of 33.45% and 3.07%, respectively. The major diseases causing high mortality rates were external parasites, gastro-intestinal diseases and neurological diseases with mortality rates of 27.4, 22.7 and 11.5%, respectively. However, there were some variations across regions in the fatality of diseases. For instance, respiratory diseases were the major causes of death in SNNPR. The top killer diseases from the three most important disease categories are shown in Figure 13.  The three most important goat disease categories were gastro-intestinal diseases (26.8%), respiratory diseases (26.5%) and skin diseases (15.6%). In Tigray and SNNPR, systemic diseases were also important (Table 93). The top priority respiratory, skin and gastro-intestinal diseases and the proportions of respondents who reported g the disease are shown in Figure 14. The average mortality rate across regions was 10.4% with the highest mortality rate in Benishangul (26.1%) and the lowest in Gambela (2.2%), SNNPR (2.9%) and Amhara (3.9%). The major diseases causing high mortality rates were gastro-intestinal, systemic and respiratory diseases (Table 95). However, there were some variations across regions in the fatality of diseases. For instance, neurological diseases in Oromia and skin diseases in Benishangul were the major causes of death.The top killer diseases were contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP), Pasteruellosis, unspecified pneumonia, liver fluke, diarrhoea, black leg and PPR). The importance of these diseases across the regions are shown in Figure 15. The major poultry disease identified were Newcastle disease reported by 45.7% of the respondents (Table 96). Other diseases reported by less than 10% of the respondents were Gumboro and Avian influenza. Results of household use of flooring materials, disaggregated by sex of household head are given in Table 100. Results show very similar trend in the use of flooring materials between male-and female-headed households. For example, proportion who used earth as flooring material for male and female households were 61% and 63%, respectively. The most prevalent wall material used by households was wood and mud (about 83% of households), followed by stone and mud, and wood and thatch (Table 101). Use of other wood materials is very low. Use of wall materials between male-and female-headed households was very similar.Table 102 presents results of the types of kitchen used by households. The most prevalent kitchen type used by households was a room with a traditional kitchen outside of the house (about 76% of households), followed by room with traditional kitchen inside the housing unit (about 17% of households). Use of other types of kitchens is very low. Use of kitchen type, disaggregated by sex of household head is given in Table 103. The survey found that use traditional kitchen inside the house is more prevalent among female-headed households (about 23%) than male-headed households (14%). Similarly, use of traditional kitchen outside the housing unit is less prevalent in female-headed households (68%) than male-headed households (79%). This may be reflecting safety concerns but needs to be verified. Regarding type of toilet used, overall, about 76% of households used pit latrine, followed by forest/fields/open space, which was used by about 18% of households (Table 104). Use of other type of latrines is very low. There are important differences in the type of toilet used across regions. In Gambela, pit latrines are the least used and forests/fields/open spaces are the most used relative to other regions. Summary of the types of cooking ovens used by households is given in Table 106. About 65% of households used traditional removable ovens, followed by traditional non-removable ovens (22%).Only about 4% of households used improved energy saving ovens which are the product of rural technology centres. Electric ovens are used by only 1% of households. There are important differences in the type of ovens used across regions. In Tigray, for example, less than 1% used removable traditional ovens, while 48-94% used this type of oven in the other regions. Nonremovable traditional ovens are the most prevalent in Tigray. Improved energy saving ovens seem to be more popular in Amhara (used by about 19%), followed by Tigray and Oromia. No household reported using improved energy saving ovens in SNNPR and Gambela. It is interesting to note that about 4% of households in Benishangul and SNNPR, and about 45% in Gambela responded no use of any type of ovens. The types of ovens used were similar by sex of household heads. Above 90% of households reported having no place in their dwelling or compound where they can wash their hands (Table 107). Only about 2% reported having hand washing places in their dwelling and 6% in their compound. The pattern between male-and female-headed households is similar, except in Benishangul, where having hand washing place in the house was not reported in femaleheaded households while about 9% reported availability in male-headed households. Households use of variety of waste disposal mechanisms is shown in Table 108. Overall, about 40% of households use wastes as fertilizer and 29% dispose waste in dug out places. About 22% reported that they threw away wastes. There are differences across regions in the method of waste disposal. For example, disposal in dug out places seems to be higher in Benishangul, Gambela and Tigray, while throwing away seems to be higher in Gambela and Oromia. Use of waste as fertilizer is more prevalent in SNNPR, Oromia and Amhara. Burning wastes was reported by a higher proportion of households in Amhara. The pattern in waste disposal methods was similar between male-and female-headed households.Table 111 presents the proportion of households who own one or more buildings other than their residence. Overall, about 10% reported owning additional buildings. The pattern was similar between male-and female-headed households. There seem to be some difference across regions.For example, about 33% of respondents in Gambela responded owning additional buildings, while the proportion in all other regions was 11% or below. The types of light energy sources used by households are presented in Table 112. About 30% of households reported using electric power, which shows progress in access to electric energy. Similarly, about 36% reported using solar energy, again showing the spread of solar energy infrastructure in rural areas. Solar energy seems to be more prevalent in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia, followed by Benishangul and SNNPR.The minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W) is a population-level indicator of diet diversity validated for women aged 15-49 years old. The MDD-W is a dichotomous indicator based on 10 food groups and is considered the standard for measuring population-level dietary diversity in women of reproductive age. According to the MDD-W, women who have consumed at least 5 of the 10 possible food groups are considered as women who achieved minimum dietary diversity.The mean women's dietary diversity score (WDDS) for the sample was 2.87 food groups as presented in Table 114 which is higher in Gambela (3.40) followed by Oromia (3.11) and Benishangul (3.09). The percentage of women of reproductive age (WRA) who achieved minimum dietary diversity was 12%. This group is more likely to have higher (more adequate) micronutrient intake than the 88% of women who did not meet the minimum dietary diversity. Overall, mean MDD-W was very low. MDD-W for Oromia was relatively high (17.3), followed by Benishangul (13.3 %) which is presented in Table 115. The highest milk intake was found in Oromia, with 53.2% reporting milk consumption, followed by SNNPR (47.2%) and Gambela (46.7). Meat fish and poultry were consumed in 56.7% of households in Gambela, which was attributed to high fish consumption especially in the intervention woreda of Abobbo (76.7%). Egg was consumed by 16.9% of the households in Oromia, which was a higher proportion compared to other regions (Table 116). The baseline study of the Livestock and Fisheries Sector Development Project (LFSDP) included household level surveys and community level qualitative studies. The qualitative study used focus group discussions (FGD) with common interest groups (CIG) and other community members, as well as key informant interviews (KII) with community leaders, agricultural experts and development agents. The qualitative studies were conducted in all the selected kebeles in which the baseline survey was conducted, with the hope that the results of the qualitative study would complement the quantitative household survey results. Separate teams were deployed to conduct the qualitative study. Each qualitative study team was trained on the qualitative study approaches and the specific information items on which information was to be collected using FDG guides and KII checklists.This qualitative study primarily focused on the CIGs organized by the LFSDP. Each CIG was organized for a specific commodity from the main commodities identified, i.e. dairy, poultry, small ruminant fattening or fish production. No CIG member was organized in more than one CIG. The qualitative study focused on getting an understanding of the current status of the organized groups in terms of their prior experience in producing the commodity, market-oriented enterprise related with the commodity, the organization of the CIG, and other related issues. The qualitative study also collected information on challenges that the CIGs were facing in developing market-oriented enterprises and services that were available to support the development of the commodities. Specifically, the qualitative study collected information on availability and status of milk collection centres, feed supply, breed supply, output markets (distance to markets, buyers, market infrastructure), animal health services and credit services for livestock.This report presents a synthesis of the findings of the qualitative study by region in order to highlight the specific situations in each region and capture the differences across regions. It is hoped that each regional PCU will use the synthesis in each region to guide interventions by identifying major challenges and priority intervention requirements.In Tigray, the qualitative study was conducted in four woredas and 12 kebeles (six treatment and six control). In the six treatment kebeles, focus group discussion were conducted with CIG members organized for poultry, small ruminant fattening and fish production. In the control kebeles, focus group discussions were conducted with mixed farmer groups.About 75% of the CIG members reported that they had prior experience in the production and marketing of the priority livestock commodities they are currently organized for. This shows that there is already some level of experience in the production and marketing of the commodities which the LFSDP can build on. However, the participants identified a number of challenges that they think affect the development of the commodities.Regarding poultry production, the perceived challenges included shortage of land for poultry production, weak poultry health services, poor technical training on improved poultry production technologies and practices and unreliable output market linkages. The land issue was a major policy concern for the groups mainly because of the time it took to acquire land for poultry production and the bureaucratic red tape they were confronted with in processing their application for land. CIG members were particularly concerned about poultry disease outbreaks and weak responses from health service providers. The unreliable output market linkages were mainly expressed in view of the potential higher volume of products the CIG groups will be producing.Regarding small ruminant rearing and fattening, the perceived challenges included poor availability of animal feed and high cost; absence of timely, cost effective and reliable animal health services; shortage of water for animals; and difficulties in acquiring land for the enterprise. CIG members expressed the need to have appropriately sheltered barns for the animals. When it comes to small ruminants, CIG members were not concerned about markets, perhaps because of the high demand for small ruminants in the study areas.Regarding fish production, CIG members reported that their priority concerns included absence of extension service for fish production, dependency on natural water bodies which were frequently contaminated with chemicals from nearby farmlands, lack of storage and transportation facilities, poor supply of fishing gears and dwindling fish population in natural water bodies. These results combined indicate that promotion of aquaculture in artificial water bodies may be the way to go.Milk collection centres were not widely available in the study areas. A few milk collection services owned by private businesses and farmer cooperatives collected milk from producers. However, the capacity of the available milk collection centres was very low. Very few had cooling tanks, forcing them to resort to informal milk marketing, selling milk directly to consumers and institutional buyers.Poultry CIG members reported that they faced serious shortage of poultry feed. They reported that they feed their chicken a mix of wheat shorts and some manufactured feed. For chicken more than 45 days old, however, they feed the chicken with wheat shorts and grinded crop grains like maize and pulses. In addition, participants noted that the chicken are let to scavenge on whatever they could find in the backyard. Participants noted that there were no feed processors in the area and high price of manufactured feed whenever it was available was a major concern.Small ruminant CIG groups noted that they mostly resort to communal grazing and browsing lands as source of feed for their animals. The grazing lands were used as open grazing resources and were degraded through time. Communal grazing lands are diminishing due to conversion of grazing lands into cultivated land and residential sites. Browsing resources also became scarce due to deforestation. Crop residues were widely used as feed for small ruminants although the amount available was below requirements. Use of cultivated forage was also very limited. Participants in the study area reported that they did not use manufactured feed due to high prices, and that industrial by-products were not available. CIG members engaged in fishery reported that they did not provide any feed to the fish.Livestock feed formulation from local resources was also limited in the study area although there were some signs of emerging feed formulation practices. Poultry CIG members reported that women sometimes mix different crops with wheat brans to feed chicken. Participants that were engaged in small ruminant production reported that they mix hay and straw with residue from traditional alcoholic drinks to feed the animals. Participants reported that in the past, the government used to provide them with manufactured feed as part of aid programs, but this was no longer available.Regarding improved breed supply, poultry CIGs reported that improved poultry breeds (chicks and pullet (egg-laying types) were available in the market and were widely adopted in the community.On the other hand, those engaged in small ruminant fattening reported that there was no improved sheep or goats (crossbred) supply. Fishery groups reported that they were not aware of any improved fish breeds.Poultry CIG members in some of the study kebeles indicated availability of veterinary health service in their surroundings. Participants also mentioned the availability of a private veterinary pharmacy in some of the kebeles with higher price but good quality. Those who were engaged in small ruminant CIG indicated that there was no animal health clinic in their surroundings and they had to travel to livestock health services located in nearby areas. Some CIGs reported that they were visited by government veterinarians on a regular basis. Most common concern reported by CIGs of small ruminants was the poor quality of drugs and poor timing of the veterinary services. All fishery CIGs reported they didn't receive any veterinary services.Regarding credit services, the study found an interesting result among Muslims who reported that they don't take credit due to their religious beliefs which prohibit paying interest for loans. This result indicates that special credit facilities may be needed for Muslims to enable them to take credit for livestock enterprises. It is conceivable that this situation could be the same among Muslims in other regions. Some participants reported that credit services were contingent upon household savings in the Dedebit Credit and Saving Institute (DECSI). The high interest rate of up to 18% was cited as a major bottleneck to take loans.Regarding output markets, poultry CIG members reported selling their chicken and eggs to consumers or traders. They often don't sell egg-laying chicken unless they faced financial difficulties. Egg prices were reported to be ETB3-5 per egg depending on the season, and chicken prices were reported to be ETB150-300 per chicken also depending on the season. Fasting periods were major determinants of egg and bird prices. Some poultry CIG members reported that they walked for about 90 minutes to output markets. The markets were open marketplaces with no shelter or feeding and watering facilities.Small ruminant CIG members reported an average walking distance to markets of about two hours, mostly located in woreda towns. Selling prices for goats ranged from ETB1500-3000 depending on the condition of the goats and the season of selling. Small ruminants were sold to consumers or traders. No cooperative was involved in small ruminant marketing. As in poultry, small ruminant markets were open marketplaces with no shelter or feeding and watering facilities. Fish were sold to consumers or cooperatives mostly at fishing sites (near the water bodies). Fish price of about ETB80 per kilogram was reported.In Amhara, the qualitative study was conducted in 11 woredas and 33 kebeles (21 treatment and 12 control). In the 21 treatment kebeles, FGDs were conducted with CIG members organized in poultry, dairy, small ruminant, cattle and fish groups. In the 12 control kebeles, a total of 12 FGDs with mixed group members were conducted.More than two-thirds of the CIG members reported having prior experience in the production and marketing of the identified livestock enterprises. This shows that the LFSDP should be able to build on this local knowledge and experience in promoting the market-oriented livestock enterprises into which the CIG groups are organized. CIGs identified several perceived challenges they are facing in relation to the livestock enterprises.The major challenges mentioned included lack of enough start-up capital to start business in the production and marketing of dairy, poultry, small ruminants and cattle fattening. This challenge was compounded by lack of credit sources with reasonable interest rates and suitable terms. It was reported that the only credit source available in the region was the Amhara Saving and Credit Institution (ASCI) which was inaccessible to most farmers due to a high interest rate, and tight and firm collateral requirements.CIG members also raised lack of improved breeds for dairy, poultry and small ruminants as one of the most important barriers to improve livestock productivity. This was particularly so for small ruminants for which no improved breed supply was available. Inaccessibility of adequate and effective animal health services at the right time and place for all livestock species was also reported as a major concern by CIG members.Shortage of feed both in quantity and quality (natural fodders, crop residues, manufactured feed and industrial by-products) was also identified as one of the most serious problem to develop the livestock sub-sector. In general, limited availability of communal grazing lands and poor productivity of the grazing lands due to degradation as a result of open and free grazing practices exacerbated the feed shortage problem. Planted fodder were not widely practiced due to shortage of seeds for improved fodder varieties and poor extension services to promote improved fodder. Furthermore, the supply of manufactured feed was limited due to the limited number of feed processors. Industrial by-products were relatively better in terms of availability but high prices hindered farmers from using them.According to respondents, traditional livestock management practices render livestock productivity low. This indicates the need to build farmer capacity in improved livestock management technologies and practices. Promoting modern livestock technologies is an area that the extension service needs to give better attention to. Limited and ineffective artificial insemination services was a major concern of producers in their effort to adopt improved livestock breeds.Only three milk collection cooperatives were encountered in the study areas. The milk collection centres are limited in their capacity to collect milk from producers and collect mainly from their members. CIG members reported that the lack of milk collection services forces them to resort to the informal market, selling milk mostly directly to consumers. The major problem milk producers reported was lack of market during fasting periods in a predominantly Christian population. Markets for animal feeds were reported to be very thin. Most of the market was for natural fodder, with limited supply of agro-industrial by-products. Manufactured feed was rarely available and high prices deterred farmers from using them.Improved poultry breeds (layer and dual-purpose types) were being supplied by the woreda offices of agriculture. However, CIG members reported that the chicks were usually not vaccinated and death rates were very high, sometimes as high as 50%. According to respondents, the supply of improved dairy breeds was severely limited. The very high price of crossbreeds makes them inaccessible to farmers who were willing to invest in dairy business. No supply of improved goat or sheep breeds was reported. Farmer efforts to improve their breed stock was severely weakened by the weak, ineffective inaccessible AI services.Livestock markets were available in local markets and woreda towns. Generally, respondents did not report access to markets as a major problem. However, they reported that market prices were distorted often by brokers which hinder direct negotiation between sellers and buyers. Livestock markets were open marketplaces with no shelter or feeding and watering facilities for animals.Almost all CIG members reported that the community used private veterinary clinics, pubic veterinarians and government livestock extension agents for animal health services. In relation to quality of the public health service, except for few government animal health services providers, most of them were reported as poor in quality. Particularly, participants found reliability, timeliness, and accessibility of services unsatisfactory. Furthermore, the majority of participants noted that inconsistent supply of drugs, limited number of working days per week, lack of basic professional knowledge and skills on the part of the health professionals were major problems. Although private animal health service providers were reported as better service providers, high service costs deter farmers from using them.The only source of credit services in the study area was the Amhara Credit and Saving Institution (ACSI). CIG members reported that access to loans from ACSI was beset by collateral requirements, high interest rate and unfavourable terms for livestock production. Most credit was short-term while investment in livestock requires longer term loans. Interest rates ranged between 18-19%.In Oromia, the qualitative survey was conducted in 48 kebeles (30 treatment and 18 control). In the treatment kebeles, 40 FGDs were conducted with CIG members organized in poultry, dairy, small ruminant, cattle and fish groups. In the 18 control kebeles a total of 18 FGDs with mixed group members was conducted.More than two-thirds of the CIG members reported having prior experience in the production and marketing of the priority commodities they were organized into. Most CIG members reported interest in being involved in market-oriented livestock production. This shows that the LFSDP has the opportunity to build on existing local knowledge and experience in promoting the livestock commodities.The major perceived challenges in developing the commodities as discussed by members of the CIGs in most treatment woredas could be categorized into two-challenges related to starting the business and challenges specific to the commodities.The major perceived challenges in developing the commodities, as reported by CIG members irrespective of the commodity into which they were organized, were related to what the participants thought as \"inappropriate organization of the CIG members\", lack of a common plots of land, access to initial capital to develop the commodity, implementation gaps in responsible government and NGO agencies, and doubts on the sustainability of the project. Majority of the CIGs in most of the treatment woredas indicated difficulty to work together as a common interest group (CIG) as they were organized from distant places in the kebeles and most of them were not familiar with each other. CIG members noted that this may create difficulties in team management. This concern indicates the need to build trust among CIG members, which should be an important focus for the LFSDP. Another challenge commonly reported by the CIGs was related to the lack of land to develop the commodities and lack of access to initial capital to start the business they have been organized into. Associated to this was the lack of access to credit services and related challenges like bureaucratic processes of credit provision in the woredas. Implementation gaps existing in responsible government and non-government agencies resulted in delays of projects and poor implementation. Poor follow up from responsible public bodies was also perceived by the CIGs as a challenge in developing the commodities.For those CIGs organized for poultry production, the major perceived challenges were lack of access to improved breeds of chicks, frequent outbreak of New Castle disease (locally called 'Fengel'), poor health services, shortage of feeds, lack of experience in developing improved breeds of chicks, inadequate sheltering and exposure to preying animals and lack of market linkage for the commodity. Although there were attempts to supply improved chicks (mostly egg-laying types) by the Livestock and Fishery Resource Development Agency and some NGOs in some of the woredas, coverage was limited. Some CIGs reported that there were times when farmers in some woredas lost all of their chickens to New Castle disease due to its communicable nature and lack of effective health services. Shortage of drugs and vaccines, and untimely health services, exacerbate the problem. Shortage of poultry feeds was also reported as an important challenge.For those CIGs organized for fattening of small ruminants, the major perceived challenges reported were shortage of forage and water, poor health services, frequently occurring diseases, unfavourable climate condition for the commodity, lack of experience in modern fattening and market related problems. Shortage of natural fodders, high prices of manufactured feeds and industrial by-products was also reported as important concern. The shortage of natural fodders resulted from shortage of grazing land mostly because of conversion of grazing lands into farmlands and residential sites. Drought was also mentioned as an important factor for feed shortage. Another perceived challenge was lack of experience in modern fattening techniques. The majority of CIG members rear sheep and goats in grazing-based and quantity focused traditional methods. Hence, the CIG members indicated that they needed training in modern fattening practices. Another challenge in developing the commodity in most of the treatment woredas had poor health services for the animals.Among those organized for dairy production, the major perceived challenges reported were shortage of supply of improved dairy breeds and high (unaffordable) prices of crossbred cows, shortage of fodder and water, periodic droughts, lack of access to and unaffordable prices of manufactured feeds and industrial by-products in markets, poor health services and periodic diseases outbreaks. Lack of experience of CIGs in managing improved dairy breeds was also raised as an important challenge, suggesting intervention to build farmer capacity in modern dairy production and animal management. Conversion of grazing lands into cultivated land, low productivity of crops and the ensuing low availability of crop residues limit availability of natural fodder. Promotion of cultivated fodder was strongly recommended by CIG members. CIG members were very vocal about the insufficient, ineffective and inaccessible animal health services. Respondents also indicated that mobile milk collection services could alleviate their milk marketing challenges.The qualitative study encountered only one milk collection centre established by an NGO, which also does mobile milk collection. In some of the study areas (e.g. Haramaya and Metta woredas of East Hararghe zone), participants reported that there was a long practice of pooling milk by women in neighbouring villages in a self-organized association and supplying milk to market turn by turn to avoid everyone travelling to markets with small volume of milk and to increase their bargaining power. The study also found one milk collection centre in Debrelibanos woreda which was not functional.In all of the treatment and control woredas, common natural fodders for small ruminants and dairy cows supplied in the market were grasses, hay and straw and crop residues like wheat, Barley, Teff, Sorghum and Maize. In woredas of East Showa, West Showa, North Showa and Southwest Showa, 'atela', a by-product of homemade beverages was mixed with straws and residues of crops to feed small ruminants and dairy cows. In Dinsho woreda, potatoes (boiled and cooled mixed with crop residue and water) were used to feed cows and small ruminants. In Haramaya and Metta woredas of East Hararghe zone, a residue of 'Khat' was also used as a forage for small ruminants. As discussed so far in perceived challenges, there was shortage of these fodders in all the study areas because of shortage of grazing land resulting from conversion into farms and degradation due to free and uncontrolled grazing. Periodic droughts were also reported as an important factor causing shortage of natural fodder. There were attempts to produce some improved fodders like oats, elephant grass, and Desho grass by a very small proportion of farmers. Lack or shortage of seeds for improved forage, shortage of land and weak technical support were reported as important concerns of farmers to grow improved fodder widely. No feed processing firm was encountered in the study area. Hence, the supply of manufactured feed and agro-industrial by-products was also very limited and expensive, limiting access of farmers.Regarding improved breed supply, participants reported that there was no supply of improved breeds of chicks (both egg-laying and broilers) and improved dairy breeds by government agencies in the study areas. However, there were limited private suppliers of improved breeds. The price of improved dairy heifers was reported to be especially very high for farmers at ETB30,000 per heifer.The only exception the study found was in Debrelibanos woreda, where there was relatively better supply of improved dairy breeds. Farmers reported that they crossbred local dairy cows with hybrid bulls in their community. AI services were reported to be of limited coverage and quite ineffective.In the case of poultry enterprises, although there was no supply of improved breeds of chicks from the government, farmers were buying improved breeds, mostly egg-laying ones, from Adelle poultry farm located in Haromaya town. In Bacho woreda, there was good supply of hybrid chicks by Ethiochicken with affordable prices. No supply of improved breeds of goats and sheep was encountered in the study area.The output markets for the priority commodities in the study areas were located mostly in woreda towns, ranging from half an hour to four hours walk from the kebeles. Marketplaces for cattle and small ruminants were fenced open marketplaces with no shades, and no feeding and watering facilities. Dairy producers reported that they sell their milk in informal markets, selling directly to consumers or institutional buyers in the absence of milk collection centres. The only exception was Debrelibanos woreda where there was mobile milk collection in the kebeles.With regard to animal health services, respondents reported that most animal health clinics were located at woreda towns, with a few at kebele level. It was also reported that public animal health centres were not providing adequate, timely and reliable health services mainly as a result of distance from the kebeles as most centres were located in the woreda towns, shortage or inaccessibility of professionals, and shortage of drugs and professionals' poor commitment. In some kebeles, one animal health personnel was assigned per kebele. In others, one professional was assigned to serve three adjacent kebeles as a cluster. It was also reported that in most of the woredas the veterinary professionals opened their own private clinics and were not usually available in the public health centres. Farmers reported that they mostly resort to private clinics as they were more accessible in times of needs, although the services were more expensive than in public animal health centres. In most of the treatment woredas, poultry producers reported serious concerns with regards to the frequent outbreak of New Castle disease and the poor health service for the disease. Vaccination for chicken was very limited and untimely; most treatments were given after the outbreak of the disease.Regarding credit supply, the major supplier of loans for agriculture was the Oromia Saving and Credit Association (OSCA). A few other credit service providers also provided loans to farmers. Respondents complained about the high interest rate, which stood at about 17-21%. The terms of credit include agreement of both husband and wife to take the credit, initial saving of certain per cent of the credit amount, registering assets for collateral and agreement to return the credit within a year in three instalments for most of the sources. All of these requirements limit farmer access to loans, especially for livestock enterprises. Credit access was also limited among Muslims because of the religious belief that forbids paying interest for loans.In SNNPR, the qualitative baseline survey was conducted in 9 woredas and 27 kebeles. Out of nine woredas, six were treatment/intervention woredas while the remaining three were control woredas.In the six treatment woredas, 24 FGDs were conducted with CIG members organized in poultry, dairy, small ruminant, cattle and fish groups. In the three control woredas, a total of nine FGDs were conducted with mixed groups.Nearly all CIG members reported that they had prior experience in the production and marketing of the priority commodities. This situation indicates that the LFSDP should be able to build on available local knowledge and experience to promote the priority commodities.The major animal health related challenges in the production and marketing of the priority commodities included shortage of drugs in animal health centres and poor public animal health services. Epidemics that could eradicate poultry flock due to lack of vaccination and adequate medication for epidemic outbreaks mostly after rainy seasons was identified as a leading cause for loss of poultry flock.Lack of shelter for animals, difficulty and the bureaucratic process in acquiring land for animal enterprises, especially for poultry, were also identified as major concerns. Long distance from the kebeles to output markets, lack of market facilities to supply the commodity to markets (for example, egg box to transport eggs, suitable trucks to transport fattened live animals, etc.) was also reported as persistent challenges. CIG members also reported lack of electric power to cool and preserve milk as a concern. Lack of milk collection centres and milk and meat processing facilities were also reported as factors hindering improvement of livestock productivity to increase income.Shortage of feed-natural fodders, manufactured feed and industrial by-products-was identified as one of the most serious problem to develop livestock. Communal grazing pastures are diminishing due to land scarcity and conversion into cultivated lands. Shortage of seeds for improved fodder varieties limit farmer capacity to cultivate fodder. Scarcity of land to grow improved fodder was persistent in the community. In addition, due to absence of animal feed processors, manufactured feed was not available. Industrial by-products were available but high prices limit access. Scarcity of water for livestock, particularly in the months of February, March, April and May was noted as a major problem.There was only one milk collection centre in the study area in Misrak Badewacho woreda owned by a private investor. Moderate supply of natural fodder in the market was reported in the study area. Natural fodder, including Desho, elephant grass, alfalfa, crop straws and residues, and hay were marketed, although with very limited supply especially during the dry season. Improved forage seeds and scarcity of land to produce them are limiting factors for supply. Industrial by-products, including wheat brans and molasses were available although high priced. It was reported that wheat brans were sold for ETB10 per kilogram and molasses could cost as high as ETB30 per kilogram. Producers reported that they feed animals with local brewery grains. No feed processing firms were encountered in the study area and hence no manufactured feed supply, according to participants.Regarding improved breed supply, improved chicks (egg-laying and dual purpose) were available widely primarily supplied by private farms. A dual-purpose chick was sold for ETB70-80 per head. The woreda offices of agriculture were also reported as suppliers of improved chicks to farmers, although with inconsistent supply. Improved dairy breeds were also available in the study area at ETB25,000-30,000 for a Jersey and ETB15,000-18,000 for crossbred Holsten breed. In some areas, improved diary breed heifers could sell for up to ETB50,000-80,000, mostly in woreda towns. Unlike in other regions, CIG members in the SNNP region reported that improved breeds for small ruminants were available, although not widely adopted.Fattened cattle and small ruminants were sold mostly in woreda towns. It was reported that oftentimes one market in a woreda serves several neighbouring woredas. Zonal markets were sometimes used to sell fattened animals. These results indicate that market distance was a major concern for fatteners. Poultry markets often tend to be available in local or woreda markets. Markets were usually open marketplaces with no shelter or feeding/watering facilities for farmers. No milk collection centres or livestock product processing facilities were encountered in the study area.Regarding animal health services, public and private animal health services were mostly available for the communities. In kebeles where animal health services were not available, farmers use services from neighbouring kebeles or woreda animal health centres. Some participants reported a far lower access to animal health services due to absence of animal health workers in their kebele, where one animal health worker serves between two or three kebeles. Those participants facing such circumstance rated the reliability of the service very low while those who had easy access have a more positive feedback on reliability of services. Shortage of drugs was unanimously noted as the major problem in public centres, whereas the private animal health centres were positively rated in their stock of drugs, although at much higher prices. Participants reported better affordability and quality of drugs in public animal health centres, while accessibility and quality of service was better in private centres.Regarding credit services, the Omo Microfinance Organization (OMO) provided loans widely in the study area. In one woreda called Meskan, in addition to OMO, the rural job creation program at the woreda was noted as a source of credit for livestock production. Similarly, in Misrak Badewachew woreda, Vision Microfinance was also reported as source of credit. The terms and condition of OMO for credit, as stated by participants, include 10% deposit of the amount of the credit to be taken, interest rates ranging from 7-10 % per year with a loan maturity period of 1-2 years. Interestingly, a farmer union in Weyra woread was reported to provide loan for individual farmers.In Benishangul Gumuz, the qualitative survey was conducted in three woredas and nine kebeles (six treatment and three control). Less than half of the CIG members reported having prior experience in the production and marketing of the priority commodities. This is unlike other regions where more than two-thirds of CIG members reported having prior experience with the commodities. This result indicates that more concerted effort may be needed to promote the priority commodities in the region.Perceived challenges related to the priority commodities CIG members reported unavailability of dairy type animals that are suitable to the local climate.Given the hot climate in the area, participants were uncertain about whether crossbred heifers would be suitable in the area. Participants noted that improved local dairy type animals may be preferable. Limited market opportunities for dairy products was also mentioned as a concern. Lack of experience and skills in dairy production was another concern of the CIGs. Lack of proper storage facilities and spoilage of milk due to the hot weather was another issue. Shortage of water, high prevalence of water-borne diseases and poor animal health services contribute to low productivity. According to participants, CIG group management and harmonious working relationships would be a concern since members were not very familiar with each other. Shortage of start-up capital and weak credit services hinder farmers from engaging in dairy businesses.According to participants, livestock fattening is mostly based on stall feeding. Shortage of feed and water were major concerns in fattening and fetching fodder and water was said to be too labour intensive. Lack of prior experience in modern fattening practices deserves attention. Unlike in other regions, risk of theft of animals from barns was mentioned as a concern.Participants indicated frequent outbreaks of animal diseases that kill many animals at once. Participants also reported lack of qualified veterinarians, and untimely availability of health services as concerns. Diseases were more prevalent when feed was scarce, usually in the dry periods.There were no milk collection centres in the study area. Milk is stored in a traditional storage with ensuing loss due to spoilage. Predominant sources of animal feed in the study area were grass, hay and crop residues. Indigenous fodder trees were widely available. Oil cake from farmers who produce oil mainly in Assosa woreda was also available in limited amount. Participants mentioned that the supply of wheat bran was also limited. Some manufactured feed was reportedly being smuggled from Sudan.According to participants, there was very limited supply of improved animal breeds (dairy or small ruminants). Weak and ineffective AI services was another factor hindering farm efforts to improve their breeds. The supply of improved chicken was reportedly better although still limited compared to the demand from farmers.Milk was sold to restaurants, cafes and individual consumers in the woreda towns and regional capital. Sometimes milk was sold to workers in investment firms. Milk spoilage was common due to the hot climate. Producers reported their plan to establish market linkage with large hotels in Assosa and other firms around the woreda in the future. Participants reported that there was generally plenty of market opportunity.Livestock markets seemed much more underdeveloped in Benishangul compared to other regions. Participants reported that they were forced to travel for up to 80 km to markets. Some abattoirs exist in the study area, although they have low slaughtering capacity per day (reportedly 18 heads of cattle per day). No livestock product processing facilities were encountered.Animal health posts were available in the kebeles, with one health worker per health post in most cases. The health posts mainly focus on preventive measures to prevent animal disease epidemics. Mass vaccinations were conducted when disease outbreaks were suspected. However, drugs were in scarce supply.CIG members reported that they were aware of credit service availability in the woredas. However, they did not have clarity on the requirements (eligibility criteria) to access loans, the terms of repayment (duration) and interest rate. This shows farmers did not use loans, suggesting that efforts are needed to promote credit services among farmers. A few respondents complained about the lengthy process they have to go through to get loans, the collateral requirements that don't suit their situation and the short-term nature of the loans. Loans, whenever available, were usually provided to groups.The qualitative survey in Gambela was conducted in two woredas and six kebeles (three treatment and three control). As in Benishangul Gumuz region, less than half of the CIG members reported having prior experience in the production and marketing of the priority commodities. This shows that concerted efforts will be needed to promote the priority market-oriented commodities among farmers in the region.The fishery CIG members reported as their most serious concern the lack of access to market, lack of appropriate fish transport services to markets, absence of a cold chain system and market promotion, absence of proper boats (the boats are very primitive, wooden and not motorized), lack of swimming suit, lack of appropriate clothing to protect them from the cold at night, and lack of appropriate protection from mosquitoes. Other challenges raised were distance of the fishing resource form the villages and lack of enough water that could enable fish reproduction close to the kebele. It was also reported that some youth refused to be organized in fishery CIGs because they could not see the possibility of market-oriented fishing in their kebele. They reported that they would rather be engaged in small ruminant or cattle fattening, which they thought would be easier to succeed. However, if the major challenges for fishing were to be alleviated, the youth reported they would be interested in engaging in the fishing business as well. Promoting aquaculture in the region may alleviate some of these challenges.There were no milk collection centres nor milk processing services in the study area. Milk was sold to milk retailers or directly to consumers in town. There was no deliberate practice of feeding fish. All fishing is inland fishery and no aquaculture practice was reported. Fodder and water to cattle and small ruminants were available in abundance. Many types of indigenous grasses and fodder trees were widely available. Crop residues of corn and sorghum are also found in abundance. Some level of scarcity of natural fodder was reported in the dry seasons. There was potential for hay preparation since there was excess grass but there was no practice of hay making. Improved fodder crops and trees, industrial by-products that can be used for animal feed and manufactured feeds were not known. Although corn was widely produced, there was no practice of collecting stovers. This may indicate the need to promote using stovers as animal feed. Use of industrial by-products (oilcakes and wheat bran production) were reportedly not practiced.There was no supply of fingerlings; fish reproduce naturally in the water bodies. Similarly, there was no knowledge of improved breed supply of cattle, small ruminant and chicken. Only local breeds were used. Farmers did not have information where improved breeds could be purchased. Farmers reported that they had information that crossbred Holstein cows were available in the town of Gambela. Interestingly, respondents indicated that higher productivity dairy cows became available when the Sudan pastoralists migrated to the area for grazing. These cattle were bigger in size and produce more milk than the locals. Many people keep the Fellata goats by purchasing from the Sudanese, which were also bigger than the locals. There were no improved chicks and pullets supply to farmers and respondents did not know where they could find them.Fish were sold in the towns of Abobo and Gambela. Fish were also sold in other towns when demand in these towns drop. Fish was transported on bicycles and motorbikes. There was no delineated fish marketplace and fish were sold either door to door or to potential purchasers. Sometimes fish for sale were displayed under plastic tents. The primary buyers of fish were individual consumers and restaurants in the towns. It was reported that Abobo was about 10 km and Gambela about 55 km away from the fishing places. Although the roads leading to towns are gravel roads, bus transport from Abobo to Gambela was available year-round. The road from the kebeles to Abobo was accessible only by bicycles and motorbikes.There were no processing services for all animal products. Milk was only cooked for consumption in cafes and households. The only processing carried out for fish was drying.","tokenCount":"22884"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a7b47d57cd1a030deccf5af3c0ec96ec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a0d76d87-0c88-496f-a9c9-bef7e87bc74b/retrieve","id":"-1779324120"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"18712c4e-6fde-4098-89b1-7f2142aeff77","pagecount":"16","content":"Scheme, Sri Lanka, and the dam complet& in 1963, left banks of the Walawe River. For various reasons, implementation stretched far beyond the planned three yeam, and the left bank syst never completed, Costs mushroomed, and from the beginning, them were numerous problems with the performance of the right bank system. bank was not considered completed until 1979, with a COrrrmMded ( necessarily irrigated) area of about 11,500 hectares (ha). k e I . the severity of the problems is that Embilipitiya Block at the system, with 15 percent of the total area, is estimated to use the water,The Walawe Scheme (see Figure 1) was initiated in 1959,Two main canals were built on the right and About a thin3 of the right bank area is not irrigated.In 1982, manadfement responsibility for the system was turned over to MBA, and in 1984 an Asian Development Bank-financed rehabilitati jeat . was initiated on the right bank. entire right bank is being redesigned and reconstructed, field and distributary channels will be redesigned, with their capacities, layout, and structures. Direct off will be eliminated and replaced by parallel field channels, both new and recol?h.rtructed, will have a capacity of one cusec ( 28.3 liters/second) for one to 15 ha, and redesigned pipe outlets will be provided to all allotments (farms), Under the rehabilitation program,i the In particular, the Fielddmnnels,In order to test and demonstrate these design assumptions, a pilot fie& channel, FC number one on D channel number one of the Moraketiya b r m h oanal, Embilipitiya Block, was rehabilitated according to the new design criteria in early 1986, on the advice of the consultants, W , installed flumes for measuring water deliveries to individual allotments, which they monitored from time to time.The present study is based on periodic observations during and yalaX 1987, primarily by a research assistant from the IIMI, wider the supervision of a social scientiqt on the staff. behavior, farmers' perceptions of the changed FC, and field level officials' behavior and perceptions. These observations are intended 't-0 supphmrmt t water measurements, and to assist in further decision making regarding the strategy for implementing the rehabilitation projeot. The conclusion, though not surprising, is i m p o r t a n t for long-term sustainability of irrigation Its focus iei on the famisw' 8 . system improvements. The title uf%tAat It was reviewed by the recognized-the significance of the main findings of the draft report, and agreed that physical rehabilitation by itself could be counter productive unless supported by proper institutional changes. also recognized that it would be essential for more attention to be given to institutional factors at.the farm level, and in this regard officials should be considered as much a target group as farmers, was also noted that the one cusec flow design for a field c -1 accomn&te all m e m e n t problems as perceived by design engineers w s too facile an assumption, and that appropriate institutional involveptent, at the field channel level should be given important consideration.€t; w a s , ' Despite the support of the Consultative Camnittee, the paper has scnuewhat controversial within the Mahaweli koncnuic Agency (MEA). tdthough MEA officials have not officially provided camnnents and corrections, one of its consultants has provided very detailed comments. also discussed the first draft with the authors, and lent support to its findings. In addition, there have been a few charges on the pilot field channel since the original draft. There are 15 allotments on the FC, each approximately one ha, but exhibiting some variation in size (see Figure 2 ) . The upper half of the FC follow a contour, while the lower half runs straight dawn an incline, necessitating a number of drop structures. Before reconstruction, the gate at the head of the FC was missing, and the FC was drawing an esthted 1.5-2.0 cxwees (42.8-56.6 liters/second) continuously when the distributary w a s flowing, now, because of a leaky gate at the head of the distributary, there is aLwayg some water in it, and this FC is able to capture most of this flow.According to the rehabilitation design guidelines, the FC should supply water to 3 to 15 ha and have a capacity of one cusec, but be able to opera%e. at plus or minus 25 percent of design capacity. Based on this, the following physical rehabilitation was done on the pilot FC: new farm outlet structures were constructed, and damaged drop structures were repaired (see Figure 2; from the head to point \"A\" all the outleks were newly built, and the existing drop structures from point \"A'' to the tail [ \"B\"] were repaired) ; necessary earthwork was completed, and the cana.1 capacity reduced to about 1.2 cusecs (34 liters/second); a gate w a s fixed at the turnout, and the pipe under the road was changed from 1.5 feet (0.46 meter) in diameter to 1 foot (0.3 meter); and measuring devices were fixed at the FC turnout, and since this -'apilot project, MMP installed six temporary flumes on farm outlets at the head end to monitor the actual issues made to the allotments.Fhbilipitiya Block consumes much more water than the tail end blacks af the right bank (RB) main canal, The rehabilitation program therefore emphasizes improving water use efficiency on the upper reach of the cumand area of the RB =in canal in order to save water for use elsewhere. This includes introducing new operating procedures on the pilot FC, Indeed, the new designs are b e d on the assumption that there will be new operating procedures, particularly rotations of (and on) FCs.The following schedule of rotational water issues was introduced on FC-1 for the maha 86/87 season:1) for land preparation -continuous water issue for two weeks (but rotation between the 7-8 farmers at the head during the first week, and 7-8 farmers at the tail the second week);2 ) from the 3rd week to the 8th week -six days per week (three days for head stream farmers, three dsys for tail enders, one day closed); and from the 9th week to the end of the season, 4.5 days water issue,pr week (two &ys head stream and two days tail end, the balance half a day allowed for any farmer who needs water).It is imporat to note the fundamental behavioral change that is assumed: farmers m e to shift from a practice requiring no rotations -simultaneous irrigation along the whole FC -to a system in which they m t rotate since only half the FC outlets can draw water at any given time, even during the land preparation period, and the water supply to the FC is considerably 4 -from what it was before the rehabi1itation.l3 )The farmers, accustomed as they were to \"over-irrigating\" their fields, expected reconstruction of their defective drop structures, but not the &her changes such as the reduced canal capacity, introduction of rotational water distribution, and repair of the FC turnout gate. With the exception of four farmers at the head end, the others say they oppoae the reduction of c d capacity and introduction of the new rotation procedure, Seventy-five percent (9 out of 12) of the farmers pointed out that they face more irrigation difficulties under the present rehabilitated system than they had experienced in the pre-rehabilitation period. gave were :The reasons they 1 ) before rehabilitation, there was no F'C gate, and the pipe under the road w&s 1 . 5 feet (0.46 meter) in diameter, so they had plenty af water without rotation. Due to rehabilitation, this system changed, and immediate effect was reduction of supply;the canal capacity w a s reduced by the rehabilitation program, and the present quantity of water issued to the canal is not adequate to feed the entire area; and2 )3 )tail-end allotments were able to use seepage water in t;he prerehabilitation period due to excess water in the FC.were used to overirrigating their allotments, and excess water flowed to the adjoining allotments. But after rehabilitation, because of the limited capacity in the canal, head enders overirrigate their fields less than before, and therefore tail enders lost the seepage water.From the fammrs' point of view, some problems which were not addressed, the fifth allotment (allotment no. 1277) from the head has two pipe outlets of the same size. other allotments in the FC.also create distribution problems under the new system.They are:The extent of the allotment is the same as This farmer points out that due to . improper l m l l i ~ of the allotment, the entire area cannot be irrigated from one farm outlet. this particular farmer now has the opportunity to use excess water. They suggest that two smaller pipes would be appropriate. seen as a hindrance to equal water distribution (see Figure 2 ) .Allotment no. 1318 must get water for part of his allotment from a small canal through the adjoining allotment (no. 1278). Befome rehabilitation these two farmers had two separate pipe outlets.after resurveying for the rehabilitation, the farm outlet of allotment no. 1318 was included in the adjoining field. Therefore, the allo%numk no. 1318 farmer can take water only with his neighbor's permission.During the first season after rehabilitation, they shared water mutually, but later the 1278 farmer objected. to the officers concerned, but action was not taken until mentky Figure 2).*But the other tail-end farmers point out that Serious water distribution problems arose during land prepara-ki maha 1986/87. The FC is designed for rotational water issues. eight allotments (58n be provided with water at a time, not the entire area 863 before, but farmers are used to starting land preparation of the entire area at the same time. complete their land preparation work, Though they get somewhat delayed in ploughing, they like to irrigate their fields with all the other adjoinh&3 farmrs. This has proven a hindrance to the new water distribution procedure, separately; during the 15 day continuous rotation period, 7.5 days 1 Continuously for head-end farmem and the balance 7.5 days for tail enders for completion of initial land preparation work. But farmers did not like this practice. 15 days continuous flow was allowed for all the farmers to start their land preparation work at once. They do not like to wait for irrigation while the others It was scheduled to provide water to two portions of the FC Therefore, the official procedure could not be practiced, and But due to their inability to operate a rotation, both officials and the When the head-en& farmem' outlets fanners found it difficult to achieve equal distribution. inadequate for all to take water at once. are open, the flow to the tail is inadequate. version of this paper, Beadle notes that this is no different than before. He goes on to say that farmers are free to operate the FC with or without rotations, He says, further:There is no nded (in theory) for t.opend farmers to take water continuougly for more than 3-4 days to completely flood their lots.planned water allocation, in weeks one and two in theory, considembly oversupplies the demand, The The experience of this season suggests the necessity of rotation, given the reduced supply to the E. of institutional mechanism to do it effectively, and in this case, to see that the head enders do not take so much that others are deprived, The above quotation implies mother major behavioral change: though it is und&kdy . true that fanners do not need water for m o r e than a few days to f i d %heir allotment, the farmers in this M: have become accustomed to continuous flow into their fields. necessary change is certainly understandable, and requires special efforts to overcome.Their resistance to what may be aWe met the Block J!lakager in the Embilipitiya Block who was in charge Q this area in the 1986 yala season, the year of conmencement of the pklot project, He told us that the same problem arose in 1986 yala, and farmers sought other alternatives from him. Therefore, he had changed the plan of operation by increasing the volume of water to 1.26 cusecs and operaking days per week, allowing all the farmers to begin land preparation simultaneously. This of course is a reversion to the previous paatice.a Not only in the land preparation period, but also afterwards, distribution problexm were serious due to lack of farmers' coopemti operating the prescribed schedule. was 4.5 days weekly rotation. Two days were allowed to the seven head-end farmers to open their outlets, and the balance two days were allowed for the remaining farmers. needed water. .But the farmers were not ready to amept this rotation, leading to unequal water distribution. headstream farmers were reluctant to close their outlets. This was clear to observers, and both the irrigation engineer and the agricultural officer responsible for farmer organizations agreed that whenever they visited the field during the water issues rotation for tail enders, at least two to three headstream outlets had not been closed, The schedule of water issues for the rsrop As described above, a half day was for any farmer whoTo solve this distribution problem, the irrigation engineer (TE) of the Embilipitiya Block recommended two alternatives: 1) . to fix concrete or iron lids to close the outlets of the headstream farmers and lock them during the period of water issue to the tail cradlers; or through farmer pwticiption for achieving equal water distribution (formation of 'water user groups) the head-end farmers must be educated to cooperate in the operation of scheduled water distribution rotation.2 )The IE noted that the first alternative is impossible and unsuitable for improvement of system management. expensive and iwpracticable.Beadle also notes this solution is FARMERS' -IONS AND S W X B T E ) S0LUI\"IW Except for three farmers at the extreme head end, the other 12 farmers of the M= believe that all these distribution problems were created by the rehabilitation program. They said, to quote one:We had more than sufficient water before rehabilitation of this canal, No FC gates, once in two or three days and strengthen the weak points of the field bun& and go home. This so-called rehabilitation has created all these problems. we have to visit the field almost every day.No rotations. What we had to do was just, visit the field No farmer closed our outlets, because all hait water.The very narrow FC cannot carry sufficient water, so a rotation had to be introduced, but as the farmers are not used to water i.suues, this system is not accepted by them. They made the following nuggestions:1 )The a n a l capacity must be increased and without staggering ail the farmers must be allowed to start their land prepaxation at once. rotation should be operated during land preparation.Given the existence of the new FC, MEA irrigation officials must intervene in the operation of rotations. farm outlets which should be closed according to the scheduled ratatiun.Otherwise, there will be conflicts among farmers. For example, t h e tail-end farmers told us that the outlet of 1277 at the hed w a s supp~sed to be closed during one rotation, but was not closed, and therefore tail-end farmers had to close the outlet. threatened these three farmers for closing his outlet. They pointed out that if an officer intervened, no farmer would go against the'officer. (Beadle notes there are not enough field assistants now, and wonders whether farmers would pay for another person; but as part of a process of assisting farmers to shift to a new mode of operation, perhaps the existing field assistant could do this.) They must came and close the This fanner had ,The field level officials understand that the long-term practice of excessive water use by the Bnbilipitiya farmers is a matter which should be examined properly in the introduction of measures for system improvement, Officials realize that farmer suggestions to alter the designed canal capacity cannot be accepted. d change the long term practice of over-consunption of water.What is needed is to improve system management One approach that has been suggested is to form water user groups (WUGs) in order to obtain farmer participation for system improvement, 1986/87 maha season, some initiatives were taken by MEA. participation of the 15 farmers of the pilot FC, a WUO was formed and a farmer representative (F'R) w88 appointed.Unfortunately, fm our observations, the objectives of the ww3 were not achieved satisfmtorily. Was that he would help the wC;ta members described above, no equal distribution of water could be @uaranteed.The main expectation of MEA officials from the,m -Ual ShEWin$ Of water, but a#The E'R was not able to operate the scheduled rotation, and in faat, did not actually get involved in equal water distribution. operated by 811 irrigator appointed by the MEA, and internal distribution w a s a matter for farmers, In our frequent field visits, we had oppwtxmities to observe how the rotation was operated. On these visits, w e observed while the E'R m ~8 in the field, head-end farmers were disturbing rotation. Therefore tail-end and head-end farmers had very frequent conflicts over water distribution. The FR became discouraged and resigned his position before the end of the season, because despite his efforts, he was unable to satisfy either the tail-end or the head-end faxmers.The WUC failed to develop as a self-reliant organization.The FC gate w&5 three times with the leadership of the agricultural officer in change of formation of WUGs. The WUG itself could not organize any meeting. end of the maha season, the WUG completely disappeared, but with the involvement of the unit mmager, it was reformed later with a new While farmer participation in water management was lacking, the At ttm involvement of field officials in water management of the pilot project w&5 also not satisfactory from the farmers' point of view, The tail-end fwmers expected the officials to intervene in order to achieve equal water distribution, but the field assistant visited this FC only omasionally, arad those visits had no significant impact according to the farmers, WATER MANA(3\"TThis section analyzes only the differenoes in the water distribution and water management problems from & 1986/87 described in the previous section. the required quantity of water, weeks after sowing. protect the crop that due to the present water crisis, water quantity will be redwed and even branch canals will be rotated. The pilot project was also affected seriously try this decision.Due to severe drought, MEA officials found it difficult to supplyThe problem was aggravated two to ithree Tkre O&M Division of MEA took every possible action to Over a loudspeakerp the O&M division informed the farmers A rotation was operated as follows:for land prepration, there was no separate rotation operated on the pilot FC this season. the I The distributary was opened every otheb day of this same rotation was effective for FC-1.For the crop, due to the above mentioned water crisis, the Moraketiya branch @anal cuad Fridays. week.kept open for five days, but it was closed on Thursdap The distributary was kept open only for 2.6 days every ~~W E W S ' and Officials' Irrigation Behavior tailer the New Rotatioh During land preparation, all the farmers in the FC started their activities at the same time. tail, the tail enders got late. six allotments in the head stream could the tail enders finish sowing.However, because of the inadequate flows to the Only after completion of sowing by the firstThe serious problems started after the 2.5 day rotations came into operation. One day w&s allowed for the seven headstream farmers and the next day was for the tail enders, with a half day for any farmer who needed water. But during this yala, this half day was in fact allowed for tail enders by the head-end fanners. insufficient. However, 2.5 day period On other hand, because of minor dama@le to the distributary head.gate, water leaked into the distributary, even when the gate was closed. TO use this water, the pilot FC head-end farmers damaged the FC gate, so they were able to use this water almost every day except Thursdays and Fridays when the canal was closed. project, we saw that the nuts and bolts were removed and were cm the imn plate fixed to the top of the gate. the season.) (On 14 June 1987, then we visited the pilot This was not repaired until the end of WUG Activities during Yala 1987As described above, at the end of the maha 1986/87 seasat, the ww3But with the involvement of' the unit manager they Though this group w a s re-formed,After the first meeting with the unit The new FR who resided in the fields saw the completely disappeared. met once again and appointed another FR. there were again no activities. effort to improve water distribution. manager, they never met again. damage to the FC gate but did not inform any MEA officers.The W was not cleaned, there w a s no major premise underlying the present approach to the rehabilitation of the Walawe Scheme is that the primary reason for p~i\" swtem performance is the dilapidated condition of the system. Therefore, improving the physical system is the key to improved performance. take second place to the major investment in physical improvements.There is no doubt that physical improvements are needed. However, ourFrom our observations, it would appear observations of the pilot field channel suggest that the basic premise of the project may not be entirely correct,, that the fundamental problems are behavioral, a.nd not just physical. is, changes in the behavior of both the farmers and the officials (which together form an integrated social system), and the associated values and expectations, as well as physical upgrading, are required if the performance of the Walawe Scheme is going to be improved.If changes ape made only n the PhYsi~J. system, these changes themselves will almost certainly be modified by the farmers, so that the system operat-in a way that fits their expectations better; this may undermine attempts to achieve the rehabilitation project objectives, observed the begbias of this process already in the pilot M=. of behavior has been observed in other systems in Sri Lanka, for example, Tank Irrigation Modernization Project (TIME') and System H; and in the Philippines' ~pper pampanga River Integrated Irrigation system (W~IS),In the m e of the pilot FC, the pmblem was compounded a b w ; factors: the f -r s were apparently not consulted in detail about the rehabilitation plans and their implications before the work was done, they were surprised at w h a t they got; and as will be true throughout muah af the head reaches of FCs, the agency is deliberately trying to reduce their water supply, an act not likely to be received favorably by farmers, hemever necessary it may be in the interests of the larger system, So Upgrading the physical system, by itself, is therefore unlikely to lead One can to the expected iarprovements in performance, especially where the water supply is being reduced, and is unlikely to be accepted by farmers. anticipate that under these circumstances, the return on the very heavy investment will be lower tha.n anticipated.It is important to address these issues head-on, and take very stronlq I actions in implementing the rest of the project, project\" is to learn lessons, and these lessons should be leamad and responded to. large quantities of water, it will be necessary to take strong actions to modify their expectations and behavior, in a way that will not be too custly to them. This will require proper incentives, positive and negative -a \"carrot and stick\" approach -and a long-tern effort.The purpose of at\"pi1ot Given that head enders have become so accustd to using On the positive incentive side, we remmmend the following measures:MEA needs to make a serious effort to organize WUGs, which will require a much greater level of effort and of commitment from tap management than is presently available, resources (especially human) will be required. examine the functions of its field level staff and its management philosophy as part of such an effort, to ensure these are supportive of the effort. It will be important to devolve authority as well as responsibility to WUGs, and federate them into larger responsible bodies, as has often been recomndd (see, for example, IIMI 1986; MerreY and Bulankulame 1987).As part of the effort to promote effective w, it will be important to develop closer relationships between farmers and field level staff, provide training to both, and provide improved incentives and controls for field level staff performance.MEA would need to re-10 3As part of the design and reconstruction process, it is essential that there be a process of collaboration and negotiation with fanners regarding the proposed changes.what is planned, and should have an opportunity to make suggestians within the parameters of the overall design.The farmers should be fully infoof 4 )MEA needs t o take steps to ensure that it can guarantee the required supply of water. prerequisite for getting farmers to accept a rotation program, especially when there will be no significant water surplus delivered.On the other side of the coin, MEA ne& to take action to ensure that This is a necessary (though not sufficient)it is in a position to enforce in a firm, certain, arrd em4mnded manner, with operation of the system, and to act against violators of the rules, including acting as a guarantor of the rules for maintenance and nhtation on Ks.behavior of lower and middle level field staff. reorientation of MEA's own management style and reexamination of its relationships w i t h farmers. be passive recipients of \"benefits\"?In particular, MEA would have to work hard to redwe interferenceTo do this would require considerable changes in present ptterns of This, in turn, may requixw Are farmers responsible clients, or are they toWe recognize that major changes in legislation and policy, as certain local sociopolitical conditions, would also be necessary in run.However, even in the present circumstances, we believe MEA could do more to negotiate a more cmwt-ive relationship with fariners, assure a specific and adequate water supp~l more responsive to farmers' needs and wishes, and obtain their support and assistance in enforcement of clearly understood and fair rules. rehabilitation project provides an excellent opportunity for this.These are beyond MEA's control.Clearly MEA faces a great challenge in trying to improve the performance of a system whose problems have complicated historical roots.problems are primarily behavioral -the physical problems are surface manifestations, symptoms of deeper problems -it is essential to analyze the real problems, and address these. As is true when a doctor treats a patient, it is important to reduce serious symptoms, but it is also essential to come to a proper diagnosis and cure the underlying illness. . 14","tokenCount":"4461"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f6c1058af440d3ce6de4b38e0c1d2657","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f8d9a675-3d2d-4244-8182-663392e14eec/retrieve","id":"218365289"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3b75a4f5-453f-4f6f-8bb7-0c15fbf7b0aa","pagecount":"2","content":"Description of the innovation: 1. Map various components of different government programs and policies with the component of climate smart agriculture. 2. Map government budget allocation for various programs as well as on the climate smart component of the program. 3. Review impact case studies of climate smart components to quantify their implications on adaptation to climate change and mitigation of GHG emission from agriculture sector. 4. Estimate government budget allocation on adaptation and mitigation New Innovation: No This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:32 (GMT+0)Stage of innovation: Stage 3: available/ ready for uptake (AV) Geographic Scope: Regional Number of individual improved lines/varieties: <Not Applicable>• Southern AsiaWe have adopted that framework to review existing policies of government of India and published one journal article on this. This framework has been adopted by the government of Bhutan to prepare their agricultural stategies. • National/state level decision-makers are being supported in developing CSA investment portfolios for international climate finance providers that meet funding requirements and are informed by CCAFS science; decision-makers being made aware of 'good enough' enabling policy elements required and barriers to be reduced to support CSA at scale (linked to CoA 1.3 activities)• National/state institutions continue enacting food/nutrition-related policies that plan for climate change and consider local priorities. CCAFS analyses inform selection criteria for eligibility of climate financing through global processes where USD 150 million new investments are allocated on that basis","tokenCount":"234"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/8147439101.json b/data/part_3/8147439101.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f338d0502987b9902ccaf74df91216a8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d5c60953-fd6f-49fc-976f-bee20075de52/retrieve","id":"-530544606"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"35b75c9a-996a-4f31-967d-89399e1cbce3","pagecount":"12","content":"Many ex situ conservation facilities exist around the world (227 in Latin America and the Caribbean alone according to FAO, Anonymous 1998), with different activities because of differences in their mandates. Since its agreement with the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of 16 October 2006, the genebank operated by the Genetic Resources Program of CIAT has mandate to distribute samples of genetic resources of beans, cassava and tropical forages, according to norms defined by the countries in the Governing Body (Anonymous 2001). Along these norms, the distribution is for purposes of conservation, direct utilization, agricultural research, plant breeding and education. And since CIAT genebank has been formally established in 1978, the distribution has been quantitatively important: as seed samples the bean collection has been distributed more than eight times, and the forage and cassava collections have been distributed about four times each (Gaijy & Debouck 2008). The distribution has implied almost the entire collections, since almost every accession has been distributed at least once. Distribution is thus the raison d' être behind the operations carried out for these collections, with different implications such as availability, physiological, phytosanitary, genetic quality, and proper documentation. As detailed elsewhere, the documentation refers to all properties of any accession kept in the genebank but also to all operations that have been performed on any particular accession throughout its handling and conservation in the genebank in order to ensure its availability. The purpose of this note is to briefly describe the reasons behind a series of complex operations and their sequence (Figure 1).As seed viability erodes with time, and since for many tropical species, seed behaviour under conservation is still largely unknown, it is preferable to check seed viability periodically. Given the large number of wild species kept by CIAT genebank, it was decided to follow an experimental approach and to check viability on year 0, that is just after multiplication or regeneration, and then after five years, in contrast with the norm for genebanks (Anonymous 1994). Each sample is called back for a viability check by the Seed Viability Lab. The testing is done on a single accession basis, not at random across accessions harvested in the same conditions, because of observed variations between accessions (also as noted by Ford-Lloyd & Jackson 1986). After five years of storage, dormancy if it was present at the first check in the weeks following harvest, is gone (Baskin & Baskin 2001). If the two readings at years 0 and 5 coincide with a viability higher than 85%, then the next testing can be done ten years later (at year 15; so, 0; 5; 15; 25; 35; 45), thus saving some seeds for additional future testing. If there are reasons to suspect a relatively fast seed deterioration, then seed viability can be tested at ten years, or every five years (so, 0; 5; 10; 15; 20; 25). Since the seeds for testing are expensive to produce, and likely not to be used, unless the seed stocks for distribution are dangerously low, by this way a compromise is found; as experience is gained on the different species, sampling could even be further delayed -every fifteen years, but it has been defined on an experimental basis. One should note that the seed for viability testing has to be produced, and thus the amounts of seed for at least six testing trials should be separated from the mass of seed separated for distribution and conservation. One should also note that the seed for viability testing is from the same seed lot, also reserved for conservation and distribution. By operating this way, there is no need to implement additional separate seed testing but the mainstream one (see Figure 1), and one knows how seed physiological quality evolves across the different samples if they are kept in the same conditions.Third, there should be continuity in the service and its quality: a particular accession requested one year should be the same if requested twenty years afterwards. One should note further that along Art. 12.3.g of the International Treaty (Anonymous 2001) it is obligation for germplasm providers to maintain available any germplasm that has been registered into the Multilateral System. Given the size of the collections at CIAT, this means that there is the possibility to maintain viability, health and genetic integrity of samples over long periods of time (also for cost implications; Koo et al. 2004). The size of the collections and complexity of operations would dictate a time baseline of twenty-five years. This practically means that once all operations are completely done for a particular accession there would be no reasons to get back to it -apart from servicing the periodical checking of seed viability and possible distribution, from preexisting samples to these purposes -within the twenty-five years to come. This practically means also that all needs of seed for a particular accession should be secured once for all and for that duration. There is thus less need to put the collection back to the field to maintain it alive or to be able to offer an extra service (or if so, it will be only for few materials, and that will be possible, because there will be time for it). The quality service in delivery of germplasm implies thus a series of operations that should be carried out under high standard of quality. For efficiency reasons such operations are not carried out at random but organized along a sequential flow (Figure 1); other genebanks follow similar sequenced operations (Kameswara Rao et al. 2006).As the mandate is a worldwide service of germplasm distribution, requests may come from users of any country, and since CIAT genebank does not know in advance which samples may be required at any time in a given year, thus one seed stock should be reserved for distribution. As stated above, the size of the seed stock reserved for distribution could theoretically be fixed by the study of the distribution record over the past twenty years. Normally, it should not be lower than 3-4 samples ready for distribution at any time. In fact, from the moment that one seed stock is reserved for distribution, this means automatically three seed stocks: distribution, conservation, and seed viability monitoring. The seed stock reserved for conservation (hereafter named base sample) is the one aimed at the regeneration of the accession when seed viability is dropping below the threshold of 85% (Anonymous 1994), or when the seed stock reserved for distribution is exhausted. The threshold of 85% has been fixed towards the high side in order to maintain the genetic make-up of any particular accession and to buffer the drift to the extent possible.For safety reasons the size of the base sample should be at least twice the amount of seeds needed for a standard regeneration. So, if the first regeneration fails, there is still another amount of at least the same size and genetic quality to do the regeneration, drawing lessons from the first attempt. The three seed stocks are coming from the same seed lot, so that they have been given exactly the same treatment along all operations. So, the monitoring of seed viability actually measures the physiological status of the seed stocks kept for conservation and for distribution. It is therefore important that the seed stocks kept for conservation and distribution (and for testing seed viability as well) are maintained all under the same conservation conditions.Because it is good practice in genebank operations to make safety backups, one additional seed stock (or two, if there are two safety backup copies) will be prepared precisely for that purpose. In addition, because it does not cost much (but the preparation of another bag and the cost of the pouch), another seed stock will be prepared for the country of origin of the accession, in case this country requires the accession. So, five conservation purposes are considered. As indicated above, and because there are not enough human, financial, and physical resources to implement two monitoring systems of seed viability, the five seed stocks are made from the same seed lot. As expected, the seed stocks for safety backups and for the country of origin (often named 'repatriation') will be leaving the genebank at some date; yet, the genebank will be able to monitor indirectly their physiological quality, and to replace them if viability (tested over time on the same original seed lot) drops below the standard threshold.The rationale for five conservation purposes (i.e. base for conservation, seed viability monitoring, distribution, safety backups, and country of origin) is also dictated by the nature of the biological materials. Beans, being landraces or wild Phaseolus species, cassava and wild Manihot species (as botanic seeds), and tropical forages, are all producers of either low amounts of seed, or large but delayed or erratic amounts of seed. One reason is that all these genetic materials are raw genetic resources that have not yet been much selected by farmers nor improved by breeders for increased or stabilized yield. If the complexities and the costs are in planting and maintenance of the materials in the field in order to obtain their flowering and seed setting after many months or many years, then all amounts of seeds required for the five conservation purposes should be secured if possible in a single production cycle.Securing the production of all seeds for the five conservation purposes for a good period of time (say, twenty or twenty-five years) in a single step is important from different perspectives. First, a single production cycle should help to reduce genetic drift within the accession (Figure 2). In a single accession in a given multiplication site, not all plants will produce equal amounts of seeds; some plants will produce more, others less, and thus they will contribute differently through their progenies to the genetic make-up of the accession into the next generation. This drift can be slowed down by reducing the number of multiplication cycles. One can anticipate that the drift will be low if the multiplication site is very close to the ecology of the original site, so that all plants within an accession have chance to produce something. Second, a single production time if well managed should limit risks of disease infections. The more frequent are plantings in the field to increase the amounts of seeds, the higher are the risks of infection by diseases of quarantine importance. This is simply because a multiplication site will anyway select for the pathogens that will preferentially attack the accessions of the crop under multiplication. As we have just seen, choosing the ecology of the multiplication site very close to that prevailing at the original site may favour pathogens that have co-evolved with the crop (e.g. rust or anthracnose in common bean). Third, a single production time if well managed should limit risks of genetic contamination by flow of pollens from other conspecific accessions planted nearby. Fourth, limiting the number of multiplication cycles contributes to lower the costs involved in all operations related to field work, harvesting, fruit threshing, seed cleaning and drying. If the genebank can obtain net progress, that is to produce all seeds needed for all purposes for the longest period possible, then it will have time to tackle other accessions in the waiting line in need for regeneration or first multiplication.Given the size of the collections, CIAT genebank cannot operate well if the bottom time line is not a period of twenty or twenty-five years (longer if possible). Processing well throughout all operations (Figure 1) 3,000 to 4,000 accessions yearly means a period of ten to fifteen years for a first round through the entire collection. A way-out is surely not to plant the collection very often to maintain it alive. Therefore all operations should be targeted at securing the germplasm under the shortest duration possible in order to have it fully viable, characterized and available at any time. With a longer time line, there will be possibility to increase the size and diversity of the collections to deliver a better service to users so that they find the variability they need.A small sample is introduced in the whole process Plants with symptoms are destroyedSample quite too small to be representative Drift during the first multiplication was not documentedPlants with higher production contribute more to the sample Materials of the same species are not increased in isolationSample is too small as to include the trait of interest Poor health management during multiplication/ regeneration causing sample rejection The germplasm obtained through exchange, donation or specific explorations, is often in limited supply, and/ or of unknown physiological or phytosanitary status for immediate long-term conservation and possible distribution. After the quarantine introduction process, it does require seed increase through cycles of multiplication. The first cycle usually takes place in protected environments (glass-house, mesh-house) in order to secure enough seed for massive multiplication in the field that will secure the amount of seeds for the five conservation purposes. In view of these future multiplication cycles, growth habit, dates of flowering and of physiological maturity are data worth noting. Notes about colors of flowers, stems, and fruits are also taken, since they often help to clear doubts about any accidental mixture. Care is being taken to make sure that each individual contributes equally in amounts of seeds to the sample that is the starting point of the next generation, in order to limit drift. As the first multiplications usually take place in closed environments, the risks of genetic contamination because of accidental crossing with other accessions are low (but so might be the seed setting in the case of many legumes, given the absence of pollinating agents !). For the next multiplications in open environments, care should be taken for cross pollinated species through distances, non synchronous flowering because of sequenced planting, or special devices (such as cages, mesh, etc; Plucknett et al. 1987;Ashworth 2002).The seed multiplication cycles after harvesting end with the pre-drying that will allow a smooth threshing of the fruits. Pre-drying (or first drying cycle) that brings the moisture of fruits and inflorescences from 20-22% (or more if harvested in the rainy season) down to 14%, also contributes to stop the spoiling by molds, fungi and bacteria. The time lag between harvest and threshing should not exceed one week. After threshing and cleaning, the seeds are dried in contact with dry air at 20-22 o C for one week in Drying Room No. 2, so that seed moisture goes down to 10 to 8%. After one week of drying the seeds are gathered in plastic containers. Because harvesting may extend over a couple of weeks or even months, seeds are in the meantime secured in the Temporary Storage room at + 6 to 8 o C. This temporary storage allows keeping insects such as bruchids away, while the different harvests threshed and dried in the same way are progressively put together. The last harvest triggers the determination of seed moisture content; if moisture content is not at 8%, additional drying in contact with dry air at 20 o C will be done in Drying Room No. 2.Three filtering steps next ensure quality of the stored germplasm, in this order: i) seed purity check, ii) viability check, and iii) health testing. Some genebanks add the checking for the presence of transgenes (Kameswara Rao et al. 2006); in the case of CIAT this is still irrelevant. The checking of seed purity is important because storing chaff, broken seeds or soil particles is purposeless; furthermore, the plant quarantine authority will not sign off phytosanitary certificates if seeds are not physically pure. The seed purity checking goes together with the evaluation of amounts of seeds for storage. We have seen about the value of securing once for all the germplasm for the five conservation purposes, and thus numbers of seeds once cleaned must be high enough; to that end, amounts of seeds were pre-fixed, taking into account the frequencies of requests (for instance when the accessions belong to the core collection), and the genetics of the species to ensure the conservation of the intra variability. After counting, once the accession has reached the pre-fixed amount of seeds, two subsamples are separated from the total seed lot, one for the checking of viability and one for the health testing. In the meantime, before results from these two checks are known, the seeds are kept in the temporary storage room at +6 to +8 o C maximum (in order to avoid damages by weevils). Because it involves specialized testing by skilled Staff, and is thus expensive, the check for lack of diseases of quarantine importance comes last. It does not make a lot of sense indeed to do this testing if the material has not passed successfully the two prior tests (i.e. seed purity and compliance with pre-fixed amounts of seeds, and seed viability).If the amount of seeds does not reach the required quantities, then additional multiplication will be performed. It may mean additional harvesting if the crops are perennial such as some forages, because it might be too expensive or risky to plant again the original material. If the material does not comply with the viability check, another multiplication cycle must be done. If the material is not approved by the Germplasm Health Lab (GHL), another multiplication cycle must be done. In both cases the feedback towards those in charge of the seed production is essential in order to make progress. The approval by the Germplasm Health Lab triggers the last step: the packing for long-term storage. The accessions approved for packing will be picked up in the Temporary Storage Room, and be exposed to dry air at +20 o C for one week in the Drying Room No. 3, in order to reach a seed moisture content of 5% maximum, preferably lower. Another control about seed moisture content will take place before the packing. If moisture content still exceeds 5%, additional drying in contact with dry air at +20 o C in Drying Room No. 3, will take place. A common rule of thumb indicates 15-15-15 (fifteen days at 15 o C in contact with air at 15% relative humidity), letting seeds to adjust naturally to finally reach 5% (Cromarty et al. 1982;Wieland 1995). The packing of the seeds into the five conservation purposes is done in the Packing Room, with one aluminum plastic pouch for each purpose. The size of the pouch has been calculated for the pre-fixed amount of seeds to be stored. A partial vacuum ensures that the sealing has been well done; if not the operator will notice that air comes back immediately in the pouch. Once packed, the seeds are stored in the -18 to -20 o C cold room.Given the critical importance of drying for the long-term storage of seeds (Hong et al. 1996;Roberts 1975), one should note the presence of two controls of seed moisture, before the preparation of the two subsamples for the labs of viability and health testing, and before the final packing. Being done independently by different people, operating different drying rooms, there is some guaranty that at least one check for seed moisture has been done properly.One can note that the samples for conservation, distribution, viability testing and repatriation (the safety backups being sent periodically to the -18 to -20 o C vaults where safety backups are done) are all kept in the same conditions at -18 to -20 o C. The conservation is thus long-term for all the samples of the same accession, and there is no need to run an active collection and a base collection, that would suppose two managements (and higher costs). As stated, because the seed viability will be checked periodically on the same seed kept in the -18 to -20 o C cold room and in the safety backup cold rooms also at -18 to -20 o C, it is anticipated that the behaviour will be about the same in the different places. If viability goes significantly down below the threshold of 85%, after regeneration, the pouches can be replaced in the different places.One can note that the seed for distribution will have been approved by the Germplasm Health Lab closely after the production in the field, be the initial multiplication or a recent regeneration, and with no possibility of getting infected while stored at -18 to -20 o C. The Plant Quarantine Authority of Colombia (ICA) can thus access the GHL files about any tested accession prior to its distribution in order to approve the phytosanitary certificates, as appropriate. Normally a new health test would not be necessary prior to shipping, but some countries may require additional testing, for instance against a special virus or bacteria. In this case, seeds for the testing will be taken out of the stock for distribution, and because it is the same seed lot, the test will be informative, and the information stored for any future need.The seed for distribution will have had at least one viability check, if distributed between year 0 and year 5, and two checks if distributed after year 5 and before year 10 or year 15, and more afterwards. The genebank can thus be confident about the physiological quality of the distributed accessions, without the need to perform an additional test prior to the shipping. The genebank may however decide to perform a viability test, for instance for accessions at year 9, that would substitute for a test at year 10; because it is the same seed lot, again the test is informative of the overall behaviour under conservation.One can note that the decision to send a material for regeneration is triggered either by the shipping of the penultimate sample reserved in Distribution (which practically includes Repatriation), or by a drop of the viability below the treshold of 85%. In the latter, the genebank will use the Base sample for the regeneration, or in order to have additional safety the samples left over from the Distribution, if still available. The products of the regeneration will cause a new cycle, with eventually the replacement of the safety backups copies by pouches of novel seed. The former situation is a bit more tricky. If we are towards the end of a cycle, with one sample left in Distribution and likely few in Viability Checking, then the decision is easy and swift: regeneration, using whatever sample left before using the Base sample. If we are at the beginning of a cycle, the situation happens because there have been many requests for that accession. The genebank manager may decide to take one (or two) sample out of Viability Checking and to \"move\" it to Distribution, keeping at least one sample in Viability Checking. In the best situation, the genebank gains a leeway of 2-3 years (that could be of interest if field operations are overworked). However the accession has been under high demand, and this situation is likely to repeat itself. So, with seeds from the last sample of Viability and from the Base sample, regeneration is of order.A frequently asked question is: what to do with the remaining samples of an accession, once regeneration has been decided? These are part of the Base samples and the safety backup copies, as the regeneration will use first whatever may be left in Distribution and in Viability Checking, before using the Base sample. Regeneration may have however to use part of (or the whole) Base sample, in order to have enough internal diversity to minimize changes in the genetic makeup of the accession. A cautious approach however would invite to approach regeneration in two steps, that is, to keep a second sample of equal genetic quality in case the first attempt of regeneration fails. It is thus most likely that an experienced genebank will have seed samples from the previous cycle. The writer would recommend as far as possible to keep the old samples in the long-term vault; if the viability is gone, the DNA and the seed proteins might be still useful for different studies in the future. The safety backup copies will have to be done again with the fresh seed from the regeneration, and a full new cycle will be re-initiated.The flow chart (Figure 1) is a sequence of operations on the germplasm towards a goalcapacity to distribute -that hiddens a series of cycles of operations under each step along the main sequence. Each step has also its separate and interlinked module of documentation in the database. In other words, germplasm production or viability checking implies each a sequential series of operations before the next step along the main sequence can start. But there is first an important division and organization of tasks. Because the designation process towards the Secretariat of the Treaty implies a conservation responsility allowing a distribution capacity, it was found convenient to identify a pool of activities under a Conservation Group (in white to the left in Figure 1). Because it is the Conservation Group that has responsibilities for the distribution (and periodically, the safety backups), it must know the status of availability and viability of seed stocks for distribution. The Conservation Group will thus 'contract' services to the Production Group for the seed increase of the materials. And it will afterwards contract services to the Seed Viability Lab, the Germplasm Health Lab, and the Genetic Quality Lab. Such a division and organization of tasks allows the different members of Staff to specialize and to perform better what they know best (an important criterion for Staff allocation). A pool of conservation activities is a bare minimum for a genebank, since there are possibilities, on a permanent or temporary basis, to contract services outside (production to farmers, seed viability checking or germplasm health to specialized laboratories).The main sequence allows itself for a series of quality controls. Being alerted by the arrival of new materials (by germplasm exploration or acquisition from other collections, under the SMTA of the Treaty or a Germplasm Acquisition Agreement), the Conservation Group proceeds with the introduction with the plant quarantine authority (Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario, ICA, in the case of Colombia) and starts hiring services from the Production Group for the early increases of the material, and from the GHL for the phytosanitary controls during introduction. Upon a successful introduction, the Conservation Group can make a pre-registration towards the formal designation to the Secretariat of the International Treaty (with the recording of passport data and digital images); meanwhile it hires services to the Production Group for a full seed increase. A practical way of hiring such services is through seed multiplication contracts identified by year and if applicable semester (e.g. 2010A for a contract of seed multiplication celebrated during the first semester of 2010, 2010B in the second semester, for 999 number of accessions and detail thereof). The Production Group will consider its multiplication contract terminated once seed are given back to the Conservation Group at the harvest receipt step. This step is critically important because it will start compiling the different harvests for the different accessions, and provide feedback on the first criterion for progress: that there was seed harvested. Through Harvest Receipt, the Conservation Group will bother the Production Group in order to know whether seeds can still be harvested from accessions involved in a particular contract. The Harvest Receipt staff conducts meanwhile the pre-drying, so that the staff involved in the fruit threshing gets materials to clean in an orderly way. The staff in charge of the seed purity check will ask for seed from the staff doing the threshing, in order to advance the seed purity control, the verification of the quantity threshold and the seed moisture content test. The coordinator of the Conservation Group must control the smooth advance of these steps for passing contracts timely with the Viability Testing Lab and the Germplasm Health Lab. Please note that these two labs have access through the internal computer network to the history of multiplication of each accession, namely place and dates. This is important for their own work of quality control, but also in order to provide appropriate feedback to the Production Group, about the level of compliance on each multiplication contract. This type of follow-up is critical to the net progress mentioned above: for example, the Production Group must know if fruits are harvested at the wrong moment, because harvesting too early or too late significantly affects seed viability. Lastly, the staff in charge of the final packing will get the clearances from the Viability Testing Lab and the Germplasm Health Lab, and will re-check the moisture content of the seeds to be packed; verification of seed purity and number target will be immediate at the moment of the final packing for the five conservation purposes.The flow chart (Figure 1) is also a risk management line, where the next operation in the line can control quality and performance of the former, while the coordinators of major groups manage risks. At the beginning when seeds are few, the multiplication is performed in closed and protected environments (glass-/ mesh-houses). Digital images of seeds have been already taken in order to prevent mixtures, and if the material is particularly scarce a backup has been made using in vitro culturing. The first purpose of conservation to be filled in is obviously the Base sample, and once constituted and well dried is at no risk in the Temporary Storage room at + 6 o C. It can sometimes stay there for a couple of years, while the waiting line clears up for additional seed increase. Being a new operation, i.e. additional seed increase, it will be the object of another contract, in order to allow both the Production Group and the Conservation Group to make a tracking of each material. Some of the major risks affecting seed germplasm are summed up in Figure 2. While mechanical mixture or genetic contamination are relatively easy to control, drift can be mastered if enough (100 plants per generation, as most of the legumes in the collection are somewhat outbreeders) seeds are planted for increase or regeneration, and if harvests are levelled to the lower seed producer in the planting line. It is rarely done that way, and thus some buffering is obtained through the planting of a large number of individuals for multiplication/ regeneration. Drift of course is a problem if the original population entering the genebank is itself a large population; it is much less a problem if the original population is just of a few seeds. Sometimes it is possible to make the genebank accountable because it is possible to separate variants (with letters A,B,C, after the accession number) themselves easy to identify and to describe. Genetic erosion is another problem, when the genebank decides to not multiply all original propagules (a sort of contradiction in view of its role). The bottleneck might be at the quarantine level, but increasingly fast and reliable PCR methods of disease indexing could help to fasten the process while giving the host country the warranty of absence of diseases of quarantine importance. Please note that in order to control infection, namely in the multiplication plots/ facilities, it is the interest of all three -the Production Group, the Germplasm Health Lab and the Conservation Group -to have GHL Staff visiting such plots/ facilities for early diagnostic. It will help the Production Group to have higher productivity of the accessions under multiplication, and thus help to reduce the number of contracts, which in turn will also reduce the workload of the Conservation Group. GHL will have already an insight on potential problems for their fast identification. The proper documentation of the health status within each contract also helps towards increased perfomance and the reduction of risks: if a problem comes back in another year, the previous documentation can help to overcome it fast and possibly at low costs.","tokenCount":"5318"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dcfbf3b8c44a8c988c6afc24ca5056a4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5cbcccf7-f2f8-42d7-9599-fdb8e79e074b/retrieve","id":"-307708703"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"03cd3b77-60b7-4269-a117-604d2aaac9a4","pagecount":"14","content":"Aquatic foods derive from over 3000 species of animals, plants and microorganisms grown in or harvested from water. www.cgiar.org Provide micronutrient-rich foods for 3.3 billion people. Aquatic foods can supply essential micronutrients with lower carbon footprint and far fewer biodiversity impacts than many landbased crops and livestock. Aquaculture is the fastestgrowing food production sector in the world. Its production is set to increase by 32% to 109 million tons AqFS identifying as one of seven priority investments in agricultural research by Experts and Scientific Group of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit. www.cgiar.org Pathway 1 -Identifying data gaps in aquatic food systems Key methods: Gap analysis of the availability, quality, and usability of public data according to the various actors in AqFS Mixed, participatory action methods, choice experiments, quantitative socioeconomic and environmental analysis (i.e., on-farm trial and on-farm-performance studies) used to characterize AqFS in different geographies www.cgiar.org1 in every 2 workers in the primary and secondary sector of fisheries and aquaculture are women. They are crucial to aquatic food systems, providing labour, innovative ideas and entrepreneurship.Aquatic foods are deeply interconnected with the rest of the food system -in human and livestock diets, supply chains, and water systems. 800 million people depend on small scale fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoodsGlobal demand for aquatic foods has doubled since 2000.Challenges to resilience Why these challenges persist Cross-system partnerships to support AqFS actors' inclusion in food system transformations and ocean economyIncluding AqFS in multifunctional water management plansPublic-private partnerships to scale delivery of genetically-improved fish varietiesPlatforms to evaluate, scale & accelerate uptake of AqFS innovationsReach BenefitEmpowerTransformwww.cgiar.orgScaling partners and stakeholders in 11 countries use improved knowledge systems and data to inform at least five evidence-based investments supporting aquatic food systems transformation.Improved management and co-production of sustainable development pathways secure rights and livelihood benefits for 100,000 small-scale actors in aquatic food systems in Asia-Pacific and bring more nutritious diets to 700,000.Aquatic food system labs in Solomons, Bangladesh and Zambia increase national innovation systems' ability to identify, evaluate and scale socio-technical innovations.At least 2 tilapia, carp and catfish strains demonstrate increased productivity (+30%) and environmental performance (-25% GHG emission reduction) in Bangladesh, India and Nigeria.Gender-transformative strategies to enhance integrated food, livelihood, and water use outcomes in multifunctional land-and waterscapes adopted by national stakeholders in Myanmar, Cambodia, Ghana and Zambiawww.cgiar.org","tokenCount":"382"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b14ab3f2a9db1fc6c1d239f3c03256ad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1d5ba871-5414-4bd1-9b80-5242322cee6c/retrieve","id":"1595233982"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c314d4f7-4392-4f85-9737-6fd280ced280","pagecount":"13","content":"Sot Dairy Plant Company limited a dairy Producer Organization that was started in 2008 comprising of individuals, nine cooperatives and St Kobor women group. The current membership is 2386 members. The company is located in Longisa Division and Bomet Central Division of Bomet County (S; 00\"45' 406. E 035\"06\"216. Elevation; 1842m). Its membership covers six locations namely; Kembu, Chemaners, Kapkimwolo, Tegat, Kimuchul, and Kibiyosit. The current daily milk collection is 4500 liters, however during the dry spell, the company collects a minimum of 1200 liters per day and in the highest that have ever collected during the rainy season is 10500 liters per day.The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) was used to characterize the feed-related aspects of the livestock production system in Sot Dairy Plant Company limited catchment area. This was done to help design feeding system interventions that are specific to Sot Dairy Plant Company limited catchment area. The exercise was done November 2014. This study was carried out by East Africa Dairy Development project (EADD-P) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and the extension staff Sot Dairy Plant Company. The main objectives of this study were to get; i)an overview of the farming systems, ii) identify major feeds and feeding related production problems, existing opportunities and potential interventions that would inform estimation of the feed gaps in the area This will enable the management develop an implementation plan that will address dry season feed gaps and improve livestock the production and productivity in the area. .Farmer representatives both male and female were randomly selected from each of the seven locations to participate in the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) focused group discussion. The selection was done based on the size of land holding. Two (FGD) were undertaken one in Kapkimwolwo with 17 (12 male, 5 female) farmers and another one in Kembu having 21 farmers 13 Male and 8 Female). From each category of land holding size in the discussion groups, key informant farmers were purposively selected and individually interviewed in the seven Locations. These were 6 farmers, 2 from each category of land holding small scale, medium scale and large scale.The assessment was carried out using qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Focused group discussions (FGDs) were used to gather qualitative information on farmers perceptions about; farm sizes, household sizes, farm labour availability, annual rainfall pattern, irrigation availability, types of animals raised, general animal husbandry, access to credit, access to farm inputs, problems issues and opportunities within the livestock system. An interview using a structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative information. The structured questionnaire was administered to nine key farmer representatives owning small, medium and large scale farms. The issues covered in the questionnaire were; dominant breeds, types of food and cash crops grown, how the crop residues are utilized, types of fodder crops grown and how much each feed resource contributes to the dietThe qualitative information gathered during the focused group discussions was and reported.The quantitative data collected from individual key informant farmers were entered into the FEAST excel template (www.ilri.org/feast) and analyzedThe following are the findings of the assessment, and existing opportunities in the area.From the results, the area has a mixed crop-livestock farming system. Maize is the dominant crop in area. Majority of the household have a land holding that ranges from 0.9 to 3.2 hectares. The average family size is 8 people per house hold.   Maize is the dominant food crop grown in all the six locations Kembu, Chemaners, Kapkimwolo, Tegat, Kimuchul, and Kibiyosit (Figure2). The maize crop is mainly grown for food, the surplus grain and green maize is sold for income. Both the dry maize stover and green maize stover collected after selling green maize is fed to livestock. . Farmers in all the six locations Kembu, Chemaners, Kapkimwolo, Tegat, Kimuchul, and Kibiyosit depend on rain fed agriculture as irrigation is not practiced. Labor is easily available and is mostly required during planting of maize and irish potatoes, weeding and harvesting. The price of labor ranges from Ksh 1200 (13USD) to Ksh1600 (18USD) per acre depending on the workload. Price of harvesting maize is Ksh 150 (1.6USD) per day per person. Majority of the farmers do use family labor. Dairy production is the main source of income contributing 70% to the household income followed by crops (maize and beans and potatoes) production at 22%. Improved dairy cattle are the most preferred livestock and are managed under semi intensive system(Figure 4). From the EADD2 baseline survey, the average milk production per cow in the area is 4.5 Cattle are mainly kept for the purpose of milk, income from sale of culls and heifers; other benefits are manure payment of bride price. Draught cattle are kept for plowing, income and payment of bride price while donkeys are kept for transportation. A few farmers keep fattening cattle. There also exist local dairy cows that are kept for, milk and payment of bide price. From the farmers response 1% of the households have zero grazing units and majority do not house their livestock at night. 60% practice mainly grazing with a little supplementation while the rest practice open grazing. In Kembu location, about 49% practice tethering. Open grazing is practiced by close to 90% in Kapkimwolo, tethering 5% and zero feeding 5%. The supplementary feeds offered include; dry maize stover, Napier grass, bean haulms, Rhodes grass, and green maize Stover. The main form of feed processing is chopping using chuff cutters and pulverizers. Close to 20% of the households mix the feed with agro industrial by products (Bran molasses, maize germ) purchased from agro vet shops.Veterinary and Artificial insemination services are available to households who are registered members of sot dairies. The most predominant disease is East Cost Fever (ECF) and its treatment costs an average of Ksh 2000 (22USD) or more depending on the extent of the disease. The prices of A.I range from 1200 Ksh (13USD) to 6000 (65.9USD) depending on the type of breed, company supplying and whether the straws are sexed or not. Close to 40% of the farmers use improved bulls.Figure 4: Average livestock species holdings per household in Tropical Livestock UnitsGrazing and green forage are the major feed resources. Grazing contributes 36% of dietary dry matter, and 34% of ME (figure 6,7and 8). Crop residue is also a major contributor to Metatbolizable Energy (ME) and Crude protein (CP), contributing 21% and 17% respectively. Naturally occurring fodders (weeds) have a contribution of 15% ME and 14% CP. This naturally occurring and collected fodder is available throughout the year round with a slight decline in January, February, and March.  ","tokenCount":"1102"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3d83fbeef9fb9d613ee3888cd9e147f8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/739dfbf0-36df-4ef7-8847-802d1f029243/retrieve","id":"-881873601"},"keywords":["breeding pipeline","gender","varietal adoption","technological characteristics","food product profile","end-product productivity","value chain","market segment"],"sieverID":"ccdf3310-227a-4a60-9854-f409b5a795b3","pagecount":"16","content":"Roots, tubers and cooking bananas are bulky and highly perishable. In Africa, except for yams, their consumption is mainly after transport, peeling and cooking in the form of boiled pieces or dough, a few days after harvest. To stabilize and better preserve the products and, in the case of cassava, release toxic cyanogenic glucosides, a range of intermediate products have been developed, mainly for cassava, related to fermentation and drying after numerous processing operations. This review highlights, for the first time, the impact of genotypes on labour requirements, productivity and the associated drudgery in processing operations primarily carried out by women processors. Peeling, soaking/grinding/fermentation, dewatering, sieving and toasting steps were evaluated on a wide range of new hybrids and traditional landraces. The review highlights case studies of gari production from cassava. The results show that, depending on the genotypes used, women's required labour can be more than doubled and even the sum of the weights transported along the process can be up to four times higher for the same quantity of end product. Productivity and loads carried between each processing operation are highly influenced by root shape, ease of peeling, dry matter content and/or fiber content. Productivity and the often related experienced drudgery are key factors to be considered for a better acceptance of new genotypes by actors in the value-addition chain, leading to enhanced adoption and ultimately to improved livelihoods for women processors.Drudgery in processing of root, tuber and banana crops (RTBs) has been recognized as a major, complex social, economic and health problem. 1 However, little attention has been paid to the influence of varietal differences on drudgery, and the potential to exploit breeding of appropriate varieties (genotypes) as a partial solution.Although it can have a significant impact on the livelihoods and wellbeing of women (who perform the majority of processing labour), addressing labour requirements, productivity and related drudgery in food processing is often ignored in the development of improved RTB genotypes. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, women play a vitally important role in agriculture and postharvest activities and some 50% of agricultural work is done by women, with significant variations within and among regions and countries. 2 Agri-food processing at artisanal or small scale is mainly carried out by women with the help of family labour (often young and/or elderly people and neighbors). For processing of RTBs, these operations are often carried out entirely by women, from the peeling to the elaboration of the end-products ready to be marketed or consumed at the household level. [3][4][5][6][7] The Collaborative Study of Cassava in Africa (COSCA), conducted in six African countries, showed that women lead in root transportation (68%) and processing operations (76%). 8 On average, cassava processing was carried out mostly by women in about 75% of the surveyed villages, mostly by men in less than 5%, and by both equally in about 20%. 1 Women in sub-Saharan Africa have the highest average agricultural labour-force participation rates in the world. 9 Assessment of processing productivity and the drudgery associated with processing RTB-based foods is limited. Genotype acceptability and drudgery in processing appear to be strongly linked (i.e. women are more likely to prefer RTB varieties with traits that reduce the drudgery of processing). [10][11][12][13] Furthermore, cassava processing, for example, is associated with challenging working conditions and serious health hazards [14][15][16] that increase the likelihood that such operations are perceived as drudgery. Prolonged labour associated with all the operations significantly impinges on the productivity and wellbeing of the (mostly) women operators. 17,18 Drudgery has been defined as the dissatisfactory experiences that constrain work performance in any activity 19 and is often related to time-consuming, repetitive and menial work. Physical and mental strain, agony, monotony and hardship have been linked to the drudgery often experienced in farm operations. 20 Whether a task is experienced as drudgery depends on many different factors, including specific working conditions (which include the quality and type of tools used), the extent of the task and also how the work is culturally validated and looked upon, which in turn determines the type of meaning executers of the task attribute to the task. 21 RTBs have several important features of note in relation to labour input. They tend to be bulky and perishable, making them difficult to transport and, as a result, most are often eaten fresh, after cooking, soon after harvest. Alternatively, RTBs are processed soon after harvest to convert them into less perishable and more easily transported products. Cassava, in particular, is extremely sensitive (3-5 days) to post-harvest deterioration. 22 Post-harvest handling and storage offer many challenges for RTBs, eliciting development of a wide variety of food products. [23][24][25][26] Cassava is by far the most widely grown and consumed root in sub-Saharan Africa. 27 The starchy roots contain toxic cyanogenetic compounds at various levels. 28,29 Typically, consumers perceive bitterness from cyanogens beyond a cyanogenic potential of about 80-100 ppm. 30 These toxic compounds are only very partially (20%) removed by boiling or frying 31 and so genotypes below 50 ppm are recommended for consumption as boiled or fried pieces (genotypes above 100 ppm become toxic for mammals and must be detoxified to avoid health risks. 32 The detoxification is mainly performed by grinding or rasping, often with fermentation before or after that process. Fermentation is performed either by soaking the whole or peeled roots in containers (retting), or by resting the pulp in sacks or containers for several days. During these operations, the volatile cyanogenic compounds are released. 33 These double-purpose operations of fermentation (detoxification and softening) of the roots in water are essential for the fiber removal and preparation of safe traditional staple foods in Africa: fufu, lafun, batôn, Chikwangue, agbelima, gari and attieke. 34 Varying the length of fermentation allows formulation of products according to the preferred tastes of consumers, which are very diversified for a range of products, are specific to production zones of origin, and may vary according to availability in the market. 35,36 The present study is an output of the project Breeding RTB products for end user preferences (RTBfoods; https://rtbfoods.cirad.fr). This project developed a new five-step methodology for developing food product profiles, through mobilizing a multidisciplinary team of breeders, social scientists and food technologists to capture the preferred traits of farmers, end-users and consumers. 37,38 The data were produced following a standardized participatory processing diagnosis procedure common to all RTBs 39,40 and mainly published in 2021 as a special issue of the International Journal of Food Science and Technology. 41 The main objectives of the present study were (i) to dissect the individual processing steps involved in different RTB food products; (ii) to evaluate effects of genetic differences among varieties on processor workload, particularly comparing improved and traditional varieties; and (iii) to guide breeders by highlighting the traits responsible for varietal differences in required labour inputs, which in turn influence acceptability of new varieties. This review does not directly evaluate the level of drudgery experienced based on different genotypes, but rather examines the impact of varieties on productivity and the associated labour requirements in processing operations. Regardless of how an operation is perceived, a decrease in productivity or an increase in labour requirements can potentially contribute to the drudgery experienced by processors. Therefore, this review examined the influence of different varieties on the productivity of processors individually for various processing operations. The study measured processing operator productivity by the amount of mass produced per unit of time per operator within each operation. Additionally, as a secondary measure related to productivity, we evaluated the weights of products that processors had to transport between operations. This assessment served as an indicator, albeit productivity-related, to quantify the labour involved in processing different varieties.In rural or peri-urban areas of East and West Africa, RTB processing sites were selected according to a predefined sampling methodology. The processing trials were participatory and carried out with experienced champion processors. Both preferred (locally commonly used/popular varieties) and non-preferred genotypes (locally known as non-adequate for expected product profile) were included to provide a wide range of technological and physico-chemical characteristics (fixed effects from the statistical point of view). Processors provided feedback on the varieties before, during each step and after processing to identify relevant characteristics of the crop and product. Processing parameters were measured at each step. The specific traits related to the processing ability were included in the different Food Product Profiles.Proper and representative quantity of product was harvested from at least four genotypes (more if possible). Each processing step was conducted in duplicate or triplicate (averages of two or three women, who collaborated by processing half of each batch of material for each genotype).• Processors were invited to observe each raw genotype and give their views, as an operation unit, on its quality characteristics. • Dry matter content (DMC) of all the collected samples was measured. • The processing was carried out in real/normal conditions in processors' own communities. • Each processor started with the first operation unit stage, processing one variety at a time.For boiled or pounded products (cassava, plantain, yam), the process is relatively simple, including steps such as peeling, washing, boiling, steaming or frying and, in some cases, mashing and pounding. The parameters measured were: peeling yield, duration of peeling, cooking (or pounding) and productivity of each operation unit. These products were processed by only two or three operation units.Processing operations of fermented products, on the other hand, are more complex and involve more steps. To standardize the data collected in different countries and on different production lines, all the data were scaled to obtain 1000 kg of the end product. Each process was broken down into separate operation units.• Gari (granulated product): peeling; grating; washing; fermentation and draining; mechanical dewatering; wet pulp sieving; mash toasting; and dry gari sieving. 42 • Dry fufu (soaked cassava product: couscous, lafun): peeling; washing; soaking; fiber and non-softened material removal; draining in bags; sun drying; and dry fufu grinding. 43 A representative sample of approximately 20-50 kg of roots from each genotype was processed to perform the technological diagnosis and then used to measure the yield/productivity of each operation unit (the coding used for each genotype is available in the Supporting information, Table S1). 44,45 All trials were replicated twice. For each operation unit the average weight was measured before and after processing. The yields of each operation unit were thus calculated according to the genotypes studied and reported as Yield by operation unit (%). The time needed to perform each operation, on all the available material, was measured with a chronometer. Operator productivity by operation unit (kg h −1 per operator) was calculated for each operation and per genotype studied. The calculation table allowed to visualize the incoming and outgoing quantities for each operation unit for 1000 kg of final product: Processed material by operation unit (kg /1000 kg final product); Operator time by operation (h) and Time distribution by operation unit (%) were thus obtained. Three global values allowed characterizing genotypes by:• Gari yield (%) expressed by weight of initial root/weight of finished product. • Operator time by kg of final product (h/kg), is the time needed to produce 1 kg of end product per genotype. It is calculated as the sum of the time spent to finalize each operation unit, reported to 1 kg of final product. • Weight carried by operator per kg of final product (kg) calculated as the sum of all intermediate products carried or moved between each operation unit to obtain 1 kg of final product.The methodology described above became a processing diagnostics and mass balances for the main RTBs consumed in subtropical Africa: Yam in Benin and Nigeria; Sweetpotato and Potato in Uganda; Plantain in Cameroon; Matooke in Uganda; and Cassava in Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria and Uganda.Productivity and peeling yields of RTBs strongly influence the labour required from the processors. Specifically for cassava processing, multiple operation units and teamwork make it difficult to evaluate the labour required to produce 1 kg of end-product. New data on cassava, sweetpotato, yam, potato and cooking bananas (plantain and matooke) collected in accordance with the methodology of Fliedel et al. 39 were used. The data collected allowed estimating the average productivity of each operation according to the genotypes used.RTB peeling yield related to shape and ease of peeling Table 1 reports the RTB peeling data (available in open access) in each RTB processing diagnostic summary for the main product profiles. The flowsheet of each RTB final product has been established and is fully available in each crop report as indicated in Table 1.The lowest yields were for bananas, with 55% yield measured for the matooke peeling operation and a productivity of 28 kg h −1 per operator. For plantains a yield of 50% was observed and a productivity of 43 kg h −1 per operator of pulp obtained after peeling. These results are in general agreement with previous reports, 46,47 although yields were slightly lower. For potatoes 75% of peeling yield and 9 kg h −1 per operator were found for manual peeling in Uganda. In the industry, using steam peeling for potato, losses range from 6% to 10% of fresh weight. 48,49 In Uganda, sweetpotato studies reported a peeling yield of 79% and a peeling productivity of 14 kg h −1 per operator. In India, losses ranged from 3% to 21% among 18 sweetpotato genotypes studied, with an average peel loss of 11%. 50 Yam peeling yield of 80% has been reported in Nigeria and Benin, with an average productivity of 34 kg h −1 per operator. For cassava, for which the largest number of trials were conducted, the average peeling yield was 74% and the productivity 57 kg h −1 per operator. However, there was a high variability among locations and end products (Table 1). The physical characteristics of the peel could influence both peeling labour and the amount of product lost at the peeling stage. These differences in the properties of the peel can include variation in thickness, texture and strength of adhesion to the root flesh. 51 The peel consists of two basic components: the phelloderm (i.e. the bark) is the thin, usually rough, outer layer; the cortex is the fibrous layer that attaches directly to the pulp. Low peel adhesion strength to cassava flesh allow easy removal of the external phelloderm by making an incision within the cortex with a knife, followed by pulling and removing the peel around the flesh or by rubbing it off in mechanized systems (Fig. 1). Cassava genotypes with easy peel removal reduce product waste and labour.Roots of the majority of existing cassava genotypes in Africa can only be peeled (with current technologies) by slashing it off the flesh of the root with a sharp knife or machete, increasing the losses enormously in addition to processor fatigue. 68 Some studies used a large number of cassava genotypes in Colombia, 69 Uganda 70 or India 71 for evaluating phelloderm and root cortex thickness: (0.79-5.14 mm in Colombia on 64 genotypes; 0.3-4.9 mm in East Africa on 825 genotypes; 0.2-0.5 mm in India on 10 genotypes, with cortex thickness at the proximal, middle, and distal varying from 1.2-3.1 mm). This large genetic variation in peel thickness is associated with the difficulty of peeling, which strongly affects peeling yields and productivity. Industrial or small-scale processors prefer genotypes that are easier to peel and for which labour and drudgery are reduced. For hand peeling, mainly in Africa, yield and productivity are also strongly related to the size and shape of the roots and the presence of constrictions. 72,73 The data collected by the RTBfoods project teams allowed visualization of the peeling yield and productivity as a function of root girth, root weight and root length (Fig. 2). Although there was a strong increase in peeling yields as a function of increasing root diameter, weight and length, the dispersion of the data highlights other factors such as irregular shape, peel thickness and/or the presence of constrictions affecting peeling efficiency. Processors know how to predict accurately the ease of peeling. It is mainly the women processors who set the purchase prices of the genotypes to be processed and thereby contribute directly through their processing preferences to the varietal adoption by cassava farmers. These gendered decisions are primarily influenced by the laborintensive nature of the tasks, particularly in relation to product yield, processing productivity and the perceived level of drudgery.Gari processing experiments were conducted by three different institutes in three different locations: Savalou, Colline, UAC/FSA, Benin (see Supporting information, Table S2), IITA, Osun State, Nigeria (see Supporting information, Table S3) and Umudike, Imo State, NRCRI, Nigeria (see Supporting information, Table S4). A varying number of genotypes was evaluated in each location (see Supporting information, Table S1). The Genotypes TME B419 (codified as I-,N-,U-TME), TMS IBA010040 (codified as I, N, U10), TMS IBA980505 (codified as I, N, U12), and TMS IBA980581 (codified as I, N, U13), were evaluated in all three locations.Figure 3 illustrates the entire process to produce 1 ton of gari and the relative losses through the different stages. Yields were obtained for each operation unit on three different sites: UAC/FSA in Benin, and NRCRI (Umudike) and IITA (Osun State) in Nigeria. There were large differences in the average tons of fresh roots required to produce 1 ton of gari: 12.9 ton (NRCRI), 7.0 ton (UAC/FSA) and 5.1 ton (IITA). To a large extent, as illustrated later, the variation in the amounts of roots required was closely related to the average DMC of the genotypes processed in each location (31.4%, 37.4% and 39.2%, respectively).Root peeling is the first stage (operation unit) in gari processing. About 30-35% of the initial root weight is lost in the (manual) peeling. Although the shape and size of the roots play an important role in defining the losses during peeling (as noted above), the present study did not characterize those parameters. As will be shown later, there is also a remarkably variable required labour from the female processors, depending on each genotype and location. The average time to obtain 100 kg of peeled roots was 3.3 ± 2.0 h by operator, but the variation was very large, ranging from 1.3 h (easy to peel and high DMC) to 11.5 h for the most difficult genotypes (small size, very adherent peel and/or low DMC).A second stage in which weights are drastically reduced (by about 40%) is during the fermentation, draining and mechanical dewatering (Fig. 3). The third important reduction in weights (around 50%) takes place during pulp toasting. [74][75][76] For each processing site, the operators (mainly women) must carry fresh roots and the residual material after each operation unit to be able to proceed to the next one. For the three trials, depending on the genotypes used, to obtain 1000 kg of gari, a woman operator had to carry the accumulated weight of 25.7, 48.0 and 19.3 tons, respectively, in UAC/FSA, NRCRI and IITA.Figure 3 presents the information for each location, dissecting the losses through the individual processing operations in the gari production. The graphs demonstrate the great influence of the location and edaphoclimatic parameters on the quantity of roots necessary to produce 1 ton of gari. There were large genetic differences in the losses at different stages of gari production by location. The DMCs of local varieties, as well as the new hybrids tested in NRCRI, were much lower than those observed in UAC/FSA or IITA (31.4% ± 2.3%; 37.4% ± 5.9% and 39.2% ± 2.9% respectively).The weight of discarded peel was much lower at IITA (954 kg) compared to NRCRI and UAC/FSA (2732 and 1879 kg, respectively). The low DMC of the trial at NRCRI would explain the important losses observed during the dewatering operation in that trial. In this region, locally grown genotypes (Agric, Nwacho and Mgboto) on the right of the plot Fig. 4 have a higher overall processing yield than the new hybrids evaluated. For the IITA and UAC/FSA trials, on the other hand, many of the new hybrids introduced showed higher gari yields than the locally grown landraces.The SDs provided in Fig. 3 demonstrate important differences among genotypes at the different stages of gari production. The coefficient of variation (⊞/μ×100) can provide an insight into these stages during gari production where there is relatively more variation among genotypes regarding losses (see Supporting information, Table S5).Influence of root DMC on the amount of raw cassava roots required to produce 1000 kg of gari Figure 5 depicts the relationship between DMC of raw roots from 38 cassava genotypes (57 datapoints accross three locations) and the respective amounts of raw roots required to produce 1 ton of gari. There was a clear negative correlation between DMC and the amount of fresh roots required (tons of fresh roots = 26 078 -0.525 × DMC; r 2 = 0.674). The red dots identify commercial checks often used to produce gari in the regions: K 195, NR8082, TME B1, TME B2, TME B7, TMS 30572 Dale, Kati Kati, Salome, AGRIC, Nwageri, Chigazu, Durungwo, Nwocha, Mgboto Umuahia, Honourable 1 and 2, Omoh Local 1 and 2 and Akpu (refer to Supporting information, Table S1 for the codes used). Commercial checks are scattered from the top left down to the bottom right. TMS IBA010040, TMS IBA980505 and TMS IBA980581 (I-, N-and U-10; -12; and -13, respectively) and TME B419 codified as I-,N-,U-TME) in green were processed in all of the three trials. (See also table S1). From this it is clear that the same variety but evaluated in different environments occurs in extremely different locations on the graph stressing the enormous influence of the environment and or harvesting time on root dry matter. The NRCRI and UAC Trials were harvested in June, in the peak of the rainy season while the IITA trial was harvested in September after the peak of the rainy season which can be a large part of the explaination of these results.Three groups of clones showing large deviation from the regression line (more than 2 tons difference between expected values based on the DMC and the actual amount of fresh roots required to produce 1 ton of gari) are highlighted in Fig. 5. Below the regression line, there is a single group (within a  green-doted triangle). This group includes only improved clones. On average, these genotypes required 5.27 tons of fresh roots to produce 1 ton of gari. However, based on the DMC, the model expected that these genotypes should have required up to 8.54 tons of roots. On average, these genotypes had intermediate levels of DMC (average of 33.4%) and the contrast between their expected and observed performances would suggest that they were efficient gari producers.There is a second group of six genotypes (within a red-dotted triangle), well above the regression line. This group included five bred clones and only one landrace check (Kati Kati). DMC in Kati Kati was very low (26.6%). The other five clones had intermediate DMC levels (average = 33.3%). The amounts of roots required to produce 1 ton of gari (11.87 ton) for these clones were considerably higher than the expected (9.19 ton) based on their DMC levels. Finally, as shown in Fig. 5 (oval, red-dotted figure, bottom right), there was a third group (two bred genotypes) that required 5.06 tons of fresh roots to produce 1 ton of gari. This is considerably more than the amount expected by the model (2.33 ton). These last two groups are inefficient genotypes (above the regression line). They required considerably more fresh roots than expected based on the DMC regression model. These two groups differed considerably in their DMC averages.The efficiency of gari production is clearly related to DMC as shown in Fig. 5. However, other characteristics (e.g. thin peel; easy to peel; reduced fiber content; less starch loss during the dewatering process, etc.) may explain the occurrence of large deviations from the expected values determined by the regression line.Partitioning the total labour into the different activities Figure 6 shows the data generated at Savalou, Colline, UAC/FSA, Benin and Osun state, IITA Nigeria on the time required to complete each key step of the process for the gari production for 1000 kg of final gari. By far the most time-demanding activities in the production of gari are pulp toasting (53.5%) and root peeling (31.0%). Other activities remained relatively minor in terms of labour demand (6% for pulp sieving, and root washing and dry gari sieving with about 3.7% each). The SDs indicate that there is considerable variation among genotypes in relation of their demand of labour to produce 1 ton of gari. The graph reveals that toasting was less efficient at IITA but, on the other hand, peeling was less time consuming there as compared with UAC/FSA (Fig. 6A).The variety Dale has been ignored in Fig. 6 because of its outlying performance. As indicated, there were marked differences in the time invested for each operation among the genotypes evaluated, as suggested by the SDs in Fig. 6(A). The plots in Fig. 6(B,C) confirm large genetic variation for labour requirements to produce 1 ton of gari.The coefficients of variation (CV = ⊞/μ × 100) from UAC/FSA data, for the different operations, were: overall time (hours required to produce 1 ton of gari): 19.3%; peeling: 22.7%; washing: 33.2%; grating: 18.0%; dewatering: 6.8%; pulp sieving: 22.9%; pulp toasting: 23.6%; and dry gari sieving: 27.2% In the case of IITA trials CVs were: overall time: 16.0%; peeling = 15.6%; dewatering: 7.4%; pulp sieving: 27.3%; and pulp toasting: 19.7%.The CVs provide a general appreciation of where variation among genotypes is particularly important for a given activity and point out results that require further exploration. For example, in the IITA trial (Fig. 6B), root peeling was relatively more uniform (CV = 15.6%) than pulp sieving (CV = 27.3%). I10 and Honor 2 required more than 40 h in pulp sieving, whereas Akpu and I7 required less than 20 h. Understanding why these genotypes are so contrasting for pulp sieving would help breeders to use more efficient selection approaches.Figure 6(B,C) also provide information on DMC for each genotype. U14 has low DMC and requires considerable labour input. U22 had the highest DMC and was the second lowest clone with respect to labour requirements (Fig. 6C). There is some association between DMC and labour requirements. On the other hand, U21 with an intermediate DMC (37.7%), required considerably less labour than U13, which had excellent DMC (42.3%). This last clone required an additional 80 h compared to the average of 523 h (excluding Dale) for UAC/FSA.Labour hours required to produce 1 ton of gari versus DMC of raw roots (UAC/FSA data) are plotted in Fig. 7. Dale is a locally grown variety in Benin with low DMC and small roots. If this genotype (clearly outlying) is included, the regression analysis comparing DMC and labour hours results in r 2 = 0.55. However, when Dale was ignored, the coefficient of determination was drastically reduced (r 2 = 0.26). Even when Dale is overlooked, there is a large range of variation in y = -0,525x + 26,078 R² = 0,6736     the time required to process 1 ton of gari, spanning from 400 to 800 hours. Relatively little of that variation is explained by DMC, as also indicated by data from Fig. 6(B,C). There are therefore other factors that influence the variation in the labour required for processing 1 ton of gari such as shape and size of roots, which has a huge impact on the peeling operation.Root peeling, pulp sieving and pulp toasting are the most labour-demanding out these activities was further analyzed and are depicted in the Supporting information (Fig. S1). The data included trials at UAC/FSA and IITA. The most important influence of DMC was found to be that for pulp sieving. However, there is a large dispersion of data (Supporting information, Fig S1). The negligible influence of DMC on labour requirements for pulp toasting is not surprising. Most of the effect of DMC would be on stages prior to the toasting. When the material being processed reaches that stage, they already have a much more uniform (and increased) DMC because of the mechanical de-watering that takes place after fermentation.A summary of the relative importance of DMC in gari yield and labour requirements is provided in Fig. 8. In addition, another important parameter related to the drudgery of gari production is provided: the total amount of mass that women had to move throughout the entire process. The highest coefficient of determination was observed for the regression of kg of mass movement per kg of gari produced, on DMC (r 2 = 0.65).Figure 8(A) shows a positive correlation between gari yield and the raw root dry matter content. However, the dry matter content does not impact significatively the time spent for processing (Fig. 8B). Other parameters may have to be considered for their impact on process productivity, such as root peeling ability, draining behavior during fermentation and sieving ability linked to fiber content. A clear negative correlation can be observed between mass movement and dry matter content (Fig. 8C). The dry matter content is thus an important trait to be considered in order to reduce labour requirements and thus the often related drudgery in gari processing.This review shows a strong genetic influence on processing yield, operators' efficiency, workload and fatigue of RTB processors (mainly women, young children and elderly). Processing yield depends not only on varieties, but also on the level of complexity of the processes. Indeed, low processing yields are the result of complicated operations with many steps to reduce water content, enhance the shelf-life of products and, in the case of cassava, detoxify it if necessary.Thus, more complex processes tend to increase the likelihood of perceived drudgery and reduce global processing yields, but, on the other hand, lengthen the shelf life of food products. In that sense, complexity and, concomitantly, some degree of drudgery are the price to pay to increase the shelf life of the end-product originating from the same raw material.Reduced processing yields not only have a direct negative economic impact on the value addition, but also have an indirect (but strongly correlated) effect on the accumulated weight carried through the process. By combining all the data sets for the different food product profiles, Fig. 9 illustrates the clear association between weights carried out and processing yields.Furthermore, this review addresses a clear gender dimension because processing work is often dominated by women as a result of existing norms that often push women into monotonous and drudgery related tasks. Because social impact through social and gender inclusiveness is a particular outcome aim of RTB breeding 77 and part of the sustainable development goals, increasing productivity and limiting perceived drudgery in RTB processing is therefore crucial within the empowerment of women from below. Gender transformative approaches that aim to change gender roles are important but often slow and are not always able to address the concrete working conditions and livelihoods and their context (including the existing norms) that . UAC/FSA trial relationship between dry matter content of activities (Fig. 6A) and therefore the relationship between DMC and the time required to carry the roots and the total labour requirements to produce 1 ton of gari.women are largely dependent on 78,79 to make a living and increase their income and independence.A special effort should be made by RTB breeders to evaluate the yields of the final product and the additional fatigue that could be brought by the introduction of new genotypes. This is particularly necessary for the more complex processed products, especially those from cassava, because of the additional need to detoxify them and to reduce the weight of the marketable product by removing water, as well as the need to increase shelf live. Moreover, addressing labour requirements and associated drudgery related to processing is not enough because breeders must also consider consumer preferences as well. There is a large diversity of requirements for granulated and soaked products on the one hand, and pasty and dough products such as pounded yam and   59 gari IITA, 64 dry fufu CIRAD/UAC-FSA, 61 dry fufu CIRAD/IITA, 60 Bâton CIRAD/IITA, 58 wet fufu IITA 64 and boiled cassava UAC/FSA 63 data. matooke on the other. All these products are obtained after complex processing steps. 27,[34][35][36] This review also shows that cassava root dry matter is highly influenced by the location and time of harvest especially with regards to the extent harvesting takes place around the peak of the rainy season. [80][81][82][83][84] This stresses the importance of selecting for dry matter stability throughout the season and and not only accross locations. Clones with such dry matter stability exist [85][86][87][88][89] and can therefore be included in the prebreeding strategy. This would especially be beneficial for processors as they process all year round.The processing efficiency or productivity that determines the amount of labour required from processors and the related drudgery is a key factor in the varietal adoption process. The processors, who are often the decision makers for the purchase of raw materials, strongly contribute to the creation of a market segment for new genotypes or to their rejection depending on the difficulty of processing and/or the food product yields obtained. The views of consumers, traders and growers have already been incorporated into the definition of breeding goals. This review highlights, however, the critical importance of processors in the final varietal adoption. 90 Their perception of each genotype provides relevant information that must be integrated upstream in the breeding pipeline to increase the chances of success of new varieties.AB, DD, TM, FKA, GF, LF and BT were responsible for study conceptualization. HC, BA, DO, DOO, DO, AA, BO, MO, SN, NO and LA were responsible for data curation. AB, DD, HC, AB, BT, BO, SN and LA were responsible for formal analysis. AB, AB, BT, DOO, MO, SN, NO, LA and DD were responsible for investigations. AB, GF, MT, LA, LF and DD were responsible for methodology. AB, BT, TM, LA, GF, LF and DD were responsible for supervision. AB, HC and DD were responsible for writing the original draft. AB, HC, DD, LF and BT were responsible for reviewing and editing. DD was responsible for project administration.","tokenCount":"5691"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"be1793c84613ebd512b3355995b03d0f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://data.cimmyt.org/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=hdl:11529/10548891/8","id":"300780161"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"42c76e62-19bc-43eb-ba84-89936d4ab2d9","pagecount":"10","content":"The test bench has a motor which allows moving a conveyer belt at variable speeds, independently a second axle that is used to drive any implement mounted on a fixed frame. In Figure 1 a schematic of the test bench is shown and a picture of the bench in action. The equipment is built specifically to evaluation different metering systems and enables spatial analysis of the distribution patterns. A second experimental set up was used for the final part of the seed meter evaluation, available at the facilities of CENEMA-INIFAP (Centro Nacional de Estandarización de Maquinaria Agrícola). This test bench is built to comply with the Mexican norm NMX-O-168-SCFI-2009 for the testing of agricultural machinery, mechanical and pneumatic seeders in particular (Figure 2). This setup allows entire machine frame to be attached to a driving axle with redactor engine and the bridge structure can simulate working on sloped land by lifting the while frame up from one side. Additionally, it is equipped with a shell-shaped cam shaft that allows evaluating the effect of added vibration on the entire machine (Figure 3). This seed meter is manufactured by National Agro Industries, an Indian agricultural equipment manufacturer located in Ludhiana, Punjab, and is usually produced as a modular nit mounted on a frame, holding a different number of units depending on the machine size1. The seed meter (Figure 4) is one with a metering plate that operates at an adjustable inclination angle. The plate itself has 24 seed cells and its diameter spans 170 mm. The seed bin or container has a volume of 3.8 l and presents a divider that controls the seed flow towards the plate. Above, the seed plate is topped with a brush that serves as a seed ejector when these reach the cavity leading to the seeding tube.1 The manufacturer offer a variety of agricultural equipment -using the same metering setup on different seeders  Similar to the previous one, this seed meter consists of an inclined plate with 24 seed cells and 170 mm diameter but is fabricated in aluminum. The seed meter finds its original in the Bangladeshi Agricultural Research Institute (BARI -www.bari.gov.bd) and is the standard option for their twowheel tractor zero-till drill seeder (Hossen et al., 2013). Here, two seed meter units are mounted on a single frame (Figure 5). The seed container is equally built out of steel sheet, with a capacity of 4.5 l and with overall dimensions of 0.5 m x 0.33m x 0.22 m in length, width and height respectively.Also, here a central divider is present, only here with a central gate that allows adjusting the size of the opening that feeds seed to the actual metering plate. The Mexican version of the common inclined plate seed meter unit comes as a single unit made up of 3 semi-individual seed meter modules (Figure 6). The plate has again 24 seed cell and a diameter of 170 mm. The capacity of one single seed section is around 9.5 l and the setup with 3 meter unties measures 0.95 m x 0.27 m x 0.22 m for length, width and height respectively. The seed plate is made out of aluminum and the seed container is built out of stainless steel. Another Bangladeshi inclined plate seed meter system, but a smaller rendition -the aluminum plate holds only 9 seed cavities and plate diameter is restricted to 115 mm. The standard frame holds two identical seed meter units with the containers made out of steel sheets. Each container has a volume of 3.5 l, with a length of 0.45 m and 0.21 m and 0.20 m width and height respectively (Figure 7). This seed meter system uses a vertical metering plate with 12 seed cells in the shape of small buckets or spoon-like holes to transport the seed from the lower part in the seed container towards the opening leading to the seeding tube. The plate has is a plastic rendition with a diameter of 125 mm. As all presented Bangladeshi-style seed meter modules, two seed containers are combined on one fixed frame (Figure 8). This particular version can also be used for metering smaller grains, with a fluted roller system at the bottom of each seed container. The container capacity is quite large with a volume of 14 l (i.e. 7 l per section); the full frame dimensions are 0.7 m x 0.35 m x 0.3 m for length, width and height respectively. This vertical plate seed meter system holds a plate of 150 mm diameter and as before 12 seed cavities. The metering system is of Chinese origin and the aluminum plate resembles a shuriken like star with tiny fingers that lift up the seed from the seed container. Further, the seed unit consists of a transplant plastic seed bin with a 9 l volume. The full unit dimensions are 0.28 m * 0.21 m * 0.5 m in length, width and height respectively (Figure 9). The unit features an additional mechanism that allows adjusting the position of the opening towards the seed tube where the seed drop, as shown in Figure 10, and has a built-in individual gear box that enables adjustment of rotation speed of each seed plate separately. Mexican agricultural machine manufacturer Sembradoras del Bajío (SDB) uses a horizontal plate metering system in their mechanical seeders. The seed meter unit drags the seed horizontally with the plate into an iron cast ejection chamber which pushes the seed out into the seeding tube opening (Figure 11). The metering unit comes with a variety of plastic seed plates for different sizes and  The Fitarelli seed meter system is another plastic horizontal plate meter, but from Brazilian make.Once more a series of different plates are offered to adjust for seed sizes and shape. The seed container capacity is of 10 l and has a height and diameter of 0.3 m and 0.26m respectively. The unit also presents an ejection chamber, but made in plastic making it a very light compared to the other meters.  Similar to the previous system, this seed meter of French origin also works with a roller system (Figure 14). However, in this case, a roller with fixed cells controls the seed selecting process.  ","tokenCount":"1035"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4f2949c69aa4a5dab5ff48b00f3517f9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H043841.pdf","id":"-824423330"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a64c5c4d-939a-4a76-9886-4a1f61233e10","pagecount":"23","content":"This paper uses a case study to address a fundamental issue in irrigation management: the relationship between technology and the organization required to use that technology productively. When an irrigation system is developed over time by a local community, the technology and the organization evolve together. However, when engineers design and construct large scale irrigation systems, there is a tendency to concentrate on the civil works, and to assume that, at least on the local level, whatever organization is required will evolve by itself. This was the assumption of the designers of the large irrigation systems built by the British and post colonial governments in present day Pakistan and the northwestern states of India.Warabandi refers specifically to the roster of turns for taking water along the watercourses of these Indian and Pakistani irrigation systems. Basically, the irrigation system delivers a constant but limited quantity of water a t the head of a watercourse. Farmers then take the full supply of water for a period of time proportional to the size of their landholding, a t a specific time once a week. Since the amount of water supplied is far less than required to irrigate the whole area during the week, each farmer has to adjust his cropping pattern to the expected quantity of water.In India the warabandi system has been seen by some irrigation specialists as a panacea to severe problems on irrigation systems outside the northwestern states (Singh 1980). However, whatever the merits of the system in northern India and Pakistan, it has proven extremely difficult to implement outside of this region. Even within the region, there are few detailed studies of the actual operation of warabandi (Malhotra 1982).The present paper contributes to filling this gap in our knowledge of warabandi. Based on detailed field work in a village in Punjab Province, Pakistan, it takes an historical perspective on how the route of a particular watercourse, and the rotations on that watercourse, have evolved over time. It demonstrates the lack of \"fit\" or congruence between the imposed irrigation technology and the pre-existing social organization of the village. The attempts by some water users to adapt both the route and the rotation to solve social conflicts have proven unsatisfactory.The Irrigation System. The Punjab (Pakistan) irrigation system uses barrages to divert water from the rivers into the canals. The canals are designed for~continuous operation at or near full capacity. They can be closed for repairs, during floods, or to conserve water in times of shortage, but the amount of flow cannot be regulated on demand. Water flows continuously from the main canals into distributaries and through ungated concrete outlets (mogha) into watercourses and finally into farmers'~ditches and onto the fields. As an indication of the size of the main canals, the Lower Jhelum Canal has a discharge at the head of 151 cumecs and commands 628.000 hectares. Distributariesare designed with capacities up to 5,660 liters per second (l/s). They are the lowest level channels directly controlled by the Irrigation Department. Since distributaries have gates, rotations can be instituted in times of water shortage. The moghas are ungated modular outlets designed to deliver fixed amounts of water up to 113 I/s (4 cusecs) into watercourses, usually at a rate of about .21 liters per second/hectare (one cusec for 350 -400 acres).On average, each watercourse irrigates about 225 hectares of land, usually cultivated by about 50 farmers. The route and command area of each watercourse is laid out by the Irrigation Department, and legally can be changed only with its sanction; but the building, maintenance, and managementof the watercourse are the responsibility of the farmers in its command area. Each farmer has a right to water proportional to the size of his land holding.The irrigation system was originally designed to operate with a minimum of human regulation or interference. Aside from engineering considerations the British believed that a flexible system of water distribution would lead to uncontrollable abuses. They also wished to keep construction and operational costs at a minimum since they were interested in a quick return on their investment. These considerations also underlay the minimal local intervention: farmers were expected to build and maintain their watercourses and settle disputes themselves. Under the Canal and Drainage Act of 1873, still the basic irrigation law, the Irrigation Department retains considerable residual power, but this is only rarely used upon farmers' appeal (Jahania 1973). The major irrigation method remains flooding of small basins, as originally recommended by the Irrigation Department (Trevaskis 1931 :293).Efficient continuous operation of the system requires, at the local level, that a minimum of three tasks be accomplished: regular system maintenance; water allocation; and conflict management (Coward 1980:19). Regular cleaning and maintenance of watercourses, including de-silting, removal of weeds, and repair of banks, is essential because the earthen channels deteriorate rapidly, leading to high water losses. Water flow must be rotated because the rate and volume of flow is inadequate to allow irrigation from all the outlets simultaneously. Finally, conflict over shares in maintenance work and rotation of water, and accusations of water theft are inevitable, and dictate some means to resolve disputes and insure equitable sharing of water and costs of operation. The government did not make any provision for local institutions to fulfill these tasks. Given the principles of non-interference in local affairs and minimum bureaucracy, cultivators must depend on their own cultural traditions to fulfill these tasks.LandDemarcarion. As part of the colonization of new land through irrigated agriculture, the Punjab government established a policy to survey all the land and lay down squares on a common base line for the whole commanded area of each canal project. At the time the Lower Jhelum Canal was being built (1897 to 191 7) it was decided to compel farmers in the old villages to conform to this requirement too, as a pre-condition to receiving canal irrigation. Accordingly, during the 1905-06 settlement in Gondalpur (a pseudonym), the village where I worked, all of the land was resurveyed and field boundaries were moved to conform to a grid'pattern (Hailey 1907:l-2).This involved imposing a grid of squares lmurabah) which, within each mama (revenue village), are numbered consecutively beginning in the northwest portion. Each square is further subdivided into 25 numbered killa, as shown in the key to Map I. This process was called killabandi. or \"rectification.\"' The corners of the squares are marked by permanent concrete posts. Although the squares are not all exactly equal in size (Hailey 1907:2). they are supposed to be approximately 11.2 hectares, so each killa is about 0.45 hectares.Today, most people know the location of their fields by the square and killa number; and the fields do form a grid even though the actual lines have shifted somewhat with time. The grid pattern does makes resolution of disputes over land boundaries easier. The watercourses also usually follow the grid lines with official turnouts usually located on the corners of squares.Construction and Operation of Watercourses. Map 1 shows the square numbers and the location of the residential area, paths, the railroad line, and the three watercourses found in Gondalpur. The watercourse routes shown,are the official ones, as of 1976. They ere approximately, but not exactly. accurate. Farmers' ditches to carry water from the watercourse to their fields are not shown; they form an intricate pattern since nearly every killa is irrigated. The low-lying land to the east of the Miani path, and north of the Pirpur path, was more valuable than higher land before canal irrigation was introduced, since rain water could be impounded; but today it is inferior to the rest of the village land because much of it is wateriogged and/or saline.The system was not designed to irrigate all of the land during any one season. The Lower Jhelum Canal was designed for a total cropping intensity of 75% per year. The actual sown area, however, tended to average over 95% per year (Rudkin 191 1:9). Watercourses on the Lower Jhelum Canal were designed to carry an average of 28.3 I/s (1 cusec) for every 142 hectares. According to Trevaskis (1 931 :293) the Irrigation Department assumed 1 cusec would irrigate 0.4 hectares (1 acre) in 1 pehr; that is, 3 hours. \"Irrigate\" here is defined as covering 0.4 hectares with 7.6 centimeters of water. By this standard, a maximum of 3.2 hectares can be irrigated in one 24 hour day. and 22.7 hectares in a 7 day rotation. This would mean only 16% of the command area could be irrigated in a week, and it would take 3 weeks to irrigate 50% of the commanded area.Given the high moisture deficit in the region, the shortage of water relative to area and crop water requirements necessitates a rationing system in order to distribute water widely and-equitably. As every farmer on a watercourse has a right to water proportional to the size of his holding, water is rationed,according to a rotation, usually of seven days. Within this period, each farmer is supposed to have sole access to the water flow during a fixed period of time. The rotation always begins with the farmers located at the head and proceeds to the tail of the watercourse.. In most cases, the farmers themselves established the first rotation. Farmer-established rotations are called kachcha, meaning impermanent, having no legal basis, or informal, while those established by the Irrigation Department under its own rules are calledpakka, meaning solid, legal, regulated, or formal. Through the 1950s. the rotations in Gondalpur remained informal, and the rotation on the middle one is still informal in practice.Informants say that unlike the formal rotation, the informal rotation takes into consideration local conditions such as the sandiness of soils and the height of the field relative to the ditch. Thus, a sandy or high field is awarded extra time to ensure it can be irrigated. More time is also allowed for filling long sections of the watercourse. However, an informal rotation seems to work only when there are relatively few irrigators, as in the past in Gondalpur, or where one or two irrigators have sufficient authority to enforce it. This is the case on the middle watercourse in Gondalpur, dominated by several large Pindi Village landlords who find the system advantageous.In some cases, the one man in whose name the time is recorded has been succeeded by a number of sons and nephews; these individuals must then agree upon an informal rotation among themselves. There are several examples of this in Gondalpur. If some or all of the farmers become dissatisfied with a rotation, they can petition the Irrigation Department to set up a new one, as has happened on two of the Gondalpur watercourses. This formal rotation is set up by the lowest Irrigation Department official on the revenue side, the canal clerk /patwar;) and confirmed by a higher official when all the irrigators agree. It is established according to formal procedures laid down by the Irrigation Department (Jahania 1973: Appendix VIII). Basically, after allowing lead time for filling sections of the watercourse, the clerk divides the number of minutes in a seven day rotation by the total area irrigated to arrive at the number of minutes per hectare to be allowed. He then awards the amount of time to individual land owners according to the total amount of land they irrigate. The rotation on the main watercourse in Gondalpur, for example, allows 14.43 minutes per 0.4 hectares.Every April 1, under Irrigation Department rules, the irrigation times shift forward and backward in alternate years, so that those who irrigate during the night one year will irrigate during the day the following year. However, the formal rotation does not allow for differences in soil or height of the field, or for losses of water due to seepage or leaking from the watercourse. This means the farmers near the tail of the branches do not get as much water per hectare as those at the head, and this difference in water supply is reflected in differences in cropping patterns and intensity and in land value. In the Pakistani system there are no \"ditch tenders,\" government or community officials diverting the water or overseeing the rotation; each man closes and opens outlets himself. Therefore, not surprisingly. taking water out of turn and trading water rights, though against Irrigation Department rules, are common practices3 I observed a number'of cases, and heard of others, in which farmers near the head opened outlets onto their land during others.'turns. This often leads to disputes and arguments, but I never observed any serious fights caused by this. This is because the watercourses are long, so the irrigator may not know of the theft; and people are careful about whose water, and how much, they take.Trading, even by people on different branches, is-also common. A man often needs more water than he is allotted one week, and less than he is allocated the next. Trading is therefore a way of making a formal rotation more flexible in practice. The Irrigation Department never takes action against trading or theft unless it receives formal complaints from the farmers. Another reason for trading water is that a farmer often has several pieces of land located on different parts of the watercourse. but all of his time is allocated at once. Time is allotted to people, not parcels of land.4 (This is discussed further below.) When asked how much time it takes to irrigate 0.4 hectare of land, the responses of farmers varied considerably. Generally, those near the division box of the three branches within Gondalpur (Map 1) said it takes 1.5 -2 hours if the watercourse is clean and the tubewell running; on the middle and tail reaches the estimates ranged from 2 -4 hours, with the same conditions. Since the rotation allows less than 1 5 minutes for 0.4 hectares, no one can irrigate all or even half his land in one turn, and farmers at the tail are able to irrigate only a small portion of their land.One other notable characteristic of Gondalpur's watercourses is that all three originate in other villages controlled by relatively large and powerful landowners. The main watercourse originates on and runs along the line between Pirpur Village and Chak Aziz Village. Although there is no official outlet on the main branch leading to the division box among the three branches within Gondalpur. Pirpur and Chak Aziz landlords owning the adjacent land cut the banks and take water with impunity. The Chak Aziz branch runs through the land of three relatively powerful (and in one case ruthless) families of Chak Aziz; they too often take water out of turn, and refuse to do their share of maintenance. ). In the latter. time is largest fragment. The Act says that the shareholders may choose the procedure they wish to follow. See Jahania I1 973:96). See also Lowdermilk et al. (1 978 [l11:34-351 for a slightly different diefinition of rozawari.-4%The other two watercourses begin in Pindi Village, and irrigate the land of several powerful landlords who own land in both Pirpur and Gondalpur; many Gondalpur people are their tenants and clients, and depend on them for access to land as well as help with the bureaucracy. Even landowners on these watercourses are in a dependent (client) relationship with the Pindi landlords. The analysis in this paper concentrates on the main watercourse.Gondalpur village. Gondalpur is the pseudonym I use for a village in central Punjab where my wife and I resided and carried out research for 18 months in 1976-77. It is located on the Chaj Doab, the area between the Jhelum and Chenab Rivers. Its existence predates the first British colonial records on the village, in 1857. It grew rapidly. primarily due to immigration, during the decades before the turn of the century. Gondalpur began receiving water from the Lower Jhelum Canal in 1904, and within a few years all of the land in the village was under cultivation.The dominant landowners, the Gondals, are divided into four named biradari, or brotherhoods, which are local co-resident groups based on a combination of patrilineal descent and marriage (Alavi 1972). The biradari members' lands tend to be concentrated on different branches of the watercourse, with some mixture. Table 1 summarizes the size and location of the lands of each biradari. Although in this paper I speak of land belonging to this or that biradari, land is registered in individuals' names, and patrilateral relatives hold residue1 rights. (For detailed discussions of village history and social organization, see Merrey 1982Merrey , 1983Merrey , 1986).  . .The main watercourse, like others in Pakistan, was constructed by the farmers themselves, on a route laid out by the Irrigation Department a t the time the Lower Jhelum Canal was built. The main channel, officially sanctioned by the Irrigation Department, is called the sarkari khal. or official watercourse. Its route cannot legally be altered without prior official approval. Map 2 shows the route of the official watercourse as it appeared until the early 1960s: there is no evidence of any changes taking place, and the official map of the SCARP tubewel15 constructed in 1965 indicates the organization that built it, the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), had not been informed of changes made at that time As Map 2 shows, the main watercourse has several major branches. The main branch follows the boundary between Chak Aziz and Pirpur villages to a three-way division box. The right hand (eastern side) branch was and still is called the Khizarane nali(Khizarane's channel), since it primarily irrigates land owned by members of the Khizarane biradari. The middle branch used to be called the vichalinali(center channel), and was used primarily to irrigate land owned by members of Muradke. Khudaya, and Miane biradaris. This branch still exists, but is shorter, and is now called the Muradke branch. The third branch used to be called the urali(high) or dingi (crooked) nali. It used to irrigate the high land owned today by a Chak Aziz village landlord, as well as land owned by the Langah biradari, and some Pindi village landlords. The other branch near the outlet irrigated the remainder of the land owned by the landlords of Chak Aziz. The routes of these two branches have been significantly altered in recent years.Although there were apparently no changes made in the route of the official watercourse, the cultivators did add many unofficial ditches and turnouts over the years. For example, about 40 years ago, in squares 42 and 41 (Map 2). a Langah man built a long unofficial ditch from the dingi nalito irrigate land officially commanded by the center branch. This ditch now links both branches. Similarly, in squares 32 and 31, the Miane biradari people have built extra ditches so that they can bring water from either branch (dinginalior center) to their fields located between the two, though their irrigation time is officially on the center branch. Further, although only one turnout per square is permitted on official channels, there has been a tremendous proliferation of locations where the channels are cut: this is true on most watercourses in Pakistan.'The total cultivable commanded area (CCA). or potentially irrigated area, of the main watercourse is 275 hectares. This is called its chakbandi. Of this, 35.6 hectares are in Chak Aziz, near the head, while 9.9~ hectares are at the tail end in Pindi. The remaining 229.5 hectares are in Gondalpur itself. However, because of waterlogging and other problems discussed below, not all of the commanded area within Gondalpur is irrigated by this watercourse. I estimate that only 150 hectares, about 55% of the commanded area within Gondalpur is actually irrigated in most years.7In other words, of the total 275 commanded hectares on this watercourse, only about 200 hectares, or 70 -75% of the total is irrigated.Until 1961, the rotation on this watercourse was an unofficial kachcha warabandi. There is no record available today of how this rotation worked. Informants say that if the canal water stopped for some time. the person in line for the next turn would be the first to get the water. Thus, rotations were not necessarily on fixed days. Similarly, specific data are unavailable on the level of conflict over water or on the level or effectiveness of maintenance. Informants made general statements that there used to be many quarrels, usually over rotation times (attributed to the lack of preciseness of thepehr system), and sometimes over water theft, but they insisted these did not lead to major problems and did not affect the ability of the farmers to cooperate in channel maintenance. They claim the channel was better maintained before the installation of the SCARP tubewell, as before that water was short and frequent cleaning was essential to get water. Developments Since 1960. Conflicts within and among biradaris in Gondalpur became intense in the late 1950s. culminating in a double murder in 1962 (Merrey 1983). Conflicts and tensions have continued since then, and two members of the Kharal family in Chak Aziz have also been involved. All of the land owning parties in these conflicts have their major holdings on this watercourse. It is not surprising that watercourse politics have become intertwined with the larger political conflic!s in Gondalpur. Several other factors have had an impact on the operation of the watercourse and biradari politics.One factor is the increase in population, leading to subdivision of land holdings, necessitating more minute subdivision of water rights. This subdivision makes it difficult to maintain an informal rotation, and has led throughout Punjab to appeals to the Irrigation Department to create official rotations. Related to this subdivision is a second factor, the purchase of land by people of other biradaris, leading to an increase in the mixture of biradaris on the watercourse. For example the Kharal of Chak Aziz village have acquired small plots of land here and there in Gondalpur; Pindi village people have bought land from some of the Khudaya involved in the 1962 murder; and in recent years two Rajeane Bhatti have bought land in several locations on the Khizarane branch. These purchases have complicated the rotation and made cooperation for maintenance more difficult to enforce.A third factor is the intensification of cultivation, partly a result of increased population pressure and facilitated by the introduction of higher yielding varieties of crops: these are far more watersensitive, placing a greater premium on amount and timing of irrigation water. Related to this is the fourth factor, the installation of the SCARP tubewell in 1965 which in effect doubled the water supply. Increased water supply has led to an increase in double cropping and in the area of crops requiring large amounts of water, especially rice and sugar cane (Merrey 1983). It also led to an increase in the wastage of water: as on other watercourses supplemented by public tubewells, this one was not enlarged to accommodate the enhanced flow, leading to erosion, overtopping, leaking, and washouts. Further, since there was far more water than farmers were accustomed to using, the frequency and effectiveness of watercourse cleaning declined. As the watercourse deteriorated from both these factors (lack of maintenance and water flow greater than channel capacity) the distribution of water became increasingly inequitable: farmers at the tail were probably getting half to a third of the amount available at the head by 1977 (farmers' statements; Lowdermilk et al. 1978 [111]:97-99).As on other watercourses in Gondalpur, there is a five rupee fine for non-participation in periodic cleaning; but while many do not cooperate, I could not find one example of a fine actually collected. On the branch passing through Chak Aziz village and Gondalpur to Pindi (lillage, biradaris have assigned shares to clean based on the amount of land irrigated. This cleaning is done about twice, a year; but the head cultivators, the Kharal of Chak Aziz village, not only avoid their share but often sabotage the cleaning of others. On the other branches farmers work together beginning at the head, and stop when the section up to their individual plots are clean. With this system those near the tail do more'work; and there were many complaints that the ditches are not cleaned often or well enough.All of these factors have led to three inter-related responses on this watercourse: attempts to change the route of the official watercourse to better fit perceptions of the needs and realities of social relationships; changes in the rotation of water; and more recently, demands for government-aided watercourse rehabilitation. The route changes are also related to the attempts of some to use a favorable location on the watercourse as a political weapon.1. Chak Aziz anddingi branches. The unauthorized ditch built about 40 years ago by a Langah man to irrigate his land in squares 41 and 42 has been mentioned above. Informants say this route was shorter, and therefore more efficient. However, both this and the legal route pass -52 through land owned by the numbardap family, a relatively powerful group within the Khudaya biradari. Several years before the 1962 murder of the previous numbardar, a Langah biradari man was suspected of having been involved in the attempt to burn him and his cousin to death (Merrey 1983). Therefore, the numbardar destroyed the sections of the Langah ditch passing through his land; for two years the Langah man got no crops as he had no water. Later the numbardar allowed it to be rebuilt when he discovered the Langah had not been involved in the plot.Until the early 1960s. the dinginaliroute remained as shown in Map 2. It ran though land owned by the numbardar and Fazal Kharal, of Chak Aziz village; it cut across squares and killas, rather than running along the ridges between the fields. Then Fazal arranged a land trade with the numbardar to consolidate his land. To facilitate cultivation of his newly consolidated land with a tractor, Fazal then convinced the other people on the branch to agree to a major change in the route. This was an extension of the previous Chak Aziz branch to replace the dinginali, and runs along the ridges between squares, and then along the distributary, as shown in Map 3. Route of Watercourse branch until rehabilitation project. 1977.Route of watercourse as built during rehabilitation project, 1977. which probably reflects the route actually sanction by the irrigation deparment in the mid-1 960s.Before mid-1960s Ihis watercourse stopped here, irrigating only Chak Aziz land; it was extended from here to Gondalpur when the route was changed and the dingi nali abandoned.C.'Nurnberder (from the English word \"number\") refers to the village resident selected by the Government as its contact point in the village. He collects land revenue and irrigation fees from individuals, based on the revenue and cnal clerks' assessments. The position is normally hereditary (father to son), subject to Government confirmation.The Langah biradari's land is located just downstream of Fazal's land. Langah iniormants say now that they made a mistake in agreeing to the change in the route, and accuse Fazal of fraud, Since Fazal's land is high, and the new route is also higher, he gets more water than before. However, he and his relatives refuse to de-silt the channel regularly because the silt helps raise the water level, facilitating irrigation to their fields. The Langah are forced to de-silt the Kharal's share as well as their own to get water--but they claim the Kharal then often refill the channel with silt again. The Langah can do little as the Kharal are far wealthier and politically more powerful.The Langah claim that Fazal got the Irrigation Department's sanction after a new ditch had been built. but instead of getting sanction for the route just constructed, he got yet another route sanctioned along the distributary, behind the residential area of Chak Aziz, and continuing downstream along the distributary. The Langah say they did not realize this change had been made when they agreed to its sanctioning; after it was authorized; they had no choice but to go along with its reconstruction again, along the distributary downstream of the Chak Aziz residential area (the section through this residential area was sanctioned but not built until the watercourse reconstruction program in 1977; Merrey 1982). The Langah probably agreed to these changes out of both powerlessness to oppose the Kharal, and faith i n their kinship tie with Fazal, whose mother is a Langah. The Langah today have acute water problems, and in 1976-77 were among the most enthusiastic supporters of a proposed watercourse reconstruction program.As is shown on Map 2, the Khudaya and Miane biradaris' land in squares 45, 41, 32, 33, 28, 29, 19-21, etc. used to be irrigated from the center (vichali) branch. Today it is shorter, and primarily irrigates Muradke land and some Awan land. The Muradke and Awan were initially accused along with the Langah in the first attempt to kill the numbardar and his cousin, though they were later exonerated. Nevertheless, several informants date the tension between the Khudaya and Muradke from that incident. The tension continued after the murder of the numbardar and his cousin (both Khudaya biradari). The new numbardar and his brothers were young and weak then, and other Khudaya feared they would get into trouble while irrigating since the water passed through Muradke land while irrigating. They also feared the Muradke would attempt to deny them water. Other informants attribute the heightened tension to the effect of the first \"Union Council\" election under the \"Basic Democracy\" system. in 1960, when a Muradke opposed a Khudaya for Gondalpur's seat (the Khudaya won). About a year after the murder, about the time the new Chak Aziz branch was under construction. the Khudaya built a new watercourse branch, now called the Khudaya branch (see Map 4).This new branch utilizes part of the former dingi branch in square 51, and runs northwest through the land owned by the Khudaya and Miane (squares 45,41), to link up with the old section through squares 32,29,28, and beyond. No survey was done, and the ditch was made the same depth throughout regardless of land height. A few years later, about 1966, the numbardar got the new route sanctioned by the Irrigation Department.Not everyone is happy with the new route: the Miane biradari, whose land is relatively high, complain they get less water than before, while the numbardar's poor relatives at the tail say they also get less water. Nevertheless, the new route accomplished its purpose: the Khudaya now have their own channel, which they control right from the division box; they are no longer dependent on the Muradkes'good will, and no longer have to pass through their land. Perhaps as a result, the Khudaya-Muradke tension has not led to any overt conflict since the early 1960s.3. The tailofthe Khizarane branch. At its tail, the Khizarane branch is supposed to irrigate land in parts of squares 23,25, 26, 35, and 36. The land furthest from the head of the watercourse is relatively high and sandy land, while the intervening land, parts of squares 38-39,34-35, 26-27, and 21, are low and waterlogged. Thus the watercourse must pass through this waterlogged low land in order to reach the higher sandy land. Much of this higher land is owned by Muradke, Rajeane Bhattis, and an urban landlord. The lower land is owned by various people, including -99 -.asuadxa lea16 i e inq 'Apuo!seoao si!aqi uei aypeinyy aql aI!qM 'asn si! 101 Aed 01 pasnjai siueuai s!q asnmaq IlaMaqnl s!q 6U!UUnJ paddois peq piolpuel Summary. This section has shown how the routes of the watercourse branches have been manipulated by more powerful people to gain control over, or to punish, others on the watercourse. In only one case, the modifications in Chak Aziz village, was an economic benefit also important: the changed route enabled Fazal Kharal to better cultivate his land with a tractor, and possibly to improve his water supply. However, in the process the Langah supply was reduced, and Fazal and his relatives' power over the Langah enhanced. In the case of the Khudaya. they were able to separate themselves from having to cooperate with the Muradke, with whom relations were tense; but this was at the expense of a reduced water supply for at least some people. On the Khizarane branch, the watercourse was used by the Muradke as a weapon to hurt a person of another biradari who had slighted them, i.e., struck a blow at their honor /inat). even though their action was at their own expense as well. All of these changes in the route of the watercourse are inseparable from changes in the rotation, the subject of the next section.No record is available today on the informal rotation in operation on the main watercourse until late 1961. Informants say it was broken when people who had acquired land found they did not get water,' and applied to the Irrigation Department to institute a formal rotation @akka waraband/). The first formal rotation, established in late 1961, apparently preceded most of the route changes discussed above. There is no indication in the canal clerk's register that this rotation included extra lead time for filling the watercourse, suggesting it may have been technically deficient. This rotation lasted less than five years. It had to be replaced for two reasons: its gross inequity, and the changes in watercourse routes, especially the separation of the Khudaya and Muradke branches.One informant told me that people began complaining almost immediately after the establishment of this first formal rotation, because of its inequity. He alleged the canal clerk had been \"influenced\" by certain farmers. His major example was from his own biradari: several holdings which were still together in the record books as one holding were given a total of 9 hours of water, which was reduced to a more reasonable total of 2.5 hours in the next rotation. I had thought this an exaggeration, but examination of the rotations of 1961 and 1966 in the canal clerk's register confirmed this. There were other similar anomalies, but this was the most obvious one; in each case the inflation occurred by including in the rotation schedule land not actually irrigated by this watercourse.The other factor necessitating the revision of the rotation was the construction of two new branches discussed above: the Chak Aziz branch, which was lengthened and replaced the ding; branch; and the creation of a new Khudaya branch separate from the Muradke channel. This new rotation was sanctioned in August 1966 and was the basis for the rotation in operation in 1977. It includes lead time for filling the channel and extra time for citrus orchards; and it was on this rotation that the annual twelve hour shift of time was introduced: every April 1 the rotation shifts 12 hours alternately backward and forward, so that people who irrigate a t night one year, irrigate during the day the following year. This rotation has been slightly revised twice since 1966. In March 1971, it was changed to reflect the division of land between the numbardar family and his cousin. In August 1975. another revision occurred when an absent Khudaya family sold a small piece of its land. Table 2 presents the revised rotation. Notes are based on observations of, and informants' statements concerning, actual practices where they differ from the official r0tation.O  26-28. 33, 38, 39, 41,42.46.47 6Mumtaz Khizarane cultivates this land on lease.3SeeMap 1 for locations of square numbers where land is located. 4lnformants include their fraternal nephew; 30 min. lead time. 7Raja is in Sind: his brothers cultivate; 12 min. lead time. 00:15 Tuesday. %her. Kahn. Jahana. Raman (No. 12-14) are deceased; informants say Phule and Gula s/o Khan take water at 6:32; then Dost s/o Jahana at 8:14. Sher's sons are not mentioned but presumably taka water. 6 min. lead time in Khan's time. 10Deceased; son Ahmad cultivates. Square 29 is not on this branch; previous rotation lists squares 26, 33, 34,40. 120fficial time is on Khizarane branch, but actually used on Khudaya branch. -59 -One striking characteristic of the official rotation is that many of the holdings are still listed in the names of persons who were deceased even in 1966 when it was established. This reflects the legal position according to the records, since the rotation is based on the official record of rights. but shows people are evading the legal prescription to subdivide land when the owner dies. As a result of these demographic changes, the record does not reflect actual practice, and informal arrangements have been made among the successors for internal sharing of the water. This gap between the official rotation and social reality is a major force behind recent pressures to apply for another revision of the rotation.Another striking feature, as noted above, is that water is allocated in which people hold land with the map shows that the plots belonging to one holding are widely scattered; in some cases they must even be irrigated by separate branches of the watercourse. If during one turn a man must move water from one branch to another, a great deal of \\Ivater is likely to be wasted. In fact this is often done; but in addition there is also a lot of informal trading of water to adjust to the problem. Another result of this single allocation of irrigation time for scattered plots of land is that those owning land in the sandy or waterlogged areas have extra water that can be applied to their cultivable plots, This too has a consequence pointed out by several informants: it reduces the incentive for those farmers to participate in cleaning and maintenance, since they have more water than most.The allocation of water to people instead of land also creates a problem when land is purchased. After purchasing land, it is necessary to apply to the Irrigation Department for separate time for one's land, a lengthy and somewhat expensive, process. For example, Dost Mohammad, a Rajeane Bhatti, purchased about 2.8 hectares of land from Fazal Kharal of Chak Aziz. The land is actually located in the middle of the Khizarane branch, far from Fazal's main holding. Thus. every week Mohammad must make an arrangement with Fazal to get water, including bringing it from the Chak Aziz branch to the Khizarane branch, a long distance. He has a similar problem with land he rents from another Kharal on the same branch. During the field work he was attempting to get separate rotation time, but despite paying a number of informal \"fees,\" had not succeeded before I left.Another important characteristic of the rotation schedule given in Table 2 is the exactness of the times allotted to begin or finish irrigating. Times are given to the minute, such as 10:39 or 1:44.This leads to frequent disagreements, since watches often do not agree, and a man's field may not be complelely irrigated at the exact time when his neighbor is scheduled to take the water.Finally, the designers of the irrigation system (and the rotations) assumed holdings in multiples of at leqst 5.1 hectares, the smallest original colony allotment, which entitled the holder to nearly three hours of water per week on this watercourse. Effective irrigation under the constraints imposed by the low water supply per hectare requires planning irrigation for a holding of at least this size. However, many holdings are now far smaller than reflected in the official rotation because of de facto divisions. The smallest holding listed in the official schedule is 0.5 hectare belonging to a Langah. His watercourse has a poor water supply, so that it takes about two hours to irrigate .4 hectare of land. With 19 minutes plus 10 minutes lead time to fill his irrigation ditch, a total of 29 minutes. this man could not manage within this schedule. Fortunately for him, his is a relatively cooperative biradari, so that with judicious exchanges and trading he is usually able t o irrigate his crops adequately. However, it is questionable how long such a formal rotation can work, if it becomes even more detailed and subdivided, in the absence of informal cooperation, trading, and sharing.The present rotation schedule is already losing its legitimacy, as the processes of land subdivision, land transfers, and increasing conflicts among people who had previously cooperated, continue. During the field work period, a land consolidation program and a watercourse reconstruction program simultaneously raised hopes and led to an increase in tension, and many people expressed the opinion that it waS time to break this rotation schedule and create a new one (Merrey 1982, 1983).In 1977 a Government research organization offered to assist in implementing a reconstruction program on the main watercourse. In this program, the Government provides engineering assistance and materials, including concrete outlet gates (pakka nakka); the farmers provide the labor. Most people reacted to this program, but it soon bogged down in disagreements over shares of work, and disputes with some who were attempting to sabotage the program. As reported in detail in Merrey (1982). the villagers apparently had seen this as yet another opportup ity to solve the underlying social problems, but it was not successful.Other writings have explored various sociological problems and their historical roots in irrigation management in Pakistan (Merrey 1982(Merrey , 1983(Merrey , 1986)). Here I wish to note a feature of rural Pakistani social structure that has not been emphasized previously. Even after about 80 years of adapting to an imposed irrigation system, no specialized irrigation management roles have evolved separate from the larger social structure at the local level. It would not be correct to say that there is no irrigation management organization; rather, the roles and norms through which irrigation tasks are carried out are imbedded in the larger local social structure, especially the kinship-based biradari system. However, the social structure has no legitimate cultural mechanisms YO insure that irrigation functions are fulfilled, ia, that irrigation tasks requiring cooperation with others are done. Rather, as I have shown in this paper, the irrigation system has become yet another weapon, as it were, in the conflicts endemic in rural Pakistani society.What lessons can be drawn from this case? It is not possible to offer a simple panacea, to solve all the complex organizational problems faced in designing and managing irrigation systems. But it is clear that when an irrigation system is still at the planning and later at the design stage, it is essential to make serious use of local social data, as well as the usual technical considerations., These data must be gathered systematically by social scientists trained to understand what types of data are appropriate and necessary, to avoid overloading the designers with extraneous data.Irrigation planners and designers cannot assume that people will adjust themselves to the technology, or by themselves evolve satisfactory solutions to what are often deeply imbedded sociological, political, and economic problems. An integral component of the design, construction, and operation processes must therefore be the development of appropriate organizational capacities so that the users can make the best use of the system. This would apply to rehabilitation and modernization projects on existing systems, as well as to new systems.Regarding Pakistan specifically, the case reported here is not unique. For example, Mirza and Merrey (1 979; Merrey 1982) show that similar problems characterized all of the recently rehabilitated watercourses studied to varying degrees. The minute subdivision of land and therefore irrigation times; the absence of a n indigenous local capacity to ensure cooperation on collective tasks; and the \"embeddedness\" of irrigation management tasks in a highly fragmented and competitive social structure are serious and deep-rooted problems not amenable to standard types of social tinkering usually recommended by social scientists.","tokenCount":"7266"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"be8b22aa8c5bc32841bc14cd6090286f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.tropenbos.org/file.php/2481/financiamiento-gestion-integrada-del-paisaje-fondo-rotatorio-bolivia-final.pdf","id":"-1432387622"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cc0f1443-9f4e-43d3-8d23-8e6e29fe9c79","pagecount":"42","content":"Este reporte hace parte de una serie de estudios de caso que brindan información sobre varios mecanismos utilizados para aumentar el acceso a la financiación de los pequeños agricultores, las PYMES y las comunidades en sus esfuerzos por contribuir a los paisajes sostenibles. Los estudios de caso se centran en las estrategias utilizadas por diversas partes interesadas para reducir los riesgos de determinados flujos financieros para inversores, intermediarios y destinatarios. Estos estudios de caso dan seguimiento a las recomendaciones formuladas por los participantes en el proceso consultivo sobre financiación innovadora para paisajes sostenibles (Louman et al. 2020). El objetivo es proporcionar más evidencia de estrategias exitosas para aumentar el acceso a la financiación para los pequeños agricultores, las PYME y las comunidades.Este estudio describe el instrumento financiero, fondo rotatorio, utilizado por la Asociación Forestal Indígena \"Ascensión\" en Bolivia para el cumplimiento de los objetivos sociales del paisaje integrado, el flujo financiero en el cual se desarrolla y los mecanismos para mitigar los riesgos asociados y compartidos, en apoyo a las Organizaciones Forestales Comunitarias de la zona.Las opiniones y puntos de vista expresados en esta publicación son responsabilidad de los autores y no reflejan necesariamente las opiniones y puntos de vista de Tropenbos Internacional o el Programa de Investigación de CGIAR sobre Bosques, Árboles y Agroforestería (FTA) o NWO-WOTRO.Este es un estudio de caso de una serie sobre cadenas de valor financieras implementados por socios del Programa de Investigación del CGIAR sobre Bosques, Árboles y Agroforestería (FTA) y coordinado por Tropenbos Internacional. Estos estudios de caso tienen como objetivo proporcionar una mayor comprensión de las estrategias aplicadas por sus diversas partes interesadas para aumentar la participación de los pequeños agricultores y apoyar la transformación hacia paisajes resilientes.La mayoría de los paisajes rurales tropicales todavía están sujetos a altas tasas de deforestación y degradación forestal, lo que los hace vulnerables al cambio climático y otras crisis. Si bien los pequeños agricultores son actores importantes en estos procesos, rara vez se benefician de los flujos financieros existentes. Estos deben tenerse en cuenta al invertir en paisajes rurales tropicales.La metodología utilizada por los estudios de caso (Primo et al. 2021) fue diseñada para ser implementada por FTA y sus organizaciones asociadas que están estudiando el financiamiento para la gestión integral del paisaje. Aunque la metodología es útil en una amplia gama de casos, los autores pretenden específicamente que se aplique a los procesos que informantes clave consideraron exitosos para apoyar iniciativas de paisaje y / o aumentar el acceso a la financiación para todos los posibles destinatarios, incluidos los grupos marginados y desfavorecidos, dentro de los paisajes. La aplicación de esta metodología en una variedad de casos como este contribuirá a generar una base de información de resultados comparables. Las personas pueden extraer aprendizajes de esta base de información para diseñar procesos que apoyen el financiamiento inclusivo para iniciativas integradas de paisaje.Cabe señalar que los estudios de caso tienen como objetivo aprender de ejemplos exitosos, ver qué se logró, cómo se logró y qué más se podría lograr mediante mejoras en las estrategias aplicadas. No incluyen una evaluación del desempeño general de los casos estudiados y, por lo tanto, no brindan muestras estadísticamente representativas de todos los impactos de los casos estudiados en todos los agricultores involucrados.La metodología consta de tres fases.La Fase 1 implica una entrevista detallada con la agencia implementadora (AI), que juega un papel central como mediador o intermediario de los flujos financieros para las iniciativas de paisaje existentes. Esta fase tiene como objetivo definir seis cosas: 1) las principales fuentes de financiación y sus características; 2) los principales grupos de beneficiarios; 3) los flujos financieros asociados a las diversas fuentes y beneficiarios; 4) el proceso de gestión y canalización de fondos; 5) los mecanismos financieros aplicados y sus reglas subyacentes; y 6) los riesgos y barreras involucradas desde la perspectiva de la AI. Además, la entrevista en la Fase 1 identificará a las partes interesadas que serán entrevistadas en las fases posteriores.La Fase 2 comprende la recopilación de datos relacionados con las fuentes de financiación, los beneficiarios (grupos e individuos) y los proveedores de servicios no financieros que se relacionan con ellos. Incluye entrevistas con cuatro tipos de informantes clave, que fueron identificados durante la Fase 1: 2a) representantes de las fuentes de financiamiento; 2b) representantes de grupos beneficiarios; 2c) proveedores de servicios comprometidos con los beneficiarios; y 2d) beneficiarios individuales seleccionados y no beneficiarios (en particular, pequeños agricultores). La Fase 2 se centra en los riesgos y barreras percibidos por cada uno de los grupos de interés y las formas de reducirlos. También busca determinar en qué medida los flujos financieros han cumplido las expectativas de los grupos de interés, así como los efectos percibidos de los flujos financieros sobre las metas de sostenibilidad en relación con el paisaje.La Fase 3 implica validar la información recopilada en la Fase 2. Las discusiones de los grupos focales que se llevan a cabo en la Fase 3 involucran a representantes de los principales beneficiarios y grupos de beneficiarios, proveedores de servicios, la agencia implementadora y otras partes interesadas que son relevantes para los flujos financieros.Este estudio describe el instrumento financiero, fondo rotatorio, utilizado por la Asociación Forestal Indígena \"Ascensión\" en Bolivia para el cumplimiento de los objetivos sociales del paisaje integrado, el flujo financiero en el cual se desarrolla y los mecanismos para mitigar los riesgos asociados y compartidos, en apoyo a las Organizaciones Forestales Comunitarias de la zona.Las iniciativas de paisajes integrados han demostrado un potencial prometedor para movilizar y apoyar a diversos interesados en todos los sectores para trabajar conjuntamente hacia objetivos compartidos del paisaje que satisfagan una amplia gama de necesidades humanas, metas económicas y objetivos de ecosistemas. Estos marcos de colaboración permiten unir recursos humanos, financieros y de otro tipo para apoyar los objetivos a nivel de paisaje.Este estudio de caso busca resaltar uno de los mecanismos subyacentes a los flujos financieros que fluyen hacia iniciativas de paisaje integrado. La metodología utilizada permite identificar los actores clave vinculados con dichos flujos financieros, sus perspectivas y motivaciones, y los mecanismos utilizados para canalizar el financiamiento a través de intermediarios hacia receptores o beneficiarios. Se hace hincapié en evaluar los riesgos y barreras percibidos por los diferentes grupos de interés, las diferentes estrategias que han utilizado para superarlos o reducirlos, así como sus expectativas y el grado de cumplimiento de éstas. Se espera que los hallazgos informen el diseño de mecanismos para financiar iniciativas de paisajes integrados y, en última instancia, facilitar el flujo de financiación en apoyo de los objetivos de paisaje compartidos en la región.Proporcionar información sobre el instrumento financiero (fondo rotatorio) utilizado por la Asociación Forestal Indígena \"Ascensión\" para el cumplimiento de los objetivos sociales del paisaje integrado, el flujo financiero en el cual se desarrolla y los mecanismos para mitigar los riesgos asociados y compartidos, en apoyo a las Organizaciones Forestales Comunitarias de la zona.• Determinar las expectativas del grupo interesado con respecto al financiamiento del fondo rotatorio, los acuerdos subyacentes y la medida en que estos ayudan a su cumplimiento respectivo. • Identificar oportunidades para fortalecer los mecanismos de gobernanza financiera de los flujos financieros clave. • Identificar las percepciones de riesgo en relación con los fondos rotatorios, las estrategias de mitigación y la exposición al riesgo resultante según el grupo de interés y para analizar su potencialidad y sostenibilidad. • Definir las principales barreras para expandir el financiamiento al fondo rotatorio y las opciones para superarlas.En Bolivia, con la aprobación de la Ley Forestal No. 1700No. (1996)), comunidades indígenas y campesinas vieron en el manejo forestal comunitario la oportunidad de recuperar y mantener para sí sus bosques como recurso vital. El potencial forestal de Bolivia se traduce en aproximadamente 53 millones de hectáreas, que representan el 48% de la superficie del país. Según estimaciones, entre 6 y 7 millones de hectáreas de estos bosques se ubican en Tierras Comunitarias de Origen (TCO), que pueden potencialmente ser integradas a la cadena productiva del sector forestal comercial (El Pais, 2014). Las TCO son tierras de propiedad colectiva, de comunidades o mancomunidades a las que se aplican las reglas y costumbres de la comunidad, mismas que son inalienables, indivisibles e irreversibles, inembargables e imprescriptibles (FAO, 2021).  (Tamburini, 2019).La COPNAG como representante legal demandante de la TCO Guarayos, es quien autoriza y asigna un área para la elaboración de un Plan General de Manejo Forestal (PGMF) a las diferentes comunidades indígenas Guarayas. La COPNAG representa a las comunidades indígenas Guarayas que se organizan en seis centrales repartidas en áreas específicas de la demanda y a doce comunidades sin adhesión a centrales, como se muestran en la tabla 1. Las Centrales constituyen la representación política. Tienen como objetivo luchar por la defensa de los derechos políticos, económicos, sociales y culturales. Participan activamente junto con la COPNAG en la consolidación de su territorio y la defensa de sus recursos naturales y, en el ámbito municipal, en la incorporación de las principales demandas y necesidades de las comunidades. En una situación de conflicto, las Centrales son las primeras instancias en ser notificadas, y dependiendo de la gravedad del caso, inician el proceso de toma de decisiones junto a las autoridades locales o derivan la situación a instancias pertinentes (Nicolas et al. 2007).La Asociación Forestal Indígena Guarayos (AFIG) es un ente de representación económico-productivo de las Organizaciones forestales Comunitarias (OFC) de la TCO Guarayos que forman parte de la COPNAG y básicamente se constituye en su brazo técnico. Su función principal es fortalecer a sus OFC afiliadas en la gestión de sus recursos forestales a través de un manejo forestal sostenible y constituirse como una instancia representativa de las OFC que promueve la integración a la economía regional, generando desarrollo comunitario a través del uso integral y sostenible del bosque (Fundacion PROFIN, 2019).Para su funcionamiento, estas instituciones matrices reciben aportes de las asociaciones forestales indígenas representadas por la venta de la madera. Sin embargo, es importante mencionar que actualmente existen problemas de paralelismo directivo en las grandes instituciones de las que dependen las asociaciones forestales indígenas de la TCO Guarayos, especialmente de la COPNAG y la AFIG.El Plan General de Manejo Forestal (PGMF) está contemplado en la Ley Forestal 1700 como un instrumento técnico de gestión forestal que permite el aprovechamiento sostenible de los recursos forestales maderables y no maderables. Asimismo, permite la comercialización legal de los productos obtenidos (maderables y no maderables) permitiendo su transporte con Certificados Forestales de Origen (CFO) emitidos por la Autoridad de Fiscalización y Control Social de Bosques y Tierra (ABT) (Boletin Tecnico para el productor).El Área de Manejo Forestal de la Asociación Forestal Indígena Ascensión (AFI -ASC) perteneciente a la TCO Guarayos, está ubicado en el Municipio de Ascensión, Provincia Guarayos del Departamento de Santa Cruz (ver Figura 1).Figura 1. Mapa de ubicación del Plan de Manejo Forestal Ascensión en la TCO GuarayosEl objetivo del PGMF de la TCO Guarayos es conservar el bosque a través del aprovechamiento sostenible de productos forestales maderables y no maderables, mantener la Certificación Forestal Voluntaria de la Asociación Forestal Indígena \"Ascensión\" -TCO Guarayos respetando y fortaleciendo la organización, usos y costumbres indígenas, con la finalidad de lograr una rentabilidad continua, que permita generar ingresos económicos para mejorar la calidad de vida de la comunidad.El PGMF ha sido implementado desde el año 2008, cuenta con una superficie total de 15.332,94 hectáreas, de las cuales 14.889,61 hectáreas corresponden a bosque de producción y 443,36 hectáreas a bosques de protección. Según la actualización decenal del PGMF a junio de 2020, en los primeros 10 años se han aprovechado hasta la fecha 6.848,02 hectáreas quedando un saldo de superficie sin aprovechar de 8.041,59 hectáreas de bosque productivo para los restantes 10 años (AFI-ASC, 2020)La administración del PGMF es llevada a cabo por los mismos socios, y se enmarca en el marco legal vigente, especialmente porque se garantiza a los comunarios la exclusividad en el aprovechamiento forestal en la TCO y el establecimiento de mecanismos para la distribución equitativa de los beneficios a ser obtenidos.Debido a la naturaleza del derecho y el respeto a la organización, el PGMF debe estar inmerso dentro de la estructura de las instancias orgánicas del pueblo Guarayo. La Figura 2 muestra la estructura organizativa de COPNAG y su articulación con el PGMF de la Asociación Forestal Indígena \"Ascensión\" (AFI-ASC).Figura 2. Estructura de COPNAG y su articulación con Plan General de Manejo Forestal Indígena.La Asamblea de la COPNAG es la máxima instancia de planificación, regulación, fiscalización y de aprobación de reglamentos para el aprovechamiento de recursos naturales en la TCO Guarayos. El directorio de COPNAG, debe cumplir y hacer cumplir todas las decisiones emanadas de la asamblea de COPNAG para lo cual tiene las siguientes responsabilidades:• Elaborar y proponer las políticas y reglamentos para el uso de los recursos naturales. La actividad económica desarrollada por la AFI-ASC está inmersa en el primer eslabón o producción primaria de la cadena de valor de la madera, dado que actualmente se dedica a la venta de árboles en pie a aserraderos, quienes realizan el corte y son prestadores de servicios tanto en aserrío, extracción y transporte de la madera para su posterior comercialización a barracas, carpinterías u otras empresas que realizan la transformación final de la madera en función a la demanda del mercado. Adicionalmente los socios y sus familias desarrollan actividades alternativas como la agricultura y/o ganadería a pequeña escala, comercio de abarrotes, elaboración de artesanías, asalariados de empresas públicas o privadas, trabajos eventuales, entre otros.De las utilidades por la venta de madera, se destina una parte para cubrir los costos operativos del aprovechamiento forestal de la siguiente gestión (censo forestal). Asimismo, se destina otra parte para aportes a las entidades matrices, gastos en salud, educación y repartición de beneficios como esta establecido en el reglamento interno (ver tabla 3). Como se muestra en la tabla 3, cumpliendo con los objetivos sociales del paisaje integrado, actualmente la AFI-ASC destina una parte de sus utilidades para salud y educación de sus asociados a través de un mecanismo financiero denominado fondo rotatorio, mismo que será objeto del presente Estudio de Caso.El fondo rotatorio consiste en una \"caja de recursos\" autogestionados que circulan entre sus asociados en forma de préstamos. La fuente de financiamiento proviene de las utilidades generadas al cierre de cada zafra forestal y el retorno de los préstamos otorgados es descontado a cada prestatario al momento de la distribución de utilidades de la siguiente zafra forestal.El monto asignado para este fondo por gestión es variable de acuerdo con las utilidades generadas, mismo que se define en cada asamblea de cierre de gestión y se va acumulando año a año. A la fecha existe un saldo acumulado de aproximadamente Bs. 50.000 (USD 7.184) y en la actualidad por gestión se destina aproximadamente Bs. 16.000 (USD 2.300), distribuido en partes iguales a los fondos de salud y educación.La gestión de este fondo se encuentra a cargo de la directiva de la AFI-ASC, que está conformada por: un representante legal, encargado(a) de Economía y Finanzas, un sistematizador, Secretario(a) de Actas, Secretario(a) de Salud, Secretario(a) de Educación, Control Social y Vocal. La directiva se renueva cada 5 años y es elegida por votación en asamblea ordinaria. Cabe mencionar que son los secretarios de Salud y Educación quienes manejan los recursos financieros de cada fondo y aprueban las solicitudes de otorgación de los préstamos con plena autonomía, exceptuando algunos casos especiales en los que se eleva la aprobación a una instancia superior que comprende a toda la directiva. En el caso de los préstamos destinados para educación, éstos se dan en forma equitativa a cada socio en la época de compra de materiales escolares (febrero de cada año). En el caso de préstamos destinados para salud, éstos son otorgados a los socios en el momento de su necesidad y previa aprobación por parte de la encargada de salud, debiendo respaldar su solicitud mediante recetas médicas, estudios médicos u otros.Canaliza fondos Recibe fondosFase I: Entrevista detallada con la Agencia ImplementadoraFase II: Entrevistas con informates clavesFase III: Grupos focales para retroalimentación y validaciónPara una mayor comprensión de la metodología, es necesario describir los principales actores que intervienen en el flujo financiero del fondo rotatorio en estudio.Fuente de financiación: Corresponde al proveedor de fondos del Flujo Financiero.Al ser el fondo rotatorio una fuente de financiamiento proveniente de las utilidades de la AFI-ASC, se ha identificado como financiador a la asamblea general de la asociación, que a su vez está constituida por todos los socios.Agencia Implementadora (AI): Es la organización que canaliza dinero directamente a las partes interesadas en el paisaje. En este estudio de caso, se ha identificado como AI a la directiva de la AFI-ASC.Receptores o beneficiarios: Se ha identificado como receptores individuales a todos los socios prestatarios de la AFI-ASC beneficiados con el financiamiento del fondo rotatorio.El proceso del flujo financiero y sus actores, se exponen en la figura 3.La metodología empleada para obtener los resultados presentados en el presente informe puede dividirse en tres fases consecutivas de levantamiento de información y su respectiva validación, tal como se muestra en la figura 4.Figura 4. Fases en el proceso de levantamiento y validación de la informaciónComienza con una entrevista detallada con la Agencia Implementadora (AI), que juega un papel central como intermediario de los flujos financieros orientados hacia los objetivos sociales del paisaje. Esta fase tiene como objetivo definir: 1) la fuente de financiación del fondo rotatorio y sus características; 2) los principales receptores o grupos de receptores;3) los flujos financieros asociados a las fuentes y receptores; 4) el proceso de combinación y canalización de fondos; 5) el mecanismo financiero aplicado y sus reglas subyacentes; y 6) los riesgos y barreras involucradas desde la perspectiva de la AI. Además de esta información, la Fase 1 dará como resultado una lista de partes interesadas que serán entrevistadas en las fases posteriores.Comprende la recopilación de datos relacionados a las fuentes de financiación, los receptores individuales y proveedores de servicios. Si bien la metodología incluye adicionalmente a receptores grupales como informantes claves, se aclara que para este estudio no se tomarán en cuenta puesto que no intervienen en el flujo financiero de la organización, tomando en cuenta que los recursos del fondo rotatorio son autofinanciados por la misma y los préstamos son otorgados de manera individual.Esta fase se centra en las percepciones del riesgo y las estrategias de mitigación, las barreras percibidas por cada uno de los grupos de interés y las formas de superarlas.También busca determinar en qué medida se han cumplido las expectativas de las partes interesadas y los efectos percibidos o anticipados de los flujos financieros sobre los objetivos de sostenibilidad en relación con los paisajes en cuestión.Permite validar la información resultante de la Fase 2 a través de discusiones de grupos focales que involucran a representantes de los principales grupos de receptores, proveedores de servicios, la agencia implementadora y otras partes interesadas en relación con los flujos financieros.Luego de concluir con el trabajo de campo, se realizó un proceso de sistematización de toda la información obtenida para su posterior análisis. Para ello se siguió la metodología presentada en el documento \"Financiamiento para la Gestión Integrada del Paisaje\" (Primo et al. 2021).4.1 Fase I: Entrevista detallada con la Agencia Implementadora (AI)Se entrevistó en primera instancia al representante legal de la AFI-ASC, quien derivó como delegado al sistematizador para proveer toda la información necesaria relacionada al fondo rotatorio en estudio.Según la entrevista, la AFI-ASC tienen como objetivos de su paisaje: mejorar la calidad de vida de sus socios a través de un manejo sostenible del bosque; generar beneficios económicos para sus socios y mitigar el cambio climático.De acuerdo con la entrevista, la Agencia Implementadora del fondo rotatorio está conformada por el equipo técnico de la AFI-ASC (que a su vez forma parte de la directiva), quien capta, gestiona y canaliza los recursos del flujo financiero.Estos recursos tienen como fuente de financiamiento a la asamblea de socios y como beneficiarios a cada uno de los socios de manera individual. Las entradas de dinero del flujo financiero provienen de una parte de las utilidades de la AFI-ASC y las salidas de dinero corresponden a los préstamos otorgados para salud y educación de sus asociados. El monto del fondo rotatorio es variable en función a las utilidades generadas en la gestión y el cual es consensuado en la asamblea de socios.El nivel de riesgo percibido por la AI es medio y está relacionado con la provisión de fondos, debido a que ésta depende de una sola fuente de financiamiento (utilidades de la actividad forestal) que a su vez está expuesta a los siguientes riesgos:Riesgo de producción: Factores climáticos (lluvias tempranas) que impiden sacar la madera oportunamente para su venta, debido a que los caminos para el transporte de la madera cortada se vuelven inaccesibles. Para mitigar el riesgo de pérdida de madera por la inaccesibilidad de caminos en época de lluvias, la AFI-ASC busca compradores que tengan la capacidad productiva necesaria (maquinaria, transporte) para la extracción oportuna de la madera para la venta, o que, en caso de lluvias tempranas, tengan las condiciones para su rápida extracción.Riesgo Financiero: Retrasos en los pagos por parte de los compradores, lo que afecta directamente la liquidez de la AFI-ASC y por ende, la distribución de las utilidades. Para mitigar este riesgo, la AFI-ASC realiza la gestión de cobranza por cuenta propia, dado que contratar a un abogado le significaría un costo considerable. Como estrategia futura, se tiene pensado solicitar a las organizaciones matrices (COPNAG, AFIG) asesoría legal a través de la contratación de un abogado.Riesgo de mercado: Disminución del precio de la madera, lo cual incide significativamente en la generación de utilidades y, por ende, en la inyección de recursos para el fondo rotatorio. Como estrategia ante el riesgo de disminución de precios de la madera, la AFI-ASC intentó unificarse con otras OFC para estandarizar los precios de acuerdo a la distancia. Sin embargo, no se ha logrado este objetivo debido a que muchas de las OFC todavía tienen un limitado poder de negociación con sus compradores por los elevados anticipos adeudados.Riesgo institucional: Paralelismo directivo en las centrales matrices (por ejemplo: COPNAG, AFIG) que afectan el respaldo institucional ante posibles conflictos de distinta índole (Por ejemplo: avasallamientos, baja de precio de la madera, entre otros). Si bien este riesgo no afecta directamente al funcionamiento del fondo rotatorio, su incidencia radica principalmente en la solidez para la resolución de conflictos externos, que en muchos casos pueden ser ajenos al control de la AFI-ASC.Las barreras percibidas por la AI tienen un nivel bajo y también están relacionadas a la captación de recursos para el fondo, específicamente al consenso de los miembros de la asamblea de socios para definir el monto que se va a destinar de sus utilidades.Si bien el reglamento interno especifica el porcentaje de las utilidades que deben destinarse para el fondo, en la práctica este monto es negociable y consensuado en la asamblea de socios.Respecto a los efectos percibidos a partir de la implementación del fondo rotatorio, la AI indica que existe un efecto positivo en el ámbito social del paisaje, dado que satisface parte de las necesidades humanas de los socios de la AFI-ASC.II a. Entrevistas con informantes clave identificados durante la fase ISe realizaron entrevistas a miembros de la Asamblea de Socios de la AFI-ASC, los cuales representaron el 16% de dicha entidad. Cabe aclarar que la época en la que se realizaron las entrevistas corresponde a la temporada alta de la actividad forestal de la AFI-ASC por lo que gran parte de sus socios se encontraban en el campo y sin disponibilidad de tiempo.De acuerdo a su percepción, la AFI-ASC tiene como objetivos de su paisaje:• En lo social, mejorar la calidad de vida de sus socios. • En lo económico, mejorar los ingresos de sus socios. • En lo ambiental, conservar el medio ambiente.La única fuente de financiamiento del fondo rotatorio es la asamblea de socios de la AFI-ASC y está conformada por 25 personas, quienes destinan cada año una parte de sus utilidades provenientes del manejo forestal al financiamiento de gastos de salud y educación de sus socios.De acuerdo al reglamento interno y el PGMF de la AFI-ASC, cada año se debe dejar un 20% de las utilidades generadas para el fondo de salud y educación (en partes iguales). Sin embargo, en la práctica este importe es definido y consensuado en la asamblea de socios al cierre de cada gestión forestal, dependiendo de las utilidades generadas en dicha gestión. El tiempo del acuerdo es de un año, y es otorgado bajo el mecanismo financiero de préstamo sin intereses. El monto del financiamiento del fondo varía entre Bs. 5.000 (USD 718) y Bs. 36.000 (USD 5.172) por gestión, teniendo una tasa de recuperación de capital del 100% anualmente, sin riesgo de no ser devuelto en su totalidad porque este es descontado a cada asociado al momento de la distribución de sus utilidades.El 100% de los entrevistados coinciden que los riesgos percibidos por la fuente de financiamiento del fondo rotatorio están relacionados a la actividad forestal de la AFI-ASC, puesto que existe una dependencia total de las utilidades de esta actividad para la provisión de los recursos del flujo financiero, predominando los riesgos de mercado y financieros:Riesgo de mercado: El 75% de los entrevistados coinciden que el principal riesgo que afecta la provisión de recursos al fondo rotatorio proviene de la disminución de los precios de la madera en el mercado debido a la oferta que realizan otras OFC que enfrentan problemas financieros y que venden su madera a precios bajos. Sin embargo, la AFI-ASC dispone de mayor poder de negociación con sus compradores en virtud de la certificación de buen desempeño con la que cuenta otorgada por el Sistema Boliviano de Certificación de Bosques e Incentivos (SBCBI). Asimismo, otra estrategia para mitigar este tipo de riesgos ha sido la espera de mejores precios, recurriendo a la búsqueda de nuevos clientes.Riesgo Financiero: El 75% de los entrevistados indican que el retraso de pago por parte de los compradores afecta la liquidez de la AFI-ASC, y, por consiguiente, la provisión oportuna de recursos al fondo rotatorio. La mitigación de este riesgo se realiza mediante la adecuada selección de sus compradores, tomando en cuenta los antecedentes y llevando la cobranza a instancias legales, en caso de ser necesario.Riesgos de producción: El 50% de los entrevistados indican que existen factores climáticos (lluvias tempranas) que pueden impedir la extracción oportuna de la madera para la venta debido a la inaccesibilidad de los caminos, aspectos que inciden directamente en la generación de utilidades que inyectan los recursos al fondo rotatorio. Como estrategia de mitigación, la AFI-ASC busca compradores que cuenten con la capacidad productiva (maquinaria, transporte) que permitan sacar oportunamente la madera, o en caso de ser necesario, adelantar la zafra.De acuerdo a su percepción, el 75% de los entrevistados indican que no perciben barreras para la aplicación del fondo rotatorio desde la fuente de financiamiento. El 25% indica que percibe una mínima barrera con relación al consenso de los socios para definir los montos a asignar al fondo de educación, principalmente, porque existe una minoría que prefiere recibir más utilidades o no cuentan con hijos en edad escolar. En los casos en los que haya socios que decidan no obtener los préstamos para educación, ese importe no utilizado les queda como un ahorro y pueden retirarlo cuando lo necesiten.Los efectos esperados en el paisaje desde el punto de vista de la fuente se centran en un bienestar social a través de una buena salud y educación de los socios y sus familias.Respecto a los efectos percibidos a partir de la implementación del fondo rotatorio, la fuente indica que existe un efecto positivo en el ámbito social del paisaje, dado que brinda seguridad a sus asociados al disponer de estos recursos ante una emergencia o necesidad de salud o educación.Para el mejoramiento del fondo rotatorio, la fuente de financiamiento sugiere, por un lado, ampliar el uso al financiamiento de actividades productivas y por otro, buscar nuevas fuentes de financiamiento, para no depender únicamente de la actividad forestal.Como se puede evidenciar, existe una relación directa entre los ingresos por venta de madera de la AFI-ASC y su fondo rotatorio, dado que todas las entradas de este flujo financiero provienen de las utilidades generadas por la actividad forestal desarrollada. Por lo tanto, toda afectación en la actividad forestal incide de alguna manera tanto en la provisión como en la sostenibilidad del fondo rotatorio.En representación de los beneficiarios del fondo rotatorio, se entrevistó al 24% de dicha entidad. Cabe aclarar que la época en la que se realizaron las entrevistas corresponde a la temporada alta de la actividad forestal de la AFI-ASC por lo que gran parte de sus socios se encontraban en el campo y sin disponibilidad de tiempo.De acuerdo con las entrevistas realizadas, los receptores o beneficiarios del fondo rotatorio son todos los socios de la AFI-ASC, quienes pueden recibir individualmente entre Bs. 1.000 (USD 144) y Bs. 10.000 (USD 1.437) al año, en forma de préstamos de corto plazo sin interés. Estos recursos tienen como único fin el financiamiento de gastos de salud y educación de sus asociados. El monto recibido del fondo rotatorio es variable en función a las utilidades generadas en la gestión.Respecto al riesgo percibido por los receptores del fondo, el 50% de los entrevistados indica que es un riesgo medio debido a que la sostenibilidad y crecimiento del fondo para los beneficiarios depende de las utilidades de una actividad que está expuesta a su vez a riesgos de producción (factores climáticos) y riesgos financieros (disminución de precios de venta que afectan la utilidad). El 33% de los entrevistados indica que el riesgo percibido es bajo y está relacionado a la disponibilidad inmediata de los recursos en caso de emergencia (salud), dado que los encargados de la entrega de los mismos deben apersonarse a las entidades financieras en los horarios y días establecidos para hacer los retiros de dinero correspondientes. Finalmente, el 17% restante percibe un nivel de riesgo alto y está enmarcado en el riesgo de producción y financiero que envuelve a la actividad forestal de la que provienen los recursos del fondo rotatorio.El 50% de los receptores individuales entrevistados expresan no percibir ninguna barrera para acceder al fondo rotatorio. El restante 50% tienen algunas diferencias entre sí. Por un lado, se percibe un nivel alto de barrera y está relacionado con la sostenibilidad a través del tiempo para sus beneficiarios, dado que la captación de los recursos depende únicamente de la generación de utilidades de la actividad forestal de la AFI-ASC. Por otro lado, se percibe un nivel de barrera bajo, y se refiere principalmente a limitaciones en el monto para los préstamos de salud, dado que para montos considerables se debe solicitar la autorización de otros socios para hacer uso de la parte de su cuota del fondo y poder cubrir su necesidad. Finalmente, se menciona como una barrera la disponibilidad inmediata de los fondos, puesto que el dinero debe ser retirado por los encargados del fondo (AI) en horarios y días de atención de entidades financieras.Respecto a los efectos percibidos a partir de la implementación del fondo rotatorio, los entrevistados coinciden que existe un efecto positivo puesto que crea un beneficio económico y fortalece el capital social de la AFI-ASC a través de la cooperación y solidaridad.Se entrevistó al Instituto Boliviano de Investigación Forestal (IBIF), uno de los proveedores externos de la AFI-ASC que trabaja conjuntamente para el cumplimiento de los objetivos de su paisaje.El Instituto Boliviano de Investigación Forestal (IBIF) es una ONG del sector Forestal y de conservación de la naturaleza que tiene un término medio de familiaridad con el flujo del fondo rotatorio de la AFI-ASC. Su opinión hacia el flujo es positiva, y según su apreciación, existen condiciones propicias para el desarrollo de este mecanismo financiero debido a la buena organización interna y el buen cumplimiento de sus estatutos y normas que posee la AFI-ASC.Respecto a los efectos percibidos en el paisaje de la AFI-ASC, el fondo rotatorio cumple un fin social puesto que ayuda a los socios y sus hijos a mejorar su salud y educación. Asimismo, el proveedor de servicios manifiesta que estos aspectos ayudan a su vez al cumplimiento de objetivos de su propia entidad en cuanto a la buena gestión de paisajes de la región.El proveedor de servicios externo menciona como fortalezas del flujo la transparencia y buena gestión de la AFI-ASC, lo que a su vez genera seguridad y credibilidad de sus asociados (fuentes y beneficiarios del fondo). Respecto a las debilidades percibidas, se menciona el no pago de las empresas compradoras, lo cual repercute en la captación de recursos para el fondo.Para mejorar la sostenibilidad del fondo, se sugiere a la AFI-ASC hacer contratos de venta con empresas responsables, con capacidad de extracción (contar con maquinaria y transporte propio) y capacidad de pago, lo cual permita asegurar la captación y devolución de los recursos del fondo rotatorio y, por ende, su continuidad a través del tiempo.Para esta fase se realizaron dos grupos focales para la validación y retroalimentación de la información recopilada en las entrevistas y encuestas individuales.El primer grupo focal contó con la presencia de siete representantes de los actores claves del flujo financiero del fondo rotatorio: tres representantes de la fuente, dos representantes de la AI y dos representantes de los beneficiarios o receptores individuales. El segundo grupo focal contó con la presencia de cuatro representantes de los actores claves del flujo financiero del fondo rotatorio: un representante de la fuente, un representante de la AI y dos representantes de los beneficiarios o receptores individuales.A través de los dos grupos focales, se logró validar y retroalimentar gran parte de la información obtenida en las entrevistas y encuestas individuales (Fase I y II), respecto a los efectos, riesgos y barreras percibidos por los distintos grupos de actores clave del flujo financiero. Asimismo, se pudo relevar información sobre el funcionamiento del mecanismo financiero en estudio y las oportunidades de mejora.-25 -SECCIÓN VLa información de las entrevistas y encuestas realizadas y su posterior validación mediante los grupos focales sobre el mecanismo objeto de estudio denominado fondo rotatorio, se resume a continuación.El principal objetivo que persigue la AFI-ASC es el manejo sostenible y conservación de su paisaje (territorio, bosques). Seguidamente se encuentra la mejora de la calidad de vida y generación de beneficios económicos para sus socios.El fondo rotatorio de la AFI-ASC es un mecanismo financiero destinado a cubrir las necesidades de salud y educación de sus socios. La fuente de financiamiento proviene de las utilidades generadas al cierre de cada zafra forestal que circulan entre sus asociados en forma de préstamos sin costo (intereses), y cuya devolución es descontada a cada prestatario al momento de la distribución de utilidades de la siguiente zafra forestal.El monto asignado para este fondo por gestión es variable de acuerdo con las utilidades generadas, mismo que se define en cada asamblea de cierre de gestión y se va acumulando año a año. Cabe mencionar que en las dos últimas gestiones no se han destinado recursos para el fondo debido a la reducción considerable de sus ingresos y utilidades por los precios bajos de la madera. Sin embargo, para la presente gestión se indica que se ha conseguido mejorar los precios de venta, estimando generar utilidades y lograr destinar parte de las mismas al fondo rotatorio, como indica su reglamento.Respecto a la transparencia del fondo, la directiva de la AFI-ASC realiza una rendición de cuentas en la asamblea de cierre de cada gestión, siendo los encargados de salud y educación los responsables de informar sobre la administración y gestión de cada fondo.Según la consulta realizada, todos los socios se benefician de al menos uno de los dos fondos, sin embargo, los pocos socios que no acceden a los préstamos normalmente se debe a que en ese momento no tienen la necesidad de salud o educación y prefieren que esos recursos queden como un ahorro para ellos o se utilicen para cubrir alguna necesidad mayor de algún otro socio (en el caso de salud).Efectos esperados y percibidos de los flujos financieros sobre los objetivos del paisaje (sociales, económicos y ambientales)De acuerdo con la información validada, la AFI-ASC espera cumplir los siguientes objetivos de su paisaje: manejo sostenible del bosque para su conservación y mitigación del cambio climático, mejora de la calidad de vida y de los beneficios económicos de sus asociados.Respecto a los efectos percibidos del fondo rotatorio en su paisaje, todos los grupos de interés coinciden que genera un impacto social positivo, dado que cubre parte de necesidades básicas (salud y educación) de sus asociados, promoviendo el bienestar humano, la solidaridad y el fortalecimiento del capital social.Percepciones de riesgo en relación con los fondos rotatorios, las estrategias de mitigación y la exposición al riesgo resultante según el grupo de interés.Como resultado del grupo focal realizado, los distintos grupos de interés coinciden en su mayoría que el riesgo percibido es bajo, y está centrado principalmente en la captación de los recursos del flujo financiero.Por lo tanto, los principales riesgos percibidos están relacionados a la actividad forestal de donde provienen los recursos del fondo rotatorio, entre los más destacados se mencionan: precios bajos de la madera, retrasos en los pagos por parte de los compradores y factores climáticos que afecten el aprovechamiento oportuno de la madera, aspectos que se han logrado mitigar con estrategias adecuadas.Una de las principales barreras para expandir el financiamiento del fondo rotatorio es la dependencia de una única fuente de financiamiento, proveniente de la actividad forestal de los socios de la AFI-ASC, y la opción para superarla es la búsqueda de nuevas fuentes de financiamiento del fondo. En menor importancia, otra de las barreras que experimenta la AI en la captación de los recursos para el fondo, radica en el consenso de los socios para definir cuánto destinar de sus utilidades al fondo rotatorio, debido a que hay algunos socios que prefieren recibir un mayor porcentaje de utilidad.Las oportunidades identificadas por los distintos grupos de interés radican principalmente en mejorar las condiciones del acuerdo: por un lado, se sugiere ampliar el monto de los préstamos del fondo rotatorio y, por otro lado, ampliar el uso a otras actividades productivas de los asociados, lo cual generaría un impacto social y económico mayor en el paisaje. En ambos casos, será necesaria la búsqueda de nuevas fuentes de financiamiento, ya sean estas internas (aportes de socios) o externas (entidades financieras, ONG, entre otros).Como se mencionaba anteriormente, este estudio de caso busca resaltar uno de los mecanismos subyacentes a los flujos financieros que fluyen hacia iniciativas de paisaje integrado, esperando que los hallazgos informen el diseño de mecanismos para financiar iniciativas de paisajes integrados y, en última instancia, faciliten el flujo de financiación en apoyo de los objetivos de paisaje compartidos en la región.Para visibilizar el potencial que tiene el fondo rotatorio tanto para la AFI-ASC como para otras organizaciones similares, se ha partido de la propia experiencia de la AFI-ASC en la implementación de este mecanismo, la cual ha sido contrastada con otros estudios sobre el uso de fondos rotatorios en organizaciones de pequeños productores de Argentina y Colombia.Se consultó como referencia práctica de este mecanismo financiero un trabajo de investigación acerca de las experiencias de fondos rotatorios de 17 organizaciones del sector de la pequeña agricultura familiar en el área rural de Argentina (INTA, 2010) y una tesis acerca del diseño de un modelo de fondo rotatorio que permita incrementar la competitividad y sostenibilidad de asociaciones agropecuarias, basado en un estudio de caso de una asociación de productores de plátano de Colombia (Montoya, 2016). Asimismo, se tomó como referencia conceptual, una guía metodológica para la implementación de fondos rotatorios desarrollada por la Unidad para el Cambio Rural (UCAR) del Ministerio de la Agroindustria (Yangosian y Colombet 2016), documento que a su vez se originó y perfeccionó a partir de la implementación de este mecanismo en distintas áreas rurales de Argentina.La experiencia de la AFI-ASC y de otras organizaciones en el uso de Fondos Rotatorios da muestra de la existencia de una profunda diversidad, tanto en los procedimientos operativos como en los sentidos atribuidos a los mismos. Al mismo tiempo, también se pudieron evidenciar muchas similitudes en cuanto a aspectos generales que facilitan, condicionan u obstaculizan la implementación y el desarrollo de experiencias de Fondos Rotatorios, lo cual nos permitirá plantear una serie de conceptos, condiciones e instrumentos guía que puedan generar interés acerca del uso y/o financiamiento de este mecanismo financiero.A partir del estudio de caso realizado acerca del fondo rotatorio que maneja la AFI-ASC, se ha construido una matriz (ver tabla 4) para la identificación de dificultades y oportunidades de mejora que pueden facilitar y potenciar su aplicación tanto en la misma asociación como en otras regiones y/o contextos de trabajo. Esta matriz permite formular mejoras necesarias para incorporarlas a un modelo de fondo rotatorio, se contemplan algunas sugerencias realizadas por los propios socios de la AFI y buenas prácticas que pudieron extraerse de la literatura consultada.Tabla 4. Matriz de dificultades y oportunidades de mejora identificadasDificultades Oportunidades de mejoraEl uso del fondo rotatorio actualmente está limitado a financiar gastos de salud y educación de los socios de la AFI-ASC, excluyendo otras necesidades de financiamiento importantes de los beneficiarios.Se sugiere ampliar el uso del fondo rotatorio para financiar otras actividades de los socios alternas a la actividad forestal de la AFI-ASC, toda vez que existe la necesidad de los socios de generar mayores ingresos para su subsistencia. Con esta ampliación, se estaría aportando a la reactivación económica de la comunidad y generando un mayor impacto social y económico en los beneficiarios. Según manifiestan varios de los socios, el monto de los préstamos del fondo rotatorio es insuficiente para cubrir todas las necesidades de salud y educación que experimentan.Para promover el crecimiento del fondo y, por ende, la ampliación de los montos de los préstamos, se sugiere la generación de ingresos adicionales, por ejemplo: cobro de interés sobre los préstamos, realización de alguna actividad de los socios para recaudar fondos, entre otros.La provisión de fondos al flujo financiero, así como el retorno de los préstamos otorgados a los beneficiarios, dependen de una única fuente (utilidades de la actividad forestal de la AFI-ASC), aspecto que dificulta la sostenibilidad del fondo rotatorio en el tiempo. Un claro ejemplo de esta dificultad es que en los últimos dos años no se ha podido inyectar recursos económicos al fondo.Se sugiere la diversificación de la fuente de financiamiento del fondo rotatorio, para lo cual se propone la búsqueda de fuentes alternas a las utilidades de la actividad forestal, por ej.: aportes adicionales de los socios de actividades paralelas a la actividad forestal o la búsqueda de financiadores externos como ser: Alianzas con ONG, Entidades Financieras, entre otros.No existe una disponibilidad inmediata de los recursos para los beneficiarios, dado que los encargados de cada fondo (salud y educación) deben apersonarse a las entidades financieras en los días y horarios de atención al público. Digitalización de la herramienta por medio del uso de pagos virtuales.Existe escasa reglamentación e instrumentos operativos que rijan el uso y administración del fondo rotatorio (únicamente se tiene escrito en el PGMF que la AFI -ASC debe destinar un % de sus utilidades a salud y educación de sus socios). Respecto a los respaldos de las entradas de dinero al fondo, éstas se respaldan con un acta. Por otro lado, las salidas del fondo, se respaldan con carta de solicitud de préstamo.Se sugiere contar con un reglamento e instrumentos operativos que permitan un adecuado manejo y control de los recursos del fondo rotatorio. Se adjunta en los anexos del presente Estudio de Caso un reglamento e instrumentos modelo que pueden servir de base.Es importante resaltar que los fondos rotatorios se enmarcan en una alternativa local contra la exclusión financiera, que tiene el objetivo de facilitar el acceso al crédito a una población (personas, familias, grupos y organizaciones) que cuenta con dificultades para acceder al sistema financiero formal, y que por lo general es destinado a actividades productivas individuales y colectivas, y a necesidades de tipo familiar (Montoya, 2016).En el caso de la AFI-ASC, el fin del fondo rotatorio es netamente familiar, ya que está destinado a cubrir necesidades de salud y educación de sus socios y sus familias. Si bien este mecanismo cumple un importante fin social dentro del paisaje, éste podría potenciarse ampliando su impacto social y económico en sus beneficiarios al destinar una parte de su uso al financiamiento de actividades alternas. Esta sugerencia de mejora se puede fundamentar también en la experiencia de los fondos rotatorios consultados que financian capital de trabajo de actividades productivas y han obtenido resultados positivos en su aplicación, indicando como una estrategia clave para la recuperación de los préstamos el realizar algún tipo de acompañamiento con posterioridad a su otorgamiento (seguimiento, formación y asistencia técnica, siendo este último componente el más frecuente). Una de las dificultades más relevantes y que afecta de sobremanera la sostenibilidad del fondo rotatorio de la AFI-ASC, radica en la dependencia total de la actividad forestal como fuente de financiamiento del fondo y de retorno de los préstamos otorgados. Para ello se sugiere la búsqueda de fuentes alternas como pueden ser: aportes adicionales de los socios de actividades paralelas a la actividad forestal o la búsqueda de financiadores externos por ejemplo alianzas con ONG, entidades financieras, entre otros. Con relación a la sostenibilidad, los estudios referenciados mencionan algunas estrategias utilizadas como el trabajo voluntario, la participación directa, la apropiación, la proximidad, la flexibilidad de la operatoria, las inyecciones de nuevos fondos, los períodos de gracia y la tasa de interés diferenciada, entre otras (INTA, 2010). Específicamente con relación a la inyección de nuevos fondos, se expone un marcado predominio en las fuentes de financiación provenientes de la cooperación internacional y en menor importancia, subsidios nacionales, aspecto que valida la posibilidad de conseguir fuentes alternas de financiamiento para la AFI-ASC que permitan la sostenibilidad y crecimiento de su fondo rotatorio.Adicionalmente, se sugiere la generación de ingresos adicionales que alimenten el fondo rotatorio de la AFI-ASC para poder otorgar mayores montos de préstamos, por ejemplo: cobro de interés sobre los préstamos, realización de alguna actividad de los socios para recaudar fondos (rifas, venta de comida, entre otros eventos). Esta sugerencia emerge de experiencias percibidas por la Fundación PROFIN en la implementación de mecanismos similares (Grupos Autogestionados de Ahorro y Crédito) en la Ciudad de La Paz y también coincide con algunas estrategias utilizadas por los Fondos Rotatorios consultados para evitar su descapitalización o pérdida de valor (Yangosian y Colombet 2016).En cuanto a la reglamentación y registro de la información del fondo rotatorio de la AFI-ASC, se sugiere crear un reglamento específico que rija su uso y mejorar los instrumentos operativos existentes para llevar un mejor control y gestión, más aún si se tiene considerado ampliar en un futuro los montos y usos del mismo. Tal como se sugiere, los estudios consultados coinciden que, para llevar adelante la gestión operativa de un fondo rotatorio, es conveniente establecer algunos procedimientos que ayuden a manejarlo de un modo eficiente y con transparencia hacia los integrantes de la organización (Yangosian y Colombet 2016). Basado en lo anterior y en la observación de experiencias de organizaciones similares, se proponen instrumentos guía para el uso y gestión de un fondo rotatorio, ver anexo 1.Por otro lado, es importante destacar las ventajas, así como las desventajas, que tiene el fondo rotatorio de la AFI-ASC con relación a otras fuentes de financiamiento disponibles, ver tabla 5. Como se puede evidenciar, el fondo rotatorio para la AFI-ASC representa una importante fuente de financiamiento para sus asociados con importantes ventajas y algunas limitaciones con relación a una fuente de financiamiento formal. Asimismo, hay que destacar que esta herramienta se constituye en alternativa de inclusión financiera para beneficiarios que no pueden acceder al financiamiento tradicional, reforzando el impacto social percibido.Dicho todo esto, y apoyado en la literatura consultada acerca de la implementación de fondos rotatorios, se presenta la siguiente información conceptual, condiciones e instrumentos generales que se espera incrementen el interés de posibles usuarios y/o financiadores de este importante mecanismo financiero.El fondo rotatorio es un instrumento de gestión de recursos para organizaciones que cuentan con reducidas posibilidades de acceso a financiamiento (Yangosian y Colombet 2016).Funciona básicamente como una \"caja de recursos\" que gestiona una organización y que \"circulan\", o \"rotan\", entre ella y los asociados en forma de créditos. Estos créditos se destinan principalmente a financiar las actividades productivas de los miembros de la organización, entre otras necesidades familiares. Cuando ellos devuelven los créditos, los recursos regresan al fondo para poder volver a prestarse a otros miembros del grupo (Yangosian y Colombet 2016).La garantía de los créditos que otorga el fondo rotatorio, a diferencia del crédito bancario habitual, está basada en la solidaridad y el compromiso de los integrantes de la organización (Yangosian y Colombet 2016).Una característica importante de este instrumento es que se presenta en comunidades y grupos de personas que tienen procesos organizativos, y en donde se ha tomado conciencia de su realidad y se ha decidido afrontarla con iniciativas de desarrollo propias. Organizaciones comunitarias y gremiales como juntas de acción comunal, juntas de vecinos, asociaciones de productores y de mujeres, organizaciones indígenas y tiendas comunitarias, entre otras (Montoya, 2016).Por lo general, los fondos tienen en cuenta la cultura local, las condiciones de vida, las necesidades productivas, las motivaciones, los intereses y los planes de vida de las comunidades y las personas, así como las características y particularidades de los procesos de las comunidades y asociaciones de las cuales han surgido. En este sentido, los fondos tienen diferentes dinámicas y objetivos de acuerdo con los grupos y personas que los conforman (Montoya, 2016). El desarrollo de este mecanismo en organizaciones del sector de la Pequeña Agricultura Familiar, tiene un rol relevante en términos de soberanía y seguridad alimentaria, sobre todo porque promueve la producción variada de alimentos en el ámbito local, tanto para consumo como para venta (INTA, 2010).A través de los fondos se potencian valores como la solidaridad, el trabajo en equipo, la responsabilidad, la honestidad, el sentido de pertenencia, la autonomía, la auto ayuda y el respeto (Montoya 2016).Tomando en cuenta lo anterior, se puede inferir que este mecanismo contribuye al cumplimiento de iniciativas del paisaje integrado, promoviendo la producción sostenible, el bienestar humano y la buena gobernanza. Una estrategia para reducir el riesgo de incobrabilidad es la diversificación de actividades, es decir, dar créditos para diferentes actividades de los socios.Finalmente, para cubrir la pérdida por inflación es importante no dejar el dinero inmovilizado, porque el mismo va perdiendo su valor. Por eso, cuanto mayor sea la rotación de los recursos, el fondo rotatorio se descapitalizará menos. La tasa de interés también puede ajustarse en función de la inflación.Las ventajas de la aplicación y manejo adecuado del fondo rotatorio significan un incentivo, tanto a nivel de la organización como a nivel individual para los socios, debido a que:• Representa una alternativa para el acceso a financiamiento. • Mejora la relación de los productores socios de forma individual en cuanto a la economía familiar y su capacidad de gestión familiar. • Mejora la relación de la organización en cuanto a: participación, autogestión, compromiso, crecimiento colectivo, autonomía productiva. • Estos fondos tienen un gran impacto en el mantenimiento de la sustentabilidad ecológica ya que las economías campesinas e indígenas involucran formas de producción y reproducción de sus condiciones materiales de existencia, a partir de un metabolismo equilibrado con la naturaleza, lo que contrasta fuertemente con los impactos ambientales de otras actividades económicas (extractivismo, agricultura industrial, minería a cielo abierto, etc.).¿Cómo se conforma un fondo rotatorio?El fondo rotatorio deberá ser funcional, operativo, viable, transparente y sostenible, para lo cual se debe elaborar un reglamento de fácil entendimiento y aplicación, mismo que debe ser difundido y de conocimiento de todos los miembros de la organización.En reunión de la directiva de la organización se deben definir los siguientes aspectos: El balance general sobre la realización del Estudio de Caso fue positivo, puesto que se logró ilustrar uno de los mecanismos subyacentes a los flujos financieros de la AFI -ASC que fluyen hacia iniciativas del paisaje integrado. La metodología utilizada permitió identificar los actores clave vinculados con dichos flujos financieros, sus perspectivas y motivaciones, sus riesgos y barreras percibidas por los diferentes grupos de interés, las diferentes estrategias que han utilizado para superarlos o reducirlos, así como sus expectativas y el grado de cumplimiento de éstas.Sin embargo, existieron algunas limitaciones en la aplicación de la metodología como la poca disponibilidad de tiempo de varios socios que se encontraban en el área rural por ser una época alta de la actividad forestal, misma que fue paliada por la gran predisposición de los socios entrevistados de la AFI -ASC para brindar toda la información solicitada. A pesar que el grupo entrevistado no es homogéneo en cuanto a edad y nivel de formación, todas las entrevistas llegaron a los receptores con un lenguaje claro y sencillo, logrando así el objetivo trazado.El fondo rotatorio de Salud y Educación de la AFI -ASC se muestra como un mecanismo financiero que ayuda al cumplimiento de los objetivos sociales de su paisaje, dado que satisface parte de necesidades básicas (salud y educación) de sus asociados, promoviendo el bienestar humano, la solidaridad y el fortalecimiento del capital social.Además de representar una alternativa de acceso al financiamiento de sus socios, fomenta el ejercicio de la participación, la gobernabilidad y la discusión comunitaria sobre el destino y la distribución de los recursos comunitarios, en el marco de valores de la economía social y solidaria.La fuente de financiamiento del fondo proviene de las utilidades generadas al cierre de cada zafra forestal que circulan entre sus asociados en forma de préstamos sin costo (intereses), y cuya devolución es descontada a cada prestatario al momento de la distribución de utilidades de la siguiente zafra forestal. Cabe destacar la creación de este fondo con recursos propios de la AFI -ASC y cuyo nivel de recuperación de préstamos es del 100%.El nivel de riesgo percibido por la fuente y la AI está relacionado con la provisión de fondos, debido a que ésta depende de una sola fuente de financiamiento (utilidades de la actividad forestal). Si bien actualmente no se cuenta con una estrategia de mitigación a este riesgo, se tiene pensado proponer a la Asamblea la búsqueda de nuevas fuentes de financiamiento para asegurar la sostenibilidad del fondo.Respecto al riesgo percibido por los receptores individuales del fondo, una parte de los entrevistados indica que es un riesgo alto debido a que la sostenibilidad y crecimiento del fondo para los beneficiarios depende de las utilidades de una actividad que está expuesta a su vez a riesgos de producción (factores climáticos) y financieros (disminución de precios de venta que afectan la utilidad). Sin embargo, la otra parte de los entrevistados indica que el riesgo percibido es bajo y está relacionado a la disponibilidad inmediata de los recursos en caso de emergencia (salud), dado que los encargados de la entrega de los mismos deben apersonarse a las entidades financieras en los horarios y días establecidos para hacer los retiros de dinero correspondientes.Las barreras percibidas por la AI tienen un nivel bajo y también están relacionadas a la captación de recursos para el fondo, específicamente al consenso de los miembros de la Asamblea de Socios para definir el monto que se va a destinar de sus utilidades. Asimismo, las barreras percibidas por los receptores entrevistados tienen un nivel bajo, y se refiere principalmente a limitaciones en el acceso físico para acceder a los préstamos del fondo, que puede ser paliado con el uso de medios virtuales de pago.Las oportunidades de mejora identificadas por los distintos grupos de interés radican principalmente en mejorar las condiciones del acuerdo: Por un lado, se sugiere ampliar el monto de los préstamos del fondo rotatorio y, por otro lado, ampliar el uso a otras actividades productivas de los asociados, lo cual generaría un impacto social y económico mayor en el paisaje. En ambos casos, será necesaria la búsqueda de nuevas fuentes de financiamiento, ya sean estas internas (aportes de socios) o externas (entidades financieras, ONG, entre otros). Como parte del Estudio de Caso, adicionalmente se sugiere la digitalización de la herramienta por medio del uso de pagos virtuales y la creación de un reglamento específico e instrumentos operativos que rijan el uso y gestión de los recursos del fondo rotatorio.En resumen, el fondo rotatorio que maneja la AFI -ASC es una herramienta muy útil con gran potencial de réplica que permite incrementar la inclusión financiera y el acceso al financiamiento de miembros de organizaciones, y que se puede adaptar a distintas regiones y contextos de trabajo. Para el sector rural, los Fondos Rotatorios representan una alternativa de autoayuda y de desarrollo endógeno de carácter local e informal, que beneficia a comunidades marginales y pobres, dirigida a movilizar recursos, disponer de crédito y mejorar el escaso acceso a servicios microfinancieros, contribuyendo con el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida y la reducción de la pobreza (Montoya, 2016). ","tokenCount":"9518"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"59113890ec15b60b484f8570fab5b189","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/91a645ef-c343-458f-bd05-94aaaff399f7/retrieve","id":"1538441369"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2f839c46-3695-40f1-bbdf-77e715364608","pagecount":"8","content":"Positive selection means selecting healthy looking plants as mother plants for seed potatoes. The different steps are:Peg healthy looking plants when the first flowers appear in the crop. Check the health of the pegged plants 2 weeks later and remove pegs from plants that have developed disease symptoms.Harvest the pegged plants one by one. Plants with few tubers, only small tubers or a malformed tubers are not used for seed.The small tubers (1 -3 inch) of the final selected plants are stored separately to use as seed.Some potato diseases, like bacterial wilt and viruses, go from the plant to the tubers. If these tubers are planted again, they will produce a sick plant.Most farmers select seed from their own potato crop, mixing sick and healthy tubers. By pegging plants without disease symptoms for seed selection, the number of sick plants in the next crop can be reduced.There is no pesticide that can cure bacterial wilt. Plants close to a sick plant also get the disease. They may look healthy, but the tubers carry the bacteria that cause the disease. If used as seed, they will give a sick plant.Avoid positive selection in a field with more then a few wilting plants (more than 2% of all plants wilting). If you do positive selection in a field with few wilting plants, avoid all plants closer than 3 feet or 1 meter to a wilting plant.Bacterial wilt survives in the soil. To avoid this do not plant potatoes again for 2 seasons in a field with limited wilting plants (less than 5%) and for 3 seasons on a field with more than 5% infection. Plant another crop that is not from the potato family. Do not plant tomatoes, egg plant, pepper, tobacco or nightshade. Remove all 'volunteer' potato plants from this field. Otherwise bacterial wilt will survive in the soil.Bacterial wilt is transferred from one field to another through planting sick tubers, through contaminated run-off water and through contaminated soil sticking to tools and shoes.1.3.Why positive selection?Bacterial wilt: starts with a few leaves or a single branch. The neighbouring plant may look healthy but its tubers will carry the disease.Rotting of the tuber starts from the vascular ringOozing eyes make soil stickViruses do not kill potato plants, but reduce the yield seriously. Once a plant is infected its tubers will carry the virus. A tuber carrying a virus will give a sick plant. There is no treatment possible once a plant is sick.Viruses live in the plant sap and are spread from one plant to the other by aphids and other insects who suck sap from potato plants. Some viruses can also be carried by touching and damaging plants.Use 10.The best way to minimize the effect of viruses is to plant clean seed. This can be done through buying clean seed from reputable sellers. If clean seed is not available or not affordable, positive selection helps reducing the effect of viruses.The In short positive selection is to \"select the best\" potato plants as mother plants for the next potato crop.Healthy seed can be selected by marking the plants that look healthy when the first flowers appear. At harvest the number, size and shape of tubers of every marked plant is checked before accepting its tubers as seed. Large tubers are still sold.A healthy potato plant is: Big Has many thick stems Has dark green leaves Has many, large and well shaped tubers Does not show virus and bacterial wilt symptoms 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.Late Blight: Lesions on the leaves and stems, white mycelia on the back, eventually the whole plant dries upLate blight is an important disease of potatoes but rarely affects tubers. Plants with some late blight can safely be selected as mother plants for seed. Late blight can kill a potato crop and protection is important, but it does not affect seed quality much.Late blight can be controlled through the combined use of resistant varieties and prudent application of fungicides. Contact the extension service or potato research institute for proper spraying advise.","tokenCount":"673"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b78957335ff4c24e32a557b081f3360f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a37a4568-3507-4a3c-8bdb-f15f39a37bcb/retrieve","id":"1836796054"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e1559e9d-43db-4c37-a565-c282f2b5aba0","pagecount":"33","content":"The meeting was opened by Isaak Rashal, National Coordinator for plant genetic resources in Latvia, who welcomed all the participants to the Tenth Meeting of the Steering Committee (SC) of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR).Representatives from 34 member countries were present, together with observers from 5 non-member countries and representatives of ESA, EUCARPIA, FAO, IPGRI, NGB and of the NGOs.Janis Birgelis, from the Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Latvia, also welcomed everybody on behalf of the host country and expressed his/her wishes for good results.J. Turok, IPGRI's Regional Director for Europe, welcomed everybody to the meeting, noting that several people were attending for the first time. He drew attention to the importance of this Phase VII Mid-term Meeting for reviewing the Networks' activities, and emphasized that one of the main aims of the meeting is the decision to be taken on the further development of the concept of a European Genebank Integrated System (AEGIS). He reminded the group that the genetic resources community is living through an important moment in its progress, with the recent entering into force of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), and the adoption of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) at the first meeting of the Governing Body in Madrid in June 2006. He welcomed any insight emerging from this current meeting which could be important for IPGRI's work globally. He further mentioned that unfortunately it was not possible to hold the current meeting in Israel as planned, but that it was a pleasure to hold an ECP/GR meeting for the first time in Latvia, and thus, to benefit from the excellent support and collaboration with the Latvian National Programme.The agenda was adopted with a few minor changes. The participants briefly introduced themselves.The different sessions were chaired respectively by I.National Coordinators, who will have the opportunity to translate the brochure into the local language and to reproduce it for national use.The SC felt that the main responsibility for public awareness should be left to the National Programmes. A large number of products (brochures, leaflets, posters, video, etc.) are being prepared in many countries. The Secretariat was invited to establish a collection of the various existing products and to make these available on the Web. IPGRI offered to assist in defining an ECP/GR public awareness strategy.The SC accepted that any interested individuals and institutions would be welcome to propose initiatives or actions to be undertaken with thematic cross-cutting issues' funds and that these do not have to necessarily be formulated by the Network Coordinating Groups (NCGs).The SC expressed the wish that European countries which are only represented here by observers will soon become members.The importance of involving the European Union as a member of ECP/GR was reiterated. The difficulties of finding the most suitable entry point for a dialogue with the European Commission (EC) were noted, especially in view of the fact that the responsibility for genetic resources issues is split amongst different EC Directorates.The SC decided that a short strategy paper (1-2 pages) should be formulated, to be addressed to the EC, in its capacity as a Party to the International Treaty. This document should set out strongly the relevance of the ECP/GR for the EU, with the ultimate aim of establishing a permanent collaboration. The ECP/GR position on the future of Regulation 870/2004 should also be expressed. IPGRI on behalf of ECP/GR offered to prepare the first draft of this document, to be circulated to the SC for comments and subsequent adoption, by the end of 2006.The efforts being made by IPGRI to prepare a presentation on relevant issues at a highlevel policy meeting (European Council on Agriculture) were acknowledged as also providing an opportunity to raise awareness about the ECP/GR. This initiative will require the active support of the country that holds the Presidency of the Union.The SC expressed warm thanks to the NGB for the maintenance of the ECP/GR listservers for several years. The SC appreciates that this valuable service will be continued in the future.A small group discussed during an evening session the proposal by Germany to change the name of the Programme and to modify the acronym by removing the \"slash\" (/).The group agreed that the name and acronym of ECP/GR should be simplified as follows:European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR)The main argument for this change was the need for simplification and elimination of unnecessary words and symbols. Reference to \"plants\" versus \"crops\" was not meant to modify the scope of the Programme, which will continue to focus on agricultural crops. However, reference to \"plants\" was considered to be more in line with the titles of the Global Plan of Action and of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Furthermore, it was felt that the reference to \"Networks\" in the title is confusing and thus, can be deleted without any problem. However, the logo will be retained with the deletion of the words \"Crop\" and \"Networks\".The SC considered and commented on the recommendations made at the Network Coordinating Group (NCG) meeting in Bonn, Germany (29-31 March 2006) as they subsequently appeared in the overall agenda.• AEGIS Bonn Recommendation: that the SC should support the broad implementation of AEGIS, especially the need to accept the obligations relating to National Programmes.SC response: the SC confirmed that the concept of AEGIS, which builds on national, regional and sub-regional activities, is to be a major European regional initiative to increase the efficiency and quality of germplasm collections' management and the utilization of these collections, as well as aiming to optimize the use of available resources. The process of how to proceed with the AEGIS project until the end of Phase VII is described at pp. 10-12.In-depth consideration of the future of AEGIS will need to be taken at the 11 th meeting of the SC.Bonn Recommendation: that the SC should continue to support the global initiatives and processes (CBD, GCDT, IT, etc) by making the ECP/GR's knowledge, germplasm, training and capacity-building available.SC response: the SC is committed to further support the above global processes and initiatives, and sees the realization of AEGIS as a vehicle to fulfil this commitment.• Efficiency in conservation, documentation and facilitated use of PGR Bonn Recommendation: that the SC should consider the future prioritization of activity areas.SC response: the SC recognizes the input made by the Networks within the four priority areas (characterization/evaluation, task sharing, in situ and on-farm conservation, and documentation/information) and emphasizes the need to keep them in focus for the remainder of this phase of the programme, with a possibility of re-evaluating the priorities for Phase VIII.• Increase inter-regional cooperation (Europe with other regions) Bonn Recommendation: that the SC should consider reinforcing the relationships between ECP/GR and other international networks, including national and international development agencies. SC response: the SC wishes to underline the value and further need for inter-regional cooperation.Bonn Recommendation: that the SC should clarify the relationships between EURISCO, the National Inventory/National Focal Points and the Central Crop Databases (CCDBs), as well as considering how to strengthen the conditions for the functioning of the CCDBs.SC response: the SC took note of this concern and foresees that this will be dealt with by the Documentation and Information Thematic Network. Support for developing a central data platform may be provided within the EPGRIS2 project recently submitted within the scope of EC 870/2004 Regulation. The SC invites the Documentation and Information Network to propose recommendations to the next SC meeting, should the EPGRIS2 application be rejected.Bonn Recommendation: that the SC should investigate the implications of the IT for national programmes at the international level.SC response: the SC considered this an important issue, and recommended that a number of practical steps be taken for implementation of the Treaty at the national level (see p. 8, The International Treaty for PGRFA and ECP/GR).Bonn Recommendation: that the SC should assess the selection process for country representatives in the various activities and enables their operation at the ECP/GR level.SC response: the SC took note of this and encouraged the National Coordinators to invite WG Chairs and Network Coordinators to open a dialogue on national needs and options with a wide range of stakeholders.Bonn Recommendation: that the SC should consider broadening the scope of crops of Networks and present clear guidance on this matter.The issue on possible expansion of the Networks by establishing new crop WGs is intimately linked to the current financial situation of the programme. It was therefore dealt with in the light of budget implications below.Bonn Recommendation: that the SC -not least because of high inputs-in-kind contributions by institutions -should consider various budget scenarios, as well as giving attention to a fund-raising role.the SC concluded that a future expansion of the ECP/GR activities would be entirely dependent on additional funding. Fund-raising possibilities should be explored by the ECP/GR Secretariat and the National Coordinators.Although the SC recognized the importance of external funding to complement current Network budgets, it underlined the need for Networks to carefully consider each budget item against the priority areas decided by the Steering Committee.The SC also decided to assign a Task Force (TF) with the aim of defining the appropriate division between WG meetings, actions and ad hoc meetings, and to look at criteria that would enable evaluating the relevance of the proposed actions and outputs, as well as the ratio of distribution of ECP/GR funds over the Networks.The TF, including the ECP/GR Secretariat, is composed of: Germany (coordinator), Belgium, Czech Republic, Romania and Switzerland, and will provide a first draft by the end of 2006, for comments and adoption by the SC.Bonn Recommendation: that the SC should consider facilitating an improved communication process between ECP/GR and relevant European Commission services.(Comment: see p. 3 under \"Relationship between ECP/GR and the EU\".) The progress of both the Cereals and the Forages Network were well in line with the priority areas previously decided by the SC, and the work reviewed provided support for a broad future implementation of AEGIS. Both Networks reported on efforts which had been made to improve the status of collection data (description, characterization and evaluation data, etc.) although work still remains to import data from DB managers, as well as harmonizing the data structures of CCDBs with that of EURISCO.In situ conservation activities had hitherto not been targeted properly, and need to be addressed more constructively during the remainder of Phase VII.Both Networks reported progress in the area of task sharing, notably safety-duplication, and the development of regeneration standards. The current development of conservation strategies by the Global Crop Diversity Trust is of obvious importance, and members of both Networks are actively taking part in this work.(Introduced by J. Weibull)The Fruit Network reported progress in all four priority areas. One exception was the Vitis WG which had only received limited funding for Phase VII. The progress reports, however, indicated some dissatisfaction because of the problems of obtaining updated information from curators. The SC noted some incongruities in the budget table, which were interpreted as typing errors. Some SC members encouraged the Network to produce electronic catalogues instead of printed documents and therefore save funds.The Sugar, Starch and Fibre Crops (SSFC) Network reported reasonably good progress in the areas of characterization/evaluation, task sharing and documentation/information. Less progress was reported in the area of in situ/on-farm management, with the exception of work on wild Beta relatives. The Potato WG had made good progress in updating relevant DBs.To be able to move forward in the documentation work, the SSFC Network had prepared and submitted a one-year project proposal to be considered by the SC. The proposal included appointing a DB manager to work specifically on developing the Flax DB, at a cost of ca. 42% of the Network budget. While recognizing the flexibility of Networks to plan actions, the SC was however not prepared to accept that a too large proportion of the budget can be allocated to one single action. A decision was made to look at criteria for within-budget divisions between WG meetings, actions, and ad hoc meetings (see p. 5, Budget implications).(Introduced by L. Ayerbe)The VEGMAP Network reported good progress in most of the targeted areas, including in situ/on-farm management depending on the crop (notably Allium and MAPs).The Network proposed establishing a new thematic network specifically aiming at addressing issues related to biotechnological methods (including cryopreservation) as a means of assisting WGs dealing with vegetatively propagated crops.The SC discussed this option but was of the opinion that proposals for a specific workplan with clear goals and outputs would be a more appropriate solution to the problem.Within-Network discussions had led to the common understanding that because of the approaches and activities of the MAP WG, its organizational placement would be more appropriate within the Sugar, Starch and Fibre Crops Network.The SC therefore decided to move the MAP WG to the SSFC Network. This change implies that the MAP WG will not join the Vegetables Network during its coming meeting in 2007, but will retain a share of the funds sufficient to hold a WG meeting. The name of the VEGMAP Network will return to its previous name, i.e. the \"Vegetables Network\". The Documentation and Information Network reported concrete achievements with regard to the continuing development of EURISCO (increased numbers of data and of National Inventories). Also the conceptual achievement was noted that EURISCO will be the central platform for existing in situ and on-farm data. Plans were made for the remainder of Phase VII, to be implemented through projects submitted to the EC Regulation 870 (EPGRIS2 and EGRISI).The In situ and On-farm Conservation Network made progress mainly through the EU-funded PGR Forum project, culminating in the achievement of a Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean -and a methodology was developed for CWR prioritization, gap analysis and genetic erosion assessment. Future activities, through the EGRISI project, will be devoted to the establishment of an EU Network of in situ national Focal Points and production of National CWR inventories.The On-farm Task Force reported preliminary and limited results, mainly consisting in collections of examples of methodologies provided by individual countries.The Inter-regional Cooperation Network focused on documentation and information systems and on policy implementation. The main collaborating partners were the networks from Sub-Saharan Africa.The definition of the future role and profile of the regional networks was identified as the main issue on which it would be possible to have an impact with the limited funds available. A regional network coordinators' meeting is planned during the remainder of Phase VII.Common constraints for all the Networks were the lack of involvement of a sufficient number of members of Networks in the specific activities, weak communication and collaboration between Thematic Networks and Crop Networks and under-funding.The activities carried out within each Thematic Network were in line with the specific objectives defined at the onset of Phase VII, during the Ninth Steering Committee Meeting, held in Izmir, Turkey, 2003. Considerable progress in fulfilling planned activities was achieved by implementing collaborative projects funded from external sources (PGR Forum), in which all Task Force members were involved.The SC welcomed these informative reviews at the mid-term of Phase VII and in particular recognized the invaluable in-kind contributions made by institutes and individuals.The SC also underlined the importance of the global dimension of the work being carried out and therefore that it is important to engage actively with institutions outside the region.Invited presentations were made on three sub-regional initiatives, namely the Nordic-Baltic cooperation by B. Skovmand, SEEDNet (South-East European Development Network on PGR) by E. Thörn and CATCN-PGR (the Central Asia and Trans-Caucasus Network on PGR) by J. Engels, on behalf of M. Turdieva. The discussions addressed the opportunities for complementarities and synergies between these initiatives and ECP/GR.The Steering Committee welcomed these informative presentations and requested the Secretariat to facilitate the exchange of information between the three initiatives and the SC.Invited presentations were made on the International Treaty (by Gerald Moore), the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (by Bert Visser and Frank Begemann) and EURISCO (by Frank Begemann and Sonia Dias). The information provided was very much appreciated as it was highly relevant and timely, in particular with regard to the outcomes of the first session of the Governing Body of the Treaty. A number of questions were clarified during the discussions.The SC welcomed the outcome of the first session of the Governing Body of the IT held in Madrid in June 2006. In the view of the SC, this makes the IT fully operational. Furthermore, conscious of the complementarity of the objectives of the IT and those of ECP/GR, the SC encourages those ECP/GR member countries that have not yet ratified the IT to do so. 1  For those ECP/GR member countries which have ratified the IT, the SC wishes to encourage full implementation at the national level as rapidly as possible, taking into account the specific conditions of the individual country.A checklist of steps that might be taken from a technical and operational point of view to achieve the implementation of the Treaty was agreed upon and is included in Annex A.The SC invites the ECP/GR Secretariat to initiate a discussion with the IT Secretariat to explore the possibility of using EURISCO as the reporting mechanism on the use of the SMTA and the designation of germplasm to the multilateral system (MLS).The representative of the European Seed Association, K. Noome, made a presentation on relevant developments in the seed industry and offered the Association's collaboration in communication with the relevant offices in the European Commission. S. Diulgheroff from FAO made a presentation about the implementation and monitoring of the Global Plan of Action and the preparation of the second report on the State of the World on Plant Genetic Resources.The importance of the preparation of country reports was acknowledged by the SC.The representative of the European NGOs, B. Bartha, emphasized the challenges they have in coordinating among themselves and because of this, to dialogue in an authoritative manner with ECP/GR. Furthermore, the SC took note of the request by the NGO representative to receive financial support for coordination. The SC believes that this coordination problem might be best resolved through an active participation of the NGOs at the national level and the National Coordinators are encouraged to facilitate this process.B. Skovmand, Director of the Nordic Gene Bank, informed the SC about the Svalbard initiative and suggested that these to-be-constructed facilities should also be used by the ECP/GR member countries. Furthermore, he invited the SC to hold its next meeting in 2008 at Longyearbyen, Svalbard Islands, after the facilities are completed, which is expected by the end of 2007.The SC welcomed this invitation and will take it into consideration.The president of EUCARPIA, J. Prohens, informed the meeting about the relevant activities and forthcoming events of EUCARPIA, in particular its Genetic Resources Section. He invited ECP/GR members to strengthen collaboration with EUCARPIA, especially through their participation in meetings and the use of scientific publications.The members of the SC found this presentation very interesting and welcomed future exchanges of information and joint activities with EUCARPIA.A presentation was made on the new strategy of IPGRI by J. Turok, highlighting the main focus areas, including agrobiodiversity for nutrition and health. He also emphasized the ongoing commitment to building accession-level regional information systems (such as EURISCO), policy support for the implementation of the Treaty and awareness-raising on the importance of PGR.The SC welcomed information on the new strategy of IPGRI.It was noted that additional information had been provided as background documents by N. Maxted on the European Plant Conservation Strategy and by S. Sharrock on Botanic Gardens Conservation International. There was not sufficient time to discuss these documents in detail, but the SC members were invited to provide comments to the Secretariat.L. Maggioni presented the results of the feasibility study on AEGIS, based on the model crop groups' reports. G. Kleijer and D. Astley presented in a role play a report on the implementation of AEGIS in the year 2015, respectively playing the role of a Steering Committee member and of the Chair of the Allium Working Group. B. Visser and F. Begemann presented the issues related to the possible steps towards actually preparing a concrete future for AEGIS, and L. Maggioni introduced some ideas on possible ways to raise resources for AEGIS.A discussion then took place during a session held on Friday 8 September, with the purpose to exchange views on the concept of AEGIS, to raise any issues of concern, and to reach a common understanding on further steps and actions (see Annex B).Steps to be taken in the framework of the AEGIS project until the end of Phase VII On the basis of detailed discussions, the ECP/GR Steering Committee took the following decisions:1. The SC recognized the significance of the crop groups' reports, and the relevance of their different approaches. Furthermore, the Committee proposed that this work should be followed up by further consideration of the practical aspects of implementation of the AEGIS project.2. The meeting recognized the relevance and importance of the Strategy Framework for the implementation of the AEGIS Discussion Paper as a general approach. It was decided to review this paper in light of the SC discussion (cf. Annex B) and it was recommended that the document should be published as an ECP/GR product, after consultation with the National Coordinators for comments.3. More details on the European collections of the four model crops are necessary in order to further develop the AEGIS model, including the identification of Most Appropriate Accessions, and the development of criteria for such identification. The development of quality systems, as well as recommendations on how to involve all relevant stakeholders from the European region will also be needed. The four model crop groups are requested to provide a report addressing the above-mentioned activities. An integrated report featuring a synthesis and generic conclusions on the further work of the four model crop groups is expected.4. No overview of (estimated) operational costs for collection maintenance before or after the introduction of AEGIS is currently available. It is highly relevant to make calculations soon of the costs of the maintenance of the model crops, in order to assess how much money such rationalization efforts may make available for reallocation and alternative expenditure within the budgets available to collection holders, taking into consideration the fact that the costs should be comparable between countries. For this exercise, implying the involvement of expert economists, the ECP/GR Secretariat is requested to prepare a draft study outline.In-kind contributions by genebanks and/or member states will enable such efforts.6. Development of a list of proposed specific accessions of each of the four model crops to be designated for their incorporation into the European collections is needed. The four model crop groups are each requested to perform such exercise.7. Development of a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for signature by the Ministries, specifying the political consent of the national authorities for task sharing, and taking into account the relationship with the obligations of the IT, is an absolute priority requirement. Such MoU will include attention for the possible transfer and exchange of accessions. Development of such agreement is the responsibility of and might be overseen by the AEGIS Steering Committee.8. Development of a draft model institutional contract covering operational issues related to the implementation of AEGIS is an additional requirement. A subgroup of the AEGIS Steering Committee, in collaboration with managers of institutions holding collections should be given the task of advising on such model institutional contract. The ECPGR Secreteriat is requested to initiate this task. 9. A survey of (potential) capacity and availability amongst European institutions to develop European task-sharing in the context of AEGIS is also needed. This will include an assessment of the need for upgrading various facilities and training new experts. The ECP/GR Secretariat is requested to conduct such survey.10. The SC recommends that the ECPGR Secretariat should start as soon as possible the process of further preparation of draft decisions and possible implementation mechanisms for the AEGIS concept. In this respect it fully supports and appreciates the GEN RES project application. In case no EU funding for AEGIS can be secured from Regulation 870/2004, an amount of between 150 K € and 170 K € will be needed to further prepare for decisions on the implementation of the AEGIS concepts and the development of European collections. Such additional funds will be made available through the reallocation of funds available for ECP/GR's current phase (see Tables 1 and 2). This rather painful exercise reflects the decision of the SC to give top priority to the \"sharing of responsibilities\" during the remaining part of Phase VII.11. The Steering Committee regards a direct involvement of the European Union in realizing an integrated system of European collections as highly relevant and will seek to engage the European Commission in its work (see SC decision on \"Relationship between ECP/GR and the EU\", p. 3).The Secretariat was requested to propose a reallocation of funds from the Phase VII budget, on the basis of the conclusions of the SC during the review of Networks' progress in Phase VII. The proposed reallocation was approved for immediate action with minor modifications (see Tables 1 and 2). After some discussion, the SC concluded that the Networks had given appropriate attention in general to the priority issues defined for Phase VII, and these will still be valid for Phase VIII, as modified:1) \"Task sharing and capacity building\" will be the top priority issue for Phase VIII, considering the need to keep up the momentum for the implementation of AEGIS project. The element of \"capacity building\" was added for Phase VIII, upon consideration of the additional need to devote part of the existing collaboration to enhancing the capacity of the less developed sectors of the European genetic resources community. 2) \"Characterization and evaluation\" will still be very important, since this is the activity that enables making the connection between ex situ conservation and use. 3) \"In situ and on-farm conservation and management\" will still be important and due consideration should be given to the urgency of preventing or reducing the loss of in situ and on-farm genetic diversity. 4) \"Documentation and information\" will still be very important, in support of actions 1-3 above.The SC felt that more information is needed from the Networks in the next two years in order to approve detailed budgets and activities and requested the Network Coordinators to revise their proposals as follows:Keeping in mind the priority issues as described above and the criteria to be developed by the TF (see p. 5), Network Coordinators are requested to provide a list of proposed actions for Phase VIII, including clearly measurable outputs. The Networks are requested to provide workplans for each of the three possible financial scenarios:1) 100% (same budget level as in Phase VII) 2) 115% (inflationary adjustment) 3) 125% (although a substantial increase in the budget of ECP/GR is unlikely, the SC may have the possibility to assign increased budgets to specific Networks, should additional funding be made available from external sources and/or upon considerations of importance of the proposed activities and outputs).In the development of their proposals for Phase VIII, the Crop Networks are requested to rank the Working Groups in order of priority and to keep this ranking in mind for the definition of the proposed budgets.The report, including all the decisions and recommendations, as well as the annexes and the budget were approved with a few modifications.The Steering Committee wished to thank the Secretariat for its constructive support throughout the meeting. Warm thanks were also given to the local hosts for their hospitality and for the big efforts made in the organization of the meeting. The Steering Committee felt very comfortable and at ease during the meeting days in Latvia.1. Initiate the designation process, under the responsibility of the Ministries of Agriculture (MOA), of the material to be included in the multilateral system (MLS) according to Article 11.2 of the Treaty. a. Identify and list the accessions of Annex I crops/species that are under management and control of the MOA (including subordinated institutions) and in the public domain. b. Contact other institutions that are not subordinated to the MOAs but that hold PGRFA collections (e.g. botanic gardens, research institutes, etc.) in order to identify and list Annex I accessions. c. Contact all other holders of PGRFA, such as private plant breeders and NGOs, with encouragement to include those PGRFA listed in Annex I in the MLS of the Treaty.2. Document, through the National Focal Points for the National Inventories, in these inventories the accessions as identified in the above points 1a, b and c.3. Forward the above information documented in the National Inventories through EURISCO to the Secretariat of the Treaty at FAO.4. Inform all the institutions holding PGRFA designated to the MLS according to points 1a, b and c that for these accessions the SMTA has to be used. The institutions can choose whether to use the hard-copy signature, the shrink-wrap or the click-wrap method provided in Art. 10 of the SMTA for the acceptance of the agreement. Where the clickwrap or shrink-wrap methods are chosen, institutions providing materials will need to allow for recipients to opt for signature.5. Instruct the aforementioned institutions to keep records of all issued SMTAs for future reporting requirements as mentioned in the SMTA text.6. Initiate a discussion with the MOA to establish its preference whether or not to make PGRFA of non-Annex I crops available under the same terms and conditions as Annex I crops, i.e. under the SMTA. It should be noted that accessions that have been collected and included in the collections prior to the entrance into force of the CBD (i.e. Dec. 1993) generally do not have country of origin restrictions and could therefore be made available in accordance with the same conditions as Annex I material. Material collected and included after the entrance into force of the CBD requires consent from the country of origin.7. Inform all institutions to include information on the conditions under which they will make the material that is not included in the MLS available in the institutional catalogues, Web site, etc.The notes below are a summary of the discussions that took place during the Tenth Meeting of the ECP/GR Steering Committee (SC). The purpose of the session was to exchange views on the concept of AEGIS, raise any issues of concern, and reach a common understanding on further steps and actions. The discussions were facilitated by Jozef Turok and the notes taken by Jan Engels.In general, the comments expressed about the concept of AEGIS were positive and supportive and it was felt that the AEGIS project had made substantial progress since its initiation, approximately two years ago, after the Ninth Meeting of the ECP/GR Steering Committee had approved the project. However, a number of issues were expressed and these are listed below, where possible with reference to the country of the member who made the comment. However, if the same point was raised later by another member, this has not been included in the points a second time.1. As only a relatively small number of SC members have been directly involved in the actual project discussions and the implementation process, it is necessary to improve the communication with the Steering Committee to keep all members adequately informed about progress of AEGIS. It was also noted that the partners within the National Programmes need to be kept well informed as well (Czech Republic).2. The involvement of all countries in AEGIS was declared to be essential (Czech Republic).3. It would be important to carefully review the current draft Strategy Framework document as some of the concepts used were unclear (e.g. the envisaged establishment of a \"regional multilateral system\"), and that any substantial changes should be reflected in the objectives of AEGIS. Concern was also expressed regarding the \"loss of national sovereignty\" over the germplasm accessions that will be identified as AEGIS accessions and included in the \"European collection\" (Spain).4. There is a need to be forward looking, especially since \"the world gets smaller and smaller\" and there is an increasing need to collaborate with each other. Three imperatives were identified that are seen as major challenges for AEGIS:• There is a need for a political basis for AEGIS. ECP/GR operates in phases (of 5 years each) whereas AEGIS is intended to be long-term. The latter will need a political consensus and a long-term commitment; • The issue of national sovereignty: AEGIS accessions are intended to have a \"supreme ownership\" (i.e. European) as individual countries use their respective sovereign rights to place identified accessions in the European public domain, whereas they as individual countries are simultaneously expected to accept long-term conservation responsibilities for these accessions; • The International Treaty concept has a parallelism to AEGIS and we have to ensure that these two approaches are completely compatible and complementary and in harmony with each other. Important concepts in this respect are the question of sovereignty and the multilateral system as well as the crop/species scope of the two (UK).5. It was pointed out that the term \"ownership\" does not occur in the Treaty because of the very specific nature of agricultural crops, in particular with respect to difficulties in identifying \"country of origin\". Consequently, the Treaty refers to sovereignty. It was suggested that the collection holders could be seen as the agents of the multilateral system (MLS) (The Netherlands).6. Solid political support for AEGIS is critically important as it will allow a logical opportunity to inform the National Coordinators and others of what they are allowed to do and what not in the context of AEGIS (Austria).7. It is important to explain better how AEGIS fits into the Treaty framework, in particular how AEGIS follows the principles of the Treaty and what the concrete links are. AEGIS is an important way to implement the Treaty, but it should be noted that AEGIS extends much further as it includes not only conservation of germplasm but also characterization, evaluation and other important activities (Germany).8. AEGIS is based on voluntary participation of countries and on the inclusion of germplasm accessions in the \"European collection\". The sharing of responsibilities for conservation needs to be better expressed, as it includes the aspect of having access to all the material that is included in such a European collection (Germany).9. Access to genetic resources is not, or should not, be the only concern of AEGIS. For instance the regeneration of germplasm conserved ex situ is a serious problem to many genebanks and this activity should be considered as an integral part of AEGIS. Sharing of information, knowledge and expertise are key considerations for the future development of AEGIS (Russian Federation).10. Clarification of the roles and responsibilities between the several institutions belonging to distinct ministries in the implementation of AEGIS should be addressed as a matter of high priority (Portugal).11. A concern was expressed about the fact that no clear idea yet exists about the costs of implementing AEGIS. It was asked whether extra expenses will have to be sustained by the National Programmes when implementing AEGIS. The suggestion was also made to review the current expenditures of ECP/GR, especially with regard to the necessity of having funds cut from all existing Crop and Thematic Networks with the intention of making superfluous funds available to AEGIS (Poland).12. It is anticipated that countries will not be able to make more funds available to ECP/GR (including AEGIS) without very strong arguments. One of the aspects that relate to this point is the question of responsibilities that a given country will accept by signing the Memorandum of Understanding for AEGIS. The concern was also expressed that not all European countries and institutions may get involved in AEGIS, and this was seen as an important issue. Finally, there might be a gradual shift from ECP/GR activities to AEGIS activities and such developments need to be adequately formalized (Switzerland).13. Related to the participation of institutions, it was re-stated that AEGIS is not just about storage of germplasm but that related activities such as characterization/evaluation, regeneration, information management, the availability of the right kind of environmental conditions and expertise for specialized activities, etc. are an integral part of the AEGIS system. It can even be considered to have (sub-)regional regeneration programmes. Consequently, it is better to speak of \"institutions\" and not of \"genebanks\" as being the partners of AEGIS (Germany).14. One of the problems for a country like Romania is that it is currently not participating in any of the AEGIS activities, although it was foreseen that all Working Groups would eventually have become involved. A direct involvement was felt essential in order to be able to understand and discuss the issues. The opinion was expressed that it would be difficult to agree with a gradual transformation of ECP/GR into AEGIS (Romania).15. AEGIS is seen as a \"global\" project that deals with all important aspects of PGR management, including the socioeconomic aspects, and that the latter also have to be adequately communicated. Although cost efficiency is a key consideration, it is also important that trust and confidence between partners should become stronger as this will provide the basis for improved collaboration (Belgium).16. As the principles of ECP/GR are based on networking, it would be wrong to reduce the budgets of the existing networks. Steps should certainly be taken to guard against the development of two parallel systems (Czech Republic).17. Considerations should be given by AEGIS to specific problems, for example regarding how institutions can be assisted in cases where they face serious economic difficulties and/or where existing collections are threatened by genetic erosion or could become unavailable through privatization. The important Prunus collection in Hungary is a case in point! Some of the definitions used in the AEGIS Strategy Framework document are confusing and/or overlapping, in particular those of base, active and working collections, and should be reformulated (Hungary).18. It has been foreseen from the very beginning that AEGIS activities are an integral part of the ECP/GR programme! Therefore, it might be better to avoid the term \"AEGIS\" where it could be confusing, e.g. to speak of \"European collection\" instead of AEGIS collection (Germany).19. The AEGIS concept is OK and thus, work on it should be continued. What remains unclear about AEGIS is the budget and exactly what we want to achieve through the project. For instance, is it necessary to build a new European genebank? With regard to possible donors, it was asked why the EU was not present and why we failed to get them involved. Furthermore, we may have to spend more time on lobbying outside our countries and in the EU for more support. In the same vein, should we not get other stakeholders like university professors, curators, etc., involved in AEGIS? Finally, it is suggested that AEGIS should develop through small and incremental steps rather than being established through a \"revolution\" (Israel).20. The Nordic countries are unclear on how NGB would fit into AEGIS, in particular as it is difficult to delegate responsibilities twice! Furthermore, in discussions with the Ministry concerns were expressed regarding the conformity of AEGIS with the Treaty (Finland).21. The Nordic countries strongly subscribe to the principle of rationalization, but several questions were raised when discussing AEGIS, which could not easily be answered. However, the impression was given that there was no more room for discussions, and with the existing level of understanding, it would not be possible to endorse the Strategy Framework document! In order to convince the decision-makers more answers are needed (Denmark).22. It was never intended to make final decisions on AEGIS during this meeting, instead only to raise for discussion the next steps that could be undertaken until the end of the current ECP/GR phase. The concern was expressed that we should not proceed too fast, but also not too slowly! We now have a great opportunity and the momentum to develop the AEGIS concept, contributing to the implementation process of the International Treaty at the same time, and this provides us with a clear timeframe! It was observed that some of the Crop Working Groups were starting to turn in circles and this certainly needs to be avoided. Finally, the views expressed by some of the Nordic countries with respect to the participation of NGB were surprising. It is expected that NGB will definitely benefit from an active participation as all the countries would (The Netherlands).23. It was noted that Finnish germplasm preserved in the Nordic Gene Bank is in the public domain. The Finnish national programme of PGR coordinates all the national conservation efforts on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Conservation and maintenance is managed by the holder institutes themselves (Finland).24. NGB was established to conserve germplasm of Nordic countries' origin and this focus has always been maintained. Against this background it was felt necessary to elaborate and clarify some of the intentions of AEGIS. The importance of economic analysis was stressed once again as an essential basis for rationalization of genetic resources, giving the published work on economic aspects of conservation by the CGIAR as an example. It will be of great importance to get a better understanding of what savings, and from where, the cost savings associated with the implementation of AEGIS would be obtained (NGB).25. It was noted that it will be important to include germplasm of economic interest in the European collection as this may be one way of generating revenues from the germplasm we conserve. It would be important to create a \"market\" for germplasm in order to get something in return for the conservation efforts. In the long term we cannot expect to receive funds from the government for conservation (Ukraine).26. Based on the recognition of the importance of economic analyses and the development of tools that allow genebanks to use them in their day-to-day work, it was proposed also to use these \"economic considerations\" when establishing new collections or genebanks (SEEDNet).27. It was pointed out that it would be easier to establish \"political agreements\" if there was clarity about the benefits of creating synergies and complementarities between countries and institutions. In this context, we might want to consider what for instance the Nordic countries have been able to \"save\" through the establishment of NGB and to use this as an illustration in the AEGIS documentation (UK).28. A concern was expressed that economic analyses are not that simple and that one has to be very clear on the criteria and procedures used as a basis for the analysis. It was pointed out that the kind of economic analysis in question is very likely to be an integral part of the country reports that are being produced as part of the formulation of the second report of the State of the World's PGRFA by FAO. A plea was made to build on earlier discussions and decisions with respect to the establishment of sub-regional genebanks (an idea that failed to be taken up) and the acceptance of taking a crop-and accession-level approach to regional conservation (Germany).29. Maintaining cultural heritage is an important issue for Europe (and other parts of the world) and is much better understood by policy-makers and the broad public than keeping agriculture high on the agenda or than the long-term conservation of genetic resources. We might want to take this into consideration when \"selling\" AEGIS to donors. It was also suggested that we might want to consider taking an AEGIS-like approach at the sub-regional level (Belgium).30. The role of the EU in the implementation of AEGIS was emphasized once more and it was agreed that the drafting of a strategy on this very point by IPGRI and its putting into action with the support of the SC members would be a good way forward (Germany).31. It was suggested that a brief and easy-to-read brochure on the key points of AEGIS for decision-makers should be produced. Furthermore, it was pointed out that once AEGIS is fully operational it might provide a very helpful framework to address questions such as the one raised by Hungary -how to maintain collections at threat due to serious economic constraints (The Netherlands).32. It was noted that it might well be that the \"recognition\" by AEGIS of germplasm maintained in a given national collection as part of the European collection would help in securing long-term funding commitments from the respective government (Denmark).33. The already noted concern of several countries regarding how rationalization of collections can be reconciled with the active participation of all countries and/or institutions in AEGIS, as well as the likely competition for resources among them, led to the suggestion being made to address this question in a strategic paper for further discussion (Italy).34. The abovementioned point also led to the expression of concern that in case a given national genebank could not play an active role in AEGIS, this could result in the loss of the still available human resources in such a genebank (Latvia).35. One important way of avoiding \"exclusion\" of countries/genebanks/institutions from AEGIS would be to take a broad view on the conservation activities that it involves. This would allow the system to involve institutions/countries that have a comparative advantage in terms of available expertise, their environmental situation, etc. Furthermore, the target group for AEGIS is the breeders and it is hoped that a more rational conservation approach will also result in improved evaluation of the AEGIS accessions and thus, the facilitating of their use. In fact, the possible savings to be made in conservation should be used for more evaluation and research. Finally, the development of common standards will also help to make sure that the conserved material is better used and thus, to get more benefits out of our AEGIS efforts (Germany).36. It is not the intention of AEGIS to centralize or decentralize tasks but to build on the strengths that we have through proper coordination. By sharing and even exchanging tasks we may be able to create win-win situations. The example was given that CGN is maintaining two collections (i.e. Vicia faba and oats) that are not being used in the Netherlands and that CGN is prepared to hand them over to a collaborating European genebank that is interested in maintaining the material as part of a European effort. The savings CGN would be able to make could be used for other activities (The Netherlands).37. From the discussions so far the impression was created that AEGIS would be doing \"everything\". Whatever the case might be it is certain that conservation will need to be a top priority (NGB).38. With the earlier reference to breeders being the main user group, a comment was made that more and more germplasm is being used for other purposes, such as maintaining agroecosystems, producing biofuel, etc. Therefore, we should keep clearly in mind the various opportunities for broadening the use of the germplasm when deciding on the various activities (Poland).39. The conviction was stated that everybody would benefit from increased collaboration. It was also emphasized that an accession-oriented approach would not lead to competition.The opinion was expressed that the role of the Working Groups in AEGIS is very important but that there is a need for further clarification of the organizational framework (Czech Republic).40. It was asked how far \"historical collections\" as they exist in Ireland would be of interest to AEGIS and whether they can get incorporated into the European collection (Ireland).41. At the end of the discussions the facilitator invited Jan Engels to summarize the discussions. He highlighted all the key points made and re-assured the participants that AEGIS represents a very participatory approach and that any impression that was made to the contrary was unintended and unfounded. ","tokenCount":"7947"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7df6e7573e29d2b73ca7b202d342d3ea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/65063418-f9e3-4de7-ac2d-6ab52f0c73b4/retrieve","id":"676003698"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"25773bce-bab2-4049-9da7-186e832e0ae5","pagecount":"19","content":"Tbis paper describes Ihe objeclives and goals oh partícipatory seed-management initiative that is presently being condncted in the Sankhuwasabha District of easlem Nepal as part of the Gender, Ethnicity and Agrobiodiversity Management\" project. The long-term goal oflhe projecl is lo develop local capacities lO effectively manage existing genelic reSQurces through Ihe developmenl of .kills thal eohance crop improvemeol. The research is hased on ao interactive melhodology Ihal emphasizes devolulion Ihrough varying levels offarmer participation io the research process. Bolh meo and women farmers are included in the project, with Ihe requiremenl Ihat they be involved in farming as a full-time subsistence activiry, Specific problems faced by farmers in !he area, such as out-migration of meo lookiog for wage-work and a yearly period of food scarcity lasting as long as sÍx months, are highlighted,Varieties that scored high in both the field day evaluation (table 3) and the matrix ranking (table 4) had a higher rate of adoption than the other varieties with lower scores. This implies that if farmers' criteria are be taken ínto consideration and varietal performance is evaluated in farmers' fields using farmers' practices, then varietal adoption rates could increase considerably. This could shorten the time for a material to be evaluated and adopted by farmers. Release of a new variety in  the Philippines normally takes about eight to 10 years, starting from the selection of parent materials (BoITomeo, personal cornmunication). Moreover, with farmers' participation in varietal trials, on-farm genetic diversity can be increased almost irnmediate1y. With their experience in doing PVS, farmers can later be trained to do PPB through handling of segregating generations or actual crossing ofvarieties. Through PPB, farmers can produce even more specifically adapted varieties that will contribute to overalllocal crop genetic diversíty.l. Providing díverse materials that suit farmers' criteria and conditions can enhance genetíc diversity in farmers' fields.2. PVS is a good entry point towards implementing PPB, where farmers play the central role in the development of new varieties.3. PVSIPPB approaches should continually evolve according to local farmers' needs and conditions.4. Feedback mechanisms between breeders and farmers should be established to ensure that appropriate material s are disseminated to farmers.5. In providing gennplasm to fanners, one should eonsider not only fanners' eriteria but al80 their capacity, skills, and resourees in order to detennine theír levels of participation.Situated in the remote mountain regions of the eastem Himalayas, the \"Gender, Ethnicity and Agrobiodiversity Management\" project proposes to develop the research capabilities of selected local people in four sites: eastem Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Nagaland. The immediate objective of the project is to develop a local capacity lo conduct research to better understand the causallinks between ethnicity and gender and how these componenls affect and influence decisions related lo management of agro biodiversity, However, the broader, long-term goal ofthe project is to develop local capacities to effectively manage existing genetic resources through the development of skills that enhance crop improvement. Withín this latter context, a participatory seed management initiative is currentIy being implemented in one site (Nepal) with the objective ofbroadening the experiences gained ftom thís process lo other siles in the region.The participatory seed rnanagement project is being conducted in three adjoining \"village development committees\" (VDCs), which are víllage-level administrative units ofthe Sankhuwasabha Distriel of eastem NepaL In broader terms, the project aims to enhance and develop new technologies for seed management in marginal mountain communities that lack access to new seed sources. The following hypotheses articulate the more specific objectives of the research project:• The development and enhancement of seed-management technologies will occur most effectively through a process of interactive learning between indigenous and formal systems of agricultura! development.• Access to improved technologies can be most effectively sustained through community action. This necessitates the enhancement of existing technical skilIs for seed improvement, along with the orgaruzational capacity of cornmunity-based organizations to ensure community access to these improved technologies. • Finally, the success of community action to manage development processes will depend fundamentally on the community' S ability to control the processes ofknowledge production, design, and implementation of actions.The practícal ímplícations ofthís methodology can be summarized as the need to search for ways in which partícipatory research can be part of an ongoing process. Inherent to the process is the acknowledgrnent that power relations between researchers and the researched is problematic and that there ís a need to develop a process of critical reflection that situates the production ofknowledge and action withín a specific context of a negotiated process, emphasizing community actíon (see also Koning and Martin 1996).The major ethnic group ínhabiting the research sites is an ethnically distínct but heterogeneous group ofpeople known as the Raí. Together with a related group of people known as the Limbu, the Raí refer to themselves as Kírals, a term employed as much to unify aH the various \"tríbes\" and c1ans as it is a political statement employed to dístinguísh them from the dominant Hindu majority.Having until the recent past practiced a distinct system of cornmunal land tenure known as Idpat, the Kirats constitute one of the oldest ethnic components of the regíon. Yet in decades following their integration into Nepal after the \"unification\" in the mid-18th century, the Kírats have been confronted with numerous chaIlenges to their traditional way of life. Dominant lowland influences have resulted in changes in sociocultural practices associated with traditional land-management practices and given rise to the ubiquitous rain-fed and irrigated terraces (bari/khét) that suil wetland paddy and other lowland crops. In the process, engineered landscapes have replaced extensive areas of forest cover where traditional swídden (slash-and-burn clearing) was practiced.Compounding the asymmetry ofhistorically derived center/periphery relations are constraints imposed by the harsh mountaín environment. Typical ofthe eastem Himalayan region (see Shrestha 1989), human sertlements are siruated in elevations ranging from 500-2000 melers, where landdistríbution partems combine with steep slopes and shallow soil depths lo severely constrain agricultura! activities. The land-distríbution figures ofTamku VDC (table 1), where the research sites are located, demonstrate the environmental constraints that the inhabitants are confronted with.From the total avaílable Jane!, ónly 10.6% is suitab!e for agriculture, and from this total arable area, 54% has slopes of 40 degrees and soil depths of not more than 20 cm (Goldsmith, 1982).Asymmetrícal center/periphery relations embedded in historical processes have contríbuted significantly to the present deteriorating ｳ ｴ ｡ ｴ ｾ ＠ of local institutional capacities to negotiate and orlen!  1992).development servíces to their benefit, espccially to counter the period of food deficít that typically lasts for four to five months ayear. Unable to support their subsistence needs through crop yields alone, many households have male family members migrating in increasing numbers to urban centers in search of employment, leaving women and children to manage and care for the farm. An additional outcome of prolonged periods of food deficit is the inabilíty of households to save seeds from consumption in times of stress. Thís, along with deteriorating local knowledge about seed-management practices and the absence of organizational capacíties to access external sources of improved seed technologies has profound implícations for the long-term subsistence of households in the region. It also significantly determines the narure and type of research methodology to be adopted for particular sites.The objectives of the project evolved in several stages of a diagnostíc process that sought devolution by emphasizing cornrnunity participation in íncreasing stages during the research process. In order to facilitate cornrnunity control and ownership, the methodology was developed &om the principIes of problem posing, dialogue, and refleetion based on the Freirean (1972,1973,1978) notion that cornrnunity ínvolvement in the development process can be generated through developing a critical awareness of the causes of problems. The diagnostic process ínvolved the following steps:l. A survey was conducted to establish the need for a participatory seed-management initiatíve, based on the following research themes:• assessing the capacity oflocal cornrnunity-based organízatíons • determining existing pattems of food sufficiency • identifyíng appropriate crap(s) for enhancing improved seed-management strategies • determining factors for farmer participation through gender-differentiated varietal assessment ofidentified crop(s) • determining the source of germplasm, either in exísting local vaneties or through external means 2. Analysis was done through a critical examination ofbaseline data to determine how the prob-Iem of food deficit i5 contexrualized by cornmunity members. Ibat ís, are problems of food deficit línked to just econolTÚc issues of subsistence or are they affected by social dynamics of decision-making? And to what extent are these embedded in tbe value5 and cultural constructs of the cornrnunity? Conceprualized problems in this way necessítates posing the following questions:• Do the issues deal mainly with problems of subsistence, decision-making, or values? • Where will action most likeIy come from?• What will most effectively motivate people?3. Problem-posing material was prepared through the development of codes, which are representations of existing problems in the form of stories, dramatized enactrnents, pictures, results of particípatory rural appraisal (PRA), etc. Fundamental to the preparation of codes is tbe need to ensure that they present a scene showing a concrete experience ofthe problem, which is familiar to the participants.4. Discussíon was dírected through an interactive workshop whereby cornmunity members participated in defming tbe problem offood deficit and searchíng for solutioos. The primary objective ofthis process was 10 develop a critical awareness oflhe problem offood deficit through tbe search for potential solutions. Additionally, the process also creates a context for the community 10 provide cornmenls on the research results and to define the direction oflhe process.The process begins witb a description ofcedes, followed by a firsl analysis, which is then related to reallife and followed by a deeper analysis, ending in self-reliant action planning.The degree and type of farmer participation depends principally on the objeclives for participation, as well as the context, as determined by the particular stage of tbe process. Thus, the diagnostic phase, consisting oftbe survey, anaiysis, code preparation, and discussion, involved varying levels of farmer participation. In tbe survey, three members of tbe cornmuníty and two projeet members comprised the researeh team. Clan elders and farmers selected on the basis tbeir knowledge related to seed managemen! were consulted abeu! tbe relevance of tbe project. In addition, tbe executive body of cornmunity-based organizations were consulted to establish interest in developing a working partnership to conduct the project.The survey was conducted to establish (1) a crop inventory, (2) to determine tbe needs and priorities of different groups, based on gender and wealth considerations, and (3) lo identify erop for improving seed-management technology. At tbe same time, farmers were selected for consultation on the basis of tbeir knowledge, financial.status, and gender. The subsequent analysis of the data lo develop appropriate cedes was conducted in collaboration witb local researchers and farmers.The main objective ofthe workshop !ha! followed was to present tbe codes to tbe larger cornmunity to understand tbe root causes and potentíai solutions to problems of food deficit in the regíon. The selectíon of cornrnunity members was based on tbe eriteria developed in prior consultation witb local members of the research team. During this stage of tbe interface, farmers were more extensively involved in tbe direction of!he discussion of research findings, as well as decís ion making lo determine tbe level of participation in setting tbe agenda for future action.The selectíon of participants was deterrnined by tbe following eritena:• demonstrated instances of innovation in seed management and knowledge of causallinks between problems of food scarcity and gaps in existing seed-management practices• gender-differentiated knowledge and gendered experiences• farming for subsistence as a full-time subsistence activityThe participants selected for participation in the research process demonstrated varying degrees of innovation in crop management. The type of innovations ranged from pre-harvest selection practices to post-harvest storage practices. In sorne instances, the praetices were leamed from experienee gained extemally.asin the case of selecting for desired traits of rice during the pre-harvest period or experimentíng with new strategies as in the case of post-harvest storage of maize mixed with millet to reduce pest attack.While post-harvest selection practices were common for crops such as maize and millet, pre-harvest selectíon was practiced only on paddy, One farmer, selecting specifically for larger panicles, denser grain quality, and tal! height in a landrace (punche dhan) was successful in producing a \"variety\" subsequently named afier him (changkhu dhan,literally \"Changkhu's rice\"), This \"varieti' is currently widely adopted by other farmers in the commnnity, with Changkhu presently selecting for early maturation to coincide with the planting of winter wheat.In seed-storage technology, sorne innovative farmers experiment with the leaves of a locally available plant (bajo) to ward offpestattacks on maize seeds. Dried leaves ofthis plant are placed in the bottom of the seed container and altemately in several layers approximately every three to four inches, then fue container is sealed by additionalleaves at the topo Sealed in September or early October, the relatively airtight spaces and the toxic nature ofleaves sufficiently wards off pest attacks.In another example, one woman farmer, noticing that millet grains were free of pests that attacked maíze seeds, began mixing a handful of millet grains in the container where maize seeds were stored. This relatively simple practice was based on her observation that millet seeds were free from fue pests lhat attacked ｴ ｨ ｾ ＠ maize seeds that were stored in close proximity to fue millet.In varietal assessments of maize, conducted separately between women and men farmers during the inÍtial research phase, women and men listed different categories of preferences based on their roles and experiences. Men listed four varieties of maize, mostly modem varieties that had been introdueed into the commnnity in the last several years. W omen, on the other hand,listed eight varietíes, mostly landraces whose use had been discontinued in the project site but existed in the women's natal villages. Women cited fodder quality, ease in grinding, and taste as fue primary eritecia for their preference oflandraces. Men, on fue other hand, cited high yields, early rnaturation, resistance to drought conditions, and market prices as important in their preference for modern varieties, An additional ranking of maize varieties among farmers revealed differential knowledge and preference priorities between women and men (table 3).That participating farmers be involved in farming as a full-time subsistence activity was an important eriteria for selection for two reasons: the first was prompted by fue project need for the uninterrupted involvement of participants for two production seasons (for most farmers in the area, 8. chepti seti. . -\" ----1 _ food-scarcity periods necessitated involvemcnt in off-farm activities for supplementing household ineomes); the second was because those farmers who were involved in farming as a \"full-time\" activity showed a greater inclinalion to be relative\\y self-sufficient in food production, even during the scarcity período Of the nine farmer participants in Tamku VDC who were included in the \"iunovative\" category, aIl claimed sufficient food security during the year and could be counted upon by other cornmunity members for food loans during periods of food deficit.Out-migration ofmen to urban centers in search of employment is one ofthe primary strategies employed lo counter food deficits. In the past, it was cornmon for men and women to become involved in recíprocal arrangemenls within t/le corpmunity during times of food shortage. UsualIy this involved providing labor for wealthier farmers in return for food provisions during times of scarcity. Increasíngly, however, Ihe presenl trend is for!he majority ofyoung men to migrate to urban cenlers to work as porters for trekkíng companies, perform meníal jobs in restaurants and hotels, or migrate lo Ihe MiddIe East (arab) through the numerous employment agencies !hat have sprung up in Nepalese townships.In addition to out-migration, people a1so forage for a variety offorest foods (kandamul), although a degree of social stigma surrounds foraging activities, príncipally through the perceived notion that it ís part of the \"prímitive\" past.At the household level, food-preparation strategies a1so play an important role in \"making it lasl longer.\" Grains are boiled with excess water, creating a porridge-like consistency to ínerease !he quantity. \"Visitors and guests\" duríng !he time of scarcity are actively discouraged from visiting, though sorne women particípants cited visiting relatives (preferably fue natal home, for married women) as an option to combal food shortages.A seasonal calendar for food production reveals a period of severe food scarcity between !he monlhs begiuning in late February and lasting till early luIy. The relationship between food production and out-mígration, especially of males to urban centers in search of employment, is direct1y proportional to !he íncreasing number of female-headed households as well as the additional, \"gendered\" burden of farming responsibilities that this trend implies. Moreover, !here was a strong relationship between decreasing food produetion and poor aceess lO seed sources and deteriorating seed-savíng practices. Research suggested !hat !he deterioratíon of seed saving was not necessarily related lo loss ofknowledge but was, ralher, determined lO a large extent by food scarcity and the additional burden of farm households to do \"other things.\" Increasing trends in food scarcity over the last few generations have resulted in people consuming ínslead of saving seed materíaL Though there were many reasons for food scarcity, research demonstrated a causal relationshíp between decreased crop yíelds and the ínability to manage seed, in terms of both maíntaíning seed purity (saadha biyu) and poor seed storage practices. Moreover, access to the Agriculture Input Sector (AIC), a public-sector undertaking responsible for seed supplies was dífficult, sínce ít is situated in district headquarters a day' s walk from the village and using il ofien proves to be a dífficult bureaucratic process beyond the reach of individual farmers. The consequenees of low yields, the ínabílity lo maíntain seed purity, and lack of access to reliable sourees of new germplasm aH contribute to food scarcity in Tamk:u.In order to address the objective of developing improved seed technologies in marginal mountain environments while emphasizing community control ofthe rnanagement of the process, it becomes important lo conceptualize farmer participation in the research process as an instrument of empowerment. Dne principie way forward in tlús direction is lo situate farmer participation in the context ofIocal knowledge. In doing so, however, it becomes important to view knowledge, or indigenous technical knowledge, beyond common representatíons of its beíng produced as a raliona! response to environmental contingencies (e.g., Matlúas-Mundy et al. 1991;Howes and Chambers 1980;Brokensha, Warren, and Werner 1980). Instead, it becomes important to sitnate indigenous technícal knowledge within cultural categories of meaning, which can then become an empowering base for participation in the interface with more powerful externa! categories of knowledge.The workshop discussions revealed how empírical experiences cannot be separated from cultural experience, especiaHy in the way Rai farmers talk about food scarcity and place the phenomenon in a mytlúc context. Local discourse offood scarcity finds expressíon both in the dominant Nepali language as well as the various díalects of the Raí group. The words to describe food scarcity range from anikal (foad shortage), bhakmari (to kilI hunger), mahamari (the great killer), and sisawa (famine) in the Kulung dialect ofthe Rai. lt also finds expression through simple expressions such as \"khana ka abab hunu\" (to be short of edíbles), \"dhayrailchitto bhok lagnu\" (lo experience hungerpangs sooner and more frequently than normal), \"chasum na hunu\" (to lack prosperity), as well as more abstraet expressions, such as in tlús lament in the Kulung dialect \"Etenay sisawa udanai [ay tay ha wumche \" (dear friends. and brothers, ... how do we survive the sisawa [food shortage] tlús year?) or the more common instructional verse admonishing people to save seeds to combat food shortages \"Almal ma jiyu bachhaunu, Aníkal ma biyu bachhaunu \" (save oneself in times of confusion, [but] save seeds in times of[food] shortage) or \"Chha geda sabai mera Chhaina geda sabai tenda\" (having seeds, all is mine, [not1 having seeds, all is not mine [Le., lost]).In the indigenous schema, food scarcity is a condition of cultural \"disorder\" that has its genesís in the curse that one warring ancestor castes upon another for perceived treachery. In cultural terms, the condition becomes inevitable and requires annual propitia!ion of the ancestor through ritual appeasement. The myth, consisting of ancestral deeds tbat include the settling of present territories, serves as a metaphor for the sacred relationship that exists between the Raí and the delimited territory they occupy. Traditional Kirati notions of ethnicity canno! be separated from this relationshíp and are symbolized by an ancestor stone that is sitnated in every village and propitiated in annual agricultura! ceremonies (ca:ri).What such a view of knowledge irnplies is that by granting legitirnacy to cultural episternologíes, indigenous explanations for ernpírical categories are not subjugated by ratíonalist scientific explanations and thereby becorne an ernpowering elernent for farrner participation. Wíthín such a context, the transferoftechnical skills to enhance seed technology neither dirninishes nor disernpowers indigenous systerns of rneaning.Crop improvement has been one ofthe strong, continuous programs in the Mekong Delta for major crops, especially rice and beans. However, most breedíng programs have been set and designed by breeders neglectíng the role of users: farmers and farming cornmunities. Breeders have set their own breeding objectives and conducted crop-improvement programs based on their own analysis ofproblems and on-station research findings (COWI 1999). At the end oftheír breeding programs, promising breeding materials are released to fanners as so-called \"technology transfer.\" Fanners are passive users, receiving finished breeding línes/varieties for their production. In many cases, fanners, especially the poor, refuse to try new varieties because they do not want to take the risk.Resource-rich fanners are the Iirst to try such varieties. Participatíon is Iimited to providing a piece ofland to the breeders for on-fann trials. The dissemination process of\"technology transfer\" has been very slow and costly for both breeders and farmers. As a result, the adoption of recornmended varieties, in many cases, has been very slow, doubtful, or has even failed. acceptance. The use of participatory approaches in crop improvement assures farmers' involvemenl in the whole process or, al least, in the evaluation process. This has resulted in better understanding and greater acceptability of new crop varieties generated through breeding programs.Can Tho University, as the leading research institution for adapting participatory approaches in rice improvement, started on-farm breeding programs as early as 1975, afier the war, by sending out their staff and students to work closely with farmers on erop improvement programs (Xuan et al. 1993). In 1994, with the inception ofthe Cornmunity Biodiversity Development and Conservation (CBDC) project, participatory plant breeding (PPB) and participatory varietal selection (PVS) were introduced as methods to develop and identifY crop varieties specific to niche environments and farmers' preferences (CBDC 1996(CBDC , 1997)). Witcombe and Joshi (1996) defined PPB as involving farmers in selecting genotypes frem genetically variable, segregating materials and PVS as involving the selection by farmers ofnonsegregating materials, characterized as products from plant-breeding programs. However, they also agreed lhat PPB is a logical extension ofPVS. In our view, PVS is only a lower leve! ofPPB. PPB, therefore, should be understood in its broader meaning and implications as the involvement offarmers in the whole process of plant breeding, no! only the selection of segregating and nonsegregating materials. Farmers can be involved at the very beginning, when strategies and objectives are se! forplant breeding, in identifYing parents, making crosses (of course with training from the formal sector), and selecting both segregating and nonsegregating materials. The experiences from the CBDC project in Southeast Asia have proven lhat peint, especially in the Mekong Delta in Vietoam and in Bohol, Philippines, for rice (CBDG 1998).These participatory approaches are also being used at one of the study sites, Tra Cu, of the global in situ conservation project implemented in Vietnam in collaboration with the Intemational Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRl).The participatory cropcímprovement program uses pvs andlor PPB approaches, depending on fanners' varietal needs and their breeding knowledge and technical skílls. The pvs approach has been used to improve locallandraces and to evaluate the finished breeding materials, obtained frem research institutions, on farmers' field. When varietal options avaílable to farmers through PVS are limited or exhausted, PPB is initiated (CBDC 1998). Farmers with knowledge ofand interest in breeding are involved in PPB activities, i.e., activities frem crossing desired parent lines to selecting and evaluating the segregating genetic materials (De and Tin 1998). A flow diagram showing the methods used in participatory erop improvement is presented in figure 1. The methods used in implementing PPB and PVS are discussed below.Particípatory plant breeding involves the following steps and activities.Need assessment and seledion of cooperating farmers, Cornmunity meetings are organized to identifY farmers' problems and needs and to come up with suitable crop-improvement strategies and plans. A group offarmers (Group 1 farmers), with knowledge ofand interest in breeding, are selected as cooperating farmers in consultation wíth the community. Breeding acti vities are then formulated and decided upon with these cooperating farmers. '------------+1.1(5•10 rarme,.)fanners with good knowledge and skili in breeding.with good knowledge and .kiU in seed seleclion. Group Ｓ ｾ ｆ Ｇ ｬ ｬ ｦ ｬ ･ ｲ ｳ ＠ with good knowledge and ,km in seed production. Setting breeding objectives and identifying donor parents. Breeders work c10sely with farmers to agree on breeding objectives. Farmers have been found to use both quantitative and qualitative criteria to detennine these breeding objectives. Sorne of the examples of such eriteria are high yield, short duration, resistance to major pests and diseases, stickiness of cooked rice, and so on.Based on the breeding objectives, breeders then assist farmers in searching for suitable donor parents for crossing. These donors may be found among the avaílable genetie materials at the local level or from research institutions and are made available to the cooperating farmers.Making crosses and selecting segregating materials. The Group 1 farmers are given additional training on crossing techniques and assisted in making the desired crosses. In other cases, breeders provide seeds of segregating lines at very early generations (F2, F¡, and F 4) to the farmers ror selection of desired lines based on their own eriteria. Farmers have been found to handle segregating materials from generations as early as F 2 • In the process, farmers apply their own crop-management practices. Based on breeding objectives, farmers observe, evaluate, and harvest the selected plants individuaIly. This process is repeated until stable Hnes are obtained. For management reasons, the Participatory Approachl!!...tt? Crop lmprovemenl al the Community Level in Vietnam number of individual plants selected each season is limited, depending on farmers' capacity for seed handling and the land assigned as a breeding plot. Therefore, the genetic variation in farmers' selections is usually narrow. Only Group 1 farmers are involved in the selection process, while field operations are done with the help of other farmers in the community.Observation test. Pure lines selected from the segregating material s are planted in observation test plots to check for adaptation and yield, with common local varieties used as local checks. Farmers compare the performance of new varieties/lines with the local check and select promising ones for further evaluation in yield trials by Group 2 farmers.Monitoring. The Group I cooperating farmers take close field observations with technical assistance from breeders and agricultural extensionists. These farmers also keep records on field conditions and crop performance for later analysis in determining the suitabilíty of the new erop varieties under selection.Participatory varietal selection involves the following steps and activities.Need assessment and selection oC cooperating farmers. As in PPB, eonununity meetings are organized to identifY farmers' problems and needs in relation to their current erop varieties. F armers may want to improve their current varieties or ehange for promising new varieties. A separate group of farmers (Group 2 farmers), with good knowledge of and skills in seed seleetion and management, are also selected as eooperating farmers in consultation with the conununity. PVS activities are then fonnulated and decided upon with the cooperating farmers from both Group I and Group 2.Provision of genetic materials and participatory selection. Three sources of genetic material s are used to obtain seeds for participatory selection of desired erop varieties:• PVS with improved locallandraces. The improvement oflocallandraces is done through mass as well as pure-line seleetion. Since the mass-seleetion method does not require very specialized skills, Group 2 farmers, afier a simple orientation, have been able to undertake tbis selection. On the other hand, pure-Iine seleetion for erop improvementrequires speeialized skills and care on the par! of the farmers. For this reason, only Group 1 farmers have been used to do pure-liÍle selection, afier adequate training and with inlensive monitoring. The improved locallandraces are then given to a large number of farmers within the eonununity, as PVS material s, for their own testing and seleetion.• PVS witb reintroduced locallandraces. PVS also reintroduces landraces from genebanks back to the conununity when local materials have been destroyed by disaster. Usually the eollected local varieties from different locations within and outside of the eonununity are evaluated in the conununity to give farmers more choiees.• PVS with modern crop varieties. Modem erop varieties from research institutions and finished products from PPB are also given lo the eooperating farmers for testing their suitability under farmers' own management conditions and household requirements.Yield trials oC successful PVS varieties. The erop varieties preferred by farmers under the PVS program are then put into varietal yield trials in the conununity for farmers to observe directly and make selections of their choices. Conunon varieties in the conununity are used as local cheeks in these trials. Farmer field days are organized just before harvesting to bring farmers in the conunu-nity to tbe trial plots for ajoint evaluatíon ofthe tested varieties. Desírable varieties (usually two to three varieties) are then selected for seed multiplicatíon.Seed multiplication. Varieties selected by farmers from yield trials are rustributed to a group of farmers (Group 3 farmers), with consíderable knowledge of and interest in seed production, to multiply large quantities of seeds for use by olher farmers in Ihe community. Seed multiplication fields are closely monítored and used as final checks for large-scale productiori.Monitoring. Field visits and farmer field days are tbe most appropriate tools for participatory monitoring and evaluation ofPVS activities. Breeders, field staff, extension workers, and farmers participate in such activities. Data collection depends on farmers' objectives and ineludes common traits such as growth duration, plan! height, tillering capacity, grain yield and quality, and tolerance to insects and díseases.Rice is tbe major food crop in tbe Mekong Delta. PVS actívities on rice have been undertaken in different forms in tbe Mekong Delta starting as early as the 19708. The most common of tbese actívíties was varietal yield trials. The main objectives ofthe varietal yield tríals were to generate farmer-preferred crop varieties and faster disseminatíon of tbese varietíes. Can Tho University has been a leading research instítution in ínítiating and implementing on-farm research activitíes. In the beginning, breeders and researcherS cooperated witb advanced farrners individually throughout tbe Mekong Delta (De 1997).During the period 1975-1995, hundreds ofpromising rice varietíes were tested in farmers' fields, and a number of varieties were identified and released. Sorne of tbese rice varieties are IR36 (later named NN3A), HT6 (NN6A), MTL30 (NN7 A), HT19 (NN2B), IR42 (NN4B), MTL58 IR 13240-108-2-2-3), and MTL87 (IR50404-57-2-2-3).  Besides four cornmuníties the initíal1y selecled, the PPB and PVS prograrns were also expanded to include other advanced, individual farmers in Ihe Mekong Delta. One of these was Mr. Hai Triem from An Giang province, who was well-known as \"farmer of the era\" and was awarded the Third Labour Medal by the central government for his contribution to rice improvement.• The low ｾ ､ ｵ ｣ ｡ ｴ ｩ ｯ ｮ ｡ ｬ ｬ ･ ｶ ･ ｬ ＠ ofthe farmers means they require more training and the adoption ofPPB is slow.• Few farmers are interested in working with breeding and selectíng segregating materials.F armers are more willing to multiply promising varieties than to select from segregating materials or make crosses.• The number of farmers collaborating in PPB is limited, especially in pedigree selection and selection of segregating material because these are time-consuming activities.• Agricultura! policy is more favorable to cornmercial production than tp conserving diversity.• Due to the fasl turnover of rice varieties by farmers (every three to four seasons), il is difficult to keep their Ínterest and get their cooperation for the entire process of selecting segregating lines, which takes time 10 get results.","tokenCount":"5341"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d608195229d53582e7460b1912389ecf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/34ec20fc-5067-458d-a333-30ac005617a1/retrieve","id":"771934928"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3d3c5a31-c527-4955-b512-a20349915207","pagecount":"2","content":"The aim of this project is to develop weevil-resistant sweetpotato varieties through breeding and biotechnology. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a soil bacterium that is well-known for its insecticidal activity. Synthetic genes that produce the proteins active against the two weevil species attacking the sweetpotato can be developed and introduced into the plant to confer pest resistance. Because the storage root has low protein content, a non-protein-based approach might be needed at the same time. Therefore, RNA interference (RNAi) targeting sweetpotato weevil essential genes can be combined with the insecticidal proteins to provide stable resistance to sweetpotato weevils. This Bt -RNAi combined gene technology has already been used successfully to increase resistance to rootworm in maize. In addition, health benefits may be expected because farmers will not consume partially damaged roots containing toxic compounds as they do currently under severe food shortage.Reaching 10 million African households by 2020Research on the identification of insecticidal proteins from Bt (Cry proteins) has taken place in the US at the Auburn University and at the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in Uganda. Genetic transformation of sweetpotato was first developed at the CIP biotechnology lab in Peru, later at Makerere University and NaCRRI in Uganda, then at BecA and Kenyatta University in Kenya, and lately at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in the USA. A confined field trial has been conducted at the A farmer survey conducted in Uganda revealed that weevils are responsible for 28% of crop losses every year. Losses can be up to 90% during dry periods, which can be quite devastating. Weevils can affect not only food security, but also sweetpotato production, marketability, healthiness, and sustainability, especially in areas experiencing longer dry periods. With climate change predictions for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) foreseeing an expanding dry season, the threat and impact of weevils may increase further. Adapting conventional integrated pest management practices among smallholder farmers is difficult due to the challenges controlling field sanitation in small-scale production systems. Extensive efforts to develop weevil-resistant sweetpotato through conventional breeding have not yet succeeded. As a result, there is currently little farmers can do when weevils infest their fields, other than quickly harvest and salvage what is left of their crop.University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez. The University of Valencia elucidates the mode of action of the Cry proteins and Ghent University builds mainly biosafety capacities and is developing the RNAi strategy. The project is targeting Uganda and, if successful, other SSA countries.We have introduced synthetic cry genes that produce proteins with activity against sweetpotato weevils into various sweetpotato varieties, including some grown in SSA. A total of 117 transgenic plants with cry genes were produced and many of them were tested for resistance against weevils. So far, most of them did not show activity against weevils but two storage roots did not have any visible weevil damage, and two did not produce adults (Fig. 1). These cases will be reconfirmed with new fresh storage roots. New cry gene constructs, designed for higher cry gene expression, were used to produce almost 500 transgenic plants in three laboratories. Those with the highest Cry protein levels are now under evaluation for resistance against weevils, with results expected by the end of 2015 for the Bt strategy. The RNAi strategy is taking shape with the confirmation that when any of three specific genes of the weevil are inhibited by RNAi, the larvae die. Accordingly, five hairpin gene constructs were designed to target essential genes of the weevils. Soon genetic transformation of the variety 'Jonathan' will be initiated. Research on the quantification of ipomeamarone produced in storage roots in response to fungal infection was completed and published in 2015.This study highlights a potential health threat to farmers in SSA who consume the undamaged parts of infected storage roots as meaningful levels of toxin were found in the undamaged parts (Fig. 2). Additional research is needed, however, to quantify the presence of ipomeamarone under varying conditions of storage, cooking method, varietal type, etc. Capacity strengthening continues. Our third African PhD candidate completed this year. One remaining PhD candidate at Ghent University is halfway through.The testing of resistance to weevils of Bt sweetpotatoes has been slow due to a number of unfavorable factors: the time-consuming protocol for genetic transformation of this crop, the need to produce storage roots in pots in contained facilities, and complications transferring plant material from Peru to the USA and to African countries. After six years, we have now reached the final step of testing resistance to weevils using storage roots produced in the greenhouse. In parallel, the RNAi strategy looks promising and therefore will be combined with the previous one provided any of the transgenic plants with Bt reconfirms to have some level of resistance. Finally, we firmly believe that the Cry protein expression, possibly combined with RNAi, will confer weevil resistance --which remains the single most important threat on sweetpotato food availability to the poor in many SSA countries.Marc Ghislain (CIP) m.ghislain@cgiar.org ","tokenCount":"827"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ffd25b53e704f6be19b466c4704e6f15","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/30c1627f-dece-47df-b43c-2a64b2a8f08b/retrieve","id":"-488495103"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"888546d4-a26d-409e-acd3-cd25d44692f5","pagecount":"48","content":"an important factor that determined adoption of improved varieties. Thus, policymakers must strive to ensure that farmers with capital deficit have access to credit to purchase new seeds and other inputs. More has to be done to bring about microfinance schemes and rotating savings and credit associations. Other forms of peer-to-peer banking should also be introduced to help farmers with capital deficit.This study measured the level of soybean adoption in northern and southern Kaduna State. Adoption for the purpose of this study is defined as when farmers grow varieties promoted by the N2Africa project. The varieties include TGX1835 (Danwuri), TGX1951-3F, TGX1955-4F, TGX1448-2E, and TGX1904-6F. Multistage sampling was used in this study and 800 farmers were sampled for the study.Results showed that farmers in southern Kaduna (38.5) were younger than those in northern Kaduna (40). The predominance of male-headed households was true for both northern and southern Kaduna, with the north having 91% of men heading households as against 85.5% of men in the south. Households in both regions were large sized with an average household size of eight members in southern Kaduna and an average of 8.5 in northern Kaduna. Differences in farming experience between respondents in both areas were not very high as respondents in northern Kaduna had on average 17.51 years of farming experience while those in the southern Kaduna had on average 16.4 years of experience. The results also showed that farmers in both regions had approximately 3 ha of farmland with southern Kaduna having a slightly higher farm size (3.19 ha) than those in the north (2.9 ha). Household heads in northern Kaduna had a higher rate of illiteracy (28.9%) than those in southern Kaduna (15.85%). However, in northern Kaduna and in Ikara in particular, the rate of respondents who had university education was much higher (17.25%) than those in southern Kaduna (2.8%).The most recent adoption rate for 2017 shows that approximately 84.85% of farmers in southern Kaduna and 72.8% of farmers in northern Kaduna have adopted varieties promoted by N2Africa. The most adopted varieties are TGX1951-3F with 26.5% adoption rate and TGX1448-2E with a 24.8% adoption rate. TGX1951-3F is the most popular in Chikun, Kajuru, and Igabi while TGX14482E is more popular in Ikara. The extent of adoption is higher in southern Kaduna as 55% of farmlands was devoted to the production of soybean in southern Kaduna while 14.85% of farmland was devoted to the production of soybean in northern Kaduna. The results reveal that the use of rhizobium inoculants was much more widespread in the southern (52%) part of the state than in the north (19.65%). The use of chemical fertilizer was much higher in northern Kaduna (45%) than in southern Kaduna (21.05%). This may be because the soils in the north have a greater deficiency of phosphorus and other essential nutrients. In both regions the lack of seeds was the greatest constraint to adoption reported by non-adopters of the varieties. According to the results of the probit component (selection or first stage) of the double hurdle model, age, membership of association, farm size, and farm experience all had a positive and significant effect on adoption. Also, the results of the Tobit component (second stage) of the double hurdle model show that gender, age, membership of association, farm experience, extension contact, and pesticide application all had a positive and significant effect on the intensity or extent of adoption.Policymakers must do more to ensure that farmers have regular contact with extension agents. A performance-based system in conjunction with frequent monitoring of the performance of extension agents must be made. This is especially crucial just before the planting season and during the planting period. Extension agents can be made to give weekly reports on their activities supported by evidence in the form of audio recordings and GPS coordinates. Policymakers must ensure that female farmers have access to factors of production such as land and capital for them to expand their productivity, have higher farm incomes, and enable them to escape poverty. Access to credit wasSoybean, although a relatively new crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), is increasingly becoming an important crop cultivated for the livelihood of a large population of farmers in SSA. The advantages of soybean, which make it attractive to farmers in this part of the world, are well documented. It has high market demand, thus providing a source of cash income for rural agricultural households. Soybean therefore holds considerable potential to increase farm income and reduce rural poverty in SSA. Soybean's additional importance lies in its capacity to improve the fertility of the soil. The improved soybean varieties can nodulate and, in association with native rhizobia, fix nitrogen in the soil (Onyube et al. 2003). Some varieties fix 44 to 103 kg N/ha annually (Sanginga et al. 2003). When rotated with cereal crops such as maize, substantial yield benefits are obtained from the crop. The cereal tends to copiously benefit from the surplus nitrogen left in the soil after harvesting the soybean. In addition to this, soybean can control Striga, a parasitic weed that poses a serious problem on cereal fields.Soybean is an important source of protein containing high quality, affordable protein estimated at between 35 and 40% of total crop mass (Onyube et al. 2006;Greenberg and Hartung 1998). Soybean is used as human food, animal feed/fodder, oil, and an industrial crop. As human food, it is used in the preparation of diversified local recipes including soyflour, soybread, soycake, and soymilk, and some locally named recipes.In Nigeria, soybean production is gaining increasing importance with the crop now being cultivated in almost all ecologies, but with the greatest potential in the Guinea savannas. The main growing states include Benue, Kaduna, and Katsina. Studies have revealed that Nigeria is the biggest soybean producing country in SSA in terms of both area cultivated and production level (Coulibaly et al. 2009). Between 1990 and 2007, Nigeria cultivated an average area of 564,927 ha of soybean and produced an average of 176,954 tons (t) (Coulibaly et al. 2009).Kaduna is one of the most important states for soybean production. The State lies in the Guinea savanna where rainfall and soil conditions are suitable for soybean production. In the southern part of the State, Kaduna city offers opportunities for the marketing of grain because of the presence of many aggregators for bulk marketing. In addition, a large feed mill processing plant is located about 25 km from Kaduna City. The mill, established by OLAM Agro-chemical Company, has processed about 150,000 t of soybean per year in the last two years. This has created an unprecedented demand for soybean grain. In northern Kaduna, soybean generally yields well (Kamara et al. 2014). There are pockets of small-scale processors in Zaria such as Sunseed Company. Northern Kaduna is also close to Kano City where there are several soybean processing companies. Kano City is host to the largest grain market (Dawano Market) in West Africa and yield increasing inputs such as fertilizer and good seed are readily available in Kaduna State. All these processing and grain marketing opportunities make Kaduna among the largest producers of soybean. Despite the seeming importance of soybean production in Kaduna State, cultural differences between the northern and southern parts of the State may influence adoption of soybean production technologies. The north is largely dominated by Muslims while the south is populated largely by Christians. Access to education, family size, and age of farming population may vary between the two regions. Despite these numerous advantages, there are several constraints that limit soybean production and adoption among small-scale farmers in the savannas of West Africa. These include poor soil fertility, pests and diseases, and drought. Other constraints are (i) lack of awareness on processing and utilization methods, (ii) limited availability of processing equipment, (iii) low yield, (iv) lack of market linkages with processors and consumers, (v) lack of yield increasing inputs, (vi) low prices, (vii) weak policy support, and (viii) limited access to improved seed. Poor access to improved seed in terms of availability, accessibility, and quality is one of the major constraints to smallholder soybean productivity in Nigeria. Research institutions such as the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have, in the recent past, made tremendous efforts to develop improved soybean cultivars and release such to farmers in SSA. These varieties have been deployed alongside other yield improving inputs through diverse projects in various parts of Nigeria including Kaduna State.N2Africa is putting nitrogen fixation to work for smallholder farmers in Africa through enhancing the yield of grain legumes and expanding the farm area cropped with legumes to improve incomes and food and nutrition security. It is a large-scale, science-based \"research-in-development\" project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The project is currently being implemented in 11 countries including Nigeria. In Nigeria it is implemented in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and in Benue, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Kebbi, Niger, and Sokoto states. The mandated crops for the project are cowpea, groundnut, and soybean. In Kaduna State, N2Africa is implemented in Ckukun, Igabi, Ikara, and Kajiru local Government Areas (LGAs). The vision of N2Africa is to build sustainable, longterm, and effective partnerships to enable African smallholder farmers to benefit from symbiotic N 2 fixation by grain legumes through effective production technologies including introduction of improved crop varieties, inoculants, and phosphorus fertilizers.The study set out to evaluate whether the N2Africa project in Kaduna had been successful in achieving an increase in the adoption of soybean. This will provide project staff, donors, and other stakeholders with detailed information on the achievement of key project deliverables and related indicators.The main objective of the study was to assess the project's impact on the livelihood of farmers in southern and northern Kaduna. The specific objectives of the study are to:• Examine the socioeconomic characteristics of soybean farmers in the study area.• Determine the level and rate of adoption of soybean varieties by farmers in the project area.• Examine the reasons for growing soybean varieties.• Examine the constraints to growing soybean varieties.• Examine the factors influencing adoption and intensity of adoption of soybean varieties.The study covered the collection of quantitative and qualitative data on key milestones of the N2Africa Nigeria Results framework. It also comprised collecting information on the impact indicators of the project as indicated in the project results framework. Field data collection was carried out in May and June 2018. However, the data were collected to give information on the 2016 cropping season. The study area comprised Chikun, Igabi, Ikara, and Kajuru LGAs of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The main reference points of the study were the project document (project proposal), the baseline report, and the N2Africa Nigeria results framework. A multistage sampling technique was used in this study. The first stage was the purposive selection of four LGAs Chikun, Igabi, Ikara, and Kajuru. These four LGAs were selected because interventions promoting improved agricultural technologies including soybean varieties have been undertaken there by other projects such as TLII, SG3000, USAID Markets, and N2Africa. The second stage included the random selection of 40 communities where these interventions were conducted. In each of the four local governments, 10 communities were randomly selected from a list of 50 communities. In the third and final stages there was the random selection of small-scale farmers using random numbers; 20 farmers were randomly selected from a list of 100 farmers. The summary of the sampling frame is presented in Table 1. Data for the N2Africa Kaduna survey were obtained through a survey of 800 households in Kaduna State in May and June 2018. The main instruments for data collection were well-structured electronic questionnaires administered on households by trained enumerators under the supervision of students from the Department of Agricultural Economics, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria; researchers from IITA; and a private consultant. Information collected included variables on sex, age, marital status, farm size, family size, quantity of input, income of farmers, awareness and adoption of soybean varieties, expenditure on food and non-food items, expenditure on productive and household assets, and crop production based on the 2016 farming season. A survey research design was employed to capture all these variables. Data were collected from 40 communities and settlements spread across the four LGAs in the project area (Table 1).A combination of analytical tools was employed in this study. These included descriptive statistics (means, frequencies, etc.). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used in the analysis of descriptive statistics. Using means, percentages, and frequency distribution; the level of education of household head, the age of household heads, their years of farming experience, the level of household income, and the level of awareness and adoption of soybean were all measured. Inferential statistical methods such as the logit and Tobit regression techniques were used to model the determinants of adoption and intensity of adoption respectively.Descriptive statistics were used to examine the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents' households and basic features of the existing crop production system in the study area. The analysis is needed because household food security and poverty are largely functions of farmers' social and economic characteristics.The adoption process begins with farmers becoming aware of a new technology by hearing about it. Afterwards they go through a time of acquiring knowledge about the technology, which would leave either a positive or negative impression about the technology and ultimately lead them to decide whether to adopt that technology. After adopting the technology, farmers may also choose to increase the intensity of use of the new technology as well or stop using it entirely (Rogers 2004).Understanding the factors that determine the adoption and intensity of adoption of soybean varieties during the adoption process is critical to knowing the factors that stimulate and hinder the adoption of these varieties. Policymakers, research institutes, and donor organizations will find this information helpful to better plan future soybean interventions and to help respond to the needs of farmers who may have been hindered by certain socioeconomic or institutional variables.The double-hurdle model is an improvement on the Tobit model and it has been used by many researchers in adoption studies. The double-hurdle model is used in studies involving participation decisions. The value, d = 1, is assigned for participants and nonparticipants are assigned the value, d = 0.After we determine the probability of being a participant or nonparticipant the participants will be assigned a conditional density of y given y > 0 is specified to be f (y|d = 1), for some choice of density f (•).The two-part model according to Cameron and Trivedi (2005) for y is then given byThe Logit or Probit model is used to determine the participation decision. But a latent variable is measured against a threshold such that if the latent variable exceeds the threshold then participation takes place. A latent variable formulation is that exceeds zero. Meaning participation takes place if I exceed the threshold of zero. The act of crossing that threshold is described as a hurdle (Cameron and Trivedi 2005).The major drawback of the Tobit model is that the choice of y > 0 and the value of y, given that y > 0, is determined by the same vector of parameters (β). For example, this imposes that the direction (sign) of a given determinant's marginal effect will be the same on both the probability that y > 0 and the expectation of y, conditional or otherwise. This means that for the Tobit the same factors influencing the decision to adopt are also affecting the intensity of adoption. The double-hurdle realizes that in real life this may not always be the case. It recognizes that there are different factors affecting both the decision to adopt and the intensity of adoption. As an alternative, Cragg (1971) proposed the following, which integrates the Probit model with the Tobit to determine the probability of y > 0 and the truncated normal model for given positive values of y,Where w is a binary indicator equal to 1 if y is positive and 0 otherwise. In Cragg's model, the probability of y > 0 and the value of y, given y > 0, are now determined by different mechanisms (the vectors γ and β, respectively). Furthermore, there are no restrictions on the elements of x 1 and x 2 , implying that each decision may even be determined by a different vector of explanatory variables altogether (Burke 2009).The probabilities regarding whether y is positive areThe expected value of y, conditional on y > 0 iswhere λ(c) is the inverse Mills ratio (IMR)where φ is the standard normal probability distribution function. Finally, the \"unconditional\" expected value of y is for a given observation, the partial effect of an independent variable, xj, around the probability that y > 0 isTable 2 provides a list of all the independent variables used to model adoption and intensity of adoption. In this section some important household socioeconomic characteristics are presented. Their statistics are represented by frequency, means, and percentages and are disaggregated by gender. Some of the variables measured include age, gender, marital status, level of education, and household size. Institutional variables measured include extension contact, access to credit, and membership of association.The household demographic characteristics of respondents were measured because these characteristics can have an influence on adoption itself. Thus, differences in household characteristics may help explain differences in adoption. According to the results presented in  Education is a key variable in adoption studies because education helps farmers to understand new varieties better. An improved understanding will help farmers quickly understand the benefits of the technology which encourages them to adopt (Kamara 2017). Table 4 shows the highest education level attained by the household head and the highest number of years any household member has spent being educated. Household heads in northern Kaduna had a higher rate of illiteracy (28.9%) than those in southern Kaduna (15.85%). However, in northern Kaduna and in Ikara in particular the percentage of respondents with a university education (17.25%) was much higher than that of southern Kaduna (2.8%). The percentage of household heads with university education in Ikara was particularly high (32%) while in Kajuru it was almost negligible (0.5%). At the same time a greater number of respondents in both LGAs in southern Kaduna had a higher level of attendance at a college of education compared to northern Kaduna. The highest education level achieved by household member was slightly higher in southern Kaduna (10.5) than in northern Kaduna (9.5).Although adult education was low in both regions, Ikara was once again the leader in adult education.LGAs was approximately 2.5% on average in Ikara, 6.5% of household heads had adult education. Adult education is important as it gives respondents a second chance to improve their level of education and literacy in the event that they did not benefit from formal education as children. The difference was not much and showed that, overall, households in both regions understand the importance of a good education as investment was high in the education of at least one household member. The marital status of households is reported in Table 5. Most household heads were married with only 6.5 of household in southern Kaduna being single compared to 7.7% in northern Kaduna. Over 80% of respondents were married in either a monogamous or polygamous arrangement. The incidence of polygamous marriage was higher in northern Kaduna (38.95%) compared to southern Kaduna (30.9%). Marital status gives a general indication of how resources are transferred from one generation to another. In areas where polygamy is high resources tend to be more fragmented as they are transferred from one generation to another. When crucial resources such as land become fragmented, they shrink in size which hinders the ability of households to adopt new technologies in the long term (Ngewyo et al. 2015).  Another key resource that was captured in the report is water supply. Water supply is a basic need for the survival of households and it is also required in periods of low rainfall to help crops escape drought. There were four main sources of water supply: river, wells, borehole, and pump (Table 7).According to the results more people relied on rivers and streams in the northern parts (5.9%) than those in the south (2.0%). Most respondents used wells as their main source of water across all local governments with Igabi having the highest figure (81.3%). The second most used source of water was the borehole in both regions. The main source of light was also studied and is presented in Table 8. According to the results an overwhelming majority of respondents across both regions used lamps as their main source of light.In northern Kaduna more people were more reliant on lamps (64.9%) than in the south (51.45%).Electricity was the second most common source of light for all respondents, but the use was slightly higher in southern Kaduna (38.2%) than in northern Kaduna (31.8%). Table 9 shows some of the institutional variables that characterize households in both northern and southern Kaduna. These variables include membership of association, extension contact, and access to credit. Results show that extension contact was relatively high in both southern (61.85%) and northern (68.4%) Kaduna. While access to credit was low in both regions, northern Kaduna households had far greater access to credit (16.85%) than those in Southern Kaduna (3.3%). Membership of association was also higher among farmers in southern Kaduna (86.85%) than in northern Kaduna (83.86%). N2Africa Nigeria promoted the use of new soybean varieties including TGX1835 (Danwuri), TGX1951-3F, TGX1955-4F, TGX1448-2E, and TGX1904-6F. These varieties are mostly early maturing and drought tolerant and were developed to help crops escape drought conditions in the Sudan and Guinea savannas. In addition to this, the project promoted complementary agronomic practices including row spacing, phosphorus fertilizer to assist the crop in fixing atmospheric nitrogen, and rhizobium inoculant. This section presents the results of the adoption of these technologies promoted by the N2Africa project.Table 10 and Figure 1 present a trend analysis of the adoption rate of soybean varieties promoted by N2Africa. According to the results, the most recent adoption rate in the year 2017 showed that approximately 84.85% of farmers in southern Kaduna and 72.8% of farmers in northern Kaduna had adopted these varieties. The adoption trend in Figure 2 shows a gradual increase in rate from 2009 to 2012 in all LGAs except for Igabi. Adoption in Igabi was very stagnant between these years. However, from 2013 to 2017 the adoption of these varieties increased dramatically more than doubling in all regions. The overall adoption rate in southern Kaduna (84.85%) was more than that in northern Kaduna (72.8%). This is because adoption in Igabi at 62.6%, which is much lower than for the other regions. Table 11 and figure 2 show the estimated adoption rate of new soybean varieties. The most adopted varieties are TGX1951-3F and TGX1448-2E; roughly a quarter of respondents adopted these varieties. Another variety that was adopted by many respondents is TGX1835; 14.6% of farmers use this variety. The least popular varieties were TGX1904-6F and TGX1955-4F as only 4.3% and 8.6% of respondents adopted them respectively. After finding the annual adoption rate for the varieties we also analyzed the varieties by adoption in each local government for the year 2017. The results (Table 12) show that TGX1951-3F was the most popular in Chikun, Kajuru, and Igabi while TGX14482E was more popular in Ikara. Across allLGAs both varieties were far more popular than the other varieties. A more graphical representation is described in Figure 3. In adoption studies it is not enough to know whether farmers adopted a variety or not. To have a complete picture one must understand the extent of adoption of improved varieties and this is measured as a ratio of total farmland devoted to the cultivation of the new soybean over the total farmland cultivated. Table 13 shows the average soybean area planted, average farm size, and the extent of adoption measured by total soybean area planted over the total farm size. The results show that southern Kaduna had a greater rate of adoption than northern Kaduna. This is because 55% of farmland was devoted to the production of soybean in southern Kaduna while 14.85% of farmland was devoted to the production of soybean in northern Kaduna. The technologies in the N2Africa Nigeria project include both improved soybean varieties and the requisite agronomic practices required for these varieties to meet their full genetic potential. Key agronomic practices such as the application of rhizobium inoculants, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides were introduced to help the varieties achieve their maximum yield. This section presents the results of the adoption of some of these agronomic practices (Table 14). The results reveal that the use of rhizobium inoculants was much more widespread in the southern (52%) part of the state than in the north (19.65%). This may be because households in southern Kaduna had more information and understanding of the use of rhizobium inoculants. The use of chemical fertilizer was much higher in northern Kaduna (45%) than in southern Kaduna (21.05%). This may be because the soils in the north had a greater deficiency of phosphorus and other essential nutrients. Herbicide and pesticide use was comparable in both regions, but more awareness is required to increase the use of herbicides. Farmers' who did not adopt the technology where asked for the reason why. This was to understand farmer constraint to adoption. The majority of households reported lack of seed availability as the greatest constraint (Table 15). This was particularly so for southern Kaduna. Other, specify 0.5 0.5 0.5 1.0 2.0 1.5The double-hurdle model was used to model adoption and the intensity or extent of adoption.Adoption here refers to farmers growing the new varieties disseminated by the N2 Africa Nigeria project in Kaduna State and they include TGX1835, TGX1951-3F, TGX1955-4F, TGX1448-2E, and TGX1904-6F. The intensity of adoption is measured as a ratio of total farmland devoted to the cultivation of new soybean over the total farmland cultivated. The results of the modeling are described in Table 16. In the first stage of the double-hurdle model the Probit model was used to estimate the intensity of adoption. According to the results of the Probit component (selection or first stage) of the double-hurdle model, age, membership of association, farm size, and farm experience all had a positive and significant effect on adoption. The results of the Tobit component (second stage) of the double-hurdle model show that gender, age, membership of association, farm experience, extension contact, and pesticide application all had a positive and significant effect on the intensity or extent of adoption. Marital status on the other hand had a negative and significant effect on the intensity of adoption. The results of the study show that extension contacts and membership of association are relatively high in both northern and southern Kaduna. Access to credit was low in both regions; but was especially lower in southern Kaduna (3.3%) compared to northern Kaduna (16.85%). Both regions have seen a substantial increase in adoption rate from approximately 21% in both regions in the year 2009 to 84.85% in southern Kaduna and 72.8% in northern Kaduna in the year 2017. The most popular varieties promoted are TGX1951-3F and TGX1448-2E with roughly a quarter of respondents adopting these varieties. TGX1951-3F was the most popular in Chikun, Kajuru, and Igabi while TGX1448-2E was more popular in Ikara. Across all LGAs both varieties were far more popular than the other varieties. Southern Kaduna had a greater extent of adoption than northern Kaduna, as 55% of farmland was devoted to the production of soybean in southern Kaduna while only 14.85% of farmland was devoted to the production of soybean in northern Kaduna. Northern Kaduna had higher adoption of the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and organic fertilizers compared to southern Kaduna. However, the use of rhizobium inoculants was more prevalent in southern Kaduna at 52% compared to 19.65% in the north. Farmers in all regions reported the lack of seed availability as being the major constraint to adoption.The results of the double-hurdle model indicate that age, membership of association, farm size, and farm experience all had a positive and significant effect on adoption. While the results of the Tobit component (second stage) of the double hurdle model show that gender, age, membership of association, farm experience, extension contact, and pesticide application all had a positive and significant effect on the intensity or extent of adoption. Marital status on the other hand had a negative and significant effect on the intensity of adoption.The N2Africa project is coming to an end and the findings of this study can guide policymakers on the achievements of the project to scale out and scale up some of the successes. It can also guide policymakers, development specialists, and donor organizations on how to improve on its limitations. Following are recommendations based on the findings of the study to guide stakeholders on how future programs can be conducted. 1. Adoption of crop technologies and management practices.2. The project will soon come to an end and although the project has been successful in disseminating new varieties and practices, sustainability of agricultural technologies uptake needs to be maintained. For this to happen, KADP should do more in ensuring that farmers have regular contact with extension agents. A performance-based system in conjunction with frequent monitoring of the performance of extension agents must be put in place. This is especially crucial just before the planting season and during the planting period. Extension agents can be made to give weekly reports on their activities supported by evidence in the form of audio recordings and GPS coordinates.4. Policymakers must ensure that female farmers have access to land and capital for them to expand their productivity and have higher farm incomes to enable them to escape poverty. More work needs to be done to help female farmers to access these technologies and the factors of production required for them to expand their agricultural production.Access to credit was an important factor that determined adoption of improved varieties. Thus, policymakers must strive to ensure that farmers with capital deficit have access to credit to purchase new seeds and other inputs. More must be done in the future to bring about microfinance schemes, rotating savings, credit associations, and other forms of peer-to-peer banking to help farmers with capital deficit.12. How long has the household head been farming as an independent household? (Number of years)13. Type of household 1 = male headed (monogamous), 2 = male headed (polygamous), 3 = female headed (husband absent), 4 = female headed (widowed), 5 = female headed (divorced), 6 = female headed (single), 7 = male headed (single), 8 = male headed (divorced), 9 = male headed (widowed), 99 = other (specify)         ","tokenCount":"5111"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9f6d1bfaddc6e39f552db74982444da6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a6c70729-5271-4c7f-9db4-3db8e3fb9143/retrieve","id":"-1612865226"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f58f19af-b1ab-40b9-9c88-52d42f0d3028","pagecount":"4","content":"ILRI thanks all donors that globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR systemThe influence of livestock-derived foods on nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life Delia Grace, Paula Dominguez-Salas, Silvia Alonso, Mats Lannerstad, Emmanuel Muunda, Nicholas Ngwili, Abbas Omar, Mishal Khan, Eloghene Otobo Global efforts to limit or reduce the consumption of meat, milk and eggs over environmental concerns should exclude pregnant and breastfeeding women and babies under the age of two, especially in low-income settings. An extensive review of research found 'clear nutritional benefits' of providing children with livestock-derived foods (LDF), particularly in countries in Africa and South Asia where undernutrition is highest and food choice limited. While consuming LDF-such as meat, milk and eggs-in the first 1,000 days of life can improve a child's prospects of growth, cognition and development, the research found that consumption was typically very low among poor families in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC).The influence of livestock-derived foods on nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life, published by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Centre on Global Health Security, Chatham House, concluded that it was possible to meet the nutritional needs of the most vulnerable through the provision of LDF, even if total global livestock production slowed down. This brief provides an overview of the report, synthesizing the best current evidence on the influence of LDF on the nutrition of mothers and infants in LMIC, especially in Africa and Asia. It focuses on the needs of pregnant and lactating mothers and infants during their first 1,000 days of life, from conception to around two years. The report draws from an extensive review of scientific and grey literature, as well as up-to-date data from various sources, to derive main conclusions and recommendations on the role of livestock-derived products on nutrition in the first 1,000 days in LMIC.Livestock product-based diets in low-and middle-income countries While high LDF diets are, on average, less environmentally sustainable than diets with low LDF levels, more typical 'LMIC diets' that incorporate some LDF, especially milk and eggs, can use less land for food production than their plant-based alternatives. Rather than competing with crops for land, much of this meat and milk is produced using nonhuman-edible feed resources and on marginal rangelands that would otherwise be unproductive. Medium levels of livestock grazing are better for the health, productivity and biodiversity of rangelands than having no livestock at all; and managed well, these lands can also sequester large amounts of carbon in their soils.Moreover, diets considered environmentally sustainable in high-income countries in the global north often contain more meat, milk and eggs than are actually consumed by the poor in LMIC, demonstrating significant inequalities in LDF access between richer and poorer countries. Arguments suited to high-income countries with widely available energy-rich foods and over-consumption problems should be adjusted to address LMIC needs. Typical diet sustainability assessments suffer from two main weaknesses: most are relevant only to specific contexts, and assess only the environmental aspect of sustainability, often ignoring the social, economic and health dimensions. The proportion of global LDF production needed to meet the nutritional needs of all the world's undernourished infants in their first 1,000 days and pregnant/lactating women is so small that this amount could easily be protected through equitable redistribution, even in the face of environmentally motivated reductions. Equitably increase the availability and accessibility of safe LDF in LMIC populations with low levels of intake Balancing the perceived needs of the planet -for fewer livestock and lower LDF consumption -with the immediate nutrition needs -and the healthy futures -of women and infants in LMIC requires a fuller understanding and accurate figures about LDF production and sustainability in LMIC. Livestock production should follow all the sustainability dimensions -economic, environmental, health and social -and sustainability assessments should measure all the dimensions, capturing the multiple contributions of livestock to sustainable livelihoods as well as sustainable nutrition. Recognizing the equity arguments underpinning these issues and considering that global nutrient requirements in the first 1,000 days of life are a small proportion of total food production, production of LDF for young children and their mothers should be safeguarded and prioritized even as the world may seek to reduce overall LDF production and consumption as part of global environmental or sustainability commitments.Nationally, the livestock, nutrition and health sectors need to come together and apply a 'One Health' approach to effectively align livestock and LDF strategies and interventions with wider dietary and nutrition policies that encourage healthy eating habits, ensure food security and safeguard the particular nutritional needs of vulnerable groups such as women and children. These evidencebased policies and guidance should also take into account sustainability considerations around the environment and natural resource use. Internationally, these same concerns should be brought into broader development discussions such as those in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and be taken up by development agencies as they support policy development and implementation in these areas.Additionally, the conclusions and recommendations in this report require that livestock interventions be designed and implemented in a more 'nutrition-sensitive' way-for example, targeting mothers and infants, promoting healthy dietary practices, monitoring potential side-effects or assessing nutritional impacts. This would be a significant shift for a sector typically more focused on overcoming animal productivity yield gaps through, for example, improved animal health, genetics and feeds. It should prioritize outcomes that lead to safer and 'more nutritious' as well as 'more' milk, meat and eggs, in the hands and mouths of specific population groups who need them most.Although LDF are known to be a rich source of highquality protein and essential micronutrients, there is a worrying lack of scientific evidence on the effect of LDF intake on nutritional outcomes in the first 1,000 days of life. While studies can be complicated, they need not be and the significant potential of LDF to improve nutrition during the first 1,000 days is a strong case for greater investment in such research. Emergency supplementation interventions could also be designed in a way that allows for rigorous impact assessment. Larger research studies with robust designs are needed to demonstrate if an effect exists for different LDF in children's growth and development and the dose-response relationship.Beyond more rigorous studies of the nutritional effects of LDF, there is an urgent need to generate evidence on the most effective ways to deliver such interventions. For primary or secondary school children, school meal programs seem a suitable delivery platform to promote LDF consumption, with most studies considering milk as a food of choice. However, for younger children and women, the evidence identified was too limited to draw any recommendations and the delivery of interventions in these groups presents substantial challenges, according to the studies reviewed. Investments are needed to fill evidence gaps, strengthen evaluation rigour and extend promising and successful approaches. Eggs were particularly underrepresented in the research reviewed and their widespread availability and lower preservation requirements make them a product with great nutrition potential that requires more attention. ","tokenCount":"1160"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"616f7dc532d9ef7a2c714465e0601e49","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2e70d2c0-9945-4588-a99f-4da61e57cd6f/retrieve","id":"-289864687"},"keywords":["• P1637 -Product Line 5","4","1: Suite of technologies and management strategies for enhanced livelihoods and resilience • P655 -Product Line 3","4","2: Approaches to enabling private-public-sector-producer linkages leading to accelerated innovation in the feed sector CRP Strategic Investment Fund"],"sieverID":"1fff5dd5-2f3a-45b5-9bf0-04a9e395c467","pagecount":"1","content":"Links to the Strategic Results Framework: Sub-IDOs:• Increased household capacity to cope with shocks • Diversified enterprise opportunities Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Yes SRF 2022/2030 targets:• # of more farm households have adopted improved varieties, breeds or trees Description of activity / study: The target variety of the study, ICGV91114 (ICRISAT), is currently being replaced as the main groundnut variety promoted by the Government of Odisha after reaching the standard variety life of 7 years. The selection process for its replacement is on-going. Two issues have emerged: since dual-purpose characteristics were not considered during selection of ICGV91114, the study objectives had to be redefined, focusing on how dual-purpose traits can be considered in the variety selection and registration process; and the implementation of the farmer survey on groundnut varieties and haulm use was delayed for logistical reasons (to be completed by mid-March 2020).• Sub-national Country(ies): ","tokenCount":"150"}
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b53d5be278ae5ed812ff6576b925c104c879afff
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"81e76b2e2691ee5e1f05cf1e4093bdde","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/eec41f6c-7195-43c2-ae9a-cb857c705d6e/content","id":"1520331487"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0de9dcc2-8a4a-4a7a-b803-908e03b71eac","pagecount":"14","content":"Climate change threatens the sustainability of food production among farmers in Kenya who depend on rain-fed agriculture. To minimize the negative impacts of climate change, farmers have sought to adopt different adaptation strategies. This study investigates factors influencing farmers' choice of climate change adaptation strategies and associated effects on their food security in Kenya using data collected from 540 farmers from six counties. A multivariate probit, censored least absolute deviation (CLAD), and propensity score matching (PSM) models were employed to identify the determinants in the farmers' choice of climate change adaptation strategies, the number of adaptation strategies adopted, and the effect of climate change adaptation strategies on their food security, respectively. Results show that planting drought-tolerant crop varieties (55%), growing diversified crops (34%), growing early maturing crops (22%), and diversifying the sources of household income (18%) were the four major adaptation strategies used by the farmers in the study area. Younger farmers and those with higher education levels are more likely to use these climate change adaptation practices. The number of adaptation strategies used was positively associated with male farmers, education level, family size, land size, farm income, extension contact, training, and information access. The farmers who adopt one adaptation strategy have higher food security status (approximately 7-11%) than those who do not. If they adopt two adaptation strategies, their food security status increases by approximately 11-14%; if they adopt three adaptation strategies, their food security status increases by nearly 12-15%; and if they adopt four adaptation practices, their food security status increases by about 14-18%, compared to those who do not adopt any strategy. Thus, the farmers' climate change adaptation practices have positive food security effects in Kenya according to the number of adaptation strategies adopted.Climate change is a significant and growing threat to the global agricultural system (Musafiri et al., 2021), food security (De Pinto et al., 2019;Muchuru & Nhamo, 2019), and nutritional outcomes (De Pinto et al., 2019). It challenges the 2030 agenda of Sustainable Development (Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2022), which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2015, with an objective to \"end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular, the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round\" (FAO, 2017). Climate change will not only threaten the productivity of the world's agricultural systems and associated food security but also negatively affect other ecosystems and their services to humankind (IPCC, 2022;De Pinto et al., 2019). According to IPCC, 2014, the average global temperature has increased over the 20th century by approximately 0.6 • C. A report from the IPCC (2018) shows that half a degree of warming matters a lot. As part of the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, the countries are committed to keep global warming well below 2 C (3.6 F) above pre-industrial levels while trying to limit a temperature rise to 1.5 C (2.7 F) (Levin, 2018). Based on a request by governments, scientists from the IPCC estimated how the impacts of a 1.5 C temperature rise differ from those of 2 C. Their finding shows that the world will face severe climate impacts even with 1.5 degrees of warming, and the consequences of a 2 • C warmer world will be far greater than that of a 1.5 • C warmer world (e.g., the average global crop yield loss by 3% will increase to 7%; the decline in global GDP by 3% will increase to 5%) (IPCC, 2018). However, the world is not on track to meet either target (World Bank, 2019a). Without substantial measures that address the challenges caused by increasing temperatures and the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, agricultural productivity losses are expected to reduce past gains from technological and management improvements (De Pinto et al., 2019).Disasters triggered by weather-and climate-related hazards cost the global economy US$320 billion in losses in 2017 alone (World Bank, 2019a). Repeated disasters slow the development of infrastructure systems and reduce the productivity of local economies (World Bank, 2019b). Analysis by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP, 2008) shows that the impacts of climate change will add 600 million people worldwide to the number already facing malnutrition and will increase the number facing water scarcity by 1.8 billion by 2080. Climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable populations living in agricultural communities in developing countries (Maskrey et al., 2007;Rahut & Ali, 2017;Muchuru & Nhamo, 2019;Aryal et al., 2021) and is expected to affect many more people in more areas in the future (De Pinto et al., 2019). The worst-hit areas will be underdeveloped economic regions (De making it difficult for their household members to obtain enough food in their daily life (Mburu et al., 2015;Kabubo-Mariara & Mulwa, 2019;Kogo et al. 2020;Gebre & Rahut, 2021;Ndiritu & Muricho, 2021). The agricultural sector plays a significant role in Kenya's economy, contributing to about 30% of GDP and 56% of employment (World Bank, 2019b). To reduce vulnerability to climate change, farmers in Kenya use different adaptation strategies, such as planting drought-tolerant crop varieties, altering sowing time, shifting to new crops (e.g., early maturing crops), use of water harvesting technologies and irrigation, crop rotation, crop diversification, and income diversification (Mburu et al., 2015;De Pinto et al., 2019;Kabubo-Mariara & Mulwa, 2019;Kogo et al., 2020;Aryal et al., 2021;Franklin et al., 2021;Musafiri et al., 2021). These adaptation practices typically reduce the risks of exposure to natural hazards associated with climate change and the severity of damages caused. Thus, farmers using climate change adaptation strategies are more likely to be food secure in comparison to those not adopting any strategy.Kenya has experienced extreme weather events, such as increased erratic rainfall, intra-seasonal dry spells, incidences of flooding, high temperatures, and a higher frequency of droughts, causing enormous damage to the crops and livelihoods of smallholder farmers (Aryal et al., 2021;Musafiri et al., 2021). It is anticipated that these adversities will increase due to climate change. The significance of climate change adaptation strategies is crucial given the importance of agriculture for food security and the economy and rural livelihoods. Nonetheless, not all farmers adopt such practices. Moreover, some farmers may use one adaptation practice alone, while others may use two or more adaptation practices in combination. Thus, even among the adopters, there may exist differences in the benefits derived from the use of adaptation practices (Ali & Erenstein, 2017).Numerous studies have been conducted on the determinants of climate change adaptation in Kenya (e.g., Bryan et al., 2013, Jairo & Korir, 2019;Mutunga et al., 2020;Aryal et al., 2021;Musafiri et al., 2021). However, studies regarding the impact of adopting climate risk adaptation strategies on the food security of farmers in Kenya are scarce. Few studies measured the effects of climate change adaptation on food security by dividing farmers (farm households) into adapters and non-adapters, yet without considering the number of adaptation practices adopted by farmers (e.g., Kabubo-Mariara & Mulwa, 2019;Ndiritu & Muricho, 2021). Additionally, no studies have tried to identify determinants of the number of adaptation strategies farmers adopt in Kenya. Identifying determinants of the number of adaptation strategies would provide clues as to what factors work as stronger leverage over others and vice versa, regarding how many climate change adaptation strategies farmers adopt. Furthermore, the present study argues that farmers who adopted one adaptation strategy could have higher food security status than non-adopter farmers; likewise, those who adopted more adaptation strategies could have higher food security status than those who adopted less. Hence, this study considers the differential impact of climate change on food security according to the number of adaptation strategies adopted.The contribution of this paper is threefold: first, it uses a multivariate probit to identify the determinants in farmers' choice of adaptation strategies simultaneously (specifically, planting of drought-tolerant crop varieties, crop diversification, use of early maturing crop varieties, and income diversification); second, it identifies the determinants of the number of strategies used by farmers; and third, it assesses the effect of these adaptation strategies on farmers' food security by taking into account the number of adaptation The rest of the paper has been structured in the following manner: Section 2 discusses the conceptual and empirical frameworks; Section 3 describes the data and variables used in the models; Section 4 presents the empirical results and discussion; finally, Section 5 presents the conclusion and policy implications.This study conceptualizes the link between climate change adaptation and food security based on a series of causal relationships (Fig. 1). Climate risks, including extreme weather events, involve the possibility of the occurrence of various natural hazards, such as erratic rainfall, intra-seasonal dry spells, frequent drought, high temperature, land degradation, and soil erosion. Such climate adversities can negatively affect agricultural production (crop and livestock), and hence, the food security of farm households (Eitzinger et al., 2018;Gebre and Rahut, 2021;IPCC, 2014;Kabubo-Mariara and Mulwa, 2019;Ndiritu and Muricho, 2021). To reduce the adverse impacts of climate risks on their food security, the farmers will adopt several adaptation strategies (Ali & Erenstein, 2017;Amare and Simane, 2017;Aryal et al., 2020).Farmers' adoption (choice) of adaptation strategies against climate risks depends on multiple factors, including farmers' demographic (human capital), socioeconomic (social and financial capital) characteristics as well as other institutional and biophysical factors (physical and natural capital) (Aryal et al., 2020;2021;Atube et al. 2021;Franklin et al. 2021;Gebre & Rahut, 2021). When the adopted adaptation strategies are adequate and effective, it will increase the agricultural production of farm households and better ensure their food security, and vice versa. Income diversification adaptation strategy can also positively influence their food security status by improving their financial capital base to purchase foods (Zakari et al., 2022).In Kenya, farmers adopt different climate change adaptation strategies to ensure food security. Therefore, we first employed a multivariate probit model to identify the choice determinants of multiple climate adaptation strategies, including the use of droughttolerant crop varieties, crop diversification, early maturing crop varieties, and income diversification. Employing other discrete choice models, such as univariate logit and probit, are not appropriate in this case as they may generate biased estimates. Greene (2003) notes that these models are based on the assumption of the independence of error terms pertaining to the different adaptation practices adopted by farmers. Univariate models could also exclude critical information about interdependence and simultaneous adoption decisions (Greene, 2019). Possible complementarities (positive correlation) and substitutabilities (negative correlation) could also occur between various adaptation strategies used by farmers (Greene, 2019). In the study sites, farmers are more likely to adopt multiple adaptation strategies simultaneously in order to reduce climate change risks related to their food security. Therefore, it is highly likely that the decision to adopt one strategy can influence the adoption of multiple other strategies. Applying a multivariate probit model in this condition yields unbiased and efficient estimates (Wooldridge, 2012;Greene, 2019). This also reduces the possibility of observing the limited adoption of one or a few adaptation strategies due to the non-adoption of other complementary strategies (Aryal et al., 2020).Checking potential endogeneity and multicollinearity is critically important for applying a multivariate probit. An endogeneity possibly occurs through (i) simultaneity, (ii) omitted variables, or (iii) measurement errors, leading to inconsistent estimates (Wooldridge, 2010). However, the distinctions among these (three) possibilities are not easily observed (Deaton, 1995). In our study, an explanatory variable could be jointly determined with the decision to adopt an adaptation strategy in the model (i.e., the response variable) (Abdulai & Huffman, 2014). To check for potential endogeneity, we used the approach suggested by Rivers & Vuong (1988). We specified the potential endogenous response variable as a function of all other explanatory variables in the model, including a set of instrumental variables correlated with the endogenous variable but excluding error terms. After regressing the endogenous variable against all explanatory variables (including instrumental variables), we calculated a residual term from the regression results of the endogenous variable. Then, we included the residual term as an additional explanatory variable in the model. The estimates obtained from this model are consistent (Wooldridge, 2010). However, in the empirical estimation, it is not possible to obtain a good instrumental variable (Aryal et al., 2021). Considering the limitation, as Gujarati & Dawn (2009) suggested, the present study tested for endogeneity using the residual term as the sole additional explanatory variable.In our study, the distance from a farm to the agricultural extension service center can be taken as an instrumental variable, assuming that it affects farmers' access to information on their possible adaptation strategies, but it does not influence their selection of individual adaptation strategies (Aryal et al., 2021). Multivariate probit results from testing for endogeneity confirm no endogeneity in the present study. We applied a condition index to test for the potential multicollinearity among explanatory variables in the multivariate probit model. If the value of the condition index is less than 30, it indicates no serious problem of multicollinearity among the explanatory variables used in a multivariate probit analysis (Belsley et al., 2005).We consider a risk-averse farmer Fi who opts for a number of climate change adaptation strategies (Si). We assume that farmers who have opted for climate change adaptation strategies have higher utility levels than those who have not.U[F(S 1 ) ] and U[F(S 0 ) ] represent the utility levels of farmers having adopted only one strategy and those of farmers not having adopted any strategy, respectively. We further assumed that farmers adopting two strategies have higher utility levels than those adopting only one strategy, and so on.Second, a censored least absolute deviation (CLAD) model was employed to estimate the number of adaptation strategies adopted by the farmers. The CLAD estimator is a generalization of the least absolute deviation (LAD) estimator. Unlike the standard estimators of the censored regression model, such as Tobit or other maximum likelihood approaches, the CLAD estimator is robust to heteroscedasticity and is consistent and asymptotically normal for a wide class of error distributions. As the CLAD estimator imposes the weakest stochastic restrictions on the error terms, it results in the most precise estimates of the policy effects (Ali & Erenstein, 2017).Third, a propensity score matching (PSM) method was employed to estimate the effect of the number of adaptation strategies on farmers' food security in Kenya. The expected treatment effect for the treated population is of primary significance, 1 and it is given aswhere ATT is the average treatment effect for the treated, Y 1 denotes the value of the outcome for adopters of a climate change adaptation strategy, and Y 0 is the value of the same variable x for non-adopters of the climate change adaptation strategy. As noted above, the major problem with this procedure is that the counterfactualbe estimated, it is potentially a biased estimator. In the absence of experimental data, the PSM can be employed to account for this sample selection bias (Dehejia & Wahba, 2002). The PSM is defined as the conditional probability that a farmer adopts a new adaptation strategy with given pre-adoption characteristics (Rosenbaum & Rubin, 1983). To create the condition of a randomized experiment, the PSM employs the unconfoundedness assumption, also known as the \"conditional independence assumption,\" which implies that once Z is controlled for, a climate change adaptation strategy is random and uncorrelated with the outcome variables (food security in our case). In short, the outcomes are independent of treatment. The PSM can be expressed as:where D is the indicator for adoption and Z is the vector of pre-adoption characteristics (Abara & Singh, 1993). The conditional distribution of Z given P(Z) is similar between the adopter and non-adopter groups. After estimating the propensity scores, the average treatment effect for the treated (ATT) can be estimated as:Several techniques have been developed to match adopters with non-adopters of similar propensity scores. The PSM rests on two strong assumptions, i.e., the conditional independence assumption and the common support condition. The conditional independence assumption implies that selection is solely based on observable characteristics and that the researcher observes all variables that simultaneously influence treatment assignment and potential outcomes. (Caliendo & Kopeinig, 2008). The common support assumption implies that for each possible value of Xi, there should be individuals in both treatment and control groups for which we can average the outcomes. Implementing the common support condition ensures that any combination of characteristics observed in the treatment group can also be observed among the control group (Bryson et al., 2002).The most important variable of interest for the PSM is the average treatment effect for the treated (ATT). In our study's context, ATT is the difference in the outcome of the farmers having used climate change adaptation strategies and similar farmers not adopting. For the PSM estimation of this study, four different matching algorithms, i.e., nearest neighbor matching (NNM), radius matching (RM), kernel-based matching (KBM), and stratified matching (SM) were employed. The matching algorithm helps us to choose and determine the region of common support in a PSM analysis. However, there is no algorithm that dominates in all data situations. Therefore, we employed four types of PSM algorithms commonly used in the PSM analysis to check the level of diversity in the obtained results. After matching for each algorism, the matching quality has to be accessed, and the standard errors and treatment effects have to be estimated. We employed several balancing tests to assess the matching quality, such as checking a reduction in the median absolute bias before and after matching, the value of R 2 before and after matching, and the p-value of joint significance of covariates before and after matching (Becker & Ichino, 2002;Caliendo & Kopeinig, 2008;Ali & Erenstein, 2017;Rahut & Ali, 2018).In this study, we used the PSM to estimate the impact of the number of climate change adaptation strategies on the farmers' food security status. The food security measure/cut-off point was calculated using the Household Food Insecurity Access Prevalence (HFIAP) indicators (Coates et al., 2007;Heady & Ecker, 2012). For each farmer, the Household Food Insecurity Access (HFIA) category variable was calculated using the assigned codes of the degree of food security states in which it fell. Accordingly, four sequential categories of food security states were created (1 = food-secure, 2 = mildly food-insecure, 3 = moderately food-insecure, and 4 = severely food-insecure) according to their most severe response. Each category was calculated by dividing the number of farmers in one category by the total number of farmers in the four categories. Accordingly, 44% of the sampled farmers were identified in the food-secure state, 15% in the mildly food-insecure state, 35.5% in the moderately food-insecure state, and 5.5% in the severely food-1 An expected treatment effect on the treated is the difference between the outcome of the treated observations and that of the hypothetical observations had they not been treated. insecure state. Additionally, we merged the three food-insecure states (mildly, moderately, and severely) into the food-insecure farmer category and the rest into the food-secure farmer category. Accordingly, the total sampled farmers were halved into the food-secure (56%) and food-insecure (44%) categories. A dummy variable is assigned 'one' if the farmer is in the food-secure category and 'zero' otherwise. The effect is estimated according to the number of strategies/practices adopted by the farmers. For instance, if one farmer adopts one strategy, the result shows the level of effect on the farmer's food security status.The study is based on a set of household survey data collected from November to December 2018. It involved a total sample of 540 farmers from six counties of Kenya, including Makueni, Machakos, Embu, Tharaka Nithi, Kakamega, and Busia (Fig. 2). Those six counties of Kenya adequately represent the climate patterns in Kenya, where climate hazards and shocks are frequently experienced by rural residents in the country's western, central, and southern regions.Regarding our sampling method, a multistage, random sampling technique was used in the selection of farmers. The first stage involved the selection of counties under the Feed the Future zones of influence and where major crops, such as maize, is grown, which led to the selection of the six counties. The second stage involved the selection of three major crop farming villages in each country. The criterion for the village selection under the STMA project was that one village holds field demonstrations for drought-tolerant crop varieties, another is its neighboring village, and the third village is distant from the two villages. Finally, at least 30 farmers representing their farming households were randomly selected from each of the three villages, leading to the selection of 90 farmers per county and a total sample of 540 farmers. A semi-structured questionnaire was designed and tested to collect a range of information related to the farmers' demography, their socioeconomic and agronomic features, and their food security conditions, with consideration for their perceptions of food security status. The questionnaire also captured social networks, institutional arrangements, climate and weather information, and adaptation practices.Table 1 presents the summary of descriptive statistics for the variables used in the analysis. The surveyed farmers adopted at least four different strategies to minimize the impact of climate change on their food security: planting drought-tolerant crop varieties (55%), growing diversified crops (34%), growing early maturing crops (22%), and diversifying the sources of their income (18%).The majority of the sampled farmers (70%) were male, with an average household size of 5.09. The average age of the farmers was 53.24 years old, with 7.60 years in schooling and 24.95 years in farming. On average, approximately 79% of the farmers lived with a spouse. Agriculture was the only income source for most farmers (69%) in the study area.The average size of land held by the surveyed farmers was 2.23 ha. Many sampled farmers practiced integrated farming systems (a mix of crop cultivation and livestock rearing). The mean number of livestock owned by the sampled farmers' households was 1.46 (as measured in the TLU). Approximately 33% of the sampled farmers reported that they were a member of agricultural input supply cooperatives. More than 20% of the sampled farmers had participated in training on farming. The number of extension agent contact an average farmer had per month was 0.27 times. The majority of the surveyed farmers (70%) reported that they had regularly received updated information on expected rainfall and temperature. Table 2 presents the results of the multivariate probit estimation of the determinants of the farmers' climate change adaptation strategies, including the use of drought-tolerant crop varieties, growing diversified crops, use of early maturing crop varieties, and income diversification. These four dependent variables are assumed to be mutually inclusive, which means a farmer could use a combination of more than one climate-risk-copping strategy in the study area. A multivariate probit model is suitable to estimate these variables. A set of independent variables are included in the multivariate probit model based on microeconomic theory and a review of relevant literature.The results of the analysis show that the gender of the farmer is positively associated with the use of drought-tolerant crop varieties and crop diversification. The positive relationship between the average male-headed farmer and climate change adaptation strategies has been similarly found in other studies (Deressa et al., 2009;Aryal et al., 2020). Some studies found that male-headed farmers were less likely to adopt coping strategies against climate hazards than female-headed farmers (Nhemachena & Nhem, 2007), while other studies saw the gender of the farmers as insignificant (Ali & Erenstein, 2017). The age of the farmers is negatively associated with all four adaptation strategies, indicating that younger farmers are more likely to adopt these strategies to minimize the impact of climate change on food security. Younger farmers could be more receptive to recent agricultural innovations and keener to adopt new technologies and methods to improve their agricultural practices. The negative relationship between the farmers' age and climate change adaptation strategies has been similarly found in other studies (Ali & Erenstein, 2017;Jamshidi et al., 2020). Farming experience positively influences the farmers' decision to adopt early maturing crop varieties and engage in income diversification. The farmer's education level is positively associated with all four climate change adaptation practices. Educated farmers are more likely to be aware of climate change and agricultural innovations and may be more interested in adopting new technologies and practices to adapt to climate challenges. Other studies have reported the positive relationship between education and adoption of climate risk management measures (Thomas et al., 2007;Hassan & Nhemachena, 2008;Deressa et al., 2009;Bryan et al., 2013;Abid et al., 2015;Ali & Erenstein, 2017;Jamshidi et al., 2020).Household size is positively associated with the use of drought-tolerant crop varieties, crop diversification, and income diversification. Other studies have reported similar results in Kenya (Kabubo-Mariara & Mulwa, 2019). Doing farming as the only source of livelihood is positively associated with crop diversification and the use of early maturing crop varieties. Participation in farmer training is positively associated with all four types of adaptation strategies. Being a member of the input supply cooperative is positively associated with income diversification strategy. Being a member of cooperatives can help increase the farmers' incomes through grain sales. The positive relationship between institutional membership and climate risk management strategies has been reported by Adesina et al. (2000), Ali &Erenstein (2017), andAryal et al. (2020). The mean land size of the surveyed farmers is positively associated with crop diversification and the use of early maturing crop varieties. The average landholding size among smallholder farmers in Kenya is as small as less than two hectares (FAO, 2015). Given their small landholding size, crop diversification and growing early maturing crops could be among the strategies for the farmers to reduce the adverse effects of climate change on their food production. This result is in line with the generally reported positive association between farm size and technology adoption (Tiwari et al., 2009;Bryan et al., 2013;Abid et al., 2015) as well as between farm size and climate change adaptation strategies (Ali & Erenstein, 2017;Kabubo-Mariara & Mulwa, 2019;Jamshidi et al., 2020). Farmers with large landholdings tend to have more financial capacity to try and invest in climate adaptation strategies. As land is a proxy for wealth, farmers with larger landholdings tend to adopt Note: Standard errors are reported in parentheses. The results are significant at ***1%, **5% and *10% levels, respectively. more climate adaptation strategies because of their financial ability to invest in new technologies and methods to adapt to climate change. The frequency of extension contact is positively associated with crop diversification and the use of early maturing crop varieties. This finding is in line with studies by Deressa et al. (2009) and Ali & Erenstein (2017). Regular access to information on expected rainfall and temperature are positively associated with the use of drought-tolerant crop varieties, crop diversification, and the use of early maturing crop varieties. Accessing information enables farmers to adopt such climate adaptation strategies (Abid et al., 2015(Abid et al., , 2016)). The cross-equation correlations are positive and significant at the 1% significance level, suggesting that these equations should be estimated jointly. The LR-Chi-square is also highly significant at the 1% significance level, indicating the robustness of the variables included in the model.Table 3 presents the determinants of the aggregate number of climate change adaptation strategies considered in this study using The results are significant at ***1%, **5% and *10% levels, respectively.Effect of the number of climate change adaptation strategies on the farmers' food security status (PSM estimates). Note: ATT stands for the average treatment effect for the treated, NNM stands for the nearest neighbor matching, KBM stands for kernel-based matching, RM stands for radius (caliper) matching, and SM stands for stratified matching. The results are significant at ***1%, **5% and *10% levels, respectively.the Censored Least Absolute Deviation (CLAD) estimation. Results indicate that male farmers undertake more adaptation strategies compared to their female counterparts. Age is negatively associated with the number of climate change adaptation practices, indicating that younger farmers are more aware of climate change risks and related adaptation strategies than older farmers. This is possible because young farmers in Africa are generally aware of the risks of climate change and its adaptation and coping strategies (Ali & Erenstein, 2017;Jamshidi et al., 2020). The educational level of the farmers is positively associated with the number of climate adaptation strategies adopted, indicating that farmers with more years of education adopt more adaptation practices than those with fewer years of education. This is possible because the more educated farmers could be more aware of the risks of climate change and its adaptation strategies (Ali & Erenstein, 2017;Nor Diana et al., 2022). The positive and significant coefficient of farm household size indicates that the farmer living with a larger family size adopts more strategies to reduce climate change-related risks.The farmers whose occupation is solely farming adopt a greater number of adaptation practices compared to those who engage in both on-farm and non-farm activities. This result is possible because agriculture-dependent farmers could focus their investments on farming. Farmers with more hectares of land adopt a greater number of climate change adaptation strategies, possibly because they have a higher financial ability to invest in more climate change adaptation practices.Participation in farmer training is positively associated with the number of climate change adaptation practices, suggesting that trained farmers acquire more knowledge and skills of different adaptation strategies related to climate change. The positive coefficient of extension contact indicates that the farmers who contact agricultural extension agents more frequently adopt a greater number of climate change adaptation practices. Farmers who receive information on expected rainfall and temperature on a regular basis adopt a greater number of strategies to reduce the risks of climate change extremes. These results suggest that more access to training, extension service, and information are critical in improving farmers' knowledge and skills for adopting new technologies and practices related to climate change adaptation.Table 4 presents the effect of the number of adaptation strategies adopted by the farmers' food security status based on the PSM analysis. Farmers who adopt one adaptation strategy have higher food security status (approximately 7-11%) compared to those who have not adopted, all the matching algorithms, including the nearest neighbor matching (NNM), radius (caliper) matching (RM), kernel-based matching (KBM), and stratification matching (SM).Similarly, for all the PSMs, if the farmers adopt two adaptation strategies, their food security status is higher by 11-14% compared to those who have not adopted. If the farmers adopt three adaptation strategies, their food security status increases by approximately 12-15%. If the farmers adopt four adaptation practices, their food security status rises by approximately 14-18%. The positive relationship between the number of farmers' climate change adaptation practices and their food security status was identified by Ali &Indicators of covariate balancing (before and after matching).  2017) found that, if farmers adopted one adaptation practice, their food security status would increase by 7-8% compared to those who had not adopted any adaptation practice; if they adopted two or three adaptation practices, their food security status would increase by approximately 8-9% or 12-14%, respectively. Table 5 reports the critical level of hidden bias, indicating how much the farmers who adopted climate change adaptation strategies and those who did not differ from each other due to unobserved characteristics or odds of their adoption. Fig. 3 also graphically shows the indicators of covariates balancing, the imposition of the common support condition, and the balancing of covariates before and after matching, as presented in Table 5. As the main purpose of the PSM is to balance the covariates before and after matching, we employed a number of matching tests. Before matching, the median absolute bias was relatively high (10.02-28.76), but after matching, it was reduced to 3.43-9.87. The percentage of bias reduction is in the range of 65.67-76.51.Similarly, the value of R 2 is quite high before matching (0.173-0.46), but it is quite low after matching (0.000-0.004), signifying that, after matching, both groups are very similar to each other. The p-value of joint significance of covariates is significantly lower before matching, but higher after matching. This indicates that, before matching, both categories of the farmers (adopters and nonadopters) are significantly different, but after matching, they are quite similar to each other.We examined the factors affecting the surveyed farmers' choice of climate change adaptation strategies and associated effects on their food security in Kenya. Farmers in Kenya are using different adaptation strategies to counter the negative impacts of climate change. Our survey with 540 farmers from across six counties of Kenya in 2018 found that approximately 55% of the farmers adopted the planting of drought-tolerant crop varieties, about 34% a crop diversification strategy, roughly 22% the planting of early maturing crop varieties, and about 18% an income diversification strategy.The results of the multivariate probit model suggest that male-headed farmers are more likely to use drought-tolerant crop varieties and crop diversification to cope with climate risk. Younger farmers and those with higher levels of education are more likely to use these climate change adaptation strategies. The farmers with larger land sizes and solely reliant on agriculture as their livelihood source have significantly positive associations with crop diversification and the use of early maturing crop varieties. Participation in farmer training, membership in input supply cooperatives, contact with extension agents, and access to information on expected rainfall and temperature are positively associated with different adaptation practices adopted by farmers in the survey area. Access to training, extension services, and information would be critical in improving farmers' knowledge and skills for adopting new agricultural technologies and practices related to climate change adaptation in the study area.Results of the CLAD analysis suggested that the male-headed farmers, education level, family size, land size, farm income, extension contact, access to training, and access to information are positively associated with the number of adaptation strategies adopted by the farmers in the survey area. The results of the multivariate probit and CLAD estimation revealed some interesting patterns, which are unique in the context of Kenya, with significant policy implications. Firstly, the results highlight the importance of farmers' knowledge and awareness about the local context, climate change adaptation strategies, and their benefits. Secondly, the results point to the importance of wealth on the ability of the farmers to invest in climate adaptation strategies. Hence, policy should focus on two aspects: (i) increasing farmers' awareness of climate change and potential benefits from adopting climate change adaptation strategies; and (ii) increasing farmers' capacity for climate change adaptation by augmenting their assets (e.g., land, education, extension advice and training, farm income) while controlling the cost of adaptation. The policy on increasing farmers' awareness should focus on increasing their access to education and agricultural extension services. The policy on enhancing farmers' accessibility to climate change adaptation strategies should focus on increasing their endowments, for instance, by improving the government provision of extension services, farmers' participation in farmer training, their access to information on expected rainfall and temperature, and creating opportunities for their alternative livelihoods, such as non-farm activities. Such support should be provided especially to economically less privileged farmers and women.The results of the PSM analysis show an increasingly positive relationship between the number of climate change adaptation strategies adopted by the surveyed farmers and their food security status. This finding has important policy implications. Government of Kenya and other relevant organizations should encourage farmers to adopt drought-tolerant varieties, crop diversification, early maturing crop varieties, and income diversification as part of their extension strategy to have them adapt to climate change and improve their food security status. The extension to farmers should emphasize that adopting more climate adaptation practices will generally help improve their food security.A major limitation of this study is related to its focus on the use of cross-sectional data to gauge the effect of farmers' climate change adaptation on food security. We suggest that future studies on the effect of climate change adaptation on food security should be based on data collected over multiple periods, given that climate change effects vary over time. Second, where the database allows, there is a need to conduct a comparative analysis across regions in Kenya, as climate change has different effects across regions.","tokenCount":"5985"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5ac91647d218e627b721b9d50823ac6c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/572a61d5-4a97-434b-9f99-76568654272d/retrieve","id":"-1902029831"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8d08f578-d862-4e54-94e1-ccd5d3721fdf","pagecount":"6","content":"IntrodUl;:ao ~ o cultivo de mandioca em várzea apresenta como obstáculo major a falta de cultivares adaptadas a esse eco ssistema . Como conS8quencia. o Estado do Amazonas tem que importar farinha para o consumo interno. A causa principal da baixa produtividade da mandioca em várzea é a podridao radicular, que diminul acentuadamente a producao de raízes. Visando selecionar cultivares de mandioca com elevada produtividade e resistentes a pragas e doenGas. o CPAA juntamente com o CNPMF iniciaram a partir de 1 981 um programa de melhoramento de mandioca. com a partici-paGao do CIAT a partir de 1987. Os resultados desse trabalho foram originados de 09 ensaios recomendaGoes das cultivares Mae Joana (IM-175) e Zolhudinha (IM-158) .Figura 1. Aspecto de urna cultivar suscetfvel as podridoes das ralze s (acima), em contraste com o que apresenta a cultivar Mae Joana (abai;lto). nas mesmas condic;:oes ecológicas.A cultivar Mae Joana (lM-175) tem origem no municipio de Barreirinha-AM, e Zolhudinha (IM-158) tem origem no municipio de Irancuba-AM . Rio Solimoes. Ambas as cu lt ivares foram introduzidas ti partir de 1981 juntame nte com outras (258). Destacaram-se das demais ao langa dos experimen tos em reladro a produtividade e re sistencia 11 podridao radicular .A cu lt ivar Mae Joana (IM-175) tem um ciclo de 7-8 meses . A altura média da planta é de 2,85 m e da primeira ramifica<;ao é de 1,85 m. As raízes apresentam cor da palpa amarelo-claro, as folhas sao verdes, falíolas roxos e a haste cremeprateada. A produ<;ao média é de 19 tlha de raízes frescas e 11 tlha de haste mais rama . A cultivar Zolhudinha (lM-158) tem um ciclo de 6-8 meses . A altura média da planta é de 2,0 m e da primeira ramifica<;ao é de 1,60 m . As raízes apresentam cor da palpa amarelo claro.as folhas sao verdes, fol íolos verde-arroxeados e a haste rósea . A producao média é de 33 tlha de raízes fre scas e 8,6 tlha de ha ste mais rama.Ambas as cultivares apresentam um rendimento de farinha e amida de aproximadamente 32%, e de número de raízes sadias 75%.As cultivares Mae Joana (IM-175) e Zolhudinha (IM-158) sao recomendadas para o ecossistema de várzea, utilizando-se o cultivo solteiro no espacamento de 1,0 x 1,0 m e noconsorciado os espa<;amentos de 2,Ox 0,6 x 0.6 m (mandioca + ¡eiiao caupi + milho), 2,0 x 0,6 m (mandioca + ¡eiiao caupi em rotacao com milho) e 2,OxO,6 m (mandioca + feiiao caupi em rotacao com arroz).As cultivares devem ser plantadas em camalhoes teitos manualmente ou mecanicamente, tendo o camalhao uma altura de 0,30 m e uma base de 0.80 m.o tamanho da maniva é de 0,20 m . O plantio deve ser feito no sentido vertical, com gemas voltadas para cima , evitando capinas depois do segundo mes de plantio na crista do camalhao.dias e da parte mais lenhosa, trata mento químieadas manivas antes do plantio com misturas de fungicidas a base de benomil e Focetyl nas concentra<;oes recomendadas pelos fabricantes, utilizar rota<;:oes de culturas com milho ou arroz quando a podridao alcancar nivel supe rior a 5% das raíze s, destruir residuos da cultura anterior após a colhei ta .A utili,ac;ao de novas cultivares desde quando aplicadas outras tecnologias conhecidas para a mand ioca, como por exe mplo o manejo do solo e cu ltural, sistema de plantio. selec;ao de maniva s. épocas de plantio e colheita. espaca mentas , proporcionarao a regiaoAmazónica e con sequ e ntemente ao produtor. que detém um rendimento médio de 12 tlha. um incremento de 80% em produc;'iio de raí,es frescas (Quadro 1).Ouadro 1. Producao de ralzes em t/ ha das cultivares recomendadas em siste ma de cultivo de vá rzeas em Amazonas, Manaus.Solteiro 1,00 )1 1,00 Consorciado 2.0 x 0 ,60 x 0,60 2.0 x 0.60 ","tokenCount":"634"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c3cfd49e770da3d040f1bf59a0eb7355","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b77aad8a-27ae-496a-a95f-df17e8bd6d88/retrieve","id":"755999595"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"136b6871-3860-44f0-a4b0-03f90f8c8bbf","pagecount":"8","content":"• Purchased 4000 kg of Oats, 1600 kg of vetch and 80 kg of Alfalfa and distributed to more than 800 farmers in Basona and Lemo on revolving seed system arrangements.Photos a and b. Forage seed distribution with a revolving seed system arrangement in Bale, Oromia.• Facilitated scaling of Africa RISING validated feed and forage innovations through media engagement (local radio) and development partnership arrangement. Target to reach is over 20000 beneficiaries.• Collected 3540 phone numbers of farmers, agricultural experts and other local partners in north Shewa and Hadiya zones and delivered a one-minute mobile audio brief messages of 8 improved feed and forage options in two languages.www.cgiar.orgProduced more than 22 publication outputs (journal article=1, extension manual=6, presentations=7, reports=4, poster=2, book of abstracts=1) as of 2023. In addition, 3 out of 8 weekly voice messages that reached to the farmers and other partners through mobile phone published in CGSpace.• Conducted feed assessment survey using GFEAST in Basona, Lemo and Jimma sites.• Coordinated (with leadership of IITA) baseline survey in North Showa, North Wollo, East Showa, Jima, Kembata and Yadiya Zones (14 Villages and 700+ Respondents.","tokenCount":"185"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c2d489b75015094fb4a9d316ef34ec38","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/480564a6-7512-47d6-8fc9-988d4cab24cf/retrieve","id":"412834257"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3113e5ef-eebd-4ebe-8d57-29f57fb9b167","pagecount":"9","content":"THE SUCCESS of the African pastoral family is determined by the amount of milk their animals yield. These animals, like their masters, are adapted to an often harsh environment, in which hardiness and the ability to survive are more important than high milk yields. However, the milk yield is still susceptible to seasonal influences and during the dry season there is often considerable competition between calf and man for the declining production. The calf usually suffers, with the result that the breeding rate and ultimate productivity of the herd is reduced, because a malnourished female calf is slow to reach reproductive age. Milk production in the pastoral system, and the few opportunities for its improvement, are discussed in this article.Pastoralism has evolved in drier regions on land that is either unsuited to cultivation or where cropping is a marginal and precarious enterprise. In Africa pastoralists range across the climatic zones, being found in the subhumid zone of Nigeria (1300-1500 mm rainfall) right through to the arid zone of northern Kenya (150-400 mm rainfall). The mainstay of pastoralism is milk production from cattle, camels, goats and sheep; utilisation of milk from horses and donkeys is uncommon. Meat, a less efficiently produced commodity, is normally eaten only on festive occasions or during severe food shortages. Pastoralists may be nomadic, transhumant or quasisedentary; cultivation is a new but increasingly common enterprise.Historically, the colonial powers paid little attention to pastoralists. The areas used were of low potential, their way of life inherently subsistent, and their contribution to development negligible. Contact was slight and sometimes centred on the removal of pastoralists from potential ranching land to even more marginal areas.The first scientific group to take a positive interest in pastoralists were the social anthropologists. Only recently have animal scientists begun recording milk and animal performance. This interest in milk production is part of the broader objective of increasing animal production by improving either the utilisation of the rangelands or the animal husbandry practices.Pastoralism has certain unique characteristics. First, milk and milk products are the mainstay of the human diet and at times the very survival of the household hinges on their continued production. Second, since supplementation of cows is uncommon, milk production is a function of season rather than stage of lactation. Third, since nutritional levels are low and water may be restricted, the ability to produce milk under nutritional stress and to survive adverse climatic conditions may be more important than high yields. Finally, owing to the crucial role of milk in the pastoralist diet and society, a delicate balance must be struck between milk offtake for human needs and milk intake by the calf since the calf has no access to either milk substitutes or supplements. While camels and smallstock play an important role in certain societies the following general description of pastoralist milk production will concentrate on cattle.In high-yielding Bos taurus animals milk offtake (i.e. milk not consumed by the calf) is a reliable indicator of total milk yield since let-down and retention problems are rare. In contrast, the pastoralists' cattle are usually B. indicus and will not readily let down their milk without the stimulus of their calf, and it is difficult to strip out all the milk by hand. Milk offtake in pastoral cattle is only about 30% of the yield during the first 4 months of the lactation, increasing in proportion as the calf develops a functional rumen. This total yield must be estimated by adding measured milk offtake by humans to estimated milk intake by calves, this latter term introducing a significant source of error into the final estimate. Estimated total milk yields vary between 430 kg over 6 months in White Fulani to 300 kg in Maasai cattle over 10 months (Table 1), equivalent to 2.4 and 2.7 kg.day 1 respectively. Ethiopian Boran cows give a mean yield of 680 kg over a lactation of 7 months although the long lactations in the Borana system of southern Ethiopia yield an estimated 750 kg. The lower estimate of 518 kg over 7 months for Boran in Kenya (McKay, 1957) may be due to the drier environment. The most objective method of determining milk yield would be the weekly administration of oxytocin to allow complete milking out. Unfortunately pastoralists generally reject any experimental method that interferes with the normal milking procedure. An alternative is 'before and after' weighing of calves; this technique using dial scales with calf slings has produced disappointing results because intake is so low that the change in weight cannot be measured accurately enough. Working with more sensitive beam scales, intake can be measured to ±50 g but the process is laborious and the equipment expensive. Other workers have relied on the conversion factors of Drewry et al (1959) and Montsma (1960). More elaborate estimates may be obtained from the mathematical models of Konandreas and Anderson (1982) and equations based on calf growth and metabolizable energy content of the milk (Nicholson, 1984), but no great improvement has yet been demonstrated.What becomes apparent is that individual and seasonal variations give rise to large standard errors of estimated mean yields. Most workers have found that year of calving and season of birth significantly affect both total milk offtake and total yield, while daily offtake and yield are a function of season, stage of lactation, lactation number and location (probably due to the human demand for milk varying with population). Total yield is also higher when calving occurs around the start of the main rainy season, indicating that better nutrition is elevating the normal yield peak in the first 2 or 3 months of lactation.Hand-milking can be done before cattle leave their night enclosures and again on their return in the evening. This system is followed by the Borana and the Maasai pastoralists while the White Fulani cattle in Nigeria are milked only in the morning (Otchere, 1982). The Fulani tribe in Mali milk their animals in the evening and the calves remain with their dams through the night (Diallo et al,1981), whereas the Borana keep calves in their houses for a year or more and allow suckling twice a day and access to grazing during the daytime. Camels are milked several times a day by the Gabbra of southern Ethiopia, and apparently the camel calf is not essential to initiate letdown. Let-down in the absence of the calf is very difficult to induce in B. indicus cows, but the Borana have been observed to skin a dead calf and allow the dam to sniff the skin during milking, and by these means achieve a degree of let-down for several weeks.Offtake is reported as 20-25% (Semenye and de Leeuw, in press), 25% (Otchere, unpubl.), 25-38% (Nicholson, unpubl.) and 31% (Diallo et al, 1981) of total milk yield. The offtake/intake ratio appears to be fairly constant for the first 4 months irrespective of yield. Actual offtake varies enormously from 150 ml per day in the dry season to 3 1 or more per day from highyielding cows during the rains. Mean offtake in Borana villages is 312 kg, with a standard deviation of ±108 kg reflecting the wide variation (Nicholson, unpubl.). This figure is similar to the 235 kg recorded in Mali (Diallo et al, 1981) and 286 kg over 416 days in Nigerian Fulani (Otchere, unpubl.).The classic lactation curve of well nourished commercial dairy cattle is not seen in pastoralist cows because the major influence on production is the season. New grass following the onset of the rains causes a rapid rise in milk production at almost any stage of lactation while the dry season severely depresses milk yield. Figure 1a depicts a typical bimodal lactation curve for Boran cows calving just before the start of the 'main' (April/May) rains in southern Ethiopia. Figure 1b demonstrates that when these 'main' rains occur in the middle of the lactation, the second peak can surpass the first, while a cow calving in the dry season can reach peak yield as late as the sixth month of lactation (Figure 1c). Calf suckling during this period is vigorous and prolonged and 'before and after' weighing shows large intakes of up to 3.5 kg. The peak of the curve may not necessarily indicate final yield since the length of the rainy season, the severity of the dry season and the highly variable lactation length will thwart any such prediction. A lactation curve with three distinct peaks has been noted by the author in a 13-month lactation. The reluctance of pastoralists to allow complete hand-milking-out of their animals means that data on composition relate only to that fraction of the milk which is taken for human consumption. Borana milk showed large variations which were not consistently related to stage of lactation, to individual cows or to season (Dessalegne, pers. comm.). Total solids averaged 14.5% and fat 5.4%, giving an approximate energy content of 3.47 MJ.kg 1 (Tyrell and Reid, 1965). These data are. comparable with those of Orr and Gilks (1931), working with Maasai cattle, who reported solids as 14.8% and fat as 5.5%.Seasonal variations in composition exist but authors do not agree. Dahl and Hjort (1976) cite Bartha who reported that fat percentage decreased in the dry season; Maliki (1981) states that wet-season milk is not considered to yield much butter. The Gurma Imrad and Delta Tuareg in Mali and the Borana consider the late rains and early dry season to give the richest milk (Wagenaar and Winter, pers. comm.; Nicholson, unpubl.). Composition affects the quality of milk products such as butter, soured milk and cheese, all of which may be prepared by pastoralists although cheese is less common.Deliberate weaning is practised by some tribes. Wagenaar and Winter (pers. comm.) report that the Delta Fulani wean their calves at 11-12 months for the purpose of inducing oestrus in the cows. In contrast, Otchere (unpubl.) found that deliberate weaning was resorted to only when the dam was in an advanced state of pregnancy. Fulani herders smear dung on the teats to discourage the calf, while the pastoralists of the Accra plains tie a piece of rope to the calf's nose (Otchere, unpubl.) and the Somali tie a strip of thorn to the nose to inhibit suckling (Cossins, pers. comm.). In East Africa, natural weaning is normal in both Maasai (Semenye and de Leeuw, 1983) and Boran cattle. As a result lactation length is extremely variable (Table 2). Authors cited by Dahl and Hjort (1976) reported lactation lengths varying from 139 days in Kenya Boran to 12 months in Dinka cattle in Sudan. However, 7-9 months appears to be the average. The relationship between calf growth and milk offtake is complex. If the offtake is high during periods of nutritional stress, the calf may even lose weight.This is diagramatically represented in Figure 2 which shows how offtake can infringe upon the calf's maintenance needs. In the southern rangelands of Ethiopia, there are periods in the long dry season when calves lose weight and live off their body reserves. The owner, desperate for milk, tries to ensure that the calf does not die, which would terminate milk supply from the dam. Conversely, when the nutritional plane is high, offtake is also usually high but the calf still receives enough milk for reasonable weight gains. Diallo et al (1981) reported a positive correlation between milk offtake and calf growth, but any offtake means the calf will not realize its full potential. Typical weaning weights are shown in Table 3. There is no doubt that milk offtake affects calf growth but it is difficult to assess by how much when there are other confounding factors such as water availability and frequency, disease, onset of rumen function and nutrition. The greatest difference is that between the Boran calves reared in the traditional way and Boran animals reared on an Ethiopian government ranch where all the milk goes to the calves. The 7-month weights average 47 and 180 kg respectively. The obvious superiority of the ranch animals is a reflection of their extra milk intake as well as the superior grazing and husbandry not usually encountered in pastoralist areas.Potential calf growth in the absence of milk offtake can be predicted from actual growth and the metabolizable energy content of the milk provided milk offtake is known (Nicholson, 1984).Using such equations, it was predicted that, in a pastoralist system, Boran calves would be 120-140%a heavier at 8 months if they received all the available milk. While this is a somewhat academic consideration it does illustrate one of the most important constraints to animal productivity under pastoralist conditions.Milk offtake for human consumption and body adornment (several tribes adorn themselves with butter), combined with low milk yield, affects reproductive rate in two ways. First, milk offtake results in slower calf growth and late puberty and age at first calving, although this is probably exacerbated by post-weaning nutritional stress. Second, low reproduction rates, probably caused by lactational anoestrus, have been observed in Fulani cattle in Mali (Wagenaar and Winter, pers. comm.) and by Otchere (unpubl.) in the White Fulani breed in Nigeria. These observations may partly explain the long calving intervals of 15 months in the Borana system (Agrotec, 1974) and 27 months in the Fulani cattle of Nigeria (Otchere, unpubl.). Both estimates were based on only a short period of data collection and are probably underestimates. There are some suggestions that Zebu cattle are more prone to anoestrus than European cattle as a result of undernutrition during lactation and hormonal factors, but direct comparisons are not available.Milk restriction may also contribute to calf mortality rates which vary from 9% in the Maasai (Semenye and de Leeuw, in press) to 49% in White Fulani in Nigeria (Otchere, unpubl.), and this further depresses annual cow productivity rates.Pastoralists who rely on camels as a source of milk often live in harsher, drier environments than cattle pastoralists, but this is not always the case. The Gabbra of southern Ethiopia are mainly camel herders but share their habitat with the Borana, and the browsing habits of their camels seem to be complementary rather than competitive in terms of land use. Lactations vary between 12 and 18 months and offtake yields between 1000 and 2500 kg, although higher estimates have been reported (Dahl and Hjort, 1976). A feature of camel production is the high calf mortality, recorded as 65% in the Gabbra system and supported in the above review by Dahl and Hjort. Percentage of fat and total solids in milk is lower than in Zebu cattle and cattlemilk drinkers regard it as inferior. Average composition is 10.1% SNF and 2.9% fat (Williamson and Payne, 1978).Both cattle and camel pastoralists complement their milk supply by keeping smallstock. Ethiopian Borana seldom drink sheep milk whereas goat milk is often used as a dry-season reserve, particularly for children. In Kenya the Turkana take milk from both sheep and goats while the Maasai, Samburu and Kenya Borana use only goat milk (Dahl and Hjort, 1976). These authors point out the difficulty of deciding whether quoted yields represent milk offtake for human use or total estimated yield. What is important to note is that milk from smallstock may be an important source of energy at certain times, and that goats and camels are able to exploit browse in the dry season better than cattle or sheep, and so continue to produce milk when cattle milk is scarce.Milk production in pastoralist societies is marked by a strong seasonal influence on yield and composition. Because of poor nutrition milk production is correspondingly low and a significant part of the yield is taken for human use. As a result calf growth rates are poor and mortality is high. Poor nutritional status is therefore thought to be the main cause of delayed age at maturity and first calving. High-yielding cows are unsuited to such environments, and natural selection appears to have favoured the development of hardiness at the expense of high yields. Camels have higher yields and longer lactations than cows but the milk is of lower quality and not liked by all tribes. The milk of smallstock may be a crucial energy source in dry seasons, particularly for children, but is usually of secondary importance to that from cattle and camels.It must be emphasised that pastoralists rely on milk as their staple food and that drought and seasonal stress are recurring facts of life. Pastoralists are efficient users of a difficult environment and opportunities for improvement are few. Three alternatives exist. The first is the introduction of a cropping enterprise which would allow diversification of the diet and provide stock with crop residues or forage as a source of feed during dry-season nutritional stress. The problem here is that in many pastoralist regions, cropping is not a viable option. Second, individual milk yields could be raised by a combination of supplementation and breeding, but the prospects for this are limited. Third, the ratio of people to milking cows could be lowered, but since the human population is increasing in Africa at present, and stock numbers are often at or beyond the carrying capacity of the ranges, this is unrealistic. Improvements in the system will be difficult to realize, and considerable thought must be given to the question of whether any change in pastoralism will not ultimately be for the worse.","tokenCount":"2883"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"721bbff2c6b3b3e498d29fd7f25b7d24","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ca6da413-f6e4-4063-a170-67057e7525cb/retrieve","id":"81747065"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fa95fc9d-e15a-4d0e-aeba-6beb427bdc85","pagecount":"157","content":"The authors are grateful to the DTMA Project for supporting the activities reported in this book since 2007. We also acknowledge the financial support of the USAID to WECAMAN from its inception in 1987 to 2007. The United Nations Development Program, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the Nippon Foundation provided additional financial support to WECAMAN from 1998 to 2006 through the Africa Maize Stress Project and we are grateful for this. With IITA as the Executing Agency, WECAMAN became a highly effective Network and its impact in revolutionizing maize production in the subregion is well recognized.We would also like to thank Drs Alpha Diallo and J.M. Fajemisin, the first two Coordinators of WECAMAN, for laying the strong foundation upon which WECAMAN was built. Dr M. Quin, former Director of IITA's Crop Improvement Program, and Dr J.P. Eckebil, IITA's former Deputy Director General for International Cooperation, Drs J.M. Menyonga and Taye Bezuneh, International Coordinators of OAU/SAFGRAD, Dr Mahama Ouedraogo of AU-STRC, and Mr F. Deganus have all made significant contributions to the development of the seed industry through their unflinching support to WECAMAN which is gratefully acknowledged.We would also like to acknowledge the support of the national maize scientists of West and Central Africa as well as Drs Abebe Menkir, Tahirou Abdoulaye, Wilfred Mwangi, Peter Setimela, J. MacRobert, and Tsedeke Abate for their collaboration and immense contribution to the success of the activities reported in this book.Lastly, we sincerely thank Mrs Rose Umelo for editorial assistance and the staff of the IITA Maize Program in Ibadan for the hard work and support over the years. Through the concerted efforts of IITA in collaboration with the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of West and Central Africa (WCA), a number of improved maize varieties and hybrids of various maturity groups with resistance to the important biotic and abiotic stresses prevalent in WCA have been developed and made available to farmers of the subregion. The intensified promotion for adoption of the available varieties and hybrids has resulted in the rapid expansion of maize production in WCA to the extent that it has now become the most important food crop for urban and rural consumers. The subregion has witnessed remarkable success stories as the use of new seeds and improved technologies has increased smallholder maize production. Trends in land area under maize, total maize production, and yield per unit land area have shown dramatic increases in most of the countries in WCA. The area planted to maize has increased from 3.2 million ha in 1961 to 8.9 million ha in 2005; between 1987 and 2007, the area cultivated to maize increased from 7,958,927 ha to 11,752, 136 ha (FAO 2009). Maize production has caught up with or surpassed sorghum and millet in most of the savanna areas. This expansion has been attributed to the adoption of new maize germplasm, the development of road infrastructure in rural areas, relatively good extension services, and increased urban demand, especially for green maize.Despite the tremendous progress made in increasing maize production and productivity during the past two decades, the seed industry in WCA is faced with a myriad problems. Prominent among these are a lack of seed policy and inadequate funding for seed industry development in most countries, long delays between variety development and variety registration and release, the inadequate involvement of farmers in participatory varietal selection, leading to low adoption of released varieties, a poor enabling environment for private sector participation and survival, a lack of effective and sustainable national seed systems in most of the countries, weak regional seed trade development and seed market information systems. In an effort to improve the availability of improved seeds to the farmers, WECAMAN funded the community seed production projects from 1993 to 2006 as a strategy to ensure the high adoption of released maize varieties in limited communities of member countries. The goal of WECAMAN's intervention in the seed industry was to assist farmers and seed producers to develop sustainable seed production systems, capable of providing a regular supply of high quality seeds of superior varieties to the farming communities. Specific objectives of the community seed production project were to (i) train farmers in the techniques of maize seed production (ii) strengthen the capacity and capability of seed producers to produce good quality seeds (iii) encourage NARS scientists to work with selected farmers and NGOs in the development of on-farm level seed production schemes, and (iv) assist xii Strategies for Sustainable Maize Seed Production in West and Central Africa NARS scientists to produce breeder seeds of released varieties in adequate quantities at the research stations. The support from the Network was through the continuous supply of improved germplasm adapted to local conditions, technical assistance with seed production, training, provision of credit in the form of inputs for seed production, and promotion of improved OPVs to encourage adoption. Large quantities of seeds of early and extraearly varieties were produced annually in WECAMAN member countries through the schemes, resulting in the availability of good quality seeds for farmers. Several schemes within each collaborating country established revolving funds for seed production thereby making the scheme selfsustaining in several communities.Since 2007, IITA, through the DTMA project and several initiatives including the AGRA-PASS, has been supporting private seed companies and community-based seed producers to produce, distribute, and market improved maize seeds to farmers in remote areas, developing seed storage and processing capacity, promoting policies that accelerate the release of proven new varieties, strengthening seed regulatory systems, eliminating seed trade barriers, and harmonizing regional seed laws. PASS has provided start-up capital for many African seed enterprises resulting in several emerging seed companies and setting the stage for hybrid production and a vibrant seed industry. The DTMA project has provided an adequate quantity of breeder seeds of parental inbred lines and OPVs, organized training courses in quality seed production of hybrids and OPVs, as well as regional and on-farm trials for both the NARS partners and private seed companies. Emphasis has been placed on hybrid seed production by existing and emerging seed companies as a means of ensuring that farmers buy improved seeds annually to ensure the sustainability of seed production and the survival of the seed companies and to make good quality seeds available to farmers at affordable prices.As a major international partner of the NARS responsible for the development of appropriate maize germplasm and accompanying technologies, IITA has prepared this book, which covers all aspects of sustainable seed production, to contribute to the development of the seed industry. It is hoped that the information provided will go a long way in assisting both small and largescale entrepreneurs to run their seed business successfully and, ultimately, good quality seeds will be available to farmers so that the benefits of maize improvement at IITA would be realized. The availability of high quality seeds is an important factor in attaining good yields of maize and, thus, can have a significant impact on the production potential of farmers. Presently, the seed industry in WCA is meeting less than 10% of the requirements of the subregion. Therefore the seed industry is urgently expected at least to double its present volume of production. This means that the seed industry has a formidable task of producing enough good quality seeds to ensure increased and sustainable maize production to feed the growing population. Despite the critical role that the seed industry has to play for the success of the maize revolution in the subregion, it is presently facing a myriad problems. First, farmers often do not appreciate the logic of purchasing seeds since many of them believe that they can save and use seeds from the previous harvests. As a result, there has been limited commercial demand for improved seeds. Secondly, whenever the Governments of the subregion and their development partners attempted to intervene to improve the seed situation, they often ended up making things worse. Such efforts have often been characterized by inadequate targeting (both commodity and area) and by the introduction of relief programs which invariably are free or subsidized and compete unfairly with emerging commercial seed enterprises. Thirdly, where seed companies have emerged, they have been unable to produce crop varieties that are sufficiently adapted to the wide range of growing conditions prevalent in most countries of the subregion. The result is that the available improved seeds are often not suitable for all the different production environments in each country. Fourthly, because of the high investment costs associated with equipment, research, and overhead for improved seed production, the price of improved seeds is usually too high and not affordable by farmers at the time of planting. The seed situation is further aggravated by the fact that the seed industry in nearly all countries has not been developed. Until recently, Nigeria was the only country in WCA that had a few credible seed industries. Even here, the commercial seed companies have not been servicing smallholder farmers, who grow mainly open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) in this zone. Yet promising improved maize varieties exist and there is a great capacity for seed production and the dissemination of improved varieties in the country. Again, all the seed companies operating in Nigeria do not have functional research farms; they depend solely on contract growers to produce seeds. Faced with this catalog of constraints, smallholder and medium-sized farmers often do not have ready access to the right quantity and quality of improved seeds needed for increased and sustainable seed production to support the on-going maize revolution.Despite the myriad problems, there are several potential opportunities for the seed industry. Apart from the availability of many high yielding improved varieties developed by the IARCs and NARS, there is an xiv Strategies for Sustainable Maize Seed Production in West and Central Africa increased awareness among farmers of the economic benefits of improved seeds, expanded markets for increased agricultural outputs, emerging formal and informal seed systems for improved seed production and rural seed delivery systems, emerging small and medium seed enterprises in the region, possibilities of regional seed trade, and regional information systems about the agricultural input market. These positive developments are encouraging and call for sustained effort to support the development of the seed industry. This book is aimed at contributing to the success and sustainability of the emerging seed companies by providing information on issues that are crucial to the seed sector development. The book has sections on the review of national seed regulations that facilitate the establishment of seed companies, methods for producing good quality seeds in adequate quantities, harvesting and seed processing, variety release and registration, strategies for promoting seed marketing and the adoption of good quality seeds of improved varieties and hybrids. There is also a section on how the seed business should be managed daily to facilitate the implementation of the plans of the company and assess the outputs so that performance could be improved. Maize (Zea mays L.), commonly referred to as corn in the United States, has been considered a unique plant since the time it became the staple food for the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is central to many sacred mythologies and creation stories which are still honored today. Maize was introduced from the New World to the Old World in the 1400s, and it was planted between the harvesting of spring and winter crops, filling an important niche as a summer crop (Barreiro 1989). Today, the United States, China, the European Union, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, India, and Argentina are the world's largest producers.The United States is the world's leading producer. In 2008/2009, the US produced 307,386,000 tonnes (t) representing 40% of the world's total production, followed by China (Table 1.1). Together they produce approximately 60% of the world's maize crop. In the same year, over 159 million ha of maize were planted worldwide, with an average yield of over 5 t ha -1 in the developed countries; yields as low as 500 kg ha -1 were obtained in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Production can be significantly higher in certain regions of the world; for example, estimated grain yield for 2009 in Iowa, USA, was 11,614 kg ha -1 . The US is also the world's largest exporter with 20% of the crop exported to other countries (Meng and Ekboir 2000) Maize was introduced from the New World to the Old World in the 1400s after Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. To start with, maize was only a backyard crop in West and Central Africa (WCA) and for a long time remained a smallholder crop in the subregion. An outbreak of the American rust incited by Puccinia polysora that swept across WCA and almost wiped out maize production in the 1940s called attention to its importance as a food crop. From then on, intensive breeding, agronomic, and crop protection research was gradually put in place in most WCA countries. New varieties have been developed from time to time and production has gradually increased to satisfy the demand. There have been several foreign interventions to boost maize improvement in WCA, culminating in the establishment of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria in 1967. Maize is one of the mandate crops of IITA and the Institute, in collaboration with the national agricultural research systems (NARS) has played a major role, in developing improved open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) and hybrids that are resistant/tolerant to the prevalent major biotic and abiotic stresses. One major constraint to the adoption of improved varieties has been the non-availability of high quality seeds. Maize accounts for 15-20% of the total daily calories in the diets of people in more than 20 developing countries, mainly in Latin America and Africa, whereas in the developed countries, such as US and Europe, it is instead an important feed grain for livestock and poultry because of the more efficient conversion of its dry substance to meat, milk, and eggs, compared with other grains. The USA devotes approximately 60% of its maize crop to animal feed (Pingali and Pandey 2000).Besides the conversion into animal feed, maize is also processed into a multitude of food and industrial products such as starch, sweeteners, corn oil, beverages, industrial alcohol, and fuel ethanol.Maize refineries in the US also use about 14% of their annual maize crop worth $19 billion to produce corn oil, gluten for animal feed, corn starch, syrup, dextrose (used mainly by the pharmaceutical industry as the starting material for manufacturing vitamin C and penicillin), alcohol for beverages, ethanol (which accounts for 12% of all automobile fuels sold in the US), high fructose maize syrup (used mainly by the soft drinks industry which helped to surpass the use of sucrose in the US, biodegradable chemicals and plastics, paper, textiles, ready-to-eat snack foods and breakfast cereals, such as cornmeal, grits, flour, and additives in paint and explosives (Sprague et al. 1988). It is estimated that the maize crop yields 4000 industrial products and that there are more than 1000 items in American supermarkets that contain maize (Dowswell et al 1996).Maize is presently the most important cereal crop in WCA because of its high yield potential, increasing role in the human diet, use in animal feed and in agro-allied industries. It was introduced about 500 years ago and has risen to become a staple crop with numerous varieties developed for the various agroecological zones. It has a relatively short growing period and is easy to grow, sole or in mixtures with other crops. It is well integrated into the farming system with a number of maize-based cropping systems featuring prominently. It is now cultivated in the drier areas, traditional niches for sorghum and millet, a feat made possible by the development of extra-early and early varieties led particularly by IITA in collaboration with the different NARS. Maize has an added potential for addressing the food security challenges presently faced in WCA as a result of increasing levels of urbanization. It is also a versatile crop that easily grows across a range of agroecological zones; it is easy to store, process, and market; its preparation as food is relatively simple.According to FAO, the area in WCA planted to maize increased from 3.2 million ha in 1961 to 8.9 million ha in 2005. Between 1987 and 2007, this area increased from 7,958,927 ha to 11,752,136 ha (FAO 2009). This phenomenal expansion of the land area devoted to maize resulted in increased production from 2.4 million t in 1961 to 10.6 million t in 2005. However, although the average yield in the developed countries is up to 8.6 t/ha, production in several areas of WCA is still very low (1.3 t/ha or below).A survey conducted by the Drought Tolerance Maize for Africa Project (DTMA) on maize production constraints, showed that in the 13 DTMA project countries in East, Southern, and West Africa, maize is grown on more than 17 million ha in West Africa, with Nigeria accounting for more than 3.6 million ha of the total land area cropped to maize in the subregion.Mali accounted for the smallest area, about 0.3 million ha. By region, East Africa accounted for the largest hectarage while Southern and West Africa had equal areas under maize cultivation. The investigations also showed that the estimated demand for maize seeds in the 13 countries was about 425,000 t. Improved OPVs account for about 24,000 t; hybrid maize seeds account for 83,000 t and the rest of the seeds are sourced from the informal seed sector through seed exchanges and the recycling of OPVs and hybrids (Tahirou et al. 2009). In other words, more than 75% of the maize crop in West Africa is planted to seeds from the informal sector, mostly farmer-tofarmer exchanges and grain purchased from the open market.IITA has over the years helped to develop early and extra-early maturing varieties which can fill the hunger gap in the drought prone savannas as well as letting the crop tolerate drought, giving reasonable yields where intermediate or late cycle varieties would fail. Most of the modern day developed varieties in WCA have been bred to be resistant or tolerant to the prevalent biotic and abiotic stresses, notably maize streak virus, Striga, rust, stem borers, and drought which are among the major constraints to production. Some varieties have also been developed for high productivity under the low soil nitrogen levels that are characteristic of the soils and production systems in the subregion. The rising profile of maize and the impact generated by the crop have been aptly described as a revolution (Fakorede et al. 2003). The crop is considered the vehicle for a green revolution that has already commenced in the subregion (Abalu 2003).In the industrialized countries, such as the US and in Europe, maize is largely used as a livestock feed and as a raw material for industrial products; in the developing countries, maize is mainly used for human consumption in diverse ways with attendant implications for commerce. In WCA, maize is an important staple food for an estimated 50% of the population. It serves as an important source of carbohydrate, protein, iron, vitamin B, and minerals.In addition, the physiologically immature field maize, known as green maize, is consumed as a snack, \"maize on the cob\", after being roasted or boiled. The dried grain is milled and consumed as a starchy base in a wide variety of gruels, porridges, soups, and pastes. Dough made from the milled grain can also be cooked or fried in oil. The importance of maize as a food is associated with the nutritive value of its kernels.On average, about 70-75% of the kernels, depending on the type, are composed of carbohydrate that is present mostly as starch and sugar.Because of its high carbohydrate content, maize is a major source of calories.The kernels also contain protein (8-15%). About 80% of the protein is in the endosperm while the remaining 20% is contained in the germ. Other components of the kernels are fat (or oil), minerals, and vitamins. The vitamins in the kernels are mostly located in the germ and in the outermost layer of the endosperm.Carotenoids, which are precursors of vitamin A, are present in yellow types but absent in white maize. The quality of the protein is considered poor because the kernels have a low content of lysine and tryptophan -two of the essential amino acids. Years of research by breeders at CIMMYT have resulted in the development of Quality Protein Maize (QPM) which contains twice the quantity of lysine and tryptophan in the normal maize. Using some of the QPM base populations developed at CIMMYT, breeders in Ghana extracted QPM varieties and hybrids and tested them in WCA as well as in other parts of the world (Twumasi-Afriye et al. 1999). Varieties and hybrids of QPM have now become nouveaux varieties spreading all over SSA to feed the rapidly increasing population.In general, production in terms of output per area under cultivation is very low when compared with maize growing areas in other parts of the world. Yields below or around 1.5 t ha -1 are the average whereas yields in the developed countries, for example in the US, hover between 7 and 11 t ha -1 .This poor performance has been attributed to a number of reasons, among which are the following.• Non-use of high yielding improved varieties and hybrids; the farmer depends on farmer-saved seeds (up to 80% of the seeds planted annually). • Non-use of fertilizers and other agro-inputs that have made a change in productivity in other maize growing areas of the world. • Continuous use of marginal soil with low fertility for cropping year after year without the adoption of modern techniques for soil fertility improvement.• Land tenure problems in most of the maize growing areas.• Lack of a seed policy program by most Governments.• Limited support or none to research for the development of high yielding varieties, hybrids, and other crop improvement technological packages that give higher yields. • Where there is some research support, the production and use of OPVs dominate and their inherent productivity is low compared with hybrids that prevail in other parts of the world. • Lack of trained personnel and infrastructure along the entire seed chain.• Continuous use of rainfed conditions for production in this era of climate change and the annual unreliability of the rains. • Low perception and adoption of improved certified seeds by the indigenes. • Prevalence of a myriad diseases and insect pests that attack the crop under cultivation leading to lower yields and quality. These include downy mildew, rust, leaf blight, stalk and ear rots, leaf spot, and maize streak virus. Insect pests, including stem and ear borers, armyworms, cutworms, grain moths, beetles, weevils, grain borers, rootworms, and white grubs, are also a great threat to the survival of maize.In the Nigerian savanna, for example, weed-related yield losses ranging from 65 to 92% have been recorded in maize fields. A parasitic weed known as witch weed (Striga), is a major pest in SSA and causes estimated cereal grain losses worth up to US$7 billion. This adversely affects the lives of about 300 million people.Low soil fertility, limited use of nitrogenous fertilizers, and declining soil quality are also major problems, resulting in low yields. Also, periodic drought caused by irregular rainfall reduces yields by an average of 15% each year. This is equivalent to at least US$200 million in forgone grain. The effects of prolonged droughts, such as those that have struck WCA in recent years, particularly Mali and Niger, have had disastrous consequences on yields and total food security in those countries.Strategies for Sustainable Maize Seed Production in West and Central AfricaMaize seed production in WCASeeds are the source of most foods, and therefore have the greatest socioeconomic benefit on human welfare. However, many developing countries, particularly in SSA, have difficulty in coping with seed supply, especially in emergency situations where recurrent drought has become a fact of life. Hence, understanding the supply system and the factors limiting the production, marketing, adoption, and use of improved seeds is of paramount importance for promoting maize production, improving farmers' income, alleviating poverty, and ensuring food security (Tahiru et al. 2009).The seed production systems can be characterized under three headings: formal, informal, or a combination of both systems. Irrespective of the level of seed industry development in any of the countries of the subregion, the use of improved certified seeds for planting is very low, ranging from 46.6% in Nigeria to 10.8% in Ghana (Tahiru et al. 2009). In other words, farmer-saved seeds, which are handled as grain, as well as grain purchased from the open market, constitute 50-90% of the maize seeds planted by farmers. Clearly, the bulk of maize seeds used for planting do not pass through regulated seed production channels. Most of the maize seeds, produced and planted in the region, are also from OPVs with hybrids constituting less than 10%. Limited production of the improved varieties is also basically undertaken by State-owned organizations or parastatals with very limited private participation. Although support from NGOs and other donors plays a major part in the seed production programs, the situation is in sharp contrast to that in eastern, northern, and southern Africa where the private sector plays a key role in seed delivery systems and hybrid maize constitutes the bulk of seeds planted annually.The maize seed industry of WCA is at different levels of development that may be grouped into three categories:• Relatively well-developed, embracing all the facets found in modern-day seed programs, such as those of Ghana and Nigeria; • Intermediate development stage, where one or two links in a seed program chain may be lacking, such as in Cameroon, Senegal, and Mali; and • Rudimentary structures, such as those found in Liberia and Bénin.The use of improved, certified maize seeds for planting is very low; about 33.2% for the whole of West Africa for the period 1997-2007 (Tahirou et al. 2009). This indicates that the bulk of the seeds used for planting are farmersaved or from sources that do not pass through the formal controlled and regulated production channels. Knowledge and understanding of the problems confronting the seed industry of WCA will offer tremendous opportunities for solving them and improving the use of good quality seeds to help achieve food security within the subregion, given that many high yielding improved varieties are already developed by international and national agricultural research systems. These varieties are available to be exploited by the emerging formal and informal, small and medium seed enterprises.Several constraints have been identified as the factors militating against the production, adoption, marketing, and use of improved certified seeds in WCA (Table 2.1). Prominent among the constraints are the following.• Low adoption of improved varieties.• Lack of appropriate seed policy, varietal release system, and support for emerging seed companies. • Lack of financial and human resources.• Use of inadequate and inappropriate varieties and hybrids by the farmers. • Unavailability of sufficient quantities of foundation seeds for certified seed production. • High prices of complementary inputs.• Unfavorable weather conditions. • Lengthy process for variety release.Constraints that limit the establishment of seed companies include the following.Lack of access to suitable germplasm.Poor quality germplasm.Long payback period to investment in the seed sector.Lack of qualified manpower.Unfavorable climatic conditions.High initial investment outlay.Problem of land/land tenure system.Problem of infrastructure (e.g., irrigation facilities).Lack of a sustainable market for seeds.Lack of access to seed extension services.Seed marketing problems.Lack of access to seed production technology and infrastructure.Lack of access to production credit and other credit facilities.Unfavorable climatic conditions currently prevailing.Lack of functional and sustainable national seed systems in most countries.Weak regional seed trade development and weak seed market information systems. • Lack of access to production credit.• High initial investment costs.• Lack of access to seed production and processing infrastructure.The lack of infrastructure, poor extension support systems, and ineffective promotional campaigns negatively affect the demand for maize seeds.• Seed price perceived as relatively high.• Controlled seed markets.• Lack of awareness of available varieties and hybrids.• The monopolistic distribution of seeds through a single intermediary.• Slow reimbursement for seed credit sales.• Difficulty in getting access to other maize seed buyers, low demand from farmers. • Poor promotion and marketing efforts, high prices, and the inability of farmers to purchase complementary inputs, especially fertilizer. • Most rural areas are inaccessible due largely to the poor roads which often prevent extension staff from getting to the communities. • Unfavorable seed policies such as taxation, import and export restrictions.• Production and marketing of low quality seeds.• Poor extension services and other seed promotional activities.Farmers are well aware of the benefits of high quality seeds. But the lack of wide and discernible differences in the quality of commercial seeds compared with that of farmer-to-farmer exchanged seeds has discouraged many farmers from purchasing commercial seeds, thereby relying on their own sources of seeds for planting.There is a gross insufficiency of dependable and time-saving retail outlets that ensure the prompt delivery of high quality seeds to farmers at any time and place. This may be partly attributed to the poor road networks in the individual countries.In the majority of the countries, seed dissemination and other promotional activities are carried out by public units, usually the extension departments of the various Ministries of Agriculture. Such units usually lack trained and experienced staff and are also too poorly funded to enable them to effectively promote to farmers the advantages in the use of improved maize seeds.• Unavailability of certified seeds in commercial quantities.• Lack of awareness on available varieties and hybrids.• Lack of access to credit facilities by farmers, and the relatively high price of seeds, • Sometimes distribution of seeds is monopolistic, through a single intermediary. • Slow reimbursement of seed credit sales.• Difficulty in getting access to other maize seed buyers.• Low demand for certified seeds by farmers because of lack of awareness.• Poor promotion and marketing efforts. • High prices and the inability of farmers to purchase complementary inputs, especially fertilizer. • Inaccessibility of most rural areas due largely to the poor roads, which often prevent extension staff from getting to the communities.• Infrequent meetings of most varietal release committees to approve the release of new varieties. • Lack of operational funds for variety release committees.• Lack of access to appropriate germplasm.• Lack of access to production credit.• Unfavorable climatic conditions limiting the production of maize seeds at all times. • Lack of organized institutions in the seed value chain.An examination of the typical institutional pattern for seed production and deployment system in West Africa revealed a mixture of public and private sector activities, with various programs charged with the responsibility for ensuring effective production and distribution.Seed producers/dealers/companies, more often than not, suffer the problem of unsold stocks because of the poor market infrastructure. Most rural areas are difficult to reach and communities may lack the appropriate extension services. One of the consequences of the poor rural road systems is the high cost of input delivery as the few dealers who find their way into such areas often exploit the farmers by charging exorbitant prices.The seed industry requires substantial capital investment, especially in infrastructure and equipment. Seed production is a business with large economies of scale. Therefore, it is clear that seed providers need financial support to expand production and enjoy these economies of scale. The private seed companies that import the machines, equipment, and chemicals are often victims of macroeconomic instability (such as fluctuating exchange rates and a high level of inflation). This results in high interest rates and depreciation in the value of money, thereby generally discouraging investment. There is the need for a general policy environment that creates incentives for investment in the seed sector.There are country variations in the policy factors limiting expanded sales by seed companies, particularly in drought-affected areas. The private seed sectors in Nigeria and Ghana are relatively better developed than those in Bénin and Mali. Consequently, Bénin and Mali require more policy interventions to get the private seed sector started. Major policy factors in Nigeria include unstable seed policies, a lack of research support from Government, and a lack of an agricultural input subsidy (Tahirou et al. 2009).Many countries do not have a seed policy, seed laws or regulations. In the absence of these essentials in the seed business, institutional arrangements are non-existent and the situation becomes the survival of the fittest.• Limited support to research Many countries do not have a strong research base to develop new varieties for the seed sector value chain to use to support the industry. Where available, such research institutes are publicly owned and underfunded. They may also lack the much-needed technical support staff to run the development and variety release program of the countries because of low motivation and therefore have a higher attrition rate of experienced staff. This situation often leads to long delays between variety development, release, and registration. The consequence is that inadequate attention is devoted to variety maintenance as well as to the availability of adequate breeder and foundation seeds from NARS for use by the certified seed industry.• Lack of trained manpower to support the seed industries One of the major constraints limiting the growth and expansion of the seed industry is a lack of well-trained and motivated human resources. There are very few who hold postgraduate degrees in seed science and technology in private and public institutions (including universities and research institutes). Training of middle-level seed industry personnel is also limited.Seed research, which includes variety development, release, and registration as well as breeder seed production, is carried out by public institutions. Most often, the institutions lack the much-needed funding to perform their mandates as well as to hire and maintain high quality staff. This invariably affects the production, distribution, and use of improved seeds.• Lack of well-defined institutional support and policies for private seed industry Public agencies interfere and exert a strong influence in the seed industry development plan, thereby limiting private participation. This may be due to the fact that most countries do not have seed policies and seed laws that regulate the industry.There is fragmentation and an overlap of roles among the directly involved public agencies where the linkages necessary to promote a virile and growing seed industry are very weak. Where the private sector is involved in seed production, distribution, and marketing, their structures may not be well defined and may not even be in place, thus limiting their efforts.Seed producers in both the private and public sectors have limited capacity to produce, distribute, and market seeds. Most of the institutions lack the required manpower and capital to expand their activities. This situation limits the much-desired and envisaged growth of the seed industry despite the large potential market. Consequently, a majority of the seeds are farmsaved or exchanged among farmers.A number of socioeconomic constraints also limit maize productivity.Non-availability of complementary inputs, such as fertilizers and agro-chemicals, and this limits the rate of adoption of improved maize technologies, ii.Inefficient markets for agricultural inputs and outputs leading to poor pricing and disincentives to farmers, iii. Lack of credit facilities for the purchase of needed production inputs, iv. Absence of market information systems, leading to inefficient marketing, v. Lack of farmers' organizations to facilitate access to markets. vi. Inconsistent official policies for production and trade that discourage local production, vii. Lack of appropriate and adequate processing and storage facilities, resulting in higher losses in agricultural products.Maize seed production in WCA is mainly in the hands of public sector institutions or parastatals, with limited private sector participation. The private sector faces a number of insurmountable constraints whenever it is involved in seed production. Barriers to new entrants into the seed business, especially the emerging small-scale seed producers, include the following.• Competition from existing larger companies and public-based seed production entitiesNew entrants into the seed market face strong competition from the few larger existing companies and the publicly led seed production agencies in terms of infrastructural capacities, total production output, distribution channels, and penetration into the larger outlying market, usually as a result of their low investment capital, the low expertise of their personnel, and the lack of knowledge of the seed market terrain. Whenever these challenges become burdensome, the emerging companies succumb to the pressures in the market and just fold up.• Lack of access to production credit and other credit facilities Because of the Governments' unfavorable banking policies in many countries, new entrants into the seed business do not get access to advantageous production credit and credit for other activities, such as transport and the hiring of personnel of the highest expertise in seed production and business.Where some credit is available, it is usually not timely; the interest rate may be too high and the amount obtained may be insufficient to achieve the desired goal of the new business.• Lack of access to production technology and infrastructure Emerging and small-scale seed companies tend to have limited access to production technology. They usually have to compete alongside bigger and often public-owned companies that have the entire governmental machinery behind them. Emerging companies also lack the capacity to go commercial and produce larger outputs because they do not have access to credit for acquiring the infrastructure needed to expand production, processing, and storage facilities.Seed delivery systems and recommendations for WCASeeds are the most precious resource of farmers and concern about the viability of agricultural systems usually centers on the diversity and stability of the seed supply system (Tripp 2001). Van Amstel et al. (1996) defined a seed system as the totality of the physical, organizational, and institutional components that determine seed supply and use in quantitative and qualitative terms. A seed system denotes the activities that start from selection and breeding to marketing and the use of seeds by farmers for growing crops and it has close linkages with other systems, particularly research and extension (Venkatesan 1994). An efficient seed system involves a complex combination of public sector support and private sector commercial activities. The public sector plays a bigger role in plant breeding and in some aspects of regulations while the private sector makes contributions in the area of seed multiplication, processing, and distribution (Minot 2008). Furthermore, the characteristics of an appropriate seed system for a country are determined by that coutry's economic policies and the level of development of infrastructure (Venkatesan 1994). It is important to note that with the possible exception of a few countries (such as Nigeria and Ghana), the seed system in West Africa is not well developed and is largely dominated by the public sector, i.e., Government agencies that play dominant roles (Joshua 1997).Seeds used worldwide for crop production can originate from one of three delivery methods or systems: formal, informal, or a combination of both systems.The formal seed delivery system consists of chains of interlinked activities, starting from genetic resource management, variety breeding research and crop improvement, variety testing and release through seed multiplication, conditioning, and storage, quality control, marketing and distribution, to the final use of the seeds by farmers. Each of the components complements the others and each link in the chain must be working at its maximum efficiency to achieve an effective supply of high quality seeds to farmers.The formal seed system usually involves public or private institutions or a combination of the two, depending on the level of agricultural development in the country. Seed production under this system is monitored by an independent external certifying authority to ensure that true-to-type, high quality, and genetically pure seeds are offered to farmers for planting.In the formal system, the multiplication process goes through a well-coordinated and organized chain of seed classes. This begins with the production of breeder 3 seeds, then of foundation seeds, and registered seeds, and finally certified seeds before the seeds reach the farmer for planting. Thus, the formal seed system tends to produce uniform varieties through scientific breeding within the seed value chain. The formal seed system is highly regulated. Stringent laws regulate the development, release, and registration of new varieties; control the quality seeds; and, increasingly, protect new varieties through plant breeder's rights (PBR). Alongside this chain is a quality control and seed certification unit that monitors the production chain, ensures the genetic purity and the general quality of the seeds produced for farmers to plant, and makes certain that these are of the highest quality and true-to-type.Whenever seeds are purchased from the formal sector, several benefits are inherently built in ensuring that the product has passed through rigorous monitoring and certification checks to ensure that the quality is of the highest standard. Purchasing seeds from the formal sector also ensures the following.Seeds have an identity and name. They have the known phenotypic and chemical characteristics described by the originator as well as the knowledge of their maturity period, i.e., the duration from planting to the time of harvest.The genetic purity of seeds is also ensured since they bear a certificate or tag issued by a certification agency which monitored the production standards and other quality control checks that the seeds had to pass through. It is also certain that seeds from the formal sector would have travelled along the entire seed value chain, beginning with varietal development, release, and registration, and also through breeder, foundation, and certified seed production.At each of these stages, strict supervision and checks would have been offered by the seed certification unit overseeing production.Seeds from the formal sector must go through quality control checks including the monitoring of purity, percentage germination, and quantity of inert matter present. The germination percentage at the time of sale is usually indicated on the seed bag.• The relatively high retail cost of the seeds Seeds purchased from the formal sector for planting are relatively more expensive compared with those from the alternatives available. The cost is even higher when such seeds tend to be hybrids. The unusually high costs of such seeds are due to the many processes and the length of the value chain the seeds must pass through before reaching a farmer for planting.• Formal sector seeds are not easily available Seeds from the formal sector constitute about 10% of all maize seeds planted in WCA. Even at this low figure, their accessibility to farmers is very limited as they are mostly sold in and around the areas of production or in big commercial towns and centers.The principal seed source for most farmers is the seeds saved on-farm from the previous harvest (about 60-70%); most of the remainder comes from off-farm and other local sources (Franzen et al. 1996). Seeds of these types constitute the bulk of those obtained from the non-formal seed sector.The informal system tend to generate and maintain less uniform materials adapted to local requirements (landraces) but also may provide a conduit for the exchange of materials derived from improved varieties. It is characterized by all manner of \"seeds\" that the farmer can lay hands on at planting time and these can be from on-farm or off-farm sources.An important component of the informal seed sector is the on-farm seedsaving which is an ancient practice among traditional small-scale farmers. Farmers preserve seeds of the varieties best adapted for their environments.Limitations from this practice are that farmers obtain low yields and seed quality is not guaranteed, although a wide-ranging study of farmers' seed quality in Ghana showed that, for maize, cowpea, and soybean, the average germination potential remained above 70% (Wright et al. 1995). Also, after a short period of cultivation, seeds may become mixed with those of other varieties and lose their desirable characters with the result that they can no longer be maintained uniformly and reliably.The major advantage of farmer-saved seed systems is the continuous availability of seeds compared with those from the formal sector. Availability is an advantage, particularly for farmers cultivating land in marginal areas who need to plant on time since delayed planting has adverse effects on yield. Such farmers also cannot afford to tie up cash to purchase and store seeds before the planting season. Farmers or communities supplying seeds charge lower prices since they do not incur additional costs in transport, processing, packaging, certification, and market surveys as in the formal distribution system. Thus, farmer-saved seeds are cheaper.This availability is also an advantage to farmers who wish to plant several local varieties or cultivars. It allows them to match the seeds of each crop to the varied physical environments and planting systems (valley bottom and hillside, different soil types, intercropping, staggered planting, and pure stand), and also the many end-uses of each crop (food grain, leaves, roots, beer-brewing, straw and stover for animal fodder, roofing and fencing, storage, and selling for cash).Another component of the informal seed sector is the trade and exchange of seeds in farming communities. The limitation here is that poorer farmers might be unable to participate in seed exchanges. Seeds can be acquired or traded as payment for other goods and services; they can be gifts from friends, neighbors, and family members. Seeds can be lent and borrowed.Local markets supply various seed types and varieties to farmers. Food-stuff traders, mostly women, bring selected crop varieties with better physical appearance for sale as seeds. Traders also supply farmers with new seeds and buy their produce at harvest. Through this practice, farmers are able to obtain and maintain their own stock of seeds (Bortei-Doku Aryeetey 1994).Since the formal sector (mainly public sector-based in most WCA countries) has failed to supply a significant proportion of the seeds required by farmers for sowing their fields, various NGOs, projects, donor agencies, and many such related entities have \"developed\" types of seed production and supply systems at the community level to help to make high quality and genetically true-to-type seeds commercially available. Such production may be done outside certification or with certification, but seeds are produced, processed, stored, and sold by the communities themselves at the time of planting.Some communities also accept the help of donors and NGOs and enter into formal seed production. Others combine the formal and informal seed production methods to achieve the same objective of supplying quality seeds at low cost to farmers within their own communities.All indications are that it would take some time and more availability of resources and trained personnel at all stages of the seed production chain, better infrastructure, etc., to enable the formal seed system to provide all the needs of WCA. The current farmer-saved seeds and farmer-owned seed production methods will continue to dominate the seed delivery systems.This informal seed production system is being supplemented by the formal system in countries such as Ghana and Nigeria that have relatively advanced seed industries. In the short term therefore, measures should be put in place to encourage and promote seed production systems where at least the initial planting materials in the chain should be from research outlets. Then appropriate farmers' production methodologies could be put in place to make more seeds available for all users in all communities at relatively low prices.The role of IITA in seed systems development in WCA IITA, realizing the shortfall in the provision of the farmers' maize seed requirements by the formal seed sector, has introduced the concept of \"Community Seed Production\" as a means to inundate the production areas with improved seeds within the shortest possible time at relatively low costs (Badu-Apraku et al. 1996;Badu-Apraku 2007). The novelty in the concept is that the scheme involves farmers trained in seed production by the project as well as seed certification agents, extension specialists, and seed production specialists. The scheme essentially uses the communities to produce seeds of improved varieties for themselves. The communities concerned produce, distribute, and market the seeds, usually beginning with a known improved variety. Each IITA community seed production model is a combination of all the three seed systems discussed here earlier and it is recommended that individual countries each take a critical inventory of the available facilities and manpower and adopt what would meet their needs. Currently IITA has proposed seven community-based seed production models which have been found to work very well in WECAMAN member countries, based on the peculiar circumstances of each pilot country (Badu-Apraku et al. 2007). In all of them, IITA scientists worked with the NARS scientists in promoting the community-based seed production schemes. The models are described briefly in the following section, based on outputs from past and on-going IITA projects within WCA. More detailed descriptions, along with some empirical results, are presented in Section 7.In this model, WECAMAN works in collaboration with NARS in the production of breeder and foundation seeds. The researchers provide the foundation seeds and other inputs to selected farmers through the extension services. Farmers produce and sell the certified seeds after which they reimburse the input costs to the extension services. This model is in use in Burkina Faso, Mali, Bénin, and Cameroon.In this model, initial surveys are conducted by the national extension services to identify the resource capabilities of farmers to be contracted as seed growers. Farmers are provided with foundation seeds to produce certified seeds. These are sold directly to the extension service, which then deducts input costs. This method is being used in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Bénin.In some cases in Burkina Faso, farmers received the foundation seeds once from the researchers and produced certified seeds. The farmers were responsible for the purchase and application of inputs in the production of certified seeds and the national scientists provided technical assistance.In this model, NGOs organize and supply farmers with improved seeds and other inputs for the production of certified seeds. After seed sales, 50% of the initial funds are deducted and provided to the extension services for the encouragement of seed production by other farmers. This model was used in Burkina Faso.This model, typically used in Ghana, represents a formal seed production system in which the national maize program produces breeder seeds. Foundation seed production is the responsibility of a government parastatal organization, which in Ghana is the Grains and Legumes Development Board (GLDB). Certified seed production is in private hands. The GLDB also provides custom services to the seed growers (drying, processing, and storage of seeds). The foundation seeds produced by GLDB are sold to private commercial and registered seed growers who produce the certified seeds. There are outlets all over the country where farmers can buy the improved maize seeds. The certified seeds are well packaged and labeled and have the seal of the seed inspection unit. Effective quality control is ensured through an autonomous seed certification unit under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture with laboratories across the country for seed testing and seed health testing. Seeds that satisfy quality tests then receive tags and can be sold anywhere within the country and beyond.In this model, scientists of the national maize program produce breeder and foundation seeds. The scientists also provide training and foundation seeds to community-based seed producers for certified seed production. Efforts are made by national scientists to link community-based seed producers to established seed companies to improve market opportunities. The national scientists work closely with companies and inspectors to assist community producers to produce good quality seeds. The seed companies sign contracts with community-based seed producers so as to ensure market access for seeds. National scientists link community seed producers to credit and input sources as well as markets. This model has been successfully used in Nigeria and has resulted in the production of large quantities of seeds by the community-based seed production schemes. Participants in the scheme in Nigeria include IAR, NAERLS, and UNIMAID in collaboration with Premier Seed, the Seed Project, and Maslaha Seed Companies.Another classical model that has been successfully tested and is worthy of emulation is that of Nigeria where, to strengthen farmers' efforts in the production and use of improved maize varieties, an approach is used that is slightly different from the traditional on-farm trials for the strategic deployment of identified varieties. The approach here encourages the use of a maximum of two varieties, probably with different maturities, over a wide area, thus combining maize cultivation with seed production. This approach was successfully used in southwestern Nigeria to saturate the Ogbomosho community in three years with maize seeds resistant to downy mildew (Ajala et al. 2003). The good side of this model is that it is sufficiently flexible to accommodate the participation of commercial seed companies, NGOs, and any other form of seed outlet in the pilot community.Model 6 is presently being promoted by the DTMA project. The WECAMAN member countries involved in the community-based seed production schemes provided both technical advice and (in some cases) credit in the form of seeds and other inputs as well as training to selected seed producers in the community. At harvest, the credit was repaid, either in seeds or in cash. This allowed the establishment of revolving loan funds designed to encourage sustainability and to allow more farmers to be reached each year. Farmers were encouraged to form associations or cooperatives to facilitate community seed production, thus strengthening the informal seed production system and leading to the development of micro-enterprises. The production of seeds, largely undertaken through community-based seed producers, required the training of large number of farmers in seed production. Nearly 2000 received training in both seed production and postharvest seed handling over the period 1994-2006(Badu-Apraku et al. 2012). From the training, these farmers acquired the capability to produce good quality seeds. Their activities led to the increased availability of seeds of improved early and extra-early maturing maize varieties. In addition, there was an increased awareness among farmers on the importance of planting high quality seeds of improved varieties and of purchasing new seeds of OPVs after every 2-3 seasons.Challenges to the community-based seed production schemes Badu-Apraku et al. (2012) have discussed in detail the challenges to community-based seed production in WCA. These include the need to develop a more efficient structure for seed marketing with better promotion to reduce the problem of the lack of market information. Partner organizations that could assist in the collection and relay of market information to potential end-users need to be identified. It would be beneficial to package and label seeds in small bags of 1 and 2 kg and have points of sale at strategic points in communities. For countries that do not yet have seed laws, the promulgation of such laws would help to ensure that unscrupulous people do not sell grains as seeds and farmers have access to good quality seeds.Where seed laws exist and are not functional, there is a need to strengthen the system through the establishment of active seed inspection units. More and better organized associations/cooperatives need to be established with agro-enterprise businesses supported through training and linkages to appropriate markets. These should take into consideration the lessons learnt from recent initiatives. Improved access for seed producers to credit, inputs, and market outlets for their products is also necessary. Successful community-based seed production schemes should be assisted to transform themselves to micro-enterprises for sustainability. This could be further facilitated by the provision of small items of equipment to seed producers.Given that seed producers who may be skilled in production might lack skills in small business management, book-keeping, accounting, and marketing, the DTMA project is currently organizing seed business management courses for seed companies in member countries. Such training needs to be intensified and participants should include community-based seed producers. The greatest impact of a community-based seed production scheme would be in areas not currently served by seed companies and those are where this system should be promoted. Educational awareness campaigns, variety demonstrations, and increased promotional activities by community seed producers are required to stimulate the demand for improved seeds. Apart from adequate quantities of breeder seeds of improved varieties being made available to the informal seed production system, linkages with established seed companies are required. A compilation of released varieties, their characteristics, adaptation, and the sources of their seeds is required as some countries still lack this information. Such lists should be regularly updated as new varieties are released. A database and GIS on community-based seed production schemes would also be useful. An assessment is needed of the impact of WECAMAN's intervention on the production and availability of seeds of improved maize varieties. It would be beneficial for IITA, CIMMYT, and the NARS in the countries participating in DTMA to prepare action plans for scaling-up seed production which should include indicators for seed production and a list of partners.Maize is a versatile crop and is adapted to a wide range of environments.The plant grows at altitudes ranging from lowland to more than 3000 m above sea level, under heavy rainfall or in semi-arid areas, in temperate,and tropical climates (Dowswell et al. 1996). The diverse zones in which maize is grown reflects its adaptation to a wide range of environments and its suitability for various cropping systems. Maize is grown in all countries of Africa, from the coast through the savannas to the semi-arid regions of West Africa, and from the sea-level to the mid-and high-altitudes of East and Central Africa.Basic information on the maize plant include:• The botanical name is Zea mays (L).• The family name is Poaceae (Gramineae)• The chromosome number is 2n = 20Vernacular names include maize, corn, Indian corn (En). Maïs (Fr). Masara (Hausa), Aburoo (Akan).The life cycle of the maize plant begins with the sown seeds which germinate and go through a vegetative stage, followed by the flowering stage and finally grain/seed formation which ends ultimately in the mature and dry seeds. Knowledge and understanding of the growth and developmental stages of the maize plant are important as they facilitate the understanding and handling of the agronomic practices critical for the management of the crop to maximize yield.The maize plant has the basic structure of the grass family. The seed germinates in a manner similar to that of plants in the grass family. Germination is hypogeal. The radicle, followed by seminal roots are the first organs to emerge from the seed after which the coleoptiles, covering the leaves, rupture the seed coat and are pushed above the surface of the soil by the elongating mesocotyl layers. This later becomes the vegetative aerial part.A normal plant develops between 20 and 23 leaves which are initiated in a growing point that remains below ground until the primordial tassel is formed. These events occur during the first 4 weeks of plant development The permanent root system forms in successive whorls from internodes between the first node that develops above the mesocotyl.Researchers' guide for identifying different stages of maize growth The description of the vegetative stages of the maize plant is based primarily on the appearance of leaves; that of the reproductive stages is based on the appearance of the female flower and developmental changes in the kernels.Maize is different from other cereal crops because it does not possess the typical flower of the grass family. Instead, it produces unisexual flowers on the same plant and is, thus, monoecious. The male flowers are represented by the tassel and the female flowers by the ear (Figure 4.1). Pollen comes from the tassel and the silks are the style of the female. f Development of the reproductive structures begins with tassel initiation. Tassel development continues as the vegetative internodes start their rapid elongation and is completed by the time it emerges from the leaf whorl.After tassel emergence, pollen shed begins and is completed after 7 to 10 days. Pollen dispersal occurs by wind action and gravity dissemination. After fertilization, seed development begins. The endosperm first increases in size and is filled with sugars so that the developing seeds resemble watery blisters. Later the embryo matures, using the established endosperm as energy source.Maize seeds differ in color ranging from white to yellow, orange, red, purple, and black. Different colors are attributed to genetic differences in  Seven kernel types (or cultivar groups) can be found, according to the structure and shape of the grain. These are dent, flint, pod, popcorn, flour, sweet, and waxy. The kernels are arranged in even numbers of rows on the cob which is covered with several layers of husk that has a protective function.Grain filling takes place in three stages: blister (R2), milk (R3), and dough (R4).The blister stage follows fertilization, wilting, and browning of the silks. It is characterized by a rapid accumulation of carbohydrates in the kernels which contain a clear fluid during this period. The embryo is visible at the blister stage. In the milk stage, which is about three weeks after silking, the clear fluid in the kernel turns milky. Maize ears can be harvested at this stage for fresh consumption because of their high sugar content. Thereafter, the quality for fresh consumption declines as the content of sugar and water declines and the content of starch and dry matter increases. A line known as the milk line is visible on the side of the kernel opposite the germ at this stage. The milk line, which moves down as the grain matures, separates the mature starch area from the milky region near the base of the kernel.The dough stage is the last stage of the grain filling period and has two distinct phases: soft-dough and hard-dough. At the soft-dough stage, the kernels are composed of a white paste with the embryo occupying half the width of the kernel. The white paste of the soft-dough stage starts to solidify at the hard-dough stage, beginning from the top part of the kernel. At this stage, a dent in the top of the kernel becomes apparent in the dent type.Physiological maturity is characterized by a cessation in the transportation of assimilates from the stem to the kernel and is evidenced by the development of the black layer (abscission layer) at the base of the kernel and a disappearance of the milk line. At this stage, the kernels have attained maximum dry weight with a moisture content of about 35%. The kernels at the tip of the ear mature first. An ear is physiologically mature when 75% of the kernels in the central part show the black layer.The composition as percentages of whole and fractionated corn kernels is presented in Table 4.1. The endosperm in maize is the starchy storage part of the kernel constituting between 82 and 84% of the weight of the dry kernel. It contains about 88% starch and about 8-10% protein. Due to its high starch content, it provides the energy reserve for developing seedlings.The embryo is between 10-12% of the kernel on a dry weight basis and is enclosed in a shield-shaped organ known as the scutellum. The embryo axis extends from the coleoptile to the coleorhizae. The primordial shoot consists of 5-6 embryogenic leaves, the stem, and the growing point (apical meristem). The embryonic leaves and the stem constitute the plumule. The coleoptile is a sheath protecting the first leaf and growing point. The radicle which is at the root end of the embryo axis has several lateral root initials. As with the plumule, it is protected by a sheath which, is known as the coleorhizae.Maize can be classified into two distinct types based on latitude and the environment in which it is grown (tropical, 0-30 0 N and S; subtropical, 30-34 0 N and S; and temperate, extending beyond 34 0 N and S). Three subclasses of tropical maize based on the environment may be further identified: lowland, mid-altitude, and highland maize. Breeders also classify maize varieties on the basis of their genetic constitution. OPVs or composites -the more traditional germplasm (Stoskopf et al. 1993).Synthetics -OPVs developed by crossing relatively few inbred lines (6-10) in all possible combinations and the progeny maintained by random mating.Hybrids -cultivars in which the F1 progeny, produced by crossing inbred parents, is the commercial crop.There are several types of hybrid, depending on the parents involved in the production. Examples are single-cross hybrids that involve only two inbred lines, three-way-cross hybrids, produced by crossing a single-cross hybrid with another inbred line (that is, three inbred lines are involved), doublecross hybrids from crossing two single-cross hybrids (that is, four inbred lines) and top-crosses, produced by crossing an inbred line with an OPV.Botanically, maize is highly vulnerable to genetic contamination during the different stages of the seed multiplication chain because of the nature of its reproductive system. Theoretically, genetic contamination during seed multiplication can be minimized either by increasing the effective population size under cultivation or by keeping strictly to the recommended isolation distances that help to produce genetically true-to-type seed by roguing volunteers and off-type plants or through detasseling the female parents in the production of hybrid maize seeds.For farmers to benefit from maize varieties and hybrids developed, released, and registered by the various NARS in WCA, the products must go through stringent testing and evaluation processes to ensure that they conform to the described characteristics as given by the NARS or the breeder involved.For a new maize variety to be released and registered for distribution in WCA, it must be Distinct, Uniform, and Stable (DUS) and have Value for Cultivation and Use (VCU). In most countries of WCA, the National Seed Authorities (NSAs) determine if new maize varieties are DUS and meet the criteria for VCU. Typically, the NSAs are mostly either public-based research institutions, or special committees set up for that purpose and consist of people with expertise in seed production from the key stakeholders in the country, or the assessment can be done by the private company that initiated the maize variety or hybrid development.For a variety to be developed, registered, and released in any country in WCA, it must go through a series of stages of evaluations and testing. Different countries have different protocols required for the release and registration of a new variety for production, promotion, and sale in their respective countries. However, the basic characteristics of each of the individual protocols center on the following:The candidate variety for release and registration must have gone through several years of development and testing on-station and on-farm across locations in the country where the new variety is expected to be cultivated or it should have been tested in a specific area or agroecology if the variety has been developed for a specific ecological zone or growing area. Usually the testing period can be from 3 to 7 years or seasons, depending on the annual number of planting seasons in the country. The candidate maize variety must meet the DUS and VCU standards set for the country concerned which are determined by the National Variety Release and Registration Committee (NVRRC) in the target country or an accredited agent on behalf of the NVRRC.When available, the NVRC is the final body which accepts or rejects a variety proposed for release and cultivation in a country within WCA. Whenever a breeder, an institution, or a private seed company has developed a variety, and is satisfied that the variety meets the DUS and VCU standards for the country and must be released for cultivation, permission for release is sought from the NVRRC which ensures that the set of standard procedures,Strategies for Sustainable Maize Seed Production in West and Central Africa laid down for the verification of information and data on the new variety, has been met.Verification of DUS and VCU data on the proposed new variety can be done in one of two ways.Samples of the new variety are given by the originator of the variety to the appropriate NVRRC which will in turn deliver it to an independent verifier, here a research institution, university, or private organization, to test the variety for DUS and VCU, and verify if the data generated compare favorably with the variety information and data submitted by the originator of the variety.During the verification period, scheduled field visits and inspections at critical stages of crop growth and development are undertaken by the NVRRC to areas growing the variety for them to observe at first hand the performance of the candidate variety. This method is the new verification system available in Ghana for the release of new crop varieties under the new Seed Law that became functional in October 2010.Where an independent assessor cannot be identified for the verification of DUS and VCU for the NVRRC, the originator may be requested to grow the candidate variety and arrangements are made with the NVRC to visit plots under cultivation during certain critical growing stages for the assessment of the new variety. The candidate variety is normally planted alongside some existing maize varieties in the national list for comparison before being accepted for release or rejected. This was the methodology prevailing for variety release in Ghana before the commencement of the new Seed Law.When the candidate variety passes the DUS and VCU tests, the NVRRC then declares the variety acceptable and a name for the variety is given by the originator or one is proposed and adopted for marketing the variety in the country during the variety release ceremony. Following the release ceremony, the new variety is put on the catalog of maize varieties in the country, i.e., the national list of varieties eligible for commercialization. The released variety is usually accompanied by data on phenotypic characteristics as well as the physico-chemical and other relevant information required by the NVRRC. This serves as a guide for seed growers for identifying off-types during commercial seed production of the new variety along the value seed chain. Finally breeder seeds of the new variety are produced and given to other value chain components in the national seed program for the purposes of seed production.Some countries do not have functional varietal release systems. For example, even though Mali had a variety release committee, it was not functional at the time of the seed sector survey in WCA in 2007. On the other hand, Bénin did not have a varietal release committee and there was no seed law promulgated. In the countries where variety release committees do exist, they often cannot meet due to a lack of funds. This is particularly true for Nigeria where the meetings of the varietal release committees were irregular and by 2007 there were several varieties in the pipeline awaiting release.In some countries, the efficiency of the testing system is very poor, thus delaying the release of varieties. Some countries also have rigid regulations which overlap in release protocols .The implications of the delays in varietal release are that farmers' access to new varieties is delayed and choices are reduced. There is therefore a need to speed up variety release in WCA to ensure that DUS varieties enter the seed market, that the variety has a minimum VCU, and to stimulate the use of better varieties. These will lead to enhanced development of strong maize breeding programs and ultimately protect the breeder and the farmer.To improve the varietal release and registration systems there is a need for the following:• Promotion of a regional variety release system.• Promotion of the use of data from other countries and breeders' own data. • Simplification of variety testing.• More frequent meetings of the NVRC.• Regional harmonization of seed laws.• Variety release guidelines.• Promotion of regional standards for Plant Breeders' Rights (PBRs).• Production of breeders' seeds of released varieties and hybrids in adequate quantities.The following activities should be carried out to support variety release and registration:i. Promotion of the use of the West African Catalog of Plant Species and Varieties (COAFEV), published in 2009. The catalog was prepared in conformity with the decision of 17 countries, members of the WCA Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), ECOWAS, and the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILLS). It contains the names of varieties whose seeds can be produced and commercialized within the territories of the 17 member countries. It is an aggregate of the varieties registered in the national catalogs of the member states. For a variety to be registered in the catalog, it must have been previously registered in a national catalog.ii. Strengthening seed systems for multiplication and distribution of varieties and hybrids. IITA and NARES collaborate with the private sector to strengthen the seed production and distribution of stress tolerant maize cultivars. Furthermore, IITA works with NARES to promote communitybased seed production of the existing best drought tolerant (DT) varieties. Links are established with seed producers and farmers' associations in areas where the supply of seeds of improved maize varieties is limited. NARES and the private seed companies receive DT varieties and hybrids from IITA for production and marketing.iii. Acceleration of the mechanisms for releasing varieties and hybrids.Efforts are being made by IITA scientists to assist the NARS in Benin Republic to establish a formal variety release mechanism and to establish a private seed company. Support is also being provided to the communitybased seed production schemes (CBS) in Ghana, Bénin, and Mali. Efforts are being made to link community-based seed production schemes in Nigeria to the existing seed companies, such as Premier Seeds Co., Seed Project, and Maslaha to ensure enhanced availability of markets, credit, and ultimately the sustainability of the CBS.IITA and CIMMYT have over the years consistently supported the development, testing, and release of new maize varieties as well as their dissemination throughout SSA. Through its numerous projects, such as those of WECAMAN and DTMA, IITA has assisted the NARS to develop, release, register, and disseminate many varieties and hybrids with appropriate characteristics and yields required for the attainment of food security in WCA (Tables 5.1 and 5.2). Setimela et al. (2009), through the funding support of the DTMA project, conducted surveys of variety testing and release approaches in selected countries in SSA. The objective was to define the magnitude of variety releases and the time span between variety development and release, to summarize the variety release requirements and procedures in selected countries, to identify constraints hampering the release of elite maize germplasm to smallholder farmers, to develop strategies to hasten the release of new elite maize germplasm, and to clarify factors influencing the time span between identification and release. Results of the survey showed that varietal release rates were the highest in southern Africa, including the Republic of South Africa (Tables 5.3 and 5.4) as well as the highest adoption rate of improved maize varieties of 52% compared with 4% for West Africa. The public sector in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Bénin, Nigeria, and Tanzania dominated the maize varietal release rates from 2002 to 2006 (Fig. 5.1) although the number of varieties released was very low. In contrast, the private seed sector dominated the maize varietal release rates in Kenya, South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. With the emergence of a flourishing private seed industry, the share of hybrids in varietal releases and seed sales dominated the market compared with OPVs. The private sector released a larger number of varieties than the public maize breeding programs in SSA (Table 5.5). The differences in the varietal release rates reflect the investment made by public and private breeding programs. The difficulties with existing release system in the various countries have resulted in delayed access by farmers to new varieties and to a limited choice of new varieties. The existing systems have allowed few varieties to be released. This is costly and duplicative, as the same variety must be tested in all countries where it is being targeted for marketing.IITA has through its special projects studied and documented the current status of available maize varieties and their release and dissemination within selected NARS in WCA and has documented the information and data for use by the various NARS and others. The results from some of the investigations have confirmed the information given earlier in this document, that for new maize varieties to be marketed in WCA, the variety must have been released and registered. The registration process requires that tests for DUS as well as VCU be conducted before the new variety is accepted for registration. The registration establishes legal ownership of the new maize variety.Results of the survey conducted by Setimela et al. (2009) further showed that the DUS and the VCU tests in WCA took between 1 and 3 years before variety registration. In addition, there were seed laws and regulations in individual countries to regulate variety testing and release as well as seed production.The work of IITA, through its two special projects (WECAMAN and DTMA) on variety development, release, and dissemination, has generated a lot of data and information and has given insight into the status of variety release systems. Information available from the NARSs and through the research findings of IITA's WECAMAN and DTMA projects cataloged the following as some of the constraints facing variety release mechanisms in WCA and SSA. To ensure the continuous delivery of good quality improved seeds to farmers within the subregion, the identified constraints must be addressed.• Lack of an effective variety release system. This constraint is one of the major impediments in the transfer of available elite maize varieties to smallholder farmers in the DTMA countries in SSA.The turnover of new varieties in most countries is very low for several reasons. Most of the countries lack functional NVRCs and, when available, most are publicly funded and therefore face financial constraints to their effective work. Most often, the committees also lack good coordination and meet very infrequently to decide on varieties that must be released and registered.• Non-existence of seed policy, laws and regulations. Many countries lack functional seed policies and seed laws as well as seed regulations guarding the seed laws. Where available, the seed laws and regulations of affected countries are often very rigid, precluding the use of data from other countries with similar agroecologies, thus creating a delay because re-testing has to be done each time a new variety is released in a different country.have national variety lists and catalogs identifying the phenotypic characteristics of released varieties. This makes it very difficult for emerging seed producers and companies to advertise and commercialize varieties in the country.• Non-existence of Plant Breeder's Rights in Breeding Programs of NARS. Only a few countries in WCA have PBRs and the lack of PBRs discourages many private seed companies from introducing their best products, since their products are not protected. It also discourages public breeding stations from releasing varieties as they become available \"illegally\" in other subregional countries without any benefit to the originators of the varieties.• Dominance of OPVs over hybrids in maize programs. Most breeding programs concentrate on the breeding and release of OPVs. This is a disadvantage to the seed industry because farmers continually keep and re-use their own seeds in contrast to the regular practice of purchasing seeds each year.Seeds of improved varieties need to be multiplied, distributed, and cultivated by farmers for the benefits of improved varieties to be realized.A major goal of seed production enterprises is to obtain high seed yields of genetically pure and uniform stocks. In addition, the conditions of physical purity and uniformity have to be fulfilled. In general, seeds must be genetically pure, clean, and without any extraneous matter or pathogenic organisms. Other goals include the production of easily storable seeds with high longevity in storage, as well as consumer acceptability and high field emergence.Maize is basically a warm-season crop but breeders have, over time and through genetic manipulations, developed varieties and lines that can grow under almost any climatic conditions. However, it grows best between temperatures of 21-32 0 C (70-90 0 F) with 15-20 cm of rain over 3-4 consecutive months. These conditions are prevalent in almost all ecologies of WCA.Throughout the tropics and subtropics, small-scale farmers grow maize mostly for subsistence as part of agricultural systems that feature several crops and sometimes livestock production. Unlike the developed countries where hybrid maize varieties are commonly grown with high inputs and mechanized operations, the production systems in SSA often lack inputs, such as fertilizer, pesticides, improved seeds, irrigation, and labor.Maize seeds produced in the semi-arid areas, such as the Guinea and Sudan savanna zones of WCA, are of better quality than seeds produced in the forest and the forest-savanna transition zones. Fungal infection and insect infestation are lower in dry areas, and seeds therefore store well and also germinate better. Maize seeds can be sun-dried down to less than 10% moisture content in the open when seeds are produced in the Guinea and Sudan savanna zones where there is only one season in a year or produced in the second season in the forest and the forest-savanna transition zones where there is usually a long dry sunny period before the next season's rain commences.Agronomic practices used for the production of maize seeds are the same as those for grain except that some additional requirements must be provided to ensure two cardinal essentials: seeds must always be true-to-type and viable when planted, irrespective of how long they have been stored.Strategies for Sustainable Maize Seed Production in West and Central AfricaBasically, the maize seed value chain, from the breeder to the final grain producer, goes through the four classes of seed production in any seed value chain: breeder, foundation, registered, and certified seeds.Breeder seeds are the seeds of a variety produced under the direct control of the breeder who developed the variety. Breeder seeds are often produced in small quantities but are of the highest genetic purity owing to strict production controls and maintenance of quality. Breeder seeds may be produced in two stages to make available an adequate quantity of seeds required for the production of foundation seeds.Foundation seeds are the direct seed increase resulting from growing breeder seeds. In other words, they are the progeny of the breeder seeds. Their production is carried out to ensure that varietal identity and genetic purity are maintained as closely as possible to those of the breeder. Foundation seeds are usually produced by a seed production expert or under the control of an agricultural experimental station or seed production agency, but with the assistance of a breeder.Registered seeds are the progeny of the foundation seeds, or sometimes the breeder seeds. For their production, the requirements and standards of the seed certifying agency must be met. The production of registered seeds is sometimes omitted in some seed production programs.Certified seeds are the progeny of the registered seeds, or sometimes the breeder or foundation seeds. Their production is carried out by seed growers and must be certified by the regulatory agency which ensures the maintenance of the identity of the variety as well as its genetic purity.A seed farm may be registered by the appropriate seed certifying agency which would monitor and inspect the fields and finally certify the produce after conditioning and testing to enable the grower to market the seeds.Normally the seed field should be inspected before and during planting.In addition, inspections are conducted during flowering and harvesting periods. Also, the equipment used for planting, harvesting, and cleaning and the storage and marketing facilities are all inspected. Seeds produced from fields and facilities that satisfy the inspection requirements are certified and tagged for marketing. Irrespective of the class and type of maize seeds being produced, certain basic agronomic practices are universal and must be followed to ensure the genetic purity and ultimately the high quality required by farmers. The following are the most important among the agronomic practices.Site selection is one of the major considerations in the production of good quality seeds. In general, the land selected for seed production must be fairly flat, well drained, and loamy. It should be easily accessible to vehicles for inspection and carting harvested produce. The location should also permit successful isolation of the maize seeds being produced from contamination by pollen from different varieties grown by nearby farmers to maintain genetic purity.Maize seed production fields must be adequately isolated from neighboring fields planted to different varieties of maize. Isolation can be achieved in two ways: by distance or by time.The isolation distances to be observed depend on the class of seeds being produced, the layout of the land, and the barriers (natural or artificial) surrounding the maize crop as well as the color of the variety under cultivation. In general, the minimum isolation distance, whether for OPVs or hybrids, must be between 300 and 400 m, depending on the variety and the class of seeds being produced.Recommended minimum isolation distances for the various classes of seeds are 400 m for foundation seeds and 200 m for certified seeds.Isolation by time is usually the method used when land is limited.Here two (or more) different varieties may be planted close to each other but care is taken that they have different maturity periods and also plantings are at intervals of 2-3 weeks between different varieties.Close monitoring of maize isolated by time must be made to rogue out weak and slow growing plants in order not to allow varieties to be contaminated.Fields must be plowed and harrowed carefully when necessary to make a seedbed with a good environment for the seeds to germinate and produce strong and healthy seedlings. Alternatively, the no-tillage method can be adopted by applying appropriate chemical herbicides on low grassy vegetation.The weather pattern in the growing area must be known so that planting would take place when the rains had come to stay. Calculations must also be made to ensure that harvesting of the crop coincides with the non-rainy season to ensure good seed quality. The use of a field that had not been planted to maize for at least 2-3 seasons is usually recommended to avoid contamination from carry-over seeds in the soil.The spacing to be adopted for planting the seed field would depend upon the class of seeds, the maturity group of the variety, and the season of cultivation. However, in general, to achieve a better seed yield, an optimum density must be achieved. For early and extra-early maturing varieties, planting may be done at a spacing of 75 × 40 cm, three seeds later thinned to two at 2 weeks after planting (WAP) to give a plant population of 66,666 plants/ha. Other plant spacings may be used as pertains in Ghana and shown in Table 6.1 below.The ratio of female (seed-producing) parents to male (pollen) parents to be adopted for hybrid seed production depends on the type of parental lines being used for the hybrid maize seed production as well as the seed class. However, a general recommendation of three rows of the female parent with one row of the male parent is often used in Ghana. This alternation is continued throughout the field. The outside two rows on all sides of the field should usually be planted to male parents to saturate the environment with the much-needed pollen at flowering time. The plant population, row width, and plant spacing would be the same as for OPVs.Maize and other cereals normally require high amounts of fertilizer, usually NPK, for good grainfilling and good yield. The requirements for fertilizer vary depending on the ecology, variety, and farming practices in the area of production. Usually soils in the forest zone are more fertile than those in the savanna and soils that have been cropped continuously to cereals are low in soil fertility. Rates of fertilizer application should be based on soil tests and must be within the limits set by the extension services in the area of production. Usually a split application is recommended. A basal application of a compound fertilizer is usually made within 14 days after planting the seed crop followed by side dressing with ammonia or urea applied between 4 and 6 WAP, depending on the variety under cultivation. Other nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, sulfur, and zinc may be applied in trace amounts to soils that are deficient in these nutrients.  Weeds compete with the maize seed crop and rob it of valuable nutrients. The critical period for weed control is usually within 6 WAP. Control weeds manually or by the use of pre-emergence and post-emergence herbicides as well as with crop rotation. In mechanized farming, however, mechanical cultivators may also be used to control weeds 30-35 days after planting.The vegetative and post-flowering characteristics of the variety under cultivation must be well known to help identify off-types which may be growing in mixtures with the seed crop. In the production of breeder, foundation, and certified seeds, off-types and volunteer plants must be eliminated at every stage of crop growth. Field inspection for off-types and volunteer plants must be carried out throughout the growing season. To avoid volunteer plants which may not be readily identified, it is helpful to use a field which was planted to a different crop in the previous season.Remove plants showing disease and pest symptoms and plants whose characteristics do not conform to the prescribed characteristics of the variety under cultivation.In hybrid seed production, female (seed) rows are detasseled before they shed pollen. The male plants (source of pollen for the hybrid) are not detasseled but must be harvested a day or two before the female lines to avoid admixtures.Harvesting is the last field activity to be done before conditioning the harvested produce into seeds for storage and planting the following season.It is an activity in the seed production chain which, if not done at the right time, would result in seeds of low quality. The seed crop should be harvested on time to avoid weathering on the field and which would also lead to poor quality seeds. For maize, harvesting is done on cobs so that admixtures and any cob that is not true to type with reference to the described and planted variety can be picked out to avoid mixing it with the good seeds. Ears can best be harvested after they reach physiological maturity (30-36% seed moisture content), especially when facilities are available for artificial or mechanical drying to the safe moisture content for storage. When means of artificial drying are not available, the ears should be allowed to further dry in the field (18-25% seed moisture content) before being harvested. Early, premature, and delayed harvesting will lower seed yield and quality.• Seed moisture content. Check the ears' seed moisture content and see if it is in the safe region for conditioning after harvest. This can be between 18 and 35% depending on whether mechanical drying will take place and the weather at the time of harvest.• Visible kernel black layer. Check to see if the black layer is visible in a kernel pulled from the cob. This is an indication that no more partitioning of dry matter from the leaves to the seeds is taking place and that harvesting can be done safely, provided that facilities are available for mechanical or sun drying. • Maturity period of variety. Knowledge of the days to maturity of the variety as described by the breeder provides a good indication of when to harvest.All the above are subject to the influence of the seed production environment and variety.This can be mechanical, where corn pickers are used, or manual, when dehusking of the cobs is done physically by hand.The seed crop should be harvested on time to avoid weathering on the field which may lead to low seed quality. Seed ears can be harvested after seeds reach physiological maturity (30-36% moisture content). If weather conditions are favorable (dry), the seeds should be allowed to field-dry and then harvested at 18 to 25% moisture content.As ears are harvested, the husks are removed so that the cobs and seeds on them can be seen, and undesirable ears can be identified and discarded to make drying more efficient.Freely interbreeding individuals make up the OPV populations. Seed production of OPVs must avoid genetic drift which is defined as a change in gene frequency as a result of a small population size. In the production of seeds of OPVs care must be taken to prevent inbreeding as much as possible.Genetic contamination of stocks results from spontaneous mutation, which is defined as a sudden heritable change in a gene. Contamination can also result from inadvertent mechanical mixing and pollen movement from plants of a different population to another. Contamination as a result of mechanical mixing usually results during the processing of seeds.Although this is physical in nature, it becomes genetic when genes of the contaminating plant are dispersed through the population by crosspollination. Rates of mutation are very low and over short intervals of time, its contribution to genetic contamination may be low or negligible.The effect of mutation is cumulative, and over long periods of time it may contribute considerably to genetic contamination. The effects of contamination are visible on the progeny resulting from the contaminated stock. For some traits, the effects are observable on the kernel formed following pollen contamination. This effect is called Xenia. An example is when pollen from a yellow kernel variety pollinates the ovule of a white kernel variety. Given that white (y) is recessive to yellow (Y), the developed kernel is of yellow color. The intensity of the yellow color is a dosage effect. The kernel color is the color of the vitreous starch of the endosperm which is 3n, the result of the fertilization of the 2n polar nuclei and the n sperm nuclei. Genotypes with YYY constitution for the endosperm are deep yellow; those with YYy are moderate; Yyy are light yellow; yyy are white.Similarly, when a super sweet shrunken-2 maize ovule is fertilized by pollen from normal maize with a starchy endosperm, the developing kernel is no longer supersweet but normal. The super-sweet gene is recessive to the gene for normal starch production.A number of strategies may be used to overcome contamination. These are implemented at different stages.• The first is to use pure breeder seeds; this can be achieved by obtaining breeder seeds directly from the originating institution. • The second is to use a large population size for seed production, since frequency of contamination can increase sharply with small population size.Contamination resulting from pollen movement and from mechanical mixing is controllable by exercising great care in the production and processing stages.• Isolating fields for seed production in time or space will prevent pollen contamination. Recommended isolation distances between maize fields planted to different stocks must be maintained. • Roguing is also carried out for off-types and volunteer maize plants.• Cleaning of seed processing equipment each time new stock is to be processed will reduce the contamination due to mechanical mixing.With OPVs, cross-pollination accounts for about 95% of all pollinations; about 5% of seeds are formed from self-pollination. Strategies are available to keep the level of self-fertilization at an acceptably low level. Contamination resulting from mutation cannot be eliminated. However, stocks can be cleaned up or purified when characteristics are observed that should not be present. Attack by many field and storage pests can also contribute to physical contamination. Adoption of recommended agronomic practices, quality assurance, and storage practices will minimize physical contamination, pest attack, and the deterioration of maize seeds in storage.Any variety, OPV or hybrid, must be maintained true-to-type and the identity of the variety must be kept the same, year after year. Seed increase of an OPV, following development, testing, and release, is required if the variety is to be available for cultivation by farmers and the benefits of its superiority are to be enjoyed. A seed supply system must be in place to make available to farmers a regular supply of good quality seeds.Maintenance of an OPV is more difficult because of the possibility of contamination as a result of the pollination system. Seed multiplication for marketing to farmers is an operation that may involve a combination of official, commercial, cooperative, and private agencies. Supervision of private farmers involved in seed production is the function of the seed certification agency. Approved private farmers under a certification scheme can produce certified seeds for sale at a premium price 15-25% above the grain price.Seeds harvested from a field planted to a hybrid must never be saved and used for the next cropping season because of the expected substantial decline in yield. Fresh seeds of hybrids would therefore need to be purchased every season. With OPVs, farmers could save their seeds and use these to plant their fields in the following seasons for about three generations without a substantial decline in grain yield. It is therefore recommended that seeds of OPVs be purchased after every two to three generations, since a decline in performance occurs as a result of the contamination of the variety by pollen from adjacent fields. Maintenance of an OPV can be done by open pollination under proper isolation.Varietal purity during the production of breeder seeds can be ensured by isolation in space, time, or by controlled pollination. These precautions are required in areas where other fields in the environment are planted to maize. Isolation in space requires that a minimum distance of up to 400 m be maintained from the nearest field planted to a maize crop.Isolation in time ensures that there is no overlap in the flowering time of the variety being maintained or multiplied and those in the surrounding area, even if they are planted in close proximity. This can be achieved by planting very early or very late. Two populations that differ in flowering time by about 10 days (for example, if one reaches 50% flowering in 45 days and the other in 55 days) can be isolated by about 25 days if the early flowering variety is planted first and the later variety is planted 15 days later. Two populations of similar maturity cycle would need to be planted about 28 days apart to ensure purity.For the maintenance and breeder seed production of a variety that is characterized by a recessive trait, such as the super-sweet trait conditioned by the shrunken-2 gene, and for which the Xenia effect is manifest, contamination resulting from pollen movement from normal endosperm can be easily identified as the production of normal kernels.Cultural practices must be optimum to ensure good growth, development and seed production. Purity and uniformity of the variety are also ensured after harvesting and threshing by removing cobs and kernels that do not conform to the general characteristics of the variety.There are several methods for producing seeds of OPVs. These methods either use the various isolation techniques or controlled pollination.At least 8000 plants from the breeder seeds of the variety from an assured source are planted in an isolated field. It is important to have an adequate number of plants to minimize selfing. It is also important to ensure the minimum isolation in distance or time. Open-pollination is allowed among the established plants while employing various strategies to ensure purity. About 600 to 800 cobs with well-set kernels are selected and equal quantities of seeds from the central portion of each cob are composited as the breeder seeds. To minimize the effect of the environment on selection, the field may be divided into grids of 20 plants with 6 to 8 plants selected in each grid. Remnants of clean breeder seeds must be dried and kept in cold storage.In this method, a minimum of 2000 plants from the breeder seed plot is established. Some rows are designated as male rows and others as female rows. One male row to three or four female rows may be adequate since the breeder seeds will be obtained from ears harvested from the female rows.Off-type plants in the male rows are removed before pollen shed. Female rows are detasseled so that ears of the female plant get pollinated by pollen from the male row plants. About 400-500 cobs harvested from plants of the female rows are selected and seeds from these cobs are bulked as breeder seeds. Ears harvested from plants in the male rows may be harvested and used as seeds of the variety.Half-sib method Breeder seed production can also be done by hand pollination. This obviates the need for isolation in time or space but requires the use of shoot covers and pollination bags. About 2000 plants are established from the breeder seeds. Shoots are covered before silk emergence. To prevent selfing, the field is divided into two: pollen collected from plants on one half of the field showing characteristics of the variety is bulked, mixed thoroughly, and used to pollinate plants on the other half, and vice-versa. From about 600 ears selected, seeds from the central portion of about 400 cobs are bulked as the breeder seeds.In this method, a similar number of plants as in the half-sib method described above are established and the appropriate measures to ensure varietal purity are undertaken. Shoots are covered before pollen shed (anthesis).Plants with the characteristics of the variety in the field are mated in pairs by collecting pollen from one designated as male and using the pollen for the pollination of plants designated as female. At least 600 cobs formed on the females of plants mated in pairs are harvested from which 400 are selected and their seeds are bulked.Foundation seed production is required to supply the seeds to be used for the production of certified seeds. Breeder seeds are planted in a 400-500 m 2 field isolated from other fields by the minimum isolation distance, (usually 400 m) or by at least 28 days if isolation is to be in time. The area actually depends on the quantity of foundation seeds required which also is a reflection of the total certified seed requirements plus a carryover stock, usually about (20% of the total seeds).Genetic purity in foundation seed production fields is maintained by roguing plants that show characteristics different from those of the variety. At harvest, the ears are carefully examined and off-types are discarded.The remaining ears are dried, shelled, and bulked as the foundation seeds.If the certified seed requirement is high, another cycle of foundation seeds may be produced. For example, Table 6.2 summarizes the sequence and the dimensions needed for seed multiplication of up to 5000 t of certified seeds of OPVs to be distributed to maize growers. Assuming the final seed quantity is 500 t or less, only three stages may be necessary to produce the seed quantity (IITA 1982).As with foundation seeds, certified seeds are produced in isolation. The isolation distance may be slightly less than that required for breeder and foundation seeds, usually about 300 m. Certified seed production is usually carried out by certified seed producers who have received some level of training in seed production technology.Certified seed producers could be individuals or seed companies or community seed producers. The activity is under the control of the seed certification agency which pays repeated visits to the field during production. The objective is the production of high quality certified seeds. Roguing is Hybrid varieties are the first generation offspring of a cross between inbred line parents, OPVs, and other populations used for commercial planting.The greatest development of hybrids has been the use of inbred lines which are developed by several generations of inbreeding followed by tests for combining ability. Conventional hybrids include single, three-way, and double-crossesThe two important characteristics of hybrids are high yields due to hybrid vigor and outstanding uniformity. To ensure the purity and uniformity for which hybrids are known, their seeds must be produced with special care. Seeds harvested from a field planted to hybrids must not be saved for use in planting in subsequent seasons as such a practice will result in a substantial reduction in yield and in non-uniformity. Hybrid types differ in their yield potential, uniformity, number of plantings (seasons) needed for seed production, potential seed productivity, cost of seed production, and seed sales price. The trend of these characteristics among the various types of hybrids is shown in Table 6.3.When maize is self-pollinated, each generation becomes weaker. Selfpollination is the process of taking the pollen from a single plant and applying this to the silks of the same plant. This is called inbreeding and, after successive generations, it leads to weakened plants called inbred lines. These inbred lines are small in size, have small cobs, and reduced yields. However, when two inbred lines are crossed, the vigor is restored in the resulting seeds, and the yield of the plants grown from the seeds is greatly increased. This is called hybrid vigor. It occurs as a result of the interaction between the sets of genes obtained from the two different inbred lines. The  Types of hybrids effect of some of the harmful genes expressed in one of the inbred lines will be masked by more beneficial genes found in the other parent plant. This is called heterosis, and has been exploited to develop hybrid cultivars that are now widely grown by farmers.• It is uniform in appearance.• It has vigor (makes varieties more competitive with weeds).• It is high yielding.• It is selected for improved grain quality.• A particular hybrid can be selected for drought tolerance or resistance to a specific pest or disease.Hybrid maize is produced by cross-pollinating two unrelated male and female plants or different inbred lines. By the nature of the maize plant that has separate male and female flowers, the tassel and the cob, it is possible to control the crossing or mating of the plants. A plant may be used as either a male or female parent. If a plant is used as male, the pollen from the plant is used to cross onto the silks of a different female plant. The pollen from the female plant is eliminated, usually by physically removing the tassel from the female plant before it sheds its pollen (a process called detasseling). The resulting seeds on the female plant give rise to hybrid plants that are uniform in color, maturity, plant heights and other characteristics. To produce seeds of hybrid maize, the male and female inbred lines must be grown under strict conditions and evaluated for yield potential and field characteristics.Crosses between males and females can be made in four different ways to give rise to different kinds of hybrids.Single-cross hybrids are the most modern commercial hybrids. They are crosses between two unrelated inbred lines. A field planted with singlecross seeds is impressive because plant height, ear height, tasselling, silking, pollen shedding, and all other characteristics are uniform. As only two inbred parents are involved, a higher level of resistance to diseases, insects, and unfavorable weather is evident in single-cross hybrids. Pollen shed occurs during a shorter period since all the plants are genetically alike. Single-crosses therefore have the potential to produce lower yields, especially under stress conditions.Three inbred parents are involved in three-way-cross hybrid formation. The female of a three-way hybrid is a single-cross hybrid (A × B), while the male is an inbred line (C), resulting in a three-way hybrid [(A × B) × C] when they are crossed. Three-way-cross hybrid seeds are produced on single-cross plants so that yield and quality may be equal, or nearly so, to double-cross seeds. Three-way-crosses are more variable than single-crosses and less variable than double-crosses. The advantages and disadvantages of threeway crosses are between those of double-and single-crosses.In this type of hybrids, both parents are single-cross hybrids. That is, they are produced by crossing two different single-crosses, giving the pedigree [(A × B) × (C × D).] This permitted four different unrelated inbred parents with desirable characteristics to be brought together into one hybrid.Double-cross hybrid seed production is a practical and economical way of producing adequate seeds for farmers. This is as a result of both parents originally being hybrids. They are also more variable than single-or threeway crosses and they are not all alike genetically, a situation which allows breeders to bring more different desirable characteristics together into one hybrid than is possible in a single-cross. Double-cross plants also have a longer pollination period, a condition that tends to provide more complete filling of the ear with seeds, often resulting in higher yields. Double-cross hybrids obviously have a lower seed cost advantage because their yield is equal to or better than that of the best single-crosses.The major disadvantage with double-cross hybrids are that the fields do not possess the \"eye appeal\" of single-cross hybrids because the plants and ears tend to be more variable and there may be more difficulty in obtaining a high level of disease and insect resistance than in single-crosses, (osu.edu/ HCS630_ Accessed: 11/09/2011).In this case, one of the parents is an OPV and the other is a single-cross hybrid or an inbred line.Plant breeders carefully select the parents of hybrids over many years of testing. They are chosen based on performance, disease resistance, drought tolerance, and days to maturity. Only the best hybrids are released for commercial production and sale. The production of seeds is done in a very controlled manner.Hybrid seed production must be strictly monitored to avoid contamination. Male and female parents are inter-planted in alternating rows. There are normally 3 to 6 female rows and 1 or 2 male rows. The female plants are detasseled before they shed any pollen, i.e., the tassels are physically removed.Only the male plants will shed pollen in the field. Inspectors check to see that all emerging female tassels are removed and that neighboring maize plants are at least 400 m away. This is to ensure that pollen from nearby crops do not fall onto the silks of the female plants. Thus, the female plants are fertilized by pollen that comes from only the male plants in the field. Once the male plants have provided the pollen, they are removed from the field to ensure there is no mixing of seeds between the male and female plants. Only the seeds from the female plants constitute the hybrid seeds.It is important that the male and female plants flower at the same time and that the pollen is shed from the male plants when the female silks are receptive, to produce the maximum amount of seeds. This is called nicking.There are basically three stages in commercial hybrid seed production:Production of the breeder seeds-this is when the breeder selects and produces the seeds for the inbred lines. Only a small amount of seeds will be produced as inbred lines are not very vigorous. This seed will then be used for the production of foundation or basic seeds.Production of foundation or basic seeds -this is the first multiplication of the breeder seeds (inbred lines). This is also the stage in which the singlecross hybrids will be produced for the three-way or double-cross hybrids.Enough seeds of the parents should be produced in order to produce the hybrid seeds.Production of certified seeds -this is the last stage in seed multiplication.Seed companies usually contract approved and capable farmers to plant the foundation seeds in the ways described above to ensure genetic purity and produce enough seeds for the farmers.Throughout the production of hybrid seeds, the seed company and the seed producer have to adhere to strict but standardized certification requirements.The seed fields are constantly checked for isolation, off-types, and purity; the harvested seeds are verified for lack of defects, adequate germination rate, and freedom from pests and diseases. Any crop that fails to meet the standards is rejected and may not be sold as seeds. Seeds that have been certified by the authorizing agency are labeled accordingly and may be sold.• Hybrids are generally higher yielding than OPVs if grown under suitable conditions. • Hybrids are uniform in color, maturity, and other plant characteristics;this enables the farmer to carry out certain operations, such as harvesting, at the same time. • The uniformity of the grain harvested from hybrids can also have marketing advantages when sold to buyers with strict quality standards.• Hybrid seeds are more expensive than seeds of OPVs.• The farmer needs to have yields of 3-5 t/ha to justify the cost of the seeds. Farmers situated in an environment with low potential and who cannot afford extra inputs such as fertilizer will not recover the costs. • Fresh hybrid seeds need to be bought every planting season.• The grain from a crop grown with hybrid seeds should not be used for seeds. The farmer cannot replant grain as seeds without major reductions in yield, which might be a decrease of 30% or more. • The farmer might not always be able to source new seeds in time for the planting season.Several factors need to be taken into consideration in choosing the parental lines of commercial hybrids.Parental lines must have good pollen shed-silking synchrony. This will obviate the need for planting at different times. For this, an accurate assessment of the days to tasseling and silking of the parental lines is required. Inbred lines that shed pollen a few days after the silking of the female lines may be suitable for use as male parents. The male parent should be as tall as or taller than the female parent for effective pollination under isolation. For three-way crosses, vigorous inbred lines with good pollen production should be used as the male line while the single-cross is used as the female parent. Parental lines should be resistant to important pests and diseases.Seeds are harvested from the female parent. Therefore, the number of rows of the female parent is directly related to seed yield, provided that yield is not limited by pollen production. The number of female to male rows depends on the type of hybrid to be produced, the pollen production potential of the male parent, and the duration of pollen supply (Table 6.4). If detasseling is practiced, it is desirable to plant male rows around the field to minimize contamination from neighboring fields.For hybrid seed production, detasseling and the removal of off-types are two critical operations that ensure good seed quality. Off-types in both the female and male rows are removed before flowering. Plants in the female rows are detasseled when the tassel appears on about 5% of the plants.Detasseling should be done daily, preferably early in the morning, and this should continue for about 10-14 days. No single plant in the female rows should be allowed to shed pollen before detasseling as this will significantly reduce seed quality. Community-based seed production in WCAIn many countries of Asia and Africa, despite substantial investments to strengthen the capacity of seed production organizations, the formal sector provides only a small proportion of the seeds available to farmers. Most of the available seeds are supplied by the informal supply system made up of a network of farmers and small-scale merchants. Seeds sourced from the public sector and commercial companies constitute at most 10% and often as little as 2% of the supply in developing countries (CIAT 1982;Almekinders et al. 1994). In WCA, seeds saved on-farm from the previous harvest constitute about 60-70% of the supply while most of the remainder comes from offfarm local sources (Franzen et al. 1996;Tripp 1997) and even from grain meant for human consumption.To date, a large number of OPVs have been released in WCA. Although they come with the advantage that farmers could save some seeds of their harvests for use in establishing the next season's crop, the impact of improved OPVs on maize productivity and production is not as high as is desirable. A major problem limiting the impact of improved varieties, which is not peculiar to OPVs, is the low availability of good quality seeds due to a lack of suitable mechanisms for producing and marketing seeds.There are several benefits in purchasing seeds.Such seeds have passed through rigorous monitoring, certification, and other checks to ensure that the quality is good. Purchasing seeds from the formal sector ensures that (see pages 15-16, this publication):1. Identity and genetic purity are ensured.Seeds have known characteristics described by the originator of the variety, specifying their field duration from emergence to harvest. The genetic purity of seeds purchased from the formal sector is certified, having gone through a breeder, a foundation seed producer, and finally a certified seed producer. All stages of the production value chain were monitored and postharvest conditioning was done in a proper seed conditioning plant.2. Seeds have known purity and germination capacity.Seeds from the formal sector also have to pass testing standards set by the certification agency that monitored their production. The farmer is therefore assured of good germination and field establishment. Seeds purchased from the formal seed sector for planting are relatively expensive even higher when such seeds tend to be hybrids.2. Seeds from the formal sector are not readily available.Seeds from the formal sector constitute about 10% of all maize seeds planted in WCA (Tahirou 2009). Thus, accessibility is very limited. They may therefore not be available to farmers in the rural areas who need them.Seeds saved on-farm from the previous harvest (about 60-70%) are the principal sources for planting annually by most farmers; most of the remainder comes from off-farm local sources (Franzen et al. 1996). This is the non-formal seed sector.Since the formal sector (mainly public sector-based in most WCA countries) has failed to supply a significant proportion of the seeds required by farmers, various NGOs, projects, donor agencies, and many such related entities have \"developed\" some types of seed production and supply systems at the community level to help to make high quality and genetically true-totype seeds commercially available to farmers. Seed production may be done with or without certification but the communities produce, process, store, and sell the seeds at the time of planting. Some communities accept the help of the donors and NGOs and enter into formal seed production. Others combine the formal and informal production methods to achieve the same objective of supplying quality seeds at low cost to farmers within their own communities.Public and private seed companies produce and market seed in WCA.There are only few seed companies in WCA (Tables 7.1 and 7.2) and some countries are without any seed company. Seed companies produce only about 28% of the total requirement. Remaining seeds are sourced from the informal market through exchanges and the recycling of OPVs and hybrids. CBOs supplement production even where there are functional seed companies. Therefore, IITA through some of its past and present projects, such as WECAMAN and DTMA, has over the years promoted nouveaux community-based seed production schemes that take into consideration the socioeconomic and cultural peculiarities of the subregion. The scheme is aimed at assisting farmers and producers to develop a seed production system capable of providing a regular supply of high quality seeds of superior varieties to their farming communities at all times when needed, thus bypassing the bureaucracies usually existing in the formal sector. The schemes enable communities to manage their own seed production for their own benefit. The schemes involve the following activities:• Training farmers in techniques of maize seed productions,• Strengthening the capacity and capability of producers to produce good quality seeds, • Encouraging NARS scientists to work with selected farmers and NGOs in the development of farm-level seed production, and • Assisting NARS scientists to produce breeder seeds of released varieties in adequate quantities at their research stations for such community producers to have access to them.The details of the community-based seed production schemes in WCA have been described by Badu-Apraku et al. (2012). The strategy is to encourage scientists from IITA's maize program to work closely with a team of national scientists, extension agents, seed certification agents, farmers, and NGOs to provide reliable and sustainable seed production for their communities. The team helps farmers to determine the area of land to be planted, the field to be selected (taking into consideration the need for isolation), the variety to be produced, and the steps to be taken to ensure quality control and certification under the informal seed sector.Other issues addressed include postharvest handling and marketing.The strategy involves the provision of technical advice, breeder and/ or foundation seeds, and fertilizers to farmers. After the harvest, farmers are requested to pay back the cost of the input, in cash or with part of the seeds produced. For the sustainability of the scheme and to allow more farmers to be reached each year, member countries of the WECAMAN network established revolving funds. At each community level, the scheme involves at least a plant breeder, an agronomist, a foundation or certified seed producer, and structures for the marketing and distribution of the produced seeds. Altogether, six community-based models were adopted for seed production. The detailed features of each model and the countries that have adopted them within WCA have earlier been described in Section 3 of this book.It is important at this stage to emphasize the special features of the seed production model 6 which has been successfully adopted in Nigeria. The research institutes IAR, NAERLS, and UNIMAID are working closely with companies, including Premier Seed and Maslaha Seed, to ensure the success of the scheme. CBOs that have been linked to seed companies to ensure the sustainability of the scheme, access to seed markets, inputs, and credit in Nigeria include the following. Large quantities of seeds were produced by the community-based producers linked to private seed companies in Nigeria from 2007 to 2012 (Table 7.3). Furthermore, a large number of farmers were trained in the techniques of quality seed production (Fig. 7.1). In addition, using the seed production models described earlier, large quantities of good quality seeds were produced by WECAMAN member countries involved in the community-based seed production schemes .The production schemes implemented by IITA through WECAMAN and DTMA have had a positive impact on maize productivity and production.Farmers have been organized into cooperatives to facilitate community seed production, thus strengthening the informal system and leading to the development of micro-enterprises.Through the community-based production scheme, NARS scientists have been supported to work with selected farmers and NGOs to produce seeds at on-farm level. This activity involves the collaboration of the national maize scientists, extensionists, seed certification agents, selected farmers, and, whenever possible, NGOs. All the collaborators in the scheme work together in a coordinated manner to provide a reliable and sustainable seed production system for their communities. The seed production team, made up of maize breeders, seed technologists, extensionists, and seed service staff, helps farmers to plan all aspects of production, including the area to be planted, selection of the field in terms of isolation, variety to be used to obtain breeder and foundation seeds, and in all aspects of postharvest handling, quality control, and certification, and also marketing in some cases. The team visits the seed farms several times during the growing season and harvesting to offer technical advice. On-the-job training is provided to   the growers as the technical staff and the farmers work together to grow the crop. Through the technical and financial assistance provided to the seed producers, most of the farmers are managing their fields well and are being rewarded with high yields and incomes. Collaborating farmers are developing skills as seed growers while the extension staff and scientists providing technical advice are gaining more experience.Success of the community seed production scheme is very much dependent on the seed production skills of the collaborating farmers, extension, and seed service staff. From the initiation of the project, Network member countries involved in the scheme emphasized the training of the collaborators. In these training programs, the collaborating farmers, extension, and seed service staff learned more about the techniques of seed production, processing, storage, and packaging. In addition, field days and on-farm demonstrations have been organized for the communities involved in this activity.In an effort to strengthen the capacity of seed producing agents to organize and manage seed production, the first seed production course was organized in Ghana 14-25 August 1995 by WECAMAN in collaboration with the Group Training Unit of IITA and the Crops Research Institute of Ghana. Twentyeight seed producers, researchers, and extensionists, from Mali, Nigeria, Togo, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Bénin, and Cameroon attended the course.During the course, the participants reviewed and analyzed• the constraints and opportunities of the traditional seed production system for their communities, • how to alleviate the constraints of the traditional seed production systems, • how to design and manage maize seed production systems, and • how to design and execute activities for improved communication among seed users and seed producers.The course also covered the following.• Since the first seed production course in 1995, a large number of other farmers have also been trained in production techniques and have acquired the capability to produce good quality seeds. Their activities have led to the increased availability of seeds of improved early and extra-early maturing varieties. In addition, there is increased awareness among farmers on the importance of using high quality seeds of improved varieties for planting and also on purhasing new seeds of OPVs after every 2 to 3 seasons.Maize production has expanded into the drier areas of WCA, replacing traditional staple food, particularly sorghum and millet. The widespread adoption of improved maize varieties in the savannas, greatly facilitated by the community-based production schemes, has also changed the status of maize from a backyard crop to a major cereal grown for both cash and food.Other impacts of the community-based schemes are as follows.• Some community-based producers have become contract growers for seed companies. • A community-based production scheme under the PROSAB project has evolved into a registered seed company called Jikur Cooperative Seed Producers.• Absence of efficient structures A major challenge is the lack of permanent institutional structures in place to oversee its sustenance over time. Ad hoc measures are most often used to run the community seed production and marketing units and this practice has negative effects on the long-term sustainability of the system. There is therefore the need to develop a more efficient structure for the marketing of seeds produced.Promotional activities are not in place to educate and inform the communities about the importance and need to use the available seeds produced from the community farms. There is therefore the need to publicize this and educate the communities to reduce the problem of marketing because of the lack of market information. Partner organizations that can assist in the collection and relay of market information to potential end-users need to be identified and encouraged to assist in this area.• Unattractive packaging of seeds and non-availability of smaller-sized packsMost often, the packaging of the seeds produced is not attractive and the smaller-sized sachets or packages that are often required by subsistence farmers may not be available. It would be beneficial to make packaging attractive and also market the product in smaller sachets/packages of 1 and 2 kg. Points of seed sale are needed at strategic places in all maize growing communities.Many countries lack functional seed laws thereby allowing unscrupulous producers and seed merchants to get the chance to cheat the system.For countries that do not have seed laws, the promulgation of such laws will help to ensure that unscrupulous people do not sell grain as seeds and that farmers have access to good quality seeds all the time. Where seed laws exist and are not functional, there is the need to strengthen the system through the establishment of active inspection units.In most countries, the cooperatives and seed enterprises needed to play leading roles in community seed production activities are just not there.There is a need for more and better organized cooperatives and agro-enterprises to be established through training and linkages to appropriate markets. Such development should take into consideration the lessons learnt from current initiatives in other communities.Access to credit by seed producers is limited. There is therefore the need for improved access to credit, inputs, and market outlets for their products.All indications are that, with the failure of the formal production system to meet farmers' seed requirements, leading them to look for alternatives, the community-based production system should be encouraged in all ways to take a leading role by making the system efficient. Successful communitybased production schemes should be assisted to transform themselves into micro-enterprises for sustainability. This can be further facilitated by the provision of small items of equipment to seed producers within the communities. In addition, given that producers who may be skilled in seed production may lack skills in small business management, book-keeping, accounting, and marketing, seed business and management courses must be organized for seed companies within WCA. Such training must be intensified and participants should be made to include community-based producers.The greatest impact of the community-based production schemes in WCA would be in areas not currently served by seed companies. Consequently, there is the need for this system to be promoted in such areas. Educational awareness campaigns, variety demonstrations, and increased promotional activities by community producers must take place to stimulate the demand for improved seeds.Apart from making available adequate quantities of breeder seeds of improved varieties to the informal seed production sector, the giant international agricultural research centers with all their experience in this area must establish linkages with existing seed companies.There is also the need for the compilation of all maize varieties released in all countries in WCA, showing also their characteristics, adaptation, and the sources of seeds as this information is lacking in some countries. Such lists could be regularly updated when new varieties are released.A database and GIS on community-based production schemes are also essential to help all communities engaged in such production activities to be easily located.An assessment is needed of the impact of the community-based schemes on the production and availability of seeds of improved varieties. It would be beneficial for IITA, CIMMYT, and the NARS to prepare action plans for scaling-up seed production in the countries participating in the DTMA project which should include indicators for seed production and a list of partners.The seed industry in WCA is poorly developed due to the lack of seed policy and also inadequate funding. In most countries, there are long delays between variety development, release, and registration and a poor enabling environment for private sector participation and survival. The public seed sector agencies are grossly under-resourced for effective production and marketing. The NARS give inadequate attention to variety maintenance as well as to the production of breeder and foundation seeds. Regional development of the seed trade is weak and information systems about the seed market are inadequate. However, there are several opportunities for the seed industry. These include the availability of many high yielding improved varieties developed by IITA, CIMMYT, and the NARS, greater awareness among farmers of the economic benefits of improved seeds, emerging formal and informal systems for improved seed production and rural seed delivery systems, emerging small and medium enterprises in the region, and the possibilities of improved regional seed trade and regional agricultural input and market information systems.There are only few seed companies in the subregion; some countries have none (Tables 7.4 and 7.5). Where there are companies, they produce only about 28% of the total seed requirement (Tahirou, 2009). The remaining seeds are sourced from the informal markets through exchanges and the recycling of OPVs and hybrids. Even where there are functional seed companies, CBOs supplement their production. Predominant varietal types in WCA are improved OPVs. Although the area under hybrid production is increasing, the proportion of hybrid seeds produced is still very low. Production of OPVs seeds is about 1.26 million t while hybrid seed production is estimated to be about 264,000 t (Tahirou, 2009). As a result, IITA has adopted a number of strategies to promote seed production. These include (i) support to community-based production schemes to meet the shortfall in seed production in countries without seed companies, and communities which are not adequately served by existing companies, (ii) support to the NARS, seed companies, and CBOs/NGOs in the deployment of seeds of varieties and hybrids. The production of seeds of new maize varieties by private companies is increasing, but there is a need to find ways to scale-up production especially of hybrids.Support is being provided to small and emerging companies to produce seeds of available OPVs and hybrids and to procure handling, processing, and storage facilities to increase the dissemination of seeds of improved varieties to a larger number of farmers. Over the past 5 years through the AGRA project and other initiatives many entrepreneurs and communities interested in seed production have emerged. Many have established contact with IITA, DTMA, and the NARS for germplasm and technical  backstopping. It is expected that the seed business environment in target countries will generally improve in the near future through the growth of the seed market, easier access to venture capital and general business know-how, and regionalized seed laws and regulations. To address the problem of the availability of seeds to farmers, there is a need to support the establishment and effective functioning of a seed stockists' network. There is also a need to provide backstopping and strengthen the capacity of all key players to ensure the delivery of agreed outputs. Through the funding support of the DTMA project, in-service training in techniques of quality seed production of OPVs and hybrid seeds was provided to 36 technicians from the anglophone NARS and seed companies in West Africa to upgrade their skills in production and the conduct and management of field trials.A similar course was organized in 2011 in Cotonou, Benin Republic, for the NARS partners from the francophone countries. In addition, some CBOs in Nigeria have been linked to seed companies to ensure access to markets, inputs, and credit.The DTMA project has since 2007 provided germplasm to seed companies and NARS as follows:i. Provision of relatively large quantities of parental lines and seed of DT varieties to seed companies and CBOs on request for testing, seed production, and promotional activities. ii. Sets of regional and international trials have been made available to seed companies on request. Information about the sets of Regional and International Trials dispatched to NARS partners and seed companies on request is presented in Fig. 7.5, Table 7.4, and Table 7.5. Based on the results of these multilocation trials, the superior varieties and hybrids were identified for on-farm trials by the national scientists in the respective countries (Table 7.6). A total of 1287 on-farm trials were conducted in Nigeria, Bénin, Mali, and Ghana during the period of 2007-2011 under the DTMA project. iii. Financial support has been provided to selected NARS partners for breeder seed and parental line production. iv. IITA project scientists pay regular visits to seed companies to encourage their involvement in conducting collaborative trials and in identifying and commercializing maize varieties and hybrids to farmers. v.Staff from seed companies are invited each year to visit IITA's maize breeding nurseries and trials and to select promising entries for their companies. vi. Staff from seed companies are invited to participate in the planning meetings of the DTMA project to share information on the performance of varieties evaluated. vii. Information is provided to NGOs on the sources of seeds and available improved varieties and hybrids. viii. Results of multi-location and on-farm trials are summarized each year for the NARS and seed companies to promote the release of varieties.In Nigeria and Ghana, seed output from the formal sector is not readily available to most small-scale farmers. Moreover, most private seed companies are interested in marketing hybrids. To ensure that seeds are available at all times, the DTMA project is promoting the production of foundation seeds by the NARS, which are then used by community-based producers. The objectives of the seed production schemes are to strengthen farmers' capacity in the techniques of good quality seed production, and to encourage the Seed Certification Organizations to work with selected farmers and NGOs in the development of on-farm community-level production schemes. In this way, improved seeds will be made readily available in communities. This would enhance access to improved varieties and promote technology adoption on a large scale.Large quantities of foundation seeds are being produced at research stations and by selected seed companies under the supervision of DTMA project staff. Production of quality seeds of improved varieties is contracted to selected farmers or farmers' groups. These farmers are given training in seed production and management, provided with all the required inputs on a credit basis, and closely monitored by researchers. Special attention is paid to the needs of farmers or farmers' groups deterred from large-scale seed production by a lack of storage facilities. These farmers will be linked to the seed companies and other institutions for the proper storage of their products and better access to the seed market, and to ensure sustainability. The resulting seeds are bought in the first year of the project and eventually distributed to other farmers or farmers' groups by the second year on a credit basis. This approach will ensure that farmers have access to improved seeds every year.Working with existing farmer groups and CBOs, encouraging the formation of new ones and building their capacity through technical, organizational, and leadership training will strengthen common interest groups. These will evolve into farmer-owned and managed organizations that are capable of providing services to members. The support of the DTMA project to the community-based schemes is through the following.i.Training farmers and producers in the techniques of quality seed production. ii. Strengthening the capacity and capability of producers to produce good quality seeds. iii. Encouraging NARS scientists to work with selected farmers and NGOs in the development of on-farm seed production. iv. Assisting NARS scientists to produce breeder seeds of released maize varieties in adequate quantities at the research stations.NARS scientists provide technical advice, breeder and/or foundation seeds and other inputs to collaborating farmers. At harvest, farmers are required to pay back either in cash or in kind. Each community production scheme is a chain and involves breeder, foundation, and commercial or certified seed production, marketing, and distribution.by farmer-to-farmer dissemination of new varieties. Seed companies or producers will invest in elite public maize varieties as long as they have confidence in their adoption potential and agronomic performance in a large target environment/market, have been given rights to commercialize distinct varieties with good seed production characteristics, and receive sufficient amounts of breeder seeds and technical backstopping for a rapid scale-up of activities. Hence, agreements for the rights to produce different maize varieties and hybrids will be made with private seed companies/ producers, either directly or through the NARS. Sufficient breeder seeds of new varieties (or their parents) also are expected to be produced and provided to companies/producers, along with technical backstopping to ensure the rapid initiation of certified seed production of new cultivars.The multiplication and distribution of seeds to farmers in the various target areas will continue throughout the life of the DTMA project. Seed producer groups will be linked to appropriate markets for the sale of surplus seeds in close collaboration with the AGRA PASS initiative.In traditional agriculture, farmers usually use unimproved crop varieties (landraces). They seldom change their seeds and continue to save their own seeds year after year for planting. Occasionally they may purchase from or exchange seeds with neighbors. In modernized agriculture, however, research has developed improved crop varieties and hybrids that must be multiplied in a systematic way to ensure that their genetic identity is not lost during seed production. Seed certification is the link between research and the farmer, and it aims at maintaining and making available to seed producers and farmers high quality seeds produced under a legally authorized system that guarantees or ensures that the varieties meet the laid down minimum quality standards set by the regulatory organization. Seed certification can therefore be summarized as the procedures and processes through which seeds in a sealed container and meant for grain production possess the characteristics required by legislation and/or as indicated on the label attached to the container.Before a seed producer can request certification, he must be prepared to produce a specified class of seeds and the variety to be produced must have a name and attributes that have been characterized to ensure verification and authentication during the entire certification process before the seeds reach the market.To be able to enlist a producer for certification, the Seed Certification Agency must take steps to ensure the following:• Approval of cultivars is given based on tests for distinctness, uniformity, and stability (DUS). Most seed production schemes require that such cultivars have superior agronomic values when compared with existing varieties in at least one region of the country.Minister of Agriculture the cultivars that should be approved.cultivar is registered for a specific time (generally 10 years) (Van Gastel et al. 1996). Seed certification therefore gives the consumer (farmer) an assurance regarding the quality of the seeds which cannot be determined by the naked eye (Achaab 2010).General Seed Certification Standards are available for all crops which are eligible for certification, and, with field and seed standards for the individual crops, shall constitute the Minimum Seed Certification Standards. The word \"seed\" or \"seeds\" as used in these standards includes all propagating materials.8Seed certification shall be conducted by a Seed Certification Agency which must be autonomous and well equipped for the process and should ensure that all certification standards are met by a seed producer before he can market the seeds. Seed quality control, testing and certification play pivotal roles in all stages of the seed production system -covering production, conditioning, packaging, distribution and marketing of all classes of seeds (Figure 8.1 and 8.2). It is therefore imperative that the Certification Agency is backed by law or appropriate legislation to enable it to enforce the rules and standards set in the certification scheme. A Certified Seed Producer is any person or organization that grows or distributes seeds of a particular class in accordance with the procedures and standards set by the Seed Certification Agency. The producer can be an entirely public organization, or a private one, or a combination of the two where the public-based organization is usually responsible for the seed production but with private persons used as out-growers. It is usually recommended that only one class of seeds be produced by an entity to forestall admixtures and prevent genetic quality adulterations during the different stages of seed production.Seeds of only those varieties which are released and have been registered and listed in the national variety catalog may be put under certification. This is usually backed by law or the right legislation.Generally four main classes of seeds can be put under certification, depending on the seed law in the country. These are breeder, foundation or basic, registered, and certified seeds.Breeder seeds are seeds (or vegetative propagating materials) directly controlled by the originating or sponsoring plant breeder of the breeding program or institution and/or seeds whose production is personally supervised by a qualified plant breeder and which provides the source for the initial and recurring increase of foundation seeds. Breeder seeds shall be genetically pure so as to guarantee that in the subsequent generation the registered foundation and certified seed classes shall conform to the prescribed standards of genetic purity. The other quality factors of breeder seeds, such as physical purity, inert matter content, germination percentage, etc., shall be indicated on the label. The breeder seeds shall be packed and supplied by the breeders in the form and manner indicated in the seed law of the country.Foundation seeds shall be the progeny of breeder seeds, or be produced from foundation seeds that can be clearly traced to the breeder seeds. In other words, foundation seeds can even be produced from foundation seeds. During the production of certified foundation seeds, the following guidelines shall be observed.i. Foundation seeds produced directly from breeder seeds shall be designated foundation seeds stage-I. ii. Foundation seeds produced from foundation seeds stage-I shall be designated foundation seeds stage-II. iii. Foundation seeds stage-II cannot be used for the further increase of foundation seeds and shall be used only for the production of certified seeds.iv. Minimum Seed Certification Standards shall be the same for foundation seeds both stage-I and stage-II and shall contain the information about the stage. v. Production of foundation seeds stage-II shall ordinarily be adopted in respect of such crop varieties provided it is expressly felt by the Certification Agency that breeder seeds are in short supply. vi. Production of foundation seeds stage-II may be adopted for vegetatively propagated crops, apomictically reproduced crops, and self-pollinated crops. They may also be adopted for cross-pollinated crops to increase the seeds of composites, synthetics, and parental lines of hybrids if adequate measures are taken to safeguard genetic identity and purity.Production of foundation seeds stage-I and stage II shall be supervised and approved by the Certification Agency and be so handled as to maintain specific genetic identity and genetic purity and shall be required to conform to certification standards specified for the crop/variety being certified.Certified seeds shall be the progeny of foundation seeds and their production shall be so handled as to maintain specific genetic identity and purity according to standards prescribed for the crop being certified. Under extreme cases of the shortage of breeder and/or foundation seeds in a seed system, certified seeds may be used to produce certified seeds, provided this reproduction does not exceed three generations beyond foundation seeds stage-I and the following conditions can be met.-It is determined by the Certification Agency that genetic identity and genetic purity will not be significantly altered and the Certification Agency is satisfied that there is a genuine shortage of foundation seeds despite all reasonable efforts being made by the seed producer.-Certified seeds produced from certified seeds shall not be eligible for further seed increase under certification. Certification tags for such production which is not eligible for further seed increase under certification shall be labeled \"Not eligible for further seed increase under certification.\"Certification shall be completed in six broad phases, listed below.i. Receipt and scrutiny of application.ii. Verification of seed source, class, and other requirements of the seeds used in producing the seed crop. iii. Field inspections to verify conformity with the prescribed field standards. iv. Supervision at postharvest stages including processing and packing. v. Seed testing involving sampling and analysis, including a genetic purity test and/or a seed health test, if any, to verify conformity with the prescribed standards. vi. Grant of the certificate and certification tags, tagging, and sealing for sale.Each country has certification rules with which seed producers must conform.Usually the seed producer would need to identify himself and register, and apply with the certification authority to enable them ascertain his eligibility to produce the seed class for which he is applying. The individual intending to produce seed under certification shall also submit to the Certification Agency one or more pieces of relevant evidence, such as certification tags, seals, labels, seed containers, purchase records, sale records, etc., as may be demanded by the Agency during the submission of the application for its scrutiny and/or during the first inspection of the seed crop. This is to confirm that the seeds used for raising the crop had been obtained from the approved source and conform with the provisions contained in the rules and regulations of the body.Depending on the level of sophistication of the seed program, that of the Certification Agency as well as the experience of the seed producer, there is usually no minimum or maximum limit for the area a person can offer for the production of seeds and thereby require certification, provided the certified seed production meets all the prescribed requirements. However, in emerging seed systems in WCA where seed growers are relatively new to the business and may not own the facilities and equipment for post-harvest handling and storage, there may be the need to regulate the area that may be offered for seed production under certification. This becomes even more relevant when production is under rainfed conditions and many seed producers may be depending on the few existing processing and storage facilities. Whatever the situation, it is recommended that plantings are staggered over time and that fields are blocked into reasonable sizes to ensure the harvesting and processing activities do not all occur at one time but over a longer period to ensure that high quality seeds are obtained.For the purpose of field inspections, the entire area planted under seed production by an individual shall constitute one unit provided as follows.i.It is all under one variety. ii.It does not exceed ten ha. iii. It is not divided into separate fields with more than 50 m between them. iv. It is planted with or is meant to produce seeds belonging to the same class and stage in the generation chain.v.The crop over the entire area is at more or less the same stage of growth so that observations made are representative of the entire crop. vi. The total area planted, by and large, corresponds to the quantity of seeds reported to have been used; (the Certification Agency's permission has to be obtained if there is a need to plant a larger area by economizing on the seed rate, if necessary). viii. The seeds are raised strictly as a single crop and never as mixed. ix. The crop is not so heavily and uniformly lodged that more than onethird of the plant population is trailing on the ground, leaving no scope for it to stand up again, thus making it impossible for the Certification Agency to inspect the seed crop at the appropriate growth stage in the prescribed manner. x.The crop, as far as possible, is maintained to show adequate evidence of good husbandry, thereby improving the reputation of certified seeds.Inspection of seed production fields at pre-determined times during the crop production period is insurance to ascertain and verify the final genetic purity of the varieties under multiplication through the elimination of genetic adulterations and physical admixtures, and this activity must be done with all the seriousness it deserves. Field inspections are conducted to achieve the following.• Ensure that registered seed fields are checked at the critical stages of crop growth to help to rogue off-types that may dilute the genetic purity of the growing crop. • Ensure that desired field standards are fully met.• Establish good public relations between the Certification Agency and the seed producers. • Educate seed growers on visiting times for good production practices.• Identify sources and levels of contamination that would lead to rejection of seeds of the variety under production.After the completion of the field inspection, a copy of the inspection report is handed over to the seed producer or his representative.After an inspection, the Certification Agency would give reasons why any seed field does not meet the prescribed seed certification standards in place for that crop. The Agency shall then request the seed producer to take corrective measures (if possible) and prepare the field for re-inspection later.Seed inspection staff must be personnel with the requisite training and experience. They must also be able to do the following.-Identify the morphological characteristics and attributes of the major crops under certification in the country.-Identify the common diseases and insect pests of crop varieties under certification in the country. -Apply all methodologies of field sampling for inspection.-Determine the levels of off-types, rogues, and noxious weeds. Certification activities continue after harvest when the seeds are taken to the processing and storage centers. Certification ends when the Certification Agency has followed all the production activities of the seed 35 Sampling of seed fields for inspection• Goal is to get maximum coverage while walking a minimum distance.A) Al ternate Change of Directi ons B) Model X with Linked Ends.producer until final packaging and tagging. Seed testing is performed as part of the certification process in dedicated laboratories by trained and usually certified seed analysts who are part of the certification team. The tests are designed to evaluate the quality of the seed lot in question for cultivation before they can be sold. Seed testing is the second operation under formal seed quality control systems. It has the following functions.• It is responsible for evaluating the various seed quality parameters.• It validates and concludes seed certification by providing all the needed information about the seeds it represents. • It assesses the physical, physiological, and sanitary quality of the seeds.• It fulfils the legal requirements of seed certification.• It provides the basis for price and consumer discrimination among the several seed lots that are available for planting purposes.The main objective of seed testing is to assess the quality of seeds for sowing. Seed testing is designed to provide protection for farmers and other people in the trade who handle seeds before they reach the farmer. It helps to minimize the risk of farmers using seeds that do not have the capacity to produce a good crop of the required cultivar.Several methods are available for testing the quality of seeds before planting. The method adopted for testing seeds should be based on scientific knowledge of seeds and on the accumulated experience of seed analysts. It must be accurate and reproducible. The main methods used include seed sampling, analytical purity, germination capacity, moisture content, and varietial purity.To validate the quality standards set by the Certification Agency for marketing purposes, only a small quantity of the seeds produced under certification (usually not more than 1 kg out of the total quantity produced) is usually required to be sent to a laboratory for testing. Much care and experience in using set rules and equipment for taking that small quantity of seeds for laboratory analysis are therefore required. This is the basis for seed sampling. The acceptance or rejection of the entire seed lot depends on the sample taken to the laboratory for analysis. The main object of sampling therefore is to obtain a representative volume of seeds of a size suitable for tests, in which the probability of a constituent being present in the whole seed lot is determined only by the level of occurrence in the representative volume. To ensure that the entire seed lot is not for any reason rejected for sale at the end of testing, producers are usually advised not to treat their entire produce in bulk but rather to apportion it into bits (lots), based on the history of production and processing. Seed testing is then done on the different lots instead of on the bulk production.• A seed lot is therefore a specified quantity of seeds, physically identifiable, (of one cultivar, of known origin and history, and controlled under one reference number) and for which one certificate is issued.Samples can be taken at any stage during seed processing and selling. However, the most usual times are before the seeds enter the processing plant, after the seeds have been cleaned, graded, etc., and are ready for sale, and when seeds have been in storage for more than 9 months.The sampling methods include the use of the hands, hand-held instruments such as a \"thief trier/probe\" and the stick or sleeve trier/probe, and automatic samplers.This is a laboratory test done to inform the buyer of the seeds, by means of a label or tag on or in the seeds about the entire constituents of the seeds to be purchased. The main objective therefore is to determine the percentage composition by weight of the sample being tested and by inference the composition of the seed lot, and the identity of the various species of seeds and inert particles in the sample.The pure seed component includes the following.• All intact seeds of the species submitted for testing even if they are small, shriveled, immature or diseased, so long as they can definitely be identified as belonging to that species. • Seeds of several different varieties of the species, when found.• All damaged and broken seeds if they are bigger than half their original size.This component include seeds of all other species found in the sample even if they are small, shrivelled, immature, or diseased, so long as they can definitely be recognized as seeds on the basis of morphological characteristics.This includes all seeds, regardless of species, which are half of their original size, or less, ergots, other fungal sclerotia, smut balls, and nematode galls. Soil, sand, stones, straw, chaff, and all matter other than that included in the pure seeds and other seed fractions are also considered to be inert matter. These are not absolutely essential for purity analysis but are a useful aid, for example, in pre-cleaning the working sample to remove small particles.In seed testing, germination is defined as the emergence and development of the seedling to a stage where the aspect of its essential structures indicates whether or not it is able to develop further into a satisfactory plant under favorable conditions in the soil (ISTA, 2010). The objectives of the germination tests are to determine the maximum germination potential of a seed lot, which can then in turn be used to compare the quality of different lots and also to estimate the field planting value of the seeds in soil outside or in the laboratory.Essential seedling structures These are those seedlings that possess the capacity for continued development into normal plants when grown in good quality soil and favorable conditions of water supply, temperature, and light or seedlings, which possess all essential structures when tested on artificial substrates. For cereal species the following are essential: a well developed primary leaf either within or emerging through the coleoptile, and a well developed root system.These are seedlings that do not have the capacity for continued development into healthy plants when grown in good quality soil and under favorable conditions or seedlings which possess serious defects when grown on artificial substrates. The results of the germination test under certification determine whether the seeds produced can or cannot be sold to farmers with reference to standards set by the Seed Certification Agency. Postharvest processes and handling should be given careful attention to ensure good results from germination tests.Seed health testing is not a mandatory requirement in seed certification schemes but in recent times it has become a necessity because it can help to avoid the introduction of unwarranted seed-borne and seed-transmitted disease pathogens into areas where they may not be present, especially in the international seed trade. It has therefore become a crop safety assurance test that some countries demand as a requisite for their buying seeds on the international market.What is seed health? \"Health'' of seeds refers primarily to the presence or absence of diseasecausing organisms, such as fungi, bacteria, and viruses, and animal pests, such as eelworms and insects, but physiological conditions such as trace element deficiency may also be involved\" (ISTA 1999).The primary objective of seed health testing is to ensure that healthy seeds are used in the field, harmful organisms do not travel from infected to noninfected areas within a country or across international boundaries, bacteria, fungi, and viruses as well as other micro-organisms cannot inhabit seeds and cause diseases in them.Several methods are available for testing for fungi, bacteria and viruses. The most common testing methods for the presence of fungi include the following.• Dry seed inspection Here the seeds are examined physically for the presence of fruiting structures of fungi. The method also provides quick information on insect and mechanical damage to seeds as well as on seed treatment with pesticides so that the samples are handled with appropriate precautions.The test consists of shaking the seeds in water to which a wetting agent has been added. The suspension obtained is then examined under a compound microscope and the presence of fungi whose spores are present on the seed surface is then recorded.Blotter method This is the most common method practiced in seed health testing laboratories worldwide. Seeds are plated on blotters well soaked with water and incubated for 7 days at 22 o C under 12 h alternating cycles of light and darkness. Fungi are then identified based on their \"habit characters\", and on the morphological characters of fruiting bodies, spores, and conidia observed under the microscope.Surface-disinfected seeds are plated on an agar medium and the plated seeds are incubated for 7 days at 22-25 o C under 12 h alternating cycles of light and darkness. Fungi developing from incubated seeds are examined and identified.There are a few fungal diseases where the seed-borne inoculum is located only in the embryo which can cause diseases in the subsequent generation.Here, embryos are separated from the rest of the seed tissues and examined under the microscope for infection. Infections from such fungi are often found in trace amounts, usually less than 1%.Seedling symptom test Some seed-borne fungi are capable of attacking seeds, reducing germination, or resulting in seed rot, disease symptoms on young seedlings, or even death. The seedling symptom test identifies such seed-borne fungi.• No single seed test is sufficient.• The Standard Germination Test (SGT) is usually the most important seed testing required for seeds to be marketed. • Other tests help to provide more information on the quality of the seeds.Maize seed conditioning is the most important process in the seed supply chain as it determines viability, storability, as well as the physical appearance of the finished produce while waiting for planting when required. It involves machines, engineering operations, biology, physics, plant physiology and pathology, science, and business. It must be accurate, economic, and practical. Conditioning of harvested maize seeds also turns the raw harvested seeds into pure seeds that are free from undesirable materials, safe from pests and diseases, and can be planted for a good stand of healthy plants of the desired crop (Gregg 2009). Maize seed conditioning is also another major activity that differentiates seed production from grain production after the crop has been harvested.Harvested seeds from the field are never pure. They contain trash, such as dried leaves, weeds, other crop seeds, damaged or deteriorated seeds, and insects which, when not removed, would lower the final quality. The seeds must therefore be quickly conditioned to a state where maximum quality can be ensured and also for storage until they are required for planting. Seed conditioning includes activities such as dehusking, sorting, drying, shelling, pre-cleaning (scalping), cleaning, grading, seed treatment, and packaging (Fig. 9.1). 9 Steps in the maize seed conditioning process Maize seeds are harvested \"on the ear\" with the husks attached to minimize mechanical damage to the kernels. When possible, dehusking can be done in the field to accelerate the conditioning process. It is then followed immediately by sorting by hand. Dehusking and sorting are necessary to ensure the proper drying and shelling of maize seeds because any husk remaining on the ears will prevent adequate airflow, resulting in poor and uneven drying. Prior to drying, maize seed ears are sorted by hand after dehusking to remove off-types, diseased ears, crop residues, or any other material that may interfere with drying.After dehusking and sorting, the cobs are dried to about 18% moisture content and then threshed. Moisture content above 18% may cause mechanical damage and this may reduce seed quality. The threshing is done mechanically with one of the many different small-scale or large-scale commercial mechanical threshers available in the market. During threshing, all seeds on the cobs must be removed without being broken or damaged. To prevent mechanical damage during threshing, the threshing equipment should be adjusted in such a way that the cob feeding rate and the running of the equipment would turn out only unbroken kernels to ensure good seed quality.Moisture content above 12% causes rapid deterioration. Seeds must therefore be dried to about or below 12% moisture before storage. At this moisture content, seeds can be maintained for longer durations, especially when stored under cold conditions. Seeds should therefore be dried immediately after harvesting when the initial moisture content is above that which is safe for conditioning and storage. The seed drying process should be done quickly after harvesting, sorting, and threshing. Prolonged holding of seeds with high moisture content affects the final seed quality.Maize seeds may be dried using custom built seed dryers (artificial or mechanical drying) or using the sun (natural drying). The drying method adopted is dependent on several factors including the following.• The class of seeds • The quantity of seeds to be dried • Facilities and equipment available • The weather during the drying period • Availability of technical personnel to handle mechanical drying • The economics of drying the seedsSeed drying by artificial means is done with the use of electricity, gas, or fossil fuel which can be diesel or kerosene. Custom built artificial dryers with different capacities are readily available in the market. Heaters and fans are combined to work together for the drying. The principle behind artificial drying is that seeds to be dried are emptied into a container (wooden or metal) with a perforated base to hold them. The container with seeds would be sitting on a similar-sized box with a hollow base. Hot air from one end of the box is forced through the hollow chamber below the seeds with the aid of a fan or blower. The heating source can be electricity, diesel, kerosene, or combinations of these. The fan or blower in turn is fitted with electric motors to help to force the dry air through the seed chamber. During the entire drying process, samples are taken and tested for moisture until the required moisture level for storage is achieved. To ensure that the germination potential of the seeds is not killed through exposure to excessive temperatures, a thermostat is fitted into the heating chamber to regulate and maintain the temperature uniformly at 40 o C during the entire drying period.Maize seed drying is achieved through the exposure of the seeds to the sun's energy. The method is used when it is sunny during and after the time of harvest. In addition, sun-drying is often used when the quantity of seeds to be dried is fairly small. The use of this method is also often an indication of the level of development of the seed program in a country.The use of cribs for sun-drying dehusked cobs of maize is a method found in areas where seed production may be in the infant stages and the quantities of seeds harvested by seed growers are small. It is effective when the crib is well built and located in an area where there is free flow of air around the structure and where the solar radiation levels are high. The drying structure is usually made of wood which is raised to a height about 1 m above the ground, and constructed in such a way that the width is narrow but the length is variable, depending on the quantity of maize stored. The walls and floor of the crib must be porous to enable air flow and moisture loss to take place. The structure can be roofed with corrugated iron sheets or with locally available thatch. Pieces of corrugated iron sheet are often wrapped around the wooden legs of the structure to serve as a barrier to rodents that would want to climb into the crib to damage seeds. Maize on cobs are neatly arranged in the crib and monitored over time until they are dry at which time the cobs are removed and threshed. Further sun-drying on flat drying floors may be required if the moisture content at the time of threshing is above that required for safe storage. The major problem with this method is the high level of weevil infestations especially when the cobs are not treated with insecticides before ears are put into the crib.This is the most common method used in areas where the quantities of seeds produced are small and seed driers and other sophisticated machines for drying may not be available. The method can be used for both unshelled and shelled maize seeds. In principle, smooth concrete floors or similar structures are used in areas with a good flow of air and the threshed or unthreshed seeds are spread out in the open for drying. The practice is laborious as the seeds being dried are at the mercy of the weather, birds, rodents, and domestic animals, and may require to be covered periodically, usually with plastic sheets.Seed cleaning entails the removal of unwanted materials from the seed lot to achieve the purity standards required in the seed trade. The unwanted materials may be broken cobs, pods, husks, dead insects, plant parts, and other kinds of crop seeds mixed with the true seeds.Traditionally, dry and shelled seeds are cleaned manually by winnowing, sifting, sieving, and hand picking of all unwanted materials in the seed lot. This method is laborious and usually used when only small quantities of seeds are to be cleaned. Instead, mechanical seed cleaning machines are often used. All the mechanical seed cleaning machines available in the market exploit the characteristics of seeds, such as dimension, shape, density, surface texture, seed color, terminal velocity, electrical properties, and resilience, either in single machines or in combinations to clean the seeds (Brandenburg 1977). Examples of the major seed cleaning and finishing machines are the air-screen cleaner, the gravity separator, length separators such as the disk and indented separators, the color sorter, and the spiral separator. Table 9.1 presents some physical characteristics of seeds and the conditioning machines used for their separation.Seed treatment entails the use of chemical fungicides, insecticides, nematicides, or other pesticides in liquid, slurry, or powdery forms to coat seeds so as to prevent or reduce insect attack, infection by disease-causing organisms, or to ensure good storability of cleaned dry seeds. Seed treatment can be done manually using hand sprayers or by the use of sophisticated mechanical seed treaters. Maize seeds can be packaged into 50 or 100 kg bags as well as in smaller bags of 2, 5, 10, or 20 kg, depending on market demand. When produced under certification, seed packs must bear a certification tag or certificate that identifies the seed kind, provides the variety name and data from purity seed testing, states the area, year, and season of production, as well as a code identifying the seed certification officer who issued the tag declaring the seeds to be of high quality and marketable. Two labels per pack are usually issued: one is placed inside the pack, one outside the pack (usually sewn into the pack). This helps in identifying the seeds in case the external label is lost during handling. For the purpose of certification, the name of the variety, year, and season of production as well as other seed quality information may be attached as labels for identification purposes.After cleaning, treatment, and packaging, the maize seeds can be marketed or stored until the planting season. Where possible, maize seeds must be stored at fairly low temperatures (10-15 o C) to protect the living embryo and maintain the capacity of the seeds to germinate when planted. Maize seeds meant for storage should be dried to between 10 and 12% moisture content. Storage should be in cool or cold rooms, free of insects and rodents. An appreciable reduction in percentage germination is expected when maize seeds are stored at room temperature under dry and well-ventilated conditions. A high germination percentage over a period of 4 years or more can be attained when seeds are stored at low temperatures of about 10-15 o C and a relative humidity of 45-50%. Cold seed storage structures fitted with dehumidifiers maintain seed quality over a longer period than when seeds are stored without dehumidifiers.• Cool and dry storage conditions and the use of moisture-proof packaging materials are ideal for the storage of maize seeds. • Air-conditioned rooms are better alternatives for the storage of maize seeds than the use of deep freezers or refrigerators under ambient room conditions. • The duration of storage should be given a higher priority than the storage condition when taking seed storage decisions. • Except for a very short period, subsequent exposure of maize seeds to a higher temperature than the initial storage temperature accelerates seed ageing. • Seed moisture content in storage should be 10-12%.• Bad seeds cannot be made better by storing them in ideal conditions.   The use of improved certified maize seeds in WCA is very limited despite the numerous efforts of IITA and other international centers and the NARS of the different countries to continuously breed, release, and promote the adoption of high yielding and disease resistant OPVs and hybrids that are suitable for all the major agro-climatological zones of the subregion. Most of the farmers continue to use own-saved seeds and even grain to cultivate their fields at the expense of the improved certified seeds.Why is there limited use of improved/certified seeds?Different reasons have been assigned for the continuous use of farmersaved seeds even though many good quality and high yielding varieties have been released by national research institutes as well as international centers. Among the reasons given are the following.• Farmers do not know about the advantages or benefits of using improved certified seeds. • Improved certified seeds are not available where and when the farmers mostly need them. • The production of certified maize seed in WCA is not attractive because of the numerous production constraints associated with the industry. • The majority of the sales outlets are centralized in or around the regional/ commercial capitals. From the farmers' perspective improved certified seeds are costly. • There are inadequate numbers of extension officers to educate and advise farmers on the methods and advantages of using improved certified seeds. • Other variable inputs that complement the use of improved certified seeds, such as fertilizers, applicable crop management technologies, etc., are costly. • Farming is not seen as a business but as a way of life and therefore the farmers use anything they can get for production without other considerations. • There is a lack of confidence in the improved/certified seeds available in the market due to adulteration and the sale of \"fake\"' certified seeds. • Seed marketing is also not taken as a business but combined with other interests.Despite the low volumes of improved certified seeds produced in the subregion, marketing and distribution are problems in making quality improved seeds available to farmers in the right quantities and at the right time. Seed marketing, thus, has become a way of life for the few distributors 87Strategies for Sustainable Maize Seed Production in West and Central Africa and agents with their limited knowledge on how to market and distribute seeds using marketing principles.Seed marketing is a continuous and systematic determination of consumers' needs and the accumulation of the seeds and services to satisfy those needs.It is the communication of information to potential consumers about the seeds and services available, the distribution of seeds to the farmers, and then the gathering of information from the consumers concerning the results of having used the seeds and services.A dependable seed production program requires an effective seed marketing organization that ensures adequate quantities of improved seeds are available to the farmers at the right time and place (www.knowthis.com). Seed marketing should aim to satisfy the farmers' demand for a reliable supply of a range of improved seed of varieties with assured quality at an acceptable price. Marketing is the most important, yet misunderstood business activity for those in the seed business in WCA as it frequently means different things to different people.To the farmer, marketing is simply selling what he produces on his farm. To the retailer in the agricultural sector, marketing is the selling of seeds to the farmer along with other inputs. Historically, more attention and resources are devoted to the physical aspects of seed production and storage than to the difficult organizational issues involved in managing sales and distribution. However, whatever the circumstances, a well-defined sequence of events has to take place to promote the product and to put it in the right place, at the right time and price for a sale to be made. For the marketing process to be successful the consumer's needs must be satisfied and the seed company's objectives must be realized.Until recent times, the production and marketing of seeds in most countries within WCA were done by public-based institutions. Generally, public institutions and agencies were solely responsible for all activities along the seed value chain in the various countries where improved seeds were available.Breeding and varietal development, as well as the production of breeder, foundation, and certified seeds were in the hands of public research institutions and the universities and sometimes were undertaken by parastatals or units under the various Ministries of Agriculture. As a result of the public nature of the seed industries then, the distribution and marketing of the small quantities of improved seeds produced were not done with all the seriousness they deserved, as often observed with public-based enterprises.Experience from other economies shows that the role of Governments in the seed business should be the enactment of laws and legislation to control the seed business along the entire seed value chain and thereby create a level playing field for all teams. Governments should also provide the muchneeded infrastructure, such as access roads and effective and reliable public transportation to the hinterland and all corners of the country to enable seed delivery to be done on time when needed.Taking a cue from western economies and also from neighboring countries in southern and east Africa, Governments in WCA have recently released the monopolies of public organizations in seed development, production, marketing and distribution. Seed policies and seed laws have been enacted to give authority to the private sector to enter the seed trade. As a result of this change, private seed companies and seed distributors have started emerging with notable examples in Nigeria, Ghana, and Mali.As is expected, a lot of initial problems are faced by the emerging businesses and Governments need to set up a smooth and level playing field, especially for those in the marketing and distribution channels to perform creditably.In short, the role of Governments should be to create legislative frameworks which support national seed institutions, create the appropriate economic environment, and minimize Government's interference in the market. In such circumstances, the private sector may be encouraged to play a greater role while guaranteeing the availability of seeds of reliable quality to the farmer at all times in all areas of the country.The general observation with the emerging seed marketing and distribution businesses in WCA is that many of them are small-scale with limited capacities for distribution and marketing. Businesses are low-key and lack the aggressive marketing and distribution strategies needed. Usually activities within the company are limited to a few people, usually not well planned, and also devoid of the essential integrated management approach and processes involving several employees at every level of the business. To make an impact and be able to effectively distribute and market all the seeds produced in the sub-region, seed marketing and distribution businesses should incorporate marketing strategies at all stages of their enterprise.To enter the seed market, answers to the following questions must be obtained.• Who are your main customers?• Who are your profitable customers?• Who are your most loyal customers?• How many times will your company visit your best agro-dealers?• How much time and money are you willing to invest in modern technology to help you to gain new customers?To achieve your objectives and targets set in your marketing and distribution business, ensure that your seeds are well packaged and distributed widely in areas where they are needed for planting or where farmers can easily get access to them. The seeds must be available for planting at the onset of the rains in quantities required by the farmers and the price must be affordable.To equip you to be successful in the seed marketing and distribution business, the following are a list of must-do activities:Market research and analysis are vital activities for any entrant into the seed market and distribution channel. This will involve finding out about the market and learning everything possible about it through studying the nature of the products, where and by whom they are needed, and at which times of the year they are needed and why.Many entrants in the seed marketing and distribution business in WCA do not acquire the relevant knowledge of the area they want to enter. They may have very limited knowledge about the commodities they are handling and the ways they should be handled, especially during transportation and storage. They also have limited knowledge about the areas with the potential markets. Most people enter the business because someone they know is doing well and then they also enter but without learning about it.As a result, stocks may be piled up at areas of production with most parts of the country devoid of their commodities. In the end, most of the seeds in the marketing channels lose quality fast and cannot be re-sold after the season expires.Market research and analysis, when done far in advance of seed movement, would inform people in the seed business about what volume of their products to make available on time and where. Without planning, seeds may get to places where they are needed at the wrong time during the planting season and this would not be beneficial to either the distributor or the farmers. Getting seeds to areas where they are wanted in the right quantities and at the right times is essential in a good seed marketing and distribution system.As a service to the seed marketing and distribution channels, Governments in the sub-region, through their Ministries of Trade and Agriculture, could set up information channels to help educate and inform seed dealers about trends and forecasts in the seed industry.This is the gathering of seed marketing and distribution information for the purposes of planning and making sound business decisions, such as how many bags of which class of seeds should be produced and how many would be sent where, when, and by whom, to capture potential sales and markets. This activity usually should be undertaken by all the major stakeholders in the seed business and ensures that overproduction and underproduction of a particular class of seeds do not occur.One of the major problems in the seed business as it is today is the inability of all the major stakeholders within the entire seed value chain to forecast demand for particular classes of seeds at any point in time. Linkages between the major stakeholders in the seed delivery chain are nonexistent and it is not uncommon to see research coming out with varieties that have a low demand and seed producers producing seeds with no potential market value.To avert this situation, Governments should, as a service, periodically facilitate stakeholders' meetings at which production and marketing demands and forecasts can be discussed to improve the seed trade of the country.There is the need to create product awareness, influence farmers' buying decisions, (PR) and build up a positive perception of seed companies. These can be achieved through advertising, promotion, and public relations activities. Doing business without the above is like selling a product without the seller being sure of what he is selling. Catchy adverts in the print and electronic media and on bill boards, the use of hand-bills, posters, and pamphlets are ways of advertising merchandise meant for sale, especially to people who may not be aware of its existence.A good seed marketing and distribution enterprise should have a functional advertising, promotion, and public relations unit. The activities of such a unit would be to look for new outlets where the product could be introduced. When possible, samples to try out should be doled to farmers right on their farms and during planting seasons, especially new varieties just released and therefore having limited circulation on the market. This is a sure way to increase sales and introduce the products to new areas where they might not yet be available.Other key marketing tools for a seed company • Educate farmers on the characteristics of maize varieties. As they are highly visual, display all the attributes of your seeds (roots, plants, grains). • Think through your logos and field signs. They should translate well from color to black and white applications.• Make them readable. Ask yourself whether your logo will still be pertinent if your line-up expands. Could your logo be easily placed or painted into a field sign? • Demonstrations should be carefully sited and planned, with a check of non-improved varieties or local farmers' practice. Do not use a late maturing variety as a check in a demonstration of an early maturing cultivar. Plan a farmers' visit when the potential of your demonstration is showing. Be smart; make sure that the farmers who come to see it have a convenient option for purchasing your seeds. • Plan successful field days, i.e., start early enough to think about the farmers to invite and attract, also the things to provide for farmers to see. • Future growth should be part of a plan of a serious seed company.Costing is important, i.e., how much does it cost to provide, or deliver, one tonne of seeds? • Do not ignore paper work in seed marketing, Some drivers dislike it, but it is essential for a good seed company to keep adequate records of sales, waste, left overs, etc. Records required include load sheets, routing sheets, and delivery receipts. All paper work must be returned to the company (Tahirou et al. 2012).This involves managing the seed stocks to ensure the maintenance of high germination and vigor over time, especially when in storage. Seeds are living things and, when not properly managed, especially when in storage and during distribution, they quickly lose quality in terms of viability and vigor.Once farmers have lost trust in a seed distributor through the supply of low quality seeds the career of such a distributor is ended as no one would like to buy his seeds and such information travels far among farmers. To forestall this, seeds for the market should initially be kept in custom-built storage facilities, when available, or in a dry and well aerated storage environment when not needed for sowing. Such seeds should be constantly lifted in the right quantities for distribution and marketing so that not much carryover stock is returned to the storage room when the planting season is over. Naturally, most of such unsold seeds when returned from the market would have lost quality over time.The appropriate form of transportation should also be used to move seeds from storage centers to the markets and back to ensure that water infiltration is greatly minimized to forestall loss in seed quality.Currently, the cost of seeds is the lowest item in the total crop budget for maize production in WCA. This is so because the bulk of the seeds planted are farmer-saved seeds, grain or, at best, improved seeds which almost invariably are OPVs. The use by farmers of hybrid maize seeds, which are much more expensive, is negligible but gaining momentum of late.Pricing of maize seeds is always a dilemma for people in the marketing and distribution channels since any scaling up of prices usually leads to prospective buyers shunning the commodity. Pricing, however, creates sales revenue and is important in determining the total value of the sales made.In WCA, seed prices are determined by what farmers perceive to be the value of the seeds of a particular variety. It is important to investigate before pricing seeds and understand how farmers value seeds as well as how much they are prepared to pay in relation to the benefit they expect to gain. Seeds should be priced in such a way that farmers would not perceive them as too expensive and so shun them. However, the price of seeds should be above that of grain so farmers would not be encouraged to buy and consume them for food. A good research and analysis of the seed and grain markets must be done by seed merchants so as to help them price their seeds to increase demand and the profit of the seed producers as well.Genotype × Environment interaction in maize variety testing, release, and seed production in WCAFrom 1987, WECAMAN offered, on an annual basis, improved early and extra-early maturing maize varieties to NARS in WCA through the Regional Uniform Variety Trials (RUVT): RUVT-Early and RUVT-Extra-Early. The Network also collaborated with the IITA Maize Program in the distribution of trials for the intermediate and late maturing OPV and hybrid maize varieties. Each of the NARS received, on request, 1-3 sets of any of the trials for in-country evaluation at appropriate locations. The NARS followed up with requests for seeds of one or two varieties identified as promising in the respective countries for further experimentation on-farm and prospective adoption. The Network also provided funds in support of on-farm trials and demonstrations in member countries. This approach promoted collaboration among national and international scientists in the sub-region to develop, test, and transfer to farmers high yielding and adapted maize cultivars and accompanying agronomic practices. The Regional Trials provided an important vehicle for a wide testing of the varieties and for the exchange of germplasm among all participating countries. Also through the Regional Trials, member countries, less endowed with respect to technology development, were offered the opportunity to identify varieties for their target ecologies.It is essential for the success of the seed industry of a country that national performance field trials and consumer evaluations are conducted in the relevant agroecological zones so as to determine the varieties and hybrids that qualify to be released and are worth further multiplication. Each country in WCA, therefore, has a system of performance trials which allow promising varieties and hybrids identified in Regional and International Trials to be evaluated alongside established local varieties for comparison. Invariably, a national variety release system is established which is supposed to be absolutely unbiased, transparently organized, and controlled by an independent agency. Before a variety or hybrid is approved for release in a country, the Variety Release Committee has to be satisfied that the candidate variety or hybrid is Distinct, Uniform, and Stable (DUS) and has Value for Cultivation and Use (VCU).The savanna of WCA is characterized by limited and erratic rainfall and deficiencies in soil nutrients, all of which act and interact to create contrasting growing environments (Menkir et al. 2003;Badu-Apraku et al. 2005, 2006). Therefore, multi-environmental trials (METs) in WCA usually show significant genotype × environment interaction (GEI) due to the differential response of cultivars to varied growing conditions (Badu-Apraku et al. 2008, 2009). METs are therefore routinely conducted by the IITA Maize Program in Nigeria to identify genotypes with stable and high yields. The information obtained from such trials is also invaluable to the national maize programs with similar growing conditions. It allows them to identify and select high yielding cultivars with specific or broad adaptation to their conditions for further testing on-farm and for release for commercialization and seed production. In addition, the information helps national scientists to identify appropriate germplasm with specific stress tolerance, desirable agronomic traits, and end-use quality attributes for use in national breeding programs (Badu-Apraku et al. 2009). Results of multi-locational trials in WCA have demonstrated the existence of GEI, (Fakorede and Adeyemo 1986;Badu-Apraku et al. 1995, 2003, 2007, 2008). This implies the need for extensive testing of cultivars in multiple environments over years before decisions are taken on cultivar recommendations. However, because of the limited resources of the national maize research programs of WCA, there is a need to conduct cultivar evaluation in a limited number of environments.As pointed out by Yan et al. (2007), it is important to re-examine target environments for their uniqueness as some environments may never provide unique information in separating and ranking genotypes because they are similar to some other environments. This allows the identification of core test locations where testing of cultivars can be done without losing valuable information about genotypes. Furthermore, the stratification of maize evaluation environments can help increase the heritability of measured traits, accelerate the rate of gain from selection, strengthen the potential competitiveness for seed production, and maximize grain yields for farmers (Gauch and Zobel 1997).The signing of the protocol on seeds by the Heads of States of ECOWAS member countries in 2009 and the availability of the West African Catalog of Plant Species and Varieties (COAFEV) offered a unique opportunity for the movement of good quality seeds of improved maize varieties and hybrids across the borders of the ECOWAS countries for production and marketing. The seed catalog, which contains the varieties whose seeds can be produced and commercialized within the territories of the 17 member countries, is an aggregate of the varieties registered in the national catalog of the member states. This development in the seed sectors of the ECOWAS member countries called for the identification of core testing locations in each of the current mega-environments to facilitate the selection of high yielding and stable cultivars for seed production and marketing across the countries of WCA. Therefore, a study was conducted to examine the effects of genotype and GEI in early maturing maize cultivars, evaluate agronomic performance and stability of cultivars, and identify core test locations in the mega-environments of the lowlands of WCA. Yan et al. (2007) proposed that test locations may be classified into three types: (1) locations with low genotype discrimination that should not be selected as test locations; (2) locations with high genotype discrimination, representative of the mega-environment as well as close to the ideal megaenvironment and should, therefore, be chosen for superior genotype selection, when few test locations can be managed due to budget constraints; and (3) locations with high genotype discrimination that do not represent the mega-environment, which could be used for unstable genotype evaluation.The discriminating power of an environment refers to the ability to identify an ideal test environment while the representativeness refers to the ability of a test location to typify the mega-environment. The test environments and discriminating power versus the representativeness view of GGE biplot analysis of the results of the early maturing varieties evaluated in test locations in WA are presented in Figures 11.1 and 11.2. Test environments were classified into four mega-environments as follows: Katibougou, Sotouboua, Ejura, and Bagou constitute the first group. The second group consists of Manga, Nyankpala, Bagauda, Yendi, Angaredebou, Mokwa, Katibougou, and Zaria. The third group comprises Ativeme, Ikenne, and the fourth consists of Ina. Test locations Katibougou, Sotouboua, Ejura, and Bagou were highly correlated in their ranking of the genotypes in group 1, suggesting that a promising, early maturing cultivar selected in one of these locations in one country would also be suitable for production in the other locations within the same mega-environment in different countries.Similarly, Manga, Nyankpala, Bagauda, Yendi, Angaredebou, Mokwa, Kita, and Zaria were highly correlated in their ranking of the genotypes in group 2 and therefore, a promising cultivar identified in one location will be likely to be adapted to the other locations. Selecting cultivars out of these two locations will be likely to result in varieties adapted to Ikenne and Ativeme within the same mega-environment. Ina stands alone in mega-environment 4 and was unique in the ranking of the genotypes. Kita was identified as the ideal location while Zaria was close to the ideal location. Based on this study, groups of test locations that rank the early maturing cultivars similarly have been identified in the different countries and are expected to facilitate the exchange of germplasm with a high probability of it being recommended for release and production by farmers, using the ECOWAS protocol on seeds.In another study, 18 extra-early varieties were evaluated at 17 locations in four countries of WA (Fig.11.3) between 2006 and 2009 to validate the existing mega-environments, and to identify core testing sites within each mega-environment for cultivar evaluation, release, and marketing across countries in West Africa. Locations (Zaria, IIorin, Ikenne, Ejura, Kita, Babile, Ina, and Angaredebou) were identified as the core sites of the three megaenvironments for testing the extra-early varieties in the Regional Uniform Variety Trials RUVT (Fig. 11.4). It is proposed that the research facilities at the core testing sites identified for the early and extra-early varieties in the two studies should be upgraded for conducting regional trials. This will ensure the collection of reliable data to support the release of improved varieties and hybrids across the borders of the ECOWAS countries for production and marketing based on the seed protocol.Because GEI affects differently the performance of inbred lines and hybrids as well as the quality and quantity of seeds produced in a hybrid program, there is a need to examine the stability of the inbreds and hybrids under stress and non-stress environments (Setimela et al. 2009). As a new variety or hybrid approaches variety release and registration, it becomes very important that it is evaluated for seed production characteristics, including female seed yield, pollen-silk synchrony, female agronomic characteristics (tassel exertion, plant and ear heights, standability, disease resistance, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses) as well as the male agronomic characteristics, particularly pollen production. It therefore becomes imperative at this stage for the seed research program to evaluate the female and male components of the hybrid scheduled for release under a range of management practices, including planting dates, different plant densities, and fertilizer levels (MacRobert 2009). This information is crucial in taking the decision whether to advance a variety or hybrid into the registration, release, and commercialization stages. Most of the few seed companies operating in WCA have concentrated their seed production activities in the savanna regions, understandably because of higher seed yield and ease of natural drying at little or no cost. Seeds produced under the conditions of the savanna regions are sold to farmers in all other agroecologies. The variety being grown for seed production must be adapted to the prevailing agroecological conditions of the location for seed production. There is little or no information on the effect on seed quality of the location for seed production as demonstrated in locations other than that in which the seeds are produced. Similarly, differences in the quality of seeds produced in different locations in WCA are little known. In other words, the effect of GEI on seed quality has not been researched sufficiently. One of the few studies conducted on this subject involved the seed production of ten hybrids in a rainforest location (Ikenne) and two savanna locations (Zaria and Saminaka), all in Nigeria (Personal communication with Professor S.A. Ajayi (2012), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria). The seeds were subjected to quality tests in the Seed Science Laboratory of Obafemi Awolowo University. Location mean squares were highly significant for percentage germination (%G), germination index (GI) and germination rate index (GRI). Similarly, genotype and GEI mean squares were significant for %G and GRI, but not GI. Germination was higher (greater %G) and faster (lower GI and GRI) for seeds produced in the savanna than for those produced in the rainforest location. The seed program of Ghana is presented as a case study so that other countries of the subregion could share the experiences and lessons of the country in the development of the seed industry. From its inception in the 1950s to the present, the seed program has gone through several developmental stages and re-organizations, beginning with the period when there were no research stations in the country to develop, release, and register new varieties for production. The country at that time depended on certified seeds, produced in countries such as the United States, which were donated for planting. Today, Ghana can boast of a robust and vibrant seed industry that combines both the formal and informal seed production systems, able to deliver seeds of several crop varieties developed, released, and registered by Ghanaian institutions, marketed across the country, and exported to other countries in WCA and beyond.The formal seed sector in Ghana was initiated in 1958 with the establishment, within the Ministry of Agriculture, of a Maize Hybrid Seed Multiplication Unit. The Unit specialized only in hybrid maize seed production until 1961 when it evolved into the Seed Multiplication Unit (SMU) with the inclusion of other crops. Between 1961 and 1969, the SMU evolved into a contract growers' system with contract growers being used to produce all the seed requirements of the country. The SMU in 1969 became the Ghana Seed Company (GSC) with the mandate to produce all classes of seeds except breeder seeds which were the mandate of the research institutes. The food crops serviced by the formal seed sector at the time were maize, rice, groundnut, cowpea, and imported vegetables. Also at that time, other predominantly public sector institutions and parastatals were set up and charged with the production and marketing of seeds of specific commodities, particularly cash crops (Ocran 1998).The Government of Ghana became concerned about the effectiveness of many agencies and parastatals in those years, and when an Economic Recovery Program was launched in 1983, the seed industry was identified as a key area that needed reform and restructuring. As a result, between 1984 and 1988, various studies conducted supported this view and recommended the restructuring of the formal seed sector with initiatives to encourage the development and inclusion of the private seed sector (Brobbey-Kyei et al. 1994). Based on the studies and recommendations as well as a change in Government policy, the GSC, a parastatal, as it was then, was dissolved in September 1989, paving the way for a new Ghana seed program. The new policy also directed that the production and sale of certified seeds in Ghana should be a private sector commercial activity. Hence, there was the birth of a new program with private sector involvement. As a show of its active support and commitment to the new seed industry and also to help it to survive from the start, the Government gave active support for the development and strengthening of public sector institutions mandated for the provision of essential services, such as research, the production of foundation seeds, seed quality control, and certification.To buttress the efforts of Government for the new seed industry to succeed, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) embarked upon intensive educational and promotional programs through the news media and the agricultural extension services to create awareness of the change that had dawned on the Ghana seed industry. The Ministry also registered and trained potential seed growers and dealers in the dynamics of seed production and the marketing of seeds as a business. The private sector responded positively and within a short time about 100 small and medium seed producing and marketing enterprises were established in the country (Ocran 1998).With the dissolution of the GSC in 1989, a new and well-structured Ghana seed industry was put in place in 1990 comprising public and private institutions with clear cut mandates. The policy and administrative structures required to implement the seed law available at that time were put in place and made functional.For the effective implementation of the National Seed Program, the following bodies and institutions as well as their functions and mandates were established to support the different components.• National Seed Committee. The National Seed Committee (NSC) is the highest body in the seed industry. It addresses policy issues for implementation by both the public and private seed sectors in the industry.• National Seed Service. The National Seed Service (NSS), which is part of the Department of Crop Services of MOFA, provides leadership and technical support for seed production, seed sales, and seed enterprises.The NSS organizes training courses on all aspects of the seed industry; it also serves as the secretariat of the NSC and thus coordinates the activities of all institutions and agencies involved in the seed industry.It also regularly advertises information in selected national newspapers each year on seed growers and seed dealers and their activities and locations where certified seeds and other inputs could be purchased. The informal seed sector in Ghana On-farm sources An important component of the informal seed sector is on-farm seed-saving which is an ancient practice among traditional small-scale farmers. Farmers preserve seeds of the varieties best adapted for their environment. Limitations with this practice are that farmers obtain low yields and seed quality is not guaranteed, although a wide-ranging study of farmers' seed quality in Ghana showed that, for maize, cowpea, and soybean, average germination potential remained above 70% (Wright and Tyler 1995). Also, after a short period of cultivation, seeds may become mixed with other varieties and lose their desirable characters; they can no longer be maintained uniformly and reliably.Another component of the informal seed sector is the trade and exchange of seeds in farming communities. The limitation here is that poor farmers might be unable to participate in seed exchanges. Seeds can be acquired or traded as payment for other goods and services; they can be gifts from friends, neighbors, and family members; and seeds can be lent and borrowed (Ocran et al. 1998).Local markets supply various seed types and varieties to farmers. Food-stuff traders, mostly women, bring selected crop varieties with better physical appearance for sale as seeds. Traders also supply farmers with new seeds and buy their produce at harvest. Through this practice, farmers are able to obtain and maintain their own stock of seeds (Bortei-Doku Aryeetey 1994).The Ghana seed industry has since its inception in the early 1950s gone through a number of phases, reviews, and restructurings to reach the level where it is today. Over the years the seed industry, using all the production systems known, has been able to meet some of the seed requirements of Ghanaian farmers in most crops. Today, the seed industry is very vibrant and with the passing of a new seed law by parliament in the last quarter of 2010, the stage has been set for improvement in the quantity and quality of seeds both for local consumption and for export.The Ghana seed industry can boast of a number of successes over the past years, notable among which are the following.• The industry has been able to sustain itself despite the constraints that it faces and has successfully combined both the formal and informal seed delivery systems to make available new varieties of the major cereals and legume staple crops for farmers to plant annually. The industry has in place all the major seed chain actors working hand in hand to make quality seeds available to farmers. • In the formal seed delivery sense, the country has in place two reputable crop research institutes that develop, release, and register new varieties to meet the needs of the country.• The country has a functional NVRC which continually makes sure that only superior crop varieties are accepted for release and cultivation in the country. • There is a strong autonomous seed certification and quality control unit in charge of seed certification and quality assurance in place in the country. The unit is another plus for the country as not many countries in WCA have a functional seed certification and quality assurance component in their seed program.• The country has an ISTA-registered seed laboratory, probably the only one in all the countries of WCA as of date. The laboratory is currently seeking accreditation from ISTA. • Over the past years the country has put in place and implemented three seed laws as follows:-The Seeds (Certification and Standards) Decree, 1972. -The Seed Act, 1995 (Draft), which was never passed but had some positive sections implemented. -The Plants and Fertilizer Act, 2010 (ACT 803).The seed industry has between 200 and 300 certified seed producers from the private sector registered and the majority of them annually produce certified seeds of the various crops for sale within and outside the country. In the 2011 planting season, about 4000 t of certified maize seeds were produced by the private sector, beside seeds of other crops for sale to farmers across the country.Despite the numerous successes in recent times, Ghana, like other countries of the subregion, has had its fair share of challenges militating against increased seed production and seed use. Among the major challenges are the following.• Government policies over the years have not been sensitive to the seed industry as most do not support investments in agri-business in general. Credit availability, especially from the non-public banking institutions, is one notable example. Potential new entrants into the seed business lack the required initial capital. Credits from private banks are not available as they do not offer concessional loans with low interest to people in agri-business. As a result potential new entrants do not take off. The Government should, as a policy, encourage the private banks to institute quotas from their operational funds as credit to new entrants in agri-business at attractive low interest rates. Policy can also influence tax rebates and concessions from Government to new entrants into the seed sector, especially on the acquisition and import of equipment and other facilities required for use in seed business. The sky is the limit for the new Ghana seed industry. With the promulgation of the new seed law and the liberalization of the seed industry, it is expected that the much-needed private investments will be attracted along the entire value chain to help produce enough seeds for local consumption and also for export to countries within the sub-region and beyond. With a little reorganization and setting of priorities, it would not be out of place for Ghana to continue to play the leading role in the WCA seed industry. The Government of Ghana is also expected to give the right stimulus to the seed industry in terms of policies that would be favorable to new entrants into the seed business. The day is very near when Ghana will become the hub of the entire seed industry in WCA.The Nigeria seed program (1990-2010): achievements, challenges, and future directionsThe use of improved quality crop seed cultivars for profitably rewarding experiences by farmers has been recognized as the most important strategy in boosting agricultural production. Improved quality seeds are not only the cheapest basic potential method for increasing yield, but also fundamental in raising the efficiency of other inputs, such as fertilizers and agro-chemicals.It has been estimated that over 50% of the improvement in agricultural production has come from the use of improved seeds. In essence, other agricultural practices, such as spacing, fertilizer application, irrigation, and weeding, cannot improve crop production beyond the limit set by seeds (Shobowale 2010).Nigeria stands out probably as the major country in WCA where the private sector has emerged as the kingpin in the production and marketing of improved certified seeds throughout the country to help accelerate the attainment of food security.In recognition of the importance of seeds in improving agricultural production and farm income, the The main objective of the NSS was to coordinate all the seed activities of the different stakeholders in the industry within the country and also to create national awareness on the importance of improved seeds and the need for their utilization to help boost agricultural productivity. It was also to make findings from the various agricultural research institutes available to all parts of the country where such findings could be fully utilized to increase productivity.At its onset in 1975, the NSS operated solely as a governmental agency responsible for all the major roles and value chain actors in the seed industry at that time. To achieve its objectives, the NSS worked in phases in the early days.NSS Phase 1: Awareness creation Phase 1 was used to create national awareness among scientists and farmers on the utilization of improved seeds as an engine to increase productivity.To achieve this, the main focus of the NSS at its inception included the following:-Production and distribution of large quantities of improved seeds to farmers free of charge to create awareness and the advantages to be derived from their use. -Regular consultations with all the agricultural research institutes to demonstrate the need to acquire and disseminate new technologies emanating from such institutes for the use of farmers across the country. -Widespread training of personnel in the areas of seed science and technology. -Extension of research findings from each institute to all parts of the country where such findings were considered appropriate.The second phase of the NSS (1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985) was used to provide essential technical back-stopping for all the seed value chain actors in the national program. As a result, Phase 2 was used to strengthen foundation seed production. The foundation seeds were to be collected from the Ibadan headquarters of the NSS by the Seed Multiplication Unit (SMU) of each State and used to produce certified seeds for distribution to farmers.The third phase of the NSS Seed Project (1987-1989) was used to set up the National Seed Certification and Quality Control Unit with the responsibility for overseeing the quality of the emerging seed industry.By the end of the third phase in 1989, the activities of the NSS in the country had two major components:-National Seed Production, Processing, and Storage.-National Seed Certification and Quality Control.During the second phase of the NSS Seed Project, it became evident that public sector agencies alone could not meet the total requirements of Nigerian farmers for certified seeds. First, the arrangement of the NSS with the SMU to produce certified seeds was not effective. Most States, for one reason or another, either failed to collect the foundation seeds or did not collect in good time for planting to produce the certified seeds. Therefore, much of the foundation seed production was wasted through loss of viability since the seeds were not in conditioned storage. The results strongly convinced the policymakers of the superiority of hybrids over OPVs and justified Government's investment in hybrid maize production.However, the problem of how to produce hybrid maize seeds in commercial quantities stared all stakeholders in the face. This situation led to the encouragement of the private sector's participation in the Nigerian seed value chain activities. Therefore, pari pasu with the development of hybrids for Nigerian farmers between 1982 and 1985, the Federal Government set up a Committee to draft the National Seed Decree. Among other items in the terms of reference, the Committee was to make recommendations to the Federal Government on the type of hybrid to be released for farmers and the type of seed enterprise (private, public, or joint private-public) to be adopted nationwide. The country adopted private sector participation in the production of hybrid maize seeds in commercial quantities; the decision on the type of hybrid to be produced was left to the seed companies. From the foregoing, it is clear that hybrid maize seed production was the vehicle through which the private sector entered into the seed sector of Nigeria. The early entries of the private sector witnessed the establishment of major seed companies, such as the following:-Ag-Seed Nigeria Ltd, Zaria -Temperance Seed Nig. Ltd, Otta -UAC Seed Nig. Ltd (an affiliate of PANNAR SEEDS of South Africa), Zaria) -Pioneer Seed (a merger between Ag-Seed and Temperance Seed Nig.Ltd), Zaria) -UTC Seed, Tenti, JosMajority of the new private seed companies collapsed after a short while due to large overheads and production costs and lack of technical know-how in organizing and managing seed businesses. To help overcome the challenges faced by these early private sector entrants, the Federal Government in 1990 secured a World Bank loan to help to develop the Nigerian seed industry and also to assist the private sector to \"survive\" in the industry. With this loan, the NSQP was implemented between 1991 and 1997. The foci of the NSQP were as follows:-Encouragement of greater private sector participation in the seed industry with the establishment of a full component, the Seed Industry and Skill Development Unit, to take adequate care of their interests. -Passage into law of an Agricultural Seeds Act to guide the operations of the seed industry. -Re-orientation of the public sector seed pricing policy along commercial lines, initially with full cost recovery and later making profit for sustainability. The seed policy in Nigeria was given a legal status with the enactment of the Agricultural Seed Decree No. 72 of 1992. The Decree established the National Agricultural Seed Council to promote and stimulate the development of a dependable seed industry, regulate and control the registration of released varieties, protect the farmers from the sale of poor quality seeds, facilitate the production and marketing of high quality seeds, and provide legal backing for official testing, certification, sales, importation, exportation, and use of seeds (FRN 1992).The goal of Nigeria's agricultural policy was the attainment of selfsustaining growth in all subsectors as well as the realization of the structural transformation necessary for the socioeconomic development of the rural areas. The specific objectives of the policies in the agricultural sector included the following: i.Self-sufficiency should be attained in basic food commodities with particular reference to those food commodities which consume a considerable share of Nigeria's foreign exchange and which can be produced within the country. ii.Production of agricultural raw materials should be increased to meet the growing needs of an expanding industrial sector. iii. Production and processing of export crops should be increased to improve their foreign exchange earning capacity and to diversify the country's export base and sources of foreign exchange. iv. Agricultural production, processing, storage, and distribution should be modernized through the infusion of improved technology and management so that the sector could be more responsive to the demands of developments in the other sectors of the economy. v.Increased rural employment opportunities should be created through improvements in infrastructural facilities so as to productively absorb an increasing labor force. vi. The quality of life of rural dwellers should be improved through the provision of social amenities, such as potable water and improved health and educational facilities. vii. Protection of agricultural land resources from drought, desert encroachment, soil erosion, and flooding should be improved (Kormawa et al. 2000).The National Agricultural Seeds Council was established with the enactment of the National Agricultural Seeds Act and charged with the responsibility of ensuring the implementation of the seed policy guidelines and the monitoring and development of the national seed system.States of the Federation and Abuja and the Council would, among other duties, readily monitor the seed development activities in the States. Hence, the organizational structure is appropriate for effective performance. The various institutions involved in the national seed systems and their roles and actions are presented in Fig. 13.2.Seed production and multiplication involves the multiplication of the breeder seeds into commercial or certified seeds that are then distributed to the farmers. There are three broad classes of seeds that are recognized for seed production.Breeder seeds are the seeds of a newly developed variety that are produced under the supervision of the plant breeder.Foundation seeds are the progeny of the breeder seeds and consist of the generations of seeds between breeder and commercial seeds.Commercial or certified seeds are the seeds that are produced and sold to the farmer.Four groups of agencies are involved in the seed industry. These are the crop research institutes and the universities, the NSS, the ADPs' Seed Multiplication Units/Contract Seed Growers, and the private seed companies.Nigeria has six national (Table 13.2) and three international research institutes (IITA, ICRISAT, and Africa Rice), that are directly involved with seed production. Activities of the NARS were initially co-coordinated by FMST. However, these have now been transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. • Poor seed distribution arrangement: Improved seeds produced by the public sector are often sold to the farmers through farmers' supply companies, agro-service centers, ADPs, cooperative societies, etc. Presently, some of these centers are not working in some States, with the result that farmers in such areas now get seeds mostly from private seed companies (if any) and from seed traders/dealers in the open market. Such farmers pay exorbitant prices and also run greater risks of buying unviable seeds due to poor storage and handling by the seed traders.• Reduced activity of the NSS: The NSS has a pivotal role to play in the development of the nation's seed industry, including the production of foundation seeds, supervision, monitoring, and quality control. While the NSS has a cader of experts, activities have been slowed or hampered by inadequate and delayed funding for the performance of quality control functions and research support services. It has been reported before that many of these activities are no longer performed effectively. The NSS, for instance, has not been able to produce adequate quantities of foundation seeds from the breeder seeds received from the research institutions due to the inadequate number of trained personnel in the field. Insufficient resources for training and technical assistance to contract growers have constrained the development of the seed market.Although the Unit has representations at the Regional and State levels, its activities especially in terms of quality control and seed certification have been drastically reduced due to inadequate numbers of trained staff and financial constraints. These have resulted in low output, and hence an inadequate supply of certified seeds to the farmers and adulterated and unlabeled seeds on the market.• Lack of resources for training and the dissemination of information:The Units charged with training and manpower to handle the technical aspects of the seed industry are constrained by inadequate finance, equipment, and logistics. Staff training has been stalled; hence there is lack of staff to assist in seed testing, quality control, and in providing technical assistance to contract growers. Information on the seed industry, especially about the availability of seeds of improved varieties, is not readily disseminated to the farmers since extension agents are inadequate.• Poor seed distribution networks and rural infrastructure: Most rural areas are inaccessible due largely to the poor nature of the roads. This has hindered the movement and performance of staff whose activities are required in the rural communities. The supply of seeds of improved varieties in such rural areas is also affected. Hence, farmers in these communities have been deprived of the benefits of improved technology.One of the consequences of the poor rural road system is the high cost of input delivery. The few dealers who find their ways into such rural areas often exploit the farmers by charging high prices for their stock.The NSS has put in place the Community Seed Development Program with the objective of diffusing the seeds of improved varieties into rural communities. However, this scheme is not yet available nationwide (Kormawa et al. 2000)The current Nigerian national seed policy and program are in line with regional and international standards, and make provision for the withdrawal of public sector agencies in favor of the private sector in key areas of the seed industry over time. The private sector has the potential to supply inputs efficiently and cost effectively.The development of private seed companies is vital to the Nigerian seed industry because of their reliability, sustainability, costeffectiveness, responsiveness to farmers' needs, greater commitment to quality, and generation of employment (Joshua 1997). The private seed sector from all indications is a better partner for the production of improved certified seeds and their distribution to farmers. A conducive macro-policy environment, improved access to finance, a developed and implemented regulatory framework, the timely release of improved varieties, as well as improved human capital for market development are required.With this approach to the development of the seed industry, Nigeria has the hope of a brighter future in seed production and will soon have improved certified seeds available in all corners and locations of the country for the benefit of farmers and the assurance of food security.The After the first year of these trials, if the variety significantly out-yields the commercial variety used as a check, it is submitted to the appropriate National Crop Center for multi-location on-farm trials which may run concurrently with the second year of the on-station trials to confirm the results of the first-year trials. If there is an urgent need for the release of a variety, the first-year NCRP multi-location trials may run concurrently with the on-farm testing of the variety slated for release. If the performance of the variety in the 2 years of NCRP on-station and 1 year on-farm multi-location trials is outstanding for the relevant traits, including yield and farmers' preference, the institution of the breeder in consultation with the National Coordinator of the NCRP of the crop may apply to the Registrar of NCVLBRRC for consideration of the release and registration of the new variety. The breeder then completes the relevant format with the general and specific descriptors of the variety and submits it with comprehensive data from NCRP on-station and Crop Center and/ or on-farm trials to the Registrar not later than 2 weeks before the meeting of the Technical Subcommittee (TSC) Crops and the NCVLBRRC scheduled to consider the application for the release and registration of the variety. The breeder of the variety under consideration for release has to bring a prescribed quantity of seeds of the variety for the national genebank and also to make provision for an adequate quantity of breeder seeds to be supplied to the National Agricultural Seed Council for foundation seed production.The The seed business is a rapidly emerging form of entrepreneurship in Africa.The sector in Africa has seen the rise and at times the demise of national and international seed companies, parastatal seed industries, and communitybased seed schemes. But there has been a class of entrepreneurs who have maintained and grown seed businesses that have largely been built around maize seeds, particularly in those countries where the agricultural sector is vibrant and commercially oriented. In recent years there has been a surge of entrepreneurs entering the seed sector all over Africa, as they have recognized a market opportunity in supplying farmers with quality seeds of improved varieties. This has been stimulated by a number of factors, such as the increase in seed distribution schemes by Governments and NGOs, the activities of agencies that have worked at encouraging seed sector development, and economic forces that have highlighted opportunities in crop production and hence in seed provision. The businesses of these new seed entrepreneurs range in size, area of operation, and products (MacRobert 2009).WCA has its own share of the current boom of emergent entrepreneurs of every size and nature in the seed business. . All manner of people are leaving their jobs and trades to enter into maize seed production and marketing by taking advantage of the enabling environment in the business created by the Governments, international and local research institutes with the availability of the numerous improved maize varieties and hybrids that have been released during the last few years in the sub-region.Despite the interest generated in the production, marketing, and distribution of maize seeds across the sub-region, many of the new entrants face insurmountable constraints when they enter the production and marketing business and therefore many fold up within a short time when they cannot survive the challenges.• Maize seed production, marketing, and distribution in WCA over the past years have been dominated mainly by public sector institutions or parastatals with very limited private sector participation until recently. The private sector continues to face a number of insurmountable constraints whenever they venture into the seed production and trade business. Tahirou et al. (2009) reported that new entrants, especially the emerging small private companies, face the following barriers (Table 14.1, 14.2; Figures. 14. New seed production businesses are usually bedeviled with many problems at their initial stages. Major barriers to new entrants include the listed factors as demonstrated in a study done by IITA and shown in Table 14.2, with seed companies in four West African countries.Decisions to be made before entering the maize seed business It is not uncommon for many people in WCA to enter into a business venture with very limited knowledge and information about what it entails or even what the business stands for. Most people enter because they have seen a brother, friend, or neighbor successful in that kind of business. The purpose of entering into the maize seed business is to produce good quality seeds for  competitive advantage by thoroughly analyzing the organization, its internal and external environment and potential. The strategic plan will also define the targets and measures that will be used to analyze progress towards the vision. In the case of seed business management, three strategic pillars are recognized as supporting the vision:• The marketing strategy • The production strategy • The financial strategyThe three together constitute the mission or the way the business will be formulated and managed to support and reach the vision.Before starting a new seed enterprise, the intending entrant must examine in great detail the opportunities and costs of doing business to determine if the enterprise can be successful.• Begin with a detailed market survey;.• Plan the operations, equipment, etc., required to produce and sell the planned products. • Convert the planned operations into projected costs and income.• Think about the different numbers of personnel, their various types of expertise and their specialties needed to help you to succeed. • Plan when it is good to begin and chart the course that the different activities would follow.The critical task is to assess financial needs and arrange the required finance. Estimate in detail the fixed and variable costs and all recurring expenses. The enterprise will fail if it lacks adequate financing. The proposed capital structure must be adequate and accurately outlined.After operations are decided, policies are formulated, and plans for layout and equipment purchase are finalized. It is possible to compute the costs of land, machinery, buildings, equipment, staff, labor, inventories, and other expenses. The financial requirements of an enterprise are estimated by determining the amount needed for fixed capital, working capital, and the costs of organizing and promoting the enterprise. Immediate requirements plus estimates of financial needs for future operations and/or expansion constitute the bulk of funding which must be raised to start an enterprise which has financial stability and good chances of success.Fixed capital requirements include costs of land, building, plant, equipment and other basic assets. Working capital includes the funds required for dayto-day operations, such as costs of inventory, wages and salaries, overheads, maintenance, fuel, power, services, taxes, insurance, promotion of sales (such as advertising), credit facilities, guarantees, after-sales services, etc. Financial arrangements should also include estimates of preparatory expenses and losses, if these will be incurred. After the total necessary investments have been calculated and sales forecasts made, these data are used to calculate the expected amount and rate of profit. After calculating total requirements for funds, decide how to raise these funds.Funds can come from the personal assets of the investor or his family, from partners and/or friends, or from loans. Funds can also be raised by issuing securities, such as equity and preference shares or debentures. Promoters of large enterprises sell securities directly to investors through investment bankers, or underwriters.General procedures for financing a new enterprise Determine immediate and future financial needs.• Determine how much of your own funds can be invested, and how much must come from other sources. • Determine where you can best obtain outside funds. Classify the securities to be issued, if any. • Acquire the funds required, from sale of securities, personal or family funds, loans, etc.One of the hallmarks of a successful enterprise is the keeping and maintenance of records of all transactions and activities. This all-important requirement is very often neglected or partially done. The accurate keeping of records enables the manager to keep track of all actions carried out and this often helps to check on those that are not being done Records should be kept on issues such as the following.• Infrastructure Ledgers should be kept in all cases and daily transactions should be recorded as they occur.Where necessary, a member of staff should be employed to manage the accounts of the business on a full-time or part-time basis. Samples of record-keeping charts that should be used to keep track of actions taking place in the seed business from time to time are shown in Tables 14.3 to 14.6 (Gregg et al. 2011) Suggested practical guides for a successful seed business in WCA.A seed company must ensure a crop and product portfolio as a key component of their market development strategy. A vibrant seed industry is dependent on the constant registration and release of new varieties/hybrids. At the early stages, the new entrant into the seed industry must depend on the NARS and CGIAR centers in the subregion (IITA and CIMMYT) for the initial supply of germplasm but the seed company must nonetheless ensure that such genetic materials are either suitable for or adapted to the needs of their target farmers. In the case of public germplasm from the CGIAR, access to the genetic materials may be either directly as a finished product or as source germplasm for the future proprietary breeding programs of the company.Productive seed grower base: Maize seed production requires motivated and competent seed growers who can meet the isolation requirements and production standards for seed certification and satisfy the expectations of the company. Entrepreneurial considerations for selecting seed growers should include the following.• Large farm to enable required isolation • Large field sizes (5-20 ha)• High and reliable seed yields • Capability for crop management with the availability of an adequate labor force • Opportunity for irrigation and/or off-season planting • Proximity to good roads and seed processing facilities These considerations will lead to a reduction of the costs of training the growers, seed inspection, and transportation, and eventually the total cost of producing seeds which in turn will lower the seed price. There will also be a guarantee of the consistent production of high quality seeds with lower risk of contamination and fewer contractual disagreements. Distribution network for marketing products: African farmers are widely dispersed and distant from the towns and cities where seed companies often desire to be located. Therefore, to be successful in reaching farmers who will buy the seeds, there has to be a strategic and reliable network by which farmers' access to seed is assured.Comply with national/regional seed regulations, seed quality standards and market possibilities: There is a harmonized seed regulation for West Africa which is expected to facilitate the concurrent registration of crop varieties in all the ECOWAS countries. This implies that the seeds of a variety produced in one country could be marketed in another if all seed quality standards specified in the operating harmonized seed regulations have been adhered to. At the national level, regulatory bodies are put in place to enforce the standards set by the Government and will not hesitate to destroy seeds that fail to meet the standards and sanction the company producing such seeds. This is not only a waste of resources on the part of the company but also a dent on its image from which it may take a long time to recover.Seed purchase is justified only where yield levels are high or the seed:grain price ratio is low. Low yield of crops coupled with non-availability of complementary inputs, such as agrochemicals and fertilizers, make the price of seeds a significant proportion of the value of the grain harvest. An increase in farmers' productivity is likely to favor a rapid development of the seed sector. To build trust and credibility among farmers, the company must ensure that only seeds of high quality, with high-yield potential, are sold to farmers.In addition to the seeds sold to farmers, side benefits such as free consultation, information on time of planting, spacing, and fertilizer recommendations, advice on types and sources, of fertilizer and rates of use, pest control services, grain market information, etc., will facilitate the consumers' attachment to the seed company and fast-track market growth. The new company should consider putting at least some of these services in place right from inception.Give serious consideration to seed marketing: Seed marketing is all of the following:i. a continuous and systematic determination of consumers' needs;ii. the accumulation of the seeds and services to satisfy these needs;iii. the communication of information to potential consumers about the seeds and services available, and feedback from the consumers concerning the results of having used the seeds and services; and iv. the distribution of seeds to the farmers.In marketing seeds, the best approach is the marketing concept and not the product or selling concepts. This implies that the main objective of seed marketing should be to satisfy farmers' demand for seeds. The user-farmer rather than the product (seeds) is the focal point. To plan an effective seed marketing strategy, the following four questions must be asked.i. What does the farmer want to buy?objects of purchase ii. Why? -objectives of purchase iii. Who buys?organizational context iv. How?buying operation The objects of our concern are maize seeds of different varieties in varying package sizes. The objectives of the buyer may vary. However, the buyer wants to satisfy a need which is formed through learning, social, and economic factors. The organizational context of buying is usually the family, where various members have different roles in initiating, deciding, buying, and using seeds. The buying operation is the process by which the farmer first gets the idea of purchasing seeds. He must collect information, evaluate the information, and then decide whether or not to buy the seeds.The perceived demand and the real demand are not the same. Farmers might need to purchase seeds but may not have the financial resources. Through market research, a realistic set of goals or sales estimates called market demand or real demand will be established. Market demand is the total volume of a product class which will be bought by farmers using specific technology in a defined location within a specified time period and with a certain marketing effort. Seed demand forecast provides figures for the volume of each crop variety to be sold of a particular quantity and package size and indicates the time of arrival of each quantity of seeds at the depot or sales outlet. To arrive at these figures, information has to be collected and analyzed. Forecasting market demand is based on (i) What people sayverbal or written survey of what people say they will buy in terms of seeds; (ii) What people do -determination of buyers' reaction, that is, container size, type, and seed treatment; (iii) What people have done -historical data -the most widely used method for an established program. Supply of seeds is an aspect of marketing through which the estimated demand is met. Sources of seeds for marketing are as follows.a. The marketing organization produces the seeds on its own land or by employing contract growers. This will require advanced production planning. b. The marketing organization purchases seeds from other organizations, seed growers not under contract, other seed enterprises, imports, etc.In addition to ensuring the supply of seeds of improved and adapted high quality varieties to meet the demand, a company needs a marketing strategy which is concerned primarily with meeting the need for the product and being highly competitive in the seed market. Embedded in the idea of the product are not the seeds alone but also the tangible and intangible aspects, such as the genetic potential of the variety, the quality of the seeds, packaging, and other associated services. Two main components of marketing strategy are matching the consumer and the product by bridging the gaps between the business and the customer -the spatial gap, time gap, information gap, and value gapand understanding and competing with market rivals. Seed companies face competition from farm-saved seeds as well as from growth in the number of seed companies in Africa, the so-called inter-company competitionTo be successful on a sustainable basis, the seed company needs to develop and implement a strategy to continually identify and register new products to meet the demand for improved, adapted, and appropriate varieties. There are dynamic public and private breeding programs through which new maize varieties are being produced. Nevertheless, a successful seed company will require at least some kind of variety evaluation and registration of a proprietary identity for the variety. As part of this strategy, the company must gradually put in place a research division that may start by conducting variety trials sent out by NARS, IITA, and CIMMYT annually. The company's breeders could identify suitable varieties for their clients from such trials. Eventually, the company would be strong enough to conduct its own research and develop its own proprietary varieties and hybrids.Employ a strong and reliable seed production team: A business cannot rise above the capability of its staff. Therefore, new entrants into the seed business must recruit well trained and carefully selected staff. The seed production manager must be experienced, in addition to having a sound education and relevant training. The manager must• always pay attention to seed quality,• constantly look at the seed business through the eyes of his customers and farmers, • set clear, attainable goals for his team,always plan ahead, • communicate regularly and unambiguously with his team about successes, challenges, and changes, • stay calm especially when and where there are problems, • create an atmosphere of open debate, • show extra appreciation to team members when jobs are well done, • hire people based strictly on skills, merit, and ability, • lead by example, and • be computer literate, especially in the use of Excel for record keeping.Ensure regular on-the-job training for the staff: Seed production processes soon become routine to the employees, making them careless within a short time on the job. The infusion of new ideas and skills is often needed to sharpen and \"fire up\" such production staff. The national institutes, universities as well as IITA and CIMMYT conduct training courses in seed production and technology from time to time in the subregion. Seed companies are usually invited as participants in these courses and many have taken the opportunity to upgrade the skills of their staff.Achieve proximity to a research institute/university: Since seed production is a highly specialized operation drawing heavily on science and technology, it is always desirable to locate a seed project near an agricultural research institute. The technical services of breeders, pathologists, entomologists, and other scientists will be thus readily available to the seed organization, as and when required. Current initiatives and future perspectives of the seed industry in WCA With reference to the resources and facilities available to the seed sector one can say that the time is ripe for the industry to make giant strides and move forward to catch up with or surpass seed programs in East and Southern Africa. The myriad constraints that have been militating against the seed industry must be boldly confronted and solved.Tremendous opportunities exist for the establishment of a profitable seed industry especially given the availability of the many high yielding improved varieties developed and released through the collaborative efforts of IITA, CIMMYT, and the NARS.OPVs and hybrids have been bred for high productivity under the major prevailing constraints such as drought, Striga, low fertility, especially soil nitrogen deficiency, maize streak virus, and rust. There is an urgent need for the willpower of the various Governments to make the varieties available to the farmers. To achieve this, countries in the subregion should take an inventory of all resources (including human), the facilities, structures, and infrastructure available to them, and decide on the best seed delivery system appropriate for adoption and use. In the area of policy, Governments should encourage financial institutions to support investors in the sector with credit facilities at affordable interest rates, while promoting farmers' cooperative schemes. The macropolicy environments of various countries should also be made conducive to attract agro-based businesses.One way to fast-track the adoption of improved varieties by farmers is through the establishment of a well-developed seed industry to ensure that they have access to improved varieties and hybrids at affordable prices at all times. All efforts must therefore be made to increase the farmers' awareness of the economic benefits of using improved seeds to help to create a regular market that would in turn attract more investors into the business. All factors militating against the rapid achievement of this goal should be addressed to help in the seed delivery system.To improve the delivery system and promote the release, adoption, and use of new varieties, the NARS of the various countries should be overhauled and upgraded in terms of personnel, infrastructure, and facilities. The performance of the majority is low as evidenced by the few varieties they release in a year. Their ability to release new varieties is limited and Governments should give the centers a continuous lifeline to enable them to do better. Conditions of service should also be improved for the centers to attract and maintain staff of the right caliber.Although most West African countries currently have varietal release committees, they are less than effective, primarily because of the infrequency 135 Strategies for Sustainable Maize Seed Production in West and Central Africa of meetings to discuss and approve the release of new varieties. From lack of operating funds, the committees often meet on a very irregular basis, thus extending the time taken for varieties to be released. Regular injections of the much-needed funds to the committees for their operations should be provided to enable them to meet their set objectives.WCA countries will benefit from a free flow of germplasm across national boundaries if the regional variety release process is harmonized. Maize varieties released in one country should be considered automatically released in other countries with similar ecologies. Mega-environments cuts across country boundaries and adaptation zones and are not country-specific so varieties should be released based on mega-environments to create a larger seed market and quicken variety release. To this end, regional variety releases based on mega-environments are currently being promoted and should be vigorously pursued. Presently, studies have been conducted to identify core testing sites in West Africa to reduce the cost of variety testing and seed production. Furthermore, seed policies and regulations in West Africa are being reformed by harmonizing variety release and registration as well as seed standards and regulations to help facilitate the orderly movement of seeds across borders. The uniformity of regulations would also enhance the sale of seeds throughout the region.Despite efforts made by various Governments to promote the production, release, and registration of improved varieties as well as the delivery of quality seeds to their farmers through the formal seed sector, not much has been achieved. All the countries have failed in this venture, with the exception of Nigeria and Ghana which have some good results to show. The bulk of maize seeds that are planted annually continue to come from the informal seed sector, with IITA, through its novelty community seed production modules, assisting the various communities in their seed production and delivery efforts. The community-based seed production delivery system has thus become the immediate viable alternative that could be used to make improved seeds available to farmers across the entire subregion. Countries that have not adopted any of the seed production models should be encouraged to do so. Improvements can be made to the schemes in countries that are already using them.Successful community-based seed production schemes should be assisted to transform themselves into microenterprises for sustainability and also to help to champion the cause of seed delivery. This can be further facilitated by the provision of small equipment. Given that seed producers who may be skilled in production may lack skills in small business management, book-keeping, accounting, and marketing, the DTMA project is currently organizing seed business management courses for seed companies in member countries. Such training courses need to be intensified and the Challenges to the seed industry include the need to develop a more efficient structure for marketing. There is need for seeds to be advertised to reduce the problem of marketing due to a lack of information. Partner organizations that can assist in the collection and relay of market information to potential end-users need to be identified. It would be beneficial to package and label seed in small bags of 1 and 2 kg and to have points of seed sale at strategic points in communities. For countries that do not have seed laws, the promulgation of such laws will help to ensure that unscrupulous people do not sell grain as seeds, and that farmers have easy access to good quality seeds. Where seed laws exist and are not functional, there is a need to strengthen the system through the establishment of active inspection units. More and better organized cooperatives and agro-enterprises should be established through training and linkages to appropriate markets. Such enterprises should take into consideration the lessons learnt from current community-based seed production initiatives. Improved access is needed by seed producers to credit, inputs, and market outlets for their products. The greatest impact of the community-based seed production scheme would be in areas not currently serviced by seed companies where this system should be promoted. Educational awareness campaigns, variety demonstrations, and increased promotional activities by community-based seed producers are required to stimulate demand. Apart from making available adequate quantities of breeder seeds of improved varieties to the informal seed production system, linkage with established seed companies is required. Furthermore, a compilation of released varieties, their characteristics, adaptation, and sources of seeds is required as this information is lacking in some countries. Such lists should be regularly updated as new varieties get released. A database and GIS on community-based seed production schemes are also required.Promotion of the development of regional standards for PBRs will allow plant breeding programs to generate income from the products of their research through royalties. This will allow both sectors to benefit from the product of research and lead to more investments in variety improvement.Seeds play a major role in determining the level of investment that farmers make in their crops. But across Africa, smallholder farmers have very limited access to responsive, high yielding, locally adapted varieties of their staple food crops. They must instead rely on low quality seeds that have been saved and reused, degenerating over the course of decades. Poor seeds plus poor soils mean that African farmers produce only about onequarter of the global average yield. A survey of the seed system in Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, and Bénin showed that during the period 2000-2006 there were only eleven seed companies in the study countries. From 1997 to 2007 137 Strategies for Sustainable Maize Seed Production in West and Central Africa there were only enough improved maize seeds to meet one-third of the farmers' demand. This masks large differences among countries. In Niger, for example, improved seeds cover only 4% of farmers' needs. Obstacles to the development of a robust seed system in Africa include a lack of access to capital; only 1% of commercial bank financing goes to agriculture. Lastly, it was found that Africa suffers from a severe shortage of seed processing equipment. For example, in northern Ghana, there is only one processing unit to service over 50 growers.AGRA's Program in Africa's Seed Systems (PASS) is seriously engaged in increasing the capacity to breed, produce, and disseminate quality seeds of staple food crops, such as maize, rice, cassava, beans, sorghum, and millet. The initiative aims to develop seed systems that deliver new crop varieties to smallholder farmers efficiently, equitably, and sustainably. PASS operates through four sub-programs: Education for African Crop Improvement (EACI), Fund for the Improvement and Adoption of African Crops (FIAAC), Seed Production for Africa (SEPA), and the Agro-dealer Development Program (ADP). PASS operates across the seed value chain and is presently involved in the training of plant breeders to develop improved varieties of Africa's indigenous and staple food crops including maize, building the capacity of the NARS in plant breeding and seed production, and developing disease and pest resistant maize varieties and hybrids with consumer-preferred traits. The project is supporting private African seed companies and farmers' cooperatives to produce, distribute, and market improved maize seeds, strengthening the network of village-based agro-dealers to distribute the seed to remote farmers, strengthening associations of women farmers and farmers generally, and developing seed storage and processing capacity. In addition, it is promoting policies that accelerate the release of proven new varieties, strengthening seed regulatory systems, eliminating seed trade barriers, and harmonizing regional seed laws. From 2007 to 2011, AGRA-PASS committed investment amounted to $97.0 million spread across key areas in the seed value chain -training future plant breeders and facilitating the development and release of new varieties, building capacities of existing seed companies and agro-dealers and bringing new ones on board (AGRA 2012). In 2011, 60 private seed companies in Africa benefited from PASS support and produced 39,166 million t of seed with maize accounting for 57% of the seeds produced.It is anticipated that the PASS initiative will contribute significantly to the development of the seed industry in WCA. The emphasis on hybrid seed production by existing and emerging seed companies as a means of ensuring that farmers buy improved seeds annually to ensure the sustainability of seed production and the survival of the seed companies is expected to make good quality seeds available at affordable prices. The DTMA project and AGRA are presently working in close collaboration to support the development of the industry and to strengthen the national maize breeding programs in West Africa.","tokenCount":"42086"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"de4f6f98424b387d94969fface4ceaf6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6a480297-c7e3-44e5-a2f1-a6d17e353ae2/retrieve","id":"873929681"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"77db9e14-1522-4588-a4fe-c6e26c96525c","pagecount":"11","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.The five-day training course was given to 23 meat inspection veterinarians and meat inspectors from different regions of Ethiopia, including Tigray, Borena, Oromia, Amhara, Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa. The training was conducted by our German partners and advisors from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universitaet Berlin in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture.The training started with a world café style discussion focused on the trainees\" experience in meat inspection. The discussion helped identify gaps in implementing key disease control measures in abattoirs in Ethiopia. Theoretical sessions covered topics such as diagnosis and prevention of transboundary and parasitic animal diseases relevant to the sheep and goat population in Ethiopia, technical procedures of ante mortem and post mortem inspection and elements of hygiene. The training included two half-day practical sessions in abattoirs around the Debre Zeit area and a visit to local butcher shops.The training concluded with a short progress control. All trainees who successfully completed the training received a certificate and a CD-ROM with the lecture presentations and several additional resources.The scope: The situation of the complete sheep/mutton and goat value chain (3 hours) The technical lines (vertical: the animal in its environment) from the place of origin via transport to slaughter, processing and consumption  Hazards and risks identified and allocated to each of these stages  Techniques for verification of presence or absence of the identified risks  Options for intervention (treatment, vaccination, separation, stamping out, condemnation)  Organization models (personnel, position of detection, private, public, internal, external) Training evaluation by participantsAccording to the evaluation of the training course by the participants, more than 86% of them considered their learning success as very high (50%) or high (36.4%), indicating that overall the workshop was a success.The participants highly appreciated the teaching methods and the approach chosen (practical sessions linked to the lectures and presentations given in the afternoon); more than 90% found the two abattoir visits very useful.Most of the participants (60-84%) rated the level of the lectures as \"OK\" while none rated them as \"hard\". However, the amount of the lectures was rated \"too much\" by 40-50% of the respondents.Most of the comments were positive and encouraging for another workshop to be carried out by the project. Some participants complained that no print-outs were given during the workshop. However, as stated earlier in this report, all participants who successfully completed the training received the presentations on a CD-ROM. ","tokenCount":"444"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3f9c45b6203b80c88ddc693f66371442","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5525ff32-bf19-45ed-8c6a-8317a0940835/retrieve","id":"960422346"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f2bd1efb-5459-452e-b8ed-5723f01085fd","pagecount":"17","content":"Source of raw data: FAOSTATTo aim for 2 million tons in 5 years (2028), with stable capture fisheries production (800K) and aquaculture to reach 1.2 million tons, aquaculture must grow by 35% annually and produce additional 900,000 tons. This is a tall order! Where will this come from? What investments are needed and how to promote this investment?(1) Growth from aquaculture Where can we see growth in tilapia production?• GIFT strain -WorldFish' calculations of a 10-year program involving 150,000 smallholders, to produce 720,000 tons of tilapia, with a total farmgate value of USD 1.4 billion • Greenhouse gas emissions and environmental sustainability of tilapia farming appears to be better than that of catfish. • More than 60 percent of farmers surveyed were interested in growing tilapia.• Assumption: farmers will enter/produce; input suppliers/service providers will operate; consumers will increase fish consumption or substitute fish/meat for tilapia? (future research question and data gap)Where can we see growth in catfish production?• No new strains anticipated in the near future • Can we stimulate more producers to grow → more efficient cage system and RAS (recirculating aquaculture system)? • How can we stimulate greater production of catfish?• How can we expand processing (2) Growth from other farmed species (30% of aquaculture production) o Diversification of more cultivable fish species targeting commercially viable indigenous fish species such as Lates niloticus (Nile perch), Gymnarchus niloticus (Aba, knifefish), Labeo, etc.• Wild fish caught by small-scale fishers provide the bulk of Nigeria's fish supply, however there is very little information available on species-level catch• Sub-optimal artisanal fishery production does not contribute adequately to bridging the supply-demand gap• Can we substitute imported fish with improved capture fisheries? Which species?• Potential solutions:• Better co-management and co-planning with communities (how much growth we can expect?) • Better information/data on specie catch and stock • Stock enhancement (how much growth we can expect) ✓ Artisanal fishing communities should be empowered in identifying issues related to artisanal fisheries decision-making processes. ✓ Establish rural fisheries organizations/groups and women's groups, fishers and women groups for partnership development and management. ✓ Develop an entrepreneurship plan for partnership management, including fishing plans.Consumption of small pelagic fish, increases economic and geographic access in local, often remote markets.High-yielding, eco-friendly, low carbon-emission way of using the high productive potential of inland waters to produce nutritious food. However, water pollution from crude oil and gas companies is a commonly reported threat to the periwinkle harvest (Moruf, 2020;Nlerum & Bagshaw, 2015) More research is urgently needed to address the threats to this aspect of the small-scale fisheries sector.An important priority is to determine the number of women in Nigeria engaged in the shellfish industry, and to more adequately quantify shellfish production (Chuku et al., 2020).• Various estimates, depending on species: o 8% of catfish, tilapia, and Nile perch are lost during the production or landing phases of capture fisheries o >5% of tilapia and Nile perch may go to waste at the market o additional 4-10% of the fish may be lost during processing o Up to 30% of freshwater clupeids harvest may be lost if not processed on time. • Mortality and spoilage occurs during live fish transportation.• Fish processing is mostly ad hoc; chain actors use rudimentary, unstandardized techniques with regard to fish smoking or drying.o Investment plans targeted at improving fish processing and transportation technologies; cold chains o Design, test and manufacture effective practical transportation equipment with aeration systems to increase survival of live fish.• Potentially 100,000 to 300,000 tons of fish saved if fish loss and waste along the value chain are minimized• Data gap: we need good data on fish loss and waste and on what works and does not work• Fish diseases can be devastating• Disease-related production losses in Nigeria are widely reported, but economic impacts are not known.o Mukaila et al. ( 2023) estimates a mortality rate ranging from 1.86% to 19.73%, which was valued at USD 192.79 to USD 2056.38 per production cycle, respectively, small-scale catfish farms• Health management and disease control in Nigerian aquaculture, especially among smallholders and smallto medium-scale farming practices, is minimal.• Aquatic animal health management capacity within the national veterinary system is minimal.• Limited private sector engagement in aquaculture health management needs improvement and strengthening.• It is important to assess national aquatic animal health management capacity and embark on a technology and capacity development program.• Issue: ✓ Fish supply in Nigeria is estimated at around 24 g/person/day, which is substantially higher than other animal source foods such as other meats (21 g/person/day), eggs (8.2 g/person/day), and milk (3.5 g/person/day). But lower than global average. ✓ Nigeria's annual per capita fish consumption in the southern region (16.9 kg) was higher than in the northern region (6.1 kg) in 2020, though the southern region's average fish price is 50% higher. ✓ Fish diversity and nutritional benefits through consumption of indigenous species are limited. ✓ No science-based, organized inland fisheries management programs are in place, resulting in low and irregular catches and availability of nutritious inland indigenous species to consumers.• Increasing access to nutrient-rich fish and fish products presents investment opportunities. • Fish supplies should be increased and supply chains aligned to make fish affordable and accessible to the rural poor, with special emphasis on northern states. • Dried crayfish is a staple aquatic food product in southern states and wealthier households but is not accessed by northern households. Given that it is a nutrient-dense, shelfstable and readily transportable product, promotion in northern states should be explored. • Greater awareness of the importance of fish in the nutrition of children and pregnant women is needed. • Promoting the use of products such as fish powder would improve access to fish among young children. • FDF and its partners should be monitoring and evaluating improvement in fish consumption (quantity, diversity, and nutrition)• With scarce resources, we need to prioritize and be efficient! • Use of food-grade fish, especially nutrient-rich freshwater and marine pelagic fish, as a fishmeal VERSUS using them affordable, nutritious food for rural and urban poor? • Promote catfish OR tilapia OR other farmed species -how to prioritize funding and investments? • Promoting Aquaculture versus Import ban to stimulate local production VERSUS higher fish prices and detrimental for nutrition? • Investing in aquaculture versus small-scale capture fisheries? • Useful versus Harm subsidies? • Knowledge and data -which data to fill first? What are the most important data needed to inform policy and investment? • Many trade-offs and questions remain, but some are win-win strategies for all subsectors: Enabling environment + Infrastructure (electricity, roads and transportation, cold chain, ease of doing business)Thank you","tokenCount":"1100"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7cc53a71270e17e4440ff1daf106ccad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a7d3cd9f-a785-4c36-9535-de2fa10514a3/retrieve","id":"1940749708"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e34dbd00-65fb-4454-aa19-ae40c3076dbb","pagecount":"9","content":"The breeding practice of using \"synthetic hexaploid wheat\" to incorporate genetic diversity from wild wheat relatives into modern varieties benefits the world's farmers through climate resilient and pest-resistant wheat. A 2019 study validated this practice, finding that 20% of the wheat lines in CIMMYT?s global spring bread wheat breeding program contain an average of 15% of the genome segments from the wild wheat relative Aegilops tauschii.Outcome story for communications use: More than 4.5 billion people obtain 21% of their calories and 20% of their protein from wheat. Demand is predicted to double by 2050 and wheat production cannot currently keep up. Production faces serious pressure from climate change-associated drought and heat, as well as diseases and insect pathogens.Genetic diversity in wheat is crucial to combat threats to wheat productivity. Wild relatives of wheat are especially valuable sources of resistance to pests and diseases, tolerance to abiotic stresses, and yield-related traits (1,2).Since the early 1980s, scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), including WHEAT scientists, have sought to broaden wheat's genetic diversity through the development and use of synthetic hexaploid wheat: a cross of a wild wheat relative -Aegilops tauschii, or goat grass -with durum wheat (1). Breeding synthetic wheat with modern bread wheat successfully transfers valuable diversity from wild goat grass to modern bread wheat (3). Between 1988 and 2010, CIMMYT used approximately 900 Aegilops tauschii accessions maintained in genebank collections to produce approximately 1300 primary synthetic wheat lines for developing varieties with improved traits.A 2019 analysis (4) used state-of-the-art molecular technology to measure the effect of these efforts, and found that 20% of the wheat lines in CIMMYT's global spring bread wheat breeding program contain an average of 15% of the genome segments from the wild wheat relative Aegilops tauschii.Because CIMMYT contributions are present in nearly half of the wheat sown worldwide, this means many of the over 2.5 billion people in 89 countries who consume wheat -over 1.2 billion of whom live on less than USD 2 a day and depend on wheat as their primary staple food -are benefiting from the diversity and resilience derived from ancient wheat relatives, thanks to the synthetic wheat breeding approach. The study findings validate and make a strong case for continuing and scaling up the synthetic wheat breeding strategy to meet the urgent global demand for climate-resilient, diseaseand pest-resistant, high-yielding wheat.• https://tinyurl.com/y9arrmbm More than 4.5 billion people obtain 21% of their calories and 20% of their protein from wheat. Demand is predicted to double by 2050 and wheat production cannot currently keep up. In some regions, wheat yields are now reaching a plateau, assumed to be due to lack of genetic variation (4). In addition, production faces dire threats from climate change-associated drought and heat, as well as diseases and insect pathogens.One of the best sources of genetic diversity for high-yielding, climate-resilience and stress-tolerant wheat is from its wild relatives. (2,5). Since the 1980s, CIMMYT has produced synthetic hexaploid wheat ? the result of crossing the wheat relative goat grass (Aegilops tauschii ) with durum wheat --to create a genetic ?bridge? to bring desired traits from wild wheat relatives to bread wheat. Between 1988 and 2010, CIMMYT used approximately 900 Aegilops tauschii accessions maintained in genebank collections to produce approximately 1300 primary synthetic wheat lines for developing varieties with improved traits.A 2019 study by CIMMYT wheat scientist Umesh Rosyara and colleagues validated the success of this breeding technique, finding that 20% of the wheat lines in CIMMYT?s global spring bread wheat breeding program contain an average of 15% of the genome segments from Aegilops tauschii. These lines represent the result of competitive selection for traits, including high and stable yield potential, durable resistance to major rust diseases, water use-efficiency / drought tolerance, heat tolerance, end-use quality, and enhanced Zn and Fe content for nutrition (13, 14).For example, the synthetic-derived variety Chuanmai 42, released in 2003, reached a record yield of 10.7 t/ha in 2010 ? 30% higher than the previous provincial record for a wheat variety (12). A survey (4) of users and breeders in China, India, Argentina, Pakistan, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Bolivia found that farmers cited disease and pest resistance, yield potential, and yield stability, as the top traits they observed in their synthetic wheat derived varieties, with drought-tolerance observed in nearly a third of these varieties.Because CIMMYT contributions are present in nearly half the wheat sown worldwide, this means many of the over 2.5 billion people in 89 countries, who consume wheat --over 1.2 billion of whom live on less than US$2 a day and depend on wheat as their primary staple food --are benefiting from diversity and resilience derived from ancient wheat relatives.","tokenCount":"778"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0b0ebdcd2db7769849f8b41d2e0f6b17","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/04a65e9b-3a46-4b2c-b6bf-8c9cfafc99b5/retrieve","id":"1458095638"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"60dc2254-e32d-4af0-b52b-941a13472064","pagecount":"4","content":"For many years, the focus of Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D), both within CGIAR and beyond, revolved around commodity-focused, technologytransfer-driven approaches that aimed to maximize yield and profit through improved varieties and management practices. Research methodologies were primarily designed to meet biophysical objectives, often -either intentionally or unintentionally -overlooking the needs and priorities of certain end-users and system implications. Few social scientists were involved, and even fewer gender and inclusion experts. Donors and other upstream actors expected \"quick wins\" and \"big bang for each buck\" explained in linear results models, too often ignoring related social implications and pursuits of deeper, systemic changes that take longer to unfold.This one-track thinking has resulted in a myriad of unintended consequences 1 that have exacerbated inequity within communities and caused long-term environmental ramifications. Some of these negative outcomes of AR4D research and implementation may be influenced by factors beyond AR4D actors' control. Nevertheless, extensive gender research and feminist theory consistently highlight recurring patterns, such as women' s unequal access to capital, social networks, and gender norms, resulting in their (and others') limited ability to benefit from innovations compared to more powerful actors. Thus, given the consistency of these results, it is evident that AR4D actors have significant agency in preventing these 'unintended' consequences. As AR4D actors, we can enhance our upstream methods and capabilities to promote more effective innovation and scaling, while also taking responsibility for the subsequent effects in the field -conducting relevant ex-ante assessments and building in socioecological safeguards (see also Commentary 2).We are already seeing a growing appreciation for inclusivity within Agriculture Innovation Systems (AIS) thinking, with a greater focus on context and enabling environments. This approach allows research to better address the specific constraints faced by smallholder farmers from a more holistic perspective. To further enhance AR4D initiatives, it is imperative to engage social scientists and local experts, ensuring local relevance. Their collaboration is essential for gaining insights into the diverse intersectional social groups -and not just the priorities of the household head -within smallholder farming communities, with the goal of augmenting resources and refining strategies, or pursuing socially transformative goals. Integrating new partners and inclusive approaches may challenge our own beliefs and personal blind spots concerning \"hard and soft\" sciences, sexist or racist biases, and our own positions on what is important to prioritize within AR4D.To get this right, we need to think as if there is no box. We need to forge unconventional and inter-sectoral alliances in research, academia and development to address the wicked challenges we face in agriculture and food systems today. Strengthening our own capacityand that of our partnersto ensure uptake at scale of our cutting-edge, evidence-based (gender-responsible) solutions will be crucial to achieving equitable, sustainable, productive, and climate-resilient food systems.\"Ranjitha Puskur leads gender and youth research at the international Rice Research Institute ans is a socio-economistAs the landscape of actors involved in AR4D evolves, partnerships are forming between diverse stakeholders, including farmers, communities, and policymakers, and new collaborative methodologies are emerging to assess the scaling potential and the social, as well as ecological, dynamics of agricultural innovation systems. Some tools, such as the Scaling Scan and GenderUp have been developed for this purpose. However, it's important to note that while these tools support existing strategies, they may not inherently invoke reflective systems thinking.It is thus critical to better link the science of innovating and scaling with the upstream A4RD landscape -innovation systems, donor priorities and incentives, as well as scaling decisions in program management. These actors often decide whose priorities are reflected, and prioritized, while more attention must be paid to elite capture and mal-adaptation, or further marginalization. Such reflexive guidance has begun to emerge for AR4D actors in initiatives such as the Equity Principles. User-led and centered long-term approaches must be central in this process, including grassroots, farmerinclusive innovation, and local leadership building. Furthermore, contextual power dynamics and potential unintended consequences of scaling need to be formally taken into account.To do this, we also need to look in the mirror -\"we cannot preach for transformation, and not change our own perceptions and standards, becoming aware of our biases and privileges, or fail to question the current development agenda setting, to break away from colonial, top-down methods.\"A challenge to do so is that projects and research-output driven incentive systems (i.e., the \"publish or perish\" mentality) may undermine innovative thinking. Rewards for maintaining the status quo -resulting in more publications, or 'faster' outcomes -rather than for taking risks by exploring new research niches or partnerships can impede the willingness to \"fail forward,\" or apply lessons from failures rather than getting caught up in something not working. The projects and research key performance indicators often, as a result, favor quantity rather than quality. Instead, we should shift our approach towards adaptive project management. This means that, when projects don't produce the expected outcomes, we should be open to learning from these failures and adjust our plans iteratively. We must embrace collaborative projects and publications that necessitate extended timelines when diverse researchers collaborate, such as varied ethnic backgrounds, linguistic backgrounds, academic disciplines, or even due to differing experiences between women and men in academia.Relevant Research Questions: Understanding Upstream and Downstream AR4D dynamics Á What methodologies can be used to create comprehensive \"maps\" of AR4D stakeholders operating within different Agricultural Innovation Systems contexts, applying a systems lens?Á Who are the social groups and different stakeholders we should include for the desired social outcome change? How do we ' sweep in' their perspectives and aspirations while designing our research?Á There are always winners and losers in innovation and scaling. How do we take accountability for our decisions about what is 'in' a system and who is 'in' and 'out' of the system we define as 'upstream' actors? And the resulting consequences?Á What internal and external incentives are needed to enable researchers to take more risks to enable transformative outcomes?Á What methods are effective for identifying and engaging with the most marginalized communities in AIS?Á What tradeoffs do institutions face when deciding between different AIS models and tools, and how can they make informed decisions that align with their social goals and objectives?Á What gender transformative and accommodative approaches can lead to the empowerment of women in AR4D and address gender specific bottlenecks (i.e., limited access to technologies, information, land rights)?To learn more: ","tokenCount":"1053"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d3e50e091878a08d3197625c5851a0eb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f124d7da-e9d5-4bc6-8e88-b9ba4c4d213f/retrieve","id":"31869868"},"keywords":["Biodiversity","Crop germplasm","Food security","Interdependence","Multilateral system","Pedigree analysis"],"sieverID":"d75ccb49-c7fe-4e6a-94b8-18841f55ab27","pagecount":"10","content":"An analysis of food crop germplasm flows into and out of Bhutan was carried out to determine the extent of reliance of Bhutanese agriculture on introduced germplasm. Methods used included literature review, key informant interviews, field visits and crop pedigree analysis. Bhutan has been introducing foreign germplasm since the 1960s. By December 2015, about 300 varieties of 46 food crops including several non-traditional crops were introduced. Germplasm sources include CGIAR centres such as IRRI, CIMMYT, ICARDA, and AVRDC and countries such as Bangladesh, India, Japan, Korea, Nepal, and Thailand. Pedigree analysis of rice varieties indicated that 74% of the released varieties originated in other countries. Using imported germplasm, Bhutan has formally released over 180 varieties of cereals, fruits and vegetables. Initially, the germplasm flow was largely unregulated, but the country has been developing formal exchange mechanisms with the creation of the National Biodiversity Centre (NBC) in 1995. Findings point to a strong reliance on external germplasm for the country's major food crops. International germplasm exchanges will remain important to deal with new environmental and climatic conditions and given the limited national plant breeding capacity. National agricultural policy should give higher priority to collaborative development of new crops in the Himalayan region and beyond.No country in the world is self-sufficient in germplasm to fulfill its food requirements. Most major agricultural crops evolved over a period of thousands of years in the developing countries which have the greatest concentration of genetic diversity. Many countries heavily depend on non-indigenous crops and imported germplasm for food and agricultural development (Fowler et al. 2000). Today, all countries and all regions have become highly interdependent (Galluzzi et al. 2015;Khoury et al. 2016). In order for countries to successfully adapt to climate change it is expected that this interdependency will further increase (Reynolds 2010;Yadav et al. 2011). Modern-day germplasm flows are not necessarily associated positively with historic centers of diversity, but find their sources in international and national genebanks and breeding programs based in other parts of the world. Bhutan is a good example of a country that has been and continues to be highly interdependent in this regard in particular concerning its major food crops. An analysis of the historical evolution of interdependency contributes to a better understanding of the particular political economy of Bhutan. It also provides insights helpful in developing more effective germplasm exchange strategies for today and tomorrow.Bhutan is a small landlocked country located in the southern Eastern Himalayas which for centuries has largely remained isolated from the rest of the world. Agriculture is the mainstay of the people with an estimated 70% of the population engaged in farming and related activities. Rice, maize, wheat, barley, buckwheat and millets are the major cereal crops cultivated. Rice, maize, and wheat are the country's major food crops. The majority of Bhutanese farmers continue to practise a largely self-sustaining, integrated and subsistence-oriented agricultural production system, growing a variety of major and minor crops and raising livestock to meet household food security needs. Over centuries, farmers have selected and cultivated a wide array of crops and crop varieties that have adapted well to the many micro-climatic and agroecological niches in the country. In the 1960s, however, the government of Bhutan started the promotion of new, modern crops and crop varieties in order to meet increasing food demand. The research and extension system of the Department of Agriculture is geared towards finding and promoting new high yielding crop varieties in an effort to enhance production, reduce food and input imports and improve food sufficiency and security. Among the impacts of this push toward modern varieties has been the displacement of genetically diverse farmer cultivars by a few modern bred varieties that have a narrow genetic base. An adoption study of new rice varieties in 2010 indicated that 42% of the total rice area in the country was cultivated with modern varieties, in particular in the altitudes below 1800 m above sea level (Ghimiray 2012). Production is dominated by three varieties (IR64, Khangma Maap and BR153). Similarly, 49% of the maize area is occupied by modern varieties dominated by a single variety Yangtsipa. There are no studies on wheat, but estimates made by interviewed agricultural specialists suggest that the adoption rate of modern cultivars is very high in the wetland systems where wheat is grown. As a result and perhaps surprisingly, Bhutanese subsistence farming relies strongly on the use of modern varieties.Green revolution technologies have been promoted in Bhutan since the start of the government's so-called planned development period. New high yielding varieties that were available in India were introduced and their seed multiplied on government farms and then supplied to farmers. A few of these varieties (e.g. wheat variety Sonalika, rice variety IR8) are still prevalent among farmers. Along with the seeds, synthetic fertilizers and agro-chemicals were popularized. In addition, large irrigation channels were built. However, the rate of success was not as high as in India where more uniform tropical environments prevail. Bhutan is characterized by a high diversity of agro-ecological conditions, diverse farming systems, subsistence agriculture and low technology absorption capacity of farmers. These features explain the lower rate of the adoption of green revolution technologies and techniques.The overall policy objectives of the Royal Government of Bhutan for biodiversity are that biodiversity issues will be integrated into the economic development plans and programs, special attention will be given to support parks and protected areas and effective buffer zones management, and information on biological diversity will be developed for conservation and sustainable utilization of biodiversity resources.There are no specific policies designed to conserve, utilize and protect the rich agro-biodiversity of the country. In general, Bhutan's agricultural policies favor and focus on the production of a few uniform modern varieties of crops in favorable pockets supported by intensive input use and a technical support package approach. Policies lack an analysis of the impact of this approach on on-farm genetic diversity. The notion that economic benefits can be derived only from the promotion of modern varieties and associated technologies still dominates the policy formulation process. Current agricultural and economic policies focus on introduction and promotion of major crops and modern varieties ignoring the suitability and potential of local landraces, including their potential to adapt more effectively to climate change.The green revolution and the modernization of Bhutanese agriculture were made possible due to the introduction of foreign germplasm. This paper analyzes, in the following sections, the patterns and trends of germplasm flows into and out of Bhutan, the extent of its reliance on external germplasm for the country's major food crops and agriculture, the use of imported germplasm in Bhutanese crop improvement programs, the use of Bhutanese germplasm in variety innovations, and factors influencing germplasm exchange and constraints and opportunities in accessing germplasm. The analysis is enriched by a case study of rice varieties released in Bhutan. Pedigree analysis is a useful tool to determine the degree of the country's reliance on germplasm from other countries. Such an analysis of the historical evolution of interdependency can provide insights to develop more effective germplasm exchange strategies for today and tomorrow. As far we know this study is the first of its kind in Bhutan.The present study on germplasm flows relied on i) a review and analysis of available literature (both published and unpublished) and reports, ii) visits to different institutions such as research centers (the country's Renewable Natural Resource Research and Development Centers or RNR-RDCs), seed production farms (National Seed Centre or NSC) to collect information and interact and interview with scientists, administrators and managers and iii) interviews with individual experts (some of them retired) in the field of agriculture and plant genetic resources to obtain information that is unavailable in written or published form. The review of literature and technical reports included annual technical reports of RNR-RDCs, proceedings of research meetings and workshops, research publications of RNR-RDCs, consultant reports, journal publications and other internal reports of institutions in Bhutan in addition to international literature provided by Bioversity International. No previous study of crop germplasm flows and interdependency could be found. Four RNR-RDCs namely Bajo, Jakar, Bhur and Wengkhar were visited in order to interact with research colleagues. The visits also included a trip to the NSC head office in Paro. For pedigree analysis, pedigree information on released varieties from the International Crop Information System (ICIS) was extracted with the collaboration of Dr. Madan Bhatta and Dr. B.K. Joshi of the National Agriculture Research Council of Nepal. Varieties of nationally important crops in Bhutan like rice were used for the pedigree study. Review of country and crop specific pedigree literature was done in addition to interviews with crop breeders in the RNR-RDCs.Agricultural research in Bhutan started with the introduction of exotic crop varieties and modern cultivation methods aimed to increase production. Among the existing institutions, the RNR-RDCs are the oldest dealing with crop improvement research. The RNR-RDCs, which are under the Department of Agriculture, are actively involved in development and utilization of crop genetic resources in field crops and horticulture (Ghimiray and Katwal 2013). The RNR-RDCs are assigned specific commodities such as rice, maize, fruits and vegetables. They maintain small germplasm collections and tree mother field blocks for the regeneration of seed. The NSC handles larger amounts of crop germplasm including that of potato mainly for marketing purposes.The germplasm flow into the country is facilitated by the RNR-RDCs while the overall regulation is provided by the National Biodiversity Centre (NBC). Each RNR-RDC, with the given national mandate (for instance, RNR-RDC Bajo for cereals and RNR-RDC Wengkhar for horticultural crops) links with relevant CGIAR centers or with regional research centers to obtain germplasm. These focal RNR-RDCs then supply relevant germplasm to other RNR-RDCs for testing and adaptation. Apart from the RNR-RDCs, germplasm is also brought in by donor-assisted projects involved in agricultural development. For instance, a UNDP supported horticultural development project and a JICA (Japan) project were instrumental in securing germplasm of fruits, nuts, vegetables and cereals.For Bhutanese germplasm to flow out of the country, NBC serves as the nodal agency and requires established procedures to be completed before samples move out. The patterns of germplasm flow into and out of the country have changed over time. Initially, with the commencement of research in the 1980s, a lot of germplasm was brought in for quick testing and release of varieties. Several tested germplasms were released as varieties for different agro-ecosystems. Now the amount of germplasm flowing in has decreased slightly. Within the country, the pattern of germplasm flow has not changed very much. Germplasm flow out of the country was greater in the past, prior to the creation of NBC. This was mainly because of the lack of regulations in place. Nowadays the outflow has decelerated.Although the history of formal agricultural research in Bhutan is relatively young, since institutionalized research started only in 1982, a considerable amount of germplasm flow has occurred in the country. Altogether, as of December 2015, a total of 46 different crops and 297 varieties have been introduced and imported into the country. The main staple food crops of Bhutan are rice, maize and wheat. Introduced varieties tested and released in the country are gradually displacing the traditional landraces. In rice, 42% of the area is under improved varieties (Shrestha 2004). Imported varieties of maize cover 49% of the area (Shrestha et al. 2006). All wheat varieties in the main irrigated wetland system are recent introductions.The RNR-RDCs are the primary institutes involved in crop improvement research. As the findings of the research indicate, these institutes rely heavily on external sources for their crop improvement programs. New germplasm is introduced, tested and if found suitable, directly released as varieties so that farmers can access them. In a few cases, introduced germplasm is also used in crop breeding programs. Rice is an example where IRRI germplasm is used to develop local varieties for disease tolerance and high yield. The extent of reliance on foreign sources varies from crop to crop. For instance, there is about 50% reliance on imported germplasm of rice and maize. All spring wheat varieties grown in the country are introduced. There is less reliance on secondary crops such as buckwheat, barley, millets and oil crops. In horticultural crops, both fruits and vegetables, the extent of reliance is estimated at 70-80% as most crops and varieties are relatively new introductions in the country. There is no local germplasm of crops such as hazel nut, pecan nut, apples, cabbages, grapes and avocado and thus there is total reliance on imported germplasm for these.The agricultural research and development system has so far developed and released over 180 varieties of cereals, fruits and vegetables (CoRRB 2009). These include 41 varieties of cereals, oil crops and grain legumes, 75 varieties of 28 vegetable crops and 65 varieties of 22 fruit crops. Except for eight varieties of rice that were bred locally, all the other varieties are direct introductions from other countries and research institutes. Such varieties, developed elsewhere, were introduced, evaluated and released for cultivation in Bhutan.Among cereals, rice is the most important staple food of the Bhutanese people. Although there are no precise historical records of its introduction, rice must be one of the earliest cultivated food crops in Bhutan (Dorji et al. 2015). Records of the Bondey farm indicate that the first introduced modern rice variety was a Japonica variety named No 11 from Japan in 1968. This variety is still popular in the temperate regions of the country. New rice germplasm started to flow into the country in 1984 when collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was established. The flow of rice germplasm still continues averaging about 300 new breeding lines and varieties from the international rice nurseries of IRRI per year. Research in maize started in the early 1990s. Through links with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) the flow of maize germplasm began and every year about 100 new materials are brought into the country for testing on station and on-farm.New germplasm of wheat came to Bhutan as early as 1972 in the form of the Sonalika variety, one of the most successful stories of the Green Revolution. When formal links were made with CIMMYT, wheat germplasm from international test nurseries was introduced. This type of germplasm exchange continues at the present time. Apart from CIMMYT, wheat germplasm has also come from neighboring countries such as India and Nepal. New germplasm of millets from India and barley from the International Center for Agriculture in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) were introduced. This collaboration with international research centers is very important for the country given the very limited plant breeding capacity that exists there.Hybridization of traditional Bhutanese rice cultivars with improved varieties or lines was started in the middle of the 1980s as a longer term strategy for the improvement of Bhutanese rice varieties. The Bhutanese rice varieties are low yielding and response to added inputs is limited due to lodging and disease. However, they are valued for their yield stability and grain quality. The principal objective of the cross breeding program is to assimilate desirable genes for high yield, adaptability, grain quality, cold tolerance and disease resistance from various sources. To date, over 150 crosses have been made involving traditional Bhutanese varieties and improved breeding lines and/or varieties from elsewhere (Ghimiray 2005). More than 60 popularly grown varieties from the high and mid-altitude rice growing zones were used as local parents. RDCs have cross bred and developed 8 rice varieties which are better adapted to local conditions.The appropriateness of foreign varieties of rice in the high altitude ecosystem of Bhutan is less certain. This ecosystem covers an altitude range of 1800 to 2800 m above sea level and has very specific environmental and climatic conditions. Experience has shown that imported germplasm, particularly from IRRI, fails to meet the local requirements of cold tolerance, earliness, blast resistance and grain quality (medium amylose). The effective flow of imported germplasm to this ecosystem has been limited. Rice germplasm from similar temperate environments of Japan, South Korea, northern China and the hills of Nepal is known to be more suitable.However, accessing germplasm from these countries has been very difficult in the absence of effective institutional collaboration which has not received high priority in the national agricultural policy. At the same time, national efforts to improve local varieties for the higher altitudes, for example through participatory variety selection, have been very limited.New crops also include sub-tropical fruits and nuts, vegetables, cereals, oil crops and grain legumes. Among the subtropical fruits and nuts, many new crops such as almond, grapes, figs, loquat, olive and litchi have been introduced. Germplasm of various citrus such as mandarin, lime and lemon for testing as well as for rootstock purposes has been acquired. The main sources of germplasm have been Europe, Japan, Thailand, Australia and India for temperate and sub-tropical fruits and nuts. The country has also imported new germplasm of non-traditional crops such as mango, avocado and olive. Pakistan, India, Nepal, Japan and Bangladesh are the major sources of germplasm for oil crops and grain legumes.Traditionally, vegetables in Bhutan were limited to a few crops such as chili, green leaf, leaf onion, radish and beans. A demonstration farm was established in Bondey, Paro in 1966 with the assistance of the Japanese government and, for the first time, new vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, cabbage, tomato and pea were grown in the country. According to interviewees, the Bondey farm played an important role in international germplasm exchange, but only one unpublished manuscript could be retraced documenting its efforts (Anonymous Undated). With the start of vegetable research in the 1990s, foreign germplasm of many non-traditional crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, lettuce and asparagus has been successfully tested and is now grown in the country on a commercial scale. Vegetable germplasm has been sourced from Nepal, Japan, India, Taiwan (from the World Vegetable Centre or AVRDC), Thailand and USA. The country has one commercial vegetable seed company, but most of the seeds are imported from abroad (India in particular). While the biodiversity of vegetable crops has expanded and enriched the existing diversity and also contributed to the overall nutritional diversity in the country, the reliance on foreign sourced germplasm has increased at the same time.The germplasm flows presented so far are complemented with a case study of rice pedigree analysis. The main aim of pedigree analysis is to determine the international character of (new) varieties released and establish the extent of the country's reliance on sources from other countries and international organizations. Genetic diversity of varieties being cultivated helps to stabilize crop production because of its buffering effect on the development of new races of pathogens or insect pest biotypes. Genes controlling resistance are often localized in the nucleus, but some may be present in the cytoplasm as in the case of downy mildew resistance in corn for example. Thus, one of the approaches to study genetic diversity is to look at the nuclear and cytoplasmic background of the released varieties. Countries of origin of released varieties reflect nuclear diversity, based on the assumption that different countries utilize their own locally adapted materials (Javier 2007).Since 1988, the National Seed Board of Bhutan has released 23 rice varieties for the high, mid and low altitude environments. The improved varieties originated from Japan, Nepal, China, Korea, Philippines, India and IRRI (Table 1). One introduction from Nepal named Chummrong is an IRRI-developed breeding line introduced in Nepal at an earlier time. Eight of the varieties released were developed by Bhutanese plant breeders, reflecting the RNR-RDC's capability to generate their own materials using limited resources.The genetic history of the released varieties was traced back to the ancestral female parent (landrace) using the International Rice Information System. Paro China (introduced in Bhutan without passing through the formal channels) and No 11 (INGER-distributed germplasm believed to originate from Japan) have no pedigree records for genealogical analysis. The ancestral female parents identified for the remaining varieties were Cina, Aikoku, Local Maap, DunghanSahli, Tomoe Nishiki, Sikal PL1 and Jameli. The cytoplasmic sources are land races from Indonesia, Japan, Bhutan and one variety recorded with Hungary as origin (since Hungary does not have rice land races of its own this variety must have been accessed from the national genebank, but sourced from elsewhere). In general, the varieties released have wide cytoplasmic diversity. Traditional varieties and landraces provide the genetic basis and diversity for development of modern varieties. Extant genetic diversity depends on the initial germplasm pool and their use by farmers. Pedigree relationships between varieties help to analyze the level of genetic variation (Joshi 2005) and also determine the relative contribution of local and foreign genetic sources in variety development. Pedigree analysis of three rice varieties released in Bhutan was done. Two of the varieties, Yusi Ray Kaap-2 and Bajo Maap-1 were bred locally while IR 64 was developed by IRRI. For the development of Yusi Ray Kaap-2, 50% contribution came from a Japanese variety Akiyutaka. Similar to breed Bajo Maap-1, a Thai variety Gam Pai-15and a Taiwanese variety Taichung Native-1 contributed 25% each (Table 2).There are not many records as far as germplasm outflow is concerned. In the 1970s and 1980s, a few germplasm exploration missions were undertaken in Bhutan by CGIAR centers such as IRRI, CIMMYT and by AVRDC and also by some interested plant collectors from Japan, Korea and USA. The exact number of germplasm collected and taken out of the country remains unrecorded and unknown. In the past, visiting scientists from CGIAR centers, countries and international organizations often collected and carried back germplasm without any problem. The gene banks of IRRI, AVRDC, CIMMYT, ICARDA and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) hold Bhutanese germplasm. In addition, the national gene bank of Japan and some university genebanks of Japan possess germplasm from Bhutan. The Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew and Edinburgh in the UK grow and showcase many ornamental plants (Rhododendron, bamboo) from Bhutan. Bhutan's National Biodiversity Centre (NBC, holding the national genebank) is now trying to trace such germplasm and repatriate it to the national genebank in Serbithang, Thimphu. However, queries to genebanks and institutions believed to hold Bhutanese germplasm are generally ignored and information is hard to obtain.The records available at NBC from 2009 until the middle of 2014 indicate that a total of 88 applications for a (Standard) Material Transfer Agreement were received and 85 of those were signed, mostly for academic and commercial purposes. A total of 85 samples were taken out of the country including 49 plant, 11 soil, 7 insect and 13 others. Prior to the Convention on Biological Diversity the awareness about the importance of germplasm flows, interdependency and conservation of agricultural biodiversity was low in Bhutan. With the establishment of NBC in 1998 as the umbrella agency for biodiversity conservation in the country, protocols and regulations for germplasm exchange have gradually been put in place (NCCAP 2013). As part of these efforts, the NBC has, since 2011, developed new policies, rules and regulations for the effective implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).Bhutan is a signatory country to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). The country is in the process of notifying the Secretariat of the ITPGRFA about its national ex situ accessions to be included in the multilateral system of the ITPGRFA through which international exchanges are facilitated. More about the Bhutanese germplasm can be found in the genebanks of CGIAR centers and in some national gene banks through which germplasm has been distributed in recent years. While detailed information on what is shared and with whom is not available, IRRI has provided information on Bhutanese rice accessions that were accessed from its genebank. From 1979 until 2013, 44 countries around the globe have accessed Bhutanese rice germplasm for research, evaluation, commercial and other purposes. Samples prior to 1994 were sent without MTA (Material Transfer Agreement). From 1994 to 2006, IRRI used the FAO MTA while materials distributed after 2007 were sent using the SMTA (Standard Material Transfer Agreement). A total of 3802 samples of 422 varieties were distributed. Among the countries accessing germplasm, the Philippines (Fig. 1) topped the list with 1430 samples, followed by Japan (471), Denmark (351), the UK (288) and China (211). Bhutan repatriated 351 rice accessions in 2007 from IRRI for preservation in its national gene bank. Among the rice varieties, Phudugey was most sought after with over 100 samples distributed in more than 17 countries. Other popular Bhutanese varieties which were often accessed include Abri, Farangey, Gymbja, Yankum, Dakpa Bara, Kati, Ngabja, Dumbja, KaamMra, Zakha, Takmaru, Asu, Naam, Timburey, Maap, Sukkimey, Attey, Kochum, Toli, Sung Sung Bara, Zechum, Bjanam, Rudwa, Mansara, Champasari and WangdaKaam. It is not known if important variety innovations were developed internationally or in other countries using Bhutanese germplasm. It is doubtful if such information can ever be known, but it will be worth pursuing to determine and quantify the contribution Bhutan has made through the multilateral system of the ITPGRFA.Bhutan's germplasm interdependency gradually but steadily developed in a context of changing international relations and the modernization of the country's political economy. Although the country aims to develop its capacities by relying heavily on own approaches and resources, the agricultural policies of recent decades has relied heavily on foreign resources including crop germplasm. Before 1994, plant genetic resources were considered a common heritage of mankind. The free movement of plant genetic resources across national boundaries had been instrumental in the development of modern varieties that triggered the green revolution. Today, germplasm movement is governed by international agreements that a country is bound to implement and by national legislation. In 1995, Bhutan became a Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which promotes the conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the use of genetic resources (Javier 2007). However, the CBD also restricts the movement of genetic resources for important food crops like rice. In 2003, Bhutan became a Party to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) which established the multilateral system of exchange for important germplasm for food and agriculture. Bhutan is now preparing to contribute its germplasm to the MLS. From now on it will use the Standard MTAs for exchange of germplasm through the MLS. ITPGRFA promotes benefit sharing and recognizes farmers' rights. In 2003, Bhutan became a Party to the Cartagena Protocol, which aims to protect biological diversity from the potential risk posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.In Bhutan, important national legislation has a bearing on varietal use and movement across national boundaries. The Biodiversity Act of 2003 (revised and updated in 2015) has provisions on the rights of indigenous communities over traditional knowledge. The Biodiversity Act also has a chapter on a sui generis system for the protection of plant varieties which answers the requirement of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It includes farmers' rights and exemption for research purposes. This will encourage the entry of important protected varieties developed elsewhere that may be critical during calamities or disease epidemics. In 2000, Bhutan passed the Seeds Act that promotes the development and use of improved varieties and encourages the participation of the private sector and farmers' organizations in the seed industry. It created the National Seed Board, chaired by The main institutes involved in the exchange of crop germplasm in Bhutan are the RNR-RDCs and the NSC, while NBC serves as the overall agency for facilitation and adherence to exchange protocols. Being a relatively young organization, NBC lacks a separate set of resources and staff for the regulation of germplasm exchange. This is an institutional and administrative hindrance for the time being. The rules and regulations for germplasm exchange are being elaborated and put in place. The main agricultural stakeholders in the country tend to believe more in receiving germplasm from outside and to be restrictive in sharing genetic materials with others. While such a tendency may auger well with the country's conservation ethics, a broader view of reciprocity for global food security seems warranted given Bhutan's high dependence on foreign germplasm.There are several constraints to accessing foreign germplasm as perceived by the agricultural stakeholders who were surveyed. Intellectual property right (IPR) regimes have put restrictions on access to germplasm in the regional and international arenas. Holders of germplasm have become more protective in the sharing and use of germplasm as more sovereign rights are observed. Many germplasm holders also claim poor institutional and related facilities to share genetic resources and cite the lack of inventory and knowledge as current barriers. NBC is a young agency still in the process of establishing a sound germplasm exchange system and lacks adequate resources for smooth implementation. RNR-RDCs and other stakeholders depend on the capacity of NBC for exchange. The Bhutan Agricultural and Food Regulatory Authority (BAFRA) presently has poor institutional capacity to detect and prevent foreign pests and diseases that could be entering the country along with crop germplasm.However, opportunities abound for Bhutan to develop a clearer and more effective exchange regime by learning from other countries. There is opportunity to establish stronger and new linkages with national and international genebanks in the Himalayan region and beyond for exchange of genetic material with good adaptive potential to the particular Bhutanese conditions and related knowledge and expertise in genetic resources management and conservation. Stakeholders interviewed view such opportunities as critical measures to building the national capacity for well-targeted and continued germplasm exchange. It is also perceived that reciprocity is a must in germplasm exchange for a healthy and sustainable system for continuous crop improvement and food production. Building and strengthening the plant breeding capacity of RNR RDCs is also high on the list of critical measures mentioned by the stakeholders. Interviewees expressed that such measures should be integrated in the national agricultural policy.Crop germplasm forms the foundation for food and agriculture on earth. Such germplasm, however, is not distributed evenly which necessitates germplasm flows between continents, regions, countries and research institutions. Bhutan has been receiving improved crop germplasm since it started planned agricultural development in the early 1960s. The inflow of crop germplasm is an essential input for the crop research and development agenda of the RNR RDCs. Although Bhutan's development strategy promotes self-reliance, the dependence on this type of crop germplasm is a key component of the country's political economy. Many of the newly introduced crops and crop varieties are exotic or non-traditional, for instance, cole crops, fruits and nuts. Countries like India, Nepal, Japan, Thailand, Korea, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the main source of germplasm in addition to CGIAR centres. The germplasm outflow was unrestricted prior to the creation of NBC in 1999. Procedures and protocols are now in place for a more regulated outflow and exchange of germplasm.Bhutan has and continues to rely heavily on external genetic resources for its major food crops and agriculture overall. New germplasm of staple cereals such as rice, maize and wheat are regularly introduced, tested and used by farmers. Pedigree analysis of rice varieties grown in Bhutan showed that 15 of the 23 released varieties originate from other countries. Many of the horticultural crops, both fruits and vegetables, are new to the country. The national research system has released over 180 varieties of cereals, fruits and vegetables. Almost all of the new varieties were developed elsewhere making Bhutan heavily reliant on imported germplasm. In recent years, their value for food consumption and cash income through export has skyrocketed. Bhutan has made a small germplasm contribution to the multilateral system through the genebanks of CGIAR centers such as IRRI. However, it is not known what variety innovations were developed using the Bhutanese germplasm.The present constraints to international germplasm exchange include stricter IPR regimes in many countries and political and regulatory difficulties in accessing external germplasm. The institutions involved in genetic resources management and exchange in Bhutan are new and lack adequate expertise and experience. However, opportunities exist in developing clear exchange mechanisms and new forms of (research) collaboration for more effective flows of germplasm. Learning from other countries, the Bhutanese government has made a start on improving the regulatory environment. There is scope for including additional measures in the country's agricultural policy and increasing the funding for research such as support for the conservation and improvement of traditional varieties and related traditional knowledge, for example, through participatory plant breeding.","tokenCount":"5415"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dd32c5ea29a8a87c37a40ce2c6786cf1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6320f633-b1e5-4501-a794-b17a3148a576/retrieve","id":"-1485959916"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"598b67d4-6225-4c50-a75d-15cc005e652d","pagecount":"32","content":"Reduction of state support for farming: Our hands are tied! gives a clear account of how the structural adjustment policies of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund have stopped the Cameroon government from supporting agriculture, and the devastating impact this has had on Cameroon's small-scale farming communities. The loss of marketing boards looks at the same issue in terms of a cash crop, with the scrapping of Nigeria's Cocoa Marketing Board.One point that arises both in Our hands are tied! and in Competing in the open market is how the speed of the change to a liberalised economy was too quick for farmers to be able to adapt properly.Small-scale farmers find it hard to sell to foreign markets While some argue that globalisation opens up lucrative foreign markets to developing world farmers, in reality the marketplace is one that favours big producers. It's not fair trade! makes the point that many developing countries do not have adequate communications infrastructure for farmers to find potential markets, and that they are also discriminated against through subsidies and tariffs. Competing in the open market describes how small-scale farmers in Malawi have been outpriced by bigger, commercial operations in neighbouring countries.There is a wide range of suggestions for how developing country governments could assist smallscale farmers in the liberalised economy. Some argue for a return to the role of the government in pre-liberalisation days e.g. giving financial support to farmers to boost productivity (Our hands are tied!, No escape from subsistence farming), restoring the commodity boards (The loss of marketing boards), enhancing extension services (It's not fair trade!).Other suggestions include: creating a supportive environment for processing industries, with clear regulatory structures to assist business (Supporting domestic producers, Survival in a falling market); improving infrastructure and services for rural communities, e.g. roads and communications, power supplies, markets, credit institutions (The loss of marketing boards, Our hands are tied!); negotiating at World Trade Organisation trade talks for a better deal for farmers (Being heard on the world stage) RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 7What can farmers do to help themselves? Grow crops for which they have comparative advantage compared to farmers in other countries or regions (Exploit your comparative advantages, It's not fair trade!).Organise themselves into groups to cut input purchase costs, set up processing facilities and obtain better prices for their produce (Building on food security, Competing in the open market, Survival in a falling market, Our hands are tied!).Understand the market, and find new ways of adding value and marketing, e.g. bulking produce for export, out-grower schemes (Survival in a falling market, It's not fair trade!).Reduce production costs by use of locally available inputs (Competing in the open market, Supporting domestic producers) or improved technologies (No escape from subsistence farming).Lobby governments for their interests both nationally and internationally (Being heard on the world stage).RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 8The benefits and costs of economic liberalisation for small-scale farmers is a topical and important subject which will provoke strong reactions in many listeners. It is therefore an ideal subject for a farming or rural affairs programme to cover, whether through interviewing a guest speaker, inviting a panel of 'experts' or stakeholders for a lively debate/discussion, or inviting listeners to phone in their opinions and responses to points raised.Issues that you might aim to cover could include:What have been the main impacts of economic liberalisation on farmers in this country/region? You might invite a representative of the government, a farmers' organisation, an appropriate NGO, or a farmer him/herself, to comment on this -or ask for phoned-in contributions from listeners. One or more of the interviews in this pack should include issues that are relevant for your own farmers, which could be used to initiate a discussion or prompt questions for a studio interview.What should the government do to help small-scale farmers cope with liberalisation? Many of the interviews in this pack include descriptions of how national governments are supporting farmers, or suggestions for how they should be!(e.g. Our hands are tied!) You could use one in a programme, and invite a government or farmers' organisation representative to comment, or suggest suitable policies for your farmers. You might want to discuss how governments can continue to subsidise or support farmers, or how they can regulate imports of cheap foods from abroad.What can governments do to support domestic agriculture in the context of the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank/International Monetary Fund? A complex question, no doubt, needing a well-informed host and carefully chosen guest/panel, capable of communicating complex issues in simple language. Some of the interviews could be used to introduce the constraints African governments are under (e.g. Our hands are tied!), or the influence they have in the international trade arena (Being heard on the world stage).What can farmers do themselves to improve their competitiveness in the marketplace? This is a very wide-ranging question, which involves everything from choice of crop, efficiency in the field, processing methods and marketing strategies. Listeners will be most interested to hear practical suggestions which can easily be applied to their own situations. You could try to identify some local 'success stories'farmers who have improved their competitiveness and are now prospering in the liberalised market. Ideas presented in the pack include forming farmer groups, choosing a crop with comparative advantages, and adding value to crops.What impact will economic liberalisation have on the future of small-scale farming, on food security and on poverty reduction? Another big area which will require well informed and clear speaking treatment by the programme presenter and any guest speakers. The last interview in the pack, Building on food security, contains many important ideas for how farmers can be helped to progress from subsistence farming to commercial production, and could be used to generate discussion on the issue. An agricultural economist from the Nigerian Ministry of Agriculture describes the impact of the abolishment of the Cocoa Marketing Board, and recommends that the board should be reinstated and other supports given in order to restore cocoa production and encourage young people to enter the business.A farm business advisor for the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture explains how the opening of borders to Zimbabwean egg producers has affected Malawian farmers. He encourages farmers to form groups in order to increase their competitiveness, and to reduce their reliance on imported inputs, such as chicken feeds.The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Gambian Department of State for Agriculture, explains how imported chicken from Europe has affected local poultry production in The Gambia, and how both government supports and changing management by farmers could restore local competitiveness.A small-scale farmer in South Africa describes the impact that economic liberalisation has had on his profitability, and calls on the government to assist farmers, otherwise they will never be able to move beyond subsistence farming.An economist in Zimbabwe's Ministry of Agriculture summarises the reasons why developing country farmers struggle to sell their produce to foreign markets. He points out some of the progress that is being made in smallholder farming, and suggests the kind of opportunities available to farmers who want to boost their profits.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 10Being heard on the world stage 4'18\"The Food Rights Campaign Co-ordinator for Action Aid Kenya explains the work that Action Aid is doing to ensure farmers' concerns are heard in World Trade Organisation negotiations. She also encourages farmers to be active in pursuing their interests at a national and international level.An economist from Zambia's National Farmers Union suggests that farmers need to be very careful in choosing which crops to grow, so that these match the capabilities of their land and climate, and the type of markets which they can access.The Country Director of Technoserve Tanzania, a non-government organisation, explains how the Tanzanian coffee market has been affected by a global glut in coffee production, and how both the government and the Tanzanian farmers need to improve their management of coffee production, so that it can compete with low-cost foreign coffee.The Food Security Pack manager with Zambia's Programme Against Malnutrition explains how the programme is working to support small-scale farmers, and help them move from better food security towards commercial production.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 11Small-scale farming in a liberalised economyOur hands are tied! Cue: You might not think that farmers and governments have much in common. After all, you don't see many farmers being driven around in expensive cars, nor do you see many government ministers sweating in the fields. But one thing that farmers and governments do have in common is that their opportunities and decisions are often highly controlled by outside institutions and regulations. In Cameroon, for example, the government's freedom to make and implement policies has been heavily influenced by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, known as the IMF. Under pressure from these global institutions Cameroon has transformed its national economy, from a centrally-planned system run by the government, to one where market forces rule the day. This has had some profound effects on agricultural productivity, not least for the small-scale farmers. To find out more, Martha Chindong visited the Ministry of Agriculture in Yaoundé, and spoke to Syxtus Nuza, a ministry representative. She began by asking him to explain the economic change that had occurred in Cameroon.\"Well for some time now …\" OUT:\"…way it is supposed to do.\" DUR′N 4'49\"Martha Chindong reporting from the Ministry of Agriculture in Yaoundé, Cameroon.Well for some time now, we've been trying our hand in what we call a liberalised economy. Before 1990, we were in what we call a centrally planned economy, where government fixed the prices of agricultural products to allow the urban people, mostly civil servants, to be able to buy food. But in a liberalised economy, all these other price fixing mechanisms have been taken off. It is just a question of supply and demand; government is no longer giving support to the farming population. And so government has withdrawn from most of the production sectors. Before that we used to have the fertilizer sub-sector which the government used to subsidise. We had government seed multiplication farms, this is no longer the case, and the government used to market the products for the farmers; this is no longer the case.What are the results of all this on the small-scale farmer?The results have been very devastating on the small-scale farmer. And this is explained for several reasons. Among them is the fact that the liberalised economy was very sudden. We moved from a centrally planned economy, where government assisted the farmers, to suddenly allowing them to fend for themselves, in all aspects. They no longer had access to the seeds; the price of fertilizer was up, and then theySmall-scale farming in a liberalised economy 12were left to fend for themselves to sell the products. That is why poverty abounds in Cameroon, because the small-scale farmer suddenly found himself in a liberalised economy.Being aware of all this, what is the government doing?Government has taken some measures to alleviate this poverty. Before 1990, farmers could not come together. But the law of 1990, on freedom of association, gave them the permission to give them the right to be able to associate freely. By coming together, they have the opportunity of marketing their products in common. They have the opportunity of collectively buying inputs, having access to loans, either from government institutions or non-governmental institutions. Government also reorientated a few of its programmes. For example the National Agricultural Extension Service, which was essentially giving out technical information, has changed its orientation. They will not only give out this technical information, but accompany this information with some assistance, financial assistance, to allow the farmers to put into place some of those basic infrastructures that the farmers need, such as drying structures, small irrigation schemes, and so on. And these are the kind of measures that the government has put into place at the local level. At the regional level, within the Central African Region, government has pushed, is participating in opening the frontiers, to be able to allow agricultural products to move back and forth across the borders. So opening these frontiers to our neighbours, opens markets for these small-scale farmers to be able to market their products. And we are building, government is putting into place, this programme of building frontier markets that would allow the small farmer to be able to bring produce to that area.How effective in your opinion, are these measures?The results have been very slow in coming, given that I did not make mention of financing, and that is the crux of the matter. Our funding partners do not allow us to subsidise the agriculture, so most of these we have talked about; the legal measures, the institutional framework that government has put into place; we've talked about some of the infrastructures that they have put into place. But what do you do with this if you do not have the money? So the results have been kind of mixed; if we were allowed to subsidise the agriculture, then I think the results would be much more impressive.Who is supposed to allow you to subsidise the agriculture?Well, you know we are on this structural adjustment plan; this is piloted by the International Monetary Fund. We have been hoping that with the debt relief, the HIPIC initiative, that will allow us to put some more money into the agricultural sector for the benefit of these small-scale farmers. Nuza I would say that the Cameroon economy is essentially agricultural, and the agricultural sector is dominated by these small-scale farmers. We have to be able to put into place those measures that allow these small-scale farmers to find their place, otherwise the agricultural sector in Cameroon will never be able to support the economy the way it is supposed to do. End of track.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 14The loss of marketing boards Cue:The scrapping of commodity marketing boards, that once supplied farming inputs and bought farmers produce at fixed prices, has been a common aspect of economic liberalisation in the developing world. Governments have, in effect, been forced to take a hands-off approach to agriculture. Sadly, in many areas this has led to a decline in farming profits, and the migration of young people to urban areas. Many end up doing menial jobs that do little to boost either the national economy or their own family's income.Reversing this trend is far from easy, and some economists suggest that without external support, rural communities will continue to struggle. The speaker in our next report certainly agrees with this view. Victor Okorua is an agricultural economist at the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Over the years he has monitored how the abolishing of commodity marketing boards has affected farmers. Tunde Fatunde asked him to explain how farmers have been affected by the loss of just one, Nigeria's Cocoa Marketing Board.\"In the western part of Nigeria …\" OUT:\"…agriculture is no more drudgery.\" DUR′N 3'26\"Victor Okorua suggesting the kinds of support Nigeria's agriculture will need if it is to thrive under a new generation of young farmers.In the western part of Nigeria, cocoa is the most important commodity. Now with the scrapping of the Cocoa Commodity Board for quite some time, what effect has this had on farmers?First there is the issue of the price, which farmers used to enjoy; a steady price which brought about a steady income. Now with the scrapping of the board, this is no longer in place, and so farmers' income is affected.Has this led to an increase in the purchasing power of the farmers?When the boards were scrapped, initially there was a boom in the market, because the multi-nationals came in, agencies came in, middlemen came in, and farmers had the price the world market was operating with, and so returns were higher. But over time there has been a problem. We have had a glut as a result of the adulteration of the produce, and then the world market not importing our produce as expected, and this has led to glut. And so the returns to farmers have begun to dwindle, and this has made farmers begin to leave their plantations for other alternatives.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 15What kind of alternatives?Well with the older ones, they found an alternative by going back to arable cropping, to make sure that the family is sustained. Others engaged in artisanal jobs. Then the younger ones migrated to the urban centres. They took up jobs like gardening, like security agencies, and other kind of jobs which are menial in nature.Which means that there's a problem. The older farmers are still interested in cocoa production, and the younger ones are not. How is it possible to make sure that the younger ones go back to the land, to continue with cocoa production?Here let me say, there's a need for these boards to come back, that is the commodity boards. And there is a need for the government to subsidise agriculture. There is a need to encourage cottage industry, because we need to diversify beyond just producing the raw material. We need to add value. We have to change the cocoa seed to either powder, butter, wine and things like that, that will have an alternative market. I think with this, many younger ones will be encouraged. Besides there is the issue of infrastructure. Government must put in place roads. They must put in place electricity. They must put in place water, and there must be markets. It is only at this that the younger ones will be encouraged to go back to the rural areas, take up the socalled plantations, and begin to help their older ones. Besides there must be the issue of credit. Credit must be supplied to them, so that they can be able to buy some of the chemicals and the rest that they need. Again, there must be an improvement in technology; technology in the sense that, we no longer have to depend on hoes and cutlasses. There must be improved ways of making sure that agriculture is no more drudgery. End of track.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 16Small-scale farming in a liberalised economyFree trade; is it an opportunity or a threat for Africa's farming communities? Well of course it can be both. For large-scale, commercial producers it may well be a great opportunity, giving the chance for them to export into new markets in neighbouring countries, or even further afield. But for small-scale farmers, who perhaps grow the bulk of their crops for their own consumption, and only sell small amounts of surplus, free markets can represent a real threat to this important source of income.Such is the case in Malawi, a country where the vast majority of farmers still do most of their farming at a subsistence level. Is there anything that such farmers can do to compete with their bigger neighbours? To get an answer, Excello Zidana spoke to Aiton Kamwela, a Farm Business advisor in the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture. Mr. Kamwela began by explaining the challenge facing smallholder farmers, using as an example, the effect of cross-border trade on Malawian egg producers.\"Here we are after liberalising …\" OUT:\"…produce at a lower cost.\" DUR′N 4'55\"Strong advice there from Aiton Kamwela , a Farm Business advisor for the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture.Here we are after liberalising the marketing of eggs. But the moment we opened the market, what has happened now is that it is better for me to purchase eggs produced in Zimbabwe but sold in Malawi, than buy eggs produced in Malawi, because locally produced eggs are more expensive than the ones brought in from Zimbabwe. Production costs for the locally produced eggs are much higher than the foreign ones.Once you sit down and analyse the whole issue, you find that the problem of feeds, the feeds are very expensive; most of our producers can not actually buy them. And why are the feeds very expensive? The ingredients, most of them are imported, and are heavily taxed. So the feed manufacturers are having difficulties. If they have to make any profit at all from the feeds that they produce, they have to charge higher prices. So it's a chain reaction. So opening up our markets through liberalisation, has had a very bad effect, in the sense that our farmers don't have a good base upon which to compete favourably with imports.Now, while we are saying market liberalisation is really not conducive to the local farmers in these developing countries, but others are also saying that market For our farmers, they have basically been producing for their own home use, theyhave not yet commercialised their operations. And we are talking of between 60 and 80% of our smallholder farmers. Very little actually goes through the market. So the little that goes through the market, it's not able to compete favourably with the imports. Our smallholder farmers are not yet ready for liberalisation at this point in time. Much as I know the good parts, in that it definitely gives that spirit of hardworking, but I think our farmers have received it as a shock. If liberalisation came in slowly, gradually, giving time for these people to learn the good effects as well as some of the not-so-good effects of liberalisation, I think it would have given our farmers a good base. But now it just came almost it was a stop, an abrupt stop, and that has not been very good for our farmers.What mechanism must the government in these developing countries put in place to make sure that this scenario does not prolong? Kamwela I know that in as far as Malawi is concerned for example, it appears liberalisation has come to stay. So one thing that as a department of agricultural extension we are doing now, is to facilitate the formation of groups, farmer groups, so that those small producers, once they come together into some sort of farmer clubs, maybe in so doing they can actually compete favourably, pulling together all the little that they produce, and be able to bargain properly with the producers. So that is one way of possibly encouraging the smallholder farmers to sell at a better price, by coming together into groups. Groups maybe to produce a particular crop, groups so that maybe they can sell their products at a better price, so that at least they are better able to negotiate for prices with traders.Since market liberalisation has come to stay, how do you encourage farmers in these developing countries?My advice to small-scale farmers in developing countries, is that they basically have to work hard, and particularly, agree to work as groups. Indeed their small sizes will never grow, because the amount of land that they have, that is what God has given them. But as far as production is concerned they need to come together, market their crops in groups. If they want to get inputs cheaper they have to come together as a group, negotiate. We have examples in Malawi, whereby farmers who have responded to our advice are reaping benefits. They have come into groups; they are now able to purchase inputs on wholesale; we are seeing some good effects in the country along those lines. So they don't have to fear. But at the same time, while we know that the inputs are going up, they should start exploring other ways of producing farm products cheaply, like the use of manure, compost, so that their production costs can go down, and yet be able to realise good incomes out of their produce, even at the current prices. They have to fight hard to produce at a lower cost. End of track.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 18Small-scale farming in a liberalised economyIn many parts of Africa, local poultry producers have been swamped by floods of cheap chicken coming in from Europe. In the case of The Gambia, in West Africa, the domestic market has been devastated by meat from Belgium and Holland, which is so cheap that many carcasses are simply dumped unsold. In a liberalised trade environment, it may be difficult for national governments to protect domestic producers. However, creating a supportive structure for local industry can at least give it a chance of competing with the European rivals. Mamadi Ceesay is the Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Gambian Department of State for Agriculture, and the author of a recent report on the impact of liberalisation on the poultry industry. He spoke to Ismaila Senghore about how local farmers have been affected by the open market, and how he feels they could be increasing their competitiveness.\"Most of the people who …\" OUT:\"…Thank you very much, Ismaila.\" DUR′N 5'07\"That report came from Ismaila Senghore in The Gambia.Most of the people who were in the industry by 1996 were out by 2000. Only a few managed to stay. And this was because the market was in glut, because they could afford to bring in products at cheaper price, even though this will take six weeks to reach the Gambia, and this has an effect on the quality. If you have to bring in products for six weeks, the quality is less than if you have it produced in the Gambia. So in terms of those Gambian companies, they are disfavoured, and therefore had it very tough to compete.Well Mamadi, I'm a Gambian myself, and I have been into the streets and in the markets, and it appears that in every corner, sometimes we find chicken legs, whole chickens, on sale at very cheap prices. This means definitely, local farmers cannot sell their poultry products. So how far do you think subsidisation of industrialised countries in their agriculture has impacted local farmers?They can afford to bring in products that are even lower than the cost of production here. And because of that, a lot of people in the industry had to go out of business because they had to compete with these people in the same market, and their products are readily available, and they are at a cheaper price. I think the only other option is that people who go for quality go for what is produced locally here, because it is more tasty, and less of the health risk. But these are the problems, because if you look at the people of low income, they will readily go for a product which is of a lower price and which is readily available in the market. What this does is that the local poultry industry can never flourish, and therefore we have to depend onSmall-scale farming in a liberalised economy 19imports. So we find ourselves in a vicious circle and it is very difficult to escape from it, and therefore the food insecurity situation continues.Have you looked at some of the basic problems that farmers need to be able to compete with these imports?Ceesay I think it is to support, particularly the small-scale farmers, through the rehabilitation of the hatcheries, but also through the rehabilitation of the feed industry that we have, in terms of producing local feeds to make sure that is available to farmers. But the other thing one needs to do is step up the surveillance that we have, to make sure that the product that we have are of quality, to ensure that the laboratories that are around have the necessary agents and the equipment so that the population at large is protected. I think that if we provide all this, it will go a long way to providing the environment for the local industry. Because in the state of the liberalised environment, one cannot talk about protection, but one can support the industry and enable it to grow.What kind of advice do you think our local farmers can follow, in order to improve the situation? Ceesay I think the key advice is cost effectiveness. We have to go for products that are locally available: use locally available feed because we have the maize; all we have to do is bring in a few vitamins and other nutrients, and supplement this. We also have to develop the local hatcheries that are available so that we don't have to import day-old chicks from Europe. And we also have a very good climate, where we can have simple, low-cost housing in which the poultry can be reared. I think using these mechanisms, we can operate and provide enough poultry products for the urban areas and for the families of rural Gambians.Mamadi, I do believe you enjoy chicken?Very much thank you.Ceesay I think, first we are in a global environment, so we will have just to continue importing chicken. I think this can be complemented by the local industry in providing locally produced chicken, which are more delicious, of course, than the imported one, and I think more and more people are in for quality food. And in the search for quality food, I think people will go in for the local products, at the expense of course, of the imported chicken.Well I always go for the local produce, seeing as it is more delicious. Thank you very much Mamadi, it has been a pleasure talking to you, and thank you for the time.Thank you very much, Ismaila. End of track.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 20No escape from subsistence farming Cue:The subject of market liberalisation, and the impact it is having on our domestic producers, is one that is often addressed by politicians and economists. It's probably less common for us to hear from the farmers themselves. Our next report offers a quick snapshot of one farmer's view on liberalisation, and the effect it is having on his farming and on his livelihood. It's a view that will certainly be shared by many farmers right across the continent. The report comes from South Africa; asking the questions is Lesibana Mantshiu.\"Mr. Rudolph Letsoalo is a …\" OUT:\"…local markets nor internationally.\" DUR′N 2'15\"Mr. Rudolph Letsoalo expressing a view that may well be shared by millions of small-scale farmers across Africa.Mr. Rudolph Letsoalo is a small-scale farmer in the Limpopo province in South Africa. Rudolph, what is the impact of liberalisation on you as a small-scale farmer and your family?The impact of liberalisation, particularly to us, the small-scale farmers, and to our families, it is full of disadvantages. It disadvantages me as a small-scale farmer who has no subsidy; therefore my farm produce becomes really too expensive for the consumers. I cannot afford to export my farm produce to the global market, while the local market is also dominated by imports produced by farmers from rich countries like America, France and so on. This forces me also to remain a subsistence farmer for the rest of my farming career.How have the farming practices changed as a result of this liberalisation?We are really forced to buy more modern farming implements, in order to produce according to the required standard. The standards are very high nowadays, and we need to buy high quality seeds also, in order for us to produce high quality products. Otherwise, we may farm but our produce may not be bought by anybody, because the products may be of poor quality. We need to use more sophisticated farming methods to maximise also our produce, because without maximising produce, it is going to be difficult for one to sustain in this farming. To be able to sustain, we are forced to hire trained labour, which makes the whole process too costly for a small-scale farmer like myself.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 21How then do you see the future of small-scale farming?This is a very important question. Unless our government intervenes to assist us as small-scale farmers, really it is going to be very difficult. We shall be forced to remain as subsistence farmers, who can neither compete at the local markets nor internationally. End of track.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 22Small-scale farming in a liberalised economyHuge markets and wealthy consumers in the United States or Europe, all looking to buy the nutritious, healthy foods that developing countries can grow: farmers in Africa have often heard about the benefits that globalisation can bring. But for the majority, and particularly for smallholder farmers, the liberalisation of world trade has done little to improve their livelihoods. Global markets are simply unreachable for a whole range of reasons, from lack of information and communications facilities, to export tariffs and farming subsidies paid to developed world farmers.In our next report, Sylvia Jiyane finds out how in Zimbabwe, farmers are finding ways to target the world food markets. She talks to Langton Mkweresa, an economist in Zimbabwe's Ministry of Agriculture, who begins by explaining some of the reasons why the open, global market is far from being a fair place for developing world farmers to sell their produce.\"As far as our farmers …\" OUT:\"…to help the smallholder farmer.\" DUR′N 3'29\"Langton Mkweresa suggesting how smallholder farmers might be able to exploit world markets.Mkweresa As far as our farmers are concerned, they cannot fully exploit the benefits of the world markets in that, the information that we have got is fairly limited, and even the channels of information sharing and whatever, they are not as much as those enjoyed by developed countries' farmers. Like the Internet, and whatever; we have got very limited telephone facilities for example, so we cannot fully exploit the markets in developed countries. We also have the issue of subsidies, which is quite a contentious issue. We are looking at quite some significant subsidies which farmers in developed countries enjoy. So those subsidies are resulting in over-production by developed country agriculture, and that has got an effect on world prices, that is also now depressing world prices and reducing the incentives for developing country farmers to produce. The other aspects that is also impacting negatively on these smallholder farmers in developing countries, is the issue of tariffs. Over 100% for our sugar exports to the US; again over 100% for grain exports into Europe. That has got an effect of impeding trade, yet we know that most benefits to smallholder agriculture, to agriculture in general really, are got through trade more than anything else.Could there be any positive effects?RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 23Mkweresa One thing is there are quite some out-grower schemes, which are quite catching up. By growing some crops for the European market, say, as out-growers, and then selling your produce through some established pack-houses; we are seeing quite a lot of success in that regard. We are also seeing quite some strong efforts by our government and also by some international development partners, the NGOs, to try to also increase the outreach programmes to the smallholder farmers. We are looking at things like provision of inputs and much more extension services and things like that. That is also helping the smallholder farmers. A lot of diversification is going on where new crops are coming in. So there are certainly some things going on but as I said I think the biggest issue is the issue of liberalising the trade regimes world-wide, through the reforms going on at the World Trade Organisation. I think that is where we feel most impact would be felt by smallholder farmers.In view of all that, what then is the future of small-scale farming?Mkweresa The future is certainly bright, but it is a question of the smallholder farmers working closely with the governments and all the other international development partners, looking at what are the opportunities that are there, largely by way of specialising in those products where we have got some comparative advantage. Particularly we are looking at the weather; when Europe is in winter, when they can't grow a lot of the crops then that is some window of opportunity which we can exploit. So it is a question of some niche markets and also exploiting some windows of opportunity. And also through these various schemes, like I said, the out-grower schemes, specialisation in some high value crops, I think that is where the potential is. We have to specialise in some high value crops. So these are some of the things that I can think of to help the smallholder farmer. End of track.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 24Small-scale farming in a liberalised economyIf international trade is like a boxing match, the World Trade Organisation, or WTO, would have to be the referee -keeping the fight clean and ensuring the rules are followed. And while many developing countries may often feel like a tiny David facing the developed world's Goliath, WTO trade talks do give them the opportunity to make and influence trade agreements. Government delegations from around the world come to the WTO to fight their corner, and in the case of African countries, they are able to fight as a team, called the 'African Group'.Making sure that the voices of ordinary farmers are heard at such negotiations is a job that has been taken up by a number of NGOs. One of them is Action Aid, an organisation that offers both practical support to farmers, as well as lobbying for their interests. Mweni Kiio is the Food Rights Campaign co-ordinator at Action Aid Kenya. In our next report she tells Eric Kadenge about the kind of support her organisation is giving to Kenya's farmers, and her passionate belief that farmers need to make their voices heard.\"We have a two-pronged approach …\" OUT:\"…both nationally and internationally.\" DUR′N 4'18\"Mweni Kiio of Action Aid Kenya, on the need for farmers' voices to be heard by policy makers.We have a two-pronged approach. Our regional offices, that are working with farmers to provide for them some of the services that the government used to provide, like better seeds, or even working with the government to provide extension services. And also providing some kind of credit, in that we support their farmer groups so that they can be able to assist the farmer, to keep him in business. Then we also have the second bit which is the policy aspect, where we lobby for better policies. Like we have been challenging some of these policies under the WTO. That is, there is a certain agreement called 'Agreement on Agriculture' which we believe, if Kenya is to adopt everything that is in that agreement as it stands, then our farmers stand to lose more than to gain. So we are making some proposals within that agreement, that we hope will benefit the farmers by the end of the day. Because within that agreement there is a certain provision which says that a country should withdraw subsidies or domestic support to its farmers. Kenya has done that, but that is not the same case with developed countries, because developed countries are still carrying on with increasing their domestic support to their farmers. The most recent case is the US government, which just increased its support to its farmers. And by the end of the day, you find that farmers from developed countries are able to produceSmall-scale farming in a liberalised economy 25 more cheaply than farmers from developing countries, and then they are able now to sell their products in the international markets, and products from developing countries cannot compete.And at the moment what progress have you been able to make in this lobbying?We have been working very closely with the Ministry of Trade, where we have shared our concerns. And the government delegation that actually represents Kenya in the negotiations in this 'Agreement on Agriculture', they have taken in our views, and it's part of their position, the Kenyan government position to the negotiations.And the beauty of it is that Kenya is not negotiating alone; it's part of what they call the 'African group'. So in the negotiations under WTO, whatever concerns we have raised have been tabled through that group. And the greatest achievement, I think, is a proposal on what we call the 'development box'. Under the 'Agreement on Agriculture', there are various boxes that are given, where governments are allowed to support their farmers. And what we did is look at all those boxes, and saw that there are some issues that are just relevant to developing countries, that have not been addressed in their available boxes; there are three of them. Now we are proposing a 'development box', where we are saying, developing countries need to be allowed to support rural development initiatives and food security issues in their countries, because those are the kind of things that we are facing. And these are not issues that are of concern really to the developed countries, but we think they are of major concern to us.Now where would you like to see the small-scale farmer in future, as we try to battle this whole issue that is affecting them? Kiio I would like to see the farmer in the forefront, advocating for his issues. I would like to see a farmer who is engaging the government actively, both at the local level, national level and international level, and instead of I speaking for the farmers, like it has been in the past, I would like to see the farmer doing it for himself, and being engaged in every decision-making process that affects him, by the end of the day. I would also like to see a strong farmer movement in this country, because I strongly believe by the end of the day that even now we are not listening to our farmers; they contribute very much to the economy -you know that agriculture is the backbone of this country -and it is only right to involve such important people in decisionmaking, because they are the only ones who really know the problems they are facing. And they are the only ones who can come up with the right solutions to solve their own problems. And decisions should not be made for them, both nationally and internationally. End of track.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 26Small-scale farming in a liberalised economyWhen choosing which crop to grow, there are two major factors that farmers must consider. The first is their agro-ecological situation, in other words, the character of the land they farm and the climate they live in. Temperature, rainfall, gradient of land and soil type will all have an influence on crop choice. The second factor involves the opportunities that the farmer will have to sell the crop. For example, if the farmer lives in a remote area far from any markets, it will be difficult to make a good profit from growing and selling a bulky, low value crop like maize, since the costs of transporting it to market will be so high. A low volume but high value crop like cashew nuts might be a better alternative.With the liberalisation of trade in Africa, the importance of farmers selecting the right crop for their situation has never been higher. Competition from foreign exports means that farmers have to exploit any comparative advantage they have in terms of what crops they can grow and which markets they can access. In Zambia, the National Farmers Union (the ZNFU), is helping farmers to cope with the pressures they have experienced since the liberalisation of the economy ten years ago. Alfred Mwila, an economist at the ZNFU spoke to Chris Kakunta about the problems and solutions for small-scale farmers.\"The farmers have been …\" OUT:\"…among our small-scale farmers.\" DUR′N 3'21\"Alfred Mwila of the Zambia National Farmers Union encouraging farmers to exploit their comparative advantages in order to boost their profits.The farmers have been facing the major problem of low producer prices, and the kind of enterprises that they are engaged in are not giving them the profits that will enable them to reinvest in agriculture. So essentially they are engaging in enterprises that are giving them a loss, and this is a big problem. For them to generate a profit they need to sell, they need to be guaranteed of a market, and they need to produce in the most cost effective way, and for this they need some facilitation.So as Zambia National Farmers Union, what are you doing in order to help these farmers come out of these negative impacts that have been created as a result of liberalised policies.One of the things that we engage in is the provision of information to our members, to enable them make timely and economic decisions. We are able to advise our RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 27 members that the appropriate crops for these areas are ABCD, what is an economic price for which they should sell their farm outputs.What about the farmers, what should they do themselves in order for them to benefit?Our farmers need to embrace issues related to quality. They should be able to produce efficiently, package their produce, and be able to land their produce in their neighbouring countries or beyond, at a cost where they will make a profit. So they have a challenge as well, to position themselves strategically. They should stop growing or engaging in enterprises that are totally unprofitable. Our farmers need to produce, or engage in an enterprise that has comparative advantage. Before liberalisation, there was a deliberate policy to promote maize production, and maize as a result, was even promoted in areas where it is not agro-ecologically suitable, or indeed competitive, because of the distance from the market. So we need to reorient our farmers towards thinking of engaging in enterprises where they know that they are agro-ecologically suitable, and they are profitable. One province for example will be specialising in maize, because they are close to the market. Maize is a bulky product, so they will be able to take advantage of the closeness of the market, and they will be able to make a profit, because they will have less transport costs. Where it is impossible to grow maize, say Western Province, certainly we may just encourage them to grow maize at subsistence level, and not to look at maize as a cash crop. And they should be encouraged to grow what other provinces are not growing right now. And they would certainly have certain comparative advantages in, say, cashew nuts, because of the conditions there. It is certainly most ideal, and we should promote such enterprises. So those are the kind of issues that we feel should be addressed that have been a consequence of liberalisation. Ideally the small-scale sector to us is a very critical sector. It has been growing in number, but unfortunately not contributing to the economy in real terms. So that is a worry, and I think we need address something for this huge potential that exists among our small-scale farmers. End of track.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 28Small-scale farming in a liberalised economyThere's an awful lot of coffee in Vietnam. In fact in the last five years, Vietnamese coffee harvests have grown from virtually zero to become the second largest in the world, behind Brazil. Unfortunately the world's coffee farmers are now growing more than the world's people are drinking, and with global over-production has come a global decline in prices. For coffee growers in countries like Tanzania, times are hard. How can smallholder coffee farmers survive in such a falling market?Technoserve is an NGO that is helping Tanzanian farmers to do exactly that, concentrating not on how to grow more coffee, but on finding the best prices at the coffee auctions. Lazarus Laiser spoke to Mr. Thomson Dixon, Country Director of Technoserve Tanzania, about the challenge for African coffee growers to compete on the world market. He began by asking Mr. Dixon what he thought coffee farmers needed to do to survive in the face of falling prices.\"What we see happening …\" OUT:\"…individual farmers can prosper.\" DUR′N 3'19\"A report from Tanzania described the challenges facing coffee growers. Many of the points will be relevant for other export crops.What we see happening in the coffee market is, you basically need to become a speciality coffee farmer to obtain good prices in today's market. If your coffee quality is truly very very good, you can find very good prices in the market. Kenyan coffees are sometimes trading at over $2 per pound, because of their superb quality. I think Tanzania faces the same opportunities. We have had buyers in from Italy, we have had buyers in from the United States, expressing a very strong interest in Tanzanian coffee. However, uniformly they are saying that the quality is not there yet. And my feeling is that if a farmer, or a group of farmers fail to bring their quality up, they will face continued intense competition from low cost Vietnamese producers. So the answer to the question really is to get to the top of the market, be the best quality you possibly can, and there you have the best chance of survival.And now I would like to ask you as an expert, what are the government actions in terms of both protecting against dangers, and supporting farmers efforts to take advantage of the market?The government can provide a context, make sure that the laws are clear, make sure that the conditions under which business takes place are secure. We are facing some What can non-government organisations do in order to support small-scale farmers?They can do a variety of things. In the case of Technoserve, we are assisting groups of small farmers to take their coffee to auction, look for the best price possible at auction. We believe very strongly in adding value by doing pulping of the coffee, bulking that coffee into 5, 10, 15 or 20 ton units, and selling that as a single unit at the auction. This is really what the government was trying to do many years ago, and Tanzanian coffee was superb many years ago, and developed a tremendous name for its quality. But then those pulperies fell into disuse, and it became an individual activity instead. It is definitely time for farmers to be putting in pulperies again, and this will be what it takes to pull the coffee quality up, and that way the nation and the individual farmers can prosper. End of track.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 30Small-scale farming in a liberalised economyIf small-scale farmers aren't even able to grow enough food for their families, they certainly aren't ready to think about cash crop production. All across Africa, millions of small farmers feel trapped in low productivity, with no way of improving either their food security or their livelihood. And for many farmers in Zambia, life in the last ten years has become more difficult not less; a succession of droughts combined with a government policy for economic liberalisation, have cut farm productivity among poorer farmers in particular. For Zambia's Programme Against Malnutrition, known as 'Pam', the challenge is greater than ever. This non-government organisation is now working closely with the Zambian government, through a variety of initiatives, to support small-scale farmers. The 'food security pack' scheme, for example, is currently distributing vital farming inputs, such as seed and fertilizer, to the most needy. But beyond that, the programme has also recognised the importance of farmers being able to get real economic benefits from any increase in their production. Daniel Sikazwe sent us this report on the work of the Programme Against Malnutrition in his home country, Zambia.\"Ten years ago, Zambia …\" OUT:\"…value to food crops.\" DUR′N 4'44\"That report came from Daniel Sikazwe, and featured Mlotha Damaseke, manager of the food security pack scheme, for the Programme Against Malnutrition in Zambia.Ten years ago, Zambia embarked on an ambitious liberalisation programme; subsidies in crucial areas like agriculture were removed. Some small-scale farmers found themselves out of business, while others persevered. In this programme we will try to establish what impacts liberalisation has had on small-scale farmers; how those who have continued with their farming activities have managed to stay alive in the midst of an uncertain food security situation. Mr. Mlotha Damaseke is the food security pack manager at the Programme Against Malnutrition, PAM, a nongovernmental organisation that has been working with small-scale farmers over the years. What did liberalisation entail on small-scale farmers?The main problem is in terms of input supply. The country is quite big, the infrastructure for service delivery, is quite poor, and that left them very very vulnerable. Most of the people who are benefiting are large-scale farmers who are along the main trunk roads, but eighty percent of our producers, especially for staple foods, are small-scale farmers. This has had an adverse effect on the amount of food that is produced in the country.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 31 Sikazwe I've come across a lot of small-scale farmers that have talked about working with the Programme Against Malnutrition, and that they have somehow managed to rise above the impacts of liberalisation. Can you just tell me what PAM has been doing with the small-scale farmers?Yes indeed. PAM was implementing a number of interventions, some of which are coming from government initiatives. For example the food security pack is targeting the small-scale farmers who have been left helpless by the liberalisation of the economy, and the droughts that have been persisting since 1991, and therefore we are assisting the farmers with inputs; so we are delivering inputs to small-scale farmers throughout the country, so that they can become productive once again, and maybe go into a commercial lending portfolio.Well once you have delivered these inputs to the small-scale farmers, they produce, they need to have a market but then they are competing against heavily subsidised goods coming from South Africa, and probably some other countries. Are there any attempts by the Programme Against Malnutrition to try and help them get a market to try to rise above the challenges of liberalisation?In fact, as a way of addressing that problem, the programme has got a component, which is looking at management of excess produce. It's called the cereal or seed bank component. This is a concept where communities themselves, come together; they make their own storage facilities. The aim to do that is: one, you have smallscale farmers coming at one point, putting in, each one brings whether it is one tin, or it's one bag, or it's ten bags, they get an inventory of each person who brings excess produce. And then they can decide when to sell. If they want to keep it for a longer period so that they can sell it when the price is right, for example during the start of the rainy season in January or February, then they sell the excess crop. So that is one way of enhancing the profitability of farming.Well, there has been an argument that some small-scale farmers have been smallscale farmers for a long time; they need to graduate. And attempts that effect to make them graduate into, maybe not commercial farmers, but at least above small-scale farmers, through the aid or help that the Programme Against Malnutrition is giving to the small-scale farmers?Yes, the efforts are there. I think what is important is for people to realise is that before a person can feed himself or herself, there is no way that they will grow bigger. Firstly they must solve the first problem; the first problem is hunger in the house. If he solves the problem of hunger in the household, then he will think of having more. And therefore, efforts are being made to see that those who are able to feed themselves for one year, and have excess, maybe be linked to for example, the micro-bankers trust, who can lend them, on terms that they are able to pay back, and then become bigger farmers. So that is one initiative that the small-scale farmers must look for. They should not remain subsistence farmers.RRRP 2002/5 Small-scale farming in a liberalised economy 32Liberalisation has surely come to stay in Zambia. How do you look at the future of small-scale farmers?Damaseke I think they need to take the initiative. The way the formation of co-operatives. If cooperatives are formed where people come together, they buy inputs together, that should be the way to go. Another way is contract cropping by out-grower schemes, that is another way to go. And also adding value to their crop; processing foods so that they don't go to waste when they are in abundance. Whether it's groundnuts; is it just roasting, or are you going to make peanut butter and things like that. So there is a component that is looking at adding value to food crops. End of track.","tokenCount":"9480"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5adbf56a46145625e972ee83c1bd4408","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/54c0a215-c9aa-4ae3-b837-69b0a3001eff/content","id":"1040869764"},"keywords":["genomic selection","adaptability","genotype × environment","climate-smart","selective phenotyping"],"sieverID":"33b9bd22-6b65-4d18-8f75-8d5d6d60745e","pagecount":"21","content":"Quantitative genetics states that phenotypic variation is a consequence of the interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Predictive breeding is based on this statement, and because of this, ways of modeling genetic effects are still evolving. At the same time, the same refinement must be used for processing environmental information. Here, we present an \"enviromic assembly approach,\" which includes using ecophysiology knowledge in shaping environmental relatedness into whole-genome predictions (GP) for plant breeding (referred to as enviromic-aided genomic prediction, E-GP). We propose that the quality of an environment is defined by the core of environmental typologies and their frequencies, which describe different zones of plant adaptation. From this, we derived markers of environmental similarity cost-effectively. Combined with the traditional additive and non-additive effects, this approach may better represent the putative phenotypic variation observed across diverse growing conditions (i.e., phenotypic plasticity). Then, we designed optimized multi-environment trials coupling genetic algorithms, enviromic assembly, and genomic kinships capable of providing in-silico realization of the genotype-environment combinations that must be phenotyped in the field. As proof of concept, we highlighted two E-GP applications:(1) managing the lack of phenotypic information in training accurate GP models across diverse environments and (2) guiding an early screening for yield plasticity exerting optimized phenotyping efforts. Our approach was tested using two tropical maize sets, two types of enviromics assembly, six experimental network sizes, and two types of optimized training set across environments. We observed that E-GP outperforms benchmark GP in all scenarios, especially when considering smaller training sets. The representativeness of genotype-environment combinations is more critical than the size of multi-environment trials (METs). The conventional genomic best-unbiased prediction (GBLUP) is inefficient in predicting the quality of a yet-to-be-seen environment, while enviromic assembly enabled it by increasing the accuracy of yield plasticity predictions. Furthermore, we discussed theoretical backgrounds underlying how intrinsic Costa-Neto et al.Enviromic-Aided Genomic Prediction envirotype-phenotype covariances within the phenotypic records can impact the accuracy of GP. The E-GP is an efficient approach to better use environmental databases to deliver climate-smart solutions, reduce field costs, and anticipate future scenarios.Environmental changing scenarios are a challenge for agricultural research. Developing climate-smart solutions in a time-reduced and cost-effective manner is crucial to minimize economic and environmental impacts in farm fields (Tigchelaar et al., 2018;Cortés et al., 2020;Ramirez-Villegas et al., 2020). All these strategies must be linked with the characterization of growing conditions of crops (Xu, 2016) because it allows for a deeper understanding of how the environmental signal is a driver to shape the past, present, and future phenotypic variations observed in farm fields (e.g., Cooper et al., 2014;Ramirez-Villegas et al., 2018;Heinemann et al., 2019;de los Campos et al., 2020;Antolin et al., 2021;Costa-Neto et al., 2021b). In plant breeding research, mostly based on the selection of bestevaluated genotypes in a certain experimental network, this approach discriminates which genetic and non-genetic factors affect adaptative responses and yield performance. Thus, a conscious and well-conducted environmental characterization is crucial to bridge the results obtained in some experimental networks and expectations for the target population of environments (TPEs) of the breeding program (e.g., Chenu et al., 2011;Heinemann et al., 2015Heinemann et al., , 2019;;Crespo-Herrera et al., 2021).The not so fresh, yet underused, field of \"envirotyping\" (environmental + typing, Cooper et al., 2014;Xu, 2016) emerges to not only deliver reliable data for purposes of environmental characterization but also for enriching the breeding analytics routines (Costa-Neto and Fritsche-Neto, 2021) and closing the gap between breeding goals and agronomic development (Cooper and Messina, 2021). Consequently, new ways to establish a biologically accurate approach for predicting a given growing environment, as well as its relationship with TPE major conditions, have been better understood by quantifying the impact and frequency of the major environment-types (envirotypes) across years or locations (e.g., Chenu et al., 2011; Abbreviations: A, Additive effects; b, Coefficient of yield adaptability from Finlay-Wilkinson; BD, Block-diagonal matrix of the genomic by environment effect; D, Dominance effects; EC, Environmental covariate; E-GP, Enviromic-aided genomic prediction including envirotype markers; Envirotype, Environmental-type; FW, Finlay-Wilkinson adaptability model; GBLUP, Genomic best linear unbiased predictions; G×E, Genotype by environment interaction; GP, Genomic prediction; MET, Multi-environment trials; MSE, Mean squared error; N GE , Minimum core of genotype-environment combinations; OTS, Optimized training sets for genomic prediction; r, Predictive ability given by the average linear correlation between observed and predicted trait values; RN, Enviromic by genomic matrix for reaction norm effects; T, Typology matrix of envirotype markers (qualitative covariables and their frequencies); W, Environmental covariable matrix (quantitative covariables); W-GP, Enviromic-aided genomic prediction using quantitative environmental covariates. Heinemann et al., 2019;Antolin et al., 2021;Cooper et al., 2021). Furthermore, this might also lead to a better understanding of the quality of a certain environment (e.g., a field trial) in providing representative phenotypic records to support selection purposes or as a training population set in predictive breeding approaches. The end result is twofold beneficial, both for capitalizing the effects of genotype by environment interaction in targeting cultivars, yet for providing a better comprehension of the environmental drivers acting on the yield plasticity observed on the field trials (Costa-Neto et al., 2021a;Crossa et al., 2021).Prediction-based tools have leveraged agronomic and modern plant breeding research in the last decade (see Heinemann et al., 2019;Herzmann et al., 2020;Cooper and Messina, 2021 in this edition). Perhaps one of the major contributions of the predictive tools is the better use of good quality phenotypic records for feeding in silico platforms, aimed at screening a large number of genotypes and candidate cultivars (Crossa et al., 2017;Messina et al., 2018;Rogers et al., 2021). Whole-genome prediction (GP, Meuwissen et al., 2001) is the most extensively used predictive tool that is already developed and validated for several crop species and application scenarios (e.g., Lorenzana and Bernardo, 2009;Windhausen et al., 2012;Crossa et al., 2017;Morais Júnior et al., 2018;Fonseca et al., 2021). In crops such as maize, its uses have been consolidated to support diverse stages of breeding programs, from the selection of individuals among breeding populations to advanced stages aimed at predicting the performance of single crosses across multiple environments (e.g., Dias et al., 2018;Messina et al., 2018;Alves et al., 2019;Costa-Neto et al., 2021a;Rogers et al., 2021).Genome prediction platforms in plant breeding were conceived to model genotype-to-phenotype relationships (Gto-P) under specific environmental conditions, such as certain planting dates and standardized management where the genotypes are mated and evaluated at nursery (e.g., Lorenzana and Bernardo, 2009;Windhausen et al., 2012). Thus, it is reasonable to assume that the realized G-to-P relationship might capture a large part of the observed phenotypic variation, although this is environmental-specific, which generates a noisy marker × environment interaction (Burgueño et al., 2012) when we aim to predict multiple growing conditions. Thus, there is an environmental-phenotype covariance intrinsic on each phenotypic records. Consequently, it generates the well-reported lack of accuracy under genotype × environment interaction (G×E) conditions (Crossa et al., 2017). Therefore, novel ways that include environmental data (Heslot et al., 2014;Jarquín et al., 2014;Ly et al., 2018;Gillberg et al., 2019;Millet et al., 2019;Monteverde et al., 2019;Costa-Neto et al., 2021a) and process-based crop growth models (CGMs) (Messina et al., 2018;Robert et al., 2020;Toda et al., 2020;Cooper et al., 2021) are considered the best pathways to fix it in the context of the multienvironmental GP. Most of the success of such approaches lies in understanding the ecophysiology interplay between genomics diversity and environment variation (Gage et al., 2017;Li et al., 2018;Guo et al., 2020;Costa-Neto et al., 2021b).In addition to possible accuracy gains, the explicit integration of enviromic and genomic sources is also an easy way to lead GP to a wide range of novel dimensions of applications (Crossa et al., 2021), such as envisaging the performance of crops under untested growing conditions (de los Campos et al., 2020;Guo et al., 2020;Jarquin et al., 2020;Costa-Neto et al., 2021a), optimizing MET networks (Rincent et al., 2017a,b) and screening genotype-specific reaction-norms for key environmental factors (Ly et al., 2018;Millet et al., 2019). This is an excellent advance for predictive breeding (i.e., the range of prediction-based selection tools for crop improvement) because it reduces the time and cost of the research pipelines while better supporting the selection of adapted genotypes for target scenarios. However, to the best of our knowledge, most of the current studies on this topic vary in accuracy and applicability, mostly because of three aspects:(1) processing protocols used to translate raw data into explicit environmental covariables (ECs) with biological meaning for explaining G×E over complex traits, (2) the lack of a widely-used envirotyping pipeline that not only supports the design of field trials but also increases the accuracy of trained GP models, and in addition, (3) for most biologicalenriched predictive platforms, such as those enabled by CGMs, there is a possible limitation due to increased demand for the phenotyping of additional intermediate phenotypes (i.e., biomass accumulation and partitioning, specific leaf area), which can involve managed iso-environments and expert knowledge on crop modeling (Cooper et al., 2016;Robert et al., 2020;Toda et al., 2020). The latter can be expensive or difficult for plant research programs in developing countries, with low budgets to increase the phenotyping network and install environmental sensors. In addition, most developing countries are located in regions where environments are subject to a broader range of mixed stress factors, such as drought and heat stresses in combination with nutrient limitation conditions.Therefore, in this study, we revisit Shelford's Law (Shelford, 1931) and other ecophysiology concepts that can provide foundations for translating raw environmental information into an enviromic source for predictive breeding, hereafter denominated enviromic assembly. The benefits of using the so-called \"enviromics-aided GBLUP\" (E-GP) under existing experimental networks are then presented, followed by a proofof-concept application of E-GP for optimizing field-based phenotyping. Finally, we benchmark E-GP with the traditional genomic-best unbiased prediction (GBLUP) to discuss the benefits of enviromic data to reproduce the expected G×E pattern, which seems to provide a cost-effective platform to screen the yield plasticity of genotypes.The Materials and Methods section is organized in the following manner: First, we briefly address the concepts underlying the novel approach of enviromic assembly inspired by Shelford's Law. Then, we describe the data sets, along with the statistical models and prediction scenarios used, to show the benefits of enviromics in GP across multi-environment trials (METs). Finally, we present a scheme to optimize phenotyping efforts in training GP over MET and support the screening for the yield plasticity of maize single crosses.As an exemplification, please consider two experimental networks (MET) of the same target population of environments (TPEs, e.g., different locations, years, and crop management) covering two distinct ranges of environmental factors (colorful gradient bar) (Figure 1). Then, consider two distinct genotypes evaluated under both METs (G1, G2), in which their putative response curves of phenotypic plasticity (Allard and Bradshaw, 1964) can also be expressed as different linear reactionnorms (dotted lines), which consequently results in distinct observable G×E patterns across METs (Figures 1A,B). For MET 1 (Figure 1A), both genotypes are experiencing a wider range of possible growing conditions (large interval between the two vertical solid lines), which results, in this case, in a possible crossover G×E pattern. Conversely, in MET 2 (Figure 1B), the range of growing conditions is different. Thus, it is expected that the same genotypes will also produce a distinct G×E pattern, which is, in this case, a non-crossover. Therefore, it is feasible to conclude that, although the genetic variation is essential for modeling the potential phenotypic plasticity of genotypes (curves, Figures 1A-C), the diversity of environmental growing conditions dictates the observable G×E patterns (Bradshaw, 1965). Thus, by bringing these observations into the GP context, we envisage that most decisions guided by MET GP models might be unbiased with the quality and diversity of growing conditions are not well-accounted in the modeling approach.Currently, approaches such as CGM aim to mechanistically reproduce phenotypic plasticity curves in a non-linear way. Conversely, benchmark reaction norm models try to reproduce the observable reaction norm in a linear way. Both approaches can achieve adequate results (e.g., Cooper et al., 2016;Ly et al., 2018;Heinemann et al., 2019;Millet et al., 2019;Monteverde et al., 2019;Jarquin et al., 2020;Toda et al., 2020;Antolin et al., 2021), although, to the best of our knowledge, we have observed three key issues: (1) the quality of the linear modeling of a reaction norm depends on the diversity of METs, and thus, on the range of environmental conditions evaluated, which consequently implicates that the screened impact of environmental factors is MET-specific (not TPEspecific) and varies across years; (2) A CGM demands greater phenotyping effort for training genotype-specific parameters capable of reproducing the achievable phenotypic plasticity, from a reduced core of phenotypic records collected from field trials in near-iso environments (e.g., well-watered conditions vs. waterlimited conditions for same planting date and management), which, for some regions or crops, can limit the applicability of the method, even if it is a biologically accurate way to reproduce yield plasticity for certain scenarios such as drought stress; (3) the use of reaction norm models trained from high technological  and G2). The range of the environmental gradient is delimited by the space between the two vertical green lines. Each genotype has a non-linear function describing the genetic limits of phenotypic plasticity (curves) and genetic potential (horizontal dotted lines) of a given trait. Diagonal dotted lines denote the observed reaction norm experienced by the genotypes. (B) Representation of a second experimental network involving the same genotypes, but different environments were sampled from the theoretical TPE. (C) Adaptation of Shelford's Law of Tolerance, describing the cardinal (or biological) genetic limits (vertical green lines) to determine the amount of the factor that results in different adaptation zones. Across these zones, crop performance is described by zones of stress caused by deficit or excess (physiological tolerance range) and zones of optimal growing conditions that allow the plants to express the genetic potential for a given trait (optimum range). The core of possible environmental variations is contemplated as putative phenotypic plasticity for a given genotype, germplasm, or crop species.and well-designed phenotyping platforms might be efficient to collect reliable environmental phenotype associations, but it might not be feasible for certain regions of the world with limited resources to invest in precision (and expensive) phenotyping efforts. Because of this, there is a need to develop a cheap and easy way to approach environmental diversity, translating it into a source of data capable of mimicking the impact of environmental range in the expression of phenotypic plasticity in the current GP platforms.We understand that Shelford's Law of Tolerance (Shelford, 1931) is suitable for explaining how the environmental signals are a drive source of the phenotypic plasticity in plants. It can inspire the implementation of a cost-effectively pipeline for processing raw environmental data (Figure 1C). It states that the adaptation of a target population (e.g., germplasm) is modulated as a certain range of minimum, maximum, and optimum threshold limits achieved over an environment gradient (vertical solid green lines). Thus, the potential phenotypic plasticity (curves) of genotypes is not regarded as a linearized reaction norm variation across an environmental gradient (Arnold et al., 2019); instead, it is a non-linear curve of variation, which can be summarized into a discrete distribution, based on the cardinal thresholds for each biophysical factor, with well-documented ecophysiological relevance. Therefore, crops may experience stressful conditions because of the excess or lack of a certain environmental factor (e.g., temperature, water), which depends on cardinal thresholds (vertical solid green lines in Figure 1C) for each plant species, germplasm, genetic pool, and even varies according to the lifetime of a crop, development stages. Consequently, the expected variation under environmental conditions across different field trials can be visualized as a core of environment types (envirotypes) acting consistently yet varying in impact and due to genetic-specific sensibility, as preconized in CGMs. Finally, the quality of a certain growing condition depends on the balance between crop necessity and resource availability, which can be modeled as a quantity of resources and its frequency across time and space. This came with the idea of separating the environmental inputs as constant effects, such as the type of treatments in a trial (e.g., fertilizer inputs) and transitory effects variables, such as weather events (e.g., heat stress).From these concepts, we observe that by envirotyping (e.g., typing the profiles of a particular environment) we can visualize the contribution of the observable G×E pattern as an end-result of the shared frequency of envirotypes across different field trials. Thus, the envirome of a certain experimental network or TPE (the core of possible growing conditions) can be mathematically assembled in three steps: (1) collecting large-scale environmental data, (2) processing this raw data in envirotyping entries for each real or virtual environment, and (3) processing the envirotypingderived entries to achieve theoretical relatedness between the buildup of different environments from the shared frequency of envirotypes. Thus, the expected envirotypes can be designed relying on the adaptation zones inspired by the model proposed here, based on Shelford's Law, in which we can envisage the process of deriving environmental covariables for GP in an ecophysiological-smart way.Grain yield data (Mg per ha) collected from two distinct sets of maize hybrids (single crosses of inbred lines) were used as a proof of concept. The data sets were originated in Brazil from different germplasm sources developed under tropical conditions (hereafter referred to as Multi-Regional and N-levels). The experimental design, cultivation practices, and fundamental statistical analysis are given in Bandeira e Souza et al. ( 2017) and Alves et al. (2019). Below, we provide a short description of the number of genotypes and environments tested and the nature of the genotyping data of this study.The so-called \"Multi-Regional set\" is based on germplasm developed by the Helix Seeds Company (HEL) in South America. It includes 247 maize lines evaluated in 2015 at five locations in three regions of Brazil (Supplementary Table 1). Genotypic data were obtained using the Axiom Maize Genotyping Array (Affymetrix, Sta. Clara, CA, United States) containing 616 K single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (Unterseer et al., 2014). Only SNPs with minor allele frequency >0.05 were considered. Finally, a total of 52, 811 high-quality SNPs that achieved the quality control level were used in further analyses.The so-called \"N-level set\" is based on the germplasm developed by the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture of the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. A total of 570 tropical maize hybrids were evaluated across eight environments, involving an arrangement of two locations, 2 years, and two nitrogen levels (Supplementary Table 2). The sites of this study involved two distinct edaphoclimatic patterns, i.e., Piracicaba (Atlantic Forest, clay soil) and Anhumas (savannah, silt-sandy soil). Two contrasting nitrogen (N) fertilization levels were managed at each site. One experiment was conducted under ideal N conditions and received 30 kg ha −1 at sowing, along with 70 kg ha −1 in a coverage application at the V8 plant stage, which is the main recommendation for fertilization in tropical maize growing environments in Brazil. In contrast, the second experiment under low N conditions received only 30 kg ha −1 of N at sowing, resulting in N-limited growing conditions. The genotyping data of this set were obtained using the Axiom Maize Genotyping Array (Affymetrix, Sta. Clara, CA, United States) containing 616 K SNPs (Unterseer et al., 2014) and minor allele frequency >0.05. At the end of this process, a total of 54,113 SNPs were considered and used in the further analysis.In this section, we present the methods used for data collection, processing, and implementing what we call enviromic assembly. This envirotyping pipeline was developed using the functions of the R package EnvRtype (Costa-Neto et al., 2021b) and is available at no cost.This study used environmental information for the main abiotic plant-environment interactions related to daily weather, soil type, and crop management (available only for the N-level set). Daily weather information was collected from NASA POWER (Sparks, 2018) and consisted of eight variables: rainfall (P, mm day −1 ), maximum air temperature (TMAX, • C day −1 ), minimum air temperature (TMIN, • C day −1 ), average air temperature (TAVG, • C day −1 ), dew point temperature (TDEW, • C day −1 ), global solar radiation (SRAD, MJ per m²), wind speed at 2 m (WS, m s −1 day −1 ), and relative air humidity (RH, % day −1 ). In addition, elevation above sea level was obtained from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) of NASA. Both sources were imported into R statistical-computational environments using the functions and libraries organized within the EnvRtype package (Costa-Neto et al., 2021b). A third GIS database was used to import soil types from Brazilian soil classification provided by Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA), available at http://www.dpi.inpe.br/ Ambdata/mapa_solos.php and at the Git Hub tutorial https:// github.com/gcostaneto/EGP.Quality control was adopted by removing variables outside the mean ± three SDs and repeated columns. After checking for outliers, the daily weather variables were used to model ecophysiological interactions related to soil-plant-atmosphere dynamics. The thermal-radiation interactions computed potential atmospheric evapotranspiration (ET0) following the Priestley-Taylor method (Priestley and Taylor, 1972). The slope of the curve of saturation vapor pressure (SVP) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was computed as given in the food and agriculture organization (FAO) manual (Allen et al., 1998). An FAO-based generic function was used to estimate crop development as a function of days after emergence (DAE). We assume a three-segment leaf growing function to estimate the crop canopy coefficient (Kc) of evapotranspiration using the following Kc values: Kc 1 (0.3), Kc 2 (1.2), Kc 3 (0.35), equivalent to the water demand of tropical maize for initial phases, reproduction phases, and end-season stages, respectively. Using the same three-segment function, we estimate the crop canopy using a leaf area index (LAI) of LAI = 0.7 (initial vegetative phases), LAI = 3 (maximum LAI for tropical maize growing conditions observed in our fields), and LAI = 2 (LAI tasseling stage). We computed the daily crop evapotranspiration (ETc) estimated by the product between ET0 and the Kc from the two estimations. Then, we computed the difference between daily precipitation and crop evapotranspiration as P-ETc.The apparent photosynthetic radiation intercepted by the canopy (aPAR) was computed following aPARwhere k is the coefficient of canopy, considered as 0.5 (Sinclair, 2006). Water deficiency was computed using the atmospheric water balance between the input (precipitation) and output of atmospheric demands (crop evapotranspiration). The effect of temperature on radiation use efficiency (F RUE ) was described by a three-segment function based on cardinal temperatures for maize, using the cardinal temperatures 8 • C (Tb 1 , base lower), 30 • C (To 1 , base optimum), 37 • C (To 2 , upper optimum), and 45 • C (Tb 2 , base upper). This function assumes values from 0 to 1, depending on: (Soltani and Sinclair, 2012).Finally, we sampled each piece of weather and ecophysiological information across five-time intervals in the lifetime of the crop: from emergence to the appearance of the first leaf (V1, 14 DAE), from V1 to the fourth leaf (V4, 35 DAE), from V4 to the tasseling stage (VT, 65 DAE), from VT to the kernel milk stage (R3, 90 DAE), and from R3 to physiological maturity (R6, 120 DAE), in which DAE stands for days after emergence. These time intervals were based on fixed DAE according to our expertise in tropical maize and how its germplasm grows under Brazilian conditions. After emergence to V1, there are two critical vegetative phases in which different absorption rates of soil resources and dry matter production are expected. Radiation and factors of water balance are important for these stages. Then, between V1 and V3, a higher rate of leaf growth is expected, which starts to become faster from V4 until it stops in VT (tasseling stage). A third critical stage begins at the beginning of VT, passing through the milk stage (R1) until R3. At the same time, the sensibility of abiotic stresses, such as heat stress and drought stress, also increases. In this phase, pollination and kernel formation will start, which directly impacts grain yield production. Finally, from R3 to R6, the grains pass the dough (R4) and dent stages (R5), which have less sensibility to most environmental stresses but are still affected by thermal-related factors, which can also accelerate these stages. For adapting the methodology to other crops, we encourage the readers to (1) explore ecophysiology concepts from the literature, especially those related to plant science; (2) incorporate multidisciplinary efforts in agronomic expertise; (3) use crop growth models to establish development stages, if necessary.The raw envirotyping data were used to assemble markers for environmental similarity, depending on the group of ECs. The first group of ECs involves transitory effect variables, which vary in the frequency of occurrence, depending on the crop development cycle. Thus, according to the concepts inspired by Shelford's Law, we designed the expected envirotypes using the number of inputs required to lead crops in at least three levels of adaptation: (1) stress by deficit, (2) optimum growing conditions, and (3) stress by excess. These levels were defined using cardinal thresholds or frequency tables concerning the growing conditions archived in the range of experimental networks. Then, having reviewed the literature, we considered the intervals for thermal-related variables: 0 to 9 • C (death), 9.1 to 23 • C (stress by deficit), 23.1 to 32 • C (optimum growing conditions), 32.1 to 45 • C (stress by excess), and 45 to ∞ • C (death). According to our agronomic expertise in the crop, we computed the types of the expected rainfall requirements for tropical maize growing environments: 0 to 10 mm, 10.1 to 20 mm, and 20.1 to ∞ mm. In the same way, for crop evapotranspiration (ETc), we assumed the envirotypes 0-6, 7-10, 10-15, and 16 to ∞ mm.day −1 . Finally, for F RUE , we assumed four impact levels: 0 to 25% (0-0.25), 26 to 50% (0.26-0.5), 51 to 75% (0.51-0.75), and 76 to 100% (0.76-1). Finally, for the remaining variables, we preferred to adopt a simple discretization approach, using a histogram of percentiles (0-25, 26-50, 51-75, and 75-100%) of occurrence for a target envirotype. We understand that, for other crop species or a lack of expertise in the crop or the germplasm, the use of discretization must suffice until we know the genetic thresholds of each limit for each environmental factor better.Additionally, we also considered the group of constant effect variables. This group involved factors related to elevation, crop management, and soil classification in each environment. Soil information was entered as an incidence matrix (0 or 1) based on the occurrence in each environment. In addition, for the N-level set, nitrogen input levels were computed as two discrete classes: ideal, N = 10, and low, N = 30; we entered the same incidence matrix for soil information. Because both sets have a gradient for elevation, we used a histogram of percentiles (0-25, 26-50, 51-75, and 75-100%) as in the transitory group of variables. Finally, each designed envirotype × time interval frequency was used as a qualitative marker of environmental relatedness (hereafter, the T matrix, from typologies).The quantitative descriptors of environmental relatedness are the most common method to include environmental information in GP studies considering reaction norms (e.g., Jarquín et al., 2014;Morais Júnior et al., 2018;Monteverde et al., 2019;Costa-Neto et al., 2021a;Rogers et al., 2021). Jarquín et al. (2014) proposed the creation of the so-called environmental relatedness kinship (K E ), carried out with a matrix of quantitative environmental covariables (the W matrix; thus we refer to this environment kinship as K E,W ). Here, the pattern of similarity in K E,W was captured using percentile values (25; 50, and 75%) in each of the five-time intervals of development, as suggested by Morais Júnior et al. ( 2018) and expanded by Costa-Neto et al. (2021a). As a result, we found 255 and 307 quantitative descriptors for the multiregional and N-level sets, respectively, at the end of the process. In this study, we used K E,W as a benchmark method to test the effectiveness of the K E,T matrix and the total absence of environmental information (baseline genomic model without environmental information; refer to section Baseline additivedominant GBLUP).From a baseline additive-dominant multi-environment GBLUP (section Baseline additive-dominant GBLUP), we tested four other models, by including two types of enviromic assembly (T or W) and two structures for G×E effects. More details about each statistical model are provided in the next subsections. All the kernel models were fitted using the BGGE R package (Granato et al., 2018) using 15,000 iterations, with 2,000 used as burn-in and using a thinning of 10. This package was used because of the following aspects: (1) it is an accurate open-source software and ( 2) it can accommodate many kernels in a computationefficient way.The baseline model includes a fixed intercept for each environment and random genetic variations due to additive and dominance effects and their interaction with the environment. We will refer to this model as just GBLUP, which was modeled as the main effect plus a genomic-by-environment deviation (the so-called G + GE model), as follows:where y = y 1 , • • • , y n ′ is the vector of observations collected in each of the q environments with hybrids, and 1µ+Z E β is the general mean and the fixed effect of the environments with incidence matrix Z E . The genetic variation was modeled assuming main additive effects (u A ), with u A ∼N(0,J q ⊗K A σ 2 A ), plus a random dominance variation (u D ), with u D ∼N(0,J q ⊗K D σ 2 D ), where σ 2 A and σ 2 D are the variance components for additive and dominance deviation effects; Z A and Z D are the incidence matrixes for the same effects (absence = 0, presence = 1), J q is a q × q matrix of 1s, and ⊗ denotes the Kronecker product. G×E effects are modeled using a block diagonal (BD) matrix of the genomic effects, built using u AE ∼N(0,I q ⊗K A σ 2 A ) and u DE ∼N(0,I q ⊗K D σ 2 D ), in which I q is a diagonal matrix of the q × q dimension. Residual deviations (ε) were assumed as ε∼N(0,I n σ 2 ), where n is the number of genotype-environment observations. Furthermore, the genotyping data were processed in two matrices of additive and dominance effects (Vitezica et al., 2013), modeled withwhere f l is the frequency of the favorable alleleA at locus l. Thus, the genomic-related kinships were estimated as follows:where K is a generic representation of the genomic kinship (K A , K D ), X is a generic representation of the molecular matrix (A or D), and r denotes the number of rows in the X matrix. Equation ( 2) was also used to shape the environmental relatedness kernels using the T or W matrix. The linear kernel for K E was described by Jarquín et al. (2014), which was several other authors named after \"Ω.\" Thus, here, we only tested the difference between the source of enviromics considered for building it and not the merit of the kernel method, as was done in previous studies (Costa-Neto et al., 2021a).From equation (1), we added a main environmental relatedness effect, that is, an enviromic main effect carried out with the T matrix (u E,T ), as follows:with u E,T ∼N(Z E β,K E,T ⊗J p σ 2 E,T ), where J q is a p × p matrix of 1s, and K E,T is the environmental relatedness created and variance component from the T matrix. If non-enviromic sources are considered, the expected value for environments is given by Z E β as the baseline model (Costa-Neto et al., 2021a,b). In this model, the effects of G×E are also modeled as the BD genomic matrix. Thus, we refer to this model as \"E-GP (BD).\" The kernel of the enviromic assembly (K E,T ) was built using the panel of envirotype descriptors (T) in the same way as described in equation (2).From model ( 3), we substitute the BD for a reaction norm (RN, Jarquín et al., 2014) based on the Kronecker product between the enviromic and genomic kinships (Martini et al., 2020) for additive (u AE,T ) and dominance effects (u DE,T ):, where σ 2 AE,T and σ 2 DE,T are the variance components for enviromic × additive and enviromic × dominance effects, respectively, performed as reaction norms (Costa-Neto et al., 2021a;Rogers et al., 2021). For brevity, this model will be called \"E-GP (RN).\"Finally, in models ( 4) and ( 5), we replaced the source of enviromic assembly derived from T with the same kernel size derived from W, that is, environmental relatedness with), thus, creating two other models:andwhere K E,W and σ 2 E,W are the resulting kinship and variance components estimated for enviromic assembly from the W matrix, respectively. Thus, for brevity, models ( 5) and ( 6) will be referred to as \"W-GP (BD)\" and \"W-GP (RN)\" (Jarquín et al., 2014), respectively.In this study, we conceived two cases to check the possible benefits of involving E-GP in current prediction-based platforms for hybrid testing in maize breeding (Figure 2). The first case (Case 1) consists of the prediction of single-crosses considering diverse sizes of the experimental network in terms of the number of environments considered for the training set. For this case, we dissected the predictive ability over four G×E prediction scenarios. In the second case (Case 2), we envisaged the design of a super-optimized experimental network using the most representative combination of genotypes and environments selected using genomics, enviromic assembly, and genetic algorithms. Then, we envisaged how a small training set (and reduced phenotyping effort) for E-GP and GBLUP might be useful to reproduce the adaptability of maize hybrids for the full-rank MET. Below, we describe in detail each case we studied. Currently, these data are being used for training prediction models considering untested genotypes at the same conditions (nG, E), especially when we have some type of structure of genetic relationships, such as genomic data (blue colors). In addition, novel growing conditions can be predicted (G, nE and nG, nE) using enviromic sources (wine colors), Case 1. First, raw environmental data are collected from trials involving equipment installed in situ (e.g., micro-weather stations) or remote sensing techniques. Then the raw data are processed and translated into an enviromic source that carries some ecophysiology process or statistical distribution of the raw data across time and space. The enviromic assembly is then finalized, in which its product is a matrix of envirotype markers by environments. Taking the T matrix as an example (qualitative descriptors based on typologies), a predictive breeding tool merging genomic, enviromics, and phenotypic data can be trained and deliver predictions for several scenarios of G×E. However, there is a second way to create an E-GP platform, the hereafter Case 2, in which the previously collected genomic and enviromic sources for a given TPE are used to develop in silico realizations of the expected G×E for a certain experimental network. Then, optimization algorithms are used to design a selective phenotyping strategy (green box) in which only the most representative genotype-environment combinations are phenotyped and considered for training the E-GP models (gray box). Finally, diverse G×E can also be predicted.In the first case (Case 1), we adapted a cross-validation scheme to split the global available phenotypic information (n), from p genotypes and q environments, into different training setups. Consequently, four G×E prediction scenarios were created based on the simultaneous sampling of the phenotypic information for S genotypes and R environments (adapted from Millet et al., 2019). The description and size of each training set are given below:• G, E refers to predictions of tested genotypes within the experimental network (known genotypes in known environmental conditions). The size of this set is n• nG, E refers to predictions of untested (new) genotypes within the experimental network (known environmental conditions). The size of this set is n• G, nE, in this scenario, predictions are made under environmental conditions external to those found within the experimental network. However, there is phenotypic information available within the experimental network. The size of this set is n• nG, nE refers to predicting untested(new) genotypes and untested (new) environmental conditions. The size of this size is nequal to the commonly used CV1 scheme (prediction of novel genotypes in known environments). Different intensities of R/q can be sampled, for instance, which permits the testing of setups of experimental networks. Here, we tested three setups for each tropical maize data set. For the N-level set, we made 3/8, 5/8, and 7/8; for the Multi-local set, we made 2/5, 3/5, and 4/5. We assumed the same level of genotype sampling as the training set for all the experimental setups, equal to a fraction of S p = 0.7. Each training setup was randomly sampled 50 times in order to compute the statistics of prediction quality. For this purpose, two statistics were used to assess the performance of the statistical models over the training setups. First, we calculated Pearson's moment correlation (r) between observed (y) and predicted (ŷ) values and used the average value for each model and training setup as a predictive ability statistic. Second, to check the ability of GP to replace field trials, we computed the coincidence (CS, in %) between the field-based selection and the selection-based selection of the top 5% best-performing hybrids in each environment.The design of \"super-optimized field trials\" was based on three steps. First, we computed a full-entry G×E kernel based on the Kronecker product (⊗) between the kernels derived from enviromic assembly-based (K E,T , q × q environments) and genomic kinship (K G , p × p genotypes); thus, K GE,T = K E,T ⊗ K G , with an n × n dimension, in which n = pq. Here, we adopt the additive effects (K G = K A ) as the genomic kinship, despite the benefits of dominance effects in the modeling of G×E. We chose to use only K A for simplicity, since additive effects seem to be a major genomic-related driver of G×E for grain yield in tropical maize (Dias et al., 2018;Alves et al., 2019;Costa-Neto et al., 2021a;Rogers et al., 2021), a fact that was also observed for Case 1 (see section Case 1: accuracy in predicting diverse G×E scenarios). Later, we applied a single-value decomposition in K GE,T , following K GE,T = UVU T , where U is the total of eigenvalues, and V is the respective eigenvectors. The number of eigenvalues that explains 98% of the variance present in K GE,T indicates the number of effective SNPs by envirotype-marker interactions (adapted from Misztal, 2016), which is also the minimum core of genotype-environment combinations (N GE ). Thus, the reduced phenotypic information of some genotypes in some environments (N GE ) was used to predict a virtual experimental network (N test ), involving all remaining single crosses in all the available environments, as given by N test = n − N GE .Following this step, a genetic algorithm scheme using the design criteria PEV MEAN was used to identify the N GE entries within the K GE,T . Optimization was implemented using the SPTGA R package (Akdemir and Isidro-Sánchez, 2019) using 100 iterations: five solutions selected as elite parents were used to generate the next set of solutions and mutations of 80% for each solution generated.Finally, we checked the potentialities of using E-GP to predict the environmental quality and adaptability of each genotype across the environments using only the N GE phenotypic information. First, the prediction ability was computed for genotypes by correlating the predicted and observed grain yield values across the environments (Costa-Neto et al., 2021a). The second measure was based on the regression slope of the Finlay-Wilkinson adaptability model (Finlay and Wilkinson, 1963). The values of GP were regressed to the observed environmental deviations as follows:where M ij is the expected GP-based mean value of grain yield for the i th genotype in the j th environment; y i. is the mean genotypic value for the i th genotype, b i is the genotype plastic response across the mean-centered standardized environmental score (I j ), and ε ij is the variety of residual deviation sources not accounted for in the model. After this step, the Pearson's productmoment correlation between GP-based ( bi ) and phenotypicenabled estimates were computed as an indicator of the ability to reproduce plastic responses in silico for the p genotypes. For this, mean squared error is also calculated as:All the statistics were computed using the entire data sets, and only the top 5% of genotypes were selected for each environment. The latter aimed to check the efficiency of the E-GP method to produce high-quality virtual screenings for plasticity.All the data sets and codes (in R), with a toy example of use, are freely available at https://github.com/gcostaneto/EGP.The first case tests the effect of experimental setups in providing reliable phenotypic information as training population sets. For this, sample genotypes (70%) and environments were used to compose a drastically sparse training set (training environments/total of environments). This helped assess the efficiency of E-GP for Case 1, in which we were able to dissect the predictive ability in different scenarios of a scarcity of phenotypic records: novel genotypes in tested environments (nG, E), tested genotypes in untested environments (G, nE), and novel genotype and environment conditions (nG, nE). Tables 1, 2 present the results of N-level and multiregional sets, respectively. Then, these results were gathered for both the data sets and the four prediction scenarios in order to check for the analysis of joint predictive ability (Figure 3). Predictions within known environmental conditions of a certain experimental network involve two scenarios: G,E and nG,E.For the G,E scenario (the classic \"training set\"), all the models outperformed the GBLUP in any setup of the N-level set and most of the setups of the multiregional set. The highest values of predictive ability were observed for enviromic-aided GP models using the block-diagonal matrix for G×E effects (BD), that is, the E-GP (BD) and W-GP (BD), respectively. Two general trends were observed: the size of the experimental setup has a small effect on the accuracy of the GP models. Second, higher accuracy gains were observed for the N-level set (Table 1), with a higher number of entries (more genotypes and more environments). The accuracy gains in the N-level set ranged from +8 (r = 0.83 and an enviromic × genomic reaction norm G×E effect (triangle). Trend lines were plotted from the partial values of each sample (from 1 to 50) and three prediction scenarios (nG, E; G, nE; and nG, nE) using the gam () integrated with smoothness estimation in R. Black dotted lines represent the benchmark GBLUP method, considering the effect of the environment as a fixed intercept. Yellow two-dash lines represent the GBLUP involving the main effect from quantitative descriptors (W matrix). Finally, solid dark pink lines represent the GBLUP involving the main effect of envirotype descriptors (T matrix). Thus, the latter represents the E-GP based approach for Case 1 (predictions under existing experimental networks).for E-GP RN at 7/8 experimental setup), in relation to r = 0.77 (GBLUP), to +24% (r = 0.92 for W-GP RN at 3/8 experimental setup), in relation to r = 0.74 (GBLUP). In contrast, for the multiregional set (Table 2), both the RN-G×E models reduced the accuracy (on average by −3%). For the BD-G×E models, small gains in accuracy (from +4 to +8%) were observed.That is also a trend for the second prediction scenario (nG, E), in which the multiregional set presented an average gain of 10% for all the enviromic-aided GP models with BD-G×E and a reduction of 10% for all the RN-G×E models. Conversely to the previous scenario (G, E, within the experimental network, using known genotypes), nG, E is one of the most important plants breeding scenarios. It represents the ability to predict new single-crosses within the known environmental gradient, by borrowing genomic and enviromic information from the phenotypes of the relatives, thus expanding the spectrum of possible genotypes using known growing conditions from the past. For the N-level set, gains of up to 100% were observed for all the enviromic-aided models using any G×E structure. No differences were observed between enviromic-aided models and experimental setups. On average, all the enviromic-aided models achieved a predictive ability of approximately r = 0.66 across all experimental setups (3/8, 5/8, and 7/8, Table 1). In contrast, the GBLUP model was impacted with reduced accuracy and a lack of phenotypic records. The highest gains in predictive ability were observed for scenario 3/8, with an average of +118% for the BD-G×E models, and +119% for the RN-G×E models.The predictions of yet-to-be-seen growing conditions were evaluated by the scenarios G, nE, and nG, nE. For G, nE, the E-GP models outperformed W-GP and GBLUP across most of the experimental setups, despite small differences between the enviromic-aided approaches. For the E-GP (BD) at the N-level set (Table 1), the gains in predictive ability ranged from +24% (r = 0.49 in the 7/8 setup, Table 1), in relation to r = 0.4 (GBLUP), to +35% (r = 0.57 in the 5/8 setup), in relation to r = 0.43 (GBLUP). However, for scenario 3/8, the gains were equal to +10% (r = 0.57) in relation to the +13% archived by the benchmark W-GP (RN) (r = 0.58), both over the r = 0.53 from GBLUP. In scenario 7/8, W-GP was outperformed by GBLUP, with a reduction in accuracy between −18 and −16%, where the E-GP made better use of the large phenotypic information available for the training of the GP models (gains from +20 to +24% over GBLUP). A similar pattern was observed for the multiregional set (Table 2), in which the gains of E-GP ranged from +4 to +6% across all the setups, and W-GP ranged from −3 to +6% under the same conditions.The nG, nE scenario is the most complex situation, because it is expected to predict yet-to-be-seen genotypes under unknown growing conditions. Thus, all the predictions were based on the quality of the association between the observed phenotypic records of relativities and their resemblance due to genomic or enviromic assembly. With a large size setup, it seems that the E-GP models outperform W-GP and GBLUP when predicting new G×E. Observed accuracy gains ranged from 33 (r = 0.39 for E-GP RN) to 40% (r = 0.42 for E-GP BD) in experimental setup 7/8 (Table 1), where GBLUP achieved r = 0.3, and from 47 (r = 0.46 for E-GP BD) to 51% (r = 0.48 for E-GP BD) in experimental setup 5/8, where GBLUP achieved r = 0.32. Unlike observations in the other prediction scenarios, the RN-G×E models outperformed BD-G×E in the following experimental setups: 3/8 (N-level set) and 2/5 (multiregional set).This section highlights the main target of our Case 1, in which the predictive ability was achieved using the merged information of scarce genotypes tested in some environments. Joint accuracy trends showed E-GP was useful for increasing GP accuracy (Figure 3A) and explaining the phenotypic variation sources in both maize data sets (Supplementary Tables 3, 4).For scenarios with reduced phenotypic information (e.g., 3/5, 3/8, and 4/8), any model with some degree of environmental information outperformed GBLUP in all the scenarios. The E-GP approach (purple colors in Figure 3A) better captured envirotype-phenotype relationships and converted them into accuracy gains among these models. This is also reflected in the efficiency of E-GP as a predictive breeding tool capable of reproducing field-based trials (Figure 3B). Regarding the G×E structures, the contribution of RN-G×E is significant only for drastically lacking phenotypic records (training setup 3/8), leading to the conclusion that the use of a main-effect is substantial and that, in most cases, E-GP is enough to increase accuracy in GBLUP. For setup 2/5 (multiregional set), no differences were observed among all the GP models.The coincidence between the GP-based selection and the infield selection (CS, %) ranged from ∼35 to ∼50%, in models with some environmental information, while it ranged between 30 and 40% for GBLUP (without environmental information). For the E-GP approach accounting for a wide number of phenotypic records in the training sets (7/8, 3/5, and 4/5), CS values of up to 55% were found. Among these models, it seems that RN-G×E reduces the CS estimates concerning the BD-G×E based models. Considering both Figures 3A,B, it is possible to suggest that predictive ability does not imply an increase in CS, that is, in the power of selecting the best performing genotypes in certain environments. However, the drastic increase in E-GP accuracy in relation to the other models leads us to infer that despite the lower rise in CS, the E-GP models are useful when predicting G×E for a vast number of single-crosses.The results mentioned above led us to investigate Case 2 (Figure 2), where we checked the possibility of training efficient and biologically accurate GP scenarios from superoptimized training sets. Then, we studied the potential of using these optimized field trials for predicting novel G×E under the so-called \"virtual experimental networks.\" This approach was implemented by combining two selective phenotyping approaches (Misztal, 2016;Akdemir and Isidro-Sánchez, 2019), aiming to identify combinations of genotypes and environments by in-silico representations of enviromic assembly × genomic kinships.The process of designing virtual networks in maize hybrid breeding involved two steps (Supplementary Figure 1). First, we used a single-value decomposition (SVD)-based algorithm to select the effective number of individuals (N GE ) (Misztal, 2016) representing at least 98% of the variation of K G,ET . It was done in K G,ET , because this kernel represents an in-silico representation of envirotypes and genotypes, which differs from the original approach that uses only genomic kinships (Akdemir and Isidro-Sánchez, 2019). Under sparse MET conditions, it led to a training size of N GE = 67 and N GE = 49 for the N-level (n = 4,560) and multiregional sets (n = 1,235), respectively. It represents only 1.5 and 4% of the whole experimental network (Supplementary Figures 2, 3). For didactic purposes, we will represent the values of N GE as the training set size/number of genotypes from here onwards.We also checked the use of all environments, although the differences in accuracy were small in relation to sparse MET scenario (Table 3). Furthermore, small differences were achieved by E-GP and W-GP models with BD-G×E, but both were higher than RN-G×E and GBLUP (Figure 4). Major differences were highlighted as follows. For within-field trials (observed phenotypes), the predictive ability ranged from r = 0.76 (W-GP) to r = 0.87 (E-GP). It was observed that lower values were due to lack of phenotypic records in the virtual networks, in which the predictive abilities ranged from r = 0.14 ± 0.11 (GBLUP) to r = 0.6 ± 0.06 (E-GP). However, in the virtual networks, it was observed that the predictive ability of models trained with drastically reduced phenotypic records ranged from r = 0.1 (GBLUP, N GE = 67/4,560) to r = 0.58 (E-GP, N GE = 67/4,560) and r = 0.18 (GBLUP, N GE = 49/1,235) to r = 0.81 (E-GP, N GE = 49/1,235). Therefore, it seems that the reduction of phenotype information does not compromise the enviromic-enriched models, but it is capable of delivering accurate predictions in some experimental networks, and in most cases, at least it will deliver consistent results with fewer phenotyping efforts.The predictive ability was computed considering only the top 5% of genotypes in each environment and data set. The objective was to verify if the GP approaches could adequately predict the performance of the best-evaluated genotypes in the field. For the multiregional set, the predictive ability ranged from r = 0.098 (GBLUP, N GE = 210/1,235) to r = 0.579 (W-GP BD, N GE = 49/1,235) and r = 0.578 (E-GP BD, N GE = 49/1,235); for the N-level set, W-GP outperformed E-GP, leading to r = 0.554 (W-GP BD, N GE = 536/4,560) in front of r = 0.554 (E-GP RN, N GE = 67/4,560) but with less phenotyping data. In contrast, the best E-GP model at the higher number of genotypes and environments evaluated in the field r = 0.484 (E-GP RN, N GE = 536/4,560) was outperformed by the same model, but with less phenotyping data, r = 0.554 (E-GP RN, N GE = 67/4,560). For GBLUP, the effective size of the training set was important, TABLE 3 | Predictive ability of the GP models for two tropical maize data sets (multiregional and N-level) produced using the effective number of phenotypic records (N GE , genotype-environment observations) and for the scenarios Field Trials (training set, that is; predicting N GE ) and Virtual Network (predicting n-N GE , where n is the number of genotypes by environments available in the full data set). The reference \"full\" and \"5%\" in parentheses represents the predictive ability produced with all genotypes using only the top 5%, respectively.ranging in predictive ability from r = 0.07 (N GE = 67/4,560) to r = 0.152 (N GE = 536/4,560). The results of both sets suggest that when using enviromics-aided approaches, the use of a less but more representative amount of phenotyping information is better than the use of a higher but less representative number of phenotyping records collected across METs. Figure 4 is created with the average values provided in Table 3 and shows that the optimization was more effective for growing conditions contrasting across macro-regions (Figure 4A) than for experimental networks involving fewer locations (Figure 4B). Notably, it is possible to drastically reduce field costs for experimental networks conducted across diverse locations.In this step, we checked the ability of the models to perform virtual screenings for yield plasticity (Figure 5). We used the Finlay-Wilkinson method (FW, Equation 7) over the predicted GY means of each genotype i in environment j (M ij ). Hence, we compared the ability of E-GP in the prediction of (1) individual genotypic responses across environments, (2) the gradient of environmental quality (h j ), and (3) the plasticity coefficient (b 1 ) of the FW model describing the rate of responsiveness to h. The results shown in Figure 5 involve a joint analysis of both data sets.All models that included some degree of enviromic assembly outperformed the GBLUP-based approach when predicting individual genotype responses across the METs (Figure 5A). The median values of r ranged from 0.17 (GBLUP), in which 45% of the genotypes were not well-predicted (red colors), to 0.83 (E-GP), in which up to 60% of the genotypes were very well-predicted (purple colors). The inclusion of any enviromic assembly and G×E structure led to drastic gains in accuracy for a particular genotype response across contrasting (and unknown) G×E conditions (gains up to ∼378%). However, the BD structure outperformed RN in resolution (many purple colors in Figure 5A). A major part of the accurately predicted performance of genotypes across the environments ranged from r = 0.75 to r = 1. Due to this, for the next figures, we plotted only the E-GP considering the BD-G×E structure.The GBLUP approach was unable to correctly reproduce h j for an in silico study using the FW model (Figure 5B). We observe that E-GP better describes the h j gradient (meancentered average values of GY for each environment), with r close to 1 (correlation between observed and predicted environmental qualities), also suggesting a low bias (slope = 0.924 between observed and predicted values). Consequently, this was reflected in the quality of yield plasticity predictions (Figures 5C-E), as yield plasticity was represented as linear responsiveness over the environmental variation. The graphical representation of genotype-specific linear reaction norms dictated by the linear regression slope (b 1 ) was likely more similar to E-GP than GBLUP to those observed in field-based testing (Figure 5B). The accuracy of b 1 ranged from r =0.08 (GBLUP) to r = 0.43 (E-GP), with an increase of 437%.Large-scale envirotyping, or simply enviromics, is an emerging field of data science in agricultural research and modern breeding program routines. Here, we demonstrated that enviromics is capable of bringing together environment information and quantitative genomics in an ecophysiology-smart manner. In this study, we presented the first report on (1) the use of Shelford's Law to guide the assembly of the enviromics for predictive breeding purposes over experimental networks;(2) the integration of enviromic assembly-based kernels with genomic kinship into optimization algorithms capable of designing selective phenotyping strategies; (3) a break of the paradigm relying on the fact that phenotyping a higher number of genotypes in a higher number of environments does not always contribute to increasing the accuracy of GP for contrasting G×E scenarios, but there are pieces of evidence suggesting that enviromics increases accuracy in sparse multienvironment networks; and (4) the process of deriving markers of environmental relatedness, here called \"enviromic assembly, \" that is crucial for the implementation of low-cost GP platforms under multi-environmental conditions.In this study, we also envisage that the process of enviromic assembly is supported by a strong theoretical background in ecophysiology, illustrating the potential uses of environmental information to increase the accuracy of predictive breeding for yield and plasticity. Our results indicate that the E-GP platform (Figure 2) can fit two types of prediction scenarios in plant breeding programs: (1) better use of available phenotypic records to train more accurate GP models capable of aiding the selection of genotypes across multi-environmental conditions, and (2) a method that reduces costs for field-based testing and enables early screening for yield plasticity under crossover G×E conditions. Furthermore, we show that any model with some degree of enviromic assembly (by typology or quantitative descriptors) is always better in reproducing the environmental quality of genotypes in field trials and phenotypic plasticity.Below, we discuss the aspects that support the use of E-GP for multi-environment predictions, involving the importance of breaking the paradigm that states that enviromics are not necessary to predict G×E accurately. We then discuss how genomic and enviromics sources are linked in the phenotypic records collected from the fields and how this knowledge can improve the quality of prediction-based pipelines for crop improvement. Finally, we envisage possible environmental assembly applications supporting other predictive breeding fields, such as optimizing crop modeling calibration, and how it can couple with a novel level of climate-smart solutions for crop improvement by anticipating the plasticity of many genotypes using reduced phenotypic data.Genomic prediction platforms were first designed to model genotype-to-phenotype relationships under single environment conditions, e.g., in a breeding program nursery (Lorenzana and Bernardo, 2009;Windhausen et al., 2012;Zhao et al., 2012;Zhang et al., 2015). Under these conditions, the micro-environmental variations within breeding trials (e.g., spatial gradients in soil properties) are minimized in the phenotypic correction step by separating useful genetic patterns and experimental noises (non-genetic patterns). However, the phenotypic records carry the indissoluble effects of macro-environmental fluctuations of certain weather and soil factors that occurred during crop growth and development (Li et al., 2018;Millet et al., 2019;Vidotti et al., 2019;Guo et al., 2020;Jarquin et al., 2020). This In the X-axis, we computed h j using the phenotypic records of a current experimental network. In the Y-axis, the h j values are presented considering a virtual experimental network built using GBLUP and E-GP (with BD) predictions. (C-E) Yield plasticity panels denoting G×E effects of each genotype across the h j values for observed field testing screening (C) concerning prediction-based (D,E). Only the 5% best genotypes in each environment were used to create this plot. Each line was colored with the genotype-specific plasticity coefficient (b 1 ). For the N-level set, the full-optimized set (536 hybrids over eight environments) was used.seems to be of no concern when predicting novel genotypes under the same growth conditions (the CV1 scheme for singleenvironment models) but becomes noise for multi-environment prediction scenarios. It is a consequence of macro-environment fluctuations in the lifetime of crops (Allard and Bradshaw, 1964;Bradshaw, 1965;Arnold et al., 2019), responsible for modulating the rate of gene expression (e.g., Jończyk et al., 2017;Liu et al., 2020), fine-tuning epigenetic variations and transcriptional responses (e.g., Vendramin et al., 2020;Cimen et al., 2021).For each unit that we call \"environment\" (field trial in a specific year, location, planting date, and crop management), there are various environmental factors, such as water availability, canopy temperature, global solar radiation, and nutrient content in the soil. The balance of these conditions will dictate the availability of resources for each crop species across each development stage, that is, considering its physiological specificities, which is a consequence of the aforementioned environmental growing conditions and the current phenotypic architecture in the soil-plant-atmosphere momentum. Thus, for each crop species, with a different phenotypic architecture of roots, leaves, and accumulated biomass, it is also expected that the quality of certain environment will also have a range because of species-specific sensibilities. This is one of the main principles for conceiving crop growth models since the establishment of the \"School of de Wit\" back in the 1960s (see Bouman et al., 1996). However, it also seems very likely with a previous theory in ecophysiology, which suggests that the fitness of a population is given by the amount and distribution of resources available for its establishment and adaptation (Shelford, 1931). Thus, we reinterpret this concept by assuming that the relation between input availability (deficit, optimum amount, or excess), across different crop development stages, drives the rate and amount of the genetic potential for a given environment. Therefore, it provides the foundations to elaborate the argument that there is also an indissoluble envirotype-phenotype covariance in the phenotypic records that is interpreted as a G×E interaction for each environment. Because of that, we envisage that any environmental relatedness kernel must account for it in any way, for it seems that the typology-based matrix is the more biological accurate way to parametrize environmental information aimed for enviromic assembly.The pioneer approaches to measuring crop adaptability use the average value of a given trait in each environment as an environmental quality index (e.g., Finlay and Wilkinson, 1963). However, the problem with this approach is that it explains the quality of the environment realized by the genotypes evaluated in it, making it inefficient in explaining the drivers of environmental quality and incapable of predicting untested growing conditions, as observed in our results for Case 2 using GBLUP without enviromic data. In addition, our results for Case 1 highlight that there is a limit in accuracy for traditional GBLUP across METs, in which the accuracy remains almost the same, regardless of the number of phenotypic records available.A second intrinsic covariance can interpret the last result within the phenotypic records, which is the genotype-envirotype covariance. By adapting the Quantitative Genetics theory to the terminology used here, we can infer that each genotype reacts differently to each envirotype, resulting in each phenotype. This phenotype is then used to provide small crop phenology differences (genetically determined window sizes for each development stage). Recent but pioneer studies were carried out to understand the genetic and environmental determinants of flowering time in sorghum (Li et al., 2018) and rice (Guo et al., 2020) that can be indirectly interpreted as cardinal differential thresholds for temperature response. Furthermore, Jarquin et al. (2020) proved that it is possible to increase the ability of genomic prediction (GP) in predictive novel G×E by coupling information of day-length in benchmark GP models. For all the examples reported above, we can infer that, when trying to predict a novel genotype, borrowing genotypic information from the relatives in different environments makes it impossible to reproduce the genotype-envirotype covariance without adding any enviromic information into the model.The presence of both genotype-envirotype and envirotypephenotype covariances might explain the gains in the predictive ability due to the use of multi-environment GP models in contrast to single-environment GP models (Bandeira e Souza et al., 2017; de Oliveira et al., 2020) and why deep learning approaches have successfully captured intrinsic G×E patterns and translated them into gains in accuracy (Montesinos-López et al., 2018;Crossa et al., 2019;Cuevas et al., 2019). Conversely, this also might explain the need to incorporate secondary sources of information in the prediction of grain yields across multiple environments (Westhues et al., 2017;Ly et al., 2018;Millet et al., 2019;Jarquin et al., 2020;Costa-Neto et al., 2021a,b), as well as the possible limitations of CGM approaches contrasting scenarios differing from those targeted near-iso conditions of CGM calibration (e.g., Cooper et al., 2016;Messina et al., 2018). Thus, an alternative could be supervised approaches to describe the environmental relatedness, such as in this article, and perhaps unsupervised algorithms capable of taking advantage of the covariances related to genotype-phenotype, genotype-envirotype, and envirotypephenotype dynamics.Our results from Case 1 show that the inclusion of enviromic sources (for main effects or explicitly incorporated in the RN-G×E structure) led to a better description of the envirotypephenotype covariances, which was reflected in accuracy gains. Based on our data and the Bayesian approach used, it is worth highlighting that incorporating enviromic sources does not replace the incorporation of a design matrix for environments (here used as fixed effects), as is commonly associated in previous studies of GP reaction norms. Here, we show that enviromic sources came up as tentative to capture the envirotype-phenotype covariances. The cross-validation scheme used in Case 1 allowed us to observe that the joint prediction of different genotypeenvironment conditions (Figure 3) might highlight better how enviromic sources can contribute to increasing the predictive ability of GP, mostly due to its usefulness in approaching the environmental correlation among field trials. Furthermore, it shows more transparency for the influence of scenarios G, nE, and nG nE, in which we had a considerable lack of phenotypic information on training GP. Thus, we can infer that schemes such as CV1 (only nG, E) are the least adequate option to show the benefits of coupling enviromics in GBLUP. However, looking at a drastically sparse MET condition (joint prediction scenarios) shows that enviromics improves the accuracy of GP as the size of the MET also increases. Predictions are made up of tiny experimental networks.Regarding the enviromic assembly approaches used in this study, there was evidence that using typologies as envirotype descriptors (T matrix) is more biologically accurate in representing environmental relatedness than using quantitative descriptors (W matrix) based on quantile covariables. The use of typologies directly integrates the classic approaches used for environmental characterization (e.g., Chenu et al., 2011;Heinemann et al., 2015Heinemann et al., , 2019)), thus providing a single platform to integrate historical studies of environmental impacts in the design of environmental relationship matrices for predictive purposes. This represents an increase in the biological accuracy of the GP models, which can also reflect in the statistical accuracy. In conclusion, it can boost the ability of plant breeders to better select and recommend cultivars across multi-environment conditions. Further efforts in this sense must be devoted to increase the level of explanation of the genotype-envirotype covariances, which can also take advantage of Shelford's Law to refine the limits of tolerance for genotypes. Thus, different genotypes will be under the influence of a diverse set of envirotypes, which can be realized for the same environmental factor (e.g., solar radiation, air temperature, soil moisture) according to its occurrence across crop lifetime (e.g., vegetative stage) and the adaptation zone designed from ecophysiology concepts (e.g., temperature cardinals defining which temperature level results in stress and optimum growing conditions). Because of that, we envisage that further studies must be conducted to create a genotype-envirotype × environment T matrix, that is, a matrix considering genotype-specific envirotypes also based on genotype-specific cardinal thresholds and tolerance limits for discriminating each typology of adaptation.A second difference may be explained because quantitative environmental covariates are not an additive effect to compose an environment variation. Despite this, we agree with Resende et al. (2021), and we adapted the idea of envirotypes as markers of environment-relatedness differently. For example, the common use of mean values of covariates, such as rainfall, solar radiation, and air temperature, represents a non-additive between each other; however, they are very well-correlated for a given siteplanting date condition, even when using strategies to deal with collinearity, such as partial least squares (e.g., Vargas et al., 2006;Porker et al., 2020). We can use as an example a given day of crop growing when a large amount of rainfall has occurred. We can suppose that the sky is cloudy, with less radiation and lower temperature. Thus, using such a G-BLUP inspired approach is not an ideal solution to estimate the environmental variance. Conversely, environmental typologies (T) are based on frequencies (ranging from 0 to 1), where the sum of all frequencies is equal to 1 (100% of the variation). In addition, these typologies can be built for a given site using historical weather data, adapting the approach of Gillberg et al. (2019) and de los Campos et al. (2020). As presented in section GBLUP with enviromic main effects from T matrix (E-GP), if no typologies are considered, the expected environment effect is given for a fixed-environment intercept (with 0 variances within and between environments). Despite this fact, another option is using non-linear kernel methods to estimate only the environment-relatedness, as this approach takes advantage of non-linear relationships among covariates (Costa-Neto et al., 2021a,b).This study shows that environmental information can break the paradigm that claims that more phenotype information leads to higher accuracy of GP models over METs. Our results highlight that the traditional GBLUP models assume that the variation due to G×E is purely genomic-based across field trials, leading to an implicit conclusion that the yield plasticity is constant (slope ∼ 0) for all genotypes, which is unrealistic. It also reflects that G×E patterns are non-crossover (scale changes in performance across different variations), that is, a well-performing genotype will always be good across environments, and a poorly performing genotype has the same trend for all environments. Despite the gains achieved in predicting the quality of a novel environment and the plasticity for tested and untested genotypes, we noticed that the inclusion of enviromic sources also leads to the unrealistic conclusion that all genotypes respond in the same way gradient of climate and soil quality. Our results show a reasonable accuracy in predicting yield plasticity, but further efforts must be made to improve the explanation by this approach of yield plasticity as a non-linear variation across the gradient of environmental factors. In addition, further studies using larger experimental networks and other crop species must be conducted to check the consistency of the suggestions we made from our proof-of-concept study. Finally, if the experimental network is based on a higher number of environments, perhaps the use of enviromic assembly will also serve to find groups of megaenvironments that historically share the same typology. Then, the G×E optimization algorithm would be used within each historical mega-environment.We observed that the use of selective phenotyping strategies made with enviromic assembly × genomic kinships showed a drastic reduction of in-field efforts. Furthermore, combined with enviromic-aided GBLUP models, it led to the development of almost the same predictive ability, using a large number of genotypes and environments for a large experimental network. Thus, we can enumerate the benefits of the enviromic-based approaches tested in this study as: (1) the possibility of training prediction models for yield plasticity with reduced phenotyping efforts, (2) the assembly of enviromics with genomics allowing the selection of the genotype-environment combinations and the envirotype-phenotype covariances among phenotypes across different environments.Considering both enviromics approaches evaluated in this study, we conclude that the advantages of E-GP over W-GP can be enumerated as (1) the flexibility to design a wide number of the environment types assuming different frequencies of occurrence of key stressful factors in crop development; (2) it allows the use of historical weather and in-field records to compute trends of certain envirotypes in certain environments, which can be coupled into (3) the definition of TPE and characterization of mega-environments, as the main approach used for this relies on studies on the frequency of occurrence of the main environment types (e.g., Heinemann et al., 2019). For the latter, for example, the T matrix proposed here is just an arrangement of an environment × typology matrix, in which each entry represents its frequency of occurrence at a particular time interval of the crop lifetime. Conversely, the advantages of W-GP over E-GP rely on plasticity in creating large-scale envirotype descriptors with reasonable biological accuracy. Finally, it does not depend on other steps for checking covariate importance and any criteria of covariate selection, because the all-possible environmental information, with some ecophysiological sense, will be used and discretized in typologies by literature-based criteria (e.g., cardinals of temperature), agronomic expertise, or statistical criteria (distribution tables). Then, the resemblance between two different field trials will be approached based on the shared frequencies of the possible typologies for your crop and germplasm. Finally, selective phenotyping will be guided by shared typologies, not by quantitative relationships within the collected environmental information.Can We Envisage Climate-Smart Solutions From Enviromics With Genomics?Modern plant breeding programs must deliver climate-smart solutions cost-effectively and time-reduced (Crossa et al., 2021). By climate-smart solutions, we mean (1) adopting cost-effective approaches capable of providing fast and cheap solutions to face climate change, (2) better resource allocation for field trial efforts to collect representative phenotype information to feed prediction-based platforms for crop improvement, such as training accurate GP models and CGM-based approaches capable of guiding several breeding decisions, (3) a better understanding of which envirotypes most limit the adaptation of crops across the breeding TPE, revising historical trends and expecting future scenarios (e.g., Ramirez-Villegas et al., 2018, 2020;Heinemann et al., 2019), and (4) understanding the relationship between secondary traits and their importance in explaining the plant-environment dynamics for given germplasm at a given TPE (e.g., Cooper et al., 2021). However, most of these objectives will be hampered if MET-GP platforms do not consider models with a higher biological meaning (Hammer et al., 2019) and reliable environmental information. A cost-effective solution for that, if the breeder has no access to sensor network tools, relies on the use of remote sensing tools to collect and process historical weather data (from 1981 to present) and other sources of data (soil data, such as SoilGrid, https://soilgrids.org/) using tools from the open-source EnvRtype R package (Costa-Neto et al., 2021b). However, this data source is only efficient for field trials with a certain geographic distance, as the current NASA POWER resolution is 1/2 by 1/2 arc degree (almost 0.5 × 0.5 degrees of latitude × longitude), which was the case of our data set in this study.Suppose selective phenotyping is added in the enviromicsaided pipeline for GP (Supplementary Figure 1). In that case, additional traits and the possibility of screening genotypes across a wide number of managed environments will increase. Furthermore, it can support the training of field trials for CGM approaches, which demand the phenotyping of traits across crop lifetime, such as biomass accumulation and partitioning among different plant organs. Finally, using models considering an explicit environmental gradient of key environmental factors is a second alternative for this approach. It can be done to discover the genetic determinants of the interplay between plant plasticity and environmental variation. As a wide range of genes reacts to each gradient of environmental factors, the use of wholegenome regressions of reaction norms for each environmental factor must be useful to screen potential genotypes (in our case, single-crosses) for a diverse set of scenarios (e.g., increased heat stress). Pioneer studies used this methodology in wheat breeding (Heslot et al., 2014;Ly et al., 2018) and inspired other cereal crop applications.For example, Millet et al. (2019) developed an approach including whole-genome regressions and factorial regression for the main environmental drivers of G×E. In the past, studies involving FR analysis found that the effect of high temperatures on grain filling and maturation (Epinat-Le Signor et al., 2001;Romay et al., 2010), water balance at flowering (Epinat-Le Signor et al., 2001;Millet et al., 2019) and intercept radiation in the vegetative phase (Millet et al., 2019) are the main drivers of G×E for yield components in maize. Thus, Millet et al. (2019) explored this opportunity offered by FR to use genotypic-specific regressions, which coupled with genomic data, led to an increase of 55% in the accuracy of MET-GP over the benchmark environmental similarity model made of mean values of environmental factors, as proposed by Jarquín et al. (2014).From the aspects mentioned above, we envisage that the use of GP for multi-environment predictions must account for some degree of ecophysiological reality while also considering the balance and relationship between parsimony and accuracy (Hammer et al., 2019;Cooper et al., 2021;Costa-Neto et al., 2021b). Here, we also highlight that multi-environment GP must account for the impact of (1) resource availability in creating biologically accurate platforms in training CGM-based approaches and delivering reliable envirotyping information for those purposes, and (2) the availability of the knowledge of experts in training CGM approaches. Thus, ecophysiology concepts to provide solutions for raw environmental data processing in enviromic assembly information for predictive purposes seem to be a cost-effective alternative to leverage accuracy involving parsimony and biological reality.","tokenCount":"12815"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f2df136760df7e96e56dc37baf7144ac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/82a28027-3a40-46b4-ad67-a893c31f5878/retrieve","id":"2134804791"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cd5909b1-1859-48ad-8fcd-28cc30285972","pagecount":"16","content":"Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production sector globally, with production projected to double within the next 15-20 years. Future growth of aquaculture is essential to providing sustainable supplies of fish in national, regional and global fish food systems; creating jobs; and maintaining fish at affordable levels for resource-poor consumers. To ensure that the anticipated growth of aquaculture remains both economically and ecologically sustainable, we need to better understand the likely patterns of growth, as well as the opportunities and challenges, that these trends present. This knowledge will enable us to better prioritize investments that will help ensure the sustainable development of the sector.In Indonesia, WorldFish and partners have applied a unique methodology to evaluate growth trajectories for aquaculture under various scenarios, as well as the opportunities and challenges these represent. Indonesia is currently the fourth largest aquaculture producer globally, and the sector needs to grow to meet future fish demand.The analysis indicates that aquaculture will overtake capture fisheries as the major source of fish in Indonesia before 2030 and that investment in aquaculture will be essential in order to increase domestic fish supplies and consumption, maintain affordable fish prices for domestic consumers, and sustain the contribution fish makes to Indonesian food and nutritional security. Business-asusual projections indicate that aquaculture will grow to more than 10.1 million metric tons per year, create 8.9 million full-time-equivalent jobs in production, and be an industry with production values of USD 39.5 billion by 2030. Increased investment in aquaculture for either export or domestic markets will generate more social and economic benefits, greater production volumes and values, additional employment, and higher consumption among domestic consumers.Aquaculture's growth is necessary to meet future food and nutrition security requirements, but creates challenges for managing environmental impacts. All aquaculture growth projections modeled in Indonesia increase environmental impacts. Three particular environmental challenges emerge around land and habitats, sustainable aquaculture feeds, and reducing fresh water use, all of which require significant investment and change from business-as-usual approaches.WorldFish's unique methodology can also be used in other national and regional contexts to help analyze future aquaculture growth pathways, as well as to prioritize the investments needed to ensure economically and environmentally sustainable growth of aquaculture at the speed and scale needed.Shrimp farming in Aceh, Indonesia. Indonesia provides a good model for developing and applying a common methodology for analyzing the future of aquaculture. Historically, most fish supply has come from capture fisheries, but landings have slowed over the last decade. There are also fears of additional stock collapses for several important species, including tuna and sardines. Aquaculture has in turn become the main driver for production increases, with farming in marine, brackish and fresh water.Capture fisheries and aquaculture directly employed an estimated 6.4 million people in Indonesia in 2012. By volume, Indonesian aquatic production is dominated by seaweeds, but by value, domestically consumed species such as tilapia and milkfish, together with export-oriented commodities such as shrimp and tuna, are of greater importance. Tilapia, catfish and milkfish are increasingly important to domestic fish supplies. At present, almost38% of aquatic production is intended for export, rendering seafood trade an important income source for Indonesia. Aquatic food products therefore contribute to food and nutrition security, employment, and national economic growth.Aquaculture is given a high priority by the Indonesian government for further development, yet its future sustainable growth is not secure. This evaluation draws upon multiple analytical tools and a collaboration between Indonesian and WorldFish researchers. Its purpose was to increase understanding of future trends that would enable decisionmakers, land managers and communities to assess environmental tradeoffs among different growth options and develop public policies and investments to create economic opportunity for sustainable aquaculture growth that mitigates impacts to ecosystems.The following challenges drove method development:• Indonesian aquaculture production needs to grow in the future, but it needs to grow sustainably, contributing positively to fish supply while minimizing environmental impacts. • Current projections for future aquaculture growth rarely consider the environmental limits and management strategies needed to offset potential environmental impacts.In light of these considerations, we adopted an approach that combined econometric modeling of demand for fish supply with analysis of environmental impacts and participatory approaches. This required collection and integration of quantitative data across several subject domains.The methodology involves a stepwise application of tools through a structured process of analysis and consultations (Figure 1).Step 1: System characterization The Indonesian aquaculture sector is diverse, catering to domestic and export consumers and demand. The study first selected and examined the key aquaculture commodities and farming systems (Figures 2 and 3) with data collected from secondary sources and through fieldwork and consultations with farmers, feed mills and other value chain actors on Java, Sumatra, Lombok and South Sulawesi during 2015.The characterization process provided an understanding of the performance of current aquaculture systems, key data for modeling, and a benchmark for identifying opportunities for improvement across key economic, social and environmental dimensions.Economic. The economic evaluation shows that Indonesian aquaculture creates significant benefits for the Indonesian economy through a mix of domestic production and exports.The economic viability and value of farming systems were evaluated by the monetary value they generate at country level, and also by the profits they provide for aquaculture businesses and households.Social. Aquaculture creates significant employment in Indonesia. Tilapia farming in ponds was the largest employer overall. In addition to estimating job numbers, social goods in terms of equity, financial security and social responsibility were evaluated.Environmental. Environmental interactions were quantified using life cycle assessments. Life cycle assessment is a standardized environmental accounting tool that quantifies environmental interactions throughout the production line and scales these to a functional unit (ISO 2006). The life cycle assessment results link certain farming practices with specific impacts, showing various differences across systems and practices. Step 2: Future scenarios Future scenarios for the fish food system in Indonesia were explored with stakeholders. Between July and December 2014, three workshops were held, one at national level (Jakarta) and two at provincial level (Lombok and Makassar). At each workshop, participants from the government, the private sector, research and nongovernmental organizations, and communities worked together through a structured process to arrive at a series of scenarios for the Indonesian fish food system in 2030.Drawing on conclusions from the three workshops, an integrated scenario frame emerged based on two key uncertainties: the natural environment and the socioeconomic enabling environment.Environmental uncertainties include the following:• pollution levels • water quality • availability of environmental services • increased frequency and scale of extreme weather events due to climate change.Uncertainties in the socioeconomic enabling environment include the following:• evolution of market conditions, policies and regulations • extent to which the financial regulatory climate is supportive for growth • availability of broad infrastructure investment.Based on these uncertainties, four scenarios emerged for the Indonesian fisheries and aquaculture sectors in 2030 (Figure 4).   By 2030, Indonesia's efforts to build a reputation as a provider of safe, high-quality seafood have been questioned and export markets have collapsed.• Several major infrastructure projects have been completed. • Availability of capital has stimulated growth in a wide range of industry sectors. • Legislation to control environmental pollution and ensure good land-use practice has been enacted, but the investments needed to ensure appropriate monitoring and compliance have failed to materialize. • High nutrient loading in coastal waters has increased the incidence of toxic algal blooms. • The frequency of aquatic animal disease outbreaks has increased. • Many parts of the aquaculture industry have suffered declines in production and profitability.By 2030, the inability to meet environmental and food safety standards has decreased Indonesia's competitiveness in the global fish trade. Perceived as too high risk by investors, export-oriented fish production has collapsed, and the fish that is produced is of low quality and limited to local consumption.• Between 2015 and 2020, ineffective aquaculture policy coordination and planning between the local, provincial and national levels stopped aquaculture growth. • Poor water quality and increased outbreak of disease pose challenges for human consumption and the productivity of finfish and shellfish. • Unclear permit systems and outdated regulations for fisheries reduced capture fisheries productivity by 2025. • Reduction of government revenue has hampered the ability of local and provincial governments to provide technical and extension services. • Increasing financial costs of production and declining productivity have led to a rise in substandard production practices that result in food safety, labor law and environmental violations.Step 3: Fish supply and demand modeling The future supply and demand for fish was analyzed using a partial economic equilibrium model called AsiaFish (Dey et al. 2008). The model was used to explore future fish supplydemand dynamics and the role of aquaculture in meeting food and nutrition goals for Indonesia. A business-as-usual projection assumes that exogenous variables of the model (income, population, input and output prices, food and non-food price indexes, capture fisheries and aquaculture productivity growth) follow historical trends.Five alternative future projections were modeled using the following assumptions:• Capture fisheries landings remain stagnant (FP1). • An export-oriented aquaculture industry shows stronger growth, driving increases in production of shrimp, grouper and tilapia (FP2). • A domestic-oriented aquaculture industry shows higher growth, driving increases in production of milkfish, carp, catfish and tilapia (FP3). • Aquaculture growth slows down (FP4).• Disease outbreaks occur in shrimp and carp aquaculture in the year 2018, with a gradual recovery after a 5-year period (FP5).Under business-as-usual projections, capture fisheries and aquaculture grow at 2% and 5.6% annually (Table 1). Aquaculture becomes increasingly dominant, overtaking capture fisheries as the main supplier of fish by 2030. Fish consumption and prices (for both consumers and producers) show an upward trend. Net trade (exports less imports) is also expected to increase (Figure 5).Modeling using other assumptions provides insight into Indonesian fish food systems and the influence of aquaculture growth (Table 1):• Stagnating capture fisheries lead to increasing fish prices and decreasing fish consumption. • An emphasis on export aquaculture results in higher fish supply and exports, but also helps lower domestic prices and thus increase consumption. Step 4: Analyzing implications Combining the modeling results with the aquaculture characterization provides new insights into the future opportunities and challenges for aquaculture. The analysis focused on three dimensions: employment, economic and environmental implications.Employment. Aquaculture's growth will generate significant new employment opportunities in Indonesia by 2030. Business as usual creates 8.9 million jobs, up from current levels of 2.7 million. Approximately 15 million people will be employed on aquaculture farms by 2030 if export and/or domesticoriented growth policies for aquaculture are implemented. Tilapia farming is expected to be a major employer in the future, but highervalue species, such as shrimp and grouper, will provide proportionally more jobs in supporting industries, such as processing and retailing.Economic. Aquaculture's growth will create an industry with substantially increased economic value. Production values for the seven major aquaculture commodities are projected to rise from USD 5.9 billion in 2012 to USD 39.5 billion in 2030 under business as usual, with export and domestic-oriented aquaculture policies generating higher production values of USD 50.4 billion and USD 43.9 billion respectively. Achieving this will, however, require substantial new investment in farm infrastructure and operations, as well as supply industries such as feed, seed and services.Grouper and shrimp production will grow and provide larger revenues per unit of volume. However, a constraint in the availability of low-value fish for feed is expected to limit the growth of these two sectors, shifting emphasis towards species such as Pangasius, Clarias and tilapia. Value additions for domestic markets can help boost profits while limiting environmental impacts. Our toolset showed that an export-oriented aquaculture industry has potential to generate the largest monetary value. The future projection driven by domestic demand, however, almost matched this value by having larger quantities compensating for the lower values per tonnage. Small aquaculture enterprises, currently comprising more than 80% of aquaculture farms in Indonesia, lack easy access to finance, and investment policies for this part of the sector need special attention.Environmental. While much of Indonesia is well suited to aquaculture, the life cycle assessments for future aquaculture highlight some stark outcomes for the country. Environmental impacts from aquaculture production increase significantly over 2012 levels under all growth projections and across all major impact categories, in some cases by up to 800% (Figure 7). Environmental impacts increase most drastically under future projections for export and domestic-oriented aquaculture, with increase in use of fresh water for brackish-water shrimp aquaculture being most stark. Three major environmental challenges emerge:• Land area is insufficient to support aquaculture growth under business as usual and high domestic or export-oriented growth projections. Business as usual will require nearly 95,000 square kilometers of land for production and inputs by 2030, greater than the land area of Java-clearly unlikely. Intensification in use of land resources, combined with effective land-use policies, will be essential. Expansion needs to be carefully managed, given the high social and ecological value of Indonesia's remaining coastal forests and wetlands. • Freshwater use needs to be reduced substantially. Brackish-water aquaculture expansion in particular could put severe pressure on fresh water, and strong controls on usage and efficiencies are needed. • Aquaculture feeds currently rely on ingredients sourced from agriculture and marine ecosystems, particularly marine fish and oils. Continuation of current practices will require over 7.8 million metric tons of marine fish as feed ingredients by 2030 under business-as-usual projections, and 16.4 and 11.9 million metric tons under export and domestic-oriented growth pathways, respectively. This demand would require all Indonesian fisheries catches to be transformed into ingredients for aquaculture feed by 2030, clearly an impossible and undesirable outcome. Therefore, investments in increasing efficiencies of feed should be a priority; alternative protein sources must be found.The only solution that will allow for socioeconomic prosperity while limiting environmental impacts is therefore a significant transformation to sustainable farming practices in Indonesia, along with stimulating innovations in feed, land and water use in particular. Step 5: Setting priorities The analyses described above show that successful growth of aquaculture can make a significant contribution to the future food and nutritional security and economic development needs of Indonesia. These analyses also provide insights into the future environmental challenges implied by such growth. Deciding how best to meet the aquaculture growth imperative while addressing the sustainability challenges requires a clear set of priorities for action and investment.To arrive at these priorities, a generic impact pathway for aquaculture development (Figure 8) was employed to help guide the thinking at a final stakeholder consultation meeting.The following top five priorities emerged: Accelerate innovation. The changes needed to grow the aquaculture sector along sustainable pathways, including mitigating environmental impacts associated with feeds and land and water use, require innovations in technology and investment across multiple domains. A new private and public sector partnership mechanism was proposed to accelerate aquaculture research and connect innovations to investment and scaling.Spatial planning requires reform to site aquaculture in suitable areas, encourage intensification of existing areas, and ensure critical and sensitive habitats such as mangroves are protected from aquaculture. Regulations across feed, fish health, water use and waste management need review and reform in ways that mitigate environmental impacts and incentivize efficiencies and improvement.Attract private sector investment. Aquaculture needs substantial new investment to grow to the scale required. Indonesian aquaculture is made up of complex value chains, in many areas dominated by small and medium enterprises, which poses both opportunities and challenges for investors. The structure of these value chains, many with limited transparency, displays strong regional diversification, where investment options need to be tailored to local conditions. Logistics also display shortcomings, making transportation expensive and increasing waste. New business models, investment reforms, improved data availability, and partnerships among the public and private sectors are necessary to stimulate private sector investment into low-impact technologies, sustainable aquaculture production and efficient value chains. This study overlapped economic and environmental models with quantitative and participatory approaches to understand the future of aquaculture in Indonesia. Such analyses, while not definitive, have provided new understanding of the future supply and demand for seafood in Indonesia stretching to 2030, and these results have been shared and used to engage key Indonesian stakeholders. These new analyses highlight stark challenges for the Indonesian aquaculture sector as it grows to overtake fisheries within the next 10-15 years. Aquaculture is essential for domestic fish supplies, but it is clear that whatever pathway is chosen, transformational change in aquaculture systems, investments and policies will be needed to secure growth and to mitigate the potential impacts on the natural environment. The learning from this research provides a foundation for future interventions in Indonesian fish food systems, as well as a suite of methodologies that can be applied more widely for insightful analyses of aquaculture growth trajectories in other countries or regions.","tokenCount":"2771"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"376eacfb939776548e50d7e8c6b29ad1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2d894643-e377-4447-b9b8-b4689e3e46b2/retrieve","id":"1286002815"},"keywords":["Bunch weight","legume type","number of banana leaves"],"sieverID":"2e0f4558-e92f-4539-80ae-1f397ef329e7","pagecount":"9","content":"-legume intercropping systems are commonly practiced in the highland zones of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to maximize land use and intensify crop production. Banana leaves are often pruned during legume intercropping to improve sunlight penetration for the legume. On-farm experiments were conducted in South Kivu province to determine the effect of banana leaf pruning on banana (Musa sp.), bush and climbing beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L) and soybean (Glycine max L) yield. Legumes were planted in existing farmers' fields of East African highland beer banana genotype 'Nshikazi' (Musa sp., AAA-EA) during four cropping seasons covering 30 months. The experiments were established using a split-plot design, with the main plot treatments consisting of two levels of banana leaf canopy pruning (leaving only seven leaves or leaving all leaves) and the split plot treatments consisting of improved or local leguminous crop cultivars (the bush bean 'MLB49', the climbing bean 'AND10' and soybean 'SB24') planted in the banana plot. Each farmer's banana plot was a replicate. A total of 24 replicates, each of improved and local soybean, improved and local climbing bean and improved and local bush bean were planted in established farmers' fields located in four sites. Bean yields were assessed during four consecutive cropping seasons (2010B, 2011A and B, 2012A) and one cycle of banana cultivation. Banana leaf pruning did not have a significant effect on banana bunch weight or yield, but legume type affected banana fruit weight and yield in Burhale and Lurhala, which have poor soil fertility. Banana leaf pruning enhanced legume grain yield for the four seasons at all sites.On the African continent, with the exception of areas where banana production is characterized by large plantations for export, intercropping is a common practice. In Kenya, for example, 94% of beans are grown in association with maize (Stoffels, 1948;Davis et al., 1987). Intercropping aims at maximizing productivity and minimizing risks related to, for example, climate change, pests and diseases (Nyabyenda, 2006) and gives a greater overall farm yield stability compared with monoculture. Furthermore, it often provides a higher economic and monetary return and total production per hectare com-pared with monoculture and ensures greater resource use efficiency (Ouma, 2009). Land use efficiency of smallholder farms in east and central Africa can be increased by incorporating food and/or fodder legumes into banana cropping systems (Sileshi et al., 2007). In addition, intercropping with legumes may also be a strategy to offset the depletion of soil fertility (Chakeredza et al., 2007).Banana-bean intercropping is widespread across Eastern and Central Africa, including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and north-western Tanzania (Wortmann and Sengooba, 1993).Crop production is primarily the conversion of solar energy to stored food energy (Pimentel and Pimentel, 2008) and a reduction in intercepted sunlight reduces crop production (Nyambo et al., 1982). Light competition is an important factor influencing yield of smaller-sized plants grown under partial shade in an intercropping system: it is clear that large plants (e.g., banana) will provide substantial levels of shade and could thus influence the growth and yield of smaller-sized intercrops (Davis et al., 1987).In the eastern DR Congo, banana-legume intercropping is widely practiced (Dowiya et al., 2009). Some farmers practice banana leaf pruning when planting beans (Katungu, 2011;Mirindi, 2011). This practice enhances light penetration to ground level and thus positively influences legume growth and yield due to increased in interception of light (Ntamwira et al., 2013). There are, however, no quantitative data available on the effect of banana leaf pruning during the months of legume intercropping on growth and yield of banana and legumes.The objective of this study was to evaluate whether banana leaf pruning affects legume grain yield without reducing banana yield. Ntamwira et al. 73In the highlands of South Kivu, banana, cassava and common beans are the main food crops, traditionally cultivated in mixed cropping systems (CIALCA, 2010). Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L) are the predominant legume intercrop but, to a lesser extent, soybean (Glycine max L) is also grown. The region has long been deprived of new research and development initiatives due to civil strife and utilization of improved crop cultivars has been rather limited mostly due to unavailability. South Kivu's average annual rainfall is 1500 mm, distributed over two rainy seasons (April to July and September to December). The study was conducted in the territory of Kabare, \"groupements\" of Kabamba (2.184°S, 28.852°E, 1595 m above sea level (masl)) and Luhihi (2.233°S, 28.2853°E, 1556 masl) and in the territory of Walungu, \"groupements\" of Burhale (2.692°S, 28.647°E, 1625 masl) and Lurhala (2.625°S, 28.758°E, 1964 masl).Soils in Lurhala and Burhale are rather infertile Dystric or Humic Nitisols or Humic Ferralsols (FAO/UNESCO, 1988), developed on eruptive formations from the Pliocene or Pleistocene and characterized by a heavy clay texture, low soil pH, low base saturations and high organic C contents (Hecq, 1961). In Kabamba and Luhihi, more fertile Humic Nitisols and Ferralsols are found because of recent rejuvenation by volcanic ashes or mudflow deposits; these soils have high organic matter content, favourable pH and larger nutrient reserves than the soils of either Lurhala or Burhale (Lunze, 2000;Bashagaluke et al., 2011).The on-farm experiments were conducted in four sites during four consecutive cropping seasons (2010B, 2011A, B and 2012A). The farms belonged to the members of the farmer group (18 farms per site) at Kabamba, Luhihi, Burhale and Lurhala and were dominated by the East African highland beer banana genotype 'Nshikazi' (Musa sp. AAA-EA group). Each farmer's banana plot was a replicate. The experiments were established within existing banana plantations (in various ratoon production stages) using a split-plot design (Figure 1).The plot size was 14 × 10 m per farm. Each plot was subdivided into two main plots (14 × 5 m) and each main plot contained 21 banana mats. The main plot treatments consisted of two levels of banana leaf canopy pruning: leaving only seven youngest leaves from the top or leaving all leaves, as a control. Each main plot was subdivided into two subplots (7 × 5 m) containing nine banana mats, with three banana mats at the common border between the two subplots (Figure 1). The subplot treatments comprised improved (bush bean 'MLB49', climbing bean 'AND10' and soybean 'SB24') or local leguminous crop cultivars that were planted in the banana plot.The local legume cultivars were selected by the farmers from a pool of currently cultivated genotypes and depended on location: at Burhale and Lurhala the local bush beans were 'M'Mafutala', 'Ciringiti', 'Kabumba', 'M'sole', 'Njwijwi', 'Ishikazi', 'Tangaza', 'Mugorobo' and 'Mubanda', while at Kabamba and Luhihi they *Corresponding author. E-mail: ingjules2007@yahoo.fr. Tel: +243993703098.  ------------------------- At each site, six farmers grew improved and local soybean, six grew improved and local bush bean, and six grew improved and local climbing bean, thus across all four sites there were, in total, 24 sub-plots each of improved and local soybean, climbing bean and bush bean, planted in established farmers' fields of banana with an average banana mat spacing of 2.18 x 2.18 m. Legume planting was done by members of the farmer groups at each of the study sites in the first week of September for the 'A' planting season (that is, at the start of the second rainy season) and the first week of March for the B planting season (that is ,at the start of the first rainy season). Four lines of legumes were established between 2 banana mats per subplot. The inter-and intra-line spacing for bush, climbing and soybeans were, respectively, 50 × 20 cm, 50 × 25 cm and 50 × 10 cm.The farmer groups performed all field operations (that is, field preparation before planting and weeding) and installations (i.e., field demarcating and planting) and harvested the plots under the supervision of a team of project agronomists. Crop management was identical in both subplots (no tillage and legumes were planted in lines). Banana leaf pruning was only carried out during the months of bean cultivation and leaves were cut at weekly intervals. Banana de-suckering was carried out at the onset of the bean cropping season, leaving three stems per mat, while manual weeding was carried out at monthly intervals (that is, before legume planting, during legume flowering and at pod formation). All pruned banana leaves and harvested pseudostems were cut into small pieces and placed between the legume lines to improve the soil.Data collection was carried out by the agronomists, who visited the farmer groups regularly and ensured that farmers weeded all plots on time and concurrently. Before the experiment began, in the banana fields in each site, soil samples were collected from the 0 to 30 cm soil layer, air-dried, sieved to pass 2 mm and analyzed for standard chemical properties at the Kawanda soils lab in Uganda (Table 1).Legume yields were assessed during four consecutive bean cropping seasons (2010B: that is, during the first wet season of 2010 which started in March and ended in June; with harvesting taking place in June, 2011A: during the second wet season of 2010 which started in September and ended in January 2011; with harvesting taking place in January, 2011B and 2012A) and one cycle of banana. In addition, the number of leaves in the 'all leaves' treatment (control) was recorded at harvest of the legumes.The net plot in each banana subplot consisted of the two inner banana mats. Banana bunch weight data were collected on two plants from these two inner mats. A total of 576 banana plants were assessed across the various experimental sites, with 288 plants assessed in both main plots ('7 remaining leaves' and 'all leaves'). A total of 72 banana plants were assessed at each of the four sites (Kabamba, Luhihi, Burhale and Lurhala) for the '7 leaves' and 'all  leaves' main plot treatments. Two banana plants were assessed for each of the six legume sub-plot treatments at each trial site and main plot treatment ('all leaves' and '7 leaves').A 1 m 2 legume net plot was measured at the center of each 35 m² subplot to collect data on legume yield. Data were collected on 40 bush bean, 32 climbing bean and 80 soybean plants per legume net plot. The following characteristics were assessed for banana: bunch weight, yield and mat density. Banana bunch weight was calculated using a formula developed by Nyombi et al. (2009). The mat density was determined at each experimental site by measuring the distance between a mat (at the centre of the mat) and the four closest neighboring mats. This measurement was repeated five times in each subplot. The average distance was then used to calculate the mat density per hectare. In addition, legume dry grain yield was assessed for each legume type and treatment.An analysis of variance was conducted to determine the effects of the different treatments using a general linear model procedure (SAS Institute Inc., 2000). Tukey's studentised multiple range test was used to determine significant differences at 5% probability level. Banana plant density data were included as a covariate in the analysis of banana bunch weight and yield using Statistix 8.software (2004). In addition, the correlation between yield and planting density was calculated using SPSS (2008).Banana leaf pruning from no leaves cut to leaving seven leaves generally did not affect bunch weight or yield (Table 2). The non-significant effect of leaf pruning on bunch weight and yield, when leaf pruning was moderate (five remaining leaves' and 'all leaves)', was reported also by Ntamwira et al. (2012). Although not significantly different, the average yield of banana with seven leaves at Burhale was higher than banana yield of plants with no cut leaves (control).The apparent difference could be explained by the fact that there was a higher banana density in the seven-leaf plots (3,791 mats per hectare) than in the control plots (3,611 mats per hectare) (Table 2). In the experimental area, farmers do not use uniform spacing during planting. Banana bunch weight and yield varied between legume types in the southern sites of Burhale and Lurhala, which had poorer soils compared with the northern sites (Table 3). At Burhale, the yield of banana intercropped with climbing bean (36.7 t ha -1 ) or soybean (38.7 t ha -1 ) was higher than with bush bean (32.7 t ha -1 ); in both cases banana plant density was higher. At Kabamba and Luhihi, banana yield with climbing bean was not significantly higher than with bush bean and soybean However, at Luhihi, there was a significantly higher yield of banana intercropped with bush bean compared to banana intercropped with soybean when incorporating banana plant density as a covariate in the analysis. Pypers et al. (2010) suggested that increased plant densities could enhance crop production in intercropping; lower banana yield in low density plantings compared with the yield at high density was also reported by Athani et al. (2009). Small bunches (11.1 kg) were recorded in plots with a high plant density (4,992 mats per hectare), while larger bunches (18.0 kg) were recorded in plots with a low planting density (1,998 mats per hectare) (Table 2).Banana leaf pruning to seven leaves enhanced the fourseason average soybean yields at the four sites for both local and improved varieties, although not significantly, except at the Burhale and Kabamba sites for 'SB24' (Table 4). Yields of soybean in the north (Luhihi and Kabamba) were greater than in the south (Lurhala and Burhale), where soil fertility was very low (Table 1). Under the seven-leaf pruning treatment, the 'SB24' improved cultivar gave the highest yield at Kabamba (449 kg/ha) and the lowest at Lurhala (198 kg/ha). The evaluation of some other new soybean cultivars (e.g., 'SB4', 'SB6') by the CIALCA project in South Kivu also gave good yields in the north but not in the south, although the new cultivars 'Peka, SB19 and 'SB24' have been more successful than local cultivars in all sites (CIALCA, 2007). Banana leaf pruning to seven leaves increased climbing bean yield of both the improved and local cultivars, although by more for local varieties (Table 5).The average yields of the improved and local climbing beans were higher in the south at Lurhala on poor soils but high altitude (1,981 masl) and lowest at Luhihi (1,556 masl) in the north. Although the banana planting density was low at Luhihi, favorable soil fertility levels gave rise to large plants with large leaves, hence reducing the amount of light for the intercropped legumes. In contrast, small banana plants with small leaves and bunches in a high density setting were mainly observed on the poor soils of Burhale and Lurhala which resulted in an overall reduced shading level for the intercropped legumes. In addition, climbing beans performed better at higher elevations in eastern DR Congo and Rwanda (White et al., 2010;CIAT, 2013) and are thus mainly observed in farmers' fields at altitudes above 1,800 masl with high rainfall. Koc (2011) also reported that at high elevation precipitation had a great effect on plant production but depended on increases in ambient temperatures.Legumes are more sensitive to drought stress than grasses (Koc, 2011).The improved cultivar 'AND10' gave lower average yields than those of the local cultivar for the control and seven leaf treatments in three sites (Kabamba, Burhale and Luhihi). This might be caused by poor adaptability (e.g., to soil, diseases and other ecological factors) of the improved cultivar and contrasts with results obtained in monoculture for other new cultivars introduced by the CIALCA project (CIALCA, 2007). Many of these cultivars, especially 'VCB81012', produced higher amounts of biomass compared with local cultivars in different sites in South Kivu (CIALCA, 2007). Banana leaf pruning to seven leaves increased the four-season bush bean yield (Table 6). However, the grain yields in the seven-leaf treatments were not significantly higher than the control, except for the local cultivar at Kabamba. The improved cultivar 'MLB49' gave a four-season grain yield significantly higher than the local cultivar only at Luhihi (654 kg/ha for 'MLB49' and 445 kg/ha for the local cultivar in the sevenleaf treatment). These results were similar to the evaluation of bean grain yield by the CIALCA project, which showed that overall grain yields of different legume species evaluated in monoculture were significantly dependent on the site and were higher than local cultivars (CIALCA, 2007). This study revealed that banana-legume intercropping was more productive when banana leaf pruning was moderate (seven leaves). High banana leaf canopy shade levels could affect nodulation of legumes with a corresponding reduction of nitrogen fixation and yield, It was reported in a study on maizelegumes intercropping that maize shading the legumes under intercropping reduces nodule number through shading compared to mono-cropping (Lemlem, 2013).In addition, retaining a reduced number of banana leaves (seven, in this study) during the months of bean intercropping does not significantly affect banana crop bunch weight and yield. As legume yield depended on  site and crop production season, it is difficult to make general recommendations as to the type and cultivar of legume that is best suited to a specific locality. Banana landraces or hybrids with more erect leaves could also be envisaged for intercropping purposes as they will create less shade for the legume crop. However, rigorous desuckering will need to be practiced. Alternatively, the use of cultivars with controlled/regulated suckering (that is, only allowing two to three suckers develop) and optimal banana plant density could be envisaged.","tokenCount":"2872"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"398d58a780635e5ada3464184f877708","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2fe6d3c9-f9ba-4ff2-aae4-78d7cdce10cf/retrieve","id":"1716080511"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"215ad6ad-33a7-4b2b-a1e6-f3d4f80d8efd","pagecount":"113","content":"The geographical designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IPGRI or the CGIAR concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Similarly, the views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.Mention of a proprietary name does not constitute endorsement of the product and is given only for information.Preface viThis publication is the result of a successful workshop organized by IPGRI's Regional Office for Central & West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) in Irbid, Jordan on 14-17 December 1998. The meeting took place at the Faculty of Agriculture of the JUST University and was attended by more than 40 participants, including leading pistachio experts from 15 countries, namely Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Italy, Greece and Spain. Such a Workshop represents an important output of IPGRI's initiatives on the promotion of Pistacia genetic resources which took off in 1994 in the framework of the Italian-supported project on Underutilized Mediterranean Species (UMS).Though the meeting was called with the main objective of assessing the state-of-the-art on cultivated and wild Pistacia, it also represented a unique opportunity to further the cooperation among major actors currently involved on Pistacia research at national and international level (IPGRI, GREMPA-Group de Recherches et d'Études Méditerranéen pour le Pistachier et l'Amandier, FAO-CIHEAM Nut Network and ACSAD). Although considered key species across the whole CWANA region, Pistacia still suffers considerable neglect by scientists and conservationists which results in lost opportunities in the horticultural and environmental sector (wild Pistacia are key forest species able to withstand poor soil and severe drought conditions and thus excellent species for recuperation of marginal and degraded land). The leitmotiv of all scientific contributions given at this workshop was the recorded widespread genetic erosion observed in Pistacia across CWANA and European: the abandonment of local varieties due to the specialization of pistachio orchards on a few commercial varieties and the destruction of the tree's natural habitats being the main causes for such reported diversity loss. In addition to urgent calls for the better conservation of Pistacia (there were reported cases of local varieties on the verge of extinction -such as var. 'Einetine' in Syria) participants voiced the need for more taxonomic studies, greater attention on agromorphological and molecular characterization of pistachio varieties and ecophysiological characterization of Pistacia growing areas aiming at the identification of best growing conditions for each variety within the region. A needs assessment analysis on Pistacia genetic resources was carried out during the general discussion aiming at identifying priority areas and existing comparative advantages on research and conservation among national programs across whole CWANA and European region. Concrete possibilities to collaborate on existing activities were thus identified and a general framework to pursue a number of identified tasks was proposed. We believe that the work plan outlined by the participants represents an important guide for all the workers engaged in this field. We believe that this meeting has provided an important contribution in fostering the partnership among Pistacia experts across the Mediterranean as well as in Central Asia. To that regard, we wish to emphasize the strategic contribution that existing partnerships and networking platforms (such as WANANET and CATCN-PGR) will play in promoting the better conservation and use of Pistacia species in the near future.Aleppo, SyriaSyria can be considered an old pistachio producing country and at the same time an important area for the natural distribution of wild Pistacia, s.a. P. atlantica, P. palaestina, P. khinjuk and P. lentiscus (Khalife 1958, Chandler 1965, Maggs 1973). Hadj-Hassan (1988) reported the presence of historical pistachio fields hosting very old trees of P. vera (oldest specimens close to 1800 years) in the Ain El-Tainah village, Kalamoun District, about 60 km north of Damascus (Fig. 1). These trees are still productive, and one of them has a trunk circumference of about 11 m (Fig. 2). This old pistachio variety needs to be safeguarded in order to prevent acts of vandalism such as those illustrated in Fig. 3, which are causing the complete loss of this local variety.   Several trees of P. atlantica can be found in the Kalamoun mountains, in desert areas such as Abou-Regmein near Palmyra (Homs Mohafazat 1 ), Balaas (Hama Mohafazat) and Abdel-Aziz (Hasakah Mohafazat) in northeast of Syria near the Iraq border. P. palaestina is recorded from the Kalamoun Mountains and Messyaf region (west of Hama), whereas P. khinjuk can be found in the Abdel-Aziz Mountain and P. lentiscus along the Lattakia coastal area. Maggs (1973) reported that the main pistachio varieties in the world have been spread from Turkey, Iran and Syria. These varieties were obtained through seedling selection in the field.In Syria, Al-Husny (1972) has published some general information on the characteristics of Syrian female varieties. Nahlawi et al. (1985) have also published results of a comparative study involving five varieties, namely Ashoury, Batoury, Oleimy, Bundouky and Ain El-Thainah, being conducted under relatively dry environmental conditions, in Houran, South Syria. Hadj-Hassan (1988) studied the most important Syrian female pistachio varieties in Aleppo during the period [1978][1979] through joint research between the University of Aleppo and ACSAD. This study was carried out using 11 female varieties widely cultivated in the Aleppo area (i.e. Ashoury, Red Oleimy, White Batoury, Ajamy, Red Jalab, Bundouky, Marawhy, Lazwardy, White Oleimy, Nab El-Jamal and White Jalab). The study focused on the growth of the fruit shoot, flowering clusters, flowering dates and factors affecting the fruit production (fruit drop, percentage of blank nuts, percentage of fully developed ripe nuts and nut weight development) along with other morphological characters of the nuts. Vargas and Romero (1996) reported preliminary results regarding vigour and the juvenile stage of some Syrian female pistachio varieties under environmental conditions in Spain.According to statistical information provided by FAO (1997) and the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (Anonymous 1997) pistachio production reached more than 30 000 tons in 1997 (Table 1). Bearing trees 4 mill.Production 30 000 ton Average production per tree 7.5 kg Syrian pistachio nut production has increased especially over the last few years (Fig. 4). Traditionally, Aleppo (located in the northern part of Syria) represents the main pistachio growing area in the country. Recently, a rapid expansion of pistachio fields around Idleb and Hama localities is taking place. Other regions in the country also produce some discrete amounts of pistachio nuts (Table 2).  1 9 7 0 1 9 7 2 1 9 7 4 1 9 7 6 1 9 7 8 1 9 8 0 1 9 8 2 1 9 8 4 1 9 8 6 1 9 8 8 1 9 9 0 1 9 9 2 1 9 9 4 1 9 9 6 Years PRODUCTION M.T. Syria during 1970Syria during -1997 In terms of the total area of cultivation, Ashoury takes the first place with (85%), followed by Red Oleimy (5%), White Batoury (5%) and remaining varieties (5% as a whole)-see Table 4.In Tables 5-7 the three main Syrian pistachio varieties (Ashoury, Red Oleimy and White Batoury) are described in detail following the IPGRI Descriptors List for Pistacia vera (1997). The description of the other eight varieties is limited to some major nut traits (Table 8,.                  Arabic name comes from the name Ashouryoun (=Assyrians), called also Red Aleppo due to its red colour Site surveyed ACSAD (Ezraa), Halisa (Aleppo), Mourek (Hama) Cultivation area in Syria Aleppo, Edleb, Hama and other minor localities contribute up to 85% of the whole pistachio cultivated area.Recently introduced in other Arab countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia as well as in Cyprus, USA, Spain and ItalyIntermediate growth with relatively large tree, vertical growth of branches, long fruit shoots in average about 13 cm with large internodes and approx.3 flowering clusters.Compound leaf contains several elliptic leaflets (5-most commonly, followed by 3 and 7. Nearly round apex and asymmetrical base. Relatively medium to large in size.Concentrated in upper part of fruit shoot, yellow greenish, flower cone. Large, elongated, with 6 flowering branches on average, flowering date early April; flowering period 11 days (normally). Infructescence Ripening: early September to late September Bearing Excellent, 40 years old tree produces max. ca 200 kg fresh nuts per year, moderate alternation          The word Batoury might originate in the little pronounced tip of the nut, and could be of Persian origin (the nut has relatively roundish shape and white colour with sweet flavour like most of Persian pistachio varieties) Site surveyed ACSAD (Ezraa), Halisa (Aleppo), Mourek (Hama) Cultivation area in Syria Main regions Aleppo, Edleb, Hama and other minor localities, contribute up to 5% of the whole pistachio cultivated area.This variety is being introduced in other countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia as well as in Cyprus, USA, Spain and ItalyRelatively small to intermediate growth with drooping branches which form an umbrella crown, short fruit shoots (on average about 8 cm long) with short internodes bearing app. 5 flowering clusters Leaf Compound leaf contains several round ovate leaflets (5-leaflets leaves most common, followed by 3-leaflets leaves and 7-leaflets leaves) with shape nearly round apex and asymmetrical base, and size relatively middle to large Inflorescence (flower cluster) Distributed nearly along the whole fruit shoots, yellow greenish, flower cone relatively. Medium with 4-5 flowering branches on average, flowering date early April, flowering period 12 days (normally) InfructescenceRipening: end of August to mid September (earlier than Ashoury) Bearing Intermediate, moderate alternation   The ecological diversity of Lebanon is the result in the formation of diverse ecosystems in which a wide variety of fruit trees thrive. That same ecological diversity, however, has allowed growers to introduce and cultivate exotic fruits and/or new varieties of existing crops of commercial importance (Anonymous 1996). As a result, there has been scarce interest in native or naturalized fruit trees until recently, following an increase in the awareness of the importance of indigenous plant genetic resources (Barkoudah et al. 1995, Abi-saleh 1996).During its meetings, the Horticultural Working Group of WANANET recommended the inclusion of pistachio (including the wild species) in a priority list of native fruit trees to be assessed, studied and conserved (IPGRI 1997). In light of this recommendation, a number of projects were initiated at the American University of Beirut, with the aim of surveying, characterizing and documenting Pistacia germplasm in Lebanon.Collecting expeditions were launched in 1996 and 1997 throughout Lebanon. A total of 131 sites were visited as a whole across the seven zones in which Lebanon was roughly divided (viz. Akkar plain, North Lebanon, Mount Lebanon, South Lebanon, Northern, Middle and Southern Bekaa plain). Vegetative material was collected for characterization. Samples were taken from wild and cultivated habitats. Plant identification was confirmed by comparing the collected material with herbarium specimens deposited at the 'Post Herbarium' maintained at the American University of Beirut. Morphological characterization of the samples was performed based on descriptors provided by IPGRI as well as other sources (Post and Dinsmore 1932).Pistacia species were found in 85 out of the 131 sites visited. A total of 476 samples of pistachio were taken from these sites located throughout the country. The majority of the collected samples consisted of wild specimens. Five Pistacia spp. were found during this survey, namely P. palaestina, P. lentiscus, P. atlantica, P. vera, and P. palaestina x lentiscus, all species previously reported in the literature (Zohary 1952, 1995, Post and Dinsmore 1932, Mouterde 1966) The survey showed that Pistacia species in Lebanon are distributed at latitudes and longitudes ranging between 33°11'N and 34°35'N and 35°25'E and 36°25'E, respectively, and in areas with precipitation varying between 250 and 1200 mm.P. palaestina was found in 79% of the collected sites and was therefore considered to be the major species in Lebanon, while the distribution of the remaining species was limited to a few locations. The surveyed sites rarely contained more than one Pistacia species in the same habitat and the only association recorded (P. palaestina with P. lentiscus) was found in only four sites. A hybrid between P. palaestina and P. lentiscus was found in one of these sites. Mouterde (1966) previously reported this species (named P. x saportae) as an infertile evergreen plant that is extremely rare. Tree species associated with P. saportae included Pinus spp. and Quercus spp. The site harbouring this hybrid is currently facing excessive urbanization, and a high degree of genetic erosion for this taxon was recorded.P. palaestina was mainly spread along the western side of the Mount Lebanon chain. It was also found in limited sites on the Eastern side of the Mount Lebanon chain in Hermel and Western Bekaa Provinces, in addition to very few samples in Rachayya (Western side of the Anti Lebanon Mountain chain). Despite its wide distribution spread, P. palaestina was neither found on exposed seashore locations (mainly inhabited by P. lentiscus), nor in the semi arid zones of the anti-Lebanon where P. atlantica thrived. The habitats harbouring this species were mainly woodlands (61%); few were found in the interzone between woodlands and cultivated orchards, whereas others were found on abandoned orchards (31%). P.palaestina was found in different microenvironments: most samples were found on hillsides (47%), in forest margins (32%) or in valley bottoms (19%). The tree species associated with P. palaestina were Pinus spp., Quercus spp., Crataegus spp., Cupressus spp., Juniperus spp., Ceratonia spp., Olea spp., Amygdalus spp. and Vitis spp. The main threat to P. palaestina, which is mainly located in Mount Lebanon, is the extensive urban expansion taking place in that region. Populations found on higher lands, where urbanization is less pronounced, are threatened by agricultural expansion.The distribution of P. lentiscus was limited to coastal sites mainly in North Lebanon (from Tripoli to Batroun) and in Baabda region in Mount Lebanon at elevations from 0 to 500 m a.s.l. and characterized by annual precipitation levels from 800 to 1200 mm. P. lentiscus was mainly found in woodland habitats (80%) and few in shrubland habitats (20%). The samples were found either on hillsides or in forest margins. Tree species associations include Pinus spp., Quercus spp., Ceratonia spp., Olea spp. and Amygdalus spp. The major threat to P. lentiscus is urban expansion and deforestation since P. lentiscus is located near urban areas. Yet some populations, which were previously reported to be present in Beirut and Saida, could no longer be found during this survey.The distribution of P. atlantica was limited to the region of Arsal which is a semi arid highland located in the Northern part of the Western side of the Anti-Lebanon mountain chain. Only three scattered populations comprising very few large trees were found in that area. A rapid appraisal of the situation with local elderly people revealed that extensive tree cutting occurred in the early 1900s as a source of fuel for the Turkish trains (material used as tax in the form of wood coal) or for the local inhabitants during the winter. This region is subject to severe desertification and soil erosion problems. Tree species associated with P. atlantica are Crataegus spp., Pyrus spp., Prunus spp., Juniperus spp. and Amygdalus spp.The indigenous use of wild pistachios was limited to remote rural areas. Some people use the plant as a support for grapevines, while others use its wood to make the \"Mehbaj\", (an old tool used traditionally by Bedouins to grind the coffee beans). Some people were reported to collect the fruits, roasting and consuming them like other nuts. In a limited area, uses of the Pistacia resin to relieve cough were also recorded. Most of these uses however are no longer popular among younger generations, indicating a poor transfer of indigenous knowledge from one generation to another.The cultivated pistachio orchards that were visited in this study were limited in number and small in size. All were rain fed, mostly located in the Bekaa plain and consisting of grafted seedlings of local Syrian varieties. All orchards visited were poorly managed and had pest and disease problems (rust, aphids).In conclusion, the study revealed that all those Pistacia species, whose presence in Lebanon was previously reported by other workers, could still be found in Lebanon. The habitats harbouring these species, however, have been found to be highly threatened by urban expansion. Pistachio 'the Green Gold' is one of the most important agricultural products of Iran. The major pistachio producers in the world are Iran, USA, Turkey and Syria. Iran with its 350 000 ha of pistachio growing area, is indeed the greatest pistachio producer in the world. Eleven species belong to Pistacia genus and Pistacia vera being the most important. Except for P. mexicana and P. texana, which originated in the USA and Mexico, all other species are distributed mainly within the Mediterranean region, Western and Central Asia and the Middle East. Three species, P. vera, P. mutica and P. khinjuk, are present in Iran (Fig. 1).The pistachio production areas in Iran are located between 27 and 37° latitude north and 700 and 3000 m a.s.l. The trees tolerate a wide range of temperature (from -20° to 45°C) while still bearing fruits. Long and warm summers with low humidity (RH< 35%) are suitable for production. One of the physiological needs for the fruit production in pistachio is chilling requirements. Because pistachio production areas are located at high latitudes, this physiological need and other environmental needs are easily meet and thus commercial crop production can take place successfully.Kerman Province, measuring 1 927 000 ha is the second largest province in Iran and occupies 11% of its total area. This province is located between 25°55'-32°00' North and 53°26'-59°29' East. Its annual rainfall is about 120-140 mm. Its average evaporation is more than 2000 mm and this has caused the desert climatic condition of this area.Rafsanjan is the main city of the province is located at 30°25'N and 55°54'E at an altitude of 1577m a.s.l. Annual mean rainfall is 99.5 mm, maximum temperature 45°C and minimum temperature -15°C. The average freezing period is 74 days. Average of annual minimum and maximum RH are 15% and 58%, respectively. Annual humidity average is about 25%.The total pistachio-growing area in Iran is more than 350 000 ha (including bearing and nonbearing trees). The bearing plantation area is about 247 000 ha.Kerman Province with its 270 000 ha with pistachio orchards, is the most important and largest pistachio growing area in Iran. In the area of Rafsanjan there are about 107 000 ha of pistachio orchards (mainly bearing trees) that produce 1200 kg/ha of nuts (on average). Rafsanjan accounts for more than 54% of the total production of the Kerman Province. Pistachio cultivation is supposed to have started in the Kerman Province when pistachio seeds or seedlings were brought from Khorasan Province during the Sefavi Kingdom (17th-18th century). However until about 70 years ago pistachio cultivations had little economic importance for the country. Since then, the importance of pistachio has been increasing along with the number and size of orchards. Nowadays, in the Kerman Province, especially in the Rafsanjan area, we can find the largest cultivations of pistachio. Although pistachio cultivation is concentrated in this area, due to this tree's resistance to many unfavourable conditions such as soil and water salinity, water deficiency and drought, the cultivations could be established in many areas which are not suitable for the cultivation of other economically crops.In the Kerman Province the genetic diversity of pistachio is very high if compared with other regions. More than 70 pistachio cultivars are being grown in the Kerman Province alone, each variety having its distinct traits.Cultivated pistachios (P. vera) More than 70 varieties have been recorded in the Kerman Province. Standard characters of varieties of commercial value in Iran are: percent of shell splitting, fruit shape and size, and kernel shell. The presence in Iran of different ecological conditions has lead to a high genetic diversity in pistachio, which is essential for successful breeding programs.Following are the descriptions of major pistachio varieties grown in Iran.This is an important variety, suitable for cultivation in most parts of Rafsanjan area (Fig. 3). It was first selected by a pistachio grower (Mr Mehdl Ohadi) in Rafsanjan in the period 1941-1951. Its cultivation has been increasing during the past 40 years and now occupies probably more than 60-70% of cultivated pistachio orchards in the whole Rafsanjan area (Sheibani, 1995). This variety has medium growth vigour and a spread crown. It grows up to 3 m in height; its apical dominance is very high, most of its leaves are made of 3-leaflets (Tajabadi-pour and Sanei Shariat-panahi 1997).Beginning This commercial variety is widespread in both Rafsanjan and Kerman Provinces. Its high yield productions and large fruits are the main reasons for its popularity (Fig. 2). It has a clearer habit growth if compared with Ohady, with stronger branches. It fruits on the third year after grafting. Early blossom production makes it sometimes exposed to spring frost damage (Shieibani 1995). It has higher branching compared with Ohady (Esmail-pour and Rahemi 1996), medium growth vigour and a spread crown. It grows up to 3.1 m in height and its apical dominance is weak. Most of the leaves are composed of five leaflets (Tajabadipour and Sanei Shariat-panahi 1997). This variety has high vigour and almond-shaped fruits. Its large and white fruits contributed to its wide spread cultivation.Beginning Cytological and isozymatic studies indicate that the chromosomes number in Pistacia vera is 2n=30 (Fasihi-harandi et al. 1996). The available reference shows that VAM fungi have symbiosis with Pistacia vera in most investigated areas. Two species of fungi (Gigaspora decipiens, Glomus gerdemanii) have been recognized in the soil of pistachio orchard in the Kerman Province (Salehi et al. 1998).This variety originated from the city of Zarand where it was initially selected. It has high growth vigour and a spread crown (Fig. 2). Height can reach up to 3.5 m. Almost all its leaves are composed of three leaflets and the cultivar has no single or 4-leaflets leaves. Apical dominance is medium (Tajabadi-pour and Sanei 1997). Pistachio varieties are variously susceptible to Phythophtora spp. but Badami Zarand has been found to be more resistant than others. Its deeper roots are less damaged by Phythophtora citrovora in salty soils (Banihashemi 1995). The use of Badami Zarand and Sarakhs rootstocks are recommended in water deficient areas. Pistachio rootstocks are resistant to drought although they have a lower tolerance to salinity (Mohammady and Sepas-khah 1996).THIS IS OK-Nevertheless, Badami and Ghazvini varieties are recommended for salty soils, because their tolerance to salinity is higher than that of Sarakhs and P. mutica (Mohammad-khani and Lesani 1996).This early ripening variety was recognized and selected in [1975][1976]. Fruits have a hazel shape and are bigger than Ohady (Fig. 2). Flowering time is similar to that of Ohady but maturity is reached earlier (Esmail-pour 1998b). It has little growth vigour. Semi-vertical crown, compound leaves, four leaflets incidence is 9.7%, five leaflet leaves 42.6% and the remainder are made of three leaflets. Fruiting period length is about 120-125 days. Apical dominance is very strong. This variety was selected in the Blaz village, in the Rafsanjan city. Its fruits are large and almond shaped, but bear no seeds (Fig. 2). It has low growth vigour and semi-vertical growth habit. Its average height is 2.7 m. Most of the leaves have three leaflets (simple leaves 14.3%, 5-leaflets leaves 19.1%). The terminal leaflet is bigger than the lateral leaflets. Apical dominance is strong. More research is necessary to investigate on the sterility problem of this variety. This variety could become important because of the large size of its fruits. Male trees produce high amounts of pollen, which enhance the yield of others varieties in the same orchard. (Esmail-pour 1998).Pistachio (Pistacia vera) originated from Central Asia near the border of Afghanistan, the former USSR and the Northeast of Iran. The variety sarakhs is widely distributed in Khorasan (Khajeh Kalat, Shoricheh) and Golestan (Maraveh Tapeh) Provinces at latitude 35°-38°N, 56°-60°E, at an altitude 750-1700 m a.s.l. (Fig. 3). The total area planted with this variety is about 20 000 ha (Sheibani 1995).These trees are important in forest regions because they provide protection from wind and water erosion, contribute to soil stability, provide fruit production and can be used as seed for cultivated pistachio rootstocks. P. vera var. sarakhs is very susceptible to Phythophtora spp. (Banihashemi 1995). Var. Sarakhs is very tolerant to water salinity although there is no difference on this trial between sarakhs and Badami zarand. In soil and water salinity conditions, sarakhs stock can be used, whereas in water deficiency conditions both Sarakhs and Badami zarand stocks are recommended (Mohammadi and Sepas-khah 1995), although Saracks rootstocks show growth decrease due to their high Na uptake. Tolerance to salinity is as fallows: Badami Riz and Ghazvini>>Sarakhs>P. mutica. Sarakhs rootstocks grafted on three commercial varieties showed that Sarakhs has the best compatibility, growth and productivity next to Badami (Sheibani et al. 1998). This common wild species is often found in association with wild Amygdalus and other forest trees (Fig. 4). Its leaves are divided into five to seven leaflets and flowers bloom earlier than those of Pistacia vera (a difference of three to five days) (Sheibani 1995, Esmail-pour, 1998b). It occupies an area of some 2 500 000 to 3 000 000 ha across Iran (Sheibani 1995). According to Zohary (1996), P. mutica in North Iran is a subspecies of P. atlantica. P. kurdica is found in West and P. cabulica in the South Fars, Kerman, Bluchestan, Khorasan, Golestan, East and West Azarbaijan, Kordestan, Kermanshah, Lurestan, Hormozoran and foothills of Alborz mountains extending to Alemoth, at an altitude on average from 600 to 3000 m a.s.l. (Sheibani 1995, Esmail-pour 1998b).Its fruits are used as edible nuts and for oil extraction (56% of the kernel and 30% of the total weight is made of oil). From a single tree, up to 200 g of resins can be extracted. The resin is used in the food industry, as pharmaceutical preparations and as a dye (Hosseinkhah and Farhang 1996). P. mutica varieties show different degrees of sensitivity to Phytophtora spp. but are more sensitive to Phytophtora citrophtora if compared with common pistachio rootstocks (Banihashemi 1995). P. mutica is the most resistant rootstock to root-knot nematodes if compared to P. vera, P. atlantica, P. palaestina and P. khinjuk (Farivar-mehin 1995). P. mutica has low resistance to salinity when compared to P. vera Badami Riz, Ghazvini and Sarakhs varieties (Mohammad-khani and Lesani 1996). Low seed germination and low seedlings vigour in the early stages have been detected in P. mutica when used as rootstock, for pistachio varieties. P. mutica has physical and internal dormancy. Treatment of seeds using light acid for 90 minutes and then leaving them to germinate for 20-40 days gave the highest percentage of seed germination. GA3 increased seedling growth at 1500 mg -l . Inhibitors with properties similar to abscisic acid have been extracted from this species, (Baninesab and Rahemi 1997). P. mutica pollen reduced kernel weight, number of split nuts and increased percentage of blank nuts of Ohady, Kalleh Ghochi and Momtaz varieties. P. mutica used as commercial rootstock has favourable characters such as vertical growth of trunk, presence of simple trunk with no branching. However P. mutica causes local incompatibility in the scion in the grafting region. Yield decreases have been observed in Badami. and Sarakhs varieties (Sheibani et al. 1998).Aphidattack on this species causes the production of reddish galls on leaves and shoots. During the period 1940-1945, many P. mutica rootstocks (planted over an area of about 500 ha) were grafted with commercial pistachio scions in natural and dry farming conditions. This resulted in very successful production.This is another Iranian species growing along with P. mutica at high altitude in mountains and foothills, but also at lower altitudes and in warmer areas (Fig. 5). It may grow in forests or exist as solitary stands (Sheibani 1995). This species can be divided into three varieties as follows:1. P. khinjuk var. heterophylla Bornm which is distributed in the Joypar mountains, Kerman Province. 2. P. khinjuk var. populiphlia Boiss with leaves of three leaflets, and grows in Joypar alpine areas. The leaves of this variety have one to five leaflets-leaves. 3. P. khinjuk var. oblonga Bornm, which grows in the Kordestan area northwest of Iran.This variety has five to seven leaflets-leaves.Fruits of this species are used as nuts (roasted and salted). The species may also be used as rootstock for cultivated pistachio. The seed colour is dark green (Esmail-pour 1998b).This species is sensitive to phythophtora spp. (Banihashemi 1995) and has a moderate resistance to root-knot nematodes (Farivar-mehin 1995). Pistacia khinjuk seeds show physical and internal dormancy. GA3 application enhanced seedling growth (Baninesab and Rahemi 1997). Its chromosome number is 2n=24. (Fasihi-harandi et al. 1996).P. atlantica seedlings are resistant to Phythophtora (Banihashemi 1995). The species also has moderate resistance to root knot nematode (Farivar-mehin 1995). Its chromosome number is 2n=28. Pollen of P. atlantica reduced kernel weight, number of split nuts and increased percentage of blank nuts of three commercially grown pistachio varieties. The use of P. atlantica as rootstock decreases growth and yield of cultivated pistachios (Esmailpour 1998b).   The following are projects being carried out by the Pistachio Research Institute for the Conservation of Pistachio Genetic Resources in Iran:Currently the Rafsanjan Pistachio Research Institute has three collections of male and female pistachio varieties along with some accessions of Pistacia species. The female pistachio collection is the largest and includes 45 varieties from Kerman, Gliazvin and Semnan Provinces.These germplasm collections were established in 1982 and grafted in 1983 and 1984. Plantation is spaced 4×7 m between trees and rows, respectively. Each variety is represented by 18 trees and it has been budded on Badami rootstocks. Varieties are maintained as single trunks with open centres. A pollinator row is grafted for every 12 female rows.One of the most important national projects conducted by the Rafsanjan Institute is the identification, collection, conservation and regeneration of pistachio genetic resources. This project involves eight provinces and its main goal is the identification of new varieties, the prevention of their genetic erosion, their collection and the conservation of all varieties in three sites (located in Kerman, Ghazvin and Semnan Provinces). This project also includes the evaluation of each variety to assess their performance in various conditions and their potentials with regard to breeding, propagation, pest control, etc.The portfolio of future activities to enhance the use of pistachio in Iran includes the conservation of cultivated and wild pistachio using cryo-preservation and tissue culture (slow growth method). Both these methods are meant to enhance the security in the conservation of these valuable genetic resources.Turkey is one of the main pistachio nut producing countries in the world. Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) is the only edible crop among the 11 species of the genus Pistacia (Ak 1998a). It grows in limited areas due to its ecological requirements. Pistachio has been growing in wild or semi-wild forms for hundred of years in areas of Afghanistan, Northwest India, Iran, Turkey, Syria and other Near East and North African countries. The taxonomy of pistachio is as follows (Bilgen 1973). Pistachio is a dioecious fruit tree; male and female flowers are in fact produced on different trees and pollination is by wind. For this reason male trees should be present in the orchards. These are planted generally at the ratio of one male to eight (or 11) female trees. Pistachio trees can be grown in steppe or semi-desert areas where winters are cold and summers are long, dry and hot with annual precipitation varying between 150 and 300 mm (Ak 1992, KaŞka 1990).The non-bearing period length, the more or less alternate bearing habit, fruit quality, blank nut formation and blooming time are the main characters that are of interest in each cultivar. These traits should be considered when deciding the most suitable cultivar structure for each production area (Valls 1990).The world production over four consecutive years is given in Table 1. The main world producers of pistachio nuts are Iran, USA, Turkey and Syria. Commercial exploitation of pistachio commenced in the 1930s in Iran, which still remains the largest producer (Chang 1990), providing 56.10% of the world's production. The second largest pistachio producer is USA, where Kerman is the most commonly grown cultivar. It covers over 90% of the total country production of pistachios. In both Iran and USA, pistachio plantations are irrigated whereas in Turkey there is no irrigation yet in place for this crop. Source: FAO Production Yearbook for 1994, 1995, 1996and 1997 Pistachio has been cultivated for thousands of years in Turkey. It is speculated that Anatolia is one of the locations where pistachio might have originated.Pistachio orchards are established in two ways: (1) through the top working of wild pistachio shrubs, trees and their hybrids which are used as rootstocks and which grow mainly in Anatolia. Under dry and non-irrigated conditions, a new pistachio orchard takes about 20-25 years to bear economic nut yields. This could be shortened to five to seven years by top working the wild trees. (2) By sowing the seeds directly using seedlings. As mentioned previously, pistachio production areas are characterized by dry and hot summer climates. Rainfall is very low and there is no irrigation or rain during the summer period. Therefore seedlings require a very long period to reach the budding stage (eight to ten years) (KaŞka 1990).Pistachio can grow in very marginal soils, such as those that are stony, calcareous and poor. Pistachio in fact can be grown in soils, which are unsuitable for other crops. Pistachio productions in Turkey from 1994 to 1997 are given in Table 1. Table 2 provides estimates on the number of trees and yield in Turkey from 1955 to1996. The numbers of trees were 6.5 million in 1955, but this value reached to 44 million in 1996 with 54% of bearing trees. That means that the production is expected to increase in the future when non-bearing trees will enter production. The total production of nuts was 7636 tons in 1955 and reached 60 000 tons in 1996. There is no stability of production across years because of alternate bearing of trees. Although the yield per tree is very low, the production as a whole is increasing each year.The reasons behind the low yields in Turkey are: (i) young trees start bearing fruit very late, (ii) yield is very low on young trees, (iii) the soils of pistachio orchards are very poor, (iv) annual precipitation is very low and irrigation facilities do not exist, (v) application of chemical fertilizer is very limited, (vi) pollination is inefficient, (vii) most of the varieties have strong alternate bearing (Kaşka 1990, Ak 1998b). Out of these constraints, the most limiting factors in pistachio yields are irrigation, pollination and alternate bearing. Research efforts to address these problems are on-going in Turkey and elsewhere.Pistachio is intensively grown inŞanlıurfa, Gaziantep and Adıyaman areas (Table 3). Most of the pistachio cultivation areas are situated to the southern part of Turkey.    [1993][1994][1995][1996].3 Estimated on the basis of number of bearing trees only.As Table 3 indicates the main producer areas are those of Southern Anatolia. This region includes the GAP locality (Southern Anatolia Project), which is a major regional development effort. Thanks to the GAP project in the near future most of those listed areas will have irrigation facilities. The first three main producer cities meet about 81% of total pistachio production in Turkey (Table 3).In Turkey, there are eight main domestic varieties, viz. Uzun, Kırmızı, Halebi, Siirt, Beyazben, Sultani, Değirmi and Keten Gömleği (Table 4); and five foreign varieties, viz.  Ohadi, Bilgen, Vahidi, Sefidi and Mümtaz (Table 5). For some varieties proper characterization using IPGRI's descriptors for pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) has been carried out (Barone et al. 1997).Following some values of most relevant descriptors for pistachio Turkish varieties are provided. Reference to IPGRI's descriptor list codes for Pistacia vera is given in parentheses whenever applicable. 1. Habit (6.1.2): Tree habits vary from erect to semi-erect, Halebi variety being the only erect type. 2. Flowering: Flowering period is very important because of the danger of late spring frost.Generally pistachio tree inflorescences appear late if we refer to other fruit species. Among the domestic varieties, Halebi and Değirmi are early flowering; Kırmızı, Uzun, Beyazben and Sultani are mid-early and Siirt variety has intermediate. 3. Fruiting rachis: Changed from dense to sparse. 4. Ripening period: Early nut ripening is very important in pistachio as late fruit maturation could encounter rain and this would result in high production losses. In Turkey fruits are harvested by hand and this is a time-consuming operation. Fruits are spread on canvas to dry. Generally, early varieties mature at the beginning of September, having enough time to let fruits dry under the sun. However even early varieties are harvested late in some years. If late ripening occurs, the split nut rate will be low. 5. Bearing (6.3.10): All Turkish varieties except Siirt show strongly alternate bearing. Siirt has however a moderate alternate bearing. 6. Nut size: Nut size can change as a result of irrigation, fertilization and other cultivating practices.• Nut length (mm)(6.4.6): Nut length ranges from 18.33 to 20.30.• Nut width (mm)(6.4.7): Nut width ranges from 9.43 to 11.55.• Nut thickness (mm)(6.4.8): Nut thickness ranges from 7.20 to 11.02.7. Nut shape (6.4.9): All Turkish varieties, except Siirt have elongated nut shapes-Siirt has an ovoid nut shape. 8. Nutshell colour: Ivory in Siirt, dark ivory in all others. 9. Hull characteristics• Hull dehiscence (6.4.1): Only Siirt has slightly dehiscent halls. Other varieties are non-dehiscent. • Hull tip (6.4.3): This is strongly pronounced in all varieties except Uzun and Kırmızı.• Hull colour (6.4.4): Domestic varieties are generally red. Only Siirt has yellowish hull colour.• Hull colour homogeneity (6.4.5): Homogeneous in all domestic varieties (except Kırmızı). 10. Split nuts (%)(6.4.17): Splitting is a genetic trait typical of each variety (Ak 1998a) but it is affected by the type of rootstock employed (Crane 1975), agronomic practices such as irrigation (Goldhamer et al. 1987, Kaşka andAk 1996) and fertilization. Irrigation is the most important factor influencing the splitting, split nut rate can be increased in fact with greater irrigation. Another strategy to increase the number of split nuts is to use more Pistacia vera male trees in the orchard (Ak 1992, Riazi andRahemi, 1995). However, splitting rate generally may change from year to year (Ak 1998c). Siirt is the best variety with regard to splitting rate (Gökçe and Akçay 1993). 11. Suture opening (6.4.20): Cultural practices such as irrigation, fertilization, pest and disease management also affect the suture opening. The better the kernel development the greater the suture opening. 12. Kernel flavour (6.4.30): Generally satisfactory in all varieties. 13. Kernel colour (6.4.31): This is an important factor for fruit quality. The desirable nut colour is green or dark green. Green colour depends on both genotype and environmental conditions. There are three methods to increase its incidence; the first is to grow pistachio trees at high altitudes where temperatures are lower during summers; the second is to harvest fruits before they reach full maturity (Karaca et al. 1988, Kunter et al. 1995); the third is to use s proper pollen source for instance, the fruits pollinated by P. terebinthus, P. atlantica, P. khinjuk and other wild pistachio species (except P. vera) will not be split and their kernels are dark green or greenish in colour (Ak 1992). Generally non-split fruits have green or greenish kernels. Domestic varieties generally have a yellowish-green kernel colour. 14. Oil content (%)(7.3.1.2): The average oil content of domestic varieties ranges from 56.27 to 62.30% (Karaca and Nizamoğlu, 1995). 15. Protein content (%)(7.3.1.1): The average protein content of domestic varieties ranges from 20.00 to 26.38% (Karaca and Nizamoğlu, 1995). Source: Gökçe and Akçay (1993).  Fruiting rachis: In all foreign varieties grown in Turkey, fruiting rachis is sparse. 4.Ripening period: Foreign varieties can be classified late to very late. Generally, late varieties mature at the beginning of October in Turkey. If the maturation period is late, drying of the fruits will be a major problem in cultivation. 5.Bearing (6.43.10): Alternate bearing of fruits is moderate in all introduced varieties. 6.Nut size: Nut size of introduced varieties is generally small.• Nut length (mm)(6.4.6): Ranges from 17.00 to 21.04.• Nut width (mm)(6.4.7): Ranges from 12.03 to 15.12.• Nut thickness (mm)(6.4.8): Ranges from 11.09 to 13.61.Nut shape (6.4.9): Bilgen, Vahidi and Mümtaz are ovoid while Ohadi is roundish and Sefidi elongated. 8.Nutshell colour: ohadi, bilgen and vahidi-ivory; sefidi and mümtaz-dark ivory. 9.Hull characteristics • Hull dehiscence (6.4.1): All non-dehiscent.• Hull tip (6.4.3): In ohadi, bilgen and vahidi it is little pronounced whereas in sefidi and mümtaz is strongly pronounced. • Hull colour (6.4.4): Generally orange all varieties.• Hull colour homogeneity (6.4.5): Homogenous in bilgen and vahidi, not homogenous in ohadi, sefidi and mümtaz. 10. Split nuts (%)(6.9.17): Generally low. Sefidi having the highest splitting. 11. Suture opening (6.4.20): All varieties have narrow suture openings except ohadi in which this trait is moderate.12. Kernel flavor (6.4.30): Generally satisfactory. 13. Kernel colour (6.4.31): Yellowish for all varieties. 14. Oil content (%)(6.3.1.2): The average oil content of foreign varieties ranges from 51.75 to 58.97% (karaca and Nizamoğlu 1995, Ak and Kaşka, 1998). 15. Protein content (%)(6.3.1.1): The average protein content of domestic varieties ranges from 21.77 to 24.63% (Karaca andNizamoğlu 1995, Ak andKaşka 1998).Pistachio nuts are generally marketed as salted and roasted as in-shell nuts. Roasting taces place in special ovens for 7 to 8 minutes at 110 °C or 4 to 5 minutes at 150-160 °C. During the roasting the nuts are continuously agitated. Roasted nuts are kept in plastic film lined sacks (Kaşka 1990).In Turkey a certain amount of pistachio nuts is marketed as green kernels. The shells of nuts harvested a little earlier or grown at high elevations are split by hand crackers, separated from the kernels sieved and finally steam-sterilized before being sold in paper bags. The green kernels are more expensive and are used mostly in ice cream, pastry, halva (sweet dessert), baklava (sweet pastry), chocolate and other confectionery preparation (Kaşka, 1990).Roasted in-shell pistachio nuts should be stored in a dry place to avoid absorption of moisture and the loss of flavour. Over the past ten years, Turkish salted and roasted pistachio nuts have been marketed in vacuum-sealed polyethylene bags of 250 g, 500 g and 1000 g (Kaşka 1990).At the market, Turkish pistachio varieties are classified in two groups: (a) varieties with long fruits used for the table (Siirt, Ohadi, Mümtaz etc) and (b) varieties with green kernels for industrial use (Uzun, Kırmızı, Halebi etc.) (Ayfer 1964).The germplasm of Turkish and international varieties is being maintained in Gaziantep in the field collection of the Pistachio Research Institute. The same varieties are also preserved in Ceylanpinar Experimental State Farm. In order to safeguard the genetic identity of each variety, and to best contribute to their preservation, global and regional field collections should be established to this regard with the aim of preserving all varieties and possible ecotypes. Tekin and Akkök (1995) carried out studies on pistachio in Şanliurfa, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş and Adıyaman Provinces. These studies have lead to the selection of 16 types, all having different characters. These types have been subsequently planted in both Gaziantep (Pistachio Research Institute) and Ceylanpinar State Farm.In Şanliurfa, Gaziantep and other Turkish localities, pistachio trees will be irrigated and their yield will be further increased. Besides its positive effect on yield, irrigation also has a very beneficial effect on the increase of nut size and splitting incidence. Irrigation also reduces the percentage of blank nuts. Leaf size and number of current years shoots are also increased through irrigation (Goldhamer et al. 1987). As a result of this, the incidence of alternate bearing is expected to decrease in the future in Turkey. Among the domestic varieties, Siirt is the most important for table use. It is therefore recommended that new orchards in the country be established using this variety.Within the genus Pistacia of the Anacardiaceae Family, there are 11 species, some of which are used as ornamental and others as fruit trees (Ozbek 1978). Leaves, flowers, fruits and growing habit of the trees are diagnostic traits used to classify these species. The leaves of Pistacia species are pinnate. The numbers of leaflets may vary from 1 to 20.South-eastern Anatolian Region P. vera L., P. terebinthus L. and P. khinjuk Stocks and their Natural hybrids are widely spread across this region (Bilgen, 1973). Pistacia terebinthus is mainly present in the Province of Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Kahramanmaraş and Şanliiurfa. Pistacia khinjuk is found in Siirt, Hakkari, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Bitlis. Pistacia vera and its hybrids are present in Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş.Mediterranean and Southeast Eagean Region P. atlantica, P. mutica, and P. terebinthus are widely spread and some wild trees of P. palaestina and P. lentiscus can be also found in this region. These species are usually recorded in areas away from the cultivated land in arid zones of the region up to 950 m a.s.l. The occurrence of these species on the coast has been also recorded.P. atlantica, P. mutica and P. terebinthus are widely spread. P. palaestina and P. lentiscus can also be found here.In some areas of these regions stands of P. vera, P. atlantica, P. terebinthus and P. mutica can be found (Fig. 1).The area of origin of domesticated Pistacia vera is South Eastern Anatolia. Here the species is generally grown as a tree (Ozbek 1978). The height of the trees ranges from 3 to 8 m. The tree crown, especially in female plants, is spreading. The leaves are compound and odd-pinnate. There are one, two or three pairs of leaflets and odd leaflets on the tip of the leaves, which are generally larger than other leaflets. The leaves with no stipules are dark green, the upper side is bright and the bottom dull. The shape of the leaflets of the female trees is elliptic while in male trees is close to ovate (Bilgen 1973).The inflorescence of Pistacia vera is a panicle. Staminate and pistillate flowers do not have petals. Staminate clusters have 200-600 flowers and pistillate clusters have 80-130 flowers (Atli et al. 1994).The fruits (Fig. 2) are drupes and 10-20 mm long and 6-12 mm wide. The shape of the fruits varies from long elliptic to round (Ayfer 1959).In Turkey, Uzun and Kirmizi varieties are mostly used as rootstocks. The seedlings of Siirt, however, reach the suitable thickness for budding faster than other cultivars (Atli and Kaşka 1997). The seedlings of Pistacia vera are resistant to soil-born nematodes. As rootstock Pistacia vera shows less tree crown growth and yields when compared to trees grafted on P. atlantica or P. khinjuk (Table 1).Pistacia khinjuk Stocks 'Buttum' P. khinjuk is widely spread in the Provinces of Siirt, Hakkari, Bitlis, Gaziantep and some part of Mardin in the Southeast Anatolian region of Turkey. The trees of P. khinjuk (Fig. 3) may grow up to 10 m in height. Its leaves are odd-pinnate with two to four pair of leaflets and show great diversity in shape and size. The inflorescence of P. khinjuk is similar to that of P. vera but the flowers in the cluster of the staminate inflorescence of P. khinjuk are tight and reddish. The stem in the clusters is green or light green. The blossoming period in P. khinjuk is late. Its fruits (Fig. 4) have a round shape and are 6.6-12.3 mm long and 4.8-9.6 mm wide. The weight of 100 nuts ranges between 10.02 and 65.04 g. The hull colour is green (Atli and Arpaci 1998).Seedlings of P. khinjuk do not grow in height quickly. However, the base of the seedling and its grafting point grow faster than in other rootstocks; thus they reach suitable budding thickness more quickly. The seedlings form very smooth stems. Although the seedlings of P. atlantica and P. vera grow fast and taller, their stem diameters do not develop very well and do not reach a suitable thickness for grafting or budding. According to literature, P. khinjuk seems to take greater advantage of the nitrogen present in the soil more than any other Pistacia species (Bilgen 1985). The compatibility of the seedlings of P. khinjuk with standard pistachio cultivars is very good and there is no swelling and growth differences at the grafting or budding point.Whenever the seedlings of P. khinjuk are used as rootstock in dry areas, the trees should be planted 8-10 m apart depending on the soil structure (Ozbek 1978) (Table 1).This species is widely spread across the Mediterranean and the temperate areas of Turkey. The seedlings of P. terebinthus can grow in the stony and calcareous soil of the dry areas. They are resistant to cold and drought. For this reason, the seedlings of P. terebinthus growing naturally in non-agricultural areas (Fig. 5) could be grafted with pistachio cultivars and provide relevant benefits to the cultivation of the crop (Tekin et al. 1995).The trees of P. terebinthus grow as shrubs, bushes, small trees or trees. They may grow up to 3-5 m in height depending on the soil conditions. They grow naturally in rocky areas and forests as shrubs or bushes.The leaves of P. terebinthus are odd-pinnate. The number of leaflets varies; usually four to six pairs. The shape of the leaflets is ovate or lanceolate. The lanceolate leaflets type is more common in Turkey. The odd leaflet on the tip of the leaf is similar in size to the other leaflets.P. terebinthus show variations with regard to flower colour. In fact, the structure and colour of the clusters may change from one plant to another; however, a cluster and its rachis are usually reddish. Inflorescences blossom at the same time as those of P. vera and often also with those of P. atlantica.The shape of its fruits resembles a swollen lentil, 5.7 mm long and 4.2 mm wide. As rootstocks the seedlings of P. terebinthus are resistant to soil-born nematodes.It should be noted that in irrigated areas, there are no differences of growth rate among seedlings of different Pistacia species grown in pots for one year and planted later on in the soil. All of them show suitable thickness for budding in the second year (Arpaci et al. 1994).Swelling on the scion side of the graft union occurs when the seedlings of P. terebinthus are used as rootstock for pistachio cultivars. This swelling however does not have negative effect on the yield. On the contrary this phenomenon seems to cause early fruit setting and yield increase (Table 1).The trees of P. atlantica are spread in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions of Turkey. P. atlantica is recorded in the same areas where P. mutica is also found. Although P. mutica has a rounded tree shape, different from that of P. atlantica, the latter is often accepted as synonymous of P. mutica. The trees of P. atlantica may grow up to 15-20 m height (Fig. 6). Its leaves are odd-pinnate with three to five pair of leaflets with a hard sharp apix (Ozbek, 1978).The fruits have a round shape and are the same size or smaller than those of P. terebinthus (Fig. 7). They are 5.9-8.5 mm long and 4.2-6.2 mm wide. The 100 nuts weight ranges between 8.34 and 15.43 g. The stamina clusters are tight whereas pistillate clusters are loose. They flower earlier than those of P. terebinthus and P. vera (Arpaci and Atli, 1996).One-year old seedlings of P. atlantica are tiny and relatively tall. Although seedlings grown in pots reach better thickness for budding than others, they develop many lateral shoots, which causes difficulties during the budding operation (Arpaci et al. 1994). In open soil conditions they develop thick stems and a bigger tree crown if compared to seedlings of P. khinjuk and P. vera (Bilgen 1973) (Table 1).The trees of P. palaestina are spread on the coastal line of the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. Its leaves are similar to those of P. terebinthus. The species grows as a tree, larger than P. terebinthus, from 2 to 5 m in height. The colour of the trunk is brownish. The leaves are oddpinnate with three to seven pair of leaflets. The leaf rachis is feathered and long. The leaves fall from the tree as in the locust tree. The tip of the leaflets is somewhat thorny.The fruits of P. palaestina are similar to those of P. terebinthus but smaller, and the colour of their hull is darker (Bilgen 1973). The fruits are 5.9 mm long and 3.6 mm wide. The weight of 100 nuts is 4.70 g. (Arpaci and Atli 1996) (Table 1).This species grows only on the coast of the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. It is only used to produce turpentine and chewing gums and not used as rootstock. P. lentiscus grows as bush or shrub and can reach up to 2-3 m in height. Its leaves are even-pinnate with two to four pair of leaflets. The fruits are rounded 4.7 mm long and 3.9 mm wide. The weight of 100 nuts is 3.85 g (Arpaci and Atli 1996) (Table 1). Green Black GreenFig. 1 Distribution of wild pistachio species in Turkey according to Arpaci and Atli (1996).     The area of origin of Pistacia vera of pistachio is West central Asia (Zohary 1952, Whitehouse 1957) where large areas covered by natural population can still be found (e.g. Iran). In Mediterranean countries pistachio was introduced for cultivation during the first century BC Today, this crop is commercially cultivated mainly in Iran, USA, Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Greece, India, Italy, Cyprus and Tunisia (Pontikis 1987).In 1996, the area cultivated with pistachio in Cyprus was 220 ha, the total production of nuts 35 tons for a correspondent economic value of US$200 000. In the same period, 285 tons of pistachio were also imported to meet the local demand and the price (F.O.B.) of this imported product was US$3890 per ton. Pistachio is a relatively new crop in Cyprus and it is cultivated under irrigation. The average yield is 0.2 tons per hectare, and the nuts fetch extremely high prices in the market. The farm-gate producer's price is US$5800 per ton (Anonymous 1996, Papayiannis andMarkou 1998).Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) belongs to the family of Anacardiaceae. According to Zohary (1952) the genus Pistacia includes 11 species. The most important are: P. terebinthus L., P. palaestina L., P. terebinthus cv. tsikoudia, P. atlantica Desf., P. lentiscus L., P. lentiscus cv. chia or latifolia, P. chinensis Bunge, P. integerrima Stew., P. mexicana HBK., P. mutica Fisch. & Mey. and P. vera L.Four of the above-mentioned species can be found in Cyprus, P. lentiscus L. (lentiscus, called Schinia, Schinnos), P. terebinthus (terebinth, called Trimithkia), P. atlantica Desf. (called Treminthos) and P. vera L. (Meikle 1977, Della 1998). P. atlantica is the mastic producing tree which is used for making pies and, in the past, for oil production (Della 1998).Ten samples of P. lentiscus, P. terebinthus and P. atlantica were collected in October 1995 by ARI, and herbarium specimens are kept at the ARI National Herbarium (Della 1996). Out of these species only P. vera L. is grown commercially in the country.The main rootstock of pistachio in Cyprus is P. terebinthus. Its seedlings are budded in June or September with mature buds of P. vera in the new vegetation, and in spring with buds from budsticks of the previous year's vegetation which have been kept in refrigerators. Terebinth rootstocks are considered resistant to soil born diseases s.a. Phythophtora spp. and Verticillium spp. and nematodes (Stavrides 1994).The planting distance in new orchards is 8×8 m and the ratio of female to male trees is 8:1. In the plantation 2/3 of the male trees belong to the clone type 'C' and 1/3 to the type 'B'. The trees have a \"cup\" type of shape and the pruning is very light.Irrigation is mainly by mini-sprinklers (Fig. 1): 7500 tons/ha of water is applied from April to September. The recommended dose of fertilizer for mature trees is 800 g N, 400 g P and 700 g K per tree (Stavrides 1994).The main pest and diseases of pistachio in Cyprus are Pulvinaria spp., Ceroplastes rusci, Saissetia oleae, Lepidosaphes spp., Pshylla spp., Thyrsostoma guerini, Eurytoma spp., Redithrips syriacus, Epidiaspis gennadii, Septoria pistacina and Vromyces terebinthi (Stavrides 1994).These experiments were carried out to investigate on the increase of nut splitting through irrigation.The experiments were undertaken over the following periods: 1. Early May to early September 2. Early June to early September 3. Early July to early September 4. Late July to early September 5. Early May to early June 6. Early May to late July.The amount of water applied ranged between 115 and 330 mm. Nut splitting was severely reduced when irrigation was interrupted in late June or July (i.e. it was only 37% compared with 74% obtained in the other treatments) (Eliades 1991).In 1967, a collection of pistachio female and male trees was established at the Athalassa Experimental Farm of the Agricultural Research Institute. These trees have been selected from different parts of the country and the names given to them are those of the town, village or place from where they were collected (Table 1). In the collection there are also some foreign varieties. Results of preliminary characterization indicated that most of these collected trees belong to foreign varieties introduced by local people or visitors, from neighbouring countries many years ago. Nevertheless, additional work is recorded to properly identify and characterize the genetic resources of pistachio maintained in this collection. The descriptors for pistachio of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI 1997) will be very useful for this purpose.Seven female varieties and three clones have been tested at the Saittas Government Nursery of the Dept. of Agriculture. Table 2 reports the flowering period of the male clones and the maturation period of the nuts. 'Clone C Special' is a more suitable pollinator for the late varieties Ohady, Oleimy and Seffidex whereas 'Clone C' for the early varieties Aeginis, Batouri, Bondoki and Ashoury. The kernel of variety Aeginis has the lowest protein content and Bondoki the highest (Table 3). However, the protein content in the kernel of the other varieties was similar to that of Bondoki, except in Oleimy, which was slightly lower. Kernels of Batouri have the lowest fat content; in Ohady this is the highest. Kernels of Bondoki have the highest concentration of Zn and those of Ashoury the lowest (a difference between the two varieties of 130%). Oleimy and Seffidex have the same concentration of Cu, which is higher than that of any other variety. Ohady has the highest concentration of Fe and Ashoury the lowest, (the difference between them being 70%). Bondoki is the richest variety in Mn 320% (higher than Oleimy). The Mn concentration in the kernel of the other varieties is similar to that of Oleimy. Batouri and Ashoury varieties have higher concentration of Ca than other varieties, in which the concentration of this element is approximately the same for all. Batouri has the highest concentration in Mg and Ohady and Oleimy the lowest, the other varieties having intermediate values.    The nuts and kernels of the varieties Seffidex, Ohady Batouri, Ashoury, Bondoki and Aeginis are shown in Figs 2-4.  Pistacia L. is mainly a subtropical genus comprising some ten species of dioecious trees and shrubs. Eight species are native to the Old World and two occur in southern USA and Mexico.Geographically, the largest concentration of Pistacia species is found in West Asia and in the Mediterranean region (Zohary 1995). Wild species play an important role in the development of pistachio varieties as they provide rootstocks resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses, tolerant to drought and able to thrive on poor soil conditions these are the characteristics that make this crop and its wild relatives very suitable for planting in marginal lands (Padulosi et al. 1995). Little work has been done on the taxonomic identification within the genus Pistacia in Pakistan. During an ecogeographic survey carried out in the country, three main species were recognized, namely P. atlantica, P. khinjuk and P. chinensis, all of them are known as spontaneous species (Table 1) (Thompson et al. 1988). The cultivated species P. vera is grown in Baluchistan, mainly in the districts of Loralai and Ziarat.Objective of this paper is to present the taxonomy, distribution and utilization of various Pistacia species recorded in Pakistan.This is one of the most widely distributed wild species, which extends from the Eastern Mediterranean through the southeast Caucasus, Iran, Afghanistan to the whole area of northern and western Pakistan. In Pakistan, it is found in Baluchistan, Kurram valley, Chitral, and Gilgit area (Fig. 1). It is distributed everywhere from 1200 to 3000 m a.s.l., in semi-arid forests. It is commonly associated with Pistacia khinjuk, Quercus infectoria, Cedrus deodara, Pinus gerardiana, Juniperus excelsa, and Fraxinus xanthoxyloides. At lower elevations, it is one of the most important trees in the dry, subtropical broad-leaved, open forests that harbour Olea ferruginea as a main species. Its trees grow on open, dry, rocky or gravely slopes. Trees are relatively tall-up to 8 m. Leaves are imparipinnate, five to nine leaflets, lanceolate, 26-70 mm long and 8-22 mm wide. Petioles are winged. Panicles are extraaxillaries, 7-15 cm long. On a single tree, 37 nuts per cluster are recorded on average (record taken from 18 clusters). Fruit clusters have one central peduncle which branches farther up than in P. khinjuk (which branch low and has a more spreading appearance due to several peduncles emerging from nearly the same location on the stem). Individual fruits have short oval shape, about 10-13 mm long. The fruit hull is yellow with a red blush. Embryos are green. The nuts are harvested from the end of August to the end of September. After harvest, they are washed through a single process, dried, roasted and salted. At the end of these processes the nuts are ready to be marketed.The distribution of this species ranges from East Afghanistan to West Nepal. In Pakistan, it occurs in Baluchistan, Suleiman Mountains, Salt Mountainous range, along the Siwalik tract, Kurram and Peshawar Valleys and along the outer Himalayan region between 500 and 2400 m a.s.l. It is scattered in the sub-tropical pine forests (Pinus roxburghii) where rainfall occur mostly in summers and in the subtropical, dry forests associated with Olea ferruginea. It has also been commonly observed in association with Pyrus pashia and Diospyros lotus. Due to the widespread destruction of the vegetation in the natural habitats of this species, relatively few trees can be observed.Trees are larger than in the other Pistacia species present in Pakistan, reaching 18 m in height. Leaves are also larger (16-25 cm long), with 7 to 13 leaflets, acuminate, 7-13 cm long, and pale green on the below side. Leaves on young shoots are brilliant red, which makes it very easy to locate these trees. Leaves commonly have irregular shapes and often long (25 cm) reddish-brown galls. Fruit clusters are larger (15-25 cm long) than those present in the other two species. Individual fruits are globose (6-8 mm diameter), somewhat compressed and greyish-brown. Fruits mature much earlier than those of other Pistacia species. Fruiting occurs in June and July, therefore harvesting of this species is done in late June to mid July, before fruits are eaten by animals. As the fruit is too small for human consumption and shells do not split, this species can be best used as rootstocks or as an ornamental.This species occurs naturally in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Pakistan it is commonly found in the dry, rocky areas of Baluchistan, Khyber, Chitral, and Gilgit, from 1500 to 2450 m a.s.l. It is also found in the Indus river gorge from Kohistan district up to Skardu valley. Due to the heavy destruction of trees in the Northern areas of the country, this taxon can be found only in very inaccessible places, on rocky cliffs where neither goats nor humans can reach them. This species is commonly found growing on rock soils, which seem to be very unsuitable sites for trees. Other plant species associated with this taxon are P. atlantica, Prunus kuramica, Quercus infectoria and Artemisia spp.Trees are smaller than those of the other two species. In this species, trees differ from P. atlantica for their fewer leaflets (3 to 7), which are broader (ovate-oblong, rather than lanceolate) and lathery in texture. Fruit clusters are larger (14-22 cm long) and more lowbranched, resulting in a more spreading appearance. Individual fruits are similar to those of P. atlantica, through a little smaller (4 to 6 mm long). Some of the fruits are blue-blackish, whereas others are yellowish. Embryos in the nuts are yellow. The period from the end of August to the end of September appears to be the most appropriate season for the collection of seeds. In some areas (2060 m a.s.l.), nuts have been reported to fall in late September and early October. Since nuts are too small and indehiscent, the potential value of this species is to be rootstocks for P. vera. The distribution of the three wild species recorded in Pakistan is given in Fig. 1.In Pakistan, many plant species, both wild and naturalized, are either disappearing or their distribution and genetic diversity is being greatly diminished by the increasing demographic pressure. Widespread destruction of woody species like pistachio is also recorded in some regions, where people in research of fuel wood cut them indehiscent. Moreover, as the wild populations are scattered on mountain slopes, landslides due to excessive rains are also a cause of considerable damage to these trees. All these factors represent a severe threat to the indigenous genetic diversity of Pistacia in the Western and Northern mountain areas of Pakistan.   (January) is -30°C (-40°C can be reached in northern parts).The average monthly temperature fluctuates from +27 to +30°C. Average annual temperature all over the three regions is +14.5°C (from +10.3°C on the North border of the area to +16°C on the South).Because of intense solar irradiation the main areas of P. vera receive adequate heat. Considering that the average length of the vegetative period in P. vera is 220 days and the average monthly air temperature is 22 to 23°C, the accumulated amount of temperature above +50°C reaches 3800°C on the north border of area and 6000°C on the south. Likewise, the period of temperature above 10°C is 220 to 240 days on average and the accumulated positive temperature is 3500 to 5000°C. These values influence favourably the growth and development of heat-loving P. vera trees.Late spring frosts caused by occasional cool air masses from the West and Northwest, are unfavourable factors for these trees. When such late frosts occur, the air temperature can drop to 2°C. This event is particularly dangerous during blossoming.On foothills of the Central Asian semi-desert, where P. vera is distributed, the level of underground water is very deep (100 m or more). The only water replenishment for the soil is atmospheric precipitation. Average annual rainfall is 350 mm up to 418 mm in the Kirgiz mountain range and gradually decreasing moving from the Northeast to the Southwest (289 mm in Badhiz). March and April are the rainiest months. There is no rain in summer. Frequent dry and hot winds from the Southeast (from Afganistan) and the Northwest (from Karakum) affect negatively affect tree growth and fruit development. Relative humidity in the air in this period can drop to 8-10%.The regions of P. vera are characterized by a variety and complexity of reliefs. Hillsides are often crossed by ravines. Central Asian P. vera stands are characterized by less canopy and greater root systems. Because of drier conditions and less soil moisture, larger areas are occupied by the root system in the upper soil horizon. This provides the tree with better growing conditions. Therefore it is not a coincidence but a natural development that in the most extreme climatic conditions (Badhiz area) the distance among stands is on average 10×25 m (30-40 trees per ha), whereas in the Pamir-Alay and Tien-Shan regions, in more temperate hydrothermal regimes the density of pistachio stands reaches 5×25 m (70-80 trees per ha). This is why many researches consider that P. vera populations are in fact not forests and address them as 'thickets', 'thin forests' or 'arid thin forests', 'parks', 'groves' or 'savanna'.P. vera populations are called by botanists 'xerophytic hard-leaved thin forest' or 'shiblak', which refers to a mixture of xerophytic, xeromezophytic and heat-loving trees. The most recurrent species associated with P. vera is the 'Bukharian almond' (Amygdalus bucharica) K., which often takes the place of P. vera on limestone rocks and stony slopes.Pistacia vera is a typical subtropical plant well adapted to harsh dry conditions of the semidesert foothills of Central Asia. It is known that there are no tree species, except almond, which can withstand such low of moisture. High temperatures during the hot dry season are bearable for P. vera. In winter, during the period that the plant is in deep rest, trees can resist very low temperatures. The survival of trees in the foothills of the Kirgiz and the Talas mountain chains, where the temperature can drop as low as -40°C in winter, is a good example of this cold resistance characteristic of P. vera.At the same time, this species, as well as many other tree species, requires optimum thermal conditions for biological activity. It has been calculated that during the vegetative period, the accumulated amount of temperature above +5°C must be not less than 3400°C and that above +10°C must be not less than 3200°C. Other growing phases require also specific accumulated temperatures: 1700-1800°C are needed for the growth phase and nut formation, not less than 1000°C for kernel formation and 3000 to 3500°C for fruit ripening. With regard to the thermal factors for the vegetative period, the most favourable conditions for the growing and development of pistachio both for Central and for the North regions are those found at 800-1300 m a.s.l. At an altitude higher than 1300 m a.s.l. low temperatures restrain fruit bearing. P. vera has great adaptation to different soils; however it does not tolerate excess salt and moisture whatsoever. It prefers a light sandy loam and loamy and well-drained soils. The best stands are found on typical dark soils formed on deep loess where the largest trees and highest nut production occur. An important factor for ensuring the viability of pistachio in such extreme conditions is represented by its powerful horizontal and vertical root system. In P. vera it is possible to note clearly two layers of root systems in adult trees (50 to 80 years old): powerful tap roots reaching a depth of 5-6 m. and a developed surface layer of thin small roots supplies the tree with moisture for rainfall in winter and spring, and a central tap root system supplies the plant with water in the second half of the vegetative period, i.e. in the hottest and driest period of year.P. vera has a great soil and water conserving role, positively influencing the microclimate of the foothills. In addition, this amazing plant is the source of the high oil-bearing pistachio nuts. The kernel of a pistachio nut contains 70% fat, 15-20% of protein, 13% carbohydrates, and 3-8% sugars and many microelements. Its caloric content is twice as high as that of starch and sugar. On the international market, pistachio nuts are expensive, 3-4 times more than walnuts and almonds.At present, in Central Asia, P. vera is underexploited. On average, not more than 5 kg of nuts are gathered per ha. The main pistachio populations grow under unregulated grazing. This causes the death of seedlings. The destruction of these and other natural vegetation associated growing in the water-catchment areas along the foothills of the Tien-Shan, the Pamir-Alay and Kopetdag mountain chains leads to negative water balances across the whole Central Asian region. In addition, the destruction of these natural ecosystems will affect the conservation of the valuable genetic diversity of P. vera, which is so important for crop improvement programmes. In 1935, N.I.Vavilov wrote \"We only started to study the forms of wild pistachio, but at present we have already found a great variety of forms, including a large fruit-sized type, similar to the best California 1 pistachios\" Indeed, Central Asian P. vera stands are characterized by a grear diversity in terms of blossom and ripening period, resistance to pests and diseases, bearing power and altitude ranges. Exceptionally great polymorphism of pistachio is also expressed in the size and opening of nuts, on kernal output, kernel leaving, taste and nutritious value.Research carried out on perennial forms showed the following fruit variation: size not less 18×10 mm, mass of 100 nuts not less than 85 g, amount of opening fruits not less than 70% (from their total amount), presence of kernels not less than 50%, endocarp thickness not greater than 1 mm. In spite of these findings, attention has been given to forms whose nuts are round or longed-oval, with light shell colour, nut opening not less 1/3 of total length, kernel of sweetish lightly oleaginous taste.Pruning is necessary, even if 15% of the yielding branches are lost during this operation. It has been noted in fact that if trees are not pruned, there is a greater exposure of the vegetative system to dry wind which will have a detrimental affect on the yield (though this effect is not greater than 5-15% of the bearing power of the tree). The yield of some selected forms was more than 15 kg per tree: these were characterized as 'high-yield'.P. vera has never received attention by Central Asian government policy unlike walnut or almond. This explains why production of this valuable crop is a relatively very recent activity in this region.The search for interesting forms of P. vera based on 25 economic descriptors was only developed at the beginning of the 1980s by the Central Asian Research Institute of Forestry. (now Uzbek Research Institute of Forestry). This activity has allowed inclusion of the best forms of pistachio in the State trails, and selection of the first 10 domestic (Central Asian) types; four of which (Albina, Orzoo, Mountain Perl, October) have been so far distributed for planting in foothill areas of Central Asia at an altitude of 800-1200 (1300) m. In this plantation, (150-200 trees/ha) yield has been 600 to 800 kg/ha, which was calculated 5 to 6 years after beginning of fruit bearing stage.In conclusion, P. vera natural populations in Central Asia are of important diversity for the improvement of the cultivated pistachio. Greater efforts should be deployed for their survey, conservation, characterization and use enhancement.The following nine tables present a summary of data related to agromorphological diversity of P. vera in Central Asia along with relevant climatic data recorded from main growing areas.       Pistacia species are present in Morocco under diverse soil and climatic conditions and scattered along the West border of the Atlas Mountains, in the Rif, East and Southwest areas (Fig. 1). Within the spontaneous Flora, four species of Pistacia are reported to occur in Morocco.• Pistacia atlantica Desf. (also known as \"pistachio of the Atlas\" or \"Betoum\"): deciduous tree found in arid and semi-arid regions of the Saharian Atlas Mountains at an altitude of 2000 metres. • Pistacia terebinthus L.: spontaneous taxon occurring along the Mediterranean shores and in the Rif mountains.• Pistacia lentiscus: very common species with good adaptation to different kinds of climatic and soil conditions in the Mediterranean area. • P. lentiscus x P. terebinthus: natural hybrid found in the Rif and Taza areas.• Pistacia vera: although the tree was introduced into the Mediterranean region at approximately the beginning of the Christian era, it was only in 1953 that the first commercial cultivars were introduced for trials in Morocco at the Aïn Taoujdate Experimental Station (near Meknes).The commercial production of pistachio nuts started in 1970. A small-scale program of cultivation was later extended to Meknes, Ouarzazate and Beni-Mellal to test the adaptation of pistachio cultivars to diverse environments. By mid 1980s, 28 ha of commercial pistachio groves were established throughout the country. Today, the total area cultivated with pistachio in Morocco is 150 ha (Table 1).Table 1. Areas of production, extent of cultivation and yield of pistachio in Morocco (1995Morocco ( -1996 period) period) Provinces Acreage (ha) Yield (q/ha) Total production (q)  At the Aïn Taoujdate Experimental Station, inflorescence buds begin their expansion between the end of February and the end of March. Staminate inflorescences of male genotypes (Alpha and Beta) start their bud break early in the season (end of February). Vegetative growth is homogeneous and occurs during the same period. Pistillate inflorescences of female cultivars Oleimy and Bayadi start differentiating at a later stage (end of March) (Fig. 2). On average, the delay of blooming between the earliest staminate cultivar Beta and the pistillate Oleimy is more than 3 weeks.The unusually mild winters of the 1989-1990 period brought a second wave of blooming during the later half of May for Oleimy and Bayadi cultivars. Abnormal flower symptoms like a progressive flower bud opening were observed on vigourous and terminal shoots. A large percentage of flower buds remained quiescent and some of them underwent abscission at the beginning of June, due probably to lack of chilling. Pollen production is variable depending of the cultivars (Table 3). Endocarp dehiscence (shell splitting) is a desirable trait as it facilitates shell removal. The extent to which shell splitting occurs varies not only from a cultivar to another but also from tree to tree of the same cultivar and from year to year. Based on yield of four trees for each cultivars over a 5-year period, the greatest variation observed among trees in a given year ranged from 21 to 62% of the total nuts having dehiscent endocarp, the remainder being unsplit and with or without kernels (blanks nuts). As reported by Crane and lwakiri (1981), endocarp dehiscence is a biochemical phenomenon associated with seed growth and development. It is not a physical reaction since the endocarp in fruits, in which seeds fail to develop, does not dehisce. Production of seedless fruits is a common trait to several, if not all, cultivars of Pistacia species. Cultivars L-A-8 and L-D-6 have the highest blank production; Achoury, Mateur and Oleimy produce a considerable quantity of blank nuts too. The source of pollen has also an effect on shell dehiscence and blank production. Mateur artificially pollinated by different sources of pollen showed different reactions to endocarp dehiscence and production of seedless fruits (Table 5). The highest incidence of blank fruits occurs where Beta cultivar is used as source of pollen. The weight of filled nuts was not influenced by pollen sources. P. vera cultivars, used as pollen donor, were more effective in shell splitting.The pistachio tree, like most fruit tree species, is affected by alternate bearing. The mechanism involved in this phenomenon is, however, unknown. Abscission takes place mostly after the active phase of growth of the fruit (from the first decade of June to the first decade of August). It coincides with the kernel growth phase and reaches its maximum 100 to 130 days after the full blooming period (Fig. 3).Under non-irrigated and dry land conditions, the pistachio tree starts producing between the 6th and the 9th year after plantation. At the Experimental Aïn Taoujdate Station, recorded mean yield for Mater cultivar over a 6 years period was about 9.7 kg of nuts per tree (Table 6). Alternate bearing observed during the small period quite remarkable.In Morocco the research carried out on pistachio focused mostly on evaluation of production traits, rootstock evaluation, propagation (macro and micro-grafting), pollination and alternate bearing.Research emphasis has been given on type and period of grafting. T-budding carried out in June and September gave the best results for the propagation of pistachio (60% of success). Compared to Pistacia atlantica, Pistacia vera scored as the best rootstock. In vitro propagation, micro grafting and somatic embryogenesis are being investigated at the laboratory IAV Hassan II. Parameters like culture media, growth regulators balance, and choice of explants have been determined (Abousalim et al. 1991, Abousalim andBelnehdi 1993). Flower bud abscission was studied by focusing on the foliar fertilization and phytohormones on bud retention. Application of NAA or GA3 before the beginning of bud abscission produced no effect upon bud fall. Foliar fertilization reduced abscission rate and allowed retention of more than 40% buds (Oukabli 1995a).Within the Pistacia genus, Pistacia vera (also called \"Green Gold Tree\") is the only edible and worldwide marketable species. In Tunisia, there were no selected female varieties before the introduction of the cultivar Mateur. The two other local varieties from this country are Sfax and El Guettar. It has been reported that var. Sfax introduced to the USA from Algeria is in fact a clone of the local Tunisian cultivar Sfax.At present the most commonly cultivated variety in Tunisia is Mateur, which resembles the Syrian variety Achoury (Jacquy 1973). This variety includes three main genotypes: male precocious 25A, male late 40A and female 11D (Ghorbel 1996, Mlika 1980).In Tunisia, P. vera is propagated by grafting on seedlings of P. vera. This species is adapted to marginal climatic and edaphic conditions s.a. drought, cold, calcareous and rocky soils. Such properties have led farmers to pursue its cultivation in that marginal and arid zones where olive and almond trees cannot grew successfully. The Tunisian cultivars Mateur, Sfax and El Guettar are adapted to low altitudes and can perform well also in temperate zones near the coast.Currently, there are 44 000 ha planted with pistachio, corresponding to about 2730 million trees. Pistachio trees represent about 11% of the country's total area planted with stone fruit trees (excluding date palm and olive trees). Irrigated areas cover about 2000 ha while nonirrigated orchards consist of 42 000 ha (Table 1). Pistachio plantings are mainly localized in the center and the south (Table 2) The most important pistachio producing zones are Gafsa, Sidi Bouzid, Kasserine, Sfax and Kairouan: as a whole they contribute to 80% of the total national production (Fig. 1). The area of Kasserine (the largest concentration of pistachio orchards in the country) contributes with 29% to the national pistachio production, Sidi Bouzid (22%) and Gafsa (17%) (Table 5).A recent increase in interest for this horticulture crop has contributed to expansion of its cultivated area, which has risen from 9300 ha in 1984 to 44 000 ha in 1997. However, production and profitability are still relatively low due to drought, late bearing (7-10 years after establishment) and uncontrolled pollination (Twey 1998).   ) 1982-1986 1987-1991 1992-1996 1997 188 458 923 1141During the past 10 years, the pistachio production in Tunisia has increased greatly as shown in Table 3 and Fig. 2. This is due to the new young plantings that have entered their productive cycle and to the fact that greater attention was given to the management of orchards (pruning, ploughing, fertilizing, disease and pest control) and to pollination techniques improvement (Twey 1998). However, this production is fluctuating from season to season due to alternate bearing and to severe climatic conditions. The average yield per pistachio tree in non-irrigated conditions is about 1.2 kg (Table 4).Pistachio is a slow-growing tree, reaching a mean height of 8 m. Its longevity exceeds 150 years. The trunk consists of a tough resistant wood yellow to red in adult trees. Mateur cultivar has a large crowned habit, whereas Sfax has a semi-erected one. Generally, male trees present a more erect habit than female trees. Tree vigour is highly correlated with the genotype: Mateur for example has a strong vigour, whereas Sfax shows a low vigour (3).Male tree leaves are small, bright green with raised veins. Leaflets are oval (Mateur) or orbicular (Sfax). Lateral leaflets are smaller in size than the apical ones. At the juvenile stage, leaves are simple (Chatibi 1998).Inflorescence P. vera is a dioecious cross-pollinated species. The pollination is characterized by protandry, and pollen dispersal is done by the wind. Mateur pollinators are Mateur 25A and 40A. These pollinators present almost similar flowering cycles to those of Mateur's female flowers.In Tunisia, as in other countries, protandry is one of the constraints for growing pistachio. Such a problem is however often overcome by artificial pollination. This is a manual operation based on pollen collecting and drying before its application on receptive female flowers (this is done at dawn).Artificial pollination is an intensive labor time consuming in extensive orchards. Moreover, the technique does still not ensure 100% of success. Full bearing generally occurs 7 years after the establishment of the orchards. Pistachio fruits are dehiscent drupes containing a stony endocarp. The nutshell in Mateur has an oblong shape with an acute asymmetric apex; the cultivar has a mean dehiscence rate for its nuts of 89% (Mlika, 1980). Sfax fruits present in the country a low dehiscence. The yellow green nut is ovate-shaped in Mateur (1.5<L/w<1.8) Nuts in Sfax are small, characterized by reddish kernels and a typical green colour in the cross section, making them much appreciated by the industry.Cultivar Sfax has nuts of delicious marked flavour highly valued by the confectionery industries, whereas Mateur and El Guettar nuts are preferred more as dried fruits.A six-isoenzym system was used for the characterization of different cultivars. The study used flower bud extracts in order to analyze the variability of enzymes PGM, GPI, IDH, MDH, GOT and 6-PGD. Preliminary results showed that the zymograms of GOT and GPI present distinct banding patterns in the cultivars Sfax, El Guettar, Mateur 11D and 25A. Little attention has been directed towards the conservation and evaluation of pistachio genetic resources in Tunisia. Despite the increased importance of this crop, local pistachio germplasm is far from being adequately studied and used. Currently, Tunisian pistachio cultivation is seriously threatened by genetic erosion as a result of increased monoculture. Mateur is the only widely employed variety (Ghorbel 1998). Thus, El Guettar populations and especially Sfax are being neglected and are actually facing a serious danger of being lost.At the national scale, the first established pistachio germplasm collection occupied 3 ha and included 680 lines. It was designed to host local pistachio varieties (female and male trees) and rootstocks (Pistacia vera and other species) for vegetation and fruit bearing comparative studies. Unfortunately, this collection was depleted and all varieties are presently found in private parcels (Ghorbel 1996).Thus far, the most effective conservation scheme involves a unique collection established by Dr Jacquy and belonging to the Olive Institute of Sfax and several private orchards. The private \"ex situ\" collections of Grombalia, Sfax and El Guettar can be considered in this context small-scale conservation plots. However, such conservation activities are not selfsustainable given the high establishment cost and the lack of adequate economic profits.In the near future, greater efforts should be directed on in vitro conservation using slow growth or somatic embryos methods (Chatibi et al. 1998). These activities will be very beneficial for the safeguard of Tunisian pistachio germplasm as complementary measures to field collections.Problems faced in the cultivation of pistachio P. vera is a hardy species, adapted to shallow, stony, salty and calcareous soils. It is drought resistant, able to grow in low rain fed areas (50-160 mm rainfall). However, pistachio trees are expensive to develop due to their long juvenile period: seven to ten years to reach full bearing stage (Ferguson 1998) and to the need of artificial pollination. This latter fact, discouraging farmers and curators in Tunisia. In addition, Tunisian farmers encounter also technical problems, which result into low productivity. Following is a list of main difficulties faced by farmer:1. Uncontrolled artificial pollination at producers scale. 2. Cultivation of un-appropriate varieties for climatic and edaphic adaptation problems, which cause serious acclimatization problems in the fields. 3. Lack of proper agronomic maintenance of the plantings. 4. Establishment of pistachio fields in unsuitable areas and in association with other fruit trees. 5. Susceptibility of the trees to exceptional severe drought 6. Susceptibility of trees to disease (mainly Septoria Pistaciarum) and pests (Megastigmus pistaceae).Since the 18th Century and during the Ottoman Empire, pistachio was the most appreciated crop by the local rules (\"Beys\"). Pistachio nuts are used as dessert and in the confectionery industry to prepare cakes and sweets. The nuts contain about 60% of fatty acids (oleic and linoleic acid) and 22% of proteins. Their energy value is twice as important as that of sugar or butter. P. vera is also used in Tunisia as a rootstock. Wood and leaves are used as agricultural implements and fodder. The trees can be used for erosion and desertification control or as ornamental plants. For all these different uses, P. vera can be considered a truly valuable multipurpose species.In the light of the increasing interest on pistachio in Tunisia, policy maker should give support to the following priorities viz.• Address species problems s.a. pollination and phytosanitary protection.• Carry out research that would increase the specific knowledge of the crop and improve germplasm conservation and uses (traditional and biotechnological aspects).• Carry out evaluation and characterization to shed more light on its genetic diversity.Pistacia atlantica Desf. \"Pistachier de l'Atlas\" Distribution P. atlantica grows in subhumid (North/West regions, 480 mm of rainfall) or semi-arid and arid areas (South region 0-150 mm of rainfall), at altitudes ranging from 100 (Akouda) to 2000 m a.s.l.This species is found in degraded forests in depressions and valley as few scattered individuals. It is estimated that no more than 1500 trees occur in Tunisia a clear indication of the serious extinction danger faced by this species tree in the country.The geographical distribution of P. atlantica in Tunisia according to a recent survey shows small concentrations (Fig. 4):• In the North West (Ghardimaou, Sakiet Sidi Youssef and Feija),• In the Centre (Kairouan, Faidh, Sidi Saad and Sidi Ali Ben Nasrallah) • In the South (Maknassy, Menzel Bouzaiène and Bouhedma) • In the extreme South (Dhiba).P. atlantica prefers deep clay soils but thrives on calcareous rocky soils as well (Khaldi and Khoudja, 1995).The trees of P. atlantica are rather tall, reaching 7-20 m in height, with a striated dark grey bark. The trunk of adult trees can exceed 1 m in diameter. Leaves are deciduous, sessile, composed of a terminal leaflet and two to five pair of lanceolate or ovate entire leaflets (Kaşka 1995) with a rounded base. Flowers are dioecious and unisexual. Male flowers are clustered in inflorescences joined at the base and supporting yellow round-shaped pollen sacs. Female flowers are gathered in short panicles, carrying single-ovule ovaries.The fruit is small in size (≤0.5 cm) and of oval shape. Its colour is green turning to dark blue or black when mature (August to September). Its single seed is ovate and yellow (Khaldi and Khouja 1993). Advantages and uses P. atlantica is used for many purposes (Khaldi 1996), following are some examples:• Good adaptation to difficult edaphic conditions.• Rootstock for P. vera 2 .• Leaves and seeds are convenient fodder (0.35 fodder unit/kg green shoots).• Fruits are appreciated by local populations who roast them and extract oil.• Wood is used as source of energy.• Its crown, provide shade and shelter from wind and rain.2 Its hybrids with P.vera can have male and female branchesAs most native species of the Mediterranean Flora, P. atlantica is under threat of genetic erosion due to many humans made activities, such as forest fires, overgrazing, use as firewood, charcoal, timber industry etc. All these facts are contributing to the loss of diversity of this species at a dramatic speed rate.This species is found in the north as single individuals and small stands. P. lentiscus is also threatened of extinction and should be given thus greater attention in conservation and rehabilitation programs in the country.This indigenous species of the Mediterranean maquis grows especially in forests and rocky mountains. It is localized in the north, in the Kroumirie and Mogood mountain chains, in Cap Bon and in Central Tunisia as scarce scattered individuals (Khaldi 1996). It grows well in calcareous soils near the coast. P. terebinthus is used as rootstock for P. vera (with 80% grafting success). It has a good vigour and an efficient rooting system, which penetrate deeply in the soil through even rock crackes. Given the very small number of individual of this species across in Tunisia, it is highly recommended to carry out urgent conservation measure.Activities related to the preservation of wild Pistacia species in Tunisia are precarious and need adequate support.Pistacia atlantica, is the taxon most threatened by genetic erosion. Yet, the efforts deployed by several countries to safeguard this species are very limited so far. There is therefore an urgent need for developing and implementing proper conservation strategies for this species in Tunisia.Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) is one of the most interesting fruit tree ever cultivated by humans. It is native to Iran and Central Asia. Naturally occurring population are found in areas where summers are long, hot and dry and winters are moderately cold. There are many pistachio cultivars for commercial purpose. A good cultivar should produce high yields, large nuts with high natural splitting and desirable kernel quality. Improved cultivars like Ashoury, Mateur, Batoury have been introduced to Libya some 25 years ago, and these cultivars produce high yields of good quality and nuts of light green kernels. Pistachio trees are drought tolerant like olive trees. Commercial tree orchards can be therefore established in marginal areas with adequate soil moisture, which cannot be used for other crops.P. atlantica (Fig. 1) is recorded in many regions across Libya. P. atlantica is a good rootstock for P. vera. The trees are strong and vigourous and produce small roundish red and black fruit. This rootstock has however some disadvantages, s.a causing very slow growth to the plant difficulties to carry out the bud grafting and before two years. An important contribution to the cultivation of Pistacia in Libya was made 15 years ago when Syrian varieties have been introduced to Libya for the establishment of rootstock nurseries.Pistachio was introduced to Libya as early as 1938. Plantations were established at the Fruit Experimental Farm of Tarhuna, 100 km Southeast of Tripoli. The rootstock used was Pistacia vera. Subsequently in 1957 other plantations were established at Garian and Yefren. Pistachio appears to be a suitable species for the utilization of large areas in the mountainous region of Tripoli and in green mountains of the East. Its resistance to drought and adaptability to marginal soils are very useful characters. In Libya recently special attention has been given to this promising horticulture crop and about 300 000 trees have been planted in various agricultural areas both in the arid Eastern and Western regions. In 1988 ca 1500 ha of rain fed pistachio cultivations could be estimated across Libya, the total production being 1400 metric tons. During the same year 220 metric tons of pistachio were also imported.The most important cultivated varieties in the country are Agrigento (Fig. 2) and Mateur (Fig. 3). During the recent years the varieties Ashoury (Fig. 4), Batoury, Ouleimy, Lazowardy, Ajamy, Bondouky, Maraouhy, were imported from Syria and planted at the Tarhuna Agricultural Research Station for evaluation.In the Tarhuna research station the ARC has planted about seven varieties of pistachio introduced from Syria in 1983. At the same time four extension farms in four regions planted with Ashoury were also established. Ashoury has given so far a good production (Fig. 5) in Libya and it is suitable to many regions in the West. The fruits of this variety are red and the splitting of the nuts is very close to that of Mateur, introduced from Tunisia.Wild Pistacia species are particularly resistant to drought and tolerant to difficult soils. P. atlantica is a good rootstock for pistachio varieties. This species can be propagated by seeds and seedlings can be then grafted with buds from high yielding varieties. P. atlantica is present in many areas across the country. Seeds of P. atlantica can be used for the extraction of oil and for pharmaceutical purposes.   In Libya, the problems affecting pistachio cultivation include:• Pollination: the flowering period of the inflorescence of male trees does not fully coincide with the flowering of the female trees; pollination being also affected by weather conditions; • Lack of technical staff and hand labour.• Inadequate nurseries for the production of seedling to meet the country's demand.Applied research on pistachio in Libya is very limited. The only work currently carried out in the country is the testing of the varieties, introduced from abroad. The research work on pistachio varietal improvement needs to be strengthened along with greater attention, on pollination and agronomic practices.In general, the performance of pistachio in the hill and mountainous areas of Libya (where there is sufficient rainfall) is very good; in those areas, the potential for pistachio development is very high.  Boulos (1995) reported that P. lentiscus grows wild as a shrub in the Wadi Batoum, south of Sollum, in the northwest costal zone of Egypt; whereas Pistacia khinjuk is growing as a tree in Gabal Elba, southern Egypt. Both species are dioecious and deciduous and distributed in mountainous areas indicating possible adaptation to high altitudes.P. vera has been introduced into Egypt by the Ministry of Agriculture from Syria in 1960. It has been planted at Borg El Arab orchards (Northwest coast of Egypt) some 20 years ago. Since that time, the trees have failed to produce nuts. Sometimes fruits may occur but without their kernels. The trees begin to bloom after 12 years.The main problem of pistachio in Egypt is that male trees begin to bloom in early April almost a month earlier than the female trees (which bloom in late April and early May). It has been observed that at Borg El Arab other Pistacia species are also present as spontaneous taxa: naturally occurring: P. lentiscus, P. chinensis and P. atlantica.A Mediterranean Pistacia germplasm collection donated to Egypt by ACSAD (Table 2) has been planted in 1995 at the El-Sheikh Zuwayid station (Sinai), one of the field Research Stations of the Egyptian Desert Research Center. The station, established in 1995, is located at the Northeast coast of Egypt, 35 km East of El Arish and 15 km West of the border town, Rafah. The station is located 15 m a.s.l. 34°6'57\"E and 31°14'1\"N. The average rainfall in this area is 200-300 mm. The mean air temperature is 15°C in winter and 25°C in summer. The exploration, collection and conservation of valuable germplasm for the coast and Sinai area are the most important objectives of this station. An ex situ genebank of 300 m 2 has been constructed and will be fully operational in January 1999. The genebank is composed of two cold rooms (one running at +4 °C with adjustable relative humidity, the second at -22°C) for short-and medium-term germplasm storage. A seed drying room operating at +22°C with adjustable relative humidity and a laboratory for seed processing and packing is also present. In addition to conservation rooms, a field of 7.3 ha is also available to support the characterization, evaluation and multiplication activities. The field will also host a collection of fruit trees that are more tolerant to the environmental conditions of north Sinai.Three wild Pistacia species are native to Spain P. atlantica Desf., P. lentiscus L. and P. terebinthus L. Their geographic distribution is given in Table 1. The interspecific hybrid P.x saportae (P. lentiscus x P. terebinthus) appears occasionally in places where both species thrive together. Species detailed distribution in the mainland, the Balearic and Canary islands, was reported already by Batlle et al. (1996). The wild populations of P. lentiscus and P. terebinthus are not considered to be endangered. However, P. atlantica due to its restricted distribution to the Canary Islands can be considered an endangered species. Apart from the use of some wild Pistacia species or their hybrids as rootstocks, their potential for reforestation of areas under process of desertification is also being considered. Many parts of the Pistacia tree can be used for a variety of purposes, through more in the past than today. Pistacia seed oil, leaves and resin have traditionally served for medicinal uses. It is speculated that, the cultivated pistachio (P. vera L.), was first introduced into Spain from Asia by the Romans. The crop was developed during the middle Ages and later disappeared for unknown reasons, perhaps due to the fact that unbearing male trees were removed, preventing thus the production of the nuts. This crop was reintroduced into Spain in the early 1980s and some 1000 ha of young orchards have been planted, in both dry and drip irrigated conditions (mainly in Andalusia, Aragon, Castile-La Mancha, Catalonia and Extremadura regions). Around 400 ha were bearing in 1998 and another 600 ha are still in their juvenile stage planted were yet to bear nuts. The oldest orchards are planted in the Lleida Province (250 ha). These are around 15 years old and thus being a full bearing stage. Interest on this crop is rising recently although two main drawbacks are restraining its development: crop technologies inexperience and lack of available trees and cultivars diversity in the nurseries. In Spain cooperative farms could be used for the cultivation of pistachio, viz. inland dry or semidry areas growing ereals or vineyards producing poor quality wine or areas unsuited to almond growing due to late spring frost.In most Spanish orchards, the Californian model (plant material and production practices) is widely employed. Thus P. atlantica as rootstock, Kerman and Peters as female and male cultivars respectively are the main varieties. However, various aspects of the Californian pistachio technology and management are not appropriate for most of the Spanish orchards characterized by shallow and poor soils and scarce water resources. In areas with Mediterranean continental climate Kerman is performing very well but it is not adapted to those milder areas where its high chilling requirements are not fully met. In those coastal zones, other cultivars more adapted like Aegina, Larnaka and Mateur would in fact give better performances (Vargas et al. 1995b(Vargas et al. , 1997)). Furthermore, the risk of genetic vulnerability, due to the use of just one female cultivar, should not be also under-estimated.In general, characters of pistachio cultivars do not remain constant across countries and this makes the identification of introduced material a rather difficult task. There is a widespread concern about the tendency towards the use of a very reduced number of female cultivars in new plantings: Aegina in Greece, Ashoury in Syria, Bianca in Italy, Larnaka in Cyprus, and Mateur in Tunisia. In Iran and Turkey however, both major pistachio producers, a greater number of cultivars are being used, viz. Ohady, Kaleh Ghochi and Fandoghi in Iran and Unzun, Kirmizi and Siirt in Turkey. IRTA is actively fostering international collaboration on Pisatcia for the exchange of information, methodologies and their implementation. This is carried out through the FAO-CIHEAM Nut Network and in collaboration with IPGRI. The ultimate goal of those efforts is the sustainable conservation and utilization of Pistacia species.This review paper addresses the Pistacia genetic resources held at IRTA Mas Bové and the activities carried out for their conservation, characterization and evaluation at this institute. The authors of this paper wish to emphasize the importance of making available genetic resources of Pistacia along with the knowledge on their uses for enhancing sustainable agriculture across the Mediterranean region.Genetic resources conservation requires the proper maintenance of the gene pool diversity both in situ (on farm) and ex situ facilities. So far research has only focused on ex situ variation through by description of morphological traits of P. vera field collections. However this approach has its limitations as highly heritable traits often show little variation over much of the material studied. In addition, quantitative trait expression is subject to environmental variation, which is difficult to measure. Complementary characterization using biochemical techniques is being also considered. No work on Pistacia cryopreservation is currently being undertaken in Spain.Wild Pistacia Some 250 trees from seedlings belonging to six Pistacia species are planted in groups on isolated plots to prevent hybridization at IRTA. Currently, the Spanish Pistacia genebank holds accessions of P. atlantica, P. integerrima Stewart, P. khinjuk Stocks, P. palaestina Boiss and P. terebinthus (Table 2). This collection is a good representation of the Pistacia genus diversity across the Mediterranean and West Asia. Seedlings from different origins are still being introduced. Both native and foreign species of wild Pistacia have been introduced to produce rootstocks for experimental purposes (Vargas et al. 1998).The field collection of P. vera cultivars started in 1976 and some 77 genotypes (45 females and 27 males) have been introduced so far (Table 3). Cultivars have been propagated through grafting either on P. palaestina or P. vera rootstocks. This collection holds cultivars from main producing countries along with a good representation of the existing genetic diversity of pistachio, considering that less than 100 cultivars have been described worldwide (Maggs 1973). Yet more than 60 described cultivars are present in Iran alone (Sheibani 1995). kernel colour and flavor. Although very little is known on the pistachio genetics, many of these problems may be solved through genetic enhancement. Particularly for those countries, which are main pistachio producers, there has never been a strategic approach for the deployment of genetic diversity of P. vera. Indeed, the diversity present in this horticultural crop has been so far very poorly used. Dioecism represents an important limitation to pistachio breeding since male performance is unknown and moreover, sex in seedlings takes between five and eight years to be expressed. These facts reduce the efficiency of selection. Only two cultivars have been obtained from open pollinated known cultivars, Pontikis (seedling of Aegina) in Greece (Pontikis 1986) and Sirora (seedling of Red Aleppo) in Australia (Maggs, 1982). However in the late 1980s, two breeding programmes were initiated, one at the University of California-Davis, USA (Chao et al. 1998) and the other at IRTA Mas Bové, Spain (Vargas et al. 1996). More recently, a third programme to breed scions and rootstocks was initiated in Turkey at the Pistachio Research Institute, Gaziantep (Atli 1998, personal communication). In Iran, some breeding work has been carried out over the years at the Pistachio Research Institute of Rafsanjan and a few unnamed seedlings are today under assessment (Sheibani 1995). The IRTA's programme to breed new pistachio cultivars for the Mediterranean industry started in 1989. Cross combinations were designed considering different parental origins, many of these combinations not freely occurring in nature. The main female parents used were Aegina (Greece), Batoury and Oleimy (Syria), Kerman (USA), Larnaka (Cyprus), and Mateur (Tunisia), Main males chosen were B and C (Greece), M-36 and M-38 (Syria), M-502 (Italy) and Nazar (Israel).A total of 31 controlled crosses among 10 female and 12 male parents were made between 1989 and 1990 yielding some 2000 seedlings (Vargas et al. 1996). Thirty progenies, 13 of which with more than 50 seedlings, from the crosses were planted at two locations in Tarragona, either at Mas Barber (Vila-seca) or Mas Bové (Constantí) in a randomized and non-random bloc design respectively (Table 4). Close planting spaces were used, viz. 5×2 m (Mas Barber) and 5×1.3 m (Mas Bové) in order to save costs. The breeding aims of this study were to achieve precocity, regular and high productivity, vigour and better nut quality. Data of first flowering, sex, leafing date, tree size measured as trunk diameter, disease incidence and appearance of first nuts were taken at the two locations.Most cultivars of P. vera have been extensively documented following the IPGRI descriptor list for pistachio (IPGRI 1997) and are recorded electronically using a standardized format. Some of these characteristics are given as follows: tree vigour, growth and branching habit in Table 5, blooming date in Table 6 and flowering precocity in Table 7. Additional, important nut characteristics like nut length, nut width, nut shape, nut and kernel weight and kernel colour are provided in Table 8.This growth descriptor is very important for the evaluation of pistachio performance particularly under dry conditions. Vigour observations range from three to seven (Table 5). Cultivars showed important differences in vigour. Some female cultivars were rather vigourous (Ajamy, Bondoki, Marawhy, Mateur, Oleimy, Red Aleppo and Silvana) and some others did not show vigour (Bronte, Joley, Kerman, Lassen, Sirora, Sfax and White Oleimy). Within male cultivars, B, M-P3, Peters and Túnez are vigourous, while Enk, M-47, 02-18 and 40A appeared to be less vigourous. Female cultivars from Syria seem to be mostly vigourous. Regarding quantitative trait inheritance, first results on different segregating progenies, showed that vigour is related to parents (Vargas et al. 1995a, Vargas andRomero 1998).  Juvenility is considered as the period from grafting or budding to the appearance of the first flower. There are important differences between cultivars in relation to juvenile period. In Table 7, flowering precocity is not given in years as recommended in the IPGRI descriptors but on a scale from one (long) to five (short). The juvenile period of male cultivars appeared to be shorter than in females, being early pollen producers B, C, Enk, M-25A, M-502 and Ashoury, Avidon, Larnaka, Lassen, Sirora and Sfax. Kerman shows an intermediate splitting.In general, Italian genotypes produce low levels of split nuts.The information provided through morphological characterization cannot always allow the identification of varieties. This fact has encouraged the development of biochemical and molecular techniques for a sharper assessment of genetic diversity within the genepool of crops. Molecular genetics play an important role in characterizing plant genetic resources by supporting their acquisition and maintenance and ultimately their better use. For diversity studies, isoenzymes are relatively cheap and informative, RFLPs are expensive, RAPDs are not very informative and microsatellites promise to be very informative but still rather expensive. Most cultivars held at IRTA have been isoenzymatically analyzed for seven systems (Vargas et al. 1995b, Rovira et al. 1998). This work resulted in 12 different isoenzymic phenotypic combinations for female cultivars and two for males. It also allowed the identification of two female cultivars (Bianca and Red Jalab) and four male cultivars (A, C-Especial, M-P3 and M-P9) as hybrids. The next step planned in these efforts consists of choosing progenies segregating for different isoenzymes and determining their inheritance. In addition, assessment of the usefulness of a RAPD marker linked to sex expression through the screening of some progenies using bulked segregant analysis (Hormaza et al. 1994) is planned.As a whole P. vera showed high levels of polymorphism. A joint work to assess the phenotypic and genetic diversity at DNA level within P. vera germplasm collected in Mediterranean countries confirmed further this high degree of polymorphism (Caruso et al. 1998).The wild Pistacia species held at the IRTA genebank have not been morphologically characterized although the potential use of some progenies as rootstock has been investigated (Vargas et al. 1998). These species have been extensively characterized using 10 isoenzyme systems (Rovira et al. 1995, Monastra et al. 1997). Isoenzymic polymorphism revealed that the most variable species is P. atlantica followed by P. vera, P. palaestina and P. integerrima. P. terebinthus and P. khinjuk were polymorphic only for two isoenzymes. Thus the dioecious mating system of Pistacia, which enforces out-crossing and high levels of heterozygosity, has a different effect depending on the species. In addition, a few wild accessions were identified as being of interspecific hybrid origin. P. palaestina seedling trees from Greece and USA showed distinctive hybrid patterns and also clear differences in their leaf morphology and some other morphological characters when compared with true types from Syria.The genus Pistacia (Anacardiaceae Family) includes more than 11 species. These species are characterized by some common morphological traits such as composed leaves, male-flower structure and leaf texture. Most of these species are used as rootstock for the cultivated P. vera. Which is the only commercialized variety due to its large and edible nuts with a high nutritional value. Four Pistacia species are native to Greece according to Zohary (1952) namely, P. atlantica, P. lentiscus, P. palaestina and P. terebinthus whereas only P. vera was introduced from Eastern Mediterranean countries by the Romans and subsequently by the Byzantines. Many of the abovementioned species co-exist with their interspecific hybrids, which are the result of free cross pollination taking place whenever the taxa are close enough to allow the pollen flow.Aegina is the only female pistachio cultivar grown commercially (Zakynthinos and Rouskas 1994). A new female cultivar, Pontikis was recently introduced into Greek plantations, but is grown in no more than 1% of the total pistachio area. Fig. 2 shows the nuts of Aegina. According to Rouskas (1995) the variety Aegina is found in three variants, named Nichato (or Kinezaki), Foundoukato and Kilarato (Fig. 2). Today, the variant Kilarato has been selected into a true variety, which is being propagated and distributed by nurseries to Greek growers.    The trees of the Aegina cultivar present an intermediate vigour with a spreading growth. Branching is sparse with an intermediate expression of apical dominance. The tree can be easily trained according to environmental growing requirements. A classical example is found in Santorini Island where trees are trained in very low shapes to protect them from the strong wind (Fig. 3). Leaves in Aegina are 17-22 cm long and 14-17 cm wide. The number of leaflets averages from three to five (rarely seven). The length of the terminal leaflet is 7-11 cm and in the lateral ones is 6-10 cm. The shape of the terminal leaflet is roundish. The margin of leaflets is wavy and their texture is leathery. The floral buds are big (9×6×4 mm) with a narrowly ovate shape resulting in conical inflorescences. The inflorescence produces 8-18 lateral branches and their abundance can be characterized as intermediate.The nuts of Aegina have a narrowly cordate shape (22×12×11 mm, dorsal side more curved than ventral side) with a symmetrically pointed shell apex. The shape of their pedicel scar is elliptic and elevation can be characterized as protruding (Fig. 4). The tendency to early splitting is low (rarely), but during harvest time the percentage of split nuts is often close to 90%. The suture opening of split nuts varies from narrow to moderate. The weight of 100 dried nuts is 100 g. The kernel has excellent flavour, is quite juicy and is green coloured (Fig. 5). The colour of the kernel's testa is reddish (Fig. 6). Chemical analyses showed that 100 g of fresh Aegina kernels contain 53.5% fat, 24% protein, 14.5% carbohydrate and 6.1% water. Oleic acid is the main fatty acid (58%). The tendency to alternate bearing is moderate and this makes the cultivar very productive. Furthermore, in un-irrigated areas the variety can still produce good yields as has been recorded in the cultivations of Aegina Island (Fig. 7).Three different selections are used as pollinators for Aegina: selection A, selection B and selection C. Selection A includes trees with quite vigourous habit and erect growth. Its leaves have five or seven leaflets. Lateral leaflets have no petiole, these are present only on the terminal leaflet. The shape of the leaflets is elliptic or ovate (50-100 by 45-60 mm) and their colour is dark green. The formation of floral buds takes place very early on new trees. The abundance of floral buds in old trees is a very good characteristic for this selection. The inflorescences of selection A have a conical shape and their blooming takes place 7-15 days before Aegina. Traits such as leaves, vegetative buds and trunk colour are similar to those of Tsikoudia. Selection B includes very vigourous trees, characterized by very early blooming (prolonged juvenility up to seven years). Its leaves have seven to nine leaflets rarely five, and are sessile and elliptic (70-90 by 30-40 mm) with a wavy margin. The floral buds in section B are different than those of other selections. In fact, this is a very unique trait: the tops of their covers (bracts leaves) are rolled out giving the impression of thorny buds during the sap mobilization period. In addition the size of those floral buds are smaller and sharper than those found in floral buds of other selections. Blooming time takes place seven days later than in selection A. Selection C is characterized by intermediate vigour similar to that of Aegina. The branching is dense and its leaves are similar to those in Aegina. Its leaves have three to five leaflets (70-110 by 40-70 mm), and are all round ovate excepted for the terminal leaflet whose shape is roundish such as in the terminal leaflet of P. vera. The colour of the leaves is light green. Often the leaflets (whose margin is wavy) cover each other, particularly when the leaf is made of five leaflets. The floral buds are broadly ovate and bigger than those found in other selections. The trees of this selection have intermediate growth, very thick shoots, very big floral buds, late blooming and leaves similar to those of P. vera.This is a deciduous tree or shrub 2-5 m high with a pungent smell of resin. It is native to Greece and it thrives well up of 600 m a.s.l. Its leaves are composed with 3-13 elliptic and unwinged leaflets. P. terebinthus appears in different ecotypes or hybrids across Greece. The floral buds are formed on biennial shoots in composed bunches. Their fruits are small and reddish. It was initially used as rootstock for P. vera cultivars (Aegina and its selections) but it does not have sufficient compatibility with the cultivated species and furthermore, its growth is rather slow and its fruits have a high percentage of blank nuts.Native to Chios and Crete islands, this is a deciduous tree 10 m tall. It has composed leaves with seven to nine elliptic leaflets and it is characterized by acuminate apices. The terminal leaflet has winged petioles. A variant of P. palaestina is Tsikoudia, used as rootstock for its very good compatibility with P. vera. It has been found to be tolerant to Phytophthora attacks. Preliminary results (Katsiotis et al. 1994) from an on going study suggest that Tsikoudia could be in fact a variant of P. terebinthus.It is the most common species found in Greece and its distribution mostly coincides with that of the olive tree.This species is an evergreen shrub 1-5 m tall with typically leathery composed leaves of two or five pair leaflets with winged petioles. The fruits are red when they are young and turn black at maturity giving the plant an ornamental feature. A variation of this species is P. lentiscus var. Chia (Fig. 8) whose trees are cultivated for their aromatic resin and for the extraction of oil.The mastic in P. lentiscus is extracted by wounding the trunks (Zohary 1995). After the collection of the gum, producers apply thermal processing for the oil extraction. These products are used in confectionary and by the distillery industry. The price for 1 kg of gum is US$68, and US$680 for 1kg of oil. Today, 500 000 trees are being cultivated in Chios Island. Two big national projects are being currently implemented, one for the optimization of oil extraction and the other for the vegetative propagation of this variety.This species is native to Rhodos island and other coastal regions. Its trees are very tall, up to 15 m. The taxon has composed leaves of seven to nine elliptic leaflets without petioles.The main Pistacia germplasm collection in Greece is that of the Vardates Research Station of NAGREF, Lamias. The field genebank is made of two collections: 20 P. vera cultivars grafted on Tsikoudia rootstocks and 15 P. vera cultivars and selections grafted on P. integerrima rootstocks. Three other small collections are maintained by NAGREF: one at the Agricultural Research Station in Rhodos, a second at the Pomology Dep., Faculty of Agriculture, University of Athens which conserves the oldest P. vera collection in Greece and the third at the NAGREF-Deciduous Trees Institute, in Naousa. All these germplasm collections deal exclusively with P. vera. There is no collection in Greece maintaining wild Pistacia species and/ or its natural hybrids.Four wild and two cultivated Pistacia species (P. vera and P. lentiscus var. Chia) are common in Greek landscape. P. lentiscus and P. terebinthus are widespread whereas the other two, P. paleastina and P. atlantica, have a much more limited distribution. P. vera has been introduced into Greece and it is cultivated for its edible nuts. Aegina is the only commercial cultivar in the country, covering 99% of all commercial orchards.A taxon named in Greek 'Tsikoudia' is used as rootstock for Aegina. The identity of this taxon is not yet even clear though its morphological traits suggest a close affinity to P. palaestina. Wild Pistacia species show a great genetic diversity, which could also be the result of free gene flow among them. Morphological characterization still leaves many questions unanswered about the identity of many variants within the Pistacia genus. Molecular maker techniques are likely to answer those unsolved identity questions. This valuable genetic diversity should be well protected and efforts at national and international level should be deployed to further the biodiversity heritage include proper conservation policies.The Most countries in the Mediterranean region have important economic activities related to nut crop production, trade and industry. The success of these activities depends on a variety of factors, some of which evolve quickly and it is therefore necessary to adapt them to the changing conditions. The ability to put into place this adaptation can make the difference between profit and loss.The attainment of sustainable agriculture and food security requires a combined effort in research and technology development, genetic resources conservation, environment management, education, training and rural development. In order to find solutions to global problems these factors need to be addressed at the same time in both the developed and developing regions of the world. Thus, transfer of suitable technology becomes essential to uphold the basic principles of sound agricultural systems and practices.The main aims of the FAO-CIHEAM Interregional Cooperative Research Network on Nuts are:1. Establishment of Research Collaboration through exchange of information and germplasm and Joint applied research 2. Promotion and development and training courses 3. Fostering Cooperation.The structure of the Network, revolving around a Coordination Center, the IRTA Mas Bové Station (where the network coordinator is located) is divided into nine Subnetworks (seven crop species oriented and two thematic), namely: almond, hazelnut, walnut, pistachio, pecan, chestnut, stonepine, genetic resources and economics. Each Subnetwork has its own Liaison Center and Liaison Officer (Table 1).An important milestone for the Network was the agreement reached in 1996 between the FAO's Regional Offices (REU and RNE) and the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), through the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza (IAMZ), to jointly operate the Interregional Cooperative Research Network on Nuts. This collaboration ensures harmony across activities while the overall work across Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and the Near East is further consolidated in this small but economically and technically vital sector of agricultural quality products.have been published so far (issue 1 December 1993, 12 pages;2 April 1994, 20 pages;3 January 1994, 24 pages;4 December 1995, 28 pages, 5 December 1996, 36 pages;6 December 1997, 52 pages;7 December 1998, 44 pages). These editions were printed in 1200 copies each, with additional 600 copies of issues one to five printed subsequently. The forthcoming number is expected for December 1999. NUCIS has received a warm welcome by most Network's members and readers and has established itself as an effective vehicle of communication in this field of research.The work presented (papers and posters) in technical meetings have been compiled, edited and published in different types of publications. Generally, these meetings are organized and held jointly with Congresses, Symposia and Workshops. The contributions are thus included in general in the proceedings of these events (Acta Horticulturae of the ISHS, Options Méditerranéennes, Series Cahiers of CIHEAM, FAO, REUR Technical Series, IPGRI Reports, etc.). In some occasions, however, the proceedings of the network's meetings have been published as separate publications.Four analyses were carried out to assess the establishment of four new Subnetworks: chestnut (1991), stonepine (1995), economics (1996) and carob (1997). The result of those reviews led to the cancellation of the carob Subnetwork.On the initiative of the Research Network on Nuts CIHEAM-IAMZ, FAO, and various national institutions have organized two Advanced International Courses on \"Nut Production and Economics\". Both courses were designed for graduates working in R&D and professionals of the sector. Each course was attended by some 30 students from over 15 countries of the Mediterranean region, Near East, Central and South America. The courses were much appreciated by the trainees. The first course was held at Reus, Spain in November 1994 and the second in Adana, Turkey, in May 1998. The next course will possibly be organized in the year 2002.Following is a summary of the major points addressed by the participants of the Workshop to further collaborative efforts on Pistacia. The activities proposed here are priority actions for both CWANA and Mediterranean Europe (where Pistacia wild and cultivated species are present).Participants have indicated the willingness of joining efforts in view of the clear benefits arising in sharing knowledge and expertise. Some activities are completely new; others bank on joint work carried out over the last few years among institutions whose enthusiastic collaboration has led to very outstanding results (f.i. the two IPGRI Descriptor Lists for cultivated and wild Pistacia).IPGRI will publish the proceedings of the Irbid Workshop and is committed to the production of a Pistacia Catalogue CD ROM using the data presented in the country reports. IPGRI will follow up with country representatives the completion -if needed-of the scientific contributions provided at the Workshop. The suggestion to merge the CD-ROM catalogue production with the FAO-CIHEAM survey coordinated by Prof. Kaşka from Turkey was brought forward by Dr Batlle and was welcomed by IPGRI. IPGRI will carry out the editing of the papers and follow up on the gathering of missing data. Participants to submit to IPGRI their scientific contribution for the proceedings of the Workshop by the end of March (if they have not yet done so) IPGRI will contact Dr Batlle to follow up on the proposal to produce a joint IPGRI-FAO/CIHEAM CD-ROM pistachio catalogue.Participants expressed interest in carrying out joint research on the eco-physiological characterization of Pistacia growing areas within CWANA and Mediterranean Europe. Dr Caruso offered the support of its research team in Palermo for the statistical analyses of the data that participants have agreed to make available. The outcome of this work will be beneficial for all the countries, as it will enable to better understand where pistachio can be successfully grown with regard to climatic conditions. To meet this goal, participants need to supply min. and max. temperature values (in degree Celsius) of pistachio cultivation areas from each country. It was noted that for many countries these data are available with the National Agricultural Statistical Bureaus. Participants will feed back IPGRI on the possibility to provide the historical set of meteorological data over the last 10 years by end of February.This activity builds upon previous cooperative work promoted by IPGRI through the UMS project. The completion of this work is paramount for shedding light on the differentiation among phenotipically similar varieties and for clarifying the taxonomic relationship among debated taxa. The rationale behind this work is to utilize information that might be already available in various research centres and carry out the evaluation for the missing data. The data will be then analyzed using a statistical package developed in Palermo. As mentioned during the Meeting in Irbid, a few countries have already provided some data for this investigation and these were used to prepare a multi-authored paper for the Pistachio Conference in Davis in 1997. However, additional data from a larger number of countries is needed to complete this work. Would participants agree to join this study they should use the attached tables listing the traits needed for both male and female trees (note that the descriptors used in the table correspond exactly to those used by the IPGRI's Descriptors for Pistacia vera). Qualitative descriptors are being marked with an asterisk. Attention should be paid to the fact that qualitative characters will not need replicates, whereas quantitative characters should have at least 25 records per accession. Different sheets for male and female trees should be used (see attached). Replicas data for each cultivar must have been collected in the same year and from trees grown in the same place, however, in case data have been gathered from different places, they should be loaded separately. Regarding the material to be used, priority should be given to indigenous accessions, though introduced varieties should not be neglected. This approach will enable to check the validity of the study and at the same time verify the stability of the biometric characters in different environments. As for any other joint activity, scientific papers resulting from these collaborative studies will be published under the name of all the contributors. Participants will send to IPGRI the characterization data using the attached table by end of April 1999. IPGRI will seek the availability of the University of Palermo to continue in supporting the analyses of the data that will be made available by national programmes.Participants stressed the need for more taxonomic studies on Pistacia for eliminating the confusion that still existing among workers on the proper identification of wild taxa. IPGRI to investigate with Prof. Caruso on the possibilities to continue to carry out some molecular studies on Pistacia in his lab. at the University of Palermo.IPGRI was very pleased to learn that, more than one participant indicated the exchange of material among countries, as a feasible cooperative effort. IPGRI encourages such cooperation; as it will enhance uses, facilitate research and ultimately the better conservation of the genetic diversity of Pistacia species. Representatives of ACSAD and Iran have offered to assist countries of CWANA in the conservation of Pistacia genetic resources using their existing field collection facilities. IPGRI to follow up on these offers, and assist-interested parties in developing material transfer agreements if needed.The Irbid Workshop represented an opportunity for the representative from Egypt (Dr Ismail Abdel Galil) to discuss with other experts potentials for broadening the cultivation and use of Pistacia in his country. The Desert Research Center of Egypt has recently established a Research Station, and a genebank in Sinai. Dr Galil (who is the head of the Station) expressed keen interest in hosting a meeting there, to address specifically the role of Pistacia in the re-habilitation of dry and marginal land. IPGRI to follow up, with Dr Galil, on the Workshop proposal.In order to follow up on funding opportunities participants elected two committees that will be charged to develop initial draft project proposals to be submitted to donors (in particular the European Union). The two committees are composed as follows: Committee on Cultivated Species = T. Caruso, I. Pour, A. Ak and A. Haji-Hassan (focal point) and G. Zakhyntinos. Committee on Wild Species = A. El-Oqlah, S. Thalouk (focal point), Sultanov, G. Zakhyntinos. Each committee will have to develop a concept note for a project that will be then turned into a more coherent proposal with inputs from all the other participants. Among the topics that participants listed as possible subject of the project proposals are the following: • Distribution of diversity and its uses • Impact of their use in marginal lands for afforestation /land rehabilitation purposes • Morphological and molecular characterization • Assessment of genetic erosion and identification of \"hot spots\" for conservation purposes • Establishment of an international herbarium collection of Pistacia • Investigation on potential uses.Dr Zakynthinos to provide information on the EU forthcoming Research Framework, and the two Committees to prepare an initial draft, using feedback from Zakynthinos by end of March (tentatively).The President of the GREMPA, Dr Ak, introduced the XI Meeting of the Association which will take place in Şanliurfa, Turkey, on 1 to 4 September 1999. In view of the announced attendance of many of the Irbid participants, IPGRI has requested Dr Ak to look at the possibility to accommodate some time in the Agenda of the GREMPA Meeting in order to allow follow-up discussions to the Jordan Workshop. IPGRI to follow up with Dr Ak on the Agenda of the GREMPA Meeting and to prepare a summary of the Irbid presentations on behalfof the CWANA countries.","tokenCount":"22037"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"32d48b0050bd932c87f9caa5707a61d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/9d7960d3-b59c-4380-b953-fcfc5533fe43/content","id":"384638676"},"keywords":["Nigeria","improved maize varieties","gender norms","women","empowerment","agricultural research for development"],"sieverID":"d35ee27e-5f68-4374-9d5f-47220a1a1fdb","pagecount":"26","content":"New agricultural technologies such as improved maize varieties (IMVs) promise important benefitsincreased incomes, lower workloads, and better food securityamong others. When such technologies are introduced, they can denaturalize and expose gender norms and power relations because the adoption of such technologies inevitably requires women and men to renegotiate the rules of the game. This article asks: How do women negotiate power relations and their expression in gender norms to secure benefits from improved maize varieties (IMVs), and more broadly, to expand their decision-making space? We draw on data from four Nigerian casestudies, two from the North and two from the Southwest. The findings are analyzed through a conceptual framework utilizing five different concepts of power. Findings are remarkably similar across all sites. Women are constrained by powerful gender norms which privilege men's agency and which frown upon women's empowerment. There is limited evidence for change in some contexts through expansion in women's agency. The implications for maize research and development is that an improved understanding of the complex relational nature of empowerment is essential when introducing new agricultural technologies.Deep-seated gender normsexpectations governing women's and men's behaviorscreate important differences in the ability of women, men, and young women and men to learn about, try out, adapt, and benefit from new agricultural technologies and practices (Petesch et al., 2017). The ability of women to participate effectively in agricultural innovation processes often demands that norms change in order to facilitate women's ability to set goals and act upon them. This is an interactive process whereby women (can) become ever more able to express their agency and force change in norms, and this change in norms allows further expansion in women's capacity. Fundamentally, normative change is about shifts in power relations. While normative change occurs globally and at all levels down to local, the shifts in power relations that herald normative change can be experienced as liberatingor as deeply threatening.Developing an understanding of the relationship between gender norms, women's ability and willingness to express their agency, and the uptake of agricultural technologies, is an important step toward improving the capacity of agricultural research for development (AR4D) to design and scale innovations (ibid.). Achieving this ambition is highly relevant to maize. Maize is the most important food crop in sub-Saharan Africa and is widely consumed in Nigeria (Gaya et al., 2017). Average yield in Nigeria is around a quarter of the global average and well below a number of other sub-Saharan African countries (Oyinbo et al., 2018). Improved maize varieties (IMVs) include traits offering resilience to drought, disease, pests, improved higher nitrogen use efficiency, cookability, and higher yields, among others. Abdoulaye et al. (2018) conducted a study utilizing nationally representative plot, and household-level data from major maize-producing regions of Nigeria, to assess the impacts of adoption of IMVs on maize yield and household economic welfare outcomes. This showed that adoption of IMVs typically increased maize grain yield by 574 kg/ha. The ability of both women and men to obtain benefits from IMVs has important implications for poverty alleviation and food security.This article discusses data from Nigeria in four maize-based farming systems, two in the South and two in the North, to develop a rich understanding of the interactions between gender norms, agency, and the ability of women and men to benefit from IMVs. IMVs have been introduced over the past five to 10 years in each community and were widely perceived by respondents to be one of the most significant agricultural innovations they had experienced. Data were obtained as part of the global GENNOVATE (Enabling Gender Equality in Agricultural and Environmental Innovation) research initiative. GENNOVATE applies a comparative case study approach deploying standardized instruments to identify factors which hinder, facilitate and promote men and women's individual and collective capacities for engaging in agricultural innovation processes (Petesch et al., 2018).New technologies such as IMVs promise important benefitsincreased incomes, lower workloads, and better food security among others. As such they can denaturalize and expose gender norms and power relations because the adoption of such technologies inevitably requires women and men to renegotiate the rules of the game. A host of decisions need to be madefor example labor may be re-allocated, inorganic fertilizers purchased, crops may be switched between women-and men-managed plots, and the types of benefit household members expect to secure may change (Farnworth et al., 2017;Mutenje et al., 2019;Theriault et al., 2017). This article discusses gendered perceptions of benefits from IMVs; the focus is on the power relations that facilitate, or hinder, realization of those benefits, rather than the benefits themselves.The article is structured as follows. We open with a conceptual framework to help us analyze and interpret fieldwork data. We then present our research design, followed by findings. The discussion and conclusion reflect on our conceptual framework, the data, and lessons learned.Cornwall (2016) remarks that women's empowerment has now become a mainstream development concern. It has largely lost its feminist transformational roots, which in the halcyon days in the 1980s and 1990s focused on redressing 'power inequalities, asserting the right to have rights, and acting … to bring about structural change in favor of equality ' (ibid. p. 343). Robbed of its radical character, empowerment isshe claimsnow frequently treated as akin to a destination reached through the development sector's equivalent of motorways. Cornwall argues against reducing dimensions of women's experience to measurable indicators and instrumental understandings of empowerment. These tend, she argues, to focus more on what empowered women can do for achieving desirable development goals rather than on building an understanding of empowerment as desirable in itself. To understand what this means it is useful to reflect on Kant (1983Kant ( , originally 1785) ) who postulated: 'Now I say that man … exists as an end in himself, not merely as a means for arbitrary use by this or that will: he must in all his actions, whether they are directed toward himself or to other rational beings, always be viewed at the same time as an end … Rational beings are called persons because their nature already marks them out as ends in themselves … (and as an object of reverence).' Bearing in mind the necessity to treat people as ends in themselves and as objects of reverence, our purpose is to develop insights into the power relations that facilitate or hinder women's ability to realize benefits they value from improved maize and more broadly to examine their decision-making space. In particular, we are interested in 'seeing' evidence for empowerment processes in play. To help us do this, our framework draws on a widely accepted definition of agency, and applies five different enactments of power relations to help us interpret the findings. These are power within, power with, power to act, power over, and a new concept (Gali e and Farnworth, 2019) power through. (1997, p. 2) argues 'empowerment is, first and foremost, about power; changing power relations in favor of those who previously exercised little power over their own lives. ' Rowlands (1997) points out that talking about power as process has strong implications for how we understand empowerment, and brings together and consolidates various definitions of power. We use them in this paper to help us interpret our data:Power within is a transformation of individual consciousness which leads to a new self-confidence to act. Power with is power that results from individuals organizing and acting collectively to address common concerns. Rowlands defines power to as the ability to bring about an outcome, or to resist change. It creates new possibilities without dominating or subordinating anyone. Allen (1999) instrumentalizes this concept as power to act in order to achieve a desired outcome. We use this revised sense in this article, as we are specifically interested in knowing whether individual, nonorganized women are able to secure benefits from improved maize through their own actions. Power over refers to controlling power and suggests a relation of domination or subordination between individuals (Pansardi, 2012). It can be responded to with compliance or resistance.These definitions of power are interactive. A sense of power within facilitates the ability to take part in collective action (and power within can be iteratively strengthened through power with). These definitions of empowerment share a conceptualization of power which seems to consider power as something like a 'property' which can be 'owned' by an individual ('I am empowered') (Gali e and Farnworth, 2019). Figure 1 visualizes these definitions of power. Each pictogram suggests that there is an empowerment boundary which is intrinsically associated with individuals. At the same time, the definitions recognize that an individual empowerment boundary is capable of expanding to accommodate an increase in personal empowerment (ibid.).Power through is a new concept (Gali e & Farnworth, 2019). It is already understood that power can have normative dimensions which allow it to exist and be exercised in the absence of any apparent agency (e.g., through the workings of cultural norms). However, power through adds a new dimension. The concept suggests that individuals can win, or lose, their empowerment status through changes in the empowerment status of people in significant relationships (partners, siblings, parents, etc.) to them. For this reason, individual empowerment boundaries merge with those of significant others (Figure 2).The critical issue is the way in which a change in a person's individual empowerment status is perceived by the community to affect those significant relationships. In particular, community perceptions of whether women and men are continuing to perform gender in ways which conform to locally accepted gender norms seem key. Gali e and Farnworth cite case studies of women becoming economically empowered through various development initiatives. However, over a short period of time many of these women experienced economic and social disempowerment. The wider community rejected the idea that women could earn significant monies as this was considered to disempower men. Being the wife of a disempowered manand being a 'bad wife' because she had disempowered him through earning more than himled to women being disempowered too. The concept helps to explain why women's economic empowerment initiatives are so often interpreted, particularly by men, as a zero-sum game. However, the converse is not necessarily true: community members may consider that women have been positively empowered through an improvement in their husband's empowerment statuswhether or not the woman is actually able to experience improved agency as a consequence of her husband's empowerment. Power through lifts the processes of power away from the workings of individual agency by capturing an involuntary aspect of empowerment and disempowerment processes. Throughout this process, the concept of power through allows the experience of empowerment and disempowerment to remain distinctive and personal to an individual: it is not abstract. (1999) argues that empowerment intrinsically involves processes by which people who have been denied the ability to make choices acquire such an ability. Definingand realizingone's aspirations is critical if one is to be able to live a good life, one in which women and men are able 'to imagine, to wonder and … to know' (Nussbaum & Sen, 1993, pp. 1-2). Wethe authors of this articleare fundamentally interested in understanding empowerment as a process toward enhanced self-understanding, which in turn facilitates the ability of individuals to make choices which matter to them. This entails a journey toward people perceiving themselves as 'able and entitled [our emphasis] to occupy … decision-making space' (Sen, 1997, 87). Kabeer (1999) considers that the ability to exercise choice can be thought of in terms of three inter-related dimensions: Resources (preconditions) ! Agency (process) ! Achievements (outcomes). Resources, including material, human and social resources, underpin the ability to make meaningful choices. Agency is the ability to define one's goals andcriticallyto act upon them. Achievements refers to evidence that empowerment has actually happened (ibid.). Farnworth et al. (2020) generally agree with this definition, however, they contest the uni-directionality of Kabeer's schema. Enhanced agency can equally be a mechanism for securing resources. They conclude that Kabeer's three dimensions are better conceptualized as multi-directional and iterative. Furthermore, it is helpful to reflect that agency can be articulated through decision-making, bargaining and negotiation, deception and manipulation, subversion and resistance (Kabeer, 1999). As a consequence of this complexity, the workings of agency can be extremely difficult to capture. Cornwall (2016) highlights the value of understanding the 'hidden pathways' that women travel on their journeys toward empowerment. Women can be involved in highly complex bargaining and strategizing which may at times appear counter-intuitive. Manda and Mvumi's (2010) research in Zimbabwe indicates that culturally normative gender roles in stored grain management and marketing were articulated in all case-study households. However, behind the scenes women developed multiple strategies to strengthen their control over stored maize. In some cases, apparent acceptance of 'defeats' was a necessary corollary to achieving a more important long-term objective (this would not have been immediately evident to an observer). Gali e and Farnworth (2019) term the disjuncture between what is done, and what is seen to be donein order to apparently conform to locally valid gender normsthe gender norms fac ¸ade.Building on Kabeer (1999), Sachs and Santarius (2007) suggest three proxies for assessing achievements: recognition, distribution of resources, and access to opportunities. First, recognition means an acknowledgement of the identities and roles individuals freely choose to adopt in a society. The concept refers to awareness of the 'self', as well as recognition of the public aspects of this self by others (ibid.). We add that reducing the divergence between individual self-awareness, and public recognition of that self-awareness, may help to reduce the tiring necessity of maintaining a gender norms fac¸ade. Second, Sachs and Santarius argue that analyzing the distribution of resources is a way of establishing the degree to which the right to self-determination has become normatively established. Equity in resource distribution, we add, could be considered a material expression of the realization of their first proxy -recognition of the public aspect of the self. Third, and this relates fundamentally to the concept of meaningful choice, individuals need access to opportunities to realize the first two proxies. The ability to deploy agency is meaningless unless opportunities to select between options are available.We bring together these concepts of power and agency to help us reflect upon the Nigerian fieldwork data. Prior to this, we use the conceptual framework to consider some of the broader Nigerian literature. This is to help us contextualize our own contribution.In Nigeria, gender-specific identifications between crops or livestock and their growers were common in the past, particularly in specific ethnic groups. For example, 'ephemeral' annual crops, including maize, cassava, melon, cocoyam and beans, were widely considered 'women's crops' (Ezumah & Di Domenico, 1995;Peterman et al., 2011). Hausa-Fulani women wereand areprominently engaged in producing and marketing dairy products though men generally own cattle (Peterman et al., 2011). Among the Igbo, Yoruba and some other ethnic communities, yam is still considered a prestigious male crop which is closely associated with indigenous cosmologies (Obidiegwu & Akpabio, 2017). The gendered hierarchy of crops is evident in the following citation, which apparently pertains today. 'Cassava is planted by women, unlike yam, the king of all crops that is planted by men' (Nwapa, 1975(Nwapa, , cited in ibid., 2017, p. 33), p. 33). This literature suggests that, in relation to crop choice, individuals have historically rarely had freedom of choice. Rather, crop choice has been primarily determined by gender. Today, gendered identifications of women or men with specific crops and livestock products is waning, though it still exists to some extent. It may be tentatively suggested that public acknowledgement of the self (Sachs & Santarius, 2007), with women freely selecting the crops they want to grow, is becoming more common.Public recognition of the self is necessarily tied to self-awareness: women need to have been able to develop their power within and act upon it in order to obtain recognition. Little research appears to have been conducted in farming communities on how women feel about themselves and the ways in which they exercise agency. Aguda-Oluwoa and Onib (2017), using a Self-Esteem Index with 1200 women in SW Nigeria, found positive correlations between women's self-esteem and their economic empowerment. Single women (single, divorced, separated, widowed) were more economically driven than married women. Enete and Amusa (2010) examined decisionmaking processes in cocoa-farming households and found that better educated, more experienced married women contributed more than less educated women to intrahousehold decision-making. However, many factors constrained the efficacy of women's participation. Limiting factors included higher numbers of adult men in the household, men's assertions that women have no ideas about farming and that women are subordinate to men, and low self-esteem among women. These examples show how the ways in which men sometimes articulate their power over women serve to limit women's sense of power within and power to act.Some researchers find correlations between the amount of money women provide to the household and their ability to exert effective agency. Angel-Urdinola and Wodon (2010) used Core Welfare Questionnaire Indicator (CWIQ) surveys implemented in eight Nigerian states in 2003 to study intra-household decision-making. They found that women who contribute more income to the household experience higher decision-making power, particularly when they are the main contributor. Women in the poorest households experience 'especially low' decision-making power because they are rarely the main provider of household income (ibid., p. 397). Interestingly, though, when poor women are able to contribute more absolute income, this raises their effective decision-making power more strongly than among non-poor women. Overall, women's ability to exercise their agency is stronger in relation to domains normatively associated with women: food, education and health. It is lower with respect to productive assets (ibid.). A game playing study of rural households near Kano in northern Nigeria suggests that gender norms may trump economic contributions (Munro et al., 2010). The findings indicated that senior wives receive more money from their husbands than junior wives regardless of the size of each women's own contribution. The rationale for favoring senior wives is not clear, nor whether they exercise more agency than junior wives (ibid.).When attempting to understand the implications of findings such as these, it is useful to note that many rural households are not unitary. Rather, women and men generally operate different production, business and consumption systems, with connections at certain points (Verschoor et al., 2019). Studies of polygamous and monogamous households show that in both cases spouses invest only part of their endowments into a common fund (ibid.; Munro et al., 2010). In the North, Hausa women usually manage their own plots and hire labor for agricultural tasks. Despite seclusion Hausa women can be highly active traders who engage in transactional relationships, often involving money, with their husbands (Verschoor et al., 2019).We noted above that examining the distribution of resources is one way of establishing the degree to which a woman's right to self-determination has become normatively established. Despite their strong involvement in farming, many rural Nigerian women face markedly weaker access than men to land, inputs, irrigation, credit, extension and markets, and they experience greater time poverty (Forsythe et al., 2016;Olaosebikan et al., 2019;Oseni et al., 2015;Takeshima & Yamauchi, 2012;Ugwuja & Nweze, 2018). Regarding access to land, women across the country manage smaller plots, and their right to land is often weak, particularly over the long term (Oyerinde, 2008). This can be largely ascribed to the prevalence of patrilineal kinship and inheritance systems across the country, which can also have the psychological effect of creating 'severe cultural inhibitions to the aspirations … of women' (Iruonagbe, 2009, p. 207). The situation of women does not appear to have improved much over time. Dillon and Quinones (2009) examined gender-differentiated asset dynamics in Northern Nigeria between 1988 and 2008. They found that the value and number of women's assets increased more slowly than men's assets, leaving men relatively better off after two decades had elapsed.With respect to labor, womenparticularly in the Southconduct most or all productive tasks on their own plots, including land preparation, planting, weeding, applying inputs, harvesting, processing, storing and preparing food items. Furthermore, women work on men-managed plots and conduct most household tasks (Peterman et al., 2011). In the South, strong male command over household labor (women's labor as well as the labor of junior men and children) and higher use of herbicidesdue to men controlling decisions on how to allocate financial resourceson men's plots, is an important contributory factor to gender productivity gaps (Oseni et al., 2015;O'Sullivan et al., 2014). Women are directly discriminated against in rural wage markets, being paid on average 14% less than men for the same work even if they have the same qualifications and experience (SOFA, 2011). This may result in perceptions that the opportunity costs of women moving into off-farm income generation are higher than those for men. However, this hypothesis requires substantiation.These findings suggest that male power over women is structurally entrenched. Nevertheless, there is evidence for women exerting their agency. Enabling factors can include their seniority in the household, income cohort, ethnic community, and their economic contributions. Relaxation in gender norms around who grows what suggests that increasing numbers of women are experiencing a sense of power within, and as a consequence are exercising power to act. Taken together the findings suggest that farming women need to negotiate deep patriarchal and patrilineal constraints when attempting to exert agency.The methodology builds on GENNOVATE research protocols (Badstue et al., 2018). Community selection was based on a purposive, maximum diversity sampling approach guided by two criteria considered significant for assessing gender differences in agricultural innovation: (i) economic dynamism, and (ii) gender gaps in resources and capacities. A 2 Â 2 matrix was developed with wide or narrow gender gaps on one axis, and high or low economic dynamism on the other (Figure 3). Economic dynamism was assessed through consideration of levels of infrastructure development, market orientation among smallholder farmers, relative percentages of buyers and sellers in markets, livelihood diversification including on and off-farm employment, and the level of natural resource endowment for agriculture. Gender gaps were assessed through considering the school enrollment rates of boys and girls, levels of women's leadership, and women's mobility norms. Application of the matrix resulted in the selection of four villages, two in northern Nigeria and two in southwest Nigeria (Figure 4). The community place names are pseudonyms.The research teams carried out 15 sex-disaggregated data collection activities in each community (Table 1). Methods included three sex-disaggregated focus group discussion (FGD) instruments. The first was conducted with low-income women and men, the second with middle-income women and men, and the third with young women and men (six FGDs per study community). A further nine semi-structured interviews (SSI) were conducted in each location: (i) a community profile with men and women key informants to obtain local demographic, social, economic, agricultural, and political information, (ii) innovation pathway interviews with two men and two women known for trying new things in agriculture, and (iii) life story interviews, likewise conducted with two men and two women. In total, 269 people (139 women: 130 men) across the four communities were interviewed (Table 2). The data analyzed in this article are drawn from all study sites. The data were gathered in standardized formats, cleaned, and systematically coded using NVivo social science software.  This section presents the study sites. Gbodomu is a community with around 20,000 inhabitants in Oyo State in southwest Nigeria and is located in savannah vegetation and lowland rainforest zones. Located near a major town, Gbodomu is the most prosperous of the four communities. It is electrified, has a daily market, good roads, post offices, banks, and primary and secondary schools with other tertiary institutions in close proximity. The dominant ethnic community is Yoruba (70%) with the remainder identifying in almost equal numbers as Igbo, Hausa, Sabe, Fulani, Egede, Abassa, Boro and Tifi. People practice Christianity, Islam, and Animism. Most people are farmers cultivating a wide range of food and cash crops. Few women hold positions of authority, though some older women are elected to oversee market affairs. Women experience good mobility within the community, and girls and boys have equal opportunity to attend schools.Ilu Titun is a village of 2500 people in Oyo State and experiences an equatorial climate. It has hardly any infrastructural development, lacks electricity, and has poor roads. Its only major institution is a primary school. Most residents are Yoruba cultivating crops for their own consumption and they sell processed and unprocessed crops in a weekly local market. This is patronized by traders from distant locations. Some older women are elected as Iyalodes. They are in charge of settling disputes among women and have some influence in local market management. Women are able to move freely within the village but not beyond it.Sabon Birni is a community of 15,000 in Kaduna State in northern Nigeria. It experiences a tropical climate. Major facilities include a weekly market, a health clinic, and primary and secondary schools. Sabon Birni is reputed for its agricultural productivity, business dynamism, and local industrial products. About half the population is Hausa, 40% Kurama, and the remainder are Amawa, Gure, Kahugu and Chawai. Most respondents were Christian, although a large number of Muslims inhabit the village. While Christian women experience few mobility restrictions within the village Muslim women's mobility in public spaces is limited.Mwaghavul is a village of about 2000 people in Plateau State in northern Nigeria. This is within the northern Guinea Savannah agro-ecological zone and the climate is near temperate. Mwaghavul is electrified, has a primary school and nearest the market is 4 km away. Everyone belongs to the Mwaghavul ethnic community and the majority are small-scale farmers. Few women hold leadership positions, men often restrict their wives' mobility outside the local village, and parents invest more in boys' education.To help keep track of community locations, the abbreviation (SWN) to indicate South West Nigeria is appended to mentions of Gbodumu and Ilu Titun and the  In the Introduction, we suggested that new technologies, because they promise important benefitsincreased incomes, lower workloads, better food security, etc.can denaturalize and expose gender norms and power relations. This is because the adoption of such technologies inevitably requires women and men to renegotiate the rules of the game. In this section, we use our conceptual framework to analyze how women and men talk about benefits from IMVs. We focus on the power relations that facilitate, or hinder, their realization of these benefits. Beyond this, we explore how norms help to determine the extent of women's decision-making space.As part of our commitment to treating people as ends in themselves, we cite respondents frequently. In order to simplify referencing, we provide citations with varying degrees of detail about the respondent. We primarily group respondent views according to their gender and income cohort (low or middle-income) and in such cases do not repeat such information alongside every quotation. In cases where opinions were the same across all respondents and study sites, we indicate this. We only provide further information when respondent views are more singular.Trends in women's and men's relative empowerment First, we explore trends in women's and men's relative empowerment over the past decade in each location. Is women's sense of agency increasing, or decreasing, as an absolute value? What do men think about how their own agency has changed in the same time frame? This information provides us with a contextual understanding of how gender norms, in relation to agency, may be shifting over time.Our data was developed through two exercises. First, we asked middle-income respondents to participate in a trend analysis called the Ladder of Power and Freedom (Petesch & Bullock, 2018). Respondents are asked to rate on a scale from 1 to 5 the ability of most village men (if a men's FGD) or most village women (if a women's FGD) in the community to make important decisions. These include decisions about their work, starting or maintaining an income-generating activity, and whether to start or end a relationship with the opposite sex. Participants are then asked to think back and locate the step men and women in the community typically found themselves on ten years ago, and to reflect upon the reasons for any changes. Table 3 summarizes the findings. A score of 1 represents very little decision-making power, while 5 represents the ability to make most major life decisions. In all communities, women and men report relatively low historical and current decision-making power. There are notable gender differences. In Mwaghavul (NN) and Sabon Birni (NN) communities experiencing low economic dynamism, women perceived that the agency of women has fallen slightly over the past decade. However, men from these communities consider that men's agency has increased by over one step. Men in Gbodomu (SWN) and Ilu Titun (SWN), the high economic dynamism communities, report very similar levels of increase. Women in Ilu Titun (SWN) also consider that women's agency has improved by one step, and in Gbodomu (SWN) women consider it has doubled. In Mwaghavul (NN) and Gbodumu (SWN) women and men report very similar levels of current agency whereas in the other two locations women's reported agency is at least a step lower than men's.Low-income respondents participated in a different trend analysis. This is called the Ladder of Life (Petesch, 2018). They are asked to develop a poverty line for their community, during the course of which they discuss how to define poverty, including material and non-material factors. They then distribute households in the community above or below the poverty line (using 20 seeds) and explain the rationale for their distribution. Following this, they are asked to repeat the exercise focusing on the situation ten years ago. The ensuing discussion focuses on the reasons for any changes in the percentages of households placed below and above the poverty line.Figure 5 collates findings from all four communities. In the narrative discussion, low-income women in Mwaghavul (NN) and Sabon Birni (NN) considered that improved maize alongside improvements to other crops are the primary reason for households being able to improve their economic status over the past decade. They reported that better access to improved maize varieties and high market demand have improved morale, with both women and men investing more in maize and working harder on their farms. In the other two sites, low-income women do not discuss maize specifically, but they associate the ability of households to move out of poverty with better agricultural markets. Women in Gbodomu (SWN) provided an iterative cause-effect rationale, arguing that markets are improving due to more people becoming involved in agri-business. Overall, however, low-income women perceive a considerably more limited movement out of poverty for their households (17%) than do low-income men (33%). This could be due to differences in benefit sharing within the household. It could also reflect differences in how women and men experience and perceive poverty, and potentially differences in their aspirations.The next set of fieldwork activities focused on the ways in which power is enacted to facilitate, or hinder, women's and men's access to the benefits of IMVs. We report on this, and more broadly on how power relations constrain or liberate agency in other fields of life important to the respondents.Women respondents everywhere experienced strengthened power to act benefits. They remarked that IMVs are easy to adopt, mature quickly, and have higher yields. Women prioritized the contribution of improved maize to securing household food security. This helps them meet their ascribed gender roles as food providers. They pointed out that early ripening means that income flows start earlier, helping women to meet household expenditures on time. Women process maize into snack food products which are sold in local markets. 'Different products can be got from maize like ogi, tuwo, and eko' (Gbodomu, SWN), and 'We make pap, tuwo, fufo, elubo, and a host of other things from maize. This increases our income' (Ilu Titun, SWN). A low-income woman was typical of all women in that she viewed the contribution of improved maize synergistically: 'Improved maize is our top innovation because now farmers will not get hungry. It is an early source of income for households, and it matures within three months.' At the same time, though, women felt they could not maximize their benefits from IMVs due to men's dominance of decision-making. This was particularly the case for married women. In low-income respondent cohorts, married women explained that their ability to take advantage of IMVs is restricted primarily by the nature of their relationship to their husbands. 'Women have to ask their husbands to take decisions, because men believe that they are the boss. Women are subject to them and need to be submissive. Women are expected to consult their husbands in everything they do' (Sabon Birni, NN). Married women frequently expressed a fear that openly expressing self-confidence was perilous because it could endanger their relationship to their husband, upon whom they depend for access to productive resources, including land. Women recognized that they were prone to internalizing their lack of self-confidence when they described a mindset of dependence on husbands as a major obstacle to moving forward in life. They acknowledged that such dependence could contribute directly to women's impoverishment: 'If a woman believes that it is her husband's responsibility to supply all the needs in the home and her main assignment is to breed and raise children, then she will never come out of poverty' (Sabon Birni, NN). Women in Gbodomu (SWN) and Ilu Titun (SWN) agreed and they highlighted additional factors, including lack of money, lack of support, and laziness. These in themselves are symptomatic of women's low self-esteem and weak agency.Turning now to middle-income married women, a woman in Ilu Titun (SWN) remarked 'tough men like my husband don't give women freedom to make decisions.' When married middle-income women report agency, this is typically in relation to tasks already perceived as within women's domain. In Mwaghavul (NN), for instance, women reported 'I can carry out and implement a few decisions in my home because my husband wants me to show initiative', and 'our husbands leave some responsibility to their wives.' Gbodomu (SWN) is the only location where some middle-income married women articulate a significant degree of power within and power to act. They argued that whilst men were traditionally responsible for meeting their wife's needs, today women with their own resourcesmoney and landare independent. One said, 'I work and cater for my family and I make decisions about the clothing I want to buy for myself, food to prepare and eat for all members of my family. I have farm land and I control it.' Another woman reported, 'We women have made enough money to allow us enjoy the freedom to make major decisions. I believe money determines our level of power and freedom.'The majority of men respondents in low-and middle-income cohorts supported their wives' engagement in local market interactionsincluding the sale of maize and maize products, or in off-farm occupations, provided their wife's income is primarily allocated to household needsan example of men expressing power over women. Women's freedom to work was contingent upon all observers agreeing that such work was secondary and complementary to men's contributions. 'We see working mothers as hardworking and responsible. They have to struggle so they can complement the efforts of their husbands. That is the way we see it here' (low-income man, Sabon Birni, NN). Whilst some men in low-and middle-income cohorts in Ilu Titun (SWN) and Sabon Birni (NN) were ambivalent about the necessity of women securing money, men in Mwaghavul (NN) and Gbodomu (SWN) supported it. 'It's good because she will help in supplementing her husband's income' (low-income man, Mwaghavul, NN). These remarks are examples of power through: men are happy for women to earn money provided it remains under men's control and is less than men's contribution. Were women to earn more, then men would fear being disempowered in the eyes of the community.The ability of women to make money from maize is not only governed directly by their husbands. Embedded gender norms, particularly around mobility, infuse the wider environment and mean that women's access to opportunities is considerably more restricted than it is for men. Women respondents, regardless of age and income cohort, repeatedly remarked that it is hard to earn significant money from local sales of processed maize products, yet it is very difficult for women to enter large maize markets selling unprocessed improved maize. All respondents understand that profits from selling improved maize unprocessed and in bulk are high at larger markets. However, men almost exclusively patronize these markets. Only three women, from Ilu Titun (SWN), Gbodomu (SWN), and Mwaghavul (NN), had become unprocessed maize buyers and sellers, and none were particularly successful. The difficulties women face in trying to grow maize businesses may be partly related to a lack of business acumen and experience, but a primary reason is limited personal mobility in all four communities (albeit to a lesser extent in Gbodomu, SWN). In Sabon Birni (NN), for instance, women chafed at how the local market is not large enough to accommodate their maize processing and other agri-business ventures, but they are not permitted travel to more distant markets where 'there are always people ready to buy'. The male village head remarked that access to such markets is 'very easy because the road is good and trucks are available. However, women find it difficult to go there because we prefer that our wives patronize the local market. Men are meant to travel farnot women.'The findings so far suggest that men provide their wives with a limited freedom to act -albeit with a number of provisos attached. This partly trumps women's ability to develop their power to act to realize their agency and select between options.However, widows and separated women reported stronger power within and power to act. 'I now have a little power and freedom because I am no longer with my husband. We are separated and he has moved in with another woman. So I make my own decisions' (divorced woman, Ilu Titun, SWN). 'The affairs of my home are my sole responsibility except in a few cases where I have to ask my son's opinion' (widow, Sabon Birni, NN). Nevertheless, the findings show that overall normative environment has gendered effectsincluding mobility restrictions, which affect all women. These limit the ability of women to maximize their benefits from IMVs, and, more broadly, affect their ability to realize their agency in other domains.We now examine how men respondents consider they benefit from IMVs. The findings suggest that the relationship between the introduction of IMVs, and the ability of men to secure benefits, is substantially stronger than it is for women.Improved maize facilitates clear power to act benefits for men in all income cohorts and locations. Higher market prices combined with higher yield strengthen male incomes (over which they have almost total control in contrast to women) and as a consequence, men experience improved spending power. Men everywhere agreed that the traits expressed in IMVs enable 'a quick source of income.' This is because 'the new maize, with early maturity, high demand, and high prices in the market can help you overcome poverty. Without improved maize, this is difficult.' Echoing other male FGD participants, another man added, 'Most of us make a lot of profit from sales of our produce and this has given us some level of freedom to do what we want. There is no power without money'. As a consequence, argued a third participant, they now have 'the power and freedom to make many major life decisions'. Men in the two South West research sites did not mention the contribution of IMVs to household food security. However, in the North, ensuring the household has sufficient maize is an important element of men's gender identity. Northern men respondents remarked that 'Maize is the most important crop for men because it is our major household food crop'. Although men in all locations partly or largely command women's labor and incomes, no men mentioned women as contributing to their success as maize farmers.It is not clear from the data whether, or how, women benefited from men's income. Often, women are responsible for putting food on the table but may not have sufficient income to do so effectively. In this light, the commitment of men in the two Northern sites to ensuring sufficient maize to cover food security needs may well be very important to ensuring women can meet their gender roles adequately. Women in all sites may experience increased status, and potentially improved living standards, due to an increase in their husband's income. This comes back to the concept of 'power through' whereby a person may benefiteven if they have not exercised agencythrough their significant relationships to the person whose power has increased. And, if income is pooled, women may benefit directly provided they have sufficient say in intra-household decision-making.In the Introduction, we suggested that the ability of women to participate effectively in agricultural innovation processes may necessitate normative change in order to facilitate women's ability to set goals and act upon them. Our data suggest that the respondents recognize that normative changeto a greater or lesser degreeis taking place in their communities, and that such changes have an effect on women's and men's agency. We wanted to know how respondents feel about such changes. Do they support them? In particular, what do they think when women appear to become empowered?In FGDs, young women and men, and low-income women and men, were asked to discuss what gender equality means, and whether they believe it to be a good or bad thing. Middle-income women and men discussed vignettes in which the normative roles of women and men were reversed (Elias et al., 2018).The majority of respondents, regardless of their own gender, did not see gender equality as positive. Indeed, many strongly disagreed. Male respondents were most outspoken with only two young men, from FGDs in Mwaghavul (NN) and Gbodomu (SWN), arguing that men and women are equal. All young women, and all middleincome women, in all study locations disagreed with the concept of gender equality. However, low-income adult women in all locations agreed with gender equality. How did respondents justify their views?First, most young and low-income men provided religious justifications for why women and men cannot be equal. One young man from Sabon Birni (NN) explained that 'God created men to rule over women. Saying they are equal goes against what God has ordained'. A low-income man from Mwaghavul (NN) argued that 'even God himself said that man is the head. The woman is under him.' While religionin these cases Christianityis used to justify cultural norms of gender inequality, men contended that the practice of gender equality leads to women claiming freedoms, which cause them to express behaviors that directly threaten male power over women. 'Gender equality is a very bad thing. The moment you let women hear about women and men being equal, you will see what their reaction will be. They will be so very rude. A woman should not be allowed to have the same opportunities as a man, because they have every tendency to be proud' (young man, Gbodomu, SWN). This view was held by most men.Women broadly agreed that since men are the head of the household, women cannot be equal. However, they did not justify inequality in the same ways as men. The findings show that all young women asserted that gender equality is a bad thing, 'because the man is the head of the family. He must be treated with great respect' (Gbodomu, SWN). Low-income adult women recognized the reality of gender inequality, but critiqued it. 'There is no equality between a man and a woman because society believes men are the head of the family. We, however, feel there should be some form of consideration for women' (Gbodomu, SWN).Second, since men pay lobola (bride price) to their wife's parents upon marriage, some men consider women are the property of men, and so equality is impossible. A low-income man (Ilu Titun, SWN) stated, 'Women are never going to be equal to men, they are like any other property I own. I am responsible for all her needs, she is below me, we can never be equated. Gender equality is bad.' This view was expressed widely by men across the study communities.Third, for some respondents gender norms, and norms associated with ethnic identity, intersect and indeed merge with each other. In Ilu Titun (SWN), for example, a woman explained that Yoruba culture means 'the husband has to provide money for feeding of the family. He can't do the household chores. It is not allowed.' The fusing of ethnic identity with gender identity suggests that unpicking and questioning gender norms could be tantamount to querying ethnic identity as well.Fourth, the key gender norms fac¸ade is that men are the household head and provider, and that women are primarily homemakers and mothers. Vignette exerciseswhereby respondents are asked to discuss the potential benefits of role reversals, for example that women earn money and men stay at home caring for childrenelicited horrified responses from middle-income respondent groups in three of the four study communities. Women and men alike argued that the man who stays at home would be considered a victim of witchcraft, and be called a 'boy-boy', 'house boy', a 'fool', and a 'woman wrapper'. The concept of power through helps us understand that negative community judgments of gendered role performance can rapidly lead to significant questioning of a man's masculinity. Only in Gbodomu, close to a major town, did some middle-income respondents find some benefit in role reversals. A woman said that the rigidity of gender norms meant that urban couples want to live away from their broader family in flats, 'so that they can do whatever they want without any external influence that will meddle with how they run their family.' Another woman commented, 'Some people might say the husband has been charmed [bewitched] by the wife, while other people would say that's the way of the learned.' Men in Gbodomu accepted working at home provided they can control the income of their working wife. 'If she will faithfully hand over the proceeds to the husband, it is not a bad idea for the husband to contribute to the housework and care for children.' said one man.Women had mixed feelings about becoming breadwinners alongside their husbands. Approximately half of all women respondents, regardless of age or income cohort, said they admired women who work outside the home: 'The woman who goes out to make money to meet her responsibilities in the home is a virtuous woman' (Mwaghavul, NN). The other half criticized such women, seeing them as irresponsible mothers and potentially unfaithful. 'This category of women does not have much time to take proper care of their children' (Sabon Birni, NN).Walter Benjamin (discussed in Richter, 2016) argued that the thing to be scrutinized [in our case, how gender norms affect women's ability to secure benefits from IMVs] needs to be torn out of its context in order to become thinkable in a new way. 'It has to step into our vision and consciousness as an unanchored object … that asks to be reinterpreted along with the cultural framework from which it emerged ' (ibid., p. 96). The introduction of IMVs, and our fieldwork discussions with respondents about IMVs, in the four study communities, would certainly appear to have allowed the respondents to think about 'the thing'in our case women's empowerment and their agency in a new way.The literature review established that rural Nigerian communities tend to be strongly asymmetric and patriarchal. Benefits flow much more strongly to men than to women through patrilineal kinship systems and patriarchal norms which tilt the playing field against women (van Staveren & Ode Bode, 2007). Our findings demonstrate that women and men farmers secure benefits from IMVs. However, men accrue more benefits and benefit directly. Men have unfettered mobility and opportunity. They can access markets near and far. The maize they sell is unprocessed and requires no transformation. Men do not question their right to devote profits from maize primarily to their own concerns, nor their right to secure a high level of control over the monies women make. Undoubtedly, some men are constrained in maximizing their benefits from IMVs, for example low-income men are likely to find it harder than higherincome men to exponentially expand the productivity and volume of IMVs due to lower investment capacity. However, the findings show that being a man trumps other forms of intersectionality when it comes to benefiting from IMVs.Conversely, women find it considerably more difficult to benefit. They are restricted to local markets. They have to expend considerable time on transforming maize into salable products with low profit margins. Women are expected to devote the monies they make to household concerns and to provide monies to their husband. Women's benefits relate to the fact that IMVs increase the absolute size of the 'maize cake'. They expect to get a larger slice as a consequence. However, the absolute potential of IMVs for boosting women's incomes and other options of importance to women is hampered by gender norms that significantly restrict the agency of most women.There is no evidence that respondents are under any illusions that women and men are equal. In fact, they demonstrate high levels of consciousness that this is most certainly not the case. The ways they legitimize gender inequalities are importantly different, however. Some men retreat to a mythical space to claim that gender inequalities are ordained by God himself. As such, gender inequalities are beyond the reach of any form of rational questioning by human beings. At the same time, the very process of constantly attempting to re-naturalize gender norms that privilege men has the effect of denaturalizing that norm and thus opening it to question. A second line is therefore to suggest that women are property. Through the payment of bride price, men are entitled to take most decisions. At this juncture we acknowledge that a few men respondents openly supported gender equality. We postulate that other men supportive of gender equality may have felt muted by others. The findings show that men who try to renegotiate their masculinity and to take on roles normatively ascribed to women are harshly condemned. It is only in one community that some men, and some women, are open to contemplating role reversals.Nearly all women asserted that men are the head of the household. However, their views were nuanced. Young women expressed fear of challenging male household heads. By way of contrast, low-income adult women implied that this norm was not fit for purpose. The reality gap between the norm, and the opportunity costs of maintaining this norm, seem too large for women with very low-economic margins. Most married middle-income women publicly fell in with the norm. Only middle-income married women with considerable money had sufficient 'power and freedom' to disassociate themselves from this norm, as did single women.How are we to interpret resistance to gender equality? There is no reason to believe that our respondents are unaware of the economic costs of restricting women's income generation capacity to a level lower than that of men, yet the culturally determined 'price' (women's empowerment) for leveling up seems to be too high for many men to contemplate. Kandiyoti (1988) argues that women strategize carefully to promote their gender interests within the set of specific constraints and opportunities presented by the social institutions which characterize their community. She terms this the 'patriarchal bargain' because men reciprocate by providing women with certain privileges (ibid.). The very public 'rejection' by most women in this study of gender equality could be interpreted as them upholding their part of the patriarchal bargain. A failure to openly challenge men does not necessarily mean, however, that challenge does not occur. We postulateand here more research is neededthat actively maintaining a separation between women's and men's worlds may be a deliberate strategy by women to protect their ability to express their agency. We return here to the concept put forward by Cornwall (2016) that women negotiate their journeys toward empowerment on hidden pathways. Furthermore, supporting gender norms that privilege men as heads of household can be considered a strategy for ensuring that men uphold their part of the patriarchal bargain. When men withdraw from the bargain, this can present women with unbearable costs, including losing access to land, their homes, their status, and, in many parts of Nigeria under customary law, custody of their children (Iruonagbe, 2009;van Staveren & Ode Bode, 2007).The concept of power through provides further insights into the reluctance of many men to facilitate women's agency. As a reminder, this concept suggests that a person can be empowered, or disempowered, without them having acted. The concept of power through captures an involuntary aspect of empowerment and disempowerment. This allows a reading that men can feel actively disempowered through a positive change in women's empowerment. This can occur when gender norms -expressed by community memberswhich privilege men as decision-makers and breadwinners condemn and even ostracize men who appear to fall short, or who wish to expand the definition of what 'being a man' can mean. As a consequence, women's empowerment can seem like a zero-sum game to men: the more power women have, the less power men have (and in particular, the less masculine they are). The critical issue here is how power is perceived, by men themselves and by women and men in the broader community. Since gender relationships in the communities we discuss are configured primarily by power over dynamics, it is not surprising that men may fear demotion.In 1899, Veblen (cited in van Staveren & Ode Bode, 2007: 903) writing of America, said, 'For the modern man the patriarchal relation of status is by no means the dominant feature of life, but for women … this relation is the most real and the most formative factor of life.' Though more than a century has passed, and the country is different, this observation seems very pertinent to our findings in Nigeria. Our fieldwork findings are not particularly novel: they are largely borne out by the Literature Review. We hope, though, that our conceptual framework helps us think about such findings in a new way. In so doing, we further hope that we have engineered a return to some of the more radical, less instrumental thinking that typified work on gender in the 1980s and 1990s. We recognize that our focus is unapologetically supportive of maximizing women's agency. In so doing, we acknowledge that considerably more work needs to be done to understand and support men and boys in ways which focus on their own needs. In particular, it is important to engage men in ways which promote gender equality as a 'win-win' rather than a 'negative-sum game', which promote acceptance of shared responsibilities (e.g., performing unpaid tasks together), which encourage positive thinking about decision-making processes, and which motivate men to promote gender equality in and outside their homes (Farnworth et al., 2020).Even so, we contend that gender inequalities, which disadvantage women remain in serious danger of being 'naturalized' in the development discourse. Anderson and Sriram (2019) liken the struggle to get the AR4D system to recognize gender equality as a global good with global benefits as akin to the task of Sisyphus. Sisyphus, in Greek mythology, was the king of Corinth who was punished in Hades by having repeatedly to roll a huge stone up a hill only to have it roll down again as soon as he had brought it to the summit. Shaw (2008Shaw ( originally 1903, p. 343) , p. 343) wrote, 'the reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.' Working on gender equality still demands a commitment to being unreasonable. It is in this light that we suggest merely introducing improved technologies into deeply gendered environments does not mean that women and men will benefit equally. Indeedthough this hypothesis needs more researchit is possible that such technologies may deepen gender gaps in the normative settings described. The findings suggest that men, on the basis of their privileged agency, freedom of movement, and better access to productive assets, may pull away from womenin same householdsin terms of the incomes they receive, and with respect to the formation of different kinds of capital. This in turn may mean that womenover timeare less able to adopt new technologies such as IMVs, and that they may find it ever harder to capture benefits. Rather than enhancing women's agency, innovations may actually entrench and deepen gender inequalities. As a reminder, Dillon and Quinones (2009) provided evidence, cited in the Literature Review, that this process is already happening. They assessed the value and number of women's and men's assets over a 20-year time period (1988 to 2008), noting that women's assets increased more slowly than men's assets, leaving women relatively worse off. This in turn leads us to question the framing of gender norms by respondents in the communities discussed in this article as 'natural' and God-given. Risseeuw (2005), in a study of gender relations in Sri Lanka under colonial rule, shows that although descriptive and injunctive norms and sanctions appear designed to maintain gender relations in a steady state, they are in fact undergoing constant change. She demonstrates how gender relations with regard to property were imperceptibly transformed over time such that concepts of access, control and ownership which would have appeared to one generation as unthinkable came to seem normal or obvious to later generations.Further maize-based systems research into community and intra-household decisionmaking processes in relation to adoption processes, and how women and men expect to benefit from adopting improved varieties of maize, is important. As part of this, it would be valuable to examine in more detail the associations people make with the concept of 'gender equality', and to widen understandings of the different ways powerin the various formulations outlined in this paperis enacted in specific contexts. An improved, research-based understanding of the complex relational nature of empowerment could facilitate the ability of Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) to develop more effective strategies to enhance women's empowerment whilst supporting men. As part of this, feminist action research methodologies which allow women and men respondents to co-produce research with formally-trained scientists (Feldman, 2018;Farnworth et al., 2016;Farnworth, 2007) should be considered. Gender transformative approaches (GTA) are also important because they engage with the complexity of gender to support women and men to act on the norms, attitudes and wider structural constraints that limit their opportunities and outcomes (Cole et al., 2014, p. 7). GTAs can be enormously effective in fostering normative change in a very short time (Farnworth et al., 2018).No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Dr. Cathy Farnworth is a gender specialist with over 20 years' experience in pro-poor and gender-responsive value chain development, mainstreaming gender in projects and research, and gender-transformative methodologies. Cathy has a particular interest in change processes and how they affect smallholder agriculture systems. She has obtained significant experience in many countries in Sub Saharan Africa and South and South East Asia. Dr. Hyeladi Ibrahim Musa Gaya holds a Ph.D in Agricultural Economics from University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, where he is currently a lecturer. At the time of this study Gaya was working with IITA as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and on the PROSAB project. Gaya is experienced in qualitative and quantitative research methods, in gender analysis and gender mainstreaming.","tokenCount":"9911"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"314c44823aeba15be6477013ee799428","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/edf6cce0-a279-4357-8af7-24a78e1c0b9d/retrieve","id":"-1311853251"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"72f2acee-ef08-4d84-ad06-13111165ab7a","pagecount":"34","content":"Catholic Relief Services (CRS) está liderando la iniciativa \"Raíces-Ahuachapán\" (referida como Agricultural Landscape Restoration Initiative -ALRI en inglés), una iniciativa para promover agricultura restaurativa en paisajes críticos del departamento de Ahuachapán. Esta iniciativa está siendo financiada por la Fundación Howard G. Buffet y en estos momentos se encuentra en la fase 1/4 del plan estratégico propuesto hasta el 2030. CRS está implementando esta iniciativa en conjunto con tres instituciones del ámbito nacional (PRISMA, AZURE y CARITAS) y con el apoyo del Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical -CIAT, además de contar con el soporte de diferentes socios locales.La restauración de paisaje que se piensa realizar a través de esta iniciativa tiene como objetivo asistir a la recuperación de ecosistemas degradados, dañados o destruidos. Además, de implementar mejoras en tierras que han sido degradadas a una escala que permita la reconstrucción de la integridad ecológica y el mejoramiento de la vida de las personas. Dentro de los componentes de la iniciativa se quiere llevar a cabo la restauración de los servicios agroecosistémicos con un enfoque en la protección de los recursos hídricos en importantes áreas agrícolas.Basado en lo anterior, CIAT ha sido encargado de realizar una evaluación hidrológica del departamento de Ahuachapán que permita la identificación de áreas claves en la contribución de agua superficial tanto en época seca como de lluvia, a través de la combinación de herramientas de modelación hidrológica y sistemas de información geográfica (SIG). Desarrollar un enfoque metodológico para la evaluación hidrológica superficial del departamento de Ahuachapán, El Salvador. Definir las implicaciones de los análisis hidrológicos para la estrategia de la iniciativa Raíces-Ahuachapán.A partir de la información que fue suministrada por múltiples fuentes, incluyendo al equipo del Ing. Duarte, y teniendo en cuenta los requerimientos de la modelación llevada a cabo en este estudio, inicialmente se hizo una detallada y minuciosa búsqueda con el fin de extraer y encontrar información valiosa para las entradas de los modelos y establecer un primer panorama de las zonas de interés. En la siguiente tabla se presentan las fuentes de la información cartográfica seleccionada:Tabla 1. Fuentes de información seleccionadaDescripción/Comentario MDE Modelo Digital de Elevación con resolución espacial de 10 m generado a partir de curvas de nivel con equidistancia de 10 m, red hidrográfica y cuerpos de agua del departamento de Ahuachapán. Fuente: Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (MARN).Cobertura/Uso del Suelo Mapa de cobertura/uso de la tierra con clasificación CORINE Land Cover a escala 1:50,000 generado con imágenes RapidEye. Fuente: MARN (2012).Publicada por el MARN, la cual fue generada a partir de los cuadrantes topográficos a escala 1:25,000 para el país. Fuente: Instituto Geográfico Nacional (1983).Tomados de la capa de cobertura/uso del suelo del MARN.Se obtuvieron datos de estaciones del MARN y del Plan Nacional de Gestión Integrada del Recurso Hídrico (PNGIRH).MARN: 25 estaciones con series mensuales de precipitación para el país. Huecos presentes en varios años .PNGIRH-MARN: 10 estaciones con series mensuales de precipitación completadas mediante valores interpolados para el departamento de Ahuachapán (1965Ahuachapán ( -2012)).Información de suelos proveídos para el proyecto. Para mayor información, refiérase al estudio de Mapeo Digital de Suelos (MDS).Precipitación mensual y de los últimos 5 días de cada mes (pentadiaria) (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012). Fuente: http://chg.geog.ucsb.edu/data/chirps/.Evapotranspiración potencial de MODIS a nivel mensual (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012). http://www.ntsg.umt.edu/project/modis/mod16.php.Unidades hidrogeológicas caracterizadas por su nivel de infiltración y fallas geológicas del departamento de Ahuachapán. Fuente: Grupo del Ing. Duarte.El área de estudio para la evaluación hidrológica superficial de la iniciativa Raíces-Ahuachapán, como su nombre lo dice, es el departamento de Ahuachapán, en El Salvador (Figura 1). Éste es uno de los 14 departamentos que conforman a El Salvador y se encuentra ubicado al oeste del país, colindando al norte con el departamento de Santa Ana, al noreste y al este con el departamento de Jutiapa de Guatemala (siendo el río Paz el límite entre ellos), al sur con el Océano Pacífico y al oeste con el departamento de Sonsonate. Su área es aproximadamente 1,180 km 2 y su capital es la ciudad de Ahuachapán. Entre las coberturas/usos del suelo predominantes en el departamento al 2012 están los Granos Básicos (24.14%), Café (24.11%), Cultivos Anuales Asociados con Cultivos Permanentes (9.06%) y Mosaico de Cultivos y Pastos (6.58%) (Figura 10). La superficie continental de este departamento se despliega desde el nivel del mar hasta los 1,918 msnm (Figura 2). Las lluvias más intensas se presentan en el mes de Septiembre con valores que pueden estar alrededor de 380 mm/mes, mientras que los meses Diciembre-Marzo representan la temporada seca (ver Figura 4).Figura 1. Localización general del área de estudioEn este capítulo se explican los procesos realizados para la estructuración de información de entrada para el balance hídrico superficial del departamento de Ahuachapán.Para la generación de esta superficie se utilizaron la red hidrográfica, cuerpos de agua y curvas de nivel con equidistancia de 10 m del departamento. Mediante el uso de estas capas se ejecutó el método de interpolación ANUDEM 1 versión 5.3, el cual genera un MDE hidrológicamente corregido, es decir, que incorpora los patrones reales de drenaje del territorio. Esto se hizo mediante ArcGIS a través del uso de la herramienta Topo to Raster 2 . Todo este proceso fue llevado a cabo por el grupo encargado de realizar el Mapeo Digital de Suelos (MDS). El MDE resultante tiene resolución espacial de 10 m y se puede observar en la Figura 2. Se obtuvieron datos de estaciones del Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (MARN) y del Plan Nacional de Gestión Integrada del Recurso Hídrico (PNGIRH): MARN: 25 estaciones con series mensuales de precipitación para el país. Huecos presentes en varios años .  PNGIRH-MARN: 10 estaciones con series mensuales de precipitación completadas con valores interpolados para el departamento de Ahuachapán (1965Ahuachapán ( -2012)).La distribución espacial de todas las estaciones de precipitación y la información detallada de éstas se presentan en la Figura 3 y Tabla 2, respectivamente.  Dado que las series de datos de las estaciones del MARN presentaban huecos (ver Tabla 3), se procedió al llenado de los datos faltantes mediante la utilización de las superficies mensuales de CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data). Para esto, se extrajeron los datos mensuales de dichas superficies utilizando las coordenadas de las estaciones y se generó un modelo de regresión lineal para cada estación. Esto permitió predecir los datos faltantes mediante la utilización de ambas series de datos, lo cual reduce las diferencias que se pueden presentar entre ellas. En la Figura 5 se presenta un ejemplo de este proceso. Dado que el balance hídrico implementado en esta evaluación hidrológica es espacial, es decir, distribuido sobre el territorio, se necesitan tener superficies continuas de las variables de entrada. Por esta razón, se tuvieron que generar superficies mensuales de precipitación para el período de modelación. Este proceso se llevó a cabo utilizando el método ANUSPLIN 3 versión 4.4, el cual utiliza \"thin-plate smoothing splines\" para la interpolación de datos multivariados ruidosos. Este método ha sido utilizado ampliamente a nivel mundial, por ejemplo, este fue el método utilizado para generar las superficies climáticas globales de WorldClim (http://www.worldclim.org/methods1).Debido a que la distribución de las estaciones de precipitación dentro y alrededor del departamento no es muy densa, se crearon pseudo-estaciones las cuales contienen series completas de datos de precipitación de CHIRPS para localizaciones específicas en una región de interpolación (puntos negros en Figura 6). En la siguiente imagen se pueden apreciar la región de interpolación y las estaciones finales a ser utilizadas para este proceso: Es importante notar que el comportamiento climatológico del departamento así como la distribución espacial de la lluvia, ambos representados en la figura anterior, son coherentes y están correlacionados con el comportamiento que se aprecia en la Figura 4.Sólo dos estaciones presentaban datos de evapotranspiración potencial (H-08 y H-14, ver Tabla 2), lo que imposibilitaba llevar a cabo alguna interpolación para todo el departamento, pues las superficies resultantes no representarían adecuadamente el comportamiento de esta variable. Dado lo anterior, se procedió a utilizar las superficies globales de MODIS (MOD16) las cuales tienen resolución espacial de 1 km (Mu et al., 2013;Willem Vervoort et al., 2014). El período disponible de este conjunto de datos es desde el año 2000 hasta el 2014 y el método para la generación de las superficies es el de Penman-Monteith, uno de los métodos más ampliamente utilizado en el mundo (Allen et al., 1998;Neitsch et al., 2011;Ulmen, 2000a). Estas superficies fueron descargadas en formato HDF, convertidas a formato GeoTIFF y cortadas con el límite del departamento. A continuación se presenta la evapotranspiración potencial para el departamento de Ahuachapán para los 12 meses del año: También fueron suministrados datos de caudal de dos estaciones hidrométricas y algunos aforos puntuales en diferentes sitios del río Cara Sucia. Dado esto, sólo se utilizaron los datos de las estaciones hidrométricas, las cuales son detalladas a continuación: Ambas estaciones contaban con registros mensuales de caudales. La estación HC-00 contaba con datos para el período 1962-2010, mientras que la estación HC-01 con datos para los años 2002-2010, 2012. Estas dos estaciones se encuentran sobre el río Paz (estando la estación HC-01 ubicada aguas arriba de HC-00), el cual sirve como límite internacional entre El Salvador y Guatemala. Es importante mencionar que dado las localizaciones de las dos estaciones, los caudales reportados reflejan flujos acumulados de áreas de drenaje que involucran territorios de ambos países colindantes, limitando de esta manera cualquier tipo de calibración del balance hídrico. En la siguiente figura se pueden apreciar las series de caudal de ambas estaciones para el período 2000-2012:Figura 9. Series de caudal de las estaciones hidrométricasComo se puede apreciar en la anterior figura, la serie de la estación HC-00 es la más completa presentando, al igual que HC-01, huecos principalmente en los últimos años.El departamento de Ahuachapán presenta 32 clases de coberturas/usos del suelo al 2012 de acuerdo a la clasificación Corine Land Cover. A estas clases se les asoció información relevante para el balance hídrico (ver Tabla 5), lo cual será explicado en detalle en el capítulo 6. La distribución espacial de estas coberturas puede apreciarse en la Figura 10. Como se dijo anteriormente, en el departamento predominan los Granos Básicos, Café, Cultivos Anuales Asociados con Cultivos Permanentes y Mosaico de Cultivos y Pastos.  A partir del Mapeo Digital de Suelos se obtuvieron múltiples variables las cuales fueron utilizadas para la modelación del balance hídrico. Entre estas variables está la textura del suelo (arena, limos y arcilla) -de la cual a su vez se puede derivar el grupo hidrológico (A, B, C o D)-, la capacidad de campo (CC) y el punto marchitez permanente (PMP). A partir de estas dos últimas variables y utilizando la profundidad efectiva del suelo, se puede generar la capacidad de almacenamiento de agua del suelo. En la siguiente figura se presentan las seis variables más importantes o que fueron utilizadas directamente en la modelación del balance hídrico:El conocimiento del balance hídrico en una zona geográfica es de vital importancia para entender y anticipar las acciones necesarias que aseguren la sostenibilidad de cualquier sistema agropecuario, y a su vez que permitan la conservación y restauración de los ecosistemas presentes, especialmente aquellos relacionados con los recursos hídricos. En este estudio, se utilizó uno de los esquemas de balance hídrico más ampliamente usado a nivel mundial, como es el de Thornthwaite and Mather (1955), en el cual de una forma simple es posible definir los componentes del balance hídrico a nivel mensual.Este esquema de balance ha sido utilizado tanto a nivel local como global, debido a que involucra de forma explícita la mayor parte de los componentes del ciclo hidrológico, siendo fácilmente trabajado a nivel espacial o puntual (escorrentía, precipitación efectiva, humedad del suelo, percolación, evapotranspiración potencial y real). Por estas razones, ha sido usado como base para la estimación de los requerimientos hídricos de diversos sectores como el agrícola (Ferguson, 2009;Hoogeveen et al., 2015;Ulmen, 2000b;Westenbroek et al., 2010).En la Figura 12 se puede observar el esquema seguido en este estudio, el cual es una adaptación del usado por Ulmen (2000) cuando realizó una estimación del balance hídrico a nivel mensual para todo Europa. En este esquema, la precipitación efectiva es la diferencia entre la precipitación mensual y la escorrentía superficial. Así, mediante la comparación con la evapotranspiración potencial se definen los meses secos o húmedos, siendo los primeros en los que la evapotranspiración superó la precipitación efectiva.Para los meses secos, la percolación es igual a cero y el estado de humedad es definido por la ecuación mostrada en la Figura 12, donde la disminución de la humedad del suelo y la evapotranspiración real son definidas con relación a la humedad del mes anterior, la precipitación efectiva del mes actual y la capacidad de almacenamiento de agua en el perfil del suelo, para este cálculo fue usada la ecuación empírica de Thornthwaite.Para los meses más húmedos, o con precipitación efectiva mayor a la evapotranspiración potencial, y con el fin de evitar sub-estimar el consumo de agua, se asumió el valor de la evapotranspiración potencial como el valor real. En estos meses, es posible encontrar algunos en los cuales el aumento en la humedad del suelo es menor a la capacidad de almacenamiento de agua, caso en el que no hay percolación, pero la humedad del suelo incrementa. Mientras en el caso de los meses más húmedos, el estado de humedad se asume como igual a la capacidad de almacenamiento de agua, y el exceso de humedad se asume como el valor de la percolación.Meses secos :Meses húmedos :Meses muy húmedos :Donde: P y P eff son la p recipitación y precipitación efectiva del mes i, ETa y ETp son la evapotranspiración actual y potencial del mes i, WHC es la capacidad de almacenamiento de agua del suelo, S i y S i -1 son la humedad del suelo del mes i y del mes i -1, a Thorn es la con stante empírica de Thornthwaite y PERC i es la percolación del mes i.Este balance fue calculado pixel a pixel a nivel mensual desde el 2000 hasta el 2012 para todo el departamento de Ahuachapán. Este período fue escogido teniendo en cuenta la disponibilidad de datos de evapotranspiración potencial de MODIS (2000-2014) y de precipitación de las estaciones climatológicas . Por su parte, el mes de inicio (octubre) fue estimado como el mes posterior al de mayor humedad del suelo (septiembre, ver Figura 7), es decir, el mes posterior al que para la mayoría de pixeles o mayor parte del área, la humedad del suelo estuvo por encima de la máxima capacidad de retención de agua del suelo. En este mes se asumió que la humedad de la zona de estudio fue igual a la capacidad de almacenamiento de agua del suelo.Una parte esencial del modelamiento del balance hídrico es el cálculo de la constante de recesión (k), la cual se define como el exponencial (e x ) de la constante de deflexión () y es la que representa en el modelo el comportamiento del flujo base (Krahe et al., 1997;Neitsch et al., 2011;Thomas et al., 2013). Dicha constante está implícitamente relacionada con los flujos de los drenajes en la época seca, la cual para la zona de estudio va desde Diciembre hasta Marzo (Figura 4). Sin embargo, para la determinación de esta constante se utilizaron los datos de caudal desde Noviembre; dado que es a partir de este mes que los flujos en los canales de la red hídrica empiezan a reducirse de manera exponencial. Siguiendo los enfoques de Fish (2011) y Ulmen (2000a) y a partir de las siguientes dos gráficas, se pudieron encontrar las dos curvas exponenciales que mejor se ajustaban a las series de datos de caudal de ambas estaciones, permitiendo de esta manera primero determinar las constantes de deflexión y posteriormente las constantes de recesión.Figura 13. Determinación de la constante de deflexión () con datos de la estación HC-00 (izquierda) y HC-01 (derecha)A partir de los valores resaltados en color rojo en la figura anterior, se procedió a realizar los correspondientes cálculos de la constante de recesión y se determinó para el balance hídrico el valor 0.87. Los cálculos se pueden apreciar en la siguiente tabla: Posteriormente, siguiendo el enfoque de Thornthwaite et al. (1957), citado en Ulmen (2000a), se puede determinar el flujo base para un mes determinado en dependencia del flujo base del mes anterior y la percolación del mes actual, de la siguiente manera:\uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC35 \uD835\uDC56 : Flujo base en el mes i (mm/mes) \uD835\uDC58: Constante de recesión (adimensional)\uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC35 \uD835\uDC56−1 : Flujo base en el mes i-1 (mm/mes) \uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC38\uD835\uDC45\uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 : Percolación en el mes i (mm/mes) Finalmente es posible determinar el aporte de agua al caudal como la sumatoria de la escorrentía y el flujo base. Esta variable es la que finalmente puede ser convertida en flujo mediante el uso de la correspondiente área de drenaje y teniendo en cuenta la temporalidad de la modelación, la cual para este caso de estudio es mensual. Por lo tanto, este flujo podría ser comparado con datos de estaciones hidrométricas pero desafortunadamente y como ya fue mencionado (ver sección 5.2.2), para este caso de estudio no se pudo llevar a cabo un proceso de calibración debido a las ubicaciones de las estaciones y sus correspondientes áreas de drenaje.Uno de los componentes de mayor importancia en el balance hídrico realizado y que resume muchos de los aspectos de importancia hidrológica, es la determinación de la escorrentía superficial. En este caso fue estimada haciendo uso del enfoque del número de curva (CN, por sus siglas en Inglés), la cual relaciona la cantidad de precipitación generada en una tormenta con la escorrentía generada de acuerdo al tipo de suelo, cobertura vegetal y condición de humedad del suelo (Ponce & Hawkins, 1996;Williams et al., 2012).La metodología es usada mundialmente y varios de los modelos más comunes de balance hídrico como SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) utilizan este enfoque (Volk et al., 2007;Williams et al., 2012). Esta metodología define una curva que relaciona la cantidad de precipitación a nivel diario con la escorrentía generada cada día. Así, el procedimiento para definir el mapa de números de curva en la zona de estudio siguió tres pasos. El primero fue relacionar los números de curva a cada clase de cobertura vegetal basándose en múltiples estudios (Arnold et al., 1993;Arnold & Fohrer, 2005;Cronshey, 1986;Gassman et al., 2007;Neitsch et al., 2011). El segundo fue definir el grupo hidrológico del suelo por pixel de acuerdo a la textura y demás variables de suelos descritas en el estudio de MDS. El tercero fue generar una superficie de números de curva para la zona de estudio seleccionando pixel por pixel el número de curva correspondiente a la cobertura y el tipo de suelo.Luego de obtener los números de curva para la condición de humedad promedio (CN2) (ver Tabla 5), es decir, para la condición en que la lluvia antecedente total de cinco días 4 está entre 5 a 55 mm (Srinivasan & McDowell, 2007), es posible determinar los números de curva para la condición seca (<5 mm de lluvia) (CN1) y para una condición húmeda (> 55 mm) (CN3). De esta forma se obtuvieron tres superficies de números de curva (CN1, CN2 y CN3) para la zona de estudio de acuerdo a las fórmulas de Williams et al (2012). Sin embargo, estos números de curva son estimados para condiciones planas (pendientes < 5%), por lo que cada una de estas superficies fueron ajustadas utilizando la pendiente generada a partir del MDE (Figura 2) y siguiendo los procedimientos planteados en la fuente citada anteriormente.Debido a que en esta evaluación hidrológica sólo se contó con información a nivel mensual, fue necesario usar la adaptación realizada por Ferguson (1996) en la que se relaciona la escorrentía modelada a nivel mensual y diaria con la precipitación diaria y mensual de diferentes estaciones climáticas en los Estados Unidos; haciendo uso de los números de curva. En este caso Ferguson (1996) estableció que con ecuaciones muy sencillas que contenían números de curva, el máximo potencial de retención (S) y precipitaciones (P) en el mismo período de tiempo, se podía calibrar la estimación de escorrentía (Q) a nivel mensual.La siguiente ecuación es la definida por Ferguson (1996) utilizando los datos de todas las estaciones en su caso de estudio y que fue implementada en la presente evaluación hidrológica: \uD835\uDC44 = −0.095 + 0.208 • \uD835\uDC43 \uD835\uDC46 0.66 ⁄ Donde:\uD835\uDC44: Escorrentía (pulgadas/mes) \uD835\uDC43: Precipitación (pulgadas/mes) \uD835\uDC46: Máximo potencial de retención (pulgadas/mes) 4 Para esto se utilizaron las capas de precipitación de CHIRPS de los últimos cinco días de cada mes (pentadiarias).Dado las unidades de salida de la variable Q, es necesario convertirla posteriormente a milímetros para los cálculos correspondientes en el balance. Esta ecuación fue desarrollada para condiciones distintas a las de El Salvador y sería de gran importancia realizar un ajuste de la misma, teniendo acceso a la información adecuada para esta labor. En la Figura 14 se puede observar el mapa de escorrentía superficial a nivel mensual para el departamento de Ahuachapán, siendo ésta más alta especialmente entre los meses de Junio a Octubre teniendo valores que llegan hasta los 300 mm/mes. Este mapa fue usado como insumo para la generación del balance hídrico y será una variable de alta importancia para la identificación de sitios potenciales de cosecha de agua lluvia que se llevará a cabo más adelante durante la iniciativa Raíces-Ahuachapán. 6.2 Estimación de las variables del balance hídrico a nivel mensual para la zona de estudioPara cada mes desde el 2000 hasta el 2012 fue calculado el balance hídrico a nivel mensual y luego se realizó un promedio mensual multianual, el cual será usado para posteriores análisis en la iniciativa. Las dos variables más importantes de entrada del balance mensual fueron las superficies de precipitación de CHIRPS y la evapotranspiración potencial de MODIS para el mismo periodo obtenido. Las anteriores variables junto a los mapas de números de curva descritos anteriormente y de capacidad de almacenamiento de agua en el suelo, fueron las entradas directas para el cálculo del balance hídrico.Siguiendo el esquema de la Figura 12 y con la escorrentía calculada por el enfoque de Ferguson (1996), se estimaron las variables de precipitación efectiva, almacenamiento de agua en el suelo, evapotranspiración real, percolación, flujo base y aporte de agua al caudal. Es importante mencionar que para el cálculo de la evapotranspiración real, se utilizaron las capas de evapotranspiración potencial de MODIS y los valores del coeficiente de cultivo (kc) los cuales fueron asociados a las clases de coberturas/usos del suelo (ver Tabla 5). Los valores utilizados fueron tomados de dos estudios principalmente: Allen et al. (1998) y Sharp et al. (2018). Este coeficiente incorpora características del cultivo, en este caso coberturas vegetales, y efectos promedios de evaporación del suelo.Los mapas resultantes del balance hídrico y que se presentan a continuación, serán los insumos para la identificación de áreas claves en la contribución de agua al caudal en el departamento de Ahuachapán. Los resultados obtenidos a través de la evaluación hidrológica superficial del departamento de Ahuachapán, pueden ser utilizados en conjunto con los resultados de la modelación de agua subterránea.Estas sinergias identificadas permiten potencializar la priorización de áreas para la intervención de la iniciativa. En la siguiente figura se presenta un esquema de las posibles sinergias identificadas entre ambos enfoques:Figura 21. Esquema de sinergias entre los enfoques de evaluación hidrológicaEs importante resaltar que aquellas zonas que son importantes por aporte de agua superficial al caudal (y para cosecha de agua) no necesariamente son las mismas áreas de importancia para recarga de acuíferos, por lo tanto, Raíces-Ahuachapán debe tener una priorización diferenciada, es decir, que atienda una estrategia integral de manejo del recurso hídrico, y de acuerdo a lo que es más relevante en la zona a ser intervenida.Por parte de los resultados obtenidos en la presente evaluación hidrológica y utilizando principalmente los mapas de aporte de agua al caudal (Figura 20), se puede lograr una identificación de áreas claves en la contribución de agua superficial tanto en época seca como de lluvia. Además, el balance hídrico es un insumo de alta relevancia para la identificación de zonas con potencial de cosecha de agua lluvia, es decir, zonas que por sus condiciones naturales permitan captar el agua de escorrentía efectivamente como suministro para sistemas de riego de pequeños agricultores o acueductos locales.","tokenCount":"4047"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9eaabea2b3a6a6b40121eb33f7eea39a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f2699d20-2225-424b-9954-2ae4bcb1d785/retrieve","id":"2113625439"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9c24ba12-c58a-48ed-a2d0-b023edce4d43","pagecount":"22","content":"Improving plant performance in salinity-prone conditions is a significant challenge in breeding programs. Genomic selection is currently integrated into many plant breeding programs as a tool for increasing selection intensity and precision for complex traits and for reducing breeding cycle length. A rice reference panel (RP) of 241 Oryza sativa L. japonica accessions genotyped with 20,255 SNPs grown in control and mild salinity stress conditions was evaluated at the vegetative stage for eight morphological traits and ion mass fractions (Na and K). Weak to strong genotype-by-condition interactions were found for the traits considered. Cross-validation showed that the predictive ability of genomic prediction methods ranged from 0.25 to 0.64 for multi-environment models with morphological traits and from 0.05 to 0.40 for indices of stress response and ion mass fractions. The performances of a breeding population (BP) comprising 393 japonica accessions were predicted with models trained on the RP. For validation of the predictive performances of the models, a subset of 41 accessions was selected from the BP and phenotyped under the same experimental conditions as the RP. The predictive abilities estimated on this subset ranged from 0.00 to 0.66 for the multi-environment models, depending on the traits, and were strongly correlated with the predictive abilities on cross-validation in the RP in salt condition (r = 0.69). We show here that genomic selection is efficient for predicting the salt stress tolerance of breeding lines. Genomic selection could improve the efficiency of rice breeding strategies for salinity-prone environments.Soil salinization is a major challenge worldwide, affecting about 20% of all irrigated land [1]. The predicted rise in sea level due to climate change will increase the percentage of saltaffected land, especially in coastal and delta areas [2]. Salinity is one of the most important factors reducing rice (Oryza sativa L.) crop productivity in river deltas, including some of the major production areas in Asia and Europe. This is a major concern for rice growers, as rice is considered to be more salt-sensitive than other cereals, such as wheat or barley [3]. Indeed, salt stress has a strong effect, decreasing growth or survival at the seedling stage in rice, even at moderate salinity levels, such as 3.4 dS�m −1 [4]. Salt stress also significantly impacts rice grain yield, even at low salinity levels, with decreases in yield components, including tiller number, spikelet number, and grain weight [5]. Sensitivity depends not only on the intensity of the stress, but also on its timing relative to plant development. Like other crops, rice is more sensitive during the seedling and reproductive stages [6]. Efforts have been made to unravel the mechanisms involved in salt tolerance in rice at the physiological, molecular, and genetic levels [7,8]. Three mechanisms have been implicated in plant salt-stress tolerance: ion exclusion (Na + or Cl − ), tissue tolerance, and osmotic tolerance [6,9]. Phenotyping is challenging due to the complex interactions between environmental and genetic factors, and accurate protocols are required to quantify plant responses to salt stress [6].Since the start of the Green Revolution, rice breeders and geneticists have been screening the diversity of O. sativa, with the aim of identifying tolerant genotypes [10,11]. Screening protocols have been developed to evaluate lines subjected to different stress levels at the seedling stage [12]. In the 1970s, for example, the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines evaluated about 100,000 accessions for salt tolerance by visual damage scoring. Less than 20% of the lines tested were found to be tolerant, suggesting that salt tolerance is not a major characteristic in rice [13,14]. Most of the tolerant accessions belonged to the O. sativa subspecies indica (e.g., Nona Bokra, Pokkali, Hasawi, Getu, Cheriviruppu, Ddamodar, Solla and Ketumbar) and many originated from mangrove areas, but some tolerant lines were also found in the japonica subspecies (e.g., Honduras, Slava, and Gigante Vercelli, [15,16]). These tolerant landraces or ecotypes were subsequently used as donors for salinity tolerance genes in breeding programs [13]. With the advent of molecular markers, tolerant landraces were used in various types of crosses, to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and to shed light on the genetic control of salinity tolerance [17][18][19]. Several hundred QTLs and dozens of genes have been identified, highlighting the complex genetic control of this trait [12,13]. These QTLs and genes are spread throughout the rice genome, but with a higher concentration on chromosome 1. The major QTL SalTol, located on chromosome 1, was used for marker-assisted selection [20][21][22][23]. Most efforts have focused on pre-breeding activities based on QTL introgression, and a number of salt-tolerant varieties, such as IR64-Saltol, ASS996-Saltol and BRRI dhan 47, have emerged from these approaches [24,25]. However, most of these varieties belong to the indica subspecies, which grows in tropical and subtropical regions. In the framework of the European Neurice project, Saltol was introgressed in Spanish, Italian and French temperate japonica varieties through marker-assisted selection(http://www.neurice.eu).Despite major advances in the marker-assisted selection of a major QTL/gene, breeding for salt tolerance is rendered more difficult by the complex genetic architecture of the trait, as hundreds of genes associated with different mechanisms are involved [13,26]. Favorable alleles at several QTLs/genes are therefore required to occur together to confer a significant level of tolerance in field conditions. There is a need to combine QTL/genes controlling salt tolerance at both the vegetative and reproductive stages. In addition, interactions with environmental conditions, such as the timing and intensity of salt stress, play a major role, making it harder to identify the best-performing lines. Indeed, tolerant lines must also perform well under more favorable conditions, and must be adapted to the various environments encountered in farmers' fields [27]. In this context, genomic selection is a potential tool for accelerating genetic improvement for salt tolerance [28]. Genomic selection requires the initial calibration of a prediction model on a training population that has been both genotyped and phenotyped. This prediction model is then applied to candidates for selection, based purely on their genotypes [29]. This approach enables breeders to optimize their breeding strategy by selecting early in the breeding cycle for complex and expensive-to-evaluate traits, thereby decreasing the length of the breeding cycle [30]. In rice, genomic prediction has been successfully evaluated for different traits and different types of populations [31][32][33]. Most of these studies focused on predicting Funding: This research was conducted under the framework of the FACCE-JPI project GreenRice (Sustainable and environmental-friendly rice cultivation systems in Europe) and was funded by the French National Agency for Research (ANR-14-JFAC-0005-01). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.The authors declare that they have no competing interests. performances in normal conditions, but a few have assessed the accuracy of prediction for performance under abiotic stress conditions, such as water deficit in particular [34,35]. Genomic prediction models integrating genotype-by-environment interactions have recently been developed [36][37][38][39]. These models tend to increase prediction accuracy, by incorporating multi-environment data and modeling marker-by-environment interactions. They are particularly useful for breeding programs targeting stress-prone environments, as they make it possible to combine performances in the presence and absence of stress, to increase accuracy [31].In this study, we used material from European rice breeding programs to evaluate the potential of genomic prediction for improving salinity tolerance in japonica rice adapted to temperate regions. Due to environmental constraints (low temperatures and long days) almost all of the rice varieties grown in Europe belong to the japonica subspecies [40]. A panel of European accessions was recently evaluated for tolerance to salt stress at the seedling stage, revealing considerable variability for various traits (growth parameters and sodium (Na + ) and potassium (K + ) mass fractions) despite the absence of the favorable allele at the Saltol locus [41]. These findings indicate that the use of minor genes and selection for this quantitative variation by genomic selection could help to increase the salt tolerance of temperate japonica breeding lines. However, for most breeding programs in temperate regions, only one growing season per year is possible, and the evaluation of salinity tolerance in field conditions is always difficult because of the high level of interannual variability. Genomic prediction models are, therefore, useful for predicting the salinity tolerance of untested genotypes, to make it easier for breeders to take selection decisions as early as possible. The objectives of this study were: i) to assess the accuracy of single and multi-environment genomic prediction models for predicting the performance of accessions from European rice breeding programs for traits related to salt tolerance via crossvalidation and ii) to validate these models on an independent subset of breeding lines.We used two different populations (S1 Table ). The first population was a reference panel (RP) composed of 241 japonica accessions. The RP was previously characterized by Frouin, et al. [41]. These accessions were mostly varieties from temperate regions, with European accessions largely represented (Italy (46.7%), France (12.5%), Spain (12.5%), Portugal (7.1%)), alongside varieties from the United States (10.4%), and more than 15 other countries. The second population was a breeding population (BP) of 393 breeding lines, with 73.8% of the lines derived from the joint breeding program of the Centre Français du Riz (CFR, Arles, France) and the Centre de cooperation international en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD, Montpellier, France). This French material included 289 current advanced breeding lines derived from 98 crosses involving 114 parents, 33 of which were included in the RP. The number of lines per cross ranged from 1 to 20, with seven crosses overrepresented (121 individuals). The other lines in the BP were lines from the working collections of European breeders.The two populations were genotyped with the same genotyping-by-sequencing method [42]. The DNA was extracted with the a modified method using hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide [43], as described by Frouin et al. [41]. The genome was digested with the restriction enzyme ApeKI for library preparation. The libraries were sequenced with a Genome Analyzer II (Illumina, San Diego, California, USA). The Nipponbare reference genome Os-Nipponbare-Reference-IRGSP-1.0, [44] was used for sequence alignment. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) calling was performed with the Tassel GBS pipeline with the default parameters [45].Markers with a call rate below 75%, a heterozygosity rate above 10% and a minor allele frequency below 5.0% were discarded. The remaining heterozygotes were converted to missing data. The missing data were then imputed with Beagle v4.0, using the default parameters [46]. The imputed file was split into two sets: the 241 accessions of the RP and the 393 accessions of the BP. Markers with a minor allele frequency below 5.0% were discarded in both populations. This procedure resulted in the identification of 20,255 informative SNPs common to the two populations. Markers in complete linkage disequilibrium were further filtered out: for clusters of markers, only one marker, that with the lowest rate of missing data before imputation and the highest minor allele frequency, was selected to represent the cluster. This filter resulted in 16,993 non-redundant markers, which were used for further analysis. The data can be downloaded from CIRAD Dataverse: https://doi.org/10.18167/DVN1/O1AYGP.The genetic structure of the 241 accessions of the RP and 393 lines of the BP was assessed by a discriminant analysis of principal components implemented in the R package adegenet [47,48]. The functions find.clusters and dapc were successively used to assign individuals to genetic groups. The number of clusters was set to three, corresponding to the tropical and temperate japonica subgroups and admixed accessions. The percentage of the variance used to select the number of axes in the principal component analysis was set at 90%. We also used DarWin v6 software [49] to calculate a simple matching index to assess the dissimilarity between individuals. We also used DarWin v6 software [49] to calculate a simple matching index to assess the dissimilarity between individuals. This index was then used to construct an unweighted neighbor-joining tree. The assignments to groups derived from adegenet were projected onto the neighbor-joining tree.Reference panel (RP). The accessions of the RP were phenotyped for salinity tolerance under hydroponic conditions, as previously described by Frouin et al. [41]. Briefly, the experimental design was a split-plot with three replicates staggered in time. In each replicate, the plants were distributed in 12 tanks (6 control and 6 salt tanks). Two resistant controls (Nona Bokra and Pokkali) and three susceptible controls (IR29, Aychade and Giano) were replicated in each tank. Stress was applied for two weeks, beginning two weeks after sowing. The salt concentration was 50 mM NaCl (3 g/l), corresponding to an electrical conductivity of 6.5 dS�m -1 . After 28 days sowing, we measured the following growth-related traits in control and salt conditions: the number of tillers (TIL), the lengths of the longest leaf (LL) and the longest root (RL), the length (LGTH) and width (WDTH) of the last fully developed leaf of the main tiller, the dry matter weight for shoots (SHOOT), roots (ROOT) and the last fully developed leaf of the main tiller (LEAF). The Na + and K + mass fractions of shoot tissues, expressed as percent of dry matter, were measured on plants grown in salt conditions, by atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), at the UR59 laboratory at CIRAD Montpellier (ISO9001). We also calculated the following variables: leaf area (LA), calculated as LGTH x WIDTH x 0.75, specific leaf area (SLA), calculated as LA divided by LEAF, the root-to-shoot ratio (R/S), calculated as ROOT divided by SHOOT, and the Na/K ratio, calculated as Na + mass fraction over K + mass fraction.Analysis of variance was performed on the morphological trait data, with a mixed model including salinity/control conditions and genotype as fixed effects and replicate and tank as random effects. The significance of genotype, conditions and genotype x conditions interaction effects were assessed. The least square mean values of the genotypes were calculated with SAS software (Cary, NC, USA).From the least square mean values for morphological traits, stress response indices were computed as iTRAIT = (salt−control)×100/control.The same methodology was used to phenotype a subset of 41 lines selected from the BP (BP41) in a separate experiment. The design was a split plot with two conditions (control and salt stress) and three replicates. The resistant and susceptible controls varieties were as described above. The same statistical model as for the RP was used for the variance analysis except that, in this case, because of the smaller size of the experiment, the tank and replicate effects were combined. The process used to select the 41 lines is explained below in the \"Evaluation of predictive ability\" section.The genomic BLUP (GBLUP) and the reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) models were used to predict breeding values with molecular markers. GBLUP is one of the most popular and robust methods for genomic prediction [50,51]. For GBLUP, we calculated the kernel matrix as follows K = XX'/p, X being the centered genotype matrix. X is of dimension n×p, where n is the number of genotypes and p the number of markers. For the RKHS model, we used a Gaussian kernel Kðx i ; x j Þ ¼ expðÀ hk x i À x j k 2 Þ to calculate the kernel matrix between the marker genotype vectors x i and x j , where (i,j)2{1,. . .,N} 2 . We estimated the bandwidth parameter h as described by Pe ´rez-Elizalde et al. [52] and with the associated R function margh.fun. This method is based on estimation of the mode of the joint posterior distribution of h and a form parameter φ. The shape and scale parameters of the gamma prior distribution for h were 3.0 and 1.5, respectively.The extensions of the GBLUP and RKHS models for multivariate analysis were used to predict the genomic estimated breeding values from data for the two sets of conditions. This approach is referred to hereafter as \"multi-environment prediction\". For both the extended GBLUP and RKHS models, the effects of markers are divided into two components: the main effect and the environment-specific effects [38,53]. Following the notation of Cuevas et al. [38], the model can be expressed as:   Where y j is the response vector in the jth environment, μ j is the intercept in the jth environment, X j , is the centered matrix of marker in the jth environment, β 0 is the vector of marker effects across all environments, β j is the vector of marker effects for environment j and ε j is the random error for the jth environment. By using the following notation: the model can be written as follow:In this mixed model, the random effect u o follows a multivariate normal distribution with a mean of zero and a variance-covariance matrix K 0 s 2 u o with K 0 ¼ X 0 X 0 0 =p for the GBLUP and . The kernel matrix for each environment is estimate as follow: K j ¼ X j X 0 j =p for the GBLUP and K j ðx ji ; x jj Þ ¼ expðÀ h j k x ji À x jj k 2 Þ for RKHS Analyses were performed in the R 3.6.1 environment [54]. The GBLUP and RKHS models were fitted in the R package BGLR 1.0.8 [55]. Inferences were based on 3,000 of the 35,000 iterations for the Gibbs sampler. The first 5,000 samples were discarded (burn-in) and we then kept one sample out of ten to avoid autocorrelation (thinning). Convergence of the Markov Chain-Monte Carlo algorithm was assessed for all parameters of the models, with Gelman-Rubin tests [56] and the R package coda 0.19-1 [57].Cross-validation within the reference panel. We estimated the predictive ability (PA) of the models described above using a cross-validation strategy within the RP: we randomly selected 80% of the panel to form the training set, with the remaining 20% used as the validation set. For multi-environment models, the genotypes composing the training set were associated with phenotypic information for the two sets of conditions, whereas no phenotypic information was available for those composing the validation set. This cross-validation approach is usually referred to as CV1 in the literature [58]. The random partitioning of the RP was repeated 100 times, and the PA for each partition was calculated as the Pearson coefficient of correlation between the genomic estimated breeding values and the corresponding phenotypes in the validation set. For each combination of model (single or multi-environment), statistical method (GBLUP, RKHS) and trait, the same partitions were used to calculate predictive ability. The resulting estimates of predictive ability were averaged, and the associated standard error was calculated. We analyzed the effect of the different factors (trait, conditions, prediction method, etc.) on PA, by performing analyses of variance. To avoid potential bias due to the distribution of the coefficient of correlation (r2[−1; 1]), we transformed it using Fisher Z transformation according to the following equation:The analyses of variance were done on the Z statistics.Validation in the breeding population (BP). We evaluated PA in the breeding population in two steps. We first used the 241 accessions of RP to train the model and then predicted the phenotype of each of the 393 lines in the BP. We then selected a set of 41 lines from the BP for actual phenotyping under the same conditions as the RP. The number of lines selected was chosen to allow for the phenotyping of three replicates in hydroponic conditions. This set of 41 lines (BP41) was chosen to be representative of the variability of the predicted phenotypic values of the most important salt tolerance traits observed for the 393 lines of the BP-Na, K and Na/K-and for iSHOOT and iROOT, predicted by both the GBLUP and RKHS methods. We captured the variability present in the BP, for each trait, by selecting lines ranked in the lowest 10%, lines ranked in the top 10% and the lines with average performances in the following proportion: 20%, 20% and 60%. PA was calculated as the Pearson coefficient of correlation between the predicted phenotypes of the 41 lines obtained with models trained on the RP and the corresponding actual phenotypes. Analyses of the genetic structures of both the RP and BP highlighted the well-known bipolar structure of European rice accessions, with temperate and tropical japonica subgroups (S3 Fig) . As expected, given the nature of the genetic material, the level of admixture between these two subgroups was high, reaching 37% in both the RP and the BP. The BP was highly related to the RP, as highlighted by the small genetic distance between the two populations (Fig 1). This relatedness between the two populations is a key parameter for genomic prediction. The 241 accessions of the RP had been evaluated under two hydroponic conditions: control and salt. Weak-to-moderate genotype x conditions interactions (G×C) were observed, depending on the trait (Fig 2). The weakest G×C interaction was that for leaf length (LL), with a rank correlation (Kendall) between the two conditions of ρ = 0.79. Conversely, specific leaf area (SLA) presented the strongest G×C interaction, with ρ = 0.33. The 10% of accessions with the lowest Na/K ratios did not differ significantly (p-value > 0.05) from the rest of the RP for any combination of trait/conditions other than root/shoot ratio (R_S) in salt conditions, for which the ratio was higher for the rest of the panel. The correlation between morphological traits ranged from -0.45 to 0.90 in control conditions and from -0.37 to 0.90 in salt-stress conditions (S2 Table ). ROOT was strongly correlated with SHOOT (0.90) and LL was significantly correlated with ROOT, SHOOT and LA, in both sets of conditions. However, the correlations between traits tended to be weaker in salt conditions than in control conditions. In salt conditions, the ion mass fractions presented few significant correlations with morphological traits: NA/K was correlated with TIL (-0.20), SHOOT (-0.19) and R_S (0.22, S2 Table ).The phenotypic variability observed in the RP was partly related to population structure. Indeed, Na/K was significantly higher for the admixed subgroup than for the tropical and temperate subgroups (S4 Fig) . A difference was also found for RL, for which the admixed subgroup had lower values, suggesting a higher susceptibility to the effects of salinity on root development (S4 Fig).Comparison between single and multi-environment models. Cross-validation in the RP gave predictive ability (PA) values for the multi-environment model ranging from 0.25 to 0.64 in control conditions and from 0.38 to 0.63 in salt conditions, for the eight morphological traits analyzed (Fig 3). Similar PAs were obtained for the eight traits in the single environment model, with values ranging from 0.22 to 0.63 in control conditions and from 0.36 to 0.62 in salt conditions. For both the single-environment and multi-environment models, the lowest PA was that for SLA and the highest was that for LL in control conditions. PA was higher in control conditions than in salt conditions for six of the eight traits (TIL, LL, LA, SHOOT, ROOT, and R_S) (Fig 3). The largest positive difference in accuracy (0.19) between control and salt conditions was for LA when the single environment model was used. For SLA and RL, PA was higher under salt conditions than under control conditions, with differences up to 0.24 and 0.17 (single-environment model, RKHS), respectively. All the factors considered in the analysis of variance (trait, conditions, prediction method and prediction model) had a significant effect on PA, with the largest effect for trait, the other factors being of a much lesser importance (S3 Table ). Indeed, differences in PA between single and multi-environment models were close to zero, except for SLA and RL in control conditions for which accuracy was 15% and 10% higher, respectively, for the multi-environment model than for the single-environment model. Interestingly, these were the two traits with the best PA in salt conditions. No clear relationship was found between the strength of G×C interactions for traits and the performance of the multi-environment model relative to that of the single-environment model.Stress response indices and ion mass fractions. The stress response indices combined values from both control and salt conditions, whereas mass fractions were measured only under salt conditions. Only the single environment model could, therefore, be used for mass fractions. The PA values for the indices were lower than those of other traits in each set of conditions, with values ranging from -0.05 to 0.35 (Fig 4A). On average, over the two prediction methods, the iROOT, iSHOOT and iLL indices had the lowest PAs (lower than 0.10). Conversely, the PAs for iRL and iSLA were greater than 0.30. The PA for Na and K mass fractions and for Na/K ranged from 0.20 to 0.40 (Fig 4A). The K mass fraction was slightly better predicted than Na mass fraction, with PAs of 0.34 (GBLUP) and 0.40 (RKHS), versus 0.28 (GBLUP) and 0.29 (RKHS), respectively. Both trait and prediction method had a significant effect on PA. The effect of trait was the most significant, with prediction method having only a marginal effect (S4 Table ). A negative correlation was found between PA and the strength of G×C interactions for the trait: -0.69 (p-value = 0.059) and -0.58 (p-value = 0.134) for GBLUP and RKHS, respectively (Fig 4B ).The performances of the 393 genotypes of the BP were predicted with the two prediction models (single and multi-environment) built on the RP. As expected, the genomic estimated performances were shrunk toward the mean value of the RP, and this effect was more pronounced for RKHS than for GBLUP. Depending on the trait, the coefficients of correlation (ρ) between the predicted performances estimated with RKHS and GBLUP ranged from 0.88 (SLA) to 0.98 (LL) for the multi-environment model and from 0.76 (SLA) to 0.99 (LL) for the single-environment model (S5 Table ). For indices and ion mass fractions, the coefficients of correlation ranged from 0.29 (iROOT) to 0.97 (iLA). The traits presenting the lowest correlation between prediction methods were those with the lowest PAs in cross-validation in the RP: iROOT, iSHOOT, and iLL. For Na and K, and for Na/K, the coefficients of correlation between prediction methods exceeded 0.90.For validation of the predicted performances, a subset of 41 lines from the BP (BP41) was selected for phenotyping. This selection had little effect on the extent of variability of the predicted traits relative to the entire BP (S5 and S6 Figs), but it decreased the neutral genetic variability, as shown by the distribution of BP41 on the neighbor-joining tree (Fig 1). The repeatability of the actual phenotypic data obtained for BP41 through evaluation under control and salt conditions ranged from 0.70 to 0.93 for the measured traits and from 0.44 to 0.55 for the indices (Table 1). Under salt conditions, the selected lines displayed phenotypic variation for ion mass fraction (Na and K) within the expected range relative to the susceptible and tolerant controls (Fig 5). G×C interactions of similar strength (ρ) to those in the RP were found (Table 1). The weakest G×C interaction was that for LA, with a rank correlation ρ between the two conditions of 0.83, and the strongest G×C interaction was that for SLA (ρ = 0.25).The phenotypic data for BP41 were used to estimate the PA of the models trained on the RP for the various traits. For the multi-environment model, PA ranged from 0.00 to 0.66 and from 0.09 to 0.54 in control and salt conditions, respectively (Table 1). As for cross-validation, similar results were obtained with the single-environment model, with values ranging from 0.02 to 0.67 in control conditions and from 0.04 to 0.61 in salt conditions. For stress-response indices and ion mass fractions, PA ranged from -0.07 to 0.35. The PAs for the Na (0.31 and 0.32, with RKHS and GBLUP, respectively) and K (0.26 and 0.35) mass fractions (the main traits used to select BP41) were intermediate, lying between those for the other traits. The differences between RKHS and GBLUP were slightly larger than those observed for cross-validation. Depending on the trait and the model, gains in PA of up to 0.10 were observed for RKHS (SHOOT in salt conditions) or for GBLUP (SLA in control conditions). Interestingly, the PAs estimated by cross-validation and those obtained with the subset of the BP were not correlated for control conditions, whereas there was a non-significant trend towards a positive correlation between these PAs in salt conditions (Fig 6, S6 Table ).In this study, we evaluated the salt tolerance of accessions and advanced lines from European breeding programs at the seedling stage under hydroponic conditions, with a no-salt control and a salt-stress treatment of 50 mM NaCl (6.5 dS�m -1 ). Hydroponic experiments are very useful for evaluations of the sensitivity of accessions to a given level of salt stress [6,59]. This approach has been used extensively to screen tolerant material in breeding programs [11] as salt levels are highly variable in field experiments, with micro-environmental and seasonal variations that can bias the evaluation of accessions. However, field-based evaluations and screening in controlled conditions are jointly used in breeding programs as stress tolerance at the seedling stage may not fully correlate with field performance. In our experiments, a moderate stress level, corresponding to a degree of salinity commonly observed in the Camargue region of France was used [60]. Considerable variability was observed in the phenotypic response to salt stress in both the RP and BP41, consistent with the findings of previous studies on japonica accessions [15,16,61]. In their work on 176 temperate japonica accessions, Batayeva et al. [61] reported that only a few accessions (Nep Ngau, Bai Mang Ai Zhong, and Shinchiku Iku 97) were as tolerant as the control variety, the others being moderately tolerant or susceptible. In this study, we found that three lines had performances similar to that of the tolerant control, with low Na_K values under salt conditions (Fulgente, Escarlate and RX110_01).Genomic prediction has been studied in detail in rice in recent years, with more than 50 studies published to date [33]. However, none of these studies focused on predicting genotype performances under salt stress. Depending on the trait, the type of population, the validation method and the prediction method, the accuracies reported in these studies varied substantially, from close to zero to more than 0.90. Here, prediction accuracy ranged from 0.05 to 0.63 for the various traits when the cross-validation method was applied to the RP. No clear differences were found between the two prediction methods used (GBLUP and RKHS). These results are consistent with those reported in previous studies [34,51,62,63]. We found that the differences between single-and multi-environment models were also small, although multienvironment models outperformed single-environment models for most of the traits and tended to be more accurate for predictions in salt conditions. The small differences between single-and multi-environment models were expected, given the type of cross-validation scheme used, with the prediction of untested genotypes only. With this type of cross-validation scheme, multi-environment models and single-environment models tend to perform similarly [34,64,65]. Multi-environment models have been shown to perform better when the predicted genotypes are evaluated in at least one environment (mimicking sparse testing evaluation). In this case, the gain in prediction accuracy of multi-environment models over single-environment models may be between 30% and 50%, as shown by Ben Hassen et al. [34] with phenotypic data for two sets of conditions (continuous flooding and alternate wetting and drying). Cuevas et al. [38] reported similar results for a wheat dataset including four environments, with gains of up to 60%, depending on the traits considered and the validation method. Stress response indices had lower predictive abilities than regular traits. For the indices, predictive ability was negatively correlated with the strength of G×C interactions. This result reflects the difficulty in predicting and selecting for relative performance between a stress environment (in our case salt stress) and normal conditions. The positive relationship between predictive ability and heritability is well known and has been described in studies on genomic prediction [66,67], but the impact of genotype-by-environment interactions on predictive ability tends to be more difficult to characterize [68,69]. Furthermore, for indices, the errors associated with measurements in the two sets of conditions are propagated in the index, tending to decrease heritability. Ion mass fractions (Na and K) and their ratio (Na/K) had low-to-moderate predictive abilities (0.2 to 0.4) with similar values in both populations (RP and BP41). These predictive abilities are in the expected range given the complex genetic architecture underlying these two traits [41]. No other study on rice has assessed the performance of genomic prediction in the context of salinity tolerance. We were therefore unable to make direct comparisons for this trait. However, the predictive abilities obtained in this study for Na and K could potentially be improved with prediction methods modeling marker effects differently from GBLUP and RKHS. Methods such as Bayesian LASSSO, BayesB and Random Forest have been shown to perform better when only a few regions of the genome have moderate effect on the target traits [51,70,71]. Similarly, the integration of GWAS results into the genomic prediction model might also increase prediction accuracy [35,72,73]. In this study, no major QTL was found in the RP [41], but this approach may be of interest when major QTLs, such as Saltol are segregating in the breeding population.Predictive ability or accuracy is routinely used to evaluate the efficiency of genomic prediction models [74]. In most genomic selection studies in plants, accuracy is measured as the correlation (r) between observed and predicted phenotypic performances [75]. The most common approach for estimating accuracy is cross-validation (subset validation), because of its ease of use. In this approach, the dataset is split in two (the calibration set and the validation set), making it possible to estimate accuracies in a given population while keeping parameters such as marker density, population structure or allele frequencies constant. However, cross-validation tends to overestimate accuracy relative to other validation approaches, such as inter-set validation or progeny validation [63,76,77]. Most of the studies performed in rice have used crossvalidation to obtain estimates of prediction accuracy [33]. Here, we used both cross-validation and inter-set validation (validation in the breeding population). The two approaches gave similar estimates of predictive ability. The accuracies obtained by cross-validation and with BP41 were well-correlated, but only in salt conditions. This finding reflects the method used to select lines for inclusion in BP41: ion mass fractions measured under salt conditions. The use of similar phenotyping conditions for model training and validation is therefore important, to obtain a more precise idea of the level of accuracy that can be expected, as GxE interactions generally decrease accuracy [69,78]. The relatedness between the RP and the BP, with a similar structure in the two populations, may also explain this result. Indeed, the genetic distance between the training set and the validation set has been shown to be one of the major factors affecting accuracy [79,80]. BP41 constitutes only a small subset of the entire BP, but most of the parental accessions and closely related lines, were present in the RP used to train the model. Ben Hassen et al. [63] reported similar results in a study using a diversity panel to predicted advance material from the breeding program.Genotypes tolerant to salt stress are clearly less common among japonica accessions than among indica accessions [15,16]. However, it is important for temperate rice breeding programs to characterize their material better for salinity tolerance because the sources of tolerance identified in indica accessions are difficult to introgress due to the complex genetic architecture of the trait, as revealed by linkage mapping [81] and association studies [16,41,82]. Sterility problems have also been reported for intersubspecific indica x japonica crosses [83,84]. We show here that genomic selection can be used to predict the salt tolerance of material from European rice breeding programs (japonica) under mild constraints. The major challenge would be efficiently combining evaluations under normal and salt conditions. As discussed above, capturing GxE interactions (or GxC interactions) with multi-environment models can increase the accuracy of predictions. Genomic selection for salt tolerance can be implemented just after line fixation (usually F6). In breeding programs involving rapid generation advances, such selection can take place in the third year of the breeding strategy [33]. The use of genomic selection at this stage would make it possible to select lines on the basis of their predicted performance in both normal and salt conditions. Multi-environment genomic prediction could be used to combine information from normal and salt conditions (either in the greenhouse or in the field) for prediction in a larger set of candidates from the cohort of the next cycle. The selection intensity for salt tolerance would be increased early in the breeding scheme (e.g., stage 1 yield trial). As stress trials are difficult to manage, a targeted set of lines could be evaluated in stress conditions, but with a higher degree of replication, to update the model.","tokenCount":"6111"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8dd029ac3f229f00f125ff3d87ebfbf2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f82b562f-7240-4e56-bf3c-48698bae19b0/retrieve","id":"1789575766"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"faec6891-e859-4f3f-be82-8c7774ff7842","pagecount":"44","content":"La collection Pro-Agro est une coédition d'Ingénieurs Sans Frontières Cameroun (ISF Cameroun) et du Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA).La fève de cacao est très appréciée pour son arôme et ses nutriments (phosphore, magnésium, fer, zinc, manganèse, cuivre, potassium, sélénium, vitamines B2 et B3). Bien fermentée et séchée, elle contient 50 à 57 % de lipides, 10 % de protéines, 12 % de fibres, 8 % de glucides de type amidon, 5 % environ de minéraux, etc. Culture de rente, une plantation de cacao peut durer entre 15 et 40 ans. Le prix de vente de la tonne variant entre 1 000 et 2 000 e (soit 656 000 à 1 312 000 FCFA), le cacao constitue une importante source de revenus pour les petits exploitants, qui sont à l'origine de l'essentiel de la production mondiale. La production de cacao est également une source de devises pour les pays producteurs. En 2012, la production mondiale de cacao a atteint 4 millions de tonnes. Le chocolat est le produit dérivé du cacao le plus recherché. Son commerce mondial représente plus de 76 milliards d'euros (105 milliards de dollars). Originaire des forêts tropicales d'Amérique latine, le cacaoyer a besoin d'un climat tropical (chaud et humide). Les pays tropicaux situés autour de l'équateur sont favorables à la culture du cacao.• Le golfe de Guinée (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroun, etc.) • L'Amérique du Sud, l'Amérique centrale et les Caraïbes (Brésil, Équateur, Pérou, etc.) • L'Asie du Sud et l'Océanie (Indonésie, Malaisie, Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée, etc.).Encore appelé « nourriture des dieux », le cacaoyer (Theobroma cacao L.), de la famille des malvacées est une plante tropicale cultivée pour ses fèves dont on extrait la poudre et le beurre de cacao. Il existe trois principales variétés de cacao : « Forastero », de couleur jaune et parfois rouge quand la cabosse est mûre, « Criollo », plus recherchée et plus chère, dont les cabosses à maturité sont rouges ou rouge-oranges, et « Trinitario », qui est un hybride des deux variétés précédentes. « Forastero » est la variété la plus cultivée en Afrique de l'Ouest et centrale, mais son goût n'est pas aussi agréable que celui des deux autres variétés. La pépinière sert à produire les jeunes plantules de cacaoyers en vue de la création des plantations. Elle est une des conditions préalables à la réussite de la plantation et permet d'éviter la forte mortalité rencontrée lorsque les graines sont semées directement dans le champ. Il existe trois modes de reproduction du matériel végétal du cacaoyer : le greffage, le bouturage et la reproduction par les fèves, qui est la plus simple et la plus répandue. La pépinière est mise en place 5 à 8 mois avant la plantation. Elle se situe le plus souvent à proximité d'un point d'eau intarissable afin de faciliter les arrosages. Elle doit se trouver le plus près possible de la future plantation, du village ou à proximité d'un sol humifère. Il est également recommandé de la construire sur un terrain bien drainé et plat ou légèrement en pente. Les basfonds sont à éviter. En cas de besoin (installation sur des pentes raides), des fossés de drainage peuvent être creusés dans le sens de la plus grande pente.D'une hauteur de 2,5 m, l'ombrière est construite avec du bois ou des bambous. Elle est recouverte de feuilles de palme ou de paille régulièrement réparties, laissant passer 50 % de la lumière. Il est également nécessaire de prévoir une couverture latérale sur les côtés exposés au soleil.Préparer la terre de remplissage (humifère, sablo-argileuse) en choisissant la terre de surface, de préférence sous couvert forestier, tout en évitant la terre des vieilles cacaoyères et les fumiers non décomposés. Si la terre est très lourde, mélanger 1 brouette de sable pour 3 brouettes de terre noire. Bien tamiser.Remplir de terre humifère et sablo-argileuse des sachets en matière plastique (polyéthylène) de dimensions 15 x 25 x 10 cm dont la moitié inférieure aura été préalablement perforée.Disposer les sachets remplis dans les planches (10 sachets dans le sens de la largeur et 50 dans le sens de la longueur), qui seront séparées par des allées de 60 cm et éloignées d'1 m des côtés de la pépinière afin de pouvoir circuler facilement. Maintenir les sachets bien droits par des baguettes de bambou placées horizontalement et fixées à l'aide de petits piquets verticaux.Construire une clôture autour de la pépinière afin de protéger les jeunes plants des rongeurs. Pour une plantation d'un hectare, prévoir 80 à 100 m 2 de pépinière (2 000 plants), soit 60 ou 70 cabosses mûres.Pour une bonne productivité, utiliser les graines des arbres les plus productifs ou des cabosses de variétés améliorées fournies par les centres de recherche. Prélever les cabosses saines (ne présentant ni pourriture, ni tache, ni trace de piqûre…) sur les arbres très producteurs, légèrement avant leur point de maturité optimum (coloration au trois quarts).Dès la récolte ou la réception des cabosses sélectionnées, ouvrir soigneusement celles-ci en évitant de blesser les fèves. Éliminer les 3 fèves stériles à la base de la cabosse.Débarrasser les fèves extraites de leur mucilage (pulpe blanchâtre) par lavage à grande eau, puis par frottement dans du sable fin ou de la sciure de bois. Les rincer à nouveau dans de l'eau en éliminant les fèves plates, trop petites, germées ou qui surnagent.Les fèves doivent être semées dans les trois jours qui suivent la récolte, car la graine perd son pouvoir germinatif lorsqu'elle reste longtemps hors de la cabosse.La veille du semis, arroser les sachets remplis. Semer une fève au milieu de chaque sachet, le gros bout de la graine vers le bas ou à plat pour que le pivot soit bien droit. Enfoncer la graine à 1 cm de profondeur. Recouvrir de terre et tasser légèrement avec les doigts, puis arroser abondamment. Arroser la pépinière tous les jours (tôt le matin ou le soir) pendant les 15 premiers jours qui suivent le semis, puis tous les 2 jours -mais sans excès -afin que la terre des sachets reste toujours humide. Entretenus dans de bonnes conditions, les plants âgés de 5 à 6 mois mesurent au moins 50 cm au moment de leur mise en terre.les deux jours qui suivent le traitement.Le terrain doit être facile d'accès et situé près d'un point d'eau afin de faciliter les arrosages et les traitements phytosanitaires. La température moyenne de la zone doit être comprise entre 24 et 28 °C et la pluviométrie doit être comprise entre 1 200 et 2 000 mm bien répartis tout au long de l'année avec une saison sèche ne dépassant pas trois mois. Idéalement, choisir un sol riche, bien drainé, profond, meuble en surface, sablo-argileux et dont la nappe phréatique est à plus d'un mètre de profondeur. Le cacao préfère des sols de pH acides (inférieur à 6). Pour la qualité du sol, se référer aux arbres indicateurs, tels que Ceiba pentandra (fromager, Doum), Pycnanthus angolensis (Ilomba, Eteng), Triplochyton scleroxylon (Ayous), Ficus mucoso (figuier, Tol). Préférer les précédents de forêt, recrû forestier, vieilles cacaoyères ou caféières.Éviter les sols des sommets de collines et les bas-fonds (hydromorphes ou marécageux) et les sols rocailleux. Éviter les fortes pentes (supérieures à 10 %). En cas de jachère, éviter les sols ayant supporté plusieurs cycles de plantes vivrières à tubercules comme le manioc, le macabo ou la patate douce, qui ont épuisé le sol d'un point de vue chimique.Trois à six mois avant la plantation des cacaoyers, dégager le terrain. Pour ce faire :• Délimiter la parcelle en ouvrant des layons de 2 m de large autour de la parcelle choisie.>>> Pour les petits paysans, mettre en place des parcelles de 0,5 hectare chaque année. Pour une meilleure rentabilité, l'idéal est d'atteindre des exploitations de 1,5 hectare au minimum.• Sélectionner, puis marquer les arbres favorables ou compatibles au cacaoyer, à raison de 35 à 40 arbres par hectare.• Défricher le terrain, puis abattre les arbustes n'ayant aucun intérêt particulier ou offrant une faible protection contre le soleil. Les grands arbres qui protègent mieux la cacaoyère doivent être préservés.Des arbres tels que Piptadeniastrum africanum (Atui, Dabema), Bombax buonopozense (Kapokier, Essodom), Cola sp. (Garcinia cola, Cola nitida) ne sont pas très propices aux cacaoyers. Toutefois, ils peuvent être conservés en fonction des besoins spécifiques de l'agriculteur.• L'abattage mécanique, le dessouchage et l'andainage doivent être réalisés avec précaution pour éviter un tassement du sol.• Pour une jachère, installer des légumineuses arbustives (Gliricidia spp., Albizzia spp., Leucaena leucocephala) tous les 4 m pour restaurer le sol ou des plantes rémunératrices (bananier plantain, Dacryodes edulis ou safoutier, avocatiers, etc.) pour créer un ombrage pendant au moins 2 ans. Cet ombrage doit être planté en interligne (quinconce) en tenant compte de la densité des cacaoyers. Les tubercules sont déconseillés.>>> Pour les grandes exploitations, faire des blocs de 4 à 5 hectares. Prévoir des pistes entre les blocs et autour de la plantation qui permettront des déplacements faciles.   Il est recommandé de diversifier avec des arbres fruitiers afin d'assurer la rentabilité de l'exploitation, l'autoconsommation et la réduction des risques liés à la volatilité des prix du cacao.Les biofertilisants peuvent être utilisés pour les mélanges de substrat de culture, le rempotage, la plantation et la transplantation.• Damer la terre, placer verticalement le plant de cacaoyer avec sa motte au centre du trou • Recouvrir le trou avec le reste de terre et tasser fermement en prenant soin de maintenir le collet du jeune plant au-dessus du niveau du sol. Le collet désigne le niveau où se fait le passage de la racine à la tige aérienne • Bien égaliser la terre pour éviter des cuvettes autour du plant où peuvent stagner des eaux de pluie • Après la plantation, il est bon de mettre tout autour du jeune plant un paillage abondant tout en dégageant le collet afin de maintenir l'humidité du sol.Plante sans biofertilisant Plante avec biofertilisant Au minimum, trois désherbages par an sont nécessaires pour une bonne floraison et une meilleure récolte. Idéalement, compléter le désherbage manuel par un désherbage chimique. Ce dernier intervient quand les mauvaises herbes mesurent environ 30 cm : utiliser le glyphosate (Kalash 360 SI, Glyphader 360 SL, Roundup 360 SL, Bifaga 360 SL, Glyphalm Heros 360 SL à raison de 100 à 130 ml par pulvérisateur de 15 litres d'eau).Certains travaux du sol, notamment le labour, sont à proscrire pour ne pas blesser les racines. Pour maximiser la production du cacaoyer, couper le tronc du cacaoyer à 1,50 m du sol de façon à obtenir la forme d'une couronne à 5 branches qui améliore la floraison.Tous les 2 à 3 mois, supprimer avec un sécateur les gourmands et les quelques ramifications secondaires tombantes qui poussent le long du tronc. Éliminer également les parties affectées par les insectes, maladies et plantes parasites.Éliminer les branches sèches, les cabosses pourries et desséchées (en coupant le pédoncule des cabosses sans blesser le tronc) ; rassembler tous les débris (cabosses ou coques qui traînent par terre) et les couvrir d'une litière de feuilles mortes pour les laisser pourrir sur place sans disperser la maladie.Faire le tuteurage de certains plants pour qu'ils ne cèdent pas sous le poids des cabosses. Drainer l'eau s'il y a stagnation dans la cacaoyère.Sélection des branches à tailler et taille jusqu'à 4 m de haut Architecture de « verre à vin » pour un meilleur éclairage L'effet des engrais dépend des conditions pédologiques et de l'âge de la plantation. La fumure minérale est efficace et rentable pour les plantations bien conduites. Un mois après la taille, épandre en couronne autour du pied entre 5 et 30 cm en début de plantation, puis entre 30 et 60 cm après 2 à 3 ans et entre 60 cm à 1 m de rayon à partir de la quatrième année. Recouvrir l'engrais d'une légère couche de sol afin d'éviter sa perte par ruissellement.Le cacaoyer a rarement besoin d'azote (N), mais requiert beaucoup de phosphore, de potassium et de bore. Les maladies les plus dangereuses sont les maladies virales comme le gonflement des pousses et les maladies cryptogamiques comme la pourriture brune.  Virus de l'oedème des pousses de cacao (Badnavirus) -c'est une maladie virale transmise par des insectes hébergeant le virus. Les principaux parasites nuisibles sont les mirides et les foreurs de tiges et branches. On trouve aussi les chenilles défoliatrices, les psylles, les cochenilles, le bathycoelia Thalassina et les Nelopeltis.Le traitement contre les insectes se fait souvent par pulvérisation. Bien que coûteux, l'utilisation d'un atomiseur rend le traitement plus efficace, car il permet de traiter facilement tout l'arbre, requiert moins de produits, moins de temps et moins d'eau que le pulvérisateur (10 l avec un atomiseur contre 15 l avec un pulvérisateur).Synthèse des parasites nuisibles et des solutions proposées Taches blanches aux extrémités des jeunes pousses, sur les fleurs et coussinets floraux.Très présents dans les jeunes plantations.Pendant  La première récolte intervient environ trois ans (variété hybride/améliorée) ou 4 à 5 ans (variété traditionnelle étant passée par la pépinière) après la plantation. Le cacaoyer peut produire 2 fois par an, pendant plus de 30 ans.Effectuer la récolte à intervalles réguliers de 10 à 15 jours (ne pas excéder trois semaines).Récolter les cabosses à maturité optimale (lorsque le fruit vire au trois quarts au jaune, vermillon, orangé ou rouge suivant les variétés).La cueillette se fait en sectionnant le pédoncule à l'aide d'une machette, d'un émondoir, d'un sécateur ou d'une faucille à manche. Éviter de blesser les coussinets floraux. Ensuite, enlever les cabosses de la plantation et les transporter sur le lieu d'écabossage.Ne jamais récolter à la mainIl est réalisé au plus tard 5 jours après la récolte. Séparer les cabosses saines des cabosses pourries pour différencier les grades. Ouvrir les cabosses à l'aide de gourdins non tranchants afin d'extraire les graines sans les blesser.Lors de l'écabossage, il faut éliminer les fèves défectueuses, les rachis et les débris de cortex.Elle est indispensable pour diminuer rapidement le pouvoir germinatif des graines et développer les précurseurs de l'arôme et du goût du chocolat. Les fèves nouvellement extraites sont déposées sur des feuilles de bananier (de macabo ou taro) à l'intérieur de paniers, de caisses en bois, de bacs de fermentation préalablement nettoyés ou sur l'aire de fermentation et sous abri. Les fèves sont ensuite recouvertes de feuilles en vue d'une fermentation pendant 4 à 7 jours. Tous les 2 jours (2 e et 4 e jour), les remuer et régler l'humidité.La fermentation dépend de la qualité de la pulpe. La pulpe des cabosses non mûres ou trop mûres ne permet pas une bonne fermentation.Les fèves changent alors de couleur (passant du blanc/mauve au brun). L'intérieur est brun pâle ou rougeâtre. Les fèves bien fermentées ont un aspect brillant, sans moisissure et leurs cotylédons se brisent avec facilité. Une odeur aromatique de chocolat s'en dégage.Après fermentation, éliminer les restes de pulpe en lavant les fèves ou en les mélangeant à de la sciure de bois et à des feuilles sèches de bananier.Les fèves sont ensuite séchées de façon naturelle ou artificielle. Facile à conduire, le séchage naturel ou solaire est la méthode la plus utilisée et dure 8 à 15 jours. Dans les petites exploitations, les fèves sont souvent étalées sur des nattes en bambou ou en pailles posées sur le sol, sur des bâches en plastique noir, etc. Remuer fréquemment pendant environ 5 jours. Trier pour éliminer les fèves défectueuses et plates. Une fois séchées, leur poids moyen est de un gramme avec une teneur en humidité d'environ 7 %. Mettre à l'abri dans un endroit sec et bien aéré pour les protéger de l'humidité (pluie, humidité nocturne) et éviter les risques de développement de moisissures.Le séchage naturel peut être optimisé grâce à l'utilisation de séchoirs améliorés qui offrent un meilleur résultat. Selon les modèles, les fèves peuvent être facilement mises à l'abri de la pluie ou protégées par différentes structures.Le séchoir autobus comprend une case fixe et des rails sur lesquels coulissent des claies de séchage.Le séchoir à toit mobile comprend une aire de séchage fixe avec un toit pouvant être retiré selon les conditions.Le séchoir tente est couvert par un plastique transparent et l'aire de séchage est de couleur noire afin de conserver l'énergie qui est progressivement libérée pendant la nuit.Le séchoir sous serre permet de réduire les manipulations et de sécher de grandes quantités de fèves. Il nécessite toutefois un investissement important et il est nécessaire de prévoir un système de ventilation (basé sur le principe de la convection) et un système de contrôle des paramètres de séchage.Pour réduire la durée du séchage, il est possible d'utiliser des séchoirs artificiels, sous air chaud entre 15 et 48 heures. La chaleur est produite par un four à bois ou à gaz. Veiller à ce que les fèves ne soient en contact ni avec la fumée ni avec la plaque chauffante. Il doit y avoir un système de ventilation et de contrôle des paramètres et notamment de la température, car au-delà de 55 °C, les qualités gustatives des fèves de cacao sont modifiées.Les séchoirs améliorés à air chaud (au four) isolé des fumées avec une cheminée sont à privilégier. Un matériau conducteur de chaleur est chauffé, les ventilateurs captent la chaleur de ce matériau pour l'envoyer sur les fèves de cacao qui sont disposées sur des sortes de claies ou étagères.• s'assurer que le produit à sécher est bien fermenté • procéder au tri des fèves pour enlever les saletés, les impuretés, ainsi que les fèves qui sont plates ou germées • respecter l'épaisseur de la couche à sécher : 4 à 6 cm pour le séchage naturel et 5 à 10 cm pour le séchage artificiel • surveiller régulièrement le cacao en prélevant quelques fèves vers la fin du séchage. Les faire craquer sous la main et en fendre quelques-unes pour s'assurer que le cacao est tout à fait sec aussi bien à l'intérieur qu'à l'extérieur. • si possible, mélanger 3 parts de coques broyées pour une part de déchets ménagers en décomposition (de préférence des déchets d'élevage) • déposer le mélange en tas de 2 m de large sur 1 m de haut • couvrir le tas afin de maintenir une température élevée et un pourcentage élevé d'humidité nécessaires à la décomposition des coques et à la destruction des organismes pathogènes de la pourriture brune • retourner le tas toutes les 3 semaines pendant 3 mois. Arroser si nécessaire.• Sécher les coques évidées au soleil • Les moudre à l'aide d'un moulin ou d'un mortier afin d'obtenir une poudre • Mélanger cette poudre à la farine de maïs en suivant le ratio 1/3 de poudre pour 2/3 de maïs.L'aliment fabriqué peut être enrichi de sels minéraux et vitamines.1/3 poudre de coque 2/3 maïs Après trois mois, le matériau devient sombre. Le compost est alors prêt et peut être utilisé comme engrais organique riche en éléments minéraux.Dans l'alimentation animale, cette farine peut remplacer le tiers de la quantité de maïsEn plus de la fabrication de chocolat, les fèves de cacao permettent d'obtenir des boissons, du beurre, etc.Laver les cabosses récoltées, puis les ouvrir à l'aide de gourdins non tranchants afin de récupérer les graines sans les blesser.Mettre les fèves dans des récipients propres ayant des trous (comme des passoires ou des paniers en rotin). Placer une marmite sous ces récipients pour récupérer le jus de cacao qui en sort. Pour faciliter l'extraction du jus, remuer les fèves de temps en temps. Après 24 heures, recueillir le jus. Avec 70 cabosses, on obtient environ 1 litre de jus de cacao à partir de 35 kg de fèves fraîches.Une fois le liquide récupéré, les fèves peuvent alors entrer dans le processus de fermentation.Ce jus de cacao peut être consommé frais comme boisson non alcoolisée ou fermentée pour obtenir des boissons alcoolisées On distingue deux types de masse de cacao : la masse naturelle et la masse alcalinisée. On ajoute de l'eau lors de la torréfaction de la masse naturelleProcédé semi-artisanal broyage Les grains déjà torréfiés sont moulus à l'aide de broyeurs à meules ou à billes afin d'obtenir une pâte de cacao ou masse de cacao utilisée pour faire du beurre de cacao ou du chocolat. 100 kg de fèves de cacao permettent de produire 80 kg de pâte de cacao.tandis qu'on ajoute une solution alcaline (carbonate de potassium) pour la masse alcalinisée. Le procédé décrit ci-dessous est celui de la masse naturelle de cacao.La pâte de cacao pure obtenue est pressée pour en extraire le beurre de cacao et les tourteaux de cacao. 1 kg de pâte de cacao permet d'obtenir en moyenne 46 g de beurre et 54 g de tourteaux.Le beurre obtenu est filtré, centrifugé et désodorisé par distillation à la vapeur. Le beurre de cacao est utilisé pour la production de chocolat ou de cosmétiques.Le tourteau de cacao obtenu en fin de pressage est concassé et moulu pour en faire de la poudre de cacao. Cette poudre est tempérée et stabilisée entre 18 et 20 °C.La poudre de cacao est utilisée pour la production de chocolat, de pâtisseries, de boissons lactées ou de cosmétiques. • Mettre la poêle à chauffer et verser une quantité de fèves proportionnelle à la contenance de la poêle de façon à ce que chaque fève soit en contact direct avec celle-ci. Griller ainsi les fèves pendant environ 10 min à feu très doux. À feu vif, les fèves brûleraient (ce qui contribuerait à donner une mauvaise odeur au beurre) ou libèreraient du beurre (ce qui diminuerait la quantité de beurre obtenue en fin de cuisson). Les fèves sont considérées comme bien grillées lorsque la coque s'effrite facilement.• Étaler les fèves ainsi grillées sur la bâche en plastique, décortiquer à la main puis vanner. On obtient des grains et des coques de fèves.• Écraser les grains au moulin et non à la pierre afin que la pâte de cacao obtenue soit bien tendre.• Faire cuire cette pâte dans de l'eau tiède pendant environ 1h à 1h20. La cuisson se fait en deux temps :• À l'aide du gobelet, recueillir toute l'huile qui montera à la surface de la marmite. L'huile recueillie est portée à ébullition dans une autre casserole afin de retirer toute l'eau qui s'y trouve. L'huile peut être filtrée et mise en bouteille.>>> dans un premier temps, mettre la pâte (5 kg de fèves) dans 7,5 litres d'eau bouillante. Tourner le mélange toujours dans le même sens et le porter à ébullition à feu légèrement vif (pour faire sortir l'huile). Lorsque le mélange commence à s'épaissir, diminuer le feu.Éviter que la pâte ne colle ou ne brûle au fond de la marmite afin de ne pas transmettre une mauvaise odeur à l'huile. L'huile remontera progressivement à la surface à partir de 40 à 50 minutes. Après ébullition, recueillir l'huile qui surnage >>> ensuite, rajouter 2,5 litres d'eau bouillante dans la casserole contenant la masse de cacao, remuer toujours dans le même sens et porter à ébullition pendant 20 à 30 minutes environ.7,5 l• Conserver la marmite loin du feu et après 48 h, recueillir la couche de beurre solide qui se sera formée à la surface. Faire fondre et embouteiller.• Il faut noter que l'huile obtenue se solidifie très vite à température ambiante donc après filtration, embouteiller directement. Fait avec habileté, 5 kg de fèves donnent 1 kg de beurre de cacao. Après l'extraction du beurre de cacao, le tourteau obtenu peut servir à fabriquer du chocolat ou des aliments pour bétail. On pourrait aussi fabriquer de la poudre de cacao pour une meilleure conservation.Le chocolat est fabriqué à partir de 4 ingrédients principaux : de la pâte de cacao, du beurre de cacao, du sucre et au besoin du lait en poudre. De la lécithine de soja comme émulsifiant (0 à 0,5 %) et de la vanille comme arôme peuvent être ajoutées, ainsi qu'un conservateur (acide citrique) pour prolonger la durée de vie du produit.• Un réchaud à gaz ou un four amélioré (pour faire le feu)• Une pierre à écraser Ingrédients : pour 1 kg de chocolat PRÉPARATIoN • Écraser le sucre à la pierre à écraser de façon à le rendre très fin.• Poser la marmite sur le foyer à feu très doux et introduire les tourteaux.• Ajouter le beurre de cacao (liquide) et remuer pendant 10 à 15 min jusqu'à l'obtention d'un mélange homogène. Si besoin, afin d'éviter que la pâte ne brûle, retirer la marmite du feu de temps en temps.• Ajouter le lait en petites quantités tout en remuant doucement pendant 5 min.• Verser le sucre finement écrasé en petites quantités tout en remuant pendant 5 à 10 min.• Ajouter le sel, l'arôme, le jus de citron et continuer à remuer le mélange pendant 5 min.• Retirer la marmite du feu et mouler dans les bacs à glaçons.• Placer au réfrigérateur (et non au congélateur) et laisser solidifier pendant 8 à 10 h.• Conserver votre chocolat au réfrigérateur. L'acide citrique permettra de conserver le chocolat pendant plusieurs mois.• Astuce : afin d'éviter que le chocolat ne brûle, porter à ébullition une grande marmite contenant de l'eau et y introduire une casserole en inox de façon à ce que la casserole puisse être immergée dans la marmite (bain-marie).Les différents ingrédients seront introduits dans la casserole et non dans la marmite.• Conserver les produits chocolatés à une température de 12 à 20 °C dans un endroit bien aéré.• Éloigner le chocolat des odeurs étrangères (fromage, poisson, viande, citrons, etc.).• Protéger le chocolat de l'air, de la lumière et de la pluie en le mettant dans un emballage fermé.Les fèves séchées sont mises dans des sacs en toile de jute de 65 kg puis vendues. En moyenne, on récolte 10 à 15 cabosses par plant, soit 4 à 6 kg, donnant 1 à 1,5 kg de fèves fraîches qui, après séchage à 7 %, représenteront environ 0,5 kg de fèves sèches marchandes. Ainsi, pour 1 000 pieds bien portants par hectare, il est possible d'obtenir un rendement de 300 à 750kg/ha. Vendu à 800 FCFA/kg, on obtient une recette brute de 400 000 à 600 000 FCFA/ha. Après soustraction des dépenses (55 %), on enregistre 225 000 FCFA (343 e) de bénéfice net par l'hectare.Ci-dessous, le compte d'exploitation sur 6 ans d'un agriculteur pratiquant un système agroforestier (cacao, bananier et arbres fruitiers) sur une superficie de 2 hectares. En transformant 5 kg de fèves sèches, on obtient environ 1 litre de beurre de cacao vendu à 10 000 FCFA. Avec une transformation artisanale, sans gros efforts humains et financiers, le beurre de cacao est de loin le produit le plus rentable. ","tokenCount":"4416"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c12696a2c547f11e6bde0127b85cc550","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9fec15fb-8c9a-4c77-adef-5d950ebcbf35/retrieve","id":"-815166379"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"834fe1fd-a6f7-456e-83a4-745117312edf","pagecount":"2","content":"O impacto de variedades melhoradas de feijão no ocidente do Quénia O feijão vulgar (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) é a cultura leguminosa mais importante na região ocidental do Quénia, imediatamente a seguir a outra cultura alimentar: o milho. O sistema de produção é predominantemente de subsistência com uma mistura de culturas, gado e árvores. Os baixos rendimentos e o pequeno tamanho das hortas implica que os camponeses nesta região não são auto-suficientes em alimentos e também dependem do emprego não agrícola, ajudas monetárias e exportação de mão-de-obra masculina. Sendo assim, muitos agregados familiares têm à cabeça uma mulher.Nos finais dos anos 80 e nos princípios dos anos 90 registou-se nos distritos do Kakamega e Vihiga no ocidente do Quénia um aumento da incidência e gravidade da doença da podridão da raiz do feijão, o que resultou em repetidas perdas de culturas. Como resultado muitos camponeses deixaram de cultivar feijão. O surto foi causado inicialmente por uma combinação de patogéneos fúngicos cujos danos crescentes no feijão estavam associados à evolução de sistemas de produção sujeitos a alta pressão populacional. A diminuição da área cultivada pelo agregado familiar levou à intensificação do uso da terra para fins agrícolas, cultivo contínuo, baixo uso de insumos agrícolas, baixa fertilidade dos solos e acumulação de agentes patogénicos nos solos. Em resposta à crise da podridão da raiz, o Instituto de Pesquisa Agrícola do Quénia (KARI) em Kakamega, o Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) e o Departamento de Extensão do Ministério da Agricultura colaboraram num programa acelerado para a identificação de uma variedade de feijão resistente à podridão da raiz. N o 18 Dezembro de 2004 A Série Destaques resume resultados de investigação e implicações de políticas resultantes do trabalho do CIAT e seus parceiros em ÁfricaUsando abordagens de avaliação participativa com camponeses, foram seleccionadas cinco variedades de feijão selvagem (KK8, KK14, KK15, KK20 e KK22) e cinco variedades de feijão trepadeiro (Umubano, Gisenyi 2-Bis, Flora, Puebla e Ngwinurare) de germoplasma introduzido do Ruanda. O feijão trepadeiro foi introduzido como uma nova tecnologia para intensificar a produção de feijão, juntamente com opções complementares de gestão de solos (como o uso de insumos orgânicos e não orgânicos para o controlo integrado da podridão da raiz). As dez variedades foram multiplicadas e as suas sementes distribuídas pelos camponeses, especialmente grupos de mulheres, com a ajuda da Rede de Gestão de Matéria Orgânica (uma ONG), do KARI e dos serviços de extensão do Ministério da Agricultura. O cultivo de variedades resistentes à podridão da raiz foi posteriormente amplamente adoptado.O principal objectivo era realizar avaliações de impacto focalizadas nas pessoas, que mostrariam como a introdução das variedades melhoradas de feijão resistente à podridão da raiz melhorou o bem-estar da população pobre de maneira sustentável. Foi recolhida informação sobre o grau e extensão da adopção e os efeitos destas variedades melhoradas na vida dos camponeses.Em 2001 foi realizada uma sondagem formal a 225 famílias. Os dados foram recolhidos usando diferentes métodos, incluindo diagnóstico rural participativo (DRP), sondagens formais a famílias camponesas e comerciantes de feijão, discussões em grupo, diagramas de avaliação de impacto (um instrumento participativo) e um questionário estruturado. Utilizaram-se estatísticas descritivas para avaliar as proporções e grandeza das variáveis sócio-económicas e a análise de orçamentos parciais proporcionou uma indicação relativa da rentabilidade e da contribuição das novas variedades de feijão para o rendimento dos camponeses. A nível do agregado familiar, o modelo do excedente económico foi adaptado para avaliar os benefícios económicos líquidos resultantes da adopção das variedades melhoradas de feijão. A intensidade da adopção foi usada para proporcionar indicações sobre os factores que afectam a adopção de tecnologias e os impactos resultantes. Em 2004 realizou-se um encontro de parceiros para reflexão e troca de ideias, para validar os resultados do estudo.Das dez variedades, três variedades de feijão selvagem (KK22, KK15 e KK8) foram adoptadas por 35% a 80% dos camponeses. Apenas 8% a 18% dos camponeses adoptaram feijão trepadeiro, porque a sua mão-de-obra é considerada muito intensiva, requerendo uma colheita e colocação de estacas escalonada. Outros factores que desencorajaram a adopção de feijão trepadeiro foram a escassez de estacas, danos causados por pássaros e dificuldades na sua cultura intercalar com o milho.Nenhuma variedade de feijão, introduzida ou local, tinha todos os atributos preferidos pelos camponeses. Assim, para compensar, muitos camponeses cultivaram mais do que uma variedade. O estudo mostrou também que quando se usavam abordagens participativas para avaliar e disseminar as variedades melhoradas de feijão pelos camponeses, a sua adopção e a proporção da área plantada aumentavam. Os camponeses usam um conjunto complexo de critérios para seleccionar as variedades de feijão que cultivam. Deste modo, é importante que eles também estejam mais envolvidos no desenvolvimento das variedades. Exemplos de critérios usados incluem a maturidade, rendimento, intensidade de mão-de-obra, adequação à cultura intercalar com o milho, qualidades culinárias e sabor, durabilidade, procura e preços de mercado, bem como a resistência a doenças.As características dos camponeses também influenciaram a adopção e a intensidade de adopção das variedades melhoradas de feijão. Por exemplo, muitos dos agregados familiares (76%) que tinham adoptado as novas variedades eram chefiados por homens (provavelmente porque os homens são mais capazes de obter informação e ter acesso aos insumos necessários para a adopção da tecnologia). Da mesma maneira, os agregados familiares mais pobres tenderam a adoptar a tecnologia devido à sua simplicidade e por poder ser ajustada aos recursos disponíveis, com resultados observáveis dentro de um curto período de tempo.As novas variedades de feijão tiveram impactos em cinco áreas: segurança alimentar, rendimento familiar, diversidade varietal, uso de lenha e comercialização. Por exemplo, nos dois distritos, as variedades melhoraram a segurança alimentar de quase todos os camponeses incluídos na sondagem, isto é, um terço dos camponeses em ambos os distritos Estamos gratos pela assistência financeira da CIDA, SDC, Fundação Rockefeller e USAID através da PABRA. As opiniões aqui expressas não reflectem necessariamente a posição dessas organizações.tiveram mais feijão para consumir ao longo do ano e, consequentemente, a sua saúde e rendimento melhoraram.Embora se espere que as variedades locais sejam substituídas pelas introduzidas, muitos dos camponeses entrevistados planeiam continuar a plantar variedades locais susceptíveis à podridão da raiz. Deste modo, longe de reduzir a diversidade varietal, a introdução das variedades resistentes à podridão da raiz parece ter aumentado a diversidade varietal, dando aos camponeses a opção de cultivarem uma combinação de variedades novas e locais que vão de encontro às suas limitações e objectivos.Os modelos económicos tendem a salientar apenas os objectivos que podem ser avaliados em termos monetários, ignorando ganhos não financeiros como a redução do trabalho necessário para a procura de alimentos, poupança de lenha, benefícios para a saúde e aumento dos conhecimentos dos camponeses. Geralmente estes ganhos não podem ser comercializados em mercados, de modo que não podem ser facilmente captados por modelos económicos de excedentes. ","tokenCount":"1130"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7143e1b3a8231416da500a2f91c3f8f9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/be924f4c-7fb0-4fe6-a28e-94729894a752/retrieve","id":"492990359"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"80fd92bf-8afb-4e45-be9f-46f3f7b3188f","pagecount":"27","content":"The reporting period of October 2014-March 2015 is characterized by the installation of field experiments as it falls within the crop growing period in ESA. Nevertheless, there are some activities reported under Research Output 1, mainly end-points of those initiated in previous action periods and include (i) submission of the report on the farming system characterization and diagnosis for the intervention sites in Zambia, (ii) completion of the study and submission of the report on farm typologies characterized by World Bank-defined indicators, (iii) completion of the household socioeconomic characterization study to inform planning for the introduction of vegetable technologies, (iv) analysis of data from a nutritional survey whose preliminary results show the prevalence of malnutrition among children in the Tanzanian action areas, (v) completion of a literature review and submission of an assessment report on the indigenous poultry production and feeding systems in Babati District, and (vi) conduction of epidemiological surveys to assess offseason incidence of Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease (MLND) and its impact on the new season crop, as well as biophysical characteristics influencing MLND epidemics in the region.Field experiments to validate SI interventions (Research Output 2) were installed during December 2014 through January 2015 consisting of cereal, legume, and forage spatial and sequential combinations and accompanied by good agronomic practices addressing nutrient and water use efficiencies at plot and landscape levels. Almost 140 mother trials and more than 4500 baby trials are in place across the three countries. Trials also test the residual effects of those installed during previous cropping seasons. Cost-benefit analysis has been initiated on all technologies tested during previous cropping seasons so as to present economic scenarios of technology effectiveness. Unfortunately, a prolonged dry spell in Tanzania has resulted in very poor performance of the trials for the present season and in some cases necessitated complete re-planting.Evaluation of several hybrids of maize for their resistance to MLND has continued at hotspots identified in Babati but this time with added trials that test the effectiveness of good agronomic and cultural practices for the management of MLND.On 14 sites in four villages (Hallu, Sabilo, Sangaiwe, and Seloto) trials were installed to test the efficacy of the aflatoxin biocontrol product (future Tanzanian aflasafe TM ) developed using native atoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus. Soil samples collected from control and test sites are being analyzed to establish baseline soil levels of toxigenic and atoxigenic A. flavus. Here, too, severe drought in the region affected maize trials and sporulation levels for the biocontrol product. We are near to completion of the installation of diagnostic capacity for aflatoxins at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro. An ELISA reader has been received and staff trained. Installation and launching still remain to be done. Storage of maize using improved bags has been tested and scaled-up (warehouse storage) so as to motivate large-scale farmers to adopt the technologies. It was also meant to estimate the costbenefit ratio of using the storage technologies at a large scale and possibly also the cost-benefit implication of 2-season storage if commodity prices remain low for more than a season. In addition, the effect of improved storage structures to mitigate the detrimental effects of mycotoxins, with special focus on aflatoxins and fumonisins, was tested during the same period and in same structures. Maize samples were collected from different storage structures starting at the onset of storage, and at three-month intervals until six months to give a total of 469 samples which are currently being tested to determine levels and prevalence of aflatoxin and fumonisin. Preliminary results show high prevalence of both aflatoxin (90-100%) and fumonisin (30-100%) in samples coming from farmers' fields just before storage. At sample collection, farmers were enlightened on the health effects of consuming mycotoxin-contaminated products or feeding these to animals and on what should be done to minimize effects of mycotoxin on human and animal health.Establishing of R4D and Innovation Platforms has progressed well with all the four Research Teams, usually building on existing official structures for stakeholder participation. For the Babati Platform (JUMBA), activities by the management committee have included development of a constitution and a detailed work plan for 2015-2016. Facilitation on purposes, functions, and plans of the platforms is on-going.Human capacity building has continued at degree, technical, and farmer levels. During this reporting period, there were 7 PhD students and over 20 MSc students being mentored by Africa RISING partners and conducting their theses research on Africa RISING project sites during 2014. The project is building local laboratory capacity and training personnel in diagnostics and analysis for MLN (at Selian ARI), aflatoxins (at SUA), and automated weather data collection and erosion detection at action sites. Farmer capacity building has continued through several participatory methods which are also avenues for feedback and scaling. Knowledge resource or pilot centers and nutrition/entrepreneur groups were established in the project villages of Long and Seloto (Tanzania) to help them to process their crops into different products.Communication of \"happenings\" through the social media has improved following a special training during the last Annual Review and Planning Meeting. Three publications have come out during the period and 16 presentations were made at high-level conferences.The draft Africa RISING Data Management Plan elaborated by IFPRI had been adopted by the Program Coordination Team in November 2014 and its implementation is now compulsory for all Africa RISING partners. The provisions in the plan are in line with the USAID and CGIAR Open Access Policies.In October 2014, a new component was added to Africa RISING in Tanzania with supplementary funding from USAID Country Mission to implement strategic scientific support to NAFAKA and TUBORESHE CHAKULA with the aim of fast-tracking delivery and scaling of agricultural technologies in Tanzania.Discussions have been held with the USAID-funded Innovation Laboratory on Small-scale Irrigation at Texas A&M on potential areas of collaboration in Tanzania. The inception workshop for the Tanzanian activities will be held in Morogoro on 21 May 2015 and the Africa RISING partner AVRDC will be taking the lead in this activity.Africa RISING also participated in the development of two proposals for a Consortium on Small-scale Mechanization under the Innovation Laboratory on Sustainable Intensification; one is led by Iowa State University and the other by Georgia Institute of Technology.Between January and April 2015, an IITA-commissioned External Review of Africa RISING in Tanzania and Malawi took place. The process included a review of project documents, discussions with project implementers and stakeholders, and field visits to assess the work on the ground and get the views of the beneficiaries.During the reporting period, three papers were published in scientific journals. Africa RISING had good visibility at the CGIAR Integrated Systems Conference in March in Ibadan, Nigeria, with one oral presentation and 12 posters. Scientists also presented at Tropentag 2014 in Prague, Czech Republic.Research Output 1 (RO1): Situation analysis and program-wide synthesis Baseline data generated by IFPRI are now available to Africa RISING scientists on the ILRI-CKAN Platform. Some scientists have started retrieving and analyzing the data in support of their own studies. The PMMT has also been adapted for archiving, retrieving, and sharing data from all researchers and the exercise for populating the database was initiated during this reporting period. A draft report for farming system characterization and diagnosis for the intervention sites in Zambia (Chipata, Lundazi, and Katete Districts) was submitted. Fieldwork was completed on farm household typologies in the six villages, including WB socioeconomic categorization through participatory wealth ranking (600 households) (https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/37281) and reported as a Bachelor's thesis (two students) at Gothenburg University, Sweden; an international publication of the results is being prepared.A nutrition survey involving 360 households was conducted in three villages (Long, Sabilo, and Seloto). The results showed the prevalence of underweight (20.8%), stunting (54.7%), and wasting (2.6%) among children aged below five years. Among boys, 20.9% were underweight and 58.1%, were stunted compared with girls where 20.6% were underweight and 50.5% stunted. Similarly, 26.7% of the pregnant women were at risk for malnutrition. The prevalence of under-nutrition expressed by underweight was 17.1% and overweight/obesity was 12.2% among lactating mothers. It was observed that 21.1% of the elderly were underweight and 15.8% had higher body weight. Child nutritional indicators from this survey will be compared with data collected through the Tanzania baseline survey which are currently being summarized in a report.Characterizing the availability, handling, and use of crop residues on smallholder farms in Babati District involved focused group discussions (FGD) in 6 hamlets, 2 each from Sabilo, Long, and Seloto. A total of 143 farmers (105 men and 38 women) participated in the FGD. In addition, 54 individual participants were interviewed -9 from each hamlet with 3 each representing small, medium, and large farmers as perceived by farmers -to collect quantitative data from each farm. Results show that (i) there are no specific areas allocated for grazing animals and the very high competition for grazing results in limited biomass to meet livestock demands most of the year, (ii) crop residues are the main feed resource especially during the dry season, (iii) a very few farmers have planted Napier grass along the contours to provide fodder and control soil erosion but the grass is cut too frequently on most farms thus affecting its performance, (iv) there is a major lack of storage facilities for crop residues amongst farmers; they are stored in the open which results in quality deterioration, (v) renting land for grazing crop residues in situ is at a rate of TSh5,000-6,000 (US$3-4) per acre, and (vi) farmers who have the ability to store crop residues normally collect them from more than 5km away from their homesteads with attendant transportation costs. Farmers who cannot afford to purchase crop residues by cash would normally get residues by exchanging livestock or livestock products.The survey for vegetable pest and disease incidence was conducted during the 2014/2015 season and data analysis is in progress. Field observations indicated that farmers lack knowledge in pest and disease identification, undoubtedly the major production constraint. Furthermore, limited knowledge of pest and disease identification was shown to lead to improper and incorrect use of pesticides. A critical observation from the baseline survey is that farmers do not use healthy seedlings.Qualitative and quantitative methods were deployed in Halu, Matufa, Sabilo, and Seloto villages of Babati District to characterize existing indigenous chicken feeding and management systems, and quantify different potential locally available feed resources. The survey involved 213 farmers; 96.5% of the households kept the indigenous chickens at an average of 5 per household and under free range management. Feed supplementation was rarely done and, even then, the supplements were unbalanced maize and sorghum grains and maize bran, depending on their availability (Table 1). Plenty of cereals, legumes, vegetables, and their by-products are available but not efficiently used as poultry feed. Kitchen left-overs were the dominant supplements throughout the year. The mortality rate, particularly for chicks, was high (about 40%) mainly due to malnutrition and diseases. No vaccination had ever been administered by 82.3% of the respondents. Only 49.6% of the respondents have chicken shelters, and 45.4% share their houses with chickens at night. Marketing of chickens and their eggs was localized to village customers; the trend fluctuates over the year. These results present opportunities for designing research whose results will inform better chicken management for increased productivity. In Kongwa and Kiteto Districts of Tanzania, studies are being conducted using Farmer Research Networks to determine the drivers of performance of the new varieties (Genotype x Environment). This information will provide new insights on the causes of low productivity among smallholder farmers and adaptability imperatives. Farmers were provided with pigeon pea seeds to plant using their own knowledge and/or acquired knowledge from the research teams. In total, 800kg of pigeon pea seeds was distributed in Kongwa and Kiteto, each farmer receiving about 2kg, enough to plant at least 0.3ha of land. Similarly, groundnut seeds were distributed in villages as follows: 300kg to Moleti; 300kg to Mlali; 300kg to Laikala; 50kg to Chitego, and 50kg to Njoro. Each farmer received about 10kg of seeds. Pearl millet varieties Pato (100kg) and Okoa (200kg) were distributed in Laikala, each farmer receiving about 2 kg of seeds of either variety. Data are being assembled from each farmer on socioeconomics as well as agronomy, to identify the drivers of adoption and deployment of production knowledge.Based on the evaluation of QPM hybrid performance during the 2013/2014 growing season, the two best performing QPM selected hybrids (T283-34 and T283-31) were planted in January 2015 in Chitego, Njoro, Moleti, Mlali, and Tarakwa, and are being validated for stress tolerance under farmers' field conditions for adaptation and reaction to MLND. The two varieties have been included in the 2015 National Performance Trials in the test sites and other sites of the country as required for release. Final evaluations for the promising; pigeon pea genotypes ICEAP 00554, ICEAP 00557, ICEAP 00040, ICEAP 00936, ICEAP 00932, and ICEAP 00933 and groundnut genotypes ICGV-SM 02724, ICGV-SM 99568, ICGV-SM 03519, and ICGV-SM 05650 have been planted to generate data needed to support final release.In Zambia, on-farm and on-station trials are evaluating elite maize trials for drought tolerance, planting density, and quality protein in both conventional and conservation agricultural set-ups. Up to 22 varieties obtained from seed companies, ZARI and CIMMYT, are being evaluated. A total of 11 mother trials and 66 baby trials have been planted in Chanje, Musekera, Mutaya, Kalichelo, and Kalunga Camps (Chipata District), Katete FTC, Kafumbwe and Lundazi Camps (Katete District), and Hoya and Kapichila Camps (Lundazi District). The performance data obtained will accelerate variety release and registration. Planting of the trials was effected starting from the third week of December 2014 and was concluded by 10 January 2015. The 2014-2015 cropping season has experienced a delayed onset of effective rains and as of 31 December 2014, the SIMLEZA-Africa RISING operational sites had received below normal rainfall.Agronomic trials implemented by partners have been harvested except for pigeon pea which is pending. Scientific data were collected and compiled and are being analyzed.During the third cropping season, nearly 40 mother trials and over 1,300 baby trials were established across the four action sites (Linthipe, Golomoti, Kandeu, and Nsipe). The trials range from the identified 'silver bullet technology' -the groundnut/pigeon pea doubled-up system (Plate 1)-to the intensification of beans.They are investigating how to enhance the productivity and adoptability of climbing and dwarf beans through introducing improved high yielding varieties, soil fertility management practices, and staking options in 2 sites at contrasting altitudes (Linthipe-850masl and Kandeu-1400masl. This work has seen the increase in number of baby farmers having investigations on beans from 46 last year to >200 this year. The bulk of the mother trials have been on sequencing different grain legumes with maize across the sites. A graduate student is completing analysis of below-and above-ground biomass inputs for cropping systems that integrate pigeon pea as part of the sustainable intensification assessment.The Conservation Agriculture technologies in Eastern Zambia: Farmers (102 male, 96 female) hosted 198 validation trials of maize-legume rotations; integrated innovations have been established to identify improved germplasm and conservation agriculture technologies that increase productivity and incomes from the maize-legume system. Technologies with soybean were inoculation of seeds with rhizobia, application of compound D fertilizer (NKP) at planting, or a combination of the two. Technologies with maize included testing the effect on maize productivity of a rotation system with soybean (as a precursor crop) grown with or without the application of inorganic fertilizer and/or inoculums.The cereal-based intercropping in Tanzania: Trials on spatial arrangements of pigeon pea and maize/sorghum intercropping (Plate 2) to optimize crop productivity have been planted in the Kongwa and Kiteto districts. The two sites chosen, Mlali and Chitego villages, represent stressed and high productivity potential zones. All experiments are based on material selected from the previous seasons for cereals and legumes. At Chitego, another set of trials was installed to estimate the potential for offsetting cooking energy scarcity and forage supply. The following treatments are being examined: pure stand of maize and pigeon pea, maize intercropped with pigeon pea or Gliricidia sepium, and intercropping of maize, pigeon pea, and G. sepium. Fertilizer micro-dosing technologies have been established in Kongwa and Kiteto to enhance fertilizer use efficiency and sustain crop yield. The aim is to refine site-specific agronomic rates to develop the more agronomically efficient and affordable micro-dose rates for maize production in semiarid conditions. They have been established in Mlali, Moleti, and Njoro villages, integrated with the deployment of selected high yielding and drought resistant cereal and maize material identified during the first season. Two hundred and ninety-three baby trials have been established in which farmers validate manure x fertilizer interactions and Minjingu mazao as a P source.In Babati, best-bet technology demonstrations were installed in 13 farmers' fields (3 each in the villages of Seloto, Long, and Sabillo, and 4 in Hallu). The demonstrations include evaluation of the response of maize variety to NPK fertilizer applied as urea, triple superphosphate, and muriate of potash, and the response of two maize varieties to DAP, urea, Minjingu mazao, Minjingu granular, and farmyard manure. These demonstrations use improved maize varieties (those that performed best last season) identified for best performance: PAN691 and SC627 in Long and SC627 and Pioneer 3253 in the other villages. Some farmers in Long opted for Kenya H614 instead of SC 627, and one farmer in Seloto preferred Kenya H513 to Pioneer 3253. Each maize variety is intercropped with the improved pigeon pea variety Mali (a long maturing variety) at the inter-row spacing recommended for each agro-ecozone. Six fertilizer treatments are applied to each maize variety as in the previous season. Other trials established in Babati include (i) one manure trial in Seloto with manure sourced from different farmers installed on 3 farmers' fields, (2) one trial in Seloto under relay cropping with lablab for the provision of additional soil cover in the maize-pigeon pea intercropping system (bestbet technology), also on 3 farmers' fields, and (3) NPK response trials on 9 farmers' fields (2 each in Seloto, Sabillo, and Hallu, and 3 in Long) to refine the application rates of these nutrients. The fertilizer treatments and rates are the same as in the previous season and replicated 3 times at each farm site.During the 2014/2015 cropping season, studies are continuing to investigate the effect on crop performance and soil moisture storage of three tillage techniques: conventional tillage, i.e., oxen moldboard tillage (PL), oxen-drawn rip tillage (RT), and oxen-drawn ridging tillage system (TR). Elite seeds for maize, pearl millet, pigeon pea, and groundnut are being used as test crops. Continuing studies are also being conducted at our Mlali test site to calibrate the efficacy of erosion management tools based on run-off rates for different erosion control strategies. A total of 140 farmers from Mlali are integrating improved groundnut, pigeonpea, and maize in their fields installed with community constructed Fanya juu/Fanya chini terraces (Plate 3). A similar pattern is repeated at Laikala with 40 farmers and at Njoro with 50 farmers integrating elite pearl millet, groundnut, pigeon pea, and maize at the landscape level.Integration options for trees on farm for fodder and wood supply, wind erosion control (shelterbelts), and soil fertility improvement were established during 2014 and are progressing well. More trees were planted in Plate 3: Community mobilization for landscape management of soil and water erosion (Photo: Swai Elirehema) Plate 4: Community tree nursery at Mlali Village, Tanzania (Photo: Abdala Liingilie) Mlali, Moleti, Chitego (Manyusi), and Laikala. Some of these seedlings are part of 16,000 distributed by Africa RISING for fodder banking and shelterbelt activities. There is continued support to 2 community-based nurseries (Plate 4) at Mlali and Laikala villages and one central nursery at Kongwa District headquarters as seedling sources. Data on root collar diameter and height of tree are collected to allow estimates of foliage and woody biomass based on published equations.In Babati, data gathering from automated and ordinary weather stations is continuing; data are downloaded and shared on a common data sharing platform (Dropbox) for use by researchers of other themes as an integrating component. In addition, data are being collected on erosion, percolation, and potential evaporation rates from agro-ecologically targeted sites. This will inform on better water and nutrient management strategies considering the current erratic rainfall patterns.In Malawi and Tanzania, trials are continuing on improving livestock feed supplies through testing alternative grass, legume, and tree fodder species for cows and for goats to a lesser extent. These species are grown as fodder banks, boundary planting, erosion structure strengthening, shelterbelts, and as intercrops. These are long-term trial designs. The community-based nurseries referred to above also supply seedlings for this activity. First season fodder yield assessment in Babati shows differences in yield across sites, attributed to agro-ecological differences (Figure 1).A poultry production group has been formed in Mlali village, Tanzania, after 30 farmers received training in improved poultry production through improved housing and nutrition (Plate 5). Each farmer now keeps at least 2 improved local chickens to improve the quality of the flock. An expansion of such groups is envisaged and will form learning points for (i) local production systems (meat and egg production), (ii) integration into the cropping systems, and (iii) nutrition studies on poultry feeding (local feed sources such as vegetable wastes are being used). Aflatoxins increased during storage with varying levels of pre-storage exposure. Oil crops are more prone to contamination; groundnut and sunflower were most affected. Sorghum had less contamination over the two-year study period. This suggests that sorghum is a suitable alternative for mitigating exposure to aflatoxins in this cereal-staple dependent community. Preliminary results show that Njoro and Chitego have highly toxigenic Aspergillus species (A. flavus) compared with other sites (Mlali, Laikala, and Moleti), attributable to differences in agro-ecology. Aflatoxin contamination also follows the same trend.Nutrition: Knowledge resource or pilot centers and nutrition/entrepreneur groups were established in two villages of Babati District (Long and Seloto; Plate 8). The primary aim of these centers is to incubate nutrition and entrepreneur groups in methods of processing their crops into different products and to gain knowledge through training, thus improving the value chains of their crops.The second set of demonstrations was planted in October 2014 (targeting the dry season of2015-2016) and allowed farmers to use lessons learnt from the previous demonstration trials that targeted the rainy season of 2014-2015. We shall also examine the effectiveness of the dissemination approaches used in introducing the improved technologies in the project communities in the 2014-2015 seasons. Subsequent recommendations will yield lessons for further improvement or allow corrective actions.Preliminary analysis of data from the first demonstration set from the four villages in Babati District shows that tomato production can increase from 35.6 to 58.0t/ha, African eggplant production from 50.49 to 86.54t/ha, and amaranth production from 51.5 to 72.2t/ha. Results from the Dunnet F-test (a post-hoc test) show a significant (P < 0.05) increase in profits from the increased tomato and African eggplant yields following the combination of AVRDC good quality elite seeds of improved varieties as healthy seedlings, GAP, and integrated pest management. Yield increases in amaranth did not significantly increase profits. The data analysis demonstrates that on an area of only 12m 2 , a household can produce enough vegetables to increase household consumption to meet the daily per capita recommended requirement of 200g/person/day.From last cropping season's 36 maize trials with several varieties, CKH122206, CKH122255, CKH122251, CKH123730, CKH122157, CKH122244, CKH123995, CKH122159, CKH121957, CKH122253, and CKH123729 emerged as the top performing hybrids compared with a popular farmer-preferred hybrid (commercial check) SC627. Based on this performance, further evaluation of the selected hybrids is being implemented to validate their performance in MLND hotspot areas in Babati District (Matufa and Seloto villages). Surveys to assess MLND incidence in farmers' fields were conducted from 31 villages across Arusha, Manyara, and Dodoma Regions (Figure 2) from 25 February to 21 March 2015. MLND was observed in 57 to 100% of the fields assessed and is the most prevalent virus disease compared to MSV which was observed in 7.5 to 42.8% of fields. Analysis of samples confirmed occurrence of MSV, and two viruses -Maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) -in infected samples. High prevalence of MLND (i.e., percentage of fields with infection) was noted in fields planted in most intensive maize production zones. MLND Infection level differed from place to place; higher levels were found in Babati, Arusha, and Mbulu compared with Kongwa and Mpwapwa (Table 2). Nine improved maize cultivars and several local cultivars were observed in the surveyed fields, and local cultivars were observed to be more severely affected than improved lines.Grow-out tests were performed on 2014 season seeds collected from Babati (N=14) and Arumeru (N=20) Districts, to assess their role in virus transmission. None of the germinated plants showed any virus-like symptoms. In diagnostics assays all tested negative to MCMV. Virus tests with ELISA showed that most seeds obtained from MCMVaffected farms tested positive. This is not unusual as it is a well-known fact that systemically infecting viruses can be detected in all tissues. This evidence indeed suggests that the presence of the virus in seeds alone is not adequate to obtain seed transmission.  In each field 30 plants were assessed; MSV = maize streak virus; MLND = maize lethal necrosis; incidence is expressed as % infected plants of the total plants assessed; and symptom severity is assessed based on 1 to 5 rating scale, where 1 = no symptoms and 5 = most severe symptomsIn addition to our scaling approach within intervention sites of demonstrations at mother-baby trials, training and field days, Research Teams have continued to facilitate and strengthen R4D and IP as avenues for scaling out, starting at district levels and preparing for the formation of lower level platforms. In Malawi, platform formation is building upon the official agricultural panels established at district and village levels. In Zambia, the research and local authority institutions have merged in a bid to form a unified better functioning platform. The integrated SIMLEZA-Africa RISING IP and the Lundazi District Conservation Agriculture Committee merged to form the Lundazi Agricultural Stakeholders Platform (LUASP) on 20 November 2014. The Babati District R4D Platform (JUMBA) that was inaugurated in April 2014 has established a management committee of 10 people representing stakeholders in the area, a constitution, and a work plan for 2015-2016. An annual general assembly meeting was held in October 2014 with about 60 participants/stakeholders present. Measures taken to better communicate the role of JUMBA and its activities include the establishment of vision and mission statements, information leaflets in English and Swahili, and a JUMBA logo.The following training activities have taken place:• A total number of 400 farmers from two villages of Sabilo and Seloto were trained on the use of PICS bags as an improved storage technology. About 10 dealers in different places in Babati were identified as agents for distributing and selling PICS bags to farmers and nearby villages.• Nutrition education was conducted in the two villages (Sabilo and Seloto) and nutrition community members were trained on the household preparation of nutrient-dense foods. Challenges and measures taken o In the storage structure trial some farmers consumed the experimental maize before the trial was over, causing a lack of data for some treatments. In future, we shall act through the extension officers and the village leaders to persuade the farmers not to consume experimental materials before the researcher allows this.o Lack of rains hindered the application of the aflatoxin bio-control product on time and delayed sporulation of the applied fungus (product). This will delay its colonization of the soil and the crop to control aflatoxin. Follow-up in the field is needed to describe the situation so that relevant reasons/causes can be used to account for any unusual variability that may influence the results during/after data analysis.o In Malawi, the rainfall season had a late onset, and then was characterized by too much rain during January 2015 and later a prolonged dry spell during the second half of February through March. Response to this situation is not easy. We may use varieties with shorter maturity in some of our sites during the next cropping season.o The extended dry spell has also affected action sites in Tanzania; crops are drying in many fields, including farmers' fields.o Aligning research activities and administrative arrangements. Our studies on the efficiency and effectiveness of Africa RISING approaches were delayed -shifted from November 2014 to late February 2015 owing to the redesigning of field operations and delayed release of funds by iAGRI to the students and their university supervisors. Chief Scientist are to follow up with iAGRI officers.o R4D & IP required constant facilitation to remain afloat. The high turnover of staff from the different stakeholders often results in the need to re-introduce the objectives of the project, yet often the assumption on R4D processes is that the system should be self-sustaining once it takes off.o There are strong institutional inclinations within the research teams; partners are keen to keep their institutional identities equally visible. So, although integration of the different project components is taking shape it is at a slower pace than is desirable. Joint field trips, more frequent meetings, and communicating \"cross-cutting\" issues are helping to create an Africa RISING brand among research team members.o Sourcing reagents for the ELISA Lab at SARI has been a problem. This weakness is being addressed by supplying reagents from IITA.Between January and April 2015 an IITA commissioned External Review of the Africa RISING project in Tanzania and Malawi assessed conformity of the project with the Program Research Framework, evaluated the project's contribution to learning by stakeholders, identified weaknesses and research gaps, looked at data management issues, assessed the existing partnerships, evaluated progress made towards the objectives of the Program, and provided recommendations to overcome identified shortcomings.The evaluators were generally very impressed by the extensive work carried out with the available resources and the large number of partner institutions and scientists involved in implementation, recognizing the challenges such complex system projects present.In their report, the review team highlights the importance of R4D Platforms for research priority setting and facilitating technology scaling. They therefore recommend full support from Africa RISING to the initiated and already existing IP. They also emphasize the need for socio-economic studies to inform the biophysical researcher on the viability of their innovations, a constraint the project management had already identified and addressed by recruiting an agricultural economist and a gender specialist. Particularly for Tanzania they recommend a thorough analysis of other actors in the Africa RISING action sites, assessing the opportunities of synergistic effects and building on each other's work. The need to address the issue of poor availability of improved legume seeds in both countries has been brought up. Several representatives from partner and stakeholder organizations were unable to participate in the system dynamics modelling workshop in August 2014 because of previously scheduled obligations. These individuals face many demands on their time, so the project team has communicated with relevant individuals via Skype and email to exchange ideas, information, and data. The project team also arranged in-person meetings with key stakeholders for January 2015.There are related challenges associated with the sharing of proprietary data, some of which may not be publicly available. However, again in January, some representatives from partner and stakeholder organizations were unable to meet with the project team owing to other commitments.A final workshop with partners and stakeholders in Zambia was originally scheduled for March 2015, but a lapse in communication required that the workshop be postponed and rescheduled for July 2015. A no-cost extension of the original project contract has been approved, and the project period will be extended to 31 August 2015.Understanding the linkages between on-farm decisions about sustainable intensification technologies and landscape-level impacts on the environment is a complex process. The project's emphasis on participatory modelling has highlighted the importance of stakeholders' engagement.The system dynamics modelling process has challenged conventional assumptions about the drivers of deforestation, and it has highlighted the important contributions to deforestation of population growth, urbanization, and a dependence on wood fuels for cooking energy.","tokenCount":"5330"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"edb25cec7053a79ad3a43c9683037548","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b3f5b152-aa32-467c-a3e4-ffd1e5f86fa9/retrieve","id":"183939342"},"keywords":["☒ Peer review ☐ Supplementary material vitamin A deficiency","marker-assisted selection","provitamin A content","Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR African Union Commission"],"sieverID":"1c66731b-b163-4989-8167-c5017bffbc07","pagecount":"10","content":"Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) contributes to significant levels of mortality and morbidity, particularly among children and women in Africa. Cassava is a major staple crop whose biofortification with betacarotene can contribute to reducing the VAD prevalence in a cost-effective and sustainable approach. Developing high provitamin A content (pVAC) cassava varieties through the conventional approach is a laborious and slow process, partly due to the breeding bottlenecks caused by the biology of the crop. To complement the phenotypic screening for pVAC and increase selection efficiency as well as accuracy, we employed four Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR (KASP) assays to predict the level of carotenoids in a cassava population developed from open-pollinated crosses. There was significant correlation (r = 0.88) between total carotenoid content (TCC) and root tissue colour score in the study population. Marker S1_24155522 at the phytoene synthase gene explained most of the phenotypic variation in TCC and root colour (R 2 = 0.37 and 0.55, respectively) among the genotypes evaluated in this study. The other markers did not individually account for much phenotypic variation in the trait in our study population. Three genotypes -namely UIC-17-679, UIC-17-1713, and UIC-17-2823 -had higher TCCs, ranging from 10.07 µg/g to 10.88 µg/g, than the national yellow check variety IITA-IBA-TMS070593 (9.20 µg/g). Marker PSY572/S124155522 is therefore recommended for routine use in marker-assisted selection for pVAC enhancement in African cassava germplasm.Inadequate micronutrient intake is a major health challenge, particularly in developing countries. 1,2 This problem is exacerbated by a restricted diet that relies mostly on a single major staple crop for subsistence 3,4 or on a few crops lacking some essential nutrients. About 56% of reported childhood deaths in developing nations are due to nutritional deficiencies. 1 Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) causes night blindness and increases the risk of sickness and mortality in children and pregnant women. 5 Globally, more than 250 000 children become blind every year, of whom half die within 12 months of losing their sight. 5 In Nigeria, about 83% of children under five are vitamin A deficient. 6 Supplement-based strategies for treating vitamin A deficiencies have had limited success, in part due to the short-term nature of their interventions and the inability to purchase fortified foods. 4 A cost-effective approach to reducing the alarming rate of vitamin A deficiency in developing countries is through biofortification of staple crops. 7 Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important staple crop that provides for the calorie needs of more than 800 million people in Africa, Asia and South America. 8,9 Unlike other staple crops, cassava's starchy roots are inexpensive, which encourages its widespread consumption and adoption, especially in Africa. 10,11 However, there is a reported correlation between consumption levels of white cassava storage roots and micronutrient deficiency, putting populations that rely on this crop at risk of concealed hunger. 12 Consequently, biofortification of cassava with provitamin A content (pVAC) would contribute, non-exclusively, to reducing the VAD prevalence in West Africa 4,13 , and also play a crucial role in mitigating the rate of hidden hunger -a concept which refers to micronutrient deficiency with invisible symptoms in affected individuals 14,15 .Significant efforts have been undertaken to exploit the natural variability for carotenoid content in the existing cassava gene pool. [16][17][18] For instance, HarvestPlus programme and its partners have improved and released high vitamin A cassava in Nigeria in the past years. Between 2011 and 2014, two waves of yellow cassava varieties were released in Nigeria, with carotenoid contents ranging from 6 to 8 µg/g and 8 to 10 µg/g, respectively. 19 The existing pVAC cassava varieties can supply up to 40% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A. 20 Nonetheless, there is a need to breed for higher pVAC cassava varieties as the breeding target fixed at 15 µg/g in yellow cassava genotypes has not yet been achieved in West Africa. 17,21 The use of molecular markers to complement the conventional breeding approach is expected to increase and accelerate the genetic gain across environments and seasons 22,23 compared with conventional breeding which depends on the environment 24 and relies upon identification of the traits at maturity 25 . Moreover, known phenotyping protocols used for carotenoid quantification, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and I-check, are sophisticated, time-consuming and expensive 21 , thereby limiting the number of samples that can be handled within a short period without introducing errors at the early stage of selection when thousands of genotypes usually are handled.Advances in molecular biology technology led to the discovery of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers which are prioritised in crop breeding due to their density in the whole genome and their need in advanced genotyping platforms. 26 The commonly used SNP genotyping platforms include GoldenGate, BeadXpress and Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR, the genotyping platform used in this study. Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) is a simple and cost-effective genotyping system, convenient for studies that involve relatively few markers. 27 Efficient biofortification of cassava storage roots using the available natural variation requires a prior understanding of the genetic architecture of the trait 28 and identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL)-linked markers for marker-assisted selection (MAS) implementation. A biparental QTL mapping using genotyping by sequencing was first conducted by Rabbi et al. 29 and enabled the identification of a major locus on chromosome 1 which explained 92.85% of the variation in root pulp colour. However, the QTL mapping method mentioned above is extremely dependent on the genetic diversity of the two parents, hence there is variation in QTL effects between populations. 30 Genome-wide association studies have been identified to overcome QTL mapping limitations whereby genomic regions responsible for phenotypic traits are identified by using a large size of diverse populations to retrieve significant associations narrowing down the candidate regions. 31 Thus, using the genome-wide association studies approach, the same authors, Rabbi et al. 18 , uncovered two major loci associated with increased pVAC on chromosome 1 at positions 24.1 and 30.5 Mbp. The two SNPlinked markers (S1_24121306 and S1_30543382) explained jointly 81% of total phenotypic variation in root colour score. 18 Other studies using independent populations have confirmed the association signals from the same genomic region 28,32,33 which contains phytoene synthase 2, a rate-limiting enzyme in the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway 34 . More recently, five additional QTLs on chromosomes 5 (S5_3387558), 8 (S8_4319215 and S8_25598183), 15 (S15_7659426), and 16 (S16_484011) were identified using a large genome-wide association studies panel of over 5000 cassava accessions. 33 Four of the genome-wide uncovered markers (S1_24155522, S1_30543962, S5_3387558, and S8_25598183) linked to pVAC were recently converted to allele-specific PCR assays to facilitate their routine use in MAS. 35 We carried out MAS using these SNP markers on a pVAC breeding population developed at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. We present the performance of the markers in predicting total carotenoid content and root colour score.The study population was derived from five yellow cassava varieties (IITA-IBA-TMS011368, IITA-IBA-TMS011371, IITA-IBA-TMS011412, IITA-IBA-TMS070593 and IITA-TMS070539) released between 2011 and 2014 and used as female parents in open-pollinated crosses. Before this study, about 3200 half-sib seeds were generated and 89%, 62%, and 0.05% of the progenies were successively screened for different attributes such as cassava mosaic disease severity, plant architecture and root yield among other traits in seedling nursery, clonal evaluation, and preliminary yield stages, respectively. 23 Sixty-five (65) cassava genotypes with yellow root tissues selected from preliminary yield trials and two check varieties (IITA-IBA-TMS070593 and IITA-IBA-TMS30555) were evaluated in this study for visual root tissue colour and lab-quantified total carotenoid content (TCC). The experiment was laid out in a randomised complete block design with two replications at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Department of Agronomy, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. To minimise the experimental error due to the relatively large experimental field size, genotypes were divided into two sets. Set 1 and 2 comprised 32 and 33 cassava genotypes, respectively, following the approach of Okechukwu and Dixon 36 . The check varieties were included in each set. The cassava cuttings were planted at a spacing of 1 m x 1 m with 20 plants representing each genotype in a 20-m 2 plot.The cassava genotypes were selected from preliminary yield trials based on their root colour score. However, to ascertain their actual carotene content, total carotenoid content was measured using iCheck TM (BioAnalyt GmbH, Germany; http://www.bioanalyt.com). The root colour was visually scored using a colour chart with a scale ranging from 1 to 8 where 1 = white; 2 = light cream, 3 = cream, 4 = light yellow, 5 = yellow, 6 = deep yellow, 7 = orange and 8 = pink. 37 At harvest (12 months after planting), two to three fully developed roots were selected for TCC quantification using the protocol developed by BioAnalyt laboratory and described by Jaramillo et al. 38 The selected cassava roots were properly washed, peeled, and rewashed to remove all impurities. Each root was divided into four vertically; two opposite quarters were chopped into small pieces (to ease the grinding process) and mixed thoroughly. A homogenised sample, 5 g in weight, was collected, macerated using a mortar and pestle, and mixed with 20 mL of distilled water. A final volume of 25 mL was obtained and transferred to a graduated tube. A slurry volume of 0.4 mL was extracted using a syringe and needle and injected into the reagent vial. The vial was allowed to stand for about 5 min to separate the liquid phase before taking and recording the iCheck TM reading.TCC was calculated as described by Esuma et al. 39 :where V S is the total slurry volume (25 mL), W S is the sample weight and R i stands for the iCheck reading. The iCheck TM carotene analysis procedure was conducted at the Crop Utilisation Laboratory of the Department of Agronomy, University of Ibadan.The DNA was extracted from young freeze-dried cassava leaves following a modified Dellaporta et al. 40 procedure. The DNA quantity and quality were checked using a Nanodrop photometer (ND-8000, Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) and DNA bands were viewed on agarose gel (1%). The KASP genotyping was performed as described by Codjia et al. 41 Four top SNPs (S1_24155522, S1_30543962, S5_3387558 and S8_25598183) coming from phytoene synthase 2 on chromosome 1 and new loci on chromosomes 1, 5 and 8 extracted from Rabbi et al. 33 were used for screening the cassava genotypes for pVAC. The pVAClinked markers successfully converted to allele-specific PCR assay 35 enabled the molecular screening. Yellow variety IITA-IBA-TMS 07/0593 (one of the female parents) and white variety IITA-IBA-TMS 30555 were used as positive and negative controls, respectively, in the screening for carotene content. The KASP genotyping was conducted at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan.Data on TCC and root colour score were subjected to an analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the Agricolae 42 package in R software. 43 For the marker-trait association, the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) values for TCC and root colour were extracted from a fitted mixed model where blocks and replications were treated as random effects and genotypes, including controls, were regarded as fixed following an adapted mathematical formula for randomised complete block design from Dixon 44 . Polymorphic information content (PIC) and favourable allele frequencies were calculated using Tassel 45 and R software jointly. The markers' effect on TCC and root colour was visually assessed using the ggpubr package. 46 For marker predictive ability assessment, a multiple linear regression was computed using the lm function from the lm4 package. 47 The traits (TCC or root colour) were considered as response variables and the markers as independent variables (predictors) according to the formula adapted from Uyanik and Güler 48 :where Y = the predicted value of the trait by the markers, β 0 = the constant intercept, β 1 , β 2 , … β n = regression coefficient for each marker, X 1 , X 2 … X n = explanatory variables (markers) and ℇ = residual value.The best regression model was chosen through a stepwise regression method (both backward and forward) using the Mass package. For model validation, a bootstrapped sampling strategy was applied (n = 10) using the tidymodels package. The correlation matrix plot was performed using the corrplot package. 49The analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among the yellow cassava genotypes for TCC, but no significant difference among block components was observed (Table 1). The coefficient of variation (CV) was 26%. Genotypes UIC-17-679, UIC-17-1713, and UIC-17-2823 had TCCs ranging from 10.07 µg/g to 10.88 µg/g. These values are higher than the TCC value of 9.20 µg/g recorded in the yellow check variety IITA-TMS-070593 (Table 2).Data on TCC followed a normal distribution (Figure 1). The TCC ranged from 2.43 µg/g to 10.88 µg/g with a mean of 5.88 µg/g. The highest TCC recorded in this study (10.88 µg/g) is similar to the maximum TCC (11 µg/g) reported by Esuma et al. 39 among the F 1 progenies of cassava using the iCheck TM carotene determination procedure. The root colour ranged from 1 to 4 with a mean of 3 in the panel of yellow cassava genotypes (Figure 1).A highly significant correlation (r = 0.88; p < 0.0001) was observed between visual root colour score and TCC using iCheckTM (Figure 2), which is consistent with earlier submissions. 13,50,51 Screening large cassava populations becomes much more motivating due to the existing correlation between TCC and root colour score. 39 However, lab-based quantification of carotenoid content is still needed at later stages of selection in order to have more precise estimates, for example when recommending new genotypes for official registration and release. 52The favourable allele frequencies for the SNP markers varied from 0.20 to 0.87 with an average of 0.49 (Table 3). The observed heterozygosity at the studied loci ranged from 0.19 to 0.89 with a mean of 0.51. The polymorphic information content (PIC) -which is a crucial metric for the informativeness of a marker -varied from 0.22 (marker S1_24155522) to 0.49 (marker S5_3387558) with an average of 0.38 (Table 3). The SNP markers S1_24155522, S1_30543962, S5_3387558, and S8_25598183 had call rates of 94%, 98.5%, 98.5% and 97%, respectively.Approximately 90% of the study population were identified with favourable 'A' allele at marker S1_24155522 while about 3% of the genotypes did not have the favourable allele (Table 4). Furthermore, 72% were homozygotes fixed for the useful allele A whereas about 18% were found heterozygotes (CA) at phytoene synthase linked marker (Table 4).Exploratory analysis of genotype classes (AA, CA, CC) at SNP S1_24155522 versus TCC revealed a highly significant difference (p < 0.0001) (Figure 3). The individuals with two copies of favourable alleles (AA) at phytoene synthase locus had a TCC mean of 6.52 µg/g, whereas most of the genotypes (CC) with the unfavourable allele had an average TCC of 2.54 µg/g. The majority of heterozygous genotypes (CA) had an intermediate level of TCC (4.25 µg/g). A t-test (pairwise comparison) revealed a significant difference at the 5% level at the other loci, except for marker S8_25598183 which was not significant in discriminating between genotypic classes for TCC trait (Figure 3). Similar observations were made for root colour scores at all loci, excluding S8_25598183 (Figure 4).In a recent study conducted by Udoh et al. 13 , the marker at PSY2 gene (S1_24155522) was significantly associated with root colour score and TCC. Phytoene synthase had previously been identified as a gene engaged in the initial step of cassava carotenoid biosynthesis. 18,34 Phytoene synthase is known for the accumulation of provitamin A carotenoid in cassava roots. 28,34 This study confirms the primary role of the PSY enzyme (Manes.01G124200), which converts geranylgeranyl diphosphate to phytoene. 18,34 Beta-carotene constitutes the main component of TCC in cassava 17,53 , suggesting that the products of PSY2 are mostly channelled towards the lycopene beta cyclase (lcyB) part of the pathway. 54 Further research is needed to find markers that select for down-regulation of the activity of lycopene epsilon cyclase (lcyE), which will even boost the proportion of beta-carotene. 55 Carotenoid accumulation in cassava is driven by an additive gene effect. 28 This observation is supported by the differential allele effect observed in the box-plot analysis for marker PSY_572/ S1_24155522 (Figures 3 and 4). Keller et al. 56 defined the additive effect as an allele  substitution's effect at a locus that can explain half of the difference of homozygous individuals' performance as observed in this study at PSY2 gene (Figures 3 and 4). The additive nature of the provitamin A trait suggests that the accumulation of TCC in cassava storage roots would be improved through a recurrent selection allowing gene recombination within the breeding set. 16,28,51 Individually, the marker at the phytoene synthase gene explained much of the phenotypic variation in TCC (R 2 = 0.37) while the other markers -S1_30543962, S5_3387558 and S8_25598183 -explained 11%, 7% and 5%, respectively. For root colour, each marker S1_24155522, S1_30543962, S5_3387558 and S8_25598183 accounted separately for 55%, 8%, 16% and 5%, respectively.For markers predictive ability assessment, a multiple linear regression was computed with the four markers which explained 39% of the total variation in TCC in the present population (adjusted R 2 =0.39; p = 2.78E-05) (Figure 5). On the other hand, these SNP markers together explained up to 54% of the total variation in visual root colour (adjusted R 2 =0.54; p = 3.901E-08) (Figure 5). However, the best model chosen using a stepwise regression method returned a simple model only fitted with the most significant predictor at the phytoene synthase gene indicating the elimination of other non-significant markers in the prediction model for TCC and root colour. The low phenotypic variation of TCC and root colour explained by the three markers S1_30543962, S5_3387558 and S8_25598183 suggests that the newly uncovered QTLs for pVAC have a minor effect on the trait, as previously reported by Ige et al. 35 The best prediction model fitted with the most significant marker was validated using a bootstrap resampling strategy. The correlation coefficient between the predicted and the observed TCC values ranged from 0.36 to 0.80 with an average of 0.63 (Figure 6) whereas a correlation ranging from 0.66 to 0.89 with a mean of 0.75 was found between predicted and observed root colour score (Figure 7). These results confirm that marker S1_24155522 has sufficient predictive ability for usage in marker-assisted selection to enhance provitamin A content in African cassava storage roots.In this study, the maximum TCC recorded in the cassava population was 10.88 µg/g -a value that, although higher than that of the national yellow control variety, still does not reach the breeding target (15 µg/g).The rapid-cycling recurrent selection approach is known to increase carotenoid accumulation in cassava storage roots, especially in breeding programmes targeting exclusively carotenoid content enhancement. 16 However, the method relies on precise carotenoid quantification using laboratory methods such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) which is costly, time consuming and labour intensive. 16,21 The use of SNP markers is expected to facilitate rapid population improvement and overcome the challenges associated with phenotypebased selection. Allelic and genotypic frequencies of the markers associated with provitamin A content in the cassava populationIn our study, we used iCheck to quantify total carotenoid content rather than individual carotenoid components (alpha-carotene, all-trans betacarotene, violaxanthin, lutein, 15-cis beta-carotene, 13-cis beta-carotene, 9-cis beta-carotene, and phytoene), a process that would require HPLC.In cassava, it is well established that more than 80% of TCC is total betacarotene 32 , a precursor of vitamin A known to be readily converted into retinol by the body 58 . Additionally, various studies have reported a high positive correlation between TCC and total beta-carotene in cassava storage roots. 16,32,59 The accuracy of MAS found in this study for root colour score is 55%. A similar study using different cassava populations resulted in a higher accuracy of 80%. 35 The relatively lower prediction accuracy from our study could be explained by the small population size derived from five  parents and the narrow range of variation in root pigmentation (between cream and yellow) after discarding white root clones at the early stages of selection.Nevertheless, the observed accuracy from relatively few markers is in agreement with previous studies which have shown simple inheritance of carotenoid traits in cassava. 51,60 Further, the accuracy obtained from the present study is similar to that obtained from genome-wide predictions. 32,61 Ikeogu et al. 32 reported prediction accuracies up to 52% in a genomic selection with 594 cassava genotypes using the multiple trait carotenoids (individual TC components). Equally, Esuma et al. 61 reported an equivalent accuracy of 52% in root colour score while predicting carotenoids using genomic tools. This shows that MAS is sufficient for an early screening of individuals for carotenoid content. MAS is much more suitable for traits controlled by a few or major loci 62 as observed in this study with the major PSY2 gene known to be responsible for provitamin A accumulation and tagged by marker S1_24155522. The approach is particularly convenient when dealing with traits that are expensive to phenotype, such as carotenoid content, and which can only be evaluated at harvest. We demonstrate the suitability of carotenoidcontent-linked SNPs for MAS in our breeding population. The present results open avenues for breeders to more comfortably fast-track the transfer of useful alleles of carotenoid genes into elite cassava breeding lines, thus contributing to the reduction of VAD prevalence, especially among pregnant women and children in developing countries.We carried out marker-assisted selection to increase provitamin A content in a cassava breeding population using four SNP markers and laboratory-quantified carotenoid content as well as root colour score. The marker accuracy evaluation revealed that the major PSY2 locus on chromosome 1, tagged by S1_24155522 and driven by an additive gene effect, explained a relatively high phenotypic variation in TCC and root colour in the study population and could be deployed for MAS in cassava breeding programmes. The top three genotypes -UIC-17-679, UIC-17-1713, and UIC-17-2823 -with TCC greater than that of the national yellow check IITA-IBA-TMS070593 are recommended to be advanced to the next breeding stages for evaluation of other key traits such as root yield, dry matter, cyanide content, and root mealiness across multi-environments to satisfy farmers' and consumers' needs.  ","tokenCount":"3684"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"348174edac28d2189792a360240a0c9b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/04888f1f-29e6-47a5-b931-9fb0b415c9d1/retrieve","id":"534170618"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"850effa2-a5cd-4341-8998-c6a5e629fade","pagecount":"10","content":"• Irrigation in SSA improved food security and reduced rural poverty (Namara et al. 2010;Gebrehiwot et al. 2015). Yet, gender inequality remains an issue (Imburgia 2019;Lefore et al. 2019).• Gender mainstreaming (GM) is considered as key advance women and gender issues in development by government and development institutions (De Waal 2006;Joseph et al. 2011;Sweetman 2015).• In principle, GM is transformative and challenges status quo Daly 2005; Woodward 2008). But there is scepticism about whether the vision of transformation is achieved (Sweetman 2015).• Despite the drawback, many development organizations are increasingly adopting GM strategy (Arora-Jonsson and Sijapati 2018). How multilevel institutions and their interactions influence progress toward gender equality in irrigation projects in Ethiopia 1. What gender strategies do these projects adopt?2. How do interactions among rules, roles and capacities of institutions within and at different scales determine progress to gender equality?3. What opportunities and challenges are there for effectively implementing the strategies?• Transformative vision of GM strategies of irrigation projects in Ethiopia is yet to be achieved.• Given gender inequality is embedded within institutions, considering institutional perspectives in designing tools and strategies for integrating gender is crucial.","tokenCount":"187"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1ee02522c4de187c675f4074152fd17b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cb1db0a5-3017-4b6d-823c-b65f0b4908cf/retrieve","id":"1250420021"},"keywords":["École d'agro-développement internationale (ISTOM), Francia 13","2 Inicio pendiente Trachypogon sp",") M","O","2","1 (1G) Altillanura plana Sabana herbosa Arcilla: 35","5 ? (Suroeste Yopare) (Trachypogon sp",") Arena: 29","1 Pendiente M","O","1","5 (1H) Bajo Sabana herbosa Arcilla: 32","9 Ene","85 (Suroeste Yopare) (Cyperaceae) Arena: 9","9 M","O","3","0 (1I) Bajo-Sural Sabana herbosa Arcilla: 30","6 Feb","85 (Suroeste Yopare) (mal drenada -'sural') Arena: 21","3 M","O","2","2"],"sieverID":"a29d110e-6adb-473d-8e20-0558c6539229","pagecount":"308","content":"La misión del Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) es reducir el hambre y la pobreza en los trópicos mediante una investigación colaborativa que mejore la productividad agrícola y el manejo de los recursos naturales.El CIAT es uno de los 16 centros internacionales de investigación agropecuaria, conocidos ya como los Centros de la Cosecha del Futuro, que son auspiciados por el Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (GCIAI).El trabajo del CIAT es financiado por un gran número de países, organizaciones para el desarrollo regional e internacional y fundaciones privadas. En el 2001, los siguientes países son donantes del CIAT: Alemania,v El ecosistema de sabanas reviste importancia mundial porque, en primer lugar, cubre aproximadamente el 20% de la superficie terrestre. Tiene particular importancia en América del Sur porque ocupa el 45% del subcontinente y ha sido teatro de la expansión agropecuaria ocurrida en él en los últimos 40 años.Los Llanos Orientales de Colombia son parte de los 250 millones de hectáreas de las sabanas tropicales de América del Sur; pertenecen a éstas, además, los llanos de Venezuela, el cerrado de Brasil y las sabanas de Bolivia y Guyana. Estas regiones han estado sometidas, en diferente grado, a un rápido proceso de cambio en el uso del recurso tierra. El cerrado brasileño, por ejemplo, se ha convertido, de los años 70 para acá, en parte importante del notable desarrollo de la agricultura y la ganadería de ese país. En efecto, la transformación de la sabana cubierta de vegetación nativa en extensas áreas sembradas con gramíneas introducidas -de ellas hay ya alrededor de 40 millones de hectáreas-ha sido el origen del impresionante ritmo de crecimiento de la ganadería de esa región, donde a la fecha se concentra el 50% del hato ganadero de Brasil. Asimismo, la conversión de otras áreas del cerrado nativo en zonas agrícolas manejadas intensivamente ha hecho de Brasil uno de los exportadores de soya más importantes del mundo.En las otras regiones de la sabana neotropical, el impacto de la intervención humana ha sido considerablemente menor que en Brasil. No obstante, la expansión de las fronteras agrícola y ganadera continúa, muchas veces acompañada del desarrollo de la infraestructura vial, otras veces inducida por la explotación petrolera -como es el caso de Venezuela que se está repitiendo en Colombia-y otras apremiada por la necesidad de aumentar los productos exportables, como ocurrió en Bolivia. En Colombia, además, los cuatro departamentos administrativos que pertenecen a la Orinoquia (Meta, Arauca, Vichada y Casanare) constituyen el 22% del país y contienen una enorme reserva de tierras y recursos naturales.Conviene recordar también que las sabanas de la Orinoquia están situadas en la cuenca binacional del río Orinoco, que ocupa aproximadamente 900,000 km 2 . El Orinoco es el tercer río del mundo, en términos del flujo de aguas que corren por él hacia el oceáno, y el sexto del mundo en cuanto a su aporte de sedimentos (a la cuenca y a la desembocadura). El uso de esta cuenca tendría, por tanto, un efecto ambiental internacional de considerable magnitud.vi La intensificación de la agricultura y de la ganadería en todas esas regiones despoja el suelo de la vegetación nativa, al menos en los sitios en que las condiciones del suelo y la topografía lo permiten. Donde no sea posible este proceso de cambio, es probable que ocurran, a nivel de la finca y del paisaje en general, impactos indirectos en la vegetación nativa. Estos impactos provienen de la intensificación general de los sistemas de producción y de la necesidad de integrar las especies forrajeras nativas con las introducidas y con las que se siembran en áreas destinadas a la agricultura.La publicación de esta obra presenta el trabajo de numerosos colaboradores y encaja bien y oportunamente en el contexto anterior. Hay en ella un inventario exhaustivo de las especies nativas que crecen en áreas muy representativas de la Altillanura bien drenada de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, y una descripción completa de las principales comunidades vegetales en que se agrupan dichas especies. Estudios como éste son fundamentales, sin duda, para caracterizar parte de la riqueza fitogenética de la región mencionada antes de que sufra mayor deterioro.Este trabajo no se detiene en la parte descriptiva de la sabana. En él se reseña también la experimentación con que se ha establecido que esas comunidades vegetales son afectadas por las herramientas disponibles para el manejo de la sabana, es decir, el fuego y el pastoreo. Trata luego de identificar las normas mínimas que hacen compatible el uso productivo de la sabana con el mantenimiento de la diversidad de especies y comunidades que en ella habitan; donde esto no es posible, ilustra las ventajas y las desventajas de un uso más intensivo de ese recurso.La utilización de la vegetación nativa afecta también, sin duda, otros recursos genéticos de la región, como la fauna. En particular, la fauna del suelo ha sido uno de los objetivos del presente trabajo; este estudio ha conducido a la identificación de especies antes desconocidas para la ciencia y cuyo potencial aún debe ser estudiado, resultado éste de particular relevancia. Hay además aspectos del ambiente que pueden recibir el impacto del uso dado a la vegetación nativa; en particular, los procesos de captura y liberación del carbono son susceptibles a ese impacto en cuanto son influenciados por prácticas como la quema, por el crecimiento de la biomasa aérea y subterránea, y por la actividad biológica. Esta obra hace además referencia a estudios relevantes en el campo mencionado y presenta muchas posibilidades de estudios futuros en aspectos aún poco estudiados.La publicación de este trabajo contribuirá a que Colombia y, en especial, los técnicos y productores agropecuarios de los Llanos Orientales aprecien más la abundancia de los recursos disponibles en esa región, y el impacto que puede tener su uso en otras áreas del desarrollo.Agroecología y Biodiversidad de las Sabanas...Los Llanos Orientales de Colombia u Orinoquia colombiana tienen 17 millones de hectáreas y contienen tres sistemas de tierras o paisajes: el piedemonte, las llanuras aluviales y las altillanuras (las bien drenadas y las inundables). Pertenecen a un macrosistema de importancia global (las sabanas tropicales) cuya topografía permite la mecanización agrícola y cuyos suelos exigen un manejo cuidadoso. Su población escasa comprende etnias indígenas y colonos inmigrantes.Sus suelos (Oxisoles y Ultisoles) son ácidos y poco fértiles, están sometidos a temperaturas altas durante el año y a excesos de humedad, y se caracterizan por la lixiviación de minerales y por la formación de laterita (gleyzación). Desde hace años, esta sabana herbácea y poco arbustiva se ha destinado a una ganadería extensiva de carga baja. Actualmente manifiestan estos suelos un alto potencial agrícola comercial y han permitido la introducción de especies forrajeras mejoradas. El subsuelo es muy rico en hidrocarburos.Las sabanas tropicales ocupan, aproximadamente, un 20% de la superficie terrestre; de ellas, el 45% se halla en América del Sur. Las sabanas suramericanas, que ocupan cerca de 269 millones de hectáreas, se conocen como Cerrados en Brasil (76%), Llanos en Venezuela (11%), Llanos Orientales en Colombia (6%), sabanas en Bolivia (5%) y sabanas en Guyana (1.5%). Este macrosistema es considerado como un área importante del mundo porque su topografía plana lo hace potencialmente apto para la mecanización agrícola; no obstante, las condiciones físicas de sus suelos exigen un uso cuidadoso de esa actividad.La región de la Orinoquia colombiana, también llamada Llanos Orientales de Colombia, tiene aproximadamente 17 millones de hectáreas. Limita al norte con el Estado Apure, en la frontera suroeste de Venezuela; al sur, con el río Guaviare; al oeste, con la Cordillera Oriental; y al este, con el río Orinoco. La división administrativa de los Llanos Orientales comprende los departamentos de Meta, Vichada, Arauca y Casanare. El estudio presentado en esta obra se hizo en el área indicada en la Figura 1-1.Orientales pertenecen a la cuenca del río Orinoco que contiene tres sistemas de tierras ('paisajes'): el piedemonte, las llanuras aluviales inundables y la altillanura; este último se subdivide en dos ecosistemas: la altillanura bien drenada y la llanura inundable o mal drenada.-El primero (altillanura bien drenada, ABD) tiene potencial, si se maneja racionalmente, para la producción de pastos y la agricultura comercial e industrial (Figura 1-2).-El segundo (llanura mal drenada, LMD) puede dedicarse a la ganadería tradicional extensiva y a actividades de zoocría, piscicultura y de protección y conservación de la fauna y flora silvestres.Una gran extensión de la ABD está cubierta por una sabana herbácea, típica de los suelos de baja fertilidad, que está drenada por una multitud de caños y surcada por vallecitos estrechos que se alargan como franjas angostas de bosque de galería denominados localmente 'morichales'.La densidad de población es baja. La región está habitada por una población indígena en la que sobresale la riqueza cultural de las etnias Sikuani, Sáliva, Piapoco, Puinave. Hay también inmigrantes recientes de otras regiones del país que se instalan, en su mayoría, en el Piedemonte y en la llanura aluvial a orillas de los grandes ríos.Se ha desarrollado en la ABD, en las últimas décadas, una agricultura comercial basada en palma africana, arroz, maíz, sorgo, soya y en frutales como el aguacate, el mango, los cítricos y el marañón. Es común en sus ríos la pesca artesanal y comercial. El uso casi ancestral de la sabana nativa de Figura 1-1.División administrativa del departamento del Meta y área de sabana nativa estudiada. los Llanos Orientales es la ganadería extensiva de muy baja capacidad de carga (Figura 1-3). La introducción de pastos y leguminosas forrajeras adaptadas a las condiciones naturales de baja fertilidad de los suelos dominantes (Oxisoles y Ultisoles) ha propiciado el establecimiento de ganaderías cada vez más intensivas (CIAT 1985).Figura 1-3. Tierras de la formación Serranía al sur del río Meta, dedicadas a la ganadería.Figura 1-2. Foto del satélite SPOT del área de Meta en que se halla Carimagua; el perímetro dibujado encierra los terrenos de la estación experimental.Los Llanos Orientales de Colombia se consideran -por su vasta extensión y por el tipo de explotaciones que podrían establecerse en ellos (silvopastoriles, agroforestales, agrícolas intensivas)-una región de alto potencial agroecónomico. Actualmente se lleva a cabo en esa región la mayor explotación de hidrocarburos del país. El potencial agropecuario atribuido a las sabanas necesita sistemas de uso y manejo del suelo que se ajusten a las condiciones naturales del suelo, detengan la tasa de degradación de éste, impidan el deterioro de los recursos naturales, y propicien el desarrollo de sistemas agrícolas y pecuarios sostenibles.Las sabanas tropicales son el resultado de la evolución de diversos procesos geológicos, entre ellos, las fuerzas tectónicas, la sedimentación, la erosión y los cambios climáticos drásticos. La interacción entre la historia geomorfológica, el tipo de material original de la corteza terrestre y el clima han determinado, a través del tiempo, el tipo y las características de los suelos. Las sabanas presentan, por tanto, una gran variabilidad geológica y topográfica (Figura 1-4).Según el IGAC (1991), la Cordillera Oriental de los Andes colombianos emergió de las aguas oceánicas en un tiempo situado entre 140 y 100 millones de años atrás, en el período geológico Cretáceo Inferior. Después de un proceso de transgresión, se depositaron en esa región grandes cantidades de sedimentos que rellenaron las depresiones y formaron así extensas planicies. Desde los 100 hasta los 65 millones de años, durante el período Cretáceo Superior, se acentuó la sedimentación marina sobre la Cordillera Oriental, mientras que en el área ocupada actualmente por los Llanos Orientales se depositaron arenas litorales provenientes del escudo de Guayana.Desde los 25 hasta los 12 millones de años, en los períodos Mioceno Inferior y Mioceno Medio, se presentaron nuevas transgresiones que moldearon el área de la Orinoquia. Durante estos 13 millones de años, dominaron masas de agua relativamente superficiales que presenciaron las estratificaciones, en esa área, de nuevos depósitos de sedimentos.De 12 millones de años para acá, la compresión y la presión ejercidas por la placa tectónica oceánica durante el Mioplioceno provocan, en el choque de ésta contra la placa continental sólida del Escudo Guayanés, un plegamiento que dio origen al penúltimo levantamiento de la Cordillera Oriental, cuyo piedemonte emerge en esta época. El levantamiento final de esa cordillera ocurrió durante el Pliopleistoceno y, simultáneamente, los sedimentos desprendidos de ella se depositaron en la región actualmente ocupada por los Llanos Orientales.Una vez creada la estructura de la región, comienza a ser modelada por los agentes climatológicos. Las lluvias, que en la última glaciación del Cuaternario fueron abundantes, abrieron profundos cauces y transportaron enormes cantidades de sedimentos que se acumularon en la parte baja y plana; este proceso dio origen a la actual topografía y a los numerosos ríos de los Llanos Orientales (IGAC 1991).La actividad de numerosas fallas paralelas a la Cordillera Oriental permitió el levantamiento y el plegamiento de la zona más cercana a ella y el hundimiento de la zona más oriental, lo que originó la región conocida hoy como la Orinoquia mal drenada, situada entre la Cordillera Oriental y el río Meta. En contraste, la margen derecha del río Meta inicia la Orinoquia bien drenada.Los suelos de los Llanos Orientales se desarrollaron sobre un espeso manto de sedimentos aluviales arcillo-limosos proveniente de la Cordillera Oriental (Brunnschweiler 1972). Son suelos de los órdenes Oxisol y Ultisol, según el Key to Soil Taxonomy; son también Orthic, Rhodic y Humic Ferrasuelos, según la clasificación de la FAO ('Sols ferralitiques', según la taxonomía francesa).Estos suelos tienen las características típicas de una formación debida a condiciones de temperatura alta y continua, a exceso de humedad en la época lluviosa, a una alta concentración de óxidos de Fe y de Al en las capas de las cuencas de sedimentación. La continua pérdida de minerales esenciales de fácil intemperismo, causado por la lixiviación, origina un alto grado de acidez en el suelo.La alternancia entre estancamiento de las aguas (con reducción y solución o lavado de minerales) y la desecación del suelo (con oxidación y precipitación de minerales) generó procesos de gleyzación o de formación de laterita en esos suelos. Estos procesos se manifestaron en el perfil del suelo por cambios de coloración (gris, amarillo o rojizo) y por la presencia de capas continuas de plintita (en parte de la superficie de la Serranía, p.e.) que al quedar expuestas al aire se transforman en petroplintita o en laterita.El Cuadro 1-1 presenta los resultados del análisis de muestras tomadas en varios sitios del Centro Nacional de Investigación (CI) Carimagua manejado por el ICA y el CIAT. El Cuadro 1-2 muestra los resultados del análisis de suelos de la Altillanura y de la Serranía en un área entre Puerto López y Puerto Gaitán.Los datos consignados en los Cuadros 1-1 y 1-2 indican, en síntesis, lo siguiente:• Hay una gran diversidad de texturas, tanto dentro del paisaje como entre uno y otro paisaje.• Los suelos de la Serranía son más arenosos que los de la Altillanura.• La fertilidad química de casi todos estos suelos es baja: la tasa de M.O. es baja, la C/N entre 15 y 20 indica una M.O. mal descompuesta, la capacidad de intercambio catiónico (CEC) es baja.• Todos los suelos son muy ácidos (pH entre 4.5 y 5.0).• La concentración (o saturación) de óxido de Al y de óxido de Fe (a veces, también de Mn) es alta.• Hay una deficiencia general de P asimilable (Bray II: 0.5 a 3.7 ppm).• Hay deficiencia de Ca.Muestran, además, los datos una dominancia textural del limo y un contenido variable de M.O. El nivel bajo de P y el pH bajo correlaciona bien con una fase de cambio dominada por la actividad del ion Al +++ sobre el Ca, el Mg y el K. Los niveles de S son también bajos y de los elementos menores sólo pueden hallarse trazas.Estos datos provienen de suelos que soportan diferente cobertura vegetal natural. En todos los sitios muestreados, la fertilidad natural y las condiciones físicas no son óptimas para el establecimiento de cultivos o de explotaciones agropecuarias a nivel comercial. Por tanto, estos suelos serán rentables si se les hacen correcciones previas que generen una capa superficial de suelo capaz de soportar cultivos y pastos, y si éstos son variedades adaptadas al estrés nutricional propio de esa región.Cuadro 1-1. Propiedades texturales y químicas de algunos suelos cubiertos con diferente tipo de vegetación, en la Altillanura plana del CNI Carimagua manejado por ICA/CIAT, en Meta, Colombia. Las buenas propiedades estructurales, especialmente las de la Altillanura, compensan en parte estas deficiencias químicas en los proyectos agropastoriles que se establecen en los Llanos Orientales.En esta unidad fisiográfica hay también una gran diversidad en la estructura de los suelos. En las Figuras 1-5 y 1-6 se comparan, en parte, las medidas tomadas en diferentes sitios de la Altillanura plana de Carimagua, en los que crecen distintos tipos de vegetación de la sabana nativa o diferentes especies de forrajes sembrados (por ejemplo, las que contienen las asociaciones de gramíneas y leguminosas). Se observa lo siguiente:• Una diferencia significativa en la densidad aparente y en la humedad (volumétrica) entre los suelos arcillosos y los suelos arenosos (de los 'bancos') en todo el perfil estudiado. Los suelos arcillosos tienen una densidad aparente y una humedad más altas y, por consiguiente, mejor estructura. Los suelos de los 'bajos', de textura arcillosa y con vegetación nativa, tienen características que los acercan más a los suelos arenosos que a los suelos arcillosos de los bancos.Estos suelos han sido muy compactados.• En los suelos arcillosos, el cultivo de especies forrajeras mejoró la estructura del suelo, pero no ocurrió lo mismo en las capas poco profundas (0 a 50 cm) de los suelos arenosos. Ahora bien, en estos últimos la densidad aparente es un poco más baja que en la sabana nativa, y la humedad volumétrica (o reserva de agua del suelo) mejora cuando hay cultivos. Estos datos indicarían que los cultivos de especies forrajeras ensanchan los poros del suelo y, por tanto, aumentan la disponibilidad de agua en el suelo.Figura 1-5. Características físicas de la sabana de los Llanos Orientales: densidad aparente respecto a la profundidad de cinco suelos de tres sitios (ALG, TABAQ., INTR.) de Carimagua. Las medidas de penetrabilidad modifican la imagen antes descrita de estos suelos y de su vegetación (Figura 1-7). Se observó lo siguiente:• En los primeros centímetros de suelo (0-3 cm), los resultados son muy similares para todos los tipos de suelo y de vegetación.• A una profundidad de 3 a 10 cm, la penetrabilidad varía: en los suelos arcillosos es más alta y en los arenosos es, generalmente, normal.En el sitio 6 (B. humidicola + A. pintoi en un suelo arcilloso), los datos se apartan de la distinción anterior; la diferencia se explica, quizás, por la relativa juventud (algunos años) de este cultivo asociado.• A partir de los 10 cm de profundidad, la penetrabilidad varía mucho de un sitio a otro y también según la profundidad. Se distinguen siempre los valores de penetrabilidad para los dos tipos de suelos: más alta en los arcillosos y más baja en los arenosos. Hay efecto de compactación a los 10 cm de profundidad donde se ha trabajado el suelo por los cultivos.Figura 1-6. Características físicas de la sabana de los Llanos Orientales: humedad volumétrica respecto a la profundidad de cinco suelos del área de Carimagua. Características físicas de la sabana de los Llanos Orientales: penetrabilidad respecto a la profundidad de cinco suelos del área de Carimagua. • En los suelos arcillosos, el cultivo no afecta la penetrabilidad en las capas de suelo por debajo de los 10 cm.El principal problema de los suelos de la Altillanura (Typic haplustox hisohyperthermic, Kaolinitic) cuando se utilizan para la producción de pastos es su susceptibilidad a la degradación. Este concepto se define como la pérdida de algunas propiedades físicas, químicas y biológicas del suelo por causa de una inadecuada intervención humana; esa pérdida genera factores de producción negativos que afectarán más tarde la sostenibilidad agrícola.El Cuadro 1-3 presenta el efecto que tiene el uso continuo del suelo con arroz de secano en algunas propiedades físicas de ese suelo, cuya alteración negativa depende de la intensificación del uso (Amézquita et al. 1998).Un sistema inapropiado de labranza (intervención humana) afecta principalmente las propiedades físicas del suelo relacionadas con el comportamiento volumétrico de éste, como la porosidad total y la diversidad de tamaño de los poros, las cuales están íntimamente ligadas con la estructura del suelo. Cualquier cambio en la distribución del tamaño de los agregados del suelo y en la estabilidad estructural de éste debido a la labranza, afectan la infiltración, la capacidad de almacenamiento de agua en el suelo, la penetración de las raíces en el suelo y su crecimiento (al cambiar la distribución de los poros según su tamaño). El sellamiento superficial del suelo es un efecto del desmoronamiento de los agregados y del desprendimiento y salpicadura de partículas del suelo (Le Bissonnais 1996); está relacionado, además, con la labranza en los Llanos Orientales. El efecto de diversos usos en la estabilidad estructural de algunos Oxisoles (Amézquita et al. 1998) se presenta en el Cuadro 1-4.Los principales problemas de orden físico que se han observado y evaluado en los suelos de los Llanos Orientales son los siguientes (Amézquita et al.-sellamiento superficial; -encostramiento superficial; -alta densidad aparente; -aumento de densidad y endurecimiento del suelo en la época seca;-compactación; -baja velocidad de infiltración;Cuadro 1-3. Efecto del tiempo de uso del suelo (Oxisol) con arroz de secano en algunas propiedades físicas de dicho suelo en los Llanos Orientales, en Casanare, Colombia. -baja estabilidad estructural;-deficiente distribución de los poros según su tamaño;-deficiente continuidad del espacio poroso;-poco espesor del horizonte A;-alta susceptibilidad a la erosión (en suelos recién preparados);-alta producción de escorrentía.La Figura 1-8 muestra el efecto del uso del suelo en la distribución de los agregados superficiales (0-25 mm). Si se compara la sabana nativa con los Figura 1-8.Comportamiento del D50 de los agregados superficiales en el suelo de varios tratamientos de uso y manejo de un suelo Oxisol en dos localidades: Matazul y Primavera. R/A = renovación con arroz (se sembraron el pasto y el arroz al tiempo); R/T = renovación y manejo tradicional; SR = sin renovación. El pasto ensayado (asociado o puro) fue Brachiaria dictyoneura. tratamientos de uso del suelo, se observa que el diámetro medio (D50) de los agregados se ha reducido en los tratamientos. El desarrollo de sistemas de labranza que propicien la sostenibilidad agrícola en los Llanos Orientales requiere, por tanto, de las siguientes acciones:-entender los procesos actuales de degradación del suelo en función del tiempo de uso del suelo, del tipo de suelo y del sistema de manejo que éste recibe;-determinar las propiedades físicas, químicas y biológicas del suelo que sufren más el efecto de las prácticas de manejo y establecer los valores críticos de dichas propiedades para varios cultivos;-desarrollar metodologías de campo y de laboratorio que permitan evaluar, con criterio realista, las condiciones del suelo que limitan el buen desarrollo de los cultivos;-diseñar prácticas de manejo de los suelos que preserven la sostenibilidad de este recurso y contrarresten los procesos que llevan a su degradación.La región de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia tiene tres características: su latitud es baja (de 2° a 5° de latitud N), su altitud es también baja (100 a 300 m.s.n.m.), y su cielo está abierto a la acción de los vientos en todas direcciones excepto al oeste, donde se levanta la barrera de los Andes (Figura 1-9).El clima de los Llanos está definido por el ritmo de los vientos y de las lluvias y su régimen térmico es elevado (Brunnschweiler 1972). La cantidad de lluvias y su frecuencia siguen un gradiente diferencial que va de los Figura 1-9.La sabana de los Llanos Orientales está abierta hacia todas las direcciones, excepto al oeste donde se levanta la Cordillera Oriental de los Andes colombianos.Figura 1-10. Datos climatológicos de Villavicencio, localidad del Piedemonte de la Cordillera Oriental de los Andes, donde comienzan los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Andes en dirección al este. Al pie de los Andes las lluvias anuales superan los 3000 mm y en Carimagua, en el centro de los Llanos Orientales, pasan de 2200 mm.Las lluvias se concentran en la época lluviosa, que dura 8 meses del año (abril a noviembre) y en la cual cae un 95% de la lluvia del año. La época seca dura de 2 a 4 meses (diciembre a marzo), según la distancia del sitio a la Cordillera Oriental de los Andes (junto a ésta es más breve). Esta región nunca ha sido ecológicamente seca. La estacionalidad muy definida de las lluvias es una consecuencia del cambio de latitud del sistema de convergencia intertropical (ITC). La sequía orinocense coincide con el tiempo frío del hemisferio norte y los puntos máximos de la actividad pluvial con la posición zenital del sol sobre el Trópico de Cáncer (Figuras 1-10 y 1-11).En enero de cada año, los Llanos Orientales están bajo la influencia de los vientos Alisios que soplan del suroeste al noreste, mueven las nubes y crean en la región las condiciones que tienden a establecer la época seca. A partir de marzo, la depresión atmosférica se mueve en dirección norte y las nubes se acumulan sobre los Llanos.La temperatura promedio anual es relativamente elevada y es estable: la región de Carimagua tiene aproximadamente 26 °C durante el año, lo que le vale la denominación de 'sabana isohipertérmica' (Sarmiento 1990). Las temperaturas son un poco más altas en el interior de los Llanos Orientales que en el Piedemonte andino (ver Figuras 1-10 y 1-11). La amplitud de la temperatura (diferencia diurna/nocturna) puede ser alta (5 a 6 °C) en la época seca, pero es muy atenuada en la época lluviosa.La humedad relativa supera el 80% en la época lluviosa y es relativamente alta (60% a 65%) en la época seca. Durante esta época, en el centro de los Llanos la evaporación es relativamente alta (> 200 mm) (Figura 1-11), siendo relativamente baja (100 mm) en el Piedemonte (Figura 1-10).La Figura 1-12 presenta las diferentes unidades fisiográficas de los Llanos Orientales en la cuenca del río Orinoco, basadas en imágenes del satélite Landsat (CIAT 1985).Los principales 'paisajes' (o sistemas de tierras) están en la parte bien drenada de la sabana; son los siguientes: la 'Altillanura plana', de 3.5 millones de hectáreas; la 'Altillanura ondulada y Serranía', de 6.4 millones de hectáreas; y las 'Terrazas fluviales', de cerca de 1.25 millones de hectáreas.Es el sistema de tierras de mayor extensión (9,823,000 ha) y el más heterogéneo en términos de relieve. Comprende principalmente los siguientes paisajes; Altillanura plana, Altillanura ondulada y Serranía. La Altillanura plana ocupa el 35% del área (Hoyos 1995).Los suelos de la Altillanura son los más antiguos de los Llanos Orientales. En sus áreas plano-convexas estables hay Oxisoles de tres tipos: Haplustox, Haplorthox y Acrorthox. Las áreas cóncavas han acumulado materiales y ceniza volcánica de las partes más altas y se clasifican como Inceptisoles (por ejemplo, Andaquepts, Plinthaquepts, Tropaquepts) y Ultisoles. Figura 1-12. Principales sistemas de tierras de la sabana bien drenada de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (adaptada de Cochrane et al. 1985).Altillanura onduladaSerranía arboladaAltillanura plana. Por su relieve, es la zona de los Llanos Orientales más favorable para la agricultura, aparte del Piedemonte. Está situada al sur del río Meta, desde la ciudad de Puerto López hasta la frontera con Venezuela, en un área de 60 km de largo por 6 a 15 km de ancho.Está conformada, principalmente, por sedimentos aluviales del Pleistoceno primario. El paisaje comprende bancos altos y planos que ocupan, más o menos, 90% de la superficie total de la zona, y está cortado por bajos y ríos que constituyen un sistema de drenaje.Serranía. Estas dos formaciones constituyen una franja extensa al sur de la Altillanura plana, con un paisaje de pequeñas colinas redondeadas (Figura 1-3), con pendientes de 1% a 30%. De la superficie total, las cimas y las pendientes hacen el 54%, los bajos secos el 24%, los bajos húmedos el 14%, y las partes inundables el 7%. Cada uno de estos tipos de relieve tiene un uso y un potencial particulares (Cuadro 1-5).Orinoquia mal drenada o 'bajillanura'. Al norte, desde la margen izquierda del río Meta hasta el río Arauca, que define la frontera con Venezuela, se presenta un paisaje de bajos inundables mal drenados (unos 5 millones de hectáreas) que comprende dos subpaisajes: la llanura de desborde y la llanura eólica.Es un relieve plano en el que sobresalen los bancos, que son diques naturales de los cauces. Según su posición en el dique, los suelos varían: van desde Quartzipsamments, pasando por Dystropepts hasta Tropaquepts.Llanura eólica. Se superpone a la llanura de desborde, principalmente, y en sus áreas más arenosas hay suelos Quartzipsamments. Las partes que tienen mayor contenido de limo se clasifican como Dystropepts y las áreas de mayor depresión como Aquepts.En general, los suelos de la Orinoquia mal drenada son poco favorable para la agricultura. La sabana nativa se utiliza para el levante extensivo de bovinos.Algunos sistemas de mejoramiento de los bajos, denominados 'Módulos', se establecieron en las proximidades de Orocué, en Casanare, pero fueron abandonados, como ocurrió también en Venezuela (Tejos et al. 1990), porque eran muy costosos y de difícil manejo.La vegetación 'nativa' de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia y de Venezuela es, en general, la de una sabana herbácea cuyas especies características son Trachypogon vestitus y T. plumosus (Blydenstein 1967;Medina y Sarmiento 1981) y que tiene un estrato herbáceo bajo (< 50 cm) en el que sobresalen árboles como Curatella americana (ver Capítulos 2, 3 y 4 de esta obra).Cuadro 1-5. Tipos de relieve y uso potencial del 'paisaje' denominado Altillanura ondulada y Serranía en los Llanos Orientales. A ambos lados de los ríos se observa una vegetación generalmente arbolada o arbustiva (la selva de galería) que puede tener una anchura de varios cientos de metros. La mayoría de las especies de interés comercial de esta selva son utilizadas para levantar cercas; sufren, por tanto, una explotación intensiva y, con frecuencia, desaparecen localmente.Hay dos teorías principales sobre el origen de las sabanas nativas de la cuenca del Orinoco:• Las sabanas fueron naturalmente inducidas por el clima y las condiciones edáficas.• Las sabanas son el resultado de la acción del hombre sobre una vegetación original que bien pudo ser la de una selva.Brunnschweiler (1972) hizo una lista de las diferentes respuestas dadas a esta pregunta:• Lauer (1952( ), citado por Brunnschweiler (1972)), demostró que 2200 mm de lluvia en 9 meses son necesarios y suficientes para mantener una selva en los trópicos. Tal es el caso de gran parte de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Brunnschweiler (1972) responde a la tesis de Lauer: este investigador no tiene en cuenta las pérdidas de humedad de los suelos de la región por evaporación y por evapotranspiración; tampoco considera que las reservas de agua del suelo disminuyen rápidamente durante la época seca.• Según Goosen (1971), los límites de la selva no están muy lejos. La frontera entre selva y sabana sería la isoyeta 2500 mm, al sudeste de los Llanos. En Africa, en cambio, la frontera entre selva y sabana coincide con la isoyeta 1500 mm (Aubreville 1949).En opinión de los autores, la diferencia estaría en las condiciones edáficas muy pobres de los Llanos Orientales.• Según un informe de la FAO (1965), una selva cubría la región desde las primeras edades del continente, pero el fuego la habría destruido. La erosión que siguió transformó tanto el paisaje que fue imposible el regreso de la vegetación selvática. El hombre sería el responsable de la extensión de la sabana y la destrucción de la selva porque hace un uso controlado de la quema (para la ganadería) y no controlado (para la cacería, particularmente). Esta teoría se apoya en el hecho de que los arbustos y las especies de árboles de la sabana se encuentran también en la selva.• Cole (1986) piensa también, estudiando los trabajos de la Estación Biológica de los Llanos de Calabozo, al norte de los Llanos de Venezuela, que la quema o su ausencia serían responsables de los cambios de fisonomía y estructura de la vegetación de esa región.• Los trabajos de San José y Farinas (1983) y las observaciones hechas en parcelas protegidas en Carimagua muestran que, en efecto, el descanso de larga duración que recibe la vegetación cuando se la protege contra la quema inicia la arborización del área protegida.• Blydenstein (1967) considera también la sabana de la cuenca del Orinoco como un derivado de la selva donde la quema es un factor de 'sabanización'. La quema debida a la acción del hombre no sería la causa principal o primaria de la formación de esta sabana, sino un modo de mantener las pasturas naturales limpias de árboles leñosos. Reconoce, sin embargo, la existencia de la sabana nativa en algunos sitios que serían sabanas 'edáficas' y que se pueden encontrar en la selva amazónica (Demangeot 1976).• Los trabajos de Wijmstra y van der Hammen (1992) y de otros investigadores sobre el análisis del polen (palinología) indican que las sabanas actuales, en especial, fueron precedidas hace miles de años por una selva húmeda o una sabana arbolada y cerrada; la fisonomía actual de la vegetación de los Llanos Orientales sería el efecto de un cambio del clima (sequía) relativamente 'reciente'.• Khobzi et al. (1980) citan trabajos en que se muestra también que la cuenca amazónica, durante los últimos milenios, presenta épocas secas y húmedas alternas. Durante estas épocas, la mayor parte de los Llanos Orientales se cubría alternativamente de vegetación de sabana o de selva.• Sarmiento (1990;1996)  En síntesis, los análisis del polen de los Llanos, las condiciones climáticas y edáficas actuales, el manejo con quemas dado a los pastos antes y ahora, y los ensayos de descanso de la sabana, permiten concluir que la sabana nativa actual de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia es una formación herbácea o muy poco arbustiva, inestable, que tiende hacia una sabana arbustiva o arbolada o hacia una formación de selva si no interviniera la acción del hombre. El medio residencial está conformado por la suma de factores climáticos, edáficos y bióticos que obran en forma integrada como una unidad de lugar en la superficie terrestre. Cualesquiera de estos factores puede ejercer mayor influencia que los otros en el establecimiento de una comunidad. Un suelo seco se considera una residencia y un suelo húmedo otra distinta; en este caso, el factor humedad del suelo, al variar, altera la suma de factores y cambia el carácter de la residencia. Puede inferirse, además, que es el factor determinante puesto que delimita la existencia de una vegetación típica que es diferente de otra, las cuales pueden diferenciarse fisonómicamente o florísticamente.En las sabanas se pueden observar comunidades vegetales diferentes, respecto a sus características físicas, químicas y biológicas, por causa de la conformación del relieve y de ciertos factores edáficos. Si se estudian en profundidad esas características, se encontrarán asociaciones vegetales que permiten interpretar y manejar de manera integral la sabana, con el fin de lograr el máximo provecho de la productividad de los pastos que crecen en ella.En 1986, el antiguo Programa de Pastos Tropicales del CIAT inicia, en la estación experimental de Carimagua, en Meta, Colombia, una serie de estudios para enriquecer el conocimiento de la sabana nativa con miras a comprender integralmente ese ecosistema, principalmente en sus aspectos florístico y ecofisiológico. Con tal fin, se estableció un convenio cooperativo interinstitucional entre el CIAT y la Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Sede Palmira, con dos objetivos específicos:• Publicar una primera obra con la clave de las principales especies presentes en la sabana en 20 comunidades estudiadas (Escobar et al. 1993).• Desarrollar una segunda publicación sobre la parte ecológica y fitosociológica del ecosistema mencionado, partiendo del análisis de la relación suelo-aguacomunidad vegetal.La presente obra, que servirá de ayuda a los técnicos dedicados al uso de la tierra y al manejo de las sabanas del trópico americano \"en particular de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia\", responde a este último objetivo.Muchos trabajos se han escrito sobre las sabanas africanas y las de América del Sur, no sólo relacionados con la definición del término \"sabana\" sino también con la clasificación de este ecosistema desde el punto de vista florístico y ecológico. Cuatrecasas (1958) hace un bosquejo de la vegetación típica de la \"formación sabana\" tanto en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, en el área de Apiay (Meta), como en los Llanos situados al sur de Neiva, departamento del Huila. Dugand (1973) describe la vegetación de las sabanas subxerofíticas del departamento del Cesar y hace la siguiente división del ecosistema sabana:-sabana abierta o limpia, \"sabana de pajonal\";-sabana arbolada;-sabana de cardonal;-sabana de matas;-sabana de matorral; -sabana de palmar; y -sabana subdesértica. Blydenstein (1967) reconoce 10 tipos de sabana y los clasifica según el elemento florístico. Tres de ellos son distintos desde el punto de vista florístico, aunque teniendo en común el bosque relictual; los otros siete son distintos según el gradiente de humedad y considerando los términos sabana seca, húmeda o inundable.Los estudios anteriormente citados no unifican la terminología ni son una propuesta metodológica técnica que procure proporcionar una idea mejor del uso o del aprovechamiento del agua o del suelo en relación con la vegetación, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. La opinión anterior no pretende demeritar el esfuerzo hecho por los autores citados.El presente estudio se llevó a cabo en los años 1986 y 1987, en el Centro de Investigación (CI) Carimagua, manejado por el Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA) y por el CIAT, que está situado en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (lat. 04° 36' N;long. 71° 19' O;altitud: 167 m.s.n.m.). La superficie de la estación es de 23,000 ha (Figura 2-1).Se establecieron cinco transectos de 1 a 5 km, representativos de la zona de estudio y consistentes en líneas que seguían el rumbo este-oeste. Se tomaron en ellos puntos de observación distantes entre sí 100 ó 200 m. En cada punto se hicieron muestreos (20 a 50) que consistían en arrojar marcos metálicos de 2.5 m². Los puntos muestreados constituían una comunidad.Todos los tipos fisonómicos de vegetación fueron estudiados menos el bosque, que se estudia en el Capítulo 4 de esta obra. Las especies recolectadas fueron colocadas en prensa de madera y sometidas a secado y montaje. Fueron determinadas por comparación con ejemplares del \"Herbario Valle\" de la Universidad Nacional-Sede Palmira, y del \"Herbario Nacional Colombiano\" de la Universidad Nacional-Sede Bogotá, con ayuda de algunos especialistas vinculados a este último herbario y con ayuda de la bibliografía consultada.Los parámetros que se fijaron para observación y análisis fueron los siguientes: a. Vegetación: frecuencia y abundancia por familia, género y especie (25 a 50 puntos de muestreo por comunidad).b. Suelo: muestreo (un punto por comunidad) a tres profundidades (0-10, 20-30 y 40-50 cm) de las variables físicas (textura) y de 13 variables químicas por muestra (pH, materia orgánica [M.O.], P, Al, Ca, Mg, K, S, B, Zn, Mn, Cu, Fe), según la metodología utilizada por el CIAT (Salinas y García 1985).c. Agua en el perfil: muestreo mensual de disponibilidad de agua (diciembre a mayo) a nueve profundidades (cada 20 cm).Fitosociología-ecología. Esta metodología se deriva de Braun- Blanquet (1979) y de Boudet (1984). Permite hacer la comparación de las comunidades vegetales y de los datos ecológicos, para identificar las especies características y las más frecuentes en cada comunidad y las que son comunes a los grupos de comunidades más o menos idénticas. Estos datos se obtienen mediante una tabla fitosociológica (matriz de doble entrada con las especies y los levantamientos ecológicos y florísticos para cada sitio uniforme). Actualmente, la clasificación de las comunidades se facilita gracias a algunos programas de computador, por ejemplo, ANAPHYTO, ADDAD 1983 y SAS 1989.Análisis estadístico de frecuencia de la vegetación. Se consideró el número de veces que una especie estaba presente en cada comunidad; con estos datos se conformó una tabla de doble entrada, donde las hileras eran las especies y las columnas eran las comunidades. Con el fin de describir el comportamiento de las especies con respecto a las comunidades, se hizo un análisis de correspondencia (AC).El AC (Guinochet 1973;Johnson y Wichern 1982;Lebart et al. 1984) es una técnica que permite reducir la dimensionalidad en el número de categorías de una variable (por hileras o columnas), de tal manera que se pueda representar en un plano la correspondencia o similitud de las categorías de cada variable. El AC requiere de una tabla de datos cuyas hileras y columnas correspondan a las categorías de dos variables bajo estudio, y los datos de cada celda de la tabla correspondan al número de observaciones en que haya combinación de hilera por columna. Partiendo de la tabla de doble entrada, se calculan los valores de ? 2 ('chi'-cuadrado) según las frecuencias de cada celda y las frecuencias marginales. Estos valores se transforman en distancias métricas y con ellos se hace un análisis de componentes principales, el cual permite identificar el número y la importancia de las dimensiones o ejes factoriales. Finalmente se representan las categorías de las dos variables en planos de dos o tres dimensiones, cuyos ejes corresponden a los ejes factoriales que explican la mayor variabilidad; la proximidad de dos puntos indica asociación entre categorías de hileras o de columnas.Se calculó también la diversidad de las comunidades vegetales mediante los índices de Shannon (1984) y la Estadística Q (Kempton y Taylor 1978).Según los 25 a 50 puntos muestreados por comunidad, en los 20 estudiados (Cuadro 2-1) se encontraron 183 especies correspondientes a 108 géneros y pertenecientes a 43 familias (ver Apéndice). La composición florística (número de especies por familia) se establece en los histogramas de la Figura 2-2.  Hay que considerar, además, la gran riqueza florística de la sabana y su diversidad. Tenemos un promedio de 28 especies por comunidad en un área de 100 m², pero la diversidad es importante según las comunidades consideradas.El cálculo de los índices de biodiversidad (Cuadro 2-2), según Shannon (Shannon 1984) o según Estadística Q (Kempton y Taylor 1978), muestra la más alta diversidad de vegetación en los bajos húmedos (comunidad 1: sabana arbustiva) y la más baja en la sabana herbácea de la serranía alta (comunidad 19: Altillanura ondulada) o en las pendientes de los \"bancos\" de la Altillanura plana (comunidades 5 y 6) \"o en una y otra\" donde dominan Trachypogon spp. y Andropogon purpusii. En estas comunidades de baja diversidad de vegetación es muy probable que ocurra el pastoreo excesivo (sobrepastoreo).Para comparar las 20 comunidades y para agrupar, dado el caso, las comunidades similares o muy parecidas -y determinar además las especies características y más frecuentes de cada comunidad y de cada grupo-se hizo un análisis factorial de correspondencia (AF) con la vegetación de estos 20 transectos. La metodología empleada permite clasificar dichos transectos (en los planes 1 y 2) en ocho grupos, tal como se aprecia en la Figura 2-3.Esta figura presenta 'grupos' o 'asociaciones' de vegetación de Carimagua. Cada grupo está delimitado por un 'círculo' o 'papa' (del I al VIII) y en cada círculo aparecen las especies 'características' del grupo en las comunidades vegetales de la sabana nativa de Carimagua. En el Cuadro 2-3 se presentan los ocho grupos de vegetación mencionados y se agrega una síntesis de los resultados del análisis de los suelos de la zona.Cada grupo de vegetación presenta, en efecto, características específicas respecto al suelo y al contenido de agua (Cuadro 2-4); en él se establecen asociaciones definidas y se pueden determinar subgrupos que poseen también asociaciones vegetales características o típicas.Cada grupo lleva un título que resume la fisonomía de su vegetación, su ubicación en el relieve y la característica más notable del suelo correspondiente.Se estudió una parte representativa de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, principalmente la zona bien drenada o Altillanura plana. Se observó una gran diversidad florística y una gran diversidad de 'tipos' de vegetación o de pastura nativa.Esta diversidad se relaciona con la diversidad de los suelos, la del relieve -que siempre existe, aunque no parece muy importante-y la del uso o manejo de la sabana nativa, especialmente el pastoreo y la quema. Estos últimos usos, que se integran a la dinámica de la sabana nativa, se estudian en los Capítulos 6 y 8 de esta obra.El inventario y la tipología de la vegetación presentados en este capítulo serían muy útiles para mejorar el conocimiento de la diversidad florística de la región y el uso que conviene darle a ésta. Se conocen aquí mejor, por ejemplo, las especies raras o útiles para el hombre o para la ganadería en aspectos como frecuencia, dinámica, producción, ecología, valor alimenticio. Figura 2-3. Muestra de la metodología con que se analizó la vegetación de la sabana nativa del CI Carimagua. Mediante análisis factorial de correspondencia, 20 transectos (M0 a M20) se clasificaron en ocho grupos o asociaciones de vegetación (ver Cuadro 2-3) que los investigadores delimitaron en la figura con 'trazos' circulares o elípticos aproximados. Los números dentro de cada área definida por el trazo señalan la posición de algunas de las especies \"características\" de cada grupo y las identifican en el Cuadro 2-3. Cuadro 2-3. Grupos o 'asociaciones' de especies (especie y familia) observados en las comunidades vegetales de la sabana de Carimagua, Meta, Colombia. Las cifras entre paréntesis (1, 2, etc.) indican la posición de la especie en el grupo que le corresponde del análisis de la Figura 2-3.Cuadro 2-3. (Continuación). Areno-arcilloso y limo-arcilloso. Muy bajo nivel de M.O. (0.6%-1.3%) y de P (1 ppm). Muy bajo nivel de agua (reserva) en las épocas seca y lluviosa.Sabana herbosa húmeda Bajos húmedos. Comunidades vegetales 17, 18Clidemia rubra (1) Melastomataceae características:Especies más frecuentes:Arcilloso pesado y arcilloso (>50% arcilla). Muy alto nivel de agua en las épocas seca (26%) y lluviosa (42% Las especies, o grupos de especies, son también un indicador del tipo de suelo (de sus características o sus carencias) y, en consecuencia, del potencial del suelo, de su uso posible para otros cultivos y de aspectos similares.Los datos de frecuencia y de abundancia de las especies, que fueron utilizados para crear una tipología de las comunidades vegetales, sirvieron también para desarrollar la cartografía y hacer el inventario de esas formaciones vegetales; una y otro son muy útiles para la ubicación, la planimetría y el manejo ulterior de esas formaciones (Girard y Rippstein 1994;Rippstein y Girard 1994). Rippstein G.;Girard C. 1994 La diversidad biológica o biodiversidad es un concepto difícil de definir que contiene dos componentes (Magurran 1988;WCMC 1992):• La riqueza de especies, que se expresa generalmente por el número de especies en una unidad de muestreo definida. En general, la biodiversidad se refiere a la variedad y variabilidad existentes en los organismos vivos, en los sistemas ecológicos que los albergan y en las interrelaciones que se establecen entre estos componentes (UICN 1992, citado en Almanza 1994). La diversidad biológica puede ser abordada, por ello, en diferentes niveles jerárquicos: genes, especies, niveles taxonómicos superiores, comunidades y procesos bióticos, ecosistemas y biomas, tanto a escala temporal como espacial (Almanza 1994). En este capítulo, y desde un punto de vista conceptual, adoptaremos un enfoque de la biodiversidad partiendo desde el nivel específico que considera las especies como unidades comparables de diversidad en cuyas poblaciones, a causa de su diversidad genética, actúa la selección natural.Medida de la diversidad de especies. Cada uno de los dos componentes de la biodiversidad (riqueza y equitatividad) provee información sobre la misma. Sin embargo, la relación mutua entre ambos parámetros da pie para combinarlos en índices basados en la abundancia proporcional de especies.Hay tres formas principales de evaluar la diversidad de especies (Magurran 1988):• Indices de riqueza de especies. Se puede diferenciar entre la riqueza numérica de especies, que se define como el número de especies por número determinado de individuos o de biomasa (Kempton 1979, citado en Magurran 1988), y la densidad de especies, que es el número de especies por área de muestreo (Hurlbert 1971, citado en Magurran 1988) (Figura 3-1). En las sabanas, la abundancia de una especie se caracteriza, generalmente, por su porcentaje de cobertura (Bulla 1996).• Modelos de abundancia de especies. Utilizan toda la información obtenida en una comunidad y hacen la expresión matemática más completa de los datos. En este caso, la diversidad se relaciona generalmente con cuatro modelos principales: la distribución normal logarítmica, la serie geométrica, la serie logarítmica y el modelo de la \"vara interrumpida\" de MacArthur (Giller 1984;Pielou 1974, citado en Especies (no.) Area de muestreo Figura 3-1. Diversidad de especies medida por el incremento en la riqueza de especies, según el tamaño del área de muestreo. Magurran, 1988) (Figura 3-2). Estos modelos representan una progresión que va de la serie geométrica -donde unas pocas especies son dominantes y las demás son poco comunespasando por las distribuciones de las series logarítmica y normal logarítmica -en las cuales son más comunes las especies de abundancia intermedia-y finaliza con el modelo de la 'vara interrumpida' -en el cual la abundancia es similar para todas las especies.Otro acercamiento a la medición de la diversidad que tiene en cuenta la distribución de las especies, aunque no se ajusta a modelos, es la Estadística Q (Kempton y Taylor 1976;1978, citados en Magurran 1988)). Esta medida es un indicativo de la diversidad de la comunidad que no da ningún peso a las especies muy abundantes ni a las muy raras.• Indices basados en la abundancia proporcional de especies. Ofrecen una alternativa de más fácil manejo para medir la diversidad cristalizando, en una sola medida, la riqueza y la equitatividad. Los índices más ampliamente utilizados son los relacionados con la teoría de la información (p.e., el índice de Shannon) y el de dominancia (p.e., el de Simpson).-Los índices de la teoría de la información hacen esta racionalización: la biodiversidad o la información contenida en un sistema natural se puede medir de manera similar a la información encerrada en un código o en un mensaje (Magurran 1988). El índice de Shannon, por ejemplo, supone 100 10 1 0.1 Individuos (no.) 5 1 0 1 5 2 0 Rango de especies Figura 3-2. Diversidad de especies según los modelos de distribución de la abundancia de especies. FUENTE: Giller 1984.Serie logarítmica Serie geométrica Distribución normal log que se toman muestras al azar de los individuos de una población 'indefinidamente grande' y que todas las especies están presentes en la muestra (Magurran 1988). Se calcula según la siguiente ecuación:(1) donde:= contenido de información de la muestra (bits/ individuo) = = índice de diversidad de especies S = número de especies p i = proporción de la muestra total correspondiente a la i-ésima especie Cuanto mayor sea el número de especies o la equitatividad en la distribución de las especies, mayor será la diversidad de especies evaluada mediante este índice (Krebs 1985).-El índice que mide la dominancia da mayor peso a las especies más comunes. El más usado es el índice de Simpson, D, que evalúa la probabilidad de que dos individuos escogidos al azar en una comunidad infinitamente grande pertenezcan a la misma especie (Krebs 1985): D = 1 -(probabilidad de escoger dos organismos de la misma especie)(2) donde: p i = proporción de individuos de la especie i en la comunidad.En este capítulo se estudian diferentes aspectos de la biodiversidad de la vegetación nativa en el área comprendida entre Puerto López y Puerto Gaitán y en el área de Carimagua, zonas representativas de la Serranía y la Altillanura, respectivamente, de Colombia.La Altillanura plana es una franja de unos 60 km de ancho, en promedio, que se extiende al sur del río Meta, desde Puerto López hasta Venezuela. Tiene sectores altos y planos con pendientes inferiores al 1%, cubiertos por una vegetación de sabana abierta y 'limpia' o 'herbosa' (o sea, con escasos árboles y arbustos). Estos sectores comprenden cerca del 90% del paisaje. El 10% restante (ver Figura 1-12, del Capítulo 1) está ocupado por bajos y vías de drenaje de la Altillanura (Botero 1989).La Altillanura ondulada y la Serranía constituyen una franja situada al sur de la Altillanura plana en un paisaje dominado por colinas. Tienen pendientes del 1% y 30% y bajos húmedos que ocupan cerca del 25% del área (Botero 1989). Sarmiento (1983;1994;1996a) define este tipo de sabanas como estacionales o secas, porque en ellas ocurre un período de estrés por sequía; tienen un estrato arbóreo diversificado, y los principales géneros de gramíneas que se encuentran en ellas son Andropogon, Aristida, Axonopus, Leptocoryphium, Panicum y Trachypogon.Otro tipo de sabanas bien representadas en los Llanos Orientales, aunque menos importantes en el área específica que nos atañe en este capítulo, son las sabanas hiperestacionales que presentan cuatro S H = -5 p i ln p i i=1 S D = -5 l -5(p i ) 2 i=1 períodos contrastantes. Carecen, generalmente, de componentes leñosos, a excepción de algunas especies de palmas. Los principales géneros encontrados en estas sabanas son Andropogon, Leersia, Panicum, Paspalum, Sorghastrum y, además, los de las Cyperaceae (Sarmiento 1996a). Estas sabanas están ampliamente distribuidas en las llanuras mal drenadas al norte del río Meta.Están, por último, las sabanas semiestacionales que se hallan en sitios de relieve más bajo. En ellas, la principal causa de estrés es el exceso de agua. Los géneros más frecuentes en ellas son Hymenachne, Leersia, Oryza, Panicum y los pertenecientes a las Cyperaceae (Sarmiento 1996a). Una de las formas más conocidas de estas sabanas son los llamados 'esteros'.Bordeando los cursos de agua, es usual la presencia de 'bosques de galería', que alcanzan una anchura de cientos de metros (generalmente son inferiores a 1 km); están constituidos por un dosel que puede llegar a 20 m de altura y tienen estratos bien definidos (ver Capítulo 6 de esta obra). Otras comunidades vegetales comunes son los 'morichales', que están dominadas por Mauritia flexuosa, M. minor o Mauritiella spp., principalmente (o por varias de ellas); los morichales se presentan como formaciones largas y angostas al lado de los caños que corren en suelos húmedos o en bordes de laguna o en esteros.Están, finalmente, las 'matas de monte' y los bosquetes, que son comunidades de selva bien estructuradas o incipientes, presentes en sitios con nivel freático alto y mejores condiciones químicas de suelo.Los suelos de sabana provienen de sedimentos aluviales originarios de los Andes y tienen baja fertilidad a causa de su avanzado estado de meteorización y del bajo nivel de los nutrientes. Son suelos muy lavados en razón de su permeabilidad y de la alta precipitación de la región comprendida.Presentan baja capacidad de intercambio catiónico y una elevada acidez, condiciones ambas asociadas con la toxicidad debida al Al y, en algunos casos, al manganeso (Botero 1989). El contenido total de P en estas sabanas varía de 200 a 600 ppm, mientras que el P disponible (Bray II) va de 1 a 3 ppm (Botero 1989).Los suelos de la Altillanura plana son profundos, bien estructurados, muy porosos y permeables, y se clasifican como Haplustox típicos, Caoliníticos, Isohipertérmicos (Oxisoles). Los de la Altillanura ondulada y la Serranía son generalmente pedregosos por la abundancia de plintita y cantos rodados de cuarzo. Los horizontes superficiales son arenosos, mientras que los profundos son arcillosos; la presencia de plintita los preserva de la erosión, pese a las pendientes fuertes (Botero 1989;Peters 1994).Los suelos de los bajos presentan, generalmente, mayor contenido de materia orgánica (M.O.) y mayor capacidad de intercambio catiónico, aunque son deficientes en la mayoría de los nutrientes esenciales. Se suelen clasificar como Inceptisoles (Botero 1989;Peters 1994). En el Cuadro 2A-7, del Capítulo 2, se presentan las principales características fisicoquímicas de estos suelos.El clima de los Llanos Orientales está determinado por el ritmo de los vientos y de las lluvias. Estas últimas se concentran en un período de 8 a 10 meses al año y representan alrededor del 95% de la precipitación registrada, la cual varía de 1800 mm en el norte de Vichada a más de 3500 mm cerca a Mitú, en Vaupés (Khobzi et al. 1980, citados en Grollier, 1994). La estación seca comprende de 2 a 4 meses; la frecuencia de las precipitaciones disminuye al alejarse de la Cordillera Oriental (Botero 1989) y aumenta proporcionalmente durante la época húmeda.El área estudiada tiene una altura promedio de 150 m.s.n.m. Presenta un período de lluvias que va desde abril hasta diciembre y un período seco desde mediados de diciembre hasta finales de marzo. La precipitación anual es, aproximadamente, de 2200 mm y disminuye hacia el oriente. La temperatura media anual es de 26 °C, razón por la cual estas sabanas son clasificadas como 'isohipertérmicas bien drenadas' con clima típico de sabana: A w en la clasificación climática de Köeppen (Sarmiento 1996a).La humedad relativa es de 80% en la estación de lluvias y de 50% a 60% en la estación seca. Durante este último período es alta la evapotranspiración potencial cuando el agua disponible en el suelo alcanza valores mínimos, especialmente durante los meses de febrero y marzo (Botero 1989).Se tomaron muestras de la vegetación de sabana nativa mediante transectos representativos de las zonas en estudio (Serranía en el área que se extiende entre Puerto López y Puerto Gaitán, y Altillanura en el área de Carimagua) utilizando la metodología del punto cuadrático (Paladines 1992) o la de los marcos metálicos de 2.5 m 2 o ambos métodos (ver Cuadro 2A-1, del Capítulo 2).La información de campo permitió conocer el nombre de las especies y su agrupación en géneros y familias, su frecuencia y su cobertura. La frecuencia se refiere al número de veces que una especie se presenta en un número dado de parcelas de muestreo o de puntos de muestreo (Müller-Dombois y Ellenberg 1974). La cobertura es la fracción proporcional de la superficie del suelo que está ocupada por la proyección perpendicular de las partes aéreas de los individuos de la especie considerada (Paladines 1992).Los listados de todos los levantamientos, que contienen información sobre la composición de especies y sus variaciones cuantitativas, se transfieren a una tabla única, conocida en fitosociología como tabla de síntesis (Müller-Dombois y Ellenberg 1974) la cual, organizada mediante pasos sucesivos, permite reconocer tanto los grupos de especies que tienen una distribución similar entre los levantamientos como los levantamientos que presentan una composición similar de especies.Se ha establecido que son especies 'constantes' o más frecuentes las que están presentes en un alto porcentaje de los levantamientos (p.e., superior al 60%); que son especies diferenciales o características aquellas cuya distribución está restringida a algunos levantamientos (se excluyen las especies de baja frecuencia o raras).Actualmente, la clasificación de las comunidades vegetales es facilitada por programas de computador, por ejemplo, ANAPHYTO, SAS, TWINSPAN, CLUTAB (Rippstein et al. 1994;1995). La información obtenida permite determinar grupos de vegetación de la zona estudiada: para ello se utilizó el Análisis de Correspondencia (AC).Este tipo de análisis representa en un espacio de dos ó tres dimensiones otro de muchas dimensiones y permite visualizar en un plano la correspondencia o similitud de las categorías de cada variable. Requiere la elaboración de una tabla de doble entrada, en la que cada celda corresponda al número de observaciones de dicha combinación de variables.A partir de la tabla de doble entrada, se calculan los valores de ? 2 utilizando la frecuencia de cada celda y las frecuencias marginales. Estos valores se transforman en distancias métricas y, mediante un análisis de componentes principales, se identifican los ejes vectoriales que contienen la mayor información (Rippstein et al. 1994;Falissard, 1996). La proximidad de dos puntos indica la asociación de las variables de una categoría a otra. En general, en la Serranía disminuyen las Cyperaceae y aumentan las Poaceae (gramíneas) y las especies arbustivas pertenecientes a las familias Myrtaceae, Flacourtiaceae, Malpighiaceae, Annonaceae y Erythroxylaceae; todas ellas dan un aspecto de sabana arbustiva al paisaje. Estas familias incrementan su presencia porque la precipitación es mayor y el drenaje del suelo es mejor (Cuadro 3-3), ya que la Serranía se encuentra a mayor altitud que otros sistemas (Rippstein et al. 1994).La diversidad de especies de gramíneas y leguminosas en la Altillanura y la Serranía colombianas puede considerarse elevada en comparación con la observada en otros ecosistemas (Cuadro 3-4). Entre los diversos géneros de gramíneas de la Altillanura están Paspalum (12 especies y variedades), Axonopus (7 especies), Panicum (6 especies) y Andropogon (5 especies). Pott y Adamoli (1996) reportan, en las sabanas del Pantanal de Piaguás en la región del Mato Grosso brasileño, varias especies de gramíneas: 14 en las sabanas de Vochysia, 23 en las de Byrsonima, 28 en las de Elyonorus y 17 en las de Curatella; registran los autores, en cambio, 1, 3, 14 y 4 especies de leguminosas relacionadas, respectivamente, con los grupos de gramíneas anteriores. Sin embargo, la riqueza de especies es similar a la de la  et al. 1995).Otros trabajos realizados para la Altillanura colombiana (Rangel et al. 1995) muestran un gran cambio en la diversidad y en la representación florística de los principales taxa; una de las razones del cambio es que estos trabajos se basaron en una revisión bibliográfica y de herbario y no discriminan la flora según los diferentes ecosistemas representados en la Altillanura colombiana (p.e., sabanas, selvas de galería, morichales, 'matas de monte'). Es, sin embargo, importante la contribución de los principales taxa a la diversidad florística general (Cuadro 3-5).Llama la atención la diversidad de especies que tienen fuera de la sabana las rubiáceas, las leguminosas, las melastomatáceas, las asteráceas, las orquídeas y las euforbiáceas. En las rubiáceas se debe principalmente a la gran diversidad específica de los géneros Psychotria y Palicourea, especialmente en el sotobosque de las 'matas de monte' y en las selvas de galería. En las melastomatáceas y compuestas, la mayor diversidad está en las comunidades arbustivas, como los bosquetes. En las euforbiáceas y leguminosas, la mayor diversidad se encuentra, respectivamente, en los estratos arbustivos y arbóreos de las selvas de galería. Las especies de orquídeas epífitas prosperan en las selvas de galería y en las 'matas' de buen tamaño porque allí es mayor la humedad.En la Altillanura, en la región de Carimagua, se registraron, en total, 20 comunidades vegetales que fueron agrupadas, mediante análisis de correspondencia, en ocho tipos de vegetación (Cuadro 3-6, Figura 3-2); estos tipos reflejan una gran diversidad florística de los ecosistemas (ver Capítulo 2 y su Apéndice, esta obra).Las zonas bajas presentan un mayor porcentaje de reserva de agua en el suelo, mayores contenidos de M.O., un contenido de P total de bajo a intermedio, y suelos con tendencia a ser arcillosos. En estas zonas se observan dos grupos: en uno de ellos (grupo IV) hay especies características, como las dicotiledóneas Clidemia rubra (Melastomataceae) y Rotala ramosior (Lythraceae), esta última capaz de soportar inundación durante largo tiempo; sus suelos son arcillosos y presentan el mayor contenido de M.O. que se halló en los grupos evaluados. El otro grupo (grupo I) está florísticamente poco relacionado con el anterior, es de gran amplitud y presenta también niveles intermedios de M.O. y de P, una moderada reserva de agua en el suelo, y especies características de monocotiledóneas que requieren niveles freáticos elevados; probablemente es uno de los grupos de mayor productividad vegetal.Los demás grupos están conformados por sabanas secas. Los grupos II, III y VI presentan un contenido de M.O. y P de bajo a muy bajo, e igual nivel de humedad en el suelo; son limo-arcillosos y arenolimosos (grupo II), areno-arcillosos y limo-arcillosos (grupo III) y arenosos (grupo VI). El componente edáfico arenoso y el nivel de M.O. (de bajo a muy bajo) que comparten estos tres grupos son, tal vez, responsables de la baja capacidad de retención de agua de éstos, especialmente en la época seca. Es de esperar, además, una baja productividad vegetal.El grupo III, especialmente y, en menor grado, los grupos II y VI presentan formas de vida predominantemente erectas y en macollas (véanse las especies más frecuentes en el Cuadro 2A-6, del Capítulo 2). Esta característica causa un sombreado del terreno en el cual se producen tipos de sabana; éstos, al ser quemados, dejan muchas veces una fracción considerable del suelo descubierta y, por ello, sujeta a procesos erosivos importantes por efecto del viento y de la lluvia. En general, estas condiciones edáficas y de bioforma pueden redundar en una baja productividad y en gran fragilidad del medio, situación que debe ser considerada para el manejo y la conservación de la biodiversidad de este tipo de sabanas.Los restantes tipos de sabana (V, VII y VIII) se presentan en suelos arcillo-limosos, cuyo contenido de M.O. es bajo (entre 2% y 2.9%), tienen niveles muy bajos de P (0.5 a 0.8 ppm) y una retención moderada del agua, tanto en la época seca como en la lluviosa. El grupo V, de gran amplitud florística, presenta una gran diversidad de familias y de especies características, algunas con reconocido potencial forrajero, como Axonopus purpusii; esta poácea, gracias a su crecimiento cespitoso y a su elevada frecuencia de aparición, puede conferir un gran potencial para la ganadería a dicho tipo de sabanas.En la Figura 2-3, del Capítulo 2, se observa que los grupos IV, V y VII comparten características en su composición florística, mientras que el grupo VII las comparte con los grupos VI, IV y VII.Muchas plantas de sabana son empleadas por comunidades indígenas o criollas de manera diferente, según el manejo que ellas dan al ecosistema. La etnobotánica de los Guahibos o Sikuanis, principal etnia de esta área de estudio, se expresa mejor en el aprovechamiento y manejo de la biodiversidad existente en el 'conuco', Cuadro 3-6.Especies características y condiciones edáficas relacionadas con ellas en la vegetación de sabana de la Altillanura plana en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. ES = estación seca; EL = estación lluviosa. una zona cultivada en el interior de las 'matas de monte'; se aplica el sistema de tumba y quema en un área aproximada de 1 a 2 ha.En estos conucos se cultivan especies que entran en producción rápidamente y especies perennes. Entre las primeras se destacan las siguientes:• La yuca (Manihot esculenta), base de la dieta alimenticia guahiba. Llama la atención la gran diversidad de cultivariedades que los guahibos reconocen y seleccionan (p.e., más de medio centenar de variedades de yuca).Al interior del conuco, cada planta se cultiva en las condiciones microclimáticas que genera la tumba de los árboles. Una vez que estas plantas, cosechadas a corto plazo, crean un dosel protector del suelo, se pasa a la siembra de plantas que permanecerán en producción durante largo tiempo, principalmente los frutales. Estos entran en producción en algún momento entre el tercero y el quinto año de edad (p.e., Lacmellea edulis, lechemiel; Pouteria caimito, caimito, madura verde; Annona muricata, anón) (ver Cuadros 3-7, 3-8 y 3-9). A medida que transcurre la regeneración natural en el conuco, se cultivan en él los frutales, algunos de los cuales son especies heliófitas propias de etapas sucesionales tempranas, como la uva caimarona, (Pourouma cecropiifolia); simultáneamente habrá otros conucos en producción. Muchos frutos silvestres han sido domesticados de esta manera (p.e., el caimito, Chrysophyllum auratum; la papaya o lechosa, Carica papaya; la uva caimarona o llanera, Pourouma sapida, etc.) (Romero 1994).Hay muchas especies no cultivadas que están presentes en las selvas de galería, en las matas de monte o en los ecotonos sabana-selva; estas plantas, principalmente las palmas, se explotan recolectando sus frutos comestibles.Otras especies son utilizadas en diferentes rituales culturales o médicos por chamanes o curacas, p.e., el yopo (Anadenanthera peregrina, Piptadenia sp., Leguminosae/Mimosoideae); el yagé (Banisteriopsis caapi, Malpighiaceae) y otras. Muchas plantas utilizadas en labores artesanales son explotadas de manera destructiva. Las palmas son el grupo que tiene mayor diversidad de usos y mayor número de especies utilizadas (Balick 1986).Conviene mencionar los 'cotos de caza', que son conucos especiales o parte de un conuco tradicional, utilizados para la ceba y atracción de animales salvajes que periódicamente son cazados. Finalmente, junto al sitio de vivienda hay huertas familiares en las que se cultivan plantas de consumo diario en pequeñas cantidades, p.e., el ají (Capsicum sp.).Las etnias de sabana han sufrido un brusco cambio cultural al pasar de una condición seminómada a otra sedentaria. Los asentamientos humanos han aumentado de tamaño, pero los conucos y huertos familiares conservan una estructura que no se adapta a las nuevas condiciones sedentarias de vida, es decir, no hay períodos de descanso para las 'matas de monte'. En el pasado, cuando la comunidad migraba o se fragmentaba, ocurrían esos descansos, que actualmente están restringidos por la creación de resguardos territorialmente limitados. La ausencia de descansos somete el ecosistema a degradación y ha traído consigo la pérdida del conocimiento cultural en el manejo de los recursos, porque se traspasan los límites de la capacidad de carga y de la homeostasis del ecosistema. De continuar el proceso, se alcanzará un punto de no retorno (en el sentido que le da Odum 1987).Parte de este conocimiento etnobotánico ha sido transformado por los criollos de la región, quienes han incorporado en él elementos propios de todo proceso colonizador. Los llaneros utilizan plantas de las 'matas de monte' y de la 'selva de galería', principalmente maderables, alimenticias y artesanales. Usan también plantas de la sabana con fines principalmente medicinales; p.e., los mastrantos (Hyptis spp., Labiatae), el pepaemato (Aristolochia nummularifolia, Aristolochiaceae), el alcornoco (Bowdichia virgiliodes, Leguminosae/Papilionoideae), el chaparro (Curatella americana, Dilleniaceae) y otras. Algunas plantas utilizadas por los indígenas en rituales mágico-religiosos son usadas actualmente por los llaneros en conjuros, rezos y sanaciones; con este último fin se usa el bototo (Cochlospermum vitifolium).Los llaneros han convertido la ganadería en actividad prioritaria y gran parte del valor actual de uso de la sabana está en su valor pastoril. Polo (1969)  La biodiversidad afecta el comportamiento de las sabanas por su efecto en la productividad, los ciclos de nutrientes, la economía hídrica, las propiedades edáficas y, posiblemente, en la capacidad de recuperación (resiliency) del ecosistema a largo plazo (Solbrig et al. 1996). En general, una mayor diversidad específica mejorará el funcionamiento de un ecosistema; sin embargo, esa relación continúa siendo confusa y no es posible hacer una afirmación definida sobre el tema (Schulze y Mooney 1993, citados en Sarmiento 1996b).Esta controversia (biodiversidad vs. estabilidad en el ecosistema) se plantea mediante dos hipótesis principales (Tilman y Downing, 1994):• La hipótesis 'diversidadestabilidad' predice que la biodiversidad promueve la resistencia a la perturbación porque aumenta la probabilidad de que haya más especies que puedan prosperar durante una perturbación ambiental dada; de este modo se compensa por la reducción de competencia que cause el disturbio.• La hipótesis de la redundancia de especies afirma, en cambio, que muchas especies son tan similares que el funcionamiento del ecosistema es independiente de la diversidad, con tal que estén presentes los principales grupos funcionales.Tilman y Downing (1994) evaluaron durante 11 años el efecto de la biodiversidad en la recuperación de ecosistemas perturbados consistentes en pastizales de sucesión y nativos de Minnesota, E. U. Encontraron que la composición y la diversidad de especies y el funcionamiento del ecosistema dependían de la tasa de suministro de N. Parcelas con mayor diversidad de especies presentaron mayor resistencia a la sequía, producción de biomasa más alta y más velocidad de recuperación (elasticidad).Otro de los factores que genera baja estabilidad en las sabanas y los pastizales tropicales es el pastoreo, porque esos sistemas han evolucionado en el neotrópico sin las grandes presiones que ejerce el pastoreo de los herbívoros mayores (Sarmiento 1992, citado en Sarmiento 1996b). Por otra parte, la introducción de varios géneros de pastos de origen africano ha causado una disminución drástica de la biodiversidad de las sabanas neotropicales (Baruch 1996).Todas las especies tienen un período de existencia finito; sin embargo, el hombre puede acelerar la tasa de extinción esperada de las especies, bien sea por causas directas o indirectas.Entre las causas directas están los métodos extractivos empleados en la recolección y el uso de plantas. La palma de cumare (Astrocaryum vulgare) es muy utilizada en labores artesanales por las comunidades indígenas de la Orinoquia colombiana. Con tal fin se derriban estas palmas (así como las de muchas otras especies) y se obtienen de ellas los siguientes elementos:-sus hojas, para techar viviendas y extraer fibras artesanales;-sus frutos, que son comestibles y producen aceite;-los meristemas apicales o 'cogollos' para consumo y para extraer fibras artesanales; y -los estípites, que se dejan descomponer para cultivar en ellos larvas comestibles de ciertos coleópteros ('mojojoyes').Las consecuencias de esta práctica son la desaparición, por uso cultural, de la biodiversidad y, en menor grado, el desplazamiento del uso de la misma, aunque a nivel etnobotánico pocas especies se usan como equivalentes de otras. Esta situación se mantendrá mientras el entorno sea manejado de manera \"parcialmente tradicional\", como se explicó anteriormente.Entre las causas indirectas están la destrucción o la modificación de un hábitat (WCMC 1992). En la Altillanura plana, estos efectos ocurren por la introducción de pasturas mejoradas u otros cultivos y por diferentes formas de manejo del ecosistema, en particular, la ganadería extensiva. Esta es la principal actividad económica de la región y presenta varios aspectos: manejo de la carga animal, descanso de los lotes, frecuencia y época de las quemas. Aun la ausencia de quemas periódicas puede convertirse en una perturbación de un ecosistema que ha estado sujeto a dicho tipo de disturbio (Archer et al. 1996). Todo esto trae consigo cambios en la composición botánica (ver Capítulo 9 de esta obra).La destrucción de los hábitat ocasionará fragmentación de muchas comunidades vegetales que, al quedar aisladas, podrían quedar sometidas a restricciones poblacionales predichas por la teoría de la biogeografía de islas (MacArthur y Wilson, 1963, 1967, citados en WCMC 1992), según la cual la tasa de extinción de especies tiende a ser inversamente proporcional al tamaño de los parches de vegetación nativa. Por tanto, para conservar especies durante períodos relativamente largos de tiempo, se deben mantener poblaciones de tamaño grande (de cientos a millones de individuos, según la biología de la especie) o numerosas (Schaeffer 1987, citado en WCMC 1992); es necesario, por tanto, crear reservas naturales de los diferentes tipos de ecosistema de sabana.Los estudios botánicos y ecológicos básicos, iniciados en la Altillanura colombiana, deberían hacerse en otros tipos de sabana, p.e., en las sabanas mal drenadas ubicadas al norte del río Meta. Esta información, aunada a los estudios biogeográficos, permitirá identificar en los Llanos Orientales las zonas de mayor diversidad biológica y el alto endemismo de especies y comunidades. Estas zonas serán prioritarias para la conservación de especies y llegarán a ser declaradas Reservas de Manejo, con las cuales se podrá garantizar un adecuado suministro de agua, disminuir el riesgo de inundaciones, detener los procesos erosivos y los procesos concomitantes de sedimentación.Paralelamente, es necesario evaluar el impacto que tienen en la biodiversidad y estabilidad de ecosistemas como la sabana en sus diversos tipos, actividades como la ganadería, la introducción de pasturas mejoradas, el manejo de las quemas y otras similares. Asimismo, es necesario conocer aspectos de la dinámica de la sucesión de comunidades vegetales y de su capacidad de recuperación (resiliencia) frente a diversas formas de manejo.Aunque existen observaciones aisladas, la valoración y la recuperación sistemáticas del uso de la biodiversidad en términos etnobotánicos, ecológicos y económicos es una prioridad. Es importante evaluar en la sabana el potencial forrajero de géneros que poseen gran diversidad, como Paspalum, Axonopus, Panicum y Andropogon.Dentro de las comunidades indígenas, finalmente, se deben promover y apoyar los procesos que permitan una adaptación efectiva y sostenible a las nuevas estructuras territoriales. En el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria Carimagua, en Meta, Colombia, se investigaron los cambios en la estructura y en la composición florística que se presentan en el proceso de sucesión vegetal sobre áreas con diferentes edades de descanso después de haber sido sometidas a quemas (sucesión a largo plazo) y la dinámica de la regeneración a lo largo de 6 meses después de efectuar quemas controladas. En la sucesión a largo plazo, la diversidad y riqueza vegetal aumentan desde la etapa I (1 año después de la quema) hasta la IV (15 años después de la quema); al avanzar el proceso, igualmente aumenta la complejidad estructural. Después de 4 años de reposo, se diferencia un estrato subarbustivo, los estratos arbustivo y subarbóreo aparecen en los sitios que han permanecido más de 8 años sin quema. En esta serie, entre las especies con valores mayores en los índices de importancia ecológica (IPF e IVI) figura Vismia baccifera (Clusiaceae).Sobre los sitios que han permanecido cerca de 15 años en descanso, se presenta invasión de especies propias del bosque de galería.En la dinámica de la regeneración (sucesión a corto plazo) se diferencian especies como Axonopus purpusii y Schizachyrium sanguineum (Poaceae) y Rhynchospora nervosa (Cyperaceae), que una vez regeneradas permanecen en las áreas, y otras como Leptocoryphium lanatum y Otachyrium versicolor (Poaceae), que predominan en una etapa y luego desaparecen. La requema favorece el establecimiento de nuevas especies e influye en un grupo de especies con ciclo de vida corto, entre las cuales aparecen Lindernia crustacea (Scrophulariaceae), Sipanea pratensis (Rubiaceae), Hyptis atrorubens (Lamiaceae), Xyris laxifolia (Xyridaceae), Macroptilium monophyllum (Fabaceae), Galactia glaucescens (Fabaceae), Merremia aturensis (Convolvulaceae), Peltaea speciosa (Malvaceae) y Eugenia punicifolia (Myrtaceae). No se encontró variación significativa en cuanto al número de especies, valores de presencia y permanencia en los ensayos sobre los efectos del fuego y la remoción de la parte aérea.Los diferentes ambientes que engloba la Orinoquia colombiana están sometidos a la influencia de valores altos en temperatura, radiación solar y evaporación, particularmente durante la época de sequía, lo cual, sumado al frecuente lavado de nutrientes de los suelos, favorece el establecimiento de varios tipos de vegetación fácilmente afectados por los incendios, como los pastizales o pajonales, que tienen una cubierta casi exclusiva de gramíneas, y los matorrales mixtos, donde hay una capa más o menos continua de pastos debajo de los elementos leñosos.El fuego es un factor ecológico determinante en la fisonomía de varias de las comunidades y formaciones vegetales. En la Orinoquia, su uso se relaciona con el aprovechamiento económico de los pastizales para mejorar el contenido proteínico y la palatabilidad de los elementos dominantes, condición que se logra al obtener los rebrotes después de haber provocado las quemas.El proceso de sucesión vegetal comprende varias etapas que conducen hacia estructuras y composición florística cada vez más complejas, puesto que cada etapa o fase tiene niveles estructurales diferentes que contribuyen a aumentar la diversidad.El Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) adelanta en el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria (CI) Carimagua el programa de ecología y manejo de la sabana nativa, en el cual desde hace varios años se realizan ensayos sobre el manejo controlado del fuego. Los esfuerzos del programa se han dirigido a optimizar el manejo de vegetación herbácea destinada a la alimentación de ganado vacuno y, simultáneamente, a controlar la degradación y el impacto de la ganadería sobre la sabana.En esta contribución se evalúan los patrones estructurales y los cambios en la composición florística en parcelas que han estado protegidas de las quemas durante diferentes lapsos (sucesión a largo plazo); igualmente, se evalúan los patrones de regeneración después de inducir quemas en estas mismas parcelas (sucesión a corto plazo). A modo de complemento se efectúa una caracterización química de los suelos de las áreas de estudio.El CI Carimagua se halla en el departamento del Meta (ver Capítulo 1 de esta obra). Descansa sobre altiplanicies formadas por sedimentos depositados por ríos que descienden del sistema orográfico andino, evento posterior al levantamiento de la cordillera Oriental (Khobzii et al. 1980).Los subpaisajes que integran el área de Carimagua son diques pequeños y algunos bajos y vegas de reducida superficie en las orillas de los ríos Tomo y Muco, en los caños Caviona, Mapiria y Almorzadero y en la laguna Carimagua (IGAC 1974).Los suelos presentan, en general, baja fertilidad debido al avanzado estado de meteorización y al continuo lavado de nutrientes. Se generan además condiciones de toxicidad para las plantas y otros organismos por la acentuada acidez y por las cantidades altas de aluminio que contiene.La temperatura media es de 26.1 °C, la máxima de 33.6 °C y la mínima de 21.5 °C. La precipitación media mensual es de 189.5 mm y el monto anual es de 2344.7 mm. En Carimagua se registra el valor extremo, para la Orinoquia, de brillo solar mensual: 166.9 h (Rangel y Aguilar 1995).Se siguieron dos procedimientos: el primero tenía por objeto reconstruir el proceso de sucesión vegetal en el tiempo; el segundo conducía a evaluar las fases iniciales de la dinámica de regeneración, después de la quema, en las parcelas donde se evaluó la sucesión.Con la colaboración de los funcionarios del CI, y revisando la estadística del centro respecto a frecuencia de quemas, se seleccionaron sitios representativos con diferentes edades de reposo luego de haber sido quemados, cuya vegetación variaba desde los pastizales hasta los matorrales altos. Adicionalmente, se seleccionó un parche de bosque de galería adyacente al sitio que correspondía a la etapa IV. El tiempo transcurrido desde la quema hasta la época del inventario (1995) en cada sitio se indica en el siguiente cuadro:Edad después de la quema (años)IV 15Parche de bosque Sin quema de galería Los aspectos de la estructura y de la composición florística que se estudiaron se presentan a continuación:Este análisis considera la cobertura, la altura, el diámetro a la altura del pecho (DAP) y el área basal de la vegetación.Cobertura. En los estratos bajos se utilizó el método del punto cuadrático (Paladines 1992) que evalúa el valor porcentual de cada especie en relación con el valor de todas las especies. En los estratos altos se midieron los diámetros mayor y menor de la proyección de la copa sobre el suelo (Rangel y Velásquez 1997).Area basal. Se midió el DAP en individuos de altura (h) superior a 1.2 m y luego se estimó el área basal. Por tanto, los valores obtenidos corresponden a poblaciones con pocos individuos.La altura y la cobertura se midieron a partir de la segunda etapa de sucesión, cuando ya había individuos con tallas superiores a 0.5 m. Las mediciones del DAP (h > 1.2 m) se hicieron a partir de la tercera etapa de sucesión.Los valores representados en las figuras corresponden a los siguientes levantamientos de vegetación: el 2 (etapa III), el 4 (etapa IV), el 6 y el 7 (bosque de galería). Los detalles de estas mediciones aparecen en Torrijos (1996).La distribución en clases para cada uno de los caracteres sociológicos sigue la siguiente formula: c = (X max. -X min. )/m(1) (3) área basal relativa (%) + densidad relativa (%) Se calculó también el Indice de Valor de Importancia (IVI) (Finol 1976):La similitud florística entre las etapas de sucesión se evaluó mediante el Indice de Jaccard (Ij), donde el valor más cercano a 1 indica mayor semejanza: Otra medida empleada fue el coeficiente de distancia euclidiana, que se corrió en el paquete estadístico multivariado (M.V.S.P., v.1.3.), en el que un valor de cero significa que las comunidades son idénticas (Ludwig y Reynolds 1988).En los lugares donde se hicieron los levantamientos de vegetación, se extrajeron muestras por triplicado en los siguientes intervalos: 0-10, 10-20, 20-40, 40-60 y 60-80 cm (Torrijos 1996). Las tres muestras de cada nivel se secaron al aire, se tamizaron y se mezclaron. Posteriormente se hicieron análisis de textura, pH, M.O., fósforo, aluminio, calcio, magnesio, potasio, azufre, hierro y nitrógeno. Los métodos químicos para el análisis de las muestras siguen el procedimiento de Salinas y García (1985). En el Cuadro 4-1 se relacionan los resultados que solamente cubren los niveles entre 0-10 y 10-20 cm.La dinámica de la regeneración de plantas en áreas recientemente quemadas se conoce como sucesión a corto plazo. En las mismas parcelas en donde se habían realizado los levantamientos de vegetación para detectar patrones en la sucesión a largo plazo, se aplicaron dos tratamientos para conocer la regeneración de la cobertura vegetal después de la perturbación. Las parcelas se marcan como II-R, III-R y IV-R. Se aplicaron dos tratamientos:• Remoción total de la parte aérea de la vegetación, que representa un testigo sin quema.• Quema de las partes aéreas de la vegetación.Cuadro 4-1.Caracterización química de los suelos (0-20 cm de profundidad) en las etapas de sucesión y en el bosque. En ambos casos se evitó remover el suelo para no afectar los propágulos, los xilopodios y las raicillas. Los dos tratamientos se aplicaron en las etapas de sucesión II, III y IV. En la etapa I no se practicó la quema por la ubicación de la parcela dentro del paisaje local. Se utilizó el cuadrado permanente (Gómez y del Amor 1979), el cual se subdividió internamente en 24 subunidades y permaneció instalado en cada una de las parcelas durante el tiempo de seguimiento del ensayo (6 meses). Cada tratamiento se aplicó por triplicado. El diseño de los cuadrados permanentes se muestra en el siguiente esquema: Para registrar la composición florística (sustitución y renovación de las especies) y las respuestas a la quema, en cada intervalo de observación se evaluaron las 24 subunidades de cada repetición. Se calcularon dos parámetros: permanencia y presencia.Aunque se relaciona con la presencia, este parámetro estima la abundancia y dominancia de una especie que se ha establecido y perdura en el tiempo después de la quema (Vidal y Rangel 1987). Los estimativos se hicieron en la totalidad de las subunidades que se evaluaron así: Rhynchospora nervosa, por ejemplo, en la etapa II, presentó un valor de permanencia de 0.25, es decir, fue registrada en 144 interacciones (de un total de 576).Se fundamenta en la presencia de la especie al menos en una de las tres repeticiones de cada etapa, sin que importe el número de subunidades en que se podría encontrar la especie. No considera parámetros de abundancia y dominancia. Durante el tiempo de muestreo (160 días) se realizaron ocho observaciones. Se calcula así:x 100 (7)Total de intervalos (N) donde: N = 8 intervalos En la etapa III, por ejemplo, Mesosetum loliiforme tiene un grado de presencia de 1, es decir, la especie se presentó en todas las observaciones realizadas (8) en esa etapa.Se hizo una prueba de independencia para saber si había diferencias significativas en los resultados de los dos tratamientos (remoción y quema) con respecto a los valores de presencia, de permanencia y al número de especies. Los valores obtenidos no tuvieron significancia; por consiguiente, los resultados que se incluyen en la sección sobre dinámica de la regeneración se refieren a las parcelas donde se efectuó la quema controlada.En el Cuadro 4-2, Col. A, se consignan los valores máximo y mínimo de los parámetros altura, cobertura y variación general del DAP, en las etapas II, III y IV de sucesión y en los estratos arbóreo y subarbóreo del bosque de galería. En forma complementaria se incluyen las variaciones del 90% de los individuos que se agruparon en las primeras clases (Cuadro 4-2, Col. B).En la Figura 4-1 se muestra la distribución por clase del 90% de los individuos con el tamaño de muestra (n), la amplitud de la clase (c) y el número de clases (m). En altura, la distribución de los individuos de las etapas II, III y IV es de tipo normal en forma de jota invertida, es, decir la mayoría de los individuos se concentran en las clases inferiores. En el estrato arbóreo del bosque de galería, el comportamiento de la distribución se presenta de manera inversa, con mayor concentración de individuos en la clase más alta; esta condición se esperaba en razón de que se evalúa aquí la distribución de los individuos en el estrato dominante de un bosque de galería.En cobertura, las diferencias entre clases son muy marcadas, pero hay la misma tendencia del parámetro anterior: en las clases inferiores se concentra el mayor número de individuos.La distribución del DAP (etapas III, IV y estratos subarbóreo y arbóreo) es muy regular; solamente en el estrato subarbóreo del bosque de galería se nota una ligera tendencia de los individuos a concentrarse en la clase inferior.La Figura 4-2 muestra, a manera de síntesis, la diferenciación de estratos y los cambios en la cobertura a lo largo del proceso de sucesión. Es evidente que cuando avanza la recuperación, aumenta la complejidad estructural; en la etapa I solamente había un estrato (el herbáceo), mientras que en la etapa IV ya se han desarrollado cuatro estratos. El estrato herbáceo presenta el mayor valor de cobertura (100%) en la etapa II (con 4 años sin quema), que disminuye drásticamente en las etapas III y IV, quizás por el desarrollo de elementos leñosos y la sustitución de la capa de macollas por dicotiledóneas que no tienen este tipo de crecimiento.El estrato subarbustivo se desarrolla a partir de la etapa II y alcanza su máximo valor en la IV. Los estratos arbustivo (1.6 a 5.0 m) y Cuadro 4-2.Variación de los valores (mínimo y máximo) de los parámetros altura, cobertura y DAP en las diferentes etapas del proceso de sucesión en sitios en que hubo quemas antiguas.  subarbóreo (5.1 a 12 m) se diferencian en la etapa III y muestran su máximo vigor en la etapa IV, en la que forman pequeños \"bosquetes\" con manchas hasta de 6 m de diámetro que favorecen la proliferación de plántulas en un medio protegido por el fuego.En la Figura 4-3 se presentan los valores del IPF en las etapas III y IV y en el bosque de galería, junto con los de la especie más importante según este parámetro. En la etapa III, el valor de IPF fue de 1.62 y la especie con el valor más alto fue Vismia baccifera (Clusiaceae) (1.05). En la etapa IV, el valor del IPF fue de 1.75 y la especie con mayor valor fue Curatella americana (Dilleniaceae) (0.416).También cobran importancia especies arbóreas propias de la transición sabana-bosque como Simarouba amara (Simaroubaceae) y Xylopia aromatica (Annonaceae), con valores de IPF de 0.30 y 0.29, respectivamente.En el bosque de galería, el valor del IPF fue de 1.95 y la especie con el valor más alto fue Protium calanense (Burseraceae) (0.43). En general, V. baccifera alcanzó el valor más alto (etapa III), más del doble del valor de cualquiera de las especies dominantes en las etapas restantes.La Figura 4-4 muestra los valores de IVI para las etapas III y IV y para el bosque de galería, así como la especie con el valor más alto de este parámetro. En la etapa III, el IVI fue de 1.02 y la especie con mayor valor fue Vismia baccifera (Clusiaceae) con 0.62, seguida por Davilla nitida (Dilleniaceae) con 0.16; estas dos especies forman pequeños bosquetes. En la etapa IV, el IVI fue de 1.58 y la especie con mayor valor fue Miconia albicans (Melastomataceae) con 0.26; esta especie es propia de la sabana y muy sensible a la quema, ya que aumenta su densidad y vigor en la medida en que avanza la sucesión. En el bosque de galería, el IVI fue de 2.56 y la especie con mayor valor fue Pseudolmedia laevis (Moraceae) con 0.50, seguida por Virola elongata (Myristicaceae) con 0.23.En general, los valores mayores en ambos parámetros los mostró V. baccifera; esta tendencia puede servir para interpretar patrones de distribución en otros parches de vegetación en el mismo paisaje.En las áreas investigadas en Carimagua, se registraron 132 especies de 101 géneros y 46 familias, de las cuales 36 familias son Dicotiledóneas, 8 Monocotiledóneas y 2 Pteridofitas. Las familias con el mayor número de especies son Poaceae (27), Melastomataceae (10), Fabaceae (9), Rubiaceae (8), Burseraceae (5), Annonaceae (5) y Cyperaceae (4). Este espectro es similar al del patrón general del paisaje de altillanura (Rangel et al. 1995), excepto por la importancia que tienen las Burseraceae y Annonaceae en Carimagua. Los géneros más ricos son Miconia (5), Paspalum (5), Guatteria (3), Casearia (Flacourtiaceae, 3), Desmodium (Fabaceae, 3), Hyptis (3) y Andropogon (3).En la Figura 4-5 se muestran los cambios en la composición florística en la medida en que avanza la sucesión; del análisis detallado de la figura se pueden extraer las siguientes conclusiones:• El número de especies, géneros y familias aumenta al avanzar el proceso de sucesión; la etapa III es la excepción.• Hay un aumento significativo (explosión) de la riqueza, al pasar de la etapa I a la II; los valores casi se duplicaron de una etapa a la otra.• El descenso en diversidad registrado en la etapa de sucesión III (con 8 años sin quema) quizás se deba al éxito reproductivo y a la Alude a las especies exclusivas en cada etapa de la sucesión (Figura 4-6); en la etapa IV se registró el mayor número de especies exclusivas, resultado que es un reflejo del aumento tanto en la composición florística como en la complejidad estructural de la vegetación en la medida en que aumenta el período de reposo (sin quema); la excepción se presentó en la etapa III. El comportamiento del parámetro es similar al de la diversidad florística (Figura 4-5).Según el Indice de Jaccard (Magurran, 1988), que es exclusivamente cualitativo y no considera el grado de participación de cada especie en la dominancia ecológica, la mayor semejanza la muestran las etapas I y II (Ij = 0.39), seguidas por las II y III (Ij = 0.27). El valor menor de semejanza lo mostraron la etapa IV y el bosque. La mayoría de las especies compartidas entre las diferentes etapas se ubican en el estrato herbáceo, que es más vigoroso y variado en las etapas iniciales.En la Figura 4-7 se muestran los valores de semejanza con base en el número absoluto de especies comunes. En las etapas I y II se presentaron los mayores valores (8.6%). La tendencia, como era de esperar, es inversa a la de la Figura 4-6.Si se relacionan estos resultados con los de selectividad, se puede afirmar que al aumentar la complejidad estructural de la vegetación, disminuye el número de especies compartidas y obviamente aumenta el de las restringidas. En las primeras etapas predominaron especies como Andropogon bicornis (Poaceae), Rhynchospora barbata (Cyperaceae) y Schizachyrium sanguineum, que se caracterizan por producir gran cantidad de semillas, tener estructuras de propagación vegetativa como estolones, formar macollas que en caso de una eventual quema protegen las estructuras de renovación, y lograr sincronizar los ciclos reproductivos con la estación seca, época en la cual se inducen las quemas (Sarmiento 1990). Igualmente, figuran como ventajas, los ciclos de vida cortos como se presentó en Ruellia geminiflora (Acanthaceae), o el desarrollo de estructuras subterráneas de propagación vegetativa (xilopodios y estolones) como se observó en Vismia baccifera, Davilla nitida y en varias especies de la familia Melastomataceae. Estos grupos de especies estuvieron presentes en todos los muestreos después de inducir la quema, lo que confirma su alta capacidad de recuperación después de una perturbación.Miconia albicans, M. trinervia (Melastomataceae), Simarouba amara y Siparuna guianensis (Monimiaceae) se registraron solamente en las etapas III y IV, donde presentaron mayor cantidad de individuos y crecimiento más vigoroso en individuos maduros.En la etapa IV se registraron especies presentes también en el bosque de galería, como Dendropanax arboreus, Heliconia sp. (Heliconiaceae), Licania apetala y Protium calanense. Estos resultados contrastan con los registrados por Eiten (1972) en San José y Fariñas (1983) para la vegetación del cerrado brasileño; allí, en áreas abiertas, después de 30 años de protección del fuego, no se observó la invasión por especies del bosque, a pesar de la proximidad del mismo. Para el área de estudio se podría plantear entonces que los factores edáficos y climáticos no son limitativos del desarrollo de la vegetación arbórea.Otro índice de semejanza utilizado fue la distancia euclidiana la cual, además de la presencia, considera la variación de un parámetro fisonómico como la cobertura. Las etapas con mayor afinidad florística y fisonómica fueron la III y la IV, con 8 y 15 años de descanso, respectivamente, puesto que presentaron el menor coeficiente de distancia euclidiana (32.31). El coeficiente para las etapas II, III y IV fue 39.07 y para las etapas I, II, III y IV fue 74.80.Según esto, para lograr cambios fisonómicos en etapas avanzadas de la sucesión, se requiere mayor tiempo que en las etapas tempranas. Una parcela con 3 años de recuperación se diferencia fácilmente de una de 4 años de recuperación, lo cual no es tan evidente entre parcelas de 8 y 15 años de recuperación.Las concentraciones altas de nitrógeno en las tres primeras etapas pueden deberse a la presencia y dominancia de leguminosas en esas etapas o al aumento de radiación incidente a nivel del suelo. Los contenidos altos de azufre en la etapa IV se explican por una compensación del elemento por diferentes vías durante el tiempo de descanso (Kauffman et al. 1994). Los valores de calcio y de potasio, no presentaron tendencias definidas en la sucesión.Los contenidos de fósforo, hierro y magnesio tienden a aumentar de acuerdo con el incremento en la complejidad estructural de la vegetación, evento que corresponde a lo señalado por Kellman (1984), quien encontró que los suelos de las sabanas arboladas con largos períodos sin quema eran muy ricos en fósforo y cationes intercambiables, lo cual se reflejaba en el aumento de la fertilidad. Kauffman et al. (1994) encontraron en la vegetación del cerrado brasileño, que el fósforo, el nitrógeno, el azufre y el calcio aumentaban donde había un componente importante de hojarasca de dicotiledóneas, condición similar a la que se presenta en la etapa de sucesión IV y en el bosque de galería de nuestro estudio.Cuando se hizo un solo evento de quema, se registraron 84 morfoespecies distribuidas así: etapa II-R, 60; etapa III-R, 48; etapa IV-R, 47. Aunque 6 meses como tiempo de seguimiento es un período muy limitado que no permite consolidar los valores absolutos de riqueza, se puede decir preliminarmente que en un evento de requema la diversidad florística tiende a disminuir.En la etapa de sucesión II-R, en la que se presentó el mayor número de especies, estructuralmente dominó el estrato herbáceo donde se encuentran las especies con estructuras de resistencia al fuego.En la Figura 4-8 se muestran las especies con mayor valor de permanencia. Axonopus purpusii alcanza figuración en las etapas II, III y IV, con mayor valor en la etapa III; Schizachyrium sanguineum y Rhynchospora nervosa repiten el mismo comportamiento, pero los valores mayores los alcanzan en la etapa II. Davilla nitida y Miconia albicans tienen valores importantes en las etapas III y IV. Leptocoryphium lanatum y Otachyrium versicolor logran valores altos en la etapa II, en la que se encontraron -en términos generales-los valores más altos de este parámetro, ya que allí predominan especies con estructuras subterráneas de propagación como rizomas, xilopodios y meristemos enterrados, que en situaciones adversas les confieren la posibilidad de regeneración después del daño (Noble et al., citados en Vidal y Rangel 1987). Algunas de estas especies poseen alto valor nutritivo y son apetecidas por el ganado, especialmente durante las cuatro primeras semanas luego de la quema.Especies de los géneros Adiantum y Phaseolus se establecieron gracias a los cambios físico-bióticos producidos por el fuego de requema, ya que no se presentaron en los inventarios iniciales y son elementos que han sido considerados colonizadores rápidos de las chacras y conucos indígenas después de las quemas. En parcelas que permanecieron 15 años sin quema (etapa IV), la aparición de las especies fue más lenta; quizás en esto influye la escasa cobertura de gramíneas y ciperáceas, que en otras etapas de la sucesión aseguraron un restablecimiento rápido del estrato herbáceo. A primera vista, los resultados encontrados encajan con los hallazgos de Jones (Blondel 1985); según este autor, en un proceso de sucesión secundaria en vegetación de sabana, la asignación de energía para la reproducción tiende a disminuir en la medida en que avanza el proceso. En las etapas tempranas, después de la perturbación, la estrategia es producir muchos individuos y establecerlos en el medio, mientras que en las etapas maduras se seleccionan mecanismos que aseguran la permanencia de los individuos en un medio saturado. Un grupo de especies con valores bajos de presencia, mostraron ciclos de vida cortos y produjeron semillas a los 40 días de quema; entre ellas figuran las siguientes: Lindernia crustacea, Sipanea hispida (Rubiaceae), Hyptis atrorubens, Xyris laxifolia, Macroptilium monophyllum (Fabaceae), Galactia glaucescens, Merremia aturensis, Peltaea speciosa, y Eugenia punicifolia (Vidal, 1986). El grupo fue sustituido por Schizachyrium sanguineum, Eriosema simplicifolia, Clidemia rubra, Axonopus purpusii, Otachhyrium versicolor, Sabicea villosa, Rhynchospora nervosa, Trachypogon vestitus y Paspalum pectinatum.Las diferencias que se encontraron en los tratamientos remoción y quema, se relacionan con el aspecto fenológico; especies como Sipanea hispida, Hyptis atrorubens, Xyris laxifolia, Galactia glaucescens, Merremia aturensis, Peltaea speciosa y Eugenia punicifolia, florecieron en las parcelas que habían sido quemadas, mientras que en las parcelas donde se había removido la vegetación, permanecieron en estado vegetativo (Figura 4-9). • El desarrollo de elementos leñosos se evidencia luego de 8 años de permanecer un sitio en descanso (sin quema). En las etapas II y III, el patrón de crecimiento de las especies leñosas es agregado y favorece el crecimiento de plántulas en su interior; éstas, en su mayoría, conformarán los estratos subarbóreo y arbóreo, evento igualmente reseñado por San José y Fariñas (1983) y por Bergeron y Leduc (1998).• En la etapa IV se puede presentar invasión de algunas especies propias del bosque de galería, la cual no se presenta en paisajes con rasgos fisonómicos y florísticos parecidos, como los del cerrado brasileño.• En las parcelas con 8 años sin quema (etapa III), la diversidad florística disminuye en relación con la etapa anterior; esto se debe, probablemente, al éxito reproductivo y a la alta productividad de especies como Vismia baccifera, Tococa guianensis y Davilla nitida, que aportan el 82% de la cobertura total, se tornan dominantes y, en cierto sentido, evitan el arraigo o el desarrollo de otras especies. pobreza de nutrientes como factores ecológicos.Estos ecosistemas constituyen uno de los grandes biomas característicos del cordón intertropical y ocupan cerca de 10 millones de km 2 de la superficie terrestre (3 millones de km 2 en América del Sur y Central). En América se extienden desde México y Cuba, en el norte, hasta Bolivia y Paraguay, en el sur, y alcanzan mayor superficie y más importancia nacional como fuente de recursos económicos y como unidad natural en Colombia, Venezuela y Brasil (Hernández et al. 1994).Las sabanas son ecosistemas de bajo potencial productivo y alta biodiversidad (Serna-Isaza et al. 1996) y se dedican a ganadería extensiva, principalmente. El impacto que reciben las sabanas de diferentes formas de manejo (sobrepastoreo, quemas, etc.) y la necesidad de aprovecharlas en forma sostenible requieren de conocimientos sobre la distribución espacial y la dinámica de la vegetación y sobre el potencial forrajero de las comunidades vegetales, entre otros aspectos relevantes. La cartografía de las sabanas puede abordarse mediante la teledetección, una herramienta de estudio de los paisajes, las formaciones y las comunidades vegetales (Girard y Girard 1989).En este capítulo se presentan algunas técnicas de teledetección empleadas para hacer la cartografía de la vegetación, la evaluación de las quemas y de la biomasa, la fenología, el uso y la cobertura de los ecosistemas de sabana. Esta información se organiza en cinco diferentes niveles: zona biogeográfica, formación vegetal, sucesión vegetal, comunidad vegetal y población vegetal. Al final del capítulo se revisan algunos trabajos de teledetección realizados para los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.Este estudio se hace principalmente a escala continental dadas las dimensiones de estas zonas. Los satélites NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) de los Estados Unidos obtienen imágenes de un tamaño de pixel de 1 x 1 km o de 4 x 4 km; pueden hacer, por tanto, este tipo de estudios a escala muy pequeña disminuyendo así el número de imágenes empleadas. Cuando se utilizan imágenes de mayor resolución espacial, como las de Landsat, para cubrir un continente (Africa, por ejemplo), son necesarias 1100 escenas de 185 x 185 km (Girard y Girard 1989).Varios satélites NOAA toman imágenes cada 12 horas de un mismo sitio de la tierra (una de esas dos veces con luz diurna), empleando un campo de visión utilizable de 3000 x 3000 km. La resolución es de 1 x 1 km en el espectro visible y de 17 x 17 km en el infrarrojo, aunque los productos pueden proveer datos con una resolución de 1.1, 4, 15 y 25 km. El sensor utilizado es el AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer). Estos satélites adquieren datos digitales de emisividad y reflectividad de la superficie de la tierra en el rojo visible (0.580 a 0.680 mm), en el infrarrojo cercano (0.725 a 1.10 mm), en el infrarrojo medio (3.55 a 3.93 mm) y en el infrarrojo termal (10.3 a 11.3 y 11.5 a 12.5 mm) (Stone et al. 1994). Completan 14.1 órbitas por día (cada una dura 102 minutos) y las trayectorias orbitales, aunque no se repiten, se asimilan a nodos ecuatoriales cada 8 días (Montoya 1997). Esta baja resolución, tanto espacial como espectral, permiten manejar un menor volumen de datos; la mayor resolución temporal, por su parte, ofrece ventajas para hacer análisis globales de la cobertura, en comparación con otros sensores (p.e., los programas de los satélites Landsat y SPOT) (Brown et al. 1993).Entre las bandas más utilizadas están la 1 (C 1 ) y la 2 (C 2 ) que son, respectivamente, las usadas para el infrarrojo y el rojo (Chuvieco 1995). El mayor valor obtenido en el curso de una semana para cada uno de los índices C 2 /C 1 (Indice de Vegetación Normalizado, NVI en inglés) y C 2 -C 1 /C 2 +C 1 (Indice de Vegetación de Diferencia Normalizada, NDVI en inglés) es retenido para caracterizar cada malla de la rejilla de datos del AVHRR. El mayor valor de cada uno de esos índices, para un período de 3 semanas, es retenido para calificar cada malla. Así se descartan las peores condiciones de 'irradiancia' debidas a la nubosidad o a los aerosoles en suspensión en la atmósfera (Girard y Girard 1989).Con esta metodología se ha realizado el mapa de la cobertura terrestre a escala pequeña (Sylvander et al. 1988;Millington et al. 1992). Se han utilizado datos NOAA/AVHRR del Indice Global de Vegetación (GVI, resolución 15-25 km) para hacerle seguimiento (monitoría) a la cobertura terrestre mundial, mediante una clasificación no supervisada (Murai et al. 1991; Tateishi y Kajiwara 1991) o para hacer el mapa de la cobertura terrestre de diferentes biomas partiendo de datos NOAA/AVHRR LAC (Cobertura de Area Local, resolución de 1.1 km) (Nelson y Horning 1993;Stone et al. 1994). Se ha empleado también el análisis multitemporal de las series de Fourier para obtener una clasificación de la cobertura terrestre (Andrés et al. 1994).Para investigar el cambio de la cobertura terrestre global, es necesario utilizar datos complementarios de múltiples fuentes, incluyendo aquí los de altitud y región ecológica; de este modo se marcan y refinan las clases de cobertura terrestre que presenten diferentes tipos de cobertura para una única firma espectro-temporal (Brown et al. 1993).En otros trabajos se cuestiona la confiabilidad del NDVI por estar influenciado por los cambios climáticos de corta duración. En su lugar se usan datos de Cobertura de Area Global (GAC) obtenidos del AVHRR durante 8 a 9 años, con los cuales se logra una clasificación de la cobertura vegetal. Se logra también, empleando datos promedio multianuales del NDVI y la temperatura superficial (TS) para obtener la relación NDVI/TS, relación que es menos influenciada por variaciones interanuales de las condiciones climáticas (Mather 1992;Ehrlich y Lambin 1996;Malingreau et al. 1996).Otra aplicación ampliamente difundida de los datos del AVHRR en ecosistemas de sabana es la evaluación de la distribución espacial de las quemas de la vegetación de la sabana (Frederiksen et al. 1990;Riggan et al. 1993;Pereira y Setzer 1996), la emisión de gases de dichas quemas (Kaufman et al. 1992) y las implicaciones que éstas tienen en el cambio climático y la ecología de los ecosistemas terrestres (Levine 1991;Lindsay 1992). No obstante, la mejor discriminación de las cenizas y las áreas quemadas se logra con datos de alta resolución espacial, p.e., Landsat MSS (Multi-Spectral Scanner) o TM (Tematic Mapper) (Riggan et al. 1993).En la época seca, la vegetación se ha desecado, en gran parte; por ello, en el infrarrojo próximo, la 'reflectancia' del suelo desnudo es frecuentemente superior a la de la vegetación; lo contrario se observa en las zonas templadas. Es posible poner en evidencia formaciones vegetales con una composición en color realizada mediante tres canales MSS, pero empleando una combinación diferente a la que comúnmente se usa para obtener una composición coloreada que represente el infrarrojo. Bajo esta composición coloreada, las sabanas arbustivas más o menos densas no pueden distinguirse entre sí y son codificadas en rojo; se confunden así con la quema reciente de la maleza que se codifica también en rojo. Las sabanas arboladas, más densas y un poco clorofílicas, aparecen en amarillo verdoso, lo mismo que los bosques de galería que bordean los ríos. Hay que extraer entonces las quemas recientes de la maleza; una forma de hacerlo es seleccionando todos los pixeles cuyo valor de luminiscencia sea el más débil para los tres canales MSS (Girard y Girard 1989).El cálculo del NVI pone en evidencia el suelo desnudo y las diferentes clases de vegetación, p.e., maleza recientemente quemada, barbechos, sabanas herbáceas, sabanas arbustivas, sabanas arboladas y selvas de galería. Una clasificación realizada a partir de los componentes principales daría las mismas unidades (Girard y Girard 1989). Partiendo de los datos Landsat MSS, por tanto, pueden distinguirse formaciones vegetales en función de la mayor o menor abundancia de los estratos herbáceo, arbustivo y arbóreo, a condición de que éstos presenten estados fenológicos lo suficientemente diferenciados para que puedan exhibir diferentes comportamientos espectrales (Armand 1986; Girard y Girard 1989; Townshend y Justice 1990).Ahora bien, es difícil diferenciar entre las diversas sabanas arbustivas, ya que sus valores de luminiscencia son muy próximos y las diferencias estructurales que podrían diferenciarlas no son perceptibles a causa de la resolución geométrica de los datos (Girard y Girard 1989).Se ha usado también con éxito, para discriminar formaciones de sabana, el satélite difusómetro de viento Seasat-A el cual, mediante técnicas de superposición parcial (solapamiento) de imágenes, permite incrementar la resolución de éstas (Hardin y Long 1994).Una etapa de vegetación ocurre en una zona geográfica en la cual el clima condiciona la presencia de uno o varios grupos vegetales (definidos mediante arreglos de especies particulares y diferenciables) y de agrupaciones de igual naturaleza pertenecientes a otra etapa. Una serie de vegetación corresponde a un arreglo de grupos vegetales que se suceden después de estar el terreno desnudo (o desprovisto de agua) y llegan a alcanzar un estado de equilibrio (climácico o no) en una sucesión progresiva o regresiva. La primera de estas unidades corresponde a la región ecológica y al paisaje vegetal, y la segunda a la formación vegetal y a la comunidad vegetal (Girard y Girard 1989).Es posible diferenciar en un territorio relativamente grande, y para una fecha determinada, las etapas de vegetación correspondientes, p.e., a las diferentes fases fenológicas; asimismo, dentro de una serie de vegetación pueden distinguirse los estados de evolución presentes cuyas fisonomías son diferentes. Los datos que entregan Landsat MSS y TM son los más indicados para diferenciar las unidades antes descritas y para seguir su evolución (Girard y Girard 1989).El uso de datos NOAA/AVHRR ha permitido también evaluar la productividad de comunidades herbáceas (Bauliés y Pons 1995). Asimismo, permite distinguir los siguientes aspectos:-las fases fenológicas y los aspectos fisiológicos y fisonómicos de la vegetación empleando el NDVI (Justice et al. 1985;Gregoire 1990;Lloyd 1990;Gond et al. 1992);-la clasificación supervisada o no supervisada (Jackson y Gaston 1994);-la relación entre el NDVI y la Radiación Saliente de Longitud de Onda Larga (OLR), especialmente en el cambio de una fase de reposo ('lag') o una de crecimiento vegetativo (Shinoda 1995).Se pudo establecer, además, mediante el análisis de las series de tiempo, una correlación positiva entre el NDVI y la precipitación como factores condicionantes de las fases fenológicas de los ecosistemas de sabana (Davenport y Nicholson 1993;Fuller y Prince 1996). Se proponen de nuevo las ventajas del uso de la relación multitemporal NDVI/TS (TS = temperatura de la superficie terrestre) para la cartografía de la vegetación sometida a variaciones estacionales, como en las comunidades de sabana (Achard et al. 1989;Achard y Blasco 1990;Mather 1992;Ehrlich y Lambin 1996;Malingreau et al. 1996).La definición de etapas de vegetación y de series de vegetación se hace a partir de observaciones y registros hechos en el campo. Los datos del MSS no pueden servir para este fin. Una vez que se definan y describan las diferentes unidades, éstas pueden ser reconocidas en las imágenes satelitales, cartografiadas posteriormente y acompañadas en su evolución, es decir, en el establecimiento de cultivos, la regeneración vegetal y otras acciones similares.Los datos satelitales, recolectados en fechas en que la vegetación presenta diferentes estados fenológicos, son útiles en una fase preliminar de reconocimiento y en la cartografía e inventario de las series de vegetación. Sin embargo, no pueden remplazar, en ningún caso, los datos y las observaciones de campo que se necesitan en la fase de definición de las series.Una comunidad vegetal puede definirse como un arreglo estructurado y definido de la vegetación, que ocupa un hábitat determinado, homógeneo en sus condiciones físicas y biológicas y con el cual interactúa.Los objetos que se estudian son de dimensiones más pequeñas que las zonas biogeográficas y las formaciones vegetales. Las comunidades vegetales pertenecen, frecuentemente, a una misma formación vegetal y presentan, por ello, fisonomías semejantes. Para distinguirlas, es necesario entonces disponer de información sobre las bandas espectrales más finas y de datos adquiridos en diferentes fechas. Los sistemas de teledetección deben poseer, por tanto, mejor resolución geométrica.La teledetección puede usarse para el estudio de una comunidad vegetal sólo cuando la mayoría de las especies presentes en esa comunidad, cuya descripción y clasificación fitosociológica se busca, contribuyen con su comportamiento espectral a la caracterización radiométrica de la comunidad. Esta situación se presenta cuando la comunidad no tiene estratificación vertical simple y cuando el recubrimiento del suelo tiene importancia para ella. Tal es el caso de las formaciones herbáceas y de los matorrales: rastrojos, estepas, sabanas herbáceas densas, pastizales, praderas seminaturales, etc. (Girard y Girard 1989;Choudury 1993).La metodología desarrollada para una región dada puede aplicarse a otros casos, es decir, a comunidades vegetales herbáceas densas que crecen bajo diferentes tipos de climas (Girard y Girard 1989).Esta caracterización se hace con observaciones y medidas radiométricas de campo (terrestre) y es indispensable hacerla antes de cualquier clasificación o cartografía ya que ésta se apoya principalmente en datos satelitales de teledetección.Los levantamientos florísticos de las comunidades de sabana se hacen, principalmente, por el método del punto cuadrático (Boudet 1991;Paladines 1992) en estaciones ubicadas en posiciones topográficas diferentes que corresponden a diferentes condiciones ecológicas. Debe haber suficientes estaciones para que representen los principales tipos de sabana permanente que existen en un área dada.Estos levantamientos se someten luego al análisis factorial de correspondencia, el cual los reagrupa según la presencia o ausencia de la totalidad de las especies descritas (Boudet 1991). Estos grupos de levantamientos se asignan entonces a alianzas, asociaciones o subasociaciones, según diversos métodos fitosociológicos (Müller-Dombois y Ellenberg 1974).Las mediciones de reflectancia se hacen a baja altura (1.5 a 2 m) sobre las parcelas de muestreo y en diferentes etapas fenológicas de la comunidad vegetal; estas etapas condicionarán las fechas de adquisición de los datos radiométricos (Mueksch 1983;Benoit et al. 1988;Girard y Girard 1989). Pueden tomarse muestras en un amplio espectro de longitudes de onda, según el sensor que se utilice (Girard y Girard 1989); asimismo, las unidades de tierra pueden equiparse con sensores de longitud de onda específica, p.e., para medición de la Radiación Fotosintéticamente Activa (PAR) o del Flujo de Radiación en el Infrarrojo Cercano (NIR), con el fin de conocer el comportamiento espectral durante la época de crecimiento (Begue et al. 1996).Se pueden analizar medidas espectrométricas y densidades ópticas de fotografías aéreas multizonales sintetizadas (escala 1:10,000), según las diferencias en color, el tono y la estructura, con el fin de calcular la disponibilidad de biomasa en los pastizales, de detectar y delimitar áreas de interés específico y de identificar especies vegetales (Ferrer et al. 1988). Para las bandas de infrarrojo cercano (IR) y de rojo (R), de un lado, y para la relación IR+R, del otro, se ha detectado una correlación significativa e inversa con la biomasa seca y con la densidad de la clorofila, respectivamente (Torres et al. 1991). El uso de negativos fotográficos ha permitido compilar índices de vegetación que revelan diferencias en la disponibilidad de las especies de una comunidad de sabana (Torres et al. 1994). Para hacer mapas de la distribución de la fitomasa forrajera y de las comunidades vegetales se han usado también fotografías aéreas pancromáticas e infrarrojas en falso color, mediante la aplicación del programa SIG Terrasoft (Toure et al. 1994).Los datos radiométricos se tratan numéricamente, fecha por fecha, utilizando el Análisis de Componentes Principales (ACP). Generalmente, la información más útil para la cartografía de la vegetación, utilizando los satélites Landsat TM y SPOT, se obtiene de las bandas del visible y del IR cercano. Por ejemplo, si se hace un ACP con datos adquiridos en 12 bandas espectrales repartidas entre los 500 y los 1400 nm, este análisis mostraría que se puede trabajar con sólo 4 bandas espectrales cuyas longitudes de onda serían de 550, 675, 850 y 1400 nm. Esta última longitud de onda se emplea en el campo, pero no puede usarse en el registro satelital, ya que la atmósfera terrestre, rica en agua, no permite pasar suficiente señal. Los canales 5 (1570 a 1780 nm) y 7 (2100 a 2350 nm) de TM, sensibles al agua de la vegetación, deben aportar una información más o menos equivalente a la anterior. Para caracterizar radiométricamente los grupos vegetales previamente definidos, debe calcularse el valor promedio de reflectancia, fecha tras fecha, en cada una de las cuatro longitudes de onda, a partir de los valores de reflectancia correspondientes medidos en las diferentes estaciones. Un ACP hecho con valores de reflectancia de diversos grupos vegetales, en función de las fechas, permite representar los tipos de evolución fisiológica y fenológica según los dos primeros ejes, los cuales corresponden a las cuatro longitudes de onda retenidas en el espectro visible y en el infrarrojo próximo (Girard y Girard 1989).Cada grupo diferente de sabana tiene un comportamiento espectral diferente. Una vez definidas en el tiempo las clases radiométricas cuyos valores de reflectancia en fechas determinadas se conocen, es posible asignarlas a los tipos de sabana.El interés agronómico de las especies de sabana depende de la naturaleza de éstas y de la cobertura que den al suelo. Estas especies pueden convertirse en parte más o menos importante del material de pastoreo y reflejan además, como elementos de cobertura, las condiciones de clima y suelo y la explotación de la comunidad vegetal.Se establece entonces una nueva clasificación de las comunidades herbáceas en función de un número limitado de especies que presenten los mayores coeficientes de abundanciadominancia en los levantamientos. Los conjuntos así definidos se denominan unidades agroecológicas. Los datos radiométricos obtenidos en el terreno sirven para medir el comportamiento de las unidades agroecológicas (Girard y Girard 1989).El estudio de los valores de luminiscencia y reflectancia obtenidos en estaciones de diversos pastizales indica que los valores medidos no son siempre los mismos en las estaciones que pertenecen a una misma unidad agroecológica. Por ello, para determinar las variaciones ocurridas en el tiempo, la evaluación se hace dentro de una unidad agroecológica (Girard 1987b, Girard y Girard 1989).El comportamiento espectral servirá así de base para la clasificación y la cartografía a escala mediana (p.e., 1:100,000), partiendo de valores de luminiscencia suministrados por datos de Landsat TM (Warmick-Smith 1981; García y Alvarez 1994) y de SPOT, principalmente (Girard y Girard 1989, Girard y Rippstein 1994;Rippstein y Girard 1994), utilizando clasificación híbrida (supervisada/no supervisada) y definiendo el sello espectral de cada una de las unidades; cuando se acopla este proceso con fotografías aéreas e información de campo, es posible hacer una diferenciación muy precisa de los tipos de vegetación (Ferrer et al. 1988;Torres et al. 1991Torres et al. , 1994;;Brondizio et al. 1993;García y Alvarez 1994).Los datos de Landsat TM o de SPOT permiten hacer cartografía a una escala de mediana a grande (p.e., 1:100,000 a 1:25,000). Puesto que aquí el pixel tiene grandes dimensiones, las unidades son poco detalladas y se pueden reagrupar en función del drenaje del suelo, por ejemplo (Girard y Girard 1989).Si se aplica el modelo de comportamiento espectral en el espacio de la imagen, se pueden definir diferentes unidades cartográficas. Para caracterizar estas unidades desde un punto de vista agronómico, es necesario hacer el estudio fitosociológico de base (1º) según presencia-ausencia de especies y según la abundancia de un número menor de especies (2º). Este estudio permite colocar una leyenda al mapa (Girard y Girard 1989).Con dos escalas cartográficas, en algunas partes del mapa las unidades pueden reunir varias unidades agroecológicas que corresponden, por tanto, a un mosaico.A escala 1:150,000, por ejemplo, puede tomarse la decisión de reagrupar las pasturas y los cultivos para asegurar una coherencia espacial de la unidad, ya que, en ciertos casos, la resolución geométrica de Landsat no permite hacer una diferenciación confiable (Girard y Girard 1989).A escala 1:25,000, la resolución de SPOT permite diferenciar sin ambigüedad los cultivos en las sabanas. El modo de explotación de las parcelas se puede detectar mediante el satélite; para ello, se reagrupan algunas unidades agroecológicas diferentes que tengan una explotación semejante.Esta escala se usa mucho para evaluar los cambios que experimenta el uso de la tierra en los ecosistemas de sabana (Jadhav et al. 1993;Lovett y Prins 1994). Se aplican, en este caso, diferentes técnicas como el análisis digital de bandas incrementadas con imágenes de Landsat TM, que permite no sólo discriminar el suelo desnudo de los pastizales en diferentes etapas de uso (Movia y Navone 1994) sino también evaluar el impacto que ejerce en la sabana la introducción de germoplama exótico (Boutrais y Lortic 1983). La teledetección se ha utilizado también para definir, según algunos aspectos fisiográficos y edáficos, el uso óptimo de las unidades de tierra (Alcántara et al. 1989); esta información se enriquece, en muchos casos, con técnicas que combinan datos a diferentes niveles (Mackel et al. 1989).La evaluación de la sucesión vegetal en los ecosistemas forestales -los cuales forman parte de las 'matas de monte' en los ecosistemas de sabana (sensu lato) y son manejados principalmente mediante sistemas de tala y quema por los grupos aborígenes-ha sido abordada mediante el análisis de imágenes Landsat TM multitemporales. Con tal fin se utilizaron, como parámetros indicativos de la etapa de sucesión, la reflectancia del infrarrojo cercano, el índice de diferencia, el verdor de Kauth-Thomas, el porcentaje de cobertura foliar, y los índices espectrales del brillo del dosel (Mausel et al. 1993;Steininger 1996).La cantidad de materia seca (M.S.) se establece a partir de medidas y observaciones de campo y mediante la relación IR/R a partir de datos de luminiscencia de SPOT HRV; con estos cálculos se traza un mapa en donde figuren, a escala 1:25.000, las unidades según la cantidad de M.S. Estos mapas, que se obtienen en muy poco tiempo gracias al tratamiento de los datos numéricos espaciales, dan una evaluación casi instantánea del estado o potencial de un territorio (Grouzis y Methy 1983;Girard 1987a;Girard y Girard 1989;Girard et al. 1990).A escala pequeña se han utilizado datos AVHRR para estimar la biomasa de grandes áreas y, en consecuencia, la capacidad de carga de las pasturas (Harrington y Wylie 1989).Una población de individuos de la misma especie puede estudiarse mediante teledetección, siempre y cuando esa población cubra una superficie de dimensiones compatibles con la resolución geométrica de los datos aéreos o espaciales (Girard y Girard 1989). Aquí se aborda el estudio de poblaciones monoespecíficas o pauciespecíficas, seminaturales, ya que las poblaciones naturales son generalmente muy pequeñas.En las zonas templadas o en la intertropical, sólo las plantaciones industriales y algunas masas forestales exóticas cubren varias decenas o centenas de hectáreas cuyas dimensiones permiten una identificación de datos satelitales a mediana o pequeña escala (Landsat MSS). Son ejemplos las plantaciones de caucho (Hevea sp.) y las pasturas de gramíneas introducidas en los Llanos Orientales (género Brachiaria, principalmente).Por lo tanto, es posible hacer identificaciones con fines de inventario empleando solamente datos multiespectrales de buena resolución geométrica (TM o SPOT) o con fotografías a gran escala. La identificación mediante datos multiespectrales se hace partiendo de valores de luminiscencia. En las fotografías aéreas se emplea el criterio de la escala de grises o de la escala de color, así como los criterios de forma, ligados ambos con las características morfológicas de los límites. La identificación de especies será más confiable cuando se definen sus fases fenológicas, que son responsables de los valores de luminiscencia y de fisonomías particulares. Por ello, para obtener una buena identificación es importante la elección de la fecha en que se toman las imágenes. En los pastizales permanentes se pueden reconocer ciertas especies (o grupos de especies) en diferentes períodos del año porque en ellos se presentan estados fenológicos particulares formados por poblaciones densas (Ferrer et al. 1988;Torres et al. 1991Torres et al. , 1994)).Este tipo de evaluación puede hacerse con fotografías aéreas; sin embargo, se necesita un gran número de fotografías para cubrir un área grande, la duración del análisis es muy larga y los resultados se volverán obsoletos rápidamente. Se utilizan, por ello, datos multiespectrales, los cuales ofrecen ciertas ventajas según la resolución geométrica de los diferentes sistemas (Girard y Girard 1989). Cuando se emplea información de satélites Landsat MSS, incluso la relacionada con poblaciones forestales monoespecíficas, el promedio de los valores de luminiscencia de muchas parcelas presenta una desviación elevada debida a la fuerte heterogeneidad de las parcelas, aun suponiendo que las medidas se toman en la misma fecha. Esta heterogeneidad está ligada a las diferentes fisonomías provenientes de los tratamientos silvícolas. La baja resolución espacial le da poca importancia a los estratos del sotobosque.En la cartografía forestal realizada con imágenes SPOT y Landsat TM (p.e., en plantaciones comerciales y 'matas de monte'), la diferenciación no se puede hacer en las mismas condiciones antes mencionadas puesto que el pixel tiene, en este caso, dimensiones mucho más pequeñas. Los estratos arbustivo y herbáceo tienen mayor importancia, ya que su comportamiento espectral puede influir en los valores de luminiscencia. No se puede hablar, propiamente, de reconocimiento de especies, sino de una interpretación de las especies en función de su comportamiento espectral estacionario.Es importante seleccionar, según el objetivo del estudio, los documentos de teledetección que se usarán. Para un estudio de estructura de poblaciones, es conveniente disponer de datos bastante sintéticos, como los que aporta el Landsat MSS. Para una identificación muy precisa y para poblaciones pluriespecíficas, hay que utilizar datos de buena resolución geométrica. Son preferibles las fotografías aéreas a escalas grande y mediana; los datos SPOT y Landsat TM corresponden a la mínima resolución necesaria (Girard y Girard 1989).La teledetección se ha usado en los Llanos Orientales principalmente en aspectos fisiográficos, y poco énfasis se ha hecho en la discriminación de la cobertura vegetal de esa región (Forero 1977(Forero , 1978;;Khobzi 1981). Montoya (1977Montoya ( , 1978) ) utiliza el procesamiento digital de imágenes Landsat MSS por transformación de los componentes principales de las cuatro bandas producidas por el barredor multiespectral; se definen así grupos fisonómicos de vegetación según clases espectrales diferentes.Se parte de una primera distribución general de las unidades fisiográficas por zonas, lograda por interpretación preliminar de las imágenes Landsat (bandas 5 y 7, con escala aproximada de 1:1,000,000) y se hace luego una caracterización de la vegetación de sabana. Se hacen primero inventarios de la vegetación en algunas de las unidades fisiográficas, teniendo en cuenta las plantas dominantes y subdominantes. Las unidades incluidas en los mapas se ajustaron según la información del mapa geomorfológico; sin embargo, la parte contenida en el estudio se apoya en la revisión bibliográfica hecha para Colombia, Venezuela y Brasil (Salamanca 1983).Botero y Serrano (1992) confrontan la información extraída de diferentes tipos de imágenes, como las fotografías aéreas, el radar y los satélite (Landsat TM y SPOT). Se utilizó una cartografía básica de 1:100,000 a la cual se le transfirió la interpretación temática. Estos autores concluyen que las composiciones en color de las imágenes Landsat (escala 1:250,000 a 1:100,000) o SPOT (escala 1:100,000), de las fotografías aéreas pancromáticas (escala 1:60,000 a 1:10,000), de las infrarrojas (escala 1:80,000 a 1:10,000) o de las tomadas en color (escala 1:80,000 a 1:10,000), son buenas para discriminar los tipos de bosques, pastos y cultivos, así como las áreas taladas en el interior de los bosques.En la altillanura de los Llanos Orientales se ha realizado, con la ayuda de datos SPOT HRV (escala 1:50,000), un inventario del uso de la tierra, del manejo de la vegetación y del estado fisiológico de ésta. Paralelamente, se tomaron datos de la reflectancia de la cobertura vegetal, con ayuda de un radiómetro CIMEL (terrestre) en las mismas frecuencias que el sensor SPOT XS (satelital). Estos datos se utilizaron para definir parcelas de verificación, que fueron analizadas más tarde según las imágenes SPOT; la reflectancia a nivel de campo se usó para hacer una clasificación del uso de la tierra en categorías mayores y un inventario de la vegetación de sabana (Girard y Rippstein 1994;Rippstein y Girard 1994).La región de la altillanura está cubierta principalmente por vegetación natural (sabanas y bosques), de relieve bajo, cuya principal característica es la disección de los planos sedimentarios causada por los patrones de drenaje; por ello, Botero et al. (1996) consideran fácil el levantamiento de los mapas de diferentes unidades, ya que se dispone de una cobertura total del área mediante teledetección (hay imágenes de Landsat, especialmente TM; de SPOT en algunas partes; de Radar SLAR; y fotografías aéreas, principalmente de áreas de muestra).La información presentada permite encontrar algunos puntos comunes para la cartografía de la vegetación de sabana, según el nivel de evaluación con que se esté trabajando; estos puntos se resumen en el Cuadro 5-1.La teledetección contribuye a la cartografía de la vegetación de sabana de la siguiente manera:• Localiza mejores puntos de observación sobre el terreno.Cuadro 5-1. Características generales de algunos sensores y procesos desarrollados con ellos para hacer la cartografía de la vegetación de sabana. • Permite extrapolar la información obtenida sobre el terreno. Es un instrumento útil para la cartografía de objetos cuyas dimensiones estén entre 10 y 10 6 m (y más).• Ayuda a seguir la evolución y los cambios experimentados por las comunidades, las formaciones y los paisajes vegetales, mediante el seguimiento intraanual e interanual durante varias decenas de años.• Se convierte en herramienta valiosa para el ordenamiento, la gestión y la protección del medio ambiente, ya que permite resaltar las relaciones entre el ecosistema y las formas de uso.• Es un dato complementario indispensable para refinar distintas clases de cobertura, cuando éstas presentan una misma firma espectral.• Señala que la reflectancia espectral de la sabana está determinada por las especies más abundantes.• Permite diferenciar comunidades de sabana florísticamente diferentes gracias al cambio estacional en la reflectancia. Los análisis estadísticos que se hicieron con las medidas tomadas en las épocas seca y lluviosa permitieron clasificar la vegetación en diferentes tipos. Se hizo así un trabajo de clasificación e inventario de la vegetación de los Llanos Orientales por control remoto.Una caracterísitica de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia es que, en la zona de los bancos de la Altillanura, están cubiertos por una vegetación nativa de sabana que, a primera vista, es muy homogénea.Los estudios ecológicos (Blydenstein 1967;Grollier 1994;Rippstein et  biomasa, el uso que se da a esta vegetación y otras variables. Se obtuvieron tres imágenes del satélite SPOT-HRV tomadas en enero, marzo y octubre de 1991. Se habían hecho previamente mediciones de radiometría terrestre de los diferentes tipos de vegetación del CIA Carimagua.• Distinguir y clasificar en el CI Carimagua, empleando radiometría terrestre, las diferentes comunidades vegetales nativas y de pastos introducidos, y el tipo de explotación (quema, carga animal, fertilización y otras) que se da a estas comunidades.• Clasificar e inventariar, con ayuda de los datos del satélite SPOT y con los datos de radiometría terrestre, la vegetación de la zona de Carimagua y, con esta experiencia, la de otras partes de los Llanos Orientales.El ecosistema en que se halla el CI Carimagua pertenece a la Altillanura plana de las sabanas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Su superficie es de 3.5 millones de hectáreas (Vera y Seré 1985), es decir, ocupa el 3% del territorio de Colombia (20% de las sabanas de los Llanos Orientales). Es una franja de 60 km de ancho y 580 km de largo, aproximadamente, que se extiende al sur del río Meta entre la localidad de Puerto López, al oeste, hasta la frontera con Venezuela, en el este. Su suelo está formado por sedimentos aluviales del Pleistoceno antiguo.El paisaje de la Altillanura está conformado por extensos sectores altos y planos, denominados 'bancos', que alternan con los bajos; éstos son estrechos y prolongados y constituyen las vías de drenaje del ecosistema. Los bancos tienen una topografía ligeramente convexa cuya pendiente es inferior a 1% y se calcula que ocupan el 93% de la superficie total del paisaje.La región tiene una época seca de 4 meses (de diciembre a marzo) en que casi no cae lluvia (171 mm) y una época lluviosa de 8 meses, cuyo promedio anual, medido en el lapso 1974-91, es de 2171 mm.Las temperaturas máxima y mínima son, en promedio, de 33.5 y 21.5 °C, respectivamente, en la época seca, y de 31.7 y 21.5 °C, respectivamente, en la época lluviosa. No habiendo mucha diferencia entre las temperaturas de la época seca y de la lluviosa, la humedad relativa es, en promedio, de 70% en la primera y de 85% en la segunda.Los suelos de la Altillanura se clasifican como Oxisoles, así: Haplustox, típico, arcilloso, caolinítico, isohipertérmico. En general, son suelos ácidos (pH: 4.1 a 5.1), que tienen alta saturación de aluminio (82%), baja disponibilidad de fósforo (1 a 2 mg/kg) y baja capacidad de intercambio catiónico (3.4 meq/100 g de suelo) (Spain 1979).La vegetación de los bancos es de sabana, es decir, tiene muy pocos árboles y arbustos. Alrededor de los bosques de galería hay bajos que pueden inundarse, tienen vegetación arbustiva o herbácea y son de muy poca amplitud. Alrededor de las lagunas, en cambio, hay bajos más amplios que tienen importancia para la alimentación del ganado durante la época seca.En los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, Blydenstein (1967) reconoce la existencia de 10 tipos de sabanas. En el estudio reportado en el Capítulo 2 de esta obra se identificaron ocho grupos de vegetación en la region de Carimagua. Predominan las especies pertencientes a los géneros Andropogon, Axonopus, Paspalum, Schizachyrium, Trachypogon y Rhynchospora, casi todos poáceas (gramíneas) y ciperáceas.En el estudio de la vegetación a nivel del suelo se observó el comportamiento espectral de la vegetación nativa y de los cultivos forrajeros sembrados en parcelas de 0.25 a 5 ha de área o en sitios muy conocidos. Esta medida se hizo, aproximadamente, a 1.5 m de altura sobre la superficie del terreno, con un radiómetro CIMEL que capta las ondas reflejadas por los objetos en la banda del verde (500-590 nm), en la del rojo (615-680 nm) y en la del infrarrojo cercano (790-890 nm). Estas mismas bandas son captadas por un radiómetro similar instalado en el satélite SPOT-HRV.Se observaron 60 parcelas, la mitad de ellas cubiertas por sabana nativa y la mitad con diversos cultivos forrajeros. Se tomaron al azar 30 medidas en cada parcela, entre las 10:00 y las 14:00 GMT del día y cuando el cielo estaba despejado. Las medidas se hicieron primero entre el 18 y el 23 de enero de 1991 y luego entre el 23 de septiembre y el 5 de octubre del mismo año.El radiómetro CIMEL registra un porcentaje del reflejo máximo de los objetos. Ahora bien, para comparar las parcelas, corregimos su reflejo ya ajustado según el porcentaje de reflejo emitido desde una hoja de papel blanco (unidad de referencia) en el momento de las mediciones, así:Se determinaron las principales especies vegetales, su fisonomía, su altura promedio, su edad, su biomasa y su porcentaje de materia seca (M.S.). Se precisaron también el estado fenológico de esas especies, los tratamientos y el tipo de manejo que han recibido, y se hizo un cálculo del porcentaje de suelo descubierto en sus parcelas.En primer lugar se empleó un análisis estadístico de multivariables (SAS 1990) en las dos fechas y con las tres bandas, para distinguir grupos ('clusters') de determinados tipos de vegetación. Se empleó además el análisis de componentes principales (ACP) para formar grupos.Se compararon, finalmente, los grupos de tipo de vegetación diferente; se hicieron por ello confrontaciones estadísticas en el interior de cada grupo (análisis de varianza con Prueba de Duncan). y para cada banda de energía (verde, rojo e infrarrojo), para las especies, los géneros y los diferentes tipos de sabana nativa.Se presentan en cuadros los análisis de las medidas tomadas en la época seca (enero) y al final de la época de lluvias (octubre).Los Cuadros 6-1 y 6-2 muestran los resultados de un análisis multivariado (para 'clusters') de las medidas realizadas en los tres canales del Reflejo en vegetación, Reflejo promedio corregido =x 100 (%)Reflejo en papel blanco, promedio(1)Cuadro 6-1. Clasificación de la vegetación de Carimagua según su reflejo en las tres bandas de un radiómetro terrestre CIMEL. Análisis multivariable con las muestras de enero de 1991 (época seca).  Cuadro 6-2. Clasificación de la vegetación según su reflejo en las tres bandas de un radiómetro terrestre CIMEL. Análisis multivariable con las muestras tomadas en octubre de 1991 (fin de época lluviosa). Las medidas tomadas en octubre (Cuadro 6-2) permiten formar clases más heterogéneas; sólo la clase 5 contiene únicamente especies cultivadas. Además, los datos confirmaron una fuerte correlación (0.843) entre la banda verde (XS1) y la roja (XS2), relación que señalaría la posibilidad de prescindir de una de estas bandas en los análisis. Esto fue sugerido por Lallemand y Legendre (1984).La comparación de las mismas parcelas en las dos épocas del año muestra (Cuadro 6-3) lo siguiente:• Las pasturas nativas tienen, generalmente, un reflejo muy diferente según la época, mientras que los cultivos muestran pocas variaciones en el tiempo.• Las formaciones vegetales naturales muy maduras dan, en general, un reflejo en el espectro visible (verde y rojo) más elevado en la época seca, porque esa vegetación es menos clorofílica. Lo contrario ocurre en una sabana joven.• En los 3 ó 4 primeros meses después de la quema, el reflejo es muy débil (6%). Las formaciones nativas, 5 meses o más después de Cuadro 6-3.Comparación del reflejo terrestre (por CIMEL) de diferentes tipos de sabanas nativas y de cultivos forrajeros, en la época seca y en la lluviosa. la quema, tienen pocas diferencias de reflejo en el verde y prácticamente ninguna en el rojo, onda en que el reflejo es relativamente elevado (>11%).• La sabana joven de la Altillanura ondulada -que tiene un relieve notorio y un suelo arenoso y pedregoso-da un reflejo idéntico al de la sabana vieja de suelo arcilloso. La diferencia aparece en el IR cercano, banda en que la vegetación da un reflejo notablemente inferior.• En el IR cercano y para todos los tipos de vegetación (excepto para B. dictyoneura menor de 1 año), el reflejo en la época lluviosa es más fuerte que en la seca.En la Figura 6-1 se presentan los resultados de un ACP con las 53 muestras radiométricas de octubre. En los ejes 1 y 2, la contribución de la variación total es de 67.4%. Esta representación gráfica permite distinguir 10 grupos. Ahora bien, en los Cuadros 6-1 y 6-2 algunos grupos no son homogéneos. Los grupos 3, 6, 8 y 9 son mezclas de sabana nativa y de cultivos forrajeros, los conjuntos 1, 2, 7 y 10 están constituidos únicamente por sabana nativa, y los conjuntos 4, 5 y 8 tienen solamente praderas cultivadas.En los Cuadros 6-4 a 6-9 se compara el reflejo, en cada banda del espectro, de diferentes cultivos forrajeros, así: de un mismo cultivo (Brachiaria dictyoneura) implantado o explotado de diferentes formas (Cuadro 6-4); de dos tipos de suelo (Cuadros 6-5 y 6-6); y de pasturas nativas de edades diferentes o explotadas con diferentes cargas Figura 6-1. Agrupación de la vegetación, y su representación correspondiente, según su reflejo en las tres bandas del radiómetro terrestre CIMEL. Se hizo un análisis de componentes principales con las muestras de octubre (fin de época lluviosa). Parcela no. 44 = Sabana nativa de 2 a 3 meses (después de la quema). Altura: 30-40 cm; biomasa seca: 50 g/m²; MS: 38%; carga: 0.5 an./ha. Parcela no. 45 = Sabana nativa de más de 1 año. Altura: 90 cm; biomasa: 280 g/m²; MS: 57%; carga: menos de 0.2 an./ha. Parcela no. 46 = Sabana nativa de más de 1 año. Altura: 110 cm; biomasa: 327 g/m²; MS: 52%; carga: 0.5 an./ha. Parcela no. 47 = Sabana nativa de más de 1 año. Altura: 110 cm; biomasa: 322 g/m²; MS: 54%; carga: 0.2 an./ha. Parcela no. 48 = Sabana nativa de 3 meses. Altura: 50 cm; biomasa: 70 g/m²; MS: 38%; carga: 0.2 an./ha. b. Promedios con letras iguales (en las columnas) no son estadísticamente diferentes, según la Prueba Duncan, a nivel del 5%.Cuadro 6-8.Comparación del reflejo de la sabana nativa después de la quema y sin quema (observaciones de octubre).Reflejo en la banda:Verde cercano, el orden de clasificación es diferente del visible, aunque también en esta banda B. humidicola da el reflejo más débil.• La comparación de los reflejos que da B. dictyoneura en suelo arenoso, después de recibir diversos tratamientos (fertilización y cargas), y tanto en asociación como no asociada con una leguminosa, indica lo siguiente:-En el espectro visible, la gramínea pura da un reflejo relativamente más fuerte que asociada con una leguminosa.-La gramínea B. dictyoneura, asociada con la leguminosa S. capitata y sometida a la carga más baja, tiene el reflejo más débil registrado en el espectro visible; el incremento de la carga trae consigo un aumento de ese reflejo.-El reflejo en el IR cercano no parece estar relacionado con el manejo de las parcelas; lo está, probablemente, con factores que no fueron muestreados, como el agua, el porcentaje de cobertura, la estructura de la vegetación (es decir, hábito y porte de las plantas, leñosidad, diversidad).• Las observaciones hechas respecto a los datos del Cuadro 6-5 no son válidas para el suelo arcilloso (Cuadro 6-6). Se observa, de otra parte, que la amplitud de la reflectancia en las tres bandas del espectro es menor si proviene de este tipo de suelo.• En lo que concierne a la vegetación nativa, observamos lo siguiente:-grandes amplitudes de reflectancia (en cualquiera de las tres bandas del espectro);-no hay relación evidente entre reflectancia, biomasa en pie (viva o muerta) o contenido de agua de la biomasa, un resultado que confirma los datos del Cuadro 6-8.Se han obtenido datos de radiometría terrestre que permiten agrupar o discriminar estadísticamente los diferentes tipos de vegetación nativa y los cultivos forrajeros, así como los tratamientos o el manejo diferente (fertilización, fuego, carga animal) que unos y otros hayan recibido.Esta discriminación no es siempre posible, especialmente en relación con la vegetación nativa (Cuadro 6-8) o con la vegetación que tenga diferentes edades, es decir, cuya biomasa y contenido de agua sean muy diferentes. No fue posible diferenciarlas estadísticamente en ninguna de las tres bandas del espectro, sobre todo en la época de lluvias.Los cultivos forrajeros, en cambio, pueden discriminarse más fácilmente mediante la combinación de los datos obtenidos en las tres bandas y de las observaciones hechas en la época de lluvias y en la época seca.Las causas de las diferencias en reflectancia no son siempre fáciles de explicar, particularmente de la reflectancia obtenida en la banda del IR cercano. Para tratar de encontrar una explicación, hemos medido algunos parámetros, como las especies dominantes, la altura de la vegetación, la biomasa en pie y su contenido de agua o de M.S., el estado fenológico de la especie vegetal, la carga animal, la fertilización, la edad de la vegetación (época de la quema), y el tipo de suelo.En los Cuadros 6-1, 6-2 y 6-3 (última columna) hemos clasificado la vegetación según los grupos establecidos por Benoit et al. (1988). Estos grupos o clases se adaptan bastante bien a nuestros datos y observaciones (Cuadros 6-1 y 6-2). En la clase D, en que aparecen inflorescencias, pueden incluirse, para nuestro estudio, los cultivos forrajeros invadidos por malezas (generalmente, poáceas en floración) y las sabanas jóvenes en la época de lluvias y en estado de floración, unos 5 meses después de la quema (Cuadro 6-4).Los cultivos forrajeros son difíciles de clasificar, en este caso, cuando tienen un buen porcentaje de M.S. en pie o en el suelo y una carga animal grande tanto en la época seca como en la lluviosa; los datos de las bandas son V débil, R fuerte e IR intermedio para B. humidicola y V fuerte, R fuerte e IR intermedio para B. decumbens.Algunos factores tienen un papel evidente en el reflejo, aunque otros parecen menos importantes. Al final del estudio se percibió la falta de algunas observaciones. Se ha podido observar, o deducir, por ejemplo, que la edad o el manejo de la vegetación son importantes por el aspecto de la clorofila (reflejo en las bandas verde y roja del espectro visible) en los cultivos forrajeros pero no en la vegetación nativa. En ésta, al parecer, la cobertura del suelo desempeña un papel muy importante en la banda visible del IR cercano; este factor (la cobertura) no fue observado con suficiente precisión y no pueden extraerse aún conclusiones más precisas.La edad de las plantas y la biomasa aérea no muestran correlación en el reflejo medido en la banda del IR cercano, en las especies del género Brachiaria (Cuadro 6-4); sin embargo, parece que hay una correlación entre ellas respecto al contenido de M.S. Esta correlación negativa no apareció en las observaciones hechas en B. dictyoneura (Cuadros 6-5 y 6-6).El reflejo observado en el IR cercano no parece estar relacionado tampoco con el manejo de las parcelas (Cuadros 6-5, 6-6 y 6-9), aunque hay cierta relación con factores no medidos en este estudio, como la cobertura o la estructura de la vegetación. El ACP de la Figura 6-1 confirma esta observación.No parece que haya buena correlación entre la reflectancia y las características observadas o medidas (biomasa seca, porcentaje de M.S., edad de las plantas y otras). No obstante, se notó lo siguiente en los grupos constituidos:• El Grupo 1 está formado por pasturas de biomasa importante.• El Grupo 2 contiene la sabana nativa joven después del fuego (biomasa débil).• El Grupo 3 contiene la sabana joven o de cultivos degradados con débil cobertura; este grupo sería muy importante para inventariar las zonas degradadas en que aparece el suelo desnudo y estudiarlas luego.• El Grupo 4 está integrado por cultivos forrajeros jóvenes en que se mezclan gramíneas y leguminosas.• El Grupo 5 contiene parcelas cultivadas en que hay hasta un 50% de suelo descubierto.• Los Grupos 6 y 8 están conformados, principalmente, por parcelas en que hay una mezcla de gramínea y leguminosa; son bastante parecidas a las del Grupo 4, pero difíciles de distinguir por las observaciones hechas en el campo o por el manejo.• El Grupo 7 contiene únicamente parcelas de sabana; el Grupo 9 contiene parcelas de cultivos forrajeros y por ello las reflectancias son idénticas en las tres bandas.• El Grupo 10, por último, tiene dos parcelas sembradas con Andropogon gayanus, que poseen una estructura y una fisonomía particular: hierbas altas muy verdes, en varios estratos.• La radiometría terrestre debe hacerse al mismo tiempo que las observaciones de satélite para que éstas puedan clasificarse mejor; así podrán elaborarse bien los mapas que muestren vegetación nativa y cultivos (de especies forrajeras y otros).• La radiometría terrestre es también una herramienta indispensable para conocer bien la vegetación y poderla clasificar. Tiene, sin embargo, límites respecto a la clasificación de la vegetación nativa; los especialistas deben, por tanto, mostrarse prudentes en la interpretación de datos de satélite y evitar interpretaciones erradas.• A nivel terrestre, es necesario estudiar grandes superficies (más de 5 ha) con buen contraste en cuanto a especies sembradas, época de floración, estructura de la vegetación, manejo de las parcelas, cobertura del suelo y otros factores. Estas características pueden tener una fuerte influencia en el reflejo de la superficie y afectarán, por tanto, la relación que se establezca entre las observaciones terrestres y las obtenidas por el satélite. Las actividades de estos organismos conducen a la creación de estructuras biogénicas, las cuales influyen en la agregación, las propiedades hidraúlicas y la dinámica de la materia orgánica del suelo. Dichas estructuras influyen, a su vez, en la composición, la abundancia y la diversidad de otros organismos del suelo. La abundancia y la diversidad de los macroinvertebrados del suelo son factores importantes en la sostenibilidad de la producción primaria de la sabana nativa y de los agroecosistemas derivados de ella.Las comunidades de macroinvertebrados responden a las diversas intervenciones humanas realizadas en el medio ambiente del modo siguiente: (1) Los sistemas tradicionales de ganadería extensiva tienen un impacto despreciable sobre ellas. (2) Los cultivos anuales causan una reducción dramática de las comunidades de macrofauna del suelo.(3) Las pasturas introducidas y los cultivos arbóreos mantienen la cobertura herbácea del suelo y favorecen el desarollo de una biomasa importante de lombrices nativas de la sabana. Investigar el manejo conservativo de la macrofauna del suelo es una etapa importante del trabajo de sostenibilidad y durabilidad de los agroecosistemas tropicales.En el trópico húmedo, los macroorganismos del suelo (raíces e invertebrados de tamaño mayor que 2 mm) desempeñan un papel clave en los procesos que determinan la fertilidad del suelo, ya que regulan la disponibilidad de nutrientes asimilables para las plantas y la estructura del suelo. Las esferas de actividad de estos organismos se han definido como los sistemas de regulación biológica del suelo, los cuales están constituidos por una fuente de energía (materia orgánica, M.O.), una población de descomponedores (microorganismos) y una población de reguladores (macroorganismos) (Lavelle et al. 1992). Estos sistemas de regulación se distinguen según la naturaleza de los macroorganismos implicados: el sistema artrópodos de la hojarasca y raíces superficiales, la rizosfera para las raíces; la drilosfera, para las lombrices; y la termitosfera, para las termitas.Ciertos organismos del suelo, principalmente las lombrices, las termitas y las hormigas, se han definido como ingenieros del ecosistema (Jones et al. 1994;Lavelle 1996). Estos producen estructuras (turrículos, nidos y galerías) por medio de las cuales pueden modificar el ambiente donde viven, causando dos efectos contrastantes en la descomposición y la dinámica de la M.O. (Lavelle 1996):-aceleran, por un lado, su velocidad de reciclamiento, lo que facilita la actividad microbiana;-favorecen, por otro, su conservación a largo plazo porque la inmovilizan en estructuras biogénicas estables en el tiempo.Se han establecido también relaciones entre las actividades de los ingenieros del ecosistema y la formación y el mantenimiento de la estructura del suelo. Finalmente, influyen en las condiciones de vida de otras communidades de organismos del suelo, más pequeños o menos móviles, y determinan su abundancia y su estructura. Por lo tanto, la diversidad y la abundancia de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados y la importancia relativa de los grupos de organismos de mayor interés pueden ser utilizados como indicadores de la calidad del suelo (Stork y Eggleton 1992).Las actividades de la macrofauna afectan, a veces de manera considerable, el crecimiento de las plantas (Brown et al. 1999). Pueden ser también vectores de microorganismos simbióticos de las plantas, como los fijadores de nitrógeno o los hongos de micorriza, o pueden digerir, de manera selectiva, microorganismos patógenos (Brown 1995). En los ecosistemas naturales, las lombrices y las hormigas afectan también a la dinámica de la vegetación, ya que pueden influir, de manera selectiva, en la diseminación de las semillas y en la composición de los bancos de semilla del suelo (Klaus and Delascio 1991;Thompson et al. 1994;Willems y Huijsmans 1994).Desde el año 1993, la Unión Europea, a través del Proyecto Macrofauna, colabora con el CIAT y la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Palmira, en el estudio de la macrofauna del suelo en diferentes lugares de Colombia. Se prestó una atención especial a las lombrices de tierra por su función clave en los procesos que determinan la fertilidad de los suelos de las sabanas intertropicales (Lavelle 1983b). Se hicieron, por tanto, varios trabajos de investigación en los Llanos Orientales con el fin de identificar los agroecosistemas que conservan, en forma sostenible, las comunidades de macroinvertebrados del suelo. Algunos de los objetivos específicos del estudio fueron: describir las comunidades nativas de macroinvertebrados, definir sus funciones en el ecosistema, y evaluar su respuesta a las perturbaciones inducidas por las actividades humanas.Los estudios se realizaron en el CNIA Carimagua (CORPOICA-CIAT), localizado en el municipio de Puerto Gaitán, Meta, a 175 m.s.n.m. La precipitación anual es de 2250 mm y la temperatura media anual de 26 °C (datos del CIAT), con una época seca bien definida de diciembre a marzo. Los ensayos se realizaron principalmente en suelos de tipo Oxisol (clasificación USDA) y en algunos Ultisoles que corresponden a la selva de galería. Son suelos de textura arcillolimosa, bien estructurados y caracterizados por su baja fertilidad química (acidez y saturación de aluminio altas, bajo contenido de fósforo y de calcio, y baja capacidad de intercambio catiónico) (Cuadro 7-1).El tipo de vegetación está determinado por la topografía del paisaje. A los lados de los ríos y en las depresiones (los bajos), se encuentran los bosques de galería dominados por las especies Mauritia minor Burr. (el platanote) (FAO 1996). Las partes más altas (altos, planos y bancos) están cubiertas por formaciones vegetales de sabana abierta dominadas por las especies Trachypogon vestitus Anders. (la saeta peluda), y los pastos Andropogon bicornis L., Gymnopogon sp. e Imperata sp. (Rippstein et al. 1994;Torrijos et al. 1994).La caracterización de la estructura de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados en las formaciones vegetales nativas es de gran interés científico porque es necesario establecer el papel que dichas comunidades presentan en el funcionamiento del ecosistema. Este estudio permite también hacer una estimación de la calidad de los suelos y de su susceptibilidad a la degradación, cuando son usados para la producción agrícola, porque la macrofauna edáfica es indicador de la calidad del suelo, como se dijo antes (Lavelle 1996; Stork y Eggleton 1992).La comunidad de macroinvertebrados del bosque de galería de Carimagua presentó una densidad comparable a la que generalmente se observa en las selvas húmedas tropicales (Cuadro 7-2), aunque su biomasa fue inferior a la de éstas (Decaëns et al. 1994). Esta diferencia se explica, principalmente, por la presencia de especies de lombrices de tamaño reducido, abundantes en términos de densidad pero que arrojan una biomasa baja relativa (Fragoso y Lavelle 1992). Los habitantes del mantillo o de los primeros 10 cm del suelo, que son transformadores de la hojarasca según Lavelle (1996), son el componente dominante de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados (Figura 7-1). En efecto, de la biomasa total, el 40% está compuesto por artrópodos epígeos y 4 de las 7 especies de lombrices presentes en los bosques de Carimagua pertenecen a esta misma categoría ecológica (Jiménez et al. 1995). La variedad de microhábitats, de hojarasca, troncos descompuestos y corteza de los árboles favorece también la diversidad taxonómica alta de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados.La sabana nativa sin manejo presenta poblaciones de macroinvertebrados dominadas por los grupos endógeos y anécicos (Bouché 1977), principalmente, las termitas y las lombrices de tierra (Decaëns et al. 1994;Jiménez et al. 1995). Los grupos de invertebrados epígeos, que dependen más específicamente de las capas de hojarasca de los bosques, no encuentran en la sabana un medio favorable para establecer poblaciones importantes. Por esta razón, la distribución vertical de la macrofauna tiende hacia los horizontes más profundos (Cuadro 7-2; Figura 7-1). La biomasa, tanto de la macrofauna en su totalidad como de las lombrices, es baja en comparación con los datos obtenidos en las sabanas africanas (Kouassi 1987;Lavelle 1978;Lavelle 1983a;Lavelle 1983b;Lavelle et al. 1992). Las termitas, por su parte, están muy bien establecidas en este medio y representan más del 45% de la biomasa total de macroinvertebrados frente al 30% que corresponde a las lombrices de tierra.Estos resultados demuestran la riqueza de la fauna edáfica en los ecosistemas de sabana natural intertropical y el papel predominante de las termitas y las lombrices de tierra en el suelo. Sin embargo, falta todavía ampliar estos conocimientos y llegar a una buena caracterización de la macrofauna de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, ya que hay variabilidad dentro de un mismo tipo de vegetación (Cuadro 7-2) (Schneidmadl y Decaëns 1995). Hasta ahora ningún estudio ha descrito los macroinvertebrados de otros tipos de suelo y de vegetación, como las regiones de suelos arenosos (serranía de la Altillanura ondulada) o de suelos mal drenados, muy frecuentes en la Orinoquia colombiana (Cochrane et al. 1985).Las lombrices son el componente predominante de la macrofauna del suelo en las sabanas nativas o manejadas de Carimagua (Decaëns et al. 1994). Desempeñan, además, junto con las termitas, un papel clave en los procesos de fertilidad del suelo (Lavelle et al. 1992). La caracterización de la diversidad y ecología de estos grupos es una etapa indispensable para conocer sus funciones en el suelo (Lavelle 1996).En todos los tipos de vegetación de Carimagua se encontraron 21 especies de lombrices de tierra (Cuadro 7-3); las  La diversidad de las lombrices de la sabana se cuantificó según los índices l de Simpson y H de Shannon a partir de los valores de biomasa, como sugieren algunos autores (Hurlbert 1971;Barbault 1992). En la sabana, el valor obtenido para el índice de Simpson fue 0.40, mientras que para el de Shannon fue 1.13; la equitatividad (Pielou 1975) fue 0.54. Estos valores muestran la desigual contribución que cada una de las especies aporta a la biomasa total de lombrices.La comunidad de lombrices de las sabanas de Carimagua se caracteriza por la presencia de especies de tamaño variable. Tanto a nivel taxonómico como a nivel funcional, la diversidad de lombrices está dentro del rango encontrado en otros lugares tropicales (Fragoso 1993). Las especies pertenecen a grupos funcionales distintos (Bouché 1972;Lavelle 1981), lo que permite a la comunidad aprovechar diferentes fuentes de energía. Las epígeas, por ejemplo, consumen exclusivamente hojarasca, las endógeas M.O. del suelo y las anécicas una mezcla de los dos sustratos. En general, la diversidad taxonómica y funcional de la comunidad de macroinvertebrados produce efectos diversos en los diferentes compartimentos edáficos y permite, de esta manera, regular al máximo los procesos de fertilidad del suelo.La densidad media anual de lombrices obtenida en la sabana fue de 114.5 ind./m 2 ; el valor mínimo obtenido fue de 20.4 ind./m 2 (en la época seca) y el máximo de 292.4 ind./m 2 (en mitad de la época lluviosa). La biomasa media anual fue de 4.8 g/m 2 y los valores extremos fueron 1.2 g/m 2 , obtenidos al inicio de la época seca en enero, y 15.7 g/m 2 en la época de lluvias en julio (Jiménez J. J., datos corregidos, sin publicar).En la sabana, las especies endógeas fueron las más abundantes, tanto en términos de densidad como de biomasa. El 88.3% de la densidad total de lombrices corresponde a las especies endógeas: Andiodrilus n. sp., Andiorrhinus n. sp., Glossodrilus n. sp. y Ocnerodrilidae n. gen. (Cuadro 7-4). El 11.5% proviene de la especie epígea Aymara n. sp. y sólo el 0.3% corresponde a la especie anécica Martiodrilus carimaguensis.La densidad y la biomasa de las lombrices son máximas al inicio de la época lluviosa, de mayo a agosto, y mínimas en la época seca, de diciembre a marzo (Figura 7-2). Dos especies endógeas, una polihúmica (Lavelle 1981), Glossodrilus n. sp., y una mesohúmica, Andiodrilus n. sp., dominan la comunidad en cuanto a la biomasa total (63.2% y 16.8%, respectivamente). Casi un 10% de la biomasa total se atribuye a M. carimaguensis, especie interesante desde el punto de vista ecológico (Jiménez et al. 1998a), ya que su gran tamaño le permite ingerir cantidades considerables de suelo que deposita luego en heces superficiales grandes. Estas heces, llamadas turrículos, influyen en diversos procesos físicos, químicos y biológicos del suelo (Decaëns et al. 1999a;1999b). Lavelle (1978) y Kouassi (1987) encontraron, en las sabanas africanas de Lamto, Costa de Marfil, que las lombrices eran también el principal componente de la biomasa de la macrofauna. En el Cuadro 7-5 se comparan los valores de densidad y biomasa de las lombrices encontradas en la sabana de Carimagua y su relativa contribución a las categorías ecológicas, con los valores medios obtenidos en el trópico húmedo. El número de lombrices encontradas en Carimagua es bajo, comparado con el de otros ambientes tropicales de sabana; la comparación debe realizarse, no obstante, con precaución, pues los datos fueron obtenidos empleando métodos diferentes.La aparición de una época seca muy severa de 4 meses de duración juega un papel fundamental en las variaciones de la densidad y de la biomasa de la sabana (ANOVA, p < 0.001). Tanto la densidad como la biomasa presentaron fluctuaciones temporales importantes (Figura 7-2). Las poblaciones fueron más abundantes al comienzo de la época de Cuadro 7-4.Densidad, biomasa y tamaño medio de los adultos de algunas especies de sabana, Colombia (media ± desviación típica). PF = peso fresco. Figura 7-2. Evolución durante el año de la densidad y de la biomasa de la comunidad de lombrices de tierra en una sabana nativa de Carimagua. Las sabanas tropicales se caracterizan por una fuerte estacionalidad ambiental. En Carimagua se presenta un período muy seco de 4 meses que marca el ritmo de actividad de las poblaciones de lombrices, ya que la humedad del suelo sufre una fluctuación estacional importante (de 14.4% a 23.4% en la sabana, en los primeros 10 cm del suelo); no llega, sin embargo, al pF 4.2 o punto de marchitamiento (11.6%). Todas las lombrices de la sabana permanecen inactivas durante la época seca, desde diciembre hasta marzo, aunque hay ciclos de actividad diferentes según las especies. Casi todas las especies de lombrices de tierra son capaces de suspender su actividad en respuesta a los cambios estacionales de temperatura y de humedad del suelo.La actividad de las lombrices se lleva a cabo, generalmente, en los primeros centímetros del suelo, donde los niveles de M.O. son más altos. Las especies han desarrollado diferentes adaptaciones a la fuerte estacionalidad ambiental. Ocnerodrilidae n. gen. se encuentra asociada, durante la época lluviosa, con lugares ricos en M.O., por ejemplo, nidos de coleópteros de la subfamilia Scarabeinae y heces de M. carimaguensis (Jiménez et al. 1998b). Esta especie forma, a consecuencia de su actividad, agregados mucho más pequeños que las otras y puede influir de manera positiva en la estructura física del suelo.• M. carimaguensis ha mostrado un comportamiento muy sorprendente, hasta ahora inexplicado y único entre las lombrices de tierra: los individuos juveniles se inactivan en la mitad de la época lluviosa, mientras que los adultos permanecen activos hasta el final de ésta (Figura 7-4), exactamente después de pasar el período reproductor y de depositar los capullos (Jiménez et al. 1998a). Antes de iniciar este período de diapausa, los individuos vacían el contenido intestinal, tabican el final de la galería con sus propias heces (4 a 5 paredes delgadas), forman una cámara de estivación esférica y se enrollan. Este proceso es desencadenado por un factor ambiental, pero el abandono está condicionado a escala fisiológica ya que, a diferencia de la paradiapausa, no hay respuesta cuando, de manera artificial, se introducen individuos en tierra que ha sido humedecida hasta capacidad de campo (pF 2.8). La lombriz pierde peso pero no sufre deshidratación; hay regresión de los caracteres sexuales pero no experimenta crecimiento durante este período (Jiménez et al. 2000). La combinación de estos patrones de comportamiento permite reducir el alto riesgo de mortalidad de la especie durante la época seca. En la Figura 7-5 se observa la distribución vertical de la inactividad de M. carimaguensis.Los individuos más pesados, que se ubicaron en los estratos más profundos del suelo, pierden casi el 80% de su peso durante este período (ANOVA de Kruskal-Wallis, p < 0.01).Las fuertes variaciones climáticas estacionales en Carimagua limitan la deposición de los capullos a los 8 meses de lluvia al año; en los demás meses las poblaciones están inactivas. Las estrategias reproductoras difieren también, según las especies. Se ha observado que, en general, cuanto mayor es el tamaño del adulto mayor es el capullo que produce, tanto en las lombrices tropicales como en las de latitudes templadas (Figura 7-6). Los adultos de Andiodrilus n. sp. y Glossodrilus n. sp. invierten casi el mismo porcentaje de su peso (6%) en la formación del capullo; los adultos de M. carimaguensis, en cambio, invierten un 16.1%, o sea, casi tres veces más que las dos especies anteriores. Este valor, el más alto obtenido hasta la fecha, muestra la estrategia adaptativa tan compleja y evolucionada de esta especie (Jiménez et al. 1999).Como se mencionó antes, las lombrices, termitas y hormigas forman en el suelo estructuras como los turrículos de las lombrices, los nidos de los insectos sociales, las galerías y cámaras, que son consideradas nexo directo entre la biodiversidad y la función realizada en el suelo (Lavelle 1996).La diversidad de organismos de las diferentes comunidades del suelo se organiza jerárquicamente según el esquema propuesto en la hipótesis de las \"biodiversidades encajadas\" (Lavelle 1996). Esta hipótesis propone que la diversidad de la vegetación epígea determina la diversidad de los ingenieros del ecosistema y que éstos, a su vez, condicionan la diversidad de otros organismos más pequeños.Las especies de lombrices anécicas de tamaño grande son buenos ejemplos del concepto de ingenieros del ecosistema. En las sabanas de los Llanos Orientales, M. carimaguensis deposita turrículos superficiales de gran tamaño (más de 10 cm de diámetro y de alto) debajo de los cuales habitan poblaciones de macroinvertebrados (Cuadro 7-6) más abundantes y diversificadas que las del suelo cercano (Decaëns et al. 1999b). Las galerías y las heces de las lombrices grandes constituyen, en efecto, microhábitas privilegiados para algunas especies de termitas y de hormigas, que aprovechan los macroporos de dichas estructuras para establecer sus colonias. Otras especies (termitas y pequeñas especies de lombrices) pueden utilizar directamente las deposiciones como sustrato alimenticio porque en éstas encuentran un contenido alto de M.O. (Jiménez et al. 1998a;Rangel et al. 1997).Los ingenieros del ecosistema influyen, recíprocamente, en la diversidad de la cobertura vegetal. Las hormigas y las lombrices, por ejemplo, pueden afectar la dinámica y la germinación de las semillas de las plantas superiores (Klaus y Delascio 1991;Thompson et al. 1994). Martiodrilus carimaguensis ingiere cantidades importantes de semillas mezcladas con el suelo y la hojarasca (Decaëns et al., sin publicar). Durante el tránsito intestinal se produce una destrucción, por digestión, de parte de las semillas. La lombriz provoca luego el movimiento vertical de las semillas, que sobreviven cuando son depositadas con las heces dentro del perfil o en la superficie del suelo (Cuadro 7-7). Las semillas enterradas por la lombriz pueden formar parte del banco de semillas permanente del suelo. Las semillas que la lombriz excreta en los turrículos encuentran condiciones favorables para la germinación (niveles de N mayores que en el suelo y acidez reducida) y tienen más oportunidad de influir en la distribución de la vegetación epígea después de la destrucción del turrículo. La gran diferencia existente entre la composición del banco de semilla del suelo y la vegetación epígea se reduce, por tanto, en las heces de la lombriz. Las mejores condiciones para la germinación explican también la mayor riqueza de especies y la diversidad encontradas en los turrículos en comparación con el suelo adyacente.Cuadro 7-6.Efectos de la actividad de M. carimaguensis en la densidad (individuos/m 2 ), en la riqueza taxonómica (número de especies) y en la diversidad (índice de Shanon; equitatividad de Pielou) de otros organismos del suelo en un suelo de la sabana nativa de Carinmagua. Las letras indican diferencias significativas con p < 0.001. Los ingenieros del ecosistema cumplen un papel primordial en los procesos físicos que ocurren en el suelo de un ecosistema natural y son, además, unos de los pocos organismos capaces de participar activamente en los fenómenos de pedoturbación. Su acción afecta notablemente la rugosidad de la superficie, la porosidad y la agregación del suelo y tiene efectos en las propiedades hidraúlicas del suelo (Lavelle 1997). Muchos trabajos de investigación han comprobado que los macroporos debidos a los movimientos de los macroinvertebrados del suelo (galerías y cámaras) ejercen un efecto positivo en la infiltración del agua, a pesar de que no representan más del 1% del volumen total del suelo (Lee 1995). En una sabana de Africa Occidental, Casenave y Valentin (1988) encontraron una relación directa entre la velocidad de infiltración del agua y el porcentaje de la superficie del suelo cubierto por turrículos de lombrices y por colonias de termitas. Las propiedades físicas del suelo observadas en los pastizales introducidos en Carimagua son mejores que las de la sabana nativa, diferencia que se atribuye, al menos parcialmente, a la importante actividad de las lombrices de tierra en estos sistemas (Decaëns, sin publicar; Gijsman y Thomas 1997).En la sabana de Carimagua, el suelo consumido por las especies M. carimaguensis y Andiodrilus n. sp.1 es de más de 30 t suelo seco / ha por año (Fisher et al. 1995) y de 100 t suelo seco / ha por año si se considera la comunidad entera de lombrices; las dos primeras especies no representan más del 40% de la biomasa total de los suelos de la sabana nativa. Sólo el 35% del suelo ingerido es depositado en turrículos superficiales, en tanto que el restante se deposita dentro del perfil del suelo (Decaëns, sin publicar). Este consumo es relativamente bajo si se compara con el observado en otros tipos de pastizales nativos tropicales (de varias centenas a 1250 t/ha por año) (Lavelle 1997). Otros grupos de macroinvertebrados crean estructuras y, por tanto, la cantidad de suelo movilizado cada año por todos los ingenieros del ecosistema debe ser considerablemente mayor. Después de su formación, las estructuras biogénicas quedan expuestas a ataques de diferentes factores, por ejemplo, las lluvias fuertes, las quemas y el pisoteo del ganado. Estos procesos causan poco a Cuadro 7-7.Similitud en la composición entre los bancos de semilla del suelo, los bancos de semilla de los turrículos de M. carimaguensis y la vegetación epígea en una sabana nativa de Carimagua. aSituaciones comparadas Indice de similitud de Sørensen (Cs)Semillas del suelo vs. semillas de los turrículos 0.50Semillas del suelo vs. vegetación epígea 0.05 Semillas de los turrículos vs. vegetación epígea 0.41 a. Indice de similitud de Sørensen: Cs = 2 j / (a + b), donde j = número de especies comunes a las dos situaciones; a y b = número total de especies en las dos situaciones.FUENTE: Decaëns et al. 1999a.poco la destrucción de estas estructuras y afectan así la agregación del suelo (Blanchart et al. 1989). En Carimagua se han descrito, hasta la fecha, 14 estructuras biogénicas de superficie con propiedades físicas muy diferentes entre sí (Decaëns et al. 2001): aquellas constituidas por agregados de gran tamaño (> 5 mm), producidas por lombrices (M. carimaguensis y Andiodrilus n. sp1) y termitas y aquellas constituidas principalmente por microagregados (< 0.250 mm) o por macroagregados de tamaño pequeño (0.250-2 mm), que provienen de los hormigueros (Figura 7-7). La densidad aparente de los turrículos frescos es alta si se la compara con las estructuras producidas por otros invertebrados del suelo (de 1.3 hasta 1.4 g/cm 3 y de 0.5 hasta 0.9 g/cm 3 , respectivamente). El efecto de cada especie sobre la agregación del suelo es diferente y conduce a la formación de agregados de tamaño y densidad variables.Las estructuras biogénicas superficiales perduran a veces mucho tiempo en la superficie del suelo, varios años en el caso de los termiteros. Los turrículos de M. carimaguensis pueden permanecer intactos durante más de un año en la sabana y sus propiedades físicas presentan una dinámica temporal muy notoria (Decaëns 2000). La densidad aparente de los turrículos frescos recién depositados es de 1.4 g/cm 3 y su diámetro medio ponderado es de 13 mm. Durante el envejecimiento del turrículo, ambos parámetros disminuyen gradualmente; después de un año llegan a 1.1 g/m 3 y 5.6 mm, respectivamente. La colonización de los turrículos por otros invertebrados de tamaño pequeño (termitas y hormigas), que excavan galerías dentro de ellos y los descomponen en agregados más pequeños es, sin duda, la causa de esta evolución (Figura 7-8). Las actividades antagónicas que ejercitan las especies de macroinvertebrados de diferente tamaño mantienen en equilibrio la agregación del suelo (Blanchart 1992). Las especies pequeñas disgregan los turrículos compactos y evitan así su acumulación excesiva, la cual puede, en ciertos casos, afectar negativamente el crecimiento de las plantas (Rose y Wood 1980).Martiodrilus carimaguensis, igual que otras lombrices, afecta de diverso modo la dinámica de la M.O. del suelo, según la escala de tiempo considerada (Blanchart et al. 1993;Lavelle 1997;Lavelle et al. 1992b;Trigo y Lavelle 1993).En la fase inicial, M. carimaguensis selecciona e ingiere el suelo rico en M.O.; por lo tanto, sus heces presentan un contenido de carbono total mayor que el del suelo cercano a ellas (Rangel et al. 1999). En una escala de tiempo corta (algunas horas), la lombriz mezcla activamente el suelo con agua y moco intestinal en su tracto digestivo; esta operación facilita una alta actividad microbiana y la mineralización de la M.O. En las heces frescas, las poblaciones importantes de microorganismos desarrollan una intensa mineralización (Figura 7-9) que libera nutrientes asimilables por las plantas (Cepeda et al. 1998;Rangel et al. 1999). Se ha observado también una difusión importante de los nutrientes del turrículo hacia el suelo cercano, donde pueden ser asimilados por las raíces superficiales (Decaëns et al. 1999c).En una escala de tiempo intermedia (días a meses), la M.O. es integrada en agregados estables en las heces secas y queda así protegida de una mineralización rápida. Así, la liberación de nutrientes que ocurre en los turrículos intactos (Figura 7-9) se reduce y desaparece totalmente después de 3 semanas (Rangel et al. 1999). El efecto de factores externos como la lluvia, las variaciones de la humedad, el pisoteo del ganado o la colonización de otros invertebrados modifican poco a poco los turrículos que, finalmente, se incorporan al suelo cercano convirtiéndose en una reserva de nutrientes potencialmente utilizable por las plantas (Decaëns et al. 1999c). Falta todavía información que permita determinar si dichos factores externos pueden movilizar de nuevo la M.O. de los turrículos y reactivar la liberación de los nutrientes asimilables.En una escala de tiempo larga (años o decenios), la actividad de las lombrices forma una reserva de carbono en el suelo y puede mejorar la calidad de la M.O.; en efecto, facilita la descomposición de la parte más vieja y resistente de esa materia y protege, a su vez, la fracción más reciente (Barois et al. 1993;Lavelle 1997;Lavelle et al. 1992). Las actividades de la macrofauna, a través de los efectos producidos en la fertilidad del suelo influyen considerablemente en el crecimiento de las plantas (Lavelle 1997;Brown et al. 1999). Las comunidades de macroinvertebrados pueden considerarse entonces como un recurso natural importante para la sostenibilidad de la producción primaria, ya sea en ecosistemas naturales o en agroecosistemas. Este recurso es altamente sensible al impacto de las actividades humanas (Lavelle 1997); por tanto, los sistemas de producción agrícola sostenibles deben considerar como objetivo esencial la conservación de la abundancia y la diversidad de la macrofauna.Los Llanos Orientales de Colombia han sido utilizados tradicionalmente como praderas nativas de explotación ganadera extensiva. La carga animal es baja y la quema se emplea como medio de renovación del pasto (Rippstein et al. 1996). Sin embargo, durante los últimos 10 años, se ha observado una tendencia a la intensificación agrícola, mediante la introducción de pasturas mejoradas o la siembra de cultivos anuales, en las áreas más accesibles de la región (Cadavid 1995). Los efectos de dichos sistemas sobre los suelos están aún bajo estudio. En Carimagua, el manejo de la tierra para la producción agrícola afecta dramáticamente las comunidades de macroinvertebrados del suelo (Figura 7-7). Los dos factores ambientales más importantes que explican esta respuesta, extraídos de un análisis multivariante (Decaëns et al. 1994), son los siguientes:-las modificaciones en la estructura y tipo de la vegetación (42.0% de la varianza total)-los cambios en la calidad del recurso natural, principalmente de la hojarasca y del estiércol del ganado (24.4% de la varianza total).Las prácticas de manejo tradicional de la sabana no afectan la biomasa de la macrofauna, pero disminuyen ligeramente su riqueza taxonómica. Como ocurre en otras pasturas nativas (Lavelle 1983b), la presencia del ganado y la práctica de las quemas favorecen a las lombrices, pero actúan en detrimento de las termitas. La quema practicada en la época lluviosa causa un efecto negativo inmediato y de corta duración en la macrofauna, aunque las comunidades se recuperan en menos de 6 meses (Figura 7-10). Un resultado diferente se observó en las sabanas de Costa de Marfil (Athias et al. 1975) La conversión de la sabana nativa en pastura mejorada, bien sea de gramínea sola o asociada con leguminosa, mantiene la riqueza taxonómica de la macrofauna y aumenta hasta en casi 13 veces la biomasa de ésta. Este cambio de sistema de manejo reduce notablemente la diversidad de las lombrices según los resultados obtenidos en los índices de diversidad (Jiménez et al. 1998b). El desarrollo de las poblaciones de lombrices nativas generado por el cambio es espectacular, especialmente en el caso de M. carimaguensis, cuya biomasa, durante la época lluviosa, puede pasar de 1 t/ha en una pastura de Brachiaria decumbens asociado con Pueraria phaseoloides (Jiménez et al. 1998a  Lavelle et al. 1981).Un punto importante de este estudio es la conservación de la riqueza de especies de la macrofauna nativa y, en consecuencia, el equilibrio entre las diferentes acciones con que los macroinvertebrados influyen en el suelo. No hay, por tanto, problemas de degradación del suelo como resultado de la proliferación de una especie exótica de lombrices, que es justamente el caso de otras regiones tropicales (Lavelle 1997).Los cultivos anuales causan un dramático descenso, tanto cuantitativo como cualitativo, de las poblaciones de invertebrados. Este fenómeno tiene tres explicaciones posibles: el efecto de la labranza, el uso indiscriminado de pesticidas y la disminución de las reservas de carbono disponibles en el suelo a consecuencia de la desaparición de la vegetación perenne (House y Parmelee 1985;Lavelle y Pashanasi 1989). Los cultivos arbóreos de baja densidad de árboles, por el contrario, ofrecen condiciones favorables para el desarrollo de una alta actividad biológica, ya que conservan una cobertura herbácea permanente, aumentan el grosor del mantillo de hojarasca y tienen un efecto amortiguador sobre el microclima, gracias a la sombra de los árboles. La densidad de estos árboles no es aún lo suficientemente alta para crear un verdadero microclima forestal que permita el mantenimiento de la fauna sabanícola. En un cultivo de marañón (Anacardium occidentale L.) se registró una biomasa de lombrices de tierra nativas que era de 3 a 4 veces superior a la encontrada en la sabana nativa; las lombrices se localizaban, de preferencia, debajo de los árboles (Decaëns, sin publicar). Estos resultados confirman los estudios de Lavelle y Pashanasi (1989) en Perú.En primer lugar, los resultados presentados en este trabajo provienen exclusivamente de las sabanas bien drenadas, cuyos suelos son arcillolimosos, que se encuentran en la región de Carimagua, en Colombia. Cualquier extrapolación a otra región, así tenga las mismas propiedades de suelos y de vegetación, deberá hacerse con cautela, porque las características biogeográficas propias de cada especie (de lombriz, por ejemplo) determinan su presencia en un lugar determinado y su ausencia en otro, sin razón aparente. Además, falta información sobre la composición y la estructura de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados en las regiones de suelos arenosos e inundables, dos formaciones edáficas bastante representativas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.La macrofauna del suelo en los ecosistemas del bosque de galería y la sabana nativa presenta una biomasa globalmente inferior a la registrada (datos disponibles) sobre tipos de vegetación comparables de otras regiones del trópico. Sin embargo, la diversidad taxonómica y funcional es grande porque hay especies representativas de todos los grupos funcionales definidos en los invertebrados del suelo (Bouché 1972;Lavelle 1981). Estos grupos utilizan, para su desarrollo, diversas fuentes de energía que van desde la hojarasca hasta la M.O. del suelo en diferente grado de descomposición. Se localizan, además, en diversos estratos horizontales, concentran sus actividades en sitios específicos y logran una buena homogeneización en el espacio de los efectos que regulan los procesos determinantes de la fertilidad del suelo.Las sabanas tropicales son ecosistemas sometidos a una fuerte sequía estacional que influye directamente en la humedad del suelo que es uno de los factores determinantes de la actividad y de la dinámica de las poblaciones de lombrices (Lavelle 1983b). Las especies encontradas en Carimagua poseen diferentes estrategias adaptativas a dicha severidad ambiental y evitar así que sus poblaciones desaparezcan. Estas adaptaciones son la respuesta a los factores limitantes del suelo, o sea, las escasas reservas de nutrientes, el movimiento en un ambiente compacto y las condiciones climáticas desfavorables.Las termitas y las lombrices de tierra son el componente dominante de las comunidades de la macrofauna en las formaciones vegetales nativas de la Altillanura plana, en Colombia. Las actividades de estos organismos afectan la parte abiótica del suelo porque levantan construcciones mediante las cuales modifican profundamente la estructura del suelo y la dinámica de la M.O. Los efectos producidos difieren, además, según las especies y la escala de tiempo consideradas y, a veces, son antagonistas; por consiguiente, la acción global de la macrofauna favorece una regulación efectiva de las características físicas y químicas del suelo. Por tal razón, las estructuras biogénicas se han considerado como un verdadero intermediario entre la biodiversidad y los procesos que determinan la fertilidad del suelo (Lavelle 1996).Las relaciones existentes entre la vegetación epígea y los diferentes grupos de fauna del suelo apoyan la hipótesis de las biodiversidades encajadas de Lavelle (1996). La abundancia y la diversidad de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados está determinada por dos factores ambientales relacionados uno con la estructura y otro con la naturaleza de la vegetación. Se hizo evidente también el papel ecológico desempeñado por las estructuras biogénicas de superficie de los ingenieros del ecosistema, las cuales afectan la abundancia y la diversidad de otros grupos de organismos (Decaëns et al. 1999b). Su acción comprende una redistribución de recursos, principalmente una concentración de la M.O. y la creación de microhábitat específicos. Las interrelaciones entre diferentes grupos funcionales que pertenecen a un mismo taxón o a varios de ellos son estrechas y complejas, como lo demuestra el efecto recíproco de las lombrices anécicas en la vegetación por medio de los bancos de semilla del suelo. Falta todavía realizar investigación para comprender mejor estos fenómenos y para estimar la participación de otros grupos importantes, como las termitas y las hormigas, las cuales cumplen también, sin duda, un papel relevante.Sería necesario investigar también la agregación de las partículas de suelo más pequeñas en las heces de M. carimaguensis que han sido ingeridas por individuos de Ocnerodrilidae n. gen. Este proceso puede constituir un modelo análogo al de las especies compactantes y decompactantes de Blanchart et al. (1997) que favorecen la estructura física del suelo.La macrofauna es un recurso natural altamente sensible a la conversión de la sabana nativa en un sistema de producción agrícola que responde de manera directamente proporcional a la intensificación. Esta respuesta se relaciona principalmente con las modificaciones de la cobertura vegetal, que determina directamente la cantidad y la calidad del recurso orgánico.• Tanto las pasturas nativas como las introducidas mantienen una vegetación cuya estructura vertical es similar a la que posee la sabana y resguardan, además, una macrofauna nativa diversificada. Asimismo pueden, como en el caso de las praderas mejoradas, aumentar la calidad y la cantidad de la M.O. fresca que se incorpora al suelo y mejorar, por tanto, la actividad de la fauna.• Los monocultivos anuales, por el contrario, traen consigo una disminución dramática de la macrofauna porque crean condiciones desfavorables -como la destrucción de la vegetación nativa y la disminución de la cantidad de material vegetal restituido-o causan directamente la muerte de los organismos mediante la labranza y el uso indiscriminado de los pesticidas.Las sabanas bien drenadas de los Llanos Orientales poseen una macrofauna con una buena capacidad de adaptación a los ambientes perturbados. La próxima etapa de esta investigación será la determinación de opciones de manejo de las poblaciones de macroinvertebrados en los diferentes agroecosistemas. Este trabajo se está realizando en Carimagua, enfocado especialmente hacia las lombrices de tierra; el objetivo general es optimizar y aprovechar este recurso para aumentar la sostenibilidad de los sistemas agropecuarios. Se presta atención especial al manejo de las prácticas agrícolas, a la forma y a la disposición de las parcelas y al uso de rotaciones a corto o a largo plazo. Se ha estudiado también la capacidad de movimiento de las lombrices para poder evaluar sus facultades de recolonización del suelo en sistemas de producción destructivos. Por último, se ha desarrollado un modelo de manejo integrado de una finca para formalizar las reglas de interacción entre las lombrices y las prácticas agrícolas empleadas (L. Mariani, sin publicar). Esperamos que el modelo permita ahondar en nuestro conocimiento del ecosistema y comprobar, mediante simulación, la sostenibilidad de las opciones de manejo.  Durante 5 años se llevaron a cabo ensayos de pastoreo con bovinos en pasturas naturales utilizando dispositivos experimentales, en el CIA manejado por el ICA y el CIAT en Carimagua, Meta. Se estudiaron allí la dinámica de las especies, el valor pastoril de la sabana, la productividad animal y la de la cubierta herbácea, la biomasa de las raíces y la fertilidad del suelo bajo el efecto de fuegos periódicos, las diferentes cargas animales y los diferentes períodos de descanso después de la quema y antes del pastoreo. Se propusieron luego a los finqueros modelos mejorados de explotación de la sabana nativa.Se presentan aquí algunos resultados de la dinámica de la vegetación sometida a diferentes tipos de manejo y se hacen propuestas para la recuperación de los pastos degradados.La respuesta de la vegetación, como aumento o disminución de la presencia de la cobertura o biomasa aérea, a cualquier tipo de estrés es inmediata (desde el primer año). Posteriormente, esa respuesta evoluciona más lentamente.Las quemas anuales de la vegetación que estuvo protegida durante varios años producen una reacción muy diferente, dependiente de la época de quema. Las especies más sensibles (entre las más frecuentes) son: Andropogon bicornis, Otachyrium versicolor y, sobre todo, Axonopus purpusii, Gymnopogon foliosus y Trachypogon vestitus.Quemas efectuadas cada 16 meses durante 5 años (o con menor frecuencia) no afectan tanto la sabana y permiten mantener la biodiversidad, la productividad y el valor pastoril. Combinaciones de estas formas de manejo fueron utilizadas para experimentar modelos de explotación de la sabana nativa en Carimagua.Las distintas cargas animales afectan de manera diferente la presencia y la dinámica de las especies botánicas. La explotación de la sabana ocasiona una disminución de todas las especies importantes, sobre todo en el primer año. Sólo A. purpusii aumenta su presencia y su cobertura (o su biomasa).El descanso después de la quema y antes del pastoreo (0, 2, 4, 8 semanas) ocasiona también importantes cambios en la dinámica de todas las especies, especialmente en el primer año. Aumentan también en esta etapa la frecuencia y la cobertura de A. purpusii, mientras que disminuyen las de las demás especies.En los Llanos Orientales de Colombia han ocurrido siempre cambios de vegetación. A lo largo de la historia geológica, ecológica y climática de esa región hubo cambios considerables en la relación proporcional entre sabana abierta, bosque de sabana y selva.Los diagramas de polen realizados por Thomas van der Hammer (1992) muestran los cambios mencionados, especialmente ocurridos durante la era del Cuaternario (Holoceno y Pleistoceno), es decir, desde el Paleolítico hasta nuestra época. Se registra, por ejemplo, entre 4000 y 3800 años antes de la época actual, un período en que casi no existía la sabana abierta que se conoce actualmente. Hubo luego un período más húmedo y frío, cuando cambios importantes modificaron la fisonomía de los Llanos; por ejemplo, la selva y la sabana arbolada o arbustiva dominaron el paisaje.Hace menos de 2000 años había, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, más de 50% de bosque y de sabana arbustiva; esta condición no sobrepasa hoy el 5%.La fisonomía actual de la vegetación de los Llanos, o sea, una sabana abierta casi sin arbustos en los bancos y con bosques a lo largo de los ríos (bosques de galería), es muy reciente. Esta sabana es el resultado del cambio de clima ocurrido durante los últimos miles de años, en que el clima se tornó más seco y las temperaturas se hicieron más altas.La sabana 'estacional' actual, según Sarmiento (1990), es una consecuencia de la interrelación de varios factores:-aparición de la estacionalidad del clima: una época seca de 3 meses que alterna con una época lluviosa el resto del año;-régimen hídrico del suelo: el nivel freático es bajo en la época seca;-pobreza físico-química de los suelos; y -efecto de la quema sobre la vegetación: puede ser un factor ecológico natural o un factor antropológico (la quema se emplea para manejar los pastos, como sucede actualmente).Aparte de la quema, otros factores antropológicos de manejo de los pastos nativos influyen en la vegetación. Los más importantes son el pastoreo (con diferente tasa de carga animal), el descanso después o antes de la quema, la siembra de leguminosas forrajeras asociadas con los pastos, y los cultivos anuales. Durante 6 años se estudiaron estos factores en el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria (CI) Carimagua, en Meta, Llanos Orientales. Los autores se preguntaron además si estos factores influían de manera positiva, es decir, mejorando la productividad, o de manera negativa en los pastos nativos.Los objetivos de este estudio de la dinámica de la vegetación de los Llanos son una respuesta a las siguientes preguntas específicas:• ¿Qué efectos tienen la carga animal (sobrepastoreo o subpastoreo) y el descanso de la vegetación después de la quema (el tiempo de descanso, la época de la quema u otro manejo) en la vegetación?• ¿Cuáles son los mejores índices o parámetros que pueden indicar los cambios experimentados por la vegetación? Se sugieren los siguientes: biodiversidad, frecuencia de las especies, aparición de arbustos o especies no deseables, valor pastoril, porcentaje de cobertura del suelo, reflectancia terrestre o por satélite de la vegetación?• De estos índices, ¿cuáles son los que mejor pueden utilizar los técnicos o productores para indicar degradación o mejoramiento de la vegetación?• ¿Es posible manipular la vegetación (con la quema, por ejemplo) para recuperarla después de su degradación?• ¿Hay alguna posibilidad de combinar, en modelos nuevos, estos factores de manejo para mejorar la productividad de los pastos nativos y, por consiguiente, para aumentar la producción animal de manera sostenible, o sea, sin que se degrade la vegetación?Para responder estas preguntas se hicieron varios ensayos en diferentes lugares y con distintos tipos de suelos del CIA Carimagua, entre 1990 y 1996.Los materiales empleados para el ensayo (sitios, suelos, tipos de vegetación, muestreos, tratamientos) se presentan esquemáticamente en el Cuadro 8-1. La dinámica de la vegetación de los Llanos se estudió durante más de 5 años aplicando una metodología de tipo evolutivo basada en los siguientes parámetros:• Frecuencia de las especies.Número de veces que una especie se presenta en un número dado de parcelas de muestreo o de puntos de muestreo. Se evalúa aquí la contribución de cada especie a la constitución de la pastura mediante la fórmula calculada por Daget y Godron (1995):CS i = FC i / åFC i * 100 = n i / ån i * 100 donde:CS i = contribución de la especie i; FC = frecuencia centesimal (es decir, en porcentaje respecto a 100 muestras) de la especie i;åFC i = sumatoria de la frecuencia centesimal de todas las especies;n i = número de unidades de muestreo donde se encuentra la especie i; ån i = sumatoria del número de unidades de muestreo en que está i.• Cobertura que da la especie. Es la fracción proporcional de la superficie del suelo que está ocupada por la proyección perpendicular de la parte aérea de los individuos de la especie que se considera (Paladines 1992). Se expresa mediante una frecuencia centesimal:FC i = n i / N * 100 donde:n i = número de unidades de la muestra donde hay presencia de la especie i; N = número total de unidades de la muestra.Esta cobertura es un índice relativo de la biomasa aérea de la vegetación. Puede usarse también(1)(2) a. Indica que se tomaron muestras de raíces a diferentes profundidades y que se practicaron análisis convencionales de suelos. b. Se refiere al ganado bovino presente en los ensayos y a los datos de ganancia de peso que pudieron tomarse. como un índice de la degradación de la vegetación. La frecuencia de las especies se establece aplicando la metodología de los \"puntos cuadrados alineados\" (Daget y Poissonet 1991) a lo largo de transectos fijos de 20 m en la pastura, donde la unidad de muestreo (o superficie de la muestra) es el punto de una aguja. 1• Productividad del pasto nativo.Se mide haciendo cortes de la vegetación en pequeñas parcelas y determinando la producción y la productividad en la M.S. de los cortes (Daget y Godron 1995); se emplean dos expresiones:Prod. = kg/ha, de M.S.;Prod. = g/m 2 por día, de M.S.• Valor alimenticio. Se obtiene mediante análisis bromatológicos (Salinas y García 1985).• La dinámica de una especie proviene, principalmente, de su contribución específica y de su valor pastoril. El Cuadro 8-2 presenta la frecuencia relativa, es decir, la contribución de cada especie en porcentaje (frecuencia centesimal), y el 'valor pastoril' de las especies dominantes de una pastura nativa de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, que ha sido manejada con quema en diferentes épocas del año y pastoreada con diferentes cargas durante 10 años.Se observa, en primer lugar, la influencia de la época de quema en la frecuencia relativa:• La quema anual en abril favorece la dominancia de las gramíneas Gymnopogon foliosus (34.8%) y Trachypogon vestitus (38.0%).• La quema anual en agosto causa una 'explosión' de Axonopus purpusii (45.1%), la desaparición de G. foliosus, una disminución de T. vestitus (cae hasta un 19.5%), y la aparición de Andropogon selloanus (11.7%), cuya presencia era mínima en el tratamiento de quema en abril.• La quema anual en diciembre modifica la frecuencia relativa de las especies, así: la gramínea dominante es T. vestitus (51.5%); la siguen Andropogon leucostachyus y Otachyrium versicolor, ambas con casi un 11%. Estas dos últimas especies están poco representadas en los dos tratamientos anteriores.Un transecto lineal de 20 m se hace con una cinta métrica y dos varillas que la sostienen a una altura de 1 m sobre la superficie del suelo. Cada 20 cm en la cinta se deja caer hacia el suelo una aguja fina de cobre de 120 cm de largo y las especies vegetales que toquen la aguja son registradas (censadas). Ninguna especie tocará la aguja (y no habrá 'lectura' en ese punto) si el suelo está descubierto.(3)Cuadro 8-2.Frecuencia relativa (%) y valor pastoril (VP) de las especies dominantes de una sabana nativa manejada con quema (en diferentes épocas del año) y con diferente carga durante 10 años. Se observa también en esta quema la aparición de Andropogon bicornis, una gramínea poco deseable por su bajo valor pastoril.La carga alta trae consigo, en la quema de abril, un aumento adicional de la presencia de G. foliosus; en la quema de agosto, un gran aumento en la frecuencia de A. purpusii (62%); y en la quema de diciembre, la dominancia de Andropogon selloanus, una especie cuyo índice de valor pastoril (1.7) es regular.La frecuencia de una especie, combinada con su IVP -que se toma aquí cuando las plantas tienen 4 semanas de edad-permite calcular el VP de la pastura y comparar pasturas de la misma área conformadas por las mismas especies. En el caso estudiado (Carimagua), se observó una diferencia en el valor pastoril del pasto según la época de quema y una disminución de este valor al establecer la carga alta, especialmente en las quemas de abril y diciembre. Este resultado implica una diferencia de productividad en estos pastos y, probablemente, diferencias de producción animal.En las Figuras 8-1A, 8-1B y 8-1C se observa tanto la dinámica de la vegetación pastoreada como la influencia de la carga; en las Figuras 8-2A, 8-2B, 8-2C y 8-2D se muestra el descanso de 0, 2, 4 u 8 semanas después de hacer una quema cada 16 meses.• La Figura 8-1A presenta la dinámica de la sabana nativa; la Figura 8-1B ilustra la influencia de la carga (baja, media o alta) en la vegetación de la sabana; la Figura 8-1C describe la contribución específica de las especies, en porcentaje.En estas figuras se observa el cambio que experimentó la frecuencia de las especies durante 5 años por efecto del cambio de carga animal:-En el primer año, generalmente, hay muchos cambios; en los años siguientes la vegetación es estable. Como en el ejemplo anterior, la carga afecta la contribución específica de cada especie. Este año se nota también un aumento de las especies secundarias, de diverso orden, en todos los tratamientos.-Pasados 5 años, los cambios más importantes ocurren en A. purpusii y en A. bicornis, en todos los tratamientos.• La Figura 8-2A presenta la dinámica de la sabana nativa; la Figura 8-2B ilustra la influencia del descanso (0, 2, 4 u 8 semanas después de la quema) en la vegetación de la sabana; la Figura 8-2C describe la contribución específica de las especies, en porcentaje.Este descanso (después de la quema y antes del pastoreo) ocasiona también cambios importantes durante el primer año y un aumento espectacular de la contribución de A. purpusii.• La Figura 8-3A presenta la dinámica de la sabana nativa; la Figura 8-3B ilustra la evolución del valor pastoril y la influencia de la carga y el descanso después de la quema. En ambas se observa un aumento de este índice en todos los tratamientos.No se observó una disminución del valor pastoril a causa de la carga alta porque los animales no pastorearon las parcelas de este tratamiento (ya degradadas) en la época seca, por falta de pasto. En los tratamientos de 'descanso', el valor pastoril mejoró en el tratamiento de descanso de 4 semanas, entre 1991 y 1996; asimismo, no se degradó el pasto en el tratamiento en que no hubo descanso (cero semanas), aunque podría esperarse una degradación.La cobertura del suelo, en porcentaje, puede considerarse una muestra relativa de la biomasa de la vegetación o del suelo descubierto; es decir, es una muestra o índice de la degradación sufrida por la vegetación, o sea, del peligro de erosión del suelo.• Las Figuras 8-4A, 8-4B y 8-4C presentan la dinámica de la sabana nativa, indicando la influencia de la carga animal (A = carga baja, B = carga media, C = carga alta ) y la relación cobertura/biomasa aérea (de las plantas de las especies).En estas figuras se muestra, para las tres cargas, la dominancia de dos especies o de un grupo de especies: Paspalum pectinatum, A. purpusii o las gramíneas diversas o secundarias. Podemos observar también la disminución de la cobertura de casi todas las especies. Solamente para A. purpusii y G. foliosus la cobertura aumentó entre 1991 y 1995.Al llegar el descanso (Figuras 8-5A, 8-5B, 8-5C y 8-5D) se observa la misma tendencia en la dominancia de las mismas especies. La razón es que todas las especies que dominan aquí la pastura tienen un porte más o menos igual.• Las Figuras 8-5A, 8-5B, 8-5C y 8-5D presentan la dinámica de la sabana nativa, indicando la influencia del descanso después de la quema y la relación cobertura/ biomasa aérea (de las plantas de varias especies, en %).• Las Figuras 8-6A y 8-6B presentan la dinámica de la sabana nativa, indicando la influencia de la carga animal (A) y del descanso (B) después de la quema, así como la relación cobertura/biomasa aérea.La cobertura o biomasa aérea total de la vegetación (Figuras 8-6A y 8-6B) disminuye drásticamente en todos los casos, es decir, la biomasa (o la productividad de los pastos) disminuye en todos estos modelos de manejo de los pastos nativos, especialmente en las cargas alta y media.La degradación de la productividad se observa también en los rebrotes después de la quema (Cuadro 8-3). La productividad disminuyó drásticamente entre 1991 y 1994. Se observó que disminuye cuando aumenta la carga y también cuando llega la juventud de los rebrotes.Se estudiaron también algunos medios para recuperar los pastos nativos degradados. En las figuras siguientes se presentan los resultados de algunos ensayos en que hubo descanso de la vegetación y también quema de la vegetación.Cuadro 8-3.Productividad de los rebrotes de los pastos de la sabana nativa después de la quema mostrando la influencia de la carga animal en este fenómeno. • La Figura 8-7 ilustra la recuperación de la sabana nativa degradada en 1991 y la influencia del descanso (sin quema) después 1991.La pastura presentada en la Figura 8-7 se degradó porque se hicieron cortes de los rebrotes cada 4 semanas durante 1 año. Después del primer año se observó la degradación de la pastura, que se manifestó en los siguientes fenómenos:-aparición del suelo, que quedó descubierto en un 15% (0% antes de los cortes);-disminución del número de especies forrajeras;-aumento considerable de la contribución de poáceas poco productivas, como Mesosetum pittieri, y de ciperáceas (Rhynchospora podosperma);-disminución de la contribución de especies de VP bueno, como Paspalum pectinatum y T. vestitus.En 1995, o sea, 4 años después del descanso, la vegetación se recuperó: no se observó entonces el suelo descubierto y las especies hacían casi la misma contribución que en 1990.El Cuadro 8-4 presenta la dinámica de la vegetación nativa protegida de la quema durante 2 años, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Este cuadro muestra el efecto de 2 años de descanso en la vegetación, o sea, la recuperación del VP del pasto nativo al cabo de ese tiempo.Otro ejemplo de recuperación es una pastura nativa invadida por la especie Panicum rudgei; ésta tiene poca aceptación entre los animales, aun siendo muy joven, porque sus hojas están cubiertas de pelos que no gustan al ganado. Además, se ha reportado que causa fotosensibilidad en el ganado (Escobar 1995).En este ensayo se recurrió a la quema para recuperar la pastura.• La Figura 8-8 ilustra la recuperación de la sabana nativa degradada por Panicum rudgei y el efecto del descanso en las especies nativas.Se presenta aquí el efecto de la quema anual en la vegetación La mejor época para la quema fue la época lluviosa, antes de la madurez y de la dispersión de las semillas.El pastoreo de la sabana nativa de los Llanos Orientales y el uso de la quema como práctica de manejo de esa sabana producen, a mediano y largo plazo, dos efectos en una vegetación que no haya sido pastoreada con intensidad anteriormente:-una disminución de la productividad;-la degradación de la vegetación, a veces, cuando ésta es mal manejada.Ejemplos de mal manejo son una carga animal muy alta o un descanso demasiado corto después de la quema y antes del pastoreo. La degradación puede conducir a la pérdida de la biodiversidad o a la aparición del suelo (despojado de vegetación) en la superficie del terreno.La vegetación puede ser recuperada si se le da descanso y, a veces, se le hace una quema combinada con descanso.Se ensayaron modelos de explotación de la sabana con ganado bovino en Carimagua. Se concluyó que existe la posibilidad de obtener una producción animal igual o mejor que en el sistema tradicional manteniendo la biodiversidad, la productividad y el valor pastoril de la sabana a largo plazo (Figura 8-9). Estos modelos se describen en el Capítulo 9 de esta obra (ensayos de Caribey, Corin, Pasoganado I y Pasoganado II). La productividad y el valor alimenticio de los diferentes tipos de pastos nativos de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, manejados sin la práctica de la quema, son generalmente bajos durante todo el año. En condiciones de manejo tradicional, la ganancia de peso de los bovinos de carne es baja en la época lluviosa y muy baja o negativa en la época seca.En el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria Carimagua, manejado por el ICA y el CIAT en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, los ensayos arrojaron diferencias significativas en la productividad de los animales, que dependía de la composición botánica, o sea, del 'valor pastoril' de los pastos nativos.Se obtuvo una ganancia de peso significativa durante todo el año haciendo quemas secuenciales cada 4 meses en la época lluviosa y quemas mensuales en la época seca, pastoreando los rebrotes de 4 semanas de edad después de la quema, haciendo rotaciones y duplicando la carga animal tradicional. Este sistema evitó la degradación de la vegetación.Estos modelos mejorados de explotación de la sabana tienen un límite; por ello, puede ser necesario intensificar la pastura en la época seca sembrando pastos mejorados y haciendo reservas de forraje; ambas prácticas complementan la nutrición animal.Los estudios ecológicos y fitosociológicos realizados en los Llanos Orientales revelaron una gran diversidad de paisajes, de suelos, de condiciones hídricas y, naturalmente, de tipos de sabana nativa (Blydenstein 1967;Broekhuijsen 1995;Grollier 1995;Rippstein y Girard 1994;Rippstein et al. 1995; Capítulos 1 a 10 de esta obra). La sabana nativa se considera de inferior calidad y su productividad es muy baja (Fisher et al. 1992) (Cuadro 9-1).La explotación tradicional de bovinos, con quema de la sabana nativa o sin ella, no permite que los animales adquieran mucha ganancia de peso, a pesar de que, siendo jóvenes, pastorean los rebrotes de buena calidad nutricional producidos después de la quema, especialmente durante la época seca (Hoyos 1987) (Cuadro 9-2).Parecía posible, sin embargo, mejorar la productividad o ganancia de peso diaria de los animales (GPD, medida en kg/ha) en estas sabanas nativas, empleando modelos de manejo que incluyan las siguientes prácticas:-buen uso de la quema; -cargas de pastoreo adecuadas tanto en la época seca como en la lluviosa, adaptadas a la productividad y a la calidad de la vegetación;-rotación de los animales por diferentes parcelas;-descanso de la vegetación después de la quema y antes del pastoreo.Se evaluaron, por tanto, para explotar mejor la sabana nativa, varios modelos de manejo en el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria (CI) Carimagua entre 1991 y 1996.Los ensayos se realizaron en cinco sitios diferentes: cuatro tenían suelos 'arcillosos' (los sitios Caribey, Corin, Pasoganado 1 y Pasoganado 2) y uno tenía suelo 'arenoso'.Los suelos arcillosos son relativamente fértiles. Su composición porcentual, en el horizonte de 0 a 20 cm, es el siguiente: arcilla 37%, arena 18%, limo 45%, pH (en H 2 O) 5.5, M.O. 3.44%, N disponible 6.23 ppm, N (total) 1008 ppm, C (total) 2.0%, C/N 19.8, Al 2.6 meq/100 g, Ca 0.21 meq/100 g, K 0.06 meq/100 g, saturación de Al 89%, P (Bray II) 3.9 ppm.Este tipo de suelo arcilloso es muy representativo de la Altillanura plana y ocupa cerca de 3.5 millones de hectáreas en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (Cochrane et al. 1985).Los suelos arenosos son relativamente escasos en nutrientes. Su composición porcentual es la siguiente (0-20 cm): arcilla 17%, arena 65%, limo 18%, pH (H 2 O) 5.1, M.O. 0.89, N disponible 3.7 ppm, N (total) 339 ppm, C (total) 0.52%, C/N 15.5, Al 0.7 meq/100 g, Ca 0.13 meq/100 g, K 0.03 meq/100 g, saturación de Al 77%, P (Bray II) 2.0 ppm.Este tipo de suelo arenoso es muy parecido a los suelos arenosos de la Altillanura ondulada o de la Serranía de los Llanos Orientales, que ocupan 6.4 millones de hectáreas. La vegetación de Carimagua se describe detalladamente en el Capítulo 2 de esta obra.Las especies que predominan en los suelos arcillosos y su contribución específica (en porcentaje) a la vegetación de la sabana son:-gramíneas: Trachypogon vestitus (41%), Axonopus purpusii (20%), Paspalum pectinatum (11%), Andropogon leucostachyus (7%), Schyzachyrium hirtiflorum (5%), Trasya petrosa (5%);-diicotiledóneas diversas (2%);-ciperáceas diversas (3%);-leguminosas (0.5%).En suelos arenosos, las especies que predominan y su contribución específica (en porcentaje) son las siguientes:-gramíneas: P. pectinatum (14%), S. hirtiflorum (13%), A. purpusii (10%), T. vestitus (10.5%), Mesosetum pittieri (9%), Leptocoryphium lanatum (6.5%);-otras gramíneas (13.8%);-ciperáceas: Rhynchospora podosperma (13.2%), R. confinis (9.2%);-algunas dicotiledóneas (0.1%);-leguminosas (0.7%).Se emplearon dos modelos de manejo:• El Modelo 1 es el sistema tradicional mejorado con quema. La quema se hace en secuencia, en cuatro parcelas, cada 4 meses (o sea, en diciembre, en abril y en agosto). La carga de pastoreo es diferente en cada período. En consecuencia, cada parcela es quemada de nuevo a los 16 meses de la primera quema, tiempo que permite la recuperación de su vegetación y evita su degradación (ver Capítulo 8 de esta obra).• El Modelo 2 es el sistema mejorado con quema y rotación. La quema se hace en secuencia mensual, en 20 parcelas distribuidas en dos bloques. Cada mes, después de 4 semanas de descanso, los animales pasan de un bloque a otro.En la época seca (diciembre a marzo) se quemaron dos parcelas contiguas en el mismo bloque a causa de la menor productividad de los rebrotes durante esa época (Cuadro 9-2). Cada parcela, por tanto, experimenta una quema cada 16 meses.Se aplicaron las siguientes cargas animales o de pastoreo:• En suelo arcilloso:-carga baja: 6 ha/animal -carga media: 4 ha/animal -carga alta: 2 ha/animal • En suelo arenoso:-carga media: 6 ha/animal -carga alta: 4 ha/animal Se ensayaron, además, diferentes tiempos de descanso después de la quema y antes del pastoreo: 0 semanas (pastoreo inmediatamente después de la quema), 2, 4 y 8 semanas. En el Modelo 2 se ensayó una rotación alterna en dos bloques, después de 4 semanas de descanso.Se ensayaron novillos y vaquillas de 2 años de edad, de raza criolla o de cruces Criollo por Brahman, que tenían un peso vivo (PV) inicial de 180 kg (en promedio).Se tomaron las siguientes muestras cada mes:-el peso de los animales (kg PV/animal; kg PV/ha) -la productividad de la vegetación, o sea, la biomasa aérea neta del pasto muestreada en un cuadrado de 1 m² (g M.S./m² o kg M.S./ha).Se tomaron también muestras para estudiar la dinámica de la vegetación (parte aérea y raíces) en transectos permanentes, pero no se reportan en este capítulo.En la Figura 9-1 y en el Cuadro 9-3 se compara el comportamiento de dos tipos de suelo, el arcilloso y el arenoso, en un mismo sistema: el tradicional mejorado en sabana.Al principio del ensayo y durante 1 año (julio 1991 hasta julio 1992), las cargas aplicadas a los pastos fueron de 6 ha/animal en el suelo arenoso y de 4 ha/animal en el suelo arcilloso.A partir de julio 1992, la carga fue de 4 ha/animal para el pasto de ambos tipos de suelo.Durante este primer año, la ganancia de peso por animal fue casi igual (40 kg PV/animal) en ambos suelos, el arcilloso y el arenoso, aunque más irregular en el segundo; fue muy diferente, en cambio, la productividad animal en ambos suelos: 10 y 6.6 kg PV/ha al año, respectivamente.Durante el segundo año (agosto 1992 a septiembre 1993) y empleando la misma carga (4 ha/animal) para ambos tipos de sabana, la diferencia entre los dos suelos fue notoria: la ganancia de peso en el suelo arcilloso fue significativamente diferente (más de 90 kg).En suelo arenoso, la GPD fue débil durante la época lluviosa (E.L.) de 1992 (Cuadro 9-3); fue negativa en la E.L. de 1993 (-47 g) y baja (+21 g) durante la época seca (E.S.) de 1992-93. En suelo arcilloso, la GPD, ya sea en la E.L. de 1992 y 1993, o en la E.S. de 1992-93, fue relativamente buena (+167, +367 y +35 g, respectivamente). En ambos sitios no se obtuvo una ganancia de peso alta durante la época seca, a pesar de la quema de diciembre, cuando se produce rebrote de buena calidad, aunque de escasa biomasa.La diferente ganancia de peso de los animales, especialmente en la E.L. se explica por la diferencia significativa de la calidad de los pastos, no sólo respecto a su contenido de proteína sino principalmente por su diferente composición botánica que se muestra a continuación:-en suelo arenoso, la presencia de las ciperáceas (más del 22%) era importante y estas plantas son muy poco apetecibles por el ganado y tienen un índice de valor pastoril (IVP) muy bajo (ver Capítulo 8 de esta obra; Daget y Godron 1995; Rippstein 1989); asimismo, había gramíneas poco apetecibles, como S. hirtiflorum.-en suelo arcilloso, especies como T. vestitus y A. purpusii, que constituyen el 60% de la biomasa total del pasto, son muy apetecibles y tienen un IVP alto.Figura 9-1. Comparación de la productividad de diferentes tipos de sabana nativa manejados con quema, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Se presentan la ganancia de peso de bovinos y las lluvias caídas. El VP de la sabana en suelo arcilloso es de 58.7% y en suelo arenoso es de 42.8%.En la Figura 9-2 y en el Cuadro 9-4 se comparan los dos modelos: el Modelo 1 es el sistema tradicional mejorado con quema, en que la quema se hace cada 4 meses y cada una de las 4 parcelas experimenta la quema cada 16 meses recibiendo diferentes cargas (alta, media y baja); el Modelo 2 es el sistema mejorado con quema y rotación, en que se hace quema mensual en 20 parcelas.La comparación permite sacar las siguientes conclusiones:-En los dos modelos (o sistemas) no existe una correlación general entre la producción de rebrotes 4 semanas después de la quema y la ganancia de peso de los animales.-En el Modelo 1, en la E.S., la ganancia de peso es baja o negativa, a pesar de que hay rebrotes importantes; en el Modelo 2, en cambio, la ganancia de peso es relativamente alta.-En ambos sistemas hay una alta correlación entre ganancia de peso y producción de rebrotes al principio de la E.L.(especialmente entre abril y junio de 1995).-En el Modelo 1, durante la primera E.L. (abril a diciembre de 1994), la carga baja o la media permite obtener mejor ganancia de peso que la carga alta.-Durante la misma época, el Modelo 2 no permite obtener una ganancia de peso alta.-Durante la E.S. del primer año (diciembre de 1994 a marzo de 1995), la GPD fue negativa en el Modelo 1 con carga alta (-111 g) y ligeramente positiva con las otras dos cargas; en el Modelo 2, con cargas media y baja, fue muy alta (+289 g).-Al final del primer año (febrero a marzo de 1995), en el Modelo 1 (sistema 1) la GPD con carga alta (2 ha/animal) fue muy inferior a la obtenida en el Modelo 2 (sistema 2) con esa carga y significativamente inferior a las obtenidas en el mismo Modelo 1 con las cargas media y baja.-Durante el segundo año del ensayo (1995-96), las ganancias de peso obtenidas en los mismos Cuadro 9-3. Ganancia de peso por día (GPD) de bovinos en dos tipos de sabana nativa de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, en un sistema tradicional mejorado (Modelo 1 del ensayo) que experimenta quemas cada 16 meses en cuatro parcelas. -47 +57 (areno-arcilloso) Figura 9-2. Comparación de la productividad de dos sistemas de 'manejo mejorado' de la sabana nativa en la Altillanura plana de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (quema secuencial cada 4 meses y quema mensual) que se practica en ellos, con diferente carga animal. Se miden la ganancia de peso de los bovinos y los rebrotes del pasto 4 semanas después de la quema. sistemas fueron, durante todo ese año, inferiores a las del año anterior.-En la E.L. de 1995, el modelo que produjo menos ganancias fue el Modelo 2 (+135 g/animal por día); en el Modelo 1, en cambio, la ganancia fue de +164 g, +147 g y +210 g para las cargas alta, media y baja, respectivamente. Durante esta epoca lluviosa, el sistema 1, con carga baja, es el más eficaz en términos de ganancia de peso por animal (pero no por hectárea), -Durante la E.S. del segundo año (diciembre de 1995 a abril de 1996), todos los animales perdieron peso en el Modelo 1, en todas las cargas: la GPD fue de -289 g, -102 g y -133 g para las cargas alta, media y baja, respectivamente. En el Modelo 2, la GPD fue relativamente muy alta (+211 g ).-Durante todo el segundo año (1995-96), el Modelo 2 (sistema 2) es significativamente más productivo que el Modelo 1, para todas las cargas.-Al final de los 2 años, la ganancia de peso fue significativamente más alta en el Modelo 2, gracias a la ganancia de peso obtenida en él en los últimos meses de la E.S. del segundo año; en esa época, los animales perdieron peso en el Modelo 1.-En el Modelo 1, la GPD es inversamente proporcional a la carga animal.-En el Modelo 2 hubo siempre ganancia de peso en la E.S.; en la E.L., en cambio, la ganancia fue inferior a todas las variantes del Modelo 1.Cuadro 9-4. Ganancia de peso diaria de bovinos (g PV/An. por día) que pastorean en diferentes modelos o sistemas de manejo de los pastos nativos de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, en un suelo arcillo-limoso.Ganancia de peso (g PV/An. por día) en período: a -La quema mensual produce ganancias más regulares, en el tiempo, que la quema cada 4 meses.En el Modelo 1 (sistema 1), donde hay quema de cuatro parcelas cada 16 meses (abril, agosto y diciembre), los animales pastorean rápidamente \"durante un poco más de un mes e inmediatamente después de la quema\" los pequeños rebrotes de la parcela recién quemada; terminados éstos, se reparten por toda el área de la pastura para aprovechar también los rebrotes más jóvenes (tallos) de las macollas más viejas.En el Modelo 2 (sistema 2), y durante la E.L., los animales pastorean, en los 10 primeros días de la rotación, principalmente, las parcelas en que la quema es más reciente, es decir, los rebrotes que tienen de 4 a 8 semanas (29% del día) y de 12 a 16 semanas (55% del día); luego hacen un pastoreo total de la biomasa aérea de esas parcelas, pero no consumen los rebrotes de las parcelas más antiguas (Cuadro 9-5). Durante el período siguiente, de más o menos 10 días, los animales pastorean principalmente las otras parcelas, así: 37% del tiempo prefieren los rebrotes de 20 a 32 semanas y 26% del tiempo los de más de 36 semanas. Solamente durante los últimos 10 días, los animales pastorean todas las parcelas del bloque sin atender a la edad de la parcela.En consecuencia, en la E.L. (según el Modelo 1), los animales ingieren más M.S. que en el Modelo 2, porque en este último tienen a su disposición solamente la mitad de la superficie total del sistema aplicado en el modelo.En cambio, en la E.S. (según el Modelo 1), los animales consumen menos M.S. porque se quedan en la parcela más joven (quemada en diciembre) durante toda esa época, es decir, ocupan solamente 25% del área total del sistema 1. En el Modelo 2, los animales pueden usar 40% del área del sistema 2 (4 x 2 parcelas, ya que 2 parcelas son quemadas cada mes durante los 4 meses de esta época). Este resultado explica la mayor ganancia de peso obtenida por los animales durante la E.S. en el sistema 2.El muestreo de la vegetación (composición botánica, cantidad de biomasa), su análisis químico (calidad), la observación de los animales pastoreando la sabana nativa (preferencias, gustosidad de las especies vegetales) permiten proponer Cuadro 9-5.Comportamiento de los animales en la sabana nativa manejada con quema mensual y rotación (Modelo 2). Se midió el comportamiento por el tiempo de pastoreo de los rebrotes de diferente edad (% de un día de 12 horas, de 6:00 a.m. a 6:00 p.m.), durante un período de 1 mes. algunas explicaciones a las diferencias en productividad que exhiben las pasturas y los sistemas de producción.• Las diferencias en productividad de los animales (ganancia de PV por día) que pastorean la sabana nativa de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, en tipos diferentes de suelo, provienen principalmente de la diferente composición botánica de la pastura y, en menor grado, de la diferencia del valor alimenticio global de dichas pasturas.• Por consiguiente, para conocer el valor de una pastura es necesario medir no sólo su productividad y su valor nutritivo, sino también su VP; éste es un buen índice para evaluar y clasificar los pastos de una región.• La comparación de diferentes modelos de manejo de los pastos nativos, en los que la quema es un elemento esencial e indispensable, indicó que la quema secuencial mensual \"es decir, poner a disposición de los animales, cada mes, una porción de la pastura que tenga rebrotes de 1 a 2 meses de edad\" permite obtener ganancias de peso durante la E.S. Una sola quema, al principio de esta época y solamente en una cuarta parte de la superficie requerida por el sistema, no permite obtener esas ganancias.• No parece útil hacer quemas cada mes en la E.L. porque los animales se reúnen en las parcelas donde la quema ha sido más reciente y no pastorean los rebrotes de otras parcelas más antiguas. En la E.L., la quema cada 4 meses (como en el Modelo 1) es suficiente para el Modelo 2.• Hacer rotación entre dos bloques, lo que permite a los animales pastorear rebrotes de 4 semanas de edad y de buena calidad, es una práctica necesaria para prevenir la degradación de la pastura (ver Capítulo 9 de esta obra). En efecto, en una parcela sin descansos, 4 semanas después de la quema, los animales pastorean continuamente y a raz del suelo, hasta arrancar las macollas. Las especies más apetecibles que no hayan sido arrancadas no pueden producir reservas subterráneas (raíces), se agotan y desaparecen; queda entonces el suelo desnudo o cubierto con especies anuales de baja producción o especies perennes poco apetecibles.• En una finca no será necesario tender una cerca entre dos bloques cuando hay suficiente distancia entre ellos. Sin embargo, las rondas de 2 m de ancho, como mínimo, son indispensables para controlar la quema en las parcelas, especialmente en la E.S.; esta anchura depende de la cantidad de biomasa seca del bloque, de la dirección y la velocidad del viento, de la humedad del suelo, y de la humedad atmosférica, entre otros factores.El manejo de la sabana nativa con quema, descanso, rotaciones y variación de la carga animal tiene un límite (Lascano 1991;Rippstein et al. 1996). En la Altillanura plana o en los bajos de la Serranía de los Llanos Orientales, donde es posible desarrollar cultivos, estos modelos tienen que integrarse, cuando las condiciones socioeconómicas son favorables, en sistemas más complejos. En tales sistemas se asocian la sabana nativa, los cultivos de especies forrajeras para la época seca o para reservas de forraje, como heno o ensilaje, y los suplementos a base de subproductos agrícolas o agroindustriales, que desafortunamente son escasos en esta región. El crecimiento y el ciclo de renovación de las raíces son dos componentes clave en el estudio, en los pastos nativos o introducidos, tanto del reciclaje de nutrimentos como del secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por la planta. En las pasturas sometidas a pastoreo, los nutrimentos cumplen un ciclo que va del suelo a las plantas de la pastura y luego de ésta al suelo, ya sea por muerte del tejido vegetal o mediante los excrementos de los animales en pastoreo. Las especies forrajeras tropicales mejoradas usan en forma eficiente los nutrimentos porque los extraen de las capas más profundas del suelo y los reciclan luego en la planta.La evaluación de la dinámica tanto de la biomasa como de la longitud de las raíces de las pasturas basadas en leguminosas, en comparación con esa dinámica en las pasturas de gramínea sola o en las pasturas de especies nativas, es un elemento clave para entender el papel de las raíces tanto en la obtención de nutrimentos y en el reciclaje de éstos en las pasturas como en el secuestro del carbono antes mencionado. Se hicieron, por tanto, ensayos sin pastoreo, en pequeñas parcelas, en las pasturas nativas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia para conocer mejor ese comportamiento de los pastos.Estos estudios eran parte de un proyecto más amplio cuya meta fue diseñar modelos de pasturas para predecir el efecto, a largo plazo, de las opciones de manejo en la persistencia y en el reciclaje de nutrimentos de las asociaciones de gramíneas y leguminosas sometidas a pastoreo en las sabanas latinoamericanas.La mayor producción de carne, leche y cultivos de sabana, en sistemas sostenibles, que exigen el acelerado crecimiento demográfico urbano, la pobreza extrema y la degradación ambiental vendrá de sistemas de pastura que contengan gramíneas y leguminosas introducidas, ya que éstas obtienen y reciclan nutrimentos en forma eficiente sin que sea necesario agregar al sistema grandes cantidades de insumos o fertilizantes. El uso predominante dado a las sabanas sudamericanas (cuya extensión es de 225 millones de hectáreas) es la ganadería extensiva, aunque en Brasil los cultivos de maíz y soya y las pasturas introducidas han cobrado importancia durante los últimos 30 años (Vera et al. 1992). Esos suelos son, principalmente, Oxisoles y Ultisoles, cuyas características (pH, aluminio y nutrimentos) se discuten en el Capítulo 1 de esta obra). La precipitación anual es de 1500 a 3000 mm y su distribución estacional es unimodal (Cochrane 1986). Las pasturas de la sabana nativa están dominadas por especies de gramíneas de los géneros Andropogon y Trachypogon, que son poco productivas y tienen un valor nutritivo muy bajo.Por consiguiente, el comportamiento animal, 'medido por las ganancias de peso vivo del ganado', es deficiente (de 7 a 20 kg/ha por año). Si se introducen asociaciones de gramíneas y leguminosas forrajeras tropicales mejoradas, se puede lograr que estas praderas tropicales se vuelvan productivas, es decir, que permitan al ganado obtener ganancias de peso vivo hasta de 500 kg/ha por año (Fisher et al. 1996;Lascano y Euclides 1996).La creciente presión ejercida por el crecimiento demográfico urbano, unida a la pobreza y la consiguiente degradación ambiental, exigen una mayor producción de carne, leche y cultivos en las sabanas aplicando sistemas sostenibles (Vera et al. 1992). El aumento en estos rubros vendrá de los sistemas de pastura que contengan gramíneas y leguminosas introducidas, las cuales obtienen y reciclan nutrimentos en forma eficiente sin que sea necesario agregar grandes cantidades de insumos o fertilizantes (Fisher et al. 1996;Rao et al. 1993;Thomas et al. 1995).Los estudios sobre la productividad primaria neta de los ecosistemas de gramíneas naturales en el trópico han indicado que, cuando se toman en cuenta todas las pérdidas de la parte aérea de la planta y de sus raíces, estos ecosistemas son mucho más productivos de lo que se había estimado antes (Long et al. 1989). Si se considera el ciclo de renovación de la parte aérea y de las raíces sólo en los primeros 20 cm de profundidad del suelo, se obtiene una productividad primaria neta cinco veces superior a la obtenida mediante el procedimiento estándar recomendado por el Programa Biológico Internacional. Los cálculos de la biomasa presente bajo la superficie del suelo fluctuaron entre 0.61 y 5.68 Mg/ha. Los ciclos de renovación anual de la biomasa presente bajo la superficie del suelo, calculados dividiendo la producción de la planta por la biomasa media, oscilaron entre 1.7 y 4.0 Mg/ha (Long et al. 1989).En los estudios sobre producción máxima de biomasa epígea 1 en los Llanos de Colombia o de Venezuela, los autores Blydenstein (1967), Paladines y Leal (1979), San José y García-Miragaya (1981), San José et al. (1985), San José y Montes (1989) encontraron, en los diferentes sitios, una producción natural de 1227 a 4821 kg/ha, sin ningún tipo de fertilización. Con fertilización (100 N-100 P-100 K) en una sabana nativa de Trachypogon-Axonopus en la Estación Ecológica de Calabozo, en Venezuela, García-Miragaya et al. (1983) midieron una biomasa máxima de 3686 kg/ha. Rony-Tejos M. (1980), en el Módulo Experimental de Mantecal, Apure, Venezuela, localidad muy parecida en clima a los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (Carimagua), obtuvo una producción máxima de 8884 kg/ha con una fertilización de 330 N y 200 P, cuando la producción del testigo fue de 5659 kg/ha; no hubo restricción o limitación de agua en este ensayo.Recientemente, Jackson et al. (1996) analizaron los modelos de enraizamiento de los biomas terrestres y compararon la distribución de las raíces de diversos grupos funcionales, utilizando una base de datos de 250 estudios de raíces. La distribución de las raíces, medida como promedio global en todos los ecosistemas, indicó que 30%, 50% y 75% de las raíces se localizaban en los primeros 10, 20 y 40 cm de profundidad del suelo, respectivamente. Esos autores compararon la información obtenida sobre raíces en todos los biomas de los grupos funcionales de plantas y encontraron que el 44% de las raíces de los pastos se encontraban en los primeros 10 cm de suelo, mientras que apenas el 21% de las raíces de las especies arbustivas se hallaban a esa misma profundidad. Se requiere información cuantitativa sobre la variabilidad del enraizamiento en función del tiempo y del lugar, para desarrollar modelos sobre las relaciones suelo-planta-animal en las pasturas sometidas a pastoreo. Sin embargo, la mayor parte de la información disponible actualmente sobre la producción y distribución de las raíces de especies de pastos tropicales trata de la biomasa de las raíces y no de la longitud de éstas.El crecimiento y el ciclo de renovación de las raíces son dos componentes clave en el estudio tanto del reciclaje de nutrimentos en los pastos como del secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por la planta. En las pasturas sometidas a pastoreo, los nutrimentos cumplen un ciclo que va del suelo a las plantas de la pastura y luego regresan al suelo, ya sea por muerte del tejido vegetal o mediante los excrementos de los animales en pastoreo (Rao et al. 1992;Haynes y Williams 1993;Boddey et al. 1996). Las especies forrajeras tropicales mejoradas usan en forma eficiente los nutrimentos porque los extraen de las capas más profundas y los reciclan luego en la planta. Además de la obtención de nutrimentos y del reciclaje de los mismos, los sistemas radicales profundos contribuyen también al secuestro, en esas raíces, del carbono atmosférico fijado en la planta (Rao et al. 1993;Fisher et al. 1994).La evaluación de la dinámica tanto de la biomasa como de la longitud de las raíces de las pasturas basadas en leguminosas, en comparación con esa dinámica en las pasturas de gramínea sola o en las pasturas de especies nativas, es un elemento clave para entender el papel de las raíces tanto en la obtención de nutrimentos y en el reciclaje de éstos en las pasturas como en el secuestro, en aquellas raíces situadas en capas profundas del suelo, del carbono atmosférico fijado. Se considera que las diferencias en biomasa y en longitud de las raíces, a través del tiempo, reflejan el resultado neto del crecimiento de nuevas raíces y de la pérdida de raíces por muerte y descomposición. De este modo, el ciclo de renovación de las raíces a través del tiempo contribuye, no sólo con el reciclaje de nutrimentos, sino también con el mejoramiento del suelo mediante el secuestro del carbono fijado por la planta (Deinum 1985;Long et al. 1989;Veldkamp 1993;Fisher et al. 1994;Rao et al. 1994).Para completar los resultados ya obtenidos por otros autores (Paladines y Leal 1979) sobre el potencial de bioproducción y la calidad nutricional de la sabana de los Llanos de Colombia, se hicieron ensayos sin pastoreo, en pequeñas parcelas, en las pasturas nativas de los Llanos Orientales.Los datos reportados en este artículo responden a los siguientes objetivos:• Conocer la dinámica de la producción epígea, la productividad de la sabana nativa y su valor nutritivo, a lo largo del año, con corte y cosecha de la biomasa aérea y con corte a intervalos variados (de 1 a 56 semanas) de descanso de la vegetación.• Conocer la biomasa vegetal en diferentes sitios de los Llanos Orientales, con diferentes tipos de suelo (suelo arcilloso, suelo arenoso en la Serranía o en la Altillanura).• Conocer la producción vegetal de la sabana a diferentes alturas de corte, simulando diversas cargas animales o distintos tipos de manejo.• Conocer el potencial de producción de la sabana nativa con fertilización; esta fertilización, sin embargo, no corresponde mucho a las condiciones reales de manejo de la sabana nativa.• Conocer la dinámica de la producción y distribución de las raíces de las especies de la sabana nativa, en condiciones de pastoreo.• Determinar el papel de las raíces tanto en el reciclaje de nutrimentos en las pasturas como en el secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono fijado por la planta.• Comparar la producción y distribución de las raíces de las especies que componen las pasturas introducidas, ya sea de gramínea sola o de gramínea + leguminosa.Estos estudios eran parte de un proyecto más amplio cuya meta fue diseñar modelos de pasturas para predecir el efecto, a largo plazo, de las opciones de manejo en la persistencia y en el reciclaje de nutrimentos de las asociaciones de gramíneas y leguminosas sometidas a pastoreo en las sabanas latinoamericanas (Fisher et al. 1993).Los ensayos se llevaron a cabo en el CIA Carimagua, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia; este centro fue manejado por el ICA y el CIAT hasta fines de los 90; se hicieron también ensayos en algunas fincas ubicadas en la Serranía y en la Altillanura plana de los Llanos Orientales.Los cortes y cosechas se hicieron en pequeñas parcelas de 4 a 12 m 2 de superficie, con 4 a 10 repeticiones y con una altura de corte de 5 a 15 cm, según el tipo de ensayo. Después de la cosecha de la materia bruta (M.B.), la materia seca se determinó por secamiento de la M.B. en un horno a 70 °C hasta tener un peso constante. El valor nutricional fue obtenido mediante análisis químico en los laboratorios del CIAT, en Cali, Colombia (Salinas y García 1985).Los tratamientos de fertilización consistían en la dosis mínima o en la máxima, y se prepararon teniendo en cuenta las carencias químicas de los suelos. En algunos tratamientos no hay N. El Cuadro 10-1 muestra los nueve tratamientos aplicados. Se hizo finalmente un análisis estadístico (ANOVA) para comparar los tratamientos.El Cuadro 10-2 presenta la producción y la productividad de la sabana nativa de suelo arcilloso (Carimagua, La Vitrina) durante un año (época lluviosa + época seca). El Cuadro 10-3 presenta los datos obtenidos en el suelo arenoso de Carimagua, en La Alegría, en iguales condiciones. Estos datos permiten llegar a las siguientes conclusiones:• La producción (durante un año o en período mayor) y la productividad (producción por hectárea durante un día) de la sabana nativa son, en casi todos los tratamientos de descanso, más altas en los suelos arcillosos (arcillo-limosos) que en los suelos arenosos (areno-limosos), excepto en el caso del descanso de 8 semanas. Es bien conocido el hecho de que los suelos arcillosos de los Llanos Orientales son más fértiles que los arenosos.La productividad anual bruta (productividad diaria x 365 días) más alta es la correspondiente a 32 semanas de descanso en suelo arenoso (4672 kg MS/ha). Sin Cuadro 10-1. Fertilización de la sabana nativa en ensayos de biomasa epígea, en Carimagua. embargo, en este suelo la producción anual obtenida con cortes cada 4 semanas también es alta (cerca de 4 t MS/ha) y se considera de mejor calidad. Esta producción es un poco más alta que la biomasa obtenida con un solo corte después de un año de descanso (biomasa anual = 3764 kg MS/ha). En suelo arenoso, la producción anual más alta se obtiene con cortes de 16 semanas, aunque los cortes de 4 semanas permiten una producción anual de 2810 kg MS/ha. La biomasa anual aquí es un poco más baja que la de 4 semanas.La producción o productividad (neta) en ambos sitios es muy baja cuando se hacen cortes de 1 semana (3.2 y 4.2 kg MS/ha por día) o cortes de 2 semanas en suelo arenoso (3.9 kg MS/ha por día). La productividad es relativamente alta al principio de los cortes, pero disminuye mucho después de 2 ó 3 cortes, especialmente cuando hay descansos de 1 ó 2 semanas.Los análisis químicos y la digestibilidad de los rebrotes (ver Cuadro 9-2, Capítulo 9 de esta obra) permiten afirmar que los rebrotes mas jóvenes tienen, sin duda, mayor valor nutritivo (energía + proteína). Sin embargo, los rebrotes de 4 semanas tienen todavía buena calidad nutritiva.En el Cuadro 10-4 se presentan los resultados, en kg MS/ha, de biomasa anual (bruta) obtenidos en la Serranía y la Altillanura plana (ver Capítulo 1 de esta obra).Cuadro 10-3. Producción por área (rendimiento) y productividad (rendimiento en el tiempo) de biomasa en la sabana nativa, en un suelo 'arenoso' (Carimagua, en La Alegría) durante un año (época lluviosa + época seca). Estos datos muestran que el valor más alto de biomasa se registró en los bajos de la Serranía y el más bajo en las cimas de la colinas de los mismos sitios. La biomasa de la Altillanura es intermedia entre los dos sitios anteriores.La humedad de la materia verde es relativamente elevada en los bajos así como en la Altillanura plana.Con el fin de simular las diferentes cargas de bovinos y también de conocer la relación entre las variables altura de corte y rendimiento de la pastura, se cortó mensualmente la vegetación, durante un año, a tres alturas: 5, 10 y 15 cm. La Figura 10-1 muestra la dinámica de la producción acumulada cada 6 semanas (kg MS/ha). Se observa allí que la producción obtenida en un año, haciendo un corte a 15 cm, es de 800 kg MS/ha, y con un corte a 5 cm es de 2000 kg MS/ha. La Figura 10-2 muestra la productividad mensual (kg MS/ha por día x 30 días). Estas productividades no son semejantes: en los primeros cortes de 10 y 15 cm (hasta 5 ó 6 cortes) la productividad aumenta y, a partir del corte 7, disminuye progresivamente a medida que disminuyen las lluvias. La productividad de los cortes a 5 cm es menos regular, aunque siempre superior, a la de otros sitios altos. El índice foliar, en cortes a 5 cm, es suficiente para un buen crecimiento de los pastos.Los datos de los ensayos de fertilización de la sabana nativa se presentan en las Figuras 10-3 y 10-4. La producción más elevada se obtiene siempre con el tratamiento en que hay alta mezcla de fertilización y 150 kg de N/ha. Después de 1 año, la producción Figura 10-1. Producción acumulada de la vegetación de sabana en la Altillanura de los Llanos Orientales cortada cada mes a diferente altura. en estas parcelas es de 6790 kg/ha. Esta producción es altamente diferente (P < 0.001) de todos los demás tratamientos.La producción más baja ocurre en el testigo, en la fertilización sin N y en los tratamientos de muy baja o baja mezcla de fertilización (tratamientos 1, 3 y 4). La sabana tiene una producción, después de un año, de 4 a 4.3 t MS/ha. Estos valores de producción son significativamente diferentes (P < 0.05) de la producción con N (tratamientos 2, 5, 6, 8 y 9). El N es, entonces, el elemento más importante para aumentar la producción.En sentido descendente de la producción, los tratamientos se ordenan así: En las Figuras 10-3 y 10-4 se presenta la fertilización de la sabana nativa de los Llanos y la producción epígea acumulada durante 1 año con corte cada 6 semanas. El Cuadro 10-5 presenta la fertilización de la sabana nativa y su efecto en la producción durante las estaciones lluviosa y seca. Se observa la influencia predominante del N sobre la producción y el papel importante del K, seguido en importancia por el P y, solamente  MesesFigura 10-4. Producción epígea de la vegetación de sabana fertilizada en la Altillanura de los Llanos Orientales, en cortes hechos cada 6 semanas. Biomasa, MS (g/m 2 por 6 semanas) después, por la alta dosis de Ca. Los fertilizantes no aumentan mucho la producción en la época seca (Cuadro 10-5), cuyo valor representa del 6% al 7% de la producción anual.Estos ensayos de producción y productividad de las sabanas nativas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia muestran la extrema pobreza de todos los tipos de suelos que se encuentran en esa región, sin que importen el sitio o el paisaje.La fertilización permite aumentar la producción. Con dosis muy altas de N y una mezcla completa de todos los elementos necesarios para las plantas, la producción no aumentó más del 66% con respecto al testigo.En agosto de 1990 se estableció un experimento de campo en el CIA Carimagua, una estación manejada por CORPOICA y el CIAT en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (Fisher et al. 1993). Carimagua pertenece al sistema de sabanas iso-hipertérmicas y tiene un clima estacional seco, con una precipitación anual de 2200 mm que disminuye desde mediados de diciembre hasta finales de marzo. El suelo es un Oxisol franco-arcilloso (franco-fino, caolinítico, haplustox típico isohipertérmico) de pH bajo, con alta saturación de aluminio y con baja disponibilidad de nutrimentos. Se tomaron muestras de raíces a los 10,15,19,22,27,32,35 y 39 meses después de la siembra de las pasturas. En cada época de muestreo, las muestras de raíces se tomaban un día antes de que los animales entraran al potrero. Se tomaron utilizando un sacamuestras electrónico que extraía cilindros de suelo sin compactación. Se tomaron, en total, 20 cilindros de suelo en 5 cuadrados (4 cilindros de cada cuadrado) en cada potrero. Los cilindros de suelo de cada 2 cuadrados se mezclaron para tener, en total, 5 muestras de cilindros de suelo para cada profundidad de suelo; esto se hizo con el fin de reducir la intensidad de las mediciones. Este método nos permitió obtener un total de 40 cilindros de suelo de cada tratamiento, con los cuales se reducían al mínimo los efectos de la variabilidad espacial.A las raíces de los cilindros de suelo se les limpió el suelo mediante un sistema de elutriación hidroneumática (Rao et al. 1996). A las muestras de raíces se les determinó la longitud en un 'escáner' de longitud de raíces, empleando el método de intercepción de líneas (Rao et al. 1996). Las raíces se secaron en un horno de aire forzado (60 °C) y se pesaron. Las muestras de raíces se molieron para que pasaran por una malla de 1 mm en un molino de ciclón UDY. Se determinó la composición nutricional de las muestras de raíces según los métodos analíticos estándar (Rao et al. 1996).Se empleó un modelo de distribución vertical de raíces presentado por Gale y Grigal (1987) que se basa en la siguiente ecuación asintótica:Y = biomasa acumulada de raíces o fracción de longitud de éstas (una cantidad entre 0 y 1) desde la superficie del suelo hasta la profundidad 'd' (cm); > = 'coeficiente de extinción' fijado.El único parámetro calculado en este modelo es >, que proporciona un índice numérico simple de la biomasa de las raíces o de la distribución de la longitud de las raíces. Los valores altos de > (por ejemplo, 0.98) corresponden a una mayor proporción de biomasa de las raíces o de longitud de las raíces en lo profundo del suelo y sus valores bajos (por ejemplo, 0.91) suponen mayor proporción de biomasa de las raíces o de longitud de éstas junto a la superficie del suelo. Los valores de > se ajustaron a los datos de cada pastura (Jackson et al. 1996).La cantidad de raíces de leguminosa en las asociaciones de gramínea + leguminosa se determinó mediante la técnica de isótopos estables de carbono (Svejcar y Boutton 1985). La distribución del carbono orgánico del suelo (COS) en la profundidad del suelo se determinó utilizando un espectrómetro de masas. El análisis de varianza se calculó mediante el programa de computación SAS. Un nivel de probabilidad de 0.05 se consideró estadísticamente significativo.El primer muestreo de raíces (10 meses después de la siembra, junio de 1991) se realizó antes de empezar el tratamiento de pastoreo y se tomó como punto de partida. Se determinaron los cambios en la biomasa viva de las raíces de plantas bien establecidas (Mg/ha) según la edad de la pastura y para profundidades del suelo entre 0 y 80 cm (Figura 10-5). Los resultados de las pasturas de gramínea sola introducida (Bd) y de gramínea + leguminosa (Bd + Ca), con niveles iniciales bajo y alto de fertilizantes, comparados con los de la sabana nativa sin tradición alguna en la aplicación de fertilizantes, se presentan en la Figura 10-6A. Los pastos de la sabana nativa tenían niveles de biomasa de las raíces notoriamente inferiores en comparación con los hallados en los pastos introducidos. Entre las pasturas de especies introducidas, la de gramínea sola con baja aplicación inicial de fertilizante presentó mayores cantidades de biomasa de la raíz durante los 2 primeros años del desarrollo de la pastura. Los cambios en longitud de la raíz (km/m 2 ) durante la edad de la pastura, para capas individuales del suelo, se muestran en la Figura 10-6B. Las especies de sabana nativa presentaron una longitud de raíces notoriamente inferior, si se compara ésta con la de los pastos introducidos.La distribución media de la biomasa de las raíces, de 10 a 47 meses después de la siembra de los pastos mejorados, indicó que la pastura con gramínea sola introducida (Bd) tuvo más biomasa en las raíces en estratos profundos del suelo que los pastos de la sabana nativa (Figura 10-7, A y B). La biomasa de la raíz disminuyó al aumentar la profundidad del suelo en ambos tratamientos de pastura. Los pastos de la sabana nativa tenían relativamente menos raíces en los estratos de suelo de mayor profundidad (en particular, entre los 20 y los 80 cm de profundidad) en comparación con la pastura mejorada. La media de la distribución de la longitud de las raíces según la profundidad del suelo, de 10 a 47 meses después de la siembra de las pasturas mejoradas, presentó una tendencia similar a la observada para la biomasa de la raíz (Figura 10-7, C y D). La longitud específica de la raíz (LER), que es una medida de la finura del sistema radical, fue mayor en la pastura de la sabana nativa que en la pastura mejorada (Figura 10-7, E y F).Para obtener la diferencia entre el patrón de enraizamiento de los pastos de la sabana nativa y de los pastos introducidos, se calculó la biomasa acumulada de las raíces y la longitud de éstas (fracción) para cada época de muestreo y para cada capa de suelo. Los promedios de la biomasa acumulada de las raíces y de las fracciones de la longitud de éstas se calcularon para los pastos introducidos y se compararon con los de los pastos de la sabana nativa. Los datos se muestran en la Figura 10-3. Los valores de ß para la biomasa de las raíces y para la longitud de éstas indicaron que tanto los pastos de la sabana nativa como los introducidos presentaban un enraizamiento profundo. Sin embargo, el enraizamiento de los pastos de la sabana nativa fue relativamente más profundo si se considera, proporcionalmente a la profundidad, la longitud de las raíces encontradas. Figura 10-5. Cambios en la biomasa de las raíces y en la longitud de las raíces para diversos valores (de 0 a 80 cm) de la profundidad del suelo, durante el desarrollo de la pastura hasta los 47 meses de edad, en un Oxisol franco-arcilloso de Carimagua. Estas pasturas se establecieron en agosto de 1990 y fueron sometidas a pastoreo 10 meses después (junio de 1991). Los pastos introducidos soportaron una tasa de carga intermedia durante el pastoreo. Bd = B. dictyoneura, Ca = C. acutifolium, SN = sabana nativa, FB = fertilización inicial baja, FA = fertilización inicial alta, S = sin aplicación de fertilizantes. Las tasas de carga se discuten en el texto. El análisis del carbono estable de las raíces en una pastura de gramínea (C4) sola comparado con el obtenido en pasturas basadas en leguminosa (C3), permitió calcular la fracción de raíz de leguminosa según la profundidad del suelo en las asociaciones de gramínea + leguminosa de 22 meses de edad, con niveles iniciales bajo o alto de fertilizante (Cuadro 10-6). La proporción de raíz de leguminosa fue de menos del 10% de la biomasa total de las raíces en las dos pasturas basadas en leguminosa. Fue superior (de 11% a 21%) en las capas más profundas del suelo (de 60 a 80 cm de profundidad), si se compara con los valores obtenidos en las capas superiores del suelo (de 4% a 11%).Las diferencias en la composición nutricional media de las raíces (de 0 a 80 cm de profundidad del suelo) entre pastos nativos e introducidos se muestran en el Cuadro 10-7. Aunque no hubo diferencias notorias entre las pasturas con especies nativas o introducidas, la aplicación inicial alta de fertilizantes a los pastos introducidos mejoró su estado nutricional, lo que redujo las relaciones C:N y C:P de las raíces.Los cambios, a través del tiempo, en el tamaño de las reservas de nutrimentos de las raíces de los pastos mejorados y de los pastos de sabana nativa se muestran en el Cuadro 10-8. Los cambios en las reservas de N y P reflejaron, en parte, los cambios ocurridos en la biomasa de las raíces de estos pastos. La cantidad de N presente en las raíces de los pastos mejorados llegó hasta 18 kg/ha, mientras que en los pastos de la sabana nativa no superó los 6 kg/ha.Las diferencias en la distribución del COS según la profundidad de éste (de 0 a 80 cm) a los 32 meses después de la siembra, entre las pasturas de especies introducidas y la sabana nativa, se muestran en la Figura 10-8. Mayores cantidades de COS se midieron en las pasturas de gramínea sola; asimismo, el aumento de los niveles de COS en las pasturas de especies introducidas, comparadas éstas con las de la sabana nativa, reflejó hasta cierto punto las diferencias en la producción de biomasa de las raíces con el transcurso del tiempo. La cantidad total de COS adicional, entre 0 y 80 cm de profundidad del suelo, de las pasturas de gramínea sola, comparadas con la sabana nativa, se calculó -empleando valores de densidad global del suelo para cada capa del mismo-en 31.6 Mg/ha.Las mediciones de campo de los sistemas radicales durante el desarrollo de los pastos indicaron que, en los Oxisoles franco-arcillosos de baja fertilidad de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, los pastos introducidos producían, en plantas bien establecidas, una cantidad de biomasa viva de las raíces mayor que la producida por los pastos de la sabana nativa. La mayor abundancia de raíces profundas (biomasa) de los pastos introducidos, comparada con los pastos de la sabana nativa, no sólo podría contribuir a la absorción más eficiente de nutrimentos y de agua de los horizontes más profundos del suelo sino también a mejorar el reciclaje de nutrimentos. Además, la mayor cantidad de raíces observada, a medida que aumenta la profundidad del suelo, estaría agregando materia orgánica y nutrimentos al suelo mediante un ciclo rápido de regeneración.Se dispone de pocos datos de campo sobre la distribución y la producción de raíces de los sistemas de praderas tropicales que sean comparables a los de este trabajo (Long et al. 1989;Candell et al. 1996;Jackson et al. 1996). Aunque se ha observado que las raíces de los pastos introducidos penetran en el suelo hasta una profundidad de 8 m (Nepstad et al. 1994), la mayoría de los estudios, incluyendo éste, han encontrado que la mayor parte de la biomasa de las raíces está localizada en los primeros 30 cm del perfil del suelo (Goedert et al. 1985;Svejcar y Christiansen 1987;Spain y Couto 1990;Rodríguez y Cadima-Zevallos 1991;Rao et al. 1992;Cadisch et al. 1994;Nepstad et al. 1994;Jackson et al. 1996). Una de las principales razones que explica la concentración de las raíces en la capa superficial del suelo es que casi todos los nutrimentos de que puede disponer la planta están ubicados allí; en efecto, en esa capa el reciclaje de nutrimentos es más eficiente y la actividad biológica del suelo es más intensa (Rao et al. 1992;Haynes y Williams 1993;Thomas et al. 1995;Boddey et al. 1996). Cuando se compararon los valores de la longitud específica media de la raíz (LER) en la sabana nativa y en las pasturas de especies introducidas, la LER de los pastos de sabana nativa fue notoriamente mayor que la de los pastos introducidos Bd (B), Bd + Ca (FB) o Bd + Ca (FA). Los valores altos de LER de los pastos de la sabana nativa dan un alto valor a la zona de raíces superficiales en lo referente a la absorción de nutrimentos y a la capacidad de explorar el suelo para obtener los nutrimentos disponibles.Fue posible calcular las diferencias que distinguen las estrategias de enraizamiento de los pastos introducidos y de los de sabana nativa, gracias a un modelo desarrollado por Gale y Grigal (1987). Los valores altos de >, en particular para la distribución de la longitud de las raíces en las especies de sabana nativa y en los pastos introducidos, corresponden a la presencia de mayor cantidad de raíces a medida que la capa de suelo que las aloja es más profunda. Los valores más altos de ß y la mayor LER -registrados a una profundidad del suelo entre 30 y 80 cm en los pastos de sabana nativa que no recibieron fertilizante-indican que éstos pueden ser parte de un mecanismo adaptativo para extraer cantidades muy bajas de nutrimentos mineralizados (por ejemplo, N) que hayan sido lixiviados en el perfil profundo del suelo y que sirven, además, para tolerar la sequía. Esta observación señala que la comprensión de las estrategias adaptativas de la vegetación nativa puede contribuir al desarrollo de germoplasma superior de forrajes y de cultivos para condiciones de baja fertilidad del suelo. Deben explorarse las diferencias genotípicas entre las accesiones del germoplasma de Brachiaria y los recombinantes genéticos para este rasgo adaptativo, si se pretende reducir la degradación de las pasturas en los suelos ácidos de baja fertilidad de las sabanas sudamericanas.La gran cantidad de raíces vivas de plantas bien establecidas de los pastos introducidos podría contribuir a intensificar el reciclaje biogeoquímico de nutrimentos y el secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por la planta, una vez ocurridas la muerte y la descomposición de las raíces o como efecto de su ciclo de regeneración. Se espera, en cambio, un aporte inferior de los pastos de la sabana nativa en razón de que la biomasa de sus raíces bajo la superficie del suelo es menor. La dinámica de la biomasa y de la longitud de las raíces, durante los 4 años de producción de la pastura en condiciones de pastoreo, indica que el pasto introducido Bd (B) habría explorado un mayor volumen de suelo durante los 2 primeros años si no se hubiera beneficiado del suministro de N de la leguminosa. La relación C:P de las raíces de las pasturas de la sabana nativa es muy alta, indicando así su adaptación a la baja disponibilidad de P en el suelo. Esta característica de la raíz puede servir como un índice de selección para identificar genotipos de Brachiaria que sean excelentes para suelos ácidos de baja fertilidad. Asimismo, los valores altos de C:N y C:P observados en las raíces de los pastos introducidos indican la eficiencia metabólica de estas especies en el uso del N y del P absorbidos.Los cambios que experimenta, con el tiempo, el nivel de las reservas de nutrimentos de las raíces indicaron que la cantidad de N presente en las raíces de los pastos introducidos ascendía a 18 kg/ha, mientras que en los pastos de la sabana nativa fue un poco mayor que 6 kg/ha. Las reservas de otros nutrimentos, como el P, en las raíces de los pastos introducidos pudieron alcanzar también niveles nueve veces superiores a los de los pastos de la sabana nativa. La cantidad de nutrimentos reciclados mediante la hojarasca que depositan las pasturas de Bd + Ca (FB) en la superficie del suelo fue de tres a cuatro veces mayor que los reciclados en la pastura de Bd (FB) (Thomas et al. 1993). Esta diferencia se atribuyó a las tasas más rápidas de descomposición de la hojarasca de la leguminosa debidas a su menor relación lignina:N y a la mayor concentración de N, P, K y Ca en sus tejidos (Thomas et al. 1993;Thomas y Asakawa 1993).Entre los 19 y los 32 meses de desarrollo de la pastura de Bd (FB), se observó que el ciclo de renovación o reconversión de las raíces era muy intenso. Se calculó la cantidad de carbono (proveniente de la fijación atmosférica) secuestrado en las raíces profundas a los 32 meses y se halló que la pastura de Bd (FB) había acumulado 31.6 Mg/ha más de COS que los pastos de la sabana nativa, probablemente porque la producción y el ciclo de regeneración de las raíces de la pastura de Bd (FB) fueron mayores. Estos resultados confirman otros anteriores sobre el potencial de secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por la planta, potencial que poseen, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, los pastos introducidos (Fisher et al. 1994). En las pasturas de gramíneas introducidas, la masa de lombrices de tierra era cinco veces mayor \"y 10 veces mayor, si había leguminosa\" que en la sabana nativa (Decaëns et al. 1994). Esta mayor actividad de las lombrices de tierra en las pasturas de especies introducidas debe tener un impacto considerable en los procesos de movilización del carbono desde la superficie del suelo hasta sus capas más profundas.Estos resultados tienen implicaciones importantes para el manejo de los pastos introducidos en lo referente al mejoramiento tanto del reciclaje de nutrimentos como del secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por las plantas. Las características de la raíz serían un criterio importante en la selección de forrajes tropicales introducidos que se usarían en sistemas agropastoriles tales como la rotación de cultivos y pasturas. La combinación de arroz de secano adaptado a suelos ácidos y de algunos forrajes tropicales en la rotación agropastoril ha demostrado ser una práctica viable, desde el punto de vista agronómico y económico, en los suelos ácidos de baja fertilidad que son representativos de las sabanas sudamericanas (Vera et al. 1992;Rao et al. 1993;Thomas et al. 1995). Un ciclo de rotación que tenga de 3 a 5 años de pastura y una fase de cultivos de 1 ó 2 años aumentaría el reciclaje de los nutrimentos y el secuestro, en las raíces profundas, del carbono atmosférico fijado por las plantas. Los agroecosistemas que incluyan las características benéficas de los pastos introducidos -tales como el crecimiento extensivo de las raíces hacia las capas más profundas del suelo y la cobertura permanente de éste-reducirían las pérdidas de nutrimentos porque almacenarían grandes cantidades de éstos en la biomasa acumulada bajo la superficie del suelo, aumentando así la materia orgánica del suelo y protegiéndolo. Estas características benéficas de las pasturas de especies introducidas pueden incorporarse ventajosamente en el diseño de sistemas agropastoriles apropiados para las sabanas sudamericanas, en las que puede haber tasas de pérdida de nutrimentos por lixiviación y erosión de nivel significativo.• La producción epígea de la vegetación nativa herbácea está limitada, en particular, por la composición química del suelo (es débil en N y otros elementos esenciales), por su pH muy bajo, cualquiera que sea el tipo de manejo que reciba la sabana (altura de corte y fertilización), y por la escasez de agua en la época seca. La fertilización no es rentable para el manejo de esta vegetacion nativa; por ello, la introducción de especies exóticas permite obtener mejores rendimientos de biomasa cosechable que es de mejor calidad.• Las medidas empleadas en Venezuela (Martín et al. 2000), en relación con otras sabanas nativas de la región, indican que las especies de las sabanas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia están bien adaptadas a estos suelos pobres y que estas especies deben ser sustituidas por especies exóticas de mayor potencial para obtener rendimientos más elevados.• Los resultados de este estudio indican que los pastos introducidos producen, durante su desarrollo, mayor cantidad de raíces vivas activas en los estratos profundos del suelo que los pastos de la sabana nativa, en los Oxisoles de baja fertilidad de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.• El estudio de las diferencias de enraizamiento, basado en la distribución proporcional de la longitud de las raíces según la profundidad, indicó que el enraizamiento de los pastos de la sabana nativa era relativamente más profundo que el de los pastos introducidos.• El análisis del carbono estable de las raíces de los pastos introducidos señaló que la fracción correspondiente a las raíces de la leguminosa, en una asociación de gramínea + leguminosa, era inferior al 10% de la biomasa total de las raíces.• Los pastos introducidos, con su abundante sistema radical a profundidades del suelo que van de 30 a 80 cm, tienen capacidad de lograr dos efectos:-reciclar los nutrimentos acumulados en las capas profundas del suelo;-secuestrar, en las raíces situadas bajo la capa arable del suelo, grandes cantidades de carbono atmosférico fijado por las plantas.• Los agroecosistemas que incorporen las características benéficas de los pastos introducidos, tales como el crecimiento extensivo de las raíces a gran profundidad y la cobertura permanente del suelo, reducirán las pérdidas de nutrimentos por las siguientes razones:-almacenan cantidades grandes de nutrimentos en la biomasa acumulada bajo la superficie del suelo;-aumentan la materia orgánica del suelo;-protegen el suelo con la cobertura que le proporcionan.CAPÍTULO 11 La introducción de pasturas mejoradas y su establecimiento son prácticas que se extienden rápidamente en la Altillanura plana de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia con el propósito de mejorar el nivel nutricional del ganado. La vegetación dominante en esta región consiste en pastos nativos de sabana de baja productividad y poca calidad forrajera.El cambio de la vegetación nativa por monocultivos extensos de especies forrajeras introducidas favorece la aparición de nuevas condiciones agroecológicas y de manejo. Un aspecto importante de estos nuevos cultivos es su posible degradación por la aparición de 'malezas', es decir, de especies no deseadas (END) en la pastura.Una pastura se degrada cuando disminuye su potencial productivo y se reduce el rendimiento del producto animal. Spain y Gualdrón (1991) explican que los siguientes factores son los que más contribuyen a esa degradación:• Mal manejo de la pastura, desde su establecimiento hasta su utilización.• Invasión de malezas, plagas y enfermedades en la pastura.• Pérdida de fertilidad del suelo.• Falta de adaptación de las especies sembradas.• Incompatibilidad entre las especies asociadas.'Maleza' es el término común que designa ciertas especies como 'malas hierbas' en un cultivo. Para un agrónomo, una planta se considera maleza cuando dificulta el desarrollo de las plantas cultivadas o aparece inoportunamente entre ellas (Doll 1989a;1989b). Desde el punto de vista botánico, taxonómico o ecológico, este concepto pierde validez porque todas las especies forman parte de un ecosistema. Como tales, pueden propiciar el control de la erosión, favorecen la presencia de la fauna benéfica, conservan la humedad del suelo, contribuyen a la formación de materia orgánica y al reciclaje de nutrimentos, son germoplasma útil como fuente de alimentos y medicinas, y preservan la vida silvestre.En la naturaleza, por tanto, no existen las 'malezas'. Los agrónomos aplican prioridades de productividad a ciertas especies y les atribuyen a otras, en determinado ciclo de la vida de éstas, la categoría de malezas; la categoría END sería, en cambio, la más apropiada. Estas especies exhiben las siguientes características:-crecen espontáneamente; -están adaptadas al medio; -tienen ciclos reproductivos cortos;-producen muchas semillas de dispersión principalmente anemófila, de mayor latencia que las de los cultivos y de excelente germinación;-son, además, de fácil propagación.Las END se caracterizan principalmente por su capacidad para obstaculizar el desarrollo de especies cultivadas ya establecidas, por los siguientes medios: competencia por agua, luz, nutrimentos y espacio; efectos alelopáticos; invasión del campo y, en el peor de los casos, desalojo de las especies forrajeras cultivadas. Se valen, además, para su supervivencia, de dos mecanismos: el ganado las rechaza y algunas poseen sustancias tóxicas.Consideradas a nivel económico y productivo, las END se convierten en un grave problema cuando superan el umbral de daño económico al cultivo y cuando las pasturas introducidas pierden su potencial forrajero en términos de productividad y calidad.En este capítulo se identifican las END o especies contaminantes de las pasturas y de los cultivos que se siembran en los Llanos Orientales. Se hizo el inventario de las END determinando además su cobertura, su frecuencia y su diversidad. Se midió además el nivel de degradación de diferentes tipos de pasturas establecidas en el CI Carimagua situado en el departamento de Meta, Colombia. Este es un centro piloto en investigación, introducción, establecimiento y adopción de nuevas especies forrajeras destinadas a las sabanas bien drenadas de los Llanos Orientales.Las evaluaciones se hicieron entre agosto de 1993 y marzo de 1994 en el CI Carimagua; la región de este nombre se conoce como sabana alta de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia; su altitud oscila entre 150 y 175 msnm.La región recibe una precipitación anual de 2200 mm, en promedio, distribuidos entre los meses de abril y diciembre. Las temperaturas máxima y mínima promedio son de 32 y 23 °C, respectivamente. La humedad relativa anual promedio es de 76%. Los suelos son de fertilidad baja, profundos, bien estructurados, muy porosos y permeables, y se clasifican como haplustox típico, caolinítico, isohipertérmico (Oxisol).Se evaluaron 36 pasturas (cada una en su lote); en los 36 lotes se establecieron, en monocultivo o en asociación, especies cuyas características se detallan en el Cuadro 11-1. El muestreo se hizo mediante transectos lineales de 20 m y con lecturas hechas al azar cada 20 m, en cada lote; son siete por hectárea, para un total de 700 puntos por tratamiento. Se analizaron las siguientes variables:Se rige por la expresión X i = (m i /M t ) x 100. La fracción proporcional de puntos con que una especie está presente (m i ), derivada de un número infinito de unidades de muestreo (M t ) posibles, equivale a la cobertura de dicha especie (X i ) (Matteucci y Colma 1982).Según el porcentaje de cobertura, se han establecido categorías o grupos para clasificar el tipo de invasión de las END en una pastura. Alemán (1991) usa una escala de cuatro grados cuyos valores generales se presentan a continuación: Se aplicó la prueba de Duncan con un nivel de significancia del 5% y se usaron datos no transformados para estudiar esta variable. La evaluación consistió en comparar tratamientos vs. cobertura de END, de un lado, y lotes vs. cobertura de END, del otro. Se agruparon 10 tratamientos según el tipo de pastura establecida, incluyendo un testigo de sabana nativa.Según los porcentajes de cobertura y los resultados de la prueba de Duncan (Cuadro 11-4), 62% de los lotes se encuentran medianamente invadidos por END, 15% presentan una invasión fuerte y 24% tienen una invasión muy fuerte; entre estos últimos se encuentran los lotes más jóvenes.Esta variable compara el número de veces que cada una de las 91 especies incluidas en el inventario se encuentra en los 36 lotes evaluados. Según la distribución de Huguet del Villar, se obtuvieron los datos que aparecen en el Cuadro 11-5.Especies constantes. Son el 4% del total. La especie Hyptis conferta (mastranto) es la más común; aparece en 33 lotes (92% del total) y nunca es pastoreada en forma constante (Blydenstein 1976). Axonopus purpusii (guaratara) está presente en un 81% de los lotes, tiene excelente valor forrajero y resiste el pastoreo; estas características le hacen perder el carácter de maleza o END (Blydenstein 1967). Están finalmente Galactia glaucenses (guayabo sabanero) con 77% de frecuencia y Lindermia diffusa con un 69%.Especies accesorias. Son el 30% del total. Comprenden 27 especies, de las cuales Andropogon bicornis (rabo de zorro) se destaca con un 61% de frecuencia.Especies accidentales. Son el 60% del total y contienen 60 especies.Esta variable mide la abundancia florística de los lotes comparados. Cuanto menos especies comunes haya en los lotes mayor será el valor de la diversidad (Cuadro 11-6).Del inventario realizado y del análisis de las variables cobertura, frecuencia y diversidad se puede concluir que las pasturas de los 36 lotes evaluados en el CIA Carimagua tienen las siguientes características:• Hay 28 lotes (78%) en fase de productividad media.• La cobertura del terreno con END (presencia de malezas) es, en promedio, de 34%.• La capacidad potencial de carga de los lotes es de 1 UA/ha. y manejo de la pastura (rotación, carga, control mecánico con guadaña, quema).Las asociaciones de gramínea y leguminosa tienen los menores porcentajes de cobertura de END; son, por tanto, un método importante de control de END, además de dar mayor cubrimiento al suelo y mejorarlo en su estructura.La distribución florística de las END en las pasturas mejoradas es la siguiente: dominan las especies accidentales (66%), siguen las accesorias (29%) y, por último, están las constantes (5%).La quema es una práctica de manejo empleada en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia con el fin de promover el rebrote en la época de verano; es además una herramienta de control de END en la sabana nativa y, a veces, en las pasturas mejoradas. Sin embargo, no se recomiendan las quemas continuadas porque el suelo queda descubierto y expuesto a la erosión, lo que afecta su contenido de materia orgánica y su microfauna. Cuando sea necesaria, hay que hacerla racionalmente y muy espaciada en el tiempo (con descanso largo para el lote).Una especie de las Poaceae, Panicum rudgei (paja tigre), se encuentra ocasionalmente en la sabana nativa; causó, sin embargo, graves problemas en los lotes evaluados, por las siguientes razones:-apareció en 21 lotes evaluados (58%);-es altamente invasora y puede desplazar la pastura establecida;-es un forraje tosco cubierto de pelusa que no es consumido por el ganado;-tiene poco valor nutritivo;-su frecuencia aumenta en el lote cuando éste es sometido a pastoreo;-es tóxica para el ganado porque contiene glucósidos cianogénicos que causan el síndrome de caída del ganado: los animales son más susceptibles al envenenamiento en la época de transición de verano a invierno (Tolkamp 1972;Moreno et al. 1976);-está adaptada a la quema, como la mayoría de las especies de los Llanos Orientales, y por eso rebrota muy bien: la quema favorece la escarificación de las semillas y el nacimiento de nuevas plantas.-su agresividad es tal que se mimetiza con las especies de la pastura mejorada: a veces su presencia es tan abundante en el lote que puede confundirse con una pastura introducida.Se destaca también Imperata brasiliensis (víbora o guayacana), una END que exhibe el siguiente comportamiento:-forma grandes manchones (o parches) en la sabana nativa;-sólo fructifica después de la quema y ésta, por tanto, favorece su dispersión;-crece emitiendo estolones subterráneos muy fuertes que tienen forma de punta cuando salen a la superficie: con ellos destroza las otras especies sembradas en el lote.Los productores empiezan a reconocer estas dos especies, junto con Emilia sonchifolia, como END de alto riesgo en los cultivos y en las pasturas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.Es necesario investigar la biología y la ecología de las END mencionadas para conocer su capacidad de interferir con otras especies y su potencial de daño económico. Sólo así podrán desarrollarse programas y estrategias para evaluar tanto las prácticas de manejo de pasturas y cultivos, aplicadas durante largo tiempo, como el impacto ambiental que pueden causar esas estrategias.El impacto de las END puede ser mucho mayor en los campos de los productores de ganado que en el centro de investigaciones donde se hizo este estudio, en condiciones controladas y con muchos recursos. Por consiguiente, la evaluación descrita aquí debe hacerse en esos campos para establecer el estado de las pasturas, el manejo que se les da y, lo más importante, el nivel de degradación que puedan presentar esas pasturas por la presencia de las END.Las END son parte de un ecosistema global y su control debe evitar la aparición de un desequilibrio mayor. El buen manejo de estas especies es la mejor solución al problema. Una propuesta interesante de manejo es la asociación de gramíneas y leguminosas en las pasturas.Resumen Histórico de la Investigación Desarrollada por el CIAT en la Sabana Nativa G. Rippstein* y R. Vera**Las sabanas nativas (sensu stricto) de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia ocupan el 80%, aproximadamente, de la superficie total de esa región. Las sabanas nativas se usan para la cría de ganado bovino destinado a la producción de carne, principalmente, y, en menor grado, a la producción de leche. Estos pastos son poco productivos; sin embargo, son la base de la alimentación animal en la mayoría de las fincas de la sabana, situación que se mantendrá todavía durante mucho tiempo por razones ecológicas o geomorfológicas, principalmente. Las sabanas son, además, una reserva importante de biodiversidad vegetal y un refugio para la fauna.A fines de la década del 70 se iniciaron algunos trabajos esporádicos sobre el manejo y la productividad animal de la sabana nativa. En 1986, el CIAT dio comienzo a los primeros estudios de largo plazo sobre la ecología de la sabana nativa de Carimagua; en 1989, extendió ese estudio a otras áreas de la sabanas nativa, o sea, a la Altillanura de los Llanos Orientales.El objetivo principal de este proyecto era incrementar el conocimiento sobre las especies y grupos de vegetación nativos (inventario, ecología, funcionamiento, productividad, valor pastoril) y mejorar el uso que se da a estos pastos nativos incluyendo aquí su integración a los sistemas agropastoriles. Estos sistemas se encuentran actualmente en pleno desarrollo.El proyecto se halla en su fase final de síntesis y publicación de los resultados de 6 años consecutivos de investigación; en este capítulo se presentarán los avances realizados hasta la fecha. Uno de los resultados es el desarrollo de métodos para caracterizar el estado de degradación de la sabana nativa basados en la interpretación de imágenes del satélite SPOT y para verificar ese estado a nivel de campo; otro, son los estudios detallados sobre la dinámica de la vegetación en respuesta a la época y a la frecuencia de la quema, y a la intensidad del uso que hacen de ella los animales en pastoreo.Se anticipa, hacia el futuro, la necesidad de identificar sitios y áreas de particular riqueza de especies y genotipos empleando una combinación de detección remota ('remote sensing') y de investigación de campo y de laboratorio, con la finalidad de identificar las áreas cuya conservación es prioritaria. Se considera también de alta prioridad la descripción y el análisis cuantitativo de las funciones ecológicas de los bosques de galería y la valoración económica de los servicios ecológicos ofrecidos por la sabana y los bosques.Las sabanas nativas (sensu stricto) de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (ver Figura 1-11, Capítulo 1 de esta obra) ocupan alrededor del 80% de la superficie total de esa región; el resto está ocupado por cultivos (principalmente, especies forrajeras y arroz), por bosques de galería y por ríos.Las sabanas nativas son pastoreadas generalmente por bovinos que producen carne y, en menor grado, leche: estos últimos se hallan cerca de las ciudades.Estas sabanas tienen suelos pobres (Cochrane et al. 1985) y, aunque son poco productivas, son la base de la alimentación de los animales en la mayoría de las fincas. Esta situación se mantendrá todavía mucho tiempo en la región, principalmente por razones ecológicas o geomorfológicas relacionadas con las llanuras mal drenadas y la Serranía. Las sabanas constituyen, además, una reserva importante de biodiversidad de plantas y un refugio de la fauna salvaje.Por estas razones, desde la creación del Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria (CIA, antiguo CNI, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones) Carimagua, manejado por el ICA y el CIAT, en Meta (Figura 12-1), el CIAT investiga sobre el uso dado a la sabana nativa y el posible mejoramiento de ésta.Desde su creación, en 1970, el Programa de Pastos Tropicales del Figura 12-1. Vista aérea del área de Carimagua.CIAT ensayó varios sistemas de producción para aplicar con mayor eficiencia la quema en el manejo de la sabana nativa. Se ensayó entonces la introducción de leguminosas forrajeras en la sabana para mejorar su calidad y alimentar mejor los bovinos (CIAT 1974).En 1986, el Programa antes mencionado inicia el primer estudio botánico y ecológico de las 20,000 ha de sabana nativa del CIA Carimagua (ver Figura 1-2, Capítulo 1 de esta obra), bajo la responsabilidad del líder del Programa José (\"Pepe\") Toledo, ya fallecido. Lo acompañaron en esta tarea el auxiliar en botánica, Javier Belalcázar, el agrónomo y botánico Rainer Schultze-Kraft, el ecofisiólogo Myles Fisher y el ecólogo Jeff Herrikc; colaboró además en el proyecto el botánico Eugenio Escobar, de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Palmira.En 1989, la sección de Pastizales Naturales (del Programa mencionado) desarrolló un proyecto más amplio para estudiar las sabanas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, pero enfocado hacia el CIA Carimagua. Este proyecto fue financiado por el Gobierno Japonés y con él se inició también la colaboración con el CIRAD-EMVT de Francia.En 1992, el proyecto se incorporó al Programa de Sabanas del CIAT que a finales de 1993 se fusionó con el Programa de Márgenes del Bosque y conformó más tarde el Programa de Trópico Bajo.Esta reestructuración institucional no ha afectado mucho los objetivos y el desarrollo de la investigación sobre sabanas. Con ella se incorporaron un poco más en este trabajo los sistemas de producción de Carimagua y de Matazul.Desde un principio, el objetivo general del proyecto fue caracterizar, conservar, mejorar y (si fuere necesario) regenerar los ecosistemas nativos sometidos a pastoreo en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.Los principales objetivos específicos del proyecto y sus actividades conexas se resumen en el Cuadro 12-1. Los principales fueron los siguientes:• Incrementar los conocimientos básicos y el inventario de la vegetación nativa de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia (botánica, ecología vegetal, fitosociología).• Entender y explicar las causas de la forma fisonómica actual, de la composición florística y de la dinámica de la vegetación natural pastoreada por bovinos, es decir, describir el funcionamiento del ecosistema pastoreado, para evitar su degradación. Este proceso de degradación se ha iniciado ya en sitios como las áreas contiguas al río Meta y a la carretera Puerto López-Carimagua.• Estudiar la dinámica de la productividad y de la calidad (valor alimenticio) de las especies vegetales consumidas, así como la dinámica del 'valor pastoril' de los diferentes tipos de vegetación manejados con quema, en rotación, con diferentes cargas.• Estudiar el comportamiento alimenticio de los bovinos en los pastos nativos.• Estudiar los sistemas mejorados de manejo de las praderas nativas adaptadas a las condiciones naturales e integradas a los sistemas de producción intensivos (cultivos y pastos mejorados), que se desarrollan rápidamente en zonas favorables de los Llanos Orientales.• Una vez integrado el proyecto en el Programa de Trópico Bajo, estudiar las especies no deseables (malezas) en los cultivos del proyecto CULTICORE, en Carimagua.Las actividades de investigación sobre el inventario de la vegetación y de la tipología de la sabana fueron llevadas a cabo en los siguientes sitios de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia:-parte de la Altillanura plana del CIA de Carimagua (25,000 ha, 300 km al este de Villavicencio, Meta) y de sus alrededores, en suelos relativamente más fértiles (suelos arcillosos) y más pobres (suelos arenosos);-los municipios de Puerto López y Puerto Gaitán (120 km al este de Villavicencio), que comprenden zonas de Altillanura plana, de Altillanura ondulada (al sur de la anterior) y de la Serranía formada por la erosión y la acción de los ríos.Estas formaciones corresponden, respectivamente, a los sistemas de  Cochrane et al. (1985). La región considerada tiene una superficie cercana a los 2500 km².Las actividades de investigación de la productividad y la calidad de las especies y de la vegetación, de los sistemas de producción y del uso de la tierra fueron realizadas en el CIA de Carimagua en suelos relativamente fértiles (arcillo-limosos o arcilloarenosos) y en suelos pobres (arenosos).Las metodologías empleadas generalmente en estos estudios de pastos -o sea, inventarios, productividad, dinámica, valor alimenticio-fueron las utilizadas por el CIRAD-EMVT (Boudet 1991;Daget y Godron 1995), en particular, la metodología fitosociológica de Braun-Blanquet (Guinochet 1973) y la de los \"puntos cuadrados alineados\" para los estudios de la dinámica de la vegetación (Daget y Poissonet 1991).Para los estudios de uso de la tierra se utilizaron los Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG), en particular los datos del satélite europeo SPOT HRV (Girard y Girard 1989;Girard y Rippstein 1994).El proyecto llegó a su fin en 1997. Los estudios de campo terminaron en 1996 y la fase actual es el análisis de los datos y la publicación de los resultados.Durante el taller regional Agrociencia y Tecnología Siglo XXI: Orinoquia Colombiana, reunido en Villavicencio (Meta) en noviembre de 1996, se presentaron los siguientes resultados:-información parcial sobre el inventario de la vegetación y su diversidad;-parte de los estudios sobre la dinámica de la vegetación manejada con quemas;-influencia del pastoreo y de diferentes cargas en los pastos, y otras formas de manejo de la sabana.Se presentan también resultados sobre la productividad de los diferentes sistemas de manejo de los pastos nativos. La mayor parte de esta información se publica en este libro. Algunos resultados aparecieron en revistas, reuniones científicas y en tesis de estudiantes.La descripción detallada de la vegetación (inventarios, dinámica, tipología) y las metodologías desarrolladas pueden ser aplicadas a otras zonas de los Llanos Orientales y a otras sabanas. Hay que pasar del nivel localizado al nivel más amplio (por ejemplo, la cuenca, el municipio, toda la Serranía o toda la Altillanura mal drenada) para que estos resultados sirvan a los productores, a los servicios de desarrollo del departamento o a los de transferencia de tecnología de los municipios o los departamentos.• Los pastos nativos estarán siempre presentes en las fincas de los Llanos Orientales, especialmente en las zonas no arables: Serranía, Altillanura mal drenada y Bajos. Se sugiere investigar, por tanto, en las fincas, la integración de esos pastos en su sistema forrajero y en sus sistemas de producción, es decir, con los pastos mejorados y con cultivos como el arroz y el maíz. Se han hecho ya varios de estos experimentos en el CIA Carimagua (Fisher et al. 1992) y en la Altillanura plana (formación 201), pero se carece de información sobre otros sistemas de tierras más extensos y, posiblemente, más frágiles.• Esta iniciativa implica la evaluación de la productividad de los pastos y de los animales, y el cálculo de los efectos de esa integración en la biodiversidad, tanto de la flora como de la fauna; hay efectos en la biología de los suelos que ya han sido documentados por Decaëns et al. (1994). Es necesario, además, desarrollar modelos y programas geo-referenciados que ayuden a los productores a tomar decisiones.• Identificar e investigar sitios particularmente ricos en especies vegetales y animales que deban ser protegidas. Definir la tipología ecológica y el uso actual y potencial de las tierras a nivel regional. Producir mapas que muestren la diversidad de la vegetación y de los suelos, en los que puedan identificarse las siguientes clases de tierras: las más favorables, para desarrollar cultivos; las menos favorables agrícolamente, para la producción animal; las más pobres, para mantenerlas con bosque; y las que sean ricas en biodiversidad, para dedicarlas a reserva natural.• Esta investigación debe realizarse con la ayuda de los SIG y de indicadores ecológicos (especies indicadoras, por ejemplo) que es preciso desarrollar.• Determinar el grado de vigor del ecosistema de los Llanos Orientales y la medida en que se le aplican el concepto de los nuevos sistemas 'complejos' y el modelo de 'estado y transición', haciendo una comparación con los conceptos clásicos de sucesión.• Hacer una descripción y un análisis cuantitativo de las funciones ecológica y económica de la sabana y de los bosques de galería, es decir, considerar las reservas de biodiversidad, la protección contra la erosión y las inundaciones, la explotación de las especies maderables o aptas para cercas y otros aspectos similares.• Establecer sistemas de observación continua, por ejemplo, el seguimiento ('monitoreo') por imágenes de satélite, de la dinámica tanto del uso de la tierra como de la degradación de la vegetación y de los suelos (erosión); estos sistemas ayudarán a tomar decisiones políticas sobre el uso de los recursos de tierras.• Hacer estudios ecológicos básicos de los Bajos y de las zonas mal drenadas, es decir, la zona periforestal, al sur de río Meta, y la Altillanura mal drenada, al norte de dicho río. Esta investigación contemplaría el inventario botánico (tipología y mapa de la vegetación), el estudio de los suelos y el mapa respectivo, el régimen hídrico, las condiciones climáticas y otros factores.• Evaluar, en colaboración con investigadores de Venezuela, las consecuencias ambientales y socioeconómicas de los cambios significativos en el uso de la tierra que ocurran a lo largo de la cuenca del río Orinoco. En esta investigación se desarrollarían modelos que permitirán simular diferentes escenarios de desarrollo. Para estudiar la composición botánica y la dinámica de la vegetación de la sabana nativa (sabana alta o Altillanura) es necesario conocer las especies nativas en su estado vegetativo, ya que éstas, generalmente, no presentan floración por tres razones principales: la dinámica de su fenología, las quemas y el manejo de la sabana con animales.Para determinar el género y la especie de una gramínea, los especialistas emplean, como unidad taxonómica básica, la variación morfológica de las espículas, las cuales son, muchas veces, microscópicas y difíciles de observar. Las Claves Sinópticas Ilustradas (CSI) que aquí presentamos se basan, en cambio, en caracteres morfológicos de fácil observación en las gramíneas nativas halladas principalmente en las sabanas del departamento del Meta, Colombia. Estas claves se desarrollaron a partir de la experiencia adquirida por los autores en el Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria (CI) Carimagua, situado en Meta, Colombia, y son un complemento de la Clave Estribada publicada por Escobar et al. (1993).La principal ventaja de las CSI es que permiten \"entrar\" en sus tablas por las características vegetativas más evidentes de cada especie. En las gramíneas (poáceas), varias de esas características son importantes (ver B. Características…, Cuadro B1), aunque sólo se utilizarán algunas de ellas en las CSI.El tallo sostiene la planta poácea y define el hábito de crecimiento de la especie a que ésta pertenece (ver B. Características…, Cuadro B2). Se compone de segmentos denominados entrenudos que están delimitados por los nudos. Tiene consistencia herbácea o leñosa y puede ser hueco o macizo, erguido o postrado y de tamaño variable.Las poáceas (gramíneas) tienen tallos aéreos y subterráneos. Losprimeros pueden ser erectos, decumbentes o rastreros. Los tallos decumbentes crecen 'recostados' sobre el suelo y pueden enraizar a partir de los nudos inferiores. Los tallos rastreros crecen en forma horizontal sobre el suelo y, como los decumbentes, pueden emitir raíces en los nudos. La planta que se desarrolle en un nudo enraizado se denomina estolón. Los tallos subterráneos pueden ser rizomas, tubérculos o bulbos.Las hojas de las poáceas tienen, por lo regular, tres áreas principales (ver B. Características, Cuadro B2, y D. Clave 2):Vaina. Es la parte de la hoja que se inserta en el nudo y que rodea el tallo, en forma más o menos estrecha, uniéndose a él. Puede ser cilíndrica, aplanada o aquillada. Sus márgenes pueden parecer sobrepuestos (vaina abierta) o juntos (vaina hendida) o pueden estar unidos formando entonces una vaina entera o cerrada.Lígula. Es un ápice membranoso o piloso que se halla entre la vaina y la lámina, en la cara superior o haz de la hoja.Lámina. Es la superficie libre de la hoja. Normalmente es lineal y acintada en las poáceas, aunque muchas veces hay variaciones de esa forma. Es paralelinervia según la disposición de la nervadura. Presenta una cara superior (el haz) y una inferior (el envés).Las hojas de las poáceas pueden presentar otras estructuras que permiten caracterizar muchas especies. Son las siguientes:Aurículas. Estas estructuras aparecen en las hojas en forma de apéndice o de dilatación situada frecuentemente en la base de la lámina o en la parte distal de la vaina.Cuello o cordón ondulado. En la zona donde la vaina se funde con la lámina foliar se observan, en el envés de ésta, una coloración de matiz diferente del entorno y una vellosidad: constituyen el cuello de la vaina. En algunos casos (Homolepis aturensis), el cuello presenta además (por el envés de la lámina) una pequeña estructura semicircular membranácea o pilosa.Las CSI presentan gráficamente, como su nombre lo indica, las estructuras vegetales que les sirven de elementos identificadores. Para facilitar más su manejo, la Clave 1 (ver C. Clave 1) divide las poáceas en cinco grupos según dos características: la presencia o ausencia de indumento o pilosidad en la lámina foliar (haz, envés y márgenes) y en la vaina, y la forma de esta última (cilíndrica, comprimida o aplanada). El proceso de identificación tiene tres pasos:Primer paso: reconocer las principales características morfológicas de esa especie (ver B. Características, Cuadros B1 y B2).• Segundo paso: definir el grupo al cual pertenece la especie de poácea (sección C. Clave 1).• Tercer paso: entrar en la tabla que contiene la clave principal del grupo (ver D. Clave 2) para identificar -aplicando por contraste las demás características allí consideradas-el ejemplar que se estudia. Este se identificará, al final, como una de las 31 especies presentes en la Clave 2, que son las más comunes en la Altillanura plana de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.Cuando no hay un interés particular en conocer todas las características morfológicas de la especie en cuestión, puede obviarse el primer paso. El grupo elegido en B. conduce directamente a las tablas de la sección D., donde están las características más específicas del ejemplar que se desesa identificar.La presencia o ausencia de pilosidad en las hojas es importante para la identificación de una especie. Ahora bien, la pilosidad puede variar con el estado del desarrollo de la planta; por ejemplo, parte de la pilosidad puede perderse por la edad, en las hojas viejas, o también por el estrés que causa la sequía, en hojas viejas y jóvenes. La Clave 2 repite, además de las 31 especies clasificadas, seis especies que pueden manifestar esta variación; están marcadas con un (*).Con ayuda de las claves y por apreciación visual, es posible diferenciar varias especies según las siguientes características: la relación entre la longitud y la anchura de las hojas, la orientación de los vellos en las estructuras pilosas, y las características de los márgenes de las hojas.El Cuadro B2 plegable (p. 253) ilustra las características usadas para identificar las poáceas; sirve también para entrar en la CSI 2 (ver D. Clave 2).Las características morfológicas generales y el hábitat se usan para identificar especies de poáceas. Una descripción de estas características y las estructuras vegetales relacionadas con ellas se presentan en el Cuadro B1.El hábito de crecimiento es una característica importante para identificar especímenes de poáceas (gramíneas). El Cuadro B3 (p. 255) presenta ocho hábitos de crecimiento de especies de poáceas que crecen en la sabana nativa de los Llanos Orientales, y sirve también de ayuda para entrar en la clave sinóptica principal, CSI 2.Cuadro B1. Características de las poáceas (gramíneas).-Arenoso, arcilloso o de arrecife (Altillanura, Serranía) -Según forma: Cilíndrica, comprimida, aplanada -Según envés: Glabra, pilosa, escabrosa -Según AM e : Abierta, en V, cerrada, superpuesta -Según dorso: Lisa (simple), carinadaAusente, vestigial, pronunciadoLaminares, de la vaina Lígula:-Según tipo: Ciliada (pilosa), de cilios cortos, membranosa (simple, ciliada, franjeada o truncada, con corona de pelos largos)-Según forma: Triangular, cimbiforme (aquillada), ovada, oblonga (transversalmente angosta), con mechones laterales de pelos Sinflorescencia:-Según ejes: Solitaria, conjugada (pareada), digitada, subdigitada, racemosa -Según espícula: Sésil, pedicelada, lisa, pilosa, aristada, triaristada, alada -Según UE f : Espiga (esp. sésil), racimo (esp. pedicelada), seudoespiga (esp. sésiles y pediceladas), panícula laxa (abierta, pedicelada), panícula contraída -Los céspedes estoloníferos presentan estolones y culmos.-Los céspedes rizomatosos tienen rizomas y culmos.  ","tokenCount":"48539"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"35c704883c08ba0f02ef4c4935e927d1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/71a6cf93-603d-4d1e-bd8c-4e393e916088/retrieve","id":"-876963924"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8e45a73a-619e-43fb-89da-cda1aa1d037c","pagecount":"4","content":"• A wide variety of stakeholders are required to collaborate to successfully deliver water reuse projects • A stepped approach outlined in this brief supports effective governance frameworks • Multi-stakeholder platforms support consensus building and conflict resolution • By ensuring access to information, participation from stakeholders is meaningfulHarmonizing a range of decision-making processes and activities within a water reuse project is inherently complex: stakeholders represent an array of jobs, goals, and interests.Managing and planning a water reuse system requires a variety of stakeholders to collaborate across disciplines and scales, as shown in Figure 1. Administrative entities, regulations, and coordination mechanisms need to be established and can generate additional cost and disrupt access to resources.Creating structures for how roles and responsibilities of stakeholders are distributed, organized, and implemented, and how they are coordinated are known as governance frameworks.In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, institutional frameworks can overlook informal actors such as community and private stakeholders and tend to instead focus on state administrators. These actors represent local knowledge, and institutional and socioeconomic arrangements that are often invisible to centralized institutions.Preparing governance frameworks that enable and empower stakeholders to collaborate are critical to the success of water reuse projects, for which this guide has been developed. This brief provides guidance to public authorities in the MENA region willing to develop and improve governance frameworks related to water reuse in agriculture.Demand for freshwater resources is increasing due to population growth, urbanization, and agricultural expansion and intensification. The MENA region is one of the most arid regions on Earth and is characterized by low water availability. Agriculture is the dominant water user in most countries in the region and a key driver of economic development. The gap between water supply and demand is widening every year.Governments in the MENA region are urgently seeking interventions to increase water security, including efforts to optimize water management, narrow the supply-demand gap and prevent water quality degradation. One promising solution is the smart use of water that has already been used.Water can be used in cities and reused in agriculture or for other beneficial purposes, with benefits for all. Water reuse has great potential to help overcome some of the challenges posed by the increasing pressure on already stressed water resources.Photo: Photo: Javier Mateo-Sagasta, IWMI Javier Mateo-Sagasta, IWMI Figure 1. The large array of stakeholders involved in irrigation water reuse governance.To improve governance frameworks, a thorough analysis of the institutional and decision-making landscapes should be completed. This will identify new stakeholders, formal and informal, responsible for various aspects of water reuse.In the MENA region, institutional frameworks can overlook informal actors, such as community and private stakeholders, and tend to instead focus on state administrators. These actors represent local knowledge, and institutional and socioeconomic arrangements that are often invisible to centralized institutions.Multi-stakeholder platforms encourage consensus building, support conflict resolution, and guide the design of effective governance frameworks. A multi-stakeholder platform assembles stakeholders who are willing to collectively deliver new rules, policies, and institutions. Through a participatory process, water reuse projects using multi-stakeholder platforms increase the effectiveness of a project to enact social change, and democratize and legitimize decisions.A stakeholder analysis begins by understanding the relationships between the various representatives in the water reuse organigram, and where their administrative boundaries start and end. There are many methods and tools to support stakeholder analysis. However, a recent analytical tool was developed specifically for water reuse. Divided into two main parts, the framework defines decision-making activities, and implementation and management activities. The tools helpDialogue facilitation by the Royal Scientific Society improves data monitoring and sharing on the quality of treated water in the northern Jordan ValleyIn the northern Jordan Valley, the Royal Scientific Society, a local nongovernmental research organization, facilitated a dialogue between the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, and farmers to improve farmers' acceptability of the water treatment and distribution as irrigation water. As an outcome of the facilitation process, it was agreed that the Ministry will publish on a regular basis water quality tests on a digital platform accessible to farmers.identify gaps and overlaps between structures at the same scale and across institutions at different scales.Institutional mandates and practices in water reuse can sometimes be entrenched in larger, sociopolitical structures that are not readily receptive to change. Understanding this helps to identify realistic targets to effect lasting change. To anticipate resistance or opposition, knowing who will be the 'winners' or 'losers' from intended governance design and their relationships can support strategies to overcome challenges.A recent review of policies on water reuse in five Mediterranean countries found that the cause of project failure was the lack of clear lines of responsibility and accountability. A duplication in prerogatives offered stakeholders an outlet to pin blame on others and avoid responsibility. For a governance framework to be successful, clear roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder must be defined. In this way, projects will avoid the 'fuzziness in institutional prerogatives'.Having a clear and agreed statement of responsibilities ensures accountability. However, it does not mean that the governance framework should be rigid. Allowing enough flexibility when assigning roles to institutions can encourage greater acceptance of new arrangements. In the MENA region, by law, the management of facilities is centralized and assigned to water authorities. However, in practice, various other stakeholders take the lead in operating utilities, securing funds, and implementing infrastructure.Acknowledging their roles and empowering them has the potential to lead to more adaptive and sustainable management systems.Planning the governance framework of a water reuse system should build on existing practices and functions. This includes technical know-how, local leadership, and collective action on water reuse. Consider institutions with political leverage and build on historical expertise. In this way, additional responsibilities can be assigned to stakeholders depending on their past roles and expertise. Beware, however, of not falling into the 'local trap' that assumes local institutions will naturally lead to social and ecological outcomes. Analyze local leadership and choose to empower leaders with care.A lack of institutional coordination has been identified as a major hurdle to assess the potential of and plan for water reuse projects in several MENA countries. This also affects the management of water treatment and reuse facilities that regulate and monitor water quality. Different institutional tools can be established, depending on objectives, to design the right coordination mechanisms. Implementation is one of the most important prerequisites to enhancing integrated planning, ensuring information flow, and bridging the gap between activities.Following the establishment of a new water treatment plant, project leaders must establish water allocation arrangements on the new water source. New water sources can disrupt existing arrangements and water rights, which can trigger conflict. Many cases in the MENA region reference old waterIn Lebanon, the dispersion of rights related to the issuing of environmental regulations constrains the development of official reuse standards. Recently, the Lebanese Standards Institution (LIBNOR), a semi-autonomous public administration, took the lead to develop these standards in coordination with relevant public authorities. With the help of the ReWater MENA project, a multi-stakeholder platform was formed, grouping national, regional, and local administration, as well as laboratories, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and private sector representatives.rights that do not correspond to the ways in which water use has evolved, such as the use of pumps, and do not consider new beneficiaries.11: Develop the capacity of public administrations and provide adequate fundingImplementing an effective governance framework assumes that governmental authorities are financially and institutionally empowered. The private sector can play an important role at different levels, through public-private partnerships, for example. However, only governmental authorities have the legitimacy to monitor and regulate the private actors. In several cases in the MENA region, private sector-led implementation did not lead to adequate water treatment due to lack of monitoring.12: Create a climate of trust and collaboration ","tokenCount":"1292"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e4ed282090282e78d16e9330c71260a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/54970555-b12c-4bd3-92c9-dec18e05941c/retrieve","id":"2135877153"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"af66257c-61d7-4f83-ac6e-288268a69bf1","pagecount":"4","content":"Gender is not well integrated into climate change policy in relation to agriculture.  Policymakers need to take into account the differential vulnerabilities of men and women farmers to climate change.  In spite of their vulnerabilities to climate change, rural women can be important agents of change and innovators. This potential can be best tapped into by co-designing climate-smart technologies and practices with women.  Gender receives attention in about 40% of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted ahead of COP21, none from Annex 1 countries. Gender references are confined mostly to impacts of climate change on women and women as \"vulnerable populations\", with less emphasis on supporting women to actively address and participate in adaptation and mitigation actions. The use of the term \"gender-responsive\" in the Paris Agreement is a big step forward, however the Agreement fails to move beyond the attitude of women as victims of climate change in need of capacity building. Stronger steps need to be taken for real gender equality in climate policies, including better monitoring and evaluation of the progress.While women play an important role in agriculture, environmental and natural resource management, they have greater financial or resource constraints, and lower levels of access to information and extension services than men (Tall et al. 2014). Because of these gender inequalities, women appear to be less able to adapt to climate change (Huyer et al. 2015). Rural women's workload, e.g. biomass and water collection, is affected by natural disasters and the changing climate with consequences on family nutrition, childcare and education. Cultural norms related to gender roles may limit the ability of women to respond to or make quick decisions in the face of climate events. For example, in some households where men are working off-farm in cities, women may lack the power to make timely farming decisions or to convince their husbands to agree to new practices (Asfaw et al. 2015;Goering 2015).Without recognition of the role women play in mitigating emissions, the 1.5 C degree global target will be that     Jordan, Liberia, and Peru.1The paucity of substantive references and commitments in the Paris Agreement and the INDCs to gender equality and women reflects the limited approach of the UNFCCC ","tokenCount":"367"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"26d33cf8c3d8d00dff8864c740f69872","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5a265060-9110-4a94-a764-2436fbf3c841/retrieve","id":"1690974749"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"505685a4-72ec-4256-b119-eebe21497d37","pagecount":"2","content":"Transformation is inevitable, but there are no silver bullets 1. \"Business as usual\" agriculture in 2040 is not an option for meeting basic human needs on a planet with intensifying climate change impacts and 2 billion more people than in 2018.Land consolidation and Small farms may no longer be viable in many contextsThe most viable pathway for some farmers may be to exit agriculture: Of about 570 million farms in the world [1], 85% are less than 2 ha and occupy only around 12% of global agricultural land. Even with best-practice farming, such small farms are financially unviable [2]. Farmers with less than 2 ha of land are unlikely to prosper, no matter how productive they become [2], and meaningful poverty reduction will not come from increasing crop and livestock output alone [3]. Rare exceptions are capital-heavy practices like glasshouses producing high-value crops and intensive livestock production.while minimizing climate change impacts may mean smallholder and traditional farmers become more like artisanal farmers with a greater market share by 2040. This shift would be coupled with much closer producer-consumer connections through shorter supply chains and larger areas under more environmentally friendly production.Changes can be supported by rental markets and consolidation, possibly through cooperatives, aided by collective action and co-evolving technology for the different farmer types.7. Disruptions such as vertical farming, universal basic income, alternative protein sources or what has been called the fourth agricultural revolution can accelerate some transformation pathways.Policies for transformation must go beyond developing secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas to also providing crucial support for people exiting rural agriculture and moving into urban livelihoods. Ensuring food production does not decline requires parallel investments in agricultural niches and re-skilling of the workforce for activities like vertical agriculture, urban agroforestry and small-scale processing. These investments should be aligned with dietary shifts and the implementation of sustainable food security strategies.incentives that undermine environmental quality, should be replaced with incentives that substantially reward pro-sustainability behaviours. Incentives are needed alongside more stringent implementation of polluter-pays principles and carbon taxes within the food system.Read the working paper: http://bit.ly/TFSI_Pathways","tokenCount":"345"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"067294e2a0997b289731b8fb93a10b55","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/59a0df73-71c4-41e1-94f6-ca6b07f5ab0d/retrieve","id":"162807718"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6f2c40c3-1ad9-49c4-bdf6-f49cf0ba3c01","pagecount":"1","content":"This study highlights different perceptions of consumers regarding pork safety in traditional markets, hygiene practices criteria at shop, and how perceptions are different by areas ▪ These findings may contribute to develop more targeted communication strategies and measures to improve consumers' FS knowledge and perception.Linh Dang-Thi-Thuy 1* , Trang Le-Thi-Huyen 1,2 , Hung Nguyen-Viet 1 , Vivian Hoffmann 3 , Fred Unger 1 , Vuong Bui-Nghia 4 , Phuong Nguyen-Thi-Minh 1 , Sinh Dang-Xuan  Rural Urban▪ The presence of adequate hygiene tools at pork shops was the least emphasized by consumers (Fig. 2A), while rural consumers placed a significantly higher response on pork shops having clean surface than their urban counterparts (p <0.01, Fig. 2B) ▪ Urban and rural consumers showed differences in their preferred hygiene practices.However, no significant gender-based preferences were observed    ","tokenCount":"133"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c8adf0262a7b1e4b6e063a2480ec974e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/81ea2ea2-db93-4a24-9890-60ce8fec7833/retrieve","id":"-1884680068"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a008fd3f-7dbd-4ad1-a047-c1c4afc95363","pagecount":"57","content":"La participación del sector primario en la economía de Risaralda está disminuyendo desde los años 80. Pese a la reducción en la dependencia en la agricultura, el sector cafetero sigue siendo el mayor contribuyente al PIB del sector primario en el departamento. Esta actividad en particular ha mostrado incrementos notables desde 2002 hasta el presente (Federación Nacional de Cafeteros, 2014, 2015, 2016), destacando la importancia de la investigación para mejores toma de decisiones en la planificación de la producción de café.El clima es un factor determinante para la toma de decisiones en el cultivo del café. La distribución regional de las precipitaciones, por ejemplo, tiene influencia en el momento adecuado para plantar café con el menor riesgo de pérdida. Además incide en la duración del tiempo de prácticas agronómicas a desarrollar, utilización o no de sistemas agroforestales transitorios o permanentes, tiempos de fertilización, entre otros (CENICAFE, 2016). Asimismo, la cantidad de lluvia, su distribución y otros factores ambientales condicionan la dinámica del crecimiento vegetativo y reproductivo del café, la concentración de la floración, el desarrollo de la fruta y la cosecha.Considerando el clima cambiante, la distribución espacial de las zonas agroecológicas de café, los hábitats y los patrones de distribución de enfermedades y plagas, han ido cambiando en los últimos años. Esto tiene un impacto significativo en la agricultura y la producción del cultivo en la región, que afecta principalmente a pequeños agricultores (fincas de menos de 10 ha) que actualmente tienen una representación entre el 50% y el 90% del sector (Lau, Jarvis, & Ramírez, 2010).Partimos del entendimiento de que existen desafíos importantes en el sector del café con respecto a los ciclos de planificación de 10 a 15 años, que es el plazo para la replantación de cultivos de café. A esta escala de tiempo, es probable que disminuya la aptitud climática para el cultivo del café. Por lo tanto, una de las decisiones más importantes relacionadas con el clima que los agricultores de las áreas cafeteras actuales deben comenzar a planificar es cómo continuar con una producción ambientalmente sostenible, y adaptada a las condiciones esperadas en el futuro. En otras palabras, ¿qué prácticas agronómicas deben estar dentro de las recomendaciones de los extensionistas de la Federación Nacional de Cafeteros (FNC) para que las fincas cafeteras sean resilientes al cambio climático?. Tal es la decisión que apuntamos aquí. La premisa básica de este esfuerzo es, por lo tanto, desarrollar la predicción de los cambios a corto plazo en áreas apropiadas para cultivar café y proponer estrategias en los casos en que se espera que tales áreas reduzcan significativamente su aptitud para el cultivo. Desarrollamos estas estrategias a partir de una combinación de modelos y observaciones de campo, y de estos construimos planes de adaptación local, que alimentan el servicio de extensión, y, por tanto, constituyen un servicio para los productores de café en áreas bajo riesgo climático.Clima, suelos y cobertura de la tierra En climatología, es común el uso de \"normales climatológicas\" que se refiere al valor promedio de un elemento climático durante un intervalo de tiempo (WMO, 2012). Con ellas, es posible evaluar las condiciones climáticas en un área específica, comparar las observaciones presentes o recientes y, en particular, calibrar conjuntos de datos basados en anomalías (por ejemplo, los escenarios de cambio climático). Las climatologías generalmente se generan a partir de información de estaciones meteorológicas.Con el objetivo de caracterizar el clima actual de la región de Risaralda desarrollamos una climatología anual con promedios móviles de 5 años mediante interpolación espacial y registros de estaciones meteorológicas de 1980 a 2010. Las superficies interpoladas se generaron a una resolución espacial de 500 m para precipitación, temperatura mínima y temperatura máxima a nivel mensual. Seguimos el método descrito por Hijmans et al (2005), utilizando datos Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales (IDEAM) y del Centro Nacional de Investigaciones de Café (Cenicafe). La Figura 1 muestra la distribución espacial de estaciones de diferentes fuentes por variable y la Tabla 1 resume el número de estaciones por fuente / variable. Para ambas fuentes, se realizó un preprocesamiento de la información meteorológica que incluyó: detectar valores atípicos, identificar y eliminar registros duplicados e identificar y completar datos faltantes. El número de estaciones restantes después del control de calidad se muestra en la Tabla 1. Debido a la falta de información en algunas áreas, agregamos puntos de pseudoestaciones de AgMERRA para la temperatura (Ruane, Goldberg, & Chryssanthacopoulos, 2015) y CHIRPS para la precipitación (Funk et al., 2015) , que es un conjunto de cuasi-global datos que incorporan imágenes de satélite a una resolución de 0.05. El área de estudio se encuentra entre los ~4°N a ~6°N de latitud y ~77°W a ~75° W de longitud ( Figura 1). Utilizamos el software ANUSPLIN versión 4.3 que implementa el método de suavizado \" thinplate spline\" (Hutchinson & de Hoog, 1985). Hicimos una interpolación de segundo orden usando latitud, longitud y elevación como variables independientes. Utilizamos el modelo de elevación CGIAR SRTM (Jarvis, Reuter, Nelson, & Guevara, 2008) agregado a una resolución de 500m. Para evaluar la habilidad del algoritmo de interpolación, realizamos una validación cruzada usando k = 25 como el número de iteraciones y un porcentaje del conjunto de datos test/train de 30/70 para analizar el error.Respecto al clima futuro, la demanda de información climática a mayores resoluciones ha aumentado en los últimos años y es usada principalmente para evaluar el riesgo planteado por el cambio climático proyectados en el futuro (IPCC, 2007). Sin embargo, estas proyecciones no se hacen a escalas subnacionales. Debido a ello empleamos un proceso de regionalización (conocido comúnmente como downscaling en inglés) con el objetivo de aumentar la resolución y proveer escenarios regionales de Risaralda. La información de entrada para este proceso son salidas de Modelos Generales de Circulación (GCM, siglas en inglés), que simulan el clima de la tierra a través de ecuaciones matemáticas y describen procesos e interacciones bióticas, atmosféricas y oceánicas.Realizamos un proceso de downscaling estadístico basado en la suma de las anomalías de los GCM, a las superficies de línea base de alta resolución a escala mensual (Ramirez-Villegas & Jarvis, 2010), desarrolladas en el paso anterior. El método se llama método delta o factor de cambio. El \"factor de cambio\" es la relación entre las simulaciones GCM de clima futuro y actual y se usa como un factor multiplicativo para obtener las condiciones regionales futuras. Los factores de cambio se interpolan entre los centroides de los píxeles de GCM y luego se aplican a un clima de referencia dado por una superficie de alta resolución. Utilizamos datos de 14 GCM (consulte el Anexo 1) desarrollados para el IPCC AR5 (IPCC, 2013) ejecutados en cuatro escenarios denominados Rutas de Concentración Representativas (RCP 2.6, 4.5, 6.0 y 8.5, siglas en inglés) y utilizados en la 3ª Comunicación Nacional -Escenarios de cambio climático para precipitación y temperatura en Colombia (IDEAM, PNUD, MADS, DNP, & Cancillería, 2015). Usamos los periodos de 30 años 2011-2040 (2020) y 2021-2050 (2030). Luego calculamos el promedio (promedio) de las salidas calibradas de los 14 GCM para RCP.A partir de las temperaturas mínimas y máximas mensuales y la precipitación, definimos algunos índices climáticos útiles para modelar la presencia/ausencia de café en la región, tanto para climas actuales como futuros. Los índices se calcularon por trimestre correspondientes a las fases de la cosecha de café en la región, incluyendo: fase fenológica de crecimiento Diciembre-Enero-Febrero (DJF), período de floración Marzo-Abril-Mayo (MAM), cosecha en áreas con altitud inferior a 1800 msnm y cosecha principal en áreas más altas Junio-Julio-Agosto (JJA) y Septiembre-Octubre-Noviembre (SON) respectivamente. Los indicadores propuestos según el conocimiento experto y la revisión de la literatura fueron:Rango de temperatura media ° C (amplitud térmica): en tiempo seco, determina la floración y en tiempo húmedo el limite el llenado del fruto. Tiempo térmico Σ (T_mean-10 ° C) ° C. Determina la fase fenológica (V. Ramírez et al., 2010).  Temperatura media (°C).  Temporalidad de la temperatura (desviación estándar).  Temperatura mínima (°C).  Temperatura máxima (°C).  Temporalidad de la precipitación (coeficiente de variación) (%).  Precipitación del trimestre.  Evapotranspiración de referencia.Respecto a suelos debido a la gran diversidad de rocas que constituyen las cordilleras del departamento de Risaralda se presentan distintas clases de suelos en Risaralda. Se contó con información de series de suelos (e.g. Chinchiná, Belén, Ospirma) junto con los atributos de cada clase (CENICAFE, 2013), incluyendo: contenido de arenas, limos y arcillas, contenido de humedad a capacidad de campo, contenido de humedad a punto de marchitez permanente, densidad aparente, pH y contenido de materia orgánica. Los suelos provenientes de cenizas volcánicas de la unidad Chinchiná comprenden el mayor porcentaje en la región y se encuentran ubicados principalmente en los tercios medio y superior de las vertientes.Para estimar el nivel de resiliencia de las fincas, se plantea un método de varios pasos: Usar imágenes satelitales para detectar el café y \"leer\" la huella espectral de los cultivos para analizar las variaciones en el tiempo de su NDVI  Relacionar dichas variaciones con la variabilidad climática para intentar deducir cuales prácticas de manejo han dado mayores niveles de resiliencia a ciertas ficnas.Es claro que esta metodología no reemplaza una toma de datos detallada a nivel de cada finca. Sin embargo ofrece alternativas, al momento de resaltar tendencias regionales en cambios del verdor de los cafetales. Este trabajo mostró varios alcances, que mejorando ciertas carencias de niveles de información, por ejemplo, tomar más en cuenta la temporalidad del cultivo: la planta tiene requerimientos y sensibilidades que varían en función de la etapa fenológica, puede llegar a servir de soporte técnico para identificar momentos y prácticas de resiliencia.La base de datos compartida por el comité cafetero de Risaralda consta de registros tomados a lotes establecidos con café en el departamento. Esta contiene observaciones capturadas desde el año 2011 y hasta 2016.Dentro de las variables registradas se encuentran: Identificación del lote (número SICA de 12 dígitos)  Ubicación en coordenadas geográficas (MAGNA Bogotá -Colombia -EPSG:3116)  Exposición del lote al sol  Fecha en que se realiza una actividad.  Nombre de la labor realizada (Siembra, renovación de zoca, renovación de siembra)El archivo, con formato Excel, está compuesto por 6 pestañas. Cada pestaña corresponde a un año, y en cada una se encuentran alrededor de 8000 registros, correspondientes al 10 por ciento de un conjunto mayor de lotes. La muestra es aleatoria en cada año, sin embargo se dieron algunas coincidencias de lotes recurrentes en el tiempo. En total se contó con registros de 38363 puntos.Respecto a las imágenes de satélite la plataforma satelital escogida fue la misión Landsat ya que es la misión de datos abiertos con mejor resolución que cubre el periodo de tiempo que abarca la base de datos de los lotes de café. A través de sus distintas misiones, monitorea y mapea la superficie de la tierra. Para el presente estudio se emplearon imágenes ubicadas en el path 9 rows 57 y 56, de Landsat 7 ETM+ (Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus) y Landsat 8 OLI (Operational Land Imager) (Figura 2). Estas se encuentran disponibles en http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/.Figura 2. Referencia de grilla de las zonas utilizadas en las imágenes Landsat. En la figura se muestran dos imágenes de Landsat 8 capturadas en el mes de enero de 2015. Los puntos morados corresponden a los 38363 puntos disponibles en la base de datos SICA.En total se usaron 700 imágenes satelitales (Landsat 8:153, Landsat 7:510, Landsat 5:37) con el fin de abarcar espacialmente el departamento de Risaralda y crear una serie temporal desde enero 2001 a febrero 2017. El proceso de extracción y pre-procesamiento de las imágenes se realizó en la plataforma Google Earth Engine (Google Earth Engine Team, 2015).Se generaron superficies de clima histórico anuales (medias móviles de 5 años) y una climatología para todo el período 1980-2010, utilizando el método de interpolación descrito anteriormente con datos de IDEAM y Cenicafe. Estas capas permiten modelar las áreas de café adecuadas en Risaralda en el pasado reciente. El Anexo 2 muestra el rendimiento del algoritmo de interpolación a través de la validación cruzada.Para ambos casos, la precipitación acumulada mensual muestra un alto coeficiente de determinación (R 2 ) por encima del 80% entre datos modelados y observados. En el caso de temperatura el coeficiente R 2 medio está entre 25% y 45% para la temperatura máxima (RMSE por debajo de 0.5°C) y 55% para temperatura mínima (RMSE por debajo de 0.5°C), variables en las que se disponía de menos información para la interpolación. Así mismo, para todo el período de interpolación (climatología) se contaba con menos información para la interpolación, sin embargo al revisar los resultados de las superficies interpoladas y no se encontraron valores atípicos.La Figura 3A-B muestra la temperatura mínima y máxima trimestral. Las temperaturas más altas se encuentran en la zona limítrofe con el Chocó con temperaturas entre 26°C y 33°C y las zonas de café con áreas con las temperaturas más altas más altas se encuentran en el valle central de Risaralda. La Figura 3C muestra la amplitud térmica trimestral en Risaralda. Las amplitudes térmicas más bajas se encuentran en el trimestre MAM. En DJF se observan amplitudes térmicas que alcanzan los 10°C en las zonas cafeteras lo que es muy adecuado en la fase de floración del cultivo (V. Ramírez et al., 2010).El tiempo térmico representa la cantidad constante de calor que necesita el cultivo para su crecimiento y desarrollo. El cultivo de café necesita un tiempo térmico mínimo de 1100°C por trimestre (V. H. Ramírez et al., 2011). La Figura 3D muestra el tiempo térmico trimestral actual de la región. Las áreas verdes corresponden a condiciones relativamente buenas para el cultivo, las rojas tiempo térmico encima del óptimo, por ejemplo, el valle central de Risaralda y la baja acumulación de temperatura en las áreas amarillas.La Figura 3E muestra la precipitación acumulada y el rango diurno trimestral para 1980-2010. La distribución de las precipitaciones durante el año sigue un régimen bimodal. Las temporadas DJF y JJA muestran una fuerte sequía estacional. Durante la fase de floración, el cultivo de café necesita déficits hídricos, esta fase ocurre en los cuartos secos del año DJF y JJA. Sin embargo, si estos períodos secos se prolongan demasiado, pueden afectar la apertura floral, el crecimiento vegetativo y el llenado de frutos, mientras que el exceso de agua favorece la presencia de enfermedades en el cultivo y promueve el lavado de nutrientes en el suelo (Ramirez, Jaramillo, & Arcila, 2010). En MAM y SON, las lluvias son generalizadas con altos volúmenes e intensidades. Este patrón común de contraste de precipitación en la región está bien capturado por el algoritmo de interpolación. La resolución espacial de 500 m capturara la variedad ambiental que se puede perder a bajas resoluciones, particularmente en las montañas.Risaralda. Superficies climáticas generadas con estaciones meteorológicas y el método de interpolación descrito. Zona cafetera delimitada en negro.La evapotranspiración en la zona cafetera de Risaralda es de aproximadamente 3-4 mm por día. Por lo tanto, una temporada seca para el café sería una temporada con precipitaciones por debajo del umbral de evapotranspiración (300 mm por trimestre). Esto ocurre generalmente en los meses de DJF y JJA, cuando hay un déficit de agua para los cultivos de café en Risaralda. Las dos estaciones de menor disponibilidad de agua están bien representadas por las superficies interpoladas. Después de la estación seca (DJF y JJA) comienza la estación lluviosa donde la cosecha comienza a florecer (MAM e SON). Esto ocurre a mediados de abril y octubre-noviembre, donde se realiza la cosecha más grande del año. Las superficies interpoladas muestran un mayor suministro de agua para MAM y SON lo cuál concuerda con el patrón histórico (IDEAM, 2005(IDEAM, , 2015) ) y la dinámica del crecimiento vegetativo y reproductivo del café. Los meses lluviosos históricamente condicionan las actividades agrícolas en la zona cafetera.El rango óptimo de temperatura para el crecimiento del café está entre 18-22°C, que corresponde al rango de temperatura promedio en la zona de café mostrada por las superficies. En marzo y noviembre, el rango de temperatura diurna debe ser inferior a 10°C para no afectar el desarrollo del fruto, lo que cuál también es capturado por la interpolación. Además, en el trimestre DJF se presentan temperaturas superiores a 10°C en la zona cafetera, lo que fisiológicamente estimula el proceso de floración. En el centro del departamento hay un gradiente térmico mayor que no es adecuado para la condición del café (Figura 3). La interpolación usando la metodología de thin-plate spline genera patrones y magnitudes de precipitación y temperatura consistentes con las condiciones biofísicas y topográficas de la región.Las proyecciones de cambio climático para Risaralda se muestran en las Figura 4 a Figura 6. Para la temperatura máxima y mínima, el cambio proyectado en 2030 muestra un aumento entre 0.7°C y 1.4°C. Los cambios proyectados en las variables climáticas fueron similares en los escenarios de medios y bajas emisiones (RCP 2.6, 4.5 y 6.0) y más significativos en el escenario de altas emisiones (RCP 8.5). La temperatura máxima crece a una tasa mayor que la temperatura mínima en la mayoría de los escenarios y temporadas, sugiriendo valores más altos de grados día en todas las etapas fenológicas del cultivo. La tasa de cambio de la precipitación acumulada mensual en Risaralda en 2020 y 2030 fluctúa entre -10% y 40% con mayores aumentos en la temporada más seca (DJF) y aumentos mucho menores en la segunda temporada seca (JJA). En el área de café se proyectan aumentos y disminuciones ligeras cuando comienza la temporada de lluvias (MAM e SON), y el cultivo comienza a florecer principalmente en el trimestre SON. La tendencia del cambio es la misma en todos los escenarios, pero con mayor contraste (positivo / negativo) para las emisiones más altas. Incluso el escenario de emisiones más altas no presenta en ninguno de los períodos aumentos en la precipitación por encima del + 40% en la estación seca y más del + 15% en la estación lluviosa. Utilizamos los cambios proyectados para Risaralda para la temperatura mínima y máxima y la precipitación como entrada para calcular índices agroclimáticos. En las proyecciones, observamos aumentos de la temperatura mínima y máxima, reducciones en la precipitación de hasta el 30% durante la primera mitad de 2030 y aumentos en los siguientes trimestres, lo que podría conducir a eventos climáticos más extremos. Así mismo, se proyectan sequías más prolongadas o precipitaciones más fuertes que cambian las condiciones climáticas actuales de un área adecuada para el cultivo de café. Los cambios proyectados son más extremos en las áreas que actualmente se identifican como vulnerables al déficit hídrico en el departamento (ver Tabla 2). La temperatura mínima muestra aumentos en todos los escenarios de cambio climático y van de 0°C a 1.4 °C para 2020 y 2030 respectivamente. En el escenario RCP 8.5 hacia 2020s se proyectan aumentos homogéneos en todo el departamento y trimestres del año, mientras que en los otro escenarios los aumentos son mayores en las zonas cafetaleras durante el primer trimestre del año. Ese comportamiento es mostrado bajo el escenario RCP 6.0 en el periodo marzo-agosto. Bajo RCP 4.5 y 6.0 en septiembrenoviembre se muestran mayores aumentos para la zona cafetera que otras zonas del departamento.(Figura 4). En 2030 se proyectan aún mayores incrementos de la temperatura mínima. En DJF y MAM y bajo los escenarios RCP 4.5 y 8.5 podría haber aumentos en la zona del café que afectarían la fase de floración, principalmente hacia el valle central del departamento. En JJA, este comportamiento es el mismo en RCP 2.6 a RCP 4.5, mientras que en SON los aumentos en la temperatura mínima presentan un comportamiento más homogéneo en todo el departamento.La temperatura máxima aumentaría en todo el departamento entre 0.6° C y 1.5°C. En 2020, los aumentos en la temperatura máxima no exceden los 1.2°C, siendo más altos en RCP 8.5 y menores en RCP 6.0 (Figura 5). En 2030 se proyecta incrementos en la temperatura máxima que van desde 0.8°C a 1.4°C, siendo mayores los aumentos en RCP 8.5. Bajo este escenario, en el trimestre MAM, la temperatura sería mucho mayor que en la zona cafetera actual (Figura 5).Durante 2020s se proyectan cambios en las precipitaciones que van desde reducciones del 10% para el primer trimestre del año hasta aumentos de hasta el 5%. Las reducciones en las precipitaciones durante el primer trimestre se encuentran principalmente en el escenario RCP 8.5, lo que podría generar un déficit de agua para la cosecha de café durante la crecimiento del fruto, principalmente en las áreas identificadas como vulnerables en déficit de agua (Tabla 2). De acuerdo con las proyecciones, los mayores aumentos en el último semestre del año son mayores en RCP 2.6 y RCP 4.5. (Figura 6). En 2030s proyectamos reducciones que llegan hasta el 30% en Mistrató bajo el RCP 8.5 durante el primer trimestre del año, lo que hará que esta zona sea aún más vulnerable al déficit hídrico. De acuerdo con las proyecciones, las reducciones en la precipitación para este período se mantendrían hasta el último trimestre de cada año donde se evidenciarían aumentos de hasta 10% (Figura 6).El pH y la materia orgánica se consideran como características químicas del suelo determinantes para el crecimiento del café junto con los macro y micronutrientes (Arcila P., Farfan V., Moreno B., Salazar G., & Hincapie G., 2007). En Colombia, el café crece generalmente con pH entre 5.0 y 6.0. La acidez del suelo afecta el desarrollo de la planta debido a su influencia en la disponibilidad de ciertos elementos esenciales tóxicos para la planta. Por el contrario, cuando el pH del suelo es muy alto o básico debido principalmente a los altos contenidos de calcio, podemos observar deficiencias en micronutrientes.Se tomó el pH y el porcentaje de materia orgánica como indicadores para evaluar la presencia de café. En la Figura 7 se describe el comportamiento del pH en el departamento y su relación con los puntos de presencia de café en la región. A pesar de que se muestra que pH está entre los valores óptimos solicitados por el cultivo de café, no se disponía de información de esta variable en áreas externas el corredor del café, lo que explica que el pH no está altamente correlacionado con la presencia de café en la región.pH del suelo en Risaralda pH vs coffee presence % OM del suelo en Risaralda %OM vs coffee presence Figura 7. Relación entre pH y presencia de café (arriba) y Relación entre material orgánico y presencia de café (abajo).La materia orgánica es un indicador de la productividad del suelo pues es considerado como una fuente de nutrientes como nitrógeno, fósforo, azufre, boro y zinc, entre otros. Esto aumenta la capacidad de intercambio de cationes y proporciona energía para la actividad de microorganismos (Arcila P. et al., 2007). La cantidad de materia orgánica en el suelo más que la presencia de café determina la cantidad de urea y nitrógeno añadidos al proceso de fertilización. En la Figura 8B observamos valores bajos de materia orgánica, que a más de demostrar la ausencia del cultivo, implica mayores costos en los procesos de fertilización. Por lo tanto, se explica la falta de asociación de este indicador de suelo con la presencia/ausencia del cultivo.Las mejores condiciones físicas para la cosecha de café se producen en suelos de ceniza volcánica, que tienen en general buena textura (Francos) y estructura granular además de buena profundidad efectiva de 40-60 cm (Arcila P. et al., 2007). La Figura 8 muestra la caracterización de las texturas del suelo en el corredor de café de Risaralda. Se observa que la mayoría de los suelos en la caracterización son francolimosos (aproximadamente 43%) y arcillosos. En suelos con textura arcillosa encontramos menos puntos con presencia de café a pesar de que se encontraban dentro del corredor del café.Figura 8. Relación entre textura del suelo y la presencia/ausencia de café en la región.Previamente, realizamos un proceso de selección de variables. En contraste con estudios previos de CENICAFE y CIAT, ajustamos los modelos usando el tiempo térmico en la fase de floración (DJF), la precipitación, su variación en el trimestre más seco del año (JJA) y la variación anual de temperatura. De esta forma, tenemos variables explicativas no correlacionadas que no generan redundancias ni multicolinealidad. Calibramos tres modelos de aprendizaje automático (machine learning): Random Forest (RF) y Maxent, Generalized Boosting Model (GBM). Dos modelos basados en regresiones: modelo lineal generalizado (GLM) y modelos aditivos generalizados (GAM). Utilizamos el 70% de las observaciones actuales con 15 repeticiones de cada modelo, para finalmente proyectar la aptitud de un área en particular como el porcentaje de modelos que coinciden en que el área observada es adecuada para el cultivo.Realizamos una validación cruzada para todos los modelos ajustados y calculamos la proporción de predicciones correctas para los puntos de presencia/ausencia de café (Figura 9). Todos los modelos describen un nivel de precisión superior al 70%. Los modelos de aprendizaje automático GBM, RF y MAXENT fueron más precisos en predicción que los modelos basados en regresión. Sin embargo, dado que todos tenían una buena precisión, hicimos un conjunto de todos para las proyecciones de aptitud en Risaralda manteniendo la información de todos los modelos ajustados.Figura 9. Validación cruzada de los modelos de presencia/ausencia de café en Risaralda.Las áreas aptas para el cultivo de café se encuentran actualmente entre 1200 y 1800 msnm, con condiciones climáticas cercanas a las exhibidas por Arcila et al. (2007) y verificadas en los análisis de correlación que realizamos. Las áreas no aptas para el café son aquellas con tiempos térmicos inferiores a 600°C y superiores a 1400°C. La Figura 10 muestra los 38.362 puntos con presencia de café en Risaralda observados entre 2011 y 2016 con los cuales se ajustaron los cinco modelos de distribución de especies. Cada modelo individual tiene un mejor ajuste en algunas áreas que en otras. Por ejemplo, los modelos de regresión (GAM, GLM) y Maxent predicen mejor la no presencia de café hacia el área de Dosquebradas, mientras que para los modelos de aprendizaje automático esta área es adecuada. En consecuencia, unir la información de todos los modelos permite capturar una señal de aptitud o presencia de café más cercana a los datos observados.Figura 10. Distribución actual de café en base a las observaciones y a modelos de aprendizaje automático y de regresión.En base a las proyecciones futuras de los índices agroclimáticos para los años 2020 y 2030, evaluamos la aptitud agroclimática para el cultivo del café. La aptitud se proyecta para cada uno de los 14 GCM en los cuatro escenarios futuros. Realizamos un total de 1400 proyecciones por RCP con cada una de las 25 réplicas de los modelos ajustados. La Figura 11 muestra que las proyecciones de aptitud para el futuro son más bajas en la década de 2030, lo que sugiere que la aptitud disminuye con el tiempo. En el futuro, las áreas más altas, como la Colina de las Palomas, tienden a ser más adecuadas principalmente bajo RCP 8.5 y 6.0 como consecuencia de los mayores aumentos de temperatura en estos escenarios. El área del Valle central de Risaralda y el área al norte de la cordillera occidental seguirán siendo inadecuada para la cosecha de café.Los cambios en el futuro son la diferencia en la aptitud actual menos las proyecciones futuras. La Figura 11 muestra más pérdida de áreas aptas de café en la década de 2030 que en la de 2020, lo que sugiere que estas pérdidas aumentarían con el tiempo. Para ambas décadas, se proyecta una mayor pérdida de aptitud para la cosecha de café en el noreste de la región y en el valle central de Risaralda. Los municipios de Balboa, Celia, Quinchia, Belén de Umbría y Mistrató son áreas actualmente identificadas como vulnerables al déficit hídrico (García, Posada, & Läderach, 2014). En contraste, sobre algunas regiones se proyectan ganancias de aptitud para el cultivo del café. Particularmente, son las áreas más altas tales como la Colina de las palomas, los lugares cerca del Cerro Tatama, área que también tiene una gran cantidad de fuentes de agua por lo que es menos vulnerable a los déficits de agua y la parte de Santa Rosa de Cabal que limita con el parque de nieve. Todo ello obedece principalmente a los aumentos de temperatura en estos lugares (Figura 12).    Nota: Valores en Km2 y considerando un mínimo de aptitud agro-climática de 30%Actualmente, las condiciones agroclimáticas ideales para los cultivos de café en Risaralda están entre 1200 y 1800 msnm, con una latitud entre 4° y 5°. En ese sentido analizamos la muestra la distribución ideal de altitud y latitud para el café según las futuras proyecciones agroclimáticas futuras (Figura 13). Observamos que en los años 2020 y 2030, las áreas con la mayor aptitud para los cultivos de café son aproximadamente entre 2000 y 2200m, con latitudes entre 5.1 ° y 5.3 ° aproximadamente. Este resultado implica la necesidad de evaluar la posibilidad de llegar a estas zonas para plantar de cultivo, ya que puede haber restricciones económicas o de la zona.Figura 13. Distribución de los cambios de aptitud para café en Risaralda con base a altitud.Pre procesamiento de las imágenesDebido a las condiciones de relieve de la ubicación de las zonas cafeteras, el desempeño de la clasificación de cobertura se ve afectado en relación al ángulo de inclinación del terreno. De esta forma, para trabajar en la identificación de la señal de reflectancia en zonas con altas pendientes, es necesario realizar una corrección topográfica de iluminación. Tan et al (Tan et al., 2013), comprobó un aumento significativo en el desempeño de los modelos para identificar cambios de bosques, cuando se dio una corrección de la señal considerando la inclinación del terreno. Como primer paso hacia la corrección de la imagen se calcula la condición de luminosidad (IC). Esta métrica es función de: el ángulo cenital del sol (Z), la pendiente del terreno (S), el ángulo azimuth del sol (\uD835\uDF11 \uD835\uDC67 ), y finalmente el ángulo de aspecto de la topografía (\uD835\uDF11 \uD835\uDC60 ). Es calculada como se describe ecuación 1 IC = cos \uD835\uDC4D cos \uD835\uDC46 + sin \uD835\uDC4D sin \uD835\uDC46 cos(\uD835\uDF11 \uD835\uDC67 − \uD835\uDF11 \uD835\uDC60 ) (1)Una vez estimada la condición de luminosidad, se procede a encontrar la reflectancia corregida para un plano horizontal (\uD835\uDC3F \uD835\uDC3B ) para cada banda espectral. La ecuación 2 es empleada para tal propósito. Las entradas de esta son: la reflectancia medida en un plano inclinado (\uD835\uDC3F \uD835\uDC56 ) y un coeficiente (c) derivado de la regresión lineal entre la condición de iluminación y \uD835\uDC3F \uD835\uDC56 . Este enfoque es conocido como modelo C:En la Figura 14 se aprecia el resultado de corregir la imagen con la técnica mencionada anteriormente. En la imagen de la izquierda se notan colores más oscuras en zonas montañosas, dicha coloración desaparece parcialmente en la imagen de la derecha. Esta metodología fue aplicada a cada una de las imágenes envueltas en el estudio.Figura 14. Antes (izquierda) y después de realizar la corrección de por iluminación a una imagen Landsat OLI.Un reto en el uso de imágenes ópticas, especialmente en zonas tropicales como Colombia, es la alta presencia de zonas cubiertas por nubes o sombras. Zhu (Zhu & Woodcock, 2012) plantea una serie de técnicas que relacionan cada banda espectral con umbrales específicos, con la intención de retirar aquellos pixeles que se encuentren afectados por estos fenómenos. La metodología creada recibe el nombre de Fmask, la cual combina varias pruebas para las bandas, determinando una métrica de pixeles con presencia potencial de nubes. Actualmente el catálogo de Google Earth Engine, incluye las imágenes Landsat con una capa inferida a partir de Fmask, que resalta la presencia de nubes, sombras y zonas con agua. Dicha capa fue usada para filtrar cada una de las imágenes del estudio (Figura 15).Figura 15. Antes (izquierda) y después de remover zonas con nubes y sombras a una imagen Landsat OLI Capa de predicción de Presencia de caféCon el fin de asegurar una muestra de lotes que correspondieran efectivamente a una parcela de café, y extrapolar a todos los lotes cafeteros del departamento. Desarrollamos una metodología para crear una capa mapeando espacialmente la presencia del cultivo. Para ello se entrenó un modelo de clasificación supervisada conocido como arboles de clasificación y regresión o CART (Loh, 2011). Este algoritmo de aprendizaje automático requiere un conjunto de variables que describan el comportamiento del elemento a clasificar. En este sentido, se realizó una extracción de un grupo de lotes de café que cumplieran los siguientes requerimientos:-Generamos un subset de datos correspondientes a los lote de libre exposición al sol (sacando los de café con sombrío) -Verificamos con fotos aéreas que el punto corresponde a un lote agrícola y con arbustos de café -Elegimos puntos que corresponden a los lotes de menor pendiente, para empezar con condiciones más favorables para la percepción remota. -Comparamos los puntos con el respectivo pixel de Landsat para asegurar que más de 80% del pixel corresponde al lote a caracterizar, evitando mezclas de señales (pedazos de carreteras, cercas, arboles…) que podrían dificultar el primer ejercicio.Figura 16. Ejemplo de un punto SICA donde el pixel de Landsat (30 m), compromete parte de carretera y otro lote.El subconjunto de datos final conto con 534 parcelas donde se podía asegurar que correspondiera a un cultivo de café. Adicional a los puntos de entrenamiento de café, el modelo requiere conocer los atributos de puntos que no son café. La selección de estas áreas se dio a partir de una imagen aérea escogiendo zonas que correspondían a: arboles, cuerpos de agua, zonas urbanas, suelo desnudo, pasturas entre otros. En total se asignaron 422 puntos para árboles y 401 de coberturas distintas a café. Los tres tipos de cobertura suman 1357 puntos que constituyeron en set de entrenamiento del modelo.Las variables explicativas, son calculadas a partir de la media, máximo y desviación estándar de las bandas espectrales medidas por el satélite, para cada punto, durante un periodo de 2 años (2015 y 2016).Figura 17. Imagen compuesta libre de nubes, obtenida de la media de las imágenes capturadas durante dos años (2015 -2016).En la Figura 18 se aprecian los valores obtenidos por cada variable, agrupados por tipo de coberturas. Se observa que existe una distinción entre los valores que corresponden a puntos de no café y café, en variables cómo media de NDVI o máximo en swir2. Sin embargo, las variables propuestas no capturan una diferencia clara entre árboles y café.Figura 18. Diagrama de cajas indicando la distribución de la extracción de las bandas para cada tipo de cobertura.Con base a lo anterior optamos por una clasificación en dos etapas, la primera removiendo aquellos elementos que son fácilmente diferenciables de la reflectancia de café (carreteras, suelos, cultivos transitorios, etc.) y el segundo filtrando con alguna señal distinguible con árboles.La identificación de zonas cafeteras, se da mediante el filtro de una imagen compuesta por imágenes de dos años (2015 y 2016). Los pixeles de la imagen se van descartando a medida que las bandas espectrales no cumplan una serie de condiciones; estas reglas son derivadas a partir de un modelo de árbol de clasificación, el cual fue entrenado con 567 puntos (280 correspondieron a café y 287 a no café) y se realizó una validación cruzada con 242 datos (109 de café, y 133 de no café). La validación arrojo un coeficiente determinístico de 83% en R² y un coeficiente kappa de 0.97. En la Figura 19 se muestran las condiciones que debe completar cada pixel de la imagen compuesta para satisfacer los criterios de café (1 es café y 0 es no café).Figura 19. Árbol de clasificación, resultante para diferenciar café de otras zonas (suelos, zonas urbanas, cultivos transitorios, caminos, etc).De la primera clasificación deriva un mapa con sobrestimación de las posibles regiones con presencia de café. Esto causado por la presencia de árboles. El segundo modelo de entrenamiento se enfocó únicamente en encontrar la diferencia de entre árboles y café. Debido a algunas debilidades que son implícitas al modelo de CART al momento de optimizar criterios de estimación y selección de variables dependientes, optamos por utilizar un modelo de árboles condicionales (Hothorn & Hornik, 2006). Para este modelo se emplearon 608 puntos, de los cuales 313 correspondieron a café y 295 a árboles. Para la validación se usaron 142 puntos de café y 118 de árboles. El desempeño del modelo escogido fue de 54 % en R² y con un kappa del 0.87. Pese a tener un desempeño bajo en el R², la clasificación ofrece una mejora al momento de eliminar áreas con alta densidad de árboles, siendo el kappa muy cercano a 1.Figura 20. Árbol condicional de clasificación, resultante para diferenciar café de áreas con árboles.Adicional a los filtros propuestos por los modelos, se realizó una extracción considerando la elevación al cual es plantado el café. Se eliminan aquellas zonas que se encuentren con altura sobre el nivel del mar fuera del rango de 1150 msnm a 1950 msnm.En la Figura 22 se observan las dos capas resultantes después de haber sometido la imagen compuesta a las mascaras descritas anteriormente. De color verde se indica el resultado del primer modelo y de color azul el resultado final.Figura 21. Capas de clasificación cubriendo áreas con posible presencia de café. Color verde es el resultado del modelo de CART y de color azul la capa extrayendo algunas zonas con árboles.El mapa resultante indica un área de 88101 hectáreas con cultivo de café. Según la encuesta Nacional Agropecuaria, el total de área destinada a Café en Risaralda es de 53000 hectáreas (DANE, 2013). Pese a que el modelo tiene una sobreestimación en la identificación del cultivo, provocado por coberturas de tipo arbóreo, resalta la presencia de posibles zonas cafeteras.Otro factor que incide en la construcción del modelo es la señal proveniente del cafetal; es decir el espectro varía dependiendo: de la edad en la que se encuentra el cultivo, el espaciamiento entre cada planta, presencia de árboles que ofrecen sombra al cultivo, entre otros. En la Figura 22 se observa la imagen aérea de una región con presencia de café, en ella se destacan tres coberturas, una con árboles y otras dos expuestas al sol, pero con distancias de plantación distintas.Figura 22. Identificación de distintos tipos de cobertura para una zona de interés. De color rojo se encuentra la cobertura 1, la 2 se resalta de color verde y finalmente la azul corresponde a la 3.Al evaluar las tres coberturas se aprecian diferencias en algunas bandas (Figura 23), de esta forma la segunda, al contar con presencia arboles la reflectancia en el infrarrojo cercano va a ser mayor que las otras. La diferencia de las otras dos es levemente capturada en el NDVI, donde una mayor concentración de plantas implicaría una mayor absorbancia en el espectro del rojo.Figura 23. Comparación de tres distintos tipos de cobertura.La clasificación de la cobertura identificada como café, ayuda a crear una diferenciación del tipo de sistema establecido en el lugar. Esta herramienta es útil al momento de inventariar el tipo de producción que se lleva en la región.Existen metodologías de clasificación no supervisada aplicadas en imágenes satelitales con el propósito de agrupar pixeles con espectros de banda similares. El escogido para este estudio fue el de k-means, el cual, es uno de los métodos más ampliamente utilizados en clasificación de imágenes de sensores remotos (Esche & Franklin, 2002).La imagen Landsat seleccionada debía cumplir con los criterios de poseer poca nubosidad y abarcar la mayor área posible de estudio. Siguiendo lo anterior, fue escogida una imagen Landsat 8, tomada el 8 de julio de 2016. Empleando la librería cclust de R, se seleccionaron 20 clústeres (Figura 24). La clasificación se efectúa solo sobre los pixeles que habían sido detectados como \"café\" por el anterior modelo árbol de inferencia condicionada.Figura 24. Clasificación de una imagen Landsat, filtrada en la zona identificada como café.El algoritmo de clasificación alcanza a captar diferencias entre cada banda, de esta forma para el caso de ejemplo expuesto en la Figura 22, la metodología agrupo la cobertura tipo 1 en el clúster 2, la 2 en el clúster 18, y la 3 en el clúster 13.Figura 25. Agrupación de los distintos tipos de cobertura.Al evaluar la medición de infrarrojo cercano para estos grupos, se observa que la tendencia observada al inicio se mantiene, siendo la de mayor reflectancia, aquellos pixeles con presencia de árboles. La clasificación no supervisada, permitió comprobar la posibilidad de identificar distintos sistemas cafeteros por medio de una imagen satelital. Sin embargo al no contar con una precisión de qué tipo de sistema es capturado en cada punto, impide tener la certeza de lo que se interpreta sea lo real en campo.Por tal motivo este ejercicio se deja planteada para futuros análisis. De igual forma algunos grupos con un número bajo de pixeles (ejemplo el 15), fueron removidos de la capa, debido a su poca representatividad.Con el ánimo de contar con el mayor número de lotes de café y asegurar que su posición efectivamente correspondía al cultivo, se pasó a remover aquellos puntos de la base de datos SICA que no intersectaban espacialmente con el mapa de posibles zonas cafeteras resultado del análisis de imágenes satelitales. De esta forma 14596 puntos, conformados por la base de datos de SICA para los años 2015-2016, se redujeron a 9888. En la Figura 27 se resaltan algunos puntos que fueron excluidos del estudio. Como se aprecia los registros de color verde se encontraban en zonas cercanas a carreteras o en lotes sin cobertura.A pesar de tener una tendencia a sobreestimar el área con café, 4708 puntos reportados como café en el SICA no fueron validados por el algoritmo. Fueron removidos del dataset.Figura 27. Puntos removidos del dataset a evaluar. Aquellos puntos que su ubicación espacial coincide con la capa, se muestran de color rojo. De color verde se resaltan aquellos que están por fuera del área de presencia de café.El siguiente paso consiste en extraer los valores de huella espectral de cada punto para construir las respectivas series temporales. La extracción de la información de las bandas espectrales se hizo empleando los 9888 puntos, identificados como lotes con presencia de café. Las series temporales fueron objeto de varios filtros, con el fin de garantizar que la medición correspondiese al cultivo de café y no a una sombra o a una nube. Dentro de las depuraciones realizadas se encuentran:-Se eliminaron mediciones cuyos valores estuvieran fuera de los rangos encontrados para cada banda espectral. Dichos umbrales fueron fijados basados en una clasificación de coberturas no supervisada, realizado a una imagen de Landsat OLI. -La suavización de las series temporal se realizó con la intención de remover ruido generado durante la medición, ocasionado por variaciones atmosféricas, efectos bidireccionales, etc. Este tipo de procedimiento es bastante común al momento de crear series temporales de alta calidad (Chen, Chen, & Jo, 2004). De acuerdo a lo anterior, se evaluó que las ventanas de tiempo (4 meses), fueran conformadas con mínimo dos datos. Los valores del índice vegetal se promediaron. Un inconveniente al momento de evaluar las series temporal fue el de remover la influencia que ocasionan las renovaciones (renovación por zoca) sobre la medición de las bandas espectrales. Con el fin de encontrar una forma rápida de identificar fechas donde se haya realizado alguna práctica sobre el cultivo, utilizamos el índice de suelos descubiertos (BSI) (Banerjee, Panda, Bandyopadhyay, & Jain, 2014). Este índice fue empleado basado en la idea de que al realizar alguna actividad de renovación, ocasionaría una reducción drástica de la cobertura vegetal, derivando en una mayor exposición del suelo.La comparación de este índice se realizó entre las mediciones capturadas en el momento de haberse realizado una actividad y un periodo distinto donde no se cuente con dicha particularidad.Figura 29. Serie temporal resaltando periodos con renovaciones de siembra (azul) y renovación de zoca (rojo).En la Figura 29 se muestra las mediciones temporales de NDVI (arriba), y BSI, para el lote 660880012013. Este punto tiene reportado dos prácticas en las bases de datos de 2015 y 2016; las fechas de renovación son Febrero de 2011 (renovación de siembra) y otra para febrero de 2016 (renovación de zoca), para asociarlo en forma de ventana de nueve meses, se le adicionan a la fecha dos meses atrás y siete meses hacia adelante. Estas se muestran de color azul y rojo respectivamente. Para la renovación de 2016, se aprecia una coincidencia en la caída del NDVI y un aumento del BSI, sin embargo para 2011 esta respuesta sale de la ventana, y se da al final del año.A partir de este análisis se determinó un umbral donde el periodo fuera eliminado si superara en promedio un valor de BSI (-0.2).Estudios han demostrado que cambios en el NDVI están correlacionados con cambios en la productividad (Bernardes et al. 2012;Lopresti, Di Bella, and Degioanni 2015;Mosleh, Hassan, y Chowdhury 2015). Al contar con los registros del índice vegetal, se pasó a comparar su tendencia lineal durante cuatro meses, por medio de cambios positivos o negativos de la pendiente. Así se calculó la ecuación de regresión lineal, empleando mediciones que se hayan podido obtener durante 4 meses, esta ventana fue desplazada cada mes a través de los 16 años (2000 y 2016).Figura 30. Regresión Lineal para una ventana de tiempo.El número total de regresiones iba variando entre cada ventana, ya que los eventos no completaban el número adecuado de mediciones (esto por condiciones atmosféricas: alta nubosidad, sombra etc.). En la Figura 31 se muestra el total de registros reunidos por ventana. Cabe de resaltar el aumento importante de lecturas a partir del año 2013, esto ocasionada por la puesta en funcionamiento de Landsat 8.Figura 31. Número de regresiones lineales hechas por cada ventana de tiempo.La identificación de las anomalías en la serie temporal, se da por medio de la clasificación de la pendiente, calculada por la regresión lineal. Si este valor se encuentra por fuera del 80 % de la tendencia central, se considera cómo valor extremo. Posteriormente era categorizado como positivo o negativo. Al contar con la clasificación de pendientes, se pasa a realizar un conteo de eventos extremos de pendientes. En la Figura 32 se observa la distribución porcentual de la cantidad de eventos con pendientes negativas, normales y positivas, presentes en el periodo de 4 meses evaluado. Con el ánimo de contar con una robustez en la categorización de la ventana de tiempo, únicamente se consideraron aquellos periodos con más de 200 registros.En esta imagen se puede apreciar periodos como el de 2014 y 2016 que acumulan una mayor cantidad de pendientes positivas, los eventos negativos se concentran en octubre 2013 y 2015.Figura 32. Distribución de las categorías de la pendiente a través del tiempo.Este análisis permite identificar los periodos en los que se presentaron anomalías significativas en el NDVI a nivel del departamento. En principios, se destacan 2013 y 2015 como dos años en que los cafetales sufrieron más que de costumbre. Pueden ser entonces buenos candidatos para el estudios de fincas resilientes (que serían las que mantuvieron pendientes normales) versus fincas vulnerables (las que tuvieron caídas en el NDVI). Sin embargo es necesario confirmar la relación con el clima por medio del estudio de las series temporales de datos climáticos.La capa resultante del modelo de detección de café destaca zonas que han tenido presencia de café, pero no excluye totalmente lugares donde existan árboles o bosques (sobreestimación del área total de café). Incluso permitió remover 4708 puntos reportados como café en la base de datos SICA para los cuales la ubicación geográfica no coincidía con una cobertura de café.Al entrar a evaluar cada imagen se puede apreciar una diferenciación de los comportamientos que son capturados para cada sistema de producción del café (según el nivel de sombrío). Con esta distinción se puede llegar a tener mayor detalle en cuanto al tipo de caficultura que se maneja.Para relacionar eventos climáticos con las pendientes del índice vegetal, se extrajeron los valores del delta de las variables climáticas (valor mensual de clima menos la normal del periodo 1981-2016), usando todos los puntos de café categorizados en cada una de las ventanas de tiempo de la figura 20. Al no tener certeza del tiempo de repuesta del cultivo a condiciones de clima, se decidió estudiar la influencia de las anomalías climáticas con rezagos de 0 a 4 meses.Posteriormente, se realizó una exploración, para observar la distribución de cada categoría de pendientes de huella espectral por cada una de las variables climáticas. En la Figura 33 vemos que a nivel general, para la temperatura promedio, entre 2 a 5.5 ˚C por encima de lo normal, hay una alta presencia de pendientes negativas y normales. La presencia de pendientes positivas aumenta cuando el valor de temperatura supera los 5.5 ˚C por encima de la normal. Este resultado sugiere que, a nivel global de todo el set de datos, las caídas de NDVI se asocian a rangos de anomalías positivas de temperaturas promedio entre 2 y 5 °C. Se considera este rango de valores como un limitante en el desempeño del NDVI.Figura 33. Distribución de los deltas de temperatura para cada categoría de pendiente y para 5 distintos retrasos.Considerando ahora el subset de datos que cumplen con dicho rango, se pasó a evaluar la influencia de la precipitación. Observamos que los lotes afectados negativamente en NDVI se asocian a situaciones climáticas de déficit de lluvia (Figura 34). Una vez más observamos que los tres grupos de pendientes de NDVI tienden a diferenciarse mas con un rezago más largo (4 meses).Figura 34. Distribución de los deltas de precipitación para cada categoría de pendiente y para 5 distintos retrasos.Las condiciones climáticas que afectaron el desempeño del índice vegetal para algunas fincas, fueron entonces: una temperatura promedio cercana a la normal climatológica, resaltando que la normal se encuentra con límite muy bajo debido las condiciones de extrema temperatura de los últimos años (2015-2016), con una deficiencia en la precipitación. Haciendo el conteo de los eventos que cumplieron con estas dos condiciones vemos que esta combinación se da principalmente en el año 2015 (Figura 35).Figura 35. Conteo de los eventos resultantes, después de haber filtrado por condiciones de clima.En esta sección hemos buscado vincular las anomalías de clima con las de NDVI, encontrando que la mayor relación se da en periodos de sequía y de temperaturas promedio cercanas a la normal, como fue el caso a principios del 2015. A continuación procedemos a examinar donde se ubican las zonas con climas permanentemente desfavorables.Otro enfoque que fue abordado para encontrar las condiciones climáticamente desfavorables de forma crónica para mantener un cultivo de café, fue la de crear un clasificación de zonas climáticas. Esta se basó en la descripción de la relación de los indicadores climáticos definidos para la modelación de presencia de café en la región y los puntos de presencia; así se observó que los puntos con presencia de café en la región tienen condiciones climáticas similares a los de la Tabla 5. Los valores de temperatura y tiempo térmico coinciden con los valores sugeridos en el informe de Cenicafé acerca de variabilidad climática y floración de café (2011).De acuerdo a lo anterior se definió que una zona climática apta en la actualidad (línea base modelación de café), es aquella que cumpla las condiciones de la Tabla 5 y se les calificó de acuerdo al cumplimiento de estas condiciones climáticas. Así una zona muy apta para café será clasificada con 5 si cumple todas las condiciones de la tabla 1 y aquellas zonas que no cumplan ninguna de las condiciones climáticas observadas será calificada como zona de aptitud 0 (Figura 36. Mapa de zonas climáticas). Las zonas que cumplen parte de dichas condiciones serán clasificadas como de aptitud intermedia, con su número representando la cantidad de condiciones que cumplió. De acuerdo a los valores de presencia observados se puede ver que el café se encuentra en las áreas con aptitud mayor o igual a 3 y que además muchas de las zonas donde hay presencia de café y tienen aptitud 3, se encuentran clasificadas en informes de Cenicafé 2014, como vulnerables al déficit hídrico, por ejemplo las zonas cercanas a Belén de Umbría, Mistrató, Balboa. Este mapa de zonificación de la aptitud promedio de las zonas del departamento complementa el estudio anterior de los eventos (anomalías) puntuales significativamente alejados de la normal para tener una imagen de donde y cuando los cafetales fueron expuestos a condiciones adversas.Figura 37. Medición de las pendientes para cada lote cafetero en el periodo propuesto bajo las condiciones desfavorables de clima.Con un objetivo de 60 encuestas, construimos una muestra aleatoria estructurada de 80 puntos detectados como café y distribuidos de la siguiente forma: 41 puntos pendiente negativa del índice vegetal, 38 con pendiente normal, y finalmente 1 punto con pendiente positiva.Adicional a eso, la muestra fue distribuida geográficamente para representar las diferentes zonas climáticas (Tabla 2).Tabla 6. Número de fincas seleccionadas por pendiente, y zona climática. En la Figura 38 observamos el mapa final con la distribución espacial de las 80 fincas seleccionadas.Figura 38. Mapa con la ubicación de las fincas seleccionadas para la encuesta.Obtuvimos una muestra de 80 predios a encuestar, de los cuales 61 se encuestaron por un facilitador contratado por el proyecto.Una vez identificadas las fincas que se vieron impactadas por los eventos extremos de clima y las que mostraron resiliencia, se hace necesario indagar el porqué de dichas diferencias.La encuesta fue enfocada para obtener información sobre el manejo técnico del café en las fincas escogidas, con el fin de detectar cuales prácticas estaban más asociadas a una mayor resiliencia climática. Cuenta con 6 secciones:1. Información básica de la finca 2. Manejo normal del café (para comparar las prácticas de manejo normales de las fincas en relación con su nivel de resiliencia)3. Entorno de la finca (para evaluar si la presencia de un bosque, una quebrada u otro elemento paisajístico puede estar relacionado con la resiliencia de la finca)4. Percepción de los eventos climáticos anormales ( para comparar con los resultados de la percepción remota)5. Manejo del café en condiciones anormales (para evaluar cómo reaccionan los productores ante una situación climática anormal)6. Preguntas abiertas (para dejar el espacio para que surjan ideas que no habíamos anticipado en la encuesta)Dentro del grupo de variables encuestadas al caficultor, se encuentran aquellas que buscaban caracterizar las condiciones topográficas de la finca, el tipo de siembra del cultivo, las medidas de control ante ataques de plagas y enfermedades, las condiciones extremas de clima que recuerden y hallan afectado la producción del cultivo, entre otras. La encuesta fue diseñada en la plataforma online ODK para poder ser tomada en una tableta directamente. Para consultarla, remitirse al siguiente link: https://enketo.ona.io/x/#YmLK.Es de resaltar que el análisis acerca de la selección de sitios a encuestar se basó en los resultados de percepción remota y a nivel de lote. Pero las encuestas fueron hechas a nivel de finca, debido a la falta de información a un nivel más detallado, en la mayoría de los lugares entrevistados.Una de las preguntas de la encuesta, estuvo planteada con la intención de saber cuáles eran los 3 periodos que el agricultor recordaba como climáticamente extremo. Del total de años mencionados 39 fincas coincidieron que 2015 fue el año que presento un clima extremo. Dicho año, también fue identificado como el de mayor número de eventos con una incidencia negativa en el índice vegetal desde la percepción remota.Figura 39. Años con mayor frecuencia de influencia bajo eventos extremos en clima.Al ser cuestionados acerca de la principal anomalía climática, 39 encuestados coincidieron con que fue el fuerte verano (Figura 40). De estas preguntas abiertas, se confirma que 2015 fue un periodo con condiciones extremas para los agricultores, y que el verano es el fenómeno que más los afectó. Los resultados de las encuestas coinciden con las deducciones que pudimos hacer con base la información satelital.Figura 40. Fenómenos con mayor incidencia en las fincas causadas por eventos extremos en clima.Para saber de qué forma el agricultor fue impactado por estos eventos de clima, se hizo una pregunta abierta que intentaba capturar su percepción. Dentro de los impactos más comunes se encontraban una disminución en la producción, amarillamiento o marchitamiento en las hojas, caídas de hojas o de la flor, y por último demoras al momento del florecimiento (Figura 41). Al momento de comparar con la clasificación obtenida a partir del NDVI, 20 de 29 fincas afectadas por amarillamiento o marchitamiento, tuvieron un efecto negativo. Con base a lo anterior se podría suponer que la señal detectada por el satélite, derivando en el mayor conteo de caídas del índice vegetal, para el año 2015 fue ocasionado por el fuerte verano, causando un marchitamiento en las hojas, causando una caída del índice vegetal.Figura 41. Principales impactos registrados por los caficultores, debido a eventos extremos en clima.Al contar con variables de tipo categórico y numérico, se decidió realizar un análisis de clasificación supervisado, mediante técnicas de aprendizaje automático. De esta forma se pudo extraer cuales eran las variables más influyentes en el tipo de señal derivada por el satélite. Este tipo de metodologías permite encontrar que variables son más relevantes al momento de clasificar el grupo de registros en unas categorías objetivo. De esta forma, se fijaron las categorías objetivo como el tipo de señal de la finca (Negativo y normal), inferido del histórico su índice vegetal; las variables de entrenamiento fueron el conjunto de preguntas formuladas para la encuesta. Al final se contó con una base de datos de 59 registros (Se eliminan dos por no contar con suficiente información en todas las preguntas) y 69 variables explicativas: 68 de las respuestas a las preguntas más la clase de suelo.Considerando la disponibilidad de varios modelos de aprendizaje automático, se optó por aplicar emplear distintos modelos, y así obtener el de desempeño. Dentro de los modelos escogidos están: Extremely Randomized Trees (ExtraTree), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM) y Stochastic Gradient Boosting (GBM). El mejor modelo analizado, fue SVM, con una precisión de 0.7 al momento de clasificar (Figura 42).Figura 42. Desempeño de los modelos de aprendizaje, empleados para clasificar el comportamiento del índice vegetal.Es importante resaltar que 0.7 de precisión significa que de 100 intentos de clasificación, el modelo acierta en 70, lo cual no es ideal, pero sigue siendo mejor que el azar (que tiene 50% de precisión en este caso ya que las categorías son dos). Por lo tanto, los resultados de este modelo deben ser considerados con cautela: no tienen la robustez necesaria como para concluir y dar una recomendación, pero si tienen algo de señal ya que el modelo es de 20% mejor que el azar.Revisando los resultados del modelo (Figura 43), se puede observar cuales fueron las variables con mayor relevancia. En los tres primeros lugares se encuentran: La densidad de siembra, el número de veces en que fue utilizada la fertilización como medida de mitigación a las condiciones extremas de tiempo, y por último la cantidad de fósforo aplicado por el caficultor. Conocimiento experto de CENICAFÉ indica que estas variables tienen una alta influencia en los rendimientos del café y en su respuesta a los eventos climáticos, especialmente de sequía. A continuación se hará un análisis de estas variables.Figura 43. Principales variables encontradas en el modelo de support vector machine.Al entrar a analizar la principal variable, se observa que 22 de las fincas emplean una densidad de siembra de 5100 plantas por hectárea (planta/ha), y que el máximo valor correspondió a alrededor de 7000 plantas por hectárea. Observando la distribución de los datos de densidad por la categoría del índice vegetal, la tendencia es que la proporción de eventos con clasificación negativa es mayor en los cafetales con mayores densidades de siembra. Sin embargo un test de Kruskal-Wallis no muestra diferencia significativa entre los dos grupos. Por lo tanto no se puede concluir en cuanto al impacto de este factor. La hipótesis de que mayores densidades de siembra reducen la resiliencia de los cultivos coincide con el conocimiento experto del cuerpo de extensión de la Federación, sin embargo requiere ser confirmado con una mayor cantidad de observaciones (datos). Es también posible que existan interacciones entre la densidad de siembra y otros factores edafo-climáticos y/o de manejo. Futuros análisis con datos más completos del SICA o de monitoreo de fincas serán importantes para entender estos procesos.Figura 44. Comportamiento de la densidad de siembra en las fincas encuestadas. A la izquierda se encuentra el conteo de las densidades reportadas, y a la derecha los boxplots de densidad de siembra. En ambas gráficas, el rojo representa lotes con pendientes negativas de NDVI, y el azul pendientes normales.Esta variable fue creada con la intención de agrupar las respuestas relacionadas con fertilización a la pregunta de qué tipo de medidas fueron implementas cuando se disparan las plagas y las enfermedades. 15 productores respondieron haber hecho alguna modificación a su plan de fertilización, y de este grupo 12 están dentro del grupo tuvo un impacto negativo, en las mediciones de NDVI. Este resultado sugiere que modificar la fertilización ante un evento de plagas y enfermedades no favorece la resiliencia de los cafetales. No se contó, sin embargo, con evidencia sobre el tipo, la cantidad, y los momentos de fertilización, lo que dificulta la atribución de la pendiente negativa en el NDVI a factores más específicos en los planes de fertilización. Adicionalmente, este resultado está basado en muy pocos datos, por lo que necesita ser confirmado con datos y análisis adicionales.Figura 45. Número de registros documentados con una intervención con Fertilización como medida de control ante plagas y enfermedades.En la tercera posición se encontró la cantidad de Fósforo que el caficultor aplica en kilogramos por hectárea al año (en su manejo normal). Sin embargo, en la Figura 46 se aprecia que existe gran variación en la proporción de fincas con NDVI positivo y negativo a través de las cantidades de fósforo. Se observa, sin embargo, que la totalidad de fincas que aplican más de 300 kg/ha de fósforo tienen pendientes de NDVI negativas.Figura 46. Gráfico de densidad de la cantidad de Fósforo aplicado en el año, separando los registros por la categoría del índice vegetal.Haciendo una comparación con el uso de fertilizantes de los otros dos elementos mayores, se puede ver que no existe una diferencia marcada. Un test de Kruskal-Wallis no muestra diferencia significativa entre los dos grupos para los tres elementos.Figura 47. Diagrama de cajas, de las dosis aplicadas de cada elemento mayor.Nuevamente aquí, el estudio permitió identificar una tendencia mas no se puede comprobar un efecto estadísticamente significativo.-Las encuestas permitieron validar una relación entre un año con un comportamiento extremo en clima y la identificación de anomalías en el comportamiento del índice vegetal. La afectación de un verano extremo fue identificada como posible causa. -Al momento de identificar las prácticas más explicativas de las variaciones del NDVI, el desempeño del modelo fue medio (0.7). El modelo alcanzo a percibir tendencias que se pueden ver en los datos, más ninguna mostro ser estadísticamente significativa. Se recomienda explorar bases de datos o encuestas adicionales al nivel de lote (no de finca) para entender mejor las prácticas que confieren resiliencia. -El análisis de las practicas asociadas a las variaciones de NDVI sugiere que la resiliencia está relacionada a la densidad de plantas, los planes de fertilización y las dosis de fosforo. En general, el análisis sugiere que dosis de fósforo y densidades de siembra superiores a las recomendaciones de de Cenicafe 1 podrían aumentan la sensibilidad de los cafetales a condiciones adversas de clima. Sin embargo, se requiere más análisis para determinar si hay diferencias significativas. Por otro lado, el hecho de manejar los disparos de plagas y enfermedades con cambio en la fertilización también pareció asociarse con mayor vulnerabilidad. Es decir que para tratar de aumentar su nivel de resiliencia, un caficultor podría buscar reducir la densidad de plantas y las dosis de fosforo aplicada. Sin embargo, como se ha dicho antes, dichos resultados son por ahora hipótesis de trabajo, ya que la cantidad de datos y el desempeño de los modelos no permite asegurar que las señales identificadas sean reales o debidas al ruido en los datos. -Es necesario buscar datos adicionales para confirmar/rechazar los resultados obtenidos -Una limitante importante del ejercicio de las encuestas fue que la encuesta se dirigió a nivel de finca y los eventos extremos en el clima y NDVI fueron hallados en los lotes.Este conjunto de actividades tiene como objetivo el desarrollo de un servicio para mejorar la toma de decisiones en las plantaciones de café, específicamente enfocándose en aquellas prácticas que, confiriendo resiliencia, podrían ser parte del paquete tecnológico de la Federación de Cafetero. El proyecto ha aportado importantes hallazgos y herramientas que serán clave en el desarrollo resiliente de las áreas de café en Risaralda y en otros lugares.Los cambios en clima futuro, crean áreas en las que no será posible un desarrollo óptimo del fruto. Las pérdidas de hasta 60% en la adaptabilidad del cultivo, proyectadas en las próximas dos décadas alcanzando valores más altos para 2030 en todos los escenarios de cambio climático especialmente bajo RCP 8.5. Las áreas vulnerables al déficit hídrico presentan la mayor pérdida de aptitud en el departamento, dentro de las que se incluyen el área del valle central de Risaralda, Quinchía, Belén de Umbría y el área de Mistrato que bordea Pueblo Rico.Aunque los análisis sugieren que los cultivos de café están altamente expuestos a los cambios en el clima en los próximos 10-20 años, los resultados de este de trabajo indican que ciertas prácticas confieren resiliencia durante los eventos de variabilidad extrema. En particular, encontramos que la nutrición de los cultivos y la densidad de siembra (probablemente asociada a la competencia entre las plantas) son factores que muestran una asociación con el nivel de resiliencia en los cultivos de café. Esto ilustra cómo las decisiones estacionales sobre cómo se fertilizan los cultivos, así como las decisiones de plantación (por lo general, una vez por ciclo de planificación de 10 a 15 años) pueden ser igualmente importantes para el desarrollo resiliente.No obstante, es claro que aunque los datos colectados por las encuestas permiten ver tendencias interesantes, no fue posible validarlas estadísticamente. Por lo tanto, para desarrollar un manual de recomendaciones con base estos resultados, se requiere adicionar datos de manejo del SICA para buscar validar o rechazar las hipótesis de trabajo, y entonces poder compilar un set de recomendaciones que permiten aumentar la resiliencia de las fincas que se van a enfrentar con un a perdida de aptitud en los próximos años.Los resultados aquí reportados se están discutiendo actualmente con Cenicafe y el Comité del Café Risaralda, a fin de poder construir paquetes tecnológicos que sean climáticamente inteligentes (es decir, planes de adaptación local). Este producto de trabajo ha contribuido con métodos de bajo costo para la determinación de áreas de café utilizando datos satelitales, lo que facilitará la evaluación de los cambios a corto y largo plazo en los paisajes de café. Los métodos para la generación de interpolaciones climáticas y para el modelado de presencia / ausencia se convertirán en una herramienta clave para Cenicafe en la ampliación de los esfuerzos de CSRD-Colombia en otras partes de Colombia.","tokenCount":"11189"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d8e472e3bec8269f428c9259bea0b867","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4d36400e-dd9e-4b53-8b84-8b2c03446cdf/retrieve","id":"-1896427756"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"82f79031-e7df-4f15-b996-8c49e820a455","pagecount":"5","content":"Facilitadora, Grupo de Trabajo FMP-PRGA (CIAT), Holanda.Este Proyecto pertenece al Programa del Sistema del GCIAI sobre Investigación Participativa y Análisis del Papel del Hombre y la Mujer en el Desarrollo de Tecnologías y en la Innovación Institucional (SWP-PRGA, su acrónimo en inglés).Las actividades de fitomejoramiento participativo (FMP) han proliferado en los últimos 10 años y se han identificado más o menos 65 casos en el mundo (McGuire et al. 1999;Weltzien et al. 1999). Una serie de Centros Internacionales de Investigación Agrícola (IARC, su acrónimo en inglés), de Sistemas Nacionales de Investigación Agrícola (SNIA), de organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG) y de universidades están experimentando diferentes enfoques de FMP; unas 50 de estas instituciones pertenecen al Grupo de Trabajo de FMP del SWP-PRGA.Cada vez más, el paradigma de investigación se considera una actividad central o estratégica. No obstante, mientras aumenta rápidamente el número de trabajos sobre ciertos aspectos del FMP por ejemplo, sobre el desarrollo de un esquema de mejoramiento fácil de usar por los agricultores aún quedan por explorar el análisis de una posible relación costo/eficiencia, la prueba de modelos que promuevan la diversidad varietal, y otros aspectos críticos (SWP-PRGA 1996). Como ocurre en muchos otros campos, los derechos de propiedad y los temas éticos del FMP están quedando muy a la zaga de los avances técnicos. Este es un hecho grave para un enfoque que gira alrededor de los principios de 'confianza' y de 'colaboración' entre grupos diferentes, los cuales son, con mayor frecuencia, las comunidades agrícolas de escasos recursos y los investigadores del sistema formal.La colaboración conjunta debe significar la distribución conjunta de beneficios. No hay, actualmente, arreglos ya listos o 'mejores prácticas' que puedan sugerirse respecto a los procesos y a los materiales que surjan de las colaboraciones en FMP. La mayor parte del trabajo de FMP que se ha realizado hasta la fecha ha tocado muy por encima los temas de derechos de propiedad intelectual porque se aplican dos estrategias muy diferentes:Los materiales desarrollados conjuntamente entre los mejoradores formales y las comunidades agrícolas han entrado en la corriente de la liberación formal de variedades y del sistema de multiplicación de semillas y han pasado por alto completamente la contribución de los agricultores.• Los materiales preparados mediante FMP han sido 'liberados', 'entregados' a las comunidades agrícolas, sin lanzamiento oficial de ninguna clase. Este hecho ha tenido un impacto positivo en los agricultores, principalmente en el caso de cultivos autopolinizados, en los que el aumento de la semilla y su calidad pueden ser manejados con relativa facilidad por los agricultores a su propio nivel, que es aceptable.La urgencia de definir aspectos de derechos de propiedad intelectual en el caso del FMP surge en un momento oportuno. El debate sobre los derechos de los agricultores parece haberse estancado en muchos sectores a nivel político, legal y práctico. Más aún, la legislación sobre Derechos de los Fitomejoradores hace diversas suposiciones acerca del nivel de control que ejercen los mejoradores formales en el proceso (y se excluyen los agricultores), suposiciones que rara vez se han examinado más de cerca. El examen de los derechos de propiedad y de los temas relacionados con los agricultores, dentro del campo del FMP, ofrece la posibilidad de dar una nueva imagen a estos aspectos conflictivos. El FMP tiene la ventaja de que puede hacer un seguimiento a los aportes prácticos (y a veces variables) de los agricultores en contextos ecológicos e históricos muy específicos. De igual manera, y también dentro del trabajo de FMP, a la contribución de los fitomejoradores se le asigna una especificidad geográfica e histórica definidas. El FMP presenta muchas variaciones, que van desde la consulta superficial de las preferencias de los agricultores hasta la participación real de los agricultores en la elección de progenitores y del material para los cruzamientos. El escrutinio de las variaciones del FMP y los efectos de estas diferentes relaciones entre agricultor y mejorador en los derechos de propiedad intelectual pueden, en verdad, resultar útiles para dar fundamento a algunas de las discusiones sobre derechos de los agricultores y derechos de los fitomejoradores.Esta breve nota anuncia la labor incipiente del SWP-PRGA se iniciará ésta con un trabajo escrito sobre la situación actual de este campo respecto a los Derechos de Propiedad y al Fitomejoramiento Participativo. Hemos utilizado el término 'derechos de propiedad' como una manera breve de considerar tres aspectos independientes, aunque relacionados:temas legales; − mejores prácticas para orientar los programas de campo; − inquietudes éticas respecto al trabajo de FMP.El documento sobre la situación actual se basará en la discusión exhaustiva de la práctica real y de la que se está desarrollando sobre FMP. Este trabajo se realizará en cuatro etapas:• Identificación de 8 a 10 escenarios de casos típicos de FMP.• Análisis de los temas legales, de la mejor práctica y de los temas éticos de cada escenario por un equipo de especialistas: un abogado, un mejorador y un profesional de las ciencias sociales.• Retroinformación sobre las recomendaciones iniciales y las apreciaciones dirigidas al SWP-PRGA y al amplio espectro de grupos que manejan los recursos fitogenéticos (RFG) y los derechos de propiedad intelectual (DPI).• Síntesis de la información, publicación y distribución.Se reconoce que el FMP tiene variaciones sustanciales que todavía se presentan en muchas situaciones del mejoramiento hecho por el agricultor. Se trata ahora de identificar de 8 a 10 tipos clásicos mediante el análisis de programas respecto a las siguientes variables:Las metas del FMP. Por ejemplo, fortalecimiento de habilidades y mayor conciencia en los agricultores de sus propias capacidades ('empowerment', autogestión); mejoramiento y liberación de variedades.El papel desempeñado por los socios colaboradores (los agricultores y los investigadores). Incluye todo, desde la consulta sencilla sobre preferencias hasta la colaboración real en la elección de cruzamientos y en el cruzamiento mismo (análisis de etapas de participación).El tipo de germoplasma utilizado (local o exótico; estable o variable).Los sitios en los cuales se estabiliza el material; control ejercido por los agricultores, por los investigadores o por ambos.El tipo de producto derivado (homogéneo, variable).Los medios por los cuales se distribuye el producto (canales informales o formales de semilla).El Grupo de Fitomejoramiento del SWP-PRGA comprende ahora 170 miembros provenientes de un amplio espectro de RFG y está ayudando a identificar estos tipos clásicos de FMP mediante discusiones por correo electrónico.Un equipo de tres un abogado especializado en DPI respecto a especies cultivadas, un fitogenetista y un profesional de las ciencias sociales aplicadas analizará los casos en términos legales, éticos y operativos respecto a temas como:Obligaciones generales de cada una de las partes (legal, ética, de mejor práctica).Temas respecto a la posesión del germoplasma, es decir, reconocimiento de la contribución al proceso creativo.− Derechos de distribución: por ejemplo, reconocimiento de los derechos de movilización de la semilla.El equipo hará también una síntesis de los conocimientos actuales sobre la práctica existente (incluyendo limitaciones y oportunidades), y dará recomendaciones o indicará opciones para mejorar esa práctica (por ejemplo, 'qué' se está haciendo y 'dónde').El documento preliminar se distribuirá ampliamente entre grupos que promuevan las causas del FMP, del mejoramiento y de los RFG. Su propósito es estimular la discusión dinámica, promover los comentarios generales y presentar un criterio más fundamentado de las implicaciones de los diferentes tipos de colaboración entre agricultores y mejoradores.El trabajo final se publicará como un documento de trabajo del programa SWP-PRGA. La decisión sobre su distribución más amplia se tomará después de que un panel independiente evalúe el producto final.El producto principal será un trabajo sobre las diferentes consideraciones que actualmente se hacen acerca de los derechos de propiedad (en el sentido amplio) en el campo del FMP. Se orientará hacia opciones que reflejen la diversidad existente en tres áreas: temas legales, mejor práctica posible y temas éticos de importancia.Aunque el trabajo no tendrá carácter de compromiso, se escribirá de tal manera que logre lo siguiente:Orientar las prácticas que se realicen dentro del SWP-PRGA.Orientar las prácticas realizadas en los proyectos de FMP, en general.Dar información y exponer principios fundamentales para los debates sobre derechos de los agricultores y de los fitomejoradores.El proyecto tendrá una duración de 12 a 18 meses; terminará a finales del año 2000 o a comienzos del 2001.","tokenCount":"1351"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"22cb6c24304b7716e2e8120106fffe96","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1418c02a-c7a3-4cc3-ab32-b2b04a7b63a7/retrieve","id":"1820397303"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a93647ca-3bde-4e92-b82e-f9803d937d53","pagecount":"5","content":"Rwanda's fourth Strategic Plan for the Transformation of Agriculture (PSTA 4), which extends from 2018 to 2024, is currently at its midpoint. This note highlights the contribution of PSTA 4 in its first half (2018)(2019)(2020)(2021) to four key development outcomes: economic growth, job creation, poverty reduction, and diet quality improvement.Highlighting results from an economywide model exercise combined with data from multiple sources and expert insights, the note draws attention to the importance of using scarce public resources in a cost-effective manner. A synopsis of findings indicates the following.• Overall, PSTA 4 is well structured in terms of its investment portfolio and the costeffectiveness of these investments. Each US dollar spent on agriculture corresponds to a US$2.05 gain in GDP; total gains during the first half of PSTA 4 are estimated to total $730 million.• In the absence of agricultural spending under PSTA 4, average yearly GDP growth rates in 2018-2021 could have been as low as 3.6 percent; with PSTA 4 spending, however, annual growth rates reached 4.2 percent, which is a 0.6 percentage point increase in each year of the period.• These same expenditures contribute to reductions in poverty: during 2018-2021, PSTA 4 spending contributed to a decline in the number of poor people totaling 1.1 million persons, most of whom were located in rural areas. Agricultural spending also contributed to improvements in diet quality.These findings emphasize the continued importance of public investment in agriculture and rural development for reaching growth and job creation targets and for poverty reduction and diet quality improvements. Increases in budget allocations to agriculture and rural development in Rwanda are well justified by the findings. However, since the beginning of PSTA 4, the budget allocated to MINAGRI (measured in constant prices) has stagnated. This calls for closer consideration of future allocations of public resources.As Rwanda is expected to return to its rapid growth trajectory following the COVID-19 pandemic, agriculture will continue to play a central role in the structural transformation of the entire economy.To this end, the Government of Rwanda continues to invest in the agricultural sector by building on the Strategic Plans for the Transformation of Agriculture (PSTAs) that began in the early 2000s.The structural transformation process means that as agriculture becomes more integrated with the rest of the economy, public resource allocations need to address a wider range of issues across the entire food system.This policy note provides evidence that is designed to assist the Government of Rwanda in a midterm assessment of the fourth Strategic Plan for the Findings from the study indicate that the current budget allocation under PSTA 4 is generally effective in terms of promoting economic growth, employment, poverty reduction, and improvements in diet. Estimates indicate that each US dollar of agricultural spending corresponds to a US$2.05 gain in GDP; the total gains in 2018-2021 are $730 million (Figure 1). The COVID-19 pandemic constituted an unprecedented economic shock to the Rwandan economy in 2020 and 2021, however agricultural expenditures have helped mitigate its adverse growth effect. Our estimates show that without the agricultural expenditures allocated under PSTA 4, average yearly GDP growth rates for 2018 to 2021 could have been as low as 3.6 percent; with PSTA 4's agricultural expenditures, however, annual growth rates reached 4.2 percent, with a 0.6 percentage point increase in each year of the 2018-2021 period.Agricultural expenditures under PSTA 4 mainly target the agricultural sector, while the benefit has reached the broader food system. In 2018-2021, total GDP gains for the food system are estimated at $585 million; of this, $505 million is in the traditional agricultural sector and $80 million is along value chains outside of agriculture. Growth in the food system as a whole in response to PSTA 4 expenditures is even more impressive, with an estimated 3.9 percent increase in GDP. Of this, 1.3 percentage points come from PSTA 4 expenditures, as our model shows that without PSTA 4 allocations growth rate would have been as low as 2.6 percent (Figure 1).Agricultural expenditures allow growth in employment opportunities outside the agricultural sector; they also support the movement of labor from agriculture to rural nonfarm activities within the food system. It is estimated that in 2018-2021, about 116,000 new jobs can be attributed to PSTA 4 agricultural expenditures, with most of these jobs being created outside of agriculture (Figure 2). This movement of labor is accompanied by increasing growth in agricultural production (Figure 1), and hence contributes positively to the transformation process of the whole economy.Agricultural expenditures under PSTA 4 contribute to reductions in poverty. Our estimates indicate that during 2018-2021, PSTA 4 allocations are responsible for a 1.1 million decline in the number of poor people; there are also indications that most poverty reduction occurs in rural areas, which show higher rates of poverty than do urban areas (Figure 2).Our estimates further suggest that Rwanda's agricultural expenditures contribute to improvements in diet. As shown in Figure 2, the diet quality index has improved equally among rural and urban households. 1Taken together, these results suggest that PSTA 4-now at its midterm point-is generally well structured in terms of its investment portfolio and the cost-effectiveness of these investments.Findings in this note demonstrate the continued importance of public policy, investment, and expenditure through agricultural budget allocation for reaching growth and job creation beyond agriculture and for poverty reduction and diet quality improvement among rural and urban households. However, since the beginning of PSTA 4, the budget allocated to MINAGRI (measured in constant prices) has stagnated. Increases in budget allocations to MINAGRI and, more generally, to agriculture and rural development, are well justified by the findings. 1 The diet quality index used here is a measure of the gap between actual and recommended diet structure which takes price structure into consideration. Declines in the index imply that gaps have narrowed; this indicates improvement in diet quality. See the working paper that accompanies this brief for details. ","tokenCount":"981"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/8733896857.json b/data/part_3/8733896857.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8749e22f30b151cb5d7eebe614edb034","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/02b4b789-1bde-4d84-bd6e-73358efa404a/retrieve","id":"1134895133"},"keywords":["safe and just operating space","Un Sustainable development Goals","land use","place-based","food security"],"sieverID":"c0f94791-b4b7-4ba0-bc8e-424494872e5a","pagecount":"3","content":"Arguably the greatest grand challenge for humankind is to keep the biosphere within its safe and just operating space, providing sufficient resources to meet people's needs without exceeding the Earth's capacity to supply them (Raworth, 2012). \"Safe\" is defined in terms of keeping planetary environmental processes, through mechanisms such as climate regulation and improved nutrient cycles, within limits over the long term (Rockstrom et al., 2009). \"Just\" is increasingly being interpreted in terms of meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with targets addressing various forms of equity as well as biophysical needs (Griggs et al., 2013). Keeping the biosphere within the operating space requires that we produce the food we need, along with the ecosystem and socioeconomic goods and services we require (Garnett et al., 2013). By definition, achieving this challenge also means achieving the sustainable intensification (SI) of agriculture, whereby more food is produced from the same area of land (or water), with reduced or reversed negative environmental impacts accompanied by a range of positive societal and environmental co-benefits. SI is variously considered as a goal (Royal Society, 2009), a process (Firbank et al., 2013), a trade-off between economic production activity and ecological performance (Gadanakis et al., 2015), or a suite of interventions (Godfray and Garnett, 2014).Is this challenge achievable? The jury is out. There are growing calls for dramatic increases in food production (Bernard and Lux, 2017) alongside grave concerns around the environmental impacts of agriculture on biodiversity (Maxwell et al., 2016), climate change (Whitfield et al., 2018), ecosystem services (Dobson et al., 2006), and continued food production (Smith et al., 2016). But people are starting to provide some tentative answers, suggesting that it is possible to stay within the safe and just operating space, as long as certain changes to the agrifood system are put in place. For instance, Mauser et al. (2015) suggested that improved crop management and market mechanisms could make the need to use more land to meet demand for biomass unnecessary. Muller et al. (2017) have asked whether organic farming could feed the world, while at the same time meet a range of environmental sustainability objectives. They sought to answer this by developing simulations of food supply and environmental impact under different scenarios of change in land use, levels of food waste, and potential impact of climate change on yields. Their answer was that organic farming will only feed the world if other aspects of the food system are changed at the same time. Finally, Eshel et al. (2017) have looked at the impacts of a shift to \"sustainable\" beef production in the US, concluding that a beef industry fed only by pastures and by-products of the food industry could generate around 43% of current levels of production and deliver substantial benefits to human health, depending on whether land used to grow livestock feed is reallocated to other crops. Such simulation studies are starting to bring about a degree of rigor to a debate that has otherwise been dominated more by heat than by light, simply by focusing attention on the assumptions behind the models. These conceal some rather large unknowns, including (i) the extent to which pest and disease control on organic land is subsidized by pesticide applications in the surrounding landscape; (ii) the scale of natural capital (NC) needed to help mitigate increasing climate volatility, where NC is defined as the world's stock of natural assets needed to sustain food production; and (iii) the extent to which soil management for food production can provide carbon sequestration. It is also a challenge to reach some form of consensus on the meaning and measurement of agricultural sustainability. Musumba et al. (2017) proposed a framework for farm-scale sustainability assessments that include elements of social justice, NC, and food security.Of course, the selection of appropriate indicators is a long way from ensuring sustainable agriculture. Farmers need to gain enough value from their social and ecosystem benefits to adopt sustainable farming methods, and their choices will depend on social, economic, environmental, and regulatory context (de Oliveira Silva et al., 2016); in particular, they will need to maintain soil function and resilience (Schiefer et al., 2016). However, evidence of farming practices that simultaneously benefit food production and environment (Pywell et al., 2015) does not ensure the wide uptake of such practices: institutional innovation may be needed (Schut et al., 2016) as well as actions promoting behavioral and attitudinal change by both farmers (Moran et al., 2013) and the public (Barnes et al., 2016), many of whom are risk-averse. Sustainable landscape and catchment management is more complex again, as it is delivered by balancing different land and water uses and users across the area, either in terms of total amounts (Hodgson et al., 2010) or through spatially explicit allocation of land uses (Panagopoulos et al., 2012;Tscharntke et al., 2012;Landis, 2017). Dearing et al. (2014) examined interactions among a range of food and environmental indicators from two areas of China and concluded that increases in food production have pushed water quality beyond safe limits. While there may have been agricultural intensification, this was not achieved in an environmentally sustainable manner, which is now recognized (Liu et al., 2016).The situation is further complicated by the reality of highly globalized value chains, the resultant transfers of value, nutrients, and pollutants as well as embedded carbon, energy, water, and labor. Adding to this, the relationships between rural, peri-urban, and urban agrifood systems are rapidly changing (Battersby, 2017). Throughout the twentieth century, the challenge of feeding a growing and increasingly concentrated population led to more enclosure of agricultural land, as part of both an ideological and a physical separation between rural (intensive) production systems and urban (mass) consumption spaces (Marsden and Sonnino, 2012). Since the beginning of this century, however, the unfolding of a range of complex and cross-scale social and environmental challenges, including resource depletion, climate change, food price volatility, and widening socio-inequalities, is making many dichotomies seem obsolete: production vs. consumption, rural vs. urban, and waste vs. resource, to name a few. Current policy and theoretical debates are focusing on the networked interdependencies between the city and the countryside as a fulcrum for innovative and more systemic, place-based and integrated development models (Sonnino et al., 2016). Paradigms such as \"the circular economy\" are increasingly used to give visibility to a new and normative urban-rural context that holds the potential to activate more metabolic flows of resources, knowledge, and skills (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017). There are crucial governance questions emerging in relation to the formation and stability of such urban-rural (regional) spaces. Importantly, intervention can be initiated at all major points of the supply chain (Eory et al., 2018): thus there is an inevitable need to address systemic change at all levels, including producers, manufacturers, distributors, and consumers (Macfadyen et al., 2015). These questions also apply to SI, because food security will not be achieved without resolving the inequities in distribution as well as the quantities and types of food products we demand (Godfray and Garnett, 2014). Tilman and Clark (2014) suggested that limiting global trends toward diets high in refined sugars, fats, oils, and red meat could significantly reduce food system greenhouse gas emissions (see also Hallstrom et al., 2015), while also improving human health. Springmann et al. (2017) have explored how such a change in consumption patterns might be brought about by modeling the potential emissions mitigation resulting from greenhouse gas taxes on food products. Such approaches have often proved controversial, not least because sustainability encompasses numerous notions beyond climate change and human health, which are an important part of the debate and must be given due consideration when facing problems of this scale.Overall, then, achieving SI of agriculture within the global safe and just operating space is about finding the right balance between the needs of the present and future, the local and the global, the producer and the consumer, and the provider and the user of ecosystem services. This is a task for all consumers, producers, businesses, and policy makers. We trust that this journal will provide a valuable space for sharing evidence, ideas, and best practice.LF is lead author. All other authors provided intellectual input, text, and edits. reFerenceS","tokenCount":"1362"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/8735912344.json b/data/part_3/8735912344.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f9c2802a49c8ab0d3e320ad9f0009868150218cf
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"892f8563fc30d179d4365055bd7fc2de","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b81efc93-d5f1-4c77-a461-1949c42ef3cf/retrieve","id":"2035235448"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eddf62f1-d34a-4fa8-84bd-addb609d9b90","pagecount":"3","content":"Strip cropping is an improved intercropping strategy for smallholder farmers that capitalize on a better plant arrangement (e.g., how cereal rows relate to legumes). Two types of strip cropping are common: Double-row strip cropping and four row strip cropping. Double-row strip cropping: This system reduces the plant spacing of maize rows to open up space for legumes to grow. Maize is usually intercropped with a legume (i.e., groundnuts/soya beans/cowpeas/beans). Maize is planted into riplines opened in double rows (50cm inter-row x 25cm in-row) and a gap of 130cm is left in-between the maize double rows where legumes will be planted [groundnut (35cm inter-row x 30cm in-row); soya beans (35cm inter-row x 5cm in-row)] Four-row strip cropping: Similar to double row strip cropping above, four rows of maize alternate with four rows of a legume. However, the inter-row spacing of maize is reduced from the usual 90 cm to 45 cm. This narrowing and reduction in size increases growing space for four rows of legumes. Maize is planted into lines spaced at 45 cm interrow with 4 row strips of maize alternating with another 4 rows strip of soya beans/groundnuts also spaced at 45 cm between rows.The nature of this innovation isInnovations that already exist and undergo constant, steady progress and improvement.Innovations of technical/material nature, including varieties/breeds; crop and livestock management practices; machines; processing technologies; big data and information systems. The innovation is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under uncontrolled conditionsThe innovation is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under uncontrolled conditionsThe innovation is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under semi-controlled conditions PROOF OF CONCEPT The innovation's key concepts have been validated for their ability to achieve a specific impactThe innovation is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under semi-controlled conditionsThe innovation's key concepts are being formulated or designedThe innovation is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under fully-controlled conditionsThe innovation's basic principles are being researched for their ability to achieve a specific impactThe innovation is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under fully-controlled conditionsThe innovation is at idea stage We would like to thank all Funders who support this innovation through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund (https://www.cgiar.org/funders/). This Innovation Profile was prepared with support from CGIAR's Portfolio Performance Unit (PPU), and the author thanks the CGIAR Innovation Packages and Scaling Readiness (IPSR) team for their valuable contributions.Maize-legume Intercropping is already being practiced by many smallholders in southern Africa and has been the focus of a large body of research. There is sufficient evidence that intercropping adds value and can be scaled widely.Websites and Documentation For more information on this innovation please contact Dr. Christian Lutz Thierfelder (c.thierfelder@cgiar.org)","tokenCount":"462"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/8736426233.json b/data/part_3/8736426233.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3521d5127d04410ca87e1298aff3b876d16b4e31
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a4680b8d73ffecd970606348a25f803e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/95cd9909-6cfb-407b-813a-9dda582fb11d/retrieve","id":"841605857"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aebdeb14-4098-45a5-a5c2-153c90982265","pagecount":"81","content":"CIP publications contribute important development information to the public arena. Readers are encouraged to quote or reproduce material from them in their own publications. As copyright holder CIP requests acknowledgement and a copy of the publication where the citation or material appears.Micronutrient malnutrition, or hidden hunger, is a public health concern in Tanzania. In particular, nutritional anemia and iodine and vitamin A deficiencies remain the main nutritional disorders in the country. The prevalence of vitamin A deficiency is 33% among children under five years of age and 42% among women of reproductive age (TDHS, 2010). In addition, 17% of the children aged 6-59 months are underweight, 46% are stunted and 5% are wasted, reflecting acute or recent nutritional deficits (TDHS, 2016). An average of 58% of the children aged 6-59 months and 45% of the women aged 15-49 years are anemic (TDHS, 2016). The elusiveness of micronutrient deficiencies is compounded by the fact that deficiencies in most of the known micronutrients, specifically vitamins, trace elements and minerals, may display no outward signs or symptoms (Biesalski, 2013). Research shows that inadequate intake of micronutrients may have health consequences even without overt signs of disease (Biesalski & Black, 2016). Indeed, one of the enduring challenges of dealing with micronutrient deficiency is that one can be sufficiently fed and yet still be undernourished. It is for this reason that micronutrient deficiencies are commonly known as hidden hunger. Several approaches that complement one another are employed to address this complex problem in young children and women of reproductive age, including supplementation, food fortification, dietary diversification and biofortification. Biofortification is the process that involves breeding staple crops that are rich in micronutrients. It is cost-effective, sustainable and can easily be used among rural populations not easily reached by other interventions (Bouis & Saltzman, 2017).The Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) project was formulated to help reduce hidden hunger by catalyzing sustainable investments for utilization of biofortified crops in Tanzania and Nigeria. In Tanzania, BNFB is focusing on three crops: orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP), pro-vitamin A (PVA) maize and high iron and zinc beans. To better understand the gaps, define the priorities and develop the necessary interventions to address the issues affecting the scaling up of biofortification in Tanzania, the project conducted a situation analysis between October 2016 and May 2017. The primary aim was to gather analytical data and information that establish the baseline status of biofortified crops and nutrition in Tanzania. That information was needed to develop the national advocacy, seed systems and capacity building strategies and plans for 2016-2018 for the project.The study also aimed to identify the key actors in biofortification, to map out the gaps in ongoing complementary initiatives to which BNFB could contribute in closing, and to recommend the necessary action on issues affecting the scaling up of biofortification in the country. Some of the challenges facing OFSP in Tanzania include its high susceptibility to diseases and pests; conflict between targeting the poorest farmers, who are the most susceptible to undernutrition, and catalyzing commercial production of OFSP; lack of standards of quality for processed OFSP products; and limited capacity in SUA to sustain and upscale the ToT course on 'Everything you ever wanted to know about sweetpotato'.The work on PVA maize in Tanzania is recent, and BNFB is the only project currently supporting research and dissemination of the crop. These efforts saw the release in 2016 of two PVA maize varieties by BNFB working in partnership with Meru Agro Company. These varieties were Meru VAH 517, with a beta-carotene level of 8 ppm, and Meru VAH 519, with a beta-carotene level of 14 ppm.viiMore research is going on with various genotypes undergoing trials. For example, TANSEED International Ltd received three PVA maize genotypes from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and is bulking the seed for field evaluation.There is no commercial production of PVA maize seed in Tanzania at the moment, since it is barely one year since the varieties were released officially.Several challenges could potentially face PVA maize in Tanzania. Firstly, hesitation may occur among traders and farmers to invest in PVA maize owing to its little differentiation from yellow, cream or orange maize varieties, which are not necessarily biofortified. Secondly, maize seed and grain production remains unpredictable and significantly low in the changing climatic conditions, and this could discourage small and micro enterprises and large maize grain buyers. Thirdly, the promotion of PVA maize may be affected by cultural factors that might hinder its acceptance and therefore its consumption. For example, Tanzanians associate yellow maize with the relief food of the 1980s. To change this mindset for fast adoption of PVA maize, a lot of awareness creation is needed. Like with PVA maize, work on biofortified beans in Tanzania is just starting. Apart from the work and funding by BNFB, there are some complementary initiatives, particularly in breeding, on high iron and zinc beans supported through the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA). Currently two high iron and zinc bean genotypes, namely MAC44 and RWV1129, are at an advanced stage in the national performance trial and are expected to be officially released this year. This research work is supported by BNFB.With the support of BNFB, multilocational trials for stability and adaptability tests also are going on for eight more high iron and zinc genotypes, which are RWR 2154, KAB06 F2-8-36, KAB06F2-8-35, CODMLB 001, NGWANKUNGWANKU, CODMLB 033, SMC 18 and SMC17.In regard to partnerships, CIAT is working on seed systems with the Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA), Meru Agro Company in Arusha, Beula Company, Agri-seed Company in Mbeya, and local seed entrepreneurs. It works in collaboration with local agricultural research institutes such as ARI-Selian, ARI-Makuru and ARI-Uyole, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, to provide training to farmers and researchers.The key constraints to private sector involvement in the beans business is the low market demand for bean seed. This is because bean is a self-pollinated crop and therefore its seed can be reused by farmers for several years with minimum loss in yield or quality. Another challenge that could face biofortified beans is that the two varieties lined up for release, MAC44 and RWV1129, are climbers. This could pose significant agronomic challenges for farmers in Tanzania who are accustomed to growing the bush varieties. Other important constraints include the low funding for the local research institutes to conduct field evaluation of new varieties.To scale up high iron and zinc beans in Tanzania, more effort is required to speed up research on new varieties and capacity building is needed for the actors in the bean sector on how to mitigate against diseases and pests, and for farmers on the appropriate agronomic practices for climbing bean varieties.Most of the national policies, strategies and acts of parliament do not explicitly cover biofortification.  (2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020) are currently under review. Effective advocacy efforts will ensure that biofortification is recognized as one of the interventions for addressing hidden hunger and that it will be explicitly mentioned in these two important documents. Moreover, it is recommended that advocacy efforts be accelerated to ensure that the Government of Tanzania places high priority on biofortification and increases national and local government budgets for the implementation of biofortification programs.The national budget allocation for agriculture has been decreasing, going from 7.3% of the total government expenditure in 2012/13 to 4.4% in 2016/17. Nutrition sector allocations have been low, standing at 0.15%, 0.2% and 0.22% of the total government expenditure in 2010/11, 2011/2012 and 2012/13, respectively. These indicate that agriculture and nutrition are given low priority, which results in low budget allocations for nutrition programs and hence for biofortification. More advocacy is needed to sensitize decision-makers in the government to give higher priority to the agriculture and nutrition sectors. Moreover, it is recommended that additional funds be set aside to support biofortification, and that biofortification be given the priority level accorded to supplementation and food fortification.Scaling up of biofortification is hampered by capacity challenges that face important institutions in Tanzania. These include the absence of a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) machine at the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) for speeding up the release of biofortified crops, lack of quality standards to support large-scale processing of biofortified crops at the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) and the duplication of food safety inspection protocols by TBS and the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA). It is recommended that BNFB, through its affiliates' laboratories such as those of HarvestPlus, should support local institutions such as TFDA, SUA and TBS to develop standards and controls for biofortified crops, set standard levels for various micronutrients such as beta-carotene, iron and zinc, and develop protocols for laboratory analysis of micronutrients. Fundraising for the acquisition of HPLC machines for TOSCI and TFNC is also recommended. Moreover, BNFB should support the training of technical staff in these areas and the provision of laboratory equipment for analysis of micronutrients locally.The following are the priority areas for BNFB to address in order to scale up biofortification in Tanzania: BNFB should support capacity building for agriculture research institutes (ARIs) to design, fundraise for, implement and monitor projects on biofortification. In this process, the development of OFSP varieties tolerant to diseases and pests and research for new varieties should be prioritized in order to expedite the release of promising genotypes of PVA maize and high iron and zinc beans.There is a low level of awareness and knowledge on biofortification in Tanzania and social and cultural misconceptions about the crops still persist. These affects both the consumption and adoption of biofortified crops. BNFB should engage in the promotion, training and awareness creation for biofortified crops and products. Events such as Nane Nane agriculture shows and mass media campaigns are particularly recommended to help shift attitudes. However, for effective and accurate messaging, it is recommended that training on biofortification, targeting media professionals be undertaken.  BNFB should facilitate the participation of medium and large-scale processors in the value chains of the biofortified crops. Drawing champions and advocates from the private sector to promote the processing of biofortified crops is recommended. Moreover, capacity building for food processors in biofortification, especially on the standards for processed biofortified crop products, product labeling, and application of the protocols for laboratory analysis of micronutrients, is a worthy investment.To improve the recognition in government plans and policy documents of biofortification as one of the key interventions for addressing hidden hunger, BNFB should participate in the processes for reviewing the Agriculture Sector Development Plan (ASDP), the five-year strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock andFisheries (2016-2020) and the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Policy (URT, 2016d) to ensure that they cover the biofortification agenda explicitly. Additionally, BNFB should strengthen the National Fortification Alliance by facilitating the inclusion of biofortification in its terms of reference. TBS and TFDA have standards for fortified processed products such as maize and wheat flour but not for processed biofortified products. Certification of products enhances their credibility and this is therefore a potential intervention area for BNFB. There is need to strengthen the national breeding program for biofortified crops so that appropriate and market-led varieties are developed, released and disseminated expediently.The recommended strategies to achieve this include advocacy for more investments in x breeding work; development of protocols that prioritize the development and release of biofortified crops; establishment of crop-specific strategies for screening potential promising lines or germplasm; screening and testing of potential lines; continuous capacity building for young scientists on breeding-related technical skills; and introduction of breeding for biofortified crops in the university/college curricula.Micronutrient deficiency, otherwise known as hidden hunger, is one of the main silent killers of children under five years of age and women of reproductive age, i.e. 15-49 years. Most women of that age, infants and young children suffer from deficiencies in vitamin A, iodine, iron, zinc and folate. These deficiencies are associated with high mortality rates, birth defects, anemia, blindness, infertility, increased infections, reduced growth and cognitive defects. In Tanzania, the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is 33% among children aged 6-59 months (Fig. 1) and 42% among women of reproductive age (TDHS, 2010), while anemia prevalence among these groups is 58% and 45%, respectively (TDHS, 2016). The ravages of hidden hunger may be veiled but are dreadful nonetheless. For example, the damage malnutrition causes in the first 1,000 days of life is mostly irreversible (Anonymous, 2012). During pregnancy women often become more nutrition deficient with the requirement to provide nutrition for the baby too. This can impact their health and that of their baby (Haider & Bhutta, 2015). Widespread micronutrient deficiency has been associated with high maternal, perinatal and neonatal mortality rates; pre-term birth and stillbirth birth defects; maternal anemia; blindness; intra-uterine growth restriction; infertility; altered immune response; increased infections; and reduced growth and cognitive deficits in the newborn (Wessells et al., 2017).To mitigate micronutrient malnutrition, nutrition education to promote the consumption of diversified diets, supplementation and food fortification are some of the classical strategies deployed in Tanzania. Although these strategies have attained results, they have several limitations. For example, for their success, these interventions require transport and logistical arrangements for the supplies to reach users, critical mass awareness, ability of users to buy the products, a vibrant manufacturing sector, and access to markets and health care systems, all of which are often not available to people living in remote rural areas (Mayer et al., 2008).Tanzania is implementing a number of strategies to combat micronutrient malnutrition challenges in children and women of reproductive age. These include nutrition education focusing on the provision of education on the consumption of specific crops such as carrots for vitamin A and sweetpotato leaves and amaranth for iron, or on the diversification of food to supply a wide range of micronutrients. Another strategy is food fortification, which involves the addition of micronutrients in food products. In Tanzania, mandatory large-scale food fortification focuses on maize and wheat flour and cooking oil at the industrial level. Micronutrient powders also are available to add to baby foods. However, such interventions are program specific and not countrywide. Micronutrient supplementation is focused on vitamin A primarily for children under five years and iron and folic acid for pregnant women. This is in line with the strategies of the dietary approach that focus on behavior change communication to promote the consumption of adequate amounts of micronutrient-rich food sources.Biofortification is implemented in Tanzania although not across the country. It is adopted as an approach to complement the efforts to reduce micronutrient deficiencies. Biofortification is the process of breeding nutrients into food crops through conventional methods. It provides a sustainable, long-term strategy for delivering micronutrients to rural populations in developing countries (Saltzman et al., 2013). Evidence shows that biofortification offers the most effective, sustainable, least-cost delivery model to supply the micronutrients of nutritional importance, namely iron, zinc, vitamin A, lysine and tryptophan. For instance, consuming 125 g of most orangefleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) varieties can supply the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A for children and non-lactating mothers (Waized et al., 2015). Some of the biofortified crops such as PVA maize and OFSP have been introduced in the country.Although biofortification is yet to be fully scaled up in any country (Thompson & Amoroso, 2011), Tanzania has made some initial progress. The country was among the five countries that implemented the RAC project from 2011 to 2014. That project focused on advocacy for increased investment in OFSP to combat vitamin A deficiency (VAD) among young children and women of reproductive age and also built the institutional capacity to design and implement gender-sensitive projects to ensure wide access and utilization of OFSP. Through the RAC project, 17 country advocates were trained to engage in creating awareness and undertaking advocacy for investment in OFSP, and about USD 4 million was raised for OFSP, 3.2% of which came from local government authorities.The Building Nutritious Food Baskets Project (BNFB) builds upon the successes of RAC to broaden the scope of biofortification by adopting a food basket approach. BNFB targets the three crops of OFSP, high iron and zinc beans and PVA maize. This three-year (2016)(2017)(2018)  Before embarking on the implementation of BNFB in Tanzania it was important to conduct a situation analysis. The primary aims of the situation analysis were to gather analytical data and information to establish the baseline status of the key thematic components of the project, identify the key actors, map out the gaps in the ongoing complementary initiatives that BNFB could add value to, and recommend the necessary action on issues affecting the scaling up of biofortification in the country.The situation analysis focused on gathering information to: Improve the understanding of the decision-makers and stakeholders working on biofortification in the country; Use available data and other information to accurately identify the key actors in the scaling up of biofortified crops and the trends and patterns of consumption of biofortified crops and their products, disaggregated by relevant segments of the country and of the population;Identify and analyze the barriers and bottlenecks that prevent disadvantaged groups from accessing and benefiting from biofortification, including the social, political and economic conditions that result in shortfalls in the creation of an enabling environment for the scaling up of biofortification; Assess the current investment patterns in biofortification and the main donors to approach to unlock increased investments for biofortification;  Analyze the extent to which biofortification is prioritized in national policies, law, strategies, plans and budgets. This would include an analysis of the extent to which there is an enabling environment for the realization of the scaling up of consumption of biofortified crops, including the promotion of positive social norms and behaviors, organization of services, and enhancement of institutional capacities at the national, subnational and community levels; Analyze the government's (and its agencies') policy and funding priorities as far as nutrition and biofortification are concerned; Analyze the current institutional and structural bottlenecks to address in order to unlock the value chain for the biofortified crops in the country, including in the varietal release policies and criteria and for the biofortified varieties currently in the pipeline for release; Assess the needs of the population/communities and the bottlenecks/gaps to be addressed, and prioritize the interventions that need to be implemented, such as advocacy, promotion, seed systems' strengthening, and institutional and individual capacity building and training opportunities; Assess the potential sociocultural factors, including consumer perception and attitudes, affecting the adoption and use of biofortified crops;Assemble key information on the efficacy of biofortified foods, for evidence-based advocacy and policy formulation; Identify the key national and regional advocacy platforms actively focusing on biofortified foods.Tanzania's economy grew steadily between 2014 and 2016 at an average annual rate of about 7% driven by the robust growth in the financial services, construction, mining, trade, and telecommunication sectors. However, poverty remains prevalent and stagnant with 43.5% of the Tanzanian population living below the international poverty line of USD 1.25 per day (UNDP, 2016).Poverty can lower the purchasing power to acquire adequate and nutritious food, leading to both macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies and overall undernutrition (Mwanri, 2013).Agriculture accounts for 31.1% of the GDP and employs 68% of the workforce living in rural areas (World Bank, 2017). Given its role as the main source of food and livelihood for the majority in the country, the agriculture sector has substantial potential to reduce poverty and food insecurity. However, agriculture in the country is mainly performed in small-scale farming, which adversely affects its level of productivity. Several challenges affect agricultural productivity including low public investment in agricultural research and development, inadequate agricultural financing, poor production techniques, underdeveloped markets and market infrastructure, low farm-level value addition, and poor rural infrastructure.The level of budget allocation for agriculture in relation to other priority sectors for 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 is shown in Fig. 2. For the two years, the transport sector had the highest budget followed by education, health, agriculture, energy and water. These allocations indicate that the agriculture sector is given a low priority despite its centrality in driving economic growth and development in the country. The Government of Tanzania is a signatory to the Maputo Protocol ( 2003), 1 which requires governments to allocate at least 10% of the national budget to agriculture. The agriculture sector budget was below 10% of the national budget 2 for each year from 2012/13 to 2015/16, and it showed a declining trend, going from 7.3% in 2013/2014 to 4.4% in 2015/2016 (Table 1). Biofortification can benefit from this budget, particularly from allocations to research and input supplies to small-scale farmers, which largely include subsidies. Currently, the government provides subsidies on maize seed. This means that subsidies can be directed to PVA maize, which meets both the staple crop and nutrition crop criteria. The Tanzania population was estimated to be 44.9 million in 2012 (URT, 2013). The current population is estimated to be 57.8 million (United Nations, 2017). About half of the country's total harvested land is allocated to cereals, of which maize is dominant as the staple food crop. Maize yields are typically low at 0.75 t/ha. Roots, i.e. cassava and potatoes, account for 15% of the harvested land (WFP, 2013). The annual production of cassava fresh root is about 5 million tons, with a productivity of 8 t/ha, while the average sweetpotato yield is 4.5 t/ha. These productivity levels are below the crops' potential, which according to Pima (2015) should be at least 20 t/ha for cassava and 10 t/ha for sweetpotato.Tanzania ranks 96th out of the 118 countries on the 2016 Global Hunger Index (IFPRI, 2016). The food security and vulnerability assessment conducted in the country shows that in 2010/11, 730,000 households, or 8.3% of all households in Tanzania, were classified as having poor dietary intake. Moreover, 18% of households were classified as having poor dietary diversity, and 52% as directing a high share of their expenditures to food, indicating that the country had a high level of economic vulnerability (WFP, 2013).Like any other developing country, Tanzania is faced with the double burden of malnutrition with high levels of undernutrition, which is more pronounced than overnutrition. Micronutrient deficiencies are of public health importance, including deficiencies of vitamin A, iron and iodine. These are more pronounced among children under five years and women of reproductive age. The nutrition status and anemia in children and women of reproductive age is shown in  Micronutrient deficiencies are certain to occur wherever diets lack diversity. The common interventions implemented to alleviate these deficiencies in Tanzania include supplementation, food fortification and promotion of dietary diversity. Biofortification is gaining increasing recognition.The Tanzania National Health Policy ( 2003), together with the National Nutritional Strategy of 2012, identifies food fortification as among the strategies to reduce micronutrient deficiencies in the country. The Government of Tanzania passed a legislation in 2011 (Notice No. 205 of 22 July 2011) that makes fortification of cooking oil and wheat and maize flour mandatory in the country. The legislation was gazetted in 2012, when the government in collaboration with the private sector, mainly food industries, started its implementation (HKI, 2012a). Small-scale or rural area fortification is also practiced in some program-specific areas in Tanzania.In 1987 Tanzania began including vitamin A capsules in kits distributed through the essential drugs program in government-run primary health care facilities. To increase coverage, vitamin A supplementation was introduced in routine immunization services in 1997. Periodic dosing of vitamin A supplements is provided to children aged 6 to 59 months, usually every six months (TFNC, 2012). This is one of the many deliberate strategies to reduce child morbidity and mortality and enhance child survival. Children aged 6-11 months receive 100,000 IU of vitamin A as droplets and those aged 12-59 months receive 200,000 IU. The coverage of vitamin A supplementation among children aged 6-59 months is 41% (TDHS, 2016).Iron and folic acid supplementation targeting pregnant women and children is done through the reproductive and child health clinics. Supplementation occurs concurrently with the promotion of the production and consumption of iron and vitamin C rich foods, i.e. through education and provision of resources for the production of food crops known to contain high levels of iron, and through the public health measures for the control of malaria and worm infestations implemented by the parasite control program of the Ministry of Health.Studies on dietary diversity in Tanzania show almost consistent results indicating that Tanzanians in general consume poor quality diets. For instance, a study conducted in the Morogoro region established that the majority of the households consumed foods in the cereals group in relatively large quantities compared with other food groups. A stiff porridge made of maize flour (ugali) was the most often consumed cereal dish followed by rice. The study established that the consumption of protein from animal sources was significantly low in all districts (Kinabo et al., 2016). In another study among rural women from three districts in northeastern and central Tanzania, one third of the participants had an alarmingly low dietary diversity score of only two to four food groups per day.The findings indicated that research participants and their households consumed a very basic diet consisting mainly of cereals and vegetables (Keding et al., 2012).Increasing food production all year round adopting a food basket approach is needed to achieve nutritional improvement in the country. This can be realized through collaboration across sectors and wide application of innovations and approaches proven to solve nutritional problems. Additionally, nutrition education is necessary as it offers an important link in attaining the desired changes. Its implementation targets should include increasing awareness and knowledge among policy-makers and the public, promoting the desired behavior regarding food and nutritional practices, and increasing the diversity, quality and quantity of family foods.Biofortification forms an important component in strengthening the dietary diversity base.Biofortification as an intervention is fairly recent in Tanzania. Biofortified crop varieties for PVA maize and OFSP have been released officially in the country. Efforts to release biofortified iron and zinc beans are going on. Biofortification as an approach provides important opportunities and advantages: it is a sustainable and long-term strategy for delivering micronutrients to rural populations (Saltzman et al., 2013) and it is also cost-effective.Hartmann and Linn (2008) define scaling up as \"expanding, replicating, adapting and sustaining successful policies, programs or projects in geographic space and over time to reach greater number of rural people\". The concept refers to any form of expansion of an intervention as a means to achieve widespread benefits for the population, and it is not an end in itself. Gillespie et al. (2015) report nine elements central to the scaling up of the impact on nutrition: Translating the current political commitment to nutrition into large-scale impact on nutrition will require committed attention to these elements.Tanzania joined the Global Movement on Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN Movement) in June 2011 and committed to improving nutrition in the country at scale. This was solidified by former President H.E. Jakaya Kikwete's membership in the SUN Movement Lead Group. Given the multisectoral nature of nutrition interventions, the Prime Ministers' Office, where the country SUN Movement focal person is based, was identified to lead the county's nutrition coordination.The SUN Movement's focal person prioritized three areas for scaling up nutrition in Tanzania, which were the translation of priority nutrition objectives into planned activities and budget allocations on an annual basis, the improvement of the capacity for nutrition at regional and district levels, and the finalization and costing of the National Nutrition Strategy (TFNC, 2012). That strategy ended in 2015 and was replaced by the National Multi-sectoral Nutrition Action Plan (NMNAP), 2016/17-2020/21. The role of NMNAP is to guide the government and its partners in nutrition in the implementation and scaling up of high impact interventions to improve the nutritional status of all Tanzanians. NMNAP is divided into three components, based on its areas of focus: Nutrition-specific interventions. These interventions address the causes of malnutrition at the immediate causal level. NMNAP has costed implementation plans to scale up (1) promotional services for infant and young children feeding, ( 2) key interventions to fight micronutrient deficiencies, i.e. vitamin A deficiency, iodine deficiency and iron deficiency, (3) services for the integrated management of acute malnutrition, and (4) management of dietrelated non-communicable diseases. Multisectoral nutrition response. This component addresses the causes of malnutrition at the underlying and basic causal levels. To avoid duplication of other sectoral plans on nutrition, NMNAP focuses on multisectoral coordination, advocacy and capacity building activities with the aim of creating synergies between nutrition and interventions with proven impact on nutrition in the key sectors of health, including family planning and HIV/AIDS; water, sanitation and hygiene; food security and agriculture; education, including early child development and school nutrition; and social protection. Multisectoral nutrition information system. This component is designed to track the progress on nutrition through regular national nutrition surveys and reviews such as demographic health surveys, multisectoral nutrition scorecard and nutrition sector reviews.Both the public and private sectors are engaged in seed systems. The public sector is involved in formulating regulations and their enforcement and producing and marketing seed, whereas the private sector is more focused on seed production and marketing. As at May 2013, there were 55 private companies engaged in seed systems, and they were coordinated through the Tanzania Seed Trade Agency, which was formed in 2002 (ESAFF, 2013).Tanzania has a total of 14,642,284 ha of arable land. Maize is considered a priority crop and it occupies 41% of the farm land, while beans occupy 750,000 ha and sweetpotatoes 200,000 ha (ASARECA, 2014). It is estimated that 5.3% of the total cultivated area in Tanzania is planted with certified seeds. Certified seed is available mainly for maize, sorghum, sunflower, rice and wheat. A participatory approach was adopted to conduct the situation analysis for BNFB. The study engaged the participation of potential project partners, policy-makers, agricultural research institutes, training institutes, agricultural extension officers, farmers, development partners, private companies, civil society organizations, regulators, traders and consumers. During the consultation process, qualitative information was collected using checklists tailor made to target each category of stakeholders.The study areas for the situation analysis were identified by considering three factors: (1) the presence in the area of farmers who had adopted any of the biofortified crops targeted for intervention under BNFB, i.e. OFSP, PVA maize or high iron and zinc beans, ( 2) the existence of recognized actors in a specific biofortified crop value chain, and ( 3) the area's convenience in accessibility. The identification of the study areas where FGDs were undertaken was made by considering available information from literature, project related documents, the researchers' experience and prior information on the areas where interventions on biofortified crops had been implemented. The situation analysis covered locations in four agricultural zones with different agroecological zones. The Eastern Zone was selected for PVA maize; the Eastern, Northern, Lake Victoria and Southern Highlands zones for OFSP; and the Northern, Southern Highlands and Eastern Zones for high iron and zinc beans. Overall the study covered 11 regions and 18 districts and municipalities. Appendix 1 shows the stakeholders consulted in the districts/municipalities.Participants in both the FGDs and key informant interviews were purposively selected. The FGD groups represented farmers mainly and agricultural extension officers to a lesser extent. The participants in the FGDs were randomly selected from the participating villages. However, the selection process considered the representation of both female and male farmers. Participants in the key informant interviews were selected based on their role in the agriculture, nutrition, education and health sub-sectors.Ten checklists were developed targeting the diverse categories of the institutions and groups identified, which were development partners, implementing partners, civil society organizations, consumers, farmers, food processors, food regulators, policy-makers, research and training institutions, seed companies, and regulators. A guide for the farmers' FGDs also was developed.The information collected was extracted from the checklists for each group of key informants and FGDs and entered into Excel spreadsheets. The information, which was mainly qualitative, was analyzed and synthesized using content analysis. The results of the analysis were presented in narrative format. Data obtained from the secondary sources were used to reinforce, qualify and triangulate the information from the primary sources.The areas for field data collection were selected by considering their accessibility and existence of established contacts of key informants. For example, a farmers' FGD was conducted in Mbozi district in Mbeya region instead of Chunya district, although the latter could have been producing more OFSP. The wide geographical area in which biofortified crops are found, especially OFSP, and the limitations of time and funds made it impractical to conduct household interviews.The absence of released biofortified varieties of beans and the recent release of PVA maize meant that there were inconsistencies in the depth of information and coverage among the targeted biofortified crops.Data on government investments in agriculture (section 2.1.1) were not sufficiently disaggregated to show the specific allocations for agricultural activities at the local councils' level. Caution should therefore be taken in interpreting those data.The primary data on OFSP (Appendix 7) were self-reported by a small sample of the farmers who participated in the FGDs. The data may therefore not be representative of the OFSP farmers in the districts. Additionally, the data on the productivity of and on the area planted with OFSP may be contentious. This is because most sweetpotato farmers harvest the crop piecemeal (Stathers et al., 2012) and often misreport acreage (World Bank, 2013).OFSP roots (photo: Godfrey Mulongo)Tanzania is the second largest producer of sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) in East Africa after Uganda, with an annual production of about 1 million tons (FAOSTAT, 2014). The production of sweetpotato increased from 1.3 million tons with productivity at 2.9 t/ha in 2007 to 3.5 million tons with productivity at 4.4 t/ha in 2014 (FAOSTAT, 2014) (Appendix 6). This rise in yield may partly be due to the increasing production of OFSP, which according to farmers' FGDs was replacing the traditional sweetpotato varieties.Six varieties of OFSP were released between 2010 and 2016, namely Kabode, Ejumula, Kakamega, Mataya Kiegea and UKG 05. The agronomic characteristics of these varieties are summarized in Table 4. Moreover, CIP in partnership with the Sugarcane Research Institute (SRI), Kibaha, has seven other varieties currently undergoing evaluation for official release. These are SPKBH 06/266, NASPOT 13, SPKBH 06/676, NASPOT 9, G40_02, SPKBH 03/03 and ex-Luambano.The estimates by the farmers interviewed on the area under OFSP cultivation and the yield of OFSP roots per household are shown in Appendix 7. The average area under OFSP ranged from 0.1 ha to 1.62 ha per household. The major factors that affected the area put under OFSP cultivation, the crop's yield and the number of households engaged in its production were shortage of planting materials and drought stress caused by delayed planting. According to ARI Ukiriguru, the production of OFSP had been increasing proportionally with the availability of planting materials. The production status of OFSP is shown in Appendix 7. The average yield levels and forms of OFSP consumed by the households participating in the study are summarized in Appendix 8. The survey results indicate that 35.3% of the roots produced was consumed by the household (Appendix 8). Overall, the situation analysis established that the production and consumption of OFSP were growing in Tanzania. Earlier studies in a few districts across the country indicated that the level of adoption of OFSP was lower than 2% (e.g. Okello et al., 2017;VISTA, 2016;Waized et al. 2015) 3 . However, this study found that in the districts where the crop had been introduced, adoption rates were at 12%. Moreover, compared to the other biofortified crops such as high iron and zinc beans and PVA maize, OFSP was relatively well known and consumed in Tanzania. This is because it was introduced in the country much earlier than the other two. Fig. 3 shows the households producing OFSP in the sampled sites. 3 A study conducted in the Lake Zone in 2012 found that of more the than 600 households surveyed only 7% and 2% grew and consumed OFSP, respectively (Waized et al. 2015)  Temu et al. (2014) observe that the OFSP value chain in Tanzania, and indeed for the entire sweetpotato crop, is still 'short', non-diversified and composed primarily of micro-and small-scale enterprises that mostly handle both processing and retailing. Another of their observations is that the national supply chains for OFSP in Tanzania have only recently come into being and have few specialized linkages, such as those with contract farming schemes.The main inputs procured by OFSP farmers from input suppliers are seeds or vines. OFSP vines are mostly obtained from informal suppliers. Mmasa and Msuya (2012) aver that input suppliers are not vertically integrated with producers and that farmers normally search for seeds for planting from their fellow farmers and seldom from recognized sources. ARIs are key formal suppliers of OFSP vines. Other input suppliers are TOSCI, for variety release, and NGO programs, for outreach. Villagebased vine multipliers also are important informal suppliers. The supply of good quality vines is the critical constraint for OFSP value chain development. Other service providers for sweetpotato growers include oxen and tractor owners, who provide farm tillage services to farmers (Mmasa and Msuya, 2012).OFSP root production is undertaken by individual producers who largely are small scale, so the quantities produced are still too low especially for large-scale agroprocessing. The majority of the producers sell their sweetpotato after hearing from their friends that the roots can be marketed or visiting the market themselves, and most producers do not have access to inputs or extension services for the crop (Mmasa and Msuya, 2012).The marketing channels for OFSP are largely the markets in the villages and nearby districts.According to farmers' FGDs, an average of 65% of the produced OFSP is marketed. At the point of retail, OFSP and white-fleshed sweetpotato varieties are sold for the same price and displayed side by side or in mixed batches (Temu et al., 2014), which is an indication that consumers are not aware of the differences between the varieties.Sweetpotato vendors are few and are not organized in the business arena. They obtain sweetpotatoes directly from farmers. There are both urban and rural retailers of sweetpotato roots and processed products (Mmasa and Msuya, 2012). A small number of packaged OFSP products are sold in shops and supermarkets in urban centers such as Morogoro and Dar es Salaam, aimed at middle income and upper income consumers (Temu et al., 2014).The processors of OFSP identified in the study were AFCO Investments, SUGECO and Matoborwa Company, which are small scale. The low demand for OFSP processed products, which is due to the lack of awareness about OFSP benefits among consumers, is one of the main constraints hindering its large-scale processing. Moreover, the lack of quality standards is an important constraint for large-scale processors of OFSP.Transporters have a crucial role in ensuring that goods are moved and reach the intended market on time and in proper condition. The low quantity of OFSP roots produced by farmers and the poor roads in some areas are key constraints in OFSP value chain development.The OFSP value chain is driven by the demand for the crop and its products. The current consumption patterns at the household level show that OFSP is mostly consumed in the form of roots and rarely as processed products. Consumers have a vital role to play in scaling up the biofortified crops and their products. Awareness creation among consumers on the nutritional value of biofortified crops is necessary to ensure that their demand is high, which can trigger the productivity of the crops and attract processors to the value chain. The BNFB project should undertake awareness and sensitization initiatives to increase the consumption of biofortified crops and products.The general community-related bottlenecks affecting access to biofortified crops and products with respect to the crops' seed systems, promotion, advocacy, and capacity building opportunities are summarized in Appendix 10. The bottlenecks specific to OFSP are discussed below.The barriers that prevent disadvantaged groups from accessing and benefiting from OFSP are more agronomical and social than economic. The production of OFSP is still low, with a national average of 3.2 t/ha (FAOSTAT, 2014) compared to a potential yield productivity of 20-40 t/ha. According to the farmers' FGDs, the main constraints that affect the production of OFSP include: Limited availability of quality planting materials during the critical periods for planting: OFSP vines for planting are largely produced by local research institutions, NGOs, farmers' groups and individual farmers. Bioscience Crop Solutions Ltd is the only private company that produces planting materials using tissue culture, specifically pre-basic seeds/vines, and it sells this to ARIs, which produce certified planting materials. NGOs and farmers receive planting materials from local research institutes to produce certified 2 planting materials.According to HKI (2012b), there is little interest or participation from the private sector in seed multiplication for sweetpotato in Tanzania and the EAC region. As a government agent, ASA is responsible for the production of seeds of low value crops if there is a demand from farmers. The situation analysis revealed that although the National Agricultural Policy of 2013 allows private seed companies to access new crop varieties developed by local ARIs, there is limited information on the mechanisms for these companies to do this.Diseases and pests: Viral disease incidences are higher when OFSP planting materials are recycled for successive seasons. Poor farmers may not be in a position to buy clean planting materials every cropping season and are likely to recycle vines. The incidence of sweetpotato weevil infestation increases as harvesting of the roots is delayed. Rural farmers may not be able to meet the costs associated with disease and pest control. Even when such farmers harvest the roots on time to avoid weevil damage, their ability to perform proper postharvest handling or value addition, or even utilize the harvest, is limited. Drought stress severely affects sweetpotato crop production, and disadvantaged groups are more vulnerable to this disaster. Worse still, these groups do not have access to land with irrigation. This is because such land is usually rented, making it unaffordable to many.The shortage of planting materials, disease and pest infestation, and drought stress are correlated with economic barriers since disadvantaged and vulnerable groups are generally resource constrained and are unable to afford quality and expensive planting materials, expensive disease and pest control measures, or mechanisms for irrigation.The social barriers limiting disadvantaged groups from accessing and benefiting from OFSP include limited access to land, theft of vines, preference for local varieties of sweetpotatoes and negative perceptions towards biofortified products, associated with the fear that they are genetically modified. Households with a shortage of land may not allocate land for OFSP because priority in allocating crop land is given to the main staples such as maize and beans. Vulnerable and disadvantaged groups including women have limited ownership of land resources owing to cultural barriers, including the requirement to change asset ownership upon marriage (HKI, 2012b).The theft of vines was attributed to the shortage of OFSP vines during the peak season for crop planting. It was not clear during the study whether vulnerable groups were more likely to be victims of vine theft.In some of the study areas such as the Lake zone, people preferred local varieties of sweetpotatoes to OFSP. Generally, varieties with low dry matter content (less than 30%) were not favored by consumers in the country (HKI, 2012b). Adults in Tanzania tend to prefer white-fleshed sweetpotatoes because they have higher dry matter content than OFSP (Waized et al., 2015).Vulnerable groups are more likely to consume the local sweetpotato varieties because their awareness of the nutritional value of OFSP is limited. To entice behavioral change in consumption preferences, the health benefits of OFSP varieties will need to be promoted heavily (HKI, 2012b).The negative perception among people towards biofortified products is one of the main social barriers to accessing and benefiting from OFSP. The average quantity of OFSP consumed per household of 35.3% of the total production is low compared with the quantity marketed.Stakeholders in the study locations reported that there was a perception that OFSP products were meant for people with HIV/AIDS or those who were malnourished. This notion is one of the key challenges affecting OFSP consumption.Farmers considered certified seed to be expensive, and this is one of the main economic barriers to accessing OFSP for disadvantaged groups. OFSP vines are sold but vines of the landraces are recycled or obtained for free. Additionally, and according to the stakeholders consulted during the situation analysis, marketing of OFSP is affected by the small quantities produced, which limits the engagement of big traders and large-scale agroprocessors.Data on the average yield and forms of OFSP root marketed by the households involved in the study are summarized in Appendix 11. The households marketed on average 62.7% of the total OFSP they produced. OFSP is marketed both unprocessed as raw roots, which sold for an average of Tsh 359.5 (USD 0.17) per kilogram, and in processed forms such as flour, crisps and chips. The products are sold largely within the villages growing the crop and nearby villages and district markets. According to the local researchers, NGOs, civil society organizations and private companies, the key constraints to private sector involvement in the OFSP value chain are the limited awareness among people on OFSP and the inadequate ability of local laboratories to analyze beta-carotene levels for the release of varieties. To traders, agroprocessors and private companies, inadequate capital to expand business, the low supplies of OFSP raw materials, sweetpotato perishability, and the low price of the processed OFSP products are the key constraints to private sector involvement in OFSP.The RAC project built the capacity of SUA to conduct the ToT course on 'Everything you ever wanted to know about sweetpotato' (see section 4. SRI-Kibaha, Ukiriguru Research Institute and RECODA also have been playing an important role in training change agents for the various processes of the OFSP value chain. The capacity of these organizations was built through the RAC project. SRI-Kibaha is particularly strong on the entire value chain processes including breeding. Moreover, it possesses screen houses that contain pre-basic and basic OFSP seed. For organizations that require training of their staff, SUA and SRI-Kibaha are well placed to offer those services, albeit on a cost-recovery basis. RECODA is suited for training change agents at the tertiary or community level, who specifically are farmers and extensions. There is need for concerted efforts to build the capacities of more organizations like RECODA, which will be able to offer training services at the grassroots level.The gender analysis conducted on the production of OFSP in Tanzania by Mudege and Grant (2017) provides important information on the gender constraints affecting the production and consumption of the crop. For instance, men were more likely to face production constraints in OFSP than women were owing to women's higher involvement in sweetpotato farming, which allowed them better awareness on how to solve sweetpotato production constraints (Mudege and Grant, 2017). That study also found that women had the least productive land to cultivate sweetpotato and that men were unwilling to invest in sweetpotato because of its perceived lack of benefits and because they regarded it as a secondary and 'women's' crop. However, although women were more engaged in sweetpotato cultivation than were men, it was men who were often targeted with agronomic training. Moreover, women were unlikely to attend training events conducted outside the village owing to domestic demands (Mudege and Grant, 2017). This finding on training supports the conclusion drawn by RAC in its end of the project evaluation (RAC, 2015).Mudege and Grant (2017) postulate that although medium-scale enterprises for sweetpotato vines were not well developed in Tanzania, women were more optimistic than men about marketing opportunities for sweetpotato vines and roots. This means that women were more likely than men to engage in OFSP production. However, owing to constraints in land ownership, women were unlikely to become medium-scale vine multipliers.That OFSP is highly susceptible to diseases and pests was quite evident from the information gathered from the stakeholders consulted. The development of disease and pest-tolerant varieties for OFSP is a required intervention. Such an intervention will also contribute to addressing the challenge of the poor supply of planting materials.The low level of awareness and knowledge on biofortified products affects both the consumption and adoption of these crops. Promotion, training and awareness creation about biofortified crops and their products are some of the needed interventions that BNFB could contribute to. However, literature (see Waized et al., 2015, for example) suggests that interventions promoting biofortified crops, in particular OFSP, have been faced with tension in choosing between targeting the poorest farmers, who are the most vulnerable to undernutrition, and catalyzing commercial production of the crops. In innovation adoption, resource-poor farming households are considered as late adopters and are therefore not likely to rapidly adopt new biofortified crops. There is a clear need to identify the entry points for the effective promotion of biofortified crops in the target areas of BNFB project. In our opinion, using disadvantaged and vulnerable groups such as resource-poor farmers as an entry point in the promotion of biofortified crops and products is inadequate and should be complemented with, for instance, commercial production and marketing of the crops and products.To address the gender-related constraints in OFSP production, Mudege and Grant (2017) propose that group businesses and market training for women farmers be explored as potential practical strategies. Strategies that adopt household approaches to farming as a business also are recommended to increase women's participation at that level.Marketing constraints of OFSP should be addressed for the whole value chain. The focus should be on awareness creation, promotion and advocacy for OFSP. There is a lack of standards of quality for processed OFSP, as the current TBS and TFDA standards for fortified processed products covering maize and wheat flour and other products do not include processed OFSP. This is a potential intervention area for BNFB. This issue is discussed in detail in section 4.5. A study in one intervention district established that commercial farmers who were supported by a project to multiply and disseminate planting materials stopped the work after the project funding ended, citing the lack of a local market as the reason (Waized et al., 2015). This underscores the need for increased awareness creation. Temu et al. (2014) provide practical recommendations on addressing some of the challenges facing the OFSP value chain. They say that attention should be given to retail and marketing interventions in order to increase the consumption of OFSP. One advantage of OFSP is that unlike other biofortified crops with hidden traits, it can be differentiated through color.Because of this attribute, Temu et al. (2014) recommend that retailers should be encouraged to sell OFSP and white-fleshed varieties separately and to provide information about the benefits of OFSP. Evidence (see Temu et al., 2014;Waized et al., 2015) indicates that these interventions lead to lasting change in the marketing of OFSP.In terms of capacity building, the commitment of SUA to sustain the ToT course on sweetpotato is uncertain. With more biofortified crops in its basket, BNFB should consider equipping/capacitating a center of excellence in Tanzania to train change agents on the entire continuum of biofortification, OFSP included. From the experience in Nigeria, partnering with a middle level college is less cumbersome and more promising for sustainability. Moreover, SRI-Kibaha, Ukiriguru Research Institute and RECODA are the only institutions known to have stepped down the ToT course. It is recommended that an ex post study be conducted to ascertain how many change agents stepped down the course, the reasons for success and the challenges facing the step-down cascading training model.PVA maize (Photo credit -anonymous)Maize accounts for 31% of the total staple food production in Tanzania, is the staple food for most Tanzanians and is largely produced by small-scale farmers. Up to 80% of all maize produced is consumed within the country. The volume consumed is approximately 7.1 million tons, and 125,773 tons is exported (Wilson & Lewis, 2015). Fig. 4 shows the main maize producing regions of Tanzania. According to FAOSTAT (2014) the area under maize cultivation increased from 2,600,341 ha in 2007 to 4,146,000 ha in 2014, and the quantities produced from 3,659,000 t in 2007 to 6,737,197 t in 2014 (Table 5). Despite the increased availability of improved maize seed in Tanzania, only an estimated 27% of the area under maize is planted with improved or certified seed (World Bank, 2012). The potential demand for maize seed in Tanzania is estimated to be 120,000 t per annum, and actual demand is estimated at 60,000 t. Only 28.6% of the maize seed in Tanzania is made available through the formal seed system (ESAFF, 2013). The main seed companies in Tanzania by market share include Pannar Seed (28%), SeedCo (26%), Suba Agro (9%), Kibo Seed (7%), Monsanto (6%), Highland Seed (6%) and ByTrade Tanzania Ltd (5%) (Lyimo et al., 2014).The main input suppliers for the maize sector in Tanzania are ARIs, seed companies and fertilizer retailers. Maize is produced mostly by small-scale individual farmers. There is little farmer organization in form of cooperatives. Few farmers have marketing strategies and most of them sell maize grain to local agents and brokers. Because of their small-scale production, as well as quality concerns, farmers are unable to sell their maize to the National Food Reserve Agency. According to the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT, n.d.), maize farmers sell about 70-80% of their total grain production.Maize markets in Tanzania are divided into grain and flour markets (SAGCOT, n.d.). Most of the grain marketed by farmers is delivered to local collection hubs and then accumulated by traders who sell it to local, regional and urban markets. Export of maize is strictly regulated by the government, and Burundi, Congo, Kenya and Rwanda are the main markets for the grain. Some of the maize grain is sold also to processors and grain traders who accumulate and export it (for details on the grain value chain, see Wilson and Lewis (2015).The milling capacity for maize flour in Tanzania has more than doubled over the last decade, with urban millers of medium capacity emerging strongly (SAGCOT, n.d.). Only a limited number of the larger roller mills produce high quality flour products, and all operate well below capacity. Smallscale hammer mills are what are mainly used throughout Tanzania to convert maize grain into lowcost flour (Lewis and Wilson, 2015).The flour market is concentrated in urban centers, with the millers setting their prices based on production costs. Wholesalers are mainly concentrated around these millers. Supermarkets are the main retail outlets for milled products from the larger roller mills. The medium-size milling producers sell their products mostly through the shops and mini supermarkets often found within estates in urban centers.Gannon et al. ( 2014) conducted a randomized controlled PVA maize efficacy trial among rural Zambian children 4 and found that the consumption of PVA maize improved their serum betacarotene concentrations. They concluded that in that population when consumed as a staple, PVA maize was efficacious and could avoid the potential for hypervitaminosis.CIMMYT is supporting research on and dissemination of PVA maize in Tanzania under the BNFB project. The release of two PVA maize varieties in Tanzania in 2016 by Meru Agro Company was done in collaboration with CIMMYT. The two varieties are Meru VAH517, with a beta-carotene level of 8 ppm, and Meru VAH519, with a beta-carotene level of 14 ppm. In terms of agronomic characteristics, both varieties have equal seed rates of 25 kg/ha, maturity period of 100-125 days, yield under managed drought of 3.6 t/ha, recommended elevation of 800-1200 m, average row number of 14-16, grain color of orange, and flint as the grain texture. However, they differ in yield, which is 7.5 t/ha for Meru VAH 517 and 5.9 t/ha for Meru VAH 519, and ear rots, which is 3.5% for Meru VAH 517 and 0.7% for Meru VAH 519.TANSEED International Ltd received three PVA maize genotypes from CIMMYT-Zimbabwe and is bulking the seed for field evaluation. Other partners involved in the process of testing and evaluation of PVA maize include IFFA Seed Company and Multi Agroseed Main Supplier Ltd.There is no commercial production of PVA maize seed in Tanzania at the moment as seeds of the parents of the PVA maize varieties Meru VAH517 and Meru VAH519 are currently being bulked by Meru Agro Company.Several challenges could potentially affect PVA maize in Tanzania:Low investment in research for PVA maize varieties: Only two PVA maize varieties have been officially released in Tanzania. Before the advent of BNFB, there was almost no effort in testing and releasing of PVA maize. No breeding activities are being carried out in Tanzania for PVA maize. Without well-performing and desirable varieties, seed bulking and market development may not take root. These two factors are critical for increased grain production with corresponding increased adoption of certified seed.Lessons learned from the promotion of quality protein maize (QPM) indicate that farmers produced QPM grain with the anticipation of premium prices. However, since the quality attribute in QPM is hidden, grain traders were hesitant to pay such prices and offered market prices, which discouraged farmers. This challenge is likely to face PVA maize, as its beta-carotene content is a hidden trait and the orange color in the maize grain does not necessary indicate the presence of the micronutrient. The challenge already exists in Tanzania, where Charoen Pokphand Produce Ltd from Thailand has been promoting two yellow maize varieties, CP 201 and CP 808, sometimes labeling them as biofortified. But data from the National Release Committee indicate that these varieties were not released based on nutrition criteria but for animal feed. There were no data on their levels of beta-carotene showing that they were of PVA grade, and so we did not consider them biofortified. It is clear that the lack of differentiation of PVA maize from the other maize varieties and the 4 Sampling 140 children, Gannon et al. (2014) found that after 6 months, with a 90% follow-up, serum beta-carotene was greater among the children in the orange maize group than among those in the white maize group. Moreover, the children's pupillary responsiveness increased significantly across all light stimuli. After adjustment for baseline differences, the children in the orange maize clusters had a 2.2 greater odds of improved pupillary function. In the context of that population, which was marginally deficient, regular biofortified maize consumption significantly increased serum betacarotene concentrations. The researchers concluded that beta-carotene from maize was efficacious when consumed as a staple food in that population and could prevent the potential for hypervitaminosis.historical preference of white kernel maize (Smale & Jayne 2003) are significant challenges for PVA maize in Tanzania.Limited participation by processors and marketers: Two other lessons learned in piloting QPM in Tanzania were that (1) owing to the uniqueness of QPM, its producers expected the giant grain buyers and processors such as Azam to join in, but there was little interest from these groups, and ( 2) QPM seed and grain production remained unpredictable and significantly low because of the unfavorable climatic changes, and this discouraged small and micro enterprises and large maize grain buyers. It is likely that PVA maize stakeholders will need to address these challenges to scale up the production and consumption of the crop.Negative attitudes towards 'colored' maize varieties and maize products: Tanzanians associate yellow colored maize with the relief food imported into the country to address famine in the 1980s. The yellow maize was nicknamed 'yanga', a name that is still blanketly used to refer to any yellow/orange maize varieties. There are ongoing research efforts in Tanzania on PVA maize as a crop with high potential to address VAD. However, these efforts are still low in the research pipeline, partly due the complexities of the maize technologies and underinvestment. More efforts in research for new varieties and investments are needed to expedite the release of promising genotypes. Moreover, since the PVA maize quality attribute is hidden and its orange color may encounter resistance in a market accustomed to eating white maize, awareness creation and promotion are critically needed. Using events such as Nane Nane shows and the mass media is particularly recommended to help shift attitudes. But the most important factor to pull the demand for PVA maize is the participation of large-scale maize millers and processors in PVA maize processing. Maize requires at least 3-4 seasons to generate large volumes of seed for commercial purposes. This is particularly challenging in instances where large quantities of parent material are needed. This constraint is compounded by the fact that the maize seed sector is predominantly private sector led, and the private seed companies are hesitant to invest resources in new technologies such as PVA maize. Key informant interviewees indicated that this challenge has been overcome elsewhere by supporting seed companies and commercial seed farmers with resources to multiply seed even as promotion efforts are conducted. AGRA has adopted this approach in Tanzania with commendable success. It is therefore recommended that BNFB partners support the seed companies with resources to multiply and avail sufficient quantities of PVA maize seed in Tanzania.MAC 44 bean variety field at Selian Agricultural Research Institute (photo: Godfrey Mulongo)Beans are one of the major staples in Tanzania and account for up to 10% of the total staple crop production. Three zones, namely Lake, Southern and Northern, are the leading bean producers in Tanzania. Beans are used for both household consumption and as a cash crop. Tanzania is the largest bean producer in Africa with 1.5 million ha under the crop. The average production of beans is 1 million tons per year with an average productivity of 1 t/ha. Tanzania exports beans to about 10 countries in East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Fig. 5 shows the major beans producing areas. According to FAOSTAT (2014) the production of dry beans increased from 889,293 t in 2007 to 1,114,500 t in 2014 (Table 6). In terms of marketing, Korir et al. (n.d.) indicate that dry beans in Tanzania flow from the northern zone of the Tanzania hinterland into the regional market centers of Arusha and Moshi. From there the beans flow northwards to Nairobi through the Namanga border point and to Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. Some 92.1% of the farmers produce dry beans for local markets, while 7.9% produce for export (Korir et al., n.d.). Wholesalers source their bean stocks for export from assemblers. The dominant marketing channel established for beans to flow through was from farmers to upcountry assemblers to wholesalers then to retailers and finally to consumers. Although the bean marketing system in Tanzania is generally efficient with bean market prices reflecting the production costs, producer participation is low (Korir et al., n.d.).Haas et al. ( 2016) conducted a randomized controlled trial among a group of Rwandan women to determine the efficacy of high iron and zinc beans to improve iron status. The study established that the women in the high iron and zinc beans group, who consumed 14.5 ± 1.6 mg Fe/d, had significantly greater increases in hemoglobin (3.8 g/L), log serum ferritin (0.1 log μg/L) and BI (0.5 mg/kg) than those in the control group, who consumed 8.6 ± 0.8 mg of standard beans. In essence, for every 1 g Fe consumed from beans over the 128 study days, there was a significant 4.2 g/L increase in hemoglobin (P < 0.05). The study concluded that consumption of iron-biofortified beans significantly improved the iron status in the treatment group.Another study by Luna et al. (2014) that investigated the relationship between changes in iron status and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) after 5 months of consuming a high iron and zinc bean diet established that serum ferritin significantly increased in the high iron and zinc bean group. The median of the serum ferritin increase in the treatment group was 4.0 μg/L compared with 2.5 μg/L for the control group. VO2 max declined in both groups over the course of the intervention with no difference between the treatment and control groups. However, in the iron status component of the trial, which involved the participants with a ferritin increase of 15% or more drawn from the treatment and control groups, the treatment group had a significantly attenuated decline in VO2 max compared with the control group. The study concluded that the consumption of high iron and zinc beans significantly improved the iron status of the participants and that the improvements in iron status in the iron-biofortified group attenuated the decline in VO2 max.CIAT is the facilitator of PABRA. PABRA is coordinated by a core team of CIAT scientists with the responsibility of developing and disseminating improved varieties of beans that are high yielding; nutritionally enhanced with iron and zinc; resistant to insect pests and diseases; tolerant to drought, heat and low soil fertility; and well suited for the market in terms of seed size and color.According to the respondent from CIAT-Tanzania, high iron and zinc bean genotypes MAC44, a red mottled, mild altitude climber with 78-90 ppm of iron content, and RWV1129, a Kablanketi type with 78-90 ppm of iron content, have been introduced in Tanzania from Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda through the Eastern and Central Bean Research Network breeding system. These two genotypes yield 2027-3529.80 kg/ha and 1891.85-3398.29 kh/ha, respectively. They have been submitted to TOSCI and are undergoing DUS testing and NPTs and are expected to be released in the last quarter of 2017. A CIAT study on consumers' willingness to pay indicates that the acceptability of these biofortified beans by farmers and consumers is high due to their agronomic performance relating to yield and pest and disease tolerance, preference by consumers and marketability.With the support of BNFB, multilocational trials for stability and adaptability for eight more high iron and zinc bean genotypes are going on. According to the respondents, the key constraints to private sector involvement in the high iron and zinc beans business is the low market demand for bean seeds. This is because bean is an openpollinated crop and so its seeds can be reused by farmers for several years with little loss in yield or quality. The low seed demand can be overcome by strategic demand creation, communication to both the bean and the food value chain actors and engagement with nutrition and health sector actors.The varieties MAC44 and RWV1129 are climbers. This could pose significant agronomic challenges for farmers in Tanzania who are accustomed to growing the bush varieties.Other constraints include low funding to local research institutes to conduct field evaluation of new varieties and lack of released bean varieties with high iron and zinc content.No biofortified bean varieties are produced in the country at the moment, and none has been released. More effort is required to speed up research for new varieties. Additionally, farmers should be trained on appropriate agronomic practices for climbing bean varieties.With biofortified beans being a new technology, education and awareness creation on the nutritional value of high iron and zinc beans in addressing iron deficiency are essential. Promotion and advocacy for the crop, particularly to unlock investments in it, are highly recommended.This section deals with the prioritization of nutrition, specifically biofortification, in the national policy, legal and regulatory frameworks. It also identifies the national and international advocacy platforms and forums in Tanzania that are relevant for biofortification and makes recommendations on how BNFB can leverage their processes, and points to approaches on how to unlock investments for biofortification.A study conducted in 2012 by SUA entitled 'Nutrition policy mapping for Tanzania' (NPMT, 2012) revealed that most of the existing policies incorporated none to minimal content on nutrition matters. Only a few policies dealt with nutrition, especially those related to health, food and nutrition, agriculture, and child and community development. The issues that were most commonly addressed were related to food insecurity and diseases. Undernutrition was more frequently addressed than was overnutrition or emerging diet-related chronic diseases.This situation analysis involved a review of literature and content analysis of various national policies, strategies and program documents of the Government of Tanzania to ascertain their inclusion of biofortification. A total of 33 policy documents and 12 strategies were reviewed. The review found that a number of national policies were formulated during the 1990s or after 2005. About 24% of the policies and strategies had a strong focus on nutrition and had some actionoriented policy commitments. The Agricultural Policy of 2013 and the Agricultural Sector Development Program of 2016 have a statement on biofortification (URT, 2016c).The content review of the policy documents established that the National Agriculture Policy of 2013, the National Multisectoral Nutrition Action Plan (NMNAP) for July 2016-June 2021 (URT, 2016e) and the draft TFNC Strategic Plan support biofortification. The last two of these are fairly recent and benefitted from BNFB's input. The National Agricultural Policy of 2013 (URT, 2013) has policy statements related to biofortification but has neither a national strategy nor a program for its implementation. Although the Food and Nutrition Policy for Tanzania (URT, 2016d) does not expressly mention biofortification, it endorses nutrient-rich food crops. Consultations with TFNC revealed that efforts were underway to review the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Policy of 1992 to accommodate biofortification. Other policy documents that capture biofortification include the fiveyear strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (2016-2020) and the Agricultural Sector Development Programme Phase Two (ASDP-2) of 2016 (URT, 2016c). Biofortification appears to have been given low priority, as ASDP-2 puts more emphasis on food security. BNFB needs to advocate for prioritization of biofortification in the resourcing and implementation of this program. The findings of the review of the national policies and strategies are summarized in Appendix 12.As an important step in improving the coordination of nutrition in the country, the government has employed and deployed nutrition officers at regional and district levels. These officers are mandated with planning and facilitating the implementation of nutrition activities. To address the lack of data on the investments allocated and spent on nutrition activities in Tanzania, the Ministry of Finance, with the technical and financial support from UNICEF and the World Bank, instituted a public expenditure review on nutrition. INNOVEX Development Consulting Ltd was contracted by UNICEF to carry out the review. The purpose was to obtain baseline information on allocations and expenditures on nutrition against which progress would be assessed after the introduction of the budget line on nutrition in the financial year 2012/13.According to the INNOVEX report (URT, 2014), the total nutrition investment at the national level over the three years from 2010 to 2013, excluding the resources allocated at the local councils, amounted to Tsh 78.6 billion (USD 35.8 million). The annual resource allocations were Tsh 17.8 billion (USD 8.2 million) for 2010/11, Tsh 27.5 (USD 12.6 million) for 2011/2012 and Tsh 33.2 billion (USD 15 million) for 2012/13. The nutrition sector budget allocation compared with the national GDP was 0.05% for 2010/11 and 0.06% for 2011/2012 and 2012/13. Also, in relation to the government total expenditure, the nutrition allocations were 0.15%, 0.20% and 0.22% for those years, respectively.Whilst the implementation of the National Nutrition Strategy was estimated to cost Tsh 118.9 billion (USD 55 million) in 2011/12 and Tsh 145 billion (USD 67 million) in 2012/13, the actual resource allocations at the national level were only 23.1% of the estimates in 2011/12 and 22.9% in 2012/13. This shows a significant funding gap, which ultimately was responsible for the low success of the National Nutritional Strategy Implementation Plan for 2011-2016. Currently councils do not have earmarked funding for implementing nutrition interventions. The 15 local councils visited for the situation analysis had neither implemented the nutrition strategic plans nor undertaken nutritional surveys. Nutrition interventions were incorporated in the Medium-term Expenditure Framework on an ad hoc basis with a few selected interventions by sector. Ultimately, most of the interventions were not implemented owing to the lack of funds. The total nutrition resource allocation for the 15 councils covered in the study was Tsh 2.48 billion (USD 100,000) for a three-year period.BNFB intends to establish multisectoral technical and policy platforms as important forums to provide support, facilitate linkages and conduct advocacy for biofortification. The platforms will help spearhead the production and marketing of biofortified crops. It is therefore important that the project be aware of similar existing or associated initiatives. The key advocacy platforms in Tanzania are listed in Appendix 13. They include the Food and Nutrition Association of Tanzania (FONATA), the National Food Fortification Alliance (NFFA) and the Multisectoral Nutrition Technical Working Group. Other platforms that conduct advocacy in agriculture and nutrition are the Partnership for Nutrition in Tanzania (PANITA), the Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF), the Tanzania Agricultural Partnerships and Agriculture Coalition and PABRA. PABRA is made up of an international network of bean researchers, 29 national agricultural research institutions, and more than 350 partner organizations (see Appendix 13).There are also steering committees for nutrition matters, for example the Councils Steering Committee on Nutrition, and special days are observed in the country to put a focus on nutrition, for example the Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security (ADFNS). The Councils Steering Committee on Nutrition's meetings are chaired by the district executive director, while the secretary is the district or council nutrition officer. The objective of the Councils Steering Committee on Nutrition is to ensure comprehensive and coordinated understanding and action in responding to nutrition challenges in the districts. The committee serves as a monitoring body for the councils in the implementation of the National Nutrition Strategy and the Tanzania Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plan.At the 15th ordinary session of the African Union summit in Kampala, Uganda, in July 2010, the African Union Heads of State and Government made a declaration setting aside a day to be observed for nutrition, the Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security. This decision was made in recognition of threat to the continent's population from the unacceptable and chronic crisis of hunger and malnutrition. The first ADFNS was observed in Lilongwe, Malawi, on 31 October 2010. Since then the day has been commemorated six times with the last editions taking place in Kampala, Uganda, from 28 to 30 October 2015 and Accra, Ghana, from 26 to 28 October 2016. The main purpose of ADFNS is to serve as a platform for rallying political and financial commitments at all levels to address contemporary challenges in food and nutrition insecurity. ADFNS provides a platform at national, regional and continental levels to share experience, knowledge and mutual learning, as well as to measure progress in ensuring food and nutritional security for all by governments and partners.Tanzania is a signatory to several international treaties and declarations on agriculture and nutrition. These include the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which targets the enhancement of the role that non-state actors play in ensuring that agricultural transformation is made possible at the continental level, and the Malabo Declaration. During the African Union Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in June 2014 the Heads of State and Government adopted a set of concrete agriculture goals to be attained by 2025. The Malabo Summit confirmed that agriculture needed to remain high on the development agenda of the continent and that it was a critical policy intervention area for African economic growth and poverty reduction. On 5 June 2011 Tanzania joined the SUN Movement. By that time the country had established the High-Level Steering Committee for Nutrition, which is convened in the Prime Minister's Office and involves multiple ministries and stakeholders. Tanzania has also created the Parliamentarian Group on Nutrition, which has drawn up an action plan for advocating for nutrition in parliamentary activities. Tanzania is a member of the UN REACH Partnership Initiative and the Global Alliance for Improving Nutrition (GAIN). GAIN works to improve agriculture and nutrition security through building alliances with stakeholders and representatives from every major sector in development.GAIN works with diverse partners, and specifically national governments, civil society, academic institutions, international bodies such as the UN, donors, foundations, consumer groups and local and international private sector companies in several countries including Tanzania.Working through the multisectoral policy platform, BNFB should support existing nutrition advocacy initiatives in order for biofortification to be given a high priority in national budget allocation. Consultations with officials in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, TFNC and the Prime Minister' Office revealed a number of weakness and challenges in promoting biofortification at the national level. The interventions proposed to address those weaknesses are shown in Table 7. This section is an appraisal of the institutional capacity gaps that need addressing to scale up biofortification.The important local institutions key to scaling up biofortification in Tanzania are the ARIs, TOSCI, TFDA, TFNC, seed producers and training institutions. A detailed assessment of each category is given below.Tanzania has ARIs in all agroecological zones of the country, and these could make research and field evaluation of new varieties of biofortified crops effective. The ARIs partner with other research and implementing partners to evaluate new varieties, including for biofortified crops. The key ARIs include SRI-Kibaha, ARI-Ukiriguru and ARI-Hombolo for OFSP; ARI-Uyole for OFSP and beans; ARI-Maruku and ARI-Selian for beans; and ARI-Ilonga for maize. The reducing public funding for research has constrained the activities of ARIs working on biofortified crops, particularly for training and transport and other facilitation expenses for field evaluation of new varieties. For instance, TOSCI's requirement that a new variety be evaluated in three agroecological zones in DUS testing and NPTs has implications for the transport and facilitation costs.TOSCI is responsible for the verification of new seed varieties for official release and certification of seeds produced for sale in Tanzania. According to the Seed Act, a breeder who wants to release a new variety must submit an application to TOSCI together with a seed sample, testing fees and two years of testing data. The new variety is then evaluated through NPTs. TOSCI puts the submitted variety through DUS testing and value for cultivation or use (VCU) tests. DUS testing is conducted for two seasons and VCU testing for one season. When a variety has passed these tests, the NPT technical committee evaluates its test results and presents the findings to the National Variety Release Committee (NVRC). NVRC then evaluates the report from the NPT Technical Committee and makes a recommendation to the National Seed Committee for the release of the variety. The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries' statistics on varieties release show rejection rates of 28.9% for 2015 and 15% for 2016. 6 After the National Seed Committee reviews the report, it sends the final recommendation to the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries for approval. The committees involved in variety release meet in session only once a year for the purpose of processing applications for seed release by developers.Discussions with TOSCI during the situation analysis revealed that it faces a number of challenges in releasing, sampling and testing biofortified crop varieties. These challenges have affected its ability to enforce the measures for controlling the quality of the seed in the market, leading to the pervasiveness of fake and substandard seed. The presence of fake seeds is a disincentive for the farmers and others who wish to invest in certified seed. TOSCI's challenges are: Inadequacies in personnel to carry out all the functions prescribed in the seed law. The TOSCI employees in charge of variety testing are responsible also for conducting field inspections for seed certification and market quality control; Lack of a proper information technology system for the seed testing and certification functions that are under TOSCI's responsibility;The inadequacies in resources e.g. for the treatment of water, fertilizers and pesticides, and the untimely availability of resources for key stages in the testing process could impact TOSCI's ability to produce credible findings. Furthermore, TOSCI lacks the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) machine used for testing crops for micronutrients. Inconsistency in budgetary disbursements, which often are also untimely, is a persistent problem, generating a large degree of uncertainty in TOSCI's ability to comply with the established schedules for variety testing.The institutional constraints facing TOSCI and the proposed interventions to expedite the release of new varieties of biofortified crops in Tanzania are presented in Appendix 14.TBS has developed standards of quality for fortified maize and wheat flour and sugars to which fortificants are added during processing. There are currently no standards for biofortified products.Consultations with TBS revealed that TBS was ready to develop standards for processed OFSP, PVA maize and high iron and zinc beans and their products as long as there was demand from processors. TBS standards of quality would increase confidence among processors, traders and consumers in the quality and safety of biofortified products. The main consideration in establishing these standards is the concentration of the micronutrient beta-carotene, iron or zinc present in the processed products. Unfortunately, there are no standard protocols on the quantities of micronutrients in unprocessed or processed products of OFSP, PVA maize and high iron and zinc beans grown in the different agroecological zones of Tanzania. TBS has capacity in human resources and facilities for testing for iron, zinc, beta-carotene, lysine and tryptophan, but it requires protocols for laboratory analysis of micronutrients and training of laboratory staff to conduct the tests. Moreover, as the processors indicated, the food safety inspection protocols of TBS and TFDA duplicate each other and thus are responsible for unnecessarily cumbersome, time-wasting and expensive procedures.One of TFDA's functions is to conduct the pre-marketing evaluation of regulated products to ensure that they meet the standards of quality, safety and effectiveness before they are registered or officially allowed in the market. TFDA requires data on the levels of micronutrient concentration, i.e. for beta-carotene, iron and zinc, during the pre-market laboratory analysis of biofortified products. This increases trust for the products among consumers, since it ensures that unprocessed and processed biofortified products meet the minimum standards. Consultations with TFDA showed that it had the capacity in human resources and facilities for testing for iron, zinc and beta-carotene, but not the protocols and skilled staff needed for laboratory testing of micronutrients.Over the years, TFNC has played a significant role in advocacy for good nutrition and nutritionrelated initiatives. Because of its prominence in the nutrition arena, TFNC has been mandated to spearhead the implementation of the National Multi-sectorial Nutrition Action Plan for 2016-2021. However, the successful implementation of that role is currently encumbered by the lack of supportive political commitment and funding inadequacy. BNFB should work with nutrition champions to influence the government to allocate funds for scaling up biofortification.Discussions with the Ministry of Education and the review of its documents revealed that biofortification is not entrenched in the national curriculum for basic education. There is therefore a need to engage the Ministry of Education actors to mainstream biofortification in the education system through the curriculum and its associated programs. Data indicate that the Tanzanian Institute of Education is in the process of finalizing a new national in-service teacher training (INSET) framework. Moreover, the Education Sector Development Plan (ESDP) (2016/17-2020/21) indicates that there are plans to establish a teachers' professional board to coordinate the functions of and formalize the teaching profession. This board, when created, will have the task of streamlining all professional teachers' education programs to meet the emerging needs of those teaching and training from preschools to higher education institutions. The ESDP document also indicates that Tanzania plans to strengthen school health and nutrition programs, particularly for school feeding. It is therefore recommended that (1) advocacy be conducted so that the new INSET framework incorporates nutrition and biofortification as critical elements, (2) an advocate on nutrition/biofortification be identified at the teacher professional board once it is established so that he or she can backstop the project's effort to mainstream biofortification in teacher training programs, and (3) advocacy efforts be geared towards the inclusion of biofortified crops in the school feeding programs currently under development.The Ministry of Agriculture training institutes (MATIs) and tertiary level institutions such as the University of Dar es Salaam, University of Dodoma and Nelson Mandela Institute of Science and Technology have the potential to mainstream biofortification in their curricula and to provide training on it. However, these colleges and universities do not have biofortification in their curricula.Being the main agricultural university in the country, SUA was assessed to determine its strength, opportunities, weakness and threats with respect to supporting biofortification. Interviews with SUA staff revealed that it had mainstreamed OFSP in its syllabus. The ex post study on RAC should help shed more light on this by determining the type of content that is covered. SUA possesses expertise in plant tissue culture, molecular biology, crop protection, agronomy and plant breeding, and laboratories for analysis of nutrients such as iron, zinc, lysine, tryptophan and beta-carotene. Its weaknesses also were identified. For instance, it is not clear why the SUA laboratory returned highly contestable results for CP 201 and CP 808 maize varieties when it tested them for beta-carotene. 7  Another issue is that the SUA curriculum contains fortification and supplementation but not biofortification. A summary of the results of the assessment of SUA is given in Appendix 15.The potential of the University of Dar es Salaam, University of Dodoma and Nelson Mandela Institute of Science and Technology to mainstream and support training on biofortification also was assessed and the results are summarized in Table 8. Although the capacities of middle level colleges were not assessed, it was considered unlikely that they would have entrenched biofortification by the mere fact that their higher level counterparts had not done so. Of importance for biofortification capacity building are MATI-Ilonga, MATI-Uyole, MATI-Ukiriguru, MATI-Tumbi, MATI Mtwara and the National Sugar Institute, which offer a wide range of agriculture related courses, namely a diploma in general agriculture, a diploma in crop production and a certificate in general agriculture. Appendix 16 lists the MATIs that could be targeted. To build strong institutions to scale up biofortification in Tanzania, the following interventions are recommended:As the ARIs with the potential to scale up research projects for biofortified crops are constrained by funding, BNFB should build their capacity to mainstream biofortification in their research programs so that they can design, fundraise for, implement and monitor projects on biofortification. BNFB should work through its affiliates' laboratories such as those of HarvestPlus to support local institutions such as TFDA, SUA, TFNC and TBS to (1) develop and implement standards and controls for biofortified crops, specifically standards for the concentration levels of micronutrients beta-carotene, iron and zinc, and protocols for laboratory analysis of micronutrients, (2) train technical staff, and (3) get access to laboratory equipment for analysis of micronutrients locally. The Technical Committee of TBS requires data on the crops' micronutrient levels when developing the standards for biofortified products. Advocacy to harmonize the food safety inspection protocols of TBS and the TFDA is also recommended. Specific conclusions and recommendations have been made in each of the sections in this report. In addition to those, the following general conclusions and recommendations should be considered in scaling up biofortification: Key actors in scaling up biofortified crops and patterns of consumption of biofortified crops and their products: There are several actors in the biofortified value chain, but participation in the processing and consumption parts of the chain is limited. For instance, OFSP is largely consumed unprocessed as boiled roots in the villages that grow the crop and very little is consumed as processed products. BNFB should facilitate the participation of medium-scale and large-scale processors in the value chains of the biofortified crops. Drawing champions and advocates from the private sector to promote the processing of these products is recommended. Moreover, capacity building is also recommended for food processors on biofortification, especially on the standards for processed biofortified crop products, product labeling, and application of the protocols for laboratory analysis of micronutrients. Barriers that prevent disadvantaged groups from accessing and benefiting from biofortification: The situation analysis established that the barriers that prevent disadvantaged groups from benefiting from biofortification in Tanzania include (1) the lack and unaffordability of planting materials, (2) the slow adoption of the new technologies due to the lack of awareness about them, (3) the low prioritization of some of the crops, particularly OFSP, that renders them less competitive than the primary staples, especially in allocation of land for cultivation, and (4) social and cultural misconceptions about the crops.  Institutional and structural bottlenecks to address in order to unlock the value chain for biofortified crops in the country: The value chain for biofortified crops is affected by the limited physical and human capacity, e.g. in agronomic skills. Other constraints include crop pests and diseases, poor access to inputs such as quality planting materials, and lack of a wide array of officially released varieties. Institutional capacity gaps also exist. The situation analysis identified specific capacity gaps in institutions such as TOSCI, TBS, TFDA, TFNC and SUA that are necessary to address in order to scale up biofortification in the country. It is recommended that the project prioritize filling those gaps and supporting the access to quality seed, among other mechanisms, to unlock the value chain of biofortified crops. It is important to provide support to facilitate the release of more crop varieties through the relevant institutions and channels. The project should align its work with that of institutions such as TBS and TFDA to provide technical support on the development of standards for processed products.There is need to strengthen the national breeding programs for biofortified crops so that appropriate varieties that are market led are developed, released and disseminated expeditiously. To achieve this, the project needs to advocate for more resources to support this goal and engage with TOSCI, the NPT Technical Committee, NVRC and the National Seed Committee so that protocols that prioritize the development and release of biofortified crops are introduced. Other practical mechanisms to strengthen the breeding programs include (1) developing crop-specific strategies for screening potential promising lines and germplasm, (2) providing stable and continuous funding for the breeding work, (3) screening and testing potential lines in stations and on farms, (4) continuous capacity building for young scientists on technical skills, which could be in long or short tailor-made courses such as the AGRAsupported courses for sweetpotato, and (5) providing equipment for modern breeding methods such as marker-assisted selection and genomic selection. In addition, breeders require sensitization and awareness creation on the need to include and prioritize biofortified crops in their agenda. Moreover, the introduction of breeding for biofortified crops in the university/college curricula is a worthwhile long-term strategy.  2009) This policy aims at strengthening the capacity for management of acute malnutrition.The strategy should provide for implementation programs promoting the utilization of biofortified food crops and products by children and pregnant women.During the implementation of this strategic plan, the ministry could be advised to include the promotion of the consumption of biofortified food crops by children, pregnant women and lactating mothers in order to achieve the main goal of reducing malnutrition. ","tokenCount":"15123"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2e74ecd793797a16f9637720070af997","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cd26a9fc-cc13-430d-b512-7ebb2d31a6ef/retrieve","id":"1919143668"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"feb89f47-6123-4ed1-9e4e-76d11cfe8915","pagecount":"1","content":"Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important root crop widely cultivated in Nigeria and in Sub-Saharan Africa (Fig 1). Biofortified cassava clones provide an affordable source of Provitamin A in Africa and is used as an intervention crop to address hidden hunger resulting from vitamin A deficiency (VAD). It is therefore important to obtain information on the stability of total carotenoid concentration, yield and yield components of selected yellow flesh cassava under varying environmental conditions (Delacy et al., 1996;Yan et al., 2000;Yan and Rajcan, 2002).Eighteen cassava genotypes with three checks were evaluated in an advanced yield trial in a randomized complete block design with three replications in three locations in Nigeria (Ibadan, Ikenne and Ubiaja) with varying climatic and soil conditions. Growth performance, reaction to pests and diseases were monitored periodically while yield related traits (fresh root weight, fresh yield, harvest index, dry matter content and total carotenoids content (TC) were determined at harvest, twelve months after planting (12MAP). Data generated were subjected to statistical analysis using proc GLM procedure in SAS for analysis of variance (ANOVA) and best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP). The study identified promising genotypes that could be advanced to the next breeding stage, while others with potential as parents for hybridization were also identified.International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), P. M. B. 5320, Ibadan, Nigeria Presenting Author email address: p.akpotuzor@cgiar.org Results showed highly significant effects (p<0.01) due to genotypes (G), environments (E), and G X E interaction for fresh yield (FYLD), dry matter (DM) and total carotenoids content (TC) by iCheck™. Genotype IBA130279 (9.74 t/ha) and IBA130807 (9.73 t/ha) recorded the highest dry yield (dyld). The highest TC was recorded by IBA130046 (12.5 µg/g fresh wt.), IBA130076 (12.3 µg/g fresh wt.) and IBA130799 (12.0 µg/g fresh wt. but with low dry yield of 3.22 t/ha, 4.54 t/ha and 4.97 t/ha, respectively. This resulted in a high negative correlation (r= -0.71) between clones means for dry yield and carotenoid content. However, some genotypes were identified to have high TC with high yield and reasonable DM such as IBA130044 (TC=9.1 µg/g fresh wt., dyld=7.07 t/ha) and IBA130078. To evaluate the performance of selected yellow cassava genotypes for total carotenoids content and yield components ","tokenCount":"365"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"da20d11a64277b32882f8644a0e654e4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1eaead2-a4f2-4017-a3ab-2814d30546d5/retrieve","id":"1758879566"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4307baf9-a8ce-4e8e-a1ff-f23e636a12ef","pagecount":"12","content":"The 'Expanding utilization of RTB and reducing their postharvest losses' (RTB-ENDURE) Communications and M&E Workshop was planned to provide an opportunity to bring together the project leaders and the sub-project Principal Investigators and Output Leaders to discuss issues related to project's communications and M&E and to plan accordingly. The one-day workshop was held at Rivonia Suites, Kampala, on 31 st March 2015.The general objectives of the M&E sessions were to jointly refine the draft M&E plan and agree on the reporting protocols especially in consideration of the revised project's logframe.The general objectives of the communications sessions were to reflect on and plan for communications in relation to the RTB ENDURE project. In the context of the RTB ENDURE project, strategic communications can play a key role. Strategic communications can:• Persuade decision makers to adopt new policies for research and build constituency and support. • Develop partnerships among governments, NARS, local communities, NGOs, and media to encourage people to work together for adoption of processes and change. • Accelerate and improve people's behavior, e.g., farmers' adoption of technologies and behaviors that lead to sustainable agriculture. • Generate excitement in an entire community that leads to community-wide behavior change.• Empower local communities and create opportunities for them to engage with project stakeholders.The broad objectives of this communications strategy are to:• Promote the RTB ENDURE project • Promote and highlight each sub-project • Promote key activities carried out by the RTB research project • Organise and promote the project via events, meetings, workshops, stakeholder meetings. • Improve internal communications and flow of information • Inform and maintain donors' interest and support of the project.• Inform the wider community about the donors support and involvement in the project.The workshop provided an opportunity for Godfrey Mulongo -M&E Specialist, CIP SSA and Sara Quinn -Communications Specialist, CIP SSA to present on their respective topics and to spend two hours with each of four sub-projects teams to create detailed work plans moving forward. An additional hour was allocated in order to finalize the quantification of outputs for each subproject. Finally, a wrap up session was held after group sessions in order to discuss the M&E and reporting responsibilities/protocols. This took half an hour.The workshop was a great opportunity to engage with the sub-projects' staff on the issue of communications and to incorporate each of the sub-project work plans into the broader RTB ENDURE Communications and Visibility strategy which is currently being finalized.It was also a good opportunity to engage with the sub-projects' staff to ensure the team is responsible for implementing the communications plan and that the project team has complete ownership of the communications plan moving forward (with support provided to the subprojects from CIP and RTB Communications teams as required).The workshop agenda is attached in Annex 1. The full list of participants can be found in Annex 2.3.1. Communications Sara Quinn, Regional Communications Specialist, CIP and author of the draft RTB ENDURE Communications strategy gave a 30 minute presentation to introduce the workshop attendees to the communications strategy.The key points covered in the presentation were:-Communications concepts and strategies -An introduction to the RTB ENDURE Communications Strategy -Communications at RTB and CIP (provided a brief outline of how communications work at CIP and RTB) -Existing communications tools and resources available to the RTB ENDURE team -Possible communications tools and resources for consideration by the RTB ENDURE team -Communications costs and resources required -Communications planning for each of the RTB ENDURE sub-projects Finally, Esther Nakkazi, free-lance journalist, gave a brief presentation of her experience in communicating science and technology.The presentations can be found at the link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zqkd5tr1c5czgue/AADp2rDjaYutDmvapzG8GJV4a?dl=0 3.2. M&E: progress up to date Godfrey Mulongo gave a brief presentation on progress made since December 2014 towards development of the project M&E Plan. He further reiterated that he was confident that all the four sub-projects would be able to deliver on the expected outputs by the end of the one day meeting.Sarah Mayanja made a brief presentation on the gender indicators. She stressed that while there is a separate section for gender indicators as presented in the revised project logframe, many of the sub-project indicators have gender embedded in them, and therefore all the partners have a responsibility towards gender mainstreaming.In the afternoon, the M&E Specialist made a plenary presentation on M&E responsibilities and reporting processes. The PowerPoint can be found at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zqkd5tr1c5czgue/AADp2rDjaYutDmvapzG8GJV4a?dl=0Below are the key points of the presentation:Monitoring denotes the continuous process of recording, analysis, reporting, and storing of data on key project processes and indicators. This primarily provides information on project performance, on whether an activity is proceeding according to plan; this information will be actively utilized by the teams especially the project management, to make decisions. Monitoring will be done at three levels:• Day to day activity/process monitoring -This will be done to determine whether the activities as outlined in sub-projects' -and project's -work plans are implemented as designed (specification, quantity and quality) and in time. Activity monitoring will involve simple methods such as recording participants and observing and recording processes. Activity/process monitoring will seek to answer questions such as how many pilot farmers attended a training, how many seedlings were distributed, what level are the draft guidelines, how many technologies for each crop group were inventoried etc. It is therefore the responsibility of the implementing partner/staff to keep process data and the responsibility of the Output Leaders to verify the implementation through spot checks.• Output Monitoring -Reporting on the progress at the output level will be done on a biannual basis to determine whether or not planned interventions and activities implemented are generating the anticipated outputs. For each output, the specified deliverables will act as the means of verification. The Output Leaders will supervise the execution of outputs to enforce and verify quality. The PIs, and less frequently the M&E Specialist and the Project Management Team, will backstop the verification efforts of the Output Leaders through spot checks.• Outcome monitoring -on some outcome indicators, periodic validations have been planned to occur at specific time along the project's life. This will be reported 6 monthly and annually (where possible) and will provide important information as far as progress on outcomes are concerned. The methods proposed to achieve this are outlined in the PMM. The PIs will lead on outcome monitoring. The M&E Specialist and the Project Management Team, will backstop the verification efforts of the PIs through spot checks.The M&E Specialist then facilitated a plenary discussion on the fundamentals of good reporting.The members took about 10 minutes contributing to this topic. Thereafter, the M&E Specialist made a plenary presentation (and discussion) on the data project flow and the principals that will guide reporting. Below is a figure that summarizes the data flow mechanisms.Below are the important guidelines on reporting sub-project progress that were presented. The reports should:1. Have a clear summary on progress of outputs and deliverables (the deliverable table 1  Each of the RTB ENDURE sub-project teams spent 2 hours discussing communications in relation to their sub-project. Each team discussed the following questions and produced an outline of key messages, audiences, tools and a calendar of events as an output from the group work. The key discussion points are outlined below.Discuss and develop key RTB ENDURE -sub-project messages that can be used across RTB ENDURE communications (materials, website, social media, meetings, presentations and so on).These messages should be central to RTB ENDURE and the specific sub-project and should clearly and concisely deliver a key message.Discussion Output:• Develop 5 key messages • Develop 10 associated hashtags for social mediaThe identification of audiences is an important part of any communications strategy and is a critical step not to be overlooked. Most people presume that the audiences are clear and the tools being developed are appropriate. In reality, people have different sets of audiences that respond differently to each tool. Each audience should be linked to the specific tools developed to make sure everyone is covered.Discussion Output:• Identify 5 key audiences important for your RTB ENDURE sub-project • Identify 2 issues that you think these audiences are most interested in hearing about and how.There are huge numbers of communications tools available for our use -social media, website, conferences, field days, etc. As a starting point it is important to choose a few key tools and learn how to use them effectively to deliver our key messages.Discussion Output:• Decide on 3 communications tools that you think the sub-project should focus on initially. • Why did you chose these 3 and how do you think your sub-project can best utilize them?Reflect on what kind of events and activities the team would like to host in relation to the individual subproject including field days, workshops, stakeholder meetings, PR events, cooking demonstrations, etc. The teams were asked to include as much detail as possible including date, size, location, responsibility for planning, links with other organizations.Outline a draft calendar of events for your sub project for 2015 -2016. Include proposed and planned activities.Other discussion points for the sub-projects revolved around the following issues:-Current Resources:Reflect on existing communications resources each sub-project could use. For example, any existing publications, brochures, training materials, platforms such as social media platforms for partner organizations which are relevant to the sub-project and could add value.-Communications Products required (or desired)Reflect on what communications products and items are required for sub-project. This could include items such as banners, posters, brochures, event material, material for the field, photography, video, training material, publications.-Reflect on what project or site visits each team would like to host and the associated communications outputs/requirements for those visits (site visits at particular times for photography, interviews, capturing success stories).-Reflect on and brainstorm story ideas and media coverage for each sub-project. Include ideas for stories, project activities or events that you should be highlighted or pitched to local media, publications.In order to refine the PMMs, the sub-projects were provided with the draft PMMs and given the guideline below.Group Discussion Guideline 1. Indicators a) Participants were requested to review each indicator to agree/appreciate the definition 2. Project's targets a) Participants were to review the \"SMARTness\" of each target b) Participants were to agree on \"ambitiousness' of each target 3. Baseline Values a) Each sub-project was to review each indicator and discuss the need for baseline data. In case of the necessity of baseline data, they were then to discuss if scoping studies had generated adequate data to meet the requirement or there was need to collect fresh baseline data.b) In case the group agreed upon fresh baseline data, they were then to agree on the methodology, tools, timelines and responsibility 4. Frequency of data collection a) Finally, the sub-projects discussed the responsibility and frequency of data collection and reporting on (the progress) each indicator and the technical assistance they will require (if any)For better guidance, the Project Leader (PL) facilitated one team while the M&E Specialist took up the other one. The same procedure was followed up in the afternoon for the other two teams.The revised sub-project PMMs were handed over to the M&E Specialist for consolidation (into a project-wide PMM). The consolidated Project PMM is embedded in the M&E Plan.o Refining of sub-projects reporting templates It had been noted that some of the outputs (and their respective deliverables) to be generated by the sub-projects were not adequately quantified and timeframe for their delivery was unclear (deliverables). This had made the completion of the reporting templates difficult. Therefore each sub-project was to review the output tables in the draft reporting templates to: a) Populate the 'due date' columns (for both outputs and deliverables) b) 'Quantify' the deliverables These were discussed by each sub-project and the revised templates were handed over to the M&E Specialist for review and consolidation. The revised templates are embedded in the M&E Plan. ","tokenCount":"1959"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"263e6cf94f2c989db56897a8d39bb3b9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9478c9c5-0bda-451a-bbb5-4d50b49bf4b6/retrieve","id":"-615167548"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a5e53323-8a05-4c52-8467-ada9f05caca4","pagecount":"29","content":"• Outbreaks in Kenya (1982Kenya ( , 2001Kenya ( , 2004Kenya ( and 2005) ) and Somalia (1997/98) indicate the magnitude of the problem• The 2004 outbreak in Kenya was responsible for 317 cases and 125 deaths• Kenya is among the highest milk consumption levels of developing countries (100 kg/year per capita vs 25kg for Sub-Saharan Africa)• Around 80% of the marketed milk is sold raw and mainly through the informal market• There is also a growing niche market for packaged milk• Research questions: Are consumers aware about aflatoxins and possible milk contamination? Is there any difference between urban and rural milk consumers in terms of milk consumption and aflatoxin perception?• City of Nairobi -Kenya   • Respondents' WTP depends on their awareness about aflatoxin and it's presence in milk higher awareness implies higher premium 27","tokenCount":"135"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6aeb551903c7161a10d91f4364f1b6c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9a311e01-8dd3-471d-974a-8b69550eaedd/retrieve","id":"276002318"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d820ba6a-e681-4e0e-8e72-67854f7f533c","pagecount":"24","content":"Mayo 2024 Políticas, leyes y reglamentos en apoyo de los sistemas de semillas gestionados por los agricultores: el caso de Colombia 4 Contenido Contexto Hacia sistemas de semillas agrícolas resilientes Resultados: las políticas relacionadas a semillas Actividades e impacto de la sociedad civil Prospectos Agradecimientos ReferenciasEn Colombia y otros países del mundo, una gran parte de las semillas de las que dependen los agricultores se guardan en la finca o se obtienen a través de los llamados canales de distribución informales (a diferencia de los canales formales regulados, monitoreados y sancionados por el gobierno y el sector privado de semillas). Los agricultores obtienen estas semillas a través del intercambio entre agricultores de la misma comunidad o con comunidades vecinas, por medio de casas comunitarias de semillas o ferias de semillas, y en los mercados locales de alimentos (Figura 1). La gran mayoría son semillas locales o nativas conservadas y gestionadas por mucho tiempo por los agricultores mismos. Las agricultoras a menudo desempeñan papeles clave en estos sistemas de semillas (Subedi y Vernooy, 2019).Este alto nivel de autonomía de semillas entre los agricultores no significa que no existan desafíos. Los sistemas locales de semillas se encuentran bajo presión por fuerzas del mercado y políticas agrícolas desfavorables. Por ejemplo, en varias regiones de Colombia, las semillas transgénicas están afectando las variedades nativas. Muchos hogares agrícolas se han vuelto más individualizados en términos de toma de decisiones y distribución de conocimientos, mano de obra, capital y semillas. El cambio climático ha comenzado a ejercer una presión adicional sobre los sistemas de producción de semillas, obligando a muchos pequeños agricultores a cambiar sus prácticas y a buscar información sobre cultivos y variedades mejor adaptadas a las nuevas dinámicas climáticas (Mittra, 2019).En este contexto, es urgente investigar cómo se pueden crear sistemas de semillas resilientes que reduzcan la inseguridad y vulnerabilidad de las comunidades rurales. La pregunta es si en Colombia existen políticas de apoyo y condiciones jurídicas favorables que contribuyan a sistemas de semillas resilientes.Un sistema resiliente de semillas garantiza el acceso a las semillas en términos de preferencia, precio asequible y disponibilidad cuando sea necesario; una producción y distribución eficiente y justa; la calidad de las semillas en términos de adaptabilidad, seguridad y longevidad; y la disponibilidad de una diversidad de semillas. Tal sistema produce cultivos que sustentan una dieta nutritiva y saludable y reconoce y respeta las semillas como capital social y cultural. Los resultados de este tipo de sistema son una mayor disponibilidad de alimentos durante todo el año, cultivos más nutritivos y saludables, la generación de ingresos y una base de recursos naturales sostenible.Utilizando una metodología ya probada (Vernooy et al.,  2023), se recopilaron, analizaron y evaluaron políticas, leyes y regulaciones del país directamente relacionadas con los sistemas de semillas. El análisis está basado en ocho dimensiones: (1) reconocimiento de la existencia de diversos sistemas agrícolas/de semillas; (2) reconocimiento de las funciones de los sistemas de semillas gestionados por los agricultores; (3) apoyo a los sistemas de semillas gestionados por los agricultores; (4) reconocimiento y apoyo a los casas comunitarias de semillas; (5) reconocimiento y apoyo a las empresas semilleras locales; (6) sistema de registro de variedades de semilla alternativas; (7) referencia a los derechos de los agricultores en materia de semillas; y (8) reconocimiento y apoyo del papel de las mujeres en la agricultura y los sistemas de semillas (Figura 2). En este informe, se presentan los resultados más importantes del estudio. Resultados: las políticas relacionadas a semillas la promoción de la investigación, la transferencia de tecnología y la protección de los recursos naturales\". Sobre el tema de semillas, habilita al Fondo para el Financiamiento del Sector Agropecuario (FINAGRO) para financiar actividades de producción de semillas y material vegetal (aunque no se encuentran registros de financiación de actividades locales de conservación de semillas nativas). A través del Acto Legislativo 1 de 2023 2 , se reconoció de manera expresa al campesinado como sujeto de especial protección constitucional, modificando el Artículo 64 de la Constitución y se dispuso a garantizarles el derecho al acceso e intercambio de semillas (se está a la espera de la reglamentación, la institucionalidad y los mecanismos presupuestales para el desarrollo de este Artículo).Decisión 345 de 1993 concerniente al Acta UPOV (Unión Internacional para la Protección de las Obtenciones Vegetales) 1978. Establece el Régimen Común de Protección a los derechos de los Obtentores Vegetales para los países de la Comunidad Andina de Naciones (CAN), Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador y Perú. Fue adoptado como la única forma de concesión de derechos de propiedad intelectual para las variedades vegetales entre los países miembros, alineado principalmente al Acta de la UPOV de 1978. En ella, se establece que las obtenciones vegetales que pueden ser protegidas deben reunir cuatro cualidades: novedad, distinguibilidad, homogeneidad y estabilidad. Por su parte, el mecanismo de la protección provisional busca garantizar, desde el momento de la solicitud de protección, que se impida el uso comercial de la variedad sin autorización del solicitante. El tiempo de protección establecido es de 20 a 25 años para el caso de las vides, árboles forestales, árboles frutales incluidos sus portainjertos y, de 15 a 20 años para las demás especies. Posterior a este periodo, pasa a ser una variedad de dominio público. En cuanto a los derechos de los agricultores, menciona: \"No lesiona el derecho de obtentor quien reserve y siembre para su propio uso, o venda como materia prima o alimento el producto obtenido del cultivo de la variedad protegida (exención del agricultor) 3 \", no limita al productor agrícola en cuanto a cantidades de semilla que puede conservar.Decreto 533 de 1994 4 , por el cual se reglamenta la Decisión 345 de 1993, para darle aplicación en Colombia, en ella, se establece al Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA) como la autoridad nacional competente en materia de protección de derechos sobre variedades vegetales, lo autoriza para desarrollar las pruebas de novedad, distinguibilidad, homogeneidad y estabilidad, para otorgar el certificado de obtentor 5 , y abrir y llevar el Registro Nacional de Variedades Vegetales Protegidas, entre otras disposiciones. El Decreto 2468 de 1994 6 modifica parcialmente el Artículo 13 del Decreto 533 de 1994 en cuanto a que el término de protección del derecho de obtentor se contará a partir de la resolución que otorga el certificado de obtentor.Resolución ICA 1893 de 1995, por la cual se ordena la apertura del Registro Nacional de Variedades Vegetales Protegidas (a cargo de la División de Semillas del ICA [Grupo dispuesto en la Resolución 1974 de 1994 7 ]), se establece el procedimiento para la Obtención del Certificado de Obtentor y se dictan otras disposiciones. Mantiene lo dispuesto en las Actas de la UPOV y la Decisión 345 de 1993, relativo a que \"se otorgarán certificados de obtentor a las personas (naturales o jurídicas) que hayan creado (desarrollado y terminado) variedades vegetales, cuando estas sean nuevas, homogéneas, distinguibles y estables\", así como que \"quien posea una variedad protegida no podrá ejercer ninguna actividad comercial sin consentimiento del obtentor.\" Sin embargo, permite la conservación para uso propio sin establecer cantidades límites; así mismo, avala realizar mejoramiento sobre esta variedad (exención del obtentor) 8 .Ley 243 de 1995 9 , por medio de la cual se aprueba el Convenio Internacional para la Protección de las Obtenciones Vegetales (UPOV), del 2 de diciembre de 1961, revisado en Ginebra en 1972 y 1978. A través de la Sentencia de la Corte No C-262 de 13 de junio de 1996 10 , se realizó la revisión de la misma y se declaró constitucional manifestando que \"Nada en el citado Convenio impide el reconocimiento de la propiedad colectiva de las minorías étnicas y culturales respecto de las variedades vegetales que hubieren obtenido a través de sus prácticas y conocimientos tradicionales\". Es esta versión del Convenio de la UPOV que se mantiene vigente en la actualidad (Rivas et al., 2023).Ley 740 de 2002, por medio de la cual se adopta el Protocolo de Cartagena sobre Seguridad de la Biotecnología 11 , declarado constitucional por la Sentencia C-071 de 2003 12 . Este protocolo hace parte del Convenio de Diversidad Biológica. Su principal base de acción es el Principio de Precaución, reconociendo el riesgo que pueden tener los organismos genéticamente modificados (OGM) sobre la diversidad biológica y la salud humana, por lo cual establece un marco de regulación para los movimientos transfronterizos de OGM. Reconoce la crucial importancia que tienen para la humanidad los centros de origen y los centros de diversidad genética, así como las comunidades que han logrado su preservación. El Artículo 26 prevé la posibilidad que tienen las Partes, al tomar una decisión sobre la importación, de tener en cuenta las consideraciones socioeconómicas resultantes de los efectos de los organismos vivos modificados para la conservación de la biodiversidad, en especial, respecto del valor que esta tiene para las comunidades indígenas y locales. A partir de esta normativa, se deriva gran parte del actual marco regulatorio sobre OGM en agricultura en Colombia.Ley 1032 de 2006, la cual hace parte de la normativa colombiana sobre propiedad intelectual y establece penalización por la violación de los derechos de obtentores vegetales. En cuanto al Artículo 306 del Código Penal (contenido y modificado en esta Ley), que establecía de 4 a 8 años de prisión para quien usurpe derechos de obtentor de variedad vegetal, protegidos legalmente o similarmente confundibles con uno protegido legalmente 13 . La Corte Constitucional en julio de 2014 expidió su Fallo C-501 14 , en el cual declara exequible la parte de este Artículo que penaliza el uso \"ilegal\" de semillas protegidas por las empresas, pero se pronuncia negativamente sobre la expresión \"semillas similarmente confundibles con una protegida legalmente\". La Corte, en su fallo, determinó que esta expresión contenida en el Artículo 306 vulnera el principio de taxatividad, al no resultar posible definir el grado de similitud que debe ser penalizado. En este sentido, consideró que la expresión entendida como derechos similares o derivados del obtentor de variedad vegetal es muy amplia, no está definida ni concebida con claridad y podría implicar la utilización de figuras prohibidas por la Carta Política en materia penal. Por estas razones, la Corte determinó que se debe retirar del ordenamiento jurídico la interpretación de la expresión \"similarmente confundibles con uno protegido legalmente\", aplicable a los derechos de obtentor de variedad vegetal (Grupo Semillas, 2015).Resolución 970 de 2010 15 , por medio de la cual se establecían los requisitos de producción, acondicionamiento, almacenamiento, comercialización y/o uso de semillas para siembra y su control. La Resolución 970 de 2010 del ICA provocó la reacción en su contra y su aplicación fue suspendida en desarrollo de los acuerdos para levantar el paro nacional agrario de 2013. El ICA derogó dicha disposición, mediante Resolución 3168 de 7 de septiembre de 2015, vigente en la actualidad, se considera que esta modera los desaciertos y excesos de aquella, tales como sancionar la simple tenencia de \"semilla no identificada\", \"demostrar que ha habido agotamiento del derecho de obtentor\" o la generación de estigmatización implícita en el término de \"semilla legal\" (Uribe, 2016).Ley 1518 de 2012 16 aprobatoria del Convenio UPOV 1991, declarada nula después. La Corte Constitucional de Colombia declaró la inexequibilidad 17 de la Ley 1518 de 2012 que aprobaba la incorporación del país al Convenio UPOV 1991, por no haber cumplido la obligatoria consulta con las comunidades indígenas. En ella, se extendían los derechos de los obtentores vegetales hasta el producto de la cosecha 18 (más allá de lo dispuesto en el UPOV 1978).El Plan Semilla se desarrolla en 2013, luego de la ola invernal experimentada en todo el territorio nacional que ocasionó la afectación de alrededor de 1.600.000 hectáreas de cultivo. Cuando se establecieron actividades para apoyar estas zonas, se hizo evidente el problema de la baja oferta de semillas y material de siembra. El Plan Semilla convocó a 341 organizaciones especializadas en la producción de alguna de las 21 especies más importantes para la seguridad alimentaria del país como: achira, aguacate, arracacha, arroz, arveja, batata, berenjena, cacao, caña panelera, cebolla de rama, chontaduro, chorrajeras, cítricos, fríjol, Figura 4. Cultivo de la papa. Foto: Bioversity International/R. Vernooy guayaba, habichuela, maíz, ñame, papa, plátano y yuca, para convertirse en núcleos locales de productores de semillas a través de un fortalecimiento de capacidades organizativas y técnicas (Figura 4). Sin embargo, el Plan también buscaba transformar la cultura del uso de semillas entre pequeños y medianos productores, quienes se han adaptado por motivos económicos, culturales y tecnológicos a las semillas nativas y criollas (Ramos Rivera, 2019).Como principal resultado, se generaron 20 Procedimientos Operativos Estandarizados (POE) alineados con la normatividad del ICA para avanzar en los procesos de multiplicación de semilla de calidad y hacer entrega a las organizaciones vinculadas; y se construyeron manuales de producción, guías de aprendizaje y libros de experiencias y reflexiones a partir del relacionamiento logrado con algunas de las organizaciones (Wagner-Medina y Vargas-Ramos, 2021; Pérez Cantero et al., 2020).Resolución 3168 de 2015 19 -Ley General de Semillas en Colombia, la cual dispone las condiciones de producción, distribución, uso, exportación e importación de semillas 19 Resolución 3168 de 2015 -Ley General de Semillas de Colombia. Disponible en: https://www.ica.gov.co/getattachment/4e8c3698-8fcb-4e42-80e7-a6c7acde9bf8/2015R3168.aspx, recuperada el 12 de marzo de 2024. 20 Las técnicas de la biotecnología moderna: técnicas in vitro de ácidos nucleicos, incluidos el ácido desoxirribonucleico (ADN) recombinante y la inyección directa de ácidos nucleicos en células u orgánulos, o la fusión de células más allá de la familia taxonómica, que no son técnicas utilizadas en la reproducción y selección tradicional. 21 Disponible en: https://www.ica.gov.co/getattachment/6b7dbbd1-ff9b-4eea-a936-fe57f421ea98/2020R67516.aspx, recuperado el 18 de marzo de 2024.producto del mejoramiento genético convencional y no convencional (con las tecnologías de mejoramiento genético aprobadas en el país 20 ), contiene requisitos mínimos para la certificación de 13 especies (algodón, ajonjolí, arroz, arveja, avena, fríjol, maíz, maní, papa, sorgo, trigo, soya, y yuca) en aspectos como el(los) material(es) objeto de certificación, clases de semillas, requisitos del campo (aislamiento, pureza genética y sanidad), tratamiento, empaque y toma de muestras. Para que una variedad pueda ser certificada, debe estar inscrita en el Registro Nacional de Variedades Comerciales (a través de la Resolución 67516 de 2020 21 se dispusieron los requisitos para la inscripción), para lo cual debe ser sometida a una prueba de evaluación agronómica y pruebas semicomerciales (con el fin de determinar el comportamiento en áreas de mayor extensión) en las regiones naturales donde se desee comercializar.Estas pruebas solo podrán realizarlas las Unidades de Evaluación Agronómica o Unidades de Investigación en Fitomejoramiento registradas ante el ICA.Esta Ley también permite que los agricultores conserven unas cantidades limitadas para su propio uso de arroz (1 Ton), soya (800 kg) y algodón (60 kg). No se aclara qué sucede con otras especies de interés, como maíz, plátano, papa o yuca.El ICA establece que esta normativa está centrada en las semillas certificadas de origen biotecnológico y que no busca controlar las semillas criollas y nativas. Sin embargo, para las comunidades y grupos de semillas esta situación de vacío y ambigüedad normativa genera riesgos como la invisibilidad, la desprotección y la falta de apoyo para los sistemas locales de semillas. Los diferentes riesgos generados por estos vacíos y otras preocupaciones de las comunidades han podido ser expresados principalmente a través de los hitos políticos y normativas que se abordan a continuación. En el punto 1 del Acuerdo referente a la Reforma Rural Integral, se establece en el numeral 1.3.3. Estímulos a la producción agropecuaria y a la economía solidaria y cooperativa:[…con el propósito de fortalecer las capacidades productivas de la economía campesina, familiar y comunitaria para desarrollar sus proyectos productivos y estimular procesos de innovación tecnológica, el Gobierno Nacional diseñará e implementará un Plan Nacional de asistencia integral técnica, tecnológica y de impulso a la investigación. Para el desarrollo del Plan se tendrán en cuenta los siguientes criterios…] La promoción y protección de las semillas nativas y los bancos de semillas, sin restringir ni imponer otro tipo de semillas como las mejoradas, híbridos y otras, para que las comunidades -hombres y mujerespuedan acceder al material de siembra óptimo y, de manera participativa, contribuyan a su mejoramiento, incorporando sus conocimientos propios. Además, la estricta regulación socio-ambiental y sanitaria de los transgénicos, propiciando el bien común. Lo anterior en el marco de la obligación inquebrantable del Estado de tomar las medidas y usar las herramientas necesarias para salvaguardar el patrimonio genético y la biodiversidad como recursos soberanos de la nación 22 . (Figura 5).Resolución 464 de 2017 23 , la cual adopta los Lineamientos estratégicos de política pública para la Agricultura Campesina, Familiar y Comunitaria (ACFC). Este documento sirve de fundamento para la planificación y gestión de la acción integral del Estado dirigida al fortalecimiento de las capacidades sociales, económicas y políticas de las familias, comunidades y organizaciones de Agricultura Campesina, Familiar y Comunitaria. En el tema específico de semillas, como resultado del diagnóstico realizado a la Agricultura Campesina, Familiar y Comunitaria por el Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (MADR), sostiene que: \"Las formas de producción de semilla están alineadas con los modelos de producción de alimentos que se desarrollan en los territorios. A nivel mundial, la producción de alimentos es comprendida desde dos enfoques: el de gran escala, intensivo y altamente productivo, versus el tradicional familiar estructurado sobre unidades pequeñas de producción campesina. En Colombia, dadas las condiciones geográficas y culturales, se han ido adaptando dichos enfoques a modelos híbridos que en algunos sistemas de cultivo toman elementos de ambas líneas. De esta forma, la producción y uso de semilla transita entre el mundo de las prácticas locales y tradicionales en contraste con el de las grandes empresas defensoras de modelos intensivos altamente productivos. (MADR, 2022). Por ello, como estrategia para desarrollar los lineamientos, se estableció el módulo de Semillas del agricultor 24 para establecer y apoyar circuitos y redes de conservación, custodia, defensa y reproducción de las semillas del agricultor como medida de resistencia a los efectos del cambio climático, afectación por plagas y enfermedades, preservación de la agrobiodiversidad, y de las prácticas y saberes tradicionales de la agricultura campesina, familiar y comunitaria (Figura 6).Plan de Acción para la conservación, multiplicación, uso e intercambio de semillas nativas y criollas 2019 25 . Como resultado de los compromisos pactados en el Acuerdo, el Gobierno Nacional, en cabeza del Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (MADR), el Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA) y la Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria (AGROSAVIA), ha venido trabajando en el diseño del Plan de acción para la conservación, multiplicación, uso e intercambio de las semillas nativas y criollas. Este plan es el principal referente para orientar las políticas públicas requeridas para fortalecer el Sistema Nacional de Semillas en el país durante los próximos 15 años (2016-2031), en cuanto a la conservación, multiplicación, uso e intercambio de las semillas nativas y criollas cumpliendo con los parámetros de calidad, así como con la protección de bancos de semillas nativas.Con la implementación de este Plan, el Gobierno se propone cumplir los siguientes objetivos: (1) identificar las especies y territorios estratégicos donde se requiere conservar y aumentar el uso de las semillas nativas para promover su seguridad alimentaria; (2) socializar los métodos y procesos necesarios para la producción de semillas nativas de calidad a la comunidad; (3) procurar y ejercer el control técnico de la producción, intercambio y comercialización de semillas nativas de calidad; (4) diagnosticar la normatividad vigente y los actores involucrados en la regulación de la comercialización de las semillas nativas en el país y (5) ejercer control a la producción y uso de semillas producto de mejoramiento genético para evitar la contaminación de semillas nativas. El Tratado Internacional es el primer instrumento internacional jurídicamente vinculante que reconoce explícitamente la enorme contribución de los agricultores y las comunidades indígenas al desarrollo y la gestión de los cultivos y otros recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura. La responsabilidad de proteger, promover y hacer cumplir los Derechos de los Agricultores recae en los gobiernos nacionales. Dispone un Sistema Multilateral (SML) de Acceso y Distribución de Beneficios para las especies cubiertas (35 cultivos y 29 especies forrajeras). Fue aprobado por el Congreso de Colombia en enero de 2023 y declarado exequible por la Corte Constitucional en septiembre de ese mismo año. Actualmente, se encuentra en fase de aprobación presidencial para continuar con la fase de implementación del mismo. Borrador del proyecto de Resolución preparado por el ICA sobre semillas nativas. El ICA, cumpliendo lo dispuesto en la Sentencia T-247 de 2023 27 , en la cual se ordena al Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural liderar la adopción de medidas para proteger las semillas nativas y criollas de maíz de los pueblos indígenas, ha generado un borrador de la resolución que busca regular la producción, uso, distribución y comercialización de las semillas nativas para siembra en Colombia 28 (Figura 7). Fue debido a que la Corte encontró que el Estado colombiano aún no dispone de algún tipo de reconocimiento legal o un régimen especial de protección sobre las variedades vegetales obtenidas por los pueblos indígenas, lo cual impide alcanzar un entorno propicio para contrarrestar sus preocupaciones o riesgos específicos y diferenciados. En la resolución, se dispone que la norma será aplicable a todas las personas naturales y jurídicas que se dediquen a la producción, conservación, uso, almacenamiento y comercialización de semillas de especies nativas y criollas (Artículo 2). Entre los principales déficits encontrados por los grupos de semillas nativas, está el carecer de un mecanismo alternativo de certificación de calidad de las semillas (propone adoptar el mismo mecanismo de certificación establecido en la Resolución 3168 de 2015 para semillas mejoradas genéticamente), tema que estará en la mesa en las concertaciones con las comunidades.En la Tabla 1, se presenta una evaluación de las políticas, leyes y regulaciones basadas en las ocho dimensiones consideradas relevantes. Se puede observar que, con el paso del tiempo, la evaluación se vuelve más positiva después de un largo periodo con evaluaciones negativas. La iniciativa más reciente, el Proyecto de Resolución ICA sobre semillas nativas y criollas, se evalúa como la más positiva de todas con siete de las ocho dimensiones evaluadas favorables. Solamente la dimensión Sistemas alternativos de registro de variedades se evalúa negativamente. Esta evolución es explicada en gran parte debido a las acciones de la sociedad civil que a continuación resumimos.  Los avances que se han tenido en el desarrollo de las políticas descritas en la sección anterior obedecen por una parte a esfuerzos locales de las comunidades rurales que a través de diferentes mecanismos han manifestado sus inconformidades. Ellas han reclamado los derechos de los agricultores a las semillas (Figura 8). Algunos de estos mecanismos son:El Programa Semillas de Identidad es un proceso organizativo en clave de red, apoyado por SWISSAID. Se crea sobre los principios de consideración de las semillas nativas y criollas como libres de propiedad intelectual, de libre circulación y libres de transgénicos. El Programa Semillas de Identidad es un proceso que nace como campaña en el año 2000 en la región Caribe para promover la conservación y recuperación de las semillas nativas y criollas de maíces en el Resguardo Indígena Zenú de San Andrés de Sotavento, que luego se escala a nivel nacional para promover y fortalecer la iniciativa de territorios libres de transgénicos, redes y Casas Comunitarias de Semillas y, en el último periodo, las escuelas de custodios de semillas. Las acciones han abarcado trabajo en organización, producción, comunicación, comercialización, investigación, formación e incidencia (Campaña Semillas de Identidad, 2024).Durante 20 años, estas redes de custodios y guardianas han logrado implementar 83 \"Casas Comunitarias de Semillas\". Algunas de las redes logran hoy en día recuperar, conservar y vender un promedio mayor a los 1.500 kilos de semillas al año.Este trabajo ha ayudado a construir un esquema alternativo de certificación agroecológica de semillas para Colombia, el Sistema Participativo de Garantía de la calidad de las semillas nativas y criollas 31 , así como la \"Escuela Semillas de Identidad y las Escuelas Regionales de Formación de Custodios y Guardianes de Semillas Nativas, Criollas y Agroecológicas\". En los 2 años de existencia de las Escuelas, se han logrado capacitar a más de 300 personas para ser guardianas de semillas en nueve departamentos del país. Por otra parte, las experiencias de trabajo con las comunidades en la conservación y producción de semillas nativas en Colombia han derivado en la construcción de la Guía metodológica para la investigación participativa en producción de semillas nativas y criollas 32 . El derecho de los agricultores de conservar, mejorar, vender o intercambiar semillas como derecho consuetudinario ha sido reconocido parcialmente por el Gobierno colombiano en las normativas relativas a semillas en Colombia. Sin embargo, no se han diseñado instrumentos efectivos que estimulen directamente la conservación, el fortalecimiento de los sistemas de semillas gestionados por los agricultores ni el reconocimiento de sus aportes. El Plan Nacional de Semillas 2013-2018 tenía como objetivos el fortalecimiento de esquemas locales de producción de semillas y la producción y comercialización de variedades mejoradas, pero, en la práctica, el primer objetivo no obtuvo apoyo significativo. Fue solamente debido al largo y paciente proceso de resistencia por parte de las comunidades y grupos de conservación de semillas nativas que se logró la integración del objetivo de conservación y promoción de los sistemas de semillas nativas en el Acuerdo de Paz entre el Estado colombiano y las FARC-EP. La iniciativa más reciente, el Proyecto de Resolución del ICA sobre semillas nativas y criollas, tiene un contenido coherente que es valorado muy positivo, aunque habría que ver cómo se traduce en política y cómo será ejecutado en la práctica. Por lo menos, aunque estos esfuerzos todavía están en etapa de desarrollo, ofrecen un escenario de debate y construcción participativa con las comunidades, en donde los sistemas locales de semillas nativas y sus características propias se reconocen como la base del desarrollo rural, y la generación de condiciones para su conservación y desarrollo son un objetivo de política pública (Figura 9). La Gráfica 1 presenta la evolución. 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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"32d87a49e04d3327801c055423a9b3c6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9bc26274-5462-4798-accb-3ea4ef606fd8/retrieve","id":"55529028"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b36e3a28-7ae9-40dc-836a-7a552e251b95","pagecount":"146","content":"This is to certify that this thesis entitled \"Analysis of the Role of Cooperatives in Agricultural Input and Output Marketing in Southern Zone of Tigray, Ethiopia.\" submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of M.Sc., in Cooperative Marketing to the School of Graduate Studies, Mekelle University, through the Department of Cooperatives done by Mr. Alema Woldemariam Atsbaha, Id.No. FDA/GRS 12/98 is an authentic work carried out by him under my guidance. The matter embodied in this project work has not been submitted earlier for award of any Degree or Diploma to the best of my knowledge and belief.Both primary and secondary data were taken for this study. A three-stage random sampling procedure was adopted to select 10 primary agricultural multipurpose cooperatives and a total of 208 sample respondents at the rate of 56 from Alamata and 152 from Ofla Woreda. Primary data pertaining to the year 2006/7was collected from the selected sample respondents by using a through structured interview schedule. Of the total respondents, about 70.209% and 29.80% were participants and non-participants of the cooperatives agricultural input and output marketing respectively. Secondary data of cooperatives was also taken in to consideration to examine the performance of the input v and output marketing by the cooperatives in the Alamata and Ofla Woreda. Financial ratios were analyzed taking the two audit year's financial data. The liquidity analysis showed that the cooperatives under investigation were below the satisfactory rate (current ratio of less than 2.00). The financial leverage ratio (debt ratio) showed that the cooperatives under investigation used financial leverage (financed more of their total asset with creditors' fund).The profitability ratio of the cooperatives showed that the profitability of most cooperatives improved when we compare from the first audit year to the second audit year, except two cooperatives in Ofla Woreda (Tadesech from 25.9% in 2004 to negative 1.6% in 2007 and Higumberda from 40.8% in 2002 to negative 5.2% in 2003. .Descriptive statistics were used to compare the explanatory variables of the participant and non-participant sample respondents in the agricultural input and output marketing.Testing differences between two samples were done using T-test and Chi-square test. The comparison revealed that there is a significant difference between the two groups of sample farmers regarding their age, education livestock ownership in TLU, share holding, non-farm income, expenditure on agricultural input, distance of the cooperative office from the farmer member's house, membership of the household head in other cooperatives and price of improved seed. Probit econometric model was employed to identify the factors influencing the participation of cooperative members in the input and output marketing by cooperatives in the two Woreda. Fifteen explanatory variables were included in the model of which ten variables were found to be significant. Of these, six explanatory variables namely own land, shareholding ,distance, output price, membership in other cooperatives and seed price) were found to be significantly and positively vi related to the participation of cooperative members in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives. Hence, it is suggested that more attention is to be given to the human resource development of the cooperative auditors through short term and long training programs so that to able to undertake timely audit of the cooperatives both in terms of quality and quantity. This implies, cooperatives can pay the patronage and capital dividend to members and minimize financial embezzlements through strong internal control system. Moreover, professional management is becoming crucial issue for the cooperative societies in order to run viable and profitable business that can meet members benefit. Therefore, due attention is required for the recruitment of professional managers vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to a large number of individuals for their encouragement and help while conducting this study. First and foremost, I want to thank the valuable suggestions, scientific guidance and encouragingly responsive attitude expressed by my major advisor Dr.G.B.Pillai (Professor) to whom I am duly bound to express my gratitude. My special respect and thanks should also go to my co-advisor Dr. Berhanu G/Medhin for his encouragements, valuable and scientific comments and brotherly advices during my research work.I am deeply beholden to the IPMS-ILRI Project for its provision of sponsorship to my research work; with out their financial assistance it was unthinkable to make real this study. My special thanks also go to Dr. Gebremedhin W/Wahid IPMS-ILRI Atsbi pilot learning project head for his advice and support to get the sponsorship. Many thanks go to Dr.Gebreyohanes Berhane and his staff of the Alamata IPMSs-ILRI project office for all Administrative and facilitation supports made during my research work.I have no words to thank for my friend Ato Haftu Tsegay for his moral, financial and material support through out my MSc. study and assignment of his laptop for my research work. In this connection, my thanks are due to my lovely wife w/ro Tibe Abay and my keen children for their commitment and special treatment during my study. My thanks are also due to all my relatives and, brothers (Hiluf W/Mariam, Desta Hailu, Kahase G/michael, Semere abady, Girmay Hailu) for their unreserved support and encouragements during the entire period of M.Sc. research work. I am also extremely viii grateful to Ofla and Alamata Woreda Office of Agriculture and Rural Development heads, cooperative experts , cooperative leaders and farmers without their help and cooperation this study would have not been materialized. W/ro Zewdu Gebregiorgs my neighbor also deserve special thanks for the effort she made to assist me in writing and provision of her private computer. I am also indebted for the technical assistance and encouragement received from my colleagues Dr. Zenebe Gebreegziabher, ATo Gebrrehiwot Teklu, Ato Kebede Manjur, Ato Gebrehiwot Hailemariam, and Ato Haileselassie Girmay. During my stay in Mekelle University, I am indebted to thank the help of all my instructors, the University Community as a whole and specially the Department of Cooperatives and the postgraduate library. Finally, I would like to extend my thank to my friend Jemal Mahmud, Alem Kiros and all my classmates.Agricultural Development is in a crisis in Ethiopia. Agriculture is the major source of employment, revenue and export earning. The challenges facing Ethiopia are daunting: the dynamics of population growth, land degradation, very low productivity, structural bottlenecks, dependence on unreliable rainfall, and being land-locked combine to pose challenges almost unequalled anywhere in the world. Government efforts to accelerate progress as rapidly as possible -including a big push on education, expanding infrastructure, uplifting the economy, building institutions, and devolving (decentralize) administration-are like those of an athlete running uphill: extra-efforts are required just to keep the pace.There has been encouraging progress in recent years in improving some basic aspects of life in Ethiopia. Since 1996, the literacy rate has increased by 50 percent, the rate of malnutrition has fallen by 20 percent, the share of the population with access to clean water has risen to 38 percent and according to the welfare monitoring survey (WMS) there has been a steady decline in the reported incidence of illness (MoFED, 2006). Nonetheless, human development indicators in Ethiopia still remain at low levels. Most Ethiopians lead lives of unrelenting hardship: the majorities of households live on small plots of relatively unproductive land, and rely almost entirely on hand-cultivation of basic food grains to survive. It has underpinned much of the thrust of the sustainable development and poverty reduction program (SDPRP), and is now the focus is on a massive scaling-up effort to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs). This represents the second prong of plan for accelerated and sustainable development to end poverty (PASDEP). (MoFED, 2005) The concept of human cooperation is not new. It was existing even before the formation of modern cooperative. The Rochdale society of equitable pioneers Ltd 1844 is the first successful consumer cooperative business. A group of 28 traders' in England formed it as consumer (buyers) cooperative. The cooperative was having its own business practices (principles) which made the cooperative successful.The spirit of self-help and co-operation has long been a part of the farming community in Ethiopia. There have been mutual organizations in urban areas, too. When communities face problems, they devise ways of addressing these problems based on their values, culture and beliefs. In Ethiopia, various self-help co-operatives still exist. They are local level institutions with an organizational base that are indigenous, such as Debo, Mahiber, Iddir, and Iqub. These traditional informal cooperatives would be a base for formal cooperatives.Ethiopia has introduced modern types of co-operatives in various areas of endeavor after the majority of African countries where their co-operatives were established by the Western powers during their colonization period. In fact, the first consumer co-operative was established in Addis Ababa in 1945(ILO, 1975: 55). However, it was after decree No. 44 of 1960 that modern or 'imported' co-operatives were officially introduced.The decree No 44/1960 was replaced by \"Co-operative Society Proclamation No. 241 of 1966\".The main objective of this proclamation was improving the standard of living of the farmers, better business performance and improving methods of production. In reality, this proclamation benefited the wealthy commercial farmers who resided in the most potential areas. The crisis of co-operative identity began at the time when the Derge abolished all co-operatives except the Housing and saving co-operatives which were organized under Proclamation 241/ 1966. The Co-operatives during that period were not autonomous organizations, but had purely political character. This was clearly reflected in the proclamation of 138/ 1978 Article 3.5 i.e. \"Cooperative shall be organized to conduct political agitation\". Besides, Article 3.6 says: \"Co-operative is organized to participate in the building of the socialist economy.\" ILO (1997as cited by Haileselassie, 2003) clearly states that many co-operatives in Africa are not (were not until recently) \"genuine\", because they served the state, a political party or individuals instead of their members. When the State 'incorporates' co-operatives, they can become instruments of oppression instead of participation. An example (though now dissolved) is the peasants' associations of Ethiopia, which forced farmers into collective production against their will. Therefore, the proclamation was enacted on the basis of socialist ideology. They were considered as the extension of State institutions, and almost all lost their co-operative identity.By abolishing the more centralized economic policy and planning and with the new market liberalization policy, which is democratic and decentralized policy, launched the formation of new \"Agricultural Co-operative Societies Proclamation No. 85/1994\". This proclamation restricts the government from negative interference in the internal affairs of co-operatives and initiates the organization of free, autonomous and independent co-operatives.For establishment of different types of co-operatives in the country, \"Co-operative Societies Proclamation No. 147/1998\" replaced the proclamation of 1994. This proclamation in particular includes the following: Agricultural, Consumer, Housing, Industrial and Artisan Producers', saving and Credit, Fishing and Mining Co-operative Societies.Under this proclamation, co-operatives are organized to solve problems collectively, to achieve a better result by coordinating their knowledge, wealth and labour to promote self-reliance, to improve the living standard of members and so on.The Ethiopian government is trying to promote co-operatives with the objective of developing them into autonomous self-help institutions. This was the main reason for setting up the Cooperative Promotion Department in Prime Minister's office, Co-operative Promotion Bureaus in regions and in line administrative units (zones and woredas) and later Co-operative Commission at federal level.The favorable condition created by proclamation No. 147/ 1998 has helped the co-operatives to organize and reorganize themselves voluntarily. In the year 2001, for instance, there were 7,366 different types of co-operatives in the country with 3,684,112 members and with a capital of 515.7 million Birr (FCC Report). Furthermore, the new proclamation has helped the cooperatives to organise themselves into unions by pooling their resources together. As a result, 22 grain marketing unions, and 2 coffee marketing unions have been established in Amhara, Tigrai, Oromiya and Southern Regions.In Tigrai, modern co-operative societies were introduced after the formation of the first Proclamation No.241/ 1966. It is uninvestigated whether there were cooperatives before the legislation was enacted. However, under the above-mentioned proclamation, there were 7 cooperatives in the then Shire and Raya Azebo Awrajas with 3,297 members and a capital of 176,356 Birr (Haileselassie, 2003). All these co-operatives were located in the most 'potential' areas where their economic return was high.A report from Tigray cooperative promotion and input marketing division indicates that there are 1309 different types of primary and 21 secondary cooperative societies in the region, of which 582( 44.46%) are agricultural multipurpose cooperatives which deal with the input and out put marketing of their members. The remaining 727 (55.54%) cooperatives comprise of saving and credit, construction, irrigation and other type of cooperative societies. The cooperative societies in the region have a total membership of 361,242 which includes 275,696(76.32%) male and 8, 5546 (23.68 %) female members with a total capital of Birr 71,462,246.53. The weak performance of the agricultural markets (both input and output markets) in Ethiopia has been portrayed in various studies as a major impediment to growth in the agricultural sector and the overall economy (Dawit, 2005).With an inefficient marketing system, the surplus resulting from increased production benefits neither the farmers nor the country (Eleni et al., 2004as cited by Dawit 2005). This is particularly important as the country is following a policy of agriculture led-industrialization and economic development where the agricultural sector is expected to produce surplus that can move to the other sectors of the economy.The agricultural markets in Ethiopia are highly influenced by the production system itself. Most of the agricultural production is undertaken by small scale producers scattered all over the country, engaged in different agricultural enterprises without specialization, and with limited marketable surplus. Gebremeskel et al. (1998) estimated that only 28 percent of total farm output in 1996 was marketed. Therefore, the scattered produce in small quantity needs to be collected and assembled, graded, and transported from one market level to another. Thus, the marketing system is characterized with a long chain with many intermediaries. An intervention is required to shorten the marketing channel in order to reduce the marketing costs incurred at each level of marketing channel so that the benefits will go to the farmers.The cause of success and failures of cooperatives corresponds in a building up and breaking down of cooperative identities through the process by which members and employees grow to hold the identity as their own vision.Although cooperatives are considered as an appropriate tool of rural development they are facing critical problems, which retain them from their positive role. Some of the constraints of cooperatives are: low institutional capacity, inadequate qualified personnel, low entrepreneurship skill, lack of financial resources, lack of market information, poor members' participation in the different activities such as financing the cooperative, patronizing the business activities of the cooperatives, control and supports it. Moreover, the prices of agricultural inputs are increasing from year to year and farmers are complaining on it. These multifaced problems make very difficult the over all activities of the cooperatives in general and the agricultural input and output marketing in particular. The aforementioned problems place the farmers as usually price takers due to the fact that they have poor marketing skill and limited bargaining power. There have been attempts made by the government to improve the marketing skill and bargaining power of farmers through establishment of cooperatives and promoting other group action approaches. (Dawit, 2005).The studies reviewed so far have not discussed the role of cooperatives in input and out put marketing in the study area. To the knowledge of the researcher, there is dearth of studies on the role of cooperatives in input/out put marketing in the study area. Hence the present study is unique and it makes an attempt to bring forth the role of cooperatives in input and output marketing in southern zone of Tigray. Therefore, this research will try to address the following issues 1. The roles played by cooperatives in the in put supply and distribution in the southern zone of Tigray.2. The trend of output marketing made by cooperative societies in the study area 3. The price change of agricultural inputs especially chemical fertilizer.4. The response of the farmer members in participation in agricultural input and output marketing services provided by primary cooperative societies 5. Constraints affecting input and output marketing activity of primary cooperative societies.To measure the role of cooperatives in input and output marketing at any level of analysis, information on economic and social contributions of cooperative societies at micro level is virtually needed. The analysis of cooperatives' role at regional and national level critically depends on response parameters from individual farmer's members and cooperative societies.Thus, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the analysis and study of the role of cooperatives at woreda and regional level. Moreover, it will help as an input for researchers for further study, analysis and developing appropriate agricultural input and output marketing system in relation to cooperatives, so that it will address the needs and problems of the cooperative societies and member farmers to benefit from their cooperative organization.The general objective of the study is to study the role of cooperatives in agricultural input and output marketing in southern zone of Tigray region, Ethiopia.1. To assess the performance of cooperatives in agricultural input and output marketing in southern zone of Tigray 2. To study the participation of cooperative members in agricultural input and output marketing activities.3. To identify constraints in the agricultural input and output marketing services delivered by cooperatives in the study area.4. To develop policy recommendations for improving input and output marketing through cooperatives.Hypotheses have been framed to indicate the direction in which the researcher study should proceed. In line with objectives, the following hypotheses have been framed.1. The performance of multipurpose cooperatives in input and output marketing is The study is restricted both in space and time. Due to the constraints of resource and time as well as purpose of the study, not all the primary cooperatives involved in agricultural input and out put marketing activity found in the study area were covered. A sample of ten (10) multipurpose primary cooperatives was randomly selected from two woredas of the southern zone of TigrayRegion. The study is confined to rural agricultural cooperatives which are engaged in agricultural input and out put marketing. The validity of certain data collected from the cooperative societies and respondents may not be such completely perfect. Even though, the result represents the conditions in southern zone of Tigray Region, the results cannot be generalized to the whole part of Ethiopia.The relevant literature pertaining to the concept and definition of cooperatives, input and output marketing and empirical studies are presented in this chapter.Cooperation has been the very basis of human civilization. The inter-dependent and the mutual help among human beings have been the basis of social life. It is the lesson of universal social history that man cannot live by himself and for himself alone. Since the beginning of human society, individuals have found advantage in working together and helping one another in all over the world .In Ethiopia too, it is common for people to be inter-dependent in mutual help and selfhelp activities in their day-to-day socio-economic conditions. The traditional cooperatives like edir, equb, debo and senbete are traditional form of associations, which should be basis to modern form of cooperatives in Ethiopia.The cooperative model has been adapted to numerous and varied businesses in 1942.Ivan Emilanoff, (Kimberly A. Zeuli and Robert Cropp, 2004) a cooperative scholar, remarked that\" diversity of cooperatives is Kaleidoscopic and their variability is likely infinite. As a consequence of this diversity, no universally accepted definition of a cooperative exists. Two definitions, however, are commonly used. The \"user owner\" principle implies that the people who use the cooperative members help finance the cooperative and therefore, own the cooperative. Members are responsible for providing at least some of the cooperatives capital. The equity capital contribution of each member should be in equal proportion to that member's use (patronage) of the cooperative. This shared financing creates joint ownership, which is part of the ICA cooperative definition.The \"user-control\" concept means that members of cooperatives govern the business directly by voting on significant and long-term business decisions and indirectly through their voting. Instead of one vote per member, voting rights are based on the volume of business the member transacted the previous year with the cooperative. Generally, how ever, there is also a maximum number of votes any member may cast to prevent control by minority of members.For example, a grain cooperative might permit one vote to be cast for each 1,000 bushels of grain marketed the year before, but any single member would be limited to a maximum of ten votes.Democratic control is maintained by trying voting rights to patronage. Equitable voting rights, or democratic control (as written in the ICA definition), are a hallmark of cooperative.\"Distribution of benefits on the basis of use,\" under this principle Members should share the benefits, costs, and risks of doing business in equal proportion to their patronage. The proportional basis is fair, easily explained and entirely feasible from an operational standpoint.To do otherwise distorts the individual contributions of members and diminishes their incentives to join and patronize the cooperative.Cooperative benefits may include better prices for goods and services, improved services, and dependable sources of inputs and markets for outputs. Most cooperatives also realize annual net profits, all or part of which are returned to members in aptly called patronage refunds.People form cooperatives to do something better than they could do by themselves or through a non cooperative form of business acting together, members can develop bargaining power or enjoy the benefits of large business like more efficient use of equipment and the ability to spread fixed costs such as management costs over a larger volume of goods and services. These benefits are known as economies of size.  2003). Furthermore, they show that voluntary associations complement the formal sector by providing spiritual, social and economic services at significantly reduced transaction costs.Above all, informal co-operatives adjust themselves to the changing circumstances. For instance, many iddirs develop 'hybrids' like \"iddir_ iqub\" to provide saving and credit services in addition to their primary service i.e. consolation and burial service.Ethiopia has introduced modern types of co-operatives in various areas of endeavor later than the majority of African countries where their co-operatives were established by the Western powers during their colonization period. In fact, the first consumer co-operative was established in Addis Ababa in 1945(ILO, 1975 associations of Ethiopia, which forced farmers into collective production against their will.Therefore, the proclamation was enacted on the basis of socialist ideology. They were considered as the extension of state institutions, and almost all lost their co-operative identity.By 1990, there were 3,723 agricultural producer co-operatives with 302,653 members, and 4,052 agricultural service co-operatives with 4.5 million members and combined assets of more than 422 million Birr. In general, co-operatives in the Derge were characterized by corruption and mismanagement, and served as a vehicle for the government mass collectivization policy as well as a forced recruiting ground for fighting for Mengistu's escalating internal conflicts (McCarthy, 2001).Forced by the internal instability and economic crisis along with the world economic situation, the Derge declared the \"mixed economy policy\" in 1990. This gave an opportunity to the cooperative members to decide on their future. As they were organized without their will and interest, the majority of co-operatives collapsed. Due to unnecessary government interference and compulsion on membership and leadership, people, throughout the country, have developed a negative view about the co-operative movement and reduced their age-old self-help tradition. At this time, the institutional suspicion mentality is widely reflected in the existing co-operative members.In 1991, the old military regime was defeated in the civil war. The new government embarked on major political and economic reforms. The new constitution provided for decentralization in which substantial political, economic, and social policy power has been devolved to the nine regions and two city council administrations. By abolishing the more centralized economic policy and planning, the new market liberalization policy, which is democratic and decentralized policy, In accordance to the new proclamation, new co-operatives have been established and cooperatives in the past equally get an opportunity to reorganize them. In the Ethiopian cooperative movement, it is observed that co-operatives disappeared with the change of the government. They had exactly the life of the government. They existed as long as the government was in power. However, in the new government, this problem has come into an end. This is demonstrated by the fact that some co-operatives from the Derge era are able to exist at present.The favorable condition created by proclamation No. 147/ 1998 has helped the co-operatives to organize and reorganize themselves voluntarily. In the year 2001, for instance, there were 7,366 different types of co-operatives in the country with 3,684,112 members and with a capital of 515.7 million Birr (FCC Report, as cited by Haileselassie, 2003). Furthermore, the new proclamation has helped the co-operatives to organise themselves into unions by pooling their resources together. As a result, 22 grain marketing unions, and 2 coffee marketing unions have been established in Amhara, Tigrai, Oromiya and Southern Regions.Like other regions in Ethiopia, Tigray has various age-old traditional self-help organizations, which can provide social and economic benefits to their voluntary members. The commonly practiced self-help institutions in the region are: \"wefera, lifinti, blaei, tiwfiriti, mahber, iddir, iqub, etc.\" These all are self/ mutual-aid groups which still have a contribution in socializing and getting people together, developing self-reliance and the capacity to solve local problems by local people.In Tigray, modern co-operative societies were introduced after the formation of the first Proclamation No.241/ 1966. It is uninvestigated whether there were cooperatives before the legislation was enacted. However, under the above-mentioned proclamation, there were 7 cooperatives in the then Shire and Raya Azebo Awrajas with 3,297 members and a capital of 176,356 Birr (Haileselassie, 2003). All these co-operatives were located in the most 'potential' areas where their economic return was high, and they primarily served the well-to-do feudal and rich farmers. Although the proclamation had no article which restricts membership i.e. \"Member shall mean any physical or juridical person\", in actual sense, the ordinary farmers in particular the poor were not eligible for membership because they could not afford the share capital and the Following the Proclamation of 85/ 1994, for the first time in the region's history, an independent Co-operative Promotion Office was created by the Tigray Regional Council under ProclamationNo. 17/ 1996 in order to promote the co-operative way of working together for mutual benefits.Currently, there is a responsible office in the region and at Woreda level for promoting cooperatives in training, supervision, and registration.In 1997, co-operatives were restructured and began providing the following services for their members:Stabilization of markets through supply of consumer goods, marketing of grain and livestock byproducts,Utilization of natural resources such as sand, stone, incense, etc. for their capital formation, Flour milling facilities, Supply of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, improved seed, Access to credit, mainly credit in kind (purchasing fertilizer in credit)In general, the performance of each co-operative varies from place to place. Even in one Woreda, co-operatives are found at good, medium and weak levels of performance Agricultural marketing: The marketing of agricultural products begin at the farm when the farmer plans his production to meet specific demands and markets prospects. Marketing enables the agricultural producer to step out of a subsistence straight jacket and grow produce for sale.Correspondingly, it permits a large proportion of a country's population to live in cities and buy their food nearby. Agricultural marketing provides an incentive to farmers to grow produce for export. In this way, it gives farmers more income and earns foreign exchange to pay for imports.Agricultural marketing is complicated by the diverse nature of the products to be handled, and their perish-ability. A further complication is the scattered nature of agricultural production and, in most tropical countries (like Ethiopia), the very large number of separate production units.Fore these reasons, agricultural marketing calls for considerable initiative, decision making and skill.Cooperative Marketing: is an extension of the principles of cooperatives in the field of marketing. It is a process of marketing through a cooperative association formed voluntarily by its members to perform one or more marketing functions in respect of their produce.A well-functioning agricultural market is an important element of agricultural development program. It could enable farmers' to get a fair proportion of consumers' price, enhance farm income and, consequently, allow the process agricultural intensification to deepen further with a positive impact on poverty reduction (Samuel, 2006 ).Julia Caley, (1999). Indicated the responsibility of fertilizer distribution in Tigray was given to one distributor. In addition, the organization of the system of fertilizer distribution in Tigray was more monopolistic than any of the other regions. She added, in 1998, Guna, the regional government affiliated company, did not distribute fertilizer to Tigray as it had in the past. Rather in1998 Tigray Regional Government asked three importers, AISE, EAL, and GUNA, whether they should divide the region amongst themselves or issue tenders as in the Oromiya region.During this period cooperatives role in the input distribution was not as such important.Haileselassie, (2003). Most of the cooperative members appreciated the involvement of cooperatives in input marketing; as a result members in the Saeisietsaeda Emba Woreda have built a sense of ownership and confidence. He farther indicated that above all members were satisfied for the reason that it removed the need for members moving along distances to collect fertilizer, and reduced time and finance spent on the way.The current approach of distribution of seed through farmer's cooperative unions and affiliated primary societies has its own limitation, as procurement of inputs is the responsibility of these cooperatives and unions, which usually have shortage of skilled labour and capacity to handle the process. Moreover, the approach does not create any competition, as the suppliers remain the government enterprise, i.e. Ethiopian seed Enterprise (Yonas, 2003).Agricultural inputs can be categorized into two types, consumable and capital inputs .The former includes manures and fertilizers, seeds, insecticides/ pesticides, diesel oil and electricity, etc, on the other hand, capital inputs include tractors and trailers, harvesters and threshers, pump sets, and other implements. Most of the agricultural input markets are seen at the level of grain market towns and large villages or cooperative institutions. There are some general aspects of the rural market like underdeveloped markets, illiterate buyers, lack of communication facilities, many languages, and vast spread of the market, storage, transport problems, seasonality and demand which are applicable to agricultural input markets as well (Gopalaswamy, 1997 as cited by Singh, 2004). However, agricultural input markets differ from other product markets in many ways due to the nature of their products, the nature and location of users and the overall environment in which products are being bought and used. (Singh 2004) Agricultural inputs can be considered to be primarily yield saving or yield enhancing inputs.Their basic usefulness to the farmer and therefore their potential comes fundamentally from the quantity of yield they are able to raise or save. This gives the agronomic potential. They may also help to improve quality. They also help to reduce the uncertainty of obtaining good yields, especially if they are used at the consent or for prevention of disease (Singh 2004).This study mainly focuses on the agricultural inputs in which the cooperative societies deal up on such as fertilizers, seeds, and agro-chemicals, etc.According to USAID/Ethiopia ( 2005 exceeded $ 74 million. The report generalized that, this growth is attributable in part to increased membership but more importantly to sales to members who sought more fertilizer to take advantage of the improved market opportunities made available to them by the more efficient marketing primary cooperative societies. Moreover, part of the growth is also attributed to sales to non members, some of whom may eventually join the movement as a result of their favorable experience. In addition to fertilizer, unions and affiliated primaries sold 5,700 MT of improved seed which valued over $1.5 million; over 125,000 liters of agricultural chemicals with value of over $ 650,000.In 2004/05, total fertilizer availability amounted to 482,000 metric tones comprising 425,000 metric tones of new imports for a total value of US$ 122 million and 57 000 metric tones of carry-over stocks (NFA, 2001). The state-owned Agricultural Input Supply Enterprise (AISE), and the two private companies Ambassel trading house and Wondo trading company have been dominating the fertilizer sector over the years and are currently holding 80 percent of the market.However, in this cropping year (2004/2005) three new companies (cooperative unions, backed by the regional governments for collaterals, and receiving technical assistance from the MoARD) has emerged operating on a regional basis -Merkeb in Amhara, Yerer and Lume Adama in Oromia Region. (FAO/WFP, 2006). Moreover, the cooperative unions and primary agricultural service cooperatives are distributing significant quantity of fertilizer (exact figures are not available), indicating that the role of cooperatives in fertilizer marketing is picking up. Apart from this, only few private retailers are involved in fertilizer sales and distribution. Retail prices of DAP and Urea registered a significant increase owing to a surge (rush forward) in international prices. (FAO/WFP, 2006)..The cooperatives were a source of fertilizer for 94.7% of the sample farmers. The average quantity of DAP and Urea taken from the cooperatives were 4.64 and 2.39 bags respectively. The sample farmers, that used the cooperative as their marketing agent for their teff, took an average quantity of 4.83 bags of DAP, and 2.52 bags of Urea. The corresponding figures for the non-users were 4.36 bags of DAP and 2.20 bags of Urea (Daniel, 2006). Gebru, 2007). Agricultural cooperatives are legitimate institutions which belong to farmers. Their main activities are to render variety of services and access the market for input supply particularly to the rural community. He noted that \"the trend of agricultural inputs supply in the study area highly decreased in quantity of fertilizer, improved seeds and increased unit price almost from year to year.Burt, (1997) in his report of Organizing and Operating Agricultural cooperatives indicated that marketing cooperatives can include bargaining and processing organizations. Frequently, they do some of each activity. Their primary role is to move member's products towards the ultimate consumer.Livestock markets in Ethiopia function at three levels consisting of primary, secondary; and terminal markets. Some also include a nominal forth tier at the farm gate level, which could hardly be considered to function as a market. (Solomon, et al, 2000 as cited by yacob 2002)Primary markets have been identified as only village or also Woreda level markets with a supply of less than 500 head of cattle/week where primary producers (farmers and pastoralists) sell small number of animals to small traders, other farmers (replacement animals), farmer or pastoralist traders and in some cases to consumers and local butchers. Such markets are not fenced, have no scales, and no feeds and watering facilities. Purchasing is done through 'eye ball' negotiations.The Government of Ethiopia is strongly supporting the restructuring and expansion of the cooperative movement including its involvement in grain marketing. The experience in the past in many countries is that grain marketing cooperatives have to be very efficient to compete with private sector traders when both are on a level playing field. This is mainly because private traders have often been better informed than cooperatives, have been able to respond more rapidly to changing market conditions, make assessments of the risks involved and take rapid decisions based on those assessments (Oxford Policy Management, 2003). is one of the pioneers to throw light on this subject. He says, \"If a society fails to market the produce of its members or for that matter the produce of any others, it ceases to be of any use to its members for marketing. Many are there just for the name-sake and exist as agents of government for distribution of controlled commodities like wheat, sugar, rice, pulses and production requisites like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. For all purposes they are either dormant or defunct and can be removed form out of the list of the societies.\"Kimberly A. Zeuli and Robert Cropp (2004) Stated that the primary function of marketing cooperatives is to market the products of their members .Beyond that , there is a great range of additional functions the cooperatives in this group perform, bargaining cooperatives(or associations) are at one end of the spectrum. Moreover, they added, in 2002, cooperatives marketed 27% of all farm products in the United States and had a combined net business volume of 569.6 billion US dollar.A good majority of the livestock markets in Ethiopia belong to this group. Secondary markets are trader and to some extent butcher, breeding and draught stocks and located mainly in regional capitals. Secondary markets serve the local consumers to some extent but mainly feed the terminal markets. These markets also supply live animal exporters and meat processors.Under the current institutional arrangement the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) is responsible to design, implement and monitor agricultural marketing policies through the different divisions organized under the department of agricultural marketing and inputs of the Ministry. Other organizations like cooperatives, unions, traders associations, exporters' associations etc also play important role in improving the marketing skill, bargaining power and also in the process of policy formulation. However, under the current situation, they are not strong enough to play the expected role. Thus, it is important that these institutions are strengthened. (Dawit, 2005).Cooperatives have also found it difficult to retain the 'loyalty' of their members if they can obtain better prices for their grain from alternative outlets. Because of these inherent problems, governments are frequently tempted to tilt the playing field in favour of cooperatives by giving them preferential access to credit facilities and investment grants and/or loans. It is to be hoped that the Government of Ethiopia will not follow this path but rather encourage healthy competition between all participants in the grain marketing system, leading to lower marketing costs that will benefit all of the rural poor, both consumers and producers. There is already considerable support being given to the cooperative movement through the USAID-funded ACE programme. It would be desirable to undertake a study to assess the need for additional donor funding and technical assistance, bearing in mind the desirability to foster a competitive environment in the grain marketing system on a level playing field. Cooperatives primarily purchase teff as it is primarily produced and sold by most of the farmers in the study area for their cash requirement. The cooperatives pay cash for the farmers on delivery. The duration of their purchasing ranges from December to May. In 2003/4, 53% of the sample farmers marketed teff through the cooperatives. This figure increased to 58.3% in 2004/5.Out of the sample farmers, 58.3% marketed teff through the cooperatives. These farmers were asked for the important attributes of cooperative purchasing of teff in the area. And 29.9% of the farmers pointed out that selling to the cooperative have an advantage of genuine measurement (no cheating in the weight) and 37.7% of the farmers pointed out both genuine measurement and patronage refund3 as important attributes. Genuine measurement and introduction of desirable competition were pointed out by 14.3% of the farmers. The corresponding figures for patronage refund and introduction of desirable competition were, 2.6% and 6.5% respectively (Daniel, 2006).Crop sales can be considered as the major source of income for farmers to finance input purchase.The survey result has shown that, on the average sample households earned about birr 426 per annum. Adopters obtained large revenue from crop sales (Birr 650.60) compared to non-adopters (Birr 89.95), with mean difference significant at 1% (Techane, 2006). Misra et al. (1993) used the ordered probit model to analyze the factors influencing farmers' degree of satisfaction with the overall performance of milk marketing cooperatives. As satisfaction level of dairy farmers is a discrete qualitative variable, they used this model instead of the OLS as the latter would result in biased and inefficient estimate. Their result showed that dairy farmers perceive cooperatives' ability to hold down operating and marketing costs, to provide higher prices and competent field services and the assurance of a market for their milk as important attributes of dairy marketing cooperatives. Hind (1994) studied the Performance of 31 agricultural cooperatives and 82 non-cooperatives in agribusinesses in United Kingdom. He determined first, the mean, standard deviations and t-test of differences in means for the two businesses of the selected performance indicators such as sales turnover, return on asset, sales/working capital, debt ratio, etc. Then, he used the linear multiple regression analysis to determine if there were significant relationships between the performance indicators and business form using dummy variables for the business form. The findings of his research revealed that cooperatives do not perform differently to non-cooperatives, despite being required to balance members' needs with the attainment of their goals.Mauget and Decklerck (1996) examined a sample of European community agricultural cooperatives annual reports including financial results such as value-added/turnover, operating activities/turnover, (net income plus depreciation) /turnover, labor cost/turnover etc. in order to find key factors of success. Their data years were 1990 and 1991. The result showed that in general specialized cooperatives didn't perform better than multi-purpose cooperatives.Specialized cooperatives were most successful in Denmark while multipurpose cooperatives did better in Ireland.A logit regression analysis was used by Tretcher (1996) to analyze the factors associated with diversification on agricultural cooperatives in Wisconsin. He found that the impact of diversification upon measures of cooperative performance (profitability, patronage refund and equity redemption) was relatively minor i.e. diversification on agricultural cooperatives was not statistically associated with profitability, increases in patronage dividends or increases in equity devolvement. The result also showed that diversification on agricultural cooperatives was an important factor in determining membership size i.e. diversified cooperatives enjoyed larger membership.The technical efficiency and scale economies of the dairy marketing cooperatives were estimated by Ellene and Schreiner (1996) in Kenya. They used the maximum likelihood technique to estimate a stochastic cost frontier function and determined technical efficiency and scale economies. The estimated long-run average cost curve indicated that scale economies, but most of the scale economies are exhausted for the average size of cooperatives in the sample. In general, the result indicated that the dairy marketing cooperatives were technical efficient for the observed technology. They also suggested that cooperatives can reduce unit costs by expanding volume of milk handled, either through existing members or new member, including merging with other cooperatives. Kebede (2006) used the logit model to analyze the farmers' perception and determinants of land management practices in Ofla Woreda, southern Tigray, Ethiopia. His findings showed that Age, Sex, Distance to Woreda market, , perceived water logging problem, perceived gully and degradation status, Investment in soil and water conservation practices, slope category were found to determine the farmers perception of land management practice.Daniel (2006) used the Tobit model to assess the performance of primary agricultural cooperatives and determinants of members' decision to use as marketing agent in Adaa Liben and Lume districts. His finding showed that among these significant variables district, Cooperative price for teff, position in the cooperative, farm size, yield of teff, patronage refund and distance of the district market from the farmer's house were found to be significantly and positively related to the farmers' marketing of teff through the cooperatives.Gizachew ( 2007) used ratio analysis and found that the liquidity ratios of the cooperatives under his study are fluctuating during the consecutive three years of his study period. This is because of the difference in the amount of the loan from year to year which results for fluctuating in interest payable. Here, the impact of borrowing has shown in decreasing the liquidity ratio. Therefore, cooperatives should increase their capital to minimize a loan.Although cooperatives are considered as an appropriate tool of rural development, they are facing critical problems, which retain them from their positive role. Some of the constraints of cooperatives are: low institutional capacity, inadequate qualified personnel, low entrepreneurship skill, lack of financial resources, lack of market information, poor members' participation in the different activities such as financing the cooperative, patronizing the business activities of the cooperatives, and control and supports it (Dawit, 2005). Moreover, the prices of agricultural inputs are increasing from year to year and farmers are complaining on it. These multifaced problems make very difficult the over all activities of the cooperatives in general and the input and output marketing in particular. The aforementioned problems place the farmers as usually price takers due to the fact that they have poor marketing skill and limited bargaining power.There have been attempts made by the government to improve the marketing skill and bargaining power of farmers through establishment of cooperatives and promoting other group action approaches.Haileselassie (2003). Found that, the management committee members and focus groups participants were suggested the barriers which prevent the co-operatives from fully achieving their objectives. Their replies were: inadequate capital, unskilled management committee, illiterate membership, unwillingness to serve as committee member, low commitment and disloyalty of members, low level of infrastructure development (transport, storage), and the unhappiness of members with the co-operative services.The methodology developed and followed in the study is presented in this chapter.The volume of business performed by cooperatives with their member patrons and other community members can be considered as the performance indicator of the cooperative societies.As the business volume and value of the cooperative institution is expected to grow from year to year so that it will benefit its members as owners, users and controllers of the cooperative business, it might indicate weather the cooperative is performing negatively or positively towards the members' betterment. In this study, ratio analysis, input and output marketed by cooperatives are considered to contribute for the performance of cooperatives in the input and output marketing.   , 2006).There are five woredas in the zone. The zone has bimodal with erratic rainfall pattern of rain fall. \"Belg\" rain is the small rain occurring usually from February to April. The second rainy season \"keremt\" is from June to early September. Despite the shortage and variability in its occurrence, the bimodal pattern of rainfall has allowed the production of two cropping seasons in some woredas in the southern zone of Tigray. Southern zone of Tigray is purposively selected for its market oriented commodities' potential and being a project area of an international organization. It is a project area of the IPMS-ILRI (Improved Productivity and Marketing Success-International Livestock Research Institution)-project. This project is the potential sponsor of the study. There are five woredas in southern Tigray zone; from which two woredas are randomly selected for the study. All these two woredas are agriculturally dominated. Of the five Woredas in Southern zone of Tigray, two a woredas Alamata (lowland) and Ofla (highland) were randomly selected for the study. Alamata woreda is one of the five woredas in southern zone of Tigray located 600 km north of Addis Ababa and about 180 km south of the Tigray Regional capital Mekelle. Alamata is the south most woreda of the Tigray Region and borders with Amhara region from the south and west and Afar region from the east. There are 10 peasant associations and two town dwellers associations in the woreda. The number of agricultural households of the woreda is 17,597.The total population of the woreda was 128,872 in 2003/04 (IPMS-ILRI, 2005). Altitude in the area ranges from 1178m to 3148 m and 75% of the woreda is lowland (<1500 masl) and only 25% is  Ofla Woreda is one among the five Woredas of southern Tigray zone. Ofla is located about 620 kms away from Addis Ababa and about 160 kms from Mekelle. The Woreda is located on the geographic coordinates of 12 0 31'North Latitude and 39 0 33' East Longitude. The altitude varies between 1700-2800 m.a.s.l and the slope ranges to more than 15 percent. The total area of the woreda is about 133,300 ha, of which 42% of the area is Woina Dega (55,986 ha) and the rest are Dega and Kolla which accounts for 29% each and 77,314 ha in total (Kebede, 2005, Ofla Woreda BoARD, 2006).Ofla has two (Bimodal) rainy seasons namely; Keremt where the main wet season is from June to September and Belg; the small wet season extends from February to March. The rainfall distribution of the study area is characterized by heavy and erratic in nature, like most highlands of the country. The annual rainfall varies from 450mm to 800mm during keremt and 18mm to 250mm during Belg season (Ofla Woreda BoARD, 2006). The mean annual temperature of the study area is 22 o c with minimum and maximum temperature of 6 o c and 30 o c respectively (Kebede, 2005, Ofla woreda BoARD, 2006).Ofla Woreda has about 133, 300 ha of landmass, which has 25,275 arable, 24,149 ha grazing, 44,635 ha forest, 36,515 useless and 2,726 currently not under cultivation, but suitable for cultivation (Ofla Woreda BoARD, 2006). The average land holding in the Woreda is about 0.5 ha per household. Ofla Woreda has an estimated total population of 132,491 of which 51.83% are female. From the total 33,944 rural household heads, male headed households account for about 67.93 percent while female-headed households account for about 36.07 percent. The population density of the study area is about 104 people per km 2 (Ofla Woreda BoARD, 2006).Agriculture is the mainstay of the community. Similar as in the other parts of the country, the farming techniques used by the rural communities are traditional. Ofla Woreda is characterized by a mixed farming system where the livelihood of the rural community depends both on livestock and crop farming. Crop production is mostly rainfall dependent. Wheat, barley, field pea, faba bean, lentil, sorghum and maize are the dominant crops grown in Ofla Woreda. Wheat and barley are the major sources of daily foodstuffs.A three-stage random sampling procedure was adopted for the selection of the sample farmers from the cooperatives in the two Woredas (figure 6). In the first stage, two woredas (Alamata and Ofla) were randomly selected out of the 5 woredas found in southern zone of Tigray.In the second stage, considering the total number of 27 multipurpose primary cooperatives (11 in Alamata Woreda and 16 in Ofla Woreda) as well as financial and time limitations, ten primary multipurpose cooperatives were randomly selected from the two study woredas( four from Alamata Woreda and six from Ofla Woreda) (Table 2).In the third stage, given the available resource and time at the disposal of the researcher, a total of 208 farmer members (56 farmers from Alamata Woreda and 152 farmers from Ofla Woreda) were selected randomly using probability proportional to sample size (PPS).  Both primary and secondary data were utilized for this study.Primary data was collected on age of respondents, martial status, sex of the household head, educational level, family size, family income, size of land holding, livestock ownership, duration of membership, awareness about cooperatives, contact with the cooperative leaders , participation in cooperative management, dividend payment, availability of credit, exposure to mass media, price of agricultural inputs, opinion on price of agricultural outputs, timely delivery of inputs, regular marketing service of cooperatives, distance of the house of the household head from multipurpose primary cooperative , expenditure and other relevant variables from the sample respondents who are members of the primary multipurpose cooperatives selected for the study. The data collection was made during the period of October and November 2007. Six enumerators were appointed for the purpose of data collection.A structured interview schedule was developed to collect the needed primary data. The interview schedule was first prepared in English and translated into Tigrigna for practical field work. The interview schedule was pre-tested before actual administration with 10 cooperative members.The researcher fully participated in the interview and closely supervised and guided the six enumerators during the entire period of data collection.The researcher collected the required secondary data regarding: o Other relevant information related with the research objectives.Descriptive statistics are important to have clear picture of the characteristics of sample units. By applying descriptive statistics one can compare and contrast different categories of sample units (farm households) with respect to the desired characteristics. In this study, descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, percentages and frequency of occurrence were used along the econometric model, to analyze the collected secondary and primary data. Moreover, volume and value of input and output marketed, price of agricultural inputs (inorganic fertilizer and improved seeds), and ratio analysis were worked out using tables, graphs, charts and percentagesRatio analysis was done using the audited financial data of each primary multipurpose cooperative society and their financial performance was evaluated. The commonly used ratios such as liquidity ratio, debt ratio, and profitability ratio were calculated and analyzed for sample multipurpose cooperatives for the study period.To assess the performance of the cooperative, different financial ratios were used. Financial ratios can be designed to manage cooperative's performance. Ratios can be used as one tool in identifying areas of strengths or weakness in cooperatives. Financial ratios enable to make comparison of cooperative's financial conditions over time or in relation to other cooperatives.A cooperative intends to remain viable in business entity must have enough cash on hand to pay its debts as they come due. In other words, the cooperatives must remain liquid. One way to determine whether this is the case is to examine the relationship between a cooperative's current assets and current liabilities. Liquidity ratios are quick measure of cooperative's ability to provide sufficient cash to conduct business over the next few months. According to Neveu (1985); Bringham and Houston (1998) and William et al.(2003) one of the most commonly used liquidity ratio is the current ratio that is computed by dividing current asset by current liabilities.Eq (1) Current LiabilityWhenever a cooperative finances a portion of its asset with any type of financing, such as debts, the cooperative is said to be using financial leverage. According Bringham and Houston (1998) and William et al. (2003) financial leverage management ratio measures the degree to which a firm is employing financial leverage. According to these authors, of the several types of financial leverage ratios, debt ratio is commonly used. It measures the portion of a firm's total asset that is financed with creditors' fund. It is computed by dividing total debt by total asset.Eq (2) Total assetProfitability is the net effect of a number of policies and decisions by the management of the firm (cooperative). Profitability ratios measure how effectively a firm's management was generating profits on sales, total assets, most importantly stockholders' investment (Neveu, 1985;Bringham and Houston, 1998;William et al., 2003). One of the most commonly used profitability ratio is return on total asset among others, which is computed by dividing net income by total assets.Eq (3) Total assetModels, which include a \"yes\" or \"no\" type dependent variable, are called dichotomous (binary).Such models approximate the mathematical relationships between explanatory variables and the dependent variable that is always assigned qualitative response. The four most commonly used approaches to estimate dummy dependent variable regression models are (1) the linear probability model (LPM), (2) the logit, (3) the probit and (4) the Tobit model. They are applicable in a wide variety of fields (Gujarati, 2004).The linear probability model, which expresses the dichotomous dependent variable (Yi) as a linear function of the explanatory variables (Xi), is called linear probability model (LPM). LPM has some econometric problems like non-normality of the disturbances (Ui), heteroscedastic variances of the disturbances, non-fulfillment of 0<E(Yi/Xi) <1 and lower value of R 2 , as a measure of goodness of fit. Therefore, linear probability model is not appropriate to test the statistical significance of estimated coefficients (Liao, 1994;Gujarati, 2004).The logit and probit models will guarantee that the estimated probabilities will lie between logical limit 0 and 1 (Pindyck and Runbinfeld, 1981). Because of this and other facilities, the logit and the probit models are the most frequently used models when the dependent variable happens to be dichotomous (Liao, 1994;Maddala, 1989;Gujarati, 2004).Ignoring the minor differences between logit and probit models, Liao (1994), Gujarati (2004), Pindyck and Runbinfeld (1981) pointed-out that the probit and logit models are quite similar, so they usually generate predicted probabilities that are almost identical. Aldrich and Nelson (1984) indicated that in practice these models yield estimated choice probabilities that differ by less than 0.02. Besides its difficulty in calculation, the probit model enables to calculate the marginal effect of the explanatory variables on the dependent variable.Therefore, this study has applied binary probit model to identify the determinant variables and their marginal effect on the participation in agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives.The dependent variable for probit analysis has a dichotomous nature measuring the participation of the member farmer in the agricultural input and output marketing business by purchasing and selling from and to the cooperative. It is represented in the model by 1 for a participated member and 0 for a non-participated member.In LPM, the dichotomous dependent variable is expressed as a linear function of the explanatory variables. Although one can estimate Linear Probability Models (LPM) by the standard ordinary list square (OLS) method as a mechanical routine, the results will be beset with the following problems. The LPM may generate predicted values outside the 0-1 intervals, which violate the basic tenets of probability. The other problem with LPM is that the variance of the disturbance term is Heteroscedasticity since it depends on the conditional expectation of the dependent variable, which of course depends on the value taken by the regressor. Because of this OLS estimators, although unbiased, are not efficient; they do not have minimum variance. The third problem with such models is that the conventionally computed coefficient of determination (R 2 ) is likely to be much lower than one. For this reason, the use of R 2 as a summary statistic should be avoided. The fourth problem with LPM is that the assumption of normality in the disturbance term is no longer tenable (acceptable); because like the dependent variable, the disturbance term takes only two values (Gujarati, 2004). To alleviate these problems and produce relevant empirical outcomes, the most widely used qualitative response models are the Non-Linear Probability Models (logit and probit) (Amemiya, 1981). These two models, in addition to the advantage that the probabilities are bound between 0 and 1, they fit well to the non-linear relationship between the probabilities and the explanatory variables. The probability approaches zero at slower and slower rate as an explanatory variable (X i ) gets smaller and smaller and approaches one at slower and slower rate as an explanatory variable (X i ) gets larger.The inadequacy of the LPM suggests that a non-linear specification may be more appropriate.The researcher in this case had chosen an S-shaped curve bound in an interval 0-1 (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 1981;Gujarati, 2004). The authors suggest that the S-shaped curves satisfying the probability model are those represented by the cumulative logistic function and the cumulative normal distribution. The logit model assumes cumulative logistic probability function, whereas the probit probability model is associated with the cumulative normal distribution function.In this respect, a choice has to be made between logit and probit models. However, the statistical similarities between the two models make such a choice difficult. The choice of any model is therefore, not dominant and may be evaluated a posteriori on statistical grounds, although in practice there is no strong reason for choosing one model over the other. Gujarati (2004), andPindyck andRubinfeld (1981) illustrated that the logistic and probit formulations are quite comparable, the main difference being the former has slightly fatter tails; that is the normal curve approaches the axes more quickly than the logistic curve.Chabers and Cox (1967) devised a test to distinguish the two models, which can be used only when there is a single independent variable, which takes on three values, with many observations on the dependent variable for each value of the independent variable. Even for a specialized case, it required an exceedingly large number of observations for a test to distinguish the two models effectively.To identify the factors influencing the participation of cooperative members in the agricultural input and output marketing business, binary probit model was employed for this study. Therefore, the determinants of participation in the agricultural input and output marketing activity were estimated using binary probit regression model.According to Maddala (1983Maddala ( , 2001) ) probit model is specified as: The Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) was used to test for the existence of multi-collinearity between continuous explanatory variables. VIF shows how the variance of an estimator\" R\" is inflated by the presence of multi-collinearity (Gujarati, 2004). If R 2 is the adjusted square of the multiple correlation coefficients that results when the explanatory variable (X i ) is regressed against all the other explanatory variables, VIF is computed asAs the adjusted R i 2 approaches 1, the VIF approaches infinity. That is as the extent of collinearity increases, the variance of the estimator increases, and in the limit it can become infinity. If there is no collinearity between independent variables, the values of VIF will approach 1. As a Rule of Thumb, values of VIF greater than 10 are often taken as a signal for the existence of multicollinearity problem in the model (Gujarati, 2004).Contingency coefficients were also calculated to see the degree of association between the dummy variables. They were calculated for each pair of dummy variables using contingency coefficient procedure available in SPSS. Contingency coefficient is a chi-square based measure of association. A value of 0.75 or more indicates a stronger relationship (Healy, 1984). The contingency coefficients will be computed as follows.Where C= coefficient of contingency, χ 2 = Chi-square test and N= total sample sizeAfter having appropriate analytical tools it is plausible to identify, define and describe the dependent and independent variables with their appropriate symbols and measurements in a workable way. In the discussion that follows this issue will be addressed.The dependent variable in this study is participation of cooperative members in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives. The concept of participation is explained and studied by various writers. According to Davis (1969) as cited by G. Surendran, 2000) participation is a mental and economic involvement of a person in a group situation which encourages him to contribute to goals and shares responsibilities in them. For the effective functioning of a cooperative society, membership participation is the pole of the cooperative movement because members are the owners, the controllers and the users of the cooperative business. The participating members are those who have an interest to involve in various cooperative affairs (such as in patronizing the agricultural input and output marketing of the cooperatives, election of board members, financing of the cooperatives by investing in the form of share capital, and other decision making process).These members might make themselves aware of the problems and have the willingness to contribute to the progress of the cooperatives and ensures member participation in the business and management affairs of the cooperatives. Based on this concept of participation, the dependent variable participation can be operationally defined as follows:The dependent variable for this study has binary (dichotomous) nature, that is, the dependent variable can take the value 1 with a probability of success when the member respondents participate in the agricultural input and output marketing activity of a given cooperative in 2006/07 production season independently, or the value 0 when a given farmer did not participate in the agricultural input and output marketing activity of the cooperative to be analyzed using the binary probit model independently.Participation is operationalized as the involvement of a member in a group situation and his contribution to goals of the agricultural input and output marketing and sharing responsibility in them.{ Y p = 1 if a given farmer participated in the input and out put marketing of a given cooperative, 0 otherwiseThe independent variables that were expected to influence farmers' participation decision can be of many types. Those independent variables are explained below:Age is a continuous independent variable indicating the age of the household head in years. The households' previous experiences may have either positive or negative, and this may likely influence his or her attitude on participation in the input and output marketing. Besides, his or her capacity to earn additional cash income may increase or decrease with age. Age may have a bearing on investment (Fitsum, 2003). Thus the expected sign is ambiguous.It is a continuous variable and refers to the number of years of formal schooling the farmer attended. The higher the education level, the better would be the awareness of the farmer towards the cooperative and acquire information and education about the benefits of the cooperative easily (Kraenzle, 1989;Klien et al., 1997, Daniel, 2006). Hence, those farmers with higher formal education may be in a better position to know the benefits of cooperative and more likely to participate in the input and output marketing activities of the cooperative societies. So this variable is expected to influence the input and output marketing role of the cooperatives positively.This variable is a continuous explanatory variable and refers to the total members in the family the household has in number. It is assumed that household with larger family size consume more of what is produced in the house and little will remain to be marketed. Therefore, family size is expected to have negative influence in marketing of the household through the cooperative.This variable is a continuous variable and it refers to the total area of farmland that a farmer owns in hectare. The usage of the cooperative as marketing agent requires substantial economic resources of which land is the principal one (Wadsworth, 1991;Klein et al., 1997). It is assumed that the larger the total area of the farmland the farmer owns, the higher would be the input usage and output produced. This implies farmers who have larger land holding may patronize the cooperative's input and output marketing in a better way. Therefore, it is expected that this variable might have positive influence on the input and output marketing participation of members in the cooperative.This is the number of draft oxen possessed by the household during 2006/2007 production year. Oxen are the prominent source of traction power in the study area.Farmers with large farm size would have more number of oxen for cultivation. This may result in more use of agricultural inputs and production of more outputs. Therefore, having more number of oxen means able to cultivate larger farm which in turn leads to more agricultural input purchase from the cooperative and selling more agricultural produce to the cooperative.Therefore, number of oxen, as a variable is hypothesized to have direct relation ship with the cooperative's input and output marketing business.This variable is a continuous variable and refers to the total number of livestock the household owns in terms of TLU. It is assumed that households with larger TLU have better economic strength and financial position to purchase sufficient amount of agricultural inputs (Techane, 2002;Teferi, 2003, Daniel, 2006) that boost his production and produce more amount of output to sell to their cooperative. Therefore, this variable has assumed to have positive association with the input and output marketing by cooperatives.Share holding is operationally defined as the number of share holdings by the cooperative member based on the by-law of the cooperative. Farmers with more awareness about cooperative may purchases number of shares to capitalize their cooperative society. This implies that farmers with more share holding may participate more in the cooperative affairs. Therefore, share holding may have positive relationship with participation of members in the input and output marketing business of the cooperatives.It is a continuous variable which refers to part of the total amount of income measured in birr that is earned from non farm activities which are not related to agriculture. Therefore, in this study it is hypothesized that non-farm income affects the members' participation in input and output marketing through cooperatives positively.Expenditure in agricultural input (EXPINPUT): This is a continuous variable measured in birr. As the expenditure of the household head in agricultural inputs increase due to high price of agricultural inputs, farmers expenditure input use will be increased. Therefore, in this study it is assumed the expenditure in agricultural inputs may influence the participation of members in the input and output marketing negatively.It is a continuous variable measured in k.ms. It refers to the distance of the cooperative from the farmer's house.The proximity of the cooperative from the farmer's house reduces the cost of time and labor that the farmers spent in searching for a supply of agricultural inputs and sale of farm outputs. The other advantage is that as the farmer is close (near) to the cooperative, he will have more knowledge about the cooperative and its benefits (Bishop andMcConnen, 1999, Daniel, 2006).Therefore, in this study the distance of the cooperative from the farmer house is expected to influence the role of cooperatives in the input and output marketing negatively Perception on the price offered by cooperative for agri-output (OUTPUTP): This is a variable taking value 1 if the cooperative price offered for farmers output is higher or better than the market price in the area and, 0 otherwise. The price effect is one that the cooperative passes on the farmer's economy (Chukwu, 1990). Therefore, if the cooperative charges competitive price for agricultural outputs in the area, the farmers sell through the cooperative (Wilkins and Stafford, 1982;Fulton and Adamowicz, 1993;Misra et al., 1993;Klein et al., 1997, Daniel, 2006). Therefore, cooperative price may influence the marketing of output marketing by cooperatives positively.This is a dummy variable measured as 1 if the household head has improved his standard of living due to joining the multipurpose cooperative, other wise 0. Therefore, it is assumed that members with improvement in their standard of living due to joining to cooperative may participate in a better way. Therefore, this variable can have positive contribution to the participation of members in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives.This is a dummy variable measured as 1 if the household head has a membership of another cooperative society, otherwise 0. Therefore, this may be a sign of awareness of the importance of participation in the cooperative business by the household and it may have positive influence in the participation of member patrons in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives.This is the monetary value of inorganic fertilizer (DAP and UREA) which is supplied by the cooperative to its farmer members. It can be measured as high or Low by assigning the value of 0 and 1 respectively. Low price of inorganic fertilizer might be perceived to have positive influence in the participation of members in agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives and vice versa.is the monetary value of improved seeds which may be supplied by the cooperatives or other suppliers to its farmer members. Price of improved seeds can be measured as high or low by assigning the value of 0 and 1 respectively. Low price of improved seeds might be perceived to have positive influence in the participation of cooperative members in agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives and vice versa.This chapter presents the findings of the study. Tables, percentages, graphs and charts were used to present the volume and value of agricultural inputs and outputs marketed by cooperatives in Southern Tigray region and in the study woredas. The ratio analysis made use of three ratios i.e. liquidity ratio (current ratio), leverage ratio (debt ratio) and profitability ratio (return on total asset) to examine the performance of the cooperatives found in Alamata and Ofla woredas. The descriptive analysis made use of tools such as mean, standard deviation and percentage. T-test and χ 2 -test were also employed. Moreover, to test the multicollinarity and degree of association between the continuous and discrete variables, variance inflation factor and contingency coefficient was also calculated. Econometric analysis was employed to identify the most important factors that influence the participation of member patrons in the agricultural input and output marketing activity made by the primary cooperative societies.Seed marketing in the Tigray Region is mainly undertaken by Tigray Region BoARD. The Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (ESE) is the major seed supplier to the region through its branch office in Mekelle both from the central warehouse and seed produced by farmers in the region. The seed produced by the farmers in the region is on contract basis with a premium price of 15 percent from the prevailing market price of the respective crop. The seed market is subsidized by the regional government mainly in the form of transportation from different parts of the country and with in the region too. As a result, the price of seed is some what stable and the seed consumption in the region shows continuous increment (Table -3 Table 4 showed that the seed marketed by cooperatives in the region was in a steady growth from 2002 to 2004 because cooperatives were getting the seed supply from the Bureau of Agriculture input and credit department on discount basis and declined from 2004 to 2005 due to the reason that in the year 2005, cooperatives couldn't get discount and farmer members could get the seed at the area with same price. Therefore, involvement of cooperatives was not worth while in the seed distribution activity and a number of cooperatives withdrew from seed distribution business transaction. As a result, the volume of seed marketed by cooperatives increased up to year 2004 and declined there after (Table 4).  In the region there are various types of inputs distributed to the farming community , such as fertilizers, seeds, agro-chemicals, beehives, local and exotic cows, motor pumps, treadle pump, etc. The inputs are distributed through cooperatives; input and credit experts of Board. The cooperative societies mainly deal with fertilizer and seed distribution to members. As we can observe from the Table-5, the fertilizer consumption in the region is declining from year to year. This is mainly due to drought, high fertilizer price, minimized influence by the extension workers and local administrators.  Even though both the private and public sector made the importation of fertilizer, the distribution was shifted to farmers' cooperatives and Unions, which had to undertake the purchase and distribution to members, by themselves during the 2004 cropping season. The cooperative unions in Oromia, Amhara, SNNP and Tigray have started fertilizer importation (24 percent of the total Import). According to the Federal cooperative agency and regional cooperative bodies report, the fertilizer import and distribution coverage of Cooperative societies are increasing in the last two years (for example in 2005 cropping season, 68 percent of the import by eight cooperative unions and 70 percent of the distribution was made by cooperatives (FCA, 2005). This is due to two reasons:1) The support of the government in the allocation of fund in the form of loan through the regional government budgets guarantee for import and distribution is increased.2) The establishment of the cooperative unions in the different regional states of the country. As   Retail prices of DAP and urea in 2004 registered a significant increase owing to a surge (rush forward) in international prices. Field interviews have shown a hike in the retail prices of fertilizer of up to 22 percent for DAP in Amhara region and 43 percent for urea in Oromia region.However, despite this increase in retail prices, the national level fertilizer demand in 2004 amounted to 323 000 tons, accounting for a 19 percent increase compared to the previous year's demand. (FAO/WFP, 2006).    In the past five years the average price trend of fertilizer (DAP and UREA) shows an increasing trend (Table -8). The high price of fertilizer was recorded in 2005 which is 370.30 for DAP fertilizer, 360.15 for urea and 386.10 for improved seeds. This was emanated from the low competition of the suppliers, poor infrastructure which leads to high inland transportation cost, fuel price increment, and the continuous increment of the international fertilizer price. The percentage change in price taking 2002 as a base year in comparison with 2006 is that 39.04% for DAP and 51.51% for UREA. This is a burden for the poor farmers. However, there is slight reduction in price in 2006 as compared to 2005 (2.44 percent for DAP and 1.8 percent for UREA) due to the thin gross profit margins of Enderta Cooperative Union (three birr per quintal only), government support in transportation, relatively less transportation cost from Djibouti to Mekelle (nine birr less as compared to Lume-Adama Cooperative Union in Oromiya).Table 9 reveals that, the grain marketing performance of cooperatives in the Tigray region had increased from year 1997 to 1998 dramatically. This is due to the fact that during this fiscal year most of the primary multipurpose agricultural cooperatives involved in grain marketing business even though the availability of disaggregated data is one of the limitation to present the major crops. In the years 2002 and 2003 the grain marketing of cooperatives got down to the lowest level as a result of price failure in 2000 and 2001 at national and regional level. Source: Ofla Woreda cooperation promotion deskTo asses the performance of the sample cooperatives, financial ratio analysis was calculated from the audited financial reports (balance sheet and income statement of each cooperative society).The satisfactory rate of current ratio that is accepted by most lenders as condition for granting or continuing commercial loan is 2.00. With this yardstick when we look to the reference years (2004 and 2007) depending on the financial audit report of Tsetsera, Lemeat primary cooperatives of Alamata Woreda, and Tadesech, Redatafere, Adishumbereket and Hadushberha of Ofla Woreda are observed, all performed below the desirable standard (which is 2.00 ratio) but they remain liquid to cover their financial obligations due to the fact that their current ratio is above 1.00. Moreover, in 2005and 2007for Gerjele, 2003and 2004 for Tao also shows below the commercially accepted ratio. The current ratio for Fallansofian and Higumberda primary multipurpose cooperatives in Ofla Woreda ranges the minimum in Higumberda during 2003 is 0.80 and maximum value for 2002 of Fallansofian primary multipurpose cooperative society 1.77. The highest ratio was 3.12 which were scored by Tadesech primary multipurpose cooperative from Ofla Woreda and the lowest was 0.56, which was scored by Tao primary multipurpose cooperative from Alamata Woreda in 2002. In this study it was Tao primary multipurpose cooperative from Alamata Woreda that has serious liquidity problem followed by lemeat multipurpose cooperative from the same Woreda. Those cooperatives couldn't pay their financial obligations in both audit periods i.e. 0.56 and 0.69 in 2002 and 2003 respectively because their ratios were below 1.00. When we see the performance of the sample multipurpose primary cooperatives, the liquidity ratio of five cooperatives had increased when we compared between the two consecutive auditing periods (i.e. one from Ofla and four from Alamata) and for the remaining five cooperatives it decreased from the first audit period to the second audit period.This implies that their current liabilities are rising faster in the later case than their current assets and vise versa in the former cooperatives. The input credit for the cooperatives was from Commercial Bank of Ethiopia through the government collateral system. The ability to get cash (credit) by their own to meet their short-term demand for money (to supply farmers' with agricultural inputs and purchase their members farm produce) is not possible because lenders were not willing to extend short-term loan to these cooperatives due to the banks collateral policy, cooperatives low financial and managerial capability i.e. lenders require current ratio to remain at or above 2.00 as a condition for granting loan and also the collateral from the lending institution. The cooperative societies in the two woredas are not getting regular auditing service as per the proclamation 147/1998 that is at least once a year due to low number of auditors both in quantity and quality (the ability to audit cooperatives independently is very low). Therefore, the researcher was forced to take two consecutive audit years in order to assess the performance of the sample primary cooperative societies using financial ratios.All of the cooperatives in the two study woredas (Alamata and Ofla) used financial leverage (finances a portion of assets with debts). Majority of the cooperatives under investigation in the two sample study woredas financed more of their total asset with creditors' fund. The lowest debt ratio in this study was 0.24 which is scored by Adishumbereket primary multipurpose cooperative of Ofla Woreda, which implies 24% of its assets in the year 2004, was financed from creditor's fund, whereas 76% of its asset was financed from its own fund. On the other hand, the highest debt ratio scored by Lemeat multipurpose primary cooperative from Alamata was 0.95 in the year 2007. This indicates that only 5 percent of the cooperatives business was run by its own financial sources. Therefore, the major source of finance for the cooperative to serve its patron members in supply of agricultural inputs and purchase of their farm outputs was from borrowed capital. . From the above table-13 we can conclude that except one cooperative (Hadushberhan multipurpose primary cooperative), all cooperative societies borrowed capital had increased in the later audit years as compared to the former audit years. This implies, 90% of the cooperatives business runs at risk. The smaller the proportion (<50%) of the total assets financed by the creditors fund, the smaller will be the risk that the firm/cooperative unable to pay its debt (William et al, 2003as cited in Daniel, 2006).Having higher proportion of asset financed by the creditors fund may lead the cooperatives to the risk of bankruptcy unless the management seek a solution to increase the cooperatives own fund through sales of share capital to its members and running profitable business that can award both to the member patrons in the form of patronage refund and the cooperative society through allocation of reserve fund out of the net profit earned.The profitability ratios demonstrate how well the firm is making investment and financing decisions, fetching profit from the sales made by the business by the cooperative. According to William et al. (2003), as cited in Daniel, 2006, firms need to earn return on their asset that enables them to pay the interest of the money they borrowed i.e. they need to return on their asset which is equal or better than the interest rate of the money they borrowed. One can observe from Table-14 that the profitability ratios of the cooperatives under investigation were improving from the first audit year to the second audit year under consideration. When we look at the earning of the cooperatives under investigation in audit year wise, the highest and the lowest profitability ratio was 40.8% and negative 5. The plausible reasons for the difference in profitability among the cooperative lies on how effectively the cooperative management is generating profit on sales, total assets, money they borrowed and most importantly members' investment (share capital). The average educational level of the sample households was 3.29 years of schooling. While the respective participant and non participant sample farmers average schooling is 3.53 and 2.73 years. According to the independent sample t-test, the difference mean t-test was compared between the participant and non-participant cooperative members with respect to educational level of the household head is found to be statistically significant at 10% probability level (t=-1.87) This implies relatively educated member farmer members participate in the input and output marketing activities of the cooperatives. This can be due to the fact that educated farmer members have more exposure to timely information and understand about the cooperative marketing activities as compared to less educated members.The mean family size of the sample household in the study was found to be 6.03. The respective average family size for participant and non participant household is 6.02 and 5.987 respectively However, the analysis shows that, the mean difference between participants and non-participants of the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives with respect to family size is found to be statistically non significant (t = -0.834).The average land ownership of the sample respondents were 0.67 hectare. Moreover, the corresponding figures for the participant and non-participant sample respondents' amounts 0.72 and 0.57 hectare respectively. According to the independent sample t-test conducted in this study, the difference in mean land ownership between the participant and non participant household heads is found to be significant at 5 percent probability level (t= -2.48). Therefore, from this we can conclude that the majority of the sample farmers own more than half a hectare of land which is above the Woreda average (i.e. 0.5 hectare).. The average livestock holding for the sample households as a whole is 5.62 TLU (Table 15). The average livestock holding of participants is relatively higher (6.06) than that of non-participants (4.59). An independent sample t-test was conducted to compare the mean difference in TLU owned between participants and non-participants of the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives. The result shows that there is statistical significant difference between the participant and non-participant households at 5 percent probability level (t=-2.38).More importantly the average shareholding of the whole sample farmers, participant and nonparticipant farmer members amounts 2.22, 2.36 and 1.89 respectively. An independent sample ttest was analyzed to compare the mean difference between the participant and non-participant households in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives and the result shows statistically significance at 1% probability level( t = -2.99). This indicates, majority of the sample respondents 146 (70.19%) were participating in financing their cooperative societies through investing in the form of additional share capital. shows the existence of statistical significant differences between the two groups at 1 percent probability level ( χ 2 = 7.535). This implies farmers who perceived the price offered by the cooperative society to their agricultural produce are more likely to participate in selling their output to the cooperatives. On the other hand perception of the household head on the fertilizer and improved seed price have statistically non-significant with the participation of members in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives.The estimates of parameters of the variables expected to influence the participation of farmer members in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives are displayed on Table 18. Fifteen explanatory variables of which five are dummy variables and the remaining 10 are continuous explanatory variables were taken for the analysis. The result of the probit model analysis showed that 10 variables were found significant. The impact of these explanatory variables on the dependent variable is discussed below.Before running the model, it is useful to look into the problem of multicollinarity among the continuous variables and verify the degree of association among the hypothesized qualitative explanatory variables. To this effect, the 10 continuous explanatory variables were checked for multicollinarity using Variance Inflation Factors (VIF) while Contingency Coefficients were used to detect the degree of association among five qualitative (discrete) explanatory variables (see   (2006).This variable had influenced the agricultural input and output marketing of the cooperatives positively and significant at one percent probability level. These shows as the cooperative offers better price to its members contrary with what was expected. This implies farmer members in the two woredas participate more actively in the purchase of improved seeds as compared to other types of inputs regardless the price.In general, the participation of farmer members in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives was significantly influenced by age, own land, shareholding, non-farm income, distance of the cooperative office from the household house, output price, change in standard of living due to joining cooperative, membership in other cooperatives, price of inorganic fertilizer and price of improved seed. However, out of the 10 significant explanatory variables six of them (own land, shareholding, distance, output price, membership in other cooperatives and seed price)were influenced the participation of cooperative members in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives positively and significantly at 10% probability level.  As it has clearly shown in table 18, the over all fit of the model has also quite well with LR chi 2 value of 63.98 and Prob > chi 2 = 0.00. The model explains 25.24% of the variations in the participation of agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives. respectively. This implies, low fertilizer price has important contribution to the level of satisfaction of the household head.  showed that the cooperatives under investigation were below the satisfactory rate (a current ratio of less than 2.00) for the two years. All of the cooperatives under investigation in the two woredas used financial leverage (financed more of their total asset with creditors fund i.e. on average 90% of the assets of the cooperatives was financed with creditors fund in the audit years under analysis). The profitability ratio of the cooperatives under investigation showed that the profitability of the cooperatives was weak. The descriptive statistics and econometric model were also used for analyzing the data in addition to the ratio analysis. T-test was used to compare the mean values of the 10 continuous explanatory variables and examine the existence of statistically significant differences between the participants and non-participants in the agricultural input and out put marketing by cooperatives in the two study woredas. The T-test showed significant difference in the age, land, TLU, Shareholding, non-farm income, expenditure in agricultural input, distance of the cooperative office from the household house, membership in other cooperatives, and price of improved seed between the two groups (participant and non participant) at less or equal to 10% probability level. Discrete variables were also compared using chi-square test to see if there is statistically significant difference between the participant and non participant group of respondents. The chi-square test also revealed that the discrete variables (perception on price offered by the coop to members produce, perception on the change of standard of living due to joining to coop, fertilizer price and seed price, showed significant differences between the two groups at less than or equal to 10% probability level. To identify the factors influencing the participation of member farmers in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives in Alamata and Ofla Woredas, probit regression model was used.The model results revealed that among 15 explanatory variables included in probit model, six continuous and four discrete explanatory variables were found to be significant at less than or equal to 10% probability level. More specifically, these variables include age, own land, shareholding, non-farm income, distance of the cooperative office from the household house, perception of the household head on output price, perception of the household head on change in standard of living due to joining cooperative, membership in other cooperatives, perception of the household head on price of inorganic fertilizer and price of improved seed were found to be significantly related to the participation of farmer members in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives. And among these significant variables own land, shareholding, distance, output price, membership in other cooperatives and seed price) were found to be significantly and positively related to the participation of cooperative members in the agricultural input and output marketing by cooperatives. In this study the major constraints in the agricultural input and output marketing services delivered by the cooperatives identified were:Timely audit problem (80.90%), lack of training to members and board of directors (68.20%), lack of professional manager (66.40%), shortage of capital (66.30%), unable to pay dividend to members (66, 10%), financial embezzlement in cooperatives (65.40%), low commitment and disloyalty of members (63.00%), lack of timely market information (62.60% ), recurrent draught (62.40%), low input use of farmer members (62.40%), low participation of members on the coop affairs (61.80%), unskilled management committee (61.70%), high price of agricultural inputs (61.10%) are the very important constraints among others.Based on the study results, the following recommendations are arrived at for improving the agricultural input and output marketing through cooperatives. The recommendations are categorized in to three main areas.1) The number and type of cooperative societies in the two study woredas (Alamata and Ofla) are growing from time to time. This demands more technical support by increasing the quantity and quality of the cooperative promoters and auditors at Woreda as well as at regional level. The growing number of cooperatives in the study area is not getting timely audit service by the cooperative auditors assigned for this job in each Woreda under the Office of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cooperative Promotion and Input and Output Marketing Division. Therefore, it is highly important to raise the number and the technical capacity of the Woreda and regional level auditors through short term and long term training programs and retaining the trained manpower in the cooperative sub-sector.2) Having higher proportion of asset financed by the creditors fund may lead the cooperatives to the risk of bankruptcy. Therefore, the board of directors and cooperative staff should strive to seek a solution to increase the cooperatives' own fund through sales of share capital to its members and running profitable business that can award both to the member patrons in the form of patronage refund and the cooperative society through allocation of reserve fund out of the net profit earned from the business operation of the cooperative societies based on the by-law and proclamation no.147/1998.3) The problem of financial embezzlement in cooperatives is mainly due to weak internal control and unskilled management in the cooperative society's day to day business operation. The cooperative unions organized in the respective woredas should be able to assist in periodic technical support and financial control to the member primary cooperatives through mentoring (coaching) on reasonable payment basis. Moreover, transparency is to be promoted in the cooperatives and the continuous training and education is required in the cooperatives.4) Out of the very important constraints identified by the respondents are \"unable to pay patronage dividend to members\" by the cooperative society. This highly affects the business growth and sense of ownership of the cooperative members. Therefore, cooperatives should be able to pay patronage dividend to their member patrons when they have got profit after auditing their business operations.5) Among the internationally accepted cooperative principles by the Ethiopian Government are continuous education and training to the cooperative members, the community and youth. However, survey result shows that, lack of training and education to members and board of directors is one of the very important problems identified by the sample house hold members. Therefore, as members are the poles of the cooperative, due attention should be given by the governmental and non governmental organizations for members' education and awareness creation through the allocation of the required budget 6) One of the very important constraint of the agricultural input and output marketing activity of the cooperatives is lack of professional management. This shows that cooperative members are aware of the importance of the professional management.Therefore, the cooperative management committee and the cooperative promoters should take appropriate action in hiring professional staffs depending on the financial capacity of the cooperatives in order to enable the respective cooperative society solve its management problem.7) The cooperative societies in the two study woredas are dealing with the distribution of agricultural inputs (fertilizer, improved seeds and agro-chemicals), grain marketing and consumer goods. However, farmers in Alamata Woreda are producing high value crops such as fruits and vegetables, sesame, groundnuts through the support of IPMS-ILRI and BoARD of the Tigray region, Therefore, cooperatives should involve in the fruits and vegetables marketing of the farmers' produce especially in Alamata Woreda taking in to consideration the feasibility and profitability.8) The source of finance for agricultural input and output marketing business of cooperatives is the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia through the collateral of the regional government.This can be good as short tem solution to alleviate the financial problem of the cooperatives. However, vertical and horizontal integrations should be taken in to consideration among the various cooperative societies to solve their financial problem through the formation of saving and cooperative unions at Woreda level and cooperative bank at regional as medium and long term solutions.1) The role of cooperatives in the agricultural input and output marketing was studied in the southern zone of Tigray only. So it is suggested that similar studies may be conducted in the other parts of the Tigray region.2) It is also suggested to conduct a study on the factors influencing the efficiency of agricultural input and output marketing through cooperatives. ","tokenCount":"16037"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8d3caff79713377fb8f19e1cdc65b6b5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/59be09e2-9e5b-484d-ab74-2d005ee11885/retrieve","id":"735991795"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"27407a02-ebaf-422b-aa8e-8863fe18a9e3","pagecount":"75","content":"I would like to express my gratitude to my exceptional mentors, Professor Monicah Mucheru-Muna and Dr. Job Kihara, for their guidance throughout my research study.When we started on this journey, my scientific writing skills were quite limited. Through numerous emails, phone calls, and video conferences (thanks to the challenges posed by , they patiently imparted to me the art of scientific writing. They were truly remarkable mentors! May God bless them abundantly! I would also like to extend my appreciation to Kenyatta University for granting me a Master's Scholarship, Sulphur Mills Limited for their financial support and for providing the nano-particulate zinc oxide fertilizer used in this study. Additionally, I am grateful to the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) for offering me a master's studentship to explore the effects of zinc fertilizers on maize and common beans yields and nutritional quality. I wish to acknowledge my colleagues at CIAT, Peter Bolo and Michael Kinyua, for being great field supervisors, supporting me on the design and layout of trials, data collection, data management and scientific writing.To my fiancée, Esther Mesesi, and our beloved daughter, Tiffany Wendo, I want to express my heartfelt thanks for their constant support and encouragement during my studies. I love you both dearly! My deepest gratitude goes to my mother for her boundless love and to my uncle, Mr. Joseph Manzi Munyithya (Munyithya, Mutugi, Umara, and Muzna Advocates) and his family, for the incredible support they have provided since my father's passing in 2005. It is through their sacrifices that I was able to pursue my education to this level. May the grace of our Lord always be with you.I want to emphasize that all these achievements have been made to glorify and honor our God.x ABSTRACT Soil zinc deficiency is a modern-day challenge in the global food production systems, lowering crop yields and yield quality. Research shows that crop yields and nutritional quality can be restored, and human health burden reversed by agronomic bio-fortification of zinc in staple crops. As a result, this study was designed to: i) determine the effects of nano-particulate zinc oxide, zinc sulphate, and chelated zinc on maize and common bean yields; ii) establish the effects of nano-particulate zinc oxide, zinc sulphate and chelated zinc on grain nutrient accumulation in maize and common bean, and iii) evaluate the effects of nano-particulate zinc oxide, zinc sulphate and chelated zinc on agronomic efficiency in maize and common bean in Siaya County. The experiment was laid in a randomized complete block design constituting twelve treatments in 7 m by 4.5 m plots replicated four times during 2020 short rains and 2021 short and long rains. All treatments received 90 N, 60 P and 60 K kg ha -1 . The treatments were NPK only (control), NPK + nano-particulate ZnO (10, 15 and 20 kg Zn ha -1 ), NPK + zinc sulphate hepta-hydrate (11.4, 17 and 20 kg Zn ha -1 ) each as one-time and split application, NPK + nanoparticulate zinc oxide foliar (2 g litre -1 ) and NPK + chelated zinc foliar (1 millilitre litre -1 ). Before the experiment was laid out soil samples were collected and analyzed for plant available Zn, Olsen P and pH. Crops were harvested at physiological maturity; grain samples were taken, and yields determined at 12.5% moisture content. A sub-sample of the grain was used to determine the nutritional quality following standard procedures. The pre-planting soil was moderately acidic (pH = 5.0), zinc (Zn = 0.66 ppm), and phosphorous (P = 3.60 ppm) deficient. The data were analysed by the analysis of variance and means separated by Fisher's LSD at 95% confidence interval. Over the three seasons, maize grain yield ranged from 4.2 to 6.4 t ha -1 while bean grain yield was 0.315 to 1.68 t ha -1 . Zinc application either achieved the same or increased maize grain yields marginally (8.2%) above the control. Zinc fertilizers did not significantly increase the maize and common bean grain nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, protein, boron, copper, iron, and manganese. Grain zinc concentrations ranged from 18.8 to 23.6 mg kg -1 . Use of nano-particulate zinc oxide (soil), zinc sulphate, nano-particulate zinc oxide (foliar) and chelated zinc increased the maize grain Zn by 7.4, 15.8, 17.0 and 25.5%, respectively. Common bean grain Zn ranged from 23.03 to 30.3 mg kg -1 and was significantly increased (p<.001) in all Zn treatments, by up to 19.3% by the application of zinc, above control. Foliar nano-particulate ZnO significantly (p<.001) increased the zinc agronomic efficiency by up to 445 and 198 kg grain kg Zn -1 in maize and bean, respectively. Zinc application did not increase maize and common bean grain yield but improved the grain nutritional quality. Use of zinc in maize and common bean production systems with aim of improving nutritional value is thus recommended.Global food demand is growing and is anticipated to continue in the predictable future, thus a need to boost crop biomass yield for human nutrition and animal feeds to bridge this demand gap (Godfray et al., 2010;Tripathi et al., 2019). For instance, about 750 million people globally went hungry in 2019 and the number is expected to exceed 840 million by 2030 (FAO, 2020). Soil fertility is essential in ensuring optimal crop production, but the depletion of soil nutrients (especially micronutrients) remains a significant barrier to the global food security (Henao & Baanante, 1999). Consumption of food produced from micro-nutrient deficient soils has exposed more than 3 billion people globally to hidden hunger (WHO, 2014;Goudia & Hash, 2015;Ekholuenetale et al., 2020). Even though sustained use of inorganic fertilizers is a great intervention in enhancing crop production (Freeman & Omiti, 2003), fertilizer recommendations and use in most parts of the world are primary nutrients based (Kugbe et al., 2019). As a result, a widespread adoption of NPK only fertilization despite the changing soil properties over time (Kugbe et al., 2019).Soil fertility decline is widespread in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) (Hartemink, 2005;Henao & Baanante, 1999), where the soils suffer from multiple nutrient deficiencies (Vanlauwe et al., 2015), mainly because of nutrient removal by crops, losses through erosion and inadequate nutrients re-supply (Jones et al., 2013). Although chemical fertilizers have improved crop yields since green revolution era (Jayne & Rashid, 2013), primary focus on macronutrients while ignoring the secondary and micronutrients such as zinc (Zn) (Kihara et al., 2017) results in yields below the potential yield (Lobell et al., 2009;Kihara & Njoroge, 2013;Vanlauwe et al., 2015;Stewart et al., 2020).Balanced fertilization is essential for good soil health, crop nutrition and development (Jagadamma et al., 2008;Jatav et al., 2020). Therefore, to advance crop response to macronutrients fertilization, nutrients use efficiency (NUE) must be enhanced by applying balanced quantities of the most limiting secondary and micronutrients together with macronutrients (Roy et al., 2006;Rietra et al., 2017;Kugbe et al., 2019).Available fertilizers to correct soil Zn deficiency are categorize as inorganic compounds, synthetic chelated Zn products, and natural organic and inorganic complexes (Montalvo et al., 2016). Among these, the commonly available formulations are zinc oxide, zinc sulphate, zinc-ammonium sulphate, and chelated zinc (Kihara et al., 2020) such as zinc gold. Granular Zn fertilizers can be applied through the soil alone or co-applied with other nutrients. However, due to poor spreading of granules when Zn is applied with other nutrients, micro-granulating the ZnO granules to nano-scale particles is perceived to improve granule spreading in the treated soil layer. Micro-granulated ZnO (also known as nano-particulate ZnO) has recently triggered research interest among agronomists due to its likely potential in improving zinc nutrition in crops and increasing grain yields and nutritional quality.Release of crop essential nutrients from granular fertilizers is dependent on the fertilizer's physical properties (Hofstee & Huisman, 1990), such as particle size as they affect fertilizer distribution in the soil, and nutrient availability to the crops (Fulton, 2016;Hofstee & Huisman, 1990). For instance, Ruffo et al. (2016), observed that 2 kg Zn ha -1 from ZnSO4 distributed twenty-two granules per square meter of soil compared to five hundred granules by a nano-particular fertilizer. Thus, finer fertilizer particles spread well around the root zone enhancing nutrients availability, uptake and use efficiency (Fulton, 2016).The lack of Zn use in fertilizer applications is among the reasons maize yield potential is not achieved in maize production systems (Mapfumo et al., 2013). According to Alloway (2008), Zn improves seedling vigor, formation of chlorophyll and improves nutrient uptake leading to potential yield increment of up to 1000 kg per ha relative to NPK only (Manzeke et al., 2014). Studying the influence of nano-particulate ZnO to common bean's productivity, Salama et al. (2019) demonstrated that the crop chlorophyll increased proportionally to the increasing rate of nano-particulate ZnO from 0.039 mg g -1 (in 0 ppm) to 0.064 (in 40 ppm) ZnO. Consequently, increasing the grain yield of the crop by 49% from 1.44 in 0 ppm to 2.41 t ha -1 in 30 ppm.Besides Zn fertilization increasing crop yields, according to Prasad et al. (2013) and Kihara et al. (2020) nutritional quality is also improved. For instance, as reported in Manzeke et al. (2012), Zn fertilization increased maize grain Zn by 31.2% from 16.0 (no Zn) to 21.0 mg kg -1 (Zn application). Studying the impact of Zn on maize grain protein, Panda et al. (2020) observed that Zn could increase the grain protein by up to 21% from 10.8% in NPK only to 13.1% in 40 kg ZnSO4 ha -1 . Zinc improved grain protein probably due to the function of Zn in the genes associated with grain protein formation and expression (Cakmak et al., 2004). Zinc fertilization is reported to increase grain nutritional quality by lowering the grain phytate, which is an anti-nutrient, in common bean by up to 35.4% as reported in Cambraia et al. (2019) and 25% in wheat (Zulfiqar et al., 2020). Considering this, there is need to investigate the viability of Zn fertilizers incorporated with NPK in improving the quality and quantity of maize and common bean yields in Siaya County; as well as improving Zn use efficiency.Declining soil fertility due to continuous cultivation, leaching, acidification, gaseous losses and soil erosion is a recurring crop production problem in Western Kenya, lowering crop yields 2-5 times than the region's potential (Jaetzold et al., 2007). Farmers have been advised to adopt the use of mineral fertilizers, apply crop remains and manure, grow agroforestry trees, practice rotational cropping and adopt soil and water conservation practices to increase crop production (Kimani et al., 2007). Comparatively, inorganic fertilizers are more efficient in increasing crop yield since they provide immediate nutrients required by crops (Vanlauwe et al., 2011). However, neglecting secondary and micro-nutrients inclusion in the fertilization (Kihara et al., 2020) is being associated with stagnation of crop yields despite the application of the recommended doses of macronutrients (Vanlauwe et al., 2015).Recent research studies (Cakmak et al., 2010;Kone et al., 2014;Manzeke et al., 2014;Dimkpa et al., 2019;Kugbe et al., 2019;Jatav et al., 2020 andZulfiqar et al., 2020) and meta-analytic reviews (Kihara et al., 2020;Sordi et al., 2021 andBeig et al., 2022) have demonstrated that inclusion of secondary and micronutrients in NPK fertilizers increases crop yields and nutritional quality. However, this premise has not been tested in Siaya County, Kenya. Hence, this study was designed to examine the viability of Zn fertilizer use in improving the crop yields, enhancing grain nutrient concentration and improving Zn agronomic efficiency in maize and common bean.The study aimed at answering the following questions:1. How does nano-particulate zinc oxide, zinc sulphate and chelated zinc affect the yields of maize and common bean in Siaya County?2. What is the effect of nano-particulate zinc oxide, zinc sulphate and chelated zinc on maize and common bean-grain nutrient concentration in Siaya County?3. How does nano-particulate zinc oxide, zinc sulphate and chelated zinc influence maize and common bean zinc agronomic efficiency in Siaya County?Broadly this study was designed to investigate the effects of soil or foliar zinc application from different sources on maize and common bean grain yield and nutritional quality.The study sought to particularly achieve the following objectives:1. To determine the effects of nano-particulate zinc oxide, zinc sulphate and chelated zinc on maize and common bean yields in Siaya County.2. To establish the effects of nano-particulate zinc oxide, zinc sulphate and chelated zinc on maize and common bean grain nutrient concentration in Siaya County.3. To evaluate the effects of nano-particulate zinc oxide, zinc sulphate and chelated zinc on maize and common bean zinc agronomic efficiency in Siaya County.The research hypotheses tested were:1. Nano-particulate Zn oxide significantly increases the yields of both maize and common bean.2. Nano-particulate Zn oxide positively influences nutrient uptake and accumulation in maize and common bean.3. Nano-particulate Zn oxide significantly improves agronomic Zn use efficiency in maize and common bean.The results of the study provide farmers with knowledge on the potential of Zn fertilizers in improving crop yields and quality in Ferralsols of Western Kenya. The outcomes of the study will aid researchers in comparing the impacts of different Zn sources and their effectiveness on Zn bio-fortification in maize and common bean. The study will also provide researchers with an insight of the impacts of nanoparticulate Zn on crop residues which are not only important fodder but also essential in soil nutrient recycling when left to decay on the farm. The effects of the fertilization on Zn use efficiency will be important to industrialists in determining fertilizer formulations which can potentially promote environmental sustainability. Additionally, the study will be paramount in informing policy interventions on Zn -based micronutrient formulations under the prevailing conditions.Soil nutrients depletion due to long term cultivation with inadequate nutrient replacement via external inputs lowers crop yields in Western Kenya (Jaetzold et al., 2007;Keino et al., 2015). However, since the use of chemical fertilizers provides immediate nutrients required by the crops (Vanlauwe et al., 2011), Zn application improves seedling vigor (Alloway, 2008), thus increased the ability to access nutrients by the crop roots (Figure 1.1). Accordingly, the crops will absorb more nutrients and accumulate them in their edible parts (Figure 1.1).Adequate availability of Zn in the crop biomass at developmental stage affects other functions such as protein synthesis hence likely high yield and good quality nutritional produce (Deekshitha et al., 2017;Kachinski et al., 2020). Consequently, due to the readiness of nutrients in the soil, nutrients interactions are likely to improve synergism, e.g., P-Zn synergism (in the Zn deficient soil) thus leading to improved yields and yield parameters, and nutrients use efficiency (Aboyeji et al., 2020;Wallace et al., 1978).Consequently, contribute to boosting food and nutritional security in Western Kenya. Agronomic efficiency: Crop grain yield increase in kilograms per kilogram of fertilizer nutrient input (Dobermann, 2007) Nano-particulate fertilizer: Fertilizers with granule diameter ranging from 0.1-0.5 mm and particle diameter of 2-4 microns (Bates & Jackson, 1987) Balanced fertilization: Fertilization involving the application of both macronutrients, secondary and micronutrients (Mahajan & Gupta, 2009).Most farmers in SSA rely on smallholder rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods (Masso et al., 2017). Healthy soil provides the foundation for productive crop farming (Heger et al., 2018). However, SSA soils are inherently infertile due to numerous years of crop nutrient extraction coupled with inadequate organic or inorganic nutrients restoration (Jones et al., 2013). Thus, making the soils suffer multiple nutrient deficiencies (Vanlauwe et al., 2015). These deficiencies have been linked to low and unsustainable crop yields in SSA (Okalebo et al., 2005). Apparently, Kumar & Pandey (2020) has associated the soil micronutrient deficiency of Zn, Fe and B with public health burden and deaths of expectant women and children in SSA.Eradication of micronutrients deficiency (hidden hunger) among the vulnerable populations in SSA, faces barriers such as low solubility and fixation of the micronutrients in the soil (Fageria et al., 2012), consumption of poor nutritional quality diets (Singh et al., 2016), over-reliance on cereal-based diets (Cakmak, 2002) and limited adoption of soil fertility amendment strategies (Manzeke et al., 2019). As well as, poverty, low awareness on good micro-nutrient sensitive feeding practices and high incidences of communicable sicknesses (Welch & Graham, 1999, 2004).The current approaches to alleviate Zn deficiency in humans include industrial food fortification, pharmaceutical supplementation, diet diversification, genetic and agronomic bio-fortification (Cakmak, 2008;Velu et al., 2008;Taylor & Kini, 2012).Food fortification and supplementation are expensive and unavailable to the resource constraint populations (Pfeiffer & McClafferty, 2008), while genetic bio-fortification is a slow process, costly and coupled with uncertainties on its effectiveness in the long run (Cakmak, 2008). Although genetic bio-fortification has been described as more superior and reliable micronutrient bio-fortification strategy (Yadav et al., 2020), it cannot be a standalone approach because even the micronutrient efficient cultivars require nutrient applications to counteract crop nutrient mining from the soil (Shivay et al., 2010;Prasad & Shivay, 2020). Therefore, agronomic bio-fortification is a rapid complementary strategy to breeding strategies in alleviating hidden hunger among the resource constraint populations (Cakmak, 2008).In Kenya, maize is the prime cereal food crop (Wambugu & Muthamia, 2009). On the other hand, the common bean is the principal food legume (Gikonyo et al., 2014). These two crops are therefore very strategic food security crops in the country (Wambugu & Muthamia, 2009). Although the use of chemical fertilizers could increase their yields, e.g., maize, up to 7 Mg ha-1 from the current 1.5 Mg ha-1 (Bationo & Egulu, 2010), it is not the case in Western Kenya due to the omission of secondary and micronutrients in the NPK applications (Kihara & Njoroge, 2013;Tittonell & Giller, 2013;Kihara et al., 2020). According to Tittonell et al. (2008) the yield of maize in the study area stagnates at around 1.8 t ha -1 .Soil Zn deficit is frequent in agricultural soils than the other soil micronutrients (Salama et al., 2006;Barman et al., 2018). Although there is not available data on the extent of the spatial variation of soil Zn in Western Kenya, Zn deficiency in maize of up to 85%(n = 44) in on-farm trials in Busia and Bungoma counties has been reported recently (Njoroge et al., 2017). Micronutrient Zn is the fourth greatest yield restraining crop nutrient following N, P and K (Arunachalam et al., 2013), because it is a constituent element of chlorophyll and its deficiency impairs photosynthesis hence lowering crop yields (Barman et al., 2018). It is also vital in DNA replication and gene expression in plants, synthesis of growth regulators (e.g., indole-acetic acid), pollen formation, carbohydrate metabolism and maintaining the integrity plant bio-membranes (Alloway, 2008). In addition, according to Barak & Helmke (1993) Zn is a critical enzyme co-factor and the single metal element existing in all the six categories of plant enzymes.Zinc deficiency symptoms in crops are expressed in the newly formed leaves due to its poor mobility from the old leaves and the roots (Mattiello et al., 2015). Maize leaves with pale yellow chlorotic stripes parallel to the midrib while the leaf tip, midrib and veins remain green signify Zn deficiency (Mousavi, 2011). In common bean the internodes shorten and leaves become small hence stunting the crops (Mousavi, 2011). In some cases, plants may suffer Zn deficiency without showing any visible symptom (Carroll & Loneragan, 1968). Zn deficiency in crops can be diagnosed by field observations (visually), soil analysis or by plant tissues analysis (Brennan et al., 1993;Mattiello et al., 2015).The analytical techniques used for soil and plant tissues Zn include colorimetry, atomic absorption spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (Paltridge et al., 2012;Elango et al., 2021). Most of these techniques require expensive and highly trained expertise hence not widely used by many laboratories (Paltridge et al., 2012). Consequently, making spectrophotometry the most popular and preferred technique (Nair et al., 2001). The sufficient plant tissue Zn at the early vegetative stage is estimated to be between 20 to 70 ppm (Camberato & Maloney, 2012). Conversely, the critical plant available Zn is 1.5 ppm by DTPA method, 0.8 to 1.17 ppm EDTA and 1 ppm by hydrogen chloride (HCl) extraction method (Zare et al., 2009).All crop plants are vulnerable to soil Zn deficiency, but the tolerance to Zn deficiency vary from crop to crop and within varieties of similar species (Alloway, 2008). Maize, bean, rice and sorghum have relatively high sensitivity to soil Zn deficiency (Martens & Westermann, 2018). According to Graham (1983) the variations in responses to low soil Zn is associated with: the number and crop root length, existence or nonexistence of cluster roots (these roots' development is triggered by soil micronutrient deficiency), changes in the crop root-zone pH induced by the roots, chelation of Zn by organic substances such as phytosiderophores and organic acids, absorption by arbuscular mycorrhizae, high efficiency of absorbed Zn and plant tolerance to Zn inhibitors. The concentration of Zn in crops is dependent of the crop genetic makeup and climatic conditions (Welch & Graham, 2004). For instance, studies by CIAT scientists on over 1000 accessions of common bean cultivars revealed that the grain Zn content of the common bean is between 21 and 54 ppm (Beebe et al., 2000). Conversely, maize grain Zn studied in over 1400 hybrids and 400 landraces in Zimbabwe and Mexico is estimated to range from 14.7 to 24.0 mg kg-1 (Bänziger & Long, 2000). However, to fulfil the human dietary needs, the minimum concentration of Zn in maize and common bean grain is required to be not less than 38 and 56 ppm, respectively (Bouis et al., 2011).In the soil, crops absorb Zn as divalent ionic Zn (i.e., Zn2+) and chelated-zinc through mass transfer or dispersion process by roots (Brown et al., 1993;Gupta et al., 2016). The main soil factor affecting Zn availability to crops is soil pH, whereby the solubility of Zn in the soil media is inversely proportional to the soil pH (Alloway, 2008;Kumar et al., 2016). For instance, at increased pH (above 7.0), co-precipitation of Zn on Fe oxides and chemisorption on calcite lowers Zn content in soil solution by over 40 times per unit rise in soil pH (Gupta et al., 2016). Other soil features affecting soil Zn bio-availability to crops include low plant-available Zn, low soil organic matter, soil moisture deficit, elevated soil P, Na, Ca and Mg, high bicarbonates and waterlogging (Alloway, 2009;Cakmak, 2009;de Valença et al., 2017).To remedy soil Zn shortage, improve crop productivity and restore soil fertility, therefore, mineral and organic Zn input is recommended (Choudhary et al., 2013).Inorganic fertilizer use is the widespread soil fertility amelioration measure, and has been associated with detrimental effects on the natural environment (Bhardwaj et al., 2022).Thus, at this era of rapid technological advancement and innovations, there is need to improve use of the conventional fertilizers by, for example, the adoption nano technological advancements in agriculture to attain food and nutrition sustenance at a lower environmental cost (Chhipa, 2017).Nano technology applications in agronomy is emerging as a potential approach to restore crop production, yield quality as well as environmental sustainability (Beig et al., 2022).For instance, unlike the most commonly used ionic fertilizer such as ZnSO4, which are prone to leaching, nano-particles (e.g., ZnO nano-particles) are up to 100 times larger than ions and cannot be fixed in the clay lattice matrix, meaning they are hardly leached in the soil (Chhipa, 2017). Besides, nano-particulate Zn and Cu have been shown to reduce crop susceptibility to abiotic stress (Cheng et al., 2016;Taran et al., 2017).Zinc is usually supplied to crops blended in NPK fertilizers (Mortvedt & Gilkes, 1993;Kihara et al., 2020). Comparing no Zn with 15, 30 and 45 kg Zn ha -1 from ZnSO4.7H2O in alkaline silt loamy soil (pH 8), Liu et al. (2016) found out that Zn significantly improved the maize grain yield than no Zn use. According to Peda Babu et al. ( 2007), the higher yields were because Zn enhanced the synthesis of carbohydrates and their transport to the site of grain production. Hossain et al. (2011) opines that Zn could have positively influenced the seed set and seed weight hence greater yield. Studying the influence of zinc on the grain yield of common bean, Togay et al. (2004), noted that Zn fertilization at 15, 20, 25, 30 or 35 kg Zn ha -1 showed superior average yields (2200 to 2800 kg ha -1 ) than the control (1500 kg ha -1 ), with the highest harvest from 25 kg Zn ha -In India, Subbaiah et al. (2016), evaluated foliar nano-particulate ZnO and ZnSO4 in non-Zn deficient field on maize and on average, the yields were 15 and 42% higher in nanoparticulate ZnO and ZnSO4 than no Zn, respectively. The nano-particulate ZnO also showed higher leaf Zn in the maize than the control (Subbaiah et al., 2016). The higher Zn content in the leaves could have improved the production of: chlorophyll, growth hormones, carbohydrate and starch leading to the high yields (Kumar et al., 2016).Additionally, Zn is functional enzyme stimulator, thus the overall role in improving the efficiency of the associated plant enzymes could have led to overall yield improvement (Beig et al., 2022).In a pot experiment, foliar ionic Zn was compared with chelated Zn in common bean and it was revealed that chelated Zn had significantly higher common bean yield than ZnSO4 across different cultivars (Tabesh et al., 2020). These findings could imply that common bean response to Zn fertilizers is associated with the Zn source (Tabesh et al., 2020). The possible explanation is that Zn solubility and mobility is soils differs according to the fertilizer used (Pooniya et al., 2018).On the contrary, there are instances where the use of Zn either in ionic, elemental, chelated or nano-particulate forms produced similar yields to no use of Zn. In a two-year study in China, Wang et al. (2012), observed that 50 kg ZnSO4 ha -1 (soil-applied), 4 kg ZnSO4 ha -1 (foliar) and 50 kg ZnSO4 ha -1 + 4 kg ZnSO4 ha -1 (soil + foliar) showed statistically similar yields to the control (no Zn) in Zn lacking calcite-rich soils. The inherent low soil Zn level (<1ppm), high calcite and high pH (8.12) could be the probable reasons for lack of crop response to Zn application owing to suppressed plant available Zn, Zn fixation by carbonates and reduced solubility in the alkaline soil solution (Lindsay & Norvell, 1978;Alloway, 2009). Similar findings, but due high Zn fixation by calcite have been reported in wheat and cotton in Aridisols (Rafique et al., 2012). Therefore, in instances where the soil and climatic factors are not favourable for crop response to soil applied Zn, Fernandez & Brown (2013) recommended that foliar application should be used. In this case, however, foliar application should be done timely to ensure yield losses due to late correction of Zn deficiency are evaded (Montalvo et al., 2016).Based on soil DTPA extractable Zn, the likelihood of maize responding to Zn is classified into three categories: high Zn response (<0.9 ppm), medium Zn response (0.9 to 1.3 ppm) and low Zn response (>1.3 ppm) (Barbieri et al., 2017). Martinez-Cuesta et al. (2021) studied maize grain responsiveness to Zn under varying soil DTPA Zn levels (0.23 to 2.0 ppm), and established that soil with 2 ppm (DTPA Zn) did not respond to Zn applied either as seed treatment, soil or foliar unlike the soil with 0.23 ppm (DTPA Zn) which showed a strong response. Elsewhere, a 23 locations study that lasted for 3 years in soils of varying DTPA soil Zn (0.30 to 6.50 mg kg -1 ) in Zou et al. (2012), plant-available soil Zn and wheat grain yield did not exhibit any consistent response trend. Thus it was concluded that in the 22 of the 23 different locations in Asia and Africa, Zn was not a yield-limiting factor. These finding were contrary to the wheat grain yield response threshold (0.87 to 1.23 mg kg -1 ) established for Mollisols in (Martinez-Cuesta et al., 2021). High P application in maize has been linked with the reduction in root colonization by arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) by about 42% (Zhang et al., 2021), and lower AMF root colonization could have led to poor Zn uptake (Graham, 1983).Studies in common beans e.g., Ram et al. (2016), indicate non-response of the crop to Zn fertilization. This study did not establish any relationship between DTPA extractable Zn and crop yield response to Zn fertilization; a scenario attributed to poor Zn acquisition of the crop genotypes used (Ram et al., 2016). Evaluating the efficacy of chelated and ionic Zn in improving common bean grain yield between different common bean cultivars in Iran, Tabesh et al. (2020) affirmed the claim that common bean yield response to Zn is cultivar specific even in severely Zn deficit soils.Crop nutrients uptake determines the nutrient density in the edible parts and their concentration in the stovers and haulms (Singh, 2017). Balanced fertilization, especially in zinc-deficient soil improves P-Zn synergism (Aboyeji et al., 2020). For instance, the use of NPK-S-Zn improved the percentage protein in wheat grain from 12.8% in NPK only to 13.5% in NPK-S-Zn plot (Singh, 2017). Also, Singh (2017) showed that N, P, K, S, and Zn uptake in a two seasons study was consistently higher in NPK-S-Zn plot than in NP, NPK and NPS-Zn plots. Elsewhere, in a multi-location experiment, foliar-sprayed Zn increased the Zn content in the common bean grain by 15%, from 67.7 ppm in no Zn application to 77.9 ppm in the Zn treatment (Ram et al., 2016).Phytate is a nutritional inhibitor in cereal seeds stored as organic P that binds micronutrients, impairing their absorption in the human gut leading to micro-nutrient deficiency (Halsted et al., 1972;Persson et al., 1998;Schlemmer et al., 2009;Gibson et al., 2018). Due to P-Zn antagonism, Zn fertilization reduced P concentration in grains by 22% and 26% from the control in 5 and 10 kg 5 kg Zn ha -1 , respectively (Cambraia et al., 2019). Elsewhere, co-applying N and Zn increased wheat protein by 27% and lowered grain phytate by 30% relative to 0 N + 0 Zn treatment (Li et al., 2015). Therefore, to improve Zn bioavailability in the human diet, fertilizing crops with Zn is very essential because it lowers phytate levels in the edible crop parts (Cakmak, 2008;Zhang et al., 2010;Weih et al., 2011;Xi-Wen et al., 2011).Evaluating nano-particulate ZnO influence on wheat nutrient acquisition, Dimkpa et al.(2018) noted significantly improved wheat grain Zn density with input of ZnSO4 and ZnO than no Zn input. However, fresh application of nano-particulate ZnO increased the wheat grain Zn more effectively than Zn sulphate (Dimkpa et al., 2018). Foliar sprayed nano-particulate ZnO significantly bio-fortified maize grain content of Zn compared to the control from 22.7 to 47.6 mg kg -1 in foliar application of 2000 ppm of nanoparticulate ZnO in India (Subbaiah et al., 2016). Additionally, foliar spray of nanoparticulate ZnO and ZnSO4 at 2000 ppm achieved grain Zn of 25.6 and 47.6 mg kg -1 , respectively; thus, nano-particulate ZnO produced 85.6% higher maize grain Zn than that of ZnSO4 (Subbaiah et al., 2016).In common bean, foliar nano-particulate ZnO at 40 ppm significantly improved the common bean grain Zn from 18.9 ppm in 0 ppm to 20.6 ppm (Salama et al., 2019). More recently Zn and Fe nano-particulate fertilizer has been tested against ZnSO4 and chelated Zn in chickpea in India and significantly higher grain Zn was observed among the ZnO nano-particulate treatments (42.29 ppm) relative to no Zn (37.52 ppm) (Dhaliwal et al., 2021). Elsewhere, in a greenhouse experiment under drought stress, the use of nano particulate ZnO increased the brown rice grain Zn by between 14 to 39% compared to NPK only (Yang et al., 2021). The size of nano-particles is observed to increase the penetration of Zn from the applied plant surface hence higher fertilizer use by the crops (Qureshi et al., 2018). Nano-particulate Zn is also suspected to have higher translocation rate in plant tissues than ZnSO4 and chelated Zn (Faraz et al., 2019;Poornima & Koti, 2019).Comparing seed priming, seed treatment, soil and foliar applied Zn in maize, in Zn a deficient soil (0.64 ppm), Ladumor et al. (2020) reported significantly different maize grain Zn content among the treatments ranging from 41.6 to 57.8 ppm. 8 kg Zn ha -1 (soil-applied) showed a 26% increment in maize grain Zn from 41.60 ppm in NPK + hydropriming to 52.80 ppm. These Zn concentrations were meeting the Harvest-Plus maize grain mark for human nutrition of 38 ppm (Bouis & Welch, 2010). It is, however, unclear how this high grain Zn response was achieved in soils of elevated pH (7.8) and marginalZn levels (0.64 mg kg -1 ) (Alloway, 2009). Perhaps the maize cultivar used was Zn efficient because Zn uptake in maize is cultivar specific (Imran et al., 2016). Or the DTPA extractable Zn cannot be a reliable indicator of the likely crop response to Zn input in the agro-ecological set up of the study (Karami et al., 2009;Cakmak et al., 2010).In farmlands experiencing Zn deficiency, the application of Zn may fail to improve grain Zn density as a result of low amount of plant-available Zn (Li et al., 2015). In this case, enrichment of grain Zn can best be achieved if the Zn is supplied in foliar form at the late crop growth stages (Tuiwong et al., 2022). In  (2016), Zn must also be supplied at earlier stages, and the foliar in the later stage should be supplementary to achieve both improved grain produce and grain Zn density.The effect of prilled urea coated with either ZnO or ZnSO4 (foliar) on maize grain Zn was studied in soils containing 0.90 ppm (DTPA extractable Zn) and it was found that ZnO did not significantly improve grain Zn content than the control (Pooniya et al., 2018). However, the ZnSO4 increased grain yields significantly than prilled urea and ZnO. The discrepancies in the maize grain response to Zn source could be attributable to the higher solubility of ZnSO4 in water than ZnO (Pooniya et al., 2012). Despite, the observed differences in the grain Zn density (Pooniya et al., 2018), both Zn fertilizers achieved statistically similar grain yield to the NPK only. Therefore, the absence of association between crop yield and the grain Zn content could be associated with the use of high yielding cultivars (Fan et al., 2008).Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) in crops entails nutrient acquisition (amount taken up by the crop from the amount applied) and nutrient utilization (biomass production per unit nutrient supplied) (Nieves-Cordones et al., 2020). The key factors affecting NUE in crop plants include genetic makeup, morphological characteristics, the crop physiological traits and their interactions with soil physical, chemical and biological characteristics, agronomic management practices and fertilizer sources (Baligar et al., 2001). Due to the interactions of these factors crops utilize between 30 to 50% of the applied nutrients (Panhwar et al., 2019). Nutrients losses from agricultural systems have been blamed for various ecological and economical costs (Baligar et al., 2001). To reduce nutrient wastage by improving NUE, the 4R nutrient stewardship concept (i.e., using the right source of a nutrient, at the right rate, at the right timing and in the right placement) was developed (Johnston & Bruulsema, 2014).Nutrient use efficiency in crop management systems can be assessed by partial factor productivity, agronomic efficiency, partial nutrient balance, apparent recovery efficiency by difference, internal utilization efficiency and physiological efficiency (Dobermann, 2007). However, due to inherent limitations in each of the measures, agronomic efficiency, apparent recovery efficiency and physiological efficiency are the most commonly used methods (Chuan et al., 2016).At the soil level plant nutrients interact producing either neutral, antagonistic or synergistic effects that affect nutrient uptake and utilization by the crops (Rietra et al., 2017). These interactions in return affect crop yields and nutritional quality (Fageria & Oliveira, 2014). For instance, the synergistic interaction of N-P or N-K results in enhanced yield, healthy root development and improved NUE (Aulakh & Malhi, 2005).In contrast, other nutrients are antagonistic, for example, decreased wheat grain Zn was observed as a result of P input in a field showing no Zn deficiency signs (Zou et al., 2012). However, in a Zn deficient field, an increase in corn grain Zn content was reported due to an increase in P (Friesen et al., 1980). In rice both uptake of N and K increased consistently with S and Zn but inversed in P input (Singh et al., 2012).The incorporation of secondary and micronutrients in NPK improves fertilizer use efficiency (Chianu et al., 2012). For example, in Garba et al. (2020) it is reported that NPK+S+ B+ Mg treatment showed higher N agronomic efficiency (35 kg grain kg N -1 applied) than NPK +Zn (21 kg grain kg -1 N applied). In terms of internal utilization efficiency, P showed the greatest values in NPK+Zn and the least in NPK only (control), while K was optimal in NPK + S + Zn and minimal in NPK + S + B + Zn + Mg (Garba et al., 2020). Fertilizer nutrient application rates affects how the crops utilize the applied nutrients. For example, in baby corn the agronomic efficiency and apparent recovery efficiency declined with increasing Zn rate (Kumar et al., 2015). Hence the conclusion that Zn utilization by baby corn is best achieved at lower Zn application rates (Kumar et al., 2015). At lower micronutrient rate application, the crop root systems are modified to maximize the uptake of the lower nutrients in the rhizosphere leading to higher utilization (Imran et al., 2016).The agronomic efficiency of different maize cultivars was evaluated in Imran et al.(2016), and indicated that besides Zn use efficiency increasing in all the cultivars, the increment varied significantly across the cultivars. Based on this observation, it can be argued that nutrient utilization efficiency is dependent genetic make-up of the maize variety used (Furlani et al., 2005). Comparing Zn application methods (soil application, seed treatment, foliar, seed treatment + foliar), Palai et al. (2018) showed that seed treatment + foliar Zn application yielded up to 1.4 t grain yield per kg Zn compared to 10 kg Zn ha -1 soil and soil + foliar at 0.044 and 0.159 t grain yield per kg Zn -1 , respectively. Additionally, an average Zn agronomic efficiency of 3600, 766, 196 and 100 kg grains kg Zn -1 in wheat has been reported in seed coating, foliar, Zn priming and basal application, respectively (Zulfiqar et al., 2021). Applying Zn through foliar counteracts the unfavorable soil and climatic barriers hindering Zn availability and uptake in crops such as high soil calcium carbonate leading to higher use efficiency (Zhao et al., 2014). Additionally, Zn is absorbed via the crop foliage and translocated faster to the upper crop parts than if applied via soil (Li et al., 2014).Zinc agronomic efficiency in wheat under plough and no tillage practices in ricewheat cropping systems were studied in two consecutive seasons (Zulfiqar et al., 2020) and it was elaborated that the Zn agronomic efficiency in the two tillage practices did not differ significantly. When soil is not tilled micronutrients Zn, Mn and Cu tend to accumulate on the top soil surface unlike under conventional tillage (de Santiago et al., 2008), due to the decomposition of the plant residues by soil microbes and reduced soil mixing (Saavedra et al., 2007). Also, the two tillage practices could have improved the crop root morphology thus increasing their nutrient acquisition efficiency leading to lack of observable differences in the crop Zn agronomic efficiency (Baligar et al., 2001).In Brazil, Jalal et al. (2021) studied the impacts of Zn plus bacterial inoculants on the common bean treated with 8 kg Zn ha -1 and noted that the addition of bacterial inoculants increased the Zn agronomic efficiency by over 941% from 24 kg grain kg Zn -1 (without inoculation) to up to 250 kg grain kg Zn -1 (with inoculation). Similar findings have also been reported recently in a four-season study on maize, whereby the Azosirillum brasilense inoculated seeds produced a significantly higher NUE (252 kg grain kg Zn applied -1 ) than Zn treatment without inoculation (143 kg grain kg Zn applied -1 ) (Galindo et al., 2021). According to Jacoby et al. ( 2017) microbes (e.g., A. brasilense) play important roles in crop nutrient acquisition and promoting plant growth (for instance, by promoting the secretion of growth hormones).Most authors agree that the right combination of primary, secondary and micronutrients in commonly used fertilizer recommendations improves crop grain yield, nutrition and nutrient use efficiency hence boosting food security and soil health. In the study area, however, past research on the use of inorganic fertilizers has majorly focused on macronutrients. Therefore, this study sought to evaluate the viability of fertilization with micronutrient Zn in improving crop yields, enhancing grain nutrient content and the crops' agronomic efficiency.The experiment trials were established at CIAT's INM-3 Experimental Site at Madeya in Ugunja sub-county, Siaya County, Kenya, along latitude 0⁰ 0' 0\" and 0⁰ 20' 0\" N and longitude 34⁰ 20' 0\" and 34⁰ 40' 0\" E (Figure 3.1), at an altitude of 1327 m above the sea level. Soils in the study area are Ferralsols with clay texture and acidic pH (Kihara et al., 2012). Rainfall is bimodal ranging from 800 to 2000 mm per year (Jaetzold et al., 2007). The soils in INM3 site at Madeya are acidic Ferralsols of clay texture (Mupangwa et al., 2007;Kihara et al., 2012). To assess the soil chemical parameters, the trial site was divided into eight blocks and soil samples obtained in 5 randomly selected points per block using soil auger at 0-15 cm depth. The samples were composited then one 0.5 kg sub-sample obtained for laboratory analysis. One portion of the trial site had been fallow since 2014 and no fertilizer was previously applied. The other part had lastly been cultivated in 2017 with groundnut and lablab. Prior to the setup of these trials, the soil was moderately acidic (pH = 5.0), Zn deficient (DTPA Zn = 0.66 ppm), and P deficient (Olsen P = 3.60 ppm) (Table 3.1). The experiments were conducted between short rains (SR) 2020 and SR 2021; i.e. in three cropping seasons. The design used during season one, SR 2020, was maintained during the second season in long rains (LR) 2021 and the third season in SR 2021. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) was adopted for the trials (Appendix i). The plot sizes used were 7 m by 4.5 m. The trials consisted of 12 treatments in four replicates (Table 3.2). The plots and also replicates were separated by 1-meter-wide alley (Appendix i).Urea 46% N was the source of N, triple superphosphate (TSP) provided P while muriate of potash (MOP) supplied K. Zn was supplied by techno Z (TZ), zinc sulfate heptahydrate 22.3% and foliar zinc gold. TZ is a nano-particulate ZnO fertilizer. The TZ micro-granules are dispersible in water hence its suitability for both soil-based and foliar application. Whereas, zinc gold is chelated Zn available in the local markets. All the treatments for both crops received equal doses of N-P-K (90, 60 and 60 kg ha -1 , respectively). However, N rate in the common bean was 30 kg ha -1 . Agronomic management practices were uniform in both trials and tillage conventional. The second split of Zn (two-thirds) was done at 25 and 45 DAS in beans and maize, respectively. At the same time, the second split of N in maize (60 kg ha -1 ) was applied (top-dressing). No topdressing was done in the common bean. The first foliar TZ and zinc gold was sprayed at the seventh leaf (V7 stage) in maize and 2 to 3 trifoliate leaves in beans. The second foliar was done at tasseling in maize (60 DAS) and pod formation stage in beans (45 DAS). At the brown silk stage in maize, a third Zn foliar spray was done.Maize crops were rotated with the common bean during the three cropping seasons but the plot layout was maintained throughout the trial period. The cropping sequence was Cereal -Legume -Cereal and Legume -Cereal -Legume for maize and the common bean trials, respectively. The cropping sequence for the crops in SR 2020 and SR 2021 were the same. In LR 2021, maize was planted in the common bean trial while the common bean was in the maize trial. The area occupied by maize during SR 2020 had been fallow since 2014 while the area occupied by the common bean in SR 2020 had been cultivated with groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea) and lablab (Lablab purpureus (L.) in 2017. Both trial sites did not have any history of Zn fertilization.The rainfall data for each cropping season was recorded by an automatic weather station located about 1 km from INM-3 site. Harvesting of both crops was done at their respective physiological maturity. On maize, the outmost row on every side of the plot and the two outermost plants per row were removed first, by cutting them just above the ground level, to minimize the edge effect. The number of the remaining plants was counted and recorded. Then, cobs were separated from the stovers, counted and weighed in kg net plot -1 . The stovers were cut, piled together and weighed using a spring balance in kg net plot -1 (TFWt). The harvested area (i.e., net plot area was 18 m 2 ) and was uniform in all plots. All the harvested cobs from the net plot were arranged in their respective plots in ascending order according to their sizes, and five cobs were selected randomly for yield determination. The criterion for picking the five cobs was: first picking the largest and smallest cob. Then, the remaining number of cobs was divided by three, to get an interval that informed the selection of the remaining three cobs. The five so selected cobs were shelled by hand and weighed, and the sample fresh weight (SFWt)was recorded for grains and core in grams using a laboratory electronic top-load balance.Beans were harvested by uprooting the whole plant after leaving out the outermost row on each side of the plot and 3 outermost plants per row. The total number crops in the net plot area were determined by plant count. Then pods detached from haulms, and each weighed separately in kg net plot -1 . The pods were sun-dried in the respective plots; put in a sack and shelled by beating the content of the sack. The beaten content was winnowed. The grains were weighed and their weight was recorded as total fresh grain weight (TFWt). All haulms and husks were also weighed, and their total fresh weights recorded.Five maize stovers were randomly picked, chopped, incorporated together and a subsample was obtained. The same was repeated for the haulms. The grain, husk and haulm samples were packed in a well-labelled khaki bag, weighed and sample fresh weight recorded (SFWt). The grains, stovers and haulms sample moisture content (MC) was adjusted to 12.5% by oven drying at 60°C for twenty-four hours and the sample dry weights (SDWt) were determined using a digital scale electronic balance. Then yield per plot was calculated using equation 1 and expressed in t ha -1 as recommended in Mupangwa et al. (2007).Where A= area of the net plot (m 2 ). In maize, the sample fresh weight was for five cobs, but sample dry weight was for grains only excluding the core dry weight.Zinc use efficiency was calculated using agronomic efficiency to estimate yield increase due to the nutrient application (Equation 2) (Dobermann, 2007).\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC54\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5A\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC50 \uD835\uDC38\uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC50\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC50\uD835\uDC66 (\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC38) = \uD835\uDC4C − \uD835\uDC4C 0 \uD835\uDC39 Equation 2Where, Y= Zn treatment plot grain yield, Y0 = control plot grain yield, F = Rate of Zn applied per plot in kg per ha.Soil pH and EC were analyzed in 2.5:1 soil-water suspension using pH and conductivity meters, respectively, and extractable P by Olsen method (Okalebo et al., 2002). K, S and Zn were determined by the optical emission spectroscopy (Ozbek et al., 2016). While soil N was determined calorimetrically by the Kjeldahl digestion (Okalebo et al., 2002).Maize and bean grain samples for the second season of the study, LR 2021, were ovendried to a constant weight and ground using a Willy Mill Grinder according to Thom & Plank (1991) and passed through a 0.5 mm sieve. Nutrients N, P, K, S and Zn in the grains were analysed according to Okalebo et al. (2002), then protein analysis by the Kjeldahl digestion method (Okalebo et al., 2002).The assumption of normality of the distribution of the data was verified by Shapiro Wilk test at a 5% alpha level for each variable. The Levene's test for homogeneity of variance was chosen to verify the homoscedasticity of the data. The grain yield and agronomic efficiency were analysed by repeated measurements analysis of variance in Genstat (VSN International, 2022). General ANOVA was used to analyse the grain nutrients; N, P, K, S, Zn, Fe, B, Cu, Mn and proteins since they were assessed once. Fisher's Protected LSD test was used to separate the means at a 95% confidence interval. In the ANOVA, the yvariates were grain yield, N, P, K, S, Zn, Fe, B, Cu, Mn and proteins, and Zn agronomic efficiency. The treatment and block structure were the twelve treatments and the four replicates, respectively. Descriptive analyses, for example, the proportions, were performed in MS Excel.The total seasonal rainfall experienced was about 591, 505 and 560 mm in SR 2020, LR  During the three seasons, the average maize yield was between 3.54 and 6.77 t ha -1 . The yields were highest during SR 2021 (6.07 to 6.77 t ha -1 ) and the least in LR 2021 (3.54 to 4.65 t ha -1 .) The incorporation of Zn to NPK did not significantly influence the maize grain yield during the three seasons of the study (p= 0.774). During SR 2020, the largest maize grain yield recorded was 4.7 t ha -1 while the smallest was 3.7 t ha -1 (Table 4.1). The application of Zn on the common bean did not affect the crop yield significantly across the treatments. The common bean grain yield increased or decreased across the seasons; whereby LR 2021>SR 2021>SR 2020 (Table 4.2). In SR 2020 the highest and lowest yields reported were 0.264 and 0.421 t ha -1 , respectively. Despite the yields being statistically similar, Zn application showed up to 59.5% yield increase above the control (Table 4.2). The LR 2021cropping season showed the highest bean yield during the study, but yield differences among the treatments were statistically similar (Table 4.2). The highest yield during LR 2021 was 1.86 t ha -1 while the lowest was 1.27 t ha -1 . The soil-applied nanoparticulate ZnO grain yield was between 1.27 and 1.84 t ha -1 . In SR 2021, Zn foliar also produced the overall highest yield (not significant) than soil applied Zn. During this season, Zn improved bean yields in all treatments except in one-time applied 20 and 17 kg Zn ha -1 from ZnSO4. The best seasonal produce was 1.52 t ha -1 while the lowest was 1.08 t ha -1 (Table 4.2). The nano-particulate ZnO treatments grain yield increased (nonsignificantly) by 15.6, 0.82 and 19.7% as a result of using 10, 15 and 20 kg Zn ha -1 , respectively compared to no Zn application.As in this study, non-significant effect of Zn on yields have also been reported in maize in Zambia (Olusegun & Meki, 2014), India (Prusty et al., 2020;Pooniya et al., 2018), China (Wang et al., 2012), Pakistan (Kanwal et al., 2010), Egypt (Bakry et al., 2009), Libya (Noor Affendi et al., 2018), Argentina (Martínez-Cuesta et al., 2021), Iran (Aref, 2010;Safyan et al., 2012). Nonresponse to Zn fertilizer in the common bean was previously documented in Brazil (Ram et al., 2016;Cambraia et al., 2019) and in Portugal (Gomez-Coronado et al., 2016).The lack of noticeable grain yield improvement by Zn fertilization could have been due to depressed Zn uptake by the edaphic features (Alloway, 2008;Lindsay & Norvell, 1978), for instance, the high divalent ions in the soil substrate (Ca 2+ or Mg 2+ ) (Table 3.1).The high concentration of divalent cations could have increased the competition for cation exchange sites with Zn reducing Zn uptake (Chen et al., 2019). Clay soils are also known to affect Zn bioavailability in the soil solution (Kabata-Pendias, 2004). In their study on Zn solubility in varying concentrations of clay particles, Rutkowska et al. (2015) documented a decrease in the extractable Zn with a proportional increase in the concentration of clay particles impeding Zn availability and uptake by the crops. Further, the input of high rate of P (60 kg ha -1 ) in the low Zn (0.66 ppm) soils could have led to P-driven Zn deficit because of P -Zn antagonism (Rietra et al., 2017). For example, the application of high P and low Zn reduced rice grain yield in Zn deficient field conditions (Rehim et al., 2014). The P -induced Zn deficiency results from Zn 2+ precipitation in the presence of P to zinc phosphate [Zn3 (PO4)2] making Zn unavailable to crops for uptake in the soil and impeding Zn translocation from the roots to the leaves and the seeds (Zhang et al., 2012). Another way high P application could have affected Zn uptake is by impairing AMF colonization of crop roots (Marschner, 2011); leading to poor Zn availability to crops (Zhang et al., 2021).In the common bean, one-time and split applied of Zn was favourable to bean yields because the water solubility of Zn in ZnSO4 could have affected the Zn uptake by the crop (Pooniya et al., 2018;Tabesh et al., 2020). For instance, splitting the Zn ensured that it was available during the critical crop Zn need stages i.e., during the early seedling, vegetative and reproductive stages. On the other hand, one-time application of ZnSO4 provides crop with the nutrient during the emergence stage. However, by the time the crop reaches the reproductive stage, most of the plant-available Zn may have been leached in the soil below the bean roots rhizosphere (Bruulsema et al., 2016).Overall, considering the large number of research studies showing positive and also negative yield gains due to Zn application, e.g. Hossain et al. (2008), Manzeke et al. (2012), Mao et al. (2014), Fahad et al. (2015), Subbaiah et al. (2016), Kandali et al. (2021) and Ladumor et al. (2020), further studies to understand conditions under which Zn response is expected in acidic Ferrasols are needed.The grain nutritional quality parameters assessed include N, P, K, protein, sulphur, Zn, Fe, B, Cu and Mn.The maize grain N, P, K, S and protein in all treatments was statistically similar during the LR 2021 (Table 4.3). The grain N was between 1.28 and 1.58%, grain protein 8.03 to 9.87%, P 0.21% to 0.28%, and S 0.10 to 0.12% (Table 4.3). In the common bean (P. vulgaris) the grain concentration of macro-nutrients, protein and S were not affected significantly by Zn application. Additionally, there was no observable trend on the response of the grain protein, macronutrients and S to Zn input. The grain N ranged from 2.8 to 3.2 % (Table 4.4). The common bean grain protein content ranged from 17.5% in the ZnSO4 20 kg Zn ha -1 to 19.9% in the nano-particulate ZnO 15 kg Zn ha -1 . The grain P concentration was between 0.34 to 0.36%. Except for ZnSO4 17 kg Zn ha -1 (T8), other Zn treatments had lower grain P content than the control. The grain K concentration ranged from 1.23% in nano-particulate ZnO (foliar) to 1.28% in 17 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4 split applied (Table 4.4). Sulphur content in the common bean grain was between 0.163 to 0.175% but all treatments were statistically at par (Table 4.4). The grain S accumulation in the grain in all treatments exceeded the control by between 3.0 to 6.9% (Table 4.4). Maize and common bean grain N, P, K and protein concentration showed an unnoticeable response and indefinite response trend to Zn. On the other hand, the maize grain S showed a consistent increase (non-significant) above the control in all the treatments up to 9.6 and 6.9% in maize and common bean, respectively.Comparing the influence of Zn fertilizer on the maize seed N, P or K under NPK only, NPK + FYM and NPK + Zn, Panda et al. ( 2020) documented statistically similar macronutrients content in all the management practices studied. These findings were, however, not in agreement with (Shivay & Prasad, 2014) who observed an improvement in grain N because of Zn fertilization. Observed inability of the applied Zn to increase crop grain N could be ascribed to the proposition by Siam et al. (2008) who opined that high rates of N (90 kg ha -1 ) could have suppressed Zn uptake by crops due to the formation of proton complexes in the root zone. Correspondingly, due to the high correlation between grain N and protein, this study did not establish significant variation in the grain protein contents (Weber et al., 2008). The results do not agree with (Shivay & Prasad, 2014), where marginal, but significantly different variation in crude protein content in maize grains has been reported in no Zn application (9.0%) versus Zn application (9.9%) in varying rates and application methods (Shivay & Prasad, 2014). In the same study Zn fertilizer did not vary the seed crude protein between different Zn forms and application methods (soil, foliar or soil + foliar). The application of equal rates of N entails that among all the treatment, the N utilization was similar, thus in conditions of Zn deficiency due to suppressed Zn uptake by stable complex compounds, the utilization of Zn and N was uniform across the treatments thus achieving similar grain N and protein contents.The interaction of P-Zn affects the nutrients density in the seeds (Rietra et al., 2017). In Bangladesh, Hossain et al. (2008) evaluated the implication of different Zn rates on the maize, rice and mung bean P density and consistently observed that increasing rates of Zn decreased the grain P content. In this study, varying rates of Zn did not indicate any observable trend on the maize or common bean grain P. This could imply that P-Zn interaction was either mildly antagonistic or neutral (Rietra et al., 2017). The soils in the Madeya trial site were P deficient (Olsen P=3.60 ppm) and Zn deficient (Zn = 0.66 ppm), and in this scenario, P-Zn interactions are anticipated to be synergistic (Aboyeji et al., 2020;Wallace et al., 1978).In the current work, neither the maize nor the common bean grain S changed statistically under different rates and forms of Zn application. Dissimilar findings in maize and mung bean have been reported (Hossain et al., 2008). It was established that grain S exhibited a consistent proportional increase to an increase in Zn rates in the two crops studied.Comparing no Zn versus Zn application effect on maize and sorghum grain S content, it is reported that Zn treatment increased the grain S than no Zn application (Sahrawat et al., 2008). Explaining these observations, Cui & Wang (2005) noted that due to the involvement of S and Zn in close physiological processes, an increase or decrease in the tissue concentration of either nutrient is likely to cause a corresponding effect on the other nutrient.Generally, the application of equal doses of high rates of NPK could have resulted in high biomass production in the crops leading to a nutrient dilution effect (Ma & Zheng, 2018). Similar findings were reported in Riedell (2010) where it is noted that increased vegetative development due to high NPK application can result in mineral nutrients dilution effect in the crop parts. Feil et al. (2005) also noted the application of NPK is associated with higher crop yield but decreasing grain nutrient concentration.Maize grain Zn content ranged from 18.8 in NPK only to 23.60 mg kg -1 in chelated Zn (Table 4.5). Averaged over the treatments, Zn use increased the maize grain Zn by up to 16.3% relative to the control (not significant). And in this case, Zn-chelate improved grain Zn by up to 25.3% compared to other zinc applications. The nano-particulate ZnO (soil), soil-applied ZnSO4, and nano-particulate ZnO (foliar) increments were 8.0%, 18.8% and 17.0%, respectively, above no Zn (Table 4.5). Micronutrients Fe, B, Cu and Mn contents in the grains were not affected significantly by the Zn treatment. Also, the micronutrients concentration did not exhibit any clear trend in response to different Zn application rates or forms. The grain Fe content was greatest (31.65 mg kg -1 ) in the split applied Zn 17 kg ha -1 (ZnSO4) and least (23.0 mg kg -1 ) in the 11.4 kg Zn ha -1 split-time applied (ZnSO4). The range of B was 1.1 ppm (in ZnSO4 20 kg Zn ha -1 one-time application) and 1.71 ppm (in the nano-particulate ZnO 10 kg Zn ha -1 ). Chelated Zn produced the highest grain Cu content (3.6 ppm) while nano-particulate ZnO 10 kg Zn ha -1 the least (2.4 ppm) (Table 4.6). Maize grain Mn ranged from 5.8 mg kg -1 (in split applied 11.4 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4) to 7.0 mg kg -1 (in one time applied 11.4 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4).The use of Zn in common bean affected the grain Zn contents significantly (p<.001). The grain Zn was between 23.03 ppm and 30.3 ppm (Table 4.6). On average, soil-applied nano-particulate ZnO increased the grain Zn by 7.3% compared to the control, whereas ZnSO4 increased the bean grain Zn by 13% and 19.3% above the nano-particulate ZnO (soil) and the control, respectively. The nano particulate ZnO (foliar) improved the bean grain Zn by 11.4% from 23.0 ppm (in No Zn) to 25.65 ppm (Table 4.6). However, the differences were not statistically significant (Table 4.6). One-time and split applied ZnSO4 increased the common bean grain Zn by 20.0 and 18.6% above the control, respectively. A one-time applied 11.4, 17 and 20 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4 showed statistically different bean seed Zn contents between 27.25 and 30.28 ppm (Table 4.6). For instance, 17 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4 (T7) showed significantly (p<.001) greater common bean seed Zn than 11.4 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4, but the grain Zn concentration in 17 kg Zn ha -1 was statistically uniform with 20 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4. Split applied 11.4, 17 and 20 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4 improved the Zn content progressively and significantly (p<.001) by up to 6.6% from 27.3 ppm in 11.4 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4 to 29.2 ppm in 20 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4 (Table 4.6). The common bean grain Fe, B, Cu and Mn contents did not differ significantly across the treatments due to Zn application in varying rates and forms. Additionally, there were no noticeable trends in the grain micronutrient contents between similar Zn forms applied at varying rates. The grain Fe was highest (70.9 ppm) in split applied Zn 17 kg ha -1 (ZnSO4) and lowest (52.3 ppm) in the control (Table 4.6). The maximum content of grain B recorded was 9.19 ppm (in split applied 17 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4) and the least was 8.2 ppm (control). On average, ZnSO4 and the nano-particulate ZnO (soil) enhanced common bean B concentration in the grain over the control by 3.5 and 2.8%, respectively (Table 4.6). Bean grain Cu ranged between 7.1 ppm (nano-particulate ZnO 10 kg ha -1 ) and 7.8 ppm (in split applied 11.4 kg Zn ha -1 ZnSO4) (Table 4.6). Nano-particulate ZnO improved the bean grain Cu than the control in the pattern 10 kg Zn ha -1 > 15 kg Zn ha -1 > 20 kg Zn ha -1 > foliar by up to 4.5% (Table 4.6). The common bean grain Mn was highest in the nano-particulate ZnO 15 kg ha -1 (33.6 ppm) and lowest in the nanoparticulate ZnO 10 kg ha -1 (26.8 ppm). All ZnSO4 applications increased bean grain Mn progressively by between 3.4% in 11.4 kg Zn ha -1 to 14.4% at 20 kg Zn ha -1 (Table 4.6).The lack of a noticeable response to Zn fertilization in maize may perhaps also be attributed to the fact that grain Zn content in the unfertilized control was already above the abundance threshold (18 ppm) for the anticipated maize response to Zn fertilizer (Rashid & Fox, 1992). This proposition was re-affirmed in Argentina (Martinez-Cuesta et al., 2021), where in five Zn deficient sites, it is reported that whenever the maize grain Zn exceeded 18 ppm in the no Zn (control) maize did not show any noticeable response to Zn (Bouis & Welch, 2010). Zhao et al. (2014) evaluated the impact of Zn on different wheat cultivars, the study did not establish any significant differences between the no Zn and Zn treatment leading to the conclusion that the cultivars were unable to uptake the Zn from the root zone and load the grain with it.In the common beans, the application of Zn significantly improved the grain Zn depending on the Zn source. The nano-particulate ZnO treatments did not differ statistically among themselves, but had significantly greater grain Zn than the NPK only.ZnSO4 increased the grain Zn content significantly compared to nano-particulate ZnO.The higher Zn bio-fortification in the use of ZnSO4 has also been reported in common and was attributed to the ability of Zn from a particular source to dissolve in water (Tabesh et al., 2020). In the soil solution, ZnSO4 is more soluble and mobile than ZnO (Pooniya et al., 2018). Contrary findings are reported in Prasad et al. (2012), foliar spaying of nano-particulate ZnO elevated the groundnut Zn content from 21.84 mg kg -1 (in NPK only) to 40.20 and 28.32 mg kg -1 in nano-particulate ZnO and foliar ZnSO4, respectively. The discrepancies were attributed to the greater translocation rate of nanoparticulate Zn in the plant system and longer retention on the plant surface hence more time for Zn absorption unlike the highly soluble ZnSO4 (Poornima & Koti, 2019).The nano-particulate ZnO foliar showed higher common bean Zn grain than the soilapplied Zn. In cereals, past research shows that Zn supplied in foliar form is more effective in Zn bio-fortification than soil applied Zn (Abdoli et al., 2016;Cakmak & Kutman, 2018). In the nano-particulate form, Zn could have been translocated faster in the plant system hence more Zn reached the grains than the soil-applied one (Poornima & Koti, 2019). Applying nano-particulate ZnO through soil could have been inefficient due to lower Zn mobility in the soil and loss of plant available Zn by adsorption in divalent ions in the soil such as Ca and Mg, and clay particles (Alloway, 2009). The application of inorganic P together with Zn could have also altered the soil properties thus influencing Zn availability in the crops (Rehim et al., 2014). Conversely, in a greenhouse experiment on common bean, Cambraia et al. (2019) documented that soilapplied Zn could be more efficient for Zn bio-fortification than foliar-applied Zn. The application of Zn to crops via foliar only is highly recommended where soil and climatic factors may adversely hinder Zn availability to crops (Montalvo et al., 2016).Maize and common bean are very susceptible to soil Zn deficiency (Martens & Westermann, 2018). However, despite the crops being tested in the same trial site under uniform agronomic management practice, common bean showed positive grain Zn response while maize did not. The likely reason might be that the bio-availability of Zn in the soil to crops is dependent on the crop and the variety's genetic makeup (Alloway, 2009;de Valença et al., 2017). Consequently, there could be differences in the mechanisms of Zn uptake, translocation and internal utilization between the two crops (Fageria & Baligar, 2003). Studies on the natural variations of grain Zn concentration in common bean (Graham et al., 1999) and maize (Bänziger & Long, 2000) indicate that the two crops have notable differences in their grain accumulation of Zn levels (Welch & Graham, 2004).The maize grain Zn contents observed in this study less than the HarvestPlus recommended threshold of 38 ppm for proper human nutrition (Bouis & Welch, 2010). Similar results have been observed (Manzeke et al., 2014) in Zimbabwe, but comparing mineral fertilizer Zn only and mineral fertilizer + organic matter in maize (grain Zn ranged 16.1 to 29.7 ppm). Additionally, Martinez-Cuesta et al. (2021), in Argentina, reported similar maize grain Zn levels (below 38 ppm) in NPK + mineral Zn application fertilization. For the common bean, the grain Zn required to meet the recommended human nutrition is at least 56 mg kg -1 (Bouis & Welch, 2010). The common bean grain Zn in this study was between 23.0 to 30.3 ppm, thus below the sufficient human nutrition limit. These findings are not in agreement with Ram et al. (2016) which on evaluating the common Zn grain response to foliar applied Zn, reported grain Zn levels between 52.3 and 87.0 ppm.In the repeated measures ANOVA for the three cropping seasons, Zn fertilization did not affect Zn agronomic efficiency in maize significantly (p= 0.116), but in common beans the effect was significant (p <.001) (Table 4.7). The ZnAE in the common bean for the SR 2020 ranged from 0 to 52 kg common bean grain kg Zn -1 (not statistically significant). Among the nano-particulate ZnO (soil) treatments, the ZnAE was inversed to the rate of the nutrient used. For instance, at 10 kg Zn ha -1 the ZnAE was 8 kg bean grain kg Zn -1 , but at 20 kg Zn ha -1 , Zn use efficiency declined to less than 1 kg bean grain kg Zn -1 (Table 4.7). Unlike in the SR 2020 season, the ZnAE varied significantly among the treatments during the LR 2021 in the common bean (p= 0.013). All the soil-applied Zn treatments were statistically at par, but statistically different from the foliar Zn treatments (Table 4.7). The overall ZnAE among the nano-particulate ZnO was negative during the LR 2021 season. But when nanoparticulate ZnO application was 20 kg Zn ha -1 a ZnAE of 6 kg kg Zn -1 was recorded.In the SR 2021, there was an overall net positive ZnAE in the common bean. The ZnAE ranged from 8 to 198 kg bean grain kg Zn -1 (statistically significant, p= 0.007). During this season, nano-particulate ZnO (soil) did not exhibit any trend in influencing the ZnAE in common beans. For instance, when Zn was supplied at 10 kg Zn ha -1 , the grain gain was 18 kg per kg Zn -1 , but at 15 kg Zn ha -1 , the ZnAE was lowered to just 1 kg per kg Zn -1 then it increased to 12 kg per kg Zn -1 upon the increment of Zn rate to 20 kg Zn ha -1 (Table 4.7). The ZnAE among the ZnSO4 ranged from -7 to 16 kg per kg Zn -1 (Table 4.7). During this season, the one-time application of ZnSO4 was associated with declining ZnAE, unlike split Zn application. For example, One-time applied 17 and 20 kg Zn ha -1 showed -7 and -8 kg per kg Zn -1 , respectively. However, one-time application of the same rates produced a grain gain of 16 kg per kg Zn -1 .Increasing Zn dose was associated with declining agronomic efficiency. The variation could be partly because the use of Zn did not lead to higher grain yield which is positively correlated with agronomic efficiency (Fageria & Baligar, 2005). According to Panhwar et al. (2019) the highest nutrient use efficiencies are achieved at the lowest nutrient application rates although the low rates could cause a yield penalty. These results agree with (Palai et al., 2018); in their study on baby corn reported a 51 and 44 kg grain kg Zn -1 ZnAE from 6 kg and 10 kg Zn ha -1 (ZnSO4), respectively. Related findings were recently reported in soil and foliar applied N re-affirming the proposition that NUE is increased by lowering the fertilizer application rate (Ferrari et al., 2021).Foliar Zn showed superior ZnAE to soil-applied Zn in both crops because when Zn is applied to the crop via foliar, the losses from the inefficiencies in the Zn uptake from the soil and immobilization are evaded (Montalvo et al., 2016). Foliar applied Zn means Zn is absorbed faster into the plant system than the soil applied Zn hence a higher Zn use efficiency than if Zn is soil applied (Sultana et al., 2016). According to Varatharajan et al. (2018) at the late developmental stages, crop roots have little efficiency in Zn acquisition and translocation to the above ground parts therefore foliar applied Zn is utilized better than soil applied. These results are supported by Palai et al. (2018) where comparing seed + foliar Zn with soil application noted that the seed + foliar Zn yielded over 1400 kg maize grain kg Zn -1 Zn compared to the soil application at 44 kg grain kg Zn -1 . Split application of Zn from ZnSO4 achieved better common bean ZnAE than one-time application. Applying the nutrient at a time when the crop needs them increases the nutrient use efficiency by reducing environmental losses (Panhwar et al., 2019). Split applied Zn ensures that timing is matched with peak crop demand and thus enhancing high nutrient uptake and lowering Zn losses by soil fixation and leaching (Bruulsema et al., 2016). Comparing the AE of N, P and K in basal and four splits applications (Sitthaphanit et al., 2010) showed that split application more than doubled the nutrients use efficiency.The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of micronutrient Zn co-applied with the recommended doses of the primary macronutrients on maize and common bean yield and grain micronutrients concentration in Zn deficient Ferralsols. The study site was chosen based on the soil plant available DTPA Zn content under which crop response to the micronutrients are anticipated (DTPA extractable Zn <1 ppm). Maize and common bean were the test crops during the three cropping seasons (SR 2020, LR 2021and SR 2021). Zn was supplied by ZnSO4 (ionic form), techno Z (nano-particulate ZnO) and zinc gold (chelated Zn). Except the Zn rates and forms, all agronomic management practices were maintained the same over the trial period. Conventional tillage practice was practiced in the trial site.In this study, application of Zn together with NPK produced similar yields to the use of NPK only (no Zn applied). Implying that the grain yield response to the applied Zn was unnoticeable. Besides, it also showed that the use of nano-particulate ZnO whether applied through soil or foliar produced maize and common bean grain yield similar to the other commonly available Zn fertilizers (ZnSO4 and zinc gold).Maize grain content of macro and micronutrients remained the same across the different Zn fertilizer sources and rates. In the common bean, the concentration of the tested nutrients except Zn remained statistically similar. The common bean seed Zn concentration due to application of ZnSO4, were higher than those in nano-particulate ZnO and chelated Zn. Unlike other nutrients, grain S concentration was increased consistently by increasing rate of Zn fertilizer.Zn agronomic efficiency in maize and common bean was influenced by the Zn rate and form used. Soil application of Zn showed an increasing Zn use efficiency at lower application rates. On the other hand, foliar applied Zn was associated with higher Zn use efficiency than soil applied Zn.The incorporation of micronutrient Zn to the recommended doses of NPK as studied in acidic Ferralsols in Western Kenya during SR 2020 to SR 2021 did not show a clear response to Zn on maize or common bean grain yield. The input of equal rates of macronutrients and only varying micro-nutrient Zn could have suppressed the likely yield response due to elevated biomass growth and the nutrient dilution effect. Additionally, the application of high P rates could have suppressed plant Zn uptake by altering the chemistry of the rhizosphere. The inability of the crops to show significant response to the applied Zn was associated with unnoticeable change in the grain macro-nutrient and micronutrient concentrations.The maize and common bean Zn use efficiency was highly associated with the fertilizer rates used. As a result, foliar applied Zn produced the highest yield returns per kilogram of Zn fertilizer used. Therefore, in areas where climatic factors are unfavorable for soil application of Zn, the use of foliar fertilizer could achieve equal yields, nutritional quality and higher Zn use efficiency than soil applications.However, the study revealed that the use of nano-particulate ZnO in maize and common bean would give similar grain yields and nutritional quality to the use of the existing Zn fertilizers if tested in the same agro-ecological conditions. Thus, in this era of nanotechnological advancement in agriculture, the use nano-particulate Zn fertilizers are likely to produce similar yields to the locally available Zn fertilizers. Additionally, due to the lower amounts involved, the nano-particulate Zn showed higher agronomic efficiency than ZnSO4. This entails that nano-particulate Zn fertilizers have lesser ecological footprints due to lower environmental losses from the fertilizer use.Based on the results from this work, it is proposed that:1. Incorporation of nano-particulate ZnO, ZnSO4 or chelated Zn fertilizers with macronutrients in maize and common bean are likely to achieve similar grain yields and nutritional benefits in Siaya County, hence their use together with NPK fertilizers is recommended in the study area.2. The use of Zn fertilizers be prioritized for the common than in maize due to the high probability of common beans Zn response than maize.3. Application of zinc by foliar method is recommended in the acidic Ferralsols of Western Kenya.This study has demonstrated that maize and common bean grain zinc concentration can be increased in areas like the agroecological zone of Madeya in Siaya County.Nevertheless, emerging gaps for further research include:1. Exploration of the chemistry of Zn adsorption in acidic Ferralsols to determine the adsorption or retention capacity of applied Zn.2. Studies to find out the conditions under which optimal responses to Zn fertilizer is expected in maize and common bean under Ferralitic soil conditions.3. Evaluation of agronomic management practices likely to achieve both increased grain yields and nutritional quality in maize and common bean.","tokenCount":"12978"}
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2e23797022c40eeab2a900482df994b1da8b9f28
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f0d83f500f33c4d35e2bcfc28b01ce0f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3741edb1-d483-47ab-aba9-d49186a42801/retrieve","id":"-1529223664"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b8dbc9a5-c02d-40e2-a7a7-206122ba451e","pagecount":"2","content":"Changing the way we manage water for food, livelihoods, health and the environment cpwf poLicY BRief people, livelihoods and Multiple-Use water Services (MUS)MUs overcomes the problem of the fragmentation in water sub-sectors: these conventionally provide for only one end-use, or end-user group, who then determines how that water is managed. these single-use perspectives ignore the principle of the same water user needing water for multiple purposes, often at the same site. this is especially the case in informal rural and peri-urban settings where people's livelihoods depend upon diversified agricultural practices.Poorer communities often develop and manage water for multiple uses from multiple sources through necessity. their multiple water needs are also reflected in the fact that domestic or irrigation systems planned for one single use are also used for non-planned purposes. Unplanned usage may damage infrastructure or deregulate allocation schedules.At an opposite scale, planners of large water resources and infrastructure at basin, national and transboundary levels do consider societies' multiple water needs. MUS can help by filling any gaps in the water management of government line agencies, local government, nGOs and organized water users for poverty alleviation and economic development.woRkinG toGetheR foR cRoSS-ScALe chAnGe in all countries, strategic MUs 'learning alliances' have been forged between water users and governmental and non-governmental service providers, private water service providers, researchers, policymakers and financing agencies. Learning alliances help to upscale homestead-and community-scale MUs models to intermediate, national and global levels. in this way, MUs contributes to establishing a sustainable and enabling environment that, ultimately, provides rural and peri-urban households in low-and middleincome countries with the water services they need.For the land-poor, women, elderly and the sick, the homestead is often the only site available for farming and small-scale enterprise.in the face of rising food prices and volatile economies, the homestead is readily accessible for increased food production, which cuts expenditures and generates income. Benefit / cost ratios of homestead-scale MUs are high. net annual household income increased USD100-500, or, expressed per volume of water, USD 0.7-2 per m 3 .Homestead-scale MUS, providing between 50 and 100 litres per capita per day (lpcd) or more, is the most effective way of using water for achieving all Millennium Development Goals. The increased availability of labor and the recycling of water and nutrients particularly enhances the productivity of water, which then contributes to the alleviation of poverty.Costs of infrastructure investment could generally be repaid within six to 36 months. These findings underpin the policy recommendation to aim at providing 50-100 lpcd, or, an intermediate-and high-level MUs. Changing the way we manage water for food, livelihoods, health and the environmentOpportunities for integrated planning and design of new communal systems, or rehabilitation of old systems, are possible through community-scale MUs, as it builds easily upon communities' existing infrastructure, water arrangements and priority water demands. Sites of community end-uses include fields and direct access to surface water bodies.Community-scale MUs enhances transparency in the allocation of water and public resources. transparency is a critical condition for system sustainability. single-use productive sub-sectors, like irrigation, livestock, fisheries and watershed management, can evolve into community-scale MUs by considering multiple water uses at homesteads and people's priorities.For water users and private service providers, the logic of multiple uses from multiple sources is obvious, and many have already created bottom-up initiatives for developing homesteadscale MUS. The CPWF MUS project demonstrated that at intermediate, national and global levels, learning alliances contributed to the creation of the sustainable environment necessary for the widespread upscaling of homestead-scale and community-scale MUs.nGOs can be innovators of technologies that allow for homestead-scale MUs and of new community-scale integrated water supplies for multiple uses. When the domestic sub-sector aims at full coverage, including the poor and focused on homesteads, it also brings in engineering skills and health expertise. however, strict centralized design norms and water quality standards allowed for domestic uses only. nevertheless, upscaling is already possible simply by recognizing the reality of de facto multiple uses of many domestic systems. this holds particularly true for the early use of systems designed for future expansion. the productive sub-sectors bring in engineering expertise for larger-scale water storage and conveyance to fields. Experts can also advise on how to enhance the productivity of water end-uses. however, few currently recognize the homestead as the often preferred site for domestic and various productive uses.Local government has emerged as potentially the most important government arm in supporting people in articulating their water demands, allocating public resources, coordinating infrastructure development for multiple uses and calling upon expertise as needed. ","tokenCount":"750"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/8801107340.json b/data/part_3/8801107340.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d11b4caaa4c5f07c71421f54c3600764aeaf9217
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"81ce026b8d706730a0d62cb966008ad9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fb2e04ee-df5f-40e7-8ecd-c8d6604591da/retrieve","id":"1560490088"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"23e1bf25-5c5a-4f36-80df-d3f6e494cf5c","pagecount":"9","content":"• Who takes decisions in varietal uptake?• What factors influence women's and men's varietal choices? • What information and seed promotion channels are more accessible to them?Major country-specific determinants for participation in intra-household varietal decisions were:• Land tenure and local production systems: always relevant but no global characterization possible.o Responsibility over a plot (as a land owner and/or land manager)o Participation in farming (as a 'helper')Joint decision-making becoming common in some (mostly East-African) countries• ‚Gendering' of a crop (at production and/or consumption stage) as determining a person's supposed knowledge about the crop's performance (Uganda -sweet potato, Ethiopia -teff and wheat)\"Women usually decide which teff variety should be used for injera or which wheat variety will be used to prepare what type of dish. We share experience with the varieties with friends, while we gather for coffee.If we see good injera, we ask which variety it is. Then we appreciate, discuss, and try to produce and consume\". \"If my neighbor brings a new improved teff variety to try, I will follow up on the results and try to adopt. We do the same for all the varieties we grow here. We also do the same for wheat. I will exchange it with neighbors or try to buy Kekeba and Danfie\".(SSI, Woman, Tara Gedam, Ethiopia, April 2023) \"I have seen the strategy of meeting people on the ground, especially the champions or the lead farmers. You give them a variety to distribute, they will reach the ladies and the men, unlike when we out them in the shops and we ask them to go and pick it. It is obvious that maybe [usually] the man is the one who goes to town so the lady to get that information is not very easy. So […] for us to be equal and for them to get the information equally, let it be near them just at the ground level, and that ground level: the neighbor and that neighbor, the champion farmer\".(KII, Male (Agronomist), Bungoma district, Kenya, 16 March 2023)","tokenCount":"336"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/8808539336.json b/data/part_3/8808539336.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..83d03bb97089d9e8783c4126b75fa25f6e3f966a
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+++ b/data/part_3/8808539336.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7877336583ad4334b67f133458e3a681","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a54ddfc0-0aaa-4639-a435-29a3d09b2878/retrieve","id":"870197013"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f8013347-b0bc-4558-8ee3-6ad176d38692","pagecount":"1","content":"n= 60). *n, número de sujetos; DE, desviación estándar; sd, sin dato. plaza = 6,4 m † Cultivo Lo cultiva, n* (%) Área cultivada en plazas † Promedio + DE* Rango Fríjol 26 (43,3)*n, número de sujetos.Estrategia para suplir las necesidades de micronutrientes y aumentar la seguridad alimentaria nutricional a través de cultivos fitomejorados tradicionalmente y con mejores características agronómicas.Evaluar las prácticas de consumo y producción de cultivos básicos en el norte del departamento del Cauca, Colombia y la factibilidad de implementar cultivos básicos biofortificados para abordar deficiencias nutricionales y la inseguridad alimentaria de las familias de la zona objeto de estudio.Formas de Consumo Habitual de Fríjol, Maíz, Yuca, Camote y Arroz.Mujeres, n (%)Respondieron acerca de consumoRespondieron acerca del consumo y de la producciónHombres, n (%)Respondieron de la producciónRespondieron acerca del consumo y de la producción 6 (20,0) No se obtuvo datos cuantitativos de la dieta Modelo básico de información para la implementación de la estrategia planteada.No se midieron g de consumo.No se midieron áreas de producción, kg de producción,No se obtuvo datos cuantitativos de la dietaNo se midieron g de consumoNo se midieron áreas de producción, kg de producciónConclusiones 2 * n, número de sujetos; DE, desviación estándar; sd, sin dato. Variedades Cultivadas de Fríjol, Maíz, Yuca y Camote Según los Encargados(as) de la Producción Encuestados(as).CARACTERÍSTICA","tokenCount":"217"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/8809958209.json b/data/part_3/8809958209.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..12dffb164f68bf76c5f8a7d0f0fe6a33bbf0f526
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9ae409b09b07ceb693cedaa53d89718a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a9163c5b-5bdc-4068-8f9d-dc7af51d3168/content","id":"1249475615"},"keywords":["zinc","provitamin A","three-way cross maize","hidden hunger","multi-stress tolerance"],"sieverID":"f18d5d5d-f802-403c-8ae0-d9d1cd5bc4e8","pagecount":"22","content":"Zinc deficiency affects one third of the population worldwide, and vitamin A deficiency is a prevalent public health issue in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-Asia, including Nepal. Crop biofortification is the sustainable solution to these health-related problems, thus we conducted two different field trials in an alpha lattice design to identify zinc and provitamin A biofortified maize genotypes consistent and competitive in performance over the contrasting seasons (Season 1: 18 February to 6 July 2020 and Season 2: 31 August to 1 February, 2020/21). In our study, the performance of introduced maize genotypes (zinc-15 and provitamin A biofortified-24) were compared with that of the local check, focusing on the overall agro-morphology, yield attributes, yield, and kernel zinc and total carotenoid content. Zinc and total carotenoid in the tested genotypes were found in the range between 14.2 and 24.8 mg kg −1 and between 1.8 and 3.6 mg 100 g −1 . Genotypes A1831-8 from zinc and EEPVAH-46 from provitamin A biofortified maize trial recorded kernel zinc and total carotenoid as high as 52.3, and 79.5%, respectively, compared to the local check (DMH849). The provitamin A genotypes EEPVAH-46 and EEPVAH-51 (total carotenoid: 3.6 and 3.3 mg 100 g −1 ), and zinc biofortified genotypes A1847-10 and A1803-42 (20.4 and 22.4  mg kg −1 zinc) were identified as superior genotypes based on their yield consistency over the environments and higher provitamin A and zinc content compared to the check. In addition, farmers can explore August sowing to harvest green cobs during December-January to boost up the emerging green cob business.Micronutrient deficiency attributes to the global burden of diseases by elevating the instances of illness and mortality from disease infection and mental disabilities [1]. The extent of micronutrient deficiency in South-Asia, including Nepal, is alarming. Nepal reports 32 to 35% and 11.3 to 23.3% stunting and wasting in different age groups due to a low intake of essential micronutrients in the daily diet [2,3]. Zinc deficiency is widespread among children (6 to 59 months-21%) and non-pregnant woman (15 to 49 years-24%), and vitamin A deficiency is 4.2% and 3% respectively for the children and non-pregnant woman [3]. Earlier reports by the World Health Organization indicated that more than 32% of pre-school children had vitamin A deficiency disorders [4]. However, nutrient supplementation programs have helped to reduce vitamin A deficiency in recent years as the program is reported to cover more than 90% of children in Nepal [3,4].Zinc deficiency affects one third of the population worldwide, and vitamin A deficiency is a prevalent public health issue in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-Asia, includingThe Field trials were conducted at Directorate of Agricultural Research, Karnali Province, Dasharathpur, Surkhet, Nepal. The geographical coordinates and elevation of the study site are 28 • 30 N, 81 • 47 E, and 490 masl, respectively. Analysis of the composite soil sample taken from the experimental site (in different years) indicated that the soil was slightly acidic to neutral (pH-6.11 to 6.45), medium organic matter (1.87 to 2.02%), nitrogen (0.09 to 0.10%), phosphorous (30.57 to 96.12 mg kg −1 ), and low to medium potassium (104.50 to 125.80 mg kg −1 ) with sandy loam texture [19,23,24]. The details of agro-meteorological parameters recorded during two growing seasons are displayed in Figure 1. Daily rainfall (bar, black), minimum (purple line with markers), average (dark red line with markers), and maximum temperature (light-blue line with markers) are represented in the primary vertical axis, whereas relative humidity (Orange line with markers) is represented through the secondary vertical axis. The date is presented in day-month-year format where tail digit 20 (as in 1 September 2020) and 21 (as in 26 January 2021) indicate years 2020 and 2021, respectively. Meteorological data were obtained from the nearest meteorological station (Mehelkuna site) of the office of hydrology and meteorology.Two field experiments were conducted simultaneously in two contrasting seasons; season 1 (18 February-6 July) and season 2 (31 August-1 February) of 2020/21 in the same block. The first season resembles spring, and the second season had the Summer month; September, and rest of Winter; October to February. In the experiment, one trial set consisted of regional extra early multi-stress tolerant provitamin A biofortified maize genotypes (hereafter EEPVAH trial), whereas the other composed of three-way cross zinc enriched maize genotypes (hereafter TWC trial). The hybrids in both the trials were developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria and introduced in Nepal by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Kathmandu, Nepal through the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer Project.The EEPVAH and TWC maize trial consisted of 25 and 16 genotypes, respectively, (Table 1). DMH849 was used as a local check, which is an Indian hybrid widely grown by the farmers around the experimental location. Check-RE (TZEE-Y Pop STR C5 x TZEEI 58) in EEPVAH trial was an extra early provitamin A genotype (11.4 µg g −1 ) released in Ghana, Nigeria and Mali and has 5 t ha −1 yield potential. Alpha lattice design was employed (5 × 5 lattice in EEPVAH, and 4 × 4 lattice in TWC) and genotypes were replicated twice. The experimental plots were composed of two rows of 5 m length, and inter and intra-row spacing of 75 cm and 40 cm (50 cm in TWC trial), respectively. Intra-row spacing (plant to plant) in our experiment was nearly double than the recommended spacing for maize (20 to 25 cm) due to the limited seed available to conduct the trial. Two seeds were placed in each hill during sowing, and later thinning was done to maintain a single stand at the 3-4 leaf stage. Fertilizer doses of 120:60:40 NPK kg ha −1 and 8 tons ha −1 farm yard manure (FYM) were applied. A half dose of nitrogen, full doses of phosphorus, potassium, and FYM were applied as a basal dose during the final land preparation. The remaining dose of nitrogen was applied in two equal splits at V6 and V10 stages of the crop growth. The government's protocol for integrated pest management of the fall armyworm was employed to control the fall armyworm during the growing seasons [25]. and Mali, potential yield and provitamin A content are 5 t ha −1 and 11.4 µg g −1 , respectively, TWC: three-way cross zinc biofortified hybrid maize lines, DMH849 in both the trial was used as local check which indicates widely grown hybrid maize around the experimental area.We recorded data related to phenology, growth and yield attributing traits, cob characteristics, and grain yield. Days to tasseling and silking were recorded when 50% of plants shed pollen grains, and with the emergence of 2-3 cm long silk in 50% of plants in the plot. Plant and ear heights were recorded in centimeters from five central plants. The distance from plant base to the first tassel branch was recorded as plant height, whereas ear height was measured as a distance between plant bases to the node bearing the uppermost ear. The number of plants with a stalk broken below the ear were counted in each plot and converted into a percentage to record the stalk lodging. At the time of harvest, we recorded the total number of plants and ears harvested in each plot. Cob characteristics; cob length and diameter (cm), number of kernel rows per cob, and kernel number in a row were recorded from five randomly selected cobs in each plot as a post-harvest recording. Grain yield, shelling percentage, harvest index, and hundred kernel weights were recorded after proper drying and shelling of the cobs. The ratios of grain recovered to the total dry cob weight, and total grain weight to the biological yield (grain and stover yield) in the plot were recorded as shelling percentage and harvest index, respectively. The grain yield is reported in tons per hectare by adjusting at 14% moisture content (Wile 55 moisture meter used). One hundred dried kernels in each plot were counted and weighed to determine one hundred kernel weights in grams. The standard data recording procedure was followed for recording all the studied parameters [26].After harvesting, composite grain samples were taken from each genotype of EEP-VAH and TWC trials to analyze the total carotenoid and zinc content, respectively. The well-dried grain samples (65 • C for 72 h) were grounded, packed, and then sealed in a polythene bag with respective leveling. Each sample was at least 200 g in weight when submitting to the laboratory (National Food Research Centre, Khumaltar, Nepal). For carotenoid analysis (EEPVAH trial), the pigment present in the grounded sample was extracted in di-acetone alcohol, and later was transferred to petroleum ether. Methanolic KOH was used for saponification of chlorophyll and then washed with water to remove it from the mixture. Finally, the carotenoid amount was estimated through the spectrophotometric method at 450 nm β-carotene standard [27].The USEPA method 3050B (second revised version of method 3050) was employed to determine zinc content of the grain samples taken from TWC trials [28]. The quantitative amount of the crushed, sieved, and dried plant matter sample was digested with tri-acid solution (nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, and per chloric acid) in a beaker followed by digestion over a controlled hot plate and quantitative filtration into a known volumetric flask. The aliquot was aspirated into the AAS at an air-acetylene flame after blank, and three consecutive working metal standard solutions. The final concentration of the respective element was calculated from the values obtained through the software-displayed values on the basis of the calibration curve.Recorded raw data were entered and processed in Microsoft Excel 2007, and ANOVA was generated with ADEL-R software version 2.0 [29]. Statistical analysis was performed individually for the two separate seasons in both the trials. We chose the randomized incomplete block design (RIBD) while operating data analysis in ADEL-R. The Fisher least significant difference test (p < 0.05) was performed in statistically significant response variables to separate treatment means. In order to identify consistent performers (in terms of grain yield) in both the seasons, AMMI analysis was performed using GEA-R software version 4.1 [30]. The evaluated genotypes were highly significant for the days to tasseling and silking in both the trials and in both the seasons. However, anthesis-silking interval was found non-significant (Tables 2 and 3). The genotypes took a short time to tassel and silk during season-2 in both TWC and EEPVAH trials compared to season-1 (Tables 2 and 3). The check (RE) recorded the earliest tasseling (70 days) and silking (73 days) during season-1, and was among the early group during season-2 too (tasseling-51 days, and silking-54 days). It was observed that mean anthesis-silking interval during season-2 (4 days) was longer than that in season-1 (2 days). Among the genotypes of the TWC trial, A1830-14 took the longest time for tasseling (86 and 62 days in season-1 and season-2) and silking (88 and 67 days in season-1 and season-2) in both the seasons (Table 3).  Remarks: StdMSE-standard mean sum of error, Std-standard deviation, LSD-least significant difference, CV-coefficient of variation, p-value < 0.01 indicates highly significance, <0.05 significant effect, >0.05-nonsignificant effect, similar statistical letters within a parameter (column) indicates non-significant difference among the genotypes.Growth and yield attributing traits viz. plant (PHT), ear height (EHT), number of plant (PHPP), ear harvested (EHPP), shelling percentage (SHELP), harvest index (HI), and hundred kernel weight (HKW) were observed in both the trials. A highly significant (p < 0.01) effect was observed in all the growth and yield attributing traits in the EEP-VAH trial, while the majority of traits were significantly different (p < 0.05) in TWC trial (Tables 4 and 5). The number of plants harvested (PHPP-during season-1 in EEPVAH trial), and hundred kernel weight (HKW-during season-2 in TWC trial) were found nonsignificant among the tested genotypes (Tables 4 and 5). Performance of the EEPVAH and TWC genotypes for growth and yield attributing traits were reduced more during season-2 than in season-1 (Tables 4 and 5). The fall armyworm infestation during season-2 affected the overall vegetative growth and development of the maize genotypes (Figure 2).   Three-way cross zinc biofortified genotype A1803-37 reported the highest dry matter deposition in the kernel (recorded as HKW) during season-1 (36.5 g) as well as in season-2 (30.7 g). A1830-6 and A1831-3 produced statistically similar dry matter content as in A1803-37 (Table 5). The harvest index was recorded highest in the local check (0.6) during season-1 while A1803-37 had the highest (0.6) dry matter deposition in the kernel during season-2. Shelling percentage in the TWC genotypes ranged between 78.7 and 86.1% (mean-82.3%), and between 73 and 80.5% (mean-77.5%) during season-1 and season-2, respectively (Table 5). The mean number of plant and ears harvested were highest during season-1 than in season-2, and similar observations were found for plant and ear height. Plant stature was tallest in 1803-42 (261 cm), and was recorded shortest in A1830-6 (200 cm), and the local check had 202.5 cm during season-1. The plant (172.4 cm) and ear height (69.9 cm) were observed shortest in A1830-9 during season-2 (Table 5).Among the EEPVAH genotypes, EEPVAH-44 reported maximum dry matter deposition in the kernel in both seasons. The local check also produced higher dry matter (in the form of HKW) in the kernel (35.8 g and 32.4 g), statistically similar to EEPVAH-44 (Table 4). EEPVAH-8 consistently recorded the highest harvest index in both seasons (0.6 in season-1 and 0.7 in season-2). The shelling percentage in EEPVAH genotypes was higher as compared to TWC genotypes. The mean shelling percentage during season-1 and season-2 were 84.7 and 82.5%, respectively (Table 4). Similarly, mean plant and ear height, the number of plant and ears harvested during season-2 were comparatively lower than in season-1. During season-1, the plant stature observed in EEPVAH genotype was as high as 242 cm, and the mean height was 212.2 cm in the overall genotypes. EEPVAH-50 had the shortest plant height (195.4 cm), and the local check recorded 208.5 and 186.6 cm plant and ear height, respectively during season-1 and season-2. Genotype EPVAH-67 reported the tallest plant and ear height during season-2 (Table 4).During season-1, EEPVAH and TWC genotypes were found highly significant (p < 0.01) for most of the cob characteristics (cob length-CL and diameter-CD, and number of kernel-rows per cob-NOKRC) except for the number of kernels per row-NOKPR (Tables 6 and 7). The EEPVAH genotypes were significantly different in cob characteristics during season-2, however a non-significant difference was observed for CD and NOKRC in TWC genotypes (Tables 6 and 7). It was observed that the performance of EEPVAH and TWC genotypes were inferior in terms of cob characteristics during season-2 than in season-1. Local check-DMH849 produced the longest (18.1 cm in season-1 and 17.1 cm in season-2) and bigger cob (5.1 cm in season-1 and 4.7 cm in season-2) during both seasons in the EEPVAH trial (Table 6). In the same trial, EEPVAH-67 recorded highest number of kernels per row (41 in season-1, and 39 in season-2) in both seasons. The genotype EEPVAH-41 had the highest number of kernel-rows per cob during season-1 while in season-2, EEPVAH-53 recorded the highest NOKRC (Table 6). The cob length (18.5 cm in season-1 and 17.1 cm in season-2) was recorded highest in A1803-37 in both seasons in the TWC trial. The local check produced highest NOKRC (17), and NOKPR (40), and cob length and diameter were statistically similar to top genotypes during season-1, however, the cob characteristics were inferior during season-2 (Table 7).Stalk lodging was statistically non-significant in both the trials during season-1, and the genotypes recorded up to 6% and 9% lodging in TWC and EEPVAH trials, respectively (Figure 3). Only a few genotypes (four) recorded lodging in the TWC trial in season-1 whereas lodging recorded was within 2 to 9% in 13 genotypes of the EEPVAH trial (Figure 3). The local check (DMH849) recorded comparatively low lodging; 2.8% in TWC season-1, and 6.6% in EEPVAH season-2 (Figure 3). In contrast, lodging was significantly higher during season-2 and statistically significant among the maize genotypes in both the trials. Three-way cross hybrid maize genotype A1803-37 produced 16% lodging (2 to 16% in overall), while the highest lodging recorded in EEPVAH genotypes was 20% (EEPVAH-55) (Figure 3).Total carotenoid in EEPVAH genotypes ranged between 1.8 and 3.6 mg 100 g −1 while TWC genotypes had between 14.2 and 24.9 mg kg −1 (ppm) zinc in its kernels. Most of the hybrids in both the trials reported higher kernel-zinc and total carotenoid compared to the local check -DMH849 (Figure 4). The total carotenoid was highest in EEPVAH-46 (3.59 mg 100 g −1 ) followed by EEPVAH-55 (3.4 mg 100 g −1 ) and EEPVAH-51 (3.3 mg 100 g −1 ), in contrast, total carotenoid was ≤2 mg 100 g −1 in local check, EEPVAH-12 and Check (RE) genotypes (Figure 4). Three-way cross hybrid maize genotype A1831-8 reported the highest kernel zinc content (24.86 ppm) while DMH849 (local check), A1803-37, A1831-9, and A1830-14 had kernel-zinc content ≤ 16.5 ppm. It was observed that EEPVAH and TWC biofortified maize hybrids had 9.5 to 79.5%, and 2.5 to 52.3% higher total carotenoid and kernel-zinc content, respectively, compared to the local check (Figure 4).  Stalk lodging was statistically non-significant in both the trials during season-1, an the genotypes recorded up to 6% and 9% lodging in TWC and EEPVAH trials, respective (Figure 3). Only a few genotypes (four) recorded lodging in the TWC trial in season whereas lodging recorded was within 2 to 9% in 13 genotypes of the EEPVAH trial (Figu 3). The local check (DMH849) recorded comparatively low lodging; 2.8% in TWC seaso 1, and 6.6% in EEPVAH season-2 (Figure 3). In contrast, lodging was significantly high during season-2 and statistically significant among the maize genotypes in both the tria Three-way cross hybrid maize genotype A1803-37 produced 16% lodging (2 to 16% overall), while the highest lodging recorded in EEPVAH genotypes was 20% (EEPVAH 55) (Figure 3).  est kernel zinc content (24.86 ppm) while DMH849 (local check), A1803-37, A1831-9 A1830-14 had kernel-zinc content ≤ 16.5 ppm. It was observed that EEPVAH and biofortified maize hybrids had 9.5 to 79.5%, and 2.5 to 52.3% higher total carotenoid kernel-zinc content, respectively, compared to the local check (Figure 4). The tested EEPVAH maize genotypes were significantly different in terms of yield, producing 3.3 to 8.1 t ha −1 in season-1 and 1.4 to 4.7 t ha −1 during season-2. O other hand, the yield ranges produced by TWC genotypes were 3.7 to 7.1 and 1.8 to ha −1 , respectively, for season-1 and season-2 (Figure 5). The local check (DMH849ha −1 in TWC, and 8.1 t ha −1 in EEPVAH trial) out yielded all the introduced maize g types during season-1 (except TWC genotype A1831-3), however, the performance du season-2 was greatly reduced; TWC genotype by 52.7, and EEPVAH by 44.3% (Figu The majority of introduced maize genotypes recorded a higher yield advantage ove local check in season-2; yield advantage over the local check was 1.6 to 54.5% in genotypes while EEPVAH genotypes recorded even higher-4.8 to 97.9% (Figure 6) cording to the AMMI analysis, TWC genotypes A1803-42, A1847-10, and A1803-13 EEPVAH genotypes EEPVAH-8, EEPVAH-46, and EEPVAH-67, were found consiste performance (in terms of grain yield) with higher average grain yield over the sea and were placed nearest to the origin in the graph (Figure 7). The tested EEPVAH maize genotypes were significantly different in terms of grain yield, producing 3.3 to 8.1 t ha −1 in season-1 and 1.4 to 4.7 t ha −1 during season-2. On the other hand, the yield ranges produced by TWC genotypes were 3.7 to 7.1 and 1.8 to 3.7 t ha −1 , respectively, for season-1 and season-2 (Figure 5). The local check (DMH849-6.8 t ha −1 in TWC, and 8.1 t ha −1 in EEPVAH trial) out yielded all the introduced maize genotypes during season-1 (except TWC genotype A1831-3), however, the performance during season-2 was greatly reduced; TWC genotype by 52.7, and EEPVAH by 44.3% (Figure 5). The majority of introduced maize genotypes recorded a higher yield advantage over the local check in season-2; yield advantage over the local check was 1.6 to 54.5% in TWC genotypes while EEPVAH genotypes recorded even higher-4.8 to 97.9% (Figure 6). According to the AMMI analysis, TWC genotypes A1803-42, A1847-10, and A1803-13, and EEPVAH genotypes EEPVAH-8, EEPVAH-46, and EEPVAH-67, were found consistent in performance (in terms of grain yield) with higher average grain yield over the seasons and were placed nearest to the origin in the graph (Figure 7).       analysis of the regional extra early provitamin A biofortified hybrid maize genotypes, GY-grain yield (t ha −1 ). The numerical value in the figure indicates respective entry numbers of the genotypes, the name of which can be retrieved from Table 1.The synchrony of tasseling and silking determines the outcomes of hybridization in maize. There is a higher possibility of seed setting when anthesis-silking days are closer as it increases effective pollination and eventually the grain yield [31]. Thus, narrowing the tasseling silking gap is of prime importance in hybrid development programs. As observed in the present study, Dhakal et al. [19] and Kandel and Shrestha [32] reported a non-significant effect on the anthesis-silking interval in the evaluated hybrid genotypes. It is observed that silking and tasseling takes double or more time in the winter season compared to summer or spring sowing [19,33], however, the tasseling and silking took a comparatively shorter duration in our experiment during season-2 (Tables 2 and 3). In general, October sowing is practiced for winter cropping, and we tested August sowing in our experiment (August 31). The daily average temperature remained within 24 to 30 • C for up to mid-October after sowing (Figure 1), by the time tasseling was initiated in several genotypes in our experiments, thus shortened the tasseling and silking compared to February sowing, and other winter sowings (October/November).Right from germination to different growth stages and eventually to the physiological maturity, temperature plays an important role in maize crop. Maize requires around a 20 • C to 30 • C temperature for the rapid emergence of seedlings, and 28 • C is considered optimum for both tasseling and silking in maize [34][35][36]. The emergence and overall growth of the plant is faster when an optimum temperature is provided, and it slows down when the threshold is not met [37]. In addition, the short duration nature of the variety obtains earlier fulfillment of growing degree days required for tasseling and silking [37]. Regarding the tasseling and silking in hybrid maize, the mean value ranged between 66 and 108 days, and between 70 and 119 days, respectively, under Terai and Inner-Terai regions during the winter season in Nepal [32,33,38,39]. Corroborating our results, anthesis and silking days in provitamin A tropical maize genotypes were reported at 55-65 days, and 56-69 days, respectively, from Africa [40,41].The overall growth, yield attributing traits, and cob characteristics of maize genotypes were reduced during season-2 comparative to season-1. The physiological stress attributed to fall armyworm damage during the vegetative stage, and drought following tasseling had great effect in our experiment in season-2. Fall armyworm larvae, right from the first instar, is most damaging, and feed on foliage of maize plants. Larger larvae feed extensively and cause heavy defoliation, and at a higher damage level, only the ribs and stalk remain in the plant [42]. Thus, its infestation reduces the photosynthetic area, elevates physiological stress, and affects normal growth and development of the plants. From a study conducted to assess the effect of the fall armyworm at an early vegetative stage, it was reported that the late whorl stage was most sensitive, and mean larvae 0.2 to 0.8 per plant at this stage could result in a 5 to 20% yield reduction in maize [43].In maize, the number of kernel-rows in the cob is determined at the V5 to V8 growth stage, which is controlled mostly by genetic factors, and to a lesser degree, by the growing environment [44,45]. Thus, the number of kernel-rows per cob (NOKRC) was found significantly different in EEPVAH genotypes in both the seasons. The non-significant effect during season-2, in TWC genotypes (Table 7), might be due to the influence of drought and physiological stress caused by fall armyworm infestation. On the other hand, the number of kernels per row (NOKPR), heavily influenced by the growing environment and crop management practices, is determined between the V12-V15 growth stages [46]. For this reason, we observed a reduction in the mean number of kernels per row (Tables 6 and 7) during season-2 due to drought (Figure 1) and fall armyworm damage in our experiment (Figure 2). The observed reduction in cob size (cob length and diameter) during season-2 (Tables 6 and 7), in both EEPVAH and TWC trials, was due to the corresponding reductions in NOKRC and NOKPR as the cob size of maize is influenced by these traits [45]. Prolonged drought (Figure 1) immediate after the silking stage during season-2 might have resulted in comparatively smaller and lighter grains in the cob (reported as hundred kernel weight in Tables 4 and 5) due to less dry matter deposition in the kernels [44]. It was reported that long duration of drought stress following silking affects normal cob development and reduces kernel size and weight in maize [47,48]. The continued drought stress across several growth stages in maize attributes to a complete crop failure [48]. Thus, we observed a reduction in performance of the genotypes in terms of yield attributing traits (Tables 4 and 5), cob characteristics (Tables 6 and 7), and grain yield (Figure 5) during season-2 due to prolonged drought following silking to the crop maturity stages (Figure 1).The breaking of the stalk below the ear is recorded as stalk lodging in maize [26]. Stalk lodging, in addition to yield loss up to 5 to 25%, increases harvest loss, harvest time and decreases the quality of grains [49,50]. Genotypes with a short stature suffered less lodging as in the local check and other maize genotypes during season-1 (Tables 4 and 5), however, season-2 lodging was exacerbated by the combined stress caused by fall armyworm infestation and drought. The continuous infestation of the fall armyworm from the early stage resulted in weaker (small stalk diameter) plants (Figure 2), and drought stress following tasseling resulted in higher lodging in season-2. Continuous infestation of fall armyworm feeding on vascular tissues of plant might have increased the physiological stress which favored the stalk lodging in plants [49]. Additionally, it is reported that drought stress during the grain filling period increases the potential for stalk lodging in maize [44,51]. In our experiment, the effect of fall armyworm infestation and drought stress in season-2 cropping is observed clearly in growth and yield attributing traits (Tables 4 and 5), cob characteristics (Tables 6 and 7), stalk lodging (Figure 3), and grain yield (Figure 5).Discriminating the zinc content of tested genotypes in our experiment, it is evident that the local check had low zinc content in its kernel (16.3 mg kg −1 ), while some introduced genotypes were highly enriched (more than 50%). It can be inferred that about 500 g grain (not including cooking or other processing losses) of high zinc maize line (A1831-8, 24.86 mg kg −1 ) could supply the daily recommended dietary intake for adults (up to 12 mg day −1 ). On the other hand, provitamin A enriched maize lines (total carotenoid-3.59 mg 100 g −1 ) seem promising to supply the daily dietary requirement of vitamin A; the adult human body requires 900 and 700 microgram (µg) retinol activity equivalents (RAE) per day, respectively, for men and women [8]. Thus, genotypes with a significantly higher amount of total carotenoid and zinc content were found in EEPVAH and TWC trials of maize compared to the local check which can be used as important genetic resources in future breeding programs and recommend for cultivation after further evaluation.The yellow or orange endosperm of provitamin A contains carotenoids, which is the precursor of vitamin A [52]. The pollen gene from a non provitamin A parent affects development of fruit or seeds, and hence, kernel micronutrient content, which is known as the xenia effect [53]. The total carotenoid content, overall, in our experiment was lower (Figure 4) in comparison to the breeding target; 15 µg g −1 of β-carotene standard [54]. This might be attributed to the xenia effect of adjacent white kernel hybrids from the three-way cross hybrid maize trial which contained mixture of white and yellow kernel hybrids. Similarly, it has been demonstrated that drought also influences provitamin A and β-carotene content in maize. Ortiz-Covarrubias et al. [55] reported lower provitamin A (12.9 µg g −1 ) and β-carotene content (16.5% lower) under drought than that in optimum growing contitions (14.1 µg g −1 ). In another study, the β-carotene was reported within the range between 1.67 and 3.39 µg g −1 under drought conditions [52].The maximum zinc content of the genotype in our experiment was 24.86 mg kg −1 (Figure 4), which is lower (32.81%) than the breeding target for zinc in maize-37 mg kg −1 on the dry matter basis [13]. As soil zinc availability greatly influences kernel-zinc content in maize, the lower zinc content in our experiment might be associated with low soil zinc levels. Researchers have reported that breeding efforts for increasing kernel zinc concentration is highly dependent on agronomic interventions for most of the developing countries report deficient zinc levels in soil [13]. As a proof, several papers have reported widespread zinc deficiency in different agro-ecology of Nepalese soils, including similar to our study area [56][57][58][59][60].Grain yield is a key parameter for identifying and recommending genotypes for cultivation at the farmer level. The performance of the local check, in season-1, was superior to all the introduced maize genotypes, while in season-2, a drastic reduction was observed (Figure 5). The reduction in overall performance of the genotypes could be associated with physiological stress (caused by fall armyworm damage) during the vegetative stage, and drought following the tasseling stage. No supplementary irrigation was provided and there was no rainfall recorded (Figure 1) following tasseling in season-2. After the entry (9 May 2019) in Nepal [25], the fall armyworm has been widespread and its infestation was observed continuous in season-2 (August sowing), higher before the tasseling stage, in our experiment (Figure 2). The intensity was higher as there was no maize cultivation around the study location and the chemical control was ineffective. Thus, overall growth and yield attributing (Tables 4 and 5), cob characteristics (Tables 6 and 7), and grain yield of maize (Figure 5) were significantly reduced in both the trials during season-2. Fall armyworm larvae at a mean density of 0.2 to 0.8 per plant could reduce grain yield by 5 to 20%, if it occurred at the late whorl stage [43]. The reduction in yield was higher in the TWC trial than in EEPVAH, about a 10% reduction (Figure 5). This might be due to the genotypes in the EEPVAH trial being stress tolerant as stated by IITA, Nigeria.In a recent study conducted by the National Maize Research Program, Rampur, Nepal, the highest mean grain yield obtained from provitamin A biofortified maize, combining the spring and winter season, was 8.2 t ha −1 (crop geometry-0.75 m × 0.20 m and fertilizer dose of 180:60:40 NP 2 O 5 K 2 O ha −1 ). It was also reported that the provitamin A hybrids yielded 3.5 to 8.5 t ha −1 in spring, while the yield range was higher in winter-3 to 10.6 t ha −1 [33]. In the same location, the mean grain yields of the top four three-way cross white and yellow kernel hybrid (non-biofortified) maize were 9.5 and 8.8 t ha −1 in the winter season (crop geometry-0.60 m × 0.25 m and fertilizer dose of 180:60:40 NP 2 O 5 K 2 O ha −1 ) [61]. Similarly, the mean yield of the top performing three-way cross (non-biofortified) hybrid reported from Surkhet (current study location) was 8.4 t ha −1 in winter and 9.8 t ha −1 in summer [19]. The provitamin A tropical maize inbreed lines were reported to yield up to 6.2 t ha −1 on average (range-3.9 to 7.9 t ha −1 ) in Africa [40]. From the recent study, it was also disseminated that three-way cross provitamin A hybrids yielded between 1.1 and 5.1 t ha −1 in Nigeria [41]. The grain yield reported in season-1, in our study, corroborates with the findings of the previous studies and even indicates the scope of increasing it by maintaining plant population and fertilization as per recommendation.Drought and fall armyworm infestation significantly reduced the grain yield in season-2 in our experiment (Figure 5). It was reported that the fall armyworm can reduce maize grain yield by 5-40% and even cause heavy losses at the higher infestation level [62][63][64][65]. In Africa, annual maize production loss due to fall armyworm damage was estimated at 25 to 53%, which was around 2.48 to 6.19 billion USD [66]. Similarly, researchers reported that prolonged drought stress following silking affects normal cob development, and reduces kernel size and weight [47,48], and moderate to extreme drought could reduce grain yield in maize by 64 to 74% [67].The provitamin A genotypes EEPVAH-46 and EEPVAH-51 (total carotenoid 3.6 and 3.3 mg 100 g −1 ), and zinc biofortified genotypes A1847-10 and A1803-42 (20.4 and 22.4 mg kg −1 zinc) were identified as superior genotypes based on their yield consistency over the seasons and higher provitamin A and zinc content compared to the local check. The plant population in the present experiment was almost half (40-50 cm intra-row), in comparison to the government recommendation (25 cm for hybrids), and we applied 120:60:40 NP 2 O 5 K 2 O ha −1 instead of 180:60:40 NP 2 O 5 K 2 O ha −1 (for hybrids), thus there is scope to increase the grain yield by maintaining plant population and fertilizer doses. The new sowing time (August) was tested for winter harvesting of maize, which enables farmers to harvest green cobs during December-January. Additionally, micronutrient rich maize is highly desired in the poultry industry to prepare feeds rich in vitamins and minerals. Thus, the identified provitamin A and high zinc maize genotypes could equally be effective in reducing hidden-hunger, enhancing feed nutrient value for poultry and livestock sectors, and also has commercial value in a green cob business.","tokenCount":"5724"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"384294221e3616be80758d581a14b76b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/88d0dcd1-9883-477f-91e7-54b246dc3b3f/retrieve","id":"274588167"},"keywords":["youth","young adults","next generation"],"sieverID":"3c037999-c3ef-454d-9d06-77d82b413427","pagecount":"13","content":"In Central Uganda, in spite of poor soils and high pest pressure, bananas are a primary source of household food and income. Farmers are increasingly challenged by how to maintain banana productivity and to expand production for nearby rapidly growing urban markets. In a grant proposal financed by the Austrian Development Agency we posed the question whether on-farm trees and shrubs as a source of fodder and mulch could be harnessed to improve banana productivity. The grant document additionally proposes a focus on poor young households, young adults and youth (defined as aged between 18-35 years) as potential users of the proposed new technology and improved marketing. Over 60 households have planted banana plots with agroforestry trees and shrubs and are preparing conditions for a zero grazed goat. However, we are still perplexed about where the poor young households, young adults and youth, are. Here we review our databases and activities and pose several hypotheses about the next generation of banana farmers in Central Uganda. Our starting point for field work was the existing farmer groups of our field partners who guided us to certain districts, Kiboga, Nakaseke and Sembabule. We conducted a baseline, drawn from the list of members in the local farmer organization with additional households in the surrounding community, on household resources, household livelihood strategies, decisions about land acquisition and use and the current techniques to maintain banana productivity. Of 203 households surveyed, the mean age of household head was 47 years. 13.9% of household head were under 30 years of age and only 4.8% and 0% was under 25 and 20 years of age respectively. Although only 29 youth headed households are present in the sample, more youth were identified as spouse (41 persons) or as dependant (71 persons). The total number of youth in the sample population of 825 persons (household heads, spouses and dependants) is 141, or 17 %. Among the 75 households participating in the farmer experimentation groups, 16% are under 30 years with 5% and 0% under 25 and 20 years. Among these households 15% are youth. In spite of our efforts to emphasize youth and young households, why did we not have greater numbers of young households in farmer groups? Based on additional data from the survey, we explore several explanations. Young households and young adults are little interested in agriculture and are working in local towns and larger urban areas. Young households have facultative livelihood strategies based in local towns, possibly due to lack of access to land, but will return when inherited land becomes available or resources are accumulated for land purchase. YoungThe agricultural sector remains the backbone of Uganda's economy as its main source of livelihood and employment for over 60 percent of the population (FAO, 2002) and 21.5% of GDP. Agricultural output primarily comes from about 3 million smallholder subsistence farmers, who own an average farmland area of 2.5 ha. The agricultural sector is dominated by the production of food crops, but cash crops, livestock, fishery and forestry are also important. In Central Uganda, bananas are a primary source of household food and income. Due to declining soils fertility, high pests and diseases pressure farmers are increasingly being challenged by how to maintain banana productivity or grasp the opportunity to expand production to supply nearby rapidly growing urban markets (Gold et al 2000). In a grant proposal financed by the Austrian Development Agency we posed the question whether on-farm trees and shrubs can be used as a source of mulch for the bananas and fodder for zerograzing livestock to improve banana productivity. The grant document additionally proposes a focus on poor young households, young adults and youth (defined as aged between 18-35 years) as potential users of the proposed new technology and improved banana marketing.Currently we have 3 experimentation groups each composed of 25 households in the pilot sites of Kiboga, Nakaseke and Sembabule in Central Uganda. These groups are made up of delegates of 4-7 farmer associations in each site, selected in a large assembly of neighborhood farmers. As the selection process proceeded, groups were asked to consider the participation of both young and women-headed households. In the final tally of households, only 13.9% of households are headed by a person under 30 years of age and none are under 20 years of age, although for Uganda over 78% of the population (Restless Development) and 19.1% of households are under 30 years of age (Sserunkuuma et al., 2010). The farmers of each experimentation group have met every one to two months since late 2010 to review the status of trees, livestock and bananas on their farms and to analyze how their bananas reach the market. These meetings are facilitated by researchers and field assistants. The groups were also asked to consider inviting youth from their households to join a small commission to study options for getting improved prices for their bananas, but none of the three groups incorporated youth into the commissions. After completing the diagnostic phase, farmer meetings have focused on planning experiments. All households have established banana plots with trees and shrubs and have received a goat which is to be managed under zero grazing. Over the next year farmers, researchers and field assistants will be measuring, monitoring and analyzing results.In this paper we reflect on the underrepresentation of this ‗next' but missing generation of farmers in our experimentation activities. We asked ourselves the question: Where are the young adults and young households in our pilot sites? We first look at youth and young households in agriculture, then pose a number of possible hypotheses about these groups. We explore the hypotheses using our baseline data and a small survey conducted with the farmers in the experimentation groups with one or more adult children and draw conclusions on targeting agricultural technology and rural development to the next generation of farmers.We had several reasons to focus on young people for this project:1. Agriculture and fishing employ 69% of the private sector workforce in Uganda, being the largest employer for the Ugandan population (IYF, 2011). Youth makes up 60% of the agricultural labor force (IYF 2011). This workforce will depend on agriculture for food security and improved household income for the foreseeable future. Focusing on young people at the beginning of their working careers as the future farming generation is a logical strategy to make efficient use of investment in farmer training, technology development and improved marketing. 2. Investing in young people's rural livelihoods can be considered a diversification approach, since agriculture is not a single alternative. Numerous and mixed strategies are possible, including crops for local, national and export markets, livestock and processing and added value. These are alternatives to out-migration to urban centers with high unemployment rates and associated urban poverty (UBOS 2002). 3. The focus on agroforestry as an option raised questions about longer rates of returns and permanent access to land. Such a technology requires longer term interest from farmers and may potentially pay off better the longer the technology is maintained. We wondered whether technologies with increasing payoffs with time would have strategic interests for young households.Although such a technology is longer term in its returns, it is also land-saving and may appeal to young households with limited land resources.To guide our exploration of the whereabouts of youth and young households, since they appeared to be underrepresented in our baseline study and our experimentation groups, we proposed the following hypotheses: 1. Young households and young adults are located within the household setup of their parents and are not reported as independent households, even though they may have some economic autonomy. Grant Field partners were selected during the grant formulation phase based on their field activities in Central Uganda and their interest in agroforestry and bananas. With the approval of the grant, the field organizations then proposed the pilot sites based on their other on-going grants. For these sites partner organizations prepared lists of affiliated members. A baseline study was conducted from a random sampling from the list within the same area. We also interviewed households that were not affiliated to the partner institutions in the area. The survey was conducted in three different sites in Central Uganda in the districts of Nakaseke (N=55), Kiboga (N=91) and Sembabule (N=57) and had a total sample size of 203. The study consisted of a pretested survey with questions on diverse aspects of the household and farm system: Household characteristics; land holding; farm and cultivation characteristics and specifics; presence and use of threes, fodder crops and livestock; intra-household decision-making; household assets; land access; access to information; labor; and income.Additional data were collected from members within the farmer's experimentation groups' with adult children. A total of 56 participants in the three farmer experimentation groups (Kiboga N=20, Sembabule N=20 and Nakaseke N=16) were interviewed with a total of 174 adult children. The survey asked about all adult children of the household; their residence, occupation, education, reasons for staying in the household or leaving it, providence of labor to the household and future expectations. Furthermore we interviewed a number of key-persons in the three districts (mainly community workers) about opportunities for young people in the locality; access to land and support services (such as credit and training), average age for marrying/family formation and their ideas about young people's aspirations to work in agriculture.The data from the baseline study provide the first insights into household formation and intergenerational issues.The average age of the household head was 44.7, 48 and 47.1 years for Kiboga, Nakaseke and Sembabule respectively with no significant difference. The spouses' average age was much lower with 32.8, 38.1 and 42.9 for Kiboga, Nakaseke and Sembabule respectively and there were significant differences in years between the sites, with spouses being on average 4 years younger than the household head in Sembabule site but 12 years younger in Kiboga. Although efforts were made to include especially young people in the project baseline, only 13.6% of all household heads were below 30 years of age and only 0.5% was below 20 years of age. Nearly 14% of the household heads are from 30-35 years of age. For spouses 29% was below 30 years of age. Three fourths of the households were headed by males with a female spouse present, while 1/4 of households were headed by a female, either older women widowed or divorced or unmarried younger women.All 203 households together had a total of 821 ‗dependant' household members living on their compound. Of these 821 household members, usually the children of household head and spouse, the large majority (619 persons) was under 14 years of age. One hundred fifty persons were between 15 and 19 years old and there were 36 persons (4.3% of total number dependants) present within these household in the age between 20 and 35 years. Two hundred twenty five persons described as ‗dependants' were over 36 years of age; this category probably consists mainly of parents of household heads and spouses, (unmarried) siblings, second wives and adult children. In total our baseline data included 1143 persons (household head, spouses and dependants) and 12.8% of these 1143 can be defined as young between 20 and 35 years.If we compare national statistics on age composition of the population and the age composition of our sample population we see that the number of persons below 14 years of age is quite similar with 49% of population under 14 years nationally and 54% in our sample (CIA Fact Book, 2012). The percentage of young people in the age of 20-35 is significantly smaller with 12.8% of our sample population and 21.7% of national population falling within this category (based on 2002 census, UBOS). This indicates an out-migration of young people from the intervention sites or establishment of independent households.Since land ownership was one of the criteria for selecting respondents, all households owned at least 0.25 acres. Acreage owned went up to 187 acres for an individual case but averaged 5.3 acres when those owning more than 28 acres were removed. In most cases respondents had acquired their land by purchase followed by inheritance. In cases that respondents owned more than one plot, consecutive plots were more often purchased than the first plot which was inherited in 30% of cases. Forty percent of respondents rent land in addition to what they own. Twenty-three percent of respondents mention that at least one child has used household land at some point for personal activities. Only 3% say to have denied access to land to a child. Sixty-eight percent of respondents say that their children will inherit their land. This is also part of tradition that at the demise of the parents, available land is shared amongst the off springs.In the study we tried to assess intra-household decision-making on farm with respect to crop planting, destroying diseased or pest infested plants, sales of agricultural produce, pasture management, planting of trees and shrubs and sharing of work on farm. Data show that adult children are little involved in household decision making. Most decisions taken in the household (40-65%) are made by the household head alone and 20-30% of decisions are made by the spouse alone. Twenty to thirty percent of the decisions are jointly made by the spouse and the household head. Only in 0.5-5% children have a say in decisions regarding work and crop cultivation.In general spouses are more often named as sole decision-makers when it concerns the food crops: beans, cassava and sweet potatoes. Coffee, banana and pasture are more often controlled by household heads. Decisions regarding tree planting and labor-allocation are mainly made by households head alone (in approximately 50% of cases) or together with spouse in approximately 20% of cases. A small minority of respondents answer that decision-making is inclusive for all household-members and a few mention ‗other' family-members as being involved. This is based on the fact that in many households, land belongs to the man who hence makes decisions with respect to long-term investments like planting trees, while the woman has the role to provide food for the table. Many of the children are not involved in decision making since they are either very young or still in school. Some of the adult children might participate in household decision making on major investments, but since they live off farm, they are rarely consulted on small issues.A total of 821 dependants (all ages) were profiled within the surveyed households, Seventy four % of these dependants were still in school and their fees are being paid.The majority of dependants (75%) contribute to household farm labor, the degree in which however is very variable. Most dependants contribute to farm labor only during holidays and/or weekends, unsurprisingly since most dependants are school-going children. Six percent of dependants are said to contribute to farm labor on a daily basis. Thirty percent of respondents have adult children who live elsewhere but come to the farm occasionally to contribute to farm labor, usually in school holidays or in times of increased farm activity such as coffee harvest. Thirty percent of respondents have children who live elsewhere, but occasionally visit their parents and contribute to farm labor.Of a total of 174 adult children mentioned by our 56 respondents, the large majority has moved away from the household's compound. Data show that 38.5% of these 174 adult children reside in Kampala-city, 24.7% stay in regional towns and trading centers (such as Masaka, Kiboga-town, Luwero and Lwamata), 21.8% live in the same village as the parents, and 14.9% live with their parents' on the same compound. Sites vary in this factor, For Nakaseke, 68.8% of the adult children live in Kampala whereas this is 33.3% and 22.2% for Sembabule and Kiboga respectively. All but one of adult children in Nakaseke have left the parents' compound and the village all together. In Kiboga and Sembabule considerable numbers of adult children continue residing in their parents' compound (12.6% and 25% respectively) or have their own residence in the same village as their parents (33% and 25% respectively). This variation may be due to the proximity of Kampala to Nakaseke in comparison to Kiboga and Sembabule which facilitates urban migration.Contrary to the wide-spread idea that most young men opt out of agriculture to become a boda-driver (motortaxi-driver) in town, only 3.8% of adult children in our sample actually drive a boda-boda. The largest employer of adult children in this study is still agriculture with 27%, followed by business/merchandise with 18% and teaching with 9.7%. Nearly 8% of adult children are still in school, studying. Other occupations which are mentioned several times are: mechanic (5.1%), hair-stylist (4.5%), housewife (3.8%) and administrative officer (3.2%) and 6.4% of adult children are allegedly not employed. Adult children who live with their parents and contribute to farm labor are usually not paid by their parents.A number of adult children, both those who left and those residing in the village, own land themselves. 51% of adult children from Sembabule own land, 35% from Kiboga own land and 22% from Nakaseke site owns land. Like in our baseline data land was purchased by the owner in most cases. Men tend to own land more often than women with 58% against 34%. No significant correlations were found between land ownership and residence of the adult child. Few children in our sample had inherited land, not unexpectedly, since their parents are still alive and thus not in the position to leave land to their children. Some adult children who own land, however, have received this from their family or husband as a gift; 31% in Kiboga, 12.5% in Nakaseke and 38% in Sembabule. The respondents had an average of 9.7 children, with no significant difference between the sites. Taking into account the average land holding size of 5.3 acres, it is clear that (most) children will not inherit sufficient land upon which to base a viable farming livelihood. When children work on their parents' land they are usually not paid.We asked parents if they think their children whom have left the village will one day return to live in the village. In Sembabule parents say of 55% of all adult children in the sample that they expect them to return one day. For Kiboga this is 41% and for Nakaseke only 33%. Reasons why children were not expected to return were because they were married elsewhere (especially in the case of daughters) or because they owned land and a house or had a job elsewhere. Children were expected to return home after finishing studies or because they loved farming. Parents of adult children who live in the same compound expect their children to leave in most cases. Only a few mention that they expect a certain child to continue living with them. Reasons to leave the compound are: To get married and start a family, finish of studies, start a living in Kampala or get a job elsewhere and when enough money is saved to buy and own house and land. Many children, especially girls, get married before they are adult, and thus leave the household at a young age (14-17 years).A review of our data confirms the low presence of young people in the baseline data.We can safely conclude that the young (20-35 years) are not living with their parents. We did not find any proof for our first hypothesis -Young households and young adults are located within the household setup of their parents, but are not reported as part of the household since they have some economic autonomy -that young adults are hidden within the household set-up of their parents. Only 15% of adult children mentioned were still living at their parents' compound, and most of these children were expected to leave the compound when their studies were finishing or when they would start a family of their own. In addition those adult children did not have economic autonomy; they were either in school or contributed to household farm labor (usually unpaid). Young people in general move to their own house once they marry and/or start a family.Almost three quarters of the adult children are working outside agriculture, quite a large number considering that crop cultivation and sales are still the main source of income for 70% of households in our baseline survey with an additional 14% having a land-based main source of income such as waragi/banana-beer production and sales or livestock sales. The adult children of our baseline population are greatly diverting from this. Whether this is because of lack of access to land like we hypothesized (H2) -Young households have facultative livelihood strategies based in local towns, possibly due to lack of access to land (Some have had land and sold it), but will return when inherited land becomes available or resources are accumulated for land purchaseor because of other reasons is not convincingly proven. Quite a number of young adults though (varying between 22% and 55% for the different sites) do own land, although we didn't ask where this land was located so this might be outside the parents' village. Many parents expect their children to return back to the village one day. There is also a tendency among urban dwellers however to buy land and built a village house for after retirement. A return to the village thus needs not to imply any noteworthy activity or investment in agriculture. The number of young people owning land and expectations of their parents regarding their return seem to be positively correlated. Noteworthy was that for Sembabule site the number of young adults owning land and the number of parents expecting them to come back was much higher than for the other 2 sites. An explanation for this difference might be that farming conditions in Sembabule (soils, climate) are more favorable for commercial agriculture, providing more incentive for young farmers to invest in land and agriculture. The current residence of the young adult and if she/he owns land is not correlated indicating that both young adults living in their parents' village as those living elsewhere own (or not own) land. Taking into account the relatively small land holdings of our respondents (5.3 acres on average) and the large number of children they have it seems likely that not all children will inherited or receive enough land from their parents to base a living upon and land purchase is therefore inevitable should they wish to pursuit a land-based livelihood such as farming.There is a possibility that a bias in selection of our respondents for the baseline data resulted in an under representation of young households as we describe in H3 -Young people are present in the intervention sites and possibly interested in agriculture-based livelihoods but we were not able to reach them because of bias / partner interests or similar. For the baseline study however respondents were selected randomly from lists that supposedly included all households in the sites. A significant bias therefore is unlikely. Even if a bias could (partly) explain for the high average age of household heads in the baseline, most of the adult children of these households heads have left the village and are not working in agriculture.Many of the key-persons we interviewed support our fourth hypotheses that -Young households and young adults are little interested in agriculture and are working in local towns and larger urban areas instead -This is also supported by our data: 63.2% of the adult children have moved to Kampala or other towns and trading centers. According to their parents the main reasons to move away are to marry or to start a living/ find employment. The large variation between our sites with regards to out-migration suggests that many local factors such as: proximity to city, local land availability, farming conditions and market access play a role in determining the degree of out-migration. Then out-migration of young people does not necessarily need to rule out their participation in farm work, especially for sites like Nakaseke which are very near to the city. This can apply to farm activities on the parents' farm but also to seasonal agricultural labor. The hope or chance on employment that is well paid is major incentive for young people to move to Kampala according to many of the interviewed key-persons. The latter is not necessarily very easy taking into account that urban youth unemployment is 24% (Garcia & Fares 2008), although 83% of unemployment and underemployment in rural are youth (IYF 2011).The odds of a job may be better in urban than rural areas. Prospects are apparently more appealing than the rural (farming) life. The appeal of urban areas lies not only in (potentially) better employment. Beuving (2010) arguments that the absence of close kinship ties and therefore increased personal freedom is one of the main attractions of urban centers, in combination with the existence of a ‗leisure industry' that can be enjoyed with peers. It is not the ‗quest for economic opportunity' so much that makes young people go and stay in urban areas, Beuving concludes, but ‗a cultural preference' for urban life. Comments from Ssemwanga (2011) on a online forum about smallholder agriculture are in line with this; He says that many rural people see ‗farming' as: -a temporary measure required to get the hell out of the village (…) hence with the first significant amount of money they'll get they will free themselves from their land based livelihood (...) in order to get piped water and decent schools, a salon to do your hair‖. He adds that -village life is horrible, unless you have significant amounts of money and only those that see the prospect of making such money will remain there‖. Except for the pull-factors of the city there are also conditions or situations that ‗push' rural people from their village like: under-or unemployment and crop failures (Divyakirti 2002). In the case of young people the lack of support services also seems to be an important ‗push' factor (Garcia & Fares 2008). According to the majority of key-persons we interviewed access of young people to financial services for investment in agriculture, training or any other support are virtually non-existent. Another factor that enhances rural-urban migration is the education that rural youth receive; often the curriculum is much more geared toward academic accomplishments and urban focused studies than to learning useful skills that enhance rural livelihoods (World Bank 2009). However, IYF (2011), in a survey of youth, found that agriculture could still become an important source of livelihoods, if entry conditions were improved and training were more available.All together our data suggests that young rural people don't have much interest in investing in agriculture nor do they have the capacities and opportunities to do so. They see more future in migrating to urban areas, although this migration is not necessarily permanent. Even when living in urban areas many young people frequent their parents' compound to help out with farming activities, indicating that links with agriculture remain even after out-migration. The degree in which young people migrate seems to be related to distance to urban centre(s) and economic (farming) opportunity in the locality.Rural populations often take a decision to move from their lands to cities, often attracted by a better quality of life in the urban areas or a higher standard of living with more freedom. These factors that 'pull' people away from rural areas could be greater job opportunities, higher wages, better health & educational facilities, increased personal freedom etc. However, there are several instances when rural people are 'pushed' from their villages due to unemployment in agriculture, which results from mechanization, farm consolidation, crop failures, land shortage, etc. Whereas some of the migration is long-term and permanent, a significant amount of seasonal migration takes places (Virat Divyakirti, 2002). The out-migration of rural youth has a grave implication on labor availability and the future of agriculture. Girls often leave home at a very young age (even as young as 10 or 11) and may never return. Clearly there are advantages and disadvantages to such migration. While it may reduce the number of people the family has to feed, simultaneously it also deprives the household of labor. The emigration of male youth is due to their limited land rights and culturally imposed restrictions, and to the presumed attractions and promises of city life.Considering these kind of situations, rural youth are often included as an important target group for development projects that seek to increase their interest in agriculture through use of modern or more accessible agricultural technologies. Such initiatives would be hampered by cultural constraints, particularly those that affect land access and economic independence for youth.The degree of seasonal migration is difficult to assess but it implies that urban livelihoods of these people that go back and forth between the city and the village are not very dominantly established. Increased opportunity in the rural area might tempt them to (permanently) migrate back and invest in land-based livelihoods. The question is how to reach this group.The rural youth are most affected by poverty. This group, which represents over half of the world's youth population, is among the most disadvantaged groups as they often have limited access to vocational educational programs that address their specific situations and needs. This results in high dropout rates at an early age. School curricula are often geared more toward academic accomplishments and to urban-focused studies than to learning useful skills that enhance rural livelihoods.The resulting low enrollment rates, coupled with low completion rates, have contributed to the difficult transition into quality employment. As a compounding factor, education can be cost prohibitive and sometimes viewed as unnecessary in an agricultural society that is dependent upon farm working. There is also a debate about who move out of the villages. Skeldon (1997) argues that it is not the poorest that move out of villages. He suggests that it is the wealthiest who can afford to send their children for education and the well educated are the first to move out in search of best opportunities in urban areas. Therefore, most rural youth remain poor-three out of every four live on less than US $2 per day-lacking the resources and skills to be competitive (World Bank 2009). With educated people mainly migrating to urban areas, rural areas are also deprived from people that have the potential capacity to bring about change and development in the rural area.Investing in the rural youth-for education, for jobs,-is imperative if national governments seek to reduce poverty and diminish urban drift. Investments in rural infrastructure; electricity, health care and roads are also essential in order to keep the rural area attractive to young people. ","tokenCount":"5098"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7c57810b0d254d3812d526f5e0b895ba","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f4e1cd77-5d46-4b52-a2df-eb179f9f82b1/retrieve","id":"90155447"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"608dd34b-6a08-4f76-ba79-8343c4478459","pagecount":"7","content":"CGIAR » Cutting-edge Research Centers » CGIAR global network combines cutting-edge research, knowledge and assets that can respond to emerging challenges across the food-water-energy nexus. » Collaborative Partnerships » Unequalled partnership network that includes public and private investors, corporates, government bodies, academia, global policy bodies and NGOs. » Country Presence » Country presence in +70 countries with a deep knowledge of customs, values and market operations in developing countries. » +8000 Scientists and Researchers » +8000 scientists and researchers contributing to world class research. CCAFS brings together some of the best researchers globally in food systems, water, energy, climate, environmental, and social sciences.Anchor countriesWhere Sub-regional leads Sub-regional partner orgs Lead CG centres Other CG centres National partner orgs ","tokenCount":"118"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0b6f9b7a5b7ac62d56d7d78c40d53df2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/42a192d5-f811-4bd5-8bb3-f027b62cca0f/retrieve","id":"-649084563"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"de837aa0-d733-4e2a-a309-9b7e0a93af96","pagecount":"34","content":"Table 4. Grasses classified as excellent or good in the Regional Trials A in tropical forest ecosystcms. Tropical RTA \"Le-Ücia\" Colombia Grasses: Excellent B. decumbens 606 B. humidicola 6013 ' GoodThe objectives of this section are: a)To evaluate germplasm adaptation to different ecosystems through the International Network of Regional Trials.To conduct agronomic evaluations of promising germplasm going to and coming out of the Network.To test and develop methodology to be implemented in the Network through the different levels of evaluation in the Regional Trials.The International Network of Regional TrialsThe Network has now assembled 13 Regional Trials A for first evaluation of a large (100-120) number of accessions in the five main ecosystems of tropical America (Llanos, Cerrados, poorly drained savannas, tropical rain forest and semi-evergreen seasonal forest). Table 1 shows the location of participant institutions responsible for the trials, the represented ecosystems, and the planting date of each tria!. Eleven of the 13 trials have to this date been established, and 10 of them have reported data. The information being gathered from this first leve! of Network evaluations is under statistical analysis in arder to select the best materials in terms of survival under the prevalent conditions of each site. Table 2 lists the grass and legume accessions classified as excellent or good in Regional Trials A in the savanna ecosystems. Legume and grasses classified as excellent or good in the tropical forest ecosystems are listed in Tables 3 and 4.The previous two tables for the tropical forest ecosystems depict the outstanding behavior of Stylosanthes guianensis common type (136 and 184) as well as some \"tardio types\" and the good performance of Desmodium ovalifolium 350. In general, a large number of legume accessions are regarded as potentially good in the humid tropics. In the case of grasses, the good performance of Andropogon gayanus 621 is quite apparent and the even better performance of the other two Andropogon gayanus (6053 and 6054) entries. The excellent performance of some Brachiarias should be pointed oqt also, particularly Brachiaria humidicola 6013 which is spreading out rapidly into the Amazon ecosystems, especially in Brazil, wh~re it is known as \"Quicuio da AmazOnia\". Progress•has been made also in terms of Regional Trials B. These trials are designed to evaluate seasonal productivity of the promising material coming out from the two majar screening sites of the Tropical Pastures Program (Carimagua and CPAC) as well as from Regional Trials A. Location, participant institutions and persons responsible for the trials, ecosystem, and planting date of each Tria! are presented in  Data received from Network participants are being processed by means of a statistical analysis package developed by the Biometrics Section of the Data Services Unit, using the SAS package as a base. The computer output for each location includes an ANOVA test and DUNCAN mean separation for the different harvesting ages (3,6,9, and 12 weeks of regrowth) in two seasons of the year (maximum and mínimum precipitation). The data is also fitted with a linear and quadratic model in order to estímate seasonal rates of growth for each accession under test. lnformation on changes in number of plants, coverage, and diseases and pest effects, are also analyzed statistically. Processed data is sent back to the participants within the next month after it is received.The first multilocational data analysis from Regional Trials B has been done using a modification of the Environmental lndex developed by Eberhart, S.A. and Russell, W.A. (1966)*. The Environmental Index (El) was computed with the following formula: El = P 1 -P, where: P 1 is the local overall yield mean and P is the overall yield mean including all the locations in the analysis. This modified formula eliminates the dependence of the X and Y axis by excluding, in the calculation of the two means, the values of the entry under consideration. In this manner the X axis of the regression, corresponding to dry matter production is independent of the Y axis which corresponds to the Environmental lndex. El gives an indication of how superior or inferior a location is relative to mean productivity in all locations, expressed as mean dry matter production of all entries at each location, excluding the one being tested. This method assumes that the best integrating sensor of the attributes of the location's environment (soil, climate, pests, etc.) is the mean performance of the germplasm in the trial. Obviously, legumes have to be treated separately from grasses because their productivity is different.An example is presented in Figure 1 of regression analysis (dry matter production vs. El) with four ecotypes of Stylosanthes capitata for the Llanos of Colombia, using six points representing locations. Four of the points correspond to Regional Trials B with the same level of fertility (22 kg of P + 41.50 kg K), while the other two points correspond to a trial in Carimagua which was run with a low {ll kg of P + 20.75 kg K) anda high (33 kg P + 62.25 kg K) level of fertilization. The intercept is an estímate of the mean productivity of an ecotype throughout different trials in the ecosystem and the slope represents changes in performance of that ecotype with changes in El. The chosen Stylosanthes capitata accessions have a narrow range 9f intercepts which means that all produce similarly throughout the Llanos ecosystem of Colombia. However, a large difference is apparent in slopes, indicating degrees in which the four  This study of the species and e~tries of promising material's adaptability across locations has clear implications for the success of adoption by producers. It follows that the Program should emphasize the selection of accessions with the highest production throughout the ecosystem (intercept) and least changes in performance throughout the different locations (slope). However, there is no clear definition yet of the magnitude of the slope for selection of germplasm; tentatively, germplasm with slopes in the order of 1.5 or less could be taken as having wide range adaptability.A multilocational analysis including six locations in the Llanos of Colombia and all grasses and legumes commonly tested in Regional Trials B has been done using growth rates rather than dry matter production. The analysis has been done with information for the rainy season (maximum precipitation period) and dry season (mínimum precipitation period), and results are presented in Tables 6 and 7 for location and entries, respectively. Locations included in the Llanos of Colombia were significantly different for both grasses and legumes in terms of mean-growth rates of all entries tested (Table 6). The superiority of Stylosanthes capitata accessions in terms of wide adaptability to the Colombian Llanos ecosystem for both the rainy and dry periods is quite evident (Table 7). This high degree of adaptability of ~• capitata as a group is particularly remarkable when ene considers the low level of fertilizer used in their evaluation (22 kg of P + 41.50 kg of K). It should be noticed that Desmodium ovalifolium 350 follows ~• capitata in terms of growth rate during the rainy season, but outperforms all legumes during the dry season. Among the grasses Brachiaria decumbens and Andropogon gayanus perform very similarly as indicated by the non-significant differences in growth rate in both seasons. 1 Mean of growth rates of four regrowth periods (0-3, 3-6, 6-9 and 9-12 2 weeks). ANOVA and Dunean ealeulated separately for grasses and legumes.The El analysis was mueh more sensitive with the mean absolute yield that with growth rate. Mean yields eorrespond to the aeeumulated DM yield at 3, 6, 9 and 12 weeks of r~growth. Tables 8 and 9 show the linear regression parameters for dry matter produetion vs. El on eommonly tested legumes in the Regional Trials B of the Llanos of Colombia for the rainy and dry season, respeetively.As mentioned above, St¡¡:losanthes ea11itata as a group outyields all other legumes; this is indieated by the intereept followed by Desmodium ovalifolium 350. In general, a relatively wide range of slopes is evident not only with S. ea11itata but with all other speeies. * Significant (P = 0.05) ** Significant (P = 0.01)The same statistical analysis procedure was applied to data obtained by the Regional Network Trials in the tropical forest ecosystems. A comparison of locations in terms of growth rate for the maximum and mínimum periods of precipitation (Table lO) indicates the best sites for both grasses and legumes. This could be rated to better fertility and humidity conditions in those locations. The seasonal mean growth rate of some legumes and grasses commonly tested in the ll Regional B Trials in the tropical forest ecosystem are presented in Table ll.   54.2 a 45.4 a 24.5 b 14.1 be 18.9 be 9.9 e 9.1 e 1 Mean of growth rates of four regrowth periods (0-3, 3-6, 6-9 and 9-12 weeks). As in the case of the multilocational analysis for the Llanos, the interaction location x entry is analyzed by the regression between seasonal dry matter mean yield of each entry vs. the El. Results of this analysis (Table 12) for the 11 locations of the humid tropic forest ecosystem show Stylosanthes guianensis 136, 184 and Desmodium ovalifolium 350 as the legumes with highest productivity for the maximum period of precipitation. In terms of changes in performancewith changes in quality of the environment in each location, Desmodium ovalifolium showed the less steep slope eventhough not significant. In contrast, Stylosanthes guianensis 136 shows the steepest slope, probably due to differences across locations in anthracnose resistance. During the minimum period of precipitation, the slope of Stylosanthes guianensis 136 is reduced in magnitude, but it increases in the case of Desmodium ovalifolium 350. This could be the result of reduced effect of anthracnose in sorne of the locations in the case of ~• guianensis 136, and of different water holding €apacity of the soils and length of the dry period in the different locations in the case of Desmodium ovalifolium 350.Andropogon gayanus is the more productive grass during the maximum and minimum periods of precipitation and shows the greatest range of adaptation as indicated by a non-significant slope during the maximum period of precipitation; like Brachiaria decumbens, it shows a moderate slope during the minimum period of precipitation.\"' \"' The use of the Environmental Index (El) technique is very useful to show germplasm performance in different locations. However, it is recognized that the methodology for analysis of the interaction location x entry should be based on physical and biological information from each location. In other words, the analysis should separate the effects of weather, soils, pests and diseases in order to explain behavior of the germplasm under test. Consistent with this, the International Regional Trials Network is recording, in addition to entry performance by season and location, soil chemical analysis of the site, weather parameters from the closet meteorological station, and diseases and pests observed during the trial.The information being recorded through Regional Trials A and B is very valuable to assess not only the adaptability of the materials throughout ecosystems, but also to set solid bases for extrapolation and exchange of information among institutions participating in the International Regional Trials Network.Various factors and characteristics of pasture plants determine productivity and persistence under grazing, among them, seasonal productivity which is measured by Regional Trials B throughout the Network. Selected legume and grass species being tested in RTB are simultaneously evaluated at the Quilichao Station to study their growth pattern and changes in forage quality during periods of positive and negative water balance. Two trials are conducted, one for grasses and one for legumes. This section reports on the growth curves for two different periods of extreme water balance. The Pasture Quality and Nutrition section is reporting data pertaining to the same trial on quality analysis and relative acceptability of these materials to the grazing animals. The growth curves of nine grasses are presented in Figure 2. The X axis scale used in the dryer period is four times larger than the Y axis scale used in the rainy period. The growth rates of the five Brachiaria species are presented in the bottom part of Figure 3 shows the growth curves of 12 legumes in two different water balance periods. During the rainy period Desmodium ovalifolium 350 (bottom of Figure 3) had a linear growth rate. However, during the dry period it did not grow and responded only moderately to the first rains.Looking at the Stylosanthes species (center•of Figure 3), Stylosanthes guianensis 184 and Stylosanthes hamata 147 had similar growth rates during the rains and during the negative water balance periods, with a strong reaction to first rains. Stylosanthes capitata 1315, had the slowest growth rate during the rainy period, and was the only Stylosanthes that did not grow during periods of negative water balance, but it strongly reacted to the first rains.  Growth curves of nine grasses affected by two different water balance periods (rainy and mostly dry). Notice that the X scale is four times bigger in the curves for the drier period.  The legume Galactia striata 964 (top of Figure 3) is a well known drought-tolerant species, and this is confirmed by this study which shows that it grew during the dry period even at a faster rate than in the rainy period.In order to study the potential compatibility of grass-legume mixtures, two trials were conducted, ene to test nine legumes associated with two grasses, in monoculture, and the other to test six grasses associated with two legumes, in monoculture, with and without nitrogen fertiliz&tion.Relative dry matter yield of the components in each plot are shown in Figures 4 and 5 for the associations of the six grasses with Desmodium ovalifolium 350 and Stylosanthes capitata 1315. In Figure 4 the three Brachiaria species show different degrees of aggressiveness as indicated by the growth of Desmodium ovalifolium and Stylosanthes capitata in different proportions in the mixture. It would seem that Brachiaria humidicola is a grass that requires time to show its aggressiveness in full potential, as indicated by the high proportion of legumes at the first cuttings.In the case of bunch type grasses (Andropogon gayanus 621, Hyparrhenia rufa 601 and Panicum maximum 604), the proportions of Stylosanthes capitata in the association was similar. However, when the associated legume was Desmodium ovalifolium, Hyparrhenia rufa seemed to be the weakest grass, as indicated by greater proportion of Desmodium ovalifolium through the eight cuts.To complement the information on relative competition between grasses and legume~, root studies are carried out by sampling the interphase between the lines of grasses and legumes in each plot. This attempts to study root interaction, as indicated by occupation and utilization of the soil. As a summary, Table 13 shows values for the eighth cut of a Root Efficiency Index (REI) calculated by dividing the root dry matter present in the 40 cm top soil by the top dry matter production. This index is interpreted as an indication of the amount of roots required for the plant to produce certain amount of aerial dry matter, and consequently it is an important indicator of aggressiveness or ability of the plant to occupy and use the soil. In this context, Brachiaria humidicola 6013 is the grass with the greatest REI, in other words, with the ability to locate more roots in the soil as compared to other grasses. A comparison of means across grasses for the different competition treatments with legumes, indicates little differences, possibly with the exception of Desmodium ovalifolium, with the lowest REI (2.73).In order to evaluate the nitrogen contribution of legumes to the grasses, chemical analyses of the sward components in the different plots were done on each of the cuttings. Table 14 shows the seasonal nitrogen yields of six grasses when associated with Desmodium ovalifolium 350, Stylosanthes capitata 1315 and in monoculture with an without nitrogen fertilization (100 kg per hectare). ;~i;f.~t~•~tttf~4f~JJ~;:gr;:Sff}~~~ ''.; ~.r.. ]_:!.'/l-1 ~tt(i~}!if~\"''Y..~~~ ~-.~~'P f.~t,l~ • :) •. ~,;1 ~f.'<: .,.,  -----------------------------REI = (kg root DM/kg top DM) -----------------------------   A Relative Compatibility Index (RCI) was calculated to indicate the degree of yield of such species in association vs. the productivity of the same species in monoculture. The RCI was calculated by dividing DM yield of the species associated vs. DM yield of the species in monoculture. In the case of grasses, two controls were used with and without nitrogen fertilization. Consequently, two RCI are calculated for each grass under competition by two companion legumes. An RCI of 1 represents a situation of equilibrium in which the species is not affected by the companion species. An RCI above 1 indicates that the species is benefited by the companion species in the association, whereas an RIC of less than 1 indicates that the species is negatively affected by the companion species. In general, the productivity of grass was in most cases favored by the association with a legume (Figure 6). The two extreme situations were Hyparrhenia rufa 601 (the less aggressive grass) and Brachiaria decumbens 606, always benefited by the companion legume. Andropogon gayanus 621 seemed in most cases to benefit by the companion legumes except with Desmodium ovalifolium. In Figure 6, the difference between the two RCI's calculated using the two nitrogen leve•ls of the monoculture as the denominator, shows the range of benefit due to the nitrogen contribution. The difference from RCI=1 explains the reduced competitive ability of the associated legumes.The same RCI calculations have been done with data recorded from the experiment in which nine 1egumes are associated with Andropogon gayanus 621 and Brachiaria decumbens 606. Figure 7 shows RCI changes with time for the nine legumes under the influence of associated species. It is clear that all legumes have a high tendency to be negatively affected by the companion grass (RCI < 1). This is an important difference with grasses which normally benefit from the companion legume.Desmodium ovalifolium 350 is the legume with highest RCI throughout the period of evaluation; in other words, it is the most aggressive legume in the study. It also shows the largest difference in RCI between the two companion grasses as it was only slightly affected by Andropogon gayanus as compared with Brachiaria decumbens, in which case it reached a somewhat stable level after the fourth cut.The information obtained in this clipping trial has to be interpreted with caution, since it is only meant to indicate the potential aggressiveness or compatibility among grasses and legumes eliminating factors such as trampling, preferential grazing and perenniality of species which strongly affect the compatibility and productivity of a mixture under grazing.The section is currently testing alternative methodologies and sampling techniques that could be used in Regional Trials C and D, in which animals are introduced in the evaluations.A prototype of a Regional Trial C which attempts to evaluate the effect of three grazing pressures on five grass-legume mixtures (Andropogon gayanus 621 with Centrosema pubescens 438 and Stylosanthes capitata 1405; Panicum maximum 604 with Centrosema pubescens 438 and Stylosanthes capitata 1405; and Brachiaria decumbens 606 with Desmodium ovalifolium 350) has completed six months under grazing. This trial is conducted simulating rotational grazing with a three-to-four-days grazing period followed by six weeks Srainy) or eight weeks (dry) resting periods. Figure 8 shows the changes in dry matter availability in two mixtures of Centrosema pubescens with Andropogon gayanus and Panicum maximum. As a consequence of the three grazing pressure treatments applied (2.4 and 6 kg of DM on offer per 100 kg of liveweight), botanical composition of the pasture changed with time. Starting from similar DM availabilities, after the first six months of grazing, DM on offer has changed drastically as shown in the last August evaluation.  \"' e \"' u 2 ..-\"\"'.!!'. .):..-~Dry matter (grass-legume) availability changes in two mixtures under three different grazing pressures (2,4 and 6 kg MS/100 kg liveweight) applied rotationally.Measurements of the botanical components in the mixture are done during the grazing period to monitor changes with time of botanical composition of the different mixtures under the different grazing pressures. At this point, it is too early for a definite picture of the treatment effects on botanical composition. However, this information should prove very valuable after one or more years to get information on the range of productivity (carrying capacity) and persistence of the mixtures under different defoliation regimes. Obviously, this type of information for a few selected associations will allow the Network researcher in charge to chose for a Regional Tria! D, not only the best pasture mixture in terms of total productivity but that having the widest range of tolerance to under-or overgrazing.In designing a Regional Tria! D, there are basically two options: 1) using fixed grazing pressures and, 2) using fixed stocking rates. The choice of either one technique to evaluate the productivity of pasture in terms of animal gains, should not be, by any means, a dogmatic decision. The advantages and disadvantages of either approach are related to the potential productivity of the ecosystems (soil fertility, dry season length, carrying capacity leve! of native specie~, etc.) and the prevalent animal production system (intensity of management, leve! of stocking rate required, other sources of feed availability, type of animal, etc.). Methodologies should be assembled in each case to respond to specific ecosystems and production systems.In order to try one of the alternatives an old tria! was used. This included three pastures: 1) Andropogon gayanus 621 + Panicum maximum 604 + Hyparrhenia rufa 601 + Brachiaria decumbens 606 in blocks, with five repetitions in the same paddock; 2) Andropogon gayanus 621 + five Centrosema pubescens ectoypes sown in separate mixtures also with five repetitions within the same paddock; 3) the four grasses indicated above in mixture with Stylosanthes guianensis, Centrosema pubescens, Pueraria phaseoloides and Galactia striata. Starting in December 1980, a pure stand of Andropogon gayanus 621 was added to this tria!. These four pastures are grazed using a \"put and take\" or constant grazing pressure management, adjusting the stocking rate to the availability of forage plus an estímate of the growth rates obtained with enclosed areas.The changes in botanical composition of one of the four paddocks (Andropogon gayanus 621 + Centrosema pubescens) is shown in Figure 9.Since the beginning of 1980 the proportion of grass and legume has been stable in terms of .green dry matter, varying from 15 to 20% of legume on off e:. Thhese result 1 s show adhighFidegree 10 ofh•compahtibility o 1 f thde t':'o :.-) spec~es w en proper y manage , gure s ows t e accumu ate ga~ns per head and per hectare on the four pastures. Gains per head have increased linearly in all paddocks as expected, with small inflections between July and September 1980, when a long and drastic dry period occurred. This drought effect is more clearly shown in terms of animal gains per hectare where number of animals per paddock was drastically reduced during that period. The mean animal gains are around 550 g/an/day and 1700 g/ha/day. An important aspect of this triil is to make measurements in the paddocks that could be used to predict animal performance. A first analysis of the data shows sorne interesting results. The relationship between animal gains per hectare and per head with total dry matter on offer (TDMO) for the paddock of Andropogon gayanus 621 with the five Centrosema pubsecens is presented in Figure 11. The TDMO, usually measured in grazing trials, had no relationship with animal gains and even shows less gains with more DMO. When \"present green dry matter on offer\" (PGDMO) is correlated to animal gains (Figure 12), the situation .  improves drastically as indicated by the r , and the relationship becomes logical. This PGDMO is obtained by discarding dead material from the samples taken in the pasture. Furthermore, when daily average regrowth is added to the PGDMO, or \"true green dry matter on offer\" (TGDMO), variation in animal weight grains is better explained (Figure 13).Several other botanical separations are being done as well as chemical analyses on resulting materials. It is expected to have enough information in the future to be able to select those measurements on pastures that provide the highest prevailing value of animal performance, so that they can be used,by the Network participants.As a closing statement, it is important to mention that one of the most critical constraints to research on pasture evaluation in tropical America is the lack of a reliable methodology, compatible with the national institution resources, with the productivity potential of different ecosystems, and with the feed resources of the prevailing production systems. It is then important for the Tropical Pastures Program to emphasize research in the methodology field.   ","tokenCount":"4087"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"42ae7839c25bc9fd2e124a66f1608391","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b74b1a91-822b-4d6b-aa4c-c28399d772b3/retrieve","id":"409386376"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8a9e618c-f755-4236-a9fc-fb8a834aa0d9","pagecount":"14","content":"• CODIGO: 16 52 58 1. Seleccionar de mayor a menor, cual de los atributos valoraría más al momento de comprar carne. 2. ¿Cuanto pagaría de más? 1. Identificar características sociodemográficas de un consumidor potencial de carne más sostenible.2. Estimar disposición a pagar (DAP) por:• Carne \"eco-amigable\"• Carne \"bienestar animal\" 3. Estimar efecto de información en DAP.• Un mayor precio al productor contribuye a promover la adopción de sistemas de producción más sostenibles.• Aumentos en el precio al consumidor se transmiten al precio al productor.Determinar características del segmento de consumidor potencial.Obtener impresiones, actitudes, ideas y percepciones relacionadas al consumo de carne.• DAP por Característica de \"eco-amigable\"• DAP por Característica de \"bienestar animal\"• Estimar efecto de información en DAP • Existe un comprador potencial para carne diferenciada:✓ Reforzar la comunicación y enfoque hacia Bienestar Animal ✓ No es necesario establecer practicas más estrictas. ✓ Mejorar la comunicación y garantizar el cumplimiento.• Desconocimiento y desinformación respecto al origen y manejo de los alimentos.• Existe una demanda de información desde el mercado.• La información, incluso en forma breve, tiene un efecto sustancial en la DAP.• Generar una certificación o esquema de verificación confiable y reconocible.• Desarrollar mecanismos que garanticen que el beneficio adicional llegue al productor.• Efectos positivos en precios y ventas pero no necesariamente en ingresos de trabajadores y hogares 1,2,3 .• Desarrollar la estrategia de mercadeo para estos productos y fortalecer la cadena de valor que garantice la oferta y trazabilidad del producto.Respuesta del consumidor y las cadenas de ganadería bovina ante el COVID-19• Preferencias de los consumidores a largo plazo: seguridad alimentaria, trazabilidad, bienestar animal y sostenibilidad.• Reducción de ingresos y empleo, aumento de incertidumbre -sensibilidad de precios y sustitución.• Menor demanda de alimentos de alta calidad (cierre de restaurantes y turismo).• Comprender e impulsar la formalización de la cadena de valor (de manera sensible) y la comunicación con el consumidor.• Digitalización y virtualización. bit.ly/COVID-19yGanaderia","tokenCount":"315"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"266df318623b0d2696f67503daaf00e2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1aa44f06-f430-4da1-9992-886d30c8704f/retrieve","id":"-2147472099"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f05f3038-dd72-4d49-89f2-7c4b62a54e05","pagecount":"86","content":"Não existe documentação fidedigna sobre quando e onde os seres humanos começaram a consumir caracóis como um suplemento alimentar. Em muitas das áreas onde há caracóis, especialmente nas regiões tropicais e sub-tropicais, como seja na África ocidental e oriental, os nativos recolhem-nos, comem-nos e vendem o excedente, que fornece uma fonte de rendimento.Esta publicação tem como objectivo fornecer ideias aos produtores que pretendem criar caracóis em pequena escala, para consumo ou para comercialização. Não se destina, em primeira instância, a helicicultores que desejam produzir caracóis em grande escala, para os mercados de exportação. A atenção é centrada em três espécies principais: Achatina achatina, Achatina fulica e Archachatina marginata, que são comuns nas regiões tropicais, especialmente em África.Discutem-se os factores limitantes a ser considerados, com vista a uma cultura de caracóis efectiva, para que, deste modo, os produtores não iniciem a criação de caracóis sem considerarem as vantagens e os inconvenientes inerentes à sua cultura.O incentivo para a elaboração desta publicação surgiu de frequentes pedidos sobre um Agrodok que tratasse da cultura de caracóis, expressos aquando do preenchimento dos questionários insertos noutros números da série Agrodok. Uma grande parte da informação básica utilizada provém do guia prático Snail Farming in West Africa do Dr Joseph R. Cobbinah's. Esta informação de base foi complementada por investigação bibliográfica e na Internet, assim como através de contactos com especialistas africanos sobre este assunto.A carne dos caracóis tem sido consumida pelos seres humanos em todo o mundo desde a época pré-histórica. Possui um alto valor proteico (12-16%) e ferroso (45-50 mg/kg), pouca gordura, e contém quase todos os aminoácidos que os seres humanos necessitam. Um estudo recente também mostrou que as substâncias glandulares na carne dos caracóis comestíveis causa uma aglutinação de uma determinada bactéria, que pode ser valiosa no combate a uma série de perturbações físicas, entre as quais a tosse convulsa ou coqueluche.Os caracóis comestíveis também desempenham um papel importante na medicina popular, tradicional. No Gana acredita-se que o líquido azulado que se obtém a partir da casca quando a carne é retirada é bom para o crescimento infantil. O elevado teor ferroso da carne é considerado importante para o tratamento de anemia. No passado era recomendado para o tratamento de úlceras e da asma. No Tribunal Imperial em Roma pensava-se que a carne de caracol continha propriedades afrodisíacas e era frequentemente servida a visitantes dignitários, pela noite adentro.Na África ocidental, a carne de caracol tem sido, tradicionalmente, um dos principais ingredientes da dieta das populações que vivem na cintura das florestas de altitude ( a zona de florestas, que difere da floresta de savana). Na Costa do Marfim, por exemplo, estima-se em 7,9 milhões de kgs o consumo anual de carne de caracol. No Gana é evidente que actualmente a procura ultrapassa a oferta.O comércio internacional de caracóis está em florescimento na Europa e na América do Norte. Contudo, e apesar da procura considerável tanto estrangeira como local, a cultura comercial de caracóis tal como é praticada na Europa, no Sudoeste asiático e no continente americano, é praticamente inexistente em África. No Gana, Nigéria e Costa do Marfim, onde a carne de caracol assume um interesse particular, recolhem-se os caracóis nas florestas durante a estação das chuvas. Contu-do, nos últimos anos assistiu-se a um declínio considerável das populações de caracóis selvagens. Em primeira instância devido ao impacto de actividades humanas como sejam o desflorestamento, o uso de pesticidas, a agricultura de \"derrubar e queimar\", os fogos espontâneos e a recolha de caracóis que ainda não atingiram o tamanho adulto (imaturos). É por isso que é importante encorajar a cultura de caracóis (helicicultura) para que se possa conservar este recurso importante.Os caracóis são favoráveis ao meio ambiente porque, ao contrário das galinhas ou dos porcos, nem os caracóis nem os seus excrementos exalam um cheiro demasiado forte. Os caracóis também podem ser criados no pátio traseiro da casa.Os insumos de capital, técnicos, de mão-de-obra e financeiros da produção simples de caracóis são relativamente baixos, comparados com os que são necessários para outros tipos de criação animal (aves de capoeira, porcos, cabras, carneiros ou gado bovino).A carne de caracol é uma boa fonte de proteínas. É rica em ferro e cálcio, mas tem um teor baixo em gordura e colesterol comparativamente a outras fontes de proteínas, como sejam a carne de aves de capoeira e a carne de porco.Sem se utilizarem meios artificiais dispendiosos de controlo do clima, a cultura de caracóis restringe-se à zona de floresta tropical húmida, que oferece uma temperatura constante, uma humidade relativa elevada, preferivelmente sem estação seca e a um ritmo diário/nocturno, razoavelmente constante, durante todo o ano.A carne de caracol é considerada um acepipe por alguns, enquanto outros nem sequer tocarão nos moluscos por razões culturais ou religiosas.Os caracóis são animais de crescimento relativamente lento. Para além disso, a porção de carne consumível apenas é (no máximo) 40% do peso total do caracol vivo. Consequentemente, a cultura de caracóis não representa um modo rápido de fazer dinheiro!Os caracóis que se escaparam duma exploração helicícola ou foram deitados fora por um agricultor, podem tornar-se rapidamente numa praga severa para a agricultura e horticultura.Por estas razões deve-se enfatizar que a cultura de caracóis deve ser encarada como apenas um dos componentes numa empresa agrícola diversificada. Contudo, com paciência, uma boa gestão e uma integração cuidadosa nas actividades agrícolas existentes, a cultura de caracóis pode fornecer recompensas substanciais a longo prazo.A AgroBrief No. 3 da Agromisa, Snail Farming (M. Leeflang, 2005) fornece linhas de orientação úteis para quem esteja a considerar produzir caracóis. (Apêndice 1).Sugere-se a sequência das cinco etapas seguintes: 1 Plano (de mercado, produção, organização) 2 Produção e vendas-piloto 3 Decisão de começar ou não com a produção 4 Investimento em infra-estruturas e em know-how (gaiolas/recintos, finanças, conhecimento) 5 Incremento programado da produção (controlos logístico, de qualidade e financeiro)Os capítulos seguintes apresentam prescrições de como realizar a cultura de caracóis, por exemplo, espécies de caracóis adequadas, meio ambiente, habitação/instalações, raças, alimentação e saúde.Atenção: Antes de enveredar pela cultura de caracóis certifique-se de que existe um mercado para este molusco! Tal questão pode parecer, por si só, evidente mas existem muitos exemplos de casos em que foram introduzidos caracóis terrestres gigantes africanos (GALSgiant African land snails) noutras regiões do mundo para aí serem produzidos mas que, eventualmente, foram devolvidos à natureza, por falta dum mercado.Uma vez que os caracóis foram introduzidos, deitá-los fora ou deixar que escapem, origina uma praga agrícola grave. Se não existirem inimigos naturais acabarão destruindo uma vasta gama de culturas agrícolas e/ou hortícolas e causando danos económicos consideráveis. A espécie Achatina fulica goza, particularmente, duma má reputação a este respeito.Os caracóis africanos gigantes são considerados um acepipe para as pessoas acostumadas a consumi-los, enquanto que outras pessoas, até mesmo dentro do mesmo país, nem sequer lhes tocarão, quanto mais pensar em comê-los. Por esta razão, não comece a cultivar caracóis sem que esteja absolutamente certo que alguém os comprará ou os comerá.2 Espécies adequadasOs caracóis pertencem a um grupo de animais invertebrados conhecidos como moluscos. A maioria dos moluscos têm uma concha. Outros membros deste grupo englobam lesmas, mexilhões, lulas e chocos.Este Agrodok centra-se no potencial da cultura dos caracóis (também chamados caramujos) terrestres gigantes africanos (GALS), mais especificamente as espécies Achatina achatina, Achatina fulica e Archachatina marginata. Estas espécies pertencem à família Achatinidae, um grupo diverso de grandes caracóis terrestres, com pulmões, provenientes originalmente das regiões ocidental, oriental e austral de África, com cascas alongadas e achatadas. Os seus tamanhos variam entre 3 cm e 25 cm. Os 14 géneros são: Achatina, Archachatina, Atopochochlis, Bequeartina, Burtoa, Columna, Callistpepla, Lignus, Limicollaria, Limicolariopsis, Lissachatina, Metachatina, Periderriopsis and Pseudachati. Vivem principalmente nas florestas dos países tropicais, mas algumas podem viver em terras de pastagens. Alimentam-se primordialmente de frutos e de folhas. São fáceis de encontrar e a sua criação não é difícil. Põem várias ninhadas de ovos por ano. De um modo geral, são muito fáceis de cuidar e podem enfrentar uma diversidade de condições ambientais.Essencialmente o caracol é composto de duas partes: o corpo e a concha. O corpo divide-se em três partes -a cabeça, o pé e a massa visceral. A cabeça não se encontra bem demarcada e suporta dois pares de tentáculos retrácteis. Um par de tentáculos é mais comprido que o outro e contém os olhos na ponta final, com um protuberância. O pé, longo e muscular, ocupa quase toda a superfície ventral e, tal como a cabeça, não se encontra claramente demarcado do resto do corpo. Uma estria longitudinal, pouco profunda, estende-se ao longo da parte central do pé. A massa visceral, em forma de crista, encontra-se alojada na concha, por cima do pé. Ela contém os órgãos digestivos, reprodutivos e respiratórios.A pele, por cima da crista visceral, segrega uma grande concha calcária (98% da concha é composta de carbonato de cálcio). Na maior parte das espécies, a concha é responsável por um terço do peso do corpo. É a carcaça protectora do caracol. Sempre que o perigo espreita, o caracol recolhe o seu corpo na concha.Embora os caracóis sejam hermafroditas (i.e. tenham órgãos reprodutores masculinos e femininos), na maioria das espécies os indivíduos acasalam-se antes de porem os ovos. ? Gâmbia: honuldu ? Serra Leoa: konk ? Libéria: dain (Nano), drainn (Gio) ? Gana: abobo (Ewe), elonkoe (Nzima), krekete (Hausa), nwapa (Akan), wa (Ga), weJle (Dagarti) ? Nigéria: katantawa (Hausa), ilako, isan (Yoruba) ? Africa oriental: konokono (Suaili) Achatina fulica. Nome comum: caracol do jardim ou da horta, caracol tolo (por vezes também chamado o caramujo-gigante africano) ? Gana: nwa (Akan) ? Tribos do Norte do Gana, Burquina Faso, Togo e Nigéria: kreteke ? Nigéria: eesan, ipere (Yoruba) ? Quénia: ekhumuniu (Luhya), kamniyo (Luo) ? África oriental: konokono (Suahili) Archachatina marginata. Nome comum: caracol grande preto, caracol terrestre gigante africano ? Libéria: proli (Kepelle) ? Gana: pobere (Akan) ? Nigéria: igbun (Yoruba), ejuna (Ibo) Figura 2: Distribuição original aproximada das três espécies de GALS tratadas neste livro Existem outras espécies comestíveis, mas a sua importância é menor e só no âmbito local. O nome local refere-se, habitualmente, a todas as espécies comestíveis existentes no país. A Figura 2 mostra a distribuição em África das 3 espécies tratadas neste Agrodok: Achatina achatina, Archachatina marginata, assim como a área reputada como sendo a original do Achatina fulica, na África oriental.Para se evitar confusão, este Agrodok refere-se às três espécies de caracóis pelo seu nome científico (Latim).A Achatina achatina (caracol gigante, caracol tigre), uma espécie distribuída amplamente na África Ocidental (particularmente no Benin, Costa do Marfim, Gana, Libéria, Nigéria, Serra Leoa e Togo), pode ser considerada como um bom candidato para ser cultivada na maior parte das regiões da África Ocidental, embora requeira uma humidade mais elevada que as outras duas espécies e necessite um período de crescimento mais extenso para alcançar a maturidade sexual.Os caracóis Achatina achatina são reputadamente os maiores caracóis terrestres em todo o mundo. Embora, normalmente, sejam bastante menores, chegam a atingir um comprimento de 30 cm no seu corpo e a sua concha 25 cm. O comprimento médio da concha é de 18 cm, com um diâmetro médio de 9 cm. A concha, com uma forma cónica, bastante pontiaguda, tem uma cor acastanhada e um padrão característico de riscas (daí o nome de caracol tigre)A espécie Achatina achatina tem a sua origem na floresta húmida da África ocidental, desde a Guiné, através da Nigéria (ver Figura 2). Por ser uma das espécies mais apreciadas no Gana, o A. achatina é cada vez mais rara na natureza.Podem encontrar-se vários ecótipos (populacões de A. achatina localmente adaptadas), apresentando diferenças nas taxas de crescimento, nos padrões de tamanho, estivação (dormência), na cor e até no sabor. As diferenças em tamanho podem ser explicadas parcialmente pelas diferenças na duração do período de estivação: quando mais curto é o período de estivação, tanto mais longo é o período de alimentação e portanto, tanto maior é o ecótipo.Um estudo realizado sobre os três ecótipos do Gana, conhecidos localmente como \"donyina\", \"apedwa\" e \"goaso\", revelou diferenças significativas entre eles. Os caracóis \"apedwa\" tinham os períodos de estivação mais curtos, e os caracóis \"donyina\", os mais longos. Os caracóis \"apedwa\" eram os maiores dos três ecótipos, por vezes apresentando o dobro do tamanho dos caracóis \"donyina\". No Gana, seria este o tipo a ser recomendado como o melhor candidato para ser produzido.Estas espécies preferem condições quentes, com temperaturas de 25-30 °C e uma humidade relativa de 80-95%. A espécie A. achatina é referida como não sendo a espécie mais fácil de cultivar devido às condições muito uniformes a que está habituada na natureza: um fotoperiodismo praticamente constante de 12/12, que apenas varia para 13/11 durante cerca de 3 meses, e uma diferença entre a temperatura diurna e a nocturna de apenas 2-4 °C. Até mesmo nas regiões mais húmidas da África ocidental, este caracol, no seu habitat natural, enterra-se para estivação durante os meses mais secos.Reprodução. O caracol Achatina achatina reproduz-se por autofertilização. Ao contrário do que acontece em muitas outras espécies, a reprodução não é precedida por acoplamento, embora não seja anormal encontrar dois caracóis numa proximidade muito íntima. Estudos realizados (Hodasi, 1979) indicam que estas espécies se reproduzem na estação das chuvas mais demarcada (de Abril a Julho no Gana).Postura. A postura ocorre normalmente durante a noite avançada ou durante as primeiras horas da madrugada. Os ovos são postos em ninhadas de 30-300 ovos. Têm uma forma proeminentemente ovalada, com uma cor amarelada suja , com 8-9 mm de comprimento e 6-7 mm de largura. São depositados em buracos escavados de cerca de 4 cm de profundidade. Quando são postas ninhadas de ovos pequenas, seguirse-á uma segunda ninhada e por vezes até uma terceira.Incubação e eclosão. Normalmente os ovos eclodem 2-3 semanas após a postura, dentro dum leque de 10-31 dias, dependendo da temperatura. O caracol A. achatina apresenta uma elevada taxa de eclosão, de 90+%; até não sendo anormal registar-se uma taxa de eclosão de 100%.O caracol bebé tem uma membrana delgada no lugar da concha, que se calcifica progressivamente. Embora este período seja caracterizado por um crescimento rápido, os caracóis são capazes de sobreviver sem comer, durante os primeiros 5-10 dias após a eclosão.A fase juvenil cobre o período desde o 1° ou 2° meses até ao estádio de maturidade sexual (14-20 meses). Durante este período, o caracol aceita uma gama mais lata de comida. No fim deste período, a concha já está bem formada e o caracol pesa entre 100 e 450 g. Durante este período são bem evidentes as diferenças quanto às taxas de crescimento dos vários ecótipos.A fase adulta inicia-se quando o caracol atinge a maturidade sexual Nem todos os caracóis adultos põem ovos em cada estação. A esperança média de vida situa-se entre os 5 e os 6 anos, embora haja casos de caracóis que sobrevivem até 9 ou 10 anos.Descrição O caracol Achatina fulica é um caracol grande que atinge um comprimento de 20 cm e, ocasionalmente, até mais, com uma concha com um comprimento de 20 a 25 cm e um diâmetro máximo de 12 cm. A concha cónica espiralada apresenta uma cor predominantemente castanha, com marcas finas, mais escuras ao longo da espiral. Existe uma grande variação de coloração, dependendo da dieta alimentar. O peso médio dum caracol adulto é de 250 g. Esta espécie encontra-se muitíssimo adaptada a uma vasta gama de meio ambientes, modificando o seu ciclo de vida de modo a adaptar-se às condições locais.Reprodução. Estes caracóis atingem a maturidade sexual muito rapidamente, em menos dum ano, por causa do período curto de estivação ou hibernação, (em condições laboratoriais pode ser até dentro dum período de 5 meses). É necessário que ocorra a cópula recíproca (6-8 horas) de modo a se produzirem ovos viáveis. A frequência da postura de ovos depende do clima, em particular da frequência e duração da estação das chuvas: até 500 vezes por ano em Sri Lanka, 300 vezes por ano em Hong Kong, e 1000 vezes por ano em Calcutta.Eclosão e recém-nascidos (avelins). Após a eclosão, os caracóis recém nascidos alimentam-se das cascas dos seus ovos (e dos seus irmãos não eclodidos), permanecendo debaixo da terra durante 5-15 dias, alimentando-se de detritos orgânicos. Eventualmente a sua fonte de alimentação principal durante a noite são plantas, recolhendo ao seu descanso nocturno, antes da alvorada Juvenis. Animais com um comprimento das conchas de 5-30 mm e que, aparentemente, causam o maior dano nas plantas.Adultos. Os caracóis podem atingir a sua maturidade sexual em menos dum ano. Os caracóis maiores podem continuar a alimentar-se de material vegetativo, mas alimentam-se principalmente de detritos, à medida que vão ficando maiores. Normalmente vivem durante 3-5 anos.Esta espécie causa um considerável dano económico a uma vasta variedade de culturas comerciais. Na maior parte das regiões do mundo, os danos incorridos são maiores quando a espécie se estabelece; durante este período, os caracóis são normalmente muito grandes e as suas populações podem tornar-se imensas. Segue-se, então, uma fase de população estável e, finalmente, um período de declínio.A espécie Achatina fulica é considerada como sendo um vector intermediário do verme (parasita) do pulmão do rato Angiostrongylus cantonensis, que pode causar meningoencefalite eosinofílica nos seres humanos; assim como a bactéria gram-negativa, Aeromonas hydrophila, que pode causar uma vasta variedade de sintomas, especialmente em pessoas com sistemas imunitários debilitados.Descrição O caracol da espécie Archachatina marginata é um caracol grande, que geralmente cresce até um tamanho de cerca de 20 cm com um peso vivo de 500 g. A concha é muito menos pontiaguda que a da espécie Achatina, sendo a forma arredondada particularmente óbvia nos animais jovens. As estrias na concha podem dar a aparência de uma textura \"tecida\". A cabeça do caracol tem uma cor cinzenta escura e o seu pé tem uma tonalidade mais clara.Esta espécie tem sido objecto de uma série de experimentações sobre densidade de povoamento e alimentação na Nigéria (assunto tratado no Capítulo 5).Figura 5: Archachatina marginata Distribuição A espécie Archachatina marginata é nativa da cintura da floresta tropical húmida africana, desde o Sul da Nigéria até ao Congo, mas agora também se pode encontrar noutras regiões da zona de floresta tropical africana.Nos ensaios efectuados na Nigéria, chegou-se à conclusão que o crescimento juvenil é inversamente proporcional à temperatura, diminuindo drasticamente a temperaturas superiores a 30 °C, e é directamente proporcional à precipitação e humidade. O aumento de peso do corpo diminui significativamente durante a estação seca (de Dezembro a Março no Sul da Nigéria, quando se fizeram os ensaios de reprodução).Reprodução. Esta espécie atinge a sua maturidade sexual a uma idade de aproximadamente um ano, quando os indivíduos atingem um peso vivo de 100-125 g. A cópula recíproca deve ocorrer para se produzirem ovos viáveis.Postura dos ovos. Os ovos são comparativamente grandes, de 17 × 12 mm, com um peso médio de 4,8 g (ensaio de densidade de povoamento na Nigéria). Por esta razão o número de ovos por ninhada é baixo, 4-18 ovos. Os ovos são postos no solo a uma profundidade de cerca de 10 cm.Eclosão, recém-nascidos. O período de incubação, desde o ovo até à eclosão é de cerca de 4 semanas. Os recém-nascidos têm uma concha delgada e transparente; geralmente permanecem no solo durante 5 a 7 dias antes de emergirem, mas por vezes até levam mais tempo. Devido ao peso relativamente elevado dos ovos, o número de recém-nascidos duma ninhada é baixo, comparado com os das outras duas espécies. Durante as primeiras semanas depois de emergirem, os recémnascidos enterram-se repetidamente no solo.Juvenis. Nos ensaios de laboratório, o comprimento das conchas dos caracóis juvenis aumentou a uma média de 0,33 mm/dia, durante os primeiros 8 meses (c. 8 cm), diminuindo para 0,2 mm/dia aos 15 meses. O comprimento da concha praticamente não aumenta mais depois dessa altura.Adultos. Os caracóis atingem a maturidade sexual mais ou menos entre os 10-12 meses (Plummer, 1975).A partir das descrições das três espécies principais de GALS torna-se claro que os caracóis, na sua condição de animais de sangue frio, são sensíveis a mudanças de temperatura e humidade atmosféricas. Os GALS, especialmente a espécie Achatina fulica, são capazes de tolerar uma variedade de condições ambientais, mas quando a temperatura e/ou a humidade não são do seu agrado, eles entram em dormência. O caracol recolhe todo o seu corpo dentro da sua concha, selando a abertura de entrada com uma camada branca, calcária para prevenir a perda de água do seu corpo (ver figura 6, secção 3.2). Esta reacção é típica de todas as espécies de caracóis.Os caracóis estivam se a temperatura é demasiado elevada, > c. 30 °C, ou se a humidade do ar é demasiado baixa, < c. 70-75% de humidade relativa.Os caracóis hibernam caso a temperatura baixe para menos de c. 5 °C.Para o pequeno produtor de caracóis o resultado é o mesmo: o seus caracóis ficam inactivos e param de crescer, perdendo um tempo precioso de crescimento, enquanto as despesas de instalações, cuidados e de protecção continuam.Consequentemente, é no interesse do produtor de caracóis evitar, ou pelo menos, reduzir, a dormência, por meio de:? selecção do local mais favorável para implantar a criação de caracóis (Capítulo 3) ? fornecimento de boas instalações (habitação) para os caracóis (Capítulo 4) ? fornecimento duma boa alimentação e garantia dum bom maneio da criação de caracóis. (Capítulos 5,6).Obviamente que é possível cultivar caracóis num ambiente completamente controlado, mas isto iria requerer custos de investimentos consideráveis e, por isso, situa-se, presumivelmente fora do raio de acção dos produtores a quem este Agrodok se destina. Sem um controlo artificial do clima, uma cultura comercial bem sucedida de caracóis fica restrita mais ou menos a áreas com as seguintes características: ? Temperatura: uma temperatura constante durante todo o ano de 25-30 °C, e uma flutuação baixa entre as temperaturas diurna e as temperaturas nocturnas. ? Duração do dia: um fotoperiodismo razoavelmente constante de 12/12-horas, durante todo o ano. ? Humidade do ar: uma humidade relativa do ar, ao longo do ano, de 75-95%.Estas condições correspondem às zonas de clima de floresta tropical húmida -e proporcionam os melhores resultados quando não existe uma estação seca marcada ou flutuações pronunciadas.Algumas religiões, nomeadamente o Islamismo e o Judaísmo, proíbem especificamente comer caracóis ou a carne dos caracóis -facto a ser considerado quando se planifica iniciar uma empresa de cultura de caracóis em regiões onde estas religiões estão presentes ou são dominantes. Os costumes locais ou as preferências culturais podem impedir as pessoas de comer, ou até mesmo manusear os caracóis -mais um factor a ter em consideração antes de se enveredar pela cultura destes moluscos.Os caracóis são peritos em escapar através de cercas. Por isso, a prioridade quando se inicia uma empresa de criação de caracóis reside na construção de instalações à prova de fuga. Existem vários tipos de \"casas\" para caracóis (caracolários) que se podem escolher dependendo do tamanho da empresa; ver Capítulo 4. O primeiro passo consiste, contudo, em seleccionar um local apropriado.Eis os principais factores a considerar aquando da selecção do local: ? (Micro)clima ? Velocidade e direcção do vento ? Características do solo ? Segurança, protecção dos caracóis contra doenças, predadores e caçadores furtivosUma selecção óptima do local ajuda a prevenir, ou pelo menos a reduzir, a dormência (ver secção 2.6). A seguir discutem-se factores como sejam temperatura e humidade e características do solo que influenciam a sobrevivência e o crescimento dos caracóis.Os caracóis são animais de sangue frio; eles desenvolvem-se melhor em áreas com temperaturas moderadas e humidade elevada. Na África ocidental, as temperaturas nas áreas onde se encontram as espécies mais comestíveis de caracóis não sofrem grandes oscilações. Contudo, há uma grande flutuação de humidade do ar, o que provoca um efeito pronunciado nas espécies de GALS que tratamos nesta publicação. Nas seus ambientes naturais, os caracóis entram em dormência durante a estação seca (ver secção 2.6 e figura 6).A humidade relativa do ar não deve estar próxima da saturação, pois desse modo estimularia o desenvolvimento de bactérias e fungos nefastos.Figura 6: Um caracol em estivação, selado na sua concha com uma camada calcáriaEm situações de criação ao ar livre é claramente impossível controlar os factores climáticos. Não obstante, a magnitude das flutuações de temperatura e de humidade é menor nas áreas de floresta relativamente não perturbadas ou com uma cobertura razoavelmente densa de vegetação. Devem-se preferir estes locais a zonas de pastagem ou a áreas de cultivo agrícola.Obviamente que se pode criar caracóis num ambiente fechado, completamente controlado, mas tal envolve despesas. A eventual rentabilidade dependerá dos recursos financeiros disponíveis, dos custos locais de produção por kg produzido de carne de caracol e das opções de comercialização.O vento acelera as perdas de humidade dos caracóis. Para prevenir que os caracóis se desidratem, os caracolários devem estar situados em lugares protegidos do vento. Os lugares situados em encostas são normalmente os mais adequados, de preferência com uma boa cober-tura em árvores, de forma a reduzir o impacto do vento. A plantação de árvores (fruteiras) em redor dos recintos onde se encontram os caracóis ajudará a reduzir a velocidade do vento e a melhorar o microclima. Também protegerá os caracóis do sol abrasador ou de chuvas torrenciais.Figura 7: Vista geral duma criação de caracóis em liberdade, em que se utiliza a cobertura de árvores como quebra-vento e para reduzir as perdas de água a partir da superfície do soloO solo constitui a parte principal do habitat dos caracóis. A composição e a textura do solo, assim como o seu o teor de água são factores importantes a considerar aquando da selecção do local para iniciar a criação de caracóis.? A concha do caracol consiste principalmente de cálcio, extraído do solo e da alimentação. ? Os caracóis extraem do solo a maior parte das suas necessidades em água.? Os caracóis escavam no solo para aí porem os seus ovos e descansarem durante a estacão seca.Por todas estas razões é essencial que o solo seja solto e que tenha um teor elevado de cálcio e de água.? Um solo que é pesado, argiloso e que fica saturado na estação das chuvas e compactado durante a estação seca, não é propício. ? Um solo muito arenoso também não é propício devido à sua baixa capacidade de retenção da água. ? Devem-se evitar os solos ácidos porque a acidez interferirá com o desenvolvimento da concha do caracol. O solos que são demasiado ácidos devem ser neutralizados com cal até que tenham um pH de, aproximadamente, 7. ? Os solos com uma composição elevada de matéria orgânica favorecem o crescimento e o desenvolvimento dos caracóis. Dum modo geral, se solo é apropriado e benéfico para as culturas de taro, de tomate e de legumes de folhas também é propício para a criação de caracóis. ? Antes de introduzir os caracóis no lugar onde se vai proceder à sua criação, deve-se soltar o solo através da lavoura ? Os caracóis precisam de ambientes húmidos mas não molhados.Embora os caracóis necessitem de humidade, se o solo for molhado ou estiver saturado tem que ser drenado. De igual modo, é necessário que a água da chuva possa escoar rapidamente. Os caracóis respiram o ar e podem afogar-se em ambientes/espaços excessivamente molhados. O teor de humidade do solo favorável é de 80% da capacidade de campo (capacidade de retenção de água). Nas horas de escuridão, uma humidade do ar superior a 80% promoverá uma boa actividade dos caracóis e consequente crescimento.A maior parte da actividade dos caracóis, incluindo a sua alimentação, ocorre durante a noite e o pico da actividade ocorre 2 a 3 horas após o anoitecer. A temperatura mais fresca estimula a actividade e o orvalho nocturno ajuda o caracol a movimentar-se facilmente. Os caracóis gostam de se esconder em sítios abrigados durante a maior parte do dia. Na Nigéria colocam-se folhas de bananeira, semi secas e migadas nos recintos onde se encontram os caracóis para que eles se escondam debaixo destas folhas, durante o dia.De forma a se manterem níveis adequados de humidade nos locais mais secos, pode-se utilizar nebulizadores/pulverizadores, (como os que são utilizados para a propagação de plantas) − desde que tal prática seja técnica e economicamente viável.As conchas dos caracóis são compostas de 97-98% de carbonato de cálcio, daí que necessitem de ter cálcio disponível, quer seja a partir do solo ou duma fonte externa (calcário em pó, cascas de ovos, etc., ver Capítulo 5). A matéria orgânica no solo é tão importante como os carbonatos. O solos que são ricos em cálcio e magnésio permutáveis estimulam o melhor crescimento. Também se pode adicionar cálcio à comida para que os caracóis o possam ingerir à vontade.Os caracóis escavam o solo e ingerem-no. Um solo de boa qualidade favorece o crescimento do caracol e fornece uma parte da sua nutrição. A falta de acesso a um solo de boa qualidade pode resultar em conchas frágeis. Mesmo que os caracóis tenham uma alimentação bem balanceada, o seu crescimento pode ficar muito aquém de outros caracóis que se encontram num solo de boa qualidade. Os caracóis muitas das vezes alimentam-se de comida e depois de sujidade/detritos. Por vezes só se alimentam de uma ou da outra.O solo presente nos recintos onde estão os caracóis pode, eventualmente, ficar sujo com mucosidade e com dejectos. Também podem ocorrer alterações químicas. É por isso que se deve mudar a terra de três em três meses (ver Capítulo 6).O tipo e as dimensões do seu caracolário ou caracolários dependem, obviamente, do sistema de criação de caracóis que escolher e da quantidade de caracóis que pretende criar.No que respeita à habitação a criação de caracóis pode ser extensiva, semi-intensiva ou intensiva, em ordem crescente de complexidade, gestão e de insumos financeiros. Podem ser consideradas três opções: ? Sistema extensivo: ao ar livre, sistema de criação de caracóis em liberdade. ? Sistema semi-intensivo ou misto: a postura e incubação/eclosão dos ovos ocorre num ambiente controlado, os caracóis jovens são, então, removidos após 6-8 semanas para recintos no exterior, para que cresçam e/ou engordem. ? Sistema intensivo: sistema em cativeiro, por exemplo, em viveiros com túneis de plástico, estufas e edifícios com clima controlado.(Observação: as mesmas opções de sistemas extensivo, semiintensivo, ou intensivo aplicam-se aos alimentos e à alimentação, ver Capítulo 5).Independentemente do tamanho e tipo da exploração de criação de caracóis, o sistema de habitação (as instalações) deve ser: ? à prova de fuga; os caracóis são mestres em escapar-se e a menos que se impeça que tal suceda eles rapidamente deambularão por todo o seu jardim e a sua casa (ou os dos seus vizinhos). ? espaçoso, de acordo com a fase de crescimento dos caracóis (recém nascidos (alevins), juvenis, reprodutores, ou adultos, engordados para consumo). Os caracóis padecem com um sobrepovoamento o que impede o seu desenvolvimento e aumenta o risco de doenças.As densidades de criação adequadas variam entre > 100/m 2 para os recém nascidos, até 7-10/m2 para os caracóis reprodutores (ver Capítulo 6).? de fácil acesso e fácil de se trabalhar nele ou com ele , para se poder manusear os caracóis, colocar a sua comida, proceder à limpeza e a outras tarefas. ? bem protegido contra insectos, predadores e caçadores furtivos.São vários os materiais que podem ser usados para construir os caracolários, dependendo do preço e disponibilidade. ? Madeira resistente ao apodrecimento e às térmitas. Na África ocidental as espécies arbóreas favoráveis são iroko (Milicia excelsa, nome local -odum), opepe (Naucleadiderrichii, nome localkusia), ou ekki (Lophira alata, nome local -kaku). No Sudeste asiático as estacas podem ser feitas duma espécie semelhante à teca (Tectona grandis), que também é amplamente plantada noutros continentes. ? Blocos de areia, ou tijolos de matope (adobe). ? Folhas galvanizadas, folhas de polietileno. ? Rede de galinheiro, para protecção. ? Redes mosquiteiras ou de malha de nylon, para cobrir os recintos, como protecção contra os insectos. ? Materiais de segunda mão, como sejam pneus de carros, tamboresde óleo e reservatórios/tanques velhos de água.Para além de pneus de carros, de tambores de óleo e de outros materiais usados, podem considerar-se os seguintes tipos de recintos para caracolários simples: ? Caixas de criação (tipo coelheira) ? Recintos (semi)escavados ? Recintos com mini-gaiolas ? Recintos para criação em liberdadePneus de carro ou tambores de óleo que já não estão a ser utilizados, podem servir como recintos de criação relativamente baratos. Empilham-se três ou quarto pneus e entre o pneu de cima e o que se segue coloca-se rede mosquiteira.Os tambores de óleo devem ter orifícios no fundo para drenagem, devem ser enchidos com solo de boa qualidade até uma altura de 7-10 cm, e podem ser revestidos com arame e rede mosquiteira em cima.Estas gaiolas são apropriadas para criar uma pequena quantidade de caracóis (até cerca de quatro caracóis adultos, em cada contentor) perto da habitação do produtor e para uso privado.As caixas de criação (do tipo coelheira) têm uma forma quadrada ou rectangular, são caixas individuais ou com compartimentos múltiplos de madeira com tampas, colocadas sobre pés (estacas), acima do chão, a uma altura conveniente para facilitar o manuseamento. As estacas devem ser revestidas com protectores (\"aventais\") de plástico ou de metal, cónicos, para evitar que os animais infestantes rastejem ou trepem por elas e ataquem os caracóis que se encontram nas caixas. Estes protectores podem ser fabricados a partir de latas ou de garrafas de plástico velhas. No meio da tampa faz-se um orifício coberto com rede de arame e malha de nylon. Deve-se colocar um cadeado na tampa para desencorajar furtos. No fundo da caixa fazem-se alguns orifícios através dos quais a água em excesso poderá escorrer. Enchem-se as caixas com terra escura, crivada, até uma altura de 18-25 cm. E óbvio que as caixas devem ser bem protegidas contra o sol abrasador e contra chuvas torrenciais.Estas caixas (de criação) são úteis num sistema semi-intensivo de criação de caracóis. São apropriadas como gaiolas viveiros e de incubação porque os ovos e os caracóis jovens podem ser facilmente localizados e observados.Figura 8: Caracóis num dos compartimentos duma caixa de criação.Os caracóis adultos que se encontram em caracolários maiores podem ser transferidos para caixas de criação quando começam a fazer buracos para aí porem os seus ovos. Os caracóis reprodutores devem ser retirados para as suas gaiolas depois dos recém nascidos começarem a sair dos ovos.Deve-se mudar ocasionalmente a terra pois a acumulação de dejectos aumentará as possibilidades de desenvolvimento de doenças. É conveniente mudar-se a terra de três em três meses.As caixas de criação devem ser colocadas perto da habitação do produtor de caracóis, garantindo uma boa supervisão e protecção. O facto que se encontram a uma altura que permite trabalhar comodamente, o que facilita a alimentação e manuseamento dos caracóis.Como inconvenientes desta forma de instalação podemos mencionar o custo da construção e o seu tamanho limitado, que restringe o número de caracóis que aí podem ser criados (mais ou menos 30 recémnascidos/juvenis, ou cerca de três caracóis adultos numa caixa do tamanho ilustrado na Figura 9). Na mesma Figura 9 ilustra-se o procedimento para a construção duma caixa de criação. Descrição Um conjunto de recintos escavados ou semi-escavados é um espaço permanente para criação de caracóis de compartimentos contíguos, com 0,6 × 0,6 m até 1 × 1 m, que são ou cavados no solo (que deve ser muito bem drenado), ou com paredes levantadas 40-50 cm acima do solo. Tanto num caso como noutro, as paredes externas e as divisórias internas são feitas de blocos de areia ou de tijolos de adobe. Ver Figura 10 (sistema de recintos com paredes escavadas e recintos semiescavados com paredes levantadas).Enchem-se os recintos com areia adequada até uma altura de 10-15 cm. São cobertos com tampas com uma armação metálica ou de madeira, com rede de galinheiro e malha de nylon e providos com cadeados para afastar os caçadores furtivos. É evidente que é necessário proteger estes recintos contra o calor muito fortes do sol ou contra chuvas intensas. Pode-se espalhar folhas de bananas semi-secas migadas de modo a fornecer abrigo para os caracóis. (Ver Figura 10, inserção).Um sistema de recintos (semi)escavados é adequado para a criação semi-intensiva e intensiva de caracóis. Pode ser usado como instalações de incubação, viveiros ou de engorda, em que o número de povoamento é, em cada um dos casos, adaptado ao tamanho dos caracóis. Podem-se mover os caracóis duma gaiola para o outra, em conformidade com o ciclo de crescimento/desenvolvimento.A vantagem principal dum conjunto de recintos \"escavados\", abaixo do solo ou com paredes levantadas acima do solo, é a sua flexibilidade. Os caracóis podem ser movidos facilmente dum lado para o outro, de acordo com o seu tamanho e a fase do ciclo de crescimento. É sempre fácil localizar os caracóis, para os alimentar, manusear, seleccionar e para as fases finais de venda ou consumo.Os principais inconvenientes dum sistema de recintos (semi)escavados são (a) os custos da construção (especificamente nos recintos com paredes levantadas, ver Figura 10), e (b) o facto que do produtor ter que se inclinar para a frente ou ajoelhar-se para tratar dos caracóis.Figura 10: Dois tipos de recintos (semi)escavados: A -com paredes escavadas, B -com paredes levantadas. A inserção mostra caracóis da espécie Archachatina marginata movendo-se nas folhas de bananeira migadasOs mini-cercados são espaços quadrados ou rectangulares muito pequenos, que normalmente estão dentro de um área maior, vedada. São construídos com bambu e malha de nylon , tal como está ilustrado na Figura 11, ou de madeira, rede de galinheiro e malha de nylon, como se vê na Figura 12.As paredes devem ter cerca de 50 cm de altura e ser cavadas pelo menos 20 cm no chão. As estruturas de madeira são fixadas no cimo das paredes (que são alongadas, na parte de dentro) e cobertas com rede, para prevenir os caracóis de escaparem (ver Figuras 11 e 12). Nos cercados cultivam-se plantas que fornecem abrigo ou alimentos, antes de nelas se colocarem os caracóis. Como plantas adequadas para o efeito mencionaremos o taro, a batata-doce, a abóbora rugosa e legumes de folhas. Os recintos, de forma rectangular, permitem ao produtor ter um acesso mais fácil a toda a área sem ter que lá entrar.Estes mini-cercados também podem ser construídos a uma certa altura do solo e podem ser completamente vedados e até mesmo podem ser providos de telhado.Figura 11: Sequência de como construir recintos com mini-cercados pequenos, utilizando bambu e malha de nylonEstes recintos com mini-cercados, tal como no sistema de criação livre (ver secção 4.6), são adequados como parques de engorda, nos quais se permite aos caracóis que já não são precisos para a reprodução que ganhem peso antes de serem colhidos para serem vendidos ou consumidos. Pode-se colocar rações adicionais neste recintos, mas a comida que não é consumida deve ser retirada regularmente. As plantas que se destinam a alimentação ou a abrigo devem ser replantadas de tempos a tempos.A vantagem dos mini-cercados é que os caracóis crescem num ambiente que se assemelha ao seu habitat natural, sem que o produtor tenha que realizar muito trabalho adicional. As dimensões limitadas destes recintos permitem uma supervisão de perto.O principal inconveniente parece residir no facto que os caracóis não se encontram protegidos contra predadores, a menos que se feche e ponha um telhado em toda a área, o que encarece a construção.Figura 12: Um mini-cercado construído de madeira, rede de arame e malha de nylonOs recintos para criação em liberdade são, essencialmente, minicercados de grandes dimensões: uma área vedada de até 10 × 20 m, onde se plantam plantas, arbustos e árvores que fornecem alimentação e abrigo contra o vento, o sol e a chuva (ver Figura 13). Tal como no caso dos mini-cercados, a vedação vertical deve ser prolongada para dentro, para prevenir que os caracóis escapem. No caso da vedação ser construída de rede de galinheiro fina, não é obrigatório que haja uma sobreposição porque os caracóis não gostam de trepar na rede de arame. A vedação deve ser escavada pelo menos 20 cm no chão. O recinto para criação livre pode até ser completamente vedado e provido dum telhado, coberto com frondas de palmeira e rodeado de árvores de sombra.Figura 13: Recinto para criação de caracóis em liberdade, assente numa base de betão provida dum dreno.Aplicação e uso O recinto para criação em liberdade pode servir como um recinto único, fechado, num sistema extensivo de cultura de caracóis ou de parques de crescimento e de engorda num sistema semi-intensivo.Na cultura extensiva de caracóis todo o ciclo de vida do caracol se desenvolve dentro dum único recinto aberto: acasalamento, postura, desenvolvimento dos recém nascidos e crescimento dos caracóis até atingirem a fase adulta. Os caracóis alimentam-se das plantas que se encontram no recinto.Num sistema de cultura semi-intensiva de caracóis o recinto serve como um parque para crescimento e engorda para os caracóis adultos, que são criados durante as fases ovo-alevins-juvenis em caixas de criação ou num sistema de recintos (semi)escavados.Num sistema extensivo, utilizando-se um recinto para criação em liberdade, os caracóis desenvolvem-se num habitat quase natural. Abrigar-se-ão na vegetação ou no solo durante o dia, saindo à noite para comerem.Um recinto simples para criação em liberdade é relativamente simples e barato de construir. O maneio restringe-se à replantação ocasional de plantas destinadas a alimentação e a abrigo. Caso a vegetação que se encontra dentro do recinto se mantiver na sombra, não será necessária alimentação adicional para os caracóis.É claro que a construção dum recinto completamente fechado, vedado e com telhado é bastante dispendiosa, especialmente se também implicar a construção dum colector de betão e dum dreno (Figura 13). Ambos os tipos requerem que se disponha de terra com um título de propriedade válido, considerando o investimento envolvido, especificamente para a variedade completamente fechada e coberta com um telhado.Figura 14: Recinto para criação de carcóis em liberdade, de dimensões pequenas, num pátio duma casa na cidade.O recinto para criação em liberdade apresenta diversos inconvenientes.? Requer uma maior quantidade de terreno que outros tipos de cultura de caracóis. ? É difícil de localizar e proteger os ovos e os caracóis pequenos. Tal pode ter como consequência uma gestão deficiente de doenças e uma mortalidade mais elevada em comparação com outros sistemas de produção de caracóis.? É difícil acompanhar o desempenho dos caracóis e, deste modo, poder manter um registo útil dos inputs e do output. ? Num recinto do tipo aberto ou de criação em liberdade é mais difícil manter afastados os predadores e os caçadores furtivos.Para além do abrigo natural proporcionado nos recintos de minicercados ou de criação em liberdade, é recomendável proporcionar também outras formas de abrigo de modo a garantir que os caracóis não fiquem demasiado expostos ao calor excessivo. Por exemplo, pode-se colocar telhas côncavas ou bamboo cortado sobre pedras no chão, com o lado côncavo para baixo. Em dias de muito calor pode-se refrescar o solo borrifando-o com água.Na secção 6.3 debruçamo-nos mais sobre a densidade de criação e o tamanho óptimo do recinto em relação à densidade de povoamento dos caracóis nas suas diversas fases de crescimento.No Apêndice 2 é apresentada uma listagem dos materiais necessários para os diversos tipos de caracolários.5 Alimentos e alimentaçãoA distinção entre os sistemas extensivo, semi-intensivo e intensivo de criação de caracóis não só se aplica à habitação (Capítulo 4), como também à alimentação.Num sistema extensivo os caracóis alimentam-se, exclusivamente, de vegetação plantada nos seus recintos, especificamente para este objectivo, como seja nos recintos com mini-cercados e de criação em liberdade.Num sistema de criação semi-intensiva de caracóis fornece-se alimentação externa aos recém-nascidos, aos juvenis e possivelmente aos caracóis reprodutores que se encontram nas caixas de criação ou num sistema de gaiolas (semi)escavadas.Num sistema intensivo de criação de caracóis, fornece-se alimentação externa a todos os caracóis, qualquer que seja a fase de crescimento em que se encontrem. Os caracóis são mantidos em caixas de criação ou em gaiolas (semi)escavadas.Nas explorações em que o sistema é muito intensivo os caracóis são alimentados com rações próprias com uma determinada fórmula que contém todas as proteínas, hidratos de carbono, minerais e vitaminas requeridos para um crescimento óptimo. Os caracóis são criados em caixas de criação ou gaiolas (semi)escavadas.A menos que a sua criação de caracóis seja do tipo muito extensivo, terá que fornecer aos caracóis alguns dos alimentos que eles necessitam para se desenvolverem bem. Para tal será necessário que produza ou colha a comida para os caracóis ou que disponha de dinheiro para a comprar. Mas, para isso, terá que saber o que os caracóis comem e o que eles necessitam.Os caracóis são vegetarianos e aceitam muitos tipos de comida. Todos os caracóis evitarão plantas com folhas peludas ou que produzem substâncias químicas tóxicas, como seja o pinhão-manso ou pinhão paraguaio (Jathropa curcas). Os caracóis jovens preferem folhas tenras e rebentos; eles consomem cerca do dobro de comida da dos caracóis adultos. À medida que ficam mais velhos, os caracóis adultos alimentam-se, cada vez mais, de detritos: folhas caídas, fruta podre e húmus. Deve-se alimentar os caracóis mais velhos com a mesma comida que os mais novos. No caso de ser necessário alterar a dieta, os novos items alimentares deverão ser introduzidos gradualmente.Os caracóis necessitam de hidratos de carbono para a energia e proteína para o crescimento. Adicionalmente necessitam de cálcio (Ca) para as suas conchas, assim como doutros minerais e vitaminas. A carne de caracol tem um teor baixo de fibras cruas e de gordura; por esta razão estes componentes têm pouca importância na alimentação dos caracóis.Folhas: taro, cola, papaia, mandioca, ocra, beringela, loofa, centrosema, couve e alface. As folhas de papaieira (assim como a fruta e as cascas) aparecem em muitos ensaios como sendo comida boa para os caracóis.Frutas: papaia, manga banana, beringela, palmeira de óleo e pepino.As frutas geralmente são ricas em minerais e vitaminas e pobres em proteínas.Figura 15: Alimentação do caracol: folhas e frutas Tubérculos: taro, mandioca, inhame, batata doce e plátano. Os tubérculos são uma boa fonte de hidratos de carbono, embora o seu teor de proteínas seja baixo (a mandioca deve ser do tipo de baixo teor cianídrico).Flores: oprono (Mansonia altisima), odwuma (Musanga cecropoides) e de papaia.Resíduos domésticos: cascas de frutas e de tubérculos, como sejam de banana, plátano, ananás, inhame e especialmente de papaia e restos de, por exemplo, arroz cozido, feijões, fufu e eko. Atenção: os resíduos domésticos não devem conter sal!Devido aos caracóis serem vegetarianos, a maneira mais barata de os alimentar é recolher as sobras de comida, que é recomendada, nos mercados. No fim do dia em qualquer mercado, alguns dos legumes e frutas perecíveis que ainda são propícias para os caracóis, podem ser recolhidos nas áreas onde são deitados fora. Isto reduzirá os custos e o trabalho de comprar ou de cultivar legumes e frutas exclusivamente para os caracóis.A espécie Achatina achatina alimenta-se principalmente de folhas verdes, frutas, tubérculos e de flores. Ao contrário de outras espécies de caracóis, prefere as folhas e as frutas que foram retiradas da planta principal. Também parece preferir folhas molhadas/húmidas às folhas secas e parece medrar desbastando as plantas alimentares que se encontram nos seus recintos de criação.Deve-se fornecer uma mistura de alimentos ao A. Achatina, em vez de apenas um ou dois items, para ajudar o seu crescimento. Para a nutrição desta espécie é importante que os alimentos sejam atraentes. Se a comida é apetitosa (p.ex. papaia) ou se contiver um estimulante alimentar, os caracóis comerão muito e crescerão rapidamente. No caso da comida não ser atraente ou estimulante, não importa o seu valor nutritivo, os caracóis não comerão muito.Os caracóis muito bebés A.achatina desenvolvem-se melhor com legumes de folhas. Em todas as outras fases, recomenda-se uma dieta alimentar que conste dos ingredientes seguintes: ? Taro. As folhas de taro contribuem com quantidades razoavelmente elevadas de proteínas (2.9%), cálcio (60 mg/kg) e de fósforo (52 mg/kg), e com quantidades moderadas de tiamina (vitamina B1) e de riboflavina (vitamina B2). ? Papaia. Fornece quantidades moderadas de hidratos de carbono e quantidades elevadas de ácido ascórbico (que é um estimulante alimentar para muitos animais herbívoros, incluindo os caracóis).? Palmeira de óleo. O mesocarpo (camada carnosa) da palmeira de óleo tem um teor elevado em hidratos de carbono, gorduras e palmitatos (vitamina A). ? Suplemento vitamínico. Devem-se adicionar outras plantas alimentares que são conhecidas por conterem quantidades moderadas de vitaminas D, E e K ; exemplos disso são os bagaços de girassol e de copra (vitamina D), o gérmen do trigo, a alface e outros legumes (vitamina E), couve e espinafre africano (vitamina K). ? Suplemento de cálcio. Se o solo não tiver um componente elevado de cálcio será necessário fornecer-lhes um tal suplemento. Este poderá ser fornecido espalhando conchas de ostra ou de caracóis pulverizadas ou de calcário em pó sobre as folhas dos legumes. ? Suplemento de minerais. Podem-se fornecer outros minerais colocando no recinto de criação dos caracóis pedras de lamber contendo minerais. ? Água. Os caracóis devem dispor sempre de água limpa.Estudos feitos com a espécie Archachatina marginata evidenciaram necessidades alimentares semelhantes, em que as folhas e os frutos da papaieira ocupam o primeiro lugar na lista de preferência alimentar. Outros alimentos correntes e nutritivos são a ocra, o taro (Diascorea spp.), a banana, a couve e as folhas de mandioca da variedade com um teor cianídrico baixo. Os caracóis jovens são alimentados com folhas tenras.? Os caracóis podem alimentar-se de uma vasta gama de items alimentares. ? Procurar excedentes de legumes e de frutas deitados fora mas que ainda podem ser consumidos pelos caracóis é uma boa maneira de reduzir os custos de alimentação. ? Deve-se evitar alimentação que contém folhas cerosas ou peludas.As folhas da papaieira, a fruta e as peles da fruta em muitos ensaios realizados revelaram ser alimentos excelentes para os caracóis.? Os alimentos devem conter um teor proteico de cerca de 20% de matéria seca da dieta, para um desenvolvimento óptimo. As folhas da papaieira, a fruta e a sua pele são uma boa fonte de proteína crua. ? Para um bom crescimento e desenvolvimento da concha, deve-se acrescentar à comida fontes de cálcio em pó proveniente das cascas dos ovos, calcário, cinzas de madeira, conchas de ostras (esmagadas) ou de farinha de ossos a uma razão de cerca de 15 a 20% da matéria seca da dieta. O cálcio provenientes das conchas de ostra esmagadas é o melhor. Aumentar em mais de 20% o teor de cálcio na matéria seca da dieta resulta em conchas mais grossas, não tendo como resultado uma maior quantidade de carne de caracol. (Observação: 20% de Ca pode parecer uma grande quantidade, mas devese ter em mente que esta percentagem se aplica à matéria seca e os alimentos habituais dos caracóis são predominantemente compostos de água.) ? Os caracóis necessitam de água! A maior parte desta é abastecida nos alimentos que eles consomem, mas deve-se fornecer-lhes água adicional nos seus recintos de crescimento/engorda: uma esponja embebida em água ou um pedacinho de algodão para os recém nascidos e juvenis, ou em pratos rasos (pois doutra maneira os caracóis podem afogar-se) para os caracóis adultos e reprodutores.Visto que as pressões quanto à terra forçam as pessoas a mudarem de uma criação extensiva, na qual os alimentos naturais são abundantes, para uma criação semi-intensiva, pode ser que seja preciso introduzir rações formuladas. Estudos realizados no Gana, nos quais se utilizaram rações avícolas para a criação de caracóis, mostraram que esta fórmula é potencialmente apropriada para o crescimento da espécie A. achatina.Na criação de caracóis da espécie Archachatina marginata na Nigéria, utilizam-se, por vezes, rações comerciais formuladas, mas estas são bastante caras. Pode-se preparar uma mistura caseira duma ração for-mulada para caracóis, usando os seguintes ingredientes e taxas (em kgs por 100 kgs de mistura; receita da Nigéria):Quadro 1: Mistura caseira duma ração formulada para caracóis Figura 19: Placa de betão utilizada para nela se colocar a comida num recinto de criação de caracóis, na Nigéria.Leva aproximadamente 15 meses até o caracol Achatina achatina atingir a maturidade completa; como se pode constatar, não são animais de crescimento rápido para a quantidade de alimentos que comem e para a quantidade de carne consumível que produzem. As outras espécies GALS tratadas neste Agrodok também crescem de uma maneira relativamente lenta. Estudos realizados sobre a dieta alimentar e o crescimento indicam taxas de crescimento entre 5 e 20 g do peso vivo por mês, o que corresponde a cerca de 2 a 8 g de carne de caracol comestível por mês, considerando-se uma percentagem média de carne limpa, consumível de, aproximadamente, 40% (os restantes 60% do peso do caracol referem-se, na sua grande maioria, à concha, aos fluidos do corpo e aos intestinos).Uma brochura da FAO sobre a reprodução de caracóis, indica que se pode esperar um nível de produção anual de 12-13 kg de carne de caracol comestível ('escargot') num caracolário de 5 × 5m do tipo de criação em liberdade (Ver Leitura Recomendada).Estudos realizados sobre a taxa de crescimento de caracóis (principalmente da espécie Archachatina marginata na Nigéria) alimentados com várias dietas, sugerem que as taxas de crescimento são influenciadas pelas características genéticas dos caracóis. Dum modo geral, a progénia dos ecótipos maiores cresce mais rapidamente.Nas criações extensivas de caracóis, em recintos em que os animais são criados em liberdade, os caracóis seguem o seu ciclo de vida natural. A interferência do produtor de caracóis restringe-se à remoção quotidiana dos caracóis mortos, a encher de novo os bebedouros, a manter o solo húmido na estação seca e, ocasionalmente, a colher os caracóis adultos, para venda ou para auto-consumo.Nos sistemas intensivo e semi-intensivo de cultura de caracóis, o produtor fará uma gestão activa dos caracóis durante as fases sucessivas do seu ciclo de vida: postura, incubação, crescimento e maturidade. As actividades de gestão estão sintonizadas com o ciclo de vida dos caracóis, que, por sua vez, segue o ritmo das estações nos seus períodos de actividade e de dormência (estivação durante a estação seca). (Observação: os caracóis domesticados continuam a pôr ovos tanto na estação das chuvas, como na estação seca; Omole et al., 2007).Em ambos os casos os produtores deverão obter animais para reprodução para iniciarem as suas criações de caracóis. Os caracóis devem ser obtidos directamente da natureza, ou comprados a vendedores ambulantes ou em mercados, a outros produtores de caracóis ou a institutos de investigação.Recomenda-se, para iniciar a criação, usar como animais reprodutores caracóis com uma maturidade sexual, pesando, pelo menos, 100-125 g. A criação deve iniciar-se de preferência no início da estação das chuvas porque é neste período que os caracóis começam, normalmente, a reproduzir-se.Até que a criação de caracóis possa começar a contar com uma automanutenção, os produtores podem ter que apanhar caracóis na natureza ou comprá-los por um preço barato nas estações de pico e engordá-los em cativeiro durante a estação baixa. Em áreas florestais relativamente não perturbadas, podem-se apanhar caracóis em dias depois de ter chovido. Os caracóis estão activos durante a noite e em manhãs enubladas ou de nevoeiro. Durante o dia tendem a estar bem escondidos, razão pela qual é melhor apanhá-los durante a noite, ou de manhã bem cedinho, quando o sol ainda está baixo e a humidade é elevada.Os produtores que compram os seus animais de reprodução a recolectores ou no mercado devem contar com uma taxa de mortalidade relativamente alta, como resultado dum manuseamento deficiente e da adaptação a diversas dietas alimentares.A maneira mais fiável de obter progenitores com boa qualidade genética é se os mesmo procederem de reprodutores conhecidos ou de institutos agrícolas. Estes caracóis progenitores podem ser mais caros do que os obtidos a partir doutras fontes, mas são melhores e mais seguros pois tiveram uma boa alimentação e maneio desde a eclosão dos ovos e não foram danificados aquando da sua recolha e subsequente manuseamento.Uma vez que a criação de caracóis está estabelecida, os produtores devem seleccionar os animais de reprodução a partir dos seus próprios caracóis. A selecção dos animais de reprodução deve ser feita na estação das chuvas que precede a estivação, com base nos atributos seguintes: ? Fecundidade (número previsto de ovos, com base no número de ovos postos na estação precedente) ? Incubabilidade (percentagem de ovos que, provavelmente, eclodirão, do total de ovos postos) ? Taxa de estabelecimento (percentagem de caracóis que possivelmente sobreviverá depois da eclosão) ? Taxa de crescimento ? Dureza das conchas Se os produtores mantiverem registos simples pode-se contar com a informação necessária. Como regra geral, devem-se seleccionar os animais de reprodução entre os caracóis que crescem mais rápido e que têm conchas mais duras. Quando mais dura é a concha, melhor o caracol está protegido contra predadores.Colocam-se os caracóis seleccionados como animais de reprodução em caixas de criação ou em recintos (semi)escavados (em forma de trincheira ou de dique), que devem estar apetrechados com comedouros e bebedouros.Alguns produtores deixam os seus caracóis porem os ovos nos recintos de crescimento, transferindo-os, depois, para caixas-viveiros, mas não se recomenda este procedimento. Pode não ser fácil localizar-se os ovos e estes podem ficar fisicamente danificados durante a sua transferência.Um caracol reprodutor pode pôr uma a três posturas de ovos por estação. O número de animais de reprodução colocados numa caixa de criação depende da fertilidade do grupo e do número necessário de caracóis jovens. O último, por sua vez depende do espaço existente no recinto de criação. Após a postura dos ovos os caracóis progenitores devem voltar aos seus recintos de crescimento.Na espécie A. achatina, foram constatadas diferenças significativas quanto à produção de ovos, dentro e entre as populações. Por exemplo, o tamanho médio da postura de ovos produzida pelos vários ecótipos estudados no Gana, variava entre os 38 e os 563 ovos. Dum modo geral, os caracóis põem entre 100 e 400 ovos. Os ovos têm uma forma pronunciadamente oval e medem cerca de 5 mm de comprimento. Normalmente são postos na terra, em buracos com uma forma redonda, escavados a uma profundidade de 2-5 cm (Figura 20). Ocasionalmente são postos à superfície da terra, na base das plantas. Os ovos dos caracóis requerem uma certa quantidade de calor para induzir a incubação. Normalmente eles eclodem 12-20 dias depois da postura.Na espécie A. achatina, os caracóis bebés têm conchas de cor castanha clara com listras negras. Devem ser mantidos em caixas e alimentados com folhas de legumes ou de frutas (como seja de folhas de taro ou de papaia), conchas de ostras em pó e água até que sejam suficientemente grandes para serem transferidos para recintos de crescimento. Os caracóis jovens desenvolvem-se melhor caso sejam mantidos com caracóis do mesmo tamanho.Os ovos da espécie Achatina fulica são pequenos (4 mm) e são postos em ninhadas de 10 a 400; os progenitores normalmente põem várias ninhadas de ovos num ano. Os recém-nascidos (avelins) permanecem 5-15 dias debaixo da terra até emergirem à superfície.Os ovos da espécie Archachatina marginata são bastante grandes (17 × 12 mm) e as ninhadas de ovos são pequenas (4-18 ovos). Um progenitor produz várias ninhadas durante o ano. O período de incubação é de, aproximadamente, 4 semanas. Os recém-nascidos (avelins) permanecem debaixo da terra durante 2-5 dias após terem eclodido do ovo.A densidade afecta o crescimento e a capacidade reprodutiva dos caracóis. Quando a densidade de povoamento é muito elevada, os caracóis tendem a crescer mais devagar, quando adultos são mais pequenos e põem menos ninhadas de ovos e menos ovos por ninhada. No caso da densidade ser muito elevada, pode ser que nem se reproduzam. Um excesso de baba suprime a reprodução. Taxas altas de parasitismo e uma fácil transmissão de doenças, são outros dos inconvenientes de uma densidade de povoamento elevada.Em termos do peso dos caracóis, a densidade recomendada é de 1-1,5 kg por m 2 (para a espécie A. achatina, será de cerca de 15 a 25 caracóis por metro quadrado). É melhor iniciar uma criação de caracóis com a densidade mais baixa possível. À medida que o criador vai ficando mais familiarizado com os hábitos dos caracóis e com a gestão da empresa, os números podem aumentar.Tal como em qualquer outra exploração de criação de animais, a operação da exploração e boas práticas de maneio constituem a chave para o sucesso.A maior parte da investigação levada a cabo sobre a cultura de GALS foi realizada na África ocidental. As actividades sazonais, tal como a seguir aparecem descritas, seguem o ritmo das estações da África ocidental, em que a reprodução e a postura dos ovos se dá de Março a Julho. De notar que os caracóis domesticados poderão continuar a pôr ovos também durante a estação seca (Omole, et al. 2007).Os criadores de caracóis noutras áreas das regiões tropicais (subhúmidas) devem adaptar o ciclo de maneio às condições locais.Na cultura semi-intensiva ou intensiva de caracóis, os produtores mantém e cuidam dos animais recém-nascidos, em fase de crescimento e reprodutores em caixas ou recintos de criação separados.Os caracóis recém-nascidos necessitam de condições mais húmidas que os caracóis adultos. Devem ser alimentados com folhas tenras, por exemplo de papaieira e de taro, e ser-lhes dado um suplemento de cálcio para um bom desenvolvimento das suas conchas. O solo nos seus recintos de criação deve manter a humidade e devem dispor de água suficiente. Os recintos/gaiolas devem ser cobertas com rede de arame fina ou com malha de nylon, para impedir que os caracóis escapem. Os caracóis recém-nascidos e os juvenis devem ser criados a uma densidade de povoamento de, aproximadamente, 100/m².Os caracóis em crescimento devem ser transferidos para recintos separados à idade aproximada de 3 meses de idade, a uma densidade de povoamento de 30-40 caracóis/m². Para que cresçam bem e depressa devem ser alimentados, em complemento à sua dieta habitual com rações compostas, ricas em proteínas cruas, cálcio e fósforo.Os caracóis reprodutores começam a pôr ovos quando atingem a maturidade sexual, com uma idade de 10 a 12 meses. Devem ser transferidos para caixas ou gaiolas/recintos a uma densidade de povoamento de 10-15 caracóis/m². (Observação: as densidades de povoamento mencionadas constituem meros indicativos. Deve-se ter sempre em mente a linha de orientação duma densidade de povoamento de 1-1,5 kg caracóisl/m²). O solo deve ser solto para facilitar a postura dos ovos. A ração dos reprodutores deve ser rica em proteína crua e em cálcio. Quaisquer ovos que sejam encontrados na superfície do solo devem ser imediatamente enterrados a uma profundidade de 1 a 2 cm. Antes dos recém nascidos eclodirem dos ovos, o solo por cima das ninhadas de ovos deve ser solto ou removido para facilitar uma emergência uniforme. De modo a evitar-se o canibalismo, os reprodutores devem ser transferidos para os seus recintos de crescimento, logo após a emergência dos recém-nascidos. Os adultos que deixam de ser necessários para a reprodução são mantidos em recintos/parques de engorda até estarem prontos para venda ou para consumo.O maneio diário envolve várias actividades: Alimentação Os caracóis devem ser alimentados depois do pôr-do-sol. Os alimentos não devem ser duros ou bolorentos. Os restos devem ser retirados na manhã seguinte. Os bebedouros devem estar sempre cheios de água.Verificar se as redes de arame e redes mosquiteiras não estão rasgadas e repará-las, sempre que necessário. Proceder à limpeza dos recinto. Manter as portas ou tampas dos recintos/gaiolas fechadas com cadeados.Manter o solo com humidade aplicando cobertura morta (mulching) e regá-lo durante a estação seca. Nunca pôr dejectos de aves de domésticas no solo. Mudar o solo nas gaiolas cada três meses.Verificar se há animais mortos nos recintos de criação e retirá-los imediatamente. Não utilizar insecticidas ou herbicidas no caracolário. Manusear os caracóis com cuidado e lavá-los com água, de tempos a tempos.Registar diariamente os inputs e o output da sua criação. No registo inclua o trabalho dedicado a esta tarefa por si ou pela sua família e os inputs como sejam os alimentos e a reparação dos recintos/gaiolas.Para além das ferramentas de jardinagem usuais (pá, enxada, ancinho, machete, vassoura), é necessário contar-se também com as seguintes ferramentas e equipamento, para se poder ter uma cultura de caracóis bem sucedida: ? balança pequena, para pesar os caracóis e os alimentos ? fita métrica, para medir os caracóis e as suas gaiolas/recintos ? colher de pedreiro, para escavar e limpar os recintos de criação ? contentor de água e regador para manter o solo húmido e para encher os bebedouros ? bebedouros ou comedouros (pratos) ? muito importante: um caderno para apontamentos, para anotar meticulosamente os inputs (p. ex. trabalho, materiais e alimentação) e o output da exploração de cultura de caracóis.Para que as taxas de mortalidade possam manter-se o mais baixo possível, os produtores de caracóis devem estar conscientes do perigo que representam os diversos predadores, parasitas e doenças. Os caracóis têm muitos predadores naturais, que englobam membros de todos os grupos vertebrados mais importantes, caracóis carnívoros, besouros do solo, sanguessugas e até mesmo lagartas predadoras.Para os caracóis que vivem na natureza, os seres humanos também constituem um grande perigo. A poluição e destruição dos habitats causaram a extinção de algumas espécies de caracóis, nos últimos anos. Os caçadores furtivos também constituem um grande perigo para os caracóis cultivados!Os principais predadores contra os quais os criadores de caracóis podem ter que lidar são os ratos de campo, as ratazanas e musaranhos, rãs e sapos, tordos, corvos e aves domésticas, como sejam patos e perus, lagartos e cobras, besouros drilídeos e carabídeos e centopeias.As rãs tendem a apanhar apenas os caracóis jovens, enquanto os répteis comem tantos os ovos como os caracóis, qualquer que seja a sua fase de desenvolvimento.Em áreas com uma elevada predação de aves, é necessário colocar-se redes para cobrir os recintos. Talvez seja preciso colocar vedações fora dos recintos de criação, para evitar que outros predadores os ataquem.As vedações devem ter uma altura entre 15 e 30 cm e estar bem escavadas no solo. Também é recomendável colocar iscos ou armadilhas fora da área de criação dos caracóis.Devem-se retirar diariamente os restos de comida dos recintos de criação pois estes atraem certos predadores, principalmente as ratazanas e os ratos do campo. Estes predadores podem dizimar uma criação de caracóis em apenas alguns dias.Contudo, os principais predadores são os seres humanos que procuram uma refeição nutritiva a expensas do produtor de caracóis. Os criadores devem introduzir medidas legais que considerem necessárias, a fim de proteger a criação contra os caçadores furtivos.Nos estudos realizados no Gana chegou-se à conclusão que o principal parasita dos caracóis era uma mosca, a Alluaudihella flavicornis. Esta espécie pertence à mesma família da mosca doméstica, sendo muito semelhantes na fase adulta.A mosca A. flavicornis põe 20-40 ovos na concha do caracol ou no próprio caracol. Os ovos eclodem dentro de cerca de uma semana e as larvas pequenas e de cor creme começam a alimentar-se do tecido do corpo (dentro deste ou no seu exterior). Alimentam-se até o corpo estar reduzido a uma massa putrefacta e transformam-se em pupas dentro da concha. Após um período de 10 dias de incubação, as moscas adultas emergem. A melhor protecção contra estas moscas é cobrir os recintos de criação com malha de nylon.Por vezes podem encontrar-se ácaros ectoparasitas nos caracóis, nas caixas de criação. Estes parecem ser parasitas secundários e que normalmente acometem os caracóis inactivos.Sabe-se que há nemátodos que atacam espécies europeias de caracóis comestíveis. Contudo, não se conhecem relatos de nemátodos que parasitam a espécie A. achatina.Conhece-se pouco sobre as doenças que acometem a espécie A. achatina na África ocidental. À medida que a popularidade da cultura de caracóis recrudesce, provavelmente haverá mais investigação que se centrará nesta área. A principal doença relatada até à data é uma doença fúngica, disseminada através do contacto físico entre os caracóis, que lambem a baba dos corpos uns dos outros.As duas doenças principais que acometem as espécies europeias também podem afectar as espécies africanas, visto que os organismos que causam estas doenças ocorrem no espectro (de distribuição) natural do caracol A. achatina. A primeira trata-se duma doença bacteriológica, causada por Pseudomonas; origina infecções intestinais que podem disseminar-se rapidamente entre as populações densas de caracóis. A segunda doença é causada pelo fungo Fusarium, que parasita os ovos do caracol Helix aspersa. Os ovos parasitados ficam com uma cor vermelho-acastanhada e o desenvolvimento dos animais pára. Esta doença é referida vulgarmente como \"doença dos ovos rosados\".Medidas básicas de higiene previnem a disseminação de doenças. Deve-se limpar regularmente os recintos de criação de modo a remover os excrementos e os restos de comida, assim como qualquer outra matéria em decomposição que possa servir como substracto para os organismos patogénicos. Também se recomenda esterilizar o solo das caixas de criação, através de vaporização ou aquecimento, sempre que as mesmas sejam preparadas para uma nova postura de ovos (i.e quando os reprodutores são transferidos para as caixas de postura).8 Processamento e consumo da carne de caracolA idade e o tamanho em que se devem colher os caracóis do caracolário depende, obviamente, do objectivo da criação: se a cultura de caracóis se destina a uso pessoal ou para o mercado. Os caracóis que são cultivados para uso pessoal podem ser colhidos de acordo com as necessidades do produtor, enquanto que os que se destinam ao mercado são as preferências do consumidor que ditam o tamanho óptimo e, consequentemente, a idade que os caracóis devem ser colhidos. Normalmente os caracóis devem crescer, pelo menos, um ano para atingirem um tamanho e peso adequados. Recomenda-se colher os caracóis quando estes atingem os dois anos de idade, porque depois desta idade a taxa de crescimento diminui.Os caracóis são colhidos à mão, ao anoitecer quando se tornam activos e é mais fácil encontrá-los e apanhá-los. Devem ser colocados cuidadosamente num cesto, caixa, grade ou saco, para evitar que a concha se danifique, o que baixa o preço de venda no mercado. Nunca ponha mais de 10 caracóis juntos, qualquer que seja o recipiente de armazenagem que utilize, para evitar partir ou esmagar as conchas dos caracóis que ficam por baixo.Os caracóis, quer se destinem ao consumo do agregado familiar ou ao mercado, podem ser guardados sem se deteriorarem até 6-8 semanas, numa caixa ou grade, no caso de não querer colhê-los diariamente. Ponha uma camada de serradura de 5 cm ou folhas de maçaroca de milho, migadas, no fundo da caixa, sobre esta camada coloque os caracóis, coloque depois outra camada de serradura de 3 cm, e assim por diante, terminando com uma camada que cobre o recipiente. A caixa deve ser mantida num lugar fresco, com sombra, bem protegido contra predadores e caçadores furtivos.Os caracóis podem ser transportados para o mercado em cestos, caixas ou sacos, mas preste sempre atenção para não os danificar ao colocar um grande número no recipiente ou uns em cima dos outros (max. 10 kg).Os caracóis que foram recentemente colhidos comeram há pouco (a menos que tenham sido colhidos durante a estivação ou hibernação).Podem ser usados imediatamente, mas é necessário remover na cozinha todos os excrementos e sujidade antes de prepará-los. É mais fácil e mais higiénico fazer com que defequem antes de os utilizar. Guardeos num cesto ou num saco, num lugar fresco e à sombra para fazer com que descarreguem todos os alimentos do seu tracto intestinal. Nesta altura estão prontos para serem lavados, cozidos (fervidos) e a sua carne arranjada e limpa.Ponha os caracóis num balde com água, adicionando uma pitada de sal e um pouco de vinagre. Pode-se usar sumo de limão ou de lima em vez de vinagre. Os caracóis começarão quase logo a descarregar a sua baba, um líquido leitoso e esbranquiçado. Deite fora esta água e repita o procedimento de lavagem até que a água fique limpa.Depois de serem lavados, ponha os caracóis em água a ferver acrescentando, mais uma vez, uma pitada de sal e um pouco de vinagre ou sumo de limão ou de lima e ferva meticulosamente durante pelo menos 5 minutos. A espécie Achatina fulica (mas possivelmente também as outras espécies GALS) é reportada como sendo um vector intermediário do verme pulmonar dos ratos e outras doenças potencialmente letais nos seres humanos. No caso de não ser convenientemente cozida, a carne do caracol Achatina fulica pode actuar como uma fonte principal de infecções nos seres humanos, em lugares que o seu consumo é muito comum, como seja em Taiwan. É fundamental que se coza muito bem a carne!Retirar o caracol da sua concha, secando o fluido do corpo ou hemolinfa (a menos que as receitas locais dele façam uso), remover as vísceras (coração, estômago, rins, fígado e intestinos) e cortar a cabeça. Depois disso a carne está pronta para ser cozida, guisada, frita ou sujeita a qualquer outra técnica culinária que conste do seu livro de receitas locais de caracóis. No Gana os caracóis entram na preparação duma grande variedade de pratos, incluindo sopas, molhos e espetadas. Os caracóis grandes (designados localmente por 'atope') são preferidos para fazer sopa. O peso desta espécie pode variar entre 120 e 450 g. No entanto para a confecção de molhos os caracóis juvenis são os preferidos (designados por 'nwawaa' no Gana e pesando entre 20 e 40 g).A carne é retirada da concha e cortam-se os apêndices tubulares que estão pegados ao manto. Lava-se a carne diversas vezes para remover as substâncias viscosas (baba) e a sujidade. Lava-se, então, a carne e põe-se a cozer numa panela ou tacho, com água suficiente a cobri-la. Depois de estar bem cozida escorre-se a água e lava-se, de novo, a carne em água fria. As espetadas de caracol são preparadas a partir de caracóis condimentados, cozidos ou fritos.Para se preparar um caldo (Gana) e uma sopa de pimentos (Nigéria), acrescenta-se a carne já cozida do caracol a uma variedade de carnes (por exemplo, de vaca, de carneiro ou peixe) com cebolinhas aos pedaços e guisa-se, aproximadamente durante 10-15 minutos. Acrescenta-se água à carne guisada e leva-se de novo a cozer. Adiciona-se, então, uma mistura de legumes em puré (entre os quais pimentos e tomates) e sal e coze-se esta mistura até engrossar ligeiramente. A sopa pode ser servida com fufu, arroz ou kenkey (pasta de milho fermentado), inhame e pão. Podem-se preparar do mesmo modo outras sopas, como sejam a sopa de palmito, sopa de amendoim e sopa das folhas de taro (também conhecida como \"verde verde\" no Gana).Para a preparação de molhos, lava-se a carne de caracol com sumo de lima, de forma a remover a baba. Acrescenta-se-lhe, então, alho, um cubo de caldo, sal e outros condimentos e leva-se a cozer cerca de 20 minutos ou então frita-se em óleo. Acrescenta-se a cebola picada, pimentos, puré de tomate e ervas aromáticas e um cubo de caldo. Deixa-se este molho a ferver a fogo brando, mexendo constantemente, até o mesmo ficar grosso e macio. Acrescenta-se a carne de caracol a este molho, deixando-a cozer lentamente, a lume brando. Pode ser servida com arroz, inhame, batatas, plátanos e kenkey (pasta de milho fermentado).Caracóis condimentados, grelhados em óleo de palma (Gbarnga, Libéria) Ingredientes: 800 g de caracóis, óleo de palma, 3 colheres de sopa de sumo de limão, piri-pri em pó (ou malagueta) e salsa. Tempo de preparação: 10 minutos; tempo de cozedura: 15 minutos.Remova os caracóis da concha e lave muito bem a carne*, assegurando-se que não contém areia e coloque-a num prato. Salpique os caracóis com sumo de limão e deixe marinar durante 10 minutos. Polvilhe os caracóis com piri-piri em pó (ou com pimenta) e sal condimentado. Embrulhe em papel de alumínio e leve ao forno pré-aquecido a uma temperatura de 160 °C durante 15 minutos. Ponha óleo de palma num prato, acrescente salsa picadinha e sal condimentado. Servir os caracóis com óleo.Caracóis fritos em molho de tomate picante (Igbin, Nigéria) Ingredientes: 800 g de caracóis limpos, 400 g de tomates, 100 g de cebolas, 3 colheres de sopa de óleo de palma, 3 colheres de sopa de sumo de limão, 1 colher de sopa de piri-piri em pó (ou de malagueta), salsa. Tempo de preparação: 10 minutos; tempo de cozedura: 20 minutos. Limpe muito bem os caracóis com sumo de limão * e ponha-os num prato. Salpique-os com sumo de limão e deixe marinar por alguns minutos.Descasque as cebolas e lave os tomates. Aqueça o óleo numa frigideira, acrescente os tomates e deixe fritar durante 5 minutos. Acrescente as cebolas, os caracóis, o piri-piri em pó e o sal condimentado e frite durante 10 minutos. Acrescente a salsa picada e ferva mais 5 minutos. Sirva quente.* Existem duas maneiras de remover a baba dos caracóis depois de os tirar das cascas. A maneira \"tradicional\" é lavá-los com água ou com mandioca fermentada. Tal remove a baba assim como qualquer sabor \"a borracha\" ou a \"terra\". A segunda maneira, a maneira \"moderna\", consiste em lavá-los com sumo de limão.Nas zonas de floresta de altitude da África ocidental, particularmente no Gana, Nigéria e Costa do Marfim, a carne de caracol constitui uma parte substancial da carne da dieta da população local. Os caracóis são recolhidos na natureza, postos em sacos, grades de madeira ou cestos e transportados para pontos de venda, ao longo das estradas ou nos centros urbanos.As espécies mais comuns vendidas à beira das estradas/caminhos na África ocidental são os caracóis, os cabritos, os porcos-espinho com cauda em forma de escova, lebres e ratos garndes dos canavais ou segadores. Os caracóis e os ratos dos canaviais são os que atingem os preços de mercado mais altos por quilograma.Nas áreas urbanas as pessoas que recolhem os caracóis podem vendêlos directamente aos consumidores ou a grossistas ou retalhistas. Pode-se proceder à fumagem dos caracóis e armazená-los para serem vendidos na estação baixa, quando os preços forem mais altos.As diferenças nos preços dos caracóis entre a estação das chuvas e a estação seca encontram-se vigorosamente ilustrados pelos resultados dum estudo de mercado de caracóis, realizado no Sul da Nigéria (Eze et al., 2006, ver 'Leitura Recomendada') Um estudo realizado na Nigéria mostrou a viabilidade do uso da farinha de caracol fabricada a partir do caracol gigante africano Archatina marginata como um substituto parcial da farinha de peixe, para piscicultura (Clarias gariepinus) (Oyelese, 2007), com uma mistura de 60% farinha de caracol/40% farinha de peixe, proporcionando resultados óptimos. Neste estudo os custos de produção da farinha de caracol (carne e vísceras secas ao forno) cifram-se em N 250/kg versus N300/kg para a farinha de peixe (1 US $ = N127,50 em 2007). É possível ainda baixar mais os custos de produção da carne de caracol se se promover a criação e comercialização activas de espécies devido ao seu valor como um produto da farinha de peixe e fornecedor de proteínas e de nutrientes para os seres humanos.Os caracóis com um atraso de desenvolvimento ou que se encontrem danificados devem ser dados como alimento aos porcos.Cita-se, muitas vezes, que as conchas podem constituir uma fonte potencial adicional de receitas da criação de caracóis, mais especificamente a sua venda a lojas de souvenirs. Ora trata-se, obviamente, dum mercado muito limitado e não será sensato basear um cálculo de rentabilidade duma exploração helicicola num nicho de mercado como seja o das conchas de caracóis como adorno ou recordação.As conchas de caracol esmagadas podem ser incorporadas nas rações avícolas ou na calagem para melhorar a qualidade dos solos ácidos (piscicultura). Contudo, deve-se ter presente que a alimentação dos caracóis deve conter suficiente cálcio para permitir que as suas conchas sejam robustas.A carne fresca de caracol pode ser processada para armazenagem ou comercialização, de diversas maneiras:? A nível da exploração, pode ser seca através de fumagem para venda na estação baixa, quando os preços tradicionalmente são mais elevados. ? A carne de caracol pode ser congelada ou enlatada, para venda para mercados domésticos e de exportação. Este tipo de processamento requer investimentos a uma escala que se encontra (provavelmente) para além dos meios de um produtor individual de caracóis, embora possa ser empreendido por cooperativas de criadores, prósperas e fortes. ? O processamento no âmbito da exploração da carne de caracóis em pratos saborosos, bem apreciados localmente, para venda na sua própria loja, à beira da estrada/caminho ou a um restaurante nas cercanias, pode ser uma outra maneira de acrescentar valor aos produtos da exploração de caracóis. É evidente que deverá submeter-se aos regulamentos sanitários locais quando iniciar um negócio de comida à base de carne de caracol. Os mercados de exportação oferecem oportunidades, embora o pequeno produtor de caracóis não deva subestimar as dificuldades existentes, nas quais se inserem os regulamentos de importação e os requisitos higiénicos e sanitários. Possivelmente o melhor seria que os pequenos produtores locais de caracóis participassem nas oportunidades de exportação através de cooperativas de criadores de caracóis ou através de um contrato de produção com empresas locais a maior escala de processamento e de exportação de caracóis.Anexo 1: Planificação duma empresa de helicicultura -5 etapas Etapa 1: Plano ? mercado ? produção ? organização Etapa 2: Produção e vendas-piloto, que levam à: Etapa 3: 'Decisão de começar ou não uma empresa' Etapa 4: Investimento em infra-estruturas e conhecimento especializado (know-how) Etapa 5: Incremento programado da produção ? controlo logístico ? controlo de qualidade ? controlo financeiro Etapa 1: Plano Plano de comercialização: porque quer criar caracóis? ? Auto-consumo ? Venda dos caracóis vivos ao(s) mercado(s) e restaurantes locais ? Venda da carne de caracol conservada (congelada, enlatada) para mercados distantes. (Observação: Este Agrodok não se destina em primeira instância aos produtores de caracóis para mercados distantes.)Criação com um ciclo de vida parcial: os caracóis jovens são recolhidos na natureza, comprados a outros criadores ou a instituições de agricultura e depois criados na exploração até ao tamanho de consumo.Criação com um ciclo de vida completo: os caracóis nascem e reproduzem-se na exploração helicícola.(Observação: recomenda-se uma criação com o ciclo de vida completo de modo a prevenir que sejam introduzidas doenças que são trazidas de fora para a sua exploração). ? Tamanho da criação de caracóis: o tamanho da sua exploração piloto de criação de caracóis depende do seu plano de comercialização. Ensaios realizados na Nigéria mostraram a densidade de povoamento óptima para os caracóis gigantes africanos como sendo de 100 caracóis/ m² para os juvenis com 0,5-49 g, e de 30/m² para os pré-adultos com 50-100g. A densidade óptima para os caracóis em reprodução (postura de ovos) é muito mais baixa -6-7/ m². ? (Observação: o peso do caracol refere-se ao caracol vivo, incluindo a concha ). ? Espécies: Este manual centra-se nos GALS, caracóis terrestres gigantes africanos: Achatina achatina (região costeira da África ocidental), Archachatina marginata (África central, região de floresta húmida), e Achatina fulica (originário da África oriental e actualmente amplamente espalhado por todo o mundo). É evidente que é preferível usar as espécies locais para criação, tendo em mente que -pelo menos no Gana -a A. achatina é considerada como a espécie mais saborosa para consumo, seguida pela Arch. marginata, e a A. fulica, em ordem de preferência.Plano organizacional ? Operacionamento familiar ? Empresa comercial, separada financeira e organizacionalmente da sua exploração agrícola.Etapa 2: Produção-piloto Durante a fase de produção-piloto dever-se-á manter registos acurados nos quais se baseará a decisão de continuar ou não com a criação/exploração de caracóis. ? Registos de inputs: trabalho/mão-de-obra (o seu próprio trabalho ou dos membros do agregado familiar, trabalho assalariado), dinheiro, materiais, alimentação, etc. ? Registos do desempenho quanto ao crescimento dos caracóis.Etapa 3: Decisão de começar ou não a exploração Apenas após contrabalançar meticulosamente os custos de produção (por caracol comercializável ou por carne de caracol viva por kg, ou carne de caracol limpa e arranjada) e as receitas obtidas pela venda, estará em condições de começar sem muitos riscos uma empresa/exploração de criação de caracóis.Etapa 4: Investimento em infra-estruturas e know-how Infra-estruturas: ? Localização, tipo e tamanho das gaiolas ou dos recintos de criação, dependendo da escala planificada para a criação dos caracóis. ? Financiamento, correspondendo à escala de operação da criação de caracóis: Capital privado ou familiar, micro-crédito (segundo o modelo do Banco Grameen) ou crédito comercial. ? Know-how:Adquirindo ou aperfeiçoando o seu conhecimento de criação de caracóis através do intercâmbio de informação, leitura, frequência de cursos, etc.Etapa 5: Incremento programado da produção ? Controlo logístico: registo e controlo meticuloso dos inputs (trabalho, materiais, alimentação e medicamentos). ? Controlo de qualidade: criação e fornecimento de produtos saudáveis (neste caso -caracóis). ? Controlo financeiro: registo e controlo meticulosos dos inputs, output e dos lucros.Observação: Os pontos de atenção descritos na etapa 5 aplicam-se a qualquer operação de exploração agrícola.Anexo 2: Custos de construção dos caracoláriosDevido à inflacção os preços ficam desprovidos de significado e por isso os omitimos. Preencha os cálculos dos custos, anotando os preços locais dos materiais e da mão-de-obra. Os custos de construção devem incluir o custo de todas as despesas de transporte! Quadro 5: Caixa de criação (com um único compartimento; 60 × 60 × 30 cm; adequada para 3-5 caracóis adultos) Para construir uma caixa com dois compartimentos, duplique as quantidades para os items 2, 3, 4, 5 e 6. O item 1 deverá ser substituído por 5 × 10 × 488 cm de madeira.    ","tokenCount":"14107"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"57d440bec22d767fcdbe8c7fb13c0fc5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c59e3984-fe1a-4d68-85d2-a0aeafce298d/content","id":"867087110"},"keywords":["BLUP, best linear unbiased prediction","C 0 , cycle zero population","C 1 , cycle one population","C 2 , cycle two population","G-BLUP, genomic best linear unbiased prediction","GBS, genotypingby-sequencing","GS, genomic selection","PBC, pseudo-black chaff","PS, phenotypic selection","QSRR, quantitative stem rust resistance","TP, training population"],"sieverID":"3b6a15e3-82b3-47bf-a0fb-5dd567a731e0","pagecount":"10","content":"Stem rust of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici Eriks. and E. Henn. is a globally important disease that can cause severe yield loss. Breeding for quantitative stem rust resistance (QSRR) is important for developing cultivars with durable resistance. Genomic selection (GS) could increase rates of genetic gain for quantitative traits, but few experiments comparing GS and phenotypic selection (PS) have been conducted. Our objectives were to (i) compare realized gain from GS based on markers only with that of PS for QSRR in spring wheat using equal selection intensities; (ii) determine if gains agree with theoretical expectations; and (iii) compare the impact of GS and PS on inbreeding, genetic variance, and correlated response for pseudo-black chaff (PBC), a correlated trait. Over 2 yr, two cycles of GS were performed in parallel with one cycle of PS, with each method replicated twice. For GS, markers were generated using genotyping-by-sequencing, the prediction model was initially trained using historical data, and the model was updated before the second GS cycle. Overall, GS and PS led to a 31  11 and 42  12% increase in QSRR and a 138  22 and 180  70% increase in PBC, respectively. Genetic gains were not significant but were in agreement with expectations. Per year, gains from GS and PS were equal, but GS led to significantly lower genetic variance. This shows that while GS and PS can lead to equal rates of short-term gains, GS can reduce genetic variance more rapidly. Further work to develop efficient GS implementation strategies in spring wheat is warranted.S tem rust of wheat caused by the fungal pathogen P. graminis is a globally widespread and highly damaging disease capable of causing severe yield losses in susceptible cultivars (Park, 2007). In 1998, a new race group, Ug99, then capable of infecting over 80% of the world's wheat germplasm (Singh et al., 2008), was discovered in Uganda. Ug99 has since migrated as far north as Iran, and has evolved to overcome an even larger set of major-effect resistance genes, increasing the susceptibility of commercially grown cultivars to about 90% (Jin et al., 2008(Jin et al., , 2009)). The emergence and continued evolution of Ug99 has prompted efforts to rapidly developUg99-resistant cultivars adapted to vulnerable regions. The deployment of QSRR, also referred to as slow-rusting adult plant resistance, is advocated because it is generally more durable (Parlevliet, 2002).Pseudo-black chaff, black discoloration on the glumes and stems, is associated with QSRR. At least four loci are involved in PBC expression including Sr2 (Hare and McIntosh, 1979;Bariana et al., 2001;Yu et al., 2011;Singh et al., 2013), which is associated with both PBC and durable QSRR. Moreover, the Sr2-linked PBC expression can be modified in either direction due to modifiers at other loci (Bhowal and Narkhende, 1981). Although PBC can be a useful morphological marker for QSRR, it is an undesirable trait because in farmers' fields' it can give the appearance of the black chaff disease produced the bacterium Xanthomonas translucens f. sp. undulosa (E. F. Sm., L.R. Jones & Reddy) Hagb. (Hagborg, 1942). Breeding programs often select plants with low PBC expression.Genomic selection may be an appropriate markerassisted breeding strategy for QSRR. With GS, reviewed by Heffner et al. (2009) and Lorenz et al. (2011), a statistical model trained with phenotypic and genotypic data from a relevant population is used to predict, based on markers only, the breeding values of new selection candidates that have been genotyped. This enables selection to occur before phenotyping, potentially leading to greater genetic gain per unit time.Selection experiments are useful for comparing breeding methods, assessing responses to selection, identifying what unselected traits may exhibit correlated selection responses and measuring changes in inbreeding and genetic variance. Few GS experiments have been conducted. Massman et al. (2013) achieved 14 to 50% greater gain from GS compared with marker-assisted recurrent selection. Asoro et al. (2013) found that selection based on markers and phenotype was significantly more effective than selection based on pedigree and phenotype.Very few realized genetic-gain experiments have been done comparing GS based on markers only with PS in crop plants (Combs and Bernardo, 2013), and none have been reported in wheat. Comparing GS with PS is important because in many crops, such as wheat, PS is the most commonly used breeding method for quantitative traits. The objectives of this study were to (i) compare realized genetic gain per unit time from GS based on markers only with that of PS for QSRR in spring wheat, (ii) determine if realized gains are consistent with expected gains based on selection theory, and (iii) compare GS with PS in terms of impact on inbreeding and genetic variance and correlated response for PBC.A historical population, used for initial GS model training, consisted of 374 lines selected from the CIMMYT international stem rust screening nurseries. Major resistance genes effective against stem rust race TTKST were confirmed absent in 365 of the individuals based on seedling tests conducted at the USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory, St. Paul, Minnesota (Rutkoski et al., 2014).The cycle-zero population, C 0 , was founded from 14 individuals selected from the historical population based on their agronomic performance, complementarity for different traits and absence of major resistance genes effective against TTKST. Quantitative stem rust resistance levels among the founders ranged from moderately resistant to moderately susceptible. To generate C 0 , the founders were intermated for two generations by hand pollination. Matings were designed to mimic a large panmictic population. For the first round of intermating, a partial-diallel crossing scheme (Kempthorne and Curnow, 1961), with each parent involved in seven cross combinations, was used to generate 49 F 1 progenies. The F 1 progenies were confirmed based on simple-sequence repeat genotyping. In the next round of intermating, F 1 progenies were intercrossed so that each participated in at least one cross and crosses between F 1 progenies with common parents were avoided. Eightyfour double cross F 1 progenies resulted and were selfed to increase seed, resulting in double cross F 2 progenies. Five hundred four double cross F 2 individuals sampled from each of the 84 families became C 0 . To measure the variance in selection response, the 504 individuals were split into two replicate populations of size 252.Each replicate of C 0 underwent one cycle of PS and two cycles of GS (Fig. 1). For the first GS cycle, C 0 individuals were genotyped, and their breeding values were predicted using the 374 historical lines for model training. The best five C 0 individuals were selected and intermated based on their S 1 progeny using a half-diallel crossing scheme. At least six S 1 progenies were used for each selected individual and two to three successful crosses were made per combination. One generation of self-pollination was performed after intermating for seed increase to create the GS cycle-one populations (C 1 ) of size 272 and 285 for replicate one and two, respectively. For the second GS cycle, the 504 C 0 individuals, genotyped and phenotyped for two seasons, were added to the model training population (TP) because the initial TP was not closely related to C 1 . Cycle-one population individuals were genotyped, their breeding values predicted, and the best five C 1 individuals were selected. Intermating and seed increase was performed as before to create the GS cycle-two populations (C 2 ). For PS, C 0 individuals were selected using a pedigree best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) model that included individuals' own phenotypic records from two seasons. Pedigrees traced back to the founders of C 0 . The best five C 0 individuals were selected. Intermating and seed increase was performed as before to create the PS C 1 populations. Full details about the genotyping, phenotyping, and statistical modeling procedures are described in the subsequent sections.Genotypic data was generated and processed in two batches: the first was before the first cycle of selection and included the historical and C 0 populations, and the second was before the second cycle of selection and included the GS C 1 population. All genotypic data were generated using genotyping-by-sequencing (Elshire et al., 2011) according to the protocol described by Poland and Endelman et al. (2012). Due to the heterozygosity in C 0 and C 1 , polymorphisms were called in C 0 and C 1 based on the polymorphic markers that were discovered in the historical population. A total of 27,434 markers were scored. Due to relatively low read depth, a large proportion of heterozygous loci were likely called as either parental allele at random. Marker genotypes were recoded as −1, 0, or 1; homozygotes for the minor allele were coded as −1, heterozygotes were coded as 0, and homozygotes for the major allele were coded as 1. For the first batch of genotypic data, markers with more than 80% missing data were removed, resulting in 20,882 markers (Supplementary Dataset S1). For the second batch, markers with pairwise r 2 < 1 were selected and markers with 80% missing data were removed, resulting in 18,653 markers (Supplementary Dataset S2). Mean imputation was used to handle missing data (Rutkoski et al., 2013). In C 0 and C 1 , mean imputation was performed within full-sib families.The model training population for the first cycle of GS (the historical population of 374 lines) was evaluated for QSRR at the international Ug99 stem rust screening nurseries at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Njoro, Kenya, and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, between 2005 and 2011. There were 16 total environments with each individual appearing in about four environments (Supplementary Dataset S3). Planting and inoculation details were as described by Rutkoski et al. (2014). For PS and GS model updating before GS C 2 , all individuals from C 0 with adequate seed were evaluated in the Njoro 2012 off-season, June through October, and the Njoro 2012 main season, December through April, using an augmented lattice square design (Federer, 2002). Checks consisted of 60 individuals from historical and selection candidate populations with abundant seed. Planting and inoculation procedures were consistent with previous seasons. Individuals from C 0 were evaluated based on their S 1 or S 2 progeny.The zero-cycle, one-cycle, and two-cycle populations were evaluated based on their S 1 or S 2 progenies in Njoro and Debre Zeit during the 2014 off-season, January through May, to estimate cycle means, genetic variances, and genetic correlations (Supplementary Dataset S6). Experimental design, planting, and inoculation procedures were the same as those used for C 0 evaluation described above, except there were 64 checks. Urediniospores of races TTKST and TTKSK (Ug99 lineage) of stem rust were used for inoculating field trials at Njoro and Debre Zeit, respectively. Quantitative stem rust resistance was evaluated in both locations, and PBC on the glumes was scored on a zero-to-five scale at Njoro where conditions were favorable for PBC expression. The number of individuals evaluated per population to estimate realized and expected gains is shown in Table 1. Entry mean heritabilities within and across environments were calculated according to Hallauer et al. (2010).Genomic selection model training was done in two stages. In the first stage, genetic values of the historical individuals were estimated. The R (R Development Core Team, 2010) package lme4 (Bates and Maechler, 2010) was used to fit the mixed model:, where is the genetic variance, and  ij is the residual with where is the residual variance.In the second stage, genetic values g j (j = 1,…374) of the historical individuals were used in Bayesian ridge regression (Pérez et al., 2010), based on the following model: where x jk (k = 1,…20,882) are the marker genotypes and m k are the marker effects. Bayesian ridge regression assumes Gaussian distributed marker effects with common marker variances and is the Bayesian equivalent to ridge regression BLUP. Predicted breeding values of the C 0 individuals were estimated asTo estimate genetic values for PS C 1 and to train the GS model before GS C 2 , we estimated historical and C 0 genetic values using ASReml-R (Gilmour et al., 2009) to fit the following mixed model:where A is a relationship matrix calculated using pedigrees that traced back to the C 0 founders (Supplementary Dataset S5) and is the genetic variance, r k (k = 1,2) is random block effect for blocks only within the Njoro main season 2012 environment with where is the block variance, and  ijk is the residual. A two-dimensional, first-order autoregressive (AR1  AR1) variance model was used to model the plot errors in the row and column direction (Gilmour et al., 1997) within the Njoro offseason 2012 environment. The solutions for g j were used as the estimates of genetic values.The R package rrBLUP (Endelman, 2011) was used to implement the genomic BLUP (G-BLUP) model g = Zu +  where g is a vector of the genetic values of the historical and C 0 individuals, u is a vector of genomic estimated breeding values with u ~ where is the genetic variance, G = MM is a marker-based relationship matrix containing the historical, C 0 and C 1 individuals, where M is the a matrix numerically coded marker genotypes, and  is as vector of residuals where is the residual variance. Breeding value predictions from G-BLUP with G = MM are equivalent to those from ridge regression BLUP (Hayes et al., 2009). where, y ijkl is the phenotype,  is the mean,  i (i = 1,2) is a fixed environment effect, g j (j = 1,…1950) is a random genotype effect with , where is the genetic variance, r k (k = 1,2) is random effect for blocks in the Njoro environment where and where is the block variance, p l (l = 1,…8) is a fixed population effect, and  ijkl is the residual. An AR1  AR1 variance model was used to model the variance structure of the plot errors in the row and column direction within the Njoro environment. The overall mean of each population was calculated as p l + . For summary data, the mixed model described above, except excluding the population effect was fitted to calculate genetic values for the individuals. To calculate genetic values within environment, the environment effect was also removed, and the model was fit separately for Njoro and Debre Zeit.Realized gains were calculated by subtracting the C 1 and C 2 population means by their respective C 0 population means. Percentage gain was calculated as realized gain divided by the C 0 population mean. To express gain from selection in terms of stem rust resistance, percentage gain and realized gain values were multiplied by −1. Paired two-tailed t-tests were used to test differences in gain per cycle and per unit time between GS and PS and differences between observed and expected gains. Onesided, one-sample t-test was used to test if genetic gains were significant.To calculate correlated response for PBC, adjusted population means were estimated using the mixed model:where y ijk is the phenotype, , g i, (i = 1,…1876), r j, (j = 1,2), and p k (k = 1,…8) are as described in the previous model, and  ijk is the residual with where is the residual variance. Population mean estimates were used to calculate realized gain and percentage realized gain. Paired two-tailed t-tests were used to test for differences between GS and PS gains per cycle and per unit time.One-sided, one-sample t-tests were used to test if genetic gains were significant.Expected gain (G) in QSRR from PS was calculated based on the general formula for gain from selection on both sexes: (Hallauer et al., 2010) where c is the covariance (2  the coefficient of kinship) between the selection units and the individuals in the improved population, k = S/ y where S is the difference between mean of the selected individuals and the population mean, is the additive genetic variance, and  y is the phenotypic standard deviation on an entry mean basis. In all cases c was equal to 0.75 because the selected parents were inbred to a coefficient F = 0.5 during population development. For details on how to calculate coefficients of kinship for estimation of c, see chapter five of Falconer and Mackay (1996).Expected gain in QSRR from GS and expected gain in PBC from PS and GS was calculated based on the general formula for gain from correlated trait selection: (Hallauer et al., 2010), where Y is the trait of interest, X is the trait directly under selection, h Y is the selection accuracy of trait Y estimated as where  AY and  yY is the additive genetic and phenotypic standard deviation of trait Y respectively, and is the genetic correlation between trait X and Y. In the case of GS, h X = 1 and is the GS accuracy.Genomic selection accuracy was measured as the Pearson's correlation (r) between genetic values estimated phenotypically, and the genomic estimated breeding values used as the criteria for selection, divided by the phenotypic selection accuracy, h Y (Falconer and Mackay, 1996). The genetic correlation between PBC and QSRR was estimated for each population using variances and covariances from bivariate models fit using PBC and QSRR phenotypic data. In all cases, parameters from the specific population under selection were used to estimate expected gain.To estimate genetic variances for QSRR, nongenetic effects were first removed by fitting the mixed model:where, y ij is the phenotype,  is the mean,  i (i = 1,2) is a fixed environment effect, r j (j = 1,2) is random effect for blocks in the Njoro environment where where is the block variance,  ij is the residual, and plot errors in the row and column direction within the Njoro environment are modeled using an AR1  AR1 variance model. The adjusted phenotypic values y (the residuals from the previous model) were then used to fit population-specific models,, where  is the mean, g i (i = 1,…n) is a random genotype effect with , n is the number of entries and is the genetic variance, and  i is the residual with where is the residual variance. Estimates of genetic variance were used to approximate the additive genetic variance, , and  y was estimated as (Hallauer et al., 2010), where e = 2 is the number of environments.To estimate genetic variance for PBC, nongenetic effects were removed by fitting the mixed model:where y i is the phenotype,  is the mean, r i (i = 1,2) is random effect for blocks with where is the block variance, and  i is the residual with . Adjusted phenotypic values y were used to fit population specific models as described above for QSRR. Estimates of genetic variance were used to approximate and  y was estimated as . The difference between mean of the selected individuals and the population mean (S) of GS for QSRR was estimated using the mixed model:where y ijklm is the phenotype,  is the mean,  i (i = 1,2) is a fixed environment effect, g j (j = 1,…1950) is a random genotype effect with, where is the genetic variance, r k (k = 1,2) is random effect for blocks in the Njoro environment where where is the block variance, p l (l = 1,…8) is a fixed population effect, S (l)m (m = 1,2) is a factor nested within population indicating selected vs. not selected by GS,  ijklm is the residual, and an AR1  AR1 variance model was used to model the variance structure of the plot errors in the row and column direction within the Njoro environment. The solutions for S (l)m (m = 1,2) were used as estimates of S for GS. Likewise, S of PS for QSRR was estimated using the same mixed model but s (l)m was a factor indicating selected vs. not selected by PS. To calculate S of GS and PS for PBC we fit the same models as described above except the environment effect was removed, there were 1876 genotypes, and the AR1  AR1 variance model was not used.For each set of individuals selected at each cycle of selection, the mean level of inbreeding resulting from one generation of random mating and one generation of selfing was calculated based on pedigrees using the R package pedigreemm (Vazquez et al., 2010), which uses the algorithm described in the appendix of Sargolzaei and Iwaisaki (2005) to calculate inbreeding coefficients.The expected level of inbreeding due to drift alone was calculated using 10,000 simulations of the breeding scheme used in this study with selections made at random. Briefly, in each simulation, five individuals were randomly selected from C 0 , and pedigrees from all possible combinations of crosses were recorded. Mimicking the actual population development procedure, from each cross, pedigrees were generated for S 1 families of size 27, simulating the C 1 population. This was repeated using C 1 as the initial population, generating C 2 . All pedigrees generated were combined and inbreeding coefficients calculated. From each simulation the mean levels of inbreeding for C 1 and C 2 were saved and the overall means for C 1 and C 2 were computed. To determine if observed inbreeding was significantly different from expected, observed inbreeding levels were compared with the expected inbreeding distribution.Disease pressures were high in both Njoro, Kenya, and Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, during the 2014 off-season, and heritability within Njoro and Debre Zeit was 0.79 and 0.62, respectively. Entry mean heritability across environments was 0.78. Estimates of genetic values were consistent across environments (Figure S1) with a correlation of 0.67. Population mean by environment interaction was observed, however there was only one instance of a crossover interaction. Adjusted population means for QSRR and PBC are summarized in Table 1.Mean GS accuracy in C 0 and C 1 was 0.37 and 0.69  0.11, respectively. Mean PS accuracy, h, in C 0 was 0.84  0.01. Percentage total gain from two generations of GS and one generation of PS, was 31  11 and 42  12%, respectively. Total gains were not significant for GS (p = 0.1) and PS (p = 0.09). Differences between realized and expected gains (Supplementary Table S1; Fig. 2A, B) were also not significant for GS cycle one (p = 0.47) and two (p = 0.82), and PS (p = 0.92). In our two selection schemes, one cycle of PS required the same amount of time as two cycles of GS (Figure S2). On a per-unit time basis, realized gain from GS and PS was not significantly different, p = 0.69.Inbreeding increased by 0.05  0.02, 0.08  0.01, and 0.21  0.02 relative to C 0 after one cycle of PS, one cycle of GS, and two cycles of GS, respectively (Supplementary Table S1; Fig. 3A). Due to drift alone, inbreeding levels were expected to increase by 0.04  0.01 and 0.11  0.02 relative to C 0 after one and two cycles of selection, respectively. Observed inbreeding was significantly greater (p < 0.025) than expected values under drift for all selection populations except for replicate two of PS C 1 (p = 0.15). Inbreeding levels between GS and PS were not significantly different per cycle (p = 0.49) or per unit time (p = 0.24). Mean levels of inbreeding for each population are summarized in Table 1. Realized change in genetic variance from one cycle of PS and GS were not significantly different (p = 0.15; Supplementary Table S1; Fig. 3B). However, two selection cycles were completed for GS, leading to a significant reduction in genetic variance (p = 0.02) on a per-unit time basis compared with PS.The phenotypic selection accuracy, h, of PBC was 0.88  0.01 in C 0 and 0.77  0.07 in C 1 from GS. Genetic correlation between PBC and QSRR in C 0 was 0.66  0.07. Mean GS accuracy in cycle one and two was 0.13  0.07 and 0.36  0.14, respectively. Total percentage gain from GS and PS was 138  22 and 180  70%, respectively. Gains in PBC from GS and PS (Supplementary Table S1; Fig. 2C) were not significantly different per cycle (p = 0.18) and per unit time (p = 0.71). Overall genetic gain was significant for GS (p = 0.04) and not significant for PS (p = 0.12). Realized and expected gains (Supplementary Table S1; Fig. 2C, D) were in agreement with the exception of GS cycle one (p = 0.01).For both GS and PS, percentage gain per cycle was high, suggesting that recurrent selection is a highly effective breeding strategy for QSRR. This is in agreement with other studies of recurrent selection for quantitative rust resistance in cereals that have also reported high percentage gain per cycle, ranging from 6 to 28% (Ceballos et al., 1991;Abedon and Tracy, 1998;Díaz-Lago et al., 2002;Long et al., 2006).The second cycle of GS was more effective than the first because the prediction model was updated with C 0 data before the second GS cycle. This lead to a 1.86 increase in accuracy. Without model updating, GS accuracy in the second cycle would have dropped to 0.02  0.31. Overall gain per unit time from GS would have likely improved had we performed the first cycle of selection solely based on phenotype and begun GS in the In general, estimates of realized gains were in agreement with expected gains based on theory, with GS cycle one for PBC being the only exception. The large standard errors about the mean gain per unit time from GS and PS contributed to the lack of significant differences between selection methods and between observed and expected gains. Expected variation in selection response depends on the rate of inbreeding (Hill, 1977), which is 1/2N assuming a noninbred base population. Variance in selection response could have been decreased by increasing N, using optimum contribution selection (Meuwissen, 1997;Grundy et al., 1998) to control the rate of inbreeding, or by optimizing selection to maximize response while constraining its variance (Meuwissen and Woolliams, 1994).Genomic selection lead to a significantly greater loss in genetic variance per unit time compared with PS, largely because GS enabled two cycles of selection for every one cycle of PS. However, GS may also have led to a more rapid loss of genetic variance because of the way GS affects allele frequencies. Genomic selection based on markers only cannot act on alleles that are either not represented in the training population or not in linkage disequilibrium with markers. Thus, under GS, the frequencies of such alleles are affected by drift alone. On the other hand, PS can act on favorable low frequency alleles thus driving these alleles more rapidly to intermediate frequencies, leading them to generate more variance (Casellas and Varona, 2011). In the case of alleles that are already at intermediate frequencies, represented in the training population and in LD with markers, GS leads to more rapid allele fixation compared with PS (Jannink, 2010), leading these alleles to generate less variance. Over the course of this study, PS may have brought low frequency alleles to intermediate frequencies, leading to increased genetic variance from these loci, in turn leading to the overall increase in genetic variance. In contrast, GS may have brought moderate effect resistance alleles, such as Sr2, from intermediate frequency to near fixation therefore reducing the genetic variance generated from these loci, leading to an overall decrease in genetic variance.An increased rate of inbreeding from GS compared with PS is another factor that can lead to a greater loss of genetic variance from GS. Although compared with PS, GS did not lead to significantly higher inbreeding values per cycle or per unit time; inbreeding levels were numerically higher and may have contributed to the greater loss in genetic variance due to GS. Over longer timescales, stochastic simulation studies have indicated that selection based on markers only may lead to an increased rate of inbreeding due to the reduction in the breeding cycle duration and due to the loss in accuracy of the Mendelian sampling term compared with PS where phenotypic information on the selection candidates is available (Jannink, 2010;de Roos et al., 2011). Deterministic simulations based on selection index theory have indicated that GS can lead to an equal or lower inbreeding rate compared with PS, largely due to better estimation of the Mendelian sampling term (Dekkers, 2007;Daetwyler et al., 2007). However, these studies assumed that the GS prediction accuracy was high (0.8 and 0.85) and that the variance of GS prediction was split evenly between within-and between-family effects. In practice, GS accuracy may be largely due to prediction of between-family effects, especially when GS accuracy is low (Jannink, 2010). Long-or medium-term selection experiments will be needed to better understand how the implementation of GS will impact inbreeding rates in breeding programs. Likewise, optimization of mating strategies in GS will be a critical area of theoretical and applied research to minimize inbreeding. The significant correlated response for PBC that we observed is expected because at least two of the loci affecting both QSRR and PBC are known to be linked or pleiotropic (Hare and McIntosh, 1979;Bariana et al., 2001;Yu et al., 2011;Singh et al., 2013). Percentage gain in PBC was substantially higher than percentage gain in QSRR. This may be because the correlation between the two traits is due to either linkage or pleiotropy at relatively few loci or because the loci affecting PBC are not strictly additive. To efficiently produce germplasm with high QSRR and low PBC, selection should be based on an index including both traits. If PBC expression is modified by few loci, marker-assisted selection against alleles that increase PBC could be effective. This is especially important because expression of PBC is strongly affected by environment.This study showed that on a per-unit time basis and using equal selection intensities, GS could perform as well as PS for improvement of QSRR in wheat; however, GS can also result in significantly less genetic variance over the same time largely because it reduces in the breeding cycle duration. For short-term selection programs, rapid loss in genetic variance may not be an issue; however, if long-term GS programs also experience faster losses of genetic variance this could reduce rates of genetic gain. Longer-term GS experiments should be conducted to better characterize the effect of GS on genetic variance and to assess rates of long-term gain. In addition, optimum contribution selection (Meuwissen, 1997;Grundy et al., 1998) and weighting low-frequency favorable alleles (Jannink, 2010) should be tested to help reduce the reduction in genetic variance due to inbreeding and the fixation of loci.The GS scheme used in this experiment may be considered less favorable than PS from a practical standpoint because it was more costly, used more genetic variance, and did not lead to an increase in the rate of genetic gain. This outcome is specific to our particular breeding schemes and objectives. More theoretical and applied research is needed to develop effective and cost-effective GS breeding strategies for spring wheat, and, ultimately, individual breeding programs will need to begin testing GS to develop the best breeding strategy for their specific resources and objectives.","tokenCount":"5201"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"61b7a4b5ce89a1667847240f271f724e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4d13c889-9f0c-4de1-9fb6-fd007c5c896a/retrieve","id":"2095984152"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0c7c1a97-a403-4759-8190-5e1dc716ad72","pagecount":"7","content":"Use of antimicrobials in livestock and fish production has been increasing drastically in the last decades, with trends pointing towards further increases over the coming years. The situation is particularly complex in low-and middleincome countries (LMIC), where excessive use in intensifying systems and limited access to drugs in some areas are a problem. In more intensive farms, antimicrobials are commonly used to treat and prevent disease in livestock and fish, often masking poor husbandry practice and high level of endemic diseases. On the other hand, the poorest farmers could increase productivity with better access to veterinary drugs to appropriately treat sick livestock. Tackling problems around antimicrobial resistance (AMR) requires a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach, facilitating synergies, and mitigating trade-offs. On one hand, crucial knowledge gaps exist on transmission on AMR genes at the human, animal and environmental interface, while social science insights are needed to improve understanding of drivers and decision making around use of antimicrobials in agricultural and aquaculture settings. This evidence will then help to define and evaluate interventions needed to achieve development outcomes and to sustainably contain the risks around AMR. Directly linked are important synergies in such that improving husbandry and strengthen disease prevention would promote more productive and sustainable production systems, while at the same reducing need for use of antimicrobials. This in turn would reduce selection pressure and reduce antimicrobial residues in animal source foods.The proposed CGIAR AMR-strategy recognizes these trade-offs and sees opportunities to promote synergies by mitigating AMR risks. The strategy aims to address knowledge gaps and evaluate interventions to reduce use of antimicrobials in agriculture, with focus on livestock and aquaculture. Coordinated through a proposed CGIAR AMR-hub at ILRI, the strategy comprises five areas of interventions which are 1) understand knowledge, attitude, and practices, for antimicrobial use or reduction in use and role of formal and informal markets; 2) research AMR transmission dynamics at the human-animal-environmental interface in different agricultural systems; 3) design and evaluate interventions and incentives to reduce or more effectively use antimicrobials in agriculture in LMICs; 4) support evidence-based policy dialogue for antimicrobial surveillance and AMR strategies; and 5) capacity development. Building on the existing AMR research portfolio in CRPs A4NH and LIVESTOCK, the CGIAR AMRhub brings together researchers from ILRI, IFPRI and WorldFish and aims to closely work with strategic partners from the academic and NGO sector.The problems around antimicrobial use (AMU) and resistance in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) are increasingly complex, and while the importance of agricultural use for resistance selection and emergence and the importance of different transmission routes that result in public health implications is poorly understood, there is no doubt, that use in livestock production and in aquaculture are significant and contribute to the burden of human AMR. The discovery of antibiotics and their use to treat bacterial infections has revolutionized the way infectious diseases in people, livestock, fish, and, to a much less extent, crops, are managed. The trade-offs of these practices however are obvious. If these drugs stop working, millions of human lives and livelihoods are at risk, yield of animal-source foods will reduce because of disease burden, contributing to economic impact of AMR and jeopardize global food security. To make matters worse, the discovery of new antimicrobials has slowed down, increasing the reliance on existing compounds to treat infectious diseases.  Similar to the situation in humans, antimicrobials are used in sick animals for treatment purposes, which in itself can lead to wrong use due to lack of diagnostics and thus use of the wrong drugs, or dosages used are too low or drugs not consumed long enough. In aquaculture, treatment of single animals is not possible as treatments are commonly applied trough feed and water, leading to consumption of drugs also by healthy fish. Unlike in humans, AMU in agriculture (or aquaculture) has additional reasons and factors driving the use or misuse of antimicrobials can broadly be categorized into factors linked to production and factors linked to animal health service delivery (Figure 1). The growing demand for food requires agricultural food systems to adapt and promotes high-input intensifying systems, which may act as a driver to increase use of antimicrobials to increase productivity. This is especially a problem of growing concern in intensifying pig, poultry, dairy and aquaculture systems in LMICs with poor husbandry practices and biosecurity and where enforcement of regulations is patchy. Intensification of production systems changes the way livestock and fish are produced and puts extra pressure on husbandry practices and can change transmission pattern of endemic and epidemic diseases, which in itself is an important incentive to use more drugs to prevent and treat infectious diseases.On the other hand, it is easier for intensive farms to adopt good practices which can reduce disease risks. Other reasons of use are to mask the effect of poor husbandry practices, or to promote growth and enhance feed efficiency. Another problem is the limited use of preventive measures, such as vaccines, which would be key to combat the high level of endemic production diseases and help to mitigate the impact of epidemics. For some diseases, vaccines do not yet exist, but mostly the lack of access and limited incentives to use vaccines are the key problems leading to low vaccination coverage in poor areas.The other important group of drivers of AM use are related to inadequate animal health service delivery systems. Poor knowledge on proper use (among farmers, community animal health workers, veterinarians and drug seller) affects use patterns of antimicrobials with increasing intentional and unintentional mis-use. In addition, sale of drugs, incl.antibiotics is an important source of income for many, which may act as a disincentive to promote preventive measures.Part of the problem is also the lack of access to adequate diagnostic tools which leads to non-targeted use of antibiotics and other drugs, both of which are widely available over the counter. In vet-drug outlets, the selection of drugs is often limited, leading to overuse of some compounds, in addition drug quality in some countries is highly variable. Sale and use of cheap substandard and counterfeit drugs are rife in some areas, fueling bad practice of veterinary drug use and hampering attempts to reliably monitor drug use.The fact that the same drug classes are used in humans and animals and the sheer amounts of drugs administered to livestock and in aquaculture, fuels discussions on the resulting public health risks. Past research in LMICs has mainly focused on determining prevalence of AMR genes and investigated antimicrobial residues, providing evidence on widespread occurrence of resistance to old and comparably cheap and easy accessible antibiotics and antiparasitic drugs. But there are comparably few studies that conclusively proof transmission of AMR from food animals to humans. There is thus a need for more high-resolution genomic data based on systematically collected samples that allow understanding of directions and intensities of transmissions.Another area of concern for public health is antibiotic residues in products. In livestock production in LMICs withdrawal times are often not respected and inappropriate use of antibiotics in livestock production leads to residues in animal source foods. Similarly, antibiotic residues in fish and shrimp are likely in countries without surveillance systems. While the direct health impacts of this are very small, residues can interfere with food processing and provide additional pathways through which drugs can exert selection pressure for resistance. Drug residues reduce access to demanding markets and are a common reason for rejection of food imports to Europe. Of course, use of antimicrobials in people and animals can also foster resistance in animal pathogens. There is limited evidence for the extent and economic impact of this, but for some livestock diseases (e.g. mastitis) resistance to antibiotics is common.Further it is important to notice, that people, livestock and fish metabolise only a fraction of consumed antibiotics, with up to 90% of antibiotics ending up in the environment, which is of particular concern in areas with poor sanitary systems.It is known that antibiotics alters the environmental microbiome, however long-term impacts are as yet unknown.While the poorest have limited or no access to drugs, and struggle to treat sick animals, in other production systems, producers have easy access to drugs and use them in ways that provide most immediate advantage but may have long term risk. Overall there is a clear trend in increased use of antimicrobials is LMICs, calling for interventions to curb use. But different contexts need different solutions in order to achieve change of behaviour and to address trade-offs of AM use.There are obvious synergies coming out of tackling AMR risks. Most of all, any investment towards improving husbandry systems and strengthen disease prevention, removes important reasons for drug use, while promoting more productive and sustainable production systems and animal source foods derived from healthier animals. Improving access to quality veterinary drugs and animal health services in general, may help to change outdated institutional arrangements by promoting public-private partnerships in animal health service delivery, which in turn creates jobs, esp. for the young. Using antimicrobials more responsibly can also facilitate improved access to international markets. And last but not least, given the close links to public health, tackling agriculture associated AMR fosters inter-sectoral collaboration of which benefits for all involved are tangible.The complexities around agricultural associated antimicrobial resistance and related trade-offs as outlined in the context section above are addressed by the CGIAR through research in two CRPs and several bilateral projects. The CRP A4NH in its flagship 'Improving Human Health' dedicates a set of activities on understanding AMR at the interface of human, animal and environmental health aiming to identify solutions to common problems arising for agriculture and health in a development context. Using a multi-disciplinary approach combining bio-and social sciences the program also aims to measure impact on public health of AMR mitigation in the livestock and aquaculture sector. The Livestock Health flagship in the CRP LIVESTOCK looks at AMR from a herd health perspective with the aim to promote prudent and effective use in livestock, understanding trade-offs related to productivity and develop and scale interventions that lead to reduced use at farm level, improve diagnosis and develop needed vaccines, and setting up responsible animal health service delivery models.AMR research priorities in CRPs A4NH and LIVESTOCK and bilateral projects, underpin the proposed CGIAR wide strategy to tackle AMR to be mainly implemented by ILRI, IFPRI and WorldFish, through a dedicated CGIAR AMR-Hub at ILRI. This strategy includes 5 areas of intervention with a set of proposed activities as outlined in Table 1.   Collect and collate data on use of antimicrobials in livestock, aquaculture, and crops (antibiotic classes, dosage);  Understand stakeholder behavior and incentives that drive decision-making for AM use;  Assess quality and governance antimicrobials used in humans, livestock, fish, and crops;  Understand incentives and rationales for antimicrobial use in agricultural systems  Conduct research on formal and informal AM markets and access of producers to markets. Collect data on the extent of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria found in livestock, fish, humans, the environment, and food  Conduct research to understand the transmission and genetic mechanisms of resistance in agriculture and the implications for human and animal health  Model AMR in LMICs to understand the relative contribution of agricuturally-associated AMR to the human AMR burden and risk of drug resistant infections in different contexts Support evidence-based policy dialogue for antimicrobial surveillance and AMR strategies  Synthesize evidence on antimicrobial use and AMR to influence public policy and the development of credible, enforceable regulations that reduce AM use  Generate evidence to promote good practices in the governance, supply, use, and disposal of agriculture-associated AMs and identify incentives that facilitate their adoption;  Engage policymakers in agriculture and health, and encourage integrated policy approaches supported by experimental evidence, in the context of One Health solutions  Pilot and evaluate approaches for surveillance of use of aAMs, treatment failure, and AMR  Contribute to mapping existing and projecting future use of antimicrobials in the face of increasing intensification. AMR currently gets a lot of attention for research and development with various national and international initiatives and funding opportunities, with many of them pursuing intersectoral solutions. A major challenge with all these ongoing endeavors is to coordinate actions to avoid duplication, or worse, promote contradicting messages. There is a need to ensure all knowledge gaps are addressed properly, to fully engage the pharmaceutical private sector in the process and to propose solutions that are acceptable to all stakeholders and reach the livestock producers in the different production systems. The CGIAR AMR-strategy is a way to demonstrate good practice by strategically focusing on trade-offs and fostering synergies by promoting collaboration across sectors, linking different CG centers and CRPs and including external partners to address expertise gaps in the CG system and to link with the public health sector, which is outside the remit of the CG system.CGIAR greatly appreciates the contributions made by all of its funding partners, without which none of our work would be possible. This research was supported by CGIAR Trust Fund contributors.","tokenCount":"2164"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0098ae9367c42a78ef35ecb2d3768b7e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H041758.pdf","id":"-867486587"},"keywords":["Blue Nile (Abay)","upstream-downstream","watershed management","water allocation","degradation","sediment","modelling"],"sieverID":"f14600b3-43dd-4ea4-b8a2-0f1576162630","pagecount":"12","content":"collaborative ater and land stakeholders n highlands, am people in ctrical power. ng land, water ure, lack of g uctivity. Poor d the quality ood insecurity ing, and poor cognized that crease water estions to be help improve gradation? What are the impacts downstream? What are the opportunities and constraints enhancing rural livelihoods and food security? This paper hysical based es for erosion and sediment modelling and water availability and access for various production systems. Synergies and complementarities with the Nile Basin shared vision and subsidiary action projects, particularly within the Eastern Nile are also highlighted.rty and food oods depend ent strides in ed, integrated resource-base Basin, water n as the Abbay in Ethiopia), has historically benefited downstream people in Sudan and Egypt in different , 2008) ater quantity nges in land, tion pressure, elopment are agricultural oth potential of water flowing downstream. It is widely recognized that improved water management in the Abbay catchemnt could significantly increase water p to alleviate flicts among lders, a two years research project has started. This hypothesizes that with increased scientific knowledge of the hydrological, hydraulic, in Ethiopia (Abbay), constraints to up-scaling management practices and promising technologies within the catchment can downstreamThe major research questions being addressed by the project are:and reverse 2: What are the downstream impacts of these interventions? ity?erlying hypothesis and all require in depth research to answer them. A substantial effort is being undertaken to identify interventions, prove concepts and evaluate their impacts. Strong partnerships have been developed with various institutions jointly undertaking the research. This paper presents discussion of methodologies, on-going work and preliminary results, focusing on a review of literature covering meteorology, hydrology, water use, development potential and sediment transport within the basin.The need for integrated water resources management to alleviate pove insecurity especially in semi-arid Africa, where over 80% of rural livelih directly on land and water resources, cannot be overemphasized. Rec sustainable resource management have recognized the need for a broad bas approach that coordinates the activities of people dependent on a common to achieve resource-use efficiency, equity and sustainability. In the Nile from the Ethiopian highlands, particularly from the Blue Nile (know ways: agriculture, livestock, industry and electrical power (Awulachew et alThe sustainability of such use, the availability of the resource in terms of w and quality is heavily affected and continues to be affected by dramatic cha water and livestock management in the upstream catchment. High popula lack of alternative livelihood opportunities and the slow pace of rural dev facilitating deforestation, overgrazing, land degradation and declining productivity. Poor water and land management by upstream uses reduces b runoff yields and the quality availability for various stakeholders within the catchment. This would hel the impacts of natural catastrophes such as droughts and reduce con stakeholders dependent on the river.Proposed by diverse stakeho watershed, and institutional processes of the Blue Nile be overcome, resulting in significant positive benefits for both upstream and communities (i.e. win-win scenarios).  1). Figure 2 shows the major tributary rivers as categorized by Hydrosult et al (2006).The Abbay-Blue Nile 2 Sub-basin covers an area of 311,548 km 2 (Hydrosul and the river is the principal tributary of the main Nile River. It provides 62 reaching Aswan (World Bank, 2006). The river and its tributaries drain a lar of the central, western and south-western highlands of Ethiopia before dr plains of Sudan. The co the Blue Nile below Sennar.The basin is characterized by highly rugged topography and considerable Rainfall varies significantly with altitude and is considerably greater in the Ethiopian highlands than on the Plains of Sudan (Figure 3). Rainfall ranges from nearly 2,000 ith the White , the average annual rainfall over much of the basin is less than 500mm. Above Rosieres, the average annual rainfall is about 1,600 mm. It increases from about 1,000 mm near the Sudan border to between 1,400 and 1,800 mm over parts of the mm/yr in the Ethiopian Highlands to less than 200mm/yr at the junction w Nile. Within Sudan upper basin, in particular in the loop of the Blue Nile south of Lake Tana. Rainfall exceeds 2,000 mm in parts of the Didessa and Beles catchments. ater balance ve the spatial distribution of runoff within the basin. The runoff distribution is especially important for prediction of erosion and sedimentation. Although many semi-distributed models claim to predict the spatial distribution of runoff, very few have been validated. Currently, we feel that using several models in combination may result in the best outcome. Our understanding of the hydrology can be enhanced by using a combination of model predictions. We are using both the simple parameter SWAT model based on the generalized curve number method and a modified version of SWAT which incorporates the Blue Nile oscillated around the mean there was a gene increased (Ahmed, A, 2006, Hydrosult et al, 2006).Many models have been used to study the hydrology of the Abba Awualchew et al. ( 2008) identifies 13 rainfall-runoff models that have bee other models for the hydrology of the whole Nile). None of these mode adopted in the basin and development of similar models continues. The q answered remains; what simulation model or models should be used for s hydrology for the Abay/Blue Nile basin? Since the direct runoff is depend the total rainfall and only slightly influenced by the intensity of the ra models are also appropriate because they require minimal input data (e.g., (P) and potential evapotranspiration (PET) data that are generally a interesting approach to simulate this phenomenon was developed by Tesfa (2006) employing a hyperbolic sine function to assure that the soil storage to be filled, after the dry season, before runoff is produced in significant qua Ultimately there is a need for additional model development because w models only provide the discharge at the watershed outlet and do not gi modifications reflecting actual behavior of climate and the watershed runo processes. At this stage, in addition to reviewing the various existing mo employed SWAT, taking the Gumera watershed as a sub-basin for modeling we have generated flow at the outlet in combination with sediment m analyses of the impact of different land and water management interventi section 4 below). Accordingly, the modelling and performance evaluation SWAT provides (calibration, validation) resulted in Nash -Suttclif efficiency (ENS) of ( 0 There is very little irrigation in the Ethiopian Blue Nile catchment. The area is currently estimated to be little a include the small-scale traditional schemes it is certainly an underestimat total. Currently, the only major irrigation scheme in the Ethiopian part of th the Finchaa sugar cane plantation (8,145 ha), which utilizes water after through the hydropower plant at the Finchaa dam.In contrast to Ethiopia, Sudan utilizes significant volumes of Blue N irrigation and also for hydropower production. Two dams (i.e., Sennar and R been constructed on the main river approximately 350 km and 620 km Khartoum. These provide hydropower (primarily for Khartoum) as well as huge Gezira and Rahad irrigation schemes. t of the Nile sustainable socio-economic development. There is significant potential for additional exploitation and both Ethiopia and Sudan plan to further develop ber of years. rojects will cover a total of more than 174,000 ha, which represents 21% of the 815,581 ha of potential irrigation 3 estimated in the basin (BCEOM, 1998) (Figure 5). Major irrigation schemes that are currently being planned and/or implemented are described in Table 2.The Nile riparian countries have agreed to collaborate in the developmen water resources to achieve the water resources of the river.In Ethiopia possible irrigation projects have been investigated over a num Currently envisaged irrigation p  In the Ethiopian Blue Nile more than 120 potential hydropower sites have b (WAPCOS, 1990). Of these 26 were investigated in detail during the prep Abay River Basin Master Plan (BCEOM, 1998). The major hydropo currently being contemplated in Ethiopia have a combined installed capaci 3,634 MW and 7,629 M. The exact figure depends on the final design of the consequent head that is produced at each. The four largest schemes being c dams on the main stem of the Blue Nile River. Of these schemes the furthe the Tana-Beles intra een identified aration of the wer projects ty of between dams and the onsidered are st advanced is -basin transfer which will have an installed capacity of 460 MW. As part of this development a number of irrigation dams are also planned on the tributaries n will be added t is estimated . The possible ered is in the esents 20-40% of the technical potential in the timated by the Ministry of Water Resources. er stations source of the ainly on and ck hills (Jebels), which have become devoid of vegetative cover. Most of this is deposited on the footslope of the hills and does not enter the drainage system. but given the main rivers. carry heavyThe problems of erosion are compounded by intrinsic factors, not only related to the institutional, d use policy, cio-economy, y watershed, cultivation practices, conservation xistent. Some re almost no measurements of bed load. As a consequence detailed evaluation and modeling of sediment transport in the basin is very difficult. However, previous direct and indirect studies have been made at various locations. These include bathymetric surveys at Roseires and Senar reservoirs in Sudan as well as at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. These provide useful information on sediment impacts. A study of the long term impact of sediment in the Senar dam over 56 years , shows the flowing into Lake Tana.In addition to the schemes discussed, it is anticipated that power generatio to several of the proposed irrigation projects where dams are being built. I that this could provide an additional 216 MW of capacity (BCEOM, 1998) total annual energy produced by all the hydropower schemes being consid range 16,000 -33,000 GWh/yr. This repr Ethiopian Blue Nile (i.e. 72,000 GWh/yr) es Currently it is anticipated that much of the electricity generated by these pow could be exported to Sudan and possibly Egypt.According to Hydrosult et al (2006b), the Ethiopian plateau is the main sediment in the Blue Nile system. Some erosion occurs within Sudan, m around the ro Some water induced soil movement also occurs on the flat clay plains, poorly developed surface drainage system little of this sediment reaches the However, those streams which do reach the river during the rainy season sediment loads. physical and hydraulic properties of the river but also various social, political issues. Erosion and sediment problems are strongly related to lan natural resources management, level of development of the so degradation/deforestation of the tributar measures, etc.Information concerning the sediment load of the Nile is nearly non e measurements of suspended sediment load are available, but there a sediment deposition never caused the loss of volume to exceed ½% (i.e. 4.6 per year (Ahmed et al., 2006). However, in the following period sedimentation increased dramatically to a rate of 80 million m 3 per year reduction of 400 million m³ (43%) in only 5 years. Overall, the Sennar dam its original reservoir capacity (660 million m 3 ) in 61 years. The d Million m 3 ) (1981-1986) (9½%) i.e. a lost 71% of rastically increased rate of sedimentation between 1981 and 1986 is partly attributed to enhanced incoming n.st reservoir in about 200 km acity was 650 entation rate (1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992) with a rate of 60 Mm per year and a reduction of 427 Mm 3 . As with the Sennar dam, this change can be attributed to increased inflowing reservoir and , reveals that on rate of Lake Tana is 3.5 mm/year. This implies there is significant sediment deposition (loss up to 10.5 Million m 3 per year). Unless drastic shallow lake deposition of ducted in this study is to investigate the erosion, sediment transport and sedimentation phenomenon at various scales with a ent level (i.e. b-basins (i.e. latter will be . In addition vestigated the r strips using nd secondary t the outlet of ation) shows .2%, -16.9%) ment. This is particularly, useful to understand and estimate the overall sediment yield of the entire Blue Nile basin, particularly given the problem of data unavailability of sediment yield in watersheds. The results of the vegetative filter strip for non tolerable erosion rate at base scenario exceeding 11 ton/ha shows that, an average annual sediment yields were reduced by 52 % to 62 % for a 5m buffer strip and 74.19% to 74.35% for a 10m strip (Tenaw, 2008). The significance of the study is that it is possible to identify critical erosion risk area, understand the sediment and runoff generated from various sub-watersheds, sediment due to increased upstream erosion and partly to poor dam operatio Roseires dam, which was constructed in 1964 on the Blue Nile, is the bigge Sudan with an initial capacity of 3.3 Billion m 3 . Roseires dam is located upstream Sennar dam. In the first 15 (1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985) years the drop in the cap millions m 3 with a rate of 43 Mm 3 per year. A drastic increase in the sedim occurred in the period 3 sediment, poor reservoir operation as a result of changing policies in irrigation management etc.Comparison of bathymetric surveys of Perangeli in 1987 and Kaba in 2006 the annual sediment depositi erosion and sedimentation measures are undertaken, the impact on the (maximum depth 14m) will be significant. Of particular concern is the sediment at the mouth of the rivers.As further undertaking of the research being con number of different methodologies. Research will be conducted at catchm detailed modeling of erosion processes, sub watersheds, tributary su empirical estimates of sediment yield) and large lakes and reservoirs. The based primarily on bathymetric and sedimentation studies.Results of the modeling in the Gumera watershed provide useful knowledge to the runoff simulation result discussed in section 3.1 above, we have in erosion and sediment yield, impact of interventions using vegetative filte unmodified SWAT modelling environment. We have used both primary a physical, hydrological and sediment data measured in the catchment and a the watershed. Accordingly, sediment simulation result (calibration, valid ENS of (0.85, 0.79), R 2 of (0.74, 0.62), and mean deviation of (-14 showing a good agreement between measured and simulated monthly sedi evaluate impact of interventions of watershed management and thereby proper degradation reversal measures be adopted.e Abbay-Blue management endent on the sting various has a strong cts of future management, water allocation and policy and ns. It is anticipated that it will also contribute significantly and establish good This paper provides an overview of water and land management issues in th Nile. Preliminary results of a research project on \"Improved water and land in the Ethiopian highlands and its impact on downstream stakeholders dep Blue Nile\" have been presented. The project in addition to applying and te models and approaches to generate improved knowledge of the basin, emphasis in analayzing situation of the existing condition and impa interventions with respect to watershed institutio synergies with existing NBI and ENTRO projects. ","tokenCount":"2494"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"444620b7bfe7bd0162944cde7d58d782","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/99f77a22-5354-41b3-b2e2-c86b55733171/retrieve","id":"1565908731"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fa86b8de-e25e-42bc-9533-116534ea6626","pagecount":"1","content":"ICARDA's Projects (between 2019 and 2022) ▪ CRP Livestock -FP Livestock and environment -North Africa, and global (cross-cases) studies ▪ CRP PIM: FP 5 on Natural resources governance -North Africa, and global (cross-cases) studies ▪ Viability project: Case study B-Understanding economic, social, and gender-equity implications of agroecological practices in agropastoral systems of arid and semiarid Maghreb Key Innovations ▪ Identification of Pathways for enhancing rangeland governance under constraining land tenure systems ▪ Comparative assessment of GDA performances which have been taken up by an IFAD investment project in Tunisia ▪ Strategies and alliances for private and collective rangeland restoration co-identified and communicated to development agencies","tokenCount":"105"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"87a1106626c6d821340ac30bb7f2927c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c3d2de53-928e-4a38-8737-7ac93aa53af2/retrieve","id":"-9059491"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"556b0013-8acc-4911-97e6-fa834e37511c","pagecount":"69","content":"Yam (Dioscorea spp.) plays a very important role in the food security and livelihood systems of at least 90 million people in West Africa. It is cultivated mostly in the Derived and Southern Guinea Savanna. It is traditionally propagated by tuber, the edible part, with very low multiplication rate (less than 1:10 compared to 1:200 in some cereals). The major priority problem with seed yam is the competition between seed and food uses as the tuber can be used for both. The non-availability and high cost of clean seed yam are the most critical constraints to increasing yam production and productivity in West Africa (Nweke et al., 2011).Across the region, seed yam availability is insufficient to meet demand; this, limiting productivity and entry of new producers. The scarcity and high cost of clean (healthy) seed yam planting material is currently recognized as one, if not the single most critical constraint to increasing yam production and productivity in West Africa (Akoroda, 2010;MEDA, 2011). FAOSTAT data on production ranked cassava as the first crop with up to 41 and 15 million tons annually produced respectively in Nigeria and Ghana. However, in terms of production value (income to farmers) yam is far ahead of all the other five key food commodities (maize, rice, cassava, sorghum, and millet). In fact, the production value of cassava, maize, sorghum, millet, and rice represent 50%, 18%, 18%, 13%, and 11%, respectively of the yam, in Nigeria.Seed yams are expensive (Ironkwe 2005), accounting sometimes for as much as 63 % of total variable production cost. The low rate of multiplication and alternative use of the tubers as food makes seed yam Importance of planting materials in yam production in West Africa very expensive. The tubers are also bulky to transport (Manyong et al. 2001; Agbaje et al., 2005), and the problem of low multiplication rate is worsened by the extended growth cycle and dormancy period. Hence, yam production revolves quite repeatedly around the use of mixed genotypes, pre-infected seed yam and farmlands, causing a build-up of an array of fungal, bacterial and viral diseases, and pests (Balogun et al. 2014;Winch et al. 1984) leading to 50 to 90% yield reduction. Consequently, there is significant demand for clean seeds in a marketdriven seed system and 50-70% of production costs are spent on purchase of seed yam ( Traditionally, the production of seed yam as an integral part of ware yam production is widely practiced throughout the yam belts of Nigeria and Ghana. The practices can be placed into two distinct subgroups, namely sorting and \"milking\". At harvest, the tubers are sorted by size (small, medium, and very large ones are retained as seed yam, table yam, and ceremonial yam, respectively).In the \"milking\" technique (Okigbo and Ibe, 1973;Okoli et al., 1982), tubers are harvested at about two-thirds of the time into the growing season without destroying the root system, providing early ware yam for consumption. The parent plant produces new small tubers before senescence, which are used as seed yam for the following season. The milking practice represents a significant investment by the farmer. First, there is a yield loss by harvesting the main tuber before senescence when maximum yield is attained (Onwueme 1977), followed by increased labour use from harvesting the same crop twice. These additional costs explain the very high cost of seed yam. Other methods of seed yam production include the minisett technique that was developed almost 30 years ago by NRCRI and IITA. This technique is well documented in a training manual Aighewi et al. 2014.An AS is a method of growing plants in a soilless environment with very little water. Its basic principle is to grow plants in a closed or semi-closed environment without the use of soil or an aggregate media by spraying the plant's roots with a nutrient rich solution (mist environment). This technique of growing plants without soil was first developed in the 1920s by botanists who used the original aeroponics to study plant root structure (Barker, 1922). The AS is composed of three main parts (screenhouse, boxes with their piping system, and the power house).2 Building an aeroponics system (AS) for seed yam production The international union of soil-less culture defines aeroponics as \"a system where roots are grown continuously or discontinuously in an environment saturated with fine drops of nutrient solution.\" In 2014, a working paper titled \"Seed yam production in an AS: A novel technology\" was developed Maroya et al., 2014. Carter (1942) was the first researcher to study air culture and described a method of growing plants in water vapor to facilitate examination of roots. Went (1957) named the air-growing process in spray culture as \"aeroponics.\" Aeroponic is derived from the Latin words of 'aero' (air) and 'ponic' (work). In aeroponics, the plant's roots dangle mid-air with only the stems held in place. The way nutrients and water are delivered also demonstrates the efficiency of the system. Atomizing nozzles ensure the most effective delivery of nutrients since they turn the water into a fine mist. Plants absorb nutrients through their roots by osmosis; a selective absorption of compounds through cell walls. Roots can absorb nutrients more easily as they are delivered via the mist. The AS optimizes root aeration giving the plant stem and root systems access to 100% of the available oxygen in the air which promotes root growthOne of the determinant factors to be considered before building an AS for yam is the availability or construction of a screenhouse of reasonable height and size. Any existing screenhouse can be used to establish the system, but the size of the boxes should be adapted to the dimensions of the entire AS. When starting from scratch, it is advisable to have a design that gives the specifications of the screenhouse and the power house (Figure 4) based on the desired capacity.  In West Africa, the height, length, and width of the screenhouse are important, especially for yam, to avoid the challenges of excessive heat within the structure and to accommodate the maximum number of boxes possible. The ideal situation is to build a screenhouse adapted to the number and size of the boxes planned for the AS. The Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project YIIFSWA project is promoting the construction of a double-ceiling functional aeroponics screenhouse (Figures 5, 6 and 7) with the following dimensions: length = 24 m, width = 8 m; and height = up to 6 m; and with appropriate ground work for foundation, solid structure, anti-aphid net, and appropriate entrance foyer to the screenhouse.   Materials used for the construction of a double-ceiling functional aeroponics screenhouse are listed in Appendix 1.After the construction or adaptation of the screenhouse, the most important structures to be built within are the boxes and their piping system.YIIFSWA is promoting the AS of 10 boxes for research institutions (4.8 m x 1.2 m x 1 m) at 20 cm from the screenhouse gravelled ground floor to the bottom of the boxes. Each box is made of four tables of 1.2 m x 1.2 m with 49 plants per table. For business, the dimensions and the number of boxes can be increased only by reducing the alleyways. The items used to build the 10 boxes and the power house are detailed in appendix 2. This is used for building the enclosure of the boxes. It is assembled and fastened together by the angle guide plate, bolts, and nuts after cutting into different required sizes for length, width, and height. In the absence of a Dexion shelf, a slotted angle iron is recommended. The Styrofoam is cut exactly in various sizes to fill the external parts of the frame of the boxes. Four root growth inspection windows, also used for tubers harvesting, are created at each lateral side of the boxes (lateral sides of each table). So each table has two windows making a total of eight windows per box Figure 10B.  The top styrofoam sheets are perforated into the required number of holes (36 or 49) to accommodate the required plant density. Perforations at 20 cm x 20 cm will give 36 planting holes while at 17 cm x 17 cm will give 49 planting holes as per figure 11.For the aeroponics boxes, three types of plastic sheets are used. This is also part of the protecting and filling material used in covering up the entire Styrofoam sheet within and outside the boxes.The 500-micron black plastic sheet is used to cover the entire inside and outside of the boxes to avoid any admittance of sunlight into the rooting system of the plants and to avoid nutrient leakages.The 200-micron white plastic sheet is used to cover the entire external top of the boxes to make it transparent and allow less heat concentration on the plant.The 200-micron black plastic sheet is used to cover the entire internal top cover of all boxes and the inspection/harvesting window.Different sizes of pipes, valves, fittings, and plumbing accessories are used to connect all boxes to the power house. There are three categories of pipes for a functional and efficient AS.  • The medium size pipe (white in the figure 13) is used for pumping the nutrient solution from the underground tank for feeding the plantlets in the boxes of the aeroponic system.• The larger size pipe (green in figure 13) is used to collect the nutrient solution back from boxes after use by the plants into the nutrient tank in the power house.• The smallest pipe is the pressure pipe located centrally inside the length of each box (Figure 14) to hold the misters for feeding the plants. The misters/sprayers are connected to the smallest pressure pipes, and create a fine mist of the nutrient solution in a hydro-atomized droplet size to deliver nutrients to the plant rooting system. The misters are positioned at equidistance in each box. The powerhouse is the source of energy for running the AS and feeding plantlets throughout their growth and development. It is composed of:• Two nutrient tanks of 1000 L each (capacity can vary 500 to 200 L);• Two water pumps of one horse power each (power can also vary depending of the number of boxes to spray);• Two filters attached to the pumps; and• One electrical/electronic control panel.The power house built and promoted by YIIFSWA measures 4.2 m (length) x 3.1 m (width) x 3m (height). Depending of the size of your screenhouse, the number and dimension of the boxes the power house dimensions can be modified to meet the specific requirement.  The two tanks are installed below ground level so that the lower part of each box is above the upper portion of the tanks. This allows easy flow back of the nutrient into the tank through the returning line. The second reason why the tanks are placed underground is to maintain the nutrient solution at cool temperatures.Two one-horse water pumps are used to transfer the prepared nutrient solution from the tank through the feeding pressure pipe to the misters that do the spraying. One pump feeds the plants of the 10 boxes at a time for 15 minutes at 15 minutes intervals. This interval allows the nutrient solution to return to the tank for re-use. All the boxes are installed to slope towards the power house and the tanks so that the returning nutrient solution flows back into the tank by gravity.Two filters are positioned and connected through the pressure pipes to filter the nutrient solution immediately after the water pump. The primary function of the filter is to trap any foreign particles within the nutrient tank and along the pipe line connections. The electrical control panel contains the contactors, circuit breakers, push buttons, and digital timers. It is used to automate the powering system of the AS depending on the setting of each of these elements, especially the timers.As per the detailed descriptions above, the four types of skilled workers are needed to work together to build a functional AS: a welder, plumber, electrician, and carpenter. 3The AS is an automated electricity-powered system. The system is established and set to run on its own for 24 hours a day and seven days a week. However, it needs daily control and checks both in the screenhouse and in the power house. Electricity may not be a challenge at IITA because of regular supply, but in locations where supply is irregular, alternative sources of supply are necessary.The management of the AS starts with preparation of the nutrient. After this, regular checks of level of nutrients in the tanks, is necessary as well as maintenance of hygienic conditions in the entire system. This is to ensure that adequate amounts of nutrient solution is being used by the plants and that the misters are not blocked by residues during nutrient recycling.Water quality is a very important factor that should be taken into consideration when preparing the nutrient solution. The water should be analyzed before use in nutrient preparation. The initial pH of water before mixing in the nutrient is important as very low pH (acidic) will inversely affect the final pH of the nutrient solution. It is also advisable to know the chemical used to treat the water as it can affect the nutrient balance and availability to plants.Aeroponics: growing yams in the Air (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=lCwyPG1P9JY)The quantity and type of water treatment chemical will be used to adjust the quantity and quality of nutrient solution preparation. The normal pH for portable drinking water is between 6.5 and 7.5 while low pH will suggest the presence of heavy metals. The mineral elements of water should also be taken into consideration before preparing the nutrient solution.The colour, cleanliness or clarity of water is also important. If there is sand or dust sediment in the tap water, it is important to allow the water to run for some time (open tap for water to flow out). If this does not work, and there are no other options, fill containers with water, allow it to settle before carefully using the supernatant for analysis of the water and then prepare the nutrient solutionThe elements and quantities used to compound the nutrient solution are given in table 1. The above elements are for preparation of the nutrient solution as follows:a. Weighing of fertilizers:During measurement/weighing of fertilizers, the scale must be placed on a flat surface and balanced figure 19. It should also be cleaned before and after every use and stored back into its container.The containers must be clean and washed after each use. When placed on the scale, the scale should be tarred at zero before any nutrient is poured inside the container. Ensure that there is no water in the container used for measurement. The container should be at the center of the scale and the spoon should not touch the container when pouring in the nutrient. The spoon must be cleaned after every chemical measurement.Each nutrient component should be dissolved separately as combining chemicals could make them react and form crystals, salts or gas that are not desired causing some nutrient to be unavailable to the plant. A strainer should be used when pouring dissolved nutrient into the tank to avoid debris or insoluble particles from entering the tank. (Note: Wash strainer before and after each use.)It is advisable to stored nutrients in airtight containers in a cool dark place to avoid reactions. Ensure that the containers are closed properly, especially for the hygroscopic compounds.Only clean water from the tap should be used for dissolving nutrient and not an old or used nutrient solution. Once all nutrients have been dissolved, the solution can be filled up with water to reach the required volume. A 1000-L tank (figure 20) is filled with 800 L of water. Small quantity of the measured water is used to dissolve the fertilizers separately before it is poured into the tank.Specific fertilizers are recommended for use in the AS because they easily release nutrients that can be captured by the plant rooting system as they hang in air. Many types of fertilizers have been tested in the AS at IITA-Ibadan.Some fertilizers (i.e., triple super phosphate and potassium phosphate) are easily dissolved in hot water.. The pH should be recorded after preparation of the nutrient mix. This is important because it determines what nutrients will be available to plants. If the solution pH is above or below the recommended range (5.5-7.0), nutrients may not be soluble (absorbable by plants) or they may be so soluble that they become Phytotoxic (toxic to plant). Therefore, a plant may show signs of nutrient deficiency or toxicity even when the correct amount of fertilizer is applied to that plant. The different types of fertilizers and dosage used at IITA-Ibadan (treated water) are listed below.Note: Ensure that monitoring of the contents of the tank is done regularly and is not disrupted by public holidays, and as much as possible have another tank of nutrients on stand-by.Four different types of nutrient solutions in 500-L tanks were tested in four units (Figure 21) of single box AS using three yam varieties. Each tank was filled up to the 400 L mark. The nutrient composition included different quantities of minerals (i.e., N, P, K, Ca, S etc.).The nutrient experiment results revealed varietal differences as in figures 22 and 23 in its suitability for optimal production of leaves, tubers, bulbils, and new branches, among others. In addition to the varietal difference, the type of planting materials used [two-node vine cuttings and Temporary Immersion Bioreactor System (TIBs) plantlets] influences the performance of the varieties. It is advisable to test different compositions of locally available fertilizers with the yam varieties and the type of planting materials to determine the most appropriate fertilizer composition.    After fully setting up of the AS components, an effective test running of the system with water is done to assure full functionality. Ensure that the plantlets or vine cuttings are ready before preparation of the nutrient solution, which should be prepared before planting.There are two types of planting materials used for the AS. These include: 1) the 2-node vine cuttings from hardened and potted bioreactor plants (Figure 24 left picture); and 2) hardened well-grown plantlets from TIBS (Figure 25). In case of shortage of planting materials, well-developed potted plants of single-node generated from plants of TIBs are also used. IITA is using the SETISTM type TIBS with twin flasks; the top flask contains the plantlets (50 to 150 plantlets) and the bottom flask contains the nutrient solution. The two containers are linked with inlets and outlets for airflow under pressure and allow intermittently feeding of the plantlets when they are immersed in nutrient solution at regular intervals.TIBS plantlets should be handled with care when removing them from containers for hardening because they are fragile and could be easily injured. After three weeks in hardening, the plantlets can be planted in aeroponics tables. Spraying should be done carefully so that the root system is not exposed as this could make them prone to drying. Also, the plantlets or the two-node vine cuttings should be well developed and long enough to pass through the 50-mm thick Stylofoam on top of the table and have the roots or the lower node within the box exposed to the mist of the nutrient solution. Whatever the density used per box, one should plant one plantlet or two-node cutting per hole. After planting, lift the cover of the planted table and check (figure 25) to assure that the rooting system or the lower nodes are well exposed to the mist.After planting, it is advisable to protect the newly planted box against heat or direct sunlight for at least the first two weeks. This is done by covering the top of the boxes with shading materials like reflective nylon as in figure 26 with. After this period, the rooting system of the two-node vine cuttings will be fully established and the TIBs plantlets would have produced new leaves (see figure 26).The power house is a very sensitive area of the aeroponics system and requires much attention to ensure that all works well. Any new equipment or material has to be installed or set up only by a specialist. The power   house is the source of energy for feeding and survival of the plantlets in the boxes. The following activities are needed to be done every morning.If the level of the nutrient solution is below a quarter of the tank capacity, a new nutrient solution should be prepared. If the second tank is empty, it should be filled up with clean water (colourless, odourless water with pH around 6.8 -7.2 and preferably 7.0).Before preparing the new solution, the tank must be properly cleaned.Cleaning of the tank is usually done by two workers who are fully dressed in protected outfits. When the tank is to be washed, one person enters the tank to remove any remaining solution, while the other stays outside to provide assistance. The entire exercise should be done carefully to avoid the introduction of contaminants into the system.If the level of the solution is around or above half of the tank, the pH of the solution, as well as the electro conductivity (EC), the total dissolved solubles (TDS), and the temperature of the solution should be measured. These are usually done three times a day (8:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 4:00 pm).If the pH drops below 5.5, the solution should be changed or pH should be adjusted with potassium hydroxide (KOH) when the level of the solution is still high. If the volume is above half, one should be very careful about the composition of the nutrient solution. If the pH is dropping very fast without equivalent reduction in the volume of the nutrient solution, it is probably that the acidic fertilizers used as source of nitrogen (namely ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, ammonium sulphate, etc.) is in excess. If this happens, consider a reduction of the ammonium components and replace if necessary with a nitrate source.When replacing the nutrient solution, one should carefully observe sanitary rules and regulations. The first operation when replacing the solution is to discard the remaining nutrient and thoroughly wash the tank.Three reasons why the nutrient must be changed.• When the volume of nutrient solution remaining in the tank is too low and the pump is used continuously, it will pump air into the pipes. Hence when the volume becomes too low the solution should be discarded.• When the pH has reduced to <5.5 or the electrical conductivity (EC) has increased to above 1,500µS discard the remaining nutrient solution. Do not prepare fresh nutrient while there is still leftover nutrient in the tank as the high concentration of the residual nutrient will affect the pH of the freshlyprepared nutrient. If the volume in the tank is above half and you are very sure that you still have enough nutrients in the solution then you can raise the pH of the nutrient solution to around 6.5 by adding potassium hydroxide (KOH) or potassium carbonate.• The nutrient solution is muddy either due to the presence of plant debris from yam roots, rotten tubers, or dusts that have settled at the bottom of the tank. These will contaminate the nutrient solution. iiiThere are two types of timers: the digital timer (the preferred type for the AS) and the manual timer with teeth each representing 15 minutes. When the tooth is pushed in, it is 'OFF' and when it is out, then it is 'ON' and the nutrients are spayed in the AS chamber. The manual or analogue timer used in one of the AS at IITA-Ibadan is set for two periods: 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM (15 minutes 'ON' and 15 minutes 'OFF') and 5:00 PM to 6:00 AM (15 minutes 'ON' and 30 or 45 minutes 'OFF'), depending of the period of the year. The digital timer is used in the solar powered AS located at the Business Incubation Platform (BIP) at IITA-Ibadan. With the digital timer there is no flexibility for automated day and night settings.The filters should be checked and rinsed on Mondays. They should be washed and cleaned on Fridays to go through the weekend. However, after every harvest of tubers or when roots' debris settled down in the tank or in suspension in the nutrient solution, the filters need to be cleaned. One should ensure that the filters are rinsed or washed prior to any major holiday.Any other maintenance work (i.e., pipe or box dripping, electrical challenge, etc.) will need intervention of specialized workers (plumber, electrician, welder, carpenter, etc.). It is very dangerous and hazardous for the aeroponics system technician to start manipulating the system to solve specialized worker problems. The filters should be checked and rinsed at set intervals. At IITA, they are checked and cleaned every Monday and Friday. However, after every harvest of tubers or when it is observed that debris from roots have settled at the bottom of the tank or suspended in the nutrient solution, the filters should be cleaned.Any other maintenance work (i.e., pipe or box dripping, electrical faults, etc.) will need the intervention of a skilled technician (plumber, electrician, welder, carpenter, etc.). It is inappropriate, for example, for the AS technician who is responsible for mixing the nutrient solution and maintaining plants in the AS to act as a specialist and try to resolve other issues for which she/he has no competence.• This should be prepared weekly at a set time or after receiving many visitors into the aeroponics screenhouse. The disinfectant can be prepared with any of the following compounds.• 5 g of copper sulphate dissolved in 10 L of water (using more of the chemical to obtain a higher concentration is a waste) and• 1 L of sodium hydroxide (household bleach) in 9 L of water.• The first thing to do on entering the AS screenhouse is to rapidly check the plants in each of the 10 boxes to see if there is any irregularity that needs attention. While checking the plants it is advisable listen to the sound of the misters as they spray to detect possible irregularities.• The boxes should be cleaned regularly and before any major planting operation with sodium hydroxide (5%). .• Clean the top of the boxes (tables) with 70% alcohol prior to planting. This cleaning should be maintained every two weeks and can be done weekly during harmattan (dusty) period.• Put the twines for staking in place before planting so that plants are not disturbed during growth. If plants are not twined on the ropes, their development may be slowed down due to limited exposure of leaves to light. Young plants should be directed to twines.• Sprinklers or misters should be checked to ensure they are functioning properly. Faulty mister can be detected by the abnormal noise of the spray.• The holes drilled into the tables are large enough to accommodate plantlets, which are held in place by a piece of foam. The foam also serves to cover the hole and prevent sunlight from entering the aeroponics boxes. It is important to note that sunlight will induce sprouting of new stem from the rooting node in the boxes. This reaction makes it very necessary for holes without plants to be closed since they could be a source of light entering the boxes. Other advantages of preventing light in the boxes are:-Elimination of the growth of algae and spirogyra within the boxes.-Tuber formation takes place in dark condition.-Absence of shoot growth within the box.• In each box, verify if the returning nutrient is flowing normally out of the box through the piping system into the tank. Also, check the point of exit of the box with the returning pipe and remove any blockage.• When the pump is running one should check the misters to ensure that each mister is functioning normally.All the rules listed under management of the screenhouse are observed for sanitation.The easier method of controlling heat inside the screenhouse is to spread a shade net (60 to 80%) over plants. When using the shade net, one should be careful about having sunlight inside the screenhouse. The temperature change pattern during the day should be studied to develop a schedule for closing and opening the shade net inside the screenhouse. Avoid frequent opening and closing of the shade net. In addition, it is important to control the heat by watering the floor of the screenhouse and using fans and heat extractors to move hot air from inside the screenhouse. Experts are trying to find more efficient ways to address challenge of having the high temperatures inside the screenhouse.Presently, the only solution being used to reduce the temperature of the nutrient solution is to put iced blocks made with the nutrient solution into the tank. During the hot period, the iced blocks can be made in advance and stored in a deep freezer within the power house. It is possible to find other options that will be more effective to reduce heat during the hottest period of the year (December to March).in cleaning by adding distilled water and later 70% alcohol and used effectively the mope. Make sure that there is no more plant debris and no solution in the tank. We have not yet identified the best way to clean the nutrient tank.Clothing materials and food items: If the power house serves other functions such as offices space, care should be taken to avoid contamination through food and clothing. Food should neither be eaten in the power houses, nor stored in the deep freezer where the nutrient solution is stored. The same applies to drinking water. Apart from being sources of contamination, eating and drinking or storing food with nutrient solution could pose health and safety hazards for staff.Two types of data should collected in the AS and analysed to help improve the system; data collected in the screenhouse and from the power house.In the screenhouse the data collected are related to planting events e.g. dates of planting, and variety planted per hole, per table and per box, data on plant growth (plant height and number of leaves) plant replacement, harvest of tubers, bulbils or single node vine cuttings, etc. Temperature and relative humidity of the screenhouse should be recorded at set times thrice daily (morning, afternoon and evening).Records should be taken on symptoms of diseases (anthracnose, fungal or virus diseases, etc.) or pests (mealybug, etc.). Data collected in the power house are related to the nutrient solution quantity of each fertilizer used, pH, temperature, Electro-Conductivity (EC) and the Total Dissolved Soluble (TDS), and the volume of remaining nutrient are taken three times daily. All interventions in the AS system should be recorded.There are three types of planting materials that can be harvested from the AS. These are tubers, bulbils, and vines.In From early studies of yam propagation in the AS, it was observed that the average weight of tubers per plant was 109.3 ± 6.6 g, and the highest weight of tubers per plant (1048.6 g) was recorded by TDa 2014. On the other hand, when considering the performance of the yam genotypes in aeroponics, the average number of tubers per plant was linked to the genotype and varied with the age of plants within the genotype. At 13 months, the number of tubers per plant was 1.8±0.1 for TDr 97/00917, 3.0±0.7 for TDr 89/02665, and 5.1±0.3 for TDr 95/18544. These numbers of tubers per plant changed to 6.3±0.2 for TDr 95/18544 at 16 months and to 4.0±1.0 for TDr 97/00917 at 32 months. The same values were recorded for the tuber weight per plant and it was dependent on canopy development.In terms of size, the general average length of tuber was 9.8 ± 0.7 cm and the average diameter is 4.0± 0.1.Harvesting should be done carefully to avoid bruising and wounding At harvest, one should be careful and tubers should be harvested one by one. Each tuber harvested is weighed and recorded.All the tubers harvested should be labelled with the name of the variety, the number of tuber harvested, and the weight of each variety. Harvest of tubers is a very delicate operation, which should be done without removing all the feeding roots from the principal stem. The roots should be maintained so the plant can continue growing and produce more propagation materials.  At harvest, the tubers from the aeroponics system are treated with a mixture of fungicide and insecticide (7 g Mancozeb and 2 ml Karate in 1 L of water) and exposed to air dry under shade.The labeling is very important at harvest. The following information are included in the label: Variety name; date of planting; date of harvesting; number of tuber harvested; weight of each tuber; number of hole; table number; and box number.Bulbils are aerial tubers produced by some plants. Within a variety, as much as 25% of the plants could produce bulbils, and up to 73% of plants of the variety TDr89/02665. A plant can produce up to 150 bulbils per plant. Both D. alata (water yam; Figure 33c) and D. rotundata (white yam; Figures 33A & 33B) can generate bulbils. The bulbils are formed at the nodal points and have many types. Some of the bulbils start growing while still attached on the plants, with their rooting system in air (figure 33A), while others develop exactly like tubers (Figure 33B). The bulbils are planted to produce plants and can be stored for a long period before planting. Bulbils have less pest and disease challenges in storage compared to tubers.The harvest of bulbils can be done at any time. However when they are producing roots and shoots they should be harvested as soon as possible. If bulbils not harvested early enough, the mother plant as well as the bulbils will dry up.Before developing the AS for yam propagation, the single-node vine cuttings was the technique used for yam multiplication. With these vine cuttings taken from plants growing from tubers or from true seeds in the field, the technology provided a maximum of 60 single-node vine cuttings Per plant and the percentage of cuttings that eventually produced roots and new leaves was less than 5 %. However, using vine cuttings of the varieties TDr 95/19177 and TDr 95/18544 from the AS, 98 % of cuttings rooted, while more than 90 % produced new leaves. These results were later confirmed for 12 yam varieties.  To obtain single-node vine cuttings start by cutting the lateral branches from the main branch(es). Put the cut vines in a disinfectant solution in a bucket. After cutting the lateral branches, the main branches are cut from the top leaving about 10 to 15 cm vine in place to allow re-growth. Each of the cut branches is then cut into pieces with only one node using a sharp implement. The single node cuttings should be dropped immediately in water or disinfectant solution to avoid drying. Plant the single-node cuttings immediately in plastic bags that are filled with a mixture of 50% carbonized rice husk and 50% sterilized top soil. The planting should be done under shade in a nursery. After three to five weeks the cuttings will develop into seedlings with roots and shoots ready for transplanting to the field.The number of single-node cuttings per plant is very variable with genotype and age of the plant, and generally increases with increase of the period of growth of the plants.The following pictures (Figure 35 to 38) of canopies are at different development stages and correspond to different number of vine cuttings that could be obtained per plant. Sometimes, it may be better to wait for a heavy canopy before cutting the vines, because more leaf area encourages more growth. However, in case there is already 'forest' (heavy canopy) in aeroponics (Figure 38), cutting of branches should be done with extreme care because the vines become intertwined and will be difficult to separate. Forcing them apart will entail loss of leaves, which are essential for successful rooting.   If the rooting system inside the boxes is too much it may need to be trimmed after harvest of the vines as per figures 39A and 39B.  5Field planting of harvested planting materials from aeroponicsSimilar to normal yam tubers, the mini or micro tubers from aeroponics are planted only after their dormancy is broken. The mini or micro tubers are planted whole when their size is below 30 grams. Bigger tubers are cut into setts of approximately 25-30 g after breaking dormancy. The tubers harvested in aeroponics system from TIBs plantlets are pre-basic seed tubers (breeder seed). After transplanting, they produce basic or foundation seed tubers. These can be transplanted in field on ridges at a density of 1 m x 0.25 m or in plastic pots of 10 L each filled with sterilized top soil. At all stages of handling, proper labelling of varieties must be done to avoid mix up. It it recommended to store mini and micro tubers from AS in cool and dry place or in a AC room.  The information on the label should include variety name, date of planting, date of harvesting, number of tubers and weights of tubers at harvest and any other information that may be deemed necessary. Also, more information should be recorded in the field notebook including origin of the material planted, weight, treatment, etc.During the growth of yam plants in aeroponics, different types of bulbils are produced. It is advisable to remove the bulbils found in the rooting system with new leaves. Plants with the bulbils should be harvested. Since the number of bulbils produced is usually few, it is suggested that they should be planted in pots. The planting of bulbils is the same as tubers.The main difference, though, is that bulbils are only planted whole.  The single-node vine cuttings spend 3-4 weeks in the nursery to preroot before they are transplanted in the field. The land should be well prepared and where its fertility status is in doubt, poultry manure should be applied before harrowing, followed by ridging. The planting density is determined by the distance between ridges (0.75 m or 1.0 m). The distance recommended between plants is 0.25 m. This will give a planting density of between 40,000 and 53,333 plants per hectare. Previous results showed that at least 92% of the transplanted vines developed and produced tubers successfully.      ","tokenCount":"6392"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7c6a6814a52899b9215aa5e70f487099","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/77ced337-949e-447c-a851-bdeb993f2228/retrieve","id":"-735290336"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"917c2734-3efd-4a54-8436-8292a30f44f3","pagecount":"37","content":"i     SAPLING is one of the One CGIAR initiatives under the RAFS research area. SAPLING contributes to transforming livestock sectors in seven target countries (i.e., Vietnam, Nepal, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mali) to make them more productive, resilient, equitable and sustainable. To support this transformation, SAPLING has three main pathways: 1. Co-creation and -delivery of sustainable productivity-and resilience-enhancing innovations that are expected to go to scale with the up-front involvement of demand and scaling partners. 2. Generation and communication of evidence that can influence policies and investments to support transformation. 3. Capacity building of partners to use the innovation packages and evidence to drive change. (https://www.cgiar.org/initiative/17-sustainable-animal-productivity-for-livelihoodsnutrition-and-gender-inclusion-sapling/).A range of different interventions or innovations have been proposed for implementation in the SAPLING countries, sites and values chains. As time and resources are limited, there is a need for prioritization. To help decide on which innovations to focus for further research, implementation and the scaling readiness process, it is important to gain insight on the potential positive and negative impacts of the proposed innovations. Therefore, an ex-ante tradeoff analysis was conducted.This report presents the results of the tradeoff analysis for the beef and pig value chains 1 in Vietnam, which was part of a broader exercise covering a total of 14 value chains in the seven SAPLING countries (Table 1). It captures expert opinions on possible positive and negative impacts of livestock innovations along five different sustainability dimensions or domains: productivity, profitability, environment, human condition and social impacts. In each country and for each value chain, innovations were defined during the initiative stakeholder and inception meetings. SAPLING country leads and consultants translated these innovations into expected practice changes (Annex 1). They further compiled a VC-specific list of topical experts on livestock health, animal genetics, animal nutrition, livestock markets, policy analysis, natural resource management, gender and livestock, who were sent an invitation to participate in an online trade-off scoring exercise.An on-line survey (in Google forms) was carried out for each of the 14 VCs, capturing expert opinions on possible positive and negative impacts of livestock innovations along different dimensions (or domains) based on the sustainable intensification assessment framework (SIAF) including productivity, profitability, environment, human condition and social impacts (Musamba et al., 2017).The productivity domain is critical in capturing productivity both in cropping and livestock systems. Respondents were asked to keep the following three key indicators in mind when scoring the interventions: animal productivity, whole-farm productivity and variability of production. In terms of productivity, we thus consider not only animal productivity (birth rate, growth rate, milk production, health) but also whole-farm productivity (including trees, cash and food crops). In addition, we consider lower variability of production (seasonal and interannual) as a positive outcome. Innovations which increase the outputs of the farm and/or reduce the seasonal and annual variability would thus score higher.Here we refer to the profitability (i.e., net returns) of agricultural activities for the producers and other actors along the value chain. Furthermore, consider the likelihood of generating return to investment, enhancing market participation, and creation of employment on-farm and/or along the value chain. Innovations likely to deliver greater monetary profits and create employment would score higher.Here we refer to the natural resource base (e.g., soil, water, biodiversity), the environmental services provided by the natural resource base (e.g., nutrient provision, water-holding capacity, genetic diversity), and the degree to which agricultural activities impact the natural resource base and environmental services. Consider impacts the innovation would have on biodiversity (including agrobiodiversity), water availability and water use, land use, vegetation and soil health, and greenhouse gas emissions per unit of product. Innovations which lead to lower environmental impacts would score higher.Here we refer to the welfare of individuals. Key indicators to consider are access to sufficient and nutritious foods, food safety and hygiene. Innovations which lead to better access to safe food and increased food and nutrition security would score higher.Here we refer to social interactions and the enabling environment. Key indicators to consider are women control over income and resources, equitable gender labor requirements and youth participation in, and benefit from livestock. Innovations which increase equity and opportunities within communities or value chains would score higher.   Before sharing with the potential respondents, the survey was evaluated by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and translated into French for Mali and Vietnamese for Vietnam. In each country, a consultant was hired to support the process.Of the 446 experts (85 women, 362 men), 177 (33 women, 144 men) responded, with respond rates varying between 16% and 72% and no difference between female and male respondents (Table 3). The 177 experts who responded provided for a total of 206 data points across the 14 value chains, some responding for more than one value chain. In spite of several reminders to the potential respondents, the objective of at least 20 respondents per value chain was not always reached (Table 4). In Vietnam, 16 experts scored the proposed beef VC interventions, while 5 scored pig VC interventions. Tables 5 and 6 give insight about the institutional background and expertise of the respondents.  • On Gender & Equity, expertise was quite evenly distributed over the countries with about 10% of the respondents.The responses of experts were analyzed, collated and summarized as follows:• The scores \"large negative impact, small negative impact, no change, small improvement, large improvement and \"I don't know\"\" were translated into numbers, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 and \"blank\" respectively and linked to a color scale. • For each value chain, the scores were aggregated per innovation (see Annex 2 for details).• To be able to better compare the results per value chain type (dairy, beef, small ruminants, pig, poultry), the innovations were reformulated (summarized for different types of innovations) and \"grouped\" (See Annex 3). • As the result of a review process, the innovations formulated in 2022 were (partially) reformulated for almost all value chains. To the extent possible, the initial innovations were reallocated to the revised ones and a reassessment was done along the five dimensions.The results of the analysis were shared with stakeholders during Theory of Change (ToC) refinement workshops. These workshops were organized in each of the countries and brought multiple stakeholders together with the aim to validate the Theory of Change and the innovations. The scores were reviewed and in some cases refined by the workshop participants. In addition, the implications of the expected impacts across the different dimensions were discussed. If deemed necessary and feasible, innovations were refined to avoid expected negative trade-offs. In the case of uncertainty about the scores or clear knowledge gaps, ideas for follow-up action or research were elicited.Table 7 presents the summary of the results of the expert scores. In general, the implementation of the proposed innovations is expected to have a positive impact on productivity, profitability, and human welfare, particularly in terms of access to nutritious food, food security, and hygiene. The effects on the environment and social dimension are also expected to be mostly positive, albeit limited (e.g., Kenya dairy vc). Capacity development initiatives are anticipated to have a positive impact across all dimensions. When considering specific value chains, the small ruminants value chain innovations are projected to yield the highest gains in productivity, economic benefits, improvements in human conditions, and social outcomes. In terms of environmental gains, the small ruminants value chain in Ethiopia is expected to experience the highest benefits, this in contrast to Mali.Innovations for poultry value chains are expected to have the lowest impact. Interventions in the pig value chains, overall, show the lowest environmental gains. The interventions proposed scored lowest overall in the Kenyan dairy VC, followed by the Ethiopian poultry VC.Identified knowledge gaps include limited access to financial guarantees, which hinders progress in implementing innovations. Moreover, there is a lack of integrated climate smart technology packages and livestock insurance schemes.The following sections zoom into the Vietnam beef and pig value chains and present:• the average scores per (type of) innovation for the different dimensions, both for the initial and the reformulated innovations • knowledge gaps in terms of innovations and dimensions • proposed innovations to address knowledge gaps and expected low or negative impacts. • Respondents expect most from animal production related assessments, and relatively little from assessments on social inclusion.• Technical training (livestock production options) and training on business models is expected to have a positive impact on productivity and income.• Most respondents expect a positive impact (especially on productivity) of feeds and forages interventions and business models. Anticipated environmental impact of new business models is relatively low. Seven revised innovation packages were defined. To the extent possible, the original innovations of 2022 were reallocated to these. A reassessment was done along the five dimensions based on (1) the survey results and (2) on group discussions during the ToC workshop. This led to the following findings:• IP1, Promoting improved forages, is expected to have a positive impact on productivity (for which soil quality is an important constraint, and improvement will take time), to a lesser extent on income (including reduced feed costs), human condition (this intervention will not be accessible for all) and social aspects (intervention can lead to mixed reactions), and with a small positive impact on environment (reduced soil erosion). • IP2, Tools and approaches for improving herd health and biosecurity, is expected to have a positive impact on productivity, to a lesser extent on human condition (less effort needed to care for ill animals) and social aspects and with a small positive impact on environment. While positively assessed in the survey, in the group session the impact on income is expected to be small and only long-term. • IP3, Strengthening and promoting artificial insemination service, is expected to have a (strong) positive impact on productivity, and to a (much) lesser extent on income, environment, human condition and even less on social aspects. • IP4, Approaches for strengthening women's empowerment and transforming gender norms, is expected to have a moderate positive impact on income (women are supposed to be better resource managers), human condition and social aspects, and much less on the other dimensions. • IP5, Strengthening inclusive linkages with input and output markets, is expected to have a positive impact on income and human condition, with less positive impact on the other dimensions, especially environment. • IP6, Tools and approaches for improving nutrition and managing food safety risks, is expected to have a positive impact on human condition and social aspects, and much less on the other dimensions. • IP7, strengthening the policy and institutional environment related to inclusion, is expected to have a positive impact on human condition and social aspects, and less on the other dimensions. During the group discussion it is mentioned that interventions will enhance the productivity, but with limited impact. Increased engagement from the government will help strengthen livestock-related policies.   Seven revised innovation packages were defined. To the extent possible, the original innovations of 2022 were reallocated to these. A reassessment was done along the five dimensions based on (1) the survey results and (2) on group discussions during the ToC workshop. This led to the following findings:• IP1, Promoting improved forages, is expected to have a strong positive impact on productivity, and environment (through improved soil fertility), and a less on income, human condition. The lower impact (and even negative in the group discussion) on social aspects is caused by the expectation that novel feed and forage technologies will increase the workload for women. • IP2, Tools and approaches for improving herd health and biosecurity, is expected to have a positive impact on productivity and human condition, to a lesser extent on income and with only a small positive impact on environment and social aspects. • IP3, Strengthening and promoting artificial insemination service, is expected to have a strong positive impact all dimensions except for environment. • IP4, Approaches for strengthening women's empowerment and transforming gender norms, is expected to have a strong positive impact on human condition and social aspects (it is expected that women will have more resources to buy food), somewhat less on productivity and income and almost none on environment. • IP5, Strengthening inclusive linkages with input and output markets, is expected to have a strong positive impact on productivity and income, and to a somewhat lesser extent on environment, human condition and social aspects. It is expected that access will increase to nutritious food and that farmers will reduce the use of chemical/banned inputs in livestock production and promote organic farming practices. • IP6, Tools and approaches for improving nutrition and managing food safety risks, is expected to have a strong positive impact on human condition and social aspects, and much less on the other dimensions, especially environment. Women are well able to transfer knowledge and both men and women will benefit. • IP7, strengthening the policy and institutional environment related to inclusion, is expected to have a (strong) positive impact on all dimensions, somewhat less on environment. Demand for livestock is high but capital is lacking. If farmers have access to capital, they will increase their herd and increase productivity. An environmental protection policy will increase the use of biogas (fertilizers). Proposed innovations to address knowledge gaps include:• Innovations with strong focus on improved profitability Women and men cattle keepers improve their knowledge on cattle breed, breeding and artificial insemination; More cattle keepers adopt breeding and AI; Well-adapted and improved cattle breed.2: Assessment of feed and forage option using the Gendered Feed Assessment Tool (GFEAST).Well-adapted cattle nutrition. 6: KAP survey on animal health control measures (e.g., biosecurity and farm management), AMU and vaccination after than before the trainings. In addition, participated farmers are willingly to invest farm renovation (e.g., construction of new pen and water system).Well-adapted animal health control measures, antimicrobal use and vaccination. 11: Gender and social inclusion (ethnic minorities focus) baseline assessment applying WELI/WELBI. The assessment will focus on (i) implementation of the Gender and Livestock Frameworks; (ii) engage and identify needs of local communities and households in developing gender-sensitive, inclusive livestock value chains; (iii) map on existing inter-ethnic relationships in territories, underscoring how such filiations influence livestock VC.12: A social norms baseline will be conducted. Gender accommodative approaches (GAA) and gender transformative approaches (GTA) will be applied to address identified constraints at the system and household levels.13: A baseline survey will be implemented to identify prevalent roles exerted by young farmers (men and women) and assess their current abilities and possibilities to participate and benefit from VC activities Well-adapted youth inclusion interventions.14: Analysis of the existing value chains and business models in the study sites using LINK methodologies. 1: Women and men pig keepers, veterinary officers and extension workers, will be trained in breeds, breeding and use of artificial insemination (AI). Pig keepers will be trained to perform AI on their own animals, and Ban boar keepers trained in semen collection and processing as an input into AI.Women and men pig keepers improve their knowledge on pig breed, breeding and artificial insemination; More pig keepers adopt breeding and AI; Well-adapted and improved pig breed.2: Assessment of feed and forage option using the Gendered Feed Assessment Tool (GFEAST).Well-adapted pig nutrition. 10: A social norms baseline will be conducted. Gender accommodative approaches (GAA) and gender transformative approaches (GTA) will be applied to address identified constraints at the system and household levels.11: A baseline survey will be implemented to identify prevalent roles exerted by young farmers (men and women) and assess their current abilities and possibilities to participate and benefit from VC activities Well-adapted youth inclusion interventions.12: Analysis of the existing value chains and business models in the study sites using LINK methodologies.Well-adapted value chains and business model interventions.13: Prioritized business models/innovation packages, which include both technical descriptions (what and how) and economic information (costs, benefits) Prioritized business models identified.Pig value chain is more efficient; Farmers have better sale price, input and service price.Annex 2: Results of trade-off analysis per value chain Beef 1: Women and men beef cattle keepers, veterinary officers and extension workers, will be trained in breeds, breeding and use of artificial insemination. Veterinary officers will be trained in cattle artificial insemination. and supported to become AI service providers (though business model development undertaken as part of WP4, linkages to semen providers, and continual support on technical issues).2: Assessment of feed and forage option using the Gendered Feed Assessment Tool (GFEAST). Pigs 1: Women and men pig keepers, veterinary officers and extension workers, will be trained in breeds, breeding and use of artificial insemination (AI). Pig keepers will be trained to perform AI on their own animals, and Ban boar keepers trained in semen collection and processing as an input into AI.2: Assessment of feed and forage option using the Gendered Feed Assessment Tool (GFEAST). The CGIAR Research Initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (SAPLING) is working in seven countries focusing on livestock value chains to package and scale out tried-and-tested, as well as new, innovations in livestock health, genetics, feed and market systems. SAPLING aims to demonstrate that improvements in livestock productivity can offer a triple win: generating improved livelihoods and nutritional outcomes; contributing to women's empowerment; reducing impacts on climate and the environment. Its seven focus countries are Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam.SAPLING forms part of CGIAR's new Research Portfolio, delivering science and innovation to transform food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.","tokenCount":"2900"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f1eb3722cd28801656293b8a15c5d1d7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cc4f0dd2-47a1-4cc8-87fd-c92fb712b957/retrieve","id":"-127319202"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0641ebc7-ce45-4595-8cc3-4052d6361cfc","pagecount":"11","content":"GENDER-RESPONSIVENESS of your project's technical farmer training events This resource sets out simple suggestions for ensuring that women as well as men feel included in training events, are fully informed about technological options, learn effectively, and have the confidence to implement what they have learned. Over time, if their experience has been successful, they should be able to build on the training course to innovate by themselves in response to their needs and changes in the wider environment. Good training events need more than great content. How you train is vitally important. It is essential that women and men -including youth, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups -are able to speak their minds and have opportunities to shape the training event for their own requirements. As future farmers, the needs of young women and men in farming households require special attention in order to encourage those interested to stay in the sector. Communities are diverse. Standardized one-size-fits-all training events are unlikely to work. Adapt and contextualize your basic training content to the real women and men, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized people in your target groups. Take a little timeto learn about who does what in the production system, and beyond that, to the market. This will help you tailor your training content to make it relevant to the women and men you are targeting. Make your event fun to attend and focus on participatory learning by doing. Listen to what your participants say. They will already know a lot about their specific agroecological and market systems. Ensure your training has scope for building on participants' existing knowledge; this will make it easier for them to assimilate new material and will make it more relevant.training events fun.Run discussion workshops, storytelling, role-plays, case studies, collective tasting and cooking events (men should also cook), and other activities. Include energizers, songs, and dance.Involve community members who can inspire participants. This helps strengthen buy-in from the community and the participants themselves.Facilitators should consider wearing bright colors. This brings energy to the room and the participants.Don't put participants on the spot, or as a negative point of reference.Build up women's skills and confidence by asking them to facilitate small group discussions, act as note-takers, or make presentations on behalf of their groups. This applies to people with disabilities, or living with chronic illnesses, and young women and men, too.A simple way of creating equality is to create small spaces to hear everyone's voice.People love to see their ideas valued in daily reviews, so give space for each person to speak -for example, one idea each, and acknowledge their input.Treat women as well as men as scientists and innovators.Find ways to involve, support, and highlight women farmers and young people (alongside men) as co-researchers and as demonstration farmers in field activities. This will help to develop their confidence and boost their standing as people worth listening to and emulating in the community.The project and the training event should walk the talk by enlisting women as trainers and having women staff in key decision-making positions.Facilitators should be role models for women and marginalized people's participation, representation, and inclusion.Think of key words or principles to guide your training event. Some good ones are inclusion, fun, helping people move forward, and walking your talk. Together with your training team and the participants themselves, you may think of more.The tip sheet includes some tried and tested principles. support men as well as women towards positive change.Collect information to make your training relevant.Find out women and men's priorities in relation to the technology. The perspectives of women and men are likely to be different because of their gender and other factors, such as age, caste, class, and ethnicity. They may have different responsibilities in their crop/livestock production systems and are likely to have distinct needs, interests, experiences, and resources.Work with the ideas of women and men technology users when designing training events. Conduct focus group discussions with target groups and key informants to develop training content. Pilot your event before rolling it out.Find out what members of your target group already know. Respect that knowledge and build on it.Promote technologies as menus rather than packages.Promote the ability of participants to select from and adapt a range of technologies.Build on women and men's existing expertise whilst helping them to find ways to develop their understanding and their roles in relation to the particular technology.Create space for discussion around the trade-offs between technological choices, and how trade-offs -for instance balancing use of residues between crop, livestock, and household requirements -may affect women's and men's work and benefits.Move beyond focusing on the technology itself. Discuss its place in wider change processes affecting the community -climate change, urbanization, etc. What are the implications for the technology you are introducing? How do the participants think they could adapt to the technology in the future?Making sure your course is relevant to both women and men is key. After all, they farm together.Farmers attend a training in Bangladesh. Photo: S. Mojumder/Drik/CIMMYT.Make your training event interactive and provide plenty of opportunities for participants to do, speak, share, think, and have fun.Ensure the training methodology is right for the participants.Plenty of practical, hands-on demonstrations work well, particularly in the participants' own fields. Learning by doing using one's own resources helps to promote control over experimental design and encourage experimentation.Language.Use the language spoken by participants rather than a national or international language, if appropriate. Women, in particular, may be less fluent in national languages.Don't use forms of language that promote hierarchies of understanding such as \"experts\" and \"trainees.\"Check for gender and other stereotypes.Check for hidden assumptions about gender and other matters in your training materials. These may make women or other socially marginalized participants feel excluded.Create a respectful atmosphere.Encourage people to respect each other's opinions however much they may disagree.Agree with everyone that the event is meant to be a safe space for learning and experience sharing.Ask participants not to make fun of others' well-intentioned comments or repeat unflattering stories outside the workshop. Confidentiality must be respected.Where possible, promote flat learning and knowledge-sharing structures.Move away from top-down lead farmer models to horizontal ones that promote group sharing and learning processes, both within and between groups.Within this, mentoring and peer replication approaches can be developed and supported.Foster positive interactions in mixed groups.If women are unfamiliar with speaking in public, create small safe environments with a maximum of four to six people.Make sure that there are at least two to three women in each small mixed group so they can support each other, and encourage them to speak.Encourage equal participation through group and pair work discussions, rotating seat assignments, limiting speaking time per participant, and male/female speaking order.Role-playing can be fun whilst encouraging debate around potentially sensitive topics, such as marketing.Ensure flat power relationships between women and men in a group setting. It is better to have equals in a group rather than boss/workers.In some cases, women may prefer to meet separately to formulate their ideas before bringing them (often anonymized) to the larger mixed group.Use ICTs, film, other media.Consider multi-media forms of training, such as information and communication technologies (ICTs), mobile phones, radio, and other media during and beyond the training event.Feedback.Course evaluation criteria should be robust and easy to use.Encourage women and men to comment openly on the processes of inclusion in the event and the training methods and content.Feedback should be disaggregated by gender.Ask participants to commit themselves to one action immediately after the course and to share these with others.Including women effectively in training events, and above all enabling them to take risks and implement new ideas and technologies, depends on a conducive environment. Research shows it is much harder for women to take risks and do things differently than for men. Men are often praised for taking a risk, even if they fail. Women who take risks may be laughed at, or marginalized, by other women as well as men.Engage community members in exploring how existing community structures could be developed to overcome gender barriers. Promote inclusion in training events, and safe learning and experimentation spaces. Ensure that the process is participatory and involves all segments of the communitywomen, men, youth, socially marginalized people, as well as opinion formers and decision-makers, at different points. Actively include experts such as agricultural extension workers from target communities.Help people in your target community and your other partners to identify the costs when women are not included. Get them on board to support women innovators.Build community appreciation of the benefits to participation by women, youth, and marginalized people.The training event will only work if people attend it voluntarily. To secure support for women's participation, sensitize the community in advance of the training event.Talk about women's participation with community leaders and opinion-formers, male household heads, and relatives in extended families (if appropriate, such as parentsin-law).Agree right from the start whether women will be trained together with men, or separately. Separate training runs the risk of creating a \"them and us\" feeling, but in some situations women need their own spaces to learn effectively.Identify and work with local gender/women's organizations to help secure participation and tackle problems that may arise.Go farm to farm to secure the engagement of women, and be ready to talk to all household members about their questions and concerns.Reach women via various social networks -religious, school-related, sports, savings groups, etc. Identify mobility, time, and other constraints that might limit women's participation in training activities. Discuss with community members and husbands, as well as with women, how these may be overcome. Usually, events held in the morning exclude women because they have to attend to household chores.with existing gender norms.Develop training activities to foster reflection and action around gendered attitudes and practices that may limit a family's ability to adopt new technologies and practices, and build on positive local gender norms that highlight women's knowledge and contributions.Use games that will make everybody laugh and then draw some learning related to the gender norms expressed in those games, and build from there.Work with young women on their participation and leadership skills and potential. Help them to construct new images of themselves as people with rights, aspirations, and dreams.Support men and boys.Gender-responsive training events can challenge the perceptions of men and boys around who does what, who is responsible, and who benefits. Depending on the type of project, it may be useful to consider ways to support men as they begin to confront and question cultures that shape their identities at home, in their community, at work, and in the media.Strengthen men's personal commitment to gender equality and equip them with the knowledge and skills to put that commitment into practice in their own lives.In some situations where interventions include long-term transformative change, it may be useful to create men-only groups to help men support each other in changing their behaviors and challenge concepts and practices related to traditional ways of being a man.Work with young men through organizing peer-training events.Farmers learn in Bangladesh. Photo: S. Mojumder/Drik/CIMMYT.Technology adopters are highly diverse in any community. People live in many forms of household, including child-headed, polygamous, male and female-headed, and so on. There may be different ethnic and religious groups, people with disabilities, and people living with HIV/AIDS. Getting young women and men on board and excited about farming is important. It is vital to target women in male-headed households, and women heads of household. Remember that targeting is not just about getting a specific number of selected groups into a training course. Understanding the gender-related constraints that limit women's participation and the type of support they require is important. Link women's participation in the training event to the wider goals of the whole family. Frame the development of women's knowledge and skills within broader goals centering on achieving the goals the family considers important (e.g., health, nutrition, and education).Ensure that direct links between women's contributions and entitlements are made. Build direct associations between women's improved capacity to contribute to the household economy (income generation, household food, and nutrition security) and their right to secure benefits in terms of more equitable food distribution and voice in cross-cutting expenditure decisions (e.g., investments in businesses, children's education, and other important goals). It is essential that the dreams and aspirations of the women, for themselves, are included in this.Women heads of household are frequently hard to reach. Evidence shows they are often early adopters and innovators. However, they may need special assistance to continue with their innovations. Whilst women benefit from remittances, others struggle with a lack of adult (often male) labor, weak access to productive resources, and low social capital. A special effort needs to be made to reach and support such women in training events, and to ensure the content is relevant to them. In some cases, supporting initiatives to develop the productive resources of such households may be important if they are to implement the new technologies effectively.in training events.In some cases, women-only training events may be best.Set straightforward targets -for example, at least 30% women's participation in the training event. The national government may set minimum quotas that should be taken as a starting point for building on (but should not define the limits to ambition!).Set a target for young people as well -for instance, 30% youth with 50:50 participation between female and male youth. This sets a cultural expectation which, even when the original participants move on, can be replicated in subsequent training events.Heads of household are often invited to training events, although they may not be responsible for actual technology implementation. It is best to ensure that both heads of household and their spouses participate.Ensure women heads of households are invited and supported to participate actively.Use the training course as an opportunity to address gender and social inequalities in the community. If the training is longer than a day, give participants homework on things to reflect on with their families or on their own. Ask them to share their reflections the next day.Make sure you have identified the needs of socially marginalized women and men for the technology addressed in the training and ensure you engage them successfully. Meet them prior to the training, if possible, to reassure them that their participation is important and encourage them to come. Marginalized people feel empowered when they come to the training event and are warmly welcomed by the facilitator. This builds their sense of self-worth.If possible, make individual visits to the marginalized population's homes to see how they are implementing the technologies and give on-the-spot advice. This promotes their standing in the community.Farmers learn about drought tolerant maize at field school. Photo: Anne Wangalachi/CIMMYT.Get the timing right.Consider seasonality with respect to both women's and men's work both on their own farms, and potentially as hired labor. Hold training courses when the demands of work are less. Ask the participants the best times and best venues for holding training events, bearing in mind women's daily activities, such as preparing food and hauling water. Don't make courses too long -one to two hours is probably just right, but check with the participants about what best suits them.Get the budget right.Addressing gender and social inequalities cost money. This must be budgeted for:Training events should, wherever possible, be located within villages or within easy reach of women's homes.Childcare may need to be provided (remember that family and friends are not always able to take on this responsibility).Should childcare not be possible or welcomed, make it clear that breast-feeding mothers, as well as toddlers, are welcome to attend the training. This will ensure that young mothers come.In some societies, chaperones may need to be transported, housed, and fed if the training takes place in a central location.Adequate sanitation facilities are particularly crucial to the participation of women and of participants with disabilities.Provide light refreshments to keep up energy levels and encourage group building. If lunch is required, pay local women to provide it. Consider encouraging men/ male youth to cook and serve. Make sure that women and men queue together rather than separately. Lunch can become a fun way of rethinking the gender norms that everyone carries with them.Women inspect maize seed in Zambia. Photo: P. Setimela/CIMMYT.Women and men often have different daily and seasonal schedules. Time training sessions around those schedules, and ensure that training sessions are not too long and easily accessible to women and persons with disabilities. In some cultural settings either women or men trainers may be more effective. Otherwise, aim for a gender balance in trainers. Male-female teams help segregated communities overcome some of their fears and taboos about women and men working together.Where possible, work with NGOs and women's groups and men's groups that focus on gender transformation to develop empowering training methodologies.Ensure diverse representation of social groups as peer trainers, mobilizers, and facilitators.Develop a cohort of excellent women and men facilitators to help women to participate actively. Aim towards at least 50% women trainers. If this is not possible, consider ways to build up the number of women in your training team.Pair less experienced facilitators with more seasoned facilitators with a good understanding of gender issues to share experiences and techniques.Train facilitators in techniques to help women speak. Encourage men to respect women's views and give them space to talk.Women can do technology too.Pair women and men staff to lead community introductions and trainings.Recruit women technical staff to teach on traditionally male-dominated topics, such as pesticide applications, mechanization, etc. Set a benchmark (e.g., 30% moving towards at least 50% for women field staff in key roles).Develop the skills of women in the community to conduct training. In the beginning, they can shadow experienced trainers in training events and be given responsibility for specific tasks.Women participants may feel more open with a woman trainer, be more willing to ask and answer questions and to admit knowledge gaps. Men may prefer their wives to have a female trainer. In such cases, it is important to ensure that women facilitators train women-only groups.Women facilitators may need specific support in the field and their work more broadly, including onsite childcare if they have young children.Ensure accommodation is safe with adequate sanitation.Encourage and support women to discuss their training experiences and any problems they may face which hamper their ability to work well.The training is just the beginning. Ensure reports and recommendations reflect on the gender issues raised by the training event.Provide refresher courses at set time periods.As part of the technical refresher, ask your participants how they have been adopting and adapting to the technologies you trained them on. Have there been any special issues facing women, youth, and other target groups? What can be done about them?Building in interactive discussions on these processes will help improve your own training events and make them even more technologically and socially relevant.Recognized community-level experts such as older women may be trained to mentor/ coach younger women -for example, on the technologies.Develop case studies or life stories of the adoption process to build into future training courses. Make sure these are anonymized.A Vietnamese farmer applies fertilizer. Photo: Mike Listman/CIMMYT.","tokenCount":"3182"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0999ec402263a54e21d4ab9aa5df5f13","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ab2bd102-1658-4ce1-b556-38b068cc7693/content","id":"-1830943922"},"keywords":["Robbana, C.","Kehel, Z.","Ammar, K.","Guzmán, C.","Naceur, M.B.","Amri, A. Unlocking the Patterns of the Tunisian Durum Wheat Landraces Genetic Structure Based on Phenotypic Characterization in Relation to Farmer's Vernacular durum wheat","Tunisian landraces","genetic diversity","population structure","phenotypic characterization"],"sieverID":"7c3af364-bfb3-434d-9718-9016575bed69","pagecount":"18","content":"During the 1970s, Tunisian durum wheat landraces were replaced progressively by modern cultivars. These landraces are nowadays maintained by smallholder farmers in some ecological niches and are threatened gradually by extinction resulting in the narrowing of the genetic diversity. This study aims to investigate patterns of phenotypic variability using twelve quantitative traits in a panel of 189 durum wheat landraces and seven checks, based on farmer's population name attribution and genetic structure. Our results showed high phenotypic variability among and within landraces and checks for ten out of twelve studied traits. The principal components analysis showed similar grouping using farmers name attribution and genetic structure using K = 6. These results confirmed the identification of a new gene pool in the oases of Tunisia, represented by the sub-population Jenah Zarzoura and the robustness and high relationships between phenotypic and genome-wide genetic structure using DArTseq method. These findings will enhance the conservation efforts of these landraces and their use in breeding efforts at national and international levels to adapt to dry conditions.Tetraploid wheats are among the first crops that were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 10,000 years ago [1,2], the period that coincided with the human civilization emergence, marked by several events such as the development of agricultural practices and the shift from the hunter-gatherer to a sedentary and cultivator lifestyle [3,4]. Domestication of durum wheat from its wild progenitor has undergone a series of genetic modifications, known as \"the domestication syndrome\" [5], involving changes in some morpho-physiological key traits through natural and ancient farmer's selection, such as non-shattering seeds, non-brittle rachis, bigger seed size, seed dormancy reduction, reproductive strategy [4][5][6][7]; which enabled easier harvest and use.The tetraploid wheat spread is associated with human migration, from the Fertile Crescent towards remote geographical regions and continents to reach North Africa. The oldest described way of this migration is terrestrial, which started from Egypt and continued south to Sudan and Ethiopia and north to eastern Libya [8]. The second route is maritime, Agronomy 2021, 11, 634 2 of 18 first from Greece and Crete to Libya and then from the Sicilian peninsula to reach the coasts of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco [9]. The process of domestication and genetic evolution of the tetraploid wheat in the Mediterranean Basin was strongly influenced by environmental conditions and different farmers' strategies selection for desirable agronomic and end-use traits, which induced the development of diverse and well-adapted durum wheat landraces to their agro-ecological zones of origin [10].Several studies have described a wide genetic diversity in durum wheat populations from different geographical origins, based on qualitative and quantitative traits [11][12][13]. Particularly, the Mediterranean landraces showed a higher level of polymorphism and allelic richness for some quality traits compared to those from Southwest Europe and Southwest Asia [14,15]. The West Mediterranean landraces have shown their resistance to drought [16,17] and diseases [18], their phenotypic plasticity and their adaptability to harsh environmental conditions, and low in-put farmers agro-systems [19][20][21]. However, these landraces including the Tunisian ones are continually lost, due to farmer's adoption of new high-yielding and homogenous cultivars released since the period of the Green Revolution in the 1970s, which resulted in narrowing the genetic diversity of durum wheat [10,22]. Boeuf [23] has described a large number of Tunisian durum wheat landraces, which have been crossed later since the 1970s with foreign landraces and have given rise to a large diversity of local populations [24], which erected Tunisia within the secondary centers of diversity for durum wheat [25]. Nowadays, only Tunisian smallholder farmers under traditional farming systems maintain some of these landraces with traditional agricultural practices and methods of conservation, in some ecological niches, to meet their food needs. The vernacular name of the Tunisian local traditional varieties was attributed by traditional farmers based on the color and shape of the spike as well as the geographical origin or the name of the oldest maintainers to recognize their innovative role [24].Farmer's management of these landraces has shaped the genetic diversity between and within landraces and their genetic structure. Several studies have reported high phenotypic diversity among the Tunisian durum wheat germplasm through evaluating agronomic and adaptative traits [19,26], and through phenotypic characterization based on the international standards descriptors of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) [26,27]. Besides the phenotypic diversity of durum wheat landraces, genetic population structure is also an important criterion to buffer the effects of climate change and biotic and abiotic stresses. Several molecular tools were used to assess the population structure of durum wheat collections [28][29][30]. To date, few studies were done on Tunisian germplasm [31,32]. Kehel et al. [33] demonstrated a structure of the genetic diversity of Moroccan and Syrian durum wheat landraces in relation to their spatial distribution using Bayesian and Eigen approaches. Soriano et al. [11] described a relationship between phenotypic performance and genetic structure. Our previous studies also described different patterns and a genetic structure of 196 lines issued from durum wheat landraces, collected in the south of Tunisia, based on Diversity Array Technology sequencing (DArTseq) [31]. However, no investigations up to now have been done on the structure based on agro-morphological diversity among these landraces in relation to farmers' nomenclature and management. Towards a better understanding of the genetic population structure of this collection, the present study aims to (1) assess the phenotypic diversity based on ten agro-morphologic and two phenological traits evaluated across six environments, (2) unlock the genetic structure based on agro-morphological characterization related to farmers' vernacular name or/and to the genetic groups described on our previous study [31], and (3) characterize the newly identified Tunisian population Jenah Zarzoura.In this study, we used a collection of 189 lines derived from six Tunisian durum wheat landraces. These landraces were collected from the Central, the Southern and the Oases of Tunisia and were identified by farmers as (Table 1): Bidi (30), Biskri (37), Jenah Zarzoura (30), Jenah Khoutifa (32), Mahmoudi (30), and Rommani (30). The landraces Biskri and Jenah Khotifa are represented by two populations as described in Table 1. Seven ICARDA elite lines were used as checks (Table 2). In our previous work seven lines of Biskri were identified as local improved varieties [31].  Field trials were conducted in two contrasting zones of Tunisia: (i) Mornag locality, belonging to the semi-arid bioclimatic zone with mild winter (latitude: 35 • 59 31.36\" N; longitude: 9 • 58 48.12\" E), where the experiments were carried out under rainfed conditions during two cropping seasons 2015 and 2016 (MOR RF), and (ii) Kairouan locality belonging to the arid bioclimatic zone with cool winter (latitude: 35 • 39 31.93\" N; longitude: 9 • 55 39.53\" E), where the experiments were carried out under two controlled water regimes during two cropping seasons 2016 and 2017 (full irrigated regime (KAIR IR) using 100% of the evapotranspiration (ETR) and stressed regime (KAIR STR) using 25% of the evapotranspiration (ETR)). The 196 lines were sown at a seeding rate of 350 seeds/m 2 in a two m2 plot (with 4 rows of 2 m long and 0.25 m apart) and arranged respectively on 14×14 alpha lattice design with two replications. Optimal agronomic management including soil preparation, fertilization, weeding, and disease control were applied in each site.Five plants were randomly sampled from the two central rows of each plot and were used to record five agro-morphological traits: Plant height (H; cm) measured from tillering node to the top of the spike (excluding awns) of the main stem at maturity stage, flag leaf area (FLA; cm 2 ) estimated by a planimeter (AM 300 Field Portable Leaf Area Meter-Opti-Sciences), spike length (MLB; cm), awn length ( MLE, cm) and number of spikelet per spike (NEE) were scored based on wheat descriptors of the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR). The remaining grain morphological traits were recorded after harvesting the two central rows and analyzed in CIMMYT Wheat Chemistry and Quality laboratory, including thousand kernel weight (TKW; g) seed width (SW, mm), seed thickness (ST, mm), seed length (SL, mm) and seed total area (TA, mm 2 ), which were measured by digital image analyzer (SeedCount SC5000, Next Instruments, Condell park NSM, Australia).The phenological data were recorded according to Zadoks scale, on plot basis, for days to heading (HD, days) and days to maturity (DM, days).The panel of 196 lines was analyzed in a previous study [31] for genetic diversity and population structure using DArTseq method. Two outcomes were highlighted in this study. First, a population structure with number of groups K = 5, which was efficient to differentiate most of the landraces related to their Farmer's nomenclature. Second, on the basis of number of groups K = 6, the genetic structure showed a mixture of landraces lines separated from all other landraces and was considered as local improved varieties (MIX_VAR).Therefore, the lines used in this study were categorized based on their names attributed by farmers, and to their respective groups K = 5 and K = 6 issued from the genetic population structure.Phenotypic data recorded for twelve traits from separate environments were analyzed based on a linear mixed model below:where µ and r are the grand mean and replication effects considered to be as fixed. ICB and G are incomplete blocks within a replica and the genotypes effects considered to be random. ε are the residuals from the model assumed to be randomly and normally distributed.Broad sense heritability (H2) of a trait in each environment was computed as follow [34]:where Var (G) and Var (e) are genotypic and residual variances and n is the replication number. Percentage genotypic variance was computed the percentage of variance explained by the genotype from the total phenotypic variance. A multi-environment analysis was done using a linear mixed model as follow:where µ, E and r(E) are the grand mean, environment and replication effects considered to be as fixed. ICB (E), G and GxE are incomplete blocks within an environment, genotype and the genotype by environment effects considered to be random. ε are the residuals from the model assumed to be randomly and normally distributed. Broad sense heritability (H2) of a trait across environments was computed as follow:where Var (G), Var (GxE) and Var (ε) are genotypic, GxE and residual variances and e, n are the environment and replication numbers respectively.Three other linear mixed models were fitted for the twelve traits according to the three genetic landraces patterns as below:where µ and r are the grand mean and replication effects considered to be as fixed. ICB, G, and Grp are incomplete blocks within a replica, the genotypes effects and the group effects were considered to be random. The group effects were based on landrace's name, landraces grouping using K = 5 and K = 6 [31]. ε are the residuals from the model assumed to be randomly and normally distributed.Variation explained by the groups was computed as Var (Grp)/Total variance x 100 which reflects the reduction from the genotypic variance due to the group covariate in the model. All mixed modeling was done using AsReml-R 3.0 package [35,36] in R (R Core Team 2018).Principal component analysis PCA using adjusted means values of all the traits across environments from the first mixed model was executed using pcaMethods package in R [37]. We used singular value decomposition (svd) and data was scaled and centered.Finally, we tested statistically the significant difference between different group of landraces in a multi-trait level framework using the three different grouping: Name, genetic group assessed with K = 5 and with K = 6 by analysis of the partitioning sums of squares based on dissimilarities. The analysis was done using vegan package in R project [38,39].In this study, the broad sense heritability (H2) estimated for ten agro-morphological and two phenological traits across six environments, in a collection of 196 accessions, showed high values (H'2 ~0.9) for ten out of twelve traits (Table 3). The highest value was observed for heading date (HD, 0.98) and the lowest value was seen for plant height (H'2, 0.60). Across the different environments, the highest values of heritability were observed for the two phenological traits, heading date (HD) and maturity date (MD), with a range from 0.94 to 0.98 and from 0.80 to 0.96, respectively. A similar range was observed for plant height (0.86-0.96) and seed length (SL) (0.80-0.98). For the remaining agro-morphological traits, our results showed medium to high heritability estimates for the majority of the traits in most of the environments. Medium heritability values were observed for ST (0.65), SW (0.71), TKW (0.64), and LB (0.66) in Mornag locality (MOR RF 2016), and very low values were seen (H2 ≤ 0.36) for flag leaf area (FLA) in Kairouan locality (KAIR IR 2017). However, the number of spikelets/spike (NEE) showed lower heritability across all environments ranging from 0.61 to 0.71.The Tunisian durum wheat landraces lines showed higher values of plant height with a range of 50.89 cm and 95.82 cm compared to the checks (min: 49.73 cm-max: 69.51 cm), bigger flag leaf area (FLA, mean: 3906.32), later heading date (HD, mean = 128) and maturity date (MD, mean = 168), respectively (Supplementary Table S1). For the durum wheat lines, the highest variability was observed for FLA (12.38%), flowed by TKW (10.83%) and plant height (9.80%) compared to those for checks, which showed the highest variability for plant height (12.28%), spike length (11.15%) and flag leaf area (10.87%) (Supplementary Table S1).The percentage of variance explained by the genotypes (G) across the six environments (Figure 1A,B), showed the lowest value for the total seed area (TA; 38%) compared to the highest one observed for heading date (HD; 91%). The genotypic variance (G) explained more than 50% of the total phenotypic variation for 10 out of 12 studied traits (Figure 1).The percentage variance explained by the farmer's population name (Name) as showed in Figure 1A,B had a large contribution of the total phenotypic variation, which was more than 50% for 8 traits. However, we observed a different level of the phenotypic variance reduction due to the farmer's name attribution. This reduction was low for TA (14%), ST (17%), TKW (13%), and MNEE (15%), but it was higher for FLA (25%), SL, and HD (23%).The collection of 196 accessions used in this study was structured in our previous work into five sub-populations K = 5 to differentiate between the sub-populations and into six sub-populations K = 6, which showed a mixture of landraces lines considered as local improved varieties [31]. Landraces assignment to the genetic groups using the number of sub-populations K = 5, explained a slightly higher portion of the total phenotypic variation compared to that explained by farmer's name attribution. This increase was observed mainly for SL (11%), ST (5%), and SW (5%) (Figure 1B). The observed explained variation for the eight traits, as that due to the farmer's name attribution, was almost conserved. The highest explained variation was observed for HD trait (70%), followed by MD and SL (64%), SW (62%), and H (51%) traits, and the lowest one was seen for TA (27%), MNEE (30%) and FLA (31%) traits (Figure 1A,B).For landraces assignment to the genetic groups using the number of sub-populations K = 6, we noticed in Figure 1A,B an increase of the explained variance compared to that explained by farmer's name attribution and also to that explained by the landraces assignment with K = 5. This increase ranged from 2 to 4 % for TKW, FLA, MLE, ST, SW, and TA to 16% and 20% for H and HD, respectively. The percentage variance explained by the farmer's population name (Name) as showed in Figure 1A,B had a large contribution of the total phenotypic variation, which was more than 50% for 8 traits. However, we observed a different level of the phenotypic variance reduction due to the farmer's name attribution. This reduction was low for TA A complementary analysis of partitioning sum of squares of all the traits used in this study based on different landraces grouping levels: \"Names\" for farmers population name attribution, \"K = 5 and K = 6\" for sub-populations structured by Robbana et al. [31], revealed that all the grouping levels explained a large portion of the trait variance (>64%) (Table 4) and showed a highly significant difference (p = 0.001) among the sub-populations. The highest variance was explained by the genetic population structure assessed with K = 6 (76%), followed by the grouping level with K = 5 (65.06%), in comparison to the one based on farmers population name attribution (64.81%).  Based on the genetic population structure using K = 6, means comparison across the six environments of all the traits between the seven sub-populations are presented in Figure 2A,B. It was confirmed that the additional group composed of mixture lines (MIX_VAR) included improved varieties, which presents the same variability and characteristics as the ICARDA elite lines, such as earliness for heading (HD) and maturity (MD) dates (around 110 and 160, respectively), short status with a plant height (H) around 100 cm, higher thousand kernel weight (TKW) with a mean around 40 g and number of spikelets/spike (MNEE) around 20.For almost all the studied traits, the boxplots analysis showed the presence of phenotypic diversity within the different landraces and improved varieties patterns. Compared to the other landraces, the sub-population Jenah Zarzoura possessed higher variability for most of the traits and distinctive characteristics. This landrace exhibited lower HD and MD than the five other landraces, but these traits were slightly higher than the mixture lines grouping (MIX_VAR) and the checks (Check) (Figure 2A). Jenah Zarzoura was shorter than the other landraces and taller than the mixture lines grouping (MIX_VAR) and the checks (Check) (Figure 2A). According to the morphometric traits related to the seed size, Jenah Zarzoura sub-population showed the lowest seed length (SL), seed thickness (ST), and seed width (SW) (Figure 2B). Furthermore, this landrace showed the lowest thousand kernel weight (TKW) (Figure 2B) and the lowest flag leaf area (FLA) (Figure 2A) compared to the other sub-populations including local improved varieties and ICARDA elite lines. The landraces Bidi (BID), Biskri/Mahmoudi (BIS_MAH), Jenah Khotifa (JKF) and Rommani (ROM) showed similar patterns and variability for HD, MD and H. However, Bidi showed the highest awn length (MLB) and spike length (MLE) (Figure 2A). On the other hand, Rommani showed the lowest awn length (MLB), spike length (MLE), seed length (SL), and the highest seed width (SW). Jenah Khotifa showed the highest seed length (SL) and the lowest flag leaf area (FLA) (Figure 2A,B).flag leaf area (FLA) (Figure 2A) compared to the other sub-populations including local improved varieties and ICARDA elite lines. The landraces Bidi (BID), Biskri/Mahmoudi (BIS_MAH), Jenah Khotifa (JKF) and Rommani (ROM) showed similar patterns and variability for HD, MD and H. However, Bidi showed the highest awn length (MLB) and spike length (MLE) (Figure 2A). On the other hand, Rommani showed the lowest awn length (MLB), spike length (MLE), seed length (SL), and the highest seed width (SW). Jenah Khotifa showed the highest seed length (SL) and the lowest flag leaf area (FLA) (Figure 2A,B).(A)  Results of principal components analysis (PCA) based on mean of the ten agromorphological and two phenological traits across six environments showed that the first five principal eigen values explained cumulative variance respectively of 61, 76, 88, 94 and 95% from the total phenotypic variance for sub-populations according to farmers name attribution and for those inferred from the genetic structure assessed with K = 6. In Figure S1, we observed that all the traits have the same contribution to PC1 except TA and MLE.For depicting phenotypic structure and relationships among the different sub-populations, PCA analysis using principal component 1 versus principal component 2 were able to discriminate between contrasting sub-populations and showed in Figure 3A that the lines of Biskri and Mahmoudi constitute the same group, the sub-populations Bidi and Jenah Khotifa are very close, the misclassified lines of Biskri and Mahmoudi are grouped with the elite ICARDA lines and compose a mixture lines group, the misclassified lines in each group are identified and assigned to their respective landrace, and finally the sub-population Jenah Zarzoura constitutes a separate and distant group from all the other landraces and checks. Based on the sub-populations structured by Robbana et al. [31] using DAPC with K = 6, PCA biplot analysis in Figure 3B confirms previous results based on farmer's name attribution (Figure 3A), with a clear differentiation of the sub-population Jenah Zarzoura (ZAR), which is the furthest from all the other landraces. The misclassified lines composing the mixture lines (MIX_VAR) are grouped with the ICARDA elite lines (checks) and are considered as local improved varieties. The sub-populations Bidi (BID) and Jenah Khotifa (JKF) are not well differentiated and are very close. These landraces were closer to the sub-population composed of Biskri and Mahmoudi lines (BIS_MAH) than the sub-population Rommani (ROM). This last landrace constitutes a separate group. Results of principal components analysis (PCA) based on mean of the ten agro-morphological and two phenological traits across six environments showed that the first five principal eigen values explained cumulative variance respectively of 61, 76, 88, 94 and 95% from the total phenotypic variance for sub-populations according to farmers name attribution and for those inferred from the genetic structure assessed with K = 6. In Figure S1, we observed that all the traits have the same contribution to PC1 except TA and MLE.For depicting phenotypic structure and relationships among the different sub-populations, PCA analysis using principal component 1 versus principal component 2 were able to discriminate between contrasting sub-populations and showed in Figure 3A that the lines of Biskri and Mahmoudi constitute the same group, the sub-populations Bidi and Jenah Khotifa are very close, the misclassified lines of Biskri and Mahmoudi are grouped with the elite ICARDA lines and compose a mixture lines group, the misclassified lines in each group are identified and assigned to their respective landrace, and finally the subpopulation Jenah Zarzoura constitutes a separate and distant group from all the other landraces and checks. Based on the sub-populations structured by Robbana et al. [31] using DAPC with K = 6, PCA biplot analysis in Figure 3B confirms previous results based on farmer's name attribution (Figure 3A), with a clear differentiation of the sub-population Jenah Zarzoura (ZAR), which is the furthest from all the other landraces. The misclassified lines composing the mixture lines (MIX_VAR) are grouped with the ICARDA elite lines (checks) and are considered as local improved varieties. The sub-populations Bidi (BID) and Jenah Khotifa (JKF) are not well differentiated and are very close. These landraces were closer to the sub-population composed of Biskri and Mahmoudi lines (BIS_MAH) than the sub-population Rommani (ROM). This last landrace constitutes a separate group. Understanding the genetic diversity, population structure and proper characterization of the Tunisian germplasm is essential for its better management in gene bank and for efficient use of superior lines in the breeding programs. Several studies showed the efficiency of the phenotypic characterization using the descriptors to assess the genetic diversity of different durum wheat collections. Other studies found that molecular markers from RFLP to high throughput technology using SNP and DArT were powerful tools for wheat genetic diversity and population structure studies [31,40,41]. Royo et al. [42] demonstrated weak relationships between genetic structure using SSR markers in a panel of Mediterranean durum wheat accessions and phenotypic structure assessed with six agronomic traits across nine environments. In contrast, Soriano et al. [12] showed strong relationships between phenotypic and genotypic structures in a collection of Mediterranean durum wheat landraces and modern cultivars using as well agronomic traits and SSR markers. In the present study, we demonstrated that field phenotyping combined with high throughput DArTseq genotyping are important and complementary tools for an efficient assessment of the genetic diversity and population structure of a panel of 189 accessions collected from the center, south, and the oases of Tunisia and seven checks. Understanding the genetic diversity, population structure and proper characterization of the Tunisian germplasm is essential for its better management in gene bank and for efficient use of superior lines in the breeding programs. Several studies showed the efficiency of the phenotypic characterization using the descriptors to assess the genetic diversity of different durum wheat collections. Other studies found that molecular markers from RFLP to high throughput technology using SNP and DArT were powerful tools for wheat genetic diversity and population structure studies [31,40,41]. Royo et al. [42] demonstrated weak relationships between genetic structure using SSR markers in a panel of Mediterranean durum wheat accessions and phenotypic structure assessed with six agronomic traits across nine environments. In contrast, Soriano et al. [12] showed strong relationships between phenotypic and genotypic structures in a collection of Mediterranean durum wheat landraces and modern cultivars using as well agronomic traits and SSR markers. In the present study, we demonstrated that field phenotyping combined with high throughput DArTseq genotyping are important and complementary tools for an efficient assessment of the genetic diversity and population structure of a panel of 189 accessions collected from the center, south, and the oases of Tunisia and seven checks.The broad sense heritability (H2) is an estimation value that reflects the proportion of the phenotypic variance that is due to genetic variation [43]. According to Johnson et al. [44] the broad sense heritability was classified as high for H2 > 60%, medium for H2 between 30-60%, and low for H2 < 30%. In our study, we showed high heritability for almost all the studied agro-morphological and phenological traits (H2 > 60%).The highest heritability of the two phenological (HD and MD) and the plant height (H) traits were comparable to those reported in Ethiopian durum wheat farmers varieties and improved varieties evaluated in two zones in Northern Ethiopia for two years [11]. Our findings showed higher heritability of the agro-morphological traits, particularly for the thousand kernel weight (TKW) in comparison to those described using Ethiopian durum wheat landraces (H2 = 0.6) and a collection of Tunisian and Algerian durum germplasm (H2 = 0.53) [11,19]. Relatively similar heritability values to our findings were reported for the majority of the agronomic traits in a previous study using Chinese wheat landraces collected from different zones in China and evaluated for 23 agro-morphological traits in six environments [45]. However, they found lower heritability for the seed morphological traits with a range of 0.43 and 0.76 for seed width and seed length, respectively [45]. Our results allowed us to reveal using the present Tunisian germplasm collection that all the studied traits with high heritability across the six environments are highly influenced by genetic effects rather than environmental effects. According to Singh [46], high heritability values of phenotypic traits reflect small environmental factors contribution to the phenotype and will enhance eventually the selection of superior genotypes with targeted agro-morphological or phenological traits which could be used in national and/or international breeding programs.Tunisia is considered among the secondary centers of durum wheat diversity and includes a large collection of landraces [23], which are described by several experts as a reservoir of useful genes with high allelic richness [10,24]. Previous studies reported high genetic diversity in several collections of Tunisian germplasm using agro-morphological traits [19,26]. Belhaj et al. [27] described high and different levels of genetic diversity in 930 accessions collected from different localities in the south of Tunisia using twenty-two qualitative and three quantitative traits. A recent study using SSR markers described a genetic stratification between the North of Tunisia, with a predominance of highly productive improved varieties, and the Centre/South of the country, with the presence of old durum wheat varieties and landraces [32]. Slim et al. [32] showed the importance of the Centre and the South of Tunisia in maintaining some valuable landraces, which are well adapted to low precipitations and agricultural inputs. Nowadays, very little knowledge about Tunisian oases local populations richness is described and characterized, even though some studies showed a wide and interesting diversity of bread and durum wheat landraces in the Algerian Saharan oases [17], as well as in Libyan and Moroccan oases [47,48].According to these previous findings, we focused on durum wheat landraces, which were collected in Tunisia from the Centre, the South and the Oases of Mareth. Our results showed high variability between genotypes (G) for almost all the traits across the six environments (percentage of variance > 50%), except for seed total area and number of spikelets per spike (percentage of variance < 40%). In comparison to other studies, our work showed higher variability than that reported for nine agro-morphologic and three phenological traits among Tunisian durum wheat genotypes with a range of 5.38% for heading date to 24.07% for thousand kernel weight [26], to that reported for four agronomical traits among Tunisian and Algerian germplasm, particularly for thousand kernel weight with a value of 9.45% [19] and to that showed for fourteen agronomic and phenological traits evaluated across six environments in a large collection of Mediterranean durum wheat landraces, with the largest variation registered for plant height (78.2%) [12].The Percentage of variance of each trait showed that the genetic patterns based on the number of sub-populations K = 6 explained more the phenotypic variability than Farmer's population nomenclature, and the partitioning sum of squares analysis of all the traits across the six studied environments indicated a highly significant phenotypic diversity among the present Tunisian landraces (>64.80%). These results are in agreement with our previous findings using DArTseq genotyping [31], which reported an optimal number of sub-populations K = 6, allowing an appropriate classification of the lines and a good identification of the different landraces and improved varieties. However, a high genetic diversity among these landraces was described based on the number of sub-population K = 5 based on analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) results.In addition, our present observed results showed high phenotypic variability for almost all the traits for the different patterns of landraces and improved varieties (MIX_VAR and Check). Interestingly, the four landraces Bidi (BD), Jenah Khotifa (JFK), Biskri/Mahmoudi (BIS_MAH) and Rommani (ROM) show the same patterns of variability for the phenological traits, which are characterized as late booting and maturing landraces, as described by Deghaïs et al. [24]. Furthermore, these landraces share similar patterns of variability for the majority of the morphologic traits, as high plant height (H), big flag leaf (FLA), and high seed size (SW and ST). Deghaïs et al. [24] reported that Jenah Khotifa and Jenah Zarzoura are the same landrace based on the black color of the spike and glumes. However, our work showed that Jenah Zarzoura (ZAR) is different and distant from all the landraces including Jenah Khotifa. This sub-population collected from the Tunisian oases is characterized by early booting and maturing dates (HD and MD, respectively), semi dwarf status (H), and low flag leaf area (FLA). These characteristics confirmed previous studies showing relationships between climatic factors at durum wheat landraces collecting sites and phenotypic variation [49], and high tolerance to drought, salinity, and heat stresses in oases landraces [17,48], which reflects oases farmers selection for particular traits to ensure the growing season until harvest and to meet their needs under inadequate climatic conditions. Recently, studies related to seed morphometric traits demonstrated that seed width and more specifically seed thickness were associated to predict the domesticated status and could be applied for archaeological identification [7]. This finding helped us to suggest the early introduction of Jenah Zarzoura comparing to the other landraces, based on the lowest values of seed width and thickness, and support our previous findings that showed similarity between this sub-population and two Jordanian landraces [31].In the present study, we used ten agro-morphological and two phenological traits for understanding the genetic structure and relationships between the Tunisian durum wheat populations and improved varieties. Indeed, many combinations of phenotypic markers were shown efficient in several studies using different collections of durum wheat [11,26,50]. Both PCA performed on all the studied traits based on farmer's landraces vernacular name attribution and the sub-populations structured with DAPC using K = 6, confirmed previous findings, which reported the valuable farmer s knowledge in distinguishing the local populations [49,51], and a clear differentiation between the improved varieties and the different local populations as described by Fiore et al. [50]. However, some misclassified lines in each population were identified as improved varieties and others were assigned to their respective population. In addition, the phenotypic structure based on farmer s landraces vernacular name attribution showed that Biskri and Mahmoudi landraces constitute the same group. Previous findings using a collection of Tunisian germplasm identified through PCA based on morpho-agronomical and phenological traits four groups and showed that Biskri, Mahmoudi, and Jenah Khotifa landraces belonged to the same group, on the other hand, Bidi landrace constituted a distant and separate group [26], which agreed partially to our results for Biskri and Mahmoudi landraces. In a contrary we demonstrated that Jenah Khotifa and Bidi landraces are very close and could not be differentiated very well. Interestingly, the PCA results showed that the oases landrace Jenah Zarzoura is distant and different from all the other landraces, checks, and improved varieties. This sub-population constitutes a new gene pool with particular characteristics. These results agreed with our previous study using DArTseq genotyping method for assessing the genetic population structure through DAPC with K = 6 of the same set of accessions, which explained the mixture lines origin in each sub-population was due to farmer's seed exchange and/or to the misnaming of the landraces during the collecting missions, confirmed the identification of a new gene pool represented by Jenah Zarzoura landrace and demonstrated that Biskri and Mahmoudi landraces belong to the same group [31].Farmers' vernacular landraces name attribution, their seed maintenance, and their traditional agricultural practices are valuable information for gene bank management, conservation, and genetic diversity analysis studies [21,47]. Despite the overuse of homogenous, semi dwarf, and high yielding varieties, and the loss of durum wheat genetic diversity, nowadays looking for a new source of genetic variability from the existing collection of landraces became urgent to face the climate change and to moderate the high agricultural input systems.In the present study, we demonstrated that phenotypic markers and DArTseq genotyping were efficient and complementary to assess the population structure and genetic diversity of the Tunisian durum wheat collection. Both methods showed similar population structure, high genetic diversity among the landraces, and allowed the differentiation of different genepools. Further, our work highlighted the importance of the Tunisian oases by including a new gene pool represented by Jenah Zarzoura landrace, which showed particular phenotypic characteristics of adaptation to erratic environmental conditions. This population could be a valuable source of climate change-associated adaptive genes to be used in breeding programs for developing new high yielding varieties for dry areas. Our findings support the need to extend collecting more landraces mainly those from the oasis of Tunisia.Phenotypic and molecular characterization in this study and our previous study confirmed the need for a clearer strategy when making plans of genotyping Genebank collections and using outcomes in linking phenotype to genotype. Genotyping and phenotyping one seed per a Genebank accession, most of the time not the same seed, do not allow a tight relationship between traits and alleles considering the levels of phenotypic and genetic diversity within an accession. Genotyping and phenotyping several lines per accession are resource-consuming processes and have a direct implication on conservation strategies within a Genebank.","tokenCount":"5890"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8c7d0a3c724bf61941fc322b3e41b5c1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fb9cf75c-0374-4779-b10f-8368f3a0aa78/retrieve","id":"1788734528"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"18e714f5-80d4-4006-868b-c75b71f776bd","pagecount":"10","content":"General indicators of small ruminant production in the zone Investigations of small ruminant production in case study areas Potential intervention points in small ruminant production ReferencesThe importance of small ruminants for meat production in the tropics is well recognized (e.g. Williamson and Payne, 1978;de Haas and Horst, 1979). Adu and Ngere (1979) found that 11% of the meat supplied from slaughter-houses in Nigeria comes from sheep, and they state that the importance of sheep is greater if rural unregistered slaughters are taken into account. Brinkmann and Adu (1977) estimate that goats contribute about 20% of Nigerian meat supply. This means that about 35% of total meat supply comes from small ruminants. Nevertheless, large differences exist between regions as well as between the countryside and city. According to Sarniguet et al (quoted in Grell, 1976), in rural areas of northern Nigeria the contribution of small ruminant meat to total meat consumed is three times that of beef; but in the cities small ruminants contribute only a quarter as much as cattle to total meat consumption. In the rural areas of southern Nigeria, beef and small ruminant meat are equally important, whereas in urban areas beef consumption is more than eight times as great as the consumption of small ruminant meat.Census figures for sheep and goats are as approximate and unreliable as those for cattle. Adu and Ngere (1979) estimate a population of 7.2 to 8.2 million sheep in Nigeria. ILCA (1979a) gives a figure of 7.6 million sheep and 22 million goats. Brinkmann and Adu (1977) estimate about 29 million goats and that the number of sheep, i.e. approximately 9 million, equals the number of cattle. The numerical ratio between sheep and goats in Nigeria would thus be 1 to 3. This ratio contrasts with neighbouring countries such as Ghana, Togo and Ivory Coast, where sheep slightly outnumber goats (ILCA, 1979a).Within Nigeria, livestock density in the subhumid zone is lower than in the semi-arid and humid zones. Bourn and Milligan (1983) estimate that there are approximately 4.2 million head of cattle in the subhumid zone of the country. Milligan (personal communication) concluded from aerial surveys that cattle outnumber sheep by 5 to 1 in Fulani herds; this figure would suggest 0.8 million sheep. A recent survey of 100 Fulani households near Kachia revealed a ratio of 4 to 1 between cattle and sheep (Nweke, personal communication). Although arable farmers in the subhumid zone also keep sheep, they have considerably fewer than the Fulani. Allowing for these, it is estimated that there are approximately 1.1 million head of sheep in Nigeria's subhumid zone.In the absence of more precise data, the present goat population in the subhumid zone of Nigeria can only be estimated roughly. If Fulani pastoralists represent 5 to 7% of the total population active in agriculture, and average herd size is 50 cattle, then the 4.2 million cattle in the zone must be kept by 84 000 pastoral households, and there must be about 1.6 million crop farming households in the zone. If 90% of the farmers keep goats and average flock size is 5, as revealed by ground surveys in the ILCA case study areas, then the zone's goat population must be about 7 million head.If the above-mentioned small ruminant and cattle populations are converted into livestock units (LU), then sheep would represent about 3% of the total, goats 16% and cattle 80% (1 head of cattle = 1 LU; 1 sheep or goat = 0.1 LU; Williamson and Payne, 1978). For Nigeria as a whole, 75% of the ruminant livestock units are cattle, 18% goats and 7% sheep. These calculations must, of course, be treated with great caution, since the data base is far from firm. However, it appears realistic to state that small ruminants, particularly sheep, are less important relative to cattle in the subhumid zone of the country than they are in Nigeria as a whole.A survey of agriculture in the central part of the zone (Blair Rains, 1978) provides more information about the distribution of sheep and goats. Whereas goats were kept in 99 of the 100 villages in the sample, village sheep keeping is not quite so widespread: it is absent or rare around the Jos Plateau and in the southern part of the zone (Figure 1).According to the classification by Adu and Ngere (1979), the predominant type of sheep in the subhumid zone is the Yankasa, which, according to ILCA's classification, corresponds with the Djallonke savanna type (ILCA, 1979b). In cities and towns, as well as in the transhumant flocks of the countryside, the Sahelian breeds of sheep (Uda and Balami) occur most frequently. The Uda are predominant near Kontagora, where large flocks can be seen in the dry season. Where the Sahelian and Yankasa types occur together, crossbreeding is common.The predominant goat breed in the subhumid zone is the West African Dwarf. However, the Red Sokoto goat can be observed frequently in urban areas as far south as Ilorin. Again, crossbreeding is common, particularly in the northern part of the zone, where Red Sokoto goats are found not only in cities but also in rural areas.The fact that sheep under station conditions grow faster and attain heavier weights than those in villages indicates the presence of nutritional constraints under village conditions. However, as Brinkmann and Adu (1977) point out, sheep tend to lose weight much less than cattle during the dry season in the subhumid zone, and goats are even less susceptible to weight losses than sheep. One reason for these differences may be that small ruminants select a diet of better quality from natural fodder resources than cattle do (ILCA, 1979a).Some researchers state that goats are superior to sheep in their ability to select a good diet (ILCA, 1979a;Wilson et al, 1975). However, Squires (1980) found in subtropical Australia that in those cases where there were evident differences between the ability of the two species to select diet, sheep were superior to goats.Sheep are basically grazers, whereas goats eat a substantial amount of browse (ILCA, 1979a). Variations in the nutritional quality of browse plants from region to region may lead to the conflicting observations. The higher resolution of selectivity in smaller animals compared with larger ones is attributed by Arnold and Dudzinski (1978) to relative jaw size and to differences in the geometry of lip and tongue movement. ILCA (1979a) suggests that goats may be able to digest low-quality forage better than either cattle or sheep. However, the evidence is conflicting: many reports, the majority of them based on pen trials, do not take into account the possibility that goats are more selective and make no statements about the nutritional quality of plants or plant parts that were not selected (Butterworth, personal communication). Greater selectivity rather than digestive efficiency as such may be a major reason for differences between goats and sheep in their ability to digest fodder. Nevertheless, the superiority of goats and sheep over cattle in diet selection capacities is undisputed. The scope for increasing productivity by improving nutrition is thus likely to be much less in small ruminants, particularly in goats, than in cattle.Generally, sheep and goats mature early. Adu and Ngere (1979) state that the age of sheep at first oestrus is 5 to 8 months for the West African Dwarf breed, 7 to 9 months for Yankasa and about 9.5 months for Uda. Age at first parturition varies considerably. In West African Dwarf sheep, it occurs between 11 and 37 months (Adu and Ngere, 1979), in Mali 50% of the ewes had lambed by 15 months and the mean lambing interval of sheep was found to be 253 days, resulting in 1.4 births per ewe per year (Wilson et al, 1983). Adu and Ngere (1979) give a lambing rate of 110 to 112% for Yankasa and 120% for West African Dwarf sheep. Matthewman (1980) found a lambing rate of 115% in his village survey near Ibadan. Since multiple births are common among small ruminants, the number of lambs born per ewe per year (or kids born per doe) is higher than the lambing or kidding percentages reflect. ILCA (1979a) differentiates between fertility (parturitions per dam per year), prolificacy (average litter size) and fecundity (number of offspring born per dam per year). In Ivory Coast, Ginistry (quoted in ILCA, 1979a) found that fertility was 160% and fecundity 170%.Kidding intervals are generally found to be similar to lambing intervals; age at first kidding also differs little from age at first lambing. Vohradsky and Sada (quoted in ILCA, 1979a) observed a kidding interval of 285 days on Nungua Research Station in Ghana. In Mali, a mean kidding interval of 265 days was found in village flocks, whereas Otchere and Nimo (1976) calculated 254 days in Ghana under research station conditions. Matthewman (1980) and Putt et al (1980) consider three parturitions in 2 years as the maximum in both sheep and goats in Nigeria.The average litter size is usually greater in goats than in sheep. For example, Wilson (1980) found 1.5 and 1.4 lambs born per ewe in Sudan and Mali respectively. The corresponding figures for goats were 2.4 and 1.6 kids per doe (Wilson, 1982). Vohradsky and Sada (quoted in ILCA, 1979a) report that in goats 32.9% of the births were single, 52.9% twins, 13.7% triplets, and 0.3% quadruplets, resulting in 260% fecundity. Otchere and Nimo (1976) found a fecundity of 267% amongst West African Dwarf goats in Ghana. According to these sources, both species are highly fertile, but the fecundity of goats is normally superior to that of sheep, largely as a result of greater litter size.The survival rate of sheep up to 6 months of age was 70% in Mali and 75% in Kenya (Wilson,-1980). The corresponding figures for goats are 65% in Mali and 78% in Sudan (Wilson, 1982), indicating comparable mortality levels for kids and lambs.In the humid zone of Nigeria, Matthewman (1980) found a preweaning mortality of approximately 15%, but states that this is possibly an underestimate. Major factors influencing preweaning mortality within a breed are birth weight, litter size and parturition number (Wilson, 1980). Trail and Sacker (1966), working with indigenous black-headed sheep in East Africa, discovered that the lambs which died were considerably lighter at birth than the surviving ones. Parturition number and litter size also influenced preweaning mortality rates, since lambs born to gimmers were normally lighter than those born to ewes. The preweaning mortality of lambs born singly to ewes was 16%, that of single lambs born to gimmers was 20%, and that of twins born to ewes was 28%. Osuagwuh and Akpokodje (1981), working with West African Dwarf goats at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, found mortality of 38.6% in kids up to 3 months. A review by ILCA (1979a) and an evaluation of data collected in Mali (Wilson et al, 1983) indicate that parturition interval can also influence preweaning mortality in goats and sheep. Rombout and van Vlaenderen (quoted in ILCA, 1979a) found that parturition intervals of less than 7 months greatly increased lamb mortality. The Mali study found that parturition intervals of 183 days or less resulted in a lamb and kid mortality of more than 50%, whereas mortality declined to 25% when the interval was 245 days or more.Age of dam at first service also influences mortality of young animals. Ngere (quoted in ILCA, 1979a) found that only 42% of gimmers serviced at 8 months conceived, but only 17% produced live births, whereas all animals serviced at 11 months became pregnant and produced 100% live births. However, Wilson and Durkin (1983) argue that systems with controlled breeding (as practiced on stations) may lead to an increase of 100 days or more in age at first lambing or kidding. This increased age may reduce the advantage of a lower mortality; total herd productivity may, in fact, be greater in a system permitting early breeding. Matthewman (1980) found 15% adult annual mortality for sheep and goats in southern Nigeria, but he points out that this may be an underestimate. Wilson (1976) observed an overall mortality of approximately 30% for sheep and goats in the semi-arid region of Sudan.Despite a rather high mortality rate, offtake from small ruminant flocks is considerable. In Sudan, Wilson (1976) reported an offtake of 28% for both sheep and goats. The simultaneous increase in goat numbers could be interpreted as underutilization, whereas the declining numbers of sheep would indicate some overutilization. Matthewman (1980) found that more than 90% of male offspring of both sheep and goats were sold immediately after weaning; the total offtake from all lambs and kids in the flocks was about 67%, and offtake from adult animals in the flocks was about 20%.In ILCA's Mali study, sales and slaughters amounted to about 18% in sheep and 15% in goat flocks (Wilson et al, 1983). However, as in other studies, it was difficult to distinguish between deaths and slaughters in extremis. Therefore, the mortality figures which include such slaughters probably underestimate the percentage of animals used for human consumption. In non-Muslim societies, animals that have died, as opposed to those that have been slaughtered, may also be consumed; this practice is common amongst arable farmers keeping goats in ILCA's case study areas in the subhumid zone.According to ILCA (1979a), the birth weight of sheep is generally 7 to 8% of adult weight. Ngere (quoted in ILCA, 1979a) found an adult weight of 21 kg and an average birth weight of 1.66 kg for the West African Dwarf. In ILCA's village survey in southeastern Nigeria, an average birth weight of 1.8 kg was recorded (ILCA, 1979a). Dettmers et al (quoted in ILCA, 1979a) found an average birth weight of 1.9 kg for single lambs, 1.6 kg for twins, and 1.5 kg for triplets. Fall et al (1982) state that year of birth, month of birth, parturition number, litter size and sex all influenced birth weight significantly. Lambs born in the late dry season tended to be lighter than animals born at other times of the year, lambs at first parturition were lighter than lambs from subsequent parturitions, twin lambs were lighter than singles, and females lighter than males.For sheep and goats in Mali, the season of birth had no significant effect on birth weight; instead, litter size and sex were the significant factors (Wilson et al, 1983).Goats generally have lower adult weights than sheep in the same ecological zone (Wilson 1976;1980;1982;ILCA, 1979a). Partly for this reason, birth weights can be expected to be lower in goats than in sheep. The larger litter size of goats also accounts for lower birth weights. The ILCA village survey in southeastern Nigeria revealed an average birth weight in goats of 1.2 kg; in Ghana an average birth weight of 1.4 kg was recorded with a range from 0.5 -2.5 kg (ILCA, 1979a). Osuagwuh and Akpokodje (1981) found that surviving kids had an average birth weight of 1.24 kg; kids that were born alive but died within 3 months had an average birth weight of 1.04 kg.For Yankasa sheep, Adu and Ngere (1979) give 35 kg as the mature weight of females and 21 kg as the weight at first oestrus at 8 months. Preliminary results from ILCA's work in the subhumid zone indicate slightly lower weights: about 20 kg at 12 months of age and 30 kg as mature weight attained after 4 years. Orji and Steinbach (1981) found that mature weight of West African Dwarf sheep is 32 kg under station conditions; this weight is reached by ewes at approximately 3 years of age. ILCA (1979a) found that the mature weight of dwarf goats was approximately 25 kg. These animals matured late; their weight and size were still increasing when they were 3 years old (after three kiddings, on average).Weaning is assumed to occur among both sheep and goats at 150 days (Wilson et al, 1983), although Matthewman (1977) found that lambs and kids were sucking their dams for only about 100 days after birth.By far the most important product of small ruminants kept in the subhumid zone is meat. Neither sheep nor goats seem to be milked in this region. Hides, particularly those of goats (preferably Red Sokoto), are valued but in many parts of the zone skins are eaten.Because only one product must be considered, the productivity of the small ruminants in the zone is relatively simple to assess, in comparison with the productivity of multi-purpose cattle. Various formulae for calculating productivity indices are currently used. Wilson (1976)  This formula considers only the production of breeding females and not growth after weaning. However, it is generally agreed that the productivity of breeding females is a good indicator of overall productivity. The use of dressing percentage as a criterion for meat production is problematic, since large amounts of offal not included as 'meat' may in fact be consumed. Therefore, new formulae emphasize liveweight of lambs/kids 1/ for example, that of Fall et al (1982).[ 1/ For productivity indices for goats, read 'kids' for 'lambs' and 'does' for 'ewes '.] There are large weight differences between breeds; for interbreed comparisons, an adjustment must therefore be made for weight of ewe. This yields the following index:Since small animals eat relatively more feed per kg body weight than large ones, metabolic weight may be more meaningful to use, giving the index:In the literature, slightly differing exponents for metabolic weights appear; e.g. 0.734 (Wilson, 1980) or 0.75 (ARC, 1980). Since the exponent represents convention rather than strictly biological function, agreement on the use of only one exponent would facilitate productivity comparisons. The present author suggests 0.75.In the early stage of productivity studies, when figures for lambing intervals are not plentiful, some changes must be made in the formulae to permit preliminary calculations of productivity. The following index results: b = number of births per ewe per ear Is = litter size s = survival up to n months l = liveweight of lambs at weaning.The value 'b' can be obtained by dividing the number of births per month by the number of breeding females per month and adding the values of all 12 months of the year. This procedure is necessary because the number of breeding females varies from month to month. Weaning is rarely practiced in village flocks. Therefore, a certain age of possible weaning is chosen (e.g. 90 days, 180 days) and weights at this age are taken as weaning weights. As a basis for comparing the productivity levels found in surveyed flocks in the subhumid zone of Nigeria with those of flocks in other countries, the values obtained in productivity studies are presented in Table 1. Sheep management by settled Fulani pastoralists in the study areas is of fairly low intensity. Many households do not herd the animals during the day, do not restrain them overnight, and some even let their sheep roam without supervision at a considerable distance from the homestead. This is particularly true during the dry season. Fulani living close to hills tend to leave their sheep unattended in the hills during the wet season as well. Sheep tend to be treated as scavengers requiring minimal investment of capital and labour. Supplementary feeding is normally restricted to providing some kanwa (local salt) at irregular intervals. Fulani living close to crop farmers are obliged to pay somewhat more attention to their sheep in order to avoid crop damage. The few crop farmers who keep sheep manage them just as they do goats. Little breeding management is practiced. Some small flocks may be without a fertile male for several months; in others, males between 6 and 12 months may serve the ewes. A few larger flocks, however, keep breeding rams, normally selected from within the flock.An analysis of flock structure (Table 2) reveals a high percentage of breeding females (50%). This finding agrees well with others on sheep production in African villages (e.g. Wilson, 1980;Mack, 1982). Since there is no reason to believe that males have higher mortality than females, it indicates that males are taken off at a fairly young age. That in turn suggests a strong demand for mutton and/or an urgent need for cash because the preferred animals, especially for Muslim: festivals, are male sheep with at least one set of permanent incisors. In the study flocks, only 2.8% of the sheep were males older than 12 months, and only 1.4% had more than one pair of permanent incisors. Female animals over 15 months (which was assumed to be the minimum age for breeding) accounted for somewhat less than 50% of the flock. The ratio of males over 12 months to breeding females is 1 to 16; the ratio of males over 6 months (which could be regarded as capable of serving ewes but not yet sexually mature) is 1 to 4.5. This agrees well with ratios found in sheep flocks near Ibadan in southern Nigeria (Mack, 1982). In the first year after establishment, ILCA's experimental flock had 1.2 births per ewe, and one pastoralists' flock that was followed continuously showed a fertility rate slightly above 100%. This rate is consistent with 1.12 births per ewe per year found in a widerbased single-round survey. Out of 50 births recorded in the experimental flock, only 2 were twins. The evaluation of animal life histories given by pastoral flock owners suggests a twinning rate of about 20%. The single-round survey suggests a twinning rate of 12% (1.4 lambs/ewe/year). The available data do not permit examination of the seasonality of births.The survey of life histories suggests that 25% of the lambs die within 90 days of birth. This figure is likely to be an underestimate because not all lambs included in the survey had reached 3 months, and because animals are rarely weaned by this age. True viability at 6 months is therefore likely to be 65 -70%. Thus, the number of lambs raised up to 3 months per ewe per year would be about 1, and that of lambs raised to 6 months would be 0.95. Three formulae were used in two variations to calculate annual production indices.Index 1: weight (kg) of offspring at 3 (and 6) months per ewe. Index 2: weight (kg) of offspring at 3 (and 6) months per kg of ewe. Index 3: as for index 2 but using metabolic weight of ewe.Data: at 3 months: 1 lamb/ewe/year at 6 months: 0.9 lamb/ewe/year average ewe weight: 26.6 kg weight data for offspring derived from experimental flocks.Productivity according to: The results agree with other studies in African rural environments (Table 1) .An estimated 95% of the goats in the study areas are kept by crop farmers; nearly every farmer keeps some. A total of 33 out of the 35 farmers interviewed were goat keepers, and their average flock size was five. Same farmers buy does for breeding, but farmers commonly acquire stock by looking after other people's goats and sharing the offspring.Only 4% of Fulani pastoralists in the Kachia area keep goats (Nweke, personal communication). As a rule, these Fulani have lived at one site for several years and have adapted local farmers' goat management practices. In many other respects, such as hauling, they have also assumed the local farming community's way of life. Same Fulani, particularly women, may own goats but leave them in the care of farmers, who are often also women (Paper 2). The farmers regard goat keeping as a subsidiary business that must fit into the pattern of cropping activities, which are more important. During the growing season goats are tethered for grazing by day and kept in huts overnight. Animals are sometimes not tethered until 11.00 a.m. Labour requirements may not only restrict grazing time but may also place an upper limit on the number of goats that a household can keep. During the wet season (until July/August) the goat manure which accumulated in the goat huts is mixed with wood-ash and applied to millet nurseries as fertilizer. After the grain is harvested the goats are allowed to roam freely and often do not even return to the compound at night. Some feeding is done: grasses and immature grain heads are cut and carried to the animals shortly before harvest, when goats are still being tethered but the quality of natural grasses has deteriorated. Brewers' grain and kanwa are occasionally fed to them as well.The flock structures in the case study area correspond with those in other African settings where goats are kept primarily for meat.At the beginning of the study in June 1982, does of 12 months and above made up more than 50% of the flocks, but as shown in Table 4 their relative importance has decreased since then. The ratio of males to females above 12 months was 1 to 17 in November 1983, although it was initially much lower: 1 to 45 in June 1982. Such low levels may impair flock fertility. The fertility rate of 98.6% in the surveyed flocks is fairly low for goats (Table 5). During 1983, the rate was only 85.3%, but 65% of the births occurred from June to September. In 1982, when the study started in midyear, 73.8% of the number of recorded births occurred between July and September. This seasonality may be caused partly by the maturing of young bucks that had been spared from previous sales and now had free access to does, but it may also be influenced by nutrition, since from February to April the growth of shrubs before the wet season provides highly nutritious fodder. The distribution of birth events according to litter size during the period July 1982 to June 1983 is shown in Table 6. This yields an average litter size of 1.44, which is similar to findings in Ibadan. Sex distribution among kids born was 49.3% males and 50.7% females.Kid mortality up to 3 months of age was 22.4% over the first year of recording, while overall flock mortality was 14.4%. These apparently law figures may be due to gaps in the recording and should be treated with caution. The relatively small sample size did not permit analysis of kid mortality according to litter size.The weight changes from birth are shown on a yearly basis because there were large differences between the 2 years (Table 7).The favourable nature of 1983 is indicated by low mortality figures and increases in animal numbers, as well as by generally higher weights. The average postpartum weight of dams was 19.3 kg. When weights are classified according to age (Table 8), increased weight is evident in animals more than 4 years old. This increase clearly indicates the high reproductive capacity of goats, which are already reproducing long before mature weight has been reached. These data indicate that sheep are more productive than goats in the study area. One reason for this may be that goats are kept by people whose main enterprise is cropping, so the animals are severely restricted during the wet season, whereas sheep kept by pastoralists are less restricted.As shown in Table 9, actual offtake over the year was 23.4%. Together with an increase in numbers of 15.2%, the potential offtake was 38.6%. Goats were sold in order to pay for fertilizer; in addition, a poor harvest forced some farmers to buy grain, and inflation has increased in Nigeria since June 1983.  1983, 25 (50%) occurred during June and July 1983. This peak in offtake may partly be a reaction to the increase in the size of flocks over the previous year, but also to the high price of mineral fertilizer, which was available only on the unofficial market at up to four times the official government prices. In 16 out of the 50 sales, it was explicitly stated that animals were sold because money was needed to buy fertilizer; 13 of these 16 sales were recorded in June and July 1983. other reasons for sales included the illhealth of an animal (5 cases or 10%), general lack of money without an indication of how the money would be used (28 cases or 56%) and raising money to equip a son going to college (1 case). Ill-health was the most frequent reason for slaughter (6 of 14 cases), followed by slaughtering to provide meat for participants in communal farming (4 cases), and for various ceremonies or other occasions (4 cases).In total, data on sales and slaughters indicate that a relatively small part (17%) can be attributed to ill-health. The most important reason for sales is the need for cash for purposes unrelated to goat production. In other words, the small ruminant is used as a 'savings account' from which money can be readily withdrawn. The extent of goat slaughters for communal farming is underestimated by these figures, for it is known that some farmers buy goats on the market for this purpose even though they may have goats of their own. Since the purchase and slaughter of goats as payment for communal farming often take place on the same day or within only a few days, these goats do not appear in the survey data on farmers' flocks.The major problem in sheep production is adult mortality from respiratory diseases and liver fluke infections. Furthermore, animals lose condition in the wet season because of ectoparasites. A veterinary package should therefore be the first priority in research and development.During the establishment phase of the ILCA experimental flock, lamb mortality was about 60% for the first 6 months. Birth weights of lambs that died averaged only 1.3 kg compared with a 1.9 kg average birth weight in surviving lambs. Improved nutrition led to an increase in birth weight and lamb survival, although the lamb mortality rate in 1983 was still high at 35%. In 1983 there was no difference in birth weight between surviving lambs and those that died.With regard to goat production, the data must be treated with some caution because 1983 appears to have been a very favourable year. A late and short wet season reduced the time of stress (due to confinement) and high disease susceptibility. In addition, greater quantities of immature millet were a source of good-quality feed around harvest-time. The difference in weight development of growing animals between the 2 years and the fact that 34% of kids born between June and December 1982 had died by December 1982, indicate that there might be more problems in other years.The inclusion of more males of breeding age in the flocks seems an obvious intervention for raising fertility, but what is preventing the farmers from doing this must be established first. An exceptional case of quadruplet (all female) birth led to the observation that there is same scope for improvement of goat nutrition. Birth weights of the quadruplets ranged between 1.0 and 1.1 kg; upon the author's advice, the goat owner started to feed the dam. Not only did all four kids survive, they also grew at an above average rate and within 1 year of their birth two of the kids had already given birth themselves. With regard to weight development, there is some evidence of a period of weight loss in the late wet season. Since grazing or cutting of Stylosanthes spp. at that time of year would endanger the persistence of the plants, utilization of browse plants might be a more suitable intervention for improving goat nutrition.","tokenCount":"5211"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c0a271755222f669e9ed1434fe3817f6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/15b08418-0d0b-4d44-b800-ce2c3aa1d878/retrieve","id":"840721520"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"401a7efb-2dee-4478-bf14-c95e778a7930","pagecount":"3","content":"New practices could double agricultural production, protect natural systems and be \"game changer\" for global food security STOCKHOLM (22 August 2011)-According to the authors of new research released today at the World Water Week in Stockholm, a radical transformation in the way farming and natural systems interact could simultaneously boost food production and protect the environment-two goals that often have been at odds. The authors warn, however, that the world must act quickly if the goal is to save the Earth's main breadbasket areas-where resources are so depleted the situation threatens to decimate global supplies of fresh water and cripple agricultural systems worldwide.A new analysis resulting from the joined forces of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) outlines the urgent need to rethink current strategies for intensifying agriculture, given that food production already accounts for 70 to 90 percent of withdrawals from available water resources in some areas. The report, An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water and Food Security, finds that in many breadbaskets, including the plains of northern China, India's Punjab and the Western United States, water limits are close to being \"reached or breached.\" Meanwhile, 1.6 billion people already live under conditions of water scarcity, and the report warns that number could soon grow to 2 billion. The current situation in the Horn of Africa is a timely reminder of just how vulnerable to famine some regions are.\"Agriculture is both a major cause and victim of ecosystem degradation,\" said Eline Boelee of IWMI, the lead scientific editor of the report. \"And it is not clear whether we can continue to increase yields with the present practices. Sustainable intensification of agriculture is a priority for future food security, but we need to take a more holistic 'landscape' approach.\" Meanwhile, a separate report by IWMI, Wetlands, Agriculture and Poverty Reduction, warns against seeking to protect wetlands by simply excluding agriculture. It argues that policies focused simply on wetland preservation and ignore the potential of 'wetland agriculture' to increase food production and contribute to reducing poverty.\"Blanket prohibitions against cultivation do not always reduce ecosystem destruction and can make things worse,\" said Matthew McCartney of IWMI, who co-authored the report. \"For example, the grassy 'dambo' wetlands of sub-Saharan Africa often provide vital farmland to the rural poor. Banning farming in these areas, however, has exacerbated rather than reduced ecosystem destruction. It has prompted deforestation upstream and led to a shift from farming to grazing in the wetlands themselves so that, overall, there has been a much greater impact on these natural systems. What is needed is a balance: appropriate farming practices that support sustainable food production and protect ecosystems.\"The two reports seek a new path toward achieving both food security and environmental health. They focus on radically reorienting practices and policies so that farming occurs in 'agroecosystems' that exist as part of the broader landscape, where they help maintain and supplement clean water, clean air and biodiversity.\"We are seeing a growing trend of alliances between traditionally conservationist groups and those concerned with agriculture,\" said David Molden, Deputy Director General for Research at IWMI. UNEP is the voice of the environment of the United Nations, and IWMI is part of the world's largest consortium of agricultural researchers, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).\"For instance,\" Molden continued, \"UNEP has adopted food security as a new strategic concern. And IWMI and its partners in the CGIAR are developing a multi-million dollar research program that will look at water as an integral part of ecosystems to help solve issues of water scarcity, land and environmental degradation. IWMI has also recently become a key partner with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands on the topic of the relationship between wetlands and agriculture.\" \"The various political, research and community alliances now emerging are challenging the notion that we have to choose between food security and ecosystem health by making it clear that you can't have one without the other,\" he added.UNEP and IWMI and collaborators have identified multiple opportunities to use trees on dryland farms that will intensify the amount of food produced per hectare of land area while helping to improve the surrounding ecosystem. They note that by integrating trees and hedgerows, farmers can prevent runoff and soil erosion and retain more water for nourishing their crops.Another example of innovative thinking include better water and soil management in rainfed systems in sub-Saharan Africa, which have demonstrated the ability to reverse land degradation while at the same time increasing crop yields by twofold or threefold.Overall, the authors say it's time for decision-makers at the international, national and local level to embrace an agroecosystem approach to food production. These changes could include providing more farmers with incentives to adopt improved practices through 'payments for environmental services (PES)'.One example being explored by the CGIAR's Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) is the potential for benefit sharing in river basin areas of Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Upstream users value the water for irrigation and ecotourism and also have a spiritual affiliation with the ecosystem. The hydropower companies need a steady stream to support electrification of the growing urban population downstream. Large-scale farms and agro-industry also need increasing supplies of water.\"More and more agriculture needs to be brought into the 'green economy',\" said Alain Vidal of the CPWF. \"We need to value farming practices that protect our precious water resources in the same way we are beginning to value forest management that helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially because those natural resources support the livelihoods of the most vulnerable.\"In the report, An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water and Food Security, experts from UNEP, IWMI and 19 other organizations acknowledge that one major impediment to adopting a more sustainable approach to food production is that it requires a new level of cooperation and coordination among officials and organizations involved in agriculture, environmental issues, water management, forestry, fisheries and wildlife management-individuals and groups who routinely operate in separated, disconnected worlds.\"It is essential that in the future we do things differently. There is a need for a seminal shift in the way modern societies view water and ecosystems and the way we, people, interact with them,\" said David Molden. \"Managing water for food and ecosystems will bring great benefits, but there is no escaping the urgency of this situation. We are heading for disaster if we don't change our practices from business as usual.\"The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a nonprofit, scientific research organization focusing on the sustainable use of land and water resources in agriculture, to benefit poor people in developing countries. IWMI's mission is \"to improve the management of land and water resources for food, livelihoods and the environment.\" IWMI has its headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and regional offices across Asia and Africa. The Institute works in partnership with developing countries, international and national research institutes, universities and other organizations to develop tools and technologies that contribute to poverty reduction as well as food and livelihood security (www.iwmi.org).The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) was launched in 2002 as a reform initiative of the CGIAR. The CPWF aims to increase the resilience of social and ecological systems through better water management for food production (crops, fisheries and livestock). The CPWF does this through an innovative research and development approach that brings together a broad range of scientists, development specialists, policymakers and communities to address the challenges of food security, poverty and water scarcity. The CPWF is currently working in six river basins globally: Andes, Ganges, Limpopo, Mekong, Nile and Volta (www.waterandfood.org).","tokenCount":"1261"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2272774b55ace311f7a659ddf79417eb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1ebd64b4-b821-413f-9252-1629ffea6ec4/retrieve","id":"-1605449460"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"45a7d07e-f9b7-400f-85f1-f5d39ef7ae2c","pagecount":"50","content":"The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works at the crossroads of livestock and poverty, bringing high-quality science and capacity building to bear on poverty reduction and sustainable development for poor livestock keepers and their communities. ILRI works in all tropical developing regions: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the CaribbeanWorldwide the roles of livestock, and the external economic and institutional context in which the livestock sector is operating is changing rapidly with important implication for the poor. By 2020, the livestock sector is projected to become the most important agricultural sub-sector worldwide, producing about 30 percent of the value of global agricultural output and directly or indirectly accounting for 80 percent of land use. Livestock in developing countries contributes about 11% of total GDP. The 'livestock revolution' will double demand for animal food products in developing countries over the next 20 years. However, efforts by the poor to take advantage of this demand are hampered by inappropriate policies, scarce livestock feeds, devastating diseases, degraded land and water resources, and poor access to markets. Research by ILRI and its partners is helping to alleviate these problems by providing livestock-based options that transform livelihoods of the poor through more environment-friendly and market-oriented livestock enterprises. Based in Africa but working worldwide, ILRI positions its work at the dynamic interface of poverty alleviation and sustainable livestockderived livelihoods.The institute's long-term strategy provides a goal and a set of research themes and outlines ways in which ILRI will seek to enhance its responsiveness to a dynamic global environment.With diverse partners, ILRI conducts livestock-based research and builds livestock research capacity in focussing on three major pathways out of poverty:Securing assets of the poor Improving production efficiencies in smallholder livestock systems • • Improving market opportunities for the poor. ILRI's agenda comprises five strategic research themes. The following questions are at the centre of our planning and research:Targeting opportunities: How can livestock contribute to pathways out of poverty? Enabling innovation: How can adoption of livestock and agriculturally related innovations be accelerated? Market opportunities: How can the poor access the benefits of emerging livestock markets? Biotechnology: How can livestock biotechnology best be used for development? People, livestock and the environment: How can livestock livelihoods make a larger contribution to human and environmental well being?The organizational structure is built around those five themes. At the end of 2006, the first and second themes were merged as the 'Targeting and Innovation Theme'.ILRI's headquarters are located in Nairobi, Kenya, with a second principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 2006, ILRI scientists were also based in partner institutions in Africa (Niger, Nigeria, Mozambique and Mali), Asia (China, India and Vietnam) and Latin America (Nicaragua). ILRI employs about 740 staff from about 40 nationalities, including 83 internationally recruited staff representing some 30 disciplines. About 650 staff are nationally recruited, largely from Kenya and Ethiopia. An increasing number of scientists who work at ILRI are jointly appointed by a partner organization and ILRI.The Board of Trustees is composed of 12 outstanding professionals with particular expertise in the field of livestock science, agricultural research, development and corporate management.The key role of the Board is to determine ILRI's mission, to oversee the adequacy of the institute's strategy, strategic planning and program review processes, and to provide appropriate input into it. The Board ensures that plans and programs are appropriate for carrying out ILRI's mandate, that Statement of purpose they are in line with CGIAR priorities and that they have high probability for impact on poverty reduction and sustainable natural resource use.ILRI is one of the 15 international agricultural research centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) which is an association of more than 60 governments and public-and private-sector institutions working to reduce poverty, hunger and environmental degradation in developing countries. The co-sponsors of the CGIAR are the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.IILRI is funded by more than 50 private, public and government organizations of the North and South. Some donors support ILRI with core and program funds whereas others finance individual research projects. In-kind support from national partners, particularly Kenya and Ethiopia as well as that from international collaborators is substantial and vital. This mix of generic, specific and in-kind resources is essential for the partnership research we conduct.ILRI's strategy is based on strong partnerships as an essential way of operating and ensuring that the outputs of our research lead to development impacts.It gives us pleasure to acknowledge the donor countries and organizations that supported ILRI research in 2006 listed in exhibits 1 through 3. We could not have helped reduce world poverty through animal agriculture research without their intellectual as well as financial support. Many thanks. The Panel found ILRI to be a strong research institute that has during the period under review developed a systems-oriented holistic research approach to better address livestock related problems that are relevant to the poor. The Panel reported that ILRI's research structure as revised in its latest Medium-Term Plan is likely to allow the institute to effectively respond to the challenges that the highly dynamic livestock sector in developing countries poses on poor people and the environment. The Panel also found ILRI to be a well-governed institute with responsive leadership and management.The Panel noted that: 'ILRI continues to be a unique Centre that deserves specific recognition for addressing an orphan component of international agricultural research.'To read the whole report, please go to the Science Council website of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) at: http://www.sciencecouncil.cgiar.org/publications/ pdf/FULL%202nd%20ILRI%20EPMR%20Report.pdfThe Board is pleased to note the continued financial health and stability and the sound and prudent management of the institute's financial resources. Revenue in 2006 amounted to USD 31 million against expenditure of USD 35 million resulting in a deficit of USD 4 million for the year 2006. This deficit had been planned to allow the institute to hire new scientific staff and invest in new major projects such as the NEPAD sponsored BioSciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) research platform. The institute's undesignated net assets at the end of 2006 amount to USD 14 million (total net assets amount to USD 26 million) with liquidity and operational reserve levels above the CGIAR recommended ranges. This situation allows ILRI to adopt a more forward-looking perspective in terms of financial and budget matters.On behalf of the members of the Board I thank our investors and partners for their confidence and continued support allowing us to fulfil our mission.Statement by the chairman of Board of TrusteesThe ILRI Board of Trustees is responsible for ensuring that the institute has an appropriate risk management system in place to identify, assess, manage and monitor risks faced by the Centre in achieving its objectives. ILRI faces risks as dynamic as the environment in which ILRI operates. The risks include threats to ILRI's reputation, operations, stakeholders and finances.ILRI has had a risk management policy and strategy in place since 2004. The ILRI policy and practice of risk management conforms with the CGIAR principles and guidelines adopted by all CGIAR Centres. The institute manages risk by ensuring that appropriate infrastructure, controls, systems and people are in place throughout the organization. The key practices ILRI has taken up to manage risks include regular environmental scans, integrated planning systems, policies and clear accountabilities, use of transaction approval frameworks, adequate research, financial andOn the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2006 management reporting systems and monitoring individual performance and business processes across key areas.The effectiveness of ILRI's risk management policy, strategy and implementation has been assessed by the CGIAR's Internal Audit Unit, which is independent of ILRI business units. The ILRI Board of Trustees reviews both the risk management system as well as major risks at each of its meetings.The Board of Trustees has reviewed ILRI's risk management policy and strategy and is satisfied that it was implemented effectively during 2006. The management is of the opinion that the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the financial affairs of the institute and of its results of activities. The management further accepts responsibility for the maintenance of adequate systems of internal control including on financial reporting and accounting control designed to provide reasonable assurance that assets are safeguarded and transactions are properly recorded and executed in accordance with the institute's policies and procedures. The designated net assets represent that part of net assets that has been set aside by the Board of Trustees for specific purposes, such as a reserve for the future acquisition and replacement of property and equipments, while undesignated net assets represent that part of net assets that is not set aside for any specific purpose. The financial statements are prepared under the historical cost convention and on accrual basis.(i) Grants represent support with donor-imposed conditions and could be restricted or unrestricted. Unrestricted grants are grants received which the institute may freely use for its mandated activities. Restricted grants are received in support of specified projects or activities mutually agreed upon between the centre and the donors.ii) Restricted grants are recognized as revenue upon the fulfilment of donor-imposed conditions.iii) Unrestricted grants are recognized upon receipt of confirmed commitment.Program funds are funds provided by donors that need to be used on a certain research theme, activity or region. They are treated as restricted grants.Other revenues and gains are recognized as they are earned.The institute's financial statements are presented in United States Dollars (USD). Transactions and balances expressed in currencies other than the US dollar are treated as follows:-Non US dollar grants and donations received in the year are converted to US dollars at the rates of exchange being used on the dates of receipt. Non US dollar grants and donations pledged for the year but not received by the year-end are recognized in the financial statements at the rates of exchange prevailing at the yearend except for forward contracts.Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2006ii) Non US dollar denominated expenditures are recorded at the prevailing rates of exchange for the month in which they are incurred and are accumulated in US dollars.(iii) Assets and liabilities that are denominated in currencies other than the US dollar are restated into US dollars at the rates of exchange prevailing at the year-end.(iv) Gains and losses arising from changes in exchange rates are charged or credited to the statement of activities in the year in which they arise.Cash equivalents are short term, highly liquid investments that are both (a) readily convertible to known amounts of cash and (b) so near maturity date that they present insignificant risk of changes in value.Accounts receivable from donors, employees and other entities are carried at anticipated realizable value. An allowance is made for doubtful receivables based on a review of all outstanding amounts at the year-end. Bad debts are written off during the year in which they are identified. The write off of receivables is done after all efforts to collect have been exhausted.Property and equipment whose full cost exceed USD 1,000 and which ILRI can use in the production or supply of goods or services or for administrative services for more than one year are capitalized and stated at acquisition cost less accumulated depreciation and accumulated impairment losses. Acquisition cost includes the direct purchase price and incidental costs such as freight, insurance, installation and handling charges. Subsequent material expenditure that extends the useful life or enhances the operating efficiency of an item of property and equipment is capitalized. The cost of normal repairs and maintenance of existing property and equipment is treated as operating expenses.Construction work-in-progress is capitalized as work progresses but depreciation starts only when the work is completed and the facility is put into use.All immovable assets carried on leasehold land donated by host countries constructed have been capitalized as assets of the institute. ILRI has the right to negotiate for extension of leases under the host country agreements upon the expiry of the current leases. In accordance with the host country agreements, in the event that the host country agreement is terminated or the host country does not renew a lease upon expiry, all immovable assets will be disposed of by the CGIAR (in consultation with Government of Ethiopia in Ethiopia).Gains and losses on disposal of property and equipment are determined by reference to their carrying amount and are accounted for in the Statement of Activities.Depreciation is calculated on the straight-line basis at annual rates estimated to write off the cost of each item of property and equipment over the estimated term of its useful life. The annual rates used are: Depreciation of acquired assets start in the month the assets are placed in operation and continue until the assets has been fully depreciated or its use discontinued.Property and equipment acquired using project-restricted funds are fully depreciated when they are placed in operation under the specific benefiting projects.Depreciation charge is time-apportioned in the year of disposal of items of property and equipment.Intangible assets of the institute comprise acquired computer software. The cost of acquisition and installation of computer software is capitalized and amortized over the estimated useful life of the software, usually three years.The carrying values of property and equipment, including intangible assets, are reviewed annually and adjusted for impairment losses where it is considered necessary.The investment in Kapiti Plains Estate Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary, is stated at cost. Consolidated financial statements are not prepared as, in the opinion of the institute's management; consolidated financial statements would be of no real value to the Board of Trustees in view of the insignificance of the subsidiary's income and expenses.Cost is calculated on the weighted average basis and includes purchase price, freight and other incidental costs.The determination of obsolescence or expiration is based on the lower of the manufacturer's recommendations and documented experience and knowledge of management. Excess inventory is written down wholly as soon as it is identified and the exact level of excess is determined.The institute's contributions are maintained as a defined contribution plan for all categories of staff.Net assets represent the residual interest in the institute's assets remaining after liabilities have been deducted. All of the institute's net assets are unrestricted. At 31 December 2006, property and equipment with a cumulative cost of USD 302,447 (2005 -US$ 631,413), which were acquired using project-restricted funds, have been fully depreciated upon purchase in conformity with the CGIAR Financial Guidelines. These assets were still in the institute's use as at that date.The high depreciation charge in 2006 is due to an adjustment of USD 1,108,675 to rectify a difference between the assets register and the general ledger. This difference arose at the point of installation of the fixed assets register.This represents the cost of investment in Kapiti Plains Estate Limited, a ranch that was acquired for the purposes of securing adequate supplies of disease-free livestock to the institute. The average number of staff during the year was 740 (2005 -731).The prior year adjustment relates to provision for severance benefits for Nationally Recruited Staff.During the year, the institute adopted a new policy for accruing severance benefits in line with the requirements of the International Accounting Standard No. 19 on Employee Benefits.Following a tax assessment by the the Kenya Revenue Authority in December 2006, the institute has been requested to pay USD 784,485 (KShs 54,796,335) related to income tax on overseas pension contribution for Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) and stipends for Research Fellows. The institute's view is that the assessment contradicts the Host Country Agreement (HCA) signed between the institute and the Government of Kenya represented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that explicitly exempts the Nationally Recruited Staff or the institute from paying income tax to overseas pension plans. The institute is working closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is of the opinion that this matter will be resolved in accordance with the provisions of the Host Country Agreement and as a result, no provision has been made in the financial statements with regard to the income tax. The case has also been made to the Kenya Revenue Authority that stipends are not taxable and a positive outcome is also expected by the institute.Where necessary, the comparative figures have been adjusted to conform to changes in presentation in the current year. In particular, the comparatives figures for account receivables, account payables -donors, other revenue and support, indirect cost recovery, program related expenses and expenses by natural classification have been adjusted to conform to changes in presentation in the current year.These financial statements are presented in United States dollar Thousands (USD '000).  ","tokenCount":"2770"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"86026f828aa82c681170171c0c502a88","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b4f5401f-2158-4087-880f-83c35b8ee5e3/retrieve","id":"1319642055"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2b95dfab-fa08-4608-8656-a3046259f837","pagecount":"48","content":"In 2021, the UN Food Systems Summit called for \"bold actions to transform the way the world produces and consumes food\" to advance the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Gender equality is a pre-condition for achieving these goals and generating sustainable and resilient agriculture and food systems.The online conference 'Cultivating Equality: Advancing Gender Research in Agriculture and Food Systems' focussed on research that helps understand and advance positive synergies among sustainable and resilient agricultural, rural and food systems, and equality in societies globally.It addressed how marginalization and social exclusion are shaped at the intersection of gender with other social dimensions, such as socio-economic status, age or generation, ethnicity, or religion and belief systems, and the catalytic role gender research can play to help overcome such exclusions.The conference was co-organized by the CGIAR GENDER Platform and Wageningen University & Research as EU Gender-SMART partner. For the CGIAR GENDER Platform, it was inscribed in the tradition of the annual CGIAR gender conferences. The Platform is committed to leading at least one global convening per year -alternating between an internal planning and knowledge sharing meeting and an external conference.The conference ran from 12-15 October 2021. Although it was originally hoped that the conference could take place physically at Wageningen University, it was ultimately held entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A virtual conference space was established with meeting rooms, galleries, and networking options using the OnAir platform. Registration was free of charge. The format allowed for researchers from around the globe and at various stages in their career to participate.The conference addressed how marginalization and social exclusion in agriculture and food systems are shaped at the intersection of gender with other social dimensions, such as socio-economic status, age or generation, ethnicity or religion and belief systems. We refer to this intersectional perspective as ''gender + ''. Gender + research and gender + integration in agriculture-related research play a critical role in guiding positive transformations in agriculture and food systems and societies worldwide.Generating innovative, conceptually sound, and influential gender + research, and widening and strengthening the networks of researchers dedicated to advancing this work, were the focus of the conference. Specifically, the conference sought to enhance the quality and influence of gender + research in relation to food systems, agriculture and rural development by fostering the exchange of knowledge, strengthening capacities, and solidifying partnerships among CGIAR, universities, research institutes, and other gender research partners.The conference addressed five overarching questions:• How do gender concepts, theories and frameworks fare in their application and how can current practice better inform gender theory and concepts?• What lenses can gender research provide to understand the complex nature of today's rural livelihoods, including interconnections between resource-based and non-agricultural livelihoods?• What new, well-informed narratives and discourses help us overcome myths around gender in agriculture and food systems?• How can research contribute to systemic change towards gender equality?• What new methodological and other innovations can contribute to cultivating equality in agri-food systems?Through interactive spaces in scientific dialogues and multi-stakeholder panels, the conference aimed to move forward the agenda of gender + research in agriculture and food systems.It sought three outcomes:• Advancements and innovations in gender-focussed and gender-integrated research --theory, concepts, frameworks, and methodologies --in relation to food systems, agriculture and rural development, and in linking this research to social change, empowerment, and gender equality.• Enhanced knowledge and capacities, particularly among early-career gender researchers and researchers working to integrate gender, to conduct and integrate conceptually robust, cutting-edge, and impactful gender research, and to communicate effectively about their science.• Strengthened social capital and foundation to build partnerships and networks among researchers and institutes, such as universities, CGIAR, NARS, and others conducting, using and funding research on gender in food systems, agriculture and rural development.The conference organizers invited contributions related to diverse themes in gender + research in agriculture and food systems, including: 12. Building gender + equality in international collaborations 13. Defining gender + expertise and scientifically sound ways for gender + integration These themes were explored through the below perspectives, to address the conference's overarching questions.The focus here was on successes and challenges when applying concepts and integrating gender + in various fields of agricultural research (e.g., breeding, climate change, food security, water management, energy).This lens surfaced the interconnections between agriculture, rural livelihoods and natural resource management and the rich and multi-dimensional fabric of rural societies; contexts, values, identities, and multi-local and diversified livelihoods.This perspective unpacked and critically revisited narratives in gender in food, agricultural and rural research, and where relevant introduces new lenses or elaborates on existing narratives based on new gender + research insights.This entailed exploring institutional barriers to gender equality at multiple scales and potential opportunities and approaches to tackle them.This offered space for discussion of other relevant issues and innovative thinking around gender + in agriculture and food systems research.The organization of this conference was based upon several working principles. One of these was to invite discussions and research rooted in geographies around the globe, to allow for comparisons and dialogues across regions. Another was the inclusion of presenters from a wide diversity of backgrounds, from all continents and with a broad range of focusses, disciplines, ages, approaches and more. Another key working principle was including both early-career and more seasoned researchers. While a focus on quality research was valued and maintained, all interested individuals were welcome to register and participate in the sessions. The conference schedule was carefully designed and the online conference platform (Annex 1) conscientiously selected to facilitate access by all potential participants, irrespective of their location and digital conditions.A conference organizing and planning committee (Annex 2) was responsible for providing strategic leadership for the conference, developing the conference aims and objectives and call for contributions, hiring and working with the events management teams, establishing and coordinating the scientific committee, creating the program, coordinating the poster award, organizing the plenaries, and seeing to conference logistics.Events management support (Annex 2) for the conference was originally provided by the Wageningen University events management team (CS-events), and subsequently by Congress by Design. The events managers created the conference website, managed registrations, and operated the conference portal. They coordinated with BPR Visie, with its four technicians, to provide the technical/IT support needed for the conference. One technician was in each of the virtual sessions, to provide technical support to session organizers and presenters.A 12-member scientific committee (Annex 2) was tasked with reviewing the abstracts and session submissions received. Committee members were selected based on a call for participation shared among gender researchers in CGIAR, with no more than one member selected per center that expressed interest in joining the committee, and three members joined the committee from the WUR side.A communications committee (Annex 2) coordinated all communications-related aspects of the conference. More information on conference communications is provided below.For a rich exchange of knowledge and perspectives, the organizers invited proposals for contributions from researchers, graduate students and other actors in every stage of their career, from across the globe and focusing on any continent. An open call for contributions was widely distributed through the CGIAR GENDER newsletter and other listservs, such as WUR Gender-SMART, AWARE, and shared with colleagues at universities with gender in agriculture courses and programs across the continents (e.g., Makerere University. Penn State University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and more). The call was also shared researchers with partners in National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) and other partner organizations, such as NGOs and civil society organizations (CSOs), and others committed to advancing gender research or gender-responsive research.The call for contributions evidenced a high level of interest among gender researchers. The number of submissions (104 single proposals and 50 full session proposals) received was higher than for any previous CGIAR gender conference. Out of all the submissions received, the Scientific Committee selected 37 full sessions proposals (and invited some submitters to combine their proposals), 72 single proposals for oral presentations, and 29 as posters.The accepted sessions, orals, and posters were organized into 55 parallel sessions. To enable the participation of presenters from all regions, a schedule accommodating differing time zones was established. Sessions ran from 9.30 am CEST (to accommodate participants from Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe) to 8 pm CEST (to facilitate participation in the Americas). Within that window, four time slots of 1.5 hours each included four parallel sessions.In addition, the Conference Program featured four plenary sessions with distinguished keynote speakers and panelists at 2pm CEST each day, during which time no other sessions ran in parallel.The first day of the conference mainly included sessions focused on capacity strengthening in gender research through a deep dive on gender research methodologies and conceptual frameworks. The conference organizers scheduled two masterclasses for which conference participants had to pre-register, offered free of charge: one focused on effective communications, delivered by Marchmont Communications, and the other on masculinities, delivered by Advocates for Social Change Kenya (ADSOCK).A poster gallery was created to showcase the posters and a 3-minute pre-recording of each, prepared by the poster presenters. Posters were also thematically integrated into relevant scientific sessions or grouped in one designated poster session.Documentaries and audio-visual material (videos) were integrated in some sessions and made available in a video gallery on the conference portal for viewing asynchronously.A Book of Session Descriptions and Abstracts provides an overview of the conference's organized sessions, oral presentations, and posters.All sessions were recorded to allow for post-conference viewing by conference participants and others. Links to the session recordings, who were posted on YouTube after the conference, are provided in Annex 3.A range of actors (e.g., practitioners from NGOs and NARES, academics, donors) were invited to participate in four plenary panels, to share their perspectives and reflect on current and prospective future research of relevance to their area of work. Several colleagues (Annex 2) provided support in identifying and contacting these speakers.The four plenaries consisted of:Opening Plenary: Welcoming remarks and positioning of the conference A blog was written on each of the plenaries, which embeds the session recording. A full list of conference blogs is provided in Annex 4.During the week of the conference, a physical hub, pictured below, was set up at Wageningen University to facilitate coordination among key conference actors.The hub represented the conference headquarters, which brought together one of the lead conference co-organizers (from WUR), the events management team, the conference hostess, the communications team, and four technicians. The technicians installed all the IT equipment needed to run the conference at the hub.The goal of communications around and during the conference was to actively engage researchers, development practitioners, students, and other actors in sharing new evidence, tools and methods and to forge alliances that place gender equality is at the center of agriculture, rural and food systems transformation. This task was managed by Vivian Atakos and Marianne Gadeberg from the CGIAR GENDER Platform. Vivian Atakos was also the hostess and facilitator of the conference. She also appeared in the instructional videos and pop-up messages on the conference portal.Conference communications were divided into three parts, as detailed in Annex 5:• Pre-event• During the eventThe conference communications team leveraged networks to ensure information was widely disseminated, employing various tools to disseminate information and engage different audiences: website(s), social media, newsletters, email communication, blogging, conference branding (zoom backgrounds, welcome banners, etc.). Daily highlights bulletins (for 12, 13, 14 and 15 October) from the conference were prepared and emailed to all registered participants at the end of each conference day.Registration and attendance statisticsNearly 1300 people (1277: 350 men and 927 women) from 103 countries (Map 1) registered for the conference; and 591 from 80 countries (Map 2) attended the conference in real time.Participants came from several types of organizations, including academia and research institutes, NGOs, government, international and intergovernmental organizations, and the private sector.Registration opened on 1 July, 2021, and the number of registrations grew steadily until the conference opening (Figure 1).   Live attendance during the different conference session slots is presented in Table 1. Plenaries, which were held from 14:00-15:30 CEST, were attended by an average of 100 people.As of December 16, 2021, the conference website had been viewed almost 40.000 times (Figure 5), whereas website pages of the CGIAR GENDER Platform referring to the conference have been viewed 2630 times (2517 unique views).During the conference, there was a high level of activity among online audiences on the CGIAR GENDER Platform twitter account. The impressions (the number of times Tweets were seen) from the CGIAR GENDER Platform twitter account were highest on the conference days (12-15 October), and represent a massive increase compared to the periods before and after the conference (Figures 6a and b). This is a testament to the new and interesting content posted during the conference period. The account gained the highest number of new followers during and immediately after the conference period (Figure 6b). The below review of the session contents is organized according to the main conference questions, formulated in the call for and selection of contributions. The review is written by the conference co-coordinators, Margreet van der Burg and Marlène Elias, based on reports from each session provided by the session rapporteurs (listed in Annex 2).In several sessions, participants discussed what it means to adopt feminist research principles in practice, and how practice can inform feminist theory and concepts. Overall, participants suggested that feminist theories and concepts can and should be applied more broadly, thereby amplifying the effects on gender inequalities in practice (Tue 2.4; Tue 4.4; Wed 4.1; Wed 5.4). Participants in other sessions built upon the potential of gender concepts, theories, and frameworks (e.g., social reproduction theory, reproductive justice theory, feminist political economics, feminist political ecology) to help understand interconnections among scales (from the individual to the system level) and sectors (nutrition, poverty, environment, etc.) (Wed 5.4).Several sessions addressed a general lack of gender frameworks and concepts in research designs and in frameworks commonly used to analyze food systems, livelihoods, and resilience (such as those being used to understand gender-specific COVID-19 effects (Tue 1.4; Wed 5.3) and climate change (Tue 2.4; Wed 1.1; Wed 5.2)), and biophysical frameworks (such as those related to breeding (Thurs 5.2; Fri 1.3) and animal vaccination (Thurs 5.3).One session exemplified how 'Data Feminism' moves beyond 'just integrating women in digital interventions' by elaborating how to optimize co-creation of digital innovation design with women (Tue 2.4). In some sessions, participants explored how to overcome the operationalization of gender as a categorical, binary concept (for example in sexdisaggregated data collection and analysis) (Wed 4.1). Discussions widely pointed to the need for an intersectional approach to gender research, but also to the difficulty of applying this approach in practice.In addition to enhancing feminist theory to improve research practices, participants stressed the need to develop and refine such theories and concepts based on observation of current practices, in a positive feedback loop. As an example, participants referred to women's social activism in marketplaces in Nigeria and Rastafari communes in Jamaica (Wed 5.4). In these spaces, theory could be better informed by reflecting on efforts to overcome intersectional inequalities on the basis of race, class, and gender, to advance communities' practical (immediate) and strategic (associated with their fundamental rights, social condition, etc.) needs. Movements supporting individual and collective empowerment were also highlighted as examples to inform theory on these themes (Wed 5.4). Engagement with gender issues on the ground, including through self-reflective (i.e., reflexive) dialogues where gender norms are openly discussed (such as through gender transformative approaches), can contribute not only to informing theory, but also to challenging inequalities.Finally, participants reflected on how feminist approaches were embedded in their own research. They concluded that reflecting on our own positioning, and that of our research, in relation to feminist debates remains critical (Wed 4.1).Participants across sessions tended to agree that using a gender lens allows researchers to move beyond the traditional focus on women's domestic roles within rural households to a more holistic understanding of women as full members of local communities who play important economic, political, and social roles across boundaries of class, ethnicity, age, and kinship status (Wed 3.0).Participants in many sessions stressed the importance of expanding gender research by further elaborating lenses that address the complexity within and the interlinkages between various social dimensions of inequality, scales (from the household and community levels to institutions and institutional actors (Wed 2.1)), knowledges, and sciences. Conference participants encouraged the use of multidisciplinary, multi-cultural and comparative lenses to better understand the complexities of livelihoods. A context-specific approach was considered essential (Wed 1.3). It was furthermore highlighted that such research has to be carried out at various scales.The need to adopt a gender + /intersectionality lens was reiterated to address social heterogeneity and avoid boxing genders into homogenous groups (Wed 2.1). Presenters warned that over-simplification can easily overlook marginalized groups or intersections of various social identities, at the risk of alienating groups and individuals. Participants stressed the importance of focusing also on men and boys in gender research, addressing intergenerational differences, and recognizing traditional, local and Indigenous knowledge to acknowledge endogenous innovation and change (Thurs 3.0).A robust gender analysis and a nuanced understanding of gender norms and power structures in each local context was deemed essential for supporting the empowerment of women and fostering gender equality. Sessions demonstrated that a detailed analysis of gender disparities across various (social, economic, etc.) arenas, such as in relation to health, income, or labor, can create a clearer, more accurate understanding of a community and help create viable, holistic solutions to reduce the existing gaps.Research that challenges perceptions on men and masculinity, associated roles and power differentials, and that raises awareness of the benefits of gender equality among men and boys, was identified as a priority to achieving gender equality and women's empowerment in food systems (Fri 1.4). Likewise, critical reflections on crops or sectors as masculine or feminine were considered important to avoid validating or taking for granted structural inequalities (Thurs 2.1). One session emphasized the importance of creating space for fostering discourse, challenging norms, and promoting an understanding of the need for institutional diversity. This, it was presented, can be achieved by unpacking the complexities of overlapping and reinforcing structural hierarchies, such as race, class, and gender, through a historical lens (Wed 5.4).The importance of broadening research focuses was further emphasized in sessions on looking beyond farmers within food system research to include other value chain actors. Participants in one session called for recognizing that farmers are not the only 'end-users', particularly in breeding schemes, including participatory breeding and varietal selection schemes (Fri 1.3). Another session's participants promoted the development of convergence platforms instead of multi-stakeholder platforms. Such platforms would not set out to negotiate diverging interests, but rather to collectively define and work towards a common goal by bringing various stakeholders together to create synergies and collaboration. This approach would unlock and integrate various forms of expertise among included stakeholders and enable interventions from the individual to the policy level. Convergence platforms, it was argued, would also better facilitate attention to gender-specific needs and gaps, and foster gender-responsive design through the collective generation of evidence and results (Thurs 2.4).One session called attention to shifting the focus of gender research beyond small-scale farming to include large agro-industrial production systems and firms, as in Senegal's horticulture sector, and to the rise of supermarkets in African countries. Participants showed that in these spaces women earned less than men, but had safer jobs and more convenient work hours. It was questioned whether women voluntarily choose this trade-off between wages and work conditions, and whether and how unions can have an impact. The rise of modern supermarkets seems to encourage global agro-firms to serve the domestic market, rather than focussing solely on exports. Participants suggested that women's trading activities may be endangered if they are not actively included in this trend, as supermarkets are typically managed by men (Thurs 1.4).In several sessions, participants examined the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures. Participants discussed how to apply lessons learned from the current COVID-19 context to help build resilience to shocks caused by natural disasters, conflict and climate change. Disruptions to production and markets, and associated losses due to mobility and storage challenges, had a disproportionately negative effect on women traders. Growing domestic and care work caused by the pandemic has mainly fallen on the shoulders of women, and has been exacerbated by more severe mobility and time constraints (Wed 5.3). Increased burdens have contributed to various negative impacts for women, including reduced food availability, decreased mental health, increased rates of girls dropping out of school and so-called 'sex-for-fish' practices. In one session, participants showed that policy responses to COVID-19 (e.g., emergency measures, fiscal measures, social protection, agricultural support and asset support) were gender-blind; and that few countries, such as Ethiopia, Senegal, Zambia and Senegal, had more gender-responsive policies (Fri 2.4).Participants pointed to the importance of applying well-designed gender-responsive social protection mechanisms in general, and in the COVID-19 context specifically, to account for normative gendered responsibilities and power imbalances.Many participants aimed to refine current gender research approaches as well as to introduce new ones. In one example, a social justice approach was coupled with a feminist political economy lens to address complexity, unpack masculinities and understand the histories of marginalization and hidden power structures (Wed 2.1). In another, the 'Es' -Empowerment, Emplacement, Encroachment -were presented as a way to unpack the context-specific challenges that women face, particularly as a result of centuries of colonization (Wed 3.0).An ongoing constraint for women around the world, including in high income countries, is their limited access to credit. In many areas, women need someone else to vouch for them to access credit. Criteria to assess creditworthiness require change to be gender equitable. Suggestions for such change included adding more qualitative factors to assessments, such as education level, access to family networks, empowerment levels and local social norms in the applicant's business area and community. The seed credit model in Africa was proposed as a promising model, since it allows farmers to use credits not only for seeds but also for farm inputs. However, significant efforts are needed to build gender equality into such models. Assumptions surrounding gender and agriculture must be carefully examined and challenged, as needed. For instance, the design of loans should take into account that women tend to use credit differently than men; and flexible repayment schedules serviced through lower interest rates and smaller loans can be prioritized over large credit, lessening default risk (Thurs 4.4).The novel concept of time-use agency addresses a person's influence over their time allocation; an area of pronounced gender inequalities (Tue 5.4). This concept builds on the concepts of time poverty or women's time burden, which are important considerations in project design. It was argued that even interventions that lead to positive impacts, such as better yields or greater market access, can cause negative trade-offs. Common time-use trade-offs include having less time to engage in groups and to work as a collective (Thurs 2.4). In a session calling for leadership structures that focus on collective leadership, collective approaches, including decentralized supply chains managed by women's groups, were identified as key to achieving specific gender equality and women's empowerment outcomes in food systems (Fri 1.4).Time-use agency, collective agency, and sexual harassment were considered to be interrelated since they all influence women's ability to participate in their (rural) communities and secure their livelihoods. Women's productivity depends on being able to work with others, being able to determine which (productive) tasks one completes and when one completes them, and having the ability to work without the threat of sexual harassment (Tue 5.4). Attention to sexual harassment was seen as key to understanding rural livelihoods. It was explained that women are often caught in a \"double bind\" where they are expected to be extremely polite and kind but also not too \"flirtatious\". This has obvious negative ramifications, especially for participating in livelihoods outside the home, where women interact with men outside of their family more frequently (Tue 5.4).The reproductive justice approach was posited as a useful alternative to positioning women as secondary to their family or children. This approach is based in the reproductive justice movement led by women of color in the United States to connect women's agency with reproductive rights. This approach examines, if, when, and how all parents can be parenting with dignity, and how that connects with a child's nutrition. By understanding women's perceptions of family planning services and birth spacing, it is possible to unpack interconnections between family planning, livelihoods, food and nutrition security, and women's empowerment (Wed 5.4).Another session highlighted the need to explore new indicators of gender equality alongside standard indicators, such as changes in income, decision-making, and labor (Wed 1.1).Examples of such novel indicators came from another session that showed how multifunctional interventions changed the lives and livelihoods of women beyond improving their incomes, knowledge, and diets; also affecting their recognition by and respect from family and community, self-confidence, and aspirations (Thurs 1.3). In another session, these types of changes were considered both as goals and means to an end (Wed 2.2). Some such multi-functional interventions also enabled women participants to challenge gender norms (Thurs 1.3).Participants emphasized that interlinkages among research domains should be ensured by research teams composed of members with various disciplinary backgrounds, interacting on equal footing. One session showed the necessity of thinking beyond the food industry and related policies to understand gender issues in peri-urban food systems, as these are interconnected with social development, transportation, urban planning policies, employment opportunities, etc. (Fri 1.2). Another session stressed the importance of adopting a holistic lens to examine how health and other aspects of women's life are impacted by food systems. For instance, beef bans throughout India caused disproportionately high rates of anemia among women (Thurs 5.4).Other sessions introduced new visions for gender research. One session highlighted that feminist scholarship has started to include a vision of \"more than human\" food systems in gender research, e.g., by rethinking the plurality of agriculture and food cultures from Indigenous agroecology to rewilding industrial plantations (Thu 2.1). This requires debunking binary thinking, from women-men to human-animal, and human-plant divides. An alternative form of agriculture -i.e., an agriculture of entanglement -becomes possible by bringing together a multitude of thoughts and voices, and creating platforms for exchange across all agents involved (Thurs 2.1).A new vision of landscapes was explored in another session, where participants uncovered the cultural and economic character of wetlands to step beyond the 'wise use of wetlands' conservation approach. The session explored how we can overcome the current epistemic view of wetlands as an instrument, to consider them for their intrinsic value, as a meaningful part of cultural identity for communities (Wed 2.1).In many sessions, in-depth engagement with wider discourses led to debunking longstanding myths and narratives around gender in agriculture and food systems. Critically, it was highlighted that stereotyping women as the primary food gatherers or nurturers of the household is harmful and needs to stop. Such a stereotype obscures the heterogeneity of women, and its implications for nutrition and food security. Participants in one session warned against the false view of women having more food rights than before, as many efforts toward this end have not translated to equal sharing of responsibilities or power within households and communities. Women face complex and intersecting systems of discrimination that might have even deepened inequalities in recent years (Fri 1.2).Several sessions stressed that all genders must be included in nutrition-sensitive interventions (Thurs 1.3). Nutrition impacts and challenges are highly gendered, and a healthy nutrition status is a foundation for building rural women's economic empowerment as well as more sustainable and equitable food systems (Tue 5.3). This underpins the Women's Empowerment in Nutrition (WEN) Framework, which focuses on women's personal well-being as opposed to that of their children. Other participants revisited the relationship between women's empowerment and men's authority (Wed 1.4).Women are still often portrayed as helpers and assistants (e.g., on their husband's farms) rather than as food producers in their own right (Thurs 2.1; Thurs 2.2). For example, in one session on aquaculture, it was shown that women are merely portrayed as helpers to clean the pond, but that this reveals more about current cultural or socio-economic norms than about women's actual activities (Wed 1.2). Fishing has traditionally been understood as male-dominated, however, in 13 countries in Africa, women represent a huge part of the fisheries workforce (Tue 1.4). Likewise, estuarine shellfisheries in West Africa are dominated by women harvesters, who are involved in harvesting, processing and marketing, but this \"invisible fishery\" is not well documented or acknowledged (Wed 2.3). As presenters showed, these portrayals, which reinforce the invisibility of women's work, have policy implications.Participants also challenged the stereotype of women as victims. They argued that as long as research heavily focusses on gender-based vulnerability, such vulnerabilities will be perpetuated. Instead, research should take women seriously as stakeholders, thereby enabling them to unlock their potential and agency by concentrating on action and (participatory) change (Fri 2.3).As part of a better understanding of multiple femininities and masculinities throughout the world, the roles and positions of men should be explored further to challenge the stereotype that men are solely oppressors (Wed 3.0). It was evidenced that women's empowerment in agriculture often cannot be improved by only focussing interventions on women, especially in contexts where men or other household or community members are disproportionately in control of resources or have greater decision-making power (Wed 4.2).Evidence for tackling the false narrative that youth of all genders prefer not to be engaged in the agricultural sector were presented in another session (Thurs 2.2). Some sessions showed that young people are playing a role as agents of change in food systems, and that building their capacities is critical for food system changes (Wed 3.0).Understanding the complexity of intersectional inequalities was also promoted to overcome treating women in silo-ed ways. This approach would also help shift thinking from how to fit women into the current systems to how to change the systems so they work for women (Fri 3.0). Furthermore, there was a call to focus on the question \"how can food systems transformation be just and equitable?\" instead of merely asking how gender equality can lead to food systems transformations (Wed 2.1).Taking complexities seriously implies carefully investigating conflicts and dilemmas. In an integrative case study, women shellfishers were targeted to manage estuaries, conserve the mangroves on which the fisheries depend, and diversify food production in the proximate landscape of the estuaries to address periods of high food insecurity and nutritional deficiencies (Wed 2.3). Yet, a dilemma arose: oysters high in zinc and iron would help prevent anemia for women of reproductive age, but also contain heavy metal contamination in some localities due to mining higher up in the watershed (Wed 2.3).This dilemma resonated with the remarks in other sessions to avoid \"carpet strategies\", and recognize context-specificity (Wed 2.1; Tue 4.3). For example, participants emphasized that researchers need to recognize that there is no single \"truth,\" but multiple truths and knowledges (Wed 3.0). Some called for theoretical accounts that engage with women's embodied experiences grounded in complex realities, such as colonial and post-colonial encounters around the world, as exemplified for African women (Wed 3.0).Participation as a strategy to include women or integrate gender was criticized and refined. The community-based natural resource management framework (CBNRM) challenges the existing frameworks that assume that attendance equals inclusion. Instead this framed centers intersectionality and analyses inclusion through five elements: (1) attendance to meetings, (2) access to information on and an understanding of local CBRM processes regulations (3) speaking during meetings, (4) feeling respected by other community members, and (5) the perception of inclusion during the meetings (Thurs 1.2).It was considered critical to move beyond a simple understanding of the feminization of agriculture that simply looks at whether the share of women in the agricultural labor force is increasing. The current discussion mainly arches on two different narratives: (1) Women are left behind and their burden of agricultural work increases, all the while they have less access to resources; and (2) Women have increased opportunities as agriculture and rural areas are transforming (Fri 2.3). Participants posited that discussions around the feminization of agriculture should also consider the changing patterns of work and decisionmaking for men and women in rural areas and how these differ for groups of men and women depending on their age, position within the household, and caste/race/ethnicity, among other identities. A deeper understanding of this trend also requires acknowledging that labor patterns are changing in dynamic ways in rural areas, with people (including young women) moving in and out of agriculture and changing roles within agriculture. Migration experiences are diverse and complex -not just good or bad. It is not only households that are adapting to the new labor patterns, but also rural institutions, such as water users' associations (Thurs 4.2).Other sessions showed that problematic access to assets and resources for women was not a sole issue for the so-called global South, as is often assumed. Several sessions included examples of the realities of women in so-called developed countries who also struggle with gender gaps, e.g., in terms of access to credit, farm co-ownership or management, land ownership, inheritance laws, and succession practices (Wed 1.3).In several sessions, sharp messages based on gender research were shared. One of them was that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be achieved without incorporating women as equal partners in agricultural frameworks (Alejandra Safa Barraza): \"Gender is one of the levers of change relevant across all SDGs\" (Wed 1.4 Interestingly, in one session, participants observed that all presentations clearly had aspects of feminist analysis embedded in their empirical studies, but most of them did not use the word 'feminist'. It was seen as an indication of a need for capacity-building and mythbusting around feminist theory so that these key critiques can be even more meaningfully integrated in future gender and agricultural research for development work (Wed 4.1).There is a growing base of gender-conscious literature in agriculture and food systems. However, an evidence gap map showed geographical differences in the state of knowledge on gender. The majority of gender studies seem to be conducted in Africa, followed by Asia, while Latin America and MENA lag behind. Other continents were not included. It was acknowledged that the literature used to develop the map should be further diversified to include more languages and that geographical differences within regions and countries should be examined.A last recommendation was to go beyond masculine standards in efforts to support women's empowerment. For instance, initiatives can emphasize the need to strengthen soft skills (e.g., for negotiating with middlemen) rather than solely focusing on training women in 'hard' skills, (Fri 1.2). Similarly, it was suggested that digital innovations and solutions can better account for women's contexts by drawing from design-thinking principles of empathy and inclusive co-design (Tue 2.1).Conference participants discussed several ways in which research can contribute to systemic change towards gender equality. One way was through identifying 'soft spots' where change is possible in prevailing systems, such as where there are 'positive deviants', alternative narratives, or areas of contestation and debate. Others focussed instead on uncovering (social and political) institutional practices that are sticky and persistent in perpetuating gender inequality (Wed 1.3). Participants in all sessions supported the idea that: \"engaging with gender is a multi-stage process and cannot happen by simply ticking a 'gender box' (Tue 5.2). They called for holistic approaches to address gender inequality, and documenting interventions that work in this area (Wed 1.3).In several sessions, participants advocated for moving beyond knowledge of gender inequality, to understanding and addressing the root cause of these inequalities (Wed 4.1; Wed 5.4; Thurs 1.1). Research on norms, and gender transformative approaches, were considered important in this regard. Participants agreed that this research should be conducted through an intersectional lens, to capture and challenge the multiple axes of discrimination that underpin exclusions.Participants advocated for truly participatory processes centered on communities, that integrate many actors in finding solutions together through open-ended processes. These were positioned in contrast to conventional agricultural research for development processes, whereby technical solutions are typically developed first and rolled out for subsequent implementation and adoption (Tue 2.1). There was a shared understanding across sessions that participatory design processes can lead to more inclusive and sustainable 'solutions' and are needed for systemic change (Tue 2.1). This requires acknowledging the specificities of each research context and the need for iterative cycles of feedback and continuous monitoring. An example was provided of inclusive design approaches for digital innovation (Tue 2.1). Some participants stressed that all research should be shared with members of all genders in communities, and others considered that scientists and communities should both be involved in decision-making processes. This was linked to the idea of democratizing gender research and science (e.g., through citizen science) by involving community reporters (Tue 1.4), local researchers or study groups.Others advocated for critical introspection and self-awareness that some research may be more valuable when it comes from researchers within local communities than from outsiders. Recognizing local knowledge, bringing that knowledge to the fore, and supporting local actors in recognizing their own knowledge and gaining confidence as of a young age, were also considered levers of change (Wed 4.3).In other sessions, the discussion surfaced the need for transdisciplinary partnerships among farmers, traders, extension agents, policy makers, and development partners (Wed 1.1).Working with and across different epistemologies, multiple perspectives and knowledges was deemed important to challenge the status quo and offer opportunities for change.Participants considered that appropriate types of communications, resources, and tools, codeveloped with ultimate users, should support these interactions. The need for feminist approaches that can guide qualitative research, and a focus on radical systemic change, was also advanced (Wed 4.1). In this regard, there was a call for exchanges among academics who may have a stronger focus on feminist theories and researchers focused on gender and development research (e.g., from CGIAR), so as to bring those two together (Wed 1.1).Thematically, there interest in advancing understanding of collective (vs. individual) dimensions of empowerment, intangible dimensions of empowerment, and less apolitical and instrumentalist methods -including innovative, mixed methods (Wed 5.4). Moreover, participants recommended a shift in focus from gender-based vulnerabilities, which perpetuates the stereotype of women as victims, toward action and participatory research where women are recognized as agents of change and supported in this capacity (Fri 2.3).Lastly, supporting the empowerment of young gender researchers, including through secure research positions, to further develop and pursue gender-responsive and transformative approaches, was considered important to support gender + integration in the field and sustainably advance gender + equality (Tue 2.3). The absence of gender theory in many of the hard sciences renders their findings insufficient to articulate or solve social and ecological problems, which may have been overlooked in the first place. Diverse research teams with equal footing in gender and social sciences alongside 'hard' sciences, were considered important to counter this trend (Tue 5.2).Several innovative research methodologies and programmatic approaches were shared at the conference. Some of these included:Participatory methodologies and approaches:• More symbiotic relationships between scientific research and communities (Wed 3.0) • Community reporting, which refers to researchers reporting from their own experiences and communities. This approach is often based in relations of trust because researchers already live in the communities involved in the study and understand the context. It allows for different stories and experiences to unfold over time, and may bring more accountability and fewer concerns that stories or perceptions may be changed through the interpretation process. Data collected in this way can move beyond numbers to highlight lived experience and amplify voices that are not usually heard. It can also help reflect on relationships between insiders and outsiders. Feedback and information-sharing among the researcher and other community members is a key part of the process. Information technologies such as mobile phones, cameras, etc. can be used to track issues and experiences (Tue 1.4) • Participatory mapping to document land use and activities, locate plots, and gather geotagged photos; all of which can be inventoried in a library (Tue 4.3) • Design-thinking principles, which begin with research on end users' (of all genders) issues and contexts, and involve them in the ideation and creation of digital/agricultural tools that are better tailored to their needs and circumstances. Due to this engagement throughout the process, gender-inclusive designs promise greater uptake by women users and are better fit-for-purpose. Personas -fictitious characters representing different types of possible users -are a useful tool for building empathy with the diversity of women farmers and their needs (Tue 2.1). • Peer-to-peer (business) capacity development among (groups of) women (Tue 1.4) Methodologies to examine and challenge discriminatory norms:• Holistic approaches combining: o The engagement of men and boys (Tue 4.2) o Strengthening or creating groups to enhance social capital o Addressing unequal and discriminatory social norms (e.g., Dimitra Clubs, community conversations, and the Gender Action Learning System/GALS) (Tue 5.3) • Methods for a better understanding of multiple femininities and masculinities (Wed 3.0)• GENNOVATE, a methodology that provides a framework to consider the local normative climate and levers of change within systems (Thurs 5.1) • 'Q methods', which can help develop typologies of local norms that pertain to different groups of women and men (Thurs 5.1) • Methods that help women identify as farmers and entrepreneurs, and drivers and leaders of businesses, which can be key when designing research or programming (Wed 4.3) • Feminist critiques of ongoing gender research to re-think methods of data collection, project-planning, gender integration, etc. Radical feminist approaches that are highly participatory, qualitative, inclusive and just in their own right, focussed on marginalized groups can help institutions reflect on their own norms, biases, practices, and the entrenched inequalities they reproduce in the field and in research (Wed 4.1)Methodologies that help understand gender integration in policies, programs and projects:• The \"reach-benefit-empower-transform\" framework/typology, used to consider planned outcomes of interventions, particularly when working with non-gender specialists (Wed 2.2) • \"Gender maps,\" which are grids that range from gender-blind to genderaccommodating and gender-transformative research on one axis and governance on the other, to position projects and initiate discussion of what is needed to move them along an increasingly transformative trajectory (Fri 2.2)Methodologies related to understanding and assessing women's empowerment:• Mixed methods (Wed 2.1 and more) for more holistic research, including to examine the validity of new measures of complex components of empowerment, such as factor analysis, item response theory, reliability analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis (Tue 5.4) • New revisions of the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) demonstrating increased sensitivity to program interventions, requiring less time to implement than previous WEAI-related tools, and recovering previously dropped observations due to improved treatment of missing values (Wed 4.2) • Supporting social movements, which contribute to diversified production systems.Collective solidarity created by social groups can empower women, strengthen their participation in decision-making, and increase their control over income (Wed 5.4; Thurs 1.3).Methodologies that improve assessment of other gender domains and of gender in other domains:• Time-use surveys, rethought in terms of seasonality (busy versus less busy agricultural periods), which affects who can participate in studies and whether responses reflect more superficial and immediate needs (due to time constraints in responding) versus deeper reflections on more strategic needs (Tue 4.1) • True Cost Accounting (TCA), which holds promise for incentivizing new values (doing 'business as unusual') in the food system by quantifying the hidden costs and benefits created on-farm. To obtain a more accurate vision of 'true costs,' TCA should better account for differentiated identities, such as gender and race (Thurs 5.4) • Gender-specific assessment methods, such as Gender Responsive Agriculture Development Assessment (GRADA), to provide a fuller picture and surface important gender issues related to programs impacts, through qualitative and quantitative research (Tue 5.2)Methodologies that provide an in-depth understanding of context:• In-depth and extensive case studies that allow greater understanding of the difference between correlation and causation (Thurs 5.4) • Life histories, for greater understanding of long-term social, political, economic, and environmental changes (Fri 1.1) Methods using audio-visual tools and information technologies:• Real time digital data generation -Space Satellite Technology and GIS to provide agri-information services (e.g., to pastoralists on biomass availability and quality, surface water availability, herd concentration, market prices for livestock and staple grains along the points of different transhumance routes, forecast weather, etc. to help find water and pasture, reduce conflicts around natural resources) (Tue 4.3) • Video or photo cameras, for community reporting and dialogue based on community showings. A mediator who instructs, edits (like producers of documentaries), and facilitates self-reflective (reflexive) discussions is important. Scripted plays based on anonymized real stories can serve for discussion on delicate issues like gender norms and gender-based violence (Fri 2.1).The conference included a poster award. A panel consisting of three jury members (Annex 2) used a two-step process to assess the available posters based on six criteria:1. Theoretical / conceptual soundness 2. Contextualization 3. Societal implications 4. Relevance to the conference themes 5. Clarity of messagingPoster award laureates received a certificate (Figure 8) and were publicly recognized in the closing ceremony.The winning poster was: \"Barriers and opportunities to women's participation in the commercialized cassava seed system in Tanzania\", presented by Devis F. Mwakanyamale, and co-authored by Leanne Baumung, Steven M. Cole, Ashlea Webber, Nadira Sale and Regina Kapinga.The jury noted that the poster presents the objective and motivation of the study very clearly, with very succinct findings and recommendations. The poster's structure and layout make it easy to follow the presentation, and the use of bullets visually appeals to readers. According to the jury, the authors adopted a bold approach of using a poster to tell the project's stories of change and how they used champions to promote the OFSP technology while also enhancing villagers' knowledge on nutrition. The poster focused on one message, the language used was memorable and the use of photos made the messages authentic.The lead author of the poster acknowledged the award with: \"Thank you for sharing the certificate and the poster award report. This is well received and I feel ecstatic to share it with my colleagues. I am grateful for this international recognition and it has been a privilege working on this poster with my colleagues.\"\"Constructing or empowering the female coffee farmer? How agricultural research refers to gender development in coffee cultivation\" by Annelie M. GütteThe jury commented that the poster left them with a sense of wanting to know more about the research and to read more about the findings. The poster was unique, given its focus on contextualization of terminologies and narratives used in gender and agricultural research.In A post-conference survey (Annex 6) was conducted to determine the overall reception and success of the conference from the perspective of participants. This survey was sent out to all registered participants and received 58 responses. More than a third (37.9%) of the 58 respondents were from research organizations, while another 36.2% were academics, and 12.1% were from non-governmental organizations. Other sectors (civil society, donor partners, government, international and intergovernmental organizations, private sector, and other) each represented less than 10% of respondents.Over three quarters (77.6%) of respondents were very satisfied with the virtual conference and 22.4% were somewhat satisfied. No survey respondents indicated that they were \"not at all\" satisfied. Written responses to the open-ended survey question \"Do you have any additional comments on the virtual conference experience?\" further indicated a high level of satisfaction. One respondent wrote: \"This was the most excellent and highly well-organized virtual meeting attended this year. It was an aha moment all through.\" Another wrote: \"The Conference organizers did a sterling job -all the instructions were clear.\" This survey question also heralded some suggestions for improvement, including: \"My only wish is that slides and/or other supporting materials might have been shared with each session.\" Although these were not available before the sessions, all materials have since been placed in the CGIAR CG Space repository and linked to from the CGIAR GENDER Platform website. Another respondent suggested that the pivot to an online format made some forms of interaction and networking more difficult, in particular for some researchers: \"Q&A sessions and other forms of networking experienced during in-person conference formats are not available to early career researchers based out of developing countries.\"The vast majority of respondents felt that the conference either met (63.8%) or exceeded (32.8%) their expectations, while the remaining 3.4% indicated that the conference did not realize their expectations. In response to the open-ended survey question \"Do you have any additional comments on whether your expectations were met?,\" no substantive recommendations or critiques were provided.Over half (56.9%) or respondents felt that the conference advanced their thinking on gender theory, research, methods and practice by \"a lot,\" while 41.4% percent answered that the conference \"somewhat\" advanced their thinking in these dimensions. Only 1.7% responded \"not at all\" to this prompt.Responses to the open-ended survey question \"Do you have any additional comments on whether the conference advanced your thinking on gender theory, research, methods and practice?\" reflected these levels of satisfaction, with a few complimentary written-in answers and no suggestions or critiques offered.In terms of networking opportunities, in response to the survey question \"To what extent were you satisfied with the opportunities to connect with old friends and new people?,\" 91.4% of respondents were either somewhat or very satisfied. Only 8.6% were \"not at all\" satisfied. Two of the written responses provided concrete critiques: \"The audio did not work for informal networking for many of the participants. Also, there were limited number of participants for the session\"; and \"It is hard and unsatisfying to socialize on a virtual platform although the organizers made efforts to provide space for this.\"When asked \"What was your favorite moment from the conference?\" survey respondents overwhelmingly expressed enthusiasm for the plenary sessions and associated keynote speeches. One respondent wrote, \"Seeing the video clips showing the actual groundwork in cultivating equality in gender, it really was heart-warming and motivating to achieve more.\" When asked about their least favorite aspects of the conference, respondents did not cite any dissatisfaction with the conference content, but indicated problems with technological difficulties and barriers, as well as problems with differing time zones due to the globally spread of presentation teams.In response to the open-ended survey question \"What would you like to see (more of) in future gender research conferences?,\" many respondents emphasized two issues. First was the desire for a broader understanding of \"gender\" and a greater inclusion of issues relating to men and masculinities. The other was the desire to return to either an in-person or hybrid (in-person and virtual) format. Others, however, pointed out that the virtual platform allowed for a larger and broader audience, which they enjoyed. Another suggestion called for more active participation on the part of attendees through the use of \"prep works and assignments.\"The organizing committee, which prepared this report, learned several lessons from the experience of organizing this conference. These include:• Have clear roles for members of the organizing committee, to share responsibilities and support engagement.• Have a dedicated and regular meeting time for the main organizing committee.• A shared (Teams or other) site is useful as platform to share and work on documents.• Clearly define the different kinds of proposals you invite and how these fit the main themes and perspectives when preparing the call.• Define and indicate whether a person can propose a maximum number of submissions.• Define minimum specifications from the start -e.g., being able to participate without turning on the video, ability to have in-session break-out groups, flexibility in the number of parallel sessions, networking capacities outside of sessions.• Value user-friendliness and intuitiveness over aesthetics. Less may be more in terms of platform features.• Check imagery to make sure it is accessible and representative (i.e., moving beyond white men in suits and women in high heels).• Keep the platform simple. Simplicity is key.• Consider sending calendar invites early on, at least to speakers in sessions, to ensure that people have reserved time slots in their calendars.• Make sure that people registering for the conference can also opt in (GDPR valid) to other forms of communication from organizers, such as the GENDER Platform's newsletter, for subscriber growth.• Don't instill a cap on session participation through pre-registration, as many people register but don't ultimately attend online sessions, leaving many claimed spots unfilled.• Don't expect online networking to happen on its own, even if the conference platform allows for it. Invest time in designing strategies to support networking with the support of a knowledge sharing specialist.• Consider strategies to incentivize people to participate in sessions other than their own (e.g., an award for those attending the most sessions; other forms of acknowledgement/incentives).• Consider online translation options (French/Spanish at minimum) to facilitate participation from different regions.• Being on the ground with the production team at a technical hub, even for a fully virtual event, is very helpful; maybe even essential.• Have a strong communications working group in place to leverage multiple networks, as early on as for the call for contributions.• Publicize keynote speakers pre-event to generate excitement.• Setting up the Twitter list of conference speakers may have a limited pay-off.• Consider making short one-minute videos and social media cards for social media.• Daily bulletins are a heavy workload, and as so much is happening during the conference, they may not receive the attention they deserve or be worth the effort.• Set up tight deadlines for blog post drafts; maximum 3 days after the session/event is best, to publish while the conference is still on or shortly afterwards.• Ensure that statistics can be collected on everything -e.g., Zoom attendance, newsletter reads, etc.• If possible, do not invest in separate websites which become obsolete after the event, especially if work will be required to transfer conference assets to permanent locations/other websites.• Prepare for recording and sharing assets well in advance. This may be done as early as during registration, for example, when participants can be asked to acknowledge that sessions will be recorded and consent to being part of recordings will be shared publicly post-conference.• Make sure that contributors opt in/out of making their materials (presentations, posters, etc.) public when submitting them.• Consider whether or how key messages and discussions from the conference will be curated and shared post-conference, and what capacities are needed to prepare this content.Moreover, there are programmatic and processual choices to make and trade-offs to consider, including:1. In-person versus online. Holding the conference online allowed very broad registration. However, the spontaneity, informal encounters, and social aspects of an in-person conference cannot be fully equaled in a virtual space. In the post-conference evaluation, some participants indicated that they were looking forward to being able to meet in an in-person setting again. Hybrid versions have some of the strengths of virtual and inperson formats, but can also make it doubly difficult for those who are joining online to effectively participate and for organizers to manage.2. Despite high registrations, only about 50% of those registered attended the event; and turnout rates for virtual events are often even lower. This should be kept in mind to manage expectations, and underscores the need to make conference materials available and easily accessible online post-event.3. We took a very inclusive approach. This comprised:○ Inviting full session proposals towards various aims and in various formats (capacity strengthening, panels, and research presentations) in addition to individual contributions. This made the programming exciting and interesting and helped with some of the organizing, as session organizers took care tasks related to session. It meant that the program filled out quickly, however, and introduced some complexities in programming. The quality of those sessions also differed depending on how well the organizers prepared.○ Maximizing the total number of sessions, which involved running four parallel sessions in four time slots, over four days, to accommodate more presenters, panelists and participants in the program. Yet, given the number of competing sessions, there were likely fewer participants in each session.○ Encouraging different career-stage researchers from various disciplines and regional and institutional backgrounds to participate and present, meaning that CVs and proposal quality were not the only criteria for acceptance of contributions.○ Having one session which was very late for those based in Asia, Europe and Africa to accommodate presenters and participants in the Americas. This last session of the day was not as well attended from participants based in the central and Eastern time zones. (Time zone-related scheduling issues also made it difficult to bring multiple regional perspectives into the same session.)○ Having a broad range of topics eligible for submissions to be more inclusive, rather than having more focused themes. This offered space for new and interesting discussions, but made programming more difficult and timeconsuming for the organizers.Annex 1: Conference Platform https://portalapp.cbd.eventsair.com/VirtualAttendeePortal/cultivating-equality/onlineportal/login ","tokenCount":"9453"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f862f79017ee6e1e6ca3628d087c1f0b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H041802.pdf","id":"-128669787"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"97b54462-b549-4eec-abd7-5fd188bbd532","pagecount":"33","content":"The economic performance of Indian agriculture has been closely related to changes in agricultural productivity. Increases in agricultural productivity, in turn have been partly attributed to substantial increases in the irrigated area (Meizen-Dick and Rosegrant 2005;Gulati and Narayanan 2003;Vyas in Mundle et al. 2003;Pitman 2002). Agriculture accounts for over 80 % of consumptive water use in India (Pitman 2002), and is at times even recorded to be higher than 90 % (Amarasinghe et al. 2005;Meizen-Dick and Rosegrant 2005). The rise in the irrigated area came about with massive irrigation investments by the government, made with substantial support from the international donor community. These investments began in the 1960s and peaked in the 1980s, but in the early 1990s, public spending in agriculture slowed down and this translated into reduced spending in irrigation (Meizen-Dick and Rosegrant 2005;Gulati et al. 2005;Gulati and Narayanan 2003;Pitman 2002;Fan et al. 1999). Gross capital formation in agriculture declined from an average of 54 % in 198054 % in -198154 % in to 26 % in 199954 % in -200054 % in (Mundle et al. 2003)). Support from multilateral and bilateral donor agencies also declined over the same period. However, there have been recent efforts to reverse this downward trend in investments in water-related infrastructure, including irrigation (Peacock et al. 2007;World Bank 2004).The poor economic performance of many past irrigation projects in India may have contributed to the decline in irrigation investment and lending by international financial agencies in the 1990s (Meizen-Dick and Rosegrant 2005;Raju and Gulati 2005;Gulati et al. 2005;Pitman 2002;Jones 1995). Furthermore, the low rates of economic return may have also resulted in diminishing the poverty reduction impact of these irrigation projects (Meizen-Dick and Rosegrant 2005;Kikuchi et al. 2003;Rosegrant and Svendsen 1993). These findings, however, do not suggest that governments should stop investing in irrigation because of the poor economic performance of such projects. This paper shows instead that there are ways to improve economic performance and that governments need not choose between achieving food security (or objectives other than getting high economic returns from projects) and investing in economically unviable irrigation projects.The proposed river interlinking project will technically make more water available for consumptive and productive uses by diverting water from surplus to deficit basins. With agriculture as the biggest water user, increasing competing demands from other sectors and, the fact, that large proportions of the national and state budgets continue to be invested in the agricultural sector with apparently less growth and economically rewarding results, it is essential that agricultural water projects be well formulated and implemented to ensure greater efficiency and better overall performance including higher productivity.To formulate better future irrigation projects in India, a comprehensive understanding of irrigation projects and their economic performance relative to those in other countries is important. Project performance is influenced by internal and external project factors, which could be a combination of physical, socioeconomic, institutional and policy factors. Among the internal factors are those that are related to formulation, design and implementation of projects. Specifically, costs of irrigation projects, agricultural productivity (yields and cropping intensity), operation and maintenance, and expected lifetime and gestation period of investments are the key factors. Some of the key external factors, which are beyond project control, are those that define the macro setting and policy environment (e.g., policies on pricing and tariffs for agricultural inputs and outputs and unforeseen changes in the market) of the country where a project is implemented.This paper uses consistent data from 314 irrigation projects worldwide. The dataset includes 37 projects in India and a total of 91 projects in South Asia. The remainder is from 49 other countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), South East Asia (SEA), and East Asia (EA). The dataset contains certain key project characteristics and indicators of economic performance, which make it possible to systematically analyze irrigation projects and their performance. Using this dataset, this paper aims to: (1) examine the trends in the performance of irrigation investments in India, and contrast these with the trends in South Asia and the rest of the world; (2) determine the factors that influence the performance of irrigation projects worldwide; and (3) draw lessons for future irrigation investments in India.This paper is constrained by the fact, that the dataset is based on projects that have been co-financed by the given country and an external funding agency. It does not include projects that were fully funded by a government or those which were solely funded by bilateral agencies. Furthermore, while the projects in the dataset include those with investments in groundwater and conjunctive water use, they do not consider the private investments in groundwater development, which have contributed significantly to the spread of irrigation in the past two decades in South Asia.In the following sections, we describe the data, trends in economic performance and the profiles of irrigation projects. These are followed by a discussion of the results of a quantitative analysis of the performance of irrigation projects. The last section gives the conclusions and recommendations.This paper uses data obtained from various documents of irrigation projects funded by major international development organizations. 2 The project performance audit reports (PPAR) are the main source of data. In cases where the PPARs are not available, the project completion report (PCR) or the implementation completion report (ICR) are used as the next best source of information. In a few cases the staff appraisal reports (SARs), if available, are used to obtain further detailed information on project designs and project sites not cited in PPARs or PCRs. 3  The dataset contains a total of 314 projects, which are all external funding agency assisted-projects with counterpart funding from recipient governments. A few projects received contributions from bilateral donors as well and a few others had farmers' contributions, but the latter are not quantified in project reports. 4 Of the total, 91 projects are in South Asia and 37 of these are in India. Table 1 gives the distribution of the sample projects according to purpose (new construction or rehabilitation). The total area irrigated by the 37 projects represents approximately 24 % of the 2001 official figure for net irrigated area in India, which is 55 million ha (GOI 2004).The economic internal rate of return (EIRR) of an irrigation project reported at the project evaluation or completion is used as a measure of performance. 5 This measure is the sum of the discounted stream of benefits net of capital and O&M costs arising from the project. The EIRR is chosen as a performance indicator for two reasons: first, it is the most commonly used indicator of economic performance; second, in projects where no EIRRs are reported, it is possible to estimate them based on project outcomes described in the PCRs and the PPARs,  , 1965-1999 a   Total 1965-1970-1975-1980-1985-1990-1994-Time Trend  no. of 1969  1974  1979  1984  1989  1994  1999 (1965-99)  which is not the case for other performance ratings. 6 While this measure does not directly address poverty and livelihood objectives, it captures impact on incomes that should imbed poverty and livelihood considerations. Also, to the extent that appropriate and realistic amounts are allocated for O&M expenditures, this performance measure imbeds sustainability aspects of projects as well.To examine the profiles of projects, each was classified according to its type, purpose, operation and maintenance, major crops grown, project size, project cost, average system size, year of project's commencement, donor appraisal and supervision inputs, time overrun, cost overrun, sizing error, and the relative complexity of the project.The purpose of a project ranges from the construction of an entirely new project on a land previously not used for agriculture (also known as 'new construction with land opening') to purely rehabilitative purposes (known as 'rehabilitation) like rehabilitating existing projects. In between these two extremes, there are a number of sub-categories including 'new construction from rain-fed area', 'new construction + rehabilitation', and, where rehabilitation is the major component of the investment, 'rehabilitation + new construction'.The type of project is based on a classification of the physical infrastructure used to capture and convey water. The six types used to classify this dataset are: (a) river-diversion systems without major storage capacity (river-diversion); (b) systems that use river water from dams that have major storage capacity (river-dam-reservoir); (c) tank (i.e., small reservoir) irrigation systems; (d) pump irrigation systems with water from river, pond or lake (river-lift); (e) pump irrigation systems with groundwater (groundwater-lift); and (f) drainage and/or flood control systems. In this last type, excess water is either drained or released from the land area in a controlled manner, with crops being grown on the residual moisture.For operation and maintenance, the classification is divided into three categories, and they are: (a) entirely by government agency (government agency); (b) partly (usually the headworks and the main/primary canals) by government agency and partly (usually the distribution canals and below) by farmers' groups (government + farmers); and (c) by farmers alone (farmer-managed systems).The categories for the major crops grown are: (a) paddy (paddy); (b) other cereals such as wheat and maize (cereals); (c) cash crops such as sugarcane and cotton (sugar/cotton); (d) perennial tree crops (tree crops); (e) vegetables (vegetables); and (f) fodder (fodder). This classification is based on the cropping system used in all regions represented in the dataset.Project size is the total area irrigated by the project, and is the sum of newly constructed and rehabilitated areas, where relevant. An irrigation 'project' is often an aggregate of several 'systems' or schemes. About 20 % of the global sample irrigation projects in the dataset are 'single system projects,' i.e., including only one irrigation system. 7 'Total project cost' is defined as the total irrigation-related investment cost, including investment in both the physical irrigation infrastructure (e.g.,, dams, canals, sluice and measuring devices and roads) and software components (e.g.,, project management, engineering design, agriculture support and institution building). 8 'Unit cost' is simply the cost of the investments divided by the project size.The average size of a system is the area in a given project divided by the number of systems therein. The 'year project started' refers to the year in which implementation began, which could be a few months (or even years) after approval by the donor's board. Donor inputs for appraisal and supervision are the relevant personnel staffing effort in terms of weeks, which is not always available. The time and cost overruns are the differences between the actual construction period and costs, and those estimated at the time of project appraisal. The sizing error is the ratio of the difference between the planned and actual irrigated area benefited by the project, to the planned irrigated area, which is taken as a measure of the relative accuracy of the planning and appraisal stages. The number of project components listed in the SAR of a project is taken as a proxy to measure the complexity of the project.Although our sample projects are all donor-funded projects, without exception the governments of recipient countries mobilize local funds for the projects. The share of government funds is the ratio of the local contribution to the total investment fund. While it would be more accurate to account for farmer contribution as well, most project documents do not quantify this. So, we accounted for this in the dataset as a binary (yes/no) variable. The share of software components is the ratio of the software costs, such as engineering management, technical assistance, agriculture support, research, training, and institutional development, to the total project cost. Conjunctive use of surface and groundwater is included as a yes/no binary variable. Data on the annual rainfall in the project area are usually provided in the SARs. Where no data are available in project reports, we obtained them from FAO AQUASTAT.Conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater can mean greater water availability and reliability to farmers. A typical case of conjunctive water use in irrigation projects is found in many gravity irrigation projects, where farmers subsequently invest in pumps to supplement surface water from the systems. In our study, however, projects with conjunctive water use are defined as those that include it as a part of the project design. These projects account for over one-third of the global sample.Two variables are introduced to capture the macroeconomic environments under which the sample projects are designed and implemented: 1) the real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and 2) the purchasing power parity (PPP) ratio. For both variables, the averages from the project duration are used. The source of data for both variables is the World Bank Database (WDI Online). In the same manner as project costs, the real GDP per capita is expressed in terms of US$ at 2000 constant prices.Using this dataset and the classifications described above, we examine trends in performance and changing project characteristics over time in India and contrast this to the Asian and global samples.Figure 1 shows the plot of economic returns at appraisal (prior to implementation) versus the actual returns (at completion) for each of the 37 water development projects in India. This figure demonstrates that project appraisals have generally been over optimistic. Less than one fourth of the projects achieved or exceeded their target performance. If we consider the time trend of performance (Table 1), the actual economic returns for the projects in India have been on a significantly downward trend, more so in the case of recently implemented projects. The economic internal rates of return (EIRR) averaged 19 % in the early 1970s and only 14 % in the late 1990s. For rehabilitation projects, the economic returns started high in the 1970s and remained so even in the early 1980s, although the average declined substantially in the second half of the 1990s. It should be noted however, that during that 5-year period there was only one project in the dataset. The data showed a less significant decline for South Asia as a whole, and in the case of rehabilitation projects, the trend was actually positive, although like in India, projects completed in the latter half of the 1990s performed poorly. In this case, there were only two projects, and both were on rehabilitation. For all of Asia there is no significant trend in economic performance of irrigation projects with returns in investments remaining relatively high for all projects over time. In the case of India, the overestimation of economic returns at appraisal or lower completion/audit performance estimates is made worse by the decreasing EIRR trend. This observation is a cause for concern if we see it in the context of the global project sample, where performance is significantly improving over time both for new construction and rehabilitation projects. Table 2 presents the distribution of the 37 sample projects from India and the changes in the profile of projects over time. Classifying according to the type of project shows that the entire sample for India is made up of single-purpose irrigation projects, while those from other countries include a few dual (with power components ) and multi-purpose projects with irrigation components. As for purpose, the data show that new construction projects in India have been on the decline. The trends in this type of system show that both tank and groundwater-lift Notes: a Projects are grouped according the year the project started b Linear time trend, estimated by regressing each variable over time (year of projection start) '+' indicates a positive or increasing trend, '-'indicates a negative or decreasing trend ***, **, and * indicates that the trend is statistically significant at 1 %, 5 %, and 10 % levels, respectively. ns stands for not significant. The observation unit for trend estimation is the individual project for continuous variables and the 5-year average for dummy variables Notes: a Projects are grouped according to the year they started b Linear time trend estimated by regressing each variable over time (year of projection start); '+' indicates a positive or increasing trend, '-'indicates a negative or decreasing trend; ***, **, and * indicates that the trend is statistically significant at the 1 %, 5 %, and 10 % levels, respectively. 'ns' stands for not significant. The observation unit for trend estimation is the individual project for continuous variables and the 5-year average for dummy variables c Removing the Haryana Water Resources Consolidation Project in the project size time trend regression makes the positive coefficient insignificant. The effect on the average system size however, is the reverse, with the negative coefficient becoming statistically significant at 5% level of significance. That is, without the Haryana 1995 project in the sample, the project size is not significantly increasing over time while the average system size is significantly declining systems are on the rise while drainage/flood control projects have significantly decreased. Consistent with the government's adopted policy of giving farmers increased roles in managing irrigation systems, the share of solely government-managed systems shows a negative trend while joint management by government and farmers is becoming the preferred mode of operation and maintenance (O&M). In terms of crops irrigated, while India is still predominantly irrigating paddy, there is a rising trend in the number of projects for other cereals and with paddy on the decline. In 1980-1984, there was a limited amount of crop diversification, with shifts into primarily sugarcane, cotton and tree crop, but no similar projects have been implemented since.Table 3 presents the key characteristics of irrigation projects in India from the compiled project data. This table shows the size of projects in terms of total area irrigated, average size of systems within projects, project financing, design-related and implementation factors. The trend in 'project size' shows that irrigation projects in India have become significantly larger in the last three decades. Figure 2 clearly shows these trends. However, if the Haryana Water Resources Consolidation (HWRC) project, which has an extremely large total rehabilitated irrigation area, is excluded in the trend analysis, the time effect on 'project size' remains positive but no longer statistically significant. 'Average system sizes' on the other hand, have remained relatively constant but removing the HWRC project in the sample makes the decreasing trend for this variable significant. Projects do not appear to be getting more complicated with the number of components not evidently changing, as shown by the statistically insignificant time trend.It is interesting to observe that over time, the contribution of the government to total project cost has steadily declined from a high average of 71 % in 1970-1974 to an average of about 45 % in the 1990s. The decline in government counterpart funding in irrigation projects is consistent with the decline in budget allocation for irrigation from the central government and irrigation expenditures of the states, especially since the 1980s. Gulati and Narayanan (2003) and Pitman (2002) also show the same trend. For the same period, and rather surprisingly, projects with farmers contributing to development are declining as indicated by the statistically significant negative time trend. This is an unexpected trend given that elsewhere development agencies and governments are in agreement that farmers should be encouraged to share in the development cost of irrigation projects and thereby increase their sense of ownership of the project.Among the planning and implementation parameters from which we obtained data, the donors' staff inputs for appraisal and supervision have significantly increased over time. More staff time was spent on projects in the 1990s than in the 1970s or 1980s with an average of about 60 staff weeks in the early 1970s to over 230 staff weeks in the late 1990s. In fact, not only are appraisal and supervision inputs increasing, they are substantially higher in India than in the sample irrigation projects elsewhere. The pattern for appraisal staff inputs could be a reflection of the desire of the external funding agency to ensure better quality projects, including more stringent environmental requirements. And the increase in staff inputs for supervision could result in more trouble-shooting or hurdles to overcome at the implementation stages.Cost and time overruns are often cited as the key factors affecting project costs and expected economic returns (Pitman 2002, Jones 1995). The data show that for India, cost overruns have been significantly declining over time from a high average of 80 % in 1970-1974 to an average of 12 % in the 1990s. This observation implies that projects are completed within the originally approved or agreed budgets and yet we see the EIRR declining, suggesting that factors other than cost overruns must be influencing this decline in economic returns. No significant pattern is observed for time overrun, although World Bank's (WB) sector evaluations surmise that it is an important factor in overall project performance (Pitman 2002, Jones 1995).For the Indian data there is no significant trend in the unit costs of the projects over time, while in the case of the rehabilitation projects in Asia and both rehabilitation and new projects in the global samples, the unit costs have been declining (Table 4). These trends may in part explain the relatively lower performance of the investments in India. Interestingly, Gulati et al. (2005), using data on capital costs for irrigation development projects in India from 1964-1965 and 1995-1996, show unit costs to have been increasing. The authors explain the rise in capital cost as due to exhaustion of easier or favorable sites and the shift to relatively more difficult ones, increased expenditures on rehabilitation and environmental protection, and leakage in capital funds (Gulati et al. 2005). The difference in trends between this study and that presented by Gulati et al. (2005) may be explained by the differences in the type of data used and the assumptions made in the calculations. 9 The state-level and India-wide annualized costs in Gulati et al. (2005) could be reflecting a number of state and country-related factors that are not captured in our data. 9 Specifically, Gulati et al. used: (1) state-level and India-wide annualized costs of projects and in their project-specific analysis, examined in detail only three large projects which were started in the sixties and late seventies (Chambal Stage I in Rajasthan, Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana Stage I and II (Rajasthan) and Upper Krishna Project in Karnataka) while this study uses project-level data and costs are not annualized for the 37 projects. The state and India-wide annualized costs are likely to include not only World Bank funded projects but also those which are funded by other donors and even those which could be fully funded by the states and the Government of India; and (2) basic data from various issues of the Combined Finance and Revenue Accounts of the Union and State Governments in India (CAG) which were then adjusted for inflation, gestation lag between the time of investment and completion of irrigation command areas and a social discount rate of 5%, while this study uses data from project performance audit or completion/implementation reports (PPAR or PCR/ICR) for each of the 37 projects which were then adjusted for inflation and converted to US dollars using the official exchange rates. This study did not adjust for gestation lag because it used both actual project costs and total irrigated areas at project completion. The sizes of projects and systems have been closely linked to performance. A number of reports strongly associated performance with the scale of either project or system (Inocencio et al. 2007;Pitman 2002;Jones 1995). Certain studies cited reviews of many failed large public irrigation 'projects' or poor performance of large-scale irrigation 'systems' (e.g., Peacock et al. 2007;Pitman 2002;Jones 1995). 10  Focusing on the average size of systems within irrigation projects, the data do not support the above association of scale and performance. Table 5 shows that the differences in economic performance between major and minor systems or between medium and minor systems are not statistically significant for India. 11 It is interesting to note that for Asia as a whole, minor systems are shown to have consistently done better than medium-scale systems. Quite in contrast, for South Asia's new construction projects, and for the global sample (except for the Notes: a The years indicate 'year of project start' rather than year of project completion b '>' indicates that on average, the first group has performed better than the second group '<' indicates that on average, the second group showed better performance than the first group; whether the difference in averages between two groups are statistically significant is examined using the t-test for mean difference; statistical significance of the results are indicated by asterisks in parenthesis ***, **, and * indicate that the difference is statistically significant at the 1 %, 5 %, and 10 % levels, respectively ns stands for not significant new construction projects), major systems are shown to have significantly higher economic returns. 12 On project size, Figure 3 shows that while a number of large projects have less than 10 % EIRR, larger projects obtained higher than 10 % EIRR. This pattern clearly holds for India's irrigation projects. So, the assertion that large projects are bound to fail cannot be supported by these data because small projects are more likely to perform poorly than large irrigation projects. 12 As will be discussed in section 4 on the regression results, the higher economic returns for major systems are largely due to the fact that most large projects have large average system sizes which must be pulling up the average EIRR for major systems. When the impact of large 'projects' is isolated from the effect of 'average system size', minor systems are shown to do better than major systems. With governments devolving O&M responsibilities to farmers' groups a) to reduce their fiscal burden, b) increase the sense of ownership among farmers and c) improve viability and sustainability of projects -water user associations have been organized more aggressively during the past three decades. While many studies (e.g., Shah et al. 2002;Barker and Molle 2005) offer bleak pictures of the status and performance of these water user associations, Table 6 shows that for the India sample, no significant difference in economic performance is observed between jointly-managed and solely government-managed irrigation systems.The same is true for South Asia. For Asia and the global sample of projects, the analysis shows that irrigation systems jointly managed by government and farmers' organizations have done better than solely government-managed systems. Also, solely farmer-managed systems are shown to have done better than jointly-managed systems, although there are no such systems in the Indian sample of projects. Notes: a The years indicate 'year of project start' rather than year of project completion b '>' indicates that on average, the first group has performed better than the second group '<' indicates that on average, the second group showed better performance than the first group; whether the difference in means between two groups are statistically significant is examined using the t-test for mean difference; statistical significance of the results are indicated by asterisks in parenthesis ***, **, and * indicate that the difference is statistically significant at the 1 %, 5 %, and 10 % levels, respectively ns stands for not significantThe observations in Paper 3 provide adequate motivation to do further analysis on the performance of irrigation projects. Paper 3 uses trend analysis and comparison of mean values to show changes over time and similarities among sets of projects. A more systematic and robust analysis is required to properly establish the factors determining economic performance. An analysis of the global sample of 314 projects should help us gain broader insights on the performance factors. By making use of the full sample, India benefits from the experience and knowledge gained in irrigation investments in other countries and regions. The insights from such an analysis should be more retrospective while also forward looking, and should guide policymakers, implementors and development agencies in India in formulating a new generation of better performing and more viable irrigation projects.To explain the variations in the performance of irrigation projects, we apply the regression analysis, which determines the factors that influence economic internal rates of return (EIRR) of irrigation projects. The EIRR of the projects is the dependent variable regressed over a set of all the other variables in the dataset. To let our data 'speak for itself,' a Box-Cox model, which is the most flexible among linear regression models, is used. A general Box-Cox model for the EIRR analysis can be written as (Box and Cox 1964;Greene 2003: Ch.9):(1where Y is the dependent variable (EIRR) subject to a Box-Cox transformation with parameter, θ 1 , i.e., Y (θ 1 ) = (Y θ 1 -1) / θ 1 ; X k (k = 1, 2, …, K) are the transformed explanatory variables using a Box-Cox transformation with parameter 8 1 , i.e., X k (81) = (X k 81 -1) / 8 1 ; Z l (l = 1, 2, ..., L) are the untransformed explanatory variables; and ε ~ N(0, σ 2 ). Since the EIRR takes a non-positive value, the Box-Cox parameter for the dependent variable is assumed to be unity (i.e., θ = 1).The variables that are continuous and without non-positive values are selected for Xs, i.e., explanatory variables subject to the Box-Cox transformation. The rest of the explanatory variables are Z's, which are further divided into two groups. The variables in the first group, time overrun, cost overrun, and sizing error, are continuous variables with non-positive values, for which we assume 8 = 1, i.e., the original linear form. The variables in the second group consist of binary dummy variables; 1 if applicable and 0 if not. For category variables from various typologies of projects, the variables which serve as the base or reference are omitted in the regression. These are: 'irrigation', 'rehabilitation', 'river diversion', 'government-managed system', 'paddy', 'South Asia' for the regional dummies, and 'WB' for donor dummies, respectively. From the Box-Cox equation, the elasticity of the EIRR with respect to a transformed variable is given as:(2) where X k (k = 1, 2, 3… K) is a transformed explanatory variable. Similarly, the elasticity with respect to untransformed variables is given as:(3) where Z l (l = 1, 2… L) is an untransformed explanatory variable. The elasticities are evaluated at the mean for continuous variables and at unity for binary variables.Table 7 reports the EIRR regression results. Note that the elasticity is computed only for variables that have statistically significant coefficients. The regression shows that the following factors are significant determinants of the performance of irrigation projects: a) project size and average size of systems; b) number of project components which is a proxy for complexity The EIRR regression analysis reveals that project size, as measured by the total area irrigated by an investment project, is the most important factor determining the performance of irrigation projects. The larger the project size, the higher the economic returns. This result confirms an earlier finding of Jones (1995) that \"big projects just do better than small projects.\" From Inocencio et al. (2007), project size is shown as a critical determinant of the cost. The significant impact of project size on economic returns could be through its impact on project cost and the economies of scale effect. The significant economy of scale of project size could be attributed primarily to engineering economies of scale in formulating and implementing irrigation projects (Inocencio et al. 2007;Jones 1995). Larger projects are supposed to attract better managers, and implementing agencies may have more incentive to be cost-efficient given the relatively higher profile and greater public attention (Jones 1995). In production processes, an economy of scale arises when there are indivisible inputs. Huge excavation machinery and dump vehicles for constructing dams and other physical irrigation structures are indivisible. More importantly, capable human resources, such as planners, design engineers, construction engineers, administrators, managers, contractors, consultants, government agency officials, foremen, and farmers' organizations are all indivisible scarce resources that are indispensable in irrigation projects. The strong economies of scale in irrigation projects suggest the importance of these scarce inputs.'Average size of systems' within irrigation projects has a significant performance-reducing impact. This result implies that the smaller the size of the irrigation system, the better the expected economic returns. One possible explanation for this seemingly contradictory result with the positive impact of project size could be the management advantage in smaller systems over larger ones. With potentially fewer farmers to coordinate within each system, smaller systems compared with large systems would be relatively easier to manage. That is, while economies of scale are very important at the project level, at the system (within each project) level better economic performance can be attributed to better management, which may characterize small irrigation systems (ADB-PEO 1995).Some reports have argued that poor performance and success cases have been observed for both large and small irrigation projects (e.g., Rosegrant and Perez 1995;Brown and Nooter 1992;Adams 1990). They argue that scale appears to be less important in determining the success of the project than how it is managed. Our analysis indicates that, as far as the scale of irrigation projects is concerned, there are large economies of scale. However, it also suggests that at the 'system' or scheme level, how projects are managed appears to be more important than their scale. 14  As shown in Table 3, India's project size is significantly increasing over time while no pattern is established for the average system size. The increasing project size appears consistent with the regression result. However, removing the Haryana Water Resources Consolidation project from the sample, the increasing project size trend becomes insignificant while the declining of the average size of system over time becomes significant.The number of project components is intended to capture the degree of project complexity. The result showing a significant negative impact on EIRR is quite intuitive. The more complex a project becomes, the more likely that it will have lower economic returns. For India, the 5-year averages in Table 3 show projects to have fewer components over time, however, no statistically significant trend is established.Input of staff from the external funding agency for supervision has a negative impact on the project's performance: the larger the staff input for supervision, the lower the economic returns. A caution on this variable is that it may be introducing a simultaneous problem in the regression equation, i.e., the external funding agency input for supervising a project may be larger because the performance of the project is poor, or the performance of a project may be better because the external funding agency spends more staff time on the project. The data reveal that the former is the case. 15 That is, the data apparently capture the higher supervision inputs required for troubled projects, which are likely to perform poorly.This variable is of interest given the fact that in India, external funding agency staff supervision is shown to be significantly increasing over time and substantially higher than projects in other countries or regions. Supervision inputs appear to proxy for implementation difficulties, which may be pulling down economic returns. The regression result points to the need to carefully understand the underlying reasons for the high supervision inputs in India. Pitman (2002) identifies the sources of difficulties in implementation to include institutional and political factors. Specifically, he cites that in India, projects suffer from inadequate advanced preparation, incomplete engineering designs, insufficient staffing, land acquisition and resettlement, and procurement.We take annual rainfall in the area where an irrigation project is located as a proxy measure for water availability. For the global level analysis this variable has a positive impact on economic performance, i.e., the higher the annual rainfall, the better the project performance (Table 7). This result suggests that there is a causal link between the amount of rainfall and project performance. Increased water availability and easier access to water translate to higher yields and higher economic returns.The result of our global analysis shows that conjunctive water use improves project performance significantly. Irrigation projects that use surface water and groundwater conjunctively have higher economic returns than those which use single sources, even without considering the private development of groundwater, which is not captured in this analysis. In the sample projects in India, no significant trend is observed for annual rainfall and projects with conjunctive water use.An increase in the real national per capita income is shown to significantly reduce the economic performance of irrigation projects. This result says that higher income countries tend to have poorly performing projects. Interestingly, the elasticity of economic performance for this variable is largest among the continuous variables used in the analysis. These findings are important, because they suggest that targeting poorer countries makes better investment sense as projects will be economically more effective.As economies develop the agriculture sector's contribution to the economy declines. This process usually accompanies increasing income as well as a disparity in productivity between the agriculture sector and the non-agriculture sector, the former being left behind. Such a situation leads to agricultural protectionism policies where farmers in high-income countries get more support and subsidies. Implementation of high-cost and low-performance projects is justified on the grounds of protecting disadvantaged farmers, overshadowing economic merits.India's increasing real GDP per capita and its declining economic returns from public investments in irrigation over time appear consistent with this result. The explanation above seems still not completely relevant for India considering that she is still not exactly a highincome country. However, if we take into account India's relatively heavily subsidized agriculture sector, which simulates the above mentioned characteristic of high subsidies in high income countries, the result becomes logical. 16Where farmers contribute to project development, projects perform better than those without farmer contribution. The promotion of farmers' contribution to irrigation projects has been pursued more eagerly since the 1980s as a part of a strategy to adopt more participatory approaches. This policy is believed to lead to a greater sense of ownership among the beneficiaries of irrigation systems constructed/rehabilitated by the project, and results in more sustainable projects while reducing the financial burden of the implementing agencies. Evaluations of this policy have shown that farmer contribution leads to more successful participatory processes and greater successes of irrigation projects (Bruns 1997). The result in this study confirms these earlier findings, and supports a policy that encourages farmers to contribute to the project cost, on the grounds that it serves as an incentive to use the investment funds more effectively for the farmers' needs and priorities.Contrary to expectation, India shows a declining pattern for projects with farmers' contribution to investment cost. This trend may reflect either of two things: 1) that the government was reluctant to fully implement such a policy for fear of burdening farmers beyond their means or 2) there were attempts to implement but farmers succeeded in resisting such policies and, as such, more projects ended up with just the government and an external funding agency covering the investment cost.Among the projects by purpose, new constructions from previously rain-fed areas show a significantly negative impact on economic returns relative to pure rehabilitation projects, i.e., former has a lower economic performance than pure rehabilitation projects. This difference in performance can be attributed to spill over effects from the cost side given the large economies of scale and the fact that cost as an important variable in the estimation of economic returns. Also, from the global regression analysis, total irrigated area is found to be a major factor influencing performance. In our sample, pure rehabilitation projects happen to be generally bigger in total irrigated area than new constructions from rain-fed areas. India is not shown to be implementing more projects of the type of new constructions from rain-fed areas, but such projects are proposed under the NRLP. What this analysis shows is that new constructions are not likely to perform better than rehabilitation projects, and that therefore, a more careful evaluation is warranted.Another important variable that has a significant impact on performance is the mode of O&M for irrigation systems after completion of the project. A clear shift in the mode of O&M in irrigation systems from 'government-managed' to 'government+farmer-managed' and 'farmermanaged system' is observed from the global data. The participation of farmers in irrigation projects and system management, through the establishment of water users' associations (WUAs), has been central to the efforts to improve project performance and sustainability of irrigation systems in the last two decades (Merrey 1997;Vermillion 1995Vermillion , 1991;;Vermillion and Johnson 1995). The regression results show that projects with farmer-managed systems perform better than those that are solely government-managed. Also, projects with O&M shared by the government irrigation agency and farmer-beneficiaries through WUAs perform better than those that are solely government-managed. The poor irrigation management by a government monopoly reflects the lack of accountability and incentive to deliver quality service and water supply. This is exacerbated by the absence of a link between irrigation quality, revenues generated from irrigation service fees and staff incentives (Gulati and Narayanan 2003;Gulati et al. 2005). The existence of well-established and operational WUAs has been associated with better maintenance of systems and more efficient water deliveries, which in turn have led to higher yields and better economic performance of irrigation projects (Raju and Gulati 2005;Gulati et al. 2005;Gulati and Narayanan 2003).One can see from Table 2, that India's solely government-managed systems are declining while systems jointly managed by the government and farmers are increasing. The Government of India has adopted institutional reforms that shift more responsibilities to farmers by establishing WUAs. In fact, efforts in this direction began as early as the 1970s and were accelerated significantly in the mid-1980s. From the sixth to the ninth '5-year plans', participation of farmers in various aspects of management of the irrigation system has been recognized as important, and endorsed and promoted as a central strategy in irrigation development and management. In the 1999-2000 central government budgets, a one-time management subsidy was given to states to form WUAs. However, many studies have pointed out how the process has been slow in taking off and the difficulties in making WUAs work, which range from institutional to technical and social (Gulati et al. 2005;Raju and Gulati 2005;Barker and Molle 2005;Gulati and Narayanan 2003;Shah et al. 2002;Vermillion 1991Vermillion , 1995;;Vermillion and Johnson 1995). The results in this paper do not claim that these difficulties and problems are non-existent but looking at the projects' economic performance, systems with farmers involved in O&M have done better than those that were solely government-managed. These results reinforce the recommendation of Gulati et al. (2005) that farmers should be treated as clients, shareholders or as co-managers of irrigation systems rather than just beneficiaries. Farmers' organizations will in fact play a more significant role in O&M of systems if treated as co-managers.A better understanding of the factors that influence the participation of farmers in WUAs and the WUA's viability should help turn around this slow progress. Gulati et al. (2005) identified the factors that can positively influence farmer participation as follows: (a) where a minor system serves mostly one village rather than multiple villages; (b) sites with temples or religious centers; 17 (c) large command areas that are closer to markets; and (d) presence of community organizers or potential leaders.In terms of the type of crops irrigated, systems irrigating vegetables, tree crops, and fodder are shown to perform better than those irrigating paddy. As a result of irrigation development since the 1960s and the subsequent success of the green revolution since the 1970s, the price of rice has been declining sharply in real terms since the early 1980s. This trend in turn resulted in the historic low-profitability of rice production over the last two decades. In contrast, price prospects are much better for fruits, vegetables and livestock products, the demand for which increases as the economy develops. Better price prospects for fruits, vegetables, and livestock products that use fodder contribute to the higher project performance of these systems when compared to the rice systems. Systems that irrigate high-value crops enjoy higher economic returns because of the higher profitability of the crops irrigated.Agriculture diversification in India began in the 1980s but gathered momentum in the 1990s (Joshi et al. 2007(Joshi et al. , 2005)). Rising income, changing relative prices between cereals and high-value agriculture, increasing urbanization and infrastructure and more open trade policies are among the factors identified to have driven this change (Joshi et al. 2007).From our data, the trends in India's irrigated crops (Table 2) show that paddy irrigation is declining while irrigation for other cereals is rising. Despite policy pronouncements encouraging the shift to high-value crops, it appears that the country has still a long way to go to realize significant diversification levels. While not discounting the associated risks and difficulties in irrigating high-value crops, such as vegetables and even tree crops and fodder, our results show that systems irrigating these crops have done significantly better than those irrigating paddy. This is an opportunity that India can seriously consider and take advantage of. Joshi et al. (2007) have established the determinants of crop diversification. Among the factors identified are: a) infrastructure development as captured by markets and roads; b) technology as captured by irrigated area; c) the relative profitability of horticultural commodities; d) the proportion of smallholders; e) climate as captured by the amount of rainfall; and f) demandside factors such as urbanization and per capita income. The paper suggests that assured markets and good road networks are key determinants that could stimulate agricultural diversification in favor of high-value crops, as they maximize profits and minimize uncertainty in output prices. Interestingly, the higher the technology adoption for the production of cereal crops as proxied by irrigation, the less was the diversification in favor of high-value commodities. This particular factor points to the potential of diversification in areas where less water is available. Also, another significant finding is that high-value commodities are usually produced by small farmers.To promote agricultural diversification and meet the demand for high-value commodities, Gulati et al. (2007) recommend improvement of incentives, institutional reforms and increased investment. Specifically, improving incentives basically means 'getting the prices right' by adjusting the high and guaranteed prices for staple grains and reducing subsidies on power, irrigation and fertilizers, and reallocating the funding to basic infrastructure development, excluding irrigation. Reforming institutions include 'getting the markets right' by leveling the playing field, improving land-use and credit access, reinvigorating technology development and dissemination, and promoting improved food-safety and quality. As for the required investment, the authors suggest more investment in roads and markets, electricity supply, information and communication technologies (ICT), and improving the climate for private investment.South Asia has the lowest EIRR among all regions with the exception of South East Asia. This means that, once the factors with significant impacts on performance are accounted for, irrigation projects in South Asia, generally, have lower economic returns than those in SSA, MENA, LAC and East Asia. This is another cause for concern, especially if we consider that India's EIRR is significantly decreasing over time. There is however, a potentially significant opportunity for addressing and reversing these trends of the relatively low and declining EIRR.This paper offers certain insights on irrigation projects in India based on a consistent set of data for 314 irrigation projects implemented in developing countries worldwide in the last four decades. The database includes 37 projects for India, which accounts for 24 % of the official irrigated area in 2001, a significant sub-set. We examined trends in the economic performance of irrigation investments in India, determined the factors that influenced performance of the global sample and drew lessons for future irrigation projects in India.Our analysis indicates that the performance of irrigation investments in India by the government and key external funding agencies has been declining with time, whereas at a global level they have, in fact, been on an upward trend. No significant trend is established for the unit cost of the sample irrigation projects in India, implying that cost may have little to do with the decline in project performance or that factors other than costs must have more dominating effects. Having said that however, another recent study that used annualized data found that state-level and India-wide unit costs are increasing.The share of the Indian Government in total investment cost has declined relative to that of the external funding agencies. Projects with farmers contributing to their development too are declining. The decline in government counterpart funding in irrigation projects is consistent with the decline in the budget allocation of the central government for irrigation and the irrigation expenditures of the states, especially since the 1980s (Gulati and Narayanan 2003). The declining pattern for projects with farmers' contribution to investment cost may reflect either of two things: 1) that the government was reluctant to fully implement such a policy for fear of burdening the farmers beyond their means or 2) there were attempts to implement but farmers succeeded in resisting such policies and more projects ended up with just the government and an external funding agency covering the investment cost.This paper finds that as far as irrigation project size (in terms of total irrigated area) is concerned, there are underlying significant economies of scale. To assert that large-scale projects are bound to fail cannot be supported by the data, because small projects are more likely to perform poorly in comparison with large irrigation projects. Furthermore, rehabilitation projects perform better than new irrigation projects developed in previously rain-fed areas.However, our results also suggest that at the system or scheme level, how projects are managed appears to be more important than scale. The increasing project size or total irrigated area trend in India appears consistent with the regression result. However, if the trend is adjusted by taking out the Haryana Water Resources Consolidation (HWRC) project from the sample as it has an extremely large total rehabilitated irrigation area, the increasing project size trend becomes insignificant while the trend in average system size decreases significantly. The declining pattern for average size of system in India (without HWRC in the India sample) is consistent with the result on average size of system of the global analysis.Supervision by the staff of external funding agencies was shown to be significantly increasing over time, and substantially higher in India's projects than those in other countries or regions. This observation could reflect serious implementation constraints that however, have to be properly understood and addressed if projects are to succeed. Among the cited sources of difficulties in implementation are; inadequate advanced preparation; incomplete engineering designs; insufficient staffing; land acquisition and resettlement; and procurement. The declining cost overruns, while not directly affecting economic performance, is a good indication that efforts toward improving implementation are succeeding.The current trend of the systems in India are the same as those in global systems, i.e., wholly government-managed systems are declining and those jointly managed by government and farmers are increasing. While there are no systems that are solely managed by farmers in the Indian sample, systems that do not involve any government agency are reported in the global sample to perform the best. The Government of India has embraced this policy of shifting more responsibilities to farmers by establishing WUAs. However, several reports have pointed out that while the process of implementing such a policy has been very slow, it has also been increasingly difficult to ensure the viability of the WUAs themselves.The trends in India's irrigated crops show that paddy irrigation is declining while irrigation for other cereals is rising. Despite policy pronouncements encouraging the shift to high-value crops, it appears that the country is yet to realize such crop diversification. While not discounting the associated risks and difficulties in irrigating high-value crops, systems irrigating these crops have done significantly better than those irrigating paddy. This is an opportunity that India can seriously consider and take advantage of.In terms of type of project by purpose, the trends in India appear to be consistent with the global regression results with investments declining in new construction projects from rain-fed areas and increasing in pure rehabilitation projects, the latter of which have relatively higher economic returns. The trends in the type of system show that both tank and groundwaterlift systems are on the rise while drainage/flood control projects are decreasing significantly.While not having direct impacts on economic returns, investments in these types of system may have adverse environmental impacts, which would in turn impact on water quantities and eventually on irrigation performance.What are the lessons from the global sample for India? The analysis shows that public investments in large irrigation projects do perform positively from an economic perspective. Furthermore, larger projects tend to do better than the smaller scale investments. While investments in such projects have diminished recently, further investments of this type are proposed under the NRLP and are part of the overall justification of the planned inter-basin transfers. While such investments have been shown to have a positive economic performance and could be appropriate components of specific transfers, this is only true for those projects that are primarily connected with the rehabilitation of existing systems. The same does not hold true where projects have been developed on previously rain-fed lands, and such new constructions have generally performed poorly. Furthermore, given that this analysis does not incorporate the role of private sector investments in groundwater development, this factor needs to be further examined to determine whether the economic performance was greater where investments were made to support groundwater irrigation, such as groundwater recharge.The policy of giving farmers increased roles in the operation and management of irrigation systems have had mixed results. Most of the available evidence are at the micro level or are scheme-specific and, as such, cannot give a clear recommendation on whether this policy agenda should be continued or not. More studies have reported the problems of such policies and why programs such as irrigation management transfers cannot or do not work. The result in this paper is in line with more recent evidence, which shows the more promising and positive impacts of greater farmer participation in irrigation O&M, in terms of enhancing project performance. The direction of the government and donors in encouraging more farmer participation, with the former providing supporting roles, should be continued. However, while the results provide support for such a policy, the inherent difficulties and challenges in making participatory initiatives work should not be underestimated. Building capacities and stronger farmer groups require considerable time and resources, which the government and donors should invest in, in order for projects to be sustainable.The idea of shifting from largely food cereal production to higher value crops has been initially met with less interest by decision-makers, yet has been occurring on the ground. Farmers are believed to be inflexible in shifting from one crop to another, especially since such diversification entails higher risks, which farmers cannot afford and requires greater technical skills that most farmers are said not to have. However, this paper provides empirical support to the policy of crop diversification in irrigation projects and indicates that, it is in the direction of achieving better project economic performance. Yet, this argument is not implying that the government can encourage diversification without taking into account various factors. Complementary public investments in basic infrastructure such as roads and access to information, input and output markets, and access to financial capital, should reduce the attendant risks for farmers and serve as incentives to take advantage of the opportunity and benefit from investments in irrigating higher value crops.While this paper offers certain key investment areas, which can be pursued by the Government of India and the international development community, it has not addressed the role of the private sector in agricultural water development and management. This knowledge should complement the recommendations espoused in this paper. From the above, it is clear therefore, that there are areas that would need further and careful study, particularly with regard to ensuring the economic performance of major investments in irrigation in the context of interbasin transfers, and increasing water scarcity. ","tokenCount":"9303"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"435ee37cddb3f1ef6aeb30b21895ab7b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d9772774-0de6-4097-973b-f8a52af8318d/retrieve","id":"-20815697"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5f8738a2-8447-40b4-a985-b9d3bf15ef22","pagecount":"36","content":" Desastres fitosanitarios transglobales.  Riesgos potenciales de la introducción de patógenos en café.  Políticas que rigen la distribución internacional de germoplasma  Regulaciones de movimiento de semillas dentro y fuera del país  Sistemas de vigilancia sanitaria (GHU, SSR, GreenPASS)  Laboratorio sanidad de germoplasma, CIAT  Recomendaciones finales  IYPHEl CDB es un tratado internacional jurídicamente vinculante con tres objetivos principales: La conservación de la diversidad biológica  La utilización sostenible de sus componentes  La participación justa y equitativa en los beneficios que se deriven de la utilización de los recursos genéticos.El tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura es un acuerdo que entró en vigor el 29 de Junio de 2004. Constituye un hito muy importante en la gestión y ordenación internacional de la diversidad biológica. Los objetivos del Tratado Internacional sobre los recursos fitogenéticos son la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura y la distribución justa y equitativa de los beneficios derivados de su utilización en armonía con el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, para una agricultura sostenible y la seguridad alimentaria. Es un tratado multilateral para la cooperación internacional en la esfera de la protección fitosanitaria.La Convención elabora disposiciones para la aplicación de medidas por parte de los gobiernos con objeto de proteger sus recursos vegetales de plagas perjudiciales (medidas fitosanitarias) que pueden introducirse mediante el comercio internacional.Reglamentación asociada a la distribución de germoplasma Son organizaciones intergubernamentales que funcionan como órgano de coordinación de las organizaciones nacionales de protección fitosanitaria (ONPF) a nivel regional.Organizaciones Nacionales de Protección Fitosanitaria (NPPOs)  • Documento Conpes 3375 de 2005. Política nacional de sanidad agropecuaria e inocuidad de alimentos para el sistema de medidas sanitarias y fitosanitarias.• Resolución 3593 de 2015. Por medio de la cual se crea el mecanismo para establecer, mantener, actualizar y divulgar el listado de plagas reglamentadas en Colombia. • Resolución 448 de 2016. Por medio de la cual se establecen los requisitos para el registro de los predios de producción de vegetales para exportación en fresco, el registro de los exportadores y el registro de las plantas empacadoras de vegetales para la exportación en fresco. • Resolución 3168 de 2015. Por medio de la cual se reglamenta y controla la producción, importación y exportación de semillas producto del mejoramiento genético para la comercialización y siembra en el país, así como el registro de las unidades de evaluación agronómica y/o unidades de investigación en fitomejoramiento y se dictan otras disposiciones. Se deben exigir medidas fitosanitarias para las plagas cuerentenarias y las plagas no cuarentenarias reglamentadas. Y no se exigiran medidas para las plagas no reglamentadasPlaga cuarentenaria: Plaga de importancia económica potencial para el area en peligro Plaga no cuarentenaria reglamentada: Plaga no cuarentenaria cuya presencia en las plantas puede tener repercusiones economicamente inaceptables y que por lo tanto esta reglamentada en el pais importador Plaga reglamentada: Plaga cuarentenaria o plaga no cuarentenaria reglamentada. Funciones de la Organización nacional oficial de protección fitosanitaria  Emisión de Certificados fitosanitarios  La inspección de las plantas (campo, semilleros, jardines, invernaderos, laboratorios, etc.)  La inspección y desinfección de los envíos  Realización de análisis de riesgos  Capacitación y formación del personal.  Procedimientos apropiados para la seguridad fitosanitaria de los envíos  Información acerca de plagas o patógenos cuarentenarios y su control  Investigaciones en el campo de la protección fitosanitaria  Regular las importaciones y exportaciones del germoplasma  Requerimientos adicionales  Se debe establecer y actualizar el listado con las plagas o patógenos reglamentadosDesde 1971, la Federación Nacional de cafeteros firmó un acuerdo con el ICA para adoptar las medidas cuarentenarias fronterizas y en el interior del país, que permitan conservar el buen estado fitosanitario de las plantaciones de café. Además de las normas legales, para evitar el ingreso de enfermedades al país es fundamental que las personas vinculadas con el sector agrícola y en especial, viajeros internacionales e importadores de material vegetal, estén conscientes del peligro de ingresar material vegetal al país y de la importancia de acatar las normas vigentes.• Adquisición de semillas o plántulas sanas, bien alimentadas, sin daños, libres de enfermedades y pestes. • Material vegetal capaz de sobrevivir el trasplante a condiciones de campo.• Distribución de la variedad de café correcta, genéticamente pura y obtención de los rendimientos esperados.Permitir que los países y las regiones respondan rápidamente a los brotes de enfermedades emergentes para estabilizar la sanidad vegetal y el suministro de alimentos • Los gobiernos pueden proteger la sanidad vegetal de muchas maneras, mejorando la seguridad alimentaria, protegiendo el medio ambiente y facilitando el comercio. Deben promover campañas de sensibilización pública sobre la importancia de la sanidad vegetal y lo que todos pueden hacer para proteger las plantas.• Las regulaciones de la ONPF rigen los requisitos fitosanitarios y es muy importante que estas sean claras y precisas. La existencia de marcos regulatorios conflictivos en los diferentes países debido a regulaciones desactualizadas o ausencia de las mismas, no alineadas con la CIPF o las ORPF, restringe el intercambio de semillas y otros materiales vegetales y es un riesgo para la agricultura colombiana.• Los entes gubernamentales y los centros de investigación deben realizar investigación para mejorar metodologías de diagnóstico de los patógenos, buscando que cada día las metodologías sean mas sensibles y eficientes.• Se debe realizar un control sanitario exhaustivo a todas las semillas, plántulas o material propagativo con el fin de evitar diseminar plagas y enfermedades. Evite la propagación de plagas utilizando solo semillas y plántulas libres de plagas certificadas.• Debemos respetar las normas de sanidad vegetal que se han establecido para proteger la agricultura, y el medio ambiente. Tener especial cuidado al llevar consigo plantas y productos vegetales (por ejemplo, semillas o granos) en sus desplazamientos transfronterizos. Al viajar con material vegetal se puede igualmente propagar plagas y enfermedades de las plantas.• Fortalecer los sistemas de seguimiento y alerta temprana para proteger las plantas y la sanidad vegetal.• Las empresas del sector privado tienen un papel fundamental en la sanidad vegetal, ya que pueden contribuir al desarrollo de normas internacionales de sanidad vegetal y ayudar a implementarlas. El sector privado también es un motor de innovación en el ámbito de la sanidad vegetal y un agente esencial en la producción, y protección vegetal.• La sanidad vegetal es responsabilidad de todos, no debemos quedarnos solo con las regulaciones internacionales y las nacionales, debemos actuar como gremio, unir esfuerzos y concientizarnos de la importancia de la sanidad vegetal para evitar catástrofes sanitarias en un futuro.Todos podemos inspirar el cambio y crear conciencia sobre la sanidad vegetal en nuestro país.","tokenCount":"1103"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e476bf6e773628f73e1379eb399200ad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ec6b1ed1-6901-4f6a-bfe2-b51d4af6b243/retrieve","id":"-790545254"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c39bd294-cedb-4a60-ad6d-5fa1f82e367a","pagecount":"27","content":"Bate trabajo tiene por objeto eat~r la tBportancia relativa de frijol. mala. arroa y yuca'_ los pabes cOlllpren4idos en la Zona Tropical en lo refarente a proclueci&o.. araa cultivacla. c_relo, valor untrltivo e importancia acon6mica.Se esCOSieron estos p~uetos por ser los principales renslona. a,rlcolas de iuvestigaei&o. _ al CIAT con el pr0p6sito ,saneral de hacer llesar e.ta informac1&o. a lo. profa.ionale. que tr.baJan con dichos cultivo. dentro y fuera del CIAT.El trabajo a'ta ba.ado en informaci6n ,ecundaria .umini'tr.aa por an-Udade. internacionale •• principalmente la rAO. Se\"defin16 pala tropical como todo aquel comprendido antre loa 30 ,radol de latitud norta y lur y loa qua tienen la mayor parte ele IU terreno dentro de ,.ta zona. Para efectol del trabajo .e agruparon 101 patle. tropicalu _ cinco lub-zona., alabar: l. Centro Wrica: iDC1uye todo, 101 par.a •• 2. Sur: Wrica: que cGaprencle a BoliVia. BralU. ColOlllbia, Ecuador, Guayene rrlDCe.a, Gueyane. Paraguey. ParG. Surioaa y Venazuela.3. Asia: con los aiguientes pallel: Bhutan. Bu ..... Cambodia. Ceyltn. China (Taiwan), lodia. ladonea1a, lrtn, Kuwait, Laos. Malaata (Sabah. Sarawak, Malaala Occidenta!). Kaacat, Otun. llepal, Pakistln. P11ipinas.Qatar. Arabia Saudita. Sill8apur. Y _ Sur. l'ballandia. Vietnam (Norte \"1 Sur) \"1 y_o 4. Africa: 8e coaaider6 todo el continente ~ Zona Tropical.5. Oceanta: incluye todos los paf.aes, ezc:epto Nueva Zelandia.El anllisia ae refiere a loa pataea de la Zona Tropical y no exclusivamente a las regiones verdadera.ente tropicales dentro de cada pats.El estudio compreode los principalea pata ea y productos de la zona en los cuales se dispuao de la inforaaci&n para llevar a cabo el trabajo.Loa productoa consideradoa fueron: trigo, cebada, frtjol. _1:1:. arroz. cafta de a.ar, papa, yuca, algod&n, cafl y banaDO.Con el objeto de poder dar una idea de la importancia de cada producto dentro del grupo eacogido ae t_ron loa volGmenel producidos por regiones y loa totales de todas las regionea, para compararlos en tlrainos relativos. eo.o 10B productoa escogidoB presentaron caracteristicas tan diversaa re8ult6 dificil comparsrlos, a.t que 8e agruparon para el anllisiS en dos grupos: cereales (trigo, cebada. frijol, utz y arroz) y el resto (calla de az6car, papa. yuca, alg0d6n. caff y banano). Dentro de 10. prt.oro. el \"8 t.portante en la Zona Tropical result6 8er el arroz con 146.7 millones de toneladas que repre8entsn el 50 por ciento de la produccl&n mundial total (Gr'fico 1). entre reg10Des el principal abastecedor se encoatr6 en la parte del Continente Asi'tico considerada como Tropical (Tabla 1). Sigui6 en tmportancia el malz con volGmeoas auy considerables en Africa. ~r y ee.tro ..arica, reapecU_nte. El trigo _str6 cantidades relativa. mi. peque-Aa. en re1ac16n con el total mundial (15 por ciento), sin -.bargo se alcanzaron alus produccione8 en Asia y Oceanta; Amf.rica Latina report6 la _1' producci6n de trigo. Cebada y trigo no _straron lINcha relevancia dentro del grupo de cerealea re8pecto al total mundial de producc16n. en arroz y frijol se contabilizaron porcentajes hasta el 65 por ci..to (Gr'fico 2), para arroz podrla aacender un poco el porcentaje ai se considerara el Irea de China Continental comprendida dentro de la Zons Tropical.En el segundo grupo del reato de product08. como .. le de~n6. la caAa de az6car ae constit~ en el producto de mayor tonelaje con promedios basUnte altos en Aaia, Sur y Centro Amarica. Siguieron en t.portancia la yuca, caf' y banano.Respecto de la representatividad de los diferente. productos con re-lacUn a 108 totales mundiales .e not6 que el caf'. yuca. bansno y caAa de az4car provenientes de la Zona Tropical significaban casi la totalidad de la producci6n (Graftco 2).    Con el fín de conseguir una .. dida capaz de evaluar la importancia del Are a cultivada en lo. producto. relacionado., ae t0m6 un estimativo de la auperficie agrtcola arable y de la tierra con cultivos permanentes, diferentes de paatos para tener un total por regiones y asl poder expresar el hectareaje de cads cultivo en relaci6n a ese total. Los resultados obtenidos arrojaron que en Asia. Centro y Sur AmArica, en los cultivos considerados, se ocup6 mis de la mitad del Irea cultivable (Tabla 4). en Afrtca y Oceania ascendi6 s6lo a la quinta psrte.El resultado \"neto\" de las operaciones de comercio tnternacionel de cada regi6n mis la producci6n total da un estimativo del \"consumo aparente\". a la falta de una dieta adecuada para una gran parte de la poblaci6n del globo. Se entiende por dieta adecuada aquella que se fija temendo en cuenta factores cli:mAt.icoa, culturales y cualesq1liera otroa que inf11lYan en el normal desarrollo de las personas y por ende de las regiones y continentes,Fijar eaelndares en la cOlllposic16n de 1lna buena dieta de un grupo detenainado ea una tarea dificil, 8in <lllllbargo, 8e pueden hacer aproximaciones de acuerdo con las necesidades promedia. de protelnas y calorla. necesariaa de acuerdo al clima, al peso de las personas. la actividad flaica desarrollsda, etc.La mayor la de los nutrientes que consumen las personas y los animale. deben salir de los aUlllentos producidos en la regi6n. In Asia. por eja.plo, la mayorla de proteínas y calarlas deben proveflir por necesidad del producto II1II. abundante, auol'. Se debe anotar que no todos los producto. contienen el lIIi81llO poder proteínico m ca16rico. por el contrario. loa hay con porcentaje. lII1lY altoa y lII1lY bajos (Ver Tabla. 6 y 8).9.Poaiblemente cuando ae habla de nutrientea (Prote!uaa, Vitaminaa.Mineralea y Carbohidratoa) ae deba hacer menci6n al balanceamiento de loa distintoa elementoa. en este trabajo tan aolo se consideran laa calorlas y laa protelna 12.Los cuetro cereales conaiderados llenan el 51,41 por ciento de laa necesidadea de la Zona, debe reaaltarse aqui la cifra del total mundial para los mismos cereales 99 por ciento (Tabla 9).Hay que agregar algo a lo ya dicho sobre las disponibilidades de calorlas y proteínas; las anotaciones anteriores no significan que realmente est6n al alcance de todos los habitantes de cada reg16n, s610 se podrla asegurar esto si se hubieran tenido en cuenta algunas medidas de ingresos disponibles, del mercado externo y de cuelquier otra variable que de una forma u otrs estuviera influyendo sobre el acceso de los individuos a los productos. Es importsnte anotar que el valor nutritivo estimado en eate estudio se refiere a la producci6n y no al consumo.Loa resultados logrados para Oceanla deben de tomarse con reserva si se pretenden comparar con las otras regiones, dadas sus características especiales.Un buen lndice de la relevancia econ6mica de un producto agrícola en t6rminos mundiales es el valor de su producci6n; se puede averiguar ese valor una vez se haya identificado un precio por el cual se multiplica el volumen físico para obtener al final el valor de la producci6n física. Para tales efectos se escogi6 el precio promedio de exportaci6n de cads producto en varias regiones por considerarse le representativo de la situac16n internacional del mercado (Tabla 10).En la Tabla 11 aparecen los resultados de tomar ese precio igual para todas las regiones. Por orden de importancia aparece el valor de la producci6n de yuca, cafa y banano en la Zona Tropical con el 95 por ciento del valor mundial en cada reng16n; el arroz 50 por ciento y el ma1z el 23, constituyendo asl una buena proporci6n en tlrminos de valor para las regio-Daa tropicalea.En cada resiSa, por separado. el peao de los productos ee diferente en algunas ocaeionee, en Centro Wr1ca por ej4llllp1o. el mayor valor ,e concentra en la catla de a.6car ,eguido por cata, arroz y IMlz. respectlv_te.lara Aeia el arroz repreaenta el SS por dento del valor total de lo, producroa consideradoa. en e_io 1Mb y yuca con.ervan un nivel ba.tanta bajo alrededor de .3 por ciento. En Afdca la yuca y el azGear IMntienen loa valoraa -Ixt_a aecuidos por arroz. _b y caf' con valorea cercanos al 12 por ciento. Oceanla d16 salo dos productos con valorea Bignlficativos: aa6c:ar y trigo.En el cuadro siguiente se re.ume el orden de !aportanela ocupado por la Zona Tropical. en los productos que trabaja el CIAT. con relec16n a loa demAs produeros conalderados en cada uno de loa aspectos e.tu4iacloa en este trabajo. El orden ea dehelldente.Iaportaacia relativa del frijol. 1Mb, arroa y yuca en la Zona!roftcto• ProciF c16 p . Area 1 Caloda, Pros,'\" -se+'co.3Fuente: rablas 1, 2. 6. 8, 11.14.La Zona Tropical produce \"a del 65 por dento del total de la ptoducc:16n _odill1 de frijol en doa regionea principallHnte: ASia y Sur Wrica, en un 2,6 por ciento del irea \"cultivable\" total de la zona. La in-tervenci6n en el JIIIlrcado internacloGal asciende a 31,7 por ciento de las exportaciones y al 24,2 por ciento de las taportaciones _ndiales. El fd-Jol suainistra 1,66 por ciento de las necesidades ca16ricas de la Zona y 4.28 por ciento de las necesidades prot'icas.l!l ulz se produce en todas las regiones COIIIprendidas dentro de la Zona Tropical en IIreas porcentuales con relaci6n al tot.al por regiones muy parecidas. Respecto al lrea total \"utilizable\" en la zona. cerca del 8 por ciento se dedica a este cultivo. La participacl6n de la zona en el JIIIlrcado ..:mdial de \\IIIlb asciende al 23 por ciento, en t'raiDOs de c_rcio exterior se exporta una proporcl6n IIIIlyOr de la que se importa (21,4 a 5,9 por ciento) del total mundial. Es la segunda fuente en tfratUOB porcentuales de calodas respecto a las necesidades de la Zona y la tercera de proteloas.En arroz. a pesar de 1:10 incluir a China Continental. se observ6 en los estiaativos de producci6n que los palses tropicales llegaron al 50 por ciento de la producci6n _odial total con una concentraci6n de esta produc-ci6n en la regi6n Asiltica. El Irea empleada en este cultivo fu' la mayor en relac16n a los otros cultivos considerados y en tfratnos del area \"cultivable\" dentro de la zona ascend16 al 13,6 por ciento. Sin duda la8 regiones tropicales son los DlllYores proveedores y eonsUllÚ.dores de attoz en el mundo, ade.ls .anejaron la mitad del comercio internacional del miBtllO. La 11IIportancia eCO'l1ll!-ica evaluada en t4ratnos de valor de la producci6n representa el segundo lugar dentro de 108 productos escogidos despufs de la cana de azOcar. De ot.ro lado c0D8tituye la principal fuente de calorta y protetnaa dentro de la Zona Tropical.) } lS.Yuca ea un producto tlpico de 108 pat. es tropicale. con una produc-cl6n que a.clende al 97,4 por ciento del total mundial, porcentaje .alo comparable con lo. del caf4 y banano dentro de la Zona. Se cultiva prln-cipa1mente en Africa y Sur Wrica; en t'rminos de extensi6n ocupa el 1.S por ciento de la superficie \"cultivable\" dentro de la Zona Tropical. Su valor de producci6n es apreciable del orden 7,8 por ciento sobre el total de los producto. conaiderados dentro de los pa!sea tropicales.Un re_n de la producc13n, area, valor econ&aico y DUtrlclonsl yCOIercio internacional 8e encuentra en la Tabla 13.  ----.-------.-----------••• --•     -----------------  Exp.. Imp •Imp.Exp~ -----------------------_.-----~--._._--------------_ .. .------y;;~-~ 1Iauno: Il!:'P\"\"1 ib !!idad :--o Disponibilidad     ----------------------------------pote'!;.',. --••• -----•• --------_ ••• ------------------_. (2,0)(1,0)(1,0),loa producto. , aacelida<l ..     Total 1:. T.","tokenCount":"1813"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9ddc9a0c705626b4b7d3443a4c23eb24","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.tropenbos.org/file.php/2338/12052020-laff-ghana-report.pdf","id":"-679885600"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4220b908-04b8-4e5b-9039-644e39618570","pagecount":"56","content":"This report reflects discussions and perceptions that local participants had during a training workshop, sector focal group discussions and interviews. It was not possible to verify information on the size of financial flows, nor measure the real impacts that these flows have on the landscape objectives as defined by the participants. If financial flows mentioned in this report are considered important for the development of the landscape, it is recommended to verify the information presented here by implementing more in-depth studies of the flows in consideration, before defining potential actions to improve the impacts of those flows. It should also be noted that assessments that resulted in positive or negative impacts of the flows do not imply any judgement on the source or recipient of these flows. They should be seen rather as a call of attention towards flows where actions could be taken to further improve impacts of the financial flows that enter the landscape and to increase coherence between investments and landscape objectives.Tropenbos international would like to thank Seth Shames from Ecoagriculture partners for his support during the workshop and Tropenbos Ghana for the organization and logistics of the workshop and interviews.Collaborative landscape initiatives have demonstrated enormous potential to mobilize stakeholders across sectors, supporting them to work together toward shared objectives of landscape regeneration. This meets a wide range of human needs, economic goals and ecosystem objectives.…However, implementing these partnerships is challenging. Perspectives, values and ways of working differ greatly among partners; in many cases there is a legacy of misunderstanding and distrust. Explicit strategies and tools are needed to overcome the resulting tendency for stalemate and conflict (Shames et al. 2019: 1).To support collaborative landscape initiatives, Tropenbos International and EcoAgriculture Partners partnered to develop the Landscape Assessment of Financial Flows (LAFF) methodology. This practical two-phase approach helps stakeholders identify local sources of finance for \"new investment ideas, [to] find the current financial flows that are most in need of transformation, and better understand the elements of a landscape's financial context that require support\" (Shames et al. 2019: 2).The methodology starts with a general analysis of the landscape's economic context (Phase 1). This analysis provides information about the importance of economic activities in terms of their contribution to local GDP and employment, and about the current trends in various activities in terms of growth in production value. Together with locally defined landscape objectives, this information provides the basis for Phase 2.In Phase 2 the financial flows of economically important sectors are identified and analyzed for their impacts on landscape objectives. As a result, a picture is obtained of how various sources contribute to landscape objectives, and which set of economic activities require changes or more funds to increase their positive impacts. Such changes can be in the form of improved financial governance (e.g., criteria used in investment decisions), greater coordination of investments in the landscape, or identification of new opportunities to generate funding that contributes to landscape objectives.The methodology does not necessarily provide data on the size of the flows, the size of the impacts (in terms of value, or number of people and hectares affected) or all the barriers that hamper the flows with positive impacts.For such information more in-depth studies are needed. The LAFF methodology, however, does provide tools to identify those flows for which such more elaborate (and therefore more expensive) studies may be useful. It also provides inputs for the application of other tools, such as the landscape investment and finance tool developed by IUCN and EcoAgriculture Partners (https://liftkit.info).Considering that Tropenbos Ghana is starting new programs to attract more finance to sustainable activities in the JBSW landscape, the authors studied how LAFF could provide an important step in identifying and understanding those financial flows within the landscape that have potential for greater positive impacts on landscape objectives, as well as those economic activities with positive impacts that need additional finance. While at the same time the LAFF methodology has not been fully tested yet, we considered the start of these programmes, Working Landscapes (WL) and Mobilising More for Climate (MoMo4C) 1 , provided a good opportunity to test the methodology and use its results as inputs, particularly to the MoMo4C planning process.This report summarizes the results of both phases of LAFF implementation and discusses the possible implications for the design of an integrated landscape finance strategy in the Juabeso-Bia and Sefwi-Wiawso (JBSW) landscape. Each of these actors supports other actors in its sector. For instance, the district magistrate court and the district security committee support the Forest Services Division in controlling illegal logging and mining activities.These are some of the actors at the local level in the communities in the districts: • assembly members • chiefs/traditional authorities; • farmers; • chainsaw operators; • firefighting volunteers; • charcoal producers; • carpenters/wood carvers; • sawmill operators; • collectors of non-timber forest product; • small scale miners (most illegal); • unit committee members; • mining companies; and • cocoa-buying companies.More than 80% of the population in the JBSW landscape is engaged in agricultural production, which is largely rain-fed and involves slash-and-burn practices with few external inputs, particularly for crops. The major staple crops grown by farmers include plantain, cassava, cocoyam, maize and rice. Oil palm, cocoa and coffee are the main tree cash crops. As mentioned above, the landscape is one of the leading producers of cocoa in Ghana. Fruits such as oranges, pear, coconut and pineapple, as well as vegetables are also cultivated. Raising livestock is second to crop farming and is under-developed; most farmers raise small animals such as chicken, goats, sheep and pigs.The landscape has a number of basic schools, electricity, markets and financial services, as well as some healthcare facilities. Most roads are not tarred and access to portable water is mainly by boreholes.Other economic activities are fish farming, lumber processing and commerce. The industrial sector is dominated by small-scale industries that involve approximately 4% of the working class (Juabeso District Assembly 2018; Ghana Statistical Services 2014).A number of commercial banks operate in the landscape: HFC Bank (Ghana) Limited (in Essam and Adabokrom), Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) Limited in Essam and First National Savings Bank in Debiso. Kaaseman Rural Bank Limited is the only rural bank operating in the area. Its headquarters are in Kaase, and branches are located in Debiso, Yawmatwa and Oseikojokrom. The commercial banks provide credit facilities to both farmers and traders and thus help increase and sustain farming and commercial activities in the district.The size of the landscape economy covered by the four districts is measured by the annual income, expenditure and net worth (assets minus liabilities) of each of the four district assemblies (Domelevo 2018).The income of these districts is obtained from internally generated funds (IGFs). IGFs include revenue from property taxes, fees, licences, royalties and other miscellaneous items. Other sources of income for the districts include quarterly allocation of the district assembly's common fund; government salary grants; and financial support from Ghana's development partners.In 2017, there were 22 districts in the country's Western Region, including the four districts studied here. The total annual income of the districts is indicated in Table 2. In 2015, 4% of the total annual income of the 22 districts was recorded in Bia East district; Sefwi-Wiawso district had 5.4% and 3% of the total annual income in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Incomes of the districts in the landscape -and for the entire region -were lower in 2017 than in 2015, but there is no clear trend due to a peak in 2016. No data were found for the private sector, although it is estimated that agricultural production is the main income generator in the landscape (Ghana Statistical Services 2014).There has been a gradual but progressive loss of close forest cover since 1990, mainly due to an increase in the area of cropland in the landscape between 1990 and 2015. Agricultural expansion is the leading cause of deforestation and forest degradation (DFD) in the landscape, followed by logging and illegal mining. In recent years, management practices in new cocoa farmlands have been associated with widespread forest clearing, and in the cocoa plantations little or no shade is maintained. Some of the underlying causes of DFD are economic: poverty and related factors such as low incomes; lack of off-farm employment; and an increase in the price of land and cash crops (cocoa). Cultural and political factors also underlie the reasons for DFD: lack of support for forest protection, insufficient education on forest conservation, and apathy toward conservation of forest for future generations. Demographic factors, including in-migration, are the third leading underlying cause of DFD in the landscape.More specific barriers to forest conservation, management and restoration in this landscape include lack of revenue for managing trees on farms, lack of tree seedlings/late supply of seedlings, lack of income during the off-cocoa season, natural disasters (e.g., fires, floods), illegal logging, illegal small-scale mining (known as galamsey), sidelining of traditional authorities, insecure land and tree tenure, interference by political leaders, and lack of education about effective environmental management.Ecosystem services have the potential to generate additional income for local stakeholders. Potential buyers for hydrological ecosystem services are the Ghana Water Company and the Electricity Company of Ghana.The Ghana Cocoa REDD program, led by the Ghana REDD secretariat, could support financial activities in the landscape that contribute to carbon stock enhancement and conservation. Carbon stocks can also be enhanced through plantations. The carbon credits generated by plantations can be sold on the voluntary carbon market if plantation development follows an internationally recognized standard: the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) for commercial plantations; Plan Vivo (Plan Vivo 2013) for smallholders and communities, or the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards for developments on community land.2.4. Some key initiatives in the agri-food and forest sectors Rainforest Alliance (RA) introduced a climate-smart agriculture (CSA) business model in the JBSW landscape. Rainforest Alliance works in the landscape to improve farmers' capacities to mitigate and adapt to climate change. RA's efforts emphasize restoring ecosystems within cocoa agro forests, enrichment planting, climate and REDD+ education, REDD+ documentation, timber production on farms, and community involvement in governing forest resources. These initiatives diminish pressures to further encroach on surrounding forestlands by providing alternative livelihood strategies while increasing cocoa production.Olam International provided funds to Rainforest Alliance for technical assistance aimed at achieving Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) certification for cocoa as the basis of a REDD+ project. Olam agreed to pay premium prices for the certified cocoa and offered predictable market access. This builds reliability in the supply chain, which can help support climate finance.Agro-industrial company Touton, through the Partnership for Productivity Protection and Resilience in Cocoa Landscapes (3PRCL), is leading a consortium of partners -the Ghana Forestry Commission, the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod), SNV, Agro Eco, the Nature Conservation Research Centre and communities -to develop and pilot a landscape-wide governance framework in the Juabeso-Bia landscape in the Western Region. In collaboration with the IDH Sustainable Trade Initiative, local NGOs and CBOs, District Assemblies, and traditional authorities, the project is expected to provide farm-level support to 60,000 cocoa farmers. The goals are to improve their livelihoods through increasing productivity in an environmentally sustainable manner and developing incentive mechanisms for communities and cocoa farmers to sustain this productivity over time.In Phase 2 of LAFF participants identify, characterize and evaluate impacts on landscape objectives from the key financial flows in the focus landscape. This should help prioritize further work on identifying and improving those financial flows with the greatest scope for contributing to landscape objectives.Phase 2 of the LAFF methodology in JBSW started with training stakeholders in the methodology and key concepts. Stakeholders were selected in a way that allowed the training to include a session that could be considered to fulfill the role of a multi-stakeholder platform (MSP) in deciding on key sectors and landscape objectives. 2 During that session, results of the economic context study (i.e., Phase 1) were presented. The participants were asked to validate the landscape objectives extracted from the district development plans, and to provide their opinions regarding the key sectors that were identified in the economic context study.Participants agreed that these were the four key sectors in the JBSW landscape:• conservation;• timber;• cocoa; and • land use and planning.Participants identified seven landscape objectives: 1. Reduce deforestation and enhance forest cover (within and outside forest reserves and including secondary forests); 2. Conserve biodiversity (diversification, maintaining or restoring habitats); Once the four key sectors were identified, the local LAFF team organized sector focal group workshops. These workshops are interactive/participatory sessions where the participants represent various actors in one of the four key sectors. At the beginning of the workshop participants are introduced to the LAFF methodology, objectives and key concepts. Then, with the guidance of a facilitator, participants identify the key actors of that sector within the landscape and the financial flows between those actors. During this process the financial flows are illustrated on a big sheet of paper or a projector. This provides a visual map of the financial flows. When all the flows are identified, participants select 9-12 of them for further study.The key financial flows were selected based on the following criteria:• flows that have significant positive or/and negative effects on the JBSW landscape;• flows that involve a very large amount of money;• flows that provide the most opportunities for improvements to their impacts;• flows that provide the most opportunities for expanding funding to other positive initiatives.The last two criteria were difficult to get across to the participants; therefore, most of the selected key flows meet the first two criteria.Sector focal group participants were then split up into groups of four to five people according to their expertise, and each of the groups was assigned three to four of the key financial flows. Participants have a say in which flows they prefer to work with. For example, a group with a representative of wood manufacturers chose to work on three financial flows that concern this group of actors.The smaller groups scored the assigned financial flows, based on their perception of the flow's impact on the seven landscape objectives. Scores ranged from -2 for a very negative impact to +2 for a very positive impact. Participants were asked to explain why they assigned each score, and to describe the particular effects that the flow had on the landscape objectives. A template for scoring can be found in the methodological manual (Shames et al. 2019). During this exercise the smaller groups were also asked to estimate the magnitude of the flows (using three categories: < 1.2 million GH¢, 1.2-6 million GH¢ or >6 million GH¢) and to describe the financial instruments that facilitated the flows. They then selected the most significant financial flows, based on each flow's overall score (the sum of the scores for all seven objectives). The flows with the highest score (most positive impacts) and the lowest score (most negative impacts) were identified as key flows.The work of the sector focal groups resulted in a diagram of the flows, and a more detailed characterization of each flow and its impacts on landscape objectives; see Figures 6-9).After the focal group workshops, 23 key informants were selected based on their relevance to the key flows. These key informants were interviewed to provide more in-depth information on each financial flow's sources, recipients, financial mechanism, financial governance, and context (social, economic and ecological), as well as ideas for improving the flow's impacts on landscape objectives.Data from this process were combined and analyzed for possible patterns. Facilitators asked the participants several questions during the analysis:• Are there any sources or recipients that are active in more than one sector?• What is the general impact of the sources identified in response to the first question?• Do the financial instruments used offer possibilities for improvement in the case of negative impacts, or expansion in the case of positive impacts? • On which landscape objectives do financial flows in general have no impact or a negative impact?During the LAFF process participants identified more than 100 financial flows that move money to, from and within the landscape. Around 40 of these financial flows were assessed more closely, and for 20 of them follow-up interviews were carried out. This section presents the general results of the process and a summary of the results for each of the four sectors. More detailed information is available in Annexes 1 to 3. The overall net effect of all of the financial flows is very positive on the objective of enhanced livelihoods and local economy (6). The figure also shows that objectives related to biodiversity and carbon emissions (2 and 3) experienced a net negative impact; any efforts to reduce deforestation appear to be counteracted by investments that drive deforestation (see also Figure 2). On the other hand, the expected net effects of the financial flows on adaptation, food security and inclusiveness are perceived to be positive, although some flows may still have negative effects on one or more of these objectives.Interestingly, Figure 2 shows that most flows contribute to enhanced livelihoods (6), and that some of these flows also have positive effects on other objectives. Nearly half of these flows have no effect or negative effects on the other objectives, in particular on forest cover and biodiversity (1 and 2), two objectives that are closely linked.Negative impacts on forest cover also seem to correlate with reduced capacities to adapt to climate change and with weakened food and nutrition security (4 and 5).Figure 2. Financial flows' impacts on landscape objectives 1-7Note: 1 = somewhat positive impact; 2 = very positive impact; -1 = somewhat negative impact -2 = very negative impact.Several sources of the financial flows were perceived to have positive effects on objectives 1-3 (although they were not designed only for conservation purposes): a private cocoa buying company (Touton), private loggers, cocoa farmers, other chocolate companies and the Cocoa Health Extension Division (CHED). Although their significant flows also contribute to inclusiveness in the landscape (7), only CHED also contributes to food security (5).The combined sum of the perceived impacts of the flows is shown in Figure 3. Again, livelihoods and local economy (6) were improved by all of the flows. But for the rest of objectives there is a significant difference between the impacts of the money provided by the private and the public actors; public money generally compensates for the negative impacts of private money. However, as Figure 3 shows, this public money is not enough to fully compensate for the negative impact of private financial flows on biodiversity (2) and carbon emissions (3). It should be noted that these interpretations do not account for the size of the flows or the areas affected within the landscape. Unfortunately, it was not possible within the framework of this study to obtain reliable and comparable data on flow size or affected area.  It should also be noted that the positive impacts from public flows on the environmental (1, 2 and 3) and climate (4) objectives was largely due to funds from development cooperation aimed specifically at conservation-related objectives (see Figure 4). Participants identified 43 financial flows: 9 for the conservation sector; 12 for the timber sector; 10 for the cocoa sector; and 12 for the land-use sector. See Table 3.  Some strong positive impacts on objectives other than livelihood enhancement (6) also result from financial flows from some of the private actors; see Figure 5. For example, the system of premium prices set up by a private cocoa buying company (CFF9) is perceived to have a positive effect (+5) on six of the seven objectives, while not affecting food security. In this case, it relates to a cocoa company that is leading a multi-actor consortium in an initiative to make cocoa production more sustainable and traceable in Ghana (see Section 4.2.3).Financial flows from chocolate companies to cocoa farmers (CCFF3) have positive impacts on landscape objectives because the companies also implement premium schemes. It would be useful to see how many companies actually have such systems in place and how applicable they are to the cocoa farmers.Payments from loggers to the Forestry Commission (TFF1) and to communities (TFF3) also have only positive impacts, although their source -the logging itself -is perceived to have negative environmental impacts. Money received by the FC and communities is used to restore or maintain forests. This section summarizes the results for each of the four sectors studied: conservation, timber, cocoa, and land use and planning. Each sector summary includes a map of the main financial flows and the highlights from the discussion groups and interviews. More details for each sector can be found in Annexes 1-3. At the workshop for the conservation sector, participants identified financial flows that both support and encourage nature conservation and social well-being.The flow that received the highest overall score (sum of scores for all objectives = +13) was the grant from the Forestry Commission's Wildlife Division (WD) to the Community Resource Management Areas, or CREMAs (CFF1). This flow scored +2 for each landscape objective except for biodiversity conservation, which received a score of +1. These grants are seen to contribute to reducing forest degradation and increasing forest cover; they lessen emissions through deforestation reduction and tree planting. Capacities to adapt to climate change are strengthened through technical training and provision of climate smart technologies and knowledge. In addition, diversified farming creates a favourable micro-climate for year-round farming, which increases food and nutrition security. Local livelihoods and economy are enhanced through increased and diversified income as a result of this financial flow. Grants to CREMAs are also perceived as contributing to the devolvement of power to local people and to support for participatory decision making, therefore increasing inclusiveness. The biodiversity conservation score (+1) was justified by the notion that although activities to conserve biodiversity are supported by this flow, participants said that \"they\" (presumably CREMAs) can do more. It should be noted, though, that some actors think that this flow may actually increase farmers' vulnerability to climate change by increasing their dependence on a single cash crop, and that it may threaten food security by indirectly stimulating the conversion of food crops to cash crops. These perceptions have not yet been verified.The second-highest overall score (+12) was assigned to the financial flow from UNESCO to the Wildlife Division (WD) of the Ghana Forestry Commission (CFF3). The grant amounted to US$150,000 per year (2013-16) and was meant for funding livelihood programs (beekeeping, snail farming, mushroom production, palm oil processing) in the areas surrounding the Bia Biosphere Reserve. These alternative livelihood commodities were selected due to their high nutritive and pharmaceutical value and the high demand for them at the local and national level.Beneficiaries of the UNESCO funds agreed to create a revolving fund to be used by recipients and other community people to support their venture. Safeguards were established to ensure environmental standards for a palm oil processing centre regarding the disposal of waste water and materials.CFF3 contributes to deforestation reduction and forest cover enhancement (+2), biodiversity conservation (+2) and emission reduction (+2) through maintaining the biosphere reserve status, which designates the area purely for conservation. CFF9. From LBC to cocoa farmers Another highly positive financial flow (+9) is the premium that a LBC pays to cocoa farmers (CFF9). These premiums are similar to certification schemes that allow farmers who comply with certain production standards to sell their product for a higher price. Participants in the conservation focal group workshop scored this flow's impact on each of three of the landscape objectives with a +2:• forest cover enhancement (1), because several of the premium's criteria relate to maintaining existing farm area, with intensified yield, planting trees on cocoa farms, and leaving existing trees; • capacity to adapt to climate change (4) through educating farmers on the reasons to comply with the criteria (including climate change adaptation); • livelihoods and local economy (6) are enhanced due to increased yield and premiums for complying with criteria.When it comes to the biodiversity conservation objective this flow was scored with a +1. It does encourage maintaining existing farms instead of encroaching on forest reserve, but it does not necessarily enrich biodiversity since the farm is still there and contributing to some loss of biodiversity. Another criterion for the premium -tree planting -contributes to emission reduction objective and scored +1. Inclusiveness is promoted through this flow (+1), since the criteria and standards for the premium are developed together with the farmers, and participation for the premium is voluntary. This financial flow was perceived by workshop participants as having no direct impact (0) on food security.CFF2. From the Environmental Protection Agency to communities through the Forest Investment Programme Grants from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to communities through the Forest Investment Programme (FIP) for planting and management of trees on farms (CFF2) also received an overall score of +9. This financial flow has minor positive impacts (+1) on deforestation reduction since it enables farmers to plant trees on their farms, but not in the forest. It also positively affects biodiversity conservation (+1) through enabling farmers to conserve biodiversity on their farmlands, but, again, not in the forests. The extent to which the FIP plants trees is not enough to have a significant impact on emission reduction (0). Capacities to adapt to climate change seem to be encouraged by this flow (+2), because planting trees modifies the micro climate for cocoa farms and the program improves knowledge of and technology for forest preservation. Moreover, this grant is used for alternative livelihoods and economy (+2); the farmers are given money to plant trees, which then belong to them. Therefore, tree fruits or the trees themselves can be sold and generate alternative income. This grant may also be used for palm oil extraction or beekeeping, which also discourage people from exploiting the biosphere reserve. Planted trees further serve as windbreaks for food crops, and some trees are also food trees, which contributes to food and nutrition security in the landscape (+1). Decisions regarding on-the-ground implementation of this program are agreed on through community meetings where everyone is welcome to participate, thus promoting inclusiveness (+2).CFF4: From restaurants to poachers for bushmeat One of the financial flows that inhibits conservation in the landscape (-2) is the money that the restaurants pay to poachers for bushmeat (CFF4). This flow is rated to have no direct impact (0) on forest cover or emission reduction. It has a negative effect (-1) on biodiversity due to the hunting/poaching, which is not effectively monitored. Restaurants that buy bushmeat from poachers also create a disincentive for other people to keep a variety of farm animals, therefore weakening their capacity to adapt to climate change (-1). This financial flow might be expected to have a positive impact on food and nutrition security, but since the source of meat is unsustainable, food and nutrition security received a score of 0. When it comes to enhancing livelihoods and improved local economy, purchases of bushmeat do increase and diversify income, but not in a sustainable way (+1). The flow does not promote inclusiveness in the landscape (-1) because it creates unfair competition to (legal) farmers of small animals.Another overall negative financial flow (-4) in the conservation sector is the royalties that are paid by logging companies to traditional authorities (CFF6). This is a transfer of funds that is made by a company as an initiation of a partnership with the traditional authorities (TAs). In this particular study, data are based on only one sample but were considered by study participants as representative in direction and type of impacts for this type of flow. There is very little reported evidence of how TAs use their share. Nor are there any guidelines on how these royalties should be shared; for example, investing in community infrastructure or providing revenue to community members. By paying the royalties companies obtain the right to log, therefore disturbing the forest cover (-1) and biodiversity (-1), which also results in reduced capacity to sequester carbon (-2). The remaining landscape objectives are seen to be unrelated to this flow (all scored 0). 3Conservation efforts are also seen to be disrupted (-5) by the commission royalties paid by mining companies to the Minerals Commission (CFF5). Mining activities that take place because of these payments are seen to reduce forest cover (-1), disrupt biodiversity in the area (-2) and increase emissions due to topsoil removal (-1). These activities are also perceived as reducing the landscape's capacity to adapt to climate change (-1). Loss of wild fruits, animals and farmlands due to mining activities has a very negative impact (-2) on food and nutrition security, but this financial flow is seen as very positive when it comes to enhancing livelihoods and improving the local economy (+2). Inclusiveness in the landscape is seen as unaffected by this financial flow because local people are not involved in any decision making regarding this financial flow and its effects (0).One of the most negative (-7) scores in the conservation sector was for direct purchases by sawmills from chainsaw operators (CFF7). Activities related to this financial flow reduce carbon sequestration (-2), forest cover (-2), and biodiversity and habitats (-1). The flow is also perceived to make the landscape more vulnerable to climate change (-1) and to have a negative impact on the microclimate needed for local farm production (-1). Even though local people are not involved in this financial flows between the chainsaw operators and sawmills (-2), they do benefit from the flow since it improves their income and provides jobs (+2).The last financial flow identified by the participants of the conservation sector, which also received a very negative score (-7), was in the form of bank loans provided to medium-scale sawmills (CFF8). These loans are seen to have a very negative impact (-2) on forest cover since the loan is used for logging, some of which is illegal.3 Assessment of this financial flow is a good example of the complexity of scoring impacts. Although the logging does cause all the impacts mentioned, the financial flow is received by the local authorities. When evaluating this particular flow (and several others) it should be kept in mind that although the logging impacts perhaps could be minimized by better managing this financial flow, the use of the money/royalties is what actually should be the main focus of the flow's impacts.The flow also has a negative effect on biodiversity (-2) since there are no attempts to minimize the destruction of biodiversity or habitats; and on emissions (-2), because unsustainable tree cutting increases emissions. Capacities to adapt to climate change are also weakened (-1) by this financial flow because activities funded by these loans reduce forest cover; they also affect the water catchment area and hydrological system. Moreover, most of these activities are known to destroy farmers' crops by felling and transporting trees through farms (and rarely compensating for this), which reduces food and nutrition security (-1). However, these loans do allow sawmills to hire local people and to sell lumber at the local market, thus enhancing livelihoods and improving the local economy (+1).Note: It is rather unexpected that legal and official activities have such negative impacts on landscape objectives. This issue is explored in more depth in Section 5. change mitigation, and food and nutrition security, which have a positive effect on emission reductions (+2), local capacities to adapt to climate change (+2) and food/nutrition security (+1). The flow is also seen to enhance communities' livelihoods (+1) and their participation in forest governance (+2).Several NGOs in the JBSW landscape work on activities related to timber and forests. To deepen the knowledge of flows from donors to these NGOs interviews were carried out with three of them: EcoCare, Friends of the Earth Ghana and SNV. EcoCare is funded by the Rainforest Alliance and FERN; the latter two NGOs are funded by governmental institutions from the Netherlands and Germany respectively (see Table 4). All three NGOs receive funds from other sources that are used for various projects. Only SNV receives co-funding for its cocoa program. A consortium of several organizations, with the cocoa buying company Touton in the lead, contributed around £100,000 in 2019. These complementary funds are used to support rehabilitation, establishment of CREMAs and landscape governance sector and traceability.Neither the FoE or SNV grants has specific guidelines for social and environmental responsibility. Nevertheless, safeguards are implied and also listed in the bylaws of these organizations. The SNV program, for example, operates under the international climate initiative of Germany and is supportive of REDD+. It also supports the Cancun safeguards, with seven principles that every REDD+ project should adhere to (in this case it includes Free, Prior and Informed Consent for cutting trees infected with disease on the cocoa farms). Activities in Bia West also fall under the Ghana Cocoa Forest Emission Reduction program, which requires adherence to and respect for local community organizations and for environmental and social safeguards.EcoCare is focused on building the capacity of forest communities and empowering (including gender empowerment) local people to monitor company commitments. Friends of the Earth (FoE), through the Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA), works on ensuring respect for communities' rights. FoE also trains farmers to know their consent rights when it comes to situations such as timber operators removing trees from their farms. FoE aims to increase tree cover in the landscape, and communities have started planting trees on their farms. Furthermore, FoE is working on improving food security and reducing disruptions to food sources. SNV contributes to the sustainability of the landscape through focusing on ways to influence farmers to remain within existing cocoa farms instead of clearing the forest for new plots. SNV supports biodiversity by providing tree seedlings and plantain suckers for crop diversification, shade for cocoa plants and extra income.TFF9. From Forestry Commission of Ghana to academia and research TFF9, the flow from the Forestry Commission (FC) to academia and research, scored a total +8. As research results are passed on to policy makers, natural resource managers and industry this information has a positive effect on deforestation reduction (+1), forest cover enhancement (+1), biodiversity conservation (+1), emission reduction (+1), and food and nutrition security (+1) (assuming that research results are taken seriously and applied to policies and forest management plans). Since researchers often engage local people in forestry activities that conserve, manage or restore forests, they also are perceived to contribute to enhancing local livelihoods (+1). The flow is perceived to increase public and stakeholder awareness and knowledge on climate change adaptation and mitigation and scored +2 for that criterion.Forest-related research was estimated to cost the FC more than GH¢6 million per year. There are a few ways that FC funds research regarding forests. When FC is making budgets it allocates some money for research and academia. If someone from the research field comes up with a proposal that fits FC's interests then the commission gives financing to the research from the money set aside. If nobody asks for the money FC will use it for something else. FC as an institution has thematic areas for research where the services of academia will be of interest. When FC is writing projects they bring in academics as collaborators, who can obtain some funds through the FC. Moreover, FC is a member of the International Tropical Timber Organization and as such can submit proposals that often include academia.TFF3. Social responsibility agreement payments from loggers to communities Social responsibility agreement (SRA) payments from loggers to communities (TFF3). This flow scored +7. A social responsibility agreement is negotiated between the affected communities and the logging company and before the logging starts farmers have to express their consent. The agreement is signed before the logging takes place and is stipulated by law (Act 547(section 3E, section 20) ,LI 2254,section 11(D)). By law, it amounts to 5% of the total stumpage (value of logs logged), but at times the communities negotiate a higher amount. According to the workshop participants, deforestation reduction is highly encouraged (+2) by this flow, since the money reaches the communities and motivates people to protect the forests; this results in conserving biodiversity (+1). This financial flow is also directed towards building infrastructure for the community, which enhances livelihoods and local economy (+2). There also are community forums to discuss SRA, promoting inclusiveness (+2). In addition, logging companies pay compensation to farmers when crops are destroyed during logging operations on private farmlands, but this flow is unpredictable and was not assessed here.Similar compensation payments are made by millers to farmers. This flow was not evaluated separately but was briefly described by one of the participants of the focal group in this sector. Per year the affected communities in Juabeso forest district receive GH¢68,003.34 from one of the milling companies (based on the information provided by one of the milling companies). This money is meant for communities to undertake development projects. The Forest Service Division acts as an intermediary. The division is usually provided with cheques by the milling companies before the funds are sent to the communities. To ensure that fair amounts of money reach the communities, a WhatsApp group was established for communities to communicate with millers. The terms are stipulated in the SRA manual. Communities have responsibility for protecting the resource that the millers have an interest in.Millers have to respect the rights of the communities, taboos das, sacred sites, etc. These agreements provide social amenities and elevate interest in environmental protection. They also encourage participation by local people in forest management.TFF 7. Millers' fees and levies paid to the Timber Industry Development Division Millers' fees and levies paid to the Timber Industry Development Division, or TIDD (TFF7) scored +6. This flow seems to have no impact on forest cover since the money is used to restore the forest after logging. It does, however, have a positive effect on conserving biodiversity through a percentage of levies and fees being channeled to afforestation (+1); emissions are reduced by planting trees (+1); and capacities to adapt to climate change are built by TIDD for its staff and other stakeholders (+1). Food and nutrition security is supported though practices of agroforestry in afforestation programs (+1). Agroforestry provides livelihood diversification, which together with employment opportunities contributes to enhanced livelihoods and improved local economy (+1). Inclusiveness in the landscape is promoted through participation in decision making (+1).The direct payments from loggers to the Forestry Commission (TFF1) scored an overall +5. According to the workshop participants this flow has a very positive (+2) effect on forest cover and deforestation reduction since the money is directed toward sustainable management of the forests; for example, youth participation in afforestation programs. These fees also enable the forestry commission to maintain forest cover and therefore maintain biodiversity (+1). This flow is seen to have no significant effect on emission reduction, improving capacities to climate change adaptation, or food and nutrition security. Livelihoods and local economy seem to be enhanced (+1), with part of the money being directed toward the District Assembly and Traditional Council. For instance, the District Assembly uses part of the money to build schools, hospitals and construct markets. The flow also promotes inclusiveness (+1) by consultation with the local community when the FC decides on its rates.The FC pays Office Administration of Stool Lands (OASL) through a direct purchase (TFF2); this flow had an overall score of +3. The OASL collects royalties in the form of annual rents and stumpage fees from the timber companies and redistributes them to several stakeholders. The timber companies make their payments to the Forestry Commission, which forwards the funds to the OASL for onward redistribution to stakeholders. The flow is seen as an incentive for recipients to help conserve forests (+1), and protecting the forest leads to preserved biodiversity (+1). Money to the OASL has no impact on reducing carbon emissions, strengthening capacity to climate change adaptation, food and nutrition security or on inclusiveness. It does, however, contribute to local livelihood and economy enhancement since part of the money is used for infrastructure (+1).The last flow in the timber sector with an overall positive score (+3) is in the form of loans from public banks to chainsaw millers. With sufficient loans millers are more efficient through acquiring new machinery and training in good operational practices; this is perceived to have a positive (+1) impact on reducing deforestation and conserving biodiversity (+1). The flow is perceived to have no impact on emission reduction, capacities to adapt to climate change, food and nutrition security, or on inclusiveness. It does have a positive impact (+1) on local livelihoods and economy.Short-term loans are obtained from the banks for logging, processing, SRA payments and compensation to farmers before exporting or trading their products. The banks pay directly to the millers provided they meet their requirements, such as provision of guarantors, etc.Advance payments from retailers to chainsaw millers (TFF4) received an overall score of -2. This flow is estimated to be worth as much as GH¢1.6 million per year. These payments are mostly based on verbal agreements that require the chainsaw miller to keep the retailer updated on the progress of activities. If the lumber is confiscated by the FSD the chainsaw miller does not pay back the money, but if the chainsaw miller fails to update the retailer on activities or fails to deliver the order this can lead to conflicts between the two parties. The activities resulting from this flow do not consider environmental factors and have a very negative impact on forest cover (-2), since chainsaw operations increase deforestation within and outside forest reserves (including secondary forests). These payments are seen to have a somewhat negative impact (-1) on biodiversity. Deforestation leads to loss of biodiversity and cutting forests increases carbon emissions (-1) and crop damage, which also reduces food and nutrition security (-1). Although the flow does not seem to be related to the capacity to adapt to climate change, it does have a positive effect (+2) on livelihoods and local economy because it is also a source of local communities' income. Inclusiveness is promoted (+1) through negotiations that chainsaw millers, farmers and land-owners have at the community level. Despite these two positive impacts, the flow is still seen to have generally negative effects on the communities and on water bodies (due to deforestation). When asked about the relation of this flow to artisanal milling, one interviewee said:\"The artisanal milling concept has helped a lot. Through the concept the chainsaw operators have stopped operation. It is through the artisanal millers concept that the Domestic Lumber Millers Association of Ghana is rising and working through the right channels.\"TFF5. Advance payments from retailers to milling companies Advance payments from retailers to milling companies 4 (TFF5) have an overall negative impact on landscape goals (-3). About GH¢6 million per year flows from retailers to millers. These agreements are transparent and supervised by the TIDD. Besides payments for deliveries retailers support other services such as purchasing of equipment parts. For this financial flow environmental and social safeguards apply only to purchases of legal wood (when a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) is in place). These advance payments are perceived to have a very negative impact on forest cover/deforestation reduction (-2) and biodiversity conservation (-2), because milling increases deforestation, thus affecting biodiversity. Payments are also seen to increase emissions (-1). Activities funded by this flow might also destroy food crops and farmlands, negatively affecting food and nutrition security (-1). This financial flow does, however, contribute to local livelihoods and economy by providing a source of income to workers (+1), and it was noticed to have a very positive impact on inclusiveness (+2).Another flow with an overall negative score (-3) is in the form of compensation payments from loggers to farmers (TFF11). In contrast to the compensation paid from loggers to communities (TFF3), this flow is perceived to negatively affect forest cover (-1), biodiversity conservation (-1), emission reduction (-1) and food and nutrition security (-1). The flow has no impact on climate change adaptation capacities or inclusiveness. It does, however, contribute to the enhancement of livelihoods and local economy (+1). The negative score of TFF11 compared with TFF 3 may be due to the fact that individual farmers do not reinvest in the forests as communities do.TFF6. Purchase payments from manufacturers to millers Purchase payments from manufacturers to millers (TFF6) scored -3 for their overall impacts on landscape objectives. The flow has a negative impact (-1) on forest cover, biodiversity conservation (-1), emission reduction (-1), capacities to adapt to climate change (-1) and to food and nutrition security (-1), because the money is used to cut trees and possibly destroy crop farms. It does have a very positive (+2) impact on local livelihoods and economy.TFF8. Manufacturers' direct purchases from retailers Manufacturers' direct purchases from retailers (TFF8) have mostly negative impacts, which add up to a score of -5. Activities that are financed by this financial flow are perceived to reduce forest cover (-2), reduce biodiversity (by destroying flora and fauna (-2), increase emissions (-1), affect capacities to adapt to climate change (-1) and often destroy farms, which reduces food and nutrition security (-1). On the other hand, direct purchases by the manufacturers contribute substantially to local livelihoods and economy by creating jobs and generating revenue (+2). The flow is considered to have no connection to inclusiveness in the landscape.Manufacturers and the timber sector Manufacturers are involved in a number of financial flows in the timber sector. To analyze this in more depth a representative of the National Association of Handicrafts Exporters (NAHE) was interviewed. The association receives its money from membership fees and from grants, and receives money and other inputs from the national government. Such inputs cover, for example, the expenses of manufacturers for training in foreign countries to see how cultures view handcrafts. The public banks give grants to leverage orders, which then lead the association to request loans from the same bank to be able to comply with the orders.Assessed financial flows that involve manufacturers are the payments from them to retailers (TFF8) and millers (TFF6). The Domestic Lumber Traders Association (DOLTA) is an example of a retailer and the Ghana Timber Millers Organization (GTMO) is an example of a miller. DOLTA is made up of 25,000 domestic lumber traders and has a yearly turnover that is higher than GH¢6 million, whereas GTMO has more than 100 members and an unknown turnover. The interviewee of NAHE estimated that manufacturers from NAHE spend around GH¢1.8 million per year on purchases from DOLTA members, and about GH¢600,000 on buying from millers. Manufacturers usually prepare their orders for both retailers and millers four times per year. In addition to money, manufacturers also provide training opportunities for retailers and millers on timber legality. Moreover, manufacturers sometimes provide a guarantee for retailers/millers when they take out a bank loan. Manufacturers, retailers and smaller millers all get the same loan terms of 25% interest/year, or 15% if the loan is repaid earlier.VPA and Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) safeguards -social and environmentalapply to manufacturers' legal wood orders, but are disregarded by illegal woodworkers. Social safeguards are not well implemented. For example, at timber trade centres safety measures are not addressed. The workers do not like to follow the safeguard guidelines, because safety measures are usually uncomfortable and distracting and impede the work process. Millers work with legal wood and do apply environmental and social safeguards, since this is required by law. Safety inspectors come to check millers' compliance with the safeguards, generally on a quarterly basis.The local market remains ignorant about the legality of wood products, but the export market requires handicrafts to have documentation proving its legal origin. Export requirements are the main driver of changes in manufacturers' practices; they have begun to adhere to wood legality policies such as FLEGT and other requirements. The number of manufacturers complying with the timber legality requirements is growing.FLEGT licence certification is currently being pioneered in Ghana, but since some of the manufacturers cannot acquire certification because of lack of documentation about legal origin, they cannot export their products. Sometimes, certified manufacturers ship others' products under their name. Therefore, licensed manufacturers have to perform due diligence on the production of those whose products they're shipping. There should be an innovative way for the retailers to provide and ensure legal wood. This will most likely involve money and incentives.The subject of payments by millers to loggers for their services in providing the millers with concessions or timber utilization contracts came up while conducting follow-up interviews. It was not evaluated by the focal group participants, but has large potential impacts.. These payments are estimated to reach GH¢4 million per year; they finance tree felling, skidding and log transport, the main activities done by the loggers. There are no specific terms of agreement except for the number of logs and time for delivery. Sometimes loggers take loans from private banks to support their activities for fulfilling the agreement with the millers. It was noticed that this flow contributes to economic improvement in the landscape, but at the same time brings negative aspects such as crime, prostitution, etc. Cocobod has a monopoly over most of Ghana's cocoa sector and shapes nearly every aspect of the cocoa value chain. Cocoa sales typically begin at the smallholder level: smallholders sell cocoa to licensed buying companies (LBCs); LBCs sell to Cocobod; and Cocobod then sells to exporters or food processors, both domestic and global. Cocobod sets cocoa prices and trade terms, controls margins, and provides inputs (e.g., seedlings, fertilizer). It is also a key financial intermediary and capacity builder for cocoa smallholders, and the main provider of financing to LBCs to purchase cocoa.LBCs are also key players in the cocoa value chain, buying cocoa from smallholders. During the LAFF interviews it was established that most smallholders sell to only one LBC. The provision of inputs and services are one of the main drivers for smallholders to sell cocoa to a particular LBC, as LBCs are the primary source of financing for smallholders outside of private loans and savings. LBCs require considerable amounts of working capital, especially during harvest seasons. Some of this financing is provided by Cocobod. Through its Syndicated Pre-Export Finance Facility, it raises funds from an international banking syndicate and then allocates them to LBCs to purchase cocoa from smallholders.One of the financial flows that is perceived to have the greatest positive impact on the landscape is a grant provided by donors to the NGOs that work on cocoa-related activities (CCFF9). CCFF9 scored an overall +9 by having a positive impact on the landscape through providing funds for helping afforestation within and outside the forest reserves and for educating farmers on the ways to maintain and restore natural habitats. Moreover, these grants often support other sectors, such as agricultural departments of district assemblies, the Forest Service Division and Cocobod, in running programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Organizations that receive these grants also provide training for cocoa farmers on climate change and its effects and on additional/alternative livelihoods to reduce reliance on a single crop; support for climate change adaptation, and diversification of their livelihoods. The design processes of these activities and other governance-related actions involve local people in decision making and implementation. Refer to annex 3c for the scores on individual objectives.EcoCare and SNV, two of the NGOs introduced in Section 4.2, also work on projects and programs focused on cocoa. EcoCare's Cocoa and Forest Initiative focuses not only on the forest but also on cocoa-related issuesand on the connection between the two. SNV in Ghana is focused on establishing a deforestation-free cocoa supply chain through its Partnership for Productivity, Protection and Resilience in Cocoa Landscapes (3PRCL), and on implementing a cocoa traceability system. The project is funded by the UK Department of International Development and is implemented in Ghana by a consortium that includes SNV, Touton, Cocobod and a few other actors. SNV also tries to influence cocoa farmers to remain within existing farms instead of clearing the forest for new plots. SNV addresses biodiversity by providing tree seedlings and plantain suckers for crop diversification, shade for cocoa plants and extra income.CCFF2. From national government to farmers via CHED Another flow that scored an overall +8 is the money coming from CHED to farmers (CCFF2). 5 This flow represents payments to farmers whose cocoa farms have been clear-cut due to cocoa tree diseases. The compensation for clear-cut cocoa farms started at the beginning of 2018. Farmers receive GH¢1000 per hectare of clear-cut area. This provides an incentive for farmers to rehabilitate and intensify farming and to intercrop cocoa with forest trees instead of expanding their farms. Through planting trees on their farms, farmer's capacities to adapt to climate change are perceived to increase. This financial flow also leads to cocoa farmers abstaining from burning plots of their farms and practising zero tillage. Farmers that receive compensation from CHED intercrop cocoa farms with cassava, maize, etc., which increases food security and contributes to livelihood enhancement.Farmers' direct payments for goods to nursery operators (CCFF10) contribute positively to landscape objectives, with an overall score of +7. These payments positively affect the reduction of deforestation and forest degradation, conserve biodiversity and reduce emissions because farmers plant trees bought with the financial flow. Growing trees is also an additional livelihood for some local people, and decisions made regarding these activities involve both the financial source and the recipient. 6 CCFF3. Payments for cocoa from chocolate companies to farmers Chocolate companies' payments for cocoa to the farmers, CCFF3, scored +5. This financial flow represents the premium prices that are paid by companies to farmers who produce cocoa in compliance with organic or sustainability standards (similar to CFF9). This payment encourages farmers to conform with certification standards, which helps reduce deforestation and contributes to biodiversity conservation. Some of the cocoa-growing practices that are encouraged by the premiums are maintaining the existing farm area, planting trees (other than cocoa) on farms and leaving existing trees in place. However, although farmers who comply with the standards receive premiums from the companies, it does not make them avoid activities that do not reduce emissions.The financial flow from Cocobod to the Quality Control Company, or QCC (CCFF5) had a total score of -1. It has a negative impact on the objectives of conserving biodiversity, since QCC uses fumigation in the warehouses to kill pests. This results in chemicals being released, which also contributes to emissions. On the other hand, the flow scores +1 for the criteria of livelihood improvement since the QCC hires local people to check the quality of cocoa and to assess the moisture content before the experts examine it.Another flow with an overall negative impact score (-1) is the direct purchase by consumers from retailers (CCFF8). Consumers are individuals or groups of final users of the processed cocoa bean products, such as chocolate, Milo, toffee, cookies, etc. Biodiversity conservation is affected slightly negatively (-1) because cocoa farming requires land clearing, which displaces the natural habitats of flora and fauna. A score of -1 was also assigned to the criteria of strengthening capacity to adapt to climate change, since farmers aiming to increase their yields often disregard the skills received from capacity-building activities. Emission reduction is nonexistent because clearing and burning lands for farm activities emit greenhouse gases. Food and nutrition security and enhanced livelihoods/ improved local economy objectives seem to benefit from this financial flow. The money from the retailers increases the funds available to farmers to use for purchasing farm inputs to increase its productivity. A particular positive aspects of this flow was perceived to be that it capitalizes the retailer and therefore allows for a rapid financial flow between the retailer and farmers.The flow from LBCs to farmers for the direct purchase of cocoa (CCFF1) had an overall impact score of -2. The flow was noticed to have a negative impact (-1) on four criteria. The quest for more fields and a reluctance to clear diseased and aged farms (as well as a fear of losing farms to local chiefs) contributes to deforestation and forest degradation. Biodiversity is negatively affected because of the excessive use of agro-chemicals. Poor reforestation and afforestation on cocoa farms and off reserves has a negative effect on emission reductions. Capacity to adapt to climate change scored -1 because of the lack of measures to face the recent long periods of droughts, pests and disease. Food and nutrition security, as well as enhanced livelihoods/improved local economy, are affected positively because this financial flow contributes to intercropping of food crops with cocoa. Eventually these finances are the main source of income for most smallholder farmers and other long chains of beneficiaries. 7  It should be noted, however, that the effects on landscape objectives depend on the farmers' decisions to buy or not buy inappropriate fertilizers, or to expand their farms. It is impossible to control where and how farmers spend the money they earn, but their practices can be affected by conditions or incentives offered by financial flows. For example, some of the LBCs promote sustainable cocoa farming and pay premiums to farmers who comply with their sustainable production standards (CFF9). DACF is a consolidated fund; it used to be composed of 7% of internal revenue generated by the government, but this was recently reduced to 5%. This flow had an overall score of +7. In 2018 Sefwi-Wiawso received GH¢1.1 million/year; at the time of the interviews, Juabeso was expecting GH¢2.9 million for 2019; Bia East received GH¢1.6 million/year.This financial flow has a positive effect on the deforestation reduction and forest cover enhancement because the agricultural departments of the MMDAs educate and enlighten farmers on the effects of deforestation and promote livelihood strategies that have a positive effect on biodiversity. The departments also educate people on afforestation practices, which have a positive impact on emission reductions. The flow contributes to improving capacity for climate change adaptation by encouraging farmers to adopt good farming practices. This flow has a very positive impact on the landscape's food and nutrition security since MMDAs use the money to support farmers by supplying food crop seedlings. MMDAs also support alternative livelihood programs (through the Agricultural Department) for farmers during off-season periods. Although people are involved in decision making, the flow is not perceived to contribute to inclusiveness since they are involved only indirectly, through their representatives or assembly members. DACF also provides workshops and training for the assembly department employees and traditional authorities.MMDAs disburse the money from DACF to various projects across their departments. Each year, DACF provides guidelines for the proportion of funds to be spent on priority projects and other activities. Currently, for example, infrastructure development is the main focus of DACF. Development of the guidelines does not involve assemblies.In addition, DACF sets conditions for the use of the funds, such as strategic environmental assessment processes; following the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) process in the utilization of the resources; procurement processes; ensuring public participation in the use and disbursement of the fund (through town-hall meetings, publishing reports etc.); and emphasis on adhering to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The government monitors districts' performances. Safeguards are barely addressed by the DACF guidelines, but they are covered by the assemblies' bylaws, and address issues such as deforestation, encroaching, forests, water bodies, health, etc.MMDAs' operations are political; every government has its priority projects. Politicians determine where the projects go, and they have the power to change the plan and location for the project. The projects that are developed with the community can be changed by the politicians as well. One of the recent changes that took place due to political influence is the new government reducing the DACF fund from 7% to 5% of the money generated by Ghana.During the LAFF workshops, participants looked in more depth into flows from MMDAs to their health departments (LUFF4) and education departments (LUFF5). Both flows scored quite positively: LUFF5 scored +6 and LUFF4 scored +4. Both flows have a slightly negative impact on criteria regarding forest cover, biodiversity and emissions, however. This is due to the need to clear vegetation for health and education infrastructure, which affects biodiversity and increases emissions. The education department proposes to improve climate change adaptation capacities through education, while the health departments positively affect this criteria because it is perceived that people need to be healthy to take care of forests. Money utilized by the education department might reduce food and nutrition security, due to the new structures taking up crop fields. Both flows are seen to improve local livelihoods and economy by creating jobs and they enhance inclusiveness through educating youths to be ready for decision making. Maintaining good health will allow for better land management.After follow-up interviews with a few district assemblies it turned out that in the end some of the districts, despite the proposed and approved yearly budget, get less than 50% of the estimated funds. Other financial flows come to the MMDAs, however, two of which were identified during the workshop (LUFF1 and LUFF10).This flow scored +5. LUFF1, a grant from the government, has specific guidelines that require MMDAs to adhere to strategic environment policies; for example, EPA and Environment and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) regulations. These guidelines seem to address the landscape objectives of reducing deforestation and enhancing forest cover, conserving biodiversity and reducing emissions, but the participants of the workshop scored the effects on these criteria as 0. Capacity to adapt to climate change seems to be strengthened, since part of the funds is used for climate awareness and promoting climate resilient construction and agricultural practices. This flow is also used to support agricultural production and vulnerable community members, enhancing food/nutrition security as well as livelihoods. MMDAs use these funds to promote inclusiveness through stakeholder engagement, popular participation and general assembly activities; therefore, inclusiveness scored +2.This flow scored +3. LUFF10 contributes positively to reducing deforestation and enhancing forest cover by sensitizing farmer-based organizations. This flow also positively contributes to strengthening capacity to adapt to climate change (through programs that educate people on climate change effects and prevention); food and nutrition security (through workshops for farmers where they are trained to adopt good practices to improve yields); enhanced livelihoods and local economy (achieved through education on alternative livelihoods by the Agriculture Department); and inclusiveness in the landscape (local people are involved in designing of programs and projects through their representatives to the assembly). The flow was noticed to have a negative impact on biodiversity, however, since there is little attention to environmental issues in the guidelines that dictate how the grant should be spent.MMDAs also utilize internally generated funds (IGFs) and district development funds (DDFs). The magnitude of the IGFs strongly depends on the district's resources and productivity, whereas DDFs are granted to the districts that show their capacity to utilize the funds for the district's development. DDFs were discontinued in 2018, but the assemblies expressed their wish for it to be renewed, as it really encouraged districts to step up and prove that they are capable of handling rural development. Between 2014 and 2018 this fund amounted to about US$250 million, of which 20% came from the Government of Ghana and the remaining 80% came from donors in developed countries. Funds that MMDA use are not combined; each fund is used for different projects or programs.Other flows of funds to MMDAs come from programs such as the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and Modernizing Agriculture Ghana (MAG), which receives money from Canada. These funds go through the districts' accounts to designated departments for activities; for example, pick-up trucks were procured with MAG money to strengthen extension services.Another flow that is channeled through MMDA as an intermediary is from the national program of planting for export and rural development (PERD; see Box 1). PERD funding is used by the MMDAs to subsidize inputs (e.g., seedlings and fertilizers) for tree crops (cashew, coffee, coconut, citrus, cotton, mango, oil palm, rubber and shea).Program participants are taught climate-smart agriculture techniques. Focal group participants gave this flow an overall score of +1. It scored -2 for reducing deforestation and -2 for conserving biodiversity, because implementation of the program would require expansion of existing farms or establishment of new farms, which would negatively affect biodiversity and forest cover. The capacity to adapt to climate change criteria was scored +1, since new modern forms of smart farming practices would be adopted to strengthen these capacities. PERD is seen to have a very positive impact (+2) on food and nutrition security and on enhanced livelihoods and local economy (+2) through increasing productivity, which then improves local income levels.Participants in the focal group discussions indicated that the two most significant financial flows to farmers come from LBCs (LUFF3) and local banks (LUFF12).The flow from licensed buying companies to farmers (LUFF3) received an overall score of +2, even though the objectives of deforestation reduction (-1) and biodiversity conservation (-1) are both negatively affected due to farmers expanding their fields. LUFF3 improves farmers' income and is therefore perceived to have a positive impact on food and nutrition security (+2) and on enhancing livelihoods and improving local economy (+2).The loans that farmers obtain from local banks (LUFF12) have an overall positive effect on landscape objectives (+1). Although the loans are used for farm expansion, which reduces forest cover (-2), and contributes to loss of Box 1. Planting for export and rural development (PERD)The Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) project is part of the government's one district-one factory program, which supports the establishment of processing factories in the districts where seedlings are supplied so that the factories can continue to operate after the project ends. The main idea behind PERD is to ensure a continuous flow of raw materials to factories. The PERD budget for five years (until 2024) is GH¢152 million. Farmerbased organizations are encouraged to participate. The farmers register for PERD in their district and are supplied with free seedlings based on their choice of tree crop within the range of commodities the district is promoting.In the case of JBSW landscape the main commodity is cocoa, so the farmers are given cocoa seedlings. During harvest and export, all proceeds go to the farmer with no benefits to the government, encouraging more farmers to go into the program.Climate smart agriculture is not a requirement for PERD, but the Ministry for Food and Agriculture promotes these practices, and restricts the farmers from engaging in certain practices or activities.biodiversity, this flow scored +2 for improving food and nutrition security and for enhancing livelihoods, because loans increase farm productivity and farmers' income.The remaining two financial flows -LUFF7 and LUFF8 -are related to the timber sector.LUFF7. Concessions and sales of confiscated lumber that FC pays to the Government of Ghana This flow has very negative impact (-2) on reducing deforestation and on inclusiveness due to prioritizing revenue over forest enhancement and local people being excluded from the decisions related to their lands. The biodiversity that is affected by these negative activities is partly compensated for by GoG. The government uses some of the money to strengthen the agriculture sector; for example, by providing extension services to farmers. Emissions keep increasing, however, since logging activities outperform afforestation (-1). Capacity to adapt to climate change is affected positively because GoG also uses these funds for mitigation strategies such as REDD+ and advocacy/enrichment planting. Food and nutrition security benefit from this flow since it allows the GoG to restore degraded areas through a taungya system, where crops are planted together with tree species until the canopy is closed. This increased food crop production and consumption contributes to livelihood enhancement.This flow scored -11. It very negatively (-2) affects the reduction of deforestation and forest cover because of rampant and uncontrolled tree cutting, which is also carried out in the forest reserves. The same activities inhibit biodiversity conservation (-2) and emission reduction (-2), which is also affected by chainsaw exhaust gases. Payments to illegal loggers do not strengthen capacity to adapt to climate change. Food and nutrition security is harmed since loggers' activities lead to the destruction of crops and farmland due to excessive use of trucks. These activities, however, seem to enhance livelihoods and improve local economy (+1), since they generate income that is used for buildings and other businesses.PAGE 35The LAFF methodology was designed as a tool for multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) to use to reflect on the role that finance plays in their landscape, particularly in terms of its contribution to the landscape objectives that the MSPs have defined. As such, the methodology is not exhaustive: not all sectors or financial flows are dealt with.Nor does the LAFF process provide precise and comparable data on the flow sizes, or measure actual impacts using quantitative data. It does give, however, an overview of the main actors and main flows that affect the objectives of the MSP. This information can be used to identify flows that need to reduce their impacts and those that should be studied in more detail.In the case of the JBSW landscape, the importance of cocoa and natural resources jumps out (Figure 10). This is partly due to the fact that most actors involved in the analysis are directly or indirectly involved in the cacao-forest initiative, for which the landscape comprises one of the national hotspots. Most participants had little contact with or knowledge of other sectors; for example, mining. However, the overall overview of the landscape's economy pointed to these sectors as being of prime importance.Within this sector, investment in timber harvesting was perceived to have negative consequences; in the case of legal harvesting, these effects are at least partially compensated for by communities and the Forestry Commission through the use of funds from harvesting for restoration and afforestation. Processors and manufactures in this sector could improve its performance if they adhered to standards for both environmental and social well-being.Manufacturers are the tertiary users of wood such as carvers and carpenters who purchase wood from millers or retailers, make wooden products and then sell them on either local or international market. To sell on the international market a manufacturer has to perform thorough due diligence on the origins of products' materials and document their legality. With the international market showing an increase in demand for legal wooden goods, it was expected that the scores of the financial flows from manufacturers to millers and retailers would be more positive. Apparently, the use of legal materials is not sufficient to have an overall positive influence on achieving the MSP's landscape objectives. There are several possible explanations for this.• The financial flows were assessed and scored by several participants who might have provided their subjective opinions about the impacts, without considering that the legal activities are perhaps not as harmful as the scoring suggests. • Another possible explanation is that local perceptions of any type of logging are very negative and people are not aware of differences between the effects of legal and illegal logging. • A third explanation could be that even if legal and official logging activities comply with VPA criteria they may still not comply with all the safeguards and criteria that lead to sustainable forest management. • Foreign buyers recognize the \"extra mile\" that manufacturers go in getting legal wood and paying more for it. But retailers and millers do not receive the same incentives (they are paid the same price for the legal wood now as before).Most manufacturers are keen for retailers to learn more about wood legality and its effects. Some even suggest that monetary incentives and the VPA licensing system should also apply to the retailers. Changes to the incentive and licensing systems should take place soon, since later it will be more difficult to convince manufacturers to give part of their profit/incentive to the retailers. It seems that now there is momentum for expanding these structures to also include incentives for retailers and for millers and loggers who work with legal timber.Another interesting aspect of the relationship between manufacturers and wood suppliers is the bank loan guarantee. Retailers and small-scale millers often do not have enough capital to harvest and deliver their orders, so they need to take out a loan. Banks, however, are often hesitant to lend to these actors without guarantors. That is when manufacturers step in to guarantee for retailers or millers. This significant relationship/interaction is seen as innovative and it can play an important role in promoting legal timber harvesting. Manufacturers choose which retailers or millers to guarantee for. Therefore, manufacturers that aim to sell VPA timber or timber from sustainably managed sources could choose to support those retailers or millers who they know handle only legal and/or sustainably sourced timber.It is clear, however, that illegal harvesting causes even more negative effects on environment and people than failure to handle only legal timber. Consumers, retailers and private banks channel money to illegal actors, causing negative impacts. By linking their payments or transfers to responsibility or sustainability criteria, they could improve the impact of the forest sector (see Figure 10).Surprisingly, financial flows from Cocobod were not perceived to have major importance for MSP objectives. Some of the more important flows from Cocobod were even assessed as having a negative impact. In general, flows in this sector are perceived to be more sustainable than the ones in the timber sector. This is mainly due to the major efforts by public and private sources to make cocoa production more sustainable. Sustainability is pursued in both sectors by the public sector (donor contributions to NGOs that assist farmers; MMDA; CHED; FC and EPA that support communities, CREMAs, OASL and research and academia). In the cocoa sector private entities, including Touton, local banks and some chocolate companies, also seek more sustainable production, thus supporting the Cocoa and Forest Initiative objective of less deforestation while also contributing to local income. However, more could be done, judging from the negative flows linked to farmers and to Cocobod (see the blue lines in Figure 11). The discussion of the flows also indicate that there may be a risk of focusing on one crop only; this could replace food crops and increase vulnerability to the effects of markets and climate change.In the cocoa sector, decisions on whether environmental impacts occur are made in the end by farmers (Figure 11). They are influenced in their decisions by a series of actors that either impose regulations (such as Cocobod or the Government of Ghana) or provide finance or inputs, either with or without conditions (such as Touton, LBCs, loggers). Money flowing from LBCs to farmers has been assessed to have different impacts on landscapes objectives by different focal groups. For example, CCF1 and LUFF3 are the same transaction: LBCs purchasing cocoa from farmers. However, CCF1 received a score of -2 from the cocoa focal group and LUFF3 scored +2 by the land use focal group. This shows a need for greater communication between the planners and the farmers so that they can harmonize their criteria, not just for this assessment, but also for the process of land-use planning.CFF9 occurs between the same actors as CCF1 and LUFF3, except it involves a particular LBC and the payment is a premium that is added to regular payments for the cocoa beans. This shows the potential for LBCs to improve their contribution to MSP objectives if they apply sustainability criteria when purchasing. In fact, some LBCs are already piloting the implementation of a premium system that rewards those cocoa farmers who comply with the LBC's sustainability standards. Although the higher payment does not have a direct impact on landscape objectives it contributes significantly to the way farmers undertake their farming activities, which then affects landscape objectives. Some of the cocoa-growing practices that are encouraged by the premiums are maintenance of existing farm area, planting trees (other than cocoa) on farms and leaving existing trees in place. Cocoa farmers also receive training in sustainable farming, which makes it more likely that they will adapt their activities, practise them for a longer time and understand the benefits of doing so.CHED's payments to farmers (CCF2) also influence the way cocoa farms are managed. The payments compensate farmers for costs if they clear-fell and rehabilitate plantations infected by disease. This helps reduce the spread of the disease. The NGO Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) also supports farmers in rehabilitation, but instead of providing money they provide seedlings and technical assistance. Since this is not linked to political decisions and their program seems to have been more effective than the CHED initiative, it is seen as a good alternative by farmers.Loans from banks are usually used to expand cocoa farms. According to this brief assessment there are no banks that offer subsidies or loans with specific terms for organic or sustainable activities. Advans Ghana bank and a Yankupa cocoa-purchasing company do, however, use a rather innovative loan system. Yankupa provides a list of purchasing clerks (who represent cocoa farmers) to the bank, which then meets the purchasing clerks in the field. Clerks sign the loan contracts and then the bank gives the loan to Yankupa, which buys inputs for the purchasing clerks. Through this system, banks lend money to the farmers so that they can afford inputs for their farming activities, but it is done via Yankupa, which is the guarantor for these loans. As a guarantor, Yankupa has to compensate the bank if any of the farmers represented by them fail to repay their loan.A potential intervention is to link such loans to the Cocoa and Forest Initiative (CFI), which represents the commitment of the Government of Ghana (among other countries) and leading cocoa and chocolate production com- panies to eradicate deforestation and forest degradation from the cocoa supply chain. 8 The donors, however, do not fund the transition that the private companies have to undergo, so companies have to mobilize funds for these activities themselves.Cocoa companies, especially signatories of the CFI agreement, are supposedly interested in their suppliers producing cocoa in a sustainable way. Perhaps there is an opportunity for CFI companies to make arrangements with the banks. Together, they could develop innovative lending structures such as aggregating farmers, or simply create systems that encourage farmers to borrow money for sustainable farming (e.g., incentives, more favourable terms of lending).Surprisingly, few of the financial flows assessed directly address forest conservation. Although the FC, OASL and CREMAs do have a role to play, and several NGOs promote restoration and afforestation activities and aim to reduce deforestation, focal group discussion participants did not mention any private initiatives that work to conserve and protect existing local natural resources. This may be an indication that there is a need for investments that directly support conserving forests or using them sustainably for products and services other than timber.Mining is becoming increasingly important in the landscape, but focal group discussion participants appear to have little knowledge about this sector, and few financial flows seem to link the cocoa and timber sectors with mining. Mining is of concern for the conservation and land-use planning sectors ,but they seem to have little influence on its financial flows or its impacts.An interesting group of actors are the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs). They cannot be assigned to any one sector, since they invest in several sectors: they combine development, infrastructure, education, forestry, etc. in their projects. As the implementers of the development projects that stretch across multiple sectors MMDAs struggle to match their areas's development needs with the money provided by the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF). DACF dictates the priorities for and strategy of the fund through its guidelines.Although the guidelines make reference to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it remains unclear to what extent MMDAs have to comply with the SDGs. They received brief training on the SDGs, but they desire more in-depth training on the SDGs and their application so that these goals can be integrated into the MMDA's development projects. Figure 12 depicts the impacts of financial flows involving MMDAs. It shows that there is room for improvement; SDGs could be one of the tools to make these flows more positive.Districts also expressed their interest in training on applying for external funds, especially now that DACF support has been reduced.Another innovation with potential is the PERD program implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (see Box 1). The program is relatively new and there is a lot of money invested in it. In an effort to diversify farming systems, farmers are encouraged to plant tree crops and sell their produce. Farmers are free to choose the tree crop they want to grow for PERD, but the seedling options seem to be pre-selected based on the commodities that the district is promoting. In the districts in the JBSW landscape, the most commonly promoted commodity is cocoa. This means that most of the farmers joining PERD in this landscape receive cocoa seedlings, which does not contribute much to diversification.While PERD seems promising, it raises some concerns; for example, its correlation with the one-district one-factory program. Does this mean that the farmers in a district must sell their products only to the factory in that district? Is the price predetermined by the government, similarly to how the cocoa industry works in Ghana?If farmers do have freedom to choose the seedlings and where to sell their products, this could provide a potential niche for bankable projects, since farmers might start developing small enterprises, perhaps jointly with other farmers or organizations. With sufficient guidance, such enterprises could be developed into attractive investment opportunities. The methodology is useful for communicating the importance of financial flows to the landscape, and for achieving a general overview of who finances what within the landscape. It provides some details on the financial flows, but clearly more attention should be paid during the assessment to obtaining data on the size of the flows. Also, from the focal group narratives of the flows it seems that in some cases impacts were measured at the source of the flow, and in others at the recipient.For example, when assessing TFF11 (compensation by loggers to farmers) for damage incurred due to logging activities on farms, the impacts that should be evaluated are those resulting from the compensation; in other words, the activities/actions carried out by the farmers as a result of the compensation. But for this financial flow, participants in the LAFF process assessed the impacts of the logging (which triggered the compensation). These impacts are the result of payments for the timber by manufacturers and millers who buy the timber from the loggers.To better assess the impacts of such payments, the methodology requires more detailed descriptions of each of the flows. It may be necessary to do additional work on these monetary payments to determine their impacts on the objectives. How is this compensation used to reimburse the damage caused by logging? What is the basis for defining the amount of the royalties and compensation? While logging damage is not the result of the farmers receiving payments, it would also be interesting to investigate whether farmers can influence the impact of logging by refusing the payments or by for example requesting loggers to apply reduced impact standards.Looking for answers to such questions might empower the recipients of these financial flows and provide ideas of how to make this compensation create positive effects on the landscape objectives. Although the original design of the methodology included such questions, resource limitations (time and money) -together with the fact that the methodology is intended for use by people with little experience in economic research -make it necessary to follow up with more in-depth research into those flows that are of interest to the multi-stakeholder platform.Based on the experience in Ghana it would be useful to make the local teams more acquainted with the methodology before beginning the process. This should include financial details that may help interpret the flows, as well as techniques for facilitating and recording the discussions and interviews. Preparation for the field work should also include a definition of who the actors are (in Ghana, for example, different names were used for the same or similar actors, making interpretation of the results more difficult) and how to assess the impacts. The Juabeso-Bia Sefwi-Wiawso landscape, a vast area, hosts multiple economic activities. Timber and cocoa industries are active in the landscape and both provide financial flows with positive and negative impacts on the MSP objectives. Therefore, they are an obvious choice for further in-depth assessment to learn how their impacts can be made more positive. In the conservation sector numerous initiatives and projects by NGOs and other actors were identified during the LAFF process that aim at reducing the outside pressure on the forest and restoring lost tree cover. However, few organizations actually focus on better conservation and sustainable use of the existing forests. The land-use and planning sector, the last key sector selected for the assessment, covers multiple economic sectors and promotes sustainable land use, but representatives of the sector seem to have a different perception of impacts of specific activities than some of the local actors do.LAFF results are twofold. First, participants of the interactive process gain more knowledge and awareness of the financial make-up of the sectors that they are part of. This is indeed a desired outcome, since more finance-inclusive initiatives and programs are planned. Stakeholder awareness of the topic improves potential collaboration and program success.Second, several cross-cutting trends came up during the assessment. To begin with, every financial flow assessed was seen to improve local livelihoods and economy, but environment-related objectives were often affected negatively, even by legal financial flows. Moreover, privately sourced financial flows have an overall negative impact on conservation-related landscape objectives. The opposite trend was noticed with financial flows from public sources.When focusing on the results for each sector or specific actor, unexpected information and potential opportunities come up. Actors at the extraction/production end of the supply chain are responsive to a certain extent to the financial flows that reach them. These actors often exhibit changes in their practices, depending on the financial flow's terms and availability. Communities or farmers who receive compensation for disturbances and damage done while extracting wood in their area potentially hold the power to dictate the terms of this compensation, since their consent is mandatory for the logging activities to take place.Another important and influential actor group seems to be wood manufacturers, especially those that produce for export. These actors must comply with wood legality policies and provide documentation proving the legality of the goods they produce. In the cocoa sector a similar role is played by the licensed buying companies, who are working on improving their cocoa supplier/producer practices in order to comply with the international demand for sustainably produced cocoa products. In the cocoa sector some of these companies are already applying sustainability criteria when purchasing products, in addition to seek legality. This does not yet seem to be the case in the forest sector.Banks show potential for developing customized loans for the cocoa farmers, which could also be designed to incentivize cocoa farmers to make the transition to sustainable production that meets CFI standards. Private banks could also do this when lending money in the forest sector.From these few examples of LAFF results in the JBSW landscape potential action points for improving sustainability and climate smartness can be identified. This is exactly what LAFF aims to do, to inform and inspire strategies for future developments of the landscape.Annex 1: Scores and estimated flow sizes per sector Timber sector Landscape objectivesLand use and planningLandscape objectiveAnnex 3. Scores per flow per objective, with justifications. ","tokenCount":"14596"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"34ff730d2e47f62a9c963ae5c939a8dd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5ba28b2d-a5f6-45d6-85d2-38978d04c51d/retrieve","id":"677390633"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8abbe18d-e73e-4f6f-a6ce-064128b54492","pagecount":"6","content":"and social inequalities in agriculture and food systems. Yet, inequality remains severe and persistent.-The root causes of gender and social inequalities are structural barriers that manifest as rigid, discriminatory gender norms, policies and institutions.-Current evidence and recent experiences do offer promising solutions for addressing root causes. Most importantly, efforts to boost equality and women's empowerment must be holistic, socially inclusive and integrated across scales-from households to markets and policies-in all food systems domains. Research increasingly examines causes, not symptoms, of inequalities Today's gender research and discourse increasingly focuses on the underlying causes of inequality in food systems, such as persistent structural barriers and norms, rather than simply cataloguing the symptoms of inequality.Addressing these root causes requires enabling transformative change and fostering women's empowerment. Policymakers, development practitioners and researchers must ensure that such efforts are holistic, socially inclusive and integrated across scales-from households to markets and policies-in all food systems domains.The CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform recently developed a global snapshot of gender and social equality and women's empowerment, presented in seven recently published working papers (https://gender. cgiar. org/SWAFS-2023) .The papers, covering six key themes:The papers provided background for and informed the ndings of the 2023 reportThe Status of Women in Agrifood Systems (https://www . fao. org/gender/resources/webinars-and-events/events-detail/fao-report-the-statusof-women-in-agrifood-systems/en) , recently published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).Here we summarize the top insights from the seven working papers.identify changes in thinking and progress on equality over the past ten years document promising solutions to create more equitable, just, resilient and sustainable food systems -Progress in understanding of inequality and empowerment During the past ten years, we have notably seen more systematic, large-scale data collection on gender norms. Likewise, progress has been made on how to de ne and measure women's empowerment, with innovations in the direct, quantitative measurement of women's agency.Second, recent research sheds light on important complexities. For example, literature has expanded on the structural causes of women and men's different capacities for climate adaptation and resilience. Recent studies also offer more nuanced evidence on the challenges of measuring gender gaps in agricultural productivity.Third, research has begun to focus more on intersectionality-how social identities such as gender, age, marital status, ethnicity and caste together in uence how farmers and other people are able to, for example, respond to climate change, control their livestock businesses or increase their agricultural yields.Gender and social inequalities remain severe in many agriculture-dependent, lowand middle-income countries. The main cause of these long-standing inequalities are structural barriers that manifest as rigid, discriminatory gender norms, policies and institutions.These barriers hamper women's access to productive resources, markets, technologies and information as well as their control over assets, which in turn affects productivity gaps. Likewise, customs, laws and regulatory mechanisms tend to lock women out of decision-making spaces, constraining women's voices, agency and empowerment.Rural women's access to and control over land and trees is customarily mediated and controlled by men within their families. -Build capacity to improve women's self-e cacy, support their involvement in decision-making and enhance their knowledge and skills. The way knowledge is shared is also important. For example, interactive voice-response technology instead of text messages can be a better option due to women's generally lower literacy levels. Providing information to husbands and wives when they are together appears to have a positive effect on women's empowerment; it gives women direct access to information, helps secure men's support and challenges gender norms.-Include women's voices in policymaking and decisions at all levels through, for example, inclusive consultation processes. Including their voices is the only way that policies can be informed by and respond to women's diverse experiences and adequately respect their rights. Similarly, women leaders and role models can challenge rigid gender norms and increase other women's agency in areas such as investment, children's education and cooperatives. Evidence indicates that farmers are most convinced by communicators who share their group identity or who have faced similar situations.-Continuously but cautiously challenge prevailing gender norms and customs to address the root causes of gender inequalities. Working with men and boys-while being conscious of potential backlash and increased violence against women-can help shift toxic cultural beliefs, make men's roles and masculinities more visible, alter gendered power relations and foster support and acceptance by men. Gender-transformative approaches can be used to increase women and men's abilities to recognize and analyze systems of inequality and to take action against them.-The insights summarized here were built from extensive reviews of evidence and experience, including input from gender researchers across CGIAR.However, evidence is, in some cases, limited. For example, we need to: ","tokenCount":"755"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b68ce1c70d2abdfe90d027cb108ec4a8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fee4686d-831b-4d5a-ac1c-2c1e66a8f08b/retrieve","id":"607724501"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6bc6e46a-b127-4c15-8548-f8e7a1095310","pagecount":"111","content":"Besoins en termes de renforcement des capacités (politiques & stratégies de l 'IC,sensibilisation,réseautage,compétences,formation,media,TIC,équipement)....................................................................................................... 4.3 Feedback sur l'utilisation des produits et services CTA ...................................Pour procéder à des choix plus stratégiques, le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA) entreprend systématiquement depuis 2003, des études d'évaluation des besoins dans l'ensemble des régions Afrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique (ACP). La présente étude concerne le Togo qui a la particularité de ne pas avoir bénéficié de l'assistance extérieure pendant treize années.Cette étude permettra d'évaluer les besoins réels en information agricole à satisfaire au Togo et de proposer des stratégies adaptées à ce contexte.L'objectif global de cette étude est d'améliorer les stratégies de collaboration avec les organisations ACP actives dans l'agriculture et la pertinence de l'appui du CTA aux pays ACP. Spécifiquement, elle vise à (i) améliorer et mieux cibler les interventions et activités du CTA en faveur des partenaires et bénéficiaires potentiels (notamment les femmes, les jeunes, le secteur privé et les organisations de la société civile) ; (ii) avoir un tableau plus détaillé de leurs besoins, mettre au point une stratégie adaptée et élaborer un cadre d'action en conséquence ; (iii) mettre en évidence les besoins spécifiques en produits et services du CTA et permettre ainsi d'en améliorer la fourniture.L'étude a débuté par une rencontre de deux jours tenue à Abidjan qui a rassemblé les Consultants nationaux, le Coordonnateur régional et l'équipe du CTA. Cette rencontre a permis l'harmonisation des points de vu et la validation du questionnaire d'enquête. Au cours de cette rencontre, les expériences capitalisées par le CTA après la conduite de la même étude dans d'autres pays ont permis d'améliorer l'approche à utiliser. Ainsi, au Togo, vingt neuf personnes (dont deux femmes) représentant dix sept institutions ont été interviewées dans le cadre de cette étude. Ces institutions ont été choisies parmi les institutions intervenant dans les domaines agricole et du développement rural sur la base de leur valeur sociale, économique et de leur contribution dans la collecte des données agricoles, la diffusion de l'information agricole, les décision politique, le PIB, etc. Toutes les personnes interviewées occupent des postes techniques ou de responsabilité dans leurs institutions (Directeurs, Chefs de division, …). Les interviews ont été réalisées entièrement au bureau de l'enquêté. Compte tenu du volume du questionnaire, les premières rencontres ont servi à exposer les objectifs de l'étude à l'interviewé et à mettre à sa disposition le questionnaire accompagné des directives pour lui permettre de s'imprégner et de rechercher les informations nécessaires. Les secondes rencontres fixées suivant la convenance de l'enquêté ont permis de collecter les informations nécessaires et d'avoir des discussions complémentaires. Les interviews ont été menées par une équipe de trois personnes (deux Chercheurs de l'Institut Togolais de Recherche Agronomique -ITRA-et un Journaliste de la Télévision Togolaise -TVT -).Les résultats attendus de cette étude sont les suivants :une description et une analyse de l'état des infrastructures, des services d'information et des capacités de GIC des institutions impliquées dans l'agriculture et le développement rural ; -une identification des besoins en terme d'information et de renforcement des capacités de GIC pour les principales institutions et les potentiels partenaires clés du CTA présents dans le secteur du développement agricole et rural ;une compilation de données de référence sur l'état de la Gestion de l'Information et de la communication (GIC) et des Technologie de l'Information et de la communication (TIC) dans l'agriculture et le développement rural pour un meilleur suivi de la situation. Le profil de chaque pays étudié sera ainsi actualisé, avec des données fiables sur l'état des services d'information agricole, de la GIC et des TIC.Il ressort de l'analyse des besoins en information de l'ensemble des institutions interviewées au Togo, que tous les types d'informations ou de conseils relatifs au développement agricole et rural sont recherchés pour la mise en oeuvre des programmes de développement. Toutefois, il se dégage une forte tendance des institutions interviewées à rechercher prioritairement les informations relatives au développement et financement des programmes, aux marchés locaux, aux financements et micro crédit et aux réseaux disponibles axés sur l'agriculture et le développement.Ces institutions éprouvent souvent de nombreuses difficultés à acquérir des articles de revue, des documents rédigés en français (souvent en anglais), les documents adaptés à une diffusion massive et les informations illustrées. Leurs sources d'information sont très variées mais l'utilisation de l'Internet comme source d'information agricole et rurale est de plus en plus fréquente. Il faut noter la particularité des organes de presse qui utilisent généralement comme source d'information « les consultants » provenant des services techniques du Ministère se l'Agriculture, de l'Élevage et de la Pêche (ITRA, Institut de Conseil et d'Appui Technique (ICAT), Direction de l'Élevage et de la Pêche, …) et des universités du Togo (Université de Lomé et Université de Kara).Les principaux besoins en termes de renforcement des capacités exprimés par les institutions interviewées sont :-l'élaboration et la mise en oeuvre des politiques et plan stratégiques en GIC et TIC au sein des institutions et les financements des programmes, -le renforcement des infrastructures par le renouvellement des fonds documentaires et l'informatisation des centres de documentation, l'édition et la diffusion des connaissances localement disponibles sous forme de rapports d'études, l'amélioration du débit et la baisse du coût de connexion à l'Internet, l'équipement des services d'information en matériel (informatique, Systèmes d'information géographique (SIG), de télécommunication et d'édition), l'actualisation des données statistiques de l'agriculture par un nouveau recensement national de l'agriculture togolaise et l'acquisition de matériels roulant pour faciliter la collecte des données. -la formation et/ou le recyclage du personnel, en diagnostic et planification de projets, en recherche de financement, en techniques de collecte et d'analyse de données (géographique ou non), en développement et gestion de site web, en informatique documentaire, en techniques de communication, à la gestion multimédia, en montage de programmes agricoles (radiophoniques et télévisuels) et aux techniques numériques de diffusion massive. A cet effet, des stages en alternance dans les institutions spécialisées pour les responsables confirmés des services d'information et des programmes de bourses post-universitaires pour les jeunes cadres sont vivement mentionnés.Le magazine Spore est le seul produit du CTA connu de la quasi totalité des institutions intervenant dans le secteur agricole et rural au Togo. Les programmes Diffusion d'Ouvrages de Référence sur l'Agriculture (DORA), DSI et le Service Questions Réponses (SQR) quant à eux ne sont connus que des grandes institutions du secteur agricole togolais (ITRA, ICAT, Direction des Statistiques agricoles, de l'Informatique et de la Documentation (DSID), Ecole Supérieure d'Agronomie (ESA)) alors que l'abonnement au Cédéroms reste encore très faible dans tout le pays. En ce qui concerne les programmes de formation du CTA et les co-séminaires, peu de Togolais bénéficient de ces opportunités souvent à cause du manque d'information.L'analyse des points forts et des points faibles des institutions interviewées et sur la base du mandat (mandat dans le domaine agricole et le développement rural), du public cible (populations rurales et importance numérique), de la qualité des activités menées (pertinence des actions, les domaines touchés) et la couverture spatiale de l'institution, six partenaires et bénéficiaires potentiels des produits et services du CTA ont été identifiés au Togo. Il s'agit d'une institution de recherche agricole (ITRA) d'une institution de vulgarisation agricole (ICAT), de deux ONG (Recherche, Appui et Formation aux Initiatives d'Auto-développement -RAFIA-et Inadès Formation) et de deux organes de presse (TVT et Radio Lomé).Cette étude a permis d'identifier les besoins réels en information des principales institutions intervenant dans le secteur agricole et rural au Togo. Pour les satisfaire, nous recommandons :-la sensibilisation des décideurs à l'importance stratégique de l'information dans le développement agricole et à une prise de responsabilité en matière de politique et de stratégie d'information agricole au sein de leurs institutions respectives; ceci devrait permettre une augmentation du budget alloué à la GIC; -l'accompagnement des structures concernées dans la recherche des moyens nécessaires en vue de l'acquisition des documents contenant des informations pertinentes très recherchées; -la sensibilisation des différentes structures intervenant dans le secteur agricole à l'esprit d'échange d'information; -un effort de la part des institutions agricoles pour capitaliser les connaissances qu'ils génèrent afin de solliciter un appui pour l'édition et la diffusion; -un effort de la part des institutions agricoles pour la mise en place de véritables systèmes d'information informatisés pour la gestion de ces connaissances -le suivi-évaluation périodique de chaque système d'information quant à l'utilisation rationnelle des informations collectées.Les recommandations proposées en terme de renforcement des capacités pour une meilleure gestion de l'information et de la communication agricole au Togo sont articulées autour des axes suivants : le renforcement des capacités institutionnelles, le renforcement des capacités en infrastructures, le développement des ressources humaines et formation et enfin la collaboration institutionnelle, technique et financière. Spécifiquement, nous recommandons :-un appui institutionnel du CTA au Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Élevage, et de la Pêche pour l'élaboration d'une politique nationale de l'information et de la communication agricole qui devra faciliter la coordination du système national de collecte et de diffusion des informations scientifiques et techniques, -en prélude à la mise en place de la politique nationale de l'information et de la communication, une étude approfondie visant à évaluer les besoins réels des utilisateurs serait souhaitable,x -un effort de la part du gouvernement devra être entrepris afin de faciliter l'accès aux outils informatiques (détaxation du matériel informatique) et à l'Internet haut débit même dans les zones enclavées du pays, -un renforcement des capacités en infrastructures des principales institutions oeuvrant dans le secteur agricole en moyens de collecte (matériel roulant et d'acquisition de son et d'image), de stockage (matériel informatique, informatisation des bibliothèques et construction de salles d'archivage numérique) et de diffusion (production de fiches techniques et de matériel pédagogique et didactique, création et gestion de sites Internet) de l'information agricole, -un développement des ressources humaines par la formation de spécialistes et de chercheurs provenant des disciplines concernées par l'information agricole (agronomes, journalistes, sociologues, économistes, etc. -une mise à jour du fichier de diffusion des produits et services du CTA en faveur des seize institutions interviewées et -une programmation systématique des sessions de formation et de recyclage des spécialistes en GIC de ces institutions.Les partenaires potentiels identifiés sont :   (1976 -1980), approuvé par l'ordonnance n°16 du 26 mai 1976, stipule, à propos du secteur de l'information, de la radio, de la télévision et de la presse, ce qui suit : « les mass media sont le véhicule privilégié des méthodes modernes d'animation et d'éducation des populations pour le développement. L'information est donc conçue ici pour éduquer et faire participer ».25. Et le quatrième plan (1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985) rendu applicable par la loi n°005-80 du 26 décembre 1980 de poursuivre : « l'information prend une place de plus en plus grande dans la vie du pays. Pour les responsables au plus haut niveau, elle constitue un moyen efficace de sensibilisation des masses contre les problèmes de la faim, la maladie, l'ignorance, l'aliénation culturelle, et du sous-développement…. Afin de soutenir l'action du gouvernement dans les domaines politique, économique, social et culturel la presse en langues nationales sera développée et distribuée dans le monde rural ». 26. Enfin, les différents textes successifs relatifs à la restructuration du département de l'agriculture, de l'élevage et de la pêche ont toujours prévu des centres de documentation en vue de satisfaire les besoins en information agricole et rurale des décideurs, chercheurs, vulgarisateurs, investisseurs et membres d'organisations paysannes ;de même, les services centraux et régionaux relevant dudit département disposent de cellules d'information plus ou moins organisées. L'Institut Togolais de Recherche Agronomique (ITRA) est l'une des plus récentes institutions étatiques dont l'information figure en bonne place dans les attributions. 27. Cependant, des difficultés de tout genre ont vite surgi et le secteur traverse depuis quelques années une mauvaise passe. Les objectifs fixés aussi bien par les planificateurs que par les décideurs n'ont guère été atteints malgré les bonnes intentions des uns et des autres.28. L'espace médiatique togolais a longtemps été occupé par trois médias d'État. La radio Lomé créée en 1953 dont la mission est d'informer, d'éduquer et de divertir; l'Établissement National des Éditions du Togo (EDITOGO), créée par la loi n° 60-39 du 30 décembre 1960 chargé de produire tout matériel imprimé nécessaire à l'administration, à l'éducation, à l'information, au développement culturel, économique et social de la nation togolaise et la Télévision Togolaise (TVT) créée le 31 juillet 1973, sous l'appellation de « Radio Télévision de la Nouvelle Marche » en abrégé RTNM et devenue Télévision Togolaise (TVT) depuis 1990. Aujourd'hui, l'espace médiatique togolais est caractérisé par l'existence de trente et six presses écrites, de cinquante quatre radio (dont deux chaînes publiques) et de sept chaînes de télévision (dont une chaîne nationale).29. Sur le plan institutionnel, deux organes étatiques règlementent l'information et la communication au Togo. Il s'agit de la Haute Autorité de l'Audiovisuel et de la Communication (HAAC) et de l'Observatoire togolais des médias (OTM). La HAAC a été créée par l'article 103 de la constitution de 1992. Elle est chargée de garantir et d'assurer la liberté de la presse, le respect de la déontologie et l'égal accès des partis politiques aux médias. L'OTM quant à lui, créé le 5 novembre 1999, avec l'appui de la coopération française, a pour objectifs principaux de : défendre la liberté de la presse; protéger le droit du public à une information libre, complète, honnête et exacte; faire respecter le code de déontologie des journalistes. Il regroupe les cinq principales associations professionnelles des médias du Togo : UJIT, Maison du journalisme, ATEPP, SAINTJOP et SYNLICO. 30. En matière de réglementation, après la libéralisation de l'espace médiatique togolais annoncée le 30 Août 1989, une nouvelle loi sur le code de la presse et de la communication au Togo a été adoptée par l'Assemblée Nationale le 24 Août 2004. Cette loi dépénalise les délits de presse passibles de peines privatives de liberté en matière de diffamation et d'atteintes à l'honneur, mais garde son caractère dissuasif et son principe pédagogique par des peines d'amende.31. Depuis février 2006, le processus d'élaboration d'un plan de l'infrastructure nationale d'information et de communication, dénommé Plan NICI a été lancé. Ce plan s'appuiera sur les priorités nationales de développement : la santé, l'éducation , la création d'emplois, la sécurité alimentaire, l'eau, la gestion de la dette, le commerce, le tourisme etc. Il fait partie intégrante de l'Initiative pour la société africaine de l'information adoptée en 1996 par les ministres africains en charge de la planification et du développement social. A ce jour, ce plan n'est pas encore adopté. Le plan NICI, rappelons le, est une prescription de la Commission Economique pour l'Afrique (CEA) qui, de par son statut onusien, assiste présentement vingt neuf pays du continent dans leurs programmes de vulgarisation des technologies de l'information et de la communication.32. Les services d'information agricole au Togo comme partout en Afrique Subsaharienne, sont des structures relevant de diverses institutions nationales, régionales ou internationales où les acteurs du secteur rural trouvent tant bien que mal les éléments de connaissance pour promouvoir leurs activités. On note, depuis des décennies, une certaine concentration des institutions documentaires dans la capitale. Il est évident que les grandes décisions sont prises à Lomé mais rien ne justifie à priori que les ressources informationnelles soient si loin des usagers potentiels.33. Au Togo, les services d'information agricole évoluent en général dans un environnement précaire eu égard à la situation socio-économique du pays. Il faut reconnaître que les besoins en information agricole et rurale sont peu couverts surtout au niveau des services publics. Ceux-ci ne sont plus approvisionnés comme il se doit en information vitale pour la promotion de l'agriculture, de l'élevage et de la pêche. En réalité, l'acquisition d'ouvrages scientifiques et techniques autre que par le biais des dons est presque exclue ; les rapports internes et la littérature grise sont publiés avec beaucoup de retard ; enfin, les abonnements à titre onéreux aux périodiques sont purement et simplement supprimés. Les publications de quelques rares instituts de recherche permettent de renouveler un tant soit peu les informations dont les utilisateurs ont besoin.34. La situation des systèmes relevant des Organisations Non Gouvernementales, du secteur privé ou d'Associations paysannes est moins sombre : la FONGTO, le RAFIA, l'INADES-Formation etc. sont mieux lotis que les institutions de l'Administration publique. Aussi, arrivent-ils tant bien que mal à faire de nouvelles acquisitions de documents et à assurer une diffusion plus active de l'information agricole et rurale.35. Sur le plan organisationnel, le manque de coopération et de coordination entre les différentes structures est un handicap majeur à la répartition des tâches et pénalise les utilisateurs à tous points de vue. Le seul réseau d'information agricole qui allait naître en 1997 dans ce domaine précis n'a pas obtenu l'aval moral et le soutien financier du département de tutelle.36. Les sources d'information ci-après (quelles aient fait ou non l'objet de l'enquête), sont des structures appropriées utilisées par les diverses institutions. Il s'agit de structures relevant de l'Administration, d'institutions internationales ou d'organisations non gouvernementales. Dans leur grande majorité, les demandeurs d'information s'adressent encore à certaines de ces sources. L'orientation des usagers vers des sources mieux indiquées pour répondre à des questions précises est souvent négligée dans les services d'information.37. Les structures relevant de l'Administration sont, entre autres, le centre de documentation de l'ITRA, la bibliothèque de l'ICAT, la bibliothèque de la 40. La fourniture d'information ou de produits documentaires se fait en général sous forme de consultation des documents sur place dans une salle de lecture prévue à cet effet, de prêt aux usagers internes, de photocopies payantes pour les utilisateurs externes, d'affichage de listes de nouvelles acquisitions, de circulation de périodiques au sein de l'institution. L'édition de répertoires bibliographiques et la diffusion personnalisée (DSI), modes très pratiques, sont pourtant rare en raison du coût financier et de leur exigence en outils de gestion et en ressources humaines. 41. Les institutions de tutelle sont pour la plupart, productrices de revues spécialisées, de rapports techniques, de périodiques scientifiques. Elles recrutent de plus en plus, des spécialistes en communication pour rendre facile l'accès à l'information agricole à un plus grand nombre d'acteurs du monde rural. 42. Le Service-Questions-Réponses (SQR) financé par le CTA, qui devrait permettre aux jeunes ruraux ayant reçu une formation agricole de base et voulant développer leurs activités ainsi qu'à des cadres exerçant en milieu rural, de mettre à jour leurs connaissances, est encore mal connu.43. D'autres organes d'information, notamment Radio Lomé, la Télévision Togolaise, Radio Rurale Locale de Pagouda (Binah FM), et d'autres radios communautaires du pays proposent des émissions agricoles spécialisées à leurs auditeurs et téléspectateurs.44. La capacité de gestion de l'information et de la communication au Togo reste faible aussi bien en ressources humaines et financières qu'en informations disponibles.45. En ce qui concerne les ressources humaines, il est rare de trouver trois agents dans la même structure d'information ; très souvent, on affecte à la bibliothèque ou au centre de documentation une secrétaire ou un employé de bureau. Parfois, le responsable du service ou de la division a un diplôme d'enseignement supérieur dans une spécialité qui n'a rien à voir avec les sciences de l'information et de la communication. Les bibliothécaires, archivistes et documentalistes sont de plus en plus rares tout comme les journalistes de la presse écrite et de l'audio-visuel. Ceux qui animent les centres d'information agricole font de leur mieux mais il ne faut pas perdre de vue qu'ils travaillent souvent avec des moyens très rudimentaires. 4 79. Il ressort de l'analyse des besoins en information de l'ensemble des institutions interviewées au Togo, que tous les types d'informations ou de conseils relatifs au développement agricole et rural sont recherchés pour la mise en oeuvre des programmes de développement. Toutefois, il se dégage une forte tendance des institutions interviewées à rechercher prioritairement les informations relatives au développement et financement des programmes, aux marchés locaux, aux financements et micro crédit et aux réseaux disponibles axés sur l'agriculture et le développement.80. Ces institutions éprouvent souvent de nombreuses difficultés à acquérir des articles de revue, des documents rédigés en français (souvent en anglais), les documents adaptés à une diffusion massive et les informations illustrées. Leurs sources d'information sont très variées mais l'utilisation de l'Internet comme source d'information agricole et rurale est de plus en plus fréquente. Il faut noter la particularité des organes de presse qui utilisent généralement comme source d'information « les consultants » provenant des services techniques du Ministère se l'Agriculture, de l'Élevage et de la Pêche (ITRA, ICAT, Direction de l'Élevage et de la Pêche, …) et des universités du Togo (Université de Lomé et Université de Kara).81. Les principaux besoins en termes de renforcement des capacités exprimés par les institutions interviewées sont :- 84. Cette étude a permis d'identifier les besoins réels en information des principales institutions intervenant dans le secteur agricole et rural au Togo. Pour les satisfaire, nous recommandons :-la sensibilisation des décideurs à l'importance stratégique de l'information dans le développement agricole et à une prise de responsabilité en matière de politique et de stratégie d'information agricole au sein de leurs institutions respectives; ceci devrait permettre une augmentation du budget alloué à la GIC; -l'accompagnement des structures concernées dans la recherche des moyens nécessaires en vue de l'acquisition des documents contenant des informations pertinentes très recherchées; -la sensibilisation des différentes structures intervenant dans le secteur agricole à l'esprit d'échange d'information; -un effort de la part des institutions agricoles pour capitaliser les connaissances qu'ils génèrent afin de solliciter un appui pour l'édition et la diffusion; -un effort de la part des institutions agricoles pour la mise en place de véritables systèmes d'information informatisés pour la gestion de ces connaissances -le suivi-évaluation périodique de chaque système d'information quant à l'utilisation rationnelle des informations collectées. -une mise à jour du fichier de diffusion des produits et services du CTA en faveur des dix sept institutions interviewées et -une programmation systématique des sessions de formation et de recyclage des spécialistes en GIC de ces institutions. 99. La deuxième action incontournable sera l'accompagnement du gouvernement en vue de l'élaboration d'une politique nationale claire et précise dans le domaine de l'information agricole. Le gouvernement, tout en faisant appel à l'aide internationale, associera les experts nationaux à l'élaboration d'un document cohérent afin que la recherche, le financement, la production et la circulation de l'information agricole et rurale sortent de l'ornière.Pour faciliter l'accès à l'information, le CTA devra accompagner le Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Elevage et de la Pêche et ses services techniques, les ONG et les utilisateurs à la mise en place d'un mécanisme de partage d'information. Ce mécanisme pourra être un « réseau d'information agricole » au sein duquel le rôle de chaque institution sera définie pour que l'on évite le double emploi. Une véritable étude de faisabilité avec des ressources conséquentes serait le soubassement d'une telle plate-forme. 101. La mise en place d'un système d'information agricole consultable sur le web et les publications périodiques de sources d'information agricole en vue de faciliter l'orientation des utilisateurs vers des structures appropriées ou les mieux indiquées pour satisfaire des besoins spécifiques ne seraient pas exclues. Les structures régionales de l'ITRA joueraient valablement le rôle de centres focaux dudit réseau. Il faut toutefois noter que ce système ne pourra être effectif que si les données de la statistique agricole sont actualisées à travers un recensement national de l'agriculture togolaise.102. Il faudra aussi prendre des options soutenues et hardies pour les stations de radio, TV et la presse écrite. Un programme d'envergure nationale sera indispensable pour bien cerner les besoins et les moyens pratiques à mettre en oeuvre pour les satisfaire.103. Le CTA mettra un accent particulier sur le renforcement des compétences de gestion en ressources humaines. Il pourra à cet effet jouer un rôle de lobbying auprès des institutions appropriées, pour la négociation de stages en alternance dans les institutions spécialisées pour les responsables confirmés des services d'information et des programmes de bourses post-universitaires (spécialisation et recherche) pour les jeunes cadres. Il devra inciter les décideurs au plus haut niveau à créer une filière de formation des spécialistes de l'information et de la communication à l'École Nationale d'Administration. 104. Parallèlement à ces stages et bourses post-universitaires, des ateliers et séminaires de formation périodiques que le CTA financera ou co-financera, pourront être organisés à l'attention de spécialistes provenant des disciplines concernées par l'information agricole (agronomes, journalistes, juristes, sociologues, …). Améliorer les stratégies de collaboration avec les organisations ACP actives dans l'agriculture et la pertinence de l'appui du CTA aux pays africains ACP. Le profil de chaque pays étudié sera ainsi actualisé, avec des données fiables sur l'état des services d'information agricole, de la GIC et des TIC. Le CTA pourra alors décider, en connaissance de cause, des actions à mettre en oeuvre et des partenaires qu'elle aura à choisir. Ces données seront résumées dans un (1) rapport principal sur chaque pays étudié ne dépassant pas 30 pages hors annexes (voir la section 8 ci-dessous).Le consultant utilisera des méthodes d'évaluation rapide, à la fois qualitative et quantitative :passage en revue de la littérature et des sources d'information disponibles, y compris les conclusions des évaluations de programmes ; entretiens avec les acteurs clés et les parties prenantes concernés ; usage limité des questionnaires.La méthode d'évaluation rapide permettra d'avoir un aperçu des principaux problèmes et de connaître les profils des entreprises / organisations dans chaque pays, informations qui pourraient, à l'avenir, servir de base à des études approfondies si nécessaire.Les rapports élaborés sur chacun des pays étudié ne dépasseront pas 30 pages (hors annexes) et seront structurés comme suit : Une liste des personnes/institutions interrogées, avec leurs adresses, leurs numéros de téléphone et fax, leurs adresses mél (le cas échéant). 5. Bibliographie.La version provisoire du rapport et de ses annexes devra être remise dans un délai de trois mois à compter de la signature du contrat par le CTA. La version finale du rapport et de ses annexes devra être remise dans un délai de deux semaines après réception des commentaires et observations du CTA.Les consultants nationaux doivent être titulaires d'un diplôme universitaire ou équivalent, et avoir au moins 10 ans d'expérience dans les domaines de l'agriculture, du développement rural ou des sciences sociales / économiques. Ils doivent avoir une parfaite connaissance du secteur agricole de leur pays, ainsi que des principales parties prenantes et institutions / organisations actives dans ce domaine. Des connaissances en sciences de l'information seront un atout supplémentaire. La capacité à communiquer et à rédiger en anglais ou en français est indispensable. La maîtrise d'au moins une des langues locales pour les besoins des échanges et des interviews sera également un avantage.En plus de disposer des compétences ci-dessus citées, le coordonnateur régional devra parler couramment l'anglais et le français, connaître les pays faisant l'objet de cette étude d'évaluation et avoir une expérience avérée dans la coordination d'études menées par plusieurs consultants à la fois, ainsi que dans la production de rapports de synthèse.La coordination globale de cette étude sera assurée par Melle Christine Webster, responsable adjointe de l'unité Planification et services communs du CTA. En raison du faible niveau de technicité agricole au Togo, les superficies cultivées déterminent encore largement le volume de la production. Dans ces conditions, on note une raréfaction de terre arable entraînant un abandon progressif de la pratique de la jachère qui, à son tour, provoque la baisse de la fertilité et donc des rendements. De plus, par suite de l'exploitation intense du terroir villageois, on assiste à un morcellement important des terres. En 1996, le recensement national de l'agriculture évaluait le nombre de parcelles par ménage agricole à 5,46 et la superficie moyenne d'une parcelle à 0,36 ha. La superficie cultivable est évaluée à 3,6 millions d'hectares, soit 60 % de la superficie totale. La superficie cultivée est évaluée à 1,4 million d'hectares, soit 41 % de la superficie cultivable et 25 % de la superficie totale du pays. Les potentialités en terre ayant une aptitude à l'irrigation sont estimées à 86.000 hectares en tenant compte des ressources mobilisables. Toutefois, les superficies irriguées actuellement en maîtrise totale ou partielle ne s'élèvent qu'à 1.200 hectares pour une superficie aménagée et équipée de 2.300 hectares (les ouvrages non exploités sont dans un état de dégradation avancée). Ces aménagements sont pour l'essentiel, basés dans les Régions Maritime, des Plateaux et Savanes et sont valorisés en cultures de riz, de canne à sucre et accessoirement en cultures maraîchères.En ce qui concerne la foresterie, de 4800 km² de forêts, généralement morcelées en massif de moins de 5000 ha que le Togo comptait en 1970, il ne restait plus que 1400 km² dont 350 km² de plantations en 2006. Les productions sylvicoles représentent 5,5 % du PIB agricole primaire. Malheureusement, pendant que les réserves de terres boisées s'amenuisent, la capacité de régénération naturelle des terres « savanisées » est compromise par le défrichement agricole, les feux de brousse et la recherche de bois énergie (1.800.000 tonnes en moyenne par an) et d'oeuvre 50.000 m3/an. Le déboisement est estimé à 19.400 hectares par an tandis que le reboisement n'est que de 1.000 hectares par an. Malgré la crise politico-économique que traverse le pays, le commerce extérieur du Togo est en croissance continue, avec l'apparition en force de nouveaux secteurs d'exportation (ciment, farine du blé, fer). Ces nouveaux produits d'exportation tendent à réduire le déficit de la balance commerciale togolaise. Ainsi, la suspension des relations avec l'Union Européenne, bien que constituant un facteur défavorable à l'activité économique du pays, ne semble pas avoir de répercussions négatives importantes sur le développement des échanges commerciaux du Togo. La reprise des relations commerciales avec l'Union Européenne permettra sans doute d'accroître les investissements, notamment dans la construction des routes.Depuis l'entrée en vigueur du traité de l'Union économique et monétaire ouest africain (UEMOA), les accords commerciaux bilatéraux signés par chaque pays membre de l'union avec un pays tiers sont devenus caducs. Seule la commission de l'UEMOA est désormais habileté à signer les accords de commerce et d'investissement avec les pays tiers.En tant que pays ACP et PMA, le Togo bénéficie des Accords Préférentiels et non réciproques, ce qui permet à ses produits d'accéder au marché de l'UE. Conformément à l'Accord de Cotonou dont le Togo est signataire, c'est la Communauté Economique des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (CEDEAO) qui est mandatée pour négocier les Accords de partenariat économique (APE) en son nom.Dans le contexte du cycle d'Uruguay, le Togo a entre autre signé l'Acte final le 19 août 1994 à Genève et a ratifié l'Accord de Marrakech instituant l'OMC. A l'issu de ces formalités, il est devenu Membre originel de l'OMC depuis le 31 mai 1995. Mais, à ce jour, le Togo n'a pas encore de représentation directe auprès de l'OMC et des autres organisations internationales basées à Genève.Le Togo est également membre signataire de l'accord de Bangui révisé portant création de l'Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI), qui fait office de structure nationale de gestion des titres de propriétés intellectuelle, et de l'Organisation Mondiale de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OMPI).La politique agricole du Togo a pendant longtemps été fondée sur la déclaration de politique de développement agricole élaborée pour la période 1993 -1997, puis réactualisée pour la période 1996 -2000. Mais au cours des quinze dernières années, la politique agricole du Togo s'est étroitement liée à la lutte contre la pauvreté, elle-même partie intégrante des Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement (OMD). Elle est devenue en outre respectueuse de l'environnement et des normes. La note de politique agricole élaborée en 2005 vise également la sécurité alimentaire, mais tient compte également des soucis d'assurer la compétitivité des produits agricoles ainsi que l'intensification et la diversification de la production agricole. Cette note de politique agricole identifie les principales contraintes du secteur agricole comme étant : la faible productivité des cultures et les faibles progrès enregistrés dans ce domaine au cours de la décennie passée (depuis l'adoption de la politique nationale agricole); la dégradation du patrimoine édaphique, forestier et, dans certains cas, halieutique; et la dépendance excessive d'un petit nombre de cultures d'exportations (coton, café et cacao).A ce jour, cinq axes de politique agricole sont retenus :• renforcement des capacités humaines et matérielles ;• reconstitution du domaine foncier national, son enregistrement et sa mise en valeur ; • promotion de la production agricole, animale et halieutique ;• promotion de la commercialisation ;• promotion des exportations surtout des produits semi transformés.La priorité du gouvernement sera de lever ces contraintes agricoles et halieutiques.Les principales mesures de soutien au secteur agricole comprennent l'exemption de l'Impôt sur le revenu des personnes physiques (IRPP), seulement dans le cas des revenus provenant uniquement des cultures vivrières obtenues sur une surface inférieure à 10 hectares en cultures sèches et cinq hectares en cultures irriguées. Les sociétés coopératives, les syndicats agricoles et les caisses de crédits agricoles sont exonérés de l'impôt sur les sociétés. Cependant, les ventes en gros et les exportations de produits agricoles sont soumises à un prélèvement à titre d'acompte sur les impôts applicables aux revenus ou impositions forfaitaires en tenant lieu.Dans le secteur cotonnier, il faut noter que le Togo soutien l'initiative sectorielle en faveur de cette filière, par des pays producteurs d'Afrique de l'ouest et du centre, auprès de l'OMC. A l'instar des autres pays membres de l'UEMOA, le Togo a renforcé la protection effective de cette filière, avec le passage au Tarif Extérieur Commun (TEC) le 1 er janvier 2000.Pour les filières café -cacao, la reforme de juin 1996 a mis l'accent sur la libéralisation des prix de ces produits et de leur commercialisation (y compris exportation), qui étaient auparavant sous le contrôle d'un office public de commercialisation des produits agricoles. Aujourd'hui, la gestion de ces filières est assurée par un Comité de coordination composé des représentants de tous les opérateurs qui interviennent dans ces filières : l'Etat, producteurs, exportateurs et banques. Le comité détermine toutes les deux semaines, un prix au producteur (prix indicatif) sur la base de l'évolution du prix international et de certains frais; le prix indicatif équivaut à 70% du prix f.a.b.Dans le secteur de la pêche, il s'agit pour le gouvernement de valoriser le fort potentiel de développement de la pisciculture et d'enrayer la dégradation des ressources pour la pêche maritime et continentale.Dans le domaine de l'élevage, il s'agit de promouvoir l'intégration de l'élevage à l'agriculture, mettre en place un système de crédit adapté au cycle des productions animales et redynamiser les campagnes de vaccination contre les grandes épizooties.En foresterie, l'administration forestière, consciente des graves menaces de disparition des forêts classées aux alentours des agglomérations rurales, a tenté diverses formules pour maintenir son contrôle sur les forêts classées tout en permettant aux villageois d'y faire pour leur compte des cultures vivrières à l'exception des cultures pérennes interdites-de manière à les associer aux efforts de conservation ou de replantation. Dans l'ensemble, ce système n'a pas empêché des atteintes renouvelées au patrimoine forestier. Les essais de mise en régie de la production des cultures vivrières en association avec les essences forestières n'ont pas apporté non plus de solution définitive. En dehors de ces efforts, l'administration tente aussi de trouver et d'appliquer des techniques forestières de reconstitution rapide du couvert forestier afin d'accélérer la régénération naturelle des sols.Ainsi, la politique forestière vise-t-elle à rétablir les équilibres socio-économiques et écologiques en poursuivant les objectifs globaux suivants :• contribuer à l'amélioration des conditions de vie des populations en assurant de façon durable leurs besoins fondamentaux en produits et sous-produits forestiers ; • préserver les capitaux fonciers, biologiques et reconstituer leurs potentiels productifs ; • contribuer à la production alimentaire par le biais d'une interaction efficace entre les techniques forestières et agricoles.Après l'accession du Togo à l'indépendance, les autorités ont opté pour la planification comme voie devant conduire au développement du pays. C'est ainsi que plusieurs plans de développement ont été conçus et exécutés depuis 1966. Au cours du quatrième plan (1981 -1985) rendu applicable par la loi n°005-80 du 26 novembre 1980, une nouvelle dimension a été donnée à l'information compte tenu de l'importance de celle-ci dans la vie du pays. L'information est considérée par les responsables au plus haut niveau, comme un moyen efficace de sensibilisation des masses contre les problèmes de la faim, la maladie, l'ignorance et le sous développement. Afin de soutenir l'action du gouvernement dans les domaines politique, économique, social et culturel, la presse en langue nationale est développée et distribuée dans le monde rural.Enfin, les différents textes successifs relatifs à la restructuration du département de l'agriculture, de l'élevage et de la pêche ont toujours prévu un centre de documentation en vue de satisfaire les besoins en information des chercheurs, vulgarisateurs et autres acteurs du monde agricole et rural.En vue de développer les télécommunications, le gouvernement togolais a programmé l'accélération du développement des nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication (NTIC), notamment la téléphonie mobile et l'accès à l'Internet et de la rendre accessible à une plus grande proportion de la population (DSRP-I, 2007).Aujourd'hui, deux organes étatiques règlementent l'information et la communication au togo. Il s'agit de la Haute Autorité de l'Audiovisuel et de la Communication (HAAC) et de l'Observatoire togolais des médias (OTM).La HAAC a été créée par l'article 103 de la constitution de 1992. Elle est chargée de garantir et d'assurer la liberté de la presse, le respect de la déontologie et l'égal accès des partis politiques aux médias.En cas d'infraction aux dispositions, la HAAC saisit le Procureur de la République qui, le cas échéant, fait prononcer le retrait de l'autorisation d'exploitation de l'entreprise audiovisuelle, la saisie de l'antenne ou une sanction pécuniaire, etc.. Mais, les décisions de la HAAC sont susceptibles de recours en annulation devant la Chambre administrative de la Cour suprême.Créé le 5 novembre 1999, avec l'appui de la coopération française, l'OTM a pour objectifs principaux de : défendre la liberté de la presse ; protéger le droit du public à une information libre, complète, honnête et exacte ; faire respecter le code de déontologie des journalistes. Il regroupe les cinq principales associations professionnelles des médias du Togo : UJIT, Maison du journalisme, ATEPP, SAINTJOP et SYNLICO.Pour atteindre ses objectifs, l'OTM procède au dépouillement des journaux, au suivi des médias audiovisuels, et à la publication de communiqués périodiques sur l'observation de l'éthique et de la déontologie dans les médias. Sur le plan religieux, après les animistes (50% de la population), les catholiques sont les plus nombreux (26%). Ils sont suivis par les musulmans (15%) et les protestants (9%), qui comprennent de très nombreuses et actives dénominations « évangéliques » (pentecôtistes, baptistes, adventistes, assemblées de Dieu, …).Le secteur de la santé se caractérise au Togo par la faible capacité des formations sanitaires à répondre à la demande de plus en plus croissante au regard de l'évolution démographique du pays. Cette faiblesse de capacité se caractérise par la pénurie en ressources humaines, l'insuffisance du plateau technique de soins et d'aide aux diagnostics, la vétusté des infrastructures sanitaires et l'insuffisance de financement. En ce qui concerne l'accessibilité géographique, elle est assez satisfaisante car 66% de la population sont situés dans un rayon de moins de 2,5 kilomètres (30 minutes de marche) d'une formation sanitaire (MICS3, 2006). De même, seulement 12% de la population ne fréquente pas les formations sanitaires pour des raisons économiques. S'agissant de la qualité des soins, les défis sont grands; l'enquête MICS3 a montré que seulement 9% de la population est satisfaite de la qualité actuelle des soins dans les services de santé moderne.Le secteur de l'éducation à l'instar des autres secteurs, a beaucoup souffert des longues crises socio-politiques qu'a traversées le pays depuis les années 1990.  -Ressources humaines insuffisantes -Manque de personnel qualifié -Rétention de l'information -Vieillesse de la documentation Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? C'est la principale institution de recherche agricole au Togo. C'est elle qui est chargée de coordonner le système national de recherche agricole et de conduire des recherches visant la promotion du développement agricole dans le pays. De ce fait, l'ITRA dispose d'un potentiel d'information technique très grand qu'elle gère à travers sa bibliothèque centrale et ses bibliothèques secondaires situées dans les différentes zones agro-écologiques du pays. Elle dispose également d'une politique de gestion de l'information et des connaissances qui se traduit par la mise en place dès sa création, d'une division chargée de l'information scientifique et technique.C'est l'ITRA qui coordonne le réseau national du SQR Nom de l'institution: Institut de Conseil et d'Appui Technique (ICAT) Définition de mission et des objectifs : L'ICAT a pour mission de contribuer à la promotion du monde rural par la professionnalisation des producteurs agricole en (i) fournissant un appui technique aux agriculteurs et a leur organisation ; (ii) concevant et en offrant des systèmes performants de formation et d 'appui aux producteurs ; (iii) contribuant au développement des organisations professionnelles agricoles par un appui à la constitution de groupements de base et à leur pleine participation à la définition de la politique agricole et (iv) participer à l'orientation des travaux de recherche agricole en vue de leur application pratique.-Appui conseil aux producteurs agricoles (producteurs et éleveurs) et à leurs organisations professionnelles; -Formation et transfert de technologie; -Appui à l'émergence, à l'organisation et au fonctionnement des organisations de producteurs; -Appui à l'élaboration et mise en oeuvre des plans d'action villageois; -Appui à l'élaboration, à l'exécution de micro-projet et à la gestion des exploitations agricoles; -Appui-conseil à la gestion et à l'utilisation durable de la biodiversité -Appui à la gestion intégrée de la fertilité des sols à travers les CEA; -Promotion de l'épargne et du crédit en milieu rural; -Prestation de service et ouverture aux partenaires.  -Documents adaptés à une diffusion massive Documents rédigés dans la langue appropriée (français) Principaux problèmes rencontrés dans la gestion de l'information et de la communication :-financière -matériels -ressources humaines -compétences Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? la Direction des Statistiques Agricoles, de l'Informatique et de la Documentation (DSID) est chargée de la conception, de la réalisation et du suivi de toutes les actions de collecte des données économiques agricoles et de leur diffusion. Elle contribue en outre à la mise en oeuvre du plan d'informatisation du Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Élevage et de la Pêche (MAEP), à l'élaboration de la politique d'information ainsi que toutes les questions qui y sont liées. Elle est présente sur toute l'étendue du territoire national.Société Togolaise de Coton (SOTOCO) Définition de mission et des objectifs : Elle a pour mission de promouvoir la culture cotonnière et les cultures vivrières entrant en rotation avec le coton.-Encadrement des producteurs de coton -Égrenage -Commercialisation -export) Nombre d'employés (administrateurs, personnel technique, de bureau, etc. à titre permanent et temporaire) :-permanents : 997 -saisonniers : environ 900 / an -Documents adaptés à une diffusion massive Documents rédigés dans la langue appropriée (français) Principaux problèmes rencontrés dans la gestion de l'information et de la communication :-Absence de compétence en GIC -Insuffisance et vétusté des équipements informatiques -Logiciels statistiques non adaptées à la masse de données traitées Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? La Société togolaise de coton (SOTOCO) est une société d'Etat créée depuis 1974 pour promouvoir la culture cotonnière et les cultures vivrières entrant en rotation avec le coton. Elle est le principal opérateur de la filière cotonnière au Togo. Actuellement la SOTOCO s'occupe de l'encadrement relatif aux techniques agricoles. Elle organise les producteurs, supervise la commercialisation et la récupération des crédits. La société consacre de gros efforts à la formation dans le domaine de la mécanisation agricole et de la recherche-développement. -Toutes les catégories d'information surtout les informations techniques Les formats recherchés sont :-Articles de revue, -Résumés, -Documents rédigés dans la langue appropriée (français) Principaux problèmes rencontrés dans la gestion de l'information et de la communication :-absence de personnels qualifiés -insuffisance de ressources humaines -manque de matériels adéquats et de locaux Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? L'Ecole Supérieure d'Agronomie est une école de formation de l'Université de Lomé. Elle est destinée à former des ingénieurs agronomes de conception. Elle forme les ingénieurs agronomes de conception, capables de s'installer comme entrepreneurs agricoles et de créer de l'emploi dans les options de productions végétales, productions animales et agro-économie.Institut National de Formation Agricole (INFA) Définition de mission et des objectifs : Il a assure (i) la formation initiale des techniciens de la profession agro-pastorale, aptes en priorité à promouvoir le secteur privé ; (ii) le perfectionnement et le recyclage des agents de l'agriculture et des professionnels agricoles ; (iii) l'appui pédagogique aux centres et institutions de formation agro-pastorale ; (iv) la recherche appliquée et la vulgarisation au niveau des exploitants. A ce titre l'INFA de Tové explore les marchés de formation et fournit des prestations aux opérateurs privés et publics.-formation professionnelle -formation continue des agriculteurs (groupements) Nombre d'employés (administrateurs, personnel technique, de bureau, etc. à titre permanent et temporaire) :- -les fonds propre de l'institut Principaux besoins en informations non encore satisfaits (inclure les types et le format d'information):-Développement et financement de programmes -Financement et micro crédit -Problèmes liés à l'agriculture -Réseaux disponibles axés sur l'agriculture et le développement -informations techniques -Informations économiques Les formats recherchés sont :-Résumés d'articles -Articles de revue -Documents rédigés dans la langue appropriée (français) Principaux problèmes rencontrés dans la gestion de l'information et de la communication :-Insuffisance des documents -Manque de ressources humaines spécialisées Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? L'IFA/HG est un institut de formation qui a évolué dans le temps. Appelé Ferme SOS de 1985 à 1992, ses activités principales étaient la production des céréales, de tubercules, d'oeufs, de lapins….. Suite aux besoins de formation exprimés par les jeunes, les producteurs de la communauté, dans le domaine agricole et plus particulièrement sur les différentes techniques de lutte contre l'érosion du sol, la Ferme SOS devint de 1992 à 2004, le Centre de Formation en Agro écologie (CFAE). En vue de donner une formation diplômant aux jeunes désireux de faire carrière dans le secteur agricole, le CFAE fut transformé en IFA/HG en 2004. Aujourdhui, Il prépare en 3 ans les jeunes garçons et filles au Brevet de Technicien Agricole (BTA). C'est le seul institut de formation diplômante en agriculture au nord du Togo.","tokenCount":"7628"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f0604342d56684e7a9f569a3aae7e932","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1161daae-2342-4614-a373-f42e0364b73e/retrieve","id":"1494843554"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0e311c7b-828d-425e-97b9-7aec62b89268","pagecount":"22","content":"CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food-secure future. The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock provides research-based solutions to help smallholder farmers, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists transition to sustainable, resilient livelihoods and to productive enterprises that will help feed future generations. It aims to increase the productivity and profitability of livestock agri-food systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and eggs more available and affordable across the developing world. The Program brings together five core partners: the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with a mandate on livestock; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which works on forages; the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), which works on small ruminants and dryland systems; the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) with expertise particularly in animal health and genetics and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) which connects research into development and innovation and scaling processes.In Ethiopia, both women and men farmers engage in agricultural and livestock production. However, gender inequality in access to agricultural extension services and control over resources negatively influence production and productivity. Constraining gender relations at household and community level affect women's access to and control over resources and extension services, which in turn affect their productivity. In Ethiopia, the gender productivity gap is 23% attributed partly to limited access to extension services tailored to women's needs (Aguilar et al. 2014). Advancing gender equality is essential to reducing poverty and increasing production and productivity. A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows that reducing gender inequalities in access to productive resources and services could produce an increase in yields on women's farms of between 20% and 30% (FAO 2011). This shows that, if women were given equal access to productive resources that currently men own and advisory services that target men only, their yield will increase by 3-4%. This provides a compelling reason why addressing gender capacity limitations in agricultural extension matters in Ethiopia.Since women make significant contributions to agriculture and livestock production, it is important that extension service planning and delivery is gender responsive and account for the differential information needs and constraints of women and men farmers and livestock keepers. The gender responsiveness of extension services can improve women's knowledge to make informed decisions and increase their ability to apply appropriate crop and animal husbandry practices. However, research shows that women adopt a small range of technologies than men mainly due to limited access to inputs and services (Ragasa 2012;Manfre et al. 2013). Women are also less targeted or involved in extension activities. Effective gender integration in extension services requires gender capacity development at all levels. Studies show that limited gender capacities of extension service organizations and development agents constrain women's access to information and advisory services, and thus their adoption of technologies (Mulema et al. 2015;Rijke 2017). This report presents a review of literature on agricultural extension services in Ethiopia with a gender lens as a first step for conducting a gender capacity needs assessment of extension services providers. The literature review provides an understanding of the Ethiopia extension system, identifies the extent to which gender is integrated into the extension system, and suggests ways to better address gender in extension services with reference to livestock and animal health extension services. The objectives of the literature review were to:• Assess women's constraints in accessing extension and advisory services,• Assess the extent to which extension approaches and methods are appropriate for female farmers and livestock keepers,• Identify the gender gaps contained in the literature with a focus on livestock and animal health extension services in Ethiopia, and• Suggest ways in which extension and advisory services in Ethiopia can better meet the needs of women farmers and livestock keepers.Gender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature reviewThe provision of agricultural extension services has been a key strategy for agricultural development in Ethiopia (Berhane et al. 2020). The development strategies of governments in Ethiopia over the different eras (the Imperial, the Derg, and the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front [EPRDF]) have focused on agricultural development through technology package-centered approaches as the driving force for achieving overall development (Welteji 2018;Berhane et al. 2020).Historically, different extension approaches have been presented and practiced in Ethiopia with common features and generic challenges (Abate 2007). Agricultural extension service provision over the different periods has generally been characterized by top-down, unimodal and public sector-dominated development approaches. The use of demonstration farms and 'model farmers' has been a key strategy for introducing and disseminating extension packages (Ayele 2016;Hailemichael and Haug 2020). Extension agents work through model farmers to increase extension coverage and serve more farmers.Extension services during the EPRDF period were modeled along the lines of the Sasakwa Africa Association and Global 2000 of the Carter Center (SG 2000) pilot extension program, which employed a modified Training and Visit (T&V) approach. The program promoted the use of technology packages, inputs and credit through practical training and demonstration (Abate 2007;Berhane et al. 2020). Based on the SG 2000 extension approach, the Participatory Demonstration and Training Extension System (PADETES) was adopted as a national publicly-funded extension program, which implemented agro-ecologically differentiated extension packages, namely the minimum extension package, regular extension package and household extension package (Berhane et al. 2020). Structurally, the public extension service spans from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to the regional bureaus of agriculture (including zonal and district offices) and extends down to kebeles (lower level administrative units or communities) through a set of frontline development agents (Leta et al. 2017).The current extension system has gone through many developments both in focus and approaches over the past decades (Berhane et al. 2020). Based on assessments of the PADETES and the 'Rural development policies, strategies and instruments' document (FDRE 2001), a new extension system known as the Participatory Agricultural Extension System (PAES) has been put in place (MoA 2010). The pillars of this extension system include agro-ecology-based diversification and specialization, market orientation and value addition, scaling of good practices, farmer training, household and watershed-based full package and a good practices package. The PAES has also identified different extension user groups including women and youth.The human resource and knowledge infrastructure of the extension system has been developed through the establishment of agricultural technical and vocational education and training (ATVET) colleges and farmer training centres (FTCs) (Abate 2007;MoA 2009) Gender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature review and demonstrations. The FTC management guideline (MoA 2009) provides the principles for the operation and management of the centres.Technology demonstrations on farms of model farmers and FTC farms, working through networks of farmer development groups (both men and women groups and mixed groups in some cases), farmers' field days and extension meetings have been the main extension methods (Leta et al. 2017;MoA and ATA 2017). Farmer development groups consist of 20 to 30 farmers comprised of sub-groups organized with five members, led by a model farmer (Berhane et al. 2020). Recently, the cluster approach, agricultural technology demonstration centre approach, pluralistic extension approach, and information and communication technology (ICT)-based extension delivery models have been introduced to the system. The changes in the extension system are reflected in the Growth and Transformation Plans (GTP I and II) of the government (FDRE 2010 and2016) and in the new institutional arrangements such as the establishment of the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), which is mandated to address systemic bottlenecks in the agricultural transformation process.The ATA has been instrumental in developing various transformation strategies and testing innovative development programs and approaches. For example, the recently tested and scaled-up agricultural information hotline (Interactive Voice Response and a Short Message Service) is exemplary modernization of the extension system. ATA has also facilitated the development of a new extension strategy through a series of stakeholder consultations and assessments at various levels (MoA and ATA 2017). The new extension strategy is organized around nine pillars, among which, focus on client-orientation and pluralistic advisory services; market-oriented and value chain development approaches; gender, youth and nutrition mainstreaming; and environmentally sustainable agricultural practices show the changes in the scope and focus of the current extension system. These changes have implications for the organization and capacity development of extension and advisory service providers.However, despite the changes in scope and approaches over the last decades, human and organizational challenges continue to constrain the extension service (Ashworth 2005;Davis et al. 2010). Development agents face many constraints and have limited soft skills competency to facilitate demand-driven and gender-responsive knowledge exchange and advisory services for diversified extension users including women and youth (Belay and Abebaw 2004).The national extension service has still a narrow livestock focus (MoA and ATA 2017) and livestock and animal health extension services are not yet mainstream services.Gender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature reviewA conceptual framework was developed to inform and structure the literature review (Figure 1). It is assumed that policy commitment is key to mainstreaming gender equality in all agricultural development strategies and programs. However, this policy commitment to gender equality has to be popularized and translated into understandable and implementable formats, tools and actions. In addition, continuous gender capacity development and community engagement processes are required to create awareness and capability both at service providers and community levels. Organizational, individual and community values that underlie restrictive gender relations need to be addressed to empower women farmers and increase their access to and control over resources and extension services. It is expected that gender-capacitated extension organizations and individuals will design gender-responsive extension programs and employ extension approaches and methods that meet the needs of both women and men. Gender awareness at the community and household levels will increase women's representation and engagement capacity in group-based extension activities and consultation fora. Women's empowerment also increases their decision-making capacity and information sharing and influencing capacity at the household and community levels, thereby increasing technology adoption due to collaborative learning and action of household members. Based on the conceptual framework, the review looked at published and unpublished extension literature (genderfocused extension studies, project reports, extension strategy documents, extension packages, training materials and guidelines) in Ethiopia from a gender lens. The review generally looked at gender integration in extension services with reference to livestock and animal health extension.A wide collection of extension literature was generated using online search and collection of materials using a snowballing method from government and non-governmental organizations. The online search was conducted using the following keywords and strings: gender integration in agricultural extension, gender in livestock extension, genderGender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature review of development agents, women's constraints accessing extension services, women farmers' contacts with male development agents, gender disparity in extension services, gender competencies of development agents, gender responsive extension approaches and methods, and gender equality strategies and mainstreaming guidelines. The keywords were rearranged to make them as close as possible to gender in agricultural, livestock and animal health extension in Ethiopia. The online search and physical collection of materials generated 105 publications, which were then screened for inclusion based on the conceptual framework and review questions. Accordingly, 15 publications were dropped, and 90 publications were used for the review.A qualitative content analysis approach (Bengtsson 2016) was used to extract and analyse gender issues contained in the extension literature. We carefully reviewed the collected extension literature and sought for thematic patterns in gender issues that were addressed and the gender gaps identified in the literature. In reviewing the literature, we identified key descriptions, put these descriptions into analytical categories (subheadings), and used these subheadings to present and discuss the findings of the review.Gender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature reviewGender equality is a national policy priority, and the government of Ethiopia has made progress towards recognizing the role of women in the agricultural sector and encouraging gender equality and women's empowerment (FDRE 1993). The national Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) identifies women and youth as key cross-cutting influences in all sectoral strategies and development plans (FDRE 2016). However, the reports provided by the government regarding gender show the number of women reached but fail to provide information on impacts of the polices on these women, and specifically on how the policies helped benefit or empower them. Additionally, there is a discrepancy between the measures of empowerment at the national level and the meaning of empowerment at community levels, which may create inconsistencies in how women's empowerment is framed in policy dialogues (Mulema and Nigussie 2019).Gender equality strategies and mainstreaming guidelines facilitate gender integration in development strategies and programs (MoA 2011; Teshome 2018; Mamo 2020). In addition, the gender machineries at all administrative levels are strategic instruments for mainstreaming gender and ensuring gender is sufficiently integrated in extension planning, implementation and evaluation activities.While capacity is still limited, the recognition for the need to address gender issues in extension has grown overtime. For example, a historical review of Ethiopia's agricultural policies from 1994-2018 by Drucza and Tsegaye (2018) reveals a progressive expansion of women's rights and gender equality. However, gender equality and women's empowerment policy commitments have not yet been fully translated into practical strategies and actions at the lower levels (Drucza and Tsegaye 2018), and gender capacities are very low within the national agricultural research and extension system (Mulema et al. 2015;Rijke 2017). Extension services are still inadequate to systematically mainstream gender thinking and practice in operational terms.The limitations of extension services in reaching out to women farmers and livestock keepers lie mainly in the attitudes and skills of development agents and gender blindness of extension methods and tools (Buchy and Basaznew 2005). There is limited focused effort to develop gender mainstreaming capacities at all levels. Existing gender mainstreaming guidelines and tools are not sufficiently accessible to lower-level gender machineries and extension organizations in practical ways that support gender-responsive planning, implementation and evaluation (Mamo 2020).In addition, there is limited continuous supervisory and training support to develop gender capacities at the lower levels. An insufficient focus on the constraints women farmers face in agriculture and livestock production continues to limit their productivity and food security (Drucza and Tsegaye 2018). A participatory gender capacity needs assessment of research and development partners in Ethiopia shows that gender analysis, strategic planning, knowledge management, and gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) skills are insufficiently developed or underdeveloped (Mulema et al. 2015;Rijke 2017).Women farmers face many gender-based constraints to access and control over resources (Belay 2015;Tenna 2015;Mulema and Damtew 2016). Gender division of labour can limit women's mobility and access to extension services due to shortage of time and labour (Zahra et al. 2014;Desta et al. 2017). Since men traditionally play a decisionmaking role, they have mobility and can access information easily. The perception that men will pass on information to women (Fong and Bhushan 1996) does not necessarily work (Ragasa 2012;Fletscher and Mesbah 2011;Drucza and Tsegaye 2018). In addition, literacy or group membership (Kinati et al. 2018) and male extension agents' assumptions about women's roles in farming (Cohen and Lemma 2011) limit women's involvement in extension activities.Although the GTP II document has a target to reach 50% of women-headed households and women in male-headed households (FDRE 2016), extension services often target male farmers or household heads who are the well-off (Davis et al. 2010;Aguilar et al. 2014;Buehren et al. 2018). Studies show that globally only 5% of extension resources are directed at women and 15% of extension agents are women (IFAD 2009;FAO 2011). In Ethiopia, the fact that male heads of households are about 5 times more likely to be visited by development agents compared to female heads of households results in gender inequality in extension services (Ragasa et al. 2012).Also, women in male-headed households are generally not mainstream clients in agricultural extension services and household surveys. There is a scarcity of data, and very little is known about their needs and constraints (Belay and Oljira 2016). In an analysis of 35 case studies in various countries, Ragasa (2012) shows that gender is largely absent from impact assessments. Women in male-headed households face even more limitations than female-headed households, as gender norms and practices often exclude them from community power structures and access to services. They face barriers in accessing advisory and training support (Collett and Gale 2009). Even when they are targeted for training, it often involves traditional roles that perpetuate constraining gender norms and relations. In addition, men may not allow their wives to participate in training events outside the village.The length of training and venue also influence women's ability to participate and access information and advisory services. Development agents often lack sensitivity to women's work burdens and fail to identify and plan for timeGender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature review and place of extension activities that are appropriate to women (Cohen and Lemma 2011). Training may need to be divided into short modules to accommodate women's schedules and provide rural women with the ability to attend meetings and still manage their day-to-day tasks (Manfre et al. 2013).As Figure 2 shows, male development agents prefer to work with men farmers, who are often household heads, as it may not be socially acceptable for a man to talk to a woman in some cultures (World Bank and IFPRI 2010). It may also be because male-headed households usually adopt new technologies more than female-headed households.Even female extension agents claim that working with women is more difficult, as they are less accessible and tend to delegate extension activities to their husbands (Collett and Gale 2009). This is because extension services have traditionally targeted men farmers, resulting in women having the perception that extension services are not relevant to their needs.Figure 2. Household members who received extension advice on improved dairy production.Source: LIVES baseline data, 2014During participatory training events using the community conversations approach in the highlands of Ethiopia, women participants reported that when extension agents visit homes, they often talk to their husbands (Lemma et al. 2018). Due to their gender bias and/or limited gender capacity, male extension agents often fail to invite women in maleheaded households to discussion during home visits. Husbands also do not invite their wives to discussions when extension agents visit their homes. Moreover, they may not allow their wives to participate in extension events even if women are purposefully invited (Drucza and Tsegaye 2018;Lemma et al. 2018). This shows that gender capacity limitations both in the service providers and community members is a major challenge that constrain women from having equal access to resources, services and decision-making in development activities.While rural women are becoming more involved through participatory engagement approaches such as community conversations, relatively little attention has been given to gender issues in upstream research and extension (Meinzen-Dick et al. 2010;FAO 2011). Addressing constraining gender norms and practices requires sustained gender sensitization and community actions. It requires mobilization and engagement of women and men community members and local service providers in dialogues that help recognize the problems and take actions that free-up women to have equitable access to information and advisory services (Lemma et al. 2019). Group-based methods such as working through women's development groups, women's savings groups and women's research and extension groups can create space for women farmers to interact and access extension services (Farnworth and Hailegeorgis 2010). For example, in a review of the Agricultural Growth Program (AGP) gender integration experience, Belay (2015) shows that group approaches such as women common interest groups and innovation groups are promising ways of empowering rural women. Male extension agents may also find it easier to work with women groups rather than contacting women farmers individually (Cohen and Lemma 2010;Manfre et al. 2013).Head and spouse 16%Other household members 2%Gender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature reviewIn Ethiopia, extension services use different approaches and methods to deliver advisory and training services. These include individual or group visits; organized meetings; use of model farmers; networks of farmer development groups; demonstration plots; FTCs or farmer field schools; farmer field days and, more recently, digital tools such as mobile phones (MoA 2010; Abate 2007). It is assumed that the plurality of extension methods offers opportunity to reach out to various groups of farmers with different needs, interests and constraints in various social settings. In principle, extension delivery approaches and methods must ensure that both women and men farmers acquire the information they need. However, there is little evidence that gender issues influence the choice of extension approaches and advisory methods in Ethiopia. For example, an EEA/EEPRI (2006) evaluation report shows that extension package introduction and implementation methods in the PADETES did not consider the needs and resource endowments of female farmers and livestock keepers.Group extension approaches, such as cluster extension and farmer development groups, are used to deliver training and advisory services to women and men farmers (Leta et al. 2017). The cluster extension approach focuses on developing adjacent plots of different farmer households, who work together and use similar recommended management practices to facilitate easy delivery of agricultural inputs, market and advisory services, and increase production and productivity. The social networks of farmer development groups are based on the 'model farmer' approach. While these community-based extension approaches offer opportunities for farmer-to-farmer information and knowledge dissemination through the demonstration effects of model farmers, they may have limitations on reducing the gender inequality. Due to gender bias of male development agents, the group extension approaches give little attention to the existing gender inequality and may unintentionally perpetuate the existing inequality (Leta et al. 2017). Addressing this gap calls for strengthening the capacity of development agents to diagnose gender issues, identify and apply more gender transformative group extension approaches (Drucza and Abebe 2017;Farnworth et al. 2018).Women also face structural and institutional constraints in getting represented in relevant fora, and their voices are often not heard (Ragasa 2012). They can be poorly represented when extension services are delivered through group or community meetings. For example, in Ethiopia, 11% versus 28% of women and men, respectively, participate in community meetings (World Bank and IFPRI 2010). There is also a risk in the cluster extension approach that women farmers might be excluded due to their limited access to productive resources, distance between home and clustered farm plots, lack of capital to practice extension packages, limited access to finance, time poverty and other factors (Leta et al. 2017). Women farmers also have limited say and take no or have weak leadership positions in key community groups such as producer cooperatives (Kinati et al. 2018). Even when women farmers can participate in community meetings, gender norms may impede them from voicing their opinions and needs in the presence of men.It may be necessary in some places to work with women-only groups. Community conversations in rural Ethiopia show that women participate more actively in women-only groups than in mixed groups (Lemma et al. 2019). Women farmers build social capital within single-sex groups fostering communication and information sharing that is extremely valuable for disseminating extension messages (Manfre et al. 2013).The FTC management guidelines (MoA 2009) have an inadequate approach on how to facilitate community training with women farmers. In addition, most FTCs do not provide services for women farmers who are mothers and may come with children, and this may not attract women to attend training programs (Ashworth 2005;Davis et al. 2010;MoA and ATA 2017). This is alongside the fact that the daily workloads of many rural women do not usually allow them to attend trainings.Addressing training attendance challenges posed by women's reproductive roles requires women-friendly training approaches, such as making sessions shorter or spreading them out over a few days, proximity of training venue, and childcare arrangements at training sites. It requires designing extension messages and training materials that are easy for women farmers to understand and apply. In areas where women farmers have lower literacy rates than men farmers, it is crucial to adapt and use training materials that can be easily understood, possibly supported with illustrations (Ragasa 2012). Household and community-based extension and training approaches are convenient for women farmers and livestock keepers (Farnworth and Hailegeorgis 2010;Mbo'o-Tchouawou and Colverson 2014).Gender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature review Community extension approaches, such as community conversations, couples training, household coaching and mentoring and women's development groups have been found promising to transform constraining gender relations and empower women (Lemma and Tesema 2016;Lemma et al. 2018).Providing information and advice on livestock production and health has rarely been a priority for national extension services in developing countries (Morton and Matthewman, 1996). In Ethiopia, the national extension system has been predominantly crop-based, and there has been generally less focus on livestock extension (Tegegne, Gebremedhin and Dirk 2010;ATA and MoA 2017). While the deployment of livestock development agents at the community level encourages integration of crop, livestock and natural resources in crop-livestock production systems, the animal health service is less integrated with livestock production extension. At the delivery level, livestock production, animal health and livestock marketing messages have not been fully integrated and the capacity to integrate gender is limited mainly due to the gender-blindness of animal health extension and communication curricula and lack of on-the-job training opportunities.Box 2: Gender receives little or no attention in animal health extension courses.The 'animal health extension and pastoralism' module of Wollega University, School of Veterinary Medicine (Abda 2014), exemplifies a lack of capacity to integrate gender perspectives into the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine modular curriculum. A review of the module shows that gender integration is at a minimum, and that the gender capacity of faculty is limited. The module mentions gender only two times in relation to technology assessment and grazing management. It lacks a purposeful effort to integrate gender awareness and perspectives. The promotion of gender equality and gender awareness needs to be integrated into the module description, objectives, learning outcomes, teaching methodologies, content, learning activities, learning materials, language use, classroom interaction, and learning assessment.A number of policies and regulations have been designed to prevent and control the transmission of animal and zoonotic diseases in Ethiopia (MoA and ILRI 2013b,c;Shapiro et al. 2015), but this has not been matched with a streamlined approach for designing and delivering animal health extension services. Although the Livestock Extension Vision and Strategy for Ethiopia (MoA and ILRI 2013a) acknowledged the failure to devise appropriate strategies to narrow the gender gap as a challenge in the national extension system, the envisioned strategic interventions do not put specific gender targets (such as number of community animal health workers or female livestock extension agents trained) or specify the strategy or consider experiences elsewhere to address gender issues in the proposed livestock extension system. For instance, the FARM Africa Dairy Goat Development project trained mostly women as veterinary scouts in eastern and western Hararghe zones of Oromia region and Konso, Walayita and Dalocha areas of southern Ethiopia during its implementation (Admassu 2014). The capacity for translating animal disease prevention and control policy provisions and livestock extension directions into implementable strategies and community education approaches and actions is limited (Bekele et al. 2018). Addressing this limitation requires a full and inclusive livestock extension strategy for providing extension and advisory services to women and men livestock keepers by integrating livestock production, health and marketing issues. Developing the competencies of livestock production and animal health extension agents (Tarekegne et al. 2017) to provide gender-responsive and client-oriented extension and advisory services in an integrated way is also important.A literature review by Kinati and Mulema (2019) show that labour, decision-making, ownership and control of livestock and access to knowledge and information are core gender issues in Ethiopia's livestock production systems. Access to livestock production and animal health extension services usually depends on who owns livestock and the type of livestock species owned. Women often prefer and own small animals such as sheep, goats or poultry that Gender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature review are easy to manage and, therefore, do not increase their workloads (FAO 2012). However, these animal species are perceived as less valuable, and extension agents may not give attention to them (Miller 2011). In addition, women's access to animal health services is limited by their heavy work burdens and illiteracy, which limit the value of written extension materials and their confidence to seek out information on their own.Rural women may also be excluded from livestock and animal health extension services as livestock value chains require resources and labour (Lemma et al. 2016;Tesema et al. 2017). Most livestock technologies require capital, and women have less capital resources compared to men. Studies show that women are predominantly at small-scale production stages of livestock value chains where income is very low (Herego 2017). Women face many barriers to upgrade their livestock value chain activities including lack of skills, resources, networks and services or even controlling their businesses or incomes (Rijke 2017). When women's livestock value chain activities become profitable, men often get involved and control women's businesses or income (MoA and ILRI 2013a).Livestock health experts often use technical language that may be intimidating to uneducated women and men community members. Limitations in communication and participatory training and advisory skills constrain their ability to effectively provide animal health extension and advisory services. Community conversations on animal health issues in rural Ethiopia show that livestock health experts often find it challenging to communicate technical messages to women and men community members in understandable local terms and expressions (Lemma et al. 2019). It is important to contextualize technical messages in words and expressions that are familiar to women and men community members and fit their thinking and reasoning frameworks. This is a specific skill that needs to be addressed in the training of extension agents.In addition, lack of mobility and lack of awareness of available services further decrease women's opportunity to learn about animal health and disease prevention. Many are unaware of the presence of either government or private health care offices, even when they are close by (Rota 2007). The gender division of labour in livestock production also limits women's mobility and ability to access information because most activities such as feeding, cleaning, watering and milking are carried out around the home (Kinati and Mulema 2019).The MoA and ILRI (2013b) animal health strategy and vision for Ethiopia recognizes that current animal health extension services are generally poor, causing high mortality and morbidity rates. Veterinary services usually focus on preventive vaccination and treatment of sick animals. The thinking and practice of animal health extension and advisory services that aims at educating and advising women and men community members about integrated animal health management strategies and practices is limited (Atkinson 2010;Bard et al. 2017). Community members have limited access to animal health education, advisory and training services that target key areas like prevention of zoonotic diseases, reducing impact of highly endemic production diseases, rational veterinary drug use, or animal welfare.The animal health strategy and vision document identifies strategic animal health management and knowledge sharing interventions, but it has given less attention to gender-responsive service delivery approaches and methods. It also gives little attention to capacity development of animal health service providers to succeed with the strategic interventions. On-the-job training and mentoring in gender-responsive community-based extension approaches and adult learning methodologies will be critical to improve animal health extension service delivery (Farnworth and Hailegeorgis 2010;Tarekegne et al. 2017).The human health extension program of Ethiopia (MoH 2003(MoH , 2005) ) offers good plan for addressing gender issues in animal health through the training and deployment of female animal health agents, who are culturally acceptable to work with female livestock keepers. Health extension workers (mostly female except in pastoralist areas) are posted to rural communities where they provide equitable access to health services for women, children and men community members. Experiences from the human health extension program can offer many valuable lessons for the deployment and training of female animal health extension workers (Kok et al. 2015;Assefa et al. 2019).Gender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature reviewThe review concludes that:• The capacity to translate gender equality policy instruments into actionable strategies and to implement these in Ethiopia is limited at all levels. Gender mainstreaming guidelines and tools are not sufficiently translated into accessible and useable formats or popular versions.• Livestock and animal health extension is least featured in the extension literature.• Gender biases and capacity gaps both at the extension service and community levels are key gender integration challenges in extension services.• Many factors constrain women's access to extension and training services, notably lack of time due to work burdens, lack of mobility due to time shortage or cultural influences and restrictive values and gender relations.• Current extension approaches and methods are inadequate to address specific needs of women farmers and livestock keepers.• Many innovative project-based approaches and methods exist to address gender in extension and increase women's access to information and knowledge on livestock and animal health issues.• But the potential of group-based extension approaches and methods for gender inclusion and women's empowerment has not been exploited fully due to limited gender capacity of extension service organizations and frontline development agents.The findings and conclusions of the literature review suggest the following action points to develop gender capacities at all levels of the extension system. The action points focus on addressing gender biases in the extension service through continual capacity development and mentoring support and transforming structural gender inequalities in communities through community-based approaches and processes.Male household head-only training can suffer training application challenges, as husbands rarely transfer learning to their household members. Recommended actions to reduce this challenge include:• Use of gender-responsive training approaches and methods, such as couples training, household coaching and mentoring, and community conversations.Gender integration in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system: a literature review• Setting up women-customized training programs with a flexible time schedule and childcare services.• Organizing women-only training programs supplemented with coaching and mentoring support• Using female trainers and facilitators.• Training and mentoring support to frontline development agents in adult learning methodologies.Working with women farmers may require different extension approaches and methods to those used when working with men farmers. Suggested gender-responsive extension approaches include:• Community-based extension approaches, such as working with women development groups, farmer research and extension groups, farmer trainers and mentors.• Business-oriented household extension approaches, such as household coaching and mentoring and advisory services that involve both household members, not only household heads.• Recruiting and training more female development agents.• Working with a combination of women-only and mixed-group approaches.• Promoting and strengthening participatory and gender-responsive livestock and animal health extension approaches and methods.• Developing and disseminating 'best practice' materials in working with women farmers and livestock keepers.Impactful empowerment of women farmers and livestock keepers can be achieved by addressing cultural values and gender norms that constrain their full control of resources and participation in extension and advisory services. Recommended actions to reduce constraining gender norms and practices include:• Popularizing gender policy instruments by developing popular versions that can be applied easily at the implementation level.• Community awareness and engagement using community conversations and household methodologies.• Strengthening women support structures, such as women development groups and women's associations to adequately represent and voice women's issues in consultative fora and decision-making platforms.• Promoting women-focused stakeholder platforms at the community level.• Strengthening group discussion methodologies and gender-responsive community engagement processes.Expanding access to women-friendly information and advisory services Weak capacity to identify the differential needs and constraints of women and men farmers and to appropriately customize extension messages, technologies and delivery methods to their needs and constraints has been a major challenge in extension practice in Ethiopia. Recommended actions to increase women's access to technologies and information include:• Conduct needs assessment to identify gender differentiated priorities and preferences• Developing women-friendly extension communication materials and diversify communication channels.• Employing gender-responsive training and advisory methods.• Working with and through women voluntary groups such as women's associations, common interest groups and women research groups.• Training and recruiting more female extension agents and trainers.While the review has highlighted the gender gaps in extension and advisory services in Ethiopia, like most literature reviews, it has some limitations. Firstly, we do not claim that the collection of the literature on Ethiopian extension is exhaustive, despite attempts to create a comprehensive collection of relevant extension literature. Some are grey literature and are not well archived in physical repositories or are not accessible. Secondly, the review is mainly based on online searches and may have missed some materials that are not available online. Despite these limitations, we believe that the review covers materials representative of the extension literature in Ethiopia.","tokenCount":"6076"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bc59261df6769b25fea85c81ffc76f54","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8edda8c2-4790-4bf1-b9bb-514517375be8/retrieve","id":"-1667883715"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f1ba5559-0fd8-4ec6-836c-a364a6487ead","pagecount":"12","content":"Cassava brown steak disease (CBSD), caused by Cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) and Ugandan cassava brown streak virus (UCBSV), is the most important biotic constraint to cassava production in East and Central Africa. Concerted efforts are required to prevent further spread into West Africa as well as to reduce losses in areas already affected. The study reported here was part of a five-country (Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda) programme that aimed to identify superior cassava cultivars resistant to CBSD and to disseminate them widely in the region. Seventeen tissue-cultured and virus-tested cultivars were evaluated in Tanzania across nine sites with diverse CBSD inoculum conditions. Experiments were planted using an alpha-lattice design and assessments were made of surrounding inoculum pressure, CBSD foliar and root incidence and root yield at harvest. There were large differences in CBSD infection between sites, with greatest spread recorded from the northwestern Lake (Victoria) zone. Differences were driven by Bemisia tabaci whitefly vector abundance and CBSD inoculum pressure. Both CBSV and UCBSV were almost equally represented in cassava fields surrounding experimental plots, although CBSV predominated in the north-west whilst UCBSV was more frequent in coastal and southern sites. However, the incidence of CBSV was much greater than that of UCBSV in initially virus-free experimental plots, suggesting that CBSV is more virulent. Cultivars could be categorised into three groups based on the degree of CBSD symptom expression in shoots and roots. The seven cultivars (F10_30R2, Eyope, Mkumba, Mkuranga1, Narocass1, Nase3 and Orera) in the most resistant category each had shoot and root incidences of less than 20%. Fresh root yield differed between sites and cultivars, but there was no genotype by environment interaction for this trait, probably attributable to the large fertility and soil moisture differences between sites. Susceptible cultivars and the local check performed well in the absence of CBSD pressure, highlighting the importance of exploiting quality and yield traits of local landraces in breeding programmes. Overall, our results emphasized the importance of applying a balanced strategy for CBSD management. This should use both improved and local germplasm resources to generate high yielding cultivars for specific end-user traits, and combine the deployment of improved cultivars with phytosanitary control measures including the use of healthy planting material and planting during periods of reduced CBSD infection.Cassava is an important source of food to many people in the tropics and sub-tropical locations of the world where its key role as a subsistence crop is significant as well as its use in industrial processing (Ceballos et al. 2012). The importance of cassava is further emphasized by the fact that it is perceived as the future food security hope for Africa because it can survive unpredictable climatic conditions that may be exacerbated under future climate change scenarios (Jarvis et al. 2012). Nevertheless, cassava virus diseases continue to cause widespread losses to cassava production throughout East and Central Africa despite large-scale efforts deployed to mitigate their impact. Two of the most important current biotic constraints are the virus diseases: cassava mosaic disease (CMD) caused by cassava mosaic begomoviruses (CMBs) and cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) caused by cassava brown streak ipomoviruses (CBSIs) (Legg et al. 2011(Legg et al. , 2015)). Although CMD is still prevalent wherever cassava is grown in Africa, its impacts have been largely reduced through planting of resistant cultivars (Manyong et al. 2000). CBSD, however, continues to pose a major threat to Africa's cassava producers. Only moderate success has been achieved in identifying durable CBSD resistance/tolerance through historical conventional breeding approaches. Important progress has been made using a variety of strategies to engineer resistance/tolerance using transgenic approaches (Yadav et al. 2011;Ogwok et al. 2012;Odipio et al. 2014;Beyene et al., 2016). However, the impact of this work continues to be constrained by the current unfavourable regulatory conditions in most of the countries either directly affected or threatened by CBSD. This situation has forced researchers in the region to continue to rely on conventional breeding approaches (Kaweesi et al. 2014;Kawuki et al. 2016;Tumwegamire et al. 2018), albeit also supported by other biotechnological approaches such as marker-assisted breeding (Amuge et al. 2017;Anjanappa et al. 2018). Two CBSI species: CBSV and UCBSV (Mbanzibwa et al. 2009;Winter et al. 2010) are responsible for the CBSD pandemic and are both widely distributed in the affected areas of East Africa (Mbanzibwa et al. 2009;Winter et al. 2010). Both CMBs and CBSIs are transmitted by the same whitefly vector, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) (Dubern, 1994;Maruthi et al. 2005).From the time of its first report in the 1930s (Storey, 1936), CBSD remained confined for decades within the coastal lowlands of East Africa and around Lake Malawi (Nichols, 1950). A new outbreak of CBSD, however, spread rapidly from the mid-2000s at locations > 1000 metres above sea level (m.a.s.l) in East Africa (Alicai et al. 2007). This outbreak developed quickly into a pandemic in the Great Lakes region of East and Central Africa. As with the severe CMD pandemic before it, it was considered that the 'trigger' for this sudden change in disease epidemiology was the greatly increased abundance of the whitefly vector, B. tabaci (Legg et al. 2011(Legg et al. , 2014)). Later reports highlighted further westwards spread into parts of Central Africa (Bigirimana et al. 2011;Mulimbi et al. 2012;Mulenga et al. 2018), associated primarily with UCBSV. Further CBSD spread to the east has been reported in the Comoros Islands highlighting the spread of both CBSV and UCBSV (Azali et al. 2017). As opposed to the earlier spread of only UCBSV in Central Africa, more recently, mixed infections of CBSV and UCBSV have been reported in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), albeit at low incidence (Casinga et al. 2019).It is becoming clear that much of the spread of CBSD is through infected planting material. CBSIs have been shown to be spread by the whitefly vector over relatively short distances, as the semi-persistent mode of transmission means that virus particles are retained by whiteflies for relatively short periods of time (Jeremiah, 2012;Maruthi et al. 2017).Whereas distribution of quality planting material is vital to the success of cassava production, sustainable seed systems must be implemented in ways that minimize or prevent the propagation of viruses in planting material. These should be applied in such a way that efforts to generate improved germplasm are effectively safeguarded (Dixon et al., 2003;Kawuki et al. 2016). There has been limited progress in developing CBSD-resistant cultivars, and none of the currently available cultivars in East and Central Africa has a high level of resistance to the disease. A recent study on cassava degeneration (Shirima et al. 2019) points out the influence of the environment and planting season as key aspects in the successful evaluation of breeders' material, highlighting large seasonal differences in whitefly abundance which led to contrasting patterns of disease spread. Several studies have published information on field resistance of cassava cultivars to CBSD using sets of cassava cultivars, but these did not cover multiple locations (Kaweesi et al. 2014;Kawuki et al. 2016;Masinde et al. 2018). There are currently no reports of the response of cassava cultivars to CBSD under contrasting agro-ecological conditions. In order to address this gap in knowledge, the current study therefore evaluated 17 cultivars including one susceptible check from diverse sources at nine sites located in four contrasting acro-ecological zones in Tanzania. Note that in our study, we follow the example of Thresh et al. (1998); Kaweesi et al. (2014) and Kawuki et al. (2016) in using 'resistance' to describe a reduced propensity for cassava cultivars to become infected by CBSIs, manifested by a reduced incidence of disease symptoms.Sixteen elite cassava cultivars and or clones from Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania, hereafter referred to as \"cultivars\", and one CBSD-susceptible cultivar (Albert) were obtained under the \"New Cassava Varieties and Clean Seed to Combat CBSD and CMD Project (5CP) (IITA-Tanzania, 2012;Tumwegamire et al. 2018). Stem cuttings for each cultivar from each country were sent to the UK's Natural Resources Institute as well as the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services in Nairobi, Kenya for virus indexing and tissue culture (TC) production. Virus-indexed TC plants were mass-multiplied at Genetic Technologies International Limited in Nairobi, Kenya. Following proper plant import/export procedures (Tumwegamire et al. 2018), up to 300 tissue culture (TC) plants per cultivar were hardened off at the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) Kibaha in Coast Region (Pwani) and the TARI station at Maruku in Bukoba (northwestern Tanzania). Hardened plants were multiplied in the field at TARI-Makutupora in Dodoma for the TC plants that were hardened at Kibaha, while those hardened at Maruku were multiplied on station. These sites were selected in view of their negligible CBSD inoculum pressure. Multiplication fields were isolated by being situated at distances of more than 300 m from any other cassava field. Plants multiplied at Makutupora were used to plant experimental sites in central, eastern and south-eastern Tanzania while those multiplied at Maruku were used to plant sites in north-western Tanzania.The timing of the onset of the rainy season in the respective agroecological zones where the experiment was conducted predetermined the planting dates. Seven sites were planted between October 2015 and January 2016 while the remaining two sites were planted in April 2016 (Table 1). All sites were maintained under rainfed conditions throughout the growing season. The planting plan followed an alphalattice design with two or four plots per block and up to 21 blocks depending on field layout per site. Each plot measuring 6 m by 7 m was planted with 1 m spacing between plants resulting in 42 plants per plot. Blocks were separated by 2 m spaces. The outer lines of each plot were considered as guard rows while the remaining inner lines (20 plants [four lines times five plants]) were considered as the net plot which was used for all field assessments and statistical analyses conducted during the experiment.At two months after planting (2MAP), cassava fields within a 250 m radius of each of the nine experimental sites were assessed for CBSD incidence and vector abundance. For each surrounding field, the distance between the centre of that field and the central point of the closest edge of the experimental plot was estimated using a GPS unit by walking between these two points. B. tabaci adults were counted on the first five fully expanded leaves of the tallest shoot of each of 100 plants selected randomly along two diagonals (50 plants on each) in the field. CBSD incidence was calculated as the proportion of the 100 plants expressing foliar CBSD symptoms. The total number of plants in the field was estimated by counting plants on two adjacent edges of the surrounding field and calculating their product. These data were used to calculate surrounding CBSD index (Surr CBSD index) using the method of Legg et al. (1997). Crop age for each surrounding field was also recorded. Depending on the number of surrounding fields and availability of symptomatic plants, ten asymptomatic and up to fifty CBSD-symptomatic leaf samples were collected per site for detection of CBSIs. The central leaf lobe of the fifth fully open leaf (counting from the shoot tip) was picked and pressed in a wooden herbarium press which was clearly labelled with the field number and site name. Leaf samples were kept dry in this way until required for nucleic acid extraction. During nucleic acid extraction, approximately 35 mg of dried leaf was picked, and total RNA was isolated using an optimized CTAB (cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide) method with some modifications from the methods of Lodhi et al. (1994) and Maruthi et al. 2002. The resulting RNA was analysed using CBSV-and UCBSV-specific real-time RT-PCR TaqMan assays (Shirima et al. 2017;Adams et al. 2013).Vector abundance (B. tabaci) was estimated at 2MAP by counting whiteflies on five fully expanded top leaves of the tallest shoot of each of ten plants selected randomly along two alternating plant rows within the net plot. Averages of these counts were calculated as a proxy for the number of insects per plant (whitefly abundance). CBSD shoot symptoms were assessed for all experimental sites at 2MAP and at 12MAP for all sites. CBSD foliar incidence was calculated as the percentage of plants expressing foliar symptoms of CBSD. Data were collected for leaf symptom severity using a scale of 1-5 where 1 = asymptomatic, 2 = mild severity and 5 the most severe symptoms (Gondwe et al. 2003). Severity scores from 2 to 5 were averaged per plot and the resulting value represented the mean severity score for the cultivar planted in that plot. Asymptomatic plants (score 1) were not included in these calculations. Means of the three replications were regarded as \"shoot severity\" for a given cultivar.Five CBSD symptomatic plants were randomly tagged along the two alternate rows at 2MAP and used for leaf sample collection for CBSIs testing. Where the number of symptomatic plants was lower than five, or where no symptoms were observable, plants were randomly selected along these alternate rows. Leaf samples once collected were pressed in a wooden herbarium press and preserved dry before further analysis. Fifteen plants were sampled per cultivar (five plants from each replication) making a total of 255 leaf samples collected per site and tested for CBSIs at 2MAP. In total, 135 leaf samples were tested per cultivar across all nine experimental sites.At 12MAP when the five tagged plants were harvested, root samples were collected whenever symptomatic roots were encountered, following the root cutting procedure described in Section 2.5. On each occasion a ca 500 g sample was chopped from one symptomatic root and another from an asymptomatic root of the same plant. The total number of root samples collected per site depended on the presence of root symptoms. Collected root samples were wrapped in clean aluminium foil and labelled. The labelled samples were placed immediately in a cool box containing ice blocks and temporarily stored in a freezer at −20 °C. When brought to the laboratory (IITA, Dar es Salaam), samples were frozen at −80 °C until further analysis. Additionally, a random sample was collected in a similar way from plots where no root necrosis symptoms were encountered. RNA extraction and virus testing were conducted as described earlier (Section 2.2) whereas for root samples, approximately 200 mg of fresh root sample was used. While testing RNA from leaf samples, pools of five samples per plot were tested and subsequently individual samples were tested from all pools that gave positive results.At 12MAP cassava plants in the net plot were harvested. Roots from one net plot were pooled together and their composite weight was recorded using a balance. Total root weight per plot was calculated by adding weights of the individual roots from the five tagged plants to the composite weight of the 15 plants. This was converted to tonnes per hectare (t/ha). Root dry matter content (DM) was calculated using the specific gravity method developed by Teye et al. (2011) using roots from three randomly selected plants per plot. Harvest index (HI) was calculated as the ratio of root yield in tonnes per hectare (t/ha) to the total biomass (sum of the total root and shoot yields in t/ha).CBSD root necrosis symptoms were assessed for the five tagged plants by making five cross-sectional cuts in each of the roots harvested from the five tagged plants. CBSD symptoms were then scored using a scale of 1-5 where 1 = healthy, 2 = mild and 5 = severe corky necrotic symptoms with root constrictions (Hillocks and Thresh, 2000). Additionally, roots from the remaining 15 net plot plants were piled up, cut individually and assessed for CBSD symptoms as described. Data from these two sets were pooled and calculations made to get total root incidence and unusable root incidence (Ndyetabula et al. 2016).Analysis of variance, linear regression and correlations were performed using the General Linear Model and correlation analysis procedures of the Statistical Analysis System (SAS, Institute Inc. Cary, NC, USA, version 9.4). Means were separated using the Student-Newman-Keuls Test imbedded in the General Linear Model Procedure of SAS. One-way Anova was employed to perform pairwise comparisons of CBSD root severity means between sites and means were separated using the Holm-Sidak procedure at the P < 0.05 level. Correlation analyses were used to examine relationships between CBSD leaf and root incidences, CBSD incidences versus yield parameters as well as the relationship between foliar CBSD incidences recorded in trial plots and the CBSD inoculum pressure in surrounding fields (Surr CBSD index). Surr CBSD index is composed of three variables: plant population, CBSD incidence and the distance of surrounding fields from the trial plot. The effects of Surr CBSD index and whitefly abundance for predicting CBSD foliar incidences in the trial plots were examined using multiple regression analyses.Contrasting levels of CBSD inoculum pressure (Surr CBSD index) were observed amongst the surrounds of the sites used in this study. Although the Lake Zone (LZ) had the two sites with the highest Surr CBSD index values (Chato, 700.9 and Bunda, 534.3; Fig. 1), the high degree of variability of Surr CBSD index within sites in each zone was such that there was no overall significant difference between the two zones. The situation was similar for whitefly abundance where although all LZ sites had higher whitefly abundances than all Coastal Zone (CZ) sites, the high degree of variability meant that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups of sites.There was no significant correlation between either distance (P = 0.58) or plant population (P = 0.57) of surrounding fields with foliar incidence of CBSD in trial plots. There were, however, significant correlations of foliar incidence of CBSD in trial plots with whitefly abundance (P = 0.050) and CBSD incidence in surrounding fields (P = 0.003). However, the factor giving the most strongly significant correlation with CBSD incidence in trial plots was the surrounding CBSD index (which combines plant population and distance with CBSD incidence in surrounding fields) (P = 0.0005). This is a clear confirmation of the value of the surrounding CBSD index for predicting subsequent CBSD spread into initially CBSD-free trial plots. Additionally, multiple regression analyses demonstrated the value of combining both surrounding CBSD index and whitefly abundance (in surrounding fields) for predicting subsequent foliar CBSD incidence in trial plots (r2 = 0.94, F = 45.7, P = < 0.001): the expression generated was: CBSD foliar incidence = -2.755 + (0.0291 * Surr CBSD index) + (0.189 * B. tabaci abundance).Overall, CBSI infections within surrounding fields were detected in relatively equal proportions: 55% CBSV and 49% UCBSV. The pattern was similar at the high inoculum pressure LZ sites of Bunda and Chato, as well as at Naliendele in the southern zone (S) whereas varying proportions of the two viruses were observed at the other sites (Table 2). Single infections with CBSV were higher than those with UCBSV at Kizimbani and Ukiriguru, whilst for UCBSV, single infection frequencies were higher than those of CBSV at Chambezi, Hombolo and Suluti (Table 2). Overall, the proportion of positive tests for CBSIs was greatest at Bunda (100% total) followed by Chato, both of which had different percentages of the samples infected by CBSV-alone, UCBSValone and mixed infections (CBSV and UCBSV). Other sites with relatively high percentages of infected samples were Ukiriguru in LZ, Chambezi in CZ, Suluti in southern Tanzania, and Naliendele in southeastern zone. The remaining sites had less than 70.0% of infected samples: Kizimbani in CZ, Hombolo in central Tanzania and Maruku in the LZ with only CBSV alone (Table 2). Although the relationship between the level of infection in surrounding fields and experimental plots is clear for the high inoculum pressure sites in Bunda and Chato, it is noteworthy that some of the other sites (e.g. Chambezi and Ukiriguru) with relatively high infection levels in the surrounding fields had low infection levels within the experimental plots. Although both virus species occurred frequently in fields surrounding experimental sites in all regions of Tanzania, there was a generally greater frequency of CBSV in the LZ whilst UCBSV was more prevalent at sites in central, CZ and southern parts of the country.B. tabaci abundance varied significantly across sites (F = 113.78, P < 0.0001), where the highest whitefly numbers (more than 10 insects per plant) were recorded in decreasing order from Bunda, Chato and Ukiriguru in north-western Tanzania (Table 3). Differences in vector abundance amongst cultivars were significant (F = 1.88, P < 0.04). The highest B. tabaci abundance was recorded for cultivar Sagonja (28.3 insects per plant) with the least for Mkumba (9.4) and Mkuranga1 (10.3) (Table 4).CBSD leaf symptoms were observed at all but four sites: Hombolo, Kizimbani, Maruku and Suluti. These were the four sites with the lowest surrounding CBSD values. Significant differences in CBSD leaf incidence were observed across sites at 2MAP (F = 2.24, P = 0.03) and at 12MAP (F = 7.97, P < 0.0001; Table 3). The most affected sites were from the LZ where the highest incidences were recorded in Bunda followed by Chato -both at 2 and 12MAP. No significant differences were observed among cultivars at 2MAP, but significant differences were observed at 12MAP (F = 2.74, P = 0.003; Table 4). While no significant differences were observed between sites or cultivars for CBSD leaf symptom severity, all cultivars except F10_30R2 expressed mild to severe symptoms (Table 5).CBSD root symptoms were observed in all of the experimental sites and for all cultivars. Fig. 3 illustrates root necrosis symptoms from selected sites and cultivars. Overall root severities were mild (average 2.42). However, several cultivars analyzed separately at different sites had severity scores > 3 (Table 5). CBSD root severity varied significantly between sites (F = 15.6, P < 0.0001). Highest root severity scores were recorded for susceptible cultivars at sites in northwestern Tanzania: Bunda (3.49), Chato (3.17) and Ukiriguru (2.99) (Table 6). Cho5_203 was the cultivar with the highest overall root severity (3.1) and Mkuranga1 with the least (average 2.1, but similar to Mkumba and Mkuranga1) (F = 6.97, P < 0.0001; Table 5). Root incidence differed significantly between sites (F = 6.38, P < 0.0001) as well as among cultivars (F = 4.61, P < 0.0001). Similarly, unusable root incidence was significantly different among sites (F = 14.83, P < 0.0001; Table 3) as well as among cultivars (F = 8.02, P < 0.0001; Table 4). Bunda, which was the site with the highest surrounding inoculum pressure, had the highest unusable root incidence (28.3%) followed by Chato (15.9%) in north-western Tanzania. Strong positive correlations were demonstrated between CBSD leaf and root incidences (root incidence: R = 0.82, P = 0.007; unusable root incidence: R = 0.87, P = 0.003).The relative patterns of CBSD symptom expression in leaf and roots can be compared for cultivars under the high inoculum pressure conditions experienced at Bunda (Fig. 2). Although the correlation between leaf and root incidence is clear, it is notable that some cultivars had high foliar incidence but low root incidence (e.g. Kalawe), whilst others had the inverse pattern (e.g. Cho5_203). This approach can be used to classify the cultivars for their response to CBSD. The seven top performers based on the criteria of lowest root and foliar incidence of CBSD were: Mkumba, Eyope, Orera, Mkuranga1, Narocass1, F10_30R2 and Nase 3.Although CBSIs were detected in relatively equal proportions in fields surrounding the trial plots, CBSV was much more frequently detected in the trial plots themselves, since it accounted for > 80% of all tested samples both for leaf and root testing. Overall, a relatively low proportion (< 10.0%) of the leaf samples tested from trial plots gave positive tests. For root testing, infections were detected for all sites except Hombolo, Maruku and Suluti (Table 3). The greatest proportions of infected roots were observed in Bunda (74.7%) followed by Chato (59.4%). By contrast, few cultivars were affected in the coastal sites of Chambezi, Kizimbani and Naliendele. Using root sample testing data, all of the cultivars evaluated in this study were found to be infected by CBSIs (Table 4). Cultivar infection was most widespread at Bunda and Chato in north-western Tanzania, where all cultivars were infected.No evidence of cultivar by site interaction was demonstrated for root yield. Differences in fresh root yield among cultivars within sites were also not significant. There were, however, significant differences in fresh root yield (F = 10.49, P < 0.0001) among sites (Table 7) as well as amongst cultivars (F = 4.12, P < 0.0001) across sites (Table 8). The highest root yield was recorded at Naliendele (21.7 t/ha) while the lowest fresh root yield was recorded in Bunda (8.0 t/ha) (Table 7). Root dry matter content (DM) differed significantly across sites (F = 146.19, P < 0.0001). The greatest DM (35.0%) was recorded in Kizimbani while the lowest (20.1%) was in Hombolo while root harvest index (HI) was significantly higher in Suluti (0.63) compared to the lowest observed in Bunda (0.43; F = 4.64, P = 0.0003; Table 7). Significant differences were also observed for marketable yield. Kizimbani had 100.0% marketable yield whilst Bunda had the lowest (76.2%) (Table 7). Cultivars differed significantly in the amount of fresh root yield (Table 8, Table 9) where Narocass1 (21.0 t/ha) had the highest whilst the lowest yield (10.7 t/ha) was recorded for F10_30R2. Similarly, significant differences (F = 3.63, P < 0.0002) were observed in marketable yield between cultivars (Table 8, Table 10) where Narocass1 (20.9 t/ha) had the highest while F10_30R2 (10.2 t/ha) had the lowest.   8).There was no relation between dry matter and CBSD. P values for correlations between harvest index and CBSD incidences (foliar, root, unusable root and CBSIs in roots) were all greater than 0.9. By contrast, correlations between harvest index and foliar CBSD incidence (coefficient = -0.632; P = 0.068) and CBSIs in roots (coeff. = -0.655; P = 0.056) were marginally non-significant. Percentage of marketable roots was negatively correlated with CBSD foliar incidence (coeff. = -0.863; P = 0.0027), root incidence (coeff. = -0.965; P = 0.000025) and CBSIs in roots (coeff. = -0.730; P = 0.025). Fresh root yield was negatively correlated with CBSIs in roots (coeff. = -0.687; P = 0.041), whilst marketable root yield was negatively correlated with both foliar incidence (coeff. = -0.672; P = 0.047) and CBSIs in roots (coeff. = 0.679; P = 0.045).A multi-location evaluation of elite cassava cultivars was conducted in Tanzania between November 2015 and April 2017 during which 17 cultivars (including a CBSD-susceptible landrace [Albert]) were evaluated at each of nine sites. Results of this study highlighted the importance of surrounding inoculum and the abundance of whitefly vectors in the spread of CBSD into experimental fields. Disease spread differed widely depending on relative cultivar resistance/susceptibility to CBSIs and the characteristics of the site where they were planted. Although the most resistant cultivars yielded significantly more than the most susceptible cultivars at the highest disease pressure locations, susceptible cultivars gave some of the highest yields where disease pressure was low. These results thus highlight the importance of applying a balanced strategy to CBSD management that seeks to enhance resistance whilst also making use of yield and quality traits present in local landraces and applying phytosanitary control including the use of disease-free planting material and picking optimal planting dates. The study reported here was part of a regional evaluation trial of elite cassava cultivars across diverse environments in five countries in East and Southern Africa (IITA, 2012;Tumwegamire et al. 2018) and made use of several of the most promising putative CBSD-resistant cultivars available from each of those five countries. Nine study sites were carefully selected to cover the major cassava-producing agro-ecological zones in Tanzania, which were anticipated to have contrasting CBSD inoculum conditions.1. Differences in CBSD infection are driven by whitefly abundance and CBSD inoculum pressure CBSD inoculum pressure was highest in the LZ in north-western Tanzania. Although similar conditions were observed at Chambezi in the CZ, inoculum pressure in central, coastal and southern Tanzania was generally lower than that in the LZ. Sites with highest whitefly abundances were also recorded in the north-western region. Virus  (Legg et al. 1997), proximity and vector abundance (Legg et al. 2011(Legg et al. , 2017)). Therefore, the high CBSD pressure recorded for some of the sites in this study meant that higher virus transmission rates were experienced at those sites. Studies have also shown that efficient transmission of pathogens or disease spread are tightly linked to prevailing environment and/or growing season (Shirima et al. 2019) and crop age (Fishpool et al. 1995;Legg (1995)), with each having important effects on whitefly vector abundance. Data in this study demonstrated very clearly the importance of the twin factors of whitefly abundance and surrounding CBSD inoculum pressure in driving CBSD infection of initially CBSD-free trial plantings. The two sites where both CBSD inoculum pressure and vector abundance were high had much greater levels of CBSD infection in trial plots than all other sites. By contrast, there were much lower levels of CBSD infection at sites that had high surrounding CBSD but few vectors (Chambezi -CZ) or abundant vectors but little surrounding CBSD (Maruku -LZ). These results highlight the importance of assessing inoculum pressure where cultivars are to be evaluated for their resistance to CBSD. Some of the sites were significantly less affected by CBSD than might have been anticipated. Chambezi, near Bagamoyo in the CZ, is used by breeders as a high CBSD pressure location. It was notable that its surrounding CBSD value was one of the highest recorded. However, B. tabaci abundance was extremely low. Kizimbani, on the island of Zanzibar, similarly had low whitefly abundances. The likely reason for the low whitefly populations observed at both sites is the planting of the trial during the main rainy season. Data from trials planted in this agroecological zone in both the main rains (March-June) and the short rains (October-December) demonstrate that whitefly abundance and concomitant CBSD spread are much greater in the short than the long rains (Shirima et al. 2019).2. Patterns of CBSD resistance differ in cassava roots and shoots Cultivars responded differently to CBSIs in expressing shoot symptoms across sites, but there was clear evidence demonstrating that some of the cultivars were less readily infected by CBSIs than others. Few cultivars remained asymptomatic in shoot symptom components across all sites throughout the study period while some had mild and others had severe shoot symptoms.Root symptoms were observed in all sites and cultivars. Differences in patterns of root and shoot symptom expression between cultivars highlight an important question concerning the manner in which mechanisms of resistance function. The generally higher levels of root incidence compared to shoot incidence observed in this experiment contrasts with a previous study (Ndyetabula et al. 2016) where CBSD shoot incidences were higher. However, the result of the current study is comparable to that of previous research in coastal Tanzania (Shirima 2019) where root incidence was higher than shoot incidence. It is worth noting that for Ndyetabula et al. (2016), assessments were conducted during a survey when 9-10-month-old plants were sampled. A wellknown feature of CBSD is that root necrosis symptoms become increasingly severe as the plant matures towards and beyond normal harvest age (12 months) (Nichols, 1950). It appears likely, therefore, that root incidences in the 2016 study were underestimated as a result of the premature harvesting for root assessment.Plotting foliar against root incidences of CBSD for cultivars evaluated at the high CBSD inoculum pressure location of Bunda illustrated the generally strong correlation between these two measures of CBSD, although two of the most susceptible cultivars had divergent responses -one with high foliar incidence but low root incidence (Kalawe) and the other with low foliar incidence and high root incidence (Cho5_203). Variability in patterns of symptom expression between cultivars is a phenomenon that was noted from some of the earliest studies (Nichols, 1950), and has been confirmed in quantitative terms more recently (Ndyetabula et al. 2016). This latter study which surveyed farmergrown cultivars in Tanzania noted that whilst cultivar Lyongo had moderate foliar symptom incidences yet > 80% incidence of root  Cultivars with both mean values of incidence < 20% coloured blue, cultivars with one or both incidences > 20% but both less than 60% coloured green, cultivars with one or both incidences > 60% coloured red.symptoms, cultivar Kiroba had high incidences of both leaf and stem symptoms but < 10% incidence of root symptoms. In the same study, district-level incidences of foliar, root and unusable root symptoms were used to define 'resistance' and 'tolerance' variables, which when plotted on y and x axes enabled cultivars to be categorised into four groups, with Category I having the best combination of 'resistance' and 'tolerance' and Category IV the worst. In the current study, an alternative approach to categorising CBSD response was used and three categories were defined based on the combination of foliar and root incidence values. Perhaps fortuitously, the three categories were each clearly delimited, and seven of the 17 cultivars assessed fell within the top-performing category, with both foliar and root incidences of less than 20%. One cultivar in the current study (Mkombozi) was also represented in that of Ndyetabula et al. (2016). Although this was amongst the top-performing Category I cultivars in the 2016 study, it was one of the poorest performers of the middle category in the current study. This demonstrates the much higher overall level of resistance to CBSD of the cultivars tested here when compared with the larger set of primarily farmer-grown local landraces of the 2016 study. As such, it is an important confirmation of the value of the conventional CBSD resistance breeding work being undertaken in East and Southern Africa.Most of the CBSD root necrosis symptoms reported in this study were linked to CBSIs (confirmed by specific PCR assays). However, no CBSIs were detected in either leaf or root samples at three sites: Hombolo, Suluti and Maruku, where significant incidences of CBSD root symptoms were observed. Furthermore, none of the cultivars expressed foliar symptoms at these three sites. These results highlight the need for further scrutiny to determine whether there are other pathogens or physiological factors causing CBSD-like symptoms in cassava roots. CBSIs were more frequently detected in roots than in leaves, as observed previously in Uganda (Ogwok et al. 2015). CBSV was the major species detected in sites in north-western Tanzania while UCBSV was most frequent in samples collected in the CZ sites, albeit at low incidences (< 10%). Mixed infections were rare (detected in only two sites). CBSV and UCBSV were detected almost equally at the outset in surrounding fields but results of this study suggest that CBSV is either more efficiently transmitted by the whitefly vector, B. tabaci, since it was the virus that was most frequently detected in the experimental plots, or cultivars have a generally higher level of resistance to UCBSV. Controlled studies of the transmission of CBSI species by B. tabaci did show a slightly higher efficiency in transmission of CBSV compared to UCBSV (Maruthi et al. 2017), although the differences were not significant. These experiments did involve relatively small numbers of replicates, however, and it may be that had there been greater replication a significant result would have been obtained. In the current study, the high number (> 90%) of infected cultivars in north-western Tanzania where CBSV was the most frequent virus probably confirms reports from Uganda and from laboratory studies that the virus is more virulent than its sister species, UCBSV (Kaweesi et al. 2014;Mohammed et al. 2012;Winter et al. 2010). We cannot confirm this for the current study, however, since sites in the CZ were planted during the long rainy season, which has been characterized as a low CBSD pressure season (Shirima et al. 2019) making comparisons difficult.4. The impacts of CBSD are now greater in the LZ in north-western Tanzania than the CZ In the current study, sites with the highest shoot incidences also had the greatest number of cultivars affected by CBSD (Bunda and Chato in north-western Tanzania). Whereas CBSD spread in this part of Tanzania is relatively recent compared to the CZ (Legg et al. 2011), results of this study suggest that trends in disease epidemiology are changing, and that CBSD incidences are increasing in north-western Tanzania in   contrast to previous reports which suggested that CBSD was more important in the CZ (Jeremiah et al. 2015;Legg and Raya 1998;Ndyetabula et al. 2016). For most of its known history, CBSD has been confined to coastal East Africa and the shores of Lake Malawi (Nichols 1950;Hillocks and Jennings (2003)). Since 2004, however, CBSD has been spreading through the Great Lakes region (Alicai et al. 2007).From this first report from Uganda in 2004, subsequent spread has been reported into western Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (Tomlinson et al., 2018). The important change in the regional balance of the importance of CBSD within Tanzania highlights the expanding impact of the CBSD pandemic within parts of Africa that were previously unaffected. The pandemic of CBSD, and severe CMD before it, have been driven by greatly elevated populations of the whitefly vector, B. tabaci (Legg et al., 2011;2014). 5. There were no differences in varietal performance across contrasting agro-ecological environmentsResults from this study showed that although there were significant differences in fresh root yield for both site and cultivar, the differences between sites were much stronger and there was no significant 'genotype by environment (GxE)' interaction between the two factors. GxE interactions are widely reported to influence a variety of traits of cassava genotypes across contrasting agro-ecological environments (Esuma et al. 2016;Fotso et al. 2018), with the consequence that cultivars are often recommended for specific regions within countries. There are exceptions to this general theme within the published literature on cassava, however, and some studies have demonstrated the absence of GxE interactions for traits such as yield (Tumuhimbise et al. 2014) and starch quality (Karlström et al. 2019). The lack of a significant GxE interaction with respect to yield in our study is likely to be a consequence of multiple factors being associated with environment differences. The southern and eastern shores of Lake Victoria (Chato and Bunda sites) have low rainfall and poor soil fertility which are likely causes of the generally low yields for all cultivars at these sites. These also happened to be the sites with the greatest incidences of CBSD. Differences in performance resulting from the relative resistance/susceptibility of cultivars to CBSD may therefore have been masked by the combined effects of low rainfall and poor soil fertility. The strength of the contrast in site to site performance identified from this study emphasizes the importance of addressing soil moisture stress and fertility in parts of Tanzania where these have a large impact on cassava yields, such as in the LZ region of north-western Tanzania. On-going initiatives are designing site-specific fertilizer recommendations for these parts of the country, and a smartphone app has been developed (Akilimo-IITA, 2019) that allows extension officers, farmers or any other interested party to access agronomic advice of this type online.6. Susceptible cultivars perform well in the absence of CBSD pressure and have important quality attributes Three of the cultivars most affected by CBSD were Cho5_203, Sagonja and Sauti. These had the lowest mean yields of marketable fresh roots at the site most affected by CBSD (Bunda), yet all three had above average yields at one of the least affected sites -Suluti. Cho5_203 was the most extreme example, as it had some of the best marketable fresh root yields at Maruku (25.1 t/ha) and Suluti (22.3 t/ha), yet had the lowest marketable yields of all 17 cultivars at both Bunda (0.4 t/ha) and Chato (1.7 t/ha). Similarly, Albert, which was also heavily affected by CBSD at Bunda and Chato, had the highest marketable fresh root yield of any cultivar at any site (33.8 t/ha at Suluti). A potential weakness of breeding programmes can be that cultivars that show susceptibility to target diseases at any site at any stage of the breeding pipeline are discarded. A second is that valuable traits of local landraces may be overlooked, as these genotypes may never be evaluated, or if they are, they are likely to be discarded in the early single-site stages of the breeding programme where that site is often chosen for its high disease pressure conditions. Another study from Tanzania, which further emphasizes this point, involved the evaluation of 64 local landraces at Naliendele (southern coastal region), eight of which gave higher marketable fresh root yields than the check improved cultivar -Kiroba (Masinde et al. 2018). Kiroba is currently one of the improved cultivars that is being heavily promoted in coastal Tanzania by research, extension and the private sector. A further significant finding from this study was that three local landraces were identified as the most resistant (Chimaje, Mfaransa and Supa B), with all shown to be significantly more resistant to CBSD than the improved cultivar check -Kiroba. The findings of this study, as well as our own, stress the value of exploiting local landraces within breeding programmes as sources of genes for disease resistance and high yield potential. Furthermore, organoleptic or other properties of local landraces are often cited by farmers as reasons for them being preferred over improved disease-resistant cultivars, even where the landraces yield less (Nakabonge et al. 2018).7. Strategic considerations for deploying host plant resistance and other methods for the control of cassava brown streak disease A balanced strategy for the most effective deployment of cassava cultivars to manage CBSD should be cognizant of the diversity of varietal responses to the disease under the widely contrasting agro-ecological and disease pressure conditions of a country such as Tanzania. This should include the promotion of disease-resistant released cultivars in regions most affected by CBSD coupled with the encouragement of phytosanitary control practices for existing cultivars in low disease pressure regions or in seasons during which there is reduced spread of CBSD. One of the key findings of a recent study at Chambezi in coastal Tanzania was that there was a high level of CBSD infection in cassava planted during the short rains (October-December), yet very little infection during the long rains (March-June) where vector abundance was low (Shirima et al. 2019). Important phytosanitary practices for CBSD management in susceptible cultivars can therefore include the selection of CBSD-free stems for replanting for low disease pressure regions and combining this tactic with planting during the long rains in areas with higher disease pressure. In the longer term, cultivar development teams should make use of all available germplasm sources in order to develop high yielding, disease-resistant cultivars with specific end-user quality traits, such as high starch content, amylose-free (waxy) starch, earliness, below-ground storability and resistance to post-harvest deterioration. Biotechnological approaches are already well advanced for cassava improvement and CBSD resistance has been one of the main targets for transgenic strategies in cassava. Success has been achieved in transforming cassava for resistance to the CBSIs (Ogwok et al. 2012) and cassava genotypes developed in this way have been shown to provide effective control when evaluated using confined field trials in East Africa (Wagaba et al. 2017). Although the genotypes used have either been model cultivars or other improved cultivars with existing resistance to CMD, there would also be value in using transgenic approaches to introduce CBSD resistance to susceptible landraces that have specific desirable end user quality traits. Although the technical capabilities are already in place in several African labs to do this, progress is currently constrained by regulatory concerns in many countries about genetic modification. Gene editing may offer a way to overcome this impasse, and the first proof-of-concept results have already been published describing the effectiveness of CRISPR/Cas9mediated gene editing in reducing the severity of CBSD in infected plants of the model cultivar TMS 60444 (Gomez et al. 2018). Future developments in the application of these approaches are expected to deliver increased levels of CBSD resistance, and with anticipated improvements in the regulatory environment, there is likely to be strong potential for the production of new cultivars combining disease resistance with high yield and preferred quality traits. This study, which reports the first multi-location evaluation of elite cassava cultivars in Tanzania, offers a strategic benchmark for evaluating cassava performance in the future.","tokenCount":"7364"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ae010997d6f48b86fc59a83f25717369","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/dc9a447c-97fc-437d-9c50-e39b05dd0841/content","id":"-1634576479"},"keywords":["wheat quality","biofortification","grain Zn and Fe","glutenins composition","Triticum aestivum (bread wheat)"],"sieverID":"2490e5ca-2c6d-4255-ae04-5347637eb4de","pagecount":"9","content":"Development of biofortified wheat lines has emerged as a sustainable solution to alleviate malnutrition. However, for these varieties to be successful, it is important that they meet the minimum quality criteria required to produce the local food products. In the present study, a set of 94 biofortified common wheat lines were analyzed for their grain micronutrients content (Fe and Zn) and for their processing quality and glutenin profile. Most of the analyzed lines exhibited a grain Zn concentration greater than the non-biofortified check varieties, of at least 3 ppm. The content of both Fe and Zn appeared to be significantly associated with grain protein content (r = 0.21-0.65; p < 0.01) but not with grain yield or other wheat quality traits. Wide allelic variation was observed at both the high-molecular-weight glutenin (HMW-GS) and the low-molecular-weight glutenin (LMW-GS) loci and alleles associated with greater dough strength were identified. Specifically, among the HMW-GS alleles, the Glu-B1i, Glu-B1al, and Glu-D1d alleles were associated with greater mixograph and alveograph values and greater loaf volume. Similarly, among the LMW-GS alleles, the Glu-A3b and Glu-B3b alleles were associated with stronger gluten and better bread-making quality. Overall, results of this study suggest that biofortification does not profoundly alter wheat enduse quality and that the effect of the different glutenin alleles is independent of the grain protein and micronutrient content.Wheat is one of the most important food crop in the world and it currently provides ≈20% of the daily dietary energy and protein (Shewry and Hey, 2015). Wheat also represents a good source of essential micronutrients such as iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn). However, deficiency of these micronutrients is unfortunately common, especially in developing countries where cereal-based foods represent the major daily caloric intake. This condition is mainly determined by the poor consumption of other micronutrient-rich food such as meat, fish, fruits and vegetables. For this reason, development of genetically biofortified wheat varieties with enhanced micronutrient concentrations, has emerged as a sustainable solution to alleviate malnutrition (Velu et al., 2012).Currently the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) supported by the HarvestPlus Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, is leading a global effort to develop and disseminate in developing countries, high-yielding biofortified wheat varieties with greater grain Zn concentration (Velu et al., 2019). However, in order for these varieties to be successful, it is paramount that they meet the minimum quality criteria required by the food industry, the local food manufacturers, and the consumers (Guzmán et al., 2014). In fact, compared to maize and rice, wheat is almost always milled into flour and processed into a wide range of products such as bread, cakes, cookies, crackers, pasta, and noodles (Shewry et al., 2003). However, each wheatderived food product requires specific quality characteristics and therefore, understanding the different genetic and non-genetic factors affecting quality is very important in order to make selection for wheat quality more efficient.The ability to process wheat into such a wide range of products is determined largely by gluten, a macropolymer constituted by a group of wheat grain proteins which confers the unique viscoelastic properties to wheat doughs (Shewry et al., 2003). Variation in the quantity and quality of the gluten-forming proteins has been shown to greatly affect wheat end-use quality. For this reason, the study and improvement of gluten quality has become one of the major breeding objectives in the past years (Liu et al., 2005). Gluten proteins constitute ≈80% of the total wheat grain proteins and are composed by roughly the same quantity of gliadins and glutenins. Gliadins constitute the monomeric part of gluten and have been found to be the major contributor to the viscosity of the gluten network. Glutenins are connected among each other through inter-molecular disulphide bonds, constituting the gluten polymeric fraction. Their variation has been associated with major differences in gluten strength and elasticity (Shewry et al., 2003). Depending on their molecular weight, glutenins have been further classified into high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) and low molecular weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS). The HMW-GS are encoded by genes at the Glu-A1, Glu-B1, and Glu-D1 loci, on the long arm of the homoeologous group 1 chromosome. At each locus are located two genes, encoding for a x-and y-type HMW-GS (Shewry et al., 2003). Differently, the LMW-GS are encoded by multiple genes located at the Glu-A3, Glu-B3, and Glu-D3 loci, on the short arm of homoeologous group 1 chromosome. Depending on the locus and the variety, the number of LMW-GS genes could vary. However, in general, individual common wheat varieties contain more than 15 LMW-GS genes (Ibba et al., 2017). Because of the central role that the glutenins play in the wheat processing and end-use quality, several studies have been reported on the association between different HMW-and LMW-GS alleles and wheat quality, and alleles associated with stronger or weaker gluten have been identified (Branlard et al., 2001;He et al., 2005;Liu et al., 2005;Ito et al., 2011).Breeding for an increased content of Fe and Zn did not appear to be detrimental for quality. On the contrary, several studies found that typically, increased micronutrient content is associated with greater protein content (Feil and Fossati, 1995;Morgonuov et al., 2007;Guzmán et al., 2014), suggesting that genetically biofortified varieties could have an even better quality profile compared to non-biofortified wheat lines. However, more studies are needed in order to better understand the relationship (if any) between wheat quality and micronutrient accumulation. Also, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been reported on the role of different HMW-and LMW-GS alleles on biofortified wheat lines. Given the change in the protein content and, according to Morgonuov et al. (2007) also of the gluten protein fractions ratio, it could be possible that the effect that some glutenin alleles have on wheat quality is different in biofortified lines compared to the effect they have in nonbiofortified lines.For these reasons, the objectives of the present study are to (1) understand the association among Fe, Zn, wheat quality parameters and to (2) determine the effect of the variation in the HMW-and LMW-GS alleles on different end-use determining parameters in a set of 94 advanced CIMMYT biofortified wheat lines.A field trial consisting of 40 and 54 bread wheat cultivars were grown, respectively, in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 crop seasons in the Campo Experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB) located in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. The analyzed cultivars were grown under full irrigation, following standard control procedures for weed, diseases and insects. After harvesting, yield was recorded.All quality analyses were performed according to the AACC International approved methods or other modified methods described in Battenfield et al. (2016).Specifically, 1,000-kernel weight (TKW [g]) was calculated using the Single-Kernel Characterization System (SKCS, Perten Instruments, Sweden). Test weight (TESTWT, kg hL −1 ) was measured using a 37.81-mL sample. Grain protein (GRNPRO) and flour protein (FLRPRO) content were determined using near-infrared spectroscopy (DA 7200 NIR, Perten Instruments, Sweden), with a calibration validated using Leco R /Dumas method (Equipment FP828 Leco Instruments, St Joseph, Michigan, USA), as reported in the official methods AACC 39-10 and AACC 46-11A, respectively. The GRNPRO was reported at 12.5% moisture whereas the FLRPRO was reported at 14% moisture. Grain hardness (GRNHRD) was analyzed using the SKCS following the AACC method 55-31 (American Association of Cereal Chemists, 2010). Depending on grain hardness and moisture content, grain samples were optimally tempered, and milled using a Brabender Quadrumat Senior mill (C. W. Brabender OHG). Experimental flour yield (FLRYLD) intended as the % of flour obtained from the initial grain sample, was recorded. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) sedimentation (FLRSDS) was conducted as in Peña et al. (1990). A 35 g mixograph was used to estimate the dough mixing and rheological properties, following the AACC method 54-40A (American Association of Cereal Chemists, 2010). The following parameters were recorded: time to peak mixing strength (MIXTIM) and midline peak integral (MPI). Dough rheological characteristics were also assessed using the Chopin Alveograph (Tripette & Renaud) with a 60 g flour sample and according to the AACC method 54-30A (American Association of Cereal Chemists, 2010). For this analysis, the following parameters were recorded: dough deformation energy, indicative of the overall gluten strength (ALVW) and curve configuration ratio, indicative of the ratio between dough tenacity and extensibility (ALVPL).Both the mixograph and alveograph methods were adjusted for unified optimum water absorption based on solvent retention capacity, as reported by Guzmán et al. (2015). The lines were also assessed for yeast-leavened bread quality following the AACC method 10-09 (American Association of Cereal Chemists, 2010) and using the Guzmán et al. (2015) adjustment for optimal water absorption. Bread loaf volume (LOFVOL) was measured by rapeseed displacement in accordance with AACC method 10-05.01 (American Association of Cereal Chemists, 2010). Grain Zn and Fe concentrations (unit: ppm) were determined by using a \"bench-top, \" non-destructive, energy-dispersive Xray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF) instrument (model X-Supreme 8000, Oxford Instruments plc, Abingdon, UK), which has been standardized for high throughput screening of Zn and Fe in whole grain wheat (Paltridge et al., 2012). The advantage of the Zn concentration among the analyzed biofortified samples was measured against the average Zn grain content of two field checks.Glutenin fraction was obtained according to Singh et al. (1991) with some modifications. Specifically, 20 mg of refined flour were mixed at 1,400 rpm with 0.75 ml of 50% propanol (v/v) for 30 min at 65 • C in a Thermomixer Comfort (Eppendorf). The tubes were then centrifuged for 2 min at 10,000 rpm, and the supernatant containing the gliadins was discarded. The pellet was then mixed with 0.1 ml of a 1.5% (w/v) DTT solution in a Thermomixer for 30 min at 65 • C, 1,400 rpm, and centrifuged for 2 min at 10,000 rpm. A 0.1 ml volume of a 1.4% (v/v) vinylpyridine solution was then added to the tube with was subsequently placed again in a Thermomixer for 15 min at 65 • C, 1,400 rpm, and centrifuged for 5 min at 13,000 rpm. The supernatant was mixed with the same volume of sample buffer [2% SDS (w/v), 40% glycerol (w/v), and 0.02% (w/v) bromophenol blue, pH 6.8] and incubated in the Thermomixer for 5 min at 90 • C and 1,400 rpm. Tubes were centrifuged for 5 min at 10,000 rpm, and 8 ml of the supernatant were used for the glutenins gel. Glutenins were separated in polyacrylamide gels (15% T) prepared using 1 M Tris buffer, pH of 8.5. Gels were run at 12.5 mA per gel for about 19 h. Glu-1 and Glu-3 alleles were classified using the systems developed by Jackson et al. (1996) and Branlard et al. (2003).Mean, standard deviation (SD), minimum and maximum values and correlation among quality traits were computed for all genotypes using SAS University Edition (SAS/STAT R , SAS Institute Inc., NC, USA). All further analysis was done with R studio v3.6.2. Specifically, a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on each quality trait using the function \"aov\" and treating each Glu locus, the year and the interaction between the Glu locus and the year as fixed effects. Comparison of the least square means for the allelic variants at each Glu locus, was performed using Fisher's protected least significant differences (LSD) test using the \"lsd\" function in the package R package \"Agricolae.\"The lines selected for this study, were analyzed for different grain, rheological, and end-use quality parameters (Supplementary Table 1) and the obtained data were used to estimate mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values of each trait (Table 1). The analysis showed the presence of significant variation among the lines within each set. However, even if significant differences could be observed for the different traits across the years, overall, the two sets of lines analyzed during the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 cycles showed comparable average values for the parameters studied. Specifically, when looking at the Fe and Zn concentration, the lines analyzed in the first set exhibited greater Fe and Zn average content compared to the lines from the second set. This trend could be observed also when analyzing the Zn values of the different breeding lines against the field checks, suggesting that the observed differences across the years are more associated with genotypic effects rather than environmental effects (Figure 1). Specifically, lines from the first set showed an average increment in Zn of 26% (60.5 mg/kg) compared to the control (48 mg/kg) whereas lines from the second set showed an average increment in Zn content of 10% (52 mg/kg).In order to identify the association among the different quality traits, the Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated for all the traits for the two years (Table 2).Among the grain physical properties, test weight appeared to be significantly and negatively correlated in both years only with bread loaf volume (r ∼ −0.30) whereas it was significantly negatively correlated with TKW and flour SDS-sedimentation volume only in the first and second year, respectively. On the contrary, variation in TKW appeared to be more significantly associated with changes in other grain and flour properties such as grain hardness, protein content and the mixograph parameters. For instance, TW or TKW, and kernel hardness exhibited a significant effect on several grain and flour properties and appeared to be negatively associated with flour yield (r = −0.48), protein content (r = −0.31 to −0.37), and bread loaf volume (r = −0.38), and positively associated with both the mixograph and alveograph parameters (r = 0.28-0.39). Contrasting values were obtained for flour yield, which appeared to be significantly and negatively associated with gluten strength, as indicated by the mixograph and alveograph parameters, but only among the lines analyzed in the second year (r = 0.38-0.40). Positive association between FLRYLD and bread loaf volume was however detected in both years at a different degree of association (r = 0.17-0.36).As expected, both grain and flour protein content appeared to profoundly influence several quality traits. In general, consistent correlation values were detected across the years and protein content was significantly and positively associated with flour SDS-sedimentation volume and bread loaf volume (r = 0.34-0.48). Contrarily, negative correlations were identified between either grain or protein content and mixograph parameters (r = −0.18 to −0.45). Positive and in general highly significant association were typically identified among the traits indicative of gluten strength, such as SDS-sedimentation volume, mixograph mixing time and MPI, alveograph W value, and bread loaf volume. The only difference was the ALVPL value which appeared to be slightly positively associated with gluten strength and significantly and negatively correlated with bread loaf volume. The ALVPL value in fact, is indicative of the balance between gluten strength and extensibility and the present results would suggest that an appropriate balance of these two factors are necessary to ensure an optimum bread loaf volume.Regarding the Fe and Zn content, significant positive associations were detected between the content of these two micronutrients in the grain (r = 0.38 and 0.47) and, interestingly, positive and generally significant associations were also identified between either Fe or Zn content and grain or flour protein content (r = 0.21-0.65; Figure 2A). No significant correlations could be identified between the grain micronutrient content and grain yield (Figure 2B).Wide allelic variation was identified at the glutenin Glu-1 loci in both sets of varieties with 3, 5 and 2 different allelic variants identified at the Glu-A1, Glu-B1, and Glu-D1 loci, respectively (Supplementary Figure 1).According to the results obtained from the ANOVA, all the Glu-1 loci appeared to be significantly associated with different wheat quality parameters, at different degrees (Supplementary Table 2). The Glu-D1 locus was found to have higher importance among the HMW-GS loci in defining traits like mixing time (p < 0.001) and mixograph MPI, alveograph  W value and bread loaf volume (p < 0.01). In particular, the allele Glu-D1d (subunit Dx5+Dy10) was found to be consistently associated with greater gluten strength compared to the allele Glu-D1a (subunit Dx2+Dy12). The second most significant Glu-1 locus was Glu-A1 which was found to significantly affect both grain and flour protein content (p < 0.05). In this case, the Glu-A1c allele was associated with slightly higher grain and flour protein content values compared to the Glu-A1a (subunit 2 * ) and Glu-A1b (subunit 1) alleles. Finally, variation in the Glu-B1 locus was significantly associated only with variation in the alveograph W value (p < 0.05). In this case, the alleles Glu-B1al (subunit Bx7 OE +By8), Glu-B1i (Bx17+By18), and Glu-B1c (Bx7+By9) had comparable and greater effects than allele Glu-B1b (Bx7+By8) and Glu-B1a (Subunit Bx7). Also, in general, alleles Glu-B1al and Glu-B1a were associated with stronger and weaker gluten, respectively, as indicated by the different analysis performed (Table 3).Among the Glu-3 loci, 3, 5 and 3 alleles were identified, respectively, at the Glu-A3, Glu-B3, and Glu-D3 loci (Supplementary Figure 1).Among the LMW loci, only the Glu-A3 locus was significantly associated with variation in some of the analyzed quality traits (Supplementary Table 2) with the allele Glu-A3b being associated with greater GRNHRD, MIXTIM, MPI, and ALVW values in comparison to both alleles Glu-A3c and Glu-A3d. Variation at the Glu-B3 locus was not found to be significantly associated with any of the quality traits studied. However, when looking more in details the average trait values associated with each Glu-B3 allele, the allele Glu-B3b was associated with greater mean values for bread loaf volume, flour SDS sedimentation, mixograph mixing time and MPI and alveograph W value, as well as higher grain hardness. The genotypes with allele Glu-B3i were associated with greater alveograph P/L value. In contrast, the lines with allele Glu-B3j were associated with drastically weaker gluten compared to the other Glu-B3 alleles, as indicated by the FLRSDS, mixograph, and alveograph parameters. Similarly, also variation at the Glu-D3 locus did not appear to be significantly associated with any of the quality parameters studied here. However, even if not significantly, alleles Glu-D3b and Glu-D3c appeared to be consistently associated with greater kernel hardness, protein content and gluten strength, compared to allele Glu-D3a (Table 4).Numerous studies have been done in the past to understand the effect of various glutenin alleles on wheat quality. However, similar studies are lacking to explain the behavior of these traits and the effect of glutenin subunits among biofortified wheat lines. The growth of genetically biofortified wheat is likely to increase in the future, especially in developing countries. For this reason, it is of paramount importance to understand if any of the quality parameters is affected by the higher grain micronutrient content and if the different glutenin alleles exert the same effect on wheat quality as in non-biofortified wheat.In the present study, 94 common wheat lines derived from the CIMMYT HarvestPlus program were analyzed for their micronutrient content (Fe and Zn) and for their end-use quality and glutenin profile. Most of the lines exhibited a micronutrient content greater than the one recorded in the two non-biofortified checks. Also, the Fe and Zn levels did not appear in any case to be significantly associated with either grain quality (TESTWT and TKW) or grain yield, suggesting that the increased levels of these minerals are associated with genetic improvement rather than with the reduced grain weight or size (Gomez-Becerra et al., 2010;Velu et al., 2019). However, it has to be noted that the micronutrient concentration was measured from whole grain and not from the resulting refined flour. Also, flour ash content, a measurement indicative of the flour total mineral content which is associated with flour bran contamination and with milling extraction efficiency, was not analyzed. More detailed analysis will be done in future on biofortified wheat samples in order to better understand the association between milling quality and flour micronutrient content but also to better understand in which part of the grain the additional  micronutrients are accumulated. Differently from grain quality and yield, a significant and positive correlation between the micronutrient and protein content, was found in both the sets of lines grown in the two cropping cycles. This finding is in accordance with the reports from Morgonuov et al. (2007), Zhao et al. (2009), andGomez-Becerra et al. (2010) and suggests not only that the mechanism at the basis of protein and mineral remobilization are partially common but also that, possibly, genetically biofortified wheat lines are associated with improved wheat quality. As reported in previous studies in fact (Uauy et al., 2006;Alhabbar et al., 2018a,b) wheat lines with an improved nitrogen remobilization capacity determined by the allelic composition of the NAM genes are also associated with a greater Fe and Zn grain content. However, wheat end-use quality is determined not only by flour protein content but also by its protein composition. As reported by Laidig et al. (2017) in fact, even if over the years there has been a decline in the grain protein content due to the selection of high-yielding varieties, there has also been a steady improvement in bread-baking quality mainly due to the selection of specific HMW and LMW-GS alleles associated with the desired end-use quality (Guzmán et al., 2019). For this reason, understanding the allelic composition of both the HMW-GS and LMW-GS is of paramount importance to better interpret the observed variation in wheat quality.Overall, wide variation in both the HMW and LMW-GS was identified among the analyzed biofortified lines. As widely reported in the literature (Branlard et al., 2001;Liu et al., 2005;Ito et al., 2011), variation in the glutenin subunit composition is in fact associated with different wheat end-uses thus suggesting that the present biofortified wheat lines could potentially be used for a variety of applications. Regarding the specific effect of the different glutenin loci, as reported in previous studies (Liu et al., 2005) variation at the Glu-D1 locus had the greatest impact among the Glu-1 loci on both the rheological and enduse quality results, followed by the Glu-B1 and the Glu-A1 loci, respectively. When looking in detail at the different Glu-1 allelic variants among the studied lines, overall it could be observed that the most frequent alleles at the three Glu-1 loci were also the ones that, according to the literature, are associated with mediumstrong to strong gluten (Glu-A1b, Glu-A1c, Glu-B1c, Glu-B1i, and Glu-D1d) (Branlard et al., 2001;Liu et al., 2005;Ito et al., 2011;Park et al., 2011). This apparently unbalanced allelic frequency is likely due to the selection pressure applied in the breeding program toward wheat lines with improved gluten strength. Also, the effect on wheat quality of these \"superior\" alleles, was confirmed in the present study suggesting that, independently of the grain protein and micronutrient content, the effect of the different Glu-1 alleles on wheat mixing, rheological, and enduse quality, is consistent. The only exception was observed for Glu-A1a (null allele) which is typically associated with weaker gluten (Branlard et al., 2001) and that in the present study was associated with higher protein content and greater gluten strength. However, in this case, the apparent discrepancy between the results obtained and those previously reported, is probably determined by the low representation of the Glu-A1a allele (only two lines) and/or by the effect of the other glutenin alleles.Similarly to the Glu-1 loci, also the effect of the different Glu-3 loci appeared to be consistent with previous studies and confirmed the greater effect of the Glu-A3 and Glu-B3 loci on wheat quality compared to the Glu-D3 locus (Branlard et al., 2001;He et al., 2005;Ibba et al., 2017). However, this was different from the HMW-GS, in that it could not be observed a prevalence among the analyzed lines of the Glu-3 alleles known to be associated with greater gluten strength. This observation would suggest that no deliberate selection has been done for specific LMW-GS alleles. Indeed, among the Glu-A3 alleles, the most common allele was Glu-A3c which was associated in this study and in previous studies with medium to low gluten strength. The allele Glu-A3b instead, which has been shown to have a positive effect on the overall mixing and end-use quality (He et al., 2005;Liu et al., 2005), was only present in 17 lines. A similar situation could be observed at the Glu-B3 locus where the allele Glu-B3b, associated with good bread-making quality, did not appear to be prevalent among the lines analyzed. Furthermore, two of the 94 advanced lines even exhibited the Glu-B3j allele, indicative of the 1B/1R translocation and associated with a drastic reduction in gluten strength (Branlard et al., 2001;He et al., 2005;Liu et al., 2005;Park et al., 2011).Results of this study confirm that grain Fe and Zn concentration is associated with grain protein content but not with variation in other wheat quality traits. Also, the effect of the different HMW-GS and LMW-GS alleles appeared to be in general consistent between biofortified and non-biofortified lines suggesting that the alleles already known to be associated with specific enduse quality characteristics could be selected also when working with genetically biofortified wheat lines. This may be due to the fact that high Fe and Zn alleles from diverse progenitors were introgressed into high yielding elite wheat lines with better quality parameters. However, given the limited number of samples analyzed in the present study, more studies will be needed to confirm these results.","tokenCount":"4164"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c45213f6402be073d5ace7cb9c9ee72c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5b495668-c20f-4d5c-8a19-8680b907d65d/retrieve","id":"907255021"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"69ea0be0-7424-4e86-a00d-ba1251e3ac1e","pagecount":"11","content":"Correct Citation: IIRR and CEDAC (2020). Small livestock: climate-smart, environmentally sound, economically empowering, genderfair and transformative agricultural enterprises in Cambodia. A brief for decision makers. International Institute of Rural Reconstruction.Climate change is largely the result of man made actions, related to deforestation, industrialization and change in land use (IPCC, 2001). It is also well understood that the poor are more vulnerable (including and sometimes especially women) to the impacts of climate change. The differential impacts of climate change on men and women is rarely contested. Limited adaptive capacity is an important vulnerability factor in Cambodia. Addressing poverty, improving access to climate resilient innovations, related education and training and accessible and affordable financial services can contribute to enhancing adaptive capacities of rural communities. Livelihood options which are gender fair, which ensure equity and are at the same time deemed climate resilient, can go a long way to empowering women in Cambodia.The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pursued gender equality in Cambodia through Gender Action Plans (GAPs) in its agricultural, rural development and related operations. Gender related loans and grants have involved the monitoring and documentation of gender equality results, ensuring that the poor men and women participate in and benefit from, project activities. Promoting economic development to generate economic opportunities and improving women capabilities and access to economic opportunities are important policies to promote gender equality and inclusive growth. The ADB Strategy 2020 highlights gender equality as a key driver of change.The Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative (BCCI) was developed to enhance the management of forest ecosystems in the countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The GMS Governments, with support from ADB, have identified the most important biodiversity conservation landscapes in the GMS that are vulnerable to increased development pressures and environmental degradation. In Cambodia, the project is addressing the fragmentation of the biodiversity rich forest landscapes of Koh Kong and Mondulkiri provinces that may impair their ability to provide critical ecosystem services necessary for sustaining local livelihoods and investments in hydropower, transport, water and food-security enhancing sectors. The project is promoting sustainable resource use, and restore and enhance these productive landscapes. It will do so through conservation and development activities.The design of the Cambodia BCC project takes a multipurpose, sustainable, biodiversity landscapes approach. The project covers 22 communes (12 in Mondulkiri and 10 in Koh Kong) located across 10 districts with a total population of approximately 68,048 (2008 census) in both provinces and households numbering just over 14,000. The project in both Koh Kong and Mondulkiri provinces is predominantly in mountainous areas covered with protected forests, national parks, and wildlife sanctuaries. An estimated 2,600 households will benefit from the project with diversified livelihood assets and/or income generating opportunities, of which about 25% are indigenous peoples of Mondulkiri largely from the Phnong group, and 50% are women (Project Administration Manual, 2015).The rural and peri urban poor in Cambodia are entrepreneurial. What they lack is opportunities, credit facilities, and technical guidance. Small-Scale Chicken Raising is a promising, short cycle activity which generates quick results. Consumers in Cambodia have demonstrated a growing interest in indigenous (native) chickens for meat and eggs. Prices are high for such products but supplies are inadequate and unpredictable. Indigenous breeds are preferred because of their taste, and meat color (yellowish not pale white meat). Though their eggs are smaller, they are also preferred and in fact, more expensive than commercially produced eggs. Local chick production provides the poor in Cambodia with a special opportunity for economic empowerment.Unfortunately, many native breeds are slowly and steadily vanishing. These native breeds need to be saved for future generations, e.g. Sampov, Skouy, Kork, Tmart, Kandong, etc. We can save these breeds by identifying them and bringing them to our villages to multiply and promote (agro-biodiversity conservation through promoting their sustainable use). The body weight after 3-3.5 month is between 1.1-1.25 kg and egg production is optimally at 50 to 75 eggs a year. But the cost of production (capital needs) is also lower. Markets and prices are better.No. 2), starting from 10 th May 2019 to 10 th July 2019 which has since finally ended. Chickens, therefore, represent an effective turn-around that overcomes, in part, the inequitable access of women to loans and property compared to men. 4. Control and use of income: when women have complete control of their income, they invest up to 90% in their households or communities. Men, in contrast, spend less than 50% of their income in these ways. Providing women with chickens, husbandry and health training may empower them to profit from the activity, investing not only in food diversity, but also in greater access to health, hygiene and access to education for children, which are vital to breaking vicious circles of poverty and under-development.Juan Pablo Villanueva Cabezas. September 7, 2018. Devpolicy.org.Climate is changing and with rising temperatures and heavier rain (or long droughts), modern chicken hybrids will be affected. Growth will be slowed and egg production will drop. Increased antibiotic and hormone use is expected. Native chickens tolerate climate change better. Their meat is safer and a healthier option because consumers are expected to demand tastier and more healthy alternatives for chicken meat in the future.The Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Projects (Grant 0241-CAM) has supported a native chicken project in Mondulkiri and Koh Kong provinces of Cambodia. The project involved financing of demonstration units of broiler farms and chick production farms spread across districts and communes providing a geographically spread out network of demonstration farms. While the Native Chicken Project was always viewed as climate resilient income generation project aimed at empowering the vulnerable, it has emerged as being particularly relevant to women in the communities with two-thirds of the initiatives being women led. Women members of the household played a prominent role, often leading the efforts across the value chain. Growth was demonstrated over the period. It has emerged as a climate resilient agriculture option that women took leadership in.a new economic entrepreneurship opportunity. These native breeds are hardier and resilient because of years of natural selection under harsh and variable conditions in backyard methods of raising.Families have been engaged in transformative livelihoods that brought them to link with markets. Clusters have emerged in most villages, unleashing engagement of a range of stakeholders across the value chain. In most cases, the focus has been on local food systems thus create new producerconsumer linkages within communes and between neighboring communes. 1. The potential contribution of rural women to climate mitigation by being part of the economic cycle is not sufficiently exploited. The economic empowerment through climate adaptation can foster economic growth, promote socio-economic development, reduce poverty, keep environmental problems in check, and increase potential for adaptation which benefits both men and women (research gate).2. Less attention is paid to the potential that lies in the combination of climate mitigation adaptation and the economic empowerment of rural women. Yet mitigation and adaptation activities offer opportunities to advance the economic empowerment of rural women. [1] Measures are needed to promote the economic participation of rural women to integrate into adaptation initiatives. Concrete promising measures combined with advisory services and financial aid.3. Small livestock have always long been viewed a vehicle that puts families on the pathway out of poverty and out of danger when it comes to economic shocks. Livestock policies favor the poor and have slowly been shown to be effective in lifting families beyond mere subsistence, especially if these efforts are supported by provision of training and education and improved participation in livestock markets.[2] Eva Galvez Nogales. 2020. Agrobased clusters in developing countries: Staying competitive in a globalizing economy, FAP.4. The Native Chicken Production Project have evolved to being a very powerful tool to transform the lives of men and women in local communities in Mondulkiri and Koh Kong. Twothirds of chicken raisers are women. Short gestation enterprises provide special windows for efforts to economically empower women (and men) in rural communities. These enterprises need to be induced, nurtured and/or \"incubated\" with technical support, funding, provision of necessary hardware and links to markets (incubators feed processing equipment such as grinders) and technical supervision.5. In the ABD BCC project, 41 villages in 25 communes (15 districts in each Mondulkiri and Koh Kong provinces) were set up. At least 30 Native Chicken Meat (Broiler) projects were set up with 15 chick and egg producing facilities. These were the core component of a systems that supported other small scale native chicken projects. The initial 44 farmers served a farmerled learning centers aimed at generating spill overs to others within the villages and within the commune. A special effort was made to ensure that the three training had at least 50 percent women participants. The result has been that two-thirds of the new entrepreneurs are women. Farmers received technical training on chicken raising: more than 400 farmers (242 women) received training, and 562 farmers (399 women) learned from success demo farmers through expose visits and field day events. An assignment team (half a dozen IIRR/CEDAC staff) provide onsite and targeting technical support and guidance in establishing these commune-based clusters.[1] Mbah, N.E., Mgbenaka, R.N., and Onwubuya, E.A. 2013 This effort to target 16 communes provided some form of spatial concentration of economic activity (farmers value neighbors engaged in similar activity. In this case, an innovative way of raising native chickens that were previously free ranging).opportunities helping families move out of poverty (as the literature suggests).The notion of clusters is closely related to competitiveness and innovation. An agro-based cluster is a concentration of producers and associated set of actors across the value chain, addressing common objectives, challenges and pursuing market opportunities. \"Clusters are argued to be crucial for small scale farmers and agribusinesses as they engage in higher productivity and more market-oriented and higher valueadded production\". [2] Clustering facilitates innovation and can nurture and ignite a cycle of development. As result of the growing interest in chicken raisers, farmers in some communes have brought shredders and grinders: small mechanization is increasing efficiency and reducing costs of feeds. This is the virtuous cycle of development that can be unleashed by climate resilient enterprises.7. Limiting investments of this nature (spatial distribution across communes) will reduce the risk of \"saturation\" while ensuring that the carrying capacity of agroecologies is not overexploited. Environmental impacts can occur, for example, if too many chicken enterprises are located within a particular village. Having them spread out not only reduces the risk of price failure but also reduces disease risk and contamination of the environment with animal waste, etc. Relying on naturally sourced feed, with a reduced reliance on external commercial ","tokenCount":"1761"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5eda5a748fc329b3a67569245b99588c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4993cffd-331e-4032-aa56-0e1c5e58d234/retrieve","id":"-1351430256"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d2842b99-155e-4a8f-ae2d-f07f7d7b7835","pagecount":"7","content":"Seven agriculture and agrifood value chain innovations are found to improve employment and income opportunities in the agrifood value chains.• Such income and employment require adequate enabling policies, including infrastructure investments, support to wholesale market development, social prodtection, labor market regulation, and supporting collective action organizations.• Eleven knowledge gaps need to be addressed to better inform agrifood system policy and investment decisionmaking.The agrifood sector (AFS) constitutes about one fifth of the global economy and is arguably the world's largest source of income and employment. According to a recent FAO study, over 1.2 billion people work in the AFS, engaged in a wide range of jobs from on-farm work to trade and transportation activities to food retail and food services. 1 The livelihoods of most of the world's poor and vulnerable people depend on the sector.In recent decades, agricultural productivity has steadily grown, and technological and institutional innovations have proliferated within agrifood value chains, helping reduce poverty and food insecurity around the world. Yet, despite these improvements, much of the developing-country population employed within the agri-food sector remains poor and food insecure. These populations have been unable to benefit from expanding food markets.A recent \"meta study\", reviewing evidence from about 300 recent studies and conducted for the CGIAR research initiative on 'Rethinking Food Markets and Value Chains for Inclusion and Sustainability', found enormous potential for improving the quality of the jobs and increasing employment opportunities in AFS, especially for women, youth, and people living in poverty. 2 This potential can be tapped when promoting the right type of farm-level and value-chain innovations and implementing well-targeted policies. 3 This brief summarizes how. At the same time, policymakers need to be aware of the need for further research as there are no silver bullets for food system transformation that will simultaneously create better jobs, improve livelihoods and make agrifood supply chains resilient and sustainable.The review of evidence found 7 agriculture and agrifood value chain innovations to be mostly conducive of more and/or better employment and income opportunities in the AFS (see Annex Table 1). These include:• Mechanization in agriculture, which while labor-saving in agriculture induces higher productivity and incomes and, with it, job growth in off-farm activity.• Small-scale irrigation schemes likewise help improve farm productivity and incomes and, with it, off-farm AFS employment.• Digital innovations allow for higher productivity, better marketing and distribution, and access to finance and higher productivity.• Food standards, such as for fair trade which can directly benefit farmers and food system smalland medium-enterprises. In practice though, these benefits tend to be restricted to \"niche markets\".• Contract farming and other forms of (inclusive) value chain contracting, which provide better and stable access to markets and, depending on contract terms, improved value-added sharing in supply chains. Access to such contracting practices is still limited, however, in many developing countries, excluding informal sector farms, businesses and workers.• Agroecology and other diversifying and sustainable practices tend to improve employment and income opportunities, though they do not always improve farm productivity.• Flexible labor contracts that adapt to production and marketing needs tend to increase employment opportunities, though with mixed benefits where it comes to gains for women, youth and poverty reduction.None of these are panaceas, however. Farms and AFS businesses will require the right enabling environment to invest in such innovations, while certain regulations need to be in place to facilitate equal access and widespread adoption of these innovations. Experience shows that local contexts have a strong influence on the actual performance and impact of these innovations.The meta study identified 5 types of policy interventions (see Annex table 2) supportive of improved income and employment opportunities in AFS activity, including:• Investments in physical (such as roads) and digital (internet connectivity) infrastructure that improve access to markets and digital innovations, thereby enabling employment and income benefits from value-chain innovations.• Modernization of wholesale markets tends to benefit large numbers of farmers and AFS intermediaries, but typically requires public support in creating the basic market infrastructure.• Productive social protection programs, which combine income support with support for agricultural and rural development (including through asset transfers and access to credits and vocational training) have been found effective in targeting income and employment opportunities for poor and vulnerable households, including for women and youth.• Labor market regulation facilitating more flexible labor contracts and minimum wages have been found to have positive employment and income effects in modernizing AFS supply chains. Such impacts are obviously much less or absent in contexts where informal employment in the AFS dominates.• Facilitating collective action organizations (such as cooperatives) tends to improve workers' bargaining power, help food sector operators obtain better contracts and improve opportunities and working conditions for their members. They can also be powerful vehicles for improved employment and income opportunities for women and youth. However, it should be recognized that developing these is complex and requires lengthy processes in contexts with little experience with collective action organizations.While the above findings regarding the employment potential of AFS innovations and enabling policies are encouraging, policymakers should recognize the need for further research. The meta study identified 11 major knowledge gaps. In most developing country contexts, sufficient understanding is lacking regarding: (1) the composition and dynamics of the non-farm AFS employment and income differentials;(2) overall employment effects of AFS modernization (value chain contracting, food standards, etc.); (3) differences in AFS employment dynamics across developing-country contexts (existing evidence tends to be concentrated on case studies in few low-income contexts); (4) evidence of remuneration and productivity gaps between different segments of the agrifood supply chains; (5) evidence of innovations introduced in traditional and transitional agrifood supply chains (much of the existing evidence concentrates on modern parts of the food system); ( 6) evidence on conditioning factors and requirements for \"bundling\" of innovations and policies to obtain major employment benefits; (7) the impacts of labor and contracting conditions associated with food standards; (8) assessment of possible trade-offs between employment gains on the one hand and income, productivity and/or sustainability gains on the other; (9) links between labor market and social protection policies; (10) assessment of gender gaps in AFS employment and income opportunities and their determinants; and (11) more specific assessments of effects on decent AFS employment of automatization in agriculture and other digital innovations (including e-platforms for marketing, logistics, finance, etc.).Better understanding of pathways towards more and better employment in AFS is crucial for achieving the sustainable development goals. The agrifood sector is arguably the world's largest source of income and employment and, hence, should also hold the key to solving the global problems of hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Facilitating the 7 AFS innovations and promoting the 5 key policy interventions should help leverage this potential. These are not standard recipes, however, but should be tailored to each context supported through further research that will address the identified knowledge gaps.Julio Berdegué is independent researcher and external collaborator of the Rethinking Food Markets Initiative. He is the former Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of FAO. Labor contracts adapted to production and marketing needs with no job stability.Mostly positive (Positive impacts tend to be restricted to duration of contract period only).Reaches large numbers of onand off-farm workers employed in global value chains.Annex Very large impacts on multiple dimensions with potential benefits for large numbers of rural households and small-scale farmers. Impacts vary with scope for public support (fiscal space and implementation capacity).Best results when different types of infrastructure investments are bundled (e.g., electricity, roads, connectivity, water, etc.).Better infrastructure and services at wholesale markets.Potentially very large impacts for large numbers of small-scale farmers and rural households (as food consumers).Social protection in conjunction with agricultural development and/or other economic development interventions (services, assets, credits, vocational training, infrastructure works, etc.). Agricultural development interventions increase agricultural productivity, and social protection helps access to these benefits for traditionally excluded groups.Large impacts for large numbers of farmers and off-farm workers.","tokenCount":"1309"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c21ae0a255ce0f86c242d557bbe8a7eb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4193e672-fd9a-42bb-92dd-9262af4d94ad/retrieve","id":"2054979093"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5d69b439-af93-48f8-8c62-467e3798e1c3","pagecount":"56","content":"Progress for both SDG 2 and SDG 6 has been unsatisfactory, with several indicators worsening over time, including an increase in the number of undernourished, overweight and obese people, as well as rapid increases in the number of people at risk of severe water shortages. This lack of progress is exacerbated by climate change and growing regional and global inequities in food and water security, including access to good quality diets, leading to increased violation of the human rights to water and food.Reversing these trends will require a much greater effort on the part of water, food security, and nutrition communities, including stronger performances by the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition and the United Nations International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development. To date, increased collaboration by these two landmark initiatives is lacking, as neither work program has systematically explored linkages or possibilities for joint interventions.Collaboration is especially imperative given the fundamental challenges that characterize the promotion of one priority over another. Without coordination across the water, food security, and nutrition communities, actions toward achieving SDG2 on zero hunger may contribute to further degradation of the world's water resources and as such, further derail achievement of the UN Decade of Action on Water and SDG 6 on water and sanitation. Conversely, actions to enhance SDG 6 may well reduce progress on the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition and SDG 2. This paper reviews these challenges as part of a broader analysis of the complex web of pathways that link water, food security and nutrition outcomes. Climate change and the growing demand for water resources are also considered, given their central role in shaping future water and nutrition security. The main conclusions are presented as three recommendations focused on potential avenues to deal with the complexity of the water-nutrition nexus, and to optimize outcomes, as follows:• Implement nutrition-sensitive agricultural water management. Nutrition and health experts need to join forces with water managers at the farm household level, at the community level and at the government level to strengthen positive transmission pathways between both rainfed and irrigated agriculture, and food and nutrition security. • Increase the environmental sustainability of diets. More work is urgently needed on the impact of current dietary trends on environmental resources, and vice-versa. Not only in terms of documenting harm done under the current status-quo, but also with respect to practical recommendations for regional and national stakeholders on policy reform and investments that counter-act the heavy environmental and health tolls that are being exacted by current diet trends. • Explicitly address social inequities in water-nutrition linkages. Proactively include vulnerable demographics in the development of water services, including incorporating their needs and constraints into initial infrastructure design.The analysis and recommendations in this report are geared toward both United Nations actors and other stakeholders with access to entry points to accelerate progress. Expanding collaboration and evidence generation is particularly important outside the WASH sector where some linkages have already been developed. This will be imperative for reducing trade-offs, and for strengthening momentum.4 Although the Nutrition Decade's work program cites the critical role played by WASH in assuring good nutrition, additional, and equally important, linkages are not acknowledged. Increased consultation with the water community is required to address this omission. 5 Namely, SDGs 1, 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12.   Stable access to water of sufficient quality is closely linked to food security and good nutrition (FSN), but water resources are under severe threat due to depletion and degradation as well as destruction of habitats (MA, 2005;IPBES, 2019). Paradoxically, some of these threats to water and its related ecosystems stem directly from growing demand for food, including changes in dietary patterns. Similarly, food insecurity and hunger are heightened in regions with insufficient water access or growing water degradation. Five fundamental factors or linkages affirm the strength of association between water and FSN: • Quality and availability of water are paramount for drinking water, cooking, sanitation, and personal hygiene. These uses are typically bundled together as WASH (Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene). • Agriculture is by far the largest user of freshwater withdrawals, at an estimated 70 percent, almost entirely used for irrigation. • Water is necessary for all \"activities, processes and outcomes\" (cf. Ericksen et al., 2010, p. 26) related to the food system. This includes food production (fisheries and aquaculture, and crops and livestock), food processing (industrial to household level), and food preparation. • Water is integral to the function and productivity of ecosystems.• Water is also needed for commerce and industry. 1   These linkages are highly complex. Some are bidirectional while others track only from water to FSN. None are mutually exclusive, and all of them are characterized by a fundamental tension between the two priorities. For example, narrowly promoting WASH for nutrition, without considering how such policy recommendations affect water availability in terms of primary production and subsequent food security, could lead to sub-optimal progress across a range of nutrition and water outcomes.The United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) provides the most formal recognition to date of the interwoven water and FSN challenges that must be overcome to realize a better world for all (UN, 2015). In tandem with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN General Assembly designated 2016-2025 the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (UN, 2016), and 2018-2028 the UN International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development (UN, 2017) (see Annex A on key provisions of the two UN Decades). These two Decades and the SDGs they support 2 are predicated on the human rights to adequate food and drinking water and sanitation (UNGA, 2010; UNSCN 2010). 3   Despite these global declarations and subsequent efforts, many countries are off-track to achieve key nutrition and water targets by 2025 or 2030. With respect to nutrition, the 2019 SDG Progress Report of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC) states: \"Hunger is on the rise again globally and undernutrition continues to affect millions of children. Public investment in agriculture globally is declining, small-scale food producers and family farmers require much greater support and increased investment in infrastructure, and technology for sustainable agriculture is urgently needed\" (UN ECOSOC, 2019, p.6).With respect to water, the report concludes: \"Despite progress, billions of people still lack safe water, sanitation and handwashing facilities. Data suggest that achieving universal access to even basic sanitation service by 2030 would require a doubling in the current annual rate of progress. More efficient use and management of water are critical to address growing demand for water, threats to water security, and increasing frequency and severity of droughts and floods resulting from climate change. As of today, most countries are unlikely to reach full implementation of integrated water resources management by 2030\" (UN ECOSOC, 2019, p.10).The Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security refer to water in guideline 8.11: \"Bearing in mind that access to water in sufficient quantity and quality for all is fundamental for life and health, States should strive to improve access to, and promote sustainable use of, water resources and their allocation among users giving due regard to efficiency and the satisfaction of basic human needs in an equitable manner and that balances the requirement of preserving or restoring the functioning of ecosystems with domestic, industrial and agricultural needs, including safeguarding drinking-water quality\" (FAO, 2005).Against this background, the fact that both the Nutrition Decade and the Water Decade were developed independently and without leveraging the other takes on new urgency. To date, neither work program has adequately explored normative linkages and joint interventions (UN Decade of Action on Nutrition Secretariat, 2019; UN, 2017). 4 As a result, both initiatives are missing a critical opportunity to identify synergies, reduce trade-offs between the two priorities, and bring countries closer to meeting both sets of targets (as well as many other SDGs).In July 2018, a UNSCN expert group meeting on nutrition and its connections with other SDGs 5 identified the need to increase collaboration between nutrition and water experts. Publication of a comprehensive background note (Ringler et al., 2018) on the linkages between SDG 6 and the FSN component of SDG 2 increased the momentum, raising awareness of the need to consider the full set of linkages between water and nutrition, and noting that neither Decade will achieve its full potential without clarifying these linkages and addressing trade-offs.• Implement nutrition-sensitive agricultural water management.• Lack of knowledge regarding the impact of agricultural water use on nutrition, and vice-versa.• Lack of knowledge regarding the nutritional impact of increased volatility in water supply (too little and too much).• Lack of knowledge regarding the nutritional impact of increasing competition for water between different users and across geographic boundaries. • Lack of knowledge regarding women's and men's roles in achieving water and nutrition objectives.Source: Adapted from Ringler et al. 2018 This UNSCN Discussion Paper builds on the findings of these earlier initiatives. Informed by the knowledge gaps identified by Ringler et al. (Box 1), it explores the complex linkages between water and nutrition and recommends three potential avenues to deal with the complexity and optimize outcomes across the two priorities.The paper comprises 1) a summary of trends in water insecurity and malnutrition, 2) an overview of the multiple pathways between water and nutrition, 3) a section identifying challenges related to growing competition for water, through the lenses of climate change and equity in access, and 4) a section proposing three recommendations to accelerate collaboration and joint action across the water and nutrition communities. Notably, these recommendations can be incorporated into the mid-term reviews of the two UN Decades but will also require action by actors extending beyond the UN to adequately accelerate progress. As such, this paper is also intended to provide new insights on the Water-Nutrition nexus in a way that is relevant to a wider range of organizations and their various missions and entry points for collaboration and coordination.2 Water insecurity and malnutrition: Status and trendsAs the global population, urbanization and living standards increase, demand for water is growing in agriculture, industry, and for domestic use (e.g. drinking, bathing, and cooking). This growth in demand exacerbates pre-existing water stress in many regions, which is due, in part, to inadequate progress in improving efficiency of water use, and chronic underinvestment across a range of systems. For example, large-scale irrigation systems often cannot provide water to farmers when they need it, water storage systems may be leaky, and many municipal supply and sewage treatment networks are poorly maintained and unreliable and rentseeking is pervasive (for example, Repetto 1986). Additionally, approximately 80 percent of wastewater flows untreated into the environment, while non-point sources of pollution are also growing, threatening both public health and the environment, leading to costly pollution impacts, and reducing the availability of water resources for other uses (Mateo-Sagasta et al., 2018;WWAP, 2017;Rosegrant et al., 2009).As a result, over 2 billion people currently experience sustained and extreme water insecurity. For example, a recent progress report on SDG 6 suggests that progress on achieving water and sanitation targets (see Annex B, Table B2 for full list of targets) has been unsatisfactory and uneven (UN, 2018), with 2.2 billion people lacking access to safely managed drinking-water in 2015, and 4.2 billion people lacking access to safely managed sanitation services (UN, 2018).Progress on the protection and restoration of water-related ecosystems -vital to societal well-being and economic growth -has also been inadequate, with an estimated 70 percent of natural wetlands having been lost over the last century (UN, 2018).Growing demand for water resources is exacerbated by fundamental challenges in supply. Namely, 1) over half of annual precipitation is not available for potential human use, 2) freshwater resources are unevenly distributed across regions, and uncertainty in distribution is growing with climate change, and 3) key developing regions experience high inter-and intra-annual variability of water supply (i.e. seasonality). These challenges pose a \"baseline\" constraint to water security in many regions. For example, annual per capita freshwater resources are particularly scarce in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, intra-annual variability of water supply is high in Sub-Saharan Africa, and abundance or over-abundance is high in regions with a regular monsoon season, such as South and Southeast Asia (Figure 1).The effects of water insecurity are projected to worsen and expand as the effects of climate change intensify (UN, 2018;Ringler et al., 2016); and they will not be limited to \"traditionally scarce regions\".For example, during the 2018 European heat wave, northern Europe, including Sweden, recorded record temperatures affecting people, food production and the environment. As a result, the Swedish government has budgeted close to US$130 million for drought-stricken farmers, especially to offset the mass slaughter of livestock and more expensive livestock feed as local resources were scorched; and as of October-2019, Swedish groundwater reserves in the major aquifers had not recovered to pre-2018 levels (Jan Lundqvist, personal communication).In 2018, 22 percent of children (149 million) below the age of five were stunted and nearly 50 million were wasted (UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank, 2018). In 2016, 131 million children five to nine years old, and 207 million adolescents, were overweight (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2019).For adult populations, overweight and obesity have been rising every year since 2000, with rural areas currently experiencing the most rapid rate of increase (NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, 2019). In 2016, obesity affected approximately 13 percent of the global adult population, with women having a higher prevalence than men (15 percent and 11 percent, respectively) (WHO, 2018a).Progress in addressing underweight and micronutrient deficiencies -especially anaemia among women -has also been extremely slow (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2019;GNR, 2018). Currently, approximately 2 billion people face micronutrient deficiencies (GNR, 2018). For both children and adults, different forms of malnutrition continue to compound one another. Of the 141 countries with consistent data on childhood stunting, anaemia in women of reproductive age, and overweight, 88 percent (124 countries), are experiencing high\" levels 6 of at least two of these forms of malnutrition and 29 percent (41 countries) are experiencing high levels of all three (GNR, 2018).Globally, these statistics mean that neither the 2025 World Health Assembly nutrition targets, nor the 2030 SDG nutrition targets, will be met should current trends continue. Moreover, it is important to note that these countrylevel data mask major inequities in gender, across countries and regions, and sub-nationally. With respect to the latter, rural areas tend to have a higher prevalence of undernutrition and -as stated above -are now also experiencing the most rapid rise in prevalence of overweight and obesity.For individuals, these statistics mean increased risk of compromised cognitive function and compromised linear growth in childhood, lowered academic achievement in adolescence, reduced professional performance in adulthood, and increased susceptibility to both infectious disease and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) across the lifespan. These poor health outcomes and productivity shortfalls contribute to an intergenerational cycle of poverty and malnutrition which reduce long-term economic security at household level and \"trickle up\" to national economies, resulting in major economic losses to countries and regions. For example, the cost of undernutrition was estimated at $1-2 trillion per year, about 2-3 percent of global GDP, in 2013(FAO, 2013); in 2016, the global economic costs of overweight and obesity were estimated at $500 billion per year (GLOPAN, 2016a).Food insecurity is a fundamental cause of all forms of malnutrition and associated costs. And it is rising. In 2018, an estimated 822 million people were undernourished, up from about 797 million in 2016, chiefly as a result of civil conflict and strife, slow economic growth and climate variability and change (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2019). Poor quality diets, which may be adequate in terms of total energy supply, but which are deficient in nutrients and too high in fats, sugars, sodium and additives, are also proliferating. Poor diet is now the number one risk factor worldwide for deaths and disability-adjusted life-years lost, and a crucial common denominator across all forms of malnutrition (Global Burden of Disease Study, 2013).3 Linkages between water and nutritionThe four dimensions of water security -availability, access, stability, and quality -are closely linked to equivalent dimensions of FSN via pathways which span multiple sectors and entry points. These pathways are complex. Some are bidirectional while others track only from water to FSN. And none are mutually exclusive.The fundamental linkages are summarized in Figure 2, with more detail provided on each pathway in the sections below.Source: HLPE, 2015.Adequate availability of sufficient quality of water is paramount for drinking water, cooking, sanitation, and personal hygiene. These uses are typically bundled together as WASH (water supply, sanitation, and hygiene), and impact human health through various pathways, including changes in time availability of mothers for caring, improved availability of safe drinking water, and improved utilization of food through changes in individuals' capacity to metabolize nutrients and fight off infection. In addition to hydration required for life itself, potable water provides nutrients and minerals such as fluoride, calcium and magnesium. These substances are important for good health, but only in the correct quantities. In regions where drinking water contains excess or insufficient amounts of these substances, side effects may offset benefits. Excess fluoride, for example, leads to fluorosis, which can permanently damage bones and joints (Wenhold and Faber, 2009). Water contaminated with pathogens such as E. coli or cholera can lead to diarrhoea and environmental enteric dysfunction. Diarrhoea is the third-leading cause of deaths across all age groups, after acute respiratory infections and malaria for children, and lower respiratory infections and HIV/AIDS for adults (WHO, 2018b). Moreover, ingestion of water contaminated with toxins such as arsenic and lead is associated with a range of negative health effects such as skin, lung, kidney, bladder and liver cancer, high blood pressure, miscarriage, and compromised cognitive and motor function (WHO, 2019).While the highest prevalence of contaminated drinking water is in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), this problem is increasing in higher-income countries such as the United States, primarily in underserved populations where drinking water systems have been neglected for decades and in areas where self-supply is prevalent (EWG, 2019;Pierce and Jimenez, 2015).Even when direct ingestion does not occur, lack of access to safe and clean water in or near the household is closely associated with increased infection and subsequent poor nutrition and health outcomes. Examples include use of contaminated water for cleaning and exposure to waterborne diseases, such as schistosomiasis via skin-contact. Finally, there are diseases, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes that use water as a habitat (HLPE, 2015).Insufficient quantity and quality of water can also affect food preparation in the household, or in restaurants or factory kitchens, as well as in food processing plants where food safety standards do not exist or are not upheld. Poor treatment of domestic and factory wastewater also affects WASH and other water uses located downstream in the same watershed, in addition to the environment.Agriculture is by far the largest user of withdrawn freshwater resources, with an estimated 70 percent of withdrawals used for irrigation (FAO, 2011c). Irrigated agriculture however, accounts for less than a quarter of all water used for crop production globally (less than 1,500 km 3 out of an estimated total crop water consumption of 6,400 km3 in 2000). The remaining crops are rainfed, relying directly on soil moisture from precipitation (FAO, 2011a;Sulser et al., 2009; also see Figure 3). As such, rainfed agriculture is the primary source of food production globally. Almost all land in sub-Saharan Africa (93 percent), three-quarters of cropland in Latin America, two-thirds of cropland in the Middle East and North Africa region, and more than half of cropland in Asia is rainfed (HLPE, 2015). Rainfed agriculture is especially imperative for smallholders in the Global South. Farmers apply water to crops to stabilize and raise yields and to increase the number of crops grown per year. Globally, irrigated yields are two to three times greater than rainfed yields. Although globally only about 20 percent of arable land is irrigated it produces about 40 percent of total crop production. And while the Green Revolution heavily relied on irrigation, it has helped avert major famines and the starvation of millions of people and has also decreased the net food import dependency in the Global South.However, water productivity in irrigation varies considerably across systems and governance and management of irrigation systems could be strengthened in many places. As a result, many systems cannot supply water during prolonged droughts, are unable to resist floods, are high emitters of greenhouse gases and major sources of agrochemical water pollution. Consequently, in some countries irrigation systems are considered one of the main causes of degradation of freshwater ecosystems and fisheries (FAO, 2011c). Regardless of whether they are irrigated or rainfed, agricultural production systems affect FSN in three fundamental ways: i) production-for-own consumption, ii) income and price effects, and iii) as an entry-point for enhancing women's empowerment and improving nutrition knowledge and norms (see, for example, World Bank, 2007a;Herforth et al., 2012;Meeker and Haddad, 2013;Webb, 2013;Ruel and Alderman, 2013;Herforth and Harris, 2014;Carletto et al., 2015;FAO, 2016).While the production-for-own consumption pathway applies exclusively to food crops, the income and women's empowerment pathway also operate for non-food crops. As such, the linkages between water and nutrition encompass not only irrigated and rainfed crops, but also food crops (which are also a part of food systems, see 2.2) and non-food crops, such as textiles and bioenergy crops.Figure 4 shows the top ten food crops and crop groups receiving agricultural water. The top rainfed crops are wheat, maize, and soybean, while the top irrigated crops are rice, wheat and sugarcane (Ringler and Zhu 2015). Seventy to seventy-five percent of the third rainfed crop -soybean -is used as feed for livestock, poultry and aquaculture, and 19 percent is used to make vegetable oil; only the remainder (6 percent) goes directly into food products for human consumption (UCS, 2015). While these first two uses of soy are not inherently negative, animal source food and fat consumption is excessive in a growing number of countries.In terms of water, intensive cultivation of these crops in many parts of the world has led to soil degradation, deforestation, toxic run-off and other adverse effects that decrease access to sufficient water of adequate quality.In terms of nutrition, use of rainfall and irrigation for key crops is reflective of associated trends in undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight/obesity described in Chapter 1, and sheds light on why the food system is not delivering healthy diets to a majority of the global population (see 3.6, below). Water and its related ecosystems underpin all agricultural production (CGIAR WLE, 2014), providing a range of provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural ecosystem services, many of which, in turn, support nutrition and health outcomes by providing water for food and livestock production and fisheries. These ecosystems are under severe threat from the depletion, degradation and destruction of biodiversity and habitats (MA, 2005;IPBES, 2019), ultimately compromising the food security and nutritional status of the growing global population.While not immediately obvious, this pathway is important, first with respect to safeguarding against health and sanitation risks introduced by agricultural production and food processing -zoonoses, standing water, agrochemicals -and second in terms of practices which protect/threaten natural resources -particularly water (Herforth and Ballard, 2016).For example, runoff of agricultural pollution and environmentally detrimental food processing practices have created serious water-quality problems in many parts of the world, contributing to the progressive deterioration of water basins. Currently, a third of all rivers in Africa, Asia and Latin America carry heavy pathogen loads which are partially attributable to poor agricultural practices (UNEP, 2016). Deterioration of these basins directly and indirectly relates to FSN, as populations living in close contact with these rivers use them for WASH, irrigation of riparian crops, stock watering, and collection of wild foods and medicinal plants (O'Brien et al., 2018).Water is also integral to the function and productivity of industries and society at large. And industries are critical to the access dimension of FSN, as they increase purchasing power. When properly regulated, industries are also major contributors to national economic growth and development. Perhaps the most important example of the industry-based link between water security and FSN is electricity, particularly hydropower but also thermal cooling and coal mining (WWAP, 2014). A strong body of research shows that electricity provides substantial benefits in terms of socioeconomic development and resilience and also nutrition, as it expands individual's options in terms of time management and improves the capacity of institutions including hospitals and supermarkets, allowing for cold storage of nutrient-dense perishables, such as fresh milk or vegetables. In terms of FSN, access to electricity (relative to other industries), is unique in that its benefits extend to improved knowledge of nutrition and health (i.e. utilization), primarily because it permits flexibility in time management, both for children who are able to study after dark when they have electricity, and for women who can take better care of themselves and their children when they can function after nightfall and before dawn. For example, Amare et al. (2018) find that in Nigeria, night-time light intensity was a significant predictor of child nutritional outcomes, with increased electricity indicating improved nutrition outcomes, even after controlling for observable covariates known to influence child nutrition.The focus on renewable energy has grown substantially under the Paris Climate Agreement, and hydroelectricity is the largest renewable source of energy in the world, accounting for more than three-quarters of all renewable production. As such, it holds great promise as a positive transmission pathway for the industry-based link between water security and FSN. However, it is important to note that hydropower production -which uses reservoirs or dams -can constrain water availability for irrigation (Zeng et al. 2017), as well as undermining fisheries and ecosystems.This example shows how competition for resources can create tensions between FSN and water security, and the subsequent need to find synergies between the two priorities. Biofuel, another low-carbon technology that has achieved prominence in climate-mitigation assessments (for example, Rogelj et al., 2018), is a second example. Cultivation of biofuel crops requires large amounts of land and water and as such competes directly with FSN in many parts of the world, particularly if rolled out to the extent envisioned in some mitigation assessments. Trade-offs are further discussed in Chapter 4, below.Water is necessary for all the \"activities, processes and outcomes\" (cf. Ericksen et al., 2010, p. 26) related to the food system. Namely: i) food production (fisheries and aquaculture, and crops and livestock), ii) food processing (industrial to household level), and iii) food preparation (at household level as well as by formal and informal food vendors) (HLPE, 2017). These food system components impact human health through all four FSN pathways: food availability, food access, stability of the food supply, and utilization. Nutritional and positive health outcomes of food systems are linked to the realisation of the right to adequate food. In order to diminish the negative impact of several aspects of the food system, there is the need to develop sustainable global consumption and production systems that operate through a human rights-based approach to tackle these issues.With respect to utilization, long and medium-term food system trends, such as shifts in consumer demand linked to urbanization, increased disposable income, and changing lifestyles and marketing, underpinned by long-term trends in agricultural research and investment, trade liberalization, vertical integration of food production and supply chains, and related innovations in technology and processing have resulted in increased consumption of ultra-processed foods, animal source foods, and foods and beverages that are high in sugar, and horticultural products by wealthier populations (Lartey et al. 2018); all of these rely on crops with water needs that are higher than traditional diets or benefit from/depend on irrigation (Ringler and Zhu, 2015). While some of these foods are high in macro and micronutrients, many others, especially ultra-processed products, are associated with low fibre and protein, and high saturated fat, free sugars, sodium, and energy density (Monteiro et al., 2013). Approximately 3 billion people on the planet -close to half the world's population -currently eat low-quality diets (GLOPAN, 2016b) low in nutrient dense foods. For example, Mason D'Croz et al. (2019) find that in 2015, only 40 countries -36 percent of the global population -had access to the WHO's age-specific recommendations for daily fruit and vegetable intake (330-600 grams).With respect to the interaction between water security and more \"macro\" dimensions of FSN (availability, access, and stability), food system pathways are bidirectional. As mentioned above, the same trends that are negatively affecting diets are also affecting what is grown, galvanizing a global shift away from crops which historically comprised plant-based diets, and towards increased animal source foods, sugar, and fats and oils. This shift in cultivation priorities is exacerbating water insecurity and decreasing food security at population level, especially in LMICs (see 3.3, above).Ensuring good nutrition under increased competition for water resources is challenging as real tradeoffs need to be made in water-scarce communities and countries-such as should water be used to irrigate crops, or to maintain a sanitary environment around the household, or to produce bricks or secure other livelihoods that are water-intensive? If short-term, productive and reproductive water needs of households are given priority in water-scarce environments, then environmental water needs and associated aquatic ecosystems might degrade or even collapse. These effects threaten the sustainability of water and natural resource use, which in turn can adversely affect the livelihoods of farm households of entire nations (for example, Small et al. 2001). If water resources dried up, for example, as a result of groundwater extraction at rates exceeding the level of recharge, then eventually industries will move away, communities will suffer, and desertification can set in. Similarly, if wetlands are drained for urban or industrial development, then inland fisheries and aquatic pans will degrade and disappear, reducing access to healthy diets of communities depending on these resources (Rosegrant and Ringler, 2000;Mehta et al., 2019;Waltham et al., 2019).The sections below unpack these issues through the lenses of i) climate change and ii) equity concerns regarding access. While reference to the previously described pathways between water security and FSN is not systematic in this chapter, is important to note that these links play out repeatedly in all the scenarios described below.Food production systems face some of the worst impacts from climate shocks and variability, and production systems in the Global South--where temperatures are often already high, intra-annual and inter-annual variability of water is considerable, and water control infrastructure is limited -are particularly affected.However, impacts of climate change on food production are also substantial in the Global North. For example, climate-change related droughts have adversely affected large swathes of the American mid-west and California, as well as Europe and Australia, temporarily increasing the cost of livestock feed, horticulture, meat, and dairy (for example, Bush and Lemmen, 2019;USGRCP, 2018;EEA, 2019).To address these crises and to minimize the trade-off as mentioned above, it is imperative to look at these challenges with a rights based-lens. Human rights are indivisible and are mutually reinforcing. Simultaneous realization of these rights can only be achieved through a human rights-based approach which stresses the correspondence between rights and obligations (see Box 6), There is an urgent need for policies and strategies that support smallholder farmers in adapting production practices that minimize rainfall-induced risk.A key adaptation investment is appropriate water storage systems (McCartney and Smakhtin, 2010), including improved soil water storage, soil health and soil retention to groundwater infiltration improvements and supplemental irrigation, particularly during dry spells. These innovations are proven strategies for boosting water security in rainfed agriculture systems, as they increase the resilience of rainfed agriculture to weather anomalies and alleviate soil moisture stress, thus reducing the risk of crop failure, and increasing availability of nutritious foods in local markets (HLPE, 2015).In addition to crop production, and market impacts (i.e. availability, accessibility, and stability of supply), climate change-related water stress is also affecting the utilization dimension of food security via its adverse impact on level and quality of food intake. For example, Carpena (2019) finds that in rural India dry shocks lead households to consume fewer calories, proteins and fat and that household diets consequently become less balanced. A review of studies linking climate change and undernutrition by Phalkey et al. (2015) concludes that limited evidence suggests a strong linkage between weather variables and childhood stunting. Moreover, FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO ( 2018), find a correlation between climate extremes and food insecurity. Finally, periodic droughts that dry up animal watering holes affect availability of animal source foods in various parts of Africa. For example, Koo et al. (2019) estimate that during the 2015/2016 El Niño event in Ethiopia, cattle herds declined by 23 percent in the drought-prone lowlands, where most pastoralists reside. Freshwater capture fisheries, which are of particular importance in large parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, are also shrinking. The many proposed solutions to freshwater fisheries decline include better integration of freshwater fisheries into irrigation systems (see Case Study 1), or reservoirs.Climate change has also been shown to increase \"nutrient leaching\" through the combined effects of increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), 7 the CO2 fertilization effect 8 and climate change-related impacts on agricultural productivity and associated changes in food trade. As water security is fundamental to agricultural production, it is also implicated in these projections. A recent study (Beach et al., 2019) finds that growth in the global availability of nutrients will decline by 19.5 percent for protein, 14.4 percent for iron and 14.6 percent for zinc. Thus, increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2 will slow progress on eliminating nutrient deficiencies, with most impacts on populations that are already nutrient deficient and water insecure.7 Increased concentrations of CO 2 may affect the nutrient content of some crops. 8 Increased concentrations of CO 2 tend to increase crop yields, other factors held constant.Throughout Southeast Asia, many irrigation systems are inefficient in their water use. They are unable to supply water effectively during droughts, unable to resist floods, are high emitters of greenhouse gases and major sources of agrochemical water pollution. Consequently, they are considered one of the main causes of degradation of freshwater ecosystems and fisheries (Gregory et al., 2018).Furthermore, in many cases, they are designed solely for rice production, making it almost impossible to grow alternative, more nutritious crops. Modernizing such systems -for example, by integrating the production of fish and more nutritious (and higher-value) crops and simultaneously improving irrigation efficiency -requires not only technological and physical change (to infrastructure, for instance) and innovative water management practices (such as alternate wetting and drying), but also wide-ranging institutional and governance reforms and behavioural change in farmers. Improving water management and remodelling irrigation schemes in this way is no trivial task, but if done successfully, boosts production, increases opportunities for more nutritious food production and builds adaptive capacity and resilience (McCartney et al., 2019). 2019) describe interventions that can support joint crop and fisheries output in large-scale irrigation systems. They include: 1) structural changes within the irrigation command area, such as the incorporation of fish nurseries and refuges, and connectivity for wild fish movement within the scheme; 2) changes to the extended command area, such as changes in the diversion infrastructure to support up-and downstream movement of fish; 3) activities at the catchment levels, such as reduction of trade-offs with other ecosystems services, such as recreation and improvements to water quality; and 4) policy reform at the national level to support strategies and institutions to better manage multiple food and nutrition security, as well as environmental and goals.In Lao PDR, increasing protein, fat and micronutrient intake is critical for the majority of the 1.1 million people (16 percent of the population) who remain undernourished. To this end the 8th National Social Economic Development Plan (Government of Lao PDR, 2106) identifies aquaculture and reservoir fisheries as important opportunities for diversification of protein sources and the Agriculture Development Strategy (Government of Lao PDR, 2015) incorporates a fish consumption target of 33 kg/person/year by 2025. Against this background the National University of Lao in conjunction with the Living Aquatic Resources Research Centre (Lao PDR) and Charles Sturt University (Australia) have conducted considerable research on approaches to better integrate fish into irrigation systems as a contribution to nutrition sensitive approaches. This includes the design of fish passes and water control gates that enable many species of Mekong fish to by-pass blockages to passage (Baumgartner et al. 2019).Additionally, aflatoxin levels are predicted to rise as a result of climate change-induced water stress and postharvest management and storage in a more variable and hotter and wetter climate (for example, van der Fels-Klerx et al. 2019; Medina et al. 2014). Multiple strategies have been proposed for how to address this challenge, including support to consumers to change their diets, support to producers to change agricultural and post-harvest management practices, and recognition of a price premium for aflatoxin-free foods (Brown 2018).Finally, climatic shocks are increasing the prevalence and risk of water-related disease (e.g. pathogens such as E.coli and vector-born infections like malaria) (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2018). As described in Section 3.1, above, these diseases are a proximal driver of poor nutrition outcomes and improving water management options are vital to reduce their impact (for example Wielgosz et al. 2013).The SDG Indicator 6.4.2 9 assesses efficiency of water use within a country or sub-region by computing total water use across sectors, divided by total renewable freshwater resources (UN Water, 2018). The latest data for this metric indicate that water stress is over 60 percent in Western Asia, Central Asia and Northern Africa. Moreover, 23 countries experience water stress above 70 percent, while 15 countries withdraw more than 100 percent of their renewable freshwater resources (FAO, 2019).However, just as indicators of national food security are incomplete because they mask variations in sub-national, household and individual level food insecurity (Barret, 2010), indicators of national water availability can obscure heterogeneity at household and individual level. For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo is considered water rich and has more than half of Africa's water reserves (UN Environment, 2011), but in 2011, approximately three-quarters of the 51 million people in the country had no access to safe drinking water. In contexts like this, availability cannot be equated with access, as lack of infrastructure, contamination concerns, high costs, or risks associated with collection pose fundamental blocks to water security at the household and individual level (Box 2). 9 Target 6.4: By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity. 10 Anecdotal evidence and case studies suggest that irrigation with untreated wastewater is a long-standing and widespread practice, but its full extent remains unknown (Raschid-Sally and Jayakody, 2008;Ensink et al., 2004). Thebo et al. (2017) estimate the total agricultural land irrigated with diluted wastewater at 35.9 million hectares. Although the full health risks, costs and benefits associated with the practice remain unknown, Srinivasan and Reddy (2009) find that compared to a control village, villages irrigating with wastewater showed higher adult female morbidity. Other authors have found widespread diarrhoeal disease to be a result of consumption of food produced with wastewater (for example, Newell et al., 2010).• Pollution of accessible water sources from i) chemical contaminants (cities, industry, and agriculture are the main sources), and ii) water borne disease (e.g. vectors, faecal contamination). • Shrinking water sources from i) competition between water used for irrigation and water used for WASH, ii) drought, and iii) anthropic diversion or destruction of water sources (e.g. for hydropower or filling in wetlands for urban development). • Physical absence/poor maintenance of water management infrastructure.• Limited access (especially for women), due to physical collection risks, geographical and distance issues, high financial cost, or taboos related to gender and socio-economic status (Mehta et al. 2019). • Heavy or exclusive use of wastewater for irrigation, nutrients and organic matter in agriculture (WWAP, 2017;Mateo-Sagasta et al., 2015). 10  The Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale was designed to expose precisely these disparities. Analogous to the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES, Ballard et al., 2013), the HWISE Scale assesses whether households are challenged in accessing a water supply that is safe, reliable and good quality (Jepson et al., 2017), even in contexts where national level water security is considered adequate (See Box 3). As such, this metric is an important tool for identifying inequities in household water access and how these are related to other socio-economic indicators, especially income and food security. The poorest families often experience low food and water security. It is these households who most frequently endure first-hand experience of the difficult trade-offs described above (see also Box 3).Case Study 2 describes one of the commonest of these trade-offs, showing how competition between WASH and irrigation water play out in practice, adversely impacting nutrition and water security of poor families.To date, progress towards equitable and sufficient water has been primarily measured by per capita availability or the proportion of the population with access to safely managed drinking water. Like food balance sheets, these metrics are not of sufficiently high resolution to determine which individuals are most acutely experiencing problems with water, or to quantify health impacts of water problems. Experiences are often considered a more accurate indicator of the challenges of resource insecurity. Hence, the short, simply worded 12-item Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale was developed to provide a universal, comparable measure of water insecurity (Young et al., 2019).The HWISE Scale items query the frequency of experiences of problems with accessibility, adequacy, reliability, and safety of water in the household over the preceding four weeks. The scale is a validated, universal, simple measure to comprehensively capture complex, household-level relations between people and water in low-and middle-income countries.The HWISE Scale has similarities with FIES (Ballard et al., 2013), which considers the multiple dimensions of food insecurity, including food access, use and acceptability. Such high-resolution measures have revealed food insecurity's deleterious consequences for physical and mental health (Jones 2017) and cognitive development (Johnson and Markowitz, 2018), among many other outcomes. Indeed, household-level measures of food insecurity have proved, without doubt, that food insecurity is highly prevalent. They have also served as a tool to help mitigate its impact.Implementation of the HWISE scale at over 30 sites globally has allowed for novel investigations of the determinants of water insecurity and its impacts on agricultural productivity, food insecurity and dietary diversity. Indeed, preliminary HWISE data have shown greater household water insecurity to be significantly associated with greater household food insecurity (Brewis et al.). What's more, water and food insecurity are co-occurring and mutually exacerbating in many contexts, with consequences for well-being that range from increased intimate partner violence to depression (Workman and Ureksoy, 2017;Collins et al. 2019).Including the HWISE scale and analogous measures of food insecurity in nationally representative surveys can help monitor water-nutrition trends over time and to investigate how they are shaped by macro-level social, economic and political shifts, climatic variability and local shocks, such as extreme weather events. These data can, in turn, be used to select the most efficacious water-related programmes, technologies (such as less water-intensive crops) and policies, as well as to evaluate their impacts and cost-effectiveness.Competition between domestic and irrigation water use in Bangladesh's dry season Sadeque (2000) describes how the advancement of irrigation technologies in Bangladesh has led to increased competition between poorer farmers relying on manually operated tubewells for domestic water uses and irrigators who use motorized pumps drawing larger volumes of water from deeper wells for rice irrigation during the dry season.The innovation -motorized Deep Tubewells (DTWs) -can extract large volumes of groundwater for irrigation, which leads to temporary drawdown of water tables in adjoining areas and lowers the overall level of the aquifer. This technology has contributed to the rapid expansion of dry-season irrigation in the country, particularly for rice, but at the same time has exacerbated a rural drinking water crisis as irrigation wells lower water tables to levels that cannot be reached by manual handpumps that are used to extract water for domestic uses. Added to this is the knowledge, since the 1990s, that shallow groundwater in parts of Bangladesh, contains elevated levels of arsenic (As), while DTWs can generally supply drinking water of acceptable chemical and microbial quality (van Geen et al. 2016).Jobeda Khatun, a landless widow with two daughters and one son, has a hand tubewell on her home plot, which also serves additional households in the neighbourhood. This pump becomes inoperable during the dry months of February to April, which are also the main irrigation months. At that time she and her daughters (13 and 17 years old) scramble to collect water from the nearest Tara pump (that can extract a limited volume of water from up to 15 meter depth) 500 meters away. Local customs do not allow her and her daughters to seek water from the DTW in the further-away irrigation fields. Moreover, DTWs are typically operated during night hours and as a landless household her household is disadvantaged from getting access to water extracted on farmland (Sadeque 2000).While DTWs have been more recently deployed to avoid arsenic contamination, this deployment seems to have been dramatically skewed, at least in some areas, toward land holdings with lower levels of initial arsenic contamination and to areas with relatively richer land owners, suggesting elite capture of a public good. Improper deployment of DTWs for drinking water thus resulted in unnecessary additional mortality due to cardio-vascular disease and cancers of the lung, liver, and bladder in adults, as well as diminished intellectual and motor function in children due to continued arsenic exposure of poorer and lower-status households (van Geen et al. 2016).Proposed solutions for the competition between DTWs and domestic uses of water include: 1) clear government policy strategy and implementation of prioritization of high-quality (non-contaminated) water for drinking purposes; 2) continued monitoring of water quality of DTWs and development of multiple-use systems from appropriate DTWs that supply irrigation and domestic users; 3) Increase transparency and ensure community participation in the development of drinking water systems with a special focus on women and adolescent girls who are responsible for domestic water supply; 4) Support cropping pattern changes in the dry season from rice (water intensive and nutrient poor), to legumes (water efficient and nutrient rich), and fruits and vegetables (water intensive and nutrient rich).With respect to key drivers of water demand, domestic and industrial water needs are projected to outpace those for irrigation over the next four decades, particularly in developing countries (Ringler et al., 2016).Changing diets are a third significant driver of water demand with major health and equity impacts. As described in Section 3.6, consumption of ultra-processed foods, over-consumption of animal source foods, and foods and beverages that are high in sugar is increasing world-wide. All of these foods rely on crops with water needs that are higher than traditional diets (Ringler and Zhu, 2015). Moreover, their proliferation (see Section 3.3, Figure 4) has been driven in part 11 by decades of heavy research and investment in staple cereals, oilseeds, vegetable oil technologies, with consequent underinvestment in coarse grains, fruits, legumes, and vegetables (Pingali, 2015;Popkin, 2011). As a result, nutritious diet options are neither available nor affordable in many contexts, and poorer consumers are often forced to fall back on cheaper, less healthy foods which are i) empirically directly linked to poor health and nutrition outcomes (Global Burden of Disease Study, 2013; GLOPAN, 2016b; HLPE, 2017), and ii) put added pressure on water resources, which are often already over-used.Again, it is the most vulnerable populations that bear the brunt of this development. In both developed and developing countries, poorer people eat the least healthy diets, have the worst health outcomes, and are most directly exposed to the adverse impacts of water insecurity.Based on the heightened need for action as a result of growing competition for water resources, and further exacerbated by climate change and growing inequities in access, this chapter presents three Recommendations to advance joint progress on SDG 2 and SDG 6. Joint progress, underpinned by a joint approach is imperative also in the context of the indivisibility of human rights, in this case the right to adequate food, the right to water and sanitation and the right to health. When these are respected, protected and fulfilled, equitable access to adequate food and water will be improved (see 5.3, Box 6). All three can be taken up by the work programs of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition and the UN International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development. These Recommendations also target non-UN actors in these fields, including the private sector, civil society, academia and government.Implementing nutrition-sensitive agricultural water management means producing food in adequate quantity and quality while also safeguarding water and other natural resources.In rainfed systems, this requires rainwater harvesting as well as soil conservation practices that involve the most vulnerable segments of society, including those directly involved in such practices, such as mulching, terracing, and tillage to improve soil health. These strategies increase infiltration of rainwater into the soil and improve soil water storage, minimizing evaporation and increasing the likelihood that crops remain healthy and develop to maturity with maximum nutrient content (FAO and SIWI, forthcoming). 12 Supplemental irrigation, 13 can also help unlock additional yield potential in rainfed systems, particularly during dry spells (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. 2019; Mehta et al. 2019; FAO and SIWI, forthcoming), as it expands production into the dry season -often referred to as the \"hunger season\" or \"lean season\" in rainfed-dependent systems. It also can diversify production toward more nutritious crops, such as fruits and vegetables, that risk-averse farmers might otherwise not try to grow. As described in Section 3.6, a major challenge facing today's food system is low availability and accessibility of fruits and vegetables, leading to decreased intake and subsequent poor nutrition outcomes. Irrigation is a key mechanism to increase production of these crops.Supplemental irrigation can increase productivity in rainfed production systems, particularly during dry spells, and can directly or indirectly create a reliable source of production of animal feed, thus improving household food security and nutrition.In addition to improved yield and diversification of production on farm, three additional positive pathways between small-scale, dry-season irrigation and nutrition have been identified (Figure 5), namely increased income, improved WASH, and increased women's empowerment (Passarelli et al., 2018;Domènech, 2015):• Increased income: Small-scale, supplemental irrigation can improve incomes through commercialization of increased crop production, through the commercialization of higher-value crops that require more water control, and through the generation of irrigation-related employment (such as irrigation-service providers), particularly in the lean season when employment opportunities in rural areas are scarce (Namara et al., 2011;Burney and Naylor, 2012;Alaofè et al., 2016).• Improved water access: Small-scale, supplemental irrigation can improve the WASH environment by providing water for multiple uses, but this requires systems that are designed to meet the needs of both agricultural production and domestic uses (van Koppen et al. 2006) and that are non-discriminatory and sensitive regarding the most vulnerable populations.• Women's empowerment: Women are among the most vulnerable and discriminated groups in societies. Smallscale, supplemental irrigation can also be an entry point for women's empowerment through increased asset ownership. This may occur if irrigation permits women to engage in income-generating activities that they would have otherwise not been able to do, or if they can control resources from increased production on their own plots (Cairncross et al., 2010;Olney et al., 2015;Theis et al., 2018). At a minimum, access to irrigation water of sufficient quality near the homestead can reduce the time spent collecting water for domestic uses, a task still performed by approximately 206 million people (UNICEF and WHO, 2019), primarily women and girls. 14It is important to note that increased yield or quality of agricultural production, more income, better access to water, or women's empowerment in isolation will not necessarily translate into improvements in food intake or nutritional outcomes. Each are necessary but not sufficient; that is, if the necessary infrastructure is not available for food storage, or if the accessible water is not clean, then nutrition is unlikely to improve (Gerber et al. 2019). with other sectors is needed to help ensure that children receive all the nutrition inputs necessary for better outcomes, not only water-related inputs. Bryan et al. (2019) summarize key entry points to enhance the nutrition sensitivity of irrigation and water-management investments to ensure greater impact. These include:Understanding the nutritional profile of the beneficiary population, including the prevalence and types of micronutrient deficiency -such as lack of food sources rich in vitamin A or iron, deficiencies in the consumption of certain food groups or lack of dietary diversity -can inform the choice of crops to generate both income and nutritional benefits.Conservation and restoration activities, including reforestation programs, wetland restoration and buffer strips to reduce nutrient and sediment runoff from agricultural land into waterways, can impact downstream sedimentation, runoff, fisheries and agricultural productivity.Making use of existing water-and agriculture-related platforms to communicate messages on household nutrition could be a costeffective way of reaching target populations. Topics might include healthy diets, resource planning and food-storage practices to ensure food availability throughout the year, food safety and hygiene.Other community-based platforms that target pregnant women and households with young children, such as schools, health centers, and savings groups, could be equipped with information and messaging to promote household nutrition and healthy diets. This messaging could be reinforced through irrigation-related platforms.Including women in irrigation interventions can influence the types of crop grown, how income from food production is used and how their time is spent, in addition to boosting women's empowerment. Each plays a role in nutrition outcomes in the home.Promoting nutrient-dense crops could lead to improvements in household nutrition, whereby a portion of production is diverted to household consumption or sold in local markets, benefiting a wider population. Promoting home gardens can encourage the domestic consumption of a more diverse diet.Water systems that are designed for multiple purposes and that consider health and environmental outcomes may reduce overall time spent collecting water, freeing up time for productive uses and caregiving, increasing the health and nutritional gains of irrigation water.Social protection and livelihoods programs provide a community-based platform for delivery of small-scale infrastructure as well as financial safety nets to a targeted set of households, protecting them from shocks and providing resources to strengthen their resilience.Source: Bryan et al., 2019.To strengthen the FSN and water security pathways from irrigation to nutrition, irrigation infrastructure should be co-designed with health and nutrition specialists, as well as market and marketing experts. Furthermore, their deployment should be complemented by nutritional education, potentially through extension services, cooperatives or community health workers.At the same time, traditional platforms accessed by farmers, such as cooperatives, agricultural extension services and water user associations, as well as health centres and savings groups that target women farmers and households with young children, can all be used to transmit information on nutrition and dietary considerations and how they are linked to irrigation. Depending on context, such messaging needs to go beyond crop farming to also include information on how to improve nutrition through livestock herding and aquaculture (which can also improve through enhanced agricultural water management), as well as information on how these systems fit into wider landscapes.Recognition of these requirements is growing, along with guidelines for their implementation. At country level, for example, a pilot curriculum developed for Malawi and Tanzania that includes elements of agroecology, nutrition, climate change and social equity has been developed (Bezner et al., 2019); in Uganda, an integrated malaria-farmer education curriculum through Farmer Field Schools was considered (Wielgosz et al., 2013). At global level, there are the FAO Recommendations on Improving Nutrition through Agriculture and Food Systems (FAO, 2015), along with the World Bank Guidance on Nutrition-Sensitive Irrigation and Water Management (Bryan et al., 2019;see Box 4). A good example of actions to advance a joint progress on SDG 2 and SDG target 6.4, is the FAO and IFAD project on \"increasing water productivity for sustainable nutrition-sensitive agriculture production and improved food security\". Through the project, FAO developed an innovative methodological framework to estimate how the choice of crops, water and soil management and best farm practices can be modified to ensure the production of high nutrient density crops and crop diversification, with specific focus on rainfed production system, which will in turn contribute to the achievement of the SDG 2 and SDG target 6.4. The project will be piloted in six countries (i.e. Rwanda, Mozambique, Egypt, Benin, Niger and Jordan) for a period of 3 years and will start in the first quarter of 2020.In addition to the challenge of realizing a positive transmission pathway from irrigation to nutrition, there are many potentially adverse impacts posed by irrigation itself, each of which can undermine nutrition gains. First, given the cost of irrigation (and other water management technologies), there are increasing inequities between richer farmers who can afford the technologies and those without access, such as poorer and women farmers (see, for example, Lefore et al., 2019). Second, pollution of water bodies, including contamination of drinking-water sources with agricultural chemicals, and increased incidence of vector-borne diseases that thrive in standing water (Mateo-Sagasta et al. 2018;Kibret et al., 2016;Gerber et al. 2019) are potential side effects of irrigation systems.Notably, irrigation technologies are increasingly being designed to address these challenges. For example, precision agricultural technologies that apply water where and when it is needed (\"just-in-time\" technologies), lifting groundwater (rather than collecting water in surface reservoirs) to avoid cross-contamination and standing water, and appropriate integrated pest management to address plant, animal and human diseases can address several of these challenges.Additionally, for most irrigation structures (ranging from large and permanent, to small-scale and supplemental), multiple-use water systems can be designed that, from the beginning, account for all potential water uses and as such, protect against potentially adverse impacts (e.g. reuse of agricultural drainage water for WASH). These systems can also incorporate environmental water requirements or flows (e-flows) into their blueprints, considering not only the immediate physical availability of water in a given catchment area, but also long-term implications of that water's use in terms of sustained ecosystem services and support of human cultures, economies, livelihoods and well-being, including FSN (see Case Study 3).During the design phase, these multi-use systems require donors and recipient organizations to request input not only from irrigation engineers, but also from health and nutrition experts, and extension officers and agronomists, and also need to solicit input from the most vulnerable groups, including farmer groups and groups that are more likely to be frequented by women (van Koppen et al. 2006).Around the world, countries are assessing the environmental flow requirements of rivers, using models ranging from simple desktop simulations to high-cost two-year studies (Horne et al., 2017;Arthington et al., 2018). One of these, called PROBFLO, is expressly designed to make the connection between alterations in river flow due to upstream use or even climate change, with changes to the ecosystem and provision of ecosystem services and thus, the achievement of a variety of endpoints (for example, fisheries, water for riparian irrigation or domestic water). One such study [reported by O'Brien et al. (2018)], carried out on the Senqu River in Lesotho, contrasted increasingly large dam development scenarios with the maintenance of ecosystem services through the provision of environmental flows, including both the abundance of ecosystem services as well as the use of these ecosystem services by downstream communities.The following graph shows how scenarios of rising stress as a result of increasing water removal due to a large interbasin transfer of water, increased risk to fish well-being (and, by implication, fisheries). The natural flow regime (the grey shaded area) had a low risk, while the fisheries under scenarios 3-7.2 were at moderate to high risk of failure (O'Brien et al, 2018). A river flow regime to satisfy environmental requirements was selected from scenarios that minimized the risk to the full range of ecosystem services as well as the natural ecosystem (not shown here). Ultimately, the final decision on what risk to accept, which would determine how much water could be withdrawn for inter-basin transfer and, thus, how much water should be allocated for the environmental flow, was a management/political one based on how much risk of service-failure was deemed acceptable. In sum, for this first recommendation on nutrition-sensitive agricultural water management, nutrition and health experts need to join forces with water managers at the farm household level, at the community and irrigation scheme levels and at the government level to strengthen the positive transmission pathways between rainfed and irrigated agriculture, and FSN. Sample actions include:• Encouraging smallholders who rely primarily on rainfed production to produce more nutrient dense foods through supplemental irrigation (including irrigated fodder for livestock) and adopting soil conservation practices. • Using irrigation water to improve nutrition outcomes by improving the WASH environment, and by strengthening women's empowerment in agriculture. • Increasing guidance geared toward irrigation investors, extension personnel who provide advice to rainfed and irrigating farmers, and catchment managers whose task is to conserve watersheds, on water managementnutrition impacts. • Incorporating joint agricultural water-nutrition management programming into food-for-work and other social protection programs. • Raising incentives for farmers to produce more nutrient-dense, \"water wise\" crops via the establishment of procurement programs which provide a guaranteed market.As has been described in this report, water resources are being rapidly degraded and food systems play a key role in this degradation. Per Section 3.3, rice, sugarcane, soy, wheat, and maize are among the most commonly grown crops in the world. As such, they consume considerable freshwater resources. They also hold limited macro and micronutrients and are often used in ultra-processed products that are high in saturated fats and sugars.Animal products from intensive livestock systems also play a pivotal role in this problem, as products from industrial, feed-based systems generally consume and pollute more ground-and surface water resources than animal products from grazing or mixed systems (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2012). In addition to environmental concerns, many (though not all, see Box 5) of the health and nutrition trends associated with these foods are negative, as excess consumption -especially when highly processed (e.g. hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and flavoured milk) -has been linked to a number of NCDs as well as overweight and obesity.Several studies have also implicated ASFs in the growing equity issues surrounding access to both healthy diets and water. Examples include Renault and Wallender (2000), who find that a twenty-five-percent reduction in the consumption of animal products in developed countries could generate twenty-two percent of the additional water needed globally by 2025, and Jalava et al. (2014), who find that if the share of animal products in human diets could be reduced, an additional 1.8 billion people could be fed. However, other studies find smaller changes in overall livestock consumption when over-consumption is reduced in HICs as resulting, lower prices for ASF would spur increased consumption of the same in LMICs. The final result would be improved food and nutrition security in LMICs, but not a large decline in the consumption of ASF (Rosegrant et al. 1999).Food waste and loss is another key drain on water resources and has also been implicated in climate change.Between production and decay in landfills, food waste represents billions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. In LMICs, the problem is often one of post-harvest losses due to lack of cold chain technology, sub-par warehousing and long transport times to markets (FAO 2011b). Overeating is considered by some a form of food waste that not only affects the natural resource base but also human health.In response to these risks, a wide variety of food system reform studies, tools, and initiatives have been launched. One of the most recent and seminal -the EAT-Lancet Commission (Willett et al., 2019) -defines an operating space for food production designated as \"safe\" across both environmental and health dimensions. The former sets targets for a variety of environmental concerns, including nitrogen and phosphorus emissions, greenhouse gases, land and water use and biodiversity loss. The Commission proposes that food production activities operate within boundaries set by these targets, to sustain both food and environmental security for the growing global population. Five transformative strategies are presented: (1) seek international and national commitment to a shift towards healthy diets; (2) reorient agricultural priorities from producing high quantities of food to producing healthy food;(3) sustainably intensify food production to increase high-quality output; (4) ensure strong and coordinated governance of (agricultural) land and oceans, and (5) at least halve food losses and waste, in line with the SDGs.The SDGs are an obvious starting point to act on these goals. In addition to SDGs 2 and 6 (which focus, respectively, on FSN/ sustainable agriculture, and increasing water efficiency/access to WASH), SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production addresses both food waste (Target 3) and preventing contamination of water and other natural resources with toxic waste (Target 4).National food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) that include environmental considerations are another important step in ensuring sustainable diets. Also, the Right to Food Guidelines call for States to develop policies in line with a HRBA including nutrition, education and access to natural resources and sustainability. 15 15 GUIDELINE 8E. Sustainability. 8.13 States should consider specific national policies, legal instruments and supporting mechanisms to protect ecological sustainability and the carrying capacity of ecosystems to ensure the possibility for increased, sustainable food production for present and future generations, prevent water pollution, protect the fertility of the soil, and promote the sustainable management of fisheries and forestry (FAO, 2005).Demand for ASFs is -unequivocally -too high in developed countries. In LMICs, however, where consumption is rising but remains within the bounds of environmental sustainability, trends are less easily qualified. On one hand, there are young children and other vulnerable populations in these countries whose health and nutrition will benefit considerably from increased ASF consumption. On the other, there is a growing number of people in LMICs for whom overconsumption is a health risk. This caveat, combined with the positive implications of livelihood generation and the negative implications of increased emissions, creates additional complexity for politicians and policymakers working to assess the net environmental and health benefits of livestock in LMICs (ILRI, 2019).Fish, through sustainable fisheries, may provide a partial solution to this issue. In many developing countries fish are the main source of protein and micro-nutrients and increased fish intake would be beneficial with fewer of the negative impacts of livestock. Especially classes of small, fully mature, macronutrient, micronutrient and vitamin-rich indigenous species of fish, if consumed whole by women and young children are an important avenue to consider (for example, Longley et al., 2014).Several countries, notably Brazil and Sweden, have already developed dietary guidelines that take sustainability, including water use, into account. Such national guidelines provide the anchor or \"steer\" for countries' nutrition and food security policies and programmes. When they include water and other natural resource considerations, they can influence the entire direction of a country's food system, focusing attention on the need for sustainability all the way from pre-farm gate production choices to consumer behaviour regarding diet and food waste.More work is urgently needed to understand the impact of current dietary trends on environmental resources, and vice-versa; not only in terms of documenting harm done under the current status-quo, but also with respect to practical recommendations for regional and national stakeholders on policy reform and investments that counter-act the heavy tolls that are being exacted by current diet trends. Sample actions include:• Encouraging countries and regional associations to leverage their own FBDGs, SDGs 2,6 and 12, and food system assessments (e.g. the EAT-Lancet Commission) for concrete collaborations between agriculture, conservation, and health platforms. • Increasing investment in research that attempts to measure the impact of diets on natural resources. To date, such studies are hamstrung by consistent lack of information on which foods and drinks constitute a country's \"national diet\". Data on water use in food preparation and processing are also limited.When considering overall inequalities, including gender, in access to adequate food and water, it is imperative to look at the challenges with a human rights lens. The UN Committee on Cultural, Social and Economic Rights has elaborated on the right to adequate food in its General Comment 12, art. 11 of the 1966 International Covenants on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and these establish clear States Parties Obligations.While water has not been explicitly recognized as a self-standing human right in international treaties, international human rights law entails specific obligations related to access to safe drinking water. For instance, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted its general comment No. 15 on the right to water in 2002, and defined it as the right of everyone \"to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.\" The Committee underlined that the right to water was part of the right to an adequate standard of living, as were the rights to adequate food, housing and clothing. The Committee also stressed that the right to water was inextricably linked to the rights to health, adequate housing and food.Box 6 explains why reducing social inequities in food and water access should be considered integral to coordinated water-FSN policy and programming.16 17A key aspect of this Recommendation is adjusting for gender as in many contexts, men's and women's experiences around water are very different. While some of these differences are physiological, the most harmful are imposed by society. For example, women are usually responsible for household water acquisition (UNICEF and WHO 2019). As described in Section 4.2 and Box 2, this can be physically taxing, time-intensive, and sometimes dangerous. And while data are generally not collected on intra-household access to clean and sufficient water, disparities in access and utilization are likely, given that major inequities in intra-household food allocation is widely documented (men's diets are typically qualitatively and quantitatively superior to that of women and children's (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. 2019)). At community-level, women may be excluded from water-use associations, even when these associations have established quotas to increase female participation. Women who are widows or otherwise separated from mainstream society may face additional restrictions on access to water.The fact that i) women are responsible for many water-intensive chores -cooking, cleaning, and bathing children, and ii) women's hydration and hygiene requirements vary depending upon a wide variety of factors [e.g. workload, lactation status, menstrual status, and climate (Jéquier and Constant 2010)], adds further complexity to understanding the gender dynamics of water use.Because women are usually the primary caretakers for infants and children, their access to water also plays a critical role in perinatal, infant and young children's, and adolescent's nutrition outcomes. A woman's ability to breastfeed can be jeopardized by low hydration status, and the time she has available to prepare complementary foods can be limited by long journeys or queues for water. Purchasing power for food is reduced by these time constraints, as they can prevent wage or agricultural work. The same is true if the financial costs of water 16 SDG 2 (End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture), and SDG 6 (Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all). 17 However, the use of water for food production or other productive activities is not (yet) considered a human right (see, for example, Van Koppen et al., 2017;Mehta et al. 2019).It is critical that stronger, more coordinated action by both the Nutrition and Water Decades prioritize human rights principles including equality explicitly, as these two Decades and the SDGs they support 16 are predicated on the human rights to adequate food, drinking water and sanitation (UN General Assembly, 2010; UNSCN 2010). 17All human rights are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. There is, however, a special connection between the right to food and the right to water. This means that all individuals are born with them, entitled to each, with no hierarchy between rights. Human rights are also mutually reinforcing, that is, fulfilment of one is likely to strengthen fulfilment of others, while violation of one is likely to impede fulfilment of others. For example, when the poor are obliged to choose between water for drinking and sanitation, or for growing food, the rights are not in conflict, rather, they are both being violated simultaneously. The State obligation to protect both is not fulfilled when people are forced to choose. As such, the progressive realization of food and water rights should not be seen as competing, but as complementary and mutually reinforcing. This can only be achieved through a human rights-based approach which stresses the correspondence between rights and obligations, providing a framework for Member States and other organizations that aims to ensure that respect for human rights are integrated into development plans at all levels, and that human rights principles are guiding their actions (Winkler 2010).are high, as women may need to reduce expenditures on foods for children and indeed the entire family. For rural households, the quantity and quality of household dietary intake, is also directly linked to water used in agricultural production, particularly in the dry or lean season. As an example, the amount of food available may be limited if there is no water to prepare it; for example, there may be flour for porridge, but no potable water to cook it. Again, the entire family is affected, but with especially dire consequences for small children and adolescents, whose nutritional needs are greater than adults. Case Study 4 provides an illustration from Western Kenya of some of these hard choices, while Figure 6 shows how water challenges affect the entire trajectory of malnutrition causes, from basic, to underlying, to immediate.As part of a study quantifying the impact of food insecurity on nutrition, Collins et al. (2019), asked mothers in Western Kenya to photograph what determined how they fed their infants. As a result of the dozens of photos of water that were taken, the study reoriented to water insecurity, employing a variety of ethnographic techniques to unpack the interactions between water stress (too little, too much, poor quality), and women's and children's lives.\"This is the water we use for cooking sometimes... it comes from the prison called Kodiaga. So the prison people let the sewage drain into it … but we still have to use it for cooking. So you get torn in between buying water and buying food. In a way this makes the baby suffer because the money that ought to be used in buying her food ends up buying water. On the other hand, when the food is bought that means that there is no water for cooking.\" (quote from Kenyan respondent, Sera Young, personal communication)According to women in the study, the perceived consequences of water insecurity for nutrition included decreases in the quality and quantity of foods, e.g. switching to less nutrient-dense foods that were quicker to cook, for example, porridge rather than beans. Food insecurity increased, as did energy expenditure when nearby water sources were unavailable. Breastfeeding also declined for a variety of reasons. The range of impacts went beyond nutrition to include consequences for psychosocial health, like worry and shame, physical health, such as intimate partner violence, and a range of impacts on economic productivity (Collins et al., 2019).Photo: Anonymous, with permission. Gender-based inequities are never acceptable; however, they are particularly egregious in contexts where poverty and hardship are endemic in the general population. This is certainly the case in fragile states. By 2030, 60 percent of the world's poor will live in these countries, where extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated and where the human rights to food and water are tenuous (CGDEV, 2019). Strengthening positive transmission pathways between water and FSN is extremely important in fragile states, due to failures in service provision, protection from water-related disasters, and preservation of surface, ground and transboundary water resources, all of which are associated with worse nutrition outcomes (see Case Study 5).  Humanitarian relief is often needed in fragile states, and humanitarian settings constitute another high-priority area for strengthening positive water-FSN pathways. In these contexts, the population is in constant flux, water infrastructure is often weak or non-existent, and WASH services are informal and unreliable. Moreover, people affected by humanitarian crises are generally at high risk of illness and death from disease. Inadequate access to WASH infrastructure, as well as poor and crowded living conditions, exacerbate this risk, increasing susceptibility to diarrheal and infectious diseases transmitted by the faecal-oral route, as well as by vectors associated with poor sanitation, waste management and drainage.Addressing gender inequities is also critical in humanitarian settings. Although WASH is crucial to survival in the first phase of many emergencies and for resilience in succeeding phases, women in refugee camps and other humanitarian contexts are at particular risk of infection, as even if toilets, showers, and other services do exist, they may be unable to access them safely.In sum, for this third Recommendation on addressing inequities and protecting, promoting and realizing the human rights to food, health and water, it will be important to include demographics that are typically excluded from preferential access to WASH or irrigation services. These social groups need to be proactively included in the development of such services, including incorporating their needs into water infrastructure design. Sample actions include:Case study 5.Efforts to preserve the Republic of Yemen's water resources have been piecemeal and hindered by strong economic interests, political sensitivities, and weak state authority (Hales 2010). As in other fragile contexts where elites have used their power to capture mineral resources and rents, large land-owners and political elites in the Republic of Yemen have captured scarce water resources and suitable agricultural land to invest in cash crops, most notably qat (Ward, 2014). Qat is a mild stimulant consumed by an estimated one in three Yemen is5 that has no nutritional value and whose cultivation consumes more than half of the country's water resources (Lichtenthaeler, 2010). In a country where about 50 percent of children under the age of five are stunted and 40 percent are underweight (World Bank, 2015), limiting qat cultivation and reforming agricultural water use are a priority for food security, poverty reduction, and for preserving adequate, sustainable water resources (World Bank, 2007b). Yet attempts to curtail further expansion of qat cultivation and regulate water use in agriculture have been met with resistance due to strong vested interests (Lichtenthaeler, 2010). This failure to preserve water resources is a critical element in perpetuating water insecurity, contributing to malnutrition and gender inequality and triggering conflict in the Republic of Yemen.Once lost, regaining control over water resources and shifting towards more sustainable management can be difficult. Factors that have led to success in other countries include good knowledge of the resource, a clear set of rules, user empowerment and regulation and a partnership approach between users and government. In Jordon, the government assigned water rights and quotas based on groundwater studies, used awareness raising to educate the population on the importance of sustainable management, and introduced incentives to farmers and communities that encouraged cooperation and more sustainable use of the resource. Strong governance, political commitment to enforcement and local accountability and engagement were critical factors in the success of this approach (Tiwari et al., 2017).Source: Sadoff et al. (2017).• Ensuring that investments in all community infrastructure includes sustainable access to water services into the original design. • Supporting the multiple water needs of women.• Ensuring increased equity and inclusivity in water user groups.• Provision of water to lower-income neighbourhoods in peri-urban settings. • Requiring irrigation system managers to use satisfaction with water delivery of farmers at the end of canal systems as the yardstick of performance, rather than the demands of more powerful farmers. • Using irrigation water to improve nutrition outcomes by improving the WASH environment, and by strengthening women's empowerment. • Ensuring that agricultural support, including irrigation, supplemental irrigation or support to rainfed agriculture, takes into account needs of small-scale farmers.The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is grounded in human rights and provides the most formal recognition to date of the interwoven water, food security and nutrition challenges that must be overcome to realize the human rights to adequate food, health and water. But as this report has highlighted, water and nutrition communities could do much more to accelerate impact of both Decades -including achieving SDG 2 and SDG 6 -by strengthening collaboration and joint actions. The Recommendations above aim to inspire action on better leveraging this opportunity. Each Recommendation was designed with both communities in mind, and each includes a wide range of policy investment, research, and programming options. In most cases the \"sample actions\" provided at the end of each recommendation imply joint action. It is hoped that these and similar ideas will provide a springboard for systematic collaboration across a range of areas related to the waternutrition nexus.For example:For the nutrition community, providing advice on water infrastructure development, such as dams, irrigation systems or water supply systems. These structures and systems inevitably impact WASH, agriculture, the food system, and industries in ways that have major impact on FSN. With nutrition involved in their initial design, the likelihood that transmission pathways will be positive is maximized.For the water community, providing insights to FSN stakeholders on how water can be conserved along food value chains and through more sustainable diets, can dramatically reduce water degradation and as such, put SDG 6 back on track.Additionally, both communities need to do more to monitor the impacts of their strategies on the other sector, for example by measuring the impact of current diets on water resources, and tracking nutrition outcomes of investments in agricultural water management. Collection of data beyond indicators of interest to only the water or FSN communities will be essential to cross-sectoral progress, and to realizing the human rights to water and food.The analysis and recommendations in this report are geared not only toward United Nations actors, but also to stakeholders with access to the many other entry points that exist to accelerate progress. Some collaboration already exists between the water and nutrition communities, particularly on WASH, including at the international level between UNICEF and WHO. There is also a considerable body of evidence that assesses the nutrition and health impacts of WASH interventions.  A call for innovations to secure \"sustainable, healthy diets for all\" and to \"reduce food and nutrient losses and waste\" (p. 5).This area could consider how dietary recommendations could be adjusted to increase sustainability of natural resources (Recommendation 2)Call for sustainable consumption (p. 5).An explanation of what sustainability means or why it is needed could be added.Call for to address food safety issues, which is linked with contaminated water and poor sanitation (p. 5).The contribution of food value chains to contamination could be mentioned or that implementation of this action also supports SDG6.The role of nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs is missing, including nutrition-sensitive rainfed and irrigated agriculture (Recommendation 1). The role of healthy watersheds and overall water management could be added here.Call for sustainable consumption (p5).An explanation of what sustainability means or why it is needed could be added.Call for to address food safety issues, which is linked with contaminated water and poor sanitation.The contribution of food value chains to contamination could be mentioned or that implementation of this action also supports SDG6.The document misses an action area on the special role of women and the need to consider various social structures for achieving nutrition outcomes. (Recommendation 3).Source: www.un.org/nutrition/sites/www.un.org.nutrition/files/general/pdf/work_programme_nutrition_decade.pdf. Facilitating access to knowledge and the exchange of good practices Suggest to note the importance of progress on SDG 6 for key other SDGs, such as SDG 2, including nutrition; suggest to increase focus on action in the agriculture sector, as the major water user; gender mainstreaming and equality are mentioned but without a specific outcome. This could be made clearer.Improving knowledge generation and dissemination, including new information relevant to water-related SDGsPursuing advocacy, networking and promoting partnerships and actionStrengthening communication actions for implementation of the water-related Goals Source: https://wateractiondecade.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/UN-SG-Action-Plan_Water-Action-Decade-web.pdf.The water and nutrition targets under SDG2, (zero hunger) and SDG6 (water) Table B1. SDG 2 targets on food security and nutrition SDG 2 targets 2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.2.2 By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.2.3 By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and the incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and nonfarm employment.2.4 By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extrefme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.2.5 By 2020, maintain genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants, farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.2.A Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries.2.B Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round.2.C Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, to help limit extreme food price volatility.Source: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/.Source: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg6.6.1 By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.6.2 By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.6.3 By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.6.4 By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity.6.5 By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate.6.6 By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes.6.A By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water-and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies.6.B Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management. A world free from hunger and all forms of malnutrition is attainable in this generationUnited Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition UNSCN","tokenCount":"14580"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"066db4ec88235fd7a5a7fdf2063153a8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2098d14f-81c7-4984-87b1-9f7cf9816f13/retrieve","id":"1962616134"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e5b9a19a-d4d8-4e7f-850c-b3b88127573c","pagecount":"15","content":"Agradecemos a Myriam del Carmen Salazar Villarreal por recabar parte de las encuestas y a todos y cada una de las personas e instituciones que participaron respondiendo las preguntas de la encuestas por la información que nos han proporcionado para este estudio.Conservar la biodiversidad de Colombia al tiempo que se producen los alimentos necesarios para la población es una tarea del desarrollo sostenible y que en los últimos años es promovida por los gobiernos e instituciones públicas y privadas. Sin embargo, la falta de información y comunicación entre los agricultores podría restringir la extensión de las innovaciones implementadas. En este estudio se usó el método de redes sociales para mapear los actores que trabajan en innovaciones y prácticas relacionadas con la iniciativa Soluciones positivas para la naturaleza del CGIAR. Se entrevistaron 38 actores en ocho departamentos en las regiones andina y caribe de Colombia. Se identificó como principales grupos de actores de la red a instituciones de enseñanza e investigación, organización de productores, agricultores individuales e instituciones gubernamentales. Las actividades de colaboración mencionadas fueron asistencia técnica, producción, educación e investigación. Se puede caracterizar esta red de actores como joven con pocas conexiones -91 relaciones-entre actores, debido a que la iniciativa es un movimiento reciente, lo que dificulta el flujo de información sobre las innovaciones. Se requiere desarrollar más acciones para favorecer la vinculación entre los actores para la implementación sostenible de soluciones positivas para la naturaleza.. Palabras clave: red de actores, regiones andina y caribe, vinculación, soluciones positivas y desarrollo sostenible.Mapeo exploratorio de la red de actores trabajando en \"soluciones positivas para la naturaleza\" a nivel local en las regiones andinas y caribe de ColombiaColombia es un país megadiverso, ocupa el tercer lugar entre los países con mayor biodiversidad del planeta, con más de 75, 000 especies registradas (SiB Colombia, 2020). Además tiene un gran potencial agrícola por su riqueza en agrobiodiversidad cultivada -95 especies -y silvestre -185 especies -en 25 de los 32 departamentos, concentrada en los Andes y la región Pacífico (González-Orozco et al., 2021). Sin embargo, los ecosistemas de Colombia se encuentran amenazados por la deforestación, debido al desplazamiento de la zona forestal causada por el crecimiento demográfico -1.4% anual -, la agricultura -4.6 millones de hectáreas -y ganadería extensiva -con poco más de 39.0 millones de hectáreas que corresponden al 27% de la superficie de Colombia -(DANE, 2019). En este contexto agropecuario, Colombia produce alrededor de 28.5 millones de toneladas de alimento, pero se produce una gran cantidad de desechos, que incluye el desperdicio de más del 30% de los alimentos producidos (DNP, 2016), junto con los residuos de cultivos, animales y el agua, los cuales podrían reciclarse en lugar de desperdiciarse. Para resolver estos desafíos que enfrentan los sistemas agroalimentarios, se ha buscado implementar enfoques sistémicos que integren y sustenten los medios de vida y la producción de alimentos, pero también que conserven o rehabiliten ecosistemas naturales y mejorar los procesos naturales en ecosistemas modificados. La transformación del sistema agroalimentario implica conciliar la necesidad de satisfacer la demanda de producción de alimentos para una población creciente al tiempo que se conserva la biodiversidad, gestionando de manera sostenible los recursos naturales. Aprovechar de forma sostenible los recursos en la agricultura sin alterar los ecosistemas, permitirá contribuir de forma sostenible con la productividad y rentabilidad de los sistemas agrícolas.Durante la Cumbre de las Naciones Unidas sobre Sistemas Alimentarios de 2021, se ha reconocido la \"\"producción positiva para la naturaleza\" como uno de los cinco caminos críticos hacia sistemas alimentarios sostenibles. Este enfoque que fue introducido recientemente busca \"fomentar sistemas alimentarios positivos para la naturaleza y se identifica por un uso regenerativo, no agotador y no destructivo de los recursos naturales, basada en la gestión del medioambiente y biodiversidad como base de los servicios ecosistémicos. Además de cubrir la creciente demanda de alimentos de manera suficiente e incluyen una nutrición sostenible y saludable\" (Hodson et al., 2021). De acuerdo con estos autores, las soluciones positivas para la naturaleza consideran tres pilares. El primer pilar incluye la protección de los sistemas naturales y las áreas protegidas de nuevas conversiones para la producción de alimentos y ahorrar y reservar parte de la tierra y el agua para devolverla a la naturaleza. El segundo pilar trata del manejo sostenible de los sistemas de producción de alimentos existentes, mientras que el tercer pilar se enfoca en la restauración y la rehabilitación de los sistemas degradados para la producción sostenible de alimentos y servicios ecosistémicos.Aunque, el concepto de \"soluciones positivas para la naturaleza\" es reciente, muchos actores han trabajado en innovaciones y prácticas que permiten conservar la biodiversidad, el agua y el suelo, un manejo sostenibles de estos recursos y la restauración de ecosistemas degradados. Sin embargo, existe poca información sobre estos actores, cómo se interrelacionan e intercambian información. La innovación agrícola -conocimientos, prácticas y tecnologías aplicados en la cadena de valor de los sistemas agrícolases fundamental en el desarrollo sostenible (Pomareda, C., & Hartwich, 2006), pero la falta de información y comunicación entre los agricultores podría restringir la extensión de las innovaciones (FOLU, 2022). El mapeo y análisis de redes sociales es una herramienta de diagnóstico para realizar una línea base que ayude a entender los procesos de innovación en el territorio de impacto de forma que se establezcan intervenciones planificadas más estratégicas y eficientes en el uso de recursos (Clark, 2006). Una red se conforma por los actores -personas, empresas e instituciones-y las relaciones que existen entre ellos en cierto contexto social y territorial, sobre el intercambio de información y conocimientos con el fin de obtener un beneficio individual o colectivo a través de la innovación (Rendón et al., 2007). Entonces hacer un mapeo de redes también proporcionará elementos de acción para fortalecer los vínculos entre los actores clave, permitiendo un mayor empoderamiento de los agricultores para obtener información y contar con el conocimiento apropiado para adaptar las innovaciones tecnológicas asociadas a soluciones positivas con la naturaleza en los contextos locales de producción.En Colombia durante 2023 se colecto información para mapear la red de actores involucrados en actividades relacionadas con soluciones positivas para la naturaleza que mejoren la productividad y la resiliencia de los sistemas agrícolas salvaguardando el medio ambiente. El objetivo fue usar la herramienta de análisis de redes sociales para mapear e identificar los tipos de actores -personas, empresas e instituciones -, sus características y entender sus vínculos en el territorio para proporcionar elementos de acción que promuevan el desarrollo individual y colectivo a través de las innovaciones relacionadas con la conservación de las semillas nativas y soluciones agronómicas positivas con la naturaleza.El territorio de la colecta de información fueron los departamentos de Valle de Cauca, Nariño, Antioquia, Bolívar, Cauca, Cundinamarca, Quindío y Risaralda, correspondientes a las regiones Andinas y Caribe (DANE, 2012), las cuales son importantes por su alta diversidad en variedades nativas de maíz (Swissaid y Grupo Semillas, 2013), confiriéndoles ser centro de atención para el resguardo, manejo y conservación de estas poblaciones.Durante 2023 se hicieron entrevistas semiestructuradascon énfasis en organizaciones -para identificar alianzas que podrían tener influencia en los grupos de conservación de semillas nativas con base en soluciones positivas para la naturaleza que facilitara el entendimiento de la gestión de innovación en la red de actores. Para esto se implementó la metodología de redes de innovación de Clark, 2006y Rendón et. al, 2007. Primero se entrevistaron a 38 actores que identificamos trabajan en soluciones/innovaciones/prácticas positivas para la naturaleza (conservación de la biodiversidad -semillas, árboles, animales…-, conservación de agua, conservación de suelo -terrazas, camellones…-, manejo agroecológico de plagas, abonos orgánicos -composta, lixiviados y humus de lombriz, otros biofertilizantes-, economía circular, rotación de cultivos, cultivos intercalados, cultivos de cobertura, cero labranza, barreras naturales, variedades adecuadas, diversidad funcional, tecnologías herméticas para almacenamiento de granos, uso de plantas para almacenamiento de granos).El método de muestreo que se uso fue bola de nieve para colectar la información de entrevistas (Wasserman and Faust, 1994). La información colectada se derivó de preguntas como: ¿Con quién te relacionas para actividades concernientes con soluciones positivas para la naturaleza?, ¿Qué actividades o prácticas relacionadas con soluciones positivas para la naturaleza realizan juntos?, ¿Desde qué año?, y ¿Cuáles son los tres principales retos de implementar prácticas relacionadas con soluciones positivas para la naturaleza? Con esta información se calcularon y graficaron los indicadores de la red -cobertura, centralización-y la identificación de los actores clave -articulador, colector y fuente-. Se analizaron los datos colectados usando los Software UCINET 6.288, Netdraw© y KeyPlayer2.Caracterizar los indicadores de la red como densidad y centralización dará una idea de cómo se concentra la información y/o toma de decisiones. Una red muy centralizada -la centralización se expresa en porcentaje; 100% es altamente concentrada -evidencia a pocos actores controlando de manera significativa la información, dependiendo de los objetivos o del estado de maduración de una innovación esto puede ser favorable o no. La densidad mostrará el porcentaje de relaciones existentes de las posibles en la red. Una alta densidad puede indicar un amplio acceso de los actores a la información disponible en la red -una densidad del 0% muestra que todos los actores se encuentran sueltos y por lo tanto sin acceso a información -Adicionalmente identificar la fortaleza de los vínculos puede reflejar el tiempo, intensidad emocional, confianza y reciprocidad que hay entre los actores (Rendón et al., 2007).Por otra parte, el análisis estructural de la red se refiere a la posición, rol e influencia de los actores dentro de esta. En este estudio se analizan tres tipos de actores; articuladores, fuente y colectores. Los actores articuladores son el puente entre uno o varios grupos de actores y tienen la función de ordenar, enlazar y promover los flujos de información, su eliminación provocaría ruptura de la red. Los actores fuente o difusor son aquellos que transmiten información, a través de la validación y filtración por lo que también pueden suprimir información. Los actores colectores son sensibles a experimentar e innovar porque buscan información de la red para implementar (Rendón et al., 2007). \"Caracterizar los indicadores de la red como densidad y centralización dará una idea de cómo se concentra la información y/o toma de decisiones \" Resultados Actores de la red y actividades implementadas Los actores en la red se agruparon en instituciones de enseñanza e investigación (33.6%), organización de productores (29%), seguido de empresa rural (11.5%, agricultores), instituciones gubernamentales (10.7%), proveedores de servicios profesionales (6.1%), centros de acopio (4.6%), funciones múltiples (3.1%), empresa rural referida (0.8%, agricultores referidos por otro agricultor) y proveedor de insumos (0.8%) (Figura 1).La red mapeada se compone de 131 actores -nodos de la red-y la cobertura territorial incluye los departamentos del Valle de Cauca (40.5%), Nariño (22.9%), Antioquia (9.2%), Cundinamarca (5.3%), Bolívar (4.6%), Cauca (4.6%), Quindío (3.1%), Risaralda (2.3%), Tolima (1.5%), y Huila, Meta, César, Córdoba, Sucre y Caldas (1% cada uno) (Figura 2). Se observa que el actor IE39 -Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA) -es el nodo con mayor número de municipios articulados -Valle de Cauca, Nariño y Bolívar-, esto es porque SENA es una institución pública nacional, adscrita al ministerio de trabajo más cercana a los grupos de productores agrícolas a través de su estrategia de CampeSENA, por lo que fue el actor más referido por los miembros de la red entre municipios. SENA tiene la fuerza del vínculo -grosor de flecha-mayor en Bolívar (nueve años), seguido de Valle del Cauca (seis años) y Nariño (dos años) (Figura 2). La fuerza de los vínculos reflejada por el tiempo de relación entre los actores para trabajar con prácticas agrícolas asociadas con la conservación de los recursos naturales comienza desde los 80's (1% de la red) en Valle de Cauca, Antioquia y Cundinamarca con temas de conservación de bosques, siendo 2016 el año donde se gesta la mayor cantidad de vinculaciones (11.1%).  Las principales actividades de colaboración que mencionaron desarrollar en conjunto los actores de la red se clasifican en nueve grupos y se describen a continuación (Figura 3); 1. asistencia técnica (16%): no uso de químicos, practicas productivas agroecológicas, reconversión agroecológica, seguimiento a maíces, manejo de semillas, buenas prácticas pesqueras y reciclaje.2. producción (16%): agricultura regenerativa -la branza mínima, no quemas agrícolas, dejar cobertura de suelo y diversificación de cultivos-, abonos orgánicos, diversidad funcional, principios agroecológicos en el manejo del café, producción local de material de siembra yuca, producción orgánica, proyectos productivos de yuca, hortalizas, arroz y sistema silvopastoril y restauración ecológica.3. educación e investigación (15%): escuela de semillas, huerta escolar, implementación de herramientas de manejo del paisaje, prácticas profesionales de alumnos, plan de reconversión agroecológica, promoción de la biotecnología en el aula de clase, trabajo con polinizadores y transferencia de saberes.4. organización (15%): intercambio de semillas, intercambio de saberes, intercambio de mano de obra, gestión de proyectos con entidades (Fundocol, SENA, CVC, Asofrucol), planeación y ordenamiento territorial, plataforma colaborativa, transformación de productos locales y trueque.5. conservación (10%): áreas protegidas, conservación de bosques, conservación de semillas, conservación del medio ambiente, regeneración de semilla, rescate de semillas.6. comercialización (8%): ferias, mercados locales, fomento del comercio y negocios verdes.7. colaboración (5%): aliados colaborativos con fundaciones, instituciones públicas y de gobierno (Fundocol, SENA, CVC, Asofrucol).8. trámites legales (2%): concesión de aguas y representación legal y 9) proveedurías (1%): distribuidores agropecuarios.Figure 3. Grupo de actividades desarrolladas por los actores de la red en soluciones positivas para la naturaleza en el área de estudio en Colombia.Tabla 1. Principales retos que los actores de la red entrevistados mencionaron enfrentar para realizar soluciones positivas con la naturaleza en Colombia.Inadecuados programas de fomento agrícola (fertilizantes y semilla transgénica e híbridos).Falta de normativa de control hacia practicas dañinas.Falta de concientización, sobre las prácticas que afectan la naturaleza.Resistencia de los consumidores finales a comprar productos orgánicos locales.Falta de asociatividad con productores.Lograr la sostenibilidad en la producción de bioinsumos (falta de tiempo para preparar bioinsumos, no hay materiales o insumos para fabricar).Asegurar la efectividad de los insecticidas biológicos para el control de plagas.Controlar de manera natural plagas y enfermedades.Falta de personal capacitado en el manejo de bancos de semilla.Incrementar la diversidad de productos que ofrecemos y avanzar en procesos de valor agregado.Falta de dinero para comprar variedades de semillas diferentes.Falta de dinero para comprar fungicidas ecológicos.Falta de dinero para comprar herramientas.Limitados recursos para llevar a cabo los procesos de regeneración de semilla.Limitaciones de espacios físicos e infraestructura.Difícil control de fauna invasora.Perdida de la agrobiodiversidad y formas tradicionales de producción de maíz y conocimiento sobre la cultura del maíz.Cambio climático.Variación del clima.Los principales retos que los actores de la red mencionaron enfrentar se relacionan con aspectos sociales (49.3%), técnicos (24.0%), económicos (18.7%) y ambientales (8.0%), de los cuales en la tabla 1 se mencionan los cinco más importantes de cada rubro.Respecto a los atributos de la red, el porcentaje en el que los miembros de la red se relacionan es bajo (0.08% de densidad) -hay 91 relaciones -esto significa que las conexiones entre los miembros son cerca de ser nulas, probablemente debido a la dispersión geográfica de los actores por lo que la capacidad para acceder a la red de forma estratégica es baja (Figura 4). Cabe hacer énfasis que este estudio se hizo con base en la identificación de actores que tienen un trabajo previo a la iniciativa naturaleza positiva, lo que significa que hay movimientos antes de naturaleza positiva interesados en un cambio de paradigma sobre la forma de producción de alimentos y que pueden ser la base de oportunidad para comenzar a trabajar con el enfoque de la iniciativa y hacer madurar esta red.El porcentaje de intermediación -actores que vinculan los grupos de la red -también es casi nulo (0.05%) por lo que no hay actores puente en la red que intervengan en el flujo de la comunicación de la información sobre soluciones positivas para la naturaleza entre los nodos de la red. En una red poco densa, como ésta, será necesario considerar acciones de intervención con múltiples grupos o incluso nodos individuales para lograr un impacto en la difusión de tecnologías relacionadas a la iniciativa naturaleza positiva. Además, los actores dicen mantener más relaciones con otros actoresflechas hacia afuera-(4.7%) de lo que otros actores refieren mantener con un actor -flechas hacia adentro-(2.0%) (Figura 4).Por lo que también será necesario emprender acciones que favorezcan la interacción como giras de intercambio, días de campo, reuniones de grupo, escuelas de campo, ferias e implementación de parcelas de campo experimentales participativas.La centralización de la red es baja (4.9%), esto significa que no hay un actor o grupo de actores que dominen la toma de decisiones o la información para influir en toda la red (Figura 4). La red de actores relacionada con actividades en soluciones positivas para la naturaleza es una red joven -poco densa, baja centralización y medianamente diversa -lo que dificulta la comunicación y el flujo de información sobre las innovación entre los actores, por ello es importante transitar a una red más equilibrada; incrementando la densidad y centralidad de la red, trabajando de forma estratégica con los actores articuladores, fuente y colectores.Se identificaron los actores clave de la red -estructurales, fuente y articuladores -con base a su posición, roles e influencia en los diferentes actores. El número de actores seleccionados depende de la capacidad de recursos del proyecto y la eficiencia de impacto sobre la redconsiderando el impacto en la red si se removieran-, por lo que el número de actores se estableció en cinco. Se identificó que los cinco actores articuladores -nodos puente que enlazan a dos o más grupos-son CA05 -la Red de mercados del Valle -, ER01 -productor -, FM04 -organización Ecofuturo y productor -, IE39 -SENA -y IG09 -Secretaría de Agricultura de Pasto -, remover estos 5 nodos causaría una fragmentación del 4% de la red (Figura 5). Identificar los nodos que proveen información a la red sobre soluciones positivas para la naturaleza es un papel importante para entender quién podría apoyar la difusión de la información. En este caso se seleccionó cinco actores fuente -nodos origen o proveedor de información que son altamente referenciados por los actores de la red -que resultaron en el máximo porcentaje de acceso a la red (12.8%) y son los actores IG02 -Alcaldía Municipal Toro Valle -, IE23 -institución de enseñanza Santa Elena -, IE27 -Granja Agroecológica Valeria -, OR10 -Huertas del mañana -y OR24 -Red Guardianes de semilla -(Figura 5). Los actores de la red con mayor número de fuentes de información sobre conservación de semillas y soluciones positivas con la naturaleza y que pueden llegar al 26.6% de la red son CA04 -Mercado Rozo -, IE01 -Agrosavia Costa Norte de Colombia -y IE14 -Agrosavia Nariño-. Se presentaron dos actores que mantienen doble función como articuladores y fuente ER01 -productor -, FM04organización Ecofuturo y productor-(Figura 5). Figure 5. Nodos articuladores, fuente y colectores de la red de actores en acciones positivas con la naturaleza en las zonas de estudio de Colombia.El uso de la herramienta de redes de innovación para mapear a los actores relacionados con soluciones positivas para la naturaleza en las regiones andinas y caribe de Colombia permitió identificar de forma preliminar los tipos de actores fuente de información de las prácticas, que incluye principalmente: instituciones de enseñanza e investigación, organización de productores, agricultores individuales e instituciones gubernamentales. Aunque se identificaron varios actores en la red, se mostró que las relaciones entre estos actores son poco densas y centralizadas, lo que podría dificultar la comunicación y el flujo de información sobre las innovación entre los actores. Esto se explica por ser un concepto recién introducido, pero con base de otras movimientos similares, por lo que se requiere desarrollar estrategias que permitirían a estos actores que no se ubican por el momento, relacionarse. Se pudo identificar algunos actores articuladores, fuente y colectores, como SENA, que podrían ser nodos de intervención en el futuro para cerrar la brecha de interacción. Se requiere un estudio más profundo para identificar otras instituciones importantes a nivel nacional en Colombia, trabajando en soluciones positivas para la naturaleza, que podrían articular mejor la red.El propósito de las intervenciones del proyecto tendrá que estar asociado en mejorar los atributos de la red para desarrollar relaciones complejas de cooperación y asociación que favorezcan la comunicación y vinculación de los actores para la implementación de innovaciones agrícola asociada al desarrollo sostenible. Una de las acciones podría ser el desarrollo del modelo del hub implementado por CIMMYT en México y América Central -sistema de innovación basado sobre el pensamiento de diseño de investigación y extensión en conjunto con los productores como el centro de la estrategia y que busca fortalecer las relaciones entre actores y definir juntos una visión común -esto será un acercamiento para permitir fortalecer la red de actores trabajando en soluciones positivas para la naturaleza en Colombia. \"El propósito de las intervenciones del proyecto tendrá que estar asociado en mejorar los atributos de la red \"","tokenCount":"3455"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7a9f0595095f57986630eb6de92826c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/378e1fb3-3f93-4a24-b7e8-916a269d4d3d/retrieve","id":"79805051"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a1551533-b56f-43a6-af3e-2e4144ba58c0","pagecount":"11","content":"Maize (Zea mays L) is a major annual crop, yearly grown throughout the world than any other grain crop (Sangamithra et al., 2016). Maize is the most important cereal crop in the Guinea Savanna ecological zone of Ghana in terms of area planted, and accounts for 50 to 60% of total cereal production (FAO, 2015). These issues are particularly pronounced in areas where smallholder farmers rely primarily on rainfed agriculture and have limited resources, rendering their livelihoods very sensitive to the effects of climate change and land degradation (Barbier & Hochard, 2018;Mendelsohn, 2008).Maize is essential to the livelihoods of many smallholder farmers, offering both food security and income (Amponsah et al., 2021). While many other cereals are used as food, maize is the most widely consumed in northern Ghana. Low soil fertility and low application of external inputs are two major factors that affect productivity of maize and which accounts for the low yield of the crop (Mangnus and van Westen, 2018).Variations in annual rainfall, rising temperatures, and extreme weather events like heat waves and droughts can reduce crop quantity and quality, putting food security at risk (Swaminathan & Rengalakshmi, 2016).In the 2024 cropping season, demonstration fields are being established in four communities in Northern Ghana: Daasuyili, Limo, and Tindan in the Northern Region, and Nyamaligu-Yapala in the Savanna Region. The primary objectives of these on-farm demonstrations are to:• Promote Sustainable Farming Practices: Demonstrate the benefits of sustainable practices to encourage their adoption, contributing to sustainability and climate resilience.• Build Farmers' Capacity: Equip farmers with the knowledge and skills to implement sustainable practices effectively on their farms, fostering a community of informed agricultural practitioners.In the 2023 cropping season, trials were conducted by Alliance, CSIR-CRI, and CSIR-SRI to evaluate the performance of three maize varieties (Wang basig, Sanzal sima and SC719) under different fertilizer rates. The most performing practices were selected for demonstration to farmers for adoption. The results from these and other data from literature were used to develop district-specific fertilizer recommendation using the AgWise framework developed by the EiA initiative.To enhance soil moisture retention, the team introduced farmers to conservation techniques like ridging and cowpea intercropping. Following the success of previous trials, the team selected the Wang-Basig maize variety for its exceptional characteristics: rapid maturity (85-90 days), drought resistance, and striga tolerance. This variety's robust traits make it an ideal choice for optimizing crop yields in challenging environmental conditions.The demonstration site was divided into four plots, each representing a specific treatment (T):• T1: Site-Specific Fertilizer Recommendation with CSIR-Wang Basig maize planted on ridges.• T2: Site-Specific Fertilizer Recommendation with CSIR-Wang Basig maize and cowpea (Padituya variety) intercrop.• T3: Site-Specific Fertilizer Recommendation with CSIR-Wang Basig maize and mechanization (roller planter, in-row weeder, fertilizer applicator).• T4: Farmer Practice, where farmers used their saved seeds and applied 2 bags of NPK and 1 bag of Sulphate of Ammonia as fertilizer.In each of the four communities, nine farmers were selected to replicate treatments T1, T2, and T3 on their own farms as small-scale demonstrations (baby demos) in a 10 by 10-meter area. These farmers received input (seed, fertilizer) and guidance from the local Agricultural Extension Agent.Notable improvements were seen in the 2023 season when farmers adopted the practice of applying basal fertilizer at planting, sparking widespread enthusiasm.Typically, farmers apply basal fertilizer around 14 days post-planting. However, in Northern Ghana's erratic rainfall environment, delayed application can occur when drought strikes soon after planting, as experienced this year. By applying basal fertilizer at planting, farmers can enhance crop resilience to unpredictable weather patterns and reduce crop failures. Although farmers recognized the benefits of basal fertilizer application at planting-including faster crop establishment, growth, and superior yields-many were hesitant due to the increased labour requirements. To overcome this obstacle, a push planter was introduced, streamlining the process while maintaining optimal plant populations for maximum yields.This tool, designed for efficient planting and fertilizer application, significantly reduces labor compared to manual methods. It can be adjusted to plant one, two, or more seeds per plant and is suitable for crops like soybean, groundnuts, and cowpea. Optimal performance is achieved on relatively flat terrain. Farmers who have used the push planter have expressed satisfaction with its operation. Rafia Zakaria -farmer from Daasuyili, estimated that two people could plant one to two acres in a single day using this tool.The potential time savings has led to inquiries about commercial availability, as farmers seek to allocate their time to other productive activities.Another piece of equipment introduced to the farmers was the versatile backpack fertilizer applicator. It allows users to adjust the fertilizer application rate to meet their specific needs. Farmers simply load the fertilizer into the backpack, wear it, and use the handheld applicator to apply the fertilizer without bending over.The farmers were instructed to use the fertilizer applicator on two plots: a sole maize plot on ridges and an intercrop plot. Two holes were created along each row, one for the seed and the other for the fertilizer. Both holes were then covered to prevent fertilizer runoff in case of rain.Specific Changes: Prolonged droughts in northern Ghana require innovative moisture conservation strategies. To help farmers adapt, two moisture conservation techniques were demonstrated: ridging and maize-cowpea intercropping. Guided instruction enabled farmers to construct ridges at 75cm intervals using basic tools like pegs, sticks, and ropes, as illustrated in the accompanying picture.The ridges conserve moisture by creating a sand heap around the plant's base, reducing soil evaporation. Intercropping cowpea with maize promotes soil cover, slowing transpiration and suppressing weed growth on the farm. This synergistic effect optimizes water retention and reduces competition for nutrients, fostering a more resilient and productive crop.On the \"farmer practice\" plot, farmers employed their traditional methods, utilizing saved seeds from the previous season. They used a planting rope as a guide for the first row, then planted subsequent rows without it. In line with common practice, they did not apply basal fertilizer at planting, opting to apply it 10-14 days later, contingent on sufficient moisture. Consistent with national recommendations, they planned to use 2 bags of NPK and 1 bag of sulphate of ammonia as fertilizer.In Limo in the Gushegu District for instance planting was done on the 14th of July 2024 after it had rain on the 11th of July. The next rain was on the 3rd of August after about 23 days of drought. The remaining three communities didn't experience rain on the 3rd of August, extending the drought period in those communities beyond 23 days. In this scenario farmers who adopt and applied the basal fertilizer at planting would be better off. This is a clear example why farmers should adopt fertilization at planting. The picture below shows two plots. One planted with the push planter with the basal fertilizer applied at planting and the other is the farmer's practice with the basal fertilizer applied 20 days after planting due to drought.The behavioural insight from this application is that farmers in northern Ghana are adapting their agricultural practices to mitigate the effects of climate change.Specifically, they are adopting moisture conservation techniques, such as ridging and intercropping, to address the prolonged drought conditions in the region.The following behavioural insights were found:• Awareness of Climate Change: Farmers are aware of the changing climate and its impact on their agricultural practices.• Adaptability: Farmers are willing to adopt new techniques to address the challenges posed by climate change. They are also receptive to learning from others and engaging in collective efforts to enhance their agricultural practices.• Problem-Solving: Farmers are using their knowledge and skills to develop solutions to conserve moisture in their fields.• Collaboration: Farmers are willing to learn from and collaborate with others to improve their agricultural practices.The farmers were excited about the technologies been demonstrated and showed interest in adopting them. The women, in particular, were drawn to the maize-cowpea intercrop, recognizing its potential to enhance household nutrition and generate additional income. The farmers agree ridging helps in conserving moisture when there is drought but have reservation with its intense labour requirement particularly when the land is big. Using the back-pack fertilizer applicator was fun for some of the farmers, as you need not bend down before you place the fertilizer beneath the plant. Some farmers expressed interest in knowing where it can be purchased and hopefully acquiring one for the next season.As the season advances, a second fertilizer application is scheduled for all participating farmers, providing another opportunity for them to utilize the back-pack fertilizer applicator. To further disseminate the promoted technologies, field days will be organized at mid-season and harvest, inviting farmers from neighboring communities to observe and learn from the demonstrations. Ongoing crop monitoring and technical support will be provided to participating farmers to enhance their production capabilities. Through these activities, we aim to ensure the farmers' continued engagement and success in implementing the new technologies.Northern Ghana, increasingly affected by drought due to climate change, necessitates effective moisture conservation strategies. This report demonstrates the efficacy of ridging and maize-cowpea intercropping techniques in conserving soil moisture by reducing water loss through transpiration and suppressing weeds. Additionally, farmers were encouraged to apply basal fertilizer at planting, a departure from their traditional practice of applying it after 10-14 days. A case study in Limo, Gushegu District, underscores the importance of timely fertilizer application, as the area experienced a 23-day drought following planting.These findings highlight the critical role of moisture conservation and timely fertilizer application in mitigating drought's impact on northern Ghana. By adopting ridging, maize-cowpea intercropping, and basal fertilizer application at planting, farmers can significantly improve crop yields and resilience to the changing climate. To ensure long-term success and adapt to evolving conditions, continuous monitoring and evaluation of these practices are essential for promoting sustainable agricultural development and food security in the region.","tokenCount":"1624"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a07bdd73fa6471a07764317d3ee3ec56","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/28583732-e6c3-4fb9-a79f-efca4ab04e4d/retrieve","id":"-651804557"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ef5ba5bb-06f4-4f55-b5da-476aaeb2661d","pagecount":"4","content":"Using forage germplasm to improve livestock feeds and rural livelihoods: An impact narrative Feed is often cited as a major constraint to livestock intensification in developing countries. In addressing this constraint through the breeding of more productive forage varieties, scientists' starting point is the diversity of forage species held in the world's plant genebanks.The forage collection maintained by ILRI, for example, contains germplasm from around 19,000 plant populations representing over 1,400 forage species, including grasses, legumes and fodder trees, many of which are under threat in the wild from land use changes and over-grazing. ILRI's forage collection is providing scientists with the genetic material to develop climate-smart, high yielding and disease tolerant varieties that will have a key role in Africa's farming future.The estimated doubling of demand for meat and milk in developing countries in the next two decades offers significant opportunities for livestock keepers to increase their incomes. However, the availability of quality forage and livestock feed remains an important constraint to increasing livestock productivity, particularly during the dry season.Did you know? • Forage diversity will provide the material needed for breeding new forage varieties adapted to changing climates.Compared to some other sources of feed, including many crop residues, forage species have valuable benefits, both to livestock and farming systems. Forage legumes, for example, are high in nitrogen, making them both a nutritious feed and a source of soil fertility. Many forage species can also be grown on marginal land that is not able to support crop production, turning a wasted resource into an asset. By 2013, there were an estimated 118 million ha planted with improved forages worldwide, with 100 million planted to Brachiaria, an important pasture grass, in Brazil alone. Brachiaria cultivar 'Marandu' remains the most sought after forage grass and is being adopted at the rate of about 100,000 ha per year worldwide. Napier grass, the most common forage in sub-Saharan Africa, is used by an estimated 4 million smallholder farmers in East Africa.However, despite these successes, and the potential benefits offered by forage crops, most livestock in Africa continue to be fed on food crop residues and unimproved pastures that are deficient in many important nutrients. Production of superior forages is often limited by poor knowledge of their benefits and their management, and seeds of improved forages are rarely available to farmers at local level.In addressing such challenges, a key role for plant science is the development of improved forage species that can resist current disease threats and thrive in the face of climate change. This work depends on breeders being able to access a wide genetic diversity in forage species, yet currently, wild plant diversity in Africa's grasslands is being eroded, both through development and overgrazing. As a result, genebanks have become an essential resource to conserve threatened forage diversity and provide the building blocks for new, improved forage cultivars. The second disease, known as stunt, was also spreading rapidly through the region, causing significant yield loss for smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Again the national partners turned to the ILRI forage germplasm collection, and as a result, two different lines have been identified that have tolerance to stunt. The Institute has also worked with other partners to develop early screening tests and better management methods, and trained KARI scientists on screening technologies and field diagnosis of both diseases.Forage for improved livestock feedThe major focus of ILRI's own forage research is to evaluate forage plants for use as livestock feeds, including their appearance and nutritional traits, as well as resistance to pests and diseases. Information generated from this research is used to identify superior accessions, or 'best bets', for further agronomic evaluation and, ultimately, for adoption. ILRI also works closely with farmers to better understand how they value and select forages. The Institute also has a seed production unit, to multiply 'best bet' seeds, which are provided, together with training, to national seed production partners in order to boost supplies of improved forages.Managing and sharing information is central to the effective use of the collection. ","tokenCount":"674"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"108634379ac720858b115ccf1db9c19f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9e1d8323-6d8e-4d43-8cc2-0cfca56db41c/retrieve","id":"1022420052"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"081b5a2c-7f80-4af6-a885-d4bfdce3b703","pagecount":"10","content":"It was able to touch some important aspect of challenges faced in securing food in Africa.I loved every bit of the discussions, and I was able to learn different things.The conference was interesting in many ways. I particularly found the intervention of the multitude of experts very informative and enriching. I learned a lot about the link between agroforestry and green economy. I learned that data is very important for things to get better in Africa. I learned that Africa is the continent with the youngest population and thus the future is in Africa. Resilience and adaptation is key and this can only be effective if we are united. Innovation has to accompany this will to make things move forward.I learned that there was lots to do when it comes to agriculture, food systems and sustaining landscapes. I also enjoyed connecting with the youth on here. Me and my family made it a family time to participate in the different panels.It was entertaining, educating, eye opener and uplifting.\"This was my first time attending a GLF conference and I must say all the events were pack with impactful ideas and knowledgeable people... A particular highlight for me was the networking where I hot to meet and interact with many facilitators and participants.\"The speakers were very insightful, and it was a wonderful networking opportunity. I was honored to attend.The topics were interesting; the discussions were participative, and all coordination were excellent.It was a great conference. I learned and unlearned.Showcase more success stories on Afrikan startups/companies involved in climate change mitigation and adaptation in relation to agriculture, adoption of technology to improve food security visà-vis sustainable agriculture.Provide support to the people who would have loved to attend but don't have enough data to that because the video conferencing consume a whole lot of it.Use of different languages. There should be more breakout sessions for more network and possibly B2B networking.There should be press conference before the conference to allow journalist know the possible story angles to pursue.The conference should be spread to allow time to synthesize what was being taught.What I hope to achieve is more stewards. I hope to pass on and educate more people on the importance of restoration, the beauty of nature, to heal the planet.That is my greatest ambition. As a young African entrepreneur, I can assure you that young people across this continent have ideas, dreams, knowledge, and the drive to play their part in creating innovative ecosystems that support an African-led, resilient, and equitable food present and future.","tokenCount":"421"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b4b5bc298b7c2cb8c43ca7a0b0755130","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d2bff9b4-55bb-435d-8a2d-c336f341cdcb/retrieve","id":"1847074296"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"037766fa-c89a-4f1e-b1da-891ec6b4d62d","pagecount":"8","content":"• Livestock provides a pathway out of poverty for millions of people and is a unique source of high-quality proteins and micronutrients to improve the nutrition and health of the world's poorest. It offers a pathway towards women empowerment.• CGIAR's Sustainable Animal Productivity (SAPLING) Initiative is working in seven countries across seven livestock value chains to package and scale out tried-and-tested, as well as new, innovations in livestock health, genetics, feed and market systems.• SAPLING aims to demonstrate that improvements in livestock productivity can offer a triple win: generating improved livelihoods and nutritional outcomes; contributing to women's empowerment; and reducing impacts on climate and the environment.Livestock is a fast-growing, high-value agricultural subsector accounting for 15-80% of GDP in low-and middle-income countries, yet malnutrition remains high in livestockdependent communities. In Africa and Asia, demand for livestock products is expected to grow 200% by 2030 -an opportunity for hundreds of millions of small-to mediumscale livestock producers to provide nutrientdense foods for their families, countries and regions.However, productivity is extremely low: the average milk yield of a cow in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia is 6% and 12%, respectively, of a cow in an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country, and within the production system, yield gaps are high for all species.Value chain governance structures prevent producers fully benefiting from markets and commercializing their farms. Women, who do most of the work caring for livestock, have limited control over resources and decisions, and youth are marginalized from incomegeneration opportunities and assets.Non-optimal use of livestock genetic potential, lack of quality feeds, and poor animal husbandry and animal health can deplete natural resources and increase greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock producers also face risks from climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.This initiative aims to contribute to transforming livestock sectors in target countries to make them more productive, resilient, equitable and sustainable.This objective will be achieved through:• Developing new and adapting existing technologies and practices to increase sustainable livestock production through resilience-enhancing, low-emitting, scalable technologies and practices across the three main technical domains: improved feeds, animal health and genetics.• Encouraging innovative practices for safe consumption of livestock-derived foods as part of diverse diets by co-creating new models and approaches for social and behaviour change communication and testing and evaluating approaches for incentivizing market actors to enhance the supply of safe, nutritious and affordable livestock-derived foods.• Focusing on gender equity and social inclusion in order to understand the constraints and opportunities of sustainable livestock production, identifying 'best-bet' entry points, addressing constraints and developing tools to measure progress.• Promoting competitive and inclusive livestock value chains by generating evidence on institutional arrangements and technical interventions to help the transition towards more profitable, inclusive and sustainable livestock value chains.• Generating and consolidating evidence and scalable models and tools to support public and private decision-making for a sustainable and inclusive livestock sector.This Initiative will work in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Uganda, Tanzania and Vietnam.CGIAR researchers and their partners will be working in five countries -Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam -to scale existing innovations, while in two countries - Proposed three-year outcomes include:1.Co-created, demand-driven innovation packages of productivity-and resilienceenhancing, low-emissions technologies, and the institutional arrangements necessary for their adoption, are used by 800,000 people including at least 100,000 people using initiative-promoted improved forage and food feed crops in households keeping cattle, chickens, small ruminants, pigs and buffalo in the seven target countries, resulting in a 30-50% increase in livestock productivity. 2. Private-and public-sector partners invest at least USD30 million in the co-creation and co-delivery of novel, low-emissions, demand-driven, gender-and youth-inclusive, and productivity-and resilience-enhancing technologies and practices for genetics, feedforages and health. 3. Six public-and private-sector organizations utilize initiative-developed social behaviour change communication strategies, tools or campaigns targeted at incorporating safe livestock-derived foods into diverse diets to inform nutrition education strategies and campaigns. 4. Public and private decision-makers in the seven target countries utilize initiativesupported innovation packages to inform policies and investments towards an inclusive and sustainable livestock sector, including progress towards equity and inclusion.Identification and promotion of suitable feed/forage and feeding practicesFeed assessments using the Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) will be conducted to identify nutrition interventions and support feed planning for dairy cooperatives. Feed and forage varieties suitable for the diverse project locations will then be identified through multi-location trials of diverse forage varieties and feeding trials of various rations. The digital application, On-farm Feed Advisor (OFA), will also be used to help farmers adopt the least-cost combination of feed options based on locally available feed resources. To amplify the forage options available in Kenya, the project will also work in multilocational trials of novel options and the registration of advanced lines.Genomic selection will be applied to identify dairy breed types that are productive and adapted to tropical conditions and smallholder production systems limitations. The program will also work with various dairy stakeholders to multiply and promote the identified dairy breed types through the innovative application of various digital tools and business models that ensure wider uptake of the identified breed types. Identification of adapted breed types will be enabled by a digital platform that allows the recording and collating of animal performance, associated herd data and other weather information. The data will be analysed using the animal performance data, pedigree and genomic data, and weather (ambient temperatures and relative humidity) data using appropriate sets of customized statistical models and analytical pipelines.Adoption of productivity-and resilience-enhancing Innovation packages and participation in inclusive value chains increase sustainable livestock productivity and income, benefiting more than 2.4 million people. New business opportunities and jobs for value chain actors are also created.Increased knowledge, capacity and buy-in of actors to facilitate equal opportunities enable around 360,000 women to participate in and benefit from livestock sector transformation.Increased productivity, better-functioning value chains and nutrition education significantly increase access to safe and affordable livestock-derived foods and their incorporation into diets in recommended quantities, benefiting more than 1.2 million people.Increased knowledge, capacity and buy-in of actors to provide producers with lowemissions innovations (e.g. more adapted breeds, better feeds, improved health) enable large gains in productivity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions intensity and benefit more than 1 million people.Producers' adoption of Initiative-supported solutions on 59,000 hectares of land, such as the planting of improved forages, results in improved soil health and fertility, ecosystem services and reduced land degradation. Impacts are also expected from improved manure management and reduced antibiotic residues.Appropriately packaged herd health practices will be promoted among selected groups of farmers as proof of the concept of preventive management and animal welfare for improved health and increased production. Different models for sustainable delivery of herd health packages will also be tested with farmers and cooperatives in line with their production systems.An extension innovation involving private extension personnel will be applied to deliver knowledge to farmers and stimulate demand for appropriate technologies, inputs and services. The embedded private sector extension approach involves deploying farmer advisory personnel, dairy farmer assistants (DFAs), to provide dedicated and targeted enterprise management services to groups of farmers. The DFAs will visit farms regularly to provide husbandry and production decision support with the aim of realizing a jointly agreed profitability target. DFAs will be equipped with several decision support tools such as the dairy profitability app and OFA enabling them to offer quality advisory and decision support. This innovation will be tested across selected farms in collaboration with dairy cooperatives and county governments.Value chain actors especially those at the forefront of farmer engagement will be equipped with a suite of digital tools that enhances decision-making. These include:On-farm Feed Advisor (OFA) -this is a farmer-oriented decision support tool that helps farmers to balance nutrients in their livestock rations, thus allowing them to increase productivity. Frontline extension personnel embedded at the cooperatives will be equipped with this tool to enhance their engagement and advisory services to smallholder dairy farmers Dairy profitability simulator -a digital application that allows practitionersfarmers or extension personnel, to capture production, cost, and revenue data at the farm level, enabling estimation of dairy enterprise profitability. Users can adjust the captured data and predict profitability scenarios, enabling them to identify leverage points and targeted interventions for enhancing enterprise profitability. Frontline personnel under the extension innovation described above will be equipped with this app to enable them to offer targeted advisory services to smallholder dairy farmers.The Africa Asia Dairy Genetic Gains (AADGG) app-is a modulated robust and agile digital data capture, analytics and visualization sets of tools that enable farmers, animal health and breeding service as well as extension advisory service providers to capture and share farm, herd, and animal performance, including diseases incidences data onto one central digital platform. The app will replace the Open Data Kit (ODK) that is currently being used for data capture. AADGG will interface (share data) with many other digital databases and data platforms through Application Programming Interface (API) thus subsequently allowing for crowdsourcing and scaling of the analytics platform's use cases.The Tropical Poultry Genetic Solutions Strategy (TPGS) is a genetics innovation strategy for identifying and testing highproducing farmer-preferred poultry genotypes and using them at scale to address income, nutrition and empowerment challenges in Africa, Asia and beyond. The strategy will focus on the following activities in Kenya.Tropically adapted improved chicken strains will be tested on-farm to identify farmers' preferred and high egg and meatproducing chicken strains that are suitable for smallholder production. Chickens' performance will be evaluated with three different flock sizes, 25, 50, and 75, with smallholder farmers. On-farm participating farmers will be linked with other inputs and service providers such as feed, health, and advisory services.The TPGS team will collaborate with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO)-Naivasha in the ongoing chicken breed improvement program to develop higher eggs and meat-producing and environmentally adapted hybrid chicken strains. A selection scheme for the two lines (KC1 & KC2) will be developed, and the number of male and female selection candidates in every generation will be defined.Women and youth-focused business models for chicks' mass multiplication and delivery will be developed to deliver farmers' preferred and locally adapted improved chicken breeds. This work will engage international genetics companies, national poultry companies, women and youth, government organizations, and other inputs and service providers.Chicken meat and egg consumption will be promoted in rural farm households, mainly using on-farm chicken test participating households as an entry point. Under-five children, breastfeeding mothers, and pregnant women will be the main target of this intervention. Integrated nutrition education will be provided to smallholder farmers using digital and paper-based nutrition education tools.The main purpose of promoting egg supplementation in school feeding programs is to develop and test a scalable model for integrating poultry product consumption in the school feeding program and enhance animal source food consumption in selected governmental schools. The activity helps improve school-age children's nutrition outcomes by feeding an egg per day through a multi-sectoral collaboration approach. A poultry farm will be established in the school that will hold about 1200 layers, and the eggs produced from this farm will be supplied to supplement meals in the existing school feeding program.A roadmap for capacity building along the smallholder poultry value chain will be developed and deployed to research and development partners and stakeholders working in the poultry value chain. This involves a review of literature on existing technical capacity gaps, undertaking gap analysis along the value chain, and developing a roadmap for capacity building.This will involve (i) piloting scalable nonconventional feed-based feed rations and corresponding business models, (ii) assessing the type, efficacy and delivery mode of existing vaccines and share results with stakeholders, (iii) characterizing current smallholder chicken production systems, and (iv) developing and promoting innovative financing mechanisms to support profitable poultry production.National-level innovation platforms (IPs) will be established in Kenya with the primary goal of mobilizing public and private sector engagement in testing, identifying, and disseminating farmer-preferred genetic resources, as well as identifying constraints to value chain development and co-create solutions, including business opportunities for value chain actors.These activities will be piloted with farmers in selected cooperatives in conventional dairy areas in Uasin Gishu, Nandi and Nyandarua counties and pre-commercial dairy areas in Kakamega and Makueni counties.TPGS activities will be pilot tested in Uasin Gishu, Bomet, Meru, Laikipia, and Kakamega counties.","tokenCount":"2025"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f2fd3c9b914ef83b53b886678be0b501","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/16751de9-c5c5-47a0-969e-da4d816545f3/retrieve","id":"738169757"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f9f46f03-5b7d-45ee-a186-37268ad55d38","pagecount":"26","content":"Through action research and development partnerships, Africa RISING is creating opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainably intensified farming systems that improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base.In Northern Ghana, farmers practice small-scale irrigation using simple equipment such as buckets and watering cans (Balana, et al., 2017; Giordano and de Fraiture, 2014; Namara et al., 2014;Drechsel et al., 2006). However, the productivity of irrigated agriculture in the region is generally low (Namara et al., 2010). The need for additional investments in agricultural water management technologies has gained enormous attention by the government of Ghana to enhance the productivity of irrigated agriculture in the country (MOFA, 2014; Namara et al., 2010). A strategic opportunity therefore exists to develop agricultural water management strategies with smallholder farmers to improve production and productivity (Antwi-Agyei et al, 2012; Giordano et al, 2012; de Fraiturea and Giordano, 2014).The purpose of agricultural water management is to minimize losses of water (percolation, surface runoff and evaporation) and maximize transpiration, which is the beneficial loss of water due to its direct link to the dry matter production (Wei et al., 2015, Sharma et al., 2015). Use of appropriate water management tools such as a wetting front detector (WFD) can support more efficient water applications, reduce labor, improve productivity and increase farmers' income at the farm level (Adimassu et al., 2016;Schmitter et al., 2016;2017Kulkarni, 2011)). Besides water management, soil nutrient management enhances productivity and water productivity of irrigated crops (Dunbabin et al., 2002;Ercoli et al., 1999). The wetting front detector is a mechanical easy-to use scheduling tool used for its effectiveness in water saving and productivity (Stirzaker, 2003;Stirzaker et al., 2009Stirzaker et al., , 2017)).This study provides an opportunity for farmers to compare water use and agricultural productivity following the use of WFD against their standard practice and CROPWAT based scheduling. Pepper (Capsicum annuum, L.) was used as a test crop since it is a high value vegetable with various uses in the study areas (MOFA, 2014). The dried fruit is a spice used for Shito (traditional hot sauce in Ghana) making and seasoning (Dagnoko et al., 2013). Pepper is an important source of income, nutrition and medicine for resource poor households in urban, peri-urban and the rural areas of the country (Dagnoko et al., 2013;FAOSTAT, 2012;Namara et al., 2014). Almost every household in Ghana consumes pepper.The study was conducted in Nyangua and Tekuru communities in the Upper East Region of Ghana for two years (2017/18 and 2018/19 irrigation season). The rainfall exhibits a unimodal pattern and mainly occurs between April/May and September/October with a peak in August. The average annual rainfall is 950 mm. Temperature ranges from 23 to 35oC with an average of 29oC. The topography of the area is relatively flat with slope less than 5°. The dominant land cover types in the study areas are open cultivated and savanna woodland (Kadyampakeni et al., 2017).Soils in the area mainly consist of Lixisols (FAO-IIASA-ISRIC-ISS-CAS-JRC, 2012), which are dominated by sand (≥60%) followed by silt (> 25%) in both study areas (Table 1). In Nyngua, organic carbon content (%), total nitrogen (%), available phosphorus (mg/kg) and available potassium (mg/kg) of the soil were 0.8, 0.1, 10.3, and 9.4, respectively. Similarly, in Tekuru, organic carbon content, total nitrogen, available phosphorus and available potassium were 1.2, 0.1, 10.6, and 10.3, respectively. Generally, however, these values are extremely below the recommendation for optimum plant growth (McKenzie, 1998). The experiment was carried out in farmers' fields from November 2017 to March 2018 (year 1) and December 2018 to April 2019 (year 2). Pepper (Capsicum annuum) variety Scotch Bonnet, seeds were nursed on 29th September and transplanted on three farmers' fields on 11th November 2017 (year 1) and 7th December 2018 (year 2) at 5-6 true leaf stage. In this study, three irrigation-regimes and six soil-amendment treatments were tested (Table 2). The irrigation regimes included: i) Farmers' practices (FP) -the quantity and timing of daily irrigation water based on local knowledge and practices, ii) irrigation quantity was based on farmers decision using the WFD (as described in Box 1) whilst the timing was based on local knowledge and practices and iii) irrigation requirement using crop water requirement (IRCWR) which was computed using CROPWA (Allen et al., 1998).The FullStop Wetting Front Detector (WFD) comprises of a specially shaped funnel, a filter and a mechanical float mechanism (Stirzaker, 2003). The funnel is buried in the soil within the root zone of the plants or crop. When the soil is irrigated, the funnel 'captures' some water from the wetting front as it goes past (Stirzaker, 2003;Stirzaker et al., 2009).As the soil moisture exceeds field capacity, water will gravitationally drain, passing through a filter and into a reservoir. This water activates a float, which in turn pops up an indicator flag above the soil surface to indicate that the wetting front has passed a given depth (effective root zone) in the soil. There are no wires, no electronics and no batteries for WFD to work. In addition, WFD helps the user to \"see\" what is happening in the root zone when the soil is irrigated. Fortifer TM is now being produced and marketed in Ghana through a public-private partnership arrangement between Jekora Ventures Ltd. and Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA). Fortifer is produced in three \"particle sizes\", i.e. granules, powder and pellets.As shown in table 2, there were two factors in this study. The first factor is irrigation regime (FP, WFD, and IRCWR) while the second factor was fertilizer levels (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6). For this trial, split-plot design was chosen for water management reason. For practical expediency, it is desirable to assign irrigation regimes to the main plots to minimize water movement between adjacent plots and reduce border effects. There were two separate randomization processes in a split-plot design: one for the main plot and another for the subplot. In each replication, main-plot treatments (irrigation regimes) were first randomly assigned to the main plots followed by a random assignment of the subplot treatments (fertilizer levels) within each main plot (box 3). The treatments were replicated three times (farmers as replicates). The size of the sub-plots was 4 m x 5 m, with 1 m space between adjacent subplots. The 1 m spacing between sub-plots was needed for field operations such as cultivation, watering, weeding and harvesting. Row and plant distances were 0.7 m and 0.5 m, respectively. The land was tilled to a depth of 20 cm. WFDs were installed at a depth of 20 cm on the first beds of the WFD main plots to guide water application on the WFD plots. Pepper seedlings were planted on November 10, 2017 during the first year trial and December 7, 2018 during the second year trial. Water was applied to the crops by an overhead application using watering cans, and fertilizers were applied by the side placement method.Box 3: Field layout. See table 2 for a description of each irrigation and fertilizer treatment.Thirty-two years (1981-2012) of climatic data records (i.e. rainfall, temperature, relative humidity, sunshine hours and wind speed) were obtained from Navrongo weather station.The CROPWAT model (Ver.8) was used to determine reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) (Allen et al., 1998).Where λ is heat of vaporization, Rn is the net radiation, G is the soil heat flux, (es -ea) represents the vapour pressure deficit of the air, ρ a is the mean air density at constant pressure, cp is the specific heat of the air, ∆ represents the slope of the saturation vapour pressure temperature relationship, γ is the psychrometric constant, and r s and r a are the (bulk) surface and aerodynamic resistances.The crop water requirement (ETc) was then determined using eq.3 (Allen et al., 1998).Where, CWR: Crop water requirement, ETc: Crop evapotranspiration (mm/day), ETo: Reference crop evapotranspiration (mm/day) and Kc: Crop coefficient. The Kc Values vary across the growing stages of pepper. Accordingly, 0.6, 0.9, 1.05 and 0.7 are the Kc values for initial, development, mid and late stages of pepper, respectively. The corresponding length of growing period are 30, 35, 40-and 20-days Allen et al., 1998).Since irrigation is the sole source of water supply for the plant during the dry season in the study area, the irrigation requirement (IRCWR) is greater than the crop water requirement to allow for inefficiencies in the irrigation system. Then CWR based irrigation requirement (IRCWR) was calculated using a typical irrigation efficiency (IE) value of 70% (Wu and Gitilin, 1975) (eq. 3).Once the IRCWR was calculated, the irrigation depth was converted into volumetric (liter) irrigation requirement. Farmers were instructed to apply IRCWR using known volumetric measurement such as Geri can. Farmers also recorded the volume of water applied every day for WFD and FP in each sub-plot. The irrigation interval across all irrigation regimes was once in a day (usually in the evening).Water productivity (WP) was calculated using equation (eq. 4) (Howell, 2001;Karam et al., 2009;Bos, 1980Bos, , 1985)).Where y is yield and I is irrigation water applied. WP, Y and I are expressed in kg m -3 , kg and m -3 , respectively.Field/plot scale data were used to estimate specific sustainability intensification indicators across the five domains, including productivity, economic, environment, human and social (Table 3). We used collected data from the pepper experiment to estimate the SI indicators and metrics as shown in Table 5. Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework (SIAF) guide was used to select the indicators and matrices (Musumba et al., 2017).The five domains were represented by various indicators using primary and secondary data sources. i) Productivity domain: Yield of pepper and input use efficiency were selected to represent productivity domain. Yield data (kg/ha) and input use efficiency including pepper yield per quantity of water applied (kg/m3) as well as pepper yield per quantity of nutrient applied were also generated from the experimental plots. ii) Economic domain: Input use intensity was selected as an indicator. This indicator consists of intensity of water (m 3 /ha) and nutrient (kg/ha N, kg/ha P and kg/ha) used to grow pepper under different treatments.iii) Environment domain: Soil carbon and soil nutrient levels (N, P, and K) after harvest were used to explain environment domains. The soil analysis was done at the Soil Research Institute (SRI) in Accra. Total soil carbon (0-30 cm soil depth) was calculated based on the organic carbon content (%) and the average bulk density estimated from soil texture and organic matter in the SPAW model (Saxton and Rawls, 2006). iv) Human condition domain: Nutrition consisting of protein production and micronutrient was selected to estimate human condition domain. This indicator was derived from yield data from the experiment and nutritive value of pepper from secondary sources (Zou et al 2015). v) Social domain was represented by the yield and income of male and female farmers. However, selecting social domain indicators was a bit challenging as the number of male and female farmers were small as only one female was involved in the experiment.Scores (values) for each individual indicator were standardized using eq. 5 and integrated (if more than one indicator per domain were used). Then radar charts were produced for irrigation regimes and fertilizer level treatments. This framework does not take into account weight across the indicators and domains. Irrigation water was recorded daily for each treatment. Pepper yields per sub-plot were recorded from each treatment containing 30 plants per sub-plot. Fresh fruits were harvested three times during the first growing season (Year 1) and four times during the second growing season (year 2). Fresh fruit weight was recorded during harvesting. Analysis of variance (ANoVA) was performed using SPSS (Ver. 21) software. Selected parameters such as yield and water productivity were analyzed with standard split-plot analysis of variance technique (Factorial ANoVA) to test the effects of watering regimes, fertilizer treatments and their interactions (Field, 2005). Since the number of harvests and yield were different between the two years, the analysis was conducted separately for year 1 and year 2. Means were separated using least significant difference (LSD) at 0.05 (Snedecor and Cochran, 1980). All data were tested for homogeneity and normality test before subjecting to ANoVA (Field, 2005). Graphs were plotted using Microsoft Excel.Figure 2 presents the cumulative irrigation water applied to grow pepper using WFD, IRCWR and FP in the year 1 (2017/18 growing season) and year 2 (2018/19 growing season). During 2017-2018, 644, 680-and 771-mm irrigation water was applied to grow pepper using WFD, IRCWR and FP, respectively. Compared with FP, 127 mm of water was saved on farmers' fields by scheduling irrigation with WFD. Similarly, during 2018-2019, 698, 747-and 810-mm irrigation water was applied to grow pepper using WFD, IR CWR and FP, respectively. The difference in the irrigation depth between year 1 and year 2 was mainly due to the difference in planting dates. Compared with FP, 112 mm of water was saved on farmers' fields by scheduling irrigation with WFD. The result in both years shows that when farmers used the WFD, they saved 16% of irrigation water compared level too their standard practices (FP) (Figure 2). However, the reduction in on-farm water application does not necessarily translate into water saving at scale beyond the farm as the volume of water saved could be used by farmers to expand the cultivated area under irrigation.The reduction of irrigation water, when using the WFD, led to 16% labour saving to irrigate pepper as compared to FP, since the water application method used was a manual application with watering cans. A similar result was reported in an earlier study carried out in the same area, where WFD saved 14% of irrigation water compared with FP to grow cowpea (Adimassu et al., 2016). Another recent study reported that WFD saved 11 person days per hectare to irrigate different cereals and vegetables in Ethiopia (Schmitter et al., 2016). A similar study by Tamasgen (2016) using pepper and onion as the test crops, resulted in a 16% decrease irrigation water in the WFD treatment compared to farmer practice. However, the water saved was 19% and 21% lower than water saved through the use CROPWAT in onion and pepper production, respectively (Tamasgen, 2016). Tesema et al.(2016) also found that water applied in the WFD plots was 24% lower than the water applied using TDR (Time-Domain Reflectometer).Figure 2 also depicts the cumulative irrigation depth (mm) applied in the growth stages of pepper using WFD, IRCWR and FP. As shown in the figure, about 140 mm and 154 mm of water was applied during the initial stage of pepper across all treatments in year 1 and year 2, respectively. On average, over 60% of the irrigation depth were applied in the crop development and mid stages in both years (Figure 2). This can be explained in two ways.  Figure 3 compares Reference Evapotranspiration (ET0), Crop Water Requirement (ETc) irrigation using a wetting front detector (WFD), irrigation requirement based on ETC (IRCWR) and Farmers' practice (FP). As shown in the figure, the daily irrigation depth using FP was higher than IRCWR and WFD mainly during development, mid and late stages. Similarly, the irrigation depth using WFD is lower than the irrigation requirement (IRCWR) and FP. During the initial growth stage, an average of 4.7 mm/day water was applied across irrigation regimes treatments in year 1. Similarly, in year 2, an average of 5.1 mm/day water was applied across irrigation regimes treatments (Figure 3). During the development stage, a daily average of 5.4 mm/day (in year 1) and 5.8 mm/day (in year 2) was applied to plots with IRCWR treatments. Similarly, a daily average of 5.4 and 5.7 mm/day was applied to plots with WFD while farmers applied almost the same quantity (6.0 mm/day) of irrigation water in year 1 and year 2. In year 1, during the mid-stage, average irrigation depths of 6.7 mm/day and 5.9 mm/day was applied to plots with IRCWR and WFD, respectively. Similarly, during the late stage, average irrigation depths of 5.5 mm/day and 5.0 mm/day was applied to plots with IRCWR and WFD, respectively in year 1. Farmers applied 7.2 mm/day (in year 1) and 7.4 mm/day (in year 2) during mid and late growth stages. Generally, this study shows that the saving in water application was concentrated mainly in the mid-crop development stage. In year 1, the average fresh fruit yields of pepper irrigated through IRCWR, FP, and WFD were 5.4, 5.6 and 4.4 t ha -1 , respectively. In year 2, average fresh fruit yields of pepper irrigated through IRCWR, FP, and WFD were 6.6, 6.8 and 5.4 t ha -1 , respectively. The fresh yield of pepper in year 2 is higher than in the year 1 across all irrigation regimes. Although the yield appears correlated with increasing amounts of irrigation, the fresh yield of pepper under different irrigation regimes were not significantly different. In both years, fresh yield of pepper was the highest under the FP irrigation regime (Figure 4). Generally, however, the yield is highly variable (annex I) and average yield of pepper in the study area is below the national average (10 t ha -1 ) for the country (MoFA, 2013). As shown in figure 4, fresh yield of pepper was not significantly (p=0.575) affected by the irrigation regime. In year 1, plots with WFD had 23% and 27% lower fresh fruit yield of pepper compared with plots with IRCWR and FP, respectively. Similarly, in year 2, plots with WFD had 18% and 21% lower fresh fruit yield of pepper compared with plots with IRCWR and FP, respectively. In both years, the irrigation depth using WFD is lower than the irrigation depth using IRCWR. This implies that irrigation using WFD was under moisture stress and affected the yield of pepper to a certain extent. This might be because of the fact that the field capacity of the sandy loam soil is low to support the irrigation requirement of the crop for 24 hrs irrigation interval. This is observed in Figure 3 where the daily irrigation depth applied using WFD was lower than the irrigation requirement (IRCWR) of pepper. In general, low water holding capacity of sandy loam soil coupled with a hotter weather in the study area suggests the need to irrigate pepper twice a day using the WFD. As shown in Figure 4, although a relatively higher irrigation water was applied using FP irrigation regime, it produced a relatively higher yield compared with WFD and IRCWR. This implies that farmers are not over irrigating their plots in the context of the study areas with hot weather and poor soil condition. The fresh fruit yield of pepper was significantly (p=0.034) influenced by fertilizer treatment in both years (Figure 5). As shown in the figure, plots with F1 (Fortifer granules) and F2 (Fortifer compost) had highest fresh fruit yield compared with other fertilizer treatments.The highest fresh fruit yield of pepper in year 1 (7.2 t ha -1 ) and year 2 (8.6 t ha -1 ) was recorded from F1 fertilizer while the lowest yield was recoded from F4 fertilizer treatment. Table 4 portrays the interaction effects of irrigation water and fertilizer on fresh yield of pepper. As shown in the table, fresh fruit yield was not significantly affected by irrigation regime and fertilizer interaction in both years. In year 1, the highest fresh fruit yield (8.4 t ha -1 ) of pepper was recorded from F1 fertilizer combined with the FP irrigation regime. Similarly, in year 2, the highest fresh fruit yield (9.98 t ha -1 ) of pepper was recorded from F1 fertilizer combined with the FP irrigation regime. The lowest fresh fruit yield of pepper was recorded from the interaction of F4 fertilizer and the WFD irrigation regime during year 1 and year 2 growing season. Water productivity (kg m -3 ) at fresh fruit-yield basis (WP) is presented in Figure 6. In year 1, the average WP at fresh yield basis were 0.80, 0.73 and 0.68, kg m -3 for IRCWR, FP, and WFD, respectively (Figure 6). Similarly, in year 2, the average WP at fresh yield basis were 0.74, 0.70, and 0.69 kg m -3 IRCWR, FP, and WFD, respectively. This result shows, however, that water productivity (WP) of pepper was not significantly (p=0.578) affected by irrigation regimes (Figure 6). The result is consistent with earlier findings in Ethiopia by Tesema et al (2016) that water productivity in the WFD treatment did not differ significantly from the WP in the TDR treatment. Contrary to our findings, studies in Ethiopia show that use of WFD improved water productivity. For example, Schmitter et al.(2017) reported that by using WFD, farmers improved their water productivity by about 9% with a corresponding labour savings of up to about 11 working days per ha. In addition, Temasgen (2016) also reported that WP of pepper in the WFD treatment (0.31 kg m -3 ) was significantly higher than WP (0.15 kg m -3 ) in the FP treatment.As shown in Figure 7, WP of pepper was significantly (p=0.04) influenced by fertilizer treatments. Accordingly, the WP of pepper using F1 and F2 fertilizer treatments were significantly higher than WP of pepper using other fertilizer treatments. For example, in year 1, WP of pepper using F1 was 68%, 103%, 63% and 42% higher compared to WP of pepper using F3, F4, F5, and F6, respectively (see Figure 7). Similarly, in year 2, WP of pepper using F1 was 69%, 43%, 62% and 40% higher compared to WP of pepper using F3, F4, F5, and F6, respectively. Table 5 shows the interaction effects of irrigation water and fertilizer on WP of pepper. In general, however, water productivity (WP) of pepper was not significantly influenced by the interaction between irrigation regimes and fertilizer treatments for both years (Table 5).Although there was no significant difference, the WP varied across irrigation and fertilizer treatment interactions. For example, in year 1, the highest WP (1.25 kg m -3 ) of pepper was recorded from plots with F1 fertilizer treatment and WFD irrigation. The lowest WP (0.36 kg m -3 ) of pepper was recorded from plots with F4 and FP (Table 5). In year 2, the highest WP (1.04kg m -3 ) of pepper was recorded from plots with F1 and FP. This section presents a case study on the sustainability intensification indicators of irrigation regime and fertilizer treatments. Field/plot scale data were used to estimate specific sustainability intensification indicators across the five domains, including productivity, economic, environment, human and social condition. The standardized values of SI indicators across the five domains for the three irrigation regimes (IRCWR, FP and WFD) are presented in Figure 8. The result shows that the use of IRCWR and FP irrigation regime had higher scores in the productivity and human domains compared to the WFD irrigation regime. All irrigation regimes had similar scores for the economic and environmental domain. This means input use intensity of pepper did not respond to irrigation regimes because the amount used was determined by the experiment and not by the irrigation method. Again, it suggests that the content of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium after harvest were not different across the irrigation domains. The standardized values of SI indicators across the five domains for the six fertilizer options (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5 and F6) are presented in Figure 9. The result shows that the use of F1 and F2 Fertilizer options (Organo-mineral Fortifer TM products) had the highest scores for all domains except economic domain (input use intensity). The use of lower rate of NPK in F4 had the lowest score in productivity, human and social domains. The highest scores in F1 and F2 across most SI domains suggests that the use of Fortifer products, both in the form of compost and granular, is suitable for pepper production in the study area.For a given technology option, there are tradeoffs and/or synergies among the SI domains and indicators. Hence, it is crucial to establish thresholds (acceptable limits) for a recommendation about a given technology option based on SIAF criteria. This also requires establishment of relative weights across indicators and domains. Selection of indicators under each domain is also an important element to be considered in the SIAF exercise. In this exercise, most of the indicators are interrelated. For example, yield data was used to explain primarily productivity domain. However, it was also indirectly used to explain economic, social and human condition domains. Hence, the scores of these domains followed the trend of productivity domain. This suggests the need to determine independent indicators and corresponding data collection protocols prior to the study for SIAF analysis. In this study, the data collected had the primary purposes to assess differences in pepper yield as influenced by irrigation and fertilizer management strategies and where used additionally for the SIAF analysis. Although pepper yield was not significant difference under the three irrigation regimes, farmers' irrigation practice produced a relatively higher yield as compared to the WFD and IRCWR. The study showed that WFD saved significant irrigation water on farmers' fields to grow pepper. However, given the hot weather coupled with low soil fertility and poor water holding capacity of the soil, water saving using WFD resulted in reduction of pepper yield in this case study. Results suggest that based on the poor water holding capacity and the installation depth of the WFD the daily replenishment of the soil moisture might have been too shallow. This resuted in soil moisture values dropping below the maximum allowable deficit in the root zone which inturn leads to a decline of pepper yield. The study showed that application of higher rates of NPK fertilizer from the Fortifer TM increases fruit yield and water productivity of pepper. The study results also suggest that in combination, irrigation and fertilizer use can support strategies to improve the productivity of small-scale irrigation in Northern Ghana. The preliminary result from SIAF exercise shows that Fortifer products as soil amendment are suitable for SI of pepper production in the study areas. Although outside the scope of the study, the research also revealed key areas to support the effective use and uptake of promising agricultural water management interventions, namely capacity building and awareness creation for a wider audience. ","tokenCount":"4373"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"837f9293ec15d76a297d1e0cef3a4ee4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/312e1354-2873-442f-904f-7ce18cd818b5/content","id":"-1469256275"},"keywords":["wheat","flowering time","gene-based markers","biomass","harvest index","grain yield"],"sieverID":"3831e928-d0ab-490c-8144-85f71f48ccb9","pagecount":"19","content":"Allelic variants of vernalization (Vrn), photoperiod (Ppd), and earliness per se (Eps) genes in two panels of elite spring wheat were used to estimate their effects on the phenological stages, biomass (BM), harvest index (HI), and grain yield (YLD). Major spring alleles of Vrn-1 had the largest effect on shortening the time to anthesis, while the Ppd-insensitive allele Ppd-D1a had the most significant positive effect on YLD. Furthermore, alleles at recently identified loci TaTOE-B1 and TaFT3-B1 promoted between 3.8% and 7.6% higher YLD and 4.2% and 10.2% higher HI in the two panels. Further, when the possible effects of the TaTOE-B1 and TaFT3-B1 alleles on the sink and source traits were explored, the favorable allele at TaTOE-B1 showed positive effects on several sink traits related mainly to the grain number. Favorable alleles at TaFT3-B1 followed a different pattern, with positive effects on the traits related to grain weight. The results of this study expanded the wheat breeders' toolbox in the quest to breed better-adapted and higher-yielding wheat cultivars.Within less than 10,000 years, wheat cultivation has expanded from its primary area of evolution within the Fertile Crescent to a broad spectrum of agroecologies around the globe, making it the most widely grown crop in the world [1]. Wheat is one of the cornerstone crops for global food security, offering approximately 20% of the calories and proteins of the human diet [2]. While the rate of world population growth is, in general, slowing down, Biology 2021, 10, 855 2 of 19 it will still reach 8.6 billion people in 2030 and 9.8 billion by 2050 [3]. Thus, meeting the global demand for wheat will require a substantial increase in grain yield production per unit area. Moreover, new environments resulting from climate change will compromise wheat production [4], and further understanding of the genetic mechanisms related to the adaptive success of wheat is key for stable grain production in the future.One essential path for wheat to achieve adaptation is through variations in its phenology, which is a critical component, as the grain yield performance is strongly influenced by the timing of the phenological stages in each particular environmental condition [5]. For instance, in order to reach the maximum seed size and number (potential yield), wheat must become established, develop a biomass, and flower at a time that coincides with the optimal seasonal conditions [6]. Phenology in wheat is mainly controlled by genes that regulate three pathways: the vernalization (Vrn), photoperiod (Ppd), and earliness per se (Eps) pathways. Vernalization is the acquisition of a plant's ability to flower by exposure to cold [7]. According to the Vrn requirements, wheat is classified as having a winter or spring growth habit. Winter wheat has a considerable Vrn requirement, but spring wheat may be insensitive or only partly sensitive to Vrn [8]. The Ppd pathway promotes the floral transition in response to long days [9]. Ppd-insensitive wheat flowers independently of the day length and can be grown to maturity in long-or short-day environments. With the advances in molecular biology in previous decades, different alleles at the major Vrn and Ppd loci have been identified and shown to be responsible for affecting the flowering time and modifying the phenological stages [10][11][12]. The observed allelic variation has been associated with insertions, deletions, introductions of transposons, and other mutations in the promotor region and introns of Vrn-1 and Ppd-1 and, also, copy number variations (CNV) for the genes [13][14][15][16]. Alleles respond differently to environmental stimuli and act initially within separate pathways that converge at a point to produce flowers [17,18]. The third class of genes, which control the flowering time when both the Ppd and Vrn requirements are met, are the Eps genes [19]. They act in fine-tuning developmental patterns [20]; however, their genetics are still not well-understood. The underlying genes and causal polymorphisms have only recently been identified in hexaploid wheat. Zikhali et al. (2014 and2016)  [21,22] identified the Eps-D1 locus in Triticum aestivum associated with advanced flowering. Furthermore, two additional QTL and their underlying candidate genes, TaTOE-B1 and TaFT3-B1, related to the Ppd response under short days have been reported [23,24], which further broadens the allelic toolbox for manipulating and fine-tuning phenology in wheat.Grain yield is a function of the total biomass (BM) and of partitioning the biomass by grains, i.e., the harvest index (HI). Several studies have indicated that genetic increases in grain yields have been driven mostly by increases in the biomass in modern wheat cultivars [25][26][27]. No systematic progress in the HI in wheat has been shown in recent decades [28], and the latest CIMMYT spring wheat releases expressed increased biomass, as well as grain yield, but decreased HI, precluding the full expression of yield potential [27]. In order to translate improvements in biomass production into gains in the yield potential, the HI must be maintained or ideally increased in high-biomass cultivars [29]. The areas of research related to both components, the BM and HI, are broad and include, for example, an increase of photosynthetic capacity, factors that influence the partitioning of assimilates, spike fertility, and, also, modifying crop phenology [28]. While crop phenology and grain yield are optimized with different variety × sowing date combinations and the varietal suitability in a particular growing environment, very little is still known about how the genes that synchronize the developmental phases within a growing environment affect the actual formation of a yield.In this study, we aimed to (1) estimate the allele effects at the major and more recently identified Vrn, Ppd, and Eps genes on the phenology phases in two elite panels of CIMMYT elite spring bread wheat and (2) evaluate the possibility of maximizing the HI by controlling the duration of crop phenology by testing the allele effects of the same genes on the HI and several of its physiological components.High Biomass Association Mapping Panels (HiBAP) I and II were used for this study. Each panel consists of 150 elite spring bread wheat types, including high-yielding elite materials, pre-breeding lines crossed and selected for high yield and biomass, syntheticderived and landrace-derived lines, and appropriate checks (Supplementary Table S1). Each panel was evaluated in two consecutive growing seasons at the Norman E. Borlaug Research Station (CENEB) in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico. HiBAP I was evaluated during the winter cycle in the years 2015 to 2016 and 2016 to 2017 and HiBAP II during the 2017 to 2018 and 2018 to 2019 winter cycles. Fifty-seven lines in HiBAP I were in common with HiBAP II. HiBAP I included one durum line as a local check, which was excluded from the analyses.Each HIBAP panel was evaluated for a series of agronomic and physiological traits using an alpha (0,1) experimental design under full irrigation [30,31]. The HIBAP I design for year 1 comprised 15 blocks of size 10, while, for the other trials (HIBAP I year 2 and HIBAP II both years), the experimental design had 30 blocks with 5 plots per block. All trials were sown in the autumn (from 24-27 November) for each winter cycle. The temperature was recorded by a meteorological station placed near the trials. The day length was estimated based on the latitude at CENEB (Supplementary Figure S1). The experimental designs included four and three replications in HIBAP I and II, respectively. The lines were planted in raised beds (two beds per plot, each 0.8 m wide) with four (HiBAP I, 2015 to 2016) or two rows (HiBAP I 2016 to 2017, HiBAP II, 2 years) per bed (0.1 and 0.24 m between rows, respectively) 4 m long. Appropriate weed disease and pest controls were implemented to avoid yield limitations.The phenological stages recorded were the initiation of booting (GS41, DTInB), anthesis (GS65, DTA), and physiological maturity (GS87, DTM), according to Zadok's scale [32]. Four developmental phases were defined as follows: the vegetative growth period (VGP) from planting to DTA and grain-filling duration (GFD) from DTA to DTM; the VGP was further divided from planting to DTInB (DTInB) and from DTInB to DTA (DTInB-DTA). The percentage of grain filling (PGF) was calculated as GFD/DTM × 100. For each plot, the duration in days from emergence to these stages was calculated. The thermal time (TT) was computed by summing the average daily temperatures, following Angus et al. (1981)  [33].The biomass was measured between 40 and 42 days after emergence (BM_E40), at initiation of the booting stage, according to the plot phenology (BM_InB), approximately 7 days after anthesis (BM_A7) and after physiological maturity (BM_PM). In HIBAP I, all BM measures were taken in only two of the four replications. The samplings for BM_E40, BM_InB, and BM_A7 consisted of the total aboveground tissue 0.4 m 2 from two beds starting at least 50 cm from the end of the plot (or the previous harvest) to avoid border effects. A subsample of the fresh biomass was weighted and oven-dried at 70 • C for 48 h for the constant dry weight measurement. At physiological maturity, a sample of 50 or 100 fertile shoots was taken randomly from the harvested area to estimate the HI. Grain yield (YLD) was determined in 3.2-4 m 2 using the standard protocols [34]. BM_PM was calculated from YLD/HI.Since HIBAP I and HIBAP II were phenotyped to perform genomic studies within the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), many additional agronomic and physiological traits were evaluated, including the sink-and source-related traits. As for the flowering time alleles found to promote the HI and YLD, their effect on several sink and source traits was additionally tested. The sink-related traits included and reported were the thousand-grain weight (TGW), number of grains per m 2 (GM2), number of spikes per m 2 seven days after anthesis (SpkM2_A7) and at physiological maturity (SM2), stems per m 2 (StM2) 40 days after emergence (StM2_E40), initiation of booting (StM2_InB) seven days after anthesis (StM2_A7), number of grains per spike (GSP), grain weight per spike (GWSP) and spikelet (GWSPKL), grain filling rate (GFR), number of spikelets per spike (SPKLSP), number of infertile spikelets per spike (InfSPKLSP), spike lengths (Spk_L), fruiting efficiency (FE), and chaff dry weight of each individual spike (chaffDW_ind). The source-related traits included all the biomass samplings (BM_E40, BM_InB, BM_A7, and BM_PM); green area seven days after anthesis (GA_A7); lamina partitioning index (LamPI); lamina dry weight (LamDW); and crop growth rate pre-and post-heading (CGRpre and CGRpost), respectively. For some traits, the sink or source status of the referred organs can change depending on the growth stage and are therefore complex to classify. These traits included the internode 3 length (Int3_L), peduncle length (Ped_L), spike dry weight (Sp-kDW) seven days after anthesis (SpkDW_A7) and at physiological maturity (SpkDW_PM), spike dry weight per m 2 seven days after anthesis (SpkDWM2_A7) and at physiological maturity (SpkDW_PM), stem dry weight (StDW) seven days after anthesis (StDW_A7) and at physiological maturity (StDW_PM), and StDW per m 2 seven days after anthesis (StDWM2_A7) and at physiological maturity (StDWM2_PM). A more detailed description of how these traits were measured is given in Supplementary Table S2. Since the plant height was not significantly associated with the phenological stages and YLD among the panels, it was not considered as an additional trait.The DNA isolation of both panels was performed from young leaf samples following a modified CTAB method [35]. A set of molecular markers associated with the Vrn, Ppd, and Eps alleles were applied on all the lines (Supplementary Table S3). The molecular markers were related to (i) the well-known alleles of major effect genes Vrn-1, Vrn-3, and Ppd-1; (ii) the genes recently identified by Zikhali et al. (2014Zikhali et al. ( , 2016Zikhali et al. ( , and 2017) )  [21][22][23], which effect sizes across the elite germplasm are still unknown; and (iii) the copy number variants (CNV) shown to be associated with the altered flowering time in several recent studies [14,36].The Sequence-Tagged Sites (STS), Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP), and TaqMan ® CNV assays were used for genotyping. For the STS marker polymorphisms, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay reaction mixtures in single 10-µL reactions used to amplify all the primers contained final concentrations of 1 × Buffer with Green Dye (Promega Corp., Madison, WI, USA), 200-µM deoxynucleotide triphosphates, 1.2-mM magnesium chloride, 0.25-µM of each primer, 1U of DNA polymerase (GoTaq ® Flexi, Promega Corp., Madison, WI, USA), and 50 ng of DNA template. The PCR profile was 94 • C for 2 min, followed by 30 cycles of 94 • C for 1 min, 54-60 • C for 2 min (dependent on the primer), and 72 • C for 2 min. The amplified products were separated on 1.2% agarose gels in tris-acetate/ethylene-diaminetetraacetic acid (TAE) buffer. The KASP markers were run in reactions containing 2.5-mL water, 2.5-mL PACE™ Genotyping Master Mix (https://3crbio.com/ (accessed on 23 January 2021)), 0.07-mL marker assay mix, and 50 ng of dried DNA with a PCR profile of 94 • C for 15 min of activation time, followed by 20 cycles of 94 • C for 10 s, 57 • C for 5 s, and 72 • C for 10 s and followed by 18 cycles of 94 • C for 10 s, 57 • C for 20 s, and 72 • C for 40 s. the fluorescence was read as an end point reading at 25 • C. The copy number variants (CNV) were applied only in HiBAP I and for the two genes, Ppd-B1 and TaFT3, using TaqMan ® CNV assays as described in reference [14].For both panels, the analysis of a standard lineal mixed model was conducted with the lme (R-project) procedure from META R 5.1 [37,38] with all the effects of years (Y), blocks within replications, replications within Y, replications, genotypes (G), and G × Y being considered as random effects. The broad-sense heritability (H 2 ) was estimated in META R 5.1 considering all the terms in the model (Y, replications within years, G, and G × Y) as random effects. The broad-sense heritability (H 2 ) was estimated for each trait over the two years, respectively, as:where r = number of replications, e = number of environments (Y), σ 2 = error variance, σ 2 g = genotypic variance, and σ 2 ge = G × Y variance. The phenotypic correlations (r p ) between traits were simple Pearson correlations, and the genetic correlations between traits were calculated using the following formula:where σ g(i,i ) is the arithmetic mean of all pairwise genotypic covariances between traits i and i across the environments, and σ g(i) σ g(i ) is the arithmetic mean of all pairwise products of the variances among the traits across the environments.To analyze the effect of the known genes in the different traits, simple linear regression was performed for each marker using the Best Linear Unbiased Predictors (BLUPs) of each trait across the two consecutive years in each panel. Due to the linkage between the genes and some degree of collinearity, a multivariate linear regression considering all gene simultaneously and using a stepwise selection procedure was performed to estimate each gene effect after removing the effects of the other genes. For stepwise selection, the 'stepAIC' function of MASS library in R was used.The ANOVA results of both HiBAP panels indicated significant variations among the G, environments (Y), and G × Y interactions for most traits, where the factor year was the least significant (Table 1). The full growing cycle of HiBAP II was, on average, eight days longer than the cycle of HiBAP I, using the BLUPs across the two consecutive years of each panel. The longer growing period in HiBAP II was reflected in both the developmental phases. The VGP/DTA and GFD in HiBAP I were, on average, 76.4 and 38.5 days long, while, in HiBAP II, they were 82.1 and 41.0 days long. The longer growing period also led, on average, to 353-kg/ha higher YLD in HiBAP II. The average daily temperatures from emergence to anthesis were slightly higher in HiBAP II than in HiBAP I, mainly due to higher maximum daily temperatures, while it was the opposite during GFD (Supplementary Figure S1). The TT during the critical stage from the initiation of booting to anthesis (TTInB-TTA) was lower in HiBAP II (Table 1). The biomass at physiological maturity was similar in both panels, while the biomass measured in earlier stages (BM_E40, BM_InB, and BM_A7) were higher in HiBAP II than in HiBAP I. The harvest index in the two panels was also similar. The maximum HI measured in any of the two growing seasons was 0.52. The broad-sense heritability of the traits was, in general, medium to high. The highest heritabilities were estimated for HI, DTInB, and VGP/DTA in both panels. The heritability for YLD was 0.60 in HiBAP I and 0.83 in HiBAP II, respectively (Table 1). The phenotypic and genetic correlations among the same traits are shown in Supplementary Tables S4 and S5. In both datasets, BM_PM was the highest-correlated with YLD, followed by HI. A longer VGP/DTA was slightly negatively correlated with YLD and negatively correlated with HI.The results of the molecular marker analysis that identified the alleles related to the flowering time genes are shown in Figure 1 and Supplementary Table S6. Overall, the frequency distribution of the alleles was similar in both panels (HiBAP I and II). Among the known major effect genes, the spring allele at Vrn-B1 (Vrn-B1a) and Vrn-D1 (Vrn-D1a) and the Ppd-insensitive allele at Ppd-D1 (Ppd-D1a) were highly frequent (≥87%). Additionally, strong selection pressure against the spring allele at Vrn-A1 (Vrn-A1a) was apparent in both panels. From the alternate winter alleles at Vrn-A1, allele vrn-A1w, characterized by an SNP leading to an amino acid change from leucine to a phenylalanine in exon 4 (previously identified in CIMMYT Veery lines (Eagles et al. 2011)  [39], was more frequent (62% and 59% in HIBAP I and II, respectively) than the alternative allele vrn-A1v. At the Ppd-A1 and Ppd-B1 loci, the marker results indicated the presence of Ppd-sensitive alleles but a large variation of CNV at Ppd-B1.Among the more recently identified flowering time genes (TaFT3-B1, TaFT3-D1, TaTOE-B1, and Eps-D1), the alleles that are designated to trigger earlier flowering were overall more frequent. The highest allele frequencies were observed for the Avalon type allele at TaTOE-B1, while the lowest frequency for the Spark type allele was at TaFT3-B1. At the Eps-D1 locus, the lines showing a deletion at wheat chromosome 1DL (e.g., identified in the winter wheat lines Spark or Cadenza) were less frequent than the lines not carrying the deletion. Among the more recently identified flowering time genes (TaFT3-B1, TaFT3-D1, Ta-TOE-B1, and Eps-D1), the alleles that are designated to trigger earlier flowering were overall more frequent. The highest allele frequencies were observed for the Avalon type allele at TaTOE-B1, while the lowest frequency for the Spark type allele was at TaFT3-B1. At the Eps-D1 locus, the lines showing a deletion at wheat chromosome 1DL (e.g., identified in the winter wheat lines Spark or Cadenza) were less frequent than the lines not carrying the deletion.The assays to determine the CNVs were only deployed in HIBAP I. The assays resulted in a significantly higher allele variation than the related KASP assays, which are only bi-allelic. Eight and nine CNVs were observed for the Ppd-B1 and TaFT3-B1 TaqMan ® assays, respectively. While the CNVs were not correlated with the KASP marker results for Ppd-B1, they were correlated with the KASP for TaFT3-B1. The Avalon-type allele at TaFT3-B1 was mainly identified in the lines with CN0 or CN1, while the Spark and Rialtotype alleles mainly carried larger CNVs.Single and stepwise marker regression identified the spring allele Vrn-A1a to have the largest significant effect on the phenological stages in HIBAP I and II, followed by the The assays to determine the CNVs were only deployed in HIBAP I. The assays resulted in a significantly higher allele variation than the related KASP assays, which are only biallelic. Eight and nine CNVs were observed for the Ppd-B1 and TaFT3-B1 TaqMan ® assays, respectively. While the CNVs were not correlated with the KASP marker results for Ppd-B1, they were correlated with the KASP for TaFT3-B1. The Avalon-type allele at TaFT3-B1 was mainly identified in the lines with CN0 or CN1, while the Spark and Rialto-type alleles mainly carried larger CNVs.Single and stepwise marker regression identified the spring allele Vrn-A1a to have the largest significant effect on the phenological stages in HIBAP I and II, followed by the spring alleles Vrn-D1a and Vrn-B1a (Figure 2 and Supplementary Table S7). All three alleles most affected the earliest phenological phase assessed at the initiation of booting (DTInB). Only the presence of the Vrn-A1a allele led also to a significant longer GFD in both panels. The type of winter wheat allele at the Vrn-A1 locus also significantly affected the phenological phases, while allele vrn-A1v shortened the VGP/DTA and elongated the GFD in HiBAP II but to a much lower extent than the spring allele. The Ppd-insensitive allele Ppd-D1a, the two-copy variant at Ppd-B1, and the Rialto type allele at TaFT3-D1 elongated the time from DTInB to DTA in HiBAP I or II. The two latter alleles resulted in an elongated VGP/DTA, and only the two-copy variant at Ppd-B1 led to a shorter GFD in HiBAP I.spring alleles Vrn-D1a and Vrn-B1a (Figure 2 and Supplementary Table S7). All three alleles most affected the earliest phenological phase assessed at the initiation of booting (DTInB). Only the presence of the Vrn-A1a allele led also to a significant longer GFD in both panels. The type of winter wheat allele at the Vrn-A1 locus also significantly affected the phenological phases, while allele vrn-A1v shortened the VGP/DTA and elongated the GFD in HiBAP II but to a much lower extent than the spring allele. The Ppd-insensitive allele Ppd-D1a, the two-copy variant at Ppd-B1, and the Rialto type allele at TaFT3-D1 elongated the time from DTInB to DTA in HiBAP I or II. The two latter alleles resulted in an elongated VGP/DTA, and only the two-copy variant at Ppd-B1 led to a shorter GFD in HiBAP I. Single and stepwise marker regression were performed to evaluate the possibility that the flowering time alleles promote HI and/or YLD (Figures 3 and 4 and Supplementary Table S7). The Ppd-insensitive allele Ppd-D1a had the most significant positive effect on YLD in HiBAP I and II, with a positive effect on BM_PM in HiBAP I and HI in HiBAP II, respectively. Significant positive effects on YLD were also detected by the spring alleles at Vrn-D1 (Vrn-D1a) and Vrn-B1 (Vrn-B1a) in HiBAP I but the latter to a much smaller extent. The Vrn-D1a allele showed a significant positive effect on BM_PM and no effect on the HI. Furthermore, the Avalon-type allele (which lengthens flowering under short days) at locus TaTOE-B1 showed a significant positive effect on YLD in both germplasm panels. The alternative allele at the same locus (Cadenza-type, which shortens flowering under short days) showed the opposite negative effect on YLD in HiBAP I. The Avalon-type allele positively affected the BM measured at the initiation of booting (BM_InB) and the HI but negatively affected the BM measured at later stages (A7 and PM). The Cadenza- Single and stepwise marker regression were performed to evaluate the possibility that the flowering time alleles promote HI and/or YLD (Figures 3 and 4 and Supplementary Table S7). The Ppd-insensitive allele Ppd-D1a had the most significant positive effect on YLD in HiBAP I and II, with a positive effect on BM_PM in HiBAP I and HI in HiBAP II, respectively. Significant positive effects on YLD were also detected by the spring alleles at Vrn-D1 (Vrn-D1a) and Vrn-B1 (Vrn-B1a) in HiBAP I but the latter to a much smaller extent. The Vrn-D1a allele showed a significant positive effect on BM_PM and no effect on the HI. Furthermore, the Avalon-type allele (which lengthens flowering under short days) at locus TaTOE-B1 showed a significant positive effect on YLD in both germplasm panels. The alternative allele at the same locus (Cadenza-type, which shortens flowering under short days) showed the opposite negative effect on YLD in HiBAP I. The Avalon-type allele positively affected the BM measured at the initiation of booting (BM_InB) and the HI but negatively affected the BM measured at later stages (A7 and PM). The Cadenza-type allele, in addition to its negative effect on YLD, showed a negative effect on HI in HiBAP I. type allele, in addition to its negative effect on YLD, showed a negative effect on HI in HiBAP I.   type allele, in addition to its negative effect on YLD, showed a negative effect on HI in HiBAP I.   Two alleles (Rialto and Avalon types) at the TaFT3-B1 locus positively affected the YLD in HIBAP II. The two alleles showed a slightly negative effect on BM_A7 in both HiBAP and a positive effect on HI in HiBAP II. The third allele at the TaFT3-B1 locus (Spark type) had a clear negative effect on the YLD in HiBAP II. The Timstein or Sonora-type allele (Ppd-B1a (3x)), an SNP related to a three-copy variant at Ppd-B1 but not correlated with the CNV Taqman assay, showed a smaller positive effect on the YLD and HI in HIBAP II. The largest negative effects on the YLD were detected for the Vrn-A1a and Vrn-B1b alleles in HiBAP I, with a clear negative effect the Vrn-A1a allele on BM_PM and no effect on the HI. Lastly, the Eps-D1 Spark-type allele (temperature-sensitive, which shortens flowering) had a smaller negative effect on the YLD and BM.To further verify the larger effects of the favorable alleles of the more recently identified genes TaTOE-B1 and TaFT3-B1 loci on the HI and YLD, a mean comparison of their respective alleles is shown in Table 2. The lines that carried the Avalon-type allele at TaTOE-B1 yielded a 4.7-5.0% higher and showed a 3.3-8.0% higher HI than the lines carrying the Cadenza-type allele, while there was no significant difference in the means for BM_PM. The lines that carried the Avalon or Rialto-type alleles at TaFT3-B1 (which lengthens and shortens flowering under short days) revealed a 1.2-6.0% higher YLD and a 3.1-9.6% higher HI than the Spark-type allele (which lengthens flowering under short days), while the means were only significantly different for the HI in HiBAP II. The combination of favorable alleles at both genes revealed means of 3.8-7.6% higher YLD and 4.2-10.2% higher HI than the combination of unfavorable alleles. The lines with one favorable and unfavorable allele each showed intermediate mean values indicating that both genes act additively.Table 2. Means of the biomass measured at physiological maturity (BM_PM), the harvest index (HI), and grain yield (YLD) for the alleles identified with the molecular markers associated with the genes TaTOE-B1 and TaFT3-B1 and the allele combinations of both genes.TaFT3-B1 Due to their positive impact on both the HI and YLD, we further explored the possible effects of the alleles at the two genes, TaTOE-B1 and TaFT3-B1, on the source-and sinkrelated grain yield traits. A schematic diagram, when the source-and sink-related traits considered in this study were produced, is given in Figure 5. The favorable Avalon-type allele at TaTOE-B1 showed significant positive effects on several sink traits, mainly related to an increase in the grain number, i.e., GM2, FE, SPKLSP, StM2_E40, StM2_A7, and chaffDW_ind (Figure 6 and Supplementary Table S7). For the same and other sink traits, the Cadenza-type allele showed the opposite negative effects in HiBAP I, i.e., SM2, GSP, and InfSPKLSP. Furthermore, the GFR was increased, and the length of internode 3 (Int3_L) was reduced by the Avalon-type allele. In contrast, both TaTOE-B1 alleles showed negative effects on the source traits LamDW_A7 and LamPI. The Avalon-type allele also showed an increased SpkDW_PM but a decreased StDW at different phenological stages (A7 and PM).The allelic effects of the TaFT3-B1 locus the same source and sink traits followed a more complex pattern and were different from TaTOE-B1 (Figure 7 and Supplementary Table S7). The favorable Avalon and Rialto-type alleles both showed significant positive effects on the sink traits, especially related to grain weight, i.e., TGW, GWSP, GWSPKL, and GFR. The unfavorable Spark-type allele had the opposite effect on the same traits in HiBAP II. The Avalon-type allele additionally favored the sink traits GSP and SPKLSP. In contrast to the TaTOE-B1 gene, both the Avalon and Rialto-type alleles at TaFT3-B1 showed negative effects on GM2, SM2, SkpM2_A7, StM2_E40, StM2_InB, StM2_A7, and chaffDW_ind. The Avalon-type allele additionally reduced InfSPKLSP. Like the sink traits, the impact of the TaFT3-B1 alleles on the source traits was more complex and different in comparison to the TaTOE-B1 alleles. The Avalon-type allele positively affected GA_A7, LamPI, and LamDW_A7, while the Rialto-type allele did not.    [40] and when different source-and sink-related yield traits are produced. A full description of the traits is given in Supplementary Table S2. The allelic effects of the TaFT3-B1 locus on the same source and sink traits followed a more complex pattern and were different from TaTOE-B1 (Figure 7 and Supplementary Table S7). The favorable Avalon and Rialto-type alleles both showed significant positive effects on the sink traits, especially related to grain weight, i.e., TGW, GWSP, GWSPKL, and GFR. The unfavorable Spark-type allele had the opposite effect on the same traits in HiBAP II. The Avalon-type allele additionally favored the sink traits GSP and SPKLSP. In contrast to the TaTOE-B1 gene, both the Avalon and Rialto-type alleles at TaFT3-B1 showed negative effects on GM2, SM2, SkpM2_A7, StM2_E40, StM2_InB, StM2_A7, and chaffDW_ind. The Avalon-type allele additionally reduced InfSPKLSP. Like the sink traits, the impact of the TaFT3-B1 alleles on the source traits was more complex and different in comparison to the TaTOE-B1 alleles. The Avalon-type allele positively affected GA_A7, LamPI, and LamDW_A7, while the Rialto-type allele did not. Optimizing the phenological stages in a given growing environment is critical for wheat adaptation and the improvement of the yield potential. Although crop growth and Optimizing the phenological stages in a given growing environment is critical for wheat adaptation and the improvement of the yield potential. Although crop growth and development is a continuous succession of progressing towards maturity, the key developmental events around the phenological stages have been identified that mark important changes in the morphology and/or function of some organs [41,42]. The time at which the wheat crop reaches anthesis (DTA) is determined by the duration of the vegetative phase from sowing to the floral initiation (when leaves and tillers begin to appear), the early reproductive phase up to terminal spikelet initiation (when all spikelets are initiated and floret initiation starts), and the late reproductive phase of stem elongation ending with anthesis (when the number of florets is determined) [42]. All three phases are affected by three major environmental factors: Vrn, Ppd, and temperature per se [19]. The timely occurrence of anthesis therefore largely defines the yield potential of a genotype. There is a high degree of variability in the sensitivity to Vrn and Ppd among the genotypes, which is the likely reason for the wide adaptability of wheat to so many different environments. The Vrn n response varies from insensitive spring types, through facultative types, to extremely sensitive winter types [19]. Wheat is a long-day plant in which the rate of development is increased with longer day lengths. However, there are individual genotypes with varying sensitivities to Ppd, including insensitivity [43]. Additionally, a wealth of variations in Eps in different geographical regions has been shown [44]. Wheat breeding programs tailor the phenology of their germplasm for a particular environmental condition by testing different variety × sowing date combinations, thus combining specific sensitivities to the Vrn and Ppd with particular Eps characteristics across their genotypes. The increased knowledge of the genetic control of the determinants of phenological development could further facilitate breeding for improved yield potential in wheat, especially under the threats of global changes in the temperature and weather patterns that will continue to impede wheat production.The major Vrn and Ppd loci are usually quickly fixed in breeding programs targeting a specific selection environment. CENEB, near Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, is the key research and breeding site for the CIMMYT Global Wheat Program. Multi-year testing and controlled irrigation to create a simulation of diverse selection environments at CENEB have delivered novel high-yield potential germplasms worldwide [45], and research has shown that the conditions at this site represent major CIMMYT target regions for wheat breeding in the developing world [46][47][48].Of the major effect genes, the two spring alleles, Vrn-B1a and Vrn-D1a, and the Ppd-D1a-insensitive allele were highly frequent and almost fixed in the two HiBAP panels and were also the most characteristic major gene combination in the annual globally distributed CIMMYT international nurseries (https://data.cimmyt.org/dataverse/root/?q=IBWSN (accessed on 30 July 2021)). Additionally apparent was a strong selection pressure against the spring allele Vrn-A1a. Among the Vrn genes, it is well-known that Vrn-A1a has a strong effect on inhibiting the Vrn requirements and is epistatic to the dominant Vrn-B1 and Vrn-D1 genes [49][50][51]. In our study, Vrn-A1a significantly shortened the vegetative phase and early reproduction phase up to the initiation of booting (DTInB), which are the most sensitive phases for Vrn temperatures [42], resulting in a strong negative effect on the accumulation of BM and final YLD. The Vrn-B1a and Vrn-D1a alleles showed much smaller effects on the same developmental phases, resulting favorably for a YLD increase and suggesting that genotypes with some Vrn sensitivity are better adapted to CENEB. Stelmakh (1993 and1998)  [52,53] was one of the first who reported that the three major Vrn genes have a differential effect not only on flowering time but also on various yield components. In his studies, genotypes having two dominant alleles in combination at two Vrn loci tended to mature early with high yields, while the triple-dominant genotypes were found to be early maturing but low yielding. The incorporation of Vrn-D1a has generally been recommended in many spring wheat breeding programs. Van Beem et al. (2005)  [54] already reported the predominance of the Vrn-D1a allele in CIMMYT elite spring bread wheat lines, the Japanese wheat cultivar Akakomugi, thought to be the donor parent of this allele [55], was later transferred into early CIMMYT Green Revolution cultivars like Lerma Rojo 64 and Sonora 64. Additionally, the widely grown (8 to 9 million hectares globally) wheat cultivars Pastor, Attila, and Kauz possess Vrn-D1a. Our study thus confirms the results reported by Stelmakh (1993)  [52] in the CIMMYT spring bread wheat germplasm but also extends its knowledge, as we were able to dissect the individual effects of major Vrn-1 genes on the individual phenological stages BM, HI, and YLD. Of the two winter alleles at Vrn-A1, the vrn-A1w allele defined as the \"Wichita\"-type allele by Eagles et al. (2011)  [39] was more frequent. The Wichita-type allele was suggested to confer a longer Vrn requirement than the alternate \"Jagger\"-type allele (vrn-A1v). In HiBAP II, vrn-A1v showed, as expected, a shorter Vrn requirement and, therefore, reduced the time to anthesis (VGP/DTA). The lines that carried the same allele in HiBAP I, however, showed a lower HI, which might explain the selected preference for vrn-A1w. The Ppd-insensitive allele Ppd-D1a in our study elongated the late reproductive phase or spike growth phase from DTInB to DTA in HiBAP I. The spike growth phase, taking place only a few days prior to anthesis, has been reported to be sensitive to Ppd responses [42]. The average daily temperatures during this phase were consistently increasing in HiBAP I. One could hypothesize that the lines with the Ppd-D1a allele might have reached this phase earlier at lower temperatures and, therefore, progressed more slowly compared to late-developing genotypes, for which this phase was occurring later and at higher temperatures. Slafer et al. (2001)  [56] and Miralles and Slafer (2007)  [57] hypothesized that a longer late-reproductive phase or spike growth phase increases the amount of biomass accumulated in spikes during stem elongation, and the final number of grains would be increased due to the reduced rates of floret death. The Ppd-D1a allele showed a positive effect on biomass accumulation (BM_PM) in HiBAP I and on HI in HIBAP II, resulting in a positive yield effect in both panels. The effect of Ppd-D1a that provides insensitivity to the Ppd during the pre-anthesis phase was also reported by Gonzalez et al. (2005) [58]) Two additional Ppd alleles elongated the late-reproductive phase, Ppd-B1 (CN2) and TaFT3-D1 (Rialto type). However, both alleles elongated this phase at the expense of earliness, resulting in a later time to anthesis and a shorter GFD, with no favorable effect on the YLD.Recently identified candidate genes controlling the Ppd response in wheat were included in this study. Alleles at the two genes, TaTOE-B1 (Avalon type) and TaFT-B3 (Avalon and Rialto types), promoted the HI and YLD in both panels and in HIBAP II, respectively, which has not been tested and observed before. The favorable effects on the HI and/or YLD of these alleles was also confirmed in CIMMYT international screening nurseries (approx. 1300 lines) and in 197 F 4:6 -derived lines evaluated between 2017 and 2019 at CENEB (unpublished data). Both candidate genes were identified by Zikhali et al. (2017)  [23] as controlling the short-day Ppd response. SNPs in exon 1 and 9 of the TaTOE1-B1 gene were shown to separate earlier flowering UK cultivars Avalon, Rialto, and Charger from later flowering cultivars such as Spark or Claire. TaTOE1-B1 was suggested to be a putative flowering time repressor, and the mutant allele (Avalon type) was expected to attribute earliness. In our study the mutant allele reduced the time to anthesis by 0.6 to 1 days in comparison to the wild-type allele in HiBAP I and II, respectively (data not shown); however, this effect was not significant.The KASP marker related to TaFT3-B1 was able to detect three alleles of the gene. The Rialto-type allele represents the intact form of the gene, while the Spark-type allele carries a point mutation and changes the highly conserved amino acid glycine (G) to serine (S) in the phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein (PEBP) domain in exon 3. The gene is deleted in the UK cultivars Avalon or Charger [23]. TaFT3-B1 is known to be a putative flowering promoter; Rialto was associated with early flowering, while the deletion of the whole gene, e.g., in Avalon, was associated with a later flowering phenotype. Single marker regression in HIBAP I supported the identified phenotypic variation from Zikhali et al. (2017)  [23] and showed a moderate but significant effect of the Avalon-type allele on the DTA, while the wild-type allele of was associated with earlier flowering. The reported allele in Spark carrying the SNP that causes an amino acid change and is associated with later flowering was associated with later flowering in this study only in HIBAP II, with a clear significant negative effect on YLD.Understanding the physiological changes responsible for the yield potential and the identification of the related prospective traits useful for future breeding is an active area of research and one of the main objectives of IWYP (https://iwyp.org/ (accessed on 30 July 2021)). Critical traits to be considered to further increase the yield potential must be related to increases in the sink size during grain filling, either by increasing the potential size of the grains or by further increasing the GM2. A large body of evidence has clearly established that GM2, although generated during the whole period from sowing to immediately after anthesis [19], is extremely responsive to changes in growth/partitioning during only a few weeks before anthesis, also referred to as the rapid spike growth period (RSGP) [57,59]. Other studies have shown that lengthening of the RSGP leads to increases in SpkDW at anthesis, resulting in genetic gains in the YLD [60][61][62][63].With the focus on performing genetic studies for the agronomic and physiological traits related to the yield potential [30,31], both HiBAP panels were phenotyped for a series of sink-and source-related traits. We estimated the effect of the two Ppd response genes TaTOE-B1 and TaFT3-B1 on several of these traits. For the favorable allele at TaTOE-B1, a significant positive effect on GM2 was estimated, together with a larger number of StM2 (StM2_E40 and A7), more SPKLSP, enhanced FE, increased GFR, and greater SpkDW_PM and chaffDW_ind. We did not observe a significant increase in SpkDW at anthesis (SpkDW_A7) but a significant decrease in StDW_A7 and StDW_PM, which indicated that, in the presence of the favorable allele, more assimilates were diverted to the growing spikes, turning into an increase of GM2. ChaffDW at maturity (chaffDW_ind) is also sometimes used to estimate SpkDW_A7, while described to be consistently higher [64]. This was reflected in our study by a significant increase of chaffDW_ind in the lines carrying the Avalon-type allele at TaTOE-B1 but a nonsignificant increase of SpkDW_A7. Various previous studies have reported genetic variations for FE and associations with GM2 [27,[65][66][67]. The fruiting efficiency is the outcome of floret development. Slafer et al. (2015)  [64] described two alternative physiological pathways to improve the FE: (i) an increased allocation of assimilates for the developing florets before anthesis, or (ii) a reduced demand of the florets for maintaining their normal development. Based on our results, we speculated that the Avalon-type allele at TaTOE-B1 promoted the first pathway. Furthermore, the Avalon-type allele at TaTOE-B1 desirably reduced Int3_L. Recently, Rivera-Amado et al. (2019) [68] revealed a positive effect of reduced internode length (internodes 2 and 3) on SpkDW at anthesis, which was positively associated with GM2 across 26 CIMMYT elite lines. The critical RSGP and percent grain filling (PGF) ratios were calculated in HIBAP I and II. The alleles at TaTOE-B1, however, did not show any significant effects on the RSGP, as would be expected from the physiological response (data not shown), while the Avalon-type allele showed a slightly longer percent grain filling (Supplementary Table S7). Thus, it still remains somewhat unclear how the flowering time alleles at TaTOE-B1 cause the observed physiological changes, and more detailed studies of their effects on the individual developmental phases up to anthesis might be required.The contrasting effect of the two genes TaTOE-B1 and TaFT3-B1 on the phenological stages (the first being a flowering repressor and the latter a promoter) was also reflected by the regression results on the sink-related traits. While the favorable allele at TaTOE-B1 promoted GM2, the Avalon and Rialto-type alleles at TaFT3-B1 boosted traits related to the grain weight, i.e., TGW, GWSP, GWSPKL, and GFR, in addition to Spk_L, GSP, and SPKLSP. In previous studies, variations in the grain weight were mainly related to GFR but, also, to GFD [69][70][71]. In this study, the favorable allele at TaFT3-B1 had no effect on the GFD or PFG; however, the unfavorable Spark-type allele flowered later in HIBAP I, with significant negative effects on the YLD, GFR, traits related to grain weight.Our study improved our understanding of the relationship between the flowering time and HI in elite spring bread wheat lines. We identified that the two new candidate genes TaTOE-B1 and TaFT3-B1, both controlling the Ppd response, promoted the HI in CIMMYT spring bread wheat grown at the main research station CENEB. Both genes act differently through complex physiological pathways. The gene effects should be further validated, and the development and evaluation of gene-specific near-isogenic lines in diverse CIMMYT elite backgrounds is underway. The gene effects should also be tested across a more diverse set of environments, in addition to CENEB. Our study expanded the wheat breeder's toolbox in the quest to breed better-adapted and more resilient wheat cultivars. Recently, Hu et al. (2021) [72] (see Supplementary Materials) used a gene-based phenology model to identify the optimal flowering time periods and optimal sowing dates for sites in irrigated environments, considering the impacts of frost and heat stress on the YLD. The gene-based model could predict the wheat phenology by the combination of a conventional process-based model and genetic information, which can consistently be updated with new relevant candidate genes such as TaTOE-B1 and TaFT3-B1 becoming available. An increased understanding of the optimal flowering period for a specific wheat production region could help breeders to select adaptable genotypes and guide farmers in modifying the management practices (sowing date and cultivar) to fit flowering and maximize the YLD.","tokenCount":"7327"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f5643ffcddd2bedd9892f720272220e9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c970ab5b-2bba-4eb6-b165-675a89e825f9/retrieve","id":"1641367907"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"26e9a52f-9052-4a70-a13e-4d5091e3db29","pagecount":"84","content":"Simultáneamente, estudios similares fueron realizados también en Bolivia, Chile, Colombia y Ecuador. En este sentido, los resultados del presente estudio se suman a los de los otros países para formar parte de un estudio regional que refleja la situación de la problemática descrita a nivel de la Región Andina.El estudio pretende tener un valor de uso, sirviendo de insumo al diseño tanto de políticas e instrumentos públicos como de programas de cooperación y nuevos modelos de negocios. De esta manera, se espera promover una vinculación sostenible entre las grandes y medianas empresas y los pequeños productores más allá de la mera articulación comercial, favoreciendo la construcción de una relación de mutuo beneficio \"ganar-ganar\" que mejore la competitividad de las cadenas de valor en su conjunto y el nivel de vida de las comunidades.Se conforma en el 2004 en el marco de una iniciativa de alcance regional andina que busca ser inclusiva y abierta a otras organizaciones con interés en participar y procura articularse a otras iniciativas existentes en la Región. Se ha planteado los siguientes objetivos específicos:Gestión para el aprendizaje, Construir una alianza estratégica entre los socios que permita identificar y probar mecanismos de gestión para el aprendizaje inter-organizacional.Innovación mediante la investigación acción, desarrollar un proceso de innovación a través de la investigación-acción. Difusión de aprendizajes, establecer mecanismos de difusión de aprendizajes que apoyen en la construcción de capacidades locales, regionales y nacionales para facilitar procesos de desarrollo de cadenas productivas.Incidencia política, incidir en los organismos del Estado que definen las políticas del sector rural y los donantes, con documentación seleccionada y mecanismos de difusión adaptados a sus necesidades, para la formulación de políticas sectoriales más efectivas para la promoción del desarrollo rural.Mejor uso de recursos, estrechar los vínculos entre agentes de desarrollo, el Estado, investigadores y donantes para lograr un uso más efectivo de los recursos a favor de las poblaciones rurales.Como estrategia de Inter aprendizaje propicia espacios de discusión referidos a temas específicos, sistematización de las experiencias de campo y la investigación-acción. Las instituciones socias lideran una actividad concreta que corresponde a su propio quehacer y lo pone en el marco de la Alianza, garantizando de este modo su ejecución. Si bien en el Perú el crecimiento económico ha contribuido a reducir los niveles de pobreza, el año 2006 el 44.5% de la población aún vivía en condiciones de pobreza a nivel nacional, cifra que alcanzó el 69.3% en el ámbito rural. Sucede que la población pobre es comúnmente excluida de oportunidades equitativas de desarrollo debido a factores sociales y económicos. Este problema se ve agravado por la inexistencia de un marco de políticas de fomento de articulación económica entre empresas y pequeños productores.A esto se suma una casi total ausencia de recursos e instrumentos gestionados de manera integrada para el desarrollo de oportunidades en este segmento de la economía, tales como créditos, seguros y asistencia técnica.La experiencia de los últimos años en América Latina, de la cual ha sido parte el SNV Servicio Holandés de Cooperación al Desarrollo, muestra que la articulación de grandes y medianas empresas con pequeños productores puede generar oportunidades de negocios que implican beneficios económicos para ambos segmentos. Para las grandes y medianas empresas, esto puede representar una oportunidad para tener acceso a materias primas de calidad y con flujos estables. Al mismo tiempo, puede significar una mejora de los ingresos y nuevos empleos que contribuyen a la consolidación y eventual crecimiento de grupos de productores que antes se encontraban en situación de pobreza y exclusión.La articulación empresarial es probablemente el mecanismo sobre el que existe más expectativa como alternativa para combatir la nueva forma de exclusión del mundo moderno: la falta de acceso a los mercados. Este documento analiza, mediante el estudio de casos, las motivaciones de las empresas privadas para acercarse a los pequeños productores: conquistar nuevos mercados, reducir costos fijos y explotar mejor las economías de escala, entre otras, con el consiguiente crecimiento de las empresas que adoptan este sistema. La idea es, en definitiva, que las empresas utilicen las herramientas de la articulación para alcanzar sus objetivos de negocio, acceder a mayores mercados y ser más competitivas.La decisión de utilizar mecanismos de articulación empresarial se basa en coyunturas o estrategias empresariales específicas, como priorizar la diversificación a otros sectores o productos antes que la integración vertical. En función de tales coyunturas y estrategias, las empresas deciden tercerizar -en todo o en parte-sus procesos productivos e incrementar su riesgo operativo al reducir el control que ejercen sobre su producción. Así, los empresarios utilizan de manera flexible la articulación en función de sus necesidades y de acuerdo a las características del sector, producto y mercado en que operan.Los casos que se analizan ponen en evidencia la diversidad de razones que llevan a las empresas a articularse o no con los pequeños productores -diversidad que impide encasillar estas figuras en modelos teóricos rígidos-así como la forma en que se viene aplicando esta herramienta.Como se verá, en algunos casos los pequeños productores rurales no producen con total independencia de la empresa privada: esta interviene directamente en su proceso productivo estableciendo especificaciones, controlando la calidad y hasta capacitando al personal. En otros, la empresa apoya a las organizaciones que agrupan a los pequeños productores y, a través de ellas, promueve mejoras en la eficiencia del proceso productivo; o subcontrata servicios complementarios que luego adapta a dicho proceso. Finalmente, puede simplemente delegar a los acopiadores la interacción con los pequeños productores.Una situación similar se presenta entre los pequeños productores que participan en estas formas de articulación. Cada uno asume un rol en función de sus intereses y objetivos. Algunos aspiran a la posibilidad de crecer como unidades productivas independientes; otros, a la independencia pero contando con un cliente seguro, y un tercer grupo está conformado por los productores que se consideran trabajadores satélites de la empresa.El método de estudio utilizado ha sido el análisis de casos a partir de entrevistas a profundidad. El objetivo fue conocer las variables que permiten, en una cadena productiva, acercar a los pequeños productores a los mercados de manera más directa y estable, mediante alguna modalidad de compromiso con agroindustrias exportadoras u otros agentes privados que intervienen en el mercado; así como identificar y proponer medidas que contribuyan a una mejor articulación en beneficio de los pequeños productores.La articulación empresarial consiste en un acuerdo voluntario y estratégico entre empresas que involucra el intercambio, cooperación o codesarrollo de productos, tecnologías o servicios; y puede ocurrir como resultado de distintas motivaciones y por ello tomar una variedad de formas y manifestarse de forma horizontal o vertical 1 .La articulación empresarial es reconocida por las empresas peruanas analizadas como una estrategia de crecimiento que les permite ganar un espacio para sus productos en el mercado, así como adaptarse a los cambios que en él se producen.Las EP han adaptado el modelo teórico tradicional de subcontratación vertical a lo que hoy se conoce como agricultura por contrato que, en los casos analizados, se extiende a la producción por contrato formal e informal. Estos modelos admiten una intervención directa de las EP en los procesos productivos de los PPR, sin que ello implique la pérdida de la independencia jurídica de los últimos.Algunos elementos que favorecen la articulación son:1. Las facilidades para la organización de la base productiva.2. La presencia de asociaciones que permiten contar con mayores volúmenes de producción y reducir los costos de transacción de las EP.3. La identificación de productores líderes capaces de formar grupos de productores y de responsabilizarse de ellos. 4. El funcionamiento de mecanismos creativos de financiamiento. Resumen 5) El cambio generacional de la titularidad de la tierra, que permite contar con PPR que han recibido mayor educación y que muestran menos rechazo a la posibilidad de establecer acuerdos con las EP.6) La decisión de los PPR, habituados a cultivar productos de panllevar, de empezar a trabajar cultivos de agroexportación.Por otro lado, la mayoría de casos analizados responden a esfuerzos empresariales internos, y en la organización de su base productiva no han participado terceros, salvo los intermediarios. Entre las instituciones de apoyo, los PPR destacan la presencia del Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria (SENASA) como la única entidad del Estado que los acompaña en la lucha contra las plagas. Las municipalidades, en cambio, no se perciben como actores importantes en el desarrollo de las cadenas productivas.Las promoción de la articulación empresarial requiere que se superen las barreras que aún existen para su funcionamiento, principalmente al poco contacto entre la EP y los PPR, la escasa información sobre los mercados para los PPR, la falta de financiamiento de la cadena productiva y el poco conocimiento y capacidad de los PPR para manejar cultivos no tradicionales o promisorios.Entre los factores que podrían contribuir a fomentar las experiencias de articulación y dar lugar a políticas de Estado, destacan la reducción de los costos de transacción, la capacitación de las asociaciones para negociar mejor con las EP y la implementación de sistemas que midan el progreso de los esquemas de articulación en los distintos sectores productivos del país.Los mecanismos de articulación entre la EP y los PPR enfrentan actualmente los siguientes retos:• Lograr que su uso permita el desarrollo empresarial de los PPR.• Fomentar la intervención de las entidades de cooperación y ONG que promuevan el desarrollo empresarial de los PPR.• Incrementar el número de experiencias de articulación vertical en que los PPR estén organizados como asociaciones horizontales.• Fortalecer a las asociaciones horizontales que participan en esquemas de articulación vertical.• Extender el uso de esquemas de financiamiento que incorporen el aporte de las EP y, a la vez, permitan el acceso de los PPR al sistema financiero.1. Objetivos del estudio y aspectos conceptualesEl objetivo general del estudio es reconocer la situación y las variables que permiten, en una cadena productiva, acercar a los pequeños productores en forma más directa y estable a los mercados, a través de alguna modalidad de compromiso con empresas agroindustriales, exportadoras, u otros agentes privados que intervienen en el mercado, identificando y proponiendo las medidas que podrían contribuir a una mejor articulación en beneficio de los pequeños agricultores.Objetivos específicos:1. Identificar los factores que, desde el punto de vista de los agentes del mercado, dificultan la articulación con los pequeños productores, así como las medidas necesarias para resolver tales dificultades. Interesa reconocer las restricciones relativas a mayores costos de transacción, confianza y compromiso, tecnología, escala de volumen, financiamiento, políticas fiscales y valores culturales.2. Reconocer, junto a los agentes de mercado, empresas agroindustriales y exportadoras, las modalidades de apoyo a los pequeños productores rurales tendientes a enfrentar en términos integrales esas restricciones (seguridad de mercado, asistencia técnica, créditos, etc.), que podrían incorporarse a los contratos que celebren con la EP.3. Rescatar y analizar evidencias cuantitativas y cualitativas sobre los cambios a nivel de competitividad, equidad y participación de los pequeños productores que se han articulado con empresas.La estructura productiva del Perú está compuesta principalmente por micro y pequeñas empresas (MYPE), situación que, a decir de algunos autores, podría afectar nuestro potencial de crecimiento a largo plazo. En efecto, para una muestra de 43 países, Rajan y Zingales 2 (1998) encontraron que, durante la década de ochenta, dos tercios del crecimiento económico se debieron al crecimiento de las empresas existentes y solo un tercio al dinamismo de las nuevas unidades que ingresaban al mercado. En otras palabras, más que la creación de nuevas empresas, lo que conviene es el crecimiento de las empresas existentes.En el caso peruano, el tamaño de las unidades empresariales se ha mantenido prácticamente estancado, y es muy poco lo que se ha hecho para explicar esta situación. You 3 (1995) ha encontrado tres grupos de factores determinantes del tamaño de una empresa en la economía y, por ende, de la estructura productiva de un país: economías de escala, costos de transacción 4 y estructura del mercado.2 Rajan y Zingales (1998), \"Financial Dependence and Growth\". The American Economic Review 88: 559: 586.Las economías de escala de la producción junto con las economías de escala en la tecnología de la organización definen el tamaño de la empresa. Existe un tamaño mínimo (crítico) debajo del cual las empresas no deberían operar.Villarán 5 (1998) postula que, en las condiciones actuales, muy pocas MYPE se encuentran listas para encarar un proceso de crecimiento (y mucho menos para internacionalizarse) de manera aislada, debido principalmente a su productividad marginal y a la poca disponibilidad de capital para invertir, situación que se agrava con las limitaciones existentes para el acceso al crédito. Por ello, señala como único camino para el desarrollo de las MYPE la asociatividad empresarial.El caso de las MYPE agrarias 6 es aún más dramático, ya que sus bajos niveles de productividad, escasos ingresos y gran heterogeneidad limitan sus posibilidades de articulación con mercados regionales, nacionales e internacionales; no obstante, son actores claves en los procesos de desarrollo agropecuario, dado que el grueso de las explotaciones corresponde a este segmento.Para centrar el tema de este estudio resulta imprescindible definir el concepto de articulación empresarial. Para Gulati 7 , los fenómenos asociativos pueden estudiarse como alianzas estratégicas entre empresas, que involucran el intercambio, cooperación o codesarrollo de productos, tecnologías o servicios; y que pueden surgir impulsados por una amplia variedad de objetivos y metas de los participantes, por lo que pueden adoptar distintas formas y manifestarse horizontal o verticalmente.En este punto, las preguntas claves son las siguientes: ¿qué motiva a las partes a articularse? ¿Qué determina la forma que adopta esa articulación? ¿Es posible que las experiencias de articulación evolucionen? Con respecto a la primera pregunta, una de las respuestas que surge del propio contexto del mercado es la creciente competencia internacional y la preocupación de las empresas por mantener su liderazgo. Kogut 8 (1988) identificó tres motivaciones que llevan a las partes a unirse: la reducción de los costos de transacción, la mejora de las condiciones de acceso al mercado y el conocimiento o aprendizaje que generan las relaciones articuladas.Los cambios en el funcionamiento de los mercados nacionales e internacionales han dado pie a la proliferación de esquemas de articulación entre EP y PPR, influenciados por la globalización de las economías, la concentración de capitales en determinados mercados agroalimentarios, la liberalización de los mercados que permite el acceso a los canales de distribución internacional, el incremento de la capacidad adquisitiva, las nuevas tendencias de consumo y la mayor preocupación por la salud y la seguridad alimentaria.Con el fin de articularse con los PPR, las EP han adaptado el modelo teórico tradicional de subcontratación vertical, lo que hoy se conoce como agricultura por contrato y que, para efectos de este estudio, se extiende a la producción por contrato (contratos entre productores primarios y procesadores industriales o empresas comerciales). Estos modelos admiten la intervención directa de las EP en los procesos productivos de los PPR, sin que ello signifique la pérdida de la independencia jurídica de estos. Los tipos de contratos que pueden presentarse son tres: compraventa de la producción, acuerdos de aprovisionamiento y contratos de gestión de la producción 9 . La decisión de utilizar uno u otro varía según la influencia que pretende ejercer la EP sobre los PPR a lo largo del proceso productivo y las condiciones del mercado al que se orienta.A pesar de que no existe consenso sobre los factores que contribuyen al éxito de las experiencias de articulación, uno de los aspectos más soslayados se refiere al grado de formalidad que tales experiencias adoptan. En tanto los esquemas de articulación evolucionan, la confianza, esencia de todo acuerdo, va acompañada de vínculos cada vez más complejos que, muchas veces, se traducen en acuerdos que recogen reglas de juego claras, señal de que los esquemas de articulación alcanzan mayores grados de maduración. Como afirma Varamäki 10 (1997), cuando existen más temas de interés en juego entre las partes, se elaboran contratos más formales.Si bien la literatura económica -Robles et ál. 11 , Proexpansión 12 , entre otros-recoge numerosas experiencias exitosas de asociatividad empresarial, existe una insuficiente utilización de sus mecanismos.Cepal, Agricultura de contrato en los países en desarrollo: aspectos teóricos y análisis de algunos ejemplos e México, 1996. Se utilizó la metodología de estudio de casos para conocer la situación y las variables que permiten acercar a los PPR -en forma directa y estable-a los mercados a través de compromisos con las EP.Si bien esta metodología no permite generalizar a partir de los resultados obtenidos, sí facilita el análisis a profundidad. Por ello, el estudio ha tenido especial cuidado en seleccionar casos representativos de la realidad empresarial peruana.Los aspectos comprendidos por la metodología de trabajo se desarrollan a continuación.En tanto se trataba de identificar las variables que facilitan la participación de los PPR en una cadena productiva, el análisis se centró en las empresas que compartían escenarios, incentivos y comportamientos. Se elaboró un mapeo de un grupo representativo de empresas que cumplían los criterios establecidos para el estudio.A continuación, las empresas preseleccionadas fueron evaluadas a la luz de otras variables a fin de identificar la existencia de relaciones de articulación vertical y su sostenibilidad: el tipo de personería jurídica de la empresa, la concentración regional, la diversificación de los productos con que trabaja, la intervención de terceros que apoyan la organización productiva o brindan asistencia técnica, la situación económica (valor de las ventas o valor FOB en millones) y la antigüedad.En nuestro país, las modalidades jurídicas más empleadas son la de persona natural, y en menor grado, las de empresa unipersonal y empresa individual de responsabilidad limitada. Lamentablemente, estas modalidades jurídicas no dotan a las empresas de las herramientas necesarias para enfrentar las demandas de financiamiento y las posibilidades de atraer inversiones como sí lo hace, por ejemplo, la sociedad anónima.Esto explica el porque las empresas con mayor nivel de concentración de valor de venta de exportaciones sean sociedades anónimas, sociedades anónimas cerradas o sociedades de responsabilidad limitada. Por ello se ponderó con mayor puntaje a las empresas constituidas bajo estas modalidades.En el Perú se ha intentado descentralizar, con escaso éxito, sobre la base de diferentes criterios, entre ellos políticos, de producción, de recursos naturales, de análisis de pisos ecológicos, de aspectos geográficos y de accesibilidad.La integración económica, que obedece a las decisiones del mercado, garantiza mayor sostenibilidad porque responde a criterios empresariales.La presencia de una empresa en varias regiones puede indicar diferentes situaciones: la uniformidad o multiplicidad de estrategias de trabajo que deben desarrollarse paramantener una relación eficiente con los clientes (oferta sostenible); la fragmentación de la tierra, que obliga a diversificar sus fuentes de aprovisionamiento para lograr mayores niveles de eficiencia y reducir la dependencia; y la demanda de productos diferenciados con mercados identificados. Por ello, la presencia de las empresas en varias zonas constituyó un criterio de selección, teniendo prioridad aquellas establecidas en el mayor número de regiones.Uno de los cambios que ha llevado al desarrollo de la agricultura en el país es la decisión de darle un enfoque de mercado: se produce lo que se vende. Este mismo esquema de trabajo caracteriza a las transacciones en el mercado internacional, lo que obliga a las empresas a contar con una cartera flexible de productos que les permita aprovechar sus contactos comerciales.Los diferentes pisos ecológicos del Perú posibilitan el desarrollo de diversos productos agrícolas, incluso en una misma área. Esta circunstancia favorece que las empresas exportadoras se relacionen con productores de distintas zonas geográficas. Por tanto, se ponderó con mayor puntaje a las empresas que cuentan con una cartera diversificada de productos.La mayoría de las prácticas de articulación productiva del país son el resultado de la decisión empresarial de contar con una oferta exportable suficiente y sostenible, y de incrementar capacidades sin necesidad de realizar mayores inversiones. Algunas de estas experiencias recibieron el apoyo de ONG y otras entidades, que fortalecieron la capacidad de organización productiva de las empresas en beneficio de toda la cadena. Esta situación fue ponderada para priorizar las experiencias.Dado que en la actualidad no se cuenta con información sobre la cantidad de producción dirigida al mercado interno y al externo, el análisis se ha basado en el valor FOB superior a US$ 500 mil al año. Este criterio permitió identificar empresas que, si bien no alcanzaban tal cifra considerando solo las ventas al exterior, sí lo hacían si se incluían las ventas en el mercado local. La ventaja de este criterio es que permite analizar las exigencias del mercado externo y su influencia en el comportamiento de las EP frente a los PPR.En algunos casos existe distorsión entre los años de antigüedad que realmente tienen las empresas y los que registra la Superintendencia Nacional de Administración Tributaria (SUNAT). Sin embargo, considerar la antigüedad de las empresas como criterio resulta válido por ser indicativo de sostenibilidad en sus relaciones productivas y comerciales.Para la selección se descartaron las empresas de sectores distintos al agrícola y las dedicadas a la producción y comercialización de productos tradicionales. Incalpaca fue incluida debido a la importancia del sector al que pertenece (textil-confecciones) y a la certeza de que trabaja con PPR.Finalmente, se procuró concentrar la selección en un grupo determinado de regiones, considerando como núcleo los casos de las EP relacionadas con PPR.Como resultado de este ejercicio, se seleccionaron nueve casos que incluyen empresas de los sectores agropecuario, textil y confecciones, y comercial (supermercados).La secuencia metodológica permitió advertir algunas particularidades del mercado peruano que será útil tener en cuenta para una mejor comprensión del estudio:• En el sector agroindustrial, la fragmentación de la tierra ha obligado a los empresarios, sobre todo a aquellos vinculados con el mercado exterior, a trabajar con proveedores y a subcontratar la producción de la oferta necesaria. Esto complica la posibilidad de encontrar EP conocidas que no tengan relaciones con PPR y que además cumplan con el requisito de tener ventas mayores a US$ 500 mil. Las EP que no se relacionan con PPR pueden tener un número de hectáreas medio que, sin embargo, no alcanza la cifra de ventas señalada, o ser empresas sumamente grandes que no evidencian la carencia de relaciones con PPR.• En ese mismo sector se presentan productos cuyas particularidades dificultan la posibilidad de encontrar EP que no tengan relaciones con PPR y que cumplan los requisitos establecidos para la selección de los casos.Una vez realizada la selección de las EP, se planificó el levantamiento de la información, que incluyó entrevistas a profundidad tanto a las EP como a los PPR. Se prepararon guías de indagación que permitieron abordar todos los aspectos relacionados con los campos de observación. Se visitaron todas las empresas y a 49 pequeños productores.Para que el levantamiento de la información fuera más eficiente, se estableció una red alrededor de los casos analizados. Inicialmente se entrevistó a los funcionarios de primer nivel de cada EP seleccionada. Posteriormente, estas entrevistas fueron complementadas con otras realizadas a los encargados de las relaciones con los PPR.Como resultado de estas primeras indagaciones se elaboró una lista de PPR con quienes se estableció contacto y que, a su vez, aportaron información sobre PPR que no trabajan con las empresas.Los estudios cualitativos tienen la riqueza de los datos obtenidos y el detalle de las apreciaciones de las personas consultadas. Sin embargo, según a quién se entreviste el contenido puede ser muy general o abundante en detalles, mostrando la verdadera percepción de las partes sobre el funcionamiento de las relaciones entre EP y PPR. El mayor reto en el proceso de sistematización fue descartar lo primero y destacar lo segundo.En la estructura empresarial del Perú, las pequeñas empresas representan el 98% 13 del total de la masa empresarial, y su importancia es aún mayor al revisar su relación con la generación de empleo. El 76% del total de la población ocupada del país trabaja en micro y pequeñas empresas.Por otro lado, algunos autores señalan que este segmento empresarial aporta el 42.1% del PBI. Por su naturaleza, estas empresas son altamente flexibles y se encuentran en todos los sectores y regiones, lo que les otorga un amplio potencial como vehículos para promover un desarrollo descentralizado.La representatividad e importancia de las micro y pequeñas empresas llevan aparejado un problema: la mayoría de unidades económicas son microempresas y 74 de cada 100 MYPE son informales 14 . Por tanto, no existe un estrato intermedio sólido que otorgue fluidez a las relaciones comerciales entre estas microempresas y la gran empresa.El problema se agudiza en las regiones. El 59.2% de las empresas formales se encuentran en Lima y Callao. En provincias, la representatividad de la micro y pequeña empresa llega a sobrepasar el 99.8%, y la proporción de microempresas se incrementa con respecto a los otros estratos. Por ejemplo, en Huancavelica el 100% de las empresas son MYPE. Estas características impiden el aprovechamiento de las economías de escala y el uso de mejores técnicas de gestión. Asimismo, obstaculizan la internacionalización de las MYPE, tendencia en que otros países nos llevan gran ventaja. En efecto, por cada cien dólares exportados, solo dos son generados por las MYPE 15 .Así, la estructura productiva del país muestra una gran desproporción entre la gran cantidad de pequeñas empresas existentes y su reducido aporte a la producción nacional y al valor de las exportaciones: solo el 2% de las empresas -todas ellas medianas y grandes-generan casi el 60% de la producción nacional y el 98% de las exportaciones.Una de las posibles explicaciones de esta reducida competitividad es la falta de articulación empresarial (horizontal y vertical) que limita la capacidad de las MYPE de incrementar su eficiencia a través de la especialización y la subcontratación. La falta de competitividad y de articulación, dentro de la estructura empresarial peruana, impide que los bienes y servicios producidos por la pequeña empresa se dirijan directamente al mercado exportador. Su alternativa es articularse con la gran empresa.El mayor desafío que enfrenta el Perú en cuanto a su inserción competitiva en la economía mundial es adaptar y transformar su tejido empresarial para responder a los cambios en el nuevo escenario comercial internacional y, al mismo tiempo, asegurar un crecimiento de base amplia. La política sectorial debe establecer los criterios que fomenten los procesos de articulación empresarial -tomando en cuenta las tendencias del mercado, 3. Condiciones de contexto para la articulación empresarial en el Perú su entorno y sus límites-así como la producción asociada y la participación de la MYPE en las cadenas exportadoras. En este sentido, son tres los pilares de la política peruana:El Acuerdo Nacional y sus políticas específicas de productividad y competitividad, que abarcan el compromiso de promover las cadenas productivas y los diversos conglomerados con potencial competitivo a nivel nacional, en un proceso de colaboración que incluye a la pequeña y microempresa, a la sociedad civil y a los organismos regionales; así como fomentar la asociatividad empresarial y el desarrollo de proveedores de servicios especializados para consolidar una oferta productiva de exportación.El Plan Nacional de Competitividad que, dentro de sus objetivos estratégicos, incluye la articulación empresarial, cuyo fin es fortalecer las cadenas productivas y los conglomerados para promover el desarrollo regional y local. Para garantizar el cumplimiento de este objetivo, son indispensables una mayor complementación entre los esfuerzos de los agentes públicos, privados y académicos; un mayor nivel de confianza de los empresarios para lograr la ejecución de acciones conjuntas y el intercambio de información y experiencias; y la adopción de procesos productivos innovadores.El Proyecto del Plan Nacional para la Formalización, Competitividad y Desarrollo de la MYPE, presentado a fines del año 2005 por el Ministerio de Trabajo y Promoción del Empleo mediante el Consejo Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Micro y Pequeña Empresa (CODEMYPE). Dentro de los ejes estratégicos de intervención para el desarrollo de las MYPE y los nuevos emprendimientos, el plan recoge los puntos más relevantes para el fomento de la productividad y la competitividad de las MYPE, cuya primera línea de acción es la articulación y la cooperación empresarial. Según estos ejes, las principales acciones para lograr una adecuada y eficiente articulación empresarial son:• Identificar de forma continua las cadenas productivas, conglomerados y programas de fomento de la asociatividad horizontal y vertical.• Desarrollar competencias locales en materia de promoción y facilitación de esquemas asociativos empresariales horizontales y verticales.• Promover la implementación de iniciativas dirigidas al fomento de la asociatividad empresarial.• Promover y difundir entre las microempresas las ventajas y beneficios de la asociatividad.Adicionalmente, estas políticas se vinculan con el objetivo estratégico N° 1 del Plan Estratégico Nacional Exportador (PENX), que consiste en desarrollar cadenas productivas adecuadamente priorizadas y apoyar las iniciativas de asociación entre productores y exportadores.La política sectorial constituye un marco de referencia para el impulso de la articulación empresarial; pero finalmente la dinámica del mercado determina que el concepto de articulación empresarial se reinvente día a día en todos los sectores.Además de este marco general existe un marco promotor de cadenas productivas y un conjunto de instituciones que trabajan a su favor.Los acuerdos de articulación empresarial entre PPR y EP, tanto en la agricultura como en la producción por contrato, no están tipificados en la legislación peruana, lo que significa que se rigen por la voluntad de las partes y las normas establecidas en el Código Civil, en cuanto le sea aplicable. Sin embargo, existen algunas leyes y normas que recogen lineamientos, definiciones y principios para la promoción de los esquemas de articulación empresarial en el país que deben destacarse:Se trata de la Ley para el Fortalecimiento de las Cadenas Productivas y Conglomerados, cuya finalidad es promover el diálogo, la cooperación y la organización empresarial entre los actores económicos y las instituciones públicas, privadas y académicas, en beneficio de la competitividad. Entre sus principales disposiciones se encuentran las siguientes:• Su ámbito de aplicación alcanza a todas las fases productivas, comerciales y de servicios en que intervienen las cadenas productivas y los conglomerados.• Se define como cadena productiva al sistema que agrupa a los actores económicos interrelacionados por el mercado, que participan articuladamente en actividades que generan valor alrededor de un bien o servicio, en las fases de provisión de insumos, producción, conservación, transformación, industrialización, comercialización y consumo final en los mercados internos y externos.• Se define como conglomerado a la concentración de empresas en un espacio geográfico, orientadas a la producción y/o comercialización de bienes o servicios alrededor de un sector o actividad económica principal; que se interrelacionan entre sí, comparten rasgos comunes y una visión de futuro. Asimismo, desarrollan relaciones de cooperación y competencia e interactúan con una serie de agentes importantes para la competitividad nacional, regional y local, así como con instituciones representativas del sector publico, privado y de la sociedad civil.• Todos los programas del sector público nacional, regional y local brindarán apoyo a los actores económicos de las cadenas productivas y de los conglomerados, a cuenta de su presupuesto.• Las entidades públicas promoverán la constitución de fondos concursables para el financiamiento de la elaboración y ejecución de los planes de negocios de los actores económicos en sus diferentes fases de desarrollo.• El Banco Agropecuario financiará preferentemente a los pequeños y medianos productores agropecuarios organizados empresarialmente en el marco de las cadenas productivas y conglomerados, y les otorgará asistencia técnica para el cumplimiento de sus fines.• El Estado reconocerá los compromisos de competitividad que se celebren entre los actores económicos y las entidades públicas. Esta norma establece los lineamientos de políticas de Estado para el desarrollo de la agricultura y la vida rural en el Perú, que se sustentan en el enfoque sistemático de la agricultura, que contiene los conceptos de cadenas agroproductivas, territorios rurales y el entorno que los condiciona; y en el enfoque de desarrollo sostenible, que involucra las dimensiones productiva y comercial, ecológica y ambiental, sociocultural y humana, y política e institucional. • Desarrollar un área y un sistema de producción agroindustrial e industrial eslabonados al eje de integración selva alta de la región norcentroriental.• Promover y desarrollar prioritariamente y de manera integrada diversas empresas, preferentemente pequeñas y micro empresas productoras de bienes de capital, tecnología y de servicios, que contribuyan a consolidar cadenas productivas.• Desarrollar la capacidad empresarial de los productores del parque industrial a través de su incorporación al sistema financiero, capacitación integral y otros.• Apoyar las actividades primarias del sector rural para que se integren a la cadena productiva, incorporando tecnología y gestión empresarial, así como la participación patrimonial de empresas primarias con industria, comercio o servicios empresariales, para dar mayor valor agregado a la producción.Distintos organismos del Estado trabajan, ejecutan y desarrollan proyectos o programas vinculados a la promoción de la articulación empresarial, las cadenas productivas y los conglomerados.El MINAG, a través de la Dirección General de Promoción Agraria (DGPA), tiene a su cargo la promoción y desarrollo de proyectos y programas de cadenas productivas mediante acuerdos con instituciones privadas y públicas. Entre las diversas instituciones que apoyan la labor del MINAG se encuentran los organismos públicos descentralizados, los proyectos y programas.Es el principal proveedor de nuevas tecnologías para el desarrollo de cultivos oriundos del país e innovador en aquellos otros en que la versatilidad de los ecosistemas lo permite, incursionando en el desarrollo de investigaciones tropicales, andinas y costeras.El INIA, a través de la Dirección de Investigación Agraria, realiza actividades para la promoción y desarrollo de alianzas estratégicas que se implementan a través de los Programas Nacionales de Investigación.Se encarga de realizar acciones para el aprovechamiento sostenible de los recursos naturales renovables, cautelar la conservación de la gestión sostenible del medio ambiente rural y la biodiversidad silvestre. Como autoridad nacional, realiza su trabajo en estrecha relación con los gobiernos regionales y locales, la sociedad civil organizada y las instituciones públicas y privadas. Asimismo, busca alianzas estratégicas para el aprovechamiento de los recursos naturales y la institucionalización de las organizaciones de productores agroforestales dentro de las cadenas productivas forestales.Promueve y fortalece la provisión de servicios no financieros para la innovación, que comprenden investigación básica y servicios de extensión a los proyectos de la cadena productiva generadora de valor en el sector agrario.Programa para el Desarrollo de la Amazonía (PROAMAZONÍA)Se dedica al desarrollo de la amazonía con programas y proyectos para la mejora de la agricultura y el medio ambiente. Entre sus planes de acción se encuentra el fortalecimiento de las cadenas productivas de la zona, promoviendo la acción integral del sector público agrario con otros sectores.Su objetivo es fomentar el fortalecimiento y la consolidación de las cadenas productivas concertadas por el MINAG para rentabilizar las obras de acondicionamiento territorial y asegurar la sostenibilidad de las acciones promovidas por la institución, propiciando la intervención privada.Mediante su Dirección de Competitividad, el Ministerio fomenta y apoya la formación y consolidación de cadenas productivas del Subsector Industria a nivel nacional y macrorregional, proponiendo políticas de desarrollo. Asimismo, promueve la suscripción de acuerdos de competitividad que incluyan mecanismos de seguimiento o monitoreo.El Ministerio diseña y elabora un Plan Estratégico Regional de Exportación, impulsando cadenas productivas para ampliar y consolidar mercados.Entre sus lineamientos destaca la promoción de las condiciones para el desarrollo de la articulación empresarial en cadenas productivas y clusters.Los 24 Gobiernos Regionales tienen a su cargo las direcciones sectoriales, que ejecutan programas y proyectos vinculados a la promoción, formación y desarrollo de cadenas productivas para el desarrollo de la región.Un aspecto vinculado con el contexto en que se desenvuelven los mecanismos de articulación está relacionado con el boom exportador que vive nuestro país, que ha impulsado a las EP a buscar mecanismos que les permitan aprovechar los incrementos de demanda del mercado.Se analizaron nueve casos que muestran una gran diversidad de experiencias y visiones de las relaciones de articulación entre EP y PPR que, en general, dependen de las características del mercado en que se desenvuelve la EP, el tipo de producto y el nivel empresarial alcanzado por los PPR. A continuación se describe brevemente la situación de articulación de cada EP: la estrategia, el método y las perspectivas de cada empresa, en el cuadro N° 1 y N° 2 se presenta la información consolida referida a las EP.4.1 Empresas privadas relacionadas con pequeños productores rurales Empresa con trece años de existencia, de capitales daneses y peruanos con tierras propias en La Libertad (1,600 ha), se dedica a la siembra por contrato en dicha región así como en Lambayeque, Ancash, Lima, Junín y Arequipa, relacionándose con productores de todo tamaño. Si bien su estrategia empresarial incluye el trabajo con PPR, la asunción de nuevos retos la ha llevado a comprar tierras para destinarlas a productos de agroexportación.La estrategia de trabajo de la empresa en la costa consiste en relacionarse directamente con los PPR, mediante ingenieros que se encargan de visitar los fundos, supervisores de calidad y jefes de operaciones.Aunque Danper pretendió trabajar con la misma estrategia en la sierra, la empresa encontró problemas como el desconocimiento de los productores, fragmentación de la tierra, dispersión de los fundos, difícil acceso, baja capacidad de los agricultores, escasez de crédito y el relieve accidentado de las tierras, entre otros. Todo ello dificultó su estrategia de intervención.Actualmente la empresa realiza sus operaciones a través de SERVIAGRO, un proveedor de asistencia técnica (PAT) apoyado por CARE Perú. Mediante convenio verbal y sin que medie un contrato formal, Danper compra a Serviagro la producción de los PPR con los que se articula. Serviagro brinda a los PPR asistencia técnica, contrato con precio fijo, equipos de riego y adelantos de insumos a cuenta de la venta final.La empresa, que exporta espárragos desde 1994 y posteriormente incursionó en la comercialización de alcachofas, pimientos y frutas, calcula que el 50% de sus exportaciones proviene de cultivos propios y el otro 50% es provisto por terceros. Su perspectiva es continuar trabajando con PPR hasta un máximo de 60% de aprovisionamiento. Entre los años 1999 y 2000, la empresa y el Ministerio de Agricultura firmaron un convenio de asistencia técnica dirigido a los productores de menestras. Según el convenio, el Ministerio organizó la base productiva de la zona de Olmos, Jayanca y Pacora; y la empresa, por su parte, se comprometió a proporcionarles agua y recoger el producto en la chacra.En el año 2001 la empresa compró terrenos y comenzó a trabajar con acopiadores, debido a que era difícil manejar la parte logística y no contaba con presupuesto suficiente para recoger la producción de los pequeños agricultores. Actualmente, Gandules trabaja con 14 acopiadores formales y a través de ellos, transfiere tecnología a los productores.Los acopiadores son productores con tierras y, en su mayoría, personas allegadas a la empresa (ex trabajadores) con cualidades de liderazgo, confiabilidad y orden. Además de frejol siembran mango, papa, algodón y maíz; en otras palabras, no dedican todas sus tierras a producir para la empresa porque, en ocasiones, el precio baja.La empresa trabaja con tres sistemas:• Siembra por contrato con productores grandes, entre ellos Negociación Agrícola Ayanco (NASA), con 1,100 ha tecnificadas. Otro proveedor es Perales Huancaruna.• 650 ha de tierras propias al 2007, dedicadas al cultivo de productos que si bien requieren mayores conocimientos técnicos, son sumamente rentables.• Alrededor de 200 pequeños productores en diferentes comunidades de Lambayeque, cuyo nivel de rotación se calcula en 30%. La empresa trabaja con PPR ya que estos aseguran el abastecimiento de materia prima y porque así la responsabilidad de la inversión y el riesgo en los campos se comparte, y la relación comercial resultante asegura una buena estructura de costos. La empresa también valora la oportunidad de apoyar a las comunidades productoras. A los pequeños productores les compran frejol de castilla, de palo seco y de palo verde o gandul. Cabe aclarar que el número de productores se puede reducir hasta 30 si se trata de un mal año.Los PPR trabajan con los acopiadores de la empresa porque les pagan un precio mayor al del mercado mayorista de Moshoqueque, aseguran la venta y tienen una buena relación con ellos que, además, les pagan puntualmente y por depósito en cuenta bancaria. Asimismo, ocasionalmente les proveen de semillas, asistencia técnica y recomendaciones que les han permitido mejorar su productividad.No obstante la tendencia a continuar trabajando con PPR dado que la rotación de tierras permite el trabajo en cadenas, la empresa ha previsto la compra de 2,000 a 2,500 ha en La Libertad u otra zona de la costa.Incalpaca es una empresa líder en la producción de prendas de vestir de pelo fino que se articula con pequeños productores en los distintos eslabones de la cadena productiva.La empresa pertenece al Grupo Inca, que engloba a diversas empresas del sector agroindustrial, textil, turismo y de servicios. Cuenta con cinco líneas de producción: telas, tejido de punto, accesorios, confecciones en tejido plano y de pelo fino.La empresa trabaja con PPR desde hace 15 años. Dado que la estacionalidad del negocio no permite tener en planilla a todos los productores con quienes trabaja exclusivamente en temporada alta, se diseñó un sistema de incentivos consistente en la cesión o alquiler de maquinaria, a fin de que estos productores pudieran instalar sus propios talleres y brindar servicios a la empresa en épocas de mayor demanda. Esta situación además coincidió con una coyuntura de mayor rigidez en el régimen laboral.Actualmente, el 5% de la producción de confecciones y el 60% de la producción de chompas provienen de talleres de terceros. Buena parte de ellos pertenecen a ex trabajadores de la empresa que, si bien en su mayoría solo cuentan con estudios secundarios, gozan de experiencia técnica de trabajo en la industria textil. Su personal está conformado por 2 a 20 operarios, según la temporada. Los talleres pequeños producen entre 300 y 500 chompas mensuales, y los medianos pueden producir hasta 10,000.De conformidad con la estructura de trabajo que la empresa ha establecido con los PPR, elige a los talleres según referencias, experiencia, calidad de trabajo y resultados de la inspección de planta. Les pagan puntualmente, les brindan asistencia técnica y económica, califican personal, financian maquinaria y repuestos, y pueden llegar a entregarles hasta el 100% de los insumos necesarios.Los PPR trabajan con la empresa porque obtienen ingresos fijos, el pago es casi al contado, reciben insumos y materiales, les alquilan máquinas o les facilitan créditos para comprarlas, aprenden a trabajar con nuevos tejidos y modelos, conocen las tendencias de la moda y las formas de aplicar lo que producen con estándares de calidad, y aprenden a organizar la producción para atender los pedidos de mayor volumen.Si bien la empresa contempla seguir trabajando con PPR ya que la estacionalidad del negocio se mantiene, actualmente está diseñando un programa de desarrollo de proveedores para introducir algunas mejoras al sistema.Kero se dedica a la transformación y comercialización de productos agropecuarios como la cochinilla y a manufacturas de cuero, para lo cual utiliza materia prima de sus propios fundos y de terceros.Kero PPX es el resultado de la fusión de varias empresas desde 1983. La empresa se dedica a la curtiembre, a la ganadería, a la cochinilla y a la crianza y transformación de avestruces. El objetivo final es crear valor para los productos con que trabaja. No cuenta con una estrategia única para las distintas líneas de producción, esta varía según la naturaleza de cada una de ellas.Pieles de pecarí (sajino). La empresa trabaja permanentemente con acopiadores en las regiones productoras, quienes mantienen contacto con los cazadores de sajinos y trasladan las instrucciones de la empresa sobre la forma de preservar la piel sin maltratarla. La elaboración de guantes está a cargo de trabajadores fijos y confeccionistas externos, en su mayoría mujeres, quienes han sido capacitados para realizar un trabajo de alta calidad.La EP compra el 60% de la cuota peruana de pieles de pecarí, con lo cual los productores cuentan con un mercado seguro para pieles y en consecuencia, nuevos ingresos.Pieles de baby alpaca. Se compran las pieles de alpacas bebé recientemente muertas a causa del frío, labor encargada a un especialista. El aprovisionamiento es estacional y exige llegar a zonas alejadas y de difícil acceso, para lo cual la empresa trabaja con acopiadores que se dedican a visitar productores y ferias, y comprar de acopiadores más pequeños.Pieles de chivos del norte. Se trata de animales de crianza y, dado que la empresa no opera en el norte del país, ha identificado un productor-acopiador que provee de este tipo de piel en calidad y cantidad suficientes.Cochinilla y carmín. La empresa produce el 75% de la cochinilla y carmín que comercializa. El resto lo compra de terceros que acuden a venderle.Todos los productores -de materia prima o de productos intermedios-que actúan como proveedores de la empresa operan como personas naturales. Algunos de ellos se encargan de articular a otros productores y capacitarlos para incrementar la oferta productiva. Estos productores-articuladores se responsabilizan ante la empresa de la calidad del trabajo y del cobro de los servicios.Los PPR trabajan con la empresa directamente o a través de los acopiadores. La perspectiva de Kero es seguir relacionándose con ellos dada la naturaleza de los productos con que trabaja y su orientación a generar valor agregado.La empresa, con 12 años de existencia, cuenta con tierras propias en Ica (100 ha) y en Arequipa (80 ha). Se dedica a la siembra por contrato, para lo cual se relaciona de forma prioritaria con productores de más de 10 ha. Su estrategia empresarial la ha mantenido alejada del trabajo con los PPR, sin embargo como consecuencia de nuevos retos asumidos, MC & M ha vuelto a implementar internamente una estructura orientada a organizar cadenas productivas para productos de agroexportación: pimiento morrón, alcachofa y páprika.El 60 a 70% de sus exportaciones son cultivadas por ellos mismos y la diferencia, por terceros. La empresa preferiría no trabajar con PPR, porque cuentan en promedio con solo 2 ha cada uno, lo que encarece el producto. Sin embargo, la empresa sabe que la tercerización es un factor clave para lograr su crecimiento.MC & M trabaja con dos grupos de productores: los que poseen 1 ha y los que poseen de 2 a 10 ha. Para la empresa, la condición de \"rural\" va más allá del tamaño de la tierra:tiene que ver con el nivel de tecnificación. Muchos PPR pueden tener 10 ha y seguir trabajando como personas naturales con un manejo técnico parcial. En la práctica, la mayoría contrata a terceros para las labores de manejo.La empresa se relaciona con los PPR mediante contratos formales. Los pequeños productores firman letras por los insumos que la empresa les adelanta, que posteriormente son descontados del pago de la producción. La selección de los PPR obedece a un conjunto de criterios aplicados por el supervisor de campo que organiza la cadena: ubicación en la zona de producción, tecnología (riego por aspersión y goteo), estado del fundo cuando son visitados, trato del personal, responsabilidad, seriedad, y referencias de agricultores vecinos que trabajan con ellos.Los PPR trabajan con la empresa porque les brinda asistencia técnica, un contrato con precio fijo, les adelanta insumos a cuenta de la venta final y les ofrece equipos de riego.En la medida que la demanda o los nuevos compromisos empresariales lo exija, la empresa continuará trabajando con PPR.Principal exportadora de mango del país gracias a la cadena productiva que ha fortalecido, que abarca Motupe-Olmos (Chiclayo), Piura y Casma. Actualmente trabaja con 22 asociaciones de productores en Piura, con las que ejecuta, con fondos del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), un proyecto para la certificación orgánica del mango.Sunshine cuenta con más de 21 años en el mercado, y su principal accionista, con más de 40 años de experiencia en el sector agrícola. El negocio central de la empresa es la producción, procesamiento y comercialización de mango. Actualmente está incursionando en otros frutos con el fin de aprovechar mejor su infraestructura.En el año 2006, la empresa comercializó el 22.1% del total de exportaciones de mango fresco del país, correspondiente a US$ 13.1 millones.No obstante la empresa cuenta con tierras propias, ellas solo producen el 10% de lo exportado. El 90% restante es producido por 620 grandes, medianos y pequeños productores de las zonas de Piura, Casma y Lambayeque. Se consideran grandes productores a los que poseen más de 100 ha (10%); medianos, de 20 a 100 ha (20%), y pequeños, menos de 20 ha (70%).La fruta que la empresa procesa proviene de Tambogrande (Piura), Motupe (Lambayeque) y Casma (Ancash). En este último caso, la producción es estacional y se compra en Casma cuando escasea la fruta en las otras regiones o para tener una campaña más larga, ya que en esta zona el mango se cosecha después de que en Piura y Chiclayo.La mayoría de los pequeños productores trabaja con mano de obra familiar. Además del mango, cultivan -aunque en menor proporción-maíz, maracuyá, menestras y palta.De esta forma están en condiciones de enfrentar eventuales retrasos en los pagos. Sunshine promueve el trabajo con asociaciones de productores desde hace más de cuatro años.Aunque la empresa no ha definido criterios para la selección de los productores, cuenta con equipos experimentados que recorren los campos a fin de identificarlos. En los últimos tiempos, Sunshine ha preferido contactar asociaciones y ofrecerles incentivos, como por ejemplo una prima adicional en el precio a partir de cierta cantidad de toneladas. La mayoría de los productores se integran territorialmente y se organizan ya sea por su propio esfuerzo o con la ayuda de la empresa. La idea es fomentar la venta articulada y fortalecer a las organizaciones 17 .Los PPR trabajan con la empresa en el marco de un contrato por campaña que incluye asistencia técnica y precios refugio, que representan una fuente de ingresos fijos. Asimismo, la empresa brinda facilidades para acceder a insumos, otorga apoyo para la conversión a mango orgánico, aplica un sistema de pago por kilo y no por jaba y, en el caso de Motupe, ha diseñado un esquema de financiamiento.Los PPR, por su parte, deben ofrecer un estándar permanente de calidad. El volumen que cada productor entrega se define a lo largo de la campaña. Según esta práctica, al final de la primera floración se evalúa cuánto producirá cada productor; este monto se ajusta en la segunda floración y la empresa realiza la cosecha en las tierras de los productores.Los pagos son a 30 días: a media campaña se paga un adelanto y al final, la cancelación.La empresa tiene en perspectiva seguir trabajando con los PPR y, si bien no se descarta una mayor integración vertical hacia atrás, por ahora tiene otros planes de desarrollo empresarial.La realidad agrícola del país, con un alto nivel de fragmentación de la tierra, obliga a la mayoría de EP a trabajar con PPR, lo que dificultó encontrar EP no relacionadas o que estén dejando de relacionarse con ellos.Esta empresa, perteneciente al Grupo Layconsa, se dedica a la actividad agrícola y cuenta con certificación EUREPGAP. Posee 1,288 ha en la irrigación Majes, de las cuales 1,244 son cultivables: 670 están habilitadas con goteo, 50 con sistema pívot y 350 se encuentran en habilitación. La diferencia está dedicada a caminos y construcción.Pampa Baja no trabaja con PPR porque su intención es poner en valor las tierras que actualmente posee y, en el futuro, comprar nuevas tierras para incrementar el cultivo de productos rentables. No obstante, cuando la empresa necesita completar la demanda de pedidos del exterior, no duda en comprar a los PPR de la zona. No descarta la posibilidad de trabajar más adelante con PPR, en la medida en que desarrolle todas sus tierras y la demanda aumente. Ello requerirá asistencia técnica, transmisión de conocimientos y financiamiento, ya que los pequeños productores carecen de suficiente capital para adquirir tuberías y herramientas que les permitan sembrar bajo el esquema de buenas prácticas agrícolas (BPA).Pampa Baja estaría interesada en trabajar con sus vecinos por dos razones: porque considera importante que quienes trabajan en las zonas aledañas a su fundo tengan la misma posibilidad de producir bajo una certificación de BPA -de lo contrario, su propia zona de certificación podría estar en riesgo-y porque cree en la responsabilidad social.La empresa ha previsto impulsar en el año 2007 un proyecto para organizar de 200 a 250 PPR con tierras cercanas al fundo actualmente desérticas.Como razón social, Tottus se creó en julio del año 2004, aunque desde el 2002 trabajó bajo la denominación Saga Falabella, propiedad de la corporación del mismo nombre, conformada por capitales chilenos. Se vincula principalmente con proveedores medianos, ya que su estructura logística le impide trabajar con PPR.El sistema de compras de Tottus no contempla una plataforma logística que le permita manejar volúmenes de productos en almacén, seleccionarlos y empacarlos. Todos sus proveedores entregan la mercadería en los puntos de venta, y su elección depende de la necesidad del producto. Cuando necesita contar con un nuevo producto busca a los proveedores sobre la base de la especialización, aunque no es un requisito indispensable. Una vez ubicados los candidatos, se realiza una evaluación de calidad y capacidad de tercerización. Si el proceso es exitoso, se emiten las órdenes de compra. Los requisitos básicos que deben cumplir los proveedores -aunque se dan excepciones-se relacionan con la formalidad, documentación, y referencias bancarias y de los clientes.Actualmente, Tottus cuenta con 2,000 empleados, posee un almacén y cuatro locales comerciales ubicados en zonas de clase media de Lima. Se relaciona comercialmente con cerca de mil proveedores.Si bien la política institucional de la empresa no excluye la posibilidad de trabajar con PPR, los responsables directos de las compras manifiestan que no han tenido buenas experiencias con ellos por su falta de tecnificación, calidad y logística. Sin embargo, el problema principal es la rentabilidad: es difícil alcanzar una alta rentabilidad cuando se comercializan pequeñas cantidades de productos. Por otro lado, Tottus es una empresa multiproducto que requiere un abastecimiento garantizado, difícil de obtener de los PPR.Por esa razón, la empresa recurre a los mayoristas.Las condiciones para que Tottus pueda trabajar con un mayor número de PPR son las siguientes: que los productores estén organizados, que manejen una productividad que les permita ofrecer precios competitivos, que su proceso de acopio posibilite manejar una oferta sostenida, que cuenten con mecanismos de envío en forma regular, que sean formales y que tengan capacidad de financiar un capital de trabajo para sostener los períodos de pago de la empresa.Esta empresa de carácter familiar fue creada en 1993 como sociedad anónima. En 1999 se convirtió en sociedad anónima cerrada. Se dedica a la producción, procesamiento y abastecimiento de cítricos (naranja, tangelo, mandarina y toronja). Es uno de los dos proveedores de cítricos del grupo de supermercados e hipermercados Wong.En la costa, Marzala trabaja con productores medianos y grandes (que producen de 80 a  Volumen, calidad, infraestructura, precio y financiamientoNo lo descartan como parte de su política de responsabilidades social y por potencial demanda para planta que quieren construirPago casi al contado, precio según calidadLas motivaciones que llevan a las EP a trabajar en forma articulada con los PPR son diversas y pueden agruparse en tres: razones relacionadas con la variable ingresos, con la estrategia empresarial y con la cultura empresarial.Este grupo está relacionado con un cambio en la demanda, con la forma en que la empresa empieza a operar en el mercado o por los costos que definen la competitividad de sus productos.Variabilidad positiva de la demanda por malas cosechas en otros países o el crecimiento del mercado de determinados productos.Las empresas tienen dos formas de reaccionar ante cambios bruscos o no controlados en la demanda, originados por plagas, siniestros o cambios comerciales: asumir el costo de nuevas inversiones en capacidad instalada o incrementar sus capacidades apoyándose en productores externos que les permitan contar con una oferta productiva mayor y sostenible. Dado que los cambios en la oferta nacional o internacional del producto pueden no ser permanentes, las empresas, por lo menos en un inicio, optan por la segunda alternativa.Lo más importante es tener capacidad de respuesta ante los pedidos de los clientes. En los casos estudiados, los datos sobre las variaciones en las exportaciones peruanas de los años 2000 a 2006 muestran cifras tan sorprendentes, que se pensaría que no hubiera sido posible responder tan rápidamente sin la intervención de los PPR o, por lo menos, que hubiera sido sumamente costoso: variaciones del 98% en el caso de la alcachofa en conserva; del 92.3% en el caso de productos del género capsicum; del 77.2% en guantes; del 60.7% en mango y del 24% en confecciones de alpaca.La globalización y la búsqueda de zonas de producción con mayores ventajas han obligado a muchas empresas a trasladar sus áreas de operaciones a otros países, lo que ha motivado la formación de alianzas con empresas locales.En muchas ocasiones estos compromisos entre empresas locales y extranjeras adoptan la forma de asociaciones en participación. En la mayoría de los casos, las empresas extranjeras aportan el capital para implementar la infraestructura y las empresas locales se encargan de garantizar la oferta productiva. Para atender este tipo de compromisos, las empresas locales incrementan su oferta productiva apoyándose en el trabajo de terceros, como sucede en las cadenas productivas del agro.Cuando una empresa inicia sus operaciones, asume un grado de incertidumbre respecto al éxito del negocio. Una forma de disminuir el riesgo es apoyarse en el trabajo de 5. La percepción de las empresas privadas terceros, proveedores de productos y servicios. Adicionalmente, esto permite dedicar el capital de trabajo a otros aspectos del negocio que pueden convertirse en el core business, como por ejemplo la búsqueda de mercados y el diseño.Constantemente, las empresas buscan maximizar sus ganancias y minimizar las pérdidas ante la alta competencia en precios, la estacionalidad y la frecuente contracción de márgenes en algunos mercados.La tercerización, la subcontratación y el trabajo articulado con cadenas de pequeños productores han demostrado ser buenas opciones para un número creciente de empresas que buscan una mayor eficiencia de sus costos, mejorar su nivel de competitividad, reducir los costos actuales, acceder a recursos o capacidades especiales e incluso apoyar el desarrollo de sus proveedores.Se trata de razones relacionadas con la forma en que las empresas conciben o definen su participación en el mercado.Las empresas enfrentan su propio crecimiento de distintas formas. Una de ellas es la integración vertical hacia adelante y hacia atrás a lo largo de toda la cadena productiva. Sin embargo, se trata de una decisión costosa que exige contar con un buen respaldo de capital y tener asegurado un mercado que permita el retorno de la inversión en un plazo adecuado. Por ello, algunas empresas optan por asumir el control de una parte del proceso productivo y buscar la participación de terceros para el resto.En otras ocasiones, si bien las empresas cuentan con el capital necesario para realizar las inversiones que garanticen su integración vertical, prefieren dedicarlo a otro tipo de inversiones.La agricultura en el Perú se caracteriza por el alto nivel de fragmentación de la tierra y las modernas unidades de agronegocios con tierras que se concentran en cultivos altamente rentables. Estas últimas, cuando se insertan en cadenas productivas menos rentables pero con mercado, acuden a terceros para garantizar el abastecimiento necesario para mantener ese mercado, sobre todo en época de precios altos.La naturaleza del negocio agrícola exige la rotación de cultivos, que permite controlar la erosión y asegurar la productividad de la tierra. Mientras transcurre la rotación (por lo menos tres años), la empresa busca alternativas de aprovisionamiento para garantizar el cumplimiento de los compromisos contraídos en el mercado local o internacional.Estas razones se relacionan con la visión que la empresa tiene de sí misma como actor económico de una comunidad. En algunos casos, las EP desean proyectar parte del impacto positivo de su negocio hacia la comunidad, lo que valida su presencia y les garantiza retornos a nivel de paz social. Cada vez más, las empresas toman conciencia de que serán más sostenibles en la medida que se desenvuelvan en comunidades que crezcan a su mismo ritmo.La otra cara de la moneda son las EP que prefieren no trabajar con PPR. Las razones que justifican este tipo de decisión tienen una doble naturaleza: la visión estratégica de la empresa y las escasas capacidades que las EP atribuyen a los PPR, que pueden generar costos adicionales que no están dispuestos a asumir.En el agro, como en otros sectores manufactureros, las empresas optan por realizar parte o todas las etapas del proceso productivo. Pueden elegir diseñar, producir, abastecer a otras y comercializar; o pueden encargarse solamente de procesar y comercializar, dejando en manos de terceros la responsabilidad de la producción.En el Perú existen empresas que conciben su crecimiento en forma integrada hacia adelante y hacia atrás; es decir, prefieren enfrentar su posición en el mercado con sus propias capacidades, lo que exige disponer del capital suficiente. Algunos de los casos analizados evidencian el interés en adquirir tierras para contar con una mayor oferta exportable en función de sus propios recursos.El trabajo con PPR exige contar con capacidades internas para poder organizar la base productiva, es decir, fortalecer cadenas, capacitar, asistir y supervisar. Esto supone crear estructuras en las EP, con supervisores de campo especializados en identificar PPR y establecer alianzas con ellos. Si una empresa no tiene la capacidad de absorber estos costos, debe buscar mecanismos alternativos, como trabajar con acopiadores; formar grupos de productores a cargo de un productor-acopiador con liderazgo; o establecer incentivos para que se formen asociaciones que permitan que los procesos de negociación sean menos onerosos.Otras empresas no están dispuestas a asumir estos costos, y prefieren establecer relaciones con productores de mayor tamaño.Una constante en la mayoría de los PPR entrevistados es que tienen un bajo nivel educativo (primaria completa) y que su conocimiento de la actividad es más bien empírico, circunstancias que limitan su capacidad de asumir nuevos retos. Asimismo, las EP señalan que los PPR no se adaptan al cumplimiento de las indicaciones técnicas que permiten garantizar determinados estándares de calidad.Este aspecto es sumamente importante, porque uno de los factores que impulsan el desarrollo del agro es precisamente el conocimiento y las habilidades de los agricultores, que permiten incrementar la productividad y alcanzar la calidad requerida.La naturaleza de los negocios exige que las relaciones de aprovisionamiento que establecen las EP se adapten a las exigencias de calidad, distribución, trazabilidad y precio del mercado en que se desenvuelven. Las EP que no trabajan con PPR señalan que muchas veces estos no tienen la capacidad productiva ni de servicio necesaria para actuar como sus proveedores.Este aspecto se relaciona, indiscutiblemente, con el tamaño de las unidades. Los pequeños productores cuentan con pequeñas unidades productivas (de hasta 5 ha) cuyos niveles de productividad son bajos, lo que les dificulta atender a mercados que exigen demandas de tamaño considerable. Esto desincentiva a las EP, que señalan que la única forma de revertir esta situación sería mediante terceros que apoyen la organización de la base productiva y aseguren el cumplimiento de estándares de calidad.Otro inconveniente vinculado al tamaño de los PPR es su limitado acceso al financiamiento, lo que les impide mantener sus cultivos durante los períodos de pago que algunas veces establecen las EP.Las organizaciones de productores con mejor capacidad de negociación exigen mayores requisitos para trabajar con las EP. Ello determina que, en algunos casos, las empresas prefieran establecer relaciones directas con cada PPR o promover la competencia entre ellos para evitar que se formen agrupaciones o sindicatos de proveedores fuertes.Algunas ventajas motivan a los PPR a articularse con las EP, siendo la más recurrente la garantía de una demanda estable.En la mayoría de los casos analizados resultó evidente que la principal limitación de los PPR se encuentra en el eslabón de la comercialización. Muchos de ellos saben producir y tienen experiencia, pero no saben cómo acceder al mercado y, en algunos casos, producen de espaldas a este. Una de las razones más importantes por la que los PPR se relacionan con las EP, es la posibilidad de acceder a un mercado seguro, de tener un comprador para sus productos y, mejor aún, si ese comprador se ha comprometido al pago de un precio fijo.Adicionalmente, los PPR perciben que su relación con una EP garantiza su acceso a una escala de mercado que les permite sentirse parte de una estructura empresarial de mayor tamaño, con más estabilidad y proyección de negocios futuros.La relación con una EP que tiene una intención específica de compra permite a los PPR el manejo de nuevos cultivos, un oficio nuevo o el desarrollo de nuevos diseños.Dado el bajo nivel educativo de los PPR, una de las principales barreras que enfrentan para lograr el crecimiento de sus unidades productivas es la falta de información o de capacidad para desarrollar nuevas opciones de negocio, trabajar con cultivos más rentables e identificar técnicas que les permitan obtener un mayor nivel de productividad.Por esta razón, las EP diseñan mecanismos que les permiten transferir el conocimiento necesario para que los PPR produzcan bajo las características y estándares que el mercado requiere. Uno de estos mecanismos es la asistencia técnica que se brinda a través de supervisores de campo, ingenieros, técnicos y acopiadores. Otro mecanismo son las órdenes de servicio o especificaciones técnicas que se entregan a cada productor para la elaboración de determinado producto; en ellas se precisan todos los detalles de la producción y los tipos de controles que se deben realizar.El acceso al conocimiento es una de las variables más valoradas por los PPR que se relacionan con las EP, porque les ha permitido migrar de cultivos de panllevar a cultivos de agroexportación, al punto que los PPR más experimentados afirman que si su relación con la EP terminara, podrían conseguir fácilmente nuevos clientes.Las relaciones más estables entre PPR y EP están respaldadas por acuerdos formales que fijan los deberes y obligaciones de cada una de las partes. En algunos de estos contratos 6. La percepción de los pequeños productores rurales articulación de ambos. Sin embargo, los PPR que no han tenido este tipo de relaciones con la EP, tienen que aprender que un hilo suelto puede tener como consecuencia un descuento en el precio.Una situación similar se ha presentado en los casos vinculados con la agroexportación, en que los PPR han debido aprender las labores culturales de los nuevos cultivos y a seguir instrucciones para abonar, dar mantenimiento, cosechar productos de determinado calibre, etc.Al igual que en el caso de las EP, existen razones por las cuales los PPR no trabajan con las empresas.Uno de los obstáculos más importantes que enfrentan los PPR es la falta de información sobre aquellas EP que están interesadas en trabajar con ellos. No saben cómo establecer contacto y no existen mecanismos que faciliten el encuentro de ambas partes.Por otro lado, la distancia y las dificultades para acceder a los fundos de los PPR determinan que muchas veces estos sean contactados por acopiadores y no directamente por las EP.Finalmente, algunos PPR no saben cómo negociar con las EP, qué pedirles, cómo deben ser los contratos y cómo definir los precios, entre otros aspectos.Entre los PPR que prefieren no trabajar con las EP, destacan los que afirman que los márgenes de ganancia en estas relaciones son muy bajos. Para ellos, las EP siempre empujan los precios hacia abajo, incluso con contratos de por medio, y deciden el precio de mercado.proponen, como alternativa para promover las relaciones con las EP, que contraten con ellos el diseño y la producción de las prendas y no solo el servicio de confección.Algunos PPR refirieron que el tamaño de sus unidades productivas y sus bajos niveles de productividad limitan sus posibilidades de acumular una oferta atractiva para las EP. Por esta razón, resulta más conveniente para los PPR comercializar sus productos directamente a través de acopiadores y mercados mayoristas, además consideran que ganan más vendiendo al público final que a una EP.Otra de las razones por la que los PPR prefieren no trabajar con las EP es que no perciben que este tipo de relaciones les generen un mayor valor agregado respecto a la alternativa de trabajar con acopiadores o compradores eventuales.Para muchos de ellos, los beneficios que ofrecen las EP no son reales: las semillas que entregan no son seleccionadas (podrían haber sido recogidas de sus propios fundos), la asistencia técnica no les aporta mayor conocimiento del que ya tienen, etc.Otro factor determinante para que los PPR decidan no trabajar con las EP, es la tendencia de crecimiento de la demanda del cultivo o producto. En tanto que para muchos PPR empezar a trabajar con las EP supone reorientar la producción de ciertos cultivos o productos, la decisión tiene que estar sustentada en un potencial crecimiento del mercado de esos productos. Si la tendencia es positiva, es mayor el incentivo para establecer relaciones de largo plazo; pero si esto no es así, los PPR consideran más conveniente mantener su independencia para definir qué siembran y no comprometer la liquidez que tienen asegurada con los cultivos tradicionales (alfalfa para la crianza de ganado, maíz, etc.).Otro aspecto que desincentiva a los PPR a trabajar con las EP, consiste en la poca seriedad mostrada por algunas empresas respecto a las cantidades proyectadas de compra, circunstancia que se agrava cuando no existen contratos formales. Este tipo de situación afecta seriamente a los PPR, que se ven obligados a vender su producción en los mercados mayoristas, con el perjuicio en el precio y con el riesgo de no colocar toda su producción.Un problema adicional es que no existen centrales de riesgo que permitan a los PPR contar con información y referencias de las EP que les ofrecen contratos de compra. Algunos de los PPR han tenido malas experiencias con EP que incluso les han adelantado dinero para la siembra, han recibido parte de la producción y luego han desaparecido sin cumplir cabalmente lo acordado.Una de las razones más recurrentes que esgrimen los PPR para no trabajar con EP, es la demora en el pago. Dada la debilidad financiera y de gestión que caracteriza a los PPR, muchos de ellos no tienen la capacidad de mantener sus cultivos si no media un pago al contado por su producción. Desde su perspectiva, las EP deberían pagar al contado y en todo caso, si en el mercado internacional los pagos no se realizan así, deberían ser las empresas que busquen financiamiento para el capital de trabajo.Algunos PPR reconocen que su débil situación financiera los hace vulnerables frente a los acopiadores que, en ocasiones, les adelantan dinero para la siembra y luego quieren pagar precios por debajo del mercado.En el cuadro N° 3 y N° 4 se presenta la información consolidada de los PPR que se articulan o no con EP.Se produce en el marco de la ejecución de los contratos, pero no privilegia el fortalecimiento de habilidades empresarialesReciben supervisión de la empresaVentajas recibidas de EP Ingresos, asistencia técnica, buen precioEn la mayoría de los casos estudiados no se ha dado una intervención decisiva de terceros que impulsen los esquemas de articulación, excepto en los casos de Sunshine y Danper.Sunshine aplica una estrategia de trabajo distinta en cada región. En Lambayeque, a diferencia de Piura, la empresa cuenta con la importante presencia y apoyo del CICAP. Una situación similar se presenta en el trabajo de Danper en Ancash donde, a diferencia de la experiencia costeña, trabaja con la cadena desarrollada por CARE Perú: se compra la alcachofa a los PPR que participaron en el programa de dicha institución, asistidos por el Programa de Asistencia Técnica (PAT), (SERVIAGRO) tanto para la producción como para la comercialización.La intervención de terceros puede darse en alguna de las etapas de desarrollo de la experiencia de articulación entre la EP y los PPR, y su naturaleza depende de las necesidades de cada una de ellas.Los actores (además de las EP y los PPR organizados) que se encontraron a lo largo del análisis de los casos son diversos, y se ubican tanto en el Sector Público como en el privado.La presencia del Estado es casi imperceptible en los casos analizados, salvo por el Ministerio de Agricultura, el SENASA y las municipalidades de Tambogrande y de Independencia. Su presencia se manifiesta a través de las EP o de los PPR.El MINAG celebró un convenio con la empresa Gandules entre los años 1999 y 2000 para brindar asistencia técnica a los productores de menestras. En virtud de este convenio, el Ministerio se encargó de organizar la base productiva. La asistencia técnica se realizó en las zonas de Olmos, Jayanca y Pacora. Por medio de los contratos celebrados con los PPR, la empresa les proporcionaba agua y recogía el producto en chacra. Sin embargo, en el año 2001 la empresa decidió comprar terrenos y trabajar con acopiadores, debido 7. Participación de terceros en los procesos de articulación a que no contaba con presupuesto para recoger la producción.El SENASA brindó a los PPR apoyo permanente en la lucha contra la alternaria (hongo presente en la mosca de la fruta) y otras plagas.Municipalidad de Tambogrande. Los PPR de mango que no trabajan con la empresa Sunshine recibieron el apoyo del programa de la Casa del Agricultor de la Municipalidad para aprender a cultivar mango orgánico. Municipalidad de Independencia. Los PPR de alcachofa que trabajan con la empresa Danper recibieron el apoyo de la Municipalidad de Independencia (Ancash) cuando comenzaban su experiencia con dicho producto. Este apoyo consistió en la creación de un fondo de garantía con el respaldo de la Caja Rural Credichavín y el aporte de la Minera Barrick, y benefició a los PPR de alcachofa, avena forrajera y a los criadores de cuyes, que contaron con el apoyo de CARE Perú.En el año 2002 la ONG CICAP apoyó el establecimiento de relaciones de trabajo entre algunos PPR asociados de Motupe y Sunshine. Estas relaciones comenzaron cuando Sunshine ofreció créditos a los PPR y estos no los aceptaron, porque consideraron que afectaría el precio final de compra de la producción. Con la intermediación del CICAP, reconocido por los PPR como actor de la cadena, se diseñó un mecanismo de financiamiento ad hoc, en el que participaron la Caja Rural de Sipán y el propio CICAP como proveedores de fondos, apoyados por el SNV y Sunshine. El CICAP es accionista de la Caja Rural de Sipán, entidad que administra el esquema de financiamiento para los productores.CARE Perú trabaja en el país desde 1970, y desde el año 2003 desarrolla en Ancash el programa denominado Redes de Seguridad Alimentaria (REDESA), en cuyo marco se empezó a organizar la cadena de la alcachofa en esta zona del país. CARE apoyó la incorporación de los proveedores de asistencia técnica (PAT), que actúan como empresas independientes y que actualmente ofrecen servicios de asistencia técnica y acopio de la producción que luego se vende a EP como Danper.Caja Sur. Los PPR que trabajan con la empresa MC & M en El Pedregal (Arequipa) se relacionan con Caja Sur, dado que la empresa Gloria, que les compra leche, les paga a través de esa entidad de microfinanzas. Por tanto, no se trata de una intervención que resulte del esquema de articulación planteado por MC & M, sino que obedece a una experiencia anterior de trabajo con otra EP.Proyecto de Reducción y Alivio a la Pobreza (PRA). En el año 2004, Marzala y el PRA brindaron asistencia técnica a los PPR para desarrollar nuevos productos, encargando su comercialización a Cáritas (organismo de la Iglesia Católica). El resultado fue negativo porque, en este caso, se constató que no basta capacitar al pequeño agricultor en aspectos agrícolas, sino que es necesario brindarle una capacitación integral.Empresas dedicadas a la venta de agroquímicos. Estas empresas han desempeñado un rol sumamente importante para los PPR no articulados a EP. Para los productores de cochinilla de La Joya (Arequipa), estas empresas han actuado como proveedores de asistencia técnica sobre el manejo del cultivo, e incluso les han enseñado técnicas de infestación de cochinilla para obtener mejores niveles de productividad.Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID). El Banco y la empresa Sunshine tienen a su cargo un proyecto de mango orgánico cuya finalidad es lograr la certificación de 22 asociaciones de productores que actualmente trabajan con la empresa, que asume el compromiso de comprar la producción de mango certificado. El convenio incluye tres años de capacitación en distintas materias vinculadas con la producción orgánica.Una de las preocupaciones del estudio fue identificar los cambios que se han producido en los PPR a nivel de competitividad y de equidad como resultado de su interacción con las EP.La asistencia técnica que prestaron -directa o indirectamente-las EP a los PPR en el marco de los contratos de siembra o de producción, trajo como consecuencia una mejora en los niveles de productividad de los últimos. Las referencias cuantitativas varían en función del tamaño del productor y del tiempo que lleva produciendo.Así, en cuanto al mango, producto que permite observar mejor la incidencia de la intervención de las EP, el productor más pequeño pasó de 6 a 8 TM/ha y el promedio de productores medianos, de 10 a 12 TM/ha. En el caso de Danper, la productividad de los PPR con que trabajaban era de 2,000 a 2,300 docenas alcachofas por hectárea en cada campaña y, actualmente, superan las 3,000 docenas.Los trabajadores de los talleres de Incalpaca perciben que ahora confeccionan más chompas diarias o mensuales que antes, aún con los modelos más complicados. Sin embargo, dado el alto nivel de rotación del personal, es difícil mantener el nivel de productividad estable.En cuanto a este indicador, resulta difícil establecer claramente cómo se han visto beneficiados los PPR por dos razones principales: (i) la variación de los precios internacionales, que afecta el precio fijado por las EP y, por tanto, el retorno que obtienen los PPR y (ii) la permanente discusión entre los PPR, las EP y los PAT, en torno al precio de compra que, a decir de los PPR, podría ser mejor.Sin embargo, en algunos casos los PPR manifestaron haber percibido una mejora en la rentabilidad debido al reemplazo de los cultivos de panllevar por los de agroexportación.Los productores tuvieron dificultades para establecer el impacto económico directo resultante de las relaciones con las EP. No obstante, destacaron algunos cambios en el gasto familiar que sugieren mayores ingresos:Educación, han manifestado haber tenido la posibilidad de matricular a sus hijos en colegios privados y de comprar todos los útiles escolares solicitados.Inversión, algunos productores han podido comprar equipos y maquinarias.Compra o alquiler de tierras, la posibilidad de comprar o alquilar tierras ha permitido 8. Cambios en el nivel de competitividad y en la equidad de los pequeños productores rurales a los productores diversificar sus cultivos para ser vendidos a las diferentes EP.Alimentación, algunos productores han manifestado que la alimentación de la familia ha mejorado.Todos los PPR reconocieron el incremento de sus capacidades como consecuencia de la relación con las EP mediante distintos mecanismos:• Capacitación sobre cultivos. Algunos agricultores que sembraban productos de panllevar han sido capacitados en los cultivos de exportación requeridos por las EP. Esta capacitación ha estado a cargo de entidades como CARE Perú y SERVIAGRO.• Visitas de supervisores de campo. Algunos productores resaltan la importancia de las visitas de los supervisores de campo enviados por las EP. También destacan el apoyo que en todo momento ha recibido de entidades como CARE Perú y SERVIAGRO.• Asistencia técnica focalizada. En muchos casos, las EP han brindado asistencia técnica a los productores en torno al cultivo que les compran.• Especificaciones técnicas para la confección de prendas. En este rubro, algunas empresas entregan a los PPR fichas con las especificaciones del modelo que van a confeccionar. En función a dichas fichas se realiza posteriormente el control de calidad.• Control de calidad a lo largo del proceso productivo. Algunos de los productores destacan el control de la calidad de sus productos a cargo de la EP.En general, los PPR han mantenido el personal permanente que tenían antes de trabajar con las EP y según las características de la actividad, ha aumentado la necesidad de mano de obra eventual durante las labores de mantenimiento o cosecha.En algunos de los casos analizados se ha podido apreciar que los PPR están en mejor posición para negociar con las EP debido, principalmente, a la experiencia acumulada. Asimismo, existen PPR que se relacionan con más de una EP al mismo tiempo, lo que favorece su articulación con nuevas empresas interesadas en trabajar con ellos o con los grupos que conforman.No existe suficiente información que permita afirmar que se han dado cambios generalizados en la distribución de riesgo. Existen casos de PPR en el sector agrario y de confecciones en que el riesgo es asumido íntegramente por ellos. No obstante, en las experiencias de siembra por contrato con precios refugio, este ha servido para reducir el impacto de la volatilidad del precio por situaciones externas.Los PPR que trabajan directamente con EP pueden acceder a los recursos que provee la empresa para la producción tales como semillas, fertilizantes, asistencia técnica o materiales para la confección de prendas de vestir o para la costura de guantes de cuero, ya sea directamente o a través de los intermediariosSon pocas las experiencias en que los PPR se han favorecido con un mejor acceso a los servicios financieros. La mayoría de PPR que compraron casa, tierras y realizaron inversiones ha sido mediante préstamos con garantías personales y de terceros.Son excepciones los PPR de Majes vinculados con la empresa Gloria y el caso de Sunshine en Motupe con la partiicpación de la Caja Sipán y del CICAP.Los sistemas de pago también contemplan modalidades de entregas parciales a los PPR hasta que se realice el pago final. Finalmente, se debe destacar la experiencia de los productores de alcachofa de Ancash donde algunos de ellos participaron en un sistema de financiamiento liderado por la Municipalidad de Independencia.Las experiencias que evidencian una mejora en la capacidad de negociación de los PPR, son aquellas en que se han formado grupos o asociaciones para incrementar el volumen de aprovisionamiento a las EP. Tal es el caso de Sunshine en Piura y, de forma más incipiente, en Motupe (Lambayeque), así como de algunas asociaciones de la Central de Productores de Mango (CEPROMAN).Una situación similar se presenta en Agroexportadora Majes S.A. en El Pedregal (Arequipa), donde los productores están reconvirtiendo progresivamente sus cultivos y han articulado 75 ha para la producción de alcachofa, producción negociada conjuntamente con las EP.La sola relación entre PPR y EP no ha reducido el nivel de vulnerabilidad de los PPR analizados, que no se refiere al tamaño de las unidades productivas sino a su grado de del mercado, estándares internacionales, importancia del diseño, controles de calidad, rentabilidad de nuevos cultivos, importancia de la articulación de la oferta productiva, como la experiencia de negociar condiciones de contratación con una EP, constituyen un capital intangible muy apreciado por los PPR.Por otro lado, si bien los PPR podrían haberse beneficiado con la posibilidad de convertirse en sujetos de crédito, los estudios de las propias EP sobre los mecanismos de financiamiento demuestran que no han incrementado sus posibilidades de acceso al crédito, en parte porque ellas han habilitado los recursos necesarios para la producción. El caso de Sunshine y el de alcachofa en Ancash constituyen dos excepciones que merecen ser destacadas.Los PPR y las EP obtienen diversos beneficios de la articulación. En este campo, la balanza se inclina a favor de las EP, que han logrado mejorar su acceso a los mercados nacionales e internacionales y participar en acuerdos empresariales para mejorar su nivel de competitividad internacional. Dos ejemplos son el aporte de capital del Fondo Trasandino Perú en Sunshine y la participación de socios extranjeros en la propiedad de la empresa textil Incalpaca.En el otro extremo están los PPR cuyos ingresos, en la mayoría de los casos, dependen de las EP. Los pequeños productores, que en gran medida operan como personas naturales con negocio y carecen de perspectivas de convertirse en empresas en el corto plazo, enfrentan muchas dificultades para diversificar sus ingresos y desarrollar productos propios que les permitan un mayor desarrollo empresarial. Esta circunstancia, sumada a su limitada capacidad de gestión, permite concluir que los PPR mantienen un alto nivel de vulnerabilidad como actores en el mercado.Motivaciones de la articulación empresarialLas prácticas de articulación empresarial tienen múltiples motivaciones aunque, por lo general, están vinculadas con un solo objetivo: facilitar el crecimiento empresarial asociado con el acceso a nuevos mercados.La articulación se reduce a un conjunto de transacciones debido a que no existen mecanismos de subsidios o de incentivos específicos que fomenten la articulación empresarial y que induzcan a las grandes empresas a recurrir a esta práctica, así como a transmitir conocimientos a las unidades productivas con que se articulan.¿Cómo se realizan estas transacciones? ¿Bajo qué modalidades? ¿Bajo qué condiciones? ¿En qué plazos? ¿Entre quiénes? Las respuestas a estas preguntas dependen del entorno en que se planteen. La razón es muy simple: según el sector en que se opere, la región donde las transacciones tengan lugar e incluso el país donde los lazos asociativos se tiendan, las características de las prácticas de articulación cambiarán, hasta el punto de confundirse con prácticas afines pero distintas de la subcontratación.Esta es precisamente la primera gran reflexión que sugiere el análisis de los casos presentados. La heterogeneidad de las prácticas de articulación, sus usos y sus formas, son el reflejo de un esfuerzo por adaptar este mecanismo a las realidades sectoriales, regionales y nacionales, siempre con el claro objetivo de crecer y acceder a nuevos mercados.Las principales trabas que enfrentan los procesos asociativos tienen raíces institucionales cuyo control escapa a las empresas participantes en estos procesos, ya sean grandes o pequeñas.Un sistema de articulación en que las partes saben que la palabra empeñada no se mantiene y que los contratos -verbales o escritos-no se cumplen, está condenado al fracaso. Así, haber pasado por una mala experiencia puede determinar si se confía o no en la articulación; la condición de la firma de una letra por parte de los PPR por los insumos que reciben constituye un indicador de poca confianza en la relación; y la decisión de trabajar con asociaciones y no con productores individuales puede pretender reducir el riesgo de incumplimiento de los contratos de producción vía mecanismos de control social más efectivos que los legalmente previstos.Como consecuencia de lo anterior, la articulación empresarial en el país se desarrolla en el marco de las presiones de corto plazo que enfrentan las empresas. Pareciera que la consigna fuera no dejar pasar el tren del crecimiento y la exportación, para lo cual se recurre a todos los mecanismos que les permitan participar activamente en este boom, aún de manera desordenada y carente de visión.Responsabilidad social no prevista desde un primer momento La responsabilidad social que se aprecia en algunos de los casos analizados es más una consecuencia natural de esquemas exitosos de articulación que un objetivo buscado por las empresas. Únicamente en el caso de la alcachofa en Ancash, la empresa Danper planteó desde un inicio trabajar con productores porque deseaban apoyar la lucha contra la pobreza.Participación restringida de las micro y pequeñas empresas en el mercadoLas micro y pequeñas empresas que consiguen trabajar con esquemas como los analizados en el presente estudio lo hacen bajo condiciones que, en ocasiones, restringen drásticamente sus posibilidades de acceder directamente a nuevos mercados.Así, los contratos o pactos de exclusividad explícitos o implícitos, son una práctica común, en la cual la articulación empresarial ve reducido su potencial para incrementar la sostenibilidad e independencia financiera de las micro y pequeñas empresas.Esta circunstancia se hace evidente cuando los PPR se relacionan directamente con un acopiador o un proveedor de asistencia técnica (PAT). En tales casos, los PPR ni siquiera ganan experiencia en relacionarse y negociar con la EP y, más bien, se acentúa la dependencia de ese tercero para articularse con el mercado.Aún existe mucho por avanzar en la tarea de promover los mecanismos de articulación empresarial a fin de extender los beneficios de la globalización y del libre comercio a los segmentos empresariales todavía excluidos y de otorgar a las grandes empresas posibilidades reales, viables y de bajo riesgo para expandir su producción, rentabilizar su know how y, así, crecer y generar mayores excedentes.Empresas que apuestan por un trabajo directo con los pequeños productores ruralesEn la mayoría de los casos analizados, la demanda del mercado obliga a las empresas a fortalecer cadenas productivas. Para ello, deben crear estructuras internas que les permitan manejarlas: profesionales encargados de organizar la base productiva, equipos de supervisores técnicos, equipos de expertos en control de calidad in house y externos, etc.Una vez que las empresas ganan experiencia con los PPR, suelen involucrarlos en la organización de grupos de trabajo que les permitan incrementar los volúmenes de producción. Por ejemplo, una EP puede encargarle a un PPR que conoce el sistema de trabajo, que se responsabilice de un grupo de cinco PPR que recién comienzan con el cultivo.Empresas que prefieren el trabajo con asociaciones de productores La justificación de esta estrategia es que se reducen los costos de negociación, se incrementan los volúmenes de compra y se minimiza el riesgo de incumplimiento. En efecto, esta forma de articulación tiene la ventaja de permitir mejoras en la producción gracias a que existe el compromiso de las asociaciones. Como contraparte, las EP establecen incentivos económicos por volumen, impulsan proyectos para lograr la certificación de sus campos, etc.Empresas que tercerizan el manejo de las relaciones con acopiadores o con proveedores de asistencia técnica La figura del acopiador o intermediario está presente en varias de las experiencias analizadas en este estudio como un actor que reduce las barreras institucionales de los mercados en que operan las empresas.Las empresas justifican la participación de los acopiadores porque reducen los costos que ellas tendrían que asumir: traslados para buscar productores o acopiadores de menor tamaño, costos de transacción por negociar con un número más amplio de actores, cercanía a las zonas de producción, conocimiento de los actores, especialización, interés solo en la producción y no en desarrollar una cadena, etc. Debe resaltarse que muchas empresas buscan como acopiadores a sus ex trabajadores, cuyo conocimiento de la actividad y liderazgo les pueden garantizar un proceso de organización de la base productiva más sencillo a partir de relaciones de confianza (familiares, amigos, vecinos). Este rasgo evidencia que muchas veces las empresas se involucran en esquemas de articulación sin haberlo previsto.En los casos en que se cuenta con la figura del acopiador o con los proveedores de asistencia técnica (PAT), se observa que su función no solo abarca la articulación de la oferta, sino también asistencia técnica, aprovisionamiento de semillas y hasta financiamiento directo o por cuenta de la empresa.El siguiente esquema muestra las diferentes formas como la EP se relaciona con los PPR.Las empresas adaptan la figura de la articulación empresarial a sus necesidades. Así, los esquemas de articulación pueden incluir aportes de recursos materiales y humanos, especificaciones técnicas, sistemas de trabajo, plazos de entrega e incluso controles de la calidad del proceso productivo, dependiendo del sector en que se desenvuelven o del producto.Cada vez que una EP reinventa la forma en que usa la articulación empresarial para crecer, se aleja o se acerca a la definición tradicional de subcontratación 18 , según la cual el productor o empresa subcontratada se compromete a la producción de bienes intermedios, partes o partidas completas o a la prestación de determinados servicios con sus propios recursos financieros, materiales y humanos. La empresa que hace el encargo no se involucra en el proceso del productor subcontratado.En los casos estudiados, más que relaciones de subcontratación vertical, se encuentran siembras y producción por contrato (textilería y curtiembre), en cuyo proceso de negociación surgen diversas variantes según el momento en que se establecen los compromisos y las obligaciones de las partes, reservándose las empresas el derecho de participar en el proceso productivo ejerciendo control sin necesidad de poseer la tierra ni cultivar o confeccionar directamente.Las barreras del mercado peruano que subyacen a la proliferación de estas formas de articulación son, desde el punto de vista de las EP, la alta fragmentación de la tierra, que impide a las empresas contar con grandes extensiones para desarrollar su actividad, y la estacionalidad de la demanda de ciertos productos que les impide asumir costos fijos.Para los PPR, constituyen barreras la falta de acceso al financiamiento que impide que desarrollen y mantengan sus cultivos sin la habilitación de una empresa (sobre todo cuando se trata de cultivos costosos); el poco conocimiento del manejo de ciertos cultivos que exigen la asistencia técnica de la empresa privada, y el desconocimiento sobre los mercados que limita su posibilidad individual de explorarlos.La articulación empresarial, en su forma básica, sirve para reducir los costos fijos de la carga laboral manteniendo el mismo nivel de producción. En fases más avanzadas, se caracteriza por articular negocios. Esto explica la percepción que tienen los PPR de los distintos roles que pueden cumplir en los esquemas de articulación.Trabajadores. Se trata de los PPR que operan como personas naturales articuladas a EP que se identifican con ellas y, por tanto, aspiran a los mismos beneficios que obtienen sus trabajadores. Eventualmente, podrían formar parte de la planilla de la empresa.Personas naturales con negocio, los independientes. Se trata de los PPR que operan y actúan como personas naturales con negocio que, si bien no llegan a percibirse como empresarios, encuentran su situación actual mejor que la que tenían cuando eran trabajadores dependientes de la empresa. Estos PPR manifiestan que mensualmente ganan más que antes, aunque en su cálculo no consideran que antes recibían beneficios sociales y ahora no. La mayoría trabaja para una sola empresa y, en una mínima proporción, para otro mercado.Empresarios formales e informales. Los PPR formales se perciben como empresarios que conocen un negocio y que tienen la capacidad de vender a la empresa con la que trabajan actualmente y también a otras. Los informales planean formalizarse, y para lograrlo piden apoyo a la empresa con innovación y tecnología que les permita mejorar sus competencias. Este tipo de PPR participan en asociaciones para mejorar su poder de negociación con las empresas y aspiran a comercializar independientemente.La articulación promueve el crecimiento empresarial pero no necesariamente el desarrollo de los pequeños productores rurales La articulación entre EP y PPR promueve el crecimiento empresarial de ambos, sobre todo en un país como el nuestro en que el grueso del sector productivo está conformado por micro y pequeñas empresas. Sin embargo, los resultados no son similares en cuanto al desarrollo empresarial. Si bien las EP mejoran su posición en el mercado al contar con capacidades ampliadas gracias al trabajo con terceros, los PPR crecen con posiciones vulnerables por su alto grado de dependencia de las EP debido principalmente a los acuerdos implícitos de exclusividad bajo los que se enmarcan estas relaciones.de rentabilidad. Asimismo, la articulación les permite definir estrategias centradas en el desarrollo de sus capacidades internas y especializarse en las tareas o productos que les generan mayores márgenes sobre la base de la diferenciación.En cuanto a esta variable, la evidencia positiva más notable se centra en el aprendizaje resultante de las relaciones entre EP y PPR. Así, todos los PPR destacaron, en sus distintas áreas de trabajo, que una de las mayores ventajas de su articulación con la EP es el aprendizaje adquirido mediante:• Trabajo con estándares.• Entendimiento de las especificaciones técnicas y su seguimiento.• Conocimiento de las tendencias del mercado y las nuevas aplicaciones de los productos.• Búsqueda de la calidad.• Organización de la producción.• Conciencia del cumplimiento.• Capacidad de negociación.Un aspecto importante es que los PPR destacan que su aprendizaje es similar al que adquiere un operario o empleado, situación típica de los esquemas de articulación más débiles donde los aprendizajes son procesos de transferencia de conocimiento limitado que no permiten que los PPR desarrollen las habilidades empresariales necesarias para planificar, elaborar estrategias y asegurar un crecimiento con desarrollo empresarial.Zonas grises en las relaciones entre empresa privada y pequeños productores rurales y expectativas Uno de los aspectos más interesantes del trabajo de investigación fue recoger las expectativas de los PPR sobre sus relaciones con las EP. Existen zonas grises que no corresponden a las relaciones de cliente-proveedor, donde, en el caso extremo, las partes se atribuyen roles similares a los que existen en las relaciones laborales. Esto responde al grado de dependencia de los PPR con la EP: cuando este es reducido, las aspiraciones se vinculan con aspectos que permitirían el desarrollo empresarial ya abordado líneas arriba. Por el contrario, cuando el grado de dependencia es mayor, los planteamientos de los PPR giran alrededor de aspectos propios de relaciones del tipo trabajador-empleador.La innovación y acceso al conocimiento de las tendencias del mercado son expectativas expresadas por PPR con mayor nivel de independencia de ingresos respecto a las EP.Algunos PPR centran sus expectativas en que se les otorguen las mismas ventajas que a los trabajadores de planta, lo que ha motivado que algunas EP desarrollen programas de fortalecimiento de ese sentimiento de pertenencia. Si bien este tipo de prácticas son beneficiosas, deben diferenciarse de las iniciativas con enfoques asistencialistas, porque pueden confundir la visión sobre la relación de quienes, finalmente, son dos empresarios o unidades productivas independientes. Por su parte, los PPR deben concebir su crecimiento y desarrollo en colaboración con la EP y no en dependencia de la EP. Lo contrario garantizará crecimiento mas no desarrollo empresarial.A estas alturas del análisis, es posible afirmar que la articulación entre EP y PPR es, sin duda, el camino para promover el crecimiento empresarial, especialmente para los pequeños negocios que muchas veces sufren las barreras institucionales del mercado. En este sentido, es necesario promover estas experiencias, impulsarlas y difundir los casos exitosos.También es cierto que este tipo de experiencias deben estar acompañadas de intervenciones que fortalezcan el sentido empresarial de los PPR; de lo contrario, no fomentarán su desarrollo como unidades productivas independientes.Si bien la naturaleza del estudio no permite generalizar los hallazgos, es posible advertir que la articulación entre EP y PPR atraviesa fases o etapas y, en algunos casos, los PPR están agotando una y deben pasar a la siguiente para continuar beneficiándose de la relación.En otros casos, las circunstancias particulares de la zona donde se desenvuelven los PPR o la condición generacional les ha permitido conocer estas experiencias, facilitando que superen la primera fase de los procesos de articulación y se enfrenten a este tipo de relaciones de forma organizada.Del análisis de los casos se ha identificado una serie de factores que propician el desarrollo de la articulación:1. Formalidad de las relaciones.2. El cambio generacional de la titularidad de las tierras, lo que permite contar con PPR con mayor educación y menor temor al riesgo.3. La decisión de los PPR dedicados a cultivos de panllevar, de empezar a experimentar con cultivos de agroexportación.4. Las facilidades para la organización de la base productiva.5. La presencia de asociaciones, que permiten contar con mayores volúmenes de producción y reducir los costos de transacción a cargo de las EP.6. La identificación de productores líderes capaces de formar grupos de productores y responsabilizarse de ellos.7. La presencia de mecanismos creativos de financiamiento.8. La presencia de acopiadores que prestan servicios con valor agregado, que articulan la cadena de productores minifundistas.9. La existencia de ONG que apoyan el trabajo de las cadenas productivas.Con respecto al primer punto, si bien no existe suficiente evidencia que permita establecer tipos de contratos, del análisis de los casos se desprende que cuando la relación entre las EP y los PPR es directa, siempre existen contratos, y su nivel de formalidad puede depender del interés de la empresa en documentar en forma precisa la relación o de la naturaleza del producto. Como ya se mencionó, a relaciones de articulación más maduras, contratos más específicos.Son ilustrativos los casos de las empresas Incalpaca, Sunshine y MC & M. Incalpaca suscribe contratos-marco anuales con los PPR, que se ejecutan a través de órdenes de compra en que se fijan, además de los aspectos técnicos, la cantidad de trabajo, el tiempo asignado por prenda, precio y la fecha de entrega. Actualmente la empresa está diseñando un programa de desarrollo de proveedores, a fin de mejorar las condiciones contractuales que la vinculan con los PPR.Por su parte, Sunshine celebra contratos formales por campaña tanto con los productores individuales como con las asociaciones. Estos contratos, más específicos que los de Incalpaca, incluyen precios refugio, períodos de pago, adelantos y referencias para la definición del volumen (kilo o jaba); aunque, dada la naturaleza de los productos con que se trabaja, el volumen que cada productor se compromete a entregar se define a lo largo de la propia campaña.En el caso de MC & M, la empresa celebra contratos formales con los PPR que contemplan precios refugio o precios fijos, según el producto de que se trate. También se prevé la compra de toda la producción y el pago según una calidad definida. Una particularidad de estos contratos es que obligan a los PPR a firmar una letra por los insumos que se les adelantan, lo que posteriormente se descuenta del pago de la producción.Cuando las relaciones se establecen solo con acopiadores, los comportamientos son heterogéneos. La mayoría de acopiadores prestan servicios con valor agregado, los PAT, cuentan con contratos formales con los PPR que establecen el compromiso de comercialización y la prestación de asistencia técnica. Se fija el precio de compra, el compromiso del acopiador de realizar visitas periódicas, la responsabilidad por la cosecha y el grado de calidad que se debe alcanzar.Los acopiadores que solo compran para vender a las EP cuentan con un compromiso verbal de compra y condiciones de pago establecidas por los usos y costumbres. No existen derechos y obligaciones formalmente establecidos en beneficio de las partes, lo que ha generado una serie de problemas: incumplimiento de las proyecciones de compra a los PPR, incapacidad de los PPR de orientar los saldos de producción a otros mercados, demora en el pago de los acopiadores a los PPR, insuficiente asistencia técnica a los PPR, falta de alineamiento de los objetivos empresariales de los PPR y las EP.Esta heterogeneidad distintiva de los acuerdos que vinculan a los PPR y las EP tiene una relación directa con la capacidad de los primeros de afrontar un proceso de vinculación y negociación con las EP. Las experiencias en que existe el respaldo de organizaciones de productores o PPR con mayor nivel educativo, se celebran acuerdos con reglas de juego más claras que buscan equilibrar los compromisos y obligaciones de ambas partes.10.1 A partir del análisis de las barreras de mercado identificadas Contacto entre empresa privada y pequeños productores ruralesSe requiere fomentar mecanismos que permitan acercar a las partes.Propuesta:• Realizar un catastro nacional de PPR con enfoque regional que permita identificarlos por especialidad de cultivo o productos en el sector agropecuario, sector artesanal, textil, confecciones, etc.• Diseñar una ficha de registro que incluya la posibilidad de que cada PPR acredite su experiencia de trabajo con empresas a nivel nacional e internacional.• Difundir este catastro a través de los portales de los organismos sectoriales.• Establecer como incentivo para el registro en este padrón, la posibilidad de acceder a capacitación en distintas especialidades.Es necesario fomentar esquemas de financiamiento para que los PPR puedan contar con un historial en el sistema financiero. Estos esquemas pueden incluir el aporte de las EP interesadas en trabajar con cadenas productivas y dispuestas a apoyar a productores individuales u organizados a través del sector financiero tradicional y no tradicional.Propuesta:• Ampliar la cobertura de los esquemas de financiamiento en que la EP aporta a una suerte de fondo de garantía de la cadena, administrado por una caja rural, municipal o alguna otra entidad que se encarga de facilitar los fondos a los productores seleccionados y pagarles una vez que la EP entrega los fondos procedentes de la venta de la producción.• Este tipo de sistemas permiten que los PPR adquieran un historial en el sistema financiero que, en el futuro, podrán utilizar independientemente de la EP y así asegurar los recursos para la producción.Se requiere promover mecanismos que brinden información sobre las tendencias del mercado de productos y precios, de tal forma que los PPR puedan tomar decisiones informadas sobre sus planes de siembra y otros.• Solicitar al MINAG y al MINCETUR que implementen de forma intensiva el sistema de información (SINFA), con datos sobre las tendencias del mercado y los precios referenciales de los productos para que los PPR puedan tomar decisiones.10. Propuestas para fomentar relaciones más exitosas entre pequeños productores rurales y empresas privadas• Facilitar la participación o colaboración de ONG y entidades de la cooperación técnica para dicho propósito.Capacitación para el manejo de cultivos y productos \"no tradicionales\" o con potencialEs necesario fomentar la intervención de la cooperación técnica a fin de fortalecer las instituciones del Estado que apoyan la capacitación de los PPR, tales como las agencias agrarias del MINAG que, por ejemplo, podrían contar con más personal o con más horashombre de trabajo, específicamente antes y durante las campañas, según las regiones.Propuesta:• Diseñar módulos de capacitación de los productos con mercado (con los requerimientos específicos de las EP) adaptados a las particularidades de la región donde se quiere promover; por ejemplo, productos de ceja de selva que se quieren adaptar a la costa, como es el caso del maracuyá.• Contar con módulos de capacitación que faciliten la dinámica de preparación de los PPR, Estos módulos podrían incluir calendarios según cada cultivo, de abono, mantenimiento, deshierbe, poda, etc.Fomentar el acceso a la información sobre el contenido básico de lo que se puede llamar un acuerdo de agricultura por contrato.• Diseñar modelos de contratos que los PPR puedan usar como referencia para la negociación de sus acuerdos con las EP.• Incluir observaciones sobre algunas variantes que se suelen presentar en los contratos, por ejemplo que algunos productos tengan precio fijo y otros, referencial. En ciertos casos, las variaciones podrían estar relacionadas con los períodos de pago (adelantos, pagos parciales a los 15 días, pagos a los dos meses, etc.).• Difundir estos modelos a través de las asociaciones de productores u otros gremios y las agencias agrarias o sus equivalentes, según el sector.• Crear un sistema de resolución de conflictos o, en todo caso, un sistema de registro de los incumplimientos de las partes que deberá sistematizarse y difundirse.No existe información nacional que mida el nivel de articulación entre empresas pequeñas, medianas y grandes en el agro ni en otros sectores.• Diseñar una consulta nacional para una muestra representativa de todas las empresas exportadoras del país (cerca de 6,000 en el año 2006), con el fin de conocer el nivel de articulación de la MYPE en la cadena exportadora y contar con una línea de base para el Tratado de Libre Comercio interno.• Aplicar una consulta similar a todas las empresas manufactureras y de servicios del país (no exportadoras, prioritariamente) con el fin de conocer su nivel de articulación en la cadena productiva o de servicio en que participan.10.2 A partir de los factores que pueden propiciar o fortalecer los esquemas de articulación Costos de la organización de la base productiva Una de las condiciones planteadas por las EP para incrementar sus relaciones con los PPR es la intervención de terceros para apoyar económicamente la organización de la base productiva.Propuesta:• Crear BONO-AGRO a fin de que las EP puedan contratar entidades que presten servicios de articulación para organizar cadenas vinculadas a sus demandas de compra.Se ha demostrado que las asociaciones desempeñan un papel importante en la articulación de los PPR y las EP así como en la reducción de los costos de transacción de este tipo de prácticas. Su tarea entonces es doble: por un lado, convocar a los PPR para integrarlos en asociaciones que les permitan contar con una oferta de calidad y, por el otro lado, representar a los PPR en los procesos de negociación con las EP. En ese sentido, es pertinente mejorar sus capacidades.Propuesta:• Diseñar módulos de capacitación sobre negociación en los procesos de articulación productiva, que deberán incluir formalización, establecimiento de metas internas, políticas de precios, asistencia técnica focalizada, procedimientos de pago (en planta, en cuenta, etc.), alternativas de financiamiento, proyectos para obtener certificaciones de calidad, y compras corporativas de insumos.Tercerización de los procesos de homologación de calidad que demandan las empresas privadas Una de las limitaciones de las EP para incrementar sus relaciones con los PPR es la falta de talleres o productores que puedan asumir ciertos encargos.• Desarrollar un programa nacional de homologación de calidad por especialidad: bordado, armado, confección, etc.• Involucrar al sector privado exportador en la definición de los estándares de trabajo que deben cumplir los productores.• Crear capacidades en los encargados de dirigir los procesos de calidad.• Encargar a una entidad privada la evaluación del cumplimiento de los criterios de homologación.• Difundir los datos de los talleres que logren homologarse.Sería importante la creación de un fondo para el desarrollo de denominaciones de origen o marcas colectivas que permita a los PPR contar con una herramienta para que, individual o colectivamente, puedan ingresar al mercado, con productos como camu camu, mango y limón de Olmos; palta y café de Chanchamayo; quesos de Majes, Chivay, Oxapampa y Bambamarca; aceitunas de Yauca y La Llarada, y maca de la Meseta de Bombón.A continuación, se presenta cómo algunas empresas respondieron a las tendencias del mercado, en relación a la articulación con PPR en cuatro productos comprendidos en los casos estudiados: mango, alcachofa, frejol de palo y guantes de cuero.Como se ha señalado, el Perú exportó mango fresco por más de US$ 59 millones en el año 2006. La región productora más importante es Piura, seguida por Lambayeque. Sin embargo, la demanda internacional y la necesidad de incrementar el período de oferta llevó a la extensión de las zonas de producción hasta Casma (Ancash). El mango de esta zona se produce fuera de estación, lo que permite obtener precios mayores por estas cosechas.En Lambayeque, los distritos de Motupe y Olmos aportan la mayor parte de la producción de mango de exportación de ese departamento en más de 1,000 ha manejadas por unos 600 productores. Se calcula una explotación de 2.5 ha por productor, con un rendimiento promedio de 15 TM/ha y un potencial de hasta 25 TM/ha, según los niveles tecnológicos.Las empresas exportadoras y sus acopiadores, con estrategias distintas, empiezan la compra en Piura y llegan hasta Casma. Por su parte, los productores de Lambayeque que no tienen relaciones estables con EP, procuran retrasar su cosecha para obtener precios similares a los de Casma, mediante el control del agua y el retraso de las podas.Las empresas que operan en esta cadena utilizan estrategias distintas a las de Sunshine: la mayoría llega a las zonas de producción solo a comprar. Sin embargo, los PPR no relacionados con Sunshine mencionaron que algunas de estas empresas proporcionan insumos y jabas aun sin un contrato formal; otras brindan asistencia técnica y compran toda la cosecha ; y un tercer grupo solo requiere el producto de primera.Los PPR que no se relacionan en forma estable con la EP y que en cada campaña trabajan con una EP distinta, mencionaron a las siguientes empresas como actoras de la cadena productiva del mango: Frutipack S.A.C., Adrianos S.A., Agromar Industrial S.A., LS Andina y Fresko Perú S.A.C. (Grupo Silvestre).Si bien los propietarios de MC & M son arequipeños, cuentan con su propio fundo en Ica, y en Arequipa solo trabajan con tierras alquiladas. La empresa se ha dedicado durante 12 años al cultivo y exportación de cebolla amarilla, y desde hace siete empezó a incursionar en el cultivo de productos del género capsicum y, aún más recientemente, en el de la alcachofa.Ha formado el consorcio COPEMUR para la instalación de una planta de procesamiento de alcachofa, lo que la ha llevado a armar cadenas en la zona de El Pedregal (Majes).El entorno en que empezó a operar esta empresa fue el siguiente: la irrigación Majes fue creada por decreto en el año 1973 19 , otorgándose parcelas de 5 ha a un número importante de pioneros que se instalaron en esta zona. Durante muchos años predominó la ganadería lechera, debido a la presencia de la planta de la empresa Gloria; lo que incentivó a los pioneros a cultivar alimento para ganado, especialmente alfalfa y maíz.Hace menos de dos años en el caso de la alcachofa, y un poco más en el caso de la páprika, las empresas del norte del país empezaron a buscar otras zonas de producción. Las primeras zonas visitadas fueron Ancash y Junín; Arequipa fue incorporada posteriormente. Luego de las primeras siembras experimentales y la comprobación del buen rendimiento que se podría obtener, las empresas empezaron a contemplar la posibilidad de aprovechar las tierras de la irrigación para cultivar alcachofa, lo que ha motivado un cambio en el desempeño de los PPR, como se muestra en el siguiente esquema.El año pasado, el Perú exportó casi US$ 0.6 millones de dólares en guantes, de los cuales el 67.7% fueron de cuero. La principal empresa exportadora es Kero; sigue Perú Leather Export S.A.C. (de propiedad de un ex trabajador de Kero), con el 17.7% del total. Esto significa que existe una gran concentración del valor total comercializado de guantes de cuero de pecarí en solo dos actores.El mercado de Kero está regulado porque existen cuotas anuales de caza de sajinos (pecaríes), lo que dificulta que un mayor número de actores pueda acceder a este mercado. Actualmente, el Perú cuenta con la mayor cantidad de cabezas de esta especie que, hasta la fecha, no se ha podido domesticar y que en otros países está extinta.El principal mercado de destino de estos productos es Europa, donde se reconoce que la piel más suave para la confección de guantes es la del pecarí. Un par de guantes de este material cuesta entre 60 y 90 euros. La \"Plataforma RURALTER\" es un espacio que agrupa a varias instituciones de desarrollo y formación que pretenden mejorar las prácticas de los profesionales y actores del desarrollo rural en América Latina, especialmente en la región andina. Su objetivo es promover la construcción colectiva de métodos de intervención, útiles para la acción, a partir de las prácticas y experiencias, y su amplia difusión. Los miembros de RURALTER juntan, con otras o r g a n i z a c i o n e s , s u s e x p e r i e n c i a s y competencias para compartir enfoques y validar colectivamente métodos y herramientas para fomentar un desarrollo ambientalmente sostenible y socialmente justo.L a \" P l a t a f o r m a R U R A L T E R \" d i f u n d e sistematizaciones de experiencias y módulos metodológicos con fines pedagógicos para técnicos, formadores y dirigentes de movimientos sociales y de organizaciones campesinas de América Latina, por medio de publicaciones, procesos de formación y de su sitio web (www.ruralter.org).Este esfuerzo de la mesa de desarrollo económico de Ruralter es un complemento a los estudios anteriores sobre: (i) Análisis de cadenas productivas (primera y segunda edición) que ha servido para hacer más sencillo y participativo este tipo de análisis, y (ii) Elementos orientadores para la gestión de E m p r e s a s A s o c i a t i v a s R u r a l e s , c o m o instrumento de apoyo a gerentes de empresas rurales, entidades de apoyo y decidores de políticas.","tokenCount":"19131"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9ee448d58aa49448a3df6486b1df4c7a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://apps.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/Publications/PDFS/WP21038.pdf","id":"-1194003574"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"081042bc-c5db-442a-907e-7809657b3dac","pagecount":"34","content":"monitoring of biodiversity based on the measurement of trees on farms. ICRAF Working Paper No. 321. World Agroforestry,Sam Harrison, Casey Ryan, Anja Gassner, Rhett HarrisonSam Harrison is a researcher with experience in ecological applications of geospatial analyses, currently studying for a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on developing novel models and research methods for using satellite remote sensing data for monitoring aspects of the biodiversity and ecology of trees in tropical agricultural landscapes. He has socioecological research interests and is also researching the spatial patterns in modelled household socioeconomic characteristics and their links to remotely sensed farmland environmental metrics. Sam also holds a Master's degree in Environmental Modelling Monitoring and Management from King's College London and a Bachelor's in Geography from the University of Edinburgh.Casey Ryan is a senior lecturer in ecosystem services and global change at the University of Edinburgh, School of GeoSciences. His main research topics include: Miombo woodland ecology, particularly the role of fire; land use change in woodlands and savannahs, particularly in SE Asia and Africa; the carbon cycle of tropical savannas and dry forests; the leaf phenology of seasonally dry ecosystems; tree allometry and biomass estimation; reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), with a particular emphasis on African woodlands and shifting cultivation.Anja Gassner is Senior Scientist at World Agroforestry where she coordinates research projects that built the awareness on the benefits of trees on farms in the tropics. Together with collogues and partners her aim is to support governmental agencies to achieve their commitments to international conventions and treaties through mainstreaming agroforestry interventions into national and subnational policies and planning. Anja also serves as science advisor for the Global Landscape Forum (GLF). The GLF is the world's largest knowledge-led platform on sustainable land use, dedicated to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement. Anja holds an MSc in Environmental Geochemistry from Cape Town University and PhD in Agoecology from Braunschweig University.Rhett Harrison is a landscape ecologist with CIFOR-ICRAF. He has over 25 years research experience in tropical systems and has worked across all the tropical regions of the world. Initially focusing on plantanimal interactions in tropical rain forests, for the past 15 years his research has increasingly focused on production landscapes. His research interests span a wide range of topics related to the management and conservation of biodiversity, including restoration, natural resource management, and agroecology.Trees on farms are a critical tool in managing agriculture to support biodiverse landscapes and will play an important part in complementing protected areas as a means of reaching biodiversity targets. A lack of systematic data for the biodiversity in agricultural land means monitoring global targets is difficult. There is an unmet need for repeated, consistent and low cost indicators of agricultural biodiversity, applicable at wide scale and across different landscapes. Here we present the proof of concept for an indicator of the biodiversity value of agricultural landscapes through assessing properties of their trees. Using freely available satellite data products to estimate wooded area, structural diversity and spectral diversity of agricultural lands, landscapes are scored on the biodiversity value. The outputs of which can be mapped at national scales. Qualitative validation shows promising results in four case studies in a variety of agricultural contexts, with the scores reflecting what we expect from photointerpretation of sites across the case study areas. This tool has the potential to be a useful and much needed indicator, and with further development could be a critical metric for the post-2020 agenda for measuring and monitoring agricultural biodiversity.Effective biodiversity conservation efforts will need to include the agricultural land that covers onethird of global land area. Within forest biomes, trees on farms are an important aspect of how biodiversity can be maintained and enhanced on agricultural land, and will be critical to meeting global biodiversity targets for production landscapes. Trees on farms benefit biodiversity by providing habitat, mitigating external resource pressures (e.g. for timber) and improving connectivity by providing stepping stones and creating a less hostile barrier to movement between large areas of natural land covers.A lack of systematic data for biodiversity in agricultural land means monitoring global targets is difficult. This unmet need for repeated, consistent and low cost measurements was a likely contributor to the failure of Aichi biodiversity target 7. There is a clear need for indicators of agricultural biodiversity, applicable at wide scale and across different landscapes.Recent advances in satellite data and geospatial technologies now make it possible to address these challenges and have transformed land monitoring for biodiversity, but to date this has been focussed on forests and natural lands. Here we present the proof of concept for an indicator of the biodiversity value of agricultural landscapes through assessing properties of their trees. The aim is that this indicator will be useful for planners and decision-makers to monitor agricultural land, report on its biodiversity and plan informed conservation strategies. The tool uses freely available satellite data products to estimate wooded area, structural diversity and spectral diversity of agricultural lands, as well as their spatial configuration, and combines them to ascribe a score that can be mapped at national scales. As the current tool is specifically based on measuring the attributes of trees on farms, it is applicable to agricultural lands within forest biomes (i.e. where forests would grow in the absence of human activity). Other tools, or a modified version of the current tool, would be required to measure biodiversity in, for example, rangelands.Qualitative feedback shows promising results in four case studies in a variety of agricultural contexts, with the mapped scores reflecting what we might expect from photointerpretation of a sample of sites across the case study areas, and the tool is ready for quantitative validation. Further areas for development include improvements in data that can come from forthcoming satellite products, as well as further qualitative validation from those with on-site expertise and potential optimisation of the functional relationships between the remote sensed metrics and biodiversity. This tool has the potential to be a useful and much needed indicator for the post-2020 agenda for measuring and monitoring agricultural biodiversity in forest biomes.Globally, conversion of natural land to agriculture is the major cause of land use change and biodiversity loss (IPBES, 2019). Protected areas alone will not be enough to preserve our remaining biodiversity and conservation efforts must also include the agricultural land that covers 30-40% of global land area (IPCC, 2019). These strategies should harness the potential that agroecosystems have to support biodiversity when managed to do so. Reporting on efforts to sustain or improve agricultural biodiversity is hindered by a lack of methods for monitoring it. This paper will outline and present the concept of a new remote sensing based tool for national scale monitoring of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes based on measuring trees on farms.The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recognised the importance of sustaining biodiversity in agricultural lands by setting a target (target 7) for areas under agriculture to be managed sustainably, ensuring conservation of biodiversity in the Aichi biodiversity targets (2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020). Broadly the Aichi targets, including target 7, have failed, with no target being fully met by 2020 (IPBES, 2019;CBD, 2020). This has been partly attributed to the way in which the goals were set, with experts saying the targets were unrealistic and progress too difficult to measure (Green et al., 2019). Sustaining biodiversity on agricultural land is also critical to the sustainable development goals (SDG), with goals to promote sustainable agriculture (SDG2) and to halt biodiversity loss (SDG15). It is therefore critical that an appropriate way of measuring agricultural biodiversity at broad scales is developed if agricultural biodiversity is to be included in future global agendas for sustainability and for these goals to be measured and met, most critically in the forthcoming CBD post-2020 agenda.Current ways of measuring biodiversity on agricultural land involve time-consuming and costly fieldwork for detailed measurement at the farm scale (Herzog et al., 2013). Field-based methods may require taxonomic expertise, depend on specific fieldwork timing, interviews with farmers on land management and lengthy post-fieldwork sample analysis. This is not appropriate for national or global scale monitoring of targets. Satellite remote sensing has been an established tool for monitoring land cover at large scales for decades, and new technologies and methods are expanding the potential for satellite data. There have been several useful reviews on remote sensing for ecology, conservation and biodiversity (Kerr and Ostrovsky, 2003;Turner et al., 2003;Wang et al., 2010;Anderson, 2018), which show that remote sensing data can collect a variety of useful information about biodiversity at scale with repeat measurements, in a cheap and timely manner. Despite the potential, little effort has been made to develop the appropriate tools to use this data in agricultural landscapes, with much of the focus spent on natural and undisturbed habitat monitoring, or quantifying the damage that agriculture does (Petrou et al., 2015). Applying remote sensing data to the problems of monitoring agricultural biodiversity could offer a solution. While this approach loses individual farm level information, this detail is not necessarily required for national or sub-national target monitoring. Landscape level approaches better serve the aims of target monitoring, and satellite data can facilitate this.Sustainable approaches to land management show that farms can support biodiversity while remaining productive. Growing research in recent decades has highlighted the link between trees on farms and biodiversity (McNeely & Schroth, 2006). Trees can facilitate greater levels of biodiversity in these agricultural landscapes. Schroth et al. (2004) outline and evidence the three key ways in which these practices boost biodiversity. First is the provision of habitat for species that are able to tolerate certain degrees of disturbance. Trees on farms can provide suitable habitat for plant and animal species that partly rely on forest habitats to survive. Introducing habitat heterogeneity and structural complexity, as well as diverse assemblages of trees onto farms facilitates the integration of some species into these systems. Connecting tree populations across the landscape further promotes species movement, genetic mixing and survival, both within the agricultural land and between large areas of natural habitats. The second is the reduction of pressure on nearby habitats. The hypotheses being that if the needs and resources of the farmer can be met through trees on their farm, they are less likely to exploit trees in external natural habitat patches (Atangana et al., 2014). There is limited research that explicitly tests whether trees on farms reduce the pressure on trees outside farms, with many locally specific factors likely to affect it. Angelsen & Kaimowitz (2004) discuss the circumstances which influence this hypothesis. This includes the farmer's land tenure, capital and labour resources.Lastly is that in mosaic landscapes of agriculture and natural or semi-natural habitat patches, the biodiversity in the non-farmed vegetation parcels is greater where the agricultural land has trees. These landscapes act as buffer zones and provide more permeable connective habitat between other patches. Trees on farms also provide a host of other ecosystem services that reduce biodiversity loss, like supporting soil biodiversity, erosion control and water regulation (Udawatta et al., 2019). Metaanalyses of biodiversity studies have found significantly higher species diversity in agricultural land with trees (Udawatta et al., 2019), with average species richness across all taxa roughly 60% of forest richness and some taxa like mammals and birds having over 90% of the richness found in forests (Bhagwat at al., 2008).Working within the existing potentials of satellite remote sensing, this paper presents the proof of concept for a new satellite-based indicator of the biodiversity value of agricultural landscapes through assessing the properties of the woody component from operational remote sensing data products. The farmland biodiversity score (FBS) proposes a starting point to develop upon to appropriately fill the gap that exists in large scale biodiversity monitoring of agricultural landscapes.The farmland biodiversity score (FBS) assesses the biodiversity value of agricultural landscapes based on the assumption that certain attributes of trees on farms are a good proxy for biodiversity. The score is a composite score from three components: wooded area, structural diversity and spectral diversity, which are then weighted for areas where the positive effects of trees on farms are more pronounced (figure 1). To overcome issues in global land cover products at the pixel scale, we select lands to score by delineating agricultural landscapes, defined as 8 km 2 areas with a defined proportion of cultivated land, based on a land cover product. These agricultural landscapes range from fully transformed cultivated landscapes, to mosaic landscapes with a matrix of cultivated and uncultivated lands. As the score is based on measuring trees, the agricultural landscapes without trees are separated and given a score of 0, while the landscapes with trees proceed to be scored. The assumption is that, while there may be an occasional tree, at the landscape level, there are no trees to deliver their biodiversity value and it cannot be scored. The agricultural landscapes with trees are then scored on three components at a 500 m pixel scale. The wooded area component is a measure of the quantity of trees in the cropland, the structural diversity component measures the variance of tree structures in the cropland, while the spectral diversity component measures the diversity of different spectral signatures of the cropland. Together these components are a measure of the quantity and heterogeneity of trees in the agricultural landscapes. On steep slopes and riparian buffer zones, where trees on farms are more important for biodiversity, the score is weighted to reflect this. The implementation of the FBS is primarily in Google Earth Engine (GEE) a cloud-computing platform for performing geospatial analysis with a large data repository. The spectral diversity layer is calculated in R using the biodivMapR package (Feret & Asner, 2014;Feret & de Boissieu, 2019), and the outputs are imported into GEE for incorporation into the FBS. A GEE app has been created to host the outputs where they can be viewed and interacted. The web app can found at https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/samharrison/fbs/There are three principal components of the FBS, plus two weighting factors; the wooded area (W) is the area of the landscape that is covered by woody vegetation; the structural diversity component (T) is the diversity of vegetation structure groups, and spectral diversity score (P) is the diversity of spectral responses measured by satellite. The sum of these components is then weighted by erosion risk and riparian buffers (sr). Each component is scored from 0 to 1 and so scores range from 0 to a maximum of 3. \uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC46 = \uD835\uDC60\uD835\uDC5F(\uD835\uDC4A + \uD835\uDC47 + \uD835\uDC43)Before scoring the biodiversity, we need to delineate the agricultural landscapes. As land cover products do not classify land use, finding what land is farmed can be difficult. Land cover products classify cultivated pixels and so non-cropped farm pixels like tree cover on farms are not included in the cropland class. Misclassification of cropland is particularly an issue in areas with low cropping density, in crops with similar phenology to natural vegetation (eg savannah), highly fragmented landscapes and in farms with planted or remnants trees around the cropland. The cropland class in the land cover product also includes land covered with temporary crops and fallow. Because the level of omissions of agriculture from crop classifications varies greatly, we delineate agricultural landscapes instead of farms at a pixel scale. These are landscapes (at 8 km 2 ) where the proportion of cropland, as measured by a land cover product (100 m resolution) meets a given threshold. On the ground, these are landscapes with an agricultural matrix of cultivated and uncultivated lands. The threshold of what proportion of the landscape is cropped to be defined as an agricultural landscape was generously set to be about 3% by default to account for high levels of agricultural area that is not classed as cropland. This threshold can be adjusted for where the farming system may cause fewer pixels to be classified as crop, for example where shade crops and tree crops are prominent. Pasture cannot be delineated from non-grazed grasslands and as such, the FBS is scoring the biodiversity in arable landscapes.The FBS is based on measuring trees on farms and so agricultural landscapes without trees receive a score of 0. To find these agricultural landscapes without trees, an aboveground woody biomass data product (Globbiomass, described in the data section) is used to map the biomass across the landscapes. A threshold of what landscapes are classed as being without trees is set at 8 t ha -1 . As the score is a tree-based measure of agricultural biodiversity, the agricultural landscapes that are below this threshold are given an FBS score of 0. As the biomass product tends to overestimate AGB in low biomass areas, this threshold is not set at a true value but rather is based on how the data product appears to measure ground with very little or no aboveground woody matter.Wooded area is used in the FBS as a measure of the biodiversity benefits of woody cover. Tree cover in and around farms is important for the diversity of many taxa in agricultural landscapes (Mendoza et l., 2014;Baudron et al., 2019;Socolar et al., 2019). We assume this relationship is broadly linear, where increased woody cover reflects higher biodiversity. In reality, this relationship is far more nuanced by many factors including climate, land management, culture and socioeconomics (McNeely & Schroth, 2006;Steffan-Dewenter et al., 2007;Perfecto & Vandermeer, 2008).The biomass dataset is used and a threshold is set to define a wooded pixel. If a pixel has a value of >25 t ha -1 , it is classed as a wooded pixel. The map is resampled to 500 m resolution (25 pixels) where the percentage of wooded pixels within this window is calculated. We then score the 500 m window based on its proportional cover of woody biomass pixels between 0 and 1 for the FBS (table 1). These break values were based on average quintiles from the test sites, and then rounded to a whole number of pixels.There is growing research to show that many species benefit from a greater variety of vegetation structures in agricultural land. Structural complexity creates habitat heterogeneity, boosting diversity for many taxa including birds (Laube et al., 2008;Breitbach et al., 2010;Mulwa et al., 2012) and insects (Thies & Tscharntke 2003;Duelli et al., 1999). While the relationship may not universal (Batary et al 2011; Lee & Martin, 2017), it is widely accepted (Benton et al., 2003;Fahrig et al 2011;Reynolds et al., 2018). The focus here is on compositional structural complexity, rather than configurational aspects of structural heterogeneity.The biomass product is classed into ordinal groups as a proxy for vegetation structure groups (table 2), and the structural diversity is scored on the variance of these groups within a window of 500m. The biomass map is categorised into groups to make sure the measure of structural complexity is quantifying between-group variance and not the variance within these groups. The scoring for structural diversity is nonlinear based on the assumption that both high and low variance is indicative of low structural diversity and homogenous farming systems. The infographic in figure 2 highlights this relationship. The maximum variance for a set of 25 pixels in ordinal groups 1 to 5 is 4. Therefore, the T score scales variances from 0 to 2 down to 0 to 1, and variances from 2 to 4 inversely from 1 to 0. Spectral diversity is based on the spectral variance hypothesis (SVH), the idea that spectral heterogeneity across pixels indicates higher niche heterogeneity, resulting in greater biodiversity (Palmer et al., 2000(Palmer et al., , 2002;;Rocchini et al., 2010). The theory has been successfully applied to taxonomic groups including birds (Ozdemir et al.,2018), mammals (Oindo and Skidmore, 2002), and plants (Gould, 2000;Rocchini et al., 2010b;Mapfumo et al., 2016). Most of these studies employ the idea of 'spectral species', where the pixels' spectral response are assumed to characterise a species on the ground and are the subspaces that make up the spectral heterogeneity at a landscape scale.Developing on this idea is the concept of 'spectral communities' when using coarser resolution data, so the spectral response is instead characterising a vegetation community on the ground. The method is based on an unsupervised k-means clustering of pixels to assign them to spectral communities. The Shannon's diversity of these communities is then calculated within a neighbourhood window. Rocchini (et al., 2020) modelled the alpha and beta diversity of Europe using this method with a time series of NDVI data. NDVI uses optical bands that hold importance for understanding vegetation, and using a time series includes information on seasonality and phenology. Following this method, the P score is calculated using the first 3 PCA axes of a time series of NDVI data. Clustering into 200 clusters, models the spectral communities, and the Shannon's index is calculated over a window of 10 x 10 pixels to calculate local alpha diversity. The result is a map at 2.5 km resolution, and the values are scaled to P scores from 0 to 1 using a minimum Shannon's index of 0.5 and a maximum of 3.3. These thresholds were set from the minimum 1st percentile and maximum 99th percentile of the spectral diversity values at all the sites where the FBS was developed and tested.The weighting factors are used to reflect the changing spatial importance of trees on farms depending on erosion risk and occupancy of riparian buffers in the landscape. As these factors are not aimed at reflecting on-the-ground tree biodiversity patterns, the FBS should be still primarily be composed of the layers above, and the weighting factors will create differences in similar scoring land parcels where the trees may have greater significance.Slope is used as a simple proxy for erosion risk. Soil erosion can have detrimental effects on soil biodiversity (Pimentel, 2006) and agricultural runoff can severely affect the biodiversity of waterways (Orgiazzi & Panagos, 2018). We make an assumption that steeper slopes are more prone to soil erosion, and therefore are more important landscapes in which to maintain trees and improve FBS. The slope angle is calculated from the SRTM elevation product at a 90 m resolution. The slope map is then refactored into slope classes using the thresholds outlined in table 3. It is particularly important to promote biodiversity in riparian areas within a landscape. In tropical agricultural landscapes, vegetation in riparian buffers can support more terrestrial biodiversity than surrounding farms. Similarly, riparian buffers are important for healthy waterways (Luke et al., 2019).The ideal width of a riparian buffer to support biodiversity is not uniform. A buffer of 100 m, however, would likely support multiple taxa regardless of agricultural land use or geographic location (Luke et al., 2019). The HydroSHEDS dataset is used to map the riparian zones for the FBS weighting factor (Grill et al., 2019). The resolution of this data means that the river vector lines were only coarsely aligned to the rivers on the ground and the riparian areas were missed using a 100 m buffer. Therefore, a buffer of 500 m meters is used, which is much more likely to catch the majority of the riparian zone, albeit with a degree of inclusion error. A weight score is then assigned to each pixel based on its slope class and whether it in a riparian buffer or not as shown in table 3.In reporting the FBS, statistics on the proportion of land that is classed as agricultural landscapes will be reported alongside the distribution of FBS scores and maps. The FBS can be applied at regional, national or subnational boundaries and the output maps can be generated weighted or unweighted at the pixel scale (500 m), the landscape scale (8 km) or by administrative boundaries. This flexibility means the tool can be used both for national scale reporting as this is where most targets are set (through National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans), but also subnational patterns to manage resources and target intervention.The FBS is comprised of analyses of 5 datasets (table 4). The aboveground woody biomass data product is needed to calculate the FBS. Several datasets exist and more products are emerging in the near future. At this proof of concept stage, the 100 m resolution GlobBiomass is arguably the most appropriate dataset to use (Santoro, 2018). This data is a one-off from 2010, so is not operational. Its successor, CCI_biomass has more up-to-date data ( 2017), but GlobBiomass has the advantage of being better quality, without the erroneous data included in CCI_biomass (poorly geocoded and incidence angle striping from ALOS-2 PALSAR radar data). CCI_biomass aims to continue improving and provide updated biomass information with data additions from future missions (eg the BIOMASS mission), so it may be the most appropriate operational option in the future, but currently, GlobBiomass is a better quality product to use. It is important to note that all biomass products are aimed at modelling forest biomass and usually advise against using the products for analyses outside of these areas. ESA identified some of these data issues, most prominently a bias which generally overestimated in low biomass ranges and underestimated in high biomass areas. The future of biomass products is promising with biomass data from GEDI, NISAR and BIOMASS missions expected within the next few years. Operational biomass products will have improved resolution and hopefully improved accuracy.Scoring the FBS first relies on delineating where the farms are. Land cover maps can delineate crop cover from other land cover types. However, for cropland monitoring, comparing different land cover products show dramatic differences. Perez-Hoyos (et al., 2017) looked at several land cover products for cropland monitoring and found little agreement between them, noting some stark differences including GlobCover products estimating global cropland area to be 20% higher than MODIS derived products. When comparing the products to FAO cropland statistics, the product that performed best was not uniform from country to country. Ultimately most land cover products are not reliable, especially for agricultural land, where uncertainties in classification tend to be larger than other classes. The Copernicus Global Land Cover product (CGLS-LC100 2015 Collection 2; Buchhorn et al., 2020) claims higher overall accuracy compared to other popular land cover products, and moderate accuracy for croplands (User's accuracy = 70.2%, Producer's accuracy = 83.9%). This product benefits from being operational and so is updated annually. With moderate accuracy, this is unlikely to pick up small yearly changes, but it may be important where large agricultural expansion is occurring.A time series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from MODIS (MOD13Q1 v006; Didan, 2015) for the year 2019 was used in the FBS to model spectral diversity. This NDVI product is a composite of MODIS images over a 16-day period using the best pixels available. The spatial resolution is low (250m) but benefits from having enough pixels to produce good data in areas or times of high cloud cover. To speed up processing times, the 16-day time series was aggregated to a monthly dataset. This dataset is operational and releases up to date data regularly.Elevation data is used to calculate slope angle for erosion risk. The SRTM dataset provides a digital elevation model at 90m resolution appropriate for this analysis (Jarvis et al., 2008). River networks needed to be mapped in order to find the riparian areas. The WWF HydroSHEDS Free Flowing Rivers Network (Grill et al., 2019) data was used for these purposes. The river polylines are calculated from a raster dataset at 15 arc-seconds (~500 m at the equator) and as such the river lines have some coarseness. There is a lack of validation data at the scale needed that can be appropriately used to test the scores against. At this stage, the best method to check the performance of the scores is qualitative validation by cross-referencing the FBS output with what we might expect when interpreting high-resolution satellite imagery available on Google Earth. The biomass product used in this proof of concept is from 2010, and so the Google Earth image closest to 2010 was used in the validation. Some of this validation is presented alongside the results below. The FBS was developed and tested in several study sites covering a variety of climates, biomes, policy contexts, farming practices and cultures. These were Chiapas State in Mexico, Honduras, Rwanda, Uganda, Sofala province in Mozambique and West Kalimantan province in Indonesia. The results section will present the output from some of these sites in which the FBS was tested. The sites presented are part of the Trees on Farms for Biodiversity project funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and implemented by World Agroforestry (ICRAF) in partnership with the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). The project aims to build awareness and understanding of the role trees on farms can play in biodiversity conservation.In Uganda, approximately half of the land is used for agriculture, most of this is smallholder farms growing food crops and cash crops. While farming is predominantly subsistence agriculture, there are areas of largescale agriculture which mainly focus on sugarcane, palm oil and rice. Most of the biodiversity loss in Uganda is related to expansion of smallholder farming into forested areas, with conversion also occurring in savannah grasslands for maize and wetlands for rice.Rwanda is a small and densely populated country, with agricultural land that is estimated to be over two-thirds of the nation's total land area. In recent decades, cropland expansion has precipitated losses in forest and grassland cover of 65% and 32% respectively (1990-2016) with resultant losses in biodiversity. Roughly a third of farmers own less than 0.2 ha of land and the agricultural mosaic is largely smallholder farms with some largescale farms growing export crops like tea.The rainforests in Indonesia are some of the most biodiverse in the world, containing 10% of the world's known plant species, 12% of mammal species and 17% of all known bird species. The biodiversity of these forests are under threat from the fragmentation of habitats from agricultural expansion, primarily driven by expansion of oil palm, of which more than 50% occurred at the expense of natural forests between 1990 and 2005.Forests cover almost half of the land area in Honduras, but are under threat from agricultural expansion which is estimated to be driving 80% of deforestation in the country. In terms of area, cattle ranching is by far the most extensive agricultural practice in Honduras and is the main driver of this forest loss, now covering nearly a quarter of the country's land area. Alongside this, grain cultivation in rotation and shade coffee are also widely farmed in the forest biomes of Honduras.This section will present the results from sites involved in the Trees on Farm project. The outputs can be viewed and interacted with in a Google Earth Engine app found at https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/samharrison/fbs/. A selection of these maps is shown in the results section here, with a more comprehensive list of maps available to view in the Earth Engine app.In Uganda, 78.8% of the country was part of an agricultural landscape, almost all of which had trees.Figure 3 shows the unweighted FBS at the pixel scale for Uganda. The highest scoring areas in Uganda appear to be across a central belt of the country, with the cropland here generally scoring around 2.The scores get patchier in the north where farms with some of the poorest scores are punctuated by areas of higher scoring agricultural landscapes. There are a small number of landscapes that were classed as unwooded with a score of zero. Scores were also high on areas of the east and west borders of the country, where farms are located on the slopes of mountains or mountain ranges.As the approach we have taken includes all land within an agricultural landscape, at the pixel level there will be lots of non-cultivated land included in the analysis. Northeast Uganda is generally drier and much more sparsely cultivated than the south, so the proportion of non-cultivated land in these landscapes may be higher. Adjusting the crop threshold for what is considered an agricultural landscape may reduce some of these inclusions, but at the risk of losing agricultural landscapes elsewhere.It is hard to validate these maps at scale, but from qualitative validation, the scoring seems to be reflecting what we might expect from the satellite images. Figure 4 shows a selection of high resolution images and their respective scores. These images, alongside further qualitative validation in this method, show that the FBS scores are generally reflecting what we might expect from the satellite images. The low scoring farm (fig. 4a) has no woody cover (W score: 0) with little structural diversity (T score: 0.12), and while the spectral diversity (P score: 0.48) may pick up fields at different planting stages, it is not enough to give the area a high score. Figure 4b shows greater woody cover (W score: 0.4) but little diversity in its structure (T score: 0.22), with the spectral variance (P score: 0.57) accounting for half the overall score. The high scoring landscape (fig. 4c) has greater woody cover with a W score of 1 and more diversity in structure with a variety of tree densities (T score: 0.83, P score: 0.77). Almost all landscapes in Rwanda are agricultural landscapes with only 9% of the lands area not part of these landscapes. None of the agricultural landscapes were without trees at the landscape level.Figure 5 shows the national pattern having an east-west divide with higher FBS landscapes in the west. The administrative boundary map shows that there is an appreciable difference in the mean FBS between the highest district (Gakenke, 2.2) and lowest (Nyagatare, 1.2); this was the greatest difference between 2 nd administrative units across all the study areas.Validation here showed similar outcomes as for Uganda with the scores reflecting what we would expect when interpreting the high resolution images. A sample of these images is shown in figure 6.The high scoring landscape shows greater woody cover and variability in structure among small fields, while the lowest scoring landscapes, mostly located in the driest region of the country, had little woody cover, mostly as part of boundaries for large fields. Almost all of the agricultural landscapes in Honduras were landscapes with trees, and made up 81% of the land area. Figure 7 shows the FBS aggregated at the landscape scale. In contrast to Uganda and Rwanda, there does not appear to be a dominant national pattern in score distribution, instead, the scores are generally more even and the spread of values is smaller, with fewer values at the extreme ends. When aggregating to the 2 nd administrative boundary, the mean values ranged from 1.5 to 1.9, which highlights the much tighter spread. The non-wooded agricultural landscapes that scored zero in the south of Honduras are areas dominated by large-scale commercial agriculture with few or no trees. Elsewhere in the country, the zero-scoring landscapes are those located in and around large towns and cities.Larger commercial farms are more common in Honduras than in Rwanda and Uganda, where agricultural land is mostly smallholdings. Using satellite images to validate the FBS performance in Honduras picks up how the score fares in these landscapes. Some of the lowest scoring landscapes are in areas where woody cover may be high, but the large scale growing of tree crops means there is little structural or spectral variation. For example, figure 8a shows large scale tree cropping in northern Honduras, perhaps of oil palm, which has an FBS of 1.0, with a W score of 0.60, T score of 0.26 and P score of 0.14. The higher scoring image (figure 8b) shows a lower intensity mixed system with good woody cover (W score: 1) and a variety of structures and mix of agricultural land uses (T score: 0.74, P score: 0.86) combining for an overall score of 2.6. The least farmed of the study sites was West Kalimantan, with 60% of the land being part of an agricultural landscape, all of which have trees. The agriculture here is predominantly large scale oil palm plantation, which poses an interesting test for the FBS. Much of this is not classed as cropland as perennial woody crops are instead classed as forest/shrub in the land cover product. As such the crop threshold was set to its lowest possible value (a single 100 m pixel within the 8km landscape) in order to make sure as much of the agricultural land was analysed. Perhaps due to the dominance of one land use type, the FBS score for West Kalimantan in relatively uniform with little spread of values as shown in figure 9. When aggregated to regencies, the range of means was small, from 1.4 to 1.7, showing the homogeneity of the scores.This site is the most difficult to validate as persistent cloud cover means clear images for the years around 2010 are rare. The landscapes with the highest scores were those where the largescale palm plantations were yet to reach, or in the early stages of clearance (figure 10a). The type of oil palm plantation that is now widespread in the region scores around 1, figure 10b shows a plantation landscape that scored 0.7.The poor performance of the land cover product in West Kalimantan did mean that the score failed to pick up some areas of agriculture in the province, particularly small scale farms in a forest-farm mosaic landscape. This is likely to reduce the overall scores for West Kalimantan and these mosaic landscapes would score much higher than the large plantations. Setting the crop threshold to the lowest possible value helped to pick up more agricultural landscapes, but there were still areas that were not delineated and thus not scored. This paper has shown the proof of concept for a remote sensing based approach to estimating farm biodiversity. The FBS shows encouraging potential, but the following section will outline the avenues for improvement to the FBS.Foremost is the need for validation. A search for appropriate datasets has yielded little in the way of comparative biodiversity metrics for agricultural land across nations. Subnational datasets are also scarce, with few countries having available data. There are some datasets like the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS), which collates bird diversity data from most European countries' national bird surveys, many of which sample birds in agricultural lands. Efforts have been made in recent years to set up common bird monitoring schemes in Africa (Wotton et al., 2020) for both inside and outside protected areas. A comparable multinational dataset is likely to be an unrealistic request, but a deeper search may return a set of useable datasets like the PECBMS to test with the FBS. A more realistic approach to improve the method through validation is to gather further qualitative feedback from those with on-the-ground experience and knowledge of agricultural biodiversity across a large scale.A useful facet of a monitoring tool is the ability to map not just spatial patterns but temporal changes too. In further development and testing of the tool, the detection of FBS change over time should be assessed by looking at areas of known change in intensification or intervention to see how the FBS measures this.Additional components could be included as optional for specific uses or planning purposes. Landscape connectivity, for example, is an important aspect of biodiversity in agricultural areas, facilitating movement and genetic mixing across landscapes and between intact habitats. Producing useful and informative maps of connectivity in agricultural landscapes requires significant research and modelling efforts that are outwith the scope of this study. Research into developing informative connectivity data layers for agricultural land is ongoing, and these could optionally be included in the FBS when available.The FBS is based on many assumptions on a variety of window sizes, thresholds, classes and cluster parameters. Performing some sensitivity analysis on this could help improve the model and our understanding of the importance of some of these parameters. For biomass thresholds, an idea for more informed thresholds could be based on potential biomass from climate and elevation data. The empirical data on potential biomass from climate alone is scant, with a few datasets on potential biomass for some biomes using sophisticated models (Exbrayat et al., 2017). A more thorough literature review on this could help make a more informed threshold choice based on potential biomass by biome or climate. This would reduce any potential bias towards higher biomass ecoregions.Improvements to the structural diversity layer should be carefully thought through. The variance around the structural classes is currently used to measure structural diversity. While this seems to work well in many cases, it may not always be the best measure. Certain configurations of biomass data within the window can lead to good structural variance scores while having a relatively homogenous structure. Some further testing and time to develop a more appropriate measures of structural diversity is needed to improve this. The biomass class thresholds should be tested in more locations as the current classes may be biased toward wetter biomes. More classes for low biomass pixels could help to reduce this bias as an alternative to the potential biomass approach mentioned above.The output of spectral variance analysis is currently at 2.5 km, from a 10-pixel window of 250 m data. This may be too large a pixel size to pick up some homogenous farms where the surrounding landscape is spectrally diverse. To reduce the scale of the spectral diversity, finer resolution input data will be needed. NDVI data at a smaller spatial resolution exists but lacks the temporal resolution or the 16day 'best pixel' data quality that MODIS has. As with much of the data used, there is a compromise to be made. Higher resolution data is also likely to result in longer computing time and a greater computer power requirement. Large scale spectral variability analysis is a new method, and any subsequent literature may help shed light on the sensitivity of some of the parameters like window size or number of clusters.Improvements to the weighting factors should include sensitivity analysis. At the moment, the score can be reduced by a fifth if the land is not sloping and not riparian. Exploring how there parameters alter wider scale scoring and patterns could help adjust these factors accordingly. Slope is currently used as a proxy for erosion risk. Much more sophisticated erosion models exist and this simple proxy could be elaborated to include some of the detail included in erosion models. For example, the commonly used and adapted USLE model uses a slope-length factor instead of the slope angle alone (Wischmeier & Smith, 1978). Including the upslope length along with the slope in the weighting would make it a more accurate reflection of erosion risk. Other erosion risk factor that could be included are soil type and climate.With a focus on the biomass product, there may be a bias towards wetter biomes as farms in drier climates may struggle to grow the size or abundance of trees in wetter forest biomes. If further testing shows this is the case, a weighting by biome or ecoregion could help balance out this bias. An ecoregion weighting could also be used to account for the rarity of ecosystems, i.e. trees on farms in rare wooded biomes may have more importance than in more abundant biomes.The FBS could be improved when newer, up-to-date and/or operational biomass datasets become available. The GlobBiomass dataset used here compromises recency for better quality data, as such the qualitative validation can be tricky where there have been significant changes in the past decade. An up to date biomass product could provide a more up-to-date FBS, but with poorer quality data, the score may be affected. As and when new data becomes available, this can be incorporated into the FBS for operational and recent biomass data, for example, GEDI, NISAR and BIOMASS mission data is expected to be operationally released in the next few years (Dubayah et al., 2020;Duncanson et al., 2020;Quegan et al., 2019). For any new biomass dataset used, the thresholds that are applied to the biomass data should be reconsidered and tested in a range of landscapes, as each dataset will perform differently in these landscapes.Similarly, recently released GEDI data has also been used to produce a global forest height map (Potapov et al., 2020). This could be explored as a dataset for structural diversity scoring instead of biomass. This dataset is currently at a prototype stage with known data issues but will be updated and refined over time. Although the data should still be applicable outside of forests, it has been designed for forest height mapping and not tree height in general.As mentioned above, an alternative dataset for the spectral analysis could improve the spectral variance layer. Sentinel-2 data may offer a solution and could be used to generate a time series of vegetation index at the resolution needed, but data quality control will be needed to make sure the images are cloud-free.Land cover products continue to be an issue. In drier biomes overestimation of agricultural landscapes is likely as natural vegetation here is confused with cropland. In forest biomes underestimation of these landscapes is likely, as wooded farms in a mosaic of forest remnants are confused with forest classes. A possible solution to this would be to use locally specific land cover maps where possible. These may be made by government agencies, NGO's or researchers with ground data to have tailored a land cover or land use map to the specific area. However, these are not always available or willingly shared.After further development of the FBS, it would be made more useful if it were reworked into an operational web tool, app or dashboard for planners or land managers to view and interact with the outputs. This may also allow the user to tweak the parameters of the FBS based on their own assumptions of the land in which they are applying the tool.The FBS is currently modelled in Google Earth Engine, with the spectral variance layer being calculated in R using the biodivMapR package. Calculating the spectral variance layer requires computing power which may not be accessible to all potential users. Making the model operational could require this spectral variance analysis to be rewritten into a cloud computing platform with links into Google Earth Engine, which could be possible with Google Colab. If the operational biomass layers are not available through Google Earth Engine, this platform could be used to get data and make it available for analysis in Earth Engine.Recent advances in remote sensing data and technologies are creating new opportunities for the conservation of biodiversity. The ability to use and analyse recent data means we can map the current state of environments and observe changes going forward. The application of these technologies in an accessible tool needs to be fully realised in agricultural biodiversity if we are to gauge our progress towards global agricultural biodiversity targets set in the post-2020 agenda. While there are aspects of farm biodiversity this does not account for, like inputs, livestock grazing and other management practices, the FBS indicator presented here is a promising proof of concept. With further testing and development, the indicator could be an invaluable tool for decision-makers. It could provide relevant information to a range of users on the spatial patterns and temporal changes of trees on farms and their contribution to agricultural biodiversity.","tokenCount":"7866"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dd7d333f7f647be5bd4cf89ab9774220","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/540cf1a3-0fa4-4cfd-bd68-17602f220d95/content","id":"1381155860"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6fd9a2a3-a8f2-49e8-8187-f3097467e868","pagecount":"57","content":"to provide a basis for selection of farmers, fields and non-experimental variables for onfarm experimentation, that are representative of the area.Preface \"What In the Rice-Based Farming Systems \" is the first in a series of studies being conducted by the NARC and provincial research institutes on wheat production systems in the major zones of Pakistan. Characteristically, these studies ate premised on an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to research that encompasses (a) surveys to understand and describe farmers' circumstances and diagnose major opportunities for improving productivity and (b) experiments for testing and demonstrating technologies under the given farm environment. This approach is disrtnct from the methodology of the main-stream literature; while identifying and describing both agronomic and economic components of the technologies, it quentifies their impact on production. The focus of the study in hand is wheat; however attention has been given to analysing it as an important activity in the overall cropping system. .In addition to delineating priorities for future research and extension work in the rice-wheat area of Punjab, the study provides a valuable set of data on practices, constral 'S and opportunities in the production of wheat in general. Because of a rather new conceptual framework of the study. the work has been elaborated in detail with an explicit objective of enabling the researcher to adopt the methodology for similar work on cropping systems in different agro-ecological zones of Pakistan.Dr. Mian M. Aslam Chief Scientific Officer Social Sciences Division PARC, Islamabad.Dr. Naeem I. Hashmi Coordinator, Wheat NARCPreface \"What In the Rice-Based Farming Systems \" is the first in a series of studies being conducted by the NARC and provincial research institutes on wheat production systems in the major zones of Pakistan. CharacteristicaUy, these studies ate premised on an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to research that encompasses (a) surveys to understand and describe farmers' circumstances and diagnose major opportunities for improving productivity and (b) experiments for testing and demonstrating technologies under the given farm environment. This approach is disrtnct from the methodology of the main-stream literature; while identifying and describing both agronomic and economic components of the technologies, it quentifies their impact on production. The focus of the study in hand is wheat; however attention has been given to analysing it as an important activity in the overall cropping system. .In addition to delineating priorities for future research and extension work in the rice-wheat area of Punjab, the study provides a valuable set of data on practices, constral 'S and opportunities in the production of wheat in general. Because of a rather new conceptual framework of the study, the work has been elaborated in detail with an explicit objective of enabling the researcher to adopt the methodology for similar work on cropping systems in different agro-ecological zones of Pakistan. \" is the first in a series of studies being conducted by the NARC and provincial research institutes on wheat production systems in the major zones of Pakistan. CharacteristicaUy, these studies ate premised on an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to research that encompasses (a) surveys to understand and describe farmers' circumstances and diagnose major opportunities for improving productivity and (b) experiments for testing and demonstrating technologies under the given farm environment. This approach is disrtnct from the methodology of the main-stream literature; while identifying and describing both agronomic and economic components of the technologies, it quentifies their impact on production. The focus of the study in hand is wheat; however attention has been given to analysing it as an important activity in the overall cropping system. .In addition to delineating priorities for future research and extension work in the rice-wheat area of Punjab, the study provides a valuable set of data on practices, constral 'S and opportunities in the production of wheat in general. Because of a rather new conceptual framework of the study, the work has been elaborated in detail with an explicit objective of enabling the researcher to adopt the methodology for similar work on cropping systems in different agro-ecological zones of Pakistan.   3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10 Table 11 Table 12 Table 13 Table i4     3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10 Table 11 Table 12 Table 13 Table i4   Average dose of nin 1gen and phosphorous in relation to recommendations. . . Classification of farmers according to the level of nitrogen and phosphatic fertilizer applied to wheat fields .in relation to the recommendations .. , ' . Regression analysis of factors determining fertilizer doses in wheat fields . Frequency of various weed types in wheat fields and their relationship to yieid . Characteristics of fields with and without phalaris infestation . Relationship between planting irrigation and previous crop . Relationship between planting irrigation, number of irrigations and post-planting irrigation . Calculations of the net price of wheat . Summary of major differences in farming systems, production 'practices and weed problems in low yielding and high yielding fields\" \" \" . \" \" . \" . Summary of relationship between em\"ironmental factors, resource contraints. cropping pattern and production practices in wheat\" \" \" .. Regression of yield on management practices and cropping histor~' in wheat production . Enterprise budgets fo:\" wheat -average and high yielding fields , , , . Summary of farm characteristics, cropping system and management practices by soil type . Summary of major differences in production practices in wheat by pre\\'ious crop \" \" \" . \" \" . Summary of major problems in wheat production and possible responses, \" \" \" , , \" .• 5 66 41 43 45       SUMMARY 1. The planting of wheat after rice is a major cropping pattern in the Punjab, occupying 0.5 million ha. in the Districts of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala alone. In this irrigated area, however, wheat yields remain low and research is urgently needed to find ways of increasing productivity in this important region. •As part of NARC's outreach program, a diagnostic survey of wheat was conducted in the Districts of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala in the 1983/84 crop cycle in order to delineate major sources of variation in the area, identify major factors limiting productivity and plan an onfarm experimentation/extension program. An informal survey by a team of agricultural economists and wheat agronomists was conducted in February, 1984. This was followed by a survey of wheat production practices and yields at harvest time in 152 fields. Production practices were recorded in a short interview with farmers and yields measured by harvesting and threshing a sample of the crop.3. Wheat after Basmati rice was the dominant crop rotation in the area, followed by wheat after IR-6 rice. Wheat 'was produced on two major soil types (~aseJ on soil survey classifications) imperfectly drained days and well drained loams anJ clay loams.Seedbed preparation for wheat was often very poor reflecting the difficulties of preparing land after rice, especially in heavy soils. After Basmati rice these problems were greater because of the limited time available for land preparation and the greater rice residue problem. As a result of poor land preparation, stand establishment was often poor and weed growth was encouraged. These factors combined to produce low wheat yields especially in heavy soils and after Basmati rice.5. The majority of farmers used banned wheat varieties, especially Yecora (58%). Only 16 percent used approved varieties released in the last 5 years. An inadequate seed distribution system and poor extension of information on newer varieties were the major factors constraining use of newer varieties. Since Yeeora is susceptible to both leaf and stripe rust, there is a real danger of a serious rust epidemic.Late planting of wheat in December and into January occurs in over half of the wheat fields. This is particularly true when wheat follows Basmati rice. The later harvest of Basmati and the need to obtain a suitable moisture condition for land preparation for wheat often leads to late planting.7. The majority of farmers now use 80kg/ha of nitrogen and 57kg/ha of phasporous (i.e. 1 bag/ acre each of urea and diammonium phosphate). In bette'r prepared fields and fields with better access to irrigation water, fertilizer rates are somewht higher leading to higher yields. The most important element explaining variation in yields was nitrogen. Most farmers appear to apply adequate phosphorus.Phalaris minor is a serious weed problem in a quarter of all fields leading to an average reduction in yield of about 25 percent in these fields. Broadleaf weeds are also a problem in some fields but with less yield damage. Farmers control Phalaris to some extent through crop rotation, especially by planting berseem. The survey showed that very few fields of wheat after berseem in the previous year were infested with Phalaris. Herbicides are used by only a handful of farmers. The high cost of herbicides in relation to returns, equivalent to 500kg of wheat/ha or 27 percent of average yields at the recommended dose, is an important obstacle to wider herbicide use.IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION.1. The planting of wheat after rice is a major cropping pattern in the Punjab, occupying 0.5 million ha. in the Districts of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala alone. In this irrigated area, however, wheat yields remain low and research is urgently needed to find ways of increasing productivity in this important region. •As part of NARC's outreach program, a diagnostic survey of wheat was conducted in the Districts of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala in the 1983/84 crop cycle in order to delineate major sources of variation in the area, identify major factors limiting productivity and plan an onfarm experimentation/extension program. An informal survey by a tcam of agricultural economists and wheat agronomists was conducted in February, 1984. This was followed by a survey of wheat production practices and yields at harvest time in 152 fields. Production practices were recorded in a short interview with farmers and yields measured by harvesting and threshing a sample of the crop.3. Wheat after Basmati rice was the dominant crop rotation in the area, followed by wheat after IR-6 rice. Wheat was produced on two major soil types (~aseJ on soil survey classifications) imperfectly drained days and well drained loams anJ clay loams.Seedbed preparation for wheat was often very poor reflecting the difficulties of preparing land after rice, especially in heavy soils. After Basmati rice these problems were greater because of the limited time available for land preparation and the greater rice residue problem. As a result of poor land preparation, stand establishment was often poor and weed growth was encouraged. These factors combined to produce low wheat yields especially in heavy soils and after Basmati rice.5. The majority of farmers used banned wheat varieties, especially Yecora (58%). Only 16 percent used approved varieties released in the last 5 years. An inadequate seed distribution system and poor extension of information on newer varieties were the major factors constraining use of newer varieties. Since Yccora is susceptible to both leaf and stripe rust, there is a real danger of a serious rust epidemic.Late planting of wheat in December and into January occurs in over half of the wheat fields. This is particularly true when wheat follows Basmati rice. The later harvest of Basmati and the need to obtain a suitable moisture condition for land preparation for wheat often leads to late planting.7. The majority of farmers now use 80kg/ha of nitrogen and 57kg/ha of phosporous (i.e. 1 bag/ acre each of urea and diammonium phosphate). In bette'r prepared fields and fields with better access to irrigation water, fertilizer rates are somewht higher leading to higher yields. The most important element explaining variation in yields was nitrogen. Most farmers appear to apply adequate phosphorus.Phalaris minor is a serious weed problem in a quarter of all fields leading to an average reduction in yield of about 25 percent in these fields. Broadleaf weeds are also a problem in some fields but with less yield damage. Farmers control Phalaris to some extent through crop rotation, especially by planting berseem. The survey showed that very few fields of wheat after berseem in the previous year were infested with Phalaris. Herbicides are used by only a handful of farmers. The high cost of herbicides in relation to returns, equivalent to 500kg of wheat/ha or 27 percent of average yields at the recommended dose, is an important obstacle to wider herbicide use.IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION.1. The planting of wheat after rice is a major cropping pattern in the Punjab, occupying 0.5 million ha. in the Districts of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala alone. In this irrigated area, however, wheat yields remain low and research is urgently needed to find ways of increasing productivity in this important region. •As part of NARC's outreach program, a diagnostic survey of wheat was conducted in the Districts of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala in the 1983/84 crop cycle in order to delineate major sources of variation in the area, identify major factors limiting productivity and plan an onfarm experimentation/extension program. An informal survey by a tcam of agricultural economists and wheat agronomists was conducted in February, 1984. This was followed by a survey of wheat production practices and yields at harvest time in 152 fields. Production practices were recorded in a short interview with farmers and yields measured by harvesting and threshing a sample of the crop.3. Wheat after Basmati rice was the dominant crop rotation in the area, followed by wheat after IR-6 rice. Wheat was produced on two major soil types (~aseJ on soil survey classifications) imperfectly drained days and well drained loams anJ clay loams.Seedbed preparation for wheat was often very poor reflecting the difficulties of preparing land after rice, especially in heavy soils. After Basmati rice these problems were greater because of the limited time available for land preparation and the greater rice residue problem. As a result of poor land preparation, stand establishment was often poor and weed growth was encouraged. These factors combined to produce low wheat yields especially in heavy soils and after Basmati rice.5. The majority of farmers used banned wheat varieties, especially Yecora (58%). Only 16 percent used approved varieties released in the last 5 years. An inadequate seed distribution system and poor extension of information on newer varieties were the major factors constraining use of newer varieties. Since Yccora is susceptible to both leaf and stripe rust. there is a real danger of a serious rust epidemic.Late planting of wheat in December and into January occurs in over half of the wheat fields. This is particularly true when wheat follows Basmati rice. The later harvest of Basmati and the need to obtain a suitable moisture condition for land preparation for wheat often leads to late planting.7. The majority of farmers now use 80kg/ha of nitrogen and 57kg/ha of phosporous (i.e. 1 bag/ acre each of urea and diammonium phosphate). In bette'r prepared fields and fields with better access to irrigation water, fertilizer rates are somewht higher leading to higher yields. The most important element explaining variation in yields was nitrogen. Most farmers appear to apply adequate phosphorus.Phalaris minor is a serious weed problem in a quarter of all fields leading to an average reduction in yield of about 25 percent in these fields. Broadleaf weeds are also a problem in some fields but with less yield damage. Farmers control Phalaris to some extent through crop rotation, especially by planting berseem. The survey showed that very few fields of wheat after berseem in the previous year were infested with Phalaris. Herbicides are used by only a handful of farmers. The high cost of herbicides in relation to returns, equivalent to 500kg of wheat/ha or 27 percent of average yields at the recommended dose, is an important obstacle to wider herbicide use. 9. Irrigation practices vary substantially depending on access to canal and tubewell water. Many farmers who obtain water from publicly owned tubewells faced serious water shortages due to mechanical breakdowns in these tubewells. The effect on yields in 1983-84 was not large due to timely rains. 10. Harvesting, threshing and transport costs account for over 25 percent of the total value of wheat harvested. While the official price of wheat is R 1600/ton (64 R for 40 kg) the net price that should be used in calculating the profitability of an innovation is ahout R l,100/ton (R42 per 40 kg) when harvesting and post-harvest costs are deducted.11. Average yields from the 152 samples were 1.8t/ha but quite variable. Twenty percent of fields yielded under I.Ot/ha and only 7 percent yielded over 3.0t/ha. The characteristics of the high yielding fields were: (a) lighter soils (b) wheat after maize or other non-rice crops, (c) sown with a newer variety (e.g. Punjab 81), (d) better land preparation, (e) earlier planting (f) 50 percent more nitrogen and (g) more irrigations. Conversely, low yielding fields had usually been planted continuously to wheat in the rabi cyde, usually followed Basmati and were seriously infested by Phalaris weed. Multiple regression analvsis of yields confirmed most of these factors as significantly affecting yields. Overall, the regression analysis explained half of the variation in wheat yields.12. There is an urgent need to stratify the farmers in the area into more homogeneous groups (i.e. recommendation domains) for the purpose of formulaton of recommendations. Major delineations should be based on soil type and access to irrigation water.13. Research and extension should direct efforts to evaluating and promoting newer varieties of wheat, finding economic means for controlling weeds and seeking solutions to the problem of poor stand establishment. A series of experiments/verifications to meet these objectives in both the shon and longer run are proposed. This research should be conducted in farmers fields within the 61elineated recommendation domains. There is also a need for rice and wheat researchers to integrate efforts to develop appropriate cropping systems that increase total productivity of the cropping system. 9. Irrigation practices vary substantially depending on access to canal and tubewell water. Many farmers who obtain water from publicly owned tubewells faced serious water shortages due to mechanical breakdowns in these tubewells. The effect on yields in 1983-84 was not large due to timely rains. 10. Harvesting, threshing and transport costs account for over 25 percent of the total value of wheat harvested. While the official price of wheat is R 1600/ton (64 R for 40 kg) the net price that should be used in calculating the profitability of an innovation is ahout R l,100/ton (R42 per 40 kg) when harvesting and post-harvest costs are deducted.11. Average yields from the 152 samples were 1.8t/ha but quite variable. Twenty percent of fields yielded under I.Ot/ha and only 7 percent yielded over 3.0t/ha. The characteristics of the high yielding fields were: (a) lighter soils (b) wheat after maize or other non-rice crops, (c) sown with a newer variety (e.g. Punjab 81), (d) better land preparation, (e) earlier planting (f) 50 percent more nitrogen and (g) more irrigations. Conversely, low yielding fields had usually been planted continuously to wheat in the rabi cyde, usually followed Basmati and were seriously infested by Phalaris weed. Multiple regression analvsis of yields confirmed most of these factors as significantly affecting yields. Overall, the regression analysis explained half of the variation in wheat yields.12. There is an urgent need to stratify the farmers in the area into more homogeneous groups (i.e. recommendation domains) for the purpose of formulaton of recommendations. Major delineations should be based on soil type and access to irrigation water.13. Research and extension should direct efforts to evaluating and promoting newer varieties of wheat, finding economic means for controlling weeds and seeking solutions to the problem of poor stand establishment. A series of experiments/verifications to meet these objectives in both the shon and longer run are proposed. This research should be conducted in farmers fields within the 61elineated recommendation domains. There is also a need for rice and wheat researchers to integrate efforts to develop appropriate cropping systems that increase total productivity of the cropping system.The rice growing areas of the Punjab, centred on Gujranwala and Sheikhupura Districts, have become increasingly important areas for wheat production in recent years as the greater availability of irrigation water has enabled more intensive cropping. The bulk of the cropped area, consistigg of 430,250 ha of rice and 500,000 ha of wheat in 1981, is now double cropped in a rice-wheat rotation. However, wheat yields in these rice tracts are substantially lower than in the other irrigated areas of the Punjab. For example, the 1980-82 average yield of wheat in Sheikhupura and Gujranwala Districts was only 1.6t/ha (17 mds/acre) compared to 2.1t/ha (23 mds/acre) in neighbouring Faisalabad District.Low wheat yields are in large part due to the special problems of growing wheat after rice that arise in many areas of South and Southeast Asia. However, the nature of these problems are not fully understood and in particular, little research has been conducted on wheat in the context of the broader rice-wheat cropping system. Current research and extension recommendations do not deal with the special problems of wheat in this zone.In 1983-84, the wheat program of NARC in collaboration with provincial research institutions has initiated a number of research projects in selected areas in order to develop and transfer technological recommendations that are appropriate to the natural and socio-economic circumstances of the farmers of that area. A process of onfarm research is employed consisting of several stages. First, researchers conduct a diagnostic survey to better understand farmer circumstances, identify factors limiting productivity and screen for appropriate technological alternatives. On the basis of this survey, experiments are conducted in farmers fields under farmer conditions in order iO test promising technologies. Finally proven technologies are demonstrated to farmers. This report is concerned with the first part of this research process -that is, the diagnostic survey. The broad objectives of this survey were as follows: a) to provide a general overview to wheat production practices and the cropping patterns and crop rotations in which wheat is produced Tn specific areas. b) to delineate relatively homogeneous groups of farmers or recommendation domains for whom the same general recommendation can be made. ' c) to better understand farmers reasons' for following particular cropping patterns and production practices. d) to identify major factors limiting productivity in wheat within the context of the cropping system, and evaluate possible research and extension strategies for overcoming these 1imiting factors. c) to identify factors related to policy and problems In policy implementation which constrain farmers adoption of improved technologies.The rice growing areas of the Punjab, centred on Gujranwala and Sheikhupura Districts, have become increasingly important areas for wheat production in recent years as the greater availability of irrigation water has enabled more intensive cropping. The bulk of the cropped area, consistigg of 430,250 ha of rice and 500,000 ha of wheat in 1981, is now double cropped in a rice-wheat rotation. However, wheat yields in these rice tracts are substantially lower than in the other irrigated areas of the Punjab. For example, the 1980-82 average yield of wheat in Sheikhupura and Gujranwala Districts was only 1.6t/ha (17 mds/acre) compared to 2.1t/ha (23 mds/acre) in neighbouring Faisalabad District.Low wheat yields are in large part due to the special problems of growing wheat after rice that arise in many areas of South and Southeast Asia. However, the nature of these problems are not fully understood and in particular, little research has been conducted on wheat in the context of the broader rice-wheat cropping system. Current research and extension recommendations do not deal with the special problems of wheat in this zone.In 1983-84, the wheat program of NARC in collaboration with provincial research institutions has initiated a number of research projects in selected areas in order to develop and transfer technological recommendations that are appropriate to the natural and socio-economic circumstances of the farmers of that area. A process of onfarm research is employed consisting of several stages. First, researchers conduct a diagnostic survey to better understand farmer circumstances, identify factors limiting productivity and screen for appropriate technological alternatives. On the basis of this survey, experiments are conducted in farmers fields under farmer conditions in order iO test promising technologies. Finally proven technologies are demonstrated to farmers. This report is concerned with the first part of this research process -that is, the diagnostic survey. The broad objectives of this survey were as follows: a) to provide a general overview to wheat production practices and the cropping patterns and crop rotations in which wheat is produced Tn specific areas. b) to delineate relatively homogeneous groups of farmers or recommendation domains for whom the same general recommendation can be made. ' c) to better understand farmers reasons' for following particular cropping patterns and production practices. d) to identify major factors limiting productivity in wheat within the context of the cropping system, and evaluate possible research and extension strategies for overcoming these 1imiting factors. c) to identify factors related to policy and problems In policy implementation which constrain farmers adoption of improved technologies. The methodology employed in the diagnostic survey follo,wed procedures developed and applied in a number of countries (see CIMMYT Economics, 1984, Byerlee et, al., 1982).The basic steps were as follows:1. Collection and Compilation of Secondary Data: Data on agro-climatic variables , irriglltion infrastructure, cropping patterns, etc. were collected from relevant authorities and from a review of previous studies in the area. However, lack of time precluded a detailed search for this information prior to the survey.2. An Informal Survey: An informal survey was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of wheat scientists and agricultural economists in the month of February, 1984. Three teams were formed each day for a period of a week to work in pre-selected areas. Each team interviewed farmers or groups of farmers who were met by chance in their fields or ill the village. Interviews were conducted informally without the use of a questionnaire but guided by a checklist of important issues to be covered. Interviews ranged from a few minutes to over an hour in length depending on the time and interest of the farmer. An effort was made to create a relaxed atmosphere in which farmers would feel free to express themselves and provide researchers a deeper understanding of the complexities of farmer management. Special efforts were made to also observe problems in farmers fields such as weeds and stand establishment. Other persons knowledgeable of agriculture such as grain traders and extension workers were also interviewed. At the end of each day of work, the team met in order to exchage findings, analyse data and plan the following day's activities.3. The Formal Survey: At harvest time, 152 farmers were interviewed on production practices in a specific field as well as general characteristics of his farm, such as farm size and machinery own~r ship. The sample consisted of farmers who were met harvesting the crop along main roads and secondary roads and tracks in the area. (The major areas sampled are shown in Figure 1). A one page questionnaire was used to collect information on the most important variables identified in the informal survey. In addition weed problems for three categories of weeds -broad leaf, wild oats and Phalaris minor were visually scored in each field using the following scale. Weed present but economic loss not significant 2Weed present in sufficient quantities that the yield loss would probably pay the cost of a herbicide application (about 300 kg/ha for broad leaf weeds and 500 kg/ha for wild oats and Phalaris). 3More weeds than wheat present in the field.At the same time, a sample of five 1m x 1m plots located randomly in the field were also harvested, weighed and threshed to estimate yields following methods described in Catling, Hobbs, Islam and Alam (1983).Appendix A includes a copy of the questionnaire. It is sufficient to note here that judging by the results of previous surveys in the area, the sample seems representative of farmers. For example, aver'age farm size of the1sample was 20.7 acres which compares with 20.7 acres recorded by WAPDA for a random sample of farmers in 1979 and 22 acres recorded by Khan ct. al (1981). Farm size distribution is also almost identical to that recorded bv Khan et. al (1981)1. lin pral'licc \\\\ c ,ampkd fidd, nnt farmer,. Since large farmers g:nerally own more fidds, we would expect a bias toward larger farmers in the sample. However many larg~farmers emplo!' onl!' hired labor for harvesting and it was often not possible tu interview the uwner. This tended to reduce the bias toward large farmers.The methodology employed in the diagnostic survey follo,wed procedures developed and applied in a number of countries (see CIMMYT Economics, 1984, Byerlee et, al., 1982).The basic steps were as follows:1. Collection and Compilation of Secondary Data: Data on agro-climatic variables , irriglltion infrastructure, cropping patterns, etc. were collected from relevant authorities and from a review of previous studies in the area. However, lack of time precluded a detailed search for this information prior to the survey.2. An Informal Survey: An informal survey was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of wheat scientists and agricultural economists in the month of February, 1984. Three teams were formed each day for a period of a week to work in pre-selected areas. Each team interviewed farmers or groups of farmers who were met by chance in their fields or ill the village. Interviews were conducted informally without the use of a questionnaire but guided by a checklist of important issues to be covered. Interviews ranged from a few minutes to over an hour in length depending on the time and interest of the farmer. An effort was made to create a relaxed atmosphere in which farmers would feel free to express themselves and provide researchers a deeper understanding of the complexities of farmer management. Special efforts were made to also observe problems in farmers fields such as weeds and stand establishment. Other persons knowledgeable of agriculture such as grain traders and extension workers were also interviewed. At the end of each day of work, the team met in order to exchage findings, analyse data and plan the following day's activities.3. The Formal Survey: At harvest time, 152 farmers were interviewed on production practices in a specific field as well as general characteristics of his farm, such as farm size and machinery own~r ship. The sample consisted of farmers who were met harvesting the crop along main roads and secondary roads and tracks in the area. (The major areas sampled are shown in Figure 1). A one page questionnaire was used to collect information on the most important variables identified in the informal survey. In addition weed problems for three categories of weeds -broad leaf, wild oats and Phalaris minor were visually scored in each field using the following scale.No weeds 1Weed present but economic loss not significant 2Weed present in sufficient quantities that the yield loss would probably pay the cost of a herbicide application (about 300 kg/ha for broad leaf weeds and 500 kg/ha for wild oats and Phalaris). 3More weeds than wheat present in the field.At the same time, a sample of five 1m x 1m plots located randomly in the field were also harvested, weighed and threshed to estimate yields following methods described in Catling, Hobbs, Islam and Alam (1983).Appendix A includes a copy of the questionnaire. It is sufficient to note here that judging by the results of previous surveys in the area, the sample seems representative of farmers. For example, aver'age farm size of the1sample was 20.7 acres which compares with 20.7 acres recorded by WAPDA for a random sample of farmers in 1979 and 22 acres recorded by Khan ct. al (1981). Farm size distribution is also almost identical to that recorded bv Khan et. al (1981)1. lin pral'licc \\\\ c ,ampkd fidd, nnt farmer,. Since large farmers g:nerally own more fidds, we would expect a bias toward larger farmers in the sample. However many larg~farmers emplo!' onl!' hired labor for harvesting and it was often not possible tu interview the uwner. This tended to reduce the bias toward large farmers. However, a bias related to the time of harvest should be noted. Our sample includes many 'more fields from the first half of the harvest. Since these fields were also earlier planted fields the sample significantly underestimates the proportion of late planted fields.4. Data Analysis: All data was analysed on an Apple lIe micro-computer using the package, Apple Interactive Data Analysis (AIDA). Farm budgets for wheat were constructed with the aid of VISICALC. The conceptual framework guiding the analysis is shown in Figure 2. The management practices in wheat and the cropping system employed are a result of the environment in which the farmers make decisions. The first round of the analysis focussed on defining those elements of the environment that are critical determinants of farmers' management. At the second stage, we looked for interrelationships between specific production practices (e.g. between variety and date of planting) and between the cropping system and production practices in wheat (e.g. between previous crop and date of planting). In this stage we analysed the implications of variation in farmers' management for yields and factors limiting p.roductivity. This sequence of steps provides a base of in- 4However, a bias related to the time of harvest should be noted. Our sample includes many 'more fields from the first half of the harvest. Since these fields were also earlier planted fields the sample significantly underestimates the proportion of late planted fields.4. Data Analysis: All data was analysed on an Apple lIe micro-computer using the package, Apple Interactive Data Analysis (AIDA). Farm budgets for wheat were constructed with the aid of VISICALC. The conceptual framework guiding the analysis is shown in Figure 2. The management practices in wheat and the cropping system employed are a result of the environment in which the farmers make decisions. The first round of the analysis focussed on defining those elements of the environment that are critical determinants of farmers' management. At the second stage, we looked for interrelationships between specific production practices (e.g. between variety and date of planting) and between the cropping system and production practices in wheat (e.g. between previous crop and date of planting). In this stage we analysed the implications of variation in farmers' management for yields and factors limiting p.roductivity. This sequence of steps provides a base of in- This report follows a similar sequence to the analysis. We !>egin by describing the farmers' environment and then analyse major features of the cropping system and production practices. Finally we diagnose the major factors limiting productivity and the implications for onfarm experimentation and extension.Variation in soils in the area has major implications for cropping patterns, production practices and researchable problems. The Soil Survey of Pakistan broadly classifies soils of the Upper Rechna Doab, which includes most of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala Districts into three major classes of normal soils and two classes of saline-sodic soils (see Table 1). The normal soils are sub-classified according to soil texture and drainage. Imperfectly drained clay and silty clays soils are quite suitable for rice but less suitable for production of wheat and other crops. These soils are difficult to prepare and to establish the appropriate texture and moisture condition for wheat planting. Well drained loams, and silt loams are suitable for all types of crops but because of their lighter texture are less ap ropriate for rice production. Finally, there are substantial areas of saline-sodic soils which a~e ~e..-.  This report follows a similar sequence to the analysis. We !>egin by describing the farmers' environment and then analyse major features of the cropping system and production practices. Finally we diagnose the major factors limiting productivity and the implications for onfarm experimentation and extension.Variation in soils in the area has major implications for cropping patterns, production practices and researchable problems. The Soil Survey of Pakistan broadly classifies soils of the Upper Rechna Doab, which includes most of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala Districts into three major classes of normal soils and two classes of saline-sodic soils (see Table 1). The normal soils are sub-classified according to soil texture and drainage. Imperfectly drained clay and silty clays soils are quite suitable for rice but less suitable for production of wheat and other crops. These soils are difficult to prepare and to establish the appropriate texture and moisture condition for wheat planting. Well drained loams, and silt loams are suitable for all types of crops but because of their lighter texture are less ap ropriate for rice production. Finally, there are substantial areas of saline-sodic soils which a~e ~e..-.  This report follows a similar sequence to the analysis. We !>egin by describing the farmers' environment and then analyse major features of the cropping system and production practices. Finally we diagnose the major factors limiting productivity and the implications for onfarm experimentation and extension.Variation in soils in the area has major implications for cropping patterns, production practices and researchable problems. The Soil Survey of Pakistan broadly classifies soils of the Upper Rechna Doab, which includes most of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala Districts into three major classes of normal soils and two classes of saline-sodic soils (see Table 1). The normal soils are sub-classified according to soil texture and drainage. Imperfectly drained clay and silty clays soils are quite suitable for rice but less suitable for production of wheat and other crops. These soils are difficult to prepare and to establish the appropriate texture and moisture condition for wheat planting. Well drained loams, and silt loams are suitable for all types of crops but because of their lighter texture are less ap ropriate for rice production. Finally, there are substantial areas of saline-sodic soils which a~e ~e..-.  not suitable for cultivation. A small proportion of'this latter group is more porous and can be reclaimed relatively easily. The rest of the saline-sodic soils are very dense and impermeable with a high pH (over 9.6) and their reclamation is not considered economic. Many fields also suffer from salinity patches. Some farmers have tried reclamation through planting of the legume, dhancha. A few farmers are also successfully using treatment by gypsum.In the formal survey, soil type was recorded according to the farmers terminology and confirmed by our own visual observations. In fact, farmers have a number ofsubclassifications. For example, loamy and clay loam soils are described generally as \"mehraa' but sandy loams are described as \"halkii mehraa\" and clay loarns as \"baari mehraa\" to indicate a mixture. Since most subclasses provided an insufficient sample size for further analysis we have grouped soils into three types as in Table 2. The sampling method of the formal survey deliberately tried to exclude the saline area. Nonetheless, a small number of fields with salinity problems were still included. The distribution of fields between heavier and lighter soils closely follows the proportions given by the Soil Survey of Pakistan (Table 1). While these classifications are admittedly approximate they proved to be useful in explaining differences in management practices.Although the area is widely covered by the irrigation canal system, the water supply in much of the area is not sufficient to provide permanent irrigation, especially in the Rabi season. Hence rainfall in the Rabi season is an important supplement to irrigation water for wheat production. Annual rainfall ranges from 800mm in Sialkot to 425mm in Sheikhupura. About one third of this is received in the Rabi cycle but with substantial year to year variation (see Figure 3).Wheat yields are also dependent on temperatures in the flowering and early grain filling stages in late March and April. There is substantial variation in temperatures in these months (see Table 3). When hot weather arrives early, the effect on yields is particularly important for late sown wheat. Late planting is a common practice in the area because of the rice-wheat rotation employed (see below). not suitable for cultivation. A small proportion of'this latter group is more porous and can be reclaimed relatively easily. The rest of the saline-sodic soils are very dense and impermeable with a high pH (over 9.6) and their reclamation is not considered economic. Many fields also suffer from salinity patches. Some farmers have tried reclamation through planting of the legume, dhancha. A few farmers are also successfully using treatment by gypsum.In the formal survey, soil type was recorded according to the farmers terminology and confirmed by our own visual observations. In fact, farmers have a number ofsubclassifications. For example, loamy and clay loam soils are described generally as \"mehraa' but sandy loams are described as \"halkii mehraa\" and clay loarns as \"baari mehraa\" to indicate a mixture. Since most subclasses provided an insufficient sample size for further analysis we have grouped soils into three types as in Table 2. The sampling method of the formal survey deliberately tried to exclude the saline area. Nonetheless, a small number of fields with salinity problems were still included. The distribution of fields between heavier and lighter soils closely follows the proportions given by the Soil Survey of Pakistan (Table 1). While these classifications are admittedly approximate they proved to be useful in explaining differences in management practices.Although the area is widely covered by the irrigation canal system, the water supply in much of the area is not sufficient to provide permanent irrigation, especially in the Rabi season. Hence rainfall in the Rabi season is an important supplement to irrigation water for wheat production. Annual rainfall ranges from 800mm in Sialkot to 425mm in Sheikhupura. About one third of this is received in the Rabi cycle but with substantial year to year variation (see Figure 3).Wheat yields are also dependent on temperatures in the flowering and early grain filling stages in late March and April. There is substantial variation in temperatures in these months (see Table 3). When hot weather arrives early, the effect on yields is particularly important for late sown wheat. Late planting is a common practice in the area because of the rice-wheat rotation employed (see below).  The canal irrigation system covers most of the area but canal flow varies from perennial to seasonal with substantial year-to-year variation. Only about half the Upper Rcchna Doab is classified as subject to perennial canal flow. Seasonal water shortages arc greatest in the late raLi and early Kharif cycle, especially in the month of June.O\\'cr half the water supply is prm-idcd 1:y tubcwells. Many rubcwells were installed in the 1960s under the SCARP IV Project (Salinity Control and Reclamation Project). Howe\\Tf, pumps arc now old and farmers complained bitterly of problems of breakdowns and corrupt practices by tubewell operators. There is e\\-idencc that the supply of groundv,iater from these public tubewells has declined steadil)' each Far (\\\\'APDA, 19'/9). In the 1970s, farmers aided by credit programmes and public incentives iO\\'ested sutstantially in pri\\'ate tu\\.cwclls. Overall about 19 percent of farmers arc The canal irrigation system covers most of the area but canal flow varies from perennial to seasonal with substantial year-to-year variation. Only about half the Upper Rcchna Doab is classified as subject to perennial canal flow. Seasonal water shortages arc greatest in the late raLi and early Kharif cycle, especially in the month of June.O\\'cr half the water supply is prm-idcd 1:y tubcwells. Many rubcwells were installed in the 1960s under the SCARP IV Project (Salinity Control and Reclamation Project). Howe\\Tf, pumps arc now old and farmers complained bitterly of problems of breakdowns and corrupt practices by tubewell operators. There is e\\-idencc that the supply of groundv,iater from these public tubewells has declined steadil)' each Far (\\\\'APDA, 19'/9). In the 1970s, farmers aided by credit programmes and public incentives iO\\'ested sutstantially in pri\\'ate tu\\.cwclls. Overall about 19 percent of farmers arc dependent onl~' on canal water, 40 percent usc canal and public tubewells and the remainder usc canal and pri\\'atl' tubewdis (Wl\\PDA, 1979). There are also significant areas north-east and west of CujraO\\\\\"ala where farmers arc entirely dependent on tubewdl water for both rabi and kharif crops.It was beyond the scope of this study to determine the extent and se\\\"Crity of water shortages. In 1~176-77 a sur'ey recorded 56 percent of farmers as being subject to water scarcity with tpe greatest shortage in the RalJi cycle (J•igure 4) (WAPDA, 1979) This percentage has probably fallen recently with the installation of printe tubewells but a significant number of farm(.'rs still have water shortages. Howe\\'er, little land is left fallow in the rabi cycle due to lack of water.••55•55•36 dependent onl~' on canal water, 40 percent usc canal and public tubewells and the remainder usc canal and pri\\'atl' tubewdis (Wl\\PDA, 1979). There are also significant areas north-east and west of CujraO\\\\\"ala where farmers arc entirely dependent on tubewdl water for both rabi and kharif crops.It was beyond the scope of this study to determine the extent and se\\\"Crity of water shortages. In 1~176-77 a sur'ey recorded 56 percent of farmers as being subject to water scarcity with tpe greatest shortage in the RalJi cycle (J•igure 4) (WAPDA, 1979) This percentage has probably fallen recently with the installation of printe tubewells but a significant number of farm(.'rs still have water shortages. Howe\\'er, little land is left fallow in the rabi cycle due to lack of water.••55•55•36 Canal irrigation water charges vary by crop (Rice 65R/acre, wheat 42R/acre, sugar-cane 200R/acrc, and berseem 65R/acre). Private tubewell owners also sell water to neighbours, usually for one crop season. In return the owner receives one qual'ter of the crop share for wheat and a one third share in the case of rice.Drainage is a major problem in the area. The water table tends to be high, although the SCARP project has alleviated the problem in some areas. In the Upper Rachna Doab, 25 percent of the area is classi fied as having a water table at a depth of less than 10 feet. Ten percent is su bject to salfnity problems (WAPDA, 1979). Some open drains exist but they arc inadequate. There are areas where \\\\laterlogging and salinity allow only a rice crop to be produced leaving the area fallow in the rabi season. There are other areas affected by floods in the kharif cycle where no kharif crop is grown.While fertilizer is readily available in village stores, an adequate distribution system for improved seeds docs not exist. Even when farmers, especially smaller farmers arc aware of newer, better varieties, they have difficulty obtaining the seed. In additon, wheat seed is usually not available in bags smaller than 90kg which would allow farmers' to purchase small quantities of improved seed, test the variety and multiply their own seed.Chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides are not widely used although insecticides are sometimes applied to rice. Supplies of these chemicals are somewhat erratic especially :n smaller towns and some farmers also complained that they were diluted. I;ew farmers appeared to have any contact with the extension service. As a result, knowledgee of new varieties is inadequate although some demonstrations appear along main roads. Jo\"ev,,' farmers have sufficient information to make effective decisions on pesticide use. A training and visit (T & V) extension program has been operating in Sheikhupura District for two to three ~'ears hut it apr ears to focus extension efforts only on some villages. Many farmers complained that .extension workers only \\'isited the more int1uential farmers.The area is well served by road networks. Most \\'illages arc connected by \"kutcha\" roads to secondary or main roads and the system of \"pucca\" roads is expanding rapidly. At the same time the area includes several sizable and growing industrial cities such as (;ujranwala and Sheikhupura as well as the Lahore metropolitan area. These changes in road systems and the growing urban market has provided specialized markets along main roads and near cities for green fodder, fruit, vegetables and milk.Wheat is gro~'n by farmers for subsistence needs and the surplus marketed. Wheat along wit\\-• rice can be sold to government marketing agents at the official pnce. Generally this serves to establish a minimum pricc for whcat although under-weighting is encouraged by the lack of any allowance for losses in local storage facilities of gmTrnment marketing agents. Most farmers sell wheat to private buyers at slightly less than the olicial price.Average farm size in the sample was 8.4 ha (20.7 acres) but with substantial variation as shown Canal irrigation water charges vary by crop (Rice 65R/acre, wheat 42R/acre, sugar-cane 200R/acrc, and berseem 65R/acre). Private tubewell owners also sell water to neighbours, usually for one crop season. In return the owner receives one qual'ter of the crop share for wheat and a one third share in the case of rice.Drainage is a major problem in the area. The water table tends to be high, although the SCARP project has alleviated the problem in some areas. In the Upper Rachna Doab, 25 percent of the area is classi fied as having a water table at a depth of less than 10 feet. Ten percent is su bject to salfnity problems (WAPDA, 1979). Some open drains exist but they arc inadequate. There are areas where \\\\laterlogging and salinity allow only a rice crop to be produced leaving the area fallow in the rabi season. There are other areas affected by floods in the kharif cycle where no kharif crop is grown.While fertilizer is readily available in village stores, an adequate distribution system for improved seeds docs not exist. Even when farmers, especially smaller farmers arc aware of newer, better varieties, they have difficulty obtaining the seed. In additon, wheat seed is usually not available in bags smaller than 90kg which would allow farmers' to purchase small quantities of improved seed, test the variety and multiply their own seed.Chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides are not widely used although insecticides are sometimes applied to rice. Supplies of these chemicals are somewhat erratic especially :n smaller towns and some farmers also complained that they were diluted. I;ew farmers appeared to have any contact with the extension service. As a result, knowledgee of new varieties is inadequate although some demonstrations appear along main roads. Jo\"ev,,' farmers have sufficient information to make effective decisions on pesticide use. A training and visit (T & V) extension program has been operating in Sheikhupura District for two to three ~'ears hut it apr ears to focus extension efforts only on some villages. Many farmers complained that .extension workers only \\'isited the more int1uential farmers.The area is well served by road networks. Most \\'illages arc connected by \"kutcha\" roads to secondary or main roads and the system of \"pucca\" roads is expanding rapidly. At the same time the area includes several sizable and growing industrial cities such as (;ujranwala and Sheikhupura as well as the Lahore metropolitan area. These changes in road systems and the growing urban market has provided specialized markets along main roads and near cities for green fodder, fruit, vegetables and milk.Wheat is gro~'n by farmers for subsistence needs and the surplus marketed. Wheat along wit\\-• rice can be sold to government marketing agents at the official pnce. Generally this serves to establish a minimum pricc for whcat although under-weighting is encouraged by the lack of any allowance for losses in local storage facilities of gmTrnment marketing agents. Most farmers sell wheat to private buyers at slightly less than the olicial price.Average farm size in the sample was 8.4 ha (20.7 acres) but with substantial variation as shown in Figure 5. The majority of the sample were small farmers operating less than 5 ha (12.5 acres). Moreover, many of the larger farms were operated by an extended family partnership with two or more brothers working together, so that measured in terms of avcrage farm size per household, small farmers would be cven more dominant.  The dominant tcnancy classes an: land owners or owners-cum tenants. Two systems of renting land an: common. In share tenancy. owners and tenants share equally in the output and also stare costs of purchase for inputs, specifically fertilizer. The tenant pays other costs including the seed. 1n 10 in l;igure 5. The majority of the sample werc small farmcrs operating lcss than 5 ha (12.5 acres). Moreovcr, many of the larger farms were operated by an extended family partnership with two or more brothers working together, so that measured in tcrms of avcrage farm size per household, small farmers would be cven more dominant.  \"fbi: dominant tcnancy classes an: land owners or owners-cum tenants. Two systems of renting land arc common. In share tcnancy, owners and tenants share equally in the output and also sLarc costs of purchase for inputs, specifically fertilizer. The tenant pays other costs including the seed. 1n 10 in l;igure 5. The majority of the sample werc small farmcrs operating lcss than 5 ha (12.5 acres). Moreovcr, many of the larger farms were operated by an extended family partnership with two or more brothers working together, so that measured in tcrms of avcrage farm size per household, small farmers would be cven more dominant.   6 or 7 show distribution of cropped area to different crops and changes over time in major crops. It is clear that wheat and rice are the major rabi and kharif crops, respectively, accounting for over 80 percent of cropped area in each cycle. Summer and winter fodder crops followed by sugarcane and a number of other speciality crops such as vegetables const'itute the remaining area.Production of both rice and wheat have increased over the last decade but in different ways. Wheat area has expanded slowly but yields have increased by 16 percent from 1973-75 to 1980-82. In contrast, rice area has jumped sharply with increased cropping intensity but yields have stagnated. Part of this decline in rice yields in recent years is due to a switch from the higher yielding IR6 rice to the lower yielding but higher priced Basmati variety (see below).    6 or 7 show distribution of cropped area to different crops and changes over time in major crops. It is clear that wheat and rice are the major rabi and kharif crops, respectively, accounting for over 80 percent of cropped area in each cycle. Summer and winter fodder crops followed by sugarcane and a number of other speciality crops such as vegetables conscitute the remaining area.Production of both rice and wheat have increased over the last decade but in different ways. Wheat area has expanded slowly but yields have increased by 16 percent from 1973-75 to 1980-82. In contrast, rice area has jumped sharply with increased cropping intensity but yields have stagnated. Part of this decline in rice yields in recent years is due to a switch from the higher yielding IR6 rice to the lower yielding but higher priced Basmati variety (see below).    oI .'--\",--Tj--rj--r'--t'I-~j_-\"I~-\"jr---\"I~-\"I_-------Vear Figur. 7. Average Vield of Wheat and Rice, 5heikhugura and Gujranwala Districts 1973-1982 nant species. In light of these numbers, the importance of fodder production is obvious, Common cropping paterns and the planting and harvesting dates are shown in Figure 8. Table 6 gives details of the specific crop rotations followed in the sampled wheat fields.tNearly three qu~s of wheat fields were planted after rice and only 12 percent after anotheL~~p s~~ssummer fodder or vegetables. fable 6 snows for example that 36 percent of fields followeaa cropp-.ing pattern, Basmati rice-wheat-Basmati rice. The Rice-Wheat System J Two major rice varieties are produced -Basmati and lR6. Basmati rice is grown on about 85 percent of the rice land!. It is transplanted at the beginning of July and harvested from early November to December. IRRI rice, usually IR6, is transplanted in June and harvested by October. In the case of Basmati rice. there is a significant period of time between wheat harvesting and rice transplanting. Usually land is left idle in this period but if water is available and the land is near the village or a main road a farmer may grow a green fodder crop (usually maize). After Basmati rice there is relatively little time to prepare the land for wheat~Delayed harvesting of Basmati rice, problems of too much or too little moisture for land preparation, and rice stubble often results in poor land preparation and late planting of wheat (i.e. after December 1st) and consequently reduced wheat yields unless the spring weather is unusually cool.In the case of IR6 rice there is a substantial period of time between the harvesting of rice and the planting of wheat, allowing better land preparation and timely planting of wheat. Generally a \"fill in\" fodder crop is not grown during this period.Farmers decision with respect to Basmati versus IR6 rice rdlect a number of factors. As a general rule, Basmati rice prices are double the price of IR6 rice, but yields are only half of the yields of lR6 rice, so that gross returns are about equal. Basmati rice requires less inputs (it is less responsivc to fertilizer), is traditionally preferred for eating, can be planted after the beginning of thc monsoons when more water is available and provides highcr straw value for feeding livestock.1Table 6 indicates a hi!!her proportion of land planted to IR6 Ri\",', However this is almost eertainlv an owrestimate since our sample was biased toward earlier planted fields whieh often follow 11<6 ri<:e. . 14 nant species. In light of these numbers, the importance of fodder production is obvious, Common cropping paterns and the planting and harvesting dates are shown in Figure 8. Table 6 gives details of the specific crop rotations followed in the sampled wheat fields.tNearly three qu~s of wheat fields were planted after rice and only 12 percent after anotheL~~p s~~ssummer fodder or vegetables. fable 6 snows for example that 36 percent of fields followeaa cropp-.ing pattern, Basmati rice-wheat-Basmati rice. The Rice-Wheat System J Two major rice varieties are produced -Basmati and lR6. Basmati rice is grown on about 85 percent of the rice land!. It is transplanted at the beginning of July and harvested from early November to December. IRRI rice, usually IR6, is transplanted in June and harvested by October. In the case of Basmati rice. there is a significant period of time between wheat harvesting and rice transplanting. Usually land is left idle in this period but if water is available and the land is near the village or a main road a farmer may grow a green fodder crop (usually maize). After Basmati rice there is relatively little time to prepare the land for wheat~Delayed harvesting of Basmati rice, problems of too much or too little moisture for land preparation, and rice stubble often results in poor land preparation and late planting of wheat (i.e. after December 1st) and consequently reduced wheat yields unless the spring weather is unusually cool.In the case of IR6 rice there is a substantial period of time between the harvesting of rice and the planting of wheat, allowing better land preparation and timely planting of wheat. Generally a \"fill in\" fodder crop is not grown during this period.Farmers decision with respect to Basmati versus IR6 rice rdlect a number of factors. As a general rule, Basmati rice prices are double the price of IR6 rice, but yields are only half of the yields of lR6 rice, so that gross returns are about equal. Basmati rice requires less inputs (it is less responsivc to fertilizer), is traditionally preferred for eating, can be planted after the beginning of thc monsoons when more water is available and provides highcr straw value for feeding livestock.1Table 6 indicates a hi!!her proportion of land planted to IR6 Ri\",', However this is almost eertainlv an owrestimate since our sample was biased toward earlier planted fields whieh often follow 11<6 ri<:e..Year 2 Preparation of the Hasmati rice nursery also occurs after the wheat harvest minimizing the labour conflicts that occur between wheat harvesting and threshing and preparation of a nursery for IR6 rice. lR6 on the other hand is favoured for its earlier maturity, greater response to inputs, reduced stubble for incorporation, less marketing problems <i.e. discounts for quality) and greater resistance to insect attack (at least in 1983). Most farmers grow only Basmati rice and a minority grow both Basmati and IR6 rice. Very few farmers grow only 1R6 rice. Some areas (e.g. north of Muridke) appear to ha\\'e a rclati\\'(~ly high proportion of IR6 rice which probably reflects (a) more research and extension contacts and (I» a\\'ailability of water from private and SCARP tubewells in June for • transplanting rice. The tendency for some farmers to grow both 1R6 and Rasmati rice probably renects a strategy of a\\'Oiding risks as well as spreading the labour demands for transplanting and h;Ir\\'estinf! (H'er a longer period.Official statistics and survey data indicate that there has been a significant switch from IR6 rice to Basmati rice in recent years. For example, a survey by Khan et. a1. (1980) shows that IR6 rice occupied about 50 percent of the area in 1978-79 compared with about 15 percent in 1983. Withdrawal of subsidies on fertilizer 1nd insecticides which arc commonly applied to IR6 rice has been one factor in this change. How ,er, more research is needed to look at the returns to the ricewheat cropping pattern for different •.arieties, technologies and prices.Rabi Crops; Wheat Versus Fodder Crops Fodder crops, largely berseem but also oats, are the major competitor to wheat for land in the rabi cycle. On average, about 15 percent of cropped area or about 1.1 ha/farm (2.5 acres) was allocated to berseem in the 1983-84 cycle. However, this proportion varies widely among farmers. One quarter of farmers had no berseem which usually reflects land scarcity, salinity and/or waterlogging problems or water shortage. On the other hand, 18 percent of farmers had more than a quarter of rabi cropped area in berseem. These farmers were usually located on main roads and close to large towns and either produced milk commercially or sold fodder commercially I . In 1984, gross revenues (not including costs) from fodder production were around 2000R-/acre for oats and ranged UptD 4000 R/acre for berseem, compared to gross returns in wheat of around 1000R/acre, The rotation of wheat with berscem is an important management practice particularly for the control of grassy weeds, such as Phalaris in wheat. The continuous watering and cutting of fodder ensures germination but not seed set of grassy weeds. Since both Phalaris and wild oats require cool temperatures for germination, only a rotation with a rabi crop such as herscem is an effective weed control strategy.TaLlie 7 shows the diStribution of the ratio ;)etween berscem area anJ wheat area. A ratio of 4implies a rotation of \\vbeat with berseem e\\'en' five ,\"cars, This in fact, is the dominant rotation in the area 2 . .Along thc main roads and ncar the towns, the area under fruit and \\\"Cgetables and sometimes sugar cane is expanding rctlecting their higher returns'. Since small farmers produce wheat largely for home consumption thc~' han~less flexibility to explore alternati\\'e rabi cropping patterns unless The demand for these products will expand rapidly as urban incomes increase and land will be shifted out of wheat. This underlines the need to increase yields and productivity in wheat production.Relatively little land is now left fallow in either the rabi or kharif cycle. In the rabi cycle, most. fallow land occurs in fields which suffer from problems of water-logging and/or salinity and are only suitable for rice production in the Kharif cycle: About 15 percent of wheat fields were planted after fallow in the previous kharif cycle. These were fields with either too little water for a kharif crop Qr that were subject to flooding! . In a few cases, farmers who depended on diesel powered tubewells have dropped rice cultivation because of the high cost of water.The overall cropping index recorded in surveys of 1976 and 1979-80 was around 140. With improved water supply due to private tubcwell investment this index has probably increased, although it is still significantly less than 200.Desirable seed ueds for rice and wheat are in direct contlict. For rice, efforts arc made to create, by puddling, a hard pan to retain water. Wheat on the other hand prefers a finely prepared and well drained seed bed. Land preparation in wheat is generally performed by tra£tors equipped with a tyned-cultivator and followed by a plank. The quality of the final seedbed is determined by the number of times this tillage operation is performed. the moisture cond;tion of the soil at tr.e time of tillage, soil texture and the incorporation or breakdown of residues of the rice crop. The number of times that tillage is performed varies from two to ten with an average of six. This represents a significant cost to farmers. Tractor rental services charge 30R/acre for ploughing and 1'7  Bersccm rotated with wheat every 3 to 5 years Berseem rotated every 3 years or less they are assured of a reliable supply of wheat flour in the markets. However, large farmers who regularly produce a surplus of wheat have much greater flexibility to change into other crops in the short run. Aleady this change is underway with larger farmers moving into dairying operations or fruit orchards. The demand for these products will expand rapidly as urban incomes increase and land will be shifted out of wheat. This underlines the need to increase yields and productivity in wheat production.Relatively little land is now left fallow in either the rabi or kharif cycle. In the rabi cycle, most. fallow land occurs in fields which suffer from problems of water-logging and/or salinity and are only suitable for rice production in the Kharif cycle: About 15 percent of wheat fields were planted after fallow in the previous kharif cycle. These were fields with either too little water for a kharif crop Qr that were subject to flooding' . In a few cases, farmers who depended on diesel powered tubewells have dropped rice cultivation because of the high cost of water.The overall cropping index recorded in surveys of 1976 and 1979-80 was around 140. With improved water supply due to private tubcwell investment this index has probably increased, although it is still significantly less than 200.Desirable seed ueds for rice and wheat are in direct contlict. For rice, efforts are made to create, by puddling, a hard pan to retain water. Wheat on the other hand prefers a finely prepared and well drained seed bed. Land preparation in wheat is generally performed by tra'.:tors equipped with a tyned-cultivator and followed by a plank. The quality of the final seedbed is determined by the number of times this tillage operation is performed. the moisture cond;tion of the soil at tl~e time of tillage, soil texture and the incorporation or breakdown of residues of the rice crop. The number of times that tillage is performed varies from two to ten with an average of six. This represents a significant cost to farmers. Tractor rental services charge 30R/aere for ploughing and 1'7 v a r i e t y J \\ . .More than 16 varieties were named from the 152 samples. Yecora was by far the dominant variety of wheat grown in the area, being grown by 58 percent of all farmers' . This variety was introduced in 1978 following the rust epidemic of 1977 but has been dropped from the list of recommended varieties for the last two years because of susceptibility to both leaf and stripe rust. Yecora is grown by these farmers for both normal and late planting. An additional eight percent of farmers used other old banned varieties such as Chenab 70, Mcxipak and even C591. Sonalika/Blue Silver was used by 18 percent of farmers. This is an older early variety that is still recommended for late planting despite its susceptibility to rust. Other newer approved varieties such as Sandal, Indus 79, Punjab 81 and Pak 81 were used by only 16 percent of farmers.Clearly only a minority of farmers are using approved varieties, especially those released in the last 5 years. This problem seems to be more serious in the study area than in other areas of the Punjab. A recent survey in th central and southern Punjab recorded 49 percent of farmers using approved varieties (PARC, 1984). In particular Pak 81 had been widely adopted.The slow adoption of new varieties seems to relate to (a) lack of information on the part of farmers, (1-') lack of access to seed and (c) the established performance of Yecora under the conditions for the area (i.e. poor land preparation and late planting). few farmers, especially those farmers away from towns and main roads, recognized the names of newer varieties. Extension has generally not been :;uccessful in passing this information to farmers. And as we ha\\'e noted, there arc problems in obtaining good seed even when farmers have knowledge of the varieties. Even among those farmers who use newer approved varieties only 27 percent had purchased certified seed in 1983-84. Under these conditions, farmers generally keep seed from one year to the next and over time the seed becomes a mixture of many varieties (The increase in mechanical' threshing has apparently increased this problem). We noted many fields \\vhere this mixing was evident.To some extent large farmers ha\\T overcome these problems. Nearly sixty percent of large farmers (over 10ha) used apprO\\•ed varieties (although the dominant variety was Sonalika) compared lin la,,:\\ blJlh \"l.'\\.•ora ~lIhll\\lri 73 an: t!ro\\\\,n, llc.:l'all~t.' tIH•~• arlo' difficult to di~tin~L1ish (IHlth arc triple J\\\\\"arf~) tht.\"y are often ~onfu!'leJ, \\\\t,: hll\\\\.' ~rollpl'1..1 hoth under Yl'cora, to onl}' 28 percent of small farmers « 5 ha). However, only 20 percent of large farmers purchase certified seed.Of the sampled fields, 40 percent were planted after December 1st and 10 percent after December 15th. Ilowner. these figures almost certainly underestimate the extent of late planting because of the bias in our sampling of fields towards those that were harvested early. Based on ~>ur observations in the informal survey conducted in February and also correcting for the sampling bias we estimate that about 60 percent of fields were planted after December 1st and 30 percent after December 15th. Late planting reduces the period for tillering and increases the risk of hot weather in the critical period of early grain filling. Figure 9 in fact illustrates the decline in yields with late planting although other factors associated with late planting, such as poor land preparation, also contribute.There are many reasons for late planting including (a) late harvest of the previous crop, (b) lack of water for planting (e) :)0 much water for planting in heavy soils after rice (d) unavailability of inputs, maehin~ry or many and (e~delayed planting in order to allow weeds to germinate. Of these by far the most common is late harvest of rice due to either (a) delays in planting of Basmati, (b) labour scarcity at the rice harvest time and (c) post harvest operations of threshing and drying of rice which are often carried out in the fields before preparing land for whe•at. Moreover, in heavy soils farmers often have to wait for drying of the field after the rice harvest before land preparation for wheat can begin. These problems are much less common with IR6 rice which is planted earlier and has a shorter growing cycle. This is illustrated in Figure 10 which shows that after lR6 rice, most wheat had been planted by December 1st.Farmers apparently make little effort to accommodate management practices in wheat to late planting, except as we ha\\'e seen, by reducing the number of tillage operations and inereasing the seed rate. Interestingly, only a few farmers changed to the early maturing variety, Sonalika, for late planting. In fact, Yceora tends to be the variety that is favoured for late planting.Fertilizer was applied by 93 percent of the sampled farmers. The small number who did not apply fertilizer usually had unusual circumstances, such as a cash crisis at planting time. By far the most common fertilizer dose was 1 bag/acre of DAP at planting time followed by 1 bag/acre of urea with the first irrigation (i.e. 80-57-0kg/ha of N-P-K). About half of the farmers followed this practice which is close to the recommendation of 1.25 bags/acre each of DAP and Urea (sec Table 9 an and 10) although significantly less than that applied by the extension service in their demonstrations (2 bags Urea and one bag DAP)I .Under poor growing conditions with poor land preparation and drainage and many weeds, it is doubtful that fertility is a limiting factor. llowever, where conditiions are better, especially on lighter soils, nitrogen deficicnces were often evident. In particular, fertilizer is often applied unevenly resulting in strips of higher fertility through the fields. Certainly there is no reason to expect that one fertilizer recommendation will sen'ice such a large and heterogeneous area.:\\vailablc (\"vidence suggests that the largest response in this area will be obtained from nitro-~en application. Appendix B shows response curves for Nand P~Os in Sheikhupura District The llll)\\\\'l'vcr. l'n.'ll lhou~h Olost tannc.:r... 'l'lil llil.,:ir nitrog-t'll appli.,:OI(i'lll thl,.•~• jpplicd onl~' about half the rCl\"OnlflH:ndcJ nitrogen at planting Ii\",,\" (Tabl,' 'J). Fi~lds Plante.---J aft~r lR 6 dfld Basmati Rice.economic analysis suggests that the highest returns on the farmers' invcstmcnt will be obtaincd by applying 75kg/ha of N. Phosphorus at 50kg P:! Os /Ga gives a positivc but substantial~v lower returns. These data are confirmed by the relationship between yield and fertilizer applicd in the wheat fields sUf\\-eved (Figure 11) I .. M ost farmers were familiar with the need to apply both nitrogen and phosphorus although only a few are aware of the actual nutrient composition of different types of fertilizer. Some farmers have also applied Ammonium Sulphate instead of Urea and reported positive results. This is possible given that most soils arc alkaline and the ammonium sulphate would help lower the ptf A few farmers also applied potash but results were indefinite. Howev~r, many farmers arc now applving zinc sulphate to the nce crop at the rate of 5kg/acre with good results. There is no evidence that this has any effect on the following wheat crop.A number of factors seem to be important in explaining variation in the quantity of fertilizer applied. These arc summarized in the regressions in Table 11. As expected fertilizer, particularly nitrogen is significantly related to other cultural practices such as the number of tillage operations and irrigations, which determine the response curve. Substantially more nitrogen was applied after rice than after other crops and after fallow. This may represent an effort to compensate for other negative aspects of wheat aftcr rice such as late planting and poor seed bed preparation as well as tl.e lower available nitrogen following rice. Finally large farmers (over 10 ha) applied significantly more fertilizer than small and medium size farmers, reflecting their better capital situation and possibly better extension contacts. I• arm yard manure was only applied to wheat fields by 10 percent of farmers, neari~' always on owned rather than rented land and usually close to the yillage. The avcrage dose applied for those farmers who used farm yard manure was 4t/ha. Although farmyard manure has traditionally been an important source of nutrients, its high cost, particularly for application. has reduced its U5<:.Weeds are a major problem in wheat in the area. Important weeds are CI,CIl0I'0dillm sp and Plwlaris mil/o/\" with some fields of wild oats (A rena Iowa) and rye grass (Loiillfll sl'J. The importance of Phalaris is seen in Table i2 where 28 percent of wheat fields were rated as having a substantial to serious Phalaris problem compared to 13 percent with a broad leaf problem and 1 percent with a wild oat problem. The Phalaris problem also correlates closely with yield _Cleans fields produced an average yield of 1.93t/ha compared to 1.39t/ha in fields with a Phalaris problem. To a large extent this is due to Phalaris suppressing wheat yields although wheat fields with poor stands ;\"'u• 4-0.  * * significant at 5 percent. * significant at ten percent. and low yield also encourage Phalaris growth. Moreover, the widespread planting of the short ktatured variety Yecora provides little competition for phalaris growth. The spread of the phalaris !seed is also encouraged by lack of canal cleaning, mechanical threshing and by farmers purchasing seed from neighbours.ITable 12 Frequency of various weed types in wheat fields and their relationship to yield. Sc\\'cral methods are used for weed control. Hand weeding was traditionally practiced but was performed by only 7 percent of the farmers in the survey, usually in fields close to the village to provide fodder. Hand weeding of Phalaris is difficult because of its high density in many fields and because it rescmbl~s wheat in its early growth stage.A few farmers usc mechanical weed control with a bar harrow. This ;s most effective when the wheat is planted in lines and the harrow is adjusted to cultivate between tte rows. Since few farmers plant in lines, bar harrow method is not widely used. Another approach is to delay planting to allow the weeds to gemlinate and then to kill the weeds by an extra cultivation before planting. However, both Phalaris and wild oat seeds require cool temperatures to germinate and wheat planting must be delayed beyond the optimum date for this strategy to be effective. Nonetheless, some farmers are successfully using this method.Herbicides are used by a few farmers, mostly those with good extension contacts. Dicuran MA is recommended for control of Chenupodium and Phalaris and has generally proven effccth'e in research and extension trials. Currently farmers lack the information, equipment and skills to enable herbicides to be widely used. Furthermore, the cost of application at the recommended rate of 2.5kg/ha is equivalent to about 500 kg/ha i of wheat. This represents a substantial outlay for small farmers although the a\\'erage yield loss in the 28 percent of fields with a Phalaris problem is of this magnitude.The only method widely used by farmers to control grassy weeds is crop rotation, especially the planting of berseem. Only 12 percent of fields which had been rotated with berscem in the pre\\'ious two years showed a Phalaris problem compared to 34 percent of fields continuously sown to wheat for three or more years. Ilowcvcr, as we have seen, the farmer is limited in the extent to whicr, Le can use berseem to establish an effective rotation.A summary of the factors associated with Phalaris infestation is given in Tablc 13. Because vigorous growth of Phalaris is encouraged by poor stands of wheat, infestation is significantly higher in those fields following rice in heavy soils where seedbed preparation is poorest (sec table 13).Ji J),:uran .\\1\\ \\\\'oul.l L'O'! thL' !.lrn;n abollt )•Hlj{/1i ,n 350R/ha.. \\d.lilll!' L't\":' oj aPi,li\"u;•'Il.lahoUf anJ a 'pran'r of ahou! lIOK/h\" ;lnd 40 pl.:rn.•nt [0 l\"O,\"c.:r t,.•• q\"j t ai, ri ... .05.02.03.6As wc ha\\'e noted. access to water is lJuite \\'ariablc depending on location in relation to the canal head or access to pri\\'ate or public rubcwells, The total number of irrigations \\'aried from zero in four fields planted on \"wadwatcr\" (i.e. n:sidual moisture) to se\\\"Cn. with an O\\'Crall an:rage of three irrigations (sec \"igurt' 12). Rain-in February and March reduced the need to irrigatc in mid Sl'ason. In addition. the numbt'r of irrigations was closely related to he tenure status of the field (p less than 0(1) probably reill-cting the fact that tenants ha\\e little ineenti\\'c to inn:st in a private tubewdl for a rented piot, I armcrs alstl applied significantly more irrigation water to lighter soils than 10 he;l\\'ier soils wl.lieh oi. l\"q)C~'te,l gi\\ t'n the W;llcr retaining capacity of each Sl Iii type.Two other parameters arc also important in descriLing irrigation scheduling -the use of a prcplanting irrigation and the tim tng of the first post-planting irrigation. For wheat following rice, l:spl:cially Basmati rice, farmers normally planred on \"wadwatcr\" conditions. 1l0wc\\'Cr, after maize and other crops and aftc,!' l.l11u\\\\'. farl1ler~nearly ah\\;lY~prcirrigatcd prior to planting C\":lbk 1+).Preirrigation (rauni) is prcferalJ1c sInce crop n:sidues can be incorporated and decomposed more t'asily and there is also a greater opportunity to control weeds. Howe\\,er, \"wadwater\" is favoured after rice because of lack of turnaround time and because of uncertainty about rabi water supplies. The latter is suggested in Table 15 where it is clear that fields planted on wadwater receive one less irrigaton thar. preirrigatcd fields. Note that these relationships hold for both heavy and light soils but in each case more irrigations arc applied and givcn at an earlier date in the case of lighter soils.  Finally the irrigation scheduling was not closely related to yields. Figure 13 shows the expected relationship between yields and the number of irri~ations but the effect is not significant. Likewise yields were negatively related to days to first irrigation but only at the 10 percent level of sigriificance. However, the response of yields to irrigation scheduling depends on many factors, particularly the incidence of rainfall.Harvesting, Thresh:ng and Disposal. About one third of farmers, usually larger farmers. (see Tabk 16), employed hired labour for wheat harvesting. The cost of manual han'esting with hired labour in the area varies from 2 to 3 md/acre. depending on the yicld in a particular field. (rour to five persons han'est one acre in one da\\' and cam 30-40R/da\\' person)1 . The cost ofh:m:esring is then approximately] 50R/aere.. ~kcha?ical threshing is now ~l,:\"~st ~niversally used. Ninety five percent of farmers expressed th,e!r IIltennon to usc a thresher. 1 hIS IS hIred at rates varying from 117th to 1/1 Oth of the produce, with an average of 1/8th.  Bhusawas sold after r~arvest for 60R per \"mona\" or lOmd of grain kg of yield or only a little over two thirds of the official price. This calculation is important in understanding the real pricc incentives facing farmers for the adoption of yield increasing innovations.Not surprisingly, farmers are searching for ways to reduce harvesting costs. Some farmers are using tractor mounted reapers or binders. There is a limited rental market for these machines. Reapers currently cost around 100R/acre to rent which represents a s;l\\'ing on hand harvesting' . Some farmers have had difficulties using these machines in weedy fields. However, with the increase in manual harvesting costs there is now a substantial incentive to harvest mechanically and to develop a rental market for mechanical harvesters.A very few farmers have adopted combine harvesters together with a binder to conserve straw. These arc being rented on a very limited basis at about 250R/acre which is a slight saving in cost of hand harvesting and machine threshing.At the same time farmers also profit from sale of bhusa (straw). This reportedly sells in the field for 6H./md of grain threshed to give a net price of grain and straw combined of about 50lVmd I. The value of straw in the area is substantially lower than in other areas of Pakistan, such as in the barani areas of northern Punjab. Straw is often shipped a considerable distance to these fodder deficit areas and its value is multiplied over fi\\'c times.The average yield for the sampled fidds was 1. 78t/ha. These average yields compare favourably with official yield figures of 1.6 t/ha for Sheikhupura and Gujranwala Districts in 1980-82. Our sample may have over-estimated yields since we attempted to exclude saline fields. On the other hand we excluded the southern portion of Sheikhupura District bordering on Faisalabad District where rice is less dominant and wheat yields are probably higher.Yields by soil type arc given in Figure 14. It is clear that yields are much higher on the lighter soils and as expected lowest in saline areas. However, even in the lighter soils yields are lower than in neighbouring districts where wheat usually follows cotton, sugarcane or fodder. The'difference is in large part due to the difficulties of managing wheat in a rice-wheat rotation even on lighter soils, The average harvest index was 32.7 percent indicating that 2 kg of straw are produced for each 1 kg of grain. There was no apparent difference in harvest index by variety', although it is generally assumed that the triple dwarf variety, Yceara, will produce less straw than other varieties.The farmers estimated average yield was 19md/acre or almost exactly the measured yield. The farmers estimated yield correlated quite closely with measured yield (r=.65) and even more closely with total yield of grain and straw (r=. n) Half of all farmers estimated a yield within 20 percent of the measured yield. However, another 20• ... 5 percent of farmers estimated yields 50 percent above or below the measured yield. Hence, although farmers' average estimates of yields seem to provide a good picture of yields in the area (both tl•~~mean and distribution) caution should be exercised in using farmers' estimates of yield in a specific field.Variability in yields in the sample was relatively high with a co-efficient of variation of close to 45 percent compared to 30 percent for a similar survey of irrigated wheat in Mardan District, NWFP. Yields ranged from 0.3t/ha to nearly 4.0t/ha. Over twenty percent of fields recorded a yield of under 1.0t/lm and only 6.6 percent of fields yielded above 3t/ha (Figure 15). These are low yields for irrigated wheat and under conditions where farmers have largely adopted improved varieties and a reasonable dose of fertilizer. These data underline the considerable potential for improving the productivity of land, water and fertilizer used in wheat production in the rice tract.]. Bhusa pri\"cs may rise to X-IO-R/mel of grain Jurin~the earh' willt\"r mOlHhs. 32 manual harvesting costs there is now a substantial incentive to harvest mechanically and to develop a rental market for mechanical harvesters.A very few farmers have adopted combine harvesters together with a binder to conserve straw. These are being rented on a very limited basis at about 2S0R/acre which is a slight saving in cost of hand han'esting and machine threshing.At the same time farmers also profit from sale of bhusa (straw). This reportedly sells in the field for 6H./md of grain threshed to give a net price of grain and straw combined of auout 50R/md I . The value of straw in the area is substantially lower than in other areas of Pakistan, such as in the barani areas of northern Punjab. Straw is often shipped a considerable distance to these fodder deficit areas and its value is multiplied over fi,'c times.The average yield for the sampled fidds was 1. 78t/ha. These average yields compare favourably with official yield figures of 1.6 t/ha for Sheikhupura and Gujranwala Districts in 1980-82. Our sample may have over-estimated yields since we attempted to exclude saline fields. On the other hand we excluded the southern portion of Sheikhupura District bordering on Faisalabad District where rice is less dominant and wheat yields are probably higher.Yields by soil type arc given in Figure 14. It is clear that yields are much higher on the lighter soils and as expected lowest in saline areas. However, even in the lighter soils yields are lower than in neighbouring districts where wheat usually follows cotton, sugarcane or fodder. The'difference is in large part due to the difficulties of managing wheat in a rice-wheat rotation even on lighter soils, The average harvest index was 32.7 percent indicating that 2 kg of straw are produced for each 1 kg of grain. There was no apparent difference in harvest index by variety', although it is generally assumed that the triple dwarf variety, Yecora, will produce less straw than other varieties.The farmers estimated average yield was 19md/acre or almost exactly the measured yield. The farmers estimated yield correlated quite closely with measured yield (r=.65) and even more closely with total yicld of grain and straw (r=.72) Half of all farmers estimated a yield within 20 percent of the measured yield. However, another 20• . . . 5 percent of farmers estimated yields 50 percent above or below the measured yield. Hence, although farmers' average estimates of yields seem to provide a good picture of yields in the area <both tl ': mean and distribution) caution should be exercised in using farmers' estimates of yield in a specifIc field.Variability in yields in the sample was relatively high with a co-efficient of variation of close to 45 percent compared to 30 percent for a similar survey of irrigated wheat in Mardan District, NWFP. Yields ranged from 0.3t/ha to nearly 4.0t/ha. Over twenty percent of fields recorded a yield of under 1.0t/Ita and only 6.6 percent of fields yielded above 3t/ha (Figure 15). These are low yields for irrigated wheat and under conditions where farmers have largely adopted improved varieties and a reasonable dose of fertilizer. These data underline the considerable potential for improving the productivity of land. water and fertilizer used in wheat production in the rice tract.:>.Bhusa pri.:es may rise to 8-tO-R/md of !train Jurin~the earll' wi\"t\"r months. Low yielding fields more often follow Basmati ricc, but the most striking finding is the fact tLat nearly all low yielding fields han' been continuously planted to whcat for three or more ycars compan:d to only half of high yielding fields which ha\\'C this characteristic. As a rcsult, thc infcsta-• tion of phalaris was negligible in high yielding fields but serious in nearly half of the low yielding • fields.As expected, higb yieHng fields also received more intensive management, such as more tillage operations, more usc of apprO\\'ed varieties, more irrigation and more timely planting. An important finding is ttat high yielding fields received 50 percent more nitrogen l'ut almost the same quantity of phosphorus as low yielding fields. In low yielding fields, farmers applied only slightly more nitrogen than phosphorous gi\\'ing an ~: P ratio or 1: 1.These results arc useful in prch'iding some interesting hypotheses about reasons for \\'ariation in yields. Howner, interrelationships between :icn~ral of the variables such as soil type and land preparation preclude more definite conclusions. To O\\wcomc this problem, a multiple regression analysis was conducted and is the subject of the next section, Factors Determining Yields: A Multi-Variate Analysis:Yields arc a function of many different factors often interacting in a very complex way, Environment;]! factors such as soils intluence yields directly as well as ind~rectly through their int1uence on farmers' choice of management practices or cropping pattern (see Hgure 16). ---------- Tr.e preceding analysis has demonstrated a number of these relations and their interactions. These arc summarized in Table 18. It is impossible to establish to what extent each of these factors int1uences ~'iclds. Not only arc the interactions often quite complex but we also lack important information on some variables, I'or example, we only broadly classified soils into three groups. At the same time some em'ironmental factors such as rainfall in relation to the irrigation schedule were not recorded. Finally the lLtta on management practices arc subject to farmers' recall and im'ariably include some errors.Nn'Crthcless a number of attempts have been made to explain variation in yields in a given area <c.g. ByerJce ct. ai, 19HO). These analyses provide general ideas of the contribution of each factor to \\'ari~ltiol1 in vic1ds.In this study, yield was regressed as a function of the most important management practices; soil type, previous cropping history and weed problems. Dummy variables were used to express a numher of \\'ariablcs. I'or example, \\'ariety was repn:sented by a variable which was egual to one for ncw approved \\arieties and zero for all other \\'arieties. I'or simplicity, a linear model was used exccpt in the case of nitrogen where a quadratic term was also included to represent a curvilinear response. Se\\Tral two-way intcr:wti\"n terms were also tried.The bcst model in tcrms of expectcd responses, explanatory power and standard errors of the regreSSIOn coeffiCIent is shown in Table 19. All signs arc of the expected sign except for the interaction between nitrogen and phosphorus which is negative. Overall, the equation explains nearly half of the \\'ariation in yields. Seven out of eleven coefficients are significant at the 10 percent level and several such as nitrogen, continuous wheat and phalaris are highly significant.Yields were very responsive to the amount of nitrogen applied. The estimated equation implies an increase in yields of 1350 kg/ha from the application of the recommended dose of 10C kg/ha: Ilowever, phospr.orus did not produce a positive response and in fact the interaction between nitrogen and phosphorus was negative. This is not easy to explain tut may relate to the tendency to apply one bag/acre of DAP i~most fields even those with many weeds and poor land preparation.VarieJ)' and number of ploughings both had the expected effect although the magnitude of the \\'ariety response, (331 kg/ha for usc of a newer approved variety) is surprisingly high. Late planting and planting after maize or other fodders both produce the expected effect although the coefficients for these \\ariables are not very significant. However, fields where wheat had been planted continuously for three or marc years show a large and significant decline in yields. This effect was expected due to the effect on grassy weeds but e\\'Cn v,,'hen weeds are included in the regression as an independent \\'ariable there is still a large effect, -400kg/ha due to continuous cropping of wheat. Rotation witt berseem is the major <llternative to continuous cropping and the large effect could be due to factors such as residual fertility, improved soil structure and perhaps control of root diseases when a berseem crop is used.The analysis indicates that a serious phalaris infestation depresses yields by 430 kg/ha. This is a large effect, (25 percent) but only marginal in terms of providing a good return to herbicide use. hnally, soil type had only a small and not \\'«ry significant direct effect on yields. It seems that most of the effect of soil type is indirectly through management practices such as land preparation and late planting.        The profitability of wheat has been calculated in Table 20 for two levels of yields (a) average yields in the area and (b) the highest yidding fields. We have seen that the highest yielding fields receive higher levels of nitrogen and better land preparation. They also reflect fields of lighter soils where wheat is often planted after maize or fallow. At average levels of yields wheat is clearly unprofital'/e. Returns an.: only high enough to cover variable costs and farmers' labour but insuffic:ent to cO\\u costs of land and give a reasonable return on capital to the farmer. Even for the highest yielding fields, the returns barely cover all costs including costs of land and capital. These results demonstrate d'e importance of cost reducing technologies if \"vheat is to compete with alternativc crops.The L'reakdown of costs is also instructi\\T. The three equally large items are land prepara,;on, fertilizer and hancsting and thrcsbing. We han: seen that mechanical Larvcsting is now beginning and is helping to reduce costs. The high cost of tillage argucs for more rcseard. on direct drilling with zero tillage, l.ikewise more research is needed on efficient m:mag:cmcnt of fertilizcr, particular-l~' pho<,pj~or'-,s.RCCOnll11~'ndai;on domains arc groups or farmers witll similar circumstances for whom \\\\'C can makc more or less the salllt.' recommcndation. In a l~rge and di\"crse area such as the one under stud~•. it is unli~el~' that we elI1 l11ake the same recommendation to alll:lrll1er\". Ikncc, thc cstal,hl'ment of tentat;\\ c rl'commenLLttion domains to guiJe research and eXIcns on efforts is an e,xtremcly important aCi'\\ity.From the alO\\T analysis a number of ways of grouping farmcL, arc possible. These include the following:1.Soil Type -stratification on the Lasis of (a) heavy clay soils (b) lighter clay-loam and loam soils and (c) soils with salinity and/or waterlogging problems (Table 21).Access,.o lrrigat'ion Water -stratification on the basis of farmers who have (a) relatively plentiful irrigation water Leeause of perennial canal flow or access to pri\\'ate tubewells (b) shortage of irrIgation water due to location on the tail end of a canal and/or dependence on an unreliable public tubewell.Location \"ith respect to a main road or large town -stratification on the basis of (a) farms \\\\'1:0 have market opportunities for fodder or fruit or \\'cgetablcs and (b) farmers who depend largely on wheat and rice.Farm size -stratification by small and large farmers. This is associated with machinery owner\" ship as well as access to inputs and information.Of these altcrnati\\'cs, soil type appears to cxercise the major influence on cropping patterns and production practices and problems in wheat. Table 21 summarizes these relationships. Witl-: tbe aid of a more refincd so] classification these relationships would, no doubt, be even sharper.Tbe second most important factor is likely to be access to irrigation water, although the effects of this factor were not \\'cry strong in our survey, probably because of effects of rainfall. However, O\\'er the long: term access to irrigation water is likely to ha\\'c a major impact on the response to other production factors as well as on production risk.The other possibilities for stratification, market acccss and farlll size are of sec-ondar\\' :mpor-Tl.':blc 2() Ente\"prisc budgets for wheat -a\\'erage 3n{i high yielding fields Excluding !'anTsting cost which occur at the end of the season tance in wheat production. lienee we potemially I:a\\e four recommendation domains of two soil types b~' two t~'pes of irrigation ~~•stems. As a first step \\\\'e suggest that the research team give priority to working in areas which han' ready access to watcr since the potential of these areas is greatest. ThIS indicates that the 'Illmediate fonls of the research should be to use the soil maps to select two areas with rdatin>ly i: ea \\ il'r and lig\\' tl.'f soils. rcsJ'l.'ctivcly, and within those areas choose farmers who arc either at the head of the canal or have access to a private tubewell. As the research proceeds, more definite recommendation domains can be delineated and research attention shifted to those areas with problems of irrigation water supply. J;inally, the problems in wheat production are dosely related to the planting of wheat after rice, especially Basmati rice, on a continuous basis without rotation with other crops (see Table 22). Hence, in:tial emphasis should be placed on de\\'<:loping recommendations for wheat in a rice cropping system and fields selected for experiment:nion should have heen planted continuousl}: to w~eat after rice for at least three years.Implications of the Cropping Pa::rern Tlie rice-wheat cropping pattern will continue to be a dominant pattern of the area. [n the well drained loamy soils, however, there are many alternat~ves to rice in the kharif season. !'armers unanimously complained about the low returns in rice production, about 300 JV-net returns (without land rent) per acre under current technologies. Civen that nee is largely a casl~croF we would expect a rapid shift out of rice if feasible alte ;1:ltives are presented. To date, this has been restricted to sugarcane, fodders and fruits and vegetabi-:s -all crops with specialized markets. Other alternatives include maize for grain, pulses and oil seeds such as sunflower and soyabeans -all crops that have a ready market demand. H.esearch i,;; now underway to explore the economics of these various alternatives (Amir, 198~). However, the economics of the rice-wheat system, especially JH6 rice ,'ersus Basmati rice, under improved technologies needs to be further examined. Wheat after 11<.6 rice generally showed better results because of more time for land preparation and nmd~' planting.If rice is replaced in the Kharif cycle then the effect on wheat production should also be considered .. Since crops such as maize and oilseeds can usually be harvested earlier and do not require puddling and standing water, land preparation and timely planting of wheat will lie more feasible. Indeed some farmers note that wheat after kharif fallow gives good yields. Ths raises the possibiI.it)' of kharif fallow as a viable alternative unless n:turns in rice production increase.In heavy, imperfectly drained soils there an: few possibilities for substituting for rice except again hy leaving land fallow. The water logging of these soils in the kharif cycle makes them unsuitable for other crops.There is an urgent need for some well designed cropping system studies in v,'!-ieh different cropping patterns are tested using current and potential technologies in the proJuction of each cropr Currently technologies arc heing evaluated only for their implications for rice or wheat separateh•. For example, research has heen conducted on the effect of a green manure crop planted after rice and before wheat. This may well have positive or negative carry o\\'Cr effects for the wheat crop. Likewise. the use of \"dry planting\" of rice with no puddling has the potential to imprO\\'C soil structure in hea\\'Y soils. Initially a collat\"orative effort between rice and wheat scientists with involvement of.agricultural economists offers the best possibility to get some of this cropping systems work underway. Later other programs, such as oilseeds might also participate.This report has highlighted a number of proUems in wheat production in tbe rice-wheat cropping pattern. i\"or each problem there arc a numccr of possible researchable alternati,•cs. These arc summarized in Table 23. Clearly, however, researchers cannot hope to tackle all of tr.ese issues simultaneously and must assign priorities. In Table 23 we have provided for each problem, the farmers' current response and possible responses by research and extension in the short run and longer run. Short run responses are opportunities that we believe have a high chance of success. Further experimentation is needed,. but this will aim at verification of existing technology and in some cases demonstration of these technologies. This research should be conducted in farmers fields. Longer run opportunities require substantial additional experimentation and the payoffs are less certain. This type of research could be done on the experiment station if soils and other conditions are representative of the area.In all cases, it should be remembered that we are discussing a research program for well defined recommendation domains -wheat after rice in both light and heavy soils and with reliable supplies of irrigation water.Research Aimed at Short Run Impacts 2. Herbicide Verifica::ion/Demonstration: This would be an unreplicated experiment to look for .an economic dose of herbicide for grassy weed control. If a lower dose than the recommended dose can be found to be effective, one of the major constraints on herbicide use will be reduced. The two most promising herbicides (e.g. Dicuran MA and Tribunil) should be tested at three levels -33% of recommended, 67% of recommended and recommended dose. Fields chosen should be in heavy soil areas where wheat has been cropped for three or more years and where wheat follows Basmati rice. The experiment should be \"superimposed\" on farmers' current management. That is, fields would be chosen after emergence and no other operation except herbicide application would be perform-. ed by the researchers. Herbicides should also be tested when broadcast as sand ar urea mix.3. Interaction between Seed Rate, Weed Control and Fertilizer: It is hypothesized that a higher seed rate may lead to a better plant stand and more effective competition with weeds. A better stand and imprO\\'ed weed control should allow more efficient use of fertilizer.A 2 3 factorial would allow these hypotheses to be tested and interactions measured. Treatments would be:Seed rate -1OOkg/ha. and 200kg/ha Weed Control-none and Dicuran MA herbicide j'ertilizer -80-57-0 and 135-57-0 NPK kg/ha Selection of fields would be similar to Lxperiment 2 and again the experiment would be plated under farmers' management in large plots (500m 2 ). Because poor stand establishment results from poor land preparation, this experiment should be sown under farmers' land preparation.Fertilizer LeVels: There is a need to refine fertilizer recommendations, particularly the balance between Nand P~0'i ' for late planting of wheat after Basmati, poor land preparation etc. However, these trials should b~only laid out after a thorough review of past fertility experiments of the Soil Fertility Institute, Lahore and the Adaptive Research Unit, Sheikhupura. Longer term research should focus on land preparation, stand establishment and improved soil structure for wheat using alternative implements. For seeding, the possibility of using a drill adapted to direct seeding in residues of the previous crop offers the possibility of improving stand establishment in a poorly prepared seedbed. For better drainage, deep ploughing would likely benefit wheat but may destroy the hard pan which is necessary for rice cultivation.This trial would consist of several treatments aimed at a better stand establishment. These include:1. Farmers practice (i.e. cultivator plus broadcasting) 2. Cultivator with adapted drill 3. Rotavator + cultivator + broadcast seed 4. Rotavator + cultivator + drill 5. Zero tillage -herbicides to kill weeds + direct drilling  ,Each treatment should occupy one bunded field and effects, if any, on the following rice crop should be recorded.Annual Productivity of RicelWheat Cropping Patterns: Agro-economic research should shift to looking at the productivity of rice and wheat on an annual basis rather than treating each crop separately. This would provide a more complete measure of productivity and would enable interactions between rice and wheat to be more fully understood. Forty fields each of IR6 and Basmati rice should be selected in two homogeneous soil groupings with good water supply. Production practices and yields of both rice and wheat would be recorded for each field. Special attention should be paid to monitoring the period from harvesting of rice to planting of wheat in order to better understand the constraints on land preparation and timely planting of wheat.Seed Distribution: The major input constraints farmers face relate to water supply and seed distribution. The problems of SCARP tubewells and electricity supply for private tubewells are apparently recognized (WAPDA, 1979). However, it is not clear what constrains better distribution of seed to farmers. A follow up study on seed distribution centers and availability of seed as well as farmers perceptions is needed to make recommendations for improving the system.","tokenCount":"17571"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ac86f7b7666be159dbe6e4c2d93f9676","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/02a30ced-fc83-4517-9f38-2f7c41862463/retrieve","id":"69627522"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"51244c83-1a3c-4272-995e-be030bf5ca7f","pagecount":"32","content":"CATD 72 22 (30.6 ± 14.6%)a 58 (26.9 ± 12.0%)a EGD 72 21 (29.2 ± 14.4%)a MYD 72 15 (20.8 ± 8.3%)a How to fill in this gap? MULTIPLICATION METHOD Traditional Method by Seeds Somatic Embrogenesis COAXIM Efficiency of the Protocol Easy Low and CV dependent response, work in progress 20-30 % of explants respond Availability of Protocol OK Many papers are published Open-source protocol, patent is free for non-commercial R&D. Licensing will be given provided good quality planting material will be sold to the farmer against a reasonable price Cost of facilities Low High High Rapid Multiplication and Scaling No Low High Mutation risk (somaclonal variation) No High Low Cultivar/ Variety dependency No Yes NoNo significant differences  • COAXIM might provide a solution to the current and future scarcity of good coconut planting materials• COAXIM is optimized using shoots derived from zygotic embryos• Advantage, pollination for hybrid production only has to happen once. • Other material possible to make clones from an elite mother plant?• COAXIM can provide the necessary in vitro plant material for shoot-tip cryopreservation for long term storage of coconut genetic resources  ","tokenCount":"186"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ef60b78d9234a0273cbcb2f4c65851f4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/33d263c6-00fa-4023-8c48-086348d2d4d7/retrieve","id":"1755105812"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3ecb4d7d-0b6b-4418-8c01-1eee88f6153a","pagecount":"44","content":"About CGIAR CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to transforming food, land and water systems in a climate crisis. Its research is carried out by 13 CGIAR Centers/Alliances in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.orgThe CGIAR Initiative on Market Intelligence aims at rendering CGIAR and partners' crop breeding pipelines (BPs) more gender-intentional, impactful, and market-driven by supporting breeding decision making through market intelligence derived from the 5 CGIAR Impact Areas: (1) Nutrition, Health & Food Security;(2) Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods & Jobs;(3) Gender Equality, Youth & Inclusion; (4) Climate Adaptation & Mitigation; and (5) Environmental Health & Biodiversity. There are two types of market intelligence: (1) \"bottom-up\" or stakeholder elicited market intelligence on stakeholder preferences, needs, priorities and strategies (farmers, processors, traders, consumers, government, seed suppliers, etc.) in market segments; and (2) \"top-down\" indicators-identified market intelligence on development (impact) challenges and opportunities in market segments. To this end, Work Package 4 (WP4) -Pipeline Investment Cases -has developed the Global Market Intelligence Platform (GloMIP), which consolidates both dimensions of market intelligence in a single platform. This was in collaboration with participating CGIAR Centers and several other Initiatives (i.e., Accelerated Breeding, Breeding Resources, Seed Equal, Foresight and soon Genebanks), as well as with target end-users and stakeholders.GloMIP is a global public good for generating and sharing market intelligence to inform two types of decision making in crop breeding programs: (1) decision on target product profile (TPP) design, trait priorities and alignment of BPs to stakeholder preferences and needs in market segments; and (2) investment prioritization and resource allocation decisions across BPs. In its dual role to align BPs to market intelligence and support investment decisions, GloMIP exchanges information with the Breeding Portal, an internal breeding pipeline management tool developed by the CGIAR Initiative on Accelerated Breeding. These platforms currently exchange databases defining more than 400 seed product market segments (SPMS) and more than 300 TPPs across 24 CGIAR crops. GloMIP enables querying the SPMS through various market intelligence filters, while supporting prioritization decisions through automatic calculation of Impact Opportunities across the 5 Impact Areas at 12 different aggregation levels: (1) UN region, (2) CGIAR region, (3) UN subregion, (4) UN subregion-crop, (5) food system type, (6) CG/non-CG crop, (7) crop group, (8) crop, (9) breeding pipeline, (10) SPMS, (11) country, and (12) country-crop. Impact Opportunities can be used to prioritize investment in market intelligence research across SPMS or across any of these 12 aggregation levels. This can be done before resources are invested in the design of TPPs and the implementation of BPs aligned to these SPMS.To prioritize investment across BPs and make pipeline investment cases to fund future BPs, we need more \"complete\" metrics, such as projected benefits (PBs) and Return on Investment (RoI). To compute these metrics at the CGIAR portfolio level, we need to adopt a cross-crop trait-by-trait perspective that extracts the relevant data from the available SPMS and TPP databases for all prioritized (essential) traits. First, we need data to project the breadth and depth of the impact of the varietal improvement to be generated by the TPP-guided Breeding Pipelines in the targeted SPMS. It is expected that the SPMS, TPP and other databases in GloMIP and the Breeding Portal are detailed enough to deliver the breadth and depth parameters. Additional trait-related datasets may be needed (e.g., data on biotic/ abiotic stress prevalence for stress tolerance traits). Secondly, additional socioeconomic data may not be needed to capture the context of crops in the regions where they are grown. Thirdly, we need data from the Breeding Portal on the investments and breeding efforts 9costs) being channeled to and allocated among the BPs. Finally, we need estimates of the absorption capacity of seed systems and projected speed of adoption of the future varieties to be delivered by the BPs.Photo 1. Global Market Intelligence Platform home page (https://glomip.cgiar.org)The upcoming workshop aims to develop minimum viable models (MVMs) to compute these metrics. These MVMs must leverage the information available in the SPMS (market descriptors), TPPs (breeding blueprint descriptors) and BPs (breeding effort descriptors). These models are called \"viable\" as they must feature a minimal set of parameters that enable credible priority setting of breeding pipelines at the CGIAR portfolio level across the 5 Impact Areas. MVMs need to be \"minimalistic\" (at least in the initial phase) to enable all end-users to use and evaluate their validity in a continuous improvement cycle. The MVMs will form the backbone of the Investor Dashboard v1.0 that will be hosted by GloMIP. Once set up, it is expected that these MVMs will be refined over time. The MVMs will form the backbone of the Investor Dashboard, a user-friendly and interactive platform hosted by GloMIP, where investors can support their investment decisions in genetic innovation through visual data on PBs and ROI across crops and regions.Objec8ves of the workshopThe workshop aims at developing the technical models behind the Investor Dashboard that enable priority setting of breeding pipelines at the CGIAR portfolio level based on projected benefits (PBs) and returns on investment (RoI).1. To take stock of available data in SPMS, TPP, BP and other databases in GloMIP and Breeding Portal 2. To prioriize traits in TPP database for the development of minimum viable models (MVMs) 3. To idenify data gaps in SPMS, TPP and BP databases for the development of MVMs 4. To map traits in TPP databases to 5 Impact Areas 5. To idenify experise, formaion of 3 Impact Area teams and division of labor within teams 6. To develop MVMs for CGIAR porjolio 7. To develop strategies for refinement and standardizaion of MVMs across crops and countries 8. To design pilot studies to demonstrate and validate the MVMs 9. To iden3fy the next steps and to develop work plan for 2023-2024The WP4 workshop will contribute to the following outcomes, outputs, and innovations of the CGIAR Initiative on Market Intelligence, which were clearly prioritized by internal and external stakeholders in response to the declining budget:• End-of-Iniiaive Outcome 2: Research leaders and investors make investment decisions in geneic innovaion using GloMIP and the Investor Dashboard. On the first day, Matty welcomes all participants and introduced the purpose of the workshop highlighting the need for parsimonious models that still credible. WP4 needs models that can build on the existing literature and are flexible enough to take the different databases developed under MI (MSs, TPPs, BPs, Impact Opportunities) as inputs.Photo 2. Matty Demont is welcoming the participants and opening the WP4 workshopNext, Bert gave an overview of existing work being done in WP4 showcasing the data collected and processed. Participants then looked at the database of traits and decided which traits needed to be prioritized based on trait frequency across TPPs and potential impact of each trait.In the afternoon, the trait prioritization exercise continues and expanded into mapping the set of available traits to the 5 CGIAR Impact Areas. This exercise was done by three teams aligned to the five Impact Areas. Online participants joined for the afternoon session.Bert opened the second day by giving an overview of ex-ante impact models piloted thus far, covering the Impact Areas poverty, nutrition and climate. Participants then discussed the merits and shortcomings of each method. Each team then broke off to develop a first version of their Minimum Viable Models (MVMs). This exercise continued in the afternoon with the help of online participants. The day ended with each team presenting their draft MVM.On day 3, participants refined their MVMs and mapped available data sources and limitations to come up with a work plan. This exercise continued in the afternoon with the help of online participants. The day ended with each team presenting their final MVM and corresponding work plan.Process and outputsThe participants took stock of the seed product market segment (SPMS), target product profile (TPP) and breeding pipeline data in GloMIP and the Breeding Portal. An overview table was prepared by the GloMIP team in advance and may be accessed through this shared folder.The participants consolidated traits across TPPs to a manageable set, focusing first on the \"essentialimprove\" traits and ignoring the \"essential-threshold\" traits. The assumption was that maintaining threshold traits at required minimum or maximum threshold levels has implications for breeding costs and can be omitted from the projected benefit (PB) models in this first generation of Minimum Viable Models (MVMs). For example, rice breeding for slenderness comes at the expense of higher breakage (I.e., lower head rice recovery). If breeders need to breed slender rice without compromising head rice recovery as a threshold trait, they need to invest additional efforts to keep head rice recovery constant, but there is no additional PB. There is no real change if the trait is maintained relative to the baseline, unless the TPP defines head rice recovery as an \"essential-improve\" trait.An initial list of traits can be found on this folder. The participants mapped the traits to the 5 Impact Areas by using sticky notes (for writing down traits) and large papers (one large paper per impact area). On each sticky note, participants wrote down the following: (1) the name of the trait; and (2) the impact pathway through which the trait contributes to the Impact Area. Afterwards, the participants had a round table discussion and selected the top 3 impact areas that Work Package 4 will focus on in this phase of the CGIAR Initiatives (2022)(2023)(2024). The rest will be the focus for the next phase (2025-2027). Team Leads and Co-Leads were identified to further work on the models for the projected benefits of traits in each of the Impact Areas.Nutrition, health and food security impact area Contributors: Guy Hareau, Erick Boy, Jhoanne Ynion, Ellanie Cabrera and Matty Demont Photo 3. Nutrition Team Please check the links for the group's workshop outputs (Impact pathways ppt, photo 1, photo 2)The participants were grouped into three, corresponding to the prioritized Impact Areas. Each group mapped out the impact pathways and identified the additional parameters that have to be collected from the SPMS, TPP and BP databases for the development of the MVMs. Some MVMs were derived from theory, while others were simple reduced-form or dose-response models based on a single response parameter (e.g., elasticity). The participants also identified data gaps in this process. The team presented the MVMs in plenary.Please check this link for the compilation of the MVMs.  Climate change is projected to have negative impacts on crop productivity, inter alia, through extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, heatwaves, as well as evolving pest and disease environments, and saline seawater intrusion. Therefore, adapting to climate change through genetic innovation requires the development of new crop varieties with higher biotic and abiotic stress resistance. The key variable capturing climate change adaptation in this MVM is yield loss averted due to varietal improvement despite being exposed to these climate change hazards. Using statistical analyses (dose-response models) of historical data on crop yields, weather extremes (droughts, heat waves, extreme precipitation events), as well as review of literature on the impacts of salinity, crop pests and diseases, we aim to estimate the impact coefficients of these abiotic and biotic stresses on crop yields. These coefficients will allow estimating the impact of varietal improvement on averting yield losses under changing climate. The ultimate goal of this MVM is to create a matrix of coefficients linking varietal improvement characteristics to yield losses averted despite climate change hazards. These coefficients will serve as inputs for evaluating the investment returns from varietal improvement within the Investment Dashboard. Food systems are currently generating up to one third of global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. In particular, methane emissions from paddy rice production alone account for about 10% of agricultural CO2-equivalent emissions. Therefore, genetic innovation needs to play a fundamental role in helping reduce the carbon footprint from crop production and consumption. There are several impact pathways to achieve this. Firstly, increasing nutrient use efficiency means lower fertilizer application for the same crop yield. Secondly, decreasing maturity period of crops, particularly rice, will lead to fewer days being under flooded irrigation conditions, and hence, less methane emissions. Thirdly, higher crop yields may avert cropland expansion and prevent land use changes associated with higher GHG emissions. Finally, crop varieties which take less time in cooking need less energy for their culinary preparation thus contributing to reducing GHG emissions from the food systems. We follow a methodological approach of dose-response modelling using the historical data on GHG emissions from crops associating these to crop yields, areas under crops, and fertilizer use, as well as the review of literature on the links from crop maturity times and cooking times to GHG emissions to establish a matrix of coefficients linking varietal improvement characteristics to lower GHG emissions. These coefficients will serve as inputs for evaluating the investment returns from varietal improvement for climate change mitigation within the Investment Dashboard. Excessive uses of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides in crop production in many parts of the world are currently leading to pollution of surface-and groundwaters, long-lasting damages to biodiversity, e.g. loss of pollinators and reduction in soil microorganisms essential to maintain soil fertility. Overuse of water for crop irrigation is leading to increasing competition for water between human needs and ecosystems requirements, depletion of groundwater aquifers, and decreasing water quality. Genetic innovations that help reduce the need for input applications (pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, water) in crop production will thus directly contribute to environmental health and biodiversity protection. Our target variable in this MVM is reduction in input use. We will evaluate how each TPP will contribute to lower input use.Lower input use will lead to cost savings, but even more importantly in this context to improved environmental health and biodiversity. We will seek to identify the relationships between lower input use and environmental health and biodiversity based on the review of the literature. In this regard, estimating the investment returns means valuating these environmental health and biodiversity impacts in addition to cost savings. We will use the Total Economic Value (TEV) framework and the relevant economic values from the Ecosystem Services Valuation Database (ESVD) to estimate these environmental health and biodiversity values in monetary terms.5.6. Refinement of the MVMs (Future ac3vity)The team will refine the model based on state-of-the art literature. Pilot studies will be conducted using the refined models and data from SPMSD, Breeding Portal, GloMIP and breeding pipelines. ","tokenCount":"2404"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c0123348acbf6b9ad3dec9125a77642b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6e785139-09b1-4df6-88be-35fe002af761/retrieve","id":"1695432908"},"keywords":["lateral flow devices (LFDs)","lateral flow immunoassays","strip tests","mycotoxins","aflatoxins","food safety"],"sieverID":"84f810f6-97e7-4284-9251-52f460187f55","pagecount":"16","content":"As aflatoxins are a global risk for humans and animals, testing methods for rapid onsite screening are increasingly needed alongside the standard analytical laboratory tools. In the presented study, lateral flow devices (LFDs) for rapid total aflatoxin screening were thoroughly investigated with respect to their matrix effects, cross-reactivity, their performance under harsh conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and their stability, as well as when compared with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). To analyze the matrix effects, qualitative test kits offering a certain cutoff level were used to screen different nut samples. In addition, these tests were challenged on their cross-reactivity with 230 fungal toxins and metabolites. Furthermore, the resulting measurements performed under harsh tropical conditions (up to 38.4 • C and 91% relative humidity) in SSA, specifically Burkina Faso and Mozambique, were compared with the results from a well-established and validated LC-MS/MS-based reference method. The comparison of the on-site LFD results with the reference method showed a good agreement: 86.4% agreement, 11.8% non-agreement, and 1.8% invalid test results. To test the robustness of the cutoff tests, shortand long-term stability testing was carried out in Mozambique and Nigeria. For both experiments, no loss of test performance could be determined. Finally, a subset of African corn samples was shipped to Austria and analyzed under laboratory conditions using semiquantitative aflatoxin tests. A good correlation was found between the rapid strip tests and the LC-MS/MS reference method. Overall, the evaluated LFDs showed satisfying results regarding their cross-reactivity, matrix effects, stability, and robustness.Apart from the classical analytical methods based on chromatographic techniques, fast and inexpensive on-site tools without the time-consuming sample preparation and cleanup steps are needed for the screening of mycotoxins in susceptible crops. The interest in rapid membrane-based immunoassay methods such as immune sensors, flow-through immunoassays, and lateral flow devices (LFDs) [1][2][3] has strongly increased due to the need for rapid on-site (pre) screening. Requiring no sample preparation other than grinding and extraction, LFDs, also named strip tests, allow for the qualitative or semiquantitative determination of mycotoxins within a few minutes. The strong interest in this approach is reflected in the increasing number of commercially available test kits for field use based on direct competitive assays.LFDs are available for all mycotoxins regulated in the European Union; however, aflatoxins are the most important mycotoxin group due to their toxicity and occurrence [4][5][6]. Aflatoxins are mainly produced by the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus [7] and are toxic and carcinogenic [8]. There are four principal types of these toxins in contaminated plant products: B1, B2, G1, and G2. Of these, aflatoxin B1 is the most widely distributed and exhibits the highest toxicity. It causes liver disease in animals, is a potent carcinogen in humans [9], and can have other negative effects on the nervous, gastrointestinal, and renal systems. The production of aflatoxins on grain and other food and feedstuff strongly depends on both commodity and climatic conditions, as well as the storage conditions after the harvest. Africans, especially those populations living in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), are at a high risk for chronic dietary mycotoxin exposure due to consumption, especially since a large portion of the crops in tropical and subtropical regions are highly susceptible to mycotoxin contamination [10,11].As a result, regulatory authorities have set limits for food and feed. The European Commission has adopted maximum limits for aflatoxins in food and feedstuff ((EC) No 165/2010) [12] as well as for groundnuts (peanuts) and other oilseeds, tree nuts, apricot kernels, licorice, and vegetable oil ((EC) No 178/2010) [13], while in the United States there are action levels set to monitor mycotoxin contamination [14]. However, the regulatory limits in SSA are still partially lacking or improperly implemented; thus, the surveillance of mycotoxin contamination is still a major issue. This is especially true for food intended for consumption by local populations.For example, Burkina Faso has not yet implemented any mycotoxin regulations. By contrast, Mozambique has defined a maximum limit of 10 µg/kg total aflatoxins (the sum of aflatoxin B1, B2, G1, and G2) for corn, peanuts, peanut butter, peanut milk, cereals, and feedstuffs according to a survey of worldwide mycotoxin regulation performed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2003 [15].In many African countries, the standard analytical methods for mycotoxin analysis such as HPLC and LC-MS/MS are not accessible due to a lack of adequate equipment, the accessibility of necessary liquid nitrogen, spare parts, technicians, and/or laboratory staff with limited training However, the aflatoxin contamination in grains and other commodities like peanuts is still critical. Within the past few decades, several outbreaks have been reported in different, mainly Sub-Saharan, countries [16][17][18][19].More recently, the situation in Africa was described in detail by Meijer et al. [20], combining data from the entire continent within a systematic literature review covering the period from 2010 to 2018. In their findings, the mean aflatoxin B1 concentration in maize exceeded the European Union legal limit, thereby resulting in a high overall exposure that is causing an increase in long-term disease.Therefore, the demand for additional methods, such as simple strip tests for the on-site screening of mycotoxins, is increasing.The present study describes the evaluation of commercially available qualitative LFDs for total aflatoxins with respect to their matrix effects and cross-reactivity. Furthermore, the qualitative LFDs were challenged by using the tests on-site under harsh tropical conditions, and their results were compared to a well-established LC-MS/MS reference method [21]. Moreover, the tests were investigated with respect to their stability when stored under extreme climatic conditions (i.e., high temperature and humidity).Additionally, 31 corn samples from Burkina Faso and Mozambique were shipped to Austria and investigated using semiquantitative strip tests. The obtained results were also compared with the LC-MS/MS reference method.Each matrix was spiked with the aflatoxin standard in triplicate, and each extract was analyzed in duplicate. All the results at a single level, as well as all the replicates, showed similar results, and the summarized results are given in Table 1. The cutoff levels (Section 4.1) of the evaluated matrices were slightly different from the expected value; however, no false negative results were obtained. It can be assumed that the matrix type has a slight influence on the cutoff values of the rapid tests that were investigated. Peeled almonds and peanuts showed a positive result at the cutoff level, whereas the unpeeled nuts showed a positive result slightly above the cutoff level in the test that was used. The work from Zhang et al. analyzed the aflatoxins in peanuts and other commodities [22,23] and reported good recoveries when testing with different matrices such as nut samples.Overall, the study of these commercially available test kits for aflatoxins confirmed their applicability for the qualitative determination of the selected matrices as stated by the manufacturer.Further experiments were carried out using ethanol instead of methanol as an extraction solvent. Both test kits with cutoff values of 4 µg/kg and 20 µg/kg, respectively, were validated using the spiked peeled peanut samples. This experiment confirmed that toxic methanol may be substituted by ethanol, as the obtained results were valid at all fortification levels when using ethanol. As the test results for the ethanol and methanol extracted samples were similar, detailed data has not been provided.Cross-reactivity studies for the immune-based rapid tests for aflatoxins are done to determine the potential cross-reactivity against the different types of aflatoxins (i.e., AfB1, AfG1, AfB2, AfG2, and AfM1), as described by Santos et al. [24], or against other mycotoxins (i.e., deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, ochratoxin, and, fumonisins), as previously outlined by Zhang et al. [22]. To the best of our knowledge, the cross-reactivity of the aflatoxin lateral flow devices have not been investigated to the extent presented in this paper.The mix standards (mix 1-mix 23, given in Section 4.3) were diluted and used as samples to check the LFDs (test kit A) for cross-reactivity against any of the contaminating substances that were present. The test procedure was performed according to the manufacturer's instructions. The presence of a visible test line indicated a test result below the threshold, as explained in detail in Section 4.1. This was true for all the mixes. In the case of Mix 5,15,17,18, and 21, only faint lines were observed. For this reason, all the compounds included in those mixes were evaluated as single compounds and were subsequently found to be negative (a visible line appeared), with the exception of four substances: citreoviridin, mithramycin, K252a, and puromycin. In these four instances, very faint lines could still be observed. A possible reason for the variation of the line intensity may be related to the tested substances, or may be a result of the variation in the test kit production; however, the results were stated to be \"not relevant\" because the results can only be considered positive when no visible test line is obtained. Therefore, the qualitative cutoff tests were found not to be cross-reactive against any of the substances and only demonstrated reactivity against total aflatoxins (AfB1, AfB2, AfG1, and AfG2).Rapid tests such as the lateral flow devices have previously been used for on-site mycotoxin detection, as reported by, e.g., Xu et al. [25], where the results for maize and feed samples were in excellent agreement with those from the high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.In this study, a total of 110 samples collected in Burkina Faso and Mozambique were analyzed using the qualitative strip tests under extreme weather conditions. We had the opportunity to collect a vast number of different samples, including several variations of corn, cornflakes, couscous, feed, groundnut, infant food, millet, rice, sesame, sorghum, soy, and wheat, as described in detail in Table 2.Following the on-site analysis, all the samples were tightly sealed and shipped to Austria for analysis by LC-MS/MS, and the detailed results of both measurements are presented below. The majority of the LFD results correlated with the selected reference method. Of the 110 samples analyzed, 95 samples (86.4%) were in agreement with the reference method while 13 samples (11.8%) indicated conflicting results and 2 readings (1.8%) were considered invalid. From the 13 misaligned results, four samples resulted in false negative results (3.6%) by the LFD, one sample indicated a false positive result (0.9%), and the remaining eight results were underestimations (7.3%), meaning the measured concentration by the LC-MS/MS was higher than the results obtained when using the strip tests. No correlation was found between the 13 misaligned results, as different matrices and variable origins of the samples were affected.The potential reasons for the few incorrect LFD results could either be due to spot contamination of the aflatoxin, as different subsamples were analyzed by the strip tests and the LC-MS/MS, or due to the grain size since the ground samples that were analyzed on-site were not as finely ground as those samples used for the laboratory analysis. The on-site samples were mostly ground using traditional mortars, while the samples for the LC-MS/MS analysis were ground using standard laboratory mills. In addition, the high temperatures during the analysis could also explain some of the conflicting results, as most of the tests were performed at temperatures higher than 30 • C. Additionally, the resulting extraction efficiency from shaking the samples by hand for 1 min could also prove to be critical.To conclude, the results of the LFDs were satisfactory considering that the tests were mainly performed under tropical conditions. An easy, fast, and inexpensive estimation of the contamination level of a sample could be acquired without the need for expensive lab equipment since the kit functions as a stand-alone product and does not require any additional equipment or reagents except for the solvent used for the extraction. A potential problem presented in this study was the supply and availability of the analytical solvents in rural areas. However, this also allowed for both methanol and the nontoxic ethanol to be evaluated for use as extraction solvents.A potential drawback may arise from the subjective interpretation of the results, since this remains operator dependent. When a very faint test line was visible, the interpretation of the results was critical because faint test lines have also been interpreted as negative. This may be the reason for some of the misaligned LFD results, especially where the LC-MS/MS provided positive results.To summarize, 86.4% of the LFD results aligned with the results obtained when using a high-end LC-MS/MS reference method.To evaluate the robustness of the test kits, repeated measurements over a certain time period (i.e., stability studies) were carried out using test kit B (as described in Section 4.4).Despite the harsh storage conditions, no decrease in the stability could be monitored for short-term stability testing. For all the negative controls, a visible line appeared in the test zone of the strip; for all positive controls, no lines were visible A long-term stability study was carried out in Nigeria by testing the negative controls (50% EtOH) and the positive controls (50% EtOH + 15 µg/kg AfB1) over a time period of 5 months. Tests of the same batch were stored both refrigerated (storage temperature 3.5-4.0 • C at 61.3-86.3% relative humidity) and at an ambient temperature, and were tested bi-weekly (all tests were performed in duplicate). For all the negative controls, a visible line appeared; for all the positive controls, no line was visible no matter at which temperature the test kits were stored. The details of the ambient storage conditions are given in Figure 1.According to the results, the performance of the test kits did not deteriorate over a time period of 5 months regardless of the storage conditions (room temperature vs refrigerated), and thus the storage temperature does not appear to influence the test results. According to the results, the performance of the test kits did not deteriorate over a time period of 5 months regardless of the storage conditions (room temperature vs refrigerated), and thus the storage temperature does not appear to influence the test results.Of the 45 African corn samples, 31 of the samples (17 samples collected in Burkina Faso and 14 samples collected in Mozambique) were taken to be additionally analyzed using semiquantitative aflatoxin tests. The remaining 14 samples could not be analyzed due to an insufficient amount of sample availability (less than 30 g of sample). Each corn sample was extracted in triplicate, with each extract analyzed using the semiquantitative LFDs, and results were compared to the measurements from a well-established and fully in-house validated dilute-and-shoot LC-MS/MS method [21]. The detection range of the rapid test was 3-100 µg/kg, and within all the investigated samples neither false positive results nor false negative results were observed.In total, 18 of the 31 results were within the detection range of the rapid test and could therefore be compared to the reference method as given in Figure 2.Seven of the LFD results < LOQ could be verified by the LC-MS/MS (the LOD of AfB1 was 0.8 µg/kg) and six of the LC-MS/MS positive samples were found to be out of the LFD calibration range (LFD results > 100 µg/kg). The LFD results in the lower calibration range, especially below 10 µg/kg, were overestimated by the trend. However, the results of the 18 samples with results between 3-100 µg/kg indicated an acceptable correlation between both methods for the set of samples that were investigated in this study. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of all the measured samples, regardless of the method used, was below 20%. Of the 45 African corn samples, 31 of the samples (17 samples collected in Burkina Faso and 14 samples collected in Mozambique) were taken to be additionally analyzed using semiquantitative aflatoxin tests. The remaining 14 samples could not be analyzed due to an insufficient amount of sample availability (less than 30 g of sample). Each corn sample was extracted in triplicate, with each extract analyzed using the semiquantitative LFDs, and results were compared to the measurements from a well-established and fully in-house validated dilute-and-shoot LC-MS/MS method [21]. The detection range of the rapid test was 3-100 µg/kg, and within all the investigated samples neither false positive results nor false negative results were observed.In total, 18 of the 31 results were within the detection range of the rapid test and could therefore be compared to the reference method as given in Figure 2.Seven of the LFD results < LOQ could be verified by the LC-MS/MS (the LOD of AfB1 was 0.8 µg/kg) and six of the LC-MS/MS positive samples were found to be out of the LFD calibration range (LFD results > 100 µg/kg). The LFD results in the lower calibration range, especially below 10 µg/kg, were overestimated by the trend. However, the results of the 18 samples with results between 3-100 µg/kg indicated an acceptable correlation between both methods for the set of samples that were investigated in this study. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of all the measured samples, regardless of the method used, was below 20%.There was a good correlation between the test kit and the reference method when comparing the data obtained from both methods of analysis.It can be demonstrated that within a minimum of time and with manageable equipment the rapid method was able to provide reliable and satisfactory results when compared to a highly sophisticated analytical method, which had previously been reported [25].When considering the rapid on-site monitoring, the quantitative strips can be used as a feasible alternative to the conventional lab methods. There was a good correlation between the test kit and the reference method when comparing the data obtained from both methods of analysis.It can be demonstrated that within a minimum of time and with manageable equipment the rapid method was able to provide reliable and satisfactory results when compared to a highly sophisticated analytical method, which had previously been reported [25].When considering the rapid on-site monitoring, the quantitative strips can be used as a feasible alternative to the conventional lab methods.Lateral flow devices for the detection of aflatoxins were challenged with respect to their matrix effects, cross reactivity, and stability, as well as their robustness under harsh climatic conditions.The matrix effect was initially evaluated to determine the performance variance when different nut samples were used with qualitative tests that have a cutoff level of 4 µg/kg. The results were slightly different from the stated cutoff, depending on which kind Lateral flow devices for the detection of aflatoxins were challenged with respect to their matrix effects, cross reactivity, and stability, as well as their robustness under harsh climatic conditions.The matrix effect was initially evaluated to determine the performance variance when different nut samples were used with qualitative tests that have a cutoff level of 4 µg/kg. The results were slightly different from the stated cutoff, depending on which kind of nut was being evaluated; however, none of the results were false negative or false positive.To evaluate the cross reactivity of the qualitative LFDs, over 200 different toxins and metabolites were evaluated. No cross-reactivity against any of the evaluated substances were found, which confirmed their specific reactivity only against aflatoxins.Furthermore, the performance of the qualitative cutoff tests were evaluated under tropical conditions in SSA at high temperatures and a high relative humidity.Over 100 samples, including several different kinds of grain, nuts, rice, and feed samples, were evaluated under these conditions in Burkina Faso and Mozambique. Moreover, the test strips were stressed by the storage temperature of the test kits. Despite the critical storage conditions at high ambient temperatures, their robustness was demonstrated under both short-and long-term stability studies. More than 86% of the results showed agreement with the results obtained using a laboratory reference method. Thirteen of the samples (11.8%) resulted in a disagreement with the LC-MS/MS reference values, which may be due to nonhomogeneous samples or the grain size. Additionally, a subset of the evaluated corn samples were shipped to Austria and evaluated under laboratory conditions using semiquantitative LFDs. The results were then compared with the results from the standardized LC-MS/MS reference method. Overall, the strip test results showed a good correlation in the range of 3-100 µg/kg aflatoxins in corn, and neither false positive nor false negative results were obtained.Both test kit versions, the qualitative and the semiquantitative strip tests, demonstrated satisfactory results and therefore provide a great alternative wherever the time and the costs of the analysis are crucial. The easy-to-use test strips are a good alternative to monitor mycotoxin contamination on-site, especially in parts of the world where highly sophisticated laboratories are rare.The evaluated lateral flow devices and the semiquantitative strip tests were the AgraStrip ® Total Aflatoxin Test (cutoff levels 4 µg/kg, 10 µg/kg, and 20 µg/kg, respectively) (Romer Labs, Tulln, Austria).Mycotoxin strip tests are based on a competitive assay format, which means the analyte in the sample (aflatoxin) competes with bound aflatoxin on the test line. If no analyte is present in the sample, a line appears and indicates a negative test result. When an analyte is present in the sample, the competition will occur and at the given cutoff level the line disappears, which indicates a positive test result (as shown in Figure 3). Next to the test line, a second line in the control zone will always be visible to ensure the correct test development. When the control line is absent, the test result is considered invalid.  According to the manufacturer's package insert, the detection range of the semiquantitative test was 5-100 µg/kg. To get the quantitative results, strips were analyzed using the Romer Labs AgraVision TM Reader. Extraction and test procedure was performed according to the package insert. In-lab testing was performed using methanol purchased from VWR (Radnor, PA, USA) while on-site testing (SSA) made use of methanol and ethanol provided locally.Peeled and unpeeled almonds, macadamia nuts, para nuts, peeled and unpeeled peanuts, and pecan nuts were purchased at a local Austrian market (Naschmarkt, Vienna). All seven samples were analyzed in triplicate by HPLC-MS/MS prior to matrix effect evaluation with the lateral flow devices. According to the manufacturer's package insert, the detection range of the semiquantitative test was 5-100 µg/kg. To get the quantitative results, strips were analyzed using the Romer Labs AgraVision TM Reader. Extraction and test procedure was performed according to the package insert. In-lab testing was performed using methanol purchased from VWR (Radnor, PA, USA) while on-site testing (SSA) made use of methanol and ethanol provided locally.Peeled and unpeeled almonds, macadamia nuts, para nuts, peeled and unpeeled peanuts, and pecan nuts were purchased at a local Austrian market (Naschmarkt, Vienna). All seven samples were analyzed in triplicate by HPLC-MS/MS prior to matrix effect evaluation with the lateral flow devices.For the strip testing, 10 g of each ground sample was weighed out in triplicate and spiked with 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 µg aflatoxin B1 standard per kg matrix, respectively. Briefly, the liquid aflatoxin B1 standard solution in acetonitrile (provided by Romer Labs, Tulln, Austria) was dispensed onto the top of the ground sample and the solvent was allowed to evaporate for 30 min at room temperature. The spiked samples were extracted in a ratio of 1:2 (10 g sample + 20 mL extraction solvent) using 70% MeOH (MeOH-H 2 O, 70:30) and shaken by hand for 1 min. The sample was allowed to settle for 1 min, the supernatant was removed, and then subsequently used for analysis by following the manufacturer's test kit instructions. Each extract was analyzed in duplicate.Furthermore, peeled and unpeeled peanut samples were additionally tested by using 50% EtOH (EtOH-H 2 O/50:50) instead of the 70% MeOH for the extraction so to test if methanol could be replaced by the less harmful ethanol, as stated in the manufacturer's manual. Except for extraction solvent, all the steps were done in accordance to the previously described method.The cross-reactivity of the strip tests for the aflatoxins was investigated with the mixtures of the liquid standards used for the multi-mycotoxin analysis. The sources of these liquid standards of approximately 230 fungal toxins and metabolites are given in reference [26].In total, 23 mixtures of mycotoxins and metabolites were used in this study. The composition of each mix is provided in Table 3. The solutions were stored at −20 • C and allowed to reach room temperature, unassisted, prior to use. All mixes were diluted to 1:20 using 70% MeOH (MeOH-H 2 O, 70:30) before testing. The final concentrations of the evaluated solutions were much higher than the given cutoff level of the used test kit (4 µg/kg, test kit A, as described in Section 4.4). Therefore, clear results could be expected.For extensive on-site evaluation, three aflatoxin tests were used (as given in Table 4). These tests are qualitative tests with a given cutoff level, meaning the indication of a negative or positive test result at a certain concentration level (as shown in Figure 3). For clarity, when a sample was analyzed with test kit A and no test line was visible after the stipulated run time, it indicated an aflatoxin concentration in the sample higher than 4 µg/kg (4 µg/kg is the cutoff level of test kit A).For test kits B and C, the cutoff levels are 10 µg/kg and 20 µg/kg, respectively, following the same principle: when the analyzed concentration of aflatoxin is higher than the cutoff level of the used test, no test line is expected in the test zone.The analyzed samples were obtained from several different locations in Burkina Faso and Mozambique, as previously described by Warth et al. [27]. From those 122 samples, 110 samples (as given in Table 2) were tested on-site for their aflatoxin contamination by using qualitative LFDs. In Burkina Faso, the extraction was done with 50% ethanol (EtOH-H 2 O, 50:50) while in Mozambique 70% methanol (MeOH-H 2 O, 70:30) was applied. All extracts were initially tested using test kit A. All the samples indicating a positive result were further evaluated using test kit B and test kit C to estimate the contamination level.All the tests were performed on-site, whereby some measurements were carried out inside and some outside of a building; however, typically the measurements were done in a barn or under a tree with temperatures up to 38.4 • C and a relative humidity up to 91%.In order to verify the analytical performance of the LFD test kit, all the samples were shipped to Austria and promptly measured by a well-established LC-MS/MS method for the multi-mycotoxin analysis as described by Sulyok et al. [21].Short-term stability testing was done in Nampula province, Mozambique over a one-week period, where the test kits were continuously stored under ambient conditions and partly in direct sunlight (with a temperature of at least 25 • C and relative humidity of approximately 35%). A fresh positive control, 15 µg/kg aflatoxin B1 standard in 70% MeOH (MeOH-H 2 O, 70:30), and a negative control, 70% MeOH (MeOH-H 2 O, 70:30) only, were prepared daily and measured in duplicate.Furthermore, a long-term stability study was carried out in Ibadan, Nigeria. Strips from test kit B were tested bi-weekly over a period of 5 months. Kits from the same batch were stored at 4 • C and at ambient temperature in darkness (without air conditioning). As no MeOH was available in Nigeria, 50% EtOH (EtOH-H 2 O, 50:50) was used instead for the extraction.For each measurement, a positive control of 15 µg/kg aflatoxin B1 standard in 50% EtOH (EtOH-H 2 O, 50:50), and a negative control of only 70% MeOH (MeOH-H 2 O, 70:30) were analyzed using the test kits stored at both temperatures. Standard solutions were freshly prepared for each measurement and the cooled kit was allowed to climatize to room temperature prior to use. Temperature and humidity were monitored during testing.Each of the 31 corn samples were extracted in triplicate. Briefly, 10 g of each sample were weighed in triplicate and extracted in a ratio of 1:2, with 10 g of ground sample + 20 mL of 70% MeOH (MeOH-H 2 O, 70:30), and with 1 min of shaking by hand. Extracts were allowed to settle for 2 min 30 sec and were further diluted to 1:20 (ratio of 1 + 19, i.e., 50 µL sample extract + 950 µL dilution buffer) using the dilution buffer provided in the test kit. The procedure was precisely followed as stated in the manufacturer's package insert. For the analysis, 100 µL of each extract was pipetted into a small microwell, then a strip was inserted into each well and allowed to develop for 3 min. The test was performed at a constant temperature (35 • C) by using the heat block provided by the manufacturer. The intensity of the emerging color test line was analyzed using the AgraVision TM Reader to obtain the quantitative results. The LFD results were compared with the results gained by the established LC-MS/MS reference method by Sulyok et al. [21] using an AB Sciex 4000 QTRAP ® system.","tokenCount":"4773"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ac3f3ade72b97f5be8c36c1862eb1b22","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/9b687f57-6018-4788-be61-e421bf95b40a/content","id":"325212178"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"646bf698-9339-4f46-86b5-f598373bba73","pagecount":"119","content":"B!:nh do nim giy ra 2.Domnau 5. Mile sUdng (B~ch Uµtg) 9. lliicfn 10. al silt 13. GI slit do P. polysora 14. Gi dt nhi~t dOi 17. DOm loang tren Ia 18. DOm la do Leptosphaeria 21. Dom Ia do Phaeospnaeria 22. Vet nau xam 25. DOm la do Curvularia 26. DOm nau la 29. DOm la nh& 30. DOm 18. Ian 33. Vet SQC nau 34. Than thula 37. DOm kho nau 38.DOmmilt 41. Vet vllng nau 42.Khov.in 45. Thai c& rf 46. Sqi den 49. Den m~ch dfui va hen muqn 50. Thai aen than 53. Hoa roe 54. Thoi than do Bol:Iyodlplodla. Khoa chin doan 56-62 63. Thal than do Dlplodla 64. Thal than do Gibberella B~nh dom niu Physoderma maydis Thong thttang b~nh nay xuat hi~n d nhling VU.ng co nhieu mtta va nhi~t do cao. B~nh h<P. la, ~ la, than va thfuh thoang con thay ca d VO t:rfil bcip. Tri~u chl!ng d'au tien co th~ thay dttqc la nht1ng dam bien vang nho, s:ip xep luan phien gttla phan mo khoe va mo b~nh tren phien la (Hinh I). Nhifng ctom a gan gtua thi hinh trcm va co mau nau sam, con nhung vet lJ phien la la nhung dom bien vang. a m:it va long than ct1ng co nhung vet ~nh mau nau. Khi b~nh h;p. n~g. nhiing vet b~nh nay co the' lien ket vm nhau lam thoi than va ct6 cay (H.2).Cuon sach nhd nay ctttqc so:µi lam tai li~u huang dan xac d\\nh cac b~nh hip bcip mqt each nhanh ch6ng. Sach danh cho cac can bq kY thm}t nong nghi~p va ngttm san xuat bc!p sti dt,mg ngofil dong, vi v~y hinh thuc phan Ioip ng~ gqn cac tac nhan gay b~nh d day dtfqc coi la sat h<;tp. Phan Im viet trong sach la nhtlng mo ta ngc!n gqn m<?t so b~nh h~ chinh tren help, cac tac nhan gay b~nh va tri~u chilng b~nh. Bo' sung cho loi mo ta la rat nhieu anh mau cua cac cay b~ ~nh cti giup them cho vi~c xac d!nh ~nh va d gh1a cuon sach c6 m(>t kh6a tra cuu d~ cha'n ctoan b~nh. Phan loi viet du<;1c chia theo ba nh6m n,guyen nhan gay b~nh tren cay Mp Ia na'm,vi khuan va virut. Phan Ian nhting b~nh nay ctang gay h~i nc:tng, tuy nhien cling dtia vao day ca m<?t so b~nh c6 the\" se gay h~i n~g sau nay.B~nh moc suong (b~ch t~g) M<?t so lofil nam thu<?c cac giong Sclerospora va Sclerophthora gay ra cac b~nh moc stidng sau:-BENH HEO VANG QUAN NGON LUA TREN , ..    -V~t ~nh hinh bii.u dl,IC tren vo triii vii ~ la, v~t Jan hdn 2-3 cm.-Bdp nhe, nhil!u may, khong ch~t. h'1t bi~n mau, tren h1C1t vii Joi co nhi1ng v~t c!en.-Dii.p nh«;!. h:~t Ion!,{ loo tren lOi. ncly mfun ngay tren trai.-Khong d~u triii ho,(lc trai b.1ip kem phat trien, h\"t teo qui'i.t.Kh6ng d~u triii hoac hoiin toiin khong ra trai.-H'1t miiu hbng. biit aliu tu dlnh bil:p -n:'ip th6i vii hoa den -Thili trai, m& nfun nhti sdl bOng miiu nau nhl).t, co khbi sc;li trim h'1t vii Joi.-Kh.Si nilm nh\"t mau, m~m nh6't, va c ung dlin cho tm hie bil:p sil.p thu ho?Ch. -M6c n1iro tdng, qu~ th~ mau den, trill nii.u xfun. VO dinh vao tri\\.i.-~t mau vang. lJng leo, co khiii s<ji nfim den.Bi~n dlPlg va to ra, co bao tU> mau aen d hoa nho.-Bi~n d~g. bfit th\\l -Bi6n d<'Jlg -Cit th6i, co la ch~t bao quanh -Co khiii bao hl cU11g den 0mot s6 hoa con.-lliit thu, co vai hoa dlic o-ctinh h~p   ","tokenCount":"615"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a852ab00fe4126c3b6c41e5f928f285e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5ac9ca0a-8dcc-4640-a343-95880e27a379/content","id":"144139165"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2ebc879c-cf56-4076-835b-48f4765118a0","pagecount":"16","content":"it as an economic cr'op is justified by far more than its value as a biological curiosity. In many of the world's least-favored agricultural environments, triticale offers a double hope: yields, nutritional quality and other critical characteristics equal or superior to those of wheat; and the tolerance for drought and poor soi I and the resistance to disease typical of rye.Beyond its immediate potential as a food crop, moreover, triticale's progress from the curiosity shelf to the experimental fields at CINlMYT and other research centers, and now to the threshold of widespread commercial cultivation, encourages the hope that other such intergeneric \"wide crosses\" will soon follow. The possibility of crossing disparate genera has long appealed tu plant scientists as a powerful possibility, at least in theory. From the genetic material that could be combined in wide crosses, breeders might be able to fashion many new high-yielding, high-qual ity crops custom-tai lored for specific human needs and agricultural constraints.In practice, however, enthusiasm for such speculations was damped by the empirical evidence that the same differences that make distinct genera attractive candidates fur wide c.rosses also make them sexually incompatible. Indeed, this reproductive integrity is part of the very definition of \"genus\" in dictionaries and basic biology courses. Wide crusses according to the commonly accepted \"laws of nature,\" are all but certain to be as sterile as mules. The deveiopment of fertile triticale, leading to its subsequent improvement as a food crop, suggests that this unbreakable law of nature can at least be bent.The emergence of triticale (pronounced triti-kay-Iee) as the first successful crop from a man-made wide cross coincides with the centennial of the wheat-rye hybrid's debut in the scientific literature. A sterile plant grown from a wheat x rye cross was reported by a researcher named Wilson to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh in 1875. In 1884, the' Rural New Yorker, reporting a replication of Wilson's experiment by a plant breeder named Carmen, published the firsti lIustration of the hybrid, which bore a telltale resemblance to its parents. It was, not until 1891 that the first fertile triticale was announced in the literature. Among a population of wheat x rye crosses made in 1888, the German breeder Rimpau found a single spike bearing 15 kernels, of which 12 germinated into fertile plants of uniform phenotype: the first true triticales.Rimpau's few seeds reproduced with perfect genetic fidelity through generation after generation. Until the 1930's, however, these and other triticales attracted relatively little interest save as taxonomic curiosities and evolutionary dead-ends. Their generally poor appearance and persistently reluctant ferti lity discouraged interest by practical breeders in the potential of triticale as a field crop.The most intensive early research on triticales was touched off by a freak occurrence at the Agricultural Experiment Station of Saratov, in southeastern Russia. In 1918, the researchers on the station's wheat staff were amazed to find thousands ofounmistakable wheat x rye hybrids in their winter wheat test plots. Evidently the uninvited triticales were the result of spontaneous fertilizations in the previous season between the station's wheat trials and border rows of rye planted, ironically, 'to prevent cross-pollination among the wheat strains.Although all the hybrids were male-sterile, incapable of self-pollination, thousands of fertile seeds had been created by spontaneous backcrossing to neighboring wheats and ryes. Later derivatives from these backcrosses proved to be true-breeding and relatively fertile, as well as phenotypically intermediate between wheat and rye. Not until 1931, however, did cytological tests confirm that the hybrids were true amphiploids (intergeneric hybrids) with a diploid chromosome number of 56; and even then the Russians still lacked a convincing explanation of how such amphidiploids could have arisen from completely male-sterile plants. An ingenious researcher named Levitsky finally resorted to the theory that the F1 ovules developed asexually with a somatic chromosome number, which was somehow doubled in the first division of the egg cell.Despite the lack of a firm theoretical base, the Russians at Saratov and elsewhere continued to work on triticale during the 1920's and early 19iO's, even conducting preliminary tests of triticale's breadbaking characteristics. Unfortunately, the official establishment of Lysenko's doctrine of heredity, and then the onset of World War II, interrupted the Russian effort. Significant research during this period was also carried on at centers in other European countries, most notably in Sweden, where Arne Muntzing's crucial contributions to the improvement of triticale began in 1931 and continue today. In 1936, among 65 triticales grown from a fertile wheat x rye cross, Muntzing discovered one plant with three heads whose anthers had produced from 20 to 60 percent viable pollen grains. One other plant had a single partially fertile head. Using this pollen for self-fertilization, Muntzing suceeded in obtaining a single seed that germinated into a plant with 56 chromosomes: a new triticale. Thus Muntzing demonstrated \"a mechanism of general importance\" tu explain the spontaneous appearance of fertile triticales in nature making Levitsky's theory of asexual reproduction \"superfluous.\"Nevertheless, through the middle of the 1930's triticale remained of serious scientific interest mainly to geneticists. Consideration of its potential as an economic crop was furestalled by the hybrid's persistent high degree of sterility and• its tendency to set shriveled seed without sufficient endosperm to support seedling growth. Because of these obstacles to research and development, Muntzing re-A CIMMYT scientists excises the embryo from a seed, left and below, before placing the embryo in a nutrient medium where it will be develop leaves and roots. Fl seeds resulting from wheat-rye crosses are deformed and usually unable to supply the nutritive needs of the seedling.By 4 weeks the leaves and roots have appe'!red.After 6 to 8 weeks the plantlet is transplanted in soil.fers to the history of triticale through the mid-1930's as \"the archaic period.\"The modern era The first breakthrough came in 1937 with the discovery in France that a chrystal alkaloid, colchicine, could induce plants to double their chromosome number. With this pale yellow poison derived from the bulb of the autumn crocus, plant breeders could cure sterility in triticales. Although the colchicine technique itself required more years of refinement, its discovery augured the end of the major obstacle to the development of triticales.Only a few years later, the colchicine method was joined by the development of a delicate technique for excising triticale embryos from their shriveled seeds and transplanting them to a nutrient culture medium. Before these two discoveries, would-be triticale developers were discouraged by the tedious, usually fruitless search for naturally occurring fertile plants. By 1975, after the refinement of these techniques, the triticale program at CIMMYT alone could report the successful production of several hundred new fertile triticales in only 2 years.New troubles with triticale Plant breeders could now produce unlimited numbers of wheat x rye crosses with reasonable assurance that their primary tritical~s would grow into fertile plants. By the same token, however, they were then confronted with a long list of inherent liabilities in their mature populations. Not the least of these were the persistent tendencies of the progeny of embryo-cultured chromosome-doubled primaries, to have high rates of sterility and seeds with shriveled endosperm.Even triticales that retained their reproductive vigor exhibited other character deficiencies. Most triticales, because they derived from European parents adapted to higher latitudes and long days, were late to mature in the short days typical of the developing countries for which triticale was intended, most of which are inside 35 degrees latitude. Some of the northern triticales needed long days in order to flower at all. Moreover, the early triticales were developed from tall, weak-strawed parents, and the sunlight conditions of the lower latitudes encouraged them to grow even taller and weaker. Especially under the stimuli of irrigation and fertilization, intended to exploit their full yield potential, the tall triticales tended to lodge, or fall over, severely depressing yield.The early triticales were also narrowly adapted to specific growing conditions. Their lack of versatility made them inappropriate for wide use in the developing world, where the plant type most likely to succeed is one that can tolerate a wide range 'Of growing conditions and still yield well. For example, the relatively few, carefully reared experimental triticales had never been selected in the field for resistance to the many plant diseases 4 of the lower latitudes. Once the problems frustrating the creation of experimental primary triticales were solved, the disabilities that afflicted triticale as an economic field crop for the developing world emerged as an agenda that would challenge plant breeders for decades to come.Triticale comes to the new world The early research and development work pn triticale was carried on by individual scientists and small teams at widely separated institutions in many countries. The results were reported and shared, if at all, mainly by the traditional, slow process of publication in professional journals in a variety of languages. The rapid and coordinated development since World War II that has brought triticale to the verge of economic viability as a new food crop is the result of a fundamental innovation in agricultural research in which the contributions of worldwide networks of collaborating scientists and institutions are focused into a systematic effort by internationally funded and directed centers. In the case of triticale, the seeds of this system were planted in 1954, when the University of Manitoba, Canada, brought together for the first time a large number of primary triticales from individual researchers and institutions around the world. From the international collection, plus primary triticales of their own creation, the researchers at the university'S plant sciences department could make an unprecedented number of eclectic secondary crosses.An important early result of the work at MCflitoba was the confirmation of the superior breeding qualities of hexaploid triticales-hybrids of tetraploid durum wheat x diploid rye, 2n = 42, in comparison with the more common octoploids, 2n = 56, the product of crossing rye with hexaploid bread wheat. The difference of a few chromosomes was crucial to future progress. As Arne Muntzing later recalled, \"It is possible that the interest in triticale as a potential new crop would have tapered off entirely if the efforts had been limited to octoploid material. However, this has been successfully prevented by the enormous development of hexaploid triticales and by the crosses between octoploids and hexaploids.\"Even against the stubbon resistance of the octoploid form to improvement, hexaploid triticale was something of a dark horse. Hexaploids had been produced by various breeders since 1913; the first fertile line was reported in 1938. But, according to Muntzing, the early hexaploids displayed such poor seed development that researchers were discouraged from further efforts on such an unlikely prospect. By the mid-1950's, a few dauntless breeders were having better success, among them the triticale pioneer E. Sanchez-Monge in Spain and the American J.G. O'Mara at Iowa State University. It was the latter who provided the Manitoba researchers with their first hexaploid breeding material, 10 seeds from an embryo-cultured, colchi-While great efforts are being made in the experimental fields at CIMMyj and elsewhere to increase the yield and broaden the adaptation of triticale, equal attention is being paid in the laboratory to the nutritional value of the new grain as a food for people and domestic animals. In 1968, assays of triticale at CIMIVlYT's Protein Quality Laboratory, under the direction of Evangelina Villegas, indicated protein contents ranging from 11.7 percent to 22.5 percent of total grain weight, with an average level of 17.5 percent. By comparison, the average protein content of wheat is only 12.9 percent. Triticale's vastly superior showing in these early tests led to premature publicity about a new \"super food.\"As Villegas pointed out in 1973, however triticale's high protein content was linked to its malformed, incomplete endosperm, which exaggerated the higher protein in the germ and the bran. As the size and plumpness of the grains were increased by breeding and selection, the increase of starchy endosperm inevitably diluted the protein percentage of the entire seed.However, the loss in protein as a percentage of the improved grains was more than offset by the increase in total protein production per hectare. Thus, in 1968, when the best triticale yields were but 2500 kg/ha and the protein content averaged a remarkable 17 percent, total protein production per hectare was 21-25 kg. By 1973 the protein content had dropped to 13.7 percent, but the best yields were up to 8000 kg/ha, resulting in a total protein production of 1100 kg/ha. cine-treated cross between the durum wheat Carleton and spring rye.'With the O'Mara hexaploid and others developed at Manitoba, the Canadian triticale team was able to make significant progress toward a useful field crop. By 1969, their efforts were rewarded with the certification by the Canadian government of a hexaploid triticale called Rosner for commercial release. That same year in Spain the hexaploid Cachirulo, developed under Sanchez-Monge, was released for commercial production.By then Hungary, where A. Kiss had been among the first to exploit the hexaploids, was already planting 15,000 hectares of triticale for feed.Triticales at CIMMYT Meanwhile, Norman E. Borlaug, the director of CIIVIMYT's wheat program, had seen the potential Protein quality, as well as protein quantity, is closely watched. The biological quality of any protein refers to its content of \"essential amino acids\"-those building-blocks of protein that cannot be synthesized by the systems of humans and other nonruminant animals and must therefore be eaten directly in food. In triticale, as in other cereal grains, the \"first limiting amino acid\"-the one most lacking-Is lysine, therefore the percentage of lysine in triticale protein becomes the index t::> overall protein quality.In terms of lysine content, triticale is significantly superior to commercial wheats, in which lysine averages about 3.0 percent of the total protein. In the 5500 triticale lines analized by CIMMYT's protein chemists in 1974, the total protein fraction averaged 13.5 percent, of which 3.7 percent was lysine. By 1972-73, several advanced lines of triticale had a lysine content close to that of quality-protein maize, which incorporates genes for high lysine, while tbe triticales were far superior to the maize in total protein.In assessing the protein quality of triticales, the CIMMYT laboratory uses a simple test based on a correlation between lysine content and dye-bi nding capacity. The same procedure can readily be adopted by protein laboratories in developing areas. In addition, the actual dietary value of triticale has been tested in _ feeding trials on beef and dairy cattle, hogs, and poultry, as well as laboratory animals. Current feeding trials are being carried out in cooperative programs between CIMIVlYT and the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Pecuarias in Mexico, and with the collaboration of the Instituto de l\\lutrici6n de Centro America y Panama in Guatemala.of the Canadian triticale work as early as 1958, when he visited the University of Manitoba for the First International Wheat Symposium. At the time, however, Borlaug was preoccupied with the development of the first high-yielding dwarf wheat varieties in a joint effort of his Rockefeller Foundation team and the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture. It was not unti I 1963, when the new wheats were well launched, that Borlaug and his colleagues could turn some of their attention to triticale.In November 1963, three Manitoban hexaploids were established by Borlaug's group at the Mexican government research station at Ciudad Obregon, in the northwestern state of Sonora. At the same time the University of Manitoba was establishing its own winter triticale nursery in the same region. In March 1965, with a special research grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, the triticale efforts of This alliance, whic.h continued after CIMMYT was founded in .1966, broadened and accelerated the progress of triticale development. Materials tested in the Canadian summer cou Id be selected for significant characteristics and regrown a second time in the same year in the warm Sonoran winter, thus doubling the pace of research. The establishment oftriticale nurseries at two CIMMYT stations-Ciudad Obregon, at sea level, and Toluca, at 2600 meters elevation-exposed the triticales to selection under growing conditions more similar to those of the developing world than they could experience in Manitoba. Beyond Mexico, CIMMYT's collaborative relationship with a network of plant breeders, research institutions, and national programs around the world assured that promising experimental varieties from Mexico would be systematically tested under even more varied and realistic conditions. Finally, CIMMYT offered a unique, thoroughly tested collection of wheat breeding materials; an aggressive system for producing and testing new genetic combinations; and a team of trained and fieldtested researchers under Borlaug's direction.In Mexican soil under a Mexican sun the Canadian triticales quickly showed their lack of adaptation to low-latitude growing conditions. They suffered from the short days. They grew too tall. They offered no resistance to stripe rust, a major disease of wheat. It took several generations of crossing to other triticales and bread wheats before enough strains with daylength insensitivity and disease resistance could be selected for replicated yield tests. In the results from 10luca and Ciudad Obregon the triticales-some of which had already equaled locally adapted wheat yields in Canada-failed to produce more than half as much grain as the best Mexican wheat. While the triticales equaled or even bettered the wheat in total plant material, their grain yield was depressed by late maturity, lodg-ing and, most significantly, persistent partial sterility and severe shriveling of the seed's endosperm.The Armadillo accident Before they had fairly begun to work on triticale's manifold disadvantages, the CIMMYT breeders were the beneficiaries of a happy accident. As Borlaug later described it: I must tell you that the largest and most important step toward making the breakthrough in triticale improvement was executed by capricious mother nature herself, one early dawn March morning in 1967 in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, while scientific man was still in bed. One promiscuous, venturesome stray wheat pollen grain with a potent and valuable \"genetic load\" from the nearby wheat breeding plots floated across the road under cover of darkness and fertilized a sad but permissive tall, sterile degenerate triticale plant.A year later (two generations), scientific men identified several unusually promising plants in a segregating population. The genetic makeup of those plants clearly indicated the value of the illicit stray wheat pollen grain. Its triticale progeny indicated that in the act of fertilization it had dwarfed, introduced partial photoperiodic insensitivity and completely overcome the sterility barrier, which had inhibited progress in triticale improvement for decades.Borlaug concluded, \"This seems to me to be nature's way of telling scientists not to become too arrogant.\" The CIMMYT scientists had been blessed by a stroke of luck similar to the one that had produced the first field of fertile triticales at Saratov in 1918. The difference was that half a century later in Sonora the CIMMYT triticale team was prepared fully to exploit its good fortune. Happily, the assets of the well-endowed triticale, christened Armadillo, proved to be highly heritable; and the Armadillo hexaploids crossed more readily with wheats and ryes than did the normal hexaploids in In worldwide trials at dozens of locations each year, triticale yields have climbed rapidly, and in 1974 exceeded yields of the wheat check varieties.A walkie-talkie helps CIMMYT triticale breeders, Frank Zillinsky, left, and Mohan Kohli. check the records on lines that may be used as parents.A new beginning Like earlier breakthroughs in the history of triticale, tlie advent of Armadillo solved some problemsor at least indicated that they were solvable-only to bring others to the fore. The prescription that remained for triticale breeders to fill was spelled out in 1971 by Borlaug and Frank J. Zillinsky, who assumed direction of CIIV1MYT's triticale programthen newly established as a separate entity from the wheat program-in 1968. \"If triticale is to become commercially competitive with other cereal grains,\" they wrote, \"it must be at least equally prlJductive in grain yield, have adequate resistance to disease infection, desirable grain type, and nutritional quality suitable. as feed for animals and a food for humans.\" To achieve those goals, the 1970's at CIIVlMYT have been a period of intensive effort to compress millenia of evolution into mere generations of painstaking breeding and selection.The precondition for overcoming the formidable remaining liabilities of triticale as an economic crop was a gene pool of rich diversity from which more desirable traits might be assembled. \"Triticale has lacked the innumerable generations of natural selection ... under which the other cereal crops evolved,\" noted Zillinsky and Borlaug. \"To make up for this lack of natural evolution, it will be necessary to establish populations as genetically diverse as possible.... \" The development of triticale until 1971, however, had contrived to maintain a very narrow genetic base, just the opposite of the resource the breeders now required. For example: each new primary triticale..must be \"handmade\" by the delicate, two-stage process of embryo cu Itu re and colchicine treatment, and there are inevitably a significant percentage of failures. Accordingly, the number of primary crosses to in-troduce new germ plasm into the breeding populations has been limited: only about 30 primary hexaplaids were available at CIMMYT as late as 1972. In a different way, the wholesale conversion of CIMMYT's triticales to Armadillo parentage, while it vastly improved the characteristics of most lines, also tended to standardize the genetic stockpile from which the breeders could choose.To facilitate the diversification of the gene pool by the creation of new primary triticales, CIMIVbYT's laboratory scientists have made important refinements in the techniques for culturing embryos and doubling chromosomes. In 1971 only 150 embryos of new crosses could be cultured successfully, and of these only one seedling was successfully treated with colchicine. In 1973, with the improved processes, 125 new fertile primaries were produced; and 84 more the following year.By 1975, CIMMYT's breeders were able to draw on a bank of some 185 primary triticales.Meanwhile, the triticale staff has been following several approaches to increase the genetic variation in CIMMYT's secondary breeding materials. Thousands of crosses have been made between triticales of different pedigrees, triticales and wheats, and triticales and ryes. I n some cases the breeders made specific matches between plants; but in others random crosses were encouraged by planting mixed breeding populations in adjacent rows or plots and letting nature take its course.Many of CIMMYT's triticales-all of them spring types, due to their Canadian origin-have been crossed with winter wheats, winter ryes, and winter triticales in a cooperative effort with breeders in Canada, the United States, Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, and other countries. The conversion of spring triticales into winter types makes it possible to cross them with existing highly improved ryes. The germ plasm of rye land races,The success of triticale will finally be measured nut only by its yield in the farmers' fields and its protein quality in the scientist's laboratories, but by its performance in the w0rld's ovens in an alrr,ost endless variety of locally preferred bread types. However, even though G.K. Meister, the director of the agricultural station at Saratov, Russia, published preliminary descriptions of triticale's ba~ing properties about 1930, triticale breeders until recently have been preoccupied with the fundamental problems of fertility, yield, and adaptation.. The earliest studies indicated that the light, airy loaves of leavened bread preferred in many of the developed areas of the world cou Id qe baked from triticale flour only with the addition of large proportions of wheat fl0ur. The unique contribution of the wheat flour was to produce the elastic substance called gluten, which inflates and stretches during the baking process to produce a cellular, crusted loaf.In 1972, Lorenz et al. derr,onstrated that the deformed grains typical of triticale resulted in inferior flour protein content compared to that of wheat, despite the original protein superiority of the triticale grain. However, the same researchers also found that triticale collected by CIMMYT in 1972 in Turkey, one of rye's ancestral homes, has contributed sti II more diversity to CIMMYT's triticale gene pool.The diversified triticale gene pool was C IMMYT's arsenal for an attack on the factors limiting productivity. In their earliest trials in Mexico, triticales had failed to yield even half as much grain as the best locally adapted wheat. By 1969-70, even with the many advantages of the Armadillo genes, Zillinsky and Borlaug reported that \"although average yields in triticales have increased substantially, they are not yet competitive with the best commercial dwarf Mexican wheat varieties.\"In the 1969-70 International Triticale Yield Nursery (ITYN) grown at the CIMMYT station in Ciudad Obregon, the 10 best Armadillo-crossed competitors yielded an average of 4492 kilograms per hectare, while the top strain reached 4990 kg/ha. The best wheat _check, however, yielded 6220 kg/ ha-almost 25 percent better than the best triticalewhile the wheat average was 5417 kg/ha. Even these results were distorted in favor of the triticales. Out of deference to the inability of the triticales to tolerate the optimum level of fertilization for wheat without lodging completely, the 8 flour alone, without the addition of wheat flour, could yield guod bread loaves with appropriate adjustments in absorptiun and fermentation times and mixing procedures. Their experience was confirmed by Tsen et al. and Arr,aya. At CIMMYT, however, relatively little effort is spent on producing triticale loaves to meet U.S. or Canadian bread preference. CIMMYT's mandate is rather to adapt triticale to the food needs of the deve~oping countries, where \"bread\" has many other names and takes 'many very different forms. . Nevertheless, satisfactory raised bread can be made from some triticales. Javier Pd'la and Arnoldo Amaya, CIMMYT cereal chemists recently conducted baking tests on advanced triticale lines that have high test weight (up to 74 kg/hI.) They found several lines that produced loaves with a volume of 785 cc which was similar to the loaf volume of the wheat check.In tests in which chapatis, tortillas, and cookies were made, a number of triticale lines were as good as the wheat check. or better. Reports from Ethiopia indicate the enjera, the traditional \"bread,\" can be made successfully from a flour composed of equal parts of triticale and teft, a North African cereal.wheat checks were grown with only 60 percent of their recommended nitrogen.By 1971, among the \"several shortcomings which must be corrected to increase yields to a level comparable to the best wheats,\" Zillinsky and Barlaug identified triticale's tendency to lodge-fall overas \"the most serious limiting factor to higher yields.\" They warned that \"little progress in maximum yields can be expected until a substantial improvement in lodging resistance is obtained.\" The same problem had plagued many earlier investigators, including Muntzing in Sweden, Kiss in Hungary, and Homegrown triticale provides the week's bread for a Mexian farm family.Sanchez-Monge in Spain; but in the lower latitudes of Mexico the triticales tended to stretch still taller on their weak straw until they fell over. Even the Armadillo strains, despite one dwarfing gene inherited from wheat, .tended to express the tallness of their rye parent and collapse under the weight of their fuller, more fertile spikes.As the 1969-70 ITYN demonstrated, triticale's propensity to grow tall and fall down made at• tempts to increase yields through irrigation and fertilization ironically self-defeating. In later trials against wheat checks, the yields of the best triticales approached the wheat standard at low levels of nitrogen. However, as the nitrogen level approached the 120 kg/ha recommended for the dwarf wheats, the triticales lodged severely and their yields actually fell, while the wheats widened their margin of superiority.',\" . Early attempts to shorten the triticale plant by incorporating additional wheat dwarfing genes were frustrated by the inability to maintain fertility among the dwarf selections. Crossing Armadillo strains with stiff-strawed triticales resulted in only moderate increases in lodging resistance. Since a major obstacle to the expressi on of the si ngle .dwarfing gene in Armadillo was the tall genotype of rye, a third strategy was to substitute the genes of a dwarf rye called Snoopy. Unfortunately, along with its dwarfing genes Snoopy carried genes for susceptibility to several diseases and other unfavorable traits. Two-gene dwarf hexaploids were final• Iy derived from crosses of hexaploid triticale x bread wheat and octoploid triticale x hexaploid triticale. Introduced in 1971 as Cinnamon, the fertile dwarf achieved significant improvements in yield. By 1975 the best triticales had excellent lodging Leafv. forage-tvpe triticales can be grazed or mowed several umes a season and later harvested for grain. Progress in improving grain quality by conventional methods of breeding and selection has been slow. Visual screening for plump seed tends to eliminate genes for desired characteristics such as plant type and dwarfing which are associated with poorly formed grains. In 1969, Ake Gustaffson of Lund, Sweden, attempted to induce grain plumpness by genetic mutation, using mutagenic chemicals and radiation. Although some improvement in seed type appeared in his materials in the third and fourth generations after treatment, mutation proved not to be a general solution to the problem.The most significant progress in seed improvement resu Ited in 1972 from a 15-day selection process beginning with 600,000 plants standing in 6000 double rows at Ciudad Obregon. After four stages of elimination by visual inspection, the plump seeds from 2250 highly fertile plants were retained for crossing to the_elite lines of triticale. By this tedious process, the CI MMYT plant breeders were able to obtain highly productive triticales with grain test weights as high as 76 kg/hi which had been designated as the triticale standard. Nevertheless, by 1974 the average triticale grain test weight was only 72 kg/hi, representing significant but slow progress from the 1966-67 average of only 65 kg/ hi, or the 1970 average of 68 kg/hi. According to Zillinsky, the pace of future improvement in seed type depends on \"the degree of selection pressure placed on the segregating populations, the number of cross-combinations made, and the obtaining of a fortuitous combination of compatible rye and wheat chromosomes.\"Diseases have nqt appeared as a serious limiting factor in triticale yields, probably because not enough triticale is yet being planted anywhere in the world to trigger serious outbreaks of pathogens. By the same token, Zillinsky notes, information on the inherent resistances and susceptibilities of triticales to diseases is relatively scarce. However, he adds, \"wherever the crop is grown, disease symptoms appear, apparently caused by plant pathogens which parasitize wheat and rye species... , As commercial production increases, diseases that parasitize triticales will increase.\"In general, European researchers have reported, triticale is superior to wheat in genetic resistance to disease. Since 1971, CIIVIMYT has been monitoring diseases which infest triticales in Mexico. The Mexico triticales have proved more resistant than wheat to several important diseases, including leaf blotch, powdery mildew, and the smuts. Following the devastation of the Toluca triticale nursery in its first season by stripe rust, a high degree of resistance was obtained by selection from intercrosses with resistant triticale plants and backcrosses to resistant wheats. At least partial resistance to leaf rust has been identified in some stages of certain triticale strains.On the other hand, triticales lack adequate resistance to certain important pathogens, including Fusarium head blight, Fusarium niva/e, bacterial stripe and several virus diseases, and some root-rotting and leaf-destroying organisms. CllVIMYTs collaborators at the University of Manitoba are working to develop triticales resistant to ergot, a fungus that does not appear in Mexico but attacks rye in temperate zones, producing highly toxic substances.The payoff: Increased yield The sometimes dramatic improvements in fertility, 'lodging resistance, grain type, genetic diversity, disease resistance and other factors achieved at CIMMYT have been manifested in steadily increasing yields, both absolutely and in comparison with wheat standards. In 1968, before the introduction of Armadillo fertility, the best yields for triticale at CIMMYT were about 2500 kg/ha, less than half the top wheat yield of close to 6000 kg/ha. Increased fertility doubled triticale yields in some situations by 1970, and in the 1970-71 ITYI\\J trials, the best triticale yielded about 85 percent as well as the best wheat check. By 1972 the best yields for Mexican wheats had increased to 8000 to 9000 kg/ha, whi Ie the yield of the top triticale had reached 7000 kg/ha.The Cinnamon strains with their additional dwarf-ing genes made their debut in replicated trials in the 1972-73 CIMMYT yield tests in Sonora. While the yield of the top wheat check held. steady at 8000 to 9000 kg/ha, the best triticale strains had increased their productivity by about 15 percent to 8000 kg/ha. The top triticale yielded 8352 kg/ha. The yield gap between the best wheats and triticales in Mexico had been closed for the first time.In the following summer season at the high-altitude CIMMYT station at Toillca, triticale' yields again equaled those of the best bread wheats. Of the 150 triticale lines tested at CIMMYT in 1973, about 35 yielded as much as 7000 kg/ha. The following year, 150 of the 600 lines tested met or bettered that standard.Looking ahead in 1974, Zillinsky said: \"Further increments in grain yield in triticales are expected with the introduction of more dwarfing genes and improvements in tillering capacity, grain density, and plant structure. An immediate increase of 10 to 15 percent could be achieved if triticales could produce grai n of equal density to wheat. Increasing spike length may also result in yield increases, perhaps compensating for the present deficiencies in tillering capacity.\"The assignment undertaken by the CIMMYT-University of Manitoba triticale program was not fully discharged by the achievement of triticale strains that could equal or outperform the best wheats under the carefully controlled conditions at lYIexican experiment stations. Rather, the man~ate from the Canadian International Development Research Centre in 1971 was specifically for the development of superior triticales so broadly adapted that they could compete with traditional grains in the varied and often marginal agricultural conditions typical of the developing world.But,asZiliinsky and Borlaug recognized in 1971, \"the current strains of triticale appear to be notoriously poor in adaptation.\" They noted a crippling intolerance for \"changes in latitude,...elevation, temperature, daylength, availability of moisture and nutrients, and probably many other factors ....\" The explanation for triticale's poor adaptation was obvious: lack of t:!volutionary opportunity. \"To make up for this lack of evolution,\" the CIMMYT breeders prescribed, \"it will be necessary to establ.ish populations as genetically diverse as possible and have them grown and selected in various environments around the world. The best selections from all possible sources will subsequently be brought together and hybridized to establ ish a second cycle of diverse materia!.\" \"Such a program,\" they realized, \"requires the generous cooperation of many interested scientists around the world.\" CIMMYT initiated an international triticale testing program in 1969, involving university researchers and public plant-breeding institutions in systematic cooperative exchanges of breeding materials and data. By 1973, international . triticale nurseries from CIMMYT were grown in some 48 countries in 212 trials. In the early years, CIMMYT triticale nurseries were sent to all cooperators who would accept them. By 1975, however, 338 trials were grown in 73 countries and CIMMYT was unable to satisfy many additional requests for seed. . The great increase in the range of environments in which the triticales are tested, combined with the great expansion of the diversified gene pool, has resulted in a remarkable improvement in adaptation, as manifested by the ITYN trial results from all locations around the world. In the 1969-70 ITYN, the best triticales yielded only 70 to 75 percent as well as the top wheat. Two years later, the triticales were only 5 percent short, and by the 1973-74 trials, the average yield of the five top triticales had pu lied 15 percent ahead of the top wheat in the trials. In Winnipeg, at the University of Manitoba, the top-yielding triticale outyielded the top feed wheat by 18 percent while at the Canadian nursery at Tulelake, California, the best triticale yielded 9890 kg/ha, 21 percent higher than the top wheat.. By 1975, the broadening adaptation of triticale was being demonstrated in a growing number of actual agricultural environments, including the difficult conditions typical of the poorest areas of the world. Kiss in Hungary, Muntzing in Sweden and Sanchez-Monge in Spain reported that triticales have replaced rye to a significant degree in sandy soils. Under similar conditions in the high plateau region of Mexico, triticales have outyielded.wheat for 3 successive years.Triticale has demonstrated an adaptation to acidic, low pH soils in several areas of the world. Such conditions exist in Colombia, Ethiopia, Northern India and Brazil. In each of these countries triticales have shown yield performance superior to wheat. The resistance of triticale ,to bunts and loose smut at higher elevations provides an advantage for the crop. Its greater resistance to Septaria tritici is an added advantage in areas where this disease is prevalent-Brazil, Argentina, Ethiopia, and the Mediterranean region. 111 Brazil it appears more tolerant than wheat to aluminum toxicity. In Kenya and some other locations triticale has outyielded wheat under drought conditions.After 10 years of intensive development by the CIMMYT-University of Manitoba program and its many cooperators around the world, triticale's value as a versatile food crop for hungry people in many areas of the world remains a promise on the verge of fulfillment. . Although estimates vary widely Zillinsky believes that only 100,000 hectares of triticale are being grown worldwide in the mid-1970's.Since 1961, a modest production of triticale has been grown in Canada for use in distilling whisky.In Hungary and Spain, where they were certified for release in the 1960's triticales are grown almost exclusively as feed grains in special circumstances where rye does not do well. Argentina has also recently released triticale as a forage crop. Small amounts of triticale have been grown as winter forage since 1971 in the southwestern USA. One Texas manufacturer has marketed triticale bread, cakes, macaroni, and pancake flour in small,quantities, but most of the triticale for human consumption in• the United States iSI sold at a premium in speciality stores.Recognizing the disparity between triticale's original, well-publicized promise and its necessarily measured progress, Zillinsky in 1974 warned that \"unethical tactics used in the promotion of seed sales and overenthusiastic reporting have created a distorted image of the crop. Most research scientists agree that it has potential but is not yet ready for general production in competition with adapted varjeties of other cereal crops.\" Despite Zillinsky's caution, however, by 1975 there were encouraging signs that the demonstrations of triticale's adaptation as a high-yielding crop in a growing number of agricultural environments would soon be translated into widespread commercial plantings. Already in Ethiopia, where 5 years of experimentation with triticale in cooperation with CIMMYT resulted in yields far superior to wheat, one or two promising strains were being multiplied for possible release as commercial crops. Advanced experimental trials in Algeria, Kenya, Turkey, and India suggested that official acceptand! of triticale in those countries was not far off. Among the triticale breeders at CIMMYT and the University of Manitoba and their cooperators around the world-workers whose genes for patience are reinforced by the discipline of their calling-there was no doubt that they were close to fulfilling the need, stated by the I D RC, for \"a valuable new source of protein and essential nutrients for many people of the developing wortd.\"Summing up at an international triticale symposium at CIMMYT in 1973, L.H. Shebeski, who had initiated the lVIanitoba triticale program 10 years before, told almost 100 participants from more than 15 countries.In my opinion, over the next 15 years, yields of triticale will improve much more rapidly than those of wheat and should plateau at a level approximately 50 percent higher than those of wheat. This is no idle speculation... , With rapidly expanding programs and a quickly widening genetic base, with improved fertility and seed density, with improving world-wide cooperation, the improvements over the next 15 years will greatly surpass all improvements that so far have been attained.By about 1990, Shebeski concluded, \"triticale will have begun to compete seriously with the bread wheats as one of the world's most important food crops.\"-Anthony Wolff.","tokenCount":"6627"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6ee8d710938a3683fb7ddeed7d5df138","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eefff3ed-972b-4b26-8dfc-60ffe0f9e120/retrieve","id":"-1481425354"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"75355c3d-ef2f-4a45-9b97-ebdb2ae28c2d","pagecount":"3","content":"Global Centres-Africa and World Soil Information (ISRIC).Recently, AfSIS, with input from ICRAF, launched a 250-meter resolution soil property map of Africathe first baseline on soil health for the continent (Africasoils.net).The map has been developed from a combination of existing soil legacy data and new soil samples taken across Africa characterized using soil infrared spectroscopy, a low cost technology that can predict properties related to a soil's capacity to support essential ecosystem services such as primary productivity, nutrient and water retention and resistance to soil erosion.An infrared spectroscopy measurement can typically be performed in about 30 seconds and costs around $1 to carry out, in contrast to conventional soils tests, which are expensive, slow and use chemicals. By measuring the amount of light absorbed by a soil sample, scientists can determine the soil's infrared spectrum -or a kind of 'fingerprint'. Then, to find out which properties are associated with each 'fingerprint', it is compared with calibration databases. The databases contain information on how the infrared spectraor soil fingerprintsfrom a range of different soil types match soil properties, and they can be used to predict the soil test values for new samples.Further, the predicted soil properties from certain locations can be tied to information about environmental variation in landscapes collected via satellite images.\"Spatial variation in soil properties is related to landscape and vegetation features that can be sensed by satellites, so we can also build models to predict soil properties at other locations where a soil sample was not taken,\" says Shepherd. \"In this way, a digital map of soil properties can be constructed with an estimate of soil properties for each pixel of a satellite image.\"Infrared spectroscopy has proven to be a highly repeatable, rapid and low cost way to measure many soil properties, which can help both farmers and policy makers make better decisions about how to treat soils and reduce land degradation. Just as a doctor must know what illness a patient has before recommending a treatment, soil property maps can allow farmers and policy makers to diagnose and treat soil based on scientific diagnoses.Last year, the team behind the AfSIS launched an open data competition to harness the global community of data scientists to find the best algorithm for predicting soil properties based on infrared spectroscopy measurements and remote sensing via satellites.The goal of the competition was to make the algorithms that determine how infrared spectra, or fingerprints, are matched with soil properties more accurate and precise.The competition attracted 1,233 data science teams from around the world.\"The data science teams validated much of our overall approach, provided some interesting supplementary approaches using ensembles of models to improve prediction stability and contributed improvements in the efficiency of programming code,\" says Shepherd.The competition thus led to both optimized algorithms and an active learning exchange within the data science community.The scientists leading AfSIS are helping the governments of Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania to establish national soil information systems and services based on soil spectroscopy and digital soil-mapping technology.In addition, the CGIAR's Soil-Plant Spectral Diagnostic Laboratory, one of the founding members of AfSIS, now supports a network of spectral laboratories across ten African countries and in India.These new, rapid and low-cost technologies and digital mapping services of soil properties hold great potential for improving planning and monitoring of sustainable agricultural intensification and natural resources management, especially in data sparse regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. ","tokenCount":"563"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"44bedfbf4dee05390a65bb113393042a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d49f9c3f-311c-4f1f-b595-f32367f50397/retrieve","id":"2086029118"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"32d2af42-4eac-4bf8-ba50-629ae87f0e87","pagecount":"80","content":"? Ducks are tougher than chickens; they require less attention than chickens and are less likely to be sick than chickens. ? Ducks are larger than chickens, so if they are reared for meat there will be more to sell. Duck eggs are also larger than chicken eggs. ? Ducks do not necessarily need supplementary grain and maize.Chickens normally do need supplementary high quality feed. DucksDucks are tough animals and good scavengers. They are easier and cheaper to keep than chickens. This makes duck keeping for the production of eggs and meat an attractive enterprise. Agromisa and CTA have produced this Agrodok in order to support people in improving their daily livelihood. This can be done either through income generation from a small-scale duck keeping enterprise or through improving the daily diet with duck eggs and meat. We hope that many people will benefit from this Agrodok.We are grateful to Mr Buisonjé of the Spelderholt Institute in Beekbergen, the Netherlands. Being an expert on poultry and duck keeping he has provided valuable information and practical knowledge. We have appreciated the time and effort he has put into improving the contents of this Agrodok.Arno Overgaag, editor Wageningen, 2004 1 Introduction This Agrodok covers a number of subjects which arise if you yourself, or people you work with, are considering keeping ducks. The aim is to give practical advice on small-scale duck keeping for those who work directly with small-scale farmers. A theoretical background is given in order that users of this book are able to develop the most suitable practices for their particular situation.About 700 million ducks are kept around the world. The majority of these, more than 500 million, are found in Asia. Despite this uneven distribution, it is certainly also possible to raise ducks in other parts of the world, including Africa and Latin America.Ducks can be reared for eggs and meat, for own use or for sale. Other products from ducks, which can also be sold, include down, feathers and fattened livers (foie gras). There are many similarities between chicken and duck rearing. The most obvious similarities are found in the type of products for which these forms of poultry are kept. Ducks, like chickens, are good producers of eggs and meat. Breeding is largely similar for both. Ducks have approximately the same housing requirements as chickens, especially when they only require night shelter. If the ducks are outside during the day, just like chickens they will be capable of searching for a large part of their food. eat more vegetable material and insects than chickens. Ducks also eat snails.? Both duck meat and eggs taste different from those of chicken. Not everyone likes the taste of duck. If the taste is disliked by a lot of people it will be difficult to sell duck products. Not only does duck meat taste different it also looks different from chicken meat.Chicken meat is white whereas duck meat is red and dark. Lastly, duck meat is also fattier than chicken meat. Although this is listed here as a disadvantage that is not necessarily the case. In many areas fatty meat is considered a delicacy. ? Ducks are water birds and need water to be able to breed and grow well. A pool or pond of water can take up a lot of room. A trough of water can also be provided so that ducks can bathe. If it is not possible to keep ducks near water the whole day it is sufficient to place a tub of water out for them in the mornings and evenings so that they can wash. Pools, ponds, troughs or tubs of water all need to be kept clean and hygienic. Different sorts of ducks differ in their water requirements. Muscovy ducks (sometimes called Barbary duck) have less need to cool themselves and so have less need for a con-stant supply of bathing water. Peking ducks come originally from colder climates and live near to water. These ducks need water to keep their body temperature at the right level.There are many ways of raising ducks. The simplest method requires little capital input, where ducks are raised in the farmyard as part of a mixed farm. This is the so-called free range system. At the other extreme, large-scale, capital-intensive duck rearing can take place on a farm on which only ducks are raised inside a covered shelter or confined indoor system. Between these two extremes there are many different forms in which the ducks are offered an indoor shelter and a run in which they can go outside.In order to decide how to raise ducks, a farmer or extension worker needs to consider a number of points:? Are the ducks intended for your own use or do you also want to sell a duck product? If you are considering keeping ducks in order to sell their products it is important to know whether there is a market for the eggs or meat. ? Will duck rearing fit in with the rest of your activities? Do you have room for ducks? Not only do you need room for shelter and a water supply for the ducks, but their daily care also takes time and may get in the way of other activities. ? Where will you get your ducklings in order to maintain a stock?Will you breed yourself or will you buy ducklings when you need them?If you plan on buying them, can you be sure that there will be a regular supply in the future? If a trader or breeder cannot guarantee that ducklings will be available in the future, you have to consider breeding ducks yourself. Can you provide the time and care to do so?? What will you feed the ducks? Where can you obtain feed? Do you have sufficient food available on your own farm or will you have to buy some types of feed? Ducks are capable of scavenging for a large part of the food themselves, but it is often necessary to give them extra in the dry season.If ducks are free range they are more likely to suffer from a shortage of vitamins or minerals.Chapter 2 describes different types of ducks with their different characteristics, which make them suitable for different purposes. Once you have ducks, maintaining the flock is important. This can be done through hatching out your own eggs or buying ducklings regularly and raise them. Important factors and ways to raise ducklings are treated in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 describes two systems of duck keeping: free range, and confined. Two integrated systems are highlighted: duck keeping in combination with rice cultivation and with fish farming.Chapter 5 is about housing for ducks. Different types of shelter are described, the dimensions required, as well as feeding and drinking trays.Chapter 6 describes some basic aspects of preventive health care, hygiene of the housing and the surroundings being the most important factor. Ducks are basically quite tough animals, but for the occasional time when they do become ill, the most common diseases are described.Chapter 7 covers feed. Although ducks are good scavengers, you can often obtain better production levels by supplementing their feed. The different requirements of egg and meat-producing ducks are outlined in this chapter. Ducks are most often raised for their eggs and/or meat. Chapter 8 provides an indication of the levels of production you can expect to achieve. Care of the products is also discussed in this chapter.Chapter 9 provides a reminder that if you keep a record of what happens on your farm it is easy to have an overview and to improve management.Of course all farms differ from each other. For this reason you should consider this Agrodok as a handbook in which several possibilities are presented. You have to decide yourself what is possible and suitable for your own situation and which improvements you can make.2 Breeds and breedingWhen starting with duck rearing you need to acquire ducks. This is when you will choose a breed:If there is a choice of breeds available then you need to consider what your production objectives are: eggs, meat or both. If you decide to rear ducks for egg production then you need to have good laying ducks. These are usually smaller and lighter than birds reared solely for meat production (for fattening). They make up for their lack of growth and weight by being better layers: on average laying ducks lay more eggs than ducks for fattening. Ducks for meat (broilers) are generally larger and heavier, and the number of eggs they lay is of less importance. If you consider an intensive production system with rapid growht, meat ducks are slaughtered before they have even reached the age at which they can produce eggs.In many forms of farming, especially small-scale farming, egg production as well as meat production will be important. A duck that is a good layer but also can produce a nice amount of meat is best for this kind of farming. As mentioned above, you may not have a choice of breed. In this case you simply use the duck breed which is easiest to come by. The advantage to using locally available ducks is that you can always obtain them if you need to replace or increase numbers.Duck keeping is more common in Asia than in Africa or Latin America, which means that there are more different breeds available there. Each breed of duck is well adapted to the conditions in the area from which it originates. Below a number of breeds are described.This duck comes originally from Central America. The Muscovy duck is good for meat production. It is easy to recognise by the red, fleshy protuberances around the beak and eyes. It is important to know that the Muscovy duck is originally a tree dweller and therefore can fly. In order to prevent these ducks from flying away their wings need to be clipped. Use a pair of scissors to cut most of the large feathers of one wing.A Muscovy duck used for fattening can reach a weight of 3 to 5 kg. The Muscovy duck does not grow very quickly and its final weight depends on the way it is kept and the feed it gets. The meat of the duck is fairly lean. In areas where fattier meat is preferred then it is probably better to choose a different breed. The duck starts laying eggs at about 7 months. There are two clear laying periods with a break of 12 weeks; the first lasts 30 weeks and the second 22 weeks. The duck hatch and raise ducklings reliably. Which makes them valuable for the small-scale farmers.This group includes various breeds, which originate from Asia and have been imported into Africa. The most important include:? Khaki Campbell duck: a khaki (beige) coloured duck, originated from England from a cross between the Indian 'Runner' and the Rouen duck. The Khaki Campbell is well suited to a tropical climate. Under good conditions this breed is capable of laying up to 250-300 eggs per year. In Asia the breed is used for improving the productivity of local breeds. ? Rouen duck: originated from France; a reasonably heavy breed; good layers. The drake (male) is light grey with a green neck and the female is light brown like mallards (wild ducks).A completely white duck that originally comes from cool climates in China. This breed is a meat and egg producer like the Muscovy duck. The Peking duck grows quicker than the Muscovy duck. One of the characteristics, which indicate that the Peking duck is good for meat production, is that it can reach a weight of 3 kg by the age of 7 -9 weeks. Drakes usually attain a maximum weight of 3.5 -4 kg and females 3 -3.5 kg. Peking ducks lay eggs from an age of 5-6 months and can lay more than 200 eggs a year. Peking duck meat is quite fatty, unlike that of the Muscovy duck. It is a quiet breed that tends to walk rather than fly. Incidence of brooding behaviour is rare. Peking duckBreeds are regularly crossed in an attempt to obtain a combination of good characteristics of two different breeds. Sometimes the results of cross-breeding are used for further breeding themselves, sometimes new crosses are made each time. There are a number of standard cross-breeds:? A Peking drake is crossed with a female Khaki Campbell. This is a cross between a good meat producer and a good layer. In this way the cross-breed should combine good meat production with good egg laying. First and second generations (referred to as F 1 and F 2 ) are used quite commonly. Further generations are not generally used, as the improvements obtained by crossing usually start to decline by that stage. ? The mule duck is a cross between a Muscovy drake and a female common duck. As these are two different species the resulting mule duck is sterile and does not lay fertile eggs. The mule duck is a quick fattener and is used especially for this purpose.In addition to the breeds described above there are many more breeds and crosses. These include:? Indian runner duck (from India) ? Nageswari (from India) ? Chinese duck (from Indochina) ? Java duck (from Malaysia and Indonesia) ? Brown and White Tsaiya (from Taiwan)Most duck breeds come from Asia and are kept for egg laying. These breeds are therefore generally not very large, the adult weight being between 2 and 3 kg. All breeds have different characteristics in terms of egg production, growth rates and survival rates. Where production figures are available these should be used only as guidelines to help you make decisions. The figures will depend very much on the local conditions where they were collected. More detail on production figures can be found in Chapter 8.Peking ducks tolerate a cool climate. Muscovy ducks are from a warmer climate, require a temperature above 20°C.If there are farmers in your area (or in other areas with similar conditions) who already keep ducks, it is worthwhile going to look at how they are rearing the ducks and for what products. This will give a better idea of the results you can expect.Once you have obtained a number of ducks of the selected breed, you need to consider how you will maintain productive ducks over a longer period. Choose one of the following three options. ? If you keep ducks purely to sell their eggs and you buy ducklings whenever you need them, you will only need female ducks. ? If you intend to breed your own ducks then you need drakes as well to ensure that you have some fertile eggs. ? If you are keeping ducks for meat you have to make sure that you keep enough adult ducks for laying eggs so that you have a supply of ducklings.Advantages of breeding ducks yourself are: ? You are not dependent on other suppliers of young ducks. ? You don't have to spend money on buying ducklings. ? You don't import diseases with the ducklings.? You have to incubate eggs, which cannot be sold. You have to spend time and money on incubating eggs. ? The effort of incubating eggs may be wasted if they don't hatch. ? Although you want only eggs, you will have to keep and feed unproductive drakes (males) as well, in order to obtain fertile eggs.For small-scale farmers it is more profitable to breed ducks themselves especially if the numbers of ducklings they need are small.? Free breeding If you keep the female ducks and drakes together then getting fertile eggs or ducklings will usually be no problem. The drakes are free to mate with any duck they want. However, in this way, you will have no idea of which drake has fertilised which ducks.You can also direct the process yourself so that you combine the ducks with the most desirable characteristics. In this way you keep ducks especially for producing ducklings, these are known as breeding stock (see next section).The extent to which you can determine which drake pairs with which duck depends on how you keep your ducks. If the ducks are only kept inside at night but are allowed to wander around freely at daytime in search of food then it is very difficult to even know which duck has paired with which drake. If you keep ducks in this way it is not worth spending much time trying to determine partner choice. The best thing to do is to put a number of good drakes into the flock and let them go their own way. This is the most simple and natural way of ensuring that you will have ducklings.If you have possibilities and time then you could consider making separate sections in shelters, so that you can put one drake together with a number of ducks (4 -8) so that they can mate.As stated before, breeding stock are ducks with desirable characteristics which you like to see in the ducklings. For example you may choose to combine a drake that grows well and has a good amount of meat, with a duck that is a good layer. Bear in mind, however, that not all characteristics are passed on from the parent duck to its offspring, but generally speaking the chance of breeding good ducklings is greater if good parents are used. Characteristics that you are looking at can be production characteristics or external characteristics.? Production characteristics Most of the characteristics which are related to production are about quantity: the number of eggs, the weight of meat, etc. An important feature of these characteristics is that the environment influences them. These you can influence yourself as duck keeper. A duck which is bred for high meat production will only be able to achieve high production levels if it gets enough food.If you want to increase your production levels you should first look carefully at your food supply, sickness levels and housing. Once you have made sure that you have the best food available, and that your ducks are healthy and have good housing, only then you can start breeding for a better production.? External characteristics Above we have discussed selection for production characteristics. External characteristics may also be important, such as foot quality. If a number of ducks in a flock have bad feet it is better not to use them for breeding as they can pass this characteristic on to their young. External characteristics are not influenced by the amount of feed or housing. A duck will either have straight feet or not, or brown colour or not, so it is easy to use this kind of criterion for selection.To ensure that you have enough fertile eggs, a good ratio is one drake to six female ducks in meat-type ducks. In egg-type ducks you can put eight female ducks to one drake. If you have less female ducks per drake the chance of fertile eggs increases, but less than four female ducks per drake is not recommended. A relatively large number of drakes in a flock makes the whole flock restless. It also means that you have more drakes to feed. Sell them as soon as they are grown up.In Muscovy ducks introduce drakes into the flock about a month before you require fertile eggs. This ensures that enough pairing has taken place for the ducks to lay fertile eggs. In common ducks like Peking ducks you have to make sure that males and female keep their sexual behaviour. Therefore, they have to be kept together from 3 weeks of age.Give ducks access to water. Ducks are water birds and they can keep themselves clean (and therefore more healthy) if there is water in which they can bathe. Brooding ducks that can keep themselves clean are better able to maintain the right level of humidity for the eggs. It is often thought that mating can only take place on the water. But access to water does not improve fertility. Batheing is not necessary for Muscovy ducks as these are originally tree-dwellers. Remember that sitting water can also be a source of disease.There are two ways of obtaining and keeping a flock of ducks with the best possible features. Both methods should be practised at the same time:1 Selecting ducks and drakes for breeding (see above) 2 Culling (removing) unhealthy ducks or low producers Culling means: removing from the flock. Dispose first of ducks that are so sick that you can no longer treat them or that are not worth treating (see chapter 6 for more information on health care). It is also worth getting rid of ducks which have already gone through several laying cycles and are not so productive any more. They make way for younger ducks.Once this has been done, further culling will be of ducks that possess undesirable characteristics: those that do not produce enough. Do not breed with ducks that are bad layers or do not fatten well, as there is a chance that they will pass these characteristics on to their young. The decision when to cull, especially older ducks, will depend largely upon when new ducklings are available.There are three different ways to practise culling. These are described below.Culling systems ? Continuous system:In this system a few new ducklings are added regularly to the flock. Since the production period for meat is short and the growth is fast, you need a secure supply of ducklings. You may buy day-oldducklings on the market, that are hatched in an incubator. Or you may have ducks that become broody easily and hatch the eggs of your own flock.If the duck is going to incubate the eggs herself, the nest needs to be ready in time to give the duck a chance to get comfortably installed on it. She will take care of the eggs and you don't have to worry much because the duck will make sure that the circumstances are right for the eggs.If Hatching eggs the natural way means that they are incubated by a duck. The big advantage to this method is that the eggs require little time and attention. The most important requirement is that the duck that is going to incubate the eggs is sufficiently broody. Being broody means having the urge to stay sitting on the eggs until they hatch. You can tell whether a duck is broody or not by how long she remains sitting on the eggs. The eggs cannot be left alone for more than 15 minutes as they must not cool down too much. The ducklings then cannot develop.Most ducks will sit on their own eggs. However, it is also possible to let one duck from the flock sit on eggs which have been laid by other ducks. In this way about 12 eggs, which were laid at the same time, can be incubated by one duck.The Muscovy duck has good broodiness and maternal instincts. It can therefore be used for incubating the eggs from other types of duck. The Muscovy duck is also larger than many other types, so it can incubate more eggs at once. You will have to see how many eggs fit underneath a Muscovy duck, but 12 -15 should fit easily.Chickens can also be used to incubate duck eggs and vice versa. Because duck eggs are larger than chicken eggs a chicken will only be able to incubate 8 -11 duck eggs at most.An incubator is a box with trays inside on which the eggs can be put. An incubator must be able to take the place of a female duck. It must keep eggs at a constant temperature, right humidity and proper ventilation.. Incubators come in many different shapes and sizes, it is possible to make a small scale incubator yourself. Using incubators and making them is described extensively in Agrodok 34 'Hatching eggs by hens or in an incubator'. Although the Agrodok is mainly about chickens, much of what is written also applies to ducks. The text indicates where ducks have different requirements. Figure 7 shows an example of a simple incubator. The temperature needs to be about 38°C (see table 1). If the temperature is lower or higher the duckling will not develop properly. At best the ducklings develop too slowly but will hatch. In the worst case, the ducklings die before they hatch. When ducklings hatch they need a temperature of about 30 -32°C. In colder areas you can reduce the temperature by 1°C each day afterwards.An incubator needs good ventilation and must be able to maintain humidity. The air humidity must be quite high, although at the beginning of the incubation period it must not be too high. This is because part of the moisture in the egg needs to evaporate, otherwise the embryo will drown in the egg fluid. If it is too low at later stages it may result in eggs becoming too dry.Nearly all types of ducks take about the same amount of time to hatch their eggs. Generally duck eggs need to incubate for between 25 and 28 days before they hatch. You can expect most breeds to take about 28 days. Muscovy duck eggs take longer to hatch -about 35 days, and Mule duck eggs usually take about 32 days.? A lot of eggs can be incubated at the same time. May be even enough to allow you to sell day-old ducklings to others.? Investments are needed to buy or build an incubator; ? Time is needed to vigilate the process, to make sure the temperature and humidity are at the right levels and that nothing goes wrong with the heat supply; ? In case you choose an electrical heat source, power cuts can easily result in a disaster; ? Artificial incubating requires experience, especially in the beginning the risk of eggs not hatching or ducklings dying is very big.If you do not incubate more than 100 eggs at a time (one production cycle) it is not worth risking so much effort and investment. In most cases you make the best of things letting the female ducks do the job they are very good at: incubating their and other's eggs and taking care of the ducklings.Artificial incubation can best be left to professionals who make it their job to market ducklings and day-old chicks. They can turn to Agrodok 34 for information on incubator construction and management.The time of hatching is an important moment for selection in your flock. By selecting eggs you determine the traits of your future flock. Eggs from good layers will in general produce good layers. Broodiness, feather colours and body traits will inherit also. Good layers will not be broody very often.If you make use of the difference in broodiness of different strains or individuals, you will breed more layer ducklings in the end. You select eggs from the best layers (or other traits) and replace the eggs of the broody hen by them, as soon as she sits permanently.Sexing can best be done at this moment so that you can separate the drakes from the female ducks. It is useful to know what sex the ducklings are in order to be able to separate the ducks from the drakes. This will make your production more efficient. If you sex newly hatched ducklings you can sell the drakes as day-old ducklings.Once the ducklings have dried after hatching you can sex them. By holding the duckling as shown, it is easy to see whether or not it has a penis.It is easier to do this with ducks than with chickens and after a little practice you will become better at this. This method is vent examination.Methods for sexing at a later stage If you want to rear the ducklings until they have been fattened and then sell them you can also use one of the other methods: ? Watching the colours of the feathers Ducks and drakes of some breeds have different colours which makes it easy to tell them apart.? Voice There is a clear difference in the noise made by ducks and drakes. This is noticeable from about 4 -6 weeks of age. A female duck makes a clear 'quack' sound, while a drake makes a deeper and more hoarse sound.? Tail feathers The tail feathers of most fully-grown drakes have a clear curl at the end. Female ducks do not have this. The only breed that does not show this distinction is the Muscovy duck. However Muscovy drakes are much bigger than the females, so it is also easy to determine sex in this breed.Ducklings, which have been hatched naturally, require sometimes protection. The duck that hatched them will look after them until they are old enough to look after themselves. But not all predators the duck can deter. Sometimes duck and ducklings must be kept enclosed during the first weeks for protection against predators.Day-old-ducklings you buy (hatched in an incubator) need extra attention. You need to pay attention to warmth, water/feed and ventilation.Newly hatched ducklings cannot maintain their own body temperature so you have to keep them warm .The most favourable time for raising ducklings is during the rainy season. During the first 10 -14 days ducklings are kept in several baskets with about 5 cm of rice husks or straw at the bottom of the basket. This is changed frequently to keep the ducklings dry and comfortable. The basket is covered with a loosely woven jute bag to protect the ducklings from cold at night. The ducklings are kept at about 28 °C for the first 10 -14 days.Ducklings start eating one day after hatching and they grow rapidly. They are fed boiled rice, broken rice, rice bran, oil cake, chopped earth worms, snails, fish, green vegetables or water plants and crushed wheat. Feeding is done in a separate (single) basket. After feeding they are put on a dry jute bag or on a layer of husk or straw in a separate basket until they have dried off. They are then returned to their original baskets.As an alternative to the basket you can choose a circular chicken wire floor covered with straw and an external heat source. You can keep them close to the heat source by bending a flexible board around the ducklings in a circle (see figure 9). Elevate the wire floor from the ground to improve ventilation and to remove manure.The heat source can be a stove with slow burning sawdust or an electrical lamp shining in a clay pot or an infra-red lamp as in figure 9. You can tell whether the ducklings are too warm or too cold by how they behave. Figure 9 illustrates how ducklings react to the warmth of a lamp. When they huddle close to each other they feel cold: the heat source is not close enough. When the temperature is too high the ducklings will try to get as far away from the heat as they can. If the ducklings move freely throughout the cage then the temperature is right for them. From about 2 to 4 weeks the ducklings are kept on rice husk or straw with plenty of fresh air and sunlight. During the day they are kept confined and provided with a mixture of feed and clean drinking water. Simple bamboo containers are used for feeding and watering. From 4 to 8 weeks the ducklings are provided with 0.30 x 0.30 m floor space per bird. In the morning they are given clean water and a mixture if feed. After some minutes of feeding, they are allowed to forage in safe (water) areas. They are brought back to the house before dark. A small quantity of feed is given before putting them inside the house. This encourages the ducklings to return home with their caretaker.The presence of drinking water is very important for ducklings. There must be sufficient, clean water present, otherwise the ducklings will become sick.You have to make sure the ducklings do not try to swim in their drinking water. This not only makes the water dirty, but it can also make the ducklings sick. Adult ducks have a layer of fat over their feathers which prevents the feathers from getting wet. In a natural situation a mother duck will also rub fat into the feathers of the ducklings that she has hatched herself. The feathers of ducklings from an incubator do not have fat over them to begin with. Ducklings cannot rub fat into their own feathers until they are about three weeks old. This is not a problem as long as they do not try to get into water. You can stop them from sitting in the drinking water by putting stones in the bowl or putting chicken wire over the top.Newly hatched ducklings need special feed. You can buy this or prepare it yourself. There is more information about feeding ducklings and preparing feed in Section 7.5.There are many ways in which you can keep ducks. In Section 4.1 we describe the main systems of keeping ducks, to give you an idea of the possibilities. In practice farmers can adapt these types to their own needs and the materials available.Duck keeping combines well with other forms of farming. Section 4.2 covers two well known integrated systems: duck keeping combined with rice cultivation and duck keeping combined with fish ponds. In these systems the different forms of production complement each other and the farmer will have better production and more profit:? Waste and by-products are used, e.g. duck manure is used instead of wasted: in fishponds it is directly used for fertilizing the pond which increases fish food; in rice fields ducks eat harmful insects and snails, this is a help for the rice and at the same time the ducks get nutritious food. ? Certain inputs are used more efficiently, e.g. a fishpond is used for fish and for ducks at the same time. Ducks grow better if they have access to a pond. ? The farmer spreads risks. For example if the rice yield is low there is still a yield of eggs and duck meat.Free range system:The ducks are only kept enclosed at night. During the day the ducks are free to roam outside in search of food. They are brought inside at night by putting some extra food in the shelter. The ducks only require night shelter and nests for laying eggs. Ducks will stay around the place, provided you treat them well. An advantage of this system is that the ducks go to the feed and harvest it themselves. This way, nutrients become available that the farmer cannot reach otherwise. Some farmers in Asia herd their flocks to graze large areas after the rice harvest.  Indoor system:The indoor system is for large-scale duck farms, where the production is mechanised to reduce labour costs. The system requires more investment than the other two systems of housing. Not only do you need to build the shelter, but you also have to provide all feed and water and clean it regularly. If properly managed, growth can be fast and production cheap. How to choose the system that fits best in your conditions? Your objectives will determine which system you choose. It is recommended that you start with a small flock and test the system of your choice and the potential of the market. In a free range system you may lose your ducks easily to predators or thieves; while in an indoor system financial inputs may be substantial.In Southeast Asia, duck keeping is often combined with rice cultivation. A flock of ducks can easily be kept on a rice field. Ducks feed on snails, insects, larvae and weeds in the rice fields, thus keeping pests down. However, ducks will find little food in rice fields where chemical insect killers and weed killers are used. These insecticides and pesticides poison the ducks. Therefore:Keeping ducks in rice fields is not recommended when using pesticides on your crop. Duck keeping combines well with fish culture. Ducks profit from the pond: ducks raised in water grow more quickly than those raised on land as they are cleaner and healthier. Fish benefit from the ducks: the manure of the ducks fertilizes the pond and increases fish food (algae, plankton).Managing the water quality is most important. Oxygen plays an important role in determining the quality of the water. Fish need oxygen.Water plants (especially algae) produce oxygen with the help of sunlight. At night they use up some oxygen again. Micro-organisms that break down the manure also use oxygen. Duck manure fertilizes the water plants and stimulates the growth of the micro-organisms.If there is too much manure, the algae grow fast and the water becomes dark green. The many algae will use oxygen at night and so will the many micro-organisms that break down the manure. The result is an oxygen shortage and the fish will die. Leading to more micro-organisms in the water and even less oxygen. See also Agrodok 21: 'On-farm-fish culture' for more information.From the above it is clear that you should keep a close eye on the water quality. An easy practical way of testing is given here: Ducks stir up the bottom of the pond when looking for food. This reduces algae growth as sunlight cannot penetrate so deep into the water. By keeping the ducks in one half of the pond only, algae can grow in the other half. The banks of the pond have to be fenced off so that the ducks do not destroy them. This too will keep the water clean.Ducks only need shelter for resting. Generally speaking a minimum area of 0.5 m 2 per duck is required.Ducks can be housed in a variety of ways. A pen can be built which floats on the water, or resting on stilts above the water or on the bank of the pond. A shelter built above the water must have a floor of slats, which will let the manure through (see figure 14 and Chapter 5, Housing). Ideally all the manure should fall into the water. By fencing off the banks with wire or netting, and not allowing the ducks to roam on the banks you can ensure that all manure is deposited in the water, and that the banks remain undamaged. Once the fish has been harvested the pond will be empty of fish. Now it is unwise to add manure to it. Try to avoid this by growing small fish before you harvest the old stock. Else the ducks should be given a run in another place or you cover the slatted floor and start a deep litter on it. Schedule the harvest of the fish and the duck production carefully.After four or five years the pond needs cleaning. The manure remaining in the pond can be taken out and used for crops or added to compost. Another way of using the manure is to grow crops in the dry pond (see figure 15). Make sure to let air in the soil by cultivating, harrowing or plough in order to improve the nutritional minerals in it.Starting with a green manure crop. This will support the new soil structure.Figure 15: Growing crops in a fish pondThe fish for stocking the pond must be at least 10 cm in length otherwise they will be eaten by the ducks. It is difficult to give exact numbers of fish and ducks because the numbers are dependent on many factors. Here we only give a few guidelines. You always have to keep a close eye on the pond and on the quality of the water. You have to try out and adjust the numbers until you have found a combination that works well in your situation.Different fish species can be raised together with ducks: ? Carp Different sorts of carp can be kept in combination with ducks. The stocking density is 45 to 60 fish per 100 m 2 water surface. Possible combinations of different sorts of carps, per 100 m 2 are: When common carp are raised on their own, the density can be up to 200 fish per 100 m 2 .The stocking density of tilapias is 100 to 200 fish per 100 m 2 .? Catfish Catfish are not very sensitive to oxygen content in the water, they can breath in oxygen from the air as well as from the water. Because of this their density can be quite high and they are less sensitive to the amount of manure. A density of 400 fish per 100 m 2 is possible.Where fish production is integrated with ducks you can obtain yields of 30 to 55 kg fish per 100 m² per year.Where tilapias are raised (200 fish per 100 m 2 ) a maximum of 35 ducks per 100 m 2 water surface can be kept. For carp and catfish a maximum of 70 -75 ducks per 100 m 2 can be reared. The numbers of ducks and fish in a pond depend on many different factors, you have to try out, watch closely and register your observations. Change the following factors in different tests and find the best combination: When you choose to keep ducks you have to provide some kind of shelter for them. Ducks lay their eggs during the night and in the early morning (within three hours of sunrise). By keeping ducks inside at night you can ensure that they lay their eggs in a confined space. Nesting boxes are not necessary, but if you provide them the ducks will use them. An advantage of nesting boxes is that they are easy to clean. Eggs laid in nesting boxes will be cleaner, and eggs which look clean are easier to sell than dirty ones.Housing for small-scale duck keeping should not require too much care and maintenance. A night shelter should be sufficient and does not require much space per duck: 1m 2 is enough for five to six ducks.If the ducks are going to make use of the shelter during the day as well, then they need more space. In that case 0.5 m 2 is needed per duck.It does not matter what kind of material you use to make the shelter: Bamboo, wood or chicken wire are all fine as long as the holes are small, so the ducks cannot go through. The shelter must be well ventilated when the ducks are inside. Fresh air is important to prevent the ducks developing respiratory problems. Diseases which are spread through the air can be prevented by good ventilation.Air circulation in the shelter makes the temperature lower . The temperature should not be lower than 10 -15°C for Peking ducks or 20°C for Muscovy ducks and other ducks from tropical climates.It is very conveniant to make a separate laying area within the night shelter. Ducks prefer to lay their eggs in a dark, protected space. Nesting boxes offer ducks a sheltered place to lay their eggs. The eggs laid in these boxes are easier to collect. Ducks prefer to lay at ground level so you can place the construction on the floor. It is best to attach the construction to the back wall of the night shelter. In this way the ducks can sit quietly, away from the rest of the flock, when they are laying.When building nesting boxes you need to make one box for every three to six ducks. A simple construction is one with side walls of 30 x 35 cm. Assemble these at a distance of 33 cm from each other. Attach them to each other at the back by means of a raised edge 15 cm high. Attach a raised edge of 5 cm height at the front.Place straw in the nesting boxes and clean them regularly. The type of floor depends on where you place the night shelter. If you build a night shelter above water, the floor can be made of open slats using wood or bamboo. It is not a good idea to use chicken wire or a metal grate as these do not give the ducks' feet enough support, and can damage their feet. Floor slats should be 2 cm thick and 5 cm wide in order to be strong enough. Leave about 1 cm between the slats. These gaps will ensure that there is sufficient ventilation at night. Another advantage of these gaps is that spilt food and droppings will fall straight into the water, whereas the eggs will stay in the shelter. This makes cleaning the shelter easy and it fertilises the pond below.If you cannot build the shelter over a pond then the floor does not need to be slatted. You will have to clean out nest material and manure more often to prevent diseases from spreading.On a closed floor the litter may sit for some time while a new lot is spread every day. Litter prevents dirt and dampness from forming a hard layer on the floor. Straw or rice chaff make good litter. Sawdust can also be used for litter, but you must make sure that there is no paint in the sawdust as this can poison the ducks. It is best in combination with longer fibre. Any fibre will do as long as it is dry and organic.The litter must be kept clean by replacing it regularly, especially in the nesting boxes. Litter that is damp and mouldy not only causes sickness in the ducks, but damages the eggs so that they rot or do not hatch. Ducks are very sensitive to mould in litter. Use this litter in the compost heapDucks kept in a free range system do not need much equipment for feeding. Scattering the correct amount of feed on a clean spot each evening is sufficient. If you decide to feed the ducks when they are in the night shelter then you need to use containers for the feed. This way the food stays clean and the ducks do not trample on it. Ducks are very messy eaters. If you put food in containers you must make sure you can clean the area around them easily.A large bowl with a flat bottom or a hollowed out tree trunk as shown in figure 18 can be used for feed.  Sometimes wild birds will eat out of the feeding troughs. To prevent this food waste, place a low roof over the feeding trays. Wild birds will not usually go under such a low roof. It is very important that ducks always have access to clean drinking water. Young ducks that do not get enough water will not grow well and will become sick. Adult ducks that do not have enough water will lay fewer eggs. A serious water shortage will kill ducks (and ducklings) quickly.As with the feed trays, put water in shallow bowls that do not tip over if a duck stands on the edge.Check the water bowls once or twice every day to make sure that there is enough water and that it is clean. Figure 20 shows some types of water container that prevent the water from becoming dirty quickly. It is important that the ducks cannot immerse themselves in their drinking water, as that makes it dirty very quickly. However, the water must be deep enough for the ducks to be able to put their heads under water.They need to do this to clean their eyes. If they cannot do this dirt becomes caked around their eyes, and in extreme cases this can lead to blindness. Ducks also use their drinking water to clean food remains off their beaks.Give ducks access to water for cleaning in the form of a pond or a puddle of clean water, or even just a large container with water in it. If it is not possible to keep ducks near water the whole day it is sufficient to place a tub of water out (drained stone or slatted floor) for them in the mornings and evenings so that they can keep themselves clean and therefore more healthy. Avoid putting water on top of the litter without draining what spills, as the litter must remain dry as possible. Different sorts of ducks differ in their water requirements. Peking ducks need water to keep their body temperature at the right level. This is not so necessary for Muscovy ducks as these are originally tree-dwellers. Some types of duck also need access to water to mate.Remember that water can be a source of disease and vermin. Pools, ponds, troughs or tubs of water all need to be kept clean and hygienic.When the housing is arranged well, including feeding troughs, drinking water equipment and access to bathing water, you can then acquire ducks. In the chapters before, choice of breeds, breeding and raising and caring for ducklings have been treated. Also different systems have been discussed and you must have chosen one. Following on from this chapter you find information on health care, feeding and the products.The overview below provides a short summary of daily care in order to give you an idea of things that need to be done. 6 Health careHealth care for ducks does not require much time. In contrast to chickens, ducks are less likely to become sick and are susceptible to fewer diseases than chickens.In order to know whether a duck is sick you first have to know how a healthy duck looks. Table 3 lists the most important characteristics of healthy and unhealthy ducks. The most important information in this table tells you how to recognise a healthy duck: how it should be growing, how the eyes and cloacae (genital/anal area) look and how the skin feels. A good way of becoming familiar with how a healthy duck looks is to regularly study ducks for a short while. This does not mean you have to pick up each duck every day, but just spend about 10 minutes observing the flock wandering around, noting how the ducks look and whether they are eating well. Make a note of what you see.Good hygiene and vaccinating ducks are the two most important aspects of preventing ducks becoming ill.The most important factor in good health care for ducks is: good hygiene. By keeping the shelter and its surroundings clean you reduce the chance of disease breaking out. Good hygiene practices also keep vermin like rats, but also flies and lice, away.It is more difficult to keep an eye on free range ducks: what they come into contact with and exactly what they eat. Ducks can also become sick from contact with buckets or crates which may contain traces of diseases. It is important to know that dirty drinking water and food can be a cause of sickness.Important measures in good hygiene: ? Keep the shelter and outside run as clean as possible.? When a whole flock is removed (all-in-all-out system) after a laying cycle or fattening cycle, take the time to clean the shelter really well and disinfect it. Remove all the old litter and use it for compost.Clearing litter regularly reduces the chance of disease and sickness in the shelter and infecting the ducks. ? Keep an extra sharp eye on sick ducks. If possible keep sick ducks separate from the healthy ducks. This prevents the disease from spreading to other ducks or even chickens. ? As soon as many ducks become sick, or the disease symptoms become much worse, or ducks start to die you must take measures to prevent the healthy ducks becoming sick. Dead ducks must be removed as quickly as possible, not only because they are infectious, but also because they will start to rot and attract flies. Flies transmit diseases.Vaccinations Some diseases are so infectious or so common that it is worth vaccinating the ducks to protect them. If duck keeping is very common in the area where you live it is especially worthwhile vaccinating your ducks. It is best to obtain information on the subject from a local veterinarian.If your ducks become sick despite preventive measures, there are a number of things you can do. Many diseases can be treated with medicine, which you can get from a veterinarian. If you know local medicines, which are used to treat chickens, you can also try them on ducks. A common preventive measure taken in India is to mix garlic into the duck feed. You need one clove of garlic per duck per day. Turmeric also works well. Both of these spices can affect the flavour of the meat and eggs, so do not use too large quantities.Below we describe the most common duck diseases. These are intended to give you an indication of the main symptoms. If there are serious problems, or if certain problems keep coming back, then ask advice from a veterinarian.If there is botulism in the flock a number of ducks will become paralysed very quickly, and then die. In the first stage the neck, head and legs become quickly paralysed. An sign is that a sick duck will lay its head down on the ground because it can no longer lift it up. Once general paralysis has set in death follows in a few hours.Botulism is caused by ducks eating food which is rotting. Botulism is caused by bacteria which are present in rotting plant remains, animal remains and also in stagnant water. During long periods of warm weather the risk of botulism rises as the bacteria can reproduce themselves more easily. Botulism is best prevented by not letting ducks come into contact with rotting food and animal carcasses.Once you decide a duck has botulism you can give it something which will make it vomit the rotten food out of its stomach, you must take extreme care in doing so, protect yourself by wearing gloves.WARNING: botulism also affects people. Those looking after ducks which have botulism should take care not to contract the disease themselves!Unfortunately ducks become sick and die very quickly with botulism, which means that this treatment often comes too late.Dead ducks must be removed as quickly as possible and the shelter must be cleaned. You can disinfect the shelter by adding some household disinfectant like Dettol to the cleaning water. You can best wear gloves and change clothing afterwards and wash yourself.Ducks of all ages are susceptible to fowl cholera. Sick ducks first become listless and lacking in energy. They eat less, but drink more than healthy ducks. They shake their heads a lot and their droppings are watery and yellow/green in colour (diarrhoea). The eyes are damp and the nostrils contain slime.Fowl Cholera is passed between ducks through the slime in the nostrils which is deposited on food. Healthy animals pick up the disease from the food and become sick. You can vaccinate ducks each year against cholera. This is a way of preventing cholera.If the ducks contract cholera despite of the vaccination then there are medicines which can be used to treat it. If your ducks have cholera you must warn the veterinarian. The disease spreads very quickly and has a high death rate (5 -35%). Medicine is not always available, and then other measures must be taken. The sick ducks must be slaughtered and burned or buried.The shelters and any outside runs must be disinfected well. If the shelter is not properly disinfected there is a chance that the disease will stay in the shelter and affect the healthy ducks.It is also possible to alleviate the symptoms of fowl cholera. In India this is done in the following way:? For 10 ducks mix 7 -10 chopped cloves of garlic with the feed. Use for 2 -3 days until the diarrhoea stops. ? Grind 10 g fresh ginger and squeeze out the juice. ? Mix this with 250 ml water and 10 g brown sugar. This provides enough drinking water for 10 ducks. ? For 10 ducks cut up 5 chilli peppers (Capsicum annum) into small pieces and mix them into the feed.Symptoms are seen especially in young ducklings. Infected ducklings grow slowly and feathers are badly formed. They may also have oedema (swelling due to water retention). The feet and soles of the feet may start to wither away. The liver becomes fatty and hard. It is easy to see the whitish yellow fat when a dead duck is cut open. Many ducklings die of this disease, whereas adults may show no symptoms at all.The disease is caused by aflatoxin, a poisonous substance sometimes found on groundnuts (peanuts) and products made from groundnuts.There is no medicine available to treat this disease. The only way to prevent ducklings from getting the disease is to make sure they do not eat groundnuts or groundnut products. Check what the ducklings eat if you grow groundnuts yourself.Viral hepatitis is a disease, which only affects ducklings. It is a highly contagious disease, which spreads quickly. Infected ducklings deteriorate quickly and die.Ducklings with viral hepatitis walk unsteadily, and the beak and leg skin turn blue. A few hours after the appearance of the first symptoms the ducklings fall on their side and get muscle spasms. In the final stages the legs are stretched out behind and the head lies on the back.The death rate may be as high as 80 -95%. Internally, the liver swells up and internal bleeding can be seen. The kidneys may also be swollen.Viral hepatitis can also be recognised by sudden death of three weekold ducklings.A virus causes the disease. Ensuring good hygiene can prevent the disease, and there is also a vaccine available. The ducklings can be vaccinated, but the mother ducks can also be vaccinated. Mothers that have been vaccinated transfer their immunity to the egg yolk. The ducklings are protected for three weeks after they hatch. Once the inherited immunity has worn off they are also no longer susceptible to the disease, as it does not affect ducklings older than three weeks. If you want to vaccinate mother ducks or ducklings you should contact a veterinarian.Coccidiosis is a disease which is hardly found at all in some areas, while in other areas it causes the death of 20 -70% of ducklings 3 -7 weeks old. The ducklings that survive grow more slowly and have a lower adult weight than the ducklings that were not sick.There are usually few or no visible symptoms of coccidiosis. Symptoms may include dehydration, weight loss and inability to stand up.The only way to be sure of the disease is to cut open a dead duckling and examine the inside. In the middle part of the intestine there will be a slime layer with blood spots. With a microscope it is possible to see banana-shaped organisms in the stomach contents.Once the ducklings are sick it is difficult to treat and cure them. There are medicines which prevent coccidiosis. These can be mixed with the feed. Ask the veterinarian for advice.Affected bird is reluctant to walk, feathers are ruffled, watery greenish-yellow diarrhoea, haemorrhages of internal organs.It is difficult to treat and cure them. Ensuring good hygiene can prevent the disease. There is also a vaccine available.At the age of 2 -9 weeks, listlessness, ocular discharge, greenish diarrhoea, in-coordination, tremors of head and neck, air sacs are layered with dry caseous exudates.Sulfadimidin and antibiotics at beginning of outbreak, vaccination of parent stock, prevention of scratches and wounds.Free range systems Ducks can graze and digest local food easily: snails, water weeds, grass, small fish, shellfish and insects. They will get enough protein and vitamins from it. In addition they need energy. You can supplement the ducks' food with energy-rich foods such as rice, cassava (byproducts), sago, sweet potato, etc. You can use this extra food to encourage the ducks to come inside in the evening.Ducks kept inside (confined) cannot look for their own food, and are therefore dependent on what you feed them. The best is feed specially made for ducks. These are complete feeds and you do not need to add anything to them. If you want to feed the ducks more cheaply you can replace one third of the special feed with vegetables (leftovers), household waste and other feeds such as sweet-potato tops, water plants such as kangkong (Ipomea aquatica) and duck weed. You can also make duck feed yourself , which is explained in Section 7.5.Ducks need water in order to be able to absorb nutrients from food and also to eliminate toxic substances from the body. Water is also needed to maintain a constant body temperature, it is particularly important when the weather is warm. Ducks pant in order to lose heat and therefore cool themselves down when it is hot. Panting results in a loss of carbon dioxide from the blood and leads to respiratory alkalosis. This panting can be prevented by 0.25 -0.5 % sodium bicarbonate to the drinking water. Other factors, which also influence the amount of water ducks require, include the type of feed they get, laying frequency and the size of the duck. An adult duck needs 2 litres of water each day. Table 7 in Section 7.4 gives a guideline for the amount of water needed by young ducks.Generally speaking ducks eat as much as they need. If you notice that your ducks are losing weight, it means they are getting too little food or that they are sick. If you give them more feed but they do not eat more, it may be because the feed is of bad quality. If this is the case then the ducks will start to eat more once you improve the quality of their feed.If you give the ducks so much to eat every day that there is always some left over then they are getting more than enough. In this case you could give them less, as food which is not eaten will start to rot quickly. If the ducks eat food which has gone bad, it may make them sick. A useful tool is registering what you feed daily by measuring (and writing down) the weight or the volume of the daily feed.Ducks which continue to eat poorly even after you have taken the above measures are probably sick. You can find more information on duck diseases in Chapter 6.The amount of food that a duck requires depends on the duck's age and on the use to which the duck is put (for eggs or meat). Obviously an adult duck will eat more than a week-old duckling and a duck that needs to produce eggs or meat needs more then a drake that's kept only for breeding. For more details see Section 7.5. Ducks that get too much to eat become fat. When you slaughter a duck it should have a fatty layer on the belly, which is not thicker than 0.5 cm.Duck feed must include the following essential nutrients: First we consider these essential nutrients. In Section 7.5 attention will be paid to feeding methods and feed composition.A duck needs energy for body maintenance, movement, growth and for the production of eggs and meat. The energy in the diet is derived largely from carbohydrates, some is also derived from fat or oils.Feeds which are good sources of energy, include: cassava, sago, sweet potato, yam, taro, maize, corn, rice grains, rice bran, leftover rice from cooking, molasses and fruit.The amount of energy contained in foodstuffs is normally expressed in kilo-calories (kcal) per gram of food. Kilo-Joules are also used: 4.2 kJ = 1 kcal. A duck that is not laying nor growing weighing 1.7 kg needs 400 kcal per day. This is only enough for looking for food, breathing and digesting food. It is called the maintenance requirement.Niacin, for example, is an important vitamin for growth and feathering. Laying ducks, which do not get sufficient niacin, may develop leg weakness. Niacin is found naturally in whole grains, but young ducks cannot digest these fully. As a cure it is possible to supplement the feed for ducklings and layers with 5 -7% leftovers from brewing dregs from fermented millet, banana, coconut, wheat or maize. This is good for growth and preventing leg weakness. You can collect brewing dregs from places where drink is brewed. Dregs must be collected regularly though as they decompose and rot very quickly. Collect fresh dregs every other day and keep them in a clean container. For large production you can store it as a silage Niacin (also known as vitamin B3) is also found in dairy products, fish, lean meats, nuts wholemeal bread and cereals.The most important minerals are calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P). These are needed for bone formation and maintenance and for making eggshells.Ducklings need a Ca:P ration of between 1:1 and 2:1. Ducks which are laying require a Ca:P ratio of 6:1 and need 4.0 g of calcium every day in order to be able to make the eggshells.Foods which are a good source of calcium include:oyster-shell grit, limestone flour, steamed bone flour and bone-meal, ground eggshells and shells.Foods which are a good source of phosphorus include: steamed bone flour and bone-meal. Scatter powder or meal over the duck feed. It is not advisable to make steamed bone powder yourself. Steam does not disinfect the bones sufficiently, and the powder may make the ducks sick. Burning the bones to ashes (bone-meal) is a safe alternative.The composition and the quantity of food will determine whether the ducks' requirements are fulfilled. The age of the duck and the production determine its requirements.Feeding ducklings up to 8 weeks Day-old ducklings can be given a mixture of coarsely milled cereals, moistened with milk or water as their first feed. After a few days they will be ready for a mixed feed, such as the following composition: Add enough water to make a crumbly mixture. If you add too much water the mixture will stick to the beaks of the ducks. Only add the water just before you give the ducks the feed. Otherwise the feed will go sour and turn bad.If growth is unsatisfactory add a vitamin-mineral premix to the feed to make sure that the ducklings get enough vitamins and minerals.Table 6 shows how often ducklings should be fed, the number of feeds per day decreases when the ducks grow older. Free range: they can go out to look for insects, shells, grains and weeds.They do not need much extra feed, except in the evening to encourage them to go inside.Confined: Ducklings to be fed 2 times a day For both systems: Make sure that the ducklings have feed and water available throughout the day.Remember that different types of duck will have different feed and water requirements.Table 7 shows the feed and water requirements of growing Peking ducks. It shows that the requirements of growing ducks change rapidly. In general ducks will eat as much as they need. Check if the food is readily eaten and whether the ducks grow well. See also Section 7.3. Feeds which are rich in proteins are often very expensive. If feed in the form of pellets is available for chicks then this is also suitable for young ducks.BEWARE: Chicken feed often contains medicines (antibiotics) which have been specially added. Do not give these feeds to ducks, as the antibiotics are not meant for ducks and will make them sick. It is best to try out a new feed by giving a very little at first to see if it is suitable for the ducks. Duck feed might also contain medicines but these are of course suitable for ducks.A maintenance diet is recommended for young ducks between 8 and 20 weeks old, and for adult ducks between laying cycles. Young ducks needs more protein and calcium than adult ducks. If they grow too slow give attention to the proteins in the feed.Adults will not need more than a grain supplement, where there is enough young grass available. Without young grass, a more balanced feed is required so that the ducks can build up their reserves for the next laying cycle. You can judge the amount of feed the ducks need according to their condition. If they are too fat, give them less food. If they are too thin, give them more energy.Free range ducks will be able to find a large amount of their food requirements outside. You can supplement the diet of free ducks with food leftovers, which contain mostly energy. In addition, laying ducks require extra calcium. You can provide this by returning the eggshells in the feed. First sterilise them by boiling in water, then grind them coarsely and mix them in some feed.Ducks, which are kept in a confined system, can best be given layers feed from about four weeks before they start laying. If you only feed them with grain they will not get enough protein, calcium and vitamins. The best feed for this period is a mixed food, which can be home made or bought. Recipes are given below.If you buy a specially mixed duck feed, you do not need to add anything else. The manufacturer of the duck feed has made sure that the feed contains everything that ducks need.The quantity eaten will depend on the type of duck, its weight, egg production and the availability of grass. Laying ducks usually require between 170 and 230 grams per day. Good layers sometimes require as much as 280 g of dry feed per day. If you notice that the ducks are getting too heavy (i.e. too fat) it is a good idea to close the feeding troughs at night. Ducks which are too fat lay fewer eggs and are less fertile.You can add water to the mixture to make it moist. Only add water at the time of feeding, otherwise the mixture will rot. This example gives ample feed for confined ducks. It is based on 285 g of feed per duck per day. If you give your ducks only 200 g of feed each day, this amount will last for 10 days. How much you give depends on the size of the ducks.Here is an example of a simple mixed feed for 20 laying ducks for 7 days: In areas where there is abundant fresh fish, fish meal or shrimp meal you could make up the following mixture: Add 2% cod-liver oil and 2% oyster-shell to this mixture and supplement the feed with some form of green feed (vegetable waste) if the ducks are kept inside all the time. The following mixture is good for ducks that lay eggs with weak shells. The quantities are for 20 ducks for 7 days: Always watch your ducks carefully, taking note of their condition, health and behaviour. Do this every day. The experience you gain will help you to manage your ducks well.Ducks are very sensitive to poisonous substances in their feed. All feeds may contain toxic substances. These usually occur as a result of bad storage of the food stuff, in damp or warm places. Groundnut and maize will contain toxic substances if rotten or infested with fungi.Ducks may also be poisoned by poisonous plants or decomposing animal carcasses. This is called botulism. Make sure that all the water places that ducks have access to be free of decomposing material. See Section 6.3 for further information on this subject.Weed killers and insecticides may also poison ducks. If ducks eat insects or plants, which have been treated, then they will eat the poison. Many of these poisons are not eliminated from the duck, but accumulate in its body. If too much accumulates then the duck will become sick or even die. Their meat is not to be eaten.Most farmers keep ducks because they want the products from them. Ducks are usually kept either for their eggs or for their meat. Some farmers also keep ducks for their manure.In this chapter guidelines for production levels are given, and advice on care for the products in order to improve quality. Quality means fresh, clean and good tasting, but also good looking. High quality products will sell better. Therefore the effort of caring for the products is worth it. Free range ducks will usually be less productive than ducks kept in confined systems. Care of the eggs begins the moment they are laid. Ducks usually lay their eggs early in the morning. This means that you only need to collect eggs once a day, in the morning.It is best to collect the eggs as soon as possible after they are laid. This makes it easier to clean them, and you can cool them quickly if you need to keep them. Dirt left on eggs can cause disease to penetrate the shell and be absorbed by the egg. This causes the eggs to rot or become infertile.Two methods to clean eggs: ? Dry method Clean as much dirt off the egg with a dry cloth, brush or knife. This is a good way to remove the worst and visible dirt.? Wet method This method is only suitable when you are selling (or eating) the eggs: Dip the eggs in warm water for no longer than 20 seconds. The water should be a little warmer than the eggs so that you can clean them well.If you want the eggs to hatch, it is better not to wash them in water.Eggshells have small holes (pores) which open up when the egg is put in water. Diseases can enter the egg through these holes, which may mean the egg will not hatch. Once you have cleaned the eggs you need to cool them quickly.You can collect and store eggs in order to sell every other day or once a week. You can also collect and store eggs so that you can incubate many at the same time. Always keep eggs which you are going to sell in a cool place. The shorter the period the eggs are kept the less important the storage temperature is.Eggs which are going to be incubated, must be kept at a storage temperature between 13 -16 °C. If the eggs are stored at a warmer tem-perature (16 -38 °C) the duckling will start to develop, but the process goes so slowly that the duckling will die in the egg.Eggs for incubation can be stored for a maximum of seven days. After seven days the number of stored eggs that will hatch decreases rapidly.See chapter 3 for more information on incubation and hatching.As indicated in table 11, ducks can start to lay eggs from about an age of 5 months. Ducks which are well cared for will often continue to lay eggs for about one and a half years. The number of eggs that a duck lays also depends on good management: how much time and care you spend on your ducks. This includes all aspects of duck keeping: housing, feed and health. Table 12 gives an example of egg production achieved with 3 different levels of management: ? Low management: little daily attention paid to the ducks; a small amount of supplementary feeding is given. ? Medium management: ducks checked every day; ones that look bad are checked more often; a good amount of better quality feed is given each day. ? High management:the ducks are checked regularly; unhealthy looking ducks are checked closely and set apart if necessary; high quality feed supplement used. The most economical age to slaughter broilers is the moment when the ducks are fully grown: about 8 weeks for Peking females to 9.5 weeks for Peking males, and about 10 weeks for females and 12 weeks for males of other types. When customers prefer tougher meat, then it will be worth waiting a few weeks before slaughtering.Non-productive layers you can slaughter any time.Before slaughtering a duck it is advisable not to give it food for at least six hours. Make sure that the duck has water during this time.After six hours the duck's stomach and intestines will be nearly empty which makes cleaning the carcass much easier. If the contents of the stomach or intestines come in contact with the meat, it will spoil the taste and quality of the meat.If done correctly, the quickest and best method of slaughtering ducks is to cut or chop the throat. If you slaughter according to Muslim law you must not break the neck of the duck, but cut the head off with one clean cut. After this you can let the blood drain out of the duck.Whichever slaughter method you use, you must drain the blood out of the body in order to make sure the meat is of good quality. You can hang the duck up by its feet to let the blood drain out. Once all the blood has drained out of the body the duck can be plucked. It is easy to pull the feathers out while the body is still warm.To make plucking easier you can also plunge the carcass into hot water (at about 55°C) for about two minutes. Begin by taking out the large wing feathers. Then pluck the back, side and stomach feathers. Do the legs, neck and the rest of the wing feathers last. You can remove any remaining stomach contents by pressing down on the front side of the duck.In order to make a carcass look neat and ready to be sold, you can cut off the head and take out the insides if customers prefer this. If you remove the insides be careful not to break the gall bladder, as the bile will spoil the taste of the meat.Ducks also produce manure. This can be used in the same way as cow dung or manure, on the fields. When you clean out the shelter you can put the mixture of litter and droppings on a pile and allow it to decompose for one month before using it on crops. This improves the quality of manure as fertiliser material.Duck manure can also be used directly, for example in a system where duck keeping is combined with fresh water fish farming, or where ducks are kept in a rice field. See Section 4.2 and 4.3.9 Keeping farm records The cost price is used to determine the market(product) price. Once you have made cost-price calculations you can compare these with the income you get from the market. Then you can decide whether duck keeping is profitable for you or not. Don't forget that your cost price should be below your market price, you have to earn something!The outline below shows the information you need to collect to calculate the cost price.Fixed costs purchase of ducklings housing/shelter cost of feed equipment petrol/electricity health care other (e.g. repairs on the building) Labour costs are not included but the return on the duck keeping activity should be a reasonable payment for the time you invest in it. Of course there is a difference whether duck keeping is your main income generation or a side activity.The division made above between variable and fixed costs is an accounting technique.Variable costs are costs made for the daily farming activities. They change when the size of production changes or when production conditions change. Variable costs are: costs for feed; -medicine; purchase of new ducklings; energy etc. For example:The costs for feed will double if you keep 100 instead of 50 ducks.? Fixed costs Fixed costs are those that do not depend directly on production activities. Fixed costs are investment costs for buildings and equipment. For example: Costs for a building will be nearly the same if you keep 50 ducks or 100 ducks. Fixed costs you make only once for a longer period. The investment for a building is made for maybe 5 or 10 years. Repairs on the building are variable costs: Costs on repairs will be higher when the building is used more intensively.When you calculate the cost price you calculate part of the fixed costs -the depreciation costs -these depend on the number of years the investment is planned to last. If you have taken a loan with interest, the interest rates have to be taken into account as well.If you only want a simple overview of your costs, or if you haven't made large investments, it is not really necessary to distinguish between fixed and variable costs. You can simply write down all costs and add them up.To avoid confusion we have taken an imaginary type of money: M. 1M means one unit of money. The prices used in the examples will be different from prices in your area, which means that the figures you get from your own calculations will also be different from the ones in the examples. This example is made very simple. The aim is to give you the idea of cost price calculation.In the example below calculations are made for one whole laying period. The ducks start to lay eggs at 5 months old and continue to lay until they are 18 months (1½ years). This means that the total laying period is 8 months (56 weeks). You have planned your building to last for 5 years, this means that you have to earn back 600 M per year to compensate for the investment you have made. The period you keep the ducks is 18 months, this means that over this period you need to earn back 900 M.(For the sake of simplicity we do not include interest rates here.)Total costs made in this laying period therefore are:2280 M + 900 M = 3180 M.the feed has gone up since you bought it , you have to use the actual, higher price in your calculations. Because soon you will have to buy this more expensive feed again and now you already have to earn the money for it.In this example we give a production schedule of a business in an area which has two rainy seasons in a year. The first dry season, from November to the end of January, is a little longer than the second, which is in May and June.The longer dry season is also more severe (drier) than the shorter one. This is also reflected in the number of eggs laid each day in these two seasons.By comparing the daily production figures (see * in table 14) for January in Years 1, 2 and 3, you can see that the dry season was drier in Year 2 than in Year 1. In Year 2, only 4 eggs per day were laid on average, compared with 8 in Year 1 and 7 per day in Year 3. From your figures you would notice a decrease in egg production in January of Year 2, and you could look back at the figures for January of Year 1. You would be able to see that 4 eggs is far less, but in this case you would not be able to do much to improve the situation, as the weather is not something you can control.In Year 3 at the beginning of March there was nothing unusual to see in your figures. However, about half way through the month the ducks started to lay less eggs. By the end of the month the average daily figure (**) was lower than for the two previous years, when you compared records. By then looking carefully for the reason for this decrease in egg production, you noticed that the feed you were using for the ducks had gone mouldy. This meant that the quality of feed had decreased and the ducks laid less eggs. These examples show how you can use well-kept records to help you quickly check whether your production is going as you expect. After keeping records for a number of years you can also start to predict how many eggs your ducks are likely to produce.2 World's Poultry Congresses: exchange of knowledge and experience. Participants will obtain wider insight into the many aspects of the poultry industry not only in the field of science and research but also in the supply and processing industry.3 Congresses and Symposia of Federations: major conferences organized on behalf of the European and Asia Pacific Federations of branches of the WPSA. The working groups of the European Federation also organize in alternate years, symposia, conferences or workshops where scientists can discuss poultry problems with people from the industry.4 Branch Meetings: National WPSA branches hold regular meetings, produce newsletters, organize tours and are involved in supporting their national industries.5 Other WPSA activities: The Netherlands branch of WPSA has established up a trust fund to finance scholarships. A WPSA Speakers Bureau has been set up to help foster local and regional conferences in the poultry sciences. The Association will consider applications for small scale funding support for specific aspects of conferences, which involve a group of branches or countries in a region. Examples include helping to provide a key expert speaker. Travel assistance can be provided to help young WPSA members and students participate in regional and global WPSA Conferences.World's Poultry Science Association Secretariat: Dr Ir P.C.M. Simons, PO Box 31, 7360 AA Beekbergen, The Netherlands E-mail: piet.simons@wur.nlAlgae -small water plants on which fish feed broody ducks -ducks ready to remain seated on their eggs until they hatch culling -to take ducks out of the flock because they are too old or sick drake -male duck duckling -young duck, up to 8 weeks old emetic -drug to make ducks empty their stomach, used in case of food poisoning fixed costs -costs that are made in an business and which don't vary every month. gall bladder -organ in the body in which gall is stored, gall is essential in the digestion of food to hatch -the breaking of the egg to let the duckling out immunity -unability to be harmed by a disease because of resistance within the own body. to incubate -to keep the egg warm untill the duckling has developed enough to emerge nutrition -the scientific word for feeding and how food is utilized in the body proteins -a nutrient substance present in foods such as meat, eggs and beans. Proteins help build the body and keep it healthy. protuberances -irregular swellings, outward from the surrounding body variable cost -costs that vary every month according to the size and conditions of production. virus -microscopic (very small) organism that causes diseases in other living organisms.","tokenCount":"14370"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a13735351bc835320af865980f4a9831","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f93634d2-2ad1-4981-a006-5e2da795c9e6/retrieve","id":"517550450"},"keywords":["intercropping","nitrous oxide-N 2 O","mineralization","nitrification","microbial community"],"sieverID":"447b5b67-3c9b-45d2-9c40-803dadc3ea22","pagecount":"18","content":"Maize-forage grasses intercropping systems have been increasingly adopted by farmers because of their capacity to recycle nutrients, provide mulch, and add C to soil. However, grasses have been shown to increase nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions. Some tropical grasses cause biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) which could mitigate N 2 O emissions in the maize cycle but the reactions of the N cycle and the microbial changes that explain the N 2 O emissions are little known in such intercropping systems. With this in mind, we explored intercropping of forage grasses (Brachiaria brizantha and Brachiaria humidicola) with distinct BNI and yield potential to increase N cycling in no-till maize production systems compared to monocrop with two N rates (0 and 150 kg ha −1 ) applied during the maize season. These grasses did not strongly compete with maize during the period of maize cycle and did not have a negative effect on grain yield. We observed a legacy of these grasses on N mineralization and nitrification through the soil microbiome during maize growth. We observed that B. humidicola, genotype with higher BNI potential, increased net N mineralization by 0.4 mg N kg −1 day −1 and potential nitrification rates by 1.86 mg NO 3 -N kg −1 day −1 , while B. brizantha increased the soil moisture, fungi diversity, mycorrhizal fungi, and bacterial nitrifiers, and reduced saprotrophs prior to maize growth. Their legacy on soil moisture and cumulative organic inputs (i.e., grass biomass) was strongly associated with enhanced mineralization and nitrification rates at early maize season. These effects contributed to increase cumulative N 2 O emission by 12.8 and 4.8 mg N 2 O-N m −2 for maize growing after B. brizantha and B. humidicola, respectively, regardless of the N fertilization rate. Thus, the nitrification inhibition potential of tropical grasses can be outweighed by their impacts on soil moisture, N recycling, and the soil microbiome that together dictate soil N 2 O fluxes.Agricultural managements that relieve the pressure on deforestation are critical for tropical agriculture and might have global impact on the climate crisis since tropical forests are typically reported as a sink of atmospheric carbon (C). Intercropping maize with tropical grasses have been a common agricultural practice in Brazil (1-3) that increases land use efficiency and spare land for other activities because in this system plants grow almost all year-round (4). In this cropping system, although the forage grass is planted at the same time as maize, their phenology are distinct: maize germinates earlier than the grass and grow faster during the summer, while the forage grass develops slowly (5). After maize is harvested, the forage grass grows unshaded during the fall-winter-spring for 3-7 months, depending on the number of cash crops (crop of economic interest) cultivated in the summer. Typically, forage grasses are included in these systems if maize is the single or second summer cash crop planted in the same growing season. The forage grass is commonly used to feed animals or as a soil cover (mulch) for the next no-till cash crop. The intercropping system does not reduce the grain yield of the crop with economic interest (5), and growing forage grasses in between growing seasons increases land use efficiency (4), improves soil fertility parameters beneficial to the following crop (6) and may also reduce erosion.Recently, Canisares et al. (1) found that N 2 O emissions were higher during the maize growing season when brachiarias were included in the system than in the sole maize treatments. Despite the widespread adoption by farmers of the maizebrachiaria cropping systems, there is little information on the N cycle and microbial processes that drive N 2 O emission in such systems. These intercropping systems may exhibit the benefits of biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) via this tropical forage grass (7). The conversion of B. humidicola grassland to maize has enhances soil N cycling and increased crop nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) when compared with monocropping (8). However, it is unclear whether intercropping systems used in Brazilian maize production can reduce soil nitrification (3,9). Growing tropical forage grasses in a maize cropping system could impact soil N cycling directly during growth of the tropical grass due to soil N scavenging, root exudation of BNI compounds, and/or stimulation of N mineralization (10,11) without negative effect on the crop of economic interest (5). Teutscherova et al. (12) showed the same plant genotypes that reduced potential net nitrification rates also had higher root colonization with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and higher plant root: shoot ratios. Moreover, lower N 2 O emission and AOB abundance, along with higher abundance of AMF, suggests possible competition for N mineralization products between mycorrizal fungi and ammonium oxidizing organisms (AOO) This tropical forage grass could also impact soil N cycling during its decomposition due to the release of BNI compounds from plant litter or the relative ratio of N immobilization to N mineralization depending on the residue C:N ratio (13). The C:N ratios of the shoot residue may vary with the brachiaria species and growing conditions (1,14). Thus, inclusion of this tropical forage grass in a cropping system with maize may lead to substantial relative differences in N immobilization vs. mineralization potential due to the residue C:N stoichiometry while chemically slowing soil nitrification through release of BNIs during decomposition (10,15,16), which highlights the importance of the whole microbial community to better understand the effect of plants with BNI potential on soil N dynamics (17).The impact of agricultural management on microbial communities has been explored in many recent studies (18)(19)(20), although using management practices to promote beneficial microbial interactions with crops is an ongoing challenge for the sustainable intensification of agriculture (21). Similarly, linking microbial community changes to important soil functions remains a challenge. Garland et al. (22), found a negative correlation between bacterial alpha diversity and soil multifunctionality based on soil parameters related to structure, fertility, and N cycling potential in agricultural soils. Fungal diversity is typically lower in more stable soil environments (i.e., those with less moisture and temperature fluctuation) but higher with high biomass production and is potentially affected by intercropping or cover cropping (23,24). However, soil biological functional diversity, as opposed to taxonomic diversity, has been associated with ecosystem multifunctionality (25,26). Thus, beyond the BNI potential of tropical grasses, increasing plant diversity and land use efficiency through intercropping may lead to higher microbial diversity (23,27) and potentially enhancing soil functioning related to N mineralization (28).To understand the potential use of an intercropping system to mitigate the N losses from fertilization, we hypothesized that: (i) tropical grasses (B. humidicola and B. brizantha) result in lower potential soil net nitrification due to BNI and lower N 2 O emission during maize growing season; (ii) B. brizantha increases net mineralization rates, offsetting the benefits of BNI, while B. humidicola reduces mineralization, enhancing the BNI effect; (iii) these species cause different changes on soil microbiome diversity and functional groups related to N cycling. The experimental site is classified as \"tropical of altitude\" (CWa), which is characterized by dry winters and hot and wet summers, according to Köppen classification (29). The soil is classified as a kaolinitic, thermic Typic Haplorthox (30). Prior to the experiment set up, the soil pH(CaCl 2 ) was 4.8, SOM was 31.7 g dm −3 , P resin and S were 23 and 13.4 mg dm −3 , Al +3 , potential acidity (H + Al +3 ), K, Ca, Mg, cation exchange capacity were 3.5, 45, 4.7, 25, 12, and 86 mmol c dm −3 , base saturation status was 48%, bulk density was 1.4 g cm −3 and sand, silt and clay content were 173, 235, and 592 g kg −1 (31).The experiment was designed as a split plot randomized complete block design with five replicates. The main plots (4.5 × 30 m) consisted of three cropping systems: [1] maize hybrid 2B587 PW monocropped, [2] maize intercropped with Brachiaria brizantha, or [3] maize intercropped with Brachiaria humidicola cv. Tully. The cropping systems were subjected to two different topdress N fertilization rates, 0 and 150 kg ha −1 , in subplots of 4.5 × 15 m (Figure 1).A fertilization supplying 30, 70, and 50 kg of N, P 2 O 5 , and K 2 O ha −1 , respectively, was performed at maize sowing for all plots on three dates (December 13th, 2016; November 24th, 2017; December 13th, 2018). Maize was sown at 3 cm depth to reach a population of 66,000 plants ha −1 . During maize sowing, plots receiving the intercropping treatments had seeds of the respective species mixed with fertilizer and band-incorporated 5 cm deep and 5 cm from maize rows aiming to reach a population between 80,000 and 100,000 plants ha −1   1). In the two growing seasons (2016/2017 and 2018/2019) previous to the evaluations performed in this study, the only N removed with plant materials from the plots was that of the maize grains that ranged from 45 to 55.9 and from 116.6 to 168.6 kg N ha −1 for plots with 0 and 150 kg ha −1 of N as topdress maize fertilization (1). The B. brizantha accumulated 106 kg N ha −1 more than the plots under fallow during the fall-spring (maize monocrop) (1). The amounts of biomass produced in the first two cycles varied from 8 to 10 t stove ha −1 yr −1 for the fertilized maize, to 4-5 t stove ha −1 yr −1 for non-fertilized maize; the mulch of B. brizantha varied from 6 to 12 t DM ha −1 yr −1 and for B. humidicola was 2.5 t DM ha −1 in the second season as there was no production of this grass in the first year (1). In this study, we present the data from the final year of cultivation (2018/2019), in addition to data about the microbial processes resulting from the cumulative effect of the treatments applied in previous years.Maize grain was harvested in May 2019, after the grain moisture was below 20%. B. brizantha and B. humidicola grew unshaded after the maize harvest during the fallwinter between maize crops. Twenty-two days before maize sowing on December 13th 2018, all plots were chemically terminated using the combination of 6 and 0.7 L ha −1 glyphosate, N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine, and clethodim, (RSThe desiccated brachiarias or the weeds-in the monocrop treatments were maintained on the soil surface and served as mulch for the no-till maize crop.During the first 2 months of maize growth, December 2018 and January 2019, the cumulative precipitations were 91 and 181 mm, 48 and 79% of the historic rains for these months. The precipitation in February, March, and April were 237, 194, and 125 mm, 12, 30 and 99% higher than the historic average for these months (Figure S1A). The total precipitation from December 2018 to April 2019 was 827 mm, 98% of the historic average for these periods, but the lower precipitation observed in December 2018 and January 2019 probably affected the maize yield. The monthly mean air temperature during the same period ranged from 21.8 to 24.8 • C while the historic values ranged from 19.3 to 22 • C, so the monthly mean air temperature was 0.9-2.8 • C higher than the historic average for March and January, respectively (Figure S1B).Soil samples were collected in each field plot at three time points: just before termination of forage grasses and weeds (0 DAT, November 20, 2018), just before maize sowing (16 DAT, December 7, 2018), and just before maize N fertilization (49 DAT, January 19, 2019) (Figure 1). Composite soil samples comprised soil from 8 sampling locations of the maize interrow of each plot to a depth of 10 cm using an Edelman auger. We measured soil water filled pore space (WFPS), pH, NH + 4 and NO − 3 − content. The WFPS was calculated with the gravimetric water content determined after drying at 105 • C and the soil bulk and particle densities. Soil inorganic N (NH 4 and NO 3 ) was extracted from fresh soil with KCl (1M) and quantified by steam distillation (32). Soil pH was measured after shaking 10 g of soil with 50 mL of 0.01M CaCl 2 for 30 min and waiting for the soil to settle.Potential Net Nitrification Rate (NH 4 Surplus)Potential soil net nitrification rates were assessed on the same soil samples above using an aerated microcosm incubation (10,15). The soil was air dried (25 • C) and sieved (2 mm) prior to the incubation assay. Soil samples (5g) of all treatments were incubated with (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 (300 mg NH 4 -N kg −1 of dry soil) in 50 mL amber flasks to ensure that NH 4 supply was not limiting for nitrification over the incubation period. This amount of N was expected to be more than enough for more than 7 days even in case of N immobilization since nitrification rates were not expected to exceed 10 mg NO 3 -N kg −1 day −1 (10,33). The incubation was performed at 25 • C and soil moisture at 60% of water holding capacity. The soil NO 3 -N was extracted using KCl (1 M) at the beginning and 7 days after starting the incubation and was determined by steam distillation (32). Daily rates of nitrification were calculated by the difference between final and initial NO 3 -N content divided by the number of incubation days and expressed as mg NO 3 -N g-soil −1 d −1 .We used a randomized design with four out of five replicates of the field treatments since the variability is lower under temperature and moisture-controlled condition in the laboratory than the observed in the field. As the efficacy of nitrification inhibitors depends on edaphoclimatic conditions, a commercially available nitrification inhibitor, dicyandiamide (DCD), was applied at a rate of 5% of the N to soil as an extra treatment to verify the responsiveness of the soil to nitrification inhibitors using the soil samples from the maize monocrop treatment. In this preliminary test we observed that soil of maize monocrop with DCD had the potential net nitrification rates of 2.29 ± 1.41 mg NO 3 -N g-soil −1 d −1 while the same soil without DCD resulted in 4.08 ± 2.15 mg NO 3 -N g-soil −1 d −1 , confirming the efficacy of nitrification inhibitors in those edaphoclimatic conditions.The same soil samples of previous sections were used for the determination of net N mineralization. Five grams of soil from each sample were incubated during 21 days at 20 • C and 60% of the water holding capacity. The flasks were randomly arranged with four replicates in an incubation chamber. To best capture the rate of organic N conversion to mineral N, no inorganic N was added to the flasks in this incubation. The net N mineralization rate was the sum of NH 4 -N and NO 3 -N, accumulated during 21 days of incubation. The daily rates were calculated by the difference of final and initial inorganic N content divided by incubation days. The inorganic N was extracted with KCl (1M) and quantified by steam distillation (32).One static chamber (30 cm diameter) was installed in each field plot to measure nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) efflux during the 2018/2019 maize growing season (34). The chamber was placed at 5 cm distance from the planted row. Frequent gas sampling (>2 sampling days per week) was undertaken after sowing and N fertilization followed by at least weekly measurements until the end of the maize season (Table S1). The sampling took place between 9:00 and 10:00 am to represent the mean daily gas flux (35). Gases were sampled 0, 15 and 30 minutes after chamber closure and stored in evacuated glass vials protected by a gas-impermeable stopper. The gases were analyzed by gas chromatography (Shimadzu GC-2014), detecting N 2 O and CO 2 concentration by electron capture detector. The gas fluxes were calculated by linear interpolation of concentrations during the sampling period, according with the following equation:where, F is the effluxt is the variation of gases concentration while the chamber was closed (mol −1 h −1 ), V is the volume of the chamber headspace (m 3 ), A is the soil area covered by the chamber (m 2 ), m is the molar mass (g mol −1 ), and V m is the molar volume of the chamber (m 3 mol −1 ).The flux calculated by equation 1 represents the daily gas flux. To calculate the cumulative gas emission, the linear interpolation of measured fluxes on sampling events was used to estimate the flux on non-sampled events (36).Soil DNA Extraction and Quantification, and Abundance of 16S rDNA and AOA Genes Soil DNA was extracted from 0.3 g of soil sampled from the 0-10 cm layer of four replicates in the field plots at two contrasting time points, 0 and 49 DAT. The DNA extraction was performed using Qiagen Power soil DNA extraction kit and the DNA was quantified using Qubit fluorometer (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA), the total extracted DNA was normalized and expressed in ng g −1 of soil as a proxy for total microbial abundance. The quality of the DNA was measured using NanoDrop 1000 spectrophotometer (NanoDrop Technologies, Montchanin, USA). The bacterial/archaeal 16S rDNA abundance was quantified using primers 515F (5 ′ -GTGCCAGCMGCCGCGGTAA-3 ′ ) and 806R (5 ′ -GGACTACVSGGGTATCTAAT-3 ′ ). Eight nanograms of the DNA samples were diluted in 10 µL of SYBRGreen (2X) 1 µL of the forward and reverse primer and 7 µL of MQ water (Sigma Aldrich) and the abundance of the genes were quantified using real-time PCR with PCR Detection System (Bio-Rad, USA). The thermal conditions were: 1 cycle of 3 min at 95 • C for denaturation; 30 cycles of 30 s at 95 • C, 45 s at 52 • C and 90 s at 72 o C for annealing; and 1 cycle of 12 min at 72 • C for extension. The qPCR run of DNA samples had a standard curve with serial dilution of known concentration of plasmids measured previous using the Qubit fluorometer (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA).The abundance of ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA), the group of AOO more sensitive to BNI (37), was quantified by realtime qPCR using the amoA gene as reporter. The total reaction volume was 20 µL, using 10 µL of SYBERGreen (2X), 1 µL for each primer, and 2 µL (10 ng total) of DNA template. The primers combination was amoA19F (5 ′ -ATGGTCTGGCTWAGACG-3 ′ ), amoA643R (5 ′ -TCCCACTTWGACCARGCGGCCATCCA-3 ′ ) for AOA (38). The amplification conditions of PCR were as follows: 1 cycle of 10 min at 95 • C; 40 cycles of 60 s at 95 • C for denaturation, 30 s at 55 • C for annealing, 45 s at 72 • C for extension, and 45 s at 72 • C for final extension. The melting curve was generated from 65 to 95 • C measuring each 0.2 • C and maintained for 1 second.16S rRNA and ITS genes were amplified using PCR. The reaction was prepared using 2.5 µL of PCR buffer (10x), 2 µL of dNTPs mix (2.5 mM), 0.7 of Roche bovine serum albumin (20 mg mL −1 ), 1 µL of the forward and reverse primers (515F/806R and ITS1F/ITS2R), Takara Hot Start Ex Taq polymerase (5 U µL −1 ) and 10 ng of DNA samples. The primers were modified to include the forward and reverse adapters for Illumina Nextera and the reverse barcode contained 12-bp Golay barcode (39). The thermo cycler conditions of 16S amplification were: 1 cycle of 3 min at 95 • C for denaturation; 30 cycles of 30 s at 95 • C, 45 s at 52 • C and 90 s at 72 • C for annealing; and 1 cycle of 12 min at 72 • C for extension. The set up for ITS amplification were: 1 cycle of 3 min at 95 • C for denaturation; 30 cycles of 30 s at 95 • C, 30 s at 51 • C and 30 s at 72 • C for annealing; and 1 cycle of 5 min at 72 • C for extension. The products of PCR reactions were purified using SPRI bead purification (AMPure XP, Beckman Coulter Genomics, Danvers, MA) and the quality of the amplicons were checked and the average size distribution on Bioanalyzer 2100 with a DNA 7500 chip (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA). Purified amplicons of 16S and ITS were quantified using Qubit and pooled in two libraries of 16S and ITS at the same concentration (10 ng of each sample). The libraries were sequenced using v3 Illumina MiSeq at the Vincent J. Coates Genomics Sequencing Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.Forward and reverse reads were aligned and paired using usearch [v10.0.240] fastq_mergepairs command (maximum diff = 3) (40). The aligned reads were quality filtered (command fastq_filter with -fastq_trunclen = 250, -fastq_maxee = 0.1), concatenated into a single fasta file, and singletons were removed (command sortbysize with minsize = 2). The resulting aligned and filtered sequences were processed using the DADA2 pipeline (41) to define amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), by first dereplicating the sequences and then denoising unique sequence pairs using the \"dada\" function with \"err=NULL\" and \"selfConsist=TRUE.\" Taxonomy was assigned to each ASV by a Naïve Bayes classifier using the assign_taxonomy. py command in QIIME (42) with reference to the SILVA database accessed from mothur (42). For phylogenetic inference of bacterial and archaeal ASVs, representative sequences for each bacterial OTU were aligned to a SILVA SEED sliced alignment using the PyNAST algorithm (43) and archaeal and bacterial phylogeny was inferred using FastTree (44). All sequence data were submitted to NCBI under BioProject accession number PRJNA746808.The shoot biomass of B. brizantha, B. humidicola and weeds (fallow) grown during the fall-winter were sampled from the plots with the respective treatments on November 21st, 2018, at the end of the dry season, using 0.25 m 2 quadrants. The shoot biomass was dried at 65 • C for 48 h and the dry masses were extrapolated to Mg ha −1 . The weeds from plots with both forage grasses were not sampled because visually they covered <5% of the plot area.Maize grain was harvested from 10 m in each of two central rows in each plot on May 10th, 2019 and weighed at the field moisture content. Grain subsamples of each plot were dried at 105 • C for 24 h and the maize grain yield was extrapolated to 1 ha at 13% moisture, which is the standard moisture for maize commercialization in Brazil.The biomass produced by the forage grasses and maize not harvested as grain was left on the soil surface as mulch for the no-till system. This plant material is expected to gradually decompose and contribute to the stock of soil organic matter (SOM) over the years.Descriptive statistics were used to obtain the frequency and distribution of data. We evaluated the effect of cropping system (maize monocrop, maize intercropped with B. brizantha and with B. humidicola) and topdress N fertilization (0 and 150 kg N ha −1 ) on cumulative potential net nitrification rate, net N mineralization, N 2 O and WFPS by analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the sp.plot function of the agricolae package (45) on the R statistical software (46). For significant factors, individual mean comparisons were performed to compare the cropping systems and the topdress N rate within each cropping system using Tukey's test (p < 0.1 or 0.05) in the same R package.We performed non-metric dimensional scaling analysis (NMDS) to reduce data dimensionality and to observe the variance of community structure aiming to identify differences between the different treatments. Bray-Curtis distances was used for fungi and weighted-unifrac distances for bacteria. The effect of treatments on bacterial and fungi community was tested by perMANOVA test using the adonis function of R package vegan (47). We used DESeq function on DESeq2 package to identify the taxa with significant difference between pairwise comparisons (mono vs.intercrop and B. brizantha vs. B. humidicola) by calculating the log2foldchanges in relative abundances for each time point, we used the p-value adjusted for multiple comparisons by Storey's Q Value using the qvalue function of the qvalue package (48). We considered organisms that were identified at least at the order level and showed all the significant taxa in a bar plot.The function estimate_richness from phyloseq package (49) to obtain the Shannon index used as alpha diversity. We used FUNGuild (50) to annotate and classify fungal ASVs into trophic modes and functional guilds such as saprotrophic fungi, taxa with multiple trophic modes (i.e., mixotrophic), diverse types of opportunistic fungal pathogens (e.g., Fusarium), endophytes, symbiotic organisms (i.e., Trichoderma), arbuscular mycorrhizae (AMF, i.e., Glomerales) or ectomycorrhiza (EMF). We performed ANOVA post-hoc Tukey test for alpha diversity and relative abundance of each group of fungi as described for other soil parameters.A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed using fviz_pca_biplot function from the factoextra package (51), with the ellipses drawn using the Euclidean distance from the centroid of each treatment (interaction of cropping system and maize N topdress fertilization) with 95% confidence level. The PCAs were performed for each time point aiming to address the correlations of N cycling parameters (potential net nitrification rates, net mineralization rates and cumulative N 2 O emission), soil edaphic factors and microbial groups (soil inorganic N, NH 4 :NO 3 ratio, WFPS, pH, total DNA extracted from soil, the abundances of 16S rDNA and AOA, fungi and bacterial diversity, cumulative respiration, fungi trophic modes and key fungi and bacteria taxa), and plant parameters (forage grass biomass produced during the fall-winter-spring period and the maize grain yield of the subsequent growing season).Additionally, multiple linear regression was performed to relate proxy measurements of N cycling (potential net nitrification rate, net N mineralization and N 2 O cumulative emission) using the lm function from R version 3.6.2. To predict the cumulative N 2 O emission the considered explanatory variables were potential net nitrification rate, net N mineralization, WFPS, pH, and inorganic N pools (NH 4 and NO 3 ) sampled 0, 16 and 61 DAT as well as total DNA extracted from the soil and the abundance of 16S rDNA from soil sampled 0 and 61 DAT. The explanatory variables for potential net nitrification rate were net ammonification and nitrification, WFPS, pH, inorganic N pools (NH 4 and NO 3 ), total DNA extracted from the soil, and the abundance of 16S rDNA and AOA genes. Prediction of net N mineralization was performed using the following explanatory variables: WFPS, pH, inorganic N pools (NH 4 and NO 3 ), total DNA extracted from the soil and the abundance of 16S rDNA. The relative importance of each explanatory variable was calculated by Lindeman-Merenda-Gold using booteval.relimp function in relaimpo package, the 95% confidence intervals were obtained for 1000 iterations.The present study (2018/19) maize grain yield averaged 3.5 Mg ha −1 across treatments without topdress N fertilization. N application increased maize yield by 125%, but no effect of intercropping system was observed on grain yield (Figure 2).Despite the positive effect of topdress N fertilization on maize yield, there was no effect of N addition on biomass of forage grasses and weeds growing after the maize harvest. The highest biomass dry matter yields was observed for B. brizantha (6.6 ± 2.4 Mg ha −1 ); B. humidicola accumulated on average 1 Mg ha −1 more biomass than weeds growing under fallow plots after maize monocrop (Figure 3).Averaged across N rates, B. humidicola, which had relatively low shoot biomass yield (Figure 3), increased the potential net nitrification rates before termination (0 DAT) by 1.86 mg NO 3 -N kg −1 day −1 compared to fallow and B. brizantha treatments. The plots with B. humidicola and annual N fertilization resulted in higher nitrification potential (e.g., 2.22 mg NO 3 -N kg −1 day −1 ) compared to plots without N fertilization (Figure 4). When the soil was sampled 16 and 49 DAT, plots intercropped with grasses had higher potential net nitrification rates regardless of the forage grass species. Intercropping with forage grasses increased potential net nitrification by 2.63 and 1.09 mg NO 3 -N kg −1 day −1 at 16 and 49 DAT, respectively compared to maize monocrop (Figure 4).In addition to increasing potential net nitrification, plots with B. humidicola mineralized 0.41 mg kg −1 day −1 more inorganic N (NH 4 and NO 3 ) than plots under fallow at 0 DAT. At this time point, maize topdress N fertilization increased net mineralization rates of plots by 0.71 mg kg −1 day −1 for plots under fallow. At 16 DAT, maize N fertilization had a positive effect only for plots under the intercropping system, increasing net mineralization by 0.36 mg kg −1 day −1 . At the later time point (49 DAT), plots under the intercropping system had net mineralization rates 0.24 mg kg −1 day −1 higher than monocropping; maize N  fertilization had a negative impact on mineralization of plots with B. humidicola, decreasing the mineralization rates by 0.22 mg kg −1 day −1 (Figure 5).Nitrous oxide emissions were only affected by the cropping system but not by N fertilization. Plots of maize intercropped with B. brizantha and B. humidicola emitted 12.8 and 4.8 mg N 2 O-N m −2 more than that of monocropping system regardless of N fertilization; intercropped plots with B. brizantha had higher N 2 O emission than B. humidicola (Figure 6). Cumulative soil respiration was higher only for plots of maize intercropped with  B. brizantha, which emitted 39.3 g CO 2 -C m −2 more than the average of the other treatments (Figure 7) and had higher WFPS values than maize monocrop plots at all three sampling times (p < 0.05) (Figure 8).The effect of cropping system and N fertilization on inorganic N was only significant at 49 DAT. At this sampling time, soil with maize and B. brizantha intercropping had higher inorganic N, averaging 3.7 mg kg −1 more than plots of maize monocropping (Figure S2).No effect of treatment was observed on total extracted DNA or the abundance of AOA genes (Figures S4-S6). The only marginally significant experimental effect was observed before forage grass termination, when B. humidicola without maize N fertilization resulted in a higher number of copies of 16S than with N fertilization (p < 0.1).The alpha diversity (Shannon index) of the bacterial community was not influenced by cropping system or N fertilization of the previous maize crops. However, fungal alpha diversity was positively affected by B. brizantha regardless of the sampling time (Figure 9). At 0 and 49 DAT, we identified 7 and 24 bacterial, respectively, and 27 and 26 fungal taxa positively associated with the monocrop system (Figure S7) while only 4 and 1 bacterial and 3 and 6 fungi taxa positively associated with intercropping system, respectively (Figure S8). Before termination (0 DAT) B. humidicola was positively associated with Nitrospira, a nitrite oxidizing organism, while B. brizantha was positively associated with Nitrosomonadaceae mle1-7, an AOB. However, this effect did not last until the maize season (Figures S9, S10). We also observed that Myxococcaceae, positively associated with B. humidicola at 0 and 49 DAT (Figure S9), could have a significant functional role for N mineralization and it was used as a possible soil biological indicator of N mineralization for the principal component analysis.Before forage grass termination, soil samples of the B. brizantha plots had greater fungi as well as diversity higher relative abundance of AMF and lower saprotrophs compared to other cropping systems (Figure 9 and Figure S11), however there was no effect of cropping system or maize N rate on any trophic mode for soil sampled at 49 DAT (Figure S11). In our PCA, we observed that AMF vs. EMF and endophyte vs. saprotroph opposed their relative abundances being endophytes the only trophic mode clustered with fungi diversity before the forage grasses termination (0 DAT) (Figure 10). However, at 49 DAT the AMF and endophyte clustered in a direction opposed of that saprotroph while EMF was the only group that clustered in opposition of fungal diversity (Figure 10). Although AMF clustered in opposite direction of C:N ratio at 49 DAT, the Glomerales was still positively associated with C:N ratio of the grasses even after the termination. The positive effect of B. brizantha and B. humidicola on different AMF organisms belonging to the Glomerales family persisted during the maize growing season (Figures S9, S10). One taxa of the genera Fusarium, typically classified as saprotroph organisms that could be opportunistic pathogenic or endophytic, was positively associated with intercropping system (Figure S8). Only fungal diversity clustered with grass biomass for soil sampled after the termination. The presence of soil cover was related to Trichoderma spp. regardless of the time point (Figure S8). Glomerales (AMF), Trichoderma (endophyte) and Fusarium (saprotroph) clustered with the respective trophic mode before the termination (0 DAT) but did not at 49 DAT (Figure 10). As Glomerales, Trichoderma clustered with C:N ratio in opposite direction of endophytes and AMF while Fusarium clustered in opposition to grass biomass and fungi diversity at 49 DAT (Figure 10).PCA showed that the intercropping system impacted soil N dynamics differently during the grasses and maize growing season. Before herbicide termination, the potential net nitrification rates clustered with plant C:N ratio was associated    Myxococcaceae. Other soil parameters, such as Glomerales, Trichoderma, Nitrosomonadaceae, Nitrospira, saprotroph, AOA, total DNA, abundance of 16S rDNA and AOA were better associated with C:N ratio than biomass and negatively associated with the AMF and endophytes relative abundance.In the multiple linear regression model, net mineralization rate was the main explanatory variable of potential net nitrification rate, accounting for 27% of the R 2 (Table 1). In general, abundance of AOA was negatively correlated with potential net nitrification rate (12% of the R 2 ), while the total extracted DNA (a proxy for microbial biomass), fungal diversity and pH significantly explained potential net nitrification rates (p < 0.05) but explained <10% of the model variance. The full model explained 77% of the variance of potential net nitrification rates. PCA showed that the effect of intercropping was different at 0 and 49 DAT, being associated with saprotrophs and AOA at 0 DAT and with fungal and bacterial diversity at 49 DAT.Only soil WFPS was significantly and positively correlated with net N mineralization, accounting for 40% of the model R 2 , and the multiple linear regression model explained 68% of the data variance (Table 1). The PCAs confirmed the strong correlation between soil water content and mineralization rates, except for soil sampled 16 DAT. The soil WFPS was also associated with treatments where biomass production during the fall-spring by forage grasses were higher (Figure 10).Potential net nitrification and mineralization rates of soil sampled 49 DAT (1 day before topdress N fertilization) were positively correlated with N 2 O emission and accounted for 8 and 20% of the model R 2 , respectively (Table 2). PCA showed that cumulative N 2 O was mainly correlated with the biomass produced by grasses and weeds before maize growing season and WFPS regardless of sampling time (Figure 10).In this study, we sought to assess how tropical forage grasses growing in the fall-spring period in a maize intercropping system and chemically terminated before maize season affected potential soil net nitrification, N mineralization and consequently  leave a legacy to either reduce or increase N 2 O emission by maize production in tropical soil. We observed that the forage grasses were associated with organisms related to nitrification and mineralization. However, forage grasses did not reduce the potential net nitrification rates before the termination but instead, B. humidicola, with the higher BNI potential, increased the potential net nitrification rates (Figure 4). Net mineralization rates in general followed the same trends (Figure 5), which was the main explanatory variable for the potential net nitrification rate (Table 1). Furthermore, the hypothesis that introducing forage grasses in the maize cropping system could leave a legacy to mitigate the N 2 O emission was denied, showing that the nitrification inhibition potential of tropical grasses may be outweighed by their impacts on soil moisture, N recycling, and the soil microbiome that together dictate soil N 2 O fluxes (Figure 10).At 0 DAT we observed for that forage grass intercropping increased net N mineralization and potential nitrification rates. These changes on soil functions related to N cycling are associated with changes in saprotrophic and mycorrhizal fungi, and bacterial nitrifiers prior to maize growth. Our results of 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing showed that B. humidicola at 0 DAT, which resulted in higher potential net nitrification rates (Figure 4), was also associated with the nitrite oxidizer, Nitrospira regardless of the maize topdress N rate. The ammonia oxidizing bacteria, Nitrosomonadaceae mle1-7, was associated to B. brizantha. Although B. humidicola was shown to exudate brachialactone that inhibits the activity of Nitrosomonas europeae (52) and Byrnes et al. (15) observed that B. humidicola could reduce the abundance of AOO and net nitrification rates, our results showed the opposite effect of forage grasses on nitrifiers organism. However, when Vázquez et al. (11) compared the same cultivar of B. humidicola used in our experiment with that of the hybrid \"Mulato\" of the Brachiaria genus, they found no negative effect on gross nitrification rates. Along with the effect of the forage grasses on organisms related to nitrification at the end of fall-spring season (0 DAT), B. humidicola did not reduce but rather increased the potential net nitrification rates, suggesting that forage grass might impact net nitrification rates by increasing inorganic N availability (mineralization). Although Nitrosomonadaceae mle1-7 was associated to B. brizantha, the net nitrification rates were lower when compared with B. humidicola. At this time point (0 DAT), B. brizantha showed higher relative abundance of AMF and fungi diversity, but lower saprotrophs in comparison with other treatments. One possible mechanism of nitrification inhibition is the competition of soil fungal communities with ammonium oxidizing organisms (AOO) for substrate (17). Teutscherova et al. (12) found that grasses with high BNI potential also had higher root colonization by AMF. Thus, lower net nitrification and mineralization rates in soils with growing B. brizantha when compared to B. humidicola, may be explained by the higher inorganic N consumption by AMF since its relative abundance was higher in this treatment (Figure S11).The association of Nitrospira and Nitrosomonadaceae mle1-7 with B. humidicola and B. brizantha, respectively, before herbicide termination did not last after the termination (0 DAT), and both forage grasses had higher potential net nitrification and mineralization rates than plots under monocrop. Fanin et al. (13) showed that after an initial N immobilization, different residues tend to have positive net N mineralization in longer term. Plots under the intercropping system showed a positive effect of intercropping on net N mineralization at 49 DAT. As net mineralization rates were increased in plots with residues of both grasses, the hypothesis of the legacy of forage grasses causing a reduction in net nitrification rates due to N immobilization or residual of BNI activity was rejected.Using 15 N pool dilution, Vázquez et al. (11) observed that genotypes associated with high BNI potential mineralized and nitrified 2.3 and 0.5 µg g −1 day −1 more N, respectively, than genotypes with low BNI potential. Their results suggest that the effect of B. humidicola to reduce net nitrification, AOA abundance and N 2 O emissions (10,15,53,54) might be due to their effect on gross mineralization/immobilization but not directly on gross nitrification rates. Higher N mineralization provides more substrate for nitrification and consequently increases the nitrification process (55,56). The potential net nitrification rates are commonly better associated soil organic C than the abundance of AOA and AOB in soil (57), which might be a result of the impact of soil C on mineralization and consequently nitrification rate (55). In the same direction, our study showed that net mineralization rate was a good predictor of potential net nitrification rate (Table 1), supporting the idea that mineralization is an important bottleneck for soil nitrification (55,58).The 3-year legacy of the forage grasses to soil under maize cropping was positive on soil mineralization and nitrification rates, regardless of the species, and only B. brizantha left a positive legacy on fungi diversity either by rhizodeposition during the fall-spring or plant residues (23). Fungal and bacterial diversity was found to be also associated with residue mineralization rates (28). Our results reinforce that tropical forage grasses can select specific organism related to nitrification that affect potential net nitrification rates during the fall-spring season. However, the legacy of these grasses on N mineralization is the most important parameter influencing the potential net nitrification rate, or the potential of the soil to produce and accumulate NO 3 (Table 1). Other parameters positively related to potential net nitrification rates were total soil DNA (Table 1). Relative abundance of Myxococcaceae also clustered with potential net nitrification rate (Figure 10), this group correspond to a predatory organism that lyses and takes up nutrients from other organisms, and is associated with high microbial biomass (59) and responsive to C and N addition (60), suggesting that changes in microbial biomass known to be positively correlated with N mineralization rates (55). Thus, our results obtained in shorter incubations (7 days) support the evidence that grasses impact the bacterial community related to N cycling before the maize growing season, leaving a positive legacy to N mineralization and nitrification rates, as also observed by Vázquez et al. (11).We found that that B. brizantha produced 5 Mg ha −1 of dry mass more than the fallow plots while B. humidicola only increased the shoot biomass production by 1 Mg ha −1 . The biomass production of forage grasses was not affected by the N fertilization on maize. The high demand for N and fast initial growth of the cereal, shading the brachiaria plants and reducing competition, result in low N uptake by the grasses by the end of the maize growing season. Coser et al. (5) showed that only 2.08% of the 15 N fertilizer applied during maize growing season was taken up by B. humidicola. In addition, N mineralization in the clay soil used in our study probably is supplying the nutrient needed for the relatively high grass biomass yields, specially of B. brizantha.The amount of residue left in the field has been shown to be an important factor controlling soil moisture and consequently N 2 O emission in tropical soils (61,62). Thus, the biomass production by forage grasses may be the main factor driving higher soil moisture, recycling N, and adding labile C consequently increasing N 2 O emission during the maize growing season. Plots with Brachiaria intercropping had the highest N 2 O emissions. On the other hand, the high yielding B. brizantha resulted in an annual C input of 3.8 Mg ha −1 more than the monocrop system, considering the shoot and root biomass at the top 40 cm soil layer, B. brizantha was shown to accumulate more than 100 kg ha −1 of N in the biomass, but emitted only 0.4 kg ha −1 of N 2 O-N over the second maize harvest season of the same experiment in the field (1). Carvalho et al. (63) found that, despite of the higher greenhouse gas emission from the soil as N 2 O and CH 4 , the intercropping system stored 600 kg ha −1 year −1 of C as SOC, resulting in a negative balance of greenhouse gas emission from this cropping system: those authors estimated a net reduction of 360 kg C-equivalent ha −1 year −1 for the intercropping system in a tropical soil.The stimulatory effect of plant residues on N 2 O emission may be attributed to: (i) increased N supply by mineralization (64), (ii) C addition through plant residue (65), and (iii) the presence of soil cover itself (61). Canisares et al. (1) suggested also that N released shortly after grass desiccation with herbicide could increase N 2 O emissions. Using a synthetic and sugarcane straw compared to bare soil, Fracetto et al. (61) observed that the soil cover was responsible for retaining soil moisture and consequently increasing N 2 O emission regardless of labile C inputs and N mineralization during straw decomposition. The residues left on the field by the forage reduced evaporation an explain the higher soil moisture for soil sampled at 49 DAT (61,62).In our study, cumulative N 2 O emissions were correlated with WFPS regardless of the time point of soil sampling, and WFPS explained 26, 65, and 33% of N 2 O data variance at 0, 16 and 49 DAT, respectively (Table 2). Higher WFPS results in lower O 2 availability and consequently lower redox potential, creating a more favorable condition for denitrification than the other treatments (66). However, we did not identify strong evidence of anaerobic taxa, which suggest that soil conditions do not match with ideal conditions where denitrification is the main biogeochemical process driving N 2 O emission (66).Soil moisture is also associated with N mineralization and nitrification (55) and our results showed that WFPS was the only significant explanatory variable for net mineralization rate (Table 1). Besides WFPS, the N 2 O emission was strongly associated with N mineralization rates and soil respiration as well, mainly at 49 DAT (Figure 10). Soil moisture measurements typically follow soil C content (55). However, we did not measured soil C because several years are needed for management treatments to cause significant changes on soil C content (6). The WFPS correlated well with mineralization because of the changes on soil moisture had temporal effects, while using forage grass biomass and C:N ratio as a reference for labile C input did not follow a temporal change. Thus, the higher N 2 O emissions in plots with B. brizantha mulch may be attributed to a higher N and labile C pulse after forage grass termination due to its higher biomass yield than B. humidicola. The combination of higher biomass with high soil moisture at field conditions, which could not be decoupled in our experimental design, increased N mineralization, consequently supplying substrate for nitrification and denitrification (64).Our study provided important insights for the understanding of previously unknown aspects of the complex maize-brachiaria intercropping system. We evaluated whether introducing tropical grasses with contrasting BNI potential could reduce nitrification and consequently reduce N 2 O emission during maize cultivation in a tropical soil. This hypothesis was denied. B. humidicola, with higher BNI potential, showed to positively impact the potential net nitrification rates at herbicide termination, and both grasses left a positive legacy on potential net nitrification rate 49 days after herbicide termination. B. humidicola and B. brizantha were associated with nitrifiers prior to termination but no effect on these organisms was observed during the maize season, so this effect was temporary. B. brizantha showed a positive effect on AMF and fungi diversity while reducing saprotrophs prior to maize cropping, but the legacy of this grass to maize cropping was a higher fungal diversity. Soil moisture and the forage grass biomass were associated with net mineralization rates, which was the related to potential net nitrification rates during early maize growing season. The cumulative emission of N 2 O during the maize growing season was strongly associated with soil moisture, respiration, bacterial and fungal diversity, net mineralization and nitrification rates, and the biomass produced by grasses during the fall-winter-spring, showing that the nitrification inhibition potential of tropical grasses can be outweighed by their impacts on N recycling, soil moisture and the soil microbiome that together dictate soil N 2 O fluxes. This study focused on the initial 3 years after starting this cropping system. The effect of the C input might result in higher soil organic C at the longer term that might compensate the greater N 2 O emission of the intercropping system. Thus, evaluations for longer periods shall be done in the future to measure the net greenhouse gases emission considering the soil C sequestration. Despite the higher N 2 O emissions caused by grasses, brachiarias provided C to the system and did not have a negative effect on maize grain yields. Our findings may help to devise ways for improving an already sustainable cropping system.","tokenCount":"8034"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3e890d7a3f4b783e77fe1196c6a7cf55","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4db476a9-5798-4b83-8330-f5f5fe331b52/retrieve","id":"-801008277"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4baa33fb-5cd2-4e4c-8feb-1a090c40f14b","pagecount":"28","content":"Young people in agriculture: the key to strengthening Africa's future Across Africa, young and innovative entrepreneurs are channelling their energy into a vast array of agricultural initiatives. Their goal is clear: to create new economic opportunities and to contribute to the development of their communities. Yet because these agripreneurs often work out of public view, their contribution is not always fully appreciated by their communities.To inspire other young people, in 2016 CTA supported the creation of Agribusiness TV following a call for projects launched as part of its ARDYIS programme. The objective was not only to promote the development of the businesses of young agripreneurs, but also to showcase their experiences and encourage young Africans to consider agriculture as a vocation.I am pleased to report that Agribusiness TV has been a resounding success. The stories published in this book show that it has helped to promote young entrepreneurs and enable them to reach new clients and establish themselves in markets that were still unexplored, while at the same time reaching other young Africans. Through these video stories, some were able to talk to entrepreneurs and find ways to overcome the challenges they faced, while others simply embarked on the great adventure of agripreneurship by drawing inspiration from shared experiences. As a sign of its success, Agribusiness TV has received many international awards, including the 2017 WSIS Forum Prize from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the Prix francophone de l'innovation dans les médias (Francophone Award for Innovation in the Media) from Radio France Internationale and the Agence internationale de la Francophonie (International Organisation for the French-Speaking World). This publication comes from CTA's desire to further highlight the methods and achievements of a number of entrepreneurs to inspire others, and bring them to a wider audience of both young people and those involved in agricultural entrepreneurship.This publication comes from CTA's desire to further highlight the methods and achievements of a number of entrepreneurs to inspire others, and bring them to a wider audience of both young people and those involved in agricultural entrepreneurship. Supporting young people in this sector is a CTA priority, which can only be effective if we better understand the fundamental aspirations of this generation, the challenges they face and the strategies they choose to implement. Beyond highlighting the entrepreneurs and charting their individual paths, each story raises questions as varied and as crucial as access to finance, the impact of the activities carried out, relations built with other young people, and the use of digital technologies in agripreneurship.Youth is one of CTA's three areas of intervention, and we therefore implement a number of programmes to develop agricultural entrepreneurship among this group: AgriHack Talent, PEJERIZ in Senegal and Mali, VijaBiz in Kenya, and DAIRY Profit in Eastern Africa. By focusing on the new generation, CTA is helping to accelerate the fight against underemployment and youth unemployment, while strengthening the agricultural sector.All these programmes are already bearing fruit, but a huge amount of work remains to be done. It is essential for all partners to collaborate, together with young people, to give them every opportunity to make the greatest impact, locally, nationally and globally. CTA is ready to contribute. Enjoy this booklet!Director PREFACE Over the next decade, 11 million young people are expected to enter the workforce in Africa every year, yet only 3 million formal jobs are created annually.Millions of young people therefore run the risk of being unemployed or underemployed. At the same time, urban areas continue to attract young people from rural areas, while not always being able to create enough job opportunities.For many African countries, however, agriculture is and will continue to be the main source of employment and income for the foreseeable future.Agriculture represents around 60% of employment on the continent, making it a fundamental sector, not only for food security but also for economic growth.The wider agricultural sector remains an important source of employment in rural areas, of course, but also in peri-urban and urban areas. It is particularly important to increase agri-food processing initiatives aimed at reaching out to a changing urban clientele, and to increase opportunities for the creation of non-agricultural economic activities in the technology and services sector.In spite of its potential, many young Africans are not attracted to agriculture because of its poor image, insecurity, and lack of competitiveness and support. The average age of farmers is currently over 50, so it is vital that younger generations join a sector that is so essential to the economies and to the food and nutritional security of the entire continent. Halatou Dem is a 32-year-old Malian entrepreneur.With a degree in finance, in 2011 she took over management of Danaya Céréales, an agricultural processing and marketing company founded by her mother in 1992. With regional and international markets in her sights, the company is in the process of obtaining ISO certification. The couple is also working to help other young agripreneurs by connecting them with distributors and providing them with advice.Ollasset Djoro Ahoua, 29, has a degree in tropical agriculture. In 2009 she launched her career in organic market gardening in the town of Agnibilekrou, in eastern Côte d'Ivoire.Elizabeth Gikebe is a 27-year-old Kenyan. A graduate in commerce and information technology, in 2016 she founded Mhogo Foods, an agri-food For many African countries, however, agriculture is and will continue to be the main source of employment and income for the foreseeable future.THE ENTREPRENEURS processing company specialising in gluten-free cassava production, based in Banana, in Kiambu.Grâce-Marlène Gnintoungbe is a 30-year-old Beninese entrepreneur. Her agricultural company, Les Jardins Chez Marlène, which is based in the town of Abomey-Calavi, specialises in organic fruit and vegetable production.Mohamed Ouedraogo is a 38-year-old entrepreneur who works in the commune of Kaya in Burkina Faso.In August 2012 he started producing and processing products using moringa, a shrub known for its high nutritional value, before creating his own company, Yeepaoum Production. Awa Caba is a 30-year-old entrepreneur from Claude Arsène Savadogo is a 32-year-old from Burkina Faso, with a master's degree in rural economics and agri-food business strategy, and another in economic and financial engineering of projects and public policies. In 2011, he created Bioprotect, a company producing and marketing organic inputs and pesticides, based in Fada N'Gourma. Imported goods are often cheaper and better presented, so convincing consumers to eat local products developed by agripreneurs is a real challenge.Young people are vulnerable as they work to build their reputation, they have few assets and struggle to build key partnerships to access profitable markets or capacity building.Taxation is often a heavy burden for start-up businesses, which also face ineffective agricultural support. Women in many communities often also struggle with accessing land.For a sector that relies so heavily on the weather, the impacts of climate change are a real risk for already fragile youth agribusinesses.Across Africa, farming has a very poor image; too often seen as a career for those who have not been to school. Education systems often do not encourage young people to take risks but instead seek the comfort of the civil service, or simple private-sector employment. Agripreneurs are unanimous: \"Our education system plants the seeds of discouragement: in primary school those who failed to move up to the next grade were sent back to their families and told they might as well go and farm the land.\"As agripreneurs work to make their businesses a success, the role of their family, friends, teachers and colleagues is decisive. In many cases, family and friends do not understand the potential of agriculture and do everything they can to convince them to give up their farming project.\" Young entrepreneurs face many challenges in developing successful businesses.A lack of financing, human resources, expertise, technology and access to markets are just some of the 10 challenges the 24 agripreneurs have highlighted, along with some strategies and solutions they devised to overcome them.The agripreneurs all agree that the best way to prove to family and friends that investing in agriculture is the right choice is to get training and carry out research to gain a full technical understanding of the field in which you want to invest. Agripreneurs need to be dedicated and take their enterprise seriously, and when success happens family and friends are usually convinced and their support follows.In many cases family is the primary source of funding allowing a young agripreneur's business to expand, so it is therefore important to avoid head-on conflict with parents, and to find the right approach to explain the value of the decision.Women agripreneurs face an additional problem in crossing very significant cultural barriers, especially when they opt for a production activity which requires access to land: \"In our culture, women cannot inherit land, so this is an additional problem for investing,\" Ollasset from Côte d'Ivoire recalls.\"Personally, I had to leave my village and move far away from home to rent some land, because tradition wouldn't allow me to have land at home.\" The agripreneurs' advise finding technical and commercial solutions to diversify sources of revenue, and increase the profitability of products:• Tomato producer Jean-Marie from Cameroon works around three annual growing cycles to maximise his turnover.• Ismaël from Togo is working to develop a new product from fresh tomatoes, targeting the broader population in order to increase his profits.• Ollasset from Côte d'Ivoire has chosen to target off-season market gardening, which means she faces less competition at harvest time.• Richard from Burkina Faso has successfully diversified by breeding rare poultry.• In Senegal, Souleymane built his company on originality, as he was the first to grow strawberries, creating a niche that gives him a significant advantage.Financing is critical in the development of a business. Interestingly, the 24 agripreneurs found ADDRESSING CHALLENGES that it is not so much the initial capital that is important -because this can be built up gradually -but the investment needed once the company has proved its technical ability, market demand is well established and the time has come to scale up. This is the point when increasing production capacity requires mechanisation, which means significant investments and specialised knowledge. Access to finance is also essential for businesses that require preliminary investment in research and development.Yet despite their innovative and promising ideas, entrepreneurs are often denied access to credit by banks. Roméo from Côte d'Ivoire faced this challenge when trying to develop his organic fertilisers using earthworms and cocoa waste.Young agripreneurs have developed a wide range of strategies to finance their businesses and make them profitable:• Looking for funding (gifts or loans) among friends and family: known as mobilising 'love money', or 'Family, Fools and Friends', this can provide a first investment to help launch a business.This was the approach adopted by Caroline from Côte d'Ivoire. • Turning to 'business angels': a kind of sponsor or financial partner who will provide financing and technical advice to young agripreneurs.• Appeal for sponsorship from private companies.• Keep a salaried job or consultancy work in order to ensure a stable or regular income that can be invested in the business: this was the path followed by Richard from Burkina Faso, who has a paid job at an NGO, and Awa from Senegal who does occasional consulting work, including for the United Nations.• Join a local tontine, where each member pays a monthly subscription which then provides regular annuities that can be used for investment in the company, as in the case of Stéphane from Cameroon.• Take part in competitions for the chance to win awards that generally take the form of grants (like Awa from Senegal); however, focusing too much on competitions could be harmful to the long-term development of the business.• Bring in an associate to invest in part of the business, like Régis from Benin.Nevertheless, the best strategy to get funding and develop a young enterprise is undoubtedly to offer quality products and efficient services that clients are prepared to pay a reasonable amount for on a regular basis. This should generate profits that can be reinvested when a company goes through harder times. Ismaël is currently working on an even more ambitious project which will require about 250 million CFA francs (€380,000). \"I plan to work with tomato growers, but in order to guarantee basic supplies, I want to start my own greenhouse production that will belong to the company,\" Ismaël explains. He also wants to improve the packaging of his product, offer other products that are more accessible for low-income consumers, and set up a tomato farm to ensure a basic supply for the company. To access the necessary funding, Ismaël has engaged in discussions with various institutions.Finding available, skilled and motivated human resources is a major challenge when it comes to starting a business. By itself, the motivation of the entrepreneur is not enough. As the business grows, an entrepreneur needs to be able to rely on a committed and responsible team. Qualified human resources are very expensive, and many agripreneurs opt to hire young people with few qualifications, whom they train as they go along.The agripreneur must also be careful not to be the only one who knows all the ins and outs of the business, leaving them unable to delegate when necessary. Trust in team members, employee supervision techniques and retention strategies, can all be significant challenges. With poor uptake of products and access to markets such common challenges, the 24 agripreneurs have developed extensive ways of overcoming these issues:• Make friends and family your first customers. • Become a processor as well. \"One solution in order not to be so dependent on prices imposed by traders on perishable vegetables is for the producer to become a processor,\" proposes Grâce-Marlène from Benin.• Develop partnerships. In order to be able to offer her customers a wide range of vegetable products, Grâce-Marlène has also entered into partnerships with other vegetable farms specialising in agro-ecology.• Stand up for yourself. \"You have to know how to stand up for yourself and not allow supermarkets and mini-markets to walk all over you with their system of sale on consignment,\" advises Halatou from Mali.from their client before confirming any order.\"• Engage in direct sales. \"We chose to market our products mainly through direct sales (85%), and we refuse to accept sale on consignment,\" reveals Ismaël from Togo. \"As a result, we now have about 40 serious sales outlets in Togo.\" (See box, Promoting tomatoes through social media and 'ambassadors').• Using social media to promote your product is the best option for new companies. According to Richard from Burkina Faso, \"You have to be aware just how important social media is in getting consumers interested in your product. To do so, be eloquent in describing your product in order to inspire people.\"• Take part in fairs or organise specific marketing events. \"Since 2016, Sooretul has been organising tasting and sales sessions in companies and institutions to convince middle-class customers of the benefits of using our platform to source quality local products,\"explains Awa from Senegal. \"During these sessions, we present Sooretul and the products that are available;we give advice on how to prepare certain products, and we offer direct sales. We have developed basket formulas that include an assortment of products from the female processors that we work with, alongside a system of registration and immediate discounts on delivery: it's a way of promoting the product. We've also established another kind of more 'selective' event -Sooretul nibbles -where we invite our customers and prospective clients to an after-work meeting, at which a nutrition expert presents the benefits of one of our products -fonio for example -and we have tastings of fonio-based dishes produced by the female processors.\"• With regard to the promotion of natural fertiliser products, agripreneurs have developed a strategy of guided visits to farms, where they explain how the products are used and the impacts that farmers can expect from them; a farmerto-farmer sponsorship system has also been developed, for example by Samuel from Kenya, who encourages producers to talk to others about their product, in exchange for discounts.For a sector that relies so heavily on the weather, the impacts of climate change are a real risk for agripreneurs. Ollasset from Côte d'Ivoire revealsTanko Timati has never used radio or television for marketing, only social networks -Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp. We have several marketing strategies: first, we took advantage of a government programme with the national employment agency that provided us with three interns who carried out a communication campaign on the ground.We also have a sponsorship system, through which we offer free products to clients appointed as 'ambassadors' whenever they manage to convince another customer to take our products. The peak tomato production period is from August to October, so we offer a promotion during that period when the price of a bottle goes down from 500 CFA francs (€0.75) to 200 CFA francs (€0.30) per unit. As our packaging is in glass bottles, we try to collect returns as much as possible, and direct sales makes this easier; moreover, we provide incentives to our sales representatives to collect empty bottles by rewarding them according to the number of bottles collected and the number of new customers they have gained. Finally, and this is a crucial element, we are really trying to create a community and become a 'love mark': so every last Saturday of the month we organise a tomato race with a coach recruited for this purpose.Ismaël, founder of Tanko Timati, TogoADDRESSING CHALLENGES that in her first year of organic market gardening, drought destroyed almost all of her produce. She came close to giving up but held on, and her aim now is to be able to control her water supply by using drip irrigation, as soon as she is able to access the necessary funds.10. Poor public policies on entrepreneurship and agriculture As agripreneurs work to make their businesses a success, the role of their family, friends, teachers and colleagues is decisive.PASSING THE BATON… Boubacar Diallo, GuineaThe 24 young agripreneurs featured in this publication have not only dared to innovate and create wealth in their countries, while transforming the agricultural sector, but they have also become role models, coaches and creators of opportunities for other young people.Creating jobs for other young people In addition to providing employment, successful agripreneurs often inspire other young people to follow suit.PASSING THE BATON...In Burkina Faso, Claude Arsène's company By itself, the motivation of the entrepreneur is not enough. As the business grows, an entrepreneur needs to be able to rely on a committed and responsible team. Given that its main target audience is young people, who are ever more connected to the internet through their phones, Agribusiness TV has been designedspecifically for mobile viewing. The videos are available via mobile applications that can be downloaded for free, or they can be shared via Bluetooth where internet connections are poor.In addition, since young Africans are very active on social media, Agribusiness TV also has aFacebook page, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn page and an Instagram account. Facebook statistics show that 80% of page visitors connect via mobile phone.Agribusiness TV has produced more than 100 videos, which have been viewed more than 7 million times.Agribusiness TV's Facebook page has more than 168,000 likes and its YouTube channel and Twitter account each have more than 10,000 followers.Find out more http://agribusinesstv.info/en/","tokenCount":"3211"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3ae85969055d51fc21b25a4d6a1c423d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/infobrief/8462-Infobrief.pdf","id":"-1710825009"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b453f638-006a-44a9-aa37-a42ebb168d50","pagecount":"8","content":"The bulk of financial resources devoted to social clause infrastructure projects is allocated to those in the education sector, accounting for about USD 4 million (74%); this is followed by 20% allocated for healthcare infrastructure, 4% for road infrastructure and 1% for water supply infrastructure. Cumulatively across the whole monitoring period (2011-2020), an estimated 36,466 students were direct beneficiaries of the education sector. A total of 127 schools, 85 health centres, 27 administrative buildings, 11 water points and 436 kilometres of road were built within the framework of social clauses.Legal reforms initiated in Congo Basin countries in the mid-1990s have gradually rebalanced -at least in theory -the economic, environmental and social aspects of forest management. In particular, concern around the social aspect of forest management has evolved into specific fiscal arrangements with the aim of better considering communities' aspirations for improved living conditions. In practical terms, governments have sought to increase logging companies' contribution to local development. An early example of this was 'area fees', a portion of which went to the government with the remainder going to communities living near logging sites. This system was first initiated with mixed results in Cameroon in 1994, before later being replicated in other Congo Basin countries; sometimes using different methods, but always with the same objective.As well as tax mechanisms contributing to local development, approaches seeking to have concession holders directly contribute to social project implementation already existed before more recent forestry laws were adopted, in the form of promises or contracts between operators and local populations. These requirements, known as cahiers de charges, or 'specifications', set companies' socioeconomic obligations and have been maintained and formalized. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has adopted the trend of formalizing logging companies' contribution to local development by including the concept of social clauses in its 2002 Forestry Code.This policy brief presents the findings of the monitoring of social clauses in the DRC between 2011 and 2020. It discusses how the social performance of this mechanism can be improved, whereby logging companies can play an important role in improving the living conditions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.The findings presented here are the result of data collection carried out by the World Wide Fund for Nature in the DRC (WWF-DRC) and 18 civil society organizations (CSOs) which have previously been involved in providing support to Indigenous and local populations in negotiating social clauses. Social clauses were monitored in five provinces (Équateur, Mai-Ndombe, Mongala, Tshopo, Tshuapa); their geographical footprint covers 24 forest concessions. These clauses set the guidelines for socioeconomic development between 13 forestry companies, 380 villages and 87 groups. Projects of collective interest are funded via a local development fund (LDF) made up of financial contributions from concession holders. The provisioning of the LDF is linked to the business activity of the logging concessions.Results show that there is a significant gap between the amounts of financing 'estimated' and decided by mutual agreement between the local communities and the concessionaires, and the amounts actually 'mobilized' following logging operations (Table 1). Overall, just a third (38%) of the amount expected was then actually given to the LDFs.This gap between the estimates and revenues is mainly down to the realities of logging operations in the Congo Basin, where operation estimates rarely match actual logging activities. Prior to logging, concession holders carry out inventories that determine all the tree species that have commercial value. However, several factors can limit the logging of what is potentially available, such as international tropical timber market conditions, and various technical factors arising at the time of felling (e.g., anomalies among the species inventoried, incorrect commercial classification by the inventory team, or simply inventory errors).  Social clauses monitored across the 24 selected concessions planned to implement 385 projects in the priority sectors of water, health care, education and the construction of administrative buildings. Analysis shows that, on average, 59% of these planned infrastructure projects were actually built and/or completed (Table 2). Road infrastructure saw the lowest implementation rate (43%). The development and construction of roads requires substantial financial investment. Given that operators lack foresight into long-term funding availability (i.e., over several operating seasons), they tend to prefer education or healthcare investments, as these are more easily linked to production and require funding amounts that can be mobilized over just one or two operating years.Analysis of where funding went shows that funds are primarily directed towards the education sector, whether for building, upgrading or equipping classrooms (Figure 2). Approximately USD 4.1 million was invested in this area, benefiting some 36,446 students over the monitoring period. The education sector was followed by infrastructure in the sanitation, road and water-supply sectors. Thanks to the social clauses, 127 schools, 85 health centres, 27 administrative buildings, 11 water points and 436 km of road were built.No. 362December 2021There are many challenges, when it comes to the planning, implementing and managing of community projects.Planning involves negotiating and obtaining the broadest possible consensus on the type of infrastructure to be put in place. One of the difficulties here is accurate estimation of project costs. Local populations and management bodies do not always have the skills needed to assess those costs, with repercussions on the implementation of various projects. As for project implementation and management, the creation of LDFs can be affected if a forest concession is inactive or its operations are slow to start. If an LDF is not created, community projects cannot be implemented. For this reason, delays in the commencement of logging, late release of funds, and lack of fund availability are the main causes of the gaps observed between the planning and implementation of community projects (Table 3).Late release of funds 38%Funds not available 10%Service provider incompetence 4%Poor cost assessment 22%Suspension of operations 5% Most (76%) of the 16 concession holders interviewed stated that they had a policy of prioritizing the use of local labour. Existing capacities in the communities are taken into account when implementing that policy, but, unsurprisingly, the jobs created locally are mostly unskilled or low-skilled. Project design, for example, requires high levels of skills largely unavailable among the local population and is thus entirely or partly beyond their reach. Across the 16 companies and 24 concessions involved in social clause monitoring, approximately 8,400 jobs have been created, 60% of which are permanent.Indigenous populations were identified as being present in 22 of the 24 forest concessions included in the sample for monitoring social clauses. In these forest concessions, all managers claimed to apply specific measures to account for the particular situation of this population group. However, as related policies were not always available to observers, it is difficult to confirm their existence. Where provisions for Indigenous Peoples do exist, this is more of a practice than a policy.The Analysis around the representativeness of local bodies looked at the involvement of village communities as well as the degree to which local sociological considerations and vulnerable groups were taken into account. As for representation in the village bodies, local management committees are made up of representatives from between 2 and 29 villages, while the number of groups involved is between 1 and 8. All local ethnic groups were found to be present in 53% of local monitoring committees and 73% of local management committees. Inclusion of all villages was found in 57% of local monitoring committees, and 80% of local management committees (Figure 3).In addition to how well villages were represented in local management committees, observations were also made on the inclusion of women and Indigenous populations in decision making. At this level, men are still largely overrepresented in the local committees, making up 85%, with women representing just 13%, and Indigenous Peoples remaining the least represented group at 2%.Representativeness is assessed not only by inclusiveness, but also through the ability of local governance bodies to be accountable to communities. This accountability is one area of governance where improvements need to be made; 57% of respondents reported that information meetings for local people are either held irregularly, or not held at all.In terms of effectiveness, the committees hold an average of four meetings per year and have formal operating procedures. They also have an operating budget of up to 5% of the total amount of funds mobilized from the LDF. This approach guarantees local committees a form of functional autonomy, even if this is closely linked to the effectiveness of logging operations. The budgets of these committees are not public, and the communities do not have the opportunity to comment on them when they are drawn up. This raises questions about the transparency of the choices made by these committees.The method of appointing members is based on election (Figure 4). Members are elected for a term of three to five years.With regard to internal functioning, interviewed members of local monitoring and management committees stated that decisions are taken by consulting members, and that the majority of members (70%) attend meetings. However, very few members of communities affected by social clauses are invited to take part in meetings. Local and Indigenous community members interviewed said they were satisfied with the quality of the work carried out by local management committees; however, their opinion was more mixed on local monitoring committees, which they believed were not sufficiently fulfilling their role of monitoring investments.Interviewees were asked whether local monitoring and management committees functioned as well where logging was active, as where logging had either ceasedor not yet started. Just 30% of respondents replied negatively, implying that local committees are resilient and continue to function even in the absence of LDF funding. While this outcome needs to be confirmed by longer term analysis, it is surprising, and contradicts previous empirical observations about local bodies in the Congo Basin.No. 362December 2021 Here, observations focused on whether there were any restrictions on use rights enshrined in regulations, whether there were any potential conflicts, and what mechanisms exist to manage these conflicts. The results show that concession holders do not impose significant restrictions on local populations when it comes to exercising their rights (Figure 5).Legally, hunting is strictly regulated in the DRC. As part of their forest management, concession holders are required to uphold the law within areas allocated to them. Local community members did not report any major conflicts with concession holders. About 82% of respondents stated that there were no conflicts with concession holders, when it came to hunting or the gathering of non-timber forest products (NTFPs).The low level of conflict between local populations and concession holders is probably due to the limited progress of forest management in the DRC and the weakness of forest monitoring. Although use rights are permitted by law, the implementation of forest management has the effect of limiting their scope, particularly when exercising these rights could undermine management requirements.In theory, concessions under management tend to apply the law strictly, especially if they are subject to regular and effective checks by the forest administration. Social clause agreements in the DRC are seen by timber industry stakeholders as an approach likely to promote the sharing of logging operation profits with village communities, with the goal of achieving more equitable redistribution of revenue from the exploitation of forest resources. Over the years, this system of sharing revenue from logging operations has gained a form of social acceptability among the local communities themselves, as well as among the concession holders, the administration and civil society. That said, the mechanism has some shortcomings, which could be improved upon. To increase its effectiveness, the following changes are recommended:• Change the way in which the development funds are established. The current approach of financial forecasting, which is based on an inventory of available resources, is unsuitable. Monitoring revealed that, on average, less than half of the funding expected (38%) was actually secured. A more realistic approach would be to calculate the amounts expected from the LDFs -or at least plan the infrastructure to be built -based on the amounts actually mobilized in previous periods (e.g., an average over the previous three years of operation). It would then be possible to moderate or reduce the sometimes-huge gap between what is planned today, and what is actually produced and paid out under the social clauses.• Strengthen the transparency and authenticity of production declarations. As they are currently designed, the bodies have no real power to check whether such production declarations are true; neither do regulations outline any rules on the cross-checking of these declarations. NGOs need to provide greater support to local communities on this point in particular. On a practical level, a system for verifying production volumes, involving concession holders, the forest administration, civil society and local populations, should be set up for this purpose.• Streamline the choice of community projects. It was found that communities tended to include all their concerns in healthcare, education and access to water in the social clauses. As well as these main sectors, the funding of income-generating activities could be added. For available resources to be used efficiently, only a minimum number of projects -or at least projects considered essential for the community -must be selected and the available resources be devoted to them. At present, few infrastructure projects are fully carried out. Therefore, priority should be given to completing any existing infrastructures, or to selecting a few projects whose cost estimates mean their completion is a guarantee.• Continue the support given to civil society in terms of monitoring social clauses. These organizations have received substantial technical and financial support to carry out their field missions. In particular, their capacities have been strengthened on new data collection tools and on regulations relating to social clauses. Staff changes over the monitoring period have limited the development of a strong pool of interviewers. This gap may, to some extent, impact upon the quality of certain information collected in the field. For future monitoring, it would be useful to have a stable pool of NGOs and interviewers specifically dedicated to monitoring. The continuation of monitoring activities should help to consolidate the capacities already acquired by civil society actors.No. 362December 2021 cifor-icraf.org cifor.org | worldagroforestry.orgThe Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) envision a more equitable world where trees in all landscapes, from drylands to the humid tropics, enhance the environment and well-being for all. CIFOR and ICRAF are CGIAR Research Centers.","tokenCount":"2382"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"39d3af70421a5c8c8ed7ae08b8e9df56","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/fa37042c-57fd-4281-998e-c44278179d2a/content","id":"-1775019281"},"keywords":["Maize","Maize leaf blight","Genome wide association studies","SNP","Haplotype analysis"],"sieverID":"98ac0ac5-423d-45d6-bbde-956b706a0ee8","pagecount":"24","content":"Background In the face of contemporary climatic vulnerabilities and escalating global temperatures, the prevalence of maydis leaf blight (MLB) poses a potential threat to maize production. This study endeavours to discern markertrait associations and elucidate the candidate genes that underlie resistance to MLB in maize by employing a diverse panel comprising 336 lines. The panel was screening for MLB across four environments, employing standard artificial inoculation techniques. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and haplotype analysis were conducted utilizing a total of 128,490 SNPs obtained from genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS).Results GWAS identified 26 highly significant SNPs associated with MLB resistance, among the markers examined. Seven of these SNPs, reported in novel chromosomal bins (9.06, 5.01, 9.01, 7.04, 4.06, 1.04, and 6.05) were associated with genes: bzip23, NAGS1, CDPK7, aspartic proteinase NEP-2, VQ4, and Wun1, which were characterized for their roles in diminishing fungal activity, fortifying defence mechanisms against necrotrophic pathogens, modulating phyto-hormone signalling, and orchestrating oxidative burst responses. Gene mining approach identified 22 potential candidate genes associated with SNPs due to their functional relevance to resistance against necrotrophic pathogens. Notably, bin 8.06, which hosts five SNPs, showed a connection to defense-regulating genes against MLB, indicating the potential formation of a functional gene cluster that triggers a cascade of reactions against MLB. In silico studies revealed gene expression levels exceeding ten fragments per kilobase million (FPKM) for most genes and demonstrated coexpression among all candidate genes in the coexpression network. Haplotype regression analysis revealed the association of 13 common significant haplotypes at Bonferroni ≤ 0.05. The phenotypic variance explained by these significant haplotypes ranged from low to moderate, suggesting a breeding strategy that combines multiple resistance alleles to enhance resistance to MLB. Additionally, one particular haplotype block (Hap_8.3) was found to consist of two SNPs (S8_152715134, S8_152460815) identified in GWAS with 9.45% variation explained (PVE).Maize stands as a cornerstone among global cereal crops, holding particular significance in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and key Asian nations, contributing over 20% of food calories [1]. Notably, Asia, boasting eight major maize-producing countries, plays a pivotal role, producing 28% of the world's maize [2]. However, maize cultivation in the Asian tropics faces formidable challenges, particularly during the monsoon season, where diseases such as Maydis Leaf Blight (MLB) pose a substantial threat. MLB, caused by the necrotrophic fungus Bipolaris maydis also known as Drechslera maydis, has emerged as a major economic concern, inducing yield losses of up to 30% in warm and humid conditions [3]. The historical significance of MLB, notably its devastating outbreak in the USA in 1970, underscores its global impact [4].The fungus responsible for MLB exhibits three physiological races, with race 'O' being cosmopolitan and highly aggressive. Race 'O' and race 'T' produce phytotoxins, Hm-O and Hm-T toxins, respectively, leading to varying degrees of virulence [5]. MLB, characterized by spindle-shaped lesions on leaves, adversely affects photosynthetic activity, resulting in significant yield reduction [6]. Resistance to MLB is complex, involving quantitative inheritance with additive and recessive gene actions [7]. Despite its economic impact, our understanding of the resistance mechanisms against necrotrophic pathogens, especially MLB, lags behind [8].This study addresses the critical gap in our knowledge by employing advanced genomics tools, particularly genome wide association studies (GWAS), to unravel the genetic basis of MLB resistance in maize [9]. QTL mapping using Traditional biparental mapping populations has consistently proven to be a powerful approach for identifying loci that co-segregate with the trait of interest within the research population and is known to detect rare variant along with the identification of source of favourable QTL alleles [10] However, It can only test the diversity of segregating alleles between the parental strains, and the mapping resolution depends on the number of recombination events that occur during population development, as discussed by Mitchell-Olds et al. [11]. Additionally, markers are often sparse due to limited recombination events. Indeed, GWAS have become a powerful tool for understanding the genetic basis of various traits and identifying causative loci and genes. GWAS, investigates the associations between genetic markers, and phenotypes of interest across a diverse set of unrelated individuals or lines (unrelated individuals means distantly related and heterogeneous individuals) of a diverse collection [12]. In association mapping panels, historical recombinations that have accumulated over generations, along with long-standing LD established over dozens or even hundreds of generations, persist among the representative accessions. This persistence contributes to improved resolution in association analysis [13] facilitated by the rapid decay of LD.To date, 140 QTLs have been reported against the disease, with chromosome 3 harbouring the maximum number of QTLs (at 25 loci). Bin 3.04 was reported in many studies [14][15][16][17][18][19]; as possessing a major QTL and was validated in different genetic backgrounds. In addition, rhm1, a recessive gene with a large effect, was reported in bin 6.01 for race O of C. heterostrophus (Bipolaris maydis) [17]. Further investigation fine-mapped this gene to 8.56 kb region, within which resides a sole potential candidate gene named lysine histidine transporter 1 (LHT1), as revealed by Zhao et al. [20]. Additionally, Zea maize ascorbate peroxidase gene (ZMAPx1) has recently been identified to promote MLB resistance [21]. Another gene ZmCCoAOMT2, was reported to play a crucial role in imparting quantitative resistance to MLB [22] in multiple disease resistance QTL qMdr9.02.Certain GWAS have been conducted for MLB, providing valuable insights into the genetic basis of resistance [23 ,24, 25] in American, and Chinese environments. However, uptill now association mapping studies are not conducted in the subtropics of India. The CIMMYT Asia Association Mapping (CAAM) panel, is the collection of diverse set of lines, of diverse origin, from tropics/ sub-tropics of Asia having geographical adaptation to our region and represent ample of genetic diversity for various traits including MLB. Well adapted resistant variants will not only add to allelic diversity but can also serve as potential donors to breed for MLB tolerant cultivars, a disease of economic importance in India.Haplotype is defined as a set of nearby genomic structural variations, such as polymorphic SNPs, with a strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) between them. The use of haplotypes are known to overcome the biallelic limitation of SNPs, enhance the efficiency of identifying QTLs, and offer insights into genetic determinants that individual or independent marker approaches may miss [26]. Therefore, this research aims to contribute valuable insights into the genomic landscape of MLB resistance, providing a foundation for marker-assisted breeding programs with the following objectives: evaluating the diverse array of the association mapping panel (AMP) for their responses to MLB through multilocational artificial screening, identify marker -trait associations and candidate genes controlling quantitatively inherited MLB resistance through genomic wide association studies and perform haplotype analysis Furthermore, the in-depth in silico characterization of identified candidate genes to enrich our comprehension of the defence mechanisms deployed against MLB [27]. This study not only addresses a critical agricultural challenge but also lays the groundwork for harnessing genomic tools for sustainable maize production by developing resilient maize varieties [28]. in vulnerable regions.A subset of CAAM panel, consisting of 359 tropical/ subtropical inbred lines (Table S1) was acquired from CIMMYT, Hyderabad. The panel underwent rigorous evaluation through artificial inoculation to assess resistance against MLB. This panel comprises maize inbred lines derived from various subtropical and tropical pools within CIMMYT populations from diverse maize programs. Specifically tailored for Asian environments, the panel not only showcases tolerance to abiotic stresses like drought, high temperature, and excess moisture but also exhibits resistance to biotic stresses such as downy mildew, underscoring its diversity and suitability for mapping relevant traits in the region [29].The CAAM panel underwent evaluation at two locations with high MLB incidence in the Punjab State of India, characterized by a humid subtropical climate. These locations were Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana and the Regional Research Station, PAU, in Gurdaspur, during the Kharif seasons of 2020 (Y1) and 2021 (Y2). These two locations represent distinct agroclimatic zones within Punjab State: Ludhiana falls within the central plain zone (30.9°N;75.85°E; 733 mm/year rainfall), while Gurdaspur is situated in the sub-mountain undulated zone (32.04°N; 75.40°E; 1167.8 mm/year rainfall). The experimental design employed an alpha lattice pattern with two replications in each environment. Each entry was planted in paired rows maintaining a spacing of 60 cm between rows and 20 cm between individual plants.The most virulent isolate of Drechslera maydis (Dm1) was selected for mass culture. Mass multiplication of fungal culture was performed on sterile sorghum grains (Sorghum bicolor L.) following the methods of Lim [30]. Inoculated flasks containing sorghum grains were incubated at 25 ± 2 °C for 15 days until the grains were uniformly covered with fungal growth. The impregnated sorghum grains were dried by spreading them on a clean paper sheet in the shade at room temperature. After drying, fine powder of these grains were prepared with the help of a mixer grinder. Whorl inoculations were performed by placing 2gm of powdered grains comprising of fungal isolate in the whorls of each plant at 35-40 days after sowing (DAS). Adequate moisture for a longer period to permit spore germination was obtained by spraying 10-12 ml of water in the whorls using a sprayer. To avoid the maximum day temperature (to avoid mortality by direct exposure to sun sight) during the incubation period, inoculation was performed in the late afternoon (4-6 p.m.)The disease reaction data were recorded on 10 plants from plot of two rows. randomly avoiding border plants following a scale of 1-9 of Hooda et al. [31] at two intervals, viz., 45 days after inoculation (DAI) and 55 DAI. Phenotypes with a rating of 1 or 3 had yellow-brown chlorotic lesion that do not intersect with each other, whereas phenotypes with ratings of 6-9 had large elongated necrotic lesions.All phenotypic data analyses were carried out in META-R (Multienvironment Trial Analysis with R for Windows) version 6.0 developed by CIMMYT [32]. BLUPs were calculated across the individual environments (E1, E2, E3, and E4) and for the data from both locations, i.e., Ep1 (Ludhiana) and Ep2 (Gurdaspur). All three datasets were used for GWAS analysis. The linear models were implemented from the package lme4 of R in META-R to calculate the BLUPs and variance components. The following linear model was used for analyzing the individual environments:where Yijk is the MLB severity, representing phenotypic performance of the kth genotype at the jth block in the ith replication, µ is the overall mean effect, Rep i is the effect of the ith replicate, Block j (Rep i ) is the effect of the jth incomplete block within the ith replicate, Gen k is the effect of the kth genotype and ε ijk is the effect of the error associated with the ith replication, jth incomplete block, and kth genotype, which is assumed to be normal with mean zero and variance. For a combined analysis across years, the following linear model was used:Env i is the effect of the ith environment and Env i × Genl is the environment × genotype (G ×E) interaction, In both models, all effects, except the overall mean, are declared to be random and normal with a mean of zero and effect-specific variances. The random assumption for the genotype effects allowed us to calculate BLUPs and broad-sense heritability.where σ 2 g, σ 2 ge and σ 2 e are the number of genotypes, genotype-environment interactions and error variance components, respectively; and r and k are the number of replications within each environment and number of environments, respectively.Genotyping was conducted on 336 lines using the genotyping by sequencing (GBS) platform (GBSv2.7) [33] at the Institute of Genomic Diversity, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA. The genomic DNA underwent digestion with the ApekI restriction enzyme, and GBS libraries were constructed in a 96-plex format before being sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq. 2000 [34]. SNP calling was executed using the TASSEL GBS pipeline [35], with B73 serving as the reference genome. The FIL-LIN method in TASSEL 5.0 was employed to partially impute missing genotypic data. The partially imputed dataset comprised 955,690 SNPs distributed across all chromosomes. For our GWAS study, filtering criteria of a call rate > 0.9, Minor Allele Frequency (MAF) > 0.05, and heterozygosity < 30% were applied, resulting in a refined dataset of 128,490 SNPs. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), kinship matrix, and linkage disequilibrium (LD) were calculated using this curated set of SNPs.PCA [36], kinship, and LD analysis was conducted in Genomic Association and Prediction Integrated Tool version 3 (GAPIT) [37]. A three-dimensional plot of principal components was drawn to visualize the possible population stratification among the samples. A scree plot was generated to determine the number of principal components to be included in the GWAS. The kinship matrix was generated with the Van-raden algorithm and was visualized as a heatmap. The LD was estimated by using all the markers and their neighbouring markers as pairwise r 2 values (the squared correlation among alleles at two SNPs). The LD decay was plotted as r 2 values between SNPs against the physical distances (kb) between SNPs at r 2 = 0.1. Genome-Wide Association Mapping: GWAS was performed on the BLUP values obtained for the final disease score across environments (E1, E2, E3, and E4) and on the pooled dataset of two years at location 1 (Ludhiana) and location 2 (Gurdaspur) (Ep1 and Ep2 respectively) on 336 inbred lines (and as supplementary on individual environments) . GBS was used for genotyping to generate 128,490 SNPs and used for GWAS mapping The SNPs were distributed across all ten maize chromosomes. A density plot was constructed for chromosome wise SNPs within 1 Mb window (Fig. 1a, b). GWAS was performed using the Bayesian-information and linkage disequilibrium iteratively nested keyway (BLINK) package as implemented in GAPIT version 3 in the R version 4.2.1 software environment [38,39]. BLINK approach employs a multi-locus model for the evaluation of markers distributed across the genome and conducts two fixed-effect models iteratively. One model tests one marker at a time with multiple associated markers as fixed effects to account for population structure, and the other model tests the covariate markers to control spurious associations [40]. The GWAS results were visualized by plotting -log 10 P values as Manhattan plots. The values are plotted against the chromosomal position of the SNPs in GAPIT V.3. The quantile-quantile plots (Q-Q plots) in BLINK represented observed versus expected negative log 10 P value that deciphered the severity of inflation test statistics. The set Bonferroni-corrected threshold at P < 0.1 was very stringent; therefore, the suggestive or exploratory P value threshold to control the genomewide type 1 error rate was estimated as < 9.0 × 10 − 5 for identifying the significant SNPs for MLB from the set of 128,490 markers and considered as the significance cutoff for the association [41,42].The final number of significant SNPs/MTAs was chosen after accounting for SNPs which were consistent or common across Ep1, Ep2 and combined environmentsThe allelic effects were depicted for four associated markers/SNP. It was determined by using disease score data of 336 inbred lines for both alleles (major and minor) of the SNP. The effect was represented as difference between the groups by box plots using Kruskal-Wallis test. The test statistic H (chi 2 ) is computed as follows:where n g is the number of elements in group g, n is the total number of elements, and T g is the sum of ranks in group g. The test was done to see whether the effect of alleles differ significantly in resistant and susceptible lines for the disease score. The analysis was performed in Past V.4.13 [43] and DATA Table (2023) [44].Haplotype regression analysis was executed in SNP & Variation Suite (SVS) Version 8.6.0 (SVS, Golden Helix, Inc., Bozeman, MT, www.Goldenhelix.com). SNPs within the bottom 0.1 percentile of the distribution in GWAS for all three datasets were selected for haplotype detection and trait regression. Haplotype frequency estimation was done using the Expectation Maximisation (EM) algorithm with 50 EM iterations [45]. EM is an iterative optimisation method that uses machine learning algorthims to find maximum likelihood and is known to handle missing data. EM convergence tolerance of 0.0001 and a frequency threshold of 0.01 was used. To minimise the historical recombination, haplotype blocks were detected based on the block defining algorithm [46] because the regions with little evidence of recombination among common alleles is considered for assembling the diversity and forms a biological basis of objectively defining haplotype blocks. Regression analysis was carried out with the haplotypes detected, based on step-wise regression of the MLB BLUP estimates of all three datasets with forward elimination at Bonferroni value cut off ≤ 0.05. Haplotype regression analysis uses the expected number of copies of the haplotypes considering genotype as explanatory variable. It has high computational efficiency then Bayesian methods.The SNP markers significantly associated with the trait were searched in MaizeGDB (http://www.maizegdb. org) against the reference genome B73_RefGen_V2 to find the physical position of the identified markers and flanking genes. A gene with a marker located within it or the closest high-confidence gene within 0.9 kb flanking of the SNP's physical position was considered as the associated gene to that marker. Information about these genes was gathered from NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/entrez) and the MaizeGDB (www.maizegdb.org) database. The functions of the predicted candidate genes were reviewed to establish their significance in enhancing resistance. Details on the gene families and Gene Ontology (GO) terms of the candidate genes were obtained from PLAZA (version 5). In silico expression analysis of the genes was carried out using publicly available expression data, presented as fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads (FPKM), sourced from the q-Teller Maize GDB database (http://www.maizegdb. org). This data, compiled by Walley et al. [47], originated from a comprehensive gene expression atlas constructed through mRNA sequencing (mRNA-seq) involving three biological replicates from 23 distinct tissues. Our analysis specifically considered leaf tissue from various zones (zone 1: symmetrical, leaf zone 2: stomatal, leaf zone 3: growth, and mature leaf ), in addition to the vegetative meristem (16-18 days). The gene expression patterns were visualized as a heatmap using TBtools software [48], following the log 2 transformation of FPKM values [49]. To detect interactions and coexpression among the candidate genes, GeneMANIA (https://genemania.org/) was employed. Query list of candidate genes was used as input. By default geneMania prediction server utilizes adaptive network weighted method to dertermine the network. GeneMania extended the list of query genes with the functionaly similar genes. The default force directed COSE network was formed based on weighted sum of individual data sources. The prediction server utilised databases; Gene expression omnibus (GEO) along with Interpro for co-expression data and BioGRID for physical interaction data [50,51] Results.The panel displayed significant variations (P value < 0.001) in disease severity on a disease scale ranging from 1 to 9. The disease pressure was high for MLB at both locations, as observed by the disease severity score of ≥ 7 during 2020 and 2021 under artificial epiphytotic conditions.  1).The environment-wise frequency distribution of panel belonging to four classes of resistance is represented by bar plots (Fig. 2). Maximum number of lines were falling in the class of moderate resistance (DS scale 4-5) and moderate susceptibility (DS scale 6-7) in each of four environments.Principal component analysis and kinship analysis of the association panel were conducted using a filtered set of SNPs (128,490). The first three principal components (PCs) encapsulated most of the genetic variation, as illustrated in Fig. 3a. The pairwise relative kinship matrix of the 336 genotypes revealed a low levels of genetic relatedness within the panel, (Fig. 3b). Genome wide LD plot displayed the LD decay of 0.9 at r 2 = 0.1 (Fig. 3c).GWAS was performed with a subset of 128,490 SNPs following BLINK model after a rigorous quality check. This model corrects both kinship (K) and population structure (Q), as depicted by the least genomic inflation deciphered from the Q-Q plot (Fig. 4a, b, c). The distribution of SNPs across chromosomes showed greater density at the ends and lower density at the centromeric regions, with chromosome 1 having the highest number of SNPs (20302) and chromosome 10 having the lowest number of SNPs (8736). The P value threshold was (< 9.0 × 10 − 5 ) for identifying the significant SNPs for MLB In each dataset, Manhattan plots (Fig. 4d, e, f ) were generated to display the -log 10 P value of each SNP from the association study. At P value < 9.0 × 10 − 5 , 13 SNPs were detected across environments (E1, E2, E3, and    and 4.06 (S4_166482019). The allelic effects of the four significant (Fig. 5) and common SNPs reported from combined environments and pooled environments (Ep1, Ep2) were examined using the Kruskal-Wallis test. These SNPs were harboured in the chromosomal bins 8.06 (3) and 6.01 (1), which were reported to be enriched with QTLs for resistance against MLB and other diseases. The chi-square values and probability (P) values indicated presence of significant phenotypic differences in plant MLB score for allelic effects of all four SNPs (Table 3). Box and whisker plots were employed to illustrate the significant allelic effects of the SNPs for MLB resistance (Fig. 5). For all four SNPs, homozygous combination of favourable alleles were reported in resistant lines with lowest disease score (< 3.0), e.g. allele 'CC' (homozygous) for SNP S8_155841067. In contrast, lines with the 'TT ' allele (homozygous) exhibited mean disease scores ranging from 7.9 to 8.0, indicating their susceptibility to MLB.A set of 188 SNPs in the bottom 0.  S1). Thirteen common significant (Bonferroni value ≤ 0.05) haplotype blocks were identified in HTR analysis of Ep1 and Ep2 environments. These haplotype blocks which include 2-5 SNPs were spread on seven chromosomes (1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10 and the proportion of variance explained by these common blocks ranged from3.45-10.57% (Table 4). These commonly identified significant haplotype blocks were subsequently compared with the SNPs identified in GWAS and candidate genes reported. Among them, one particular haplotype block (Hap_8.3) was found to consist two SNPs (S8_152715134, S8_152460815) identified in GWAS.Twenty-five unique candidate genes were identified for MLB resistance. These genes, were found to possess functional domains associated with biotic stress tolerance. Three candidate gene models (3) were associated with SNP S8_155841067 (lowest P value) on chromosome 8 (bin 8.06), i.e., B3 domain-containing protein (gene harbouring the SNP), SPA1 protein (suppressor of Phya-105 1), and RNA helicase (ATP-dependent helicase rhp16) (genes flanking the physical distance of 0.9-1 kb from the position of SNP) Additional gene models reported from bin 8.06 included the ABC transporter protein family member, AP-4 complex (subunit epsilon), abi20-ABI3-VP1-transcription factor 20, and AP2/ERF domain-containing protein. Moreover, one gene, PR5like receptor kinase, was identified in bin 8.01. These genes may be functionally relevant for defending against necrotrophic fungi. Genes with different DNA-binding domains mediated by jasmonic acid (JA) signalling, leading to activation of defence, were also identified. For example, the MYB DNA-binding domain superfamily and Indole-3-pyruvate monooxygenase YUCCA1 were found on chromosome 6 (6.01). The basic helix-loophelix (bHLH) DNA-binding superfamily protein-producing gene was found on chromosome 5 (5.04), the lipolytic acyl hydrolase (LAH)/patatin protein producing gene was reported on chromosome 1 (1.06), and the genes Wun1 and vq4-VQ motif transcription factor 4 were reported in bins 6.05 and 1.04. Apart from the above genes, we identified one NBS-LRR defence protein-encoding gene, PIK6-NP, on chromosome 10 (10.3). Genes Brassinosteroid-insensitive 1-associated receptor kinase and ubiquitin protein (ligase-binding) were reported on chromosome 1 (1.08). Gene Sterol 3-beta-glucosyltransferase UGT80A2 was reported on chromosome 2 (2.08). Other genes associated with the significant SNPs that are identified in different chromosomal bins were CLAVATA3 embryo surrounding region-related-16 (9.06), calciumdependent protein kinase 7 (5.01), bZIP transcription factor 23 (9.01), putative amino acid acetyl-transferase NAGS1 (7.04), aspartic proteinase nepenthesin-2 (4.06), vq4-VQ motif-transcription factor 4 (1.04), the woundinduced protein Wun1, and the auxin responsive Aux/ IAA family member (6.05). These genes have been functionally annotated in the literature for the induction of pathogenesis-related (PR) gene expression and therefore can be considered to prompt defence against MLB (Table 5).Gene expression data were specifically curated for 22 candidate genes, as detailed in Fig. 6a, b. The remaining genes (3) did not have available expression data across the four leaf stages or for the vegetative meristem in the database. Genes GRMZM2G033413, GRMZM5G813007, GRMZM2G031352, AC210013.4_ FG014, GRMZM2G061602, GRMZM2G164787, GRMZM2G031584, and GRMZM2G313737 exhibited increased expression in all four stages of the leaf and vegetative meristem, whereas GRMZM2G033413/bZIP transcription factor 23 had the highest expression among all the genes, followed by GRMZM5G813007/aminoacid acetyltransferase NAGS1. The other genes exhibited expression only in some leaf zones. The identified candidate genes (22) were queried into the GeneMANIA web server for functional prediction. The physical interaction and coexpression between the genes in the network were 8.98% and 88.70%, respectively (Fig. 7a, b). The genes SPA1/ GRMZM2G061602 and ABI3/GRMZM2G313737 were identified on the same chromosome, Chr8 (8.06), in close proximity to the single SNP S8_155841067. Notably, these genes have been reported to physically interact and coexpress within gene networks. The gene network extended its association with other genes, e.g., between the genes AT3G56880.1 (candidate gene) and WRKY75 (from the network). Both of these genes act as positive jasmonate-mediated regulators of plant basal defence against necrotrophic fungal pathogens and were reported  to be coexpressed in the network. While the remaining identified candidate genes did not display direct relationships with each other, they did exhibit associations with genes belonging to the same family. For instance, UBQ10/GRMZM2G164787 with UBQ13 and BZIP23/ GRMZM2G033413 with BZIP53 were related to the shared protein domain family.Maize leaf blight, caused by the necrotrophic pathogen Bipolaris maydis, presents a significant global threat to maize cultivation. This polycyclic disease becomes epidemic under favourable conditions, and phenotyping under artificial epiphytotic conditions with high disease pressure proves to be cost-intensive. Therefore, a profound understanding of host plant resistance (HPR) is imperative to identify molecular markers for MLB resistance and enhance the efficiency of developing resistant tropical and subtropical maize germplasm [52]. The present study leveraged high heritability (0.79) for the MLB disease score, based on pooled data from the CAAM panel, in four environments, suggesting the possibility of accurate phenotypic selection to breed for MLB resistance in maize [53,54]. The CAAM panel exhibited lower genetic relatedness, rapid linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay, and a moderate population structure. Moderate population structure in CIMMYT Asia tropical and sub-tropical lines was reported in previous studies [55]. George et al. [56] corroborated this observation and reported substantial diversity in tropical and subtropical lines in the Asian region, rendering it challenging to establish clear-cut distinctions into well-defined clusters. Warburton et al. [57] suggested that this could be due to the fact that the populations from where Asian lines were derived had a heterogeneous nature with larger diversity within, than between source populations. It is known that LD decays more rapidly in tropical maize germplasm (1 kb) than in temperate germplasm (10 kb), but faster LD decay rates have been reported in some tropical diversity panels [58]. Identification of 26 SNPs significantly associated with MLB with low to moderate effect sizes across all 10    Veg. meristem (0) [113] ©Ep1 represents pooled dataset of two years at E1(Ludhiana), Ep2 represents pooled dataset of two years at E2 (Gurdaspur) chromosomes suggested that resistance to MLB is governed by multiple quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) with small effects. Our observation of the quantitative nature of MLB has been reported in earlier studies also [14][15]]. Chromosome-specific analysis reveals crucial genomic regions that are important for disease resistance in general, and resistance to MLB in particular.Chromosomal bin 8.06, found in our study, comprised five SNPs. The physical coordinates of these identified SNPs colocalized with the QTL qMSR8 (151.45 to 166.98 Mb), which was identified from the same AM panel and validated for charcoal rot (caused by a necrotrophic pathogen) [54]. This bin also harbours QTLs for other important diseases; GLS, NCLB, common rust, and smut [59,60]. Furthermore, comprehensive meta-QTL analysis revealed the presence of a cluster of QTLs on chromosome 8, accompanied by significant consensus QTLs associated with MLB, NCLB, and GLS, all located within a narrow confidence interval [61]. Based on these well-aligned reports, we suggest further studies on the significant associations we have detected in this chromosomal bin for validation and deployment efforts to combat MLB effectively. Furthermore, Bin 8.01 (comprising SNP S8_8887701) corresponds to a previous study reporting a QTL (qAUDPC8.1) in the Indian germplasm for MLB, emphasizing relevance of bin 8.01 in MLB resistance [62]. Chromosome 3 has been reported to harbour the maximum number of QTLs (at 25 loci) for resistance to MLB specifically in bin 3.04 [15][16][17]19], ] possessing major QTLs which are validated in different genetic backgrounds. A meta-QTL study highlighted the significance of genomic regions within bins 3.04-3.08 for MLB resistance 61]]. We identified one SNP (S3_156792785) in bin 3.05 in our GWAS study. This bin is also recognized for harbouring stable genomic regions linked to other diseases caused by necrotrophs, e.g., fusarium ear rot [63]. We identified two SNPs within chromosomal bin 6.01 (S6_21316804 and S6_34825812). Bin 6.01 is recognized as a hotspot for resistance against various viral diseases, Fig. 7 (a) Illustration of the physical interaction and co-expression network of candidate genes and allied genes depicted by GeneMANIA. Pink lines signify physical interactions among the candidate genes and other genes from the same family, while light purple lines represent the co-expression of these genes. (b) Percentage of each category of interactions among the genes and MLB [64]. A minor QTL associated with MLB resistance was reported in this bin [41]. Moreover, the rhm1 gene, known to confer complete MLB resistance against race 'O' , is situated within or in close proximity to bin 6.01 [ 17]. Our findings suggest the possibility of a broader spectrum of allelic variation against MLB within bin 6.01. Three SNPs were reported on chromosome 5, among which one SNP (S5_140936401) was reported in bin 5.04. Previous studies [22,65], ] have identified significant SNPs associated with MLB resistance within bin 5.04. Additionally, bin 5.04 has been reported to host resistance against NCLB, GLS, and MLB, as documented by Martins et al. [66 ]. A single SNP was identified on chromosome 10 (10.3), which remarkably correspond with earlier research findings where a disease QTL (dQTL) for MLB was reported. This finding emanated from two B73-resistant NILs (NC292 and NC330) against MLB, which were developed by repeated backcrossing with elite source of MLB resistance (NC250P), further reinforcing the significance of this genomic region in conferring resistance [66]. Two SNPs identified to be significantly associated with MLB resistance in this study (S1_233546091 and S1_232344813) on Chromosome 1 (bin 1.08), colocalized with earlier reported SNPs against NCLB [36] and Fusarium stalk rot [67] in the same panel. Moreover, in previous studies, no SNPs or QTLs colocalized with the physical coordinates of SNPs reported in the seven novel chromosomal bins associated with MLB (Table 6).The majority of the haplotype blocks identified from our haplotype detection analysis were formed with two or three SNPs. The size of these haplotypes is intricately linked to the level of linkage disequilibrium (LD) within the population under study, as elucidated by Slatkin (2008)  [68]. A rapid decay of LD results in the formation of smaller haplotype [69,70]. A single haplotype block (Hap_8.3) exhibiting a significant effect was identified within chromosomal bin 8.06, which corroborated with our GWAS findings. This haplotype was found to account for approximately 9.3% (Ep2) and 5.3% (Ep1) of the variation observed for the trait respectively in our study. Two haplotype blocks, reported in two novel bins, 2.00 (Hap_2.1) & 1.11 (Hap_1.2) explained PVE of 9.1%, 5.7% for Ep2, and 5.1%, 4.6% for Ep1, respectively. The use of Twenty-six SNPs associated with MLB resistance in this study were associated with annotated genes with functional domains that were previously reported to influence disease resistance in various crops (Table 5). Genes in Chromosome 8 play pivotal roles in various defence pathways, viz., and activation of basal defence by mitogen-activated protein kinases, serine/threonine protein kinase activity, circadian rhythm-generated basal immunity, hypersensitive cell death response, and transport of secondary metabolites required against necrotrophs, e.g., phytoalexins, especially camalexin (3-thiazol-2-yl-indole), a secondary metabolite toxic to B. maydis [73][74][75][76]. Based on the predicted co-expression results, co-expression of these genes was detected in the network, and it could be possible that these genes (bin 8.06) may form a cluster, initiating a cascade of reactions against MLB, which warrants further investigation [76]. Furthermore, the expression of these genes exceeded 10-FPKM in all leaf zones. Physical interaction of genes SPA1/GRMZM2G061602 and ABI3/GRMZM2G313737 underscore their role in basal defence response via MAMP responsive MAPK mechanisms [77,78]. The SPA1 gene further advances the notion of circadian rhythm-generated basal immunity against MLB, which reveals the potential for further studies on such genes in the future [75]. The candidate gene GRMZM2G013581/ MYB DNA binding domain (bin 6.01) was identified in our study. Chen et al. [25] functionally validated gene MYBR92 (encoding a MYB-like transcription factor) against MLB.Specific genes associated with novel SNPs identified are functionally recognized for their expression in response to cross-talk between jasmonic acid and ethylene, which enhances sensitivity to necrotrophic pathogens [79]. For example, the transcription factor (TF) BZIP 23/GRMZM2G033413 (S9_8243435) is known to modulate the response to various stresses, including abiotic factors and hormone transduction [80]. Another gene, GRMZM2G357834/WUN1, is involved in plantdefence responses regulated by JA and its methyl ester, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) against necrotrophs [81]. GRMZM5G813007/NAGS1 (S7_161657633) is involved in the L-arginine biosynthesis pathway [82]. Arginine serves as a precursor for the synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) and polyamines (PAs), both of which are known to promote defence mechanisms. AC210013.4_FG014/ CDPK7 (S5_3412526) gene has been found to respond to various stimuli, including abscisic acid (ABA), cold, drought, salinity, heat, elicitors, and pathogens [840]. Our study highlighted the possible role of ubiquitination required in facilitating the function of NBS-LRR proteins (promoting effector-triggered immunity), specifically by the GRMZM2G164787/Ubiquitin protein (ligase binding) gene associated with SNP S1_232344813) [84]. Genes E3 Ubiquitin protein (ligase) and CDPK7 have been reported in a previous study [25] as associated with resistance to MLB. Another important gene GRMZM2G444623/aspartic proteinase nepenthesin-2 (S4_166482019) was identified which was reported to reduce the activity of fungal phytases. In Barley, a related gene nepenthesin-1 (HVNEP-1) was discovered that reduced the production of mycotoxin 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol (15-ADON) from Fusarium graminearum [85]. It would be worthwhile to investigate the role of NEP2 in MLB resistance in maize. The reported SNPs in genes associated with the JA/ET signalling pathway and other defence mechanisms add depth to our understanding of MLB resistance, to carry forward with independent validation of the candidate genes.Moreover, contrasting genotypes identified in this study could be used to develop mapping populations for further genetic dissection of the trait, The construction of breeder-friendly Kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) markers for the significant and stable MTAs/ single SNPs identified may facilitate the deployment of these genomic regions through marker-assisted selection in the maize breeding process. In addition, the significant MTAs identified during the current study can be integrated into genomic prediction models to evaluate their potential for selection for MLB. Desirable haplotypes can be used for haplotype-based breeding in maize for MLB resistance through resequencing approach as, the molecular markers that define these favorable haplotypes can be developed and used to select the most desirable combination of haplotypes governing the specific phenotype. Moreover, inbred lines with novel recombination in chromosomal blocks of interest can be selected by haplotyperelated markers [86]. The identified important genes may also be validated using functional genomics techniques. However, the potential challenge one can face is impact on the marker/SNP effect which can differ with populations and environments. This challenge arises due to differencs in LD between SNP and QTL in different populations, effect of G x E interaction, and spurious associations [87] Overall, this comprehensive genomic analysis provides valuable insights for targeted breeding strategies to enhance MLB resistance in maize.In summary, GWAS and haplotype trait regression studies on resistance to MLB in Asia-adapted CAAM panel identified 26 SNPs and 13.haplotypes associated with the trait. The study confirmed the quantitative nature of the resistance with identified variants exhibiting low to moderate effect sizes. But gene annotation and network analysis of the identified variants points to some important genes that are implicated in diverse defence pathways in particular, and stress tolerance in general. Several of the identified variants were located in previously reported chromosomal bins, and some new genomic regions were also identified in this study. This not only enhances our appreciation of allelic diversity but also deepens our understanding of the intricate mechanisms behind resistance to MLB in maize. Additionally, the identification of a number of SNPs and haplotype within chromosomal bin 8.06, which is known to harbour dQTLs/dQTNs for resistance to multiple diseases, underscores its potential to be further investigated for validation and possible deployment of trait markers for resistance to MLB.","tokenCount":"6120"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"44ec75049b5b5c52ad11416eec61555a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/af5b0e16-7b00-4e04-be8b-a5b9e1a5914b/retrieve","id":"-1062488731"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"03c3bbae-cf9d-4a8b-ab23-feba85e37a3c","pagecount":"111","content":"\"É graça divina começar bem.Graça maior persistir na caminhada certa.Mas graça das graças é não desistir nunca.Figura 1: Sulcos com declive (Walker, 1989)………………………………………………….....9 Figura 2: Sulcos ao longo das curvas de nível (Walker, 1989). …………………………….........9 Figura 3: Sulcos em zig-zag (Walker, 1989). ……………………………………………….......10 Figura 4: Trajectória de tempo e espaço das curvas de avanço e recessão e os respectivos tempos (adaptado do Roscher, 1985) A irrigação vem sendo praticada nas regiões tropicais e subtropicais desde a antiguidade. Há indicações de que culturas eram irrigadas na Mesopotânia e no Egipto à cerca de 4 mil anos antes de Cristo (Roscher, 1983). Em Moçambique, a irrigação é datada do período pré-independência, onde em 1968 a área de terras irrigadas totalizava 65 000 hectares dos quais 72 % se localizavam nas províncias de Maputo e Gaza. Em 1973 houve um incremento da área para 100 000 ha com vista a estabilização da indústria açucareira e do povoado de Limpopo (DNHA 1 , 2003).Após a independência em 1975, também houve um aumento da área irrigada em 20 000 ha, totalizando 120 000 ha até próximo de 1980. Nos anos que se seguiram os sistemas de regadio foram caracterizados por uma ineficiência devido a degradação e deterioração das infra-estruturas de rega existentes (DNHA, 2003).Segundo a FAO (1997) o potencial de irrigação em Moçambique é estimado em 3 072 000 ha, contudo, dos 118 120 ha equipados para a irrigação, apenas 40 063 ha são actualmente irrigados consistindo maioritariamente em sistemas com mais de 500 ha. De referir que os sistemas mais largos e importantes são os de Chókwè na baixa de Limpopo com uma área equipada em 25 000 ha e uma série de plantações de canavial no Incomáti, Búzi e no Vale do Zambeze com uma área total de 34 000 ha (FAO, 1997).De acordo com o Roscher (1983), a irrigação superficial é o método que é mais praticado no mundo, ocupando cerca de 230 milhões de hectares, o que corresponde à 90 % do total da área mundial irrigada. Em Moçambique ocupa na sua generalidade 16 856 ha sendo 656, 4 200 e 12000 ha respectivamente nas zonas Norte, Centro e Sul.Em Moçambique, a irrigação por superfície ocupa 42 % da área irrigada actualmente, cabendo os restantes 8 e 50 % a rega por gota-a-gota e aspersão respectivamente. A rega superficial consiste na rega por bacias para a cultura de arroz e a rega por sulcos para diferentes tipos de vegetais (hortícolas, cereais, etc.). A aspersão é mais usada pelas grandes companhias especialmente em canaviais, citrinos e em vegetais e a gota-a-gota para tomate (FAO, 2002).1 DNHA-Direcção Nacional de Hidráulica Agrícola.O clima de Moçambique varia de tropical a subtropical na região norte e centro do país à semiárido de estepe e deserto árido na região sul, determinando deste modo que o risco de redução do rendimento exceda 50 % na agricultura de sequeiro no Sul do Save e pode exceder 75 % no interior da província de Gaza. É nesta vertente que na tentativa de assegurar a segurança alimentar recorre-se a agricultura irrigada. Contudo, a água sendo um recurso natural e indispensável para a vida é necessário que o seu uso e aproveitamento consista numa melhor gestão dos aquíferos disponíveis, de modo a evitar carências futuras que poderão repercutir-se no aumento da demanda de fontes alternativas deste precioso líquido (FAO, 2002).Apesar do elevado potencial (cerca de 3 milhões de ha) que Moçambique possui para a irrigação, os regadios (no geral) são caracterizados por uma baixa eficiência persistente e na irrigação por superfície (gravidade) em particular onde a eficiência oscila entre 25-50 % nas explorações agrícolas (FAO, 2002). O regadio de Chókwè não constitui excepção devido ao estado deplorável da sua estrutura hidráulica e ao pouco conhecimento técnico dos irrigantes.Neste regadio em particular e em Moçambique no geral, poucos estudos foram feitos com ênfase na avaliação da eficiência de rega. Serra (2004), observou em seu estudo que a situação de baixa eficiência é notável no regadio de Chókwè.Sendo assim é importante que se façam avaliações periódicas para inverter este cenário. O conhecimento da performance dos regadios possibilitará a elaboração de recomendações práticas de maneio, simples, acessíveis e de baixo custo, para além de dotar os sistemas de regadio com informação.O objectivo genérico deste trabalho, é avaliar o desempenho da rega numa parcela no Distribuidor-9 do regadio de Chókwè e contribuir para melhorar a irrigação e a gestão do sistema.Os objectivos específicos são: Propor medidas para melhorar o sistema.A área de estudo 2 localiza-se no perímetro irrigado (regadio) de Chókwè na região de Lionde, a 17 quilómetros da cidade de Chókwè.O perímetro irrigado do Chókwè que outrora designava-se por Sistema de Regadio Eduardo Mondlane (SIREMO) é o maior de Moçambique. Geograficamente situa-se a 220 km a norte da cidade de Maputo (capital do país), na margem direita e ao longo do vale do rio Limpopo na província de Gaza, a noroeste da cidade de Xai-xai, no distrito de Chókwè. Este regadio abrange cerca de 13 vilas destacando-se Macarretane, Matuba, Lionde, Chókwè, Conhane, Nwachicoloane, Massavesse, Muianga, Hókwè, Malhazene, Xilembene, Chiguedela e Mapapa (HICEP, 2003).Segundo a HICEP (2003), o regadio de Chókwè serve uma área equipada total de cerca de 28 000 ha, incluindo 2 200 ha por bombagem, a partir de um açude de derivação das águas do rio Limpopo (Macarretane). Estende-se desde a barragem de Macarretane até a região de Chalacuane, Mapapa e Mwachicoluane, num comprimento com cerca de 95 km. O abastecimento de água é assegurado pelo caudal natural do curso de água na época quente e pelo caudal do rio dos Elefantes, afluente do rio Limpopo, reforçado pelas descargas da barragem de Massingir, na época fria. O perímetro irrigado de Chókwè, o maior de Moçambique, é essencialmente destinado à produção orizícola, agrupa mais de 12 000 beneficiários nos 22 000 ha cadastrados, dos quais cerca de 5 000 ha activos em 2002.Em termos de infra-estruturas, do ponto de vista de comunicação, existe uma linha rodoviária assim como ferroviária que liga a Maputo, estradas alcatroadas para Massingir, Macarretane e Xai-Xai. Existe também uma linha eléctrica de alta tensão entre Macia e Chókwè. Sobre a parte agrícola, existem pistas de aviões de fumigação aérea, silos para armazenamento de produtos e estradas internas no regadio.A barragem de Massingir, no rio dos Elefantes é a principal fonte de água na zona. O rio Limpopo com características dum regime fluvial, só 19 % da área da bacia encontra-se no Projecto Final-2006 Massolonga, Augusto Raúl Página -4-território nacional. A bacia do Limpopo tem cerca de 4,27 x 10 9 Km 2 de superfície, abrangindo os seguintes países: África do Sul, Zimbabwe Moçambique e Botswana, (DNA, 1998).Segundo Savenije (1980), a maior parte da bacia encontra-se na zona árida a semi-árida e grande parte desta bacia apresenta subsolos salgados particularmente a bacia do rio Changane, apesar da sua contribuição ser de 11 %. O rio dos Elefantes é o seu maior alimentador, contribuindo com 35% de escoamento total no Chókwè. A barragem de Massingir, no rio dos Elefantes, contribui na regulação do caudal. Para o regadio, existe uma obra de derivação da água do rio em Macarretane.O clima da área conforme a metodologia de Koppen, classifica-se como BSw (semi-árido, megatérmico), isto é, um clima de estepe com um período seco no inverno. Na zona, a precipitação média anual é de 623 mm, atingindo seu valor máximo no mês de Fevereiro (cerca de 140 mm) e o mínimo de 10 mm em Julho. Este elemento de clima (precipitação), faz com que a agricultura de sequeiro seja de elevado risco. A temperatura média anual é de 23,6 o C, a velocidade do vento é da ordem de 153 km por dia e a insolação é de 7,9 hr/dia. A evapotranspiração de referência segundo Penman-Monteith, ultrapassa em todos os meses a precipitação média e o seu valor anual é de cerca de 1400 mm, (Touber, 1985).Os solos desta região, são constituídos na sua maioria por formação marinha, com subsolo frequentemente salino-sódico, o que implica a necessidade duma drenagem eficiente e por outro lado de terraços fluviais de boa fertilidade. Possui terras de grande fertilidade devido ao depósito de materiais transportados pelo rio, facto que leva a boas produções sem a adubação. Em geral, os solos são de textura predominantemente argilosa a franco argiloso, pesados, compactos, impenetráveis e bastante abrasivos, tendendo a alcalinidade (Maduma, 2001citando Sogreah, 1996). Os solos são profundos (com uma espessura efectiva superior a 1 m) e conteúdo de argila ronda os 35 %. A sua permeabilidade interna é moderada a rápida (7-10 mm/hr), tendo uma fracção de água utilizável que varia entre os 10 e 13%, variando com o teor de matéria orgânica e argila. O pH varia de 7,0-7,3. São solos que permitem alcançar elevadas produtividades mas requerem uma cuidada monitorização (FAEF, 2001).A agricultura na zona é praticada em condições de regadio, na sua grande maioria em regime de rega por gravidade, através duma derivação de água do rio Limpopo, utilizando a rede hidráulica Projecto Final-2006 Massolonga, Augusto Raúl Página -5-do Chókwè. O maneio de água é um problema sério, entretanto, destacam-se quatro tipos de agricultores de acordo com a classificação citada por FAEF, 2001:i. Pequeno agricultor, com áreas entre 1 à 3 ha, usa mão-de-obra familiar e sazonal, não dispõe de capital para obter insumos de produção melhorados, trabalham manualmente, alguns usam a tracção animal ás vezes, não usam adubos, não tem acesso ao crédito e em situação de crise não tem acesso a água.ii. Agricultor patronal, com áreas entre 4 a 10 ha, usa mão de obra familiar, sazonal e permanente, alguns usam a tracção animal e utilizam adubos, não tem acesso ao crédito e em situação de crise têm um acesso limitado a água.iii. Médio agricultor, com áreas entre 11 a 20 ha, mão-de-obra sazonal e permanente, com alguns a apresentarem meios de produção como tractores, camião, moto-bomba e bois, com alta utilização de adubos, alguns tem acesso ao crédito e em situação de crise não tem problemas de acesso a água.iv. Grande agricultor, com áreas superiores a 20 ha, mão de obra sazonal e permanente, não usam bois como meio de produção, mas sim tractores, moto-bombas, com alta utilização de adubos e créditos, e um excelente acesso a água em situação de crise.Segundo HICEP (2003), o regadio foi criado nos anos 50, começou a ser reabilitado nos anos 90 e ainda está em reabilitação, (veja Anexo 1 Fig. 29) visando limitar ou eliminar os seguintes constrangimentos hidráulicos:Uma rede de adução que apenas permite transportar 15 m 3 /s em vez dos 43 m 3 /s necessários devido a problemas de assoreamento;Uma rede de distribuição secundária e terciária em muito mau estado de conservação;Uma rede de drenagem deficiente que se encontra na origem do processo de salinização dos solos e responsável por perdas importantes de produção.A situação hidráulica do perímetro irrigado de Chókwè compõe-se de unidades relacionadas com três níveis de distribuição:1. Unidade Hidráulica Principal (UHP), que incluí:O dique de protecção, na margem direita do Rio Limpopo (75 km);Projecto Final-2006 Massolonga, Augusto Raúl Página -6-Os canais principais (Canal Geral, Canal do Rio, Canal Direito e Canal de Nwachicoluane), de terra, que funcionam com comando de montante. Os caudais nominais são compreendidos entre 4 e 45 m 3 /s e o comprimento total é de 100 km;Os drenos principais (125 km) drenando uma superfície de 30 000 ha;As pistas principais ao longo destas redes e aquelas que ligam a estrada nacional às diferentes aldeias (cerca de 155 km).107 zonas secundárias, incluindo 42 canais secundários directamente abastecidos pela UHP.Os seus caudais variam de 0,1 a 4 m 3 /s com um comprimento total de 270 km;Equipamentos de bombagem 3 e de distribuição directamente conectados aos canais da UHP;Drenos secundários (450 km com a sua respectiva nomenclatura), drenando 27 000 ha;Pistas de circulação ao longo destas redes secundárias (175 km).Canais terciários prefabricados que abastecem ramais de irrigação de um caudal unitário de 32 l/s e que totalizam um comprimento de 1 050 km;Valas que drenam os ramais;Pistas de acesso às parcelas eventualmente associadas.A água usada para a rega é proveniente do rio Limpopo, através do açude de Macarretane. Ela entra num sistema hidráulico principal de canais em terra, equipados com obras de regulação de água (hidroreguladores, válvulas, caídas livres, saídas de emergência), (Consultec, 1996).A água potável nas aldeias é proveniente do sistema subterrâneo de abastecimento de água no Chókwè.Segundo Walker & Skogerboe (1987), muitas civilizações no mundo dependem da agricultura irrigada de modo a providenciar alimentos às suas sociedades, garantindo deste modo a segurança alimentar, pois com a agricultura irrigada obtém-se produções maiores e estáveis comparativamente á agricultura de sequeiro.Presentemente os sistemas de irrigação são em geral caracterizados por uma baixa eficiência e maior consumo de energia. Segundo estimativas acuradas 40 % ou mais da água desviada para a irrigação é perdida ao nível de campo através da percolação profunda ou por escoamento superficial (runoff), representando deste modo perdas renunciadas para a água (Walker, 1989).Estes problemas podem estar associados ao dimensionamento incorrecto e à operação e maneio insatisfatórios, o que pode causar baixo rendimento da cultura e baixa eficiência do sistema.Os problemas de desempenho de qualquer sistema de irrigação podem potencialmente ser superados, desde que procedimentos adequados de dimensionamento, operação e maneio sejam observados. Não obstante elevadas eficiências de rega são obtidas adoptando novos sistemas de rega como é o caso da rega por aspersão, a rega gota-a-gota (localizada) e a micro aspersão. Na rega por gravidade (sulcos, faixas, bacias ou corrugação), pode-se conseguir elevada eficiência desde que seja devidamente dimensionado, sobretudo, no que respeita ao nivelamento dos terrenos a serem irrigados e modo de fornecimento de água ao solo.A rega por sulcos apresenta um elevado potencial e capacidade de adaptação a diferentes condições. Hidraulicamente, o processo de irrigação por sulcos caracteriza-se por ocorrer em canal aberto (sulco), portanto à pressão atmosférica, sobre um meio poroso (solo) no qual a razão de infiltração é variável com o tempo (De Miranda et. al., 2003).Em contraste com os métodos de rega por aspersão, a irrigação por sulcos não molha toda a superfície do solo, molha normalmente 30 a 80% da superfície total, reduzindo a formação de crostas na superfície dos solos argilosos e tornando possível realizar a colheita logo após as irrigações, o que não ocorre com outros métodos (Kay, 1986e Bernardo, 1995). A distribuição de água na área a ser irrigada é feita através da superfície do solo, onde a introdução de água no campo é feita por meio de pequenos canais abertos ao longo da superfície do terreno a favor do declive ou ao longo das linhas de nível ou ainda em zig-zag, dependendo das culturas, daProjecto Final-2006 Massolonga, Augusto Raúl Página -8-topografia, do abastecimento de água e dos solos, utilizando a energia da gravidade. Para isto é exigida uma condição superficial adequada do solo, de modo a proporcionar um escoamento contínuo sem causar erosão. Nestes sistemas, a derivação de água pode ser feita por sifões ou por aberturas à entrada dos sulcos partindo do canal de cabeceira (Walker, 1989).A área molhada por sulcos depende do tipo de solo, caudal aplicado, do declive do sulco (terreno) e do tempo de rega. Nos sulcos, a água infiltra-se ao longo do perímetro molhado, penetrando tanto verticalmente assim como radialmente de modo a preencher o défice de humidade do solo.O declive, a textura do solo e a água a ser aplicada (caudal), determinam o comprimento do sulco 4 . A largura do topo nos sulcos varia entre 35 a 60 cm dependendo da forma do sulco e da capacidade de infiltração do solo, assim como a profundidade que varia entre 15 a 25 cm. O espaçamento entre sulcos varia entre 40 a 150 cm dependendo das culturas a praticar e das práticas culturais (Lencastre, 1992).Este sistema apresenta algumas vantagens em relação aos outros sistemas de irrigação destacando-se: o menor custo; maior simplicidade operacional, facilmente assimilada pelos irrigantes; dispensa equipamentos especiais ou mão-de-obra especializada; adaptado a um grande número de solos e culturas; operação pouco afectada pelos ventos; elevado potencial para aumento de eficiência de irrigação e para redução do consumo de energia; não interfere nos tratamentos fitossanitários das culturas; permite a utilização de águas com sólidos em suspensão ou poluídas; maior flexibilidade para superar eventuais interrupções operacionais e possibilidade de automação operacional.Scaloppi (1986) e Vieira (1995) relataram que à semelhança de outros sistemas de irrigação, também apresenta limitações, tais como: dependência das condições topográficas; inadequado para solos muito permeáveis e pouco profundos; seu dimensionamento envolve ensaios de campo; reavaliações frequentes, com a finalidade de introduzir medidas dimensionais e operacionais correctivas; o sistema integra a área para a qual foi projectado, portanto, não pode ser deslocado para outras áreas; a cultura deve-se adaptar ao sistema de irrigação; devem ser adoptadas medidas efectivas de controle de erosão; limitada divulgação pela indústria e pelos técnicos.Na rega por sulcos há que considerar três tipos de sulcos conforme a sua configuração‫׃‬É constituído por sulcos compridos e rectos (veja Fig. 1). São mais aconselhados para as culturas que não podem ser alagadas devido a sua fisiologia. Estes são aplicáveis para zonas com declives uniformes e menores que 2%, sendo adaptado para caudais médios a pequenos, podendo se usar na maioria dos solos com excepção dos solos muito pesados. Podem se cultivar culturas em linha, hortícolas, pomares e vinhas. De salientar que elevadas eficiências e adaptação a mecanização, são obtidas quando o terreno for bem sistematizado (Walker, 1989).Figura 1: Sulcos com declive (Walker, 1989).É aconselhado para terrenos ondulados com declive e solos de textura média a fina que não abram fissuras quando secos (veja Fig. 2). Com este método também pode-se cultivar culturas em linha, hortícolas, pomares e vinhas. Tem o inconveniente de requerer elevada mão de obra e tem o risco de erosão em situações de elevada precipitação capaz de romper os sulcos nos casos de zonas com declives acentuados (Walker, 1989).Figura 2: Sulcos ao longo das curvas de nível (Walker, 1989).É um método não frequente em Moçambique. É usado para diminuir a velocidade de avanço de água nos sulcos, de modo a providenciar um maior tempo de oportunidade de infiltração (veja Fig. 3). É praticado em terrenos nivelados com declive inferior a 1% e em solos com baixa taxa de infiltração. É um método usado em pomares, sendo normalmente o caudal inferior a dos sulcos rectos (Walker, 1989).Figura 3: Sulcos em zig-zag (Walker, 1989).Ao longo do perímetro irrigado de Chókwè, basicamente encontra-se bacias de inundação (para a cultura do arroz) e sulcos usados basicamente para a produção de hortícolas. Estes sulcos são de dimensões pequenas e apresentam um comportamento hidráulico de uma bacia de inundação.Os parâmetros que afectam o desempenho da irrigação por sulcos são: a topografia (declividade do sulco); lâmina de irrigação e características de infiltração do solo; o caudal de entrada (Inflow); comprimento, forma e coeficiente de rugosidade hidráulica do sulco.O desempenho da rega por sulcos é fortemente influenciado pelos seguintes factores topográficos: declive (inclinação do terreno) e a uniformidade de campo. Para os sistemas de rega por sulcos, a inclinação do terreno deve estar entre 0 a 5 % (Walker, 1989). O não nivelamento do terreno, afecta negativamente a frente de avanço da água sobre a superfície do solo reduzindo a eficiência de aplicação (veja Anexo 4 Tab. 11). Contudo, um bom nivelamento permite que os sulcos apresentem profundidades e espaçamentos uniformes (Roscher, 1985).Assim, todas avaliações de campo deverão incluir uma avaliação topográfica e da disposição do campo no concernente ao declive.O nivelamento do terreno, é o conjunto de operações de movimentação da terra desenvolvidas na superfície do solo com a finalidade de uniformizar o gradiente de declive em uma ou em todas as direcções, pressupondo a ausência de irregularidades na superfície do solo, favorecendo o escoamento das águas provenientes da irrigação, (De Miranda et. al., 2003).O cálculo do declive entre dois pontos segundo Walker (1989) é dado pela diferença de nível entre esses pontos, e é dado pela seguinte relação: As necessidades hídricas de uma cultura estão relacionadas com o seu balanço hídrico. Para o seu desenvolvimento, as plantas necessitam de solo, água e factores climáticos, como ar, luz, temperatura, que influenciam directamente no crescimento das plantas e seus rendimentos. Em função da fase fenológica da cultura, e do clima, uma planta pode consumir mais ou menos água.O conhecimento das necessidades hídricas da cultura nos diferentes estágios fenológicos e durante o ciclo total de crescimento é importante na agricultura irrigada, porque associada aos demais factores de produção, permite a obtenção de altos rendimentos, com máxima economia de água. Assim, devido a crescente concorrência pelos recursos hídricos entre os sectores industrial, urbano e agrícola, existe a grande necessidade de se definir o momento e a quantidade de água a aplicar durante a irrigação, visando atender às necessidades hídricas da cultura, de maneira racional (De Miranda et. al., 2003).Assim, quando se projecta um sistema de rega deve-se garantir o fornecimento de água em quantidade e qualidade de modo a dotar a zona radicular da cultura com humidade que garanta um crescimento e desenvolvimento de modo a providenciar uma colheita aceitável.Massolonga, Augusto Raúl Página -12-A quantidade de água que a cultura utiliza durante o ciclo de crescimento é chamada demanda sazonal, podendo variar com as condições climáticas da região onde é cultivada. Há um período durante o ciclo da cultura em que mais água é consumida diariamente. A quantidade de água que a cultura usa, por unidade de tempo, nesse período, é chamada de demanda ou necessidade de pico.O cálculo das necessidades hídricas da cultura é feito com base na seguinte fórmula:  O leaching requirement que é a água necessária para a lavagem de sais na zona radicular de modo a manter a concentração de sais na solução do solo a um nível aceitável é calculado para a rega por sulcos com intervalos espassados com a equação 2.7.  2,0 1,3 3,3 2,2 5,3 3,4 8,5 5,5 0,3 -0,5 0,20 Couve 1,8 1,2 2,8 1,8 4,4 2,8 6,9 4,5 0,4 -0,5 0,45 Batata 1,7 1,1 2,5 1,7 3,8 2,5 5,9 3,8 0,4 -0,6 0,25 Batata doce 1,5 1,0 2,5 1,6 3,9 2,5 6,3 4,1 1,0 -1,5 0,65 Pimento 1,5 1,0 2,2 1,4 3,3 2,1 5,1 3,3 0,5 -1,0 0,25 Alface 1,3 0,8 2,1 1,4 3,2 2,1 5,2 3,4 0,3 -0,5 0,30 Cebola 1,2 0,8 1,8 1,2 2,8 1,8 4,3 2,8 0,3 -0,5 0,25 Cenoura 1,0 0,7 1,7 1,1 2,8 1,8 4,6 3,0 0,5 -1,0 0,35 Feijão 1,0 0,7 1,5 1,0 2,3 1,5 3,7 2,4 0,5 -0,7 0,45 Fonte: Doorenbos, 1992.Segundo Lencastre (1992), a infiltração é um processo dinâmico de movimento da água para dentro do solo, resultante da gravidade e pelo potencial capilar. Durante uma \"chuvada\", o solo Projecto Final-2006 Massolonga, Augusto Raúl Página -14-pode absorver a água caída, até um certo valor máximo de intensidade a partir do qual começa o escoamento superficial.Assim, a água quando atinge a superfície do solo, parte dela ou toda penetra por força de gravidade, tanto mais facilmente quanto maior for o diâmetro dos poros; a capilaridade é dirigida verticalmente (para cima e para baixo) e lateralmente.O conhecimento da taxa de infiltração da água no solo é de fundamental importância para definir técnicas de conservação do solo, planejar e delinear sistemas de irrigação e drenagem, bem como auxiliar na composição de uma imagem mais real da retenção da água e aeração no solo.A infiltração é um processo importante na rega superficial, controla a quantidade de água que penetra no solo, as frentes de avanço e recessão. Nos sulcos a infiltração decompõe-se em componentes vertical, horizontal e radial e envolve três processos interdependentes: a entrada da água através da superfície do solo; o armazenamento no solo; e o movimento através do solo (percolação profunda e runoff), (Lencastre, 1992).Este parâmetro \"deve ser quantificado por meio de métodos simples e capazes de representar adequadamente as condições naturais em que este se encontra. Neste sentido, torna-se necessário adoptar métodos e modelos cujas determinações baseiam-se em condições iguais às observadas durante ao qual o solo é submetido. A determinação da infiltração tem sido amplamente estudada e ainda não existe um parecer geral sobre qual é o melhor método para sua determinação\", (Carvalho, 2000).Segundo Walker (1989), existem varios métodos práticos para se estimar a infiltração na rega por sulcos, dos quais destaca-se: (a) Anel duplo; (b) Obstrução dos sulcos e (c) Inflow e Outflow.a. Método de anel duplo: este método consiste no uso de dois anéis concêntricos de chapa metálica um de maior e outro de menor diâmetro, que são cravados verticalmente no solo de modo a restar uma altura livre sobre esta. O procedimento da sua instalação no campo consiste primeiramente no exame e selecção cuidadosa dos locais normalmente sem sinais de uso, sem distúrbios de tráfico de animais ou de maquinaria. Após a instalação do anel no campo, introduzse água no anel de menor e maior diâmetro simultaneamente de modo a manter uma lâmina de água e efectuam-se as leituras no cilindro interno da profundidade de água que se infiltra no transcorrer do tempo. O intervalo das leituras deve ser fixo e no início deve ser de 5 a 10 segundos e vai se expandindo para valores maiores a medida que a taxa de infiltração vai decrescendo. As medições devem ser feitas até as taxas de infiltração serem constantes ou acima  Solos com características similares de infiltração podem ser agrupados em famílias de infiltração.A família de infiltração é um dos critérios usados para normalizar a determinação do comprimento para campos planos ou com declive na rega superficial. As famílias de infiltração são dadas por um nome e um número de código. O número indica a constante da taxa de infiltração em mm/hr, uma ou duas horas após o início da aplicação da água ao solo, (Roscher, 1985).Na Tabela 2 são apresentadas as diferentes famílias de infiltração, segundo a escola de infiltração Americana, desenvolvidas por Kostiakov. (t em min) Muito baixa 2,50 0,620 t 0,66 + 7 1,22 t 0,58 Baixa 7,50 0,925 t 0,72 + 7 1,76 t 0,63 Moderadamente baixa 12,5 1,20 t 0,75 + 7 2,2 t 0,66 Moderada 25,0 1,79 t 0,785 + 7 3,1 t 0,69 Moderadamente rápida 37,5 2,28 t 0,80 + 7 3,9 t 0,70 Rápida 50,0 2,75 t 0,808 + 7 4,5 t 0,71 Muito rápida 75,0 3,65 t 0,816 + 7 5,8 t 0,715 Extremamente rápida 100,0 4,45 t 0,823 + 7 7,0 t 0,72 Fonte: Roscher, 1985.A chave para determinar a família de infiltração é o tempo necessário para infiltrar uma certa lamina de água. Na Tabela 3 são apresentadas as principais famílias de infiltração. O caudal nos flumes é nos dado genericamente pela equação 2.12, donde a 2.13 é uma recta em papel duplo logaritmo. A integração no tempo do caudal no flume dá-nos o volume total de água que passa pela estrutura. Quando a estrutura estiver submersa, o caudal é dado em função da leitura de alturas de água a montante e a jusante da estrutura de controle.Há dois parâmetros que se obtêm da comparação da hidrografia do inflow e do outflow. Primeiro, da diferença integrada das duas hidrografias obtém-se a medida do volume total de água infiltrada no solo; Segundo é o estado constante ou a taxa de infiltração básica, (Walker, 1989).O processo típico de uma irrigação por sulcos compõe-se de quatro fases: avanço, armazenamento, depleção e recessão, as quais permitem, em conjunto, a análise do desempenho do sistema (veja Fig. 4).A fase de avanço possui um comportamento dinâmico ao longo da estação de cultivo sendo nos sulcos de irrigação função dos seguintes factores: caudal aplicado no sulco, capacidade de infiltração do solo, a declividade, a rugosidade e o comprimento do sulco. O r depende da velocidade de infiltração do solo, estando compreendido entre 1 e 0,5. Os valores próximos de (1) indicam solos com uma baixa infiltração (solos pesados), os próximos de (0,5) indicam solos com alta velocidade de infiltração (solos leves). y -coeficiente de recessão que depende da profundidade da água na superfície do solo; das características de infiltração no solo; do gradiente ou declive e da aspereza da superfície.A geometria da secção transversal torna-se difícil de descrever em casos de rega por sulcos. A forma do sulco muda continuamente devido a erosão e a disposição do solo enquanto a água se move longitudinalmente, mas a sua forma típica varia de triangular a quase trapezoidal. Na maioria dos casos funções simples podem ser usadas para relacionar a área da secção transversal e o perímetro molhado, (Walker, 1989).De modo a obter uma uniformidade no humedecimento da zona radicular, os sulcos devem ser devidamente espaçados, com um declive uniforme e a água aplicada rapidamente. De salientar que este processo é fortemente influenciado pelo tipo de solo conforme se ilustra na Figura 5: a-Solo arenoso (Kv> Kh) 5  b-Solo franco (Kv ≈ Kh) c-Solo argiloso (Kv < Kh)Figura 5: Diferentes padrões de humedecimento em sulcos, dependendo do tipo de solo (adaptado do Brouwer, sem data).Devido a problemas de dimensionamento é frequente a ocorrência de sub irrigação pelo facto dos sulcos estarem excessivamente espaçados (veja Fig. 6).Figura 6: Dois sulcos adjacentes largamente espaçados (adaptado do Brouwer, sem data).Assim, para obter uma uniformidade de distribuição ao longo dos sulcos, é imprescindível que se faça um nivelamento uniforme do terreno e que se forneça um caudal suficiente que permita a deslocação da frente de avanço rapidamente para o final do sulco. Assim, poderão ser evitadas elevadas perdas por percolação profunda no início do sulco.Segundo Withers e Vipond (1974), as características importantes do solo na agricultura irrigada incluem: (1) a capacidade de armazenamento de água; (2) a permeabilidade do solo ao fluxo da água e do ar; (3) as características físicas do solo, como a profundidade, a textura, a estrutura e a matéria orgânica; e (4) as propriedades químicas do solo tais como a concentração de sais solúveis, de nutrientes e de elementos.5 Kv-Permeabilidade Vertical, Kh-Permeabilidade horizontal. A drenagem superficial e sub superficial é basicamente requerida de modo a providenciar um balanço adequado entre a água e o volume de ar na zona radicular da planta ao nível do solo (assegurar um controle óptimo do excesso de água). Também é necessária para a remoção de sais através do leaching na zona radicular da planta (Roscher, 1983).Segundo Roscher (1983), a drenagem visa:Remover as águas redundantes (excesso de água) proveniente da precipitação ou irrigação;Manter ou baixar o nível das águas freáticas até níveis que não causam problemas às culturas;Manter ou reduzir a salinidade do solo abaixo de concentrações aceitáveis.Uma drenagem eficiente e bem dimensionada permite-nos obter os seguintes benefícios: evita o dano (perdas na colheita); melhora a aeração da zona radicular; melhora o acesso e a transitabilidade; controla a salinidade e a lavagem de sais, resultando em uma redução dos custos de produção na preparação da terra, práticas culturais e colheita, e na melhoria da aeração.A drenagem superficial, está intimamente ligada a dois tipos de problemas que são a formação de pequenas lagoas ou charcos, principalmente na maior parte dos terrenos planos e o runoff e erosão principalmente na maior parte do terrenos declivosos, (Van Hoor & Bos,1989). SegundoVan Hoor & Bos (1989), e Brito & Van Engelen (1982), pode-se resolver estes problemas com a abertura de caminhos de água (sulcos 6 ).Num sistema de rega, temos dois tipos de perdas, que são respectivamente perdas de campo ao nível das culturas e perdas de operação. As perdas de campo, ocorrem no sulco, onde estiverem as culturas e refere-se às perdas por percolação profunda e runoff. As perdas de operação, ocorrem no sistema em geral, isto é, refere-se à todas as perdas que ocorrem a partir da fonte de captação, no transporte e distribuição nos canais e nos próprios canais no campo.Projecto Final-2006 Massolonga, Augusto Raúl Página -23-Não há um único parâmetro que seja suficiente para definir ou avaliar o desempenho da irrigação.Entre os parâmetros usados para avaliar um sistema de irrigação ou a sua gestão, os mais comuns são: a eficiência e a uniformidade. Conceptualmente, a irrigação depende da quantidade de água armazenada dentro da zona radicular da cultura, das perdas por percolação (abaixo da zona radicular), das perdas que ocorrem na superfície (\"runnoff\" ou \"tailwater\"), da uniformidade para a água aplicada e o défice ou sub irrigação restante dentro do perfil do solo após a irrigação.Os seguintes pressupostos são feitos com vista a controlar o fluxo superficial, (Walker, 1989):O sistema radicular da cultura, extrai a humidade do solo em termos de profundidade e posição;A infiltração no solo é função do tempo que a água está em contacto com o solo e;O objectivo da irrigação é humedecer até a capacidade de campo toda a zona radicular.Observe a Figura abaixo:Figura 7: Representação esquemática das perdas que ocorrem durante a rega (adaptado do Roscher, 1985).Na rega, as perdas de água são expressas como eficiência.   ( ) Para a obtenção de elevadas eficiências na irrigação por sulcos, todos pontos irrigados do campo devem receber água durante o tempo de rega, com mínimas perdas de água por runoff tanto por percolação profunda abaixo da zona radicular.As eficiências de aplicação e de distribuição da água dos métodos superficiais são geralmente mais baixas que as dos métodos sob pressão, principalmente de solos de alta velocidade de infiltração. Para aumentar a eficiência da aplicação e uniformidade de distribuição por sulcos é recomendado o Cut-back (Rezende et. al., 1988).       As perdas de operação, ocorrem no sistema em geral, isto é, refere-se à todas as perdas que ocorrem a partir da fonte de captação, no transporte e distribuição nos canais e nos próprios canais no campo. Ocorrem principalmente durante o manuseio do caudal aplicado e podem manifestar-se por alagamento e/ou escoamento superficial.A performance de irrigação por sulcos é na generalidade descrita sob forma de quatro situações típicas segundo os diagramas abaixo:Quando o fornecimento de água é prematuramente interrompido, a aplicação da água em alguns pontos do campo será inadequada, conforme a figura 9. Em termos numéricos pode-se exemplificar:Para satisfazer as necessidades hídricas da cultura, precisa-se de 14 m 3 , aplica-se 9 m 3 , infiltram-se 9 m 3 , não há nenhuma perda por runoff nem percolação profunda, ficando disponíveis para o uso pela planta somente 9 m 3 resultando numa sub irrigação da cultura. Quando o fornecimento de água satisfaz as necessidades hídricas da cultura, a aplicação da água ao longo do campo será adequada, conforme a figura 10. Em termos numéricos pode-se exemplificar:Para satisfazer as necessidades hídricas da cultura, precisa-se de 14 m 3 , aplica-se 12 m 3 , dos quais 2 m 3 perdem-se por runoff, infiltram-se 10 m 3 . Devido a hidráulica no avanço da água no sulco, percola-se 1 m 3 de água e ficam disponíveis para o uso pela planta 9 m 3 .  Para satisfazer as necessidades hídricas da cultura, precisa-se de 14 m 3 , aplica-se 18 m 3 , dos quais 2 m 3 perdem-se por runoff, infiltram-se 16 m 3 . Devido a hidráulica no avanço da água no sulco, percolam-se 2 m 3 de água e ficam disponíveis para o uso pela planta 14 m 3 . Figura 11: Representação esquemática duma situação que ocorrem perdas por runoff e percolação profunda com satisfação da dotação requerida (adaptado do Roscher, 1985).Quando o tempo de rega é longo, faz com que se forneçam grandes volumes de água resultando numa situação em que se ultrapassa a dotação requerida em todos pontos ao longo do campo. Em termos numéricos pode-se exemplificar: Para satisfazer as necessidades hídricas da cultura, precisa-se de 14 m 3 , aplica-se 24 m 3 , dos quais 4 m 3 perdem-se por runoff, infiltram-se 20 m 3 . Devido a hidráulica no avanço da água no sulco, percolam-se 6 m 3 de água e ficam disponíveis para o uso pela planta 14 m 3 , resultando numa sobre irrigação do campo (veja figura 12). As causas do baixo desempenho da rega superficial, partem desde o dimensionamento até a gestão inadequada ao nível do campo.Os problemas mais frequentes que causam o mau desempenho são a aplicação de pouca ou muita água que excede a taxa de infiltração do solo, resultando em perdas excessivas por runoff e/ou percolação profunda e a baixa uniformidade na distribuição de água no campo (veja Fig. 13     Ao planear a introdução de medidas para melhorar o desempenho da rega, deve-se ter em mente que todos parâmetros são interdependentes. Assim quando se considera a mudança de caudal, do tempo de corte ou das dimensões dos sulcos, deve-se perceber que a frente de avanço, a infiltração, o runoff e a percolação profunda serão afectadas (Walker, 1989).De modo a dotar o sistema de altos níveis de eficiências de uniformidade e aplicação é necessário que se faça uma combinação de várias soluções. Eis algumas soluções que podem-se dotar:1. Um nivelamento preciso e cuidadoso do terreno; 2. Bom dimensionamento do sistema; 3. Regulação do caudal de rega e 4. Re-uso (reciclagem) ou restrição (redução) da água perdida por runoff.A preparação do terreno é tão importante de modo que em sistemas onde a obtenção de alta eficiência de aplicação é essencial e o uso de sulcos longos com declive é planificado, o nivelamento do terreno será crucial para o alcance da tal pretensão.A presença de irregularidades topográficas no campo, interrompe o fluxo normal da água, concentrando-a em depressões e aumenta a salinização dos pontos altos, reduzindo a eficiência de aplicação em 10 a 20 % (Kay, 1986).Assim, um bom nivelamento do terreno é um aspecto que melhora a operação dos sistemas de rega superficial, particularmente por bacias. Semelhante a isto, a preparação dos sulcos e canais de rega deve permitir que os mesmos apresentem profundidades, espaçamentos e declives uniformes.Erros no dimensionamento podem traduzir-se em elevados custos, perdas de água e consequente baixa eficiência do sistema.Um bom dimensionamento do sistema de rega deve ser feito tendo em conta as duas vertentes: uma vertente agronómica (i-dotação requerida, ii-a frequência de irrigação, iii-o tempo de rega) e uma vertente hidráulica (i-capacidade do sistema, ii-caudal, iii-espaçamento entre os sulcos, Projecto Final-2006Massolonga, Augusto Raúl Página -33-iv-declive) de modo a garantir o fornecimento de água no momento exacto e a quantidade desejada.Qualquer alteração do caudal de rega irá afectar significativamente a frente de avanço, recomendando-se a adopção desta prática de modo a não provocar erosão do solo.Segundo Kay (1986) o uso de maiores caudais, resulta numa rápida frente de avanço (menor tempo de avanço), diminuindo a eficiência de aplicação em 10 a 20 %, potencia muitas perdas por runoff, contudo, providencia uma uniformidade da profundidade de rega devido a redução da variação do tempo de oportunidade ao longo do comprimento do campo.De modo a permitir que o humedecimento no fim do campo seja o mais rápido possível em solos permeáveis, é usado o conceito de caudal máximo não erosivo baseado no declive do sulco (Anexo 4: Tabela 9). Assim, testes de caudal devem ser feitos de modo a obter os valores do caudal máximo permissível. Nos sulcos este caudal é determinado tendo em conta a necessidade de prevenir a erosão do solo, excesso de runoff e o transbordo dos sulcos. A seguinte expressão é usada para o cálculo do caudal máximo não erosivo:Pelo facto do caudal do agricultor ser fixo, a sua alteração é difícil, recorre-se para este caso à variação do número de sulcos irrigados simultaneamente sem alterar o caudal fornecido á unidade terceária.Outra forma de aumentar a eficiência de aplicação é o \"Cut-back\" que consiste em reduzir gradualmente o caudal nos sulcos durante a rega pela redução da secção da cabeceira ou pela diminuição do número de sifões quando se usa mais que um sifão em cada sulco de modo a diminuir o runoff e aumentar a eficiência de uniformidade. O \"Cut-back\" visa reduzir o escoamento no sulco, encontrando o caudal que infiltre no solo numa taxa igual à capacidade de infiltração do solo ao longo do comprimento do sulco. Contudo, esta prática é de difícil Projecto Final-2006Massolonga, Augusto Raúl Página -34-implementação uma vez que é muito difícil aplicá-lo efectivamente sem alterar o caudal no canal terceário.Uma elevada eficiência de aplicação pode ser obtida pelo re-uso da água perdida por runoff no final do sulco pela introdução do \"end check\". Este conceito (end check), consiste no bloqueio do final do sulco e a água acumulada é usada para a irrigação em forma de bacia, incrementando assim, a eficiência de aplicação em 10 a 20 % (Roscher, 1985).Independentemente do caudal a usar, o tempo de corte nas bacias, faixas e sulcos ocorre quando a profundidade da água infiltrada numa área do terreno for igual á necessária tomando em conta que a infiltração que ocorrerá durante as fases de depleção e recessão irá completar a parte restante (Walker, 1987(Walker, & 1989)). Assim, Vipond (1988) recomenda o \"quarter-time ruler\", que consiste em determinar o comprimento do sulco que corresponde a um quarto do tempo necessário para infiltrar a necessidade de água de rega, resultando em perdas por percolação profunda abaixo de 5%.O caudal e o tempo de corte são dois parâmetros hidráulicos fortemente dependentes em que o tempo de corte é o mais flexível. Por isso, esta interdependência entre o caudal e o tempo de corte deve ser bem conhecida para maximizar o desempenho da rega superficial.A avaliação do tempo de avanço, recessão e de oportunidade, irá indicar se a eficiência de aplicação pode ser melhorada pela diminuição do tempo de rega. A uniformidade pode ser melhorada pelo ajustamento do caudal de rega ou pela diminuição do comprimento do sulco.Estas avaliações não só fornecem dados que podem ser usados para detectar falhas, mas também, dá informação essencial para atingir altos níveis de gestão e controle do sistema.O sistema de irrigação por sulcos, devido as suas características e a forma de maneio no campo, deve ser optimizado de modo a permitir menos perdas de água e a evitar o risco da erosão e de salinização dos solos. Os problemas mais frequentes na rega por sulcos são a aplicação excessiva ou deficiente de água no terreno; baixa uniformidade na distribuição da água no campo e elevadas perdas por percolação profunda e runoff. Várias são as medidas de maneio que podem Mudanças no caudal afectam significativamente no tempo de avanço. Esta alteração deve ser feita de modo a não provocar erosão do solo e transbordo dos sulcos. Usando caudais maiores, temos tempos de avanço menores, possibilidade de aumento das perdas por runoff (veja figura 16) e uma profundidade de rega mais uniforme pela diminuição da variação do tempo de oportunidade de infiltração ao longo do comprimento do sulco (Walker, 1989).Geralmente, o caudal de rega para o agricultor é fixo, entretanto, a sua alteração torna-se difícil, pois influencia no tempo de rega e consequentemente na distribuição da mão-de-obra o que pode variar a área a regar (número de sulcos a regar em simultâneo).Figura 16: Modelo de optimização do caudal a aplicar por sulco (adaptado do Roscher, 1985). A avaliação do desempenho de um sistema de irrigação por sulcos é feito com base numa série de dados obtidos no local irrigado, e uma má colheita de dados pode levar a resultados desastrosos.Contudo, para a colheita de dados de campo não existe nenhuma regra, sendo necessário que haja uma ordem e técnica na colheita dos dados, no manuseio dos equipamentos e na definição clara dos dados à colher. Entretanto, o método seguido para o presente trabalho com vista a avaliar um sistema de irrigação por sulco, não está livre de erros, tendo consistido inicialmente em definir com clareza que dados de campo são necessários, como devem ser colhidos e para quê devem ser colhidos, isto de modo, a evitar a colheita de informação desnecessária, a facilitar o ajuste do programado para a realidade do campo e a garantir que o trabalho seja efectivo e eficiente.Inicialmente previa-se avaliar a eficiência de rega numa área ainda por se definir, isto devido a problemas de funcionamento normal do regadio associado à obras de reabilitação e a época do O caudal de água fornecido pela bomba ao canal de rega ao longo do tempo;O caudal de água que passa na caleira ao longo do tempo;O caudal de água que sai dos vertedores da caleira ao longo do tempo;O caudal de água que entra numa determinada área ao longo do canal de cabeceira;O caudal de água que entra num determinado sulco 8 ;O tempo de regar uma determinada parcela;A área regada;O comprimento dos canais de cabeceira e dos sulcos;O avanço da água nos canais de cabeceira e nos sulcos;A topografia do terreno, da caleira, dos canais de cabeceira e dos sulcos;A secção transversal dos canais de cabeceira e dos sulcos;A infiltração do solo;A condutividade eléctrica da água de rega;As dimensões dos talhões, dos canais de rega e drenagem;Dados laboratoriais: condutividade eléctrica; pH; bases trocáveis; matéria orgânica; textura e pF 2,5;4,2 .Uma vez referenciados os dados necessários para o trabalho, é agora pertinente saber onde 9 , como e em que momento é que serão determinados esses dados, de modo a garantir uma alocação efectiva e eficiente dos recursos quer materiais ou humanos disponíveis. Assim antes da explicação de onde, como e em que momento, apresenta-se a lista dos materiais usados no campo:Flume 10 trapezoidal (RBC);Infiltrómetro de anel duplo com os respectivos acessórios;Perfilómetro;Cronómetro e GPS (Global Positioning System); Fichas de campo; 9 Local da área onde se farão as medições. 10 É uma estrutura hidráulica usada para medir o volume de água que flui pela estrutura por unidade de tempo. É especificamente dimensionado para pequenos cursos de água em canais de terra, sulcos, diques, etc.O levantamento topográfico do campo e dos sulcos fez-se com recurso ao nível e tripé (veja Figura 17). Esta actividade consistia em colocar estacas à distâncias previamente estabelecidas e fazia-se a leitura da altura do ponto em relação ao nível que estava fixo num determinado ponto.Esta operação era efectuada antes da rega e o cálculo do declive fez-se com base na equação 2.1, com recurso ao Excel.Figura 17: Levantamento topográfico do campo.A geometria da secção transversal dos canais de cabeceira e dos sulcos, foi determinada com ajuda de um perfilómetro. Sendo o perfilómetro um instrumento dotado de varetas graduadas, registava-se as profundidades das varetas em relação ao nível do topo dos camalhões. Eram feitas duas a três medições de secção em cada cabeceira ou sulco. De referir que em cada talhão eram medidos 4 a 5 sulcos escolhidos de acordo com a variabilidade que se notava ao longo dos mesmos. Para as cabeceiras a secção foi medida em todas que estavam em plena rega.Figura 18: Uso do Perfilómetro na medição da secção transversal dos sulcos e canais de cabeceira.A infiltração da água no solo foi determinada \"in situ\" usando o método infiltrómetro de anel duplo e cronómetro. Esta operação executou-se imediatamente antes da rega para fazer coincidir a humidade do solo antes da rega pois a infiltração é influenciada por este valor. Assim o local era previamente inspeccionado e seleccionado, desprovido de sinais de uso, sem buracos de animais, sem distúrbios de tráfico de animais ou de maquinaria e representativo da área de  A medição da frente de avanço da água no canal de cabeceira e nos sulcos fez-se usando estacas que eram posicionadas ao longo da cabeceira ou dos sulcos e registava-se o tempo que a água levava para alcançar cada estaca (veja Fig. 21). O tempo era controlado num cronómetro. Nas cabeceiras, o avanço foi determinado em todas que estavam em plena rega e nos sulcos as medições eram feitas alternando 3 em 3 sulcos de modo a garantir a representatividade. O volume de água que entra no canal de cabeceira e nos sulcos, foi determinado recorrendo-se a um cronómetro e flumes do tipo trapezoidal simples (RBC) cuja fórmula característica é representada pela equação 3.1:Este tipo de flume é dotado das seguintes características: largura da garganta com 100 mm, comprimento da garganta com 150 mm, caudal mínimo 0,16 l/s e caudal máximo 8,7 l/s e uma inclinação dos taludes de 1: 0,50. O procedimento consistia no registo da altura da água que passava da estrutura durante a rega a intervalos de tempo fixo tendo sido no início o intervalo de 5 segundos e expandiu-se o tempo á múltiplos de 5 a medida que não se observava uma variação nas leituras efectuadas (Figura 21). Os dados obtidos foram convertidos em caudal com base na equação do flume. Figura 22: Vertedores da caleira onde foram feitas medições de caudal.A amostra de solo para as análises laboratoriais foi colhida a uma profundidade de 20 cm e pela não observância de variabilidade do solo da área de estudo, colheu-se somente uma amostra de solo com duas repetições.As análises laboratoriais de parâmetros como conductividade eléctrica, do pH, das bases trocáveis, da capacidade de troca catiónica, da matéria orgânica, do nitrogénio, do fósforo, da textura e do pF A fase de avanço é de difícil simulação devido à natureza do fluxo superficial, caracterizado como não-permanente e espacialmente variado, reduzindo-se com a distância, como consequência da infiltração. Assim a relação da curva de avanço varia de solo para solo e estabelece-se por meio de uma simulação matemática que dá os parâmetros r e p da curva.Os resultados das frentes de avanço da água nos sulcos por cada Bloco encontram-se ilustrados na Figura 23 e os parâmetros r e p na Tabela 5. 1,035 0,528 0,857 1,282 0,869 0,782 0,477 0,780 0,476 1,182 0,835 0,28 R 2 0,983 0,995 0,989 0,918 0,997 0,991 0,973 0,941 0,972 0,987 0,975 0,03 Declive [S] [m/m] 0,008 0,004 0,015 0,010 0,016 0,012 0,014 0,011 0,010 0,010 0,011 0,004 A equação de avanço média dos sulcos para a área de estudo é X av = 5,4 t 0,835 , onde X av é em metros e t em minutos. Com esta equação, pode-se verificar que a infiltração é baixa (r é superior a 0,5 e inferior a 1,0), característica dos solos argilo-arenosos.A Tabela 6, apresenta os caudais aplicados nos canais de cabeceira e nos sulcos, medidos no campo com o flumes do tipo trapezoidal simples (RBC). Devido as características da rega por sulcos, a forma da secção dos sulcos ou canais de cabeceira é um aspecto à considerar para uma boa rega, visto que a água infiltra-se tanto vertical, horizontal assim como radialmente.Seguidamente apresenta-se a Figura 24 da secção média observada no campo para os sulcos e os canais de cabeceira. Com base na Figura 24, pode-se depreender que os sulcos apresentam uma profundidade média de 15 cm e largura de topo de 56 cm e as cabeceiras são mais profundas com uma média de 17,5 cm com uma largura de topo de 63 cm. Estes valores de profundidade e largura do topo dos sulcos encontram-se dentro dos intervalos recomendados por Lencastre (1992) que são de 36 a 60 cm e 15 a 25 cm de largura de topo e profundidade respectivamente. Assim, aplicando a equação de Manning, o caudal máximo permissível em termos de secção para estes sulcos é de 2,5 l/s.Uma vez que a taxa de infiltração é afectada pelo conteúdo inicial de humidade, condições da superfície do solo, condutividade hidráulica saturada, distribuição de tamanho e volume de poros e a presença de horizontes estratificados, os resultados obtidos a partir dos testes de campo são dependentes do método utilizado para sua determinação. Assim, constata-se que no início a Projecto Final-2006 Massolonga, Augusto Raúl Página -48-velocidade de infiltração apresenta um valor máximo (a humidade do solo é menor) e vai decrescendo com o tempo à medida que a humidade do solo aumenta, até atingir um valor que se mantém constante e conscide com a permeabilidade do solo no sentido vertical, denominando-se taxa de infiltração básica. A velocidade de infiltração é denominada de infiltração instantânea.Na irrigação interessa mais a infiltração cumulativa que exprime a quantidade total da lâmina de água infiltrada ao fim dum certo período.Uma vez que no campo, a infiltração foi medida recorrendo-se ao anel duplo, é necessário que essa infiltração seja corrigida pela Equação 2.9 de modo a representar a infiltração para rega por sulcos.Tabela 8: Síntese 11 da Infiltração da área de estudo medida pelo método de anel duplo e ajustada para a rega por sulcos.  Figura 25: Representação gráfica da infiltração cumulativa média do solo da região de estudo.A curva característica de humidade (curva de pF) indica a relação entre a sucção que as plantas devem fazer para retirar água do solo e o potencial de humidade. Assim quanto menor for o teor de água no solo (elevado valor de pF), maior será o dispêndio de energia pela planta para a absorção de água, resultando numa redução da energia investida noutros processos fisiológicos indispensáveis para a planta. Esta situação reflectir-se-á na redução da taxa de crescimento da planta e consequentemente a redução do rendimento.Para o solo da área em estudo o conteúdo de humidade à capacidade de campo (CC) e no ponto de murcha permanente (PEP) é respectivamente de 30,4 e 20,6 %. Assim, conhecendo o pF de um determinado solo, é possível determinar a quantidade de água disponível (AD) para a planta.De referir que nem toda AD é utilizada pela planta; É neste âmbito que surge o conceito de factor de cultura (p 12 ) que varia de cultura para cultura e que o seu produto com AD resulta em água facilmente utilizável para a planta que é o conceito que se aplica nos cálculos.A água disponível para o solo da região (Dr = 1,0 m assumido) é de 98 mm/m, aplicando o factor de cultura p para a cultura de tomate (p = 0,4) a água facilmente utilizável é de 39,2 mm.    Pelo facto do desempenho do sistema em estudo ser mau (segundo a classificação de Roscher, 1985), é imperioso a introdução de medidas para melhorar a eficiência, apesar de se atingirem produções economicamente óptimas com elevadas perdas por operação ao longo do sistema de distribuição da água.Tendo em conta os resultados apresentados na Tabela 9 pode-se identificar uma escala de alternativas e soluções. Contudo, essas alternativas de soluções devem considerar a eficiência de armazenamento pois esta é a mais baixa verificada no sistema. Assim para melhorar o sistema, irão se propor medidas com vista a aumentar a performance do sistema até níveis aceitáveis. Contudo devido a dinâmica da frente de avanço neste novo sistema, este irá potenciar perdas por runoff que estarão na ordem dos 2%.Durante a rega era determinado o volume de água que entrava ao longo do canal de cabeceira e o tempo transcorrido para irrigar uma determinada área.Tabela 10: Determinação dos volumes médios em cada Bloco. 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00De acordo com as Tabelas 10 e 11 em termos médios, verifica-se que dos 100 % do volume aplicado no canal de cabeceira, destes 46 % é efectivamente aplicado para o uso pela planta (infiltra-se nos talhões), 20 % perde-se por infiltração desnecessária ao longo da cabeceira e 34 % é perdido durante a operação de rega. De salientar que do volume aplicado no canal de cabeceira não ocorrem nenhumas perdas por runoff.Com vista a minimizar perdas que ocorrem no canal de cabeceira podia-se adoptar medidas tendentes a reduzir a infiltração ao longo do canal tais como, revestir o canal com material menos permeável como o plástico de polietileno ou compactar o próprio canal. Assim reduziam-se as perdas por infiltração como também a erosão que ocorre no canal de cabeceira, permitindo deste modo um controle mais eficiente da água que entra nos talhões.Apesar da sub irrigação registada no campo e aliado ao facto de se registarem óptimas produções, esta situação deve-se a contribuição do lençol freático no balanço da água do solo, visto que este não esta muito abaixo da zona radicular (pois observou-se que se situa a aproximadamente 100 cm 13 ). Assim, tendo em conta a classe textural do solo da área de estudo, a contribuição diária do lençol freático através da ascensão capilar é de 1,7 mm/dia, valor este que ao intervalo de 8 dias (que é praticado no campo) com a dotação média aplicada (9 mm) consegue dotar a zona radicular de humidade que satisfaz as necessidades da cultura.Neste aspecto de ascensão capilar, deve-se dotar práticas de maneio visando evitar a salinização dos solos pois a longo prazo a ascensão capilar cria problemas de salinização de solos.Após o processamento e discussão dos resultados do presente trabalho, observou-se que as eficiências do sistema são inferiores as que tradicionalmente se observam nos sistemas de rega por gravidade.As seguintes eficiências foram encontradas para a área de estudo:Eficiência de aplicação (e a ) =100 %;Eficiência de armazenamento (e s ) máxima = 63,2 % e mínima = 15,6 %;Não há perdas por percolação profunda nem por runoff, devido as características do sistema (sulcos usados como bacias);Apesar da elevada eficiência de aplicação, é notável pela eficiência de armazenamento que no sistema estamos perante uma situação de sub irrigação, contudo esta situação é mitigada pela ascensão capilar que se regista no campo.A dotação e frequência ideais são respectivamente 41,8 mm e 14 dias;As dimensões óptimas dos sulcos são de 130 e 1,5 metros de comprimento e largura, respectivamente com declive.A área de estudo tem um solo cuja família de infiltração pode ser classificada como baixa, e tem como função de infiltração cumulativa média I cum = 1,14 t 0,5944 .A frente de avanço tem como função média X av = 5,4 t 0,835 .Na área de estudo recomenda-se a introdução de medidas dimensionais e operacionais como sulcos com declive porque este solo quando seco abre fissuras; alteração do actual cenário de modo a aumentar a performance do sistema até níveis aceitáveis para a rega por sulcos. Este aumento só será possível pelo aumento do tempo de aplicação (dos a145 para 240 s por sulco) e do caudal aplicado por sulco (dos 0,95 l/s para 1,5 l/s). Com esta medida as eficiências irão melhorar para 96 % a e s e 100 % a e a .Outra medida tendente a melhoria do sistema é o redimensionamento do mesmo, pois com a introdução de sulcos com declive (0,6%), com comprimento e espaçamento de 130 e 1,5 metros respectivamente, e um caudal 0,5 l/s/sulco, as eficiências passarão a ser 98, 83 e 95%respectivamente para e a , e s e e u .Deve-se recuperar a caleira que fornece a água a unidade terciária porque ao longo dela verificam-se muitas perdas de água resultando no baixo caudal que se fornece à unidade terceária.Na vertente da preparação do solo, deve-se imprimir maior rigor nas dimensões (forma e tamanho) dos sulcos dotar os canais de rega de modo a que cada canal de rega irrigue um Bloco não o que se observa de um canal de rega para dois Blocos.A melhoria da gestão de água, do desempenho e da produtividade, na região, deve-se realizar de modo integrado, envolvendo todos sectores intervenientes na agricultura, desde os sectores administrativos até produtivos. Figura 27 (Anexo): Layout da área de colheita de dados no regadio de Chókwè.   Tabela 1: Levantamento topográfico do campo. 3,4 3,0 0,2 1,04 5,20 9,0 3,3 3,0 0,2 0,99 4,94 9,0 3,3 3,0 0,2 0,99 4,94 9,0 3,3 3,0 0,2 0,99 4,94 9,0 3,3 3,0 0,2 0,99 4,94 9,0 3,3 3,0 0,2 0,99 4,94 9,0 3,3 3,0 0,2 0,99 4,94 9,0 3,3 3,0 0,2 0,99 4,94 9,0 3,3 3,0 0,2 0,99 4,94 9,0 3,3 3,0 0,2 0,99 ","tokenCount":"9856"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"acce0fc86490c44ff50ef90bd99f76bd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/700df133-bcef-4cfc-af43-b0676b25d8a0/retrieve","id":"2088875360"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"41647000-5a0e-442d-b810-6db9a3c4a1fd","pagecount":"110","content":"Tous droits réservés. Aucune reproduction de cet ouvrage, même partielle, quel que soit le procédé, impression, photocopie, microfilm ou autre, n'est autorisée sans la permission écrite de l'éditeur.Cet Agrodok accompagne l'Agrodok 16: L'agroforesterie. Les arbres et les arbustes jouent un rôle important au niveau des exploitations agricoles ainsi que pour l'environnement. Malheureusement, trop d'arbres disparaissent à la suite de surpâturage, de collecte excessive de bois de combustion et de déforestation. L'agroforesterie appuie les efforts des personnes vivant en milieu rural dans le but de planter davantage d'arbres et d'utiliser ces derniers pour un effet bénéfique accru, car ils ont également une interaction favorable avec les cultures et le bétail. Il est assez courant que les ménages sur les exploitations agricoles multiplient quelques arbres et arbustes dans des conserves, des gobelets ou d'autres contenants, sous un arbre ou sur la véranda. Pour pouvoir produire une plus grande quantité de matériel de plantation, il serait utile d'avoir une meilleure compréhension de : différentes techniques de multiplication, comment gérer une pépinière intégrée à l'exploitation agricole, et comment planter sur le terrain et faire le suivi des plants. C'est dans ce but que le présent Agrodok a été élaboré. L'accent est mis sur la multiplication par graines ou par boutures. Les méthodes plus complexes de multiplication des cultures horticoles, telles que le greffage et l'écussonnage, ne sont pas traitées dans le présent document. Cet Agrodok est écrit dans un langage simple pour permettre de l'utiliser en tant que matériel de vulgarisation.Les arbres sont d'une importance vitale pour les hommes. Ils fournissent beaucoup de produits, y compris des aliments pour les hommes ainsi que pour les animaux, du bois de construction, du combustible et des médicaments. Dans les régions tropicales, les arbres jouent un rôle beaucoup plus important en tant que culture vivrière et en tant que culture de rente qu'ils ne le font dans les zones tempérées où les palmiers et les grands pérennes comme le bananier sont absents dû au froid des hivers.Les arbres ne fournissent pas seulement des produits, ils permettent également de protéger l'environnement et d'améliorer les conditions de vie sur une exploitation agricole. Pour donner quelques exemples, ils donnent de l'ombre, l'on peut s'y abriter et ils jouent un rôle vital dans la conservation des sols puisqu'ils préviennent l'érosion des sols et sauvegardent la fertilité de ces derniers. Dans le monde entier les forêts mais aussi les arbres parsemés sont abattus par des personnes qui sont à la recherche de bois de construction, de combustibles ou de terrain pour y faire autre chose. De nombreux arbres sont également détruits par des feux non maîtrisés provoqués par la pratique de l'essartage.Une gestion adéquate des arbres et des forêts est nécessaire pour assurer la durabilité des ressources. Les arbres -ou plutôt les plantes ligneuses en général -jouent un rôle important dans les systèmes agricoles traditionnels des pays tropicaux, non seulement en tant que cultures vivrières et de rente, mais également en tant que fournisseurs de bois combustible et de fourrage. Les agriculteurs sont conscients des avantages pour l'environnement et utilisent les arbres comme végétation sur les jachères, comme haies, comme brise-vent, comme obstacles anti-érosion, etc. Lorsque ces rôles traditionnels joués par les arbres disparaissent à la suite d'une pression démographique croissante et/ou d'une modification au niveau de la gestion des terres, il est nécessaire de stimuler et d'appuyer les initiatives locales pour planter des arbres. C'est le sujet traité dans l'Agrodok 16 : L'agroforesterie.Le présent Agrodok décrit les techniques utilisées pour multiplier et planter des arbres employés dans l'agroforesterie. Il vise essentiellement les agriculteurs et les vulgarisateurs. L'accent est mis sur des méthodes simples et économiques qui nécessitent peu d'intrants.Dans le chapitre 2, sont traités brièvement les différents rôles que jouent les arbres dans les différentes parties d'une exploitation agricole avec une attention particulière pour le choix adéquat de l'espèce d'arbre correspondant au rôle envisagé. Le chapitre 3 couvre la collecte et la manutention des propagules, c'est-à-dire des parties de plantes que l'on emploie dans la multiplication : les graines, les sauvageons, les boutures et les marcottes. Le chapitre 4 présente les méthodes de multiplication : favoriser la régénération naturelle -ce qui influence le moins le cours naturel des choses -semer les graines d'arbre directement aux endroits où l'on souhaite voir pousser les arbres, et cultiver les plants en pépinière pour les planter sur le terrain ultérieurement.Les chapitres 5 à 8 couvrent le domaine de la culture et la plantation sur le terrain des plants cultivés en pépinière. Les techniques sont adéquates aussi bien pour permettre aux pépinières simples intégrées aux exploitations agricoles de cultiver une petite quantité d'arbres à planter chaque année que pour permettre à des pépinières villageoises de produire des arbres destinés à la reforestation de parcelles communes.Dans le chapitre 5, les principaux aspects des activités de pépinière sont présentés de manière assez détaillée : cultiver des plants, utiliser des pots, et faire prendre racines aux boutures. Ceci est suivi dans le chapitre 6 par une explication de comment mettre en place une pépinière permanente qui comprendra tous les éléments suivants : différents types de planches pour les plants et les boutures ainsi que pour les pots. Les chapitres traitant le travail en pépinière sont clôturés par le chapitre 7 qui couvre les soins qu'il faut accorder aux plants dans la pépinière jusqu'au moment où ils seront prêts à être plantés sur le terrain. La préparation du terrain, la plantation elle-même et le suivi des jeunes arbres sont traités dans le chapitre 8.A la fin de cet Agrodok vous trouverez une liste de publications en tant que bibliographie, une liste avec des adresses utiles où l'on peut se procurer des graines et/ ou des informations ainsi qu'un glossaire qui explique les termes employés dans ce texte.Il y a deux annexes. L'annexe 1 donne des exemples de mesures et de calculs. Pour les cultures connues telles que la mangue et le manioc, le nom commun est utilisé. Pour de nombreuses espèces utilisées en agroforesterie il n'existe pas de nom commun courant. C'est la raison pour laquelle cet Agrodok emploie les noms botaniques pour toutes les plantes ligneuses moins connues. L'annexe 2 présente une liste de ces noms botaniques et indique le nom commun correspondant, dans la mesure où celui-ci est connu, avec quelques caractéristiques de l'espèce en question.Dans les pays tropicaux, il existe une grande diversité au niveau des conditions de croissance. Il est donc impossible de donner des informations détaillées qui s'appliquent à toutes les conditions locales. Il est très important de collaborer et de faire des échanges de connaissances afin de développer des méthodes locales pour multiplier et planter des arbres. Pour permettre à nos lecteurs de faire les choix corrects correspondant à leur situation spécifique, nous leur recommandons vivement de recueillir les connaissances locales concernant les arbres et de combiner ce savoir avec l'information contenue dans le présent Agrodok.Si vous avez des questions spécifiques, vous pouvez contacter Agromisa. Le cas échéant, veuillez toujours inclure dans votre lettre des informations sur le climat local (notamment les cycles saisonniers et les quantités de précipitation), sur les espèces d'arbres, sur les types de sols ainsi que sur d'autres facteurs importants. L'adresse d'Agromisa figure sur la couverture de ce livret.Les arbres peuvent servir de diverses façons ; il est possible de les planter à différents emplacements et à une multitude de fins. Ils ont beaucoup de valeur car ils forment le paysage et maintiennent la capacité de la terre pour soutenir une population croissante. Cependant, les arbres ont une longue durée de vie et atteignent une grande envergure, le cultivateur/la cultivatrice doit donc être capable d'attendre que l'arbre rende son ou ses produits. Par ailleurs, il y a de moins en moins de terrain disponible et donc il devient de plus en plus difficile d'accorder aux arbres l'espace dont ils ont besoin. Ces contraintes font que le choix de l'arbre et de son emplacement est très important. Ces aspects sont évoqués dans le présent chapitre, ils sont traités de manière beaucoup plus élaborée dans l'Agrodok 16 : L'agroforesterie.Les arbres protégent et produisent. Ils projettent leur ombre sur l'homme et les animaux et abritent contre les vents violents, le soleil ardent et les pluies torrentielles. Mais il n'y a pas que l'homme et les animaux qui bénéficient de cette fonction protectrice, il y a aussi les cultures associées, le sol et la totalité de l'environnement qui en bénéficient. Les arbres protègent le sol contre l'érosion. Par ailleurs, ils font monter les nutriments qui se trouvent en profondeur et qui sont transmis à la couche arable lorsque les feuilles tombées se décomposent, contribuant ainsi à sauvegarder la fertilité du sol. Les arbres forment le paysage et ont une influence modératrice sur le climat : ils réduisent le vent et la température maximale, ils élèvent la température minimale et l'humidité, et enfin ils agissent en tant que barrière contre la pollution de l'air. Les cultures associées bénéficient de la conservation du sol (contrôle de l'érosion, recyclage des nutriments) ainsi que de la modération du climat. Les cultures de jardin sont physiquement protégées contre le bétail et les intrus par une haie de plantes ligneuses.Les arbres donnent également une grande diversité de produits comme l'indique le tableau 1. Et les espèces qui ne rendent aucun de ces produits à être utilisé au marché ou à domicile fournissent généralement du fourrage pour les animaux de la ferme et/ou du bois de combustion pour le ménage. En réalité, le fourrage pour les animaux de la ferme et le bois de combustion sont les deux produits arboricoles les plus importants au niveau de nombreuses régions rurales.Il est clair qu'un seul arbre peut avoir différentes fonctions qui ne sont pas liées. La noix de coco en est un exemple parfait : en Inde du sud il existe une description de plus de 200 usages possibles pour différentes parties du palmier ! Ce type d'arbre est désigné par le terme d'arbre polyvalent. Mais il faut savoir qu'un usage spécifique d'un arbre a tendance à affecter les autres usages possibles. Par exemple, lorsqu'un agriculteur/une agricultrice élague régulièrement les branches d'un arbre pour les donner en fourrage, il ne devrait pas s'attendre à ce que l'arbre en question donne beaucoup de fruits ou fournisse beaucoup d'ombre pour le bétail. Cela aura également comme conséquence qu'il restera moins de combustible une fois que l'arbre sera coupé. Il est donc important de traiter chaque arbre de manière concordante avec l'objectif principal pour lequel il est cultivé et d'accepter que par conséquent il rendra moins au niveau des autres usages possibles. Il est utile de faire la distinction entre les arbres qui sont cultivés principalement pour le produit qu'ils rendent, les véritables ARBORI-CULTURES (par ex. les arbres fruitiers, les cultures arbustives de plantation, les arbres pour le bois de construction), et ce que l'on appelle les PLANTES LIGNEUSES AUXILIAIRES qui sont cultivées principalement pour le rôle de soutien qu'elles jouent sur l'exploitation, pour les avantages qu'elles offrent pour l'environnement ainsi que pour obtenir du fourrage et des combustibles. Ces fonctions, comme par ex. une haie autour d'un jardin, des haies longeant les courbes de niveau pour stabiliser une pente, des poteaux vivants pour soutenir une clôture de bétail, un brise-vent autour d'une plantation de bananiers, ou des arbres plantés afin d'améliorer la végétation d'une jachère, se combinent souvent très bien avec l'utilisation des restes de la taille pour le fourrage et/ ou des combustibles. L'agroforesterie consiste principalement de plantes ligneuses auxiliaires et de leur interaction avec les cultures et les animaux de l'exploitation. L'on rencontre les cultures arborescentes généralement en tant qu'arbres parsemés dans les jardin potagers familiaux et en tant que culture de rente dans les vergers (arbres fruitiers) ou les plantations (par ex. caoutchouc, palme à huile, café).La distinction entre les arboricultures et les arbres auxiliaires retombe également sur les méthodes de multiplication. Dans la sylviculture et dans l'agroforesterie, l'on adopte généralement des méthodes simples appropriées à la multiplication de grandes quantités (d'arbres auxiliaires et de bois), en effet, la grande majorité des plantes est cultivée à partir de graines. Par contre, dans les vergers et les plantations, la plupart des cultures arborescentes sont clonées, et des méthodes plus compliquées sont utilisées pour la multiplication, telles que l'activité qui consiste à faire prendre racines à des boutures, le marcottage (aérien), l'écussonnage ou encore le greffage sur rhizome.La figure 2 illustre les nombreux emplacements sur l'exploitation agricole où l'on peut planter des arbres. Les arbres fruitiers sont le mieux situés à proximité de la maison, les arbres pour le fourrage sont le mieux situés à proximité des pâturages et les arbres pour le combustible peuvent être plantés à un endroit un peu plus eloigné de la ferme.Tenez compte du fait qu'il faut déployer beaucoup d'efforts pour arriver à faire pousser des arbres sur des sols pauvres. Cependant, une fois que les arbres se seront bien implantés, ils amélioreront la fertilité et la structure du sol. Ils ajoutent du matériel organique et des nutriments à la couche arable par le biais des feuilles et des branches tombées qui se décomposent, et leurs racines permettent d'aérer des sols tassés.(Voir également l'Agrodok 2 : Gérer la fertilité du sol). Si vous avez l'intention de planter des arbres dans une zone où les arbres ont disparus à la suite de coupe du bois, de surpâturage ou du feu, vous devez vous assurer d'être à mesure d'éviter que ceci ne se reproduise. Pour finir, essayez de trouver un emplacement où l'arbre ne risque pas de causer de problèmes à autrui, par exemple à cause de l'ombre qu'il projette ou encore parce qu'il réduit le rendement à cause de la concurrence pour l'eau. Il peut s'avérer nécessaire de consulter les voisins pour éviter tout conflit.Une fois que vous aurez décidé où vous souhaitez planter des arbres, et à quelle fin, vous pourrez sélectionner l'essence appropriée. Commencez toujours par observer les arbres qui poussent localement, ainsi vous saurez à quoi vous attendre en ce qui concerne la croissance, le rendement, les problèmes de maladies et de ravageurs etc. Les arbres qui poussent dans les environs sont adaptés aux conditions de croissances dominantes et en principe il ne sera pas difficile de s'en procurer les graines ou le matériel de plantation.L'emplacement impose des contraintes sur le choix des essences possibles : une espèce qui pousse bien sur une colline aride est différente de celle qui est adaptée à une vallée bien arrosée. Et comme les agriculteurs/agricultrices le savent bien, les caractéristiques souhaitables des arbres ont souvent un prix : les arbres miracle n'existent pas ! Pour donner un exemple, une essence à croissance rapide fait qu'une haie se referme rapidement, mais aura pour conséquence qu'il sera nécessaire de tailler cette dernière plus fréquemment pour la maintenir en bonne condition. Par ailleurs, les arbres à croissance rapide ont tendance à être des concurrents virulents, provoquant une croissance inférieure au niveau de la culture attenante. La plupart des arbres fruitiers préfèrent des conditions abritées, donc s'il faut les planter sur un site exposé, un brise-vent peut s'avérer nécessaire.Dans le cas où les espèces locales ne peuvent pas satisfaire vos besoins, ou encore si des personnes qui s'y connaissent vous ont convaincu qu'une espèce spécifique d'ailleurs est à préférer, cela vaudra peut-être la peine de commencer avec un essai en utilisant différentes espèces à côté de l'espèce locale.Bien que le fait de cultiver des arbres puisse apporter beaucoup d'avantages, vous devez également tenir compte des aspects contraignants et des résultats négatifs qui peuvent en découler :? Certains arbres sont vénéneux, comme par exemple les fleurs de l'arbre ornemental le frangipanier. Comme les gènes sont recombinés, les graines ont des bases génétiques différentes ce qui provoque des variations au niveau des plants.Ainsi, il n'y a pas deux plants identiques même si tous les plants ressemblent à l'arbre mère en ce qui concerne certaines qualités. La variation au niveau des plants se produit même si le pollen provient du même arbre mère. Le cas échéant, le brassage des gènes au niveau de la fleur assure que chaque graine particulière reçoit un lot unique de gènes pour que ses caractéristiques ne soient pas identiques à ceux de l'arbre mère, même si les graines héritent toutes leurs caractéristiques de cet arbre mère. Les différences entre les plants s'agrandissent lorsque ces derniers sont cultivés sous différentes conditions. Les différences entre les plants clonés ne peuvent être causées que par des différences au niveau des conditions de croissance.Ainsi, pour les exemples du jacquier et de l'arbre à pain mentionnés dans ce qui précède, il est possible que les plants issus des graines de jacquier ne produisent pas de fruits aussi savoureux que ceux de l'arbre mère sélectionné. Cependant, comme les semis héritent les caractéristiques, il y a une meilleure probabilité qu'un certain nombre de plants issus de ces graines-là produiront des fruits savoureux que s'il ne s'agissait de graines provenant de n'importe quel jacquier. Par contre, toutes les boutures de racines de l'arbre à pain devraient donner des fruits tout aussi adéquats pour la production de frites que l'arbre mère, pourvu que les conditions de croissance soient similaires aux conditions dans lesquelles pousse l'arbre mère. Pour terminer, la multiplication par semis présente l'avantage que peu de maladies sont transmises par le biais des graines, et donc que les semis grandissent sainement à leur début. Lorsqu'on utilise d'autres parties de l'arbre mère, celles-ci peuvent être contaminées par des virus, des bactéries, des moisissures, des oeufs d'insectes, etc., donnant un mauvais début au matériel cloné (ce qui rend la sélection sur l'aspect santé de l'arbre mère d'autant plus important !).Dans le cas des sauvageons -que ce soient des semis ou des drageons -les caractéristiques de l'arbre mère sont inconnues, ce qui rend impossible la sélection des caractéristiques supérieures.Vous pouvez collecter vous même les graines ou les acheter auprès de commerçants, de services forestiers ou auprès des 'banques de graines' qui sont souvent incorporées à des centres de recherche (voir : Adresses utiles). Si vous avez l'intention de collecter des graines d'arbres locaux, choisissez les fruits mûrs contenant des graines grandes et saines. Les graines récemment tombées sont généralement adéquates, mais il arrive souvent que les premières et les dernières graines qui tombent soient stériles, contaminées ou encore abîmées. Le degré de mûreté peut être signalé de différentes façons : les fruits charnus changent souvent de couleur, ou la chair se ramollit. Les fruits secs ont tendance à s'ouvrir subitement pour libérer les graines.Méthodes de collecte pour les graines et les fruits : ? Ramassez-les au pied de l'arbre (dégagez le sol sous l'arbre avant la tombée des fruits/graines). ? Donnez des coups de bâton à l'arbre ou secouez les branches en utilisant un crosse ou en y lançant une corde (figure 4), recueillez les graines en plaçant des récipients ou des draps sous et autour de l'arbre. ? Utilisez un sécateur à longues poignées ou une scie. ? Grimpez dans l'arbre et cueillez les fruits. ? Cueillez les fruits des arbres coupés qui en portent. Il faut collecter les fruits et les graines lorsqu'ils sont mûrs ; si l'on attend, les animaux, parmi lesquels les chauves-souris et les oiseaux, les mangeront. Beaucoup de types de graines perdent rapidement leur force germinative (ceci vaut surtout pour les graines de grande taille, comme par ex. la mangue, l'avocat, le durian, le fruit du jacquier). La germination de ces graines dites récalcitrantes diminue même après seulement une semaine de stockage après l'extraction du fruit. Par ailleurs, la croissance des semis est moins bonne que celle des graines fraîchement semées. Lorsqu'il n'est pas possible de semer les graines récalcitrantes tout de suite, il vaut mieux les laisser dans le fruit jusqu'au moment de les semer.Il est nécessaire de placer les fruits rapidement dans un endroit sec et bien ventilé. Ne les laissez jamais dans un sac en plastique, ils risquent d'y suffoquer et de pourrir.Il y a différentes méthodes pour enlever les graines des fruits. Les fruits secs comme les cônes et les gousses demandent en général un traitement particulier pour pouvoir extraire les graines (comme par ex. les exposer au soleil pour qu'ils s'ouvrent). Parfois ceci se produit de manière naturelle : les gousses de graines de certaines espèces d'Acacia se désintègrent lorsqu'elles sont séchées et il suffit alors de secouer légèrement les gousses pour faire tomber les graines. Pour obtenir de bons conseils concernant la méthode adéquate pour extraire les graines il vaut mieux s'informer localement. Le nettoyage des graines Une fois que les graines ont été extraites, il faut les nettoyer à fond afin d'enlever tous les restes de chair, de cosse ou de l'enveloppe, surtout lorsque l'on a l'intention de les conserver. Pour les fruits mous (par ex. la mangue), il faut rincer ou brosser afin d'ôter toute la chair avant de planter la graine, de nombreux fruits mous contiennent des substances qui inhibent la germination. Vous pouvez nettoyer les graines à la main ou, pour le cas des fruits secs, en les vannant au vent, ceci se fait pour la plupart des espèces d'Acacia et pour le Senna siamea.Il est possible de faire passer les graines par un tamis pour enlever les impuretés et les graines de mauvaise qualité. Dans la plupart des cas, les graines de meilleure qualité sont les plus grosses. Une autre méthode pour trier les graines est de les immerger dans de l'eau. Les mauvaises graines et la plupart des impuretés flottent, alors que les graines de bonne qualité coulent. Retirez les bonnes graines et séchezles soigneusement.Lorsqu'il n'est pas possible de semer les graines immédiatement après les avoir collectées, il faut les stocker. Certaines graines (par ex. des graines de légumineuses) peuvent être stockées à des températures normales pendant de nombreuses années, tant qu'elles sont gardées à sec. Cependant, la plupart des graines ne se conservent que pendant une période de temps limitée. Il faut semer les graines récalcitrantes le plus rapidement possible après les avoir extrait du fruit.Pour bien conserver des graines, il faut les garder au sec et à une température fraîche constante. Séchez les graines avant de les stocker pour éviter qu'elles soient infectées par des moisissures ou des bactéries. Cependant, il faut éviter la chaleur extrême car ceci détruit la facilité de germination des graines. Ne séchez pas les graines sous les rayons de soleil directs, mais faites-le dans un endroit ombragé et bien ventilé.Les graines convenablement séchées peuvent être conservées dans des contenants tels que des pots, des boites métalliques, des boites ou des sachets. Pour une bonne isolation, l'on peut emballer hermétiquement les graines en les plaçant d'abord dans un sachet en plastique épais. Fermez bien le sachet et placez-le dans un contenant qui dispose d'un couvercle. Le fait d'enterrer les contenants sous une couche de terre sèche à un endroit ombragé vous permettra de les garder à une température fraîche constante.Assurez-vous qu'il est impossible pour les insectes ou les rongeurs de s'introduire dans les contenants. Etiquetez chaque contenant et notezy le traitement que vous avez donné aux graines ainsi que la date à laquelle vous avez stockées ces dernières. Contrôlez régulièrement le contenu et retournez alors les graines ou encore secouez le contenant.Pour certains arbres, la germination des graines peut durer plusieurs mois, la graine nécessitant les basses températures d'hiver ou la chaleur d'un feu de brousse pour rompre sa dormance. Il est également possible que la germination soit retardée par un tégument dur ou coriace ou par certaines substances contenues dans la graine. Pour accélérer la germination, il est possible de traiter ce type de graines et, ce qui est plus important, d'assurer une germination plus simultanée. Lorsque peu de temps s'écoule entre la levée des premiers et celle des derniers plants d'un même ensemencement, l'uniformité des semis facilite de beaucoup la détermination des moments appropriés pour tout le travail de multiplication.Une diversité de traitements peut être appliquée pour accélérer la germination :? Trempage dans de l'eau ou de l'acide : Il s'agit-là d'une méthode simple qui consiste à tremper les graines dans de l'eau froide pendant 2 jours avant de les semer. Ceci fait gonfler la graine, provoquant la déchirure du tégument et le lessivage des substances qui retardent la germination. Cette méthode est efficace pour les graines de nombreuses espèces d'arbres. Dans certains cas, l'on ajoute de l'acide pour rendre le liquide plus abrasif.? Traitement à l'eau chaude : Ceci permet d'enlever la couche extérieure dure de certaines graines, laissant une enveloppe plus molle que le germe pourra transpercer plus facilement. Faites bouillir de l'eau (environ 4 litres pour 1 kg de graines), retirez-la du feu et immergez-y les graines. Permettez à l'eau contenant les graines de se refroidir pendant la nuit. Rincez les graines le jour suivant avec de l'eau propre. Cette méthode est appropriée pour les espèces de légumineuses, telles que les espèces d'Acacia, de Senna, et de Prosopis ainsi que pour le Faidherbia albida. Il y a des graines qu'il faut bouillir brièvement, comme par exemple les graines de baobab.? Scarification : Pour faciliter la germination, une incision peu profonde est faite à l'aide d'une lime dans l'enveloppe dure de la graine, ou alors une pointe de la graine est coupée. Une manière simple de scarifier des graines de légumineuses est de les frotter contre une surface rugueuse, tel que le papier de verre. Ceci érafle le tégument de la graine, il faut veiller à ne pas passer au travers du tégument. Il faut également veiller à ne pas exposer les graines à une température trop élevée, car ceci détruirait le germe. Cette méthode convient par exemple pour les espèces de Leucaena et pour le Faidherbia albida.? Stratification : Les graines de nombreux arbres des zones tempérées et sub tropicales nécessitent le refroidissement d'hiver pour rompre l'état de dormance des graines, par ex. la noix de pecan, le kaki, la pêche. Lorsque ces essences sont cultivées dans les régions montagneuses des pays tropicaux, il sera peut-être nécessaire de placer la graine dans un pot avec du sable humide dans le réfrigérateur pour une durée d'environ 2 mois. Cette méthode n'est pas très courante. Pour plus d'informations, écrivez à Agromisa ou adressez-vous au service forestier local (voir les Adresses utiles).Les sauvageons constituent du matériel de plantation provenant de la végétation naturelle, par ex. des semis ou des boutures. Lorsque vous déterrez des sauvageons, ils devront porter au moins 2 à 4 feuilles entièrement formées. La tige des sauvageons plus mûrs a un diamètre qui correspond à celui d'un crayon. Il est bon de les collecter lorsque la pluie a humidifié le sol, que ce soit avec ou sans motte de racines.Les sauvageons avec motte de racines sont déterrés en créant d'abord une fente d'un angle de 45 o sur deux côtés du plant en utilisant une bêche ou une machette. Le plant est alors soulevé sur la pelle, en tenant la tige de l'autre main, puis retiré avec une motte de racine intacte. Il est difficile de déterrer les petits sauvageons avec une motte de racines parce que le système racinaire n'est pas encore assez développé pour retenir la terre.Pour procéder à lever les sauvageons à racines nues, l'on ameublit la terre entourant les racines à l'aide d'un baton pointu. L'on déterre ensuite les plants en tirant la tige avec précautions, puis l'on secoue pour faire tomber la terre retenue par les racines.Pour replanter avec plus de facilité et pour éviter que les racines ne se recroquevillent, la racine pivotante et les grandes racines secondaires sont souvent coupées. L'on peut enlever les feuilles, à l'exception de celles qui poussent à l'extrémité, afin de réduire la transpiration.Ce n'est pas une bonne idée de stocker les sauvageons. Il vaut mieux les replanter aussi rapidement que possible. Il faut protéger les racines des sauvageons à racines nues pendant le transport, en les recouvrant d'un matériau humide (de la terre, de la toile de jute, des feuilles de bananier, etc.). Autrement, vous pourriez tremper les racines dans de la boue, un mélange d'argile et d'eau.Différentes parties d'une plante, feuille, tige ou racine, peuvent être coupées pour les faire prendre racine. La multiplication par le biais de boutures de feuilles est une pratique qui se limite à quelques plantes ornementales. Les boutures de tiges sont les plus courantes. L'on fait la distinction entre les boutures ligneuses et les boutures herbacées. Les boutures herbacées sont prélevées de pousses en phase de croissance, en-dessous de l'extrémité de la pousse, par ex. le thé. Les boutures feuillues délicates nécessitent des soins intensifs. Pour cet Agrodok, nous allons nous limiter aux arbres et arbustes aptes à former des racines sur le bois ligneux. Le bois ligneux désigne les pousses en stade de repos après une période de croissance, y compris les rameaux et les branches plus âgés, formés lors de périodes de croissances antérieures.En général, l'on jette le bout de la pousse ou du rameau, mais une pousse vigoureuse peut fournir plusieurs boutures de 15 à 50 cm, la longueur recommandée. Communément, le diamètre des boutures varie entre l'épaisseur d'un crayon à environ 3 cm. La coupe supérieure est oblique pour permettre à l'eau de pluie d'être évacuée (voir figure 6). La coupe inférieure se fait souvent juste en-dessous d'un noeud, parce que les racines se forment généralement au niveau du noeud. Utilisez toujours des outils propres : désinfectez votre outil tranchant dans de l'eau bouillante avant de l'utiliser. N'utilisez jamais de couteaux ou de machettes émoussés pour prélever des boutures. Si une coupe n'est pas lisse et propre, une pourriture pourra conduire à l'échec de la bouture ; la plaie sur l'arbre mère pourra également être infectée. L'on préfère prélever les boutures sur les branches et les rameaux montants, parce que ces derniers poussent en hauteur après avoir formé des racines, formant un arbre avec un tronc adéquat. Souvent, les boutures prélevées sur des branches horizontales ou tombantes ne poussent pas en hauteur.Lorsqu'il n'est pas possible de planter les boutures tout de suite, il faut les garder dans un endroit frais, ombragé, sous de la toile de jute, de l'herbe ou des feuilles humides. Les boutures feuillues doivent être plantées sans délai.Tailler et baguer l'arbre mère Pour certaines plantes ligneuses, les boutures forment des racines plus rapidement lorsque les branches ont été baguées au préalable. Entre deux semaines et deux mois avant de prélever une bouture, une bague d'écorce d'environ 2,5 cm de large est enlevée (la pousse sera coupée près du côté inférieur de la bague). Les feuilles poussant près de la bague sont coupées. Dans une branche baguée, les sucres formés par les feuilles n'ont plus la possibilité de migrer au-delà de la bague, ce qui fait que les réserves seront accumulées dans la partie de la plante qui servira de bouture. Cependant, ceci est uniquement efficace lorsque les pousses baguées poussent vigoureusement, sinon l'accumulation de sucres pourrait stimuler la floraison de la branche en question. La formation de fleurs et la croissance des racines sont deux phénomènes antagonistes : la partie d'une plante qui a tendance à fleurir est moins encline à former de nouvelles racines ! Différentes techniques de taille -élaguer, étêter, réceper -sont utilisées pour stimuler les arbres à former des pousses supplémentaires sur lesquelles il sera possible de prélever des boutures. Une taille prononcée permet de supprimer la floraison (c'est la raison pour laquelle les haies taillées fréquemment ne fleurissent jamais), favorisant la capacité de former des racines.? L'élaguage Le fait de couper les branches et les rameaux stimule les bourgeons à s'ouvrir pour former de nouvelles pousses. Ces pousses pourront servir en tant que boutures. L'avantage que présente cette méthode est que l'on obtient un plus grand nombre de boutures uniformes (même âge, mêmes dimensions). Lorsque l'on coupe beaucoup de branches, l'arbre mère devra être très vigoureux pour pouvoir supporter une bonne croissance de toutes les nouvelles pousses. Assurez-vous qu'il y a suffisamment d'humidité dans le sol. Il est recommandé de donner des fertilisants à l'arbre mère dans la saison précédant la taille.? L'étêtage L'étêtage est une forme de taille plus radicale: le tronc de l'arbre est coupé à une hauteur d'environ 2 m. En-dessous de la coupe, des gourmands émergeront. Après une année, l'on pourra couper ces derniers pour les utiliser en tant que grandes boutures, que l'on pourra éventuellement planter directement. Ce genre de bouture est désigné en anglais par le terme « live stakes ». Le Gliricidia sepium et les espèces d'Erythrina sont des exemples d'arbres qui produisent de bons « live stakes », parce qu'ils forment des racines avec facilité lorsqu'ils sont plantés pendant la saison humide. Ils peuvent servir de support pour une clôture, pour des plantes grimpantes (par ex. le poivre ou la vanille) ou pour un treillage (par ex. pour des courges ou de la chayote).? Le recépage Le recépage désigne la coupe du tronc d'un arbre proche du niveau du sol afin de stimuler la croissance de nouvelles pousses sur la souche. Ces rejets pourront alors être coupés et plantés.Les boutures de racines L'on peut également utiliser des racines d'arbres pour faire des boutures, par ex. pour les espèces de Casuarina. Certaines essences (par ex. l'arbre à pain) produisent même des drageons d'eux-mêmes. Lorsque ces drageons forment leurs propres racines, ils pourront vivre de manière indépendante. Pour stimuler l'émergence des drageons, l'on coupe les racines à l'aide d'une pelle ou d'une petite hache. La partie de racine qui a été coupée pourra former un drageon avec des racines propres (voir figure 7A). Pour l'arbre à pain sans graines de cet exemple, l'on coupe des racines qui ont quelques centimètres de diamètre et environ 20 cm de longueur. Ces boutures sont alors plantées dans un endroit ombragé de la pépinière. Lorsque l'on maintient un taux d'humidité élevé, les boutures seront prêtes après quelques mois (voir figure 7B).Pour les essences que l'on ne peut pas multiplier par le biais de boutures parce qu'elles n'ont pas de facilité à développer des racines, il est parfois possible de les inciter à former des racines sur les pousses avant de séparer les pousses de l'arbre mère. Cette méthode de multiplication est appelée marcottage. Le terme anglais (layering) renvoie à la forme la plus simple de ce phénomène : les rameaux tombants d'arbustes poussent vers le bas puis touchent la terre où ils peuvent prendre racine spontanément, c'est le cas de certaines espèces de Rubus (par ex. les mûres).Bien que dans certains pays les marcottes sont multipliées en grandes quantités, les techniques pertinentes sont particulièrement appropriées pour les cultivateurs/cultivatrices qui ont un arbre exceptionnel dans leur jardin potager familial et qui souhaitent offrir à des amis ou des parents un ou deux plants possédant les mêmes caractéristiques excellentes.Pour le marcottage simple, de longs rameaux flexibles de certains arbustes et plantes grimpantes sont fait ployer et une partie des rameaux en question est recouverte de terre (voir figure 8). Le fait d'entraver le flux de la sève en provenance du bout du rameau en tordant la partie à enterrer stimule la formation des racines. Au lieu de tordre le rameau, il est également possible de le blesser en y faisant une incision ou en enlevant une bague d'écorce. La prise de racines se fera au niveau de la plaie, du côté de l'extrémité du rameau. Une fois que les racines se seront développées de manière suffisante, la marcotte pourra être coupée pour la séparer de l'arbre mère. Le marcottage aérien Afin de faire des marcottes, il est difficile de faire plier jusqu'au sol des branches qui poussent vers le haut. L'alternative consiste à faire parvenir la terre au niveau de la branche : le marcottage aérien. L'on écorce une bande du rameau ou de la branche à marcotter, et l'on gratte la couche molle de cambium pour éviter que la plaie ne se cicatrise. L'on fixe autour de la bague une boule de terre friable et humide, de fibres de noix de coco râpées, ou une autre substance appropriée pour la prise de racines en enveloppant le tout de polythène pour éviter le dessèchement (voir figure 9). Les racines se forment juste audessus de la bague, et après 2 à 6 mois (selon l'essence) l'on pourra couper les marcottes avec leurs racines. Ne coupez pas les marcottes lorsque les pousses de l'arbre mère se trouvent dans une période de croissance rapide au cours des semaines qui suivent. Les marcottes vont pousser rapidement dans la même période et les jeunes racines ne pourront peut-être pas assurer la survie avec le poids de toutes ces nouvelles feuilles. Dans les jardins potagers familiaux, les arbres fruitiers comme la goyave et le litchi sont souvent multipliés par le biaisdu marcottage aérien. Le nombre d'arbres peut être augmenté par régénération naturelle des arbres en place ou par activités humaines de multiplication, comme illustré dans le cadre ci-dessous.? Croissance naturelle de semis, de drageons, de marcottes MULTIPLICATION AIDÉE PAR L'HOMME : ? Plantation directement sur le terrain, en utilisant par ex. des graines, des sauvageons, des boutures ? Dans une pépinière, cultiver des arbres à partir de graines, de boutures par ex.Les forestiers/forestières et les agriculteurs/agricultrices facilitent et stimulent souvent la régénération naturelle. Les méthodes utilisées sont similaires à celles de la plantation directe sur le terrain. Ces deux approches sont traitées ci-dessous ; la multiplication des plantes en pépinière est seulement décrite en grandes lignes dans le présent chapitre, parce que les chapitres 5 à 8 décrivent de manière détaillée quelles sont les activités en pépinière.Lorsque des nouvelles plantes poussent de manière spontanée, sans intervention humaine, ceci est appelé régénération naturelle. Les graines sont la source principale de nouvelles plantes, aussi bien pour la végétation naturelle que pour la culture. Certaines plantes, y compris certains arbustes, se multiplient également en produisant des drageons, c'est-a-dire des nouvelles pousses qui forment des racines propres et qui deviennent indépendantes de la plante mère. D'autres, surtout les plantes grimpantes, peuvent former de nouvelles plantes par le biais de marcottage : un long rameau forme des racines à l'endroit où il touche la terre. Les arbres à croissance rapide sont les plus appropriés pour la semence directe parce qu'ils ont plus de facilité à gagner la concurrence avec les mauvaises herbes. Par ailleurs, des quantités largement suffisantes de graines doivent être disponibles, parce qu'il n'y aura qu'un petit pourcentage de graines qui formera des semis réussis : ces derniers doivent faire face aux mêmes risques que dans la situation de régénération naturelle. L'annexe 1 montre comment calculer la quantité de graines nécessaire pour la pratique de semence directe.Dans les régions où il y a des massifs d'arbustes épineux, il est possible de semer les graines parmi des branches épineuses pour réduire la probabilité que les semis ne soient mangés. Dans les régions venteuses, l'utilisation d'espèces résistantes pour établir un brise-vent améliorera les conditions de croissance pour les essences plus délicates.Au lieu de faire la collecte puis de planter des graines, il est également possible de déterrer des jeunes semis ou des drageons aux endroits où ils ont poussé naturellement pour les planter directement sur le terrain. Lorsque vous lisez ces sujets, gardez toujours en tête les deux points mentionnés dans les cadres ci-dessus. La question de choisir le moment approprié pour chaque activité de pépinière sera approfondie dans la section 6.4, favoriser la croissance des racines sera traité dans les sections 5.1 et 5.2 ainsi que dans la section 7.1; le rapport racines : pousse est un des sujets traités dans la section 7.3.Le chapitre 3 couvre la collecte et le traitement des graines, des sauvageons, et des boutures. Dans le présent chapitre, nous allons traiter comment cultiver ces propagules en pépinière. Ceci prévient les maladies telles que la fonte des semis. Le fait de placer les caissettes à semis sur des bancs permet de les garder hors de portée des vers gris.Une dernière amélioration au niveau de la phase de germination est l'utilisation de caissettes à semis à fond ouvert (en maillons). Vous pourriez fabriquer vous-même des caissettes à semis en bois avec un fond en grillage de fil de fer (comme un tamis) ou encore couper et plier des bâches plastiques épaisses utilisées en tant que pare-vent (voir figure 12). Il est même possible que vous trouviez en vente des caissettes à semis en plastique bon marché dont les côtés et le fond sont constitués d'une structure ouverte.Comme le sable tomberait au travers des maillons, vous devrez alors remplir les caissettes à semis avec une terre friable, ou, encore mieux, avec une substance appropriée pour l'enracinement comme la fibre de noix de coco. Placez la ou les caissette(s) à semis sur un banc ouvert, c'est-à-dire constitué de fil de fer ou de lames, afin d'exposer le fond des caissettes à semis à l'air. Que se passe -t -il lorsque vous semez dans ce type de caissette à semis ? Quelques jours après la germination, la racine pivot atteindra le fond de la caissette et sa croissance s'interrompra alors, dû à l'exposition à l'air. En réaction à l'exposition à l'air, de nombreuses racines secondaires vont se former près du collet de la racine. Au moment de repiquer les semis, il sera possible d'observer l'effet spectaculaire : au lieu de voir une longue racine pivot peu ramifiée, le système racinaire apparaîtra plutôt semblable à celui d'un oignon avec une robe complète de racines secondaires. Repiquez les plants 5 à 10 jours plus tard que la normale pour donner aux racines le temps de se développer. Ainsi, les semis arriveront sur les planches de pépinière avec un début de système racinaire parfaitement ramifié ! Il est recommandé de limiter le développement de la racine pivot par exposition à l'air en faisant germer les graines dans des caissettes à semis à fond ouvert lorsque le repiquage ne présente pas un goulet à étranglement important. (Le repiquage demande beaucoup de travail et lorsque les racines secondaires sont bien développées, ce travail demande encore plus de temps.) Toutes les espèces de fruits, de noix et d'agroforesterie sur lesquelles l'on a effectué dans différents pays tropicaux des tests d'exposition à l'air des racines, ont très bien réagies. Lorsque l'utilisation de caissettes à semis est une pratique courante, il est assez simple de faire la transition vers des caissettes à semis à fond ouvert.Certaines essences provenant des régions arides nécessitent une racine pivot pour atteindre le niveau de la nappe phréatique aussi rapidement que possible. Cependant, dans le désert du Néguev en Israël, il s'est avéré qu'une ou deux racines secondaires des arbres dont les racines avaient été exposées à l'air peuvent reprendre le rôle de la racine pivot dans sa fonction de foncer vers la nappe phréatique. Pour une discussion détaillée des pours et des contres de la pratique d'exposition des racines à l'air veuillez consulter l'AgroSpecial 1 : A nurseryman and his trees (un pépinièriste et ses arbres).Préparation des lits de semis et des caissettes à semis; ensemencement Il faut compacter la terre des lits de semis pour assurer un bon contact entre la couche superficielle dans laquelle l'on sème les graines et les couches plus profondes. Dans de la terre meuble, la couche superficielle peut se dessécher rapidement car l'humidité ne peut pas monter entre les particules de terre. Rendez la terre plus compacte, par exemple en utilisant une planche sur laquelle vous pouvez marcher. La terre est suffisamment compacte lorsqu'une trace légère y reste après l'avoir poussée avec le poing. Un arrosage léger après l'ensemencement permet également à la terre de se tasser autour des graines. Ne procédez pas à la compaction de la terre lorsqu'elle est trop mouillée car ceci peut gâcher la structure du sol.Semez les graines à une densité qui permet de produire suffisamment de semis pour remplir la surface en question. Ne semez jamais trop densément car l'entassement aura comme résultat des semis faibles et étiolés ; il y aura également plus de pertes provoquées par la fonte de semis. Laissez une bande d'environ 8 cm libre de graines au bord des lits de semis surélevés car le bord a souvent tendance à s'effriter. Arrosez les lits de semis ou les caissettes à semis un jour avant l'ensemencement.Si les graines sont semées sur des lits de semis ou des caissettes à semis pour être repiquées plus tard, elles sont semées à la volée ou en lignes (avec un plantoir). Les petites graines (par ex. celles des essences d'Eucalyptus) sont mélangées à du sable fin avec un rapport sable : graines de 2 :1. Ceci facilite également la tâche pour semer à la densité appropriée.Lorsqu'on sème à la volée, les graines sont répandues à la main ; il faut de l'expérience pour pouvoir obtenir une répartition relativement uniforme. Si vous n'avez pas beaucoup d'expérience, il vaut mieux semer de manière éparce car si la densité est trop forte il faudra éclaircir les semis, ce qui représente un gâchis de matériel de plantation. Le semis à la volée se limite aux petites graines, parce qu'il est impossible de disposer les grandes graines à la profondeur appropriée si l'on applique cette méthode. Les graines qui ont été répandues à la volée sont soit enfoncées en ratissant soit recouvertes immédiatement d'une substance meuble, telle que du gros sable ou du gravier très fin. Un arrosage léger des graines recouvertes permet de tasser la terre, assurant ainsi un bon contact entre les graines et le sol.Lorsque l'on procède à un ensemencement en lignes, l'on a plus de facilité à assurer une répartition uniforme, bien que l'action de former des poquets nécessite également de l'expérience et qu'il faudra peutêtre éclaircir plus tard. L'ensemencement en lignes facilite également le désherbage et le repiquage. L'on peut tracer les lignes en appuyant une planche sur la largeur du lit de semis pour former des petits sillons en forme de V dans lesquels l'on sèmera les graines (voir figure 13).Lorsque l'on sème les graines directement à leur emplacement final dans la pépinière (pas de repiquage), l'on les sème dans des poquets disposés selon un patron régulier avec les distances appropriées. L'espacement adéquat varie selon l'essence et selon la taille requise du plant au moment de le planter sur le terrain. Un semoir, une planche équipée de petits piquets fixés selon l'espacement souhaité, est un outil très utile qui permet de faire des poquets aux bonnes distances et avec un patron correct (voir figure 14). L'on peut semer de cette manière aussi bien les grandes graines que les petites.  La profondeur à laquelle il faut semer correspond généralement à deux fois le diamètre de la graine. Pour donner un exemple, une graine qui a un diamètre de 3 cm doit être semée à une profondeur de 6 cm (voir figure 15). Si une graine est semée avec trop de profondeur, les réserves nutritives de la graine peuvent s'épuiser avant que la tigelle n'ait pu former des feuilles vertes pour pouvoir se nourrir.Recouvrez les graines immédiatement après l'ensemencement. Dans les caissettes à semis, les graines sont souvent recouvertes d'un matériau meuble que les graines peuvent percer facilement, comme du gros sable ou du gravier très fin. Il faut tasser la terre des planches pour assurer un bon contact entre les graines et le sol ; ce contact est amélioré davantage par un arrosage léger des graines une fois qu'elles ont été recouvertes. Si la germination dure plusieurs semaines, cela vaut la peine de pailler les lits de semis et les caissettes à semis. Le paillis adoucit l'impact de l'arrosage et préserve l'humidité de la couche superficielle du sol. Cependant, veillez à enlever le paillis dès que les premiers signes de germination se font observer, autrement les pousses perçant le paillis seront blanchies, étiolées, et enclines à attraper des maladies. Il faut transférer les semis des lits de semis ou des caissettes à semis sur des planches de pépinière. D'habitude, le repiquage se fait une fois que les semis ont formé une ou deux feuilles normales. Une graine contient des feuilles pré formées que l'on appelle les cotylédons : les palmiers en ont une seule et la plupart des autres plantes ligneuses en a deux. Une graine qui est en train de germer fait d'abord sortir les cotylédons, après quoi la pousse formera des feuilles normales. Souvent, la forme des cotylédons est assez différente de celle des feuilles normales (voir figure 16). Dans certains cas, les cotylédons restent endessous de la terre.Si les graines sont semées avec un espacement correct, les semis occuperont toute la surface du lit de semis ou de la caissette à semis lorsqu'ils auront atteint la phase de repiquage. Pour la plupart des essences, cette phase est atteinte dans les quelques semaines qui suivent l'émergence de la tigelle. Une germination simultanée permet de repiquer tous les semis au même moment, mais même si l'on procède à de bons traitements de pré-germination, il est souvent nécessaire de faire plusieurs sessions de repiquage dans un intervalle de temps de quelques jours. Le cas échéant, l'espacement des graines dans la caissette à semis ou le lit de semis devra être suffisant pour permettre de lever des semis sans abîmer les autres.Pour les graines relativement grandes, comme par ex. les cultures de noix, l'on contourne parfois le problème en faisant germer les graines sur un sac de jute humide, en les recouvrant d'un autre sac de jute. Tous les quelques jours, les graines qui commencent à germer pour-   Lorsqu'il faut cultiver les sauvageons un temps avant de les planter sur le terrain, l'on les place sur des planches avec un espacement approprié. Il est possible de les trier selon leur taille, en prêtant une attention particulière à la quantité de racines qu'ils possèdent, afin d'améliorer l'uniformité du matériel de plantation.Cultiver du matériel de plantation à racines nues ou en pots ? Semer ou planter dans des pots est une alternative par rapport aux planches de pépinière. Cela demande du travail supplémentaire dans la pépinière et augmente sérieusement le prix de transport dans le cas où les semis devront être plantés sur un site éloigné. La fabrication des pots avec des matériaux disponibles localement demande beaucoup de temps et les pots en terre cuite sont onéreux, mais l'introduction des pots en plastique bon marchés (les 'polypots') a répandu cette pratique. Les polypots sont des manches en polythène que l'on livre plats ; ils obtiennent leur forme de pot une fois qu'ils sont remplis de terreau.Le travail et les frais supplémentaires à assurer lorsque l'on utilise des pots devront être compensés par une meilleure qualité du matériel de plantation, avec comme résultat un pourcentage élevé de survie et un groupe d'arbres uniforme sur le terrain. Bien sûr, l'avantage principal est que les racines ne sont pas perturbées lorsque l'on procède à la plantation sur le terrain des semis empotés. Les semis cultivés en terre sont levés (déterrés) et après le transport il ne restera que peu ou pas de terre collée aux racines. Ainsi, ils seront plantés à racines nues.Le tableau 2 récapitule les avantages et les inconvénients des deux types de matériel de plantation.   Les pots les plus simples et meilleur marché sont fabriqués en coupant un manche de polythène en sections à la longueur requise. A l'aide d'une ou de deux agrafes, les manches sont convertis en pots qui per-mettent l'écoulement de l'eau excessive. La principale alternative consiste de sacs de polythène tout faits, appelés polypots, (figure 19). Les dimensions de ces sachets peuvent varier, mais utilisez ceux qui mesurent au moins 18 × 8 cm lorsqu'ils sont disposés à plat. Les pots en plastique dur sont plus onéreux. Les pots doivent toujours avoir un trou dans le fond pour permettre l'évacuation d'un excès d'eau. Il est également possible de fabriquer soi-même des pots en utilisant différents matériaux, comme par exemple du papier, du métal (tin), de la terre cuite, du plastique (sacs à provisions) ou du matériau végétal comme le bambou ou les tiges et les feuilles de bananier.Dans le cas où les plantes restent dans les pots plus longtemps que prévu, les racines seront soit à l'étroit dans leur pots, soit elles s'échapperont du pot. Lorsque les racines sont à l'étroit dans le pot, le développement actif des racines à la recherche de l'humidité et des nutriments se limite principalement au fond du pot où les racines pousseront en cercles. Ailleurs dans le pot, l'on trouvera très peu d'extrémités blanches de racines indiquant une croissance active. Ceci conduit également à un ralentissement au niveau de la croissance de la pousse. Au moment de planter sur le terrain il faudra couper les racines qui ont poussé en cercle pour éviter un retard de croissance, ce qui ne laissera que les racines inactives dans le reste du pot. En d'autres mots : au lieu de commencer avec un système racinaire intact, le plant à l'étroit dans son pot devra faire avec un système racinaire mutilé et déficient.Lorsque les racines poussent au travers des orifices de drainage et trouvent un meilleur approvisionnement en eau et en nutriments dans la terre sous les pots, elles vont se développer vigoureusement, aux dépens des racines qui restent à l'intérieur du pot. Les racines qui se seront échappées seront perturbées lorsque le pot sera soulevé ou lorsque le pot sera déplacé afin de procéder à la plantation. Ainsi, dans ce cas également, l'objectif qui nous a poussé à empoter les plants ne sera pas atteint.Un petit pot raccourcit la période pendant laquelle une plante peut être gardée en pépinière. Et lorsque les pots sont plus grands qu'il ne le faut, leur utilisation devient encombrante et onéreuse. L'annexe 1 illustre comment la quantité de terre et la superficie des planches nécessaires augmentent lorsque l'on utilise des pots plus grands, en prenant quelques exemples.Conclusion : pour profiter des avantages présentés par le fait de cultiver les plants dans des pots, cela vaut la peine de trouver la combinaison optimale des facteurs suivants : la taille des pots, la période de croissance dans les pots, et la taille du matériel de plantation.Remplir les pots La terre utilisée pour remplir les pots doit avoir une structure meuble pour assurer une bonne aération et drainage, afin de ne pas entraver le développement des racines. Mais une motte de terreau humide ne doit pas s'effriter lorsqu'on la soulève.Il est difficile de donner un mélange standard pour la terre à empoter, parce que l'on utilise ce qui est disponible au niveau local. Cependant, un mélange utilisé fréquemment consiste de 3 volumes de terre provenant de la couche arable, 1 volume de compost et 1 volume de sable. Tamisez la terre pour vous débarrasser des mottes et des pierres. Fabriquez un grand cadre de bois et fixez-y un filet en fil de fer (avec des orifices carrés de 5 à 10 mm). Appuyez le tamis contre un support de manière à le maintenir sous un angle, puis faites passer le terreau au travers en y déposant des pelletées.Il faut bien remplir les pots. Tapotez le pot parterre pour tasser le terreau sans laisser de poches d'air. Utilisez un entonnoir pour remplir des pots étroits, fabriqués par exemple en coupant la partie supérieure d'une bouteille en plastique qui a un large col. Ceci fonctionne bien lorsque le terreau est suffisamment meuble et sec pour pouvoir couler au travers de l'entonnoir. Arrosez les pots remplis et laissez-les pendant quelques jours pour que le terreau se tasse. Pour les graines qui sont très petites, utilisez un mélange de sable : graines (2 :1). Trempez un petit pinceau (de peinture) dans de l'eau, puis dans le mélange sable : graines et répandez le mélange soigneusement sur cinq pots remplis de terre. Pour les graines d'Eucalyptus, ceci produira un maximum de 4 ou 5 semis par pot. Dans le cas où l'on sème plusieurs graines par pot, l'on ne laissera que le plant le plus vigoureux après émergence. Les semis éclaircis pourront être plantés dans les pots où aucune graine n'a germée.Pour la plupart des essences, l'on préfère de loin repiquer les semis dans des pots plutôt que de semer directement dans des pots, et ce pour deux raisons : ? Le repiquage stimule la ramification du système racinaire, ce qui conduit à un meilleur enracinement dans le pot et à des racines qui retiennent mieux le sol au moment de planter sur le terrain ;? Comme les semis repiqués sont uniformes, chaque lot de plants empotés sera uniforme ; ainsi l'on évitera les problèmes liés à la germination retardée.Communément, les boutures cultivées en pépinières sont disposées dans des planches surélevées constituées de terre friable bien drainée. Avant de mettre les boutures en terre, l'on peut couper encore une fois l'extrémité inférieure pour assurer que la surface coupée soit propre. Cette coupe à la base devra être effectuée juste en-dessous d'un noeud, c'est-à-dire un point où une feuille avait été attachée, parce qu'en général, la formation des racines se fait le mieux au niveau des noeuds. Lorsque l'écorce est épaisse, l'on peut l'enlever de la base de la bouture pour faciliter la percée des racines.Enfoncez les boutures dans la terre jusqu'au moment d'avoir enterré les 2/3 de la longueur de la bouture. Pour les boutures d'arbres, l'on laisse deux bourgeons au-dessus du sol. Si les deux bourgeons se développent, l'on enlève le plus faible pour que ce soit le plus vigoureux qui forme le tronc d'arbre. Dans le cas des arbustes, l'on peut laisser 3 à 5 bourgeons au-dessus du niveau du sol, et l'on pourra laisser toutes les pousses qui émergeront. L'on peut placer les boutures à un angle, une bouture placée verticalement a tendance à produire une pousse dominante, alors qu'une bouture inclinée plus vers l'horizontale produira probablement plusieurs pousses plus ou moins équivalentes. Ainsi, l'on préfère généralement une position verticale pour les arbres, et une position inclinée pour les arbustes. Veillez à ne pas planter les boutures à l'envers ! Plantez les boutures en rangées séparées d'environ 25 cm avec un espacement de 20 cm dans la rangée. Après plantation, arrosez à nouveau la planche de pépinière.Il est également possible de mettre les boutures dans des pots, mais ceci exige beaucoup d'attention quant à l'arrosage. Le sol doit tou-jours être humide, mais lorsqu'il y a trop d'humidité les jeunes racines mourront rapidement pour cause de manque d'oxygène. Sur une planche de pépinière, il est plus facile de maintenir l'humidité du sol dans les limites appropriées. L'ombrage permet de réduire les pertes d'humidité, c'est même un facteur très important pour les boutures qui gardent quelques feuilles, notamment parce que l'ombre réduit la température de l'air. Il est également important de choisir un endroit abrité, parce que ceci permet de protéger les boutures contre l'effet desséchant du vent et que l'humidité de l'air y est plus élevée.Alors que les semis ont une racine pivot dominante, les boutures forment ce que l'on appelle des racines adventives, qui en principe sont toutes égalitaires. Avec le temps, certaines racines adventives peuvent se développer pour devenir beaucoup plus fortes que les autres, mais le système racinaire ne sera jamais aussi fort que celui d'un semis avec sa racine pivot. Comme il a été mentionné dans la section 3.1, ceci a des conséquences considérables pour la vigueur de l'arbre ainsi que pour la mise à fleurs et la mise à fruits.6 Mettre en place une pépinière sur l'exploitation Dans beaucoup de régions, des pépinières sont utilisées avec succès au niveau des exploitations agricoles : à l'ouest du Kenya, environ le tiers des ménages a la coutume de cultiver ses propres semis. Souvent, ils sont cultivés sur l'exploitation. Une pépinière devrait être simple à installer, avec peu d'exigences en ce qui concerne les matériaux et l'entretien. Dans le chapitre précédent, nous avons vu que les lits de semis et les planches de pépinière ainsi qu'une série de pots sont des éléments qui peuvent faire partie d'une pépinière inégrée à une exploitation agricole. Ces facteurs peuvent servir pour cultiver des semis et des boutures et, dans certains cas, des sauvageons. En effet, dans sa forme la plus simple, une pépinière peut être constituée simplement d'une ou deux planches de semis, ou encore de quelques semis ou boutures qui poussent dans des contenants improvisés comme par exemple d'anciennes boites de conserves, des pots ou des cuvettes disposés à l'ombre d'un arbre.Dans le présent chapitre, nous allons traiter comment déterminer l'endroit approprié pour installer la pépinière et quelle est la meilleure façon de procéder, que ce soit un projet simple ou un projet plus ambitieux. En effet, lorsque vous avez l'intention de multiplier des arbres et des arbustes année sur année, vous pourriez choisir un emplacement permanent et perfectionner la disposition des différents éléments. Dans la figure 21 ce sont des feuilles de palmier qui fournissent l'ombre ; l'on peut réduire l'intensité de l'ombre en enlevant quelques feuilles. Des tapis fabriqués de tiges de sorgho ou de mil, de bambou fendu ou encore d'herbe peuvent être disposés sur des structures constituées de poteaux avec du bambou ou du fil, à une hauteur d'environ 50 cm au-dessus des planches (voir figure 22).Figure 22 : Tapis enroulables (Issu de : Nieuwenhuis, 1990) L'on peut dérouler ces tapis le matin, lorsqu'il commence à faire chaud, puis les enrouler à nouveau l'après-midi ou encore aux moments où ils nuisent au travail à effectuer sur les planches. Les tapis d'ombrage devraient laisser passer environ la moitié de la lumière totale du soleil pour permettre aux semis de bien pousser. Si l'on compte utiliser les planches de la pépinière pendant plusieurs années, cela vaudra probablement la peine de faire des préparations plus rigoureuses, de commencer par former des bordures solides puis de les remplir avec du matériau provenant en large partie d'ailleurs, comme suit (voir également la figure 23) : ? Construisez une bordure d'environ 15 cm de hauteur autour de la planche, en utilisant du bois, des briques, ou des rameaux tissés.? Recouvrez le fond des planches d'une couche de 5 cm de graviers ou de briques cassées pour assurer un bon drainage. ? Recouvrez ceci de 2 à 3 cm de compost ou encore d'un mélange de terre et de litière végétale. ? Pour la dernière couche de la planche, utilisez de la terre fine et fertile. C'est dans cette couche que les jeunes arbres prendront racine. Utilisez de la terre tamisée, ou un mélange (1:1) de terre et de sable. ? Piétinez les planches pour que la terre soit bien tassée. Si cette construction est trop ambitieuse pour vous, vous pourriez tout de même adopter certaines des recommandations, notamment pour les lits de semis et les planches de boutures, parce que ces derniers devraient satisfaire les normes les plus exigeantes en ce qui concerne le drainage et la texture du sol (par ex. la couche arable ne doit absolument pas former de croûte).La figure 24 illustre une pépinière modèle avec toutes les caractéristiques traitées dans ce qui précède, tels qu'une source d'eau, un brisevent, une haie et différents types de planches. Le modèle montre également des zones réservées au stockage et à des activités telles que le remplissage des pots, qui sont décrites ci-dessous.  Préparez un calendrier qui montre les périodes auxquelles sont prévues les différentes activités, comme la collecte de graines, l'ensemencement, le repiquage, la plantation sur le terrain, etc. (voir figure 25). Ce calendrier détermine également la nécessité d'arrosage, les moments où il faudra préparer les planches de pépinière ou remplir les pots (précédé de l'achat des pots et de la collecte des ingrédients nécessaires au terreau), etc. Comparez les dates réelles avec le calendrier que vous avez élaboré, pour vous permettre d'améliorer la planification au fur et à mesure que votre expérience s'élargit au cours des années.Comme les graines récalcitrantes ne peuvent pas être conservées pendant très longtemps, il faut les semer dès que possible une fois que les fruits ont mûri. Nombreuses sont les cultures de fruits adaptées aux climats à mousson qui fleurissent pendant la saison sèche, dont les fruits mûrissent pendant la saison des pluies. Ainsi, si la graine est récalcitrante, comme le cas de la mangue par exemple, les plants devront rester dans la pépinière pendant presque une année si l'on veut les planter au début de la saison des pluies suivante.Il faut également tenir compte des besoins en main d'oeuvre. L'arrosage à la main constitue un travail dur qu'il faut effectuer chaque jour pendant la saison sèche. La préparation du terreau et le remplissage des pots provoquent un pic de travail et ceci vaut également pour le repiquage. Pendant la saison sèche, il ne sera peut-être pas trop difficile d'accommoder le travail de pépinière, mais le début de la saison des pluies représente la période la plus occupée d'une exploitation agricole, et il faudra peut-être l'assistance de chaque membre de la famille.Si vous avez l'intention de produire dans votre pépinière, qu'elle soit grande ou petite, du matériel de plantation pendant plusieurs années, vous devriez considérer tenir un cahier de bord. L'idée ne vous plaira peut-être pas. Peut-être que vous préférez manier la houe plutôt qu'un stylo, mais au fil des ans vous vous appuierez de plus en plus de vos notes et vous souhaiterez avoir enregistré d'avantage d'informations plutôt que moins ! Un registre est un outil important qui peut rendre le travail de pépinière plus gratifiant. L'on oublie beaucoup de choses en une année de temps, et au fil des ans il est très difficile de se souvenir qu'est ce qui s'est passé et quand. Même pour une pépinière qui ne produit qu'une seule essence, par ex. pour du matériel de plantation pour des jachères améliorées, les registres offrent un appui. Par ailleurs, s'il n'y a qu'une seule essence, vous n'aurez pas à noter grand chose ! Comme le présent Agrodok ne porte pas sur la comptabilité, nous allons limiter notre présentation à trois types de registres : inventaire du stock de graines, information sur la production et étiquettes.Garder une idée claire des types, des quantités et de l'age des graines stockées n'a du sens que si vous stockez des graines de plusieurs es-sences, surtout si certaines graines sont conservées pendant plusieurs années. L'inventaire consiste en deux parties : ? Les détails concernant chaque lot de graines, notés une fois les graines acquises. ? Une description courante des quantités prélevées périodiquement du stock.Ces deux parties peuvent être notées sur une même page de votre cahier de bord, par exemple de la manière illustrée dans le tableau 4. Tout lot de graines obtenu auprès de commerçants, de services forestiers ou d'autres sources professionnelles doit être accompagné de l'information suivante : ? essence ? date de collecte ? origine des graines (lieu de collecte, provenant de quels arbres mère ou de quel jardin semencier)? pourcentage de germination ? quantité et prix (figurant tous deux sur la facture) Recopiez cette information sur votre propre cahier de bord et si vous collectez vous-même des graines, notez également dans ce cahier l'essence, la date et la source d'où proviennent les graines.Il est possible que vous souhaitiez noter d'autres détails. Pour donner un exemple, les graines sont souvent vendues en unités de poids, mais votre objectif est de cultiver un certain nombre de plants. Supposez qu'un lot de graines pèse 50 grammes. En mesurant combien il faut de graines pour faire un poids de 1 g (ou de 10 ou encore de 50 g, selon la taille des graines) vous pourrez calculer combien de graines sont contenues dans 50 grammes. Le nombre de plants que l'on pourra cultiver avec ce lot de graines dépendra : ? du pourcentage de germination qui indique le nombre attendu de semis. ? du succès de vos activités en pépinière, c'est-à-dire le pourcentage de semis qui se développent pour devenir de bonnes plantes.Ainsi, le poids des graines est une mesure très utile qui vous permet de planifier vos activités en pépinière. Une balance est un instrument indispensable pour le/la pépiniériste. L'annexe 1 illustre comment calculer la quantité de graines qu'il faut pour produire le nombre de semis requis. En outre, il décrit comment vous pourrez tester vous-même le pourcentage de germination. Si vous effectuez le test, n'oubliez pas de noter la date et le résultat du test dans votre cahier de bord ! Allouez un numéro d'identification à chaque lot de graines : le numéro du lot de graines, selon par exemple l'ordre dans lequel vous avez collecté les lots au cours de l'année, par ex. 05/1 indiquant le premier lot de graines collectées (ou achetées) en 2005.La deuxième partie du tableau 4 ne nécessite aucune explication. Elle contient les données enregistrées concernant les quantités de graines retirées du stock et l'utilisation que l'on en a faite. Si le lot de graines contient moins que quelques centaines de graines, il sera peut-être plus pratique de noter le nombre de graines plutôt que le poids des graines.Le registre des données de production Un registre de données de production suit ce qui est fait avec la graine à partir du moment où elle est retirée du stock jusqu'au moment où le matériel de plantation quitte la pépinière. Les éléments les plus importants du registre sont les dates et les nombres de graines/semis. En notant les dates de l'ensemencement, de la germination, du repiquage et de la plantation sur le terrain, vous pourrez calculer combien de temps est pris par chaque phase de développement et ceci est un grand appui pour améliorer la planification pour l'année suivante. Le fait d'enregistrer le nombre de graines que vous avez semées, le nombre de graines qui ont germées, le nombre de plants repiqués puis livrés, vous permettra d'observer combien de bons semis sont issus de, disons 100 graines. Cela vous permettra également de constater à quel moment les pertes principales ont eu lieu : s'agissait-il de germination médiocre, est-ce que les tigelles étaient faibles ou ont-ils germés si tard que vous ne les avez pas repiqués, ou encore s'est-il produit un problème au niveau des planches de pépinière ou des pots ? Ainsi, vous pourrez tirer des leçons des erreurs que vous avez commises et après quelques années vous vous serez entièrement familiarisé avec le comportement des différentes essences dans votre pépinière.Un registre de données de production peut prendre différentes formes ; un exemple en est donné dans le tableau 5.Les étiquettes sont extrêmement utiles. Elles relient ce qui se passe au niveau du stock et de la pépinière avec vos notes dans le cahier de bord. Un cahier de bord peut être assez volumineux, mais une étiquette devrait être petite et n'exiger qu'un minimum d'écriture. Pour ceci, il est utile d'attribuer un numéro identifiant. Si vous stockez les graines dans une bouteille fermée hermétiquement, il vous suffira de mettre dans cette bouteille une étiquette contenant le numéro du lot.Vous trouverez les détails concernant ce lot de graines dans votre cahier de bord. De même, vous pouvez étiqueter la caissette à semis ou la planche avec le même numéro de lot, en y ajoutant la date d'ensemencement ou de repiquage.Une étiquette peut consister d'un autocollant fixé à l'extérieur du contenant, ou, encore mieux, d'un bout de papier placé à l'intérieur de la bouteille ou du sachet en plastique contenant les graines. Pour les caissettes à semis, les planches ou les pots, l'on peut utiliser des étiquettes en plastique dur ou mou, ou alors vous pourriez fabriquer des étiquettes en bois. Utilisez un marqueur indélébile pour écrire sur les étiquettes en plastique ou en bois. Lorsque vous arrosez des lits de semis ou des contenants récemment ensemencés, utilisez un arrosoir qui donne des gouttes fines, pour éviter que les graines et la terre qui les recouvre ne soient déplacées par ruissellement. Jusqu'au moment où les tigelles apparaissent, il faudra arroser peu et fréquemment. Comme alternative, vous pourriez mettre du paillis sur les lits de semis pendant cette phase pour économiser de l'eau et garder humide la surface du sol. Enlevez le paillis dès que les premières tigelles apparaissent. Si ceci est fait tardivement, les premiers semis, qui sont probablement les plus vigoureux, seront gâtés, car ils formeront des fines tiges longues et blanchâtres pour essayer de transpercer le paillis et pousser vers la lumière.Humidifiez la terre, mais évitez de la tremper : un manque d'air freine le processus de germination et favorise la pourriture des graines. Au fur et à mesure que les plants grandissent, l'on pourra les arroser moins fréquemment tout en donnant des quantités d'eau plus importantes afin de parvenir à la profondeur accrue des racines. Les semis plus grands peuvent être arrosés rapidement avec un tuyau d'arrosage, mais il est toujours mieux d'arroser par le biais d'une pomme d'arrosoir parce que ceci accorde plus de temps pour que l'eau s'infiltre dans la terre (des pots).Il est nécessaire d'offrir de l'ombre après un ensemencement, un repiquage ou la plantation de boutures ou de sauvageons, afin d'éviter le dessèchement et la brûlure des feuilles (voir section 6.1 sur les structures d'ombrage). L'on pourra enrouler les tapis d'ombrage une fois que les semis se seront établis, en prenant soin de réduire graduellement l'intensité de l'ombre. L'on peut tailler les arbres d'ombrage pour réduire le degré d'ombre au moment où les plants de la pépinière sont sevrés avant de les planter sur le terrain.En général, il n'est pas nécessaire d'appliquer des fertilisants fabriqués en usine. Cependant, s'il ne vous est pas possible de trouver un terrain libre de chaux pour la pépinière, il sera peut-être nécessaire d'ajouter du sulfate d'ammonium ou de l'urée pour accroitre l'acidité au niveau des racines, car la plupart des arbres poussent le mieux dans un sol légèrement acide.Le fait de tailler les racines permet d'éviter que le plant ne développe une longue racine pivot. Cela stimule la croissance des racines secondaires et évite des systèmes racinaires enchevêtrés pour des plants voisins. Un système racinaire bien développé améliore la probabilité de survie après plantation sur le terrain. Comme il a été expliqué dans le chapitre 5, le repiquage représente une forme précoce de taille de la racine pivot, le fait de limiter le développement des racines par exposition à l'air en faisant germer les graines dans des caissettes à semis à fond ouvert est une méthode idéale pour obtenir un système racinaire bien ramifié dès le début. Après l'exposition des racines à l'air, il ne sera peut-être plus nécessaire de tailler les racines dans les phases de croissance ultérieures : il devrait alors suffire de couper le sol avec une machette ou une bêche entre les plants voisins. Lorsque les planches sont ensemencées directement, ainsi que dans le cas des semis repiqués, il est généralement nécessaire de procéder à la taille des racines, comme illustré dans la figure 26. Tout d'abord l'on taille la racine pivot : enfoncez une bêche sous les plants sous un angle. Essayez de couper la racine pivot à une profondeur de 15 à 20 cm. Les racines pivot de certaines essences poussent de manière extrêmement rapide et si les semis ne sont pas repiqués, il faudra peut-être les tailler dans le mois qui suit la germination. Pour les plants empotés, il suffit de déplacer les pots pour casser la racine pivot, une fois que cette dernière a commencé à pénétrer la terre sous les pots. Comme alternative, l'on peut tirer un fil de fer sous une planche de plants empotés afin de couper les racines pivot.Pour beaucoup de plantes ligneuses, une ou deux racines secondaires se chargent d'assurer la fonction de croissance rapide vers le bas pour remplacer la racine pivot. Le cas échéant, il faudra répéter la taille des racines pivot, cela se fait des deux côtés de chaque rangée de plants.Cette fois-ci, les longues racines secondaires seront également coupées, conduisant à une ramification encore plus prononcée des racines ; la longueur des racines secondaires devrait être limitée à 20 cm ou moins (figure 26). Afin de séparer les systèmes racinaires des plants voisins dans la rangée, l'on peut les couper avec une bêche ou une machette. Communément, ceci se fait quelques semaines avant la transplantation sur le terrain, permettant ainsi le développement de nouvelles racines après la taille.Les boutures ne nécessitent pas ou peu de taille des racines. Elles n'ont pas de racine pivot ; normalement plusieurs racines adventives apparaissent, assurant un système racinaire bien ramifié. Comme il a été mentionné dans la section 4.3, le matériel de plantation devrait avoir une grande masse de racines par rapport à la taille de la pousse, le rapport racines : pousse devrait être élevé. Pour le matériel de plantation, le rapport racines : pousse est probablement la meilleure indication de robustesse.Le repiquage, le fait de limiter le développement des racines par exposition à l'air dans les caissettes à semis à fond ouvert et la taille des racines dans les planches de pépinières ont déjà été présentés en tant que méthodes qui stimulent la ramification du système racinaire. Bien sûr, l'effet immédiat de la taille des racines est une valeur réduite pour le rapport racines : pousse, mais la réaction -une ramification plus prononcée du système racinaire, aux dépends de la croissance de la pousse -augmentera le rapport racines : pousse en dû temps.Le matériel de pépinière ayant un système racinaire fibreux bien ramifié est relativement peu abîmé lorsqu'il est levé ; ces plants à racines nues et les plants empotés peuvent être plantés intacts sur le terrain.Si les plants n'ont pas été cultivés de manière à stimuler la croissance des racines, leur rapport racines : pousse sera faible à la fin de leur séjour dans la pépinière. Et il sera inévitable que les racines s'abîment au moment de lever les plants pour la transplantation, ce qui réduira davantage la proportion des racines. Dans cette phase, la seule option ouverte pour augmenter le rapport racines : pousse est de tailler la pousse, perdant partiellement la croissance effectuée en pépinière.Tailler la pousse pour équilibrer les masses des racines et de la pousse est une pratique assez courante pour les essences sylvicoles à racines nues. Lorsque les plants sont devenus trop grands, que ce soit dû à une mauvaise planification ou à un phénomène imprévu qui a reporté le moment de la plantation sur le terrain, l'on peut couper la pousse. Cette pratique n'est pas rare pour les essences à croissance rapide, comme par ex. les espèces d'Eucalyptus. En général, les pousses sont coupées pour laisser 30 cm (deux fois la hauteur du pot).Deux méthodes plus radicales pour réduire la pousse ont pour résultat des 'plants éffeuillés' et des 'souches' (voir figure 27).Les plants éffeuillés sont des semis d'arbres à larges feuilles dont on a enlevé les feuilles, n'en laissant que quelques unes au bout de la pousse ; les pousses secondaires, s'il y en a, sont enlevées également. Si la pousse principale est taillée, il est probable que le semis forme des pousses secondaires en réaction à cela. Pour éviter ceci la norme est de procéder à une taille radicale, ne laissant qu'une souche de quelques cm de long. Le cas échéant, les racines peuvent également être coupées (pour laisser 20 cm, afin de rendre plus facile la plantation), tout en gardant un rapport racines : pousse élevé. Les arbres qui ont une racine pivot vigoureuse, comme l'Azadirachta indica, le teck et l'arbre à pain, sont souvent plantés sous forme de souches.Il est plus facile de transporter les plants éffeuillés et les souches que les semis intacts, et les premiers ont de meilleures chances de survie lorsque les conditions de croissance sont difficiles. Les souches peuvent servir pour stabiliser des collines instables, alors que des semis non taillés auraient du mal à survivre dans la terre meuble. 8 Le travail sur le site de plantation La meilleure période pour aussi bien l'ensemencement que la plantation correspond à celle qui suit les premières pluies. Souvent, cette période correspond à celle où l'on est le plus occupé sur l'exploitation agricole, c'est pourquoi il est très important d'être bien préparé. Si vous avez bien pensé votre programme de travail, ainsi que votre calendrier, le levage, le transport et la plantation sur le terrain pourront être effectués en succession rapide. Vous devez également penser aux activités secondaires, comme placer des clôtures de protection contre le bétail. Ceci prend du temps et les clôtures doivent être mis en place avant de procéder à la plantation sur le terrain.Il faudra débroussailler le terrain et ameublir la terre à l'endroit où les arbres seront plantés, afin de favoriser l'infiltration de l'eau. Lorsque les mauvaises herbes sont hautes, l'on peut les couper, après quoi il faudra houer ou labourer la terre et enlever toutes les herbes. Pour planter un brise-vent, une haie qui suit les courbes de niveau ou même une parcelle arborée, il suffit de ne cultiver que des bandes de terrain. Dans certains autres cas comme par exemple lorsqu'on plante des arbres longeant une allée, il suffit de dégager et d'ameublir un cercle d'environ 1 m de diamètre.L'espacement des arbres dépend des essences et des conditions du milieu de plantation. Pour former des haies, les plants sont espacés de 0,3 à 0,5 m, parfois en double rangée. Des pieux lourds, comme par ex. formés avec des espèces d'Erythrina, de Commiphora, de Jatropha, ou d'Euphorbia plantés à des distances de 1 à 4 m pourront servir de support pour une clôture en fil barbelé. Les distances de plantation peuvent varier de 1 × 1 m (par ex. pour une jachère améliorée avec le Sesbania sesban) à 10 × 10 m (par ex. pour les grands arbres fruitiers).Dans les parcs boisés d'agroforesterie, les arbres sont généralement plantés loin les uns des autres afin de minimiser la concurrence avec la culture ou le pâturage. Lorsque les arbres doivent être alignés correctement, comme lorsque l'on plante un verger ou une allée, l'on peut y parvenir en plaçant des bâtons pour marquer les emplacements exacts où les arbres devront être plantés. L'on pourra aligner les bâtons à vue.Il y a souvent beaucoup de pertes de matériel de plantation causés par des erreurs commises lors du transport et du stockage. Pour éviter cela, faites bien attention aux points suivants : ? Veillez à ce que la période de temps entre le levage des plants en pépinière et la plantation soit aussi courte que possible. ? Maintenez les plants humides et au frais en les recouvrant, surtout s'ils sont transportés en camion. ? Assurez-vous que les racines des plants à racines nues soient recouvertes pendant toute la période, elles se dessèchent rapidement. ? Maniez le matériel de plantation avec soin lorsque vous le chargez, le transportez puis le déchargez.Si vous déplacez des plants empotés ou des plants ayant une motte de racines, tenez-les par le pot ou par la motte, et non pas par la tige.Tant que possible, transportez les semis dans des cageots ou des boites, et maintenez les pots en position bien dressée. Au moment où le matériel de plantation arrive sur le site de plantation, il faut l'arroser et le garder à l'ombre.Ce qui provoque souvent la mort des jeunes arbres, c'est le délai de plantation après avoir été levés. Pour éviter ces pertes, vous pourriez les enterrer temporairement de la manière suivante (voir figure 28).Creusez une tranchée (A : a=est, b=ouest). Déposez les plants côte à côte dans la tranchée, le moins exposé au soleil possible (B). Recouvrezles avec de la terre humide (C). Placez une nouvelle couche de plants contre la première couche et ainsi de suite (D). Le trou de plantation doit être suffisamment grand pour pouvoir contenir le système racinaire ou le contenu du pot. Placez les plants soigneusement à la position correcte dans le trou de plantation. Le collet de racines, c'est-à-dire l'endroit de transition de la racine à la tige, doit se retrouver au ras du sol, après que la terre dans le trou se soit tassée. Il faut de l'expérience pour parvenir à planter du matériel de plantation à racines nues à la profondeur appropriée. L'on peut dépoter les plants contenus dans les polypots en coupant soigneusement le plastique sans abîmer la motte de racines (figure 29).  Sur 400 graines, 200 tigelles sont apparues, donc le pourcentage de germination est 50. Cependant, le comptage journalier des tigelles apparues donne également des informations précieuses concernant la vitesse de germination. La germination a commencée 8 jours après l'ensemencement et avait plus ou moins terminée 19 jours plus tard. Notez que plus que la moitié des tigelles est apparu dans les 4 premiers jours de la germination. Les 7 jours suivants ont contribué 40% et pendant les 8 derniers jours seulement 8% du nombre de tigelles est apparu. Une telle baisse dans la vitesse de germination est assez commune ; vous devrez considérer si vous souhaiter attendre les dernières tigelles ou non.Les semis de Pinus caribaea sont repiqués 2 ou 3 jours après émergence. Ainsi, sur la base des chiffres figurant dans le tableau, 10 à 15 jours après l'ensemencement, le besoin en main d'oeuvre journalier sera deux fois plus important que pendant la semaine suivante, après quoi il n'y aura plus que quelques semis à repiquer.C'est la raison pour laquelle il vaut la peine d'inclure dans un test de germination le comptage des semis qui émergent à des intervalles réguliers (quotidien ou hebdomadaire, selon l'essence). Alors que le pourcentage de germination permet de déterminer combien il faut semer de graines, la rapidité de germination fournit des données d'appui qui permettent de mieux planifier le travail en pépinière.2. Combien faut-il de graines pour obtenir un nombre donné de plants? À l'exception des grandes graines (notamment les graines des espèces récalcitrantes), les graines sont généralement vendues et maniées par unité de poids. Pour pouvoir répondre à la question ci-dessus, vous devrez donc savoir combien il y a de graines dans un gramme ou kilogramme. Une balance et une série de poids vous permettront de mesurer combien de graines font 1g (ou disons, 10 ou 100 g dans le cas de graines plus grandes). Répétez la mesure avec un autre échantillon de graines et prenez la moyenne. Si la différence entre les échantillons varie de plus de 10%, répétez la procédure jusqu'au moment d'obtenir des chiffres plus concordants.Il faudra élever le nombre de grammes à semer en fonction de votre estimation des éléments suivants : ? pourcentage de germination ? pourcentage de semis qui poussent mal ? la nécessité de replanter au niveau des trous qui apparaissent après la plantation sur le terrain.L'on peut déterminer une estimation du pourcentage de germination en effectuant le test décrit ci-dessus. Pour une pépinière bien gérée, les pertes en pépinière ne devraient pas dépasser 10%. Ce chiffre comprend les plants qui ne sont pas \"true to type\", c'est-à-dire qui ne presentent pas les caractéristiques propres à l'essence en question, les plants atteints de ravageurs ou de maladies, et les plants dont le développement est trop lent pour être prêt à temps. Les plantes à croissance lente peuvent toujours servir pour regarnir les trous qui apparaissent après la plantation sur le terrain. La nécessité de regarnissage devrait être bien en-dessous de 10% des plants si vous, le/la pépiniériste, veillez à ce que des plantes résistantes soient prêtes au moment adéquat! Naturellement, les marges de sûreté mentionnées ci-dessus ne peuvent pas couvrir le risque de calamités, telles que les averses de grêle, les nuages de sauterelles, etc.La manière la plus simple de faire une estimation pour la quantité de graines à semer est, dans un premier temps, de commencer avec le nombre d'arbres à planter et de réajuster en fonction, ? des semis qui ne se développent pas correctement ? des arbres supplémentaires nécessaires pour regarnir les trous qui apparaîtront après la plantation sur le terrain. Dans un deuxième temps, il faudra estimer à partir du pourcentage de germination le nombre de graines nécessaire pour pouvoir obtenir le nombre de semis souhaité. Dans un troisième temps, il faudra convertir le nombre de graines en unité de poids des graines.1 Nombre d'arbres à planter : 100.Nombre de semis à cultiver : 10 à 20% de plus ; disons 20%, c'est-à-dire 120 semis. 2 Résultat du test de germination : 58%.Germination espérée : 50%. Nombre de graines à semer : 100/50 × 120 = 240. 3 Nombre de graines contenus dans 10 g : 80.Quantité de graines à semer : 240/80 × 10 = 30 g.Le tableau suivant fournit quelques informations quantitatives concernant l'utilisation des pots en polythène de différentes dimensions. Le nombre de pots par kg de plastique est donné pour du polythène de 0,04 mm d'épaisseur.Un aspect important illustré par le tableau est la forte augmentation au niveau de la superficie des planches et du volume de terreau nécessaires lorsque des pots à diamètre plus élevé sont utilisés. Doubler le diamètre des pots conduit à multiplier par quatre la superficie ainsi que le volume nécessaires. Comparez par exemple ce qu'il faut pour des pots de 18 cm de hauteur avec un diamètre de 4.1 ou de 8.0 cm. Il ne sera peut-être pas difficile de trouver du terreau et de la place, il faudra surtout considérer le travail supplémentaire requis pour remplir les grands pots et les déplacer, non seulement au niveau de la pépinière, mais également sur le site de plantation.Pour les pots en cylindre, le volume est proportionnel à la hauteur du pot. Ainsi, les pots de 30 cm de hauteur du tableau 2 nécessitent exactement 50% de terreau en plus que les pots du même diamètre de 20 cm. Cependant, une augmentation de 50% au niveau de la charge à porter est suffisamment importante pour sélectionner avec soin la taille de pot appropriée, comme il a été souligné dans la section 5.2.Tableau 7 : Quelques tailles courantes de pots de polythène, avec la superficie de planche de pépinière et le volume de terreau requis. Il y a des espèces pour lesquelles il n'existe pas de nom commun utilisé par tous en anglais (E), en français (F) ou en espagnol (S) ; dans ce cas, il faut utiliser le nom botanique. Les noms communs ne sont pas uniques; ils peuvent être différents dans différentes parties du monde. C'est la raison pour laquelle l'on a donné plusieurs noms en une même langue pour certaines espèces.Origine : La liste indique le continent d'où l'essence semble originaire, notamment parce que ceci peut signifier qu'on a plus de chances d'obtenir des graines ou du matériel de plantation dans ce continent là. Cepen-dant, de nombreuses espèces se sont répandues dans les régions tropicales et sont facilement disponibles au dehors du continent d'origine.Port : L'apparence globale de la plante est décrite brièvement. Le port des espèces qui sont trouvées dans beaucoup de conditions écologiques différentes peut être radicalement différent d'une situation à l'autre.Les méthodes de multiplication courantes sont indiquées. Lorsqu'il y a plusieurs méthodes de multiplication, la plus courante est mentionnée en premier lieu; si une des méthodes est recommandée, cette méthode est soulignée.Les stakes sont des boutures très grandes, utilisées comme pieux vivants.Ecologie : L'information donnée concernant les conditions de croissances requises par les plants est souvent fragmentaire, par ailleurs, les sources utilisent des termes fort différents. En outre, au sein de chaque espèce, l'on fait la distinction entre plusieurs types qui varient selon leurs nécessités écologiques, par ex. un type peut être mieux adapté à des conditions arides qu'un autre. Dans la mesure de la disponibilité de l'information, l'on commence par indiquer l'intervalle d'altitude où l'on peut trouver le plant dans les pays tropicaux. Le symbole < indique \"inférieur à\", > indique \"supérieur à\"; un signe de plus (+) suivant un chiffre indique que la plante se trouve jusqu'à l'altitude donnée, mais que l'on trouve parfois dans des localités plus élevées. Les besoins pluviométriques sont décrits avec les mêmes termes ; cependant, lorsque les plants ont accès à l'eau de la nappe phréatique ou s'ils poussent le long des rives d'un fleuve ou dans des dépressions, ils pourraient se développer avec moins de précipitation que le chiffre donné. L'information concernant les besoins au niveau du sol n'est disponible que dans peu de cas.Aussi bien les produits donnés par la plante, comme par ex. du fourrage ou des fibres, et les usages de l'arbre sur le plan environnement, comme par ex. des engrais verts, de l'ombrage, de l'abri, sont indiqués. Un effort a été fait pour indiquer en premier l'usage principal, mais ceci peut varier selon les différentes régions, par ex. dans les régions humides l'usage d'une plante peut consister principalement en fournir du fourrage, alors que dans les régions plus arides c'est surtout les fruits et le bois de combustion que l'on utilise. L'espace limité dont nous disposons ne permet pas d'indiquer les usages de manière très élaborée, dans certains cas les usages les plus importants sont suivis de \"etc.\"Remarques :Dans cette colonne figurent des informations qui n'entrent dans aucune des autres catégories, qui peuvent être intéressantes pour le cultivateurs/la cultivatrice, et qui peuvent être indiquées en quelques mots. ","tokenCount":"15424"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"66107deb157edc4bce7a1698d90137c1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/10d89007-947e-4642-b960-e76b1e3a44b3/retrieve","id":"947882039"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"99849c32-e6a5-4495-802b-0ede5f8d64c4","pagecount":"138","content":"This training manual can be used by anyone involved with training of smallholder tissue culture farmers, such as extension agents or applied scientists. The manual is not intended as a guide for farmers themselves. The trainings were mostly carried out by a facilitator and an assistant from VEDCO and IITA.The manual is organized into five modules, and each module is divided into sessions. The sessions are based on actual training sessions carried in Central Uganda. Each session was carried out and evaluated three or four times, with adaptation and fine-tuning along the way.Most of the sessions are structured similarly: after listing the 'tools' (personnel and equipment), the activities are given as a series of steps. The actual content for each session is given below this, in a coloured box. Each session concludes with a Q&A section, which includes actual questions posed during the training.We recommend that implementation of any training adheres as closely as possible to the format detailed within the manual. However, modifications according to geography and farmer conditions may be necessary. multiplication rooting initiation weaning hardening farmers tissue culture producers tissue culture nurseries tissue culture farmers viii Commercial tissue culture laboratories in East Africa Country Name Address ContactBanana is an essential staple crop throughout the Great Lakes region of East Africa. It is also an important source of trade and income. To safeguard sustainable banana production and generate wealth for smallholder farmers, high quality planting material is crucial.Banana in smallholder farmer systems in East Africa is traditionally propagated by means of suckers, which contain pests and diseases. Plants produced through tissue culture are mostly free from pests and diseases (with a few exceptions). There are many further benefits to using tissue culture plants:(1) they are more vigorous, meaning faster growth and higher yields; (2) they are more uniform, allowing for better planned marketing; and (3) they can be produced in large quantities in a short period of time, facilitating distribution of both existing and new cultivars. In other words, tissue culture technology can help banana farmers to make the transition from subsistence to income generation.However, there are hurdles that are limiting widespread uptake and optimal use of tissue culture technology among smallholder farmers in East Africa. Distribution systems of tissue culture plantlets to farmers are one key obstacle. Plantlets are often distributed in large quantities at subsidized prices by various development partners, but this is not sustainable in the long run. Tissue culture plantlets are fragile, and their thriving depends on good management by nursery operators and farmers, especially in the early stages. This knowledge is currently mostly lacking. For nursery operators, the correct handling of plantlets in humidity chambers and shadehouses determines plantlet survival and quality. For farmers, plantlets need to be carefully and properly transported, and receive suitable water and fertilizer to fully reap the benefits.Switching to tissue culture technology from conventional suckers requires different skills and knowledge for both nursery operators and farmers. For nursery operators, training in agronomic and technical know-how, while important, is not sufficient; nursery owners also need business and marketing skills to turn their nursery into a profit-making business. For farmers, the potentially higher production and more uniform harvesting times of bananas will require good business and marketing skills for them to fully benefit. Working together in groups has been shown (in Kenya and Southern Uganda) to strengthen the position of farmers within the banana value chain; however organizing into groups takes additional skills.Promotion of tissue culture bananas has in the past been too focused on commercial tissue culture producers. Therefore, in 2008, a project was launched which aimed at developing improved and efficient pathways to deliver tissue culture plants to less commercial farmers. The project, titled 'Banana tissue culture: community dissemination pathways for delivery of high quality planting material to create markets for African farmers', was funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The project built on an earlier phase that demonstrated potential for tissue culture technology with smallholder banana farmers. As part of the project, training was undertaken in East Africa of tissue culture nursery operators and farmers. In Burundi and Uganda, over 700 farmers were trained during more than 250 training sessions, and 150 nursery operators during 20 training sessions. In Kenya, farmers and nursery operators were trained together, and 75 training sessions were organized. The training courses were lengthy and detailed, with an individual farmer or nursery operator attending up to 40 training events over the course of 1-2 years. This manual, and the accompanying manual for training of nursery operators, are based on the training notes from these courses.The modules are organized in the order in which we recommend they be delivered, however they are largely stand-alone and can be interchanged. Within a module, however, the order of the sessions should remain fixed. The entire training course (all sessions from all modules) takes approximately 1-2 years if modules are run sequentially, however modules can be run in parallel to reduce the training period. Some of the modules are relevant beyond tissue culture bananas, e.g. 'Working in groups', 'Business skills for farmers' and 'Marketing for farmers' can be applied to business activities beyond growing of bananas.Aims to raise interest among farmers in growing tissue culture bananas.Guides farmers on how to mobilize and organize farmer groups, as well as useful lessons on group dynamics, such as leadership, motivation, communication and conflict resolution.Covers the steps that need to be taken to care for and grow banana plants, including tissue culture plants, from field preparation to harvest. Important concepts, such as water and soil conservation practices and pest, disease and weed management, are covered in separate sessions.Covers the basic concepts of business planning and record keeping, using an instructive but simplified example of benefit-cost calculation.Explains the basics of marketing, with a focus on collective marketing. vii Producing tissue culture bananas: a summary Specialized tissue culture laboratories (see table on next page) carry out the first stages of tissue culture banana production. These are:1. Initiation: The meristem is taken from a plant in the field and transferred into sterile, specialized media in the laboratory, where the tissue develops into shoots. 2. Multiplication (1 cycle takes approx. 1 month): Each month, the tissue is subdivided and cultured.How often the tissue is subdivided and into how many shoot pieces depends on the tissue culture laboratory and banana cultivar, but with more multiplication cycles and shoots, the greater the number of plants generated. 3. Rooting: Further to the multiplication cycles, shoots are placed on rooting media for about 1 month where they are induced to form roots and produce banana plantlets.Nursery operators then take the fragile plantlets and put them through weaning and hardening, before they are ready for selling to farmers:4. Weaning (approx. 3 weeks): During this critical stage, plantlets are removed from and gradually weaned from the conditions within a tissue culture flask (100% relative humidity, sterile and no direct sunlight) to the environment of the shadehouse; weaning is usually accomplished using humidity chambers within the shadehouse. 5. Hardening (1-3 months, until sale to farmers): During this stage, weaned plants are exposed to the environment in the shadehouse which prepares them for field conditions.Finally, farmers buy and grow the tissue culture plantlets, in much the same way as banana plants derived from suckers or corm pieces.This module aims to instruct trainers how to carry out an introductory session with farmers. The introductory session explains the basic processes involved in tissue culture for banana plants, and aims to stimulate interest among the participants so that they decide to attend future sessions and learn how to raise tissue culture plantlets.This training guide is structured as follows:1. Planning for the training session:• Mobilizing participants• Preparing training materials• Obtaining materials and equipment needed for the session• Preparing the venue for the session.• Delivering the content• Agreeing schedule, timing and location of subsequent training sessions with those participants who want to continue the training• Baseline survey of participants.The training session is scheduled for 3 hours, and should be carried out in a single session.Additional materials could include posters, flyers or brochures. Obtain or print as many copies as anticipated participants. Also, prepare the attendance form, for collecting information on participants (Appendix 3).Obtaining materials and equipment needed for the session Appendix 4 gives an example of the materials and equipment that might be needed for the training session. Plan and prepare a similar checklist for your session, and use it to collect all the necessary materials and equipment ahead of the session.The venue must be agreed ahead of printing the flyers, so that this information can be included in the flyers. The venue should ideally be a banana tissue culture nursery. The meeting room should have adequate lighting/shade and seating arrangements for the participants.The training session has four objectives:1. To introduce the training course and its aim and objectives to the participants 2. To introduce farmers to the basics of tissue culture bananas 3. To agree the schedule, timing and venue for subsequent modules with those participants who want to continue the training 4. To determine some key characteristics of those participants who will be continuing the training.Personnel: A facilitator and an assistant (the training team)Supplies: Posters, transport, recording material (pens, notebooks), markers, flipchart, camera, flyers, masking tape, seats for the participants, attendance form, table, hoe, 2 banana suckers (one visibly healthy and one visibly infested by pests and/or diseases), 1 panga, 1 knife, 1 jerry can of tap water, 2 glass tubes/baby jars containing tissue culture banana plantlets, 2 weaned tissue culture banana plantlets, refreshments Time: 3 hours 1. The training team should arrive at the venue at least 1 hour before the meeting to prepare the room and equipment for the session. As participants arrive, welcome them, show them where to sit and make them feel comfortable. Ask them to register using the attendance form. Provide them with any training materials and supplies they need for the session.2. Begin the training session. Welcome the participants and have each member of the training team introduce him or herself to the participants, including their name, the organization they work for, and their role on the training course. Then have the participants introduce themselves, including their name, where they live, how they got to know about the meeting and their expectations from the meeting.3. Introduce the objectives of the training course. Briefly summarize the five modules that comprise the course. Then introduce Module 1 and its objectives.4. Give a detailed presentation about tissue culture bananas. Make the presentation as practical as possible, using demonstrations as appropriate. Encourage questions or comments from the participants throughout. The presentation can be based on the content on pages 6-12, and structured as follows:• What is banana tissue culture?• How to produce banana tissue culture plantlets• Soil sterilization• Removing plantlets from laboratory culture containers and potting them into soil• The humidity chamber• The hardening process• Where to obtain tissue culture banana plantlets• Advantages and disadvantages of tissue culture banana plants• Some myths about tissue culture banana plants.5. The participants and training team discuss and agree the dates, time and venue for the subsequent training sessions.6. Carry out a baseline survey of participants. Useful information to gather includes: size of banana plantation owned; number of banana plants and cultivars grown; past experience with banana tissue culture plants; experience in banana production; challenges encountered with banana production; average yields; and marketing channels for banana produced by the farmer. Use the checklist in Appendix 5 to obtain this information (this may need to be translated into an appropriate language.) Ask farmers to take the checklists and return them during the next meeting.7. Wrap up the session as follows:• Briefly recap the day's session• Ensure that all participants have registered their names on the attendance list What is banana tissue culture?Tissue culture is a technique for multiplying clean banana planting material from small plant pieces taken from a mother plant. Although any part of the banana plant can be used to generate tissue culture plants, it is the meristem/shoot tip that is commonly used.[Trainer: Demonstrate steps 1-6, then present steps 7-10 theoretically, in simple language.] 1. Carefully select source materials (peepers or small sword suckers) that appear healthy (pest-and disease-free) and that are growing vigorously. [Trainer: Show two suckers to the participants: one that has visible evidence of pest or disease infestation and one that appears healthy. Explain that you cannot be sure if you are planting infected or clean material, as most suckers appear to be relatively healthy until their corms are exposed.]2. Using either a hoe or a panga, separate the sucker ('ex-plant') from the mother plant.3. Clean the sucker by removing soil and cutting off the roots to expose the corm. Cut off parts of the pseudostem to a length of about 30 cm. 5. Wash the sucker under tap water to remove mud and other debris.6. Trim away the outer leaf sheaths, leaf bases and corm tissue of the ex-plant until a 2 × 2 × 2 cm 3 cube enclosing the shoot apex remains. Be careful to avoid cutting through the apex.7. The ex-plant is placed directly on a multiplication-inducing culture medium in containers. A growth regulator (cytokinin) is added to the multiplication medium to speed up the process. The containers are transferred to incubators or growth chambers and maintained at an optimal growth temperature of 28 ± 2°C.8. Banana tissue culture shoots often suffer from blackening caused by exudates from wounded tissues. These undesirable exudates form a barrier round the tissue, preventing nutrient uptake and hindering growth. To prevent this, during the first 4-6 weeks fresh shoots are transferred to new medium every 1-2 weeks. 9. The shoot tips then start to develop.10.Individual shoots or shoot clumps that have formed are transferred to a nutrient medium which does not promote further shoot proliferation but stimulates root formation (rooting media). After rooting, plantlets are ready to leave the laboratory for weaning and hardening.[Trainer: Show the participants a culture bottle with plantlets that are ready to leave the laboratory for weaning. Briefly describe the remaining process the tissue culture plantlets have to go through before they are ready for planting: after leaving the laboratory, the tissue culture plantlets are removed from their culture containers, placed into small bags containing sterilized soil, and transferred to a humidity chamber for weaning.]Soil sterilization destroys plant pathogens, pests and weeds which may be present in the soil.1. Prepare the necessary materials: oil drum, water, fireplace and firewood, forest soil, sand, manure, hoes, spade, wheelbarrow and sisal bags. 2. Ensure the drum has no holes. Weld some strong metal pipes inside the drum, horizontally and approximately 30 cm from the bottom of the drum, to make a shelf for the soil sacks so that the soil sacks are kept above the water. 5. Pack about 10 kg of the mixture into sisal sacks and lift them into the drum so that they sit on the metal pipes. When the drum is full, cover the top of the drum with sisal bags so that steam is retained when the drum is heated.Fig. 3. Oil drum for soil sterilization.6. Proper sterilization of the soil depends on the amount of firewood used and the intensity of the fire. Generally, after 1-2 hours of a large enough fire, when steam is seen coming out of the soil, the soil should be fully sterilized.7. When the soil is considered fully sterilized, remove the covering sisal bags and leave the drum to cool. After cooling, remove the sisal bags containing the soil mixture and pour the soil onto a clean surface, spreading it out to cool. It may take 2-3 hours, or overnight, before the soil cools completely and is ready to use.Removing plantlets from laboratory culture containers and potting them into soil 1. After removing the plantlets from the culture bottles, rinse their roots to remove agar residue which could encourage development of pathogens. If the plantlet has long roots, shorten them to about 2-3 cm, since long roots may break and take more time to establish.2. Plantlets coming out of the culture bottles are not of uniform size and may be clumped.Carefully separate any that are clumped, and sort them according to size.3. Pot plants of the same size into small plastic containers (~150 ml) containing sterilized soil mixture. Up to five plantlets of the same size can be potted into one plastic container. The fragile plantlets are weaned in a humidity chamber, which helps them adapt to the external environment. While in the culture bottles, plantlets are under 100% relative humidity and lower light intensities. In the humidity chamber, they experience lower humidity and higher light levels, getting them used to conditions in the field.Fig. 5. A shadehouse with a humidity chamber for weaning tissue culture plantlets.The following conditions are recommended in the humidity chamber:• Temperature should be between 25ºC and 35ºC. Lower or higher temperatures can lead to poor plant development.• Keep plantlets shaded. Shades can be constructed using sheeted bamboo poles, grass or leaves and placed on the roof of the humidity chamber. The chamber itself can be kept in the shadehouse or under natural shade (e.g. a tree).• High relative humidity should be maintained by regular misting using a hand sprayer. Humidity can be gradually reduced over time.Plants should be transplanted into containers or black polythene bags either directly after removal from tissue culture flasks or following 1-2 weeks growth in a humidity chamber.Procedure for transferring the plantlets to a shadehouse for hardening:• Fill the polythene bags (~ 250-350 ml) or containers with a soil mixture and pour some water into the polythene bags.• Carefully uproot the plantlets (coming from the humidity chamber) from their container, one at a time.• Using your index finger or a rod, make an insertion into the moist soil within the polythene bag and carefully insert the uprooted plantlet in an upright position. Plant only one plantlet per bag or container. Cover its entire corm with the potting mix.• Transfer the potted plantlet into the shadehouse for hardening. After about a month in the shadehouse, the plantlets are ready for planting in the soil.The following conditions are recommended in the shadehouse:• Daily watering, either in the morning or in the evening; twice a day (morning and evening) during very dry conditions.• Temperature between 15ºC and 35ºC, with an optimum of 25-30ºC.• A high standard of hygiene is necessary to reduce the risk of damage by pest or pathogens.Caterpillars and mites can be serious leaf pests in the nursery. Spraying plants with insecticides can be effective for the control of such pests.• Partial shading is essential especially during the early stages in the shadehouse. Shade can be provided by using a special shadenet to cover the shadehouse. Where to obtain tissue culture banana plantlets Production of tissue culture plantlets takes place at specialized laboratories (see table on page viii).Plantlets can be procured at different levels of maturity (post-flask, post-weaning or post-hardening) and through different channels (directly from the laboratory, at a tissue culture banana nursery or from tissue culture banana distributors). Farmers would most likely buy post-hardened plantlets from a nursery or a distributor.• Disease-and pest-free planting material• Little space needed for multiplying large numbers of plants• Uniform plantlets which provide for consistent plantation development• More vigorous plants, with shorter harvestto-harvest periods and higher bunch weights• Prerequisite for cross-border traffic of planting material• Allows for faster distribution of superior germplasm• Can be used in gene banks to conserve plant genotypes for future use in research or agriculture• Price of tissue culture planting material is usually double that of conventional sucker material• Better plant management and care is needed (watering, weeding and adding fertilizer), especially at early stages Working in groupsThe objective of this module is to familiarize participants with ways in which people can come together, form a group, and work productively for a common purpose.The module is comprised of the following sessions:• Session 1: Introduction to working in groups• Session 2: Who should join the group?• Session 3: Group leadership All sessions should be held in a convenient classroom or other meeting place. • What is a group?• What are the benefits of working as a group?• What are the factors contributing to group success?• What are the causes of group failure?Conducting the session 1. Open the day's session by displaying the flipchart with the title of the day's session and the questions guiding the session.2. Invite participants to brainstorm on what the word 'group' means. List their responses on the flipchart. Based on participants' input, extract a definition of 'group' that includes at least the following elements:• People rather than things Where necessary, supplement the discussion.• Briefly recap the day's session• Communicate the topic of the next session (Who should join the group?), and the date, time and venue (ideally the venue will be the same for all the sessions).A group is a collection of individuals who have regular contact and frequent interaction, and who work together to achieve a common goal or goals.A farmer group is a collection of farmers with a common objective or problem to solve, which is often associated with the production and marketing of agricultural products.Benefits include:• Groups of farmers can get access to services such as advisory services, technology, credit, markets and information, which individual farmers, particularly the disadvantaged (poor, women and youth), may not be able to.• Collective production, marketing and purchase of inputs can offer economies of scale and therefore reduce costs for farmers.• Farmer groups provide a forum to share experiences and learn from one another.• Group pressure tends to stimulate adoption of knowledge and change to improved practices.• Increases farmers' opportunities for participation in development programmes.• Promotes inter-personal relationships and collaboration.• Encourages better management of shared resources.• A farmer group can act as security for loans (group guarantee).• Gives farmers a 'voice', which they may use to influence policy.A successful famer group:• has a clear goal, objectives and action plan• has a constitution, or a written record of its purpose and rules, which are observed by all members• has good leaders, elected by the members• has a name and a physical address• keeps proper records for transparency• has members make financial contributions and encourage group savings, which helps build a sense of ownership• has honest members who work hard to achieve their shared objectives• holds regular meetings and takes minutes• has members participate in decision making, and share the benefits.• Some or all of the characteristics above are lacking• Cliques/factions develop in the group• Unresolved conflicts/problems in the group.Q1: Is our farmers' group eligible for a bank loan?A1: Your group is eligible for a loan from a bank that offers agricultural loans, as long as the group meets the minimum requirements for borrowing, which differ from bank to bank. Banks normally lend money to people in groups because group members can act as guarantors for the loan.Q2: What should be the maximum number of individuals in a farmers' group?A2: There is no maximum number, but the bigger the size of the group, the harder it becomes to manage. A total of 50 members may be ideal, but with good management a larger group could be successful.Q3: Many non-government organizations in this area seem to prefer working with women's groups.Why is this?A3: Women play a key role in agricultural development and ensure food security at a household level, and yet in most communities they don't make key decision regarding agricultural production or marketing, which are instead left to men. For this reason, many NGOs are prioritizing working with women's groups to increase the capacity of women in making key agricultural decisions.Q4: In the past, we tried to form groups but they didn't last. How can we make sure new groups will be successful?A4: If you ensure that your group has the characteristics of successful farmers' groups (see above), then it should be successful.Q5: Can a farmers' group do things outside farming?A5: Yes, a farmers' group can do things outside farming as long as they are in line with the group vision and objectives and all members are in agreement over the new developments.Session 2: Who should join the group? • What kinds of people would you ask to join your group?• Should both men and women be included in the group?• Would you include people of different classes or ethnic groups?• How large would you try to make your group?• Would it be important for members of your group to live nearby?Conducting the session 1. Have a volunteer participant briefly recap the previous session.2. Open the day's session by displaying the flipchart with the title of the day's session and the questions guiding the session.3. Divide participants into groups of about five people. The groups then discuss among themselves and agree some responses to the questions. Allow about 30 minutes for the group work, then assemble all groups and let a spokesperson from each group share the group's responses in the plenary. List the points on the flipchart.• Briefly recap the day's session• Communicate the topic of the next session (Group leadership), and date, time and venue.Who should be invited to join the group?• People who share common goals, and are committed to reaching the goals.• People who share common interests. Similar interests and a good understanding of each other contribute to a successful group.• People who are motivated and interested in becoming members of the group. No one should be forced to join.The gender composition of the group is important, both for the internal workings of the group (group dynamics), and for achieving the goals of the group. When forming a gender-balanced group, the group should strive for things such as equal participation in decision-making structures and processes, equal opportunities, and equal access to information.There are rich, poor, middle class, and different ethnic groups within most communities. Whether to include a range of classes and ethnic groups will depend on the goals of the group and on practical considerations. There can be advantages to mixed groups, for example the group may benefit from a wider perspective. However, if too many members are from rich and elite communities, they may dominate the decision-making processes.A large group size can be unmanageable. Also, it can be difficult for all members to meet frequently, and resources may be insufficient. However, with good management in place, a large group can function effectively.From how far away should members be recruited?If group members are far away from each other, meetings will be difficult. Groups consisting of individuals living in the same location or village, or nearby villages, are usually more effective.Q1: Can people become members of more than one group? A1: Joining more than one group may mean that the person cannot devote enough time to either group. It is probably better to decide which the most appropriate group is and stay with that one.Q2: Should members of a group all be from the same village?A2: There are benefits if members are living close to each other, for example it is easier to meet. However, groups can also have members from nearby villages.Q3: How long should a person be living in an area before they are eligible to join a group?Q3: This will depend on the group constitution, but 1 year would be a good length of time, so that the person has got to know the community.Q4: How often should a group hold meetings?A4: A group should probably meet at least two times a month, but this will also depend on the nature of the group. • What is the meaning of 'leadership'?• What are the roles of a leader?• What are the different types of leadership?• What are the qualities of a good leader?Conducting the session 1. Have a volunteer participant briefly recap the previous session.2. Open the day's session by displaying the flipchart with the title of the day's session and the questions guiding the training.3. Divide participants into groups of about five people. The task of each group is to:• Select a leader from among themselves• Discuss how and why they selected that person as their leader.4. Allow about 15 minutes for the group work, then assemble in plenary and have a spokesperson from each group describe how they selected their leader, and why they selected that person.List the points on the flipchart.5. Ask participants if they can suggest a definition for the term 'leadership'. Then ask participants to brainstorm on the remaining questions. Write down the responses on the flipchart. Encourage participants to provide examples where appropriate. Where necessary, supplement the discussion.• Briefly recap the day's session• Communicate the topic of the next session (Group motivation), and the date, time and venue.Leadership is the art of motivating other people towards achieving a common goal. Group leadership involves facilitating the achievement of group goals and objectives, and motivating members to pursue group goals.• Create an environment of trust, open communication, creative thinking, and cohesive team effort• Provide the team with a vision• Motivate and inspire team members• Lead by setting a good example (role model)• Coach and help team members• Facilitate problem solving and collaboration• Strive for team consensus• Ensure discussions and decisions lead to closure• Maintain healthy group dynamics• Intervene when necessary to aid the group in resolving issues• Assure that the group members have the necessary education and training to effectively participate• Encourage creativity, entrepreneurship and ongoing improvement• Recognize and celebrate group and group member accomplishments and exceptional performance.Autocratic leadership is where a leader exerts high levels of power over his or her employees or team members. People within the team are given few opportunities for making suggestions, even if these would be in the team's or organization's interest.Bureaucratic leaders work 'by the book', ensuring that their staff follow procedures exactly. This is a very appropriate style for work involving serious safety risks (such as working with machinery, with toxic substances or at heights) or where large sums of money are involved (such as cash-handling).A charismatic leadership style is one where the leader injects a lot of enthusiasm into his or her team, and is very energetic in driving others forward. However, a charismatic leader can tend to believe more in him-or herself than in the group. This creates a risk that the entire organization might collapse if the leader were to leave, because their followers believe that success is tied to the presence of the charismatic leader. As such, charismatic leadership carries great responsibility, and needs long-term commitment from the leader.Although a democratic leader will make the final decision, he or she invites other members of the team to contribute to the decision-making process. This not only increases job satisfaction by involving employees or team members in what's going on, but it also helps to develop people's skills.Employees and team members feel in control of their own destiny, and so are motivated to work hard by more than just a financial reward.This French phrase means 'leave it be' and is used to describe a leader who leaves his or her colleagues to get on with their work. It can be effective if the leader monitors what is being achieved and communicates this back to his or her team regularly. Most often, laissez-faire leadership works for teams in which the individuals are experienced and skilled self-starters.A good leader:• is gender sensitive• acts with self-confidence, avoids anger, and takes decisions on a rational and informed basis• is able to admit his or her weaknesses• is willing to delegate responsibility• has a good understanding of human behaviour• respects and accommodates the needs of others• motivates others toward the attainment of the organizational goals• has personal motivation, that is, the enthusiasm to complete a task• has good communication skills• is able to manage conflicts within the organization.  • What is the meaning of 'motivation'?• How important is motivation?• What are the various techniques of motivation?Conducting the session 1. Have a volunteer participant briefly recap the content of the previous session.2. Open the day's session by displaying the flipchart with the title of the day's session and the questions guiding the training.3. Divide participants into four groups. Ask each group to select a leader. Take the four leaders aside, and explain to them that they are to go back to their group and collect as many items as they can from the members of their group, by any means possible. They will have a set amount of time (10 or 15 minutes). The items can be anything -purses, paper, pens, jewellery, etc. The leaders return to their groups and carry out the task, without revealing the objective to their group. When the time is up, ask a volunteer from each group to count the number of items collected by the leader. Declare a winner and provide a prize.4. Discuss with the whole group why some leaders collected more than others.5. Again ask the participants to split into four groups. This time, explain the rules to the entire group. Tell them that the group that collects the most items in the allotted time will win a prize. When the time is up, ask a volunteer from each group to count the number of items collected. Declare the winning group and provide the prize.6. Discuss why some groups collected more than others. What was it that motivated the members of each group to give items to the leader? (Was it the prize? Was it the desire to be the winner? Was it good motivational skills of the leader? Were the participants self-motivated?)7. Relate the activity to the importance of motivation, and the differences between directed and self-motivated groups. Summarize the points raised by participants about motivation, and restate the importance of motivation. Display the responses for all to see. Supplement the discussion where necessary.8 Wrap up the training session as follows:• Briefly recap the day's session• Communicate the topic of the next session (Communication within a group), and the date, time and venue.Motivation is an inner state that drives someone to do something. Motivation includes desires, wants, drives, motives and incentives to do something.Motivating others involves creating conditions where people are willing to work with initiative, interest and enthusiasm, and with a sense of responsibility, loyalty and discipline, so that the goals of an organization are achieved effectively. Motivation is one of the most important factors for managing human resources within family, groups or organizations.Understanding motivation will help:• To ensure active participation• To maximize utilization of human capacity• To build accountability for successful performance• To be inclusive.What is it that motivates individuals to work with initiative and enthusiasm in pursuit of a common goal? There is no single answer to this question, as different things motivate different people. Some people are motivated by money or other material rewards, some are motivated by the recognition and praise of others, some are entirely self-motivated by individual standards and goals they have set, some are motivated by the fear of failure, and so on. People may be highly motivated if they are actively involved in activities, such as problem analyses, programme design, implementation, etc. Equality in a group, as well as trust and safety, are important prerequisites to motivation.• Rewards such as Q1: How does a group stay motivated when it suffers a setback? A1: All group members need to know that setbacks need not be the end. They're just a little stone on the road. It is important for group members to work together to stay motivated in the event of a setback, and stay focused on achieving the group goals.Q2: If a leader seems to be losing interest in the group, what can we do?A2: When a leader in the group loses motivation to continue group work, the management of the group should try to seek the reasons for the situation and encourage him or her to continue with the work (providing a supporting environment). If this fails, the management may decide to relieve the person of his or her duties.Q3: How can group members be motivated to attend meetings regularly?A3: There is no single way to motivate people. The group management could speak with the people concerned to find out why they are not attending meetings regularly. They could try to encourage them by reminding them of the group's goals and objectives. But if members continue to miss meetings, they could earn penalties as stipulated in the group's constitution. • What is the meaning of 'communication'?• What are the different types of communication?• What are the possible barriers to communication?• What are ways of overcoming communication barriers?2. Prepare a simple paragraph not exceeding two sentences ahead of the training (Appendix 1). Print out at least three copies of the paragraph.1. Have a volunteer participant briefly recap the content of the previous session.2. Open the day's session by displaying the flipchart with the title of the day's session and the questions guiding the training.3. Invite four participants to volunteer for an activity. Take them outside of the training room, and explain the activity as follows. One volunteer reads a short paragraph, and then puts it aside and shares the main points with the second volunteer. This should be done out of earshot of the other two volunteers. Then, the second volunteer tells the third, and the third tell the fourth, without the others hearing. In the meantime, in the meeting room, ask a participant to read the paragraph aloud to the rest of the participants. Bring the four volunteers back to plenary, and ask each to describe, in turn starting with the fourth volunteer, the message they heard.4. Discuss whether the original message reached each volunteer. If the message changed, why did this happen?5. Ask the participants 'Why it is important to be able to communicate well?' and 'What might be the consequences of poor communication?' Write points on the flipchart. Review the importance of good communication.6. Divide participants into small groups. The task of each group is to:• identify communication barriers• discuss ways to overcome each barrier.After the groups have had time to discuss, ask each group to name one barrier they identified, and ways of overcoming that barrier. Have the groups take turns until no new barriers or ways of overcoming them are identified. Write down the responses on the flipchart. Encourage participants to provide examples where appropriate. Where necessary, supplement the discussion.• Briefly recap the day's session• Communicate the topic of the next session (Solving conflict within a group), and the date, time and venue.Communication means passing on information from one person to another. Effective communication is needed so that members of the group and employees understand the group's objectives and their roles in the group, and feel they are able to contribute and belong to the group. Effective communication within a group is also an important aspect of motivating employees.Formal communications are part of the organized communication system, and relate to the operations of the group. Many groups have a formal communication system that indicates who will report to whom, who will inform whom about what, the form in which messages will be sent (e.g. written, oral), how messages will be stored (e.g. filing system) and so on.Informal communications are casual and based on social interactions among people who work and live together. Informal communications are not bound by group policy. Informal communications can both help and hinder formal communications. Information can be passed on quickly through informal channels, bypassing layers of hierarchy. But informal communication has a greater chance of being distorted, so it can also hinder formal communication.There are many things that can interfere with the communication process. These barriers can be physical, cultural, social or personal, and are often interrelated. Examples of barriers include:• Physical barriers: these may be geographic barriers such as distance, weather disturbances or mountain ranges; or weaknesses or problems with the mechanisms that are used for communication, e.g. poor telephone lines, computer systems being down, or poor postal services.• Group barriers: communications can be impeded by complex group structures, complex communication systems, conflict, different personal goals or ambitions, or lack of cooperation within groups.• Socio-economic and personal barriers: communications can be impeded when the people involved come from different social classes, economic backgrounds, language groups, educational levels, occupations, or geographic locations. Communications are also influenced by people's attitudes to one another, perceptions about one another, their personal ambitions, and ideological beliefs. For example, individuals who dislike each other or are hostile to one another may have difficulty communicating.• Gender: in many situations women are less able to communicate than men. Women are less empowered and participate less in decision-making processes. They are less confident than men about speaking out, asking for information, and expressing their views. As a result women are not always able to communicate fully and contribute equally in an organization.• Poor communication skills: lack of communication skills, such as speaking, writing and listening skills, can present a barrier to effective communication.• Lack of trust: one of the barriers to communication is lack of trust. When people first meet and don't know each other well, they are often cautious about disclosing too much information. As they get to know each other and develop trust, their communications become more open.Q1: How can a group overcome a problem of communication barrier?A1: The group should first identify the type of communication barrier, and then come up with appropriate solutions to address it. For example, if the barrier to communication is identified as lack of trust within the group, this could be solved if group members took some time to get to know each other better so that they can trust each other.Q2: Is it good practice for all group members to contact the chairperson every time they have an issue/problem they want to be addressed?A2: Each group has its own communication system or structure. For some groups all issues have to be addressed by the chairperson, while for other groups different officers handle different sorts of issues/problems.Q3: If a group member is illiterate and cannot read or write, how best can they be helped in instances that require written communication?A3: It is good practice to identify limitations of group members at an early stage during group formation. If some members are unable to read or write, the group management should devise ways of helping them, for example pairing them with members who can read and write, or limiting the tasks that require reading and writing. • What is the meaning of 'conflict'?• What are possible causes of conflict in a group?• How do you solve conflict in a group?Conducting the session 1. Have a volunteer participant briefly recap the previous session.2. Open the day's session by displaying the flipchart with the title of the session.3. Read out the case study about conflicts with group (Appendix 2) and have participants deliberate the following questions.• What was the reason for the conflict?• What could be done by the group to resolve the conflict?4. Display the questions guiding the day's session one by one and have participants brainstorm on each one of them. Write down the responses on the flipchart. Encourage participants to provide examples where appropriate. Where necessary, supplement the discussion.• Recap the day's session briefly• Communicate the topic of the next session (Making a group constitution), and the date, time and venue.People have their own values and opinions that they consider important. Conflicts arise when others have different values and opinions. Conflicts may arise between individual people, between groups of people, within organizations or between organizations.Conflict is not necessarily negative. Conflict can help build institutional capacity, and generate creative ideas. Tension from well-managed conflict can lead to change (in fact, conflict, or tension, is an essential component of change). However, if conflict is not properly managed, it can create harmful events.Examples of causes of group conflict include:• Lack of resources• Differences of opinion• Lack of respect for others' ideas• Personal egos of some members leading to them dominating the group• Personal ambitions and goals out of line with group goals• Gender discrimination• Poor communication systems within the organization• Failure of the organization to meet its intended goals.There are many ways of managing conflict. Some of these are:• Avoid• Accommodate: the conflicting parties express their opinions, but do not change these• Dominate: the conflicting parties attempt to dominate each other• Compromise: one or both parties compromise, i.e. change their position• Collaborate: the conflicting parties collaborate to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution.Q1: If a group member threatens to leave the group due to a conflict with another member, how should the group deal with this?A1: Groups should have by-laws in place stipulating ways of resolving conflict within the group. If a member threatens to leave, the group leadership should talk to the person to understand the problem. The leadership should then try to resolve the conflict so that the member agrees to stay.Q2: Do all group conflicts end with members making up?A2: No, in the real world this does not always happen. Some conflicts may even end in violence. However, groups should always do everything in their powers to resolve conflicts peacefully.Q3: If a conflict arises where group members suspect the leadership is misusing group resources (such as money), how should the group handle this?A3: Firstly, at the inception of the group, members should emphasize transparency in the way the group leadership carries out its activities, and this includes the handling of group finances. However, where the leadership is suspected of misusing group finances, the group should summon the leadership and have them transparently declare the group accounts to the plenary. When misuse of finances is identified, the group should agree on a penalty for the people involved. This could be confiscating the property of the people involved until the group finances are recovered, or in extreme cases, calling in the police. • What is the meaning a constitution?• What are the contents of a constitution?Conducting the session 1. Have a volunteer participant briefly recap the previous session.2. Open the day's session by displaying the flipchart with the title of the session. A constitution is a document that sets out the laws and principles that govern a group of people such as a farmers' group, an association or a nation. A constitution is a requirement before a group can be formally registered as a legal entity.Contents of the constitution can be basic or complex. They should include:• The name of the group/organization/company• Definition of terms, titles and phrases used• Physical location of the group• Affiliation to other bodies or groups• The objectives of the group/association and its major intended activities• Membership composition and criteria for admitting new members• Administrative structure, e.g. board of directors, committees, etc.• Financial year• Methods and authority of purchasing, caring for and disposal of group properties• Bank signatories and authorization on group bank documentation• Duties, powers and privileges of the management committee, members, etc.• By-laws, and procedure for their origination, adaptation and application• Language of business and meetings• Scope and amendment of constitution• Interpretation and resolution of disputes.Q1: Whose role is it to make a constitution?A1: The entire group takes responsibility to develop its own constitution.Q2: Can the group hire someone to draw up its constitution?A2: Yes, a lawyer could be hired, but the group must takes responsibility for explaining to the lawyer what they need in terms of the content.Q3: How often should we amend the constitution to accommodate changes?A3: The group can amend the constitution any time there is need, but this should not be misused, and the entire group should agree on the need to amend.Q4: If someone refuses to respect the constitution, what can be done?A4: If a group member refuses to respect the group constitution, he or she should be dismissed from the group.Appendix 2: Case studyThe Community Development Centre is an NGO established several years ago in one of the districts in Northern Uganda. Its objective is to improve the socioeconomic situation of poor and marginalized women, men and children in rural communities. Until about a year and a half ago, the organization ran smoothly with a good working environment. Members respected one another, shared a strong organizational vision and held a sense of responsibility to meet that vision. Members and staff were committed and energetic. However, gradually over the past year, the organization has lost its good spirits and working environment. Now regular meetings among the members and staff are not held, and the chairperson only meets with a few of his special friends in the organization. He discusses organizational matters and programme issues with them, and does not share information with others. Members are not aware of decisions taken or the activities of the NGO. When members provide feedback or ideas, they are ignored and made to feel their contribution is not important. Women feel that they are not able to contribute ideas because the meetings are held at times when they cannot attend. When invitations are received by the NGO for outside meetings or training, the chairperson and his close friends are the only ones able to participate. The chairperson and his friends have taken control of the NGO, and hold all the rights and responsibilities. Consequently, the members' feeling of ownership and commitment to the organization has declined. This has made the members feel much less motivated to volunteer for work in the NGO, and the organization nearly disintegrated. Finally, the chairperson has become aware of the depth of the problem in the organization and is trying to take action.The objective of this module is to teach the participants good agronomic practices associated with banana cultivation.The module comprises the following sessions:• The sessions should ideally be carried out over 4-5 months (two to three sessions per month). Each of Sessions 1-8 and 10 can be carried out in a single meeting (2-3 hours). Session 9 takes 5-6 hours and should be carried out as two 2-3 hour meetings on separate training days. Session 11 involves the training team visiting all the participant farmers' fields, and the time and number of days will depend on the size of the group being trained and the distance to be travelled to reach the fields.Ideally Session 11 should be completed within 2 weeks.Sessions 1 and 2 are held at a convenient classroom or other meeting place. Sessions 3-10 are held in participant farmers' fields. These can be different for each session except for Sessions 3 and 4 which should be held in the same field. Session 11 is held in individual fields of participating farmers.In addition, banana:• provides soil surface cover• reduces soil erosion on steep slopes• is a good source of mulch for maintaining and improving soil fertility• provides animal feed. 1. Banana field establishment:-site preparation (demarcation of the field, digging holes and manure application)-preparation of planting material -planting -management immediately after planting (according to type of planting material).-mulching -digging trenches -manure application (organic and inorganic fertilizers).-weed control (cultural methods, herbicides) -de-suckering (helps match harvest with peak market season like Christmas and Easter)-staking or propping -removal of the male bud. Supplies: 2 tissue culture plantlets, 4 sword suckers uprooted with their entire root system and all the leaves (these should be provided by the farmer hosting the training, to avoid introducing banana pests or diseases), a knife, a panga, markers, flipchart, masking tape, refreshmentsVenue: A convenient meeting placeWrite the topic of the day (Types of banana planting material, and how to prepare them for planting) and the questions that will guide the day's training on the flipchart ahead of the training session. The questions are:• What are the different types of banana planting material?• What are the best practices for preparing the different banana planting materials prior to planting?Conducting the session 1. Open the day's training session by asking a volunteer participant to briefly recap the previous training session.2. Display the topic of the day written on the flipchart. Display the questions that are guiding the day's training session one by one, and solicit answers from the participants for each question, writing the responses on the flipchart. Supplement the discussion with additional points which may have been left out by the participants.3. Demonstrate the preparation of the different planting materials prior to planting. Have volunteer participants repeat the process of preparing the planting materials in front of the group.• Briefly recap the day's session• Communicate the topic of the next session (Field preparation), and the date and time for the session• Agree the venue for the next two sessions with the group. Either ask for another volunteer to host the sessions, or have the group choose the best person in the group to host the sessions. The farmer hosting the sessions needs to provide a small piece of land where at least 12 plantlets can be planted, as well as materials that will be used during the training (hoes, string and pegs for field demarcation, panga, 12 basins of organic manure, wheelbarrow for carrying manure). If the farmer hosting the sessions cannot provide all the materials required, ask the other participants to help. The facilitator should provide any of the materials that the farmers cannot provide. Ask the host of the next session to clear the piece of land where the training session will be conducted of weeds, tree stumps, etc., ahead of the training in order to save time on the training day.There are three main types of planting material.1. Tissue culture plants: banana planting material grown in a clean environment in the laboratory from small plant pieces taken from a mother plant. Tissue culture plants can be obtained from various commercial producers and nurseries.2. Suckers: shoots growing from the rhizome of banana plants which then grow into new plants.Ideally suckers should come from a healthy, pest-and disease-free plantation.3. Corm pieces: portions of the banana plant cut from the rhizome (corm) of the plant and with a bud attached. Advantages of using corm pieces include:-relatively clean planting material -more planting material from fewer suckers -easy to transport -easy to treat for pest control.Corm pieces should come from a healthy, pest-and disease-free plantation.1. Tissue culture plants: No major preparation is needed of tissue culture plants if they have been kept in a clean environment prior to planting. However, if the plants are seen to have pestinfested leaves or leaves in a bad condition, these should be cut off prior to planting.2. Suckers: Uproot sword or maiden suckers from healthy, pest-and disease-free banana plants using a hoe. Sword suckers (1.8-2.1 m high and ~4.5 cm in girth) are preferred, partly because they are less infested with nematodes and banana weevils than larger planting material. Sucker preparation should be done far from the new field. Remove all leaves, roots and all parts of the rhizome that appear diseased (tunnels indicating banana weevils, reddish lesions at base indicating nematodes, yellow-brown lesions indicating Armillaria root rot). The oldest leaf sheaths should also be removed as they may house banana weevil eggs or adults. A slanting cut is made to remove the top part (slanting prevents water from collecting on top, causing rotting). Plant suckers within a week after uprooting. 3. Corm pieces: Select suitable suckers (healthy, 1.8-2.1 m long and ~4.5 cm in girth). Separate the corm from the stem of the sucker. Cut off the outer layers of the corm, about 3 cm deep, to reduce nematode populations. Remove damaged parts and wash the corm with clean water. Cut up the corm into 4-7 pieces depending on corm size and number of buds. Every piece should contain a visible, healthy bud. Treat corm pieces with recommended insecticides before planting (e.g. cypermethrin).Q1: How much does it cost to start a banana tissue culture production facility?A1: The actual cost of starting a banana tissue culture production facility depends on the size of the facility. It is however a costly venture that may require at least 50 million Ugandan shillings (1 US$ = 1,900 Ugsh on 1/1/10). This may explain why there are few such facilities in Uganda despite the high demand for tissue culture plantlets.Q2: For how long does a banana field established using banana tissue plantlets last?A2: How long a banana plantation lasts depends on the level of management, and is the same whether started with tissue culture plantlets or other planting material. A well-managed plantation should last for a minimum of 10 years.Q3: Are suckers from tissue culture plant also called tissue culture plants?A3: No. When a tissue culture plantlet is planted into the field, all the suckers it produces thereafter are not tissue culture plants, they are ordinary suckers.Q4: Can all banana cultivars be produced using banana tissue culture technology?A4: Yes, all banana cultivars can be produced using tissue culture technology. However, the management of a tissue culture laboratory will first assess the commercial potential of a demanded cultivar to ensure profits.Q5: When you remove the roots and all the debris from the corm of a sucker, is the planting material then free from all banana pests and diseases? A5: No, removing roots and debris from a sucker cannot eliminate all pests and diseases that may be affecting the sucker. However, many pests, such as nematodes or banana weevil eggs, are removed. 6. After digging the planting holes, participants should apply manure into the holes. During this step, discuss the following:• Importance of adding manure to the planting hole before planting the banana• Amount of manure to apply• How to apply the manure.• Briefly recap the day's session• Communicate the topic of the next session (Planting and initial care), and the date, time and place (the same field where the current session has taken place) for the session.• The farmer hosting the next session should agree to provide at least eight healthy looking sword suckers, hoes, a panga, a knife, two jerry cans of water (20 liters each), manure (12 basins) and dry grass. The training team will provide four tissue culture plantlets.Choosing a site for a banana plantation• For good yields, bananas need a deep, well-drained loam soil with high humus content, ideally volcanic or alluvial origin and with considerable amounts of nutrients.• Very acidic soils are not suitable.• The site should be free of dead roots of big trees as they harbour Armillaria root rot.• The site should be free of perennial weeds, e.g. couch grass.• If the site is sloping, appropriate soil conservation structures are needed.• The plantation should be close to a road, for easy transport of the produce, inputs and planting material.• Bananas can be planted on fallow land (ideally after 3-5 years of fallow) or in newly established fields. If the latter, bush should be cleared and any debris removed or burned. If fallow land is used, the vegetation should be cleared without burning, as burning destroys useful organic matter.manure Fig. 3. Digging a planting hole.• A few days after cutting the vegetation, the remaining grass may be sprayed with an appropriate herbicide to speed up organic matter breakdown. A pre-planting weed spray can reduce later weed control applications and reduce costs. If paraquat (e.g. Gramoxone) is used, ploughing can be done 2 days after spraying; if glyphosate (e.g. Roundup) is used, ploughing can be done after 2 weeks.• Generally two ploughings are sufficient to provide a good seedbed for the banana plantation. A couple of weeks should be left between the two ploughings to allow germination of weed seeds which are then killed with another herbicide application prior to the following ploughing.• The recommended spacing between plants is 3 m between the planting rows and 3 m within the row (3 × 3 m) or wider, depending on the soil fertility.• Rows should be straight in flat fields to give plants the maximum amount of sunlight. On sloping land, the rows should follow the contour lines in order to decrease soil erosion.• Intercropping increases plant spacing, and 6 × 6 m is often used.• Minimum planting hole size is 30 × 30 × 30 cm. The most common planting hole size is 45 × 45 × 45 cm. The maximum planting hole size is 60 × 60 × 60 cm. Large and deep planting holes ensure that the roots exploit the greatest volume of soil, and also makes plants more stable and less likely to topple in high wind.• The topsoil, which contains humus, should be separated from the sub-soil during the process of digging the planting hole.• Organic manure such as cow dung or chicken droppings is applied to the hole. The manure should be mixed in equal quantities with the topsoil dug from the hole and the manure/soil mixture placed in the planting hole. Do not fill the planting hole to the top, so that there is some space for collecting rainwater around the growing sucker. • If the manure is very fresh, then planting should be delayed for 6 weeks to 2 months to avoid damaging the plants (through heat production during fermentation of the manure). On the other hand, if the manure is well dried, planting can be carried out on the same day.• Planting should ideally occur at the onset of the rainy season.Q1: What is the standard size of a planting hole?A1: The size of the planting hole depends on many factors including soil type, soil texture, etc. It is common practice to dig a hole measuring 45 cm × 45 cm × 45 cm.Q2: If intercropping banana and coffee, when is it best to demarcate the planting holes for coffee? A2: It is best to plan and demarcate the planting holes for both coffee and banana at the same time.Q3: Should the planting holes be dug and manure applied on the same day? And can the bananas be planted on the same day?A3: It is fine to dig the planting hole and apply manure at the same time. Whether you can also plant on the same day depends on the manure you are using. If the manure is very well dried and well mixed with the topsoil, then it is okay to plant on the same day.How to plant the different types of banana planting material• Dig holes and apply manure as described in the previous session. Organic manure from farmers' own farmyards is recommended. Use of artificial (inorganic) fertilizers should be minimized as much as possible because of the high costs associated with them. Farmers who chose to use inorganic fertilizer should read the labels and follow the instructions. Where organic manure is used on the same day of planting, ensure that you mix it thoroughly with an equal amount of topsoil.• For tissue culture plants: first remove the plantlet from plastic bag, taking care that the soil around the plantlet does not break up. Do not damage the plant or dislodge the soil when removing the plantlet from the bag: use a knife instead of a hoe.• For suckers and tissue culture plants: dig a small hole in the middle of the hole that was earlier dug and filled with a mixture of topsoil and organic manure. Place the sucker or tissue culture plants in the middle of the dug hole at a depth of about 30 cm, leaving 15 cm at the bottom of the hole for the mixture of topsoil and manure (in a 45 cm hole).• For corms: dig a small hole in the middle of the hole that was earlier dug and filled with a mixture of topsoil and manure. Place the corm pieces in the middle of the hole at a depth of 10 cm. Ensure that the bud/eye is facing downwards and the cut end upwards to prevent the bud from rotting.Immediately after planting, place some dry grass (mulch) in a layer 2-3 cm thick around the plantlets or corm piece, ensuring that some space is left between the plant and the mulch (at least 2 cm).Water the plant carefully, using a watering can with small nozzles or by wetting the mulch layer.Ensure that the water is poured on the dry grass acting as mulch. The plant should be given plenty of water -at least 2 liters -on the day of planting. If there is no rain after planting, the plants must be watered daily (preferably in the evening) using at least half a liter per plant during the first 2 weeks. The best practice is to plant at the onset of the rains.  • 25 mm of rainwater per week is the minimal requirement for satisfactory growth. Annual rainfall of 2,000-2,500 mm is satisfactory.Q1: For how long should I water the banana plantlet after planting? A1: The best practice is to water until the plantlet starts developing new leaves. However, you do not have to keep watering if it is raining sufficiently.Q2: What is the significance of applying mulch around the newly planted bananas?A2: This is done to prevent water loss. As the plantlets are fragile immediately after planting, if they dry out they can become damaged or die.Q3: When is the best time to plant the bananas -is it in the middle of the rainy season or at the onset?A3: The best time to plant bananas is at the onset of the rainy season. This means that you have to have the field prepared (planting holes dug and manure applied into the holes) before the rains start.Q4: Would you recommend intercropping banana and maize? A4: It is not recommended to intercrop maize and banana since maize will compete with bananas for light. Also, unlike crops that fix nitrogen in the soil, for example beans, maize does not add any nutrients into the soil.Q5: Why is it that in the past (20 years ago) banana fields lasted longer than they do today?A5: There could be several reasons to explain why banana fields used to last longer in the past, such as less disease pressure (e.g. diseases like Xanthomonas wilt were not yet present), soil fertility was not as depleted as it is currently, and global warming was not as intense as it is now. But if you take care of your banana field it should last for 10 years.Advantages of mulching:• Restricts weed growth: a closed mulch cover (≥2 cm) suppresses almost all weeds• Protects the soil against heavy rainfall and intensive sunshine• Prevents erosion: stops loss of rich topsoil, where banana roots feed• Adds nutrients, especially potassium and other cations: mulch spread to a depth of 2 cm over a hectare can add as much as 300 kg of potassium• Stimulates root development• Improves soil drainage• Decreases soil temperature• Increases soil porosity and biological life• Conserves water by reducing evaporation and improving infiltration rates. Bananas require a lot of water (1,500 mm/year); when rainfall is only 1,000 mm/year, you will experience about 50% yield loss. So, especially when rainfall is low, it is very important to conserve water.Different mulching materials:• Organic matter obtained from the banana plantation itself: leaves, debris, pseudostem, stalks, etc.• Mulching plants that are easy to grow and which produce a substantial amount of vegetable matter, for example Pennisetum purpureum (elephant grass), Tripsacum laxurn (Guatemala grass) and Panicum maximum (Guinea grass)• Animal organic matter (e.g. poultry, pig and cow manures), which should be spread near the plant• Cover crops as live mulch (e.g. legumes) for the first 12 months.Precautions that need to be taken while mulching:• Mulching is known to increase pest attack and toppling, and so a ring should be left around the plant base where the mulch does not touch the plant• If thick mulch is introduced early, and in contact with the plants, this can cause high mats. This increases likelihood of banana plants toppling, especially during high winds.Banana is a succulent crop which requires a lot of water and is susceptible to drought. In areas which receive less than 1,000 mm of annual rainfall, water conservation practices are important. Methods that can be used include:• Irrigation: the most common yet most expensive method of providing continuous water to crops• Heavy mulching: a 15 cm layer of mulch regularly applied to the field minimizes evaporation and water run-off• Contour trenches: these should be 30-45 cm deep, 45-60 cm wide, with a bund of 30-45 cm down the slope, planted with fodder grass• Trench composting: trenches should be 45 cm wide and 30 cm deep, in between the rows of plants, filled with a biodegradable substance such as manure or organic matter from the plantation, and covered with top soil; when it rains the compost absorbs and stores water which the plants can use during dry periods.Q1: Should mulching material always be dry? A1: Yes. Material that is not dry should not be used as mulch because it can easily rot in the field and produce heat (through fermentation) that can be dangerous to the plants.Q2: Does mulching control banana weevils? A2: No, mulching does not control banana weevils. In fact, it increases their multiplication since it provides them with a favourable environment to reproduce. This is why it is not recommended to apply mulch close to the banana plant.Q3: Can a farmer who mulches his plantation but does not apply fertilizers obtain big bunches?A3: A farmer could still get quite big bunches, but they would be bigger if fertilizer was also used.The best bunches are produced where all the recommended agronomic practices are carried out, including both mulching and applying fertilizer.Q4: Would you recommend a farmer to water his or her banana plantation even after mulching?A4: Yes, it important to water the plantation even after mulching (unless there is plenty of rain).Mulching does not add water to the soils but only conserves water which is already there by reducing the rate at which the soil loses water to the atmosphere.Q5: Is it essential for a banana field to have trenches?A5: No, it is not essential. Trenches are usually dug where water flows through the banana field, in order to trap the water and also control erosion.Q6: As mulching conserves water in the soil, is it also necessary to dig trenches in a mulched banana field?A6: If there is water flowing through the field, the trenches are needed even if the field is mulched.Mulching and trenches have different roles: mulching conserves water in the soil, whereas the trenches trap the water within the field and also stop topsoil from being eroded.Q7: When is the best time to dig trenches? Can one dig trenches before planting? A7: Trenches are ideally dug immediately after the banana field is established, so that the young plants can benefit from the water that they hold. It is ok to dig trenches before planting, but it will be best if you dig them after digging the planting holes.As a plant grows, it takes up nutrients from the soil. A lot of the nutrients taken up by a banana plant go into the fruits (bunch). Farmers remove the fruits and they are sold, and so nutrients are lost from the system. The only way to maintain soil fertility is by regularly putting back nutrients into the soil in the form of organic or inorganic fertilizer. If fertility is not maintained in this way, even the most fertile soils will gradually become unproductive.Bananas have a high demand for nitrogen (N) and potassium (K). Other minerals that are vital for banana production, though in small quantities, include phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca). Each nutrient plays a different role in banana production as follows:• N contributes to overall growth of a banana plant, and keeps leaves green and healthy which allows bananas to capture more sunlight to make big bunches• K helps with movement of food and water from the roots to the leaves and bunches• P helps the banana plant to have strong and healthy roots that will capture more water and nutrients from the soil• Mg helps the leaves to use the sunlight captured to make food.Symptoms of nitrogen deficiency develop quickly over leaves of all ages. Symptoms include:• Leaves are very small and pale green• Mid-rib, petioles and leaf sheaths become reddish pink• The rate at which leaves are produced decreases• Distance between successive leaves is reduced, giving the plant a rosette appearance• Growth is poor, leading to a stunted plant• Banana bunches become small.Symptoms of potassium deficiency normally appear at the time of flowering; they include:• Rapid appearance of orange/yellow colour on the older leaves and their subsequent drying and death• The mid-rib of the leaves exhibiting symptoms are often bent or broken at a distance of twothirds along the length, so that the leaf points towards the base of the plant• Small leaves• Delayed flowering• Reduced bunch sizes.Deficiency symptoms of phosphorus are rarely seen in the field. They however include:• Stunted growth and poor root development• In the older four or five leaves, the leaf margins (edges) lose their colour (chlorosis). Then purple brown flecks develop that eventually combine until leaf edges are dead• Affected leaves curl and the petioles break• Young leaves have a deep bluish green colour.• Yellowing (chlorosis) of leaf margins of older leaves; the yellowing extends towards the mid-rib, with a green band remaining near the mid-rib, and is more severe where the leaves are exposed to the sun.Good organic fertilizers include:• Crop residues (e.g. bean hulls and stalks, maize stovers, sorghum residues and millet residues), other plant residues (e.g. swamp and elephant grass (chopped and dried))• Animal waste (e.g. cow and chicken manure).These fertilizers can be applied individually and directly, or can be combined and composted. An important use for organic fertilizer (mature compost or manure) is in the planting hole, mixed with soil. In established plantations organic fertilizer may be placed on the soil surface in a ring or furrow 45 cm from a mat, or can be ploughed into the soil around the plant.There are different types of fertilizers available that provide the same nutrients. Table 1 shows some commonly used fertilizers and the nutrients they provide. The rate of application depends on how quickly the nutrient is removed from the soil. Some nutrients leach very quickly when it rains, and these ones need to be added frequently but in small quantities, as shown in Table 1. Remove trash and make a ring about 30 cm away from the stool (mother plant and suckers). Sprinkle and spread the measured amount of fertilizer in the ring. Cover the fertilizer with soil but do not work it (dig it) into the soil, because you may cause damage to the superficial roots of the banana plant.• Weeding helps to 'loosen' the soil, so that water can infiltrate more rapidly and roots of the cultivated plants can develop more easily• Weeds act as alternate hosts for insect pests and diseases, i.e. they increase pest and disease problems• Weeds reduce fertilizer efficiency and thus banana yields.Weed control is particularly important during the first year of plantation establishment, while the banana plants become established. Once the plants are big enough that the leaves completely shade the ground, weeds become less of a problem and mulching can be sufficient to keep the weeds down.1. Cultural• Weeds can be hand-pulled or weeded with a hoe.• Hand or hoe weeding can be carried out alone or combined with chemical weed control. For example, ring or row weeding of the banana plants can be followed by herbicide application on the remaining weeds.• When the plants are mature, avoid use of a hoe when weeding.• Chemical weed control is less laborious, provides longer control and is faster than hand or hoe weeding.• Chemical weed killers are applied using a knapsack sprayer. Spraying should be done at a time when there is no or little wind.• Herbicides commonly used include paraquat (e.g. Gramoxone) and glyphospate (e.g. Roundup).If a contact herbicide such as glyphosate or 2,4-D is used, precautions must be taken to avoid drift onto the bananas.• Farmers must follow the manufacturer's recommended dosage.• Do not smoke or eat during treatment and avoid contaminating water for human/animal consumption with herbicides. Do not reuse herbicide containers for domestic purposes.Q1: Is it true that herbicides stay active for a long time after application? A1: Yes, some herbicides can stay active in the soil for a long time, especially if not used properly. This is called a residual effect.Q2: Is it okay to mix different herbicides together, e.g. mixing those that are effective on broadleafed weeds and those that work on grasses?A2: No, herbicides should never be mixed, because it can disrupt the active ingredients. The exception is if there is a commercial product that contains mixed active ingredients.• During the first few months, before the banana canopy closes, there is some space available between rows. This space can be used for plants that have a short life cycle and that do not compete with bananas.• The intercrop should be planted before (e.g. coffee or cocoa) or at the same time (e.g. legumes such as groundnuts, vegetables or maize) as the bananas.• Do not plant too close to the banana plant to avoid direct competition for nutrients between the banana plant and the intercrop.• In mature plantations (after the first crop), intercropping, especially with annual crops, should be discontinued.• With beans as intercrops, minimum tillage is used.• Land gives a return before the banana crop is ready to be harvested• Organic matter is added to the soil• Competition with bananas for nutrients, sunlight• Labour requirements may be higher• The intercrop may attract pests that could be harmful to the banana plants• De-suckering -removing the suckers -is done to reduce competition (for water, light and nutrients) and maximize yield.• De-sucker the banana mat to a total of three plants at different growth stages (mother, daughter and granddaughter). That is, only one sucker from each successive generation is allowed to grow.• Take care not to harm the motherplant and the suckers that are being retained. For de-suckering, choose suckers that are coming from well down on the corm because the banana plant has a tendency to grow out of the ground. Also, choose suckers on the opposite side of the bunch of the motherplant.• De-suckering should be timed so that the farmer can take advantage of peak marketing seasons such as Christmas.• De-leafing is the process of removing dead hanging leaves covering the young suckers and the old sheaths on the base of pseudostem which would otherwise provide an ideal refuge for adult banana weevils.• Remove dead sheaths and leaves regularly, and use them as mulch (if no banana weevils are evident). • Leave enough leaves to produce a good quality bunch (at least 9-12 leaves at flowering and 4 at harvest).• De-leafing of the plant immediately prior to harvest is not recommended as this starts the ripening process.• Male buds are removed to encourage development of the young bunch and to protect the plant from being infected with Xanthomonas wilt. Care should be taken not to damage the hands of the bunch. Remove the male bud with a forked stick immediately after the last cluster forms. Do not chop off the male bud, as knives/pangas can easily spread infection.• The heavy weight of the banana bunch can cause the pseudostem to break, or can uproot (topple) the entire corm. Propping is done to prevent this. Most plants need this, but especially during the dry season, in strong winds, or if infested with nematodes or banana weevils.• The support can be made from one or two wood props (usually bamboo). A lateral branch with a natural fork can also be used. Depending on the weight of the bunch, the branch or branches can be placed underneath the bunch or along the pseudostem.Q1: Is it true that you can tell the future size of the bunch by looking at the size of the bud?A1: Yes, to some extent it is true but there are other factors that also affect the size of a bunch.Q2: Doesn't regular de-suckering weaken the banana field?A2: No, it will only weaken the banana field if the job is not done properly.Q3: Does removing a male bud helps control banana pests such as the banana weevil?A3: No, removal of the male bud has nothing to do with controlling banana weevil. However, removal of male buds helps in controlling the spread of Xanthomonas wilt.Session 9: Pest and disease management Personnel: One facilitator who is very knowledgeable about banana pests and diseases, and one assistant (training team)Supplies: Posters and pamphlets about banana pests and diseases, hoe, knife, panga, notebook, pen, refreshments Time: 6 hours ( two 3-hour sessions)Venue: One or more farmer's fields with old bananas and visible symptoms of pests and diseasesWrite the topic of the day (Pest and disease management) and the questions that will guide the day's session in the notebook before leaving for the field. The questions are:• What are the most common pests and diseases affecting banana in your area?• What are the symptoms of these banana pests and diseases?• What are the best practices for overcoming or reducing the effect of these pests and diseases?Conducting the session 1. Open the day's training session by asking a volunteer participant to briefly recap the previous training session.2. Introduce the day's topic. Inform the participants that the day's session is going to be practical and they are encouraged to participate.3. Read out the questions that will guide the session one by one, and solicit responses from the participants. Write down the responses in the notebook, and read them out again when the responses have stopped. Supplement the discussion with additional points which may have been left out by the participants.4. Have the farmers identity the various pests and disease in the banana field where the training session is being held. For each pest or disease identified, explain how it is spread, its symptoms and the best control methods. For the pests and diseases that are not seen in the field, the facilitator should describe the symptoms so that farmers can at least identify them. Use any posters or pamphlets available about the various pests and diseases to show to the farmers.5. Explain that the training team will also visit all the participants' fields at a later date to identify the pests and diseases found on the individual farms.• Briefly recap the day's session• Communicate the topic for the next session (Preparation for farm visits), and the date, time and venue for the session.• Good crop husbandry. This produces vigorous plants that are more tolerant to banana weevil damage. It involves regular weeding, de-suckering, adding manure and mulching,• Destruction of post-harvest residues. Removal and splitting of harvested stems into small strips and spreading them out to dry quickly reduces hiding and breeding sites for the banana weevil. It also exposes weevil eggs and larvae to desiccation. Burning of the residues can also be done at a safe distance from the plantation.• Trapping. Two types of traps are used: pseudostem and disc-on-stump traps. The pseudostem trap is made from pseudostem pieces split longitudinally into halves, and placed against a banana plant with split surface on the ground. The disc-on-stump traps are made by cutting harvested stumps 15-25 cm above ground level and then placing a pseudostem sheath or banana leaves on top of the stump. The banana weevils attracted to these traps are collected and destroyed. Traps remain effective for about 1-2 weeks and are renewed whenever pseudostem pieces are available.• Use of mixtures of ash, urine and insecticidal plants. Farmers often use concoctions containing various amounts of ash, urine, tobacco, capsicum and other weed species. The method and rates of application vary from farmer to farmer. A 14-day fermented mixture is often used, at the rate of 1-2 cups (500-1,000 ml) per banana stool. While the practice is being recommended by some organizations, especially those promoting organic farming, its efficacy is unclear.Chemical control measures:• Monitoring of banana weevils is recommended before chemical control is used. Chemical control should only be considered if monitoring results in more than 2 weevils per trap.• At planting, an insecticide such as carbofuran (e.g. Furadan) can be applied around the sucker in the planting hole.• For an established plantation, an insecticide can be applied to the soil around the base of the banana stool.• Chemical pesticides can also be used with pseudostem or disc-on-stump traps in mature banana plantations to kill weevils in the traps.Several nematode species attacks banana roots: Meloidogyne spp., Radopholus similis, Helicotylenchus multicinctus and Pratylenchus coffeae.Nematodes are not seen by the naked eye and their damage is therefore often underestimated. However, they are very serious banana pests. Infestation occurs in roots. Symptoms include:• Stunted growth• Plants easily uprooted by wind (toppling), particularly those with bunches• Root damage: in early stages brown threads appear in the root; at later stages roots become dark brown and rot; the root system is reduced and appears short and black• Leaves lose green colour and turn yellow; then dry and drop off• Bunches produce few clusters with small fingers.Cultural control measures:• Plant resistant cultivars• Use clean planting material• Hot water treatment: after paring, dip suckers in water of 50-55°C for 15-20 minutes, or boiling water for 1-2 minutes• Prepare land in the dry season• If a field is highly infested, uproot all plants and leave it fallow for 2 years• Practice crop rotation with root crops like cassava and sweet potato• Mulch the plantation, since mulched plants tend to cope better with nematodes.Chemical control measures:• Use of nematicides is currently the only method that effectively controls nematodes in an established banana plantation. The recommended chemical is carbofuran (e.g. Furadan). Always follow the instructions as prescribed on the label or have the input supplier explain to you the application rates before using any nematicide.Monkeys can be destructive, especially in plantations near forests. Monkeys can be scared off by dogs or guards.Ants can dig up soil and expose the banana corms, making the plants more susceptible to toppling.The Leaf diseases may be difficult to identify in the field, and farmers often confuse their symptoms with banana weevil damage and nutrient deficiencies. The diseases are worse where other stresses are severe, such as banana weevils, nematodes or nutrient deficiency.This is the most important leaf disease. Symptoms and damage include:• Large reddish-brown streaks on underside of leaves, especially 4th leaf• Advanced stage has blackened patches on topside of leaf• Leaf blade edges folded• Affected plants have few functional leaves (three or four)• Leaves appear burnt• Fruits ripen before maturity • Small fingers.• There are no fully effective control measures for this disease at the moment • Use resistant cultivars, e.g. FHIA-17, FHIA-23, Musakala, Namaliga, Kibuzi, Mbwazirume• Maintain soil fertility, which enhances plant vigour• Remove/burn infected material• Remove unwanted suckers• Free the plantation from weeds• Use clean banana planting materials (such as banana tissue culture) when starting a banana farm.Fusarium wilt is caused by a fungus that lives in the soil and attacks the plant through the lateral roots. The disease can be very destructive and can cause yield losses of up to 100%. The pathogen can stay in the soil long after the banana plant has gone. The disease affects especially the cultivars Sukali Ndiizi, Kisubi and Kayinja. The disease is easily spread through infected suckers.Symptoms:• Yellowing of leaves• Wilting of all leaves• Leaf sheaths loosen and pseudostem splits• Emerging leaves are whitish• Attacked plant may fail to flower and to develop a bunch.• There are no fully effective control measures for this disease at the moment • Remove/uproot infected plants and their suckers, and destroy them• Use resistant cultivars: FHIA-17, FHIA-23, FHIA-3• Do not move suckers from infected to non-infected areas• Fusarium wilt can spread in the soil that adheres to tools and shoes. Keep farm tools and shoes clean.Xanthomonas wilt is caused by a bacterium and is spread from a sick plant to a healthy one by bees visiting the male bud, by farm tools such as knives and hoes, or by planting diseased suckers.Symptoms:• Male bud wilts and fruit ripens early when the bunch is still young• Young leaves turn brown and wilt• Fruits show brown discolouration when cut• Stem oozes yellow liquid when cut.• There are no fully effective control measures for this disease at the moment • Remove the male bud. Use a forked stick to remove the male bud after the last cluster forms• Destroy diseased plants. Chop and sun-dry diseased plants and suckers• Use clean planting material (clean suckers or tissue culture plants)• Always disinfect tools with fire or bleach.This occurs in plantations planted on cleared forest land. The disease affects the roots, corms and stumps.Symptoms:• Yellowing and death of leaves• Advanced infection results in total collapse of the plant.• There are no fully effective control measures for this disease at the moment • Burn infected plants• Complete removal of all stumps and large roots• Use tolerant cultivars such as FHIAs.Anthracnose affects fruit. This disease is most common on cooking bananas.Symptoms:• Small black circular specks on flower and skin• Tip of banana fruit hardens• At an advanced stage, sunken lesions appear to form large spots on surface.Control measures:• Monitoring of field conditions• Isolation of infected plant material.Q1: Do bees transmit black sigatoka? A1: No, bees do not transmit black sigatoka. They do however transmit Xanthomonas wilt.Q2: Is there any relationship between nutrient deficiency and diseases in bananas? A2: Yes, there is a big relationship. Bananas that lack some nutrients are stressed and are much more easily attacked by diseases.Q3: What would you consider the most dangerous disease of bananas at the moment, Xanthomonas wilt or Fusarium wilt?A3: At the moment, Xanthomonas wilt is considered the most dangerous disease.Q4: If banana has Mycosphaerella leaf spot, can it still produce bunches? A4: Yes, bananas that are infected with Mycosphaerella leaf spot still produce bunches. However, the farmer should provide more manure to such bananas to increase the plant's vigour and help it withstand the disease.Q5: Do bananas share any diseases with other crops like beans?A5: Some of the types of pathogens that cause disease in banana are also found in beans. However, pathogens are generally rather specific, and diseases specific to banana do not occur on beans.3. Based on the information given, and your own assessment of the plantation, provide a detailed account of how the farmer can improve his plantation. Try to provide practical solutions to the problems.• Thank the farmer, and encourage him or her to act on the advice given to improve their banana plantation.• Communicate the date, time and venue when group training will resume. Q1: What is the best tree species to plant with bananas? A1: Coffee is an ideal intercrop with bananas. Trees that add nitrogen to the soil (like Calliandra and Sesbania) are also good to plant with bananas. Other tree species like Ficus can be planted to provide shade.Q2: Is it okay to grow different cultivars of bananas in one field? A2: It is advised not to mix cultivars, as some cultivars are more susceptible to pests and diseases which may then spread to the others. The banana field should be organized according to cultivars.Q3: What are the signs of Xanthomonas wilt?A3: The symptoms are: male bud wilts and fruits ripen early when the bunch is still young, young leaves turn brown and wilt, fruits show brown discoloration when cut, and the pseudostem oozes yellowish liquid when cut.Q4: Can bananas be grown in swampy areas?A4: Yes, they can be grown in swampy areas, as long as the soil is not waterlogged for long periods.Q5. How would you control monkeys that destroy the bananas? A5: You can use a scarecrow in the banana field, or have the field guarded by a dog to scare away the monkeys.Q6: Why is 'matooke' from Western Uganda different in taste to that from Central Uganda?A6: This is caused by a number of factors, such as the soils, the rainfall pattern, management practices, etc.Q7: Can I grow bananas together with pineapples?A7: Yes, bananas can be grown together with pineapples, but if bananas are the main crop, then they need to be planted using a relatively bigger spacing.Q8: What would you recommend and why: cooking or roasting types?A8: This totally depends on the farmer's interest. The management practices are the same.Q9: Is it good to plant fruit trees with bananas?A9: It is okay to plant fruit trees with bananas, but ensure that the spacing is optimal to avoid competition for soil nutrients and light. Make sure the fruit trees are pruned regularly.Q10: Can bananas planted without manure produce big bunches? A10: Yes, if the soil is very fertile, and good management practices are used.Q11: When is the best time to cut off the male bud? A11: When all the fingers have developed from the flowers.Q12: Is it true that hoes should not be used to control weeds in bananas? A12: It not true. However, precaution should be taken when using a hoe to not damage the roots of the bananas.Q13: How long does a banana take to mature? A13: Bananas take about one year from planting before the fruits are ready to eat.Q14: Can nutrient deficiency weaken the bananas? A14: Yes, nutrient deficiency weakens the bananas and also leads to poor harvest.Q15: Is it okay to spray herbicides in a banana field intercropped with coffee?A15: Yes, it is okay as long as the herbicide is used according to the manufacturer's specifications.• When everyone involved with the farm (family members, extension workers, development agencies, etc.) understands the goals, they will work better together towards them.• Valuable information is collected through record keeping, and used to make better decisions affecting the farm. For example, production records might show a reduction in output, and the farmer may decide to increase the number of banana plants or change his or her agronomic practices to improve yields; or sales records may show a loss over time, which the farmer can investigate and address, perhaps by changing planting dates in order to target times when prices are high in the market.• Communication about the business is improved. For example, a farmer who has proper cash flow details about his or her farm can communicate better to other stakeholders such as loan officers about the viability of the farm to service a loan.• An organized farming business is more likely to attract capital from private investors, venture capital funds, lenders, banks, trust companies, etc.• Skills and knowledge necessary to grow crops or raise animals• Production requirements such as land for growing crops, labour for farm activities, capital which can be in form of tools, equipments, building or cash, and organization which enables optimal use of all the resources available • Marketing skills.Q1: Can farmers with less than 1 hectare of land carry out farming as a business? A1: Yes. Farming as a business has nothing to do with farm size. It aids you in making decisions regarding practices you perform on your farm, which can be of any size.Q2: Do I need to acquire a certificate from the local authorities for my farm to be considered a business?A2: In Uganda, farmers involved in primary farm production (with no major value addition) don't need to acquire a certificate and they don't pay taxes for farming.Q3: Will my farm be eligible for business loans if I am running it as a business?A3: For a farm business or any business to be eligible for a business loan, a bank has to assess its viability, that is, whether the business has the potential to pay back a loan. If you keep good records and can show that you can pay back the loan, then your farm will be eligible.• Prices received from buyers every time a sale is made. This will help identify periods during the year when higher prices can be obtained, or buyers who offer a better price. With this information, farmers can adjust production so that they have more produce available when prices are higher.• Yields obtained and total sales (by volume and price) for products in order to enable comparison with previous years, and forecasting for future years.• Applications made such as fertilizers, mulch and water, and yields, in order to identify the best inputs and input schedules, and also compare costs of applications against increased (or decreased) yields.1. Farm planning schedule. This details the planned farm activities and the tentative dates for carrying them out. The schedule should be among the first records a farm manager produces.Activity Timeframe• Buying tools and equipment Sisal rolls for marking planting holes Pegs for marking planting holes a Land is an important input in a banana farm. Therefore, land holding (land owned, rented or purchased) could be added along with the costs if required.3. Labour record. This type of record details the labour used for the various tasks on the farm. Information in the record includes the activities, the period when the activities took place, the duration of the activities, the amount of labour used and the cost of the labour. • What prompted your choice of type of planting materials?• Did you consider that some cultivars produce better bunches than others? 6. After all groups have presented their work, lead the entire group in producing a comprehensive benefit-cost analysis for producing banana on 1 acre of land in their area.7. Wrap up the training session as follows:• Briefly recap the day's session• As homework, ask each participant to do a personal benefit-cost analysis for their banana farm. Where farmers are already growing bananas, they can draw up costs and benefits for improving their current farms. Remind participants to bring their benefit-cost analysis for review in the next meeting.• Communicate the topic of the next session (Savings), and the date, time and venue for the session. For benefit-cost analysis, the benefits from farming are equivalent to the revenue, which is the total money received for the goods or products. To compute the revenue for a period of time, you need to multiply the amount of produce sold by the selling price over that period. Benefit-cost analysis is a process where costs and benefits are compared to determine whether a business is profitable and therefore financially viable.A benefit-cost ratio is calculated by dividing total revenue by total costs. It is used to judge the efficiency of the farm business. It indicates the relationship between farm expenses and returns. The farm is said to be efficient when it yields a greater output per unit of input used, i.e. when the ratio is > 1. A ratio > 2 is preferred in order to take into account unforeseen events associated with agricultural production and which are not known when one computes a benefit-cost ratio of a farm business, such as inflation, natural risks (bad weather), biological risks (pests and diseases) or other risks.Example of a benefit-cost analysis for a high-input banana farm (first season, 1 acre; 1 US$ = 1,900 maintained and regular reporting on the progress of individual member's saving needs to be made. Group record books should also be available for audits and scrutiny by members.What are the advantages of saving in groups?• Group savers may accumulate larger amounts of money than they would if saving as an individual, as they will be motivated to save regularly.• Group savers are eligible for loans from the group funds.• Group savings can be used as insurance for individual members, who can borrow in emergencies.• Saving as a group gives members access to safe-keeping facilities such as cash boxes and safes, which may not be otherwise available in rural communities.• Individuals are protected from demands from immediate family and relatives, who might want to share their savings, as what is saved in the group is deemed as belonging to the group.1. Make savings and credit one of the key group objectives.2. Decide how often the group will meet for purposes of saving. This could be weekly, bi-monthly or monthly. The more frequently the members save, the faster the group fund will grow.3. Decide the minimum that each member will contribute at each meeting. It is better to start with a small amount that all members can afford and increase when members' incomes improve.4. Agree on a set of rules and regulations to govern saving and lending to members in order to ensure discipline and trust. These rules must be strictly enforced.5. Elect a working committee to oversee saving and lending activities. The elected leaders should be honest and trustworthy.6. Procure safe-keeping facilities such as cash boxes or safes, and/or open an account in the bank.7. Decide on how long members need to save before lending can start. The earlier members can access loan funds the more they are likely to continue saving.8. Agree on loan terms, especially interest to be charged, loan period, grace period and any charges for late payment or default.Q1: Is it possible for non-members to join the group's saving and credit scheme? A1: No. For someone to join the savings and credit scheme of the group, they should have been a fully paid-up member of the group for at least 6 months.Q2: Can one borrow more money from the group fund than their savings?A2: Yes, one can borrow money beyond their savings. The amount borrowed will depend on factors such as the statement from the loan guarantor, the purpose of the loan and the report about the borrower by the loans committee. The next session will address this question in more detail.Q3: Can one deposit more than the minimum amount?A3: Yes, a group member can deposit more than the minimum amount.Q1: How can a farmer tell when the prices of banana are going to increase? A1: Prices for banana increase for various reasons. During festive seasons, the prices go up because the demand is high. During drought periods or disease outbreaks, when production is reduced, prices go up. In general, prices go up when production goes down, or when demand is high.Q2: There is usually high banana production in November (because of the favourable weather), and yet the prices are also high around this time -why is this? A2: The high demand is because of the festive events at this time of year, which increases the prices even though supply is good.Q3: At certain times of year we have a lot of banana in our villages, but we can't sell them outside the villages because the roads are too bad during the rains. What can we do about this?A3: You should approach the local leaders to ask the district heads to work on the road so that buyers can reach you.7. In preparation for the next session, have the group discuss and agree on potential buyers who can be invited to the session to negotiate terms for collective marketing. Potential buyers may include buyers that the marketing team met in Session 3 while conducting market surveys, or any other traders known to be operating within the area.8. Wrap up the training session as follows:• Briefly recap the day's session• Communicate the topic of the next session (Negotiating with buyers), and the date, time and venue for the session.Extension workers sometimes try to 'push' farmers into accepting recommendations. However, when decisions about what to grow or how to sell are imposed this rarely leads to success. Farmers do not feel that the decisions are theirs, they are not committed to them and they feel a lower sense of responsibility. If things do go wrong it is easy for farmers to blame the person who persuaded them to do the 'wrong' thing.Helping farmers to make their own decisions is a more difficult and slower process but, in the long run, it will be more successful than trying to tell farmers what to do. When groups of farmers take on ownership of their plans they are more enthusiastic, show more determination to overcome problems and take greater pride if their plan proves successful. They are much more able to overcome problems in the future and to actively seek solutions for themselves.To make decisions, farmers must be well informed. They need to know what choices they have. They will have to discuss what they can do to improve their marketing and agree on what to do and on who is responsible for the individual tasks. The role of the facilitator is to guide this process by presenting the results, and letting the farmers take the lead in deciding how they will engage in the market given the facts presented to them.It is possible that after conducting this session, farmers decide to opt out of collective marketing.2. The group agrees a price range for each grade of bananas. The group also agrees on the banana collection centres, depending on which farmers are contributing bananas.3. Contact the buyer who was selected during the previous session with information about the quantities of banana, the grades and the collection centre. Invite him or her to come and purchase the bananas at the agreed time and date.4. The farmers deliver the agreed quantity and grade of bananas to the collection centre, where the buyer collects and pays for the bananas. The facilitator should be present when the transaction is taking effect.5. The group meets to discuss the success of the marketing trial, and any problems that were encountered, and discusses ways to improve the arrangements.","tokenCount":"17518"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d7e6ee5780c53e9ab7227ff907eb70d7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6dd1c2c0-d4d4-48ae-9a7e-3c9f9292da3c/retrieve","id":"2109970778"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"066749f3-4934-44a2-91d9-3d8b9f939cbd","pagecount":"19","content":"Informe de actividades de especializaci6n en evuluact6n y manejo de pradecas o Valderedes ~lartins da Silva Cali, Colombia, Julio de 1982 .. '. . -. , AI'lOCIACION DE g.. HU/<1IDICOI,A cm] D.OVALIFOLIUr-l BAJO PlIS'l'OREO COLl'rnWO 'l ALTERNO CON CA!<c;]\\S FIJAS EN .SABANA BIEN DRENADA HIP¡;:R~~EmlICA. I. .DISPO~IIBILIDAD DE M.lITEHI1\\. SECA, Sr:J~EC'rIVIDAD y PRODUC'l'IVIDAD ANUlAL. Por: Valderedes Nartins da Silva* !la:jo supervisi6n de Luis E. 'l!ergas ** Supervisi6n adicional:Carlos Lascano, Gustavo Cuenca y Jaime Velásquez** IN'rRODUCCION Con los aumentos demográffcos, principalmente en los países más pobres del mundo, diversos organüuflos internacionales suman esfuerzos a entidades nacionales en investigaciones agropecuarias, buscando elevar la oferta de alimentos para atender la demanda cada vez mayor de estas poblaciones. Aunque r,!xistan en el m• .. mdo extensas áreas sin explotar, S0 carece de la tp.cnología adecuada y de informaci6n suficiente que comprueben su 'viabilidad económica para que puedan ser incorporadas al sis\"Lema productivo. * ** InveBt:i.gador B. S. de 1\", Empresa l'ernanbucana de Pesquisa lIgropecu\",ria-IPA. Brasil Programa Pas tos Tr()picales -CIl!.'J', Cali, ColombiaEn la América tropical, c.e acuerdo con datos del proyecte de evaluación de recursos de t:i.erras para América latina, del CIAT, estas áreas corresponden a 850 millones d~ hectéll:eas (51% del recurso) (1).Los suelos de esta regi6n son en su mayoria Oxisoles y Ultisoles de escasa fertilidad y presentan severos U.mi tantes para la producción agropecuaria. Sin embargo, poseen, en g~neral muy buenas propiedades físicas, además de existfr en la región una abundante radiación solar y prolongadas estaciones de crecimiento vegetal ~2), que los hacen ideales para con Ulla adecuada tecnología fmplantar los pastos mejorados y por ende aumentar la producción de alimentos de orj.gen anfmaJ.. Este es el objetivo principal del programa de Pastos Tropicales del Centro Internacional do 1\\.gricul tura ~'ropical-CIAT, ~ue busca, con mucho €nfasis, una tecnología que pueda incorporar estas tierras al s.istema productivo de los países a que pertenezcan. De este modo se espera ccmtribuix: para disminuir el desequilibrio entre la oferta y demanda , ,\" .-2de alimentos' y hacer Ilegal: con mayor seguridad a la mesa de las poblaciones de pocos recursos, la carne , la leche y otros productos de primera necesidad. El trabajo reportado en este informe es conducido por la Secci6n de utilizaci6n de pasturas del ClAT que tiene como objetivo primordial caracterizar y evaluar el germoplasma introducido . promisorio por' su valor alimenticio y su potencial de pl:oducttvidud animal, así como ladeterminación del maneja apropiado de la pradel:a para seguJ:ar la persistencia (2). Se busca aquí condensar las informaciones de las actividades desarrolladas en la secci6n antes citada, con el fin de lograr especialización en evaluaci6n y manejo de praderas, dentro del Programa de Capacitación Científica del crAT.~mTERIALES y METODOS Los datos que se presentan en este informe fueron obtenidos de un ensayo conducido en el Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias del lCA \"Carimagua\", Llanos Orientales de Colombia que tiene 22 mil hectáreas de tierra ubicadas en el eC0sistemd de sabana bien drenada hipertérmica con una altura sobre el nivel del mar de 175 ro y presenta algunas zonas inundables, con peneientes de menos de 0.5%. Estas áreas están cubiertas de sabanas nativas con bo.sques de \"galeria\" que se presentan a lo largo de los caños y rios. Sus suelos (Oxisoles) son ácidos (pH 4.2 -4.8) con elevados niveles y saturación de Al, además son deficientes en N, P,J<, -Ca, Mg, S Y elementos menores. La precipitación anual es de 2.100 mm distribuidos en 8 meses (Abril, noviembre) de lluvia y 4 meses (diciembre a mayo) de sequía. La temperatu.ra promedio es de 26•C con pocas variaciones durante el año. Las praderas en asociación de J3.humidicola y Q.ovalifolium de las cuales se obtuvieron los datos para este informe y fueron establecidas de la siguiente manera: -4-En el cuadro 1 se incluyen los datos de la rep2tici6n 1 y se observa en la época seca una bucma disponibilj.dad (k forraje inicial, corres\" pondiendo más del 50% ¡;¡ la produccj.6n de la leguminosa. El pastoreo se inicio en el mes de febrero y en abr11, época d!;) transici6n, ya se percibe el efecto del. pastoreo con su respectiva carga, ocurriendo una mayor aceptaci6n ele la legur.ünosa en esta \";¡poca, lo cual favorece un mejor equilibrio de los componentes de la pradera. Es importante resaltar la ocurrencia de una proporción elevada de material r.luerto de gral'1ínea y tallos de le9nminosa al inicio del pastoreo (Figura 1). En la época húmeda en tocas las cargas, ocurre una reducción severa el1 la dispol1~bilidad de la gramínea, causando un desequilibrio notable en los componentes botánicos. Este desbalance puede ser atrj.buído, tanbién al crecimiento exuberante del D.ovalifo1 sin competencia en esta época. La baja producción de B. humidicola, aee~ás de la alta proporción de material muerto en la época de traniij.ción (Figura 1) ocasionaron En la protelna y alta digestibiHdad. Existi6 también un equilibrio los componentes gramínea-leguminosa, excepto en la carga baja, el cual el 66% correspondía a la gramínea. pruebas de selectividad, a diferencia de la primera repctj.ción preferenCia animal por la gram1nea fue alta. Esto puede observarse ,.-5-Producci6n de materia seca y porcentaje de los componentes de la pradera ele D.humidicola y!?. ovalifolium en asociaci6n, bajo pastoreo continuo en tres épocas. Carimagua, 1982. I Repetici6n.Gram1nea.Le~luminosa Total an/ha t7ha . ,• -/.   -7al comparar las Figuras 2 y 4. En esta repetici6n los animales tenían a disposición gramínea tierna (Figura 3) ce mejor calidad que posiblemente 'proporcionaba una mejor dieta con elevado contenido de pr~teína para una'mayor producci6n animal (4).En la carga baja hubo al inicio una gran cantidad de gramínea y un desbalance en los componentes (Cuadro 2), pero debido a una mayor preferencia y consumo ~e la gramínea (Fi<:;ura 4) ocurrió para e l \" , , mes de julio, un equilibrio en la composición botánica. En las otras ,cargas ocurri6 un desequilibrio en funci6n del mayor namero de' animales, mayor preferencia y consumo de gramínea, lo que condujo a un crecimiento exuberante de la leguminosa, mas que todo por la falta de competencia (Cuadro 2).En el Cuadro 3, se puede observar que la ganancia diaria de peso por animal durante el período de transición de,la época seca a la lluviosa fue baja para todas las cargas. Esto estuvo relacionado con ,la cisponibilidad y calidad del forraje existente en esta época, aunque inicialmente existi6 'buena disponibilidad de forraje (CuadroEn lQs primeros 43 días de la época lluviosa se observ6 un significativo aumento en la producci6n animal como consecuencia de una mayor disponibilidad de forraje (Cuadro 1) que favoreció la ganancia compensatoria de peso por los 'animales durante epta época, 'esto también pudo deberse a la mayor contribuci6n de la leguminosa en la dieta (Figura 2). Para el período total de 109 días experimentales la mayor producci6n animal se alcanz6 en la carga de 3.5 anima,les/ha. Fue en este tratamiento en donde la disponibilidad de forraje durante la época seca y de transici6n fue mayor, siendo el porcentaje de leguminosa siempre superior al 48%. lo cual favoreció su consumo, especialmente en la época cr:ttica. En el cuadro 4', se presentan los datos de ganancia éle peso por los animales para la 11 repetici6n. Estas ganancias son superiores a las obtenidas en la repeticiÓn 1, debido a que los animales tenían a su di~posici6n forraje de buena calidad (Pi'gura 3) y estaban en condiciones de seleccionar una mejor dieta. Puede, observarse que al ;.\" -'.~.'.  -8-aUMm~ la carga animal disminuyó la ganancia diaria de pese, pere la preducci6n per hectárea fue mayer 3. Dispenibilidad de ferraje y cempesición mtanica de las praderas en pasteree alterne.Las figuras 5 y 6 muestran la disponibilidad de ferraje y les efectos de maneje del pasteree cen sus cargas en esta dispenibilidad y cempesici6n betánica en una pradera que empezó seQetida a pasteree centinue en febrere de 1981 y pesteriermente fue cambiada para pasteree alterne cen 14 días de descanse y 14 de _.ocupación.El petrere A por peseer mayer cantidad de ferraje, recibi6 3 animales/ha y el B recibi6 2 animales/ha. En el mes de maye empezaren a ser utilizades al ternamente cen la carga de 3.5 an/ha (•6).Inicialmente hube deminie de la gramínea y cen el cambie del sistema de pasteree se íegr6 una estabilidad en les ~empenentes gramínealeguminesa (Figura 5). Este .ocurre temporalmente después de enere hasta junie•de 1982, ebsérvase en la Figura 6 un desbalance cen mayer .oferta de gramínea, pere cen alta cantidad de material muerte y de talle que afectará, sin duda, el censume per les animales íFig .. 3-4)Per ser este el primer añe de pastoree y en ferma similar-a le .ocurrido en las praderas utilizadas bajo pastereo continuo, anteriormente citadas, per la abundancia de ferraje de buena calidad, el rendimiente de' les animales fue alte, cerne se .observa en el Cuadre 5.Se .observa que mientras, la preductividad animal disminuye al avanzar el tiempe de pastereey que la estabilidad de les componentes iniciales de la pradera han cambiade con predeminie de la gramínea (Figura 6).Tede esto tal vez pueda ser explicade, perque en alguna época la carga animal fue insuficiente para el'velumen de ferraje preducide, ecurriende una rápida maduración del material y su rechaze per les animales.La alta cantidad de material muerto y do;! t;l1lo de gramínea, además de la ausencia de hoja de leguminesa (Figura 6) que puede causar un baje censume per les animales, tal vez explique la pérdida de pese -10-• de 66g/an/d1'.a en el pedoCb de enero a marzo .de 1982 y la baja ganancia en los períodos siguientes (Cuadro 6). Este cuadro muestra una baja productividad animal comparado con los datos de los otros cuadros, se puede atribuir posiblemente, como se dijo anteriormente a la abundancia de material de baja calidad en el forraje disponible que imposibilit6 una selección •de una mejor dieta por los animales •Al inicio del pastoreo siempre se observ6 una alta disponibilidad de forraje con una gran proporción de hoja y un buen balance entre los componentes Brachiaria humidicola -Desmodium ovalifolium .    -, -11del comportamiento de las especies de la pradera que en términos de producci6n animal.","tokenCount":"1668"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"15ad796836089ba8ca5c842b67f22ac9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cef8a12f-77a7-4cd0-bc90-540db71c39f4/retrieve","id":"-1014775636"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"87686b40-bc15-4833-82a1-8ef241af5636","pagecount":"24","content":"Scientific evidence from a landmark study recently published in the Lancet Report shows that food systems must radically change if we are to avoid potentially catastrophic effects on our collective health and irreparable damage to the planet (Willett et al. 2019). Food systems -encompassing all activities from inputs, production, harvesting, processing, distribution, marketing, consumption to waste management supported by relevant services, governance and policy -are complex and solutions must be creative to supply affordable, safe, and nutrient-rich food from land, freshwater and ocean ecosystems in a sustainable manner.Fish plays a critical role in this mission. Fish provide essential fatty acids and key micronutrients such as vitamins A and B12, iron, calcium, zinc and iodine, as well as animal protein. More than 50% of the fish that we consume globally is presently coming from aquaculture.Aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Increased production has been achieved through intensification of aquaculture systems while neglecting farm-level biosecurity and aquatic health management. As a consequence, indiscriminate antimicrobial use (AMU) to treat or prevent disease and increase productivity is common (Alday-Sanz et al. 2012;Rico et al. 2012), and often compensates for management and husbandry deficiencies. Regulation and enforcement of the responsible use of antimicrobials is often inefficient or absent (Bondad-Reantaso, Arthur, and Subasinghe 2012). Further, there is no comprehensive framework to understand existing interventions to reduce AMU in the aquaculture sector. Focusing on aquaculture systems in LMICs, the aim of this study was to provide insights into interventions and strategies applied that can reduce AMU. The objectives were 1) to conduct a typology analysis of past, current, and planned strategies and interventions to tackle AMU, 2) to provide an analytic framework of interventions in the field, 3) to provide an overview of the policy landscape with regards to AMU/AMR. Professionals with knowledge and/or experience in the design and implementation of such interventions in LMICs in Asia and Africa were interviewed to gather information on interventions, strategies, and the policy landscape. Interventions were framed according to the AMU goal of the interventions, namely, (i) promoting responsible and/or reduced AMU, (ii) providing commercial alternatives to AM, and (iii) removing the original cause of the problem, e.g., addressing animal health management. Subsequently, relevant variables representing the characteristics of an intervention and implementation were identified and combined in a multidimensional typology process. Seven types of interventions were identified, namely i) National Action Plans and National Fish Health Management strategies, ii) national legislation and regulatory frameworks, iii) market-driven strategies, iv) technology and product solutions, v) on farm management, vi) learning and raising awareness, and vii) activities with co-benefits on AM reduction and aquatic health. Further themes emerged in the discussions including the situation and perception of AMU, drivers of AMU and challenges for aquatic health and aquaculture systems. Consequently, drivers and pathways of AMU were mapped and linked to the typology.Characterisation of the types revealed common aspects across countries. Several legislative and regulatory frameworks for aquatic medicinal products were described but poor enforcement was reported to be common. Inspection and control appeared to be often limited to market, and in particular export, oriented commodities resulting in reduced AMU and respecting of withdrawal periods. Vietnam was mentioned as an example of a country engaging in the NAP activities specific for aquaculture, while other countries were described to be at earlier stages in the process, working with international organisations. Other interventions such as technological and product solutions as alternatives to AM were described to be widely popular, despite the certainty on the quality of products. Further, on farm management interventions and learning, awareness raising and attitude change were commonly locally implemented engaging a wide variety of stakeholders.This study provides an overview and typology of existing strategies and interventions targeting AMU in aquaculture systems in LMICs. This forms the basis for future work to evaluate AMR-sensitive interventions that promote responsible AMU, and to inform the design and implementation of future interventions.Aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), driven by an increasing demand for affordable protein and trade opportunities. It produces more than half of the world's seafood for consumption and is growing globally at a rate of 6% per year since 2001. Seven of the top ten aquaculture producers are LMICs; their contribution to the global trade of aquaculture is growing (FAO 2018). In the last decades, the rise of aquaculture has responded to the growing demand for fish and fish products (Troell et al. 2014). Further, despite the importance for human nutrition, aquatic products are neglected in the food security discourse and their nutritional potential beyond the protein value, with unsaturated fatty acids and micronutrients is often undervalued (Béné et al. 2016).Global trade in live aquatic animals and intensification of aquaculture are important drivers for the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. Increased production has been achieved through intensification of aquaculture systems, where animals are farmed outside their natural physiological, biological and ecological boundaries. This has often led to increased occurrence of diseases and crop loss (Leung and Bates 2013;Hall et al. 2011). As a consequence, indiscriminate antimicrobial use (AMU) to treat or prevent disease and increase productivity is common, and often compensates for management and husbandry deficiencies (Bondad-Reantaso, Arthur, and Subasinghe 2012).The main driver of AMR is described to be the misuse of AM (Henriksson, Troell, and Rico 2015;Rico et al. 2013). The use of AM in aquaculture systems in LMICs is thought to be high, but levels are unknown due to a dearth of surveillance systems (Brugere, Onuigbo, and Morgan 2017). In addition, AM are usually applied with feed, potentially leading to excretion of non-absorbed chemicals from fish into the water, or direct contamination of water if feed is not consumed. Because aquatic environments also contain diverse bacteria populations, risks are created for AMR development and exchange of plasmid between resistant and nonresistant bacteria. Furthermore, aquaculture facilities are often open systems interconnected with the natural water environment through irrigation or flow of water, producing wastewater discharges into them. The use of chemicals and biological products in these systems has the potential to impact the surrounding ecosystems (Rico et al. 2012;Done, Venkatesan, and Halden 2015) as presence of residues has been evidenced in different studies (Le and Munekage 2004;Xue et al. 2013).Despite the risk for AMR emergence and importance for food security, aquaculture systems remain neglected in terms of health research and management compared to other terrestrial productive systems. Further, the distribution of aquaculture production and development worldwide is uneven generating regional risks. While Asia accounted for almost 90% of aquaculture production in 2016 (of which 60% was produced by China), Africa represented 2.5%, of which 1.7% was produced by Egypt alone (FAO 2018). In LMICs, regulation and enforcement for the responsible use of antimicrobials is often inefficient or absent and monitoring or surveillance systems for AMR and AMU are often absent or not systematically implemented. Further, there is no comprehensive framework to understand existing interventions that can lead to AMU reduction in the sector. This study aimed to provide insights into interventions and strategies applied in aquaculture systems in LMICs that can reduce the use of AM. The objectives of this study were 1) to conduct a typology analysis of past, current, and planned strategies and interventions to tackle, 2) to provide an analytic framework of interventions in the field, 3) to provide an overview of the policy landscape with regards to AMU.An eight-step process was used to develop the typology of interventions tackling AMU in aquaculture in LMICs (Figure 1). Following an initial review and conceptualisation step, semi-structured interviews were conducted with aquaculture professionals with experience in LMICs to obtain information about interventions and strategies applied in aquaculture systems that can reduce the use of AMs as well as evidence of their impact. The interview data were analysed and used to build iteratively a multi-dimensional typology framework for these interventions. The details of this process are described in the following sections. Step 1. ReviewWe defined the term \"intervention\" as any formal action designed to address purposefully a challenge with the aim of obtaining a desired change in the system. We reviewed different existing frameworks to identify relevant elements for the interviews. The following three approaches were used:1. International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI, https://mitel.dimi.uniud.it/ichi/docs/) that defines intervention as 'an act performed for, with or on behalf of a person or a population whose purpose is to assess, improve, maintain, promote or modify health, functioning or health conditions' and uses three elements to characterise an intervention, namely target population, action, and means of implementation.in people's lives ranging from complete freedom of choice to regulations banning or restricting choice (Nuffield Council on Bioethics 2007) 3. The application of choice and non-choice based interventions to animal health compensation and biosecurity (Barnes et al. 2015) to consider the strength of intervention and degree of intrusiveness and the potential for behavioural interventions and implementation features.The study of these frameworks resulted in the definition of the variables shown in Figure 2, namely  The interview guide (Appendix 1) aimed to capture potential classifying elements and understand the policy context that can influence the implementation. Initial scoping discussions with stakeholders informed the selection of case countries based on the aquaculture development stage, role of the sector, perceived AMU levels, initiatives against AMR and access of information, while ensuring a good range of representation of different aquaculture systems. The selection of professionals was purposive and we followed a snowball process. First, established collaborators in international and academic institutions with experience in the sector were contacted and interviewed. In a second step, other national experts in public and private institutions in Egypt, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, Bangladesh, India and Vietnam were interviewed based on recommendations made by our contacts. Apart from talking about the experience in their countries, the interviewees provided information about other countries and trends based on their experiences. Interviews were conducted in English using online meeting applications and hand-written notes were taken throughout the process. Discussions covered the policy landscape in each setting, and past, current and future activities to address the AMU challenge. Further, during the interview process different themes emerged, including the level of AMU settings, perceived drivers of AMU and challenges for aquatic health and management, and for aquaculture in general. Further, participants shared relevant documents and sources of information discussed during the interview.Step 4. Re-conceptualisationThe initial aim was to obtain information solely on interventions to reduce AMU. In the light of the preliminary results, the scope was expanded to consider information on any activities, actions or strategies, occurring in the systems that can lead to a reduction of use of AM in aquaculture systems as a co-benefit. Accordingly, these included activities (A) designed to achieve prudent use, whose main goal is to primarily address AMU; this group includes, specific regulation for AM sales; (B) providing commercial alternatives to AM, aiming for an economic gain while promoting health; (C) preventing disease by addressing management and low productivity associated with production management.Steps 5 and 6. Data editing, analytic process and framework developmentInterview notes on interventions were screened to identify suitable variables (or dimensions). These variables were the action; target or stakeholder to influence; purpose of the intervention, implementer and stakeholders involved; means, method of implementation or delivery mechanism; degree of compulsion and strength of the interventions; impact; and monitoring and evaluation. For each variable, a set of categories was identified based on the information collected. Appendix 2 shows an overview diagram used to identify some key variables from the information obtained. To develop the typology, variables were considered with enough information to generate discrete groups, and characterise the intervention. Simultaneously, information on emerged themes was mapped as drivers and pathways of AMU.Steps 7 to 9. Typology analysis, characterisation and application.Figure 3 outlines the process to develop the intervention types. The types were obtained by combining the categories of the different variables represented as each column, a component to characterise an intervention. Based on the information obtained, links were established between the components, to finally generate the types. Information on perception of use, drivers and pathways to AMU from interviews illustrated the background of the system and helped to identify \"where to intervene in the system\"; this differed by context. Finally this analytic framework was applied on the strategies obtained to characterise the interventions identified. A total of 17 interviews were conducted with different professionals from academia, international organisations, government and the private sector in UK, Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Bangladesh India and Vietnam. Table 1 outlines the types of interventions identified and their respective profiles.  Interviewees from all countries mentioned the existence of some legislative and regulatory framework that refers to aquaculture medicinal products within the Animal Health or Fisheries Acts, and regulates the use, implemented by authorities (extension services and inspectors). Common aspects reported were the existence of a list of forbidden AM products and inspection of input providers, pharmacies and production plants. Problems of enforcing the regulation were mentioned; sometimes due to lack of human resources or lack of stringent consequences when inspection is applied. Quality of drugs was mentioned to be a problem, concerning pharmacies or distributors of products. Recent studies in Vietnam (Phu et al, Than et al) showed that commercialised products are of poor quality, and do not match the active ingredient referred. Other regulations mentioned referred to the control of the seed imports in the countries to minimise the risk of epizootic diseases.The aim of NAPs for AMR and other national fish health strategies is to establish and enable the regulation and pro-active action towards the control of AMR. Among the countries considered, Vietnam presented the most advanced plan for targeted interventions that included surveillance activities, awareness raising, and enhancement of One Health governance. Other countries such as Egypt or Zambia were described to be undergoing the first stages towards interventions to mitigate AMR with the assistance of FAO, who provides training and planning for the competent authorities in the country to take responsibility and assure a sustainable implementation. These activities with stakeholders were described to be oriented to address primarily aquatic health following a holistic and systems approach tackling the root of the problem of AMU and AMR. They often related to management of aquatic health. Other countries such as Bangladesh were reported to be developing national fish health strategies, where interventions regarding use of aquatic medicinal products is a component of the plan.Certification standards were described to have driven AMU reduction in Asian countries. Their main aim was said to establish a benchmark for sustainable production; AMU was included as a section. Different international labels, and national labels (e.g. VIETGAP) were mentioned, with involvement of industry and other national stakeholders. Accordingly, different stakeholders in the Agri-food business, such as importing retailers or exporting stakeholders in the value chain, demand standards for producers to comply with that are set up by third-party companies. The effect of export and market driven activities has been documented, analysing the data from the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) regarding aquaculture products (Newton et al. 2019).Different products were mentioned to be used in aquaculture systems as prophylactic use. The most common products listed were probiotics and vaccines. Probiotics were described to be widely commercialised by private companies and used extensively in commercial systems with distribution through pharmacies, drug sellers or distributors or at the farm level. However, evidence about the effectiveness of these products is unknown. The IMAQulate project, \"Evaluating Costs and Benefits of Prophylactic Health Products (PHPs) and Novel Alternatives on Smallholder Aquaculture Farmers in Asia and Africa\" led by the University of Stirling implemented a randomised control trial in India and Kenya to evaluate the cost and benefits of these prophylactic products as well as their quality. Preliminary results indicated ineffective active ingredient concentrations, contamination with bacteria pathogenic to humans, fraudulent inclusion of antibiotics and presence of antimicrobial resistance genes. Further, many products lacked credibility regarding their mode of action and efficacy claims. In addition, they identified a lack of effective sampling approaches as part of emergent regulatory efforts resulting in lack of detection of some problem-products in screening efforts whilst the economic burden of poor quality assurance and unjustified claims is likely to fall most heavily on small-holders. The IMAQulate project collaborators are following up with a project in Bangladesh, applying a decision tool developed by them.The use of vaccines was mentioned in several interviews as the best method proven to decrease use of AM to very low levels. Examples discussed were the case of Norway and UK, characterised by a very high use of antibiotics in 1970s and 1980s. After implementation of vaccination, use levels of AB drugs declined while production increased (Asche 2008). However, vaccination in these scenarios was combined with other interventions that might have contributed to this success and data on the impact often only accounts for effect of vaccination. These others interventions were the availability and access to diagnostics, industry support and a regulatory framework combined with successful enforcement. The use of vaccines was mentioned in Egypt and Vietnam for diseases of catfish and tilapia; development is ongoing. On the other side, some respondents expressed scepticism, arguing that vaccines only target one microorganism, whereas mortalities in water systems can be the result of a complex combination of different microbial agents. Moreover, they observed that vaccines increase the production costs substantially, and it is unknown whether farmers would be willing to make such investment, or whether they can afford it. Currently, in countries like Vietnam, costs of AB in catfish were reported to be 0.02$/kg, normally adding 1kg/30 tons of fish. The cost of some vaccines was reported to start at 0.02$ per fish thus making vaccine use more costly than AB use for the producer. Finally, they expressed concerns on the regulation of vaccination in LMICs that are characterised by a wide variety of systems in terms of species, sizes and levels of commercialisation, and often face problems of enforcement (as described above). However, interviewees believed that vaccination might be feasible in more homogeneous production systems with support from the private sector if it is affordable for the producer.Two forms of such interventions were described, namely 1) stand-alone instructive activities including information and knowledge provision, capacity building, training, and awareness campaigns, and 2) crosscutting delivery mechanisms in the other interventions to enhance implementation and uptake.In June of 2019, WorldFish launched an awareness raising campaign in Bangladesh among the public regarding AMU/AMR in aquaculture systems in collaboration with the University of Exeter. The intervention, previously informed by a survey and investigation of effective implementation, was broadcasted in different media platforms. Engagement and responses in social media were monitored, using analytical parameters including views, likes and comments. While such interventions were thought to have potential, there were also concerns about negative repercussions with the involvement of media in topics that can create food scares. One such example is the impact of EU media on Asian seafood markets (Newton et al. 2019).Training activities were found in all countries, mainly to address aquatic management and in the sub-Saharan African countries also to engage farmers into aquaculture activities. In addition, behavioural influences were described. Across all countries, respondents highlighted the effect of who delivers the information to engage producers into practices, programmes, and technologies. Producers presenting positive production performance were described to be role models and were used as ambassadors for other peers, while service and input providers acted as distributors of information between different producers. Further, the use of group messaging networks via mobile devices was described among participants to exchange information like market prices of fish with the potential of norm setting.On farm interventions were described as critical to prevent disease, maintain aquatic health and profitability of activities. In Egypt, the impact of best management practices (BMP) was assessed (Dickson et al. 2016), involving the training of farmers that were compared to a control group. These types of interventions were aligned with the introduction of global certification standards planned to improve environmental practices. The study showed how variable costs (e.g. feed) in adopters of BMP were considerably lower and net profits were significantly higher. In Vietnam, despite the high adoption of certification standards by commercial exporters, input providers described that BMP are considered as a burden among some producers and \"not worth the effort\".The aim of surveillance systems is to generate evidence to inform interventions. In the context of AMU in aquaculture, surveillance information on AMR, AMU and/or residues can inform the design of interventions to reduce AMU and AMR. Surveillance of AMU, AMR and residues has been enhanced by NAPs in countries where such plans have been implemented. Among the interviewed LMICs countries, Vietnam was found to have the most formal surveillance system, strengthened as a result of the NAP. However, the system was said to have been implemented on an ad hoc basis in commercial commodities, often relying on samples sent to the authorities by farmers in situation of disease.One of the critical points was described to be the need of surveillance protocols for AMU and AMR in an integrated manner across animal, human and environment systems. To respond to this, the Flemind Fund, an UK aid programme, aims to enhance surveillance systems, by developing common protocols for all food production sectors, to generate evidence for decision maker following a One Health approach, integrating human and animal resources. This is subsequently aimed to be applied in more than twenty countries in Africa and Asia.Different projects were described to develop and apply tools for decision makers and different levels of the system. One was the \"Risk-based pedigree-analysis for regulation of prophylactic aquaculture health products and improved smallholder health management in Bangladesh\". Following up from evidence generated in the IMAQulate in South Asia on the quality of prophylactic aquaculture health products, this project has developed a risk analysis tool to assist users in identifying high risk products based on different indicators. The tool, implemented in Bangladesh in shrimp and pangasius producers, aims to raise awareness among stakeholders and support uptake of effective regulatory frameworks at the national level that can lead to more effective health management in aquatic small-holder systems.All respondents acknowledged the challenge of AMR in aquaculture systems due to inadequate or indiscriminate use of products and complexity of the ecological systems. However, concerns and priorities varied in different countries. In Vietnam, the extensive use of AMs in different production systems, also reported in studies (e.g. Rico et al. 2013), was highlighted by respondents (both, researchers and service providers) and described as usually being indiscriminate. In exporting commodities, in which use is more controlled, withdrawal periods were said to be respected, but prophylactic use common throughout the production cycle. Other concerns stated were the frequent use of AB for humans (e.g. in Vietnam, cefotaxime, a third generation cephalosporine; quinolones, etc.); inappropriate the dosage of AB (\"usually based on experience, but producers double the dose if AB ineffective\") and the quality of products sold as also found by Tran et al( 2018). In contrast, respondents from Uganda, Zambia and Kenya did not perceive AMU as a very significant challenge yet, as the aquaculture sector in these countries was described to be underdeveloped in comparison to Asian countries, and farmers did not seem to access the drug supply chain as much as for terrestrial animals. Yet still, due to the growth and intensification, it was reported as an increasing problem. For instance in Uganda, the use of AM was believed to be of ~10% in grow-out ponds (instead of using AMs, producers were said to use table salt, potassium permanganate and formalin), but higher in hatcheries. The most frequently used AB in East African countries appeared to be oxytetracycline. Farmers were described to follow a trial and error approach and look for advice for treatment in the internet. Even though disease and management practices were listed as constraints, respondents mentioned other priorities for the sector, including access to technology and management, sustainable market access and biodiversity issues between exotic and endemic species. Egypt and certain West African countries like Nigeria and Ghana were identified as countries where aquaculture is a larger and more developed sector with substantial disease problems that might drive the use of chemicals and AM.Figure 4A presents a general overview of the drivers for AMU mentioned by respondents throughout the discussions. These drivers help to think about the question of 'Where to intervene?'. These drivers were grouped in biological, operational and governance, economic and behavioural drivers. Subsequently, information collated was illustrated as pathways to AMU (Figure 4B).Firstly, biological factors were reported (1,2,3 in Figure 4A) as important causes leading to use of AM and chemicals, mainly in response to disease, due to environmental, host or pathogen causes. All the respondents mentioned water quality to be a crucial factor leading to stress and susceptibility of disease, and water as a vehicle of microorganisms and chemicals. Further, poor management practices (Factor 5) were described to be strongly interrelated, leading to stress and higher susceptibility to infection. Accordingly, in Egypt, poor water quality and management was reported to be a severe problem leading to susceptibility to disease and associated to the use of chemicals into the tilapia pond production. This occurs in a legislative and regulatory (Factor 14) context that prohibits the use of freshwater for culturing fish due to limited water resources, forcing farmers to use drainage water sources, containing pesticides and other chemicals that affect negatively the quality of the fish. Farmers are advised to invest in water treatment methods such as aeration, but uptake of these interventions and willingness to invest is unknown, as lack of capital and low profit margins were reported as constraints. Tilapia pond based production in Egypt, as other production systems in Vietnam in cages or ponds, were described to face constraints also due to the open nature of the system with poor biosecurity facilitating transmission of pathogens. While biological drivers (and their links with other factors) were deemed fundamental causes of AM and chemicals use in Asian countries and Egypt, respondents in Uganda, Kenya and Zambia unanimously attributed the lack of disease outbreaks and intensification of the sector as the reason for a current low AMU in the sector.Further, economic drivers were mentioned to be crucial. Commercial farmers were described to face pressure to deliver timely production in the light of price volatility. Therefore, production cannot be risked and AB are widely used in pangasius and shrimp production in Vietnam (\"respecting the withdrawal time, but in 100% use as prophylaxis\"). Incidence of disease was also mentioned as a driver (\"80% of commercial shrimp farms in Vietnam suffered white faeces disease last year and farmers were using AB as prophylaxis from the beginning to prevent it\"). Other alternatives such as vaccines (Factor 9), were described to be impractical and not affordable even for commercial farmers in Vietnam, comparing the margin obtained using AB with the use of vaccines. Further, lack of capital and/or willingness to invest in biosecurity and good management was also described to drive AMU. Input providers mentioned that producers tried to invest in good management practices, but in the absence of significant better results in productivity and higher efforts, compared to their neighbour that only uses antibiotics, their interest to continue has dropped. In relation to this, in all the scenarios, producers were described to be highly influenced by what other producers do or use, particularly if it leads to higher yields (Factor 15). Private companies providing inputs were described to act as messengers of this information, witnessing this effect (Factor 8) and using it for their own products (such as feed additives and different compounds).Regulatory frameworks and industry rules were described to influence use in different ways. Generally, implementation of the regulations appeared to be impeded by enforcement constraints. This was described to be associated to a lack of human and financial resources to conduct inspections at different points of the supply chain, or lack of stringent consequences to the breach of correct practices. Nevertheless, industry rules driving potential profit were described to influence positively management practices and prudent AMU in commercial systems, particularly for exporting commodities.For each intervention type, the relevant drivers involved or targeted were identified (Table 3). Main drivers potentially involved: numbers correspond to Figure 4.In this study, we developed a typology for interventions tackling AMU in aquaculture in LMICs. A total of seven distinct types of interventions were proposed based on seven variables. This typology is useful to understand how the problem of AMR is tackled in aquaculture, to identify similarities and differences across countries and to support evaluations of relevant interventions.The typology developed is a multidimensional typology, as types are the result of the combination of different variables (or dimensions) that have clearly defined characteristics. It is a conceptual typology, previously described as to explicate the meaning of a concept (the interventions) by mapping out its dimensions (the variables) (Collier, LaPorte, and Seawright 2012). The typology was developed in an iterative process that included stages of reviews, conceptualisation, data collection, data analysis and interpretation. A critical step in this process was to conduct semi-structured interviews with aquaculture professionals to gather information on interventions, strategies, drivers and contexts. This information allowed elaborating the characteristics of the different types and identifying key drivers and consequently (further) potential intervention points in these aquaculture systems. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first typology of this kind for AMU interventions in the aquaculture sector in LMICs. Because it was developed based on available literature and semi-structured interviews with 17 professionals in the field, it may not be fully representative of all such interventions in this context. However, the typology can be applied, tested, expanded and refined in the AMU/AMR community as and when more data or information become available. For future work of this nature, it will be important to consider explicitly operational aspects, as these are often neglected and undervalued in the literature and may need to be obtained qualitatively in collaboration with designers and implementers.When applying the typology, users can expect that each country shows a different profile of interventions based on the development of the sector and its characteristics, e.g. whether there are export and/or domestic activities, the proportion and stage of development of intensive commercial systems, and the diversity of species produced. Also, differences can be expected dependent on a countries AMU goals and its commitment to National Action Plans.While the typology has been developed for the use of AMs, other important topics emerged. In particular the misuse of other chemicals such as malachite green or potassium permanganate (KMnO4) and prophylactic medicinal products were of concern to the interviewees. It became evident that factors driving their use were similar to those described for AMs and that solutions may need to focus on underlying causes and structures. In any case, we suggest that a combination of interventions, or interventions combining different activities in the system will be necessary given the complexity of the problem and the multitude of drivers and pathways to AMR. Hence, a package of interventions may combine technical aspects (e.g. use of vaccines) with structural interventions, e.g. legislative and regulatory frameworks, effective enforcement systems, industry support, or changes in management practices.An important use of the typology will be to characterise interventions to reduce AMU in aquaculture in LMICs in a standardised way as part of evaluation strategies. To date, the evidence on the impact of such interventions in aquaculture is scarce and scattered. This stands in stark contrast to the wide range of interventions proposed for public health and their respective evaluation plans. In aquaculture, positive effects of interventions are currently documented mainly for commercial systems that are driven by export activities. There is also some evidence being generated on the impact of small-scale interventions, such as ongoing randomised controlled trial probiotics project in India, Bangladesh and Kenya.In order to conduct meaningful evaluations, it will be important to establish effective surveillance and monitoring systems for both AMU and AMR. To establish such systems and plan evaluations, it may be helpful to look at existing initiatives. For example, the JPIAMR funded project Convergence in evaluation frameworks for integrated surveillance of antimicrobial use (AMU) and resistance (AMR) is working on guidance for users interested in conducting evaluations of AMR and AMU surveillance taking an integrated perspective. The JPIAMR funded project AMResilience is an initiative that extends resilience and transformation frameworks for AMR previously developed at the global level, to assess national and regional one-health systems and interventions. As part of this project, a database on interventions is built, describing factors determining resilience and transformability. To date, up to 32 studies addressing surveillance systems of AMU and/or AMR in high income countries have been made available online (https://amr-resilience.gtglab.net/entries/). Notably, none of these studies addresses aquaculture systems. Around a third of these studies document or assess the effect of different interventions on AMR, such as the compulsory restrictions of AMU and voluntary withdrawal of AB in production of livestock; effect of surveillance programmes directly on AMR, or on other interventions as benchmarking; effect of prices of drugs, and also the effect of other interventions at postharvest level or to treat effluents from hospitals with resistant bacteria. Previous studies like these may be helpful for people planning evaluations of interventions to reduce AMU in aquaculture systems in LMICs.A lack of evaluation does not mean that there is no change or impact achieved. However, only with an evaluation, i.e. a systematic process to examine critically a project, programme or activity, it is possible to judge the effectiveness and value of an intervention. The interviews showed that many countries with important aquaculture production are in different stages of activities to tackle AMR in aquaculture influenced by the scale of production, awareness, and the perceived scale of the problem in a country, among other factors. In the future, countries may also wish to consider AMR sensitive strategies in line with recommendations made by the World Bank (2019). Our typology will help to characterise the different available and future interventions in a systematic way and thereby contribute to efforts that aim to study and promote solutions for the AMR challenge in aquaculture systems.","tokenCount":"5691"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fed84b7e37673817c15dd1e6faec3557","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/312e0dff-c1a9-4967-92e3-92f13bb31335/retrieve","id":"653022233"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1efe34b5-a55b-4ec1-8617-e30b0c08d45e","pagecount":"20","content":"Este documento se publica bajo la licencia de Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licencia Internacional. Este trabajo puede ser copiado, adaptado, y distribuido, dando los respectivos créditos y un enlace a la licencia dada, indicando si se han realizado algunos cambios.Las radiografías de los países son una descripción de la situación de referencia de los sistemas de mercado principales para el café y el cacao en los países MOCCA a nivel nacional, en función de las evaluaciones rápidas realizadas en cada país 1 .El nivel de detalle presentado es, en cierta medida, un reflejo de la complejidad y madurez del sector en cada país. No se esperaría que el sistema de mercado para un nuevo cultivo en un sector pequeño y en un país pequeño, sea necesariamente tan desarrollado como el de un cultivo histórico en un sector grande y en un país grande. Las Radiografías de País se encuentran disponibles para los sistemas de mercado de café y cacao en El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, y Perú, y para el sistema de mercado de cacao en el Ecuador. A continuación, se describen las tablas y figuras en el orden que se encuentran en las radiografías.Figura: Mapa -el mapa del país al comienzo de cada radiografía muestra sombreadas las principales áreas productoras de café o cacao del país a nivel de departamento/provincia. Tabla: Cacao o Café en País -proporciona estadísticas nacionales de alto nivel sobre el sector para proporcionar al lector una contextualización básica de los diferentes casos, por ejemplo, el tamaño del sector y la importancia económica relativa para el país. Las fuentes de datos se describen en el anexo. Se utilizaron fuentes para las cuales había datos similares disponibles para todos los países. En algunos casos, particularmente para los datos de cacao de Guatemala, no fue posible encontrar datos consistentes en las fuentes oficiales.Figura: El mapa del mercado (Sistema de Mercado Principal para Cacao o Café en País) -El mapa del mercado tiene tres partes. 1) El centro muestra la cadena de mercado y sus principales canales competidores. La cadena de mercado es la cadena de actores (participantes) económicos que poseen un producto a medida que pasa de productores primarios a consumidores. Las flechas representan el flujo de dinero, de izquierda a derecha, ya que el producto es comprado de un actor por otro. Siempre que fue posible, se mapearon para diferentes calidades de café/cacao, y se agregó un número de actores o participación de mercado donde esté disponible. Esta sección ayuda a comprender la estructura de la cadena y a pensar en la eficiencia sistémica. La parte superior muestra las reglas y el entorno empresarial, incluidas las políticas e instituciones (influyentes) que dan forma al sistema de mercado. Estos se organizan de izquierda a derecha según el año en que se convirtieron en una influencia en el sistema de mercado, con el más reciente a la izquierda y el más antiguo a la derecha. Esta sección ayuda a identificar políticas o instituciones que influyen en el funcionamiento de la cadena. La parte inferior muestra los servicios, por ejemplo, servicios comerciales y de extensión, que respaldan la operación de las cadenas de mercado en cualquier punto de la cadena. Estos se organizan -tanto como sea posible-en función de los actores o parte de la cadena a la que prestan un servicio, con servicios en el extremo derecho más relacionados con la producción, y aquellos en el extremo izquierdo más relacionados con las exportaciones. Esta sección ayuda a identificar servicios clave o servicios faltantes, y a vincular servicios con usuarios dentro de la cadena.Figura: Sistemas de Mercado de Soporte Priorizados -estos diagramas en forma de dona del sistema de mercado desglosan algunas de las funciones de apoyo para los sistemas de mercado de café y cacao identificados como áreas de intervención en la teoría de cambio de MOCCA, que incluyen asistencia técnica, investigación, material genético y servicios financieros. La gráfica en forma de dona es un mapa de mercado simplificado donde el centro muestra una función genérica de oferta y demanda para el servicio de soporte de interés. La parte superior de la dona muestra los servicios que respaldan la prestación del servicio principal, y la parte inferior muestra las reglas que dan forma a la prestación del servicio principal. Cuando este servicio o función reguladora se asocia predominantemente con uno o pocos actores, y existe el suficiente espacio, estos se nombran. Utilizando la \"asistencia técnica\" como ejemplo: la asistencia técnica brindada a los agricultores se encuentra en el centro del diagrama en forma de dona, y se describe brevemente en el texto debajo del diagrama en términos de quién brinda el servicio, quién lo paga, la naturaleza del servicio y las funciones y regulaciones de apoyo clave. En la parte superior del diagrama, se señalan las funciones de apoyo identificadas que permiten brindar asistencia técnica a los agricultores, incluida la capacitación de agentes de extensión, la financiación de la asistencia técnica, la producción de contenido, la investigación, entre otros. En la parte inferior del diagrama, se señalan todas las normas, reglamentos, e instituciones que influyen en la forma en que se brinda asistencia técnica a los agricultores, p.ej., una entidad que certifica a los proveedores de asistencia técnica o dicta el contenido o la metodología utilizada para proporcionar asistencia técnica a los agricultores.Honduras es el sexto mayor exportador de café a nivel mundial por volumen, y es el mayor productor de café en América Central. La gran mayoría del café es producido por pequeños agricultores. Honduras es conocida como el origen de grandes volúmenes de café comercial a precios favorables. Si bien se han logrado avances en la mejora de la calidad, y se producen algunos muy buenos cafés, la reputación como un origen de calidad poco confiable sigue siendo fuerte, y como resultado, el café hondureño tiene un precio por debajo del precio del mercado. La productividad y los volúmenes generales de exportación han aumentado considerablemente en la última década debido a los esfuerzos coordinados entre el gobierno y el instituto nacional del café (IHCAFE), para renovar y rehabilitar una parte importante del área nacional del café. Al menos 201.000 ha habían sido renovadas con variedades resistentes a la roya como Lempira e IHCAFE-90 para el 2015, en una respuesta relativamente rápida a la crisis de la roya del café.El sector cafetalero en Honduras está altamente estructurado desde el año 2000, cuando se crearon la Comisión Nacional del Café, el Instituto Nacional del Café y el Fondo del Café. La Comisión es responsable del desarrollo de la política del sector, y está presidida por el Ministerio de Agricultura. IHCAFE es responsable de implementar políticas, particularmente en asistencia técnica e investigación, y el Fondo Cafetalero invierte en infraestructura 2 Para las fuentes de datos ver Anexo.  Importación, Tm (verde) 2.733 (<1%) Importación/ Exportación, volumen 1% Figura 1 Principales áreas de producción de café rural, particularmente carreteras, en áreas productoras de café. IHCAFE se rige por representantes de organizaciones de agricultores, incluidas cooperativas que representan aproximadamente el 90% de todos los caficultores, representantes de exportadores, tostadores e intermediarios. Todos estos actores, incluidos los agricultores, se registran en IHCAFE. Las inversiones en el sector se financian mediante impuestos y retenciones a las exportaciones. Un fondo importante es el fideicomiso del café, administrado por IHCAFE para facilitar el acceso de los agricultores al financiamiento. Se espera que todos los productores de café se registren en IHCAFE, y se retienen nueve dólares por bolsa de café del pago de los agricultores, depositados por los exportadores y reembolsados a los agricultores a menos que tengan deudas pendientes, en cuyo caso las retenciones se destinan al pago de la deuda. A pesar de esto, algunos agricultores no están registrados y no cobran sus retenciones. IHCAFE ha realizado un trabajo importante apoyando al sector como referencia para la información técnica, el desarrollo y la difusión de variedades de café, la promoción de la calidad y la promoción del sector dentro de Honduras, es decir, con la oficina del presidente, y externamente. La asistencia técnica no satisface la demanda debido a la gran cantidad de productores. Como complemento de los espacios de convocatoria dentro de la estructura institucional del sector, se ha establecido una nueva plataforma en Honduras, llamada Plataforma para el Café Sostenible, que se formó bajo el paraguas de la Plataforma Global del Café con el apoyo local de Solidaridad y Selva Tropical Alianza. Los objetivos del sector se alinean bien con los objetivos de MOCCA.El sector privado está dominado por exportadores e intermediarios. Los exportadores incluyen empresas nacionales como Compañía Hondureña del Café, la exportadora número uno, que como grupo son responsables de alrededor del 40% de las exportaciones; también están las empresas multinacionales, es decir, Olam y Neumann, que representan alrededor del 50% de las exportaciones. Ambos trabajan a través de intermediarios para obtener la mayor parte de su café, con relativamente poco control sobre el procesamiento posterior a la cosecha, ya que los exportadores generalmente compran café pergamino en diferentes etapas de secado. Los intermediarios se dividen en dos grupos, registrados y no registrados. Los intermediarios más grandes tienden a estar afiliados a la Asociación Hondureña de Intermediarios de Café (AHICAFE), y tienen permisos para operar y retener impuestos sobre el café en las compras a los agricultores. Un segundo grupo son generalmente intermediarios de campo más pequeños que no están registrados y generalmente trabajan como agentes de compras para intermediarios más formales. Los exportadores buscan cada vez más, mejorar la gestión de calidad en sus cadenas como una forma de aumentar los precios y los márgenes comerciales. Muchos lo han hecho comprando directamente a pequeños grupos de agricultores y supervisando los procesos de beneficio y secado en húmedo, a menudo combinando certificaciones con estos grupos. Las alianzas con ONGs o el acceso a fondos públicos o de donantes han sido importantes para poder ofrecer los servicios necesarios para establecer este tipo de sistemas de compra con los pequeños agricultores. El café hondureño se comercializa como otros cafés suaves, y recibió un impulso cuando la producción de otros orígenes fue baja, incluida Colombia.Los principales desafíos en el sector incluyen el material genético, particularmente porque las variedades previamente resistentes parecen ser más susceptibles, el acceso a los servicios financieros a largo plazo por parte de los pequeños productores, la preocupación por los precios internacionales, incluyendo los bajos precios persistentes del café hondureño en los mercados internacionales que muchos consideran injustificados, al igual que la crisis actual de precios bajos y las tensiones sobre la calidad de los servicios prestados por IHCAFE debido al nivel de fondos recibidos. Varios actores expresaron preocupación con respecto al sistema de retención y los incentivos que crea a lo largo de la cadena para que diferentes actores capturen esas retenciones. Otra preocupación son los desafíos que el segmento intermediario de la cadena plantea a la trazabilidad y la calidad, ya que los intermediarios a menudo mezclan lotes para mejorar la calidad de un lote de café de mala calidad al mezclarlo con un lote de mejor café, pero terminan reduciendo la calidad general. Algunas regiones enfrentan grandes desafíos para secar el café adecuadamente. En los últimos años, una prioridad para el sector privado ha sido promover la calidad entre productores y compradores, y eventos como la Copa de la Excelencia, concursos regionales y ferias locales se han convertido en parte de las actividades para promover el sector. Los agricultores son cada vez más conscientes de los puntajes de catación y están interesados en su uso para lograr mejores precios. Sin embargo, aún queda un largo camino por recorrer para desarrollar un sistema de gestión de calidad consistente en el país que recompense de manera transparente, la calidad con el precio. Otra preocupación creciente es la disponibilidad de mano de obra en las zonas rurales. El papel de los intermediarios es otra preocupación en el sector, y algunos consideran que su papel es negativo, capturan márgenes que deberían ir a los agricultores y arruinan la calidad del café hondureño, mientras que otros reconocen sus grandes contribuciones y su valioso papel en vincular a los agricultores con los exportadores. Los intermediarios también están interesados en mejorar, construir su infraestructura para procesar y exportar, e ingresar a mercados diferenciados, siguiendo a algunos de los grandes exportadores nacionales que comenzaron como intermediarios.Los cafetales de Honduras son relativamente jóvenes, ya que aproximadamente el 40% del área cosechada se ha plantado en los últimos 15 años y los esfuerzos siguen en curso (1). Las necesidades de R&R en Honduras están relacionadas con los árboles más viejos y los impactos restantes del brote de roya del café de 2012 que afectó aproximadamente al 25% del área cafetalera. El cambio climático es otro motor de R&R, particularmente en la región central, que requiere cambios en las variedades y el sistema agroforestal asociado (2). IHCAFE-90 y Lempira son variedades populares que se difundieron ampliamente, pero muestran susceptibilidad a la roya, lo que posiblemente requiera un cambio a nuevas variedades, pero las alternativas no están claras, particularmente porque la investigación de mejoramiento de café en IHCAFE se ha reducido en los últimos años, limitado a la diseminación de semillas para variedades existentes.Para los agricultores, la principal limitación para la renovación es la capacidad de tolerar pérdidas de ingresos entre la eliminación de plantas más antiguas y la nueva producción. Por lo tanto, la renovación es más difícil para los pequeños agricultores con menos ingresos. Los agricultores perciben poco apoyo del gobierno municipal y central, y muchos no sienten mucho apoyo de IHCAFE ni entienden completamente el sistema de retención y los beneficios que deberían recibir como productores de café. La renovación tiende a realizarse por lote y donde hay financiamiento y asistencia técnica disponible, los agricultores pueden renovar hasta el 50% de su área en un solo año. La disponibilidad de mano de obra es otra consideración, además del financiamiento, para las decisiones de renovación. La rehabilitación o el mantenimiento continuo de las plantaciones es un desafío importante, ya que los agricultores invierten cuando tienen recursos para hacerlo, produciendo ciclos de subinversión cuando hay precios bajos, seguidos de malas cosechas al año siguiente debido a la falta de inversión en fertilizantes y podas, entre otros. Plantaciones jóvenes que tienden a ser más productivas pueden pasar desatendidas; luego los agricultores luchan por recuperar las plantaciones cuando los rendimientos se ven muy afectados. En el escenario actual de bajo precio, combinado con las tensiones políticas y económicas en todo el país, las áreas rurales han visto emigrar a los agricultores, abandonando las fincas. Las compañías de fertilizantes, las cooperativas y las ONGs que trabajan en el sector anticipan una gran reducción en las inversiones en fincas cafetaleras este año, que pueden acumularse como necesidades de rehabilitación en el futuro.La información sobre técnicas de renovación y rehabilitación en Honduras según las condiciones locales, está bien documentada por IHCAFE. Incluso, es una referencia para otros países de la región. Pero la información podría difundirse mejor a los agricultores, ya que los agentes de extensión observan que los agricultores tienden a utilizar enfoques de manejo tradicionales, con una poda insuficiente en comparación con lo que se recomienda en las directrices técnicas.Más del 75% del café hondureño se exporta como café convencional, producido principalmente por pequeños agricultores (91% de los agricultores). El café convencional es exportado por exportadores nacionales y multinacionales, que compran principalmente a intermediarios registrados, y que a su vez compran a intermediarios locales o directamente a los agricultores. El café se beneficia en la finca o en la comunidad con un agricultor que tenga un beneficio húmedo y venda el servicio o actúa como intermediario, comprando el café. El café puede cambiar de manos varias veces antes de llegar a un exportador, y los intermediarios pueden proporcionar servicios de beneficio, secado y transporte en la cadena. Los agricultores más grandes también tienden a vender a través de intermediarios, y a menudo los intermediarios mismos son agricultores grandes. Un segundo canal para el café convencional, en gran medida respaldado por alianzas entre exportadores y ONGs, es a través de la compra directa por parte de exportadores a grupos de agricultores poco organizados que coordinan las prácticas posteriores a la cosecha y escogen fechas y volúmenes con los exportadores. Este canal ha surgido en respuesta a la preocupación de las ONGs para que los agricultores reciban un mejor precio por su café, recortando los márgenes de los intermediarios de la cadena y, por otro lado, por el interés de los exportadores en el abastecimiento directo como una forma de acceder a una mejor calidad de café que puedan comercializar con mejores márgenes. Este es un modelo en crecimiento y, a menudo, se basa en las estructuras comunitarias existentes, como las cooperativas de crédito rural (cajas rurales). Hay importantes dinámicas en cómo funciona el sistema de mercado en diferentes regiones del país, por ejemplo, oeste vs. sureste, que vale la pena examinar. En el oeste hay mucho más compromiso de los compradores internacionales, mejor calidad y menos dominio de los intermediarios en comparación con la región sureste.El café diferenciado representa el 25% del mercado hondureño, principalmente café certificado, predominantemente UTZ, Rainforest, orgánico y comercio justo (Fairtrade). Este segmento del mercado es abastecido en gran parte por grandes cooperativas de productores como, por ejemplo, Café Orgánico Marcala (COMSA). Las cooperativas compran a los agricultores miembros y tienden a coordinar el procesamiento postcosecha para lograr los estándares de calidad exigidos por los mercados diferenciados. Estas cooperativas utilizan cada vez más las puntuaciones de catación como una herramienta de diferenciación de precios y algunas provienen de agricultores que no son miembros, actuando como empresas ancla. Parte del café certificado también se obtiene de cooperativas a través de exportadores. El café certificado en Honduras ha crecido constantemente en los últimos años y ha servido como un instrumento para introducir estándares y trazabilidad en el sistema para contrarrestar la mala reputación de la calidad y el bajo precio que tiene el sector.El mercado interno es relativamente pequeño y proviene en gran parte de grandes agricultores e intermediarios. Hay una pequeña pero creciente demanda de café de calidad a través de cafeterías, con Espresso Americano liderando ese movimiento.Honduras, al igual que varias regulaciones que rodean la compra y venta de café, se centró principalmente en mejorar la transparencia en el sistema de retenciones. Los servicios de apoyo están relativamente bien desarrollados, incluidos los insumos, las finanzas, la representación y la promoción del sector, la asistencia técnica, la investigación e incluso la infraestructura rural, aunque la forma en que estos sirven a los pequeños agricultores es variable. Los insumos están particularmente bien desarrollados en el sector con productos específicos para el café, incluso formulaciones de café específicas para la región, una gran participación de las organizaciones de productores de café en la adquisición de insumos y varios ejemplos de modelos creativos para facilitar el acceso a los insumos a crédito, o el uso de insumos para garantizar que el crédito sea invertido adecuadamente, triangulaciones con compradores, instituciones financieras, proveedores de insumos, cooperativas y todas sus combinaciones. El café es un mercado importante para los proveedores de insumos y se orientan al sector, por lo tanto, son aliados importantes.Figura 2 Sistema de mercado principal para café en HondurasFigura 3 Sistema de mercado de soporte: Asistencia técnica para café en Honduras La asistencia técnica para los caficultores en Honduras se brinda principalmente a través de proyectos financiados por donantes, incluidos bancos de desarrollo, particularmente en la región occidental, implementados por ONGs. La AT también es proporcionada por IHCAFE y es financiada por los impuestos al café. Si bien IHCAFE ofrece AT a todos los afiliados, la realidad es que su capacidad es limitada. IHCAFE ha intentado llenar este vacío desarrollando materiales técnicos, capacitando proveedores de AT, colaborando con ONGs y, más recientemente, explorando herramientas de tecnología de información y comunicación (TIC) para llegar a audiencias más grandes. Los exportadores y las cooperativas también proporcionan AT a través de márgenes comerciales, primas de certificación y fondos de donantes. Algunos exportadores han establecido afiliados para proporcionar AT (Coffee Planet, CoHONDUCAFE). El enfoque de la AT es la calidad y la productividad. Existe una fuerte capacidad técnica e infraestructura en Honduras para apoyar la AT a los agricultores, pero muchos agricultores aún carecen de acceso.Las funciones de apoyo incluyen impuestos al café para garantizar un presupuesto estable para AT a través de IHCAFE. La investigación es una función de apoyo importante relacionada con el servicio de extensión a través de IHCAFE. La formación académica y profesional está bien desarrollada (universidades, IHCAFE, ESCAFE, ONG). Los proveedores de AT tienen redes profesionales sólidas para obtener información. La infraestructura vial también facilita la provisión de AT. Las organizaciones de agricultores, incluidas las cooperativas rurales de ahorro y crédito, facilitan el suministro de AT al proporcionar el acceso a los agricultores.Las regulaciones incluyen aquellas relacionadas con el mandato de IHCAFE, pero lo más importante son los manuales y metodologías de café, así como los estándares de certificación que influyen en el contenido técnico de la asistencia técnica proporcionada. ECA es una metodología común utilizada por ONGs, pero los exportadores y algunas ONGs también usan contenido y métodos patentados como parte de su modelo de negocio frente a los clientes. Figura 4 Sistema de mercado de soporte: Investigación para café en Honduras La investigación es realizada por IHCAFE, universidades, ONGs, centros internacionales de investigación, exportadores y proveedores de insumos. El financiamiento proviene de IHCAFE, universidades públicas, sector privado y donantes. IHCAFE tiene infraestructura para la investigación, pero tiene dificultades para retener investigadores. La investigación se centra en la agronomía, la calidad/postcosecha, el clima, el suelo, la fertilidad y la reproducción. IHCAFE está bien conectado con iniciativas internacionales y es un punto focal claro para la investigación cafetalera en Honduras, aunque no está claro cómo se incorporan sistemáticamente los resultados de la investigación en el contenido de la AT. UNAH investiga sobre técnicas de reproducción, pero la investigación a largo plazo es limitada; Zamorano sobre procesamiento de café; WCR sobre variedades y agronomía; el CIRAD sobre epidemiología y agro silvicultura con el CATIE también analizando R&R; el CIAT ha realizado investigaciones sobre el cambio climático junto con HRNS, que también tiene parcelas de investigación en la región de Trifinio. CRS trabaja en la conservación del suelo y el agua; y proveedores de insumos y exportadores trabajan en fertilidad. Se está realizando bastante investigación que podría integrarse mejor en una agenda de investigación nacional, incluso regional.Las funciones de apoyo para la investigación en Honduras incluyen colaboraciones internacionales de investigación para acceder a la experiencia científica. CIRAD, WCR y CATIE son importantes colaboraciones a largo plazo. La red PROMECAFE es importante para la colaboración con organizaciones pares y redes internacionales. El acuerdo IHCAFE-UNAH ayudó a acceder a la capacidad de mejoramiento para el trabajo en café.El sector no está regulado de ninguna manera en particular, pero los impuestos al café establecen mecanismos de financiación para la investigación bajo IHCAFE, y las prioridades del sector y la presión de los miembros del sector café influyen en cierto grado en la agenda de investigación.Figura 5 Sistema de mercado de soporte. Material genético para café en Honduras Material genético -La capacidad de IHCAFE para producir semillas a nivel comercial es limitada. La mayoría de las semillas provienen de redes informales o de la selección de los propios agricultores. La mayoría de los agricultores producen sus propias plantas, trabajando colectivamente donde hay fondos de donantes para hacerlo (es decir, a través de una cooperativa). Muchos viveros pequeños son de agricultores que se han especializado en la producción de plantas, obteniendo semillas de sus propias fincas, de otras fincas, de IHCAFE e incluso de otros países. Estos viveros venden a agricultores medianos y ONGs que distribuyen plantas a los agricultores. La asistencia técnica siempre incluye contenido sobre la producción de plántulas de café. IHCAFE, CERTISEM y SENASA desempeñan un papel en la certificación de semillas, productores de semillas y viveros bajo las regulaciones y políticas nacionales de semillas que prevén la certificación de semillas, viveros y administradores de viveros. A pesar de la regulación existente, el mercado de semillas o plántulas certificadas sigue siendo pequeño. Figura 6 Sistema de mercado de soporte: Servicios financieros para café en Honduras Los servicios financieros son proporcionados por instituciones financieras (IF) comerciales, microfinancieras (IMF), cajas rurales, cooperativas, exportadores, proveedores de insumos e intermediarios. Los bancos comerciales llegan principalmente a los agricultores a través de préstamos a exportadores e intermediarios que otorgan préstamos a corto plazo a los agricultores para los costos de cosecha, aunque algunos, como el Banco de Occidente, tienen carteras de café considerables. Las IMF canalizan fondos de prestamistas sociales para préstamos a corto plazo a agricultores (2 años). Las IMF reguladas pueden acceder a los ahorros de los miembros que pueden usarse para ofrecer crédito para R&R. Otros prestamistas activos en el sector cafetalero son ODEF, BANPROVI, CACIL, BANCAFE, PILARH y BANRURAL. El número de IFs es notable en los pueblos cafetaleros de Honduras. Las cajas rurales juegan un papel importante para los pequeños agricultores al intermediar fondos, generalmente otorgando préstamos más pequeños. Las cooperativas, con fondos de inversores de impacto social o fondos propios, y los proveedores de insumos con préstamos de los bancos también son fuentes importantes de crédito. IHCAFE ha sido fundamental para facilitar el acceso al financiamiento con las retenciones de precios y los fideicomisos, así como para negociar el apoyo con el gobierno. Existen muchos modelos creativos para financiar café en Honduras, incluidas las alianzas entre proveedores de insumos y bancos comerciales que usan datos de compra para evaluar préstamos. FUNDER es una ONG con amplia experiencia en servicios financieros, especialmente con cajas rurales y actores del sector privado.Los servicios de apoyo incluyen asistencia técnica, insumos, prestamistas de segundo nivel e instituciones/infraestructura financiera rural. REDMICROH juega un papel importante en la gestión del conocimiento dentro del sector y en la evaluación y el cabildeo de las prioridades del sector. Será importante observar los efectos de los precios bajos de 2019.Varias regulaciones son importantes, en particular las que limitan los términos del préstamo, ya que esto limita su capacidad de prestar para R&R (dentro de REDMICROH, la mayoría de los límites de plazo de los financiadores son de 3 años, por lo que la R&R es imposible).• Fundación Neumann/Socios de Café Internacionales, 2014 hasta el presente, múltiples iniciativas financiadas por el sector privado y los protocolos, aprox. 3.000 agricultores: el grupo cafetalero Neumann, junto con otros socios del ICP, ha estado trabajando en la región de Trifinio, en el oeste de Honduras, con una fuerte participación del sector privado. El enfoque de este trabajo ha sido desarrollar la resiliencia climática a lo largo de la cadena de valor, particularmente en la producción mediante la evaluación y difusión de prácticas de producción climáticamente inteligentes, y promover la toma de decisiones basadas en evidencia como análisis de suelos o información climática para guiar la mejora de la productividad. Estas iniciativas también han apoyado el marketing directo, la mejora de la calidad y el trabajo con los jóvenes, y se han coordinado con organizaciones de agricultores. Este trabajo ha incluido la Alianza para el Café Resiliente, financiada por USAID, la iniciativa Coffee and Climate de la Fundación Neumann, Generaciones, así como la iniciativa ICP y las asociaciones con instituciones financieras y centros de investigación. • Alianza para el Corredor Seco, USAID y GAFSP, 2015-2020, $ 70 millones: La Alianza para el Corredor Seco es una iniciativa de múltiples donantes para mejorar las oportunidades económicas para las comunidades rurales en el oeste de Honduras, donde el café es una importante estrategia de subsistencia. Varios proyectos han sido financiados con importantes inversiones en café e implementados por una gama de ONGs, incluidos FINTRAC, Swisscontact y CARE, entre otros, bajo los proyectos PROSASUR y ACCESO; ambos con importantes inversiones en productividad, infraestructura, calidad y acceso al mercado del café. • COHONDUCAFE La Alianza para el Café, USAID, 2018-2022, $ 4,3 millones: Honducafé, el mayor exportador de café en Honduras, se asociará con JDE, uno de los mayores comercializadores (trader) de café a nivel mundial, para fortalecer la capacidad de prestación de asistencia técnica del sector privado a los agricultores en su oferta cadena. • TechnoServe MAS+, USDA, 2017-2022, $ 16 millones: TechnoServe se encuentra en la tercera fase de cinco años de una presencia total de 15 años en el sector cafetalero en Honduras con financiamiento del USDA. El conocimiento acumulado y las redes en el sector son invaluables para el éxito de MOCCA. La fase actual llegará a 22.000 productores de café en la parte sur del país. El objetivo del proyecto de aumentar la productividad, más el enfoque centrado en la asistencia técnica, las organizaciones de agricultores, el acceso al mercado, la financiación, y las soluciones resistentes al clima, son similares a las de MOCCA, de modo que las lecciones aprendidas del MAS pueden informar la estrategia de MOCCA en Honduras, y se pueden crear sinergias en todo el país con los dos esfuerzos. • Mejorar el precio base para el café hondureño: Honduras se ha clasificado como un origen de baja calidad, por lo que el precio base para la negociación comienza bajo, a pesar de los esfuerzos para mejorar la calidad, y reclamos de que no hay evidencia objetiva para respaldar esta práctica por parte de los compradores. Este precio base afecta a la mayoría de los demás precios, ya que generalmente se establecen mediante un plus por encima del precio de mercado. La falta de transparencia o las diferentes interpretaciones de las razones de este precio generan ciertos desincentivos en el sector para invertir en mejorar la calidad, si no se observa una mejora en el precio. Desarrollar una comprensión colectiva de cómo se establece el precio de Honduras y qué se puede hacer colectivamente para mejorar ese precio, podría proporcionar un punto de entrada a los sistemas para MOCCA que puede resultar en intervenciones para fortalecer la promoción del café hondureño a nivel internacional, la mejora interna de la gestión de calidad y los sistemas de evaluación, entre otros. Internamente, también existe una sensación de falta de transparencia en la forma en que se determina el precio y una falta de objetividad o consistencia en las evaluaciones de catación que generan desconfianza, especialmente para los agricultores con calificaciones bajas. Un cambio en este precio base tendría un impacto en todo el sector, además de mejorar los incentivos para la calidad. Posibles socios: IHCAFE, Asociación Hondureña de Exportadores de Café (AHDECAFE), Volcafé, Instituto Hondureño de Calidad del Café y grandes cooperativas. • Fortalecimiento de la función técnica de IHCAFE: si bien IHCAFE recibe y gestiona fondos de los agricultores (a través de impuestos a la exportación) para proporcionar insumos técnicos al sector, incluida la investigación, la capacitación y la asistencia técnica, su modelo y recursos actuales no cubren las demandas de más de 100.000 caficultores. Las inversiones de otros en el sector, particularmente ONGs con fondos de donantes, y el sector privado con fondos comerciales, son considerables, rivalizando con IHCAFE en número de técnicos, agricultores atendidos y beneficios proporcionados. Hay espacio para mejorar la forma en que IHCAFE se involucra y coordina estos diferentes esfuerzos hacia una estrategia nacional, proporcionando supervisión técnica y un entorno operativo favorable. IHCAFE debería estructurar mejor su oferta y apoyo a otros proveedores de AT, extendiendo así su alcance a los agricultores. Esto debe equilibrarse con cierto nivel de compromiso directo o visibilidad para los agricultores que consideran que están pagando por los servicios de IHCAFE. Un ejemplo en el caso del material genético sería centrarse en proporcionar semillas para los productores de semillas y apoyar los esfuerzos de los proveedores y viveros de semillas en lugar de tratar de satisfacer las necesidades directas de los agricultores para material genético. Los institutos cafetaleros de otros países serán referencias útiles. Posibles socios: IHCAFE y asociaciones afiliadas, CRS, Swisscontact, CONACAFE y PROMECAFE. • Modelos del sector privado para mejorar las relaciones comerciales con pequeños agricultores:hay varias experiencias interesantes en la mejora comercial con exportadores nacionales e internacionales en Honduras, que ofrecen oportunidades interesantes para aprender sobre ¿qué funciona?, ¿con qué tipo de incentivos?, transferir ¿qué tipos de beneficios?, y ¿cuáles son los modelos de negocio que pueden garantizar estos beneficios a largo plazo? Estos incluyen Volcafé, Honducafé, Neumann, COMSA, OLAM, entre otros. Esta podría ser una oportunidad de aprendizaje para compartir entre los países MOCCA. Posibles socios: Volcafé, Honducafé, Coffee Planet, Neumann, y GMCR. • Intermediarios y calidad: hay una oportunidad interesante para explorar incentivos de cambio de comportamiento para los intermediarios, hacia una mejor gestión de la calidad y la trazabilidad, así como hacia mejores servicios para los agricultores, dado el gran papel que desempeñan los intermediarios en la obtención de café para los exportadores, la prestación de servicios a los agricultores, la calidad final de los exportadores de café y el nivel de organización y formalización en Honduras. El estudio de IDH sobre el potencial de los intermediarios para contribuir a la sostenibilidad en las cadenas de valor del café, puede ser una referencia interesante para hacer recomendaciones para Honduras, aunque Honduras no forma parte del estudio. ","tokenCount":"5525"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"08afa2a0ec9df8eb6a692718ad5e8b25","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d50a5431-a0e2-4a66-bdc4-3f14e4b63510/retrieve","id":"1070966536"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"60dbaf5a-37e3-45ae-a2d0-3d7065bd8fe2","pagecount":"38","content":"Topics of the presentation 1. Introduction 2. Why fodder trees and shrubs? 3. Example of potential fodder trees and shrubs in the Ethiopian highlands 4. Distribution and growing ecology of tree lucerne 5. Tree lucerne action research in Africa RISING sites 6. Establishment of tree lucerne 7. Management of tree lucerne 8. Utilization of tree lucerne 9. Challenges of tree lucerne farming 10.Good tree lucerne farming practices 11.Scaling of tree lucerne 12.Conclusion Regularly spot weed around the seedling  Protection against livestock trampling and browsing-Fencing  Mulching/manure helps to retain moisture and suppress weeds  Watering at early stage of the plant improves survival and growth  Application of ash (termite)  A cutting height of 1 m to 1.5 m provides good biomass.  The plant can be harvested 2-3 times per year depending on the management. Biomass yield of tree lucerne under different cutting height and interval after nine months of establishment in Africa RISING sites. Tree lucerne in well-managed farm fields can reach for the first harvest and use as animal feed within 9 months after planting.  Tree lucerne can produce more than 4 -7 t ha -1 dry biomass per year under farmers' management condition and when planted at 1 m X 1 m spacing.  The leaf and edible branches of tree lucerne are very good sources of nutrients for ruminant livestock, containing high amounts of crude protein and (app 20-25%), and digestible organic matter (>= 70%).  The foliage of tree lucerne can be fed green or wilted and can be preserved in the form of hay and used as needed. Nutritionally, tree lucerne leaf is comparable to concentrate feeds. For smallholders whose access to concentrate feeds is limited can serve as a perfect substitute  Supplementation of 1 kg of dried tree lucerne leaf to a lactating dairy cow can give up to 1.2 Lts of extra milk.  Supplementation 300-400 g of tree lucerne hay to a fattening sheep is adequate to achieve a daily body weight gain of 70 grams, with a significant improvement in carcass dressing percentage (from about 40% in un-supplemented animals to about 48% in supplemented ones).  In addition to the foliage, seeds of tree lucerne can serve as good sources of poultry feed. Pre-feeding treatments such as fresh foliage, wilted and dried foliage can have effect on palatability of tree lucerne by small ruminants and cattle.  Sheep readily consumed and highly preferred the fresh tree lucerne, while cattle preferred the dried tree lucerne.  Tree lucerne flower is also a preferred bee fodder to produce quality honey.Temesgen Alene (Africa RISING site coordinator) demonstrates mix of tree lucerne and crop residues that a farmer feeds using feed trough at Salasfa village, Basona Worena ","tokenCount":"458"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"be12f158550b41642d7a43c1f82232d8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dc27c32b-a48d-49ef-8d57-fef3b46ade9e/retrieve","id":"1157527468"},"keywords":["Paddy rice","Vietnam","AWD"],"sieverID":"1581994e-0945-46b4-8c95-f1c1f17437f5","pagecount":"17","content":"CCAFS Workshop Reports aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.The objectives for organizing this meeting/workshop were to: 1) share experience on applying and scaling up the alternate wetting and drying technology for paddy rice in the Mekong River Delta and 2) identify opportunities and barriers for large scale implementation of AWD in the Mekong River Delta.   Challenges / barriers to applying/scaling up AWD in specific areas in the Mekong Delta• Irrigation system is poor• Farmer awareness is not synonymous among all farmers (some willing to apply AWD, but some not)• Farmer did not follow 100% of the recommendations for applying AWD: they monitored water level by visual observation without using plastic tube• Conflicts benefit between farmers and pumping station regarding pumping fees• The difference between the AWD rice grain yield and CF rice grain yield is not significantHow to overcome the barriers to scaling up AWD • Level rice fields using laser technology• Redistribute the rice fields to make bigger rice fields• Balance benefits between the farmers and pumping station, by using the local cooperative work as referee• Improve irrigation systems by supplying drainage canals• Create training/media/demonstration of AWD The farmers in Phu An hamlet, Binh Hoa commune, Chau Thanh district, An Giang province can apply AWD in three rice seasons (winter-spring, summer-autumn rice, and autumn-winter) because they have drainage systems. They normally drain water from the rice field three times during the rice season: at the sowing stage, the end of the tillering stage and ten days before harvest. They irrigate the rice field when the water level is around 10-15cm lower than soil surface; depending on whether the rice field positions are high or low.The farmers who have rice fields next to the main canal can irrigate and drain by using their own pump; they pay approximately 25 USD/ha/rice season. Farmers who have rice fields far from the main canal must sign contracts with the pumping station which costs 50 USD/ha/rice season for irrigation and drainage.The farmers agreed that applying AWD reduced pumping time (2-3 times per rice season), lodging, pests and diseases, and provided good conditions for mechanized harvesting. However, the farmers also experienced problems with rats and weeds. The farmers therefore suggested that DARD of An Giang province may provide laser-levelling technology to flatten their rice fields.","tokenCount":"394"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"15f362a7c6b2c23ec58eeaa7d8be3a6d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6fe91918-0898-4017-8a0b-c05091db6e9e/retrieve","id":"2100013299"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7e2c01d2-cce6-477f-aeb6-c16c2780b2df","pagecount":"4","content":"Early 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak prompted governments around the world to implement strategies to stem the spread of the virus. These strategies often involved movement restrictions, such as restrictions on inter-district travel and curfews. It also involved temporary closure of congested \"non-essential\" business premises and other places where people gather, such as schools, churches, pubs and clubs, etc. Whereas many of these measures were necessary for public health reasons, they inevitably resulted in disruption of economic activity.By now, there is quite some evidence already on how COVID-19 and associated measures affect food supply chains. However, most of these studies focus on fairly advanced higher value commodity supply chains such as coffee or dairy. The emerging consensus is that these value chains are This policy note summarizes results of a study on the impact of COVID-19 on maize value chains in Uganda, which are characterized by a high degree of informality. We use a stack survey consisting of 1525 smallholder maize farmers, 341 informal traders, and 174 millers that were surveyed in-person in 2019 as the basis for follow-up telephone interviews in 2020 and 2021. We find that the impact of COVID-19 and associated measures manifests itself more downstream the value chain (at the level of the traders and particularly the millers). Closures and reductions in volumes passing through the chain seemed limited but worsen as the pandemic persists. Government measures such as a reduction of interest rates seemed to have brought some relief for traders and millers. However, all value chain actors report substantial reductions in maize revenues, household income and food security, as actors in informal value chains seem to rely on various activities to make ends meet. As a result, informal value chains such as maize in Uganda may be less able to adapt to common shocks in the long run. The appropriate policy response therefore would be to supplement some of the mitigating policies targeting businesses with more long run social protection policies to also benefit value chain actors upstream. surprisingly resilient. However, maize in Uganda may be different in that it is a largely informal value chain. As these chains are less vertically integrated and rely on weakly enforceable relational contracts between value chain actors, the effects of shocks are less straightforward to predict: On the one hand, informal value chains may provide for more flexibility to respond to challenges posed by the virus at the level of the individual actors, who are not tied into contracts. On the other hand, in formal chains, the tighter relationship between actors may make the chain as a whole more resilient. In short, there are many factors that affect how resilient value chains are, and so policy response may need to be tailored to the commodity involved and structure of the chain.The first case of COVID-19 in Uganda was reported on 21st March 2020, and since then, the disease has continued to spread with new infections reported daily. To curb the spread of the virus, the Government of Uganda announced various measures (Figure 1), comprised of curfews to restrict the movement of people, suspension of international passenger flights, a ban on public/private transport and public gatherings, and closure of learning institutions, hotels, restaurants, and places of worship. Despite these measures, COVID-19 cases continued to increase, and by December 2021, Uganda had recorded a total of 140,737 COVID-19 cases and 3,294 deaths. Most countries, Uganda included, did not institute blanket measures, but tried as much as possible to keep \"essential\" sectors open. For instance, while shops that sell clothes were closed, supermarkets and wet markets remained open and agricultural commodities were exempted from movement restrictions. The aim of exempting agriculture was to safeguard food supply chains as much as possible. Still, food supply chains are tightly integrated into the wider economy and will often suffer indirectly, for instance, due to lower demand as schools are closed or restaurants close early, or labour market frictions as people leave towns and return to rural areas.Uganda (Iganga, Bugiri, and Namutumba), and these farmers were then asked to direct us to traders and millers they had connections with. A sample of these traders and millers was then tracked and interviewed as well.During the COVID-19 pandemic, the farmers, traders and millers were contacted again, by mobile phone in November 2020, and again in July 2021. The focus was on collecting information on changes in economic activity and welfare between baseline ( 2019) and round 1 (2020), and between round 1 (2020) and round 2 (2021).We summarize findings in Figure 2 below. We focus on key outcomes (business closures, reductions in quantities being transacted, decrease in revenues, decrease in household income, and decrease in food security), for the three actors (maize producers, maize traders, and maize processors) separately. We also compare outcomes in round 1 and round 2 surveys to differentiate between short run effects and long run consequences of the pandemic.We find that there are relatively more closures as one moves downstream the value chain-only one to two percent of farmers mention that they stopped growing maize; seven to nine percent of millers report that they closed business. We also record an increase in closures as the pandemic persists. This is especially the case for traders: while only 2 percent indicated that they stopped trading maize in the first round, this percentage had increased to 6 percent in the second round. We also asked each of the three actors about the ability to find suppliers for inputs in their business, and clients for their products (not reported in Figure 2). From this we learned that agro-input dealers seemed less affected by the pandemic, but actors further downstream find it increasingly difficult to source inputs or to find buyers.Quantities produced, traded and processed reduced significantly in 2020 but recovered somewhat during 2021. The recovery is largest for traders and processors. However, the recovery in quantities traded is not reflected in revenue. Indeed, especially millers report that revenues decreased in round 2. This may indicate that quantities were traded under increasingly worse conditions. Secondly, the fact that maize in Uganda is mainly consumed in form of maize meal implies that value chain actors have limited options to easily switch to products offering better returns during market shocks (e.g reduction in price or a decrease in the number of buyers for one product). We also see that most actors indicate that household income reduced. For farmers, the share of households that say income reduced remains stable over time. For maize processors, most of the loss in income seemed to have been suffered in round 1. Finally, we see that food security, as judged by the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), was affected mostly in round 1.We also looked at availability of credit, which may be an important determinant of resilience (also not reported in the Figure 2). We find that access to credit seemed to have been reduced somewhat for farmers, but higher up the value chain, credit and liquidity measures, especially the reduction of the interest rate by the central bank, seems to have reduced the damage by increasing credit supply.• Even though the pandemic did not seem to lead to many closures, all actors report significant reductions in earnings and food security. This suggests that value chain actors involved in informal value chains are also affected though other channels in addition to the maize value chain. Indeed, actors that participate in informal value chains often insure against shocks by diversifying activities. For instance, most maize farmers will not specialize in maize but also cultivate some cash crops like coffee or sugar cane. Furthermore, some household members may contribute to household income through wage employment. Households may supplement own income through remittances. The pandemic may affect all these other coping strategies in different ways. Therefore, it is important that governments put broad social protection measures in place to also support food supply chains indirectly.• We have seen that business closures were limited, but there were also worrying signs that over time, more business exit. The government should consider additional measures to allow businesses to cope with hardship and buy them time to adapt strategies to new realities (eg invest in e-commerce). More credit could be made available through banks or tax payments could be delayed. Government can also assist in making infrastructure available to small businesses.• Finally, over time, we have learned that COVID-19 affects some value chains more than others. Government should work with professional organizations and stakeholders to come up with tailor made measures and policies that reduce risks of the virus while at the same time also considering the cost of the measures implemented to stem the spread of the virus. ","tokenCount":"1447"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d644fece7c3c981b080337ce1272958c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/704f5cc4-b1ad-40cf-bf19-b1a8ca74a370/retrieve","id":"1201410408"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"32bb41a7-bf27-417b-b050-70b038c7a725","pagecount":"17","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Editing, design and layout-ILRI 1 Innovation Platforms as an approach to foster agricultural innovation Linking small scale farmers to markets using value chain approaches has become an important element of many agricultural developing interventions in developing countries.Traditional interventions normally focus on farm productivity to ensure food security among households and their capacity to market the surplus.Innovation Platforms (IPs) target a wide range of farmers, those who are still ensuring food security and those already participating in the market.Agricultural cooperatives often target farmers who are already engaged in growing cash crops and ensure that farmers maintain access to critical farm inputs, market farm products, strengthen farmers' bargaining power and improve income opportunities.There is a need for supporting the IPs which embrace a cooperative societies' approach. Such support would help to avoid certain pitfalls (see: 'Case Study -the story of CIALCA stakeholder engagement' below) and encourage the IPs trying to adopt the enhanced cooperative society's model to generate wider benefits.The role of an Innovation Platform is to facilitate and strengthen interaction and collaboration in networks of farmers, extension officers, policy makers, researchers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), development donors, the private sector and other stakeholder groups. The nature of agricultural innovation can be both technological (e.g. information and communication technology (ICT), agricultural inputs or machinery) and institutional (market approaches, modes of organization, policies and new rules). IPs aim at stimulating continuous involvement of stakeholders in describing and explaining complex agricultural problems and in exploring, implementing and monitoring agricultural innovations to deal with these problems.• They can provide various insights about the biophysical, technological and institutional dimensions of the problem.• They understand what type of innovations are economically, socially, culturally and politically viable.• Stakeholder groups become aware of their fundamental interdependencies and the need for action to address their constraints and reach their objectives.• Stakeholder groups are more likely to support and promote specific innovations in which they have been part of the decision making or development process.IPs provide opportunities for exchange of knowledge and learning, negotiations and dealing with power dynamics. They can contribute to strengthening the capacity to innovate across stakeholder groups which means the individuals, collectives or networks will be more capable of continuously shaping and adapting to change. This is because they collectively posses a varying degree of resourcefulness in assets, time, knowledge, dialogue, experimentation and persistence. The higher the capacity the better their ability to react proactively, flexibly and creatively to challenges and opportunities.• Continuously identify and prioritize problems and opportunities.• Take risks, experiment with social and technical options and assess the trade-offs that arise from these.• Mobilize resources and form effective support coalitions around promising options.• Link with others in order to access, share and process relevant information and knowledge.• Collaborate and coordinate with others and achieve effective action.IPs can function on different levels ranging from the community or village level to the administrative or spatial levels and these depend on their specific objectives such as:• Enhancing the capacity to innovate.• Supporting the scaling of successful local innovations.• Facilitation of national policy development and implementation.• Interconnected IPs may be required to strengthen the development and implementation of coherent intervention strategies across different levels.• The involvement of local producers, regional processors, distributors and retailers as well as certification bodies may be required.Innovation Platforms have the potential to perform robust agricultural research, development and policy strategies. Their impact depends on the quality of platform organization and facilitation, communication within the IP, stakeholder representation and institutional embedding. Learning from the successful and effective IP case studies is essential to promoting best practices and role modelling the most effective approaches.2 Case study: the story of CIALCA stakeholder engagement 2.1 Overview and challenges CIALCA (The Consortium for Improving Agriculture-based Livelihoods in Central Africa) was set up to provide scientific-based evidence that helps to bridge the knowledge gap between farmers, public and private extension workers, scientists and policy makers. The high altitudes of the great lakes region of Central Africa and its cooler climate create perfect conditions for crops. However, the soil has been exhausted, spare land is rarely available and competition and struggle for resources dominate the history of region's past 50 years.Many farmers in the region are considered the most food insecure and malnourished on earth, the main reasons for this being as follows:• Low farm productivity due to the fact that the majority depends on agriculture that is done with minimal fertilizer use. According to the 2006 baseline survey, more than 60 per cent of the population in Central Burundi and South Kivu were food insecure and had very few opportunities to diversify income with offland activities. • Too small farm sizes (less than 2 ha). Although the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is still in possession of some spare land, the existing land tenure arrangements do not encourage farmers to invest in soil and water conservation. This is because most of the land is in the hands of the local chiefs, known as 'Mwamis'.• Intercropping is often considered a crime.The above challenges, present on different scale, require innovative methods of working through a multi stakeholder process.The following quote helps to illustrate the challenge, which farmers from the great lakes region faced:'Intercropping of banana and coffee is not allowed officially, is this going to change? Research has shown promising results. I have 1 ha of mixed banana and young coffee, now I have to choose only one crop because of official recommendations as my coffee has grown. So can I keep both crops? Can I also go and tell other farmers to intercrop their banana with coffee?'(A male farmer from Musaza sector, Kirehe district asking policy makers during a stakeholders meeting organized by the Minister of Agriculture of Rwanda.)In the situation quoted above the farmer wants to be food secure from the same piece of land, therefore he planted bananas among his newly planted coffee. Thanks to this solution, in addition to food for the household, bananas will give him a steady cash flow throughout the year.Coffee is a big foreign exchange earner for the country and this is why farmers are discouraged from intercropping the two crops. Due to the realization of the land shortage, farmers are allowed to plant bananas in their coffee when the coffee is still very young. Later, however, they are required to cut the bananas out of the coffee when the coffee has reached its productive stage.Thousands of farmers often face similar dilemma, they would like to respond to their practical challenges but find themselves constrained because of the limiting policies or institutional settings. Greater in numbers are farmers restricted by knowledge and resources, not necessarily policies.Policy makers, on the other hand, lack credible evidence to be able to introduce adjustments to the existing policies.The consortium realized that the combination of the factors mentioned above required them to involve much more stakeholders from farmers to policy makers if the organization wanted to register meaningful changes. As a result, CIALCA work shaped into 'platforms' at different levels to serve different but connected needs.Different types of 'innovation platforms' emerged across different levels which brought different stakeholders operating in these geographical sites and grew as the need arose.Field site -in a village or local community, usually around experimental fields Action site -equivalent to district National and regional level between countriesCIALCA collaborated with Rwandan government research and extension departments and the regional stakeholders in the Rubavu area to fight the Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW). The project clearly required multiple stakeholders from different levels, and the emerging nature of these platforms helped avoid too high expectations and allowed an organic means of platform evolvement. Inclusion within the platforms was based on mutual needs and not on the position filling. The way the platform evolved was befitting the CIALCA team, comprised of natural scientists, which would have experienced difficulties in managing the different stakeholder explanation. engagementAs the following three countries had their own challenges and opportunities it was necessary to adopt different methods of engagement in each of them:Rwanda: Situation: strong national policy shapes smallholder farming, so the Consortium came to work very closely with the government's research and extension system.In response the following improvements were introduced:• policy engagement was done • the partners trained farmers in ISFM and the use of newly subsidized fertilizers • the partners helped the country manage the menace of the Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW)Partners and CIALCA staff in Rwanda identified the following advantages of working with CIALCA:• stakeholder engagement (especially farmers)• capacity building • policy engagementBurundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo: Situation: national systems are weakened by recurring civil conflictsIn response the following improvements were introduced:• Collaboration with a whole assortment of governmental and non-governmental agencies in identifying and disseminating improvements to banana and legume-based systems.Partners and CIALCA staff in Burundi and DRC identified the following advantages of working with CIALCA:• Introduction of new varieties and means of multiplying them.• Due to weaker public service provision, working through NGOs which focus on input provision and training gave better returns in Burundi and DRC.In Rwanda focusing on and following the processes took longer but gave better and sustainable results.In Burundi and DRC distribution of communication materials, for example, the propagation of bananas, was extensively done by NGOs while in Rwanda by the governmental extension arm.The study commissioned in 2011 related to the overall CIALCA organization identified its foremost asset as adaptability thanks to which the project was successful in different country contexts.To engage different stakeholders from farmers, extension workers to policy makers to influence policy changes, it was usually necessary to make full use of regional experience and present scientific evidence that came from trials and surveys.As a result of a series of 25 rural appraisals across the region, the consortium decided to focus its agronomic interventions on key entry points in smallholder cropping systems  bananas  (soy)beans  coffee  cassava  maizeThese crops are vital sources of food and revenue but their productivity is chronically affected by the following factors:  inferior planting material  crop diseases  poor agronomic practices  limited capacity to access marketsResearch for development activities placed emphasis on the following:  introducing and evaluating better banana and legume germ plasm  improving agronomic practices in mixed cropping systems  integrated soil fertility management  integrated pest management  social innovations for improved crop marketing leading to income. new varieties of the bananas, cassava and legumes were introduced and jointly evaluated by the stakeholders  planting bananas with coffee at the right ratios: improved labour use efficiency  improved overall income by 50 per cent  reduced farmer's exposure to climate shocks.While agronomic and economic benefits were clear from the research and farmers side, there were no institutional policy arrangements in place to make these benefits available to farmers. This created a need for engaging policy makers.The consortium stakeholders mapped the flow of resources and quantified soil fertility and on-farm nutrient recycling across sites.The results showed the following:  Farmers disproportionally favour home gardens in term of nutrient and labour inputs, often relying on perennial crops and vegetables in homestead plots that are more fertile.  It was vital to keep crops residues on farm since this would reduce nutrient losses for many crops by 50 per cent or more.Given the importance of erosion in the hilly region, the researchers and their local partners conducted a number of integrated technology trials to try to improve the productivity while reducing erosion.The following technologies were tested in various combinations:The following discoveries were made: The various erosion control options did not lead to the anticipated improvements in productivity. The used technologies actually reduced yield of the maize and soybean being cropped together.  The increased labour, competition for water and space and soil disturbance to make the embankments did not help to improve productivity over the first 2 years of the trial. In DRC the 'Mwami' land tenure system, which did not favour the majority of poor farmers growing crops on the land, gave no incentive for farmers to make any meaningful investments in erosion control. The consortium experienced this first hand when one of the experimental field trials was taken away after the landlord had seen that fertilizers had been applied. This was a loss for experimental data collection but helped understand the challenges that the land renting farmers have to face as a result of the land tenure system.In Rwanda providing evidence for intercropping proved vital. This was because the government adopted the policy of sole cropping to encourage farmers to seriously invest in improving crop production following 'green revolution' principles. Farmers did not always agree with this approach as they wanted to earn money and be food secure on their small pieces of land. CIALCA managed to provoke reflection at the national level policy with regards to the benefits of intercropping systems.• increased productivity • increased income and food security • higher cup quality • better resilience to market volatility• Traditionally throughout the region, coffee was largely dominated by men whereas bananas were cropped mostly by women. Although the new intercropping system increase productivity, it also brought about a gender imbalance where men started benefitting from the labour coming from women who are often required to attend the additional crop too.• Productivity can go down dramatically if the banana and coffee densities are not properly managed.The research results on the benefits of banana-coffee intercropping, including improved climate adaptation and cup taste, led the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) to organizing a meeting with all key public actors, NGOs and farmer representatives to engage in discussion. The results also generated a debate from different stakeholders such as farmers, researchers and extension workers. It was possible thanks to the regional platform, which shared the results between countries. The point was further proved by the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) which published the following commentaries on its website truly highlighting the role of engaging in multi-stakeholder processes:'The idea of coffee-banana intercropping was first introduced by Dr Van Asten Piet about two years ago. Since then there have been several studies and analyses and lessons learned from Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda itself'.'This workshop is an indication of a change that may occur within the agriculture sector for Rwanda that will ultimately benefit rural famers and market prices for the country, as research continues' (Rwandan Ministry ofAgriculture)The position presented by the Ministry was also shared by the majority of the stakeholders:'As an extensionist, my question is when to start doing this? The only issue to be confirmed is coffee cup quality. So far, there is no single trial showing that banana-coffee intercropping affects yields of either of the two crops negatively. Yes, researchers may do their work still for many years and better density recommendations may be developed after more experiments are done. However, we need to start. After cup quality is confirmed, the only question is why farmers may not start doing it immediately?' Mr Somers Raf,The research proved that the shade from bananas had a positive effect on cup quality. These findings led to a shift in policy discourse from the key decision makers in this sector. The government no longer considers banana-coffee intercropping as a 'crime' and in several regions it is actively encouraging the intercropping system through government-supported farmer field schools.The National Research and the extension arm of the government, the Rwanda Agricultural Board, has picked the banana-coffee intercropping system and demonstration fields are being set up. This change has further opened the ministerial interest in developing intensified and well organized intercropping systems that MINAGRI would like to promote to smallholder farmers. Scientific evidence also proved to be particularly helpful during the most challenging moments, which caused tensions among stakeholders and helped to move the process forward.To sum up, the invested resources, long term engagement with the Ministry and other key stakeholders contributed to the overall success of the project, which was also later affirmed by the positive feedback CIALCA received from the audience during discussions.Numerous organizations that operate in the region, such as NGOs, CBOs and civil society organizations were trained in different technology packages and through the training-of-trainers approach (ToT). Many of them were responsible for reaching the areas where CIALCA was not working.In North Kivu Eastern DRC, the radio program conducted by one of the CIALCA staff proved to be particularly effective especially in broadcasting messages on the control of the Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW).CIALCA has trained over 20 PhDs, 35 Masters and over 35 BSc students who now occupy strategic jobs such as Directors and Department Heads in national research institutes, central governments and beyond.A knowledge resource centre was established in 2010 and works closely with partners to identify 'best bet' impact pathways for technology out-scaling. The centre also supports the development and packaging of project knowledge in suitable formats (including radio and video) and languages that clearly communicate the actions required.The training of trainers (ToT) approach is a central pillar of CIALCA, ranging from crop production to marketing and nutrition-related training. CIALCA has organized a total of 159 training events and collaborated with over 60 NGO partners and public extension services for its development-oriented work.The coming together of stakeholders fostered cross-learning and experience sharing. Learning was usually organized through field days at field sites and at specialized meeting places for the action site and other levels.CIALCA made investments in developing intercropping options for staples such as banana and cassava with legumes. Most of the following proposed technologies were already being practised by farmers in the East African highlands with a varying degree of success: The banana-coffee intercropping system was transferred from Uganda to Burundi and from there to Rwanda. The zero-tillage mulch banana bean intercropping system was transferred from Uganda to Burundi and Rwanda.  The smart legume intercropping systems in maize and cassava were first tested in West Kenya and then successfully tested and documented in DRC.  The soybean processing technologies were transferred from Uganda and Kenya to Rwanda and DRC.4.1 The overall impact CIALCA demonstrated and disseminated effective solutions to some of the problems identified during this project, which has the following impact on local community:• The introduction of exotic banana varieties proved extremely popular with farmers and extension partners in certain areas. The plant is very well adaptable to the local growing conditions, often yielding double the bunch weight of the local varieties.• The legume germ plasm introduced by CIALCA was rapidly out-scaled through farmer-led multiplication in Bas-Congo and the Eastern Province of South Kive. More than half of the farmers involved in theses schemes adopted the improved seed.• The increased production of soybean has resulted in further development of various highly nutritious soybean products and consequently the training related to them. The training particularly targets women, which resulted in significant nutritional benefits for the young children in their care.• The innovative banana-coffee intercropping system promises increased farm incomes and the resilience of coffee systems to a warming climate. This has caught Rwandan and Burundian authorities' attention, who are now actively engaged in validating the technology.• The spread of Xanthomonas Wilt of bananas, which affected a large part of the East African highlands, was halted and thanks to CIALCA's collaboration with numerous development partners its impact has been reduced.4.2 CIALCA's impact on the cassava-legume intercropping system• significant improvement through the use of fertilizer in combination with manure or compost • yields have increased by at least 40 per cent for legume and 20 per cent for cassavaThe consortium chose three measurable criteria to track progress towards their goal:  increasing farm level productivity  improving protein intake  boosting household incomeThe following statement was made in 2006 at the project inception:  At the end of the project 2.1 million people would be aware of CIALCA-related activities, of which 400,000 actively seeking access to knowledge and technologies promoted.During project evaluation at its closure in 2011, the following improvements directly related to CIALCA's activity were identified:The innovations introduced by CIALCA had increased average farm level productivity by more than 27 per cent and some yields have increased up to 179 per cent.The consumption of protein has increased on average by at least 12 per cent across all of the CIALCA's intervention areas.The aggregate household income has increased by over 19 per cent and in some areas farmers earn additional 60-90 USD per year from improved banana production and marketing. This resulted from adopting improved agricultural practices and market-oriented strategies.The main factors that led to the overall success of the CIALCA platforms are as follows:5.1 An evidence-based engagement process:The research done by CIALCA stakeholders and led by National Agricultural research systems in different countries gave new insights that help to engage partners and keep them engaged even during challenging times.5.2 Building on existing knowledge and learning from farmers:Many of the technological innovations used by CIALCA were based on successful smallholder experiences elsewhere in the EA highlands. Building on this knowledge helped to achieve better and quicker results.Example: the coffee-banana system studied widely in CIALCA region was picked from already practicing farmers, especially from those in Uganda.• Platforms engaged at different levels allowed multiple-level exchange of knowledge and expression of needs -from the villages, to fields sites, action sites and regional (country to country). This facilitated site specific and between-sites cross-learning. Example: Policy makers could hear from farmers in a very organized and effective way which fostered changes.• Regional information exchange was easy and acceptable due to the recognition of the region as a single block/platform. • Information exchange across countries fostered quick and trusted awareness creation. The research generated in one area or country required validation in other countries only, which saved a lot of time.Training of different partners created new opportunities for these platforms to handle issues by themselves and for the CIALCA approaches to be used in the future. Capacity building of stakeholders improved the quality of their engagement.Example: farmers felt empowered to ask questions to policy makers. Also, several graduates have been promoted to senior positions within Rwanda and Burundi national research systems.The differences between and within the countries covered by the program were too wide for a 'one size fits all' approach. Flexibility allowed a more efficient and cost-effective way to work across countries and levels.Example: having the flexible donor supporting CIALCA allowed engagement and implementation to always suit the needs and opportunities within each area, which was particularly useful when working with multistakeholders.The following areas of development were identified:• A more holistic approach to research for development processes (to integrate livestock, gender and business planning) should be taken.• The systems learning and policy engagement should be strengthened further to deal with issues such as land tenure that require much wider social-political engagements that consider factors and approaches beyond land conservation trials.• As CIALCA moves into a formal setting within the Humidtropics CGIAR research program, the question is how far it is necessary to institutionalize platforms across the region and still allow for an organic and adaptive style of operation and management that encourages place-based innovations to freely emerge.","tokenCount":"3869"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c084154a4f9fa70c9d46e950409f997b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2f31c2fa-f090-4cd3-861c-86ddf68d8f27/retrieve","id":"982782857"},"keywords":["Cassava","Congo","African"],"sieverID":"4ddad13e-9cbe-4ac7-afed-568d967a2e10","pagecount":"9","content":"Cassava is the main crop in the Congo but its low yield doesn't meet the needs of Congolese populations. The low yield is due to the use of less effective sensitive varieties to diseases, nonmastering of techniques and biotic constraint of which the African cassava mosaic. This study aims at selecting resistant genotypes to the African cassava mosaic and assessing their agronomic and production performances. Six elite accessions selected based on a villager participative approach have been crossed by controlled pollination with three clones (192/0401, 192/0325 and 197/0162) distributed by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Growth, agronomic and production parameters of genotypes from the controlled pollination were evaluated at the station. Of the ten tested genotypes, the one resulting from the crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401) did not show any symptom of the cassava mosaic disease 12 months after planting. Apart from the root length, foliar surface and the height of the plant, this genotype differed from the others only by the biomass, the diameter of the stem, the harvest index, the rate of starch, the rate of dry matter and marketable or non-marketable tuberous roots. The genotype (Mahabama x I92/0401) will be included in the cassava improvement section plan in the Republic of Congo.Manihot esculenta is grown in the tropical and subtropical regions for its roots and leaves. These plants are a major part of the daily diet of many African populations. Cassava is the main crop in the Congo but its low yield doesn't meet the needs of Congolese populations. The cassava roots, consumed either directly in the form of \"green cassava\" or in the flour form, are rich in starch. They are thus a least expensive source of calories for human nutrition and animal food (Cock, 1985;FAO, 2013a;Tonukari, 2004). Indeed, the fresh cassava roots contain between 25 to 45% of dry matter component containing 85% of starch. Cassava leaves are used as vegetables. They provide protein, vitamins and minerals to populations in East and Central Africa (Lutaladio and Ezumah, 1981;IITA, 1990;IITA, 1992;Jalloh and Dahniga, 1994). Thus, for producing countries, cassava is considered as a traditional crop for food security with its capacity to be kept in the soil, to be harvested according to the needs (DeVries and Toenniessen, 2001). For those countries, consumption needs have increasingly gone up causing an increase in prices for this commodity.However, in Africa, the increase in cassava production is mainly related to the rise in cultivated areas (Hillocks and Thresh, 2000;Chikoti, 2011). This reflects the low yield per hectare of cassava varieties used. This poor performance cassava is also due to use of inappropriate technical by producers, the use of less efficient varieties and the fungal impact, cassava bacterial blight and viral diseases including the cassava mosaic disease (Daniel et al., 1978;Mabanza, 1980a, b;Makambila and Bakaka-Koumouno, 1982;Daniel and Boher,1985;Daniel et al., 1985;Guthrie, 1987;Fargette et al., 1985;Makambila, 1994;Gibson et al., 1996;CIAT, 1996;Thresh et al.,1997;Fokunang et al., 2000;Ntawurunga et al., 2002;Hillocks and Wydra, 2002;Neuenschwander et al., 2002).Cassava is grown in most parts of the Republic of Congo, where 95.700 ha are under cultivation with a total production of 861.500 t (Ntawuruhunga et al., 2007). This crop mobilizes more than 70% of the rural population, mostly women, and informal activities around cassava are an important source of income for many households (MFA, 2014, FAO, 2003).In the Congo, cassava mosaic disease is the major issue for cassava cultivation. The cassava mosaic disease is the major issue for cassava cultivation causing losses of up to 95% (Guthrie, 1987;Legg et al., 2006;Legg et al., 2005;Geddes, 1990;Mabanza et al., 1993;Thresh et al., 1994a, b;Thresh et al., 1997;Ntawuruhunga et al., 2007;Agnassim et al., 2007;Ntawuruhunga et al., 2002;Owor et al., 2004;Zinga et al., 2008;Szyniszewka et al., 2017). An increase of the incidence of this disease causes chronic shortages of this food crop considered as a staple food for more than 90% of Congolese, in terms of crop valuation, consumption level and value chain (MAE, 2014). To overcome this cassava mosaic disease, surveillance and uprooting of infested plants was recommended as well as control of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Quiot et al., 1982;Fargette, 1987;Guthrie, 1987;Mabanza 1992). These measures have not been able to stem the disease.In addition, the introduction of varieties selected for their resistance to the disease has been considered (Hahn et al., 1980) but the difficulty of satisfying local preferences with regard to taste, texture and agronomic traits of resistant varieties as well as their poor distribution to small farmers did not slow down their spread on local accessions (Guthrie, 1987).Furthermore, it noted the differences between the proposed technologies and the producer's expectations. To date, integrated pest management has become a priority, including cassava breeding and the improvement of local germplasm by vitro culture to control cassava mosaic disease (Mabanza, 2006). Varietal improvement includes the development of a range of elite accessions resistant to cassava mosaic disease and cassava bacterial disease combined with high yields, stable with other agronomic qualities and traits acceptable to consumers.F1 hybrid progeny derived from this controlled pollination were evaluated at station for their impact on cassava mosaic disease resistance as well as their growth, agronomic and yield components. The purpose of the studies was selecting resistant genotypes to the African cassava mosaic and assessing their agronomic and production performances.Plant material consisted of F1 progeny obtained by controlled pollination between six elite accessions (local ecotypes) and three clones (192/0401, 192/0325 and 197/0162)  The IITA parental clones, native to Nigeria, were selected for their high yield potential and cassava mosaic disease resistance. Elite accessions were identified by peasant participation approach and identified according to characteristics distinguishing in positive and negative traits mentioned in Table 1. Out of 470 accessions collected in 56 surveyed localities in Bouenza, Niari and Lékoumou departments forming the Niari landscape, a hierarchy has been established according to solicitation. The accessions of Mauritanian, Mahabama, Kinkéni, Manaboulenga, Dimbouana and Soleil have had a high frequency of use, and have been described as \"elite\". Prior to pollination, these parental elite accessions were *Corresponding author. E-mail: pattibayeba@gmail.com.Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License  The trial was conducted in experimental plot at Loudima Research Station of the National Institute for Agricultural Research (IRA). Loudima station (13°04'21.3'' and 4° 09'6.35'') is located about 30 km north-east of the Nkayi town, in department of Bouenza. During 2 years of experimentation, an average monthly temperature (27.9°C) and relative humidity (90.9%) were recorded. Rainfall data were collected in experimental plot referred to as a seed nursery. Rainfall variations were recorded during 2 years of experimentation (Figure 1). Weekly total rainfall was used and expressed as sum of monthly precipitation.The Cassava F1 progeny obtained by controlled pollination between elite accessions and IITA clones were evaluated. Seeds resulting from this pollination were germinated in screen houses.Vigorous cassava seedlings at a 4-leaf stage were transferred to seed nursery where they were planted by blocks representing a cross.In cross block, the seedlings were transplanted in line at a space of 1 m between the lines, and in line 50 cm between the plants. After transplanting, insecticide application was carried out in anticipation of cricket attacks. The insecticide (decis) slurry was applied at a rate of 25ml/15 L (in water). This application was repeated every fifteen day during two and half months making a total of five treatments in total. The seed nursery was maintained by weeding on demand until the end of the cycle.In cross blocks, individuals ranged from 1 to 88 depending on seedlings number that reached 12 months after planting and were free of cassava mosaic. F1 progeny was eliminated when cassava mosaic disease symptoms appeared. The incidence of cassava mosaic was determined by counting the individuals having cassava mosaic disease symptoms out of the total of F1 progeny observed. From 12 months after planting, weekly observations were made individually for a given cross. Variables value of a given cross corresponds to the average of the individuals composing the cross. Every individual in the cross has been constituted as a repetition. These observations focused on the agronomic variables, yield components and biochemical components of cassava roots. For agronomic variables, measurements were made on leaf surface, biomass area and total biomass. To determinate the leaf surface (SF) according to Connor and Cock (1981): SF (cm 2 ) = 0.0067 L 2.042 , with L (mm) representing the length of the central lobe of the leaf, the length of the central lobe of the fourth bloomed leaf of individual was measured using a graduated ruler. Aerial biomass was obtained by weighing stems and leaves using a scale type hanging scale. Three yield components have been estimated to evaluate the productive potential of a given genotype from different crosses. These were: harvest index, underground biomass, weight of tubers, root mass and number of tubers. The number of tubers per hybrid was counted and their weight obtained by weighing the tuber using the Hanging scale.In addition, the roots have been calibrated. Gauging consisted of classifying the cassava roots into fleshy or not according to the volume or diameter. The fleshiest roots were said to be \"marketable\" and the less fleshy were called \"residual roots\" and therefore no marketable tubers. After harvest, the starch and dry matter content of the tubers was determined by genotype. Thus, 200 grams of tubers were taken per plant, minced and then ground using a Victoria type mill. The ground material obtained was dilacerated in 1.5 liters of water. The resulting mixture was filtered using a sieve with 500 μm mesh. The filtrate was distributed and decanted in 1.6 liter pots. After 10 hours of decantation, the supernatant was removed and the pellet constitutes the starch (starch). On a cemented drying platform, the pellet was dried in pots and the chip on plastic lids.XLSTAT software version 7.5.3 and SPSS 10.0 were used for all statistical analyzes. For all variables measured, variance analyzes (ANOVA) included leaf area, aerial biomass, total biomass, harvest index, uunderground biomass, tuberous root weight (PRT), number of tuberous roots (NRT), root mass (MRT) and number of tuber roots. The normality of the residuals and the homogeneity of the variances have been verified. To normalize the distribution and equalize the variances, the starch and dry matter variables underwent an arcsine transformation. The comparisons between the means were made according to the Student Newman test and Keuls at the 5% threshold.Cassava mosaic disease (CMD) incidence on stationassessed genotypes was illustrated in Figure 2. The results revealed that no cassava mosaic disease symptoms were observed in crossing (Mauritanian x I92/0325) and (Manaboulenga x I92/0401) 3 months after planting (MAP). At 3 months after planting, for CMD genotype, the least incidence was recorded in crossing (Mauritanian x I92/0401) and (I92/0401 x Soleil). At 6 Significat with a confidence level of 95% for the Newman-Keuls test. Values with the same index do not show a significant difference at 5% threshold. Stem heights are expressed in meters (m) and stem diameters in centimeters (cm). Branching level is the stem height where there was the first branching expressed in centimeter (cm) of which 0 no branching. Goumands is a notation whose score 0 absent and 1 presence of greedy.Branching type is a notation of which 0 absence of branching and for the presence (there are branches 1 or 2 or 3 or 4).MAP, the CMD symptoms were observed on genotypes from 9 crossing tested. The lowest incidence (5%) was recorded in genotypes from the crossing (Mauritanian x I92/0325) while the highest incidence (58%) of CMD was observed in crossing (I92/0401 x Kinkéni) for the same period. The highest incidence (95%) was obtained at 9 and 12 MAP for genotypes from crossing (I92/0401 x Kinkeni). This same rate was found in crossing (Mauritanian x I92/0325) at 12 MAP. In addition, no cassava mosaic disease symptoms were observed from crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401). On the other hand, high cassava mosaic disease incidence was noted in crossing (I92/0401x Kinkéni) (Figure 2).Growth components of the genotypes resulting from controlled pollination were measured at station. The results reveal that stem diameter, branching type and number of branching did not discriminate the cassava genotypes tested. No significant effect on mean stem diameter, number of branching and branching level of the genotypes was observed (Table 2). For plant height, the genotypes from crossing (I92/0401 x Mauritanian and Manaboulenga x I92/0325) showed higher shoot height. Average plant height were 3.32 m (I92/0401 x Mauritanian) and 3.39 m (Manaboulenga x I92/0325) respectively. Mean plant height of 2.37 m recorded in genotypes from crossing (Manaboulenga x I92/0325) was lower than that from other crossing tested (Table 2). For crossing tested, the variability of branching type was observed at station. Branching type notes ranged from 0 in crossing (Manaboulenga x I92/0401) to 3 in crossing (Mauritanian x I92/0325), (I92/0401 x Soleil), (I92/0401 x Kinkeni), (I92/0401 x Dimbouane), (Mahabama x I92/0401), (I92/0401 x Mauritanian).Genotypes from crossing (Manaboulenga x I92/0401) a branch grade score of zero (0) had an erect habit. Genotypes in crossing (Mauritanian x I92/0325), (I92/0401 x Soleil), (I92/0401 x Kinkeni), (I92/0401 x Dimbouane), (Mahabama x I92/0401) and (I92/0401 x Mauritanian) having the note 3, have a trichotomous branch. Dychotomic branches were observed on genotypes in crossing (I92/0401 x Soleil), (Manaboulenga x I92/0325), (Mauritanian x I97/0162), (I92/0401 x Mauritanian) and (Mauritanian x I92/0401) (Table 2). For plant height and branching type, the variance analyses reveal a significant \"crossing\" effect at 5% threshold according to the Student Newman and Keuls test, and showed the existence of 3 homogeneous groups crossing (a, ab and b) and 5 crossing groups (a, ab, abc, bc and c) respectively. For the plant height, most pronounced effect was obtained with genotypes from crossing (I92/0401 x Mauritanian and Manaboulenga x I92/0325) (group b). For the presence of gourmands, except the genotypes from crossing (Mauritanian x I92/0325), all individuals of the tested crossing had gourmands. Statistical analyzes for the presence of gourmands reveal a significant difference at 5% threshold between the crossing tested (Table 2).A 12 MAP, leaf surface, harvest index and total biomass of the genotypes from different crossing were evaluated  3). In crossing (I92/0401 x Soleil), the leaf surface (103.32 cm 2 ) was larger. Statistical analyzes results of leaf area vary significantly depending on crossing made. They highlight the existence of 3 homogeneous groups of crossing made (a, ab and b). The most marked leaf area was obtained with genotypes from crossing (I92/0401 x Soleil) (group b). Analysis of all crossing did not statistically reveal any significant difference (at the 5% threshold) in aerial biomass, underground biomass (mass of all the storage roots per plant), total biomass and harvest index (Table 3). The results reveal that, these variables did not make it possible to discriminate all crossing tested at station.Marketable tubers, not marketable tubers, tuber length, tuber diameter, percentage of starch and percentage of dry matter of 10 genotypes tested crossing were evaluated at 12 MAP. Analysis of crossing did not statistically reveal any significant differences (at the 5% threshold) in marketable tubers, not marketable tubers, tuber diameter, starch content and root dry matter content (Table 4). The results reveal that these variables did not help discriminating between tested cassava genotypes (Table 4).The results show that tuber length varied from 24.54 cm (Mauritanian x I92/0401) to 93.34 cm (I92/0401 x Dimbouane) (Table 4). Results of statistical analyzes of tuber length varied significantly according to cassava genotype tested, revealing the existence of 2 homogeneous groups of tested genotype (a and b) most marked was obtained with 9 genotypes evaluated (group b).This study revealed the existence of a high cassava mosaic disease tolerance or resistance in cross (Mahabama x 192/0401) compared to other controlled crossing. For this crossing, no symptoms of cassava mosaic disease were observed until 12 MAP. The results are similar to those obtained by Hahn et al. (1980), Jennings and Hershey (1985), Kemdingao (2003), Ambang et al. (2007), Monde et al. (2013) and Bisimwa et al. (2015).Four cassava varieties selected and popularized in Republic of Congo for their resistance to bacteriosis showed a sensibility to cassava mosaic disease (Mabanza et al., 1993). This study is the first one to set up a crossing showing an acceptable resistance to this viral disease. For a long period, it has been recognized that some varieties have acceptable resistance to mosaic when they suffer little or no damage even if they are affected (Hillocks and Thresh, 2000). Such individuals in crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401) will be used as a mean of controlling the disease.In addition to crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401), F1 progeny from crossing (Mauritanian x I92/0401 and I92/0401 x Soleil) expressed the cassava mosaic disease incidence of 51% at 12 MAP. However, the cassava mosaic disease incidence of 95% was recorded in crossing (I92/0401 x Kinkeni and Mauritanian x I97/0162) at 12 MAP. Thus, the study results showed the existence of very clear differences in the degree of attack of the different crossing evaluated.Difference in attack levels of cultivars or clones or varieties or genotypes with respect to cassava mosaic disease was recorded by Mabanza et al. (1993), Ambang et al. (2007), Ntawuruhunga et al. (2007), Zinga et al. (2008), Chikoti (2011), Monde et al. (2013) and Bisimwa et al. (2015). The study results showed that the cassava mosaic disease was established from 6th MAP in crossing (Mauritanian x I92/0325 and Manaboulenga x I92/0401). For these crossing, the lowest incidence of cassava mosaic disease (5% and 50%) increased to 91% and 75% at 12 th week after planting. This evolution of cassava mosaic disease incidence during the cultivation period was recorded for all crossing tested. Similar results were obtained by Ambang et al. (2007) and Bisimwa et al. (2015).The study results reveal that the critical threshold for the emergence of cassava mosaic disease would be 6 MAP for the crossing tested. These results are contrary to those obtained by Mabanza et al. (1993). These authors noted that starting from the 4th month, the impact of cassava mosaic disease begins to diminish by the phenomenon of healing with four varieties selected by national program of research on cassava. To date, the use of genotypes from crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401 is a mean to manage cassava mosaic disease, given that it meets the requirements of growth, agronomy and production. Thus, in crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401) with trichotomous branching was not different from 9 other crossing tested by stem diameter, branching type, number of branch, aerial biomass, underground biomass (mass of all the storage roots per plant), total biomass and harvest index. For hybrids from crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401), the stem diameter of 3.90 cm obtained is comparable to or better than the average stem diameter of cultivars recorded by Ambang et al. (2007) and Monde et al. (2013). Those results reveal an intermediate classification of plant height, stem diameter and leaf surface of the individual of the said crossing. In hybrids from crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401), a plant height of 2.94 cm was measured, leaf surface was 102.91 cm 2 and harvest index was 0.38. These acceptable measures were similar to those of Bakayoko et al. (2007), Ambang et al. (2007), Chikoti (2011), Moundzeo et al. (2012) and Monde et al. (2013).Similarly, it appears that crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401) is indistinguishable from other crossing for the number of marketable tubers, not marketable tubers, tuber diameter and root dry matter content. The tuber fiber content of 32% recorded in crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401) was similar to or better than that obtained by Nwangalalo et al. (1987) and Bakayoko et al. (2007). On the other hand, this content was lower than F1 hybrids of 20 families tested by Chikoti (2011). The F1 progeny in crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401) showed tuber length of 47 cm with 8 mean number tubers per plant. These production variables in cross (Mahabama x I92/0401) were similar to those presented by cassava varieties tested (Bisimwa et al., 2015;Ambang et al., 2007, Moundzeo et al., 2012, Monde et al., 2013). Thus, F1 hybrids in Mahabama x I92/0401 which have a high tolerance to cassava mosaic disease, are interesting because of their growth, agronomic and yield components.F1 progenies from crossing (Mahabama x I92/0401) showing high tolerance to cassava mosaic disease are included in the cassava selection scheme in Congo. In addition to the absence of any visible symptoms of cassava mosaic disease, these hybrids in crossing (Mahabama x I92/ 0401) showed vegetative growth, agronomic traits, and acceptable yield components comparable to the other 9 crossing tested. This crossing is recommended in the main producing areas of the Republic of Congo, which is heavily infested with cassava mosaic disease. Before it is released, assessments in farmer's area will be carried out in order to confirm its potential to control cassava mosaic disease observed at station.","tokenCount":"3461"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"515e73c79b26c12a178384b3cef2ff7e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2a79328e-6c44-45b8-87a0-9d4e3331152c/retrieve","id":"1655226839"},"keywords":["TI! ; \"\"","~OI0JV",",,,, U'"],"sieverID":"657fb17c-007b-40d0-8b2d-867a1ddf3e32","pagecount":"95","content":"!he United NatiODS' Food and Agriculture Orgaoization has calculated that food requirement standards in terma of calorie intake ranges from 2223 calories per espita in the Fsr Rast to 2560 calories per capits in North Ameries. Based 011 the aboye standard. FAO has estimated that for developing countries current foad conaumption provides only 96 parcent of calode requirements, Figure 1. lt has been predicted tbat the demaud for foad beginning in the 1980's will incresse more rspidly in developing thao in deve10ped countries. l/paper presentad at the Regional Seminar un Agribuainess Commodity Systems, Los Baños. Laguna, Philippines. June 5-17. 1978  This means that agricultura1 production must grow more rapidly in theae countries if the demand for food ia to be met satisfactorily.Unfortunately. projections indicate that growth of agricultural production in developing countries will not match demando lt appears therefore tbat in the coming yeara developing countries vill bave the esaential task of trying to meet consumption demanda and nutrition requirements. A crucial element in this supply and demand balance is the ability of the country to produce sufficient calories -and in this regard the root and tuber crops are important crop commodities that can supply the needed ealories.Experience in many countries of the world espeeially in ehe tropica of Asia and the Pacific demonstrate that roots sud tuber crops like cassava, white and sweet potatoes. 1 -(Dioseores). Aroida, etc. not only can provide the cheapest source of high energy fooda. but that they are also comparatively easy to cultivate sud are adapted ta our environment in the tropics.Host root and tuber crops are thought to be of recent introductions to Asia either from the African or American continents.Tbey are often regarded as relies of primitive agriculture probably because of the important role these crops play in existing primitive sceieties and on the rudimentary husbandry they require, particularly vegetative propagation. (Leon, 1976snd Dar1ington. 1969). But as has been pointed out, the eontrasting of agricultura1 systems based on the differences between seed and clona! propagation is a simplifica-tion of a problem that is too comple~ to be reduced to the duality of planting materíals.Roct crops are classified as such because the roots and tubers of these particular plant species are storage organs that developed probably as a result of selective pressures by the environment. The storage organs permit the accumulation of nutrients elaborated by the aeríal parts of the planto By growing underground, they maintain the nutrients with minimal loss. Once the temporary branches or foliage have dried, new shoots develop from the storage organe. By harvesting roots and tubers before the plants have flowered, man has interrupted this process, and thus kept the plants in a kind of pe1:lllalleDt juvenile stage. In mose of the root crops. the storage organs are primarily carbohydrate sinks. While it can also serve as reproductive organs thereby making this double function of foremost importance in their propagation. it is in the ability of the metamorphosed root to act as a reservoir of carbohydrate that these crops deserve the attentionOD researchers, sc1entists and poliey makers.The following paper attempts to describe the potential and status of root crop technology in soma countries in Asia. lt also ventures to analyze the conetraints sud problems of the industry and seeks to explain why it 1s in such a sta tic systea. Finally, it affers some strategies on how the industry can be improved.Becauss of the dsarth of information relativa to most root crops grown in the Region1~ examples usad are biassed for cassava and sweet potato -the two most important root crops in the humid tropics.A brief description of some of the importunt root crops is given in Appendix A.A large variety of roots sud tubers are grown in Asia especially in tbe humid trapics. In the countries of the South Pscific Islanda roots and tubers form the stsple diet of the people. Being rich in carbohydrates. they supply a large number of calorias in the diet of the rural masses. In the yeara of foad scarcity und high prices of traditional food grains, the demand far roots snd tuhers increases rapidly among low income groups.The reportad statistics on the area and production of several of these crops are neither complete nor comprehensive und sre fsr less reliable than those of other crops. However. FAO reporta world data in respect ta white potatoea. sweet 3/ -In subaequent diacussion, Region refera to Asia sud ehe Pacific ares. potatoes, cassava, yams and other roots not elsewhere specified.Tables 1 to 5. Data on Tables 1 to 5 show the extent to which these crops are cultivated in Asia in relation to other countries of the world.In 1975, the total ares and production of roots and tubers in the Asia and Pacific region were 21 million hectares and 203 million tona respectively. Countries producing more than 100,000 tona of roots and tubers were Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, PhilippÍDes, the Socialiat Republic of Vietnam, Sri Lanka snd Thailand. The regian contributed 40 and 35 percent to world ares and production respectively (Figure 2). Average yield in the region was 9.5 tona per hect are againat the world average of 11 tons.Within the region, the yield varied between 4.8 tona per hectare in the Philippines and 14.6 tona per hectare in Thailand, underscoring the production potentiale of theee crops. 50th wbite aud sweet potatoes are grown in Bangladesh.Yields are low and considerable scope exists for expanding Che production of tuber crops in Bangladesb.     On the other hand progressive plantations in tha region do practice improve methods of husbandry viz: use of adapted varieties. crop protection. cultural management. cropping system and even mechanical harvesting. The improved production system for cassava is a good example. Cock (1977) has pointed out that in spite of its great yield potential and cartain attributes that make it easy to fit into a farming systea, world cassava yields at 10 t/ha are far below those that might be expected. The reasons for these law Data from CIAT demonstrate that cassava yields can be reduced to les8 than 2 t/ha when no weed control 1s usad (Doll, 1974). Table 12 and Figure 3 shows this graphical1y. Thus to maximize yiald, waeding operation must bagin 15 ta 30 dsys after planting and continua '\" Percentsge of the yield of cassava weeded with herbicides.\"'* The \"+\" indicates additional weedings. \"''''''' 00 .. unti1 harvest. as needed. \"'''''''''' Alachlor + fluometuron were applied in pre-emergence, snd directed spp1ications with a ahielded nozzle were made of paraqust as needed in postemergence. until a canopy has formed. Weeding after 120 days do oot increase production. One weeding is oot sufficient, whereas two well-spaced weedings is capable of producing 75 percent of the maxÍlnUIII yield. The highest yield could be obtainad by chemically weeding the cassava.never allowing weeds to compete with the crop.There is no substituta for an improved adaptad variety. New, Í1nproved varieties of cassava (as well.as sweat and white potatoes) are now exhaustively testad by the Centers at varioUB acological conditiona.Host of these varieties are currently entered in the regional trisls and soma of them could very well be recommendad as country varieties in the nasr futura.Further, for cassava thera is ample evidence that different varieties grown under similar conditiona hava very diffarent yielding ability (Galang, 1931;Lambourne, 1937;Arraudeau. 1969;Sarmiento, 1969. CIAT, 1972;1973) and that these variations are larga enough to be high1y important to the grower. In a recent trial at CIAr with very low level of diseasa and pest incidence, yialds of varieties varied from 16 to 46 t/ha per year. Thus, simple se1ection opens the way in soma instances to very large yield increases.The literature ia full ef reporta that due te its bigb nutrient requirement. casaava is a aeil-depletiug crep especially witb reapect to potassium. This is not surprising. fer any crop that yields well particularly on poor aoils, will deplete tbe nutrient reserves in that soil (Cock, 1974). On tbe otber bando past atudies (Birkinsbaw, 1926) bave sbown up to 15 caasava crops being barvested continuous1y in the same farm witb no significant decreaae in the productivity of tbe aoi1.Nonetbe1ess. tbe use ol fertilizer to obtain higb yie1ds is easentia1, particular1y if tbe crop ia p1anted on poor soi1a (De Gaua. 1967). In Latin America, farmera fraquent1y ssy that axcassive nitrogen actually decreasea yie1d due to excessive top growth (Figure 4). At CIAX, fertilizer triala using up to 300 kg/ha of N have not shown sny negative nitrogen response. Although reporta on the favorable responses of ferti1izers to increaaiug cassava yields sre numerous, the low va1ue of csssava sud the bigh prica of fertilizers in SomB region. 1II8kea it uneconomica1 for the farmers to app1y it. It ia bowever. obvioua that yialds can be incraased by the judicioua use of fertilizars. in almost all cassavs plantations (Lozano, 1976;Terry. 1975a). Others are 1imited to geographica1 aresa or continents possibly because their diasemination occurs main1y through the use of infected p1anting material for propagation (Lozano, 1972;1975).The spread of pests and diseases is usua1ly faci1itated through the planting materials. Cassava ie vegetatively propagated by planting pieces of etem cuttings; consequent1y, cassava pathogens can be disseminated easily by the movement of planting materials from infected to uninfected areas. lt is in recognition of this, that the treatment of casssva stakes before planting in a mixture of insecticida and fungicide (\"the cassava cocktail\") should become a standard praetice. considering that the cost of sueh a treatment is insignifieant, Table 13  ----------------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------   - Otber practica! ways oi storing cassava is by the clamp metbod or by using moistened sawdust. ~-- The importance of cassava es an agro-industrial crop has been further enhanced by the recent change in the world energy price structure. All of tha chemicals that can be produced from cassavs starch are currently manufactured from petrochemicala derivad from oil. Although cassava processing also requiras significant amounts of energy (usually in the form of heat snd electricity). this can be provided from crop residues. For example, the leafy topa could be bumed to provide steam or combined with tuber waste streams to provide methane by anaerobic fermentation.In Figure 11, some possibilities for a cassava agroindustrial aystem are given. Although all of these industries could ultimately be integrated in the one area, it is unlikely that this would ever be achieved. The leaf and leaf stem may contain up to 30 pereent crude protein SO tbat n yield of 15 percent crude protein may be posaible from the foliage.A leaf protein eoncentrate (LPC) can be extracted from eassava tops using a screw press or a balt presa process similar to thnt daveloped by Pirie (1971).Considering the widespread problem of proteio ma1nutrition in most developing countries, the potential for uaing LPC from eassava deservea immediate attention. In order to exploit the markets for root crops, it has to be sold at a price that is competitive. To some degraa this dependa on tha use to which tha crop is puto Thus, in the case of cassava, the Thai farmar who grows most of the crop that reaches the world market obtains US$ 11-12 for the farm-dried chips from a ton of fresh cassava whereas for fresh cassava for human use, the Jamaican farmer obtains 2-4 times this price With good management, using recommended cultural operations aud high yielding adapted varietiea, a yield of 40 tona fresh cassava tubers per hectare is easily attainab1e. Under Philippina condition, a JO-ton per hectara harvest using recommended practicas would de1iver a good profit to the producar.A 10 ton par hectare yield of cassava in snall scale p1antings, a net return of '1,662 or US$ 227.00  Net Return before interest andl/Rate per man-day ia PI5.00. Rate par man-anima1 day i9 .30.00.   20 and 21. Again, these are impressive yields conaidering that the only inputs involved were minimal land preparation and p1anting of improved/selected sweet potato cuttings.In caasava the emphasis is to select varieties which could be adapted to regiona of acid, infertile soils since there are more than 300 million hectares in the Latin American tropics and Asia with theae characteristics. On the CIAr farm where the soil is fertile, several hybrid selectiona gaVe root dry-weight yields of 15 tons/ha/yr or more, outyielding a local cultivar by 100 percent. !hia is without eny application of fertilizer. fungicide. insectieide or irrigation (Table 22). On the soil of the Llanos Orientales of Colombia. which is so acid (pH 4.3). so higb in aluminum (exch. Al 3.5 me/lOO S, 85% saturation) and 110 low in phosphorua (1-2 ppm Bray 11) that the majority of food CtOPS can be grown only with a heavy application of lime snd phosphorus. severa! hybrid selections gave root dry weigbt yields of 10 tons/ha/yr witb a moderate application of lime and phosphorua, outyie1ding a local cultivar by 50 percent. On the southern coast of Colombia, which is one of the cassava producing centers of that country, several hybrid se1ections yie1ded more than 12   22). This is indeed way above eurrent yislds at the farm level of only 3 to 5 tons/ha/yr in root dry weight. • . .' ...' '\".. . ...  Hsrvest index is an indicatar of the balance between leaf and stem growth aud root growth. !bere exists an enarmaus genetic variatian in this character and it is highly heritable (Kawano. 1977). Thus hsrvest index is s highly effective chsrscter for use as sn indicator for the selection of cross parents. seedling selections and singlerow-trisls. At CIAr materiaIs which have a harvest index lower thau 0.60 sud 0.55 in seedling snd single-row triala, respectively sre already eliminated.The production of any crop dependa ou the total dry matter production and the proportion of that dry matter deposited in the useful parts of the planto An efficient plant is one that has a correct balance betweeu the source of production -the leaves. and the product sought -in the case of cassava. the roots. Crop growth rate (CGR) in mast crops increases as leaf area index (LA!) increases up to a certain level, aboye this level OGR may stay constant or decline. In the case of caasava, atudies at CIAT by the cassava physiologist have shown that CGR increased with LA! -2 -1 to about 110 g m wk at LAl 4; aboye this level it declinad repidly (Figure 15). Root growth rate showed a marked decline from 45 g m-2 wk-l at a LA! of 3 to 3.5 to -2 -1 less than 20 ~ m wk at a LAI of 4.2 (Figure 16). These data confirm the hypothesis that the optímum LAl for root growth in cassava i6 3 to 3.5 during the bulking periodo The identification of an optimum leaf area index for root yield (CIAT, 1975) maybe the mast significant contribution of cassava production physiology to tha breeders' work up to the presento The optímum LAI found that exists between 3 to 3.5 stays phenotypically constant over a wide range of temperature variation, a1though''the genotype which attains the optímum LAl may be different under different temperatures (ClAT. 1976;Kawano. 1977). This ímportant pieca of work 1eads to a conclusion that to obtain the highest yield, a cassava population must reach the optímum LA! as soon as possib1e and maintain it as near as possible until harvest time. Analysis of the components of leaf area suggests that long leaf life and late branching are the mest important ameng othars (CIAT, 1975;1976). C8ssava like Dost root eropa is propagated vegetatively.Vegetative propagation ia a mueh slower rate of multiplying elite varieties \"for commercial production. A mature caasava p1ant will give about 10 to 30 normal sized (25 cm) stakes after one year; thus tns propagation rate is only 10 to 30 times per year. Ibis rats of propagation is not sufficisnt1y rapid to givs largs short-tsrm incraasss in planting material from new varietiss or to supp1y disease-free stock for eommereia1 p1anting. A simple rapid propagation method that requires minimum facilities to functioll. has been developed and is now being perfected. The technique lies in indueing stake sprouting, re-growth of new shoots from ths cut base of the first sboot, and sboot rooting. Ibis method can provida approximately 36,000 cuttings per year frem on1y one mature planto This method is il1ustrated in the following picture slides.Ibe potentislities of roct erops as a major sourcs of food, feed and industrisl products is well documented. Ibe industry can contribute significantly to tne economy of developing eountries in the region. Ibese crops are no longer ;;strangers\" to the Asian farmer nor are they exaeting in their soil sud elimatic requirements.In spite of this, the industry ia in such a stagnant state.lt is beaet with many probl~ hampering the exploitation of its vest potentials. Some of the problems and possible solutiona can be summed up as fo lows: Examples of this would be the widespread use of high yielding, disease-resistant and adapted varieties. In view of the resourcea available to the government for massive aid schemea, the small farmar ia most likely to opt for a technology whieh would not require big capital.B. Improve roor crop economic situation. Credit programa for growera especially where improvement in production, processing snd storage is being undertaken, should be established and supported.Floor and ceiling prices and even typhoon insurance or (similar weather adversities) should be considered.C. Expand substantially exrension serviees to increase coverage of small-scale produeers of root erops. Extension effort should be inregrared up ro the lowest management unit rhrough the establishment oí technical centera to hasteo the spread of applicable technologies.D. Support research 00 utilization of root and tuber crops.Increase utilization of root crops and its products should open up new market horizons.E. Inatitute within the region a coordinated problem-oriented research program: variety testing. agronomic practices. crop protection. water management snd economic studies. Also. at both the national and regional level, studias on consumptioo patterns, utilizstion and demands for root and tuber crops should be undertaken.F. Specifically for research, the following atudies are recommended for conaideration: l. Since the demand for root crops specifically cassava ia a demand for csrbohydrstes, breeding and selection which improves starch yield per tuber, per unit land snd per unit time should be given higher priority than breeding for a high protein contento 2. The great part of root crop cultivation is presently sud presumably will continue to be amall scaIe.Therefore three aresa of coneern are suggested:(a) varieties that will grow under small-scale. Its range bas since been extended so that the epacies is well known thraughout both temperate zones and the tropics. In 1974, the road and Agricultural Organization estimated that approximately 84 percent of the world's production waa en the Chinese mainland.$veee potato ie nermally a trailing vine, although climbing forma similar to typical morning-glories are known. lt is a pereunia! crop, however, the succulent nature of its roots restricta sweet patato cultivation to relstively ahort growing seasons of three to six mooths. Unlike many root sud tuber erops.sweet patato begins to store starch at a very esrly stage maIdng early harveets possible. Sweet potato ie one of the mast efficient plants at converting the eun's energy into food.Sweet potato ia generally cultivated for the starch in its enLsrged roots. However, the leaves and stem tipe af its vines are frequently eaten as a highly Dutritious and tasty green, leafy  sweet cassavas occur in the western side of South America. Central America --Mexíco. while bit ter clones are planted mainly in the eastera side of South America and the Antilles, with an overlapping area in between (Renvoize, 1972). Casaava as ear1y as tbe sccond and third mil1enia BC (Jennings. 1976), was \\llOre intensive1y used in South America than in Middle Amerlca. In the formar area, the artefacts for the preparation of sauces, are &ypical of South Americe. Archeological informatían, such as representationa in ceramics and early historical information.gives additional support to a more intensive use in South America.Al1 this may point to a South American domestication sud the fect that its spresd towards the north was restricted to the aweet varieties.Cassava was introduced early to Africa by the Portuguese.Tbe first published report by Barre and Thevet is detad 1558 (Hauny, 1953). Further spread inside Afriea was determinad by its adoption first as a vegetable and latar as a flour souree in the Kingdom of Congo, which was an advanced state that influenced the rast of tropical Africa. The spread apparently was rather slow, but waa favored by the resistance of eassava to locusts (Jones, 1959).ca&sava was introduced to India and Southeaat Asia late in the nineteenth century.The yame were probab1y domesticated in the Southeast Asia Moreover, a market for root crops can be found in both local and international sectors. Ibe current principal world market for root crops particularly cassava flour ia the European co~ market. The principal starch markets are USA snd Canada.In the country. root crops are a major substitute or supplementary energy food especially among tbe lower income segment of the population. However. the root crope industry ie baset by a number of problema. 2.3. Maln emphasis on the improvement of wheat and maize. Research on various aspects on the improvement ol these crops. Training of persennel of the national institutes. Assistance to natienal gevernments with expertisa and plant matarials threugh international nursaries of these cropil. Developmont ef farming system fer the humid tropica of Africa. Te develep rice and maize varieties through ce-eperatien with IRRI and CIMMYT -major responslbility in the improvemant of grain, legumea and roet and tuber crops. Conduct co-operativa programme in a numbar of countries in Afrioa. Tral.ning programme for the workers of the national illstitutes.Development of agriculture. Majar responsibility far the ill\\Provement of cassays and field beans en the international acue. For rice and maize, it has changed to local basia with backstopping from IRRI and CIMMYT. Othar objectives concarn small fillrm system, training and COlIIIlI\\ud.cation. To ~rove the genetic potentia1 for grain yield and the nutritional quality of the crops, develop farming systems whiOO will help te increase and stabilize production in dry oonditions and assist national and regional research programmes through training prcgrammes and extension activities To improve the crop and maintain wcrld oollectian, conduct training programme fer staff and carry out cc-operative trials in the various regions of the world.To conduct basic and applied research, test the results in the field, conduct formal and on-thejob training of scientists etc. and aseist other N inetitutes.To effect ~rovement in livesteck production and train scientists in the field.To strengthen research in the Near East and North Africa in conditions of winter rainfall followed by het arid summers.Source. Consultat1ve Group on International Aqricultural Research, Internationa1 Research in Agricu;'ture, 1974.","tokenCount":"3768"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"af357c9d0b4298a81065a5a6845febe8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b1b4deb5-9d14-43ca-9eff-90ac826c467c/retrieve","id":"1975107801"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c52988ca-7042-41d1-9ac1-71748106f2ce","pagecount":"12","content":"▪ Proliferation of (different) estimates from multiples sources -e.g., flagship reports, official government documents-on the population directly employed and dependent upon agriculture ▪ Statistically reliable figures are not yet based on comparable cross-country data ->Egypt case (24M here vs/ 5.5M workers in ag.)▪ Given the importance of the agricultural sector for poverty reduction, especially in developing countries, consistent cross-country estimates are key ▪ Agricultural employment mostly seasonal, strongly affected by climate▪ Agricultural employment mostly seasonal and strongly affected by climate. Plus, official employment estimates are highly variable.1. Can we rigorously classify individual and household participation in agriculture and consistently estimate sex-specific employment and dependency on agriculture?2. What about using a definition of participation in agriculture based on time intensity? (1-hour vs/ 10-or 20-hours/week)3. What are the socio-demographic characteristics that hamper women's participation in the labor market?  • In agriculture, low difference in labor participation between men and women for no dependents!• For high number of dependents, women switch to non-agriculture (less strenuous)• Gendered differences persist regardless of the employment classification• While in agriculture hours worked are positively correlated with the number of dependents for both women and men• …in non-agriculture women might \"afford\" to decrease their effort, while men's effort remains constant ▪ Women's participation in the labour market more concentrated in agricultural employment (53%) than in non-agricultural employment (47%), with the opposite occurring if we exclude the underemployed ▪ Women more disadvantaged than men in the labour market, given their overall participation is 15 percentage points lower compared to men ▪ Women's work intensity is about 5 hours/week lower than for men, with lower difference in agr. and among not underemployed workers▪ Women labor participation decreases with the number dependents, especially up to 4▪ In agriculture overall, both men and women raise their work intensity as the number of dependents increases ▪ However, among not-underemployed female agricultural workers, negative relationship between labour intensity and number of dependents ▪ Strong negative relationship between non-agricultural labour intensity among female and number of dependents","tokenCount":"332"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d6e868d2c228a7238d96f5f5ed732fbd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bd1b904e-271c-4e50-ad35-555321bc02f5/retrieve","id":"1846561797"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"642c97ad-48c7-47ab-8ac7-0f08eaa2dc60","pagecount":"24","content":"Uganda is Africa's second largest coffee producer. Its 1.7 million smallholder coffee households represent 10% of global coffee farms. The annual production of 3-4million bags coffee accounts for 18% of the country's annual exports.About 77% of annual production is Robusta coffee produced in Central Uganda. Arabica is produced on the borders with Rwanda and Kenya. Most production is on small plots (0.25ha) that are intercropped with banana and other food crops.The climate-smart agriculture (CSA) concept reflects an ambition to improve the integration of agriculture development and climate responsiveness. It aims to achieve food security and broader development goals under a changing climate and increasing food demand. CSA initiatives sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce/remove greenhouse gases (GHGs). While the concept is new, and still evolving, many of the practices that make up CSA already exist worldwide and are used by farmers to cope with various production risks. Mainstreaming Climate Smart Coffee (CSC) requires critical stocktaking of the sector fundamentals, already evident and projected climatic developments relevant to coffee production and promising practices for the future, and of institutional and financial enablers for CSC adoption. This CSC profile provides a snapshot of a developing baseline created to initiate discussion, both within countries and globally, about entry points for investing in CSC at scale.Coffee production areas in Uganda have become drier and hotter over the past three decades. Annual temperatures have risen across the country, potential evapotranspiration increased, and the distribution of precipitation has become more variable.Global climate models project annual mean temperature to increase by 1.7°C-1.8°C until mid-century. In line with the current trend, the increase is projected to be higher in the South-West, than in the East of Uganda. Projected increases in total annual precipitation are substantial and range from +6.8 % (South West) to +11.5% (South-East) averaged over all projections.The contradiction that East Africa recently experienced a series of devastating droughts, whereas the majority of climate models predict increasing rainfall for the coming decades has been termed the East African climate paradox. Whether or not the future climate in the region will indeed become wetter or not should be considered an open question.To support effective adaptation, we developed a gradient of climate change impacts for coffee production. The gradient is a coffee specific evaluation of the projected climatic changes described above. The impact gradient shows that, although most of Ugandan coffee production can be sustained, the majority of the suitable area is in need of substantial adaptation efforts.Local production systems are maladapted to future conditions and without adaptation, coffee in Uganda would likely become uneconomical with climate change in most regions. However, globally coffee production systems have been adapted to a wider range of climate conditions than currently observed in the country, suggesting that with global technology transfer, especially of germplasm, Uganda may remain suitable for coffee production.Because of the high climate uncertainty for Uganda, we recommend a site-specific stepwise CSC pathway for adaptation. Local experts developed a sequence of farm level practices, in which each step requires additional effort. This aims to make the adoption of these practices feasible for resource-constrained smallholders.To be successful, planning and implementation of interventions for climate-smart practices in Uganda need to consider the system in which coffee producers make their decisions. Informal land tenure, gender relationships, and poor market access are disincentives for CSC adoption. Enabling interventions facilitate and support the adoption of climate-smart technologies and practices by providing services and financing to farmers.Active efforts to scale out climate-smart practices are a priority to secure long-term sustainability of the coffee sector. Because coffee production is an investment of several decades and many CSA practices have a long leadtime, adaptive action needs to be taken immediately with forward-looking thinking. A multi-stakeholder approach will be required as no single technology or scaling pathway may account for the diversity of decision environments of the actors involved.The effective design of such interventions requires an understanding of the climatic changes that are observable in historical weather data, currently perceived by farmers and projected by global climate models. This brief therefore discusses these data for Uganda and the potential pathways to mainstream climate-smart interventions in the country.Incremental adaptation where climate is most likely to remain suitable and adaption will be achieved by a change of practices and ideally improved strategies and enablers  Systemic adaptation where climate is most likely to remain suitable but with substantial stress, adaptation will be achieved through a comprehensive change of practices, but also requires a change of strategy and adequate enablers  Transformational adaptation where climate is likely to make coffee production unfeasible, this will require a focus on a change of strategy and adequate enablers as practices alone may be uneconomicalEconomic relevance of coffee At 3.5 million 60kg bags, Uganda is the 10 th largest coffee producer in the world and the second largest in East Africa. Coffee production in East Africa has declined or stagnated for more than 40 years, while other regions significantly increased output. The notable exception is Ethiopia, which doubled its output in less than two decades, whereas Uganda saw slower growth. In the late '90s productivity was significantly higher for about a decade, but this has reverted back to the levels of the 1980s. Increases in production (~ 1.5%/year) during the last two decades come from an expansion of area [1]. For the last two seasons a substantial increase in production to 4.5million bags was reported [2].Coffee is Uganda's highest value export, a position it has held for decades but which was recently challenged by gold exports [3]. The share of coffee of total foreign exchange earnings is between 15-18% annually. Annually, Uganda exports 95% of the total coffee production for earnings between 350-400 million USD. Traditionally, the European Union is the largest importer of Ugandan coffee, followed by Sudan. Export volumes have remained constant, but the share of EU imports of Ugandan coffee has declined from 75% to 60% in recent years as the importance of less traditional importers, such as Tunisia and India, has increased.Coffee production accounts for about 5% of rural gross domestic product (GDP) and contributes 1.2% to the national GDP. Coffee processing accounts for another 0.8% of GDP. These shares have been roughly constant over the last decade despite the growth of the industrial sector because of the constant increase in coffee output.The importance of the coffee sector as a key driver of rural economic activity and income source cannot be understated. Every tenth coffee farm globally is located in Uganda. Between 1.2 and 1.7 million families in Uganda produce coffee: this is every 4th rural household, or every 5th household nationwide and in Uganda approximately every 4th or 6th person lives in a coffee family. In addition, coffee provides a livelihood for an unknown number of workers and traders.Uganda has the third highest deforestation rate worldwide [4] and the conversion to agricultural land has been a major driver of this development.Since 1990 about 55% of natural forests have been eliminated and converted to other land uses. Forests used to cover 20% of the country in 1990, agricultural expansion to 40% of the land, among other factors, has led to forests covering just 9% in 2015 [5]. Although the role of coffee in the transformation of the Ugandan landscape is hard to quantify, it is reasonable to argue that coffee plays an integral part of the rural landscape. In fact, the area cultivated with coffee expanded by 50% since 1990, and a fifth of agricultural households produce coffee on about 5% of total agricultural land. Because of the widespread loss of tree cover, coffee agroforestry could play a positive role for sustainable land use, especially if area expansion can be limited to land previously used for field crops or livestock.Uganda produces both Robusta (~77%) and Arabica (~23%) coffee. Coffee is produced on small plots, often intercropped with banana (Matoke) or other food crops, but shaded or full-sun monoculture is not uncommon. Estimates about the prevalence of different agroforestry systems at country scale do not exist. Shade composition is usually of low species richness because of the overexploitation of agroforests by farmers in lieu of access to natural forest [6,7]. Few farmers engage in replanting and, instead rely on natural regeneration, yet the promotion of shade trees for ecosystem services is recommended [6].From 2007/08 until 2015/16 the share of certified coffee of total exports was 1.2% of the Robustas and 5% of the Arabicas. At export, only UTZ certified or Certified Organic is reported. Quantities of other certifications such as Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance are either not stated or not exported [2].Some sources claim that up to 20% of coffee in Uganda is certified but not sold as such [8].Uganda employs an elaborate quality grading system [9]. Certificates for the various grades are issued by the UCDA. Coffees are differentiated by species, process, bean size and other quality attributed plus certification and origin. As a result, UCDA statistics report 15 Robusta grades and 35 Arabica grades. However, the most important grades, in terms of export volume, are screen size grades 12, 15 and 18 for Robusta, and for Arabica it is Natural Arabica (\"Drugar\" -Dry Ugandan Arabica) [2].Coffee in Uganda is produced on diversified farms, alongside multiple other crops, on extremely small plots with very low input use. The average coffee plot size is 0.23ha. 90% of farmers own plots of less than 0.5ha, representing 60% of the total area. The largest 10% of producers occupy 40% of the coffee area in plots of approximately 1.0 ha. Only 25% of households used hired labor [10].Most farmers are highly diversified and cultivate three or more crops on their farmland. Some difference exists between extreme smallholders and the top 10% of coffee households. The lowest strata produce more crops on less land than the group with more coffee area.Input use is very low in Uganda. Across all households, only 3.5% of coffee households use inorganic fertilizers, and 9% apply pesticides. Household size has a significant impact on these numbers with the largest 10% of households being three times as likely to use inputs: 18% use pesticides versus only 5% of the lower 90% (5% vs. 1.5% for fertilizer use) [10].Inputs are paid almost entirely in cash (98%) immediately at purchase (92%) and only 8% on credit. This is despite the observation that 23% of households report that they would have access to credit or are members of credits and savings unions. Village savings and loan associations have been used by 27% of farmers [11].For ~70% of coffee households farming is the main source of income. For about 5%, remittances are the main source of income and a minor source for 25%. Thirty percent of households at times don't have enough cash for food but just 14% report that their income is below the living minimum. Average per capita daily income was estimated to be 0.85USD which is about half of the international poverty line. Despite the fact, that very few coffee households have a per capita income above the poverty line, they still have a 10% higher income than non-coffee rural households in Uganda.Coffee production is vulnerable to progressive climate change but at the same time contributes by emitting greenhouse gasses. Emissions can be assessed using tools such as the Cool Farm Tool [12].The most important aspects of the climate impact of coffee production are the standing carbon stocks in the production systems and the product carbon footprint, which measures the GHG emissions per unit weight of coffee produced. The data presented here spans across the main Robusta producing systems in Uganda comparing low shade and high shade density systems. For Arabica systems no data was available.High Shaded Robusta Systems have a higher carbon stock on average (43 Mg ha -1 ). This is composed of carbon stock of the shade trees (75%), coffee trees (18%) and banana and plantain shrubs (8%). The carbon stock of Low Shaded Systems is 46% lower (23.4 Mg ha -1 ), although shade trees still make up the majority of the carbon stock (70%), the contribution of coffee trees (26%) is higher and that of banana and plantain trees (4%) is lower. These differences are due to higher planting densities of shade trees and banana stems in High Shaded Robusta systems compared to those in Low Shaded System (being 117 and 1827, respectively versus 79 and 468, respectively). Across Robusta systems, Mangifera indica (mango), Albizia coriaria, Artocarpus heterophyllus (jackfruit), and Ficus natalensis are the four most common species in terms of tree count abundance and carbon stocks (account for more 75% -82% of total carbon stock).Uganda Robusta coffee systems are low input systems compared to for example Vietnamese Robusta coffee systems. In the former systems, inorganic and organic fertilizer use is less than 10 kg ha -1 and around 160 kg ha -1 , respectively. Therefore, the product carbon footprint is low (0.72 kg CO2-e kg -1 green bean), about five times lower compared to that of the latter systems. The main sources of GHG emissions stem from soils (92%), followed by emissions from crop residues (7%). Inorganic fertilizer accounts of 1% of the emissions and organic fertilizer and transport both less than 1%.Coffee production in Uganda is extremely fragmented, organizational levels and input use are low and households are extremely poor [9]. Access to training, information, and quality inputs is difficult.Value chains don't incentivize sustainable practices and landscapes are degraded. Institutional capacity to respond to challenges is low and regulations are often not enforced despite the political importance of coffee [13].Land tenure and land use changes are a threat to the stability of production. 80% of agricultural land is under customary tenure that is undocumented [14].In this potentially insecure situation, producers often don't have incentives for sustainable land management. The fast-growing population aggravates the situation as in traditional inheritance rules, the land is fragmented into ever-smaller plots [13].Weak property rights and land tenure have facilitated the rise in land-grabbing [15]. Growing cities, oil and gold production, and expansion of estate crops can result in land use change in which smallholder coffee producers are at risk of being driven off their land without legal means or ways to benefit from increasing land prices.Women are discriminated against in having access to and inheriting land [15]. Such gender gaps are likely to contribute to inefficient and unsustainable household farming. Perceptions of risks and adaptation strategies differ across gender. All of the key elements of adoption of CSA practices have a gender dimension in Uganda: decision-making power, technical capacity, and access to information and physical and financial resources.Women in Uganda are more likely to be illiterate than men, leave school earlier [16], receive a lower share of the coffee income and have less decision making power [17], while often carrying an equal or larger share of the labor and management burden [18].The coffee value chain connects the 1.7mio farmers that each produce a few bags with about 45exporting companies [2]. Following market liberalization, many cooperatives went defunct due to corruption and uncertain and delayed payments to farmers. Instead, numerous intermediaries entered the market and in recent decades farmer groups evolved as a means for collective input purchases, processing, and marketing. Farmer groups are registered entities with a diverse organizational structure and purpose. The high competition of intermediaries results in a high price transmission to farmers and timely payments at sale [19].Intermediaries often originate from within the community and farmers often sell them cherries before harvest because of immediate cash needs, foregoing farmer groups [20]. The latter may negotiate better prices, receive premiums or add value through processing and transport activities, but payments may be delayed.The diversity of stakeholders of the value chain often does not provide incentives for sustainable practices.Intermediaries and farmer groups bulk coffee from several producers so that higher quality or sustainable practices do not receive premiums. The ability of farmer groups to improve commercialization depends largely on their composition, i.e. common interests of their members [20]. Nevertheless, farmer groups positively contribute to their member's capacities, risk reduction and access to finance [21]. Last, because Uganda is landlocked, coffee has to be exported over 1200km of road to Mombasa, Kenya.The cost and time of this limits Uganda's potential to export non-commodity grade coffee or roasted/instant coffee [19]. CWD is a fungal disease that blocks the vascular system of the plant, causing the plant to wilt and eventually die [22]. The disease was first detected in Uganda in 1993; by the end of 2000 it had spread to all Robusta zones of the country. Ugandan Robusta production reached a peak in 1996 and then fell steadily up to 2005, when it attained only 42% of peak production. It is very likely that most or all of the fall in Robusta was due to CWD.BCTB is a beetle that has been of serious concern since a 2007 outbreak. A 2012 survey reported that it had affected some 70% of coffee holdings, causing losses of about 8.5% of national Robusta production [23]. The phytosanitary control requires large investments in labor. Chemical control is ineffective because BCTB remains concealed inside coffee twigs. Some authors are discussing the possibility that global warming may decrease BCTB prevalence, although precipitation variability might also increase prevalence [24].WCSB is a beetle that ring barks the plants, affecting the vascular transport system so that heavily-affected young trees may die. Because the pest develops inside the trunk, it is difficult to control, and few economically-effective chemicals are available. Up to 80% of coffee farms in eastern and southern Africa were infested and suffered crop damage [25].CBD is a fungal disease infecting Arabica flowers, fruits, leaves, and even maturing bark. The economic impact results from a massive drop of infected green berries. Yield losses up to 80% have been reported [26].CLR has caused tremendous damage to the Arabica coffee sector of the Americas over the past few years. In Uganda, the impact of CLR became apparent in the 1940s when areas of land typically producing Arabica, had to be replaced with Robusta [25]. Recently, this disease is of increasing concern.Another concern is the coffee berry borer (CBB) which plants its eggs in the berries. The highest incidence occurs at the onset of the wet season and management is mostly manual. The CBB has been shown to benefit from higher temperatures through higher reproduction rates and is increasingly a problem at higher altitudes [27].Climate data matches the perceptions of coffee experts and producers reporting changes in climate and an increase in adverse climatic events such as irregular rainfall, increasing temperature range, drought, extreme rainfall, and high temperatures. These trends are said to be of high or very high impact on coffee production by changing pests, diseases and weeds, soil erosion and landslides, and irregular flowering. Recent drought events were perceived as extreme and estimated to have caused yield losses of 50%. In Uganda, droughts are discussed to have caused deterioration of bean quality. In this section, we will first describe climatic changes that we could find in observed climate data from 1980 until 2017. Next, we will report changes that were projected by global climate models in a climate change scenario of intermediate severity.Coffee production areas in Uganda have become drier and hotter over the past three decades. Annual temperatures have risen across the country, potential evapotranspiration increased, and the distribution of precipitation has become more variable. The extent of these developments varied across the country. For some variables, we could not identify significant developments, e.g. total annual precipitation remained unchanged in all of Uganda. However, higher temperatures and reduced cloud cover will increase the water needs of the coffee crop, in which case water stress may rise despite unchanged water availability [30].We carried out correlation analysis which indicated a statistically significant negative relationship between the proportion of Screen size 12 of total Robusta's and dry season precipitation between '01/02 and '16/17. In addition, observed climate at Robusta locations shows a trend to reduced rainfalls during the driest quarter of the year. Such developments should be concerning to stakeholders despite the uncertainty of this analysis owed to the short time series and the high variability of data.Global climate models projected the annual mean temperature to increase by 1.7°C-1.8°C until mid-century. In line with the current trend, the increase was projected to be higher in the South-West, than in the East of Uganda. Projected increases in total annual precipitation were substantial and range from +6.8 % (South West) to +11.5% (South-East) averaged over all projections. The climate diagram that combines the current distribution of precipitation and temperature shows that there is an unambiguous trend to higher temperatures at both Arabica and Robusta locations. The seasonal distribution of rainfall will likely remain similar to today. The most likely precipitation during the dry season may be somewhat higher than currently.This spatial pattern is contrary to already observed significant changes over the past decades. The contradiction that East Africa recently experienced a series of devastating droughts, whereas the majority of climate models predict increasing rainfall for the coming decades has been termed the East African climate paradox [28]. The reasons for this phenomenon are not well explored but are likely rooted in the complexity of the earth climate system with trans-continental couplings of climate variability. Whether or not the future climate in the region will indeed become wetter or not should, therefore, be considered an open question [29]. However, studies that reviewed model projections and observed trends show that global climate models have been consistently projecting a tendency to higher rainfall variability due to higher peak rainfall [30]. Despite the uncertainty of projections, stakeholders should prepare for more extreme rainfall and drought cycles. Such phenomena are especially of concern in Arabica regions where rainfall extremes can trigger landslides on steep slopes [31].The definition of \"significance\" of a climate trend by coffee practitioners is usually different from the scientific definition. A local coffee expert may claim that a trend was significant if in recent seasons weather events deviated from customary expectations, and this had an impact on crop management and yields. The scientific method was invented to test such hypotheses using systematic observation and measurement because human perception may be flawed by a few recent events that do not amount to a trend that will continue into the future, or the causality may be biased by our limited senses. However, given the urgency of climate action, scientific significance has limitations itself: a trend in climate data may be statistically significant, but meaningless to the practitioner; limited data may sometimes not allow the rigorous testing of statistical significance, especially of rare but impactful \"once in a century\" events. To make things complicated, start and endpoint of trend analysis may affect the detection of trends, or they may sometimes be a function of natural variability over multiple years. It is thus not good practice to assume they will continue into the future without strong evidence to support this. Last, not all local trends were caused by global warming, but are the result of deforestation, urbanization or similar localized developments.We first calculated bioclimatic indicator variables for the years 1980-2016 and then used the Theil-Sen estimator to fit a trend to the data. This method fits a line by choosing the median of the slopes of all lines through pairs of points. The Theil-Sen estimator is more accurate than least squares regression for heteroscedastic data and insensitive to outliers. We considered a trend significant if the 95% confidence interval did not include zero. We used Terraclimate [32] interpolated monthly climate data for temperature, precipitation and potential evapotranspiration. We defined the cropping year to start with the three months that are the driest of the year on the multi-decadal average and the following 9 months. For each cropping year, we derived 31 bioclimatic variables that describe annual and seasonal patterns. For each 0.05° grid cell of Uganda we evaluated the significance of the trend and estimated the slope. We picked bioclimatic variables with trends in coffee regions that could potentially have a biophysical impact. Finally, in regions with significant changes we picked a representative coffee location to determine the absolute change, p-value and slope.Months with less than 50mm precipitation are generally considered a dry month for coffee. In Uganda this threshold coincides with the driest month of the year. The driest quarter begins in December for most coffee regions in Uganda, although in the Southwest driest quarter begins in June. Coffee harvest can be expected towards the end of the wet months and the highest green coffee availability may be expected during the driest quarter.Evapotranspiration is the combined process of evaporation from the Earth's surface and transpiration from vegetation. Potential evapotranspiration (PET) is the amount that would occur if sufficient water were available. It is estimated using average, minimum and maximum air temperature and solar radiation in the Hargreaves method [33]. The cumulative water deficit at the end of the dry season is the cumulative excess PET over precipitation.To support effective adaptation, we developed a gradient of climate change impacts for coffee production. The gradient is a coffee specific evaluation of the projected climatic changes described above. Otherwise identical climatic changes may result in severe or irrelevant impacts depending on the historic climate conditions. For example, a reduction of 50mm precipitation may be critical to the coffee crop at locations with low water availability but would be irrelevant where rainfalls are abundant throughout the year. The gradient shows the most likely degree of necessary adaptation effort across several potential future climate pathways.The impact gradient shows that most of Ugandan coffee production can be sustained with adequate effort. Currently, about half the area in the country has suitable climate conditions for coffee production but most of the suitable area is in need of substantial adaptation efforts. Of the current Robusta area, 60% will require Three degrees of impacts and necessary adaptation effort in Ugandan coffee production  Incremental adaptation where climate is most likely to remain suitable and adaption will be achieved by a change of practices and ideally improved strategies and enablers, such as incentivizing greater shading or improved soil management. Altered pest and disease patterns, uncertain rainfall, drought and heat may affect the crop, but coffee production will remain feasible.  Systemic adaptation where climate is most likely to remain suitable but with substantial stress to current production systems and adaptation will require a comprehensive change of and system redesign, along with external support for implementing changes. In Arabica areas a switch to Robusta may be commendable, in Robusta areas better adapted varieties, diversification and financial mechanisms will be needed to reduce risks.  Transformational adaptation where climate is most likely to make Ugandan Robusta production unfeasible, and adaptation will require a redesign of production system by using varieties from other regions, or transformation to new crops. External enablers, for example agricultural extension agents and agricultural organizations, will be critical to supporting the change because the required changes are unfeasible for individual actors.transformational adaptation, 30% systemic change, and only 1% will remain suitable using current production practices. For Arabica, impacts follow an altitudinal gradient. Areas below 1200masl will require a system change, for example to Robusta or other crops. In the future, most Arabica area will be at 1800m and above. Previously unsuitable areas above 2500m will see improved conditions.Projected impacts on coffee production in Uganda differ when considering a Ugandan or a global perspective with important implications for adaptation interventions. Local production systems are maladapted to future conditions and without adaptation, in Uganda would likely become uneconomical with climate change in most regions. However, globally, coffee production systems have been adapted to a wider range of climate conditions than currently observed in the country, suggesting that with global technology transfer, especially of germplasm, Uganda may remain suitable for coffee production. This is especially the case for Robusta production that in Uganda in the past was adapted to cool conditions when compared to other regions. Elsewhere, for example in West Africa, Robusta is produced under hotter and drier conditions with some success, suggesting that with better adapted varieties, potentially introduced from drier locations, and practices Robusta may be adaptable to the future.A climate projection is the simulated response of the climate system to a scenario of future emission or concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs), generally derived using global climate models. A global climate model (GCM) is a representation of the climate system based on the physical, chemical and biological properties of its components, their interactions and feedback processes. Climate projections depend on the emissions scenario used, which is in turn based on assumptions concerning future socio-economic and technological developments.GCM outputs have a coarse resolution of 100 or 200km, which is not practical for assessing agricultural landscapes. We therefore use downscaled climate projections. For each GCM anomalies are calculated as the delta between modeled baseline climate and future prediction. These anomalies are interpolated and added to the baseline climate data. Key assumptions of this approach are that changes in climate only vary over large distances and the relationship between variables in the baseline are maintained into the future.To determine zones of different degree of climate impact we modeled changes in bioclimatic suitability for coffee under present and 2050s climate conditions using a machine learning classification model. First, a database of locations where coffee is currently cultivated was assembled. Second, monthly climatological means of the 1950-2000 period, interpolated onto a 0.5 arcminute grid, were downloaded from the WordClim database [34] representing our current baseline climate. They were used to calculate 19 bioclimatic variables commonly used in modeling of crop suitability [35]. Third, applying Random Forests in unsupervised variation to biologically meaningful bioclimatic variables, different clusters of coffee suitability were detected within the occurrence data. These clusters can be interpreted as different climate zones all of which allow for coffee cultivation, yet under different climate conditions. Fourth, using all bioclimatic variables Random Forest classifiers were trained to distinguish between suitable areas (falling into one of the suitable climatic zones) and unsuitable areas for coffee. The classifiers were applied to climate data from for 19 climate scenarios of the 2050s from different climate models. This resulted in 19 distinct suitability maps for the 2050s.Our modeling approach is a comparison of the distribution of climate zones in which coffee is currently produced and their distribution under future climate scenarios. This means that we considered the adaptive range currently available in Central America, but not a possible expansion of this range by novel technologies or technology transfer from other countries. Adoption of adaptive agricultural practices (e.g. novel varieties, irrigation, or shading) that expand the climatic range under which coffee may be produced profitably may result in alternative developments of the distribution of coffee in the future.As with any outlook, our model has a considerable degree of uncertainty and should be considered as a projection, not a prediction. Uncertainty in our model also comes from emissions scenarios, climate models and the crop model. Emissions scenarios uncertainty were discussed above, and of course, reducing emissions globally is the most promising adaptation option. We used 19 global climate models as equally valid projections of future climate. These models show a high level of agreement on an increase of temperature, but disagreement about the regional and seasonal distribution of precipitation. The resulting consensus model of the independent projections is therefore to a large degree influenced by the temperature increase while disagreement from precipitation is masked. Nevertheless, an increase in temperature implies increased water needs of agriculture. Last, our model is an \"all other things equal\" model that only considered a change of climate. Our statistical approach is designed to avoid overfitting and deliberately also includes marginal locations for coffee. This should be considered \"friendly\" uncertainty because it means through guided adaptation the worst impacts will be avoidable.To make the coffee sector in Uganda climate resilient with effective interventions at farm level, it is essential to carefully consider the individual resources and livelihood characteristics of farmers. Interventions are constrained by three issues: the extremely dispersed smallholder structure, a low level of adoption of basic management practices and the uncertain climate information. Our suggested solution are site-specific climate-smart investment pathways (CSIPs) that are aligned with the capacity and willingness to act of individual farming households [36]. CSIPs up a sequential and incremental approach to implementing no-regret CSA practices that increase the profitability of household resources in a stepwise approach. A segmentation of farmers based on their assets and entrepreneurial characteristics helps to target farmer groups with relevant sets of practices.The lack of adoption of CSA practices in Uganda has been ascribed to various factors, one of which is the lack of resources farmers have available to implement the broad basket of practices that are recommended in general training. By breaking down the basket into smaller, sequential and incremental steps the CSIP intends to facilitate efficient adoption for farmers.The first step consists of low-cost approaches, and costs increase in the steps that follow. Through building up slowly, the farmer can obtain an incremental increase in yields after each step, with the aim that this yield increase will motivate farmers to re-invest part of the income from the previous harvest in the next step of the CSIP. The pathway shows how farmers can breakdown a recommended extension package for coffee farming to efficiently increase yield.The CSIP requires an understanding of the different needs of the various farmer's types. The farmer segmentation tool is a way to highlight this heterogeneity of farmers. Designing extension processes that cater to these differences will help improve adoption of CSA practices. Farmers are segmented based on structural (resource endowments) and functional (entrepreneurship) indicators. Farmer segmentation is likely to vary between project regions and should be carried out when designing appropriate CSIPs for project interventions.Renovation and rehabilitation (R&R) of poor yielding coffee trees with improved varieties that are tolerant of abiotic stress or resistant to important disease threats is a key tool to maintain a high coffee productivity in a changing climate. In Uganda renovation is usually done by replacing diseased or dead trees with seedlings. To be successful, planning and implementation of interventions for climate-smart practices in Uganda need to consider the system in which coffee producers make their decisions. Informal land tenure, gender relationships, and poor market access are disincentives for CSC adoption.Secure and equitable land ownership rights are necessary conditions for sustainable development.Multiple initiatives are ongoing to foster tenure security through better land demarcation or the delivery of adequate documentation to landowners. Greater use could be made of GPS-data, and of technologies such as drones to reduce the time and costs for data collection in the field [14]. For example, the German GIZ cooperates with Ugandan authorities in their Responsible land policy project [37] to strengthen the legal security of farmers.A change in practices often affects the gender division of labor. The Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS) uses interactive Couple Seminars in which couples jointly develop solutions for imbalances in their joint decision-making and resource allocation. After the seminars, Change Agents receive further support and act to promote the positive outcomes of cooperative decision making within their communities [38]. Their encouragement of participatory decision making has been shown to result in greater investment in sustainable intensification, more balanced control over cash crop income and improved livelihoods [39].The complex value chain in Uganda transmits a relatively high share of the FOB price to farmers, but access to premiums for quality or sustainable practices require functional organizational structures. The HRNS project Uganda Coffee Farmer Alliance (UCFA) [40] builds capacity at multiple levels with the objective of enabling farmers to add value to produce and collectively access services and inputs. Locally, village groups of 20-30 farmers organize joint training and coffee collection. At county level, depot committees represent up to 800 farmers. HRNS increases their organizational capacity to bulk, process and market coffee. The UCFA serves as an apex body to these farmer companies and has a coordinating role, including codes of conduct and service provision [41].Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. Many farmlevel practices have external benefits when implemented at landscape scale. In addition, the restoration of degraded areas or forest patches, or protection of riparian vegetation can improve the resilience of a landscape. Such measures aid to keep moisture in the landscape and can effectively reduce temperature [42].Finally, coffee producers at locations that are severely affected by climate change will need income alternatives. Diversifying production can be a measure to reduce climate shock risk to household income. However, oftentimes field crops don't offer the same income and ecosystem services benefits as coffee. Other tree crops are therefore preferential. The development of alternative or complementary value chains that can replace lost coffee income will require multi-stakeholder approaches that include public and private actors.Enabling interventions facilitate and support the adoption of climate-smart technologies and practices by providing services and finance to farmers.Common finance mechanisms for smallholders in Uganda are Savings and Credit Cooperatives and Mobile money. SACCOs are a primary source of finance although they are not necessarily aimed at agriculture. Average savings are about USD 30, embezzlement and low regulation are issues [43].Mobile money services such as SmartMoney provide low-cost access to transactions and finance to farmers. MM users sell a larger proportion of their coffee as shelled beans to buyers in high-value markets, instead of selling to local traders immediately after harvest and as a result have higher incomes [44]. Mobile Money solutions in Uganda suffer from unclear and changing regulation [14].A smart alignment of management practices with seasonal patterns can avoid losses of input and labor due to untimely weather events. Weather related management alerts combine season-based cropping calendars with weather station data to trigger mobile service messages. Instead of initiating management following the normal seasonal rhythm, the alerts advise practices such as planting or fertilization when the observed weather suggests a suitable crop development state.Index-based weather insurance offers a new promise for reducing climate risks. Payouts are triggered by pre-determined weather events and thus do not require verification of losses. Such index insurance may avoid problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. It also has minimal transaction costs, which helps the insurance market reach poor people. A properly designed index could address the wide variation in yields and quality that is so central to coffee profits. However, index insurance has met with low uptake among intended beneficiaries, particularly small-scale farmers. Weak regulations, weather data quality and a lack of local adaptation and capacity building between insurers, farmers, and regulators are some of the challenges faced by this intervention [45]. An index-based insurance contract targeting at the group level, such as a coffee cooperative, could be a potential solution to the problem of low uptake.A major reduction in deforestation is needed to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss in Uganda. Climate Smart Coffee has to eliminate deforestation from the supply chain. To achieve broader impact zero-deforestation policies companies need to avoid leakage, lack of transparency and traceability, selective adoption and smallholder marginalization. There are ambitions to develop real time deforestation monitoring and early detection warnings for Uganda that can be used by public and private stakeholders to improve the detection of coffee driven deforestation [46].Active efforts to scale out climate-smart practices are a priority to secure the long-term sustainability of the coffee sector. Because coffee production is an investment of several decades and many CSA practices have a long lead-time, adaptive action needs to be taken immediately with forward-looking thinking. A multi-stakeholder approach will be required as no single technology or scaling pathway may account for the diversity of decision environments of the actors involved. Together with organizational development, we suggest complementary scaling pathways for climate smart coffee that respond to business incentives: Voluntary certification, carbon insetting, impact investing, and sustainability branding.Certifiers act both as a verification body of sustainable practices and providers of training. Certifiers' interest in climate adaptation is grounded on the premise that the final consumer is willing to pay a premium for certified products. Currently, only 3% of Ugandan coffee exports are certified by Rainforest Alliance, Organic and Fairtrade International. Certified farmers tend to have longer coffee farming experience, access to inputs and agricultural extension, however, high certification costs and small farm sizes hinder the expansion of certification [47]. By facilitating access to certification to those smallholders that are organic by default, certifiers would be able to provide economic incentives and innovative training to a large segment on farmers.Management practices such as shade use and reforestation have the double benefit of both reducing climate vulnerability and increasing carbon stocks in coffee. In some cases, these synergies can be used to incentivize and subsidize adaptation actions through carbon accounting for mitigation actions. Carbon insetting offers to offset GHG emission in the coffee supply chain or processes.Therefore, roasting and trading companies can offset their GHG footprint by investing in carbon sequestering activities at farmer level that at the same time support the adaptation of farmers to progressive climate change. A study in Nicaragua showed that afforestation of degraded areas with coffee agroforestry systems and boundary tree plantings resulted in the highest synergies between adaptation and mitigation [48]. Financing possibilities for these joint adaptation mitigation activities can arise through carbon offsetting, carbon insetting, and carbon footprint reductions.The interest of companies to invest in CSC depends on their business model and the scale of their operations. Companies that work closely with farmers tend to not separate efforts into climate or sustainability efforts, but rather focus on holistic programs to increase productivity and make coffee farming attractive. Large brands source large quantities and choose to invest in climate change activities out of a volumes-based business case. \"Front-runner\" companies are concerned about supply volumes, but in addition, generate value from brand reputation. Last, the value of smaller brands is often based on social and environmental reputation. Therefore, the latter have a higher capacity to develop solutions in direct contact with their smallholder base than the larger companies. They can, therefore, act as catalysts to innovate CSC approaches that can be mainstreamed by the more risk-averse large brands with their large constituencies to achieve CSC adoption at scale (See case study below for a practical example).Social investment funds seek to maximize positive social and environmental effects of investments by providing finance for rural small businesses for both short-and long-term investments. The main impact investment agencies annually loan about USD 15m to coffee producer organizations in Uganda [49]. Impact investors are more able to act on novel information than governmental organizations but some degree of certainty about the efficacy of practices is required. Working with producer organizations rather than individual farmers may provide efficient incentives for adoption of financeable CSC. However, currently incentive investors are limited in their constituencies.The main national level institution is the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAAIF), including its main directorates and departments. The institutional capacity within MAAIF to do policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation is presently weaker than it was 30 years ago, when agriculture was at the center of hopes for a rebirth of economic growth. While having a central role, MAAIF is neither the main decider on policies, nor is it the sole implementer [14].The National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), now disbanded, was a semiautonomous public agency within the MAAIF, responsible for public agricultural advisory/extension services. It was created in 2001 to improve rural livelihoods by increasing agricultural productivity and profitability [50]. The UPDF (Uganda Peoples Defence Forces) took over NAADS in 2014, although its ongoing operation is unclear.The Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) is a development and regulatory body with the objective to promote and oversee the coffee industry in Uganda [13]. The National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE) [54] is an umbrella for 200 cooperatives and associations. Its activities focus on strengthened organizational and value additional capacity of farmers.The Uganda Coffee Federation (UCF) is a nonprofit company that organizes private sector stakeholders towards a sustainable and reputable coffee business in Uganda. It members include coffee exporters, coffee processors, farmers, input suppliers, traders, and insurance companies [55].Café Africa is a non-profit association founded in 2006. Café Africa supports multi-stakeholder processes including all members of the coffee value chain and to aim for sector change. Its vision is economic prosperity through sustainable coffee production [56].About 20% of coffee farmers are members of the 10000+ Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) in Uganda [11]. These cooperatives are the primary source of finance for smallholders although they are not necessarily aimed at agriculture. Average savings are about USD 30, embezzlement and low regulation are an issue [43].Larger farmers would prefer official bank loans, but these are available only to a small subset of farmers.In the coffee roadmap (see below), a coffee farmers finance program by the Central Bank is called for but at the time of writing, there were no details available about this. Currently, the Agricultural Credit Facility by the Bank of Uganda provides agricultural loans for farmers at an interest rate of 10 percent per annum, with a maximum grace period of three years.The National Coffee Bill of 2018 replaced the Uganda Coffee Development Authority Statute of 1994. The new law is intended to promote coffee research, good farming practices, domestic consumption and value addition. It is meant to streamline and harmonize the roles of coffee institutions and strengthen the role of UCDA. However, some voices claim that its impact on the industry will be limited [57].At the time of writing, a Climate Change Bill was being negotiated to provide for a regulatory framework for implementation of climate change adaptation activities. It would strengthen the Climate Change Department and provide it with a stronger mandate to enable it to coordinate, supervise, regulate, and manage all activities related to climate change [58].Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) was launched in 2013 as an intervention to \"facilitate national socio-economic transformation, with a focus on raising household incomes and wealth creation by transforming subsistence farmers into commercial farmers to end poverty\" [52]. In cooperation with NaCORI and UCDA, OWC distributed 300 million coffee seedlings to households across the country. Approximately 60% of the seedlings died because of improper transportation and untimely delivery during the intervention [59].The Coffee Roadmap 2020 is the result of a directive by the president to accelerate coffee production from the current 3.5-4.5 million 60 kg bags to 20 million bags by 2020. The roadmap aims to quadruple productivity, add 20% area and add 15% higher value to Ugandan coffee by 2025-2030 [60]. The roadmap consists of 9 key initiatives that include improved domestic and international demand, a strengthening of farmer organizations and producer cooperatives, concessions for coffee production on large underutilized land, improvement of planting materials, improved access to quality inputs and development of a coffee finance program with the Central Bank and Treasury.The Prosper Africa initiative by the Council on Smallholder Finance (CSAF) is a multi-stakeholder initiative that will address immediate barriers to finance and generate investments in agricultural small and medium enterprises (SME). The initiative seeks to increase capital for lending, expand demand and strengthen institutions for SME finance. The private sector will get better access to finance solutions for agriculture to invest in their smallholder base [49].Because of the weak capacity of the public sector to provide effective training, the role of the private sector is important. Private sector initiatives have the potential to contribute to effective adaptation and reduced emissions, ideally jointly with supportive public policies. Low adoption rates of climate-smart practices may be a challenge due to the unclear business case. Producers must typically bear most of the costs of shifting towards climate-smart production systems and do not always perceive the benefits. To increase adoption, compliance with sustainability requirements must be economically and technically feasible for producers. Supply-chain initiatives can have unintended social consequences by entrenching positions of powerful actors and excluding smallholders and indigenous groups from market access when standards non-compliance is criminalized. Climate change may further marginalize poorer producers, as farmers with good access to capital and technology are more likely to be able to manage emerging climate risk.Private sector initiatives must continue to engage in climate-smart programs, encourage smallholders to participate and avoid their exclusion. This requires that all value chain actors, not just the producers or processors, share costs and risks.William Bunjjo owns a farm of 4ha in Kyabakadde, part of the district of Mukono in the Central Region of Uganda. About 1.5ha are used for Robusta production, 2ha are used for timber and plantain production, the remainder is used for other food crops. He is 72 years old and lives with 10 of his children. On the farm they produce everything they consume and generate the cash they need to pay school fees. Children that have left the farm support the family with remittances.\"Coffee production was always difficult until about 20 years ago I started to receive technical assistance. That is when things really changed. I used to have many problems but when I received new seedlings I was able to produce more and a higher quality. Since then I started to attend trainings and I learned a lot, I even became a trainer myself and pass on my knowledge to others and I teach my children.We use very simple tools on our farm, I really use my hands and we don't use any machines. About three years after receiving the training I started to implement the practices on my farm. We use mulch from the other farm plots, installed trenches and keep the trees on our farm. We put Matoke in between the coffee. We eat most of the Matoke but sell some of it as well.I'm supposed to have about 1200 trees per hectare but there are less now because I had to take some out. All my trees are of different age. I already had coffee when I had to take a lot out 20 years ago because of diseases and planted improved seedlings. Every year we replant diseased trees. Since a few years I see a lot of Wilt disease and I now have a lot of gaps in my farm. But when the government came and distributed seedlings I refused them. We need them when the rain comes but they brought them when the dry season starts, and I didn't have water to irrigate.Over the past years the weather has really become more and more difficult. Not even the weather forecast works anymore. Previously rain was predictable but now you can't know when the rain comes. It is dry when it is supposed to rain and then a lot of rain comes at once. The trenches are good but not all my neighbors use them so sometimes it is too much, and the rain causes damages.Maybe 5 of my 20 neighbors have trenches but I understand that it is difficult. Some have only very small farms and others work so much on other farms that they forget to take care of their own. Most of them have also cut down their trees and sold them for easy money. Some have used it for school but most just bought food. They think the trees just grow back but this doesn't happen.Because of my trainings, I can do many things but when the drought comes, I can't do much. The harvest is low and most others have a low quality. My quality is better, but I still receive a low price because the price is set equally for everyone by the middlemen. When the company was still here this was different, and a better quality received a better price, but about 4 or 5 years ago they went away. The extensionists don't come anymore. They show up but never follow up and then they bring seedlings when we don't need them. We need better training because training gives us hope. Without training, we don't have hope.Case study:Integrating CSA practices","tokenCount":"8664"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b665aaad7c99bf90278040c27a01e91a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fc21e5b8-6325-411b-ab88-ad53c4f78b3f/retrieve","id":"-1536232720"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"42be41cd-5da7-4e9e-a516-005150df50ee","pagecount":"11","content":"Deep learning and computer vision, using remote sensing and drones, are 2 promising nondestructive methods for plant monitoring and phenotyping. However, their applications are infeasible for many crop systems under tree canopies, such as coffee crops, making it challenging to perform plant monitoring and phenotyping at a large spatial scale at a low cost. This study aims to develop a geographic-scale monitoring method for coffee cherry counting, supported by an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered citizen science approach. The approach uses basic smartphones to take a few pictures of coffee trees; 2,968 trees were investigated with 8,904 pictures in Junín and Piura (Peru), Cauca, and Quindío (Colombia) in 2022, with the help of nearly 1,000 smallholder coffee farmers. Then, we trained and validated YOLO (You Only Look Once) v8 for detecting cherries in the dataset in Peru. An average number of cherries per picture was multiplied by the number of branches to estimate the total number of cherries per tree. The model's performance in Peru showed an R 2 of 0.59. When the model was tested in Colombia, where different varieties are grown in different biogeoclimatic conditions, the model showed an R 2 of 0.71. The overall performance in both countries reached an R 2 of 0.72. The results suggest that the method can be applied to much broader scales and is transferable to other varieties, countries, and regions. To our knowledge, this is the first AI-powered method for counting coffee cherries and has the potential for a geographicscale, multiyear, photo-based phenotypic monitoring for coffee crops in low-income countries worldwide.Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages, produced across more than 70 tropical countries, involving 12 million smallholder farmers globally [1]. Coffee production faces the risk of declining yields and quality due to drastic changes in temperature and precipitation [2][3][4], frequent pest and disease outbreaks [5], unstable selling prices, and high input costs, such as fertilizers and herbicides. Furthermore, it is projected that up to 50% of the land suitable for coffee cultivation could be lost globally by 2050 due to climate change [6]. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor coffee crops at large spatial scales to cope with climate change with phenotyping.Recent advances in agricultural digitalization, including remote sensing, mechanistic simulation, and artificial intelligence (AI), have the potential to enable large-scale, accurate phenotypic monitoring for various crop types while addressing the high cost of measuring equipment, the cost of labor, the high complexity of the models or methods, the unavailability of Earth observations, and the lack of historical plant information including weather, soil, and management practices. For instance, yield prediction can utilize cameras equipped with RGB, red-edge, and multispectral bands, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). However, such devices are often too expensive for smallholder farmers, particularly in low-income countries. Recent studies have explored mapping in coffee using remotely sensed imagery. However, it remains challenging to apply remote sensing techniques because coffee trees are difficult to identify visually from space due to intercropping, frequent dense cloud coverage, and tree canopy cover [7].To date, statistical modeling approaches have been the most popular method for estimating coffee crop productivity [8]. For example, [9] developed a method to count the number of cherries per tree by dividing the plant into 4 quadrants and then counting the nodes and cherries per node for each quadrant. Despite its high accuracy, it is time-consuming to design the division of the plant into quadrants for each individual plant. Moreover, it requires the condition of nonsteep and nonmuddy slopes in the field, which is impractical in many locations [8]. Other studies [10][11][12] propose productivity prediction using a sample of the productive lateral branches and an estimate of the quantity per lateral. Furthermore, [13] introduced a method based on genomic information for coffee production and [14] with agrometeorological information. Despite the high accuracy of these models, limitations persist concerning data acquisition and the breadth of available data.In addition to statistical modeling, there is a growing number of studies employing machine learning methods. For instance, [15] developed a model based on an extreme learning machine and random forest algorithms to link soil fertility properties with Robusta coffee production in Vietnam, achieving a coefficient of determination (R 2 ) of 0.60. In another study, [16] utilized UAV-taken aerial images of 144 trees in Mina Gerais. They employed 5 algorithms: linear support machines, gradient boosting regression, random forests, partial least square regression, and neuroevolution of augmenting topologies, the latter proving to be the most effective, exhibiting a mean absolute percentage error of 32%. Similarly, [17] proposed segmentation and a convolutional neural network (CNN) for the Castillo coffee variety using mobile images, achieving an R 2 of 0.59. While these studies demonstrate the promising potential of AI applications for coffee production, they typically focus on one variety in a single country and require well-trained personnel for image acquisition. Collectively, none of the existing methods are suitable for estimating coffee crop yields on hundreds or thousands of smallholder farms at large spatial scales (i.e. scalability). A citizen science approach to data collection could address this scalability issue [18].We aim to develop a geographic-scale, low-cost method to monitor the number of coffee cherries with the help of local farmers by using pictures captured on their mobile phones. To achieve this, we developed a relatively simple field sampling protocol that local farmers can follow individually without formal training. We collected images and applied the You Only Look Once (YOLO) v8 object detection method. Our approach garnered support from thousands of local coffee farmers, facilitating data collection across multiple regions in Peru and Colombia. Importantly, we evaluated the model's generalizability and transferability across countries and diverse coffee varieties, a novel effort not previously undertaken.The target regions of this study (Fig. 1) are the northern and central parts of the coffee districts in Peru (Chinchaque, Chirinos, Cañariz, Lalaquiz, Pongoa, and San José Lourdes; latitude-longitude of 5°-6°S, 6°-7°W) and the south-western and western parts of the coffee municipalities in Colombia (Génova, Cajibío, El tambo, Morales, Piendamó, and Popayán; 2°-4°N, 75°-77°W).The target districts in Peru cover elevational gradients and produce highly heterogeneous environments with variations in soil types. The maximum monthly temperature ranges between 20 °C (July) and 34 °C (March), while the minimum monthly temperature varies between 14 °C (July to August) and 23 °C (February) [19] (region A in Fig. 1). In contrast, the target region in Colombia is humid and semihumid. Rainfall exhibits a bimodal pattern, peaking in April (120 mm) and October (110 mm). The average temperature hovers around 18.1 °C (October to November) and 21 °C (June to August) [20] (region B in Fig. 1). These 2 target regions exhibit distinct weather patterns; Colombia tends to be cooler and rainier than Peru.Data collection involved a survey of 977 farmers in Colombia (300 farmers) and Peru (677 farmers). The majority of farmers surveyed (69% in Peru and 77% in Colombia) had a coffee area of less than 2 hectares (ha). A smaller percentage, 19% in Colombia and 28% in Peru had a coffee area between 2 and 5 ha, and only a fraction (3% in Colombia and 2% in Peru) had a coffee area greater than 5 ha. In addition, the majority of surveyed locations in Colombia (88%) were located at elevations between 1,500 and 2,000 m above mean sea level (A.M.S..L), whereas in Peru, most (61%) were located at elevations between 1,000 and 1,500 m A.M.S.L.This study was focused on Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L.). In Peru, the most common variety was Catimor cogollo verde 70%, followed by Catimor cogollo morado (8%), Caturra (1%), and Tipica (4%). Other varieties accounted for the remaining 17%. In Colombia, the majority of surveyed farmers used Castillo (90%), with small percentages of Supremo (4%), Variedad Colombia (1%), and other varieties (5%). In terms of tree age, 56% of the trees in Peru were between 3 and 7 years old, 39% were between 7 and 14 years old, and 5% were between 14 and 21 years old. In Colombia, 88% of the trees were between 3 and 7 years old, 12% were between 7 and 14 years old, and only 0.03% were between 14 and 21 years old.We received help from 53 survey personnel (hereafter, enumerators), who visited the local farmlands and took pictures of coffee trees through local partners during the cherry growing season, from March to August 2022 in Peru and from March to November 2022 in Colombia. The mobile pictures were collected using the enumerators' mobile devices. In total, 2,968 trees were investigated, yielding a collection of 8,904 pictures. Specifically, 2,450 trees were in Colombia and 518 in Peru, contributing to 7,350 and 1,554 pictures, respectively. The sampling protocol was designed as follows.Nine trees were selected using a random sampling method per each coffee crop field. For each tree, 1 branch was randomly selected from each of the upper, middle, and lower positions (i.e., 3 branches per tree), and 1 photo was taken per branch. When taking a photo, the enumerators were instructed to adhere to the following guidelines: (a) capture photos during daylight hours, specifically between 6 AM and 6 PM; (b) focus on as many cherries as possible; (c) avoid moving the camera post-capture to prevent picture distortion; and (d) choose an angle that prevents direct sunlight from shining on the camera lens.We attempted to capture the most cherries on each branch using a mobile phone image because our model uses this information to estimate the total number of cherries. Earlier studies have explored cherry detection using mobile images, employing computer vision techniques as segmentation [17], which is effective primarily for red cherries against green leaves, and incorporating machine learning and deep learning algorithms [21]. In this study, we proposed a protocol for photographing only 3 branches, rather than the entire tree, in order to capture as many cherries as possible.The protocol was used to evaluate the reliability of using mobile images to replace the manual counting of cherries on branches. To assess the accuracy of our approach, we manually counted the cherries on the respective branches. The total number of cherries per tree was measured as follows: For each selected branch, the enumerator manually counted all cherries. An average number of cherries was calculated from the manually counted cherries of the upper, middle, and lower branches. This average was multiplied by the total number of productive branches on the tree, also counted manually. The product of this calculation was the total number of cherries per tree.The images were taken using a variety of commercially available mobile phones owned by the enumerators. The most popular brands were Xiaomi, Samsung, and Motorola, with the Xiaomi M2006C3LG model being the most popular mobile. These mobiles capture images in RGB color format as JPEG format and are equipped with internal Global Positioning System capabilities. The majority of the 768 × 768 and 1,024 × 1,024 images were taken without flash at resolutions between 1 and 12 megapixels.The mobile phone images were annotated using the PASCAL VOC format and the labeling graphical image annotation tool [22]. The length and width of the training images were rescaled to 640 pixels. The process of manual annotation was initiated after the acquisition of the images were captured by the enumerators in the coffee fields. We defined 3 categories for annotation: black cherries, red cherries, and green cherries. This categorization enables the model to recognize the primary colors of cherries throughout their growth cycle and detect them at any stage prior to harvest. A minimum bounding box is drawn around the cherry for each of these categories. In the case of occlusion, we followed the methodology proposed by [23], which recommends not labeling cherries if the occlusion is greater than 85% and the visible target area is less than 15%. When a cherry is obscured by others, the bounding rectangle should encompass the entire cherry, including any parts that are behind the others. The final annotated dataset consisted of 436 images with a total of 35,694 labeled cherries: 35,247 (98.7%) were labeled as green cherries, 342 (0.9%) as red cherries, and 105 (0.2%) as black cherries. As the cherries were mainly counted during the growth stage when the cherries are green, the occurrences of the other colors are uncommon in our data set.CNNs were used for cherry detection. We used the state-ofthe-art object detection network, YOLO v8 network [24]. This network is an advancement of the original YOLO framework [25] and previous versions [24,[26][27][28][29][30]. YOLO is a real-time object detection framework that is designed for fast object detection and classification. It simplifies the detection task into a regression problem, converting image pixels directly into bounding box coordinates and class probabilities [25]. The framework uniquely performs object detection through a single CNN and uses the entire image to predict each bounding box.During the training phase, YOLO divides an image into a 7 × 7 grid. If the center of an object falls within the boundaries of a grid cell, the cell is responsible for detecting the object. Each cell is responsible for predicting bounding boxes, confidence scores, and class probabilities. The confidence score is defined as follows (Eq. 1):The confidence score represents the model's certainty that the bounding box contains an object and the accuracy of its prediction of the size and location of the box. If there is no object, then the confidence score is 0. Otherwise, the confidence score is equal to the intersection of the prediction and the ground truth. YOLO generates multiple bounding box predictions per cell and employs Non-Maximum Suppression to identify the most accurate bounding box. The Intersection over Union (IoU) metric evaluates the precision of object detection by calculating the overlap ratio between the predicted bounding box and the true bounding box. The IoU is defined as follows (Eq. 2):where S overlap is the area of intersection between the predicted bounding box and the true bounding box, and S union is the total area covered by both bounding boxes.Despite their high accuracy, earlier versions of YOLO (v1 to v4) encountered difficulties with images acquired through remote sensing technologies such as drones. These challenges arise from variations in size, large coverage areas, and high object densities [24]. The high-density challenge particularly affects cherry detection in images acquired by mobile devices, where surrounding elements such as leaves and branches can interfere with accurate detection (Fig. 2).In previous YOLO versions, YOLO v5 incorporates the Transformer Prediction Head [31], enhancing object localization accuracy in densely populated scenes. Additionally, it integrates the Convolutional Block Attention Module [32], improving the precision of identifying regions of interest across extensive areas [24]. This approach employs a self-training classifier to improve classification performance. YOLO v6 [27] features an extended backbone and neck design, whereas YOLO v7 [30] adopts a transformer architecture. Both versions aim to increase the accuracy and velocity compared to their predecessors.YOLO v8 [33] utilizes an architecture similar to YOLO v5, with key modifications in the backbone, particularly in the module responsible for feature extraction. By incorporating an anchor-free model and a semantic segmentation model, YOLO v8 demonstrates versatility, effectively both object detection and semantic segmentation tasks [33].In this study, the YOLO v8 detection model was adapted using the Ultralytics framework [29], which is built on top of PyTorch 1.7 [34]. The models were developed on a Windows 10 platform using Python 3.7.0 subroutines running on an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU 1440 MHz.In Peru, we categorized the collected data into 3 sets: training (80%, n = 346), validation (10%, n = 43), and testing (10%, n = 43). Each set served a specific purpose: model development, evaluation/selection, and performance testing, respectively. Additionally, Table 1 provides the network parameters.In order to improve the detection accuracy of the model, the initial values of parameters were of a pretrained model   [36]. The acquired images were preprocessed using data augmentation techniques, including brightness adjustment and geometric augmentation, specifically scaling, shearing, left-right flipping, and mosaic techniques. These techniques were applied to the cherry mobile images because they reflect real scenarios in coffee plantations. Brightness adjustment can eliminate the noise from ambient light or the lowresolution camera, and geometric augmentation allows for a more accurate representation of the shape and size of cherries, which can vary depending on growth stage, variety, climate, and agricultural practices [37]. Data augmentation was used in the training phase.Our YOLO model is able to count the number of cherries on the selected branches. To estimate the number of cherries per tree, we also used data on the number of branches per tree, collected during the field campaign (see Sampling protocols with a pictured-based model and manual measurement). We, therefore, estimate the total cherries load per tree (T) in a coffee plant at any given moment as the product of the total number of productive branches (P) and the average of the number of cherries per branch (C), where i is the ith branch (i = 1 upper, i = 2 middle, and i = 3 lower positions) (Eq. 3).The following evaluation metrics were used for tree-level number of cherries estimation: the root mean square error, mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and R 2 . To confirm associations between the number of cherries in each branch, the total number of productive branches, and the total of cherries per tree during the validation phase, we conducted a correlation analysis.Additionally, we utilized the bounding box predictions (box_loss) which measures the discrepancy between the prediction box and the ground truth bounding box [25]; the classification loss (cls_loss), representing the difference between the predicted and actual labels [38]; and the dynamic feature learning loss (dfl_loss), a loss function designed for the extraction of dynamic and discriminative features from data [39]. The model's performance was further evaluated using the mean average precision (mAP), which assesses the model's ability to detect and accurately localize boxes around objects within images [40], with a particular emphasis on up to 50 object detections per image (mAP50) or between 50 and 95 objects detections per image (mAP50-95), alongside recall and precision metrics.Table 2 presents the summary statistics of the number of cherries per tree based on manual counting. This includes the mean, minimum, maximum, standard deviation, skewness, and coefficient of variation (CV) for each country and variety. The average cherry counts were substantially higher in Peru, ranging from 554 to 1,824, compared to Colombia, where counts ranged from 174 to 455. Across all varieties, the maximum count was often more than 10 times the minimum. The CVs exceeding 40% indicate high variation in cherry counts among all varieties and countries. In summary, the sampling campaign captured a wide range, from 174 to 1,824 coffee cherries per tree, illustrating the diversity of cherry counts observed.The number of productive branches demonstrates the strongest correlation with the total number of cherries at the tree level (r = 0.67, P < 0.001) (Fig. 3). Additionally, the numbers of cherries across different branch positions (top, middle, and bottom positions) were found to be correlated, though weakly (r = 0.11 for upper and middle, r = −0.025 for lower and upper, and r = 0.49 for middle and lower; P < 0.001 for all) (Fig. 3). This suggests that sampling from various heights is crucial for a more accurate estimation of the total number of cherries at tree level.YOLO v8 was trained with the images of coffee cherries (green, red, and black). The losses associated with the bounding box, classification, dynamic feature learning, precision, and recall metrics functions are shown in (Fig. 4).The performance of object detection was characterized by a high precision of 0.85 and a low recall of 0.13 with threshold B set at an IoU of 0.5 (Table 3).Figure 5 shows the comparison between manual counting and picture-based estimations for each branch within the dataset collected from Peru and Colombia. The highest correlation in measurement was observed in the lower position (branch 3) with an (R 2 = 0.68), whereas the lowest correlation was noted in the upper position (branch 1) with an (R 2 = 0.59). Figure 6 provides an example showcasing the capability of YOLO v8 in detecting cherries on branches, particularly emphasizing its high precision in detecting green cherries.(3) We explore the effectiveness of our model across different coffee varieties and countries at the individual tree level. The model was initially trained using data from tree varieties such as Catimor Cogollo Morado, and Catimogor Cogollo Verde in Peru. Subsequently, we conducted tests in Colombia, evaluating its performance on varieties including Castillo, Variedad Colombia, Supremo, and others (Fig. 7). The R 2 model performance in Colombia was 0.71, demonstrating variability across different coffee varieties, with scores ranging from 0.82 to 0.99. The Variedad Colombia variety exhibited the highest performance. Notably, this surpasses the performance in Peru, where the model achieved an R 2 of 0.59. In Peru, model performance varied among varieties, from 0.32 to 0.77, with the Caturra variety achieving the highest performance (Fig. 7). When we combined all test data from Colombia and Peru, the overall model's performance was as follows: the R 2 of 0.72, the mean absolute error 252.63 cherries per tree, the MAPE of 41.74 %, and the root mean square error of 621.46 cherries per tree.We demonstrated the high performance (R 2 = 0.72) of the first geographic-scale, low-cost method for monitoring coffee cherries using pictures taken with smartphones with an object detection model. The results showed that the vast majority of cherries were detected, similar to the findings in [23] which  used YOLO v3 for apple detection, and [41] on bananas using the DeepLab with CNN. Our model´s performance was robust (R 2 = 0.72, MAPE = 41.74%) and comparable to the methods proposed by [17] (R 2 = 0.66), the branch-level machine vision system [42] (R 2 = 0.93), deep learning combined with UAV imagery [16] (MAPE = 31.75%), and manual counting through quadrant-based sampling [9] 2 = 0.92).The key advancement we achieved was the geographic extension of coffee cherry counting and monitoring, which has mostly been investigated at the field scale, without sacrificing predictive power. This study provides a marked contribution to a geographic-scale in situ phenotypic monitoring for coffee crops in low-income countries, which is scalable in space and time and thus helpful for monitoring the large-scale impacts of climate change on coffee crops. It can provide coffee cherry count data in regions lacking such information [42]. This information is valuable at a research level, as it can serve as input for other endeavors, such as creating strategies for climate change adaptation.Our approach is notably promising because it diverges from prior research [16,17,42] by testing the model's efficacy in Colombia, distinct from its training environment in Peru. Notably, the model's performance improved, escalating from 0.59 in Peru to 0.71 in Colombia. The dissimilarities in coffee tree characteristics, geographical elevation, and climate conditions between the 2 countries were substantial, encompassing  different species and varieties along with varying average cherry counts. Furthermore, in contrast to earlier studies [7,16,17], our data collection process utilized the efforts of local farmers, avoiding specialized equipment like multispectral cameras and drones. The photographs were taken by actual users with their conventional mobile phones. The object detection model, initially trained on Catimor cogollo verde and Catimor cogollo morado varieties in Peru, was subsequently applied to count cherries in the Tipica, Castillo, Supremo, and the variedad Colombia varieties in Colombia. This approach highlights not only the model's adaptability but also its ability to generalize across different tree types in diverse agricultural settings. To further enhance model performance in a new environment, fine-tuning the developed deep learning model with images collected locally could be considered.The model exhibits both overestimation and underestimation effects. The detection tends to overestimate the number of cherries in branches with few cherries, possibly due to the larger space captured in the picture, which allows for the inclusion of cherries from adjacent coffee plants. The coffee plant's challenging isolation, attributed to dimorphic branching [43] and the close proximity between plants, contributes to this effect. Conversely, the model demonstrates a tendency to underestimate, possibly influenced by the constrained space within mobile images or situations where only a portion of the branch is visible in the photo. This underestimation becomes noticeable when the count exceeds one thousand cherries, suggesting that the maximum number of cherries that can fit within a single mobile picture is around 1000.The number of tree branches alone may not be sufficient for an accurate estimation of the total real number of cherries.Eight or 9 productive branches on Arabica plants could result in a real yield estimate of up to R 2 = 0.92 [10]. However, at the plot level, this would require a large number of branches, making it impractical due to the unavailability of a large number of pictures and the time-consuming nature of the process. Moreover, there may be constraints related to connectivity and infrastructure that prevent the implementation of this approach on certain coffee farms.The productive branches play a crucial role in our model. This result is consistent with findings of nondestructive methods [8,37]. Counting the number of productive branches is conducted manually, as the object detection model, YOLO v8, is not suitable due to the concealment of productive branches beneath large leaves. Adult coffee trees exhibit a leaf area ranging 22 and 45 m 2 [37]. Although manual counting of branches may take much less time than counting cherries, we consider this task needs to be also supplemented with an alternative approach in the subsequent steps.After evaluating the models, we realized that the design of a good photo-sampling protocol was crucial for accurately predicting the total number of cherries and thus advancing our monitoring approach. In Peru, many images were captured of whole trees rather than individual branches. These findings underscore the importance of following established protocols for image acquisition. Our protocol involves taking 3 pictures per tree, capturing the upper, middle, and lower branches, to capture the potential total number of cherries. Ensuring that these pictures accurately reflect the cherry quantity on the tree is paramount. Although our sampling protocol showed some promising results, there is still a large room for improvement in data acquisition. For instance, determining the optimal angles to capture most of the cherries will be crucial. The lower and middle branches may benefit from an overhead perspective, while the upper branch might require an underneath angle. Factors such as the direction of the sunlight, image blur, distortion (resulting from swift camera movement), and distance from the branches can also affect accuracy.Identifying the main sources of error and refining the protocol can increase precision, but it should be noted that adding more photos or complexity may make local farmers more reluctant to use the method for their real-world application. The best approach between simplicity and accuracy needs to be identified with local farmers. In addition, future studies could focus on how to reliably scale the number of total cherries estimates from individual tree level to plot level yields, including the exploration of new species such as Robusta (C. canephora). Downloaded from https://spj.science.org on April 16, 2024 ","tokenCount":"4507"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8bbbb10b43f1dc4a7522c3dce3d24dfc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ad1ad4b6-7f17-4cb8-a919-7aec700de641/retrieve","id":"1197908117"},"keywords":["Lal","R","Sanchez","P.A.","Cummings","R.W. (eds.)"],"sieverID":"b5db5a1f-732a-4b7a-81e9-b16213dc6a31","pagecount":"226","content":"The Alley Farming Network for Tropical Africa (AFNET A) was established in 1989 to promote and coordinate alley farming research and development within the national agricultural research systems (NARS) of the region. Network activities include collaborative research, individual and group training, and information dissemination and exchange.AFNET A/NARS collaborative research projects are found in 20 different countries and in all major agroecological zones. The main topics of research are screening of multipurpose trees, alley farming management trials, livestock integration in alley farming, and on-farm R&D and socioeconomic investigation. AFNETA collaborates with several other networks, institutions and organisations in the implementation of its programs.Training is one of AFNETA's most imponant activities. In order to participate fully in AFNETA's collaborative research program, scientists and technicians of national agricultural research institutions require training on the concepts and principles of alley farming as well as on the research methodologies for studying different aspects of the system.AFNETA employs a train-the-trainer strategy in its training program. Regional training courses are organized at four centers in Africa, in collaboration with national institutions. A core group of trainers from each center has undergone trainer-training to enable them to plan, implement, and evaluate the regional courses. Two regional course, one anglophone, and one francophone, are held each year. In addition, a The manual is published in two volumes. Volume I, the Core Course in Alley Farming, has been designed as a basic, six-unit curriculum for short training courses.The Core Course introduces the theory and practice of alley fanning, and acquaints the trainee with the major research topics. Volume 2, the Source Book for Alley Farming Research is a collection of technical papers for reference and for further study. Each unit and technical paper includes a set of \"feedback exercises\" as an aide to selfteaching. Those scientists who will go on to conduct field experiments will want to make use of AFNETA's documentation on research guidelines and data collection requirements (available from the Coordination Unit).In its present form, the manual is presented as a test draft, for use and review in a number of training programs. Any suggestions for improvements from readers are welcome.jv Kwesi Atta-Krah Coordinator, AFNETA Ibadan, 1992 Scientists have developed different systems of soil classification to group soils of similar properties in one class, allowing them to exchange information on soils found in different areas.Soil classification also helps in determining the best possible use and management of soils. Soil classification is however a controversial subject at both national and international levels. There is lack of agreement for a common classification system, because soil scientists do not agree on the characteristics for differentiating and classifying soils.Although many soil classification systems exist; however, two system are widely used: The USDA Soil Taxonomy and the FAO/UNESCO legend. The French system (ORSTROM) is also commonly used in France and in Francophone Africa.The classification of soils starts with examination of soil profiles. MOiphologically, soils are composed of a series of horizons. Soil horizons are layers of different appearance, thickness, and properties which have arisen by the action of various soil-forming processes. The horizons are normally parallel to the surface. Collectively, the horizons make up what is called the soil profile or soil Rpedon R . A soil profile is defined as a vertical section of the soil to expose layering. Figure 1 sketches a hypothetical soil profile having all the principal horizons, with a brief description of the characteristics of each horizon. Individual soils have one or more of these horizons. Very young soils may not yet have started the soil horizonization process.In soil classification, the item to be classified is the soil profile. The classification or study of the entire profile consists of recognising and naming the horizons which make up the profile.In the study of soil profiles, sub-soil horizons are given greater emphasis than surface horizons which are frequently changed by human activity to such an extent that they bear hardly any relationship with genetic process.The Soil Taxonomy developed since the early 1950's is the most comprehensive soil classification system in the world, developed with international cooperation it is sometimes described as the best system so far. However, for use with the soils of the tropics, the system would need continuous improvement.There are six levels in the hierarchy of categories: Orders (the highest category), suborders, great groups, subgroups, families and series (the lowest category) (USDA, 1978).Orders There are ten orders, differentiated on gross morphological features by the presence or absence of diagnostic horizons or features which show the dominant set of soil-forming processes that have taken place. The ten orders and their major characteristics are shown in Table 1. The occurrence of the major soils in the humid and subhumid tropics is shown in Table 2.It is the next level of generalization. It permits more statements to be made about a given soil. In addition to morphological characteristics other soil properties are used to classify the soil. The suborder focusses on genetic homogeneity like wetness or other climatic factors.There are 47 suborders within the 10 orders. The names of the suborders consist of two syllables. The first connotes the diagnostics properties; the second is the formative element from the soil order name. For example, an Ustalf is an alfisol with an ustic moisture regime (associated with subhumid climates).The great group permits more specific statements about a given soil as it notes the arrangement of the soil horizons. A total of 230 great groups (140 of which occur in the tropics) have been defined for the 47 suborders. The name of a great group consists of the name of the suborder and a prefix suggesting diagnostic properties. For example, a Plinthustalf is an ustalf that has developed plinthite in the profile. Plinthite development is selected as the important property and so forms the prefix for the great group name.Soil-5 Table 1. Brief descriptions of the ten soil orders according to Soil Taxonomy.ALFISOLS Soils with a clayey B horizon and exchangeable cation (Ca + Mg + K + Na) saturation greater than 50% calculated from :N:F40Ac-CEC at p H 7.Soils with a clayey B horizon and base saturation less than 50%. They are acidic, leached soils from humid areas of the tropics and subtropics.Oxisols are strongly weathered soils but have very little variation in texture with depth. Some strongly weathered, red, deep, porous oxisols contain large amounts of clay-sized Fe and AI oxides.Dark clay soils containing large amounts of swelling clay minerals (smectite). The soils crack widely during the dry season and become very sticky in the wet season.MOLLISOLS -Prairie soils formed from colluvial materials with dark surface horizon and base saturation greater than 50%, dominating in exchangeable Ca.INCEPTISOLS -Young soils with limited profile development. They are mostly formed from colluvial and alluvial materials. Soils derived from volcanic ash are considered a special group of Inceptisols, presently classified under the Andept suborder (also known as Andosols).ENTISOLS Soils with little or no horizon development in the profile. They are mostly derived from alluvial materials. ARIDISOLS Soils of arid region, such as desert soils. Some are saline.SPODOSOLS -Soils with a bleached surface layer (A2 horizon) and an alluvial accumulation of sesquioxides and organic matter in the B horizon. These soils are mostly formed under humid conditions and coniferous forest in the temperate region.HISTOSOLS Soils rich in organic matter such as peat and muck.Soil-6Table 2. Occurrence of major soils in the Humid and Subhumid Tropics.Classification (USDA) The grouping of soils within families is based on the presence or absence of physical and chemical properties important for plant growth and may not be indicative of any particular process. The properties include particle size distribution and mineralogy beneath the plough layer, temperature regime, and thickness of rooting zone. Typical family names are ~, kaolinitic, isohxperthermic, etc. There are thousands of families.The soil series is the lowest category. It is a grouping of soil individuals on the basis of narrowly dermed properties, relating to kind and arrangement of horiwns; colour, texture, structure, consistence and reaction of horiwns; chemical and mineralogical properties of the horizons. The soil series are given local place names following the earlier practice in the old systems in naming soil series. There are tens of thousands of series.According to the USDA Soil Taxonomy, Oxisols are the most abundant soils in the humid and perhumid tropics covering about 35 percent of the land area (fable 3). Ultisols are the second most abundant, covering an estimated 28 percent of the region. About half of the Ultisols and 60 percent of the Oxisols are located in humid and perhumid tropical Africa and Asia. In tropical Africa, they are abundant in the eastern Congo basin bordering the lake region;in the forested zones of Sierra Leone; in Ivory Coast; in parts of Liberia; and in the forested coastal strip from Ivory Coast to Cameroon (Figure 2).The AtrlSols, which have high to moderate fertility, cover a smaller area of the humid tropics. In west Africa they are found in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon. They are, however, the most abundant soils in Africa's subhumid and semi-arid zones, covering about one third of these regions. The Alfisols are widely distributed in the subhumid and semi-arid tropical regions of Africa, including large areas in western, eastern, central, and southeastern Africa (Figure 2). 2) Data adapted from Kampen and Burford (1980). Part of the subhumid tropics is included.Equator\" 1:50,000,000 5000500 . , .(jjjjjjJj]jjJ  and Tavernier, 1972).Soil-9The FAO/UNESCO system was devised more as a tool for the preparation of a small-scale soil map of the world than a comprehensive system of soil classification. The map shows only the presence of major soils, being associations of many soils combined in general units. The legend of the soil map of the world lists 106 units classified into 26 groupings. The soil units correspond roughly to great groups from the USDA Soil Taxonomy, while larger main grouping are similar to the USDA soil suborder. Table 4 shows the rough correspondence between the Soil Taxonomy and the FAO/UNESCO system.In 1986 FAO published a soil map of Africa following the FAO/UNESCO system of soil classification. In this map, all the soils of Africa have been grouped into 10 soil associations (Figure 3). Though it is not very precise, the map provides an overview of the soil resources of the continent of the ten major associations, the desert and shallow soil associations (comprising Yermosols, Xerosols and Luvisols) occupy about one-third of Africa's land area.However, only a part of the area occupied by these associations falls in the tropics.The so-called French System of classifying soils is based on principles of soil evolution and degree of evolution of soil profiles. It also takes into account humus type, structure, and the degree of hydromorphism.   The main characteristics of the soil orders were summarized briefly in Table 1. The following sections provide additional information on the properties and management of the most important soils in the humid and subhumid zones of tropical Africa.The Alfisols are less leached and have lower acidity than Ultisols and Oxisols, but they exhibit high base saturation and their fertility is low to moderate. The Alfisols and associated soils support a wide variety of cereal crops (maize, rice, sorghum, millet), root and tuber crops (yam, cassava, cocoyam, sweet potato), and grain legumes (soybean, cowpeas, groundnuts, pigeon peas, chick peas).Distribution of the Alfisols, mtisols, and Oxisols is shown in the Soil Taxonomy map (Figure 2). Examples of chemical characteristics of Alfisols and mtisols from Nigeria are given in Table 5 and Figure 4.The productivity of the Alfisols is limited mainly by their physical characteristics:• They have low structural stability and are susceptible to surface crusting, soil compaction and erosion.• They have low water retention capacity and are subject to drought (Lal, 1974, Kang andJuo, 1983).• Deficiencies of N and P are common while deficiencies of K, Mg, S, Fe, and Zn occur under intensive cultivation (Kang and Fox, 1981; Cottenie et aI., 1981).• Because of their low buffering capacity, Alfisols acidify rapidly under continuous cultivation, particularly with the use of high rates of nitrogenous fertilizers (Kang and Juo, 1983).Figure 4 illustrates some of the chemical properties of an Alfisols profile from Southwest Nigeria, where the soil is slightly acidic with high base saturation even in the lower soil horizons.Benefits from N, P, and K application for continuous crop production on the Alfisols have been well documented. With intensive cropping, N is the primary limiting nutrient, followed by P. Potassium is generally needed with long-term continuous cropping, particularly on soils derived from sedimentary rocks. The Alfisols and associated soils have low P-fixation and high residual effects from applied P. In addition, mycorrhiza symbiosis is common and effective on these soils particularly with root crops, resulting in a low P requirement for crop production.Continuous cultivation and fertilizer application can significantly affect the properties of Alfisols and associated soils. Cropping, and in particular fertilizer application, reduces soil pH, soil organic matter, and extractable cations. Lowering of soil .\". on the Alfisols can result in increased toxic levels of Al and Mn (Kang and Spain, 1986).Soil-13 (%)------------------mel 1 00g ------------------- The Oxisols and especially the U1tisols are acidic, with low base saturation (Figure 4).Both soil orders commonly have multiple nutrient deficiencies (N, P, K, Ca and Zn), as shown by Kang and Juo (1983). Oxisols are highly weathered and leached, while U1tisols are susceptible to erosion and compaction. The poor productivity of these soils is due to their low capacity to provide nutrients to crops as well as their AI and Mn toxicity. Soils have medium to high P fixation. Chemical characteristics of some Nigerian U1tisols are given in Table 5.The U1tisols and Oxisols support a lesser variety of food crops than Alfisols, being more suitable for tree crop production. Crops that do well on the U1tisols and Oxisols include some cereal crops (e.g., rice), root and tuber crops (cassava, yam, cocoyam, sweet potato), grain legumes (cowpeas, groundnuts). Plantains and bananas also do well. In traditional system, maize is grown only on newly cleared and burnt plots. In many early studies, acid soils in the humid tropics were limed to neutral {p, with generally poor results due to nutrient imbalance. Following the fmding in the 1950s that acid soils contain more exchangeable M+ than H+, primary consideration has been given to removal of toxic factors which limit plant growth. Research on acid soils in West Africa has confirmed these findings. Low lime rates are needed to reduce toxic levels of M+ and application of 0.5 to 1.0 tons of lime per hectare was found to be adequate for highly acid soils (UTA, 1984).These soils are usually deficient in P as well. Rock phosphates can be used on unlimed acid soils as an inexpensive and efficient way of supplying P to acid-tolerant crops.For pUIpOse of management, the majority of the upland soils in the humid and subhumid tropics is grouped as low activity clays (LAC) soils. A LAC soils has a low effective cation exchange capacity (EeEC) of s 16 meq/lOO g clay in the subsoil Quo and Adams, 1986). The LAC soils are predominantly Alfisols, Ultisols, Oxisols, and associated soils. Vast areas of the minfed uplands in the humid and subhumid tropics currently used for traditional food crop production are dominated by these \"fragile\" soils. Observations have shown that the majority of the LAC soils in West Africa have an especially low ECEC of < 8 meq. As the clay fraction of these soils are composed mainly of kaolinite, halloysite, and oxides of Fe and AI, the soil ECEC depends mainly on the soil organic matter level, which controls nutrient absorption and release.One of the m~or problems associated with extended cultivation of LAC soils is the maintenance of favorable soil physical conditions and the control of soil erosion. Significant changes in soil chemical and biological properties also occur following forest or bush fallow clearing and cropping. Soil organic matter declines sharply during the first few years under cropping and the effect is more pronounced with intensive continuous cropping.The loss of organic matter and acidification resulted in a decrease in the effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) and the loss of Ca and Mg (Kang and Iuo, 1983). The arbitrary application of exotic, high -input food crop production technologies on these fragile soils therefore often leads to rapid chemical, physical, and biological degradation of the soil.Although soil fertility problems on the LAC soils can be corrected by liming and l.ppropriate fertilization, socioeconomic constraints often limit the application of these crop production technologies in many areas of tropical Africa. Currently, sub-Saharan Africa's per capita and per hectare fertilizer use is very low compared with that of other regions. There is a need to develop integrated soil fertility management systems for the region based on better utilization of local nutrient sources. Such systems should be supplemented with external inputs wherever that is feasible and affordable.For sustained crop production in addition to adequate supply of plant nutrients, the LAC soils also require continuous addition of organic matter.Integrated soil fertility management for LAC soils can be achieved by various methods including:• promoting maximum recycling and more efficient use of nutrients from plant residues,• increasing contribution of biological nitrogen fixation,• improving efficiency of use of mineral nitrogen fertilizers and local sources of phosphate fertilizers, • using organic residues to reduce soil acidity problems, and • using acid-tolerant cultivars.Use of low levels of chemical inputs in combination with fallowing and agroforestry systems has shown varying degrees of success. Fallowing and addition of organic mulches may correct chemical soil degradation resulting from continuous cultivation; at the same time, it may also increase efficiency of fertilizer use.Crop residue management and seed bed preparation methods can play an important role in sustaining the productivity of these soils for crop production. This can be achieved in reduced tillage systems through the use of crop residue mulches, in situ mulches from cover crops, and/or hedgerow prunings from alley farming. The presence of adequate amounts of mulch cover helps maintain high soil nutrient status and high biological activity. Mulch also protects the soil against high temperatures, soil erosion, and run-off, thereby preventing the breakdown of soil structure and the resultant soil compaction and decreased permeability. Furthermore, mulching increases soil moisture retention and reduces runoff and soil erosion (Lal, 1974;Kang and Juo, 1986).Results of long-term field experiments carried out on Alfisols have also shown that with judicious fertilizer use and crop rotation, high and sustained crop yields can be obtained (Kang and 100, 1986). Similar principles also apply for managing the UltisolslOxisols. For sustained crop production, the Ullisols and Oxisols additionally require judicious liming (TIT A, 1984;   Nicholaides et al., 1984).The integration of food crops and forages with multi-purpose tree species (MPTs) in agroforestry and alley farming systems have received much attention in recent years as an alternative, low chemical input management possibility for LAC soils. However, little information is available on the soil requirements for growing the MPTs.As with crops, the capacities of MPTs for biomass production and nutrient recycling are affected by soil and climatic conditions. Under the same climatic regime, growth and biomass production of MPTs is expected to be higher on the more productive Alfisols than on the less productive UltisolslOxisols. Additions of nutrients may be needed for good growth of MPTs.MPTs for alley farming such as LeucaefUJ leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium do well on non-acid or slightly acid Alfisols. Both species perform poorly on acid soils. On the low pH soils, MPTs such as Acioa barten. Calliandra calothyrsus, and Flemingia macrophylla perform well.The technique which allows determination of the most suitable use for any area of land is called land classification. A great number of systems of land classification are in use, varying mainly according to the purpose for which the land is classified. Land may be classified Soil-IS according to its present land use, its suitability for a specific crop under the existing forms of management, its capability for producing crops or combinations of crops under optimum management, or its suitability for non-agricultural types of land use. A good knowledge of the land capability and suitability combined with good understanding of the soil characteristics and management aspects are the keys to more productive and sustainable agriculture.The purpose of land capability classification systems is to study and record all data relevant to finding the combination of agriCUltural and conservation measures which would permit the most intensive and appropriate agricultural use of the land without undue danger of soil degradation.The best known of these systems is the United States Department of Agriculture system (Klingebiel and Montgomery, 1961). The USDA land classification system is interpretative, using the USDA soil survey map as a basis and classifying the individual soil map units in groups that have similar management requirements. At the highest of categorization, eight soil classes are distinguished, namely: Class I soils have few limitations restricting their use. Erosion hazards on these soils are low; they are deep, productive and easily worked. For optimum production, these soils need ordinary management practices to maintain productivity, as regards both soil fertility and favorable physical soil properties.Class n soils have some limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require moderate conservation practices. Limitations of soils in Class II include (singly or in combination) the effect of gentle slopes, moderate susceptibility to erosion, less than ideal soil depth, somewhat unfavorable soil structure, slight to moderate correctable salinity, occasional Soil-19 damaging overflow, wetness correctable by drainage, slight climatic limitation. Soils in this class require more than ordinary management practices for obtaining optimum production and for maintaining productivity.Class m soils have severe limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require special conservation practices. The limitation of soils in this class are those of Class IT, but in higher degree; including additional limitations such as shaJJow depth, low moisture-holding capacity, and low fertility that is not easily corrected. Class m soils require considerable management inputs, but even so, choice of crops or cropping systems remains restricted because of inherent limiting factors.Class IV soils have very severe limitations that restrict the choice of plants and or require very careful management. Restrictions, both in terms of choice of plants and or management and conservation practices are greater than in Class m to such an extent that production is often marginal in relation to the inputs required. Limiting factors re of the same nature as in the previous classes but more severe and difficult to overcome. Several limitations such as steep slopes are a permanent feature of the land. Some of the limitations due to sloppiness and erosion hazards in classes IT to IV can be reduced by biological terracing as practiced in agroforestry and alley cropping.In the USDA system, soils of classes V to vm are generally not suited for cultivation, although certain of them may be made suitable for agriCUltural use with costly measures. Class V soils have few or no erosion hazards but have other limitations, impracticable to remove, that restrict their use to pasture, range, woodland, or wildlife food and cover.Although they may be level or nearly level, many of these soils are subject to inundation or are stony or rocky.Class VI soils have severe limitations that make them generally unsuited to cultivation lIJ1d limit their use largely to pasture or range, woodland, or wildlife food cover. This class is a continuation of Class IV, with very severe limitations that cannot be corrected. They may serve for some kinds of crops, such as tree crops, provided unusually intensive management is practiced.Class VU soils have very severe limitations that make them unsuited to cultivation and also, restrict their use largely to grazing, woodland, or wildlife. The limitations are such that these soils are not suited for any of the common crops.Class vm soils and land forms have limitations that preclude their use for commercial plant production.In the second level of genera1ization of the USDA land capability classification system, sub classes specify the kind of limitations. Four kinds of limitations are recognized at this level, namely, risk of erosion; wetness, drainage or overflow; rooting zone limitations, and climatic limitation. The third level, that of the capability unit, provides more specific and detailed information for application to specific fields on a farm.A new standard framework for land evaluation by means of land suitability classification has been developed by FAO (1983). As in other systems, the land suitability component of land evaluation is based on the survey of the physical attributes of the land (soils, climate, vegetation, topography, hydrology, etc.), and consequently requires intelpretation of these attributes. The Soils rich in organic matter such as peat and muck.Young soils with limited profile development.Strongly weathered soils with very little variation in texture with depth. v) On acid soils, Leucaena and Gliricidia perform better than other hedgerow tree species. Biological nitrogen fixation is brought about both by free-living soil microorganisms and by symbiotic associations of microorganisms with higher plants.Our main interest in this paper centers on the legume-R hizobium symbiosis.Leguminous plants fix atmospheric nitrogen by working symbiotically with special bacteria, rhizobia, which live in the root nodules. Rhizobia infect root hairs of the leguminous plants and produce the nodules. The nodules become the home for bacteriawhere they obtain energy from the host plant and take free nitrogen from the soil air and process it into combined nitrogen. In return, the plant receives the fixed N from nodules and produces food and forage protein.The biochemical mechanism of N2 fixation can be written in simplified fot'm as follows:nitrogenase extra energy cost of N2 fixation can, however safely be carried by most field-grown legumes with little or no loss of production.It is usually accepted that N2_fixing systems require more Phosphorus (P) than non-N2-fixing systems. Phosphorus is needed for plant growth, nodule formation and development, and ATP synthesis, each process being vital for nitrogen fixation.Nitrogen fixation, which involves the chemical reduction of N2 to NH3 or NH4. requires a source of electrons. Sources of electrons for the nitrogenase activity vary with the organism. They are all small proteins and highly reductive molecules such as f1avodoxin. ferredoxin, nicotinamide. or ademine dinucleotide (phosphate).Nitrogenase is an oxygen sensitive enzyme. The low oxygen tension condition is realized through compllrtmentation in cyanobacteria (heterokysts in Anabaena azol/ae), active respiration (in AZOIobacrer ), synthesis of leghemoglobin (in Rhizobium legume). Leghemoglobin is a manomolecule synthesized by both symbiotic partners, the rhizobia and the host plant. Rhizobium synthesizes the heme portion. and the plant the globine. Like human hemoglobin, leghemoglobin fixes 02. It is responsible for the red or brown color of active (i.e., N2-fixing) nodules. Non-N2-fixing nodules have a white nodule content, or a green content when the globine has degenerated.There are roughly 1,300 leguminous plant species in the world. Of these.nearly 10% have been examined for nodulation, 87% of which were nodulated. Thus not all legumes are infected by rhizobia. Gliricidia sepium and Vigna unguiculata (cowpea) nodulate freely but nodules have never been found on roots of Cassia siamea.A Rhizobium that nodulates cowpea may not nodulate Leucaena and vice versa.Leguminous species mutually susceptible to nodulation by a particular group of bacteria constitute a cross-inoculation group. Six cross-inoculation groups were defined in the early days of Rhizobium research in addition to the cowpea group. This classification scheme is undergoing modifications based on recent research. Table I gives a shon list of rhizobia and their hosts to illustrate the grouping of rhizobia.Mechanisms of recognition between the microsymbiont and the host-plant have been suggested to explain specificity. (This topic is beyond the scope of this paper).Not all symbioses fix N2 with equal effectiveness. This means that a given legume cultivar nodulated by different strains of the same species of Rhizobium would fix different amounts of nitrogen. Selection of elite strains of Rhizobium is based on this observation. Similarly. a given strain of Rhizobitlm will nodulate and fix different amount of N2 in symbiosis with a range of cultivars of the same plant species. Thus.different provenances of a given legume (e.g., Gliricidia sepium in ILeA's   international testing) can nodulate and fix nitrogen at different levels when they are established in the same field. Also, the free-nodulating Gfiricidia or promiscuous varieties of soybean can nodulate profusely and fix a great deal of nitrogen depending on the effectiveness of the rhizobial populations present.Interactions between the microsymbiont and the plant are complicated by edaphic, climatic. and management factors. A legume-Rhizobium symbiosis might perform well in a loamy soil but not in a sandy soil. in the subhumid region but not in the Sahel, or under tillage but not in no-till plots. These factors affect either the microsymbiont. the host-plant. or both.Edaphic factors relate to the soil. The six main edaphic factors limiting biological nitrogen fixation are:• excessive soil moisture.• drought.• soil acidity.• P deficiency.excess miner,!1 N, and• deficiency of Ca, Mo, Co and B.Excessive moisture and waterlogging prevent the development of root hair and sites of nodulation, and interfere with a normal diffusion of 02 in the root system of plants. Sesbania rostrata and Aeschynomene sp. can actively fix N2 under these conditions because they are located on the plant stems, rather than on the roots.Drought reduces the number of rhizobia in soils, and inhibits nodulation and N2 fixation. Prolonged drought will promote nodule decay. Deep-rooted legumes exploiting moisture in lower soil layers can continue fixing N2 when the soil is drying.Mycorrhizal infection has also been found to improve tolerance of plants to drought (e.g., Acacia auriclIliformis inoculated with the ectomycorrhizal Baletus suillus ).Mycorrhiza are symbiotic associations between fungi and plant roots. Some mycorrhizal fungi develop exclusively outside the roots; these are called ectomycorrhiza (e.g., Baletus suillus). Others, called endomycorrhiza, grow inside the roots with their vesicles and arbuscules inside the roots and with their fungal filaments eKtended outside (e.g., Clamlls sp.). These are the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza, usually referred to as YAM.Soil acidity and related problems of Ca deficiency and aluminum and manganese toxicity adversely affect nodulation, N2 fixation and plant growth Research work on the identifi\"i!tion of symbioses adapted to acid soil should focus on the host plant, because effective rhizobia adapted to soil acidity can be found naturally and can be produced through genetic man ipulations.Phosphorus deficiency is commonplace in tropical Africa and reduces nodulation, N2 fixation and plant growth. Identification of plant species adapted to low-P soils is a good strategy to overcome this soil constraint. The role of mycorrhizal fungi in increasing plant P uptake with beneficial effects on N2 fixation has been reported. Dual inoculation with effe~tive rhizobia and mycorrhizal fungi shows synergistic effects on nodulation and N2 fixation in low P soils. The use of local rock phosphate has been recommended, particularly in acid soils, as an inexpensive source of P. The addition of P-solubilizing microorganisms, particularly of the general Psemdamaias, Bacilllls, Penicillium, and Aspergilfus can solubilize rock phosphate and organically bound soil P (which constitutes 95 -99% of the total phosphate in soils). However, the use of these microorganisms is not widespread. Some reports show nodulation response to K under field conditions. However, other investigators consider the K effect to be indirect. acting through the physiology of the plant.Trees are usually infected by mycorrhil.al fungi in nmural ecosyslems in the tropics. The significance of lhis symbiosis in nature should be beller recognised.Mineral N inhibits the Rhizobium infection process and also inhibits N2 fixation. The former problem probably results from impairment of the recognition mechanisms by nitrates, while the laller is probably due to diversion of photosynthates toward assimilation of nitrates. Some strains of Rhizobium, and particularly stemnodulating Azarhizobium caulinodans , fix N2 actively even when plants are growing in high-N soils (e.g., in the presence of 200 kg fertilizer N ha-I ). Application of large quantities of fertilizer N inhibits N2 fixation, but low doses «30 kg N ha-I) of fertilizer N can stimulate early growth of legumes and increase their overall N2 fixation.The amount of this starter N must be defined in relation to available soil N.Various microelements (Cu, Mo, Co, B) are necessary for N2 fixation. Some of these are components of nitrogenase for example Mo.The two important climatic determinants affecting BNF are temperature and light.Extreme temperatures affect N2 fixation adversely. This is easy to understand because N2 fixation is an enzymatic process. However, there are differences between symbiotic systems in their ability to tolerate high (>35°C) and low «25°C) temperatures.The availability of light regulates photosynthesis, upon which biological nitrogen fixation depends . Thi s is demonstrated by diurnal variations in nitrogenase activity. A very few plants can grow and fix N2 under shade (e.g., Flemingia congesla under plantain canopy) . In alley farming if hedgerows are not weeded, or if trees are planled wilh food crops like cassava, their nitrogen fixation and growth will be reduced due to shading. Early growth of legume trees is slow and they cannot compete successfully for light.Among biotic factors, the absence of the required rhizobia species constitute the major constraifll in the nitrogen fixation process. The other limiting biotic factors could be:• excessive defoliation of host plant ,• crop competition, and• insects and nematodes BNF-6If specific and effective rhizobia are absent in a soil, or if they are present in low numbers, it is necessary to introduce the rhizobia in that soil to ensure proper nodulation and nitrogen fixation. This is called inoculation. If specific and effective rhizobia are present in a sufficient number, there will be no need to inoculate the legume. In agrisystems, whenever one is not sllre of the presence and effectiveness of the native rhizobia, it could be necessary to inoculate the legume with an adequate strain of rhizobia.How one can detemline the need for inoculation? There are some simple tests:Are nodules absent or sparse on an un inoculated young plant growing in a low-N soil? (This is nomlally accompanied by plant N deficiencies). Or, are nodule sections white or green') (This is an indication of poor effectiveness) .A more accurate relative effect iveness trial will provide more precIse information. The trial, in a simple term, consists of growing the legume with and without fertilizer N while controlling all other limiting factors. The relative effectiveness ratio (RE) is then calculated . RE is defined as: dry weight of unfertilized plants x lOO/dry weight of fertilized plants. If the value of RE is more than 5, the inoculation is not required.When the rhizobia in a soil are infective (i .e ., capable of colonizing and nodulating a legume) but poorly effective, they constilllle a barrier to the successful exploitation of Rhizobium inoculant,. Introduced rhizobia must therefore be more aggressive and competitive as nodulators than the native strains. Inoculant rhizobia usually persist in the soil for long periods, particularly when the host is cultivated frequently or is permanent. Persistence of a strain is desirable because it obviates the need for inoculation in subsequent years , assuming inoculant strains maintain their original effectiveness.Inoculation with rhizobia is usually recommended for newly introduced legumes. Most positive responses to inoculation are confined to crops which have specific requirements for Rhizobium (e .g., Leucaena ieucocepilaia, American varieties of soybean). Indigenous legumes seldom respond to inoculation with introduced rhizobia because they nodulate with resid(nt strains, even if these native rhizobia are not the most effective ones.Inoculation with rhi zobia should be considered as an exceptional farming practice rather than the rule. In Australia and the USA , inoculation has played a vital role in legume production. But in developing countries, the practice is not widespread .The major drawback to inoculation technology is the wide variability in yield responses All these consideratiorls call for a substantial research support system capable of defining the most appropriate inoculants and procedures for each site and probably for each cropping season as well. The use of freely nodulating legumes will be much easier in this respect.Inoculation procedures are detailed in Volume I of this training manual (see Appendices).Defoliation (e.g., pruning and lopping) decreases the photosynthetic ability of legumes. It impairs N2 fixation and can lead to nodule decay. For perennial legumes, nodule decay sheds a high number of rhizobia in the root zone. When new roots develop in subsequent vegetative cycles, nodulation of the legume is expected to improve. Scientists at /ITA have observed that uninoculated Leucaena leucocephala nodulated very sparsely the first year and showed nitrogen deficiency symptoms. After a number of years nodulation improved and N deficiency symptoms disappeared.Intercropping legumes with non-leguminous crops can result in competition for water and nutrients. This competition can affect N2 fixation negatively. However, it has been shown that when mineral ' oJ is depleted in the root zone of the legume component by the non-leguminous intercrops, N2 fixation of legumes may be promoted.Insects and nematodes have also been reported to interfere with nodule formation, development, and functions.From the biochemical reac tions of BNF presented in section 2.1, it is evident that N2 flxing systems contribute to the quality and quantity of agricultural production.Measurement of BNF call provide information on whether actual N2 fixation i. under the experimental conditions.For long-term estimates, a series of measurements must be perfonned to include diurnal, daily, and seasonal changes. Variation in light intensity, temperature, and moisture in the field will increase the level of variation of nitrogenase activity and will reduce the significance of integration of short-term assays. A problem that is inherent in ARA is the need to calibrate the rates of ethylene production with the actual rates of N2 fixation. The commonly used ratio of 3:1 for acetylene reduced per N2 fixed is not always valid. Also, nitrogenase activity of some legumes declines considerably once nodules or roots are detached from the rest of the plant. For plants with long roots, it is difficult to collect all the nodules. To minimize this limitation, the plants are confined to open ended chambers and ARA is done insim.Medium-term Estimation of BNF: N-solute Analysis of Xylem Exudate N-soJute analysis of xylem exudate is a medium-term type of estimate because it involves the integration of more than one hour of events. The underlying principle is based on the fact that nitrogen from B 1\\ F can be o'ansported to the leaves in the form of (I) ureides, allantoin and allantoic acid, or (2) asparagine and glutamine. In agricultural soils, where nitrate is the most readily available form of N for plant growth, the solutes derived from soil mineral N will contain principally free nitrate and organic products of nitrate reduction in the roots. Correlations can be established between the N2 fixed nitrogen in forms (I), (2), and soil-derived N. Using these correlarions, it should be possible to assess N2 fixation, or at least to obtain an index of BNF by collecting and analyzing plant sap for the above-mentioned N compounds.The methods are simple and have been used successfully in ureide legumes.Solute analysis can be used in farmers' fields because it is virtually non-destructive. It is also relatively inexpensive. Repeated measurements are also required to fully integrate measurements of total N fixed over a long period of time.  10-25% of LOtal N of xykm sap collected from glasshouse-grown or field planls estimated to be in urcrdes.How to Increase BNF and Nz Fixing Abilily Biological N2 fixed represe nls N gain and detemlines inorganic N fertilizer savings in cropping systems. Legumes can fix more than 250 kg N ha--I However, the amounts of N2 fixed can vary considerably in time and space. The nin-ogen fixation process is influenced by factors such as:• presence and effectiveness of rhizobia ,• pest damage, BNF-IO• plant genotype and age,• plant and rhizobia interactions,• changes in soil physiochemical conditions, and• various management practices such as tree pruning or pesticide application that Carl affect both symbiotic panners, Four common approaches to enhance biological nitrogen fi)(ation are:• inoculation with proven strains (covered above),• microbial screening for improved strains,• host-plant screening and breeding, and• adoption of cropping systems <lnd cullUral practices.There are collections of effective rhizobia located at centers around in the world for most, if not all, legumes used in agriculture (Takishima et ai, 1989). These strains may be screened 10 identify the most effective and competitive one(s) for a given agroecosystem. Once elite strains h<lve been identified, the legume under consideration is inoculated. Instructions on inoculant use are usually given by the manufacturers.Seed inoculation using peat inoculant is the most commonly used method. However, studies are under way to assess the effectiveness of post planting inoculation as a corrective measure. Dual inoculation of rhizobia and mycorrhizal fungi has proven beneficial in some cases.A screening of legume plants, with high N2-fi)(ing components can be carried out. Breeders have developed plant varieties with promiscuous nodulation to obviate the need for inoculation with rhizobia. In some laboratories in the USA, plants that do not nodulate with indigenous rhizobia but only with introduced \"super\" strains are being developed.There are still many unexploited legume-Rhizobium symbioses in the world.The potential benefit of screening these symbioses is underscored by the fact that only about 0.5% of existing leguminous specie'; are presently used for agricultural purposes.It is evident that inclusion of N2-fixing components in cropping systems wi!! increase N inputs in agrisystems. Cultural practices can control some of the above- Biologically fixed nitrogen can be estimated using the acetylene reduction assay method. xylem exudate analysis. or by other methods.A number of edaphic. climatic. and biotic fa ctors inhibit N2 fixation . Among these. the absence of specific and effective rhizobia in the soil is the most important.The amount of biologically fixed nitrogen can be enhanced by different methods.including inoculation with proven stmins. screening for improved microbial and hostplant materials. and introduction of improved cultural practices. N2 -------> .... ? ... --------> amino acids -------> ... T F e.Because biological nitrogen fixation normally occurs in the roots, light availability will have no impact on N2 fixation.f.Different symbiotic systems have different tolerances to temperatures. Technical paper 3 is intended to enable you to:1. Explain the systems concept.2. Describe 6 basic elements of a system.3. Discuss the use of systems terminology in agriculture and agroforestry.4. Describe analytical steps in systems analysis ..5. Explain interdisciplinary nature of systems research approach.6. Identify criteria to classify agroforestry systems.7. Classify agroforestry systems.Technical Paper 3:Agroforestry Systems -Concepts and Classification M. AvilaThe word system is used very often in the agricultural research and development literature. Yet use of the system concept is rather a recent development and consequently lacks uniformity in its conceptual definition and methods of approach. In a broad sense, a system is defined as a group of associated elements forming a unified whole and working together for a common goal. For example, the sociological household is a system composed of elements of persons, resources, customs, etc. A farm is an agricultural system composed of crops, livestock, trees, etc.An imponant characteristic of a system is that since different elements of the system are interrelated, a change in one element causes change in one or more of the other elements. Funher. an element of a system can itself be considered as a system.The crop production activities of a farm constitute its cropping systems. An animal is also an example of a living system, an element of the animal production system. Every system can be thought of as one component of another larger system.Many different systems approaches are used by scientists to unravel complexities. Humankind is ever busy trying to understand the real world. To make sense of reality, scientists use their imagination to define systems that simplify real phenomena. Systems can be of any size or complexity varying from a molecule to a solar system. Where systems are highly complex, they are studied in terms of subsystems. Models, which are extensions of the known to understand the unknown. are often used to visualize systems. A model is appropriate if it incorporates all relevant elements and their relationships. Reality. however. is too complex to be represented completely by a model.Although scientists are always keen on the descriptive and/or analytical value of their systems, other professionals and practitioners are also interested in systems, perhaps for different reasons. For example. the systems approach can be effective for management (e.g., for monitoring key factors that can improve operations and performance), predictions (knowing what will happen if key factors change in the future), or for training (e.g., for auto mechanics. electronics, agricultural production).A systems approach helps to focus attention on what is important, effective, and practical.A system may have many elements. The six basic elements of any system are:• boundaryA system has a boundary, This clearly defines what remains inside (endogenous) and what remains outside (exogenous). Understanding a system means knowing how the endogenous parts relate to each other and how they independently and holistically relate to the exogenous environment. Boundaries can be real or imaginary.A system has structure. This refers to how the pans relate to each other in terms of space and time. In other words, structure signifies spatial and temporal arrangements.A system has function. This refers to input•output relationships. A function is a process in which inputs are introduced, managed, and convened into outputs within a time spectrum, in order to achieve desired objectives or goals.A system also has state. For example, a steady state system is one that does not experience any change in structure or function within a given period. This would not be the case in a system that is just being developed, or a system experiencing a declining state of resources or productivity. Both endogenous and exogenous factors can cause changes in the state of the system.There is a hierarchy of interrelated and interdependent systems. For example, a human being system is pan of a household system, which is pan of community system, which is pan of a regional system, which is part of a nation, which Agroforestry-3 in rum is pan of a community of nations. This means that the analysis of any system in this hierarchy must take cognizance of the influence of higher and lower-order systems.For example, one cannot fully understand an individual person's behavior without understanding the household and community of which he or she is part. Funhermore, there is the question of how generally or specifically a system is defined. One could describe and analyze a human being system, for example. It I general level such that it Ipplies to all human beings on earth. or at a very detailed level such that each person is. in fact, a different system. Thus the choice of !he precise level in this hierarchy is critical for systems definition and analysis.Basically. there are two types of syStems: mechanistic and purposeful. In the former. behavior is predictable as the system does not determine its own goals, rather it reacts to predetermined stimuli (e.g., a computer or an airplane). A puposeful system determines ils own goals and the ways to achieve them (e.g., an animal, household or nation).There are many uses of systems terminology in agriculture, such as ecozone system, land use system, farming system, cropping system, livestock system, agroforestry system. Let us develop one of which is in common use today. the fanning system, and refer to it to explain others.Most expens agree to a definition of a farming system as a combination of crops. livestock. and trees, managed in diverse spatial and temporal arrangements, subject to biophysical and socioeconomic conditions, to satisfy the household's objectives and priorities. Such a system can be described. first. in terms of structure A farming system can also be described functionally. as in Figure 2. This is a qualitative representation. indicating the endogenous interactions among production systems and the household, and also the exogenous interactions with the environment.It is imperative to quantify these interactions in order to understand how well thl, Agroforestry -4system is managed and how well it is meeting the household's objectives as well as to Identify Its constraints.The structure of a sample small-farming system. This is an example of structural clescription In system analysis. Produclion systems in relatioll 10 household loals and ,,,olenous 'actors. This is an example 0' jllnc,jonal description in system a •• lllll.Cropping and Livestock Systems: A structural description of the crop component alone. that is to say the cropping system of a farming system. is presented in Figure 3. The figure shows how different cropping patterns are managed with respect to spatial and temporal arrangements. A functional description of the livestock component is presented in Table I . It identifies the specific contributions of various livestock species to the household and to other components of a farming system.Agroforestry systems: The presence of trees on external and internal boundaries. cropland. homestead plots or on any other available niche of farmland.defines the agroforeslry systems structurally (see Figure I). There are several agroforestry systems on this fanning system. and each can be described functional.i.e .. in tenns of inputs used and OUtputs generated. Table 3 contains a full list of structural and functional considerations which can be used 10 define and analyze agroforestry systems. However. it is essential to remember thai any agroforestty system can be subdivided into other systems and is a pan of larger systems. -:. :-:-:.:-:-:-:-:-;.-.. --.. . ..;.:-:-:.;-:.:.;.;-:Area of larm under cultivation Land-use syslems: What is a land-use system? Each system identified thus far can be described and analyzed with emphasis on how land as an essential resource is being used and managed by the household in the farming system or in any production system.1be land-use systems analysis could comprise:• household priorities and objecri ves,• land-use intensity, namely, units of inputs or labor per hectare,• levels of management,• productivity levels and potentials, and• disposal and use of outputs .Similarly, one could analyze systems defined on the basis of other crucial factors such as labor, household information, or market participation. II is all a question of the desired focus or emphasis for understanding a given fanning system or its parts.Ecozone System: One usually wants to study farming systems within a larger system, e.g., an ecozone system. The latter could be defined on the basis of homogeneous characteristics such as altitude, climate, topography, soil type, or vegetation; or, alternatively, on the basis of specific fanning and/or production systems which reflect to a large e)(tent what is feasible in terms of the above agroecological determinants. The analysis at this level can be conducted as follows: If one studies many farming systems in a particular ecozone, one notices common patterns with respect to strucutural and/or fuctional characteristics which provide a logical basis for classifying farming systems. A general definition criteria (e.g .. systems with maize and cattle), will encompass a greater number of farms, while a more specific definition criteria (e .g., systems with specific man agement and yield levels of maize), will contain a lesser number of farms.Systems analysis aims at comparing one system with others or assessing tre comparative performance of the same system over different periods of time. The performance of a system depends to a large eKtent how its components interact. both structurally and functionally. To analyze a system one should use assessment criteria Ag>'ofol'estl'y-8based on the relationship between structural and functional components of the system.Fanning systems in tropical environments are typically characterized by multiple combinations of structural and functional interactions and therefore it is important to identify such interactions and to quantify their positive and negative effects. Agrolorestry-9Three useful indicators of perfonnance for a system are:• Management intensity, which is measured as an input/input ratio. For example, amount of fenilizer/ha, or labor inputlha.• Productivity, which is measured as an outputlinput ratio, For example, yield/ha, or yieldllivestock unit.• Profitability, which is measured as output value/input. For example, net benefit invested or net benefi tlha.Other indicators include those related to the physical resource status, such as soil fel1i1ity and structure, or vegetation cover.The criteria are calculated for a given time period, usually a season or year. If one studies how and why these indicators vary over the medium tenn (2 -5 years) or the long term (5 -15 years), then one can assess whether the system in question is stable and sustainable. Thus. sustainability of a system can be ascenained by studying long-term trends in the indicators of physical resource status, management intensity, productivity, and profitability.In a general sense, systems analysis means an explicit consideration of system objectives, interplay of endogenous components and factors, and interaction/linkages with exogenous systems; the analysis uses the time factor as an important variable. On the basis of the preceding sections, the systems analysis process can be broken into a series of steps, each answering one of the following key questions:Present Perfonnance of the System• What is the structure of the system(s)?The structural components refer to basic resources such as edaphic, biotic, abiotic, or economic resources ..Structural assessment involves a specification of boundary and spatial, as well as temporal arrangements of physical components; this is usually done on a qualitative and/or quantitative basis.• What is the function of the syslem(s)? The functional components rei~r to management resources, viz, input levels used, technological and economic input, and output levels achieved , both in physical and/or economic terms.Functional assessment involves a description of inputs (use of labor, cash inputs, information), outputs (food, feed, materials) and their disposal (home consumption, sale), and the timing of when these events occur. Management and performance analysis is needed here, including quantitative analysis. Biophysical as well as socioeconomic criteria should be used for functional assessment over a given period such as 1,2, or 5 years.• What is the state of the system? Answering this requires analysis of trends with respect to changes in the basic structure and/or functions of the system. Stability and sustainability are impoItant considel1ltions in this step.In all these investigations, the influence of risk and uncenainty factors (e.g., climate price structure, human emergencies) should not be underestimated, especially in agriculture-based systems.The above questions seek information on the present performance of the systems. If the task is to improve the system, then one must ask a set of additional questions:• What are the objectives of the system manager(s) (e.g., farmer and household). And how do those objectives match up with present system performance? It should be noted that, although the manager's objectives and priorities for the system may not acceptable to all, they can be ascertained and recorded accurately.• What are the posi'ive and negative effects on the system of the present component structures andlor functions? How could they be modified or replaced to achieve higher levels of performance? Any proposed interventions must to be appropriate and acceptable to the manager(s).• What are the positive and negative effects on the system of exogenous factors, and what should be done about these factors to move the system in the desired direction?• If endogenous and/or exogenous changes should be carried out, what adjustments of structure and/or function are required by the system manager to successfully implement the proposed changes? Are they feasible technically. managerially, and economically?Agroforestry-llThe primary focus analysis of system perfonnance is the identification of constraints and key opporlUnites for improvement. This leads to a beller understanding of the type of changes to structure and function that would be required to make the system perfonn as expected by its manger(s) -whether fine-tuning. incremental changes. or major changes.Research with a systems approach is used in almost all biophysical disciplines. such as ecology. genetics. soil science. husbandry. pathology. and engineering. as well as in social science disciplines including economics. sociology. anthropology. and political science. However. there is a major difference in the conceptual framework and analytical methods used by natural scientists. as compared to social scientists. For the former. research typically deals with plants. organisms. and animals under \"controlled\" conditions. while for the laller. research deals wilh people in their \"natural\" habitat where \"controls\" can be exercised only through analytical methods. In this respect.each discipline in the natural and social sciences has different tools for studying and improving land-use production systems.An interdisciplinary. systems approach is often used in research on land-use systems. whether homogenous or mixed systems (Table 2). Research 10 improve any of the land-use systems shown in Table 2 would require interaction among scientislS from the different disciplines. Particularly in the case of mixed systems. interdisciplinary research can be quite complex and challenging. To be effective. team interaction should be based on a consensus on the systems analysis process and on the specific contribution to be made by each discipline 10 the overall research strategy.Productive interdisciplinary research requires a leader or leaders possessing expertise in systems analysis. orientation to client fanner needs. technical know-how. and team management skills.Agroforestry systems can be classified in different ways using structural and functional considerations (Table 3). One common classification of agroforestry includes agrosilvopastoral. silvopastoral or agrosilviculture systems. which can be funher sub-divided depending on specific arrangements and/or functions.J4rro(orestry-12 Alley grazing. fodder tree banks.Homegardens. alley fanning with Livestock.Another classification divides agroforestry systems into \"mainly agrosilvicultural\" (i.e .• trees with crops). \"mainly or partly silvopastoral\" (i.e .• trees with pasture and livestock) \"tree-component predominant\", and \"other components present\". This scheme recognizes further subdivision according to structural or functional considerations (Table 4). This panicular classification is probably best suited for analysis of the potentials of agroforestry.More recently. with a view to reviewing and synthesizing the state-or-the-art in agroforestry research and development for an annual ICRAF three-week course. the author and a lecturing team adopted the classification shown in Table 5.Table 3.Slruclural and 'unctlo •• 1 criteria 'or definin, and tlauir,lDI agro'oreslry syste .. s.Homestead/ Ex'ernal In,emal Annuals Pere-G.ass TreeOlhtt Clusification Garda! Bounclary Boundary nniala land plot Pia'Miscellaneous (I.te'-, .o il. etc)... Each can derive from: leaves, flowers. fruils, wood, bark and root effects .Table 4.~o(orestry-J4An exampl. or the classification of .,lroforestry syslems. (After Young.   1.3.s.6.A second example or the classincation or aarororestry systems (Torquebiau, 1989).Alley Farming (hedgerow intercropping)Crops under tree coverPastures and animals under tree cover Agroforests (live fencing. boundary planting. windbreaks, shelterbellS)Sequential technologies (shifting cultivation. taungya, improved fallow)Other technologies (aquaculture and apiculture with trees)Structural criteria are readily applicable in classifying agroforestry systems. In contrast, the use of functional criteria to classify agroforestry systems is uncommon.The science of agroforestry is not yet sufficiently advanced in the analysis of technology management and performance to define useful functional criteria for system classification. The occasional exceptions include. for example. speaking of alley farming for soil fertility improvement or for fodder production, or indicating how a farming system's output is to be disposed of (e.g., for home consumption. cash generation, or both).The key task at present is 10 determine the most appropriate criteria to apply in classifying agroforeslry systems. The choice of classification depends on its intended use of the classification. For purposes of technology development, the chosen classification should provide a useful framework for guiding research and assessing research progress.This paper presented six basic elements of a system namely. boundary, structure, function. state. hierarchy, and type. These were applied to define and describe farming systems. agroforestry systems, and land use systems. Subsequently. systems analysis was explained in terms of the types of interactions, assessment criteria. and analytical steps researchers should follow as they seek to answer specific questions related to understanding and improving sytems. The implications of the ~oforlltry-18 systems approach for interdisciplinary research and fOT classiflcation of agroforestry systems were reviewed.3.8 FEEDBACK EXERCISES (Find out the answers from the text) 1.Fill in blank spaces in the following sentences.a.)A system may be defined as a group of ______ forming a _ _ _ _ _ and sharing a common _ _ _ _ _ _ b.) Where systems are highly comple)(, they are studied in tenns of c.) Models are often used to visualize a system. However a model is appropriate only when all_______________ and their _ _ _ _ _ are incorporated in the model.Identify the correct statements.a.)A system has a state, which refers to input-ouTput relationship.b.) All systems can be grouped into two categories, namely, mechanistic and purposeful.c.) A system's structure refers to spatial and temporal arrangement of its parts.Systems are governed by the theory of hierarchy. This means every system is composed of sub-systems, which in turn arc composed of further sub-systems.Give four e)(amples of the use of system's tcnninology in agriCUlture.Prepare a rough sketch of a farming system in tenns of its functions.When describing an agroforestry system as a pan of a fanning system, what two functional criteria can be used?Name four indicators of system perfonnance I)Management intensity2)3)a)1.2.Write 3 questions that should be asked to learn about the present performance of a system.b) What additional 4 questions should be asked to address improvement of the system~ 1.3.An interdisciplinary team is to work on constraints' analysis of some mixed production systems. Can you name 6 possible types of mixed systems for such a study?Crop-crop system 2)3) 4)5) 6)2)What are the two main types of criteria used  M. Avila and S. MinatDiagnosis and Design (0&0) is a systematic and objective methodoiolY developed by ICRAF to initiate, monitor, and evaluate agrofOfeSby programs. D&D is based on the philosophy that knowledge of the existing situation (diagnosis) is essential to plan and evaluate (design) meaningful and effective programs in agroforestry research for development. The methodology plays a strategic role in all the phases of the agroforestry research process (Hullley and Wood, undated). It borrows from other methodologies used by research or development agencies, such as baseline surveys and feasibility studies. However, D&D is unique in that it has been specially developed for the following purposes (Raintree, 1987):• to describe and analyze existing land use systems;• to design appropriate agroforestry technologies to alleviate those constraints;• to design appropriate research work, such as trials and further surveying.The basic unit of D&D analysis is the land use system (LUS). The LUS can be defined and analyzed at the level of a country, ecozone, farming system, crop system, or any other unit. The structure and function of any LUS are determined by climatic, physical. biological, technological, economic, social, and political factors. D&D focuses on the interactive effects these factors have on the LUS, and searches for opportunities for improved system development in the LUS.Within the context of alley farming research, ICRAF's D&D methodology can serve a variety of useful roles. It can, in the first place, provide a justification fOT alley farming research by demonstrating land use constraints which the system can address (e.g., soil degradation, land scarcity , need fOT low•input technologies). At the same time. it reminds researchers that alley farming is just one land use system among many, and that other agroforestry or non-agroforestry interventions may be more appropriate in specific cases , Finally. D&D methods can guide researchers as they find ways to adapt alley farming prototypes to local conditions.D&D can be done at two level's: Macro DelcD is a large--scale analysis of an ecozone within a country or a group of countries. For example, ICRAF has conducted collaborative macro D&D exercises with Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi for the bimodal highland eC02one. Macro D&D is important for deciding on national agroforestry research and extension agenda at the national level. Micro D&D, in contrast, focuses on one land use system (LUS) within the larger eC020ne that has special priority for agroforestry intervention. Micro D&D involves a detailed analysis of households and production systems in the LUS. It leads to guidelines for research that will address the constraints of the prioritized LUS.The basic objecti\\le of ICRAF's agroforestry research is to develop technologies to solve farmers' problems in priority land use systems in specific ecozones. An agroforestry technology should be specified with reference to at least its principal components: MPT species, spatial arrangement, management regimes (i.e., management of the trees and associated components), and performance levels (i.e., technical and socioeconomic criteria). To this end, ICRAF has developed a research process that uses a systems perspective and an interdisciplinary approach. D&D exercises initiate the process, and the design of agroforeslTy technologies is the pivotal The Objectives of Macro D&D Macro D&D is an analysis of an ecozone within a country or group of countries.The four main objectives of the Macro D&D are:• to identify broad issues and problems constraining all the land use systems in a given ecozone;• to identify and prioritize areas for potential agroforestry interventions;• to identify research priorities and formulate research programs; and• to identify needs, opponunities, and mechanisms for inter-institutional collaboration for technology development.To meet these objectives, macro D&D uses rapid appraisal techniques. It relies heavily on secondary data which are verified and complemented by quick field surveys.There are seven steps in macro D&D excercise:I . Identification of study ecozone,Delineation of land use systems within the ecozone,Description of land use systems,Analysis of land use system constraints and potentials.D&D-4Analysis of potential agroforestry technologies,Definition of agroforestry research needs, and 7.Inter-institutional coordination.We will discuss these one at a time.The first step in macro D&D is the selection of an ecozone for study. The zone covered in a macro D&D exercise is large, containing significant variations in land characteristics with respect to current uses and constraints. The choice of the study zone should reflect its biological and socioeconomic importance at the national level based on:• the zone's contribution to food production ancVor income;• the total population it supports ancVor the area it covers;• the urgency of its constraints;• the extent of its unexploited potential for production; and• the level of its development with respect to other areas.For example, in the case of Eastern and Central Africa, the bimodal highland ecozone seems to be an important study zone. According to Hoekstra (1988), it contains a significant proportion of the area and human population:in Kenya (15% of area and 50% of population), Uganda (40% and 62%), Rwanda (62% and 73%), and Burundi (85% and 90%).Each ecozone contains within it a variety of land use systems (LUSs).Delineation (definition) of the LUSs is the next step in macro D&D D&:0-5A land use syslem (LU5)wilhin an ecozone level can defined as follows: II is a population subgroup in which Ihe features and constraints of the fanning systems are sufficiently homogeneous to yield similar results if a given agroforestry technology is introduced into those fanning systems. The main guideline for distinguishing land use systems is that each system should display unique constraints and potentials differentiating it from other systems in the ceozone of interest.Accordingly, an LUS consists of a distinctive combination of soils, crops, livestock, trees and/or other production systems; it occupies a given unit of land where specific outputs are desired and obtained by a given management unit. Normally the smallest unit of decision• making is the household, but any unit (i.e., clan, communal group, cooperatives or company) that makes management decisions collectively and/or shares intimately in the input/output nows of a system is also considered to be an LUS unit. Some examples of delineated land use systems are given in Table I to clarify the above points.All delineated LUSs are described by specifying the characteristics that are known to affect their current management and performance, and would be expected to affect the introduction of potential agroforestry technologies. These characteristics are outlined below : I . Tille of system [1. Location : admini strative and political divisions, with map if available.  Each system has to be evaluated for factors that prevent its households from obtaining optimal outputs from the available resources. This step requires analysis of Constraints analysis is based on problems facing households -both present problems and envisaged future problems. Emphasis is put on constraints which agroforestry can address.To diagnose constraints properly, the research team must understand the relationships between manifested symptoms and causal factors. An example of constraints analysis is given in Table 2.Because almost every constraint identified has several causal factors and symptoms (effects), the D&D team must have a multi-disciplinary capability. It must be able to interpret the relationships between these factors and the objectives of the household. Furthermore, it must be able 10 determine what opportunities exist to address the constraints. For this reason, constraint analysis is done concurrently with LUS characterization. For example, if one observes steep slopes in cropland, one can conclude that soil erosion is a likely hazard if nothing is being done to prevent it. If agroforestry seems viable, the list of high-priority constraints will suggest specific options for consideration. For example. a fodder shortage problem could be addressed through these seven agroforesty options: a. establishment of fodder banks for a cut-and-carry system; b. improvement of grazing management through live fencing; c. introduction of fodder trees for browse in grazing lands (e.g., alley grazing);  g. establisment of alley fanning mainly for fodder production Each technology must be assessed to determine how it would fit into the existing system. For example, d, e, and g are likely to be suitable for intensive systems where farmers are already practicing zero grazing; f is for semi-intensive systems, while CIS probably preferable for farmers who have grazing land.\"Ex-ante\" evaluation of a technology is part of technology assessment. It is carried out to determine a technology's potential for adoption. Ex-ante evaluation means the evaluation of the likely impact of a proposed technology before the technology has been introduced. It is based on appropriate assumptions using relevant data from other sources. This requires knowledge of technology management and performance under the specific conditions of the LUS.If a proposed technology is well known and some farmers are familiar with its management and requirements, then a recommendation for extension programs can be formulated. On the other hand, if very little is known about the technology, then the The team should next carry out a comparative analysis of the research needs for each agroforestry technology for each LUS within an ecozone. This analysis will be the basis for the design of appropriate research programs. Thus the main output of the macro D&D exercise is the definition of a research agenda to develop relevant technologies for the ecozone of interest.A macro D&D exercise should initiate an inventory and review of past and present agroforestry research or development programs. For example, the research team in the Kenyan study identified all the national or international institutions with existing research on the prioritized agroforestry technologies. The team classified the existing research according to MPT species being evaluated (Table 3). The results of macro D&D will suggest specific problem areas for complementary research in different institutions and better use of their scientific and physical resources. If several countries are involved, as in the case of a network, macro D&D provides a sound basis for planning inter•institutional collaboration across countries.In practice, inter•institutional coordination is established even before macro D&D begins, based on institutional interests, programs, and potential contributions from the disciplinary areas essential to agroforestry. In some countries, agroforestry coordinating institutions may already exist. e.g., Ghana, Malawi, and India, where leRAF has facilitated the creation of coordinating mechanisms.Basically three types of institutional coordination can be established, namely:• A steering committee to set policy, review and approve research;• A technical committee, possibly a subgroup of the steering committee. to coordinate implementation, monitoring and evaluation research programs. For example, the sleering committee in Kenya has 15 institutional members while the technical committee has just two members; The objectives of micro 0&0 are similar to those of macro 0&0. The major difference is that whereas macro 0&0 has a broad scope (i.e., an ecozone), micro 0&0 focuses on detailed analysis of one prioritized LUS. The three main objectives of micro 0&0 are:• to describe and analyze an LUS in order to identify its constraints; and• to design and evaluate agroforestry technologies to address the constraints• to design and evaluate appropriate research programs aiming to develop these technologies.The basic principles for achieving these objectives were presented under macro 0&0 (section 4.3) and are also relevant for micro 0&0.Since resources are inevitably limited. a country, institution or project will have to be selective in deciding which LU 5s should be subjected to micro 0&0. The choice of the LU5 for micro 0&0 depends on criteria such as:D&:D-14• political and economic imponance of the system,• technical potentials for improvement of the LUS, and• scientific expenise and other resources in the national collaborating institutions for carrying out research in the LUS.Although it is not essen tal for a macro 0&0 exercise to precede a micro 0&0 exercise, the task of prioritizing LUSs, defining the research focus, and defining areas for institutional collaboration will be much easier after macro 0&0 has been completed.This phase of micro D&D aims at:• prioritizing the needs of the household;• identifying production constraints (both those that can and cannot be manipulated ); and• assessing potentials for system development.The basic framework used for this analysis is a farming system, where the decisionmaking unit is the household. The household usually manages a combination of crop, livestock, and tree production systems, along with other non-agricultural and off-farm activities. to satisfy its basic felt needs of food, cash, fuel wood, building materials, and security. Besides endogenous factors, the farming system is influenced by exogenous factors of a political, social, economic, or technological nature. Understanding the interactions within the farming system ,,-nd the effects of environment is essential for prioritizing the needs of the household, identifying production constraints, and assessing potentials for system development.The micro D&D research team, therefore. will want to quantify resources.    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - --------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another micro D&D exercise analyzed the coffee-based farming system in the bimodal highland ecozone of Kenya. The team identified the critical constraints of each production system (livestock, crop, and wood production), defined the causes of each constraint. and proposed a corresponding role for agroforestry to address each constraint (Table 5). The research team subsequently identified suitable agroforestry technologies for every potentially exploitable niche in the farming system (Table 6).The constraints analysis aspect of micro D&D is well suited for planning the initial stages of research. However, later stages of research may require a re-assessment or a more precise measurement of some of these constraints.The word design here refers to the act of combining various innovations into a technology and specifying the techniques to test the technology. Accordingly, the design and evaluation objective of micro O&:D focuses mainly on:• technology specification, and• ex-ante evaluation of technology.For any type of production system, whether crop, livestock or agroforestry, a technology can be defined as a \"package\" of husbandry practices and inputs which is specified in terms of:• the fanning systems!households it is targeted to;D&:D-17  • its components and resource requirements;• the management and implementation regimes to be followed by the fanners;and• the estimation of real benefits and costs to the fanners under favorable and unfavorable conditions.In other words, technology specification should provide sufficient detail to permit technical feasibility analysis, socioeconomic analysis, and assessment by farmers. An example of technology specification in the process of designing MPT hedgerows for napier plots in the coffee-based system in Kenya is given in Table 7.In the course of technology design, several outcomes can be derived depending on the particular decisions and assumptions made by the team at each juncture, especially with respect to target levels of performance desired, management possibilities of the farmers, and endogenous and exogenous conditions of the farming systems.Developing realistic future scenarios in the above areas is an essential part of the technology design exercise.Technology specification demands a lot from the D&D team. It raises a large number of specific questions requiring knowledge of the farming systems and scientific expertise. It demands the intuition to integrate fragmented pieces of information. If the questions raised cannot be resolved to the satisfaction of the team, then specific priorities for research (farm or community studies, experiments) have to be established.For example, the team in a Ugandan D&D study prioritized research areas for each technology that was being designed (Table 8).Because agroforestry is a new science, there is a dearth of technical information on most components. For examples, information on the biophysical productivity of MPTs under different arrangements and management regimes is known only for a few species in selected environments. Similarly, not much is known about utilization and timing of MPT outputs for crop and livestock productivity in alley farming. Successful technology design requires adequate research experience.The D&D team may design several technologies to address constraints of the farming system, in terms of the number of innovations, management requirements, and performance levels. For example, one technology may comprise small incremental changes, another quite radical changes relative to the practices of the farmers, and still another could be an \"optimal\" design of a technology that is absolutely new to the farmers.Table 7. An rxample of technology speciriration from a micro D&D exercise in Kenya.Objective:To increase biomass productivity/quality of fodder for milk production (3 livestock units) by introducing high protein fodder MPTs in existing napier plots of the coffee-based LU S.Land niche:Anangement:Components:Management ofMPT:Required Inputs:Anticipated output:In napier plO! with average size of 0.5 ha per farm.Napier is currently established under I x 0.5 m spacing; MPT hedgerow will be introduced at 0.5 x 4 m, replacing one row of napier.Non-woody species is napier grdss CPennisecum pU'l'ureum, common varieties are Bana and F. camerona); proposed MPT species is Leucaena leucocephala (K8); other species may be better but management and yield unknown.Similar to the management of fanner.;: Establishment: cuttings at onset of rains; Manure: I bucket at planting, small amounts of fertilizer after that; Age at I st CUlling: 6 months; Frequency of CUlling: every 6-8 weeks (1 m height).Propagation by seedling (6 mos before napier during long rains); Age at I st cutting: I year; Height of cutting: 0.5 m; Frequency of cutting: 3 times/year Manure: proposed 0.5 bucket at planting; Weeding: 2 times/year or as often as necessary.Similar to the existing fodder plots; Manure at establishment; Labor at establishment, for weeding and for regular harvesting.Yield of napier not known exactly but fanners require about 0.5 ha/LUS depending upon management and age of napier; research results in the area suggestlhal 0.2 ha well managed can support I cow producing an average of 2500 litres milk per lactation (Karanja, 1986). • Hedgerow intercroppin9 : Grass/shrub strips upper store --------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ex-ante evaluatjon of technoloi!vOnce a technology has been specified in its main components, it becomes possible to carry out an ex-ante evaluation based on data from relevant situations. Ex-ante evaluation is simply the analysis of its probable impacts and implications. Thi~ analysis looks at benefits and conflicts or problems likely to arise at the levels of:• farming system, with respect to household division of tasks and benefits, on-and off-farm activities, and resource use schedules;• community or'village, with respect to obligations, organizations, management, and regional or catchment-level systems; and• region or catchment area, with respect to land tenure, market incentives, credit and extension agencies.The ex-ante analysis should use indicators that are relevant to farmers, in addition to those which researchers and extensionists may consider relevant to their technical domains.It should assess the production potential and technical feasibility of the technology. There are four essential types of analysis involved in e)(-ante evaluation, namely:• Economic viability: benefit/cost ratio; net returns to landllabor/cash; risk and sensitivity analysis.• Sustainabjljh: analysis of the technology's capacity to meet objectives in short -and long-terms; also, analysis of expected changes and requirements related to soils, water, vegetation, management, and commercial input/output streams.• Farmer acceptabjlity: compatabi1ity analysis with respect to resources and management; also, social analysis with respect to defined rules and responsibilities within household obligations, tenurial conditions, etc. It is essential to analyze who in the household makes decisions on the resources required, who has to do the work, and who will receive the benefit accruing from proposed changes.• Adoption potential: analysis of technology impacts in terms of number of farmers, regional development priorities, tenure rights, institutional and infrastructural support systems, etc. (Macro D&D also plays a key role here.)It is logical to expect that the larger and more complex the technology, the more demanding is the ex-ante analysis. During the design process, the team should interact with typical households of the target system and with extension and development agents, panicularly in relation to the following topics:• priority problems being addressed and expected performance levels of the technology;• endogenous factors and constraints to successful adoption;• resource and management requirements for effective establishment (transitional analysis); and• expected benefits, and impacts on fanners' objectives.The ex-ante analysis is not confined only to micro 0&0 but extends into the later technology testing phases as well.There are four types of scietific research. namely:• basic research which is designed to generate new knowledge or understanding;• strategic research to solve specific research problems;• applied research to create new technology; and• adaptive research 10 adjust technology to the specific needs of a particular set of biophysical or socioeconomic conditions.It is generally recognized that these are pan of a continuum in the technology • General MPTs screening trials.• MPTs technology screening trials. and• MPTs management trials.This general scheme is similar to AFNETA 's classification of alley farming research projects into four broad types. namely:• MPT screening and evaluation.• Alley farming management trials.• Livestock integration trials. and • On-farm research and socioeconomic assessment.While all D&D teams have a mandate 10 design a program of research.the scope of their proposals may vary. For example. the Ugandan team proposed four relevant agroforestry technologies (e.g., alley farming. fruit trees). and then specified a set of up to eight different research needs for each technology (e.g. literature review, MPT screening) (Table S). Another proposal emphasized the chronological sequencing of research activities during a five-year program (Table 9). A more detailed research program attempted to identify specific objectives, factors/treatments, and assessments for several types of proposed research (Table 10). Table II presents an example of a summary of an experimental station protocol. It is expected that any D&D exercise will provide sufficient understanding of the farmers' environment and production systems for design the types research programs exemplified in these tables. To achevie this. it   1 Screening Trials . • .DclcD-Z6  ObjectN., To det8rminIt ..,1tabMI.....,. to< \"\"\"\"\"\"'Y _ling \"\" \"\"\"'\"\"\"'\" of tuoOwoodI -_\"-\"Y For upper storev:SUl'vtvaI rat ..\"\"\"\"\" ---\"\"\"' \"\"\"' \"-. ~ Experimen!;al de!;ails i) Field bund i. constructed aero •• the .lope for planting tree. and gra\"1 ii) Each bund plot i. of 4 x 1 m dimen.ion. Gra •• i. to be planted on the upper aide and tree. on the low.r .ide of the bund iii) Where tree and gras. are to be planted together, the gras. will be planted only after the establishment of the treea; iv) In between two bund. bean crop GLP-2 (ROBe-coco) will be planted in the first year and in the second year maize will be cropped. The bean and maize crop. are fertilised aa per local recommendations. The plot, including cropped area, will be on both lides of the bundl v) Distance betw.en two rOWB on the bund will be 50 cm and within the row, plante will be at 25 em.ObBervation. !2 be recorded i) Survival of trees and grass after establishment; ii) Monthly height and diameter observations till the cutting for fodder starts; ii)Fodder yield from gras. and tree.; iv)Estimation for fodder quality (crude protein, crude fibres, etc)' D&D-28 may be necessary for the D&D teams to carry out multi-visit sUlVeys and interactions with land users and to review scientific secondary information.  Precise definition of the target system is also important for the reason that every fanning system or household is somewhat different. Some customizing or fine-tuning of technology is required for each case; this is what occurs in the adoption process.However, in research the objective should be to develop and give priority to the technology or technologies with the widest possible application and greatest impact, so that research resources can yield good returns . Thus the definition of research domains should strike a wise balance : not too general so as to be useless as a guide to research, nor too specific so as to apply only to a small number of farms or households.The research team can assess the effect of its work on the research domain by answering the following questions:• Which LUSs are most affected by the problem under investigation?• Which systems can benefit (one hopes the majority) and to what extent can they benefit from the technologies being developed?• What are the major conditioning and deternlinant factors, endogenous or exogenous to the farming system. for technology management and performance?• What are the expected benefits and impacts of technology adoption?The concept of research domain is a tool to facilitate and expedite the task of focusing on these key questions. If the team can answer them adequately. the concept has served its purpose.D&:D-30The D&D methodology employs several data collection methods appropriate to its specific objectives. Each method has its own strengths, weaknesses, degree of reliability of collected data, and resource requirements (Table 12). For example, the informal survey is fairly effective for identifying constraints, designing technology, promoting interdisciplinary interdctions, and contributing to research planning, but the reliability of the data is not up to the standard of other methods. An informal survey also requires the most input from senior scientists, but its implementation is the quickest with minimum logistical and computer requirements. This offers a definite advantage if the research team does not have access to computer facilities.D&D exercises should generate a minimum of raw data, a maximum of useful information, and in a timely matter. For this reason, the preliminary D&D work will take a rapid appraisal approach using secondary information surveys. D&D work at later stages in the research and development process will use methods that make a maximum contribution within the limits of available human and physical resources.The major decisions in the D&D analysis are derived using interactive and heuristic methods, with the principal actors being the D&D team and the farmers/households. This interaction should be based on solid information, consultation with development agents and policy-makers, and a commitment to arrive at logical conclusions in the process.To ensure effective participation in discussions, all participants must show mutual respect and accept that each can make a valuable contribution. This should be reflected in observance of the following guidelines of behavior:• understand a point from the other's perspective,• criticize constructively, admit if wrong, stress the positive,• reason -don't argue,• explain thoroughly,• offer helpful suggestions, and DeleD-31  Human resourcesLogistic (ven., compo etc.)D&D-32• avoid snap judgements.However, this does not mean that partil\"ipants should accept everything said;there is a need to challenge, seek clarification, and discover the root causes of disagreements or conflicts. In this respect, the farmers should be treated as equal panicipants.For macro 0&0, the total staff time required from planning to conclusion is estimated to be roughly 3 months . An approximate breakdown of the work schedule could be as follows :• planning the study and orientation of the entire team -from 2 to 3 days;• review and synthesis of secondary information -from 2 to 3 weeks;• field work -from 2 to 3 weeks depending on the geographi cal size of the ecozone;• final analysis and reporting -from I to 1.5 months,The review work and report preparation do nOI require participation of the whole team; two members could do these with occasional assistance from the others.Computer support is not essential except, perhaps, for word processing.For micro D&O, the total input of staff time and logistic suppOrt is approximately similar. However, a fonnal survey (i.e., a survey of 5-100 farmers with a semistructured questionnaire) will normally consitute an imponant pan of the study. Formal surveys require computer capability. In addition, the learn may need to allocate relatively more time to the review of relevanr agroforestry researcher and extension work to strengthen its analysis . general screening 2) ________ trials 3) management trials.Place the following terms associated with the Agroforestry Research Process in their correct order of implementation.• technology design• Technology dissemination and adoption.Circle A for agree and DA for disagree.i) In selecting a srudy ecozone under macro D&D, the single criterion used used is the level of development of the ecozone with respect to other areas A DAii) The criteria for distinguishing one land use system from others vary depending on the factors that influence LUS managements and performance.A DAiii) The delineation of an LUS is a one-lime process based on the understanding of biophysical and socioeconomic potentials of the system. A DA iv) Constraint analysis identities two types of constraints, namely modifiable and ftxed, but does not explore causative factors. A DA v) Constraint analysis is done concun'emly with LUS characterization.A DA D&D-35In what way do macro D&D and micro D&D differ? Tick the correct answer.i)In their three objectives.ii) In their scope -macro D&D focuses on the ecozone while micro D&D on the fanning system.iii) In the composition of the multi-disciplinary team.iv) In basic principles to achieve the three objectives.Fill in the blanks. The three components of a research continuum to generate technologies are: Technical Paper 5 is intended to enable you to:I. Explain key principles and concepts of economic analysis for allocating scarce resources to competing options.2. Describe important economic evaluation criteria for technology evaluation.3. Perform short-term profitability analysis of alternative technologies by applying relevant economic concepts and measurement criteria.4. Describe principles involved in management feasibility analysis and risk analysis.s. Define \"total present value\", \"net present value\", \"benefit cost ratio\" and \"internai rate of return\". Research suggests that alley farming technology may be economically feasible and ecologically sound under appropriate conditions. However, there is a continuous need to monitor the economic viability of alley farming systems vis-a-vis other alternative systems under various biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. A basic framework for socio-economic assessment of alley farming was presented in Volume 1(Unit 6). The paper explores the topic in more depth. It begins by reviewing key economic concepts and criteria, and then applies these concepts to the economic evaluation of alley famling in a hypothetical maize-bean system.Economics provides a rational basis for making decisions in allocating scare resources among various options to achieve competing goals. Every person is faced with such situations, where many decisions are possible. One applies economic principles to make rational choices. If resources were not limiting, there would be no need for economic consideration. Some important basic principles of economic analysis are outlined below (Osborn and Schneeberger, 1978).Optimization criteria: To optimize net income from several possible production options, one considers the additional return (i.e., marginal value product) obtained from using one additional unit of an input. If option X gives a higher return than other Cost analysis: For a given production period, for example one year, some costs of production will vary with the level of production. These are variable costs. Other costs of production will be incurred by the farmer, irrespective of the level of production.These are the fixed costs. In the shon run, the farmer has to manage the variable costs efficiently. In the long run, say five years, the fixed costs may drop out completely.Opportunity cost: Any resource has a real value to a farmer equivalent to the return he or she could obtain in the beSt alternative use of that resource. If a farmer has three options to use capital, the highest return of the three is the opportunity cost of that resource irrespective of where the capital is allocated. Products also have an opportunity cost, which is equal to the price the farmer would have to pay to obtain them.Although the manager of a farming system may understand and want to apply these economic principles, he or she may find it difficult to apply them in a real life Economics• 3 situation. There may be various reasons for the difficulty of applying the above principles:• First, the farming system and its environment are dynamic, hence what is optional today may not be tomorrow. The main factors determining profits may change often and it may not be possible to make adjustments immediately.• Secondly, the manager may face emergency situations (e.g., when memben of the household or village pass away) when these principles do not apply.• Thirdly, a lack of incentive or great instability in market conditions may work against implementation of seemingly rational changes.• Founhly, the manager may not have adequate information on critical indicators for appropriate decision making.A combination of these management constraints contributes to decreasing economic efficiency in agricultural production. Normally farmers make decisions on a continuous basis, using well established rules of thumb in relation to the behavior of key variables and indicators, some of them economic in nature.Economic evaluation of the technology can be carried out using various criteria: money, energy, labor value, etc. The only requirement is that the criteria be quantifiable and possess a common denominator such that any input or output can be measured on the same basis. Non-quantifiable criteria can also be included to weigh different options, for example to maximize net income subject to minimum soil degradation. Specifically, for evaluation at the farmer's level, outputs and inputs of a production system are valued as follows (adapted from Perrin et al. 1976):Net yield: This is the measured physical yield/ha in the field for each output, minus harvest and storage losses when they apply.Field price of output: This is the market price of the output minus costs for storage, transportation, and marketing, and quality discount. If no market exists, the field price can be estimated by determining the cost to the farmer of obtaining equivalent substitutes.Field price of input: This is the rota I cosl/unil of bringing an input into the field. It equals the purchase price plus other costs of transpol1, losses, etc. The field price of Economics -4 capital to purchase commercial inputs, for example, includes interest, service charges, and a risk premium of at least 20% per year above the direct costs_ Time Factor: Another key component of economic evaluation is the time factor. Depending on the type of production system, an appropriate time period has to be determined, (e.g. 6 or 18 months, or 10 years). During that period, panicular activities. resources and other factors will change, and require monitoring and analysis.For analytical periods of less than 1 year. the valuation of inputs does not cause any problem. However, if the farmer must invest inputs in a production system today, and receive the outputs after 3 years, one cannot simply add or subtract their monetary values. The concept of discounl factor must be applied. The reason is that if the farmer was to make that investment. let's say in the bank (which is the lowest return option).interest earned for the next 3 years would increase the value of this investment.Discount factor: For long term evaluation of benefits and cost. the discounl factor concept is necessary (Gittinger. 1972). It is defined as the present value. at the beginning of year I, of one dollar ($1) at the end of n years. An interest rate of r is used as the cost of capital. The discount factor (OF) is calculated as:For example. if n = 5 and r = 10%. the value of discount factor will be:Thus if interest rate is 10% and $100 will be received or expended at the end of 5 years, the present value of the capital is $62 and the value of the discount is 0.62.The critical variable of the OF is the \"r\". An r should be used which reflects the real opponunity cost of capital to the farmer. A high \"rn (20-30% per year) means that the farmer puts a premium on short-term rewards whereas a low \"r\" (less than 10%) means that the farmer would rather defer shon-term rewards for investment into the distant future.Present value of a constant annuity: The discount faclOr is used to calculate the present value of a constant annuity (PVCA). The PVCA is defined as the present value If the constant annuity is $500, its total present value is $1245 (= 500 x 2.49).Thus a constant stream of benefits or costs for any length of time in the future can be reduced 10 its present value by using the PVCA.High inflation is a serious problem for long-term economic analysis.Accordingly, the effect of inflation on the timing of costs and benefits of the production system has to be considered in economic evaluation. If the streams of costs and benefits were proportionately distributed in time, there would be no need for concern as inflation would affect both streams similarly. However, since this is not the case, high inflation would tend to discourage farmers from making long-term investments because of the uncertainty associated with such market factors.Using these basic principles and concepts, one can proceed to carry out and interpret economic evaluation of production systems such as alley farming.Economic evaluation of a technology involves comparing technology options that are available to the farmer. One of the options that constitutes the basis of comparison is the present practice of the farmer. The other options include improved alternative practices. For evaluating the economic and technical feasibility of alley farming technology, we shall compare the following three options from a hypothetical case study:• Farmers' traditional maize-beans cropping system,• Improved maize-beans cropping system, and • Alley farming system with Leucaena hedgerows and intercropped maize-beans.The data from the hypothetical case study is given in Tables I to 8, Data are based on available estimates from studies in the sub-humid zone (Avila, 1978), Economic feasibility is assessed by profitability analysis. Management feasibility, which is one aspect of technical feasibility, will be assessed briefly in terms of labor availability , Risk analysis will also be discu ssed briefly, Economics -6To illustrate the procedure for profitability analysis, we will use hypothetical data on labor. inputs, and outputs to determine the values of various economic criteria and profitability indicators.As mentioned before, we shall be comparing three farm management options, namely, traditional maize-beans, improved maize-beans, and alley farming technologies. Tables 1.2 and 3 present measurements of labor use and commercial inputs for the three options.   Economics -9In all three technology options, the values for labor are derived when each system is fully establ ished and operating at a normal expected level. Variation in these labor coefficients with respect to levels of inputs used and yield obtained is expected, due to differences in climate and site. Accordingly, averages and estimates are used to calculate these coefficients.Tables 1, 2 and 3  These are \"field prices\" as defined before. For labor, the going cost is $4 per 6-hour day. If there is seasonal variation during the year, the specification of monthly use permits calculation of total labor costs.Table 4 provides an economic comparison of the three technology options. The performance criteria for economic evaluation of outputs are calculated as follows:Ou!DutGross yield: This is the actual yield obtained in the field .Net yield: Gross yields are adjusted by reducing them by 10% to account for the usuallosses.This reduction is not applied to the traditional system or the fuelwood component.• Gross income: Gross income is derived by multiplying net yield of each component with their respective field prices.Variable costs (labor and <:ommerci al inputs): The se are calculated from the quantity used and the respective field prices.Fixed costs: Land is included because it has an opportunity cost.Economics -10• Cost of hedge establishment ($608/ha in present case): The cost factors are given in Table 5,• Depreciation reflects a cost due to the use of structures or equipment which have to be replaced after their productive cycle, in this case the hedgerows and tools, The linear model is used to calculate annual depreciation, Hedgerows are assumed to lose productivity after 8 years and require uprooting, (This assumption does not apply to many alley farming systems,) As above, the total cost of establishing the hedge is $608!ha, The annual depreciation for the hedge per ha, will be:Total Investment -Salvage Value N umber of Producti ve Years =There is no salvage value in this case, Although some products will be derived when the hedges are replaced, it is expected that their value will merely compensate for the labor to uproot the old hedges, If hedges are established gradually using low opportunity cost labor of the household, establishment costs could be much lower, Moreover, hedgerows under many circumstances will remain productive longer than 8 years.For small tools used in these options, which are replaced every other year, a small sum is included for annual depreciation.Profitability indicators for this shan term analysis are calculated as net or gross returns per unit of the scarce resource. These indicators are calculated as below:Net Income (NI)!ha =  • Depreciation of hedges assumes thal hedges will become unproductive after 8 years and re(juire uprooting. In many alley fanning systems. hedgrows can be maintained for longer than 8 years and may never require uprooting. The values of the profitability indicators for these options are given in Table 4.From this analysis one observes that the traditional system is more profitable in terms of all the indicators e)(cept Gross Returns/$ Cash Input, where it is surpassed by alley farming.A management feasibility analysis uses dynamic criteria such as labor availability and cash flow to determine whether a famler can manage a new technology or system.Economics -13  •These values ll1c1uded in On-Farm labor usc above.In Ihe management of all on-farm and off-faml operations in a farming syslem.the labor resource is probably the most critical due to the seasonally based patterns of labor use. In Table 6. a monthly profile of labor availability and use is presented.including the periods when the farmer has to hire labor or has some surplus labor. In the same table. the mon:hly labor requirements of the three technology options are also given. The data indicate that for the improved maize-b~al1s system. the May and September periods do not appear favorable. For the alley farming system. labor requirements in March. June. September and December are exorbitant. The traditional system has a more moderate labor demand. To adopt either of the two new systems.the farmer would have to hire more labor. Alternately. researchers could explore ways to spread or shift some of these operations to the few slack months.Economics -14 Cash flow is a similar dynamic type of indicator used to determine whether the farmer can manage a new system, It is evident that the improved maize-beans system may encounter problems because of its high cash input requirement in selected months of the year (Table 2), wl\"tereas the alley farming system does not require much cash input (Table 3).In an ideal world. external conditions such as the weather would always be optimal for the farmers. In a nearly ideal world. conditions might not be perfect but at least they would be predictable, Of course. in the real world of farmers, fine weather is never guaranteed. markets are unreliable, outbreaks of crop pests can occur at any time.Newly introduced systems may alter a farmers' capacity for coping with such risk factors. Thus, risk analysis is an imponant pan of both technical and economic evaluation of a system.In this discussion of risk analysis, we will use the example of uncertain seasonal quality in which the hypothetical conditions range from best (wet) to worst (dry). The probability of the occurrence of dry, average, and wet seasons influences the management and performance of the three alternative systems.For each quality of season (dry, wet, average), the gross income, net income, and expected net income are derived. These measurements can be used to determine the best technology choice (Table 7). The average yield figures here are taken from Table 4.Net income under the various possible conditions can be used as criteria for selecting a system. From Table 7, one observes that the option with the maximum returns under the conditions of minimum rainfall is the rraditional system. In shonhand rotation, this may be called the maximin criteria. The maximax criteria would select the option that provides the maximum returns under maKimum rainfall, which in this case is the improved maize-bean system. The moS[ probable criteria chooses the system which provides the best returns under average conditions, which is the traditional system in this case.The Expected Net Income (ENI) is another criteria used in risk analysis. It is calculated as the sum of Net Income per season quality multiplied by the respective probability of that season quality. Thus ENI for improved maize-bean works out as;S~ason Qyalit): The EN! can be interpreted as average profit per hectare that the farmer would receive in the long term, taking into account the variability of season quality. Again the rraditional system has a higher EN!. The alley farming system is also very attractive in terms of EN!.The choice of any which decision criteria to apply depends on the dis~osition of the farmer. If he or she is risk averse, maximin criteria would be appropriate. If he or she prefers to take risks in hope of a higher pay-off, the maximax could be more appropriate. If he or she can absorb sholl-term risks and is concerned with optimizing returns in the long-term, the masl probable and ENI criteria would be appropriate.The yearly distribution of benefits and costs for a 9-year period for the traditional maize-beans and alley farnling system is presented in Table 8. In the traditional maize-beans system, there is a 10% yearly decline in yields of both crops due to the fact that the farmer is not replenishing soil nutrients at a rate that would sustain yields indefinitely. Costs remain constant for the duration of the study period.Some of the tools are replaced every two years. Costs exceed benefits after year 4, which means that in theory the farmer should cease cropping and leave the land fallow.However, the farmer continues operating because he or she needs food and does not worry about compensation for the in-kind resources used (i.e., labor). Land cost is not included in costs because land usually maintains its present value over time.In the alley farming system, benefits remain constant on the assumption that enough multipurpose tree (MPT) biomass will be retained to maintain soil fenility, hence a constant crop yield. Except for the initial hedgerow investment, all other costs also remain constant.At the bOllom of Table 8, discount factors for r = 10% and r = 15% are computed for each year of the study period, using the formula presented in section 5.3.The three performance indicators used for long term economic evaluations are:• Net Present Value (NPV);• Benefit/Cost Ratio (B/C); and• Internal Rate of Return (lRR).In order to determine these indicators one has first to delernline the Total Present Value (TPV) of benefits and costs using the discount factor.Economics -17 Calculation of TPY Using the data given in Table 8, the Total Present Yalue (TPY) of the Benefit at r'\" 10% for traditional maize-bean system for a 9-year period is calculated by summing the discounted tOlal benefits for years 1-9. The TPY (or the COSt could be calculated in (he same way. Similar calculations can be made for alley farming system as well. Thus the TPY for benefits and costs for the two systems are as follows;Traditional System Alley Fanning System The NPV is interpreted as the net profit of the technology. whereas the B/C is the ratio of total benefits to total costs. For a technology to be acceptable. NPV must exceed O.which means that the B/C ratio exceeds 1.0. In the case of the traditional maize-beans system. there is an abnormal result in the sense that as the discount rate increases. the NPV decreases. Normally there would be a direct relationship between the two. This happens because after the fourth year the total costs increasingly exceed the total benefits in this system.These calculations indicate that alley farming offers greater net profits and equal or improved benefit/cost ratios than the traditional system. The indicators are particularly favorable for alley farming at a discount rate of 10%.As stated earlier. another key long-term indicator for economic evaluation of technologies is the Internal Rate Return ORR). The IRR is the exact discount rate at which benefits are equal to costs. At a discount rate equal to IRR. the NPV = 0 and the SIC Ratio = 1.0. The IRR can be estimated with the following formula:where NPY\\ corresponds to interest rate ofT] and NPY2 to interest rate ofr2. Taking the value of T\\ as 10% and r2 as 15%. the IRR for the alley farming may be computed as:. '10 It means that at IRR of 14.9%, benefits are equal to costs. Though:tn IRR of 14.9% appears to be attractive, the opportunity cost of capital for the farmer determines whether this technology can offer better returns. In most cases, the real cost of capital to resource-limited farmers is in the range of 30-35%. However, there are other attributes of alley farming that should be assessed to decide whether to adopt the alley farming system (Avila, 1989).Risk analysis can also be conducted in the long-term by modifying the calculations of yearly benefits, discount rates, or their determinants and observing the effect on the NPV. B/C Ratio, or IRR.Finally, there is a computerized model (MULBUD) to carry out long-term evaluation of agroforestry sysems, such as alley farming. which was developed at ICRAF (Etherington and Mathews, 1984). The mathematical calculations performed here would take just a few minutes with MVLBVD.The key economic concepts for shon and long-term evaluation have been presented. These concepts were applied to compare the profitability, management feasibility, and risk considerations of three alternative technologies: a traditional maizebeans system, an improved maize-beans system. and an alley farming system.Since not all the biophysical and other coefficients in the hypothetical data are based on validated evidence. these results should not be used to make conclusive statements on the economic worthiness of the alley farming system. However. these coefficients can be assessed and their precision imprOVed using new or site-specific research results. The basic procedures used in this exercise provide a useful guideline as to the type of data required, basic questions and issues to be addressed, and appropriate interpretations for the economic assessment of alley farming.5.6 FEEDBACK EXERCISES (Find out answers from the text).Circle T for true and F for false in the statements given below:i)The principle of cost analysis deals with criteria for optimizing income from several possible options. T F ii) Opponunity cost denotes value of inputs in their best alternative uses.iii)The law of diminishing returns states that increasing use of resources results in dminishing returns up to a certain level of resources used and increases thereafter.Variable costs of production vary with the levels of production. T F v)If land is cheap and fertilizer is costly, land can be substituted for fertilizer.T F 2 Given below are the incomplete definitions of 4 perfonnance criteria used in economic analysis. Fill in the missing components. Assessment of socioeconomic issues related to alley farming is in its beginning stages. Some useful examples include Sumberg et al. (1987) andNgambelci (1985).Because of a general lack of on-farm economic data for agroforestry systems, many studies to date have used secondary and simulated data. Researchers can make important contributions to this field by conducting well planned. well executed. socioeconomic data collection exercises.In this chapter. we will review certain principles of economic data collection for the socio-economic analysis of alley farming. using an on-going IITA project as a case study.The !ITA study was started in 1988 and consists of three parts:• an exploratory survey.• a topical survey. and• an intensive data collection (cost-route or panel study).Exploratory surveys are useful tools for conducting socioeconomic inventories of resource management and resource availability in farming systems. Two types of surveys may be used:• key informant interviews, and• village-level group interviews.Individual or household-level interviews are also useful tools for social science research. However. they are more time consuming than key informant or village-level surveys, and generally are not used as exploratory surveys.Key informant intervi.:ws are useful tools for exploratory surveys. A \"key informant\" is generally a person with a special expertise selected to provide information.Socio-economic-2Experienced district officers, extension agents, or senior members of the farming community may be purposely selected to provide information on local cropping systems, soil management practices, or production constraints.Similarly, key informant interviews with women traders could be used to provide information on marketing practices, marketing margins, or costs of transporting agricultural produce. Key informants need not be randomly selected . The researchers may use his or her judgement in selecting panicipams most likely to be knowledgeable about the subject under investigation.Key informant interviews may be informal or formal. They may use an \"openended\" or \"closed\" questionnaire format, or a \"check-list\" approach . With a check-list approach, the researcher lists the topics to be covered in the interview, which takes the form of a discussion . The check-list is essentially a reminder to the researcher of the topics that need to be covered in the conversation .For more formal surveys, a set of specific questions are printed. The researcher moves through the questionnaire asking each question in turn . \"Closed\" questions require that specific responses be recorded, for example:In this region, wOOt is the mO. 1\"I common length offallow following cassava production ?No fallow _ , year _2-3 years _ more than 4 yearsAn \"open-ended\" question does not require a fixed response. The researcher simply records the response of key informant, for example:Open-ended questions are more suitable for qualitative data. Closed questions are more suitable for quantitative data.Many socioeconomic topics can be usefully investigated using key informant interviews, including the following: types of land tenure, price trends, prevalence and SOcICHIConomic-3 sources of hired labor. availability of land. use of communal labor. methods of paying labor. household structure, cropping practices generally, transportation costs, market access, information on food storage and processing techniques. Key informant interviews have the advantages of being relatively rapid and inexpensive.Interviews in the ilIA ProjectIn the !ITA project, village-level group interviews were used as the exploratory survey method. Villages were randomly selected from a list of villages procured from the local government for the area under study. Village contacts were made through the assistance of extension agents. Meetings were fixed one day in advance. Fifteen to twenty people representing small and large fanners and men and women were invited to attend the meeting. Generally two meetings were held per day.Apart from a few general questions to let the meeting get going. the following topics were addressed:• fallow periods and use of fallow vegetation,• land ten ure,• management of crees, and• price and markets.Some questions were also asked on hlbor availability but since this is frequently a sensitive topic it cannot be explored in a great detail in the fonnat of a village interview.Nevenheless. labor availability remains a crucial factor in alley cropping economics.An example of a fonn used for the liT A exploratory survey is presented at the end of this paper (Addendum A).Always introduce yourself and your colleagues and explain the purpose of your study. It may be necessary to establish at the outset that you will not pay the villagers or hand out gifts for participation. A thorough explanation of the purpose of your research and the role of infonnation collected from the fanners can help prevent later difficulties.Socio-economic-4Include information on how many villages you will visit and how they were selected. If villagers do not wish to pal1icipate, move on ro another village.In conducting group interviews, it is important to allow the villagers enough time te discuss matters among themselves before recording an answer. Such discussion should be encouraged. not discouraged. Avoid accepting answers from a single spokesman for all the villagers. Stress that there is no \"right\" answer -that your interest is the farmers' opinions, problems and concerns. Pay attention to differences in answers. For example.men and women may feel that different crops are the most important. Or. women may have different ideas than men about access to bush off-takes such as frrewood.Data from group interviews of this nature is most reliable when dealing with general practices village-wide. Crop and fallow management questions are appropriate for this method. General information on prices and markets may be asked. Group interviews are not suitable for investigating distribution of wealth, land ownership, labor hiring.Questions should be neutral; that is, avoid \"leading questions\". Leading questionshave a panicular answer embedded in the question itself, for example:Is oil bean your mOSI important fuel wood rna/erial?In this leading question, you are suggesting to the farmer that the oil bean tree is the most important fuel wood. This question would be better phrased:Whalthree materials afe mmt often usedfof firewood?(Any list of interview questions (called an interview schedule) should be pretested with a small number of villages (or individuals if appropriate). Modify any questions the In closing the interview, always thank the participants sincerely for their time and information. Ask if there is any information that they would like to add on the topics that have been discussed. It may be helpful to ask if they have any questions. Many of their questions will be technical. so an extension agent or familiarity with extension recommendations is often helpful.Review the material at the end of each day with other team members. Note any problems or ambiguities in responses. These may be cleared up by follow-up visits, or at least corrected in future interviews.The exploratory survey, described above, deals with rather general crop and resource management issues at the village level. It is a useful tool for describing agricultural practices across a region. and for identifying areas for research. A topical survey, on the other hand. is typically very specific and designed 10 answer particular questions on a focused topic. It is often more appropriate to administer a topical survey to individual farmers. When properly designed, a topical survey can provide quantitative data which can be subjected to statistical analysis.For example, data could be collected on land tenure and a table drawn up of the number of plots borrowed. rented . and owned . Such data could then be compared with regard 10 successful and unsuccessful alley farms (Table I). To cut and carry the fodder for livestock may require famJers to make daily visits to their alley farm; data on distance from the compound 10 the alley fann could be collected and analyzed for its effect on the practice of using hedgerow species as fodder (Table 2). Farmers' characteristics such as gender, place of origin, degree of contact with extension personnel, major occupation. are suitable for a topical survey.A topical survey may also be useful for obtaining farmers evaluations of alley farming. Farmers may be asked to list their uses of the hedgerow species. They may be asked to suggest other species which they think would be suitable for alley farming systems. Any \"criticisms\" should be carefully noted and evaluated for possible improvements in the system and its management.Socio-economic-6A sample form used for a topical survey in the IlT A project is presented at the end of this paper (Addendum B).     and in plots of cocoa (Theobroma cacao.) Cocoa plots are not well maintained, yet earnings from cocoa remain an important source of cash and some fanners continue planting new cocoa. \"Wild\" oil palm are protected, and processing of palm oil is another important source of cash income, particularly for women.Eleven farmers in the Ayepe area were assisted in planting hedgerows of Leucaena leucocephala in the 1987 rainy season. Scarified, but not inoculated, Leucaena seeds were planted to create six hedgerows 4m apart, each at least 25m long. Three seeds per hole were dibbled at an intra-row spacing of 25cm. The alley crops were cassava + maize.The principles of hedgerow management [0 maintain soil fertility were explained. After Each farmer was visited every three days, and interview data was recorded on a field worksheet. Coding and data entry were done at office headquaners. Data analyses were carried out using SAS computer software.The type of data recorded in the liT A panel surveys in Ayepe consisted of:• date of an operation,• type of operation (clearing, weeding, pruning, harvesting, etc), and• the hours spent by each family member in each operation.The farmers selected in this study met 95% of the labor requirement from their family members. Work by young people and children was also included. Although they did not work as efficiently as adults, these groups nevertheless contributed to the work on the farm. Some operations, such as distributing cassava cuttings or gathering maize cobs, may be done entirely by children.A list of field measurements taken, with a description of each measurement, is presented at the end of this paper (Addendum C). An example of a field worksheet used in a panel survey is also provided (Addendum D).Because so much data is generated by full cost-route studies, they require large computers and skilled programming for data management and analysis. This is one reason why cost-route studies should be avoided. whenever possible. Instead, it will in most cases be preferable to design a topical siudy which focuses on specific subsets of activities.For example, in a study focused on labor requirements, data on major labor operations may be recorded for an alley farm and one additional field (similar to a control).Such a study could be conducted in conjunction with an agronomic on-farm trial that assesses the potential of alley farming for mulch and fodder production under farmer management. The researcher may wish to record labor requirements for clearing, weeding, pruning, and mulching, and for cutting and carrying fodder.Dates of operations, and the age and gender of workers should be recorded. Dates of operations will be important because some periods in the season are especially busy, The amount of data procured in cost-route studies is quite large and can be analysed by using the SAS computer program. Sample fomls for data collection using each of the methods are given at the end of the chapter.6.6 FEEDBACK EXERCISES (Find out answers from the text)Name two types of surveys that may be used as eKploratory surveys.Name four or more topics on which information can be sought in an exploratory survey for economic data collection on alley famling.Circle A for agree and DA for disagree.   What are the most impol1ant plants in the bush/fallow? (Enter names in 7b below)7b.What are their uses? I.3.5. 6. 7.g.Plant   This paper's discussion of design and layout pertains to all major types of alley farming trials namely:• multipurpose tree screening and evaluation• alley famling management (e.g., mulching effects. crop productivity)• livestock integration (e.g., feed supplementation, animal productivity)• socio-economic assessment (e.g., economic returns)The long-term nature of trials involving woody species and the varying objectives and expectations of alley farming trials demand that adequate caution be exercised in their design. Nine important issues worth noting include: Stat.-2• consistency of design, to ensure the possibility of combined analysis;• the need to reduce the number of factors and their levels to the basic minimum;• the possibility of using farmers' plots (in on-farm trials) as replicates rather than as a complete experiments;• required plot sizes and number of plots for efficient estimation of errors;• edge effects and the rows of discards 7.2 STATISTICAL METHODSIn scientific research, the seven major steps in experimentation to find solutions to a problem are:(I) define and state the problem;(2) identify objectives and develop a hypothesis;(3) design and conduct experiments to test the hypothesis;(4) collect data;(5) analyse the data;(6) interpret the data; (7) draw conclusions about the hypothesis.Statistical methods are useful in the proper execution of each of the seven steps. We shall be brieny touching here the common methodologies used in alley farming trials for data collection, data screening, data transformation and coding, selection of variables or observational parameters, and data analysis. Experimental design and procedures for establishing trials are discussed in a greater detail in the section to follow (7.3).Specification of the objectives, definition of the problem, and fornllilation of a hypothesis are initial reljuiremenrs for data collection strategies. The merit of any data will depend on their representativeness of the underlying population and their capacity for a~sessment and minimization of the various errors. For example. while has observed great vertical and horizontal variation in soil properties between and across alleys and tree hedgerows.There are three data collection strategies: experimentation, sampling, and routine observational data collection. Experimentation is discussed in much detail in a later section. Sampling procedures are used in on-farm surveys of farming practices and adoption rates, and in the collection of data from trial plots.A sample from a real (not imaginary) population is defined as a subcollection of that population. For statistical inference and for purposes of error minimization and reduction of observer-bias, these collections should be randomly obtained. The number and larger size of sampling units can be determined optimally by considering a cost/variance function. Generally, a highly variable population will require greater number of sampling units than for a fairly homogenous population.A useful guiding principle for sampling is that the plot size and/or frequency should be large enough to include a good representation of the population, but small (or few) enough to ensure that sampling is achieved within a reasonable period of time. Further discussion on plot sizes and layouts is provided in the section \"Notes on laying out Field Plots\" (section 7.6).In many cases. not all data collected will adequately represent the population under study. Two obvious reasons wuld be: faulty experimental or sampling technique. or wrongly derived data due to incorrect calculations or measuring scales. In data screening, unrepresentative or otherwise faulty data is rejected.A good practice is to assume the possibility of errors in data, and then perform screening procedures to test the assumption. The procedures include:• re-checking of data, which could imply revisiting the study site or reexamining the collected sample in cases of suspect observations;• re-computing derived values and checking for consistency in measuring units (inches or meters. kilograms or pounds, acres or hectares. etc).When the suspect values are not due to measurement errors, one can further subject the data to statistically acceptable data screening procedures. These tests areStat.-4 usually referred to a, \"tests of outliers or spurious observations.\" They depend largely on the statistical distributions principle. A common procedure for data assumed to follow the normal dimibution is to compute the 95% confidence limits on the mean of the observations. If the suspected outlier falls outside the limits. it is rejected from further statistical analysis.Transformation of data may be carried out to achieve one or all of the following objectives:• equalization of variances• normalization of observationsThe overall aim. however. is to ensure the use of correct statistical procedures. Common transformations include the square root and logarithm for counts and the angular for percentages.Data coding is different from data tran,formation. Ranking of data from original observations,reducing or increasing all data by a common factor are common forms of data coding. Sometimes this is done to simplify the arithmetic computations or in the case of specie, coding. to facilitate the use of conventional statistical procedures.Yariables are the characteristics a researcher intends to observe and compare among the various treatments. They are usually explicitly stated along with the statement of the problem. The si)( important types of variables related to alley farming trials are:• Agronomic variables -germination and survival percentages. tree height and growth. stem form. biomass weight. crop yield. etc.;• Soil chemical variables -soil fertility (nutrients type and level) with regard to hedgerows or alleys;Stat.-5• Plant chemical variables -levels of essential elements (N, P, K) etc.;• Socio•economic variables perceived to be of importance to the farmers.Examples include farmer views of the importance of a particular treatment, or the social costs and benefits of alley farming;• Economic variables;• Derived variables, e.g., differences in response of contrOl and introduced treatments.Analyses of alley fanning trials are usually straight•forward and involve one or more of the procedures listed below. (The reader is referred to the suggested readings for derailed descriptions of data analysis pro(;edures.)• Treatment means comparisons procedures, using the t•test (for two means at a time) and the analysis of variance (for more than two comparisons at a time);• The use of regression procedures to establish or identify relationships between the independent and dependent variables;• The use of covariance procedures;• Non•parametric or distribution free procedures for assessing variables;• The method or repeated measures analysis is particularly relevanr in alley farming trials and long ternl ,;tlldies . This procedure enables one to study differences between tre,ttments at any paniclilar period, differences between periods for specified treatments, interactions between period and treatments, and the identification of [rends in response variables;• Jolayemi (1989) has also suggested the method of differencing for removing the effects of auto•correlation which are inherent in repeatedStat.-t) measLlres (time-dependent data) or adjacent plots. ROlltine analysis of variance may then be perfomled on su(;h differen(;ed data;• The use of the land equivalent ratio could be considered when more than one crop are planted in the alley. This ratio is simply the sum of the ratios of the yields when planted on an area of the same size used for all the intercrops. This data conversion procedure is Llsed to ensure the use of a single yield component for assessing different intercropping combinations.• Additional Treatment means comparison procedures, such as the Duncans multiple range, the SlUdent-Neuman-Keuls procedure, etc. The least significant difference and single degree of freedom contrasts cOLlld also be useful for pre-experimentation comparisons. In experimentation we a/tempt to monitor the effects of certain inputs or material on the subject matter, of interest. The inputs could be different hedgerow leguminous plants planted under identical conditions, while the effects to be monitored could be the changes in soil fertility status, the yield of agricLlltural crops planted between the rows, the productivity of the animal being fed with the foliage from the tree crops, or the tree crop performance. The allocation of treatments (inputs) to the experimental units (plots) may be loosely referred to as the design.The experimenter decides which individual unit is to receive which particular treatment according to a laid down procedure. The choice of procedure will often determine the basic design. What is important, however, is that during an experiment, the researcher has a choice as to how and when to apply the treatments. (In a survey situation, in contrast, there is no such choice). The choice of design is influenced by several considerations, notably the objectives, the amount of resources, and the time available. In all cases, however. the emphasis is on the reduction of unknown error and the elimination of systematic bias.Stat.-7• The plot or experimental unit is the smallest unit receiving a certain treatmen!. The information or data for comparison are from such single units . Examples include a single animal or group of animals receiving the same feed from the same source, a small plot having the same type of trees or agricultural crops, and so on.• The treatment is the material being forced on the subject (unit) and whose effect is to be monitored. The treatment can be either qualitative (e.g., species. fertilizer types) or quantitative (e.g., time periods, quantified levels of a fertilizer type).• The experimental error is a measure of the sum of variation between plots or units receiving same treatments. Suppose there are five different treatments with each treatment repeated or replicated four times. We could obtain the square of the deviation of ea,'h observation from its treatment mean. sum these up. and then obtain the average to give an idea of that treatment variance. There will be five such treatment variances. The \"average\" of these variances is roughly a measure of the experimental error.Inherent variability in the subject. uncontrolled external influences, and lack of uniformity in the application of treatments are possible causes of experimental error. Experimenta l error should be controlled so that we can estimate the treatment effects properl y and compare effects of various treatments effectively.• Types of Field Experiments: The several types of experimelltal trials include:• variety trials;• provenance trials;• field gernlplasm or sneening trials;• fertilizer trial s;• cultural/agronomic trials;•Stat.-8• chemical (other than fertilizer) trials.It is quite common to have more than o ne type of trial in the same experiment. For instance we can compare different hedgerow species under weeding and no-weeding, that is, a situation involving both variety and cultural trials. However, species screening trials are best done on their own, rather than mixed up with other trials . Having selected the most suitable species for a particular area, aspects of inrra-row spacing and other agronomic/management inputs can then be investigated.Experiments of the same nature, when presented under similar conditions, should yield similar results. In other words, researchers would wanl to ensure consistency in their res ults . The simplest way to achieve this is through the \"repetition, \" i.e . \"replication ,\" of the same rreatment on several plots or experimenlalunits. Repetition on the same plot is not recommended as observations are unlikely to be independent.Moreover, the use of several small plots instead of one large plot ensures minimization of the effect of uncontrolled variability in the field.• Randomization: This refers to the allocation of treatments to plots in such a way that, within a specific experimental design , units are not discriminated for or against. Each unit is supposed to have the same chance of receiving a particular treatment. Randomization is a necessity as no twO units or plots are exactly the same. Statistically, the randomization procedure allows elimination of bias and en sures the computation of valid sampling errors.• Coverage or Blocking: A block is a relatively large area or several identical units receiving all or most of the treatments . One is encouraged to \"block\" if one can vouch for the homogeneity within blocks and the heterogeneity between blocks. Because of the limitation of homogenous plots and the relatively large area required for alley-farming and agroforestry trials, one could also consider a location as a \"block .\" The distinction between \"replication\" and \"blocking\" should be evident. Blocking is another way of improving the estimation of the error term , but only if the blocking is justified.To ensure the selection of appropriate experimental designs, the experimenter will need to respond to the following twelve issues:StBt.-9• What are the specific study objectives?• What are the variables to be obsel'led (i .e. the dependent variables)?• Are these dependent variables quantifiable and/or measurable? If these are not measurable. what criteria will you use for later comparisons among treatments?• What are the independent variables that is to say. the treatments to be applied)?• Are these treatments fixed or random? In other words. do you have several treatments to choose from or do you Ilave a fixed number of treatments among which specific comparisons are desired?• Are the levels of treatments 4ualitalive (e.g. Species -Acacia. Gliricidia. EucalypTUS or quantitative (e.g.,solutions -10 mgt!, 20 mgt!. 30 mgt! etc.)~• How many replicates of e,lch treatment can be available?• Will all the replicates be available at the same time?• How Illuch land or material (to which the treatments are to be applied) are • type and number of treatments,• degree of precision desired,• size of uncontrollable variations.We A useful assumption for the application of this design is homogeneity of the land or among the experimemall.1aterials.This design is rarely used in most trials involving woody vegetation , but could be l\"ed under laboratory and possibly green house conditions.The total source of variation (error) is made up of differences between rreatments and within rreatments. The total source of variation may be categorized as differences between blocks, differences between treatments, and interaction between blocks and treatments. The latter is usually taken as the error term for testing differences in treatments.The Randomized Complete Block Design (RCB) is the most commonly used, panicularly because of its flexibility and robustness. However, it becomes less efficient as the number of treatments increases, mainly because block size increases in proportion to the number of treatments. This makes it difficult to maintain the homogeneity within a block.In RCB, missing plots (values) leading to unbalanced designs were problematic at one time. However, this is not much of a problem now due to the availability of improved estimation methods, for example, the use of generalized linear models. For situation with less than three missing values, one can still use the traditional computational procedure of RCB design.Latin Square Design (LS)The Randomised Complete Block design is useful for eliminating the contribution of one source of variation only. In contrast, the Latin Square Design can handle two sources of variations among experimental units. In Latin Square Design, every treatment ocurs only once in each row and eac h column. In the previous example,cropping history was the only source of variation in four large blocks. Supposing in addition to this we have a ferti lity gradient at right angle to the \"cropping history\" as shown below:CROPPING HISTORY 1 FERTILITY GRADIENT One may tackle this problem by lIsing :t Lat in Square Design. Each treatment (in this case, the Gliricidia accessio ns) is applied i n \"each\" cropping history as well as in \"each\" fertility gradient. In our e. x:tmple, restriction on space allows us to have a maximum of only 16 plots, when, say, 64 might have been ideal. The randomization process has to be perfomled in such a way that eachStat.-14 accession appears once, and only on,e, in each row (cropping history) and in each column (fenilily gradient). The layout will be as follows:The four blocks correspond to the four different cropping histories. The Latin Square (LS) design thus minimises the effect of differences in fertility status within each block. The total sources of variation are made up of row, column, treatment differences, and experimental error.For field trials. the plot layout must be a square. This condition imposes a severe restriction on the site as well as on the number of treatments that can be handled at anyone time . However, the principle can be extended to animal experimentation where a physically square arrangement does not necessarily exist.For instance, if the intention is to assess the nutritional effects of the accessions when fed to animals, the latter could be divided into four age and four size classes.The LS arrangement will thus be used to ellsure that each age class and size class receives one and only one of each accession type.The LS design can be replicated leading to what is commonly referred to as \"Replicated Latin Squares\". These Latin squares may be linked as shown below: The rows are said to be linked. If, on the other hand, the rows are not linked, \"Rows Within Squares\" variability replaces the ordinary \"Row\" source of variation.An additional restriction (source of variation) imposed on a basic LS design would lead to what is called \"Graeco•Latin Square Design\".One precondi tion for both the RCB and LS designs is that all treatments must appear in all blocks and all rows (For RCB) or columns (For LS).Sometimes with large number of treatments (say 20 accessions), each requiring relatively large plot sizes, this condition may not be practicable. Latin Square and RCB then fail to reduce the effect of heterogeneity(s). The designs in which the block phenomenon is followed but the condition of having all the treatments in all blocks is not met, are called Incomplete Block designs. In Incomplete Block situations, the use of several small blocks with fewer treatments results in gains in precision but at the expense of a loss of information on comparisons within blocks.The analysis of data for incomplete block designs is more complex than RCB and LS. Thus where computation facilities are limited, incomplete block designs should be considered a last resort.Among incomplete block designs, lattice designs are commonly used in species and variety testing. These are more complex designs beyond the scope of this paper, but covered in a number of text books cited at the end of this paper. It is always advisable to consult a statistician when using incomplete block designs.We have so far concentrated on only one factor (i.e ., one accession or other treatment). However, more than one factor will often need to be studied Suppose we are interested in studying the yidd of an agricultural crop in an alley farm where four different leguminous tree species and three cultural methods are of interest. The leguminous tree species could be Acacia sp., Ca.\\Sia sp., Lellcaena sp., and Giiricidia sp.The cultural treatment could include two weedings, one weeding and no weeding; the agricultural crop is maize planted between hedgerows of the same tree species. For a complere facrorial set of treatmenrs, each level of each facror must occur together with each level of every other factor. Thus in the present case we ensure that each cultural method is applied to each tree species. Since there are 4 species and 3 cultural methods, the IOtal number of treatments will equal 12. In reality, what we have here is 12 treatments, with one treatment being made up of2 factors having 4 and 3 levels, respectively. One might say, in this case, the factors are crossed. This is not an \"experimental design\" but rather a \"treatment design,\" because the 12 treatment combinations could be applied 10 any of the designs discussed previously. If we take the simplest design, the unrestricted randomized design, and four replications, then the conduct of an experiment with 4 leguminous species and 3 cultural methods will imply the randomization of\" 12 treatments\" in 48 plots. If it is a Block design, we will have to ensure that each of the 12 treatments appears in all the blocks.The advantages of the factorial arrangement are many. One major advantage is the reduction in the number of experiments, and a second the possibility of studying the interactions among the various factors. A significant interaction implies that changes in one factor may be dependent on the level of the other factor.If this happens, interpretation of the 'esults has to be done cautiously to avoid inaccurate general statements on the individual factors.The situation discussed above can be extended to two or more locations, and the results combined using the Combined Analysis Procedure. However, it does at times happen that species may be location specific, in which case the 4 leguminous tree species utilised in a particular location may not be suitable at other locations. One approach would then be to use 4 different species in each location.Or, a particular tree species may nOl appear in all the locations. This structure of Treatments). The tree species are said to be nested in locations, not crossed as in factorial treatment. [t is necessary to emphasize that this nested-treatment arrangement can be applied to any of the basic designs, such as CRD, RCB and LS.  This type of treatment arrangement is followed when some factors in the same experiment are crossed (as in factorial treatment) while others are nested. For instance, if we impose three fenilizer levels to the trees nested in the example above a nested-factorial treatment arrangement is obtained -provided the same fertiliser levels are used for all trees and locarions.Split-plot experiments .Ire faclOrial experiments in which the levels of one factor, for example tree species, are assigned at random to large plots. The large plots are then divided inlO small plots known as \"sub-plots\" or \"split plots\", and the levels of the second factor, say cuhural pral•tices, are assigned at random to small plots within the large plots.This arrangement is often useful when we wish to combine certain treatments (as in factorial and nested), some of which require larger plots than others for practical and administrative convenience . Examples are situations requiring spraying insecticides, irrigation, tillage trials, etc. Usually, the treatment on which maximum information is desired is placed in the split-plot or in the smallest plot.It is important to emph asize that the split• plot is not a design as such but rather refers to the manner in which treatments are allocated to rhe plots. A splitplot arrangement in an RCB design will usually have two error terms -one for testing the treatment s in large plots (not effiCient) and the other for the sub-plot treatments and interactions (very efficient).A split plot design can be further extended to accolllodale a third factor through division of each sub-plor il1lo sub•sub-pIOls . This is rhen called a splirsplit-plot arrangement.  ---------------------------------------------------------------hedge i ~-i ~ i -~ i -------------------~~~~ ----------------------. --------; ----------.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.---------.-.-.----------.------------- The arrangement in (i) provides two plots for each hedgerow species for soil nutrient or crop yield studies. One whole plot is discarded between the last row of a species and the first row of another species. If land is not limiting, this arrangement is ideal. Some practitioners will even go funher to sample or observe the area surrounding only the middle hedgerow, i.e ., one half-plot to the left and one half-plot to the right of the middle hedgerow of the same species.For the assessment of the hedgerows themselves , the middle hedgerow constitutes an ideal sampling unit. However, in most practical situations, particularly where the hedgerow species are spaced widely apart from each other, examination of all hedgerows may be ac ceptabk.Arrangements (ii) and (iii) have been found useful when land is particularly limiting. In situation (iii), the area to sample lies between the two rows as marked in treatment A.Stat.-20The arrangement in (iv) is not recomm~nded, but has been used under serious land limitation and species availability situations. The sample plots are halfplots. For consistency, either the right-hand or left-hand side of the hedgerow should always be chosen. Remember that the hedgerow species at the edges cannot be studied reliably. Given enough replications, these could be ignored. If the interest is in the yield of the hedge crop itself, then the arrangement in (iv) is very much appropriate, with the sampling unit being the inner rows of the hedges. This implies ideally a minimum of three rows per spe,'ies for effective assessment.The areas marked \"x\" in the illustrations are usually planted with the agricultural crops, but not assessed. Unplanted gaps are not recommended as they are likely to aggravate the edge effects.For long-term experiments involving perennial crops such as hedgerow species, agronomists have recognised the need to establish the nature and extent of soil heterogeneity through \"blank\" trials, before the conduct of the actual trial. This involves the planting of a bulk crop on the experimental field and monitoring its performance. On the other hand, if one is familiar with the cropping history of an area, this could be considered accordingly while laying out the trial so as to eliminate the delay in planting trials. When planting on farmer's plots the knowledge base of the farmer should not be ignored.Irregularly sloped areas should be avoided, but there is no objection to the use of area with a near constant slope provided the plots run up and down the slope. The same principle applies on a fenility gradient. For trials on terraces, one should ensure that all the treatments (except in incomplete block situations) appear on the same terrace, so that a terrace could be regarded as a block (Rao and Roger, 1990).In alley farming, plot shapes are more likely to be square or rectangular than any other shape. A square plot exposes the least number of plants to the edge effect. Avoid circular plots; on sloping grounds, circular plots tend to be ellipses.Stat.-21As regards plot size, plots that are too small yield unreliable results. On the other hand, excessively large plots waste time and resources.The most important factor in selecting an experimental site is its representativeness of the area. It should be of appropriate shape and size for the conduct of the experiment. The land and soil characteristics as well as past cultural practices should be known as far as possible. It should have an access to a road and be distant from environmental modifiers.Record only as much data as you can analyse and interpret. Use metric units to record the data. Always note the date of data collection. Use standard procedures for recording the data.On•farm research, whether managed by the researcher or the farmer, requires simplicity in design. Sometimes this simplicity requirement may be due to limited resources such as land, or subject materials (treatments). However, it is more often due to the fact that complexity in design renders the management and data collection burdensome, especially for the fanner.The statistical implications also encourage simplicity. If the treatments are not kept to a basic minimum of two or three, the whole experiment, with or without replications, cannot be carried out on one smallholder's property. This would require the use of several farmers plots, either as replicates or single plots. This could result in increased variability and might make it impossible to compare effectively some treatments and/or farmers.The following fOllr possibilities Illay exist in the availability of experimental plots on famlers fields:• Farmers' plot sizes unlimited;• Farmers' plots as repli,'ates;• Famlers' plots inadequate for col11plete replicates:Stat.-22• Farmers plots as single experimental plots.This is a happy situation in which a complete trial is performed on each of the farmers' propeny. The unlimited nature of the available area would enable the use of all the treatments and the relevant replications on the same farmer's fields.The complete experiment is thus performed at each site. Any of the basic designs can be applied here. depending on the nature of the land and treatments being tested. These trials are time-consuming and are mostly researcher-managed. The obvious limitation is that only a small number of such farmers' plots would be available for experimentations.This situation arises when the farmers plots are large enough to accommodate all the treatments, but not large enough to allow for replications. The fact that replications are not possible in this situation implies that the usual Completely Randomised Design (CRO) will not be applicable. What is more likely to be feasible is the Randomised Complete Block Design (RCB) in which a farmer's plot will be regarded as a block receiving all the treatments. This is illustrated below for four treatments (A. B, C, OJ. The arrangement in (i) is a typical complete block layout. The minimum replications is only three famlers. but this can be increased depending on the availability of resources and time. We will. in the case of design (i). assume uniformity in land and other considerations wilhin each farmers plot. but will allow for heterogeneity be/Ween the farmers plots. In a classical block arrangement, we often conclude that the block design is justified when the analysis indicates significant differences between blocks. This is not a necessity in the on-farm situation. The use of the farmers plots is to ensure reasonable replications (unless Stat.-23 clearly observed differences are known to exist). The analysis however does not exclude comparisons between the famJers (i.e., between blocks).In illustration (ii) below, we assume a situation similar to (i) except that each farmer's plot can be stratified into four units according to, say, soil type, crop type, management practices, etc. (a, b, c, d). We have assumed that/our such farmers with all the four classifications (strata) are available. Although not easily identifiable, this arrangement is in fact a Latin Square. Notice that each treatment appears once and only once in each stratum and in each farmer's plots. The LS design can be seen more clearly below in (iii). Stat.-24 7.7.3 Farmers' Plots Inadequate for Complete ReplicatesWe consider a situation in which the subject materials (treatments) are not in limited supply, but plot size considerations do not allow for the allocation of all treatments in the same farmer's plot. We might thus wish to deny some farmers' plots certain treatments. This would mean an incomplete block design. A valid statistical design results if pairs of treatments appear the same number of times.The only issue worth determining here is the number of farmers plots required to ensure this requirement.If we assume each farmer's plot can accommodate a maximum of three treatmen ts, then:• For 4 treatments, we will need 4 farms;• For 5 treatments, we will need 10 farms:• For 6 treatments, we will need 20 farms;• For 7 treatments, we will need 35 farms;• For 10 treatments, we will need 120 farms.In general, for t treatments and a block size of b (number of experimental plots on farmers field), the number of farmers for a balanced incomplete block These layouts can also be modified as in split-pial arrangements. Basic principles for lhe design and Iuyoul of alley farming trials have been outlined and illustrated. These should not be taken as a complete presentation.Neither does the paper cover all possible field plot designs.It is imponant to mention that appropriate experimental designs are the first step in the conduct of successful experiments. Accordingly, whenever we are not sure of the appropriateness of a design with regard to a panicular scientific objective or to the availability of physical resources, we must consult a statistician.While simplicity should be the watchword in deciding the design and layout for an alley farming trial, the basic requirements of randomization, replication and blocking should not be overlooked. The study of many factor and levels simultaneously, will necessarily lead to the use of complex designs for which assistance from a statistician is a must. Alley farming trials are long term, due to the inclusion of woody species, and therefore require special caution in their designs.Seven steps in experimentation are:• define the problem• identify objectives and develop a hypOlhesis• design and conduct experiments to test the hypothesis• collect data• analyse data• interpret data and• draw conclusion about the hypothesis.The definition of the problem and objectives of the experiments detenmine the type of data to be collected ina trial.Data screening aims at identifying representative data for the population.Data is transformed to suit to appropriate statistical procedures. The ranking of data and the reduction or increase of all data are examples of data coding.Variables refer to c:haracteristirs that will be measured for treatment effects in a trial.The procedures used in data analysis depend on the objectives and methods of data collection. Monitoring of the effects of certain inputs on a subject matter is known as experimentation.The allocation of treatments to an experimental unit or plot is referred to as an experimental design.A plot is the smallest unit of land receiving a treatment.The treatment is the material being forced on the subject and whose effect is to be studied.Experimental error is a measure of the difference between two units treated alike.Replication is the number of times a complete set of treatments is repeated in an experiment.Randomisation refers to the allocation of treatments to plots in such a way that within a specific experimental design. units are not discriminated for or against.A block is a large area or several identical units receiving all or most of the treatments.Issues to consider in selecting an experimental design include the choice of dependent and independent variables. the availability of subject material. data collection procedures and timing. 2. Knowledge of soil heterogeneity is a prerequisite for the field plot layout of an experiment.3. Irregularly sloped areas should be avoided for alley farming trials. On terraced land, a terrace may be treated as a block.4. Rectangular and square plots are preferred for field experimentation. Plots that are too small yield unreliable results and too large plots waste time and resources.5. An experimental site should be accessable, located away from environmental modifiers, representative of the area, and consistant with experimental design.6. Use standard procedures for recording dale.7. For on-farm trials, one should use simple designs only.8. The availability of experimental plots on famlers' fields could be visualised as follows:• farmers ' plot sizes unlimited With each farmer as a replicate, this can be considered a split-plot arrangement, with type of cropping as the main-plot and management practice in the sub-plot.","tokenCount":"25801"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ccc6bdc1c68ce2f74f7461ac54905d33","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H044103.pdf","id":"-1111841028"},"keywords":["Large-scale Irrigation","Environmental Impact","Water","Soil","Ecosystem","Ethiopia","Finchaa","Wonji","Shoa"],"sieverID":"c4d0f673-ae09-481d-86f9-6a479f2ba186","pagecount":"19","content":"This article presents the finding of a study undertaken to assess the status-quo and significant environmental impacts of two selected large-scale irrigation on natural resources in Ethiopia. Main focus is on the environmental impacts of irrigation on natural resources with special emphasis on soil quality, water quality and downstream impacts, hydrology and potential interference with ecosystems. For this purpose two schemes were selected. Wonji/Shoa Sugar Plantation is located in the Upper Awash Basin and Finchaa Valley Sugar Estate located in the Blue Nile Basin.It is well known that irrigation projects can have several adverse environmental impacts that may threaten the sustainable production of agricultural goods, which is of major importance and interest in Ethiopia since it contributes 44 percent to Ethiopia's GDP, employs 80 percent of the labor force, and provides a livelihood to 85 percent of the nearly 80 million population (Awulachew,Under the title \"Irrigation Infrastructures Development for Food Security and National Economic growth\" the Ethiopian government started an irrigation development program in order to meet the ambitious efforts of the 15 years Water Sector Development Program, which is scheduled from 2002 until 2016. The investment in large-scale irrigation projects should guarantee to meet the demands for industrial raw materials for Agro-industries, cash crops and food crops. 26 medium and large-scale irrigation projects are planned to be implemented. Irrigation infrastructures in the country will more than double at the end of the program period, which is the year 2016 (currently only 200,000ha, this will grow by 275,000 ha). More recently, the irrigation sector development program is revised and the country has stepped up its efforts to bring additional irrigated area of 430,000 in five years, see MOFED PASDEP (2006) In Ethiopia, irrigation projects with command areas larger than 3000 ha are classified as large scale schemes according to MoWR (2002). Werfring et al (2005) distinguish between four different types of irrigation schemes in Ethiopia: traditional, modern communal, modern private and public. Most of the medium and large scale irrigation schemes are located in Oromia and Afar region respectively. According to Tilahun and Paulos (2004) 31.981 ha and 21.000 ha of irrigated land are classified as large or medium scale schemes in these regions. In total 61.057 ha are identified as large or medium scale irrigation schemes in Ethiopia.Since the Ethiopian Government has started to focus its development strategies on the extension of irrigated agriculture especially of large scale projects during the last decade it has become more important to explore the nexus between irrigation investments, sustainable agricultural development and potential environmental impacts in the Ethiopian context. In Ethiopia very little information and baseline date are available regarding irrigation and its environmental implications. Hence research has to be undertaken to fill this knowledge gap.This article presents the finding of a study undertaken to assess the status-quo and significant environmental impacts of largescale irrigation in Ethiopia. The main focus of this report is put on the environmental impacts of irrigation on natural resources with special emphasis on soil quality, water quality and downstream impacts, hydrology and potential interference with ecosystems.In several studies a number of different environmental impacts have been identified which are directly caused by irrigation projects. Sectoral guidelines to conduct environmental impact assessments of irrigation projects (e.g. FAO, MoWR) use checklists which include the pertinent environmental impacts. These potential impacts are grouped into impact categories such as economic, socio-economic, natural resource and ecological impacts. This article puts its focus on impacts on natural resources and ecosystems which are closely related to in-field impacts on soil, water quality, hydrological issues and destruction of ecosystems due to irrigation development. In Tab.1 some of the potentially significant adverse impacts are listed. The study areas have been chosen for their diversity in terms of climatic conditions as well as soil types. Two large scale irrigation projects in Ethiopia were selected as case studies where primary and secondary were collected, Wonji/Shoa sugarcane plantation and Finchaa Valley Sugar Estate.The major predominant soil types in the area of Wonji/Shoa sugarcane plantation are described as Fluvisols, Andosols and Laptosols according to FAO soil classification. Soils of Wonji/Shoa are of alluvial-colluvial origin developed under hot, tropical conditions (Fig. 1). In the region diverse soil types are observed which also vary in their production potential. (Ambachew et al, 2000). In general, soils of Wonji/Shoa can be described as a complex of grey cracking clays in the topographic depressions and semiarid brown soils. On the basis of texture they are categorized into light (coarse textured) soils and heavy soils (clayey black types) which are more common in Wonji/Shoa Sugarcane Plantation (Ambachew et al, 2000).The soils in Finchaa valley are made of alluvial and colluvial materials from the surrounding escarpments. Five major soil types can be found in the area of Finchaa Sugar Estate of which Luvisols and Vertisols are predominant. These soils account for more than 95 percent of the cultivated and irrigated land. The irrigation scheme is divided by Finchaa River into East and West Bank (fig. 2). Currently only the West Bank is under cultivation, but the extension of the irrigated area to the East bank is planned. Both secondary and primary field level data were collected. Secondary data included general description of the scheme, hydrological and meteorological relevant data, information about the topology and geological characteristics of the area and about irrigation infrastructure. Research and data collection have been conducted using the \"with or without\" and when ever possible the \"before and after\" approach comparing secondary and primary data sets. The availability of secondary soil and water quality data in the two case studies allows, to some extent, impact analysis using the \"before -after\" approach. Whenever possible, baseline and secondary data of research documents have been collected. For data collection activities, specific data sheets have been designed for field level research as well as for secondary data collection.Because only few data or baseline data were available to compare time series data and carry out before and after type of analysis, soil samples were taken from non irrigated and irrigated fields but also from cultivated and uncultivated plots to assess potential impacts of irrigation on chemical and physical soil parameters. Disturbed soil samples were taken from the predominant soil types at different spots, depending on the accessibility and influence of irrigation on the spots, using the comparative soil sampling method. From each plot samples of different depth were taken, depending on the structure of the soil and the depth of soil horizons. Every soil horizon over 10cm was sampled, at least from 0-30, 30-60 and 60-90 cm depths (FAO 1986). Water samples were collected from the irrigation source and potentially influenced water bodies using 1 litre plastic bottles and immediately stored in a cooling box. As some parameters may change rapidly after sampling (e.g. Nitrate) the pH was brought down to 2 by adding acid (HNO 3 ) to the samples to stop chemical reactions. The samples were analyzed either using in-field measurements and tests or laboratory analysis. Water sampling locations were chosen based on the spatial variations in the water stream and irrigation system (irrigation sources, the distribution canals, reservoirs, the main drain and from downstream water bodies) in order to obtain a representative sample. In table 3 chemical and physical parameters are listed which had been analysed either in the field or using laboratory facilities. The standards and threshold values for water quality analysis were chose with respect to irrigation (FAO 1989). The widely accepted threshold values for classifying the suitability of water for irrigation are presented in table 4 (FAO, 1998). The standards and threshold values for soil chemical and physical were taken from the Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources (2002). Wonji/Shoa Sugar Plantation -Water Quality AnylsisIn general the irrigation water used in Wonji/Shoa Sugar Plantation is of high quality.Hardly any adverse impacts on the soil quality resulting from irrigation activities are to be expected on this scheme. However SAR/adj R Na to EC ratio (fig. 3) indicates that a slight to moderate reduction in the infiltration rate might occur. Low salinity water (< 500 µS/cm) is corrosive and tends to leach surface soils free of soluble minerals and salts (FAO 29, 1989). The EC value of Awash River, the irrigation water source of Wonji/Shoa, is 293 µS/cm. The tested soils show an EC from 151 to 475 µS/cm and can be rated as salt free according to the Eth. Ministry of Water Resources (2002). The absence of salt in the soil indicates an ongoing dispersion process which leads to sealing of the soil and thus reduces the soils infiltration rate (FAO, 1989). During the field study and the analysis in a soil pit destruction of the natural structure of the soil in some places could be observed. To a certain extent this destruction of the soil structure might be due to unfavourable SAR values and SAR/adj R Na to EC ratio in the irrigation water of some of the water samples. Moreover soil tillage with heavy machines might also have destructive effects on the soil structure, particularly where waterlogging and high water tables occur. Girma A. (2005) states that in most sugarcane fields of Wonji/Shoa slight to moderate soil infiltration problems are expected if groundwater occurs at shallow depths. In this regard, the groundwater depth was at all the times too shallow (in the root zone) for nearly all sugarcane fields considered in this study. This indicates that in Wonji/Shoa, sugarcane fields are prone to waterlogging and physical degradation of topsoil. Drainage water and factory used water are stored in reservoirs and reused for irrigation, therefore it is of major importance to monitor the quality of this irrigation source. The drainage water and the reservoir water shows EC values increased values compared to the irrigation water, 357 and 388 µS/cm respectively. With regard to salinity the water is still of very good quality and should not pose any problems on soils in case it is reused for irrigation. These findings are confirmed by the study conducted on irrigation water quality by Girma A. (2005). Irrigation water (i.e. Awash River water) and factory used water were free of potential hazards of salinity, sodicity and specific ion toxicities. Moreover, drainage water was nearly of similar quality. As pointed out in the previous section this could cause from slight to moderate problems regarding infiltration. The total salt content of groundwater for some sugarcane fields was relatively high (i.e., EC values exceeded 700 µS/cm); a critical limit above which osmotic effects are known to occur. SAR values (fig. 3) were low in all groundwater samples. The potentially toxic ions Na + , Cland Boron were also found at low concentrations. The values for the pH of Wonji/Shoa irrigation system are in the normal/neutral range (pH = 6.5 to 8.5) for all water samples. Only the drainage water shows a lower pH of 6.3 which indicates slightly acidic water. Generally the pH in all the water samples taken does not seem to be influenced by irrigation. Similar results are given by Girma A. ( 2005).The measured pH values of both irrigation water and Factory used water samples varied from 7.4 to 8.1 (from near neutrality to medium basic in reaction). pH values of drainage water samples varied from 7.0 to 7.8 (normal range). All groundwater samples varied in pH values from 7.1 to 8.3. The highest values for chloride and boron are 3.6 meq/l and 0.45 meq/l respectively. Therefore the threshold values from no restriction on use to slight to moderate restriction on use (4 meq/l for chloride, 7 mg/l for boron) were not obtained by any of the water samples.As mentioned the tested soils show an EC from 151 to 475 µS/cm and can be rated as salt free according to the Eth. Ministry of Water Resources (2002).The pH of all soil samples ranges from 7.4 to 8.4 indicating moderately alkaline soils which is typical for soils of these climates (dry, arid climate most of the year). This indicates low availability of phosphorus and other micronutrients (MoWR, 2002). With a CEC from 46.2 to 58.4 meq/100g the soil samples are all in the range of very high CEC, according to the ratings of the Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources (2002). This indicates good agricultural soil. The BSP, ranging from 62.6 to 96.65% can be rated as high for almost all soil samples which indicates a high fertility of the soil. The ESP of the soils lies below 6% (0.99 to 5.88%) which is definitely below the threshold of 15% and therefore the soils can be rated as non sodic. Decreases in yield would only be expected for extremely sensitive crops (ESP = 2-10) but not for sugar cane. The content of total Nitrogen can be rated as high for all soils (ranging from 0.071 to 0.114%). The rating for Potassium is high and very high for all soil samples ranging from 1.08 to 2.63 for irrigated land and from 3.68 to 4.05 for the virgin soil. The comparison of irrigated soils and non-irrigated virgin soil shows that the content of Potassium is much higher in the virgin soil (4.05 meq/100g). The distribution of some parameters over the soil depth does not seem to be natural anymore for the cultivated soil. In general there are hardly any obvious differences between irrigated soils and the virgin reference soil as far as the chemical properties are concerned. The reason might be that the irrigation water has a very good quality and therefore no severe impacts on the soil are to be expected. A possible decline or even lack in nutrients is compensated through fertilizer application or other soil fertility management practices. The virgin soil might also be influenced by irrigation through capillary rise of the groundwater or surface runoff of the irrigated fields and therefore not be perfectly virgin anymore.The content of Calcium is high and very high in all soil samples, ranging from 18.32 to 40.72 meq/100g soil. The same applies for Magnesium ranging from 4.94 to 12.36 meq/100g soil. The content of organic carbon of all soil ranges from 0.76 to 1.88 % and can be rated as very low in all the soil samples. This indicates that without application of fertilizers no adequate yields would be achieved.Sugar Plantation -Groundwater HydrologyIn Wonji problems due to irrigation are reported with regard to waterlogging. The ground water level within the sugar estate shows a rising tendency (observation 1999-2001, fig. 4). However, not only within the sugar cane plantation but in the whole region a rise of the water table has been reported (Teshome, 1999). This might be due to irrigation (seepage losses out of reservoirs and channels, over watering, etc) but also due to seepage losses in a great extent from the Lake Koka reservoir. The water of the Awash River is retained by Koka dam. The dam was built to assure a constant discharge in the Awash River for two hydropower stations, but it also guarantees sufficient irrigation water supply. What has been reported before and confirmed in the field work are problems with a high water table and waterlogged fields. Especially on fields with heavy clayey soils problems with waterlogging have been discovered during the field study and the analysis in a soil pit (Wallner, 2006). However, the lighter soils -light in relation to the heavy soils of the sugar estate -seem to be of very good quality and not prone to negative impacts of irrigation under the given conditions. In 2002 a study on groundwater level fluctuation at Wonji/Shoa sugarcane plantation was conducted by Habib D. Investigations showed that on some fields the groundwater table is less than one meter deep (ARS Annual Report, 1994). The same report indicated that in some fields downward percolation of irrigation water below the root zone, especially in soils classified as heavy black soils is so slow that it caused temporary storage within the root zone (in some places up to 10 days after irrigation). These drainage problems have even become one of the major factors in determining the composition of cane variety (Tariku, 2001). In fields located near reservoirs, irrigation canals and drains suppressed cane growth due to seepage and ground water table rise could be observed. Kediru (1997) stated that cane loss due to this problem is economically significant. In 1998/99 a study was started in Wonji/Shoa Sugar Plantation to measure the groundwater level (GWL) fluctuation with piezometers installed in different plantation fields. Piezometers were installed at different locations near reservoirs, distribution canals and drains. One piezometer was installed in a non-irrigated area as reference (WRS). In figure 4 groundwater tables of 4 different fields (G 1 , G 2 , G 3 and G 4 ) and the reference field (WRS) are displayed for 3 years (1999)(2000)(2001). Measurements are given in depth in cm from soil surface. The measurement of groundwater table of the reference area (WRS) shows the maximum water table depth values in all years and months. The results indicate that fields which are located near reservoirs are affected by rising ground water level more than fields nearby distribution canals and fields nearby drains.Even this short measurement time series of 1999 to 2001 shows significant increasing trends of rising groundwater table. Fields near reservoirs (G1) are most affected. Habib (2002) concludes that seepage from reservoirs and unlined irrigation canals is the reason for rising groundwater level. Near drains (G3) groundwater levels are significantly lower compared to the measurements near the reservoirs. This result shows that drains if effectively utilized can lower the ground water table. In the reference area GWL was rising the first year but decreasing the second year. Furthermore the GWL is generally at least 50cm deeper compared to the GWL of the irrigated fields. Three years of GWL measurement reveal that fields near reservoirs are highly affected by waterlogging followed by fields near unlined distribution canals, fields away from water bodies and fields near by drains. The water level is increasing from year to year. Moreover, with the exception of fields near drains the GWL of other fields is less than 60 cm for more than 6 months per year which has a negative effect on sugar production. Water quality, regarding the physical as well as chemical parameters, of Finchaa Valley Sugar Estate can be rated as very good for irrigation purposes. However, the increase of the EC value of Finchaa River from 96 µS/cm measured in the upstream area of the scheme to 121 µS/cm in the downstream area shows the impact of irrigation on the downstream water bodies. This value does not include the indirect impact of irrigation by releasing pollutants by the sugar factory because the outlet of the factory was closed while EC measurements were taken. The observation made during the field visit indicates that the obvious malfunction of the waste water treatment plant of the factory poses a threat to downstream water bodies especially to Finchaa River and its ecosystem. Further investigations are necessary to investigate into the potential impact of the factory and the scheme on downstream users.Additionally an improvement or at least maintenance of the waste water treatment plant is required.The values of the EC measurement in the field are all below the threshold value of non saline to slightly and moderate saline of 700µS/cm given by FAO (1989). This indicates no problems with salinity caused by the available water source. A detailed analysis of the EC Values of different water bodies in the adjacent area of the estate provides a deeper insight in the hydrological system of the irrigation scheme (fig. 5). The EC value of Lake Chomen (Finchaa Dam) is 96 µS/cm. The groundwater samples show slightly increased EC values of 352 and 477 µS/cm due to accumulation of salts in the aquifer. Fig. 5 shows the EC values of different water bodies within the irrigation scheme from upstream to downstream area of Finchaa Sugar Estate. As mentioned before the EC value of the reservoir is 96µS/cm and 88µS/cm for Korke River one of the tributaries of Finchaa River in the far upstream area of the scheme. Finchaa River drains Lake Chomen to the Blue Nile Basin and therefore has the same EC values. The assumption can be made that the natural EC value of surface water bodies in Finchaa Valley Area is below 100 µS/cm. The EC values of the drainage water (164µS/cm) and of tributaries of Finchaa River, e.g.Agemsa River (286µS/cm) which are located further downstream of the estate are much higher compared to the values in the upstream area. This fact together with the increased EC value of Finchaa River (121µS/cm) measured at a location downstream of the irrigated fields indicates that the tributaries of Finchaa River crossing the irrigated area serve as the natural drainage system of the sugar farm. The increasing EC value of Finchaa River makes the impact of irrigation on downstream water bodies clearly visible. Drainage waters as well as surface run-off water possibly mixed with agrochemicals affect the water quality of the natural water resources in the adjacent area of the scheme. The ratio of adj R Na to EC (fig. 6) of the irrigation water source indicates a risk of severe reduction of the infiltration rate over time. This imposed sodicity has the potential to destroy the soil structure and lead to soil crusting of the affected soil especially when EC value is low (96 µS/cm). The dispersive effects adversely influence the physical properties, e.g. infiltration rate, aggregate stability of the soil (FAO, 1989). The extent of the impact highly depends on the texture and clay-sized particles of the soil.Since the filling of smaller pore space, sealing the soil surface and therefore reduces infiltration rates, by dispersion of finer soil particles is more likely to happen in soils with high clay content impact on Luvisols which can be classified as sandy loam to sandy clay loam with sand content over 60 % might prove to be less severe compared to the impact on Vertisols with clay content up to 60 %.As salinity of both applied water and the soil solution is relatively low no further swelling and dispersion of clay minerals are to be expected caused by the water source.The threshold values for chloride from no restriction on use to slight to moderate restriction on use of 4meq/l are not obtained by any of the water samples. The SAR rating for slight to moderate restriction on use ranging from 3 to 9 neither is obtained using the SAR values nor the values for adj R Na . Therefore no toxic effects on plants due to irrigation are to be expected.The comparison of the collected primary and secondary soil texture data for Luvisols show differences related to the proportion of sand, silt and clay content. The primary data show a lower sand content for the upper soil and a higher sand content for the lower soil part and vice versa for the clay content which indicates a shifting and relocation of soil particles especially of the sand fraction. A possible reason could be found in mechanized soil tillage. The silt content of the primary data sample is twice as low as it is for the secondary data sample. This ongoing process might lead to accumulation of clay particles in the topsoil layers and therefore aggravate the gradual degradation of the soil structure by induced sodicity.The EC values of all analysed soils range from 10 to 60 µS/cm which is far below the threshold value of 4 dS/m (= 4000 µS/cm). Therefore they are not affected by salinisation.According to the Eth. Ministry of Water Resources ( 2002) the samples can be rated as non saline. The EC value of the reference soil of the upper 30 cm is double of the value of the irrigated plots. This could be an indication for an ongoing leaching process caused by the application of water.Secondary EC values of all analysed soil types are far below the threshold value of 4 dS/m (= 4000 µS/cm). The EC value of during the state farm cultivated Vertisols in the East Bank area is significantly higher than the uncultivated Vertisols of the West Bank. This might indicate an accumulation of salts in the rain fed cultivated soil with insufficient leaching by precipitation. In general pH values of sampled irrigated Luvisols are very acidic to moderately acidic with values ranging from 4.89 to 5.62 from deeper to shallower soil depths respectively. The pH value of non-irrigated reference soils ranges from 4.56 to 4.86. Significant changes in soil pH values comparing secondary and primary data for Luvisols could not be observed. All measured values show slightly acidic tendencies, which is common for soils developed under these climatic conditions. Secondary data show that the pH of Vertisols in Finchaa Valley is higher compared to Luvisols. The measurements however show lower values for the uncultivated Vertisols (pH 6.13 -6.5) than for the during the state farm period cultivated Vertisols (pH 6.9 -7.37) with increasing trend for increasing soil depths. This difference between secondary and primary data might be an indicator for ongoing decline of soil pH due to irrigation and agrochemical use within the sugar estate.Washed-out-soils tend to acidification. Water dominated soils (soils of humid regions) have low values of pH, because their content of organic and carbonic acids is often subject to replenishing and recharge by rainfall. Under these conditions, the acids attack minerals, producing more acidity (Mirsal, 2004). Therefore washed-out-soils tend to acidification. According to the rating of pH values given by the Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources Al and Mn will be toxic if present in very acidic soils. Ca, Mg and Mb may be deficient and the availability of phosphorus is low in the presence of free Al and Fe. Nitrification of organic matter is taking place. In moderately acidic soils P, Ca, Mg and Mb may be deficient. Fertilizers (ammonium sulphate and triple super phosphate) which may increase the acidity should be avoided (MoWR, 2002). The CEC values of the tested Luvisols (14.02 to 14.56 meq/100g) indicate low to medium response to fertilizer application which is typical for soils with low clay content. Low CEC values can be caused by losses resulting from leaching-out, especially sodium (Na) is highly exposed to this process (MoWR, 2002). The CEC of Vertisols (23.95 and 26.54 meq/100g) however shows a different picture. The CEC shows an increasing trend with increasing soil depths. As the clay content of this soil type is significantly higher, the response to fertilizer application is more effective. This makes it even more important to plan agrochemical management for each soil type differently. The reference soil however shows a contrariwise tendency with a CEC value of 24.87 meq/100g in the upper 30 cm of soil depth and 15.52 meq/100g below 60 cm. The primary data of the year 2006 confirm the findings of the feasibility study conducted in the pre-design phase of the irrigation scheme. Proper management of agrochemicals is indispensable to avoid contamination of Finchaa valley aquifers. The BSP of the two sampling spots ranging from 55.0 to 74.0 % and from 51.0 to 67.0 % respectively can be rated as medium to high. This fact indicates a medium to high fertility of the soil. The reference soils BSP values are between 37.0 to 56.0 %. Therefore the soil can be rated as medium fertile with lower values compared to the other tested soils and increasing values with depth. None of the measured ESP values of the tested soils exceeds the threshold value of 15 % and can therefore be rated as none sodic soil (FAO, 1988). With regard to CEC and ESP only secondary data of Finchaa West Bank area were available. From the CEC values the difference in soil fertility of Luvisols and Vertisols can be clearly seen (fig. 7). With a CEC value higher than 52 meq/100g the Vertisols are in the range of very high CEC according to the ratings of the Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources (2002). The data for Luvisols however show medium to high CEC values ranging between 21.55 and 28.99 meq/100g. The areas where the field work in 2006 was conducted show CEC values ranging from approximately 25.0 meq/100g for the Luvisols cultivated and irrigated since the establishment of the Finchaa Sugar Estate, which is comparable to values of the uncultivated Luvisols, and below 15.0 meq/100g for the Luvisols which have been cultivated since 1975 and irrigated since 1998. This makes the long-term process of soil degradation visible induced by agriculture and especially by irrigation. Minor to major amendments might be required for the Luvisols, however the soil might show only moderate to poor response to fertilizer application (MoWR, 2002). None of the measured ESP values of the tested soils neither for Luvisols nor for Vertisols exceeds the threshold value of 15 % and can therefore be rated as none-sodic soil (FAO 1988). The BSP ranging from 36.36 to 50.16 % (Lc West Bank), 40.67 to 57.38 % (Lc East Bank) and from 42.98 to 52.55 % (Ve West Bank) can be rated as medium. Only the BSP from the Vertisols which can be found on the East Bank can be classified as high with values ranging from 59.47 to 67.02 %. This fact indicates a medium fertility of the Luvisols in general and the Vertisols of the West Bank. The Vertisols of the East Bank are however characterised by high soil fertility related to the measured BSP values. The content of total Nitrogen of the tested soils can be rated as high for all tested soils (ranging from 0.05 to 0.14%). The total nitrogen content of the uncultivated reference soil is significantly lower compared to the irrigated plots. The rating for Potassium is low for all samples ranging from 0.2 to 0.27 meq/100g soil except the value of the topsoil of the non-irrigated plot which shows a medium content of Potassium (0.48 meq/100g soil).The content of Calcium is medium (5.18 to 9.5 meq/100g soil) for the irrigated soil and low (3.36 to 4.99 meq/100g soil) for the non irrigated plot. The tested soils show a high content of Magnesium.The results show very clearly the naturally low content of available phosphorus in the reference soil (fig. 8) which makes the application of agrochemicals necessary in order to achieve high crop yields. It is stated that in moderately acidic soils P may be deficient which is true in this case, nevertheless fertilizers (ammonium sulphate and triple super phosphate) which may increase the acidity should be avoided (MoWR, 2002). The content of available P (29.2 mg/kg) is only high within the first 30 cm of soil depth for sampling point F 1. According to the statement of a staff member of the Sugar Estate DAP had been applied to plot F 1 shortly before the field work was conducted. Obviously phosphorus is not leached to lower soil depth as its content in 30-90 cm is significantly lower. The secondary data show that the content of total Nitrogen of the Luvisols and Vertisols of West and East Bank can be rated as high for all soils (ranging from 0.05 to 0.27%). The content of total nitrogen in the cultivated Vertisols is significantly higher (0.27%) compared to the other tested soils. The content of total nitrogen in the uncultivated Luvisols (West and East Bank) is similar compared to the content of the irrigated soils. The rating for Potassium of the Luvisols is medium (West Bank and East Bank; lower soil parts) to high (East Bank; upper soil parts) whereas the rating for K of irrigated Luvisols is low. The tested Vertisols in both areas show higher contents of K and can be rated as high. The formerly cultivated Vertisols of the East Bank have a significantly higher K content compared to the uncultivated Vertisols of the West Bank. The content of Calcium is medium for the tested Luvisols and high to very high for the Vertisols in both areas. The Ca values of the formerly cultivated Luvisols of the East bank are higher compared to the Luvisols of the West Bank which were uncultivated at that point of time. The Ca content of the tested Vertisols of the West and the East Bank are more or less similar ranging from 18.3 to 21.8 meq/100g but are higher compared to the highest Ca content of tested Luvisols (10.15 meq/100g; Luvisols, East Bank; topsoil). The Magnesium content ranges from 2.32 to 4.36 meq/100g for Luvisols of East and West Bank and East Bank Vertisols. The Mg value for Vertisols of the East Bank is slightly higher with a content of 6.12 meq/100g in the topsoil. The content of Mg in all soils can be rated as high, except the content in the topsoil of the West Bank Vertisols which can be rated as medium. The analysis results of the primary and secondary data show similar Mg contents for irrigated and non-irrigated Luvisols. The analysis of organic content and comparison of primary and secondary data reveals an ongoing soil degradation process caused by intensive sugar cane monoculture. The comparison of the organic carbon content of uncultivated, cultivated and irrigated areas shows a decreasing trend of naturally low organic carbon content of the tested soil types. Two reasons can be spotted as potential causes for this trend. Soil degradation which is caused by intensive agricultural production of sugar cane monoculture might be one reason. The low content of organic carbon can also be explained by the low natural pH value of the soil. The nitrification process of organic carbon which is typical for these soils and climatic conditions could be the direct cause for the very low organic carbon content of the tested soils. However, this makes fertilizers application necessary to achieve adequate yields which additionally spells the risk of groundwater pollution by agrochemicals. Two major types of soil erosion could be identified for the Finchaa Valley cases study. The effect of hinterland erosion and infield erosion jeopardizes the fertility status of the whole region and the Sugar Estate in particular. Deforestation of the highland regions caused by cutting trees for fire wood exposes the highland soils to erosive processes and contributes to high surface runoff. Population pressure aggravates this problem even more. The eroded material from the steep escarpments which is deposited on the irrigated areas of the valley bottom can lead to soil degradation. Run off estimation of the valley bottom indicates loss of eroded fertile soils due to sheet erosion estimated in the range of 5 to 10 mm/y or equivalent to approximately 100ton/ha -y (Girma T., 1995). The eroded soil is deposited to the tributaries of Finchaa River which finally drain to Abay (Blue Nile) River. Considering the high content of available phosphorous which tends to be fixed to soil particles in the topsoil layer, erosion of these soil particles causes an additional threat to downstream water courses. Assuming that these present trends continue the problem of soil and land degradation induced by soil erosion may threaten the sustainability of the irrigation project.In 1975 the state farm was established which mainly produced food and commercial crops until 1991. About 3500 ha of valuable ecosystems have been cleared and destroyed for agricultural activities. Before that the valley was under natural vegetation cover and very few agricultural plots could be observed. The valley area was a sanctuary for wild animals. Tall savanna grass mixed with trees which occupied most of the valley floor created favorable conditions for a large numbers of wild animals like carnivores, browsers, grazers and other small animals. The natural vegetation in the area was dense and with full canopy during the wet season.Starting from 1991 up to now more than 8064 ha of land has been cleared and irrigated for sugar production (Ahmed Amdihun, 2006). From 1975 to 1991 these parts of Finchaa Valley area have changed from primary to tertiary economic production; from traditional agricultural to industrial and commercial production respectively. The dominant land use classes are irrigation agriculture and agropastoral within the valley area and rain fed agriculture mainly in the high land area. In addition to the land clearing tree and grass species are exposed to extensive and severe bush fires (Ahmed, 2006). Two major reasons could be identified. In addition to natural factors inhabitants of the region earn their subsistence by collecting wild honey and crop cultivation. To clear their land farmers burn the forest. Since the establishment of the irrigation scheme and the beginning of sugar cane production also sugar cane burning for harvesting can be identified as a major cause for forest fires. Furthermore migration tendencies triggered by the attraction and employment options of the sugar estate increase the pressure on the ecosystem. In developing countries like Ethiopia the GDP of a country highly depends on agricultural production. Priorities have to be outweighed between conservation of valuable ecosystems and important contribution to a country's economy. In order to justify clearance of large natural forest areas agricultural production needs to be sustainable to avoid large scale land degradation and further adverse environmental impacts.The main goal of this report was to assess the pertinent environmental implications of two selected large scale irrigation schemes in Ethiopia. For this purpose two large scale schemes in different regions were selected Wonji/Shoa and Finchaa Valley. The main focus was put on impact on natural resources like water, soil and ecosystems. Based on the pertinent environmental checklists of FAOs, World Banks and MoWRs EIA procedures, data sheets and guidelines for primary and secondary data collection were designed (Wallner, 2006) and used during the assessment. The water sources of the schemes were sampled and analyzed against FAOs standards and threshold for water used in agriculture. Additionally water samples of downstream water bodies were tested to assess potential adverse impacts. Physical and chemical soil parameters of primary and secondary data were analyzed for possible changes.In general, the study conducted shows that the irrigation water used in the investigated case studies is of good quality with regard to FAOs standards for water used in agriculture and does not spell any risk for irrigation purposes. The irrigation water sources used in the three case study sites have low EC values ranging from 96 µS/cm (Finchaa Valley) to 293 µS/cm (Wonji/Shoa) and therefore no primary salinisation is to be expected. With regard to impact of the used water source on the soil quality EC to SAR ratio however indicates potential negative long-term effects on infiltration rates due to damage of the soil structure and soil crusting through induced sodicity especially in case of Wonji/Shoa and Finchaa Sugar Plantation. The most crucial environmental impacts of large scale irrigation in Ethiopia which could be identified are related to improper irrigation management and development of irrigation project on saline and saline-sodic soils. Inefficient application of water and seepage of water from reservoirs and unlined distribution canals lead to rising of groundwater table at Wonji/Shoa. Investigations showed that on some fields of the Wonji/Shoa Plantation the groundwater table is less than one meter below soil surface (Habib D., 2002). This tendency has mainly two adverse effects. The rise of the groundwater table up to the root zone interferes with the proper development of the planted crop, leads to damage of the soil structure and insufficient soil ventilation. Secondly it induces secondary salinisation due to capillary rising. Improper irrigation management and attempts to leach the accumulated salt by additional application of water, which leads to rising groundwater table, has even aggravated this effect (Tena, 2002). Besides installation of drainage systems to intercept deep percolation of the excess water, other in the long run more cost-effective measures need to be considered. Installation of drip systems could avoid excessively use of irrigation water and make the application of water more efficient and therefore increase the overall water productivity of the schemes. According to the Ethiopian Irrigation Development Program 26 medium and largescale irrigation projects are planned to be implemented. Due to topographic reasons most of these already established or proposed largescale irrigation schemes can be found in the lowlands of Ethiopians major river basins such as Awash, Blue Nile and Wabe Shebelle river basin. Over 11 million ha of land in the arid, semi-arid and desert parts of Ethiopia are known to be salt affected. Large areas of the Awash River Basin especially the middle and lower parts of the basin are saline or sodic or in saline or sodic phase and thus potentially exposed to salinisation and sodicity (EIAR 2006). Development of large scale irrigation, political decision making and investment strategies are often oriented on short-term profit maximisation whereby environmental sustainability is neglected. Due to the fact that environmental sustainability of irrigation projects is rather on the low end of the policy priority list, adverse and irreversible environmental impacts are bound to happen in the contrary nexus of profit maximisation, short-term benefits and environmental sustainability.In order to avoid possible negative impacts of the expansion of irrigated agriculture in causing deterioration of land and soil quality, proper understanding of the quality of soil and irrigation water and implementation of appropriate measures have paramount importance for sustainable development. There is no doubt that irrigation can increase intensification and productivity, can help to limit the size of cultivated areas, can provide ample labour and agro-industrialization opportunities and other potentially positive benefits. On the other hand it can also cause negative impacts such as deterioration of soil and water quality, impact on eco-system, health and other negative externalities. It is important to support such endeavours through proper study and continuous research, so that the positive roles could be enhanced with timely mitigation measures for the negative impacts.","tokenCount":"6933"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7a9dd6f62725e06a4ed5470a34620b52","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/202d1e03-0185-44e6-ad71-d8a2a02f2a2c/retrieve","id":"1421820442"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a4be2e94-8ae8-4fef-a5d5-e3fa970ccd5b","pagecount":"34","content":"The authors would like to thank all the eleven partners who validated and signed the Memorandum of Understanding for Ghana's Early Warning and Rapid Response System for Pests and Diseases.An early warning and rapid response system for pests and diseases (EWRRS-PD) is crucial for ensuring food security and protecting agricultural livelihoods. In Ghana, where agriculture is a major contributor to the economy, the impact of pests and diseases can be devastating. The main drivers of plant pests and diseases spread include trade, climate change and socio-economic developments. The development of such an EWRRS-PD can help farmers and agricultural stakeholders to detect and respond to outbreaks quickly, minimizing the damage caused by pests and diseases. This system can also provide valuable data for decision-makers to develop effective policies and strategies to prevent future outbreaks. In this context, the development of an early warning and rapid response system for pests and diseases in Ghana is a critical step towards achieving resilient agri-food systems.In Ghana, several response mechanisms are in place for plant pests and diseases outbreaks. These mechanisms involve collaboration between government agencies, universities, research institutions, developmental partners and local stakeholders to monitor, detect, predict, and respond to pests and diseases affecting crops. Some of the key response mechanisms include:• Ghana Emergency Response Plan for Invasive Alien Plant Pests: The Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) Ghana has developed a response plan to address invasive alien plant pests. This EWRRS-PD materializes one of the core elements of the existing PPRSD-led Ghana Emergency Response Plan for Invasive Alien Plant Pests.• Integrated Pest Management (IPM): IPM has emerged as a sustainable approach to the prevention and control of pests and diseases that attack crops. IPM uses natural enemies of pests and biopesticides as potential solutions, producing fewer health and ecological problems than the use of synthetic pesticides.• One Health Platform for Climate-Driven Pests and Diseases: AICCRA is working with scientists, public and private sector partners to develop a One Health Platform for climate-driven pests and diseases in Ghana. This platform aims to enhance the health of plants, animals and their shared environment by recognizing their interconnectedness.• The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) in Ghana collaborates with PPRSD in responding to plant pests and diseases outbreaks.coordinates animal and plant disease and pest response in natural disasters in Ghana. These organizations work together to ensure that the country is prepared to respond to plant pest and disease outbreaks and minimize their impact on the agricultural sector.• The Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) developed and deployed the Horizon Scanning Tool as an essential decision support aid that plays a significant role in early warning and rapid response to plant pests and diseases. This tool utilizes CABI data to generate a list of species that are not recorded as present in a selected 'area at risk' but are reported from 'source areas' with similar climates, neighbouring areas, or selected trading partners. By identifying potential invasive species threats to a country, state, or province, the tool helps in proactively assessing and mitigating the risk of pests and diseases outbreaks. The Horizon Scanning Tool is particularly valuable for risk assessors, plant protection officers, Phytosanitary Inspectors, and other relevant stakeholders involved in biosecurity and plant health management. Furthermore, the tool links to corresponding invasive species datasheets, providing users with comprehensive information to support informed decision-making and response planning. Overall, the CABI Horizon Scanning Tool contributes to improving biosecurity, guiding resource allocation, and enhancing preparedness and response to plant pests and diseases, thereby playing a crucial role in safeguarding agricultural and environmental health. This tool will form a crucial part of the EWRRS-PD being developed for Ghana.• National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS): This is crucial to the development and implementation of an EWRRS-PD in Ghana. The NFCS managed by the Ghana Meteorological Services (GMet) provides climate information services that are essential for the development of climate-smart agriculture and the management of pests and diseases. The NFCS provides the necessary climate information to support the EWRRS, enabling the system to anticipate and respond to climate-driven pests and diseases. The NFCS is, therefore, a critical component of the EWRRS, providing the necessary information to support decisionmaking and response planning for plant pests and diseases outbreaks in Ghana.• Ag-Data Hub: The Ag-Data Hub serves as a centralized platform for collecting, analysing, and disseminating agricultural data, including information on pests and diseases prevalence, climate conditions, and predictive modelling. This data-driven approach enables stakeholders to make informed decisions and take proactive measures in response to potential pest and disease outbreaks. By providing access to realtime and historical data, the Ag-Data Hub enhances the capacity for early detection, monitoring, and prediction of pests and diseases threats, thereby supporting timely and targeted response efforts. Additionally, the hub facilitates collaboration among various relevant stakeholders, including farmers, researchers, academia, and government agencies, to strengthen the resilience of Ghana's agricultural sector against the impacts of plant pests and diseases.These response mechanisms demonstrate the ongoing efforts to address plant pests and diseases outbreaks in Ghana and protect the country's agricultural sector. Furthermore, existing partnerships with local relevant stakeholders and international institutions are crucial for the operationalization and implementation of the EWRRS.The Ghana Cluster of the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project, led by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and its partners are working on an Early Warning and Rapid Response System for Pests and Diseases (EWRRS-PD) to enhance communication, data sharing, and preparedness against new risks. Following several preparatory meetings, a workshop was held to validate a partnership agreement between eleven public and private sector institutions whose core mandate relates to the subject. This validation workshop was followed by a signing ceremony where heads of the partner institutions demonstrated their commitment to this cause by signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This commitment is a testament to the importance placed on an EWRRS-PD in Ghana. The AICCRA Ghana Cluster is also leading capacity building for relevant stakeholders in reporting, risk knowledge generation, risk communication, monitoring and warning, risk assessment, and risk response dissemination.This situational analysis highlights the ongoing efforts to improve plant pests and diseases surveillance in Ghana and underscores the potential for collaboration in developing an effective EWRRS-PD in Ghana.The scope of this EWRRS-PD encompasses several key aspects and efforts to enhance early warning alerts, strengthen monitoring and detection, and promotes a collaborative, data-driven, and climate-smart approach to effectively address the challenges posed by pests and diseases outbreaks. The key elements shall include:• Enhanced Early Warning and Rapid Response: The system aims to enhance early warning alerts and rapid response to pests and diseases, ensuring that adequate intervention and control measures are put in place for timely detection of any pest or disease outbreak and adequately protect crops from their harmful effects.• Monitoring, Detection, Prediction, and Warning Alerts: The system will focus on strengthening the monitoring, detection, prediction, and warning alerts for pests and diseases, addressing the weaknesses in existing systems to prevent invasive alien species (IAS) from going undetected until they become endemic and spread quickly.• Collaborative and Climate-Smart Response: The system will offer a collaborative and climate-smart response to the challenges posed by variations in climate conditions, allowing pests to spread and survive in new environments, creating more problems for farmers.• Data-Driven Approach: The system will leverage a data-driven approach, utilizing agricultural data, climate information, and predictive modelling to support early detection, monitoring, and prediction of pests and diseases threats, thereby enabling timely and targeted response efforts.• Stakeholder Commitment and Collaboration: The system will leverage on and involve the commitment and collaboration of various relevant stakeholders in the agriculture sector, including government agencies, universities, research institutions, and technology solutions institutions, to develop and implement robust mechanisms for early control and management of pests and diseases.International Conventions and Agreements ratified and signed by Ghana together with the national legislative laws that provide the legal basis for PPRSD to carry out its functions as they relate to outbreaks response activities include: The national legislative laws mandate the PPRSD to perform the following specific functions:• Authorises the officers of the directorate and other authorized persons to enter premises, conveyances and other places where imported commodities, regulated pests or other regulated articles may be present, inspect or test imported commodities and other regulated articles, and take and remove samples from imported commodities or other regulated articles, or from places where regulated pests may be present.• Defines the roles and responsibilities of international, national and regional institutions and other relevant stakeholders who support the directorate in delivering its mandate related to the identification of pest status and the establishment and update of the list of commodities, quarantine, calamity, newly introduced and regulated plant pests and diseases.• Declares an area as infested or subject to quarantine, and to adopt measures to eradicate or contain the spread of endemic and newly introduced pests and diseases.• Describes regulatory controls to restrict the movement of certain plants, plant products and regulated articles within areas of Ghana, including within buffer zones.• Implements emergency phytosanitary measures to prevent the introduction, establishment and spread of alien invasive species.• Allows diagnostic facilities to be established and maintained or give access to appropriate up-to-date diagnostic services to ensure that pests and diseases are properly identified.• Ensures mandatory domestic reporting to the NPPO on the detection or suspected presence of regulated pests/diseases, and pests/diseases new to an area, host or pathway.• Authorises a designated officer to eradicate a pest/disease or prevent the spread of a pest/disease after a pest risk assessment and suspects that a plant, plant product or regulated article is suspected to be a pest/disease, could be infested or a biological obstacle to the control of a pest/disease. • Carry out surveillance of growing plants and plant products in storage or in transit to report pests outbreaks, spread and the control of the pests or diseases.Based on these international conventions, Agreements and legislative laws, the PPRSD is best suited to serve as the EWRRS-PD Authority. The Authority shall serve as the central coordinating unit and host the secretariat of the EWRRS-PD. The Director of PPRSD shall be the head of the Authority and shall appoint a National, Regional and District Focal Persons. The Director of PPRSD shall be a member of the Steering Committee and the National Focal Person shall serve as the Secretary to the Steering Committee.The EWRRS-PD Plan has been developed based on the following principles:• Preventing the introduction of alien invasive species is the most cost-effective method for their management.• Immediate eradication is the primary goal for rapid response but containment, or a long-term strategy to sustainably manage, may be necessary for widely established populations of destructive pests.• Risk assessments provide valuable information concerning the potential threat of new invasive species to the country, which will help determine the resources and management actions required for a successful response.• Rapid response will employ procedures to achieve specific objectives for managing target species while minimizing adverse effects on environmental, economic and human values.• Effective EWRRS-PD depends upon timely intervention. However, some species that pose extreme danger may require immediate intervention.• Regardless of PPRSD being the governmental agency mandated to handle issues of invasive species introduced into the country, successful EWRRS-PD requires multi-sectorial approach involving government institutions, development partners, non-governmental organizations, private sector and the community.• Public and community involvement are essential for timely and effective EWRRS-PD. Public support for EWRRS-PD actions and management is important to the success of EWRRS-PD in a country.As the NPPO of Ghana with legal mandate outlined in section 3, PPRSD shall play a lead role and serve as the EWRRS-PD Authority.The BNARI was established with the mandate to exploit biotechnology and nuclear science applications for sustainable agriculture solutions. The institute has developed capacity in pest and disease surveillance, integrated pest and disease management and the development of new tools against pests and diseases. As a co-lead on the EWRRS-PD, BNARI shall be involved with pests and diseases surveillance, pest risk assessment and the development of response plan alongside other knowledge institutions. Having expertise in research and development of climate smart one-health solutions, BNARI shall ensure the one-health compliance of the EWRRS-PD.The mandate of the CSIR-INSTI as established is to develop a national capacity and capability for efficient and effective provision of scientific and technological information on demand, for the benefit of research scientists, policy makers and industrialists in appropriately packaged form for national development. It is the lead institution involved with the development, implementation and hosting of the Ag-Data Hub; a tool that is central to the EWRRS-PD as outlined in section 1.2 above.The CSIR-CRI has a broad research mandate covering all food and industrial crops, with a mission to develop and disseminate demand-driven technologies and build capacity for sustainable food and industrial crops productivity to enhance livelihoods. Based on this mandate, it is involved as a knowledge institution and shall be involved with pest and disease surveillance, pest risk assessment and the development of response plan alongside other knowledge institutions.The mandate of the CSIR-SARI is to provide farmers in the northern savannah regions with appropriate technologies to increase their food and fibre crop production based on a sustainable production system which maintains and/or increases soil fertility. Based on its experience with the savannah agriculture systems and their strategic location CSIR-SARI shall be responsible for pests and diseases knowledge activities in the savannah regions on the EWRRS-PD.The GMeT is a governmental agency under the Ministry of Communication mandated to offer weather and climate services, to analyse scientific research findings and provide guidance on climate change. The GMeT is the lead institution for Ghana's National Framework for Climate Services. Considering that most of the pests and diseases challenges we face are climate driven and the active role of GMeT in the development and implementation of the Ag-Data Hub, it shall be involved with the provision of climate information services for the EWRRS-PD.The mandate of NADMO includes all activities from preparedness to response and recovery, prevent disasters, create awareness in prone communities and institutions on all hazard/disaster types, train and motivate the communities especially volunteers to initiate actions to prevent and respond to disasters; bring relief to disaster victims, assist to reduce poverty in vulnerable and poor communities through social mobilisation for employment creation and income generation. The NADMO is onboard the EWRRS-PD with its expertise in risk forecasting, analysis and management as well as preparedness to response and recovery.The UDS represents the universities on the EWRRS-PD as a knowledge institution responsible for risk confirmation and development of response tools and advisory. The UDS hosts the West African Centre for Water, Irrigation and Sustainable Agriculture (WACWISA) which was established with the mission to develop skills and knowledge of young men and women to provide practical and sustainable solutions to the challenges of water resources, irrigation, agricultural development and climate change in Africa.The DAES is responsible for the overseeing of agricultural technology diffusion through the management of an extension delivery service in the country. They work closely with all the key players in knowledge generation and communication and are directly in touch with farmers at the community level. The DAES shall be responsible for communication of pests and diseases risk information, response and advisory as well as training of farmers on risk detection and response implementation.Farmerline is a private e-extension services company working to give growers access to quality inputs, training and markets, tools they can translate into sustainable, healthy incomes. On the EWRRS-PD, Farmerline shall work closely with the DAES and other stakeholders in pests and diseases risk information communication and use their networks to disseminate response information.The mission of the EPA is to manage, protect and enhance the country's environment and seek common solutions to global environmental problems. It is responsible for registration, control, management and regulation of pesticides in Ghana and, collaborates with PPRSD to enforce the pesticides law. The EPA shall regulate and provide advisory on pesticides and other related matters for the EWRRS-PD and shall ensure environmental compliance of all surveillance and response activities.The EWRRS-PD shall be a network of independent elements working together to achieve a common goal, \"To detect new pest and disease outbreak situations early and to act quickly\". It aims to establish a national early warning coordination capability for pests and diseases. The EWRRS-PD shall have designated positions and established committees, as necessary, to provide system coordination and leadership. The organizational structure shall consist of:This committee shall be the highest decision-making body of the EWRRS-PD. The committee shall be composed of the heads of the 11 partner institutions listed in section 4. The roles of the committee will be:• receive reports and recommendations from the EWRRS-PD authority and take decisions accordingly.• source for funds for implementation of programs of the authority.• approve programs of the EWRRS-PD authority.The Early Warning and Rapid Response Authority / National Focal Point, shall be made up of staff of NPPO (PPRSD) chaired by the Director. The roles of the authority shall include:• creating a network of high-level experts to process the collated data, identify the threat, continuously monitor, and provide updates on the potential threats.• establishing a multi-sectoral working group to facilitate decision-making and policy influence.• providing mechanisms to facilitate the implementation of recommendations.• coordinate the activities of risk knowledge generators and communicators.To be able to discharge its mandate, the authority may establish a Technical Committee made up of experts on invasive species matters, weather forecasters, taxonomists and other areas relevant for managing Invasive Alien Species (IAS), from the institutes stated in section 4 and from other Research Institutes and Universities in Ghana. The committee shall include risk knowledge generators (NARS, Academia, International researchers, Agric NGO's) and risk communicators (CSIR-INSTI, Ag-Hub data, NADMO, Farmerline, GMet, DAES/MOFA).The technical committee shall be tasked with the following roles:• Maintaining the EWRRS-PD Plan and updating it from time to time when necessary.• Developing program procedures, deliverables, templates, and reporting • Determining risk-ratings for new invasive species with consideration of recommendations from the PPRSD District and Regional Focal PersonsReview the updates and reports from the PPRSD District and regional Focal persons.• Approve annual EWRRS-PD program deliverables.• Evaluate and recommend revisions to the EWRRS-PD process.• Train the regional/district EWRRS-PD Focal Person from time to time on how to rapidly scout for and carry out initial identification of Invasive species.• Offer training to the District and Regional EWRRS-PD Focal Person on the collection, preservation and transporting of samples of suspected invasive species.All risk knowledge developed by the Technical Committee and how it must be communicated to the relevant stakeholders must be reported to the head of the authority.The Regional EWRRS-PD Focal Person is tasked with the following roles:• Collate information from the District EWRRS-PD Focal Person and forward them to the Technical Committee.• Conduct initial identification of a suspected invasive alien species.• Direct the District EWRRS-PD Focal Person to initiate containment procedures if the identification confirms a possible invasive species and forward the samples to the EWRRS-PD Authority for actions to be taken on confirmation of its status.• Communicate the final decision taken by the steering committee to the district EWRRS-PD Focal Person.• Participate in surveillance and monitoring activities as directed by the Technical Committee.• Collect samples of suspected invasive alien species and forward to the Regional EWRRS-PD Focal Person • Carry out outreach and educational programme to the community and collect feedback to the Regional EWRRS-PD Focal Person.• Implement containment decisions as communicated by the Regional EWRRS-PD Focal Person.• Participate in any activities being carried out by the Technical Committee in the areas under their jurisdiction.This EWRRS-PD is developed and implemented as a means of preventing the destruction of Ghana's agricultural and environmental resources by climate-driven pests and invasive alien species. Currently several insect pests and diseases have been identified as potential species of interest in Ghana. These species have been identified to be of high risks because of one or more of the following reasons:• They have been found to cause massive damages in environments that are similar to conditions in Ghana.• They have been found in neighbouring countries or within the West African sub-region.• The vectors of the diseases have been discovered in Ghana.• There is high potential for these invasive species introductions, establishment and spread within the country and pose threat to agriculture.A summary of the identification, biology and potential damages by these pests and diseases has been attached as appendix 1. It is recommended that the list is published in newspapers of national circulation, posted at MoFA website and other social media platforms identified by the steering committee of the EWRRS-PD where it will be readily accessible to the Regional and District EWRRS-PD Focal Persons and the public.For early detection of an incursion, there is the need for regular surveillance at the borders of Ghana. The surveillance can be done passively by the public and farmers, who are well informed about the issues; or actively by the EWRRS-PD Focal Person at the district levels. The active surveillance comprises structured searches or surveys that focus on high-priority target invasive species, specific geographic locations, and important pathways for introduction and dispersal. Early detection can be initiated by the report of a suspected new invasive species to the country. During the surveillance, important information such as population size, distribution and density, may also be collected. To help the identification and verification of the suspected invasive species, photographs of the insect or of the disease symptoms on the infected plant, may be very useful. For this purpose, the Horizon Scanning Tool developed by CABI may come in handy. It is advised that the surveillance is carried out at shorter intervals in Ghana as a number of invasive species with high risks level are posing threat to the country.If any suspected invasive alien species are found, samples or photographs of either the pest or the disease symptoms are sent to the Regional EWRRS-PD Focal Person, who will then attempt to identify the species as an alien which is now entering or an alien that has already been found in the country. This may be done with help from the published list of invasive species (Appendix 1). The regional EWRRS-PD Focal Person now sends the samples and its related information to the National Focal Point (EWRRS-PD Authority) for referral to the Technical Committee for verification and advice. If the Technical Committee deems it fit, they can send samples of the suspected invasive alien species to international research institutions or accredited laboratory for confirmation. If the Regional Focal Person identifies the incursion as high risk, then he/she can advise containment activities to prevent further spread while waiting for further instructions from the Authority. Protocols for collecting, preserving and transporting samples of suspected invasive alien species have been attached as Appendix 11.This EWRRS-PD is contingent on the detection of certain listed invasive alien species, all identified to be of high risk (Appendix 1). However, due to the rapidly changing environment and farming practices, the risk status can change. There's therefore the need for the risk status of any suspected/identified invasive alien species to be determined. The Technical Committee must carry out the assessment and convey the results to the head of the EWRRS-PD Authority. If the risk assessment indicate that the identified pest or disease is of low risk, the decision as to not to include it further in the EWRRS-PD will be relayed to the EWRRS-PD Steering Committee for final decision to be made.When the suspected invasive species or a pest/disease of high risk is confirmed there shall be the need for the development of a rapid response plan. The main aim of the plan will be to eradicate the pest/disease before it spreads. The plan begins with the establishment of a rapid response team by the Steering Committee with advice from the EWRRS-PD Authority. The composition of the team will depend on the type of incursion. For example, if it is an insect pest or a disease transmitted by an insect vector the team will need an entomologist and if it's a disease, a plant pathologist will be needed. Subject matter experts such as pesticide experts and pesticide applicators may be required if pesticide application will be necessary.Since PPRSD is mandated to use all means necessary to control such incursions, accessing the area to be treated should not pose a problem, however, if the incursion was reported on a private property, there shall be the need for the owner to be consulted prior to the application of treatments. To encourage his/her participation in the process he/she can be co-opted into the response team.Response Plans are developed by the Rapid Response Team, and shall include instructions for pre-treatment assessment, the treatment regime, and monitoring timelines. It is important that the objectives of the response plan are clearly stated before implementation. This is necessary to enable evaluation and assessment of the actions and define the period within which the activities must be curtailed. Protocols that must be followed for the treatment of the infected/infested area are to be developed by the Technical Committee and must be followed strictly by the response team. The measures must be such that it will rapidly eradicate the incursion but must not leave environmental problems such as pollution of the environment with pesticides residues or adverse effects on non-target organisms.There shall be the need for the impact of the implemented response plan to be assessed based on predetermined timelines. These activities and results must be monitored, and decisions are then taken on whether the objectives were achieved (eradicating the target) or not. This should be carried out by the Technical Committee after which they advise the Steering Committee on the next line of action. If the objectives are achieved there shall be the need for the writing of a final report by the response team with input from the Technical Committee to be forwarded to the Steering Committee for archiving. If the objectives are not met, then a decision will be taken as to whether the plan needs to be modified, (based on what caused the objectives not to be realized) for re-application. However, if it becomes clear that the eradication of the pest/disease is not possible then the Technical Committee shall advise the head of the EWRRS-PD Authority on sustainable interventions.Based on the organizational structure of this EWRRS-PD, there is the need for orderly flow of information to prevent confusion in the system. Fig. 1 illustrates the relationship of the various actors in the EWRRS-PD and the channels of communication.10.1 Reporting detections: Detected new pest/disease situations would either be entry of a new invasive alien species into the country, resurgence of a pest that hitherto had been controlled or eradicated/eliminated or emergence of an insect which hitherto was not a pest but have attained pest status because of climate change or ecological changes resulting from human activities. Detection of any such situation would be at the farm level, through routine on-farm surveillance, trapping or interceptions at entry points. For the EWRRS-PD, such detections shall be communicated by the persons who detected the situation to the nearest link in the communication channel, which shall be either the District Agriculture Extension Agent (AEA) or PPRSD Focal Person. This information shall then be relayed to the EWRRS-PD Authority. Additionally, the Technical Committee and the knowledge generating partners would carry out horizon scanning on commodities and trade routes to establish any potential threats of pest invasion. This potential threat shall be communicated to the EWRRS-PD Authority.Once a detection or potential threat is reported to the EWRRS-PD Authority, this shall be communicated to the Technical Committee, who shall initiate processes to validate the risk, carry out risk assessment of the situation and develop risk knowledge information, including awareness and response plan.The Technical Committee shall also compile and where necessary validate a response strategy, which shall include tools for prevention, eradication/elimination, containment or management of the risk.The risk communication team shall pick up the risk knowledge information and disseminate to all relevant stakeholders using the designated communication channels, i.e., PPRSD Focal Persons at the regional and district levels and AEAs to the farmers and farmer-based organisations (FBOs).There shall be regular monitoring and evaluation of the system. Key lessons and information from the monitoring and evaluation shall be used to improve the system.  False oleander scaleThe female matures into an oval, bright yellow, feeding and egg-laying body hidden under a white, pear-shaped armour, while males are protected by armour.Eucalyptus spp.Corymbia spp.It is a small (2-3mm) sapfeeding insect. The adults are flat-bodied and light brown in colour with darker shaded areas.Boll weevilThe adult weevils are small (ca. 12 mm) and have long slender snouts and spurs on the upper joint of the front legs. generally red brown with a medial.The adult body is shieldshaped, ranging in size from 5-7 mm long and 3-4 mm wide, with females slightly larger than males. The coloration of the adult is black with red and yellow markings.Natural dispersal and movement within infested area.Palms and orchids Shiny-brown or orangebrown with a flat white fringe of wax, Adults are small, oval, and flattened, measuring 2-3 mm in length. Nymphs: Similar to adult C. lataniae, but smaller in size.plant materialRice, sugarcane, and sorghumThe moth has a wingspan of 12-18 mm, with dull lightbrown forewings outlined in whitish-beige.Egg plant and tomato Adult females are oval and light to dark grey in colour. Immature stages do not secrete a thick layer of mealy wax, and the body is shiny yellow-green with submedian grey spots on the 2 abdominal and 1 thoracic segment.Peach, pear and apple The female insect is almost circular, slightly convex, and light to dark grey, with a diameter of about 1.5-2.2 mm.The wingspan of the butterfly is 70-77 mm, and there are multiple generations per year. The larvae of Erionota torus feed on the leaves of Musa species, especially Musa textilis.Soursop, breadfruit, pigeon pea, pawpaw, citrus, coconut, African oil palmThe adult female has 5 to 8 waxy filaments on its dorsum, similar in shape and size to those on the lateral areas of its body. Adult female is flat and oval. The workers of L. humile are small (2-3 mm long), brown and monomorphic. Their petiole is small and composed of a single segment.Males are also small (2.8-3 mm long), winged, dark brown, with a very robust and elliptical thorax, broader than the head. Queens are larger (4.5-5 mm long), dark brown with a large thorax, as broad as the head.Red locustCitrus, coffee, cassava, tobacco, rice, millet, maize, sugarcane, sorghum.Females are 55-85 mm, males 50-70 mm. Solitarious adults are larger on average than ones. The former are largely (reddish) brown and grey. Their tegmina carry oblique spots or fasciae (usually seven) and their wings are clear and pale red to purplish at the base. Gregarious adults are more reddish in general colour especially the younger onesRed gum lerp psyllidAdults are approximately 4-5 mm in length from the head to the wing tips. The colour of the adult is yellow or light green with contrasting dark eyes, and with occasional dark-brown markings.Natural dispersion of adults, land transportation of vectors, trading of infested plant material such as leaves and stems.Leucaena, mimosa, rain tree Adults slender, 1.5-2 mm long, usually yellowishgreen but some may be of varying shades of brown; wings become transparent with ageTransportation of infested plant material, by flight and wind.The flies are slender, greyish and large-winged. The female is 7.5-9.4 mm and the male is 5.7-8.9 mm). It is grey-brown, with a light transverse band on the elytra. The rostrum is 15 mm long; the prothorax is 2.2 mm long; and the elytra are 6.2 mm long and 4.6 mm wide.Transportation of soil, gravels, trading of infested plant parts such as calyx, flowers, barks, leaves, stem, growing medium.Copper leaf, devils horsewhip, calico plant, globe amaranth.Female adults are about 3mm long. Female adults and nymphs are oval and covered in a white waxy coating giving them a mealy appearance. Males are small aphid-like winged insects Plant trade of leaves, root, seedlings, stem, flowers, wind Parlatoria Date ScaleThe adult female is an elongated oval shape, and is whitish, with a pale brown raised area with a darker brown or blackish central Several species of eucalyptus, mahogany Adult head, pronotum and ventrites of the adult are reddish-brown to dark reddish-brown. The antennae and legs are yellowish-brown to reddishbrown. The antennae are 1.6 times as long as the body in the males and slightly longer than the body in the female. The male is 15-28.8 mm long and the female is 19.5-29.2 mm long International trade or regional trade, the eggs, larvae, pupae and adults can be transported in logs, solid wood packing material (SWPM) or saw timber.Abies alba (silver fir), Fagus sylvatica (common beech) Males are smaller than the females, have reduced eyes, and lack wings. Length 2.0-2.4 mm, 2.6-3.0 times longer than wide.Wheat (Triticum sp.), barley (Hordeum vulgare), oats (Avena sativa)Yellow green to grey-green spindle-shaped aphid, 1.4-2.6 mm long as an adult. Integument covered with a waxy white exudate.The adult is oval in outline, and about 6 to 7mm in length. The newly emerged adult is of a straw or creamyellow colour. The adults darken with age until they become orange-brown with a bronze tinge. The males are slightly smaller than the females.Mangifera The female is larger than the male, measuring approximately 13 x 3.4 mm, whereas the male measures 9.7 x 2.9 mm. The Infested potatoes or soil female is bright brown. The male is dark brown. Generally, specimens of adult insects are required for identification purposes, but there are exceptions, which are indicated in the section on preservation. Specimens need to be in good condition with all appendages (wings, legs, and antennae) intact, as identification of broken or incomplete specimens is difficult or impossible. Specimens could be killed by leaving them in a freezer for half an hour or longer depending on their size. Many smaller insects can be directly killed and preserved in ethyl alcohol. They should be preserved and sent with other stages (eggs, larvae, nymphs, pupae, and pupal cases), as the immature stages of many species are still not well known. In the case of whiteflies, pupal stages are essential. A sample that is sent for identification should consist of about five specimens to allow a sure identification. Some specimens should be kept for reference and possible future use as samples.All specimens should be handled with great care to avoid distortion, breakage and loss of antennae, legs, wings, heads, scales, setae or other parts that may be essential for identification. Specimens should be as clean as possible. The preferred killing agent for adult insects is the vapour of ethyl acetate as this leaves the specimen relaxed. If adult insects and other arthropods are to be preserved in 70% or 80% ethyl (not formalin) they can be killed in this fluid also. Many immature insects, because of their softer structure, are normally killed and preserved in alcohol. However, larvae and pupae should be killed in boiling water (for one minute). Adult stages of small insects like aphids, whiteflies, thrips, scale insects, mealybugs, ants and mites and larvae and pupae should be preserved in ethyl alcohol (70-80%) or in other fluid preservatives (but not formalin) in glass or plastic tubes. These tubes should not be too large as this makes searching for very small specimens, like mites, very difficult. The tubes should be completely filled with fluid, to exclude air bubbles (moving air bubbles can do a lot of damage during transit), and should be securely sealed, preferably with screw-on caps, but not with corks as these may soon deteriorate. Adult stages of larger insects may be preserved on dry pins, preferably stainless-steel pins that do not rust and damage the specimen. Do not stack specimens on the same pin with one data label because the weight may become too heavy for the pin and you may include several species under one label. Do not put Lepidoptera and other insects in the same box because the scales of the wings from the Lepidoptera will stick to small insects and hide their taxonomic characters.It is also possible to preserve larger adult insects dry in paper envelopes or packets, or loosely packed between layers of cellulose wadding or tissue paper (but not cotton wool) in boxes, but these methods should only be used when there is no alternative. It is essential to dry specimens thoroughly before storage to prevent the growth of moulds and the development of mites and other organisms that will rapidly destroy specimens.All specimens submitted for identification should be clearly labelled with basic information on:• country;• locality (including the nearest place likely to be recorded on maps.);• altitude (if appropriate);• English and preferably scientific names of host plant(s);• other relevant information e.g. feeding on leaf or on fruit;• result of problem -e.g. plant dying, fruit or tuber inedible, leaves fall off or lose colour;• date collected; name of collector and organisation; reference number. • Labels should not be too large, and should be neatly written with a pencil or permanent ink (but not with a ballpoint pen whose ink will dissolve).Specimens must be packed carefully before dispatch because inadequate packing may result in severe damage or total loss.Pinned specimens should be sent in strong but light cardboard boxes with secure bases of cork or Plastazote into which the pins are deeply and firmly inserted. Expanded polystyrene should not be used as a base because it has insufficient grip to hold pins in place. Large specimens should be secured with several long pins to prevent any movement of the specimen or their labels and placed in a box for shipment. Tubes containing specimens in alcohol or other fluids be checked for leaks, and if necessary sealed with molten candle wax, then be carefully packed in cellulose wadding, tissue paper, cotton wool, newspaper or other packing material and placed in a box for shipment. Boxes containing pinned specimens, slides or tubes should be sealed with tape and packed in strong cardboard cartons with a thick layer (at least 5cm) of polystyrene chips, crumpled paper, or other resilient packing material surrounding them on all sides to absorb any shocks or vibrations that might otherwise cause damage in transit.The sender needs to enquire about such or similar restrictions in the country of destination prior to shipment and then prepare the specimens so that they conform to both the national and international safety requirements. Specimens should be sent by the fastest and most reliable method. Specimens are to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate and an import permit if required. A covering letter stating the sender's name and address and what information is required must be included in the package and sent with the specimen. The box needs to be wrapped in brown paper. The package needs to show the sender's address and the correct address of the specialist who identifies the sample. The package should also state the following:'Dead Insects Preserved for Scientific Use, of No Commercial Value' and the wording 'Fragile' or 'Handle with Care'.Care should be taken when packing disease specimens. When collecting, the specimen should not be kept in the heat, especially in direct sunlight. Plastic bags should be AVOIDED at all costs, as they cause the specimen to \"sweat\" and this encourages the growth of other organisms that may hide the real disease-causing organism.Try not to collect disease specimens that are wet. Ensure that, with each specimen, some diseased and some healthy tissue is included; the two should be packed separately. If you know whether the disease is fungal, bacterial or viral, the following instructions can be used:Specimens can be collected and wrapped in newspaper. The sheets of newspaper can then be put into a paper envelope and placed in a cardboard box with polystyrene or other packaging material that will protect the specimen from damage.Bacterial disease specimens often deteriorate rapidly, leaving the plant bacteriologist receiving the sample with an oozing mess. If the specimen dries out, the bacteria will die and it will not be possible to identify the disease. Ideally, specimens should reach the plant bacteriologist within 12 -24 hours of collection to be of use.","tokenCount":"6694"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"82855e428cdda29014b4d7bc68c318bb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/02eb6543-2ff6-4186-a419-522839c12f8d/retrieve","id":"1803308975"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ffa2dbc1-15d3-490d-ada1-8d5fa3a3705c","pagecount":"4","content":"◼ Capacitating key stakeholders on assessing the smartness of projects and programs, climate information generation and utilization, coverage and quality, participatory action research, modeling for crop yield predictions, delivery of climate information services were effective to develop local expertise that is likely to sustain the actions beyond the project lifespan.◼ Building dynamic and active partnerships was instrumental for integrated actions on the ground by the various actors.◼ The new knowledge and skills acquired by key stakeholders can set the foundation for Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) mainstreaming into future projects or programs.West Africa region covers diverse landscapes, peoples, cultures and institutions with about 60% to 80% of its population being rural and depending primarily on agriculture for their livelihoods. Countries' Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) from this region recognize that at least 25% of the emissions reduction will come from the agriculture sector and the environmentalfriendly management of farmed fields, especially in the context of variable and changing climate conditions and high pressure that call for adaptation. Thus, beside usual goal to increasing productivity and income, there is also a need to improve adaptation to climate variability and change while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is against this background that the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) invited a consortium of regional actors to support its implementation countries to mainstreaming climate-smart agriculture into countries' activities. This includes examining the smartness of the proposed activities and also capacitating country actors with the knowledge, tools and approaches needed to implement their activities with a Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) lens. It is in this context that was developed the project on Capacitating Stakeholders to Using Climate Information for Enhanced Resilience in the Agricultural Sector in West Africa (CaSCIERA-TA), which brought together four WAAPP countries (Benin, Guinea, Niger and Togo). CaSCIERA-TA aimed at providing relevant and precise agro-hydro-climatic information services to stakeholders for decision-making in their fight against adverse effects of climate change and variability. Led by World Agroforestry (ICRAF), the project was implemented by a consortium including Climate Change, The overall institutional partnership/collaboration occurred between CORAF, international and regional organizations/programs (ICRAF, CCAFS, AGRHYMET), and country actors (national extension, research and meteorological office of each of the four countries involved in the project). The regional funds from CORAF, supported three separate agreements with ICRAF, AGRHYMET and CCAFS. With capacity development as one strong component, the project through the regional stakeholders has trained country extension service agents, farmers, scientists, meteorological service staff and students on various topics pertaining to CSA and agro-hydro-climatic information. The main foundation of CaSCIERA-TA was to improve the quality and coverage of climate information, and to train end-users on how to understand and use these climate information advisories for decision making, particularly adequate for farming activities. End-users were skilled to select a portfolio of potential climate-smart technologies and practices that are tailored to the context of each farmer and each community. Initial situation assessment through a baselining and progress markers' assessment at the end of the two-year period were conducted to help monitor progress made.ICRAF specific role was to lead and coordinate the overall project, capacitate actors in the use of participatory action research approaches, improve climate information production and utilization for adequate decision making for enhancing farming activities,develop M&E system, create a data base and assess progress made by the project through baseline and endline studies. To that end, a series of trainings were conducted on Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) cascading from the trainers at regional level up to the various country agents and then to the farmers. Its partner the University of Reading have trained national meteorological staff on the use R-Instat to analyze climate historical records. A total of 139 (14 women) trainers of trainers and 9,231 (4,127 women) farmers have been capacitated in the four CaSCIERA-TA countries (Figure 1). M&E work included developing the methods for baselining and endlining. ICRAF trained a total of 37 (8 women) data collectors who later interviewed 910 (152 women) farmers for both studies. National meteorological service staff were trained on the analysis of historical climate records to produce tools for PICSA implementation CCAFS-WA has, in close collaboration with ICRAF, ensured the scientific and technical support to countries in the development and implementation of their work plans. In this regard, CCAFS has analyzed and provided inputs on the level of mainstreaming of CSA into countries' workplans. CCAFS-WA has also conducted in-depth trainings of specialists of the additional funding for WAAPP 1C and ProPAD Chad on approaches and tools for integrating CSA in agricultural development projects and programs. Finally, CCAFS-WA initiated the development of communication products, including technical reports, Info notes and blogs; therefore, contributing to the CaSCIERA-TA project components on ''Capacity Building'' and ''Monitoring-Evaluation''.AGRHYMET interventions were geared towards capacity building of the staff of national meteorological services to improve climate information quality and coverage through the merging of stationary data and satellite data (ENACTS), generated seasonal forecast, trained national scientists and M&E staff of WAAPP on modeling (SARRA-O/H) for crop yield predictions and finally climate information delivery only in Niger case for decision-making in particular in the production sectors most dependent on the rainy season (agriculture, livestock, etc.). Special seasonal forecast information and monthly agro-hydrometeorological and phytosanitary bulletins were produced at the regional level, and an Android Application developed to facilitate data collection and information transmission to farmers and their supervisors.National WAAPP funds supported the implementation of countries' work plans, notably the participation of the national teams to the various trainings and meetings of the project, CSA options identification, prioritization and testing, training of national extension staff on PICSA and data collection for all field activities including the two surveys conducted at the start and end of the project. The national teams, led by the national agricultural research institutes of Benin (IRAB), Guinea (IRAG), Niger (INRAN) and Togo (ITRA), were composed of representatives of the national meteorological agencies, the extension agents, and the national coordination unit of WAAPP. These national teams have been beneficiaries of the various trainings that capacitated them to be able (1) to ensure the trainings of national and sub-national actors, (2) to conduct ground activities with the end-users and finally (3) to contribute to the M&E studies.Beside the achievement, a number of lessons have been learned and the insights drawn can inform future development initiatives. These lessons are twofold. ◼ The developed Android application will enable the operational monitoring of crops (at the plot level), the collection of data/information and the dissemination of CSA (smart views and advices) to farmers;◼ There is an emergence of country expertise (regional and communal level) in the capacity of actors to use climate services and information;◼ Producers are receptive to climate information due to their better understanding of its simplified presentation and its usefulness to reduce climatic risks along farming activities; therefore, village communities now integrate climate services (risks, probabilities) in their daily activities by appropriation of CSA and PICSA approaches;◼ Country actors are capacitated to plan and evaluate development projects with effective CSA mainstreaming.2. Building dynamic and active partnerships is crucial for the successful integration of actions toward mainstreaming climate-smart agriculture in a project:◼ Synergy among partners including technical services (research, extension, meteorology), producer representatives, community media or local NGOs facilitated a better dissemination of climate information services;◼ Good coordination and M&E are needed to ensure that seasonal forecast data are produced on time and, above all, made available to producers well before the start of the season for better planning of their activities and beneficial impacts of its useOverall, for the two years of the project, several key activities namely trainings of trainers, were accomplished for partners of WAAPP who have been able to mainstream CSA into the program activities. Thus:1. Countries' stakeholders are now capacitated with knowledge, tools and approaches to mainstreaming CSA into projects and programs and more specifically on the effective use of agro-hydro-climatic information advisories;2. Countries' stakeholders are also capacitated to plan future projects with strong CSA mainstreaming through CSA lens;3. They have been capacitated in the use of participatory and inclusive approaches that will allow various stakeholders from national and regional levels to work in synergy for effective ground implementation and successful achievements in CSA actions. ","tokenCount":"1361"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2370f86650d3b59b3e3d36408173d7a9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b2b235f5-c04f-486c-82ed-d649c6ae93f5/retrieve","id":"1456616030"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e792580b-e021-4928-b12e-d9dad6f33421","pagecount":"20","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above.The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.In 2009-10, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and its local governmental and nongovernmental partners designed and developed two sets of customized training manuals (five modules in each set): one for dairy producers and another one for milk traders. The training manuals were developed after a knowledge, attitudes and practices survey and training needs assessment of the target groups under the Department for International Development-sponsored Research Into Use program in order to build the capacity of informal dairy market actors to produce, handle and sell hygienic and safe milk. The modules were prepared with a view to make the training location-and target group-specific, short, simple, useful and focused on its objectives. Attention was also paid to the affordability and accessibility of the suggested tools and technologies.Overall objectives of the training program for milk producers and traders 1. To improve the hygiene and quality of milk produced and marketed by informal dairy market actors. 2. To reduce the risk of zoonotic and milk-borne diseases such as brucellosis and tuberculosis.3. To make the informal dairy market actors competitive in the emerging open retail market led by big corporate houses. 4. To increase self-esteem, self-satisfaction and social status of the informal dairy market actors. 5. To bring the informal sector dairy market actors under the ambit of some sort of regulation.In order to roll out the program on the ground, ILRI initially tried to develop a group of resource persons As a first step, the JCMC decided to build the capacity of dairy producers and traders in hygienic milk production, handling and marketing under the technical guidance of ILRI. This was to be followed by monitoring, certification, licensing and branding of informal milk market actors. Building on the enthusiasm,  The  ","tokenCount":"327"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7952b78a189fae536668063739ca8434","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7ed41442-d17f-41de-a8cd-eee22676460f/retrieve","id":"828686094"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8bd36648-19b3-43cc-ba38-8fd4afb540d6","pagecount":"60","content":"Rosales R. 2020. Technical and environmental characterization of Colombian beef cattle-fattening farms, with a focus on farm size and ways of improving production. Outlook on Agriculture 49(2):89-98. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/105521 [ISI] [No OA] • Islam SF, Sander BO, Quilty JR, de Neergaard A, van Groenigen JW, Jensen LS. 2020. Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and reduced irrigation water use in rice production through water-saving irrigation scheduling, reduced tillage and fertiliser application strategies. Science of The Total Environment 739:140215.Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 2: 100015. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/110690 [ISI] [OA] • Sapkota TB, Singh LK, Yadav AK, Khatri-Chhetri A, Jat HS, Sharma PC, Jat ML, Stirling CM. 2020.Identifying optimum rates of fertilizer nitrogen application to maximize economic return and minimize nitrous oxide emission from rice-wheat systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India.   ","tokenCount":"127"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2fce2fd48ec6d60e2f69cd377b39652d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4aa919bb-c147-443f-91bb-0acd614abf93/retrieve","id":"1403216432"},"keywords":["FP3 -Feeds and Forages Cluster: 3","2 P1685 -Activity/Product Line 3","2","1: Improved feed & forage germplasm and new tools and technologies for breeding"],"sieverID":"60d10ab1-a1d3-4391-990b-6e4ce97c652c","pagecount":"8","content":"There is a plethora of new technologies available for breeding programs. Those technologies tend to become \"bandwagons -a bandwagon is an idea, activity, or because that becomes increasingly fashionable as more and more people adopt it\" as described by Bernardo (2016). Breeders are usually tempted to apply it all. However, as it has been proven by history not all bandwagons are successful for all breeding schemes, and at the end the goal of increasing the genetic gain is not always achieved.Simulation approaches have proven to be an efficient tool to support decision making processes in several fields. Various software packages for breeding simulations are currently available which differ in the input information which needs to be provided to the program, the operative background calculations (e.g. population history simulation or model calculations for multivariate normal distribution) and output provided (Sun et al., 2011, Mi et al., 2014, Faux et al., 2016). Two simulation-based R packages have been widely adopted in the CGIAR and other institutions to support the decision-making process and resource allocation that breeders do in daily life named, AlphaSim (Faux et al., 2016; Gaynor at el., 2021)  and SelectionGain (Mi et al., 2014). Those packages test the effect of the size of the breeding program, thenumber of breeding and testing stages, and the effect of accuracy of the trials and selection intensity in the expected genetic gain (GG). In the description of the different schemes tested, new technologies can also be represented, being able to predict the effect of those technologies in the genetic gain, which in turn, can make the waves of bandwagons less acute and allocation of funding also more effective.The Brachiaria intespecific breeding program at CIAT, with nearly 30 years of experience, is unique by its biology (polyploid and apomictic) and by being an example of several new technologies successfully used (induced polyploidy, Marker assisted selection (MAS), clonal propagation, Near Infrared Spectophotometry (NIRS), drone-based image analysis within others). The program releases apomictic hybrids by applying a scheme of recurrent selection in the female parent pool while maintaining the apomictic tester fixed, also known as recurrent selection based on specific combining ability (RS-SCA;Hull 1945;Miles 2007). The apomictic male parent pool (Brachiaria decumbens) has been difficult to improve due to the unavailability of a B. decumbens sexual tetraploid individual that enables the crosses for that pool, respecting the heterotic pattern.In this study we used simulation-based R packages to test various possible modifications to the current breeding scheme being applied at the Urochloa intespecific breeding program at CIAT. We explored the impact in the genetic gain given by the possible migration from RS-SCA, to reciprocal recurrent selection (RRS), considering the challenges in logistics and population size. More specifically, the refreshing of the apomictic tester in each future heterotic pool and the hybrid formation under various sizes of the diallel crossing design.With a 20 years burn-in period used as baseline, followed by 30 year evaluation period, the simulations revealed that the first 15 years the current breeding scheme (RS-SCA) offers higher rates of GG, but after that, this scheme is surpass by all treatments with RRS. We hypothesize, in the RS-SCA the genetic variability is exhausted during the first 15 years, while the RRS provides double genetic variability to exploit. We discuss the challenges on the application of this new approach at the light of the logistics and the lack of a sexual tetraploid individual for the crosses in the B. decumbens heterotic pool.Currently the study has been finished and the document with all the details is being written, then we plan to submit for peer review before the end of 2021.Existe una amplia variedad de metodologías que pueden ser aplicadas en los programas de mejoramiento.Sin embargo, no todas estas nuevas tecnologías son favorables en todos los tipos de programas. Su aplicación satisfactoria está influenciada por múltiples factores incluidos, la biología de la especie, su tipo de reproducción, la facilidad para realizar cruces dirigidos, entre otras. Dado que la aplicación de estas metodologías es costoso, es muy útil poder hacer una estimación del efecto de las mismas sobre la ganancia genética esperada en el programa, antes de hacer una costosa inversión.Con este propósito existen en la actualidad varios paquetes de R que, basados en simulaciones, permiten estimar la ganancia genética en varios escenarios. En los escenarios que se informan al paquete, se plasman las modificaciones que cierta metodología ofrece en cuanto al tiempo, intensidad de selección, o precisión y se compara contra el ciclo actual.Figura 1: Esquema de Selección recurrente reciproca propuesto por Worthington y Miles (2015).El programa de mejoramiento de Urochloa interespecífico en CIAT, genera híbridos apomícticos y tetraploides como producto final. En el método de mejoramiento actual, se mejora el pool heterótico de las madres manteniendo el probador masculino constante, metodología llamada mejoramiento basado en habilidad combinatoria específica (RS-SCA). Se comparó contra la alternativa en la cual se mejoran los dos grupos heteróticos simultáneamente, la cual se conoce como selección recurrente recíproca (RRS; Figura 1). Si fuese posible manejar el mismo tamaño poblacional e intensidad de selección para los dos métodos, seria evidente que el RRS debería ofrecer el doble de la ganancia genética. Sin embargo, existen varias consideraciones prácticas que dificultan la aplicación de RRS, aumentando la complejidad logística y por tanto los costos de esta alternativa. Algunas de dichas consideraciones las mencionamos a continuación: i) en el grupo del probador apomíctico (U. decumbens) no se cuenta en la actualidad con un clon sexual que habilite la formación de cruces sin destruir el patrón heterótico; ii) Existe amplia variabilidad en cuanto a la biología de la reproducción entre genotipos, lo cual dificulta la sincronización de la floración para lograr la formación de híbridos a partir de diferentes parentales; y iii) aún no se cuenta con métodos de cruzamientos dirigidos, biparentales que sean eficientes y no susceptibles a contaminación. Actualmente se usan cruces al aire libre en lotes aislados, pero aumentando el número de parentales, se requeriría de métodos aislamiento entre un lote y otro y/o muchísimos pequeños lotes distribuidos en una amplia región para que tengan aislamiento por distancia. Esto implicaría una amplia complejidad en la logística del proceso de cruces, y por tanto también en los costos del programa.En este contexto, se desconoce cuál de los esquemas de mejoramiento ofrece la mayor ganancia genética manteniendo un presupuesto constante. En este estudio se compararon dos posibles métodos de mejoramiento para ser aplicados en el programa de híbridos interespecíficos de Urochloa (antes Brachiaria) con sus respectivas implicaciones en cuanto a intensidad de la selección, eficiencia de los cruzamientos y logística.Se uso el programa AlphaSimR para estimar las ganancias genéticas del programa de híbridos interespecíficos de Urochloa bajo diferentes posibles escenarios. Se usó un proceso de simulación con un periodo \"burn-in\" de 20 años como base, y seguido de 30 años de periodo de evaluación. Se realizaron 10 replicaciones por tratamiento y se consideró una ploidia de 4x, con 9 cromosomas y un grado de dominancia media de 0.2. Se realizó un análisis en tres etapas. En la primera etapa se evaluaron 3 tratamientos (Tabla 1), todos los tratamientos consistieron en esquemas de mejoramiento con un único probador, pero variando el tamaño poblacional, el costo de la estrategia y el número de grupos heteróticos bajo selección.Tabla 1: Descripción de los tratamientos evaluados en la primera etapa de simulaciones.Tamaño poblacional Costo RS-SCA 1x (8000 híbridos por ciclo) 1x RRS 1x (8000 híbridos por ciclo) 1.15x RRS 0.5x (4000 híbridos por ciclo) 1.1xEn la segunda etapa, se evaluaron 7 diferentes tratamientos en los cuales se varió entre 1 y 3 el número de probadores por cada grupo heterótico, con las respectivas implicaciones en costos. Los tratamientos evaluados se describen en la tabla 2.Tabla 2: Descripción de los tratamientos evaluados en la segunda etapa de simulaciones. La primera ronda de simulaciones reveló que el esquema usado actualmente por el programa (RS-SCA) ofrece una ganancia genética mayor que todos los tratamientos de RRS durante los primeros 15 años de estudio, sin embargo, a partir de los 15 años los tratamientos de RRS con un solo probador ganan relevancia y muestran mejores resultados que todos los demás. Una explicación hipotética a este resultado es que al mejorar un único grupo heterótico usando un solo probador del grupo heterótico contrastante, se enfoca la evolución de toda la diversidad disponible en mejorar \"un solo carácter\", entendiéndose ese carácter como la habilidad combinatoria de la población ante el probador único. Es ampliamente conocido que el mejoramiento de pocas características de herencia simple logra avances mayores, que la evolución compleja de múltiples características, por tanto, al tener que lograr que los dos grupos evolucionen en simultaneo y de manera contrastante las tasas de ganancia genética disminuyen.Aumentar la complejidad del proceso logra avances más pequeños en el corto plazo, pero en el largo plazo se cuenta también con el doble de variabilidad genética para aprovechar. Mientras la estrategia RS-SCA parece agotar la variabilidad al cabo de 15 años aproximadamente, los esquemas RRS tienen aún muchísima más diversidad para ofrecer. En conclusión, los dos esquemas muestran ventajas y desventajas, y podrían aplicarse de forma complementaria, para maximizar el avance del programa.Usando RS-SCA en el corto plazo para ofrecer producto comercial lo mas pronto posible, mientras se prepara el segundo grupo heterótico para ponerlo en funcionamiento tan pronto los genes deseables del primer grupo se hayan fijado en la población. Para la implementación de este escenario, es fundamental encontrar tan pronto como sea posible un genotipo sexual tetraploide del grupo heterótico U. decumbens (actualmente grupo del probador apomíctico) que permita la formación de cruces sin deteriorar el patrón heterótico contrastante con el grupo de las madres.En la implementación de un sistema de selección recurrente reciproca (RRS) el mejorador debe decidir con cuantos probadores de cada grupo heterótico va a trabajar. El principio fundamental del RRS es el de aprovechar la habilidad combinatoria general (GCA) altamente asociada con efectos de aditividad, en lugar de la habilidad combinatoria especifica (SCA) asociada a efectos de dominancia y epístasis. La estimación adecuada de GCA para un parental especifico se logra evaluando el desempeño de los híbridos obtenidos a partir del parental bajo estudio, contra la mayor cantidad de probadores posibles del grupo heterótico contrastante. Por lo tanto, para la implementación de RRS el mejorador esta tentado a realizar la mayor cantidad de cruces posibles, en diseño factorial, de las poblaciones sexuales de cada grupo heterótico contra la mayor cantidad de probadores del grupo heterótico contrastante. Sin embargo, en el caso especifico del programa de híbridos interespecíficos de Urochloa, los genotipos que se usan para los cruces han sido generados en el año inmediatamente anterior, y por tanto al momento de ser usados como parentales aun no se cuenta con una caracterización detallada de su biología reproductiva, en particular se desconoce los tiempos a floración y antesis. A falta de esta información, realizar cruces pareados entre múltiples genotipos de los cruces heteróticos va a ser no solo muy dispendioso y costoso, sino también ineficiente en termino de las tasas de cruzamiento. En la segunda fase de las simulaciones se estudió el efecto del número de probadores a ser usados en el sistema de RRS. Las simulaciones revelaron que considerando las implicaciones en costos y tiempo que significa el usar múltiples probadores, la mejor ganancia genética se alcanza usando un único probador de cada grupo heterótico en los cruces de formación de híbridos.Para futuros trabajos se debe tener en consideración dentro de la simulación, la tasa de dominancia o aditividad de los caracteres bajo selección y el tiempo de reciclaje de los probadores.","tokenCount":"1926"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a8920a99be98dc36537db3c1626fdfe8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2e6e1bc6-8588-47ce-aaea-3c236bd9376e/retrieve","id":"2065839336"},"keywords":["• P663 -5","1","1 Enhancing Tenure Security OICR: Outcome Impact Case Report"],"sieverID":"9be5acfc-b1b2-45e1-8330-47fc9fe8ec3f","pagecount":"6","content":"Joint FTA and PIM research highlighted the socio-economic benefits from 12 community forest concessions in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén, Guatemala. These findings contributed to the revision of the norms for granting concessions and the renewal of the concession contract for one of the community forest cooperatives, with the other ones expected to follow in 2020.The Maya Biosphere Reserve belongs to one of the largest tropical forests north of the Amazon, and its sustainable management is of critical interest to national and global stakeholders. In 1997, the Government of Guatemala decided to test an innovative approach for managing the reserve: community forest concessions were granted for a 25-year cycle, with the possibility of extension. Each concession is operated by a community forest enterprise responsible for sustainably managing the forest and sharing the resulting benefits among members.In the past years several studies showed highly favorable results of the concessions on forest conservation. But little was known about the socioeconomic impact of the concessions for the communities. A joint PIM/FTA study led by Bioversity International and carried out in partnership with Rainforest Alliance, the Association of Forest Communities of Petén, local partners and CIFOR between 2014 and 2018 took place across twelve community forest concessions over 400,000 hectares. Results provide clear evidence of the socio-economic benefits accruing from the community forest enterprises, including spillover effects on local communities and the regional economy [1]. In addition, women's involvement in decision making and income generation increased at enterprise and household level.Coupled with strong social mobilization, these results led to the revision of the norms for granting concessions in the multiple use zone of the reserve ( [2], [3]) in September 2019. This, in turn, resulted in the renewal of the community concession contract of Cooperative Carmelita in December 2019 [4], [5]. Renewal of the other cooperatives' contracts is expected to follow.Despite the achievement of this outcome, various interest groups have alternative visions for the future of the reserve. Therefore, CGIAR's continued research inputs and engagement with partners and policy processes will be critical, especially in view of emerging initiatives to create a national park which would deprive communities from the right to extract timber in areas now under concession.• https://tinyurl.com/ybxekfaq • https://tinyurl.com/y6urfamzPart II: CGIAR system level reporting • 791 -Demonstrated economic benefits of community forest concessions make the case for continued community stewardship of 400,000 hectares of tropical forests in Guatemala (https://tinyurl.com/2o6ku3l6)The Maya Biosphere Reserve belongs to one of the largest tropical forests north of the Amazon, and its sustainable management is of critical interest to national and global stakeholders. In 1997, the Government of Guatemala decided to test an innovative approach for managing the reserve: community forest concessions were granted for a 25-year cycle. Each concession is operated by a community forest enterprise responsible for sustainably managing the forest and sharing the resulting benefits among members.In the past years several studies showed highly favorable results of the concessions on forest conservation. But little was known about the socioeconomic impact of the concessions for the communities. A joint PIM/FTA study led by Bioversity International and carried out in partnership with Rainforest Alliance, the Association of Forest Communities of Petén, local partners and CIFOR between 2014 and 2018, took place across twelve community forest concessions over 400,000 hectares. Results provide clear evidence of the socio-economic benefits accruing from the community forest enterprises, including spillover effects on local communities and the regional economy. In addition, women's involvement in decision making and income generation increased at enterprise and household level. This evidence informed technical documents of the National Council for Protected Areas [6] and, coupled with strong social mobilization, resulted in the revision of the norms for granting concessions in the reserve ( [2], [3]) in September 2019. As a consequence, the community concession contract of Cooperative Carmelita was renewed in December 2019 for a second cycle of 25 years, with continued rights to sustainable management of forest resources [4], [5]. Renewal of the other cooperatives' contracts is expected to follow.In 2019, ICRAF, CIFOR and partners organized two events around the World Bank Land and Poverty Conference [7] to share findings with the World Bank and USAID. CIFOR scientists were invited to contribute to the 2019 Human Development Report for Guatemala led by the United Nations Development Programme, which for the first time used a territorial approach for analyzing challenges to development. Results were also presented at the IUFRO 2019 XXV World Congress [8].Despite the achievement of this outcome, various interest groups have alternative visions for the future of the reserve. Therefore, CGIAR's continued research inputs and engagement with partners and policy processes will be critical, especially in view of emerging initiatives to create a national park which would deprive communities from the right to extract timber in areas now under concession.","tokenCount":"796"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7c12b3f95eaa39181452fdf5f407bc04","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/50558dd2-dcfe-44da-9ff2-5693363cd3a1/retrieve","id":"537763063"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d9a43ce9-08e5-4204-9e98-e83b5f21734c","pagecount":"8","content":"There is growing interest in plantation forests throughout Africa because of their role in environment, economy and people's livelihoods. However, the contribution of planted forests to climate mitigation is poorly understood, partly due to lack of allometric equations for biomass estimation. This study aimed to determine wood density and biomass fractions in aboveground components, and to develop biomass estimation equations for multispecies plantation forests in the arboretum of Ruhande in Rwanda. Allometric equations were developed by regressing diameter at breast height (DBH) alone or in combination with height or wood density or age of trees against the biomass of 45 trees harvested from a 200-ha site. Biomass estimates obtained from destructively sampled trees were up-scaled to estimate the amount of carbon stocked in the arboretum of Ruhande, assuming a stem density of 250 stems per ha. Wood density varied among the species but not tree size. The greatest fraction of aboveground biomass was allocated to stems (71-77%) compared to branches (19-27%) and leaves (1-8%) and varied by species. Equations developed fit the data well with DBH explaining over 90% of the observed variation in aboveground and stem biomass. Including height or wood density as supporting parameters reduced the relative error for aboveground biomass by 6.4 and 8.0% and improved model fit by 2.1 and 2.9%, respectively. Akaike information criterion (AIC) showed that wood density (AIC = 63.6) and height (AIC = 48.2) were the most suitable parameters to support DBH as a proxy for aboveground and stem biomass, respectively. Allometric equations developed in this study are useful tool for estimating carbon stocks of plantation forests in Rwanda and can enhance the accuracy of biomass predictions where site-specific equations rather than generalized models are recommended. Further studies focusing on development of allometric equations on belowground biomass in such systems are recommended.Estimation of biomass carbon has gained much attention and significance because of potential market-based instruments that reward afforestation and reforestation activities as climate mitigation actions. This follows scientific evidence and consensus that unabated climate change threatens sustainable development and worsens other pressures that affect people and the environment ( IPCC, 2014 ). Consequently, calls to combat climate change and its impacts have increased, with forests emerging as important nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation ( Grassi et al., 2017 ). The Paris Agreement injected a new impetus into calls to fight climate change, placing more emphasis on the role of forests in maintaining and enhancing sinks and reservoirs of carbon ( Grassi et al., 2017 ). Forests are, thus, expected to contribute to emission reductions as pledged by countries that have ratified the agreement. Apart from asking countries to take voluntary climate action, the agreement also invites countries to account for anthropogenic greenhouse gases in their nationally determined contributions. These developments have created a clear need for robust and viable methods for estimating biomass carbon in all land use systems, including plantation forests.Estimation of biomass can be achieved by direct or indirect methods. Direct methods involve measuring actual biomass of plants in quadrats. All trees within a quadrat are harvested and the weight of stem, branches, leaves, stump or roots determined. Oven dried mass of these components is then determined and summed to obtain total biomass of a tree. The direct method is the most accurate approach of assessing dry mass of plants ( Brown, 1997 ;Gibbs et al., 2007 ). It also allows development of biomass estimation equations, which can be used to obtain biomass from ground-based measurements ( Brown, 1997 ). However, cutting and weighing all trees in an area is time consuming, labor intensive and not allowed in certain areas or on species that are under protection or threatened ( Gibbs et al., 2007 ). Direct method is also restricted to a small area or small tree sample sizes as it is not feasible to conduct large-scale biomass estimation using destructive sampling ( Brown, 1997 ;Gibbs et al., 2007 ). Besides, biomass estimates would be affected by the time when harvesting is done, due to variability in phenology and seasonality in growth since ( Borchert et al., 2015 ). Indirect methods of biomass estimation (e.g. biomass estimation equations or geographic information systems or remote sensing) have therefore been developed to avoid drawbacks of direct method ( Petrokofsky et al., 2012 ).Allometric equations are the most widely used means for estimating tree biomass. To develop allometric equations, trees of different sizes are felled and the weights of component determined ( Dietz and Kuyah, 2011 ). Mathematical expressions are then used to describe the regression between the dry weights of tree components and measurement of DBH or tree height or wood density or crown area. Once developed, the equations are applied to inventory data to provide a non-destructive way of estimating biomass. There are efforts to develop non-destructive alternatives for developing allometric equations, for example using functional branch analysis (FBA) ( MacFarlane et al., 2014 ;van Noordwijk and Mulia, 2002 ). However, FBA is still at infancy and has only been tested for trees in agricultural landscapes ( MacFarlane et al., 2014 ;van Noordwijk and Mulia, 2002 ). In addition, FBA require expert to climb trees or equipment that can measure various parts of a tree to obtain the necessary measurements for calibration ( MacFarlane et al., 2014 ). Destructive sampling therefore remains the most feasible way of developing allometric equations, and data harvested for establishing allometric equations can serve to calibrate nondestructive approaches ( Petrokofsky et al., 2012 ).Allometric equations exhibit diverse relationships depending on tree species, terrains, temperature and rainfall gradients ( Chave et al., 2014 ). Consequently, variations in allometric coefficients account for differences in biomass estimates in different contexts. The accuracy of biomass estimates can be improved by developing equations that account for the sources of variation in the allometric coefficients. For example, DBH is widely recognized as the most robust parameter for estimating tree biomass. The applicability of DBH in biomass estimation cuts across different ecosystems (e.g. forestry or agroforestry), species, or growth forms (e.g. shrubs, lianas or trees). DBH is also highly correlated with biomass and can be measured easily with high accuracy compared to other variables ( Brown, 1997 ). However, DBH alone may not be adequate for estimation of biomass where tree geometry is variable. For example, trees planted closely tend to develop small crowns that are even while free standing trees often have regular widespread crowns ( Moncrieff et al., 2014 ). Fast growing trees tend to have low wood density compared to trees that grow slowly ( Pretzsch et al., 2018 ). It is therefore important to use DBH in combination with other dendrometric variables or site characteristics when estimating biomass of trees whose geometry differ because of diversity of species and site quality. Wood density is one of the variables that support DBH as a proxy for biomass estimation ( Nam et al., 2016 ). Wood density values can be obtained from literature or determined in the field. The accuracy of biomass estimates from allometric equations that includes wood density from empirical values or literature is not known.Estimation of biomass in Rwanda is constrained by lack of allometric equations applicable to different forest ecosystems. A study by Nduwamungu (2011) revealed that no comprehensive forest inventory has been carried out so far on plantation forests in Rwanda.Much of the biomass estimates in the country e.g. in Nyungwe forest ( Nyirambangutse et al., 2017 ) is derived from general-purpose equations cited in IPCC guidelines ( Brown, 1997 ;Chave et al., 2014Chave et al., , 2005 ) ). The application of these equations to forest ecosystems in Africa has been questioned ( Basuki et al., 2009 ;Kuyah et al., 2012a ) and instead species-specific and/ or site-specific equations recommended ( Basuki et al., 2009 ). There are some species-specific equations for estimating tree biomass in eastern Africa; for example, for eucalyptus trees in Kenya ( Kuyah et al., 2013 ) and Tanzania ( Kilawe et al., 2001 ); Grevillea robusta A. Cunn. ex R.Br., in Uganda ( Tumwebaze et al., 2013 ); Cedrela serrata Royle., in Rwanda (cited in Henry et al., 2011 );and Cupressus lusitanica Mill., in Ethiopia ( Berhe et al., 2013 ). However, application of these equations in plantation forests with mixed species stands is limited by species composition and variations in site conditions. Trees in plantations are grown in even spaced stands compared to trees in natural forests which grow in closed canopies; or trees on farms that often grow in open stands and are regularly managed by pruning or pollarding. Consequently, allometric equations derived from naturally established stands are limited by lack of prescribed management in the naturally established stands as is the case of planted forests; while species-specific equations are limited in their generalized transferability. To bridge the gap, this study determined wood density and biomass fractions in aboveground components, and developed robust and reliable mixed species, site specific biomass estimation equation for forest plantations in Rwanda.The study was conducted in the Arboretum of Ruhande, a plantation forest located on Ruhande hill in the southern Province of Rwanda. The Arboretum is located in the transitional tropical rainforest zone in Huye district at latitude 2°36 ′ 55.2 ′′ S, longitude 29°44 ′ 53.8 ′′ E and elevation 1638-1737 m). The climate in South-Western Rwanda is subhumid with annual mean rainfall of 1232 mm. The rainfall has a bimodal pattern with long rains occurring between March and May and short rains occurring between October to December. There are two dry seasons from January to February and from June to September, corresponding to the short and long dry seasons, respectively. The mean annual temperature in the region is 19.6 °C with a minimum of 13.7 °C and a maximum of 24.6 °C. Soil in arboretum is classified as a Ferralsols. The arboretum was established in 1934 on a 200-ha land that is subdivided into 500 plots of monospecific stands, each measuring 50 × 50 m ( Nsabimana, 2009 ). Prior to establishment of the plantation, the whole of Ruhande was used as human settlement with croplands dominating the landscape. So far there are about 227 tree species in the arboretum. Fifty of these are native to Rwanda. The rest are exotic, including 69 Eucalyptus spp., and 57 conifers ( Nsabimana, 2009 ).The study included five species ( Eucalyptus saligna Sm ., Eucalyptus tereticornis Sm ., C. lusitanica, G. robusta and C: serrata ) ranging from 22 to 76-year. These species were selected because they dominate the plantation of arboretum of Ruhande, their abundance and importance in agricultural systems and their allometric equations were not yet developed in Rwanda. Each of the species was planted in a plot measuring 50 m x 50 m (2500 m 2 ). Three plots were randomly selected for biomass sampling for E. saligna (plots 20, 375 and 259), E. tereticornis (plots 16, 450 and 354), G. robusta (plots 150, 322 and 347), C. serrata (plots 36, 111, 56) and C. lusitanica (plots 38, 108 and 320). E. saligna and E. tereticornis were planted at a spacing of 1.5 × 1.5 m giving a density of 4444 stem per ha while G. robusta, C. serrata and C. lusitanica were planted at 2.5 × 2.5 m, giving densities of 1600 stem per ha. The spacing varies across species due to differences in growth architecture, growth requirement of each species (e.g. light, nutrients) and the management plan assigned to each species in arboretum. Assuming management of the plantation for timber and poles, trees thinned at eight years give a density of 250 from 500 stem per ha. A description of the selected species and the variables measured is presented in supplementary material.Forty-five trees were selected for destructive sampling (9 trees for each plot) to provide data for assessment of wood density, partitioning of biomass in aboveground components and development of allometric equations. DBH and height measurements were taken prior to felling selected trees. DBH was measured over bark at 1.3 m above the ground using a calliper. Measurement were taken twice (crosswise; to account for irregular stems) and averaged. The caliper was held tight and horizontal to the stem axis when taking diameter measurements. Methods outlined by Kuyah and Dietz (2011) were used to maintain consistence in obtaining diameter measurements for trees with abnormal or irregular stems. Three trees per plot were selected for determination of wood density based on their sizes: small (DBH < 25 cm), medium (DBH between 25 and 45 cm) and large (DBH > 45 cm). Samples for determination of wood density were collected from the stem by drilling around the DBH using a brace and bit. A good spot (i.e. away from branches, swellings or cracks) was selected on the stem where a core was drilled perpendicular to the trunk axis. The material (wood chips) was extracted from the hole using a spatula and their fresh weight determined on electronic balance. The ratio of dry weight of wood chips to volume of the core drilled was used to calculate wood density. The volume of the core was calculated using the formula v = \uD835\uDF0B * r 2 * h , where r is the radius and h is the depth of the core.The trees were harvested by cutting at the lowest point and their heights (the length from the base to the highest tip) determined using 50 m measuring tape. Harvested trees were separated into stem, branches and leaves. The leaves were stacked into sacks of known tare weight and their fresh weight determined. The stem and larger branches were partitioned into 2-m long segments and their fresh weight determined using weighing scale. Representative samples of the stem, branches and leaves were taken for determination of fresh weight using an electronic balance ( ± 0.1 kg). The samples were oven dried at 105 °C (stem and branches) and 70 °C (leaves) to a constant weight and their dry weight determined. The biomass of the stem, branches and leaves was calculated by multiplying sample dry-to-fresh weight ratio with the fresh weight of each component. Aboveground biomass of each tree was determined by summing up the biomass of stem, branches and leaves.Scatter diagrams were used to evaluate the relations between dependent variables (stem, branch and aboveground biomass) and independent variables (diameter at breast height and height). Raw data is normally transformed to make the it linear and normally distributed. Transformation of data introduces error which is usually corrected by multiplying the estimate by a correction factor determined from the residual standard error of the regression model ( Sprugel, 1983 ). For this study, the general model of generalized linear models' option of regression analysis was used with gamma distribution and logarithm as a link function to avoid the problem of back transformation. This approach was previously used to develop allometric equations for trees on farms in western Kenya ( Kuyah et al., 2012b( Kuyah et al., , 2012a ) ). The power law function (BM = a X b ) and its linear form (ln(BM) = a + b * ln(X)) was used to predict biomass from independent variables; where BM is the biomass, X is the predictor variable, and a and b are the allometric coefficients. Data was analyzed and graphs produced in the R programming language 3.4.2 ( R Core Team, 2018 ). The following allometric relationships were tested for aboveground biomass and stem biomass using DBH as the main predictor variable, and height (H), wood density ( \uD835\uDF0C) and age of the trees as additional predictor variables to DBH.The natural logarithm of DBH, height, wood density and age were fitted separately so that each can be attributed their own scaling parameter. Kuyah et al. (2012 a,b) showed that fitting additional explanatory variables with compound derivatives of DBH, height and wood density produces an identical scaling that inhibits detailed assessment of supporting variables. Allometric equations were built from 45 trees; 40 trees served as a training set while five trees were used for validation. One tree was randomly selected from each diameter class for the validation set, and the remainder used to develop the model. Because five trees are few as a validation set, the process was repeated with different random selections of holdout sets such that each tree in the sample was used once as validation data. Parameters from the different holdouts were averaged to form the equations.Coefficient of determination (R 2 ), adjusted coefficient of determination and Akaike information criterion (AIC) were used to assess the equations developed. R 2 was used to assess model fit for equations with a single explanatory variable while adjusted coefficient of determination was preferred for models with two or more explanatory variables. AIC, determined as AIC = − 2 ln (L) + 2k ( L is the maximum likelihood of the fitted equation and k is the total number of parameters estimated from the data) was used to select the most suitable equation i.e. the one with the lowest AIC value ( Akaike, 1981 ). AIC works by balancing changes in the goodness-of-fit versus differences in the number of parameters ( Akaike, 1981 ). The accuracy of the equations (expressed as relative error) was determined by calculating the bias between the predicted and the true biomass measured for each tree as shown in Eq. ( 5) .predicted biomass − measured biomass measured biomass × 100(5)Separation of the relative error for different diameter class was determined to highlight the bias associated with the equation for trees of different sizes. Biomass estimates obtained from destructively sampled trees were up-scaled to estimate the amount of carbon stocked in the arboretum of Ruhande, assuming a stem density of 250 stems per ha.Trees harvested from arboretum of Ruhande in South-Western Rwanda for development of allometric equation varied in size and ranged between 10 and 65 cm in DBH and 11 to 53 m in height ( Table 1 ). DBH had a strong positive correlation with biomass ( Fig. 1 a), both for aboveground (stem, branches and leaves) biomass (R 2 = 0.91) and the stem biomass (R 2 > 0.93). However, the correlation between DBH and branch biomass was moderate (R 2 = 0.67) . The relationship between height and biomass was moderate for all the biomass compartments; aboveground (R 2 = 0.72), stem (R 2 = 0.76) and branch (R 2 = 0.54) ( Fig. 1 b) . The relationship between DBH and height was also moderate and near linear (R 2 = 0.52), although a power function model showed a better relationship (R 2 = 0.57) . The distribution of DBH and height values was slightly negatively skewed though the variance was not high. More than 73% of the heights were between 20 and 40 m, 47% of the DBH were 20-40 cm; while 35% of the DBH were greater than 40 cm and only 11% of the heights were above 40 m.The stem held most of the aboveground biomass, between 71.9 and 77.4% of the total biomass while the branch and foliage held between 19.4 and 27.4% and 0.7 and 8.1% respectively. The proportion of stem and branch biomass increased slightly with increase in diameter, although differences in individual biomass in each diameter class were large. Leaf biomass declined from 8% in lower DBH class (DBH 20-30 cm) to 4% in trees with DBH > 40 cm; although trees with DBH < 20 cm has lower leaf biomass, 4%. Eucalyptus species had the highest allocation of biomass in stems: 77.4 and 75.4% for E. saligna , and E. tereticornis, respectively . C. serrata allocated less than one percent of the total biomass in leaves while all other species allocated between 5 and 8% of aboveground biomass in leaves. Biomass for the harvested trees amounted to 60.7 Mg, with stem, branches and leaves contributing 50.1, 16.3 and 3.3 Mg, respectively. Using the default carbon fraction 47% recommended by IPCC for tropical trees ( IPCC, 2006 ), and assuming a planting density of 250 stems per hectare, the amount of carbon held in aboveground biomass in the arboretum of Ruhande vary from an average of 111.9 Mg C ha − 1 for C. lusitanica to 278.0 Mg C ha − 1 for E. saligna ( Table 1 ).Wood density for all the tree species ranged between 0.44 and 0.93 g cm − 3 with a mean of 0.59 ± 0.02 g cm − 3 and tended to aggregate between 0.5 and 0.6 g cm − 3 . When all species were combined, there was Allometric equations for estimating aboveground biomass using diameter at breast height (DBH) only (Eq. ( 6)) or DBH supported by: height (Eq. ( 7)), wood density (Eq. ( 8)) and age (Eq. ( 9)). The letters a, b and c represent the allometric coefficients, R 2 is the coefficient of determination (R 2 for Eqs. ( 6), ( 8) and ( 9) represent adjusted coefficient of determination), AIC is the Akaike information criterion while RE represent the relative error of the equation. no clear trend in variability of wood density scatter across trees of different sizes. Mean wood density for different size classes were rather constant, ranging between 0.58-0.61 g cm − 3 ; and the differences were not significant. Higher mean wood density values were observed in E. tereticornis (0.76 g cm − 3 ) than other species ( Fig. 2 ). Mean wood density values for G. robusta (0.62 g cm − 3 ) and E. saligna (0.59 g cm − 3 ) were comparable while mean wood densities for C. serrata (0.50 g cm − 3 ) and C. lusitanica (0.48 g cm − 3 ) were about the same, but lower than the other species. Differences in wood density among the species were significant ( P < 0.001). Differences among trees of various ages were also significant ( P < 0.05).Diameter at breast height alone predicted aboveground biomass with 90.5% accuracy. Including height and wood density as an additional predictor variable to DBH reduced the relative error by 6.4 and 8%, respectively while age did not improve the model accuracy ( Table 2 ). Height and wood density improved model fit marginally, although the improvement by wood density was larger (2.9%) than the improvement by height (2.1%); age sank the model fit by 2.3%. AIC shows that compared to height (AIC = 70.4) and age (AIC = 108), wood density (AIC = 63.6) was the most suitable additional predictor variable to DBH for estimating aboveground biomass of tree in the arboretum of Ruhande.Table 3 presents biomass prediction equations for stem biomass and the effect of including height, wood density and age as additional predictor variables. Tree diameter alone predicted stem biomass with about 93% accuracy. Height and wood density reduced the relative error by 8.8 and 7.2%, respectively while age did not improve the model accuracy i.e., reduced the relative error by 0.1%. Height data slightly improved model fit by 4.2%, while wood density lowered the model fit by 2%. Age improved model fit by 4%. AIC shows that height (AIC = 48.2) and age (AIC = 47.4) are the most suitable additional predictor variable than wood density (AIC = 122.9) for stem biomass. Disaggregation of bias across tree size showed a tendency to overestimate by all equations ( Fig. 3 ). The equations with DBH alone had about the same relative error across tree size, varying between 12.3 and16 5%. The equation with height as an additional predictor variable improved accuracy for trees with DBH below 30 cm and above 40 cm. The equation with wood density as an additional predictor variable showed increase in accuracy with increase in tree size from 11.3% for smaller trees (DBH < 20 cm) to 2.8% for trees with DBH > 50 cm.Allometric equations for estimating biomass of stem using diameter at breast height (DBH) only (Eq. ( 10)) or DBH supported by: height (Eq. ( 11)), wood density (Eq. ( 12)) and age (Eq. ( 13)). a, b and c represent the allometric coefficients, R 2 is the coefficient of determination (R 2 for Eqs. ( 11)-( 13) represent adjusted coefficient of determination), AIC is the Akaike information criterion while RE represent the relative error of the equation. Diameter at breast height had a strong positive relationship with aboveground biomass and stem biomass, evidenced by a strong correlation between DBH and biomass. This was expected since good fits of R 2 above 85% have been reported for relationships between DBH and aboveground biomass or stem biomass in E. globulus plantations of central Ethiopia ( Zewdie et al., 2009 ), E. saligna plantation in Tanzania ( Kilawe et al., 2001 ) and farmed eucalyptus species in western Kenya ( Kuyah et al., 2013 ). The relationships between DBH and branch biomass, height and stem or aboveground biomass, and DBH and height were, however, moderate. Moderate to weak trends of height or branch biomass as a function of DBH can be attributed to differences in species attributes and the fact that these structures are short-lived and affected more by changes that alter the scaling relationships between an attribute of the tree and size.The contribution of different parts of the tree to aboveground biomass varied greatly. The stem had the greatest share of aboveground biomass in all species, followed by branches; leaves had the least quota. Differences in biomass fractions among parts of trees is normally detected when comparing trees of different species or age or trees from different locations. Studies evaluating biomass allocation in eucalyptus plantations in Ethiopia ( Zewdie et al., 2009 ), farmed eucalyptus in western Kenya ( Kuyah et al., 2013( Kuyah et al., , 2012a ) ) revealed that the stem component account for the largest portion of total biomass. In contrast, Dimobe et al. (2018) found that the branch biomass had the greatest portion of aboveground biomass for Combretum glutinosum Perr. ex DC., and Terminalia laxiflora Engl. & Diels., sampled in Burkina Faso. This contrast is probably due to differences in resource allocation, with trees in plantation forest investing more resources for height growth in order to compete favorably for light while trees studied by Dimobe et al. (2018) invested more biomass in branches in order to out-compete neighbors by expanding their canopy. Even though trees accrue biomass as they grow, apportioning among components changes with age, evidenced in this study by the slight increase in the mass fraction of stem and branches with increase in diameter. The results suggest that tree allocate more biomass in woody components compared to leaves as they increase in size.The results suggest greater carbon storage in eucalyptus spp. as compared to the other species. On average, E. saligna had more aboveground biomass carbon, corresponding to large tall trees (mean ± SD for DBH = 40.3 ± 13.8; height: 39.6 ± 9.8). In Tanzania, Kilawe et al. (2001) found that E. saligna stores more carbon than Pinus patula Schiede ex Schltdl. & Cham., at the same diameter because of higher wood density, higher stockings and good stem form compared to P. patula . Although C. lusitanica and C. serrata had the oldest individuals, they did not have larger dendrometric variables or biomass compared to eucalyptus spp.The amount of aboveground biomass up-scaled for the species ( Table 1 ) using a density of 250 trees per ha is higher than estimates obtained for Gishwati forest reserve, but lower than estimates reported for Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda. Trees in Gishwati forest reserve were found to contain 84.9 Mg ha − 1 of aboveground biomass, corre-sponding to 39.9 Mg C ha − 1 ( Courard-Hauri et al., 2016 ). On the other hand, Nyungwe National Park was found to stock low biomass carbon (76 Mg C ha − 1 ) in late successional stages and high (185 Mg C ha − 1 ) in early successional stages ( Nyirambangutse et al., 2017 ). Another study estimated aboveground biomass carbon in different stratum in Nyungwe National Park to range from (mean ± SD) 89.49 ± 9.60 to 178.80 ± 26.74 Mg C ha − 1 ( Van der Heyden, 2016 ). Biomass carbon up-scaled for the species under this study is also higher than the mean carbon in forest biomass, estimated to be 71.6 Mg ha − 1 at global level and 82.8 Mg ha − 1 in Africa ( FAO, 2010 ). Because commercial wood exploitation is prohibited in the arboretum, there is a likelihood of increased biomass carbon storage compared to regular plantation forests, where continuous commercial extraction of wood is likely to reduce carbon stocks.Allometric equations were developed for estimating aboveground biomass of mixed plantation forests in Rwanda. Even though DBH alone provided a fitting proxy for estimation of aboveground and stem biomass, its performance was enhanced by including height and wood density data. This findings agree with previous reports that height and wood density improve the accuracy of biomass predictions ( Chave et al., 2014( Chave et al., , 2005( Chave et al., , 2001 ; ;Feldpausch et al., 2012 ). DBH explained over 90% of the total variation in aboveground biomass and stem biomass and had a relative error of 14.8 and 10.6%, respectively. DBH has been shown to be a strong indicator aboveground biomass in different tropical ecosystems, including natural forests ( Basuki et al., 2009 ;Brown, 1997 ), plantation forests ( Kilawe et al., 2001 ;Zewdie et al., 2009 ), agroforestry systems ( Kuyah et al., 2012a ) and miombo woodlands ( Kuyah et al., 2014 ). Height as a secondary predictor variable reduced the relative error for aboveground biomass by 6% and improved model fit by 2.1%. Height data also reduced the relative error of biomass estimates for stem by 8.7% and improved the goodness of fit by 4.2%. Similar effects of height have been reported for species-specific equations for E. globulus coppice plantations ( Zewdie et al., 2009 ) and also in generalized equations ( Bastien-Henri et al., 2010 ;Chave et al., 2001 ), where inclusion of tree total height data increased R 2 . However, the results vary from those reported for farmed eucalyptus in western Kenya ( Kuyah et al., 2013 ) and other generalized equations ( Basuki et al., 2009 ) where height data neither improved the relationship between DBH and any of the component (aboveground, stem, branch or leaf) biomass nor significantly reduced the relative error. A tropics-wise analysis of height-diameter measurements from 327 plots across four continents revealed that allometric equations that include height reduce errors in estimates of carbons stocks by about 13% ( Feldpausch et al., 2012 ).Wood density varied across species but not tree size. This observation concurs with reports that wood density varies among and within species ( Kuyah et al., 2012a ), and that wood density does not necessarily increase with increase in DBH ( Baker et al., 2004 ;Basuki et al., 2009 ). Wood density values obtained for this study varied considerably when compared to estimates reported in literature ( Zanne et al., 2009 ). Mean wood density for G. robusta (0.62 ± 0.07 g cm − 3 ), C. serrata (0.50 ± 0.05 g cm − 3 ) and C. lusitanica (0.48 ± 0.03 g cm − 3 ) were higher than 0.510-0.517 g cm − 3 reported for G. robusta and 0.390 g cm − 3 reported for C. serrata and C. lusitanica ( Zanne et al., 2009 ). Only values for E. tereticornis (0.76 ± 0.08) and E. saligna (0.59 ± 0.04) were within the range (0.679-0.972 and 0.56-0.97 g cm − 3 , respectively) reported in literature ( Zanne et al., 2009 ). Even though these means are well within the range of 0.3-0.9 g cm − 3 reported for tropical African forests ( Brown, 1997 ), differences between estimates obtained in this study and database values suggest that wood density from databases can introduce error in biomass estimates. Except for G. robusta and C. lusitanica whose estimates are sampled or derived from data collected in Africa, wood density values for E. saligna and E. tereticornis are from trees sampled in Australia while that for C. serrata are form South-East Asia. Wood density from field measurements can therefore greatly improve precision of allometric equations compared to using estimates from literature.Wood density is a supporting parameter for biomass prediction, and is recommended when developing allometric equations for mixed species or trees of the same species from different locations ( Dietz and Kuyah, 2011 ). Our results agree with reports on pantropical biomass estimation equations ( Chave et al., 2014( Chave et al., , 2005 ) ) and regional mixedspecies equations ( Basuki et al., 2009 ;Kuyah et al., 2012a ) that wood density data improves biomass prediction when compared to equations that use DBH as the only predictor variable. AIC showed that wood density is the most suitable supporting predictor variable to DBH for aboveground biomass estimation ( Table 1 ) while height is the best proxy for estimation of stem biomass ( Table 2 ) for trees in the arboretum of Ruhande.Establishment of plantation forests with fast growing species appears to be a good strategy to increase biomass carbon storage in the study region as evidenced by biomass carbon in eucalyptus species. We develop highly significant species-specific allometric models for estimation of aboveground biomass of five species (C. serrata, C. lusitanica, E. saligna, E. tereticornis and G. robusta ) that are common in Rwanda. Accurate estimation of aboveground biomass of these trees is crucial for various reasons, including commercial use of wood and timber, sustainable management of forests and estimation their contribution to climate protection through carbon sequestration. Allometric equation combining DBH with height or wood density provided reliable predictions of aboveground and stem biomass with over 91% accuracy. Even though these equations are specific to mixed planted forests in Ruhande, Rwanda; the results maintain the preposition that wood density or height data does improve biomass predictions. Yet, collection of height or wood density data presents several tradeoffs between accuracy, cost and feasibility of measurements. Unlike DBH, height and wood density are not easy to measure in field survey, increase the cost of measurements and can introduce errors in biomass estimates. The most efficient way to optimize accuracy-to-cost trade-offs is to build allometric equations based on destructive measurements of trees that cover the range of species and tree sizes found in the landscape. Future work should focus on valuation of climate related ecosystem services of plantation forests in order to establish possible trade-offs and/or co-benefits.","tokenCount":"5753"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2f93c026644edb83d7d9a893d1276c68","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f2c0baa2-7c03-4909-a038-c5e3a7028fbc/retrieve","id":"-1512692476"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ce4104cf-99e2-4177-a796-fabe07fa96bf","pagecount":"239","content":"IUCN -The World Conservation Union was founded in 1948 and brings together 79 states, 112 government agencies, 760 NGOs, 37 affiliates, and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 141 countries in a unique worldwide partnership. Its mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable. Within the framework of global conventions IUCN has helped over 75 countries to prepare and implement national conservation and biodiversity strategies. IUCN has approximately 1000 staff, most of whom are located in its 42 regional and country offices while 100 work at its Headquarters in Gland, Switzerland.Southern Africa is currently experiencing a vibrant socio-economic transformation. This effort aims at addressing the pressing demands for rapid economic growth to respond to the fundamental needs for eradicating poverty and promote economic development. The drastic geopolitical changes observed in the sub-region, combined with the regions endowment in natural resources provide the enabling environment favouring the attraction of a multitude of capital investment for social and economic development of the sub-region. For this purpose numerous large-and small-scale development initiatives have occurred in Southern Africa. These initiatives include industrial agricultural projects, hydroelectric projects, and mining projects, among others.While the SADC states are separated by political boundaries, these boundaries do not generally correspond with natural ecological boundaries. Watersheds and other ecological units often cross one or more political boundaries. For example, all twelve of the mainland SADC states share drainage basins with one or more neighbouring states. Consequently, water use in one state affects water quality and quantity in neighbouring states downstream. A similar case exists for coastal and marine ecosystems, and for networks of protected areas.It is in recognition of the fact that most of the region's natural ecosystems units together with the ethnic and cultural systems are interconnected, that the SADC treaty for regional economic integration was crafted (cf. Katerere, et al., 2001). The agenda of regional economic integration, therefore, aims at facilitating SADC countries to open their borders to trans-boundary and integrated regional economic development. To this end, numerous transboundary natural resource management (TBNRM) initiatives are underway in forms such as Trans-frontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) and Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs) that attempt to catalyse economic growth. Unfortunately, most of these initiatives have been and continue to be implemented without adequate consideration of trans-boundary impacts.Another important component of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) process is the consideration of cumulative impacts. This is understood as the accumulation of effects both from the project under review and from other existing or projected initiatives within the area of influence in different space and time scales. Obviously, in a trans-boundary context, this issue becomes particularly complex. Understanding cumulative effects of multiple existing or planned development initiatives in a region should therefore be a critical component of the EIA exercise. Individual development initiatives may appear to have insignificant effects when assessed in isolation, but the cumulative effects of multiple initiatives can be significant.To further increase the complexity in dealing with trans-boundary and cumulative impacts, we observe that amongst the SADC member states there are significant differences in terms of national development agendas/policies, legal frameworks and institutional arrangements. Under these circumstances, there is a need for in depth reflection on the most effective way to address trans-boundary and cumulative impacts in EIA process so as to promote sound regional socio-economic integration under the prevailing regional reality of national differences.The current EIA review process had two basic objectives:• Provide an increased understanding of current factors preventing effective consideration of trans-boundary and cumulative impacts in conducted EIA studies within the SADC region;• Recommend a way forward towards the development of a concerted strategy for regional harmonisation of EIA procedures under the prevailing regional reality of national differences.Based on the findings from the case studies and additional information provided by EA experts across the SADC region, the following set of recommendations is proposed.Develop regional protocols -this particular action should entail promoting the development of an umbrella environmental assessment (EA) protocol for the SADC region addressing issues such as: development of minimum regional standards for environmental quality; guidelines for EA; mechanisms for information exchange to mention a few. With a regional protocol developed, SADC could further explore the desirability of signing the Espoo Convention.Proper institutional and legal systems should also be put in place for effective enforcement of regional obligations as per the terms of the signed agreements.Establish co-operative arrangements -this should include the encouragement and promotion of support to partnership agreements between appropriate agencies and institutions at national and regional levels. Formal linkages for reviewing and monitoring EA should be established at regional v level. Professional co-operation could be promoted and improved through the establishment of sub-regional associations of impact assessment bringing together existing regional expertise in this particular field of development planning and management.Improve trans-boundary links -efforts towards the development of proper cross-border consultation mechanisms could be one way of initiating such links. This should include well-established links between economic planning experts for joint planning and implementation of regional projects of transboundary nature.proposed that each country establish a designated competent authority to undertake regional co-ordination tasks. In this respect setting up of functional national entry point in systemic framework is recommended rather then relaying on individual focal points.Establish information-sharing mechanisms -this should include systematic publication and dissemination of existing best practices and success cases across the region and worldwide. Trans-boundary EA plans and reports should be included in appropriate regional environmental information systems specially established for the purpose. The establishment of regional database of EA experts could be an important mechanism to facilitate information sharing.training for environmental ministries as well as other organisations on an ongoing basis over long term and at different levels (e.g. university degrees as well as short term courses and workshops). At a regional level there is a need to also build capacity for international dispute resolution. Actions need to be put in place to bust regional capacity for EA review and monitoring.Use appropriate tools and methods -there is a need to encourage greater use of available tools to identify and address cumulative impacts. Centres of R&D should also make strides to refine existing tools and methods or develop new ones adjusted to the regional condition for effective assessment of cumulative impacts.Promote best practices -there is a need to give attention and promote special mechanisms for quality control and professional ethics within the EIA practitioner's community. Centres of excellence in EA training should be identified and strengthened.viUse economic incentives -it is recommended that SADC should identify appropriate incentives (e.g. trade) but rely on national pride in the interim.Regional and systematic application of the polluter-pays principle should be rigorously fomented. Proper mechanism to screen investor to determine who is legitimate including the use of environmental management systems should be encouraged.The present book brings together the key outcomes from a regional review process on the extent to which, EIA processes being applied in Southern Africa do effectively account for trans-boundary and cumulative impacts. The book is structured in three parts. Part one -Introduction; part two -case studies and part three -Other experiences and perspectives.Chapter one in part one, by Chonguiça and Katerere, provides the background and justification to the regional EIA review process. It describes the methodological approach undertaken including the set of basic assumptions used for the review process. A summarised analysis of the critical findings and recommendations emanated from the case studies is also provided.Chapter two in part one by Asthon and Chonguiça provides a broader overview of critical issues and trends with respect to EIA harmonisation processes based on known regional and international experiences and practices. Discussions on the conceptual frameworks related to the principles of sustainable development and technical approaches for implementation, are provided. Analysis of the critical factors preventing smooth assessment of transboundary and cumulative impacts are presented. The chapter further provides an analysis of what should be the role of EIA procedures in ensuring sound development planning and management. A discussion on the need for a regional harmonisation of EIA processes is provided with highlights of the prevailing critical challenges. Alternative options to overcome such challenges are presented as a proposed way forward.Chapter three in part two by Bodenstein and Fuggle, comprises of the first case study on the Lubombo Spatial Initiative (LSDI). A description of the nature of the development initiative is provided in terms of major goals and objectives as well as technical composition of the proposed SDI. The methodological approach adopted for the review process is provided. Outcomes of the review process are presented with highlights of identified strengths and limitations of the conducted EA process in addressing the trans-boundary and cumulative impacts. Possible reasons at technical, legal, policy or institutional levels that prevented effective consideration of trans-boundary and cumulative impacts are also discussed. The chapter closes with a comprehensive proposal on effective way forward and highlights of issues requiring further investigations.Chapter four in part two by Matela is a case study review of the Lesotho High Land Water Project. It provides the rational and background to the development initiative with a summary of the technical specifications of the development project. A summary review of the policy frameworks governing environment and natural resources management in Lesotho and South Africa is provided. An analysis of the extent to which trans-boundary and cumulative impacts were taken into account within conducted EIA is presented. Limiting and supporting factors that affected the EIA process are discussed including a set of recommendation on the way forward.Chapter 5 in part two by Manyatsi, deals with the review of the sugarcane irrigation industry in the Kingdom of Swaziland. The chapter provides a historical review of the sugar industry in Swaziland. In detailed terms the technical specifications of the scheme are provided including a summary economic analysis of the sugar industry contribution to the national economy.The chapter further discusses the existing legal, policy and institutional frameworks for environmental management in Swaziland and Mozambique.Based on the reviewed impact statement reports related to the conducted EIA processes, the chapter provides an assessment of the extent to which transboundary and cumulative impacts were taken into account. The chapter also provides an analysis of the outcomes of conducted survey aiming at assessing how EIA processes including the notion of trans-boundary and cumulative impacts are perceived within different segments of society in Swaziland (e.g. policy makers, EIA practitioners, developers and communities). Factors affecting the effectiveness in accounting for trans-boundary and cumulative impacts are discussed in the context of this particular development initiative and proposed way forward is provided.Chapter 6 in part three by Abul, provides and overview regarding the EIA harmonisation experiences in North Africa. Specific emphasis is given to the Egyptian case in the context of existing development initiatives within the Nile river basin.Chapter 7 in part three, by Sekhesa, deals with a methodological review and discussion on possible approaches to assessing cumulative impacts. Based on literature review the chapter provides additional information related to some of the technical aspects that needs to be taken into account for sound assessment of the complex theme of cumulative impacts.Assessment from a variety of sources, his awards include the prestigious Rose Hulman Award of the International Association for Impact Assessment for his contributions to environmental management in Africa.Dr Peter Ashton is a water quality and water resources specialist with the CSIR's Division of Water, Environment and Forestry Technology in Pretoria, South Africa, where he has also been appointed as Divisional Fellow. He was elected as Vice-President of the International Commission on Water Quality (ICWQ) of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) (1999 -2002), and the University of Pretoria has appointed him as Extraordinary Professor of Water Resources Management and Member of the Advisory Board for the Centre for International Political Studies. He has recently been appointed to the Water Council of the Global Research Alliance (GRA), which is a consortium of eight of the world's leading research institutions. He has over 32 years experience in research and environmental consultancy projects in several African countries, and has managed a number of large environmental impact assessment studies that evaluated the impacts of land use and development projects on the quantity and quality of water resources and, in particular, their influence on integrated water resource management approaches. He has a special interest in the role of aquatic ecological issues in decision-making processes for conflict prevention or resolution, and the management of water resources in shared (trans-boundary) river basins. He is the author and co-author of over 100 publications on a wide variety of water-related topics, and he has authored and co-authored over 80 technical reports for contract clients.Ebenizário Chonguiça is the Regional Programme Coordinator for IUCN (The Conservation Union) in Southern Africa. He holds a PhD in Physical Geography with a specialisation in fluvial geomorphology from the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Uppsala. He has also done extensive research in the areas such as soil erosion, sediment transport in river systems (suspend and bad-load), modeling of reservoir sedimentation processes through particle size analysis and estimates of trap efficiency ratios under given hydrodynamic conditions. His interest is extended to general hydrology and watershed management as well as coastal zone management studies. Eben did spend substantive research time evaluating the effectiveness of various geomorphological techniques (including remote sensing and GIS) in environmental assessment studies of water development projects in particular that culminated in a number of publications. Rob is currently the coordinator of the SADC Regional Programme for Rhino Conservation, based at IUCN ROSA in Harare, Zimbabwe. He has 15 years post-graduate experience as a wildlife ecologist and conservation biologist, specialising in programmes for in-situ wildlife conservation and management in Africa with emphasis on the planning, development and management of protected areas, the development, co-ordination and management of donorfunded wildlife conservation projects and applied ecological research and monitoring. Rob is a qualified Conservation Ecologist with PhD in Behavioural Ecology from London University. He has been on senior staff of two wildlife authorities in Africa (Kenya Wildlife Service; Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks) during periods of significant recovery and rehabilitation of the wildlife sector and protected areas. Rob is interested in conservation and management of African mammals, with emphasis on applied ecological research, GIS/database management and analysis, ground and aerial surveys and monitoring, planning, development and management of protected areas, community-based wildlife management. He is a specialist in conservation, monitoring and management of black and white rhinos. This paper is a summary of three case studies that were carried to review and document current trends in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures in Southern Africa. The review process focused on the examination of the extent to which currently applied EIA approaches adequately address trans-boundary and cumulative impacts of development initiatives as well as the impacts on natural resources important to agriculture or the livelihoods of people depending on it.The approach taken was to review three projects namely the Lesotho Highland Water project, the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative and the Sugar Cane Irrigation Industry in Swaziland. Reports of these case studies were produced and presented at a regional conference convened to assess the need for a regional approach to Environmental Impact Assessment in Southern Africa and to map an appropriate strategy for harmonized EIA frameworks in the region.The Southern Africa sub-continent is currently experiencing a vibrant socioeconomic transformation. This effort aims at addressing the pressing demands for rapid economic growth to respond to the fundamental needs for eradicating poverty and elevate people's living standards to acceptable levels. The dramatic geopolitical changes observed in the sub-region, combined with the region's natural resources endowment provide an enabling environment attracting substantial capital investment towards the social and economic development of the sub-region. Numerous large-and small-scale developmentinitiatives have occurred in Southern Africa. These initiatives are not only changing the biophysical, economic and cultural landscape, but are also creating new trans-boundary relations.Southern African states are grouped together under the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). The fourteen SADC states include twelve on the mainland (Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe) and two island states (Mauritius, Seychelles).While these states are separated by political boundaries, these boundaries do not generally correspond with natural ecological boundaries. Watersheds and other ecological units often cross one or more political boundaries. For example, all twelve of the mainland SADC states share drainage basins with one or more neighbouring states. Consequently, water use in one state affects water quality and quantity in neighbouring states downstream. A similar case exists for coastal and marine ecosystems, and for networks of protected areas.Unfortunately, numerous activities have been and continue to be implemented without adequate consideration of trans-boundary impacts.It is in recognition of the fact that most of the region's natural ecosystems units are interconnected (together with the ethnic and cultural systems), that the SADC treaty for regional economic integration was crafted (cf. Katerere, et al., 2001). The agenda of regional economic integration, therefore, aims at facilitating SADC countries to open their borders to trans-boundary and integrated regional economic development. To this end, numerous transboundary natural resource management (TBNRM) initiatives are underway in forms such as Trans-frontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) and Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs) that attempt to catalyse economic growth.It should, however, be observed that amongst the SADC member states there are significant differences in terms of national development agendas and policies, legal frameworks and institutional arrangements. These differences create monumental challenges with respect to optimizing, regulating and monitoring cross-border impacts. Consequently, there is a need for in depth reflection on the most effective way to promote sound regional socio-economic integration under the prevailing regional reality of national differences.Prevailing trends in economic development in Africa illustrate the high dependence on its natural capital. Development initiatives implemented so far, have in most cases resulted in decreased social returns of growth and high levels of unrealised and misused production potential of the natural resource base. The deteriorating terms of trade and high debt burdens are compounded by severe and escalating costs of natural resources degradation across the continent (cf. Warford, 1989). Further, the stock of renewable resources is rarely considered in a systematic and comprehensive way at the macro-economic levels where major strategic planning decisions are made.Therefore, comprehensive development planning mechanisms intended to increase the level of understanding of the complex and interwoven biophysical, economic and socio-cultural elements of the landscape are greatly needed in the context of natural resources use and development planning (cf. Naveh and Lieberman, 1984). These development planning mechanisms are generally placed in a framework of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), perceived as a \"comprehensive evaluation of the effects of human development activities or non-action on the various components of the environment (cf. Biswas and Geping eds., 1987). They are intended to provide information needed by planners and decision-makers to make development projects and programmes more sustainable and less environmentally damaging. Given this, EIA basically corresponds to an analytical procedure designed to ensure that the best development alternative is selected (cf. Chonguiça, 1995).An EIA study is usually multi-disciplinary in its nature and, depending on the specificities of the project/programme in question, may cover issues such as geo-biophysical impact analysis, economic impact analysis (efficiency assessment), social impact analysis (equity assessment), and risk assessment, as well as technology assessment.Similar to the short history of most of SADC, the history of EIA in Southern Africa is short. However, with the advent of the international environmental movement aimed at promoting the principles of sustainable development, SADC member states have increasingly recognized the organic links between environment and development resulting in the review of existing frameworks at national and regional levels or developing of new policy and legislation.The development and consolidation of the required policy and legislation frameworks have been recognized as one of the critical factors for planning approaches that enhance sustainable development. Besides national and regional efforts to sound environmental management, SADC countries have not escaped the long arm of globalisation. Many have signed and ratified international agreements that have become central to global environmental governance.Despite these positive efforts, many countries still lack adequate resources and capacities to effectively enforce environmental laws and regulations. In addition some countries still have weak or outdated legislation.When it comes to the specific issue of assessing environmental impacts of development projects, the approach tends to be nationally focused and sector or project specific irrespective of potential cross-border impacts. To date, individual countries in the region have had different approaches and standards for considering the potential environmental effects of development initiatives, and little accountability is paid to neighbouring states. This situation has led to a failure of many development initiatives to adequately consider impacts to the environment and resources, particularly when these impacts are transboundary in nature or effect.As most of the SADC countries are striving to attract increasing levels of development investment, it can be said that prevailing approaches to EIA application are investor driven, as they are being used as compliance tools to attract international loans and overseas development assistance (ODA). A potential paradox, therefore, is the use of EIA as a rubber stamp rather than a strategic tool to guide development planning. This practice is substantiated by current trends whereby most of the projects are approved prior to the outcomes of the EIA. The EIAs subsequently commissioned are in fact undertaken simply to provide the \"greening\" of an approved project.In spite of the myriad of specific positive developments related to EIA and management of trans-boundary resources, methods of Environmental Impact Assessment lack standardization in the region, and there is still a general lack of capacity to consider the regional (i.e. trans-boundary) environmental effects of specific development initiatives, or to assess the cumulative effects of regional activities.In summary, what are being observed as critical factors preventing effective implementation of EIAs in development projects with regional and transboundary dimensions include the following: • Current EIA application procedures are skewed towards national and sector/project focus •No context is provided to address cross border developments or impacts • Applied EIA procedures seem to be ineffective in accounting for cross border/trans-boundary development effects •The SADC region is affected by limited technical capacity and weak institutional arrangements to ensure EIA enforcement at a regional level • There is prevailing inadequacy of available financial resources Furthermore, as the Southern African region attracts investors, the need for harmonized Environmental Impact Assessment will be crucial. If investors perceive one country to have lower environmental standards than another, they will tend to invest in countries with lower standards or to pressure other countries to meet such lower standards. This situation currently occurs in other areas where economic regionalisation has been promoted (e.g. North America, where Mexico generally has lower environmental standards than the U.S. and Canada). If a project has trans-boundary effects, those effects may meet the environmental standards of the state responsible for implementing the project but may not meet the standards of the neighbouring state.An important component of an EIA process is the consideration of effects that are cumulative with other projects. Understanding cumulative effects of multiple existing or planned development initiatives in a region is a critical ingredient of any EIA framework. Individual development initiatives may appear to have insignificant effects when assessed in isolation, but the cumulative effects of multiple initiatives can be significant.Given the importance of cumulative effects, it is useful to distinguish between environmental assessments (EA) for specific projects, and EA for evaluating cumulative regional effects of development. Thus, the fundamental question being raised is how to effectively address environmental dimensions of regional development initiatives to ensure equitable and rigorous consideration of the effects of specific development initiatives, while also ensuring that the combined net effects of regional aggregated activities are both understood and evaluated. The World Bank has expressed this need in recent years (Goodland and Tillman 1995). The development of a concerted regional strategy, providing sound responses to these fundamental questions, constitutes the \"raison d'etre\" of this particular joint endeavour between the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Southern Africa Development Community / Environment and Land Management Sector (ELMS) and Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-oporation (CTA).In order to encourage the development of a regional strategy aimed at providing some responses and alternative solutions to the issues raised above, an EIA review process was undertaken. This process was meant to help increase the level of understanding of the current factors affecting the level of effectiveness in EIA processes, as applied to regional projects with a high propensity for trans-boundary and cumulative impacts. Consequently, three projects were selected as case studies namely: • The Lesotho High Land Water Project (LHWP) •The Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative (LSDI) and •The Sugar Cane Irrigation Industry in SwazilandThe selection of these case studies was based fundamentally on the affordability criteria in terms of the feasibility to access the required basic information and conduct the required site visits, in order to produce the outcomes within the defined time frame for the planned review process.Additional factors taken into account for the selection of these specific projects included:• Relevance of the project to unfold or reveal trans-boundary and cumulative impact issues • Existence of supporting scoping or impact statement reports to the project • Regional significance of the project • Potential impact on natural resources important to agriculture or on the livelihoods of people dependant on agricultureThe procedures that were undertaken to conduct the review process included:Two de-briefing meetings were conducted with the consultants responsible for each of the case studies. The first de-briefing meeting held at the beginning of the review process aimed at discussing the scope of the EIA review initiative, as well as strategizing and reaching an agreement of the methodological approach as well as on the required time lines for product delivery. The second de-briefing meeting reviewed progress achieved by the consultants and provided them with feedback.Collection and review of primary and secondary data whether national or regional and relevant to identified projects • This included the collection and review of the project document outlining the technical specifications of the development initiative under review.Collection and review of EIA scooping reports, environmental impact statement reports of the conducted EIA for the development initiative.• Collection and review of existing national legislation and relevant policy documents within the affected countries regulating environmental principles and standards of development initiatives.Data analysis process • On the basis of the outcomes of the data collection process, a listing was developed of the critical trans-boundary and cumulative impacts likely to occur from a development initiative under assessment considering its current geographic context. By comparing this list with the outcomes from the actual review process the dimensions of the trans-boundary and cumulative impacts that were not accounted for from the conducted EIA exercises were identified.Logical reasons for the identified omissions in accounting for transboundary and cumulative impacts were ascertained.The methodological approach adopted for the case studies was framed under a set of underlying assumptions structured in following manner:• There is a common understanding of concepts of trans-boundary and cumulative impacts at a regional level.Most of the EIA studies give little attention to trans-boundary and cumulative impacts at regional level.• EIA approaches being applied are not flexible enough to cope with the integrated needs of most development programmes and projects within the agricultural, water resources and land use planning sectors.EIA approaches and methods are generally operated on a project or sector specific basis, often precluding a comprehensive view of the socioeconomic and physical environment.Capacity to consider the multiple-use of land, and the degree to which a particular resource use may be in variance with the overall regional need, is not adequately taken into account.Prevalence of limited availability of resources and reduced institutional environmental capacity and mandate, poor capacity to design TOR's and review EIA proposals and absence or weak EIA legislation and/or enforcement capacity.No clearly defined regional framework for harmonised EIA guidelines.In order to test the underlying assumptions (as previously outlined) three selected project case studies were carried out with the following objectives:• Undertake a detailed desk study review of the three development initiatives taking place in the region, in order to understand how the EIA process was applied with respect to trans-boundary and cumulative implications for natural resources essential to agriculture or for the livelihood of people who depend on agriculture.Review relevant policies and legislation within the affected countries to determine how trans-boundary and cumulative effects were taken into account.Assess potential incompatible aspects of the regulatory mechanisms among affected countries.Assess existing relevant regional agreements (e.g. SADC protocols) with provisions for consideration of trans-boundary and cumulative effects on development initiatives and the associated EIA studies.Provide recommendations on approaches and procedures for improved EIA processes at regional level to account for trans-boundary and cumulative impacts.All of the reviewed case studies were based on the revisions of existing scooping reports (including the project document proposal and technical specifications), impact statement reports including specialized thematic study reports such as the environmental flow assessments. These are the kinds of basic EIA documents required by most of the national environmental authorities for issuing project environmental compliance certificates or licenses.During the review of the content and quality of EIA statement reports it became apparent that they tend to be responding technically to what was requested in the TORs. Drafting of the TORs is, therefore, a fundamental step to ensure that all relevant aspects required for the assessment are clearly tabled at the very early stage of the exercise. Drafting of sound TORs call for an effective understanding of the nature and technical specifications of the project being proposed combined with a good understanding of the socio-economic and geographical setting of the project in its broadest sense. This combined knowledge constitutes the foundation for effective anticipation of the most likely types of issues (e.g. biophysical, socio-economic, technological, cultural, archaeological and political) requiring attention from the EIA exercise.While the background documents of case studies make reference to issues related to trans-boundary and cumulative impacts there is no evidence that these issues are taken into account. Such omissions suggest that transboundary and cumulative effects were not part of the key requirements as per the TORs. This leads to the conclusion that effective considerations of trans-boundary and cumulative impacts within projects in Southern Africa need to be clearly stated in the TORs. From the conducted reviews it has become apparent that most EIA processes are strongly project-specific. Several possible reasons for this type of bias include: In technical terms, the reviewed case studies have illustrated that the notion of affected parties tends to be very confined within the closer limits of the project implementation site. Again, the inadequate consideration of space and time scales confines the EIA practitioners to limit consideration of the affected parties within the immediate vicinity of the project undertaking. When it comes to parties beyond the political boundaries of the country in question, this type of distorted consideration of space/time scales is further aggravated (e.g. in the LHWP little consideration was given to Botswana and Namibia).The limited attention being paid to the assessment of cumulative impacts is also determined by the same root causes related to the excessive sector or project focus. Little attention is normally given to the linkages between the new project being proposed with the projects already existing or being proposed in the area of intervention. The issue related to who should pay for the cumulative impact studies is also pertinent. Investors of a specific development initiative tend to be reluctant in spending time, money and energy addressing problems that might have been generated by others. A policy framework needs to be put in place to account for this type of concerns, based on the cognisance that such an assessment would obviously yield an increased understanding of the aggregated effect of any current proposal to the outcomes of the already existing or proposed initiatives in the area.Reference needs to be made that addressing cumulative impacts does not necessarily mean to provide a full and precise spectrum of the chain reaction emanating from the new proposed initiative over the existing ones. The scoping exercise can unfold for example, existing status of water (surface and groundwater) contamination due to ongoing development activities. Critical levels of forest depletion can also be ascertained. Making use of priority criteria, consideration of cumulative impacts of any new initiative would have to determine the incremental effect of a particular new initiative on existing threshold levels of resources degradation. This type of thinking would facilitate the adoption of proper management approaches to minimize present states of resources degradation.The reviewed case studies tended to follow the standard procedures of environmental impact assessments as recommended by conventional textbooks for EIA practitioners. From the existing policies and EIA legislations it is a requirement to generate:  Chonguiça et al, 1998).The regional and trans-boundary nature of the initiatives being assessed in this current study are characterized by being a conglomerate of multiple projects ranging from agricultural and tourism to transport. Consideration of cumulative impacts would, therefore, need to address the range of variables arising from the connectedness of various projects that form an integrated part of any proposed regional development initiative. Therefore, rather than applying EIA techniques under the assumption that it is one specific project to be assessed, the approach should be that of considering a conglomerate of projects and the related biophysical, economic, social and environmental variables likely to be impacted by regional development initiative. Under these circumstances, it seems that the adoption of strategic assessment techniques would be more suitable for application in regional development initiatives of this nature.Another shortcoming in EIA approaches being applied in the region is the limited application of alternative options or development scenarios for decision-making. This could be effectively dealt with, by promoting a systematic use of existing models for decision-making purposes (cf. Munn, ed., 1975;Patera and Ríha, 1995). These models are usually based on multidimensional decision-making principles. The multi-dimensional context is the prevailing norm in most development programmes/projects of a regional and trans-boundary scope. Multi-dimensional principles are rooted on the idea that \"... each decision maker wants to draw maximum utility from a series of diverging utility determinants such that the weighted share of these determinants in total utility reflects a certain compromise between the successive utility determinants (cf. Nijkamp, 1980). The most commonly used models are:The multi-objective optimisation models -based on a continuous set of possible values for the decision argument, and •The multi-criteria decision models -characterized by the use of discrete number of possible alternative choices or strategies.Hard or soft systems analysis techniques can be applied to both types of models for decision-making, depending on the availability of data or requirements for the degree of accuracy. An example of practical application of this type of decision-making models can be illustrated by an on-site inventory programme aimed at providing adequate measurements of resource products and trade-offs among products on a watershed. Measurements of natural and agricultural resource products can be represented as a product mix, as outlined in Table 1. All resource products derived from a particular area or class of land can be described quantitavely in such table. A product mix representing the existing situation (M0) can be compared to alternative multiple use practices (M1 and M2). A set of comparisons form a basis for choosing multiple use management system from a range of alternatives by appraising the impacts of the management redirections upon upland (on-site) productivity and externalities (downstream, etc.) as well. The product mix represented in Table 1 can be used to select the best course of action to meet an objective of management by assigning values and performing an economic analysis that compares the existing conditions with various multiple use alternatives (cf. Brooks et. al., 1991). Importantly, an analysis should also consider the changes in products and amenities over time. For example, under the existing condition (M0), soil erosion may result in decline in productivity over time. Alternatives that include soil conservation practices may show an increase in productivity over time as well as increases in usable downstream water yield. The true benefits of each alternative, compared to the existing conditions, are represented by the differences in on-site productivity and externalities over time.It is a recognized fact that most of the policy and legal frameworks regulating development planning linked to EIA processes in Southern Africa are rather recent. It was observed that the level of progress in the development and consolidation of such policies and regulatory instruments vary from country to country. However, an overall assessment of current conditions, indicate that there is a sound and enabling environment for sound EIA application in Southern Africa.It was found that most of the SADC countries have developed their National Environmental Action Plans and gazetted environmental acts (see Table 2). SADC governments have ratified most of the critical environmental conventions that are central to the promotion of sustainable development.An effort is being developed to gazette the required national by-laws to operationalise the ratified international conventions.The critical stumbling block, with respect to the effectiveness of the policyenabling environment, is related to actual enforcement capacity. Prevailing institutional arrangements, and technical and financial capacities do compromise the capacity for adequate enforcement of adopted policies. This becomes even more critical at the lowest levels of government administration (provincial, district and local levels), where the actual project/programme intervention generates the physical and visible/tangible impacts. Most of the SADC countries are on track as far as the signing of international agreements is concerned. A critical constraint is the ability and level of effective domestication of such conventions at national and regional levels.At a regional level, it is also observed that a number of regional protocols have been developed and promulgated to facilitate the adoption of an ecosystems approach to natural resources management.These regional protocols make provision for addressing the fundamental challenge of effective trans-boundary natural resources management under the framework of regional economic integration. These cases include the SADC protocol on shared watercourses, and the recently approved SADC forest protocol. Again, the critical dilemma rests on the ability of governments to operationalise these regional regulatory instruments. Effective implementation of such instruments calls for inter-country and inter-sectoral development planning mechanisms (e.g. related to water resources management). The current practices, however, indicate that despite these efforts most of the economic development planning processes, are strongly of a national and intra-sectoral focus. There is not yet any significant regional experience of integrated development planning across SADC countries. Some initiatives in that regard are starting to emerge, such as the case of the Kalagadi transfrontier intiative, the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP) and river basin commissions. A joint inter-ministerial project management technical committee has been established for the GLTP and important lessons can be learnt.Institutional arrangements for EIA are basically framed to address issues of national interest. Even at the level of river basin commissions and technical committees for parks management, as previously outlined, these institutions tend to be weak as far as technical, financial and organizational conditions are concerned. When it comes to addressing issues of regional and transboundary dimensions no generalized inter-country or regional institutional arrangements with the required multi-sectoral representation exist on a conventional and long-term basis. Existing arrangements are also projectspecific (e.g. TFCAs, River basin technical permanent commissions, etc.) with a composition very much specialized to the core characteristics of the resources under consideration. River basin inter-country technical commissions, for example, will be over-represented by hydrologists as if managing water was simply a hydrological problem only. The role of the SADC sector bodies is also an issue requiring further reflection. It has the mandate to guide regional policy but it is not equipped with a decision-making mandate to deliberate in cases of conflicts. Importantly, most of the regional inter-country management institutions for specific projects tend to be skewed to the confinements of government authorities only. The level of inclusion of other interested and affected parties (e.g. private sector, civil society) is minimal to inexistent.Trans-boundary areas in Southern Africa tend to be at the periphery of mainstream development and border people generally tend to be marginalised. Consisting basically of rural inhabitants, their dependence on the surrounding natural resources for subsistence is high. Subsistence strategies include agricultural practices, fishing, hunting and/or harvesting of a variety of natural resource products. Under these circumstances, any development investment in these remote areas has significant implications on the nature of existing relationships between the local communities and their sources of subsistence. Possible changes in the nature of existing subsistence strategies could be determined, for example, by the changes in access to markets and accessibility to new sources of household income (e.g. different from agriculture) imposed by the new opportunities created by the new investments in the area. The prevailing development trends within transboundary areas in Southern Africa, tend to be skewed towards tourism, transport corridors and to some extent commercial agriculture. The prevailing approach of attempting to convert the rural areas into tourism destination is based on the assumption that rural communities can make more profit primarily from wildlife and tourism than they make from livestock and crop production systems (cf. Katerere, et al. 2001). This assumption has led to a decline in the investment in research, extension and technology development for rural-based agricultural production systems. While it is true that many areas under trans-boundary investment initiatives are marginal to agriculture the switch to tourism as a source for livelihoods for these rural communities need to take into account the following set of issues:• rural communities might be more vulnerable to shifts into activities related to the tourism industry which are outside of their control; and • long-term tourism revenues may be very sensitive to political unrest or changes in tourist preferences with serious implications on food security and overall subsistence of rural communities.Given this picture, proper strategies ensuring the diversification of the rural economy need to be seriously taken into account.The need for increased social and economic development of the Southern Africa region is certainly a noble goal. However, proper strategies are required to balance the needs for rapid economic growth with those of sustainable management of natural resources. Consequently, sound integration of environmental management principles in the overall process of development planning and decision-making is critical.Considering the nature of ecosystem boundaries and the ethnic and cultural interfaces among SADC member states, development planning mechanisms should certainly go beyond the scope of the existing political boundaries.There is a need for establishing effective planning and management systems that account for trans-boundary natural resources management. Consequently, EIA techniques being applied to ongoing regional development initiatives need to be adjusted to this particular context. It is imperative for the regional EIA practitioners to take the lead in resolving the present technical challenges being imposed on EIA application. Technical ethics and responsibilities should be guiding principles for repositioning and enhancement of the role of EIA in development planning.The promulgated national and regional policies and legal frameworks need to be adjusted to address the challenges of regional integration and transboundary natural resources management in the sub-region. A new paradigm needs to be crafted to promote policy harmonisation. Harmonisation should not be viewed as a process of developing equal policy and legal instruments across all SADC member states. As far as national policies and legislation are concerned, harmonisation should be viewed as a process aimed at promoting complementarity and positive synergies within the existing regional differences. Of critical importance, therefore, is a deep understanding of the nature and dimension of these differences in order to explore opportunities for cohesion and the building of synergies. Issues related to institutional capacity development, decentralization and strengthening of institutions at local level constitute a fundamental paradigm shift for successful changes in the regional approach to development planning.Based on the findings from the case studies and additional information provided by EA experts across the SADC region, the following set of recommendations is proposed.Develop regional protocols -this particular action should entail promoting the development of an umbrella environmental assessment (EA) protocol for the SADC region addressing issues such as: development of minimum regional standards for environmental quality; guidelines for EA; mechanisms for information exchange to mention a few. With a regional protocol developed, SADC could further explore the desirability of signing the Espoo Convention.Proper institutional and legal systems should also be put in place for effective enforcement of regional obligations as per the terms of the signed agreements.Establish co-operative arrangements -this should include the encouragement and promotion of support to partnership agreements between appropriate agencies and institutions at national and regional levels. Formal linkages for reviewing and monitoring EA should be established at regional level. Professional co-operation could be promoted and improved through the establishment of sub-regional associations of impact assessment bringing together existing regional expertise in this particular field of development planning and management.Improve trans-boundary links -efforts towards the development of proper cross-border consultation mechanisms could be one way of initiating such links. This should include well-established links between economic planning experts for joint planning and implementation of regional projects of transboundary nature.-it is proposed that each country establish a designated competent authority to undertake regional co-ordination tasks. In this respect setting up of functional national entry point in systemic framework is recommended rather then relaying on individual focal points.Establish information-sharing mechanisms -this should include systematic publication and dissemination of existing best practices and success cases across the region and worldwide. Trans-boundary EA plans and reports should be included in appropriate regional environmental information systems specially established for the purpose. The establishment of regional database of EA experts could be an important mechanism to facilitate information sharing.for environmental ministries as well as other organisations on an ongoing basis over long term and at different levels (e.g. university degrees as well as short term courses and workshops). At a regional level there is a need to also build capacity for international dispute resolution. Actions need to be put in place to bust regional capacity for EA review and monitoring.Use appropriate tools and methods -there is a need to encourage greater use of available tools to identify and address cumulative impacts. Centres of R&D should also make strides to refine existing tools and methods or develop new ones adjusted to the regional condition for effective assessment of cumulative impacts.Promote best practices -there is a need to give attention and promote special mechanisms for quality control and professional ethics within the EIA practitioner's community. Centres of excellence in EA training should be identified and strengthened.Use economic incentives -it is recommended that SADC should identify appropriate incentives (e.g. trade) but rely on national pride in the interim.Regional and systematic application of the polluter-pays principle should be rigorously fomented. Proper mechanism to screen investor to determine who is legitimate including the use of environmental management systems should be encouraged.Africa is endowed with an enormous array of natural resources that have formed the foundation for national economies across the continent. For centuries, communities and societies have relied on the abundant natural resources to sustain and support their growth, expansion and development.Over time, populations have grown considerably and this has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the rates at which natural resources are used. In many African countries, increased population numbers combined with low agricultural productivity, inclement weather patterns and inadequate economic resources have forced individuals and whole communities alike to over-exploit their resources (SARDC, 1994;Chenje, 2000;Ashton, 2002a). Local and regional patterns of dependence on natural resources, combined with large-scale exports of agricultural produce and raw materials, exert even greater pressure on Africa's natural capital. Overall, this situation has led to a vicious downward spiral of continued resource depletion and growing poverty that has often been accompanied by political instability and conflict (SARDC, 1994).The harrowing prospects of increasing poverty, further economic decline and a growing dependence on external sources of aid have forced many African governments to attempt short-term remedies that focus on immediate relief for communities in dire need of assistance. Whilst many of these attempts provide short-term relief, they merely represent cosmetic solutions to the underlying problems and seldom halt or reverse the adverse conditions (Ashton, 2002a). If current trends are to be arrested and reversed, greater attention must be paid to new environmental management approaches that will help to restore and conserve depleted resources. This will require bold displays of commitment, concerted action and political will by both national governments and the international community.Many African governments share similar visions and face comparable problems, whilst also sharing several geographic, historical, cultural and linguistic ties that supersede political boundaries (Ashton, 2002a). As a result, there is a growing need to form regional and continental coalitions or associations that can jointly address mutual aspirations and problems. This is clearly evident in regional associations such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and continental initiatives such as the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). These regional linkages and co-operation agreements are particularly important in the context of joint resources such as river systems that are often shared by several countries (FAO, 2000). However, much of the success of these partnerships depends on the ability of the individual parties to reach agreement on issues of equity and responsibility, and the degree to which each party is accountable for its actions to other members (Lundqvist, 2000). Clearly, careful custodianship of shared resources will help to form the foundation of a successful partnership.Importantly, the degree to which the policies, legislation, resources and management practices of each country are aligned and implemented with those of its neighbours will be a central factor in any regional or cross-boundary agreement between countries. Success will be very difficult to achieve in situations where there is little or no alignment; for example, where one party is unable to deploy adequate human and economic resources to meet its commitments, or where another party seeks to derive unfair advantage from its economic or geographical position (Ashton, 2002a).Pressing demands for economic growth in southern Africa have resulted in a growing number of small-and large-scale development initiatives. Several of these developments have significant local and trans-boundary impacts that are often worsened by the extent to which countries in the region rely on resources that are shared with one or more neighbouring states (Newson, 1992;Pallett, 1997;Ashton, 2002b). Whilst there are many instances where individual projects have insignificant impacts, there is also clear evidence that multiple projects can have significant cumulative impacts (SARDC, 1996).The rapidly expanding political agenda for regional integration that presses African countries to open their borders to trans-boundary economic development has simultaneously reinforced the need to re-evaluate the systems and processes required to assess the extent that current national environmental impact assessment (EIA) approaches and practices take account of trans-boundary and cumulative impacts (MMSD, 2001).This review examines the extent to which the trans-boundary and cumulative implications of development projects are accounted for in southern Africa, as a backdrop for recommendations to improve and enhance environmental impact assessment and management practices across the region. Specific attention is focused on existing initiatives and the extent to which these are aligned with current policies and legislative instruments in southern African countries.The concept of \"Sustainable Development\" was first introduced into the global environmental debate in the 1980's to express the interdependence between economic development, the natural environment and people. The most widely accepted definition of sustainable development describes it as \"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs and aspirations\" (WCED, 1987). This expression of sustainable development seeks to establish a development path that will enhance the quality of life of humans and ensure the viability of the natural systems on which that development depends. These principles have been incorporated in Agenda 21 (UNCED, 1992) and also form the central components of key international environmental conventions (UNCBD, 1992; UNECE, 1998).In Africa, sustainable development initiatives focus on improving the social and economic equity of the poor majority, the rational management and use of natural resources, the eradication of pervasive poverty, developing the human population, and improving economic growth (SADC, 1996(SADC, , 2001)). Several African institutions have considered these issues in depth and they have now become firmly entrenched as the guiding principles of NEPAD.The basic processes of 'development' in its widest sense can be considered to occur in a cyclical fashion, as shown in Figure 1. In this representation of the development process, the partnership between service delivery agents and the end users of these services promotes a strong sense of empowerment and ownership of the \"final product\", and the recipients are now able to articulate new sets of needs that must be satisfied. In this way, development is not a static process, but rather a continuous cyclical or spiral process.The 1992 meeting in Abidjan on the African Common Position on the African Environment and Development Agenda clearly emphasised the need for strong political commitment from all African countries to ensure that development does not destroy the resource base on which it is based (UNECA, 1992). This would require countries to redefine their national development priorities to alleviate constraints imposed by natural circumstances, the prevailing international economic setting and their individual debt burden. These constraints are accentuated by inadequate access to technology and by worsening terms of international trade and indebtedness (Kakonge, 2002).Prior to the Abidjan meeting, earlier initiatives came from the 1985 African Ministerial Conference on Environment in Cairo (AMCEN, 1985), the 1989 African Regional Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development  (Chenje, 2000). The central theme emerging from these meetings was the recognition that sustainable development could only be achieved if African countries had sufficient capacity in terms of viable institutions, appropriate and relevant technology, as well as adequate human and financial resources (SARDC, 1996).Global thinking and international experience have also contributed strongly to the debate around the need for, and goals of, sustainable development in Africa. There is now growing agreement on the close inter-relationship between socio-economic well being and a healthy biophysical environment, the importance of international collaboration and the vital role that citizens should play in environmental management, as well as the compelling linkage between poverty, consumption and resource degradation (Asmal, 1998). IUCN's World Conservation Strategy (IUCN, 1980), the Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987), the Rio Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, 1992) and the Report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD, 2000), advocated increased attention and commitment to all of these issues.The critical importance of sustainable development in Africa is further emphasized in the context of NEPAD and Africa's preparations to host the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Among the key questions being asked of African countries is the extent to which the provisions of Agenda 21 and the various environmental conventions have advanced Africa towards the goal of sustainable development (Tarr, 2002;Weaver, 2002). This focus of attention is pertinent because, despite its enormous natural resource potential, many African countries experience widespread poverty whilst having to support socio-economic conditions brought about by fluctuating terms of trade and external indebtedness. Insufficient institutional and legal frameworks, poor governance, a weak infrastructure base, and insufficient scientific, technical and educational capacity compound the continent's problems (Weaver, 2002). In combination, these pose enormous challenges to meeting the national and regional objectives of sustainable development.The relatively low levels of human development in southern Africa have prompted SADC to focus its goals for sustainable development on equity issues (SADC, 1996). In terms of the SADC vision for sustainable development, the region must:• Accelerate economic growth with greater equity and self reliance, • Improve the health, income and living conditions of the poor majority, and• Ensure equitable and sustainable use of the environment and natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations.A fourth dimension, namely governance, needs to be added to the three goals identified by SADC to ensure sustainable development (Figure 2 -Hounsome & Ashton, 2001;Weaver, 2002). The global frustration about lack of progress in the implementation of various global treaties and protocols is also experienced at company and local government level (Topfer, 2000). A future focus on implementation will depend on the creation of institutions of governance that can meet stated objectives. A key part of this process will require stakeholders to engage transparently to promote participation and form partnerships where they are also accountable for their actions and decisions (Ashton, 2002b). Increase economic equityEnhance social benefits Ensure responsible governanceLimit / reduce environmental impactThe management of large ecosystems (such as river basins) that span political (or other) boundaries requires a fundamental understanding of ecosystem components and their linking processes. Limits to the amount of change that ecosystems can tolerate and still remain productive are increasingly recognised. Sadly, this awareness is often based on observation of irreversible loss and change in ecosystems (Ashton & King, 2002). These occur when the effects of development activities exceed some threshold of tolerance or resilience. Specific boundaries between the sustainability and collapse of ecosystems are difficult to identify and even harder to quantify, making ecosystem management exceedingly challenging. Additional complexity is added by the extent of natural inter-annual and seasonal variability, as well as the uncertainty surrounding the potential implications of climate change. This becomes particularly challenging when considered in a trans-boundary context where it may be difficult to identify (or confirm) the original source of the problem (Ashton et al., 2001). This dilemma has prompted widespread agreement that EIA should include the impact of proposals on ecological processes (as specified in the Convention on Biological Diversity; UNCBD, 1992). Unfortunately, most attempts to measure the overall \"health\" of ecosystems only present a partial viewtraditionally, such studies develop indices or indicators describing the extent of ecosystems and include something about the variety and diversity of organisms comprising them, their production of essential goods and services and the (exploitation) pressures that they face. Few traditional indicators provide information on the capacity of ecosystems to continue to supply goods and services or their resilience to certain levels or patterns of exploitation (Ashton & King, 2002). Where such information is available, it is often only applicable to limited numbers of species or only valid for relatively small portions of ecosystems. In addition, the traditional, reactive, project-based EIA approaches have offered little in the way of useful information for management decisions, either because an overly narrow view has been taken of ecosystems and their natural dynamics, or the wide variety of temporal and spatial scales involved have been ignored (Ashton & King, 2002). Again, this problem is worsened when considered in the context of a trans-boundary impact.The increased openness of international borders and a growing emphasis on poverty alleviation and socio-economic development pose direct challenges to traditional patterns of resource management (Newson, 1992;Ohlsson, 1995). There are now important new dimensions to the production and management of public and private goods and services and some authors have argued that the failure of existing international institutions to provide public goods is directly responsible for many of the world's recurring crises (Halter, 1991). These include volatile financial markets, the prevalence of disease and environmental degradation, including the pollution and depletion of transboundary water resources (Delli Priscoli, 1998;GWP, 2000). Discussion of international public goods has emphasised the view that (effective) transboundary water management is accepted as an international public good (Turton & Warner, 2002).Effective trans-boundary water resource management can be considered as a \"global\" public good in those cases where the benefits that accrue to a single shared river basin can be said to be almost universal in nature. The example used to support this assertion is that where conflict in a specific river basin can have global repercussions if the waters are highly contentious and poor management can increase the risk of conflict (Turton & Warner, 2002). The Jordan, Tigris and Nile rivers would appear to be suitable examples of this situation.There is also a potential for conflict caused by poor management, pollution and inadequate attention to equitable water allocation issues (Falkenmark, 1999;Gleick, 1999). Here, discussions on 'water security' become relevant and are discussed frequently in international circles (Falkenmark, 1989). Typically, the water security debate hinges on national concerns around the fair and equitable sharing of water resources (Ashton, 2000a). Approximately 40% of the world's population lives in international river basins and transboundary water management affects their water security and, indeed, every aspect of their lives (Falkenmark, 1999).The increasing global awareness of the importance of effective international management of the shared (trans-national) water resources does not translate into effective management at an international level. Indeed, it appears unlikely that there can be truly effective international management of a water resource despite the global nature of the hydrological cycle (Kakonge, 2002). Nevertheless, whilst there is a global need to provide water security for all, this can only be achieved through national and regional actions, supported by global and international institutions (WCD, 2000). Global efforts are therefore needed to support the provision of what is in effect a regional public good (FAO, 2000). This effort must address both the limits to national sovereignty over a resource such as water, and also the political constraints that national sovereignty places on trans-boundary management institutions. In short, the institutional aspect of effective and balanced trans-boundary water management institutions can be defined as a regional, but not global, issue (Turton & Warner, 2002).Effective trans-boundary water management institutions can be defined (Turton & Warner, 2002) as: • Regional custodians of public goods rather than truly international institutions, because they affect a limited set of riparian countries, • 'Club'-like in their operations, rather than purely public institutions, where the benefits depend on the countries that commit themselves to the institutional arrangements (or are omitted from the arrangements), and • 'Means' focussed in that the (often unseen) output of effective and balanced trans-boundary water management institutions may be other goods, such as regional peace and security.An important dimension of effective trans-boundary water resource management is that it represents the sum of the contributions of the riparian states involved. Therefore, it is vital to recognize that effectiveness reflects the degree of co-operation between riparian countries, as well as the national capacity of each individual state to manage its own water resources. The central concern with trans-boundary impacts therefore relates to the ability of the states concerned to reach an equitable agreement on their respective responsibilities and to demonstrate their capacity to abide by the terms of their agreement (Ashton, 2002a, b).A cumulative impact or effect is usually defined as the accumulation of impacts both from the project under review and from other human activities that have been and will likely be carried out at some point in the future. Consequently, cumulative effects can have an important role in EIA, particularly when decision makers need to assess the full or \"true\" impact to society of a proposed project or development, rather than the impacts caused by the single proposed project. Several reviews on the use of cumulative impact assessment in EIA have shown that very few studies have addressed this issue effectively (Sadler, 1996;Porter & Fittipaldi, 1998;Kakonge, 2002). An important characteristic of cumulative impacts is the fact that, as the complexity of habitats or diversity of biotic components increases, there is a trend of increasing uncertainty (or inaccuracy) in attempts to predict the potential cumulative impacts that might potentially occur as the result of a development project (Figure 3). Another important aspect of cumulative impacts relates to the changes or impacts caused by unanticipated activities that are not related directly to the project under consideration (Chambers et al., 2000). A typical example here would be the cumulative adverse effects of inappropriate land-use practices undertaken by those communities that arise in the vicinity of a new development project. Often, people are attracted to the area by the promise of potential employment and economic opportunities offered by smaller peripheral activities that start up in the vicinity of a larger development project such as a new mining operation (Chenje, 2000). Over time, these communities become firmly established and the combined effect of their activities can increase to the point where they have a dramatic effect on the availability of natural resources such as water supplies, fuel and building materials.Classic examples of this type of situation can be found in the numerous satellite communities that have sprung up around the mining towns of the Zambian Copperbelt (MMSD, 2001). The waste products discarded by these satellite communities accentuate the effects of effluents discharged by the different mines and towns and, collectively, this has led to a dramatic decline in water quality in the upper and middle reaches of the Kafue River (Chenje, 2000;Ashton et al., 2001).Typical tools used to identify and assess cumulative impacts in EIA (Sadler, 1996;Porter & Fittipaldi, 1998;Petts, 1999), can be ranked by order of usefulness from most to least, and include: The prediction of cumulative environmental impacts usually requires comprehensive baseline data, as well as a sound understanding of the affected ecosystem components and their interrelationships. Any assessment of cumulative impacts becomes complicated when impacts occur over large (and variable) temporal and spatial scales (Chambers et al., 2000). Typical reasons given by EIA practitioners as to why cumulative impacts have not been extensively assessed in \"traditional\" EIA studies, included: Reluctance by project proponents (developers) to commission and pay for the additional work that may not be clearly and unequivocally linked to the specific project being evaluated in the EIA.Understandably, addressing cumulative effects in an EIA is far more difficult than merely assessing the impacts of a single project (Sadler, 1996). The need to assess the effects of a specific development in combination with the effects of other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future developments places enormous emphasis on the need to fully understand the natural and social systems that are affected by developments (Porter & Fittipaldi, 1998;Petts, 1999). An assessment of cumulative effects implies the need to assemble large amounts of information from a wide variety of sources, use this information appropriately to predict cumulative impacts, assess the greater variety of impacts (than those caused by the specific project in isolation) and then to manage or mitigate the impacts meaningfully.An additional array of complications is introduced when it becomes necessary to mitigate cumulative effects. In particular, this raises several questions regarding the \"ownership\" of cumulative impacts, as well as the roles and responsibilities of developers, local authorities and community members, particularly with regards to costs for the cleanup of historical impacts or the impacts of peripheral activities that are unrelated to the project in question (Ashton et al., 2001).Traditional sectoral approaches present the biophysical environment as a set of discrete components, usually ignoring linkages between them. As a result, integration is limited (Petts, 1999;Ashton & King, 2002). Environmental impact assessment should seek to explicitly consider the linkages between components and feedbacks within and between them in an interlinked series of \"cause -effect\" relationships, to provide a comprehensive, integrated evaluation of overall consequences for ecosystem structure and functioning over time and space (Petts, 1999). Recent developments in \"ecological footprinting\" have dramatically enhanced our understanding of the extent and complexity of ecological linkages (Chambers et al., 2000). A typical example of sets of linkages would be provided by the transformation and transmission downstream of impacts associated with waste or liquid effluent discharge to a river.Improved methods used in recent ecological impact assessment include versions of Pressure -State -Response models, which specifically consider linkages within a system as well as between systems (Petts, 1999). Examples of such approaches can be found in recent State of the Environment reports (Chenje, 2000). These provide explicit information on the capacity of ecosystems to continue to deliver goods and services against their sensitivity and vulnerability to external pressures and demands. Another important advance in environmental impact assessment has been to better model the distribution of costs and benefits across different levels of society (Falkenmark, 1999;Petts, 1999). This recognises those who gain benefits from ecosystem services are rarely those who bear the costs of their loss.Improved understanding of ecosystem functioning enables us to make proactive recommendations on a system's \"carrying capacity\" and the likely cumulative effects of development options (Shela, 1996). This directly improves our ability to define precautionary options and guide society's transition towards sustainable development. Here, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) can be used to consider the full range of space and time scales of ecological processes, including links that span the needs of current and future generations (Petts, 1999).Finally, rapidly expanding initiatives to develop suitable indicators of ecosystem health, integrity and resilience, as well as measures of ecosystem change over time, provide extremely important inputs to the development of adaptive management strategies, such as those now used in the Kruger National Park in South Africa (WRC, 2000). These allow us to respond more rationally to the accumulated effects of several different activities and, where necessary, to develop and implement appropriate remedial strategies.Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an analytical process with the ultimate objective of providing stakeholders and decision makers with balanced, objective and understandable information that clearly indicates the likely consequences of proposed actions (Chonguiça, 1995, Porter & Fittipaldi, 1998;Petts, 1999;Weaver, 2002). Perhaps the most important purpose of an EIA is to provide evaluations of alternative project (development) scenarios that fully reflect the environmental costs and benefits of each option. These are then used to facilitate decision-making as to whether or not to undertake the proposed development. Some of the diverse aspects that must be considered for each development option during an EIA are summarized in Figure 4. Since the inception of EIA in 1970, over 120 countries worldwide had enacted some form of formal EIA system by 1998, though these varied greatly in terms of procedure and practice (Kakonge, 2002). In some countries, the requirement for an EIA takes the form of a formal regulation, other countries have EA guidelines, and yet others have systems that are either more ad hoc in nature or merely rely on the requirements stipulated by donor agencies (Weaver, 2002). Whatever the EIA system employed by a country, one of the major drawbacks seems to be the general lack of a system that can enforce the recommendations in practice.The scope and methodologies of EIA have evolved and improved greatly during the past decade. Specific new advances include improved consideration of biodiversity impacts and climate change issues, as well as an increasing application of EIA principles to policies, plans and other strategic decisions, together with reviews of trade, privatisation and structural adjustment initiatives (Petts, 1999). Whilst several other tools are available to assist decision-makers, these do not have the legal or mandatory status of EIA, or are unable to adequately address issues of sustainability (Porter & Fittipaldi, 1998;Tarr, 2002;Weaver, 2002).The factors that motivated the creation of environmental policies and programmes in developing countries differed from those in the West where• National development imperatives • Global treaties (e.g. biodiversity)• International law requirements • Regional linkages (e.g. transport)• Regional resource shortages (SADC)Opportunity CostsEIA originated. In the West, environmental policies and programs were typically \"bottom-up\" initiatives that resulted from demands by the general population. In contrast, environmental policies in developing countries have mainly been \"top-down\" initiatives by governments, often initiated in response to international pressures to deal with environmental problems (Weaver, 2002).The international emergence of environmental concerns followed by EIA as a key decision-making tool in the early 1970s was closely linked to demands for public participation (Petts, 1999). Similar early attempts to introduce EIA in southern Africa were unsuccessful because conservative administrations and the oppressive nature of colonialism and apartheid historically discouraged public debate and action (Weaver, 2002).In recent years, individual countries or groups of countries (e.g. SADC) affected by common problems have undertaken several joint environmental initiatives. However, whilst these initiatives are very welcome, the pace of change has been slow because many governments still maintain a virtual monopoly on policy-making (Weaver, 2002). A lack of capacity to implement policy is characteristic of many of the countries in the region and has further impeded uniform and effective implementation of EIA in the region (Kakonge, 2002). Nevertheless, good progress has been made towards implementing EIA within the region since the Earth Summit in 1992. To date, some SADC countries have promulgated framework legislation that makes allowance for EIA whilst others have specific legislation covering EIA (Weaver, 2002).Professional practice has grown rapidly in southern Africa and a voluntary accreditation system for EIA practitioners has recently been established in South Africa (Tarr, 2002). The region also boasts several examples of excellent EIA practice that have been audited and stand up well against international best practice and there is also a growing realisation that trans-boundary impacts need to be considered (Weaver, 2002). Advanced tools such as Strategic Environmental Assessment are regularly used in South Africa to create a better framework within which EIA can be practised. Sophisticated predictive modelling techniques, health risk assessment, and social impact assessment are also used regularly in EIA processes. Public participation processes are particularly well developed in some countries (for example, Namibia and South Africa) and innovative methodologies such as participatory rural appraisal are regularly applied (Tarr, 2002).EIA and a variety of other impact assessment tools have been applied internationally to determine whether or not proposed projects and actions are economically viable, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable (Petts, 1999). The relatively well-developed legislative and policy framework in southern African countries, combined with the great challenges posed by sustainable development, create the opportunity for EIA to play a leading role in the development of the region and the continent as a whole (Tarr, 2002;Weaver, 2002).However, for EIA to fulfil its real potential in southern Africa, the main needs are: Strengthening the links between EIA, SEA, regional planning and other high level decision-making processes.Importantly, there are still perceptions that EIA is an obstructive process that seeks to keep people in poverty, rather than one that ensures that future generations will enjoy resource security and a good quality of life (Petts, 1999). These perceptions need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.Two key issues emerge when we analyse the effectiveness of environmental management laws in southern Africa. The first issue relates to the striking shortage of national capacity at all levels of government and society to implement comprehensive environmental management and ensure the implementation and enforcement of legal requirements (SARDC, 1996). The second issue relates to the need for countries and donor agencies to work closely together to align and harmonize EIA-related laws and regulations with those of neighbouring countries and with international technical and financial institutions (Tarr, 2002). National capacity building and alignment or harmonization of EIA policies and procedures would greatly facilitate the implementation of EIA requirements, particularly by investors and developers that need greater standardization to help them implement their project on time and within budget constraints (Kakonge, 2002).Whilst the mere enactment of sound EIA legislation alone is not enough, it does help to foster environmental protection and sustainable development. However, legislation is virtually useless if there is no national capacity to implement the EIA requirements (Kakonge, 2002). In practice, technical and administrative capacity is needed at every level where EIA is to be performed, reviewed, discussed, implemented and monitored, including central government, local government, decentralized agencies, private sector, NGOs and local communities (Tarr, 2002;Weaver et al., 2002). An additional need in Africa is for EIA processes to take closer account of the special values and needs that characterize the intimate interdependency between Africans and their natural resources.At present, laws and regulations in most African countries consider EIA to be the mandate of central government and national environmental agencies (Kakonge, 2002). Every African statute in force recognizes that government ministries and agencies are responsible for the regulation and supervision of development activities. In addition, some countries such as Nigeria and South Africa have promoted local government involvement in development decision-making processes, including public participation (SARDC, 1996).Statutes in some other African countries mention or call for local government involvement in the public participation process. This type of decentralization or delegation is promoted in many African countries as a means to:Increase public awareness of the issues linked to development projects, • Increase economic growth of the rural areas, and • Promote institutional efficiency.Therefore, it is appropriate to develop a regulatory framework that enables local governments to participate fully in the EIA implementation and review processes. The absence of specific legal provisions in existing statutes can be offset against the resulting enhancement of both environmental and decentralization legislation.Outside government, participation in the EIA process helps to mobilize a whole range of social groups, ranging from small national groups of technical and scientific experts to a wide variety of grassroots organizations and their representatives (Weaver et al., 2002). As local governments and communities take on larger roles in planning and delivering basic development services, members of these groups should become more closely involved in the preparation, review and monitoring of EIA (Kakonge, 2002). Without this form of continuation, the opportunity to sustain the initial consensus that was built during the EIA is lost. For these countries, the implications are (Kakonge, 2002) that:• Rules, regulations and capacities should not be confined to the country capitals, but should be spread out as far as possible to the sites of development activities and the recipients involved,Training programmes should ideally include government staff, community representatives, and EIA specialists, and • Technical and financial resources should be made available to these groups to enable them to implement their mandates and responsibilities.An important component of virtually all EIA-related legislation in African countries is an explicit requirement for public participation (ADB, 1999). Whilst the responsibility for facilitating proper public participation invariably lies with the project developer, its stipulation in legislation represents formal recognition of the fact that public participation is an essential pre-requisite for transparency and good governance (Halter, 1991). However, it is critically important to understand that any attempt to achieve 'public participation' without appropriate levels of technical capacity at public level, and supported by adequate procedures, will result in what is commonly referred to as \"promoting the illusion of inclusion\" (Dr Ebenezario Chonguiça, IUCN-ROSA, personal communication). Far too many public participation processes are ineffective because no attempt is made to ensure that the participants have sufficient technical knowledge to understand the content of reports and presentations. Another common failing is an implicit assumption that everyone in an audience understands English, or at least understands the technical terminology and jargon used. In reality, there have been cases where over 90% of an audience were unable to understand the technical presentations that were made and could not grasp the potential consequences of a development proposal.In many countries, the EIA review process is part of a comprehensive postimplementation monitoring and auditing process; however, in practice, several obstacles reduce or prevent adequate monitoring and auditing. This aspect needs to be incorporated into environmental laws and regulations in these countries (Tarr, 2002;Weaver, 2002). Further legal developments should specify the process and responsibility for monitoring and auditing to help enhance the credibility of regulatory agencies, project proponents and EIA practitioners.A 1995 World Bank review paper highlighted the importance of harmonizing EIA legislation and procedures within and between African countries and with donor agencies as a means of achieving significant cost savings (World Bank, 1995). If discrepancies between EIA procedures can be resolved, many African countries can reduce their own efforts and spending to develop subregional and regional co-operation, and facilitate development funding by donors instead (World bank, 2000). The compatibility and harmonization of national EIA procedures with those of international donor agencies would be designed to support and enhance funding investment initiatives (Kakonge, 2002). If the domestic (national) EIA procedures are fully compatible with those of the funding agency, this could help to avoid the unnecessary costs and delays of involving the funding agency in the EIA. Whilst this philosophy has several clear (mostly economic) advantages for African countries, it is important to recognize and understand the implications of two important underlying assumptions, namely that: • The type and extent of the EIA processes practised and advocated by the international donor community are indeed comprehensive, effective and suitable for application in African situations, and • These EIA processes deal effectively and compassionately with those African situations where development projects irrevocably alter or change the intimate relationship that exists between people and their natural resource base.However, before efforts are directed towards re-drafting existing country policies or legislation with a view improved harmonization, it would be far more useful first to examine where these policies and laws complement each other and are aligned with the development imperatives of the countries concerned. New legislation and policies should only be drawn up when there is clear evidence that the existing policies and statutes are not fully complementary or are deficient in some other way.Clearly, the urgent need for development across the entire African continent should be ample motivation to accelerate national and regional processes aimed at aligning and harmonizing EIA processes and legislation (World Bank, 2000). Importantly, the many political and judicial processes involved in any attempts at alignment should seek to ensure that the outcome reflects: Alignment and harmonization of EIA policies and legislation between several different countries that may have differing social, political, economic, and judicial systems is not a trivial undertaking. Importantly, such a process would require each country and its environmental institutions to share similar sets of needs and goals with their counterparts in the countries they wish to become aligned with (Topfer, 2000;World Bank, 2000). The private sector and civil society would need to support the initiative because they would be most affected by any changes that occurred, whilst governments would be unlikely to achieve the required degree of compliance if they worked in isolation from their constituents. Despite the fact that this represents a daunting challenge that will be difficult to achieve, the potential benefits that could accrue to each country would seem to outweigh the potential difficulties in realizing this objective. Importantly, we must acknowledge that despite the differences outlined above for many African countries, the SADC countries in particular share several features that reflect their common adoption of sustainable development principles and recognition of the urgent need for regional economic integration. These are clearly demonstrated by the number of regional protocols that the countries have jointly ratified (e.g. SADC, 1995SADC, , 1996SADC, , 2001)).Several key steps or processes can be identified where African countries need to reach agreement so that the necessary alignment and harmonization of policies and legislation can be achieved. These steps are: Designing processes for conflict prevention, mediation and compensationEach of these steps is briefly reviewed and discussed, below.The recent launch of the African Union and the NEPAD strategy is clear evidence that Africa's leaders can create and share a broad vision for the future development of the continent (Tarr, 2001;Weaver et al., 2002). In particular, NEPAD represents a firm commitment by the Heads of State of every African country to work together to reduce poverty and ensure social and economic upliftment of the continent's peoples, whilst simultaneously ensuring that the continent's natural resources continue to meet the needs of society in perpetuity. Clearly, these guiding principles are founded on a shared realization that regional integration is an essential requirement for sustainable development (SADC, 2000;Tarr, 2001).This strong emphasis on regional integration and the principles of sustainability is essential if African countries are to achieve meaningful levels of self-reliance (Tarr, 2001). Relief from the pervasive problems associated with poor or inadequate governance, a weak infrastructure base, and insufficient scientific, technical and educational capacity, pose enormous challenges to meeting the objectives of sustainable development (Shela, 1996). Notwithstanding these problems, the shared vision that underpins the NEPAD strategy is proof that African countries can overcome their social, economic and political differences to develop a shared vision (Tarr, 2001(Tarr, , 2002)). Therefore, it should be a relatively straightforward process for these same countries to develop a shared vision to align and, if necessary, harmonize their environmental management policies and legislation.The environmental policies and legislative frameworks in many African countries that share trans-boundary resources, such as the water in a river basin, exhibit several differences in the ways that they are structured or implemented (Heyns, 1995(Heyns, , 2002;;Pallett, 1997;Tarr, 2001). These disparities often make it difficult for the respective country authorities or agencies to achieve the same levels of management efficiency and control over the resources available. However, it is important to note that in almost every case, the central components of the policy and legislative frameworks in each country are very similar, having been drawn up from identical or very similar principles (SADC, 1996). Where there are differences, these are associated mainly with the availability of competent technical personnel and the specific ways in which decisions are taken and management options are deployed.The existing degree of alignment suggests that the countries already share several similar values and development objectives, and it would therefore be possible to achieve this for environmental management policies and legislation as well.Clearly, the above statement does not take into account the extensive discussions and accords that would be needed for each country to reach agreement on the precise mechanisms whereby alignment of policies and legislative requirements could be achieved (Tarr, 2001(Tarr, , 2002)). Nevertheless, based on a shared understanding of the specific changes that would be needed, and the ensuing benefits in terms of achieving regional and national development objectives, each country could be motivated to mobilize the technical and legal resources required to accomplish this objective.The development and application of the EIA process in southern Africa, as well as other African countries, has frequently been guided by the requirements of different donor aid agencies or countries (World Bank, 2000;Kakonge, 2002). As a result, the specific steps in the EIA process adopted by an African country often mirror the EIA process of a particular donor country or organization. Whilst this procedure may allow the country concerned to accelerate its policy formulation and legislation processes, it can promote fragmented national and sectoral attitudes to environmental management (Kakonge, 2002). Thus, whatever advantages a country may achieve in terms of formalizing its requirements for EIA, these are sometimes offset by differences in the application and implementation of EIA in neighbouring countries that share responsibility for management of a trans-boundary resource.This situation can be resolved by a careful analysis of the specific stages or steps in the EIA process required by those countries that share a particular resource such as a river basin (Pallett, 1997). The countries concerned can then reach agreement on the process to be followed when any contradictions or inconsistencies are identified and need to be amended to improve alignment with each other. Here, particular attention needs to be paid to aligning the EIA process with the full life cycle of development projects, including postapproval management of construction and operation phases (Weaver et al., 2002). It is important to remember that EIA is not intended merely to ensure compliance with legal requirements, but its primary objective is to ensure that projects are implemented in line with the principles of sustainable development (Weaver, 2002).This is in accord with the specific recommendations contained in the SADC Policy and Strategy for Environment and Sustainable Development (SADC, 1996), which calls for \"a breakaway from fragmented sectoral approaches to environmental management\" and to pursue \"a single agenda and strategy\" to achieve greater consistency in decision-making. Most SADC countries have already promulgated framework legislation that makes specific allowances for EIA to be included in decision-making, whilst the remaining SADC countries are in the process of doing so (SADC, 2000;Tarr, 2001Tarr, , 2002;;Weaver et al., 2002).Efforts directed towards a clearer understanding of the specific differences in EIA policies and legislation between different southern African states, or towards improved alignment and harmonization of these instruments, represent an important step forward. However, these efforts will be futile if they are not supported by adequate numbers of suitably trained and experienced technical, scientific and management personnel (GWP, 2000;Kakonge, 2002). This capacity is needed at all levels where EIA is to be practiced, reviewed, implemented and monitored, and includes all levels of government, the private sector, NGOs and local communities (Tarr, 2002;Weaver, 2002).The chronic shortage of trained technical and scientific personnel is a perennial problem for resource management institutions throughout Africa, and is not confined to southern Africa alone (GWP, 2000;Kakonge, 2002). However, the devastating effects of the HIV/Aids pandemic are particularly visible in southern Africa where up to 35% of adults may be HIV+ in some countries (Ashton & Ramasar, 2002). This has enormous implications for all capacity building efforts and represents a serious constraint to the development and expansion of national and regional efforts designed to address trans-boundary resource management issues. Nevertheless, the need for trained and experienced personnel remains acute and this issue must be addressed urgently.In recent years, some university curricula have begun to include formal graduate and post-graduate courses in EIA, as well as training courses for EIA practitioners (Weaver et al., 2002). There is a growing cadre of professional EIA practitioners in southern Africa, and South Africa has recently established a voluntary accreditation system for EIA practitioners (Tarr, 2002;Weaver, 2002). Elsewhere in southern Africa, the acute need for improved training programmes and other forms of capacity building remains unfulfilled and represents an extremely serious impediment to effective implementation of EIA policies and legislation at all levels.The effective, efficient and integrated management of a particular resource (such as water) that is shared by several countries requires a high degree of trust between the countries, as well as a firm commitment to inter-state collaboration and co-operation (GWP, 2000;Lundqvist, 2000;Ashton, 2002a). None of these responsibilities are easily incorporated into existing institutional (government) structures within participating countries and many of the policies, priorities and strategies that are needed extend well beyond the line function boundaries of conventional government departments (Wolf, 1999).Experience gained elsewhere in the World has shown that the greatest likelihood of success in such cases is achieved when an independent organization (such as a river basin organization, or RBO) can be established to represent the interests of all countries sharing the basin in question (Lundqvist, 2000;van der Zaag & Savenije, 2000;van der Zaag et al., 2000).However, experience has also shown that most RBOs tend to regard water development purely as a hydrological problem. Indeed, the staff complement of most RBOs comprises technical experts from the water sector, with little or no representation from agriculture, mining, forestry, finance and planning sectors. This hampers appropriate consideration of the multi-faceted, crosssectoral approaches that are needed because water resource management transcends traditional administrative boundaries. Unless the specific institutional arrangement makes provision for the integration of all these disciplines, it will not be able to demonstrate an appropriate system of corporate and public governance that meets the needs of all participants.The creation of such a 'trans-boundary institution' requires each state within the river basin or management unit to acknowledge and accept the roles and responsibilities of its partner countries, whilst committing itself to the maintenance of a spirit of harmony and good will amongst its partners (Halter, 1991;OKACOM, 1994;Pallett, 1997;GWP, 2000;Lundqvist, 2000;van der Zaag et al., 2000). An important element of any such international partnership is the realization that the rights and obligations of each party are mutual and reciprocal, rather than unilateral (Wolf, 1999;van der Zaag and Savenije, 2000).In the specific case of an RBO, the basis for any agreement on the quantities of water required by a country will depend on the ability of each country to demonstrate its capability to manage the water resources available in a fair and equitable manner (Ashton, 2000a(Ashton, , b, 2002a)).There are several good examples of inter-state co-operation amongst southern African countries. Perhaps the best known of these is the SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems in the SADC Region (SADC, 1995) and its recent revision (SADC, 2001), whose provisions are very similar to those contained in the United Nations Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UNCSW, 1997). The Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems in the SADC Region entitles SADC countries to develop water systems that flow within the boundaries their sovereign territories. However, the Protocol also requires each State to inform its neighbours of any plans to develop or modify a shared river system, to work together to ensure that each State shares in the benefits of such plans, and to ensure that environmental degradation is avoided or minimized (GWP, 2000). This approach caters for the territorial sovereignty concerns of individual states whilst also promoting inter-state co-operation and collaboration.In effect, therefore, the SADC Protocol represents a useful example that can be emulated in other situations. However, it is important to remember that the success of any institutional arrangement depends on the availability of suitably trained technical and scientific staff, appropriate management structures, and the political will to implement policies and procedures that stakeholders have agreed to.Given the diversity of techniques and approaches used to assess transboundary effects and cumulative impacts, and the heavy reliance on professional judgement and experience, it is difficult to recommend a single optimum strategy to follow (Porter & Fittipaldi, 1998;Petts, 1999). Instead, a more practical option would be for the different agencies and institutions involved to convene a suitable meeting where EIA practitioners and agency personnel could reach agreement on which techniques or methods are most suitable. These procedures could then be specified for use by the relevant agencies and all EIAs conducted on development projects and/or transboundary projects would need to comply with these specifications.Regular exchanges of information and reviews of progress would help to ensure consistent application of the selected approaches, and would also assist with national and institutional capacity building efforts. Ultimately, this would lead to improved decision-making and enhanced management of shared natural resources.To many stakeholders, the most controversial aspect of EIA policies and legislation is the seeming inevitability with which government approval is granted for development projects to proceed whilst local communities and individuals feel that they are the ones who bear the real 'costs' in terms of lost access to resources. Part of this problem centres on the fact that the natural resource base of a country is usually regarded as a 'public good', for which the government must act as custodian (Christie & Hanlon, 2001). This is particularly true of scarce natural resources such as water or arable land, where some countries have replaced private ownership of the resource with the right of equitable use of the resource (Asmal, 1998).Nevertheless, public perceptions persist that national or regional development projects often lead to the 'loss of ownership' or 'prevention of access' to local natural resources. Clearly, these perceptions need to be addressed very carefully and where real loss of access or use has occurred, there may be good grounds on which to consider some form of compensation. Typically, the processes of identifying and eliciting these concerns, and helping to prevent possible conflict, will require the inputs of skilled mediators and facilitators.It is this public participation procedure that forms the core of effective EIA processes (Petts, 1999).Most effective EIA processes include a formal requirement for comprehensive public participation or consultation. However, these requirements vary from country to country, and also differ in the timing or point in the EIA process when public participation or consultation takes place (Kakonge, 2002). These differences represent an important opportunity for SADC countries to reach an agreement to standardize on the most appropriate form for public participation and consultation. Ultimately, this will help to align EIA processes in the different countries and will lead to greater consensus amongst stakeholders.The recent 'replacement' of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) by the new African Union (AU) and the declaration that NEPAD will form the metaphorical vehicle for Africa's future development trajectory is an exciting opportunity to lay a solid foundation for future regional-scale and continentalscale collaboration when dealing with the trans-boundary effects and cumulative impacts of development projects. Efforts to realize the objectives of NEPAD will rely on the individual and collaborative efforts of all African states and it is here that the SADC countries can provide real assistance to their northern neighbours through sharing their collective experience with EIA. This will be particularly important in situations, such as the management of shared river basins, where cross-sectoral approaches are needed (Asmal, 1998).The growing awareness of the urgent need for sustainable development throughout Africa provides the greatest stimulus for national governments to work together to develop shared, regional approaches (GWP, 2000). Whilst many African countries already require EIAs to be conducted for development projects and have promulgated appropriate environmental legislation, several other states lag far behind. One of the first priorities should be to identify those specific technical areas where the available expertise in SADC countries can be mobilized. More specifically, the SADC experience in dealing with trans-boundary patterns of resource use and the application of EIA processes to large and small development projects (e.g. Ashton et al., 2001;MMSD, 2001), offers an important opportunity to transfer knowledge and skills to other participants.There are also important lessons to be learnt from the European experience in applying the United Nations Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Trans-boundary Context (UNECE, 1998). In particular, the knowledge gained in the development and staffing of appropriate institutional structures will be invaluable. However, it is important to remember that many of Africa's problems have unique characteristics that may prevent or hinder the direct 'transplantation' of a solution generated elsewhere (Ashton, 2002a, b;Heyns, 2002). In these cases, it will be essential to fully understand the characteristics and needs of the African situation to ensure that whatever solution is proposed, it is able to meet these requirements.The critical need for skilled personnel underlies all the concerns around dealing with trans-boundary effects and the cumulative impacts of development projects. This problem can only be addressed effectively through the concerted and collaborative efforts of all the states in the region (GWP, 2000). A closely related issue is the need for appropriate institutional structures that are able to effectively manage trans-boundary resources on behalf of the states concerned (Pallett, 1997;Heyns, 2002). This would help to demonstrate good corporate and public governance practices, promote genuine trans-boundary and regional co-operation amongst the states concerned, and help to enhance the social and economic development of the region and the continent as a whole.  Where possible, people involved in compiling reports for, or otherwise involved in the LSDI were consulted with regard to environmental assessment processes being followed within the LSDI.The key conclusions and findings of the review are given below.• Although several policies in the affected countries support an integrated approach to addressing environmental concerns, there is a lack of procedures for translating policies and law into practice, particularly with regard to cumulative and trans boundary issues. In addition, the policies and laws reviewed place a heavy emphasis on application of EIA, which has significant benefits if correctly and timeously applied. However, EIA has limitations when applied at a regional, programme and large scale development initiative level. Other environmental tools such as Strategic Environmental Assessments, Sectoral Assessments, Regional Assessments or Environmental Overviews need to be used as well, particularly at the strategic planning and conceptual stages of projects or programmes.• Although there have been good intentions with regard to incorporation of environmental considerations into the planning process, a lack of an agreed approach to addressing environmental issues in the LSDI orpossibly, the inability to implement the proposed SEA approach, may be contributing to a breakdown in the consideration and assessment of cumulative and trans boundary issues in LSDI projects. Weaknesses in institutional and administrative structures and communications may also be contributing to inadequate consideration of the wider implications of large scale initiatives. A poor understanding of the capabilities of various environmental tools which can assist in cumulative and transboundary effects analysis may be making the situation worse. There is also no law requiring that tools such as SEA, (which has been designed to address regional large scale programme level activities) be utilised. However, methods for applying SEA are not well developed and there is a need for increasing capacity in this field. Other planning initiatives (such as the development of regional Integrated Development Plans) may play a role in improving consideration of cumulative and transboundary effects. This warrants further research.• At project level, cumulative impacts are being identified, but not sufficiently addressed. Cumulative and trans boundary issues tend to be 'referred up' to higher decision making authorities or are simply left unaddressed. Responsibility for identifying, tracking and addressing cumulative and trans boundary issues is not clearly enough specified in programme or project design as well as the Terms of Reference for studies to be undertaken. Inadequate effort is being made in the LSDI documents reviewed, to clearly state the implications of cumulative impacts on the project design, decision making and implementation processes and the overall implications of the initiative.• Although there is a significant database of information available for the LSDI area, human resource and capacity issues, combined with insufficient communications appears to be leading to inefficiencies with regard to report commissioning, production and accessability. Confidentiality factors are hindering access to reports. These factors, in combination, are likely to reduce the chances of integrated holistic environmental assessment processes.The mechanisms for communication and co-ordination amongst and within environmentally responsible departments across countries (if any) do not appear to be functioning well. It is not clear what mechanisms are in operation.• Administrative procedures for conducting EIAs which are likely to have trans boundary or cumulative impacts should be reviewed in order to take cognizance of such impacts. In addition, provision should be made for a wider variety of environmental tools to be used at the appropriate project stages in regional large scale initiatives (including Strategic Environmental Assessments , Environmental Overviews, Sectoral and Regional assessments). Guidelines on the strengths and weaknesses of different tools, and how they should be applied need to be further developed and communicated to key authorities and planners involved in the environmental management process. It is also important that governments recognize that they should be responsible for funding SEAs (or similar processes) as these are undertaken in the regional or national interest.• A harmonized, practical, implementable, and agreed on approach to address cumulative and trans boundary impacts needs to be developed amongst SADC countries. In particular, effective communications and administrative structures must be set up. This must be accompanied by effective and ongoing briefing of key stakeholders and decision makers of the processes and tools being used (capabilities and status). In addition, significant capacity building and training in sustainability concepts and application and in particular, the various tools and methods that can be used to help identify cumulative and trans boundary impacts is needed. This should be supported by development of guidelines on methods for undertaking SEAs and the other similar tools.Training should initially be directed at the key institutions and authorities involved in environmental assessment and management functions. Further research into the role of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) in assisting in cumulative and trans boundary impact identification and assessment is warranted.• Where relevant, terms of reference for environmental assessments of large projects or initiatives must clearly specify the requirement for cumulative and trans boundary impact identification and assessment. In addition, the Scoping process must be sufficiently comprehensive to ensure that cumulative and trans boundary issues are identified. This requires that Scoping procedures must cross boundaries when necessary. Key authorities, who are responsible for looking after scarce resources must be consulted in the Scoping Process (when relevant). Responsibility for identifying, tracking and addressing cumulative and trans boundary impacts must be identified and agreed upon early in the environmental impact assessment process (irrespective of which environmental tools are being used). Public involvement must be sufficiently broad to ensure that potential trans boundary impacts are identified. Environmental consultants and planners must take greater responsibility for alerting key decision makers and authorities about the implications of cumulative and trans boundary effects.• A means to improve identification of and access to key reports that will inform planning and environmental assessment in the area is recommended, together with creation of communication and co-ordination mechanisms that will facilitate information exchange.Finally, further work needs to be done on developing regional approaches to environmental assessment, particularly with regard to political, administrative, and institutional collaboration between the affected countries. Part of a coordinated response to regional management among stakeholders.The overall approach to the study has been as outlined in the summary paper presented in the introductory section, part one chapter one. The key steps undertaken for this particular component of the case studies were as follows:• Contact was made with the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative (LSDI) project manager to obtain consent for the review and the LSDI offices to obtain relevant documentation for review. The LSDI web site was scanned for information. Other web sites and literature sources were used to obtain information on the relevant law, policy and protocols. In addition, contact was made with key environmental consultant to whom the project manager referred the Environmental Evaluation Unit (EEU). The Environmental Scan report was made available to the EEU.Additional search of basic information was conducted in Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and they made available the draft Integrated Environmental Management Plan for the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park (GSLWP) and a series of Scoping Reports for the supply of infrastructure to the GSLWP.The above reports were reviewed to determine the extent to which trans boundary and cumulative effects were addressed and the methods applied. At the same time, existing legislation and policy documents were reviewed to determine to what extent trans boundary and cumulative impacts are taken into account in these regulatory instruments.A variety of telephonic queries were made to people directly or indirectly involved with the LSDI to determine whether there were other Environmental Assessment reports that could be reviewed and to try to obtain more information on the environmental processes being followed in the LSDI initiative.The EEU was appointed to undertake this research in mid-November 2001.The work was to be undertaken in a period of about 11 weeks, including the period over the December January vacation. This is a relatively short time, particularly in view of the fact that the EEU were unable to access key documentation before the holiday period due to a variety of factors (listed below).As such the review should be regarded as preliminary, having been undertaken at a broad based scanning or scoping level.Due to information supplied in an early LSDI document, the EEU were under the impression that a Strategic Environmental Assessment for the SDI had been undertaken and it took considerable investigation before it became clear that no SEA had been done. In addition, staff at the SDI office in Durban were unable to assist the EEU in obtaining documentation. A wide variety of alternative sources of information had to be contacted for assistance.In the time available and with the confidentiality constraints imposed, the EEU were only able to source two documents to review, i.e. the draft Integrated Development Management Plan for the GSLWP and some Scoping reports for infrastructure supply to the GSLWP. No EIAs for large trans boundary projects were available. This means that the evaluation of the extent to which trans-boundary and cumulative impacts are being identified and addressed had to be done at a relatively local scale. This also means that there has been greater emphasis on cumulative, rather than trans boundary effects.In addition, there were no environmental impact assessments available for agricultural projects available. A scoping process for a cotton estate is to be initiated shortly. Should it be desirable, the Scoping Report can be reviewed at a later date. Policy and legislative context including relevant international and regional policies and agreementsVarious policies and legislation in South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland are in place to ensure that environmental effects of different activities are considered before decisions are made regarding their implementation. These policies and legislation however, vary from country to country, in terms of procedures for assessing environmental impacts. With the exception of Mozambique, procedures for EIA in South Africa and Swaziland are not explicit with regards to assessment of trans boundary and cumulative impacts. Inadequate institutional capacity regarding management of environmental assessments further compromises the value and effectiveness of EIA as a tool in promoting progress towards sustainable development (Tarr, 2001). This section will only review those policies and legislation directly relevant to the procedures for environmental impact assessment in South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland. Some of the important policies and legislation and international agreements relevant to the Lubombo SDI will be highlighted.The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, adopted in 1996, provides the overarching framework for environmental management in the country.The principle that EIAs should contribute towards sustainable development has been incorporated into the Bill of Rights, Chapter 2 of the Constitution. The Bill of Rights provides for amongst other factors, the basic human right to a healthy environment. Section 24 states that: \"Everyone has a right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being\". Sections 24 to 26 further note that: • Through laws and other measures, the environment should be protected from ecological degradation for the benefit of present and future generations; • Development and use of natural resources should be carried out in a manner that is sustainable for ecosystems.The White Paper on Environmental Management Policy of 1998 sets out a series of principles for environmental management. The policy forms the framework into which other sectoral policies have to fit in terms of the vision and principles regarding environmental management, and applies to all government institutions and activities that impact on the environment.The National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) of 1998 further translates the principles of the White Paper on Environmental Management policy into law. The NEMA as a framework legislation provides an umbrella for integrating environmental management into all development activities (Urquhart, 2001). The NEMA encompasses a set of principles that show how government should act. These include sustainable use of natural and cultural resources; taking a risk-averse and cautious approach; and environmental equity and justice. The Act provides for application of environmental management tools in order to ensure the integrated environmental management of activities. It makes provision for the development of assessment procedures that aim at ensuring that the environmental consequences of policies, plans and programmes are considered. In Chapter 5, section 24 (7b), it makes specific reference to putting in place procedures for \"the investigations of the potential impacts, including cumulative effects of the activity and its alternatives on the environment…and the significance of that potential impact\". The Act also stipulates South Africa's commitments to its international obligations and agreements on environmental management. A description of the proposed method of assessing the significance of the impacts. In the assessment, the following issues have to be considered: the spatial extent of the impact, that is whether it is local, regional, national or international; the intensity of the impact; the potential duration and the probability of the impact. Potential mitigation measures should be identified.After a plan of study for the EIA has been accepted, the applicant must submit an environmental impact report to the relevant authority for consideration.On the basis of the report, the relevant authority will issue a record of decision.The report must contain: • A description of each alternative including particulars on the extent and significance of each identified impact and the possibility of each impact • A comparative assessment of all alternatives • Appendices containing descriptions of the environment concerned; the activity to be undertaken; the public participation process followed including a list of interested and affected parties; media coverage given to the proposed activity and any other information included in the accepted plan of study.A weakness in the legislation is that after the report is submitted, there is no requirement that the report be placed in a central repository which is accessible to interested and affected parties (including those in neighbouring countries).In addition, there is no obligation on the minister to accept the most environmentally acceptable alternative(s).A more progressive approach that provides an opportunity to take into account cumulative and trans boundary impacts has been adopted in the National Water Act of 1998. The Act provides the framework within which water will be managed at regional or catchment level, in defined water management areas. Water management powers have been delegated to institutions at regional and catchment level. Catchment management strategies must be established for the water resources within a particular water management area. A catchment management strategy must for example, take into account the class of water resources and resource quality objectives, the requirements of the Reserve and, where applicable, international obligations. It must set out strategies, objectives, plans, guidelines and procedures of the catchment management agency for the protection, use, development, conservation, management and control of water resources within its water management area.Several other national and provincial policies and laws exist that are relevant to the development initiatives in the Lubombo SDI. While not directly relevant to the regulation of EIA, these policies and laws establish a number of principles that strive at achieving environmental sustainability and sustainable development. The following are some of the key policies and laws: The Municipal Systems Act (2000).The right for every citizen to live in a healthy environment as well as the duty to defend this right is embedded in the Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique adopted in 1990. According to Article 37 of the Constitution, it is the State's responsibility to guarantee ecological equilibrium and the preservation and conservation of the environment with the aim of improving the quality of life and living standards of all the citizens (Meneses and Cunha, 1998).Based on this fundamental right, the Environmental Law adopted in 1997 creates a set of principles that guide environmental management in the country. These principles include: • Precaution, on the basis of which management of the environment shall prioritise establishment of system to prevent acts which are harmful to the environment in such a way as to avoid the occurrence of negative environmental impacts which are material or irreversible; • A global, integrated vision of the environment as a grouping of interdependent ecosystems which may be naturally occurring and which must be managed in such a way as to maintain their functional limits; and • International co-operation, to obtain harmonious solutions to environmental problems, the cross-border and global dimensions of these problems are recognised (Republic of Mozambique, 1997).Article 13 of the Environmental Law establishes Environment Protection Zones. Any activities or projects that may cause damage to the environment, if situated in protection zones including coastal and marine grounds shall be subject to environmental impact assessments (Meneses and Cunha, 1998). The EIA regulations formulated in terms of Article 33 of the Law provide for the scope, content and consideration of environmental impact studies. The regulations apply to all public and private activities that may have a direct or indirect influence on the components of the environment. The activities include programmes and projects for intensive livestock and agricultural development, covering individual or cumulative areas greater than 350 hectares and clearing, dividing and exploiting the native vegetation cover of individual or cumulative areas greater than 100 hectares.The proponent is solely responsible for undertaking an environmental impact study. The study, which is to be submitted to the Ministry for Co-ordination of Environmental Affairs must contain the following:Box 2: Contents of the environmental impact study in MozambiqueThe delimitation and geographical representation of the area of influence of the activity •The description of the activity and its alternatives, in the planning, construction, operation and in the case of a temporary activity, the de-activation stages •The comparison of alternatives considered and forecast of the future environmental situation of the area of influence in the event of adopting each alternative •The identification and assessment of mitigating measures •The undertaking of an environmental management programme, including the monitoring of impacts and accident prevention and contingency plans •The identification of the team that drew up the study Once the study has been reviewed by the Ministry for Environmental Coordination and complies with the regulations, a decision is taken on the environmental viability of the proposed activity. If approved, a licence will be issued.While other legislation relevant to the SDI, including the Land Act, Forestry and Wildlife Act and other laws are being reviewed, all development within the country has to take place in accordance with the environmental principles outlined in the Constitution (Meneses and Cunha, 1998). The Investment Act specifically requires that relevant studies and evaluations of the environmental impact that may result from any investments activities should be undertaken. Such impacts may be within their area of concession or close to the peripheries (Ibid).The Swaziland Environment Management Bill of 2001 articulates Swaziland's commitments to environmental management. For example, the Bill provides for cooperation with other governments, and with domestic and international organisations in order to protect the regional and global environment. The procedure for EIA is regulated in the Environmental Audit, Assessment and Review Regulations provided under the Swaziland Environment Authority Act of 1992, Section 18. The regulations establish the following classifications for projects, based on their likelihood to have significant impacts:• Category 1 are defined as those projects whose environmental impacts may be easily determined, and for which appropriate measures may be taken.Category 2 projects are likely to cause environmental impacts, some of which may be significant, unless mitigation measures are taken.Category 3 projects are likely to have significant adverse impacts whose scale; extent and significance cannot be determined without in-depth study.Environmental compliance certificates have to be obtained by all proponents whose projects might have environmental effects. An Initial Environmental Evaluation (IEE) is to be prepared for category 2 projects and an EIA for category 3 projects. An Environmental Audit Report (EAR) and a Comprehensive Mitigation Plan (CMP) have to be prepared by the proponent for categories 2 and 3 projects, and submitted to the Swaziland Environmental Authority. For projects in category 3, where an EIA has to be undertaken, an EIA report must include the following: The Flora Protection Act of 2000 makes special provision for undertaking of EIA and mitigation plans for any activities that would impact on the indigenous flora. Such EIAs and mitigation measures are to be undertaken in accordance with the provisions of the Swaziland Environmental Authority Act of 1992.The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Policy and Strategy for sustainable development adopted in 1996, recognises that unsustainable development in the region has been driven by economic and sectoral policies that are narrowly focused, particularly neglecting the poor majority and the environment (SADC, 1996). To move towards sustainability, the Policy and Strategy emphasises the role of EIA as a key tool in promoting sustainable development. Simultaneously, most SADC countries including South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique are Parties to different international and regional agreements (Tarr, 2001). While recognising the sovereignty of States, these agreements impose certain obligations to Parties. More significantly, a number of post-Rio international environmental conventions, such as the Biodiversity and Desertification conventions, identify EIA as a fundamental tool in environmental management and urge governments to effectively institute an efficient EIA system as part of their implementation strategy to the conventions.The SADC Protocol on Shared Water Courses provides for institutional collaboration to foster closer co-operation for judicious, sustainable and coordinated management, protection and utilisation of shared water resources. and Resource Area were scanned to see whether cumulative issues were considered in the protocols. In addition a draft funding proposal for trans frontier conservation and resource area protocols and implementation programmes was scanned.The draft protocols and the funding proposal are strongly conservation oriented and recognize the need to address direct and indirect impacts as well as cross boundary effects. The need to address cumulative impacts is not, however, explicitly mentioned although one could assume that the collaborative trans boundary ecological planning and management that are proposed in the protocols and which are aimed at sustainable resource use and development would facilitate the identification of cumulative impacts. In addition, the proposed establishment of joint management structures or mechanisms for co-operative ecological planning and management should contribute to impact identification and mitigation at all levels, providing the communication structures work well. The protocols also mention the need for harmonization of legislation and regulations and complimentary research and monitoring. Some of the steps needed to identify (and possibly address) trans boundary and cumulative effects are therefore identified in the protocols. The practical implementation of the protocol principles and guidelines and the extent to which they are influencing environmental assessment and management processes would be worthy of further research.Environmental policies and legislation in the countries affected by the Lubombo SDI are founded on some of the fundamental principles of sustainable development and integrated environmental management. These include integrated vision of the environment as a grouping of interdependent ecosystems which may be naturally occurring and which must be managed in such a way as to maintain their functional limits and international cooperation, to obtain harmonious solutions to environmental problems. Despite this clear articulation of environmental management principles in policies and legislation, appropriate tools to effectively translate these principles into practice are either inadequate or possibly misapplied. Although the EIA procedures in the different countries are basically sound, their application appears to fall short of good professional practice, particularly with regard to consideration of trans boundary and cumulative impacts, thereby, undermining the principles on which the policies and legislation are founded.The emphasis on ecosystems in the policies (rather than both natural and social systems) may also be resulting in some imbalance, with too much focus being placed on ecosystems. In addition, the significant emphasis on environmental impact assessment as an evaluative tool (as opposed to a wider variety of tools appropriate to the stage of the project or programme) may also be contributing to inappropriate application of the environmental impact assessment procedure.Further weaknesses are that the legislation does not appear to require that environmental reports be placed in a central accessible repository (which would facilitate information exchange and therefore identification of cumulative impacts) or that the decision making authorities accept the most environmentally benign alternative.While South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland have put in place environmental impact assessment laws, EIA procedures still vary from one country to another. Assessment of trans boundary impacts is not explicitly provided in relevant legislation in all 3 countries. With the exception of Mozambique, EIA procedures in South Africa and Swaziland do not explicitly include assessment of cumulative impacts. Although the NEMA of 1998 of the Republic of South Africa specifically refers to putting in place procedures for investigations of potential impacts, including cumulative effects of the activity, such procedures are not in place. There does not appear to be any attempt to establish mechanisms to identify and address cumulative and trans boundary impacts. In addition, methods for undertaking cumulative assessment are not well known or developed in these countries. Furthermore, cumulative assessments may require technical expertise (e.g. scenario planning, mathematical modeling) i.e. skills that may be lacking or need development. Whilst environmental practitioners are increasingly recognising that trans boundary and cumulative impacts are important, practical implementation of the consideration of cumulative impacts has been found difficult to undertake and remains a challenge for EIA practitioners (de Villiers Brownlie Associates and the EEU, 2000).While the social impacts of the SDI, particularly on the communities whose livelihoods depend on the natural resources in the area, extend beyond national boundaries, the provision for public participation in the EIA processes in all 3 countries is limited to interested and affected parties within the jurisdictional boundaries in which the projects are being implemented. There is no apparent requirement for cross boundary scoping where necessary. This limited public participation undermines the fundamental principle of cooperation for judicious, sustainable and coordinated management of shared resources as contained in some of the national laws and regional protocols.The 3 countries affected by the Lubombo SDI are parties to different regional and international agreements. The regional polices and protocols including the SADC Policy and Strategy for Environment and Sustainable Development and the Protocol on Shared Watercourses emphasize the importance of EIA as a tool for promoting environmental management and sustainability in the region. Although project EIA is an important tool in ensuring that potential impacts associated with projects are foreseen at an early stage in planning and design of the project, it may fail to take cognisance of cumulative and large-scale effects that build up incrementally over time (Barbour, 2001). The developments envisaged for the Lubombo SDI warrant the use of other environmental management tools that would ensure that environmental considerations are considered at an early strategic planning stage, as well as at individual project implementation stage.Administrative procedures for EIAs in the different countries should be reviewed and modified in order to take cognisance of trans boundary and cumulative impacts. SADC/ELMS and other relevant regional institutions should facilitate the process of review and development of a harmonised regional approach to administration of EIA that will include consideration of trans boundary and cumulative impacts when appropriate. Simultaneously, public participation for projects that have potential trans boundary impacts must be broadened to include interested and affected parties from all the affected countries. Mechanisms for processing and assessing this information need to be put in place.While EIA is an important tool in ensuring that potential problems associated with projects are foreseen and addressed at an early stage in the planning and design of the project, it has become apparent that EIAs are constrained by certain limitations and weaknesses (Barbour, 2001). These weaknesses include the relatively late stage in which they are incorporated into the planning process. Questions of where, and what type of development should take place have usually been decided by earlier plan making processes (Ibid). It is therefore pertinent that consideration is given to review legislation in the countries affected by the SDI and the SADC region, to include the use of other appropriate tools such as the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), Regional or Sectoral Assessments or Environmental Overviews (see boxes for definitions) in order to ensure that environmental consequences and resource opportunities and constraints of proposed plans, policies and programmes are addressed at an early stage. Furthermore, relevant regional policies and protocols must be reviewed with the aim of including the use of other appropriate environmental management tools to complement project specific EIA.In response to new legislative requirements and application of new tools for environmental management, there is need to build capacity of individuals and institutions responsible for management of environmental assessments. Regional institutions that have expertise and experience in training and capacity building on application of environmental management tools must be identified and given the responsibility to develop appropriate training and capacity building programmes. SADC/ELMS together with other relevant regional organisations should facilitate this capacity-building process in order to assist the region in achieving its goals.In order to minimise potential institutional conflicts over projects to be implemented in the SDI, there is a need to put in place an effective institutional framework that will co-ordinate all developments within the SDI. There is a need for mechanisms for communications within and amongst relevant departments across participating and affected countries. Any inconsistencies in policies and laws regarding environmental management must be identified and discussed by all relevant role players prior to implementation of projects.It is also recommended that means to ensure that environmental reports are deposited in a central and accessible repository are put in place. Furthermore, when projects which have cross boundary effects on neighbouring countries are evaluated, a single environmental report should be produced, which meets the legislative and administrative requirements of all the countries affected. Language barriers should also be overcome by translating, the executive summary into the most common language (or as many languages as is necessary).Boxes 4: Definitions of strategic environmental assessment, environmental overviews and sectoral and regional assessments Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a systematic process of evaluating the environmental consequences of proposed policy, plan and programme initiatives in order to ensure that the environmental concerns are addressed at the earliest stage of the decision-making process together with economic and social considerations (Sadler and Verheem, 1996). As shown above, while consideration of environmental issues is required by the three different countries involved in the LSDI, examination of the EA procedures in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique don't uniformly or explicitly require the investigation of cumulative and trans boundary effects, nor are there guidelines on how to conduct such assessments. Only, Mozambique's environmental law (1997) specifically identifies a requirement to address cumulative impacts. In addition, there are differences between the environmental processes followed in each country.However, when the LSDI was launched, there was recognition that there might be cumulative effects which might need to be addressed. In an early publication (1998) it is stated that ...the SDI will insist that environmental safeguards are built into the tourism and agricultural ventures it promotes.What follows in the document, is a brief description of the environmental processes followed in each country. There is, however, no indication as to how the differences in the environmental procedures that are followed in each country will be harmonized should there be cross boundary projects. However, the document does indicate that ...' a Strategic Environmental Assessment' (SEA) of the whole area, considering the cumulative impact of individual action is being carried out'.There is also mention of a variety of other reports which have been done (e.g. detailed socio-economic appraisals of the regions of Swaziland and Mozambique that fall within the LSDI area, and detailed sectoral analyses of tourism, land and agriculture in each of the three countries). There is no indication of whether there is an overarching authority to draw all these reports together.Based on the above information, the EEU endevoured to obtain a copy of the SEA. However, after extensive enquiries, it appeared that no SEA had been done, and it was not clear what environmental tools were being used to assess cumulative impacts. It has not, as yet, been possible to determine what happened to the proposed SEA. Due to the difficulty in obtaining any of the LSDI documents, it has also not been possible to determine to what extent the stated sectoral and baseline reports (mentioned above) address environmental concerns. This could possibly be followed up in a later study.Further enquiries made to a variety of people directly or indirectly involved in the LSDI (see Appendix 2) and a brief review of an 'Environmental Scan' report by P Holden (1998), revealed that many reports have been commissioned from a wide variety of consultants to provide information for the LSDI. There appears to have been little co-ordination or integration of these reports, but they would seem to provide a significant data base which could be used by planners and environmental consultants, if they were easily accessible. One of the reasons given by the SDI office that environmental reports could not be made available to the EEU, was that much of the information is confidential. It is not known whether this confidentiality factor hinders the accessibility of key information to others involved in planning and environmental assessment in the area. If so, the chances of holistic, integrated planning, in which trans boundary and cumulative effects are considered, are being significantly compromised. It is also questioned whether the confidentiality of the documents is appropriate in the light of South Africa's constitution, which promotes transparency, accountability and public access to documentation.Approximately two years after the LSDI document (which identified that a SEA was underway), a brochure issued by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (April 2000) describes the formation of a Strategic Environmental Management Framework (SEMF) for the LSDI area. The SEMF is an extension of the ENPAT (Environmental Potential Atlas) developed by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). The atlas is essentially a GIS (Geographic Information System) based decision support tool, which identifies sensitive environments and provides spatial and environmental data.The brochure states that the SEMF has been 'formulated to ensure the efficient and effective integration of environmental, social and economic requirements into the decision making process'. In addition it is stated that the SEMF 'provides a management framework in which specific management-based objectives can be met'.The SEMF 'consists of a spatial framework delineating different management zones and providing parameters for development. They facilitate a holistic approach and allow environmental and socio-economic considerations to constitute structured inputs. They are intended to permit both individual and cumulative impacts (own emphasis) to be incorporated into the strategic approach to the SDI and development in general'.It was intended that the Uthungulu Regional Council house the SEMF (this was indeed the case) and be responsible for supplying new information to DEAT who would update the SEMF. Enquiries made into the use of this tool revealed that it had not been updated, has some errors, and was not being used to any significant extent. The staff member within DEAT responsible for LSDI project evaluation did not seem to be aware of the SEMF, and the DEAT staff member responsible for the ENPAT, indicated they had not received any new information for the SEMF for about two years. Consultants who are currently setting up the new Umkhanyakude District Municipality were also not aware of the existence of the SEMF. (The Umkhanyakude District Municipality will be the new authority involved in projects within the LSDI as a result of the new boundaries formed through the demarcation process).It appears that problems with use of the SEMF have been experienced from its inception. P Holden states in her Analytical Scan report (1998) that 'while the SEMF and other EMF's countrywide are a definite step forward in terms of envi-ronmental management and streamlining of the development process, there are still a number of outstanding issues that need to be addressed if it is to be developed to its full potential. It has not yet achieved much of what was promised, and it is strongly recommended that consideration be given to its further development' (own emphasis). Ms Holden goes on to describe key issues that need to be addressed.Despite the apparent lack of an SEA and the very limited use of the SEMF, the environmental regulations are ensuring that impact assessments are being carried out at project level. Environmental consultants therefore have a significant responsibility to identify possible cumulative and trans boundary impacts. In addition, new initiatives, such as the recently formulated Integrated Development Plans (currently out for public comment) may play a significant role in helping to ensure that the larger scale regional impacts are identified. This aspect needs follow up investigation.From the above information the EEU has concluded that: • There have been good intentions with regard to addressing environmental factors in LSDI projects, but both the proposed tools that could be used to assist in identifying cumulative and trans boundary impacts (the proposed SEA and the SEMF) appear to have failed in this task. Reasons for the SEA not being done are still to be determined. The limited usefulness of the SEMF has probably been due to a variety of factors such as too much being expected from what is essentially a GIS based spatial planning tool, insufficient resources and institutional capacity to improve the tool and keep it updated, and also the inevitable ructions associated with the demarcation process. There has therefore been an apparent breakdown in the proposed environmental processes for addressing cumulative and trans boundary impacts. However, at project level, Environmental Assessments are being done and at a local and regional level, potential cumulative effects are, to some extent, being identified.• There appears to be an extensive body of information that can be used by planners and environmental consultants to help identify cumulative and trans boundary impacts, but it is difficult to identify and obtain all the relevant information as there does not appear to be a central repository. Communications networks also appear to be not working as well as required. Inadequate human resources as well as rapid staff turnover seem to be contributing to communication breakdowns. This is further complicated by institutional changes. In addition, the confidentiality of some of the LSDI reports may be compromising information exchange.In reports which are relevant to more than one country, language barriers may be compromising information exchange.• New initiatives, such as the local and regional Integrated Development Plans that have just been formulated, may assist in the process of bringing environmental issues more comprehensively into the planning process. This aspect requires further research.The only reports that could be formally reviewed were the draft Integrated Management Plan (IDMP) for the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park and a series of Scoping Reports for supply of infrastructure to the park. In addition, the Environmental Scan report, produced by P Holden for DEAT was reviewed for background information. Some comment is made on consideration of cumulative and trans boundary issues in this report as well.In the review of the draft IDMP and the infrastructure supply Scoping Reports, the approach taken was to:• look generally for information that would assist in the identification of cumulative and trans boundary impacts; • look specifically for identification of individual cumulative impacts and see to what extent they are addressed; • identify to what extent a specific identified cumulative impact is addressed in all relevant sections of the IDMP and the Scoping Reports. In this particular case, the cumulative effects of increased water abstraction on supply sources (e.g. Lake Bhangazi and the Umfolozi River) is tracked through the IDMP and Scoping Reports.This document was commissioned by the LSDI. Its objective was to provide information to the SEMF. It is one of the few documents that clearly alerts decision makers to cumulative issues. The following paragraph illustrates this. 'Although it has been asserted that Maputoland is one of the most intensively researched regions in the country, there has until now been a notable lack of a coherent regional development plan being implemented and a lack of policy guidelines to guide future development. Contemporary developments in the region are rather ad hoc in nature and although they may or may not impact negatively on the environment when assessed on an individual basis, their cumulative impact is potentially problematic (own emphasis). It has therefore been considered necessary for a macroplanning exercise to be undertaken that integrates different factors providing a coherent regional viewpoint that facilitates decision making at a regional and local level'. This realization led to the development of the Strategic Environmental Management Framework. It was intended that the SEMF anticipate the cumulative environmental impacts from secondary and downstream developments. 'It will 'red flag' issues of critical importance and ………… direct the establishment of minimum conditions under which an activity can be allowed in a specific environmental setting'. There were high expectations from the SEMF, but its possible limitations were also recognized in this report, i.e. 'However, the SEMF should be used in a responsible manner, the limitations of the tool being kept in mind, these being the possible information gaps and the relatively large scale used. It was pointed out that it would be essential 'that an accompanying institutional framework be developed to administer the SEMF'. It was also pointed out that 'it is of prime importance that open and efficient channels of communication are established between interested and affected parties, that the decision making process is both democratic and accountable and that an effective mechanism for dispute resolution be in place'. Thus many of the potential problems and means to address them were identified in this document. Throughout the rest of the document, potential areas where cumulative impacts could arise are identified. However, they are briefly identified within the general text and substantial reading has to be done to locate them. Typical cumulative impact areas that have been identified include:• Lead projects resulting in increased population densities and concomitant solid waste requiring disposal, which in turn means that there may be a demand for additional waste disposal sites. Initiate appropriate monitoring and evaluation processes to ensure compliance of developments with guidelines and conditions and also initiation of strategic research programmes to understand key systems, such as the geo-hydrology of the area and the impacts of increased water abstraction; • Initiate a screening process at a broad level so that only projects that are commensurate with the vision of the area and the broad environmental parameters progress to the level of detailed assessment.It was anticipated that the SEMF would play a key role in the above-mentioned screening process, as well as identification of cumulative effects.As part of the development of the SEMF, an analytical scan was carried out to help identify issues relevant to the Lubombo SDI. Implementation of the above recommendations would help to ensure a more integrated approach to environmental assessment.Background to the IDMP In summary, the Plan is structured as follows:Chapter 1: gives an overview of the GSLWP and surrounding region (descriptive status quo); Chapter 2: provides the background to strategic and other recommendations that follow in the document. It is analytical in that it focuses on the signifi-cance of the GSLWP as a natural and tourism asset, examining the threats and opportunities facing the Park.Chapter 3: presents a strategic framework for the removal of key obstacles to the continued conservation and optimal tourism development of the GSLWP. It presents the vision, objectives, principles and values that will underpin the development and management of the Park.Chapter 4: provides a guiding framework for ensuring that development and visitor activities and the GSLWP are managed in such a way that the integrity of the World Heritage Site is not compromised and visitor expectations are satisfied. It presents a suggested phasing of developments over an initial ten year period.Chapter 5: identifies and describes potential tourism development sites in the GSLWP and the infrastructure and facilities needed to support these sites.Chapter 6: expands on issues covered in the previous chapters by providing a more detailed overview, strategic analysis and guidelines for Development Block A.1. The first chapter, which describes the status quo in the GSLWP does take a holistic and ecological approach in that processes and linkages are described as well as the individual components of the system. The potential therefore exists to identify cumulative and trans boundary impacts. The descriptions of the area are, however, largely limited to the GSLWP area and cross border linkages and issues have not received explicit attention.As has been done in this report, a good understanding of the current environment (in its widest sense) and how it functions is needed before one can identify cumulative and trans boundary impacts. Greater attention however, needs to be paid to cross border linkages and issues2. The major differences in levels of development between different areas of the former Natal and Kwazulu are recognized (i.e. the potential for 'internal' cross boundary effects is recognized, for instance between the deprived areas outside the parks and the strong conservation areas within park boundaries).Cross boundary effects need to be considered both within and between countries (i.e. there are many types of 'boundary' -not all conventional in definition, and thus cumulative and trans boundary effects analysis needs to take all these types of boundary into account).The findings and associated recommendations of the review of the draft IDMP with regard to consideration of cumulative and transboundary impacts are summarized in the table below.3. In the status quo description, there is recognition that water resources serving the Maputoland region are limited and existing sources are believed not to have the capacity to handle future water demand. There is also recognition that the catchment of the GSLWP extends far beyond its boundaries. However, in the section on constraints to tourism (chapter 2), lack of fresh water does not seem to be mentioned.In compiling Integrated Management Plans (or other similar reports) one needs to ensure that there is consistency between different chapters in the report in order that key issues are not 'lost'. It is important to review IDMPs (or other such reports) to ensure that key issues are addressed in all sections of the report. EIA tools such as checklists and matrices can also be used as 'mind joggers'4. In chapter 3 of the IDMP, a strategic framework for conservation and development of the GSLWP is proposed. Water issues are recognized in that there is mention of 'planning limits for visitor use based on accepted carrying capacity guidelines, that should only be adjusted when an adaptive management system is in place'. In discussing the ecological systems, the limit of water that can be extracted from a system is mentioned. Also, research is proposed to determine the water conservation reserve for Lake St Lucia, and to determine the effect of commercial afforestation on the eastern and western shores. It is not clear as to when the proposed research should be undertaken and how the results should be used in the planning and development of the park. There is also no specific mention of research on likely water demand from tourist facilities and how this should be addressed.In looking at integrative planning documents or EIAs one needs to ensure that actions to address key problem areas (e.g. the cumulative effects of several projects on a key resource such as water) are identified, prioritized and the full implications for decision making with regard to the projects clearly specified. For instance, can one approve a whole series of small projects which in themselves are environmentally acceptable, but cumulatively potentially unacceptable, without the necessary research information? A 'decision risk analysis' can be helpful in these situations. In such an analysis, the risks and consequences of making far reaching decisions (e.g. to construct 5 resorts) are evaluated in the light of the available information. Decision makers may then be in a better position to decide whether the risks of taking a decision without sufficient information [e.g. on regional water supply availability and the costs (social and natural) of increased water abstraction] are acceptable or not. In addition it would also be important to do predictive modeling on key resources, such as water. Modeling of potential waste volumes would also assist in identifying required management strategies.5. In chapter 4, which provides guidelines for development and visitor management, there is mention of cumulative impacts in relation to zoning for different activities. Cumulative impacts are therefore recognized. It is suggested that a 'flexible adaptive management process' necessitating a phased approach to development be adopted. This is intended to allow for long enough intervening periods for monitoring and evaluation loops to operate. Each project phase would need to be assessed in terms of the impact of each development in its own right as well as the cumulative impacts of all development.The proposed flexible adaptive management process, with iterative and ongoing monitoring and evaluation, seems a reasonable approach to determining and monitoring cumulative impacts, particularly in the case of tourist facilities where concepts such as carrying capacity need to be periodically reviewed and checked. However, it would have been advisable to go into more detail on the key aspects to be monitored -particularly those which have cumulative and trans boundary effects -for example, a) the impacts of increased water abstraction b)the impacts of increased visitor numbers on visitor experience (particularly for those wishing for a wilderness type experience) c) the impacts of waste generation and disposal6. In chapter 5, where specific proposals are made for tourism development sites and park infrastructure, it is mentioned that pipelines and boreholes will be needed. It is also indicated that there is 'some doubt' as to whether regional potable water supplies have the capacity to accommodate the western shores requirements. However there is no mention as to how this doubt should be resolved/addressed and what the implications are for development. It therefore appears that bigger regional issues are being left for unnamed others to address. Although possible problem areas are being flagged, not enough is being done to identify the implications for decision making.Key national authorities, such as the Department of Water Affairs need to be integral partners in developing the Integrated Management Plan. They need to propose and implement the necessary studies to support decision making. This recommendation would apply to any authorities responsible for key resources in (and across) countries. Environmental consultants and planners need to take greater responsibility for alerting regional and/or national authorities with regard to cumulative or trans boundary issues that need their attention.Scoping reports need to be done for listed activities identified in the regulations under section 21 of the Environmental Conservation Act (Act 73 of 1989). As the proposed phase 1 infrastructure includes listed activities (such as road and bulk water supply infrastructure), environmental authorization was required. The Scoping reports evaluate the effects of eight infrastructure supply or tourist facility upgrading projects on the Eastern Shores of the GSLWP. The Scoping process and reports were undertaken by ACER Africa who are independent environmental consultants. Each Scoping report is intended to be a stand alone report and was done in such a way that decisions on each of the eight projects could be taken independently by the environmental authorities. The Scoping reports were compiled using information from both technical investigations and a public participation process. In understanding the key issues, consideration was given to a range of perspectives, named as ecology, hydrology, geology and geo-hydrology, social and socio-economic, tourism, engineering, transport, traffic and road safety. Each identified impact was assessed with and without mitigation/ management.At the conclusion of the studies it was found that none of the eight projects have negative impacts which can be classified as fatal flaws or which are of sufficiently high significance to block the project providing the recommended mitigation measures are undertaken. It was recommended the DEAT authorize all the projects on the strength of the Scoping Reports alone, subject to two general conditions. These were the compilation of a formal Environmental Management Plan (EMP) which should be inserted into the Project Specifications as part of the legal contract documents. The mitigation/ management actions recommended in the Scoping Reports would form the basis of the EMP, together with a compliance monitoring process. In addition, the implementation of an environmental awareness and training program for the engineer, contractor and all construction related staff was recommended.The above process, although meeting regulatory requirements, does not allow for sufficient consideration of the cumulative impacts of all eight projects at a regional and/or cross boundary level. It is not clear who is supposed to identify, assess and address the cumulative and trans boundary impacts.Three randomly selected infrastructure supply projects were reviewed. These were • A new tar road (7km) and rehabilitation of an existing section of the Cape Vidal Road through the Mfabeni Swamp; • An in situ upgrade and partial new alignment of an existing track to a gravel road (1 km), picnic site, board walk, small parking area and ablutions; • A bulk water pipeline (20 km), bulk reservoir and pump station, pipeline link to Perriers rocks and storage reservoir, pipeline link to Mission Rocks and Conservator Eastern shores Complex and storage reservoir.The approach taken was to see to what extent a cumulative impact identified early in the report (limited water supply) was addressed in the above projects.It should be noted that it is intended to use water from Lake Bhangazi for most of the construction processes. Water for tourist facilities would be piped from St Lucia Village, the primary source being the Umfolozi River. The intention would be to reduce the abstraction of water from Lake Bhangazi South.Findings: Scoping Reports (SRs) for infrastructure supply.1. a) Cumulative impacts are mentioned in the SRs for the infrastructural projects. The lack of fresh water resources is one issue which comes up in each case. Other cumulative issues are identified but are considered to be relevant to the operation phase only and are stated to be beyond the scope of the current study. These cumulative effects are identified as being related to economic development, empowerment, regional waste management, regional water supply, carrying capacities and safety and security. It is stated that they are addressed in the IDMP (see next point). b) With regard to lack of fresh water for the construction process, it is recommended that the levels in Lake Bhangazi be carefully monitored. With regard to lack of water for the actual tourist facilities, it is stated that there is enough for current needs, but no mention is made of the future situation.The Scoping Reports also state that the cumulative impacts are dealt with in the IDMP. As indicated earlier in this report, the extent to which cumulative impacts (particularly water usage) are addressed in the IDMP is limited.Scoping and EIA reports need to be much more focussed and specific in identifying cumulative impacts and stating the implications for decision making. Even if it is not the role of the individual Scoping or EIA reports to investigate the cumulative issues, they should, at least, point out what studies need to be done to address the regional cumulative or trans boundary issues, when they need to be done relative to decision making processes, and what the implications are if not done (i.e. risks and possible consequences of decisions taken without adequate information).Findings: Scoping Reports (SRs) for infrastructure supply..2. In one of the infrastructure proposals reviewed (i.e. provision of bulk water supply infrastructure to enable supply of water from the Umfolozi River) it is recommended that all tourist facilities use conservation and water demand management equipment and that carrying capacities should correspond to the regional water availability. This is a far reaching recommendation which could have major implications for the design and management of tourist facilities. It is a recommendation that fully recognizes cumulative and cross boundary effects. However, this critical recommendation is hidden within the general text and is not carried forward into the section on mitigatory and management actions. It is recognized that the Scoping Reports are makingThe key findings and the associated recommendations are summarized in the table below:recommendations on the impacts of infrastructure supply, not the tourist venues themselves -where such a recommendation would be particularly important, but it is questioned whether it is appropriate to approve each individual infrastructural development without looking at the full implications, including the development of the tourist venues themselves.Key recommendations, particularly those relating to cumulative or trans boundary effects, must be highlighted in the sections of the report most likely to be read by decision makers (e.g. executive summaries, conclusions and recommendations).Where there are actions which need to be taken by regional or national authorities (e.g. DWAF), these should perhaps be flagged or highlighted.Findings: Scoping Reports (SRs) for infrastructure supply.3. The Record of Decision (ROD) issued by DEAT for the reviewed infrastructure projects, directly reflects the recommendations made by the environmental consultants. This places a significant responsibility on the environmental consultants to ensure that all key mitigation and management issues that need to be incorporated into Records of Decision are identified. In this case, the above recommendation with regard to water demand management and carrying capacity were not taken forward into the individual RODs for the individual projects (possibly because of the reason mentioned above, i.e. that these ROD's deal with infrastructure supply to the tourist venues, not the venues themselves).As stated above, environmental consultants, (particularly the project managers and those responsible for writing up the Scoping or EIA reports) who often have the most wide ranging and cross sectoral information at their disposal (due to their involvement in the various studies undertaken as well as the public and authority consultation process) have to ensure that this information is communicated clearly and unambiguously to key decision making authorities. Where cumulative impacts are recognized, EIA practitioners perhaps have to go beyond their immediate terms of reference (which may be project oriented) to point out the 'bigger picture' (i.e. cumulative and trans boundary implications) -particularly if one consultant is involved in several projects as in this case.In summary therefore, it has been found that although potential cumulative effects are being identified, not enough effort or resources are being put into drawing out the implications for project design, planning and decision making processes. In the reports reviewed, the key recommended approach to dealing with cumulative issues is to monitor the situation. This is not inappropriate in some cases (such as those dealing with issues related to visitor carrying capacity) but where the functioning of key ecosystems or river systems (such as Lake Bhangazi and the Umfolozi River) could be seriously impacted if too much water is extracted from them, one would expect to see more specific and wide ranging recommendations emerging (for example, recommendations for studies on regional water supply options and impacts and more detailed studies on what criteria should be used to determine when water extraction from Lake Bhangazi should cease or be reduced). There is insufficient effort put into long term prediction of the effects of various environmental scenarios. In addition, the risks of approving infrastructural developments, without the overall assessment of the associated tourist enterprises are not sufficiently identified.A preliminary evaluation of the validity of the assumptions is given below. The evaluation should be regarded as preliminary until such time as the recommended follow up studies are undertaken and further comment on this report is obtained. It is proposed that follow up studies be done to further validate or reject the assumptions as it is felt that the case study utilized (LSDI) has not provided sufficient basis for confidently confirming or refuting the assumptions.Within the documents read (the Environmental Scan, the draft IDMP and the Scoping reports) there seems to be a reasonably common understanding of trans boundary and cumulative impacts at a provincial regional level. Understanding of cross country cumulative and trans boundary impacts could not be determined because of the relatively local nature of the reports reviewed.From the reports reviewed (IDMP, Scoping reports), cumulative impacts (and to a lesser extent trans boundary impacts) are usually identified. (Comment cannot be given on EIAs). However, the extent to which cumulative and trans boundary effects are addressed is limited. In general, they are either pointed out and then left for an unnamed higher authority or body to address, or it is indicated that the effect should be monitored, without much guidance on how or why and what the implications would be for the project under evaluation. There is therefore a lack of follow through.Assumption 3: The EIA approaches being applied are not flexible enough to cope with the integrated needs of most development p rogrammes and projects with in the agricultural, water resources and land use planning sectors;There is insufficient information from the reviews done to make a confident evaluation in this regard. At first analysis, the approaches used in the IDMP and the Scoping Reports themselves appear to be appropriate. Areas of weakness in addressing integrated development needs seem to be rather related to institutional structures and changes (insufficient capacity, co-ordination and communication) rather than the actual environmental assessment tools being used. However, EIAs, by their nature, are project specific and can predict possible cumulative impacts, but limited information on other project details limits their ability to fully address cumulative impacts. Other environmental assessment tools such as SEA or Environmental Overviews should therefore be used in projects such as the GSLWP where a number of small projects may have a significant cumulative impact.Assumption 4: Such approaches and methods are generally operated on a project or sector specific basis, often precluding a comprehensive view of the socio-economic and physical environment;EIAs are indeed generally mostly applied to projects. This is the purpose for which EIAs are designed. However, there are other tools (such as Environmental Overviews or Strategic Environmental Assessments) which can give more comprehensive views and understanding of the linkages between the socio-economic and biophysical environments if correctly applied. Project specific EIA's can be used to identify cumulative and trans boundary impacts. From the reports reviewed, it appears that the tools themselves are reasonably good, (i.e. they allow for identification of cumulative and trans boundary impacts) but there is insufficient attention being paid to how such impacts should be addressed. Assumption 5: Capacity to consider the multiple-use of land and the degree to which a particular resource use may be in variance with the overall regional need is not adequately taken into account;This assumption may be correct but further investigation would be needed to confirm it. There seems to be a lack of capacity in terms of comprehending the bigger picture and coordinating the multiple inputs that are an integral part of large initiatives.Assumption 6: This is further hampered by limited availability of resources and reduced institutional environmental capacity and mandate, poor capacity to design Terms of Reference and review EIA proposals and absence or weak EIA legislation and/or enforcement capacity.These assumptions appear to be correct. There appears to be a lack of follow through even when cumulative effects are identified. There is also a lack of understanding of what tools are needed for what project types.Problems related to legislation are largely related to weak enforcement, rather than the law itself.Assumption 7: At a regional level, there is no clearly defined regional framework for harmonized EIA guidelines.This appears to be correct. Development of harmonized EIA procedures and guidelines might be possible, but would have to be very general in order to accommodate the differences in environmental assessment processes between different countries. Minimum procedural standards could however be developed. It is most critical that at the beginning of any initiative (project, policy, or programme) which involves more than one country processes should be set in place to ensure that environmental procedures to be followed and tools to be used at different stages are agreed upon and implemented. More importantly, mechanisms for communication and co-ordination amongst country representatives charged with environmental responsibility should be put in place.Although several policies in the affected countries support an integrated approach to addressing environmental concerns, there is a lack of procedures for translating policies and law into practice, particularly with regard to cumulative and trans boundary issues. In addition, the policies and laws reviewed place a heavy emphasis on application of EIA, which has significant benefits if correctly and timeously applied. However, EIA has limitations when applied at a regional, programme and large scale development initiative level.Other environmental tools such as SEA, Environmental Overviews, Sectoral or Regional Assessments need to be used as well, particularly at the strategic planning and conceptual stages of projects or programmes.Although there have been good intentions with regard to incorporation of environmental considerations into the planning process, a lack of an agreed approach to addressing environmental issues in the LSDI or possibly, the inability to implement the proposed SEA approach, have contributed to an apparent breakdown in the consideration and assessment of cumulative and trans boundary issues in LSDI projects. A poor understanding of the capabilities of various environmental tools may be making the situation worse.There is also no law requiring that tools such as SEA, (which has been designed to address regional large scale programme level activities) be utilised. However, methods for applying SEA are not well developed and there is a need for increasing capacity in this field. Other planning initiatives (such as the development of regional Integrated Development Plans) may play a role in improving consideration of cumulative and trans boundary effects. This warrants further research.At project level, cumulative impacts are being identified, but not sufficiently addressed. Cumulative and trans boundary issues tend to be 'referred up' to higher decision making authorities or are simply left un-addressed. Responsibility for identifying, tracking and addressing cumulative and trans boundary issues is not clearly enough specified in programme or project design as well as the Terms of Reference for studies to be undertaken. Inadequate effort is being made in the LSDI documents reviewed, to clearly state the implications of cumulative impacts on the project design, decisionmaking and implementation process and the overall implications of the initiative.Although there is a significant database of information available for the LSDI area, human resource and capacity issues, combined with insufficient communications appears to be leading to inefficiencies with regard to report commissioning, production and accessability. Confidentiality factors are hindering access to reports. These factors, in combination, are likely to reduce the chances of integrated holistic environmental processes.The mechanisms for communication and co-ordination within and amongst environmental responsible departments across countries (if any) do not appear to be functioning well. It is not clear what mechanisms are in operation.Administrative procedures for EIAs that affect more than one country should be reviewed in order to take cognizance of trans boundary and cumulative impacts. In addition, provision should be made for a wider variety of environmental tools to be used at the appropriate project stages in regional large scale initiatives (including SEAs, Regional and Sectoral Assessments and Environmental Overviews). Guidelines on the strengths and weaknesses of different tools, and how they should be applied need to be further developed and communicated to key authorities and planners involved in the environmental management process. It is also very important that governments recognize that they should be responsible for funding SEAs (or similar processes) as these are done in the national or regional interest and payment cannot be reasonably expected from indivdual projects.A harmonized, practical, implementable, and agreed on approach to address cumulative and trans boundary impacts needs to be developed amongst SADC countries. In particular, effective communications and administrative structures must be set up. These must be accompanied by effective and ongoing briefing of key stakeholders and decision makers of the processes and tools being used (capabilities and status). In addition, significant capacity building and training in sustainability concepts and application and in particular, the various tools that can be used to help identify cumulative and trans boundary impacts is needed. This should be supported by development of guidelines on methods for undertaking SEAs (and other similar tools). Training should initially be directed at the key institutions and authorities involved in environmental assessment and management functions. Further research into the role of IDP's in assisting in cumulative and trans boundary impact identification and assessment is warranted.Terms of reference for environmental assessments of large projects or initiatives must clearly specify the requirement for cumulative and trans boundary impact identification and assessment (where likely). In addition, the Scoping process must be sufficiently comprehensive to ensure that cumulative and trans boundary issues are identified. Key authorities, who are responsible for looking after scarce resources must be consulted in the Scoping Process (when relevant). Responsibility for identifying, tracking and addressing cumulative and trans boundary impacts must be identified and agreed upon early in the environmental impact assessment process (irrespective of which environmental tools are being used). Public involvement must be sufficiently broad to ensure that potential trans boundary impacts are identified. Environmental consultants and planners must take greater responsibility for alerting key decision makers and authorities about the implications of cumulative and trans boundary effects.A means to improve identification of and access to key reports (e.g. a central repository) that will inform planning and environmental assessment in the area is recommended, together with creation of communication and co-ordination mechanisms that will facilitate information exchange. In addition, where multiple countries are involved, a single report which meets the legal and administrative requirements of all countries should be produced. Language barriers must be overcome by translating (as a minimum) the executive summary into the most common language (or as many languages as is necessary).Finally, further work needs to be done on developing regional approaches to environmental assessment, particularly with regard to political, administrative and institutional collaboration between the affected countries. • Specify management options (for meeting the regional objectives or capacity targets or limits) that are -Actions for managing cumulative (and trans boundary) effects (e.g. technology, economic instruments, monitoring); -Part of a coordinated response to regional management among stakeholders.• Co-ordinate public consultation so that stakeholders are effectively consulted for multiple project proposals.The following aspects warrant further research or investigation: • The extent to which the sectoral and baseline studies carried out for the LSDI identify and address potential cumulative and trans boundary effects; •The extent to which the newly formulated IDP's provide a tool for identifying and addressing trans boundary and cumulative effects.The effectiveness of the trans frontier conservation area protocols in facilitating the extent to which trans boundary and cumulative effects are addressed.The extent to which the preliminary conclusions drawn in this paper can be applied to the broader regional and trans boundary scope of the LSDI i.e. the representativeness of the findings of the initial review process and therefore their potential significance.by Lipasela Sissie MatelaThe Lesotho Highlands Water Project, conceived in the early 1950s, came into being in 1986 after a treaty was signed between the Governments of Lesotho and South Africa in October of the same year. The aim of the project is to store water in a series of dams, transfer it through tunnels from Lesotho and deliver the water to South Africa to supplement the Vaal Dam, the major water source for the Gauteng Province in South Africa. The total project is a multiphased water transfer and hydroelectric power generation scheme with a number of impoundments along the Senqu (Orange) River system. Two new roads plus upgrading of an existing road South Africa bears the full cost of the project, while Lesotho is responsible for 100 percent of the costs of the hydroelectric power component. Lesotho stands to make $55 million per year in royalties, from the two phases covered by the Treaty (Phase 1A and 1B), a major source of income for the country.The LHWP is developed within the borders of Lesotho to benefit the Gauteng Province of South Africa, and the economy of South Africa as a whole, through industrial development. The project utilizes a river system whose basin is shared between Lesotho, South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Like most other Southern African countries, the countries sharing the Orange, river basin are highly water stressed, and have other forms of environmental degradation associated with water quantity and quality.The central and eastern parts of Lesotho consist of high mountain plateaus, with peaks rising to almost 3500m above sea level. The western lowlands, which are mainly plains and valleys, range in altitude between 1500 and 1800m.Rainfall in Lesotho varies between 500 mm in the south-western lowlands to over 1600 mm in the eastern mountains, and snow is common between May and August. Lesotho has the highest precipitation of the four countries sharing the Orange River basin. Nonetheless, the country remains vulnerable to recurrent droughts as does the rest of Southern Africa.Lesotho's contribution to the Southern Africa biodiversity is quite significant. The mountains of Lesotho have been called \"biodiversity hotspots\" of Southern Africa, with up to 30 percent of endemism (National Environment Secretariat, 1999). The high mountain ranges are rich in species and provide the source areas for the bogs of the major South African rivers (Orange, Tugela, Vaal), linking to the most important water catchmnent of Southern Africa which forms the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.Average soil loss on agricultural land in Lesotho ranges from 30 to 100 metric tons per hectare per year. This is an average loss of 2.5 millimetres per year or 25 centimetres of topsoil in 100 year. This figure is four times the accepted level of soil loss (Rooyani, 1986). Major contributing factors are the poor agricultural practices including removal of crop residues for fodder and fuel, the rugged terrain, high intensity summer storms which come after the lengthy dry spells of spring, overuse of the rangelands, and the high erodibility of the major agricultural soils of the lowlands.Accelerated erosion is a major feature directly related to patterns of land use and resource management in the highlands of Lesotho. The erosion is also associated with the uncontrolled grazing on the steep slopes. The breakdown in the traditional transhumance system of grazing whereby livestock was brought into the high lying areas for summer grazing and taken back into the lowlands for the winter has meant that the rangeland does not have the winter rest period and therefore has no time to recover. There has been a substantial decrease in the grazing capacity of the rangelands as a result.Agriculture is no longer the major economic activity it once was, with its contribution falling from 25 percent to less than 15 percent in a four year period (Sechaba 1995). The agricultural potential of Lesotho is continuing to fall due to declining soil fertility, the frequent droughts and the decreasing land area for agricultural production, most of which has been lost to erosion and the ever expanding human settlements. Additional land has recently been lost due to developments associated to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project through direct flooding by the reservoir, power line routing, the road infrastructure and other infrastructure developments. Though the total land area permanently lost to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project may be insignificant by international standards, if one takes into consideration the total land area of Lesotho (30,355 km2), and the other losses mentioned above, any land loss by Lesotho standards is significant.Lesotho has made a rapid transition from an agricultural to a cash based economy, which relies heavily on the cash wages of the migrant workers in the mines in South Africa. These wages are also in rapid decline due to the high rate of retrenchment from the South African mines, which leaves a high proportion of the men folk in Lesotho without a regular source of income There is a high rate of rural to urban migration (5.5 percent per annum), though still lower than most other developing countries.Environmental concerns highlighted for action include: Pollution associated with waste disposal and industries (Government of Lesotho, 1989).There have not been significant changes in the identified major environmental problems for the last decade. The major shift has been in the development of the policies and allocation of resources to address the problems. Until recently, addressing environmental problems was mostly superficial (P. Maro, personal communication, 2001). This was evidenced by the location of the Environmental Secretariat in the Prime Minister's Office, with the belief that the creation of a Ministry of the Environment \"might accentuate the tendency for environmental issues to be thought of as separate from wider issues of economic and social development\" (Kingdom of Lesotho, 1989). But in recognition of the importance of environmental issues affecting Lesotho, and to reduce intersectoral conflicts, the Ministry of Environment, Gender and Youth Affairs was created.The major breakthrough has been the recent creation towards the end of 2001 of the Lesotho Environmental Authority (LEA) whose mandate and functions are still under development.The EIA process in Lesotho at the start of the LHWP had classical characteristics of a process dictated by aid funding, not necessarily a good practice aimed at sustainability.When the project started in 1986, Lesotho had no EIA guidelines, and no specific legislation for implementing impact assessments. Hence, the guidelines adopted were those of the World Bank. An environmental study was carried out by Environmental Resources Limited in 1988 as part of the feasibility study. No EIA report was produced to provide decision-makers with information to help them make better decisions. The implementation of the Environmental Action Plan lagged behind the engineering throughout most of the implementation of the Phase 1A. This resulted in a lot of conflicts and disagreements between the project authorities and environmental pressure groups both inside and outside Lesotho. However, baseline studies were undertaken whose results were utilized to prepare the Environmental Action Plan in 1990.A comprehensive EIA which follows closely along internationally accepted guidelines was carried out for Phase 1B. • Very high: major losses or systems disruption; system unable to funtion without mitigation or major compensation programme; an impact that is irreversible • High: substantial losses or system disruption; system would probably still function albeit at a lower level; an impact that is irreversible • Moderate: measurable losses, or system disruption; system able to continue without mitigation • Low: small changes, possibly measurable • Nil: no measurable impact 4. Certainty of impact occurrence • Definite: not doubt that impact will occur • Probable: probability of impact occurrence judged to be more than 50%.• Possible: probability of impact occurrence judged to be less than 50%.The intent of the EIA was to identify and describe the positive and negative effects that the Phase 1B of the LHWP would have on the biophysical and socio-economic components of the area's environment. The EIA would thus indicate the relative importance of the various impacts and provide approaches to be taken to mitigate the negative impacts likely to occur (Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, 1996). Legal requirements:• Identify and list the specific legislation and permit requirements which potentially could be infringed upon by the proposed project.Provide reference to the procedure required to obtain permits (Weaver et al, 1998).River impoundments result in a number of physical, social and biological impacts. It is important to understand and describe these impacts in order to develop systems and tools for monitoring and addressing them.One of the most direct and immediate social impacts is the resettlement of the communities living within the catchment and deriving economic benefits from the river catchment. Resettlement results in the disruption of the livelihoods of the communities through direct loss of land. People are removed from their well-known environment and way of life, lose resources, have to adjust to a new way of life and away from traditional homes. Those who remain at the upper reaches and are not directly affected by the large body of water can no longer interact freely as travel distance become longer around the water bodies.Construction phase disturbance such as vegetation removal, soil compaction and pumping of water can affect streamflow and sediment loads.Streams draining from construction sites export large quantities of sediments which is sometimes mixed with concrete deliberately or accidentally dumped into the waterways. These sediments can threaten fish and invertebrate population.Nitrogen can be released through disturbance of established grassland soils, and its entry into streams and ground water may lead to enrichment of water bodies away from the site.Spillages are common at construction sites and can enter water courses directly or penetrate the soil mantle leading to ground water pollution.Downstream impacts include changes physical and biological characteristics of the river catchment. The impoundment results in silt being trapped behind the dam wall, thus reducing silt replenishment in the rivers, and resulting in increased erosion of the river banks. The resultant high sediment loads increase turbidity, and damage habitats for aquatic species.Impoundments result in more uniform stream flow as a result of the controlled water release from the reservoir. The more natural conditions of floods, drought and fluctuating water temperature are altered and this affects the habits and cycles of the organisms inhabiting the stream and surroundings. Thus species composition, both type and numbers changes. The more controlled water flow with the altered water volume and speed, impacts on the overall ecology of the river basin.The controlled water movement results in changes in species composition both in and around the reservoir in order for organisms to adapt to the new and different environment. New habitats associated with the new flow regime are created, some of which are associated with vectors and hosts of diseases previously unknown in the area (Petts, 1984).A scoping report on the erosion protection works along the Ash river downstream of the Delivery Tunnel was produced in October 2000. This report provides some information on impacts based on observations after operation of Katse Dam and 'Muela Hydropower commenced, including unanticipated accelerated erosion associated with operation of the 'Muela Hydropower Plant (Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority, 2000).Displacement: -This affects inhabitants of villages situated dangerously close to the reservoir, those villages that will be inundated or partially inundated, and those that will be very close to the full supply level. The loses in this category include physical structures, arable and grazing land.Access: -Reservoir indundation has resulted in disruption of access for local people. They have been cut off from some of the traditional grazing areas and other cultural events. On the other hand, there has been a substantial improvement in major roads connecting the traditional rural communities to major towns. Movement and mixing of people has thus substantially increased, with the resultant dilution of the mountain cultures and life styles, including a transition from a land based to a cash based economy.-Physical land loss is incurred through inundation, and the water also acting as a physical barrier, thus stopping interaction from one bank to another, with the result that families are cut off from using land on the opposite bank. Land uses such as crop production and grazing have been eliminated, as Lesotho does not have alternative land to which the people who were moved could be relocated or continue with agricultural production. Food security: -Household depending on cultivating land for food and those grazing areas inundated by the reservoirs will suffer reduced food security.Health and safety: -The high levels of in-migration by project workers, loss of agricultural land and cultural identity, and the pressure to keep up with the cash based economy results in highland inhabitant abandoning their lifestyles and land based economic activity. There are easier choices such as buying non-nutritional foods and becoming sex workers with the resultant malnutrition and increased incidence of sexually transmitted diseases. The improved access will also result in higher incidences of road accidents.Habitat destruction: -Construction in previously undisturbed areas, and in some cases close to major water sources, resulted in irreversible alteration of the land, rivers and some wetlands. Permanent removal of vegetation and construction of river crossing facilities resulted in cutting off and diversion of water supply, channeling and forcing to the surface of water previously confined to subterranean flows and replenishment of ground water. Thus features of surface erosion and stream bank erosion were initiated.-With the noise from blasting, some mammals were observed moving to other localities. Since the baseline studies were carried out after some of the major works had started, it was difficult to determine how many animals relocated permanently and how many came back.Water pollution especially at upstream sites had some impact on species sensitive to high sediment loads during construction. The permanent alteration of the rivers that have been dammed has changed the species composition irreversibly, thus creating a totally new habitat, and affecting the aquatic systems.-The physical reduction of the land base has resulted in livestock over-crowding and overgrazing, resulting in reduction of organic residues, hence organic matter and loss of the soil mantle. These losses mean that the soils are no longer available and there is decreased productive potential for cultivation or rangeland production, thus contributing further to the weakening of the agriculture based economy. The erosion further contributes to the stream sedimentation, thus adversely affecting aquatic systems.Erosion damage was recorded on the Ash River due to the fluctuation in flow resulting from the power generation at the 'Muela Hydropower Plant, which follows the power demand curve of Lesotho. According to the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority ( 2000), the fluctuations represent approximately a 1:5 year flood occurring in the AshRriver daily.The drawdown zone especially of the Mohale reservoir represents a significant area of barren, unusable and unsightly land, whereas the Katse reservoir on the Malibamatso River valley with its steep banks represents relatively less of a loss.The grazing contributes to further erosion, thus contributing to the deterioration in the health of the river. A healthy riparian zone serves as an important filter for light, nutrients and sediments (Letsela, 2001)  (1996) show that the contribution of agriculture to Lesotho's Gross Domestic Product declined from 32 percent to around 10 percent within a 30-year period.Construction and operation of the LHWP, even without a detailed analysis, is bound to have impacts on agricultural production on both the old and the new river course as the water is diverted northward to the industrial Gauteng Province. Based mainly on literature, and empirical information, impacts on agriculture can be surmised as below.Land uses such as crop production and grazing have been eliminated due to inundation in Lesotho, and the economic activity associated with the land uses above has been restricted as Lesotho does not have alternative land to which the people who were moved could be relocated or continue with agricultural production.Damming of rivers results in changes of channel morphology below the dam which is dependent the degree of flow regulation, the resistance of the channel bed and bank material to erosion, and the quantity and nature of downstream sediment sources. The reduction in sediment load caused by a dam will tend to cause net scour, while the elimination of flood peaks reduces transport capacity. The extend and rate of degradation will therefore depend on the resistance of the channel boundaries and the downstream contribution of sediment. Formation of flood plains and the rich and highly productive alluvial soils is thus negatively impacted.A large proportion of families relocated from Phase 1B areas moved to towns where agriculture production trends tend towards irrigated home gardens, producing mainly vegetables. There is likelihood therefore of increased vegetable production and a possible reduction in field crop production associated with land loss and resettlement.A large body of water such as the Katse Dam can have the effect of isolating ecosystems and habitats, creating unnatural conditions for ecosystem functioning, thereby contributing towards genetic vulnerability through inbreeding. In addition, there has been a move by project authorities to introduce fast growing and high yielding crop varieties into the highlands, with increased use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, thus contributing towards phasing out of traditional cultivars, and encouraging monocultures.Floodplain inundation in areas of high flows normally results in a reduction on the productivity of the river flats and agricultural lands at the edge of the river because of lack of nutrients supplied by silts deposited during floods. However, it has been determined that in Lesotho, the loss of flood events should not significantly affect the productivity of riparian fields primarily due to relatively large soil depth and hence high moisture storage capacity that is replenished by rainfall and augmented by runoff from neighbouring hillsides (Report No.LHDA 648-f-21, 2000). Impacts should however be of a relatively higher significance along the Orange River in South Africa where rainfall is lower.Where there is limited grazing, the common practice is to keep high producing dairy cows on the homestead rather than keep large numbers of traditional livestock. This is also linked to urbanization which is resulting from resettlement of communities affected by the LHWP. Therefore it is likely that there will be a reduction in the numbers of livestock units per unit area, and a rise in the keeping productive stock for income generation.The physical land loss has resulted in reduction on available grazing for livestock, which in turn impacts on the quality and quantity of livestock and livestock products. This means more animal units per land area due directly to inundation, resulting in overcrowding and over-grazing and further degradation of the productive land base. The inverse relationship between rangeland productivity and range utilization has therefore increased.According to the sociological report of the IFR study, there are risks to animal health for 41.5 percent of sheep and goat owning households during a dry season and 65.5 percent of households are at risk in the case of a drought due to the deterioration in water quality, quality of grazing and the presence of microinvertebrates. Dependence on livestock and livestock products has increased with the reduction in the amount and quality of land for crop production. Therefore the residual impact is of high significance. There are likely to be impacts associated with the rerouting of the Senqu River tributaries, both on the new and the old river course. Increased river bank erosion on the Ash River which is receiving the additional water from Katse Dam on its way to the Vaal Dam, has been noted. The water in the river has increased erosive power and a higher sediment load (South African Broadcasting Corporation News Bulleting, March, 2002).Reservoirs act as thermal regulators and nutrient sinks so that seasonal and short-term fluctuations in water quality are regulated. The salinization of water below dams in dry climates due to high evaporation rates such as exists in the Southern African countries in question, can be a problem. In this case it would mostly affect areas downstream of the LHWP dams when saline drainage water from irrigation streams is returned to rivers downstream. Salinization can also be a problem on flood plain wetlands in the absence of periodic flushing and dilution by flood water. This renders wetlands unsuitable as sources of high quality water for river systems, hence a reduction in the quality of water available for agricultural production.Water storage in reservoirs induces physical, chemical and biological changes in the stored water. Significant drops in water temperatures result in oxygen depleted, nutrient rich water which may be high in hydrogen sulphide, iron and/or manganese (McCartney et al, 2000). Such water may already be polluted, but in addition, its capacity to flush out other pollutants from the soil and effluents becomes significantly reduced.Major processes for addressing the impacts of the LHWP which became the integral part of the project implementation include:This was done more effectively for Phase 1B than for Phase 1A as the results of the EIA study were available in advance of the construction phases of the projectThe main environmental studies carried out for the two starting phases were:  , 1993). These studies provided information against which future changes can be documented and adverse impacts addressed.Households whose properties and livelihoods would be adversely affected by the construction and operation of the LHWP received compensation in the form of cash as a once off payment, grain and fodder for a specified period, or were relocated away from the danger zone.The IFR was implemented after completion of Phase 1A and during construction of Phase 1B. Ideally it should have been done before the project commenced. The aim of IRF study was to determine more realistic and justifiable water releases to downstream rivers. The study assessed the longterm impacts of modified flow regimes on the ecosystems and communities along the rivers, provided recommendations for mitigation, and recommend a long-term monitoring plan (Metsi Consultants, 2000).The stated objectives of the study were: • to assess the instream flow requirement of the Senqu, lower Senqunyane, lower Malibamatso and lower Matsoku rivers; • to assess the long-term impacts of the modified flow regimes resulting form the construction of the proposed LHWP dams on the ecosystems of the study rivers, and to provide recommendations for mitigation against, and compensation for significant impacts linked with the proposed projects; • to recommend a long-term programme to monitor the efficacy of the IFR releases, the results of which can be used to adjust the IFR as required.There is day-to-day in-house construction and operations monitoring utilizing environmental specifications prepared as an integral part of the construction contracts on the one hand. Monitoring environmental and social aspects of the engineering and construction projects includes site visits and inspections, with a relatively higher frequency near the beginning of construction, with the record of action to be taken by the Contractor effected immediately after the site visit (Maema, 1995). On the other hand, there is the more detailed monitoring done by outside experts with extensive documentation of observations and recommendations for further action. There is also a Panel of Environmental Experts that has been retained since the start of the project.The POE carries out visits to project sites at least once a year. All the teams keep track of progress, ensure achievement of targets, removal of constraints and ensure that corrective action is taken.Extensive environmental studies were carried out in advance of the LHWP implementation to predict impacts on the Ash/Liebenberg/Wilge River System, and to put in place mitigation measures. Mitigation measures were designed to cater for short-term construction phase impacts and long-term operation impacts.The measures, however, did not adequately predict fluctuation flows through the delivery tunnel into the Ash river which would follow the power demand curve in Lesotho. These fluctuations are reported to represent approximately 1:5 year flooding occurring twice daily, have resulted in erosion damage which required urgent protection measures.Pieces of legislation such as the Land Act 1979 make provision for Government to declare any area of land a Selected Development Area (SDA). The LHWP and associated developments are provided for under this legislation. It was therefore possible to undertake development of special protected areas within the LHWP areas, whereupon all titles to the land within the area are lapsed. It was necessary though not to apply the full force of the law and negotiate use of such areas as protected areas with the local community and develop plans together which, if properly utilized, will ensure benefits to those communities who \"donated\" the land.Capacity building was undertaken in two major categories. There was the technical training for LHWP staff to improve their skills to participate effectively in the planning, design, construction, supervision and monitoring of the project, and to advise project authorities on the best action to address impacts of the project the biggest component in terms of numbers being those engaged in environmental and social impacts management. LHDA was thus enabled to address environmental concerns more aggressively than any other institution in Lesotho. According to Ambrose et al (1999), this was appropriate as LHDA had responsibility for water, a commodity which has proved to be Lesotho's major exploitable natural resource, and a commodity essential to the environment and its major components.There was also the training provided to the communities and families whose livelihoods were affected by the LHWP, that would allow them to participate in economic activity and be able to take advantage of the project in their area.The training would also help the rural people acquire skills that would allow the people to participate in economic activities other than agriculture.Cumulative impacts should not be assessed on the basis of the one project currently being developed, but from complexes of new and existing developments with impacts on ecosystem functioning, the economy, overall human well-being and health. Many predicted changes would have little impact in isolation and in the short-term, but in combination they would result in major changes on resources and livelihood of the inhabitants of the system.Phase 1 of the LHWP was designed to maximize the amount of water for transfer from Lesotho to South Africa and environmental evaluations at the early project stages intimated that negative impacts would mainly be limited to the immediate reaches of downstream rivers and would be mitigated by flows from downstream tributaries.Catchment rather than project EIA would be more desirable in a major water development project such as the LHWP.The individual components of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project such as roads, power lines, tunnels and the dam, and the associated noise, dust and water pollution, all produced impacts of differing magnitude and duraiton. The individual impacts, when combined by themselves, and then combined with impacts of other activities such as crop production and rangeland utilization, become cumulatively even more significant. When assessing cumulative impacts in the context of the LHWP, the effects of the multiple developments should be closely examined, together with the past and present activities which contribute to the cumulative impacts.If cumulative impacts of developments are to be effectively determined, there is need for a systematic identification of possible environmental impacts, including comprehensive and rigorous analysis of their magnitude and probability.The LHWP Phase 1B EIA rates important environmental components for four variables, namely:Cumulative impacts of large dam development projects, with specific reference to the LHWP LHDA (1997) defined a cumulative impact as: \"an impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present and reasonably foreseeable future actions, regardless of whatever agency or other person undertakes such action. Cumulative impacts can result form individually minor but collectively significant actions taking place over a period of time\".For assessing cumulative impacts of the LHWP, criteria established for assessing cumulative impacts were based on the assumptions that:• Cumulative impacts can result from individually minor but collectively significant actions taking place over a period of time; • An impact that may have a low significance rating on its own, could contribute with other similar impacts, or totally different impacts, to a much greater impact on the IEC than the sum of all the individual impactsThe maintenance of hydrological process is dependent on maintenance of the integrity of the soil mantle. Construction of dams results in population movements, first to make way for the dam, and later towards the dam to have easier access to water especially for livestock. The main threat to the soil mantle is erosion; in the Lesotho highlands the topsoil and wetland soils with their high organic matter contents are especially vulnerable to erosion once disturbed, mainly through trampling, but also by cultivation. Another risk is degradation of the surface characteristics that would reduce the infiltration capacity of the topsoil. The risks here would be systematic removal of organic matter by burning and overgrazing, and compaction of the surface by over-cultivation and high livestock densities.Water is not only a basic requirement for life but an important transport mechanism. Changes in hydrology will have a direct impact on biodiversity and are also important indicators of the degradation of catchments. Most aquatic organisms are dependent on specific hydrological regimes for their sustained maintenance. There are several species that inhabit the cool clear water of the mountain catchments, several of which will be altered by construction and damming of the Lesotho highland rivers. The loss of one species then has repercussions further along the food chain.Changes in seasonality or the reliability of stream flow or increases in turbidity, sediment loads or pollution levels, or any combination of these, are likely to negatively affect these fragile aquatic ecosystems. Mismanagement, overuse and alteration of the catchments, in the case of the LHWP through damming, will affect both water quality, quantity and the reliably of dry season flows.Hydrological functioning, in addition to its direct importance for maintaining biotic diversity, is also a useful early indicator of other biological impacts.River impoundments represent manipulations of flow regimes which result in unnatural disturbances to aquatic systems. This can result in the disturbance of the cycle of the organisms inhabiting the systems, to the extend that the organism life cycles and the environmental conditions become mismatched, thus affecting the natural rhythms such as feeding, hibernation and reproduction patterns. The more vulnerable and less adaptable species could face a threat of extinction while some predators, pests and disease vectors thrive.In Phase 1B alone five of the nine known locations where the endangered Maloti minnow is found, will be seriously affected by the LHWP. The instream flow requirements study records the following as possible consequences of river regulation: • Hydrological cues that trigger fish spawning or seed germination may occur at the wrong time of the year or not al all, resulting in affected species perhaps failing to reproduce. • Seasonal reversal of wet and dry season low flows could mean that hydraulic and thermal conditions become mismatched with life-cycle requirements, again causing species to decrease in numbers and abundance.Other species, including those regarded as pests, are able to take advantage of such environmental conditions, or the weakening of competition from the affected species, and increase in abundance (LHDA, 2000).Some replacement species would be mud rather than rock dwellers, thereby rendering them inaccessible as a food source for birds and fish. Lesotho's fishing industry is very poorly developed, and the river impoundments would result in further reduction in the number of sites available for development of the fishing industry.A well-vegetated catchment routes most of the rainfall through the soil profile into the groundwater and then slowly released the water into rivers. Impoundment of the rivers in the Lesotho highlands has resulted in reduction of the total land area available for production, hence higher livestock densities and more intensive cultivation of the remaining land. If the vegetation of the catchment is degraded through clearing to increase the amount of land for agricultural production, and through increased animal densities, a larger proportion of water reaches rivers as overland flow. This results in a more rapid streamflow response to rainfall events and a quick recession of flows afterwards. The likelihood of floods is therefore greatly increased.Because the total soil water storage and ground water recharge is reduced there is reduced low season stream flow.Though not directly applicable to the LHWP, it is worth noting that construction of dams normally means more water available for irrigated agriculture, and therefore increased levels of commercial farming. Commercial farming practices can have severe impacts on riparian and aquatic communities.Commercial farming often results in substantial imports of nutrients in the form of fertilisers for pastures, supplementary feeds for animals and fertilisation of agricultural crops. The extensive use of pesticides and herbicides can have a significant impact on biodiversity, particularly where the residues of even direct spray enters riparian and aquatic ecosystems. Is there any positive impact that can be considered from irrigated agriculture?The population of South Africa is growing at approximately 2% per year, and figures for Lesotho have shown dramatic increases in stock density in the last 20 years. An increase in population will mean that more people will be demanding the same level of productivity from the same finite resource base, in Lesotho from the reduced land base, and in South Africa from industrialization, thus the pressure will be increased in the near future. The present uncoordinated and fragmented approach to conservation is insufficient to address the complexity of the situation. If management is not undertaken at a strategic level as well as implemented at grass roots, duplication of activities will continue, resources will not be optimally utilised, and ultimately this will contribute to degradation of resources.The transfer of the water to the Gauteng Province, the industrial hub of South Africa, is to further economic development in the province for the benefit of the whole country and for urban water supply. In addition, the other dams along the Orange River have benefited irrigated agriculture. Other benefits that have accrued from the LHWP include generation of hydro-power for Lesotho. As a direct consequence of increase in available water, further industrial development will take place, more jobs will be created resulting in people flocking to the industrial centres. There will be an increase in concentration of vehicles per unit area, and land under irrigated agriculture will increase. The overall result is an increase in the amount of emissions and pollutant deposition.Ecosystems most sensitive to acidic precipitation are the high-lying alpine wetlands. Direct effects on these ecosystem and indirect effects through the soil may lead to changes in species composition in the wetlands and the streams draining from them, especially when the effects lead to changes in the pH of the soil and water bodies.Air pollution can act directly on vegetation and animals, or indirectly via the soil. The direct effects of air pollution on plants and animals depend on the concentration of pollutants in the air, while the indirect effects are related to the cumulative level of deposited pollutants in the soil and streams. The threshold for direct effects varies greatly between species, and between plants and animals. The indirect effects are strongly modified by the \"buffering capacity\" of the soil or water body, which in turn depends on its chemistry and volume (MacKenzie and El-Ashry, 1992). The waters draining from the region are typically weakly buffered, and slightly acid.The development and management of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project is designed to follow along guidelines as provided for in the Treaty, the applicable national legislation, and the Lesotho Government policies, guidelines and standard practices (Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, 1998).SADC Countries have a vision for achieving sustainable water management through regional integration, research, strengthening regional cooperation and strategic international partnerships. The countries which have recently engaged in the process of developing policies have used expertise from those SADC member countries who have the relevant experience, and also extensively used the other countries' policies to formulate their own. This cross referencing should helped in reducing conflicts in individual countries' policies when it comes to shared resources such as the water resources.Compatible national frameworks that can be adapted to cater for shared resources are strongly advocated.Regional guidelines for safeguarding shared watercourses have been developed, and issues around fair share, waste management and conservation of biodiversity are adequately addressed and documented with credible specialist input. However, most of the agreements and policies have not yet been implemented on the ground due mainly to the short time that they have been in place, and also because of lack of trained manpower to implement and monitor their application (Puling, personal communication, 2001).The issues identified as requiring action for sustainable environmental management and for safeguarding shared watercourses include: • Recognizing the environment as a legitimate user of water • Addressing environmental degradation resulting from high population densities, poor livestock management and deforestation • Waste management • Improved monitoring and strengthening of regulatory mechanisms (SADCWSCU, 2000).Lesotho, South Africa and Namibia have the following in common: • Environmental legislation of the Lesotho, South Africa and Namibia follows along the constitutional principles of the rights of citizens to a clean and healthy environment. Constitutional principles therefore provide the basis for environmental policy and legislation dealing with environmental protection.All three countries are young democracies, therefore their environmental protection laws and regulations are developing concurrently with other laws governing utilization of natural resources like water, forestry and land, which makes it relatively easier to adapt practices associated with the use of resources. The laws and regulations operate in conjunction with policies and regulations guiding the use and protection of other environmental resources, hence acceptability of environmental management policies.The three countries are signatories to international conventions and protocols such as the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Ramsar Convention on the Protection of Wetlands. These conventions, among others, aim to guide the conservation of resources, including water management.The three SADC countries along the Orange River waterway share a vision of a future with adequate water resources despite the frequent occurrence of drought. They have, at different times, participated in international events aimed at influencing integration of environmental management and development, water resources management and people's participation, and subscribe to the principles thereof.All have signed and ratified the SADC Protocol on Shared Water Courses (revised 2000).There is a multitude of laws and regulations in Lesotho relating to the environment and aimed at guiding utilization of natural resources which were developed to respond to specific needs, for example land allocation, range management. Most of the laws in Lesotho governing resource utilization are sectoral, and there are a lot of overlaps and inconsistencies, and as such, were totally inadequate for accommodating a project of the magnitude of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. A case in point is the Societies Act No.2 of 1966 used to establish and register Grazing Associations. The Act allows the Associations to hold property and enforce rights and obligations against a backdrop of tradition and culture which recognizes grazing land as a communal asset. These Grazing Associations lease/own grazing rights within areas normally allocated for communal grazing, which in terms of Regulation 8(1) of the Range Management and Grazing Control Regulations of 1980, are designated communal land (Matela et al, 2000).Catchment management initiatives have been undertaken over the years led by the Ministry of Agriculture with donor funds. These were mainly for addressing soil erosion and rangeland degradation. The Range Management and Grazing Control Regulations (1980) has specific provisions regulating stock numbers by type per designated grazing area, and has specific clauses on prohibiting burning. To safeguard against erosion, the Regulations prohibit cultivation of virgin land without proper assessment. Areas determined to be unsuitable for cultivation are to be re-grassed. To a limited extend, these regulations required some form of impact assessment in the absence of proper EIA regulations.The basis for Lesotho's comprehensive legal instruments to ensure the country's environmental protection is the Environmental Act 1999. Predating the Act is the National Environmental Action Plan which was prepared in response to increasing concern over the country's environmental degradation.The plan provides the framework for the integration of environmental considerations into the planning and decision making process for social and economic development (www-wds.worldbank.org). The Act requires that EIA be undertaken for any development project which could have significant impact on the environment. On the protection of the environment, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Lesotho 1993 states:\"Lesotho shall adopt policies designed to protect and enhance the natural and cultural environment of Lesotho for the benefit of both present and future generations and shall endeavour to assure all citizens a sound and safe environment adequate for their health and well-being (www.lea.org.ls).The NEAP identified the need for the establishment of an appropriate institution to make policy and coordinate activities likely to have adverse environmental impacts. The Environment Bill establishes the Lesotho Environment Authority to carry out that function.The Bill identifies categories of projects and activities which are subject to the EIA process. Dams and activities involving a river or other water resources, including:• Construction of a reservoir, storage dam, levee, barrage or weir;• A project or activity affecting water sources such as ground water, springs and wells; • A project or activity involving a canal, channel, aquaduct, river diversion or water transfer (Environment Bill, 2000) On protection of fresh water resources, the Bill has the following provisions with regard to river, riverbank, lake, lakeshore or wetland: No person shall, without prior approval of the Authority carry out the following activities: The EIA process as outlined in the EIA guidelines is comprehensive. It is based upon the requirements of the Environment Act 1999 and promulgated pursuant to this law and is consistent with it.Lesotho's EIA process is designed to integrate EIA requirements within the project cycle. The integration ensures that the EIA provides environmental information for the different stages in the project cycle and at the level of detail appropriate for that stage for both environmental protection and economic development objectives. The EIA guidelines are comprehensive and have information found in EIA guidelines for most developing countries and for the SADC region. In addition, the steps included compare favourably with EIA assessment procedures as outlined for countries like New Zealand and the United Kingdom (Wood,1995).On Water Resources Management, the policy emphasizes the importance of developing integrated and coordinated approaches to conservation and use of water resources. It also recognizes the right of all people to have access to potable water in order to reduce the incidence of water-borne diseases.One of the water resource management strategies in the policy is promotion of research and conservation of shared watercourse systems and resources with neighbouring countries in the SADC region.According to this policy, all water resources development projects have to undertake environmental impact assessments.Policy Statement V states that: Lesotho recognizes its special responsibilities with regard to water as an upstream riparian country, and the source of water of a large part of flows of the Orange River. The Government will ensure that water will be managed in a way that ensures maximum benefits to Lesotho while taking cognisance of her obligations to her neighbours and downstream users.One of the long term strategies in the Policy is that within the framework of SADC, there should be joint planning and management of shared water courses, and a specific integrated plan for the Orange River Basin.There are various pieces of legislation relating to the environment and resource utilization in South Africa.South African law, while recognizing the need for adequate water resources to ensure human well being, also emphasizes the need to ensure that development of the country's water resources should be environmentally sustainable. The National Water Act states that levels of water consumption, use, pollution, as well as the associated infrastructure to impound and supply, should not cause unacceptable or irreversible impacts on the population or ecosystems, that the ecological reserve must be safeguarded and not used for other purposes (Government Gazette No 19565, 1998).On the Environment:The environmental clause of the Bill of Rights of the South African Constitution, the supreme law of the land, provides that:Everyone has the right -• To an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being and •To have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that prevent pollution and ecological degradation promote conservation secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development.The Constitution guarantees every person the right of access to sufficient, affordable clean water.There should be sufficient water to maintain the ecological integrity of the water resources, and that water conservation and sustainable, justifiable economic and social development are promoted.The Environmental Conservation Act (73 of 1989) provides for the effective protection and responsible utilization of the environment. According to the Act, the protection of the environment and the promotion of sustainable utilization of natural resources will take place as a matter of policy.On regional cooperation When addressing the issues of relations with neighbouring countries, the White Paper on Water Policy (1997) states, as one of its objectives, the importance of adjusting to pressures and demands of the future through cooperation, not conflict, based on needs of the common developmental goals and the protection of the environment.  …there must be respect for each country's equitable right to water from the shared resource. Because water does not recognize political boundaries, whether national or international, its management will be carried our in catchment areas although care must be taken the policy of subsidiary does not interfere with the need for a national and international perspective on water use.…each country which shares a river basin has the right to a reasonable and equitable share of the water in the basin, and the greatest benefit should be achieved the least disadvantage to the other states.The need is recognized to provide for the Environmental Reserve in order to protect the ecosystems that underpin South Africa's water resources.On international obligations according to the White Paper, South Africa will ensure that water allocations for downstream countries are respected. Where necessary, Government will have the right to allocate water to downstream countries in preference to local water allocations, this to promote equitable and effective cooperation with South Africa's neighbours.At the time the Treaty was signed to go ahead with the project, Lesotho had a military government, South Africa had the apartheid government, and Namibia was a territory governed under South Africa. Following the transition to democratic rule in all three countries, it is reported that an inquiry took place and the elected governments of Lesotho and South Africa indicated support for the project. The Government of independent Namibia is also reported to have indicated support for the previous no objection given during a United Nations vote before Namibia obtained its independence (Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, 1996) The Treaty signed between the Governments of Lesotho and South Africa provides for the establishment, implementation, operation and maintenance of the project. It states the project purpose as follows: \"To enhance the use of the water of Senqu/Orange River by storing, regulating, diverting and controlling the flow of the Senqu/Orange River and its affluent in order to effect the delivery of specified quantities of water to the Designated Outlet Point in the Republic of South Africa and by utilizing such delivery system to generate hydro-electric power for the Kingdom of Lesotho\" (Article 4: Purpose of the project).Article 7 of the Treaty states that flow rates in the natural river channels immediately downstream of the Katse and Mohale dams shall be maintained at not less than five hundred and three hundred litres per second respectively. Appropriate amounts of water are to be released to maintain such rates of flow, provided that in the event of either reservoir being at its minimum operating level, the quantities of water released shall be equal to the flow rate into such reservoir not in excess of the specified rate of release. The minimum rate of flow to be maintained in the Senqu/Orange River shall be established by agreement between the Parties from time to time.The basis and methodology for the flow rates into the natural river channels is not stated. It has been reported that these values exceed annual minimum flows in nine out of ten years of record (Metsi Consultants, 2000).The Treaty also provides guidelines to be used for addressing social impacts, which is to ensure that measures are taken to maintain and to even improve the standard of living of local communities in the Lesotho who will be affected by flooding, construction works, or other similar project related causes.According to the Treaty, the affected people have to be enabled to maintain a standard of living not inferior to that obtaining at the time of first disturbance.Compensation will be given for any loss to such member as a result of the Project related causes, not adequately met by other measures.On the issue of environmental maintenance, the Treaty states that measures necessary for catchment conservation as well as the prevention of pollution, resulting from the implementation, operation and maintenance of the project should be implemented (Article 10: (1) (d).The Parties agree to take all reasonable measures to ensure that the implementation, operation and maintenance of the Project are compatible with the protection of the existing quality of the environment. In particular, due regard shall be paid to the maintenance of the welfare of persons and communities affected by the Project (Article 15 of the Treaty).The Protocol, first signed in 1995, was repealed and replaced because of a change of perspective on some issues and to strengthen the environmental components and to specifically provide guidance on water quality and quantity (Ramoeli, 2002).According to Article 3 of the Protocol on Shared Watercourses in the SADC Community (2000):• State Parties shall maintain a proper balance between resource development for a higher standard of living for their people and conservation and enhancement of the environment to promote sustainable development.• State Parties shall exchange available information and data regarding the hydrological, hydro geological, water quality, meteorological and environmental condition of shared water courses.Article 4, 1.(b) states that Before a State Party implements or permits the implementation of planned measures which may have a significant adverse effect upon other Watercourse States, it shall provide those States with timely notification thereof. Such notification shall be accompanied by available technical data and information, including the results of an environmental impact assessment, in order to enable the notified States to evaluate the possible effects of the planned measures.The complication with the LHWP is that the total project is developed within Lesotho to benefit South Africa. Therefore the State Party in terms of the physical project location would be Lesotho, but in terms of the benefits and overall implementation responsibility it would be South Africa.Inside South Africa, the Orange River has been dammed several times and therefore a lot of the adverse impacts associated with degradation of the watercourse are already being experienced. What has not yet been determined is if the LHWP further exacerbate the impacts.Article 4,2(b) on prevention, reduction and control of pollution, • State Parties shall, individually and, where appropriate, jointly, prevent, reduce and control the pollution and environmental degradation of a shared watercourse that may cause significant harm to other Watercourse States or to their environment, including harm to human health or safety, to the use of the waters for any beneficial purpose or to the living resources of the watercourse.Watercourse States shall take steps to harmonise their policies and legislation in this connection.State parties are also under obligation to protect and preserve the aquatic environment using internationally acceptable principles and standards.Water development projects, including transboundary water projects such as the LHWP, are driven by political aspirations of countries to achieve selfsufficiency in available water resources, generation of energy, employment creation and food security. It would therefore hold that national goals and priorities are more of a priority than regional cooperation and collaboration. Laws and regulations governing water use are designed to protect national interests, and the responsibility of associated impacts is normally left to individual countries. Cohesive, regional-scale collaboration and cooperation sometimes falls victim to national goals, priorities and ideals, especially in regions such as Southern Africa where survival is still the order of the day for the majority of the populace. Decisions to alter river courses and natural landscapes are based on perceived benefits such as employment creation, which in turn will result in the overall rise in living standards, leading to general development including better education, health facilities and improved infrastructure.Balancing the needs of the people and those of the environment to enable it to regenerate itself and keep on providing are usually compromised especially where accelerated service provision is used to measure the performance of those voted into office.Acts and regulations for EIA did not exist for Lesotho at project inception and therefore were not part of advance preparations. The project was conceived mainly as an engineering project and environmental considerations were not properly integrated into the project design A full EIA was undertaken as part of the planning and design stage, and its recommendations were followed for formulating decisionsAll of the baseline studies were undertaken after construction had commenced, and were therefore not predictive. The table below shows elements of reasonably executed EIA process, and has an analysis on how the process was followed in the two components of the LHWP comprising the Phase 1. The sequence can be used to determine if the procedure used allows for prediction and planning for addressing likely impacts. The assumptions below provide a test on the understanding of EIA methods as they were applied for the LHWP, implications of deficiencies and how they could be addressed.There is a common understanding of concepts of transboundary and cumulative impacts EIA studies of development initiatives give little attention to transboundary and cumulative impacts at regional levelLegislation establishing standards for environmental management, is still country specific. There is extensive and lose multi-disciplinary collaboration by professional practitioners, mostly in the form of paid consultancies, but no real evidence of the project authorities making a clients having an interest. Countries have developed guidelines which reflect their understanding of their international obligations and the need for compliance with specified standards as stipulated in the conventions. However, project by project assessments are still common, falling short of assessing the whole environmental system affected by developments. A case in point in the LHWP would be Phases 1A and 1B having separate assessments, South Africa and Lesotho carrying out own assessments within their respective borders, and the IFR ending at the border inside Lesotho.EIA approaches being applied are not flexible enough to cope with the integrated needs of most development programmes and projects within agriculture, water and land use planning sectorsThe perception by developers that EIA is designed to stifle growth persists especially in developing countries as it is relatively inflexible to avoid abuse and cutting corners. One of the criteria for EIA is that it should begin early enough in the project cycle to influence the technical and financial plans for the proposed project. In the LHWP, the EIA process was an add on and therefore an additional expense.A properly executed EIA recognizes that it is useful to return to earlier stages and reconsider previous findings and conclusion because:• New or unforeseen issues may arise, including changes in public attitude or project design • Environmental and social conditions may change, especially for a multi-year project such as the LHWP • Knowledge about the environmental interactions may improve and lead to better identification of issues, prediction of impacts or their significance (Sadar, 1994).Methodology generally applied on projects or are sector specific, often precluding a comprehensive view of the socio-economic and physical environmentEIA by its nature allows for consideration of the potential impacts on the biophysical, socio-economic and cultural aspects of the environment. Its interdisciplinary approach is designed to ensure that a number of major groups including elected representatives, business leaders and the general public are involved. The iterative nature of EIA is meant to ensure that proper scoping, prediction of impacts, evaluation of significance of the impacts would guide the development of plans which would avoid, mitigate and adequately compensate for impacts. The intent to utilize EIA to identify and describe the positive and negative effects that the LHWP would have on the biophysical and socio-economic components of the environment, especially for Phase 1B, was clearly stated. The one element which does not seem to have been considered and guidelines applied rigorously on is abandoning projects based on the significance of the impacts.Capacity to consider the multiple uses of land and the degree to which a particular resource use may be in variance with the overall regional need is not adequately taken into accountRegional EIA guidelines do not exist. The only guiding principles referred to, to which member countries subscribe are international conventions and river basin agreements. There is no real evidence on the ground of the application of concepts such as environmentally sustainable development as provided for in Agenda 21, or application of the Helsinki rules on users of the Waters of International Rivers. Natural resource management policies are still sector specific which would make it difficult to extend application beyond national boundaries, and recognition for interdependencies between resources and their uses, even though recognized in reality, is not well catered for in the policy framework.All the above point to a need to provide in-house capacityTerms of reference and EIA reviews are not properly carried out because of limited resources, lack of institutional capacity, weak EIA legislation and weak enforcementTerms of reference and EIA reviews are normally implemented by consultants, normally with expertise in specific sectors, limited knowledge of conditions on the ground, and with no long-term vested interest in the success or failure of the project.Even though there are many similarities in the basic features of the EIA process, EIA arrangements differ in detail between different countries (Lee, 1994).There is no clearly defined regional framework for harmonized EIA approachGuidelines for co-opreration exist within the different sectors in the SADC countries which can be used to develop a regional framework. A harmonized EIA approach could contribute towards the shared vision for achieving sustainable resource management through regional integration, research, strengthening regional cooperation and strategic international partnerships.EIA approach is not uniform from project to project, and this is more true when one reviews approaches in the different countries. To meet the current and future demands, the resources and the demand need to be managed, and the cumulative effects of regional initiatives addressed. Without management intervention, the resources will become further degraded and less able to support life.The laws and regulations guiding the use of environmental resources for the individual SADC countries utilizing resources associated with the Orange River system are written in such a way that they will safeguard the rights of the individual countries and ensure sustainability within those countries. Individual countries' efforts in addressing the impacts and to respond to environmental change have included passing of national laws, development of national policies, signing of international agreements, and monitoring and research. Most of operating laws governing water and other environmental resources in South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia have been promulgated in the last five years. As a result, the impact of these laws is not yet noticeable, as are the impacts of the dams constructed under the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, except those impacts directly associated with construction.The choice of impacts and alternatives to be considered could be approached in a certain way if guidelines exist for the different types of development projects.The need for a regional approach to impact assessment A regional EIA approach can:• reduce subjectivity at least between similar projects • enable the sharing of regional resources • contribute to effective and efficient regional resource management, toward attainment of sustainable development • result in cutting the cost in terms of time and money.However, it is essential to first carry out an evaluation and assessment of policies, plans and programmes before carrying out an assessment of the consequences of proposes projects. This would require undertaking a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), which would determine first the overall direction, culminating in development of forward looking strategy with coordinated national and regional (SADC) priorities, options and measures for implementation of policy.All human life depends ultimately on the natural resource base, through provision of food, water, shelter, energy, and raw materials for various other needs. If resources are depleted and ecosystems degraded, (a common pattern presently in Southern Africa), they are less able to function properly, to regenerate, or to reproduce. This impacts on the potential for secure livelihoods, economic returns, eco-tourism and other developments or utilisation of the resources.The LHWP design and implementation does not adequately cater for transboundary and cumulative impacts, in that potential additive or combined effects of the past (construction), existing (construction and operation), and proposed (operation and maintenance) activities are not well catered for with respect to the biophysical, economic and social environment.Combined impacts of the components of the project, that is going from Katse and Mohale dams, Matsoku Diversion, 'Muela Hydropower, Ash River, Vaal Dam, Gauteng Province, and adding impacts on the Orange River system and whole of the Southern African region. Most of the assessments done were not necessarily designed for understanding and monitoring impacts beyond the present project sites Environmental assessment methodology which seeks to address socioeconomic and physical environment impacts at regional level is essential, combining strategic and environmental assessment methodology.• Negative cross border impacts can be significantly reduced if in-country policies, laws and regulations are enforced and monitored. Individual national policies indicate the importance of cooperation and avoidance of conflict, and therefore form a basis for the necessary assessment processes.• In addressing impacts associated with shared water resources, the priority action is to coordinate land use from a strategic perspective across the study region.• Provision of water, land degradation potential, erosion potential, agricultural potential, and biodiversity assessments should be investigated to provide an overall assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and constraints across the territory traversed by the Orange river, or any other watercourse in the region.• Considering the study area as a whole, strategic planning can be more effective, and result in less fragmentation and degradation of ecosystems, than uncoordinated, piecemeal planning.The existing SADC protocols provide the necessary framework for coordinated action, and should be utilized.• There is a need to raise awareness among policy makers, developers, investors and the public that the quality of the environment determines to a great extend what developments are possible, thereby linking economic growth and development directly to the health of the environment. While decision makers seek to address the more pressing social and economic needs in the SADC region, they should also seek to balance the demands of development and the environmental management.by Absalom M ManyatsiThe objective of the study was to determine if there was need a need for a regional approach to environmental impact assessment, based on the understanding of procedures and approaches in undertaking EIA in Swaziland using case studies of sugar cane irrigation schemes downstream the Mnjoli dam along the Mbuluzi River.The methodology used included a desk study to identify the sugar cane irrigation projects downstream the Mnjoli dam that had EIA carried out, review of EIA reports and associated documents to determine the processes involved, as well as to determine the issues that were considered. A desk study was conducted to review policies and legislation to enforce EIA as well as institutional framework and capacity to conduct and supervise EIA in Swaziland. The views of stakeholders in Swaziland on issues related to EIA were solicited by means of a question guide. A field visit to Mozambique (Maputo) was undertaken where consultations were held with key stakeholders in EIA in the country.A number of irrigation projects in Swaziland were initiated before the enacting of the Swaziland Environment Authority Act of 1992, and so there were no EIA done for the projects. The operation and implementation of the Swaziland Environment Authority Act (1992) has been improved by the Environmental Audit, Assessment and Review Regulations (2000). The regulations empower the Swaziland Environment Authority to identify and maintain a list of undertakings that cause concern to the Authority or public because of their impact on the environment. It requires an operator of an identified undertaking to submit an Environmental Audit report and a Comprehensive Mitigation Plan (CMP). The Environment Management Bill ( 2001) that has been tabled to parliament intends to provide for and promote the enhancement, protection and conservation of the environment.The Swaziland Environment Authority has among its duties the responsibility to institute measures for the co-ordination and enforcement of environmental protection legislation and international conventions. The Environment management Bill of 200 also states the commitments of Swaziland on international agreements on management of the environment. The Swaziland National Water Policy (Draft, 2001) states that water development and management in the country shall conform to the principles of fair and equitable sharing of international watercourses among riparian states, and the Government shall engage its counterparts in neighbouring countries to ensure that water entering and leaving the country conforms to international safety, health and environmental standards.The National Directorate for Natural Resources is responsible for overseeing the management of natural resources in Mozambique. The environmental laws in the country state that it is the duty of the government to protect the environment, with the local communities. Mozambique does not have environmental standards established by law, and the environmental impact assessment ordinance defers health related standards to of the World Health Organisation.Swaziland has ratified a number of protocols and agreements that governs the use of natural resources. They include the protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement in the Southern African Development Community and the protocol on shared watercourses in Southern African Development Community. An agreement on the utilisation of the Mbuluzi River was also entered to between Swaziland and Mozambique.The procedure for EIA in Swaziland gives the format and requirements for the EIA. It also gives the major impacts to be considered when undertaking the EIA. The process is however more localised, and it lacks the foresight of transboundary and cumulative issues.The issues that were addressed by the EIA for the three case studies were localised. There were some references in passing of international and transboundary issues in some reports, and such issues mainly concerned the flow of water and sedimentation in the rivers. The environmental issues downstream the Mnjoli dam (Mozambique) included accumulation of nutrients in the Pequenos Lebombo dam from fertilisers in the irrigation schemes in Swaziland as well as downstream aquatic biota being contaminated due to pesticides and herbicides.The constrains in including transboundary issues in EIA included lack of knowledge of legislation of neighbouring countries in relation to EIA, lack of homogenous rules and policies in different countries, as well as lack of acquaintance of experts and procedures in neighbouring countries. Constraints in including cumulative issues in EIA included lack of equipment for systematic measurements and predicting environmental impacts as well as lack of localised experts to undertake cumulative impacts.In order to facilitate adequate consideration of transboundary and cumulative impacts when undertaking an EIA in the region the following recommendations are made:• Developing a common procedure and requirements with emphasis on transboundary and cumulative impacts and considering neighbouring countries as affected parties.• Updating and reviewing outdated bilateral agreements • Conducting regional training workshops for practitioners and enforcers of EIA.• Acquiring equipment and facilities for systematic measuring of impacts and projecting cumulative impacts.• Encouraging mentoring of less experienced practitioners of EIA during the EIA studies.• Improving conditions of service for enforcement agents in order to recruit and retain well-trained and experienced cadre.• Compiling and making readily available legislation, rules and policies for the different countries would be beneficial in identifying the policies related to EIA.• Developing a framework to facilitate sharing of data between member countries.• Developing clearly defined mechanisms for enforcement of protocols and agreements.Numerous large and small-scale development initiatives have occurred in all countries in Southern Africa. Whilst development can bring about positive change it can also lead to conflicts. The need to avoid adverse impacts and to ensure the long-term benefits of development has become an essential feature of development. In order to predict environmental impacts, including social impacts, and to provide an opportunity to militate against negative impacts and enhance positive impacts, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure was developed in the 1970's. The EIA provides a unique opportunity to demonstrate ways in which the environment may be improved as part of development.EIA is a management tool for planners and decision-makers and complements other project studies on engineering and economics. Environmental assessment is now accepted as an essential part of development planning and management. It should become as familiar and important as economic analysis in project evaluation. It is important that an EIA is not considered as just part of the approval process, but rather as an action plan to be followed during the planning, implementation and post implementation phases of a project cycle. When undertaking the EIA consideration should be taken with respect to transboundary and cumulative implications for natural resources.The introduction of irrigation schemes comes with some change to the local hydrological regime. Changes to the low flow regime may have significant negative impacts on downstream users, whether they abstract water (irrigation schemes, drinking suppliers) or use the river for transportation or hydrology. Return flows are likely to have significant quantities of pollutants. Low flows need to be high enough to ensure sufficient dilution of pollutants discharge from irrigation schemes and other sources such as industries and urban areas.A reduction in the natural river flow together with a discharge of lower quality drainage water can have severe negative impacts on downstream users, including irrigation schemes. Habitats both within and alongside the rivers are often endangered because of alteration of microhabitats. Flood protection works, such as dams, achieve their purpose, but are likely to increase flooding downstream. Table 1. highlights the likely transboundary impacts of irrigation projects.Evidence is increasing that most devastating environmental effects may result not from the direct effects of a particular action, but from the combination of individually minor effects of multiple actions over time. Cumulative effect has been defined by the Council on Environmental Quality (1997) as the impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions regardless of what agency or person undertakes such actions. It results from spatial (geographic) and temporal (time) crowding of environmental perturbations.The study was conducted through a number of tasks. A desk study was used to identify the sugarcane irrigation projects downstream the Mnjoli dam that had EIA carried out. The EIA and associated reports were reviewed to determine the processes involved in carrying out the EIA for each of the projects, as well as to determine the issues that were considered with respect to transboundary and cumulative implications for natural resources essential to agriculture or for the livelihood of people who depend on agriculture.A desk study was conducted to review policies and legislation to enforce EIA in Swaziland, as well as the institutional framework and capacity to conduct and supervise EIA in Swaziland.A question guide was used to establish the issues to be considered in EIA, constrains and incentives in considering transboundary and cumulative impacts during EIA in Swaziland, as well as the capacity (personnel) for EIA in Swaziland.A two-day field visit to Mozambique was undertaken where meetings were held with key stakeholders in EIA. The following were the primary purposes for the visits:  The mountainous highveld lies on the western side of the country. Steep slopes, incidence of frost, sour grasses, and some poor soils restrict the agriculture of the highveld to mainly grazing activities. Only 3% of the area of the region constitute good arable lands, although Murdoch (1968) classifies 10% of the area as having a fair potential for crop agriculture. Lying to the east is the middleveld, which is generally hilly and includes several large valleys. It is a sub-tropical region, with a drier and warmer climate than the highveld.Close to 20% of the upper middleveld has arable soils of good to fair quality, whilst in the lower middleveld the corresponding proportion is about 10%.The gentler slopes and good arable land makes this region the most developed and densely populated part of the country (Swaziland Government 1983). The lowveld lies to the east of the middleveld and for most part comprises gentle undulating terrain. The annual rainfall of between 500 and 750 mm is deceptively high as potential evaporation exceeds precipitation throughout most years (Swaziland Government 1994). According to Murdoch (1968) about 12% of the eastern lowveld has good or fair soils, whilst the eastern lowveld about 30% of the area falls into this category. Finally there is the Lubombo zone which borders Mozambique in the east. About 12% of the zone have arable soils of good to fair quality.The history of the sugar industry dates back to the mid-fifties when commercial sugar growing resulted in the establishment of a small mill at Big Bend in the southeastern part of Swaziland. A larger mill was built in Big Bend in 1960, and that same year a second mill was built at Mhlume in the northern lowveld. In 1980 a third mill was established at Simunye. By the end of the 1999/2000 season, total annual sugar production stood at 534,000 tons, with 42,606 hectors harvested. The harvested area showed an increase of 6,362 ha from the area of 1989/90 season. All the sugar cane in Swaziland is produced under irrigation. The total number of smallholder growers stood at about 500 in 1999/2000. During the same season sugarcane growing contributed 59% to the total agricultural output and 33% to the total agricultural wage employment. The sugarcane milling contributed 25% to the total manufacturing output. The sugar industry as a whole-contributed 19% to national output Sugar exports contributed 12% of total export. Contribution to public revenues in the form of company tax, sugar levy, sales tax and personal income tax from employees continue to make the sugar industry by far the largest contributor to the fiscus (Swaziland Sugar Association, 2000).The Mbuluzi River is one of the two main rivers in Swaziland whose origin is within the country. It originates from the highveld of Swaziland and flows past the lowveld of the country due east towards Mozambique. It joins the Indian Ocean next to the Port of Maputo (Figures 1 and 3).The Mnjoli dam, situated on the Mbuluzi River in the lowveld of the country was built by the Swaziland Government solely for irrigating the Simunye Sugar Estate that is owned by the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC).The dam with storage capacity of 153 Mm2 has been the largest in the country before the construction of Maguga dam. The surface area flooded by the dam is 15 km2.An agreement was entered between the Government of Swaziland and the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation in the construction of water works for irrigation and water supply, the usage and payment for the water in 1977 (Water Agreement, 1977). The construction of the waterworks was completed by December 1979. The Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation has about 9,800 ha of irrigated sugarcane. Tabankulu on the other hand started using water from the Mbuluzi River for irrigating sugarcane as early as 1965, more than a decade before the construction of Mnjoli dams. Tabankulu has about 3000 ha under sugarcane and another 550 ha under citrus. They obtain the water for irrigation from the Komati River through a canal as well as by pumping water from the Mbuluzi River. The Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation has expanded its revenue base through pork production, cattle feedlot, an ostrich production, and a 14 million litre-distilling unit. It employs approximately 3 500 employees, all of whom live in one of the corporation's two towns (Simunye and Ngomane). The total population of the town is estimated to be 18 000 people. RSSC provides health services with three doctors and two fully equipped clinics. Recreation facilities are also provided and there are over 1 500 children attending the five schools on the property. Tabankulu on the other hand employs about 2,000 persons and the local resident population is 3,500.The Mbuluzi River drains into the Indian Ocean adjacent to the city of Maputo.The two villages/towns situated along the river on the Mozambique side are Goba and Boane. They both fall under the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative. Goba is a border post village, and was a former Partial Protected Zone for tourism. It has some industrial, tourism and agriculture capacity. Boane on the other hand is a heavily populated semi industrial zone with a strong military, agriculture, and construction material industry. The Pequenos Libombos Dam was constructed between 1983 and 1987. It is situated about 10 km from the border with Swaziland. It has a catchment area of about 5620 km2, with 60% (3320 km2) of it being in Swaziland and another 40% (2300 km2) in Mozambique (Figure 5), with a storage capacity of 400 Mm2. The surface area flooded by the dam is 38 km2. It was built mainly for the following purposes (Chonguica, 1995) Along the dam is an irrigation scheme, and its water is the main source of potable water for the city of Maputo. An aluminium smelter has also been opened next to Boane.  Expansion of total area under irrigation will place increased pressure on water resources and increase the potential for water shortage and would advance the necessity to raise Mnjoli dam.Deterioration of water quality in groundwater and rivers from irrigation is a serious long-term hazard, and regular analysis with reporting of results must be carried out and monitored.Attention is drawn to RSSC's rather patchy performance regarding control of sheet and rill erosion in and around sugar cane fields. Control of the sequence of bush clearing so that animals move southwards into Hlane.Identification and protection of raptor nests until the end of breeding season.The Comprehensive Mitigation Plan emphasises practical measures such as avoidance of vulnerable soils, care with infield gradients and grassing and stone packing of waterways in order to control sheet and rill erosion.The deterioration of water quality (groundwater and river water) needs to be halted by avoiding the use of unfit soils, draining marginal ones and by the very careful control of fertiliser applications, and of agrochemical and irrigation practice.By good management and focusing the project on only the most suitable soils, the associated ills of sedimentation, eutrophication, salinization, sodicity and alkalinity would be avoided.Waterborne and related diseases would need to be avoided by provision of potable water. Takhamiti Farmer Association with about 80 ha will be allocated 130 ha, and the remaining 50 ha will be used as a meeting place for the annual Butimba Royal Hunt, and will not be available for planting sugar cane.The EIA and CPM for the sugar cane development at Kings Lodge was prepared in terms of the scooping report that defined the Terms of References.The RSSC was the proponent of the project. The EIA and CMP reports were submitted in July 2000. The composition of the team undertaking the study was the same as that which did the EIA and CMP for the North Hlane Riverside (Cassidy and Associates, 2000).The consultants contacted the stakeholders and interested and affected parties, and using the issues identified by the scooping report as a guide, they investigated socio-economic and biophysical impacts which could result from the change in use of the land from a part of the King's hunting ground, with limited grazing and plant resources, to production of sugar cane.The environmental impacts were identified in two major categories, socioeconomic and biophysical, both beneficial and adverse.Beneficial socio-economic impacts identified included the following: The Manzana Development Association is proposing to undertake a sugar cane project at the Manzana Farm located at Dvokolwako in the Hhohho region. The land to be developed totals 107 ha. To develop the site into a sugar cane plantation will involve the following:• Fencing of the site to demarcate the boundaries of the sugar cane area and to keep off livestock.Clearing of indigenous bush vegetation to pave way for erection of farm infrastructure • Erection of farm infrastructure, which will include construction of access roads, construction of offices and associated buildings, and setting up, of pump house and irrigation pipes.The development will be labour intensive, employing approximately 70 people from the surrounding communities on a regular basis, and possible more of temporary workers during the cane cutting season.The terms of references were prepared by the proponents of the project, and they highlighted the specific impact areas such as soils, land use, terrestrial and aquatic habitats, hydrology, aesthetics, cultural property, social and economic development (First Environmental Consultants, 2000).The Swaziland Environment Authority Act created the Swaziland Environment Authority (SEA) in 1992 to establish regulations, guidelines and standards relating to pollution of air, water and land and to develop and co-ordinate environmentally sound and sustainable activities.  ) or EIA report which contains a description of the mitigation measures to be implemented to reduce the environmental impacts of the proposed project. The regulations empowers the Swaziland Environmental Authority to identify and maintain a list of undertakings which cause concern to the Authority or to the public because of their impact on the environment and to publish the list of these undertakings in its annual report. It requires an operator of an identified or listed undertaking to submit an Environmental Audit (EA) report and a Comprehensive Mitigation Plan (CPM) to the Authority and submit them within six months after notification to do so. It is in this line that the several developments that were undertaken before the SEA was operational in the country could be requested to prepare the reports, including the sugarcane irrigation projects downstream the Mnjoli dam.The Environment Management Bill, 2001 has been tabled by the Swaziland Environmental Authority, and its purpose is to provide for and promote the enhancement, protection and conservation of the environment and where appropriate, the sustainable management of natural resources. The bill operates on the following principles:• the environment is the common heritage of present and future generations • adverse effects should be prevented and minimised through long term integrated planning and the co-ordination, integration and co-operation of efforts, which consider the entire environment as a whole entity • the precautionary principle, which requires that where there is a risk of serious or irreversible adverse effects occurring, a lack of scientific certainty should not prevent or impair the taking of precautionary measures to protect the environment • the polluter pays principle, which requires that those causing adverse effects shall be required to pay the full social and environmental costs of avoiding, mitigating, and/or remedying those adverse effects • the generation of waste should be minimised wherever practicable; • waste should, in order of priority, be re-used, recycled, recovered and disposed of safely in a manner that avoids creating adverse effects or if this is not practicable, is least likely to cause adverse effects; • non-renewable natural resources should only be used prudently, taking into account the consequences for the present and future generations; and • renewable resources and ecosystems should only be used in a manner that is sustainable and does not prejudice their viability and integrity.The Environment Management Bill, 2001clearly states the commitments of Swaziland on international agreements on management of the environment. It states that the Swaziland Government shall exercise and give effect to Swaziland's sovereignty over its natural resources, including its genetic resources, and its powers and rights to manage the living and non-living natural resources within its territories and in areas over which it exercises rights of sovereignty, to the fullest extent permitted under international law. It further gives the following commitments: • The Government shall co-operate with other Governments, and with domestic and international organisations in order to protect the regional and global environment.After signing an international agreement designed to protect the environment the Minister, shall as soon as is practicable cause the agreement to be ratified and take appropriate measures to give effect to the agreement, including making regulations.A court of competent jurisdiction may use any international agreement designed to protect the environment which has been ratified by Swaziland, as an aid to interpreting any domestic legal rule of Swaziland that can reasonably be regarded as being intended to implement the requirements of that agreement.The Minister, on the advice of the Authority, may make regulations to implement any international agreement designed to protect the environment that has been ratified by Swaziland; and to bring the laws of Swaziland into conformity with laws, standards, guidelines and practices applied internationally or in the region, provided that these regulations do not conflict with the purpose of this Act.  Water Bill, 2001). Water is declared to be a national resource that has to be developed and used for national benefit with emphasis on poverty alleviation. It also ensures that existing water users will still have their share while at the same time access to the resources is extended to previously deprived sectors of the Swazi society. It also provides incentives for water conservation and efficient use among others. The policy also devolves the day-to-day administration of water from exclusive Government preserve to new institutions comprising stakeholders. On transboundary issues the policy states the following: • Water resource development and management in the country shall conform to the principles of fair and equitable sharing of international watercourses among riparian states •The Government shall ensure adequate and effective representation of the country in all relevant institutions prescribed in national and or international laws, conventions and agreements •The Government shall engage and enter into agreements with neighbouring countries to ensure that water entering and leaving the country conforms to international standards on safety, health and environment A protocol on shared watercourses was signed by Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states (Protocol on Shared Watercourses in SADC, 2000). The overall objectives of the protocol is to foster closer co-operation for judicious, sustainable and co-ordinated management, projection and utilisation of shared watercourses and advance the SADC agenda of regional integration and poverty alleviation. In order to achieve this objective, this Protocol seeks to: The states agree that enforcement of laws governing the proper utilisation of management and utilisation of wildlife •The states agree that they will co-operate to manage wildlife resources as well as any transboundary effects of activities within their jurisdiction or controlThe Swaziland Environmental Authority is the main body responsible for enforcing the undertaking of the EIA in the country. It is composed of eighteen members as outlined in Figure 6.  Location, size, construction or operational activities, schedule for implementation, workforce, any alternatives.Brief description of physical, ecological and human aspects of the site and its surroundings.Brief account of the significant impacts likely to occur if no mitigation occurs. If an EIA is needed because of the nature and extent of expected impacts then a recommendation to this effect should be made. Impact Management Description of mitigation measures, monitoring programmes and schedule of implementation (CMP). Technical and institutional requirements for successful implementation.The IEE report should be short (no more than 20 pages) and written in clear, simple language. The IEE should result in a short IEE report and a CMP as per the format outlined in this Schedule.Location, size, workforce, inputs and outputs, operations and manufacturing processes, transport.Brief description of physical, ecological and human aspects of the site and its surroundings.Inventory, with amounts of all effluent discharges, after pre-treatment to air, water and land (including noise and vibration and odour). Inventory of all solid wastes produced and their handling, storage, transport and eventual disposal.Inventory of chemicals which are used in operational or manufacturing processes and which reach air, water or land through non-point source. Concentrations of chemical, radiological and energy pollutants in air, water, land in the vicinity of the installation (based on inventory). Identification and evaluation of the impacts of these concentrations on the environment and health (when data allows). The results should be contained in an EA report and a CMP as per the format outlined in this Schedule.• Activities of preservation and of damage control and relief in case of environmental accidents.Ensure the management of the natural resources in accordance with the principles of sustainable development.The environmental laws of Mozambique (as quoted by Meneses and Cunha, 1998) states that it is the duty of the government to protect the environment, with the local communities, NGOs and private sector participating in the management of such areas. The law outlines prohibition of the following activities among others in an effort to protect the environment: Issues to be considered when undertaking EIA All the stakeholders felt the EIA was a necessity in irrigation projects. The critical issues that they felt should be included when undertaking an EIA for irrigation projects included the problem of reduced quantity of flow downstream, High salinity of irrigation water adverse impacts on downstream ecosystem due to reduced quality of flow and sedimentation from scheme deposited into water.On the question of taking into consideration of transboundary issues when undertaking an EIA for irrigation project the feeling was also that the transboundary issues should be considered. However there was also a feeling that the magnitude of development should be taken into consideration. The feeling was that there are agreements between neighbouring countries on some transboundary issues to be taken into consideration when implementing projects. Some of these agreements were considered to me outdated and they The proponent of a project is the one responsible for preparing the Terms of Reference as well as selecting the consultant (s) to undertake the EIA. The Terms of References are prepared in accordance with guidelines from the Swaziland Environment Authority. The feeling of some stakeholders was that the SEA should be responsible for preparing the Terms of References and selecting the consultants, as they will not have to \"pay allegiance\" to the proponent of the project. The consultants are selected by proponents on the basis of academic training of members, experience as well as the charges for undertaking the study. Local consultants and consultant companies with local components are given preference when awarding the contracts. The stakeholders were mostly satisfied with the outcome of consultants undertaking EIA. On the issue of possible registration of EIA practitioners the feeling was that they should not be registered with professional body since different EIAs require different experts, as the team may comprise of University professors, engineers, lawyers, medical doctors, hydrologists, geologists, social workers etc. The composition of the team depends on the nature of the project and its potential impact. To certify every practitioner would not be practical because some experts may be called to participate only once in their lifetime. Rather, the selection process should ensure that the EIA practitioner has reliable references and a track record of success in their particular field of work.The feeling was that transboundary issues should be included in EIA, as a sign of good will to neighbouring countries as a way of making sure that some protocols are respected. It would foster broader holistic co-operation between neighbouring countries. The inclusion of such issues would also reduce the risk of legal liabilities, such as being sued by individuals, communities, organisations or governments of neighbouring state for any adverse effects resulting from the project. The inclusion of cumulative issues in EIA would give a good indication of long term potential impacts of a project and the impacts would be mitigated. Communities and ecosystem would be benefit in the short term and long term and sustainable development would be achieved.The main problems encountered in Mozambique from the sugar cane irrigation projects downstream the Mnjoli dam in Swaziland manifest themselves in the Pequenos Lebombo dam. This is because the dam is situated hardly 10 km from the boarder of Swaziland, and there is no intensive land use in the Mozambique side of the border before the dam. Nutrients from sugar cane production are washed into the Mbuluzi River and accumulate in the dam. This leads to increase in production of algae and bacteria in the Pequenos Lebombo dam. Increase in production of bacteria in the dam has been realised in the past three years. Ciano bacteria posse dangers for people consuming the water from the dam and also leads to increase in costs for chemicals to treat the water.There has been some detection of contaminated fish in the dam, and the contamination can be attributed to pollution from the irrigation projects upstream. Reduced number is birds have also been recorded, and this is due to decrease in vegetation species. The increase in plants and algae in the dam leads to reduced oxygen level and reduced biodiversity.The water coming from the Swaziland side comes with sedimentation from the sugar cane fields. The sedimentation has lead to silting of the dam, and thus reducing its storage capacity. However sedimentation in the dam was mainly attributed to the removal of trees for firewood in the catchment of the dam in the Mozambique side.The agreement of the minimum annual river flow from Swaziland to Mozambique is being respected. However the feeling is that the agreement needs to be reviewed as the minimum allowable flow is too little. It stands at 40% of the aggregate of the flow of both the Black Mbuluzi and White Mbuluzi as recorded in gauging stations prior to the utilisation by Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation. At the moment the average annual flow from Swaziland at recorded at Goba stands at 6.62 cubic metres per second, which represent about 89% of the aggregate of the flow of both rivers. On the basis on the agreement Swaziland can still utilise some 49% of the water flowing to Mozambique. The agreement thus hinder development in Mozambique in that planning for water utilisation has to be done on the basis of the 40% of flow that was agreed upon.The water resources of the Pequenos Lebombo dam are not yet fully utilised and large amount of water is released to river channel, and thus encroachment of salinity is controlled. A dyke was also constructed to control salinity from encroaching into the fresh water. The lack of systematic measurements for water quality in Mozambique precluded the detection of some negative impacts of the sugar cane irrigation projects along the Mbuluzi River. In this section the findings of the study are discussed in the context of the basic assumptions that were listed in the Methodology section; understanding of the concepts of transboundary issues by stakeholder, attention given to transboundary and cumulative issues, availability of resources and institutional capacity, regional framework for harmonised EIA guidelines, EIA undertaken on a project or sector specific environment, and flexibility of the EIA process.The concepts of transboundary and cumulative impacts are to a large extent understood by the enforcement agents of EIA, the practitioners and proponents of development projects in the region. The transboundary and cumulative issues that are well understood are those covered by regional and bilateral conventions and agreements.Transboundary issues related to irrigation projects well understood are those to dealing with reduced quantity of flow downstream, as the issue is covered by a number of bilateral and tripartite agreements between Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland. The understandings of the concepts of transboundary issues are to a large extent with the aim of respecting the agreements and conventions. Issues that have impacts on the socio-economic aspect such as increase demand for roads and attraction of population from neighbouring countries to work in irrigation projects were not considered to be critical by stakeholders.Cumulative issues that tend to be considered critical in irrigation projects are those that are directly related to water, such as degradation of water quality and water shortages. Issues of human health hazard from emission of gases during burning of crop residues and from factories were not considered as critical by the stakeholders.The process and procedure of EIA for countries such as Swaziland is locally based. Transboundary issues that are addressed are only those covered by conventions and agreements. Even under such cases the affected country (s) are not consulted during the EIA process, as only local parties are considered to be interested. The relevant Government Ministries (or departments) have the responsibility to make sure that the intended developments do not breach regional and international convention or agreements.Localised issues tend to be raised during scooping, and as the scooping reports are used to determine issues to be included in EIA study, the studies tend to dwell more on localised issues, and transboundary issues are only implied, unless there is an agreement and or convention covering such the issue.Local cumulative impacts were addressed in most of the EIA studies, as the procedure indicate that they should be included. However the tendency was to include only those impacts that are relatively well known and easy to predict due to a number of limitations that includes lack of facilities such as computers and modelling software for projecting cumulative issues and the need to implement a project within a certain time limit.The proponents of irrigation projects are responsible for producing EIA reports to be submitted to the enforcement agents. In most cases the proponents contract consultants to undertake the EIA study on their behalf. The costs involved in undertaking the study tend to force the proponents to meet the bare minimum requirements for producing an acceptable EIA report, and reduce costs by contracting the consultant charging the least, who may not produce the best results.There is lack of qualified and experienced experts to undertaking EIA in countries such as Swaziland. The fact that when awarding contracts to undertake EIA there is often always a minimum requirement for local component of team members means that in some cases team members with no experience end up playing a major role in the study.Measurements on water quality are often done at irregular and very long intervals. There is often lack of historic data and records to give an indication of the baseline trends of environmental concern. Countries are also not willing to share data with neighbouring countries.The fact that the idea of EIA studies is relatively new in many countries of the region comes with some problems in capacity to enforce EIA legislation. In Swaziland for example there are only six established positions for environment officers, and at most times not all the established positions are filled. This hinders the operation of the Swaziland Environment Authority, as it becomes difficult to meet the deadlines spelled out in the guidelines to review EIA reports. There is also high staff turnover, as well trained and experienced environment officers leave the civil service and joint private organisations that often provide batter terms and conditions of service. The countries also lack of monitoring systems and clear procedures to undertake the monitoring of environmental impacts.There is no clearly defined regional framework for harmonised EIA guidelines. The lack of regional framework for harmonised EIA guidelines hinders the consideration of transboundary and cumulative impacts when undertaking EIA. In as much as there are a number of protocols and agreements signed between member states, there is no protocol that forces a country to involve its neighbouring country during the process of undertaking an EIA. The present protocols mention the fact that the member countries will co-operate to manage resources as well as any transboundary effects of activities within their jurisdiction.The region needs to develop a convention that stipulates the obligation of member states to assess the environmental impact of certain activities at an early stage of planning. It needs to lay down the general obligations of states to notify and consult each other on all projects that are likely to have significant adverse environmental impact across boundaries. The convention could be developed to apply on agreed upon set of activities such as building of dams and reservoirs, and developing irrigation projects on shared rivers. The size, location and effects of such activities to be covered by the convention should also be agreed upon. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNELE) developed a convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in Transboundary Issues. The convention had been signed and ratified by about 30 countries as of August 2001 (UNELE, 2001), which include European countries and non European countries such as Canada and the United States of America. Some principles forming the backbone of the ENELE convention that can be adopted in a regional convention or protocol for EIA are highlighted in box 18.Box 18: Principles that need to be included in regional convention for EIA and national procedures for EIA.The country of origin (proponent) should notify any other country which it considers may be affected by the development activity as early as possible, and not later than when informing its own public about that proposed activity.The affected country should indicate if it intends to participate in the environmental impact procedure.The affected country should provide the country of origin with infor-mation relating to potentially affected environment under its jurisdiction.The affected country should ensure that its public that is likely to be affected are informed and provided with possibilities for making comments or objections on the proposed activity.The country of origin should furnish the affected country with the environment assessment documents, and the affected (concerned) country should arrange for distribution of the documentation to the authorities and the public in the affected areas.There should be well-defined procedures for policing implementation of conventions and settlement of disputes.The countries lack national development plans to stream line their development projects and match them with the available resources. This leads to EIA studies being done on project or sector specific basis. In all the case studies reviewed there was lack of comprehensive review of the socioeconomic and physical environment at national and international level.One EIA study done in Swaziland was that of the host area for resettled communities from the Maguga development along the Komati River. In as much as the area does not fall under the case studies for the present study, it is worth mentioning that the EIA reports go in details in addressing the environmental issues and their mitigation measures (KOBWA, 2000 a & b).Residual and induced impacts were addressed adequately. It also has a monitoring programme (biological and socio-economic) built within it. However the emphasis is only within the area to be developed and the very neighbouring communities. Issues like increased demand for services such as roads are not adequately addressed. Even in such a detailed EIA report the capacity to consider the multiple use of the water resources of the river shared by three countries (Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland) is not adequately taken into account.The environmental impact assessment is a process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made. In order to promote effective practice of EIA consistent with the institutional and process arrangements that are in force in different countries, the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) in co-operation with Institute of Environmental Assessment designed the Principles of EIA best practice (IAIA, 1998). The basic principles are included in the document, and it is stated that a balanced approach is critical when applying the principles to ensure that environmental impact assessment fulfils its purpose and is carried out to internationally accepted standards.Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) can be defined as systematic process for evaluating the environmental consequences of policies, plans, programmes or proposals to ensure that they are addressed on par with economic and social considerations and early in the decision making process (DFAIT, 2001) has been adopted by some institutions in order to facilitate development. SEA, also referred to as Environmental Reviews is an important tool in the progress towards sustainable development because it provides decisionmakers with information that allows them to make better-informed decisions.An example of a strategic environmental assessment in Swaziland is one prepared by the Ubombo Sugar Limited as a result of its five-year strategic development and expansion programme (Ubombo Sugar Limited, 2001). It was prepared after the SEA insisted that the sugar cane expansion as well as the associated downstream developments be subjected to environmental assessment to establish as a minimum the cumulative effects of all the activities constituting the new plan.The SEA and EIA approaches complement each other in that the SEA can be undertaken for all the components of a proposed development, followed by detailed EIA for those that are likely to have significant adverse environmental impacts. The processes are flexible enough to cope with the integrated needs of development, as long as they are used within the context of a national development plan and regional requirements.The environmental impact assessment is an important component of implementation of projects for developments. Its is however a relative new concept to a number of countries including SADC member states. In Swaziland the Swaziland Environment Authority was established in 1992. It is the body that is responsible to enforce environmental regulations. Prior to that it was not mandatory to undertake an EIA before any project could be implemented. Ordinary citizens of the country do not yet understand the process of EIA, and it is perceived as a delaying process for development. The enforcement of the tasks of the Swaziland Environment Authority is being facilitated by a number of regulations and bills. The draft Swaziland National Water Policy has among its intentions the conformity to the principles of fair and equitable sharing of international watercourses among riparian states, and engagement of its counterparts in neighbouring countries to ensure that water entering and leaving the countries conforms to international safety, health and environmental standards. The Water Bill has passed through the House of Assemble in Swaziland, and is still to go to the House of Senate for debate before it goes to the King for assent to be a law.Several agreement and protocols have been signed and ratified by the SADC countries, but there is often lack of means to police the enforcement of such laws. There is often lack of facilities for systematic measurement of impacts of projects. The water flow between Swaziland and Mozambique in the Mbuluzi river about the only impact that is monitored at regular basis. However due to the fact that the agreed minimum annual was very low, the agreement appears to be respected.The procedure and requirements for EIA in Swaziland and Mozambique do not emphasis international and cumulative impacts. Only local parties are considered to be the main stakeholders and interested parties, and are consulted during the undertaking of EIA. The feeling of some stakeholders was that the agreements between neighbouring countries are adequate to safeguard transboundary impacts without transboundary parties being involved in the EIA process. The issues raised during scooping sessions in some case studies reflected the problem of only considering the local parties as affected parties. The fact that the proponent of a project is the one responsible for selection of consultant to undertake the EIA, as well as preparing the Terms of references tend to compromise the output of the EIA. Long term (cumulative) adverse effects such as fragmentation of vegetation and deterioration to underground water quality were addressed in some case studies.The fact that local consultants and or consultants with at least 50% of local team membership may have an adverse effect on the undertaking of the EIA as the concept of EIA is relatively new in the region, and there is still shortage of well trained and experienced practitioners in EIA. On the issue of EIA practitioners being registered with a national or regional professional body the feeling was that it would not be practical, as different experts are always needed to undertake the EIA.Several constraints in including cumulative and transboundary issues when undertaking EIA were identified and they need to be overcome. They include lack of knowledge of legislation of neighbouring countries as well as lack of networking of experts and practitioners of EIA.In order to facilitate adequate consideration of transboundary and cumulative impacts when undertaking an EIA in the region the following recommendations are made:• A common procedure and requirements for EIA should be prepared by the SADC member states. The requirements should emphasis the need for transboundary impacts and cumulative to be considered for projects of an agreed magnitude.Neighbouring countries should be considered as affected parties, especial when undertaking EIA for irrigation projects, and should be invited for initial scooping process in order to identify the likely transboundary impacts. • Protocols and agreements that are outdated should be reviewed so that they do not place downstream countries at disadvantages when it comes to quantity of water flow.Regional workshops should be conducted for both practitioners of EIA and enforcers of the EIA regulations to facilitate networking and sharing of information about transboundary issues. The workshops would also assist in training of practitioners.The countries should make it a priority to acquire equipment and facilities for systematic measuring of impacts as well as for projecting cumulative issues. The equipment include those to be used for flow measurement, water quality as well as computer hardware and software for modelling long term impacts of projects.The practice of giving priority to local practitioners for undertaking EIA should be reviewed with the view of making sure that the consultants undertaking the exercise are well trained and experienced and encouraging mentoring of less experienced practitioners.The enforcement agents such as National Directorate for Natural Resources in Mozambique and SEA in Swaziland should play major roles in selection of consultants and preparation of terms of references.The terms and conditions of services for the enforcement agents should be improved in order to recruit and retain well-trained and experienced cadre.• A compilation of legislation, rules and policies for the different countries would be beneficial in identifying the policies related to EIA. Several discussions took place in 1994 between EEAA and the line ministries for the screening of different projects in Egypt. Guidelines for EIA were issued by the EEAA in 1996, to the preparation of which local and foreign experts contributed. The list approach stated in the Egyptian EIA guidelines depends on screening projects into three categories based on different levels of EIA required, each appropriate to the severity of possible environmental impacts.• A white list project for developments with minor environmental impact.A grey list project for developments that may result in substantial environmental impact.A black list project for developments that require a fully-fledged EIA due to their potential impacts.The guidelines (EEAA, 1996a) also included a screening form (A) for the white list projects, a screening form (B) for the gray list projects and a brief outline for the fully-fledged EIA. The guidelines were presented late 1996 to investors, bankers and Non-Governmental Organizations in Egypt. The Law specified that the proponent should submit the EIA form or study to the EEAA through the Competent Administrative Authority (CAA). The EIA must then be reviewed by the EEAA. According to Law 4/94, the EEAA evaluation process should take a maximum of 60 days, otherwise it should be considered approved. The Law also allowed for a permanent appeals committee as discussed in the law, the executive regulations and the EIA guidelines. In 1998, review of the (white) list projects, were delegated by the agency to the CAA. At the inception of the Law 4/1994, the EEAA was faced with limited experience within the body of national consultants. The Agency relied on International community for the technical support from the beginning. Experience in the field of EIA started to increase either outside or inside the agency. However, capacity building and awareness of local consultants still needs to be enhanced.Since 1994, the EEAA has started to receive EIA submissions from different Competent Administrative Authorities, and the number of authorities is increasing every year. In 1998, the Minister of State for the Environment started a campaign for promoting the EIA when applying for a development license.The Minister contacted all local governments and informed them of the requirements for EIA's. This campaign resulted in a tremendous increase in the number of EIAs submitted. The agency is currently relying on University professors in the review system, these individuals are also taking the role of building up the capacity for the next generation at the agency. EIA quality is still a problem facing the EEAA, as an accreditation system is still needed to certify the consultants to overtake studies in Egypt. An accreditation law is currently under discussion within the agency.Decisions by the EEAA on the EIAs averaged over the past 3 years were 65% acceptance, 4% rejection of the proposal and 31% as others. Others would indicate the following; (a), the activity should be exempted from presenting an EIA; (b), the activity had violated law 4/94 by starting operations prior to submitting an EIA (which indicates that EIA, is used as an enforcement tool); or (c), missing information or incomplete form. Table (2) presents the percentage of EIAs received by the EEAA categorized by sectors. \"Others\" in Table (2) indicates that the study was returned to the CAA for the reasons previously presented. The previous section presented the current situation of the EIA system in Egypt. Through experience and practice several problems had been resolved, the nature of which might be different from one sector to the other or even geographically within Egypt. Some of those problems may be attributed to the current legislation. Egypt has limited experience in the issue of Trans-boundary Environmental Impact Assessments. This section presents attempts that have been made to study trans-boundary environmental impacts in Egypt.Recognizing the scope and the urgency of their shared problems, the Nile riparian countries have taken a historic step towards cooperation in the establishment of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI, 1999). Formally launched in February 1999, the NBI is a transitional mechanism that provides an agreed framework to fight poverty and promote economic development. The initiative is guided by a shared vision \"to achieve the sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile basin water resources\" and a set of policy guidelines that provide a basin-wide framework for cooperation action.A Trans-boundary Environmental Analysis has been developed by the Nile riparian countries (Burundi, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda) in cooperation with the Global Environment Facility, UNDP and the World Bank, and supported by a USAID-financed scoping study. The priority issues to be addressed at basin-wide, national, and local levels have been identified and analysed. The elements of an agenda for environmental action in the Nile Basin have also been identified, for implementation over the next decade or more under the NBI's Strategic Action Program in coordination with other development activities.Most efforts to understand and safeguard the natural resources and environmental systems of the Nile basin have traditionally been carried out within the boundaries of individual riparian countries. Many environmental studies, programs and projects have been implemented by the national governments with support from international partners. More recently, there has been increasing recognition that key environmental issues are often not limited to single countries, but are regional or global in scope.In this project, environmental trans-boundary issues are identified as issues that have immediate proximity and/or impact on neighbouring states, or on their shared water and/or natural resources as well as issues that are common to the Nile riparian states and that are linked to the management of the shared water and/or natural resources.Several trans-boundary environmental issues have been identified in the Nile Basin:• Physical or chemical impacts that can cross national boundaries downstream. Deforestation and soil erosion can lead to increased sedimentation and greater flood risk downstream, while sediments also accumulate in wetlands and reservoirs. Urbanization, industrialization, and increased use of agriculture chemicals lead to increased runoff and pollution that harm downstream water users.Water-dependent ecosystems throughout the Nile Basin contribute to the stability, resistance, and resilience of both natural and human systems to stress and sudden changes. Significant trans-boundary benefits derived from various ecosystems' roles in maintaining water quality, trapping sediment, retaining nutrients, buffering floods, stabilizing micro-climate and providing storm protection •Many key plant and animal species have habitats in adjoining countries, often requiring cross-border protected areas and other conservation measurers for effective management. For example, the Nile is a principal flyway for birds migrating between central Africa and Mediterranean Europe, and Nile wetlands in a variety of countries provide indispensable habitats for these birds.Water hyacinth and other invasive aquatic weeds have spread throughout many parts of the Nile basin, impairing the functions of natural ecosystems, threatening fisheries and interfering with transportation.Water-borne diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and bilharzia (schistosomiasis) are prevalent throughout the basin and thus of major concern the Nile countries. Actions to curb these remain a priority in most of the Nile countries.Solving or mitigating the impacts of such trans-boundary environmental issues is most likely to result from carefully coordinated international efforts emphasizing broad consultations, awareness raising and information sharing as well as sound management that includes a combinations of prevents and curative measures.Moving from potential conflict to cooperation.The Nile holds great potential to foster regional social and economic development through power generation, food production, transportation, trade, and environmental conservation, and other related development activities. However, the control and use of Nile waters has long been a source of dispute and potential conflict among and between the riparian countries. These tensions have been compounded as growing populations and economic developments have led to greater demands for water.The Nile countries recognize that future development of the basin must be environmentally sustainable. Identifying the environment and development synergies, and thus the sustainable development opportunities in the basin is now a major priority. This consensus among the riparian states has been reinforced by international agreement that the Nile's environment and development issues are of global concern.Cooperative management of the Nile River Basin is one of the greatest challenges of the global international waters agenda. Focusing on transboundary issues provides the riparian countries with a major opportunity to make significant progress towards their economic and environmental goals in ways that have proved difficult to achieve independently.The Nile Basin countries have taken a historic step towards cooperation in the establishment of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). Formally launched in February 1999, the Initiative is a transitional institutional mechanism, which includes most of the riparian countries and provides an agreed basin-wide framework to fight poverty and promote economic development.To translate the shared vision into action, the NBI has initiated a Strategic Action Program made up of two components: the \"Shared Vision Program\" and the \" Subsidiary Action Programs\".The Shared Vision Program will develop and sustain and shared vision and define and undertake a limited range of essential activities to create a coordinating mechanism and enabling environment for implementation of the vision. The shared Vision Program will include confidence building and stakeholder involvement, a broad range of socio-economic, environmental and sectoral analyses, development and investment planning and applied training, institution and capacity building.In order to develop and manage an economically and environmental sustainable framework at the regional level, it is obviously fundamental to: • Develop a regional cluster of EIA guidelines and standards between countries in one region as a platform to harmonize with. • Develop and adapt environmental standards in the process of harmonization. This is to ensure the complete alignment of national EIA standards of the countries in the region and the corresponding administrative systems that comply with the prevailing systems in the region or globally.One of the successful cases of regional EIA harmonization is the Egyptian participation in the ''METAP EIA Institutional Strengthening Project\". This project has been sponsored by METAP and managed by the World Bank. The project started in 1999 by studying the EIA system in 14 Mediterranean countries, and arranged several meetings to introduce the basic concepts of EIA and to allow for each country to present its current status. The project also made a comparative study for the EIA system in Egypt with that system used in the World Bank and the European Union (METAP 2000). Several workshops were arranged for decision-makers, reviewers for EIAs, consultants conducting EIAs, and NGOs. The aim of the meetings and workshops was to build the capacity and harmonize the EIA policy in the different countries.This concept paper has presented an overview of the EIA system in Egypt since its inception in 1994, and the evolution of the EIA system through the past few years. Problems facing the EIA system were also discussed together with the approaches for solving these problems. Impacts of stimulating economic development by reducing the level and stringency of the EIA implementation were been assessed. The Egyptian experience in the transboundary environmental impact issue was presented for the Nile Basin. The need for harmonization of EIA policies in the region is essential to avoid problems such as migrating of investment to other countries or even within geographical areas in the same country.It is important to point out that the differences of EIA systems will make harmonization of EIA policies not an easy task within the region. Creating a more efficient trading and economic regime in the region has now become essential not only for the welfare of the region but also for its survival in the future. This is not an easy task, but the benefits for public health, preservation the natural resources, social welfare, and the economy in the region will outweigh the costs in order to reach the ultimate goal. The following points summarize the steps that are needed towards a successful harmonization in EIA policy in the region.• Improvement in collaboration between government institutions involved in EIA to reduce the time needed for EIA process and minimize the potential increase in the total costs of projects.• Post-project monitoring and reporting requirements should be included and defined as an inherent part of the EIA. In addition to other issues, EIA should clearly indicate: what, when and where to monitor, who is responsible for monitoring tasks and to whom, how often and in what form the monitoring should be presented.• Public engagement in EIA should be further encouraged by disclosure of the environmental performance indicators of the project to the media and/or the concerned parties and NGOs.The cumulative impacts resulting from the interaction and interdependency of the proposed project with other existing and potential projects should not be overlooked and should be embodied in the project's screening and scoping process.• EIAs should involve a package of alternatives and various mitigation measures, each with a different cost estimate. The cost element of certain alternatives that sound efficient from the environmental point of view might be inefficient from the economic perspective. Therefore, coordination between the EIA process and the economic assessment of the proposed projects is recommended.• Capacity for EIA assessors should be built at a regional level. Creating a regional EIA network and linking it to other regional networks should also be encouraged. Specialists from national or regional research centres and universities can compensate for the lack of specialized assessors within national agencies. Local researchers and academic institutions have the advantage of being completely aware of the legal structure, institutional framework, ecosystems, resource bases, as well as national historical, cultural, and social fabrics.• Environmental authorities are advised to prepare a database of accredited and certified national and international EIA experts and consulting firms. Such information is to be disseminated to all environmental focal points in line ministries who get into direct involvement with the planned projects. The choice of experts and consulting firms must be based on the professional competence, managerial ability, adequacy of resources, professional impartiality, integrity, fairness of fee structure, and quality assurance.• Given the globalisation of the World Market, strict implementation of EIA policies will become inevitable. It would be better if the countries act fast to take appropriate and effective steps towards: -Harmonization of environmental policies, in general, and EIA practice, in particular, as a way of confronting intensifying international environmental restrictions. -Preventing, reducing and controlling significant adverse transboundary environmental impacts from development activities taking place in various parts of the region.Since the late 1970's, there has been increasing interest in the assessment of cumulative environmental effects due to disenchantment with the traditional project-by project assessment approach. As environmental resources become more stressed due to excessive development pressures, cumulative impact considerations have become even more important in the EIA process. Despite this increasing interest, the identification of cumulative and transboundary effects is still complex and remains a challenge for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) practitioners (de Villiers Brownlie and Associates and EEU, 2000). Cumulative impacts may be a consequence of many interacting factors, both in the past and present, and their combined effects are not always understood.Cumulative impacts may occur • When the affected system is being disturbed repeatedly by the same local agent with sufficient frequency so that it does not have time to recover between events; or the affected system is affected by several similar or different activities producing a similar effect, in an area too small to assimilate the combined effects. • Impacts from one activity combine with those of another to produce a greater impact or a different impact, referred to as a synergistic effect. These synergies may be positive or negative.These effects can be local, regional or global in scale and typically across jurisdictional boundaries (Fuggle and Rabie, 1994). When impacts are transboundary, it often becomes difficult to manage adverse effects due to different national policies, laws, standards and institutional capacities (Sowman, pers. comm.).Table 1 provides a generic checklist that can be used in scoping cumulative impacts, addressing detailed impact issues and summarising the results of cumulative impact considerations in an impact study. The items proposed on the checklist will not be applicable to all projects and impact studies. However, use of this approach would provide a consistent beginning for systematically addressing cumulative impacts. A generic approach to how cumulative effects of development projects with potential significant impacts could be considered in the EIA process is proposed in box 1.Box 1: Approach to cumulative impact analysisStep 1. Scoping • Establish the geographic boundaries for the analysis. ","tokenCount":"48910"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bfcf73e74dd29cc4c5968801e6a9b4d1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/WPapers/CIFOR-ICRAF-WP-2.pdf","id":"-845411298"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7abc8184-45bc-47b4-bac9-da173d63173a","pagecount":"32","content":"Value chains change over time, often in sudden, unpredictable ways in response to internal and external shocks. The COVID-19 pandemic is a prominent example of an external shock that, abruptly and unexpectedly, has led to disruptions in agri-food value chains affecting segments, entire value chains, or food systems at large. Farmers, processors, and traders have been facing the consequences of the pandemic including the effects of policy measures to limit the spread of the virus. Policy makers and NGOs alike have adopted mitigating policies, strategies, and interventions to minimize disruptions, absorb supply and demand shocks, provide relief to affected producers and consumers, and support the recovery of food chains.This paper reviews the literature on agri-food value chains published up to September 2021 for evidence of fractures and resilience in the context of the pandemic. The review includes 140 publications that met established criteria of methodological robustness. Geographically they focused on Asia and the Pacific (41%), Africa (31%), Latin America and the Caribbean (6%) and the Global North (2%) or had a cross-regional or global focus (21%). Agricultural producers (80%) were the principal value chain actors addressed, while retailers (38%), consumers (29%), food processors, and itinerant traders or wholesalers (27% each), input dealers (19%), transporters and distributors (12%), and providers of technical, business, or financial services (8%) were less covered. Commodity focus was on cereals and other staples (49%), fish and other aquatic products, fruits and vegetables (44% each), poultry and eggs (30%), meat (20%), milk and dairy, forest and tree products (6% each), or general agricultural products (20%).Based on existing evidence, disruptions induced by the pandemic affected primarily value chains of perishable products, such as meat, poultry and eggs, milk and dairy, fish, and fresh produce. Fractures were mainly caused by the disjuncture between farm production and food markets due to lockdown measures limiting the movement of people and goods and involving partial closure of markets. Logistics disruptions also reduced farmers' access to agricultural inputs, such as seeds, animal feed, fertilisers, and agrochemicals, particularly in value chains for fish, poultry and livestock products. Less perishable products typically fared better in view of longer shelf life and public procurement programs prioritizing cereals and other staples.Price fluctuations were reported across numerous value chains, mostly for the tightest lockdown periods. In general, farm gate prices for producers decreased as logistics disruptions caused a disconnect between supply and demand. Retail and consumer prices, in turn, rose as limited supplies reached the market. Prices mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels shortly after lockdowns had been relaxed unless factors other than the pandemic were at play. Worst-case scenarios involving a collapse of agri-food value chains and resulting famines have not materialized. The interplay between private sector response, public policy, and NGO support has prevented a catastrophic downturn in food production, mounting food losses and waste, and major disruptions at retail level. Still, agri-food value chains remain vulnerable, especially in low-income countries and where pre-existing business conditions and shortcomings in regulatory frameworks continue to hamper value chain development. But value chain stakeholders and policy makers can now draw on experiences and insights that inform mitigating policies and private sector responses in future pandemics. In support of better preparedness, more in-depth analysis is needed to better understand pre-existing conditions and their bearing on value chain performance as well as mid-and long-term effects of specific policy, private sector and civil society interventions in agri-food value chains in response to the pandemic. Addressing shortcomings in public policies, regulatory frameworks, and public-private investments can bolster the resilience of agri-food value chains. vi 1 IntroductionSince the early 2000s, development organizations, government agencies, and NGOs have promoted value chain development (VCD) to reduce rural poverty and environmental degradation and to enhance food security, gender equity, and other goals (Donovan et al. 2020). In this context, development organisations have sought to strengthen the capacity of smallholders and their organizations to engage with downstream buyers, processors and traders in mutually beneficial ways. Expected benefits of value chain engagement by smallholders include enhanced income and employment, better access to inputs and services and, where gender equality is an explicit goal of VCD, women empowerment (Kolavalli et al. 2015, Pyburn andKruijssen 2020). Toward these ends, particular emphasis has been on developing agri-food value chains. Over the past few decades, these chains have exhibited rapid growth and structural change that has turned them into major employers and sources of value addition, as well as key loci for technology transfer and foreign investment (Barrett et al. 2020). The transformation of these value chains, with specialized functions delivering a variety of high-quality, nutritionally dense products, is considered an important aspect of economic development, especially when the processes are based on integration and backward and forward linkages with rural producing areas (Reardon 2015).Smallholders play a critical role in agri-food value chains in many parts of the Global South. Building capacity for their effective long-term engagement in value chains requires access to services which help enhance farm productivity and efficiency, product marketing, and their negotiation power (Kos and Kloppenburg 2019). Sound design of VCD initiatives implies attention to several constraints, both internal and external to smallholders. These can be addressed, for example, by combing VCD with other approaches as part of innovation systems and rural livelihoods frameworks (Devaux et al. 2018). However, reconciling local economic development and livelihood security has proven challenging in view of diversified smallholder livelihoods and the dynamic nature of agri-food markets (Stoian et al. 2016). Value chains change over time, often in sudden, unpredictable ways in response to shocks. VCD options thus need to be carefully assessed in order not to expose smallholders to undue risks. Yet, VCD approaches tend to focus on current structure and performance while paying limited attention to the dynamic forces affecting these chains or to adaptation (Orr et al. 2018). This is particularly problematic for smallholders engaged in global value chains, as the exposure to shocks and systemic risks is higher the longer and the more interlinked agri-food value chains are (Barrett et al. 2020).The COVID-19 pandemic is a prominent example of an external shock and a systemic risk that, suddenly and unpredictably, affected agri-food value chains around the globe. The shock manifested itself in various ways, affecting value chain actors in given segments, entire value chains, or food systems (Carducci et al. 2021). In response, policy makers, private sector actors, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have adopted a broad array of mitigating policies, strategies, and measures. In the agricultural and food sector, close to 800 measures were undertaken by governments in 54 developed and emerging countries to minimize disruptions, absorb supply and demand shocks, provide relief to affected producers and consumers, and to support the recovery of agri-food production (OECD 2021a). Researchers, in turn, studied the effects of such responses, with the aim to guide investments and interventions and to enhance preparedness for future shocks affecting agri-food value chains.Based on a review of value chain literature focusing on COVID-19 available by September 2021, this paper investigates the evidence of fractures induced by the pandemic as well as documented resilience to associated shocks. The review focuses on scientific literature by CGIAR and other research institutions, and grey literature by development organizations where appropriate and useful. The paper is part of the research linked with the CGIAR COVID-19 Hub and is complementary to a global assessment of the impacts of COVID-19 on food systems and their actors by Béné et al. (2021) which focused specifically on the effects of the pandemic on food security and nutrition of vulnerable populations.We see value chains as complex adaptive systems and, in the context of this paper, define fractures and resilience as opposite ends of a continuum showing the systems' capacity to respond to and recover from shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. A fracture stands for a major disruption in a value chain breaking up, or significantly limiting, interactions and flows of people, materials, and energy. Resilience, in turn, is the capacity of value chains to overcome disruptions and to efficiently recover from the effects resulting from them. The temporal dimension of such a recovery is critical for determining business viability (Linkov et al. 2020) and, from a system perspective, value chain operationality and performance. Following this definition, a fractured value chain would be reflected in a significant reduction of the volumes traded, the number of businesses and people actively engaged, and the overall value generated. In contrast, a resilient value chain may have also been affected by disruptions but combined efforts of value chain actors, service providers, and policy makers have helped to overcome these over a short period of time, usually within days or a limited number of weeks, with no major lasting effects.Based on this definition, literature review and own experiences in value chain research and development, we elaborated a conceptual framework to guide our analysis. The framework underscores the importance of pre-existing conditions that need to be understood before making inferences on the possible effects of the pandemic on value chains and associated fractures and resilience. Pre-existing conditions are manifested in the structure of agri-food value chains, the conduct of key stakeholders inside and outside of these chains, and their economic, social and environmental performance. These conditions are shaped by the political-legal, regulatory and broader institutional environment in which they operate.The shock of the pandemic and its health effects can trigger temporary behaviour change (e.g., workers not showing up due to sickness, fear of infection, or quarantine measures) and shortterm policy change in form of lockdowns, closures, sanitary measures, and export/import bans. These changes, in turn, can lead to more lasting effects along the nodes of agri-food value chains affecting logistics, finance and labour and, consequently, the capacity to get sufficient volumes of products and critical inputs to the right place at the right time. Given the critical importance of agri-food value chains for food security and employment, public and private sector and civil society actors seek to mitigate these effects through policies, strategies, and measures. The combined effects of mitigating responses may increase the resilience of value chains and, over time, have a bearing on structure, conduct, performance, and the institutional environments in which they are embedded (Fig. 1). Our review covered both scientific and grey literature published between May 2020 and September 2021. During a first stage, carried out in early 2021, a more diverse set of documents published between May and December 2020 was considered, including peerreviewed journal articles, discussion and working papers, reports, policy briefs and notes, and pertinent web articles. In a second stage, carried out in fall 2021, documents published between January and September 2021 were assessed, with special focus on peer-reviewed journal articles which were increasingly becoming available and, to a lesser extent, discussion and working papers and reports. Publications were considered pertinent if meeting the following criteria:• thematic focus on agri-food value chains and their performance during the COVID-19 pandemic• principal geographic focus on one or more countries in the Global South• based on empirical data (completed or advanced own surveys or secondary data)Initial screening focused on the titles and abstracts of publications identified by using COVID-19 as a search term, in combination with other terms such as value chain, agriculture, agrifood, farmers, forestry, production, processing, and marketing. The search was conducted with Google Scholar and Google Search, and by visiting the websites of key international organizations (e.g., OECD, UN, FAO, World Bank, IDB, AfDB, ADB). In addition, the CGIAR COVID-19 Hub was periodically consulted for the most recent publications.In a next step, preidentified publications were assessed for their pertinence based on the following requirements:• agri-food value chains and their actors explicitly mentioned• reference to specific actions or responses to COVID-19 and associated measures• anticipated or documented effects of the pandemic and associated policies and measures During this step, the following types of publications were discarded: 1) modelling/ simulation studies based on pre-COVID-19 data only, 2) opinion pieces, 3) documents with unclear methodology, 4) studies addressing COVID-19 effects on food and nutrition security, without reference to changes in agricultural income, production, processing, marketing, or other aspects of agri-food value chains.In a final step, we reviewed the remaining publications in more detail to determine their methodological robustness by distinguishing three levels:1) 'Low' robustness (n=29): non-peer reviewed publications (e.g., working/discussion papers, reports, policy briefs, project notes, blogs), observational or based on a small sample size of farming households or agri-food businesses (n<50)2) 'Medium' robustness (n=63): peer-reviewed journal articles based on secondary data, without explicit methodology or elaboration on data sources; working/discussion papers, reports or policy briefs/notes using primary data based on medium sample size (n=50-100) or baseline data3) 'High' robustness (n=77): peer reviewed journal articles based on primary or secondary data with explicit methodology and/or elaboration on data sources; working/discussion papers, reports or policy briefs/notes based on primary data with large sample size (n>100) or baseline data Data entries on publications with low methodological robustness in the database were limited to title, date, author, type of publication, data collection method, sample size, type of data analysis, citation, and weblink. Publications with medium or high methodological robustness were fully screened for the following parameters: 1) geographic and thematic focus; 2) lockdown and containment measures; 3) type of value chain and market destination; 4) value chain segments and actors addressed; 5) effects on production, processing, retail, finance, and logistics; and 6) responses by public and private sector and civil society actors.The tables presented below are based on the 140 publications meeting the criteria for medium or high methodological robustness. Cold and hot spots of the research focus underlying the studies were highlighted in the tables by using the colour scale function of MS Excel. Cells are shaded with gradations of red and green that correspond to minimum and maximum thresholds, respectively. In the discussion, reference is also made to publications with low methodological robustness where appropriate and useful.The 140 publications fully reviewed varied significantly regarding their coverage of value chain segments and actors. Variations across the nodes of the value chains were consistent between publication type (Table 1), geographic region (Table 2) and commodity type (Table 3). As reflected in Table 1, most publications (80%) addressed agricultural producers, followed by retailers (38%), consumers (29%), food processors, and itinerant traders or wholesalers (27% each). Notably less covered were input dealers (19%), transporters and distributors (12%), and providers of technical, business, or financial services (8%). Table 2 shows that the studies focused mainly on Asia and the Pacific (41%) and Africa (31%) and, to a much lesser extent, on Latin America and the Caribbean (6%). A notable number had a cross-regional or global focus (21%), while only a few studies focused principally on the Global North with some reference to the Global South (2%). As illustrated by Table 3, the strongest focus of the studies was on cereals and other staples (49%), fish and other aquatic products, and fruits and vegetables (44% each). Livestock products were covered with a view on poultry and eggs (30%), meat (20%) and, to a lesser extent, milk and dairy products (6%). A fifth of the studies had a general focus on agricultural products, and only a few focused specifically on forest and tree products (6%).Value chain fractures can be brought about by diverse combinations of restrictions affecting different nodes of agri-food value chains. Restrictions can result from direct effects of the pandemic on the health of value chain actors and service providers, from lockdown and containment measures imposed by governments, or from behaviour change in response to any of these. Relevant restrictions relate to the principal segments of agri-food value chains (production, processing, retail) as well as logistics and finance needed for operations (Table 4). Note: Multiple restrictions were reported for each value chain segment, logistics, and finance (for more details, see Tables 5-8).Table 4 reflects that production restrictions were most commonly reported, followed by retail, logistics, and finance restrictions. Comparatively low reporting of processing restrictions needs to be seen considering the stronger emphasis of the studies on agricultural production, retail markets, and food consumption. Restrictions in the movement of goods and people effectively affected all value chain segments, though to varying degrees.A breakdown of the restrictions provides further insight into the manifold ways agri-food value chains were affected by the pandemic, with diverse manifestations regarding agricultural production (Table 5), food processing (Table 6), finance (Table 7), and retail (Table 8).Logistics restrictions were mainly associated with transport (reported for 54-85% of the cases, depending on the commodity type) and, in rare cases, power outages or fuel shortages. Table 5 shows that restricted mobility and reduced supply of seeds, breeds, fertilizers and labour figured most prominently among production restrictions. In addition, agrochemicals, animal feed, and other farming inputs were also in short supply. Value chains of perishable products, such as fruits and vegetables, livestock and fish, were slightly more affected than those of non-perishables. By their very nature, forest and tree product value chains were also less affected. In some cases, less use of farming inputs or labour was due to reduced affordability rather than short supply. Table 6 points at labour shortages as a key restriction for food processing. These were a direct effect of COVID-19 infections, but resulted also from mobility restrictions, quarantine requirements, and other containment measures. Raw material shortages and restrictions regarding storage or machinery and equipment were rarely reported in isolation, but more frequently in combination with other restrictions affecting food processing. There were no reports on energy restrictions or lack of packaging material at processing level. Table 7 shows income shortfalls and lack of liquidity as principal restrictions in terms of value chain finance across all commodity types. It could have been expected that reduced access to loans and other bank services, along with delayed or foregone investments, would figure more prominently among finance restrictions. This can be attributed to the time lag that often occurs between the first manifestations of an economic shock and the response by financial institutions, as well as the fact that such restrictions did not occur in isolation but in combination with other financial restrictions as reflected by the last column in Table 7. Finally, a good part of the studies did not address finance restrictions in more details, leading to further underreporting. As reflected in Table 8, restricted movements of people and goods was mentioned as principal restriction at retail level. Across all commodity types, reduced demand affected retailers relatively more than reduced supply of agricultural products. Some studies reported restrictions in terms of storage, particularly with regard to perishable products and due partly to power outages or other energy shortages.Public and private sector and civil society actors responded to the shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in various ways, essentially with the aim to minimize value chain fractures and to alleviate resulting effects. Mitigating responses varied by sector and commodity type (Table 9) and can be broken down in public policy responses (Table 10) and those from private sector (Table 11) and civil society (Table 12).  As can be seen in Table 10, policy responses by public sector authorities entailed mainly the provision of emergency funds in the form of cash transfers, loans or other arrangements, along with humanitarian assistance through provisioning of food, water, and health care.Other policy responses included support beyond immediate needs through tax breaks and technical assistance. Interestingly, expansion of public debt was not mentioned in any publication. Table 11 details diverse private sector responses, with reduced sales, adapting through innovations, and reduced production figuring most prominently. Less common but more consequential responses included laying off staff and business closures which affected some businesses across value chains irrespective of their commodity focus. Businesses reducing raw material purchases and processing were also reported across different types of value chains, as was a reduced loan offer to upstream business partners linked with reductions in the procurement of raw materials. In contrast, companies less constrained in liquidity increased their loan offer to producers and other providers of raw materials in some cases to help them mitigate liquidity risks. As shown in Table 12, civil society organizations engaged with value chain actors in various ways to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, often combining humanitarian and financial assistance as emergency relief with technical assistance and, in a few cases, political advocacy to achieve more focused assistance by governments. Unlike the private sector, there were no reports on laying off staff among civil society organizations.In addition to responses by public and private sector and civil society actors, markets responded in manifold ways to the pandemic and its effects, reflected in fluctuations of prices and costs along the nodes of the value chains (Table 13). Table 13 reflects that shifts in supply and demand patterns were linked with upward and downward adjustments of prices and costs. In many cases, a mix of price dynamics was reported, typically including higher costs of agricultural inputs and costs in the midstream segments of the value chains which eventually translated into higher consumer prices. There were no reports on changes in transport, processing and storage costs, although in all likelihood they also occurred. Part of the cost pressure was passed on to producers who saw the prices for their agricultural products drop. On the whole, general price hikes along a given value chain were much more common than price drops affecting several nodes of a chain.Based on the literature reviewed, the value chains most affected by disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic were those of perishable products, such as meat, poultry and eggs, milk and dairy, fish, and fresh produce. The fractures were mainly caused by the disjuncture between farm production and food markets resulting from lockdown measures (TCI 2020). In China, for example, logistics disruptions led to feed shortages in livestock production which consequently turned out to be the most affected sub-sector in agriculture (Dai et al. 2021). Similar disruptions in access to agricultural inputs such as seeds, animal feed, fertilisers and agrochemicals were reported for fish, poultry and livestock products in several countries in Asia and Africa (Belton et al. 2021) and across various agri-food value chains in Kenya (Odhiambo et al. 2021). In Nepal, producers of perishable fruits and vegetables, and eggs and milk, were not able to sell their farm products to or purchase farm inputs from markets on time due to lockdown and transport restrictions (Adhikari et al. 2021). In India, truck movements fell to 10% of their pre-lockdown levels during some weeks of the lockdown, even though mandis (agricultural produce market committees), trucks and fertilizer shops were exempted from movement restrictions (TCI 2020). The agricultural sector was also exempted from lockdown measures in Ethiopia, but truckers were hesitant to move into rural areas in the early days of the pandemic because of fear of infection (Minten et al. 2020).Lack of transportation to move agri-food products to urban markets turned out to be a key factor underlying value chain fractures. Private sector responses to this and other logistics disruptions varied, ranging from reduced production to increased disposal and adjustments in prices and costs. Various studies documented the disposal and waste of milk (Addis Ababa), meat (Egypt, Tunisia), fish (India, Bangladesh), bananas (Ecuador, Ghana and India), and fresh fruits and vegetables (several countries). Globally, primary fishing activities decreased by 6.5% during the period coinciding with the most serious lockdown in spring 2020 (FAO 2020a). In Tunisia and rural Ethiopia, many farmers sold milk at below pre-pandemic prices (Najjar and Baruah 2020) and in Bangladesh milk prices dropped by 27% by late April 2020 (FAO 2020b).In Addis Ababa, cabbage prices dropped by two thirds from early to late March 2020 (Hirvonen et al. 2020). During some of the lockdown months, tomato prices in India were lower than year-on-year average prices (Varshney et al. 2020a). Lower producer prices were also reported in Myanmar (Boughton et al. 2021).Multiple reasons existed for reduced demand for perishable products and resulting pressure on producer prices, including prioritization of staples in times of depressed purchasing power among low-income households, the mistaken perception of exposure to the coronavirus when eating fresh vegetables, and lockdown measures which brought the restaurant and hospitality sectors to a near standstill. This sector was hit much stronger than wet markets and supermarkets which, as principal food retail outlets, were largely exempted from lockdown measures. In India, the pandemic-induced lockdown restricted access to some food markets and a majority of consumers (75%) across different zones experienced a price increase, leading to food loss along the chains, wastage at the consumers end, and 92% of consumers reporting a change in shopping behaviour (Cariappa et al. 2021).In general, value chains for less perishable products fared better, partly because governments prioritized cereals and other staples in public procurement programs. In India, for example, wheat prices recovered quickly from a price hike after government procurement support kicked in (Varshney et al. 2020a). Even in a fragile context such as Somalia the lockdowninduced increase in prices of staples such as rice was reported to brief (FAO 2021b). In several countries, no marked fluctuations of producer or consumer food prices were observed for less perishable products or, where these did occur, they were mostly short-lived. Studies covering multiple phases of the pandemic found that prices tended to return to pre-pandemic levels, but the pace and level at which that took place varied by commodity-specific demand and supply conditions. The few studies that examined prices across different segments of the value chain showed that the price changes at retail levels were less pronounced than those at production level, demonstrating the ability of value chains to absorb some of the price variability, even for perishable products like vegetables in Ethiopia (Hirvonen et al. 2021).The evidence available for fractures in agri-food value chains, as shown in the previous section, points essentially at disruptions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic at sub-national and local levels. Before analysing the evidence for value chain resilience at these levels, a look at global data provides additional context. The forecast for world cereal production in 2021 stood at 2,791 million tonnes in December 2021, 0.7 percent higher than the previous year's output which had already marked an all-time high (FSIN and GNAFC 2020;FAO 2021c). World milk production also showed resilience, growing by 1.4 percent in 2020 and reflecting production increases in key producing countries (FAO 2020c). Global meat production continued to grow during the pandemic, though at a rate below that of growing demand, leading to an average increase of meat prices by about 20% between summer 2020 and summer 2021 (FAO 2021d). Similar price hikes, or drops, were reported across numerous agri-food value chains, particularly during the tightest lockdown periods, but most of them were ephemeral in nature. As a general rule, upstream prices at farmgate level decreased in response to the logistics disruptions which effectively led to reduced demand, whereas downstream prices at retail and consumer levels rose as a consequence of limited supplies reaching the urban markets. Prices usually reached pre-pandemic levels after a few weeks or months unless factors other than the COVID-19 pandemic were at play.The resilience of agri-food value chains was particularly pronounced in countries where public and private sector response complemented each other. Government support varied widely, though, particularly between the Global North and the Global South. In high-income economies, policies focused largely on protecting incomes of farmers and processors through direct transfers and loans, and on supporting importers and exporters to overcome international logistics and marketing disruptions. In low-and middle-income countries, policies targeted specific groups of farmers through input subsidies or direct transfers to ensure domestic availability by expanding food reserves, while supporting consumers through domestic price controls and stock release from the reserves (FAO 2021a).In the Global South, the resilience of agri-food value chains differed across countries and types of value chains. From a private sector perspective, options for adapted business strategies were higher in value chains of non-perishable products in view of the possibility to store agricultural raw materials, produce processed food on shelf, and to stockpile foods close to retail outlets as traders expected the relaxation of lockdown measures. Evidently, such strategies were more viable for large agribusinesses and solvent small and medium enterprises (SMEs) than cash-constrained businesses and traders. Resilience was less pronounced in value chains of perishable products where such options were constrained by higher susceptibility to food loss and waste along the value chain nodes.Resilience differed also between global and domestic value chains. In general, the latter were more affected by movement restrictions limiting interactions between local traders and farmers, while international chains continued to operate relatively smoothly as bulk shipments did not experience major disruptions and freight prices even dropped significantly in the first half of 2020 (FAO 2021a). In value chains of aquatic food, most raw material prices remained stable at the international level, though prices of manufactured fish feeds increased leading to higher business costs at local level (Belton et al. 2021). Governments often used their regulatory and market power to intervene in both domestic value chains and, to a lesser extent, the upstream segments of international value chains originating in their country. They faced the challenge to balance their efforts to contain the spread of the virus with measures to ensure accessible and affordable food supplies to their population, while at the same time limiting disruptions in international value chains to avoid global food price hikes like those seen in 2007-08 (OECD 2021a). In India, private sector response coupled with adequate policy support led to considerable resilience in agricultural markets for both perishables and nonperishables; this included market reform measures which helped in insulating farmers from lower prices, though the effects were more salient for perishable goods than for nonperishables like wheat where the government remained the dominant market player (Varshney et al. 2020a). Across Asia, agri-food value chains showed greater resilience when agricultural production was less reliant on hired labour, external farming inputs (seeds, fertilizers, agrochemicals), or export markets. This was found in an Asia-wide systems assessment of the effects of COVID-19 across the four principal regional farming and food systems where, overall, resilience was strong because of inherent characteristics reinforced by public policies that prioritized staple food production and distribution as well as complementary welfare programmes (Dixon et al. 2021).On the whole, the evidence for the resilience of longer value chains vis-à-vis that of shorter chains is ambiguous. In India, for example, value chains connecting rural areas with larger cities fared better than those geared toward smaller cities where markets showed stronger price fluctuations (Narayanan and Saha 2021). This may be due to the higher volumes traded in large urban markets, requiring the bundling of supplies and other resources in associated value chains as more was at stake for buyers, processors, and traders. At the same time, it was also reported for India that products procured over long distances saw a higher decline in availability, while robust local value chains were considered as safeguards against supply shocks during disasters or pandemics (Mahajan and Tomar 2021). For both longer and shorter chains geared toward domestic markets, the often \"informal\" nature of business and labour relations in the Global South engenders some flexibility. In India, some workers laid off by formal businesses joined kiranas (informal food sellers) and other informal market players such as pushcart, street vendors who service an estimated 90% of the food retail market compared to the 8% market share of modern organized retail including supermarkets and the 2% share of online grocery (Narayanan and Saha 2021). In contrast, the vegetables and other sectors with labour-intensive formal and semi-formal arrangements in Ethiopia faced more severe disruptions when movement restrictions were tight, leading to labour shortages and resulting income losses for those fleeing the large farms where they had hitherto been employed (Minten et al. 2020).Technological innovations have also contributed to the resilience of agri-food value chains, as documented for the Global North, Asia and other regions in the Global South. E-commerce, for example, has helped SMEs deliver food to consumers under lockdowns and other constraints in China, India, Nigeria, Thailand, Malaysia, and Myanmar (Reardon and Swinnen 2020). In Latin America and the Caribbean, agricultural e-commerce and \"hyperlocal\" agrifood value chains have increased sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily to fill the gap in essential food supplies through business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) online platforms providing access to perishable products, such as fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, and fish, as well as semi-prepared and prepared foods (FAO and ECLAC 2020). E-commerce related to food is growing fastest in Asia, but is increasingly spreading in Africa, with the COVID-19 pandemic contributing to a second wave of diffusion beyond large companies by involving SMEs in trade, logistics and delivery, and mobile money firms (Reardon and Swinnen 2020). Exact data on the COVID-19 induced increase in the volumes traded through online platforms and other forms of e-commerce are not readily available, largely due to the absence of baseline data at pre-pandemic levels that could be compared with data collected during and after the peak of lockdown and other containment measures.The COVID-19 pandemic is a prominent example of an external shock that, abruptly and unexpectedly, has led to significant disruptions in agri-food value chains around the globe. Depending on country and context, the disruptions affected segments of value chains, entire value chains, or food systems at large. In some cases, agri-food value chains were subject to outright fractures, breaking up, or significantly limiting, interactions and flows of people, materials, and energy. Farmers, processors, and traders have had to respond not only to the direct effects of the pandemic, caused by compromised health of their families, employees and laborers, service providers, and business partners, but also to the effects of lockdown measures that sought to limit the spread of the virus. In addition to their role as regulators, policy makers also adopted an array of mitigating strategies, policies, and measures to minimize disruptions, absorb supply and demand shocks, provide relief to affected producers and consumers, and support the recovery of food chains. In given contexts, these efforts were supported by NGOs experienced in providing technical, business, and financial services for value chain development, as well as emergency relief.Based on the evidence to date, logistics disruptions owing to lockdown measures featured as a principal cause of value chain fractures, resulting in a disconnect between supply and demand and driving major price fluctuations. These were felt strongest on the opposite ends of the value chains, with agricultural producers facing reduced farmgate prices and lowincome consumers being exposed to price hikes at the retail level. Increased costs of inputs, delivery and storage also affected the midstream segments of agri-food value chains. For smallholder farmers, lack of access to seasonal labour and limited capacity for hiring increased their reliance on family labour. Maintaining production levels was also hampered by reduced access to and higher prices of farming inputs. Income shortages affected farmers and consumers alike. In some urban markets, there was a notable shift away from higher-cost food products rich in nutrients to lower-cost staples richer in calories, and from retail outlets closed during the lockdowns to online and other food services.Public procurement programs and the use of national reserves of major food staples helped to avert some of the most severe effects for low-income groups. These programs contributed to the availability of food supplies at affordable prices in urban areas, while at the same time ensuring minimum producer prices in rural areas. Irrespective of government interventions, prices for most agri-food products tended to return to pre-pandemic levels within weeks or a few months after the relaxation of lockdown measures. In those cases where major price hikes persisted, they were due to factors other than the COVID-19 pandemic, such as macroeconomic and trade distortions, natural disasters, extreme weather events, or a combination thereof. What started in the early months of the pandemic with major disruptions thus turned eventually into \"a relatively successful 2020 for the agriculture and food sector\", as noted by OECD (2021a).The earliest publications from 2020 were elaborated based mainly on an understanding of the context and limited access to primary data given the lockdown restrictions. Concerned with the repercussions the COVID-19 pandemic might have on farmers and low-income groups in urban areas, these early reports and papers sounded the alarm in view of the anticipated disruptions in agri-food value chains and the global food system. In 2021, a growing body of literature emerged which has provided a stronger evidence base for value chain fractures and resilience. By the end of 2021, it had become evident that worst-case scenarios involving a collapse of agri-food value chains and resulting famines had not materialized. Global food supply has generally remained unchanged by the COVID-19 pandemic, as reflected in growing world production of cereals, meat, and milk during 2020 and 2021. Changes in supply and demand patterns in response to logistics disruptions were mostly of short-term nature, as were major price oscillations. As observed by Bené et al. (2021), \"when quantitative data is available, it does not necessarily support the view that COVID-19 induced a systematic increase in food prices.\"While there is evidence on the capacity of agri-food value chains to recover from the disruptions caused by the pandemic, there remain several important unknowns. First, our review has shown a significant number of blind spots in value chain analyses linked with COVID-19. In terms of value chain actors, emphasis has largely been on producers, retailers, and consumers. The midstream segment of value chains has received much less coverage, in particular as regards the responses of food processors and traders. Similarly, input dealers and service providers operating from outside of value chains have hardly been addressed. From a geographical perspective, Asia and Africa have been the dominant focus areas, whereas comparatively little is known on the effects of the pandemic on agri-food value chains in Latin America and the Caribbean. The evidence for a broad array of agricultural commodities is solid, while it is scant for value chains of forest-based food products. Public sector interventions and private sector responses are relatively well documented, whereas interventions from NGOs have been largely disregarded by the studies reviewed. Finally, a major blind spot in most studies is the lack of gender-differentiated data at household, business, and value chain levels, as is the poor documentation of finance restrictions along the value chain nodes. These combined limitations are exacerbated by the widespread absence of baseline data -less than 10 percent of the studies could rely on pre-pandemic data for meaningful comparison. Combined with the often-short timespan covered and limited sample sizes, many publications provided a snapshot in time, rather than an ex ante -ex post analysis with robust differentiation between value chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and those due to other, often pre-existing conditions.Going forward, a particular challenge faced by CGIAR and others is to anticipate which value chain disruptions will have a more lasting impact on agri-food value chains. Any prediction of prolonged effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is rendered difficult by the fact that even the current situation in value chains is convoluted by varied combinations of factors and drivers.In their 2021 September Update, for example, FSIN and GNAFC (2021) report on a 19 percent increase of people in food crisis in 42 countries/territories from 135 million in 2020 to 161 million in 2021 \"as a result of the impacts of prolonged or intensifying conflict/insecurity, economic shocks -including the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic -weather extremes, natural disasters or a combination of these drivers.\" A more integrated and longterm view is also needed to determine how public and private sector response and NGO interventions, in isolation or combined, have helped mitigate the effects of the pandemic. At this point, it is too early to speak of a post-pandemic situation, requiring continued monitoring and periodic assessments to develop a timeseries which in the future allows solid ex ante -ex post analyses.At present, agri-food value chains remain vulnerable, especially in low-income countries and where pre-existing business conditions and shortcomings in regulatory frameworks continue to hamper value chain development. But value chain stakeholders and policy makers can now draw on experiences, insights, and emerging evidence that inform mitigating policies and private sector responses in future pandemics. In support of better preparedness, the aforementioned limitations and blind spots in value chain analyses focusing on the COVID-19 effects need to be addressed. More in-depth analysis is needed to better understand preexisting conditions and their bearing on value chain performance as well as mid-and longterm effects of specific policy, private sector and NGO interventions in agri-food value chains in response to the pandemic. Such analysis will also provide more insights into the resilience of domestic vs. global value chains, and that of value chain segments relying on formal vs. informal labour. Addressing limitations in the evidence base and shortcomings in public policies, regulatory frameworks, and public-private investments can bolster the resilience of agri-food value chains.DOI: 10.17528/cifor/008391 CIFOR-ICRAF Working Papers contain preliminary or advance research results on tropical landscapes and livelihoods that need to be published in a timely manner to inform and promote discussion. This content has been internally reviewed but has not undergone external peer review.The COVID-19 pandemic is a shock that, suddenly and unpredictably, has led to disruptions in agri-food value chains. Value chain actors have been facing the effects of both the pandemic and measures to limit the spread of the virus. Policy makers, as well as NGOs, have adopted mitigating policies, strategies, and interventions to minimize disruptions, absorb supply and demand shocks, provide relief to affected producers and consumers, and support the recovery of food chains.This paper reviews the literature on agri-food value chains published up to September 2021 for evidence of fractures and resilience in the context of the pandemic. The review includes 140 publications that met established criteria of methodological robustness. They focused primarily on Asia and the Pacific (41%) and Africa (31%) and, to much lesser extent, on Latin America and the Caribbean (6%) and the Global North (2%); about one fifth (21%) had a cross-regional or global focus. Agricultural producers (80%) were the principal value chain actors addressed, followed by retailers (38%), consumers (29%), food processors (27%), itinerant traders and wholesalers (27%), input dealers (19%), and transporters and distributors (12%). Commodity focus was on livestock products (56%), cereals and other staples (49%), fish and other aquatic products (44%), fruits and vegetables (44%), poultry and eggs (30%), meat (20%), milk and dairy (6%), forest and tree products (6%), or general agricultural products (20%).Based on existing evidence, disruptions induced by the pandemic affected primarily value chains of perishable products. Lockdown measures limited the movement of people and goods and included the partial closure of markets. Logistics disruptions also reduced the access of farmers to agricultural inputs. Less perishable products typically fared better in view of longer shelf life and public procurement programs prioritizing cereals and other staples.Price fluctuations were common across value chains and most pronounced during the tightest lockdown periods. In general, farm gate prices for producers decreased as logistics disruptions caused a disconnect between supply and demand. Retail and consumer prices, in turn, rose as limited supplies reached the market. Prices mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels shortly after lockdown measures had been relaxed unless factors other than the pandemic were at play.Worst-case scenarios involving a collapse of agri-food value chains and resulting famines have not materialized. Still, agri-food value chains remain vulnerable, especially in low-income countries and where pre-existing business conditions and shortcomings in regulatory frameworks continue to hamper value chain development. In support of better preparedness for future crises, more in-depth analysis is needed to better understand pre-existing conditions and their bearing on value chain performance, along with mid-and long-term effects of specific policy, private sector and civil society interventions in agri-food value chains in response to the pandemic. Addressing shortcomings in public policies, regulatory frameworks, and public-private investments can bolster the resilience of agri-food value chains.The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) envision a more equitable world where trees in all landscapes, from drylands to the humid tropics, enhance the environment and well-being for all. CIFOR and ICRAF are CGIAR Research Centers.","tokenCount":"7353"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cf58582aef7e7fb4db4a4dd068a20197","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b7745a6f-167f-4503-8b65-f6ac72034acb/retrieve","id":"-1647066322"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4b9621d7-5f3e-4bae-921b-9b12c61c37d3","pagecount":"20","content":"This paper attempts ro highlight Ihe ract that ít is time to criticalIy rethink the use of lhe partieipatory paradígm in research and development. The notion of participalíon is not only highly deba!ed but a1so heavily misused and abused in research aud development discourscs. Rhetoric.lIy, almost alI documen!s of government, rcseareh organizations, !NGOs, .nd NGOs impressively use sueh terms as beneficiaries' partícipation, participatory approach, use of indígenous knowledge, bottom-up plaMíng, etc. Bu! in reali!y, they themselves control Ihe partícipatory process by ímposing their eriteria, condítions, and regulations. The global as well as Nepalese experiences in participatory approaches in both research .nd development show Ihat lhe commitment and confidence oflocal people is nol gained at Ihe desired leveL The participatíon ofhenefidaries in lhe research and developmenl process is not only a means bul also an end thar empowers people. Participation has to focus on contributíng, ínfluencing, sharing, and redistributíng power, resourees, henefils, and knowledge. Therefore, the essence oflhe participatory process lies in helpíng people to mak. their own decisions and to take responsibilí!y for lheir own welfare. Thís perspective has profound implications for choosíng approaches and methodologies for participatory plant breeding. New challenges in plant breeding are posed by genetic engineenng, bíotechnology, globalization, patenting, .nd a profit-oriented focus. Th.re is increasing evidence thal scientists have a strong egocentric involvement ín their innovations, which is often in conflict wilh lhe tremendous knowledge and experience oflncal people. Henoe, it is lime to retbink the participatory paradigm in research and develapmen! .nd develop • new professianalism lO address the newly emergíng .hallenges.The term participation in rescarch and dcvelopment (R&D) i8 becoming devalued (Farrington  1998) and evcn abused, partiy in response to donor pressure (much ofwhich is rhetoric) and partly as a fashion wíthout substance. Particípatíon is also a notion that has been hotly debated arnong ít5 practitíoners and used as a means to achieve the objectives of projects and prograrns (Narayan 1995). But in thís paper, 1 am conceptualizing partidpation and participatory approaches in the broader context as both a means and an end. In thí8 conceptualization, participation i8 a 'multi-dimensional, dynamic process of contributing, influencing, sharing, or redistributing power and of control, resources, benefits, knowledge, and skills to be gained through beneficiaries' involvement in decision making.' Therefore, participation i5 a voluntary process by which people, especially the dísadvantaged (in income, gender, ethnícity, education, etc,) influence or control decisions regarding plant breeding that affect thero. As a non-plant-breeder, 1 arn visualizing participatory plant breeding (PPB) from thís frarnework. There are dífferent levels of participation, ranging from passive participation (farmers participate in activities decided unilateralIy by PPB professionals), participation in information giving (farmers answer questions posed by PPB professionals), partidpatíon by consultation (PPB professionals consult farmers and listen their víews), participation for material incentives (farmers particípate to obtain miní-kits given by PPB professionals, to be involved in farmers' field trials, etc,), functíonal participatíon (farmers participate in the predetermined functional requireroents ofPPB professíonals), interactive participation (joint analysís with farmers lo make action plans and mobilize local institutions, using ínterdisciplinary methodologies Bishnu Raj Upreti is a PhD candidate in the Department af Social Sciences. Wageningen Agricultural University. Wageningen.that seek multiple perspectives) and self-mobilization (fanners take initiatives themselves in plan! breeding) (Prerty et al. 1995).Participatory processes have certain characteristics: they integrate community mobilization for PPB planning and action based on equal an partnership between farmers and researchers; theyairn at strengthening fanners' problem-solving, planning, and management abilities; they promote fanners' capacity to develop appropriate new technologies; they encourage resource-poor farmers to learn tbrough experimentation, building on their knowledge and practices (action and reflection); they recognize that aH farmers are not the same-with conflicts and differences in ínterest, power, and capabilities. Farmers participate when they realíze tha! the benefíts of participation outweigh the costs. So the pertinent question is, Do such PPB practices pro vide benefits to fanners? In the context of PPB, different rnodes of participation can be discussed, ranging from contractual (PPB professionals contraet farmers to provide physical resources such as land, germplasm, or indigenous knowledge) to consultative (PPB professionals consult farmers about theirproblems and then develop solutions) to collaborative (PPB professíonals and farmers collaborate as partners in the breeding process) to collegial (PPB professionals work to strengthen farmers' breeding systerns) (Prerty el al. 1995). When we talk about participatory processes, we have to be clear abaut which mode and leve! ofparticipation are relevant at a particular stage ofPPB.The essence ofPPB needs to be looked at from two levels:• First, within the PPB process, Who initiates research? Whose research agendas are used?Whose needs are being met? Who directs and controls the PPB process? What is the bottom line ofPPB? Does PPB specifically focus on poor and rural women as key players in managing plant genetic resources (PGR), post-harvest processing, and the nutritíon of children.• Second, on broader global challenges: Does PPB work on equity and poverty issues? Does PPB focus on the empowerment of marginal, resource-poor fanners to írnprove their position in society? Does PPB have the capacity to deal with the threats posed by globalization and the abuse of advancements made in the field ofbiotechnology in exploíting the poor fanners of developing countries? How does PPB deal with increasing bio-piracy? How does PPB deal wíth growing starvation and famine? In my opinion, these are some of the pertinent questions that need to be critically considered in promoting PPB.In this paper, 1 attempt to examine the essence, opportunities, mínimum conditions, and threats to PPB frorn the non-plant-breeder's perspective and pose sorne critical questions to promote discussion and debate to irnprove the performance ofPPB. This paper is divided into tbree sections.The first sectíon introduced paper and its outline. The second section raises issues related to PPB, i.e., How particípatory is PPB? What are its approaches and methodologies? Who defines participation and who initiates it? What seale and level ofparticipation is involved in PPB? What is the poliey context and institutional framework for PPB? What are the threats to PPB from genetic engineering bioteehnology, and globalization. It argues that PPB has increasingly shifted to the control of commercial interests. A discussion is presented on the need to integrate the social and technical sciences to promote PPB. And finally, the third section concludes tbat there is not only great scope for prornoting real PPB but there are also big challenges.The eommon categorization of plant breeding into fanner-led and formal-Ied PPB is problematic because in either case fanners, especíally poor fanners, are involved in the initiatives ofbreeders. Furthermore, the formal-led PPB is limited by organizational conditions, criteria, and obligations. It develops separate regimes and widens the gap between them. The dichotomy is vague and confusing if real poor and marginalízed fanners are to be targeted. In the philosophy of participation, no one leads but both collaborate to achieve common objectives. Therefore, the chaIlenges for professionals working in PPB are how to achieve collaborative participation to meet the needs of poor and marginal farmers, how to negotiate or cope with the commercial exploitation of PPB, how to sacrifice the personal benefits ofbreeders that are ensured through patenting and the Intemational Convention for the Protection ofNew Varieties ofPlants (UPOV), l and how to share these benefits with poor fanners. In the following section 1 will briefly discuss these issues.Genetic diversity in agriculture enables fanners to select varieties of plants that are best adapted to a changing environment and economic and social pressures. Access to such diversity is vital for securing current and future agricultura! production and food security. In this context, the need for PPB is enhanced by a growing realization that conventional plant breeding has been unable to address .the erop requirements for the 1.5 billíon food-deficit people ofthe world (PRGA 1999). The socioeconomie and agroecologieal conditions offarmers are complex, diverse, and risk-prone, and the conventional breeding approach based on unidirectional breeder-and lab-centered work is unlikely to address the complex problems of resource-poor fanners. PPB is an alternate approach that closely engages fanners through diagnosis, experimentation, and dissemination and systematicaIly incIudes fanners' knowledge, skills, and preferences in the process (PRGA 1999). PPB helps to increase understanding of the conditions, the opportunities, and the constraints fanners face and to build on that. Therefore, PPB will be adaptable, locaIly owned, and sustainable.1 believe that PPB, in ita current changing context, needs to be seen from a broader perspective, which encompasses relationships among plants, anima!s, microorganisms, soil, and water within particular social, cultural, and ecological systems, as well as fue contribution ofPPB to local food security and the empowerment of marginal farmers. Therefore, tradition, culture, indigenous knowledge should be importanl elements ofPPB. PPB should not only aim lo increase productivity but it should also be targeted to bridge fue gap between farmcrs and the formal RD sector, empowering fanning communities, contributing to moditying agricultural policies in general (and seed and breeding policies in particular), and documenting indigenous knowledge and skills. PPB should not be limited lo enhancing genetic diversity alone, but it should also be expandcd lo conserve the diversity of the ecologica! system, of the .furming system, of species, and of output (Shiva et al. 1995) as well as ofthe sociocultural syslem. In reality, are these aims fulfilled by PPB? Unot, why not? What are the bottlenecks? It is time to rethink these issues. In this paper 1 am discussing these issues from the perspective of food seeurity, globalization, the abuse of genetic engineering and bioteehnology, and the empowerment ofpaor and marginal fanners. We have a bitterexample ofGreen-Revolution-type development where the gap between rich and poor was widened (Shiva et al. 1995). Breeders have developed varieties of crops that are suitable to mid-income and rieh fanners, not to resource-poor fanners. PPB needs to be able to provide benefits to poor fanners in order to secure their meaningful participation.The extinction of seed varieties, the erosion of genetic diversity, and the abuse ofthe rapid advancement of genetic engineering and biotechnology to create genetic unifonnity and vulnerability are the major threats to food security and the survival ofresource-poor fanners. Increasingly, the native varieties upon which the survival of many poor farmers is based, are becoming inaccessible or being replaced. This poses severe challenges for PPB, exemplified by the following statement ofMr. LI-BIRD research findings also show that several varieties ofvegetables are on the verge of extinction in Nepal (Rana, Joshi, and Lohar 1998).How participatory is PPB?In the existing PPB, the role of fanners is no more than that of contractual participation, as they provide gennplasm to breeders and seed companies to keep in gene banks. But such gene banks fail to conserve genetic diversity because of scientific flaws and technical and polítical inadequacies (Shiva et al. 1995). In conventional plant breeding, fanners are merely the suppliers of genetic ma-. terials, based on the hope of future use. F anners are cornmonly kept at a distance from the breeding process and only considered as consumers ofthe product, i.e., the seed. The fanner-breeder link is stilllinear and top-down.In recent years, plant breeding has radically shified from the conventional domain to genetic engineering and biotechnology and has been unexpectedly manipulated for cornmercial interests. Therefore, it is time to critically assess which groups offanners are involved in PPB and which are benefitting from PPB. Generally, the fanners who are consulted by breeders are from the middle and higher economic strata; they are not the backward and marginalized resource-poor fanners. F anners from middle and higher economic classes are more articulate, better able to invest in the breeding process, have a greater risk-bearing capacity, and are more capable of dealing with breeders (by expressing their ideas and responding to requests for infonnation). They are therefore involved in PPB and getting benefits from it. The argument 1 have ofien heard is the inability of poor fanners to carry out PPB activities. However, the major unexpressed reasons for limiting the participation of these fanners--or excluding them altogether-are their inability to offer good facilities for lodging and food for R&D professionals, poor environmental hygiene, language differences, cultural biases, geographical biases (their concentration in accessible areas), etc.Many R&D professionals rhetorically use the participatory paradigm as a ready-made solution to improve the livelihood of extremely poor fanners without considering underlying principies of participation and local dynamics and conditions. Such interventions not only create social tensions and conflicts, but they also abuse the essence of participatory discourses in R&D. Participation engenders financial, social, physical, and psychological costs as well as benefits. Furthennore, PPB professionals also exploit the financial resources obtained from donors in the name ofPPB for personal benefits (e.g., higber studies, training abroad, higher salaries, etc.). Many professionals working in R&D still lack lhe appropriate knowledge and skills to facilitate participatory processes. Considering this, how does PPB contribute to improving the livelihood of poor farmers, enhancing food security, and empowering marginal farmers?1 realized that the existing PPB approach limits itself to a functional type of participation where farmers are merely involved in a breeding agenda set by the PPB professionals, not to lhe extent of lheir empowerment.Opportunities.There are several global and local opportunities to promote PPB. Among them the fol!owing two are importan!.Convention on biodiversity as a broader framework for PPB. A decision reached at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 by signatories to lhe Convention on Bio-Diversity (CBD) establíshed lhat genetic resources (seeds) are no longer \"the cornmon heritage of mankind\" but fal! under lhe sovereignty of individual countries. The CBD legally binds member countries to conserve genetic resources and farmers' rights (Chaudhary 1999). The threats posed to biodiversity, lhe environment at large, and human health by globalization and the new genetic engineering and biotechnology are major concems under the CBD (TWN 1998). The preamble oflhe CBD, Indent 9, regarding precautionary principies states that \"where lhere is a threat of significant reduction or loss ofbiological diversity, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to avoid or minimise such threats.\" Article 8(g) ofthe CBD, dealing with in situ conservation, obliges contracting parties to \"establish or maintain means to regulate, manage or control lhe risks associated wilh the use and release ofliving modified organisms resulting from bio-technology which are líkely to have adverse environmental impacts that could affect the conservation and sustainable use ofbiological diversity, taking also finto 1 account lhe risk to human heallh.\" Artiele 8(h) requires parties to \"prevent lhe introduction of, control or eradicate lhose alíen species which threaten ecosystems, habitats and species.\" Artiele 8 G) oflhe CBD addresses lhe knowledge, innovations, and practices of indigenous and local cornmunities embodying traditionallifestyles relevant to lhe conservation and sustainable use ofbiological diversity (Ho 1998). Therefore, CBD is supportive and provides a promotional regulatory framework to enhance PPB.Civil society awareness and NGO initiatives. Civil-society movements to promote PPB, to conserve biodiversity, and to minimize the negative impact of globalization emerging and gaining momentum. The protests at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle and lhe meeting ofthe United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCT AD) in Bangkok, and lhe Navdhnya and Beej Banchao movements in India are examples of civil awareness. Likewise, several nongovernmental organizations, farmers groups, and activists are increasingly working towards PGR conservation and lhe protection of farmers' rights througb lobbying and advocacy. Sorne NGOs are even strongly emerging to promote PPB. LI-BIRD in Nepal is an example of such an initiative.In order to promote PPB at the nationallevel, sorne minimum favorable conditions need to exis!. Sorne oflhese are brief1y discussed as follows:Conducive policy context and supportive institutional and regulatory frameworks. Is the national polícy context conducive to the promotion of PPB and are institutional and regulatory frameworks supportive enough? This is the major question to be debated and discussed in the present context. The conducíve policy context and supportive institutíonal and regulatory frameworks are essential to materialízing, promoting, and sealing up PPB to merease people's livelihoods and have a broader impact on resource-poor farrners. The regulatory measures have great bearing on PPB-how supportive they are to promotíng PPB and how strong they are to protect farmers' rights and to prevent bio-piracy, genetic erosion, monopoly oftransnational seed compames, etc. It is essential to deve10p the institutional capacity, relationship with farrners, and research-ínstitutions to create an environment favorable to promotíng PPB. Decentralized management structures and effective mechanisms for sharmg and disseminating informatíon, as well as systems for regular monitoring, evaluation, feedback, and feed-forward are important charaeteristies of institutions that can and will support and promote PPB. However, policymakers, plarmers, and semor managers of agricultural research have yet 10 realize the importance ofPPB, at least in Nepal. For example, in Nepal there is neither cIear policy on PPB nor any interest or concem from policymakers and politicians. Similarly, neither there is regulation on the import Oí informal entry into the country of genetically modified or terminator seeds that can have a negative impact on the local seed-management system and which can contribute to genetic erosiono Nepalese laws and regulations are either silent or uncIear about genetically modified crops, patenting, bio-piracy, CBD, or farrners' rights (Timsina 2000).New professionalism to improve PPB performance. Since PPB itself is an integration of social and technical scíences, it is essential to develop a new professionalism with an adequate understanding ofthe importance ofboth sciences. Shared cognition and mtention, along with appropriate institutions are essential ingredients to an interactive design thatviews people as participants, no! as object that can be instrumentally and strategically manipulated (Roling 2000). So far, the egocentric attitudes of natural and social scientists, and their lack ofknowledge and skills in participatory processes, have restricted collaboration not on1y m particípatory R&D activities but also in developing thís new, integrated professionalism. PPB not only deals with technical issues of genetics, plant breeding, entomology, and plant pathology but it also combines the perspective of economics, socíology, anthropology, farm management, etc., to social íssues Iike the attitude and behavior of farrners; their economic, social, and cultural conditions for adaptaríon of PPB outcomes; local knowledge and information about the characteristics of particular plants and varieties, etc. One can not assume that the goals ofPPB are the goals of farrners. At this juncture, there is a gap bctween social and natural scientists that could be bridged by developing a new, integrated professionalism through appropriate training, sharing, and experimentation.It is increasingly realized that the \"delivery\" of science-based innovations like planl varieties to farmers does not work (Roling 2000). This approach was attempted by the Green-Revolution model but failed to reduce the gap between rich and poor, which increased instead. Therefore, a newapproach is essential in order to develop effective action according to the objectives, expectations, priorities, and knowledge of farrners. It is time to integrate hard, positivist-objectivist, biophysical science with 50ft, participatory, constructivist social science to deal with PPB, which imparts knowledge, skills, and a change m the attitude of scientists (both social and biophysical), and 10 work in a collaborative and complementary way to improve the performance of PPB. One important characteristic of a successful professional, whether breeder or social scientist who works with communities, ís the learnÍng attitude and communication skills. One of the major constraints observed in PPB is the lack of intemalizing the role and importance of íntegrated professionalism.Changing from an ethnocentric, own-discipline bias to accommodation of multidisciplinarityshifting perspectives and feeling from \"we are the master and, therefore, part of the solution and theyare the lay person and therefore part of the problem\" to \"we both are leamers and collaborators\"-is another challenge to be intemalízed by PPB professíonals. Attítudinal differences between two groups of scientists are due lo differenl kinds and levels of knowledge, orientation, background, professional bias, and experience. Therefore, balancíng recognition and exploring latent conflict is essential to increasing commitmenl, collaboration, and interdisciplinarity.In Ihis section, the effeet of globalization, intellectual property rights, UPOV, genetic engíneering and biotechnology, and bio-piracy is presented from the PPB perspectíve. The dominant reductionisl scientific world view of fue West and its inventions like genetic engineering and bíolechnology ís causíng suffering, widening poverty, and destroying earth (Ho 1998). Intemational agricultural trade does no! benefit fue poor because it is based on the monitory interests of transnational and multinational companies. Ralher, it is severely threateníng farmers' rights to seed and plant genetic resources (Action Aid 1999). It ís increasingly accepted that genetic engineering, in general, and patenting of genetic resources, in partícular, have a potentially negative impact on resource-poor farmers. Studies have shown thal the Iiberalization of global trade is not only exerting enormous pressure on resource-poor agriculture and marginalizíng poor and small farmers, but it is also promoting starvation and the eros ion of agricultural biodiversity and indigenous knowledge (Action Aid 1999). Transnational and multinational agribusiness corporations are benefitting from globalization and the Iíberalizatíon oftrade at the cost of inequality, hunger, and the threatened survíval of resource-poor farmers of developing countries like Nepal.Threats to PPB by genetic engiÍteering and biotechnology. In lhe field ofbreeding, genetic engineering and biotechnology is a departure from lhe conventional breeding índuced by industrialized countries. The sole motive of these innovations i5 to monopolize global agriculture and maximize profit (Ghale and Upreti 2000). Genetic engineering is widely touted by lhe giant biotech industries of lhe developed countries as the cure for world hunger. Their argument is lhat genetic engineering and biotechnology will help to restore a healthy environment, prevent further degradation of plant genetic re80urces, and globally pro vide more choices and opportunitie8.lt i8 assumed lhat hunger is due to lack of foOO. But lhat i8 a simple and incorrect analysis of world hunger. The fundamental cause ofhunger is not Iack of food but a whole range of things from unjust and inequitable political and economíc structures lo ecological degradation for maximization profit lo lhe marginalization of poor people (Ghale and Upreti 2000). Even some ecological economists argue that hunger ís lhe inevitable result of globalizatíon and lhe free-market economy.Genetic engineering and biotechnology have been directed solely al meeting lhe conimercial interests of a few giant food producers and processors in industrialízed countries. Genetic engineering and biotechnology bypass the natural reproduction process because they horizontally transfer genes from one individual to anolher, as compared to vertical transfer from parents to offspring. These horizontal gene transfers not only spoil genetic diversity but also raise ethical questions (for eXJunple, human gene transfer to pígs, sheep, or bacteria). Transgeruc plants are generally resistant to broad-spectrum herbicídes, which cause acute and chromic loxicity and have a negative impact on biodiversity (ESRE 1999). Similarly, intervention in agriculture through genetíc engineering and biotechnology reinforce existing social structures, maximíze monopolistic profits, and inten-sifY agricultural practices, which willlead to widespread environmental destructíon and ecological imbalance.Intellectual property rights, the Union for the Protection ofPlant Varieties, and PPB. Intellectual property rights (IPR), plant breeders' right, and patents 2 as a regulatory arrangement introduced in the field ofbreeding to universalize the command and control of most developed countries has not provided protection to public interests in developing countries (Ghale 1999). How do breeders and other professionals working in the field ofPPB perceive plant breeders' rights as embodied in the UPOV convention, which strongly centralizes the plant breeding (TWN 1996)? Which options do breeders involved in PPB prefer in IPR protection-protection through patents of protection sui generis J or open?Due to the UPOV convention, the trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs), and genetic engineering and biotechnology, the control over plant breeding and seed is shifting from farmers to giant multinational seed companies. In this context, do participatory plant breeders advocate farmers' rights to use, produce, multiply, share, exchange, sell, modif'y seed, and plant genetic materials freely? The restrictions imposed by IPR infringe on farmers' rights. UPOV claims that the implementation ofthe new plant variety protection (PVP) arrangement stimulates protection ofthe environment and conservation ofbiodiversity and stability offood availability. That is only a nightmare and misleading (GRAIN 1999) because the uniformity criterion specified for PVP by UPOV tends to destroy diversity and enhance genetic erosiono IfPPB practitioners realize this, then the fundamental shift from conventional PPB to PPB led by advocacy and lobbying is essential. This is probably too hard for the breeders. Another ethical question related to PPB is the IPR issue. PPB builds directly on farmers' knowledge and germplasm to select and develop crop varieties. Therefore, the ownership rights, access, benefits, and control of such varieties needs to be held by farmers instead ofbreeders. But does this happen in reality?Threats to PPB from globalization. Technological advancement and the international expansion of trade and cornmerce have fundamentally shifted the focus on plant breeding. Global competitiveness is emerging as a determinant ofplant breeding. The World Trade Organization (WTO), through its TRIPs arrangement and patenting of life forms, is posing new challenges and eroding the scope of self-supporting PPB. In the developed world, local seed saving is increasingly considered as a barrier to trade and cornmerce, and provisions are being imposed on farmers to pay royalties to plant breeders and companies. Globalization, through WTO and other similar arrangements, is forcing a radical change, not only on the setting of agricultural research but also by pressurizing member countries to change their legal, regulatory, and fiscal policies. In the case of plant breeding, the development of genetically modified foods and terrninator technology by giant multinational agro-biotech companies like Monsanto, Novartis, and DuPont are examples ofthreats to PPB.As the global market becomes more liberal, there is a countervailing trend to privatize knowledge and agricultural innovations for cornmercial profit (Action Aid 1999). Under TRIPs, iffarmers use patented seed, they will be forced to pay royalties to the patentee ifthey keep seed to re-sow in the following years. Giant bio-tech companies are using local knowledge on the properties of plants to identif'y \"useful\" genes. They then patent the gene and its use. As a consequence, farmers in the country of origin have to buy it back and pay royalties. For example, neem trees from India and Nepal, basmati rice from India, and jasmine rice from Thailand are patented by Monsanto-like 2. A patent is a fonn ofintellectual property protection that gives a rnonopoly right to exploit an invention for a period of 17 to 20 years. Artic1e 27.3b of TRIPS requires developing countries to allow companies to take out patents on the products and processes ofbiotechnology. This artic1e also demands that countries supply either patent protection or an effective sui generis (a wIique intellectual property system for a specific good or process). 3. Sui generis is a Latin phrase cornmonly used in the IPR debate, which means \"ofits own kind.\" companies. By placing the control of gennplasm in the hands ofthe most powerful corporate bodies in global agriculture, the social, political, and economic structures that underpin poverty and hunger will continue to flourish (Action Aid 1999).The open-market economy, free trade, and economic liberalization are the basic premises ofWTO, in which patenting and IPR are the most controversia! issues related to agricu!ture. Article 27.3 (b) of the TRIPs agreement does not recognize Ihe right of local corrununities to their indigenous know1edge and agricultural practices. This article forces members to protect Iheir rights to genetic resources for food and agriculture (GRAIN 1999). The corrunercialization of terminator techno!ogy, a genetically engineered trait Ihat causes crop seeds to become sterile at harvest time, is posing another threat around the world (GRAIN 1999). The majority of Ihe intemational and transnational life science companies are no! only ignoring basic ethics and values but are also destroying indigenous knowledge, technologies, and practices for the so!e aim ofprofit (UvA 1999). Therefore, excluding agricultural biodiversity and plant genetic resources from the patent protection within TRIPs 27.3 (b) and the protection of farmers' rights is essential 10 minirnizing Ihe negative effect of the TRIPs agreement on Ihe livelihood of rcsource-poor fanners. In reality, the relationship between intellectual rights on Jife fonns and Ihe conservation and sustainable use ofbiodiversity is highly conlentious (GRAIN 1999).Bio-piracy as an emerging threat. Bio-piracy is anolher threat emerging from patent arrangements and TRIP' Bio-piracy from developing countrÍes lo paten! innovation and earn money is on the inerease. Recent seed-related research in Nepal has shown that bio-piraey is rapidly increasing in Ihat eountry (Timsina 2000). The research report states that Ihe germplasm of buek-wheat (Fagopyrum spp), barley (Hordeu'm spp.), chuehe karela (Momordica spp.), wild rice varieties containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Oryza spp.), several herbal medicinal plants, and colocacia were taken from Nepal wilhout permission by Japanese, Gennan, and American researchers working in and or visiting Ihe country. Nepalese breeders and NGO workers supported Ihem in Ihis bio-piracy.It is time to relhink Ihe approaches, methodologies, and focus ofPPB to address changing global challenges and to raise Ihe livelihood of resource-poor farmers. As a people-centered approach, PPB has to work in Ihe spirit of conventional plant breeding, wruch seeks to promote Ihe establishment of a sovereign community and indigenous rights to plant genetic resources. TRIPsIWTO, UPOVI plant-variety protection, genetic engineering and biotechnology, and bio-piraey are beeomíng increasingly serious threats to PPB, food security, indigenous knowledge, and conservation ofbiodiversity. Corporate control of seed and plant genetie resources is creating inequalities. To minimize Ihese adverse effeets, it is essential for PPB to take Ihe initiative in developing a gennplasm-sharing network among fanners, PPB practitioners, and civil society, by establishing in situ seed banks as a cornmon property resource, promoting the exchange of indigenous knowledge, registering seed and plant genetic resources at Ihe community level, strenglhening the management capacity of farmers for plant genetic resourees, recognizing fanners' innovations, etc. Sínce Ihe last decade, PPB has been widely advocated by donor-supported researeh centers rather than poor farmers. Much of Ihe discussion on PPB has been rhetone, ventunng into professional debate among the believers ofPPB. Sorne practical efforts have been made to promote PPB, but they have been limited to a small-scale, disorganized, and mechanistic use of a few participatory tools such as PRA, on-fann trials, and fanner groups in a superficiallevel. Not much attention has been given to empowering fanners and increasing their livelihood. Therefore, a substantial reform in existing PPB-through the development of new professionalism and ideas, frameworks, and methodologíes, particularly by engaging in collaborative action-is essential ifPPB is to address the globalIy emergíng challenges in plant breeding. Experiences over the last decade suggest that plant breeding approaches are donor driven, operating under the broad conceptual framework and financial condítíons imposed by donors, which are, therefore, more rhetoríc than \"real participatíon\" to empower a weaker sectíon of society. The lack of cornmunication and facilitation skills, conducive policy measures, and supportive institutional and regulatory frameworks in national agricultura! research systems, combined with the egocentricity ofbreeders and social scientists and a sectoral approach, are sorne of the major bottlenecks to prornoting a PPB tbat airns to use participation both as an end and a means. The scaling-up, institutionalizing, simplifying (dernystífication of prevailing jargon and rhelorie), ernpowering of fanners, rnanaging ehange, reorienting training, eoping with globalization and TRIPs/patenting, and developing a new professionalisrn are sorne of the major areas to be improved in order to reform the existing PPB.The on!y way to cope with the threat of genetic engineering and biolechnology at the globallevel is lo work in line with the Convention on Bio-Diversity, an intemational treaty Ihat has been sígned by more than 160 member states ofthe United Natíons. This convention provídes an international legal framework for the conservatíon ofbiologícal diversíty, including access to and exchange of genetic materials and biodíversity prospecting. The goal of in situ conservation is to encourage farmers to continue to select and manage local erop populations (Brush 1999). In situ conservation aims to conserve not onIy genes themselves but also the farming systems and agroecosystems that produce and maintain genetic diversity (Eyzaguirre and Iwanaga 1996). Effective management and conservation of genetic resources on-farrn takes place where the genetic resources are valued and used to meet the needs oflocal communities. The in situ conservation project supported by the Intemational Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) in Nepal recognizes that farmers maintain local crop genetic resources ifthey remain eompetitive with other options or ifthey have value for special uses. Jarvis andHodgkin (1997, 1999), Sthapit andJarvis (1999), andBrush (1999) suggest that one method to encourage farrners to continue to select and manage local crop populations is to increase the value oflocal and diverse crop populations to farrners who might otherwise stop growing them. In this paper, we concentrate on the contribution of vanous options lO add benefits that help maintain and maximize the genetic diversity wíthin the total erop gene pooLThe Nepal projeet has developed a variety of innovative and participalOry methods to increase the value and benefits of landraces for farmers and society. Benefits may be sociocultural, eeonomic, ecological, or genetic and may apply to farmers, communities, or society as a whole. This requires an in-depth understanding of the value of local crop diversity and potential ways of adding value and market networks. Brush (1999) ídentified three types of value in local erop diversity: direct, indirect, and optionaL This paper documents sorne case studies on optíons for adding benefit, carried out in three study. sites: Jumla (220Om), Kaski (J200m), and Bara (85m) in Nepal.Direct values refer to the harvest 'and uses of crop vaneties as a part of a subsistence, commercial, andlor industrial process. Direct values have been considered as the basis of ín situ conservation. Farmers value local crop diversity in terms oflocal adaptatíon to ecological diversity , pests, and pathogens; risk management (socioeconomic); and culture, rítuals and food culture. A baselinc SUfvey, diversity fair, and focus-group discussion across three eeo-sites in Nepal have documented typical examples ofthe direet value oflocal erop diversity (appendix 1).These values may vary among farmers and are influenced by such factors as wealth, land, and laJ:¡or resources; proximity to market and technological informatíon, and government policies. No single varíety ean satisf'y the concems of aH the farmers in a víllage, resulting in a complex range of erop diversity being maintaÍlled.Evidenee c1early shows a varyíng degree oflocal erop díversity in NepaL These resources have been used and categorized broadly ínto ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural or religious, linked with tradítional food redpes. The in situ project has the challenge of developing appropriate methods that enhanee their conservation on-farm.Jarvis and Hodgkin (1999) suggested that value may be added to erop genetic resources in two main ways: (1) the materials themselves may be improved or (2) the demand for the material or sorne product may be created or íncreased. In addition, nonbreeding and non-marke! methods are equally important as they are linked with access to ínfonnatíon and genetic resources and creating awareness at different levels.How can local crop diversity be improved? It is important to understand why and where local crop populations are maíntained, as well as understandíng what the value of parricular landraces is and what the limiting factors are and what traits are no! preferred. We can appreciate the farmers, contribution to biodíversity conservatíon, but we need to understand why sorne crops and varietíes are grov.'I1 on a larger scale by many farmers, while at the same time, a few farmers grow a few selected vaneties by themselves-often in niches. Understanding the rationale behind this will assist plant breeders in seeking technical opportunitíes to improve tbe materials. In Kaski, Nepal, Bayerni and Biramphul rice is grown by a few, richer, households for its high quality. In terms ofyieId, these varieties are not competitive with other landraces, such as Jetho budho and Pahele. It is assumed Ihat many households may start planting Bayerni and Biramphul if these varieties are improved in terms of yield withoul losing their quality traits. Table 1 shows the number of landraces selected in the study siles for adding benefits to see whether landraces, per se, can be conserved by adding value. Participatory plant breeding (PPB) can improve the materials, but !he material s can also be im• proved by eliminating diseases and pathogens from planting materials or clones, e.g., taro, diseases in potato and cítrus. Sthapit et al. (1996) have demonstrated !hat Chhomrog rice has been enhanced because its red rice grain was.replaced by a white color, while cold tolerance was improved. The project is also assessing the value of landrace enhancement for those landraces that are widely grown and preferred by farming cornmunities. Strengthening the skill of selection and exchange of enhanced materials will also assist in the process of on-farm conservatíon. Jetho budho in Kaski, Basmati in Bara, and JjumIi marshi in JumIa have already been identified and prelinúnary work has been initiated.The most important strategy for increasing the value of local crops is to use them for a crop-improvement programo PPB covers the full range of erop improvement activities: assessing local diversity and uses, setting breeding goals, creatíng variability, selecting varietÍes from variable populations, evaluating varieties, and scaling up through farmer-to-farmer seed networks. Joshi et al. (1999) documented the detailed process ofPPB to study whether PPB can be considered a strategy to enhance on-farm conservation as well as to meet the productive needs offarmers. The roles offormal plant-breeding institutions (e.g\" NARC) and NGOs (e.g., LI-BIRD) have beenmutually agreed upon for each key step of the PPB process. The multidisciplinary team categorized rice landraces by their distribution and frequency, as described by Joshi et al. (1999). Breeding goals for tbe Bara and Kaski eco-si tes were developed in a participalory malIDer, ínvolving breeders, socioeconomists, and farmers, lO analyze Ihe slrengths and weaknesses ofthe landraces. In Ihe process of seleclíng parents, farmers strongly felt that the preferred traits should be maintaíned even if inferior traits were the targets for improvement through PPB. Thus, the breeding strategy has a role lo play in improvíng and conserving traits and characteristics tbal are 1101 linked specifically wilh social, religious, or medicinal norms and beliefs or used in local recipes.A number of participatory approaches have been used lO date to increase local awareness about tbe importance of agro-biodiversity and 10 improve the flow of seed within and between communities (Rijal el al. 1999). Diversity fairs, diversity tbeaters, diversity songs, poetry joumeys, community biodiversity registers (CBRs), and diversity blocks are sorne oftbe popular aclivities carried oul lO increase awareness and sensitize tbe community.In tbe context of strengthening access lO germplasm and information in tbe furmíng community, diversity fairs, diversity blocks, and community biodiversity registers have been identífied as powerfui options, which also enhance the farmers' capacity in managing their own crop genetic resources.The diversity fair. Here, tbe lerm diversity fair refers to a tool used lo demonstrate or dísplay local crops along with the associated knowledge resources of an ecology, as defined by community-based orgaruzations (CBOs). Traditionally, local seed markets and fairs constitute an importan! par! of the informal seed exch¡¡nge system in the víllages. Local markets, haat bazaar, and \"agricultural fairs\" provide a good oppor!lU1ity for the exchange of seeds and knowJedge. In recent years, tbese informal systems have been threatened by outside interventíon, particularly in tbe seed sector. As a rosult, indigenous knowledge associated witb local genetic resources has begun to erode.The communíty-organized diversity fair focuses on indigenous landraces. In Nepal, diversity fairs have been used as an entry point to raise tbe level of awareness about in situ crop conservation programs before more technical aspects of the project are implemented. By organizing competitions between groups offarmers, the project promote access to farmers and encourages farmers to maintain tbe maximum genetic diversity. The in situ project uses diversity fairs as a participatory research and development tool in Nepal. It aírns at creatíng competitions between farmer groups on a regular basís in order to accomplish tbe following:• to recognize farmers who maintain large amounts of genetíc díversity and who possess a good deal of assocíated knowledge, to act as a source of ínformation for others• lo locate areas ofhigh díversity• to identify and locate endangered landraces• to prepare an inventory of crop genetics, along witb a knowledge resource base• to identify the main sources of tbe informal seed supply within the community• to IIDderstand tbe value of díverse genetic resources in terms ofuse, economics, culture, religion, ecology, etc.• lo empower local communities to have control over their genetíc resources• to help develop a sense of ownership in the communityThere are differen! ways of conducting diversity fairs. The in silu project aims at strengthening CBOs tha! conduct on-farm conservation actívities with little input from outside. Initially, when CBOs were unfamiliar with the project's activities, project staff managed the fairs in partnership with them. Over time, as they have become better oriented, they organize the fair as an annual event. Sthapit and Jarvis (1999) have documented the concept and methods used, and the steps of the fair have been described by Rijal et al. (1999). There have already been five such fairs organized in Nepal, and as a result, the process has been refined over time. The fairs organized in Nepal have been successful in terms of the following:• documenting locallandraces and associated knowledge, as well as strengthening the farmerto-farmer seed supply system• linking outputs with research and development work• locating the status of diversity and the custodians• sensitizing farmers, along with the research and policy eornmunities, on the importance of agrobiodiversity• strengthening CBOs in on-farm conservation processesThe fairs organized through CBOs have documented equalIy good information, as well as increasing sample size and the number of crops. The information includes the special characteristics associated with the landraees, Le., huliya, sociocultural values, ecology, and status at the cornmunity leve!. These sets of information can be very useful for a number of stakeholders, including breeders, eeologists, socioeconomists, arid locál promoters for their varied interests. The informatíon may be shared among the farm cornmunities and other interested partíes. A very important aspeet of the fair, observed in a recent fair ín Begnas, Nepal, is the development of the sense of ownership in the cornmunity for the resourees they have eonserved for generations. Every CBO took back sampies with the knowledge that they had to maintain them for future use.The diversity block. A diversíty block is a participatory research technique designed to characterize locallandraees under farmers' management conditíons. Landraces to be grown ín the diversity block may be selected Hom materials from either the diversity faír or farmers' seed stoeks. The crops are monitored by both farmers and scientist-promoters, and agromorphologícal characteristies are recorded. The diversíty block has the value of enhancing public awareness at the grassroots level and máking germplasm more accessible o the local cornmunity. In Nepal, the diversity block has been used to acquire farmers' indigenous knowledge about local varieties, to identify parents for breeding, and to study the population structure.The cornmunity biodiversity register. A cornmuníty biodiversíty register ís a record, kept on paper or in eleetronic form by cornmunity members. It is a register ofloeal crop biodiversity and assocíated knowledge. The information maintaíned in the register inc1udes landrace names, the fimners who store the seed, associated local knowledge and uses, and traditional and nontraditíonal passport data like agromorphological and agroecological characteristies and cultural signíficanee. The register functions as a decentralized cornmunity gene bank (Sthapit and Jarvis 2000). CBRs have no implications for local seed exchange and storage systerns; rather, it helps lo improve aceess to information and seeds.Updated over time, the CBR allows cornmunitÍes to monitor Ihe level of genetíc díversíty and prevent the extínction of rare varieties, whieh may then be preserved ex siro. eBRs can be a practical tool to monitor genetic diversity at the village level, and ifthe capacity oflhe farming eommunity is strengthened with institutional support, it could be a good way of developing various options lo add benefits on a local or regional scale.Strengthening seed and information networks was one of the eoncerns in Ihis project, for which different strategic lools were explored. The cornmunity gene bank adopled by a few institutions, such as UBINIG in 8angladesh, was reviewed for its strengths and límitations. It was found lo re-quiTe additional structures to serve communities under situations of stress and risk, and may replace the local farmer-to-farmer seed-supply systems. C8R strenglhens local systems was developed through review of functions complementary 10 in situ conservation.Since eBR has only recentIy been developed, it still requires further refinement. However, it has multiple funclions and is worth the effort because of ils effectiveness al the grassroots leve!. This was discussed wilh farmers and e80 representatives, and Iheif responses are summarized below:o e8R provides an invenlory ofboth valuable and worst crop resourees.o It strengthens sharing of information and crop seeds by improving access.• It is useful for strengthening market and seed networks.• It lists Ihe slatus of a11 known crop resourees, with reasons for decrease, ¡nerease, or loss.o It is useful to R&D workers .. o lt enhances the process of developing a sense of ownership for Ihe resources held by eBOs.• 11 provides deseriptions of ecology and diversity with area-speeific identities.The reeords maintained in Ihe eBR assists in understanding the farmer' s decision-making processes as well. Thus, Ihe C8R implemenled in Nepal has guided eornmunities in developing a sense of ownership for their resources. Whatever significance it has depends on Ihe way it is developed and executed locally. Therefore, tbe potential benefils from eBR can onIy be reaJized when it is adopted with full consideration of the importance of (1) partnership witb farmers, (2) periodic up-dating, (3) local control, (4) sharing information among Ihe users/slakeholders, and (5) caution aboul providing access lo tbe informatíon to oulsiders.80th the eBR and diversity fajr can be llSed for a number of purposes, from developing R&D bases to strengtheníng at Ihe grassroots level in terms of improving access lo seeds, using informatíon in an effective manner, and assessing diversity. eBR records could provide a very useful basis for developing conservation strategies. Endangered species or Iandraces, for example, may be conserved ex situ. However, we are also equally concerned with the possible misuse of informatíon, such as intellectual and farmers' rights. The community must be made aware ofthis kind of danger as wel!.The demand for materials or processed products may be inereased by market melhods (box 1). Source: Sth.pit and larvis (1999).IdentifYing local promoters and then linking them with local producers and markets are crucial processes. In Begnas, Nepal, a series of consultations was camed out to identifY major local products that have market potential, assessing total production, price negotiations, qualíty control, and marketing outlets. In Nepal, the project identified local promoters Iike Gunilo and Bandobasta who played a catalytic role in establishíng línkages between promoters and consumers with the farming community. NGOs have been ínvolved in the project to facilitate networking. Associations ofhotel and tourlsm, Pokhara chambers of commerce, hostels, and hospital networks have also been sensitized to use more domestic products. The impact of such networks is yet to be seen.The project is keen to develop markets to enhance the value of local crop diversity through direct sales. Rice landraces, Jethobudho, aromatic sponge gourd, Khari in taro, and Samdi kodo in finger millet, are a few examples. To succeed, this initiative must also be supported by policy reforms. The role oflocal crop varieties in securing food at the household level is apparent, but diversity has also been enhanced for socioeconomic reasons (Rana el al. 1999). Nepali farmers use local rice landraces for al least six specific purposes (Rija! et al. 1997). On the one hand, these deserve special va!ue and there is Iess competítion, so a nonbreeding strategy is appropríate. On Ihe olher hand, breeding strategies are employed to make local crops competitive with other options, particularly those lhat have value and benefits in terms of ecology or physical indices Iike yield, disease resislance, etc. For example, Ihe bes! quality of Jethobudho is grown wílh cold water, as is Phewa and Kundahar of Ihe Pokhara valley, and always fetches a higher market price lhan when grown in an irrigated field. The strategies employed for adding values are presented in table 3.In niche-or ecology-specific areas where food security is Ihe main concem, as in Jumla, farmers always go for increased yield. Low yield is associated with rice blasts, poor response, and cold injury, for which the only way of addressing the problem is through breeding melhods. Ofthe many innovative tools available, the diversity fair and community biodiversíty register have been most effective in terms of documentation and sensitizing communities of famlers, researchers, promoters, and policymakers. Furthermore, these two tools are very useful in monitoring diversity along with status. Valnes documented through these tools can be used for R&D purposes, where researchers, promoters, and planners may benefit. They also provide a basís for breeding work in Ihe short term as weIl as Ihe longer term.For local crop diversity witb socioreligious, cultural, or economic value, strategies that strengthen ínformation, seed, and market networks are particularly important if CGR and Iheir prodncts are to be promotedper se. The diversity ofthese sets of crops wíll be maintained as long as the local culture associated wilh them continues. On Ihe other hand, for crop diversíty associated with ecological and genetic traíts, the breeding strategy is Ihe right choice. Thus, for effective conservation of","tokenCount":"8127"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e29520f81a5c0fdc2d74e0a02fcb2c5e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8935c8bd-b453-4aad-8de9-f1fe4ef7e7ce/content","id":"-517733317"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"56fc17ed-7726-4379-b665-34279650e266","pagecount":"9","content":"While Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) are extremely useful genetic markers, recent advances in technology have produced a shift toward use of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The different mutational properties of these two classes of markers result in differences in heterozygosities and allele frequencies that may have implications for their use in assessing relatedness and evaluation of genetic diversity. We compared analyses based on 89 SSRs (primarily dinucleotide repeats) to analyses based on 847 SNPs in individuals from the same 259 inbred maize lines, which had been chosen to represent the diversity available among current and historic lines used in breeding. The SSRs performed better at clustering germplasm into populations than did a set of 847 SNPs or 554 SNP haplotypes, and SSRs provided more resolution in measuring genetic distance based on allele-sharing. Except for closely related pairs of individuals, measures of distance based on SSRs were only weakly correlated with measures of distance based on SNPs. Our results suggest that 1) large numbers of SNP loci will be required to replace highly polymorphic SSRs in studies of diversity and relatedness and 2) relatedness among highly-diverged maize lines is difficult to measure accurately regardless of the marker system.Until recently, Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs), also called microsatellites, have been the genetic markers of choice, because they are economical to score, have high allelic diversity, and are usually selectively neutral [1]. Recent advances in technology, however, have produced a shift toward single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, particularly for model organisms with substantial genomic resources. Individual SNP markers, being biallelic, have lower information content than SSRs, but they occur at much higher density in the genome, are amenable to high-throughput methods such as genotyping arrays, and have lower genotyping error rates [2][3][4][5]. For an overview of many of the technical and statistical issues of SSR and SNP genotyping, see [6].The different properties of SNP and SSR markers arise from inherent differences in their mutational processes as well as from biased sampling practices that intensify those differences. (In this paper, we use the term SNP to refer to a marker that is genotyped using high-throughput technology [3], not a polymorphism that has been scored in fully re-sequenced alleles.) Because nucleotide mutation rates are low (on the order of 10 28 /bp/generation), the vast majority of SNPs are biallelic, and thus have a maximum heterozygosity of 0.5. Not only is the SSR mutational rate much higher (for dinucleotide repeats in maize, 5.2610 24 to 1.1610 23 / generation [7]), but the slippage process can create a virtually unlimited number of new alleles [8,9]. Maximal heterozygosity can thus approach 1.0, and frequencies are often skewed toward rare alleles. While re-sequencing studies can detect large numbers of singleton SNPs in many population samples (depending on population history), the selection of informative SNPs for genotyping studies (i.e., ascertainment) ensures that most SNP marker alleles will segregate at intermediate frequency, exaggerating the difference in frequency spectrum that already exists between SNPs and SSRs [3,4]. This ascertainment bias must be corrected if SNP data are to be used in estimation of population genetic parameters.The great interest in mapping genes affecting human health and the early use of SNP markers in this field have produced several comparisons of SSR and SNP markers in family-based linkage studies, e.g. [10]. In these studies, as well as in linkage studies of experimental populations, the mutational processes of the markers are not of great consequence because only a small number of meioses are captured by the data. In contrast, marker choice might have a greater effect on inferences about relatedness and genetic diversity among groups of individuals that are recently diverged on an evolutionary timescale, but are not considered relatives, such as populations of cases and controls, or diverse germplasm collections within a cultivated species. At this level of divergence, SNP-based distances will be due almost entirely to drift, while SSR-based distances will also be due in part to mutation.Most crop plant germplasm collections have been assembled on the basis of geographic and phenotypic diversity, with the goal of capturing as much functional genetic diversity as possible. To allow more efficient exploitation of germplasm collections, core subsets are typically assembled by various criteria, e.g. [11,12], and eventually characterized with presumably neutral molecular markers. Once the accessions have been scored with a common set of markers, estimation of genetic relationships among accessions provides information that is critical for choice of breeding material and for design of experimental crosses. In maize, for example, prediction of productive hybrid combinations and assignment of lines to heterotic groups has been based on the hypothesis that heterosis of hybrids increases monotonically with increasing genetic distance of the parents [13][14][15].Inference of ancestry among unrelated individuals is also important because of its influence on the accuracy of population-based methods for genetic mapping of complex traits: to prevent spurious results, ancestry must be assessed and accounted for in the analyses. The most widely-used approach is the modelbased method of Pritchard et al. [16], which assigns individuals membership in a population based on their alleles at a large number of genome-wide markers. Using this method, Rosenberg et al. [17] found that dinucleotide repeat SSRs in humans are five to eight times as informative as random SNPs, a result that was confirmed by Liu et al. [18].Given the trend toward increased use of SNP markers, it is of interest to compare the performance of these two types of markers for characterization of the same set of individuals in a model crop plant, maize. In a recent study, Jones et al. [19] collected data for 80 SSRs and 187 SNPs in the same set of 58 inbred maize lines representing a subset of maize diversity derived from temperate Northern Flint and Southern Dent landraces. They demonstrated the technical advantages of SNPs over SSRs with respect to data quality, and found that measures of genetic distance based on SSRs, SNPs, and SNP haplotypes were not significantly correlated unless the inbreds were related by pedigree.We were interested in exploring further, with a larger data set, how evaluation of population structure and measures of genetic distance are affected by choice of marker type, and what properties of the markers are responsible for differences in their usefulness. In this paper, we compare analyses based on 89 SSRs (primarily dinucleotide repeats) to analyses based on 847 SNPs in individuals from the same 259 inbred maize lines. These lines represent the widest genetic diversity available among current and historic lines used in breeding [20], including tropical and semitropical lines. We ask to what extent these two classes of markers provide concordant information about the structure of populations and the relationships among individuals. We also test whether any SNPs are more strongly differentiated than would be expected by chance, suggesting a history of positive selection.As expected, the allelic diversities and frequency spectra were very different for these data sets (Table 1, Figure 1). Due to the high rate of SSR mutation, this fairly modest number of SSR loci had a very large number of alleles, most at low frequencies in the population, and a large number of singletons. In contrast, the SNP loci showed large numbers of intermediate frequency alleles. Clearly, this was a consequence of ascertainment bias, since only SNPs that were discovered in a small set of lines were included in the study. Such bias is inherent to all SNP-based studies.To make greater use of the information content of the SNP data, we constructed haplotypes for those loci where more than one SNP had been scored from the same amplicon (see Methods). The 554 loci in the ''SNP Haplotypes'' set had fewer total alleles than the 847 single SNPs because, at most loci, not all gametic   2) and because more than half the loci were still single SNPs. However, expected heterozygosity was increased by about 20%, and the frequency spectrum shifted slightly toward rarer alleles, including substantially more singletons (Table 1).Using SSR variation, Liu et al. [20] showed that maize diversity is best described as belonging to three population groups: Stiff Stalk (SS), Non-Stiff Stalk (NSS), and Tropical-Semitropical (TS). We used the same approach as Liu, namely the model-based method of Pritchard et al. [16], to compare the SSR and SNP marker sets' ability to detect population structure and assign individuals to populations (see Methods). Figure 2 shows that, for all data sets, likelihood increased most when k (the number of populations in the model) was increased from two to three; results were very consistent across runs with k = 3 but became less consistent at higher values of k. Interestingly, the percent of individuals assigned to populations did not continue to increase with k, as might be expected: maximal assignment occurred at k = 2 , 3, or 4, depending on the markers used (Table 3), though many of the differences in percent assignment were small. The most dramatic difference was between k = 2 and k = 3 for the SNP+SSR data set: almost 20% more individuals were assigned under the model with k = 3. Strikingly, all assignment percentages for this data set were lower than for the SSR data set alone. For all values of k tested, it is clear that the SNP data did not contain sufficient information to resolve all the relationships that   were detected by SSR variation, resulting in a lower percentage of individuals that could be assigned to a population. This was not due simply to the higher allele number, since a reduced data set of 80 SSRs with 1694 alleles (the same number as the SNP data set) resulted in the same percent assignment as the full data set (data not shown).The assignment of individuals to populations was very consistent among marker types, for those individuals that were assigned. Assuming three populations as described by Liu et al. [20], we plotted the relationship between membership in the NSS and TS populations based on SNPs and membership based on SSRs (Figure 3). The correlations were strong (R 2 = 0.88 and 0.93, respectively), but there was clearly much more spread along the y axes (SNPs) than along the x axes (SSRs): 116 lines had NSS membership between 0.2 and 0.8 based on SNPs, as opposed to only 58 lines that fell in that range based on SSRs. In no case was an individual assigned to a different population based on different marker information. In a small number of cases, SNP data resulted in assignments for individuals that were unassigned using SSR data. One such example is line F2834T, indicated by an arrow in each panel of Figure 3. Based on SNP data, F2834T had 82% of its ancestry in the TS cluster, while, based on SSR data, it had only 52% of its ancestry in that cluster and was thus classified as Mixed.Distance matrices based on allele sharing were constructed for all pairs of individuals using either SSR data or total SNP data, and the relationship between the distance matrices was plotted (Figure 4). For the small percentage of individual pairs that were closely related (SSR Distance ,0.65), there was a strong correlation between the distances for the two marker types (R 2 = 0.73, Fig 4 top). However, the vast majority (97.7%) of SSR- based distances were large ($0.65), and for those comparisons the correlation with SNP-based distance was modest (R 2 = 0.11). The lower panel of Figure 4 shows that, while SSR-based distances varied from 0.65 to over 0.95, the SNPs provided poor resolution in this group, with distances that varied only from about 0.2 to 0.35. While comparisons at the individual level were not wellcorrelated across marker types, this was not the case for population-level comparisons: the correlation between allelesharing distance among populations was .0.99 (Mantel test).Given that the SSR data set had a much larger proportion of low frequency alleles, we tested whether this difference was responsible for the decrease in resolution provided by the SNP data set. To do this, we divided the SNP data into five frequency classes, calculated all pairwise distances based on each class, and calculated the correlation between those distances and the SSRbased distances. Although the results were slightly confounded by sample size, Table 4 shows that the intermediate frequency SNPs were better able to resolve shorter distances, but that the low frequency SNPs contributed most of the resolution when distances were larger. Distances based on the SNPs at intermediate frequency are the best correlated with the distances based on SSRs, even though the SSR data set was dominated by rare alleles.Liu et al. [20] found a total of 2039 SSR alleles in 260 inbred lines, and tested different sized ''core sets'' to see what fraction of the alleles could be captured. Because of the large number of rare alleles, 193 lines were needed to capture all 2039 alleles, and a set of 20 lines captured only 46% of the alleles. We repeated this analysis with our data sets, and found that a subset of 20 individuals captured almost all SNP alleles and over 90% of SNP haplotypes. Table 5 shows the percent of alleles captured by subsets of 20, 30, 40, and 50 for the various marker data sets. When we removed nine loci from the SSR data set so that it had exactly 1694 alleles (like the SNP data set), the percent alleles captured by subsets of these sizes remained the same (data not shown).This comparison is somewhat misleading, however, because of the ascertainment of the SNPs in our data set. If all 259 lines had been fully re-sequenced, there would be more rare alleles to be captured. We therefore simulated a set of 847 unlinked SNPs in 259 individuals under the standard neutral model (SNM), producing the full frequency spectrum of variation. As expected, the percent of alleles captured in a small core set dropped substantially (from 98% to 83% for a subset of 20), but was still much higher than the percent of SSR alleles captured in a core set of the same size (Table 5). Furthermore, the SNM likely overestimates the number of rare alleles that would be observed in a fully re-sequenced maize data set, due to the effect of the domestication bottleneck. Since the exact parameters appropriate for simulating such a data set are unknown (see Discussion), we performed simulations under two reasonable bottleneck models for comparison to the SNM. As seen in Table 6, heterozygosity and the number of singletons in this data set were intermediate between the values observed in the ascertained SNP data set and under the SNM. The percent of alleles captured by these core sets was only slightly lower than was found for the ascertained data (Table 5), suggesting that we may not have missed a large number of rare SNP alleles.Overall F st was very similar regardless of marker set used (0.08-0.10), with F st based on SSRs being in the lower end of the range, as expected because of their higher heterozygosity. F st based on individual SNP loci, however, varied from 0 to 0.568; some of these differences in F st may be due to the action of natural or artificial selection at particular loci. To test this hypothesis, we used the FDIST2 program [21], which uses coalescent simulations to generate a neutral joint distribution of F st and H e . Loci that have an unusually large value of F st , given their heterozygosity, are candidates for having experienced selection.We found that 32 SNPs, about 3.8% of the 847 loci tested, had p-values ,0.05 (uncorrected for multiple tests), so there was little evidence for selection. P-values for two SNPs, both from the same locus (AY108077, in IBM2 Bin 6.04, with similarity to a calmodulin-binding heat-shock protein), were the only ones that were significant using a Bonferroni-corrected critical value of 0.05/847 = 0.000059. These two SNPs, whose alleles are in complete linkage disequilbrium (i.e., r 2 = 1), showed a pattern that was very common among the SNPs with higher F st : the NSS and TS populations had the same allele at very high frequency, while the SS population had the alternate allele at a very high frequency.Usually the allele at high frequency in NSS and TS was also at high frequency in Mexican samples that included teosintes (these frequencies can be viewed at www.panzea.org).  Molecular markers serve a variety of purposes in genetic analysis.In this study we compared the ability of SSR and SNP markers to assess relatedness in a population where divergence times are long enough that most individuals are considered unrelated and the true relationships are unknown. We found that a set of 89 highly polymorphic SSRs performed better at clustering germplasm into populations than did a set of 847 SNPs or 554 SNP haplotypes, and that SSRs provided more resolution in measuring genetic distance based on allele-sharing. We observed only slightly higher resolution when we converted SNPs to haplotypes, perhaps because fewer than half our SNPs could be converted. These results are consistent with theoretical predictions [6,22] and with other empirical studies, e.g. [17]. According to Laval et al. [22], (k-1) times more biallelic markers are needed to achieve the same genetic distance accuracy as a set of microsatellites with k alleles. In our case, the average number of alleles per SSR locus was about 20; thus we should need [(20-1) * 89] = 1691 SNP markers to achieve the same accuracy; we had almost exactly half that many SNP markers.The difference in information content of SSRs and biallelic markers may also be due to differences in the frequency spectrum: SSR loci have many more low-frequency alleles than SNP loci, since at least half of all SNP alleles must be at high or intermediate frequency. This frequency difference is even greater when ascertained SNPs are genotyped.Population genetics theory predicts that ''preferentially discovering SNPs with high heterozygosity leads to an underestimation of the magnitude of structure'' [4]. Using SSR data and the model-based method of Pritchard et al. [16], Liu et al. [20] found that the 259 maize inbred lines in this study were best described as belonging to three populations, with about 22% of the lines having mixed ancestry. We found that our SNP data could support a model of three or four populations and were largely consistent with the results of Liu et al., although, regardless of the number of populations in the model, far more individuals (44.8-47.5%) were classified as mixed using SNP data. It was surprising that, as k was increased, the likelihood increased but the percent assignment declined.Our analysis showed that most maize lines in a diverse sample are separated by a large genetic distance and, consistent with the results of Jones et al. [19], that measures of distance based on different markers were well-correlated only for the small subset of individuals that were closely related. Other studies of tropical maize, which is extremely diverse, have found that SSR variation does not provide evidence of population structure other than among individuals closely related by pedigree [23,24]. Collectively, these results suggest that relatedness among highly-diverged maize lines is difficult to measure accurately regardless of the marker system. This may explain the observation that only intragroup crosses show a correlation between parental genetic distance and midparent heterosis [25]. Individuals within groups have smaller genetic distances that can be more accurately assessed, while intergroup comparisons are in the range where resolution is poor (Fig 3 Yu et al. [26] used essentially the same data set as this one to test the sensitivity of relatedness estimation to marker number, as assessed by the power to detect QTL in mixed-model association mapping. Contrary to our results, they found that ''the whole set of 89 SSR markers provided roughly the same amount of information as did the whole set of 912 SNP markers for relatedness construction.'' This apparent discrepancy is probably due to the fact that, in the calculation of the kinship matrix, kinship estimates for individuals who were less related than average were all set to zero. Thus no attempt was made to estimate the larger genetic distances. Given this strategy, the difference in resolution was not of great practical importance. However, this may not be the optimal strategy. Accurate estimate of identity-bystate for thousands of markers may provide even greater power and control of type I errors.The development of core sets is often described in terms of the fraction of SSR alleles retained in subsets of the collection. An implicit assumption is that the presence of unique SSR alleles in an individual or population is an indicator of the presence of unique functional variation. As stated in Laborda et al. [27], their goal was to ''expose useful diversity for breeding purposes'' by maximizing allelic diversity at markers. Similarly, Lockwood et al [28] state: ''Sampling for allelic richness is important for conservation and in the development of genetic resource collections.'' It is well known that most SSR variation is neutral, and that functional variation is much more likely to be associated with SNPs and indels in and around genes. Since a small sample of alleles captures most of the SNP variation segregating in a population, is it truly important to capture rare SSR alleles in germplasm collections?We have shown that 98% of the (ascertained) SNP allelic variation in a sample of 259 diverse lines can be captured in a set of 20 lines, as opposed to only 48% of the SSR alleles. How much of this difference is due to the loss of rare SNP alleles due to ascertainment? Data sets simulating fully re-sequenced data showed that rare SNP alleles are indeed missed, however, because maize is not a population at equilibrium, it is not clear how many singletons would have been found by complete re-sequencing of these inbred lines. In a mix of landraces and inbreds, Tenaillon et al [29] found an average D [30] of about 0.1, and reported that average D was higher in the inbreds alone, indicating a loss of rare alleles. The bottleneck models reported in Tables 5 and 6 are suggestive but do not reproduce the actual frequency spectrum in maize, so these results must be interpreted with caution. In any case, the number of lines required to capture all SNP alleles even in the non-bottlenecked population is far smaller than that required to capture all rare SSR alleles. Generalizing beyond maize, the extent to which rare alleles are lost in SNP genotyping studies will vary among species, since different population histories will produce different frequency spectra of variation. Eventually, the dramatically lower cost of new sequencing technologies may allow for full re-sequencing to replace SNP genotyping, eliminating the problem of ascertainment altogether.However, even if every SNP were observed and captured, SNP diversity at individual sites is unlikely to capture all functional variation, since different combinations of SNP alleles (both within and between loci) will give rise to haplotypes that may differ in their contributions to phenotypes of interest. SSR allelic diversity should be positively correlated with SNP haplotypic diversity for the simple reason that both attributes are functions of effective population size. (Due to their higher mutation rates, SSRs more accurately reflect effective population size in non-equilibrium populations.) As a proxy for larger effective population size, maximal SSR diversity ensures that novel combinations of functional SNP alleles are more likely to be captured in a sample. Note that this applies only at the genome-wide level: Payseur and Cutter [31] showed that SSR heterozygosity and nucleotide heterozygosity at linked sites are only weakly correlated under a the simulations were: demes = 3, sampled populations = 3, sample size = 50 (following the recommendation of the FDIST2 documentation). Average F st in the simulations = 0.1, the average observed for the SNP data set.Three data sets of 847 SNPs in 259 individuals were simulated using the program ms [37]. One was generated under the standard neutral model, the others were generated under two different bottleneck models, both of which are modifications from Wright et al. [32]. Bottleneck 1 used ''./ms 259 847 -s 1 -eN .0013 .0076 -eN .00208 1'', which produced average D [30] of about 0.4, while Bottleneck 2 used ''./ms 259 847 -s 1 -eN .0013 .05 -eN .00208 1'', which produced average D of about 0.2. In all cases, every SNP was sampled from a different locus, so that all SNPs were evolutionarily independent.","tokenCount":"4058"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4b7e05db9387a90526b54fdf9d0e7dec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0089c51e-4d1c-40b5-b40d-8c8455f59450/retrieve","id":"1073714629"},"keywords":["microsatellite markers","cross-species amplification","next-generation sequencing","Garcinia gummi-gutta"],"sieverID":"4454f525-67e0-491c-ae3d-fcc1d8a57c91","pagecount":"7","content":"Garcinia gummi-gutta (L.) Roxb. (Clusiaceae) is an endemic, semidomesticated, fruit-yielding tree species distributed in the Western Ghats of India and Sri Lanka. Various bioactive phytochemicals, such as garcinol, benzophenones and xanthones are isolated from G. gummi-gutta and have shown antibacterial, antiviral and antioxidant activities. We sequenced the total genomic DNA using Illumina Hiseq 2000 platform and examined 241,141,804 bp high quality data, assembled into 773,889 contigs. In these contigs, 27,313 simple-sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified, among which mononucleotide repeats were predominant (44.98%) followed by dinucleotide and trinucleotide repeats. Primers were designed for 9964 microsatellites among which 32 randomly selected SSR primer pairs were standardized for amplification. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of genomic DNA in 30 G. gummi-gutta genotypes revealed polymorphic information content (PIC) across all 32 loci ranging from 0.867 to 0.951, with a mean value of 0.917. The observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.00 to 0.63 and 0.896 to 0.974, respectively. Alleles per locus ranged from 12 to 27. This is the first report on the development of genomic SSR markers in G. gummi-gutta using next-generation sequencing technology. The genomic SSR markers developed in this study will be useful in identification, mapping, diversity and breeding studies.Garcinia gummi-gutta (L.) Roxb., popularly known as 'Malabar Gamboge' (in English) 'uppage' (in Kannada) belongs to the family Clusiaceae. It is a moderate-sized dioecious tree with round canopy, drooping branches and smooth dark barks. It is common in lower Shola forests of the Western Ghats, India, up to an altitude of 1800 mean sea level. G. gummi-gutta is recognized in Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine, for better digestion and is prescribed against abdominal disorders and heart diseases. The fruit rind is ground and used as a sour flavouring spice in the preparation of curries and to garnish fish preparations. The rind of the uppage fruit has been traditionally used in India and Sri Lanka as a culinary additive and fish preservative (Samarajeewa and Shanmugapirabu 1983;Bhagyavanth et al. 2010). Many studies showed that hydroxycitric acid (HCA), a secondary compound present in the rind of uppage fruit is effective in weight loss (Jena et al. 2002). The extract obtained from this fruits has exhibited the property of antiobesity. Recently, a number of studies have shown that G. gummi-gutta fruit extracts are rich in HCA and are effective in reducing body weight (Shara et al. 2004;Saito et al. 2005).Germplasm utilization and conservation requires precise information on the genetics, genetic relationships and diversity. Earlier, a few studies attempted to examine diversity using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers (Mohan et al. 2012;Parthasarathy et al. 2013). However, development of microsatellite markers have helped in fingerprinting unique trees, assessing degree of diversity in the populations, and identifying marker tightly linked to the important agronomic traits like active ingredients, and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Therefore, the development of markers has become a prerequisite for genetic studies (Bohra et al. 2011;Dutta et al. 2011). Keeping this in view, here, we report the development and standardization of microsatellite markers of G. gummi-gutta using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and their cross species transferability.The total genomic DNA from G. gummi-gutta was used for genome sequencing. We have also included Garcinia indica and Garcinia morella to examine cross species transferability of isolated microsatellite markers. The leaf material was obtained from the germplasm collection of the College of Forestry, Sirsi (University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad), India (see details in table 1 in electronic supplementary material at http://www.ias.ac.in/jgenet/). The leaf samples were obtained from Jaddi Gadde collection (14 • 44 13.2 N latitude and 74 • 43 03.2 E longitude with altitude of 498 m). The authenticated herbarium specimens were deposited to the herbarium of College of Forestry, Department of Forest Biology and Tree improvement.High-quality genomic DNA was isolated from the leaves of 30 G. gummi-gutta genotypes, one genotype from each of G. indica and G. morella (table 1 in electronic supplementary material) following modified CTAB method (Ravishankar et al. 2000). Total genomic DNA was sequenced using NGS Illumina HiSeq2000 platform at M/s Genotypic Bengaluru facility following manufactures instructions. High-quality sequence reads (Q > 20; >70% bases in a read) were used for de novo assembly into contigs using SOAPdenovo2 software (Luo et al. 2012). Assembly with Kmer-63 was selected as it has the optimal readings for N50.The Perl Script software program MISA (http://pgrc.ipkgatersleben.de/misa/) (Thiel et al. 2003;Ravishankar et al. 2015) was used for identification of SSRs from assembled contigs (Feng et al. 2009;Ravishankar et al. 2015). MISA files were transferred to Microsoft Excel where SSRs were classified into mononucleotide, dinucleotide, trinucleotide, tetranucleotide, pentanucleotide and hexanucleotide repeats and compound repeats. Primer pairs flanking the repeats were designed using Primer3 software (Untergrasser et al. 2012) (table 2 in electronic supplementary material).We selected 50 SSR primer sets randomly and synthesized with M13 tail. These M13 tailed primers were first screened for amplification using pooled total genomic DNA from five randomly selected genotypes. We used fluorescence-based M13 tailing PCR method following Schuelke (2000) to amplify the microsatellites in a quick, accurate and efficient manner. The forward primer tailed with 5 -GTAAAACGACGGCCAGT-3 and reverse primer tailed with 5 -GTTTCTT-3 . PCR was carried out in 20 μL reaction volume containing 2 μL of 10× reaction buffer, 2.0 μL of 1 mM dNTPs, 0.9 μL (5 pmol) of forward, 0.9 μL reverse primers (5 pmol), labelled M13 probes (HEX, NED, VIC, TET) 1.2 μL (5 pmol), 5.0 μL (50-75 ng) of template genomic DNA, 0.8 μL (2 U) of Taq DNA polymerase and 7.2 μL of nuclease free water. The PCR cycling profile was: initial denaturation at 94 • C for 2 min, followed by 35 cycles of 94 • C for 30 s, 55 • C for 30 s, 72 • C for 1 min and a final extension at 72 • C for 5 min. PCR reaction was carried out using thermocycler (Eppendrof Master Cycler Gradient, Germany). Amplified products were initially separated on 3% agarose gel to confirm the amplification. Finally, 32 SSR primers were selected based on amplification of clear PCR products. These primers were employed for amplification of 30 genotypes of G. gummi-gutta and one genotype each of G. indica and G. morella. The PCR products were separated using automated DNA Sequencer (Applied Biosystems, ABI 3730 DNA Analyzer) through capillary electrophoresis, at M/S Eurofins facility, Bengaluru.The raw data generated was analysed and compiled using Peak Scanner ver. 1.0 software (Applied Biosystems, Foster  City, USA) for determining the exact allele size. Allele sizes for each SSR loci were used for genetic analysis using Cervus 3.0 software (Kalinowski et al. 2007). We have estimated the number of alleles, observed heterozygosity (H o ), expected heterozygosity (H e ) and PIC. Probability of identity (PI) was analysed for each SSR loci using Identity 1.0 software (Wagner and Sefc 1999).Off the wide range of DNA markers in use, microsatellites or SSR markers are extensively employed in plant studies. SSR markers are highly reproducible, multiallelic, PCR based, highly polymorphic, easy to use and amenable to automation. Thus, SSRs markers are widely used for mapping, crop breeding programmes and population genetics (Varshney et al. 2005). However, the use of microsatellite markers for studying nonmodel species like G. gummi-gutta has been impeded by lack of available genomic resources. A few years ago, identification of genomic SSRs and subsequent conversion to markers were expensive and time-consuming, involving construction and screening of microsatellite-enriched genomic DNA libraries (Glenn and Schable 2005). Compared to this hybrid capture method using probes, the present NGS based method is fast, simple, and overcomes a number of technical difficulties. The advent of NGS technologies, such as pyrosequencing, has made this process less complicated and easy (Zalapa et al. 2012). As a result, a large number of SSR markers can be developed in a short span of time and at a lower cost. This approach is especially useful for many tree crops where there is no sequence information available.We used high-throughput IlliminaHiSeq 2000 platform to develop genomic SSR markers in G. gummi-gutta. The number of assembly of reads of the long sequences was 773,889 contigs of total length 241 Mb (table 1). An SSR survey of genomic sequences using MISA software (http:// pgrc.ipk-gatersleban.de/misa) revealed that the 773,889 contigs contained 27,313 SSRs. Mononucleotide repeats are predominant (44.98%) followed by dinucleotide (35.29%) and trinucleotide (14.9%) repeats (table 2). Mononucleotide repeats are present in high number in some monocots (rice, sorghum and Brachypodium) and also in some dicots (Arabidopsis, Medicago and Populus) (Sonah et al. 2011).In the present study, apart from mononucleotide repeats, dinucleotide repeats were the most prevalent accounting for 35.29% of all SSRs identified, followed by trinucleotide repeats (10.29%; table 2). While the mononucleotide, dinucleotide and trinucleotide repeats contribute to the major proportion of SSRs (90.56%) and the rest was contributed by tetranucleotide, pentanucleotide and hexanucleotide repeats (table 2). The molecular mechanism of the origin and evolution of microsatellite markers are not clearly understood. The relative dominant occurrence of repeat motif of a particular sequence types and its length in plant genome might be the outcome of selection pressure applied on that specific motif during evolution. The most common mutation mechanisms assumed to be operating are replication slippage, and unequal crossing over leading to addition or removal of one or more motifs and variation in the length (Buschiazzo and Gemmell 2006;Sonah et al. 2011).In this study, 32 primers amplified clear PCR products in G. gummi-gutta. A high rate of successful amplification can be due to high-quality sequence data and the appropriate primer parameters, such as high GC content. Genetic analysis using 32 SSR markers in 30 accessions showed PIC values ranging from 0.867 to 0.951 with a mean value of 0.917. The mean values of observed and expected heterozygosity are 0.2474 and 0.942, respectively. The allele per locus ranged from 12 to 27 with a mean value of 18.8. The PI values ranged from 0.0065 to 0.0623 with a mean value of 0.0163 (tables 3 and 4). The total PI was 4.538906 × 10 −60 . Higher average PIC value (0.917) and average alleles (18.8) per locus (tables 3 and 4) was observed. This may be due to the high heterozygosity in the species, which helped to capture a large number of alleles. In our study, 12 SSR markers (36%) had more than 20 alleles per locus, indicating the high heterozygosity and diversity of accessions used (tables 3 and 4). The PI (the probability that two randomly selected diploid genotypes would be identical, assuming observed allele frequencies and random assortment) is very low for many loci. These low PI values confirm their applicability to DNA fingerprinting. Thus, these SSR markers can be easily employed for genotyping individuals.Of the 32 primer sets, 11 (34%) yielded amplification products in G. indica DNA and 12 (36%) in G. morella DNA (table 3) indicating successful cross amplification of SSR markers in Garcinia.The present study describes the isolation and characterization of microsatellites isolated from whole-genome sequence data of G. gummi-gutta. The NGS and mining of the G. gummigutta genome helped in identification of thousands of SSR markers. The information in this study will be an important repertoire of molecular tools available for genetic studies, genotyping and conservation strategies in G. gummi-gutta.","tokenCount":"1870"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"13b2a347846316309bed37c97e54202d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/285ee3ba-205e-40d7-afc6-697338ba6a85/retrieve","id":"1559952808"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31a72351-7fa0-4c41-8cb2-807baf4ed314","pagecount":"6","content":"• Promote national implementation of the multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing (MLS) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the Treaty).• Increase countries' overall participation in the MLS, as both providers and recipients of genetic resources.• Pursue options for benefiting from other aspects of the Treaty, including technology transfer.The eight country research teams were trained in the following skills:Identify policy actors and analyze networks to map key people, networks and coalitions that influence policies and laws regarding plant genetic resources; to understand flows of information and financial resources and decision-making processes; to identify overlooked actors who should be included; and to suggest more inclusive processes. These analyses raised the awareness of key stakeholders and contributed to building/strengthening a national policy platform.Map the flow of plant genetic resources and demonstrate interdependence on external germplasm. The country studies provided empirical evidence of the large extent to which the eight countries depend on foreign-sourced plant genetic resources for their agricultural research and development (including breeding) and, ultimately, for food security. Use a case study method to document the experiences, achievements and challenges of community seedbanks to systematize experiences and explore options for linking farmers to the Treaty and allowing them to benefit from better access to diverse, high-quality seeds. This research also provided country overviews of seed regulations and how they can be adjusted to promote and support community seedbanks and contribute to onfarm and in situ agrobiodiversity conservation, both legally binding obligations of all Contracting Parties to the Treaty. Country case studies were included in a book about community seed banking experiences from around the world edited by Ronnie Vernooy, Pitambar Shrestha and Bhuwon Sthapit, and published by Earthscan for Routledge.The multi-sectoral, multi-institutional and multi-stakeholder approach used by the project strengthened inter-institutional collaboration and cooperation in national efforts to implement the Treaty and the MLS. It created the necessary awareness among key stakeholders and facilitated their continued active participation in implementation processes. The approach was also effective in bringing together both the policy actors responsible for implementation of the Treaty and those involved with the Convention on Biological Diversity (the Nagoya Protocol). These actors have begun to work in a mutually supportive manner to harmonize implementation of both agreements at the national level by overcoming distrust and building synergy.By December 2016, all eight countries had: Achieved significant progress in developing policies/laws and introducing them into formal national policy processes to create the necessary policy/legal space for Treaty implementation.• Bhutan: An interim Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) policy was approved and a Biodiversity Bill, 2016, was submitted for approval by parliament.• Burkina Faso: A new law on access to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) and the sharing of benefits arising from their use was prepared and submitted for approval by parliament. • National policymakers and stakeholders appreciate the value of the Treaty/MLS in enhancing their country's collective capacity to adapt to climate change by accessing and using materials through the MLS.• National policymakers and stakeholders also appreciate the value of the Treaty/MLS in overcoming systematic obstacles to ex situ and in situ conservation efforts, especially where the MLS is implemented as part of a process of promoting novel forms of cooperation between genebanks, breeders and collective action organizations at the community level (e.g. community seedbanks).• Policy implementation projects that do not include capacity building to help countries take advantage of the MLS, but instead focus only on establishing systems for them to supply PGRFA, are less likely to make progress because they do not address policymakers', scientists', and farmers' sense of their country's immediate needs.• Policy development and implementation efforts must be accompanied by well-funded, wide-reaching communication campaigns to raise awareness among stakeholders generally and to place indirect (but strategic) pressure on policymakers to take action.• Most developing countries need to adopt new, or dramatically improve existing, national PGRFA information systems to manage and publish information about materials they are making available through the MLS. They also need training in conducting searches on other organizations' information systems to locate potentially useful germplasm.A long and rich list of outputs was produced, together with partners from the eight countries, and disseminated at both the global and national levels, in the form of project blogs and web pages, electronic newsletters, books and book chapters, research papers, meeting proceedings, ","tokenCount":"721"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/9952266235.json b/data/part_3/9952266235.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b93898d875bfcb790df011bcf5c39fbc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/78b3682b-5ef8-4fdf-8fa4-e548db94be6c/retrieve","id":"-520566547"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4512fed5-0ba0-4657-9443-b86362b4e35d","pagecount":"1","content":"The Uganda animal and human populations are vulnerable to these emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) due to increased movements of goods, animals and people, changing animal habitats and marketing options. The emergence of Rift Valley fever (RVF) has caused devastating effects on humanity, and is of paramount concern. The Joint External Evaluation of the International Health Regulation Core capacities for Uganda (2017) prioritized low zoonotic diseases awareness, declining trend of passive animal disease reporting, few or slow response interventions and surveillance coordination challenges; coupled with inadequate event based surveillance and real time reporting systems. VSF Germany under the BUILD program spearheaded awareness and sensitization campaigns as part of efforts to address the challenge of low awareness and poor reporting of disease events.VSF Germany, MAAIF, MoH and ILRI through BUILD undertook informative, participatory and consultative engagements in 05 districts (Kagadi, Kazo, Mbarara, Budaka and Butebo) with technical personnel including environmental officers (120), political leaders (60), slaughterhouse workers (128), livestock owners (400), meat inspectors (12), livestock product transporters (72) and meat handlers ( 72) to facilitate exchange of information and experiences while creating awareness. 5,000 brochures and 1,000 leaflets with key messages on prevention and control of RVF were designed, produced and distributed to district and sub-county offices for display at strategic points and to participants during community meetings/barasas. Radio talk show sessions were also undertaken in 03 districts. Pre and post awareness assessments were undertaken for selected sessions and feedback comments documented. • Pre-awareness campaign assessment revealed low awareness on RVF with exception of respondents from districts that had previous outbreaks. • Poor drainage, poor meat handling practices and poor knowledge about RVF disease were the main risk factors in the transmission of RVF. • Sanitation and hygiene conditions at slaughterhouses were the most urgent concern.• There is currently no policy promoting RVF vaccination ILRI thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.• Contributes to improved level of knowledge, awareness and capacity of different stakeholders towards enhanced surveillance, prevention and control of RVF in Uganda","tokenCount":"343"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/9952663780.json b/data/part_3/9952663780.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"923fa9d4494947bb4b6fe5d1850b2c47","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_20188i.pdf","id":"-926017467"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ffbe38ef-8134-49b1-88f1-27fbf4f2ace3","pagecount":"109","content":"In a context of increasing population, stagnant t i d production and serious environmentnl p r ~h l e m s , the perforinance of the canal irrigation system is of increasing concern for policy makers, irrigation inanagers and researchers in Pakistan. Performance assessinent studies have mainly highlighted the poor level o f water supply perforinance at lhe secoiiclary canal and main cand levels, However, few studies have concentrated only oti performance related issues lielow the mogha. Thus, there is no clear (and updnted) understanding of issues and trends in current canal water supply within watercourse coininand areas. The present paper is an attempt to fill this gap drawing r m tlic research undertaken h y the International Irrigation Management Inslitute from 1986 10 date on issues related t o allocation and distribution hclow the mogha. First, research activitie8 and rrwlts are summarized. These wsults, c w i p l e ~n e n t e d by results o f other sttitlies undertaken in Pukistan, stress the importance of recognizing the discrepancy hetweeii official and actual allocation and distribution rules. Official rules have been adapted by farmers to provide H more flexible service and to respond to shortterm and long-term changes. The research results obtained so far are discussed i n the light of three important issues: (i) the type of intervention to be implemented at the watercourse level to improve canal water supply performance; (ii) the policy objectives (whether equity, productivity, efficiency) that are to he tackled hy interventions helow the moglia; and (iii) the identification of gaps in knowledge and understandiiig and areas fur fiirthrr msearch.hetween canal water sq$y perlormanco and agriciiltural production mtl productivity. 6 Adequacy o f irrigation water supplies lids also 1nxn one uf the ol?jectives c i l lhe Salinity Control And Reclanration Prqiects (SCARPS) that wcre initiated in the 1960s with the installation of puhlic tuhawells fur reclamation porposes. I n arras with fresh gruund water. ttihewell water hiis heen used 11) supplement canal wafer supplies. I t was also the invain objective of the Irrigation System Rehahilitation Prqject that followed. L * * * 9 .at the farm gate. To represent tlie level of equity for different watercourses, tlie coefficient of variation of' the actual ciinal watcr supply is calculatctl and prcwitctl lor 8 sample watercourseb of the Fordwah Branch Canal Irrigation System i n Table 2.Since the initial development of canal system in Pakistan, many issues related to agricultural production and its sustainability have been presented in discussions regarding the construction issues have become increasingly important for several reasons: (i) increasing population and demand for food products: (ii) environmental problems such as salinity, sodicity and waterlogging that have not been successfully tackled at the level of the Indus Basin albeit billions of dollars invested in drainage and reclaination projects; and (iii) reduced availability of funds to develop new (and increasingly expensive) projects or rehabilitate existing systems.. .  The complexity of irrigated agriculture and the large number of factors that influence agricultural production and its sustainability is fully recognized (although often not well documented). For example, timely supply of fertilizers or quality of pesticides would have a significant impact on crop yields, but these aspects are not usually considered in analyses of the water factor. However, there is a clear consensus among researchers, government department officers and policy makers that water, the basic input for agriculture in Pakistan, is in fact the main culprit explaining low productivity and environinental problems. The existing irrigation system is npt able to deliver appropriate water supplies (in term of equity, variability, reliability) to farmers for optimum and sustainable crop production. Thus, to tackle productivity and environmental issues, there is a need to improve first the canal (irrigation) water supply performance s .In the 1970s, as part of the efforts undertaken by the Colorado State University (CSU) program, efforts to improve irrigation water supply performance have inainly focused on the adequacy dimension of performance (i.e. to increase tlie water supply available at the farm gate and field level) by reducing various losses below tlie watercourse licatl or uw~q/uP. Iicscarch results obtained under the CSU program were translated into development activities undertaken under the On-farm Water Management programs. These programs, however, have only been very partially successful; their institutional coinponent has led to noii-sustainable Water Users Associations, and technical efforts have focused on reducing conveyance losses through lining, while neglecting other losses at the farin level.Towards the end of the 1980s, concerns related to water supply perf'orinance have shifted to higher levels of the irrigation system, i.e. the disrriburcrr-y (or secondary canal) and main canal. At these levels, the focus of perforinance assessment activities is not adequacy, but equity in distribution between watercourses or distributaries, and also variability and reliability of canal water supplies. Most of the studies undertaken so far have shown the iiiagnitude of the problems of inequity in distribution and variability in supplies at the distributary and iiiain canal levels (see for example, Bhutta and Vander Velde, 1992;Kuper and Kijiie. 1992). Also, the increasing number of canal systems analyzed emphasizes that the discrepancy between official and actiial operation of canals, and poor canal water supply performance, seem to be the general rule rather than the exception for canal conunand areas within the Indus Basin lrrigation System._.The links hetween water supplies and onviriir~niental prohleins (walerlogging. salinity, sodicity) have been analyzed in some delail in the cunlexl of Pakistan. However, little is known on the relationship During the same period, research on water management below the mogha has not been sustained at the same level as during the 1970s. The research has been liinited to specific sites (see for exainple the MONA and LIM projects under WAPDA). And the main issues investigated relate to the development of new (improved) technologies to enhance irrigation system performance and its sustainability (for example, comparison between types of watercourse improvements, analysis of tubewell technology, identification of appropriate reclamation measures for specific as it is, and the understanding of the current complexity, rules, and constraints faced by Pakistani farmers below the inogha.' Often, research on \"what it is\" has been superseded by research on \"what it ought to be\".Two important reasons explain the need to analyze the actual situation below the mogha. The first reason relates to the relevance of research results obtained 20 years ago. There have been drastic changes in the irrigation system since the research efforts undertaken in the 1970s. The pressure on water resources has significantly increased as expressed by cropping intensities that have more than doubled during the last 20 years. The development of a large number of private tubewells and the importance of ground water use is expected to iinpact on canal water management by farmers. Also, changes in farm characteristics (for example, the average farm size has been decreasing siiice 1960) and constraints (access to credit and improved inputs) indirectly influence water inanagetnent activities.The second reason is related to the implementation of watercourse level programs. In the context of discussions on participatory irrigation management and the future objectives/roles of the On-Farm Water Management Program, it is important to clearly understand current water management activities below the mogha and analyze their impact on production and sustainability. This will identify existing needs that require intervention below the mogha.The present paper summarizes the results obtained by the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI), Pakistan National Program, in the analysis of current canal water allocation arid distribution below the mogha. The focus of the paper is circumscribed by part of 1IMI's research activities below the mogha. Canal water only is investigated, although the role of groundwater use is recognized by the authors as has been analyzed in other publications. Also, allocation and distribution below the iiiogha are presented (i.e. between the watercourse head and the farm gate) and issues above the watercourse head and within the farm are not discussed in the present paper. Finally, the focus is on the output of allocation and distribution activities (in terms of water supply performance) and not on the process and organizational issues.. conditions, etc). However, little effort is targeted towards the analysis of the irrigation system 1 . I I t i s important to note that a large amount of infornlalioii on the existing irrigation system i s alsv c o \\ k c t d as pdrl of the lnonitoring and evaluation aclivities of specific proiecls and programs. However, the niain fcicus of these aclivilies is vn perforinancr indicators (wlpu() and 1101 on lhe functioning and management of the system per .ye. And the information collected i s rarely analyzd thoroughly and shared with (considered hy) the research cominminily.Initial efforts undertaken by llMI on water management below the mogha were not specifically targeted towards the analysis of water allocation and distribution at this level of the irrigation system. In fact, the understanding of issues came as part of research prograins focused on other irrigation management issues, such as the analysis of canal water supply performance at the distributary level, or the analysis of the impact of irrigation water supply on salinity and waterlogging. The main research results were presented in Bhatti and Kijne (1990) and mainly focused on the difference between official rules and actual use of water turns. The authors also stressed the importance of the decrease in farm size and its impact on water turns that may not be sufficient anymore to irrigate fields in an appropriate manner. The trading of water turns is presented as an evidence of farmers' dissatisfaction with the orficial rules and the need to make the system more flexible.The following years added a new dimension on the analysis of water manageinent below the mogha. First, as part of a project titled Crop-Based Irrigation Operation in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), field research stressed again the differences between official rules in terms of allocation of water turns (warabandi) and actual allocation of water turns (Bandamgoda and Garces, 1992). In fact, with the very high water allowances of the two irrigation systems studied, the Chashma Right Bank Canal (0.6 I/s/ha) and Lower Swat Canal (0.77 I/s/ha) irrigation systems, the need to allocate water tnrns in a strict inaiiner does not hold, and a more flexible (kachcha) warabandi has been established by farmers. Water turns are influenced by large land-owners and other influential people at (heir will. A large degree of flexibility in use of water turns exists due to exchange and trading, accentuated by the fact that in some watercourse command areas, several farmers irrigate at the same time sharing the flow of the same turn, thus the water turn does not become a dcJ:fucro \"water right\". Flexibility has also been added at the head of the inogha with farmers regularly opening and closing outlets to control flows entering into the watercourse. One of the conclusions of the authors is that equity is no longer a shared objective among officials, farmers and politicians.At the same time that research was undertaken in the NWFI', some other research activities focused on current water allocation and distribution patterns i n a fcw saniplc \\r'atercciurscs of ~lic Fordwah Branch Canal Irrigation System, South-Punjab. Although the conditions in terms of water scarcity are very different, the analysis also showed a discrepancy between official rules and actual distribution of water turns (Strosser and Kuper, 1994). Active localized water markets had developed in all of the watercourses analyzed. Farmers were involved i n tobewell water sales and purchases that formed the majority of the volumes of water transacted. In the case of canal water, farmers participated very actively i n exchanges o f partial or full water turns. A few canal water sales and purchases were also recorded.As a follow up of these general studies and the results obtained, specific studies were developed in the cont2xt of the project titled Managing Irrigation for Environmentaliy Sustainable Agriculture in Pakistan, funded by the Government of the Netherlands. Initially, the two main activities focused on the analysis of current water allocation and an in-depth analysis of water markets within the watercourse coniniand area. 'I'he results obtained as part of these studies led to the identification of gaps in understanding and the development of a research work plan (Strosser, 1995). This work plan was rcfinctl as a rcsult or a workshop hcltl i n Iiiliorc i n Junc 1995 (Riaz and Wahaj, 1996).The work plan included not only activities focused on allocation and distribution issues, but also specific activities on irrigation practices and an assessment of the impact of water supply on agricultural production and salinity. Planned activities include the analysis of current water allocation and identification of factors (whether technical or social) that explain this allocation, assessment of canal water supply performance within the watercourse command area, and spatial analysis of allocation and distribution using Geographical Information System ((31.5).The following section summarizes the research results obtained so far on the analysis of allocation and distribution of canal water below the inogha. Then, the results are discussed in the context of potential interventions to be implemented below the watercourse to improve the performance of water management below the mogha. Most of the results and conclusions presented in these sections are based on the analysis of information collected through two major field research efforts implemented by IIMI during the period 1993-95.The first field research effort includes a detailed survey of 22 sample watercourses located in 3 canal command areas; Upper Gugera, Lower Gugera and Fordwah Branch (Bandaragoda and Rehman,199.5). The survey focuses on the establishment of current allocation schedules and on the discrepancies between official and actual water allocation practices. The survey has been followed by the monitoring of water distribution activities during the kliutif (summer) 1993 season for the 22 sample watercourses. An important aspect of this research is its cross-sectional dimension with sample watercourses taken from different agro-ecological zones and physical environments. The second field research effort has built on some of the findings obtained from the survey of 22 watercourses, along with initial results obtained in sample watercourses in the Fordwah Branch Canal Irrigation System. Detailed monitoring of allocation and distribution of canal water has been undertaken for 8 sample watercourses and for 5 seasons (Kharif 1993 to Kharif 199.5) in the Fordwah Branch Canal Irrigation System. The watercourses selected represent different canal water supply and ground water use environments. The main focus of the study is the analysis of current allocation and distribution, the identification of its spatial and temporal variability (as a result of different water scarcity conditions), the assessment of canal water supply performance at the farm level, and the analysis of factors (whether watercourse related or farm related) that explain different levels of performance.In Pakistan's canal irrigation systems, the most prevalent water allocation method below the outlet (niogha) is the warabandi schedule, which literally means the schedule of fixed time turns.of the canal irrigation tradition, the warabandi time allocation schedule was locally determined with mutual consent of the farmers in the watercourse command. However, with changes in social conditions, intermittent water-related conflicts among the farmers led to increased official interventions in this original farmer-managed unofficial (kachcha) warabandi tradition, resulting in widespread conversion of kachcha warabandi practices into more rigid official (pucca) warabandi schedules during the period itself. Totlay, there are only a few waterccxirses in the Central Punjab, which are not covered by pucca warabandi.Theoretically, water allocation below the inogha is supposed to be impleinented according to an officially recognized fixed water turn schedule. This is popularly known as the official warabandi schedule, which is meant to be strictly adhered to by all of the water users so that its underlying objective of equitable distribution can be achieved. If properly executed, this official warabandi schedule provides an equal share of water per unit of land to be irrigated. Most government officials believe Ihat this schedule is in operation as prescribed i n the manuals.The real practical meaning of the official warabandi appears to lie in the fact that it fixes the rieht to irriFation water for the participating water users, a right that they can exercise if they have to, or can relax in actual practice, but use in any litigation, or i n any appeal for further arbitration or adjudication, when their access to water is jeopardized in any way. Farmers refer to this function of warabandi as \"huqooq\". The form of rights defined by an official warabandi in canal irrigation assiiines a inore formal \"legal right\". Studies indicate that the majority of small farmers tend to prefer official warabandi as it is based on equitable water distribution. The flexible water turns which have gradually replaced them are ofteii determined by a few powerful rural elites. This explains how the officially detcrminetl or recognked pucca warabandi schedules underwent change, as the informal pressure froin the local elites tended to supersede the formal rules in the long-rim.. The origin of warabandi was somewhere in the pre-colonial period, and during the early period * According to official procedure, a Canal Patwari is required to keep updated records of the latest sanctioned official warabandi list for their Patwar area. Surprisingly, for only two watercourses in the sample of 22 watercourses were the required lists readily available. Most of the concerned officials could not provide the latest warabandi lists for their respective watercourses in the study sample. Failing to collect all of the official warabandi schedules froin the Patwaris, an effort was made at the Divisional Canal Offices to retrieve the remaining lists For the sample watercourses. The study team could collect only 15 official warabandi schedules (7 or 10.5 days) from the Irrigation Department for the 20 pucca warabandi watercourses in the sample (2 sample watercourses were on kachcha warabandi).. Canal Patwaris are basically responsible for drawing official warabandis based on formal requests by the water users. However, field interviews showed that most of the Irrigation Department field personnel dealing with warabandi operations were not fully conversant with the procedure and not skilled enough to frame the roster, or even to explain the procedure.They acknowledged the existence of agreed warabandis based on consultation and compromise amongst the farmers. When a dispure arises, some of the serving officials seek advice from retired and experienced Patwaris for guidance and try to resolve the dispute informally. This may also explain why farmers have resorted to evolve their water turn schedules, which are a product of inevitable power and authority relationships that exist in the rural areas.An important lesson drawn from the analysis of canal water allocation in all the watercourses is that the official warabandi developed and kept by the Irrigation Department officials is no longer in practice. It has been replaced by a warabandi developed by farmers themselves defined by Bandaragoda and Rehinan (1995) as the Agrced Wuruhundi. Similar to the official warabandi in its format (i.e. defining water turns in terms of starting and end time, in and out nakkas), the Agreed Warabandi is regularly updated at the beginning of each season, and rotated by 12 hours in most of the cases after the canal closure period. Most of these Agreed Warabandi resemble pucca warabandi schedules with fixed allocations of water turns as opposed to the more flexible kuchchu warabandi. Some of the differences existing between the official and Agreed Warabandi are noted below.The official warabandi allocates water turns to land owners, while the Agreed Warabandi considers all water users (i.e. land owners or tenants and lessees).(ii) The Agreed Warabandi is regularly updated (usually at the beginning of each season, to take into account changes in command area, tenure, etc) while the official warabandi is updated mainly when water allocation conflicts occur on a given watercourse. In most of the watercourses surveyed, official warabandi schedules were more than 15 years old and had little in common with the Agreed Warabandi.(iii) Unlike the official warabandi that is based on the principle of equity, large inequities are present in the Agreed Warabandi. Technical, physical and social factors explain this inequity in allocation of water turns.(iv) Staff from the Irrigation Department and farmers are involved in the development of the official warabandi, while the agreed warabandi is a farmers only matter.In order to quantify the actual level of equity in canal water allocation within the watercourse command area, the Coefficient of Variation (C.V.) of all the water turns per unit area has been computed and used as an indicator for equity (a coefficient of variation of 0 means perfect equity). Values of C.V. for 22 watercourses are presented in Figure I . These values range from 0.15 (or 15 percent) to more than 0.8 for one watercourse of the Lower Gugera irrigation  Although the Agreed Warabandi is developed informally by farmers, some of the criteria usccl to develop it are similar to the ones used for thr official warabandi. Although a large inequity in the allocation per unit area is observed, the area cultivated is still an important factor explaining canal water allocation. Advance and drainage times are taken into account in most of the watercourses (values used by farmers are the same as the ones used by the Irrigation Department officials). And water turns are to be taken at specific locations along the watercourse (but not necessarily at the official nakkas).An interesting point is that time, duration of turn, and location at which the water turn is to be ,taken as defined in the Agreed Warabandi are well enforced in most of the watercourses monitored. Thus, although the allocation of water turns is informal, farmers are able to enforce their Agreed Warabandi mainly by social control. The allocation of water turns (seen as de facto water rights) in the Agreed Warabandi is not equitable, but accepted, and enforced by farmers themselves with little or no intervention from officials..The shift from the flexible kachcha warabandi to puccno warabandi can also be seen in the context of enforcing water rights. ln the past, the kachcha warabandi with its more flexible allocation of water turns gave opportunity to powcrful water iisers to have better access to surface water resources, whatever the canal water supply at the liead of the watercourse. I n a large number of watercourses, the increasing pressure on water resources recorded during the past 20 years (as illustrated by significant increases of cropping intensities during the last 20 warabandi, with water rights respected and enforced by water users.'The impact of water scarcity on wzter allocation, with the shift from kachcha to pucca warabandi analyzed in an historical perspective, is also stressed by results obtained in the two irrigation system of NWFP with higlier water allowances as mentioned in the previous section. In inost of the watercourses of the Chashma Right Bank Canal irrigation system, for example, the very high water allowances have led to a high degree of flexibility in water allocation and the development of improperly defined water turns. As water is plentiful, to develop strict schedules of water turns is not required. However, during periods with higher water demand (for example, during the rice transplanting period), stricter warabandi schedules were followed ill some parts of the irrigation system. (ii) \"Time for location\" trading, to take into account drainage and advance time that may be involved due to the use of canal water at locations different than the ones specified in the agreed warabandi;(iii) Purchase and sale of cam! water, whether for a short period of time (one week only) or for a full season (sale of water turns of abandoned land, or sale of water turns by tail farmers to head fariners);(iv) Intra-farm (inter-plot) allocation of canal water turns, by using canal water turns allocated to one plot on another plot located at a different location along the watercourse,Differences hetween Aziin xnd Fordwah should he noted. This diilerenca implies that prohahly the Sindh situation is similar to Arim Dislrihutary.. but belonging to the same cultivator; and(v) Exchange of canal water for tubewell water, often related to the use of irrigation water at different locations within the watercourse corninand area in order to reduce losses that may take place for low canal water discharges and long distances between the watercourse head and the farm gate.Water trading activities in all of the monitored areas are always informal. Most of the time, trading activities involve a few neighboring farmers. The analysis undertaken by Debernardi (1996) using a Geographic Information System stresses the existence of independent water management units within the watercourse coininand area. These units, of approxiinately 25-50 acres and 5-8 farmers, operate aiitonoinously with joint allocation of turns and rotation among turns, active water trading activities, and often active purchases and sales of tubewell water. I n some cases, negotiation processes similar to auctions take place at the beginning of the season for tail farmers to sell their water turns to head farmers that are ready to pay the highest price'.The importance of canal water trading activities is illustrated in   Table 1 highlights the importance of borrowing (in ternls of percentage of the total water turns) for watercourses that have good canal water supplies such as Fordwah 46-R or Azini 20-L. However, other factors influence the iinportance of water trading activities as highlighted by Fordwah 62-R Watercourse that has a very good canal water supply, but records a low level of water trading activities.  Little is known about factors (whether physical or social) that influence the variability of intensity in canal water markets within the watercourse command area. A survey undertaken by the Watercourse Monitoring & Evaluation Directorate (WMED) i n 1990 for 100 watercourses in the four provinces emphasized the importance of this phenomenon with 30 percent of the watercourses surveyed reporting the trading of canal water turns, and canal water being sold and purchased by 20 percent of the water sellers and 30 percent of the water purchasers, respectively (WAPDA, 1990). However, the study did not identify factors explaining the differences in canal water trading from one area to the other.The comparison between the 22 sample watercourses provides some insight on the impact of canal water supply and cropping pattern on canal water transactions. The comparison between these watercourses shows that water trading activities are more developed i n the Upper Gugera irrigation system, with a rice-wheat rotation and a large number of water users per watercourse (thus, an average short time duration for canal water turns). Farmers face simultaneously a high demand for each irrigation due to the rice crop and a low weekly supply due to short canal water turns. In order to irrigate their paddy fields efficiently, farmers get involved in canal water transactions. In fact, in most of the watercourses of the Upper Gugera irrigation system, all farmers/water users are intensively involved iii various types of canal water transactions.The level of inequity and variability in the allocation and distribution of' canal water turns (in term of hours, or hours per unit area) has been highlighted i n the previous sections. The focus of this section is the ,actual canal water supply performance, with two main issues being considered: (i) the ciirrent level of canal water supply performance within the watercourse command area; and (ii) the coinparison of perforniance results obtained for different levels of the irrigation system (watercourse versus distributary and main canal).Current canal water supply performance at the farin gate is characterized by a high temporal variability in canal water discharge resulting from variability upstreani in the irrigation system (Knper and Strosser, 1996). To tackle this variability, farmers are exchanging canal water turns to be in a position to complete their irrigation event for a given field in an proper way. Also, farmers have kept a certain variability in the size of their plots to partly tackle the variability in discharge.Results of analysis shows that the inequity in allocation, along with the temporal variability i n canal water supply at the watercourse head, is transformed into an inequity in canal water supply -For most of the watercourses, the inequity i i i volume is lower than, or equal to, the incquity that has been computed using the actual water turns. This is the result of thc developiiient of canal water transactions to smooth tlie variability in discharges observed at the watercourse head.However, the inequity in volume is higher for all cases, but Azim 20-L watercourse\"', than the inequity recorded in the Agreed Warabandi.Further analysis in the same 8 watercourses emphasized the importance of the allocation of canal water turns to explain the variability in actual canal water supplies (Barral, 1994). Using a volume-balance model for the watercourse, tlie analysis considered different (actors, such as allocation, seepage losses, discharge variability at tlie watercourse head, etc, and estimated the marginal impact on canal water supply and equity of each factor.Although the expectation was that seepage losses would be tlie iiiain Factor explaining inequity in water distribution within the watercourse conimand area, the results showed that allocation of water turns is tlie niain cause for inequity iii watercourse coniniand areas. Out 01' 8 watercourses, seepage losses were found of significant importance i n only one watercourse where the distance from the watercourse head has a significant inipact vii water supply. Thc result for this watercourse are illustrated in Map 1.The excellent canal waler siipply per iinil n r e t h r this WaleruoLirse iiiay explain thc redticad inctpity ohserved for voluiiies of cnnal waler delivered lo farniers.Spatial distribution of canal water suliply within Fortlwah 14-R Watercourse coiii iiiaiid area.A second ._sue relates to the relative importance of perforinance at tlie watercourse level as compared with other levels of the irrigation syste~ns. n e comparison between canal water supply performance at differeni levels of the irrigation system lias been undertaken in the Chishtian Sub-division. Results obtained so far with regard to equity are summarized i n tlie following table.Inequity at different levels of tlie Cliishtian Sub-division.The comparison between coefficients of variation at different levels of tlie irrigation system presented in Table 3 stresses that inequity is first to be addressed at the secondary canal level.Inequity is the highest between watercourses of given distributaries, then of similar importance for farins within a given watercourse coniniand area, or between secondary canals along the main canal.Three issues are discussed in the present section. The first two issues relate to potential interventions targeted towards allocation and distribution of canal water below the mogha, i.e. intervention for which objective (improvement of equity, adequacy, variability of canal water supply) and which intervention? The need for furtlier research to f i l l existing gaps is the third issue discussed in the present section.With the increasing importance of private tubewells that have added flexibility and have increased volumes of water available to improve the canal water supply, adequacy may not be of significant importance. In some cases, however, with no access to tubewell water due to poor quality ground water, and with high conveyance losses along the watercourse, adequacy of canal water supply may be the main issue to be considered. In this context, to reduce conveyance losses through lining or other iinprovements iiiay be an appropriate option to increase adequacy.Other options targeting adequacy would require interventions at higher levels of tlie irrigation system (distributary, main canal) with an expected impact on the average discharge entering the. watercourse command area.The analysis of tlie variability issue leads to similar coniinents. Variability in canal water supplies is a phenomenon that has its origin above the watercourse head. Within the watercourse command area, farmers have succeeded i n tackling part of the variability in canal water supply.For example, by exchanging (partial) canal water turns, or having bunded units of different sizes adapted to different discharges. However, further reductions in variability cannot be tackled within the watercourse command area and interventions are required at higher levels of the irrigation system (see, for example, Litrico 1995 for examples of potential interventions at the main system level).Equity is an issue that can be tackled within the watercourse comniand area. The analysis of canal water supply performance highlights the liigli spatial variability in volun~es per unit area received by farmers of a given watercourse. The analysis sliows also that tlie inequity in allocation is the main factor explaining inequity at the watercourse level, and that seepage losses have a significant inipact on inequity i n some cases only.However, the comparison of tlie equity indicators at different levels of tlie irrigation system, as presented in Table 3, shows that equity should first be tackled along the distributary betweenwatercourses. Within the watercourse, the existing equity or inequity in canal water distribution is often related to an inequity in allocation of water turns that results from a specific social balance between farmers of the watercourse.Whether the outcome of this social balance is good or bad should not be judge too rapidly. In fact, an inequitable but socially accepted allocation may be seen as inore appropriate than an equitable and socially not accepted one\". In any case, to modify current allocation patterns would require significant efforts (or drastic changes in the existing social relationsliips) that niay require external interventions and niay not be sustainable after all.Several interventions may be proposed within the watercourse coninland area to improve canal water supply performance. As specified above, however, the prospect for significant improvements seem rather limited, whether because there are limited possibilities for improvements due to characteristics of the existing physical system with limited control points, or because the main impact would be obtained at different levels of the irrigation system.Interventions may be related to allocation and definition of water turns or water rights i n order to establish an official warabandi as a recognition of water rights, to update the official warabandi on a regular basis, to recognize long-teriii water trading (sale and purchase of water turns), to modify the definition of water turns by adding extra allowances for seepage losses, or may be related to distribution (to recognize sliort tern1 water trading or implement technical interventions, such as lining to reduce seepage losses). These interventions are suininarized in Table 4, along with information on their expected impact on canal water s q ~p l y performance, difficulties for iti~plementatiotl, expected costs, constraints, etc.These interventions were analyzed in the context of their expected impact on water supply performance, and difficulties of iinplementation based on the existing situation are listed and discussed below i n light of the results obtained and presented above.The point lo he made is that a syslani with an eqcd share of water may not lie considered erluibdhle h) a given society, o r group of people. as i t does not necessarily fit with their own systela of norn1s and rules.I 1 0  T h e purpose here i s not into enter in the dehate regarding the potential need f(ir water user associations. However, the development of effective water user associalions miiy lead tcr iiwdificntions in the allocation of canal water turns and have an impact o n equity and water supply perlurmance.The results presented in this paper stress the importance of field research to understand the current issues related to water managewen! activities below the mogha and identify appropriate interventions to address these issues. In itself, the significance of the gap between official rules, and rules in practice, justifies the need for more field research based on real world situations.At this stage, although the magnitude of efforts spent to collect information for the largest samples is recognized, there is a need to increase the number of samples to test specific hypotheses. For example, research results have shown that inequity in allocation of water turns, and not seepage losses, are responsible for the larger share of inequity within the watercourse. But this conclusion is expected to vary from environment to environment based on the absolute values of conveyance losses, the relative water scarcity within a command area, and social and organizational characteristics of populations that are expected to influence the allocation process. Research results have mainly been based on data collected in the Punjab and the NWFP, but differences are expected in the Sindh.Although IIMI's research has shown that inequity in allocation of canal water turns within the watercourse command areas is a common phenomenon, little has been done to analyze the physical and social factors that explain inequity in allocation. What are the main characteristics of farmers that receive turns longer or shorter than the average? Are they owners or tenants, small or large farmers, affected by salinity or waterlogging, head or tail farmers, influential or common farmers, etc? With the recognition of the role of social factors i n the allocation process, watercourse level studies focused on water management activities may need to be complemented by village level enquiries that would investigate the social complexity of a given population and its impact on water allocation and distribution.Finally, most of the analysis presented above focuses on performance in terms of canal water supply. Further analysis is required to also integrate issues related to performance in terms of agricultural production and environment. Also, the expected impact of different allocation scenarios, or watercourse level interventions, on agricultural production and salinity would nced to be assessed. In the research conducted so far, an analysis of water allocation and distribution within the watercourse command areas shows that there exists a considerable gap between the \"official\" norms and the actual practices. However, the system is not in total anarchy as it uses clearly understood sets of rules and rights, which are informal but socially accepted and enforced (or practiced). A large degree of flexibility is observed, and this is caused by an emerging marketoriented behavior in water trading, particularly with tubewell water. The lining of watercourses, which is a major intervention pursued by successive phases of \"on-farm'' water management projects seems to have eclipsed a much more needed attention in two other areas. While * 17 .watercourse improvement seems useful i n areas where seepage losses are high., a greater need for research and policy initiatives remains unfultiIled below the farn-gate where improved irrigation practices need to be adapted to suit farmers' current requirements, and above the watercourse head, where improved water allocalion practices would help to libcrate the present physical and social constraints faced by the farmers.On-going research activities by IIMI continue to explore the history of water allocation practices in Pakistan, and to clearly identify physical and social factors that influence water allocation and distribution patterns. In two field sites in the Punjab, studies are aimed at analyzing the relationship between physical and social factors, water management activities and water supply performance. A more general comparative study is under way i n collaboration with the Wageningen Agricultural University and the Department of Water Management of the University of Pehsawar. This comparative study covers several irrigation systems to address the issues of variability in the environment within the Indus Basin.The research efforts by IIMI and other institutes need to be closely linked with a dynamic policy support that takes into account the changes that are taking place in the context of irrigated agriculture. A weakness in the linkages between research and policy has been identified as the main cause for the failure of many development interventions in irrigated agriculture sector in Pakistan (Bandaragoda, 1993). For the physical environment and the legal framework to fit with reality on ground, the research institutes including IIMI need to effectively disseminate research results to policy makers and implementing agencies. The rules need to reflect the deinand in the operational context. These are challenges that continue to confront the researchers.The discrepancy between stagnant agricultural production and increasing demand for agricultural and food products has been well documented (World Bank, 1994) and is clearly an important issue in the agenda of policy makers and funding agencies in Pakistan. With the importance of irrigated agriculture (covering 16 million hectares and providing more than 90 percent of the exports of agricultural products), a lot of attention is given to potential improvements in tlie irrigation sector that would then lead to (expected) large increases in crop yields and agricultural production.While in the past, equity has been the main objective of' irrigation sector policieq, the discrepancy between supply and demand of food products has shifted the emphasis from equity to productivity and sustainability objectives, with efficient and lasting use of water resources being the key words of current policy efforts (see for example the opening speech of President Leghari of Pakistan at the inauguration of the IIMI building in Lahore in 1995). With regards to canal water supplies, high concerns have been raised with the poor quality of irrigation services supplied to farmers. Canal water supplies to watercourses are highly inadequate (as compared to design values) in a large number of cases, are inequitable at all levels of the irrigation system (Kuper and Strosser, 1996), and highly variable (Bhutta and Vander Velde, 1992;Kuper and Kijne, 1992;Kuper and Strosser, 1996). or construction of extra storage capacity, and also institutional innovations such as the development of Water Users Associations .(whether at the watercourse or distributary levels) and the establishment of financially autonomous public authorities. Also, changes in the level and structure of water charges have been proposed (hut only very partially implemented so far), For most of the options proposed, however, very little is known on two important aspects. First, what is the expected impact on technical and institutional options on water supply performance itself? To identify potential changes in water supply performance as a result of maintenance activities or lining of canals may be a possible task. However, how much can be said about the expected improvements in canal water supply performance as a result of the development of Water Users Associations? It is only recently that the literature 011 water user associations started to address the issue of impact in a comprehensive manner.Second, the relationship between water and agricultural production is to he better understood. What would be the expected impact of proposed options on agricultural production and productivity, as a result of changes in canal water supply performance? Whether water is thc main constraint on agricultural production is also an issue that is to be addressed before starting allocating financial resources to innovations in the irrigation and drainage sector. Improvements in water supply performance may not lead to expected changes in production and productivity if the main problems faced by farmers relate to the availability of certified seeds or proper quality fertilizers.To take policy decisions (in terms of allocation of water resources and financial resources) and select the \"right\" innovation or change without understanding these two aspects would be a very difficult (and doubtful) task. A review of the literaturc shows that research results that would help answer these issues are rather rare in the context of Pakistan (and most often are derived from research activities undertaken in research stations under controlled conditions that often do not exist in the real irrigation world in Pakistan). In some ways, the low level of importance given by the research community to the analysis of the relationship between interventions in the irrigation sector, water supply and agricultural production under existing conditions is rather surprising coinpared to the issues at stake. More field research targeted at the understanding 01' this relationship would decisively help policy makers in selecting improved managcmcnt options to be implemented in the huge irrigation system in Pakistan.The second issue, i.e. the relatioilship between canal/irrigation water supplies and agricultural production, is further investigated in the present paper. This paper presents c methodologies and tools that havc bccn developed during tlic last two ycars by the IuteriKttioifiil Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) i n Pakistan. Research results obtained so far are presented to illustrate the complexity of the relationship between water and agricultural production, and propose directions that may be followed to address this complex issue.The different elements of the relationship between water and agricultural production are summarized in Figure 1. The abbreviations used in figure 1 are as follow: CWS for Canal Fieldi, Fieldi and Field, represent different fields within the farm (with different soil, salinity conditions, crops, etc); Yield,, Yieldj and Yield, are crop yields obtained from Field,, Fieldi and Water Supply; WC for Watercourse: TW for TubeWell; IWS for Irrigation Water Supply; Q Field,, respectively.The link between water supply and agricultural productiori is complex as it integrates several decisions taken by farmers at different periods of time. Decisions are taken a t the pl;tnning stage, but also regularly for scheduling of irrigatiori events and application of irrigation water to specific fields. The information used by farmers to take each decision varies also, from a composite view based on events faced during the past seasons (for example, knowledge about past irrigation water supplies that influence crop choices) to more simple and straightforwartl information collected shortly before taking a given decisioii (for example, to chcck the water level at the distributary a few hours before an irrigation event).In the case of a farm, different levels of decisions may he considered that relate to irrigation water supply.(i) Which crop(s) to plant on the farin for an expected canal water supply at the farm gate'? This planning decision considers also potential access to (and price of) groundwater resources (whether own tubewell or purchase), based on experiences confronted during the past seasons.(ii) How to allocate irrigation water to the different fields of the farin'! Once canal water arrives at the farm, farmers are to take decisions regarding intra-farm water allocation and tubewell operation: which field to irrigate, for how long, with which duration and quantity? Past irrigation events, crop types and physical characteristics of ficlds, along with farmer's strategies and priorities are important elements that will inlluence these choices. Two sub-components of this analytical framework are investigated and illustrated in the present paper. These two approaches, that have been devcloped and testcd hy IIMI to address issucb related to the impact of irrigation water supply on agricultural production, at-e described, tested and evaluated in the following sections of this paper. These two approaches are:(i) at the farm level, the analysis of the iqipact of caual water supply on cropping pattern and agricultural production. The marginal impact of quantity and variability of canal water supply is investigated. The analysis provides also infoimation on the way private tubewells are operated to increase the quantity of irrigation water available or to reduce the variability of canal water supplies. The approach looks at the planning stage, i.e. which cropping pattern to be developed based on expected canal water supplies for each month.(ii) at the field level, the investigation of the impact of actual irrigation water uselapplication on crop yields, taking the example of thc wheat crop. The two main aspects of irrigation water supply performance that have been considered are quantity and timeliness of irrigation water supplies.Both approaches have been developed using information collected in eight sample watercourses of the Azim Distributary (non-perennial) and Fordwah Distributary (perennial) of the Chishtian Sub-division, South-Punjab (for the characteristics of sample watercourses, see Pintus, 1995). Basic farm level information for the khurif (summer) 1993 and rubi (winter) 1993-94 seasons has been collected through a farm survey for all farmers (total 280) of these sample watercourses. Also, a limited number of sample farmers (15) have been monitored intensively for the Rabi 1994-95 and Kharif 1995 seasons regarding their practices for crop production. The information collected in the sample watercourses and used in the present study is summarized in Table 1. . . Ill-depth iiitervicws and restitittioil with sainplc farm! Importantly, a very good estimate of canal water supplies is obtained for all farms of the eight watercourses through daily monitoring and water levels at the head of each watercourse. Water levels are transformed into volumes by using specific discharge formula calibrated for each watercourse, then multiplying discharges by the expected time of use and adjusting the results to take into account conveyance losses from the watercourse head to the farm gate. The daily information is used to compute monthly average canal water supply and inonthly standard deviation as a proxy to canal water supply variability as perceived hy farmers. Also, tuhewell water use has been monitored for all fields of the 15 sample farms to compute total irrigation water supply and average irrigation water quality.The following sections present first the methodology, models and results of the farm level analysis, and second the methodology and statistical results of the production function for wheat.The final section of (he paper discusses the results obtained and the limitations and advantages of the methodologies.The methodology developed for the analysis o f Ihc rc1;itionsliip hc(wecn irrigation water supply and crop choices draws on similar studies and experiencc dcveloped by the Irrigation Division of Cemagref, a French institute involved in agricultural :ind ciivil-onmental engineet-ing research.The rationale behind the methodology that has been developed and tested in :I Pakistani context is the recognition of the large heterogeneity of farming systems, along with the assumption that this large heterogeneity can be described and summarized by a limited number of well-defined farm types or groups with specific farm strategies and constraints.In order to identify these farming systems, a classification procedure is applied on a selected set of variables expected to represent strategies and constraints in the area investigated. A'kluster analysis is performed using the farm survey inlormation, and firrm groups or farm types are identified. Overall, 11 farm groups have been identified that represent thc farm population of the eight sample watercourses (Rinaudo, 1994). Each group is homogeneous for the main variables characterizing this group. For other variables that are seen as less important to explain farm strategies, a heterogeneity remains within the group. Table 2 summarizes the main strategy and characteristics of the different groups (see Rinaudo, 1994, for more intonnation).. ,Farming systems in the Fordwali area: main c1i:tr:icteristics of 1' :rrin groups. Then, representative farms are selected for each group, and micro-economic models arc developed for each farm ( i s . 11 distinct micro-economic models). In the study prescnted in this paper, linear programming (LP) models have been developed, using the Micro-LP Software (Scicon, 1989). So far, the main constraints that have been included in the models relate to land, water, cash-flow, autoconsumption of wheat and tubewell water use'. Each model is then calibrated using information obtained from the farm surveys, informal interviews and regular monitoring of farm practices (irrigation management, input use, impact on yields, etc).The LP models developed are stochastic models, including aspects of risk (hat are taken into consideration by farmers to take decisions. The method selected for the inclusion of risk in the LP models is the MOTAD devcloped by Hazel1 (Hazel1 and Norton, 1986). Risk has been considered for wheat production (variability in wheat yields related to pests and variability in rainfall) and for gross margin for cotton (variability in gross margin related to virus.attacks along with high variability in cotton prices). Risk on wheat production will be of importance for farms with autoconsumption objectives, while variability in cotton gross margin will affect mainly market oriented farms relying on cotton sales. Risk aversion factors attached to each type of risk are specified as part of the calibration process.Also, risk aspects have been included in the irrigation water supply constraints faced by farmers. As highlighted by Figure 2 that displays the monthly Coefficient of Val-iation (C.V.) of canal water supplies 3 at the head of two sample watercourses off-taking from the Fordwali Distributary, temporal variability in canal water supplies is relatively high (especially for the Fordwah 130-R Watercourse) and is expected to impact on farmer's decisions. With a highly variable canal water supply, farmers would put less area under crop on their farm, but would favour crops that are less water sensitive and that may better resist water stress.. ISimilar to the approach sclected for including risk in yields and gross margins, to include canal water supply variability in the LP micro-economic models follows a MOTAD-like approach. The standard deviation of canal water supply is used to express its variability, and risk aversion factors related to water supply are included in the LP micro-economic models. Using water supply information obtained from daily monitoring of watercourse head water levels (as presented in Table l), monthly averages and standard deviations of canal water supply are computed for each representative farm model, * .Information is currently analyzed to add labour constraints in the models. Discussions with farmers and the analysis of data shows that this constraint may not be important in the current context. However, simulations of scenarios may modify this situation and lead to potential labour shortages during specific periods such as harvcsting periods for wheat and cotton. or transplanting of rice. .The following sections illustrate the use of the micro-economic farm models to assess the impact of changes in canal water supply on farm decisions. Also, the heterogeneity in farmer's behaviour among farm groups is presented by comparing the output of some of the models for different scenarios of canal water supply adequacy.The first example focuses on the impact of canal water supply on farmer's decisions, cropping pattern, tubewell water use and gross income (the main output of the LP micro-economic models). A farm model (representative of Group 9, see Table 2) is used to assess the impact of different canal water supply scenarios. Four scenarios have been tested, each one having a specific impact on the adequacy and variability of canal water supply (expressed by the average and standard deviation of daily canal water supplies, respectively). The characteristics of the f o ~i r scenarios are as follow4: (iv) Scenario 4: Design average canal water supply and variability reduced to 0Results of the simulations for these four scenarios are summarized in Table 3. It is impoi-tant to note that for the farm considered, current canal water supplies are on average higher than design. Thus, a shift from actual to design valucs is equivalent to a dccrcase in iivci-age canal water supplies. Second, the results highlight the important impact of variability in canal water supply on iarm decisions and economic indicators at the farm level. Although the scenarios tested with a zero variability may he extreme scenarios, they highlight the potential gains in terms of agricultural production that may he expected from a reduction in canal water supply variahility. In cases such.as the farm analyzed, the last scenario suggests that a reduction in the average quantity of canal water supplied to farmers could be more than compensated by a reduction in the variability of this supply.This result is in fact very important in the context of the equity issue within canal coininand areas. In a large number of cases, to restore equity means to increase supplies to some and to reduce supplies to others. The results of the simulations presented above highlights that this reallocation of canal water could be made acceptable for all farmers (in terms of agricultural production and productivity) if accompanied by a significant reduction in the variahility of these supplies.Third, although the variation in total tubewell water use was not as significant as what would have been expected, differences in the percentage of water coming from tubewells are very large among scenarios. In areas with groundwater of poor quality, a high ratio of tubewell waier over total water supplies may add large amounts of salts to the soil and may represent a serious threat for the sustainability of agricultural production.The main purpose of this second example is to illustrate the heterogeneity in farm responses to a given change, and indirectly to justify the need for the initial analysis of farming systems and development of several economic models for farms representative of different strategies and in monthly average canal water supply (expressed in percentage of the avcrage design or QdcJ on tubewell water use. Table 4 summarizes  Group numbers used in this table refer to group numbers spccificd in Tahle 2.Table 4 highlights the specific reactions of particular farm groups to changes in canal water supply. It is interesting to note that a 25 percent reduction in canal water supplies from the design values does not lead to an increase in tubewell water use as one would have expected.For Groups 1 and 4, tubewell water use decreases or remains constant. For Groups 7 and 9, however, the 25 percent decrease in canal water supply is directly translated into an increase in tubewell water use. If canal water supplies decrease further up to 50 percent of the design values, tubewell water use increases significantly for Groups 1, 4 and 9. Group 7. however, can not deal with such a reduction as the increasing costs related to tubewell water use are too high and the group cannot satisfy its minimum income requirement anymore,The differences between groups are particularly clear when comparing Group 1 (non-tuhewell owners) and Group 9 (tubewell owners). Tubewell water use is not significantly modified for Group 1 farmers within the proposed range of canal water supplies. At the opposite, Group 9 farmers react rapidly to changes in canal water supply, and their tubewell water use is'nearly doubled when canal water supplies are reduced from 150 percent to 50 percent of their design values.In summary, the results of the simulations presented above illustrate the use of the LP microeconoinic models that show the importance of canal water supply variability in farm decisions, and stresses the need to investigate the heterogeneity in fanner's strategies and constraints as it influences the output of farmer's decisions in terms of cropping pattern and tubewell water use. The models presented above can also be used to analyse the impact of policies that try to affect the demand of irrigation water. For example, changes in canal water charges or changes in energy costs with impact on tubewell operation costs. The results of simulations can he used to assess the overall impact of such policies, and also to understand differences among farm types.As a result, accompanying measures may be developed for specific groups that may he more disadvantaged as a result of the implementation of proposed changes.This section deals with the issue of timeliness and adequacy of irrigation water supplies and its impact on crop yields, using the example of wheat crop (the major rahi crop in the Chishtian Sub-division). Timeliness is defined with respect to the correspondence between crop water requirements at any stage of crop growth and available irrigation watcr supplies during that stage. Timeliness of water supply is investigated from an agronomic point of view, looking at the plant itself and factors affecting plant growth at the field level where greater control/understanding of other agronomic intluences is possihle.  2 for information on these selected for daily monitoring of farming and irrigation practices. At the end of the season, wheat yields have been collected through standard crop cut methods (Pintus, 1995).The information collected has been used to establish the relationship between wheat yields and farmer's practices at the field level, with special interest in the role of irrigation water during different crop growth stages. The methodology developed includes an analysis of current farming practices from an agronomic point of view (i.e. in the context of physiological developineht and basic needs of the plant). Based on this analysis, specific practices that are expected to significantly influence crop yields are identified and used for econometrically estimating a production function relating wheat yields to these practices. Also, results o l the analysis are discussed with individual farmers during restitution events, to identify unforeseen factors that may influence wheat yields and explain farmers' current practices.The estimated production function has the following form economists, but that is more common in the agronomic literature. The advantage of this approach is that quantity and timing of irrigation application is synthesized in a single variable. Also, the results obtained can more easlly be transposed to other irrigated areas as thcy are less influenced by local conditions.The production function has been estimated using the Ordinary Least Squares method available in the statistical software SPSS. Estimated coefficients ai-e presented in  Usings own seeds instead of market purchased seeds also depressed wheat yields significantly.The variables related negatively with yield reduction (and thus positively with yields) are quantities of Di-Amino Phosphate, urca and Single Super Phosphate (although the coefficient before urea is not statistically significant). And Di-Amino Phosphate has a greater inlluence on yields than Single Super Phosphate.Fit o l cstiinatcd regression  A surprising result is the sign of the estimated parameter before the potash variable (QPOTASH). This variable is positively related to yield reduction and the parameter is statistically significant. Moreover, this result is very robust with respect to changes in functional form (linear or quadratic) and other variables included i n the rcgression. Farniers usc potash to 0The estiinaled coefficient for the linear iorm are reported in Pintiis (1995)..mitigate salinity problems, and the assumption is that potash is only partially successful in tackling salinity. Thus, the variable would translate the remaining salinity effect that affects yield deficit positively rather than the direct effects of potash on salinity, and thus on yield.For more practical use of Equation (1) to study economic efficiency and other economic concepts, the relationship between yield reductiou and moisture stress is transformed into :\\ relationship between wheat yields and water application at different stages of the crop growth.The first step is a transformation of Equation ( I ) into Equation ( 2) that rclates actu;tI yield Y;, and evapotranspiration ETJET,,, (names of variables are defined in The interpretation of the estimated parameters in Equation ( 2) becomes straight forward for the non-water related variables. Parameters represent the marginal increase i n wlteat yield as a result of an increase in a given input. For example, the coefficient before QDAP means that increasing Di-Amino Phosphate applications by 1 kglha increases wheat yield hy I2 kg/ha.The second step consists in transforming ev:ipotranspir;ttion parameters into quantities of irrigation water effectively applied to the fields. To do so, two separate regressions relating ETa/ETp (dependant variable) and quantities of irrigation water applied (independent variable, measured in cubic meters) have been run for Stage R :Ind Stage C, respectively. The results (11 both regressions are presented below.For Stage B:. where QWAT, is the quantity of irrigation water in cubic meters applied during Stage J . The quadratic functional form was used to allow ETJET,,, to level off as water applications increase..The maximum obtainable wheat yield in lllc Cltislltiml Sub-division has IICCII estahlisbcd at 2G31 kg/acre (Pintus, 1995). Notice that irrigation rclalctl variables in Equation (2) have both the linear and quadratic form, as the result of replacing moisture stress ( I -ET81ET,,,) by evapotranspiration ETJET,.Allocative efficiency will be defined here from :in economic point of view with reference to an optimum allocation of irrigation water to crops (maximum profit under given constraints).Economic theory suggests that a profit inaxiiiiizing farmer will w e an input only up to the point where its Marginal Value Product is equal to the price of the illpiit. This efficiency criteria will result in most of tlie cases in an economic optimum different lrom tlic biological potential of a given crop (with lower use of the input than required for the biological potential). This efficiency criteria will be used to analyze water use patterns in tlic Chishtian Subdivision, using the results of the regression analysis presented above.Substituting Equation (3) and Equation (4) into Equ;ition ( 2 ) , a relationsliip is ohtaincd betwecn the actual yield Y , and the quantities of irrigation water used at dirferen( stages of the crop growth (the QWAR,, in Equations ( 3) and ( 4)). The Marginal Value I'roduct with regard t6 water is obtained by estimating the value of the derivative of the yield function against water for a given quantity of water applied (other inputs being fixed ;it the avcl.age valuc lor tlie sample considered), and multiply this value by the wheat price.The analysis of the coefficients presented in 'Table 4 shows that water stress i n Stage 13 and Stage C is detrimental to wheat yield. However, stress can be justified from an economic point o f view. As specified above, to analyze water stress from an ecoiioinic point of view requires a comparison between tlie Marginal Value Product of water and the price of watcr. I n the context of Pakistan, it is difficult to estimate the true price of water. For the purpose ol' lhis study.tubewell water price has been selected as the price of water. Altliougli this choice is not completely satisfactory. it can be pointed out U?at canal water is scarce and that all farmers in IIMI sample areas use tubewell water. Thus, tubewell water price represents farmers' willingness to pay for water at rhc margin.\" The comparison between water use for the two distributaries is interesting as tlic Fordwali Distributary is perennial and receives canal water year round, while the Azim Distributary is non-perennial and docs not receive canal water year round (apart for a few l i i i i e s during the ixhi season, when the Azim Distributary is used as an escape by the irrigation manager). Wlicn canal water is not in high demand (i.e. Stage B), Fordwah Distributary farnicrs are able to take advantage of thc dual access to canal and tubewell water, and use more water than Aziiii Distributary farmers that have to pay the full cost of irrigation water applictl. Howcver, as tlic pressure on water resources increases in Stage C, Fordwali Distributary farmers apply relatively less water; they have to rely more on tubewell water at a higher average price (as highlightetl in Table 5), and thus limit their tubewell water use for economic reasons. a tlccision that is consistent with economic theory.However, and although farmers seem to react to changes i n scarcity and water prices, there is no guarantee that water is allocated efficiently in either coinniand a r a ' l k comparison belween the Marginal Value Product for water and tubewell water prices is required lo gain a better understanding on allocative efficiency. Looking at Interestingly, tlie values of Marginal Value Product of water suggest that Fordwali Distributary of canal water supply may explain why Fordwali farmers hesitate to use tubewell water due to higher tubewell pumping costs. Also, their lower tubewell water quality (compared to Azim be an important factor that limits tubewell water use. In fact. larmers along this distributary may prefer waiting for an extra week in order to receive (unreli;ible but iree 01' cost and of good quality) canal water supply. To understand tlie reasons explaining this asymmetric I-csponsc, it thorough investigation of tlie functioning of, and constraints on. tubewell water markets is also required. Such an investigation, however, is beyond tlie scope of tlie present paper.The comparison between the Marginal Value Product of water for Stage B and Stage C has an important implication for irrigation system management. An extra cubic meter of irrigation water applied during Stage C would lead to an average increase i n wheat gross margin by 2.33 rupees, versus only 0.33 rupees for each extra unit of water applied during Stage B . The large difference between these two values stresses tlie need to improve irrigation water miiniigcnient during thc Stage c period. Special attention sliould be given to this pel-id, with expectcd high payofis iii terms of increased wheat production and gross income. Also, tlie results suggest that there is a. farmers are more constrained than Azim Distributary farmers. The unreliability and variability Distributary farmers that are close to tlie river and benefit from the recharge of the river) may * 1K1The existence of transaclion .costs may explain rliflcrcnces between tribewcll water price and the opportunity cost of irrigation water. Transaction COSIS may be related lo not gelling tubewcll water when required, or to the use of poor quality tobewell watcr that may inhibit farmers from using tliis water. potential for reallocation of water supplies between periods of time (from Stage B to Stage C. for example) that would benefit farmers and iinprave wheat production\",The results obtained so far have highlighted some of the elements of the complex relationship between irrigation water supply and agricultural production. The main findings that have been obtained so far are summarized below.(i) Reduction in canal water supply variability is expected to have an important impact on farmer's decisions and lead to an increase in farm income. But results obtained from simulations with the remaining 10 models are required to better understand the ex'pected magnitude and variability of increase i n farm inconie. In the example included i n the paper as an illustration, the farmer considered is a tubewell owner, with high control over water resources. His tubewell allows him to inci-ease the area cropped and also is used as a buffer for canal water variability. Non-tubewell owners will not have the Same level of control will be expected to react differently based on their existing water canal supply and access to tubewell water markets. However, non-tuhewell owners are expected to have higher gains as a result of decreased canal water supply variabiliiy.(ii) The analysis of the relationship between watet-and agricultural production stimses the need to investigate the existing large heterogeneity of farm strategies and constraints. It is important to understand this heterogeneity lor the development of irrigation sector policies. Although policy makers and donors may he inore interested in global indicators and an aggregated impact on agricultural production, it is iniportant to assess differcnt farmers' reactions, and develop accompanying measures accordingly.(iii) The preliminary results obtained regarding the analysis of the impact of canal water supply variability adds an important dimension to discussions on the equity issue. To restore equity in canal water supply along distributaries means increasing water supplies to some and reducing water supplies to others12. The results show that this reduction may be accepted by farmers, if accompanied by a reduction in canal water supply variability.(iv) Although farmers have access to tubewell water (whether owned or purchased), they still have water constraints as highlighted by the analysis of the wheat production results.This could be achieved, for example, by developing extra storage capacity, whether at the lndus Basin level or a1 the farm/walercourse/local level. Hart (1996) shows that remodelling of outlets would significantly improve equity in c;md water supplies. Also, desilling of some reaches of a distributary may he required. I n some cases, to restore equity requires an increase of canal water discharges at (lie distrihntary hc;~cl Constraints, however, do not relate necessarily to quanlity of irrigatioii ;iv;iilable. Oil~er factors are to be considered; for example, the existing canal water variahilily that liniits tubewell water use (insurance factor); the usc of poor quality tuhcwell waier (sustainability factor); high transaction costs in tubewell water markets (access and price factor); etc.(v) The jmportance of the impact of water applications during Stage C of tlic wliciil cyclc on wheat yield is to be considered when addressing issues related to improvemenfs i n canal water supply perrormance. These improvements (along with the reinoval of some of the existing constraints in tubewell water niiirkets) would lead to significant increases in wheat yield and gross income. The identil'icatioii o f such critical periods arc iinport:ln( elements that should be considered by irrigation officials. This last point, however, cannot be further developed, as competition between crops inay also explain choices made by farmers to favour other crops versus wheat. The existing marginal value product of water may be the result of choices made by farmers between different crops (for example, favouring sugarcane output at the expense of wheat yield that is used for autoconsumption).The two levels of analysis presented in this paper show that variability and timeliness of (can;il) irrigation water supplies may be of more importance than the quantity (adequacy) oi tlicse supplies. Although the objective of tlie paper is to illustrate the potential of methodologies to address issues related to water supply and agricultural production, the importance of this preliminary conclusion (with expected impacts on potential interventions in tlie irrigation system) is to be stressed.The field level analysis shows that there is a low potential for significant wheat yield increase if other factors such as the access to certified seeds, sowing date, or feitilizer applications (especially application of Di-Amino Phosphate) are not modified. In fact, sowing date may he defined as a water related factor as it is directly related to tlie availability of irrigation water supply during the months of November and December. With the importance of tlie sowing tl& variabk?, special attention is required to ensure appropi late canal water supplies during tlie sowing period\".The farm level analysis proposed in the present paper is relatively simple to iinplemcnt. However, it requires a good understanding of current water supplies. Also, iesults of production functions for the main crops are required. Also, (he quality of the results obtained from the initial stages (i.e. identification of farm groups with distinct strategies and constrainls) direcllyMissing one warabandi turn. that would delay sowing by one weck allcr Novcinhcr 15, lciitls to a reduction of I12 kg/acre (or 5 percent of (lie inaxiinum obtainablc wlicat yield).Fanners rarely use tubewcll water for the pre-sowing and firs1 irrigation 011 InosI o l ll~c crops, due to costs and water quality aspects.IJ influences the quality and usefulness 0 1 tlie results ohtained froin simulations using ilic ccoiiolilic models. An important assumption made for developing micro-economic niotlels relates to the iiicoine optiiniziiig objectives of farmers. In sonie cases. however, farlners :ire clearly not income optimizing farmers. Specific constraints have hecn included iii the L1' iiiodels to t;ikc info account otlicr farm objectives such as autoconsuinption. risk-aversion, inininiuin income, cic.The production function approach has led to very good results, thanks LO the ,joint agronomic UKI economic approach and to the information collected through detailed moiiitoring of-lciriiiiiig practices for sample fields. However, the analysis has been limited by tlic number of sample fields considered (56 fields) that did not allow tlie inclusion of a larger nuinher 0 1 viiriahles i n the regressions (for example, cross-variables).The restitution to farmers that were undertaken in the field to present the results of the production function for wheat have been very valuable. IIMI researchers visited indibidual farmers to discuss results of the regression analysis. Using a map of the liiriii and simple visual devises to represent tlie cycle of the wheat crop and farin practices, discussions with larmei-s led to tlie validation of the results of the analysis. Also, the restitution was used to hctter understiuntl farm constraints and simulate the impact o f changes in canal water supply on farming prac~iccs. For some farmers, the results of the analysis were knowii. but good msoiis could be ;idv;uiccd to explain why improvements are not implemented. For other farmers, less well informed :ind knowledgeable, the restitution showed their strong interest in research results ohtainecl so kir..(With increasing costs of interventions to improve water supply performancc and high pressure on water resources, there is a need to allocate water resources and fioaricial I-esoui-ces in iiii optimal way. In this context, economic analysis may providc useful insighi in the relationship between irrigation water and agricultural production, and fkilitate choices becween interventions in tlie irrigation sector.Research results on the relationship between water and agricultural production are rarely used for policy decisions in Pakistan. Agronomists develop water-yield relationsliips i n reseal-ch stations. However, they control all inputs, while farmers in the real world control few of their inputs (in terms of timely availability on markets, water supply unreliability and variability. e k ) . Thus, it is not clear whether research results have a potential use foi-lirniers. ;ind for understanding existing constraints on agricultural production. b Economists develop large farm surveys to analyse the relationship between irrigiitioii and agricultural production and productivity. However, the analysis of the heterogeneity within the farm community is often too rigid to capture the existing variability\". Also, very few slutlies L .The iisc of prc-defined calegorics such iis lined Iiindhulding size cliisscs 0 1 siiiiple liciid versiis tail aniilysis iiiay be required for quick :iiialysis. Ilowcver, lroiii ii rcscarcli Iioiiit 01 vicw, lire-are able to obtain good information on the actual irrigation water supplies received by farmers. Often, irrigation variables are summarized in an unsatisfactory proxy such as the number of irrigations, or the source of irrigation. Thus, the relationships developed do not properly * integrate water supplies.In some ways, more research under real conditions is required. Also. there is a need to rciicw some of the approaches and methodologies that have lieen in use lor several decadcs to tackle issues related to the relationship between water and agricultural production. Also. the sustainability issue is to be added to the analysis. For example, the impact of salinity and sodicity on crop yields (under l a m conditions).For IIMI, several follow-up activities have been planned. First, there is a need to finalize the preliminary results presented above, and complete the evaluation of the methodologies developed and tested. LP farm models will be developed for all 11 farm groups, and used to test the hipact of different canal water supply scenarios on agricultural production and productivity at the farm level. Also, efforts have concentrated on the development of production function for cotton. following the same methodology as the one applied for wheat. Both the wheat and cotton experiences will help to evaluate the potential and limitations of the proposed appro;ich.Second, specific missing elements of the analytical framework presented i n the second section of the paper will be investigated. Those will include the analysis of intra-farm water allocation (how to allocate and distribute irrigation water supplies to different fields, based on past practices and expected output for each field) and of its impact on agricultural production. 'l'he comparison between tubewell owners and non-tubewell. owners (between farmers with diflcrent levels of control over irrigation water resources) will be an important issue addrcsscd during the d + 1 analysis.Also, emphasis will be given to the link between farm level decisions and watercourse level water management. Watercourse level economic models will be developed by aggregating individual micro-economic models. The developinent of the watercourse level economic models will also include developing relationships between individual models (for example, links are l o be established between water sellers and water purchasers), and identifying watercourse level constraints (for example, for groundwater resources accessable to farmers 01' a given watercourse). These models will be used to analyse the impact of (re-)allocation of canal water or water trading (whether tubewell or canal water) on agricultural production and productivily. INTRODUCTION ' 42 a l o l q ( which are mainly irrigated from the lndus Basin Irrigation System. Agriculture is the main foundation and the pivotal sector of the country's economy. It accounts for 24 percent of the GDP, employs 47.45 percent of total labour force and supports directly or indirectly about 70 percent of the population of the nationThe main challenge to be faced today by the agriculture sector of Pakistan's population which is growing at an average rate of about 3.0 percent per annum. Development of the agriculture sector is also vital for the supply of raw material to the agro-based industry of the country. The agriculture sector has to meet these challenges by competing with the depleting available resources of land and water.economy is to meet the demands of food, feed, fiber, and shelter of fastly increasingPakistan is spread over an area of 79.9 million hectares, with mountains in the north and west, a plain called lndus Basin comprising a major area of the Punjab and Sindh, and arid and semi arid tracts in the south and east. Out of the total cultivated area of 21.46 million hectares, 17.12 million hectares (79.78%) are irrigated and the rest 4.34 million hectares (20.22 %) are rainfed. The reported area of the country is 58.12 million hectares, of which 3.44 million hectares (6%) are under forests, 24.38 million hectares (42%) are unculturable, 8.84 million hectares (1 5%) are culturable waste and 21.46 million hectares (37%) are cultivated. Over the past 30 years, there has been a gradual increase in cultivable area, total cropped area, and area under forest. This increase has been mainly achieved due to the development of new water riverine and are cultivated by the moisture left by summer floods. It is fed by the waters of the lndus River and its tributaries. The salient features of the system are three major storage reservoirs; namely, Tarbela and Chashma on the River Indus, and Mangla on the River Jhelum; 19 barrages, 12 inter-river link canals and 43 independent irrigation canal commands. About 100,000 community watercourses of the lndus Basin convey irrigation water from the canals to the farmers' fields. Total length of the main canals alone is 58,500 km. Watercourses comprises another 1,621,000 km.Flood irrigation has been practiced in the lndus Plains comprising of irrigated tracts of the Punjab and Sindh since the earliest settlements along the rivers. The canal system which exists today was constructed in the middle of the nineteenth century a under the British colonial administration. After creation of Pakistan, expansion of the irrigation system was continued. In 1949-50, India cut off the supplies of the three eastern rivers. This dispute was resolved in 1960 with signing of the lndus Basin Water Treaty. Under the agreement, link canals were constructed to transfer water from the western rivers to the eastern rivers besides construction of storage reservoirs at Mangla and Tarbela, along with the introduction of Salinity Control and Reclamation Projects W c (SCARPS).Prior to the introduction of weir controlled irrigation, the groundwater in the lndus Plain was fairly deep. The seepage from the canal system and on farm irrigation added significantly to the normal recharge, resulting in the rise of groundwater till it began interfering with crop production. In the early ~O ' S , it was estimated that about 100,000 acres of culturable land was being lost every year due to waterlogging and salinity, which meant almost one acre after every five minutes.1The causes of waterlogging are mainly attributed to: i) seepage from the rivers and irrigation channels; ii) flat slope of the surface resulting in poor natural drainage; iii) improper irrigation practices (e.g. over irrigation in some parts and under irrigation in others); iv) lack of adequate artificial drainage; v) contribution made by development efforts such as irrigation network, roads & rail links, replacement link canals, and other infra-structural developments in the flood plains which interrupt the surface runoff, resulting in the accumulation of ponded water on the soil surface during the monsoon, part of which contributes to deep percolation; and vi) deep percolation from rainfall and flood waters..Combined with waterlogging, another menace is of land salinization. The saltaffected soils in the lndus Plains occur in specific physiographic positions and were formed as a result of a gradual redistribution of salts in the landscape extending over several thousand years. This 'primary salinity' was due to the original geological formation of the basin. Later on, as a result of salt acculnulation, originating from evaporation of flood waters and groundwater, the salinity increased in the upper strata of the soil. The low-lying areas successively inundated by floods and the natural depressions where rain water was collected to an appreciable amount, became fertile as the salts were leached to the lower layers of the soil. Areas underlain by shallow watertables and on the slopes of high lands in the basin, however, became severely affected due to the accumulation of salts. This secondary soil salinity' can, therefore, be attributed to irrigation.All waters, whether derived from springs, streams, rivers, or wells contain soluble salts. When irrigation water is applied to land, part of it evaporates and the remaining portion seeps down through the soil. In the absence of adequate irrigation and drainage, the salts accumulate in the root zone. If ample water is delivered to the land, the salts are leached down to the watertable. Thus, irrigation adversely affects the salinity status of soil and the quality of the groundwater.Moreover, the rise of watertable (i.e. waterlogging) also aggravates the salinity of the soil. As the watertable approaches the surface, substantial surface evaporation takes place and appreciable amounts of salts move upward by 'capillary action' into the soil surface, if the leaching requirements are not met. Accordingly, as most of the salts accumulate on the soil surface, the concentration of salts in the groundwater changes, though slowly. Unless the salts are transported out of the system, the salt build-up goes U on.Since the introduction of irrigation, the lndus Basin has been acting as a salt sink (i.e. the salinization of soil and of groundwater has been continuously on the increase). If the disposal of salts remains inadequate, their concentration, both in the soil and groundwater, will soon Increase to an intolerable level.According to the Agricultural Statistics of Pakistan (1993-94), about 0.6 million hectares are slightly saline, about 1.23 million are moderately saline, 0.98 million hectares are severely saline, out of the cultivated area. Whereas, 2.4 million hectat-es of uncultivated area is severely to very severely saline-sodic. It has been estimated that about 24 million4 of the 33 million tons of salt which are brought into the lndus Basin annually are retained and recycled within it. i) 2.2 million tons are stored in the Desert Cholistan in evaporation ponds, which are highly permeable and threatening the Panjnad-Abbasia Canal Commands on the lower edge of the Upper Indus; ii) 2.6 million tons are stored in the country's largest inland freshwater lakes, Manchar and Hammal on the right bank of the lndus River, which are now threatened with extinction; iii) 0.7 million tons are trapped in the Peshawar Valley; iv) 18.5 million tons are stored in the aquifer through direct seepage from canals, watercourses, and drains; and v) the rest is disposed in to the Arabian Sea via the Lower lndus River itself. This means that salinity levels increase rapidly as extraction of irrigation supplies increase in the Lower Indus. In addition to distributing river supplied salt, additional salts are mobilized directly onto the surface and retained in fresh groundwater areas due to tubewell irrigation. * Back in history, the irrigation induced waterlogging and salinity problems were first observed on a limited scale in the 1920s in Rechna and Chaj Doabs. In 1961, it was estimated that 40,000 hectares of land was being lost due to high groundwater tables, and by this time a crash program was in the making. In 1958, the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) was established. It developed a long term program for controlling the high water tables in the lndus system. This was done through the Salinity Control and Reclamation Projects (SCARPS). These SCARP projects applied a range of drainage measures with emphasis on deep tubewells, surface drains, and subsurface systems.The impact of salinity on agricultural productivity is severe. It has been mentioned in the Staff Appraisal Report (SAR) of National Drainage Program (NDP)' that a 25 percent reduction in the production of our major crops is attributed to salinity alone. In Sindh Province where the problem is much more severe, the impact may be closer to 40-60 percent in saline groundwater areas. The impact of waterlogging on yields just as startling. As the watertable approaches the surface up to 5 feet below, yields are of all major crops decline rapidly to almost zero. For example, at 0 to 0.8 feet depth to watertable, yields for cotton are 2 percent, 9 percent for sugarcane, and 21 percent for wheat. In addition, there are serious environmental and poverty impacts associated with waterlogging and salinity. c VIn the 1960s and early 1970s, strategy and investment in irrigation and drainage in Pakistan was mainly focused on three activities i.e. construction of major storages, barrages and link canals, control of increasing waterlogging and salinity through drainage (public tile and tubewell drainage projects), and expansion of water supplies by new storages, and public tubewell schemes. During the 1970s, the strategy was changed due to i) high cost of additional stored water; ii) the faltering performance of the surface irrigation system (especially inadequate maintenance leading to operational problems); and iii) sustainable problems with the public sector tubewell fields. The Revised Action Program (RAP) for Irrigated Agriculture of 1979, however, switched the emphasis of improving system efficiency through rehabilitation and upgrading, and to small-scale physical investments (private tubewells. watercourse improvements and soil reclamation). The new strategy so adopted focused on better utilization of existing infrastructure, especially at the watercourse level, the \"savings\" of surface water \"losses\" from channels, and improved management of water from the irrigation command level down to the farm, Furthermore, since the Revised Action Program for Irrigated Agriculture (RAP) it was estimated that saving water by increasing watercourse efficiency (i.e. reducing \"losses\") cost about a quarter that of developing new irrigation supplies'. On Farm Water Management activities were, therefore, adopted in the country on priority basis. For a long time, the construction and management of drainage systems in Pakistan has been the exclusive domain of the public sector. The role of government in this context is justified because these drains largely carry hazardous water (effluent) that is dangerous to both humans and animals. The public sector has, however, failed to ensure proper operation and maintenance of the drainage system due to the lack of physical and financial resources. There is, therefore, dire need that benefiting communities should be involved to participate and share their responsibility with the government agencies. Increasing population and depleting land and water resources are demanding better management practices for making more beneficial use of scarce irrigation water, as well as to control waterlogging and salinity problems. In the absence of further development of water resources, efficient and purposeful management of available resources (land and water) is becoming more vital in the present day context in order to ensure enough agricultural production to meet the food, feed, fiber, and shelter requirements of the ever growing population and provision of raw material for agro-based industries. At the tertiary level of the irrigation system (at the farm level), improved On Farm Surface Drainage (OFSD) with the participation of farmers has been considered to be affective, beneficial, and more diagnostic in nature as it can quite efficiently remove excess surface water in areas with emerging problems of waterlogging and salinity. v 4 Keeping the importance of On Farm Surface Drainage in view with the involvement of farmers as being practiced in other On Farm Water Management programs, a pilot project for On Farm Drainage was launched under the Second On Farm Water Management Project, Dera Ghazi Khan. The experiences gained and results obtained after the implementation of the On Farm Drainage Pilot Project under the afore-mentioned OFWM project are presented below. This paper gives more emphasis on the concept of a participatory approach for managing surface drainage rather than engineering aspects. Moreover, the concept of on farm drainage being replicated in the establishment of On Farm Drainage sites under the Overseas Economic Community Fund (0ECF)IJapan assisted On Farm Water Management-Ill Project is also discussed..The On Farm Drainage Pilot Project (OFDPP), as one of the components of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) assisted Second On Farm Water Management Project, Dera Ghazi Khan, is probably the first example in Pakistan where the on farm surface drainage (OFSD) system has been installed at the field level. The OFDPP as originally formulated was meant to investigate the feasibility of improved on farm surface drainage in the Dera Ghazi Khan (D.G. Khan) area. Accordingly, the OFDPP site, covering an area of about 1,500 hectares, falling in the commands of 15 watercourses along Kot Adu Main Drain, Khan Garh, Muzafargarh District was selected and the OFSD system was constructed during 1992-93 by the Water Management Wing of the . Agriculture Department, Punjab with the technical assistance of local as well as expatriate consultants (NESPAK and EUROCONSULT, Private Ltd.) and active involvement of the farmers. 9 1.It was observed during visits to the project area that an excess surface water in the D.G. Khan area was generally experienced to be a problem in the seriously waterlogged and salinized areas only. Excess surface water often leads to extensive and prolonged surface ponding on waterlogged and saline land, as it can not infiltrate due to the lack of profile storage andlor poor soil structure. It was also observed during the survey that improved surface drainage could not' be the best remedy for waterlogged and salinized land as it might not be expected to ascertain a significant lowering of the watertable and or leaching of the excess salinity. This would generally require the introduction of improved groundwater (subsurface) drainage. Improved surface drainage on the other hand did not seem to be an urgent requirement for the non-waterlogged and non-saline lands in the D.G. Khan area. The little excess surface water which occasionally occurs on such land, generally caused only minimal damage.Therefore, it was concluded that improved tertiarylon farm surface drainage would be suitable in areas with emerging waterlogging and salinity problems. Such areas occur in abundance in the D.G. Khan division.In view of the findings of the survey, the scope of the project was drawn to accommodate areas with emerging waterlogging and salinity problems caused by recharge of excess surface water (from irrigation andlor rainfall) in the fields. Improved tertiarylon farm surface drainage was anticipated to prevent the further spreading and aggravation of said problems in these areas. It was further conceived that it might also provide some relief to the in between areas which are already partly waterlogged and salinized and, consequently, suffer from serious surface water ponding. The following objectives were, accordingly, set forth to address the need for on farm drainage: Selection of sifes with emerging waterlogging and salinity problems;Organization of Drainage Beneficiary Groups (DBG) in each catchment area of the tertiary drain for participation of the beneficiaries in the design, construction and subsequent operation and mainlenance of the drainage works: and Construction of a system of tertiary surface drains for improved surface drainage.ii.iii.In addition to the above mentioned objectives, the project was envisaged to serve as a basis to test and establish suitable design criteria, construction methods, and economics for surface drainage works for future drainage projects.  The pilot project aimed to prevent waterlogging and salinity in Wone-ll and to a lesser extent in Zone-I. To reclaim Zone-Ill, it was considered that groundwater drainage would be required since surface drainage will bring only limited relief.The selected Khan Garh pilot has a gross surface area of 1,500 ha and is located in the Muzaffar Garh district, at a distance of approximately 30 km south-west of Muzaffar Garh city. The boundaries are formed by the Mehr Pur Minor in the west, the Haji Wah Minor in the east, while the road Khan Garh to Shah Jamal forms the northern boundary. The two minors are converging to the southern end of the project area. The Kot Adu Drain passes through the centre area (approximately north-south direction). The pilot area is thus divided into two parts, whereby the part at the east side is called Part-I and the part located on the west side, Part-ll. The location of the project area with respect to other major cities of the Punjab Province is shown in Map or the pilot project men, IChnri Cerl~.The topography of the pilot area is very flat. The land slope is only 5-10 cm per kilometer going from the two minor irrigation canals towards the Kot Adu Drain. Although the differences in elevation in the area are small, there are a number of depressions in between the watercourses where excess surface water can accumulate and stagnate. These depressions are in need of surface drainage.Most of the soils of the project area are clayey and are suitable for [lie crops grown in the area especially sugar-cane, rice and wheat. With modern management, including mechanical cultivation, application of balanced fertilizers and growing of improved crop varieties, high or very high production can be realized on these lands.The rainfall in the area totals some 230 mm per year on average, of which the major part falls during the kha'rif (July-September) season.Along the Mehr Pur and Haji Wah minors, a number of tubewells are in use (both government and privately operated) which add to the irrigation supply. The groundwater is predominantly fresh in the upper layer, although conditions seem to vary and some tubewells are known to pump low quality water (saline), which can only be used for irrigation after mixing with surface irrigation water.Farmers in the area grow a variety of crops. They have a preference for cotton during the kharif season (summer), being the best paying crop. When waterlogging and salinity becomes a problem, farmers generally switch to rice. First in rotation with cotton, but as the situation becomes worse, they switch to rice only. During the rabi season (winter), wheat is the main crop. Again rice is chosen when waterlogging becomes a problem. A cropping calendar for the area is presented in Figure -4.Land ownership and tenancy in the pilot area appears to be fairly representative for the D.G. Khan region. Most of the farm holdings are smaller than 5 acres, but there are a number of large farmers with holdings up to 200 acres. The land holding pattern observed in the project area during interviews conducted by the MIS Waterman Consulting Engineers in their impact evaluation study is given in Table-I.  The irrigation water supply has its origin in the lndus Basin. From the Taunsa Barrage the water is diverted through the Muzaffar Garh Canal to the Haji Wah and Mehr Pur Minors. Then through the watercourses to the farmers fields. The pilot area is part of the Muzaffar Garh command system and is irrigated by the two minors (irrigation canals), the Mehr Pur and Haji Wha. Some additional irrigation water is diverted from the Mondka Minor that runs to the north of the pilot area..During the kharif season, the actual discharges are many times larger than during the rabi season. During the rabi season, the available irrigation water is limited. As a result of water shortages during the rabi season, the canals in the pilot area have been designed for non-perennial flow. This means that in principle these canals are only operational during the months of April to October (kharif season). In actual practice many non-perennial canals receive water during the rabi season as well, although in reduced quantities. During periods of water shortage the canal systems are often operated in rotation.In Table-2, the names, acreage and discharges of the watercourses in the pilot area are given. At the start of the pilot project, some of the watercourses were improved under the OFWM program. The remaining watercourse were also improved. during the project period.The command areas of the watercourses is not equal to the catchment areas of the tertiary surface drains designed by the pilot project. The drains are interfingering with the watercourses and the catchment area of the drain contains parts of several watercourses.The existing drainage system for the pilot area has the following existing components:Primary -Chenab River.Secondary -Kot Adu Drain.In addition to this existing system, the system also needed tertiary and field level drains, which were introduced, as part of the OFDPP.Tediary drains: On Farm Drainage system as iniplernerited by OFDPP, on fbe same level as the watercourses. ii) The Kot Adu Drain is the main disposal drain out of the pilot area. It has adequate capacity and is reasonably well maintained. The main shortcoming of the selected pilot area is the rather shallow depth of the Kot Adu Drain. The drain water level at some places is only just below the adjacent ground surface level. This is undoubtedly part of the reasons for the large scale waterlogging and salinity found in the lands in the southern part of the pilot area on both sides of the Kot Adu Drain.The Irrigation Department during 1992 re-excavated sections of the Kot Adu Drain. Unfortunately, during .the flood in 1993 the embankment of the Chenab River was breached to protect Muzaffar Garh City from flooding. This also flooded the pilot area and the Kot Beneficiary Involvement in the Pilot On Farm Surface Drainage Project Farmers' involvement in all stages of implementation of the pilot project was seen as an important requirement to create a successful and sustainable project. The main objectives for farmers participation under the project were: i) to build Drainage Beneficiary Groups (DBG). ii) to have an effective contribution of the farmers in the execution of the works: and iii) to lay a basis for future maintenance of the tertiary drainage system. r On farm drainage was a completely new element for the farmers in the pilot area Experience with organizational set-ups was limited to the organization of Water Users Associations (WUA) for improvement of watercourses It was expected that the OFDPP would be confronted with a variety of problems and that a flexible approach would be needed The participation process followed under the project consisted of the following phases, i.ii.Organizafion phase;iii.Design and planning plrase, ' iv.Construclion phase; andV .Operation and maintenance phaseDuring this phase, the farmers in the pilot area were informed about the project plans and the consequences. The possible impacts of the drainage facilities were explained to them.The drains are generally located in between two watercourses. It was, therefore, proposed to establish a Drainage Beneficiary Group (DBG) instead of making use of the Water Users Associations (if existing) organized for each watercourse. A similar approach as to the forming of the WUA's was, however, followed. The DBG's worked together with the OFWM staff during the implementation of the project.After the topographic survey of the area, the catchment areas of the tertiary drains were determined and a preliminary layout design of the drains was prepared. Subsequently, the groups of farmers located in the catchment area of each drain were listed and approached.The Drainage Beneficiaries Groups were formed, whereby the number of members depend on the size of the catchment area of the drain and on the farm size.It can be seen from Table-2 that in the project area, the size of each established DBG varied from 10 to 100 farmers. Afler establishing a DBG, a contract between the DBG and OFWM was signed by both parties.During this phase, the design was made and the farmers were informed about the progress made. Many discussions on the subject of surface drainage were held and the concept of tertiary (on farm surface) drainage was explained in detail. Information included physical consequences (some farmers will lose some land); the need to maintain the system after construction; the contribution to the construction of the works; and the expected benefits (increase of area to be cultivated, yield increases etc.).The DBGs formed an important role in these discussions, whereby some farmers, certainly those who have to sacrifice land for the benefit of the community. had to be convinced.It became apparent during the discussions that the tail-end farmers of the watercourses adjacent to the main drains were, in general, much more interested and co-operative than the farmers located in the head reaches. The former played an important role in the successful implementation of the project.A compromise between the best layout (in the lowest area) and the interest of the farmers (no loss of land, i.e. along plot boundaries) had to be made, while discussing the initial layout designs with the farmers. It was found that the initial layout design had to be verified with each individual farmer before the plan could be discussed in the DBG.During the discussions with individual farmers, it was possible to obtain additional information on the area, problems, organization, etc. which could be used in the decisions for the final layout design. In this way, it was possible to obtain some clear commitments of some farmers, thereby creating a group of supporters which was very important in subsequent group discussions. The hydraulic designs were prepared after this stage.Farmers in the lower parts of the pilot area wete warned about the possible inflow of drainage water from the Kot Adu Drain. The risk which they felt was such a major issue in the discussions that the provision of an outfall structure with a gate had to be promised. Otherwise, the project would not have proceeded.One farmer opposed the implementation of the project during the design phase. He refused to contribute land for the drains. Once construction started, this same farmer, however, requested to be included and to even extend the tertiary drain beyond the planned length.In Table-4, the as built data of the tertiary drains are presented together with the number of farmers per tertiary drain and the number of farmers who contributed land for the drains. Depending on the participation of the farmers in the construction, which was recommended, regular meetings with contractors, farmers and OFWM staff were held to guarantee the progress and quality of the works. Initially, it was proposed to have part of the drains constructed by the farmers. Although this was not done, the idea is sound and should definitely be tried during the next pilot project. For this project, the authorities, however, thought it better to prove first whether a tertiary surface drainage system would work. Participation by the farmers in the construction of drains (funds andlor labour) in this pilot area was, therefore, not asked and the work was carried out by a contractor and paid for with project funds.During the construction phase, it has been observed that although the plans have been discussed and approved during the design phase, with and by the farmers, it was not always possible to construct the system as planned. Some farmers changed their minds once the construction of the system started. Sometimes, difficulties occurred that had not been foreseen during the planning phase. Plans should, therefore, be flexible enough to make changes possible during construction. Flexibility is not always possible, or easy, when work is carried out by a contractor.Motivation of and guidance to the farmers by the OFWM staff was essential in case of the pilot project, although the operation and maintenance of the surface drainage works would be the full responsibility of the farmers. Monitoring of the adoption of the surface drainage system by the farmers would be important during the subsequent years of operation of the project. The construction of the tertiary drains was completed in mid 1993. The first monitoring results showed that most farmers were quite happy and satisfied with the system that has been constructed and say that they saw definite improvements in the pilot area. The farmers appeared to have a clear understanding of the use of the tertiary drains and realized the importance of cleaning the drains. There is a distinct variation in groundwater levels over the year. Generally, the watertable at the end znd the beginning of the year is at a peak, while in the dry months before the start of the monsoon and the peak irrigation season, the water tables will drop to a low. With regards to groundwater table fluctuations between before and after project, it has been observed that the water level only fell slightly during May, 1994 as compared to the data of May, 1992 (difference of 0.20 m). Water levels measured at the beginning of February and March 1992 have been compared to the levels during the same period in 1994. The 1994 levels are lower than the 1992 levels by 60 cm in February and 50 cm in March. Groundwater depths below the soil surface before and after the project implementation are shown in It has been observed that the average EC at the head and middle sections of the drains has decreased appreciably from 0.87 dSlm to 0.58 dslm while at the tail section, it increased from 0.87 dS/m to 1.4 d S h 7 The tertiary drainage system has, therefore, effectively reduced the salinity of major portion of the command area falling in the head and middle sections of the drains. The increasing trend of salinity at the lower reaches is evidently because of salt movement with groundwater flow from upstream section towards main drain I-ligher groundwater salinity indicates downward movement of salts from the upper soil layer, but restricted groundwater drainage during the post construction period. The soils and groundwater salinity status , therefore. indicates a need for groundwater drainage as well.The impact of the improved drainage conditions is demonstrated by the increased cropping intensities as is evident from The cropping intensityloccupancy percentage in the Pilot area is based on CCA+ 1624 ha as measured during the baseline surveyThe slight difference in the findings of both studies as described in Table-6 Is due to sample size. The MIS Euroconsult had tried to cover the whole project area in contrast to taking sample watercourses as well done by the MIS Waterman Consulting Engineers. If the whole project area is considered, it is evident from Table-6 that the cropping intensity has increased by 28% of the cultivable command area (CCA) (i.e. from 95% to 122%). The major increase is found in the cotton crop, were the increase in cropped area is 12%. In rabi season, the intensity of the wheat crop has increased by 65%. It may be expected that the cropping intensity will gradually increase even further than 122% with better drainage and more irrigation supplies. Moreover, changes in the cropping pattern are likely to occur (e.g. a reduction in areas cultivated with rice and fodder, and an increase of areas under wheat and other grains, cotton and sugarcane).Since the farmer is the ultimate beneficiary from the land and crop improvements resulting from the surface drainage system, the farmer's response was considered an important component of the impact evaluation exercise. As per the Final Evaluation Report of MIS Euroconsult, the first monitoring results showed that most farmers are quite happy and satisfied with the system that has been constructed and see definite improvements in the pilot area. The farmers appeared to have a clear understanding of about the use of the tertiary drains and realized the importance of cleaning the drains.For the construction of the tertiary drains, 9 ha of land, which equals 0.06 percent of the area, has been made available free of charge by the farmers. Although the drains were constructed in the worst parts of the area on mostly abandoned lands, the farmers agreed to sacrifice part of their property for common benefit. This was one of the major achievements.To check the farmer's response to the Surface Drainage System, MIS Waterman Consulting Engineers in their Impact Assessment of Second On Farm Water Management Project, Dera Ghazi Khan interviewed randomly selected samples of the beneficiaries. The following observations have been made during the interviews:37% of the respondents participated during the planning stage, and 57% during the construction phase of the projecf. Neither the farmers contributed material or financially, nor, was it requirement from the government to do so; about 51.4% of the respondents participated in social matters, resolving conflicts and promoting cooperalion among the farmers as well as with the government staff. About 26% of the farmers participated as paid labour during consfrucfion; ii.iii. * about 97% of the farmers concluded that the project is beneficial to tlletn as far as utility and work quality of drainage facilities are concerned. The remaining 3% either had land holdings at higher elevation that did not need drainage, or they were not convinced of its utility for other reasons. Similarly, about 97% of the farmers considered the drainage project economical; all of the respondents without exception expressed their desire to replicate the surface drainage system in other areas where surface ponding exists; about 97% of the respondents indicated that the constructed drainage system definitely reduced damage to crops caused by sustained surface ponding; about 43% graded the construction quality as good, 54% as satisfacto!y and about 3% as unsatisfactory. This was probably because of a lack of satisfaction in the contractor's progress, which was partly due to difficult field conditions hindering transportation of material, etc; when questioned about to recovering some of the costs of drainage and participation in operation and maintenance of the main as well as the tertiary drainage system, 23% of the farmers expressed their willingness to share the cost of the field drainage system similar to the cost sharing options for watercourse improvement. A majority of the farmers (77%) were reluctant to share costs, mainly due to their present poor financial conditions. As the surface drainage system operates and crop production improves, more farmers may be in a better financial position in the future to pay some of the costs; regarding maintenance of the main drain, 94% expressed the need for deepening and cleaning the Kot Adu Drain; for operation and maintenance of tertiary drains, 20% of the farmers opted for cleaning by the farmers themselves, 43% by DBG without recovery, 9% by DBG with recovery, 17% by the government with recovery from the beneficiaries and only 9% by the government with no recovery. The majority expressed confidence about DBG, which shows the important role of the beneficiary groups in mobilizing farmers resources; about 91% expressed that the loss of land under the surface drains was justified in terms of the increased cropped area, crop yields and socio-economic conditions of the farmers as a result of the surface drainage system; about 95% of the donating respondents donated land voluntarily for the surface drains. None of the farmers, out of the respondents, complained against any social or official pressure regarding land contribution. About 5 expressed ignorance of their independent decision on land donation as they were dependent on someone else; and one o f the important questions asked regarding fhe feelings of ftie land donating farmers about the neighboring non-donating farmers indicated that 80% of the donating farmers showed no signs of negative feelitig and considered it a cause for community development. The other 20% thought that the non-donating farmers should be charged for the development to compensate those who have donated land for the drainage system.As this was a pilot project, and it was a new experience for the farmers to understand the need and advantages of the system, it was probably not appropriate to recover some of the costs, particularly from non-donating farmers. As the system proves to be useful for the farm lands, farmers are convinced of its anticipated benefits and the system has to operate on a permanent footing. Sotne cost sharing system must be developed to continue the technology for new development in the region on a sustained basis.The cost of the on farm drainage project as implemented was approximately Rs. 500/acre (Rs.I200/ha)8The experiences gained and recommendations put forth during the implementationlcompletioh of On Farm Drainage Pilot Project, D.G. Khan by OFWM and consultants, replication. of the on farm surface drainage concept under OECF/Japan assisted OFWM-Ill Project (revised) has been followed. A brief description of the establishment of On Farm Drainage sites under the OECF/Japan-assisted OFWM-Ill project is described below. This project envisaged developing 25 On Farm Drainage sites in the entire project area of the OECFIJapan-assisted OFWM-Ill project. At present work on 12 sites is in progress at various stages of survey, design, agreement, tender documentation, tendering and construction As per tenders finalized for 5 sites, the unit cost of establishing drainage sites is Rs. 989/acre (Rs 2443/ha) as given in Table-7. The increase in the unit cost as compared to Rs. 500/acre (Rs. 1200/ha) incurred on On Farm Drainage Pilot Project, D.G. Khan is due to the depreciation of the Rupee, increase in the cost of construction material, etc. and due to other site specific reasons like topography, etc. As per findings of the evaluation studies of the pilot On Farm Drainage Project, it is envisaged under this scheme that the beneficiaries would be required to pay about 50% of the costs to be incurred on the development of On Farm Surface Drainage systems. The volume of earth moving on these projects requires that they are undertaken by using contractors. This, to some extent, dictates the cost sharing arrangements. The cost sharing mechanism that is being followed under the OECFIJapan-assisted OFWM-Ill Project is as below:fhe Drainage Beneficiary Group (DBG) will provide the land for the drains.The farmers, through the Drainage Beneficiary Groiip (DBG) shall be responsible for settling any claims for compensation from individuals who would lose land as a result of the construction of the drain: the contractor, at the projects expense, will excavate the material from the farm drain and place it beside the drain. The farmers will undertake the spreading of all the material excavated from the drain on adjacent fields or in low areas, to the satisfaction of the project and those farmers whose land is adjacent to the drain: the contractor, at the projects expense, would construct all structures required on the drain; the farmers will be responsible for excavating the field drains to connect their fields to the farm drainage network; and v) the DBG would have to guarantee free and unrestricted access to the site for the contractor's machinery and employees.It is believed that the successful model development during implementation of Participatory On Farm Drainage Management at Dera Ghazi Khan and its replication under the OECF/Japan-assisted OFWM-Ill Project with improvements will prove to be a foundation stone for institutionalizing the role of farmer's organizations for sharing responsibilities in operation, maintenance, and management of drainage systems in Pakistan.In the light of experiences gained during implementation of On Farm Drainage Pilot Project under ADB-assisted Second On Farm Water Management Project, Dera Ghazi Khan and those of the currently ongoing OECFIJapan-assisted OFWM-Ill Project, a few conclusions and recommendations have been drawn as given below:On Farm Surface Drainage may be replicated and included as one of the components of future Irrigation, Drainage and On Farm Water Management Projects; legislation may be made for formal functioning of the Drainage Beneficiary Groups. Necessary modificationslamendments for this purpose may be incorporated into the existing Water Users Ordinance, 1981 under which the Water Users Associations are organized and registered;The role and responsibilities may clearly be defined for the participating agencies like the Drainage Beneficiary Groups in the private sector as well as that of the provincial Irrigation and Power Department and Agriculture Department (Water Management); a financial program of investments and recoveries similar to the watercourse improvement program may be developed, where the farmers are charged for part of the expenses by considering their economic status; a promotional campaign highlighting the importance of \"On Farm Surface Drainage\" for environmentally sustainable agriculture in areas with emerging waterlogging and salinity may be launched, wherein farming communities may be approached to support and promote on the farm drainage concept and activities; vi) a specialized training program for acquainting the OFWM staff, as well as the farming communities, on the subject of \"On Farm Surface Drainage\" for future and ongoing OFSD projects may be conducted; e vii) all of the Drainage Beneficiary Groups's (DBG) may be organized into a Drainage Federation (DF), to strengthen the operation and sustainability of these groups. A DBG can be too small to work optimally and collect contributions from the farmers for development works. The DF will have more influence on concerned government agencies on issues like cleaning of the main drainage system, as well as irrigation supplies. The DF can further play a role as an advisor to the participating farmers (for example, by giving advice on reclamation and soil improvement practices); and regular monitoring of the completed and on-going On Farm Surface Drdinage projects may be made for proper documentation of the experiences gained, lessons learned and data base for designinglimplementing similar projects in the future.viii) c 1. BACKGROUNDThe total wheat production of Pakistan during 1994-95 was around 17 million tonnes. About 2.3 million tonnes of wheat was imported to meet the country's food requirements (GOP 1995). The annual growth rate of population of over 3.0% further demands a similar increase in the import of wheat grain per annum. There is a net shortfall of edible oil in the country and its import costs about one billion US dollars during the year 1994-95. The government, although giving high priority for the cultivation of oilseeds in the country, but still the local production of edible oil is not a significant order. The country's imports of food items are continuously increasing at a rate which is hard to sustain as the exports of agricultural commodities, especially cotton, are adversely affected during the last five years due to curl-leaf-virus. The yield of rice, sugarcane and coarse grains are either stagnant or declining, whereas an annual increase of around 1.5% in wheat yield was observed over the last 20 years. The yields of wheat were 2.3 and 1.1 totineslha for the irrigated and rainfed farming systems, respectively, during the year 1994-94 (GOP 1995). About 83% of the wheat cultivated area during 1994-95 was irrigated, which constituted about 91% of the total wheat production. The existing yields of irrigated and rainfed wheat are almost half of the possible yields which can be achieved through improved management practices.The agricultural productivity as viewed in this paper is \"the system's net output of goods and services, commonly measured either as crop yields or net income per unit of input or resources\". In Pakistan, the productivity must be viewed in a comprehensive manner considering the future challenge to increase cropping intensity, yield and income per unit of land, water and time. Therefore, the productivity index can be defined as Under: Cropping intensity index as a ratio of actual to targeted cropping intensity: Yield index as a ratio of actual to targeted yield; and Water use index as a ratio of actual to targeted water use efficiency.1\"-This index will provide a combined picture of agricultural productivity in time and space and one can view the options of how to enhance productivity considering the potential for extensive and intensive levels of development.Wheat is an important crop related to the country's food security. The wheat requirement for the year 1994-95 was about 19.3 million tonnes and with a 3% annual growth of population, the wheat requirement during the year 2014-2015 will be around 34 million tonnes, which is almost double the production for the year 1994-95. This means that either the crop yield or the cropped area must double in the next 20 years to cope with the future requirements. Otherwise, the country has to spend huge resources of foreign exchange for import of shortfalls. Similarly, the import of edible oil will double after 20 years if local production is not increased significantly.The MONA Reclamation Experimental Project, Bhalwal has conducted operational research for the testing and introduction of skimming wells to pump fresh groundwater at a discharge which is sustainable without mixing of brackish water with the freshwater layers. The technology is now available for use in conjunction with the pressurized irrigation systems. The researchable area is how to develop effective strategies for cost-effective introduction of the technology in areas where surface irrigation supplies are in shortage, especially at the tail-end farms.The WRRI-NARC has conducted experiments on supplemental irrigation of the wheat crop in the rainfed areas around Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Fatehjang. The 5 years of studies (1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)  indicated: -The yield of barani wheat of 1 .O tonnes/ha increased upto 2.0 tonnes/ha with a pre-showing irrigation of 10-15 mm. The pre-showing irrigation helps to plant the crop at the desired or optimum planting date, whereas farmers delay their plantings for the occurrence of rainfall if carryover moisture is not sufficient. The pre-showing irrigation helps to apply fertilizer and efficient uptake by plants to achieve a desired crop stand.-The yield of barani wheat of 1.0 tonneslha can be increased upto 4.0 tonneslha with additional 2-3 irrigations of 25 mm each at critical stages of water deficit. These irrigations also help to schedule nitrogen fertilizer applications into 2-3 splits instead of full application at planting time as being practiced by the barani farmers.One collaborative experiment on sprinkler irrigation was conducted with an enlightened farmer in the dense sodic soils of the lndus Basin in the Narowal area. Instead of using surface irrigation for the first two irrigations, sprinklers were used to apply 10-15 mm of water to avoid ponding due to limited infiltration rates. The sprinkler irrigation helps, to achieve better crop emergence and tillering compared to surface applications, in addition to saving water . Afterwards, surface irrigations were applied. This mixed strategy of irrigation helped to increase wheat yields from 2 tonneslha to 3.5 tonneslha. The sprinkler irrigation is also promising in efficient use of canal water and helps to minimize the use of sodic groundwater. Furthermore, the mixes irrigation strategy is one of the workable option for enhancing productivity of wheat in the ricewheat system..The MONA Reclamation Experimental Project (MREP), Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) and International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) recently submitted a project for funding tinder the National Drainage Programme, WAPDA, entitled \"Root-zone salinity management using fractional skimming wells with pressurized irrigation systems\". The project has been approved and will be initiated shortly. The project is aimed at the management of root-zone salinity for those field conditions which are mainly associated with the centre and lower parts of doabs and other pockets of irrigated lands where similar conditions exist in the lndus Basin. There are locations where exploitation and application of groundwater by using traditional means is either not feasible, or there is a serious concern that the outgoing practices will render the thin-layered fresh groundwater unusable in the very near future. These affected zones like those in the central region of doabs form about 30% of the irrigated area of Pakistan (MONA, WRRI and IlMl 1996 ).The results of this applied research will be utilized in the Phase-ll preparation of the Fordwah Eastern Sadiqia Irrigation and Drainage Project. Also, the results should play a significant role in the next phase of the National Drainage Programme. In addition, this package of technology and management will become increasingly more valuable over time as an alternative to abandoning tubewells. Moreover, the proposed activities fit well in the two key research areas of IIMI: i) Design and Management of Irrigation Systems; and ii) Health and Environment. The proposed activities will also help WRRI-NARC to refine the pressurized irrigation systems and niake them tnore cost-effective for the farming community in the irrigated areas, in addition to scheduling of conjunctive water use (MONA, WRRI, IlMl 1996).The specific objectives of the project are to: identify and test a limited number of promising skimming well techniques in the shallow fresh-water aquifers which could control the saline water upconing phenomenon as a consequence of the groundwater pumping; encourage and support in-country manufacturers to develop low-cost pressurized irrigation systems adaptable within the local setting of Pakistan; and implement an irrigation scheduling programme aimed at root-zone salinity management with skimmed freshwater (in a relative sense) applied by low cost pressurized irrigation systems.From canal-outlet to field level, the surface Irrigation practices at the farm and field level form a critical part of the farmers' irrigation management domain in Pakistan. These practices are defined as the instituted acfions which are aimed at achieving set goals and objectives of the on-farm subsystem without causing adverse effects. These surface irrigation practices can be categorized as improved actions if the differences between the measured goals and set goals are within an acceptable range. Otherwise, low performance of the farm level irrigation practices may suggest that the system is simply being operafed but not managed.In order to identify key irrigation practices for discussion, the physical irrigation system is divided into four subsystems: (i) water delivery; (ii) water application; (iii) water use; and (iv) water removal. Each subsystem or component of an irrigation system is influenced by many elements and factors in performing certain functions. However, the degree of such influence is linked to the irrigation practices opted at each level of an irrigation system. In this context, this paper provides:  Y 1 0 1 9 3 arid irrigated areas; (ii) selected improved surface irrigation practices with corresponding findings; and (iii) future challenges which liave to be met for sustainable use of the improved practices.Water Delivery Lowdermilk et al. (1983) have described this component as to convey water from fhe water supply source by way of the main canal and distributary canals to a canal outlef (main physical subsystem), and from there through farm and field channels (watercourse or on-farm physical subsystem). The major function of this component is to deliver irrigation water in a sufficient quantity and quality to the field. This process of water delivery is based on the following four steps (Walker et al., 1995): (i) assessment of water demand; (ii) water allocation; (iii) water distribution; and (iv) implementation (of the water delivery plan). However, the actual practices may differ from one setting to another.The main function of this component is to distribute water with the designed I desired uniformity over the field to meet the crop-water requirements and satisfy leaching and erosion considerations. Major factors wtiicli influence the process of water application are as follows (Lowdermilk et al., 1983): (i) field geometry; (ii) water supply rate; (iii) slope and levelness; (iv) infiltration rate; (v) surface roughness; (vi) irrigation methods; and (vii) management.Selection of the water application techniques is the main concern for the farm managers. Because of the old traditions and familiarity, social acceptability within the existing management abilities of the farmers, and the prevailing economic environment, different countries with almost similar climatic conditions opt for different water application methods and practices. However, it does affect the performance of the component in achieving its goals.This component aims at storing and supplying water to meet crop water requirements. In order to meet this function, the factors wliich influence the process for water use are as follows: (i) knowledge about the irrigation requirements; (ii) quantity and quality of irrigation water; (iii) soil type; and (iv) nutrient availability (Lowdermilk et at., 1983). This is the one component which attracts a maximum of attention by many scientists in the irrigated agriculture of the developing world. In spite of this interest, the information generated by the scientists is not translated in a useable form that the farmers can benefit. General irrigation practices under this component are based on either the visual condition of a crop, and I or water availability determined using the feel method by the farmers. *.The main purpose of this segment is to create and maintain conditions for optimum crop production by providing surface and lor subsurface drainage. Water removal, surface and lor subsurface, is an essential part of irrigation. But the drainage component for many of the irrigation projects has not been considered important enough to be included in the development plans at the design stages. With time, however, the groundwater levels in many cases have come up within one meter or so from the ground surface. This development has made drainage an unavoidable requirement.Like subsurface drainage, surface drainage is also equally important. The latter is particularly essential for heavy clay textured soils A good example in this context is the irrigated schemes in Sudan. The central plains of the locality are formed by the swelling heavy clay soils which disperse and seal the soil pores after coming in contact with water, As a result, the water is mainly absorbed during the advance phase of irrigation, and thereafter, the infiltration rate becomes almost negligible. This causes a serious problem of surface waterlogging which is considered to be an important factor contributing to lower crop yields.This section presents a selected number of innovative irrigation practices which are either already being monitored or in the process of being set up in the field for pilot testing. These practices include: (i) surface irrigation scheduling; (ii) improved surface irrigation application methods; (iii) quick reclamation of sodic l saline-sodic soils with sweetwater generator; and (iv) conjunctive use of surface and ground water by gravity and pressurized system. These innovations are intended to improve the performance of the existing irrigation practices. However, these changes in the traditional actions will demand adjustments and cautions. In this context, IlMl and its national6 and international7 collaborators are undertaking and monitoring these activities to document the strong and weak points of important irrigation practices under experimentation as described below:'  Irrigation scheduling is commonly defined as determining when to it-rigafe and how much water to apply, or as deciding when to start and when to stop a n irrigation event (Martin et al., 1990). This practice is successfully implemented with pressurized water application systems in many countries of the world. However, the same practice of when and how much to irrigate in the context of hydraulically complex surface irrigation systems is difficult to translate into when to start and when to stop irrigation.Therefore, an effective surface irrigation scheduling program must develop strategies for each field o n the farm to decide how and how long to irrigate, coupled with when and how much to apply. This is essential because of the enormous variability of infiltration rate both spatially and temporally. Also, surface roughness, field geometry and net required irrigation depths are other parameters that change from event-to-event and season-to-season (Shafique and Skogerboe, 1987).+When and how much to irrigate?In order to decide when and how much to irrigate, four techniques are commonly used (Salazar, 1987): (i) modeling of crop-soil-climate-irrigation system through water balances; (ii) soil based measurements; (iii) plant based measurements; and (iv) lysimeters and evaporation devices. On an experimental basis, researchers in Pakistan have tested almost all of the stated techniques. However, these techniques are yet to be made more user-friendly to win farmers' acceptability.For deciding when and how much to irrigate, IlMl and its partners plan to monitor evaporation. While discussions with the Soil Survey of Pakistan are still at an early stage to make use of tensiometers for this purpose, IlMl has monitored two cotton seasons of irrigation scheduling by neutron probe at the Tareen Farm near Lodharan. This activity is undertaken jointly by an Australian Consultant and AgrEvo of Pakistan with, of course, active involvement of the owner of the farm, Mr. Jehangir Tareen. r the following techniques on farmers's fields: (i) soil based methods; and (ii) panThe neutron probe is one of the soil-based methods for determining the moisture contents available in the soil at a particular time. This measurement is based on the degree to which high energy neutrons are thermalized in the soil by the hydrogen atoms in water. The rate at which thermal neutrons are detected is related to moisture contents available in the vicinity of the radioactive source. If one can afford to purchase such probe, the irrigation scheduling becomes less arduous when compared with the gravimetric soil sampling method.During the last two years, the neutron probe technique has been effectively tested in deciding when and how much irrigation water to apply to different fields at the Tareen Farm. This practice has been based on two moisture curves: (i) full level; and (ii) refill level. With an access-tube lowered to 160 cm deep at the head-end of each The duration of an irrigation event for a given discharge at a certain time has to be determined, along with an awareness of the impact of certain physical processes, such as advance and infiltration behavior (due to spatial and temporal variability of soil parameters), soil surface roughness, field geometry and the crop water requirement on the irrigation process. These processes differ for subsequent irrigation events and between the seasons, both due to the change in soil compaction, crop and weeds development, cultural practices including intercropping, or climatological causes or changes.To illustrate the advance and infiltration processes, corresponding graphs have been derived for subsequent irrigation events for a basin irrigation system (at the Tareen Farm). These advance graphs are derived, based on the two-point method as suggested by Walker & Skogerboe (1987) and Shafique and Skogerboe (1987). The advance function for basin irrigation systems is defined as follows: e wherein: A,=cumulative wetted area (m7); t,= advance time (min); p and r are fitting parameters.The infiltration graphs are derived by the first reverse approach as presented in Shafique and Skogerboe (1987), which follows basic assumptions that \"fhe subsurface water profile is linear and the average infilfrated depth for fhe set can be approximated as a functions of opportunity time at the mid-point ofthe fie/d' (Shafique and Skogerboe, 1987;p.67). This concerns a first calibration of the empirical parameters of the modified Kostiakov equation:  4 show the results of the advance and infiltration analysis, respectively. An increasing tendency is observed in the advance behavior and at the same time a decreasing tendency is observed for the infiltration behavior for the subsequent irrigation events. Differences from this observed tendency may occur, since the advance and infiltration are interrelated processes, which are subject to changes in the physical conditions as described earlier.. IBy irrigating a field for a certain time period, the main purpose is to meet the crop water requirement, which differs from event-to-event and depends on (i) the number of days between irrigation events; (ii) quantity of effective rainfall; (iii) 'actual evapotranspiration (ET,); and (iv) crop stage.By applying a volume balance technique as suggested in Shafique and Skogerboe (1987), how long a field actually has to be irrigated compared to how long it was irrigated in order to meet the crop water requirement can be evaluated. Prior to this analysis for a particular event (a blocked surface system with a small slope, ?:lOOO), data have to be collected and analyzed on: (i) inflow rate; (ii) field geometry; (iii) irrigation duration; (iv) advance function; and (v) infiltration function. The shape factor ( F ~) for the sub-surface soil moisture profile is assumed to be 0.65. By calculating (i) the volume to be delivered; (ii) volume of surface water storage; and (iii) volume of water required, whether the time of cutoff is going to be less or more than the time of advance to cover the whole field area can be determined. The following formula is used: --. ..-Table 2 shows the results of this exercise. Observe that during the first and the second irrigation events, the irrigation duration was too long, respectively, by 94 and 17 minutes, whereas for the fourth irrigation event the irrigation was applied in too short of a time period b y 44 minutes'. Based on these findings, the first and second irrigation events may lead to over-irrigation of the field and excessive water will percolate into the subsurface, whereas the fourth irrigation event may lead to under-irrigation according to the actual applied irrigation.. Ongoing field observations showed that the general practice of a farmer is that the water supply to the field is cutoff when the advancing water front reaches the end of the field, without completely taking into consideration the changes in the above stated physical processes. However, field observations also showed that most of the farmer do not have sufficient access to information or means in order to gain insight into the relevant factors (available discharge, soil moisture deficit, advance behavior) for determining how long to irrigate. Basically, the farmer has experience in judging when to irrigate based on the crop conditions (leaves) and the soil condition (dryness), but it is not clear to them how long they should actually irrigate in order to meet the crop water requirement. These issues have to be further addressed in a detailed manner in order to provide the farmers with practical guidelines on how long to irrigate within the given constraints.. a For a conservative estimate, if the calculated t , , is less than t,(,.,,, then t , = t,(,=,, +How to irrigate (a future concern)?Besides obtaining knowledge on when, how much and how long to irrigate, a link has to be established with how to manage the irrigation water (i.e. how the farmer has to operate the irrigation system at the farm). Insights into the above stated physical processes are crucial in order to practice good management of the irrigation water at the field level, along with an understanding of how to respond to the physical processes in terms of adjusting the design variables (unit flow rate, field or furrow geometry, and cutoff time) of a system has to be created.In order to obtain insights into the management possibilities for different irrigation systems, mathematical models can facilitate this process. These models simulate the surface and subsurface irrigation process and assess, at the same time, the irrigation performance at the field level in terms of application efficiency, storage efficiency and distribution uniformity. Once a set of infiltration functions is calibrated for a whole season, and the crop water requirement is known for each irrigation event, these models can be used for prediction purposes. Basically, with these models, it is possible to develop a functional relationship between the design variables of an irrigation system. Furthermore, optimization techniques could be developed to determine ideal design and operational parameters.IIMl's aim is, firstly, studying an existing model (SIRMOD\") and practically test its applicability for the existing systems in Pakistan. In a later stage, the target is to develop our own mathematical model for basin, as well as bed & furrow, irrigation methods. The main objectives are: (i) to develop operational and management strategies in conformity with the farmers who are using the traditional irrigation methods as well as for improved irrigation methods: and (ii) to transform the results into practical guidelines for the farmers on how to irrigate in order to obtain a more efficient use of the irrigation water and to increase crop production, taking into account environmental constraints.A last note should be made on the inter-action between water delivery and irrigation scheduling as presented above. The farmers receive their share of water through a warabandi schedule, which implies that access to canal water is restricted to a certain time period per week. Additionally, research has shown that the canal t 'O -Surface brigation Model developed at Utah State University, U.S.A aa water supply is considered to be variable in its amount and unreliable in its supply, Most of the farmers overcome this constraint by the use of tubewell water; however, this is often of lower quality. At this stage, it can be debated whether this insecurity of water availability and reliability has an impact on farmers' actual irrigation practices or not. However, the aim is to find solutions in how to facilitate the farmers in optimizing their use of irrigation water within the given constraints..#This section describes the monitoring of improved surface irrigation methods. These methods include: (i) bed 8 furrows; and (ii) flat basins. The main purpose of the monitoring of two methods was to see if a change from basin to a bed & furrow system can enhance water control by the farmer in order to apply light irrigations and to maximize the number of bunded fields irrigated during each warabandi.In this context, quantitative data were collected at the Tareen Farm during two cotton seasons, Kharif 1995 and Kharif 1996. At this farm, the fields are laser leveled and these are divided into plots of one hectare size. The bed & furrows are made with a special bed & furrow shaper which was designed and fabricated by a progressive farmer, Haji M. Arshad, from Khanpur. In case of flat basins, the earthening-up practice after the first or second irrigation event, converts them into a sort of shallow furrows.However, during irrigations the entire plot is covered with water just like a basin. In contrast; bed & furrow system does not have water flowing over the beds.Two types of data were collected during two years: (i) total depth of irrigation water applied to each plot; and (ii) corresponding cotton yields. The main purpose of the exercise was to show the enhanced capability of farmers to apply light and frequent irrigations by switching from a basin to a bed & furrow system. This is particularly important for cases where the infiltration rate is quite low. The Tareen Farm did show such a phenomenon as the average surface intake rate during the first 4 hours was only about 1.4 cm/hr. A very low range of the temporal coefficient of variation (0.0 to 0.04) for the soil profile below 20-30 cm indicates even serious intake problems at the farm. Under these farm conditions, the enhanced capability has helped to increase the water use efficiency (Table 3). 0 Interestingly, during 1995, the average depth per irrigation for basins is 185 inin as compared with the case of bed & furrows where the average comes to 82 min. However, this average has further dropped to 11 0 and 50 mm for basin and bed & furrow system, respectively, during 1996. Moreover, less use of water and increased yield per unit of area clearly favors the bed 8, furrow method for irrigating a cotton crop.Moreover, cotton fields monitored during 1996 by the officials of AgrEvo reveal that the virus attack in the case of bed 8, furrows was less severe (44-52%) as compared with basins (65-68 %).Table 3. A survey was also conducted in another cotton growing area of Punjab to document the water savings achieved by switching from basins to a bed & furrow system. This qualitative assessment is based on the interviews of 13 out of 19 farmers who bought bed & furrow shapers from Khanpur. Two farmers said that there was no saving of water due to the bed & furrows as their un-leveled fields were irrigated like basins. The other 11 farmers said that their switch to a new system had saved them 30 to 50 percent of their water. As the cotton season is not yet over, no information about yields was obtained. This Farm is located at the tail of Fordwah distributary and seldom receives canal supplies (partial supplies around 50 % of the time only). Under the existing conditions, the owner of the farm is forced to use tubewell water, which is classified as unfit for irrigation because of the following chemical analysis: (i) total dissolved salts are more than 1800 ppm; (ii) Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR) is 13; and (iii) Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC) is found to be around 8. Although the farm land is of lighter texture, sandy / sandy loam, the repeated use of bad quality tubewell water has resulted in sodium build-up. A soil analysis conducted by the Soil Survey of Pakistan shows that the Exchangeable Sodium Percentage (ESP) of the upper layer is 18 (SAR being 15.5) and EC is about 2 (sodic soil). The productivity of the farm has plunged to such a level that the farmer has almost gone bankrupt.The Sweetwater Generator is used to burn sulphur for sulphur dioxide (SO,) and this gas is mixed with water to get first sulphurous acid (H,SO,) and then sulfuric acid (H,SO,).This liquid of low pH value (2.4-2.9) is mixed with the low quality tubewell supply. In the case of Malik's farm, the pH value of the tubewell water was 8.1 on the test day, 18 October 1996. The pH of the liquid generated by the apparatus was found to be 2.9. After mixing with the tubewell supply, the pH became 6.9. Next, this treated water was applied to the field adjacent to a location from where samples were taken for the above stated chemical analysis.Based on the SARs of the soil extracts, before and after the application of the treated water, Figure 5 shows a drastic reduction in sodium build-up in the soil. However, this reduction is more on the head-end as compared with middle and tail ends. On an average, the SAR for the entire field after the first irrigation is found to be around 5. A couple of more irrigations with treated water, while flushing with canal water when available, should help to reclaim the field fully. * 1 IlMl in collaboration with the Sweetwater Farming Company intends to continue this reclamation support for one year at Maliks farm. During this period, a block of about 8 ha will be selected and during next two irrigation seasons, all of the important changes in response to the treated water applications will be monitored. There is also an expressed interest from the Company to demonstrate the use of the sweetwater generator for an entire command of Fordwah Distributary.Conjunctive Use of Surface and Ground Water (Treated & Untreated) by Gravity and Pressurized Systems.This is new study which is being undertaken by IlMl in Hasilpur in collaboration with national and international partners. At this stage, only the needed hardware is being installed. Once the basic arrangements are completed, IIMl's research staff located in Hasilpur will start collecting data to document the process and changes expected by the introduction of a package based on the conjunctive use of water from different sources and water application methods. This innovative irrigation practice aims to manage salinity in the root zone and achieve higher water use efficiencies.In collaboration with the Punjab On-farm Water Management, Water Resource Research Institute, and Sweetwater Farming Company I Bahria Foundation, IlMl intends to have all required facilities in place by the end of the current year. The initial findings of the study will be available by the middle of next year. .The concept is a useful tool for irrigation design and irrigation management (Keller & Keller, 1995). However, the concept of local irrigation efficiency does not help in understanding the status of irrigation water use at a larger scale as it ignores the contribution of return flows in its calculations. The irrigation water runoff and deep percolation are losses from individual fields, but may not be losses at a higher hydrological unit level . It is possible to divert surface runoff for reuse. Similarly, the deep percolation contributes to the underground aquifer and the groundwater can either be pumped for direct use, or it gradually moves back to the rivers and streams for downstream diversions (Heermann et al., 1995) sIn order to account for the reuse of the return flows, a concept of global or effective irrigation efficiency (E,)'' is introduced by some irrigation management experts such as Dr. Jack Keller13 and Dr. David Seckler? As the new concept also 11. Local Irrigation Efficiency (Ei) :Where U, , is the irrigation water consumed by crops, LR is the leaching requirement and V, is the irrigation water delivered (Equation given by Keller & Keller. 1995) 12.Effective Irrigation Efficiency (EJ:where subscripts i 8 0 denote inflow and outflow respectively for the terms already explained (Equation proposed by Keller 8 Keller. 1995) 13. Professor Emeritus , Utah State UniversityDirector General, IlMl L incorporates the reuse of the return flows, it is more suitable for formulating water allocation and transfer policies (Keller & Keller, 1995).A major concern expressed about the proposed base for the freshwater resource planning and allocation decisions is the degradation of the return flows by the pickup of salts and other pollutants such as sewage water, industrial wastes, etc. Keller and Keller (1995) have included leaching requirements in the definition of E, (Eq. 2) to control soil salinity, but the environmental and health concerns have yet to be addressed. Moreover, it would be very difficult and expensive to apply and ensure the degree of salinity control as suggested.In a system which is government-managed, deep percolation and runoff from one supply component is a gain for the other when the underlying condition is not a salt sink. However, at a point when the irrigation supplies are turned over to a privately managed unit, the flows in any form going beyond the unit boundaries are a loss to the stakeholders of the unit. Deep percolation to the underlying aquifer with useable water quality can be recaptured, but it involves pumping costs for some who can afford, and a loss to others who cannot, or do not, do so.Another hidden assumption (opinion of the authors) in the new concept is that the water distribution is executed as planned within a broader hydrological unit such as a river basin. Also, it alludes to conditions in which the resulting return flows will be distributed on an adequate, dependable and equitable basis for their reuse by the farmers. In other words, a selected system is operated as planned and hence the water resources planning and allocation decisions can safely be based on average values of a broader hydrological unit. However, all such conditions may, or may not, exist.Therefore, a challenge for the researchers and the managers of the irrigated subsystem is to use both concepts with caution for design, irrigation management, water resource planning and water allocation within commands, regions and national boundaries. They need to give serious consideration to the old concept of water conservation at the field level as proclaimed by the scholars in favor of improving local irrigation efficiencies. At the same time, it seems appropriate to deal with concerns raised about the productivity and cost of the reuse of water, as well as inequity due to water quality of the drainage water, when planning and allocation is based on using the effective or global efficiencies.Keeping the land level is a major concern for the farmers. It is a basic need at the field level to avoid over or under irrigation due to the micro ground surface undulations. Even without any outside support, this happens to be a routine activity undertaken by the farmers within the confines of their known skills and facilities. Such an irrigation facilitating practice points to a built-in demand for land leveling on a regular basis.In view of the demand, many irrigated countries like Pakistan and Egypt initiated land leveling programs. However, these efforts did not achieve a desired degree of success. For example, in Pakistan, in spite of the provision of incentives such as sound facilities, skills and subsidies, the precision land leveling programs in the public sector had a hard time to sell themselves. Reasons for the \"cool reception\" given by the farmers to a subsidized facility, for which they have a felt need, are difficult to pinpoint. But these reasons can only be speculated as follows: (i) the time-interval required for land leveling was too long to be adjusted within a short period available between two crops; (ii) complaints about the quality of the job undertaken; (iii) lack of incentives, both positive and negative, to accomplish quality work; (iv) not enough effort directed to adapt the precision land leveling technology for small land holdings; (v) the activity was also conducted to reshape fields without giving due consideration to the service cost-effective and within the financial reach of the small farmers. 0 L boundaries as per revenue records; and (vi) hardly any effort was made to make the In the case of Pakistan, there is no need to create a demand for land leveling; it already exists as a regular on-farm practice. However, a real challenge for the researchers and the field managers is to cap the demand effectively. Perhaps there will be a need to have two packages of this service; one for small farmers and the other for large farmers. For small farmers, it may help if only practical technical services about cuts and fills are provided to enhance the accuracy of the traditional land leveling practice, On the other hand, the large land holders may require quick and quality service with appropriate means, like access to laser technology for land leveling.Based on past experience, it seems that the official approach adopted for land leveling has to be adjusted; it may help to commercialize the operation. The relevant agencies and donors can play a pivotal role by promoting this idea in order to make it happen, In the beginning, the local government agencies could provide subsidies, technical assistance and training to a number of private groups to initiate the process.L However, the support should be withdrawn in stages as the private groups are strengthened enough to take up !he challenge on their own.In Pakistan, it is encouraging to know that the private sector, about a half dozen companies, has already been actively involved in inanufacturing the land leveling equipment such as scrapers and planers. More recently, two private firms have started producing laser equipment to facilitate land leveling operations. When the stated capacity is coupled with the availability of hundreds of private tractor and machinery owners who sell their services for other field operations regularly, the proposed commercialization of the land leveling operations becomes an accomplishable target.There are no two opinions about the necessity of flow measurements; it is a basic requirement for irrigation water management. For improving the water delivery. application, use and disposal subsystems, the available quantity of water must be known. * However, in many irrigated countries, most of the above stated operations at different levels of the main system are conducted based on experience and adjusted based on complaints and influence only. At the field level, it is also the experience of different individuals which determines the way irrigation water is utilized.But the management of irrigation operations without the measurement of flows can not be generalized for each and every case: there are a number of exceptions too. For example, the farmers in the Lower Severe Valley in the USA have installed their own flow measuring devices to counter-verify the flows measured by their own elected irrigation company near the delivery points. However, the above quoted case is such that the flow measurement is unavoidable as the farmers' shares are based on volumes. Other factors such as large holding sizes, commercial orientation, and education level of the farmers make flow measurements a normal activity. In spite of the other factors, the main fact remains that there should be a built-in necessity for flow measurements. So, the challenge for the researchers and field managers is to come up with innovative ways and means to create such conditions which make flow measurement a necessary and feasible practice L 3.5 Applied Research in Irrigation \" Over the past two decades or so, a tremendous amount of basic research in the field of irrigation has been conducted. Amazing mathematical tools have been reported which can facilitate the planning of operation and maintenance activities in the inain irrigation system. At the field level, the research findings are extremely helpful in managing the surface and ground water supply, as well as the application, use and disposal components of the on-farm subsystem. Even in the case of surface irrigation methods, it is now possible to estimate the resulting irrigation efficiencies within the existing conditions, or to create conditions for achieving an acceptable level of irrigation performance at the field level. , However, progress towards the application of the irrigation research findings IS not very encouraging. Generally, the research community is not found very eager to test the basic research findings for their field applicability. The lack of interest is not surprising as the applied research does not earn the same credit when compared with the basic research. As a result of the stated apathy, the findings of the basic research do not get translated for the benefit of the end-users.Agencies like the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) are undertaking applied research. For example, IlMl in Sri Lanka and Pakistan is field testing a set of decision support systems (DSS) for planning and operation of two main canal systems. IlMl in Pakistan also plans to apply mathematical tools to improve irrigation practices at the field level.In spite of the limited but serious initiative taken by IlMl and others to improve on-farm irrigation practices, there is lot more to do. A challenge awaits for the researchers to conduct applied research at the field level in the areas which may address issues like those listed below:  ,Practical and user-friendly on-farm irrigation water management techniques can be developed, but their field adoption will require appropriate disseminating arrangements. Such a need will be met essentially by providing irrigation advisory services at the farm level.For example, an irrigation advisory service is being established in Egypt within selected commands of the irrigation improvement projects. However, the scope and capacity of .the institutional arrangement is limited; it is mainly confined to organizing farmers at the tertiary level and provide assistance in managing the finances of these groups. However, there is a common concern in the Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources (MPWWR) about the future role and perhaps justifications after the completion of civil works related to single point water-lifting arrangements at the tertiary canal level. It is feared that if the role of the service is not reviewed, this unit may become dysfunctional as has happened with the water users' associations in Pakistan after the completion of watercourse improvemerlts.Another concern relates to the location of such an irrigation advisory unit, One easy solution is to let the government provide the service. However, it is a costly option for a public sector to shoulder, while the lack of cooperation between relevant agencies makes the choice difficult to make. Moreover, when a decision is made to pick one agency, others refuse to cooperate. For example, IAS in Egypt is located in the MPWWR and the existing lack of cooperation between the MPWWR and the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MOALR) does not help the effectiveness and usefulness of the service. \" I Possibly, such a service could be located with a neutral outfit, or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). However, such groups in the choice area are almost non-existent in most of the irrigated countries. Perhaps, the idea could be tried to gauge the level of interest in the NGOs' domain.Another option in the context of Pakistan is to make use of the agricultural input vendors to take up the assignment as a bonus to attract customers. However, in this case, public agencies will have to provide training, materials and support (incentives) to institutionalize the service. As these dealers are located everywhere in the country, the mechanism provides an excellent cost-effective network to test the implementation of the model. Of course, it is going to be a real challenge for the researchers and public sector to devise an effective irrigation advisory service. 0Farmers' participation in the operation and maintenance of the on-farm irrigation subsystem is crucial. Obviously, this requires a group action which is conventionally secured by organizing farmers on a formal or informal basis.Informal group action is for a specific purpose, which is usually built around a felt need by the farmers themselves. Examples in this context are the regular cleaning of watercourses and the fixing of irrigation schedules (warabandi) by the farmers in India and Pakistan, Such an informal collective arrangement still works and ensures farmers' participation on a sustainable basis. In general, farmers have also been 'organized on a formal basis to secure farmers' support for implementing certain on-farm activities. As it is obvious from the water users' associations organized in Pakistan and Egypt, these groups were designed to provide only support to a public agency in implementing a specific improvement activity; there appears to be no real intention to ensure farmers' participation by incorporating their clear role in planning, design, construction and management of an improvement activity. Consequently, with the completion of an improvement activity, like watercourse lining. the need for farmers' support faded and so did the need to keep the water users' associations functional. This might be one important reason for having dysfunctional water users' associations in Pakistan.Although the water users' associations in Egypt were also intended to seek support from the farmers to improve tertiary channels (mesqas), the built-in single-point pumping requirement in the mesqa improvement is keeping the groups functional. Perhaps, it is this day-to-day operational interdependence which may keep the farmers' organizations working. Likewise, initial positive reports about the sustained functioning of tubewell committees established under a community-well program might have been helped by a similar operational interdependence. In both cases, the farmers have an active role in the operation and maintenance of the water lifting systems.In order to achieve positive impact by improving irrigation practices below the not suffice. However, it is a challenge for social scientists and community organizers to suggest models which create conditions and an environment suitable for seeking sustainable farmers' participation and collective actions. The irrigation system in Pakistan is designed to deliver a constant amount of water to the end users. But the fact is that the water delivered is not constant and often it is much less than the designed I authorized amounts. For example, a distributary at the lower-end of the Gugera canal system deiivered 50 % and 70 YO of the designed supply during Rabi and Kharif seasons from 1989 to 1991, respectively (Latif, 1995).Under the present conditions, no one is held accountable for not delivering the authorized supplies to the users. That irrigation development has created environmental and health problems has long been acknowledged. These concerns are listed as follows: (i) waterlogging and salinization; (ii) disposal of the drainage effluent; (iii) water quality concerns due to the disposallmixing of sewage and industrial waste in the irrigation and drainage systems and irrigation return flows; and (iii) diseases such as malaria, river blindness and bilharzia.For the most part, the above stated concerns stem from the low irrigation efficiencies and inappropriate irrigation practices at the farm level. Therefore, the future challenge for the researchers and the managers of the irrigated sector is to improve irrigation efficiencies by introducing appropriate irrigation practices at the farm level.","tokenCount":"27511"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e0952265df8d98d436c8049c2ce73f6e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9db463aa-ffcc-4639-bfc9-8a2afee824a6/retrieve","id":"1990997494"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c05133ca-a9f4-4c71-b36f-429a552ad72b","pagecount":"13","content":"In FCS, the infrastructure and built environment can play a critical role in both the eruption, escalation, and resolution of conflicts.In conflict contexts, vital infrastructure and the built environment for human activities can be destroyed or damaged, impacting important environments specifically made to meet human necessities in the vast sectors of education, health, telecommunications, water, energy, and Guidance Note for Peace-Informed Programming at the Green Climate Fund INFRASTRUCTURE AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT \"In light of increasingly unpredictable and extreme climatechange induced weather patterns, infrastructure has a large potential to help defuse or protect communities from economic, environmental and societal crises that can lead to instability.\"*Summary: Infrastructure projects in fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCS) are susceptible to many operational challenges, which might inadvertently escalate existing socio-economic and political tensions. Infrastructure, being intricately connected to the daily lives and societal needs of communities, often becomes a flashpoint in conflicts. Essential systems like water, energy, and transportation are not just physical assets; they represent broader social, economic, and political structures that can be either symbols of progress or points of contention. When these vital infrastructures are disrupted or commandeered, it can magnify existing societal disparities, restrict access to essential services, and further entrench divisions. However, with thoughtful planning and sensitivity to the local context, these projects can promote peace, address inequalities, and enhance social cohesion. Success in such endeavors often hinges on navigating uncertain political landscapes, adapting to evolving regulatory frameworks, and understanding regional complexities.agriculture. Infrastructure and the built environment represent a link of physical spaces to their social implications; disruptions to critical infrastructure such as public services and community buildings can significantly impact socioeconomic factors, perpetuating, reinforcing, or reproducing inequality by limiting access to important resources and impeding development opportunities. 1 Conflict parties, especially non-state armed groups (NSAGs), often seek significant influence over critical elements of infrastructure and built environment and can intensify tensions and perpetuate inequalities and conflict dynamics. Scarce urban resources, such as essential goods and services like housing, water, and security represent incentives for NSAGs to explore both material gain and political influence. 2 Conflict parties may occupy public buildings such as schools and hospitals to assert their authority and restrict access to key facilities. Communication networks can be targeted to manipulate information flow. Vital utilities, such as water treatment plants and power stations, may be manipulated to control essential resources. The control of vital water resources and power supply infrastructure, for example, was a well-documented tactic used by ISIS to control populations in Northern Iraq during their campaign in 2014. 3 NSAGs can also seek control of economic activities by imposing taxes on businesses and individuals in certain areas, influencing urban or rural development. 4 Infrastructure and the built environment play a crucial role in shaping societies. They are * UNOPS, 'Infrastructure and Peacebuilding: The role of infrastructure in building and sustaining peace, January 2020, p. 11. 1 International Committee of the Red Cross section 'Allies, Partners and Proxies: Support Relationships in Armed Conflict. Essential services' 2 Sampaio, Antonio, 'Urban Resources and Their Linkage to Political Agendas for Armed Groups in Cities' Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime capable of both cementing community cleavages and favoring intergroup interactions and social cohesion. They hold the potential to significantly enhance peace by establishing vital infrastructure systems, such as housing, education, and health facilities, addressing structural socioeconomic disparities by providing universal access, minimizing the likelihood of uprising and violence, and by promoting sustainable development. 5 The following subsections provide an overview of risks to projects in FCS, how projects in these contexts might exacerbate ongoing conflict dynamics, and what peacebuilding opportunities exist. We then provide guidance on how to incorporate conflict sensitivity into projects. The overview and guidance are based on a literature review of publicly available Integrated climate-security programming is the holistic approach of embedding both climate and security considerations into the entire lifecycle of projects-from design and implementation to evaluation. This strategy aims to guarantee that climate finance initiatives are not only environmentally sustainable but also conflict-sensitive.Conflict sensitivity is an organizational process where knowledge of the peace and conflict dynamics in the operational context is gathered through a locally informed perspective and applied to avoid unintended negative consequences and maximize positive effects on peace. Conflict-sensitive practices exist on a spectrum between 'do-no-harm' (e.g., conflict assessment, safeguards, redress mechanisms, etc.) and 'do-good' (e.g., peace responsiveness, peace co-benefits, peacebuilding, etc.). material and include additional resources for further reading.Several conflict risks may negatively impact projects related to infrastructure and the built environment. Some of the risks are highlighted below:Destruction of infrastructure and the built environment: In FCS, there is a higher risk of damage or destruction to infrastructure, both existing and built by a project, 6 including critical public services and community buildings that are intended to be \"climateproofed\". 7 Such damage may disrupt normal activities and operations and require additional resources and efforts to restore or rebuild critical damaged infrastructure.Occupation by conflict parties: Infrastructure often becomes closely linked to military access and usage. Due to power struggles in FCS, infrastructure becomes vulnerable to violence from all parties involved in conflict, making it a channel for or target of increased aggression and exploitation. 8 NSAGs may seek to modify the built environment in the interest of military operations, reinforcing territorial control and strengthening presence in FCS. Project activities may be suspended or delayed due to insecurity and instability, affecting the timely completion of the project. For many NSAGs, establishing governance mechanisms and, in some cases, providing service functions is not merely a means of extorting economic gains from populations in FCS, but also a strategy to enhance their legitimacy in the eyes of the population as part of an eventual statebuilding process. 9Political instability: FCS are frequently subject to volatile political environments with changes in government or alterations in power dynamics, which can ultimately lead to unpredicted policy changes, delays in project approvals or permits, or cancellations of infrastructure projects. The lack of administrative efficiency, such as nontransparent decision-making processes, political instability and inconsistent policies may ultimately affect administrative decisions and can significantly impact projects in their success and implementation. 10FCS are often characterized by weak legal and regulatory systems around infrastructurerelated projects, which may lead to uncertainty 9 Danish Institute for International Studies, 'From the power of guns to civilian acceptance -When armed groups provide public services' October 2017 10 OECD 'Getting Infrastructure Right: The Ten Key Governance Challenges and Policy Options' The OECD Framework for the governance of Infrastructure.The African Development Bank's Programme for Integrated Development and Adaptation to Climate Change in the Niger Basin highlights conflict-sensitive programming in addressing climate challenges related to infrastructure and built environment projects. As climate change disrupts pastoralist migration routes, competition intensifies between farmers and pastoralists over land and water. To mitigate these tensions, the project introduces small multi-purpose dams, the development of 19,000 ha of irrigated land, and transhumance corridors. Integrated landscape management ensures shared resource usage, with agreements between farmers and herders safeguarding both crops and grazing areas. By emphasizing cooperative resource management and strategic infrastructure development, the project aims to reduce potential conflicts and promote community harmony. and challenges in obtaining the necessary permits and approvals for such projects to go ahead. Risks related to political and/or regulatory frameworks can arise since infrastructure projects can interfere with the political economy of conflict, with political elites potentially interrupting project approvals that might challenge their political power 11 or business interests.Projects near borders or regions prone to conflict may be exposed to additional risks because of past struggles or owing to tensions with neighboring countries. 12 Risks can arise due to the involvement of several countries with a complex, and often divergent, regulatory environment of infrastructure development. Important geopolitical and diplomatic factors may lead to cost increases and slower development stages. These problems may result from a lack of political will and support from the two or more governmental parties involved, from complex relations or agreements between various stakeholders in certain project regions, or from difficult regional economic cooperation. 13When operating in FCS, infrastructure and built-environment projects are not only subject to conflict risks and political instability. The projects themselves may also exacerbate existing conflict dynamics, creating new tensions. The following set of risks are some of the most common:Infrastructure projects can involve the allocation of scarce resources such as water, land, or energy. In FCS, where natural resources may already be scarce, projects can intensify competition and disputes involving different actors. These tensions can lead to conflicts over natural resource access and distribution, which have a vital role in sustaining communities' economic stability and livelihoods. Any threat related to the access to natural resources can lead to the aggravation of tensions and even conflict. Especially in urban landscapes, a country's economic and political elite can implement infrastructure projects as a powerful tool to enable or cement patterns of segregation, sectarianism, gentrification, or other forms of social separation and exclusion. Overlooking such dynamics may result in infrastructure projects which favor or strengthen existing patterns of separation or exclusion to the detriment of equity and social cohesion. 23By applying key best practices and standards of peacebuilding investment, 24 climate mitigation efforts focused on infrastructure and the built environment can and should contribute to peace and stability by addressing the challenges faced by communities in FCS.A holistic approach for resilient infrastructure development: When considering the impact of critical infrastructure in society, it is crucial to highlight interconnections between different sectors. Power, water, and transportation infrastructure function as interconnected systems, with specific vulnerabilities and exposure to specific risks. 25  Human-centered approach to resilient infrastructure projects: Adopting conflictsensitive efforts to ensure infrastructure projects are adaptable and resilient to drivers of conflict is key when working with a humancentered approach to development infrastructure. 27 By ensuring inclusion for marginalized groups -such as youth and women, or ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities -projects can contribute to the mitigation of hidden and overt conflicts. Addressing inequitable access to essential public infrastructure service projects may enable divided communities to develop or rebuild critical spaces in the interest of community development and regional growth. 28Infrastructure projects can enhance sustainable outcomes for the well-being of future generations. They can implement a comprehensive and strategic assessment of life cycle sustainability to ensure resilient longterm infrastructure projects, adaptable to the different needs of ecosystems they operate in and to the beneficiary communities. 29 By addressing challenges proactively, projects can ensure environmentally and socially responsible project development. They can prevent the need for future financing to fix or rebuild essential structures, meeting higher infrastructure performance and sustainability standards. The Simiyu Climate Resilient Project by Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau integrates a conflict-sensitive approach to combat water scarcity, emphasizing benefits for vulnerable communities. The project promotes inclusion by adopting block tariffs, prioritizing public taps in impoverished areas, and ensuring representation of women and vulnerable groups in decision-making bodies. This approach aligns with SDG 16's vision of peaceful, inclusive societies, fostering transparent governance, community-based planning, and reducing potential conflicts between farming and pastoralism. The holistic involvement of all users in decision-making not only strengthens community bonds but also enhances local revenue stability.paid to protecting land areas where the project activities take place. Projects should consult land tenure arrangements, adopting a comprehensive approach to acknowledging formal and traditional land ownership and use. They should recognize property rights and the significance of sacred indigenous land in compliance with customary law, local traditions, and land tenure systems. By promoting secure ownership of land, projects can proactively prevent future land-related tensions or conflicts and ensure a more secure and equitable ownership and use of the built environment.  35 Wang, Wanting and John W. van de Lindt 'Quantifying the effect of improved school and residential building codes for tornadoes in community resilience' 2022.processing facilities, can encourage dialogue between groups, create shared values, and promote intracommunal cooperation. 36There is a wealth of guidance and tools on delivering conflict-sensitive projects related to infrastructure and the built environment, and on how to adequately address challenges as they arise:Planning the project: The GCF Initial Investment Framework may benefit by applying conflict sensitivity to the investment criteria, in particular 'needs of the recipient community', 'sustainable development potential' and 'country ownership'. A robust application can then proceed, based on a strong understanding of the targeted area, including the current state of infrastructure systems with a particular focus on critical infrastructure related to energy, healthcare, transportation and water. 37 To do this, baseline analysis and stakeholder mapping can illuminate understanding of the problem, as well as whom it affects and how. 38 Documenting these different realities experienced by different groups can improve the inclusivity of programming and help identify potential solutions or contribute to already existing efforts. This stage can further ensure that the next steps are conflictsensitive by defining a co-benefit indicator and acquiring free, prior, and informed consent from stakeholders. Monitoring and evaluating the project: During and after activities, project staff should monitor both operational risks and the project's impacts on the security context. Data on the evolution and emergence of sources of tension and cohesion, on changing dynamics 39 Ibid., p. 56. 40 UNEP. 'Toolkit and guidance for preventing and managing land and natural resources conflict: Land and conflict. ' 2012. 41 Ibid., p. 39-41. 42 Ibid., p. 37-38. 43 European Commission. Guidance notes on conflict sensitivity in development cooperation -An update and supplement to the EU staff handbook on 'Operating in that can impact infrastructure, and on the implementation of conflict sensitivity measures is particularly relevant. It may also be helpful to assess perceptions of the project and potential negative effects of resource allocation (whether verified or perceived), and the perception of RAFT (Respect, Accountability, Fairness and Transparency) on the part of beneficiaries. 44 Throughout the project: The project can be more conflict-sensitive -during planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation -through conflict resolution training for staff, a designated conflict and peace focal point, consistent stakeholder inclusion, and information transparency. 45Promoting benefit sharing and conflict resolution governance structures: Improved infrastructure typically enhances access to services and provides better transportation for people and communities. However, these benefits do not necessarily promote peace. 46 Infrastructure projects have the potential to build peace in terms of implementing more transparent and inclusive governance systems. They can ensure improved accessibility, reducing competition and increasing trust and legitimacy in institutions.While infrastructure can decrease isolation of rural areas and increase access to markets for people and communities, it doesn't necessarily improve security. 47 Projects need to incorporate training and capacity-building programs to develop skills related to entrepreneurship and infrastructure in the workforce, focusing in particular on youth and marginalized communities.Securing land rights: There is no 'one size fits all' approach when it comes to securing land tenure rights; it will depend on the legal, cultural, and environmental conditions in the specific context. 48 Projects can help in recognizing communities' rights to land by developing tailor-made, context-specific and participatory land use planning strategies. This approach ensures that local stakeholdersespecially women, youth, marginalized communities, indigenous peoples, displaced populations, tribes and other groups -have legal recognition and ownership of land. This is especially relevant in the context of infrastructure projects expanding into remote land areas in FCS.Addressing the gender gap: Projects can promote equal rights and address the gender gap in infrastructure development by empowering women and women's groups. Women can claim spaces in decision-making around infrastructure. They can raise their voices. Projects should inform and support strong institutions, including customary institutions, to be more inclusive and to invite more women's participation. 49 This could start, for example, by working to achieve a better gender balance in community decisionmaking bodies for infrastructure planning. Also, where discriminatory customary practices are deeply embedded, a strategy could be to work with the least discriminatory institutions to at least try to change the status quo. Initial work can generate evidence and experience, raising voices and confidence, and then address other institutions.Fostering partnerships with Civil Society: Due to the lack of agreement and clarity on infrastructure in many FCS, it is important to foster partnerships with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). They can help to resolve conflicts related to infrastructure through peacebuilding actions, for example, by promoting regulatory frameworks and strong rule of law. Using participatory approaches to infrastructure design, development, and implementation can help tailor the project and its objectives to the intended beneficiaries.Adelphi, UNEP, and the EU. 'Addressing climate-related security risks: Conflict sensitivity for climate change adaptation and sustainable livelihoods.' Guidance note, toolbox, and monitoring and evaluation note. 2022.Danish Institute for International Studies, 'From the power of guns to civilian acceptance -When armed groups provide public services. October 2017.Büscher, Karen. 'African cities and violent conflict: the urban dimension of conflict and post-conflict dynamics in Central and Eastern Africa,' Journal of Eastern African Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2, 193-210. 2018   Notices from European Union Institutions, Bodies, Offices and Agencies. The European Commission notice 'Technical guidance on the climate proofing of infrastructure in the period 2021-2027' Official Journal of the European Union. 2021. 48 Wehrmann, Babette and Andrea Lange, 'Secure Land Tenure Rights for All: A key condition for sustainable development,' GIZ, July 2019.","tokenCount":"2848"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"daddd2770c3ce24e7ed107f331fa684b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cfa22c3b-1469-4309-83fc-893c8a1f3028/retrieve","id":"418573807"},"keywords":["cassava","erosion control","farmer participatory research (FPR) and extension (FPE)","Thailand","Vietnam"],"sieverID":"283596ec-dcc1-4e76-b41a-b9ff4ccbe8c3","pagecount":"19","content":"Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the third most important food crop in southeast Asia; the crop is usually grown by smallholders in marginal areas of sloping or undulating land. Farmers grow cassava because the crop will tolerate long dry periods and poor soils, and will produce reasonable yields with minimum inputs. Most farmers realize, however, that cassava production on slopes can cause severe erosion, while production without fertilizer or manure inputs will lead to a gradual decline in soil productivity. Current production practices may thus not be sustainable.Research has shown that cassava yields can be maintained for many years with adequate application of fertilizers or manures, and that there are various ways to reduce erosion. Adoption of erosion control practices, however, has been minimal as farmers generally see little short-term benefits, while initial costs of establishing these practices may be substantial.In order to enhance the adoption of soil conserving practices and improve the sustainability of cassava production under a wide range of socio-economic and bio-physical conditions, a farmer participatory research (FPR) approach was used to develop not only the best soil conservation practices, but also to test new cassava varieties, fertilization practices and cropping systems that tend to produce greater short-term benefits. The FPR methodology was initially developed in 2-3 sites each in China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The methodology includes the conducting of RRAs in each site, farmer evaluation of a wide range of practices shown in demonstration plots, FPR trials with farmer-selected treatments on their own fields, field days with discussions to select the best among the tested practices, scaling-up of selected practices to larger fields, and farmer participatory dissemination to neighbors and neighboring communities. Based on the results of these trials, farmers in the pilot sites have readily adopted better varieties, fertilization and intercropping practices, and many farmers have adopted the planting of contour hedgerows to control erosion.In the second phase of this Nippon Foundation supported project, the farmer participatory approach for technology development and farmer-to-farmer extension is being further developed in 20 pilot sites each in Thailand and Vietnam, and in nine sites in southern China. Farmers are generally very interested in participating in the trials. After becoming aware of the seriousness of erosion in their cassava fields, they have shown a willingness to adopt simple but effective practices to reduce erosion while at the same time obtaining short-term benefits from the adoption of new varieties and other improved practices. The testing by farmers on their own fields of new cassava varieties and fertilization practices in addition to soil conservation practices was found to be of crucial importance for the adoption of more sustainable production practices.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the third most important food crop grown in southeast Asia and is used for human consumption, animal feed or for industrial purposes. It is usually grown by smallholders in upland areas with poor soils and low or unpredictable rainfall. In some countries it is grown on steep slopes (north and central Vietnam), but in others it is grown mainly on gentle slopes (northeast Thailand); in both cases soil erosion can be serious. Moreover, cassava farmers seldom apply adequate amounts of fertilizers or manures to replace the nutrients removed in the harvested products. Thus, both erosion and nutrient extraction can result in a decline in soil fertility and a gradual degradation of the soil resource.The fact that farmers do not apply sufficient fertilizers and do not use soil conservation practices when the crop is grown on slopes is more a socio-economic rather than a technical problem. Research has shown many ways to maintain or improve soil fertility and reduce erosion, but farmers usually consider these practices too costly or requiring too much labor. To overcome these obstacles to adoption it is necessary to develop simple practices that are suitable for the local situation and that provide short-term benefits to the farmer as well as long-term benefits in terms of resource conservation. Being highly site specific these practices can best be developed by the farmers themselves, on their own fields, in collaboration with research and extension personnel.Thus, a project was initiated, with financial support from the Nippon Foundation in Tokyo, Japan, to develop a farmer participatory methodology for the development and dissemination of more sustainable production practices in cassava-based cropping systems, that will benefit a large number of poor farmers in the uplands of Asia.The first phase of the project was conducted from 1994 to 1998 in four countries, i.e. China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The project was coordinated by CIAT and implemented in collaboration with research and extension organizations in each of the four countries. During an initial training course on farmer participatory research (FPR) methodologies, each country designed a work plan to implement the project. The steps in the process, from diagnosing the problem to adoption of suitable solutions, is shown in Figure 1. The outstanding feature of this approach is that farmers participate in every step and make all important decisions.In most countries, one or two suitable pilot sites (villages or subdistricts ) were identified through Rapid Rural Appraisals (RRA); farmers from these sites were then shown many options in previously established demonstration plots; they were encouraged to select a few most suitable options for later testing in FPR trials on their own farms.In both the demonstration plots and FPR erosion control trials on farmers field, a simple methodology is used to measure soil loss due to erosion in each treatment. Plots are laid out along the contour on a uniform slope and below each plot a ditch is dug and covered with plastic (Figure 2). Small holes in the plastic allow runoff water to seep away, while eroded sediments collect on the plastic. These sediments are weighed two or more times during the cropping cycle. After correcting for moisture content, the amount of dry soil loss/ha is calculated for each treatment. This simple methodology gives both a visual as well as a numeric indication of the effectiveness of the various practices in controlling erosion (Howeler, 2001).The FPR trials did not only involve soil conservation practices, but also new varieties, intercropping systems and fertilization, with the objective of developing a combination of practices that would increase farmers' income, reduce erosion and improve soil fertility. After one or more years of testing in small plots, farmers quickly identified the best varieties and production practices for their area and started using those on larger areas of their production fields.The second phase of the project is being conducted from 1999 to 2003. This phase is being implemented in collaboration with five institutions in Thailand, six in Vietnam and three in China. Table 1 shows the network of institutions currently implementing the project. During the second phase the emphasis has shifted from farmer participatory research (FPR)  Plot border of sheet metal, wood or soil ridge to prevent water, entering or leaving plots.2)polyethylene or PVC plastic sheet with small holes in bottom to catch eroded soil sediments but allow run-off water to seep away. Sediments are collected and weighed once a month.  to extension (FPE) in order to reach more farmers and achieve more widespread adoption. These farmer participatory extension activities include the organization of cross-visits, in which farmers from a new site visit those from an older site where FPR trials are being conducted or where some selected practices are already being adopted. It also includes training courses for key farmers and local extensionists; farmer field days at time of harvest with participation of farmers and extensionists from neighboring villages; large-scale farmer field days with participation of many farmers, high-level government officials, press and TV; and the establishment of community-based self-help groups. In addition, more conventional extension tools, such as videos, and booklets on various aspects of cassava production and utilization have been prepared. Once farmers have selected certain practices and want to adopt those on their fields, the project staff tries to help them, for instance, in setting out contour lines to plant hedgerows for erosion control; or to provide seed or vegetative planting material of the selected hedgerows species, intercrops or new varieties.1. First Phase (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998): Farmer Participatory Research (FPR) a. Pilot site selection:Suitable pilot sites were selected in areas where cassava is an important crop, where it is grown on slopes and erosion is a serious problem. Table 2 shows some of the characteristics of the Each year demonstration plots are laid out on an experiment station or farmer;s field to show the effect of many alternative treatments on yield, income and soil erosion. Table 3 shows the ranking of treatments by farmers from various pilot sites. It is clear that farmers from the selected pilot sites are asked to discuss and score the usefulness of each treatment. It is clear that farmers from different countries, and from different areas in the same country, have different preferences, depending on the local bio-physical and socio-economic conditions, as well as on their traditional practices. That's why it is important to let farmers select and test rather than to make recommendations. From this range of many options farmers may select 3-4 treatments that they would like to test, in comparison with their traditional practice, in FPR trials on their own fields.Table 4 shows the type and number of FPR trials conducted in each site from 1995/96 to 1998/99. During the first phase of the project farmers conducted a total of 177 FPR erosion control trials, 157 variety trials, 98 fertilizer trials and 35 intercropping trials, for a total of 467 trials. At time of harvest in a particular site, a field day is organized to harvest each trial by the participating farmers and their neighbors. The yields of cassava and intercrops, the dry soil loss due to erosion, as well as the gross income, production costs and net income are calculated and presented in a joint meeting to the farmers. Table 5 shows a typical example of an FPR erosion control trial conducted by six farmers having adjacent plots on about 40% slope. It is clear that contour hedgerows of vetiver grass, Tephrosia candida or pineapple reduced erosion to about half, while intercropping with peanut and vetiver grass hedgerows markedly increased net income. Results of many other FPR trials have been reported in detail by Nguyen The Dang et al. (2001), Huang Jie et al. (2001), Vongkasem et al. (2001) and Utomo et al. (2001), and have been summarized by Howeler (2001).After having selected the most promising cassava varieties and production practices from FPR trials, farmers generally like to test some of these on small areas of their production fields, making adaptations if necessary. Some practices may look promising on small plots, but are rejected as impractical when applied on larger areas; this may be due to lack of planting material (like lemon grass) or lack of markets for selling the products (like pumpkin or lemon grass). Table 6 summarizes the varieties and practices that had been adopted by participating farmers in the four countries at the end of the first phase of the project in 1998.Since the objective of the second phase was to achieve widespread adoption of more sustainable production practices by as large a number of farmers as possible, it was necessary to markedly expand the number of pilot sites and to develop farmer participatory extension (FPE) methodologies to disseminate the selected practices and varieties to many more farmers.Implementing the project in collaboration with many different institutions in China, Thailand and Vietnam (see Table 1), and with generous financial support from the Nippon Foundation, it was possible to expand the number of pilot sites each year. In 2001 the project was  working in about 50 sites (Figure 3), and this may further increase to about 80 sites by the end of the project in 2003. Once the benefits of the new technologies become clear, the number of sites tend to increase automatically, as neighboring villages also want to participate in order to increase their yields and income.The following farmer participatory extension methods were used and found to be very effective in raising farmers' interest in soil conservation, in disseminating information about improved practices and in enhancing adoption of soil conserving practices:Farmers from new sites were usually taken to visit older sites that had already conducted FPR trials and had adopted some soil conserving technologies. These cross-visits, in which farmers from the older site could explain their reasons for adopting new technologies, was a very effective way of farmer-to-farmer extension. After these cross-visits, farmers in some new sites decided to adopt some technologies immediately, while others decided to conduct FPR trials in their own fields first. In both cases, the \"FPR teams\" of the various collaborating institutions, together with provincial, district or subdistrict extension staff, helped farmers to establish the trials, or they provided seed or planting materials required for the adoption of the new technologies.At time of harvest, field days were organized at the site in order to harvest the trials and discuss the results. Farmers from neighboring villages were usually invited to participate in these field days, to evaluate each treatment in the various trials and to discuss the pros and cons of the various practices or varieties tested. In a few cases, large field days were also organized with participation of hundreds of neighboring farmers, school children, local and high-level officials, as well as representative of the press and TV. The broadcasting or reporting about these events also helped to disseminate the information about suitable technologies. During the field days farmers explained the results of their own FPR trials to the other visiting farmers, and literature about the project and the results obtained was distributed.Research and extension staff involved in the project had previously participated in Training-of-Trainers courses in FPR methodologies, including training sessions with farmers in some of the pilot sites. While some participants were initially skeptical, most became very enthusiastic about this new approach once they started working more closely with farmers.In addition, 2-3 key farmers from each site together with their local extension agent were invited to participate in FPR training courses. The objective was to learn about the various FPR methodologies, the basics of doing experiments as well as the implementation of commonly selected technologies, such as setting out contour lines or the planting, maintenance and multiplication of hedgerow species. By spending several days together in these courses, the farmers and extensionist got to know each other well, and they were encouraged to form a local \"FPR team\" to help other farmers in their community conduct FPR trials or adopt the new technologies.Realising that effective soil conservation practices, such as planting of contour hedgerows, can best be done as a group, farmers from some sites decided to form their own \"soil conservation group\". These community-based self-help groups are similar to \"Landcare units\", that have been  very effective in promoting soil conservation in the Philippines and Australia. In Thailand, the Dept. of Agric. Extension has encouraged farmers to set up these groups as a way of organizing themselves to conduct FPR trials, to implement the selected practices, and to manage a rotating fund, from which members of the group could borrow money for production inputs. Thus, in 2001, ten such \"Cassava Development Villages\" were set up in some of the pilot sites. Each group needed to have at least 40 members, elect five officers to lead the group, and establish their own bylaws about membership requirements, election of officers, use of the rotating fund, etc. The formation of these groups helped to decide on collective action, and to strengthen the community as people gained confidence and the group became more self-reliant. When necessary, the group could request help from local or national extension services, obtain information about certain production problems, or get planting material of vetiver grass or other species for hedgerows or green manures. Some groups started their own vetiver grass nurseries to have material available when needed.After conducting their own FPR trials, or after a cross-visit to another village where those trials were being conducted, farmers often decided to adopt one or more technologies on their production fields with the hope of increasing yields or income and protecting the soil from further degradation.In Thailand, close to 90% of cassava farmers already plant new varieties (Sarakarn et al., 2001) and about 75% of farmers apply some chemical fertilizers (TTDI, 2000), although usually not enough nor in the right proportion. As a result of the FPR fertilizer trials, the application of K has increased, while the official fertilizer recommendation for cassava has changed from an NPK ratio of 1:1:1 to 2:1:2. After trying various ways of controlling erosion, most farmers selected the planting of vetiver grass contour hedgerows as the most suitable. Table 7 indicates that by the end of 2001, about 622 farmers had planted a total of 1.23 million vetiver plants, corresponding to about 123 km of hedgerows.Table 8 similarly summarizes the adoption of various new technologies in Vietnam. Over 1400 farmers are now planting new cassava varieties, while hundreds are applying more balanced fertilization (usually pig manure in addition to chemical fertilizers), intercrop with peanut or blackbean, and control erosion by the planting of contour hedgerows of Tephrosia candida, vetiver grass or Paspalum atratum. In some villages in Pho Yen district of Thai Nguyen province in north Vietnam, the average gross income of many farmers in 2001 was 4-5 times higher than those reported in 1994/95 at the start of the project (CIAT, 2001).To be successful in promoting soil conservation the following issues should be taken into account:1. Economic profitability is necessary but not sufficient for adoption to occur, and the time horizon for profitability should be as short as possible. In the trials discribed above, higher net incomes in the \"improved\" practices were obtained not so much from the soil conservation practices, but from other innovations in the \"package\", such as higher yielding varieties, fertilization and intercropping. By testing and adopting the whole integrated system, farmers can obtain economic benefits while significantly reducing erosion. Improved cultural practices such as closer spacing, reduced tillage, intercropping and fertilization will all contribute to reducing erosion while they may also increase yield and income. The \"right\" combination of * initiated in 2001 1) 1 hectare = 6.25 rai cost-effective cultural practices and soil conservation practices (hedgerows, agro-forestry) is highly site-specific and must be developed locally in a cooperative effort between farmers, extensionists and researchers. Only those combinations of practices that are profitable in the short-term and effective in erosion control will be adopted. The planting of new higheryielding varieties was the main incentive for farmers to participate in the project and was a very important \"entry point\" for getting farmers interested in testing methods of soil conservation.For that reason, FPR trials were never limited to only erosion control, but included varieties, intercropping, fertilization, weed control etc.2. Some incentives may be necessary. Since soil conservation structures may be too expensive for farmers to establish on their own, governments should provide some assistance, as society as a whole also benefits from less flooding, more and better quality water, and lower costs of dredging and maintenance of irrigation and hydro-electric generating systems. For example, in Thailand vetiver grass contour hedgerows are being adopted because farmers have seen their effectiveness in reducing erosion; in addition, the government supplies free planting material, helps farmers in setting out contour lines, teaches about multiplication and management of vetiver plants, as well as the use of vetiver leaves in the making of handicrafts as an additional source of income. In Vietnam, adoption of Tephrosia candida hedgerows is being facilitated by supplying farmers with good quality seed; similarly, in Indonesia farmers adopted Gliricidia sepium contour hedgerows after they received good quality seed from the project.Financial incentives should be kept to a minimum, as this will not be sustainable in the long run, but some incentives in kind may be useful and necessary to allow farmers to adopt the new technology.3. Farmers must be aware of soil erosion and its impact on soil productivity before they will be interested in soil conservation. Severe soil erosion is usually associated with steep slopes and its impact on soil productivity is most pronounced in shallow soils or in soils having a thin topsoil underlain by a highly infertile subsoil. In that case farmers can clearly see the negative impact of erosion on soil productivity and know that yields will decline unless they protect their soil from erosion. But even in areas with gentle slopes (2-10%) and deep soils, the accumulation of large amounts of runoff water in natural drainage ways can cause severe gulley erosion, break contour ridges and wash away young plants and fertilizers, while the eroded sediments may obstruct roads and irrigation and drainage systems below. By conducting erosion control trials on their own fields and seeing the large amounts of eroded sediments in the plastic-covered ditches, farmers start to appreciate how much soil they are losing each year. They also see that the use of simple practices such as fertilizer application, intercropping and contour hedgerows, can markedly reduce erosion, and in some cases increase yields.To be convincing, however, and to be able to obtain accurate data on soil losses, these FPR erosion control trials must be laid out exactly on the contour, and care must be taken that no water runs onto the plots from above or from the sides, and no water leaves the plots across side borders. This is not an easy task, especially if the slope is not uniform; it requires much care and experience at the time these plots are laid out and treatments are established. Researchers and farmers generally like rectangular plots, preferably parallel to roads or field borders, while this type of trial may require trapezoidal or irregularly shaped plots to maintain the sedimentcollection ditches along the contour and perpendicular to the natural flow of runoff water. 4. Give farmers freedom to experiment. In conducting the trials, farmers should be allowed to select the treatments they think are most useful. On the other hand, having farmers as a group decide on a set of the same treatments, to be tested by all farmers participating in the trials, facilitates the taking of data and allows the calculation of averages across trials within the site, which makes it possible to compare treatments over a range of conditions. Alternatively, some treatments may be common to all trials in the village, while other treatments may be selected by each farmer individually. 5. Yield calculations must be accurate and based on total cropped area. To be believable, yield data must be accurate and must reflect the real on-farm conditions. In treatments with intercrops or hedgerows the yield of each crop should be calculated based on the total area of the plot, or of a subplot that includes all crop components. Calculating yields from \"effective\" plots that exclude border rows and hedgerows will inevitably overestimate the yield of those treatments, and thus mislead farmers into attributing non-existing benefits to those treatments. Also, treatments of \"farmers' traditional practices\" should be managed as much as possible like the farmer's production fields; the yields of those plots should be similar to what farmers obtain in nearby production fields. However, asking farmers to plant their trials at a uniform plant spacing will greatly facilitate the accurate determination of yield. In as much as possible, FPR trials should be planted and harvested at the times that farmers in the village normally plant and harvest these same crops. 6.Local officials and self-help groups should be partners in the project. When selecting appropriate pilot sites it is important not only to consider the bio-physical and socio -economic conditions of farmers, but also to gauge the interest of local leaders and extension officers, and to determine the existence of NGO's or local self-help groups. Working in collaboration with these local officials and groups will greatly facilitate the implementation of the trials and the subsequent adoption of selected practices. Support for the project at the highest levels of government will help to convince local officials that their participation in the project is not only approved of but also appreciated. Inviting local leaders and extensionists to FPR training courses will contribute much to their understanding of the approach and their active participation in the project. Finally, the presence of NGOs with interest in sustainable agriculture and rural development, as well as the existence of local self-help groups makes it easier to call meetings, initiate the project, conduct the trials and enhance the adoption and implementation of selected practices.Research on sustainable land use conducted in the past has mainly concentrated on finding solutions to the bio-physical constraints, and many solutions have been proposed for improving the long-term sustainability of the system. Still, few of these solutions have actually been adopted by farmers, mainly because they ignored the human dimension of sustainability. For new technologies to be truly sustainable they must not only maintain the productivity of the land and water resources, but they must also be economically viable and acceptable to farmers and the community. To achieve those latter objectives farmers must be directly involved in the development, adaptation and dissemination of these technologies. A farmer participatory approach to technology development has shown to be quite effective in developing locally appropriate and economically viable technologies, which in turn enhances their acceptance and adoption by farmers.The conducting of FPR trials is initially time consuming and costly, but once more and more people are trained and become enthusiastic about the use of this approach -including participating farmers -both the methodology and the selected improved varieties or cultural","tokenCount":"4263"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d77a6f72ce0ff9a482c4612c9b60f394","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/02face93-dad3-4f25-b4b2-9d39f138616a/retrieve","id":"-345883144"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"99149bc0-c0d0-474c-9960-1c24282d80ed","pagecount":"113","content":"In Uganda, livestock production has continued to grow (at a rate of over 4% per annum) in response to increasing demand for milk and meat in the local market. However, per capita consumption of milk and its products is still very low. The current annual consumption is 22 liters of milk per person which is well below the FAO recommended 200 liters annual consumption per person. Nonetheless, prospects for increased demand, hence increased production, are good as per capita purchasing power continues to increase (Ngigi, 2005). The potential for expansion is high given the natural resources of Uganda. Livestock production in Uganda is an integral part of the agricultural system of many parts of the country. Mixed farming small holders and pastoralists own over 90% of the cattle herd. Cattle are the most important of all the livestock. Milk-producing cows are perhaps the most valued and potentially profitable assets a Ugandan farm family can own.It has been noted that Uganda like any other country in the East Africa region is weak in market institutions, infrastructure networks and governance. Smallholder households are unable to generate increased income from current dairy business endeavors because they lack access to production technologies, efficient farming practices and links to markets. Past development efforts and projects often employed poorly adapted organizational and institutional approaches borrowed from other settings. These have generally failed to survive beyond the project lifetime. Cooperative development efforts have failed to build on grass-roots interests and resources. For smallholders, there remains a possibility that as formal dairy markets emerge or grow, they will be sidelined by large producers and importers. Despite these constraints and vulnerabilities, smallholder dairying remains a durable strategy to increase household income, as it provides a secure livelihood, promotes women's social and economic status, conserves ecosystems, and respects cultural values. In addition the economic climate is favorable for integrating smallholder dairy farmers into the formal marketplace and supply chain, as milk consumption is shown to increase in Uganda. To help small holder dairy farmers overcome these challenges, the East Africa Dairy Development project has been initiated. It is envisaged to move smallholder, women and men farmers out of poverty by improving their profit participation in the dairy value chain. The project will be implemented through a partnership of three established organizations working in targeted districts in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.The aim of the East Africa Dairy Development project is to ensure that the lives of 179,000 families-or approximately one million people-are transformed by doubling household dairy income by the 10 th year of the project through integrated interventions in dairy production, market-access and knowledge application. The East Africa Dairy Development project aims to achieve its vision of doubling smallholder dairy income by improving onfarm production and market-access.Data obtained from the field relates to general dairy farming resource in the study sites and farmer involvement, challenges and opportunities in the sector, existing innovations and actors in the sector, feeding and breeding options and challenges. During the wealth ranking exercise, it was noted that farmers have diverse criteria to classify households by wealth. The households in the various wealth categories have varying challenges of engagement in dairying but also have differential opportunities and drive to invest in dairy farming. A number of alternative livelihood activities support farmers in the study villages. In four out of the five districts, dairy farming was ranked as the most important source of livelihood. Although prioritized differently by the participants, the other livelihood activities include banana farming, poultry-keeping, trade in milk and livestock, small-scale businesses, wage employment, boda boda taxi, and farming of other crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes.Five districts, with two study sites in each, were selected for the PRA survey. The 5 districts are at different stages of preparedness and readiness for the EADD project and will thus require different approaches and pathways to EADD implementation. In Masaka, Kayunga and Nakasongola districts there is already an operational chilling plant run through a cooperative society. Dairy farmers in Mukono district are already part of preparations to establish a traditional market hub for milk collection. Farmers are already registering as members to the cooperative and saving society formed in the area. In Luweero district, farmers are yet to organise themselves into a dairy farmer association and to revive the chilling plant that was present in the area but for long time has ceased operation.The innovations and actors analysis revealed critical policy issues that should be addressed in order for dairy development objectives of EADD to be met. The study also reviewed the criteria used by farmers in selecting dairy breeds. The farmers' preference for dairy breeds in the village is guided by a number of choices: udder size, body size, body shape, posture, and milk yield. The various breeds are preferred for differed reasons. In all the villages Friesian is the most preferred breed for its milk yield.In all the study sites, livestock feeding systems forage preferences and constraints to livestock feeding as well as forage seasonality were found to be critical to dairy development. The selected PRA tools revealed that natural pastures are most dominant but are complemented by Napier grass, legumes other fodder plants, with limited supplementation of commercial feeds. Feed conservation is hardly done in many areas due to inadequacies of skills in fodder conservation. Most of the times, farmers rely on natural pasture. Napier grass and crop residues are mostly used during the dry season. Forage availability remains a major constraint to dairy development.The studies have also revealed that dairying remains the single most important livelihood activity albeit with a number of constraints. The main constraints to dairying in the villages include low quality breeds, water shortage, poor markets, low milk prices, poor rural infrastructure, livestock diseases, limited AI services, inadequate feeds, and expensive feeds and dairy production inputs. The constraints need to be addressed by appropriate interventions for the farmers to realize the potential of doubling their income from milk and other dairy products. The requested interventions were as follows: Attracting, encouraging and supporting veterinary input and feed suppliers to the areas  Establish reliable Artificial Inseminations (AI) services in the areas. The semen available should be of good quality with a variability of bull types to enable choice  Require a qualified veterinarian within easy reach who is able to handle difficult cases.  In the pastoralist setup, ghee has always been the main source of income for women. With intensification of commercialisation of milk, they are losing out on this source of income. They require an alternative source of income  Farmers on rangelands requested for intervention in the clearing of pasture weeds.  Pastoralists who are in semi-arid zones frequently face water shortage. Constant supply of water is one of their biggest needs  Milk coolers are required to decrease on loss of milk through spoilage  Farmers training on better Dairy farming practices  Availability of better quality pastures and pasture seeds  Subsidies to farmers on veterinary drugs and vaccines  Road network in the rural areas be improved and existing ones repairedThe Consultant greatly appreciates the ILRI management for giving him and other colleagues at The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Makerere University, a chance to participate in this qualitative baseline survey. The logistical support offered by the EADD country office and the administration of the faculty of veterinary medicine is greatly appreciated. I would like to recognize support offered by Dr. Isabelle Baltenweck and Dr. Nelson Mango of the International Livestock Research Institute.Farmers in the study were enthusiastic and cooperative, this enabled the team to obtain good quality data, thus their contribution is highly appreciated. Many thanks to the team of extension agents and farmer leaders who guided and helped us establish rapport with the members of the communities. Finally, I would like to thank my co-investigator Dr. Sylvia Baluka and other PRA team members, and the Driver for doing a good job. Table 1:    The Dairy Cattle Sector in Uganda: An overview In Uganda, livestock production has continued to grow, whose rate is estimated at 4% per annum. This is in response to increasing demand for milk and meat in the local market. Higher rates of growth are envisaged as Government pursues its policies of modernizing and commercializing agriculture. However, per capita consumption of milk and its products is still very low. The current annual consumption is 22 liters of milk per person which is well below the FAO recommended 200 liters annual consumption per person. Nonetheless, prospects for increased demand, hence increased production, are good as per capita purchasing power continues to increase. The potential for expansion is high given the natural resources of Uganda. Seventy five percent (75%) of the land (18 million square kilometers) could be used for crops or grazing. Currently, only 5 million hectares is used for pastures and grazing land (Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries). There are over 6 million cattle in Uganda. The Ankole longhorn (Sanga) breed is the most common, comprising 50 % of the population. The Small East African Zebu breed follows with 30% of the total population. The Nganda intermediate breed represents 16% of the total population. The exotic breeds and their crosses make up only 4 % of the total population ((Texas A&M University, 2000).Livestock production in Uganda is an integral part of the agricultural system of many parts of the country. Mixed farming small holders and pastoralists own over 90% of the cattle herd. Cattle are the most important of all the livestock. Milk-producing cows are perhaps the most valued and potentially profitable assets a Ugandan farm family can own. They provide families with a dependable flow of cash, producing income from milk for substantial periods of the year with immediate-to short-turnaround on payment. Yet most rural households live in poverty in spite of the potential that cattle offer them to earn well-above subsistence income.According to the ILRI research brief ( 2007), current policies and some development projects in Uganda have promoted dairy intensification systems, such as zero-grazing, in a variety of settings. However, the results of the research study showed that less intensive production systems can be equally appropriate in most areas. Smallholder dairy production was found to be profitable and competitive in a variety of settings, where level of intensification suits different local circumstances. There is need for targeted interventions of dairy intensification to meet area-specific conditions and the farmers' specific circumstances.It has been noted that Uganda like any other country in the East Africa region is weak in market institutions, infrastructure networks and governance. Smallholder households are unable to generate increased income from current dairy business endeavors because they lack access to production technologies, efficient farming practices and links to markets. Past development efforts and projects often employed poorly adapted organizational and institutional approaches borrowed from other settings. These have generally failed to survive beyond the project lifetime. Cooperative development efforts have failed to build on grass-roots interests and resources. For smallholders, there remains a possibility that as formal dairy markets emerge or grow, they will be sidelined by large producers and importers. Despite these constraints and vulnerabilities, smallholder dairying remains a durable strategy to increase household income, as it provides a secure livelihood, promotes women's social and economic status, conserves ecosystems, and respects cultural values. In addition the economic climate is favorable for integrating smallholder dairy farmers into the formal marketplace and supply chain, as milk consumption is predicted to double in developing countries by 2020. To help small holder dairy farmers overcome the currently encountered challenges, the East Africa Dairy Development project has been initiated. It is envisaged to move smallholder, women and men farmers out of poverty by improving their profit participation in the dairy value chain. The project will be implemented through a partnership of three established organizations working in targeted districts in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.The Background information about the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) ProjectThe EADD Project is an initiative funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is led by Heifer International (Heifer) and implemented in partnership with two experienced organizations, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and TechnoServe (TNS). The partners have a joint objective to test a package of complementary interventions that address the noted deficit areas. It is believed existing knowledge and technologies can be employed as a business system that helps farmers utilize their livestock assets to produce greater income. The project is working in specific districts of the three East African countries of Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda.The vision of success for the East Africa Dairy Development project is that the lives of 179,000 families-or approximately one million people-are transformed by doubling household dairy income by the 10 th year of the project. This is to be achieved through integrated interventions in dairy production, market-access and knowledge application. Supported by lessons learned during the four-year pilot phase, the long-term vision is to scale out interventions within the participating countries and to replicate the project in three other countries in the region by assisting 350,000 more families or 2.45 million additional people. The East Africa Dairy Development project aims to achieve its vision of doubling smallholder dairy income by improving on-farm production and market-access.The project seeks to improve on-farm productivity by:  Increasing the volume of milk produced  Improving milk quality and reducing loss through spoilage  Providing access to production inputs through business delivery servicesMarket-access will be improved by:  Developing local hubs of business delivery services and chilling plants that facilitate market Access  Linking producers to formal markets through processors  Increasing producers' benefit from traditional marketsThe project will accomplish these aims through coordinated, farmer-focused interventions that integrate to develop smallholder profit-participation in the dairy value chain. These interventions will generate information and develop innovative solutions, expand dairy markets and market access for farmers, and sustainably increase dairy productivity.The project was designed to work from the community level to create a system where poor, smallholder dairy farmers optimize their social and productive assets to increase their income. Farmer groups that include women and youth as members and leaders will be engaged, trained and organized as dairy farmer business associations-legal entities that can operate hubs of dairy businesses providing access to formal markets and improved traditional markets. In the project, dairy hubs will serve as community anchors for industry knowledge, business services and market access. Fully functioning, the dairy hub is a dynamic cluster of services and activities that generate greater income for dairy farmers. Through the hubs, the quality of milk passing through the traditional market will be improved and access to formal markets will be facilitated through farmer owned-and-operated chilling plants. Research will be used to target chilling plant locations and traditional market hubs, and to develop insight into the ground-level, cross-country impacts.It is expected that this project will develop a pool of knowledge, lessons and best practices that inform pro-poor policy supporting smallholder dairy development and future directions of the industry. This knowledge also will give direction to specific interventions (such as breeding, and feed and fodder practices) in this and future project phases. Multiple modeling tools will assess the impact of interventions on women to guide practices throughout the project timeline. An integrated value chain will develop benefiting producers (especially women and youth), providers of business development services, processors, traders and retailers. Smallholder farmers and business service providers will adopt and replicate project practices that improve governance and management of farmer-owned dairy enterprises.The consistent use of these practices is expected to double the dairy income of project households in 10 years.Thus, during the initial stages of the project, a baseline survey was commissioned. The baseline was meant to capture the status of the beneficiary before interventions. The primary uses of baseline data include: 1. Analyzing the situation before the project starts, identifying dairy constraints (such as feed, availability, breeding or lack of reliable market outlets) and opportunities (such as family labor availability and appropriate agroclimatic conditions). These are identified at the production level and throughout the value chain to detect possible bottlenecks. 2. Assessing impact of project interventions during the course of the project. Data from the baseline will be used in the models developed by ILRI and TNS to assess project-intervention impact through various indicators at the household level-dairy production and livelihood indicators-as well as on other sectors of the economy. Direct and indirect effects will be captured. The results of this exercise and of monitoring activities will generate strategic lessons regarding poverty impact of dairy in general and project interventions in particular. 3. Showing the results from the project. The impact evaluations will measure against the baseline information.The baseline involved inter-alia a qualitative (PRA) assessment of the target communities. The broad objective of the qualitative survey was to identify opportunities for and constraints to dairy that are specific to the site. Other activities carried out during the baseline were: household questionnaire and market agent surveys. However, this report focuses on the qualitative baseline survey.In the baseline surveys, one or two approaches to data collection could be used, namely, qualitative and quantitative approaches. The quantitative approach uses data collection tools such as questionnaires, whereas qualitative approach uses mainly PRA tools. The qualitative approach is particularly useful in studying the social phenomenon which encourages probing and in depth analysis. In this survey, PRA tools were used guided by a checklist of issues during focus group discussions.Out of the 13 districts earmarked for project implementation, five were sampled for the qualitative baseline survey. Five sites were selected in total, three chilling plant (CP) sites and two traditional hub sites. The sites selected were Buikwe in Mukono, Bbaale in Kayunga, Luwero municipality in Luwero district, Kakooge in Nakasongola, and Masaka municipality in Masaka district (See Map 1 below).Two villages or PRA points were selected in each site for PRA exercise. The criterion for selecting the village was mainly the extent of access to milk market and or the variability in agricultural ecological system.The team consisted of seven members trained in various disciplines, namely, socio-economics, Animal production, rural sociology, communication, management, and veterinary sciences. The team consisted of four males and three females. In the field, the team was divided into two sub-teams at any given moment facilitating two groups. In every PRA focused group discussion session, the teams performed the following roles. Facilitator: Explaining and guiding the discussion, cross-checking the analysis templates and key notes on flipchart for all participants to see.  Observer: Cross-checking the analysis templates, reminding the facilitator about missing issues  Note taker: Detailed documentation of the discussions; noting observations during the discussions; crosschecking the analysis templates, reminding the facilitator about missing issues  The Consultant: who introduced the sessions, guided and coordinated the whole field activities.The team had a technical back stopping from Dr. Nelson Mango (2 nd from left) of ILRI for the first week.Although some team members had had prior exposure to PRA tools, the team went through training in the use of various PRA tools. They were oriented to the specific tools and checklist that were to be used in the field.The Consultant with the support from Dr. Mango, took members through all the tools that were contained in the checklist. The tools included: Village resource mapping  Wealth ranking through bean piling and ranking  Livelihood matrix  Problem ranking and Problem Analysis Chart  Actor linkage map  Actor analysis matrix  Breed matrix scoring  Feed matrix scoring  Seasonal calendars  Focus group discussions It was ensured that every member of the team (even those who would not facilitate) was able to use each tool.The day before PRA exercise was used for preparation and mobilization. Village/farmer leaders and veterinary extension agents were contacted and reminded of the PRA activity. They were also encouraged and facilitated to go around the village reminding members about the exercise the following day. Because the PRA exercises were for the whole provision for lunch was planned with their leaders. On the day of the PRA exercise, the project was introduced to the community members by he /team leader (See below).Here the basic objectives of the PRA village workshops were explained. It was explained that the PRA sessions would help all involved including the community to characterize the context, and complement the further studies (e.g. the household survey) and future implementation and evaluation of the project. Also, the members of the team were introduced, explaining their roles (facilitators, note takers, observers). Attending members of the community were also encouraged to introduce themselves, giving their name, and their main activity in the village. This exercise was vital in breaking the barriers between the team members and the members of the communities. Finally, communication rules, and the agenda of the day were set. The introductory sessions lasted an average of 30 minutes and dwelt largely on clarification of the objectives of the PRA and how it fits in the overall EADD project objectives.After the plenary introductory session, members were encouraged to divide into two groups. Under the guidance of a facilitator, supported by a note taker and an observer, community members discussed various issues concerning dairying in the village using various PRA tools.The main objective of this exercise was to develop area profile by mapping the natural resources, infrastructures, social services and land use system within the village. The exercise lasted for 1 ½ hours, and group members were asked to map out their village/region and its key natural resources, infrastructures, social services and the land use system.The discussion with community members was guided by the following checklist: Where are the locations of the most important landmarks surrounding the community (giving example of landmarks -external boundaries)?  Which resources are available in the village, which are considered to have an impact on people's livelihoods (e. g., crop fields, rangelands, grazing reserves, rivers, degraded areas)?  Mapping the village infrastructure (e. g., settlement patterns, roads, power supply, network access, different types of water points/sources, community buildings, shops, commodity markets, livestock markets/milk collection points, dip tanks, livestock crush, veterinary posts/clinic, sources of stock feeds)  What social services (e.g., health clinics, schools, dwelling places of village authorities, community meeting place, or other important facilities) exist in the area?  What are the main land use and resource management systems in the area (e. g., allocation of cropping, communal rangelands, grazing reserves-browse and fodder plant species, seasonal herd movement, areas that herders associate with diseases)?During and after the community members had sketched the village resource map, probing questions were asked, which included: 1. Which resources are plentiful? Which are scarce or lacking? 2. Does the community have land that is held in common? Who makes decisions about how common resources are used? 3. Where are different livestock kept? Where do they graze? (Specifically cattle) 4. Which resources are used-particularly in terms of raising and caring for livestock? By whom? Which resources are unused? Which of the resources indicated are the most problematic in relation to raising livestock? (Specifically cattle) 5. Do women and men have different access rights to resources for livestock and related agricultural production?If yes, what are they and how do they affect women and men's capacity to undertake animal husbandry activities? Other agricultural activities? 6. In the household, who makes decisions on the use of land? Water? Livestock/livestock products? Fodder species planted? Species and breeds of livestock raised? 7. What are some of the challenges to raising livestock in the area (e.g. seasonal migration to grazing areas, seasonal migration for labour, and other challenges)? 8. Where are the markets for livestock/livestock products? The input and outlet markets? What are the distances?How are they accessed? By whom?The output of the village resource mapping was:  The location, allocation, opportunities and constraints in natural resources, infrastructure and social services in the village  Identified significant land use and resource management issues in relation to dairy farmingAs Group One was busy carrying out village resource mapping, group two was carrying out wealth ranking in the community. The objective of this exercise was to determine the distribution of wealth within a given community based on assets owned and income, and the links between livestock ownership and well being (critical herd sizes). The link between wealth standards by social category and farmers' interests and motivations to invest in dairy farming were established. The tools used were group discussion of local criteria for wealth, and bean piling and ranking. A mixed group of men and women from the community actively participated in the wealth ranking in each village. This exercise also lasted for 1 ½ hours, and involved the following activities: Explaining clearly the aim of the project and why it is important to understand the different types of wealth categories and the particular types of opportunities and challenges they face. The facilitator stressed the confidentiality of every personal information that is given.  Identified and ranked local criteria for wealth, checking for aspects such as number of livestock owned, size of land owned, education, type.  Defined thresholds for wealth categories  Discussed status of female-headed households, and households headed by other marginalised groups  Identified farmers' trends to invest in dairy production.The outputs from this exercise were: Local criteria for wealth categories and the critical herd size for the different wealth categories  Differences by gender, and age between wealth categories  Differences by farmers' interests/motivation to commercialize livestock production by wealth categories (e.g., distress sales, livestock as business, investment options)When Group Two finished with wealth ranking exercise, they embarked on livelihood analysis. The objective of this exercise was to identify important livelihood activities and income sources both on farm and off-farm, and their trends. It was also important in capturing differences in key livelihood sources by gender. The tools used were a Livelihoods matrix, supplemented by focused group discussion by a mixed group. The exercise lasted for 2 hours, and it included the following activities: Asking group members to list and rank main sources of livelihoods and cash income both from within and outside the area. Emphasised the role of dairy related activities compared to the other activities.  Discussed whether the importance of livelihood activities had changed in the past ten years.  Discussed the situation faced by women headed households and households headed by other marginalised groups identified in the wealth ranking.The outputs from this exercise was a matrix showing key sources of livelihoods and cash income, as well as the changes in importance, by gender.When group one finished working on the sketching of village resource map, they were assigned another task of profiling constraints and opportunities related encountered in dairying farming in the area. The objective of the exercise was to identify major constraints and problems in dairy farming and to broaden the discussion about their causes and effects. It was also important in highlighting current coping or response strategies and indicating whether efforts to address a particular problem have already been tried and failed or have incompletely addressed the problem. The tools used were Problem Ranking and Problem Analysis Chart, and lasted for two hours. The main activities included the following:  Organising a mixed group of men and women and asking them to think about their problems. Asked them to list problems that were most important to them in dairy farming. The group then ranked the problems according to importance and used different amount of beans to represent the ranking -the greater number of beans, the greater emphasis they placed on the problem.  Asked the group to discuss the causes and effects of these problems, drawing a problem analysis chart that lists the priority problems, the causes and effects, the coping or response strategies, and the opportunities or proposed solutions for change.The following probing questions were asked during the exercise:1. Which problems/constraints are related? 2. Which groups (social categories) share which problems? 3. What are the current coping/response strategies for each problem? 4. Do men and women cope differently? Why these solutions were not already implemented? What solutions can be implemented locally? Which ones require outside assistance?The end of the two exercises for each group marked the end of the morning session, enabling participants to go for lunch break, which lasted for one hour. Lunch was taken on site to avoid time wastage. During the lunch break, informal interaction and unstructured interview over salient issues continued.After the lunch break, group two members embarked on this exercise. The objectives of the session were to:  Identify and document the status of innovations in dairy industry (as they relate to the EADD),  Identify major actors in the dairy innovation systems, the roles they play, and activities in which they are involved,  Assess attitudes and practices of main actors (focusing on the way they work, particularly their history of collaborations, pattern of trust, culture of innovation, etc.)  Understand patterns and effects of interactions (particularly risk taking behaviours, informal/formal networks, partnerships, actor coordination mechanisms, etc.)  Assess the enabling environment (policies and infrastructure)The tools used were focus group discussions, actor linkage maps, and actor analysis matrix. The sessions lasted for 2 hours, and it involved the following tasks:1. Identifying and document status of innovations in dairy industry as these relate to the EADD. Here, group members were to identify the major innovations in the dairy industry, then the proceeding discussion was structured around the following issues:  (new) breeds and feed/fodder selected and adopted  (new) animal services received or bought  (new) products being implemented; new processes applied (for example, do farmers convert milk into other products and how?)  packaging and other innovations  (new) organizational innovations at the household level and community levels (for example, cooperatives societies being established).The discussion was summarized around the actors by an actor matrix, characterizing the actors by their activities, achievements, constraints, linkages, status, and satisfaction. How important are these actors to you?  With whom are they interacting? How strong/effective are those links?Then actors were categorized according to their importance. Here important things to note were: the quality of interaction between farmers and the actors; the frequency and speed of interaction, physical distance between actors, their seasonality. The linkage was depicted on the actor linkage map as shown in 6 belowThe other questions posed were:  Where and how frequently did farmers interact with these actors  Are interactions two or one way flows?  What new actors and/or new links did farmers like to create, or strengthen to help them in their dairy production?  What actors are missing for improved dairy production and marketing in the area? What activities and achievements would farmers expect from the missing actors? How should they be linked to the existing actors? Which actors have histories of collaboration? In which innovation areas were these collaborations? Are there some formal/informal networks in the dairy innovation systems? Are there mechanisms for coordinating actors in the dairy innovation systems? Identify these mechanisms. Do actors trust each other in what they jointly do? What are the (current) enabling (or constraining) policies, regulations, guidelines relevant to the dairy industry?  What resources (personnel, budgetary, etc.) are allocated to the industry?  What are the relevant and available (or missing) infrastructures to the dairy industry?The outputs of this exercise were: Actor Linkage map showing key actors and their links with farmers, within the village, outside the village, and in relation to main milk markets, as well as innovative farmers and missing actors and their expected linkages.  Matrix summarizing opinion of the inputs and services provided by the actors.During the afternoon session, as Group Two was handling the exercise of innovation systems and actor analysis, Group One was tackling the exercise on breeding preferences, strategies and livestock feeds and feed sources.The objectives of this exercise was to identify important traits of dairy cattle preferred at the community level and assess breeding services and strategies linked to them. The tools were a checklist of important questions and group matrix scoring exercise supported by focused group discussions analysis. This exercise lasted for one hour. This exercise involved two activities:Activity 1: MATRIX SCORING EXERCISE: The group was asked to list a) the trait or characteristic they think are important in judging an animal they prefer and b) the reasons for keeping or preferring a certain animal. Participants were then asked to score each trait giving reasons why they think it is important. N.B. Notes of discussions were being taken during the exercise including exactly what is meant by each criterion.The following check list questions were used for activity 1:  How did participants learn about and end up with the breeds they currently kept?  What was the most common breed of cattle kept across the group?  Were there other breeds that they would choose -if so why did they not keep these breeds?  What was the main way of acquiring animals in the area (purchase/gift/calf etc)  If they relied on purchasing, why did they not rear their own?  If they purchased, how did they decide which animal to buy? That is:o What information did they request from the seller o What characteristics did they look for o Where did they get the animals from?  If they reared their own -why did they not purchase? Activity 2: MAPPING EXERCISE: Breeding services were mapped, taking note of (i) availability and (ii) preference of the services in the area. This was done on the flip chart. The checklist questions that guided activity 2 included:  Why are certain breeding services preferred and not others?  Which factors are considered in choosing a breeding service?  What are major constraints faced in accessing preferred breeding services in the community?  If there is no choice -how do they improvise and why?The outputs from this exercise were: A general description of existing and desired breeds in the region.  Information on why certain traits and breeds are important.  General level of demand for certain breeding services.  Information on advantages and constraints associated with different breeding services as well as scope for availing more services.The objectives of this exercise were to capture the general problems and their impact on forage production, e.g. physical (limited access to water; disease, quality, quantity of feed) and economic (limited access to cash, credit, land etc; Policy).The tools used were: Focus group discussion, Ranking, Seasonal calendar and Village map. The exercise lasted for one hour.Participants were asked to list general forage production constraints. After listing, they were requested to rank the constraints. They were encouraged to discuss how these constraints affected forage productionThese were already covered under the mapping exercise during the morning session of group one. The village resource map was interviewed in respect to forage resources. The team was careful to extend the probing beyond browses and fodder trees, and they included all types of forages. Forage resources were linked to seasons/ seasonal movement of herds or herding routines.The objective of this exercise was to establish:  The importance of different forages at different times of the year  Seasonal shortages and solutions applied Seasonal feed calendars showed feed types by month and by source. The purpose of this was to show (a) general types of all feeds (b) sources of feed, and the proportion of each that are used in each month; and estimation of feed sufficiency in each month.Probes for seasonal calendars included: i.Asking for list of forages fed to cattle including source of forage. ii.Asking in which month each forage was being fed. iii.Explaining the process of proportion scoring. Assuming that all the forages fed in each month have a total score of 10, how much of that would be allocated to each of the forages fed in the month. iv. Asking for the score and marking them on the calendar. In case where there were disputes amongst the group both scores were recorded, then establishing which scores apply to most people. v.Recording the months when forages were very scarce and probed out why? vi. Obtaining information on how sufficient the feed resources were during each month. vii.Discussing coping strategies in dry periods viii.Discussing possible intervention/solution from the farmer's point of viewAfter the group exercises, the two groups reconvened. The objective of the plenary session was to share the day's experience, allowing the whole group to benefit from the exercises and thereby enhancing ownership of the whole process. The activity of this session involved asking the group to reflect on the day's activities. The session lasted for 15 minutes. The session finished with the team leader thanking participants, giving them information about what would happen next.Data was analyzed and synthesized using pre-designed analysis templates. Also, after a day's exercise, every evening, the team met at the base, where the team leader requested each member to highlight their salient findings noted during the PRA exercises of the day, and these were recorded in form of memos. Finally, the qualitative data gathered was analysed using mainly two qualitative analysis tools, namely micro-analysis and memo writing.In Micro-analysis, this is a detailed analysis where a careful scrutiny (line-by-line) of text is carried out to generate initial categories of data and identify relationships among categories. After data was transferred from notebooks and flip charts into the computer using Word TM , a detailed manual scrutiny of data (first word by word, then phrase by phrase, and then line by line, and finally paragraph by paragraph) was carried out. In the process, data was classified according to main categories, namely, Village resources, livelihoods, opportunities and constraints, innovative actors, and breeding and feeding. This process of categorisation was guided by the checklist and the analysis template.Further analysis led into identifying sub-categories in each main category.Kayunga is located in the Central region of Uganda with a total surface area of 1803.187sq km that is punctuated with wetlands, water and tropical rain forests. It has an annual average temperature of 19c -25c with 1000mm-1200m per year with two heavy rain seasons coming in March -May and August -November. The topography is generally flat with undulating hills and savannah vegetation cover. It borders with 6 districts: Apac in the North, Mukono in the South, Luwero and Nakasongola in the West and Jinja and Kamuli districts in the East.Kayunga district has a total population of 297,081 people of which 144,609 are males and 152,472 are females (2002 population census). Currently the sex ratio is 94.9 males to 100 females while the population density is 213 persons per sq km. The urbanization level is 6.7% indicating that the majority of populations live in rural areas. Kayunga became a district in 2000 after being curved from Mukono District, and comprises of two counties; Ntengeru and Bbaale.The original inhabitants of the district are Baganda, but it has a diversity of ethnic groups with so many new emigrants, who include; Nubians of Sudanese origin, the Japadhola from Tororo, Basoga, Ateso, Banyara, Bakayi, Luo, Bagisu, Banyarwanda, and Asians who have become parmanent residents in the area.The district has mainly Murram roads with only 48km of Tarmac road from Sezibwa bridge to Nyinze in Kangulumira sub-county on the boundary with Mukono and Jinja district again.The level of literacy in the district is less than 60% especially in Bbaale County due to the influence of nomadic life and fishing on Lake Kyoga.Some parts of the District, especially Bbaale and Galiraya su-counties depend on livestock and their products for survival. Milk, meat, ghee, hides and skins among others fetch a lot of money for the members of these communities.There is a total of over 55,000 head of cattle, comprising of 86.6% locals, 13.2% crosses, and 0.2% pure exotics. Luwero district has always been a cosmopolitan area with many people of different origins and ethnic backgrounds. Among them include the Baganda, the original inhabitants of the district. Other ethnic groups include Banyarwanda, the Banyankole from Western Uganda, the Luo speakers and Nubians of Sudanese origin. Of recent, there are new settlers from Karamoja who follow the cattle corridor in search of green pastures for their animals. This mixture of tribes makes Luwero an interesting multi-lingua place with a diversified culture.Generally, the topography is flat with undulating hills and with savannah grasslands. This type of vegetation makes the district favourable for pastoralist lifestyle and it defines the economic activities of the people. But there is subsistence agriculture in the southern part and some level of commercial horticulture dictated by the abundant market in Kampala.Agriculture is the main economic activity of Luwero district and involves both crop and animal husbandry. Agriculture consumes over 85 percent of the labour force in the district.Livestock is common in the northern areas of Luwero particularly in Ngoma County, while subsistence agriculture and commercial horticultural farming is undertaken in the southern parts of Luwero including Wobulenzi, Nakaseke, Bombo and Bamunanika.The agriculture products include fruits, bananas, cassava, potatoes, honey, maize and horticulture while livestock products include dairy products and beef. Although commercial farming is still on a small scale, there exists a great opportunity especially in the areas of dairy production, horticulture in banana and vegetable growing. The district being located about 65km from Kampala, it provides a lucrative trade opportunity for traders who ply between the district town and Kampala to buy and resell merchandise. Therefore, Luwero is bustling with trade in Milk, fruits, foodstuffs, live animals on the other hand and various household and construction material on the other hand.Masaka District is one of the oldest districts of Uganda. Originally, it consisted of Rakai, Kalangala and Sembabule, making it once the largest district in Uganda. Today Masaka has been reduced in size after Kooki, Ssesse islands and Sembabule sub-districts were elevated to the District status. It is situated about 37kms. away from the Equator towards the south and lies between 0 o 25 o South,and 34 o East, having an average altitude of 115m above sea level.The district is boardered by Sembabule in the north west, Mpigi district in the North,Rakai district in the west and south and Kalangala District in the East. The District Headquarters is 120 km from Kampala.The landscape and topography is rolling and undulating with valley bottom swamps including stream flows to lakes and rivers. It has got some rocky hills, considerable area under river basin and plains, lakes, swamps and bushes.The soil texture is varies from place to place, ranging from red-latrine, sandy loam and loam but in general, productive. The rainfall pattern is bimodal having two crop seasons with dry spells in between July and August as well as January and March with the exception of a few months in a year of declining trend in precipitation. The average annual rainfall received is 1100-1200mm with 100-110 rainy days. The maximum temperature recorded is not exceeding 30 o C and the minimum not below 10 o c having almost equal lengths of day and night throughout the year.The total geographical area of the district is about 6986 sq.Kms out of which 5865 sq.Kms is arable and 122120 hectares are under cultivationa considerable area is covered by marshlands, lakes, rivers, forestry and swamps. The total gazetted forest estate is about 35302 hectares this constitutes about 6.38% of the total land area of the district.The district is divided into 3 Counties, and 1 municipality with 23 rural sub-counties and 1 town council with 3 divisions. These are further divided into 127 parishes and 1331 villages.The district is predominantly agricultural, with 74.3% having their source of livelihood from agriculture. Employment income contributes 8.52 % to the district income, where 7.91% comes from trading . Property income is estimated at 5.52% and 1.12% income from the cottage industry respectively. Nine sub-counties have access to electricity, and a population of 876,474 people, of which 50.2% are males, and 49.8 females. 89% are rural, while 11% are urban, with an annual population growth rate of 2.5 %Mukono is located in the central region of Uganda. It is endowed with natural resources ranging from green forests and fertile soils to a wealth of water resource. This is topped up with the comparative economic potential accelerating the development of the district. The districts headquarters are located in Mukono Town Council-TC 21kms along the Kampala -Jinja high way. It is bordered by Jinja to the East, Kayunga to the North, Luwero to the Northwest, Kampala and Wakiso to the Southwest and Tanzania to the South on Lake Victoria. Mukono covers an area of 11,764Km 2 with a population of 807,923 people (404,806 males and 403,117 females). Mukono district comprises of four (4) counties; Nakifuma, Buvuma Islands, Mukono and Buikwe.Agriculture is the main economic activity in Mukono district. The main food crops grown include; Cassava, Sweet potatoes, Maize, Millet, G-nuts, Peas, Soya beans, Bananas, Simsim, and Yams. The cash crops includes; Cotton, Coffee, Sugar cane and Tae. Fruits and vegetables are also widely grown in Mukono for example; Tomatoes, Onions, Pineapples, vanilla, passion fruits and cabbage.80% of the agricultural activity in Mukono district is on a subsistence level. Commercial agriculture is carried out on big scale plantations such as SCOUL sugarcane estates, Kasaku tea estate among others. Private small scale farmers are slowly catching up on practicing agriculture for commercial purposes.High value crops such as vanilla and flowers have boosted farmer's incomes, replacing the declining benefits from coffee farming.The subsistence agriculture is characterised by the low acreage due to effects of increasing population (causing over fragmentation of available land) and urbanization forces. There is slow productivity from the land due to soil fertility loss, soil erosion, over cultivation and the poor rudimentary farming methods. The farmers rely on family labour, and in these cases women and children. There are approximately 70,000 head of cattle in the district. There have been efforts to improve livestock faming in the district. The National Agricultural Advisory Services -NAADS is implementing the Rural Development Strategy (RDS) in 11 sub counties in the district. This is implemented under the Integrated Support to Farmers Groups (ISFG). It seeks to accomplish the following; increase productivity, increase household output on selected agricultural produce and promote and ensure a stable market for produce.Mukono has a 759Km of motorable feeder roads network, and 700Kms of community access roads. However, some of the community access roads are in a poor state.The district has good access to good roads such as the Kampala -Jinja highway. Its proximity to Kampala gives it an advantage of connection to the major towns in Uganda. For the last two years, the roads in the district have greatly been improved from fair to good. The Eastern railway line from Kampala to Tororo and beyond to Northern Uganda and to the Kenyan Harbor at Mombassa passes through Mukono district. The district is served with a good communication network. Uganda telecom, MTN and Celtel Uganda networks are available there.Banking facilities are also available with Stanbic Bank, Micro Finance Limited, Med Net among others plus, Kampala is just 21Kms away with very many financial institutions.There has been an increase in the provision and accessibility of clean water in the district. Coverage has increased from 40% in 2000 to 56% in 2005.Nakasongola District is dominated by the indigenous Bantu known as Balulli. They speak Lululi whose dialect is similar to that of Runyoro, Runyala, Lukenyi and Lugweri. Baluli live harmoniously with other tribes including Karamojong, Baganda, Langi, Bakenyi, Bateso, Banyarwanda, and Banyankole. Nakasongola District was created from Luwero by an act of parliament and started operating on 1st July 1997. Nakasongola district boarders Masindi district in the west and North West, Luwero and Nakaseke districts in the south, Kayunga district in the East, Amolatar district in the north east and Apac district in the North. It covers an area of 3424 sq.Kms representing about 1.4% of the country's total surface area.Nakasongola is generally flat area, topographically undulating between 3800ft above sea level. Much of the low lying areas are drained by seasonal streams into Lake Kyoga in the North, and has tributaries to rivers like Sezibwa in the East, Lugogo on the West, South and Kafu on the North Western.The district is mainly covered with Bululi soil catena, and the Lwampanga catena in the low lying areas and valleys. The vegetation type is mainly an open deciduous savannah woodland with short grasses, the dominant tree species include cumbersome ssp, Terminala, Acacia. Nakasongola receives rainfall ranging from 500-1000mm per annum.There are two rain seasons. The main seasons occur in march-April-June/July and October to Nov/Dec.Nakasongola district has a total population of over 140,000 people (50.2 males, and 49.8 females), with a population growth rate of 2.3%. Majority (95.3%) of the population live in rural areas. It is located in central Uganda on Bombo -Gulu Road, 114 Km North of Kampala. The district is made up of; 1 County, 5 Sub counties, and 1 Town Council.Agriculture is by far the most important activity in the District employing 89.9% of the people. It is, however, subsistence based. Livestock Keeping and Fishing is also being practiced by a number of people. There are no major companies in Nakasongola district but there is small scale trading going on. Small scale trade, mainly retail, constitute an important source of livelihood for the people. The few private companies in Nakasongola include; a cotton Ginnery and Maize Mills. Two sub-counties and one Town Council have access to electricity. The road network is still poor, with most of the areas being served by murram roads where transport may be very difficult during rainy days .However the marrum roads are graded and Passable in dry seasons.The two PRA workshops in Buikwe site were the first in the series of workshops that were carried out as part of the qualitative baseline survey by The East Africa Dairy Development Project. Mukono and Buikwe in particular were selected as a proposed Traditional Hub for milk marketing. Two PRA sites were selected in Buikwe study site, which were selected on the basis of accessibility to milk market. The first PRA exercise was conducted in Buikwe parish which comprised Buikwe township and its environs while the second was conducted in Kitazzi parish. These were particularly selected because they were perceived to have relatively easier access to milk market as compared to other villages in Buikwe sub-county. Deliberate efforts were made to invite both men and women to the PRA workshops. However, the turn up of women was almost a third of that of men for the first site and a quarter in the second site. All the six PRA tools in the checklist were applied. They were all relevant and useful in eliciting discussions of participants who were then able to freely give information. The communication between participants and the PRA team was good. Two things helped in making the communication easy: 1. All facilitators were fluent in the local language, and thus all the discussions and exercises were conducted in Luganda, the local language. 2. The use of visual exercises such as resource mapping, proportional piling, and innovation actor linkage map helped participants internalize the whole process and thus stimulating free discussions.The only challenge was that there were some few participants who were indifferent, and they would want to leave the whole exercise to some 'experts' in the groups. It took deliberate efforts by the facilitators to encourage them participate in the discussions and exercises.The main objectives of the qualitative baseline survey were: to obtain information relative to the current situation of the surveyed households and to identify farm-level constraints to increased productivity, to improved milk market access and identify potential interventions were achieved.Participants consisted of livestock farmers and some local administration leaders but who were themselves cattle farmers. Participants, came from varying production systems, i.e. those practicing open grazing, and others zerograzing. However the majority of the participants comprised of mainly the moderate poor. They said that the very poor do not attend farmers' meetings even when they are invited. They were mainly older people, about 35 years of age and above. The youth did not attend the meeting, and it was observed that most of them are not interested in farming. Majority are engaged in quick income generating activities such as brick making and motor cycle transport commonly referred to as Boda Boda business. On the first day, rain in the afternoon, council meeting the whole day however it did not have any adverse effect on attendance of the workshop.River Sezibwa Ngogwe sub-county to the north, to the west is River Mubeeya, Najja and Kawolo sub-counties, to the east is River Sezibwa and Lugazi sugar plantation, and to the south is Najjembe sub-county.    The map revealed the following:  There were no livestock markets, particularly gazetted areas for selling or buying cattle. Cattle were being bought directly from individual farms.  There was no source of good breeds of milk producing animals. When they had to sell animals farmers sell them within the area or to neighbouring sub-counties.  No veterinary clinics/offices for veterinarians -this means that veterinarians were not readily available.Farmers buy their own drugs from Lugazi town and have to call in veterinary staff on telephone.  No milk collection/cooling facilities -the challenge is that milk storage and processing facilities were lacking thus loss of milk. Milk is hawked around on bicycles, and sometimes on foot being carried in Plastic Jerry cans, and it is sometimes transported by public means using taxis to Lugazi  Small trading centres -challenges that emphasized this were that there were no shops for purchase of veterinary drugs and inputs, and marketing of milk was also a problem without specific outlets.The local wealth criteria identified were land, livestock, water source, labour, means of transport (e.g., bicycle, vehicle), and ability to feed and educate children, TV/Radio and access to main road. Out of the long list, five main items were selected to be analysed further, and the most important wealth criteria selected were: ownership of land, owning a house, having water source on own land, educating children, and owning livestock. The second important criterion for wealth was land ownership. Those in the category of very rich owner 50-100 acres of land with title. On the other hand, the rich own 5-45 acres of land with title and the moderately poor own 1-3 acres of land with title but in addition they rent land for agricultural activities such as crop farming. The very poor live on a small plot of land without title.The farmer's selected five ( 5) important items which they ranked and scored (using bean proportional piling method) according to order of importance as shown in the Overall, participants categorized the community into four wealth categories, namely, the very rich, rich, moderately poor and very poor. The participants said that those in the very rich category are very few and this category is not considered to be part of their community because many have houses in towns where they live most of the time and they only come to the village to check on their livestock occasionally. Majority of the community members view the very rich as 'outsiders' although they have property in the community. However, the biggest percentage in the community that educate children fall under the rich and very rich categories.The moderately poor have the highest motivation to go into commercial dairy farming because sell of milk gives them a daily income and helps them to move out of poverty and improve their status. However, this same category is highly engaged in the off-farm activities because they have the desire to earn additional income and move out of poverty. The moderately poor are the ones reported highly motivated to replace their local cattle with high grade cattle so as to increase milk production. They argued that the yield for the local breeds is low. Exotics or crosses give better returns in terms of milk production although they may be more labour intensive. It was argued that if a local lactating cow loses a calf, it stops producing milk; and yet a farmer can continue milking an exotic cow even if it loses a calf and dries it two months to the next calving. They indicated that they avoid cross-breeding locals with Friesians because they are likely to get calving or delivery related complications due to the big size of the hybrid calf as compared to the small size of the dam. In addition, they argued that crossing the local animal would take long to realize returns as compared to replacing the local with the high grade animal. Generally, livestock keeping is changing focus from the traditional towards commercial dairy farming and sell of milk is now a major source of household income. It was also argued that the rich and very rich go into dairy farming as a hobby and prestige since they have so many other businesses and sources of income.Child and elderly headed households are very few because of the socio-cultural set-up of this community; where children and the aged are taken-up by relatives for care. Where they existed, the child and elderly headed households normally did not keep livestock but they owned land. Female headed households are existent in the area, but they are still few and stigmatized. Women are increasingly getting involved in livestock keeping especially with encouragement from NGOs and government efforts of women empowerment.The Main Livelihoods in Order of Importance Participants selected six activities (livestock rearing, crop farming, trading, Boda boda 1 riding, brick making and charcoal burning) that are main contributors to their livelihoods. These were then ranked according to order of importance using the par-wise ranking method as shown below; The above sources of income relate to the above identified livelihoods in such a way that the importance of the first four activities for cash income is ranked in the same way, meaning that Livestock, crop farming, trading and boda boda transport are important for both livelihood and cash income. Livestock and crops are both for home consumption and surplus for sell, some farmers are involved with crops that are purely for cash for example coffee. Farmers are able to earn a daily income from sale of milk, then sell of chicken, pigs and goats in case they are reared. more women have gone into commercial crop farming  Charcoal burning-becoming less important, due to depletion of trees and yet no planting more trees.  Fishing-becoming less important, because of depletion of fish stock in the lake  Public service-becoming less important, no jobs, farmers are reluctant to send their children to school, and there is high rate of school drop-out  Traditional healers-less important, there is option of health centres in the area  Craft-Less important-no time and less skills for the activity  Sand digging-becoming important due to increasing demand for improved houses (brick & cemented type)  Welding-becoming important due to improvement in housing type.  Butchery-becoming important as the number of livestock and consumption of meat increasesLivestock was ranked first in terms of livelihood and cash income. The farmers in this area get milk from their animals on a daily basis, the high yielding crosses are milked twice a day, and this milk is hawked in the nearby trading centers for sale or sold directly to consumers in the neighborhood. The milk earns the farmers a daily income. Besides the milk, farmers derive cow dung which is sold as manure to farmers who are engaged in crop farming but have no livestock, this also earns them an income. The farmers sell culled animals for meat and hides. This is another income source. In this area one farmer has gone into processing milk into Yoghurt. Thus value addition and therefore an extra income earned. The milk produced is also partly used for home consumption, thus improving on the nutritional status of mainly the children in homes. The farmers, who own livestock, improve the yield of their crop fields using the manure from livestock thus improved production leading to food security.The farmers reported that new activities have become important sources of livelihoods and cash incomes for example boda boda (motor cycle transport business) and brick making. There are changes in relative importance of crops as a source of livelihood and cash income, due to the seasonal changes which affect crop yield. At the same time this has increased acquisition of new knowledge in management and disease control has improved on crop yields in some households. Livestock rearing has gained importance both as a source of livelihood and as a cash income. Farmers are increasingly adopting improved breeds, increasing livestock numbers. New trends have been seen in gender roles; women are increasingly getting more involved in livestock keeping thus doing activities like milking which in the past was men's domain.In this area both men and women are involved in livestock rearing, and the role of women is still increasing. Crop farming is carried out by both men and women. The youths are less interested in livestock keeping and crop farming. The youths seem to be more interested in quick cash yielding livelihood activities like riding boda boda, brick making, digging sand and burning charcoal. Sand digging, operating butcheries and welding are mainly done by men. Public servants and all those in monthly paid employment include women, youths and men. Charcoal burning and Business / trading is mainly by the youths.Constraints and problems in dairy farming in the study area include  Labour is expensive, and it is hard to find farm workers  Scarcity of grazing land  Feed supplements e.g. dairy meal is unavailable  Water is scarce  No cattle market -for farmers to sell and buy  Transportation of milk is a challenge  Feeds or forages during dry season -take long to grow and given the small piece of land become very scarce  Lack of veterinary drug shops -sometimes have to give money to vet doctors to buy for them drugs -which takes long.  Do not have enough money to buy hand spray pumps -for tick control. All family members are involved in duties to do with the cattle as follows: Men -building shelter, grazing/cutting forage, watering contribute 30% of total labor load with respect to cattle keeping  Youth -fetch water, clean shed / kraal -10%  Women -feeding, clean kraal -60% Some farmers employ labourers especially to search for, cut and carry forage home for the cattle.When selling/buying cattle or use of milk proceeds Men -in 60% of homes made decisions unilaterally In 20% of the homes, decisions were made jointly between husband and wife, and in 20% of the households, female spouses made decisions unilaterally.  Acquisition of affordable loans -for buying feeds and breeding animals.Farmers obtained advice and knowledge on improved breeding from National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS). They also learnt pasture growing and tick-control using spraying from NAADS workshops. Some farmers now grow pastures such as elephant grass on commercial basis and sell to other farmers.NAADS also introduced the bull scheme i.e. an exotic bull is given to a community and one model farmer is identified to host the bull station to where other farmers in the area bring their cows to be served so as to improve on the local breeds they already have.Bucket feeding and women milking is also new and considered an innovation because in the past women were culturally barred from milking. Women were prompted to learn milking because their stake in livestock production and management has increased, they felt cheated by hired milkers and sometimes the milkers would delay to milk and the lactating cows would cry with pain.Farmers learnt deworming from NAADS and Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFE) workshops Milk vending i.e. transporting milk in jerry cans on bicycles from homes to trading center in search for customers is also an innovation. Packaging milk in polyethene bags is also an innovation. The Actors, their activities (including technologies), achievements and challenges. Farmers face challenges of high costs of drugs, feeds, good breeds and rearing poor breeds that produce little milk. One of the major actors is a farmer i.e. Engineer Kato who makes silage and is willing to teach other farmers. He also has exotic bulls which he is willing to lend to other farmers on condition that they must be spraying their cattle regularly to avoid introducing ticks on his farm.The cooperative organized the farmers together, advises them and gives them a platform to address their common challenges. The SACCO gives them money to buy cows, keeps their deposits and, thus helps them to save.The veterinary officer and other animal health workers are key actors. They treat sick animals and also give extension advice to farmers. They also carry out routine disease control through mass vaccinations whenever there is disease outbreak e.g. of FMD, provide routine treatment of sick animals and majority of vets also double as the artificial inseminators. However, government extension vets are constrained by non-payment by farmers, poor facilitation (e.g. lack of fuel or transport allowance), false information given by farmers and high costs of veterinary drugs.Sub-county local government is perceived to be a major actor because it brought the NAADS programme in the area and ensures security and a favorable environment for NGOs to come and operate in the community.NGOs such as CARITAS, Feed the children etc although perceived to be actors in the community, they are faced with challenges of poor attendance of training meetings by farmers. Some of these NGOs are involved in sponsoring children for education, but there is high school rate for girls due to high incidences of defilement and early pregnancies.The dairy cooperative is relatively new i.e. less than 3months and has not done much but based on their objectives and interventions so far it has high potential and has achieved relatively much in light of its life span.Consumers are able to buy milk from farmers; the challenge is that most consumers are in Lugazi town, quite distant from Buikwe Sub-county hence necessitating middle men i.e. milk vendors.Milk traders/vendors are viewed to be actors because they help to transport milk on bicycles from Buikwe to the ultimate consumers. Though farmers have concerns that the traders' adulterate milk by adding water and other undesirable additives. And sometimes traders claim that milk has gone bad and is not bought thus avoiding payment to farmers. There is no trust between farmers and middle men; farmers feel that traders lie to them that milk has gone bad because they deliberately want to cheat and default on payments. The input suppliers i.e. drug and feed suppliers are not reliable, they opened shops within the area but many times the shops are empty. Drugs are currently supplied by the extension staff when they are called to treat sick animals. Hence farmers cannot access drugs as often as they need them. NAADS is one of the major actors in livestock and crop sectors. They organize workshops, establish demonstration sites and provide inputs such as cows, cocks, machine for planting rice, spraying pumps, tents, wheel barrows and banana tissue cultures. They mainly offer advisory services but farmers don't appreciate advice they instead prefer inputs. The NAADS programme has been affected by the numerous parallel meetings and workshops organized by different NGOs operating in the area. International Needs (IN), an NGO gives in-calf heifers, goats, pigs, poultry and supports many households by sponsoring children in school. They also train farmers i.e. parents to the sponsored children. FEED the Children gave farmers cows, goats, poultry, pigs, sponsored children in school, built schools and health centers, bought school furniture and established a microfinance in the community. CARITAS trained farmers in growing vegetables, gave out cattle, built Buikwe hospital and also sponsors children in school. MAAIF deploys extension staff in the sub-county, prevents and controls FMD by organizing mass vaccinations and also carried out livestock census and plans for the livestock sector.Farmers' assessment of services/inputs provided by the different actors / farmers' levels of satisfaction All the actors are still active in the community apart from FEED the Children that has phased out.Majority of farmers were not happy with the government extension workers; only one Animal husbandry officer is resident within the sub-county covering a wide area and is not available most of the time when farmers need him. However, on probing, some farmers indicated that whenever they call him he responds because for them they pay their bills promptly but may only not respond to farmers who default on payments. Nonetheless, majority of animal health workers that treat their animals come from outside the sub-county.Milk buyers or traders / middlemen are within the sub-county but major consumers are outside the subcounty.Drug and feed suppliers are outside the sub-county. Consumers provide adequate market for the current milk production though majority are found outside the sub-county. Farmers suffer the middleman effect i.e. the traders adulterate milk and sell to the ultimate consumer poor quality milk. This affects the consumers' demand for milk negatively and hence to buy milk from alternative sources or buy processed milk.They are satisfied with CARITAS' services i.e. they conducted workshops to train farmers in modern farming methods, gave out dairy heifers and goats and pigs, built for them fuel saving cooking stoves, built a hospital. CARITAS went from home to home helping households and they uplifted their standards of living.Strong and effective links for services / flows of information in the innovation system NAADS, Dairy Cooperative, CARITAS, International Needs, and FEED the Children have strong and effective links with the community and information flow is bi-directional.The artificial inseminator is considered important but has a very weak link and is considered non-functional. Majority of participants said that the AI personnel would come late when called and many times the cow repeats heat hence costing the farmer more to pay twice or thrice before a cow conceives. They generally consider AI to be very expensive and problematic; the inseminator sometimes promises to come and fails to turn-up. The problems experienced with the inseminator are partly explained by the fact that he lives outside the sub-county, rides a long distance to come; sometimes the motorcycle breaks down and also covers too wide an area for one person. Artificial inseminators come from outside the district, lack transport and obtain semen and liquid nitrogen from Entebbe and have to incur the cost of maintaining the cold chain. Furthermore, their work is hindered by poor heat detection and timing on the side of farmers.Extension workers such as the government sub-county based vets and other animal health workers are considered important actors but have weak linkages with the community. They are often ill-facilitated; lack motorcycles or have motorcycles without fuel budget at the sub-county. They also experience problems such as non-payment by farmers, being given false information about onset of heat by farmers. Farmers are not willing to pay them transport refund whenever they come to attend to their animals. Extension workers are few and have to work in a very wide area which makes them ineffective. Vet drugs are very expensive e.g. drugs for East Coast Fever and yet farmers are unwilling to pay highly for the vet services.Input suppliers for feeds and drugs are outside the district Farmers need a direct link with the consumers so that they eliminate the middlemen.Mrs Mukanga makes yoghurt. Engineer Kato makes silage, has a grass cutter, has exotic bulls and is willing to teach other farmers using his own facilities.Collection and cooling facility for bulking milk and marketing collectively.Communal dip tanks and spray crushes would help to spray for farmers that cannot afford to spray one or a few cattle regularly. This would help to minimize conflicts between farmers that spray regularly and their neighbors who don't spray hence affecting them negatively. Artificial insemination services should be brought near. Drugs and feeds suppliers should be brought near within the sub-county.Extension workers are thin on ground, ineffective, have poor collaboration with the framing community and yet they are important actors in improving dairy production and marketing.DDA banned transportation of milk in jerry cans and their milk is poured if found being transported in jerry cans.NAADS and CARITAS share project beneficiaries. CARITAS keeps saving accounts for NAADS farmers' groups. On the other hand, almost all the various actors enter the community through the sub-county local government. Sub-county local government and Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries work very well whenever there is a disease outbreak because they are both government organs. They always liaise and work together to reach the farming community.The Dairy Cooperative commonly referred to as the Cooperative is so far working well with all the various actors in the community.NAADS and sub-county local government collaborate very well in helping farmers; they sometimes organize joint workshops. In addition, the sub-county/ local government is mandated carry out joint monitoring of NAADs projects with NAADs. Participants indicated that they had no much choice on breeding service because mainly bull/ natural service is available. Even for those farmers who would have preferred using Artificial Insemination (AI) a major constraint is that the service is not readily available -it has to be sought from sub-county which is far away.However several farmers still felt that the bull was the most preferred way of breeding citing the following reasons: a) When you use AI you get more bull calves than female ones. b) Sometimes when the animal is on heat there is no cash to pay for AI c) AI services are quite far from farmers d) Not well sensitized about values of AI e) Poor quality AI off springs -not as high producing as expected.f) AI calves cause difficult birth and there are no readily available veterinary surgeons. g) With a bull repeat services are free -but AI has to be paid for each repeated service.h) The only AI personnel available is expensive and hard to get.However also bulls have some problems:  Some too heavy and break the cows when they mount them  Spread diseases -especially sexually transmitted.  Good quality milk producing breeds are not available. National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) project gave out some bulls but these are still too few. Coping strategies during times of forage scarcity  Travel longer distances searching for forages -particularly to sugarcane plantation and forested areas.Use \"none traditional\" feed items e.g. jackfruit, tree seeds and leaves.  Feed more of the crops residues from Maize, Matooke, Cassava and Groundnuts.Requirements for input supply and service delivery to livestock keepers  There is need to attract veterinary input suppliers to the area  Need a reliable well stocked veterinary drug shop  Need to have AI services / technician that is readily available  Require a qualified veterinarian within easy reach especially to handle difficult cases.Therefore, from this study, it can be concluded that the majority of households in this site are small holder farmers whose main livelihood is agriculture, and livestock was one of the main sources of income.However, raising livestock, particularly cattle was encountering some constraints which will need some concerted efforts to overcome. There is a dire need for inputs and services, mainly feeds, AI and animal health services.There are some innovation efforts such as making yoghurt, silage/hay, packaging milk in polythene bags. These efforts need to be encouraged, supported and up scaled to benefit other producers.Like in Buikwe Mukono, two PRA workshops were conducted in Bbaale site, Kayunga District. Bbaale was selected as a proposed chilling plant area. The two workshops were conducted in two sub-sites selected on the basis of accessibility to milk market. Bbaale parish which is close to Bbaale township is relatively more accessible to the market while Misanga parish is far away from town and thus considered to have difficulties in accessing market. Deliberate efforts were made to invite both men and women to the PRA workshops. However, the turn up of women was not good. All the six tools in the checklist were applied. They were all relevant and useful in eliciting discussions of participants who were then able to freely give information. There was a meeting for sensitisation on the land bill on the day of the first workshop, some of the farmers who would have wanted to attend the PRA meeting did not, because they were attending the meeting on the land issues Participants consisted of mainly livestock farmers and few local council leaders who owned cattle. Participants were mainly those practicing free grazing system with very few practicing zero-grazing.The special challenges were that there was no gender balance; there were only 3 women out of the 37 participants who attended the village workshops. Attendance to the meetings was somehow disrupted by another meeting on a very contentious land issues, however, the main objective of the PRA exercise of obtaining the baseline information was achieved.Main trading centre at Bbaale, and another small one at the fish landing site Differences by milk marketing orientationFour wealth categories namely the very rich, moderately rich, moderately poor and the very poor were identified. The criteria for wealth in order of importance are; land, livestock, house, educating children, access to water source and access to main road. A person who owns 640 acres (1mile) and above of land with a title is considered to be very rich. While one with 15-640 acres with title is considered to be moderately rich. The moderately poor own about 1-15 acres of land without title. The very poor do not own land, they keep people's farms and are only allowed to build temporary shelters for housing as part of their reward. The very rich own 300 and more exotic cattle or their crosses, or 500 local cattle. The rich own 50-300 cross-breeds/exotic cattle, or 100-500 heads of local cattle. The moderately poor own 1-2 cross breeds/exotics, and own 50 head of local cattle. The very poor do not own exotics or cross breeds but may own 1-2 locals and a few local chickens.Those who are categorized as very rich build houses using bricks, cement, sand, tiles, and use coloured iron sheets for roofing. They also fence off their homes. Two among the very rich have storied houses. The rich build using cement, sand, use ordinary iron sheets for roofing, and they may also fence their homes. The houses are big with 3 or more rooms. The moderately poor build houses using bricks, roof using ordinary iron sheets but the houses are small with 1 or 2 rooms and the roof is single slanting. The very poor build houses using poles and mud and roof using grass. The very rich can educate their children up to universities within Uganda or abroad. The moderately rich can educate their children up to Senior 6 / advanced level, tertiary institutions or vocational courses and universities within Uganda. The moderately poor educate their children up to senior 4 i.e. ordinary level and vocational courses while the very poor educate their children up to primary 7 under the government Universal Primary Education programme.The very rich have at least two Dams on their farms for watering their livestock. These Dams never dry even during drought. The rich have one small Dam on their farms that may dry up during drought and force them to hire water Dams from the very rich or use water from natural water sources such as rivers, wells etc. The moderately poor tend to settle near natural water sources or next to the rich with water at their homes to which they give them access. They also get water from swamps, wells or boreholes. The very poor use rain water or obtain water from swamps, wells or boreholes.A farmer can sell livestock and pay school fees in a lump sum or can collect daily sales from milk and pay fees in installments. A cattle owner can also sell 2 or 3 head of cattle and build a permanent house.Cattle provide cow dung and slurry that are used as organic manure for the crops especially matooke which is an important staple food in the community. Cattle urine is also used as a pesticide to destroy banana weevils.The rich and very rich have taken the lead in adopting crosses and exotic breeds for improved milk production. The moderate poor are interested in improving by crossing their local cows but cannot be given access to the Rich's exotic bulls and yet there are no AI services in the area. The very poor seem to prefer hand-outs given to them for a meal or working for the rich. The main livelihoods in order of importance are livestock rearing, crop farming, business/trading, public service, fishing, brewing and milk processing. On the other hand, the main sources of cash income in order of importance are trading / business, livestock rearing, crop farming, charcoal burning, fishing, public service (employment), brewing alcohol, and milk processing into ghee. Trading here means not only dealing in merchandise but also includes buying and selling milk, crops and alcohol.Women who are engaged in milk processing are given the milk as their share that they can use to earn money for their personal needs, clothing children and buying some household requirements such as salt.Participants noted that many people go into merchandise business after growing crops or rearing cattle which they sell and obtain capital for such business ventures. The Role played by livestock in terms of livelihoods and cash Income Livestock rearing was ranked first as a source of livelihood but rated second as a source of cash income. Probably this can be explained by the fact that Kayunga is very remote, making it expensive to transport milk to the final consumers or selling through middlemen who buy cheaply so as to obtain a high profit margin.Livestock rearing is becoming more important both as a source of livelihood and as a source of cash income. Farmers are increasingly adopting improved breeds, increasing livestock numbers; more people are trading in milk, are growing and feeding cattle on improved pasture. Few farmers are processing milk locally into ghee, yoghurt and cheese. Trading is increasingly becoming important, partly because everything can now be sold. In the past people used not to sell food crops but now majority of farmers grow food crops for sell or sell surplus.Crop farming is becoming more important; farmers are adopting use of improved seeds, they are attending training in better farming methods and there is availability of market for food stuffs in urban centers. Charcoal burning is becoming less important because trees are depleted & government policy against deforestationIn this area both men and women are involved in livestock rearing though the role of women is growing.Crop farming is carried out by both men and women. The youth are less interested in livestock keeping and crop farming. The youth seem to be more interested in quick cash yielding activities like riding boda boda (motor cycle transport business), brick making, sand digging, and burning charcoal. Sand digging, operating butcheries and welding are mainly by males Public servants and all those in monthly paid employment include men, women and the youths, and the number of women is increasing. Carpentry is by youths and men, charcoal burning is mainly by youths, business/trading is mainly by youth; fishing is mainly done by men and youths. It was noted that women are the ones who process milk into ghee, and the income accrued thereof belongs to them. It was also observed that the trend for processing milk into ghee is becoming less important because milk can easily be sold while fresh. Therefore, the reduced milk processing into ghee is a worrying gender issue, since women are losing out on a very important source of income unless women are assisted to get an alternative source of income, they are likely to suffer because of this lost source of income.Scoring by proportional piling indicated that water scarcity was the major constraint followed by lack of good bulls (see Table 11 below). Lack of milk collection centres, machinery to sink dams, and high cost of veterinary drugs were reported to major constraints to cattle keepers. -Women -take cows to water, Look after calves, Clean kraal, Fetch water -Men-Grazing; milking, medication, spraying, taking to watering points.Men make the decisions on land use as well as issues to do with selling / buying cattle or use of milk proceeds There were no gender specific constraints cited.Farmers' future aspirations related to livestock production and marketing 1. Have better/ higher prices for their milk.2. Have better breeds of cattle 3. Have improved breeding services 4. Have more dams and / or closer water sources 5. That spraying / tick control be enforced as compulsory for all farmers 6. That adulteration of drugs will be fought by relevant authorities 7. Clean all grazing lands of Lantana camara / and all other pasture weeds 8. Plant better quality pastures 9. Farmers be allowed to plant their own trees and utilize government gazzetted land 10. Farmers be given access to more training sessions by government extension personnel -particularly on better animal husbandry.-Products e.g. ghee earn higher price than milk -By products from processing can be used to feed animals -Milk processing gives high quality products for human consumption -It saves spoilage of milk in high production seasons 12. Gain the ability (be trained) to grow, preserve and store forage/grasses during rainy season in preparation for dry seasonMr Byaruhanga from the President's office vaccinated cattle on his farm and also helped to vaccinate for neighboring farmers free of charge. He also uses improved bull breeds and promised to donate 7 breeding bulls to the cooperative and the leaders to distribute them to the members who are capable of taking good care of them. He also buys drugs such as dewormers and acaricides in large quantities from Cooper Uganda limited, and deworms his cattle regularly.In the past, few farmers had exotics or crosses but now many farmers have gone into dairy farming and are opting for Friesian crosses Ssebyala Baker and sons make yogurt and cheese though they have not trained other farmers. Karangwa rears high producing cows that produce 12litres and more.Kazungu buys bulls expensively at about 2million Uganda shillings and sell the crosses at high prices.The innovative farmers are mainly the rich and educated; they don't relate well with the poor farmers in the community except Mr. Byaruhanga who is a politician, and cares much about public opinion, which is likely to be drawn upon during elections. Otherwise, other rich farmers deny them access to their improved bulls. The actors, their activities (including technologies), achievements and challenges. NAADS gave out goats, pigs, Friesian bulls for cross breeding with local cows and conducting training workshops for farmers. In addition, it gave farmers chicken and trained them in better animal production practices.Self-help, an NGO, gives training in crop farming and gave pigs, goats or cattle to farmers who were able to build pig houses and pit-latrines according to the specifications given by Self-help. Self-help also supports farmers infected with HIV / AIDS. Some potential beneficiaries quite often are not cooperative or are rather reluctant to build pit latrines. Self-help has done well but they only help farmers or households that have complied with their requirement of digging a pit latrine first before they become their beneficiaries. This has hindered many people from benefiting because they have failed to dig pit latrines.FEED the Children, another NGO, sponsors education for needy children and orphans from selected households.Dairy Development Authority (DDA) trained them in good milk handling and marketing practices NARO -sent some researchers to examine their cattle and took some blood samples Cattle market was built with help from the district local government but the turnover was very low i.e. would receive only about 20 head of cattle per market day, hence the market was abandoned and the infrastructure has since collapsed.Cooper Uganda limited organizes workshops and brings drugs near to the farmers. The central government through the district helped to rehabilitate an old cattle dip from the 1960s but many rich farmers have fenced off big pieces of land under their farms hence closing off access routes to the dip and denying the poor farmers access. They have abandoned the rehabilitated dip and resorted to pump spraying, and the dip has collapsed again.Bugerere Dairy Cooperative operates a collection and cooling center and hired a milk tanker to transport milk according to DDA specifications to prime markets in Kenya via Busia and to Kampala. They also obtained a cooler of about 5000litres from DDA on loan.Majority of farmers are dissatisfied with Bugerere dairy cooperative; they have not voted office bearers nor called members for meetings for the past 10years.Farmers are also not satisfied with NAADS claiming that it often gives out poor breeds of goats that have failed to adapt to their environment. The goats they received from NAADS are even inferior to their local goats.They are satisfied with FEED the children, in the way they have sponsored children to school.There are strong links with FEED the children and other Self-help NGOs, although they are not directly working towards improving dairy production and marketing.Actors and linkages considered important but weak or missing in the dairy sector? What are the reasons?Cooperative would have been a very important actor, but its link to the farmers is very weak. Farmers would prefer forming another cooperative if they got external and internal support to organize them rather than strengthening the current cooperative. The past performance has been poor and the community does not trust the current officials who operate the cooperative though they still sell their milk through the cooperative for lack of an alternative. The other reason for lack of trust in the cooperative is that they sold the old cooler and never disclosed to members what they received. The cooperative officials don't give feed back to farmers; the leaders run it like a family business without being accountable to the members. The cooperative seem to be facing a lot of challenges because they are using a hired tank; it is only one and serves Busia-Kenya as well as the Kampala markets on the same day. Sometimes the tank breaks down for days hence the milk goes bad but because the farmers don't trust them they think they are lying so as to cheat them. If the cooperative had a second tank it would enable them to sell all the milk before it goes bad and this would improve their performance. Farmers are not happy because sometimes they are not paid and are only informed that the milk got spoilt when they go to collect the anticipated payments.The government vets / animal health workers -when they are called by farmers sometimes they come without the required drugs and hence cannot treat their animals. However, their performance is good in terms of organizing them for farmer meetings or trainings.NAADS -gets service providers from outside the sub-county/district who bring them poor breeds of goats. They should buy goats from within the sub-county that are already well adapted to the area. Some NAADS' contact farmers or leaders don't mobilize farmers for trainings because they want to gain alone and they end up failing the NAADS programme. NAADS has promised to give goats to some farmers. NAADS implementers tell farmers to construct houses worth 200,000 Uganda shillings for goats before they receive the goats and yet the goats they are giving are only worth 40,000 Uganda shillings.The missing actors for improved dairy production and marketing  Artificial inseminator within the sub-county  Feed suppliers should come closer within the sub-county.  Direct link with the consumers / market  Drug suppliers should be brought closer within the sub-countyInstitutional and policy changes DDA's policy of banning transportation of milk in jerry cans and pouring their milk has affected them negatively.The cooperative has no good relations with the farming community. The farmers wish for an alternative cooperative so that they abandon the current cooperative to collapse when they stop selling their milk through it. The commonest breed of kept in the area is Nganda, followed by Ankole long horn (see Table 14 below) However, the most preferred breeds are the cross breeds (Local with Friesian) because they give more milk than local thereby increasing cash income. Nonetheless, the indigenous (Nganda) are the most easily manageable because they are disease resistant and require less input in production, and this explains why the majority are keeping Nganda, although they prefer crosses.There were various ways of acquiring animals, namely; a) Acquired from immigrants from other regions. b) Purchase from business men who bring them from other regions / from fellow farmers c) Own breeding  From training / seminars learn on best animals to select for milk production  Mainly keep cross breeds because the pure/exotic die due to poor conditions.The majority indicated that they use bulls for breeding rather than AI Services citing the following reasons: a) There is no choice because there are no AI services at all -thus a constraint to acquiring good breeds easily. b) Many farmers are still afraid of AI for indigenous cows because calves are large -risk of difficult birth which requires attention of Veterinary doctors, and these are unavailable.-There are no special breeding strategies linked to milk producing animals -It's almost impossible to find a source of high milk producing bulls.There is no choice; particularly in some parishes such as Bbaale, where elephant grass purportedly cannot grow because of lack of conducive weather conditions and poor soils.  Coping strategies during times of forage scarcity  Make efforts to prevent bush burning  Take animals out to graze as early as possible while the dry pastures are still wet and soft  Destocking is being attempted  Sell off calves so that the older animals which remain have enough pastures  Use of non traditional feeds such as jackfruit and mangoes  Take the animals to far off watering places and back everydayIt can therefore be concluded that the majority of the people in the study are highly dependent on livestock for their livelihood and source of income. Dairying especially is increasingly becoming important because farmers are resorting to keeping dairy breeds and selling milk. This is exemplified by the current trend of reduced processing of milk into ghee using traditional means. This is said to be due to the fact that the milk produced has low butter fat content, and farmers find it easier to sell milk directly. However, in this case, women are losing their main source of income, since ghee has always been their main domain.Livestock farmers in this community have a great potential for dairying. They have high motivation and good attitude towards cattle keeping. They have a vast area for grazing. However, the challenges are that they will need a lot of capital input to clear pasture weeds from their grazing land. Also, like any other cattle corridor area in Uganda, there is a big problem of water scarcity particularly during drought.On requirements for input supply and service delivery to dairy farmers, there is need for Artificial insemination services that are affordable and readily available. There is also need to attract veterinary input suppliers to the area -especially feed supplements and pasture seeds, and reliable and well stocked veterinary drug shopLuwero Town council is located about 60Km from Kampala, on the Kampala-Gulu highway. The PRA exercise lasted 2 days in Luwero Town council and was carried out in two locations; first in Luweero town, this site was selected because it was perceived to have relatively easier access to milk markets as compared to more rural areas in this town council. The second exercise was conducted in Tweyanze; this second site was selected because of its relatively long distance from the milk markets. The PRA exercises begun with the introduction of the team and the participating dairy farmers and by the area Extension officer. The team leader then briefed the participants on the EADD project highlighting its history, mission, objectives and partners. Very heavy rainfall for about 3 hours on the first day.Participants consisted of livestock farmers under the heifer project in the area. These farmers came from mainly zero grazing and semi-intensive production systems. These farmers all had cows that were given to them by Heifer project. Majority of the participants comprised of mainly moderate poor. They were mainly older persons, over 35 years of age. The meetings did not have youth participants, and the main reason given was that, the youth are not interested in farming but rather get engaged in activities that generate income quickly like motorcycle transport referred to as Boda, boda.The community generated their resource map. Upon interviewing of the map the PRA session noted the main challenges to dairying in Luwero town council were; Livestock diseases, water scarcity, inadequacy of livestock feeds, high prices of feeds and other inputs and poor infrastructure. The key issues from the map are presented in the analysis template in Table 17 below.   In the more urban part of the town council, the largest number of households fall under the category of rich (40%) and moderately poor (35%) whereas in the rural part, the largest number of households fall under the category of moderately poor (52%) and very poor (25%) according to the wealth criteria used. The livestock and land ownership largely determine the category in which the households were placed by the participants.The farmers listed and discussed the main problems afflicting dairying and also proposed solutions to these problems as shown in Out of the many activities listed, participants selected six activities which were scored according to their importance. Livestock rearing, crop farming, trading, Boda boda, and public service were selected in both PRA sites as the main contributors to their livelihoods. These were then ranked according to order of importance using the score and ranking method as shown below; In both PRA sites, crop farming was scored as the first source of livelihood, followed by livestock. Trade was mentioned as another important livelihood in PRA site 1, because the area is a town, therefore lots of different kinds of trade were transacted. Being employed as a government worker or providing causal labor was also regarded highly as a source of livelihoods in this area.The livelihood activities that are mentioned as main sources of cash income in order of importance; 1. Trading 2. Livestock rearing 3. Crop farming 4. Boda boda 5. Public service 6. construction/ buildingThe group then discussed the importance of each livelihood activity and its relationship with dairy farming. The activities were then ranked using a matrix scoring approach. The output is summarised in Table 21 Table 21: Luwero: Livelihood activities and trends matrix With regard to the trends in relative importance of livelihoods and cash incomes, the farmers reported that new activities have become important sources of livelihoods and cash incomes, for example boda boda taxi, brick making, Apiary 2 and mushroom cultivation. Crop farming is still a main source of livelihood with most of the crops grown for home consumption, very little remains for sale. However in this area, some crops like pineapple and mushrooms have become important agricultural activities for cash incomes. Dairy farming has gained importance as a source of livelihood and as a cash income; farmers are increasingly adopting improved breeds, seeking knowledge for better management. New trends have been seen in roles: women are increasingly getting more involved in livestock keeping thus doing activities like milking.There are more female headed households in the area; these are mainly involved in trading and livestock keeping.Women are mostly involved in trading and livestock keeping. They are also involved in crop farming for cash incomes. These women headed households have a fairly good livelihood, however the aged are not so well off, except those that have land and commercial buildings. The child headed households are rare since orphaned children are always taken up by relatives or a relative comes to stay with them in case they have property. Men have control ownership and livestock. There is less openness when it comes to income that is derived from sale of livestock or products by men, yet if the woman sell, the men want to participate in deciding on what to use the income for. Access to use of land by women is no problem, however when it comes to sharing the proceeds that's where the problem comes from. The general picture at present is that the households have learnt to make decisions together, this has come about as a result of sensitization through the church and organizations working on gender issues in the area.The farmers discussed key innovations under selected aspects of livestock production including breeding, feeds and fodder, animal health, milk value addition. Innovations were considered to mean new ideas, technologies or ways of doing things, in a place where or by people whom they have not been used before.It includes not only new knowledge and technologies but also new practices, organisational and institutional arrangements introduced into and used in an new economic and social process or context. The results of innovations and innovative farmers are shown in Tables 3.7 and 3.8 while Photo 3.1 illustrates the linkages between the actors as perceived by the dairy farmers in the PRA meeting.  Extension workers such as the government sub-county based Vet and other animal health workers are considered important actors but have weak linkages with the community. They are often ill-facilitated; lack motorcycles or have motorcycles without fuel budget at the sub-county. They also experience problems such as non-payment by farmers, being given false information about onset of heat by farmers. Farmers are not willing to give them transport refund when they come to attend to their animals. Extension workers are few and have to work in a very wide area which makes them ineffective. Vet drugs are very expensive e.g. drugs for East Coast Fever and yet farmers are unwilling to pay highly for the vet services.Artificial Insemination is a problem, there is one technician who comes from outside the site and charges highly. The farmers need improved breeds but are unable to access bulls. Therefore, the easiest option is using AI, which is not also readily available. The linkage between AI and farmers is weak and needs strengthening, so that breeding is made easy.The following actors were missing and the farmers perceived that if present there would be improvement in dairy production and marketing. These are:  Dairy processors  AI-inseminator  Veterinary officer at sub county level  SACCO or microfinance institution for credit facilities at low interest rates  Nitrogen plant/ supplier  Breeder( improved breeds)/ good quality semenThe innovations and actors analysis revealed critical policy issues that should be addressed in order for dairy development objectives to be met with ease. However, the farmers were able to highlight institutional and policy changes they have observed in the dairy sector;  Dairy Development Authority banned transportation of milk in Jericcans and their milk is poured if found being transported in Jericcans.  Every farmer must vaccinate their animals in case of disease outbreak like FMD  Movement of livestock from one area to the other needs a permit  Institution of quarantine in disease outbreak in an area e.g. FMDThe group reviewed the criteria used by farmers in selecting dairy breeds. The farmers' preference for dairy breeds in the village is guided by the following choices: Farmers use various breeding methods and the reasons given for Preference of a particular breeding service were:  Some farmers preferred AI because then they did not have to face the expenses of keeping a bull, however a statement was made that \"A big problem with AI is that cattle don't conceive easily, there are many repeated inseminations\".  Though the bulls are not of high quality milk production traits some farmers preferred them because they are more readily available and less expensive than AI services. Furthermore, in case of repeated heat the farmers are not charged extra money for repeated service like in case of AI.  Farmers who use bulls have to breed their own indigenous bulls; however these sometimes face difficulty in mounting large cows and are not of very good quality.The group also discussed existing livestock feeding systems, forage preferences and constraints to livestock feeding as well forage seasonality. Table 24 presents the summary of key feed types in Luweero town council revealed from the PRA discussions. The main constraints to forage production in the village were ranked and are presented in Table 25, while Table 26 shows the seasonality of the different types of fodder in relation to wet and dry seasons. The site of Kakooge in Nakasongola district is a proposed traditional milk collection hub. Two PRAs were carried out in this site, the PRA sites were selected depending on the ease and accessibility to milk market. The first PRA site which was Katuugo was selected because of being closer to market, whereas the second PRA site, Kinyogoga was selected due to its remoteness and being far from the milk market. The farmers in the Kakooge had already organized themselves into a cooperative and have a Milk Cooling Plant in the sub county which was built with assistance from Land 'O' Lakes and Heifer Project International. It rained in the afternoon on the second day Participants consisted of livestock farmers in the area, who mainly have local animals plus a few who have cross breeds. These farmers came from extensive and semi intensive production systems. The workshop was attended by both youth and older person because livestock is very important to both categories in this community.The challenge met was that farmers turned up late for the meetings in all the workshops because of the long distances they had to travel to reach the venues for the workshop. The team was introduced to the participants in both sites by the area extension officer, who afterwards requested the area Local council III chairperson to give a few welcome remarks. The team leader explained to the participants the reasons for carrying out the exercise with the local community as appraising the existing dairy development situation, the available resources, challenges and opportunities in order to design how the partners will work together to bring about development in the dairy sector in the area.The farmers reported that the main problem of dairying in the areas was milk marketing, which is mainly hindered by poor road network and fluctuating prices.From the community resource sketch map it was revealed that there are no natural water sources within the sub county rather at the boundaries, therefore making water scarce within the area. There is only one milk collection centre which has a cooler; the capacity of the cooler cannot handle all the milk in the area. The farmers only supply milk to the cooling plant in the morning, thereby leaving a constraint for farmers to look for market for the afternoon milk. Most of this milk is sold within the community but at very low prices. Farmers reported that during wet season, the milk produced is relatively high and a lot of it is spoilt and poured away. The area is also faced with a challenge of not having electricity; the cooler is run on a generator, which makes its operation very expensive. Lastly much of the land in this area is covered by forest which minimises the grazing land for the cattle in the area.  Nakasongola district is traditionally a pastoralist area, people have always raised cattle to provide a safety net and as a source of livelihood. Livestock rearing has however, become even more important both as a source of livelihood and cash income. Farmers are increasingly adopting improved breeds, increasing livestock numbers and there is increased trade in milk.Business or trading has become more important as a source of livelihood and cash income especially when farmers sell cattle and accumulate money, they go into business. Crop farming is becoming less important; this is dominantly a pastoral area and most households concentrate on livestock rearing, grow none or little food crops for home consumption and hardly any surplus for sale. Brewing and selling alcohol is becoming more important due to increased population and development of trading and urban centers. Charcoal burning is a new activity, it has been a major source of cash income, however, it is also destructive to the environment. Driving has become more important because people have bought more cars and motor cycles.Men normally inherit land from their families or buy land. For married men, making decisions to buy land involves both men and women though the men undertake the negotiations and actual buying of the piece of land. Poultry enterprises are entirely owned and managed by women; they have control over production and sale. The men are more involved in cattle keeping. While women have more control over crop production. Men still have overall ownership of the household property; this can be seen in cases where most men sell off land without women's knowledge and later the cases end up in court. Those that make decisions together are just from a few educated or religious households. Women are given user rights over land but men retain the ownership rights and control over what the women produce. More often men sell the produce and control the earnings.Women dominate crop farming and brewing, men dominate business/ trading and driving taxis, Lorries, trucks, motor cycles (commonly known as Boda Boda) and bicycles. Both men and women are involved in livestock rearing and public service. Charcoal burning is done by all ages and gender. Both men and women are involved in livestock rearing though the role of women is increasing. Crop farming is carried out by mainly women who produce food mainly for home consumption.The farmers discussed key innovations under selected aspects of livestock production including breeding, feeds and fodder, animal health, milk value addition. The results are shown in table 32, while Plate11 illustrates the linkages between the actors as perceived by the dairy farmers in the PRA meeting. Animal health workers/vets -treat farmers' animals and also vaccinate in cases of disease outbreaks. Major challenges for vets include failure to turn-up when called by farmers due to lack of transport or facilitation. The sub-county has one motorcycle and sometimes it breaks down due to the poor condition of the road, especially during the rain seasons. They come from far and cover a vast area. They said that they hardly see the vet which has forced all the farmers to become \"experts\" in treating their animals. \"When we are lucky the animals recover but if unfortunate they die\".The milk vendors help in bridging the gap between the producer and the final consumer. Unfortunately, they tend to add water or other sub-stances that adulterate and spoil the milk. This discourages the final consumers or causes them to change their tastes to processed milk.Farmers face challenges of high costs of drugs, feeds, good breeds and rearing poor breeds that produce less milk. However, the cooperative tries to organize the farmers together, advises them and gives them a platform to address common challenges. The cooperative pools their milk, chills the milk and provides a milk tank to transport their milk to prime markets in Kampala. Land O' Lakes helped the farmers through the cooperative to establish the dairy and organize milk marketing in Nakasongola and neighboring Nakaseke districts.The vet officer and other animal health workers are key actors. They treat sick animals and also give extension advice to farmers. They carryout mass vaccinations whenever there is disease outbreak (e.g., Foot and Mouth Disease), provide routine treatment of sick animals and majority of vets also double as the artificial inseminators. Sub-county local government brought the NAADS programme in the area and ensures security and a favorable environment for NGOs to come and operate in the community.Consumers are able to buy milk from farmers; the challenge is that most consumers are in urban centers in Luwero and Kampala hence necessitating middle men (i.e. milk traders or milk vendors). The input suppliers, i.e. drug and feed suppliers, are not reliable. They opened shops within the area but many times the shops are empty. Drugs are currently supplied by the extension staff when they are called to treat sick animals. Hence farmers cannot access drugs as often as they need.Farmers are dissatisfied with the vets because they are not available when they need them. Farmers' satisfaction with MAAIF was rated poor because they have no linkage and they don't see how the ministry helps them. Drug supplier is satisfactory because the supplier stocks most drugs that they need but they fail to buy themselves due to high costs. Also when you go to the drug shop and you find when the particular drug you need is missing, you can ask the supplier to bring it for you from Kampala, whenever they promise they always fulfill.Sub-county administration coordinates the various activities in the sub-county and all the various actors in the community always come through the sub-county local government.Farmers assessed the cooperative's service delivery as good because it has helped to bulk their milk and take it to Kampala every day which has improved the milk prices and reduced wastage in form of milk spoilage.Save the children, AMREF and Land O' Lakes (LOL) were assessed as satisfactory because they have delivered to the expectations of the beneficiaries. Save the children has sponsored their children, LOL established the dairy for them and trained them in milk handling and hygiene and AMREF helped set up and facilitate health centers.The artificial inseminator who has no link with the farmers and yet farmers wish to cross breed and improve their cattle for milk production and yet they cannot access improved bulls. The farmers appreciate the services rendered buy the cooperative but they still need strengthening of their linkage with the cooperative. The linkages between the vets, MAAIF, NAADS, DDA, Subcounty local government and the farmers were assessed as weak and need strengthening AMREF, Drug supplier, milk vendor, and the consumer have strong and effective links Plate 11: Kakooge: The linkages between dairy actorsThere are various policy issues important for the development of the dairy sector in the area. The farmers were able to note the following institutional and policy changes: DDA banned use of jerrycans for transporting milk. If they breach this policy and are found transporting milk in jerry cans, DDA confiscates or pours their milk and they lose.  Disease control policies from MAAIF prohibit them from transporting sick animals or moving animals without movement permit issued and stamped by the area vet.  They are not supposed to move animals on foot for long distances. These polices are not well implemented or enforced, crafty people transport animals without fulfilling these conditions.  Farmers are unauthorized to handle or administer vet drugs according to National drug authority regulations but because NDA has failed to restrain them they have continued to handle or even administer vet drugs including injectables.The discussion was able to bring out the traits the farmers look for in a breed. Farmers noted that important traits of dairy breeds preferred are; a) big udder b) heifer has loose flesh at thighs Common breeds kept in this area are indigenous; Nduli/Nganda 60%, Nyankole 30%, and Karamoja 10% of the total herd kept. There are few crosses and exotics mainly owned by the very rich farmers.The area is mainly a rangeland, therefore the most common forages are natural grazing pastures. The farmers have no choice so there is no preferred forages. There are few other sources of feed in the community which are; Matooke, potatoes and cassave peels. A few farmers feed supplements but the only one given is salt. Masaka Municipality was selected as a proposed traditional Hub for milk marketing in Masaka district. Two PRA sites were selected in Masaka Municipality study site; this was based on accessibility to milk market. The first PRA exercise was conducted in Kyajovu parish-Buwunga subcounty, which is far from the milk markets. Farmers have to ferry their milk on daily basis to milk sale points in town/ trading centres or to the milk processing plant. This site was selected because it was perceived to have difficulty in accessing milk market as compared to the other villages that were nearer to the township. The second PRA exercise was conducted in Nyendo parish which comparised of Nyendo Township and its surroundings. This second site was particularly selected because it was perceived to have relatively easier access to milk market as compared to other villages in Masaka Municipality. On first day, extreme hot weather, meeting was held outside under a shade, constant shifting was experienced as shade kept moving. On second day, one participant dropped out during the first session due to personal reasons.The team was introduced to the participants by the area extension officer, who later invited the team leader to give the objective of the workshop. The team leader informed participants that the workshop was a baseline survey being carried out with main objectives of obtaining information related to the current situation in dairy sector in the area and to identify farm-level constraints and opportunities to increased milk productivity, improved milk market access and finally to identify potential interventions.Participants of the workshops consisted of livestock farmers, who are mainly members of Masaka Diocese Development Organisation (MADDO) heifer project. These farmers came from mainly zerograzing production system. These farmers all had cows that were given to them by Heifer Project, and they all supplied part of their milk to MADDO milk processing plant, located in Nyendo Township. Majority of the participants comprised of mainly moderate poor. They were mainly older persons, over 35 years of age, although a few youth attended. Most of the youth are not interested in farming but rather get engaged in activities that generate income quickly like motorcycle transport referred to as Boda, boda and brick making. The relationship between the map items, challenges and opportunities. The map revealed the following:  That within the area there were not many natural water sources, no cattle dams and also very few spring wells and boreholes for water for domestic use. This is strengthened by the challenge that water is quite scarce and very far for many farmers.  There were no veterinary input shops in the area which is supported by the challenge that stated that these shops are very far away from the farmers.  There are no financial services and the challenge that supports this is the fact that there are no credit facilities available especially that consider cows as worthwhile security.  One cooler / processor -challenge raised was that milk prices were too low because farmers mainly relied on one buyer / processor. The participants said that those in the very rich category are few, and are mainly found in the municipality or live in the capital city. They are mostly involved in businesses like schools, hotels, transport, commercial property rather than farming parsec, however they also own farms with exotics and crosses outside the municipality. The community members do not view them as part of it because they don't reside there. The category of the very rich and rich in the community are the biggest percentage that educate their children in this community. Extension workers such as the government sub-county based vet and other animal health workers are considered important actors but have weak linkages with the community. They are often illfacilitated; lack motorcycles or have motorcycles without fuel budget at the sub-county. They also experience problems such as non-payment by farmers, being given false information about onset of heat by farmers.Farmers are not willing to give them transport refund when they come to attend to their animals. Extension workers are few and have to work in a very wide area which makes them ineffective. Vet drugs are very expensive e.g. drugs for East Coast Fever and yet farmers are unwilling to pay highly for the vet services.Although the inseminators are available in the area, the quality of the semen they use is not satisfying the farmers, this is evidenced by the offspring born after AI. There is therefore need for Semen bank that would guarantee the quality of semen, so that what farmers get as offspring are high yielding cross breeds.The missing actors for improved dairy production and marketing listed by the participants were; ","tokenCount":"20040"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a173122739824fd0a827b6453cf75c6a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c811429-081f-42c3-8d54-dc224f00692e/retrieve","id":"-1804585853"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4c18733a-33ad-4705-93bd-1383b3833b7b","pagecount":"9","content":"I n f o r m a t i o n p o u r l e d é v e l o p p e m e n t a g r i c o l e d e s p a y s A C P CTA SPORE N°77 OCTOBRE 1998 La sécurité alimentaire sur la corde raide 1 Infrastructures 3 L'épine dorsale et le point faible des pays ACP 3 Les voies d'amélioration ou l'implication progressive du secteur privé 4 EN BREF 6 BOITE POSTALE 380 10 POINT DE VUE Laissons aux paysans le choix de leurs partenaires ! 11 ACTUALITES DU CTA 12 LIVRES ET REVUES 14 SOURCES D'INFORMATION L'IIED, l'environnement d'abord 16 Inter-Réseaux, le développement rural en tête 16 Site Web : www.cta.nl * Extrait de « L'Afrique a le mal des transports », Syfia, n°83, décembre 1995.lus de 800 millions de personnes dans les pays en développement étaient sous-alimentées au début des années 90. Plusieurs dizaines de millions d'individus dépendent chaque année des secours alimentaires d'urgence (alors que ces derniers sont brutalement réduits), dont quinze millions de réfugiés et de personnes déplacées en Afrique en 1998 1 .Selon l'Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO), la production alimentaire mondiale a augmenté plus vite que la population pendant les trente dernières années. Les statistiques montrent, par ailleurs, que la quantité moyenne de nourriture disponible par personne et par jour fournit aujourd'hui 2 700 calories (contre 2 300 calories au milieu des années 60). En Europe de l'Ouest et en Amérique du Nord, la disponibilité alimentaire moyenne fournit 3 500 calories à chacun, contre 2 300 calories en Afrique. Depuis 1980, la population a augmenté de 53 % en Afrique, la production alimentaire de 45 % seulement.Le Sommet mondial de l'alimentation, en novembre 1996, s'est engagé à réduire de moitié le nombre de personnes sous-alimentées (au moins 800 millions) au plus tard en 2015. Il faudrait pour ce faire que la production alimentaire augmente de 4 % par an pendant les vingt prochaines années. On compte ainsi sur une augmentation des surfaces cultivées, une intensification des cultures et un accroissement des rendements agricoles. On espère d'ores et déjà que la surface des terres cultivées en Afrique augmentera de 18 % d'ici à 2010 et la surface récoltée de 33 %. Cependant, une grande partie des terres potentiellement cultivables est actuellement occupée par des forêts, des zones habitées et des zones protégées. Outre des contraintes liées à l'environnement, Photo Alain RIVAL Depuis 1995, la diminution des stocks mondiaux de céréales et la hausse de leurs prix ont porté le problème de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale au premier plan. Le spectre de la famine va-t-il s'étendre un peu plus au siècle prochain sur les pays du Sud, en particulier sur l'Afrique subsaharienne ? Ou peut-on compter sur de nouvelles stratégies pour ramener la tranquillité sur les marchés mondiaux ? La sécurité alimentaire sur la corde raideL'aide alimentaire provenant d'Europe n'est plus dominée par les produits européens. L'approche est maintenant axée sur le développement, le commerce local et triangulaire représentant presque les deux tiers du volume de l'aide alimentaire de l'Union européenne en 1996. Il s'agit d'achats de produits alimentaires soit dans les régions qui ont des excédents, soit dans le même pays (commerce local), soit dans d'autres pays du Sud (commerce triangulaire). Ce système permet de mieux tenir compte des régimes alimentaires locaux et de stimuler la production et les réseaux commerciaux au plan local et régional.'une manière générale, le transport des vivres, des personnes et des biens dans les pays ACP relève du parcours du combattant. Le problème se pose avec acuité en Afrique, qui se classe parmi les plus mal lotis en infrastructures, notamment routières. En ce qui concerne les pays des Caraïbes et du Pacifique, la situation n'est pas plus brillante, mais le problème se pose autrement, la circulation des biens et des personnes reposant aussi sur le bon fonctionnement des réseaux de transport maritime (navettes, bateaux) et aérien. Or, l'usager se heurte partout à de nombreuses difficultés. Irrégularité, insécurité, coûts de transport prohibitifs -sans compter les catastrophes naturelles -perturbent l'acheminement des marchandises et la libre circulation des populations.« Le commerce, moteur de la croissance économique, ne peut prospérer qu'en pouvant compter sur des systèmes performants de transport afin de permettre aux agriculteurs d'acheminer leurs denrées vers les marchés », assure Véronique Jacobs, de la Banque mondiale. L'état des infrastructures de transport en Afrique apparaît comme un obstacle majeur au développement de ce continent. Faute d'entretien, en effet, une part importante des investissements routiers réalisés dans les années 1960-1970 a aujourd'hui disparu.Les dégradations du réseau routier sont telles qu'elles imposent des travaux de réhabilitation, voire de reconstruction, dont le coût est trois à cinq fois supérieur à celui d'un entretien préventif. La Banque mondiale estime ainsi qu'un franc d'économie réalisé sur le budget d'entretien routier se traduit par une dépense supplémentaire de deux à trois francs sur les coûts d'exploitation des véhicules de transport. D'où une augmentation des frais de transport qui double, voire triple, le prix de vente de certains produits de consommation courante. Le mauvais état des routes met donc un frein au développement des systèmes d'approvisionnement et de distribution alimentaires, et ce sont les usagers et les consommateurs qui font les frais de cette situation. Au total -les études de la Banque mondiale le montrent -, dans 85 pays en développement, un quart des routes situées en dehors des zones urbaines doivent être reconstruites ainsi qu'un tiers des routes non macadamisées.À la vétusté des routes et à la détérioration des pistes dans les zones rurales s'ajoute un autre fléau. Une administration tatillonne, des contrôles illicites, des douanes « volantes » et coûteuses ajoutent leurs impondérables aux embarras et au prix du transport routier (voir encadré). Sur un corridor comme Abidjan-Ouagadougou, les faux frais liés à des péages intempestifs peuvent représenter jusqu'à 10 % de la valeur des marchandises transportées.Cher, le transport routier est de surcroît peu sûr. Excès de vitesse, véhicules bringuebalant sur le macadam défoncé, surcharge de passagers et de marchandises sont autant de facteurs dont la conjugaison peut être fatale. En Afrique plus qu'ailleurs, qui prend la route court un risque. Réalistes ou pour déjouer le sort, certains conducteurs apposent d'ailleurs sur le pare-brise de leur véhicule une banderole sur laquelle ils ont écrit « s'en fout la mort ». On estime à la DG VIII de l'Union européenne 1 que, dans certains pays en développement, les accidents de la route consti-l'utilisation et la mise en culture de ces nouvelles terres impliquent au préalable qu'elles soient assainies et soumises à des programmes de contrôle. Autre obstacle, également valable pour la productivité des terres cultivées existantes : l'absence de régimes fonciers reconnus et équitables.L'augmentation des rendements dépend de multiples facteurs : variétés de plantes améliorées, utilisation et contrôle de l'eau plus efficaces, apport élevé d'intrants. Or, la fertilité des sols diminue dans de nombreuses régions d'Afrique intertropicale. En 1983, 9 millions de tonnes d'éléments nutritifs ont disparu en raison de la surexploitation des terres. Ces pertes pourraient atteindre 13 millions de tonnes d'ici à l'an 2000. Si de nouvelles techniques plus respectueuses de l'environnement (systèmes intégrés de nutrition des plantes et de lutte contre les ravageurs) permettent des rendements supérieurs, il reste toutefois à les mettre à la portée des petits paysans. De tels systèmes, tout comme les techniques de gestion, nécessitent aussi une recherche plus approfondie et une diffusion plus large des résultats : l'accès aux travaux de la recherche agricole doit être considérablement amélioré.Les politiques actuelles de sécurité alimentaire donnent la priorité à la notion d'accès : accès aux ressources naturelles et à la terre 2 , à l'éducation, à l'eau, au crédit, aux semences, à la technologie et aux intrants… Accès pour les femmes dont le rôle est fondamental (voir Spore 76). L'importance de ces besoins a été soulignée au cours d'une série de trois séminaires sur « La stratégie communautaire de sécurité alimentaire et les pays ACP », organisés par la DG VIII de la Commission européenne et le CTA pendant le dernier trimestre de 1997 à Bruxelles et Wageningen. Les participants à ces réunions (plus de cent personnes représentant plus de vingt États ACP, ONG et structures régionales) ont souligné que les intéressés doivent avoir accès non seulement aux moyens de production mais aussi aux mécanismes de prise de décision publique. Ils ont insisté sur le fait que la sécurité alimentaire ne se limite pas à l'augmentation de la production et qu'il faut prendre en compte la distribution, l'engagement de tous, le renouvellement des institutions et le facteur plus complexe de « l'impact d'un climat macro-économique incertain ».La sécurité alimentaire est désormais reconnue comme un problème structurel à attaquer sur plusieurs fronts. Le défi scientifique de l'augmentation de la production, les aspects logistique et politique de la distribution et le problème social et politique de l'accès aux ressources doivent tous être abordés. Les changements récents dans la politique alimentaire du Nord pourraient soutenir ce processus. L'Union européenne, le premier fournisseur mondial d'aide alimentaire, s'attache aujourd'hui à intégrer l'aide d'urgence aux stratégies de développement à long terme, dans le cadre de la réforme de ses politiques d'aide et de sécurité alimentaires.Restent deux inconnues. Le changement climatique, d'abord, qui risque de causer de sérieuses fluctuations dans la production et attirera l'attention sur d'autres régions et cultures. La capacité des États ACP à s'adapter rapidement à de tels changements dépendra de la force des institutions, des investissements et de la disponibilité en devises -tous peu développés. Selon les prévisions actuelles, l'Afrique subsaharienne aurait besoin de doubler ses importations en céréales pour atteindre 50 millions de tonnes d'ici à 2010, sur un marché mondial férocement concurrentiel que l'on s'attend à voir changer radicalement sous l'effet d'une seconde inconnue : la Chine.Bien que les officiels chinois assurent que leur pays sera capable de nourrir ses 1,6 milliard d'habitants en 2030, des prévisions plus objectives font état d'un risque inquiétant de diminution de la production, alors que la consommation de viande (1 kg de viande nécessite de produire 4 kg de céréales pour l'alimentation du bétail) est en passe d'atteindre les niveaux de type occidental. La sécurité alimentaire de nombreux pays ACP risque donc de se jouer dans les villes en explosion de l'Orient. Et pas seulement dans les champs, les villes, les fermes, les écoles et les banques d'Afrique. Une conférence mondiale sur l'agriculture multifonctionnelle et la gestion des terres aura lieu en septembre 1999, à Den Bosch (Pays-Bas). Les organisateurs (le gouvernement des Pays-Bas et la FAO) souhaitent consulter le panel le plus large possible des acteurs du développement pour identifier les thèmes à aborder en priorité. Pour plus de renseignements sur la façon de participer à cette consultation, contacter : L'une des premières routes à péage d'Afrique subsaharienne gérées par une société privée est celle reliant Hillacondji à Cotonou, un tronçon de la route qui raccorde la frontière du Togo à l'ancienne capitale nigériane, Lagos, en traversant le Bénin sur toute sa largeur.Les réformes institutionnelles opérées par certains États portent aujourd'hui leurs fruits. En Zambie, par exemple, pratiquement l'ensemble du territoire national est desservi par des routes bitumées.En ce qui concerne le rail, le concept de la concession fait son chemin jusqu'en Afrique australe. Confier l'exploitation de certaines lignes à des entreprises privées sans qu'il y ait transfert de propriété : le Malawi s'est engagé le premier sur cette voie nouvelle en publiant un appel d'offres sur Internet ! Sitarail, société anonyme privée, exploite quant à elle le réseau ferroviaire reliant Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) à Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Ce sont en moyenne 108 trains de marchandises qui roulent chaque mois, sept jours sur sept, dans les deux sens confondus ; 480 000 tonnes de marchandises ont été transportées en 1996. « On note de plus en plus, relève Abdel Aziz Thiam, directeur général de Sita-rail, une importance croissante du tonnage de coton, de fruits, de légumes secs et surtout de volaille et d'animaux vivants pour lesquels la Côte d'Ivoire demeure largement tributaire des pays sahéliens ».Le transfert progressif au privé de la gestion de l'exploitation et de l'entretien des réseaux de transport recèle beaucoup d'avantages, selon la Banque mondiale. L'amélioration de la productivité et de la qualité de service, la baisse des coûts pour les usagers et la réduction des déficits publics sont autant de perspectives prometteuses, bien que la privatisation -en Afrique en tout cas -n'en soit qu'à ses premiers pas.  Aéroports, routes, chemins de fer et ports deviennent privatisables. Leur rétrocession au secteur privé se solde par des contrats de concession, de cogestion ou de fermage. Le recours à ces trois types de techniques a concerné jusqu'à présent 32 pays ACPprincipalement africains -au cours des sept dernières années.Le principe de la participation des usagers et des bénéficiaires aux réformes et à l'amélioration de la gestion des réseaux routiers n'est, en général, plus remis en question. Plusieurs pays africains, parmi lesquels le Bénin, la Zambie et l'Éthiopie, le Mozambique, la Tanzanie, ont ainsi instauré ou réinstauré les Comités des routes ou les Fonds des routes. Les usagers, qui paient pour l'entretien du réseau (prélèvement sur le carburant, péages, taxes d'immatriculation), ont ainsi la possibilité de participer à l'élaboration des stratégies visant à ce que son développement corresponde aux besoins.mateurs. Il y a beaucoup à gagner pourtant à développer des infrastructures de commercialisation, susceptibles de permettre aux grossistes et aux détaillants d'acheter leurs marchandises en faisant leur choix parmi de nombreux fournisseurs opportunément groupés et de vendre ensuite leurs achats. À deux conditions : réorganiser les conventions qui régissent la commercialisation et créer de nouvelles infrastructures sur de nouveaux sites, ou encore améliorer celles qui existent déjà, comme au marché de gros de Bouaké, en Côte d'Ivoire (voir Spore n°76).Si, dans certaines nations, il est aujourd'hui possible de parcourir les itinéraires principaux sur des routes modernes et de faire transiter des marchandises des zones rurales aux marchés urbains, des ports vers les régions les plus enclavées dans des délais raisonnables, beaucoup reste à faire. Ou dépend, pour certains pays du Pacifique et des Caraïbes, de choix fondamentaux, avec d'un côté un volume de transactions commerciales trop faible pour justifier d'investir dans le secteur « transports », et de l'autre une activité touristique qui est en passe de devenir l'une des plus importantessinon l'unique -sources de revenus. En région rurale, les déplacements s'effectuent principalement à pied en dehors des routes, sur des chemins et des pistes à l'intérieur de la localité. Quels sont les besoins les plus courants des populations rurales ? L'accès à l'eau, au bois de chauffage, aux exploitations agricoles, aux marchés, aux structures sanitaires, aux meuneries et aux écoles. Et des moyens de transport intermédiaires tels que vélos, mobylettes, charrettes à bras ou à traction animale. Des projets de terrain ont abouti à la mise au point de la méthodologie IRAP (Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning). Fondée sur l'évaluation des problèmes d'accès rencontrés par les familles rurales, elle permet de planifier à l'échelon local les investissements en infrastructures (entretien des pistes et des ponts) et d'élaborer certains programmes de développement. Photo Hamadoum MAÏGA/ORSTOM tuent un problème majeur, car, outre la souffrance qu'ils entraînent, ils représentent une charge financière allant jusqu'à 1 % du PIB ! Le rail, pour sa part, n'est pas en meilleur état. D'une manière générale, il a perdu la réputation qu'on lui accorde traditionnellement d'être à la fois plus sûr et moins cher que la route. Privés pendant de nombreuses années du moindre investissement et utilisant un matériel roulant vétuste, les chemins de fer de l'Afrique subsaharienne, par exemple, sont souvent dans un état alarmant.Pourtant, on ne peut contester le rôle primordial des chemins de fer dans le développement économique de pays tels que le Burkina Faso, le Mali, le Niger, le Tchad, situés à plus de 1 000 kilomètres des zones portuaires les plus proches et tributaires des infrastructures portuaires et ferroviaires des pays côtiers.Les ports enfin. Là aussi, le mauvais entretien des installations génère une insuffisance de service, un ralentissement des cadences de manutention et des surcoûts d'exploitation qui compromettent la compétitivité des pays ACP sur les marchés internationaux.De la qualité des infrastructures d'acheminement dépend, entre autres, l'écoulement des produits agricoles. Reste à disposer d'infrastructures efficaces au plan du stockage, des marchés de groupage, des marchés de gros et de détail si l'on veut obtenir une commercialisation d'un bon rapport qualité/prix, minimiser les pertes après récolte et éviter les risques sanitaires 2 .La plupart du temps, les systèmes de commercialisation des pays en développement, pour la vente en gros et en détail des fruits, légumes et autres produits alimentaires fraisviande et poisson -, ne permettent pas de maximiser les bénéfices des producteurs et ne produisent aucun avantage pour les consom-Chargement de mangues au Mali.La fabrication de yaourt au coco, produit délicieux et nutritif, est une activité très rentable dans les régions productrices de coco. Un investissement initial est nécessaire pour acheter l'équipement : râpe et presse, autoclave, réfrigérateur, incubateur, cuisinière, mixer, récipients en acier inoxydable et balance. Le yaourt est fabriqué à partir de ferment : on prépare une solution à 10 % de lait écrémé en poudre que l'on chauffe dans l'autoclave pendant 10 minutes à une pression de 0,68 bar (10 psi). Une fois la solution refroidie, on en prélève la moitié à laquelle on incorpore Streptococcus thermophilus. La préparation est ensuite mise en incubation pendant 14 heures à 38 °C. Dans l'autre moitié de la solution, on incorpore Lactobacillus bulgaricus, puis on met à incuber pendant 15 heures à 42°C. Le ferment est ensuite conservé à 5°C jusqu'à son utilisation. On peut confectionner deux sortes de yaourt : l'une à la texture onctueuse, l'autre est du caillé. Pour la première préparation, il faut 50 % de lait de coco et 50 % de lait écrémé en poudre, alors que pour la seconde la proportion est respectivement de 44 % et de 56 %. Le mélange est pasteurisé à 85°C pendant 20 minutes. Une fois refroidi, on y ajoute 1,5 % de chaque ferment. La substance obtenue est ensuite versée dans des petits pots, puis mise à incuber à 42°C jusqu'à obtention d'un pH de 4,5 à 4,7 Des quantités importantes de pesticides périmés continuent de menacer la santé et l'environnement dans les pays en développement. Les gouvernements concernés et la communauté internationale estiment urgent de se débarrasser de ces indésirables évalués à plus de 100 000 tonnes. À cette échelle, ce n'est pas l'exploitant agricole qui pourra régler le problème à la force de ses poignets. Mais il est bel et bien concerné, en revanche, par les directives de l'Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO)* ou par les mesures de prévention préconisées par des ONG spécialisées dans la protection de l'environnement, telles que Pesticides Trust (ONG écologiste basée en Grande-Bretagne). Elles traitent essentiellement de la prévention de l'accumulation et de l'élimination des stocks de pesticides périmés.Estimer au plus juste ses besoins en pesticides, vérifier les dates de leur conservation, entretenir régulièrement son entrepôt, incinérer ponctuellement les emballages périmés ou vides sont quelques actions qui éviteront de répéter un scénario qui pèse lourd : l'élimination de 10 tonnes de produits périmés peut coûter jusqu'à 80 000 dollars US, soit 4 400 FCFA par kilo. Nettoyer la planète coûte décidément cher quand le ménage n'est pas fait au quotidien…   Deuxième source de devises étrangères après l'élevage, la production bananière en Somalie a lourdement souffert des inondations provoquées par le phénomène climatique El Niño (voir Spore 75) et on s'attend, cette année, à une diminution de plus de la moitié des exportations par rapport à 1997. Les inondations ont gravement endommagé les plantations et détruit les routes secondaires, rendant impossible le transport des bananes vers les aires portuaires. Les exportations ont pratiquement cessé depuis octobre 1997.Source : New Agriculturist/El Niño Southern Oscillation Site Web : www.darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/enso.htmlUne centaine de gouvernements se sont réunis à Montréal (Canada), à la fin du mois de juin, pour une première série de discussions sur un accord international visant à réduire les émissions de polluants organiques persistants (POP) comme le DDT et autres membres de la « bande des douze ». Ces négociations, placées sous l'égide du Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, dureront au moins deux ans.Excellente source de protéines végétales, le niébé (Vigna unguiculata) est cultivé un peu partout en Afrique et principalement au Nigeria. Les cultivateurs emmagasinent généralement leur récolte jusqu'à la morte-saison car ils peuvent alors en tirer un meilleur prix. Cette pratique est toutefois très risquée car les stocks sont particulièrement sensibles aux attaques de la bruche Callosobruchus maculatus et les pesticides chimiques pouvant les protéger ne sont pas couramment disponibles. Que faire alors ? Récemment, des chercheurs ont découvert que la poudre de peau de pamplemousse et de citron vert mélangée au niébé détruisait effica-cement cet insecte et en inhibait la ponte. La peau de pamplemousse est efficace à des concentrations de 10 % du poids de niébé sec et la peau de citron vert est efficace à des concentrations de 20 %. Comme ces agrumes se trouvent un peu partout en Afrique, les cultivateurs ne devraient avoir aucun mal à s'en procurer. Ces traitements sont encore limités à des tests en laboratoire, mais sont déjà très prometteurs comme moyen de lutte contre les ravageurs des produits stockés dans les petites exploitations. À Kiribati, dans le Pacifique, la production d'Eucheuma cottonii a commencé en 1986. Après de nombreuses fluctuations, elle a atteint 1 283 tonnes en 1996. L'objectif est de la porter à 3 000 tonnes par an afin de transformer son industrie en entreprise viable. Le marché d'exportation est, en effet, prometteur, notamment en direction du Japon, grand importateur d'algues, utilisées soit pour confectionner des sauces, soit en plat principal. Pour l'heure, l'algue est en passe de devenir, pour près de la moitié des ménages ruraux de la région, une culture de rente plus profitable que d'autres activités telles que la pêche, la découpe du copra ou la fabrication de cigarettes locales. D'une manière générale, elle a accru leur autonomie et leur sécurité en leur permettant de faire face à leurs besoins en nourriture, en biens de consommation et en services. Il s'en faut encore de beaucoup pour que sa production rivalise avec celle des Philippines qui dominent un marché mondial estimé à 300 000 tonnes par an. Mais l'appui reçu à son démarrage, en termes d'assistance technique et financière, et les savoir-faire acquis au fil des ans par les cultivateurs ont produit à l'évidence des résultats encourageants. On connaît déjà la sauce de soja, le lait de soja et le tofu, mais on connaît moins la farine de soja. Le soja est une des légumineuses les plus riches en protéines de haute qualité (environ 40 %). Ses graines sont aussi riches en acides gras non saturés, d'une grande valeur diététique dans la mesure où le corps humain ne peut synthétiser ce type de graisse. La lécithine contenue dans les graines a d'importantes fonctions métaboliques ; elle intervient dans la régénération des cellules nerveuses et dans le contrôle des taux de cholestérol.La farine de soja préparée sous forme de pâte n'est pas seulement nutritive ; elle donne, à la cuisson, une pâte plus homogène, d'un brun et d'une texture plus uniformes, au bon goût de noisette. Les graines de soja doivent être nettoyées à la main sans utiliser d'eau car cela détruirait leur goût. Il faut ensuite les faire bouillir dans l'eau pendant une demi-heure, les égoutter puis les rincer à l'eau claire. Les graines doivent être mises à sécher au soleil sur une natte, puis broyées, moulues et tamisées pour obtenir la farine que l'on conservera dans un récipient hermétique. Plus de deux mille petits cultivateurs de soja sur des terres communales dans le Mashonaland, au Zimbabwe, obtiennent à présent des rendements comparables à ceux des exploitations commerciales. Depuis 1996, les agriculteurs de cette région, qui cultivaient traditionnellement du maïs, se sont lancés dans la production du soja. Ils utilisent un rhizobium comme engrais. La fixation de l'azote atmosphérique dans les plantes est assurée par des bactéries, comme le rhizobium, qui vivent en symbiose dans les nodosités des racines. Toutefois, dans les conditions naturelles, ce processus de fixation n'est pas assez efficace pour assurer des rendements supérieurs. En inoculant les graines de soja avec du rhizobium liquide dans des essais au champ, les cultivateurs ont pu bénéficier de rendements deux fois plus élevés que ceux obtenus dans des champs traités aux engrais industriels à raison de 145 kg/ha. Au coût actuel des engrais industriels, cette nouvelle technique permet de réaliser une économie de 50 dollars US par hectare. Des analyses des isotopes 15 de l'azote sont réalisées par l'Agence internationale de l'énergie atomique, qui apporte son concours aux autorités du pays pour contrôler le processus de fixation de l'azote tout au long du cycle de croissance des plantes. Ces techniques permettent d'identifier les meilleures souches de rhizobium qui sont ensuite proposées aux cultivateurs à un prix qu'ils peuvent récupérer plus de cent fois en obtenant des rendements plus élevés. Ces engrais biologiques sont produits par le Laboratoire de recherche sur la productivité des sols du ministère de l'Agriculture du Zimbabwe et leur application est vulgarisée en collaboration avec Agritex, le département de vulgarisation du ministère de l'Agriculture.  Spore, comme la majorité des périodiques, ne précise l'adresse que si l'auteur de la lettre le demande ou l'autorise formellement. Si un lecteur souhaite entrer en contact avec l'auteur d'une lettre publiée dans cette rubrique, le mieux est qu'il écrive à Spore qui transmettra. Spore ne demande pas mieux que de recueillir des réactions à la « Boîte postale » comme aux autres articles, et d'en faire bénéficier les autres lecteurs. M. Osuji recommande aussi que Spore indique systématiquement le prix, en dollars US, de chaque livre annoncé dans ses pages, car cela épargnera aux lecteurs la difficulté de s'informer du prix auprès de l'éditeur ou du libraire avant de commander éventuellement le livre.Spore s'est donné pour règle d'indiquer le prix de chaque livre tel que recommandé par l'éditeur (le prix en librairie varie, le cours duPOINT DE VUE D e nombreux chercheurs et agents vulgarisateurs persistent à penser que les techniques qu'ils élaborent sont toujours adaptées aux conditions des paysans à faibles ressources, en raison de leur incontestable supériorité. Or, des auteurs tels que Robert Chambers, John Farrington, Paul Richards, Maria Salas, Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan et Jan van der Ploeg ont démontré le contraire de façon convaincante. Pendant trois années que j'ai passées en Guinée-Bissau pour étudier les connaissances et les interfaces institutionnelles dans le domaine de l'agriculture de subsistance, j'ai été confrontée à de nombreuses situations où les paysans se sentaient obligés d'accepter les innovations que leur proposaient -dans une démarche prétendument participative mais obéissant plutôt à la règle du « tout ou rien » -les agents de leurs gouvernements et les agents des ONG. Dans l'un de ces projets, une ONG locale a cherché à diffuser des variétés améliorées de manguier afin de réduire la culture sur brûlis tout en générant de nouvelles sources de revenus. On y préconisait avec insistance une déforestation totale, et interdisait les cultures en alternance avec d'autres arbres fruitiers, sous peine de limiter l'accès au crédit et aux variétés améliorées. Les vulgarisateurs voulaient en outre des cultures en association de manguiers et de manioc, de haricots et d'arachides, afin de réduire l'érosion du sol. Toutefois, les haricots et les arachides ne couvrent le sol que pendant la saison des pluies, et le manioc ne fournit guère de protection contre l'érosion. Pendant la saison sèche, les techniciens du projet exigeaient des paysans qu'ils arrosent les jeunes manguiers.Voilà bien où se situe le conflit, plus que la convergence, entre les techniques traditionnelles et les stratégies modernes de « débrouille ». Traditionnellement, les paysans cultivent plusieurs espèces fruitières en association, à forte densité, l'alternance dépendant du type de sol et de la possibilité de disposer de nouveaux plants et variétés. Les bananiers, par exemple, sont souvent utilisés comme culture de « garantie » pendant la première année d'un verger de fruitiers pérennes, car ils ont pour autre avantage de faire de l'ombre aux jeunes arbres et de réduire ainsi les besoins en arrosage. Les cultures en alternance entrent dans le cadre d'une stratégie traditionnelle : elles limitent les risques contre les ravageurs, et les plantations entrecroisées contribuent à limiter l'érosion du sol pendant la saison des pluies.L'interface entre les paysans et les agents vulgarisateurs est donc parfois source de heurts : malentendus et ignorance engendrent des frictions. On les retrouve dans un tout autre domaine : l'éducation. Le Portugais, par exemple, est bien la langue officielle de la Guinée-Bissau. Mais elle n'est parlée que par une minorité (urbaine) de la population, composée de plus de trente groupes ethniques, chacun parlant sa propre langue. Même le créole, très utilisé pendant la guerre de Libération et après l'Indépendance, n'y est plus d'usage. En revanche, certains projets de développement intégrés ont introduit une innovation en enseignant des langues locales (atteignant ainsi les femmes, qui maîtrisent rarement le créole) et en utilisant l'alphabet portugais.Il est donc pour le moins surprenant de voir une ONG locale répondre aux demandes des communautés locales en lançant un programme d'éducation incluant le créole et un alphabet inaccessible à la plupart. Une méthode qui avait échoué après l'Indépendance, lors d'une vaste campagne d'éducation à l'intention des adultes.La population locale, qui voulait être formée avec l'alphabet portugais, utilisa donc ses propres ressources et fit appel à un professeur de l'école primaire pour lui fournir l'éducation qu'elle désirait. La troisième édition revue et corrigée de ce bulletin technique GASGA/CTA n°1 vient de paraître. Les actes de cette conférence qui s'est déroulée du 13 au 17 janvier 1997 à Pretoria (Afrique du Sud) ont été publiés, avec l'appui du CTA, en trois tomes du journal African Crop Science, volume 3 (en anglais, avec résumé en français). Non disponibles au CTA. Les lecteurs qui n'ont pas encore reçu leur exemplaire du rapport annuel ou qui désireraient obtenir des copies de l'article tiré à part doivent s'adresser au CTA (les abonnés peuvent utiliser leur bon de commande). Le système de crédit ne s'applique pas à ces publications qui sont par ailleurs gratuites également pour les non-abonnés. qRapport annuel CTA 1997, n°872. Tiré à part du « Point de mire », n°874.Au sommaire du rapport annuel 1997 du CTA, l'analyse des politiques agricoles'évolution constante des technologies d'information et de communication (TIC) offre aux États ACP les moyens de valoriser leur développement agricole. L'intérêt pratique de ces nouvelles technologies est de plus en plus évident, qu'il s'agisse des systèmes d'information géographique (SIG), qui font intervenir l'imagerie satellitaire à l'appui des programmes d'aménagement du territoire et de gestion foncière, ou de la micro-informatique appliquée sur le terrain pour diagnostiquer les maladies des plantes, ou encore du courrier électronique et de l'Internet pour informer les coopératives de paysans sur l'évolution des marchés internationaux et intercontinentaux.L'exploitation des TIC est un thème auquel le CTA s'intéresse de très près depuis plusieurs années. Le séminaire du CTA sur « Le rôle de l'information dans le développement rural des pays ACP », organisé à Montpellier (France) en juin 1995, concluait que « ces technologies modernes offrent de nombreuses perspectives parmi lesquelles un meilleur accès à l'information » et recommandait de mettre en place « un dispositif de veille technologique permettant de suivre l'évolution de ces technologies et de donner aux acteurs du développement des pays ACP les moyens de les exploiter pleinement ».Le dispositif de « veille » préconisé alors est devenu l'Observatoire du CTA sur les TIC. Composé d'experts qui ont introduit ces technologies dans les pays ACP et participé à des initiatives similaires dans ce domaine en Europe, il a pour mission d'informer la communauté agricole sur les outils de gestion de l'information et de la communication les plus adaptés aux besoins des intéressés. La première réunion s'est déroulée au siège du CTA les 16 et 17 juin 1998 et a rassemblé des délégués de six pays ACP et de six pays européens, ainsi que d'organisations gouvernementales et non gouvernementales internationales. La mission de l'Observatoire étant de suivre les progrès des TIC et de faciliter leur exploitation, sa tâche principale est de s'informer le mieux possible sur les expériences menées dans ce domaine, les programmes et projets en cours et autres initiatives.Trois grands volets ont été étudiés lors de la réunion de juin : les politiques en la matière (dans la mesure où un environnement favorable est indispensable au développement de TIC abordables et techniquement fiables pour tous les secteurs d'activité), le renforcement des capacités et les applications possibles. Dans le cadre de ces initiatives, le CTA a pour rôle de s'assurer que le secteur agricole est bien représenté dans les opérations existantes ou prévues de développement des TIC, de promouvoir des politiques mieux intégrées au plan national et régional, et de soutenir la mise en place de réseaux thématiques et intersectoriels. Tout aussi important est le soutien du CTA à la diffusion d'informations sur les politiques d'intérêt particulier (dont les réformes tarifaires et fiscales) et à la participation de tous les acteurs concernés (ONG, secteur privé, société civile, etc.), hommes et femmes.Sur le plan politique, les efforts porteront sur la sensibilisation des spécialistes de ces technologies aux problématiques du secteur agricole, et réciproquement ; des managers aux décideurs politiques, en passant par les agents sur le terrain, nombreuses sont les personnes concernées. Sur le plan du renforcement des capacités, la priorité devra être accordée à la formation et au soutien à l'exploitation et à la gestion des TIC pour la diffusion régulière d'informations fiables sur Internet en particulier. Le CTA est invité à envisager des applications pouvant être exploitées dans des télécentres ruraux, la diffusion de programmes de radios rurales sous forme numérique sur Internet, la constitution de bibliothèques de logiciels et l'édition de Spore en ligne.L'Observatoire souligne l'importance de la coopération et des échanges d'information avec des organismes spécialisés dans les TIC, ou menant des projets dans d'autres secteurs.On peut consulter le site Web du CTA (www.cta.nl) pour obtenir des informations sur les propres initiatives du CTA en matière de TIC et suivre les discussions sur les idées et initiatives lancées lors de la réunion de juin. On peut également consulter l'édition en ligne de Spore.qTechnologies de l'information et de la communication : la veille permanenteLes lecteurs inscrits auprès du Service de diffusion des publications -les abonnéspeuvent obtenir les publications du CTA. Ceux qui ont renvoyé leur demande d'adhésion recevront prochainement une réponse et, une fois inscrits, deux bons de commande de livres dont l'un indique le nombre d'unités de crédit disponibles.Une valeur en unités de crédit a été attribuée à toutes les publications du catalogue CTA. Les abonnés peuvent commander ces ouvrages en fonction des unités de crédit qu'ils ont reçues. Il faut obligatoirement utiliser un des bons de commande fournis.Ceux qui ne sont pas encore abonnés peuvent demander leur inscription par lettre, fax ou e-mail et recevront en retour un formulaire d'inscription. La demande d'inscription est ouverte aux organisations s'occupant de développement agricole et rural des pays ACP (Afrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique). Les particuliers résidant dans les pays ACP peuvent également demander leur inscription.Les organisations oeuvrant au développement agricole et rural des pays ACP mais qui ne sont pas basées dans un pays ACP sont invitées à écrire au CTA en précisant leurs besoins.Les adventices, ou mauvaises herbes, sont considérées comme la contrainte biologique la plus importante de la production de riz. Pour aider à leur identification, ce guide bilingue françaisanglais fournit la description, illustrée de dessins et de photographies en couleurs, des espèces principales ainsi que de certaines espèces sporadiques et de jachère ; il décrit aussi les principes généraux de la lutte contre ces mauvaises herbes. Outre un index, les annexes comprennent un glossaire, un lexique et un tableau des utilisations médicinales de certaines plantes. Cet ouvrage bilingue (français/anglais) décrit les principales espèces utiles et les plus fréquemment observées en agriculture tropicale, afin de mieux les faire connaître et de faciliter leur prise en compte dans les programmes de lutte intégrée.Quatre-vingt-treize photographies en couleurs sont accompagnées d'un texte qui fournit les données essentielles permettant de classer les auxiliaires par groupes zoologiques et donne les informations nécessaires pour une bonne compréhension de leurs modes d'action. V ous voulez en savoir plus sur les effets de la pollution de l'air sur la production alimentaire locale ? Votre organisation rurale a des difficultés à se faire entendre dans les débats avec les services publics sur l'aménagement forestier ? Vous trouvez peut-être qu'elle ne prend pas suffisamment en compte les problèmes de genre (hommes/femmes) dans les initiatives de vulgarisation qu'elle met en oeuvre ? L'International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) peut vous aider sur ces questions et sur bien d'autres. L'IIED s'intéresse tout particulièrement aux relations entre développement économique, environnement et besoins des êtres humains. Depuis plus de vingt-cinq ans, l'Institut s'emploie à améliorer les moyens de subsistance des populations les plus démunies et les plus marginalisées, par des méthodes qui contribuent également à la protection et à la régénération de l'environnement.L'IIED peut être décrit comme un comité de réflexion politique fonctionnant en réseau et travaillant en collaboration avec divers partenaires, ce qui fait de lui une organisation de liaison plus qu'un institut de recherche. Son objectif est d'avoir un impact sur le développement et des méthodologies de recherche sont orientées vers l'action et le renforcement des capacités en associant les acteurs du développement à la résolution de problèmes spécifiques. C'est une approche qui consiste à « mettre la main à la pâte » à tous les niveaux, des acteurs locaux aux partenaires internationaux. Le travail de l'IIED consiste essentiellement à offrir des conseils pratiques, des orientations et des outils de développement. C'est à ce niveau d'intervention et par un travail intense en réseau que l'IIED se distingue particulièrement.L'IIED démarre toute activité par des études rigoureuses sur les politiques d'un secteur particulier. Il mène actuellement des programmes sur l'agriculture durable, les terres arides, l'aménagement du terroir et des forêts, l'économie environnementale et des établissements humains. Les publications de l'IIED sont très variées, du manuel de formation aux rapports de programmes ; chacune a un objectif particulier, proposant nouvelles expériences ou développements théoriques.La collection « Gatekeeper » s'intéresse tout particulièrement à l'agriculture durable et à la gestion des ressources. Chaque article analyse une problématique actuelle et offre des conclusions préliminaires d'intérêt particulier pour les décideurs, les chercheurs et les planificateurs. De nombreux titres sont venus grossir cette collection qui compte déjà plus de 70 titres : Gender is not a sensitive issue (La sexospécificité n'est pas une problématique délicate) ; Propelling change from the bottom-up (Initier des change-ments par la base) ; A hidden threat to food production : air pollution in the developing world (La pollution de l'air dans le monde en développement : une menace cachée pour la production alimentaire).La collection « Hidden Harvest » s'intéresse aux espèces qui n'entrent pas dans les études économiques formelles mais qui font généralement partie des économies agricoles informelles. Comme ces espèces ne sont pas prises en compte dans les statistiques officielles, elles sont considérées comme étant « sans valeur », ce qui mène à une perception incomplète, et donc erronée, des terres où on les trouve. Il s'ensuit que les politiques de développement et de gestion des ressources naturelles fondées sur de telles évaluations sont inadaptées, inefficaces, et vont à l'encontre des objectifs désirés. L'intérêt de ces collections est donc d'éviter ce type de faiblesses dans la formulation des politiques et analyses diverses.L'IIED édite aussi des dossiers thématiques rédigés en langue française (voir Spore 69, p. Sa démarche associe étroitement les partenaires du Sud sous des formes diverses : appui à l'organisation de réunions, publications réalisées en partenariat, échanges entre membres proches géographiquement, réalisation d'annuaires par pays. Ses grandes orientations sont définies par un comité technique dont le bureau permanent est basé à Paris (France). Elles s'articulent autour de neuf thèmes de travail :-irrigation ; -marchés vivriers ; -développement local et décentralisation ; -outils et méthodes de gestion (exploitations agricoles et organisations de producteurs) ; -approches de vulgarisation agricole ; -appui aux organisations paysannes et rurales ; -enjeux de l'aide au secteur agricole ; -connaissances stratégiques pour les acteurs du Sud ; -nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication.Inter ","tokenCount":"6718"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"89410c0c864aac5566a7b8bc8114d083","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/658e68c2-4eb5-41dc-8413-323ffe6a5675/retrieve","id":"1966119821"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"077009ff-e9f3-4229-9c86-f0e1c58d8dd0","pagecount":"23","content":"Wetlands are important in agricultural production in the communal lands of Zimbabwe, mainly because of their rich organic soils and abundant water resources throughout the year. They play a key role in rural livelihoods providing both direct and indirect benefits to rural communities. Of critical importance is perhaps the direct benefit of informal irrigation usually occurring without much capital investment. Communal farmers believe wetland cultivation requires drainage of excess water to enable root development and soil aeration. However, such land-use activities can be detrimental to the lifespan of a wetland and undoubtedly impact negatively on the multitude of ecosystem services that they provide. In addition to improper management, the fragility of wetlands in the southern parts of Zimbabwe is worsened by erratic rains and, in particular, extended periods of lower than average rainfall in recent years. This means that although wetland drying and degradation may be a function of both the climatic environment and human activity, there is need to map out strategies which will target at sustainable management of their viability through manipulation of the latter to ensure optimal use of the wetlands. This concept formed the basis of a research project 'Wetlands-based livelihoods in the Limpopo basin: balancing social welfare and environmental security'. Understanding the linkages and achieving a balance between the welfare of people in Intunjambili and ecological processes within the wetland is critical in answering some of the project hypotheses.Intunjambili wetland is part of the Tuli river catchment situated in the Matebeleland South Province of Zimbabwe, at 20° 27' South and 28 ° 41' East. The wetland is some 60 km south east of the Zimbabwe's southern capital of Bulawayo and covers a totall area of ~30 ha. About 180 households with a total population of ~ 512 use the wetland for various services and activities including gardening, provision of domestic water supply and recreational activities. According to the Zimbabwean soil classification, the soils of Intunjambili belong to the Fersiallitic Group (Nyamapfene, 1991). This group consists of moderately leached soils of the kaolinitic order, derived from granite. They have a low clay content (10%) in the top soil. The soils can be classified as Ferralic Arenosols (FAO, 1988) or simply Arenosols (World Reference Base, 1998). The large portion of the soils is hydromorphic due to the poor drainage.The terms of reference for the ecological component of the project were: a) Implement ecological assessments (dry and wet season) for the wetland. Establish the health of the wetland and suggest indicators that can be used to monitor wetland health b) Define environmental security for the wetland based on local conditions of flora, fauna, wetland processes and processes of linked downstream environments, using described methods and draft manual c) Recommend a framework for monitoring and analysis of data to assess changes in wetland health due to livelihood supporting activities overtimeWetland health is an interaction of processes taking places within the (i) hydrological;(ii) geomorphological and (iii) vegetational setup, in addition to flora and faunal composition that the wetland supports. Each of these has a set of direct and indirect measurable indicators. A rapid appraisal of Intunjambili was undertaken based on three days of field assessment during the dry season month of October. Emphasis was placed on land-use activities (gardens, arable fields and grazing) and general biodiversity (vegetation and fauna) of the wetland. A rough appraisal to dry-season water quality was also undertaken although there was a general appreciation that the quality of water is not static and varied over time.Mapping of particular niches of interest and possible sites for future monitoring was done using a GPS (Garmin eTrex Legend personal navigator) accurate to within 4 to 10 m. Delineating disturbed (cultivated and cleared) areas, plantations, intact patches, grazing land and other prominent features such as dams and settlement was done using a recently constructed map of the wetland. Principles of WET-Health, a modular-based approach for evaluating and monitoring current ecological states of South African wetlands by Macfarlane et al. (2005), were used as a guide to wetland health assessment. WET-Health attempts to account for the key interactions that take place within the wetland (i.e. the hydrology, geomorphology and vegetation) and synthesize this information by evaluating a measurable set of wetland components. It was felt that WET-Health could be extrapolated to describe the Zimbabwean situation as the technique generally was designed to: (i) provide possible indicators for wetland health (ii) highlight the key causes of wetland degradations (iii) both direct and monitor the effects of management interventions on wetland habitats.In addition, personal observations and opinion played a significant role in the assessment. The health status of three key wetland components as identified by Macfarlane et al. (2005) namely the hydrology, geomorphology and vegetation, was evaluated by assessing the effect of modifications on each of the three components. Normally, this is done by comparing observed current conditions with benchmark conditions where benchmark conditions are defined as original conditions prior to human disturbance/ modification. However, in the case of Intunjambili, pristine niches to make comparisons were not available as the whole wetland had undergone some form of disturbance. No known reference material of the site describing the ecological state before human impact against which comparisons could be made was available. It should also be noted that wetlands are dynamic ecosystems that respond to environmental changes through space and time. However, relevant indicators of change were identified and explored for each of the three wetland components and termed baseline characteristics at start of monitoring.Baseline characterization activities involved a general description of the hydrogeomorphological setting of Intunjambili wetland. Land-use activities during the dryseason period were noted and field verification of intact and disturbed (e.g. cultivated) patches done using an existing map of Intunjambili. Using the map, the wetland was delineated into four main sections (Section 1-4) (see Figure 1), and where necessary, descriptors for each were analyzed separately. Soils texture was determined using the finger-test method and the level of humification of the soils under different landuse activities assessed using a scoring system. An overview of the dominant vegetation types highlighting particular niches was also undertaken. During the vegetation identification process, dry season faunal species were also noted.The wetland hydrological component centres on evaluating changes to water inputs as a result of changes to the wetland catchment and the degree to which natural distribution and retention patterns within the wetland have been altered. This was done following a detailed identification of activities (physical and from a delineated map) on reducing or altering water inputs (quantity and pattern). The impact of the identified stressors was evaluated using a scoring system. In addition, the degree and extent of canalization (artificial drains and erosion gullies) and modifications to existing channel likely to impact on changes to water distribution and retention patterns was assessed and noted. Measurements included depths; length; widths; sinuosity; roughness of the canals/ gullies/ drains/ artificially introduced channels. The major ones were mapped for use in the monitoring framework that will allow for identification of any new drains and checking of existing drains for signs of improvement/ degradation. Impending features to the wetland hydrological component (dams; weirs) were also noted.The height of the water tables was not included in this assessment as it was felt that the existing hydrometric network of peizometers currently does not take into account ecological aspects. However, efforts were underway to install new one which might give a meaning to the impact of different land-use activities on the height of the water table. Water quality was not qualitatively assessed during the dry season appraisal. In situ quality analysis included: i. determining the presence or absence of invertebrates ii.evaluation of invasive plants are water weeds which are indicators of eutrophication, iii.inventories of likely sources of point and non-point source pollution (soil fertility management practices), and iv.spatial and temporal dynamics of aquatic fauna (identification of invertebrates; protozoa) and flora (algal species)This component focuses on the distribution and retention patterns of sediment within the wetland. In general, three types of sediment may enter and accumulate within and/ or leave the wetland at any one time. These may be (i) clastic sediment (mineral particles); (ii) dissolved sediment (material carried in solution in the water column); and, (iii) organic sediment (organic material). The geomorphic health was assessed following determinations of the nature of sedimentary fill in the wetland. This was complemented by an assessment of erosion hazard through identification of inherent features likely to influence sediment flow (longitudinal slope; soil type and vegetation cover) and assessment of the relationship between gullying and steepening of gradient looking out for any direct signs of deposition.Based on the hypothesis that excessive sedimentation results in evident depositional features while excessive erosion leads to gullying, potential inputs and outputs of sediment to and from the wetland was assessed. The degree of deposition at the entry point of tributaries and/ or gullies into the wetland (usually fan-like lobe of mineral (clastic) sediments) was assessed. Other sediment loss pathways within the wetland were evaluated. The dynamics of soil organic matter in cultivated lands and erosion risk were evaluated under different tillage management regimes and land use practices. This involved identification of activities potentially contributing to increased or reduced sediment inputs (soil fertility management practices; grazing; bare ground; dumping). Activities within and surrounding the wetland that potentially reduce sediment inputs and promote wetland erosion were also evaluated.Wetland vegetation is dynamic, responding to changes in climate, catchment activities and disturbance within the wetland. It may also take time to respond to changes with competitive processes slowly altering species mixes over time. species that grow without any defoliation. iii. Increaser II: Such grasses increase due to the disturbing effect of overgrazing. They produce much viable seed and this can quickly establish on new exposed ground within the wetland In addition, factors potentially affecting vegetation integrity were also evaluated.Scoring impacts for all the three wetland components was done using the following definitions (MacFarlane et al., 2005):i. Extent -the proportion of the wetland affected by a given activity (%) ii.Intensity (severity) -the degree to which wetland characteristics have been altered within the affected area (%) iii.Magnitude -the actual impact in relation to the whole wetland of activity (activities) on the component being evaluated (%).Magnitude score = Extent / 100 x Intensity iv.Health -reflects the degree of intactness, and is based on the magnitude of impact. The health score is obtained by subtracting the magnitude score from 100% (pristine / undisturbed).Intunjambili wetland is a floodplain-type of wetland located on a valley bottom with a well-defined stream channel between two hills. The slope is of the main wetland is gentle and water inputs are mainly from the sub-surface flow from adjacent hillslopes and from surface flow being fed via the main channel and its tributaries. During this dry season period in October, an active spring was observed recharging the wetland in Section 3). The soils show typical hydromorphy caused by poor drainage due to the poorly jointed underlying granitic bedrock.The valley floor consists mainly of poorly-drained areas being permanently wet as well as semi-permanently wet, seasonally wet and temporarily wet and non-wet portions. The soils are generally sands and loamy sands ranging from light-coloured soils on the upper slopes (non-wet portions) to dark black organic soils in the permanently and semi-permanently wet sections.Major land-use activities include vegetable gardening (18%), dryland fields (ploughed once a year during the rainy season) (30%), grazing (20%) and settlements (2%). Intact niches were not easily identifiable and constituted <1% of the total wetland area. Field verification showed that even the natural dryland vegetation outside the main wetland was secondary vegetation still in the process of recovering from a previous heavy disturbance such as overgrazing and deforestation.Three Eucalyptus plantations were observed in during the baseline appraisal Section 1 covering approximately 2% of landuse while the major features for Section 4 were a weir and a dam (~10% of utilizable area). The wetland supports many different vegetation types ranging from obligate hydrophytes (e.g. Phragmites spp.) grasses, weeds to dryland plant communities (e.g. Acacia spp) (details of these vegetation types will be described later). Several bird species, aquatic fauna (arthropods, amphibians, fish) and insects (grasshoppers, locusts, butterflies) were quite predominant in the wetland. Bird nests were clearly visible above some water wells.Agricultural activities predominate in the Injunjambili wetland. Abstractions for irrigation are currently the main modifier to water inputs within the wetland (see Table 1). Irrigated land in the form of vegetable gardens constitutes more than 60% of total land and these vegetable plots could be found in all the four delineated sections (Sections 1-4). Irrigation water is diverted from the wetland via:i. artificial drainage channels some of which are opened and closed according to the need of water demand ii. drainage channels draining into wells for ease of access of irrigation water. This is found in almost every vegetable garden with some gardens having more than two of these. iii. Flood irrigated portions particularly in Sections 1 and 3. Section 3 appears to have an uninterrupted supply of groundwater inputs as was evidenced by an actively flowing spring in one of the gardens. A large dam downstream benefits from all the wetland outflows. This dam is used for irrigation in Section 4, recreational activities such as fishing and supplying water to a downstream irrigation scheme outside the main wetland. The presence of the irrigation scheme outside the wetland implies that no return flows are likely to benefit the wetland. The overall extent of existing Eucalyptus plantations in Intunjambili may be classified as low ((<10%). It is perhaps the general location of the plantations (upland within Section 1) that may pose a threat to the quantity of water supplied by the wetland's catchment. Moreover, the high water demand associated with Eucalyptus trees implies that they have a significant, though indirect, impact in depleting underground water.Heavy grazing pressure was evident during the period of assessment in October.Signs of trampling and bare patches as a result of loss of vegetation cover were apparent. Such activities and associated reduction in vegetation cover may have potentially increased surface runoff and reduced infiltration within the wetland. This can in turn, lead to less sustained sub-surface runoff and reduced infiltration. Settlements and upland fields are also present in the wetland, and occupy a significant proportion. Roads and footpaths are impacting on surface runoff as could be evidenced by development of rills and gullies particularly in the drier and dessicated parts of the wetland (Section 2).At the head of the wetland, numerous outcrops of termite mounds exist leading in to the main wetland along the grazing area (Section 1). These have the potential to impede the normal flow of water into the wetland, by re-directing normal water channels.The general slope of the wetland is low (<1%) although a few sections from the southwestern side have a slightly steeper slope (between 2-5%) and water inputs from this portions appear to be groundwater recharge from the foot of the kopje. Human activities top the list in altering the pattern of water distribution and retention patterns within the wetland. Vegetables are the predominant crops grown within the wetland (see Table 2) taking up > 95% of total cultivated dry-season land. The remaining small proportion (<5%) is allocated to cereals [maize -Zea mays (90% of the <5%] and wheat -Triticum sativa). None of the crops grown are specifically adapted to prolonged soil saturation implying that successful agricultural production is through drainage of excess water. The artificial drainage channels naturally extend beyond cultivated land and may feed into the main channel. This undoubtedly impacts on the extent to which water is distributed across the wetland surface and detained within the wetland. Artificial drains and erosion gullies both have potentially high impact on the distribution and retention of water within the wetland and impacts on the health of the wetland (Table 3). Sections 1 and 3 are moderately channeled, while canalization in Sections 2 and 4 can be described as moderately diffuse, although erosion gullies are more prevalent in the latter, and can be attributed to overgrazing and poor land management. Of notable interest is modification to the existing channel through a man-made diversion (Section 2/ 3) to promote confinement of water passing through the wetland. While this artificial drainage channel has a gentle slope and not sinuous, there is some high level of ponding along its length, which implies that water movement is slowed down as it passes through. There is enough vegetation on both the main and diverted channels likely to slow down the movement of water.Other existing potential water loss pathways within the wetland include a dam and a weir downstream of the main channel within Section 4. The detained water is subject to evaporation. While data for mean annual rainfall (MAR) and potential evapotranspiration (PET) for the area was not readily available, the area generally falls in Natural region IV of Zimbabwe (mean annual rainfall <450 mm, mean annual temperatures >28ºC), and it is safe to assume a low MAR:PET ratio, implying a high evaporative losses from both the weir and the dam. The hydrological health of the wetland is therefore 100 -42.5 = 57.5%, which falls into the Fair health category. A fair health category implies that the wetland has been moderately modified. A loss and change of natural habitat have occurred but the basic ecosystem functions are still predominantly unchanged.Geomorphic processes fundamentally control how water flows within the wetland and are characterized by both inputs and outputs of sediment. Visible signs of erosion are beginning to show within the wetland. However, more than 60% of the wetland is dominated by organic sedimentation. Clearly visible signs of clastic (mineral) sediments take occur in very small sections of the wetland, particularly where wetseason water ways and large drainage channels enter the valley floor and also where Plate 4. Evidence of human pollution to water bodies within Intunjambili wetland Plate 6. The impact of livestock pressure on the geomorphological integrity of Intunjambili wetland Plate 7. Organic soils in some vegetable gardens within the wetland the main channel enters the dam. Clastic sedimentation could be attributed to the steepening of the gradient, runoff due to an increase in water volumes, and soil type which is generally loamy sand. Most of the artificial drainage channels show some limited erosion signs as a result of collapse and washing away of the banks.No depositional features were evident while gullying was mostly attributed to sediment mining (in this case brick-making, soil for construction purposes) and trampling. It was not possible to estimate the extent of sheet erosion from the cultivated lands as this need specialized monitoring.The level of disturbance of organic soils through tillage is high (see Table 4). The fields/ gardens are ploughed using a mouldboard plough at least twice a year and soil under horticultural crops is turnedover (disturbance) using a handhoe at least one every fortnight. Such tillage practices lead to a greater exposure of the upper soil layers, leading to increased oxidation and dramatically increasing the wetting and drying rates. Thus, the degree of tillage can be an indirect measure reflecting loss of organic sediment within the wetland. Dessication via artificial drainage also contribute to accelerated oxidation and mineralization of organic sediments.Deposition of organic sediments leads to a build-up of soil organic matter. Soil organic matter (SOM) is important in the functioning and productivity of all terrestrial ecosystems being the source and sink of nutrients. However, inherent SOM remains fragile in wetland ecosystems as this is exploited under different land use practices with hardly any replenishment. Thus, in order to maintain the geomorphic integrity of wetland ecosystems, soils need to be sustainably management through protecting and maintaining the SOM status.The built-up and maintenance of SOM in Intunjambili is already threatened by the overall reduction and loss of natural vegetation, and poor organic matter management within the arable plots. This means that there is more offtake compared to inputs. In addition, physical removal of SOM Plate 8. Complete replacement of natural wetland vegetation by vegetable crops through burning was apparent (Sections 1 and 2), and this is linked to increased evaporative losses and dessication of exposed soils. Another factor which cannot be manipulated but has great impact on the SOM status of Intunjambili is related to the environment. The wetland lies in an area where temperatures are naturally high for much of the year, and with the moist conditions prevailing, this leads to accelerated loss of organic carbon. The geomorphic integrity of the wetland is 55% which falls into the Fair health category. However, the high figure implies that the geomorphic functions, particularly loss of SOM, have largely been modified and need monitoring.At least three basic landuses were identifiable in terms of vegetation characteristics within the wetland. These were: 1. Arable land (includes gardens and wet-season arable lands). These areas can be classified as areas of total transformation. Almost total removal of indigenous vegetation being replaced by introduced species (see Table 2). 2. Grazing area (includes valley bottom permanently and semi-permanently wet and includes area covered by the main channel). This was mapped as areas of historical transformation although while the dam falls within this category, it has the potential to cause total transformation to vegetation types surrounding and beyond it. 3. Upland grazing land (only seasonally wet) -these are areas of intact vegetation with a high abundance of natural species and very little soil disturbance.Because the composition of vegetation in wetlands is dynamic, changing in response to natural changes in water availability, it was necessary to assess vegetation (d) encroachment by terrestrial/ dry land species, and (e) increase in particular species (weeds; sedges; grasses) (Tables 5-8).The wetland has a number of indigenous tree species and shrubs in isolated pockets within the main wetland, or as scattered individual tree species deliberately left within arable fields for one reason or another. Some individual trees species like Ficus sycomorus, are protected because they provide fruit, while other like Acacia nilotica provides shade. Invasive indigenous species were many. These were favoured by a number of different disturbances or imbalances to the natural state of the wetland. Such imbalances included an increase in nutrients within the water bodies (e.g. Phragmites and Nymphaea spp.), increased or decreased wetness (some ruderal (weedy) species, or increased disturbance by livestock and man (see Table 7).  threatened species; alien plants with particular attention to the expansion and colonization of Lantana camara Fauna• The diversity of fauna in the wetland is wide including birds; insects; aquatic invertebrates and amphibians • Aquatic invertebrates gives an indication of water qualityThe existing WET-Health framework (MacFarlane et al., 2005) can be used as the basic guideline for monitoring the ecological integrity of Intunjambili. Inputting data into validation models can be used as an alternative approach to rapid monitoring.• Height of water tables in the wetland along different transects can be monitored using existing peizometers. However the existing hydrometric network currently does not take into account ecological aspects. • Methods of keeping water within the wetland should be devised and encouraged.This may include changes in cropping methods using water conservation structures, placement of crops during the rainy season, and introduction of waterloving crops such as rice and Madhumbes.Cultivation and cropping does not seem to significantly impact on organic matter in wetland soils than does the wetness of the soil. However, poorly managed wetland gardening, which does not provide protection from erosion, and overgrazing, which removes vegetative cover, encourages surface run-off and reduces organic matter content.Poor management practices can result in an increase in the vulnerability of wetland to soil erosion and accelerated gully formation. Vegetable gardens and arable lands should be ploughed along the contours to minimize surface runoff and erosion. Conservation tillage practices should be evaluated and promoted.• Permanently marked transects and a qualitative measure such as cover abundance may be used. • A qualitative inventory carried out at the same time of the year as initial survey can yield useful data on local immigration or extinction of species represented by a few individuals • From a conservation point of view, there are generally some species of particular interest. These are usually limited in population size and distribution across the wetland. This may provide good focal points for monitoring of threat qualitatively SECTION 1","tokenCount":"4029"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"826a5bdd256a96bb674760eed6615663","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dc65d422-9cf2-41a0-9012-00f0a01c024b/retrieve","id":"1576512920"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"385a7dbb-c631-414a-b303-b97e904dbc48","pagecount":"2","content":"Description of the innovation: Methodology developed to explore existing financial flows in a landscape and their perceived impacts on previously defined landscape objectives. The methodology helps to define flows relevant to achieving objectives and worthwhile for in-depth studies on how to improve/scale up their impacts.Based on the successful pilot experiences in Indonesia and Ghana, the LAFF tool was applied to analyse landscapes in the Central Highlands of Vietnam with the goal of identifying investments that would contribute to landscape and community resilience.Names of top five contributing organizations/entities to this stage:• EcoAgriculture • Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (Netherlands)• Available metrics and tools that enable FSPs to better evaluate the social and environmental performance of their financial portfolios• 4 -Reduced market barriers Contributing Centers/PPA partners:• TBI -Tropenbos International","tokenCount":"129"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fbbeed5bbe6ea51a53601d93b6bd785a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a0e05deb-ce22-4e0b-b6f3-61a56ceac410/retrieve","id":"321374033"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e516027c-1a7e-4ad6-8c6d-7ef20999a89d","pagecount":"20","content":"Production de l'information météorologique et climatique au Sénégal. Document de capitalisation des acquis du projet USAID/CINSERE. Programme de Recherche du CGIAR sur le Changement Climatique, l'Agriculture et la Sécurité Alimentaire (CCAFS). Wageningen, Pays Bas, 20 pages.iii. acquisLa rencontre de consultation pour l'identification des besoins a permis de connaitre les besoins en produits climatiques pour chaque secteur (agriculture, élevage et pêche) tels que proposés par les bénéficiaires. Le tableau 4 présente les différents produits. A travers le projet la qualité des produits qui existent déjà a été améliorée.Actuellement dix-huit ( 18) produits en informations climatiques sont actuellement disponibles ; huit (8) ne sont pas encore entièrement produits. Il s'agit de l'insolation, la prévision à l'échelle locale (en cours), les zones de foudre et zone à risque, la disponibilité en fourrage, la disponibilité en ressources en eau, la prévision de l'intensité de la pluie, les conditions favorables pour la quantité et la qualité des pâturages et les conditions favorables aux maladies et leur localisation.  L'un des défis majeurs liés à la production des informations climatiques est le manque de moyens financiers qui permettent à l'ANACIM de développer des services d' informations climatiques qui répondent à la demande mais aussi de garantir un renforcement de son dispositif avec l'existence de matériel de qualité ainsi que d'un système régulier de renforcement de capacités de son personnel. -utiliser les données de ENACTS pour développer des informations climatiques localisés ; -développer des produits climatiques destinés à l'élevage ; -développer les produits climatiques identifiés par les bénéficiaires et non encore réalisés; -renforcement des capacités de l'ANACIM tant au niveau des compétences/ressources humaines que des équipements requis pour assurer le développement des services climatiques; -renforcer la capacité de stockage et d'analyse des bases de données météorologiques et climatiques.L a prévision saisonnière est une prévision climatique qui a pour objectif de prévoir la tendance des paramètres météorologiques tels que la température et les précipitations pour les trois mois à venir ou plus (jusqu'à 6 mois), à l'échelle du pays, d'une région ou d'une localité. Contrairement aux prévisions à échéance de quelques jours, l'information n'est pas détaillée, mais présentée sous forme de prévisions qualitatives et probabiliste qui renseignent sur les grandes tendances avec des valeurs probables. Cette tendance est exprimée sous forme de trois scénarios types correspondant à trois classes : proche, en dessous ou au-dessus de la moyenne des trente dernières années. Au Sénégal, chaque année, le premier bulletin de la prévision saisonnière des précipitations est fait en fin avril et le début du mois de mai. Ce bulletin est mis à jour à la fin de chaque mois entre fin mai et fin septembre. Au Niveau Régional (pays de l'Afrique Soudano-Sahéliens), les prévisions faites au niveau national sont intégrées pour faire une prévision consensuelle au niveau de la zone Soudanosahélienne lors des fora annuels (PRESSAS). Source : Site web ANACIM","tokenCount":"472"}
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diff --git a/data/part_3/9999184532.json b/data/part_3/9999184532.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2b90708356cb6e490b43a62f30882718","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f5ef3123-24d1-489e-800f-09f05eb07584/retrieve","id":"823927730"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f0d05f09-fd5b-40c6-bc2e-b2945456bb61","pagecount":"36","content":"En este documento se presentan y analizan doce (12) escenarios socioeconómicos sobre el futuro de la agricultura y la seguridad alimentaria nutricional en el corredor seco de Nicaragua al año 2050. A través de estos escenarios se pretende apoyar la toma decisiones en el país para mejorar la resiliencia del sector frente al cambio climático, buscando promover su uso en la formulación de programas, políticas y proyectos.El abordaje metodológico para la creación de los escenarios presentados tuvo como pilar fundamental la identificación y análisis de los factores contextuales que se estima cambiarán e impactarán el sector agropecuario y la seguridad alimentaria en el corredor seco de Nicaragua hasta el año 2050. Esto se logró mediante un proceso sistemático y participativo a través de entrevistas semi estructuradas con informantes claves del país expertos en el nexo agricultura, SAN y el medio ambiente. De los 17 factores de cambio que se identificaron, se priorizaron los más relevantes e inciertos, cuales formaron la base para la construcción de doce escenarios que exploran el futuro de recursos hídricos, gobernanza y políticas públicas, inestabilidad política, conflictividad social y vulnerabilidad, practicas productivas, inversión y financiamiento y degradación ambiental.Conforme se observa en el Mapa 1, el 36.9% del área de Nicaragua es afectado por un grado de sequía alto, conteniendo 63 municipios, mientras en el 11.5% del área de Nicaragua la sequía afecta de forma severa (27 municipios) (FAO, ONU y UE, 2012). Los departamentos más afectados son Madriz, Nueva Segovia, Estelí, León, Chinandega, Managua, Boaco, Chontales, Matagalpa y Rivas. Las zonas del corredor seco en Nicaragua son ecosistemas con características propias, entre las que destaca la poca precipitación, en periodos de entre 6 a 8 meses. Las lluvias son muy irregulares y suelos muy superficiales y pedregosos.El corredor seco de Nicaragua coincide con un territorio en donde se produce la mayor parte de los alimentos que se consumen en el país, principalmente de granos básicos. Es además una zona muy deteriorada y vulnerable, donde se encuentra un activo corredor volcánico, una desigual estructura de tenencia de la tierra y suelos deteriorados y erosionados, producto de la tala desmesurada, que conllevan procesos erosivos que afectan la fertilidad de la tierra y la productividad, especialmente en las zonas de laderas y piemonte de estos territorios.En escenarios futuros la complejidad está determinada por las interacciones en tiempo, espacio y escala, de múltiples factores y condiciones políticas, sociales, económicas, ambientales, demográficas, entre otras.La evaluación del impacto del clima requiere una plena comprensión de procesos íntimamente relacionados como son los cambios socioeconómicos (incluyendo aspectos políticos) y el cambio climático (Berkhout et al. 2002). Tomado en consideración la definición de capacidad adaptativa del IPCC (2014) cómo \"la habilidad de un sistema para ajustarse al cambio climático (incluyendo la variabilidad climática y los eventos extremos) a moderar daños potenciales, aprovechar las oportunidades o hacer frente a sus consecuencias\" podemos concluir que la capacidad adaptativa de un país está condicionada, además, por complejas interacciones políticas, económicas, sociales y ambientales (Adger et al 2003y Allen 2003).Los escenarios futuros (Wilkinson y Kupers 2014, van der Heijden 2005) proporcionan un marco conceptual y empírico a través del cual podemos explorar y tomar en consideración las incertidumbres asociadas a las complejas interacciones socioeconómicas futuras y así diseñar planes/estrategias/programas más robustos o guiar la toma de decisiones sobre adaptación frente al cambio climático (Vervoort et al 2014, Mason-D'Croz et al. 2016). Escenarios son historias del futuro contadas a través de imágenes, números o en palabras. A través de los escenarios, es posible explorar diferentes \"mundos futuros\" con base en la identificación de factores de cambio y la interacción entre éstos. Algunos conceptos que se deben tomar en cuenta para el trabajo con escenarios futuros son:Este concepto está relacionado con la complejidad y remarca que la evolución en tiempo, espacio y escala de los factores socioeconómicos, políticos, ambientales, demográficos, entre otros, es difícil de pronosticar. Aún con el apoyo de herramientas estadísticas, las predicciones determinísticas, la asignación de probabilidades y sus consecuencias para la planificación, conlleva un alto riesgo. Consecuentemente, la exploración de múltiples escenarios futuros debe considerar las incertidumbres asociadas a la evolución de los factores mencionados.El concepto de plausibilidad toma relevancia dada la imposibilidad de predecir y planificar con base en el futuro \"más probable\" en un sistema socioeconómico, político y ambiental dinámico (Mason-D 'Croz et al, 2016). Consecuentemente, en el contexto de escenarios futuros no se habla de \"predicciones\" y tampoco se busca asignar probabilidades a condiciones futuras particulares (Star et al, 2016). Dicho esto, al trabajar con escenarios futuros nos referimos a múltiples futuros plausibles; definiendo plausible como futuros aceptables, válidos o creíbles.El pensamiento en sistemas hace referencia a un análisis holístico e interconectado, que se enfoca en comprender la forma en que se relacionan los componentes de un sistema y cómo estos sistemas trabajan de manera conjunta a través del tiempo y dentro de un sistema mayor. Consistentemente, el trabajo con escenarios futuros debe considerar un acercamiento holístico, que permita ver cada escenario como un sistema complejo y entender las interacciones y relaciones de los factores que lo componen.También llamados \"impulsores\" o \"conductores\" de cambio (en inglés, drivers of change), Hazell y Wood (2008) definen a los factores de cambio como \"cualquier factor natural o inducido por el hombre que directa o indirectamente provoca un cambio en los sistemas de producción agrícola\". En este documento se conceptualiza a los factores de cambio como aquellos factores contextuales que pueden inducir o generar cambios en la agricultura y ganadería, así como en la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional. Dichos factores contextuales pueden ser sociales, económicos, políticos, culturales o ambientales. También pueden ser factores externos que influyan lo que sucede en una determinada localidad, país o región.El enfoque metodológico se apoya en la experiencia del Programa Global de Escenarios Futuros de CCAFS (Mason-D 'Croz et al 2014, Vervoort et al. 2016, Palazzo et al. 2017), y se adaptó al momento sociopolítico de Nicaragua. Adicionalmente, el marco metodológico que se usó permite la creación de múltiples sets (conjuntos) de escenarios. En este sentido, la metodología ha sido adaptativa e innovadora, sin apartarse de los contenidos y encuadres metodológicos requeridos para el diseño, definición y análisis de escenarios futuros. El cuadro 1 presenta las etapas y actividades para construir y analizar escenarios socioeconómicos futuros para Nicaragua.Durante el proceso de construcción de escenarios futuros hay dos momentos críticos: a) la identificación de factores de cambio y b) la priorización de factores de cambio según su importancia para el país/sector y el nivel de incertidumbre sobre su comportamiento futuro. Para el primer caso usamos entrevistas semiestructuradas mientras que para la priorización la hicimos mediante la aplicación de una herramienta en línea. Las actividades restantes fueron realizadas por un equipo de expertos en facilitación de procesos de construcción de escenarios futuros en Latinoamérica.Durante el desarrollo de las entrevistas realizadas al grupo de expertos consultado, se abordaron las siguientes preguntas:• ¿Cuáles son los factores contextuales que, en su opinión, cambiarán el futuro de agricultura y ganadería en el corredor seco de Nicaragua hasta el año 2050?.• ¿Cuáles son los factores contextuales que cambiarán, en su opinión, el futuro de seguridad alimentaria en el corredor seco de Nicaragua hasta el año 2050?.• ¿Cuáles son, en su opinión, los factores del contexto regional (Centroamérica) y global que podrían cambiar el futuro de la agricultura y la seguridad alimentaria en el corredor seco de Nicaragua hasta el año 2050?.En las entrevistas participaron dieciocho líderes y tomadores de decisiones de múltiples sectores y disciplinas relacionadas con la agricultura, el ambiente y la seguridad alimentaria nutricional en Nicaragua, identificados por colegas de CIAT y CCAFS (cuadro 2).Fotografía 1. Ejemplos de agrupación temática de los factores de cambio identificados durante las entrevistas.Para clasificar los factores de cambio se imprimieron todas las respuestas a la encuesta en tiras de papel. De esta manera se simuló lo que se hubiera realizado en un taller presencial. A cada respuesta (factor de cambio) correspondía una tira de papel. Posteriormente se agruparon las respuestas por temáticas y similitud y se nombraron las categorías.Tras procesar la información de las entrevistas, se sistematizaron y clasificaron 17 factores de cambio según su similitud:1. Conectividad e integración regional centroamericana. 2. Tenencia y usos de la tierra. 3. Inversión y financiamiento. 4. Educación, formación y capacitación. 5. Degradación ambiental. 6. Gobernanza, políticas públicas y gestión territorial. 7. Inestabilidad política, conflictividad social y vulnerabilidad. 8. Planificación y ordenamiento territorial. 9. Hábitos de consumo alimenticio. 10. Prácticas productivas. 11. Recursos hídricos. 12. Transferencia de tecnología y asistencia técnica. 13. Migración y cambios demográficos. 14. Acuerdos internacionales. 15. Medios de vida, empleos e ingresos familiares. 16. Acceso y disponibilidad de alimentos. 17. Mercados y cadenas de valor.La selección de factores de cambio con base en su relevancia e incertidumbre se realizó solicitando a cada uno de los expertos entrevistados emitir, mediante una encuesta electrónica, cuáles de las categorías factores de cambio identificadas consideraron más importantes y más inciertos. De los dieciocho expertos entrevistados, diecisiete respondieron la encuesta electrónica y emitieron su valoración. El resultado de la votación se muestra en la figura 1. Los resultados del proceso de valoración de los factores contextuales más inciertos y relevantes se analizaron exhaustivamente y bajo criterio experto entre los consultores y el equipo coordinador. Cuadro 3 muestra los cinco factores con mayor votación en tanto relevancia como incertidumbre.Los resultados del proceso de valoración de los factores contextuales más inciertos y relevantes se analizaron exhaustivamente y bajo criterio experto entre los consultores y el equipo coordinador. Cuadro 3 muestra los cinco factores con mayor votación en tanto relevancia como incertidumbre.Los factores de cambio más relevantes e inciertos formaron la base para la elaboración de los escenarios.Posteriormente, se revisaron los factores de cambio resultantes para cada conjunto, así como los motivos para cada factor de cambio. Para la definición de los ejes, se definieron relaciones de causa y efecto entre factores de cambio y una vez elaborados los ejes de los escenarios, se procedió con la definición de estados opuestos de cada eje. La combinación de los estados opuestos crea un contexto en que ciertas cosas son posibles, y otras no.De este trabajo surgieron los tres conjuntos de escenarios presentados en el presente trabajo.La definición de los estados opuestos de cada eje se realizó definiendo las formas alternativas y mutuamente excluyentes en las que se en el futuro se puede expresar el fenómeno definido. Los opuestos de tipo normativo, es decir de \"bueno versus malo\", fueron descartados ya que estos limitan la generación de nuevos conocimientos en el proceso.Finalmente, para cada uno de los conjuntos, se buscó comprobar que la combinación de los ejes y estados opuestos creara cuatro escenarios interesantes de explorar, y cuyo desarrollo brindara una nueva perspectiva al tema en análisis. Dicha revisión de los escenarios se realizó abordando preguntas como las siguientes:1. ¿Los cuatro escenarios son plausibles? 2. ¿Son interesantes de explorar considerando el futuro de la agricultura y SAN en Nicaragua? 3. ¿Son desafiantes para el presente? 4. ¿Nos dan nuevas perspectivas a la temática en análisis? 5. ¿Son diferentes entre ellos?4.5. Creación de escenarios: Identificación de ejes y estados opuestos 5. Escenarios futuros para la agricultura y seguridad alimentaria en el corredor seco de NicaraguaCon base en los factores de cambio priorizados y convertidos en ejes, y sus respectivos estados opuestos, se construyó tres conjuntos de escenarios. Para esto, se agrupó los factores de cambio en pares y con cada par se generó cuadrantes cruzando los ejes y estados opuestos, tal como se muestra en la figura 2. El resultado del cruce de los tres pares de factores y estados opuestos se puede ver en el cuadro 4. En este primer conjunto de escenarios fue construido para explorar las relaciones entre el uso y el manejo que se le podría dar al recursó hídrico combinándolo con el enfoque de las políticas públicas.Escenario 1: Exceso húmedo A pesar de que existe un marco legal e institucional fuerte y consolidado que define claramente el carácter no mercantil del agua, persisten importantes conflictos por el uso y manejo del recurso. Se ha impulsado un intenso proceso de negociación intersectorial, así como una cuantiosa inversión pública en grandes obras de infraestructura hídrica, educación, energía, salud y vivienda. Sin embargo, la falta de definición de distritos de riego, cuotas de distribución según los usos y planes de monitoreo del balance hídrico, promueven un uso intensivo del recurso, que amenaza su sostenibilidad.• Recurso hídrico amenazado por sobreexplotación.• Inadecuado uso y manejo del recurso.• Acceso y distribución inequitativa del agua.• Existencia de un marco institucional y normativo.• Estado invierte en infraestructura hídrica.• Existe voluntad política para la resolución de conflictos.• Formular un plan de gestión integrada del recurso hídrico. • Planificación territorial con enfoque de cuenca.• Realizar procesos de negociación público-privada.Un Estado fuerte que ha establecido normas y procedimientos claros y concretos de gestión y manejo integral de los recursos hídricos desde un enfoque de macro y microcuenca, ha permitido la conformación de un plan regional de seguridad hídrica que garantiza una distribución equitativa del recurso, al tiempo que un uso sostenible del mismo. Se han hecho importantes inversiones públicas y privadas en obras de conservación, retención y almacenamiento, y ha habido un gran desarrollo de tecnologías orientadas a la instalación masiva de sistemas de micro riego, cosechas de agua y geomembranas, entre otros. Las comunidades locales forman parte activa y permanente de los procesos de planeamiento y monitoreo.• Acceso a financiamiento y recursos para hacer efectiva la aplicación de las políticas públicas. • Plena apropiación comunitaria de los planes y políticas existentes.• Marco institucional y normativo orientado a la gestión sostenible del agua. • Prácticas agrícolas permiten la recarga acuífera.• Participación local y comunitaria en la gestión del recurso.• Definir presupuestos participativos para la gestión del recurso hídrico. • Disponibilidad y adaptación de tecnología asequible. • Vincular las experiencias y prácticas locales y comunitarias a las políticas y planes regionales y nacionales.La intensidad y voracidad en el uso del recurso hídrico por parte de grandes grupos privados vinculados a la agroexportación y un Estado cómplice y clientelar que ha definido un marco normativo e institucional a la medida de los intereses gremiales y económicos, amenazan la seguridad hídrica y alimentaria de la región. Políticas que incentivan el extractivismo y la sobreexplotación, aunadas a un acceso restringido y a una distribución inequitativa del recurso hídrico en términos de calidad y cantidad, terminan por configurar un contexto de alta conflictividad social y enfrentamiento entre sectores, producto de los privilegios otorgados.• Conflictividad por el uso, acceso y distribución del recurso hídrico . • Amenaza de escasez y degradación del recurso hídrico. • Altos índices de corrupción e inequidad social.• Existen fuentes de inversión extranjera y financiamiento.• Existe una base de comunidades organizadas para reclamar derechos.• Diversificar la economía territorial.• Promover cadenas de valor en la producción agrícola. • Aplicar planes de gestión integrada del recurso hídrico. • Fortalecer procesos de negociación y empoderamiento comunitario.Un Estado fuerte que ha establecido normas y procedimientos claros y concretos de gestión y manejo integral de los recursos hídricos desde un enfoque de macro y microcuenca, ha permitido la conformación de un plan regional de seguridad hídrica que garantiza una distribución equitativa del recurso, al tiempo que un uso sostenible del mismo. Se han hecho importantes inversiones públicas y privadas en obras de conservación, retención y almacenamiento, y ha habido un gran desarrollo de tecnologías orientadas a la instalación masiva de sistemas de micro riego, cosechas de agua y geomembranas, entre otros. Las comunidades locales forman parte activa y permanente de los procesos de planeamiento y monitoreo.• Inequidad en el acceso y distribución del agua.• Estructura institucional y normativa privilegia a grandes productores.• Experiencia en manejo eficiente del recurso hídrico. • Privados internalizan los beneficios del manejo sostenible y el flujo de servicios ecosistémicos hídricos, para minimizar costos emergentes de acciones tipo reactivas para la adaptación.• Generalizar las lecciones aprendidas promoviendo una gestión participativa. • Fortalecimiento de estructuras de control ciudadano. • Descentralización y desconcentración de la gestión del recurso hídrico.En este conjunto de escenarios queremos explorar los escenarios que surgen al combinar la toma de decisiones del tipo verticalista o participativo con modelos de producción.Las políticas de un aparato estatal centralizado orientadas a la promoción de las exportaciones, han promovido un cambio sustancial en el modelo agro-productivo, a través del cual grandes extensiones de monocultivos han sido sustituidas por productos agropecuarios diversificados, debido al impulso de un modelo corporativo basado en una importante variedad de productos agrícolas no tradicionales, en respuesta a una creciente demanda del mercado internacional. Una cuantiosa inversión pública y privada en tecnologías, infraestructura y procesos de mecanización y automatización han derivado en la consolidación de un modelo agro-productivo diversificado, pero poco intensivo en mano de obra. Si bien algunos grupos de pequeños y medianos productores organizados han logrado sumarse al modelo y acceder a nuevos mercados externos, persiste una marcada desatención a las demandas y necesidades del sector agro-productivo local y campesino por parte del Estado, que contribuyen al empobrecimiento de las comunidades y el territorio.• Incorporación de cadenas de valor a la agricultura familiar y campesina. • Inestabilidad de los empleos y los ingresos.• Inseguridad alimentaria y nutricional.• Dependencia del mercado externo.• La producción agrícola articulada al mercado internacional.• Disponibilidad de inversión y financiamiento externo.• Modificar la matriz productiva fortaleciendo el mercado interno. • Promover procesos de gestión participativa para el desarrollo de modelos agro-productivos. • Ampliar la oferta local de productos alimenticios miento comunitario.Un alto nivel de involucramiento local en la toma de decisiones producto de una elevada capacidad de organización social, ha permitido la consolidación de un modelo diversificado que promueve la especialización y la incorporación de valor agregado a los procesos productivos, tanto para el consumo local como para la exportación hacia selectos nichos del mercado internacional. Un intenso proceso de planeación y ordenamiento territorial participativo conlleva al uso de la tierra de acuerdo con su vocación y potencialidades, promoviendo la difusión de prácticas agroecológicas y climáticamente inteligentes. Dicha diversificación productiva ha derivado en el mejoramiento de las condiciones sociales y económicas de las comunidades locales, así como en un notable incremento de la seguridad y la soberanía alimentaria en la región, ampliando la variedad y el valor nutricional de las dietas.• Recuperación y rescate de técnicas, productos y semillas tradicionales y ancestrales. • Fortalecimiento del mercado local.• Ampliación de la oferta de productos agrícolas para el mercado nacional y externo. • Estabilidad en la estructura productiva e institucional. • Implementación generalizada de prácticas agroecológicas adaptadas al clima.• Fomento al desarrollo de la agricultura familiar y campesina.• Ejecución de un plan de mejoramiento de la calidad nutricional de la dieta que incorpore productos y prácticas tradicionales. • Fortalecer la capacidad organizativa local y las alianzas público-privadas. • Promover una cultura institucional descentralizada y participativa.Un modelo agro-productivo de carácter extractivista, concentrado en pocos rubros y orientado a la exportación, pone de manifiesto el estrecho vínculo existente entre poderosos grupos económicos vinculados a la industria agroalimentaria transnacional y un aparato estatal autoritario y coercitivo que promueve y facilita el avance de los monocultivos, la concentración de grandes extensiones de tierra en pocas manos y la expansión de la frontera agrícola. La enorme inequidad en el acceso y distribución de los recursos, la profundización de la pobreza y la emigración, así como la inestabilidad de los empleos y fuentes de ingreso, incrementan el descontento y la conflictividad social, a la que el gobierno responde con un recrudecimiento de la represión política y la militarización.• Clientelismo y corrupción en la cultura política .• Extractivismo del modelo productivo.• Precariedad de los empleos y fuentes de ingreso.• Emigración y abandono de fincas.• Inseguridad alimentaria.• Productividad y competitividad del modelo agrícola.• Fuerte inversión extranjera.• Establecer una banca estatal de desarrollo que favorezca a los pequeños y medianos productores. • Formular planes de desarrollo agrícola que promuevan un modelo productivo sostenible. • Fortalecer el mercado local y los encadenamientos productivos. • Descentralizar la estructura institucional vinculada al sector agrícola. • Fortalecer estructuras descentralizadas y autónomas en la toma de decisiones.El Estado ha hecho un esfuerzo por consolidar espacios de participación y transparencia con institucionalidades inclusivas, promoviendo el involucramiento local y comunitario en la toma de decisiones. Aunque persiste una desigual estructura de tenencia de la tierra que favorece la continuidad de un modelo agro-productivo no diversificado, se aprovechan las diversas condiciones agroclimáticas, edáficas y ecológicas del territorio para el establecimiento de un número reducido de cultivos extensivos no tradicionales de alto valor agregado y fuerte demanda en los mercados internacionales, como por ejemplo las fibras naturales. Una sólida estructura asociativa de base local permite desarrollar encadenamientos productivos que amplían la oferta de empleo y mejoran los ingresos y condiciones de vida. No obstante, la consolidación de un modelo agro productivo poco diversificado y orientado al mercado internacional a través de cultivos no tradicionales, genera un detrimento en la producción y abastecimiento local de alimentos que amenaza la seguridad y soberanía alimentaria.• Estructuras de comercialización poco desarrolladas. • Dependencia de alimentos importados.• Uso de insumos agroquímicos.• Eco etiquetados, certificaciones ambientales y denominaciones de origen. • Especialización productiva.• Organización social de la producción.• Limitada emigración y estabilidad demográfica.• Ampliar la oferta y consumo de productos alimenticios locales provenientes de otras zonas del país. • Desarrollar una estructura de apoyo a la comercialización. • Promover modelos y prácticas productivas sostenibles con tecnologías limpias. • Impulsar formas asociativas de producción y propiedad de la tierra.Finalmente, el tercer conjunto de escenarios presta atención a escenarios donde se presta atención a los servicios ecosistémicos y al acceso o no financiamiento externo.Escenario 9: Los Tacayanes La poca disponibilidad de fuentes de financiamiento externo y la falta de inversión extranjera han provocado un retraimiento del modelo agroexportador, en favor de otros medios de vida como por ejemplo el ecoturismo.Este proceso ha apoyado el fortalecimiento de la capacidad de organización de las comunidades locales y campesinas, conformando cooperativas de producción de micro y pequeña escala a través de esquemas de economía social y solidaria. Los pequeños productores organizados han hecho importantes esfuerzos autogestionarios de concientización ambiental, sensibilización y capacitación que han logrado reducir las malas prácticas y el uso de insumos agroquímicos en las fincas. La promoción de planes comunitarios de reforestación y ordenamiento ambiental, la difusión de prácticas agroecológicas, la incorporación de la agricultura familiar a las cadenas de valor vinculadas al mercado local y el fomento de microemprendimientos cooperativos con buenas prácticas, han ido impulsando un proceso de regeneración de ecosistemas y agro paisajes que contrastan con el deterioro heredado del modelo agroexportador.• Integración de la economía local al mercado nacional e internacional. • Ausencia de políticas públicas específicas para el territorio. • Atraer inversión nacional y extranjera para el desarrollo del territorio.• Organización social de la producción • Desarrollo de modelos de economía social y solidaria • Microemprendimientos promueven procesos de regeneración• El Estado y sus instituciones incorporan a los planes nacionales políticas, programas y proyectos dirigidos al desarrollo integral del corredor seco. • Promover y estimular procesos de inversión público-privada que potencien las nuevas ofertas económicas y productivas del territorio. • Desarrollar iniciativas de apoyo que incorporen la nueva oferta productiva del territorio a los programas y estrategias nacionales de comercialización.• Alentar el emprendedurismo local en medios de vida alternativos como el turismo rural, el ecoturismo, entre otros.La obtención de préstamos y créditos con entes financieros internacionales y el financiamiento de la cooperación internacional, ha permitido una inversión millonaria en la promoción de un plan regional de restauración de bienes y servicios ecosistémicos vinculados a mercados globales de carbono. La recuperación de suelos y cobertura boscosa, el fomento de prácticas agroecológicas y climáticamente inteligentes y la disponibilidad y asequibilidad de tecnologías limpias, aumentan considerablemente la elasticidad y resiliencia de los ecosistemas y agro paisajes. A través de la consolidación de alianzas público-privadas se invierte en la ampliación y mejoramiento de la infraestructura de soporte para el aprovechamiento de la oferta de atractivos turísticos.• Romper la dependencia del financiamiento externo para la restauración de servicios ecosistémicos. • Aumentar la oferta económica y productiva vinculada a la restauración ecosistémica.• La restauración ecosistémica amplía la oferta económica y productiva del territorio. • Modelos de alianza públicos-privadas reducen conflictividad y potencian la participación de múltiples sectores socioeconómicos. • Incorporación de valor agregado a la producción agropecuaria por el uso de tecnologías limpias.• El Estado dispone de fondos públicos para la implementación de un plan nacional de restauración y rehabilitación de ecosistemas y agro paisajes . • Incorporar al sistema financiero mecanismos para el aprovechamiento de nuevas ofertas económicas y productivas. • Desarrollar programas de acompañamiento y asistencia institucional para el uso de tecnologías limpias.La fragilidad institucional y el alto grado de conflictividad social ahuyentan la inversión extranjera y restringen el acceso a fuentes de financiamiento externo. Una drástica caída en la calidad y estabilidad de los empleos y fuentes de ingreso fomenta, desde una lógica de la necesidad individual, prácticas locales de sobreexplotación de los recursos naturales que producen un profundo deterioro del soporte productivo y natural del territorio. Avanzan los procesos de desertificación y se reducen y degradan las ofertas económicas y productivas del territorio. En un contexto de marcada pobreza e inseguridad alimentaria y nutricional, se intensifica la migración y el abandono progresivo de un territorio vulnerable que ha perdido su capacidad de soporte socio productivo.• Contener la migración y el abandono progresivo del campo. • Estabilidad social y fortalecimiento institucional.• Promover el desarrollo de formas de organización social de la producción.• Puesta en valor del potencial del capital social y productivo del territorio.• Declarar el corredor seco como zona de emergencia ambiental, social y productiva. • El Estado y sus instituciones desarrollan políticas y planes de contención y desarrollo. • Fomentar el desarrollo de proyectos y estrategias dirigidos a la creación y fortalecimiento de formas asociativas de producción.Se afianza en la región un modelo productivo de corte extractivista orientado a la exportación. La explotación minera y agroforestal, la expansión de la frontera agrícola y la extensión de monocultivos a gran escala, provocan drásticos procesos de degradación ambiental que deterioran sensiblemente la oferta de bienes y servicios ecosistémicos. A través de la inversión extranjera directa y la obtención de créditos provenientes de instituciones financieras internacionales, se realizan cuantiosas inversiones en obras de infraestructura concesionadas que consolidan la conectividad del territorio y la plena articulación de este modelo productivo con el mercado global.• Revertir la degradación ambiental derivada de un modelo productivo de corte extractivista. • El modelo productivo fomenta la expansión de la frontera agrícola.• Los recursos invertidos en infraestructura promueven la conectividad del territorio. • Economía local articulada al mercado global.• Autoridades locales incorporan a sus territorios planes y prácticas de restauración de ecosistemas y agro paisajes. • Desarrollar un plan de fortalecimiento de la economía local que contribuya a contener la emigración y la expansión de la frontera agrícola, a través del fomento de nuevas oportunidades económicas y productivas.Los escenarios futuros explorativos son considerados una herramienta que permite visualizar futuros plausibles que aporten a la formulación de estrategias, políticas, planes y proyectos. El presente trabajo desarrolla una exploración de futuros inciertos sobre la agricultura y seguridad alimentaria nutricional bajo los efectos de la variabilidad y el cambio climático en el corredor seco de Nicaragua. Con ello, se busca ampliar el espectro de posibles desafíos y oportunidades socioeconómicos, ambientales, y políticos que pueden afectar el sector agropecuario y ambiental del país, y apoyar la toma de decisiones sobre la planificación y las inversiones a mediano y largo plazo.Instituciones del sector público responsabilidades sobre el sector agropecuario, la gestión de los recursos naturales y los bienes y servicios ecosistémicos tienen en los escenarios futuros una sólida base para formular propuestas concretas fundamentadas en los resultados del proceso y la metodología utilizada.Los doce escenarios fueron desarrollados y analizados desde un enfoque de conocimiento experto basado en los aportes de informantes clave de la academia, el sector público, organizaciones no gubernamentales y la cooperación internacional, con la finalidad de explorar diferentes contextos futuros que condicionarían el desarrollo del sector agropecuario y la seguridad alimentaria nutricional en el corredor seco de Nicaragua hasta el año 2050. Dicha construcción estuvo fundamentada en la identificación de impulsores o factores de cambio a través de entrevistas a profundidad y su valoración en términos de relevancia e incertidumbre a expertos mediante una encuesta electrónica.Principales aportes de las entrevistas realizadas a expertos, según categorías de factores de cambio• Afectación de suelos por condiciones hídricas. Degradación de suelos. Suelos ya de por sí bastante pobres, pero además afectados por problemas de lavado, de degradación de suelos.• Afectación de los suelos por factores naturales (precipitaciones) y también inducido por el hombre en términos de las prácticas agropecuarias que se utilizan en el manejo de los suelos.• El tema de acceso al agua es crucial. No sólo el agua de las precipitaciones. Problemas de agua subterránea.Limitaciones muy fuertes de agua subterránea.• ¿Cómo resolver el tema de cosechas de agua para poder aprovecharla para la producción agrícola y pecuaria? Eso requiere de inversiones cuantiosas y con algunas tecnologías, que en el caso de Nicaragua son muy incipientes.• Geomembranas para construir reservorios en el suelo que ayuden a hacer más eficientes las capturas de agua, en dimensiones más grandes. Esta tecnología es muy escasa y costosa.• Este tipo de tecnologías deben estar disponibles de manera masificada, accesible a los pequeños productores, eficiente.• Aprovechar el agua en sistemas de micro riego, riego por goteo en pequeñas parcelas para agricultura intensiva.• Capacidad de retención de agua de la tierra.• Pensar en el gran reservorio, que es la cuenca. Hacer acciones y tomar precauciones. Obras para cosechas de agua, reservorios.• Todo debe hacerse con el enfoque macro de la cuenca y también de la microcuenca. Esto trasciende a un territorio específico, o a un municipio. El territorio de la cuenca es mucho mayor, y es parte de una dinámica regional.• Obras de conservación de suelo y agua, retención de la escorrentía, reservorios, obras de captación y almacenamiento.• Trabajar con un enfoque de cuenca y microcuenca.• Contaminación del agua.• Debemos asegurar el agua para el consumo humano y luego para otros usos, principalmente la agricultura.La calidad del agua depende del uso.• Calidad del agua.• Acceso al agua, tanto para el consumo humano como para el riego.• El acceso al agua es cada vez más escaso.• Si hay acceso a agua, ésta es de poca calidad e insuficiente.• Gestión integrada del recurso hídrico.• El agua para uso personal, uso doméstico, plantas, animales, cultivos.• Los diferentes usos del recurso agua. Eso hará diferencias para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria y también los sistemas de producción.• Gestión integral de cuencas.• Gobernanza hídrica.• Acceso y uso de los recursos hídricos.• Protección de los recursos hídricos.• La disponibilidad de alimentos a nivel de familia depende de la disponibilidad agua para producir.• Agua para la preparación de los alimentos, higiene y aseo en las familias y escuelas.• Las políticas públicas de cada país obedecen a los intereses y prioridades políticas de cada país.• Las políticas públicas no logran tocar piso alrededor de las iniciativas, los intereses y las necesidades locales.• Las políticas nacionales. No logra permear las políticas nacionales y las políticas territoriales.• Las experiencias prácticas de la gente se deben vincular a las políticas y planes nacionales.• Políticas que incentivan el extractivismo y la sobreexplotación de los recursos naturales, en detrimento de la seguridad alimentaria.• Relacionamiento de las causas de esos procesos migratorios con asuntos de gobernanza regional, nacional, global.• La integración supondría un arreglo político institucional a nivel de los gobiernos, lo cual pasa también por un proceso de estabilidad y una reducción de los niveles de incertidumbre, un mayor nivel de confianza, mayores niveles de seguridad ciudadana.• Hay una necesidad de hacer muchas inversiones en las instituciones, en capital humano. Todavía en las instituciones las capacidades son bastante limitadas.• Marco normativo forestal. Política forestal. Rediseñar la política forestal. La política forestal y el marco normativo forestal es parte de los desastres.• Grandes lobbys.• Institucionalidad. Crear una institucionalidad a prueba de balas; público-privada, liderada por el sector privado.• Déficit de institucionalidad. Se debe superar ese déficit de institucionalidad para promover la inversión.• El déficit institucional produce muchos desequilibrios: pobreza, desigualdad, destrucción de recursos naturales y de la biodiversidad.• Lo más importante tiene que ver con la construcción de institucionalidades que sean inclusivas, que funcionen.• La construcción de institucionalidad es el factor clave.• La fragilidad institucional ahuyenta la inversión.• Institucionalidad alrededor de organizaciones más solidarias-sociales.• Institucionalidad más gremial, más económica.• Políticas de descentralización que hubo hasta el 2005, más poder en los municipios, toma de decisiones a nivel local e invertir desde la planificación territorial todo eso se ha perdido.• La toma de decisión de los actores a nivel local se ha reducido.• Una planificación territorial desde el nivel municipal.Estos planes eran avalados para recibir apoyo por los fondos destinados para los municipios. Eso se ha perdido.• La emergencia de dinámicas muy fuertes que reclaman identidades, espacios de participación, transparencia, instituciones creíbles.• Relacionamiento de las causas de esos procesos migratorios con asuntos de gobernanza regional, nacional, global.• La integración supondría un arreglo político institucional a nivel de los gobiernos, lo cual pasa también por un proceso de estabilidad y una reducción de los niveles de incertidumbre, un mayor nivel de confianza mayores niveles de seguridad ciudadana.• Perspectivas muy negativas en cuanto a índices de ingresos, de consumo, y de seguridad alimentaria y nutricional. Desempleo, inestabilidad. Temas migratorios.• Estabilidad de los ingresos y calidad de los ingresos.• La migración masiva está vinculada directamente al corredor seco y tiene que ver con problemas de la estabilidad intraanual de los ingresos.• Desempleo.• Acceso a tierra.• Hay un problema en la calidad y estabilidad de los ingresos y en la calidad de los empleos. Esa es la razón de la deforestación y de la violencia rural.• Sustento familiar y generación de ingresos.• El acceso y la disponibilidad a la seguridad alimentaria también viene por el mercado. Si el mercado funciona y la gente tiene ingresos, la gente va a tener acceso a alimentos.• Entre el 70 y el 85% de los alimentos son comprados.• El aporte de la agricultura familiar a la seguridad alimentaria está entre 25 y 30%.• En términos de alimentos, la dependencia de estos hogares del mercado es muy alta.• Si algún miembro de los hogares puede acceder a otras fuentes de ingresos, pudiera ser que hasta tengan mejor seguridad alimentaria que antes, que dependían más de la agricultura.• Inseguridad alimentaria estacional. Hay momentos en el año en que las familias no logran cubrir necesidades energéticas y proteicas. Fundamentalmente en los períodos más críticos del año hay muchas dificultades.• Factores internos a nivel socioeconómico y a nivel sociopolítico, pero vinculados estrechamente con la cuestión de los mercados internacionales que pueden convertirse en un incentivo importante para poder lograr algunos cambios.• Situación sociopolítica bastante aguda en la región que está expulsando gente. Eso agrava las condiciones y puede tener un impacto negativo en la seguridad alimentaria de la población a largo plazo.• Mucha incertidumbre respecto a los temas de la estabilidad de los países. Esa inestabilidad afecta las decisiones de la gente y de qué hacer.• Territorios que expulsan población. Zonas secas que expulsan población por falta de oportunidades.• En Centroamérica hay alrededor de 100 territorios que son expulsores de población.• Una región con una densidad de población muy alta, en un territorio pequeño.• El déficit institucional produce muchos desequilibrios: pobreza, desigualdad, destrucción de recursos naturales y de la biodiversidad.• Lo más importante tiene que ver con la construcción de institucionalidades que sean inclusivas, que funcionen.• La construcción de institucionalidad es el factor clave.• La construcción de institucionalidad tiene que ver con la calidad humana, con la calidad de las instituciones con la legitimidad, con la cultura institucional.• Capacidad organizativa, capital humano, funcionamiento en redes, capacidad de innovación.• Modelos institucionales más inclusivos. Que creen condiciones que favorezcan todo este conjunto de cosas que se requieren.• Capacidad de generar ingresos. Baja capacidad productiva.• Inestabilidad política. Inequidad, desigualdad. Inestabilidad social. Inseguridad regional. Pobreza.• Hay una inestabilidad política regional que no llama a los flujos de inversión.• La migración es principalmente de jóvenes, últimamente han sido familias enteras, pero la tendencia es más de los jóvenes migrando a Costa Rica, Estados Unidos o España.• La demanda local de productos agropecuarios se ha estancado.• Fomento al empleo y alternativas a la producción tradicional.• Esa es la base del estallido; una gran masa social inconforme, porque se encuentra sin posibilidades.• Altos costos de producción.• Las buenas prácticas y los esfuerzos territoriales en términos de adaptación • Estrategias productivas sostenibles y que puedan asegurar la seguridad alimentaria.• Las políticas y prácticas extractivistas.• Incentivos a actividades extractivistas como la minería, la explotación agroforestal, la sobreexplotación de los manglares, los monocultivos a gran escala, la sobreexplotación del recurso hídrico.• Nos está ganando más la adaptación autónoma; que realmente es sobrevivencia, no adaptación.• Agroecología, producción orgánica.• Las mejores áreas productivas y sus reservas de agua están orientadas a producir azúcar y tabaco.• ¿Cuántas áreas bien condicionadas tenemos habilitadas para producir alimentos nutritivos para la gente, basados en un análisis de nuestra dieta?• Serios problemas de competitividad y productividad.• Mejorar la productividad, hacer mejor uso de los recursos naturales, aprovechar el agua, hacer un manejo de suelo, introducir prácticas de adaptación.• Mercados, productividad, acceso a la innovación tecnológica.• Dinámica antrópica y la economía territorial que retira la cobertura boscosa.• Una economía que elimina la cobertura forestal en una zona de alta sensibilidad a los cortes y a la escasez de agua hoy tiene una economía que ya no es sostenible, y se sigue corriendo hacia arriba.• Desarrollo de una economía basada en la diversidad forestal, con una articulación territorial funcional.• Economía con cobertura forestal.• Una economía territorial atractiva para los jóvenes, ingresos por migración.• Diversificación de los ingresos que estabilice el ingreso interanual e intraanual.• La gente deforesta porque necesita el flujo monetario.• Se reforesta el territorio por abandono poblacional.• Se reforesta el territorio para una economía de mayor productividad y de mayor estabilidad de ingresos.• Estrategias de desarrollo de economías territoriales, más allá de la agricultura.• Modelo de desarrollo territorial.• El modelo de desarrollo territorial tradicional ha estado fuertemente vinculado a un único modelo producti-vo. Eliminar la biodiversidad para privilegiar una única variedad de cultivo. Llevamos eso a las economías de ladera y ahí esto no sirve.• En las economías de ladera debimos haber mantenido el modelo mesoamericano de las milpas reales. combinaciones de diferentes productos como maíz, ayote, frijoles.• Retiramos todo, pusimos un solo producto.• Diversificación • La economía agropecuaria no es diversa, no es productiva, no es estable, no garantiza un estándar de vida como el que garantizan las remesas.• La conquista de mercados externos, no necesariamente internos.• Se pueden aprovechar nichos de mercado.• El subsidio del consumidor hacia los grandes productores.• Esfuerzos para acompañar a pequeños agricultores a incorporar prácticas agrícolas que puedan revertir algunos procesos de degradación de los suelos y mejorar o sostener algunas condiciones.• Método de cultivos bio intensivos. Incorporación de prácticas orgánicas.• Acceso a los insumos, acceso a tecnologías.• Acceso a ciertas tecnologías alternativas para la agricultura sostenible.• La agricultura con combustibles fósiles a largo plazo no es sostenible. Aunque tenga un impacto significativo en mejorar productividad, pero a largo plazo es no es sostenible.• Al hablar de agricultura familiar, de pequeños productores de subsistencia, la agricultura de autoconsumo en su gran mayoría abastece los mercados internos.• Hay nichos de pequeños agricultores que producen otro tipo de agricultura más intensiva que tocan otros mercados o que tienen potencial para exportar.• Acceso a mercados para exportar.• Agricultura a pequeña y mediana escala. 49,4% es agricultura familiar. 50,6% agricultura de modelo más empresarial.• La agricultura de pequeña y mediana escala en la región tiene alrededor de 24 millones de fincas. 63% son pobres; 50% no tienen electricidad, 33% sin tierra propia. Esta agricultura produce el 50% del valor agregado de producción agrícola.• La región tiene una tendencia creciente, cada día más alta, de importación de alimentos. En 1990 importábamos el 23% y para 2013 importamos el 41% de la canasta alimentaria.• Dependencia cada vez mayor de los alimentos importados.• Déficit alimentario muy alto.• Déficit alimentario muy alto. Esta región vive del agro.• Productividad. Los volúmenes de producción de la región están fundados en crecimiento de área. Tenemos más porque sembramos más área, no porque seamos más productivos.• En términos de rendimiento físico, lo datos son bajísimos.• Producimos cada vez menos alimentos per cápita e importamos más.• Una economía del territorio.• De acuerdo con los potenciales de la tierra, la mayor parte del territorio tiene vocación forestal. Sin embargo la expansión de la ganadería está afectando seriamente.• La ganadería se ha extendido y está ocupando un gran porcentaje de tierra que no tiene vocación para ello. Un 70% o quizás más de esos suelos tiene una vocación forestal.• Poca diversificación de los cultivos. Los cultivos son maíz, frijol, sorgo. No hay gran diversificación.• La poca diversificación en los cultivos trae consigo una baja en los potenciales alimentario y nutricional. Maíz y frijol son los cultivos de subsistencia.• Acceso y desarrollo de tecnología. Asistencia técnica, desarrollo y acceso a tecnología, principalmente por parte del gobierno.• Contaminación del agua.• El modelo agrícola tradicional, muy intensivo en términos de mano de obra, encuentra limitaciones.• La organización del trabajo cambia mucho debido a la poca población disponible para esos trabajos. En cuanto el cambio de modelo de agricultura demanda mano de obra, hay que pensar si la dotación de fuerza de trabajo necesaria va a estar disponible. Hay que tener en cuenta los cambios demográficos. Cambios organizacionales del trabajo. Fin de un modelo de agricultura basado en la disponibilidad abundante de fuerza de trabajo.• Los que están quedando en las fincas son adultos mayores, que están dependiendo de las remesas.• Para garantizar una buena calidad nutricional la base es la integración agricultura y ganadería no solo de especies mayores, sino también menores (aves, cerdos, peliguey).• Los vegetales son poco consumidos por las familias. Es un problema cultural.• Muchas familias están abandonando sus sistemas de producción y dedicándose a otra cosa.• Integrar la agroindustria o la pequeña industria a los sistemas de producción agrícola. Obtención productos ya transformados.• Se han hecho algunas mejoras de productividad, pero concentradas en los monocultivos como el arroz.• La tecnología está concentrada para mejorar la productividad de los grandes cultivos como caña, arroz, soya, maní.• El conocimiento, la ciencia y la tecnología se focalizan siempre para producir los volúmenes de producción y mejorar la productividad de los grandes empresarios.• La tecnología concentrada siempre al servicio de la gran producción.• El mejoramiento científico, las ciencias para producir los cambios tecnológicos vienen de afuera.• Las tierras y los valles fértiles donde se pueden producir los alimentos están concentrados en pequeños grupos.• Las planicies y los micro valles están en manos de los productores más aptos en cuanto a conocimientos y acceso a recursos, como los tabacaleros.• No se trabaja en mejorar la productividad de los cultivos como el frijol, sino que se avanza en áreas de siembra.• El principal insumo de compra masiva son los glifosatos, los herbicidas. Los herbicidas son el primer eslabón diseñado por la ciencia para debilitar los sistemas inmunológicos de las plantas.• Los fungicidas, insecticidas y fertilizantes.• Hay que comprar la semilla, el fertilizante, los insecticidas, para producir alimentos. Ya de por sí esos alimentos no son sanos, están alterados bioquímicamente.• Modelo agrícola pensado desde las transnacionales. Desmontar ese sistema es difícil, porque la contracara que es la agroecología no tiene un dispositivo científico para reemplazar eso.• La agroecología es más compleja que la agricultura química, requiere asociar cultivos, recombinar cultivos, remplazar cultivos. Y es altamente intensiva en términos de trabajo.• Las prácticas agroecológicas recuperan los suelos degradados, la fertilidad y la capacidad productiva.• No hay iniciativas serias para reemplazar la agricultura de insumos, con técnicos mediocres.• Modelo de agricultura concentrada, monocultivista. Donde los especialistas son chinos o norteamericanos.• Modelos de agricultura química, o combinada, o agroecológica.• Con la agricultura química la dependencia es total, y los márgenes de ganancia son muy reducidos. Además requiere de universidad, técnicos, ciencia y tecnología, más un dispositivo de acompañamiento.• La disponibilidad de agua para producción de alimentos es crítica.• Granos básicos, frutas, legumbres. Alimentación de las familias en el corredor seco.• Producción de alimentos vinculantes al patrón de alimentación de la zona.• En la zona se producen commodities que no necesariamente están vinculadas a asegurar la seguridad alimentaria.• En temas de adaptación, habría que cambiar el patrón alimentario que tenemos.• Estamos acostumbrados al consumo de ciertas variedades de alimentos.• La influencia del mercado externo de comida rápida ha repercutido mucho en la dieta de las familias.• Comprar comida chatarra es más barato.• El patrón alimentario en la zona del corredor seco es bastante escaso.• Las inversiones y las invitaciones a invertir capital extranjero en nuestros países han estado orientadas principalmente alrededor del extractivismo.• Incentivos a actividades extractivistas como la minería, la explotación agroforestal, la sobreexplotación de los manglares, los monocultivos a gran escala, la sobreexplotación del recurso hídrico.• Gran incentivo a la inversión extranjera y local directamente relacionada a la sobreexplotación de los recursos naturales, que a su vez son el escudo con el que nos tenemos que proteger.• Hay una necesidad de hacer muchas inversiones en las instituciones, en capital humano. Todavía en las instituciones las capacidades son bastante limitadas.• Falta de inversión pública y privada directa que podría generar un entorno de muchas dificultades para la generación de empleo.• Perspectivas muy negativas en cuanto a índices de ingresos, de consumo, y de seguridad alimentaria y nutricional. Desempleo, inestabilidad. Temas migratorios.• La combinación de gran inversión privada e inversión pública catalizadora, en base a los activos de cada territorio.• La economía de la región es una economía de servicios. El producto bruto de la región es servicios.• No se industrializa gran cosa ni el agro es lo más importante.• Remesas y migración. Una región con alta conectividad.• Transnacionales agroalimentarias. Walmart, Carguill, Lala, etc. • La dinámica de las inversiones transnacionales también es estructural, y tiene que ver con la configuración de la región en términos de conectividad.• La dinámica de la inversión privada es una fuerza transformadora muy importante. Los gobiernos no van a transformar nada; pueden facilitar que se movilice la inversión.• La inversión privada es una fuerza transformadora para mejorar la productividad.• El papel de la inversión privada es fundamental. Modifica drásticamente la tasa de productividad.• Un alto volumen de inversión privada hace que la incidencia en productividad sea muy alta.• La fragilidad institucional ahuyenta la inversión. • Inversiones. Lograr movilizar la inversión privada en el sentido amplio. Inversión transformadora, con agricultura a pequeña y mediana escala.• El sector empresarial, con lógica empresarial, es el que tiene potencial de detonar cosas.• Finquita por finquita, productor por productos no se consigue nada. Esa es la lógica vieja. Eso no es fuerza transformadora.• Al no haber atracción de financiamiento, el riesgo país ha aumentado.• Inseguridad y condiciones políticas que no son favorables para la inversión.• Sólo hay financiamiento para empresas consolidadas con capacidad para invertir en infraestructura e irrigación.• Hay una inestabilidad política regional que no llama a los flujos de inversión.• Desaceleración de la inversión en la agroindustria.• Las exportaciones están alrededor de la agroindustria del café, la agroindustria de la ganadería, la pesca.• Hay recursos, pero se necesita que fluyan los factores de tecnología, finanzas, inversiones.• El turismo es un demandador de productos que se producen en las fincas como vegetales, frutas y hortalizas. También está deprimido.• Estímulos para invertir en la producción de alimentos a nivel local.• Producción de alimentos para el mercado local como verduras, hortalizas y frutales.• Una amenaza es el acceso al crédito, por la banca formal o las microfinancieras, porque representan un riesgo.• No todas las personas tienen las condiciones para acceder al crédito y hacer los cambios que se requieren.• Seguro agrícola. No hay una oferta sólida y atractiva para estimular las inversiones del productor agropecuario y disminuir el riesgo.• Las planicies y los micro valles están en manos de los productores más aptos en cuanto a conocimientos y acceso a recursos, como los tabacaleros.• Las dinámicas antrópicas que están generando el deterioro del soporte económico y del soporte productivo natural, los bienes naturales que hay en el corredor seco.• Mejora del entorno productivo y sus ecosistemas.• No hay una visión de la macro región que constituye el corredor seco centroamericano.• Reducción de la deforestación.• Recuperación de los bosques, generar condiciones más apropiadas para los ecosistemas locales.• También deterioran los ecosistemas locales fomentando prácticas de sobreexplotación de los recursos naturales • Dinámica antrópica y la economía territorial que retira la cobertura boscosa.• Una economía que elimina la cobertura forestal en una zona de alta sensibilidad a los cortes y a la escasez de agua hoy tiene una economía que ya no es sostenible, y se sigue corriendo hacia arriba.• Desarrollo de una economía basada en la diversidad forestal, con una articulación territorial funcional. • Economía con cobertura forestal.• La gente deforesta porque necesita el flujo monetario.• Se reforesta el territorio por abandono poblacional.• Se reforesta el territorio para una economía de mayor productividad y de mayor estabilidad de ingresos.• Estrategias de desarrollo de economías territoriales, más allá de la agricultura.• Modelo de desarrollo territorial.• Hay un problema en la calidad y estabilidad de los ingresos y en la calidad de los empleos. Esa es la razón de la deforestación y de la violencia rural.• Degradación de suelos. Suelos históricamente muy pobres, que además se han ido empeorando.• Suelos muy jóvenes, con cobertura vegetal que no aporta mucha materia orgánica, pero que por la intervención humana y por la variabilidad climática han sido afectados y se han ido empobreciendo cada vez más.• Desde el punto de vista de la producción y de usos del suelo, en los municipios del corredor seco entre 60-70% del territorio está sobre utilizado.• Hay mucha degradación y por lo tanto muy baja productividad.• De acuerdo con los potenciales de la tierra, la mayor parte del territorio tiene vocación forestal. Sin embargo la expansión de la ganadería está afectando seriamente.• La ganadería se ha extendido y está ocupando un gran porcentaje de tierra que no tiene vocación para ello. Un 70% o quizás más de esos suelos tiene una vocación forestal.• El bosque no es sólo para tenerlo ahí, con el manejo adecuado debe de poder aprovecharse. En cuanto al potencial aprovechamiento del bosque hay muchas trabas.• Aprovechamiento sostenible, manteniendo, y con restricciones claras para algunos rubros.• Desmonte y deforestación. Cambio de uso del suelo.• Alrededor de 70 mil ha de deforestación por año. Eso es grave. Y en zonas como esta con mucho más razón.• El corredor seco está compuesto mayoritariamente de laderas degradadas, que necesitarían estar más bien en procesos de regeneración natural, con sistemas silvopastoriles bien establecidos.• La mayoría son suelos quebrados, marginales.• El principal insumo de compra masiva son los glifosatos, los herbicidas. Los herbicidas son el primer eslabón diseñado por la ciencia para debilitar los sistemas inmunológicos de las plantas.• Los fungicidas, insecticidas y fertilizantes.• Hay que comprar la semilla, el fertilizante, los insecticidas, para producir alimentos. Ya de por sí esos alimentos no son sanos, están alterados bioquímicamente.","tokenCount":"8522"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"20b180135569798a79ccf2844a82157c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d0fd4389-3b7a-48d9-b3c9-d2eab05f8605/retrieve","id":"956438896"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5777d502-93ad-46c8-b412-c14c76787c14","pagecount":"60","content":"Core activities during the reporting period revolved around the implementation of 33 research protocols developed collaboratively with our CGIAR and other partners. These included 22 action protocols with direct involvement from farmers in the eight Africa RISING kebeles and a strong focus on the actions required to implement sustainable intensification strategies. In addition, 11 exploratory protocols are providing us with further insights and evidence around the constraints to and opportunities for SI in the Ethiopian Highlands.Twelve specific research highlights, mainly covering the field research conducted over the Meher season of 2014, are presented in this document. These relate to: Bridging yield gaps through soil test-based nutrient amendments. This research is already showing that responses to fertilizer as part of an intensification strategy can be extremely localized, even varying amongst farms within a kebele;  Integrating tree lucerne (Chamaetysisus palmensiss) in the crop-livestock farming systems.The potential of tree lucerne as a multi-purpose tree legume that is actually adapted to altitude is being explored across the sites;  Enhancing the productivity of farming systems based on enset. At the Lemo site, enset is a very important multi-purpose crop and this protocol is responding to strong demand for research to improve its resistance to disease and increase productivity over its five year growing period;  Study on supplemental irrigated fodder production for fattening sheep. This research, conducted in collaboration with ILSSI, has demonstrated the potential of irrigated fodder production to improve farmer access to premium markets for livestock products;  Integration of high value multipurpose trees with soil and water conservation measures for improved livelihood and reducing land degradation;  Crop residue utilization and management. Storage losses and inefficient feeding practices are being addressed collaboratively with farmers in this research protocol;  Learning about adoptability from the technologies that farmers are currently using. This research is taking a historical perspective to learn about some of the key characteristics of \"adoptable\" technologies and management practices;  Redesigning Ethiopian cropping systems for improved nutrition, income and food security;  Improved crop management practices to address yield gaps;  Facilitating establishment of pilot potato seed businesses and linking them to potato producers. In the Africa RISING diagnostic studies, effective seed supply systems were widely viewed as a pre-requisite for any intensification of crop production systems. This research is exploring opportunities for ensuring local continuity of seed supply;  Enhancing food security and environmental stability through landscape based integrated water and land management;  Developing capacities for gender responsiveness in agricultural programs in Ethiopia. Africa RISING in the Ethiopian Highlands has made a strong commitment to mainstreaming gender issues in its research activities. This protocol has supported capacity building amongst all our partners including the identification of local gender champions to support this at site level.The Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) program comprises three research-for-development projects supported by the United States Agency for International Development as part of the U.S. government's Feed the Future initiative 1 .In Ethiopia, the main aim of the project is to identify and validate solutions to the problems experienced by smallholder crop-livestock farmers in the Highlands. Some of these problems arise from the difficulties that farmers face in managing the resources that they have and in capitalising on the efficiencies that managing crops and livestock together can introduce into a farming system. However, realising these potentials is often influenced by other factors such as cost effective access to inputs and the reliability of markets for saleable produce.To address these complexities, Africa RISING will take an integrated approach to strengthen the farming systems of the Ethiopian highlands. It will conduct research that, from a strong participatory base, identifies technologies and management practices that work for farmers whilst accounting for the wider contexts in which these must operate. These contexts include the nature and effectiveness of markets for inputs and outputs, of community and other institutions and of the policy environments that influence farm households.What will a successful Africa RISING in Ethiopia look like in 2016? Knowledge and skills in farming communities will have been strengthened equitably, allowing all family members to benefit. We will see farmers operating systems that are 'sustainably intensified'-that is, levels of production and productive efficiency have increased in ways that can be maintained both environmentally and economically over the longer term. Improved partnerships among farmers, support services and other value chain actors will have reduced uncertainties about market function; more reliable input supplies will support more resilient production that will ensure a more consistent profit from produce sold at market. Africa RISING in Ethiopia is led by scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute in partnership with scientists from other CGIAR centres, the Ethiopian national agricultural research system and local communities.In order to implement the Africa RISING rolling work plan, a set of research protocols targeting the main problems and opportunities identified were finalized and are now being implemented during the reporting period. These are summarized in Table 1 under the seven research themes of the work plan and protocol summaries are appended at Annex 1.Most of the previous activities implemented under the Africa RISING in the Ethiopian Highlands project focused on exploratory diagnostic studies. This has given us a sound base on which to plan our action-based on-farm research which is reflected by the shift in emphasis in the current batch of implemented research protocols. We are currently implementing 22 action related protocols alongside 11 exploratory protocols. However, these latter have changed in emphasis somewhat with the key focus now being on: Exploring some more generic issues around sustainable intensification (e.g. research to elucidate indigenous perceptions of sustainability);  Looking at knowledge management and exchange issues around SI to support the equitable and effective, ground-up scaling activities that we will be implementing from early 2015 (e.g. research on innovations platform communications procedures and the study on gendered constraints to adoption);  Also in support of our scaling activities, to explore enabling environments for successful adoption (e.g. the historical adoption study). Much of the analysis and interpretation of the research conducted over the most recent Meher Season is ongoing. However we present some initial highlights in the following twelve areas:  Bridging yield gaps through soil test-based nutrient amendments;  Integrating tree lucerne (Chamaetysisus palmensiss) in the crop-livestock farming systems;  Enhancing the productivity of farming systems based on enset;  Study on supplemental irrigated fodder production for fattening sheep;  Integration of high value multipurpose trees with soil and water conservation measures for improved livelihood and reducing land degradation;  Crop residue utilization and management;  Learning about adoptability from the technologies that farmers are currently using;  Redesigning Ethiopian cropping systems for improved nutrition, income and food security;  Improved crop management practices to address yield gaps;  Facilitating establishment of pilot potato seed businesses and linking them to potato producers;  Enhancing food security and environmental stability through landscape based integrated water and land management;  Developing capacities for gender responsiveness in agricultural programs in Ethiopia.Supported by donors, Ethiopia has been investing significantly in Sustainable Land Management (SLM), expanding irrigation agriculture, and building small-scale dams and diversions to respond to the environmental calamities they face. The Government of Ethiopia has also been financing the importation of chemical fertilizers, which increased from 200,000 to 550,000 tonnes between the years 1994 and 2010.However, despite these increasingly large investments, there is no convincing evidence to show an increase in crop and livestock yields per unit of investment. Despite large imports and the application of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers in major cereal growing areas of the highlands, there has been limited response of crops to fertilizer application. This could be largely explained by the critical deficiencies of multiple micro and secondary nutrients. The Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) has been engaged over the last few years in developing soil maps and blended fertilizer recommendation for the whole country in an attempt to address the nutrient deficiencies that are preventing both rainfed and irrigated agriculture from reaching their full potential.Capitalizing on ICRISAT's successful approach in the state of Karnataka, India in using soil test-based nutrient management as an entry point to facilitate change and improve livelihoods, the Africa RISING team has been testing the application of various fertilizer blends in 120 farm fields at the four Africa RISING sites using wheat as a test crop. The on-farm experiments have targeted various soil types, landscape positions and rainfall regimes. We have also used these trials for ground-truthing the recommended blended fertilizers as outlined by ATA. Our preliminary results showed three different types of crop responses to fertilizer application, which could be considered as target niches within each kebele.In this group, the wheat crop thrived well regardless of type and amount of fertilizer application. Optimum on-farm application of various combinations of fertilizers (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulphur, Zinc) did not offer any significant yield advantage over farmers' fields. Hence, our trials were not able to show higher returns that would compensate the cost of applied inputs.In this group of farms, there was a significant difference between our treatments and farmers' control fields. The highest yield margin was obtained from the NP application, followed by application of S and K.Group 3. Less fertile, Non-responsive soils: This are farms where there was no response to any combination or rates of fertilizers. These are commonly degraded lands, with low water holding capacity and limited response to external inputs.The recommendation of ATA in its fertilizer recommendation map for Tigray is that the highland part of the Endemehoni should receive a blended fertilizer of largely NPKSZnB, while the lowland should receive NPKSZn with a recommended amount of 100 kg blended fertilizer along with 100 kg Urea. As indicated above, our ground-truthing experiments were rarely responding to these types and amounts of inputs in the majority of the farms. However, we expect a yield benefit of up to double yield from application of NPS from Group II type farms. We will keep validating this finding from the other three Africa RISING districts as complete maps for the different regions emerge. Once crop yield, quality and soil and plant analysis have been made, we will share our results to the Ministry of Agriculture and ATA for fine-tuning and adjustments. This will be used to build the capacity of the farmers on what should they apply where in their farms and of the new fertilizer supply initiatives in the country to supply appropriate nutrient combinations to them.Tree Lucerne (Chamaetysisus palmensiss) is a nitrogen-fixing, fast growing and ecologically adaptable multipurpose plant species that is being evaluated in the Africa RISING eight research kebeles. Its integration in the crop-livestock farming systems is aimed to contribute to income diversification, improve crop and livestock productivity and enhance the participation of women and children in the research process to benefit them equitably. Eight research groups have already been formed at the four sites. Each research group consists of 20-30 farmers representing a range of social groups.Growing tree lucerne can have significant service and production benefits for farmers. For instance, most farmers use crop residues and grasses for animal feed. These feed sources have low level of crude protein. Hence, the foliage and pods of tree lucerne can be mixed with the other feed sources to improve nutritional value for animals. Farmers can also sell seed of tree lucerne and diversify their income. Tree lucerne is a plant that can benefit both women and men and potentially addresses the needs of various farm types.Tree lucerne is one of very few leguminous multipurpose plant species that are adapted to the high altitude areas where Africa RISING is operating. The plant can play a significant role in supporting food security, nutrition and income diversification of smallholder farmers so long as there is technical backstopping on its management and capacity building on integrated agriculture and marketing at all levels (farmers, extension, and research and market actors).The interest of farmers to grow tree lucerne is increasing in Lemo and other Africa RISING sites although the plant is new to most of the farmers. The number of female headed farmers that participated in the tree lucerne research is 19% in Endamehoni and less than 10% in Lemo (Table 2). This does not mean that womens' participation in this research is insignificant. Married women (woman in a male headed household) are also very active for managing the plants that are grown around homesteads/backyards (Photo 1). Major challenges and lessons Heavy rainfall (flood, hail and waterlogging), low levels of farmers' awareness, shortage of land, free grazing system, nursery site distance.Newness of the plant in the area, high palatability of the young plants by wild and domestic animals, planting space not maintained by some farmers Photo 1. A married woman (woman in male headed household) managing tree lucerne seedlings planted around the homestead in Jawe Africa RISING research kebele, Lemo siteEnset is source of food, cash, feed, medicine, sources of fuel wood and other products and services for smallholder farmers. Currently, the productivity and area coverage of the crop is declining due to various biotic and abiotic factors. Diseases such as bacterial wilt (Xanthomonas campestris pv. Musacearum; EXW), pests (Enset root mealy bugs, leaf hopper, mole rat and porcupine) and soil nutrient depletion are some of the important production constraints to the crop in the locations in which it grows, principally in the south western Ethiopian Highlands. It is reported that up to 80% of enset farms are currently infected by EXW. Africa RISING has intiated an action research initiative on enset and its production system as the production constraints have been repeatedly mentioned to us by farmers, development actors, researchers and policy makers as a priority research area for our southern region field site at Lemo. There is good evidence that EXW is:  reducing enset yield and quality;  the loss of a single enset plant in a family would mean the loss of one man's food;  enset is a crop that offers significant opportunities to women although it is currently constitutes a significant demand for their labour;  the production constraints identified have relevance across enset growing regions suggesting that there is significant scaling potential;  best bet enset production technologies and practices do exist but need further research and promotion to make them more widely useable.Field observations and group discussions with the farmers of Jawe and Upper Gana has revealed that there is a large range of traditional knowledge and information on host clonal diversity. The various economic and cultural uses of this diversity and their interaction with the management of the pathogen are very prominent. According to farmers there are already important indications that some clones are resistant/tolerant to the pathogen. Moreover, farmers noted that the number of cultivars varied across villages. Enset production and productivity in Lemo woreda has been decreasing. Farmers claimed that the spread of Xanthmonas wilt in enset (Photo 2) could affect the total number of cultivars at kebele level.In the two Africa RISING kebeles of Lemo woreda, the genetic base has already been vulnerable to a range of highly damaging biotic factors such as EXW, leaf hopper, mole rat, porcupine, and corm rot. It is the EXW which has had the greatest impact on enset production. Severe declines in cultivation, changes in cropping and dietary patterns, genetic erosion and catastrophic impacts on livelihoods have all accompanied the arrival of EXW in the areas. The good news is that there is a model for participatory variety evaluation that can potentially put much greater enset genetic diversity in the hands of farmers from the research centers, from which they can select for different agro-ecological conditions and their own preferences.Our work is starting to identify different forms of collective actions and local institutions that can support enset disease control activity. Moreover, mobilizing the community as well as coordination of activities related to eradication of enset bacterial wilt on a sustainable basis will promotes enset production and wilt control management technologies more strongly.Photo 2. EXW infected field Historically, enset stands have been very long-lived and farmers often innate the existing cultivar mixtures from earlier generations. The experience of generations communicated by many farmers indicates that they appreciate that their plantations performed better and survived longer with higher levels of crop diversity. High levels of diversity afforded a variety of outputs and minimized risk through multiple cropping. This momentum needs to be maintained by Africa RISING. Cultivar diversity also reflected a variety of production objectives (for example: Kocho, Bulla, Amicho, Fiber, disease tolerance) and differential performance these and the stresses that the crop has been subjected to. These observations further indicate the importance of cultivar diversity for food security and sustainable cropping systems.Research highlight: Pilot study on supplemental irrigated fodder production for fattening sheepSmall scale irrigation (SSI) practices are vital to the intensification of crop-livestock mixed farming systems in the Ethiopian highlands. Farmers in the Africa RISING sites have different levels of access to irrigable water, ranging from shallow wells to streams and rivers. Harnessing these water resources for irrigation is expected to diversify the income of farmers and improve their livelihood in a sustainable manner. As feed is the number one constraint for livestock production in the highlands, production of supplemental green fodder using irrigation appears to be an alternative solution to minimize feed scarcity during the dry period. This research protocol, conducted in collaboration with our USAID-funded Innovation Laboratory on Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) aimed to assess the feasibility of producing irrigated fodder which can supplement the ration of fattening animals and improve the income of farmers from the fattening practice.The study was in the Lemo site with a total of 14 farmer groups (of which 3 were woman headed HH) from Feb to August 2014. The farmers used shallow wells and manual water lifting pumps to produce irrigated oat/vetch fodder on plots of ≥25 m 2 each. The amount of fodder biomass produced ranged from 2.3 to 4 ton/ha. Farmers used the irrigated fodder as a supplement to feed to fattening sheep (5 sheep each, which they purchased with a loan provided by the project). In the middle of the fodder production and fattening periods, field days (experience sharing events) were organized. Farmers provided their feedback on the use of SSI for fodder production and intensive sheep fattening. They stressed the importance of improved water lifting technologies (eg. rope and washer pumps rather than treadle pumps) to expand SSI. The majority of participants said that fattening five sheep at a time was labor intensive, which they considered as a disadvantage. Two groups of farmers emerged at the end of the trial. The majority preferred to shift to cattle fatting, mentioning that a bull can be fattened with less labor, less feed, and yet comparable profit to that of 5 sheep. The other groups preferred to continue with sheep fattening, but with less number of sheep (1-2) at a time.The mean initial weight of the sheep was 29.5 kg/head, and after 3 months of feeding the mean final weight was 37 kg/head (Figure 1). The farmers sold their sheep during the Ethiopian New Year holiday. The price of sheep, however, fell from 43 ETB/kg live weight in April 2014 (Easter Holiday) to 30 ETB/kg LW in September (New Year Holiday), and this had a negative impact on the profitability of the fattening trial. An important observation in this case is that marketing time and market links are crucial for the profitability of the fattening practice.There were considerable differences amongst individual farmers in their capacity to manage fodder plots and fattening animals, with female headed households generally performing better. This variability was reflected in the amount of biomass harvested and in the final body weight of sheep fattened. The farmers learned lessons from one another's practices during the field day visits, group discussions and trainings (Photo 3). Following the pilot trial, new farmer groups were formed in the 8 Africa RISING kebeles, with each group comprising 20-25 households. The new groups planted rain fed oat/vetch fodder on plots of ≥100m 2 in preparation to the next irrigated fodder/fattening research during the dry period.Figure 1.Average initial and final body weight of sheep fattened for 3 months using irrigated oat/vetch fodder as a supplementIntegrating SSI with livestock production can have a significant impact in the income of farmers. The water productivity can also be improved if fodder production and improved livestock management practices are considered simultaneously. Irrigated fodder production can be carried out alongside vegetable production or other crops, and the biomass produced through irrigation (fodder, nonedible vegetables, and crops harvested green) can serve as a good source of supplementary feed.Commonly, crop residues are the main source of feed for ruminant livestock in the highlands. These crop residues have low digestibility and nutrient contents, especially nitrogen. Supplementing such basal diets with green fodder is expected to compliment the nutrient deficiencies, improve the productive performance of animals and hence income of farmers. Through this pilot trial awareness was created among farmers to expand SSI in general and irrigated fodder in particular.Supplementary SSI practices minimize risks of crop failures and improve farmers' resilience to shocks of unpredictable rainfall patterns associated with climate change. As livestock are an integral part of the mixed farming system (providing farm power, animal protein (food), cash income and manure) and feed is the major input required for livestock, production of fodder using SSI will increase the systems productivity as a whole and help improve the food security and nutrition of farm households.The diagnostic activities (participatory community analysis, local knowledge surveys) conducted at the Africa RISING research sites in 2013 identified considerable interest among farmers in the production of high value crops such as fruit trees. Temperate fruit trees (avocado, olive, apples) represent an untapped opportunity in the high lands of Ethiopia for intensification and increased market participation by small scale farmers. The Africa RISING research protocol on high value crops is a collaborative effort by ICRAF, ILRI and IWMI to select superior fruit tree cultivars with high yielding varieties and determine and alleviate the constraints to their wider adoption. Under the protocol, six high yielding varieties of avocado (Hass, Furete, Nabal, Bacon, Pinkreton, and Ettinger)which can grow well in the Southern and South western parts of Ethiopia -have been introduced at the Lemo site. These varieties can yield fruits after only two to three years. The cultivars are propagated vegetatively through grafting originated from superior seedlings. The research team is also engaged in raising awareness of the potential of apple trees in three regions (Amhara, Oromia  Increase farmer understanding on fruit trees such as Avocado and Apple and their role on achieving household food security and nutrition;  Provide important information on environmental and resources requirement of the planted fruit cultivars e.g. watering, manure, selection of crops best matching with the planted fruit trees etc.;  Equipped farmers with planting and early care of fruit trees (e.g., hardening off, avoiding sun burn before planting, removing the plastic cover during planting, planting pit preparation, and plant spacing);  After planting management of grafted seedlings such as, timely pinching of unwanted new buds at the root sucker (below the grafted union), watering, fertilization, protection from animals; and  undertake exploratory surveys on existing fruit trees and related issues through formal and informal discussions.The outcomes of the farmer training included:  For more than 130 farmers, knowledge and skills on how to plant and manage fruit varieties has been improved.  Mortality of planted fruit seedlings has been reduced  Farmers have been familiarized with how we hope to improve food and nutritional security through the medium of high value fruit tree production over the next three years.Photo 4. Field demonstration on how to plant and untie the plastic tie from the grafted point Photo 5. Field demonstration was organized to Fiji private fruit farm in Debre Birhan (left) and Butajira Nursery (right) to inspire farmers to plant apple and Avocado trees, respectivelyThe project also conducted on-farm plantation activities (research trials):  About five hundred improved avocado seedlings were planted on farmers' field in Hosana zone.The project provided six seedlings to each participant. The planted seedlings were fenced and tagged. Survival and growth performance of the planted seedlings is being monitored at threemonth intervals. A mixed blessing perhaps but one female farmer reported that two of her planted seedlings were stolen from her back yard indicating a very high demand from her neighbours.  Similarly, highland temperate fruit planting were carried out at three sites. In total 1,500 improved apple tree seedlings were planted 500, each site (50 farmers × 10 apple seedlings / farmer / site). Before distributing the seedlings, farmers were familiarized with appropriate management practices and survival and growth performance is being monitored every three months (Photo 6).Photo 6. Monitoring of the planted seedling by the research teamIn addition to the on-farm trials the protocols have established experimental plots at the farm of a private investor in Debre Birhan and greenhouse experimental plots in Holeta research centre. These are being used to study the following research topics in greater depth (Table 3). Finally, yield performances of 4 apple varieties were assessed at the existing private fruit farm. The low-chill cultivars (Anna and Princesa) showed better yield than medium chilling type cultivars (Gala and Permicia). The average yield harvested from Anna cultivate was 10 kg tree -1 followed by Princesa (8.5kg), Gala (6kg) and Permicia (5 -6kg). Better fruit colour, size weight (90 g) was found for Anna. This indicated that low chill cultivars grow well in most highlands of Ethiopia.In the mixed crop-livestock farming systems of Ethiopian highlands, livelihoods of 67% and 30% of the households rely on crop production and livestock production respectively. Off-farm businesses contribute approximately 3%. Economic activities around livestock production are draft power, fattening and dairying of local cattle, dairying of crossbred cattle and sheep fattening. Shortage of feed has emerged as one of the major constraints for livestock production in the highlands. This is partly due to the continuous conversion of grazing lands to arable lands to meet the increasing demand for grains. Due to the diminishing role of grazing as a source of feed in the mixed farming system, crop residues (CR) have become the major source of feed, contributing 30-80% of the total feed dry matter available to animals. This is particularly so during the dry season when green feed biomass is critically in short supply. The CRs are comprised predominantly of straws and hays from cereals and pulses from the growing seasons. Eight research groups have already been formed in the four sites for participatory evaluation of techniques to improve the utilization of crop residues by farm households. However, prior to this evaluation, a survey was conducted to assess the production, management and utilization of crop residues as well as preferences and perceptions of farmers on the use of crop residues as feed. A total of 258 households drawn from the four sites were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires.The farmers in the studied area are entirely smallholders with an average land holding of 3.9 hectares. The land is divided into an average of 3-5 plots, each plot sown with a different crop. Almost all farmers grow at least one cereal crop, vegetables and pulse crops. The major pulse crops are faba bean and field pea, grown by 68% and 50% of the farmers respectively. Lentil is only grown by 18% of the farmers. The varieties grown are predominantly local. Only 30% of the faba bean and field pea is improved variety while 40% of the lentil is improved variety. Perceptions of farmers to the use of improved varieties as livestock feed came out as interesting as most farmers mentioned that improved varieties of pulses are rejected by the livestock, therefore they still grow local varieties and adopt improved varieties only to a limited extent.CR was reported as vital for livestock feeding by 97% of the farmers. The trend of utilization of CR as feed has been increasing over the past 5 years. 78% of the farmers reported increasing use of CR for stall feeding while only 3% of the farmers burn their CR. About 70% of the farmers combine cereal straws with pulse hays for feeding, stacked into heaps, albeit at no conscious ratios. An estimated 30% revealed that they strategically feed pulse crops to lactating and draft animals because of the perceived higher nutritive value of the pulse CR.After harvest, farmers transport the straw and hay to the homesteads and thresh them to separate the straw and hay from the grain. 50% of the farmers reported that they store their straw by making field and home heaps in open lands while 39% of the farmers store their straws in constructed shelters near the house. Well-drained locations on higher ground are purposefully selected around the homesteads for making of the heaps. The storage process begins by mounting a layer of stones, a layer of plank and a layer of ash to protect the straw against termite and ground moisture. Thereafter, the stacked CR is placed in a circular fashion and pressed downwards by hand, feet or wood shelves from the top and sides. Layer by layer, the diameter is decreased so as to form a cone shape. When the heap becomes too high, a ladder is used to climb it. The farmers cover the top of this dome using grass or CR. The farmers believe that this method of heap making ensures that the CR is protected against termites, ground moisture and rainfall. On average, each heap provides feed for a period of 2-3 months to 7-10 large ruminants and 2-5 small stock.Farmers feed their animals from the heaps twice daily on average. They use different methods. Animals are either released to feed directly from the heap or CR is taken from the heaps, struck with sticks to remove the dust and then put directly onto the ground or into a hole in the ground. It is normal for animals to trample all over the CR and defecate on it while feeding. This leads to severe wastage and contamination although might also offer opportunities for compost making and the improved cycling of nutrients.The government extension service and peer information are the main sources of information for physical treatment of CR to 96% and 53% of farmers respectively. Physical treatment in the form of chopping is the only treatment undertaken by farmers on the CRs. It is practiced by 53% of the farmers. Labour constraints were cited as a reason why CRs may not always be chopped. Chopping refers to physically breaking of the CRs by hand or striking them with sticks to break them. 15% of the farmers have received information on chemical treatment (urea treatment) from government extension workers, but there is no uptake because of the perceived expense, although most have never tried. In most cases, dietary supplementation of the CRs is rare especially during dry periods. Occasionally, vegetable residues (potatoes, cabbages, carrots) are additionally fed during the growing seasons.Livestock preferences for local crop varieties may have an overall consequence on adoption of improved higher yielding pulse varieties. This presents an opportunity for socio-economists and livestock nutritionists to comprehensively determine underlying factors affecting adoption of high yielding crop varieties. It is also an opportunity for crop breeders to view intensification of pulse crop-cereal crop intercropping or crop rotation not solely from the point of view of their potential contribution to human food supplies, but from the perspective of the cropping system's contribution to animal feed. Crop breeders need to work with livestock nutritionists to determine food-feed traits of pulse and cereal crops.It is evident that farmers make concerted efforts to protect the crop residue heaps against problems like termites and moisture, however, how successful are they? Deterioration due to storage can only be assumed for now but nutritional testing will be used to ascertain its extent. Sequential collection of samples from the heaps and consequent nutritional analysis to determine the level of deterioration due to storage is currently ongoing from CR heaps of 25 farmers in Debre Birhan (Photo 7). Farmers are very keen to know results of the analysis during every monthly sampling.The current feeding method of CR leads to a lot of feed wastage and spoilage. The ongoing introduction and testing of simple and cost effective feeding technologies in form of storage facilities, feeding troughs and choppers will go a long way into reducing feed refusals and overall pulse and cereal CR losses. The participatory approach of actively engaging farmers from problem diagnosis to technology transfer is vital to sustainable uptake of improved practices. There is also need to sensitize the farmers on supplementation of the CR using locally available agricultural and agro-industrial by-products for enhanced livestock productivity. Feeding strategies using these alternative feed resources need to be developed and feeding packages introduced to farmers.Crop residues from the farmers' growing season provide enormous opportunities for improving the current level of production from ruminants, thus intensifying sustainable the crop-livestock system of the Ethiopian Highlands.Photo 7: Residue from a good crop in the field is preserved for livestock feed in form of stackedThis study involves a historical survey of the factors governing adoption of existing technologies and management practices in mixed crop-livestock systems and their implications for identifying future, adoptable interventions.Livestock fodder management was one of the technologies selected for the study after consultation with local development agents. Farmers were consulted about feed resources for grazing and stall feeding, their year-round availability and livestock consumption preferences. Lemo was found to have the most diversity in resources for stall feeding sources with four principal fodder management technologies practiced widely (Table 4). Because of the shortage of available grazing land (particularly in rainy seasons) farmers leave the grass weeds on their fields until closer to harvesting time to utilize as livestock feed. These weeds are fed both as fresh grasses and stored as hay and fed to animals later in the year. This technology was common to three of the four sites. In Endamahoni late weeding was practiced by 95% of the farmers surveyed; in Lemo 90% of farmers and in Basona 91% of farmers. In Sinana landholdings are significantly larger so farmers used herbicide on the weeds rather than collecting them by hand and only 16% of farmers surveyed utilized grass weeds as a feed resource.Local names of the common weed species were collected and, where possible, scientific names were identified. In Endamahoni farmers mostly utilized three to four species of weed (including Festuca richardii). In Lemo, 10 grass and broadleaf weed species were identified by farmers, the most palatable was \"muja\" or Beckera polystachya. In Basona three species were named by farmers. In all three sites farmers ranked the grass and weed species as highly palatable (see Figure 1), with the majority of farmers ranking them first or second. The palatability was mainly attributed to the fact they are fed fresh to the animals and are softer and easier to digest than crop residue.Trade-offs between the increased access to forage resources offered by the late weeding strategy and compromised crop productivity is being explored as a case study in our research on stepwise integration strategies.Only Lemo and Sinana were found to have widespread adoption of improved fodder types. In Sinana as landholdings were large farmers would grow different varieties of improved forage oats on strips of agricultural land. In Sinana 86% of the farmers surveyed grew forage oats. Seed was obtained from Sinana agricultural research centre and then sold locally. Farmers were keen to expand the community seed production of forager oats as the varieties grown were considered highly palatable (see Figure 1).In Lemo over 50% of farmers interviewed grew \"Desho\" grass (Pennisetum pedicellatum) on soil bunds and field boundaries for erosion control and provision of livestock fodder. Other improved fodder species were found (Tripsacum andersonii, Desmodium spp, Pennisetum purpureum and Chloris gayana) but in low frequency. Desho grass was considered highly palatable (Figure 2).In Lemo farmers have more successfully moved into a zero grazing system, and so exploited marginal niches around crop fields more successfully than in the other sites. Farmers typically retain a diverse range of tree species along field boundaries and use them as demarcation. A total of 18 tree species were identified as fodder trees, the most commonly utilized were Vernonia amygdalina and Adhatoda schimperiana. 37% of farmers surveyed used their boundary trees as livestock fodder, though most species were not highly ranked for palatability (Figure 2). Farmers in Lemo also grew Enset as a staple food crop. Enset and banana were utilized as livestock feed by 68% of the farmers surveyed, and Enset was listed as highly palatable to animals (Figure 2).Further exploration in this study will focus on gender disaggregation for livestock feed ranking to test priorities for male and female farmers and timing of the availability of livestock feed sources, including grazing sources. Food shortages in Ethiopia have been taken to be a function of limited access to food and has rarely been seen as a function of non-balanced nutrition. Malnutrition of vulnerable groups (children and women) could occur even in good crop harvest years because of unbalanced food intake. Food nutritional quality could be improved through different practices such as consuming livestock products, application of fertilizers and soil amendments, selection of varieties with high micronutrient content, and use of indigenous high nutrient value crops. However, animal products are rarely consumed at the household level as they are deemed to be more important as a source of scarce cash. Dietary supplements are also rarely available to the rural poor. One affordable option to minimize the risk of malnutrition is through the reallocation of cropland in favor of crops with the potential to address the nutrients that are in deficit. In this case, analyzing households' production of nutrients on farm could be valuable in guiding intensification of those systems in which markets are less important than securing subsistence.We have been analyzing the current nutritional status of the cereal-based system at one of the Africa RISING sites, Debre Birhan (Gudo Beret). Barley and wheat are currently the major staple crops. Preliminary results showed that, on average, the current production system was not in a position to satisfy human nutrition both in quantity and quality of the required nutrients. However, resource-rich farmers were in a position to cover their energy, protein, zinc, and thiamine demand, while their system is in deficit of calcium, Vitamin A and Vitamin C, which was as low as 30, 2.5 and 2% of the recommended daily allowances. Preliminary analysis suggests that a shift in the cropping system by reducing the area under barley by about 35% and expanding the land area planted to legumes (Faba bean/ pea) by 16% and integrating more vegetables (particularly Ethiopian kale, fruits and oil crops) could be beneficial to household nutrition. As the area is frost-prone, there is also the possibility of expanding subtropical fruits (e.g. apple) to supplement the vitamin and energy needs.The project plans to use these results in negotiation with the community to facilitate change towards a more food secure landscape.Matching crop-specific fertilizer regimes, including types and amounts, with local soil and seasonal climate conditions coupled with the use of improved crop varieties has the potential to greatly reduce the existing yield gaps in project sites. On-farm demonstration and experiential learning where farmers experiment on their own fields with 1 or 2 selected practices can result in widespread adoption and adaptation of technologies. By applying the principle that yield is a function of genotype, environment and management, we seek to move farmers from the current practice of low input use to a profitable use of improved seed and optimal fertilizer amount adapted to varied local conditions. Accordingly, we have been testing impact of different fertilizer types with different rates and application of manure on the yield of wheat, barley, faba bean and potato in different AR project sites. This short highlight is based on observations from experiments at Gudo Beret kebele of Debre Birhan site.Most farmers in the area apply DAP and Urea to their wheat field, but not at the recommended rate.In addition, farmers rarely practice row planting and they do not remove weeds as required (some possible reasons for farmers' resistance to timely weeding are discussed elsewhere in this report) .The current trial includes recommended rates of N, P, K, S and Zn. The amount of input use depends on recommendations for Ethiopia in relation to each crop. Additionally, manure use was integrated with the use of these inorganic fertilizers. The seeds were sown with recommended inter and intra row spacing. Every treatment was weeded as required.We have observed that there is clear difference in wheat stand performance between the different treatments, those with recommended packages look much better than those plots without fertilizer. Besides, with this experiment, we observed that wheat crop stands looks better on plots where manure is integrated to inorganic fertilizers. On the same wheat field (Fig. 1), there is clear difference in wheat performance between farmer's practice (Photo 8A) and our experimental plots with recommended package (Photo 8B).Photo 8. A field showing different responses of wheat to different management inputs. The photo was taken two times, but the different responses shown here are on the same field. 'A' is not weeded and has no fertilizer, it is farmer's practice. 'B' has got recommended fertilizer package, and also manure. 'C' has no fertilizer input but weeded as required.Generally, we observed two cases with our experiments on wheat at Gudo Beret of Debre Birhan. On three experimental fields, farmer's practice looks competitive with our plots with the half recommended package (Photo 9). In this scenario, although we didn't survey how much amount of fertilizer they applied, we were able to see that weeds were managed in similar manner as in our experimental plots. While farmers sowed their wheat by broadcasting, our plots were planted in row.Photo 9. A field with first scenario. A is our experimental plot with recommended management inputs, and B is farmer's practice.The other observation is related to five farmers' wheat fields which were poorly managed. They didn't weed or plant in rows. In these fields, very poor performance of wheat is observed.Due to a combined effect of variety, input use and agronomic practices, all our fields generally showed better performances compared to surrounding farmers' fields. Such a difference can be easily visualized from a distance. The experimenting farmers themselves have been impressed by the wheat crop response to the combined effects of the variety and the management inputs. We asked a farmer about his feeling on the wheat experiment conducted on his field. He stated \"Despite my involvement with researchers for many years, I have never seen such a tremendous performance of wheat crop as in this season with this experiment\".There are indicators that those with improved packages like improved wheat, weeding, row planting and right amount and timely application of N.P.S, K and Zn containing fertilizers could potentially improve wheat and potato yield. Although it could be difficult to put forward the final conclusion as we need to have the actual yield and soil data in order to indicate future research directions based on what we have observed. These could include:  Conducting weeding experiment (including time and rate of weeding): Weeds look still highly limiting the yield potential.  Introducing wheat row planting and row planter technology to the area (especially at Debre Birhan)  Piloting scaling of Tsehay variety (at Debre Birhan) with its recommended package since it is resistant to rust, other varieties have been affected by the same disease.  We observed our wheat experiments at all fields are not equally responding to the applied fertilizer type and rate. This will require understanding the soil health condition and develop management and input use options for non-responsive soils.  Test the newly recommended ATA fertilizer rates for different crop and soil types in relation to the existing DAP and UREA recommendation  Considering the trade-offs that may prevent farmers' from actually adopting practices that demonstrably increase productivity of their crop land, for example, loss of feed resources due to the adoption of early weeding. The current technology addressed a few farmers (8) per site. Therefore, to realize the technology impact in the kebele or Woreda, further scaling strategy needs to be designed with the promising technology options. We may have different recommendation options (domain) to different typologies of farmers and farming conditions based on the result from the economic analysis.To address problems and opportunities on seeds and output markets, the Africa RISING Ethiopia project is implementing pilot seed businesses via innovation platforms and other key partners. The pilot seed businesses are meant to supply quality seed that is necessary to sustain high productivity among the farming communities through action research approaches. The intervention is fills a gap in the current seed systems where the private sector is missing, slow or unwilling to invest in the seeds sector especially for self-pollinated or propagating crops. For the case of potato, a sustainable seed enterprise would be able to contribute to increased potato production and consequently food and incomes for the households.Recent value chain studies in the project sites have brought out a major challenge facing potato commodity enterprise to be lack of consistent supply of planting materials. In the current interventions, farmer-based agribusinesses (primary cooperatives, unions, and other farmer groups or associations) are supported to take on seed business in order to supply potato seeds to producers. The capacity of the agribusinesses in the areas of profitability determination and management of the seed businesses will be enhanced. The capacity building includes participatory market research skills. The businesses are also facilitated to prepare seed business plans to produce seeds of preferred potato varieties. The seed businesses will be linked to target markets (other producer organizations and seed enterprises). Linkages will also be established between the farmer agribusinesses and market services such as credit to support their enterprises. The impact of seed businesses on seed availability and utilization will be evaluated at the end of the second year.Insights from recent value chain assessments on potato in the research sites indicate that the key challenges facing the potato traders, apart from seeds, include storage and post-harvest management, which are cited by almost 54% of the potato traders. Besides storage problems, the inability to access good supplies of potato was also observed and affected more than 50% of the potato traders. In addition, more than 51% of the traders were not assured of good supplies of potato. At least 53% of the potato traders were able to find good markets for their potatoes. Most of the traders also cited strong market linkages and linkages with other actors as key to addressing the challenges identified in the potato value chains. Currently, the linkages are weak: there were few explicit contracts between traders and suppliers (less than 11% overall). Furthermore, while 53% of the traders sold products on credit, only 25% ever bought the potatoes on credit. Thus opportunities lie in enhancing potato supplies and improving the quality of the potatoes through reliable seed systems and capacity building. The survey results indicated that less than 14% of the traders ever received any training on handling their products, a factor that can be observed in the extent of poor post-harvest management of the potatoes.The implications of these results for the AR project point to the need to establish collaborations between seed and output traders on one hand and with producers on the other. Indicators of good collaborations include use of contracts in trading relationships. This indicator is quite low especially the interface between the trader and the producer; and this is an area that needs to be strengthened. The capacity of traders also needs to be improved for the benefit of better linkages with farmers. It also implies that in the innovation platforms that have been established, good representation of the input and output traders need to be maintained to ensure faster uptake and sustainability of the new productivity enhancing technologies and practices. Partnerships between the supply agribusinesses and potato producers in the framework of the AR project are one of the key implementation pillars. In every project site and innovation platforms, at least one output trader and or input supplier have been identified to be part of the innovation platforms that have been established. The project will also demonstrate a clear link between seed enterprises and the potato output enterprises in the project intervention areas and seek to measure the results of the interventions.The research contributes to the USAID's focal areas of inclusive growth in agriculture by contributing to increased production of potatoes and consequent increase in income for the producers and farmer agribusiness. A focus on promoting rural based agribusinesses and establishing linkages to inputs (credit and access to good quality seeds) and product markets are necessary to achieve this goal (Figure 3). The research in Ethiopia targets this interface. At the landscape scale, two watersheds were selected to monitor the water and sediment yield at the DB site (Figure 4).  The results results show clear differences in water and sediment yields between the two treatments.1) The total discharge was about 87,788.82 and 103,441.6 m 3 for the unconserved and conserved watersheds, respectively. The water yields of the unconserved and conserved watershed was about 5,480 and 3,109 m 3 per hectare of land, respectively. Water yield of the conserved watershed was smaller due to the fact that some of the water is retained in the watershed for subsquent base flow.2) The daily results showed that most of the discharges occured during rain events in the unconserved watershed. On the contrary, much more uniform discharge with minimal fluctuation occurred in conserved watershed (Figure 5). Over the 46 day period reported here, the suspended sediment yield of the conserved watershed was about 30.83 tones while that of the unconserved watershed was about 87 tonnes. Despite its smaller catchment area, the suspended sediment yield of the unconserved watershed was about three times that of the conserved watershed.3) The study showed that there is enough water in the area during rainy seasons, a statement that we have heard many of our farmers make, and improved soil and water conservation practices can significantly improve water retantion capacity of the watershed. 4) Runoff expermental plots setup to evaluate the effect of different land use and management on runoff and soil loss at plot level at the DB site also showed that highest runoff and soil loss (2.4 tonnes) was recorded form unconserved, cultivated land (Figure 6) while conserved, cultivated area experienced much lower (<50%) soil loss. Water samples from lower sections of the catchment (sites 3, 4 and 5) resulted in highly variable but relatively higher sediment concentrations (7.1gm/litre to 46.7gm/litre). 6) Siltation assessment of some hydraulic structures, mainly a diversion which is planned to irrigate 150 ha of land, revealed that the diversion weir (e.g. Photo 10) was silted up in less than a year with an estimated volume of sediment of about 6,520m 3 . Siltation is seriously affecting the irrigation schemes at downstream area. Due to such problem several checkdam ponds are not functioning as intended. The key findings of this preliminary study include: a) For sustainable intensification to be successful at farm and plot scales there is a need to identify, develop and promote improved land and water management options in a participatory manner. b) The results showed that with improved land management practices at different scales, it is possible to increase water yield and reduce erosion as well as siltation. c) With better land management options, it should be possible to promote water harvesting approaches that can enhance productivity through irrigation. It is possible that springs can develop in many parts of the sites which can be used for irrigation purposes as observed in Tigray. However, there is a need to enhance their discharge through upstream treatment (mainly construction of soil and water conservation structures, check-dams and percolation ponds). This should be carried alongside improved groundwater recharging options as several of the hand-dug wells in Maichew do not yield enough due to depletion of water. d) There is a need to conduct comprehensive evaluation and modeling of the erosion risk and its management strategy including evaluation of the terrain characteristics, land use/land cover, major rock/soil units, and monitoring of sediment and runoff at selected stations. e) It is important to evaluate water related issues and development of water resources development strategy for the AR catchments, including assessment of the existing water harvesting practices, evaluation of the major geo-hydrological units, and identifying best water harvesting options at different sections of the landscape in the study sites. f) Capacity building through training and experience visits of farmers, community leaders and experts working in the different sites can help share experiences in addressing issues of water and erosion problems in the areas.To get a deeper understanding of the local context surrounding mixed farming systems, intensification, gender gaps, norms and agency, it is important to have trained researchers and local personnel who are able to collect, analyse and interpret sex/gender-disaggregated data and understand the local culture and sensitivity of the topic. The gender capacity development protocol aims to enhance the capacity of project implementing partners and local staff to collect, analyze and interpret sex/gender disaggregated data; conduct a gender analysis and use the data to address gender-based constraints in agriculture. Gender capacity development also exposes partners to the gendered approach of analyzing agricultural value chains and applying appropriate strategies when interacting with men and women. This will contribute to the design and implementation of interventions and technologies that directly respond to the needs of men and women.A A study was undertaken with local partners in Ethiopia to ascertain the constraints that they might face to integrating gender into agricultural programming. A pre-workshop evaluation revealed that majority of male and female participants lacked knowledge and skills to use the gendered value chain approach, lacked tools to collect sex/gender disaggregated data and skills to practically engage men and women. The post workshop evaluation revealed that various participants in the workshop had much greater familiarity and experience with gender especially among the female participants. However, both male and female participants clearly needed further support, training, and assistance to translate gender into practical changes in their work. Analysis of the pre and post workshop evaluations indicated a larger percentage change among both male and female participants on aspects related to applying gender analysis tools, gender mainstreaming, how to engage mixed and single gender groups and using a gendered value chain approach. However, the percentage change seemed to be higher amongst the male compared to the female participants. Female participants made greater progress with applying the gendered value chain approach. At least two Gender Champions (male and female) were selected to lead to gender agenda in each action site.Africa RISING aims to identify and address constraints that create inequalities between men and women. With the acquired gender analysis skills and application of the gendered value chain approach, CGIAR staff and local partners will be able to evaluate gendered constraints and identify opportunities available to women and men to improve their livelihoods. Participants, however, expressed interest in furthering their capacity in project planning and measurement of gender impact, how to integrate gender analysis into their project cycles, and training facilitators to work with bio-physical scientists using a participatory approach. Assessment of participants' change in knowledge, attitude, skills and practices will be important in order to gauge the relevance of the training, evaluate the assessment methodology and identify challenges and areas that need to be further developed.The Feed the Future Initiative places great emphasis on empowering women to achieve gender equity, the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG) by promoting interventions that enhance women's decision making power about agricultural production; access to and control over productive resources; control over use of income; leadership in the community and efficient time use. Proper collection and analysis of gender disaggregated data will aid understanding of gender relations (roles, responsibilities, access to and control over resources and benefits), which is of significant importance for Africa RISING to contribute to the gender equality goal. Through gender capacity development, CG staff and partners in the project will be in a better position to understand the local context, design and implement interventions that benefit both men and women, and also create an environment that fosters participation of women in agricultural research.Photo 12. Workshop participants demonstrating approaches to introduce new gender responsive technologies Photo 13.Group discussions on approaches to engage men and women in agricultural programsVarious capacity building forums were held including field days organized for mid and end season evaluation of crops planted for community seed production schemes, participatory varietal selection and other on-farm research activities on feed and forage development and agronomic practices. The capacity building forums organized to enhance scaling of technologies and practices, facilitate knowledge exchange and innovations, and strengthen partnership. The main communication channels supported are:  Wiki page(http://africa-rising.wikispaces.com/ethiopia_highlands)  Project updates on the program website (africa-rising.net/category/countries/ethiopia/)  A monthly partners meeting in Addis Ababa  A Yammer network with internal updatesDuring the reporting period, the team worked on the following activities:  A new series of 'photo trip reports' to help document the field work with platforms and communities. The idea is to harness the power of images in a straightforward format that scientists can produce themselves in a rapid and timely way.  Producing a limited number of other video and multimedia reports. A project video by ICRAF attracted strong interest globally and we are following this up with a video on the potato DLR work and on the project more generally.  A series of briefs documenting the different participatory tools used in the project (especially in the diagnostic phase).  Continuing to update the wiki and produce updates on the website (10 in the reporting period).  Ethiopia team members were particularly active sharing news and updates in the Yammer network.  Developing plans to establish and support knowledge centres supporting the woreda and kebele activities.In addition, the following 18 outputs and products were registered in CGSpace during the reporting period:Date Citation URL TypeDuring this reporting period, the project appointed an assistant site coordinator for each of the four participating regions: Region /woreda/kebele Assistant Site Coordinator Amhara /Basona Werana/Goshe Bado and Gudo Beret Shimelese Mengistu Oromia/Sinana/Salka and Ilu-Sanbitu Endeshaw Tadesse South Tigray/Endamekoni/Emba-Hazti and Tsibet Getachew Bisrat SNNPR/ Lemo/Jawe and Upper-Gana Fikadu TessemaThe assistant site coordinator took up their responsibilities in July / August. They will responsible for supporting the site coordinators in running our activities and liaising with partners at each of the Africa RISING sites. In addition they will provide logistical and facilitation support to ensure the smooth operation of our site-level innovation platforms (woreda, kebele and Farmer Research Groups).Theme 1: Feed and Forage DevelopmentIn the mixed crop-livestock farming systems of Ethiopian highlands, crop residues (CR) constitute an important part of livestock diet, particularly in the dry period when green forage is scarce. In most cases CR are stored as heaps in the open air and feeding takes place by spreading a portion on the ground. These traditional management practices result in considerable loss of CR biomass and quality due to weather, pests, contamination and prolonged storage. The adoption of improved methods of storage and feeding practices will minimize wastage, improve the nutritive value could be a cost-effective feed resource to overcome feed shortage in the dry season. It is also hypothesized that farmers with better livestock market orientations can readily adopt improved CR utilization for increased livestock productivity. Participatory action research and laboratory testing is therefore required to document local practices and CR nutritive value and assess the impact of the adoption of improved techniques by farmers on:  CR wastage and quality deterioration during the storage period  The proportion of CR refusal during feeding  The need for a supplementation plan for CR dietsIf farmers adopt cost-effective techniques that improve the quality and utilization of CR, it will increase their farm/livestock productivity. Moreover, documenting the relationships between livestock market access/orientation of farmers and their CR management and readiness to adopt new techniques will provide valuable input for future technology interventions.The expected outcome of this research is that farmers in the research sites will be acquainted with and adopt new technologies that minimize wastage of crop residues during storage and feeding, while at the same time improving the palatability and the feeding value of the residue. The techniques will help farmers to effectively utilize the available crop residue biomass and increase their farm productivity. During the evaluation process, forums will be created where farmers within and outside the group will share knowledge and experiences on how to further improve the handling and utilization of CR. This will in turn increase awareness among farmers, and enable to scale out better practices of CR utilizations identified in the participatory evaluation. Small scale irrigation practices are vital to the intensification of crop-livestock mixed farming system in the Ethiopian highlands. In the Lemo Africa RISING site a number of farmers have shallow wells and started to practice small scale irrigation to produce vegetables, using treadle and hip pumps distributed on loan through Africa RISING project. In Angacha district farmers have also previous experience in using rope & washer pumps for vegetable production. Integration of the small scale irrigation with livestock rearing through production of irrigated fodders and fattening practices may diversify and increase the income of farmers. Sheep fattening by supplementing locally available feeds with fast growing irrigated fodder plants (oat and vetch) may be a viable option for intensification, especially with farmers who have limited land space and cannot allocate large areas to grow fodder for large ruminants. Moreover, there are good fattening sheep types in the area (Doyogana sheep) and the demand for fattened sheep is high during major holidays. This practice may also allow efficient conversion of locally available feed resources including unmarketable (lowgrade) vegetables and crop residues into a high value product (meat) and increase the intake of crop residues which have poor intake rate when fed alone. A participatory action research exercise is therefore required to investigate the effect of this practice on the income of farmers and the tradeoffs in the utilization of irrigation water for supplemental fodder production. Women tend to be less involved in fattening due to lack of feed and labour requirements. Therefore they sell younger sheep (yearling) and earn less unlike the men who bring bigger sheep to the market. Therefore this project has great potential to increase women's participation in fattening and benefit more from the sheep value chain through increased access to and control of fodder.Income diversification and increased integration of crop-livestock systems is important to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers. This pilot project will enable to explore the available opportunities for farmers with regard to sheep fattening using irrigated fodder as a supplement to crop residues and other locally available feeds. The project will enable to establish the feasibility of irrigated fodder production during the dry period to diversify the income of farmers and to further integrate mixed crop-livestock systems. Farmers will get opportunities to acquaint themselves with improved management of cultivated fodder of fattening sheep and share experiences on how to effectively utilize locally available feed resources. Major value chain actors and constraints for sheep fattening and marketing in the districts will be identified. The practice would contribute to increased access to and control of fodder by women and disadvantaged groups. The lessons learned from this pilot project will be used as valuable inputs to scale out irrigated fodder-fattening practices within and outside the Africa RISING sites. Matching crop-specific fertilizer regimes, including types and amounts, with local soil and seasonal climate conditions coupled with the use of improved crop varieties has the potential to greatly reduce the existing yield gaps in AR sites. While local resources such as crop residue and manure are used by many farmers, additional knowledge on their appropriate management including combination with external resources such as fertilizers is needed at the local level to increase their use efficiency. On-farm demonstration and experiential learning where farmer experiment on own field with 1 or 2 selected practices can result in widespread adoption and adaptation of technologies, under varied farmer management and local conditions. Thus by applying the principle that yield is a function of genotype, environment and management, we seek to move farmers from the current practice of low input use to a profitable use of improved seed, optimal fertilizer amounts, nutrients (organic and inorganic), while adapting the technologies to the varied local conditions. Applying this concept can significantly help address the yield gap observed on many smallholder farmers' fields, while at the same time, equipping farmers with needed skills to improve farming.This work will provide information on the missing links in soil and crop management in AR sites (initially in two sites) in Ethiopia. It will demonstrate best management approaches for improved varieties in different configurations of rotations. Through this, a yield increase of at least 25% is expected among practising farmers. A catalogue of technologies that have potential for profitability under local conditions in each of the villages will be developed. The findings of the research will be presented at a community workshop for validation and dissemination. By linking with proposed soil fertility and alternative erosion management activities (3.1.1-3 and 4.1.1-2) under Theme 4 and results of work on varietal selection, technology packages that will be demonstrated stand a high chance of success. The work will also enhance the capacity of existing extension personnel who will continue to have impact on the villages beyond the project life. The Ethiopian highlands are characterized by cereal-food legume production system where the productivity is very low due to pests, poor agronomic practices and growing of unimproved cultivars.Potato is becoming an integral parts of the production system of the highlands. Sustainability of cereals (wheat and barley) and potato is maintained through regular rotation with food legumes in small and main rainy seasons of the highlands. During the implementation of AR in Bale highlands and other projects, it was possible to identify high yielding cereal, faba bean and potato cultivars that can provide high yield and contribute to food security. However, many varieties are not tested in all the four AR sites. Moreover, there are early maturing legumes that can be used in double cropping with cereal and potato to increase land productivity in the highlands. Most of the wheat, barley, potato and faba bean cultivars released are developed with little or involvements of farmers and hence there is a need to put these varieties under PVS where farmers' inputs will be considered. Therefore, this study/intervention is designed to evaluate cultivars of the four commodities following PVS approaches as well as testing double cropping to increase land productivity.A Participatory Variety Selection (PVS) trial, consisting of 3-5 released cultivars, each for food barley, malt barley, faba bean, potato and bread wheat will be conducted (all varieties of one crop /farmer and five farmers/site) in the four Africa RISING sites. Each cultivar of each crop will be planted on a minimum of 100m2 plot of land. Immediately after harvest, double cropping systems will be tested by superimposing short duration crops on the PVS treatments. For this, short duration varieties of chickpea, lentil, barley and possibly potato will relayed into / doubled-cropped after the PVS crops.The double cropping component will be implemented in Sinana, Lemu and Endemehoni sites (4 farmers/site). All field trials will be jointly managed by participating farmers, Researchers from Sinana, Debre Birhan, and Endemehoni and AR site coordinators. All agronomic, insect pests, diseases, yield and gender data will be collected and training of extension and farmers as well as field days will be organized. Participating farmers in this action search will be drawn from the IPclusters established in each AR action kebeles. Selected cultivars will be further evaluated during the small rainy season and supplementary irrigation in North Shoa and Bale highlands in 2015. The demonstration activities with faba beans undertaken at the Africa RISING research sites during the Meher season of 2013 highlighted the differences between farmers' existing practices and those required for the successful adoption of improved bean variety / management packages. Most significantly, we have observed farmers in SNNPR and Amhara regions weeding their bean crops very late leaving volunteer wild oats, other grass weeds and Trifolium sp. to create an ad hoc foragebean intercrop. As a source of forage, these \"weeds\" are significant. A preliminary study conducted at Lemo has indicated that up to 2 tonnes (average: 1.4 tonnes) of wild oat forage dry matter may be made available within a growing season. Moreover, the establishment costs for the forage component are, effectively, zero making this a very cost effective source of what is actually quite high quality forage. This protocol proposes a systematic exploration of a set of possible intensification trajectories for the forage -bean intercrop. This needs to include the identification of (1) competition-tolerant bean varieties that can recover after the forage crop is removed under farmers' existing practice, (2) the possibility of identifying alternative forages to increase productivity whilst retaining the cost benefits of the volunteer-based forage crop and (3) options for stepwise intensification towards specialised bean production for those farmers who begin to appreciate the benefits of market participation. This research will lead to a clear view of the relative benefits of a range of options for intensification of a sub-system that generates food, forage and cash income for farmers. These options will differ in the extent to which farmers need to make an initial commitment to intensification; from interventions that require minimal changes in management practices (other than a change of variety) and are, therefore, more likely to be adoptable in the short term to interventions that require significant change of practice but have the potential to generate a greater overall returns. Farmers participating in the research will provide an evidence base that the concept of flexible intensification trajectories and including a robust trade off analysis will constitute sound basis for future scaling of the innovations within and beyond Africa RISING research sites.Theme 3: Integration of High Value Products into Mixed Farming SystemsMost of the Ethiopian highlands have complex topography and are sensitive to different land degradation processes. The Africa RISING research sites are situated above 2100m asl where there is a high potential to grow high value crops including apple, pear, peach, olive, plum, avocado plant species for essential oils and other products. At present traditional annual crop-livestock farming systems are practiced in these fragile areas and annual crop yields are very low due to frost and poor soil fertility. Because of this and other associated reasons, most smallholder farmers in the AR sites are facing problems of food insecurity and under-nutrition, among others. Thus, introducing high value crops in the AR sites would contribute 1) to improve food security, feed, nutrition and health, 2) to diversify and increase source of income, 3) to mitigate the problems of soil erosion, nutrient depletion and degradation and 4) to convince farmers to manage their livestock better to protect their valuable crops from open grazing. However integrating multipurpose trees, particularly, temperate fruit trees, is relatively new in the AR sites in particular and in Ethiopia in general. According to the local knowledge studies carried out in AR sites, multipurpose trees integration into the mixed crop-livestock system was one of the farmers' priorities and government's interest. However, introducing multipurpose trees has some challenges including, but not limited to, 1) Inaccessibility and unavailability of quality germplasm at a required quantity, 2) lack of technical knowhow in propagation and management techniques (both NARS and farmers particularly in temperate fruit trees), 3) open grazing system, 4) lack of awareness and familiarity with the potential opportunities that high value trees can contribute, and 5) lack of water sources for irrigation. This intervention will respond to the local demand and government's initiative to introduce high value trees and campaign for their wider adoption.Smallholder farmers in the sites have not benefited from multipurpose trees because of several reasons including those mentioned above. This intervention will raise farmers' knowhow and awareness on the benefits of integrating multipurpose high value trees to the mixed crop-livestock systems. The integration will improve farmers' productivity, income, nutrition, soil fertility and other products and services. Government extension, EIAR, regional research institutes, NGOs and CBOs will recognize the benefits derived from introduction of high value multipurpose trees and will mainstream to their development programs. Decision-makers will be better informed and recognize on women's role on fruit production and develop gender sensitive policy options. Wider adoption of fruits will be facilitated through an increased awareness by farmers and recognition by development partners (including the government, EIAR, NGOs, and CBOs). This will also lead to mainstreaming of high value trees to the national system and scaling-up through creating partnership and information sharing platform at different levels. Farmers will be convinced to implement controlled grazing system. Project sites, interventions and activities will be properly geo referenced and documented for future monitoring and evaluation. Partnerships, innovation platforms and publications will enhance awareness and encourage adoption. These will ultimately help design other projects as well as government initiatives to expand interventions to other regions. Communities in Ethiopian highlands are trapped in a vicious cycle of resources degradation, weak institutional capacity and lack of financial resources to overcome these challenges. The pressure on the natural resource base also poses challenges and often leads to increased conflicts between the various land uses and users across the landscape. Such conflicts often arise when some of the essential services or functions of the landscape are partially or entirely lost or when benefits are not shared appropriately. There are successful bright spots in Ethiopia, whereby few communities have undergone a substantial livelihood change by intensively managing small patches of land within the farm for growing market-oriented produces (market gardens) as well as testing and integrating food security crops, particularly Enset, Sweet Potato and Potato and highland fruits. A market garden is a business-oriented, relatively small patch of land within a farm or a landscape providing wide range and steady supply of fresh produces throughput the year. These gardens are commonly small plots around the house or watering points. Such areas generally receive 'preferential management' as they could be fertilised by household refuse, manure, crop residue and night soil, have higher soil organic matter, higher soil water holding capacity and support healthy and high yielding crops. Given the limited amount of inputs required, higher returns of per unit of labour and water investment, low risk of gardens in terms of theft and land tenure, market gardens could be used as an incentive to improve watershed management. They serve the nutritional requirements of children and women through a year round production of legumes, vegetables, fruits and greens. There is thus a possibility to enhance the food security and nutrition requirements of households especially women and children by re-organizing land use across landscapes. A more convincing evidence for developing this proposal emanated from a successful market garden development experience in a drought-prone region in Northern Ethiopia, Bati, which was severely affected by recurrent drought of the 1980s and heavily relied on food aid for about 20 years. Farmers adopted a combination of home garden interventions along with water harvesting and conservation agriculture. In ten years' time, they have moved from food aid to food security and in another 10 years they have increased their income from desperate poverty to an average household income of 5500 USD per year (http://www.raw.info/latest/when-water-is-scarce). The watershed has also changed towards an ecologically sustainable farming system.The anticipated outcome of this study would be:  Increased child nutrition, household income and resilience of resource-poor farmers,  particularly women, through integration of market garden innovations;  Improved market linkages of resource poor farmers using market gardens as entry points;  Institutional and socio-economic incentives identified for development, management, expansion and adoption of market gardens;  Investment costs of market gardens in various market scenarios established;  Strategies for facilitating improvements in landscapes developed and disseminated;  Evidence for policy makers and investors developed and widely shared;Activities Addressed and Delivery Date 1. 1.1, 1.1.3, 1.2.1, 1.2.3 -December 31, 2016 CGIAR and Associated Partners ICRISAT, ICRAF, CIAT Theme 4: Improved Land and Water Management for Sustainability.Surveys carried out by Africa RISING in 2013 revealed that inappropriate soil fertility management in the eight selected kebeles in general, and absence of rational use of mineral fertilizer in the Gudo Beret kebele (Amhara Region) and Jawe kebele (SNNPR Region) in particular, lead to soil mining and a loss of soil fertility. However, more in-depth information of major soil fertility constraints at subregional scale is missing. In addition, there is no adequate information on appropriate fertilizer recommendations that address issues of soil health while at the same time are acceptable by the farming community. Likewise, it is currently unknown what incentives would be required for smallholders to adopt sustainable land management practices, if such entail tradeoffs that currently provide disincentives for farmers to change business-as-usual practices. Computer simulation tools, such as crop-soil simulation models, provide options for fast and wide-scale assessment of soil fertility dynamics and impacts of organic and/or inorganic fertilizer management practices in a predictive fashion. They are ideal tools to carry out scenario (what-if) analyses under current and best-bet, sustainable intensification conditions. These can also be used in combination with other models (livestock production models, household consumption models), to analyze soil fertilityagricultural production -livelihood tradeoffs. National Ethiopian scientists will be in a better position to improve fertilizer management recommendations while accommodating soil fertility constraints, the sustainability of intensified crop production, as well as farmers socio-economic constraints  Farmers in the selected kebeles consider soil fertility management in their planning  Sustainably increased crop production  Reduced vulnerability and production risk (risk of investment in inputs) of smallholders in the selected kebeles  Informed decision making by local, regional, and national stakeholders will strengthen  Communicating results in workshop will strengthen stakeholders buy-in  Reports, training manuals and articles Soil erosion is a serious problem in Ethiopia affecting food security, infrastructure and development activities. Various processes initiate and aggravate soil erosion including rainfall intensity, terrain, surface cover, land-use and management practices. Different endogenous and exogenous drivers such as population pressure, climate change, deforestation, overgrazing, land tenure, farmer's livelihood and coping strategies also dictate the severity and spatial dynamics of soil erosion. It is thus crucial to map the spatial variability of soil loss, understand the key drivers and identify the major hotspot areas to plan for priority areas of intervention and corresponding sustainable land management (SLM) options. In this study, participatory and modeling approaches will be used to map the severity and spatial dynamics of soil erosion and identify appropriate land use and management options to tackle soil loss at representative kebeles of each Africa RISING Woreda. The potentials of mosaics of interventions across the landscape will be evaluated in order to understand synergies and trade-offs. As there is evidence that many implemented SLM and conservation measures have not succeeded as anticipated, policy, institutional and other socio-economic setups required for success will also be investigated.The research will provide information on the severity and driving forces of soil erosion and identify hotspots that require priority management intervention. The modeling and simulation results will help identify site-specific and problem-oriented SLM and SWC options that reduce soil erosion risk and improve productivity. The participatory approach will equip farmers' understanding and perception of soil erosion and its drivers and thus increase their awareness and adoption of feasible and acceptable SLM and SWC technologies. Socio-economic and trade-off analysis results under theme 4.1 will also inform best-bet and acceptable technologies suited to arrest soil erosion. Local and regional stakeholders as well as other partners understand the severity and spatial dynamics of soil erosion and evaluate the significances of different of land-use and management options. Presentation of modeling outputs will help farmers and regional officers understand the benefits and trade-offs of site-specific and problem-oriented management options vis-à-vis stakeholder preferences. Community level partnership will allow implementation of identified SLM options targeting selected erosion hotspots. Based on the outputs of the research, provisional recommendations will be made on necessary policy and institutional setups for the proper implementation and effectiveness of SLM and SWC options. The whole approach used in the study will be documented and made available to guide up-and/or out-scaling to other sites. In 2015 and beyond, more elaborated in situ testing of the \"promising approaches\" identified in this study and suggested from other AR themes will be tested and demonstrated on selected hotspots. Rainfall variability, poor soil fertility and soil erosion are serious challenges of food security to rural communities in different parts of Ethiopia. With population pressure and climate change, the severity and impacts of these challenges will likely increase. Sustainable intensification at farm scale cannot be achieved unless land improvement measures are taken through sustainable water and land management. A number of natural resources management efforts have been implemented in Ethiopia since the 1970s. However, most of the introduced technologies were not based on combining scientific and traditional knowledge, and as a result performance was far below expectations. In addition, the top-down approach followed created less incentive and community participation. Recent evidences show that participatory landscape based integrated natural resources management is useful approach to reduce resources degradation and improve agricultural productivity. Considering that different potentials and constraints exist across the landscape continuum, it will be essential to design and implement targeted interventions geared to specific landscape and socio-economic conditions. In this study, community based participatory approach will form the basis for improving food security through targeted interventions such as soil/water conservation, afforestation, enclosures, agroforestry, water storage options (peculation systems, check dams, ditches, etc.), water harvesting strategies (river diversion and borehole), horticulture and home-gardens across different landscape positions. Emphasis will be given to awareness creation, community mobilization, capacity building, partnerships and multidisciplinary approaches to enhance technology adoption and sustainable use. \"AR Landscapes\" will be created to demonstrate and implement integrated land and water management technologies in a participatory way. Hydrological model and community evaluation will be used to assess impacts of intervention and facilitate out-/up-scaling. This protocol will contribute to and benefits from various AR themes.The implementation of this project is expected to have the following outcomes: Community awareness resulted in ownership and increased participation for implementation.  Communities implemented sustainable afforestation, SWC and water harvesting measures.  Soil moisture increased and soil erosion decreased as a result of integrated SWC efforts.  New springs emerged and existing ones discharged more, harvested water provided irrigation.  Livestock feed availability and soil health improved.  Diversification such as fruits/vegetables and home-gardens improved nutritious food for household, especially for the youth and women.  More resilient communities and landscapes to climate change and other external pressures  Improved upslope-downslope community interaction to sustain conservation efforts.  Integrated water and soil management model developed for extension officers, MoA and other partners for up scaling.  AR and USAID will have effective, functional demonstration sites.  Training manual and guidelines developed to aid up scaling and technology dissemination. Multispecies copping systems (relay or double cropping systems) require more soil moisture the monocrops. While residual soil moisture in conventional cropping systems may suffice in years with average or above average rainfall, water may limit crop growth in years with years with below average rainfall -a situation that is likely to occur more frequently as the effects of climate change are getting more pronounced. It is therefore critically important to introduce technologies allowing farmers to maximize the availability of residual soil moisture.Conservation agriculture (CA) is being widely advocated to conserve (soil and) water, while maintaining soil organic carbon and cut on production costs. However, the application of CA is challenging under the conditions typical to African smallholders for a number of reasons including competition for biomass with livestock and unavailability of specialized seeders and herbicide. In this situation, the use of permanent raised beds shaped and reshaped annually by the local maresha ard plough -as developed on the vertisols of Northern Ethiopia by the University of Mekelle and CIMMYT -may represent an attractive option. Permanent raised bed allow for soil and water conservation with minimum surface mulch, as these structures increase soil rugosity and thus reduce runoff while increasing infiltration. In Northern Ethiopia, permanent raised bed resulted in a reduction of runoff by more than half, a reduction of soil losses through erosion by a factor more than 4, significantly higher soil organic matter content in the ploughed layer, and improvement in crop yields, albeit only from the fifth season onward. Permanent raised bed also allows for shallow mechanical weed control in the furrows, thus minimizing the need for herbicide or manual labour. For small grain cops (e.g. wheat) the use of raised beds enables reduce seed rates without decreasing grain yield and reduce logging. Raised beds also improve field access (e.g. allowing N application at 1st node and boot stages, when crop N use efficiency is the highest).We anticipate that permanent raised bed will increase soil moisture, allowing for the production of a relay pulse (chickpea, grasspea or lentil). Outcomes will include cropping recommendations to save on energy (particularly draught power) and increase water-use efficiency, perception by farmers of such alternative cropping practices, and cost/benefit analysis. Irrigated agriculture has been on the rise in recent years in the rainfed agricultural systems of Ethiopia both as a livelihood diversification and a climate change adaptation strategy. Abstracting, conveying and applying irrigation water is an important component of the total production cost in irrigated agriculture and affects the profitability of the irrigation technology and thus the economic incentives to farmers. Motorized pumps mounted on and powered by small multifunctional twowheel tractors can be used to abstract and convey water to farm irrigation sites. As these tractors can also be used for land preparation, post-harvest operations and transport, we hypothesize that this type of mechanized irrigation is more adoptable for smallholders than mechanized irrigation using pumps powered by their own engine. On the irrigation site, irrigated water can be applied through furrows between raised planting beds, which is more efficient than flood irrigation on a flat surface. Raised bed can be shaped using a simple tool-bar based furrower pulled by the same tractor used to power the motorized pump. Raised bed also brings a number of benefits such as reduced seed rates and increased access to the field for weeding and fertilizer application.Presumably, productivity and profitability can be increased as a result of supplementary irrigation. However, the profitability of mounted motorized pumps in relation to the capital and operational cost of the technology is unknown for the Ethiopian Highlands. This protocol proposes to fill this knowledge gap. It links directly with 2 other Africa RISING protocols: The CIMMYT-led 'Testing of permanent raised bed systems for soil and water conservation and crop intensification'  The CIMMYT-led 'Giving power to Africa RISING farmers through small mechanization'The work will deliver information to local communities, extension agents and policy makers on how to improve the profitability of mounted motorized pumps to contribute towards sustainable intensification. In addition to the selected sites an ex-ante assessment of instruments can improve cost effectiveness and profitability of the technology?Activities Addressed and Delivery Date 2.1.1, 2.1.2 -June 15, 2015 CGIAR and Associated Partners IWMI, CIMMYTThere is an increasing evidence that crop yield is not increasing in Ethiopia despite huge investments in soil and water conservation, import of chemical fertilizers, increasing investment in small scale irrigation and expanding efforts of the extension system to reach every household in the country. More over pests and diseases are becoming major threats of production, particularly for high value produces. Opening up new land replacing wetlands, forests and hills mostly satisfies the increasing food demand. Although land degradation and nutrient mining is a widely recognized production constraint, crops are rarely responding to the application of the conventional macronutrients, even in soils where application of chemical fertilizers is a first time experience. As a result, the objective of the Ethiopian government to increase yield per unit of land and labour and to improve food security remained to be a challenge. There is unproven local perception that crops in the Ethiopian soils are not responding to the application of fertilizer mainly macronutrients. As a result the Government of Ethiopia, the sole importer of farm inputs, has been importing only Nitrogen and Phosphorus fertilizers to the country. On the other hand, lack of response to Nitrogen and Phosphorus fertilizers could be largely due to the critical deficiencies of multiple micro and secondary nutrients, which are holding back the potential of rainfed and irrigated agriculture. When micro-nutrients become a limiting factor water, fertilizer and other high-energy production inputs may be wasted, since a plant will only grow and develop to the extent that its most limiting growth factor will allow (Mengel, 2012). Many times the hidden hunger for micro and secondary nutrients is not visible, however, such deficiencies make plants vulnerable to attacks by pathogens and insect pests and also the symptoms are considered as disease symptoms. ICRISAT's participatory research for development approach using watershed and soil test-based nutrient management as an entry point activity in Bhoochetana, the state of Karnataka, India (ICRISAT, 2013) have shown that rainfed crops respond very well to application of deficient micro nutrients (zinc, boron and sulphur) and increased crop yields by 20 to 66% on 3.7 million hectares, with an economic impact of around US$ 130 million. The economic returns of Bhoochetana revealed that benefit cost ratio for the farmers were 2.1 to 15:1 with full costing of the inputs added by the farmers (ICRISAT, 2013). Based on the evidence of strategic research undertaken by ICRISAT-led consortium in India and other countries in Asia we proposed to assess nutrient deficiencies and test particularly with reference to micro and secondary nutrients in Ethiopia and develop a scaling-up model in two districts of different agroecologies to achieve the impact in terms of increased agricultural production and improved livelihoods with sustainable intensification. First-hand information of critical deficiencies of micro and secondary nutrients in the region which could be holding back the potential will be available.  Soil health status maps for the selected region will be available to share the information with different stakeholders and enhance the awareness amongst the policy makers, development workers, researchers and farmers for increasing agricultural productivity  A 'proof of concept' of scalable participatory research for development using knowledgebased entry point activity will be available for application in the region.  Policy influence on the quality and type of import of fertilizers to Ethiopia  Increased productivity of crops through enhanced nutrient and water use efficiency to benefit the farmers. However, women have limited access to fodder which constrains investment in livestock as well as sustainable agricultural intensification. The integration of tree lucerne to the crop-livestock farming system could save labour and time spent to look for fodder and fuel. The intervention could be an incentive to women and marginalized groups to invest in mixed farming systems.Research, extension and none governmental organizations have been trying to promote planting of multipurpose trees like tree lucerne in the highlands of Ethiopia. However, the success has not been as expected due to lack of approaches that consider farmers needs and realities. The participatory and targeted research approach and the training and experience sharing schemes from the current project will enable farmers to grow more tree lucerne plants and improve the availability of biomass for supplementary feed, soil fertility improvement and other products and services. The synthesis that we intend to write from the research approach can serve as a guide for the extension to promote growing of more multipurpose trees, covering more areas within and beyond the Africa RISING research sites and benefits more farmers. We expect increased women's access to and control of fodder and biomass, and labour saving. Feed and forage combinations that are appropriate for men and women in different agro-ecological zones will also be available. Gender analysis will help us understand the areas to focus on so as to integrate men and women's issue, directly address them and also gauge who will benefit and how gender relations within the household will change. 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3 -December 31, 2016 CGIAR and Associated Partners ILRI, ICRAF, ICARDA, CIP T5-14-02 Facilitating change in cropping systems to improve nutrition, income and food securityFood shortage in Ethiopia is predominantly taken as a function of limited access to food in terms of quantity, but it has been rarely treated as a function of non-balanced nutrition. The current grainbased cropping system lacks real incentives for diversification of crops and nutrition-oriented innovative farming. Malnutrition of the vulnerable groups (children and women) could occur even in good crop harvest years and in regions of high potential because of non-balanced food intake and lack of diversity. Studies showed that about 45% of the children in Ethiopia are stunted and about 42% are underweight, associated with zinc, iron and Vit.A deficiency (www.bioline.org.br/request?nd09041). Rural households rarely consume animal products as they are scarce sources of cash. Dietary supplements are also rarely available to the rural poor. Therefore, there is a need to establish the level of hidden hunger in the farming systems of Africa RISING districts across social categories and develop a strategy that would improve household nutrition with the existing land and water resources. One possible option to reverse the risk of malnutrition and low farm income is modifying the production system by reallocating cropland in favor of crops with high content of nutrients in deficit and high financial returns. Analyzing households' production of nutrients on farm across farming systems could be valuable in guiding intensification of those systems both in market-oriented and subsistence sub-systems (Amede and Delve, 2008) and to guide research and development investments. Participatory modeling tools would help to evaluate household level food security and cash income, and to assess trade-offs in water, nutrient and labour use while modifying the respective farming systems to achieve the intended production objectives. It will also help to identify farm and landscapes niches where interventions could be integrated across rainfall gradients, market opportunities, gender categories and wealth groups. The tool would also be used to establish whether communities in the various farming systems are currently above or below poverty line (1.25 USD per day) with the existing production practices and create production scenarios that could lift these communities out of vicious poverty cycle.The anticipated outcome of this study would be:  Improved household nutrition of communities through altering cropping systems  Policy awareness on the link between farming systems and hidden hunger (nutrient insecurity) in Ethiopia at household, community and higher scales;  Guideline for development actors to target best-bet crop commodities with higher nutrient density to farming systems in deficit, without radically changing the food habit, market preferences and farmers' choices; Lack of structured markets is major challenge for many farmers and traders caused by lack of organizing production and marketing institutions. Many farmers suffer from the problem of small quantities that usually is unattractive to many traders or buyers. This is due to high transaction costs and information problems, which present challenges in coordination of supply chains often leading to use of inappropriate varieties, underinvestment in storage and handling facilities, undersupply of finance and large intra-and inter-seasonal price fluctuations which undermine market participation and competitiveness. These are some of the challenges identified in the recent value chain studies by the project in the project sites. One way of structuring the market is through ensuring that producer institutions are well organized for collective marketing and that the producers are also able to access identifiable high value markets. This reduces costs of transacting between farmers and marketers. Building linkages for ware potatoes by improving the capacity of existing agribusinesses (cooperatives and other farmer based institutions and groups) to better link to end markets for ware potatoes (large traders and processors). A focus on the complete value chain will ensure that other interventions at the farm level (such as water harvesting) support the market interventions. More important is that as farmers increase their production, they have defined markets for their ware potato. The absence of an appropriate platform to facilitate these trading interactions reduces returns from farmers' farm operations. Low production and unreliable supplies and failure to meet desired quality and food safety standards for different markets, undermine development of competitive and equitable potato value chains. Market linkages between producers and buyers strengthened  Reduced transaction costs due to agribusinesses collectively market their produce  Better profit margins and incomes from their products through strengthened bargaining and post-harvest handling for better quality  Increased demand for and utilization of market support services  Business models that support sustainable market linkages promoted Activities Addressed and Delivery Date 3.1.2 -December 31, 2015 CGIAR and Associated Partners CIAT, ILRI, CIP T6-14-02 Facilitating establishment of potato seed businesses in the Africa RISING Ethiopia project Reliable supply of quality seed is necessary to sustain high productivity among the farming communities. However, in many places, seeds of self-propagating and self-pollinating crops may fail to provide adequate incentives for private sector to invest in their supply. Thus seeds and planting materials that are released from the research process fail to reach the intended users due to lack of sustainable seed supply systems. The private sector feels that the returns on such investments are not assured. One of the challenges facing potato as an upcoming commodity enterprise is lack of consistent supply of planting materials, as shown by the recent value chain study in the project sites. The current system relies heavily on the public sector; however, a focus on seed supply as a business enterprise would link better the public sector (foundation seed) with the production of ware potato.A sustainable seed enterprise should be able to contribute increased potato production and consequently food incomes of households. T6-14-03 Decentralized system for community-based seed production and extension provisionUnavailability of quality seed of commonly grown crops was identified as one of the priority constraints to increased agricultural productivity in the four Africa RISING sites (PCA, 2013). The effectiveness of the national extension system is still low due to problems such as high turnover of staff which renders training efforts largely ineffective, poorly motivated extension staff and limited technical know-how of the frontline staff.It is the aim of this activity to develop a system whereby these two constraints can be addressed simultaneously and in a sustainable manner, as far as possible relying on private initiative and community interest rather than being dependent on extension / input support provided by BoAs line agencies and/or NGOs. The approach will build on the Model Farmer (MF) concept and to combine it with a Farmer Field School (light) approach that promotes farmer-to-farmer extension. The MF concept is widely promoted by the GoE as a complementary, informal extension system aiming at bridging the existing 'last-meter gap' between the research system and farmers.Based on the experiences made during the pilot phase (Belg season 2014) in 2 sites with the production of potato seed, the approach will be expanded to 4 AR sites, adding wheat and a legume (e.g. faba bean). In addition, to reduce post-harvest losses and to maintain seed quality, improved seed storage facilities for seed potatoes and grains will be introduced and tested.The outcome of this study is an approach for decentralised seed production and extension service provision, increasing the local availability of good quality seed, addressing national key constraints for increased agricultural productivity.  This calls for the participatory testing of labour saving devices such as seeders, threshers, forage choppers and trailers. These could be powered by small, cheap, multipurpose and easy to maintain tractors such as single-axle two-wheel tractors (2WT).Although these tractors are not powerful enough to plough, they can be used for seeding, either in a ploughed field or in an unploughed field (i.e. conservation agriculture).Several seeders are commercially available from China and other countries. Moreover, CIMMYT and its partners recently produced a mobile multi-crop sheller/thresher for 2WT that can be converted into a trailer. We are proposing to participatory test this equipment in one pilot site of AfricaRISING sites.Outcomes will include a better understanding of the demand for mechanization, suggestions by farmers and manufacturers to improve equipment being tested and simple cost/benefit analysis of the technologies tested.Activities Addressed and Delivery Date 3.1.3 -July 31, 2015 CGIAR and Associated Partners CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA T6-14-05 Pilot a system for decentralized, community-based seed potato production system, combined with a Farmer-to-Farmer extension service provision through Model or Lead Farmers and Farmer Field SchoolsUnavailability of quality seed of commonly grown crops was one of the priority constraints to increased agricultural productivity identified during the PCA. It is the aim of this activity to develop a system whereby this bottleneck can be addressed in a sustainable manner, as far as possible relying on private initiative and community interest rather than be dependent on extension / input support provided by BoAs line agencies and/or NGOs. The approach will work closely with the Model/Lead Farmer concept (1 to 5) which is widely promoted by the GoE with a Farmer Field School (light) approach that promotes farmer-to-farmer extension.The anticipated outcome of this study is that decentralised seed systems are being piloted and documented at kebele level, increasing the local availability of good quality seed potato. In collaboration with other centers (CIMMYT, ICARDA) design templates for seed supply systems are produced and pilot seed supply systems for key Africa RISING crops (wheat, faba bean, pea) established via Innovation Platform and other partners. Experiences of the pilots are documented and constraints identified as well as opportunities for wider scaling. Information will be collected regarding farmer perception of this decentralized seed production system and a participatory costbenefit analysis will be carried out. Quality seed is more expensive than ordinary seed. While farmers in most communities demand access to quality seed, few farmers are actually willing to pay the premium associated with seed of better quality. It is therefore necessary to promote the merits of quality seed so as to create a farmer-based demand and market for quality seed.Data will be collected to answer the following research question: Does quality seed increase yield and income convincingly for farmers to pay higher prices for better seed? The results will be documented and constraints and opportunities for wider scaling identified to improve supply systems via Innovation Platform. Lack of market infrastructure significantly undermines the market margins farmers generate from their agricultural products and elevate the prices they pay for agricultural products when involved as buyers. The transaction costs of agricultural markets in general are quite high due to, among others, poorly structured and irregular supply, short shelf life of products, lack of transport facilities that force marketers to trek their animals, lack of feed and watering services in and around the markets, lack of veterinary services around markets, lack of storage facilities, and lack of market information. High transaction costs and information problems present challenges in coordination of supply chains which often lead to underinvestment in storage and handling facilities, undersupply of finance and large intra-and inter-seasonal price fluctuations which undermine market participation and competitiveness. Low production and unreliable supplies and failure to meet desired quality and food safety standards for alternative uses (food, feed and other), undermine development of competitive and equitable value chains. It is therefore imperative to emphasise the need for understanding the potential impact of delivery of key market facilities on the marketing performance of smallholder farmers. This study will employ state-of-the art scientific procedures to quantify the added monetary advantage smallholder farmers are going to get from accessing key market facilities in selected markets of the central highlands of Ethiopia.The identification of key challenges market actors are facing and development of alternative institutional innovations will certainly bring about significant behavioral change both among consumers and traders in the agricultural markets. Informed smallholder marketers would make smart marketing decisions and hence would generate higher market margins. This will happen among other essentially through reduced transaction costs. This in itself will increase the efficiency of the markets such that markets will play indispensable role in increasing the speed and efficiency of resource allocation. Concomitantly, smallholders' livelihoods will improve as a result of improved market performance both as sellers and buyers. The findings will also help in increasing the relevance and effectiveness of agricultural market extension programs and interventions. This will be made possible as this study will chart the information on existing markets and underutilized values chain opportunities for smallholders to raise their incomes through reduced transaction costs and hence better prices for their produces. In 2013, participatory community analyses (PCA) were undertaken by multi-disciplinary facilitation teams in 8 kebeles in the Amhara, Tigray, Oromia and SNNPR regions, producing a list of priority farming enterprises, their current bottlenecks, as well as farmer-perceived opportunities for improving income, food security and/or reducing overall risks by intensifying farm enterprises. The PCA was carried out in discussions with kebele members and local leaders, with over 250 men, women and young people. Feedback on the results will be given to the farmers and future participatory planning and implementation of activities based on the results of the PCA and feedback sessions.Contribute to the analysis of strengths, weaknesses and applicability of the methods used both alone and in combination. Contribute to the study of the adoption processes and common features of technologies and management practices currently used by farmers. Analyse synergies between contributing partners and programs. Understanding the drivers of adoption and understanding the structure of the diffusion process are essential components of any research aimed at abating the challenges faced by resource poor households. So much has been done in developing improved varieties of food legumes (faba bean, field pea, lentil and chickpea) and in disseminating them in different parts of Ethiopia. Bale highlands are inhabited by resource poor farming communities depending enormously on legumes for nutrition, rotation in their cereal crops and animal feed. The decision to adopt a given technology is possible only if the utility (welfare benefit) derived from doing so is higher than not adopting. The willingness to adopt therefore varies depending on the level of perceived utility. This perception again varies across households and among different members within a household. Accordingly, the impact of the use of the adopted technologies varies depending on the characteristics of the users and the extent to which the technologies are used. This research aims at studying the driving forces behind the willingness to adopt (use or not in Belg and Meher seasons) and the intensity of adoption of improved legume cultivars considering differences among households -in terms of resource endowment, and differences within households (in terms of age and gender). The welfare impacts due to technology use will also be disaggregated based on resource endowments and gender differentials.This research will identify the key driving forces -challenges and opportunities -that determine the willingness to use and the intensity of use of improved food legume technologies in Bale highlands. It would also empirically and comprehensively quantify the welfare impacts of the improved food legume technologies across households of different resource endowments and within households considering gender differences. The information to be generated will be communicated with the study communities and key stakeholders in agricultural extension and development in the area. The communication will be designed in such a way that the communities and stakeholders will be able to use the findings in fine tuning their decision making procedures for better efficiency and effectiveness. Extension workers and decision makers at different levels will be able to design suitable approaches that can facilitate the adoptability of technologies and the adoption 'capacity' of farming households. The research procedure to be followed will also be meticulously documented and will be available for Africa RISING partners and other research and development institutions.Activities Addressed and Delivery Date 2.1.1 -September 30, 2015 CGIAR and Associated Partners ICARDA, CIAT T7-14-03 Analysis of existing technologies and management practices addressing sustainable intensification of the farming system in the Ethiopian Highlands Some technologies applied by farmers arise through tradition and local knowledge, some are introduced through government or NGO led interventions and some filter down through media access. An investigation is required to explore:  The means by which they were disseminated into the community  The reasons why farmers chose to adopt them  Their limitations  Barriers to further adoption  The enabling processes (based on a range of social, biophysical, economic and political factors) that we might be able to make use of to increase the adoptability of Africa RISING innovations.If trends can be discovered and contextual variation in drivers of adoption can be understood the research may then be used for identifying enabling pathways for adoption of new technologies.Activities Addressed and Delivery Date 2.1.1 -October 31, 2014 CGIAR and Associated Partners ILRI, ICRAF T7-14-04 A three dimensional assessment of the perceptions of sustainability, and their role in the success of project interventionsInnovations usually bring with it some degree of benefit to its potential adopters but it equally creates some kind of uncertainties in the mind of adopters. This uncertainty is however reduced by the information embodied in the innovation itself in the form of the possible abilities of the Innovation to solve individual's perceived problems. The goal of the Africa RISING project is to introduce multiple interventions to achieve Sustainable intensification. This particular innovation has advantages as well as some challenges which need to be carefully examined to ensure that it benefits the poor farmers. The question to be addressed then is whether our interventions have the ability to solve Ethiopian farmers' perceived problems and alleviate poverty. For the project to be sustainable, it is equally important to consider the knowledge and perception of the farmers who are the potential adopters of our interventions. Farmers' perception and knowledge is crucial for successful research and development strategies. They further stated that many promising agriculture policies have failed because they were inappropriate to farmer's needs and perception. Perception generally refers to how people select, organize and interpret information gained through the senses or experience. Sustainability of agricultural production is largely dependent on the action of farmers and their decision making abilities given the level of knowledge and information that is available to them. However, the role of perception has received very limited attention in studies regarding farmers' adoption of a new technology. Also, there has been a general failure of programs to address situations where farmers' knowledge is lacking and inadequate. Thus to prevent failure in our interventions through the Africa RISING Project and ensure sustainable intensification, a good understanding of the knowledge, needs and perception of the farmers is required in order to devise a systems approach of introducing the crop to them. Thus this study will focus on understanding the perception of farmers on issues of Sustainability with regards to their livelihoods and its coherence with research team members, as well as project definition of sustainability.The study will bring out concrete understanding of role of perception of farmers in adoption of an intervention. They Study will also compare and contrast the coherence between the perception or definition of sustainability and its role in success of an intervention in creating Sustainable intensification. The study findings will be applied in future interventions by dealing with constraints to tech adoption. Innovation platforms have been established as a primary mechanism for realising the Africa RISING research for development approach. Innovation platforms have already been established in all four Africa RISING sites, however, there is some confusion regarding how these platforms will operate in practice. There is therefore a need for clear and practical guidelines which can be used to ensure a common understanding of the platform process among the various stakeholders and clear steps for platform establishment and on-going communication and coordination. In order for these guidelines to be successful they will need to be supported by good facilitation. Previous research has highlighted the importance of facilitation skills but there are limited practical recommendations for how to develop the facilitation skills of platform members (particularly at the local level). This research activity will design and pilot facilitation training events, and develop training guidelines. These processes will be piloted to test their effectiveness and impact on IP members' capacity to innovate. This research activity will contribute to scaling up platform processes to innovate and ensuring their longer-term sustainability.This research activity will produce easy to use, practical guidelines for facilitating and coordinating IPs that can be used in other sites, and can be updated/amended based on information generated by the on-going research activities. This research will also build capacity of partners in the four sites to facilitate IPs, and through this gain a more detailed understanding of what support local partners need in order to sustain such processes in the longer term. The outcomes of this research will contribute to developing piloted and replicable processes for IP establishment in other sites and projects.Activities Addressed and Delivery Date 5.1.1, 5.1.2 -July 31, 2015CGIAR and Associated Partners ILRI, ICRAF, CIP T7-14-06 Design and pilot processes and tools for monitoring and evaluating the impact of innovation platformsInnovation platforms are an increasingly used in research for development projects. The aim of IPs is to bring together a range of stakeholders to identify and take action to address common problems. By identifying their own issues and designing their own solutions stakeholders are more likely to take ownership and make changes than if solutions are externally driven. However, despite the potential of innovation platforms, it can be hard to demonstrate their impact. Attributing impact can be difficult because often the problems that innovation platforms attempt to solve are complex , results may be hard to measure, and benefits may be unforeseen or take time to develop. There is a recognised need to develop participatory, accessible and user-friendly tools that can be used to better monitor and evaluate the impact of IPs. M&E processes can also be an important way of encouraging an iterative process of action, reflection and learning which is key for platforms to operate effectively. This research initiative will aim to design and pilot tools and processes for monitoring and evaluating platforms in the four Africa RISING sites. The results will be documented and analysed over the course of the Africa RISING project in order to enhance understanding of the impact of innovation platforms.The anticipated outcome of this study is a training manual and piloted process for monitoring and evaluating local innovation platforms. Enhanced capacity of local partners to manage, monitor and evaluate innovation platform process and results is another anticipated outcome. This research will also produce data which can be used to assess the impact of innovation platforms processes, and potential weaknesses/challenges. The research findings will potentially be applicable to other research processes using innovation platforms, both in terms of the processes that are designed and the results that are generated. ","tokenCount":"19177"}
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